Namor Was Never Really the Villain
Rewatching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever before Avengers Doomsday. The treaty I disliked in 2022 turns out to be the most useful thing in the film.
Rewatching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever before Avengers Doomsday. The treaty I disliked in 2022 turns out to be the most useful thing in the film.
Rewatching Thor: Love and Thunder before Avengers Doomsday. It set up three things in 2022 and four years later not one of them went anywhere.
Rewatching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before Doomsday. It said incursion out loud in 2022 and nobody was really listening.
Rewatching Shang-Chi before Avengers Doomsday. Five years on, the rings are still broadcasting to something and nobody has ever said what.
Rewatching X-Men: Days of Future Past before Avengers Doomsday. It repaired the timeline in 2014 and the franchise ignored the repair within three years.
Starting a nine-month MCU rewatch before Avengers Doomsday with the four early Fox X-Men films, and the two actors who have been arguing since 2000.
Rewatching Logan before Avengers Doomsday. In 2017 I said time would tell after repeated viewings. It told, and both goodbyes in it have since been undone.
Rewatching Thor: Ragnarok before Avengers Doomsday. That triumphant ending lasts about six months, and the tone that saved Thor later went much too far.
Rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier before Doomsday. Steve dumps every file in 2014 and the MCU has been living in the wreckage ever since.
A review of The Fantastic Four First Steps, where the retro-futuristic world and the Silver Surfer land but Galactus is nowhere near big enough.
A review of Thunderbolts, where Florence Pugh and a strong vault fight carry a film that takes the easy way out on mental health and misreads the Sentry.
A review of Captain America Brave New World, Anthony Mackie’s first outing as Cap, Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk, and whether the shield needed a serum behind it after all.
A review of Deadpool and Wolverine, where Reynolds and Jackman’s chemistry carries a film written by people who genuinely understand the Fox universe.
A review of The Marvels, where Iman Vellani is the best thing on screen, Carol still underwhelms, and a post-credits cameo changes what the MCU can be.
A review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, where Rocket’s origin turns out to be the whole trilogy’s spine and the High Evolutionary earns his place as a villain.
A review of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where the Council of Kangs steals the film and the villain meant to carry the next decade doesn’t convince.
A review of Wakanda Forever, where not recasting T’Challa was the right call, Namor is a genuinely good villain, and the ending lets him off far too easily.
A review of Thor: Love and Thunder, where Gorr deserved a better film, Zeus is a punchline, and the ending hands out godhood like party favours.
A review of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where the Illuminati are wasted, Wanda’s ending is another love-conquers-all cop-out, and Mordo is still missing.
A review of Shang-Chi, where Simu Liu holds his own on debut, Tony Leung gives the MCU its best villain, and the bus fight raises the bar for the whole franchise.
A review of Thor: Ragnarok, where Taika Waititi turns the least interesting Avenger into the funniest one and Asgard’s golden age turns out to be a cover story.