Movie Review: Fantasic Four: First Steps

Yesterday, the new Fantastic Four opened in Korea, a day before in the U.S. So of course we went to see it! This was the movie I was looking forward to the most this year, and to get down to it, it did not disappoint. 

Parents wondering about cursing in the movie: A couple instances of "shit" but otherwise nothing too bad. 

First off, I like this cast. All of the four leads felt right for the characters they were playing. And while I've not read FF comics extensively, I've read a few here and there. And seem them in cartoons, crossover events, etc. They got the characters right. Well, mostly. I did like how in the early 00s FF movies, Johnny and Ben were always bickering...but it was overdone then. There could have been a little more of that in this movie without ruining the feeling, in my opinion. And a few times Reed didn't really seem that smart. I think they were trying to show just how tough of a problem Galactus is, but there were a few scenes that made Reed look impotent. Other than those two things, the characters felt right to me. 

I also really like how all four members have a chance to shine. They each get their moments of character development, vulnerability, and a chance to shine in solving the problem of Galactus. And Galactus really is a problem to be solved, not a villain to be defeated. But I won't say more on that to avoid spoilers. 

The special effects were well done. The music was great. The weird retro-futurist 60s of Earth 828 was cool to just look at and admire. And Pedro Pascal again gets to act alongside an armored, floating CGI baby carriage. 

Sorry if this is a little bit spoilery, but it's got nothing to do with the plot. There was absolutely nothing to tie into any other existing MCU properties, but the mid-credit scene does hint at what's to come. The post-credit scene was just fun.

Best MCU movie to date? No. But it was better than a lot of the stuff that's come out the past couple of years. With this film, Thunderbolts*, and Daredevil Born Again, I'm confident that Marvel is righting where they went wrong. 

But...Superman was better. It hurts to say that, as a Marvel kid, but DC wins this round! Don't let that dissuade you, though. Fantastic Four First Steps was not a fantastic bore. I want fantastic more! 

Movie Review: Superman (2025)

 This afternoon, the whole family went to see the new James Gunn Superman. 

Wondering if there are curse words in it? Quite a few characters say shit, but I don't remember any F-bombs in it. 

So how is the movie? It was excellent. It was fun, exciting, had me almost tearing up in a few places, and finally, we have a Lex Luthor whose genius evil plan is actually fairly intricate and complex. No spoilers, but of course you know it's all going to unravel in the end. But it's a worthy plan for a movie villain. 

The acting was good. My wife has been a fan of Christopher Reeve's Superman since she was a girl, and she really liked Corenswet as Clark/Superman, and Brosnahan as Lois Lane. I really loved Hoult's take on Lex Luthor, and a lot of the supporting cast were fun as well. 

I haven't read Superman comics extensively, but I liked that the film used characters from the All Star Superman run in the Daily Planet. I don't know how important they are in normal Superman comics (haven't read any in a long time) but it was fun to see that group in the film. Plus, they found room for Otis and Miss Tessmacher from the Donner films (who may also be in the comics?).  

Another thing I liked was that the plot didn't go as I was expecting it to from the trailers. That's all I'll say on it, but while there were a few things I predicted, lots of other things surprised me. 

The special effects were mostly good, but there was a scene where a choice was made to make a certain...element, let's say...look like it was made of Minecraft blocks. Not sure where that choice came from, and it looked odd. Was it intentional? Was it just rushed? No idea. But overall the super powers, the fantastic locations, the creatures, etc. looked good.  

Most of all, and no apologies to the Snyder-verse fans, we finally have a Superman who embodies HOPE again. For that, I'm really happy. 

Go see this movie. Seriously. It's good. 

A Tale of Two Play Tests

Yesterday, I was involved in two play tests. 

The first was my own game, Flying Swordsmen 2E. It was a focused affair, and I think I received some valuable feedback.

The second was for Jeremy's new Supers game that he's been working on. It was my third time testing out his system and while there is progress on that system, the session was a bit...meh.

So first off, for my Flying Swordsmen play test, I had four players: Flynn and Steven (my boys, age 17 and almost 11), Denis, and Charles. They've all played in my Star Wars campaign, so they're familiar with the basics at least of the Open d6 System. 

My goal for the session was to have the players each make a PC using a template, then have them each make a PC using custom design. I thought it would be a quick session. Turns out, it took most of the time to get the template PCs completed mechanically (we didn't create NPC Sifu, organizations, or important NPC relationships since I don't have my starting campaign setting ideas worked out yet). And instead of then turning to custom PCs (which we wouldn't have had time to finish anyway), we ran a practice combat, two-on-two. 

Denis had gone through the character templates the night before. He even called to tell me that he found around seven of them really interesting. That was a good sign. He hadn't read through the player rules packet, though. He ended up using the Beggar template.

Charles had at least skimmed the player rules, and had a few questions about them when we started. I don't think he had looked through the templates yet. He went with a Drunken Boxer template.

My boys were given a basic overview, and I explained the templates to them before we left to meet up with Denis and Charles. Flynn chose the Demonist Shaman template, and Steven went with the Street Fighter template. 

Denis took a bit of time to understand the difference between the suggested skills on the template and the skill dice that could be distributed. Charles had lots of questions about taking specializations of skills. There are a couple of skills that I might need to rename. I went with "Stance" as the name of what Star Wars calls Dodge, and this was confusing for them. I'll probably edit it to Dodge so it's easier to notice...but I like the flavor of the name Stance. 

Denis suggested that instead of walls of text, I could make a visual diagram of character creation, and that's a good idea. I'll get to work on that soon. Color coding a character sheet and putting notes in a sidebar with number references on the sheet should be fairly easy to do. 

My boys didn't have many problems. They've each made multiple Star Wars PCs, so they picked their templates, selected their skills, and were ready to go. 

In the combat, we found that for novice martial artists, it's fairly easy to get knocked out or wounded. Denis' Beggar went down first, then Flynn's Shaman was wounded. Charles' Drunken Boxer took a minor wound, then Steven's Street Fighter knocked him out, ending the combat. I want to run more combats like this, and put them up against some NPCs and monsters as well, at different power levels to see how things go. They had fun with this fight. Everyone had good things to say about FS2E afterwards. 

Later, after dinner, Flynn and I logged on to Jeremy's Discord to play test his Supers game. This was the third time, and I decided just before we joined the game (well, about 30 minutes before) to make a new character with different powers just to try out a few things. Most of the powers I chose weren't really relevant to the adventure he had us play through, but that's alright. He had no idea I was going to switch from a magic sword-wielding Thor/Warlord/Black Knight type to a technomancer. 

Flynn played Nova, the plasma-wielding hero from the previous session. Dustie played Maya, the gravity-manipulator she had played in the previous session. Jeff and Scott couldn't make it.

Jeremy has been struggling with a few elements of the design. In particular, he wants Stunts -- special or unusual uses of a power -- to be a big part of the game. But he's been struggling with how to model them. I still find the resolution a little unsatisfying, and I think Jeremy is starting to see where I'm coming from. He also has a very slow and painful advancement mechanic, but I can't seem to convince him that it needs to change. He did add in a new way to gain points towards advancement, but is keeping the glacial pace. 

Mechanics aside, the session was dull. In the first game, we had a mystery to solve (although it was mostly just RP, and didn't involve much mechanics), then a bunch of monster fights. Session Two was a bit of exploration (again mostly RP, a bit of mechanics for that), and a bunch of monster fights. Session three was ONLY a series of monster fights. 

The good thing about that was, as we mopped up all of the monsters except for the "Level 4 Psychic Entity" that was only there to monologue, Jeremy seemed to start to realize that 2d10 plus an ability score that is probably going to range from 30 to 60 (and could be more) isn't the best mechanic. Unless we roll snake-eyes, we're not going to fail much. Or the difficulties are going to be so crazy that a character like Jeff made, who has a lot of powers in the 10 to 20 range, is going to find it impossible.  

The bad thing was, we were just going through the motions. Jeremy started us out with the NPC bosses telling us to guard the area monsters would appear. Then he seemed to be fishing for us to do something else, but when we tried doing other things, we were discouraged from that. Then, when we had a break in the monster fighting, we tried doing something unexpected, and Jeremy had us quickly returned to what we had been told to do by his "Dr. Alchemical" NPC. And a few more monster fights took place. 

So yeah, a railroad adventure. 

Now, since it's a play test, I don't mind the railroad so much. What bothers me is that Jeremy was still trying to give us an illusion of freedom, then yanking it away. I'd have been happier if he'd just straight up ran us through the series of monster fights without pretending we had a choice in the matter. 

That's less a problem with the rule set, and more with Jeremy's skills as a GM. I know there are plenty of monsters in supers comics, but when I think Supers RPG, I want to face villains. Street-level bank or tech lab robbers. Teams of colorful weirdos like the Sinster Six or Flash's Rogue's Gallery. Organizations like the Brotherhood of Mutants, Lexcorp, Hydra, or the Injustice League. 

Sure, throw in a few monsters here and there. But where are the ticking time bombs in school buses? The choice to save your girlfriend or the group of civilians from certain death? The pair of nuclear missiles aimed at opposite ends of the country and only time to stop one of them? The crazy non-linear fun-house gladiatorial combat for an extra-dimensional TV personality? The choice between going out to stop crime or attending Grandma's dinner party? Having to make ends meet at a day job while constantly getting pulled away by villains causing chaos? 

OK, had to vent. Three sessions of nothing but fighting Lovecraftian monsters (if you know Jeremy's OSR monster/art books, you know what I mean) gets old.  

Movie Review: Thunderbolts*

On Saturday, my younger son and I went to see the newest MCU movie, Thunderbolts*. I have to say, I wasn't eagerly anticipating this movie, but the trailers did make me hopeful that it would at least be entertaining. I went in with fairly low expectations, and it surpassed them by quite a bit. 

Note for anyone wondering how much "cursing" is in the movie, there's a fair amount of mild swearing. 

Yes, Google searches for movie titles plus "curse words" still lead people to my movie reviews. 

So, Thunderbolts. The team of the B-league antiheroes. Former villains/opponents, brought together and trying to do the right thing. It's got the Marvel action, humor, and heroics we expect. It's also a movie built around exploring depression, regret, and redemption. Yeah, the movie has heart. It's not a huge world-shattering plot. It feels fairly small and personal, despite the way things go south in the third act and do threaten the world...or at least NYC. 

And for a team that "just punches and shoots" as you may have heard in the trailer, our protagonists can't fall back on their military training to resolve the plot. 

I'll avoid spoilers, but this movie felt like a callback to the Phase I MCU movies. And yet, the resolution (and post-credits stinger) tie into the overarching plot of...what is this, Phase VI? After the slightly better than mediocre (fun and full of action, but failing to resonate) Captain America: Brave New World, this is an improvement. 

Watching Thunderbolts* after watching Daredevil Born Again (which was excellent!), I feel like Marvel may have finally figured out their new formula for success. And I was already looking forward to Fantastic 4 this summer, but I'm even more excited now! Of course, the MCU is also going up against the new James Gunn Superman, which I'm also really excited for. 

If you're missing the feel of the early MCU in the post-Disney+ glut era, check out this movie.

Advancement System Before Action Resoultion Mechanics

The other day, Jeremy sent me a file for a Supers RPG that he's working on. He wants to play test it, and I'm looking forward to that. He's going for a rules-lite system, so he's trying not to bog it down with too many subsystems or overly define what any particular superpower can and can't do. That's fine. 

He's got an interesting action resolution/combat system. It's 2d10 based, but you add attribute scores (your superpowers or skills) as appropriate. If you roll snake eyes, you auto fail. If you roll any other doubles, the dice explode and you keep rolling (but snake eyes on a further roll is still auto failure). That's interesting and I want to see how it plays out.

Character creation has lots of d% tables for determining things randomly, but he also says that picking and choosing to fit your idea is fine as well. The only problem I found with this is that the big list of Attributes (again, the super powers or advanced skill-sets that heroes have) is a 3d100 chart. If you're picking the abilities that you want, no problem. If you're rolling randomly, this will skew heavily into the middle of the alphabetical list of 297 options. I checked the dice probabilities, and you're 7500 times more likely to get item 151 (or 152) than to get item 3 (or 300). Of course, with nearly 300 entries, it's still only a 0.75% chance (each) to get 151 or 152.

And what do you know, when I rolled a random PC, I got Leap (entry 151) as one of my rolls.  

So there are a few things to work out there, but nothing major. 

The big problem is, there's no advancement system. No way to earn XP or additional Build Points (once you determine your powers, you can set their strength with build points, then add features or limits plus or minus more build points) after play starts. There's no goal of play other than "play out stories like in comic books" which seems like it will only be conducive to one-shots/convention play. 

I think that anyone designing an RPG should figure out what the advancement system is before trying to figure out the resolution mechanics or char-gen features. You've got to know what the players should be doing with their PCs before anything else. Otherwise, what's the point of play?

Movie Review -- Captain America: Brave New World

Steven (my 10yo) and I went and saw the new Marvel movie yesterday. It's the fourth Captain America movie, but of course following the events of Avengers Endgame (where Steve Rogers retired) and the Disney+ show Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America, it's got Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson in the title role. So maybe the start of a new Cap trilogy? We'll see.

I'll try to avoid spoilers here, since the movie just released this week. 

Overall, it was a solid political/espionage thriller with superheroes involved. Much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while it had its superhero action scenes, it was really a story about solving a mystery and preventing political ramifications from damaging the status quo. In that sense, I really liked it. It didn't need to be a "big damn movie" to tell its story. It used the political and espionage angles to inform us about the characters, rather than setting up a mystical MacGuffin to prevent the end of the world/multiverse. 

Most of the characters had clear motives, and most of the principle characters had a satisfactory story arch within the movie. 

The action scenes were well shot and well edited, so I never felt confused, or that I was just watching a big CGI puke vomited all over the screen. 

The dialogue could have been snappier at times. There were a few funny bits, but not as much as in previous Cap films or in the FatWS series. 

There were a couple of well-placed cameos of characters from previous films/shows that made sense within the narrative, not just as "member-berries."

Was it great? I wouldn't say that. I enjoyed it, and I think people who don't really care about superheroes or science fiction but like espionage thrillers (Bourne movies, etc.) would enjoy it despite the supersoldiers and gamma-fied people and whatnot. And it's got just enough of that comic book goodness to keep the comics nerds in their seats. 

I think it could have been improved if they had not spoiled a few things in their own promotional materials. If they had kept people wondering "will he? won't he?" about Thunderbolt Ross turning into Red Hulk, for example, that might have been better. But that might have been an impossibility in today's social media spoiler age. 

So again, a solid movie. Worth the price of admission, but probably not one to set up among the best of the MCU. But in comparison to the MCU movies of the past two years, it's nice to see them putting out something small, contained, and decently crafted.

Why People Are Upset with the MCU (And how that relates to high level gaming)

In 2008, the same year we moved to Korea and my first son was born, Iron Man debuted in theaters, and The Hulk (Ed Norton...remember that?) not long after. And the MCU was born. This led to an eventually more and more interconnected series of films based on the Marvel comics, culminating in Avengers Infinity War in 2018 and Endgame in 2019. 

Right before Covid19. 

And since Endgame, we've not only had covid delaying projects, we had the release of Disney+ streaming with more MCU content in the forms of limited series and one shot special presentations along with the movies. And in this post-Endgame MCU, lots of fans have been underwhelmed. I've been enjoying most of it, but it's hard to follow something as cathartic as Endgame. Say what you will about the quality of the movie itself as a film, as a culmination of 11 years of interconnected storytelling, it was a satisfying way to wrap up that story arch. 

And then Marvel had to keep putting out more content. 

I think they've been making the right moves. They've diversified the types of content they're putting out, both as types of media properties, and with regard to the types of stories they're telling and the characters they're bringing in to the MCU. We've got intense character-driven drama (WandaVision), typical action adventure fare (Shang-Chi, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Hawkeye), horror-tinged superheroics (Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Werewolf by Night), comic action (Loki, Ms. Marvel), 4th wall breaking comedy (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), along with continuing some of the previous popular franchises (Guardians of the Galaxy [done well], Thor: Love and Thunder [not done very well]), and even working in previous Marvel movie properties (Spider-Man No Way Home, The Marvels) within the MCU's new Multiverse phase. 

None of these projects really come close to the feeling of culmination that Endgame brought the long-time fans, although GotG3 and Spider-Man No Way Home come close. And that's upset a lot of fans. And then there are the chuds who think every project with a female or POC lead is pandering to the "Woke Mob" or some garbage. But they'd be upset no matter what Marvel does, since outrage leads to social media engagement. Let's ignore them and focus on the fans who are just feeling a bit let down because the drama isn't cranked up to 11 on these projects. 

How does this relate to high level D&D? Isn't it obvious? 

Look at Marvel Comics. I don't know any comic fans that try to follow every single book Marvel (or DC or Image or whichever comics company you follow) puts out. Not every book suits everyone's tastes, and it's okay to follow those you like and not those you don't. 

The current state of the MCU is pretty much the same. Before Infinity War/Endgame, everyone was pretty much on the same page. You had to watch the movies. All of them. The TV shows were optional (I still haven't seen Agent Carter, The Inhumans, Cloak and Dagger...I did watch Agents of SHIELD and all the Daredevil Netflix related shows). Now, though, not every movie is for the entire audience. Not every show or special is for the entire audience. It's OK to pick and choose. There is variety. 

Your campaign should be similar to the comics or the current MCU. There should be all sorts of things going on in your campaign. Different types of things. Sometimes, every player will be interested in something going on. Sometimes, some players will and others won't. Sometimes, no one will be interested. And that's all good. 

If you're playing a high level game, as I've mentioned before, not every player needs to be involved in every game session. Each player should be able to follow their own interests. Maybe a subset of PCs will be interested in a common thing, and they can game together. Sometimes, everyone gets together to forward some common goal. But the campaign should cease to be built around the idea of all the players getting together each week or fortnight to game as a unit. 

If you've built your game up to basically focus on this small group of heroes and their antics, and then you suddenly try to diversify the campaign now that you're at high levels and the typical dungeon raid is losing it's appeal, you're going to run into some of the bumpiness that the MCU fandom has been going through the past three years or so. But you can get through it, if you stick with it. If you're not at that climax moment of the campaign yet, start diversifying it now (ideas for adventure/challenge diversity in that link). 

Trust me, if you do start diversifying the campaign now, then after the PCs have finally toppled Drol Krad the Dark Lord, they will still have many irons in the fire for them to pursue after the campaign's "endgame" and they can start the real endgame of the campaign: Domains. Political Intrigue. Leadership. Quests. Personal Ambitions. Planar Exploration. Epic Challenges. Building Legacies.

Reviews: Loki Season 2, The Marvels

This week, we had both the season 2 finale (possibly series finale?) of Loki on Disney+, and the premier of the newest MCU film, The Marvels. This is a spoiler-free review of both. 

Obligatory "Curse" Word Notice for Parents: The Marvels has a few mild swears. Loki as well. Nothing much to worry about. 

Loki Season 2

I really like how this show played out in the second season. I really enjoyed the first season, as well. 

In season 2, we see Loki and companions finding out about what the TVA really is, and is not, and it had a few surprising twists along the way. There were great comedic performances from Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Key Huy Quan, and the rest of the cast, and some bits of good emotional/dramatic acting as well. 

I may have mentioned this in my Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania review, but I'm bummed that Jonathan Majors may be out as Kang, because he is (despite being an accused abuser) very talented and does a great job as Kang/He Who Remains/Victor Timely. But if Marvel/Disney need to replace him with another actor, or find a way to switch to another villain like Dr. Doom, I can handle it. 

Dealing with characters who are "outside" of time, where time is a constant flat circle to those outside its frame of reference, is difficult, and there were definitely times when I thought, wait a minute... But the show made sense in general, and the emotional through-line was satisfying. 

The Marvels

The family just saw this yesterday. My older son and I enjoyed it. It's not a top tier MCU film, but it's solid and entertaining, in our opinions. My younger son proclaimed it "mid" and my wife (who wasn't all that impressed by the Ms. Marvel show, but who did enjoy the first Captain Marvel movie) didn't like it that much. 

While overall, it's a fun movie, and the plot is interesting, there is a bit of unevenness in the acting. Iman Velani is hamming it up, and really makes the film, as Kamala Khan. Kamala's family, just like in the D+ show, are also really fun to watch. Brie Larson, who in general I find to be a good actress, seemed to be phoning it in, though. Every emotion was muted. In scenes where Carol Danvers had some emotional struggle, she wasn't overly upset, wasn't overly happy, wasn't overly embarrassed... She was a bit too Zen. 

And I think the editing of the movie, while it did cut the fat and make it speed by, rendered some other parts a bit off-putting. Sam Jackson's Nick Fury is a big part of the movie...except it feels like he's hardly in the movie. He does stuff. People do stuff around him. But it never really quite feels like he's fully part of the story for some reason. There was a big focus on developing the character in Captain Marvel, and maybe they thought with the release coming so soon after Secret Invasion that they didn't need to play up the Nick Fury side of things, but he could have been replaced with generic S.A.B.E.R. Agent and it wouldn't have changed anything. The nameless (Asgardian?) S.A.B.E.R. agent that Yusuf tries to talk into investing for retirement could have filled the role. 

On the plus side, Zawe Ashton's villain Dar-Ben had a plausible beef with Captain Marvel, and a sinister and crafty plan that made sense and would put her in the "hero" role for the Kree. And that role didn't need a ton of backstory to make it plausible and understandable, either. 

Oh, and of course there is a fun final scene, and a mid-credit scene that tease future projects and provide a LOT of fan service. 

________________

My recommendation? If you haven't seen Loki, watch it. It's fun, funny, and charming. It's the best MCU thing that has been on Disney+. 

The Marvels is good, but not amazing. If you're feeling super-hero fatigue, I won't blame you if you skip it. The stuff with Kamala Khan and her family may make it worth the price of admission if you enjoyed their show. Otherwise, it's a fairly by-the-numbers comic book hero movie.

Multiversal Movie Micro Reviews

 Just a quick post to discuss briefly two movies I've watched. Gaming is going well, and work on the GM guide for TS&R is going really slow (too much real work to do), so not much directly game related to blog about at the moment. So we get this instead. 

And yes, today I'm going to give my quick capsule reviews, spoiler free, for Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse from Sony/Marvel, and The Flash from Warner/DC. 

For parents worried about cursing: I don't remember any horrible swears in Spider-Man. The Flash had the one allowed F-bomb for a PG13 film, right at the end, and not a lot of other swearing. 

Across the Spiderverse (AtSV) is of course the sequel to Into the Spiderverse from a few years back. As with the first movie, I really love the mixing and unconventional use of animation styles in this movie. It's just a pleasure to watch from a visual arts perspective. It uses colors, art styles, meta details like art direction notes, and even frame rates to make each world and each version of Spider-Man distinct and interesting. I really enjoyed watching this up until the ending. The story is good, but not as tight as ItSV. It's got that "middle of the trilogy" problem that we saw in The Matrix or the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where the first movie was a solid standalone story with potential for more, but the second and third installments are really one big story so you need to wait for the conclusion. That said, it was a solid film otherwise, and it has me excited for the conclusion. 

The Flash is the possibly final entry to the current DCEU movie line (I think there's some TV shows left as well) before James Gunn takes over and relaunches things. I've never been as big of a DC fan as I am a Marvel fan from my comics reading days, but the Flash has always been my favorite DC character. This movie actually does something I found really cool, in that while telling its own self-contained story, it also sets up the possibility of multiversal rebooting, which would allow the upcoming Gunn line of DCU movies/shows to take what they like from the Snyderverse and ditch the rest. As a story on its own merits, it was entertaining, and I don't want to spoil things, but it was a bit refreshing that the main conflict for Barry Allen/The Flash Prime in the end was internal, and the external challenges are really resolved by all the other characters. It seems like they learned from the mistakes of Wonder Woman, which should have had internal conflict front and center in the end, but was just a big punch-out instead. 

Both of these movies, by their multiversal nature, spend a lot of time referencing previous media involving their main characters, which is always a lot of fun. I think both of these films handle multiverse concepts better than either Spider-Man: No Way Home or Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did. Of the two, AtSV is the better movie, but The Flash wasn't bad.

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Yesterday (Friday) was Children's Day, so the boys had the day off from school. We celebrated by seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and having lunch at a pizza/salad bar buffet. Oh, and I ran a session of Star Wars d6, but I'll save that for another post. Let's talk about the movie! 

First off, since Google searches for movie title + curse word tend to direct people here, if you're worried about curse words in a movie, this one had a small amount, but as you may have heard, Star Lord drops the first F-bomb in the MCU. It wasn't where I would have expected it to be, and so it comes off as rather inconsequential. So anyway, be warned if you don't want your kids to hear that kind of language.

How was the movie? So good. There is an interesting plot line, not a ton of exposition at the beginning but you don't need it anyway, and the emotional stakes are clear through the movie. And they don't all resolve the way I expected them to resolve, which was a nice touch. 

I've got to say, like a lot of other people, I thought Phase 4 of the MCU was weak. And maybe it's just hard to follow something like Infinity War/End Game with lesser stakes, lesser intensity movies. And Phase 4 was also an expansion/set-up phase, which Marvel needs. They can't just keep milking the same characters forever if they want to keep audiences involved. I thought Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a step back towards the sorts of movies we expect (although it has some flaws). This movie, though, was not just getting back, it was overdoing it. 

I don't want to give any spoilers this early after the movie's release, but as I said, the movie makes you care for these characters and their troubles, and forces them to confront a lot of issues, but it's also got that GotG humor throughout. The movie has lots of crazy locations and action set pieces, an interesting and differently motivated villain, interesting new characters, some old familiar supporting characters returning, and a lot of heart. James Gunn knows how to make a movie, and I'm actually looking forward to him setting the DC hero movies on the right track after the years of whatever they've been doing (which mostly hasn't worked for me). 

Go see this movie. Even if you're sick of Marvel, even if you're not a fan of comic book movies, go see this. It's a rare trilogy ender that is better than the previous two entries.

Movie Review - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

The movie opened on Wednesday, 2/15 in South Korea, so we got to see it a bit before some other countries did. So if you're surprised that I'm already reviewing it, that's why. I don't have any inside connections. :D 

Mandatory Curse Words Warning: For parents googling "Are there curse words in Quantumania?" (Yes, I still get those!), there isn't very much. Hank Pym has the worst mouth in the movie, but all in all it's pretty family friendly. I think it was a bit less than in the previous Ant-Man movies, actually. 

On to the movie itself (no spoilers)! First of all, I really liked it. After Dr. Strange & the Multiverse of Madness (which I quite liked but was a different kind of superhero movie) and Thor Love & Thunder (which was OK, but I'm not itching to give it a second viewing), then Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (which was emotional but felt incomplete), this felt like a return to the Marvel formula in a way, but it wasn't 100% the typical MCU plotting. In fact, the plot draws heavily on pulpy/YA secondary world fantasy, where characters from our world get pulled into a fantasy land and have to learn to navigate its ways while fighting the evil wizard who rules over the place (as seen in The Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Three Hearts & Three Lions, The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon show, etc.). 

It's also nice to see a Marvel movie where instead of the main character having daddy issues, he has issues with being a daddy. 

The characters are pretty well established by now, and the actors were able to work well as an ensemble. Kathryn Newton fit in well as the re-cast Cassie Lang. She seemed like she'd been part of this family since the beginning. And Jonathan Majors was legitimately menacing as Kang. 

There were a few plot holes here and there (one big glaring one that would have rendered the entire movie pointless, but oh well), but overall the story line was pretty easy to follow along, even for my 8 year old, and it was engaging and fun to watch.

So if you're one of those people complaining that Marvel has gotten too experimental recently, this should appease you. And if you're one of the people who was happy to see the MCU moving away from the formulaic plots and themes, this might not be your cup of tea, but I at least found it to be different enough from the archetypal MCU movie while still retaining the MCU feel. 

And it's got me even more excited for what's to come. There's also a slightly different type of post credit scene (the second one) which I found cool. But no spoilers. You're gonna have to go see it yourself (or look it up on YouTube I guess).

What was I thinking? Am I still thinking it? Really?

I mentioned previously that I inherited Pat's 4E books. I tried 4E when it came out, and it wasn't for me. But then Dean ran a pretty fun game using it (before he converted the campaign to 5E), and I had a pretty good time with it...the way Dean ran the game. But honestly, I showed up to more of his games once he converted to 5E, which I like a lot more. 

So we've been playing this campaign style dungeon crawl board game. I mentioned that as well. And I was looking at the 4E books the other day, having played some Heroclix with my younger son last weekend (heavily simplified, because I don't really remember the rules for all the powers that well anymore), and thought, "Why don't I try to use these rules to just run some miniatures skirmish games? That's what these rules really do best, after all."

Then I started looking at the Monster Manual. And I'm not so sure I want to do this after all. 

The monster stat blocks are so complex, with so many fiddly little powers. I understand letting the players have a selection of powers to choose from, but the monsters just seem so...over done. 

I do think a lot of the powers are fairly standardized, so after a bit of experience with it, it will probably get better. But do I really want to spend a bunch of time on this? I could set up some fantasy tactical battles with Chainmail, instead, and that would be a lot simpler. 

Anyway, that's a maybe. The idea is still appealing, but I've probably got better things to do with my time.

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Oh, and if anyone's wondering, in the Heroclix game...I was playing with my figures from the 00's. Steven had his figures that he picked up in the US 3 years ago. I had Dr. Doom, Magneto, Kang, Hobgoblin, and Doc Oc. He had Captain America, Iron Man, Thor (Sakkar arena version with swords), Terror, and Hawkeye. I was way over points with my squad, but the newer versions are a lot cheaper for more power. Anyway, he smoked me. Magneto was my only figure to survive, and that's because I had him run away after everyone else went down. I was only able to damage Hawkeye. The game really doesn't work with mixed older and newer figures.

Movie Review - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Went and saw Wakanda Forever yesterday with the family. Here's a spoiler free review. 

For the parents searching Google: Are there curse words in this movie? A few. Nothing too salty. No F-bombs that I remember. Fewer swears than in, say, Black Widow. 

Again with this movie, Marvel is allowing the director to go their own way with a film. Phase 4 has been full of various attempts to shake up the formula. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This one is in some ways a cookie cutter super hero movie, but it does explore a consistent theme that makes the movie less of an exciting 2.5 hour roller coaster, and more of a thoughtful examination of the genre. Not too deep, mind you, but deeper than most MCU movies to date. 

Obviously, with the real world death of actor Chadwick Boseman, they had to make some pretty big changes in this movie, and I think that may have actually worked in the movie's favor. It's a tribute to a lost friend, and that allowed them to look into how the loss of T'Challa in-universe affects the various characters, and avoid the big messy CGI brouhaha at the end of most MCU films. 

So what is the movie about? Obviously, it's about loss, grief, and revenge. While Wakanda is trying to mourn T'Challa, a machine invented by Riri Williams allows people to search for vibranium underseas, and they accidentally discover Talokan, secret undersea home of Namor (which is, like Wakanda, a vibranium-based culture). The US blames Wakanda for the loss of the expedition. Namor blames Wakanda for exposing the world to vibranium. Three-way conflict ensues, but really, for the most part it's just Wakanda vs Talokan. 

While the plot is a fairly typical comic book conflict, and the resolution is a fairly typical comic book plot resolution, along the way we get to explore the pain suffered by the various characters. Queen Ramonda, Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia all have very different ways of dealing with their grief. Namor also has his demons that haunt him, and we get to explore those as well, although not as deeply as with the various Wakandan characters. And while Namorita and Attuma have speaking parts, they get no character development. Namor is the only Talokanian (?) to get an arc. 

There are some connections to upcoming projects from Marvel. Obviously Riri Williams is introduced, which will lead into her own Iron Heart show, and most likely the upcoming Armor Wars movie. And various goings on with CIA agent Everett Ross connect to the upcoming Thunderbolts. I was hoping there would be a tease for Ant-Man Quantumania in the post credits, but all we get is a bit of revelation for one character's motives in the film that were a bit unclear, plus some hints about future Black Panther projects. Which is fine, but part of the fun of the MCU has always for me been the interconnections, and the teases for the next project up on the roster. 

So, that's what the movie is like. How did I like it? I actually enjoyed it. It's not as exciting as a typical action movie, but I liked how it did try to explore character deeper than "I have daddy issues" or "I want to prove myself" like most MCU movies. And the grief leading to revenge theme just felt weightier than in previous MCU movies. I'd definitely say I enjoyed this more than Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love and Thunder. But no, it didn't knock Weird: The Al Yankovic Story off my top spot for the year. 

Also, my wife was really unhappy with the movie. She wanted some big exciting action movie stuff, and didn't get it. She said it was boring. My older son also wasn't so impressed with it. My younger son can't sit through a movie these days anyway (he has no attention span, so we're trying to detox him from gaming/YouTube, but it takes time). My wife even said she's done going to see these movies in the theater. She'll wait until they come out on Disney+. 

So, a movie that's not for everyone. It doesn't follow the MCU cookie-cutter formula. I think that's its strength, my family thought that was a weakness. I think it's a good movie, better than the other MCU movies of 2022, but my family didn't. Your mileage may vary.

Movie Reviews - Weird: The Al Yankovic Story; Black Adam

My sons and I watched Weird: The Al Yankovic Story over the weekend. I've got to say, it was probably my favorite movie I've seen this year. It's a (relatively) low budget parody of the musician bio-pic (what else for Weird Al?), and it's really spot on with the satire and parody elements. It felt a lot like the screwball parody comedies of the 80s that don't seem to get made anymore. It's mocking the genre, and playing with the facts to conform to the tropes, but it does so with an earnestness and a feeling that not only is the subject matter of the musical artist being honored, it's also honoring the genre through mocking emulation. In other words, it's like This is Spinal Tap mixed with Airplane! in feel. Again, to me this seems completely appropriate to a "bio-pic" for Weird Al.

Obligatory Note: is there cursing in this movie? Not a whole lot. Similar to Al's music, it's family friendly. The "sex" scene with Al & Madonna is also nothing I didn't feel uncomfortable with my 8 year old watching. 

I grew up listening to Weird Al, and actually still have a fair amount of his songs on the USB thumb drive in my car. Well, on the rock USB. I've got two more with blues and classical/soundtracks respectively. I'm one of those people that when I hear the original version of a song Al parodied, I'm just as likely to be singing the Al version lyrics in my head as the original's, even if I really like the original as well. And my older boy especially really liked listening to Weird Al's songs when he was younger (he's just in general not really in to music these days). 

Being a fan, I did know a fair amount of biographical detail about Weird Al before the movie started, so I could tell from the beginning that they'd nearly completely ditched reality for the story they wanted to tell. Dr. Demento helps Al get known. Pretty much everything else in the story is made up to serve the comedy, and to mock the bio-pic genre. And it is on point! 

Then there are all the cameos, which are a double layer of fun. I didn't recognize every pop culture figure from the 80s, but I got most of them. And I didn't recognize all of the comedians and actors portraying them, but I got enough of them to get in on the joke. Conan O'Brien as Andy Warhol. Jack Black as Wolfman Jack. Even though they didn't know most of the 80s figures (they knew Pee Wee Herman, a few others), seeing Devo (in the red hats), Divine, and all these crazy characters was fun for them. And my sons even picked out David Dastmalchian (from the Ant-Man movies) before I did, but I instantly knew that he was portraying John Deacon of Queen when he stepped on screen! 

I mentioned that I think this is probably my favorite movie of the year so far (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens later this week, and it looks to be a bit better than some of the recent MCU fare. We'll see if it can top this film!). Part of it is the nostalgia, for sure. The movie definitely is made to play on that tension between 70s/80s parents an children, plus all of the pop culture that Weird Al was parodying in his music. Part of it is the performances of Daniel Radcliff, Rainn Wilson, and Evan Rachel Wood (among others) and the clever scripting that makes plot holes integral to the comedy. Part of it is just that feel, I mentioned above, that the movie loves the source material that it's making fun of, and that the movie does to other movies exactly what Weird Al songs do to other songs. It's just a lot of fun.

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Okay, I saw this move over a week ago now, but was just too busy to write about it. On to Black Adam.

This will be a shorter review, and contains a few spoilers. 

Are There Curse Words? More than in Weird, but not excessive.

Black Adam is the latest of the DCEU movies. Overall, I've not been impressed by most of these. SHAZAM has been the best of the ones I've seen (I still haven't seen either of the Suicide Squad movies or the Harley Quinn movie, or Wonder Woman 1984, or The Batman...if that last one counts?). But of the DCEU movies that I have seen, SHAZAM has been the best of the bunch. 

Compared to other DCEU movies, this one wasn't bad. But compared to super hero movies in general, or action movies as a whole, it was just so-so. My older son really liked it, but I found it just a little bit lacking. 

There are plenty of cool action scenes, and it does tell a decent enough story, but there's something just a little too cookie cutter about it. Dwayne The Rock Johnson isn't an astounding actor, but he does have charisma. It was lacking in this movie, though. Teth Adam is just this scowling, brooding, force of nature. I wasn't invested in his story. The family that brings him back to life and wants him to protect their nation of Kandar were developed with all the beats that should elicit empathy and emotional response, but by the third act of the movie the story had nearly forgotten them. The Justice Society is there for murky reasons. I think Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge are great actors, and made me invested in the stories of Hawkman and Dr. Fate, despite the flimsy plot devices that get them into the story. On the other hand, the other two JSA members, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, were just kinda there for sometimes effective, sometimes not very effective comedy relief, plus an undeveloped romance subplot. 

Basically, this movie seems to want to be two things at once, and fails in the combination. Is Teth Adam the hero of Kandar? Is he the villain to the JSA? He's both at the same time, and things just get murky because of it. It's very similar to my critique of the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie from many years ago. This is better executed than Green Lantern, but it still feels like two incompatible movies smushed into one. It would have been better if they'd stuck to Kandar family awakens Teth Adam to help them fight Intergang to free their country and stop the demon guy, OR it was about Teth Adam awakening, running amok, and the JSA stepping in to battle him until they realize he's not evil and they team up to fight demon guy. 

It could have been better, but it's still better than Batman v. Superman, or either version of Justice League!

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Star Wars: Andor (and other shows)

Last week, we got the (series? season?) finale of She-Hulk, and also we're halfway through the first season of Andor. I have a few thoughts.

She-Hulk: [minor spoilers ahead]

First off, I was really happy that they tried to do something different with this show. Not only was it a half-hourish legal comedy that just happened to involve powered individuals, it broke away from the mold that not only Marvel movies, but the other Marvel Disney+ shows have given us so far. And that's saying something, since WandaVision, Falcon & Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye are all really different shows. She-Hulk is a completely different beast, and yet it still feels like part of the greater whole. 

Was the CGI great? No. Some episodes were worse than others. But was it good enough? I think so. It's a legal comedy, not a big summer blockbuster movie. Could Disney/Marvel have done better if they'd thrown more money into it? Apparently so. The CGI firms they contract with are apparently overworked and underpaid. But for what the show was, it didn't need top of the line CGI. It's a show about learning to live both as a productive member of society and a superhero, and also jokes. 

Not every joke landed, but I found things to laugh at in every episode. I'd say the Madisynn/Wong episode was the funniest. And it was fun seeing characters I remember from the comics (Manbull! The Wrecking Crew! Titania!), and characters I wasn't familiar with as well. And when they needed to do action, they did it well. The Daredevil episode in particular had some fun fight choreography in it. 

And the fourth wall breaks? Used really well. They provide exposition. They provide laughs. They help direct the series away from the Marvel Studios formula. Especially in the finale. It starts out giving you what you'd expect from a Marvel finale, then...everything changes. In a really silly but good way, that is true to the original comics. 

Andor: [more minor spoilers]

Star Wars always has been media aimed at kids (of all ages). It's got that Campbellian Hero's Journey, stark black and white morality, and plenty of swashbuckling derring do. Well, the best Star Wars does, anyway. And even when it's not at top form, it's always been aimed at a young/family audience. 

But then there was Rogue One. The prequel that was just a little bit more rough around the edges. It was still a B&W morality play at heart, but it was a little more grown up in certain ways. And Andor is a prequel to this prequel. 

Andor is not a show for kids. My 8 year old is continually frustrated and bored with it whenever we watch it. It's about complex characters, and complex situations. It takes a more serious look at what it would be like to live in an authoritarian space empire. It's not about derring-do or simple morality. It's finally Star Wars for grown ups. 

We're only halfway through the season, but we've already had a lot of decent drama out of the series. Andor's struggle to fit in while not wanting to fit in. Luthen and Mon Mothma's struggles to build a rebellion while living under constant state surveillance, and in Mothma's case also while living with a fascist sympathizer husband. Karn struggles with ambition and failure, and high hopes his family places on him that he fears he won't be able to achieve. The ISB agent (forgot the name) who knows something's up but whose superiors/coworkers refuse to help or allow her to succeed. It isn't always perfectly scripted, but they all seem like real people with real issues. 

The down side of the show is that the endings of the first couple of episodes are anticlimaxes. Anti-cliffhangers. If they hadn't released the first three all at once, for people to binge until they get a satisfying conclusion, I bet a lot of people would have not followed the show. 

In Other Viewing: 

My younger son and I continue to make our way slowly through both Futurama and Stranger Things. We're somewhere in the middle of season 4 of Futurama, and just watched the first episode of Stranger Things season 3 last weekend. 

And my older son is suddenly interested in military history again, after watching Black Hawk Down, so we've been watching Tour of Duty the past couple of evenings. He's really getting into it, and it was one of my favorite shows back in the day. We have some good discussions about the war, and the politics behind it, when we watch. 

I've also been occasionally watching Star Trek, original series and Next Gen, when I've got a free hour. It's been going on for a couple of years now. I'm somewhere in the 2nd season of TOS, and 3rd season of TNG. Seems like I'm watching all sorts of shows these days, but the Star Trek really gets strung out. I go in spurts where I'll watch two to four episodes fairly close together, then go weeks without watching any at all.

Werewolf by Night

We watched Marvel's new Halloween special, Werewolf by Night this evening. 

I'd never read the comics, and I'd only head about them fairly recently (two years ago, maybe?) when someone on Kevin Smith's Fatman Beyond podcast brought it up. 

Despite not knowing much of the source material, I found it to be a fun little show! 

It's only about an hour long. It's mostly in black-and-white to emulate the old Universal horror films, and the music, graphics, and a lot of the props also reflect this...but not all of them. There are definitely plenty of modern touches in it. 

The story is almost a Castlevania story! Monster hunters gather to compete for the inheritance of the most famed monster hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone. They have to hunt a fearsome monster, but are allowed to fight and even kill each other in the process. The winner gets Bloodstone's magical bloodstone which grants some magical powers. 

I won't spoil it, but I will say I really enjoyed the campy nature of it. It's got some fun action scenes, some campy scenery chewing by the actors, and plenty of Halloween mood. Not your typical Marvel superhero fare, by any means.

Recent Viewing and Reading

 I've taken a bit of a break from running and playing RPGs. While I sort out how I want to begin my new game, which will be face to face instead of online, and my friend Denis preps for his new online Gamma World game, I haven't had much urge to run my West Marches or Star Wars games. I may not run WM again anyway (as I think I mentioned), but I will get some more SW gaming going once things settle down a bit. Anyway, it's summer vacation time. People have been going on vacations or are just busy with other stuff recently anyway (including me!). 

 I have been doing a lot of reading and viewing the past several weeks. Here's a little run-down of what I've been consuming and how well I liked it. 

Thor: Love and Thunder

I was going to do a proper review post, but it's been almost 2 weeks since I saw it already. So I'll start with that here. T:L&T is much more of a Taika Waititi film than Thor: Ragnarok was, if that makes sense. It's a bit goofier, a bit more rambling, and definitely off-beat. It's not quite as good as Ragnarok was. It's got good action sequences. Funny jokes (although many are forced or silly throw-away gags). Some emotional scenes. I think it falls a bit flat in that it could gotten much more emotional by investing more in Jane's and Gorr's story arcs, which were more interesting than Thor's. Thor is his own comedy relief in this movie, instead of letting Banner/Hulk and Korg take care of that. It's still a fun adventure movie, but I think it sacrificed some of the emotional strength it could have had for interesting but ultimately silly situations. 

That said, I am enjoying the recent trend in the MCU movies to let the directors put their stamp on their films. Eternals felt different. Black Widow felt different. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness felt different. Shang Chi felt pretty typical, but it was full of cool magical martial arts action. Thor: L&T also felt different. I think that's a good thing for the MCU, even if it doesn't always work out.

The Boys Season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)

I semi binged the season. It continues to entertain, but something about this season felt like going through the motions. Sure, they introduced Soldier Boy and dealt with that plot thread by the end of the season. But almost all of the other continuing plot points were just punted down the line. I'm not sure how many seasons they're planning for this show, but if season 4 continues this trend, I may be done watching it. Unlike a monthly comic book, I don't think it's a good idea to have this sort of TV show go on forever. 

Stranger Things Season 4 (Netflix)

Oh my God! This season rocked. More prominent D&D! Some cool new characters, like Eddie Munson (the DM) and Argyle (the stoner) and Jason (the dickhead jock). Homages to Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, other mid to late 80s horror franchises. Kate Bush and Metallica!!! The Russia side plot was a bit silly, much like the Russians in Indiana side plot of season 3, but other than that it was gold. Looking forward for the series finale in Season 5.

 Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

This should be the future of the MCU! This show was so good. It had heart. It had charm. It had everything you'd want from a bildungsroman hero show. The actors made you feel not just like you were watching real people deal with real situations, they made you really love their (extended to include friends) family. The plot had its "save the world" bit, but it wasn't the primary conflict and wasn't hyped as some sort of DC style "Crisis." Best MCU Disney+ show to date.

Dune (2021)

My older boy, out of nowhere (probably something he saw on YouTube or heard from a friend in one of his Discord groups) suddenly asked me the other day if we could watch this. I missed it when it was in theaters in Korea (because of covid-19 and a full schedule, and because Flynn said he didn't want to see it when I asked him then). Anyway, we watched it together. It was pretty good. It's been quite a few years since I read the novel or seen the Lynch film or the Sci Fi mini-series versions, but it was close enough to what I remembered that I could explain the strange bits to him. I enjoyed it. We're looking forward to part 2 next year (and will see it in the theaters!), but I can't say it blew me away. Flynn loved it, though, saying he enjoyed it more than anything Star Wars. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)

Speaking of Star Wars, this was a pretty cool little show. Yeah, it bent the established canon a bit, but it did its best to try and rectify things that happened in the prequels, the original trilogy, and in this show itself. And it was cool to see both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen together again. And more Darth Vader is never a bad thing. There were a few weird things that didn't quite make sense, but it was definitely a step up from The Book of Boba Fett (which I also enjoyed). Decent quality Star Wars fare, and I really don't see what all the incel/racist types were complaining about. But then they'll complain about just about everything on this list no matter what, so screw them anyway.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series

I've read this series through several times, and I'm currently re-reading it (in the middle of the final volume). If you've read it all the way to the end, well, what Roland the Gunslinger finds at the top of the Dark Tower pretty much demands that you re-read the series. Ka is a wheel, and it keeps on spinning. The impetus for this re-reading was that I finally picked up a copy of volume I The Gunslinger in hardback. I'd been lucky enough to score a limited 1st Edition hardback of Wizard and Glass back when it came out, and then got first editions of the final three books when they came out as well. A few months back I treated myself to a hardback copy of The Gunslinger (unfortunately not a first edition, it's the revised version, and sans the Whelan illustrations). Then I figured I might as well get hardback copies of The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands. Once I had all these hard copies (including The Wind Through the Keyhole), I figured it was time to read them again. And I'm enjoying it a lot, although I've been dreading a certain scene which I'm approaching quickly. When I finished reading this morning to come to work, the ka-tet were about to assault Algul Siento. This dread of re-reading this coming section of the work has been with me since my re-read of The Waste Lands, and it really puts a new spin on my take on the thing. Anyway, long story short (and without spoilers), this series still has what it takes to move me. 

Daredevil Season 1, Episode 1 (formerly Netflix, now Disney+)

All the former Netflix MCU "Defenders" related shows finally went up on Korean Disney+. They'd been off Netflix (and available to US D+ subscribers) for a while. Anyway, I noticed that they were finally up, so re-watched the first episode the other day to see if I'd want to revisit them. I really enjoyed Charlie Cox's take on Daredevil, and I'm glad they're keeping him (and Vincent D'onofrio as Kingpin) in the MCU. Flynn is interested in finally watching these shows, but Steven is still a bit young.  Maybe. Fururama is also now available on Korean Disney+, and that's a bit more family friendly!

Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

I'm going to keep this brief to avoid spoilers. I took the family to see the film on Children's Day (May 5th), a national holiday in Korea, and the day after it opened. 

Is there cursing in the film? Parents want to know. There's a little. Disney seems to frown on too much cursing in their movies. Black Widow got away with a fair amount, and the Disney+ TV shows, but this one doesn't have too much in the way of bad language. 

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. The movie is very much a Raimi film. Lots of little touches and callbacks to his previous work. Of course there's a Bruce Campbell cameo, but beyond that. This movie touches on horror more than any previous MCU film, but never goes full bore horror. There's plenty of humor, as well, but not chock full of it like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok. It has a pretty good balance of drama, comedy, horror, and action. 

Of course, there is a TON of CGI in this film. The magic is over the top, as is the dimension hopping. Very fun visually, especially the musical magical duel. That was fun, although maybe it went on for just a touch too long. Won't say more to avoid spoiling it. 

As for character development, Stephen Strange has to deal with the fact that Christine Palmer is getting married (lost his chance) and his need to be in control of every situation. America Chavez has a very typical introduction character arc, trying to control her powers to dimension hop. Wanda the Scarlet Witch was a big part of the movie, but her portrayal was a bit off after her development in WandaVision. Can't really say more without spoiling things, though. 

Cameos? Besides Campbell and Patrick Stewart (his voice is in the trailer, it's no secret he's in it) there are a few more, mostly fan-service oriented. Since they're jumping through multiple universes, they can play with the characters they throw in without it affecting the main MCU continuity. 

I was entertained by the movie, and I liked it, but I'm still not sure how it stacks up to other MCU films. Of the recent offerings, it's better than Black Widow or Eternals, but not as good as Shang Chi in my opinion. Probably need to watch it again before deciding how it holds up overall, as it's a pretty busy film. It does break the trope of recent MCU films of degenerating into a big messy CGI final battle. The whole movie is kind of a big messy CGI experience. 

It doesn't dig deeply into the characters, and it's messy, but still I found it fun.

Movie Reflection: Spider-Man: No Way Home (spoiler free)

Titling this post a reflection rather than a review, because I think I need to see the film one more time before I can give it a proper review. Because it's a movie packed full of stuff, and it keeps flipping the situation around in ways such that I think I need to watch it once more, with all the surprises and reveals known ahead of time, before I can properly review it. 

Is there cursing in this movie? A little. Very little. I can recall only 3 or 4 instances, and none are f-bombs or relate to reproductive anatomy. 

So, a reflection. It was definitely a roller coaster ride. There were some things I expected, some things I didn't. Things didn't happen exactly the way I assumed they would from the trailers, which is good. It was nice to see some of the actors from previous Spider-Man movies reprise their roles, and you wouldn't think 10 or 20 years had passed since they played those parts previously. 

I was entertained, but I've got a few qualms. A couple of characters from previous films in THIS series/MCU films seemed a bit off. Maybe it was just the different writers/director. Maybe it was the actors moving in new directions with the characters. Maybe it was foreshadowing for something to come later (Secret Invasion is coming, after all, so some characters we know will surely have been replaced with Skrulls by now). 

Part of my unsure reaction to the film might also be that in comparison to the Tobey McGuire (which I loved) and Andrew Garfield (not so much) takes on the character, Tom Holland has such a different take on Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and the MCU connections especially to Iron Man really make this Spidey different. 

Anyway, I came away entertained, but as I said wanting to watch it once more to really get my thoughts straight. My older boy loved it (but he'd looked up all the spoilers online before we saw it). My younger was entertained, but the long run time got to him (he got hungry around the start of the third act and wanted it to be over). My wife wasn't so impressed by it. And I think that may be what got me thinking that there was something a little off about it. 

Anyway, there are some nice surprises that will entertain fans. Is the movie more than just 2.5 hours of fan service though? I'll watch it again when I have a chance and decide then. [Matrix 4 is out next week, though, so might not get to rewatch this until some time in January.]

Movie Review: Eternals (spoiler free)

Yesterday, I took the family to see Marvel's Eternals. It's a different sort of MCU movie, for sure. I can see why there are a lot of people trashing it (some of them before they had even watched it). And I can't say I was super excited for it. I don't know much about the characters from the comics. They didn't play a big part in most of the comics I read back in the day. But I knew it would have ramifications in future MCU projects, and we hadn't been to a movie for a little while, so we went. 

Does Eternals have cursing in it? [Mandatory question because parents searching for this get sent here.] A little. Not as much as Black Widow. It's not really that sort of movie that needs a lot of bad language.

My quick capsule review? A well made movie. The story was very much character driven, with no obvious deus ex machina moments. It had the high level of special effects we expect from Marvel/Disney (they have the money for it). The action scenes were good. There were some good comic relief moments, although a lot less than in other more recent MCU titles. The actors were cast well for their roles, and the movie did a good job introducing a whole bunch of brand new characters. Some great cinematography in a globe spanning and millennium spanning narrative. 

But was it good? It was very talky. There were action scenes, but a whole lot of talk in between. And not the snappy patter of an early Kevin Smith film or a Tarantino film that is just fun to listen to even if nothing much is happening in the scene. That, I think, is the weak point of the movie. 

I liked it, but the more serious tone (even more serious in tone than Thor or Winter Soldier), the 'more talk less rock' pacing, made it a bit less enjoyable than Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy. I think, though, this movie will hold up better than some of the other MCU films because of that, and because of the technical skill from the script to the production value to the way the film was shot and edited. 

Eternals is a good (well made) movie, but not so much a fun (exciting, engaging) movie. I liked it, but it's probably not in my top 10 MCU film list.