The Marvels (2023) - Movie Review

Judging the current state of the MCU, this film could go either way. And I’m not even factoring in the myriad of behind-the-scenes issues the franchise has run into in recent years, from Jonathan Majors going to court, to recurring audience fatigue from the extent of the MCU assembly line, to how said assembly line has grown so big that they are now running into the issue of losing in competition with themselves, given how the second season of Loki basically eclipsed this film’s release.

No, I’m just talking in regards to what Phase Five has already given us this year alone. On one hand, there’s Quantumania, a clearly derivative and bizarrely uninteresting entry that felt very made-by-committee. And on the other, there’s GOTG Vol. 3, which succeeds because it is the product of a singular vision, giving the overarching franchise a booster shot of individual creativity that seems to be increasingly lacking post-Phase Three. James Gunn isn’t the only auteur to work on the MCU (Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler, and Sam Raimi definitely fit into that category), but Vol. 3 (in my opinion) benefited the most from having that kind of distinguishable artistic voice behind it. That Gunn has now jumped over to heading DC Films has been taken as a sign that the kind of identifiable uniqueness that Vol. 3 showed amongst its contemporaries isn’t likely to repeated by Marvel any time soon.

With all that in mind, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. I mean, I liked the first Captain Marvel (although I’m starting to chalk that up to being familiar with Brie Larson as an actor long before that film became a talking point, which I’d wager a guess isn’t the case for the Johnny-hate-latelys that have been on her arse since), but I am also starting to run a bit ragged on the MCU myself. It’s been heading towards the continuity threshold for a while now, where everything is so interconnected that it can feel unapproachable unless you’ve done all the homework beforehand, this film being no different. Along with the first Captain Marvel, this also has ties to WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, Secret Invasion, and to a lesser extent Thor: Love And Thunder and Hawkeye. I’ll admit that I haven’t seen all of the lead-in material, and quite frankly I’ve felt less inclined to keep up with it all as the years go on, but I’m still willing to give this film a chance. And frankly, I’m glad I did.

Unicorn Store (2019) - Movie Review

Hope you’re in the mood for some whimsy because we got it by the bucketful with this one. In fact, after watching this, I feel like I’m about to pass glitter like a bloody kidney stone. Given my more recent TV-watching habits (I’ve been getting through My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic over the last few months), I feel like I’ve steeled myself as best I can for something like this, and it definitely helps that it involves film creatives that I quite like already, but this… this is tough to get through, and what makes things weirder is that the film might have a really, really good point behind it. Like, the kind of point that warms itself to my Peter Pan Syndrome-stricken heart.

Captain Marvel (2019) - Movie Review

With Avengers: Endgame right around the corner, this prequel to the franchise that changed superhero cinema as we know it has a lot riding on it. It has to not only deliver as yet another Marvel flick, but it also has to sell the idea that this superhero, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, is the progenitor to everything we’ve seen in the MCU thus far and deliver one final setup before Endgame officially closes this chapter for good. Knowing how recent movies have turned out in regards to build-up vs. pay-off, with both Marvel and DC struggling in their own ways over the last handful of years, this really could go either way. Which is why I’m pleased to report that this film does pretty much everything it needed to succeed, starting with the casting.