Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 0
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 1/5

 

 

PROS –
1) Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the Quantum Realm, along with Hope’s parents and Scott’s daughter Cassie. The OG Wasp Janey Van Dyne confesses that while lost in the Quantum Realm for 30 years, she met an exiled Kang and helped him rebuild his multiversal power core. After they managed to repair it, Janet saw a vision of Kang conquering and destroying entire timelines. To stop him from escaping she used her Pym Particles to enlarge the power core beyond use.
2) Bill Murray cameo as Lord Krylar.

 

 

CONS –
1) Jarring CGI and bad supporting cast. The “Star Wars” like universe in the Quantum Realm is badly done.
2) Ant-Man is reduced to a side character in his own movie. The movie should be titled “Wasp and Kang”.
3) An Ant-Man checklist movie which I won’t watch again.
4) Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / M.O.D.O.K. is annoying. Kang is also all big talk but overall stupid villain.

 

 

QUOTE –
Kang The Conqueror: I want you to remember… you could’ve gone home. You could’ve seen your daughter again. But you thought you could win.
Scott Lang: I don’t have to win. We both just have to lose!

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 0
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 0/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A last-of-its-kind creature named Gorr along with his daughter (Love) got abandoned by his God. The dismayed and revenge stricken creature got help from the god-killing weapon Necrosword, and he’s now out to kill every god.

 

 

CONS –
1) Jane Foster becomes Mighty Thor without any effort. How ridiculous !
2) The comic element is shoved into the movie up-to such a cringe-worthy level that it appears like a SNL parody of Thor.
3) Christian Bale is worthless behind the heavy make-up.
4) Russell Crowe as Zeus is equally cringy.

 

 

QUOTE –
Zeus: It used to be that being a god, it meant something. People would whisper your name, before sharing their deepest hopes and dreams. They begged you for mercy, without ever knowing if you were actually listening. Now, when they look to the sky, they don’t ask us for lightning, they don’t ask us for rain, they just want to see one of their so-called superheroes. When did we become the joke?

Blade (1998)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 3/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A vampire hunter who’s himself is a half-vampire (daywalker) fighting the vampires from taking control over the human race.
2) A no-nonsense super-hero in a good-old super-hero action movie. Barring a few cheap CGI skeletons, the movie doesn’t look dated.
3) Kick-ass opening scene.

 

 

CONS –
N/A

 

 

QUOTE –
Blade: Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 1

 

 

VERDICT – 3/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A corrupted spell starts bringing “visitors” who know Peter Parker is Spider-Man into their world from every part of the Multiverse, after a silly mistake done by Peter Parker while Dr. Strange is casting the spell to make people forget he is Spider-Man.
2) It’s mammoth fan-service. The storyline is silly which is clearly manufactured for the long-awaited reunion. Something where Star-Wars failed.
3) Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn outdid himself with the menacing performance. The movie also gives a great fulfilling closure for the tragedy of Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius. They are not here for the cameo.
4) The entire “web-shooters” conversation between the trio is an insane fan-moment.
5) Arrival of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in the MCU.

 

 

CONS –
1) Director Jon Watts missed a great opportunity. This movie is running 100% on nostalgia. Even with the epic multiverse re-union, the movie didn’t do justice to the returning Spider-Men.
2) The trailer shouldn’t have revealed the villains.

 

 

QUOTE –
Otto Octavius: [Holding an Arc Reactor] The power of the sun…
Peter Parker: …in the palm of your hands.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 0
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 0/5

PROS –
1) A immortal warrior (Xu Wenwu aka the Mandarin) who possesses the mystical Ten Rings is trying to free her dead wife with the help of his son (Shang-Chi) but he’s in fact fooled by the soul-consuming Dweller-in-Darkness.
2) Return of Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery.
3) Tony Leung as Xu Wenwu: Marvel should have made the origin movie of this legendary character instead of Shang-Chi.

 

 

CONS –
1) Soul-less origin movie. Simu Liu is an expressionless poor actor with no screen presence. The screenplay also gives lesser screentime to the title character. Awkwafina as Katy is equally annoying.
2) Weak boss-villain – Dweller-in-Darkness

3) Shang-Chi is actually a supporting character in this story where most of the focus is on his sidekick Katy (who eventually kills the boss-villain) and his sister who is stronger than him.

 

 

QUOTE –
Wenwu: A terrorist in America needed a boogeyman to bring your country to its knees. So, he appropriated Ten Rings, my Ten Rings, but because he didn’t know my actual name, he invented a new one. Do you know what that name he chose? The Mandarin. He gave his figurehead the name of a chicken dish. And it worked! America was terrified… of an orange!

Venom (2018)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 0
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

VERDICT – 0/5

PROS –
1) Symbiotes from a comet are brought to earth by a young-rich-mad scientist for various unethical experiments on humans. One such symbiotes got itself attached to a failed reporter (Venom), and it’s rival symbiotes took over the body of the mad scientist (Riot).

 

 

CONS –
1) Terrible screenplay and performances from everyone.
2) Unbridled action scenes and mindless CGI. This anti-hero movie is going nowhere.

QUOTE –
Venom: Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time.

Loki (Season 1)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 1

 

 

VERDICT – 3/5

 

 

PROS –
1) Loki tries to escape a dystopian bureaucratic organisation called Time Variance Authority (TVA) which claims to maintains the “sacred timeline”.
2) Owen Wilson as Mobius, a great addition in the MCU. The most memorable character in the series.
3) Richard E. Grant as Classic Loki. Brilliant guest appearance.

 

 

CONS –
1) “He Who Remains” is supposed to be the Thanos of MCU 4th Phase. Jonathan Majors is clearly a miscast in this role.

 

 

QUOTE –
He Who Remains: You may hate the dictator, but something… far worse is gonna fill that void if you dispose of him. I’ve lived a million lifetimes. I’ve gone through every scenario. This is the only way.

Captain Marvel (2019)

STORY – 1
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 3/5

 

 

PROS –
1) Alien (Kree) scientist Mar-Vell disguised as Dr. Lawson on Earth, uses the Tesseract to help her rival alien species (Skrulls) settle somewhere beyond Kree reach, but her plan got busted and an accident resulted in the Tesseract energy transferred to one of her protege, U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Carol Danvers, giving her super-powers.
2) Nick Fury playing a light character giving comic relief. As the story is from around 1995, it serves as an origin movie for Nick Fury as well as the Avenger Initiative.
3) Jude Law plot-twist.

CONS –
1) The mythology behind the Cat aka Flerken is never explained. It’s a plot hole.
2) Maria Rambeau sub-plot was quite unnecessary.

 

 

QUOTE –
Agent Coulson: So is it true? That the Kree burned your eye out because you refused to give them the Tesseract?
Nick Fury: I will neither confirm nor deny the facts of that story.

WandaVision (2021) (mini-series)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 0
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 1/5

 

 

PROS –
1) A devastated Wanda (after the death of Vision) manifests a fictional family with her magical abilities assimilating a small town.
2) The sit-coms episodes
3) Evan Peters appearing as Quicksilver. This opens the door for more X-Men characters joining the MCU in future projects.

 

 

CONS –
1) An underwhelming adaptation of House Of M.
2) A lukewarm launch of MCU Phase 4.
3) Agatha Harkness: a weak villain.

 

 

QUOTE –
Agatha Harkness: Same story, different century. There’ll always be torches and pitchforks for ladies like us, Wanda.

The New Mutants (2020)

STORY – 0
DIRECTOR – 1
ACTOR – 1
MUSIC – 0
CULT – 0

 

 

VERDICT – 2/5

 

 

PROS –
1) 5 teenage mutants are confined to a secret facility by Essex Corp where they are analyzed and getting trained to be killers.
2) New mutants with exciting new super-powers, especially Illyana Rasputin.

 

 

CONS –
1) The first hour is tediously slow and boring where the mutants are fighting their cliched “inner demons”. There is also an obligatory LGBT angle to appease certain demographics.
2) No backstory about Essex Corp.

 

 

QUOTE –
Danielle Moonstar: My father used to tell me that…Inside every person there are two bears, forever locked in combat for your soul. One bear is all things good: compassion, love, trust. The other is all things evil: fear, shame and self-destruction.I asked him, “Which one wins?” He answered, “The one you feed.”