Cinema Issues: Career Suicide The Story Of Yahya Abdul-Mateen ii and Mahershala Ali

Recently Marvel has come under attack from stars of projects that didn’t happen in the case of Ali and from stars of shows that did not get renewed in the case of Abdul-Manteen, the accusation is the same, as the black show or film was not made, or renewed therefore racism. This is the very peak of entitled, you are not owed a project or a second season, the fact that shows like Eyes of Wakanda are made, and that Black Panther and Sam Wilson are central to the Marvel universe show that there is no racism going on.

What is going on is that these stars of colour think they can throw around accusations in order to get what they want, but as the case of Blake Lively will tell you that is a dumb strategy to try. First to Abdul-Manteen’s argument of optics, black shows are not the only ones being cancelled or not renewed for season two, look at Hawkeye, look at the scrapped sequel for the Eternals, but this is an inconvenient fact.

The movie going public are well aware of actors like this trying to claim to be the victim whilst they live in their mansions, and they are starting to get sick of it. The fact is the black audience, in countries that matter to the box office, so the collective west and large Asian markets, is so small that they could boycott the next wave of Marvel projects and it would not effect the bottom line at all, Africa as a market does not matter to the box office at all. All of that is to say, that trying to claim you’re an abused black man because you didn’t get a film or second season is not a winning strategy.

Moreover, look what happened to other ‘stars’ who ran their mouth about Disney/Marvel and had an acrimonious divorce with the studio, Tatiana Maslany’s She Hulk might as well be non-canon with a lot of the events of her show having been ignored. Then there is the case of Oscar Issac who threw away the chance of Moon Knight ever getting a second season after he came after Disney for suspending Jimmy Kimmel. Blade can get a new film post Secret Wars with Snipes, Ali has put himself out of business, and if Disney ever did want to bring back Simon Williams there are plenty of other actors who could take over the part.

Behaving in the way these two men have, with the level of entitlement and using their race as a card to mean they cannot be fired and that they must be given things is disgusting. The idea of equality is that everyone is treated the same so if Issac and Maslany can get themselves fired and their characters written off so should these two men.

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Cinema Issues: The Death Of Marvel’s Disney + Dreams

News has broken that other than Daredevil Born Again no other series will be returning to Disney +, despite all those fake leaker accounts promising Hawkeye season 2. There’ll be some one offs and mini series, but by and large the focus will shift to animation as it is cheaper and easier to do.

As you can imagine people are upset, why won’t we get another season of Wonder Man despite the fact it flopped. However, this move is great for Marvel, you shouldn’t have to watch a 6 hours series in order to understand a film you want to watch as such stopping it is for the best.

Moreover, a hell of a lot of the things that happened in the Disney + shows either were never referenced again or were just written out, looking at you Hulk’s son and Kingpin losing an eye. The fact is a lot of these series just weren’t good at all, and so it makes sense to cast them off. When they did mix in with the proper MCU films it was generally in so much as providing a supporting character or explaining a motive, they just weren’t needed.

There are also a lot of reasons why Disney and marvel as a brand want to remove themselves from Marvel’s Disney + offerings and a lot of this comes down to politics. Both Tatiana Maslany and Oscar Issac have publicly attacked Disney in the press and online and as such She Hulk and Moon Knight died there and then, She Hulk has been heavily ignored and vast parts of it simply seem to be non-canon now.

In many ways Disney leaving this arena whilst they still have some of their credibility left is a win, let’s hope Wonder Man, Riri Williams, She Hulk and the rest stay buried forever and don’t pop up for a jump scare in the next Avengers film.

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Cinema Issues Spider-Man Brand New Day And Superhero Fatigue

Just like the success of the Odyssey doesn’t prove that woke films are back in vogue, Spider-Man Brand New Day’s success doesn’t change the fact Superheroes are on the way out.

One only needs to look at recent Superhero box office failures such as Captain America Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four or Supergirl or consider the bad viewing numbers of many of the streaming shows.

Folks will always watch Spider-Man he’s a popular character just like folks will watch the Avengers films but just wait for the next B level character and see how few people turn out for it. The fatigue hasn’t gone away it just never applied to the big characters people care about.

Nolan could pull off woke as he’s is Christopher Nolan and sold the experience of seeing his film, another director couldn’t do that, likewise the Marvels 2 wouldn’t be able to be profitable simply because Brand New Day was as no one cares about those characters.

Some say it is bad movie fatigue we say it is bad character fatigue.

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Spider-Man Brand New Day: Spider-Man Is Depressed

Summary Jean Grey shows up for no reason and decides to act like a villain. Spider-Man pines over his girlfriend.

Let’s get one thing right off the bat as our article from a few days ago said putting Jean Grey into the MCU sans X-Men is dumb as hell. Jean does not behave like herself here, and her backstory around her missing sister etc would have fit very well into a gritty X-Men film but without the light hearted world of a Spider-Man film it really sticks out. If you removed her entirely from the plot and just had it be Spidey working with and then going up against the leader of Damage Control it would have been much better.

The arc they give Peter is probably the best of the MCU, he is broken as Peter but on top of the world as Spider-Man he has lost everyone and needs to learn to trust and let people in again. This is a serious and grown up Spider-Man, we wouldn’t be surprised if kids like this one a bit less as it’s far less about dances and curfews and far more about loneliness, sadness and trauma. Seeing Spider-Man at a low ebb is kind of what the character is all about though.

You’d argue that the supporting cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here, John Bernthal is wonderful as the Punisher and you really see how much he cares about Peter. Yelana is funny and steals the scenes she isn’t in. However, the star of the side cast is arguably Zendaya. Now a number of the contributors to this magazine do not have a high opinion of Zendaya however, here she is the emotional core of the film. The fact that she can’t remember anything about Peter and that they don’t get back together in the end is incredibly mature and grown up.

There is a real sense of transition with this film not the least due to the changes happening to Peter with his Spider DNA but because it shifts from being a children’s film to something much more serious and grown up.

3.5/5

Pros.

Peter and MJ

Frank

The action and the go pro scenes

The humour

Cons.

The stuff with Jean Grey

The end credits tease isn’t good

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Cinema Issues: The Jean Grey Issue Spider-Man Brand New Day

At the time of writing we do not know if Jean Grey is in Spider-Man 4 and if it is Sadie Sink’s mysterious role however a lot of online speculation says that’s the case.

If it is then it is a terrible terrible decision for multiple reasons, let’s get into it.

1- It introduces her first as a villain: Jean Grey of the X-Men outside of her Phoenix possessions is a good guy, however, a lot of the rumours linking Grey to this film say that she is the villain pulling the strings behind the scenes. Why would she be doing this? It would be incredibly against the character and make very little sense.

2- It cheapens the idea of introducing the MCU’s own X-Men at a later date: we know the X-Men are coming however, the drips and drabs strategy we have been getting isn’t working. The idea was to have an X-Men film pretty immediately after Secret Wars when the universe will be reset why would it make sense to have just Jean Grey introduced early here rather than alongside her fellow X-Men there, it wouldn’t.

3- Spider-Man is still not able to hold his own film: under the MCU there seems to be an idea that you can’t just have a Spider-Man film, like Sony did for years. You need Iron Man, you need the multiverse, you need an X-Man. Repeatedly it seems like Peter cannot just have his own adventure and this film is already crowded with the likes of the Hulk and the Punisher showing up for some reason, now they have to put Jean Grey in as well, it’s just stupid. People want grounded, focused stories not cameo fests.

We long hoped that she is Firestar a different mutant character but one that would be a much more organic fit for the film, however, it would not explain the seeming mind control elements of the plot.

If it is Jean Grey it is a poorly thought through desperate move.

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Supergirl: Toxic Femininity

Summary: Superman’s cousin puts down the bottle, more like moves with it, and actually does something.

Maybe having your lead saying how men don’t own women’s bodies, when no one said they did, then insulting those offended on the grounds of their gender and religion, then changing the canon of a character to say she’s Bi and then finally saying the films better as it doesn’t centre men, isn’t a great way to market a film, as the terrible preview numbers show.

Kara is deeply unlikeable, she is very much the human embodiment of the damaged tattoo from the forehead of Jared Leto’s Joker. She drinks, she’s sad, she’s unpleasant to those around her, as God forbid she doesn’t take out her mental issues on other people. The message of this film is that that is okay behaviour as you can be good but not nice, which is a self defeating morally bankrupt principle. The film thinks this is showing her as a damaged character, with the journey being to show how she becomes more connected to people. However, the film tries to make her seem cool in her broken state glorifying her entitled and bratty behaviour.

Superman is in this, as more than just a target for dog urine, as Gunn and co really respect the character, herein he plays the concerned mother hen constantly checking in, usually to be met with derision or a well actually from Kara.

Of course the film likens being a bride to slavery, by having the villain literally kidnapping women and turning them not into sex slaves as is the case with most human trafficking, but rather brides. The message here is clear, marriage is bad and a prison for women. It is also entirely unoriginal as Mad Max Fury Road did a similar thing about ten years ago.

Lobo gets less screen time than you imagine and serves really to be red meat to throw to the male fans who Alcock has alienated so completely. He’s maybe on screen for a total of 5 minutes.

The focus on Krypto once again shows the weakness of the Gunn verse as it does not seem to be able to stand without having a cute dog to try and guilt butts into seats. This shows a weakness in storytelling. The actual journey of healing if you want to view it like that shows off the toxicity of Kara’s damaged personality and even when she does something good it quickly becomes self centered once again.

Overall, there is a reason that Clayface is having it’s premium formats reconsidered, this feels like edgy Tumblr fanfic from about 2 decades ago.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s not a 3 hour slog

Cons.

Kara is unlikable

The journey feels incomplete by the end

You’ve seen it before

Lobo is barely in it

It feels like it’s for edgy girls circa 2009

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Cinema Issues: The Death Of The Superhero Genre

In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be talking about the death of the Superhero film.

As this year comes to a close it is important to remember that it is the first, non-covid year, in a long while without a superhero film that made over 800 million dollars at the worldwide box office. Neither DC nor Marvel could manage it despite releasing four films in cinemas this year.

This reflects a larger downward trend in the box office for the genre in Post-Endgame world, and possibly that audiences are done with superhero films. Yes I can hear you screeching into the void, but what about Doomsday, what about Spider-Man, what about Secret Wars. Yes likely all three of them will make over 800 million dollars you’d hope, however, a few large outliers doesn’t change the broader pattern. By and large superhero films are dying and there may be a few characters or big event films than can make money but for many characters this likely means relegation as they will now not be seen as likely earners. This means there could be a world wherein there are only one or two event style super hero films a year, or even every few years. This would be a massive contraction.

It is worth noting that even a supposed reboot, under new creative leadership has not been able to stop this problem for DC, so the Marvel plan to do something similar, sans the new leadership, post Secret Wars may not be the shot in the arm needed to keep things healthy. The fact that even a character like Superman could not be a solid earner for DC will have been noted and will be causing alarm.

The issue we have said before many times really is over saturation, a Marvel centric issue, and the production of a large number of bad films, which both are guilty off. Perhaps if superheroes went away for a few years and came back at the start of the next decade then maybe audiences appetite may have returned for everything rather than just the big films.

One thing is for sure though disrespecting your characters and your audience is not going to get people in the door. Something that James Gunn needs to be reminded off if that Supergirl trailer with Superman being pissed on is anything to go by. Arguably those with the creative and decision making power to save the superhero genre are the ones hastening its end.

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Superman: Soy Boy Savior

Summary

James Gunn’s Superman arrives, but is it enough to save the DCU.

So for the purpose of this review we’ll try and keep politics out of it, after Sean Gunn really tried to centre it around that, and we’ll leave off any references to Man Of Steel, with one quick addendum to say that adjusted for inflation Man Of Steel made more on its opening domestic weekend.

The film itself is pretty meh. I went into it with low expectations, the marketing had done a horrible job of making the film look stupid, goofy and far too present day, and whilst there are elements of that in this to be sure I think the film managed to exceed by rock bottom expectations.

There were a few good Superman comic esque moments mainly in the third act that made me smile, and a number of funny lines. However, Superman is not the Guardians of The Galaxy and the humour quickly becomes clawing. There are perfectly good scenes that could stand on their own, but then they’ll force in a joke to make you retch a little bit and ruin the scene.

Moreover, the weakening of Superman is a little too on the nose for me. Previous Superman films have kept him macho and powerful whilst also showing his good nature and down to earth personality, look at Smallville. However, here they go out of their way to make him more effeminate and soft, whilst this could be argued to just be how modern Hollywood views masculinity, or an attempt to make him more sympathetic during the sequence where he is basically cancelled is unclear, but it does become noticeable for all the wrong reasons, including but not limited to the use of therapy speak.

The final thing to note is that this is a James Gunn vanity project of that you can have no doubt, and whilst I like him as a director I do think it gets a bit irritating as the film progresses. We already know Krypto was based off Gunn’s own dog, and that his wife and brother are in the film, but then when you look at the cast you see that it is stacked with Gunn’s personal friends as well as the aforementioned cancelling storyline being reflective of Gunn’s own experiences to a degree. When you think about this in totality it starts to become a bit sickening.

Overall, fairly mid-range.

2.5/5

Pros.

A few good moments

The third act is better than the other two

It world builds

Cons.

Clarke and Lois

They make Superman weak

How this is a Gunn vanity project

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Fantastic Four First Steps: Worse Than The Trank Version?

Summary

The Fantastic Four take their first steps into the MCU but it is more like a crawl.

Of the great war between Marvel and DC this summer I would say that even though both sides produced bad offerings, this was the losing side. By the skin of their teeth Superman won.

Whilst Superman has elements that are straight up bad, yes I am looking at you Jor-El, the Fantastic Four feels boring and badly paced. The first act which features a lot of family time placed in the film to establish who the Fantastic Four are, feels like filler as the film is trying to stretch out time before Galactus, Ralph Ineson, and Shalla-Ball, Julia Garner, show up. During this opening act we don’t get much focus on the groups origins beyond a few lines of dialogue and a demonstration of each’s power, the film assumes you know who they are and know the story, which goes against Feige’s claim of it not being homework. The montage tv style way the film opens is jarring and a bad creative choice as well.

This is not to do with the opening act but a broader concern, the Sixties aesthetic, quickly becomes irritating over the course of the film, the time period itself plays in very little it is purely an aesthetic choice, especially as the Fantastic Four themselves have advanced tech. If that level of shallow period choice appeals to you then you may enjoy this yet.

As for the characters, I was wrong, Joesph Quinn is a good Johnny, he is not the ladies man that Chris Evans was two decades ago, but he is still charming and fun, and Ben, Eben Moss-Bachrach is the heart of the film. You have to separate the fact that Moss-Bachrach hates Israel, yes I know he has Jewish roots, particularly when Ben’s Judaism is a big part of the character. Ineson as ever is a giant cast in a small role, he manages to make Galactus menacing and threatening in the way he should always have been presented. Then you get to Shalla-Ball, they said there was no issue with her being Galactus’ Herald over Norrin Radd as there was a comics history of it, however, they rewrite her entire comics origins so that doesn’t hold much weight. She also has a Rose Tico moment wherein she takes away from Johnny’s heroic sacrifice. However, that aside the character does feel more human and grow on you over the course of the film and has far more range emotionally than Sue, Vanessa Kirby, but we are getting there. Reed, Pedro Pascal, is a shell of former incarnations, he is shown as an anxious geek, who would rather cry than take charge. At no point does Reed lead the team and any claim to the contrary is just a lie. Sue is by far and away the worst character in the film for several reasons, firstly you have the fact that she is simply characterised as a mother and from the moment she is pregnant that is what defines her, this is one dimensional. Secondly you have her personality, which whilst in keeping with pregnant women, she is hormonal, just comes across as though she is in a constant state of Greta Thunberg levels of how dare you. She is a girl boss and is actively abusive towards her family, there is a scene in which she says to Reed him being himself is a problem. If you or anyone you know is in a relationship where one partner says to the other that them being themselves is the problem and that they have to be something else then they need to leave that relationship. There is also no chemistry at all between Kibry and Pascal

Moreover, the birthing scene and no I am not talking about when Sue gives birth to Franklin but rather the final fight with Galactus wherein Sue manages to defeat him by herself whilst making pregnancy noises, not only is this an I am woman here me roar girl boss moment, as the male characters are all effectively useless, but also incredibly cringe.

Two final points to hit home before we tie this up. The CGI on baby Franklin, is noticeably bad and distracting and secondly this film does not tie into the MCU in any meaningful way, there are moments wherein you go ah this is where they are going to show up in the MCU but no. They do not enter into the MCU at any point. Moreover, the post credits scene is a jangling keys moment wherein Doctor Doom, Robert Downey Jr, takes baby Franklin. It is not an epic moment but rather a short scene of Sue reacting, there is no dialogue from Doom, the costume doesn’t look great, and there is no broader implications imparted. Fans of the comics will know that Doom is going to use Franklin in the same way he used Owen Reece in Hickman’s run however normies will be left going who’s that and why is he taking the baby.

Overall, as I sit here and write this I begin to see more and more flaws with the film.

1.5/5

Pros.

Ben and Johnny are charming

Shalla-Ball grows on you and Galactus is cool

Cons.

The style and aesthetic is hollow

Sue is one dimensional and abusive

Reed is weak and barely has anything to do

The post credits scene is a letdown, and does not build hype for Doomsday

The film does not bring the FF into the MCU

The CGI is quite bad in places

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Thunderbolts: The Future Of The MCU

Summary

The New Avengers are formed.

So going into this film I expected it to be bad, I had heard things about the film I did not like beforehand and I thought it would be on the same level as Brave New World.

However, after watching it I found it to be quite a delightful film with a similar feel to the Guardians films. Would I say something so dumb as to say the MCU is back? No because one good film does not fix the countless other problems the franchises is currently facing.

A lot of the reviews mention mental health and how deep this film is, well for me this is mixed. One the one hand the way the film treats Bob/Sentries, Lewis Pullman, mental health with him having a split personality as a superhero was well done, as was the depiction of domestic abuse we see when we see his childhood it was much better done than in Moon Knight for example. However, on the other hand, the film is not all that deep in its commentary on mental health, as Yelena’s, Florence Pugh, journey of needing to atone for what she has done was never fully explored beyond just being a loneliness issue. Moreover, there is a sequence near the end of the film wherein the whole team goes into the Void, the evil form of Sentry’s mind, and we don’t explore the trauma of the other team members. I think it would have been worth the time to have looked into Walker’s, Wyatt Russell, trauma of losing his wife and kids a bit more as it would have helped round the character, but alas it was a missed opportunity.

Outside of mental health talk I think the film does a lot to balance the heroic and the goofy, with each character having both. Red Guardian, David Harbour, is often the comedic relief but the film also gives him a number of great fatherly speeches wherein you can see how much he cares about Yelena and he risks his life constantly to help her. Walker too has a number of heroic moments such as shielding the team from bullets during the Limo escape scene. This is important as the MCU wants you to hate Walker after the events of Falcon and the Winter Soldier but this film does a lot to show him as a hero and to show he is not a villain. If the film was being reductive and simply wanted to show a lot of the male characters as sad pathetic losers for you to laugh at, as some have said, then they would not give them moments like this.

I would argue that Pugh is probably the least served member of the cast as whilst she is the focal point of the film, she is not really centre focus, with that being Bob, Bucky, Sebastian Stan, and the broader ensemble. Whilst I liked the father daughter scenes with Pugh’s character I thought how the film depicted her depression just felt like a cliché and had little depth to it. The scenes in which they talk about her first test are similarly repetitive rather than really pushing anything forward. I wouldn’t say any of this was due to Pugh’s performance rather the material she has been given.

This film shames Brave New World in that it takes its empathy ending and actually does it well. So for those of you who don’t know at the ending of Brave New World Falcon, Anthony Mackie, talks down Red Hulk, Harrison Ford, and defeats him through empathy and by appealing to the side of him that loves his daughter. This was terrible and makes little sense in the film, whereas here it makes sense why they need to go into the Void to get Bob back, they cannot beat Sentry in a fight, they try and get beaten, the only way they can win is to go into Bob’s mind and help him with his trauma, narratively it makes sense and works.

My main criticism of the film would be Val, Julia Louis Dreyfus, who is playing a cartoonish villain. She is being impeached and yet she thinks sending all her mercenaries to fight each other and then destroying bases linked to her doesn’t make her look evil, then you have how she treats her assistant and uses people. For a film about nuance she is not given anyway. Also the Trump or perhaps Tulsi Gabbard comparisons are incredibly on the nose and irritating.

Overall, a good Marvel film that feels like something you would have got pre-Endgame. Whilst not perfect it is a welcome step in the right direction.

4/5

Pros.

The tone

How it deals with Bob and his personalities

The team and the team dynamics

How it sets up things for later in the MCU

Cons.

Walker and Yelena could have done with more depth

Val is a horrible character and really should be written off at the earliest opportunity

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