The Fantastic Four: First Steps. A Review

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

The first family of Marvel goes for yet another round of cinematic adaptation in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. There is the added bonus that, unlike the first three efforts, First Steps is tied to the world's longest and most expensive soap opera of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First Steps is not the reboot that the MCU desperately needs. It is fine, neither a return to form from past glories nor a horror to suffer through.

In our alternate Earth, the 1960's are a fantastic world of bright colors and immense optimism. That is due to the superheroes known as The Fantastic Four. There is Reed Richards or Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), a brilliant scientist who can stretch his body to immense lengths. There is his beautiful wife Sue Storm, also known as The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby). Her powers involve not just invisibility but creating force fields. Her literally hot brother Johnny Storm or The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) can fly and light himself on fire. Their friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is a man who is virtually indestructible due to his almost brick-like skin, earning him the sobriquet of The Thing.

They are celebrities, but they use their powers for good. Sue has brought about world peace. Reed creates great inventions and even squeezes in a kids' science show, Fantastic Science with Mr. Fantastic. Things can only get better once Reed and Sue find that she is pregnant. The public at first is mesmerized by the newest arrival, speculating on whether or not the child will have superpowers like his parents.

The public's interests soon turn away from that to more pressing matters. An alien has come to warn Earth that it is doomed to die at the hands of a giant space being known as Galactus. Despite Johnny's best efforts to catch someone whom he described as "a sexy alien", this Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is the herald of Earth's doom. 

It is now up to the Fantastic Four to stop Galactus from destroying the Earth. Efforts at negotiations fail and nearly cost them their lives. It also causes Sue to go into labor and give birth to her and Reed's son, whom they name Franklin. The child has become important to Galactus. He has had to devour planets for centuries and now feels that Franklin could take his place and relieve him of this burden. They collectively flat-out refuse to sacrifice Franklin to spare Earth. This decision, however, is not met with enthusiasm by neither surface-living humans nor those living in Subterranea, ruled by Harvey Elder, better known as Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser). The Fantastic Four do find a way to spare both Earth and Franklin. Will their efforts succeed? Will everyone survive this battle? Will the Silver Surfer end up as friend or foe?

I have been open on how I have never been a comic book reader. As such, I am sure that a lot of things flew over me while watching First Steps. For example, I simply had no idea who Mole Man was.  I also was not aware of how similar the Fantastic Four were to the Incredibles. This came to me every time I fought the temptation to refer to Reed and Sue's child as "Jack-Jack". I do not know if the resemblance was purely coincidental, but there it is. 

Fantastic Four: First Steps has as a major positive its overall look. The film is brimming with bright colors and a retro-futuristic feel that makes it both of a particular era and familiar. Credit should be given to the production and costume design, which brought this alternate universe into reality.

In other aspects, I found First Steps to be, well, fine. The performances on the whole were acceptable. Pedro Pascal's ubiquity is now a meme. Here, he was not terrible as Reed Richards. As a side note, it is interesting that for all his powers, Mr. Fantastic did not showcase them often. Pascal gave Reed a sense of perpetual worry, be it for his fathering abilities or his world-saving abilities. Vanessa Kirby was better as Sue Storm. I think it is because she was called to do more, particularly over her protectiveness towards Franklin.

It is interesting that the screenplay made motherhood an important aspect. It is more interesting when you see that all four credited screenwriters are men (Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer). The desire to protect Franklin, to be fair, was shared by all four of them. I think that the focus on Sue, however, was stronger than that of say Johnny or Ben. They all loved Franklin, but I think his mother would be the one who would be the last to even consider sacrificing her child even if it meant saving the world. 

It is also to the film's credit that we never got, at least to my memory, any "but on the other hand" argument from anyone. Again, this is based on my memory of a movie I saw months ago. However, no one ever said that it would be beneficial to essentially bump off a baby to save the world. Yet, I digress.

What is weak about First Steps is that we really got very little from others. Of particular note is Moss-Bachrach and Quinn as The Thing and the Human Torch respectively. We got bits and pieces of who they were. We saw Ben Grimm go to synagogue to talk to a pretty teacher that he was enchanted by. We got a bit of Johnny Storm's stabs at being cocky. I think though that somehow, they ended up having little to do. Worse, they had very little in terms of personality. Whether it is due to Moss-Bachrach and Quinn's acting skills, the script itself or a combination of the two I cannot say for certain. For myself, I at times forgot that they were there.

I cannot say anything overtly negative about The Fantastic Four: First Steps. You can skip the second post-credit scene. I cannot say anything overtly positive about it either. Michael Giacchino's score was pleasant. Neither a restoration nor abomination, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is, in the end, acceptable.  

DECISION: C+

Thunderbolts*: A Review

THUNDERBOLTS*

When I think on Thunderbolts*, the newest episode of the world's longest and most expensive soap opera, I don't think "why" so much as "who". The "who" is both as in "who is this made for?" and "who are these people?". Thunderbolts* is not terrible. It just was there.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is so tired and so bored with her job of being a hitwoman and agent to CIA director/Tulsi Gabbard lookalike Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She wants out, or at least assignments that don't require killing and destruction. Valentina, facing impeachment for her nefarious work, agrees and has her take one last assignment: destroying a secret lab to cover up de Fontaine's nefarious work.

Ah, beware those last assignments, for this was really a trap to get all of de Fontaine's rogue agents to kill each other off. In a case of Spy vs. Spy, Yelena's intended target of John Walker/ex-Captain America 2.0 (Wyatt Russell) is there to kill Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). Ghost is there to kill Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), who is there to kill Yelena. Out of this international Mexican standoff, only Starr manages her task. Exactly how random man Bob (Lewis Pullman), who is also in the lab, fits into all this we do not know.  

De Fontaine, along with her excessively loyal aide Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), is stunned to find that Bob is alive. He was a new experiment that managed to live, delighting de Fontaine. Not delighting her is how the other agents also live and are now on the run. Bob's powers are growing, but will de Fontaine manage to make use of them to starve off impeachment? 

Into this comes Yelena's father, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) as well as Congressman James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan). They join forces when they see that de Fontaine will not stop until they are killed and she gains full control over Bob. Bob is now de Fontaine's newest creation, Sentry. Sentry/Bob, who has struggled for years with both self-esteem and drug addiction, now grows both more powerful and more dangerous. He has the power to plunge people into shadow, requiring the newly formed Thunderbolts (Alexei naming them as such in honor of Yelena's childhood soccer team) to enter Sentry's void to sort out his issues. Will de Fontaine manage to get away with her new plan of "the New Avengers"? What of the mysterious outer space craft that the New Avengers/Thunderbolts see on the screen in the second post-credit scene, with a Number Four prominently displayed on it?

I do not know if it is a good thing that, while watching Thunderbolts* (the asterisk apparently to signal their unofficial name versus the New Avengers moniker), I actually wanted de Fontaine's plan for them to kill each other off to work. In a sense, it did: Taskmaster was killed. However, I think by now the issue with Thunderbolts* or any upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film is that you need to know so much of what happened before that if you don't, you will be lost. At the minimum, you won't care. I remember Yelena and Alexei from Black Widow. I've seen de Fontaine before. I have seen Bucky before (and as a side note, never liked him). 

However, Thunderbolts* really expects the audience to have an almost encyclopedia-level knowledge to know or even remember who the characters are. Ghost appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was seven years ago and who hasn't to my knowledge or memory been part of the MCU since. Black Widow was four years ago. That was the first appearance of Taskmaster. She pops up and is popped so quickly in Thunderbolts* that it is a puzzle on why she was there at all. There is brief mention of events from Captain America: Brave New World, which was a mere two months ago, so I guess that is an improvement. I never saw the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so this is my first introduction to John Walker. As such, I had a lot of filling in to do. 

For those complaining that Thunderbolts* is the B-Team of the MCU (and to be fair, the closing credits naming them as such was a nice touch), I would offer that the MCU is digging deep into the barrel if your antagonist is Valentina de Fontaine. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' take on the character has always been more comedic in my memory, a bit of a bumbler who tries to be some sort of master manipulator and fails at it. I do not know if Louis-Dreyfus or director Jake Schrieder actually tried to make de Fontaine a true villainess. However, when Louis-Dreyfus as de Fontaine exclaims, "Righteousness without power is just an opinion," the audience laughed. Was that intentional? 

The end result for me was that de Fontaine did not come across as a genuine threat. She came across as a smug, obnoxious twit who has inexplicable political power.

One thing that I found also inexplicable is why Thunderbolts* was edited the way that it was. The film cuts between the four-way Mexican standoff in the lab and the Washington, D.C. soiree that de Fontaine is throwing. I think that Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo's screenplay wanted us to connect the two events. I just think that the back-and-forth did not work. I also do not know how Alexei went from being a limo driver in Mother Russia to a limo driver in Washington, D.C. who conveniently overhears de Fontaine's plans for the human targets. What exactly are the odds that Alexei would be the limo driver? 

Worse is how what is meant as a tense action scene with Walker, Starr and Yelena escaping in Alexei's limo, the button that Alexei hits does not launch a missile but starts playing Ginuwine's Pony. It is enough to give MCU humor a bad name. 

Again, when Thunderbolts* wanted to be exciting and dare I say sincere, it did not work. When Sentry goes rogue and becomes Void (whom I called Shadows because that is what he looked like to me), a lot of it had me rolling my eyes. Of particular note is when the various New Avengers started saving people from Sentry/Void's purging. All I could think of was, "if these people do not have enough sense to get out of the way when objects are flying about them, they kind of deserve to be crushed". By the time we get to Void's surreal world, I was as bored as Yelena was.

I think Yelena's boredom was actually Florence Pugh's boredom with being in Thunderbolts*. I'm sure that she was well-paid for her lack of efforts. She reminded me of Madeline Kahn's performance in Blazing Saddles to where she would make for an excellent Lily Von Shtupp parody. Given that Kahn's character was meant to be a Marlene Dietrich parody, I do not know whether that is a compliment or insult for Pugh. 

Harbour was appropriately hammy as Alexei/Red Guardian. Thunderbolts* has two nepo babies: Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt and Goldie Hawn) and Lewis Pullman (son of Bill). I am not familiar with the previous work of either. I think Russell commended himself well as the obnoxious "Junior Varsity Captain America" as de Fontaine mockingly calls him. I was not impressed with Pullman, though to be fair Bob was not a particularly great character. Like another 2025 nepo baby, Pullman looks a bit too much like his father to let me fully separate them in my mind. Stan, John-Kamen and Viswanathan were fine but again, limited by the script. 

The mid-credit scene was bad (Alexei harassing a random grocery shopper to show her his face on a Wheaties box) and the post-credit scene was there to connect Thunderbolts* to the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps. I did not hate Thunderbolts*. However, I did wonder that with them being the New Avengers, how will that work with the Young Avengers teased in The Marvels? In the end, to my mind Thunderbolts* are not go. 

DECISION: D+

Captain America: Brave New World. A Review

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

Is there anything left in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after thirty-five feature films and numerous television series?  How much more can the world's longest and most expensive soap opera give those who have remained steadfast and loyal to the decades-long franchise? Captain America: Brave New World is neither the disaster its detractors insist that it is nor a return to form the MCU shills and fanboys insist that it is. It is serviceable, disposable, forgettable.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is still wielding the shield of Captain America, though as a black man, that is still something that he struggles with. This is especially true given the past history of his friend, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a hereto unknown super-soldier during the Korean War who was shafted due to racism. 

At least I think that is the gist of it since I did not watch the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

There seems to be a rapprochement between Wilson and the new President, his former enemy Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt). Ross is on the cusp of having a major treaty between the U.S., France, India and Japan to share Celestial Island, a massive body of land created during the events of Eternals. The island is filled with adamantium, a substance more powerful than vibranium, which is being horded by "an isolationist country" according to Ross. Fine way to talk about Wakanda, Thad.

As a side note, Eternals was released in 2021, so good luck remembering details from a film that flopped four years ago. 

However, there is evil at work determined to undermine this multilateral treaty. It even goes to an attempted assassination of President Ross, with Bradley being one of the hitmen. Could he be attempting revenge for his past imprisonment or was he brainwashed? Who wants to bring about worldwide destruction, and why? With his plucky sidekick Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez), Captain America must fight against the villainous Serpent Society and its head, Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). 

He, however, is merely a hired gun for the real mastermind, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). The gamma rays that brought about The Incredible Hulk did not affect Sterns' body but his mind, which Ross has been exploiting for his own purposes. Will Sterns be able to take a shocking revenge on his rival? Will Japan and the U.S. return to war? 

Perhaps it is best to remember that Captain America: Brave New World ties into events from a streaming television series that was made about three years ago, one film that was made four years ago, and another film that was made seventeen years ago. Those are the ones that I can remember, so I cannot vouch if other MCU films or television series were part of Brave New World's overall plot. 

The introduction of Samuel Sterns as this blend of Kevin McDonald's Medulla from Sky High and Sprout from the Green Giant commercials is simply going to go over most people's heads. I would not know who Samuel Sterns is, let alone remember anything about him from The Incredible Hulk. I literally had to look up my The Incredible Hulk review to see if Nelson was even in the film, let alone what his role was. That is the risk for this franchise, that is now so bogged down by its history that one needs an almost encyclopedian memory to know every nuance of whatever the five credited screenwriters cobbled together.

Ramirez/Falcon II and Isaiah Bradley were introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. If you didn't see that show, you run the risk of being a bit lost in Brave New World. Given that I went to see Brave New World at the Alamo Drafthouse which had a preshow containing a wry "Previously On"-type recap, I was not lost. If, however, you opted out of Falcon and Winter Soldier and/or forgot/did not see The Incredible Hulk, you might be scratching your head.

Moreover, you might not end up actually caring about any of the supposed stakes in Brave New World. Somehow, one would think that a war between Japan and the United States would be more tense and gripping. Same for when President Ross is almost assassinated before an international gathering. Also same for when President Ross becomes the Red Hulk and wreaks havoc on Washington, D.C. Here, all of it was nothing. 

Brave New World was plagued with production issues. I believe the film was reshot not once but twice, maybe even three times. I think the somewhat jumbled manner to Brave New World is on the screen. Esposito was in three scenes and seemed rather unimportant to things. Nelson, despite being meant as the main antagonist, was pretty absent for most of Brave New World. 

The nicest thing that I can say about Brave New World is that "everyone tried". I think all the actors tried to make their individual characters work. Mackie, to be fair, was rather humorless in Brave New World, which perhaps explains Ramirez's efforts to lighten things. Ford was shaky: bad in his opening scene, good when confronting Wilson, shifting between the two when attempting to stop the Japanese from going to war.

As a side note, the idea that Japan and the United States would go to war over the Celestial Island seems a curious one. Even if one rolled with it, it never felt as if there was a serious threat of total destruction despite Brave New World's efforts. 

The hodgepodge nature of Brave New World was such that such elements as Bradley's second incarceration (the first being from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Shira Haas as Ross' Israeli-born security advisor Ruth Bat-Seraph felt as if they were left over from past drafts and versions. Haas, whom I described in my notes as a "midget", was meant to be I figure a powerful figure. We are told that she was a former Black Widow, so that might explain why she was able to take down men who are giants compared to her. It still looks curious to see the 5'2" woman able to bring down big men. It would be like believing that NCIS: Los Angeles' Linda Hunt could take down Reacher's Alan Richson, but again, fine, we'll roll with it.

It is harder to roll with the idea that Bat-Seraph is important to Brave New World, let alone important enough to end up friends with Bradley. 

Captain America: Brave New World stumbled onto film screens when it would have perhaps worked better on Disney+. Is it terrible? No. It is wonderful? Again, no. It just is. Captain America: Brave New World is neither brave nor new. It is something to have playing in the background as you go about your day.

DECISION: C+

Next MCU Film: Thunderbolts*

Deadpool & Wolverine: A Review (Review #1829)

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

I was pretty much appalled by Deadpool, snarky and violent. I was in the minority though, as millions loved it precisely for those qualities. I cannot remember if I saw Deadpool 2, but now we have Deadpool & Wolverine. It is what I figure Deadpool and Marvel Cinematic Universe fans wanted: the blending of the unserious Merc with a Mouth and the uber-serious Logan. If that appeals to you, then I figure Deadpool & Wolverine is right up your street. If you don't, and you don't keep up with every minute detail of the world's longest and most expensive soap opera, then there is nothing in Deadpool & Wolverine to convert you.

Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is searching for Logan/Wolverine, but surprisingly finds him dead. That does not stop him from using Logan's remains to fight off a group of fighters while dancing to N*Sync's Bye Bye Bye. Why does Deadpool need Wolverine? Well, we have to back up a bit.

Deadpool wanted to join the Avengers but was rejected by Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). Dejected by being rejected, Wade has been miserable working as a used car salesman with his friend Peter (Rob Delaney). His birthday party causes him no joy since his ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) is also there. Things pick up a bit when agents of the Time Variance Authority come in to take him to renegade TVA bureaucrat Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayden). 

Paradox tells Deadpool that the Sacred Timeline is being affected and that while he can remain, his own timeline has to be obliterated due to the death of Deadpool's anchor being. That anchor being is Logan. Rather than see his loved ones erased, Deadpool will find his anchor being and prevent him from dying.

That's thirty minutes before we go back to where we started and move forward. 

He does eventually find Logan (Hugh Jackman), though his Logan/Wolverine is the worst of all of them. Thrown into the Void, Logan and Wolverine must join forces to fight both Paradox and Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), unofficial ruler of the Void and Charles Xavier/Professor X's twin sister. 

As a side note, is baldness both a hereditary trait and requirement in the Xavier family? 

From there, they meet various heroes and villains from past MCU movies, even those not from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Chris Evan), Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), Gambit (Channing Tatum), Laura/X-23 (Dafne Keen) and Blade (Wesley Snipes). There are also villains such as Pyro (Aaron Stanford) working against the Resistance, as well as those in between such as the various Deadpools in other worlds. Nicepool (Reynolds in a dual role) is in the Void as well. Ultimately Deadpool & Wolverine must fight to keep all the timelines intact.

Deadpool & Wolverine has five credited screenwriters including both Reynolds and director Shawn Levy. I always take such a high number of credited screenwriters as a cause for alarm. It smacks of writing by committee; it suggests that there are too many cooks in the kitchen who couldn't form a unified vision. It also tells me that there were probably more hands on the project than people are willing to admit. 

With so many people hacking away at a script, it looks like Deadpool & Wolverine opted for a "more is more" plan. All kinds of fan service were thrown at the viewer (Chris Evans as the Human Torch from earlier Fantastic Four films! The original Blade is back! The Alabaman Channing Tatum as the Cajun Gambit!). Double, triple, quadruple down on all these callbacks and throw in some more. Shoutouts both metaphorical and literal to Furiosa and the demise of Twentieth Century-Fox. 

For me, a reason as to why I thoroughly disliked though not detested Deadpool & Wolverine is what so many people loved about it. The various callbacks, the fourth wall breaking, the "aren't we being clever" bits did not impress me. There were many people laughing at various parts, such as a major fight between Deadpool and Wolverine to Grease's You're the One That I Want. I do not take away from anyone's enjoyment of such things. I just want, for myself, something with a little more substance, even in a comic book film.

Pointing out things like montages or how a particular creature was in a Loki episode cuts no ice with me. In fact, it separates me from any serious stakes. Why Logan in particular is Wade's anchor being is unclear (and I think I'm being generous in using that word). The few times Deadpool & Logan pause to give Jackman a more dramatic moment seems jarringly at odds with all the craziness going on around here. Far be it for Wade/Deadpool to have a serious moment. I think the film tried, but no one would believe it. 

Moreover, since we have all these variants going on in multiple universes, there are no stakes to anything here. 

The various cameos did not impress me. I get that Tatum was always in the running for a separate Gambit film. However, separate from the fact that Taum has no acting skills or any real skills apart from taking his clothes off, the deliberately exaggerated Cajun accent was maddening. Pointing out that he was almost unintelligible is not clever. It only draws more attention to a gag that was not funny to start with. Having Snipes say, "There's only going to be one Blade!" could be mildly amusing. Having Reynolds as Deadpool face the camera to give us a knowing look is not. 

Also, why throw in a Furiosa reference when presumably in any of their worlds the Mad Max franchise would not necessarily exist. 

I don't think there were any performances here. People came, cashed their checks, and moved on. Taking jabs at the presumably high salaries is not impressive or clever. After Evans' Johnny Storm is killed, Reynolds' Deadpool tells Logan "Do you know what he was doing to the budget?". Sure, the audience laughed, but I did not. I did not laugh once at Deadpool & Wolverine, though did find myself nodding in agreement when Logan mocks Deadpool. Wolverine rants that Deadpool can't save the world, he couldn't even save his relationship with a stripper! Yet I digress.

I suppose it's nice for Jackman to show off his incredible physique at age 55, but it would be nice if he actually moved on in his career. The same for 47-year-old Reynolds, who has been doing the same snarky schtick since Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place back in 1998. I liked the show, but how is he still doing a variation of Berg all these decades later. Jackman did best in the few dramatic scenes he was in. His Logan was fine, but I was not overwhelmed. Macfayden could have been fun as Paradox, but I wonder if he even knew what was going on. Tatum did not make clear whether Gambit was the joke or just in on it. Garner looked bored and almost desperate to get out of things. Snipes looked like was having a good time.

Oddly, I did not find Deadpool & Wolverine to be as violent as I thought it would be. Yes, you do get graphic depictions of all sorts of killings. However, I was curiously numb to it all. 

The entire premise of Deadpool & Wolverine (Deadpool doing what he can to save his friends) got a bit lost in the Paul Rudd jokes and shade throwing. I did not know those characters enough to make the stakes feel high. I just did not care for the film on any level. 

"I don't want to spend my life being an annoying one-trick pony," Wade Wilson tells Happy Hogan early in Deadpool & Wolverine. That's about the only funny thing in Deadpool & Wolverine since that's the only thing Deadpool has ever been. Deadpool & Wolverine sorely test whether it is better than Argylle. Very briefly, it was worse than Argylle. It is teetering on the edge, but Deadpool & Wolverine did not leave me in a state of shaking fury as Argylle did. It left me cold, which may be worse. 

DECISION: F

Echo Episode Five: Maya

ECHO EPISODE FIVE: MAYA

Written by: Amy Rardin, Steven Paul Judd, Ellen Morton and Chantelle M. Wells

Directed by: Sydney Freeland

Airdate: January 9, 2024

Maya, our fifth and final episode of Echo does something that I did not think possible: make the case that somehow, five episodes of this series was five episodes too long. It should be remembered that Echo was planned as an eight-episode first series now reduced to a five-episode miniseries. Maya is a disaster, a total snoozefest that does not justify its existence.

With Maya (Alaqua Cox) having turned down Wilson Fisk's (Vincent D'Onofrio) offer to go with him to New York, he has decided she must be eliminated. He has a few aces up his sleeve. Once again, Fisk is holding Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) hostage, along with her grandmother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal). They will be missed at the Choctaw powwow, as it is getting ready to take place. Zane (Andrew Howard) is also there, able to bully Biscuits (Cody Lightning) into parking wherever he wants to launch an RPG into the powwow to kill Maya should she pop up.

While Maya wrestles with what to do, she has a visit from her dead mother Taloa (Katarina Ziervogel), who advises her that she is the living embodiment of all the qualities of her various strong female Choctaw ancestors. From Lowak, strategy. From Tuklo, cunning. From Chafa, ferocity. From Taloa, love. Each "echo" within her. With that, she goes to a final confrontation with Fisk and his men. 

To confront and defeat Fisk, she is able to summon the power of the ancestors (if not the ancestors themselves), even transferring their powers to Bonnie and Chula. For their part, both Biscuits and Uncle Henry (Chaske Spencer) are able to destroy Kingpin's minions. As for Maya? She uses her powers to send Kingpin back to his troubled past so that he can heal and cry. Crying and asking what she did to him, Fisk leaves. Maya is also ready to go, but not before going to a backyard barbeque with her FAMILY. 

It is a bit hard to decide which element in Maya is the worst and which is the most unintentionally funny. Is it the idea that the various ancestors would return to rally around their descendant, a one-legged deaf, mute, potentially lesbian Native American? Is it that said ancestors managed to give power to Bonnie and Chula so they can take down men stronger, taller and younger than they are? Is it how easily it is for Maya to slip into the powwow without Fisk's goons noticing?

What about Henry managing to fire his gun at Zane, causing the RPG to launch into fireworks? Maybe Biscuits managing to run over more of Fisk's goons with his truck demolition derby style?

I think it might be how Maya manages to go into Fisk's mind and bring about healing to him. It was true then, it is true now: all major criminal masterminds really want is a hug.

I freely admit that I know nothing of the comic book character; however, I think that the name "Echo" comes from her ability to mimic or "echo" her opponents' powers. Now, it is that she is an "echo" of her strong female ancestors.

It took four people to come up with that?

A system glitch caused me to watch Maya with subtitles turned off, and I was surprised that I followed the story surprisingly well without the subtitles. That is no thanks to Cox, who still cannot express any emotion to save her life. Sydney Freeland poorly directed her to be as blank as possible. Not that Freeland's direction of D'Onofrio or anyone else was any better.  

Maya has nothing of interest. I am puzzled how anyone would think Echo would be a long-running series to add into the mythos of the world's longest and most expensive soap opera.

1/10

Next: Echo: The Complete Series

Echo Episode Four: Taloa

ECHO EPISODE THREE: TALOA

Written by: Ken Kristensen, Josh Feldman and Chantelle M. Wells

Directed by: Sydney Freeland

Airdate: January 9, 2024

It is amazing what a little Alison Krauss can do for me. Taloa, the fourth of five Echo episodes, was in a lot of ways still as bad as anything Echo has managed to pop out. However, anytime one can appreciate a good song, it can lift it up just enough for me to think well of it.

Now we feature not a strong female Choctaw woman, but young Maya (Darnell Besaw), denied ice cream because the seller does not understand her American Sign Language. Observing this is Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), who is enraged by said ice cream seller's behavior. He grabs him off the street and proceeds to punch the literal life out of him (it is unclear if the ice cream seller died as a result of the attack). Maya sees the aftermath, and proceeds to kick the visibly injured, potentially dying man before Fisk whisks her away.

As a side note, I think Kingpin's reaction was wildly over-the-top and excessive given the situation. Yes, the ice cream seller was a bit obnoxious to a deaf girl, but I don't think beating him up to where you almost if not actually kill him is the right response.

Back to present-day Oklahoma, where Kingpin is not upset or angry about seeing the person who shot him in the eye and left him for dead. Far from it: he wants to have their old traditional Thursday dinners again, just like before when he had his ASL interpreter killed for knowing too much.

As a side note, why not just get another henchman to learn sign language rather than go to the trouble of hiring one just to bump them off? Details, I guess.

Fisk wants Maya to be his successor as Ruler of the Criminal Underworld, urging her to return with him to New York. Maya is in need of wisdom, and who better than her estranged grandmother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal)? Chula tells her of how Maya's mother Taloa (Katerina Ziervogel) came to be born, not in a white hospital, but in the woods. Taloa had the gift of healing, which Maya could use now. Will Maya choose to join Fisk or return to the upcoming Choctaw powwow?

As part of the montage for the various characters while Maya sorts out her decision, we hear Alison Krauss' cover of Down to the River to Pray. It is a beautiful cover, and it does its best to make the situation into a very sad one as the various characters wrestle with their decisions. However, what I have found is that the music carries a lot of the emotional weight in Echo. It is not the performances, or the scripts, or the situations that do so. Down to the River to Pray, while a lovely song well-rendered by Krauss, simply should not be what sells the situation.

Taloa in some ways is almost comical. Kingpin is such a wimp, at one point screaming that Maya kill him with the same hammer he used to kill his abusive father. "FREE ME!" he screams, and one wonders why on Earth he would insist that only this one-legged, deaf, mute, potentially lesbian Native American should take his empire. D'Onofrio does try to sell the drama, but how can he when there is no drama?

At one point, Fisk is impressed with just about everything Maya does, down to shooting him in the head. 

Cox is wrong for the part because she is simply incapable of showing any emotion. Her facial expression never changes, and that is simply deadly for a show with her as the lead. 

One of the most curious elements is how Kingpin has some kind of technology to make Maya understand what he says without an ASL interpreter. A contact allows her to "see" Fisk's words turned into Sign Language. My thinking is that he could use that technology to go legit and make millions. Why waste it on just one person?

Taloa makes suggestions that there is some spiritual connection between Taloa and Maya which does not land. To be fair, the scene between Cardinal and Cox works well. That is due mostly to Cardinal and due to how the conversation is done mostly silently. I think that is more realistic than most of Echo has been.

Taloa is built up by Krauss and Cardinal. Everything else is not worth the limited time we have. With one episode left, Echo is leaving no mark.

3/10

Next Episode: Maya

Echo Episode Three: Tuklo

ECHO EPISODE THREE: TUKLO

Written by: Marion Dayre and Ken Kristensen (Story by Ken Kristensen, Jason Gavin and Shoshannah Stern)

Directed by: Catriona McKenzie

Airdate: January 9, 2024

My understanding is that the Choctaw nation is a matriarchal society. As such, it should not be a surprise that the miniseries Echo builds its whole mythos around strong female Choctaws. Tuklo, the third episode, keeps to its thread of starting with a strong female ancestor to our one-legged, deaf, mute, potentially lesbian Native American antiheroine. Surprisingly devoid of plot, Tuklo is almost filler for something that is not there.

Oklahoma Territory, 1800's. Young Tuklo (Dannie McCallum) wants to join the Lighthorsemen, a group of Native American guards protecting their people against all enemies foreign and domestic. She is told that she cannot due to her gender. "Women are life-givers. Men are life-takers," she is reminded. Nevertheless, she persisted. Tuklo eventually goes all Mulan and saves the Lighthorsemen from attack by the white man.

Moving on to present-day, Maya (Alaqua Cox) has visions of her strong female ancestors but is abducted by Vickie (Thomas E. Sullivan), an employee at the skating rink owned by Maya's Uncle Henry (Chaske Spencer). Vickie knows of the bounty on Maya and wants it. He holds Maya and Henry hostage, later taking Maya's cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) when she comes snooping around. In comes Zane (Andrew Howard), one of Wilson Fisk's main henchmen, to collect Maya. Unsurprisingly, Zane kills Vickie, though what exactly happened to the two white trash women that make up Vickie's Bloodhound Gang is left unexplained.

Zane is about to fulfill his mission to kill Maya, throwing in Henry for good measure, when his New York Minute ringtone goes off. Maya and Henry, apparently, are saved at the literal last minute by Don Henley. Maya's temporary escape is for naught, for who happens to come to her hideout but none other than Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio)? 

Tuklo is the only episode not directed by Sydney Freeland. Catriona McKenzie does the honors, and perhaps that is why Tuklo is slightly better visually than past Echo episodes. The episode begins in the style of an old silent Western film, complete with title cards. The action scene at the laser tag area of the bowling alley is perhaps an homage to The Lady from Shanghai (though perhaps that is giving them far too much credit). You also have a nice visual of Maya hung upside down with a disco ball above her.

Granted, this makes no sense to the actual story since it would have been easier to simply remove Maya's prosthetic leg and tie her up than literally hang her upside down in the middle of the rink. Details are not important when you can make it look nice. 

The visual moments in Tuklo are what elevate it. Those are the only things that elevate it, for in reality, Tuklo does not move the narrative forward. What you have are the two stories: Tuklo and Maya, neatly split in half, with the second half being almost unnecessary. A lot of Tuklo's second half revolves around everyone waiting for Zane to show up, but there is nothing there.

There is a whole lot that either does not make sense or is unimportant. When facing almost certain death, why does Bonnie decide this is the best time to reprimand Maya for her failure to make contact? Why do the villains throw Maya's prosthetic foot at her rather than hold onto it, so she won't be able to escape? What did happen to Vickie's two girl conspirators? Who are they? Why are they there at all? There is mention by another of Zane's men that one of them drove off, but I do not remember if they were ordered to hunt her down. Our white trash trio kind of just came and went. Vickie's death is not unexpected, though again, looked nice. 

Moreover, it is a cliche to have a cutesy ringtone for our henchman. That on top of having our leads saved at the literal last minute by said ringtone. Maya nor Henry do not appear all that surprised that things turned out the way they did, a very strange attitude to take. Fisk coming in is not that shocking. 

That three people have a "story by" credit and a mere two people wrote Tuklo suggests that there really is no one overseeing things. 

There are no performances here. Perhaps Howard's Zane can be given grudging credit for being a camp Russian henchman (at least he sounded Russian to me). Everyone else was just there, saying things and being thoroughly unconvincing about it all. 

Tuklo showed that even with a director with a better visual style, no amount of nice or clever imagery makes up for lousy scripts. 

3/10

Next Episode: Taloa

Echo Episode Two: Lowak

ECHO: LOWAK

Written by: Marion Dayre, Josh Feldman, Steven Paul Judd and Ellen Morton (Story by Marion Dayre, Ken Kristensen, Josh Feldman, Steven Paul Judd, Rebecca Roanhorse and Bobby Wilson)

Directed by: Sydney Freeland

Airdate: January 9, 2024

It is only two episodes into the five-episode run of Echo and already a theme is fast emerging. Each episode will be named after a strong Native American female, though I imagine that none will be as strong as our one-legged, deaf, mute, potentially lesbian Native American. Lowak has an astonishing six "story by" writers and four credited screenwriters. How four to six people could come up with something like Lowak almost makes the case that the studios were right to not want to have large writers' rooms if it was going to be so muddled and poor.

We go to 1200 A.D., where Choctaw warrior princess Lowak (Morningstar Angeline) plays for keeps in the Native American lacrosse. With her people's survival on the line, Lowak must win, which she does. Moving to present day, we see that former hitwoman Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) is still taking refuge in her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma to regroup after killing Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, her former mentor and boss. She plans to take over Kingpin's empire, telling her Uncle Henry (Chaske Spencer) that it is time for a "Queen-Pin". As part of her plan, she opts to place a bomb on a shipping container on its way to New York, getting unwitting help from her idiot cousin Biscuits (Cody Lightning).

It is only through the power of the ancestors that Maya manages to free her prosthetic leg when it gets caught in the train link. Due to the damage to her prosthetic leg, Maya has to go to her grandfather Skully (Graham Greene), who tells her of her distant ancestor Chafa, the first Choctaw and savior of her people. Her grandmother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal) eventually learns that Maya is back, as does Maya's cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs), both due to Biscuit's general idiocy. Henry, who works for Fisk, warns Maya that she is playing with fire, but she will not listen. 

I figure that each succeeding Echo episode will connect Maya with another one of her strong, female ancestors. We got that in Chafa, and we get that in Lowak. How exactly this multigeneration contact can take place to where Maya can summon the power of Lowak to free her from the train Echo does not explain. I guess I am just supposed to take it on faith that Native Americans can get superpowers through their heritage, even if they do not know exactly from where these powers come from.

Lowak does feature some curious tropes that are now both cliche and slightly laughable. The ancestor Lowak somehow can take down a group of Native American men physically stronger and bigger than her also apparently due to her connection with her mythical, mystical ancestor. Maya similarly has almost superhuman strength and agility to silently take to a moving train, with poor Biscuits trying hard to keep up in Chula's truck.

Chula just so happened to see Biscuits drive by her in her thoroughly damaged truck. That is so unoriginal that it makes one want to scream. Why not, for example, have Bonnie pop in on Biscuits, see the extensive damage, and text their grandmother photos of what Biscuits did. It might have provided for more interaction between characters and even brought a bit of lightness to Echo, a show that seems to think it must be thoroughly serious to be good.

Lowak also indulges in a bit of comic racism when Skully is attempting to sell Indian tchotchkes to a couple of idiot na hullos (Biscuits' term for Anglos). As Skully works to sell them on  on the importance of the objects by making vague claims of their powers and autheticity, they hear from him what appears to be a Native American chant. It is clear that he is saying "Buy this damn thing" but says it in a cliched Native American sing-song manner that Lowak suggests that anyone with good hearing would be so easily fooled. 

Oddly, it reminds me of a similar scene from of all things, the Whoopi Goldberg/Ted Danson comedy Made in America. A pair of old white women go into Goldberg's Afrocentric gift shop, delighted in the many voodoo dolls and black paraphernalia that they purchase. Made in America was meant as a silly comedy. Echo is meant as a respectful homage to Native American women by making them superheroines. Yes, I know that that scene was meant to be a bit of lightness, but it does not work.

Again, we have a lack of good performances save for Greene and to a lesser extend Cardinal (the face she makes when she sees Biscuits drive away in her all-but-demolished truck is weird). Cox has such a hard face, one that shows no emotion. Lightning, to be fair, was tasked to play an idiot and wimp, so I guess he did well in that role. Jacob's Bonnie gets little to do, and it is a shame. 

What I figure was meant as the exciting section on the train looked second-rate, unexciting and a bit boring. Lowak continues to have the issue of simultaneously speaking and signing. I wish it would commit to one or the other. Oddly, the best scenes in Lowak are the ones not involving Maya. Both when Skully & Biscuits or Chula & Henry are involved, we see glimpses of a better story. The interplay between Biscuits and Bonnie on the other hand, did not work, though to be fair they were over walkie-talkies. 

Lowak again has four screenwriters and six story creators. The question then is, "it took six people to come up with this?". 

2/10

Next Episode: Tuklo

Echo Episode One: Chafa

ECHO: CHAFA

Written by: Marion Dayre, Josh Feldman, Steven Paul Judd and Ken Kristensen

Directed by: Sydney Freeland

Airdate: January 9, 2024

I was asked to watch Echo, the new Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series build around a deaf, mute, one-legged potentially lesbian Native American. I know nothing of past MCU Disney+ shows and genuinely do not care to. Nevertheless, I am honoring the poll results asking me to review each Echo episode, all five of them. Perhaps I should consider myself lucky, as I understand that Echo was meant to be eight episodes long in a first season, then cut down to six episodes until it went to five for a one-season run. A miniseries, I understand, versus a long-spanning section to the world's longest and most expensive soap opera. Chafa, the first episode, feels more like a "Previously On" episode meant to catch up viewers like me who know nothing of our heroine. As such, it is a poor introduction and harbinger of more bad things.

Young deaf, mute Native American girl Maya Lopez survives a car accident that killed her mother Taloa (Katarina Ziervogel) and which leaves her with one leg. Her father William (Zahn McClarnon) takes her to New York City, which somewhat pleases Taloa's mother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal). William is part of the nefarious criminal work of Wilson Fisk also known as Kingpin (Vincent D'Onfrio). Maya (Alaqua Cox) has become a fierce hitwoman for Fisk as well as his informal niece. She faces off against a mysterious figure known as Daredevil (Charlie Cox, no relation to Alaqua), able to stand on equal footing with the Man Without Fear.

A chance encounter with Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) quickly convinces her that Fisk ordered her father's killing and in turn shoots Fisk in the head. Now running to her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma five months later, she does make contact with her Uncle Henry (Chaske Spencer) and her cousin Biscuits (Cody Lightning). Hiding out in her grandmother Chula's neglected home, she does not plan to stay long or make contact with her former BFF, cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs). Maya does contact her grandfather Skully (Graham Greene) and plans now to become the Queenpin of the New York underworld. Unfortunately, the Kingpin is not dead, and we see that he awakes from what I figure is a coma.

I have heard about the importance of representation, but Echo veers dangerously close to parody of those efforts. Our character centers around a deaf, mute, one-legged Native American. If she ends up being a lesbian, we would have run through an entire gamut of minorities. Chafa is a shockingly weak debut episode far beyond the idea of centering a show around a deaf, mute, one-legged potentially lesbian Native American.

As our lead cannot communicate vocally, we need American Sign Language to not just see what Maya thinks but what others are saying to her. In my admittedly limited knowledge of ASL and the ASL community, my observations are that all communication is through signing. The non-deaf person does not speak with his/her vocal cords to speak to the deaf person. Chafa instead has almost everyone simultaneously speak and sign. That has the curious effect of slowing things down. The hearing actors appear to be reciting the dialogue for the television audience. If everyone signs or in Kingpin's case has an ASL interpreter at the ready, why do they have to speak at all?

Only once late in Chafa did we see what I think would be a more realistic conversation where all sides sign at each other. Why, however, Biscuits has to sign to his dog, Billy Jack, I cannot fathom a guess.

Chafa has other issues apart from the curious decision to speak and sign simultaneously. Alaqua Cox has exactly one expression throughout: a permanent scowl no matter what the situation. It is impossible to decipher what Maya is thinking and going through when her expression never changes. Perhaps to compensate, Lighting appears to go overboard as the goofy, near-idiot Biscuits. Spencer's Uncle Henry matches Cox in looking permanently angry. Almost everyone appeared to be in a foul mood.

That is except for three. There is the aforementioned Lightning. There is Greene, who brings a bit of a spark as Skully. Finally, there is D'Onofrio, but unlike the others, his Wilson Fisk is a generally weak, pathetic wimp of a man. Why this criminal mastermind seems to hold this deaf, mute, one-legged Native American so close to his heart never comes across in Chafa. For that matter, Renner's cameo (which I understand was pulled from Hawkeye) does not make sense. Why would she so quickly take his word that Fisk was behind William Lopez's killing? 

None of these questions are answered in Chafa despite the episode having four credited screenwriters. Moreover, director Sydney Freeland made some curious decisions. When Maya and Fisk are in his limo accompanied by Fisk's ASL interpreter (he's the only character who does not sign despite being her unofficial uncle and mentor), the interpreter is hidden in shadow. Like most of Chafa, we simultaneously heard and saw the signing. Here was no exception, but the way the scene was shot I would have found seeing the interpreter next to impossible. Had I been Maya, I would not have understood what Fisk was saying simply because I would not have been able to see the interpreter. It was a curious cinematic decision.

As a side note, Charlie Cox's Daredevil appears exactly once and is so unimportant to Chafa that is a puzzle as to why he is there apart from name recognition. There was nothing in their encounter that shows she is close to Daredevil's equal, let alone strong enough to get Fisk's admiration for passing this test. 

Chafa does nothing to build interest in it. The lead is blank, the story rushed and a bit disjointed and is almost hilarious in its conclusion. Seriously, despite shooting Fisk at point-blank range, Maya is unaware that Kingpin survived? How could he have possibly survived this? To be fair, why would he be all but begging for his life or not have any idea that she would discover his involvement in her father's death? Even at a mere five episodes, this will be a long Echo to sit through.

2/10

Next Episode: Lowak

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. A Review

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

I think it is fair to say that out of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Phase Four, the sequel to Black Panther is the most anticipated, or at least, the most hyped. After Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman's sudden and unexpected death, there was concern over how to proceed with the franchise. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is adequate, but longer and unwieldly in its execution. 

The sudden death of King T'Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther, has not only thrown Wakandans and the world into turmoil, but left the Royal Family adrift. Princess Shuri (Leticia Wright) still grieves a year after T'Challa's death, haunted by her inability to save him. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) urges her to start moving forward, but she has problems of her own.

The other nations want Wakanda's vibranium supply, and they will go to any lengths to get it short of war. An attack on an American ship that has found vibranium on the ocean floor has been attacked. It is not the Wakandans who have done this. Instead, it is a new hereto unknown people: the Talokan. Their king, a half-human half-merman known as Namor (Tenoch Huerta) infiltrates Wakanda and gives an ultimatum: hand over "the Scientist" who made the vibranium-detecting device or face war.

That "scientist" turns out to be sassy MIT student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). She is pleased to receive Wakandan royalty, but not pleased when Okoye (Dania Gurira) threatens to take her to Wakanda by force. With some help from "colonizer" Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) they avoid capture, but Namor takes "the scientist" and Shuri to his underwater kingdom of Talokan, where we learn his backstory.

The rescue by self-exiled Wakandan Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) only serves to antagonize Namor more. That leads to an attack on Wakanda, where not all survive. Ultimately though, a new Black Panther arises, one that forces peace and allows for grief. It also allows for a new, hereto unknown Prince of Wakanda to be found.

I point out that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is close to three hours, two hours and forty-one minutes to be exact. That makes it close to half-an-hour longer than Black Panther as well as the second-longest Marvel Cinematic Universe film (after the three-hour, two-minute Avengers: Endgame). It is also longer than Dune: Part 1, albeit by only six minutes. As such, Wakanda Forever seems to live up to that name. I would not say it is overindulgent, merely bloated.

Director and cowriter Ryan Coogler (writing with Joe Robert Cole) made some very curious decisions in Wakanda Forever. For example, there is an early scene where we cut back and forth between a French raid on a ship carrying vibranium and Queen Ramonda addressing the United Nations in Geneva about that exact raid. I wonder why we could not cut Ramonda's address, focus on the raid and culminate with the captured mercenaries being brought forward.

Other moments were cringe-inducing. Hearing Dora Milaje General Okoye refer to the FBI as "the popo" might have been funny (it was to the audience I saw Wakanda Forever with). However, I do not think Okoye would even be aware of the term, let alone use it. This break from character took perhaps the most unintentionally silliest turn when K'uk'ulkan/Namor was showing Shuri around his underwater kingdom.

First, this rather serious, slightly pompous and menacing Mesoamerican warrior king tells Shuri the various dangers of trying to enter Talokan, until he breaks out into something close to a smile and says cheerily, "Or we can get you a suit!". This, to my memory, is the only time Namor comes close to showing any humor. That already is strange enough. As Shuri floats along to see the wonders of Talokan in her underwater suit, the end result has her looking like SpongeBob SquarePants' Sandy Cheeks!  

As a side note, while Namor makes a big thing out of pronouncing his name as "Nah-MOOR", no one else seems to have gotten the memo. If memory serves correct, "Nah-MOOR" is used only once. Everyone else pronounces it "NAY-moor". I'm of Mexican descent, and I would say "NAY-moor". To be fair, I heard "K'uk'ulkan" and my mind drifted to the Mexican bogeyman "El Cucuy", but I digress.

Jokes aside, Wakanda Forever has serious problems due specifically to the script. It is meandering and filled with plot points and characters that add nothing to whatever it is trying to say. The Namor origin story could have been cut down or cut altogether, for it includes how the Talokan people came to be, Namor's own origin and the origin of his name. Same with the extended Talokan attack on Shuri, Okoye and Riri in Boston.

It is curious that what is meant as a major action piece felt dull. It is even more curious that anyone would bother saving Riri given the two major problems with her. There is how inconsequential she was to Wakanda Forever and what an unlikeable character she was. In the former, Riri disappears for long stretches of Wakanda Forever. She is essentially the Maguffin, what most of the plot centers around but who has no real impact in the story itself. She was superfluous, there only to tie Riri into the MCU for the upcoming Ironheart Disney+ series. 

As another side note, I did wonder why El Cucuy referred to her only as "The Scientist". I guess even he could not be bothered to learn her name. 

Wakanda Forever serving as a de facto Ironheart pilot leads me to the latter: her unlikability as a character. If I had been Queen Ramonda, I would have been, "Here, take this obnoxious child to Talokan and do what you wish, oh Feathered Serpent". Perhaps Thorne played the part as written: as this sassy, allegedly wisecracking definitely backtalking girl genius. However, all that backtalking and alleged wisecracks just made her insufferable. When offered hospitality by the Talokans, she starts babbling about it all being part of some "supervillain s-hit". Over and over, Thorne's performance stretches the idea that Riri is any kind of genius.

Tony Stark can get away with snark when facing great danger. Riri Williams cannot. Tony Stark is an adult and billionaire. Riri Williams is a nineteen-year-old student who makes her money by writing other people's schoolwork. Here again, if perhaps Wakanda Forever had made her a realistic figure (say, a teenager terrified of the FBI chasing her or underwater people in general), we could have had something.   

Again, this might have been the character as written, so I want to grant some leeway on the subject. The returning cast, however, has no escape. I know there are calls to nominate Angela Bassett for Best Supporting Actress in Wakanda Forever, but my question is, "why?". It was forced in my opinion, especially whenever she has to be dramatic. This plagues all the performances in Wakanda Forever, an over-the-top and excessively dramatic set of acting that never came across as believable. 

It is curious that while those involved in Wakanda Forever wanted to make a three-hour tribute to Chadwick Boseman (the film's Marvel credits show only Boseman, which I think is the first time they featured only one actor), they acted on film as though their heart was not in the film itself. I am sure they would argue the contrary, but what I saw on the screen never came across as acting, but merely moving their mouths and bodies. 

The stiff acting, behaving as if all this is meant to be deep versus entertaining, was hard enough. Seeing Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as his boss/ex-wife in a subplot that went nowhere made things harder. The Michael B. Jordan cameo similarly came across as unnecessary. At the very least, I wondered why it could not have been part of a second vision versus having two visions.

If there are positives in Wakanda Forever, they are in the still-strong technical elements. Ludwig Goransson's score blended African sounds with some vaguely Mayan ones, and the lyrics to the vocals complement the story (though I think you would have to both be listening and know Spanish to get what is being sung is almost literally telling you what is being shown). Ruth Carter's Afrofuturistic costumes now also feature Mesoamerican clothing for the Talokan, though the comment I read about why they wear feathers underwater is a valid point of curiosity.   

What I came away with after watching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a film that is, adequate. Nowhere near the worst Marvel Cinematic Universe film (I doubt any MCU film will dethrone Eternals for that dubious honor), but a letdown after the first Black Panther. We now close the chapter on Phase Four of the world's longest and most expensive soap opera.  

DECISION: C-

Next MCU Film: Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania

Thor: Love and Thunder. A Review

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

I do not think that a film has had such contempt for its lead character as Thor: Love and Thunder has. Plotless, pointless, pretty witless, its efforts to make the world's longest and most expensive soap opera jokey end up making it a waste of time to all but the MCU's hardest of hardcore fans.

Narrated somewhat by rock creature Korg (cowriter/director Taika Waititi), we learn that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is palling around with the Guardians of the Galaxy, forever fighting battles and forever making a mess wherever he goes. This himbo with an inflated view of himself eventually returns to Earth after learning of a new threat to both himself as a god and to New Asgard.

New threats, rather, as there is Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who has sworn to kill all the gods, and a surprise rival for both the title of Thor and his beloved hammer Mjolnir. It is in the shape of The Mighty Thor, who just happens to be Thor's ex-girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Despite having Stage Four cancer, Jane can wield Mjolnir with ease. Thor's longing for his old hammer causes conflict with his new weapon, Stormbreaker.

Gorr has abducted all the children, and now it is up to Old Thor, New Thor, Korg and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to rescue them. The other gods are no help, particularly Thor's hero, Zeus (Russell Crowe), a dilettante who is sillier than Thor and does not take Gorr seriously. Now it is up to the Asgardian crew to fight Gorr, stop him from reaching Eternity where his one wish will be granted, and save the children. Will everyone survive?

I think there is consensus that Thor has been one of the weaker MCU characters. Unlike the evolution of Steve Rogers into Captain America or Tony Stark's Iron-Man journey from arrogant to conflicted, Thor has pretty much not changed. At least not changed enough to where he is different in Love and Thunder as he was in his debut. I would argue that he actually has regressed from 2011's Thor to 2022's Love and Thunder. In the former, he was arrogant and pompous, but that fit his life prior to being banished to Earth.

Now, he is still arrogant and pompous, but that is mixed with a blinding idiocy. Less a muscular man of action and more a meathead Mr. Magoo, he apparently journeys with the Guardians to save various worlds but appears unaware of the chaos and destruction he himself causes. Early on, despite being victorious against his foes, he is blissfully, happily unaware that the Guardians are tired of his lofty battle declarations or that the planet's sacred temple was destroyed behind him. Thor appears to think he will be praised, the collapse of the structure he was asked to save being a non-issue for him. 

Love and Thunder has no structure. The entire opening with the Guardians of the Galaxy could easily have been cut given how unnecessary it was to the film. Same with the visit to the gods' compound, which added nothing to the story except the chance to see Russell Crowe ham it up for a nice paycheck.  For an actor once known as this intense performer, seeing him adopt a bizarre accent and daintily lift up his skirt as he skips down the stairs shows people will do anything if the price is right.

The phrase "as funny as cancer" has taken on a new meaning with Portman's Jane Foster. When Foster's wacky BFF points out that she has Stage Four cancer, Dr. Foster replies, "It's Stage Four, out of how many stages?" Hold the beat, with reply of "Four". The delivery from both actresses is cringe inducing.

Granted, not as cringe inducing as Melissa McCarthy's cameo as Hela in a New Asgard stage show, but it is hard to impossible to look on her impending death with any interest. If Love and Thunder does not care, why should we?

The film is desperate to be jokey to funny, but the comedy such as it is, is forced. I cannot figure out why Thor, who should on some level realize that children are in danger of being killed, can try to encourage them by calling them "Team Kids in a Cage" to their faces. It makes him look stupid. Love and Thunder almost goes out of its way to make its lead look stupid. The sight of this mighty, hunky Asgardian going all fanboy when he sees Zeus fly down should depress longtime fans, not cause them to cheer. Seeing Bao, God of Dumpling pop up just shows how Love and Thunder went overboard on the goofy.

There are no performances in Love and Thunder. Hemsworth, to my mind, is not an actor. He's a very built, good-looking action star, which is fine. However, I did not see a character or performance. I saw someone just speaking words written for him with no sense of conviction. Portman too seemed like she just wanted to get through this, but at least with the opportunity to show she could play superhero. 

Bale has been much praised, but I think he was in Love and Thunder so little that it did not impact me one bit. He filled the requirement for an antagonist, that is all. 

It is sad that Waititi, who cowrote the script with Jennifer Kaytlin Robinson, now enjoys mocking the visual effects in his own film. For a movie that cost an estimated $250 million dollars to make, some of the visual effects are sometimes shockingly weak. Given the reports of how the VFX staff was pushed to create so much with few resources and limited time, I won't be harsh on this aspect.

I think Thor: Love and Thunder was not interested in the title character. I think it was interested in making fun of the title character. I think it was interested in looking as silly as it could. Whether it was using November Rain for a climactic battle (which I still think is the wrong use for the Guns & Roses song) or Thor telling someone he has kept people at arm's length (and then literally putting his arm out to keep someone at arm's length), the film I think isn't fun.

I think it makes fun of both the characters and its devoted fanbase. More than anything, Thor: Love and Thunder lives up to Martin Scorsese's remark that comic book movies are theme parks. Given that New Asgard is essentially a theme park itself, down to an Infinity Cones Ice Cream Shop and a tacky stage show of Thor: Ragnarök, Marty is right.

DECISION: D-

Next Marvel Cinematic Universe Film: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: A Review

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

As we continue with the world's longest and most expensive soap opera, I find that Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is determined to be more expansive. To follow Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, you have to have knowledge not only of the previous Doctor Strange film but also Captain Marvel, the ABC television shows Agent Carter and Inhumans, the Disney+ television shows WandaVision and What If...? as well as previous X-Men television cartoons and films and even past Fantastic Four films. Less a feature film than a mishmash of past and future projects, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will keep the middle-aged devotees of the MCU thrilled, while leaving the rest of us slightly underwhelmed.

Doctor Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has little to no time to see his former love Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) marrying someone else. Into his life from another dimension comes America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young woman who can travel through various dimensions that contain myriad versions of people in this, our dimension. In fact, it is her version of Doctor Strange that died getting her into our version to get Doctor Strange's help.

Help that Strange needs from Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Still grieving the death of her great love Vision and the loss of her imaginary children, Wanda is, we find out, eager to find America and take her powers so that she can find that version of Wanda that will have her children restored to her.

Yes, at this point I do have many, many questions about her looney scheme, but I have to roll with things.  

Attacking and pursuing America like a crazed harpy, Wanda eventually chases Strange and America to an alternate universe where we find The Illuminati, a collection of superheroes we have seen variations of in other films, television shows and even from other franchises. They range from Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards (John Krasinski) to Professor X/Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Scarlet Witch is able to dispatch them all quite easily via "dreamwalking" or taking over the body of her doppelganger in this universe.

It will take all of Strange's powers, along with the corpse of his own, to do battle with this wounded villainess.

I have yet to understand why the Marvel Cinematic Universe genuinely believes this is epic storytelling on a level dwarfing such efforts as Remembrance of Things Past or The Iliad. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series and Wagner's Ring Cycle are more compact than the whole of the MCU. I have never seen any Disney+ Marvel television shows and fail to see why I should. If not for the saturation that WandaVision had, I would not have understood Wanda's fixation on recreating a world that simply never existed. 

Moreover, looking into this part of the MCU/Disney+ franchise, I am squarely on the "Wanda is a homicidal maniac" side of the debate, so the efforts to make her actions sympathetic or make her some kind of tragic figure fall flat with me. Her insistence that she and Strange are somehow the same is laughable.

To coin a phrase, some people would rather destroy whole multiverses rather than get therapy.

I am not so enamored of the past that I need constant shout-outs to it. Moreover, I find such actions more grating than endearing. It is barely tolerable for me to see 81-year-old Patrick Stewart trotted out for a meaningless, pointless cameo that serves only to make middle-aged man-children squeal with glee. To have the animated X-Men television theme play as he comes out is to my mind rather insulting and insufferable. I genuinely do not get excited in seeing characters that I have no idea who or what they are appear for cameos, which is what the Illuminati scene was.

It was fan-service pure and simple, pointless, unnecessary and illogical. It seems almost a waste of time to see Scarlet Witch destroy them so easily and to my mind rather gruesomely. Reed Richards' disintegration was rather grotesque, making him even less necessary.

As a side note, I do not know if John Krasinski will eventually play Reed Richards in an upcoming Fantastic Four film or series of films. However, the flat-out laughter from the audience that accompanied his appearance does not bode well. I think Krasinski would make a good Mr. Fantastic, though to be fair the Fantastic Four have stubbornly failed to translate into films, having failed to jumpstart two franchises.

I also do wonder if these middle-aged children will demand explanations as to why the first Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Steve Rogers/Captain America look exactly alike in the same way Doctor Who fans demanded an explanation as to why the Twelfth Doctor and Caecilius from the Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompeii looked exactly alike. Yet I digress.

I noted that Wanda made A Beautiful Mind's John Nash look sane by comparison. There was an almost comic manner to Olsen's performance, as if she was directed by Sam Raimi to be so overdramatic as our villainess. I found her to be camp, devouring the scenery with total abandon.

Perhaps this was to compensate for the blank Gomez as our first "Latinx" heroine. She had no personality, no great interest apart from looking perpetually confused. She did not pop out as a character, save perhaps for being the woke element of not just being "Latinx" but having two moms. 

Neither was of importance, except perhaps for some Spanish thrown in to mock Strange's lack of multilingual skills. At that point, she to be fair did show something to America: being a bit of an entitled bitch. As with most Hispanics, I detest the term "Latinx" and if America Chavez is meant to be progress, inclusivity and representation for my community in Phase Four, I'd rather not be represented at all. 

At least until they can find a better actress or better material to give her.

I have never been enamored of Benedict Cumberbatch either and looking back now I cannot remember whether he was interested in Multiverse of Madness or just decided to take the money and run. I guess after losing Best Actor twice one can coast through things like live-action cartoons. 

To be fair, there are some positives to be seen. Certain moments such as when Strange and Chavez crash through a series of multiverses is beautifully filmed. However, other moments almost smacked of desperation. I think Agent/Captain Carter said, "I could do this all day", obvious riffing off Steve Rogers' Captain America quote. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had nothing for me. However, I have to recognize that Phase Four of the world's longest and most expensive soap opera ever made has not had anything for me for some time. Even the Phase Four films that I did positive reviews to, now in retrospect, feel like I was almost cajoled into it. Should I ever revisit them I might change my mind; for now, I do not think any version of me would want to see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness again.

DECISION: D-

Next Marvel Cinematic Universe Film: Thor: Love and Thunder