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Ramble of the month April 2024: Autism Month Ramble on Employment

At last, we come round to the third April, the third Autism Awareness Month, since I started doing monthly ramble articles, and so once again I’m drawing on my experiences as an autistic person to raise that awareness.  For 2022, I looked at relationships, and last year the subject was education.  This time, I’m going to look into the question of employment in relation to people with autism.  This one is always a big concern for parents of children on the autistic spectrum, and as an employed autistic person struggling to get to an income level I can live alone on, it’s still a big concern for me as well.  This is also a subject covered in the autism book I’m trying to publish, so here’s to road-testing that content a little more.

Now so far, I don’t get much feedback either way on my Tumblr posts, but I want to clarify some things before we go any further.  First, what I’m writing here is very much going to be based on me as a private autistic individual.  Nothing I say here should be in any way taken as a reflection on my day job, and if anyone does, that’s your mistake, and I bear no responsibility for it.  Second, as a person with autism, I consider myself an ally to other groups that are misunderstood and subject to prejudice, so odds are as you go on, there might be elements that take a pro-LGBTQ+ stance.  No offense is intended in anything I say, but if you take anything pro-LGBTQ+ as offensive, I recommend you stop reading now.  For those carrying on, remember, I’m ok with constructive criticism, but I have no tolerance for bullying/trolling/abuse of any kind, so remember to keep any feedback civil, or otherwise please just refrain from commenting.

Now, as ever when I talk about autism, I always like to go over the basics of what autism is, how it can affect people who are autistic, and so on.  First, autism is one of a number of conditions that falls under the umbrella of neurodiversity, which is a term used to describe the idea that there is more than one valid way for human minds and brains to function.  Because these conditions result in deficits in certain skills and areas of learning, they’re often categorised as a form of disability or mental ill health, but in truth they are neither.  I use the term ‘differently abled’ to describe myself because I can do most things non-autistics can; I just have to do them very differently in some cases.  Likewise, autism is not a mental illness; it’s simply a different version of mental fitness, though we can still be affected by mental illness in ways similar to non-autistic people.

As to what causes autism, all anyone really knows is that people who are autistic are born that way.  It’s not the result of vaccines, and as I noted last year, I view the claim that vaccines cause autism as a form of anti-autistic hate speech which should be criminalised accordingly.  It’s also not the result of bad parenting or a lack of discipline, and while many autistics are prone to incidents of meltdown, these outbursts do not stem from aggressive or malicious personalities.  Autistic people are on one “mental wave-length”, everyone else is on another such “wave-length”, and the frustration and friction between the two leads to incidents of meltdown.

Now let’s consider the traits of autism.  Primarily, autism is defined by social skill deficits that fall into the three areas of what is known as the ‘Triad of Impairment’.  If someone has traits within all three areas of the triad, as well as the other associated traits of autism, then they are almost certainly autistic.  The first area of difficulty is Social Communication, which deals with how people put across what they want to say and the social skills linked to that.  Second is Social Interaction, which are all the social skills you need to accurately interpret what others say to you.  Third is Social Imagination, which is the aspect of social skills linked with your ability to anticipate how others may react to your words and actions.

The impairments in these areas seem to stem primarily from the fact that the mind of an autistic person doesn’t learn social skills automatically through observation and interpretation as non-autistics do.  In effect, the “social skill auto-pilot” present in neurotypical minds is not present for autistic people, and we have to learn social skills through explicit, direct instruction and implement them in the same way.  This also gives us a very literal mindset, making us prone to missing the point of jokes, or perhaps not even recognising where a joke has been told.  Likewise, figures of speech and metaphor can be a major challenge for us (like Drax from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but less stupid).

Other autistic traits include a high need for predictability to offset how confusing we find the world around us.  Routine and advance knowledge of any major changes that we might find disruptive are two ways this need can be met, but a third that is highly unique to autistics is the concept of special interests.  This can be anything we develop an interest in that we find predictable, and because predictability is vital to our mental well-being, special interests occupy a lot of our minds at any given time.  For this reason, such interests can be mistaken for obsessions, but obsessions are ultimately joyless where special interests are highly enjoyable to us.  Some also mistake them for hobbies, but that’s too casual a label given the role they play for autistic people.

The last couple of traits to go over are sensory issues and coinciding special needs.  The first stems from the altered brain chemistry that results in autism, or such was the case last I heard, and causes senses to either be ramped up (hyper-sensitive) or ramped down (hypo-sensitive).  These can result in behaviours known as “stimming”, which as I understand it is seeking a specific sensory experience as a way to calm down, though to be honest it’s one trait of autism I don’t think I’ve ever shown myself.  As such, I’m not sure if it’s because it’s down to specific sensory needs (I’m a hearing-and-taste hyper-sensitive) or where someone is on the autistic spectrum.  There’s also a general processing delay in terms of how long autistic people take to process new information, so at times we might seem a bit slow in our reactions to things, and can easily be flustered by the new and the unexpected; another reason for our dependence on predictability.

The final trait, that of coinciding special needs, means just that.  Autistic people are very rarely just autistic.  Many have other needs, though what these are vary quite widely.  Some can have ADHD, be dyslexic, have major sensory impairments, and so on.  In this respect, I’ve been sort of lucky in that my other special needs are a general impairment of my hand-eye co-ordination and gross motor skills.  Granted, that almost certainly doesn’t combine well with my sensory processing delay, but at least it’s otherwise separate and distinct from my autism.

Now a moment ago I mentioned the concept of the autistic spectrum.  Autism is a very varied form of neurodiversity, and when I used to give talks on the subject, a frequent phrase that came up at the talks was “when you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”  Even looking at the handful of autistic people I was a part of when delivering those talks, that phrase is easily understood as true.  However, the spectrum model of “high-to-low functioning” is often misinterpreted as being a sliding scale of autistic severity.  This is totally untrue; a supposedly “high-functioning” autistic like myself can have needs just as profound as those of a “low-functioning” autistic.

To my mind, the misinterpretation stems from what are known as masking behaviours.  These are any behaviours that effectively conceal autistic traits from being observed by mimicking neurotypical behaviours, and are the key reason why autism is often labelled a ‘hidden disability’.  While the second part of that label is wrong for most people, the first part certainly explains why some autistic people are not diagnosed sooner in life, and I believe it accounts for the illusion of a functionality scale.  In essence, so-called “high-functioning” autistics have very effective masking abilities, while “low-functioning” autistics are simply not capable of or interested in using these behaviours.  As such, terms like “high-masking”, “heavy-masking”, “low-masking” or “light-masking” would make better sense of the spectrum concept.  Also, the spectrum does not run all the way to neurotypical.  Autistic people can be anywhere on the autistic spectrum, but neurotypical people aren’t on it, ever.

Given all of the above factors, I dare some of you may wonder how on Earth autistic people can get into the workforce.  Honestly, it’s not easy, and that’s assuming we’re lucky enough to get qualifications and skills from our education that will even be considered by potential employers, never mind getting an interview and out-doing all other applicants to get offered the post.  This means education is vital to help get your foot in the door anywhere; the better the results you can get and the higher you can go in terms of qualification, the better.  As someone who could never work out what they wanted to be, was never advised how to tackle further education effectively and frankly went to a lousy secondary school where bullying was rife, I’ve often regretted not doing better with my own education.  However, when the deck is stacked against you in terms of working out your future occupation and being left alone to study well for it, there’s not much to be done.

So, the first step is to work out what you can do and want to do before you get to your first chance to choose school subjects in education, then follow one or a few potential paths until the next subject selection opportunity narrows things further.  This may not apply for everyone on the autistic spectrum, as some of us will be too low-masking to engage well with education, never mind employment, and it also depends where you live.  If you’re aiming to be educated near to home as much as possible and you don’t live in or near a large city with a lot of employers in varying fields, your opportunities will be limited.

Another important thing to bear in mind is that living costs are almost constantly increasing with time, and not every job will meet those costs.  This is something my education never covered, and frankly getting promoted enough to get ahead of those increases is extremely difficult as well.  As such, I would advise anyone with an autistic child that’s trying to work out appropriate school subjects to really look at the potential wages of a future job role against cost-of-living expenses.  If they can stand to study long enough in the right subject areas, a lot of autistic young people should be able to qualify for some really good initial job roles in certain areas.  Combine that with some lessons about sound money management, and they’ll be more likely to achieve independence than if they just stumble from education into work at any level with no real idea what to do.

Of course, this leaves the question of knowing what job areas will best fit someone with autism, and that’s never an easy question to answer.  Because autistic people vary so heavily from one another, one autistic’s ideal job might be another’s nightmare, but that being said, there are some common factors to all people with autism that can form the basics of a good framework for picking what kind of work to aim for.  The most obvious is to remember that all job roles are likely to involve some interaction with other people, so you need to consider what that’s likely to mean for each job role and the autistic person aiming to do it.

For example, roles in shops, cafes and on a reception desk all mean dealing with a wide variety of people from the general public, whereas working in an office, a warehouse or a kitchen can shield you from the public a bit.  That said, administrative roles can involve a lot of telephone conversations, so depending on whether you find phones easier or more difficult than face-to-face communication, this may be better or worse than a more in-person role.  If you’re overly honest as an autistic person and struggle to employ tact or to “spin” the truth, you may not want to consider working in areas like car sales or real estate, as these roles need people that can stretch the truth slightly in order to succeed with customers.

Difficulty imparting the truth carefully could also hinder you if you’re looking at something in the medical profession, as it would probably be considered as a “poor bedside manner”, and work in that area also requires a lot of patience, the ability to show empathy well and to not only cope with people at their most vulnerable, but at their most sensory-affecting as well.  I can well imagine that various aspects of physical illness could be overwhelming to sensory hyper-sensitives in the autistic community, as could some of the treatments.  As a hearing hyper-sensitive myself, I think packed wards or waiting rooms would be a major issue for me if I’d ever gone into medicine in any fashion.

A job role connected to someone’s special interests may be advisable, but it depends what the special interest is.  As a fan of superheroes living in an English city that is really more of a town, there’s never been much near to me that plays into my special interest except the occasional retail post, which doesn’t work for me.  Likewise, an autistic person with a special interest in trains might do ok if that interest is more about timetables or trains in general.  However, if their special interest is in steam locomotives, I’d caution against considering a job role at any heritage railways.  Between such railways being mostly volunteer-run and the rising cost of suitable fuel, it’s very unlikely that anyone could make a decent living, especially during colder months of the year when services are either reduced or not running.  As such, special interests might not work as the job itself, but they can be good motivation to get through the steps leading towards qualification and then employment.

Now let’s assume you’ve worked out what job you or your child want to do, depending on whether you’re the autistic child or their parent.  Let’s assume education has then been followed as far as it can be, so now it’s down to getting a job, which is all about applying for jobs, hopefully getting an interview and, if you get said interview, getting hired.  Not really easy, especially for jobs that ask for a CV instead of an application form.  In my experience, CVs can be very limiting, especially for those of us on the autistic spectrum.  The working world is as bad if not worse than education when it comes to accepting people with special needs into it, so autistic people are forced to work harder to convince employers that we’re as capable or more capable than everyone else.

On a CV, you only have so much space to use to tell an employer about yourself, your qualifications, your skills, what it is that makes you worth giving an interview to.  Often a person with autism will need more space to make the case for their consideration as an interview/job candidate, because we’ve not only got to say why we’re deserving, we’ve also got to allay the employer’s concerns about our autism.  Some people might argue that we could just try to apply without mentioning our autism, but this is just asking for trouble down the line as it would potentially delay or prevent the implementation of support in the workplace where needed.

By comparison, employers who provide a facility for an application form to be submitted, one where you can write a lengthy statement, are a much better option.  Going down this route gives autistic job candidates the space necessary to impart all the information they need to.  A good tip with this is to look on the job advert and any accompanying information for the criteria being used for the job role.  A good statement of why you can do the job should answer these criteria, and if you’re not sure about writing a long run of paragraphs addressing the whole lot, break them down into bullet points and answer each in turn.  As a long-time employee at an organisation that favours the application form approach, I can attest that this is a very good way to fill out the appropriate area of the application form asking why you think you can do the job.

When applying for job roles, always be aware of the catch-22 scenario around qualifications and experience.  A lot of employers seem to expect experience before you may have had a chance to get it, and some may ask for qualifications you might not have.  However, a lot will ask for either the qualifications or the experience, so where you might lack one, the other will compensate.  After nearly 20 years of employment myself, I’m now using my experience more when looking at new jobs rather than my qualification, which were what I referenced more in my earlier job roles.

A good way to build up work experience while in further education can be to seek part-time job roles or temporary “summer jobs”, but this isn’t always advisable for people on the autistic spectrum.  During term time, the extra time we get from free periods is best used to study, and we still need a lot of time to destress from using our social skills to interact with teachers, other students and so on.  Also, while some summer jobs and school-based work experience can be useful, not all things available in this line would be relevant to the job roles you might be aiming for as an adult.  You also may not get to perform anything more than some very basic tasks in some areas; the kind of things I did for my own work experience were extremely basic and menial compared to the kind of work I’m able to do now.

Another thing to bear in mind when applying for a job role is how will you get there.  This is less of an issue in some areas of work due to the advent of home-working, and in certain trades you or a colleague would need a work vehicle, but in other areas being able to get from where you live to where you work is key.  This is a potentially very limiting consideration if, like myself, you don’t drive and depend on ever-decreasing bus services for a commute.  It puts you in a situation of being limited further still in terms of where you can work, because if you can’t get to the work location on a regular basis, you’re not likely to keep that job for any decent length of time.

For now, though, let’s assume you’ve found a job that you can get to with a reasonable amount of ease, you’ve applied for it and you’ve been offered an interview.  Key thing to remember with this and with your job application is that you need to tell whoever is hiring for the job as much relevant information about yourself as possible.  The less you tell them, or the more you tell them that isn’t relevant, the less likely you are to get the job.  There is also such a thing as being too honest, especially when it comes to interview questions, and before all of that, you’ve got to make sure you assume an appropriate appearance.

Many people with autism struggle with things like hygiene or wearing certain forms of appropriate clothing.  For some, it’s because we’re hyper-focused on our special interests and don’t recognise how our lapse in appearance and cleanliness affects others, or we do recognise it but it ranks a long way down from our special interests.  For others, there may be sensory issues when it comes to certain fabrics, clothing styles and so on.  However, for job interviews, it’s vital to make sure we’re well presented, and that we maintain some level of good hygiene and work-appropriate attire when in a given role.  This is because how we appear to prospective employees, and later to colleagues and customers, gives them a sense of how professional we can be.  The better we appear to others, the more likely they are to trust us and want to work with us.

Now not every job role will have identical dress standards, but for interviews, basic elements like a suit, shirt and tie, or an appropriate equivalent in women’s attire, are almost a universal constant.  It’s often worth asking about what appropriate work attire will be if you’re entirely new to a given area of work, and in some office-based work, standards of attire can vary from team to team.  As interviews often involve giving you a chance as an applicant to ask questions towards the end, asking about the dress code for the role you’re going for can be a good one to have at hand, especially if you know enough about the role that you’ve not got any questions regarding your duties if you get it.

Next, be sure to prepare by considering what questions you might be asked and get some answers ready.  If you have a parent/carer, relative or family friend with experience of the organisation you’re aiming to work in, or just with going through interviews generally, it can often be a good idea for them to go through the information you have on the job you’re going to be interviewed for.  They can help you work out what the questions might relate to and help you to work out your answers in advance.  A key thing to remember here is not to tell the full, unabashed truth in answering all questions.  For instance, it’s not socially acceptable to say you want a job because you want money, since outside of zero-hour contracts, work experience or unpaid internships, all jobs should involve paying you.  Likewise, anything to the effect of “don’t know” or “my parents are making me” are also unwise, and if a person with autism can’t bring themselves to hold these answers in while saying something else, then they’re probably not ready to enter the work force just yet.

This is where going for jobs linked to the things that you like or that you can do very well will come in useful, as these could be considered as reasons why you’ve gone for a certain job or employer over others.  Learning something about the employer you’re interviewing with can also be useful, especially if you can reword things from their website, etc. into your answers to demonstrate you’ve done research on them.  As I’ve noted before, also have a question or two ready to ask the interview person/panel when they finish asking you questions.  Employers should also provide reasonable adjustments for you to attend an interview or do the job role, so make sure you ask for this in applying and if you get the job, but you shouldn’t need to ask about these during an interview.  A good interview reasonable adjustment is to flag up that you may need them to re-ask questions with different phrasing if you don’t quite understand it to begin with.  If an employer isn’t meeting your reasonable adjustment requests at the interview stage, I’d advise against taking the job to avoid working for an unsupportive employer.

Let’s say you follow the advice above all the way to interview stage and get a job as an autistic employee somewhere.  What’s next?  Well, if you’re already in a job role, you’ll have to give notice at your previous job role and finish up there before you can start a new job.  If you’ve been on unemployment benefits, you’ll have to advise of the change at the job centre where you sign on, but I’d advise waiting until just before you start in order to avoid a massive gap between when the benefits end and your work starts.  If, for example, you start a new job on a Monday, the Friday before is probably the optimum date to let the job centre know.

Bear in mind that different employers have different timescales for when employees are paid, so be sure to ask about when you will be paid in your new job role if you don’t already know, but be careful about when you ask.  A good timing would be at your interview after you’ve asked one or two questions of your own unrelated to pay.  Knowing when to expect your work pay for the first time after your unemployment benefit ends will help you plan your finances better to cover that interim period.

Now all jobs are different, and you can end up with colleagues, team-mates, managers and customers that can be very nice, very nasty or anywhere in between.  There’s no guarantee that the person/people who did your interview will work directly with you, and if they do, their behaviour at the interview might not be how they act day-to-day in the office.  Also bear in mind that jobs are advertised and interviewed for in “broad strokes”, covering things in a very generalised sense and rarely over going into exact details.  If a job role is newly created within a given employer, exact details may not even be something that exist yet, and you may be taking a role in shaping what the job is when you get it.

Given all of this, I can’t tell you with absolute certainty what may be involved in each and every job you could get.  That said, I will impart some advice that is important to learn.  First, gossip is the native language of almost every work environment humanity has ever produced.  There is no workplace in existence where there won’t be at least a few people spending too much time in idle gossip, and at least one person quite happy to throw their colleagues under the proverbial bus if they see anything they consider worth tattling on.  As such, it’s often best to keep your head down, work hard and learn as soon as you can the difference between friendly office banter and potentially harmful gossip.

Second, avoid mixing work and romance.  Colleagues and relations of colleagues are not the best people to get involved with romantically, sexually or both.  It feeds the rumour mill of any workplace, it risks giving people the wrong idea about you, and if the relationship falls apart, it can make your work life very problematic if not impossible.  Even if you move job roles in an attempt to resolve the issue, this can also backfire.  As such, it is generally advisable to leave your work life and your love/sex life separate from each other.

Third, a lot of employers will only step in to enforce their rules if an incident affects their public image.  Internal issues like bullying, especially between two members of the same team where the bully is a position of authority over the victim, are seldom if ever dealt with.  Some of this is because the victim has to report the incident, so there’s no mechanism to ensure a safe means of reporting such issues if the bully is the victim’s manager and the victim is afraid of reprisals.  By comparison, any actions that are likely to reflect badly on the employer because they’ve happened in public or the effect is publicly visible are often dealt with very swiftly and harshly.  This means many employees, especially those of us on the autistic spectrum, can at times find ourselves walking on eggshells in what few jobs we can get, afraid to even breathe out of turn, much less report any workplace issues or incidents that adversely affect us.

Of course, autistics and others in the work place shouldn’t have to deal with some of these things, and more needs to be done to deal with them better.  Firstly, we should be working harder as a society to stamp out discrimination and bullying, and we should be criminalising bullying and increasing education about the various ways people differ from one another.  This would help not just autistics and the wider differently abled community, but also people of colour, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and more besides, some of whom will also happen to be autistic.  If we were more tolerant of differences and less tolerant of people ill-treating each other over their various differences, we’d have nice education and work environments to work in, not to mention what it would do to improve social media.

More also needs to be done to help ensure autistic applicants not only have an equitable chance at gaining jobs, but also being promoted within the organisations they join.  More employers using job application forms over CVs would aid with this, as would considering less use of interviews and more use of testing models.  Now by test, I’m not saying make everyone sit exams to get jobs, because that is akin to interviews in that it's all about regurgitating answers on cue.  As useful as these tools can be, when you boil them down, a trained parrot could pass an interview if it knew the right words.  When you look for someone to fill a vacancy, you need someone who can do the job well, and outside of acting or politics, not many jobs involving repeating a bunch of canned blather.

So, what do I mean by more testing?  Simply put, I mean what tests set alongside interviews have done for years; set a bunch of tasks to be done within a given time-frame, then see how someone performs them.  If the instructions are suitably literal to ensure both autistics and non-autistics understand them well, this can be a better gauge of an autistic person’s suitability for a given role, because it demonstrates the abilities they would use day-in and day-out.  By comparison, the social skill demands of an interview may be in excess of not only the job role’s requirements, but also an autistic’s ability to handle from a social skills perspective.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that while autistics and other differently abled people are allowed reasonable adjustments, we don’t always get them.  Some employers will have different ideas about what adjustments are “reasonable”, and some will claim that because a given support option would be refused by someone of a higher position to your manager, there’s no point in asking.  As far as I can tell, there isn’t much support to enforce the legislation around reasonable adjustments when these kinds of issues become apparent, and to be fair, it shouldn’t be necessary.

What do I mean by this?  Well, as I’ve noted before, the world is made by those without autism for those without autism, and as a result, autistics are made to jump through extra hoops, tackle additional obstacles that non-autistic people never have to contend with.  The same is true when we look at differently abled people in general, or if we consider things like skin colour, sex, gender identity, sexuality, religion and so on.  Whoever is in power within a society rigs that society in their own favour at the expense of anyone different, and all changes made to bridge the gap actually just disguise it to create a feeling of false equality.  True equality only exists when a society is created to fit all groups within it by default, so for autistic people, a truly equal society would be designed with us in mind from the very beginning.  If that was so, then we wouldn’t need reasonable adjustments at school or work because education and employment would take all facets of autism into account by default.

This is the most vital change that all groups in society need, for those in power who rig society against us to abandon their arrogance and selfishness, and address needs other than their own.  Whether the divide is autistic and non-autistic, black and white, women and men, straight/cis and LGBTQ+, or whatever else you can think of, no one on either side should be making the other side jump through extra hoops.  It should be equally easy, equally possible, for people with the right qualifications to apply for jobs, go to some form of test and be selected without any aspect of the process requiring a “reasonable adjustment.”  In the meantime, if we can’t have this, then we should at least have a facility within all employers that states that no one can refuse a reasonable adjustment just because the people who want it aren’t in a position of authority over the people who need to say yes to it.  If someone needs an adjustment, you make it, end of discussion, and if you don’t like, just remember this; the whole is made by people like you, for people like you, and you’ve had that privilege all your life, so please don’t be selfish when someone less fortunate is asking for a little equality and human decency.

To summarise, getting into employment is not easy when you’re on the autistic spectrum, and neither is retaining a job or gaining promotions once you are employed.  We need to deal with a lot of issues other people don’t, we don’t always get the support we need, and much of what we need stems from the arrogance and selfishness of non-autistic society.  When that society is more humble, more selfless and more willing to treat us as equals, this will be better, but I doubt we’ll see a society like that anytime soon.  So, for now, good luck to my fellow autistics with anything they’re trying to get job-wise, and until my next ramble, ta-ta for now.

#autism awareness

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Film Review - Justice League: Warworld

Staying with DC animated home-release films, our on-going clear out of my film reviewing backlog heads back to DC’s Tomorrowverse now.  This time, we’re taking a look at the film Justice League: Warworld…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In the Wild West town of Last Stand, a female gunslinger enters a standoff between the townsfolk, led by Bat Lash, and bandits led by Jonah Hex. Hex explains the town is populated by gold miners, ranch and farm owners who were supposed to pay "protection interest" to Hex and his men, but they took back and barricaded the bank that had their money. He asks for her help to bring order, but she sides with the townsfolk and saves a little girl from Hex's men and Lash from a wagon loaded with dynamite. Hex calls her a "Wonder" and the townsfolk call her an "Angel." When Bat Lash asks for her name, she cannot remember, and it feel strange to her. Later that night, while distracting Hex so the townsfolk can retrieve supplies, she learns that Hex’s men have hijacked a train to transport explosives and destroy the townsfolk’s fort. She derails the train as Lash evacuates the townsfolk, but Hex kills Lash. In a fit of rage, she beats Hex near death before silently leaving the town.

On Skartaris, the Warlord Travis Morgan takes a mercenary sent by his archenemy, the wizard Deimos, as a slave to work in the mines, but the mercenary offers to take Warlord and his army to Deimos's castle in exchange for freedom and gold. While traveling to the castle, the army is attacked by several monsters, and Warlord's best warriors fall along the way; Mariah Romanova is captured and Machiste is killed. The mercenary struggles with unfamiliar knowledge and memories and along the way sees a vision of an old man who recognizes him. In the castle, after evading several death traps, the mercenary finds a throne room full of treasure with Mariah and a slave woman shackled to the throne. The mercenary, the Warlord, Mariah and the slave woman (who finds a golden lasso) battle Deimos until he flees. The mercenary and slave woman realize they need to find their way home and leave via a portal.

In the 1950s town of Grovers Mill, federal agents Clark Kent and King Faraday investigate reports of a crashed UFO. They go to a diner to meet with state trooper Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and other witnesses. Kent, Wayne, and Prince hear eerie music which no one else can hear. All the diner’s patrons are revealed to be White Martians who pursue Kent, Wayne, and Prince to the crashed UFO. Inside, they find a Green Martian, who a hysterical Faraday insists they kill. After Kent subdues Faraday, the room transforms, and they realize that the world around them was an illusion except for them, Faraday, and the Martian, whom they deduce is a prisoner and free.

The Martian informs them that he is J’onn J’onzz, and he reveals to the three who they really are and that the four of them had been teleported via Zeta-beam teleporter to Warworld.  The planet is a giant weapon fed by the violence and fear of its prisoners, which J’onn has been forced to supply by projecting psychic illusions to the prisoners. He had also been attempting to lead them back to reality via telepathic messages. He informs them to leave immediately but Lobo subdues Kent, Wayne, and Prince and brings J’onn to Mongul, who has been searching through the multiverse and taking captives, and had hoped J’onn would have the key to harness Warworld’s planet-destroying power.

Seeking to take Warworld for himself, Lobo stalls Mongul as he is about to execute J’onn. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman recover their costumes and fight their way to Mongul’s throne room while J’onn possesses and merges with a White Martian, revealing that the two halves of the key were hidden between both Martian races. Possessing both halves, J’onn uses the key to activate Warworld’s self-destruct sequence. A mysterious woman rescues Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and teleports them back to safety at a nearby satellite just in time before Warworld explodes. She states that Warworld's destruction is nothing compared to the forthcoming Crisis.

Review:

While I like this film’s use of different scenarios based on some less well-known DC characters, it’s not really what I was expecting or wanting when I heard we were getting a Warworld film.  Having grown up learning about DC characters through the DC Animated Universe shows like Batman and Justice League, my original knowledge of Warworld was the Justice League episode where Superman and Martian Manhunter ended up on the planet, with Superman stuck in various gladiatorial bouts while J’onn tried to free him and the pair were being sought by Green Lantern John Stewart and Hawkgirl.  As such, I was hoping for something quite close to that on this film, maybe with some characters just altered or swapped out to make it a bit different and align with Tomorrowverse continuity.

With the various scenarios, we still get something of the combat and violence Warworld is known for, but I wasn’t keen on it being a bunch of psychic illusions, which actually didn’t make much sense when we see the “big three” break out of that illusion.  If it was all illusions, then the bodies of all the prisoners wouldn’t be moving around Warworld, and we should have seen the characters physically restrained upon their return to reality.  If it was a bunch of physical set-ups, why bother with the psychic illusions aspect?  Star Trek: Voyager had a two-part episode in its fourth season that put the crew into endless violent holodeck simulations for the benefit of the Hirogen, and they just used a bit of tech to make the crew think they were characters in those simulations.  As such, a bunch of simulator rooms with similar mind-tech on the prisoners would have worked equally well here.

Because of this, and a lack of better explanations as the film goes on, it’s a tough one to follow and reinforces my view that in recent years, film-makers have developed an annoyingly stupid phobia of exposition.  It’s only thanks to some off-hand dialogue from Wonder Woman that we realise she’s the Earth-2 Wonder Woman from Justice Society: World War 2 and not part of the Tomorrowverse’s Earth-1 like Superman and Batman.  On the plus side, Lobo coming back in is cool, and we get solid voice acting and great animation, though I’m not impressed with how physically unimposing Mongul is this time round.  Marvel fans who also appreciate DC will probably appreciate that there are a couple of MCU alumni among the voice cast, namely Brett Dalton from the Agents of SHIELD TV show voicing Bat Lash in the Wild West Wonder Woman segment of the film, while Frank Grillo (Crossbones) voices Agent King Faraday in the 1950’s alien thriller bit.

The film ending on a cliff-hanger for the upcoming trilogy Crisis on Multiple Earths, which I’ll be reviewing only once I have all three films, is also something I’m not too keen on.  I generally prefer films to end as complete stories and just leave the door open for a sequel, or to tease possible sequels in end-credit scenes.  In addition, the end-credit scene in Legion of Superheroes indicated other heroes had disappeared from Earth-1 prior to Bruce and Clark being abducted, so I was expecting some mention of these other heroes, efforts to save them and so on.  Overall, as interesting as the film is, I think it could have been handled better and still set up for the Crisis films being released over the course of 2024.  For me, it’s another just passable score of 6 out of 10.

#film review #tomorrowverse

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Film Review - Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham

Our look into films released in 2023 now moves from DC’s live-action theatrical releases to those created for the home-release animation market, as we check out the Elseworlds-based Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In the 1920s, Bruce Wayne travels abroad for twenty years following the murder of his parents Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne, searching for answers behind the criminal mind. While investigating the disappearance of Oswald Cobblepot's expedition crew, Bruce subdues an undead crewman, Grendon, who was freeing an otherworldly creature encased in ice. Bruce, his protégés Kai Li Cain, Dick Grayson, Sanjay "Jay" Tawde, and butler Alfred Pennyworth retrieve Grendon and return to Gotham City, unaware that Grendon was infected with one of the entity's parasites, with Jay staying on the ship to watch over him.

Arriving at Wayne Manor, Bruce and his group are shocked to find the corpse of professor Kirk Langstrom in the library, as Bruce hallucinates a demon speaking through it with Langstrom's voice. After he disposes of Langstrom's corpse, Bruce is visited by Jason Blood, the host of the demon Etrigan, who informs Bruce of a ritual which must be performed with his death, and the destruction of Gotham.

Bruce, Kai Li, and Dick are later invited for dinner at hunter Oliver Queen's mansion. They also meet Harvey Dent, who tells them about Langstrom's obsession with the bats he had been studying. Donning a bat-themed suit of his making, Bruce (under the alias of Batman) investigates Langstrom's work at Robin's Row, which is related to the Cult of Ghul, a group who worship an ancient demonic deity, with the Testament of Ghul being the tool required for the ritual. Seeking the Testament, he stumbles upon cult member Talia, who steals it to resurrect her father Ra's al Ghul.

Meanwhile, Grendon manifests ice abilities and escapes, killing Jay, while Dick is killed by a crocodilian mutant. While searching for Talia, Bruce discovers a book detailing Ra's's connection with Iog-Sotha, an inter-dimensional demon with power over darkness.

Grendon then meets with Talia and it is revealed that the key to Iog-Sotha is the seed that he was infected with. The seed emerges from his body, killing him in the process, to become Poison Ivy, who scratches Dent and mutates half of his body into a portal. Ivy and Oliver fight and kill each other, with the latter giving his holy weapons to Bruce and Kai Li.

Bruce is met by Jim Gordon who tells him that his daughter Barbara wants to meet with him. Batman goes to Arkham Asylum to see her and meets Thomas Wayne's spirit, who reveals his past. Centuries ago, he, Cobblepot, Henry Queen and Langstrom’s father established Gotham City, discovered the Testament in a cave, and used its magic to bring health and prosperity to the previously barren land, gaining long life and wealth in the process. However, this also awoke Iog-Sotha and brought him to the threshold of their reality.

Bruce takes Oliver's weapons and the bottle housing Etrigan, bids farewell to Alfred, and leaves Kai Lai in charge of the Batcave, before leaving to fight Talia. He kills her but is unable to stop Ra's, who transforms into a demon. Bruce accepts his prophesized role as the Bat, transforms into a bat-like monster, and kills Ra's, but Iog-Sotha has begun to enter.

Seeing the bottle housing Etrigan, Bruce releases him and escapes the caverns as they explode, killing Dent, and Etrigan traps Iog-Sotha within them. Kai Li delivers a speech in Bruce's memory as he watches over Gotham from the bell tower.

Review:

My initial draw to this film was that the Blu-Ray extras for Batman: Gotham by Gaslight suggested the story was a kind of sequel to the Gotham by Gaslight narrative.  Sadly, that’s not really the case; both are Elseworld productions set in eras that pre-date Batman’s debut as a comic-book character, each of which combines him with some other concept as well, but each is a separate story rather than being a shared continuity.  Where Gotham by Gaslight gave us a Victorian-era Batman combatting Jack the Ripper, this story centres on an inter-war Batman of the late 1920’s trying to combat some kind of doom cult.  The story combines Lovecraftian horror with the world of Batman in this 1920’s setting, which is fine if you enjoy horror as much as you do superhero lore.

Alas, I’m someone who only enjoys horror when it’s a sub-genre within superhero/science fiction stories, so when I see the two combined, I’m counting on the superhero element to remain more prominent.  With this film, that element is relatively prominent in the early and middle areas of the film, but it goes too far into the realm of mysticism and Lovercraftian madness for me towards the end, or at least farther than I feel a character like Batman should go.  In most iterations, including the initial parts of this film, Batman is staunchly anti-mysticism, always knowing that all things have rational explanations and never trusting anything even remotely mystic.  Because of this, I’m not a fan of the idea that as the film progresses, we see this Batman abandoning that stance and actually embracing the mysticism he’s facing.

If this was an element inherent to the source material, then this is one of the few times where I could have done with an adaptation straying a bit.  For me, this would have been better if had turned out the “outer god” was just Starro, the weird monsters were all just scientific mutations and only the Ghuls and Etrigan were in defiance of Batman’s analytical mind.  As it is, it’s interesting to see this world to retain the idea of Batman’s apprentices but in a new way that only alternate universe storytelling allows for.  We saw this in Gotham by Gaslight, where the first three Robins were all street thieves ultimately taken in by Bruce and Selina.  In this film, we see Dick Grayson picked up in another part of the US, an Indian variant of Jason Todd and an English-sounding version of Cassandra Cain, one of Barbara Gordon’s successors as Batgirl in DC lore.

The film is well-cast and said cast performs well; some notable mentions among the voice actors include Trek alumni like Tim Russ, Jeffrey Combs and Brian George (Tuvok on Voyager is Russ’ main Trek credit, while Combs has played several key DS9 and Enterprise roles, while George once appeared as Dr Bashir’s father), as well as film actors like David Dastmalchian (appears in the Ant-Man trilogy for the MCU, James Gunn’s Suicide Squad film and Oppenheimer) and Navid Negahban (the Sultan in the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin).  Fans of Disney Channel sit-com Jessie may also find some familiarity in hearing the voice of Sanjay, the Indian variant of Jason Todd in this film, as Karan Brar who played Ravi on that show provides this particular voice.  It’s also interesting to see how many Batman villains have apparently been combined with existing Lovecraftian monsters, suggesting some fans of HP Lovecraft may be among the various writers who have shaped the Batman rogues’ gallery down the years.

Overall, I think the film is interesting and well done for the most part, but for me the superhero element needed to gain the upper hand more towards the end and bring about a different conclusion.  As such, I’m only inclined to hand down a 7 out of 10 for the film we got, and hope that any future Elseworld-based animated films do better at favouring the superhero over anything they’re being combined with.

#film review #dc comics #dc elseworlds

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Film Review - Shazam: Fury of the Gods

Carrying on with reviews of 2023 films, we now shift back to DC as we look at the last film that I bothered with from the old DCEU continuity, namely Shazam: Fury of the Gods…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Two years after Thaddeus Sivana's defeat, Hespera and Kalypso, daughters of the Titan Atlas, break into the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece and steal the Wizard's broken staff. They take it to the Wizard, who was imprisoned in the Gods' Realm, and force him to repair the staff to reactivate its powers.

In Philadelphia, Billy Batson and his "Shazamily" are drifting apart as they grow up and pursue their own interests. Billy is worried about being kicked out of the Vasquez family when he turns eighteen. In a dream, the Wizard warns Billy about the Daughters of Atlas, prompting the Shazamily to begin researching them.

Freddy Freeman meets a new girl named Anne, to whom he shows off his superhero self. Hespera and Kalypso arrive with the staff and steal Freddy's powers, and Anne is revealed to be their youngest sister, Anthea. Billy and the Shazamily attempt to save Freddy, but the daughters kidnap him and place an indestructible dome around the city, trapping everyone inside. Freddy is imprisoned with the Wizard in the Gods' Realm.

The Shazamily enter the Rock of Eternity, where they encounter a sentient pen named Steve, which they use to draft a letter to negotiate with Hespera for Freddy's release. Billy meets Hespera at a local restaurant, and, while the meeting is initially cordial, she and Kalypso soon fight the Shazamily. Pedro loses his powers during the fight, while Hespera is captured and taken to the Rock. Having planned her capture, Hespera easily breaks out and steals the Golden Apple, the seed of the Tree of Life. Meanwhile, Freddy and the Wizard attempt to escape the Gods' Realm with a sympathetic Anthea's help, just as Hespera returns with the Apple. The Daughters argue as Hespera and Anthea want to use the Apple to revive their realm, while Kalypso wishes to plant it on Earth to destroy humanity. Freddy steals the Apple but is discovered. Billy and the Shazamily show up, and Freddy reacquires his powers.

Billy and the Shazamily emerge with the Wizard in the Vasquez home, where they reveal their secret identities to their foster parents. Kalypso appears with a dragon named Ladon to acquire the Apple and destroy the Vasquez house. The family attempts to keep the apple away from Kalypso, but everyone except Billy loses their powers in the skirmish. Kalypso retrieves the Apple and uses it to plant the Tree at Citizens Bank Park, which spawns various monsters to attack the city. Hespera and Anthea object to their sister's destructive plan, but Kalypso mortally wounds Hespera and de-powers Anthea. Billy, in despair, asks the Wizard to revoke his powers, but the Wizard assures him that he is a true hero who is worthy of them.

Heeding the Wizard's words, Billy flies off to stop Kalypso, while the Shazamily enlists the help of unicorns to fend off the other monsters. Billy persuades a dying Hespera to help him stop Kalypso. Realizing the dome reacts violently to his lightning, Billy lures Kalypso to the park while Hespera shrinks the dome to contain them. Billy sacrifices himself to stop Kalypso and Ladon by overloading the staff with electricity, destroying the Tree and Kalypso's army with them. Hespera acknowledges Billy as a true god before succumbing to her wounds, causing the dome to disappear.

Anthea takes Billy's grieving family to the Gods' Realm for his burial. Diana Prince, the Amazon princess of godly heritage known as Wonder Woman, appears and repairs the staff, imbuing it with her power and using it to revive the Gods' Realm, restore Anthea's powers, and resurrect Billy. Billy, in turn, uses the staff to restore his siblings' powers. The Shazamily rebuild their home while Anthea and Freddy start a relationship and the Wizard takes up residence on Earth.

In a mid-credits scene, Emilia Harcourt and John Economos invite Billy into the Justice Society on behalf of Amanda Waller; he accepts, then declines because he states that he "just wants to be in the Wonder Woman group."

In a post-credits scene, a still-incarcerated Sivana encounters Mister Mind once again, enraged that he has not begun enacting their plan.

Review:

Much like the Marvel film I just reviewed before this, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the second Shazam film turns a technical profit against its production, but is nonetheless a box-office bomb that received mixed reviews, and I think in some areas, the reasons for this are the same.  More specifically, the trotting out of humour that was fresh and original in the first film that now falls flat because there’s no real attempt to keep it fresh.  I’ve seen the same thing happen with the Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises, and now we see it here.  It’s most shown via the main characters of the Shazam family, as most of them continue to show what I think is now an over-exaggerated, caricature-like form of childishness.  When compared to the DCAMU’s Teen Titans films that also deal with teenage heroes, the behaviours of Billy and his family look even more ridiculous; if the likes of Blue Beetle, Beast Boy and Robin could show some maturity even in off-hours where Billy and his siblings act so ridiculously, what does that say about how much DC’s live action films have lost the plot pre-Gunn reboot?

The film does redeem itself a bit by tapping into Greek mythology directly instead of the comics for the antagonists, and while the Shazam family are at times being too ridiculous, we don’t get the same issues from Helan Mirren, Lucy Lui or Rachel Zegler in their roles as the daughters of Atlas.  Given the poor response to Black Adam towards the end of 2022, taking this original approach probably helped the film more.  However, I think part of the issue with this film is that it depends on a premise of a child in an adult form, and that can quickly grate on the sensibilities of others.  A key reason why I would be inclined to praise the 2011 reboot of Thundercats over its 1985 original is that it got rid of this child-as-adult concept for Lion-O, and I have to wonder if the Shazam franchise can last in live-action markets while it holds onto that concept.

To my mind, the only way Shazam would really work in live action is if you made a TV series, as you would then be able to stay with the child characters for longer and not have a huge time-jump that potentially robs you of a big chunk of the children growing up.  It’s also problematic to have a near-adult version of Billy turning into an older adult, which is another point against this film.  By choosing an older kid to play Billy to begin with on film 1, sequels become harder, and adds to the argument that future Shazam projects should be TV shows instead of films.  It’s also interesting to see Wonder Woman cameo in the film, as well as credit scenes regarding the JSA and Dr Sivana, but given the imminent reboot, were these really worthwhile to include?  To my mind, probably not.

A final positive to mention is the film’s handling of Pedro’s sexuality around the mid-point of the film, in that it’s done in a very accepting but low-key manner.  If Shazam and his family do get used in Gunn’s new continuity, doing the characters in a show format might allow us to explore this more, especially if it has any relevance to his status as a foster child (was he abandoned for expressing his sexuality at a younger age, or was his entry into the foster care system unrelated to that?)  Overall, though, it feels like Shazam’s time on the big screen is over for the time-being, and I wouldn’t recommend putting him back up there anytime soon, unless DC and Warner Brothers can address casting new children who start off younger, as well as find ways to avoid letting any humour stagnate because it’s not adjusted between films.  Both DC and Marvel need to realise all their heroes need to be able to shift gears in all areas of their story-telling, not just quick swaps of villains and nothing more.  For me, this film just scrapes in with a 6 out of 10.

#film review #dceu #shazam fury of the gods

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Film Review - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Having started our reviews of 2023 films in the realm of home-release animation, it’s now time to begin checking out cinema releases from that year, as well as to return to the MCU, which began its fifth phase with the somewhat ill-received Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Following the Avengers' battle against Thanos, Scott Lang has become a successful memoirist and has been living happily with his girlfriend, Hope van Dyne. Scott's now-teenage daughter Cassie has become an activist, helping people displaced by the Blip, resulting in her having a strained relationship with her father. While visiting Hope's parents, Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, Cassie reveals that she has been working on a device that can establish contact with the Quantum Realm. Upon learning of this, Janet panics and forcefully shuts off the device, but the message is received, resulting in a portal that opens and sucks the five of them into the Quantum Realm. Scott and Cassie are found by natives who are rebelling against their ruler, while Hope, Janet, and Hank explore a sprawling city to get answers.

Hope, Janet, and Hank meet with Lord Krylar, a former ally of Janet's, who reveals that things have changed since she left, and that he is now working for Kang, the Quantum Realm's new ruler. The three are forced to flee and steal Krylar's ship. The Langs, meanwhile, are told by rebel leader Jentorra that Janet's involvement with Kang is indirectly responsible for his rise to power. The rebels soon come under attack by Kang's forces led by M.O.D.O.K., who is revealed to be Darren Cross, having survived his apparent death at the hands of Scott, and who previously received Cassie's message. Aboard Krylar's ship, Janet confesses to Hope and Hank that she met Kang when she was previously in the Quantum Realm. He claimed that he and Janet could both escape from the Quantum Realm if she helped him rebuild his multiversal power core. After they managed to repair it, Janet touched the machine and saw a vision of Kang conquering and destroying entire timelines. Kang revealed he was exiled by his variants out of fear, which drove Janet to turn against him. Outmatched, Janet used her Pym Particles to enlarge the power core beyond use. Kang, having regained his powers, eventually conquered the Quantum Realm afterward.

The Langs are taken to Kang, who demands that Scott help get his power core back or else he will kill Cassie. Scott is then taken to the core's location and shrinks down. In the core, he encounters a probability storm, which causes him to split into multiple copies of himself nearly overwhelming him, but Hope arrives and helps him acquire the power core. However, Kang reneges on the deal, capturing Janet with M.O.D.O.K. destroying her ship with Hank on it. After being rescued by his ants, who rapidly evolved and became hyper-intelligent after being pulled into the Quantum Realm, Hank helps Scott and Hope as they make their way to Kang. Cassie escapes and rescues Jentorra, and they commence an uprising against Kang and his army. During the fight, Cassie convinces Cross to switch sides and fight Kang, with him eventually sacrificing his life.

Janet fixes the power core, enabling her, Hank, Hope, and Cassie to jump through a portal home. However, Kang attacks Scott at the last minute. Before Kang can beat Scott into submission, Hope returns, and she and Scott throw Kang and the Pym Particles into the power core, destroying both. Cassie reopens the portal for Scott and Hope to return home. As Scott happily resumes his life, he begins to rethink what he was told about Kang's death being the start of something terrible happening, but brushes it off. In a mid-credits scene, numerous variants of Kang, led by Immortus, commiserate Kang's death and plan their multiversal uprising. In a post-credits scene, Loki and Mobius M. Mobius encounter another Kang variant, Victor Timely, at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Review:

The Ant-Man trilogy is one that started out well on its first instalment, but over time it seems to have deteriorated to some extent with each sequel, making it an example of that age-old concept known as the law of diminishing returns.  Why is this?  Well, to be honest, there are a few reasons.  First is an issue that also affects the likes of Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even non-superhero films of the comedy genre like Police Academy, namely a failure to keep the humour fresh on each instalment.  There are only so many times you can play something for comedy before the jokes gets worn out, and I think a lot of the humour from the original Ant-Man film has been returned to a bit too often.  This might seem strange to say because some of the humour tied into Scott’s fellow ex-cons, but the reality is there was a fair bit of humour around Scott himself and the characters he came to know by becoming Ant-Man, and now it’s over-used.

Humour in this film also seems to be misplaced given the gravity of the adversary being introduced, and I think that Ant-Man and the Wasp alone going up against Kang feels like a major mis-match.  Kang, or rather the Council of Kangs, is meant to be the overall villain of the multiverse saga in the same way Thanos was the ultimate foe in the infinity saga.  This character is a major, Avengers-level threat, and to start him out, you have him directly face Ant-Man?  Really?  In effect, we have a serious villain that so far out-strips the title heroes for power and threat, and that character is then wiped out by people who should have been lucky to get out alive.  Combined with a bit of a mis-lead towards the end that sees the film buck the MCU trend of third film resulting in loss, I honestly think this film was a victim of Marvel’s quantity over quality methods that have resulted in a reduced quality of post-Endgame MCU productions.

The film also has ties back into the Loki series, but doesn’t rely on audiences knowing that series to understand the film, which is a step in the right direction.  Having non-film and therefore non-cinematic elements in the MCU is, as I’ve noted before, something that either shouldn’t happen or that should be an optional bit of extra viewing instead of required core material.  For me, though, it feels like we should have done something else on this film.  The Quantum Realm should either not have been done, or should have been reduced in scope.  In addition, as I’ve noted before, this film didn’t include some key characters from the past two Ant-Man films; no Luis and crew, no sign of Maggie (Cassie’s mother) and no Paxton, which given the scenes with the police early in the film made little sense.  If Cassie is getting in trouble with the law, why are we not seeing the cop that was dating Cassie’s mum pre-blip?

Also, we get a line from Cassie early in the film that opens up another can of worms.  She makes a retort to her dad about having grown used to looking after herself, doubtless referring to Scott being missing for five years of her life.  However, given that Cassie has a mother and said mother had a boyfriend, looking after herself would seem to imply that when Scott was trapped in the Quantum Realm, Maggie and Paxton both blipped.  It would then be logical to suggest that Cassie not only grew into a teenager during the blip years, but that she was growing up without any parents to look out for her.  Much like Luis and his associates, this question of Cassie’s experience during those years seems to be brushed aside in favour of bringing in Kang and spending a lot of time down in the Quantum Realm.

Now this all being said, the actors of the film all bring their A-game, and the visual effects are spectacular, and the various parts of the film that are Kang-centric are very good indeed.  Unfortunately, as a whole the film is inconsistent in its tone and perhaps misuses its screentime to over-explore the Quantum Realm while under-exploring the worlds of Scott, Cassie and so on.  Personally, I’d have preferred something that spent more time up in our world dealing with Scott, Cassie, etc. and that perhaps brought back Ghost, now acting as an agent for Kang in our world somehow.  The Langs and Hope could have beaten Ghost, learned about Kang and then gone to face up to him, only to suffer a major set-back, such as Scott being trapped in the Quantum Realm as Kang’s prisoner, and this setting up for the upcoming Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Secret War that are coming up.  As it is, we can only hope that as Marvel begins to replan its upcoming films and direction that they at least stick with Kang being a major villain and recast the role following actor Jonathan Majors’ criminal conviction.  After all, they’ve recast the likes of Hulk and War Machine, among others, for less.

This brings me to my final point, which is my disappointment in the recasting of the teenage Cassie following Avengers: Endgame.  If what Wikipedia indicates is true, there was no scheduling issue requiring Cassie to be recast, and Emma Fuhrmann, who played the role in Endgame, was looking forward to coming back to reprise the role.  Apparently, the reasoning seems to be about having a more established actress in the role to help ensure a box office draw, as well as considerations of athletic ability and ability to act well alongside Paul Rudd, who of course plays Scott Lang.  While I can respect the last two decisions, assuming that major actors will always equal a good box office return is a flawed strategy.

First, not every big-name can act well, or can do every role justice, with the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and Will Smith all being examples of actors that just act like themselves under different names when appearing in any film.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it requires that the role be created entirely by and for that actor, which only works on original stories going straight into film.  If the film is adaptational, then the actors have to play the role as the source material defines it, so if you can’t shift gears to play someone who isn’t you, you’re not right for that role.

Second, actors who want to become established are more likely to make a serious effort while those who are already established might not make as much effort.  I honestly believe that some of the best films I’ve seen were so good because they were made by great actors that were committed to the film at hand, and who then got major careers from those roles.  Picking the right actors is more important than whether or not people already know them, because the right actors will bring a performance that makes them known for good reason.  In this film, Corey Stoll’s iteration of MODOK was someone making themselves known for no good reason, and I wish they’d left that part out of the film.  Overall, I give this film 6 out of 10, largely due to the performances from the people in the size-changing suits and Majors as Kang.  Bill Murray was also cool to see, but again, big-name star and yet this film failed to technically break even, so in the words of Stan Lee, ‘nuff said.

#film review #mcu #ant man and the wasp: quantumania

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Film Review - Legion of Super-Heroes

Kicking off our look into 2023 films, it’s time to dive back into home release animation from Warner Brothers and DC, and to return to the Tomorrowverse continuity with Legion of Super-Heroes…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In Argo City on Krypton, Alura Zor-El has been preparing for a catastrophe her brother-in-law Jor-El has predicted will destroy the planet. However, the disaster strikes early, and Alura has just enough time to send her daughter Kara to Earth, where she is supposed to reunite with her younger cousin Kal-El, who is to arrive in his own escape ship. Just after take-off, a fragment of the exploding planet damages Kara's pod, putting her into suspended animation and sending the vessel into a trajectory that arrives on Earth later than intended.

After her arrival, Kara is now named Supergirl and has trouble adjusting to life on Earth with its more primitive technology and the superpowers gained from her new environment. During a fight with Solomon Grundy, she spots masked individuals lurking nearby and is rescued by Kal-El (now called Superman) and Batman. Kal-El suggests that Kara should travel to the 31st century and join the Legion Academy, a training school for Legion of Super-Heroes candidates (the Legion being that era’s equivalent of the Justice League). In the 21st century, Batman intercepts the masked individuals raiding S.T.A.R. Labs, but they commit suicide before he can question them.

Traveling to the future, Kara is introduced to the Academy by one of its trainees, Mon-El, but starts a spontaneous fight with Academy member Brainiac 5, whom she mistakes for her cousin's enemy Brainiac. While the misunderstanding is cleared, Brainiac 5 is distrusted because of his ancestry. Kara's own relationship with him is initially antagonistic as well, but as time passes, they develop a mutual understanding which eventually turns romantic.

One night, while looking for school pet Proty, Triplicate Girl spots Mon-El lurking near a forbidden high-security vault on the Academy's grounds, before being attacked and apparently killed. The Legionnaires arrest Brainiac 5 and discover that he enrolled in the Academy to penetrate the vault, which contains dangerous weapons. Brainiac 5 explains that he is trying to counter an organization called the Dark Circle, but only Kara believes him while her short-tempered teacher, Timber Wolf, informs her to stay away from Brainiac 5, criticizing her for coming to the academy from the 21st century in the first place. After recognizing the masked figures she saw in the past from the Academy computer's files on the Dark Circle, she breaks Brainiac 5 out of confinement and learns that the Dark Circle is trying to obtain the reality-bending Miracle Machine.

Joined by Mon-El, Kara and Brainiac 5 enter the vault and overcome its security. When they find the machine, Mon-El reveals himself as an agent of the Dark Circle, stabs Kara with a kryptonite blade, and summons the rest of the Circle who overpower the Legionnaires and Academy students. The Circle's leader appears and is revealed as Brainiac, who founded the Dark Circle in the 21st century to facilitate his resurrection and has plotted for Brainiac 5 to grant him access to the Miracle Machine. Because they were incapable of passing the vault's security, the bodies of Brainiac 5's predecessors were melded into a new body for Brainiac. He claims that he has foreseen great danger approaching, and plans to bend reality to eliminate it and make himself the saviour of the universe.

Kara and Brainiac 5 are rescued by fellow students Triplicate Girl (who had lost merely one of her alternate selves), Invisible Kid and Phantom Girl, who have eluded capture, and together they retrieve Dawnstar, Bouncing Boy, and Arms Fall Off Boy. After sending an SOS to the Legionnaires in space, the other students distract Mon-El and the Circle while Kara and Brainiac 5 move to stop Brainiac. They cannot prevent the Miracle Machine's activation, but Brainiac 5 turns his predecessors against their creator, causing Brainiac's body to tear itself apart. The machine goes out of control. In her attempt to stop it, Kara summons Alura's soul. Though briefly tempted to reverse Krypton's destruction, she comes to terms with her loss and stops the cataclysm by displacing the machine into another reality. Afterwards, the students defeat Mon-El and the Circle, and the returning Legionnaires grant them all full Legion membership.

In a post-credits scene, Kara contacts Superman about her decision to stay in the 31st century and her new relationship with Brainiac 5. After the call is ended, Superman and Batman inspect a crater in Metropolis when they are hit and apparently teleported to parts unknown by a Zeta Beam blast.

Review:

One of the nice things about Marvel keeping its film and TV iterations of the Guardians of the Galaxy as a present-day version of the team, rather than being a team from the distant future, is that DC has not had to make that compromise with the Legion of Super-Heroes, who are also a distant future super-group.  Unfortunately, this film fails to give us a fresh take on the legion, and even to make them the focal characters of the story.  Instead, we’re mainly focused on Supergirl, who gets so much screentime relative to the legionnaires that it feels like the film is mis-titled.  Certainly, as a Supergirl-centric story, it lacks originality and I’ll explain why.

In this film, we’re getting Supergirl’s origins, followed by a story that shows her jumping into the future because she is having trouble adapting to present-day Earth after growing on the technologically advanced Krypton.  The origin story has already been shown in various animated media and the Supergirl TV show of the Arrowverse continuity.  The story regarding her winding up with the Legion is also a pre-existing one, having been shown towards the end of Justice League Unlimited, the last animated show of the DC Animated Universe continuity.  All they’ve done is swapped the villains from the latter component, and thus changed why they’re keeping out major legionnaires who, last I checked, haven’t had any film or TV exposure of note in films or TV shows.

As a result, we’re seeing quite a bit of squandered potential in this film.  I feel like we should have had Supergirl and the Legion each having their own films and not necessarily crossing over.  If it was me, I’d have probably gone for re-writing the Lightning Saga arc from Justice League comics as an introduction for the Legion, given Supergirl her own origin film, then combined the two on this film.  With the Legion more established first and Supergirl making a better effort to integrate with present-day Earth, this film could have landed much better.  It seems like following James Gunn’s take over and efforts to get DC live action and animation working on a single continuity in both mediums, the quality of Tomorrowverse storytelling has taken a dive in favour of a fast wrap-up.  Either that or DC and Warner Brothers just have too little patience to give characters proper set-up and exploration.

On the subject of character exploration, it strikes me as poor writing that in most if not all Supergirl media I’ve seen, there is little effort made to let Kara develop into her own person or assist her with the various psychological issues she must be facing.  Your home planet blows up, you crash on a world as technologically behind your home as Ancient Rome would be behind the 21st century, you find your baby cousin has arrived on this world so far ahead of you that he’s now an adult while you are still a teenager.  How in the hell does no one in the DC Universe get that all that stuff would take time and therapy to process?  Why is it they’re always just diving into Kara putting on the S-shield and doing hero work?  Just once, it would be nice to see someone actually helping Kara with this instead of just skipping over it.

Going back to the idea of Kara being her own person, this is a criticism I have more around the Supergirl series, which showed Kara being a reporter for a news outlet.  Sound familiar?  Well, it should, since that’s also what Clark Kent, aka Superman does.  Despite the fact that in DC lore, Superboy is a partial clone of Superman, Kara seems to be more of a clone than Superboy for not having an origin or non-hero occupation all her own.  I seriously hope that the lack of originality in this film is something Gunn’s upcoming DC Universe will learn from and not repeat.  This character deserves to have something more than her gender and hair colour to mark her apart from Superman, so please can someone give her that?

This all being said, the film has good voice-acting and decent animation, so on balance it’s an ok film, maybe getting up to good film status if you’re coming at this film with little prior knowledge of Supergirl or the Legion of Super-Heroes.  For me, though, it only rate 6 out of 10.

#film review #tomorrowverse

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Film Review - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Finishing off our reviews of 2022 films, we take a break from Warner Brothers-produced films and return to the MCU as we consider Black Panther: Wakanda Forever…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

T'Challa, king of Wakanda, is suffering from an unspecified terminal illness which his sister Shuri believes can be cured by the heart-shaped herb. Shuri attempts to synthetically recreate the herb after it was burned by Erik Killmonger, but fails to do so before T'Challa dies.

A year later, Wakanda is under pressure from other nations to share their vibranium, with some parties attempting to steal it by force. Queen Ramonda implores Shuri to continue her research on the herb, hoping to create a new Black Panther that will defend Wakanda, but she refuses due to her belief that the Black Panther is a relic of the past. In the Atlantic Ocean, the CIA and U.S. Navy SEALs utilize a vibranium detector to locate a potential vibranium deposit underwater. The expedition is killed by a group of blue-skinned, water-breathing superhumans led by a mutant ruler later identified as Namor, with the CIA believing Wakanda to be responsible. Namor confronts Ramonda and Shuri, easily bypassing Wakanda's advanced security. Blaming Wakanda for the vibranium race, he gives them an ultimatum: deliver him the scientist responsible for the vibranium detector, or he will attack Wakanda.

Shuri and Okoye learn from CIA agent Everett K. Ross that the scientist in question is MIT student Riri Williams and arrive at the university to take her into their safekeeping. The group is pursued by the FBI and then by Namor's warriors, who defeat Okoye before taking Shuri and Williams underwater to meet Namor. Angered by Okoye's failure to protect Shuri, Ramonda strips her of her title as general of the Dora Milaje and seeks out Nakia, who has been living in Haiti since The Blip. Namor shows Shuri his vibranium-rich underwater kingdom of Talokan, which he has protected for centuries from discovery by the world. Bitter at the surface world for enslaving the Maya, Namor proposes an alliance with Wakanda against the rest of the world but threatens to destroy Wakanda if they refuse. Nakia helps Shuri and Williams escape, killing one of the Talokan guards in the process, and Namor retaliates with an attack against Wakanda, during which Ramonda drowns while saving Williams. Namor vows to return with his full army, and the citizens of Wakanda relocate to the Jabari mountains for their safety. Meanwhile, Ross is arrested by his ex-wife, CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, for secretly exchanging classified intelligence with the Wakandans.

After Ramonda's funeral, Shuri uses a remnant of the herb that gave Namor's people their superhuman abilities to reconstruct the heart-shaped herb. She ingests it, gaining superhuman abilities and meeting Killmonger in the Ancestral Plane, who urges her to seek revenge. Shuri dons a new Black Panther suit and is accepted by the other Wakandan tribes as the Black Panther. Despite M'Baku's urges for peace, Shuri is determined to exact vengeance on Namor for Ramonda's death and orders an immediate counterattack on Talokan. Preparing for battle, with Ayo assuming the position of general of the Dora Milaje, Shuri bestows the Midnight Angel armour upon Okoye, who in turn recruits Dora Milaje member Aneka to join her. Williams creates an Iron Man-esque powered exoskeleton to aid the Wakandans.

Using a seafaring vessel, the Wakandans lure Namor and his warriors to the surface with another vibranium detector as a battle ensues. Shuri traps Namor in a fighter aircraft, intending to dry him out and weaken him. The pair crash on a desert beach and fight. Shuri gains the upper hand but has a vision of Ramonda and implores Namor to yield, offering him a peaceful alliance. Namor accepts, and the battle ends. Namor's cousin, Namora, is upset at Namor's surrender, but he assures her that the new alliance will allow them to conquer the surface world one day. Williams returns to MIT, leaving her suit behind, while Okoye rescues Ross from captivity. Shuri plants more heart-shaped herbs to ensure the future of the Black Panther mantle. In Shuri's absence, M'Baku steps forward to challenge for the throne. Shuri visits Nakia in Haiti where she burns her funeral robe in accordance with Ramonda's wishes, allowing herself to finally grieve for T'Challa.

In a mid-credits scene, Shuri learns that Nakia and T'Challa had a son named Toussaint, whom Nakia has been raising in secret. Toussaint reveals his Wakandan name is T'Challa.

Review:

While this film has garnered great commercial and critical success, receiving many award nominations and even winning a few, I personally don’t find it to be as good as the previous Black Panther solo film.  This isn’t due to any fault on the part of returning cast and crew, nor the absence of the late Chadwick Boseman.  Indeed, beyond the great acting and visual appearance of the film, I think the choice not to recast the role of T’Challa and instead have the Wakandans mourn him was a very smart move on the part of all concerned.  Combined with a very moving and apt closing song with Rihanna, this made Wakanda Forever a great film to watch.  So, if these are not the issues that I feel hold this film back from the original film’s greatness, what then are those issues?

To be honest, it’s the changes made to Namor and his undersea kingdom, ostensibly made in the name of diversity, but in reality, it is clearly an attempt to avoid too much similarity to DC’s Aquaman.  Anyone who has read enough of the relevant comics will know that in source material, Namor and Aquaman are the Marvel and DC rulers of Atlantis; each company has their own version of this ancient myth, which is clearly public domain considering that Disney animated classics and the Stargate franchises have projects with Atlantis in the title.  Both are male heroes and both share enhanced strength and water-breathing abilities, but here the similarity between Namor and Aquaman stops.

The various differences between the characters include differences in royal title (Namor is always a prince where Aquaman is a king), which world they’re raised in (Aquaman was raised on land by his father, Namor underwater by his mother), romantic situations (Aquaman marries and has a son where Namor’s romances never end well) and surface world relations (Aquaman often guides Atlantis towards peace whereas Namor is often more antagonistic).  There’s also the matter of additional powers being different, as well as Aquaman being strictly a member of the Justice League in DC where Namor has laid claim to membership in at least three superhero groups (Defenders, Avengers and X-Men) while at times being an ally to a fourth group (the Fantastic Four, when he stopped vying with Reed for Sue’s affections).

Given this many differences, the question in my mind is why turn Marvel’s version of Atlantis into something Mezzo-American?  The issues at hand in the film for Namor and his people are not specific to or indicative of that culture, compared to the first Black Panther film which put the issues of Black people in the world front and centre.  If this film had taken a similar path, had made turning Marvel’s Atlantis into Talokan something that explored the issues of indigenous cultures, then it might make some degree of sense.  Instead, it’s nothing more than another surface-level race-shift to make a show of diversity without actually being diverse, in part because they wanted a style shift away from DC’s efforts with their own aquatic super-being.

Another issue with the film is the apparent lack of originality to Shuri’s path through this sequel.  At first, she is managing to chart her own course in things, and maybe if the film had followed that throughout, it would have been better.  Instead, once Ramonda dies, Shuri’s path is virtually identical to T’Challa’s path in Captain America: Civil War.  Parent dies, kid seeks revenge as Black Panther, only to relent when they realise how vengeance isn’t actually solving anything.  Frankly, I think that since Shuri is going to be the Black Panther of the MCU for some time to come, she deserved a more original origin arc, and I hope that going forward, she’s given better stories that are more unique to her.

On the positive side, the film isn’t suffering the lack of exposition others superhero films have been lacking in some of my most recent watch-throughs, and even with its issues, it does better than the last MCU instalment I looked at.  Nonetheless, I think that if Marvel should be treating the indigenous cultures of the Americas and other continents with the same kind of reverence it showed when it introduced Wakanda to the MCU, and it should respect the new Black Panther with the same original story-telling they gave her predecessor.  Overall, I give this film 8 out of 10.

#film review #mcu #black panther wakanda forever

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Film Review - Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind

Staying with 2022 film made by Warner Brothers but heading back to home-release animation, we’re going to take a break from superheroes to focus on another film in the Mortal Kombat franchise.  More specifically, this is my review of Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In a not-too-distant future, Earthrealm has been attacked by undead revenants and become a wasteland of isolated cities. The Black Dragon clan (Kira, Kobra, Ferra/Torr, Drahmin, Kabal, Erron Black, No Face, Dairou, Tremor, and Jarek, along with an aged Shang Tsung) has annexed these cities, with their leader Kano declaring himself king.

Meanwhile, an aged Kuai Liang has abandoned the title of Sub-Zero and lives a farmer's life. Kabal, Kira, and Kobra assault him and steal his supplies before entering an untouched city that is the home of brash young warrior Kenshi. He defeats the trio in combat but spares their lives, and they flee but later return to the city with fellow clansman Tremor and Shang Tsung in tow. When Kenshi announces himself by his full name, his surname Takahashi catches Shang Tsung's attention, and after Kenshi is defeated by Tremor, he intervenes and prevents Kenshi’s execution.

Under the alias of "Song", Shang Tsung tells Kenshi of a powerful sword called "Sento" that could be used to defeat the Black Dragon. Kenshi is lured to a desert where the Well of Souls is located, and when he opens it, energy surges from the well and blinds Kenshi, while Shang Tsung absorbs it and is rejuvenated into a younger form, after which he throws Kenshi into the well and leaves him to die. However, Kenshi hears the mystic sword Sento speaking to him telepathically; he takes the weapon and frees himself from the well.

Shang Tsung later attacks Kano, killing several of his Black Dragon henchmen before being slain himself by Kano after he is unable to consume the latter’s soul as Kano doesn’t have one for reasons unexplained.

Kuai Liang finds Kenshi wandering the desert and takes him in, then trains Kenshi to rely on his other senses. Kuai Liang reveals that he had faced the wave of the revenants and, in a desperate attempt to end the conflict, killed everyone but himself in an ice storm. However, the casualties included his clan members and civilians, which caused him to swear an oath never to use his powers again.

When Kano seizes control of the hidden city, Kenshi argues that they need to help the townspeople but Kuai Liang refuses, resulting in a fight. Kuai Liang gains the upper hand and offers Kenshi one last chance to return to a normal life, but Kenshi chooses to enter the city where he is captured after killing more of the Black Dragon.

Kuai Liang burns down his farm in order to summon Scorpion, and reassumes his past identity of Sub-Zero. They join forces and arrive at the city to free Kenshi as he is being tortured by Kano. After they kill the remaining Black Dragon members, they nearly decapitate Kano but he survives and rushes to a chamber containing Kronika's Hourglass, which Kano had used to create an alternative timeline in which he unleashed the revenant infestation in order to gain his immense power. He is killed by Sub-Zero before he can then use the Hourglass to erase the cryomancer from existence.  Sub-Zero and Scorpion then destroy the chamber's entrance to seal it off from those outside. Since he promised Scorpion to let himself be taken if he ever used his powers again, Sub-Zero departs to the Netherrealm, making Kenshi the successor of the Lin Kuei and new protector of Earthrealm.

Review:

A lot of edits required to amend the plot summary Wikipedia has because it gets a lot wrong.  The biggest error is that it claims this film is a direct sequel to the duology of films that have started the Mortal Kombat Legends line; not so.  If the users updating Wikipedia on this actually had the film and watched all its content, including Blu-Ray extras, they would know as I do that this isn’t a sequel.  Hell, if they’d paid attention to the first Legends film, Scorpion’s Revenge, they would know this because in that film, Kano was killed, yet in this film he’s much older and the lead antagonist.  So, what have the Wikipedia users missed that I, a more competent reviewer, have not?

According to the extras for this film, the story we’re following in Snow Blind isn’t part of any “main” or “canon” continuity, but a one-off exploration of an alternate ending, a concept that players of any form of combat-related game should be acquainted with. Whether it’s a fighting game like Mortal Kombat or a military strategy one involving multiple playable factions, all such games have a “canon” ending and a number of alternate ones.  The “canon” ending is the one enabling subsequent games to be produced, usually forming the backstory for the next game in the run, while the others all stand as alternate or “what if” endings.  In the case of Snow Blind, we’re seeing the “what if Kano won Mortal Kombat” ending, or at least an ending where he lived through Mortal Kombat and managed to pull off what he’s managed by the time this film takes place.

It’s an interesting concept to see played out, and it’s nicely hidden as to what is going on, but to some extent that goes against the film.  The lack of reference to past events and the Mortal Kombat tournament in particular means it’s not clear without going to the Blu-Ray extras that this is an alternate-ending based film.  That means that like a lot of films in recent years, exposition that should be in the film to provide key information is left out, and as a result the film is too open to misinterpretation.  If you’re not going to give an audience key context in the film, you’re not doing the film right.

On the plus side, the film does offer an interesting story and good performances by the voice cast, including Lord of the Rings and 300 actor David Wenham voicing Kano.  It’s also cool to see a film that occurs in the Mortal Kombat universe without focusing on the tournament, but considering that neither the Legends run nor the recent live-action reboot has done the tournament well, I’m thinking it might be premature to explore alternate ending/backstory narratives at this stage.  I hope that the live-action reboot’s sequel will not only more fully explain the tournament, but also structure that tournament so we can see it play out in an organised fashion.  After all, any fighting competition should have some structure and not be a total free-for-all, as it is hardly worth having a competition without a structure to it.

For me, the film is a bit of a slow burn early on as it’s not until the third act that we get Sub-Zero returning to action and Scorpion coming into things.  With Shang Tsung being somewhat watered down and no sign of anyone else I recognise from what little Mortal Kombat I know except for Kano and Kabal, these two coming in really helped revitalise my interest in the film.  Going forward, I think the Mortal Kombat Legends films need to focus more on the major legacy characters and less on minor roles, as the major characters help keep the films more interesting to fans of the franchise who have less extensive or recent knowledge of it.

Otherwise, it’s a good film, but by no means brilliant.  Overall, I’d give it 7 out of 10.

#film review #mortal kombat legends

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Film Review - Black Adam

Our 2022 film reviews remain with Warner Brother and DC again, but now we head back to cinema releases as we consider the Dwayne Johnson passion project that is Black Adam…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In 2600 BC, the tyrannical king Ahk-Ton of Kahndaq enslaves his people to mine the mythical metal Eternium, using it to forge the Crown of Sabbac to attain power and invincibility. After attempting to stage a revolt against Ahk-Ton, a young slave boy is chosen as champion by the Council of Wizards, transforming him into an adult superhero. He kills Ahk-Ton, ending his reign.

In the present day, Kahndaq is oppressed by the criminal organization Intergang, as Adrianna Tomaz, an archaeologist, tries to locate the Crown of Sabbac with her brother Karim and colleagues Samir and Ishmael. Inside the tomb, Adrianna obtains the crown, but the Intergang troops kill Samir. As a last resort, she reads an incantation that awakens the ancient champion Teth-Adam from slumber. US government official Amanda Waller deems Adam a threat; after he slaughters the Intergang troops, she contacts the Justice Society to apprehend him. Justice Society members Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Cyclone and Atom Smasher stop Adam's killing spree and explain to Adrianna that Adam was not a saviour but an imprisoned killer.

Ishmael reveals himself as the leader of Intergang's Kahndaq division and kidnaps Adrianna's son Amon, who has hidden the crown, as Ishmael reveals himself to be the last descendant of Ahk-Ton. The group finds the crown and gives it back to save Amon. Ishmael attempts to shoot Amon, causing Adam to lose control, killing Ishmael and wounding Amon.

Guilt-ridden, Adam flees and reveals to Hawkman that Kahndaq's champion was actually his son Hurut, who was killed by Ahk-Ton's assassins, who also had killed his mother. Having been given Hurut's powers to save his life, Adam, blinded by grief and rage, murdered Ahk-Ton and destroyed his palace. Deemed unworthy by the Council of Wizards, Adam killed them all in retaliation except for Shazam, who imprisoned him along with the crown.

Feeling incapable of becoming a true hero, Adam surrenders and the Justice Society takes him to a secret underwater Task Force X black site in Antarctica, where Emilia Harcourt places him in stasis. Fate again has a premonition of Hawkman's impending death. The Justice Society realizes Ishmael tricked Adam into killing him in order to be reborn as Sabbac, the champion of the six eponymous demons (Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis)

When Sabbac summons the Legions of Hell to terrorize Kahndaq, the Justice Society unsuccessfully attempts to stop Sabbac. Fate believes that Hawkman's death can be avoided with his sacrifice and fights Sabbac alone. Fate uses astral projection to release Adam before he (Fate) is killed by Sabbac. Meanwhile, Amon, Adrianna and Karim rally the people to fight the Legions of Hell. Sabbac overpowers Hawkman, but Adam arrives in time to kill Sabbac, causing the Legions of Hell to disappear. The Justice Society departs on good terms with Adam, who destroys the old throne in the belief that Kahndaq needs a protector, not a ruler. He adopts a new name: Black Adam.

In a mid-credits scene, Waller warns Adam against leaving Kahndaq and sends Superman, who offers to negotiate with him.

Review:

Apparently despite turning a worldwide profit against its production budget, Black Adam failed to break even with its overall expenses, and was also negatively received by critics, make it both a commercial and critical failure.  However, as I’ve said many times before, film critics generally don’t know their superhero comics and can’t effectively judge anything adapted from that source material.  Consequently, their opinions tend to be less accurate in judging this genre.  Now my own knowledge of superhero lore runs thin in terms of some of the characters this film uses, but I know enough to bring a slightly more informed perspective to bear, and honestly, while this film isn’t quite a total train wreck, it’s very close to one.

So, where does the film go wrong?  Firstly, Dwayne Johnson in the lead role.  He’s bald where Black Adam is supposed to have hair, and appears to be the one person from the film’s fictional middle eastern setting speaking with an American accent.  Costume, build and skin-tone may be correct, and I suppose the hair is strictly a cosmetic issue, but the accent is a big let-down.  I’d rather have seen Johnson either put in the effort to adopt an accent befitting the character’s place of origin, or step aside to let another person play the role that can manage the accent and aesthetic of the character better.

The portrayal of the character is also problematic at times because it resorts to cliché humour, largely encouraged by fanboy-like character Amon.  This aspect of the film shows how unsuited those working on this film were to do so, and plays into the hands of anti-superhero intellectual snobs in Hollywood that disdain superhero lore on sight.  Superhero story-telling is actually very rich and substantive when the right people tell the right story, and it deserves better than this.  We also have racial shifts in the casting of Hawkman and Cyclone, which could have been better handled if other members of the Justice Society had been included, and that’s assuming they should have been included at all.

The film’s second issue after casting and portrayals is the over-abundance of elements not really allowing each other proper screen-time to be covered better.  With the Justice Society included, we don’t get to develop Black Adam, reducing him to a flashy figurehead of the film with little substance, not unlike the wrestling pantomime acting Johnson originally hails from.  With Black Adam head-lining the film, there’s no room for a wider Justice Society roster.  We get Hawkman but no Hawkgirl and no reference to their arc as lovers cursed to die upon finding each other and then be resurrected again and again.  We get no other major JSA characters, including people of colour like Mr Terrific that would save the film having to race-shift other characters.  Moreover, the Justice Society’s intrusion in the film prevents Black Adam from showcasing his own iteration of the Shazam family.

In comics, Black Adam has allies who share his power just as Billy Batson shares his powers with his foster family.  We actually see these characters in the film by way of mother-and-son Adrianna and Amon, but neither is granted any powers.  Doubtless this is because the film is trying to take a different approach to the comics, since Adrianna is originally a slave that is freed by Black Adam and Amon was subject to some kind of torture prior to gaining his powers.  However, the fact remains that seeing Black Adam share his power and keeping the JSA out, or having the JSA be the focal characters and having Black Adam be an initial adversary, would have been better options than we received.  I just hope James Gunn’s new DC continuity will learn from these errors on future projects.

Now for some good points.  First, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate is brilliant and brings a level of gravitas to the film that not everyone else can manage.  This off-sets Johnson’s leading performance enough to keep the film watchable, as does the fact that the film covers a couple of rare issues for superhero films.  One is that of western society only interfering in the affairs of other nations when they consider those other nations to be either a threat or someone to exploit.  This is an interestingly apt commentary on the foreign policy of many nations in the past several decades, and is probably part of the adverse reaction against the film, not unlike the impact of the Hiroshima aftermath scene from MCU film the Eternals.

The other issue that gets some discussion in the film is the question of whether or not heroes kill.  This is something live-action superhero films seldom touch on compared to their animated counter-parts, which is surprising considering the level of debate that exists on the subject in the source material.  With Black Adam being an historically villainous character, whose more modern incarnations are more anti-hero in nature, he is naturally in favour of lethal force while the Justice Society, as classic heroes that date back to DC’s founding in the 1940’s, are very much against it.  However, the debate in the film isn’t all that deep, and the Justice Society gets a little too comfortable letting Black Adam remain active with such a lethal intent for my liking.  Then again, this Justice Society also seems to be working for Amanda Waller, something that would never happen in any DC lore I’ve read to date.

So, overall, we get an ok film that has some rare moments of substance and an incredible Pierce Brosnan performance, but otherwise picked the wrong lead actor and tried to do too much in its time-frame.  Next time, DC, either do Black Adam or the JSA, not both, and pick better actors or at least spring for an accent coach.  Also, stop putting fanboys in the middle with stupid suggestions about catchphrases, etc.  If you’re going to be serious about superhero films, then be serious about them.  Otherwise, stop making them.  6 out of 10 is all I can consider this one to be worth, and that’s largely based on how well Pierce Brosnan did.

#film review #dceu #black adam

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Film Review - Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons

Continuing with DC and WB home-release animated films from 2022, we leave the Tomorrowverse to one side to focus on a one-shot release by the name of Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

As the planet Krypton is on the verge of exploding, Jor-El and Lara put their newborn son Kal-El in a spaceship bound for Earth. An alien parasite named Starro escapes his containment in Jor-El's lab and stows away on the ship before it is sent to Earth, but falls off the ship partway through its journey. The spaceship lands in Kansas where Kal-El is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, and named Clark. Clark discovers he has superhuman abilities and becomes Superman. He meets Batman and reveals his identity to Lois Lane; the two marry and have a son named Jon.

Years later, the Kents are living in Smallville. Jon is frustrated by his father's frequent absences, unaware that Clark is Superman. One night, Superman saves the Justice League Watchtower from falling out of orbit after it is impacted by space debris. Superman has to leave to save Japan from a tsunami. On the Watchtower, Green Arrow, who investigates what hit the Watchtower, is attacked by a creature.

The next day, on his birthday, Jon develops heat vision. Clark reveals that he is Superman and takes Jon to Gotham City to see Batman for advice on when or if the rest of Jon's powers could emerge. Jon meets Batman's son Damian Wayne aka Robin, who is initially rude to him. Batman reveals to Superman that he has lost contact with the Watchtower and the two depart to see what is going on after Superman drops Jon off back in Smallville. When Batman and Superman arrive at the Watchtower, a possessed Martian Manhunter infects them with Starro spores.

Returning to the Batcave, the possessed Batman attempts to infect Damian but the boy slices the spore apart. After Damian tricks Batman's spore into thinking that it has successfully killed him, he overhears that Starro has been able to infect both the Justice League and Teen Titans and intends to infect Jon next. Damian travels to Smallville where he and Jon escape an infected Lois. Jon uses his heat vision on the Starro spore infecting Lois, which frees her from Starro's control. Damian and Jon travel to the Fortress of Solitude to use its Kryptonian technology to analyse a fragment of the Starro spore intended for Damian. After being mistaken for intruders by super-dog Krypto, they meet a holographic copy of Jor-El's consciousness. Jor-El explains that the Starro spores are being controlled by a central hive-mind Starro. Jon and Damian realize that Starro is on the Watchtower and if they take it out it will free everyone who is under control by a spore.

Jon and Damian travel to the Watchtower in the same ship that brought Kal-El to Earth. On the Watchtower, they are apprehended by possessed members of the Justice League and the Teen Titans. Starro explains that he intends to drain the Earth of life after securing control over everyone. Jon's invulnerability manifests when he jumps in front of an arrow fired by the possessed Green Arrow at Damian, and the duo is able to subdue the possessed heroes attacking them. Lois is able to contact Jon from President Lex Luthor's office and tells Jon that Starro is vulnerable to heat. They discover that the prime Starro is too strong for Jon's heat vision to destroy him as it does the spores. They resolve to knock the Watchtower out of orbit in the hopes that Starro will burn up with it on re-entry.

After evacuating all of the subdued heroes on a spacecraft back to Earth, they are able to set the Watchtower on a course for re-entry. They are attacked by Starro, but he is injured as the Watchtower begins to burn up on re-entry, causing all Starro spores on Earth to die. Unable to escape from the Watchtower, Damian and Jon admit their respect for each other. Freed from Starro, Superman intercepts the falling Watchtower and rescues Jon and Damian. Starro survives the fall to Earth where he is defeated by Jon, Damian, Batman, and Superman working together.

Afterwards, Damian and Bruce visit the Kent family in Smallville. Jon and Damian discuss a name for themselves before settling on Super-Sons.

Review:

For almost as long as superheroes have been around, the idea of many of those heroes having wards, offspring or other young relations that can join their fights has been around, beginning with the original Robin Dick Grayson in the early 1940’s, leading in swift succession to the “sidekick” concept occurring for many other DC superheroes.  The idea has changed over time, going from the simple addition of a point-of-view character for the original target readership to open acknowledgement that despite reboots and ret-cons, no superhero can fight crime forever.  Even if they live through all their battles, time and the simple fact of aging over time will ultimately prohibit a superhero from being around forever.  As such, the need for superhero children continues to this day, and this film plays into that by being adaptation of one of the most recent examples of this concept.

When it comes to Batman and Superman, these two have long avoided traditional family models with regards to the existence of protégés.  Superman has long had Supergirl as a cousin, and while the creation of Superboy as a clone of Superman in the 1990’s gave him progeny of a sort, he was given the cover of being Superman’s cousin as well.  By the same token, Batman’s list of Robins has previously gone from the original Dick Grayson to Jason Todd, then to Tim Drake, followed by a brief probationary stint for Stephanie Brown before returning to Tim.  All of these Robins were either taken in by Bruce following tragedy or became associated with his dark knight alter ego by choice.

As a result, comics or films now focusing on the idea of Superman being married with a child and Batman having a biological child of his own as well are still quite new.  That said, Damian Wayne being Robin is something the home-release animation audience is now familiar with due to the DC Animated Movie Universe.  He’s back for this film, which is the first computer-animated film DC and Warner Brothers have done together.  The pairing of him with a young Jonathan Kent creates an interesting odd-couple dynamic that is similar to what their fathers have, but different from that relationship and unique unto itself.  This makes for some great moments of comedy at times, as well as moments where you sympathise with the boys and root for them.

This helps keep the film from being too much like other films, as does the animation style, and the theme music is some of the best I’ve heard in any superhero film.  It strikes a perfect tone for a Superman-related film and gives us a break from some more recent superhero films that either lack similarly uplifting original music themes, or that over-use the Guardians of the Galaxy/Deadpool model of throwing in umpteen pop songs.  Sometimes it’s nice to just go back to something scored that just instantly says who the heroes will be without you having to look at the screen.

Casting-wise, fans of the DCEU will probably recognise the voice actor for Jonathan Kent, as it’s none other than Jack Dylan Grazer, also known as Freddy Freeman from the Shazam films.  He and Jack Griffo (the voice actor playing Damian in this film) do incredibly well playing two of the four title characters, and the two around which the film ultimately revolves.  The rest of the voice cast also brings some great performances as well.  Indeed, this film comes very close to being perfect on all points.  The one thing that spoils it is the idiot headteacher at Jonathan’s school, who tells Jonathan off for standing up to a bully and suggests the bully needs sympathy and compassion.  While this can be true when bullying first manifests in a child of early primary school age, who may not know any better, it’s not applicable to children of secondary school age as we see in this film.  Moreover, Jonathan was the one being bullied, so the headteacher should be on the bully’s case.

While this is slightly compensated for by Damian using pressure-point techniques on the bully a couple of times, thereby ensuring that character gets his just desserts, I feel like the headteacher should also be held accountable as well.  Permissiveness of bullying like that is making one’s self an accessory to bullying, and thus to some extent a bully in and of yourself.  Bullying should never be permitted; it should be stamped out, and if efforts to teach people not to bully don’t succeed, then there should be stiff penalties in place, up to and including imprisonment.  Otherwise, you will get more kids fighting back, and not all of them will show the restraint of the Super Sons.  Given this blemish on an otherwise excellent film, I’d say the end score here would be a solid 9 out of 10.

#film review #super sons

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Ramble of the month March 2024: Phase 5 of the Batman Begins-Led DCEU

With April set aside for an autism-centric monthly ramble and February utilised for phase 5 of my 90’s-based alternate MCU, March takes on the role of show-casing phase 5 of my hypothetical Batman Begins-led DC film-verse.  As DC is more prone to content reboots than Marvel, this latest phase will actually ramp up to just such a reboot, with “phase 6” actually being phase 1 of a new DC film-verse.  Unlike the real DCEU, that reboot will be better planned, but first let’s re-cap the previous four phases.

Phase 1:

2005: Batman Begins

2006: Man of Steel

2007: Wonder Woman

2008: The Dark Knight, Green Lantern

2009: The Flash, Man of Steel 2

2010: Aquaman, Justice League

Phase 2:

2011: Wonder Woman 2, Green Lantern 2, Green Arrow

2012: Hawkman, Batman/Superman, Aquaman 2

2013: John Constantine, The Flash 2, Suicide Squad

2014: Justice League 2, Green Arrow 2, Batman: The Long Crusade

Phase 3:

2015: Shazam, Man of Steel 3, The Atom

2016: Wonder Woman 3, Batgirl, Teen Titans

2017: Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Shazam vs Black Adam, Suicide Squad 2

2018: Justice League: Darkseid Rising, Aquaman 3, Doom Patrol

Phase 4:

2019: Superman: Doomsday, New Gods, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

2020: Suicide Squad: Arkham, Knightfall, Green Arrow 3

2021: Reign of the Supermen, Green Lantern: Twilight, Knightsend

2022: Justice League: Armageddon, Teen Titans 3, Justice Society

Phase 1, of course, acts as a means of establishing the DC Universe for film fans prior to forming the Justice League.  Phase 2 then builds on that foundation while also causing a schism within the Justice League by adapting the “Tower of Babel” story arc into Justice League 2.  Green Arrow 2 then proves Batman’s point about safeguarding against rogue heroes, which some films in phase 3 follow up on.  Phase 4 then focuses on the falls of many heroes, some of which stay down and some of which return.  However, as phase 4 ended, Hal Jordan was revealed to have gone rogue, which phase 5 will pick up from.  This is how the phase 5 slate would shape up overall.

Phase 5:

2023: Justice League: World’s Finest, Nightwing, The Killing Joke

2024: Supergirl, Birds of Prey, Flashpoint

Compared to past phases, phase 5 is only half the size, and while the opening film deals with the issue of Hal Jordan becoming Parallax, most of the other films are one-shots or sequels to tell some interesting stories ahead of the Flashpoint film.  So, let’s start by taking a look at these various phase 5 films.

Justice League: World’s Finest (2023) Directed by The Russo Brothers

Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent = Brandon Routh

Bruce Wayne/Batman = Christian Bale

Diana/Wonder Woman = Kate Beckinsale

J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter = Chiwetel Ejiofor

Arthur Curry/Aquaman = Chris Pine

Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern II = Taylor Lautner

Wallace "Wally" West/Flash II = Calum Worthy

Green Lantern/Hal Jordan/Parallax = Ben Affleck

John Stewart = Derek Luke

Guy Gardner = Damian Lewis

Fire/Beatriz Bonilla da Costa = Selena Gomez

Ice/Tora Olafsdotter = Kristine Froseth

Dinah Lance/Black Canary = Malin Akerman

John Henry Irons/Steel = Aldis Hodge

Kara Zor-El/Supergirl = Dakota Fanning

Connor Hawke/Green Arrow II = Levon Hawke

Lex Luthor = Kelsey Grammer

Mercy Graves = Scarlett Johannsen

Koriand'r/Starfire = Elle Fanning

Dusk = Ella Balinska

Blackfire/Komand'r = Virginia Gardner

Ferro/Andrew Nolan = Garrett Wareing

Mon-El/Lar Gand = Milo Manheim

Brainiac-5/Querl Dox = Karan Brar

Saturn Girl/Imra Ardeen = Dove Cameron

Lightning Lad/Garth Ranzz = Tye Sheridan

Cosmic Boy/Rokk Kirnn = Dylan Minnette

Starman/Thom Kallor = Ty Simpkins

Dream Girl/Nura Nal = Sabrina Carpenter

Karate Kid/Val Armorr = Aramis Knight

Sensor Girl/Projectra = Angourie Rice

Amanda Waller = Viola Davis

Floyd Lawton/Deadshot = Christian Slater

Jaina Hudson/White Rabbit = Hayley Kiyoko

Eve Eden/Nightshade = Debby Ryan

Dr Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy = April Bowlby

Dr Niles Caulder/The Chief = Pierce Brosnan

Clifford Steele/Robot Man = Johnny Whitworth

Larry Trainor/Negative Man = Alessandro Nivola

Rita Farr/Elasti-Girl = Alyssa Milano

Mento/Steve Dayton = Nathan Fillion

Bumblebee/Karen Beecher = Kyla Pratt

Vox/Malcom Duncan = Donald Glover

This film is based on the events of the Justice League story arc The Final Hour, in which the Justice League and others try to stop an alien being called the Sun Eater from devouring Earth’s sun, only for Hal Jordan to ultimately sacrifice himself to save Earth by absorbing the Sun Eater and reigniting the sun.  The film version would be slightly different in numerous details, but by-and-large the main thrust of the story would remain the same.  The League would be the main focus, with Luthor, a few members of future super-team the Legion of Superheroes and a couple of others being heavily featured due to the story arc involved.  The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad are also featured to lesser degrees during scenes showing the wider crisis in what is essentially a superhero disaster film.

Direction-wise, I’d put this film in the hands of the Russo brothers based on their work for the MCU, especially Infinity War and Endgame in the Avengers run of films.  Indeed, like Infinity War and Endgame, I also gave the Russos direction of Justice League: Armageddon to keep things consistent across both films.  In terms of cast, most cast members have appeared on prior films, with only the characters from Dusk down to Sensor Girl being new cast members coming in fresh on this film.

Nightwing (2023) Directed by Guy Ritchie

Richard Grayson/Robin/Nightwing = Patrick Schwarzenegger

Roland Desmond/Blockbuster = Adam Driver

Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton/Lady Vic = Florence Pugh

Talon/William Cobb = Evan Peters

Amy Rohrbach = Elizabeth Olsen

Elise Svoboda = Alexandra Stan

Gannon Malloy = Max Lloyd-Jones

Comissioner Gil Maclean = Michael Ealy

Mr Nice/James Nice = Sam Reid

In the first of our one-shot films, we get a solo outing for Batman’s original protégé Dick Grayson as he tries to clean up the corruption of Bludhaven by working for their local police force.  As the film progresses, Nightwing finds himself caught between local crime lord Blockbuster and a plot involving the infamous Court of Owls of Gotham legend.  Outside Patrick Schwarzenegger reprising the role of Dick Grayson, the cast is completely new to this DCEU, and in honour of his great work on crime-centric films, I’ve picked Guy Ritchie to serve in the director role.

The Killing Joke (2023) Directed by Christopher Nolan

Bruce Wayne/Batman = Christian Bale

Barbara Gordon/Batgirl = Bella Thorne

Tim Drake/Robin II = David Mazouz

The Joker = Willem Dafoe

Lucius Fox = Morgan Freeman

James "Jim" Gordon = Gary Oldman

Jeannie/Becky Moore = Georgie Henley

Comedian/Young Joker = David Corenswent

Patrolman Robert Moore = Grant Gustin

Mitch = Scott Eastwood

Murray = Drew Powell

Det. Harvey Bullock = Donal Logue

Det. Renee Montoya = Penelope Cruz

When DC and WB did an animated Killing Joke adaptation, they had the right idea in terms of expanding the story beyond the Alan Moore-written graphic novel.  However, they expanded it incorrectly by having an unrelated preceding 30 minutes that served more to facilitate Bruce Timm’s shipping of a Bruce-Barbara relationship than to make a well-expanded narrative.  This film begins with the Joker being apprehended, hatching his scheme in Arkham, and then a short while later, we get the original Killing Joke plot in the film’s middle.

The end is then expanded, first by taking from a prose novel adaptation I’ve read where Batman laughing with the Joker turns into Batman almost giving in to the temptation to kill Joker.  After this, Joker sees a woman who he thinks is the dead wife from his flashbacks and breaks out to “find the truth”.  When Batman confronts Joker for a third time, the question is left hanging as to whether the Joker’s past was true or not, and a post-credits scene sets up for Barbara becoming Oracle.  Direction-wise, I figure that only Christopher Nolan would do well adapting this material into a live-action narrative.  Casting-wise, the film is mostly existing cast reprising past roles, with only the characters linked to Joker’s back-story being fresh castings.

Supergirl (2024) Directed by Reese Witherspoon

Kara Zor-El/Supergirl = Dakota Fanning

Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent = Brandon Routh

Cat Grant = January Jones

Jimmy Olsen = Rider Strong

Winslow Schott Jr. = David Henrie

Lena Luthor = Spencer Grammer

Zor-El = Henry Cavill

Alura Zor-El = Rebecca Hazelwood

Astra In-Ze = Rebecca Hazelwood

Non = Ryan McPartlin

Vartox = James Murray

Indigo/Brainiac-8 = Letitia Wright

Capt. Crispus Allen = Djimon Honsou

Det. Peter Foley = Matt Le Blanc

This film gives us a solo film outing for Supergirl that is partly based on the first season of the character’s Arrowverse TV show.  In other words, we see Kara starting out on her own life in another city and having to clash with her villainous aunt and uncle, as well as Indigo, a time-displaced villain in the Brainiac family tree.  For direction, I’ve picked Reese Witherspoon as I know in recent years she’s taken up production and is very passionate about female-led stories and story-telling, so I think she’d be a great fit to make a directorial debut on a character like Supergirl.

Birds of Prey (2024) Directed by Patty Jenkins

Dinah Lance/Black Canary = Malin Akerman

Barbara Gordon/Oracle = Bella Thorne

Cassandra Cain/Batgirl = Momona Tamada

Helena Bertinelli/Huntress II = Alexandra Daddario

Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk = Rita Ora

Det. Renee Montoya = Penelope Cruz

Noah Kuttler/Calculator = Tom Cavanagh

Scandal Savage = Katie Leung

Knockout = Ireland Baldwin

Thomas Blake/Catman = Luke Grimes

Floyd Lawton/Deadshot = Christian Slater

Bane = Rodrigo Santoro

For the penultimate phase 5 film, we’re giving the Birds of Prey super-team their chance to shine, albeit better than they did in the real DCEU.  More comics-accurate castings and character selections, including leaving out Harley Quinn (who, if you remember my phase 4 ramble, is killed off in the last Suicide Squad film).  In this film, we see Barbara recruit a number of street-level heroes to tackle a criminal group known as the Secret Six.  The film follows up on plot threads from Knightfall, Knightsend and Killing Joke, and also uses Cassandra Cain as Batgirl like in the comics, another elements the real DCEU Birds of Prey got wrong.  Patty Jenkins of the real DCEU’s Wonder Woman films helms the project from a directorial standpoint.

Flashpoint (2024) Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Barry Allen/The Flash = Matt Damon

Thomas Wayne/Flashpoint Batman = Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow = Ethan Hawke

John Constantine = Matt Ryan

Jason Blood/Etrigan = Eddie Redmayne

Victor Stone/Cyborg = Ashton Sanders

Citizen Cold/Leonard Snart = Rob Lowe

Superman/Kal-El = Brandon Routh

Nora Allen = Cybill Shepherd

Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash = Jake Gyllenhaal

Diana/Wonder Woman = Kate Beckinsale

Arthur Curry/Aquaman = Chris Pine

Billy Batson/Shazam = Zachary Gordon/Zachary Levi

Freddy Freeman = Chandler Riggs

Darla Dudley = Quvenzhané Wallis

Mary Bromfield = Halston Sage

Eugene Choi = Hudson Yang

Pedro Peña = Rico Rodriguez

Hal Jordan = Ben Affleck

Martha Wayne/Flashpoint Joker = Marg Helgenberger

Yo-Yo = Margot Robbie

During the events of Justice League: Armageddon, Barry Allen’s Flash became lost in the timestream.  When he gets out, he enters an alternate reality where Aquaman and Wonder Woman are at war, and many heroes are missing or dead, including Barry’s speedster alter ego.  Thus begins a mission to learn the truth of why events have changed, and the climax will reboot the DCEU.  While this film simply uses the title of Flashpoint, it’s based more on the DC animated version from the DCAMU as that’s the main Flashpoint story I’ve seen and recall.  Of course, the rest of the alternative DCEU I’ve laid out prior to this film alters some other aspects as well, including how Barry exits the timestream and why history was changed.  Direction-wise, I had to pick Robert Zemeckis just because as the guy who directed the Back to the Future trilogy and the 2009 Disney version of A Christmas Carol, he is probably the best director for anything with a time travel component.

This concludes our phase 5 for the alternate DCEU, and this specific version of the DCEU.  When I do phase 6 on my 90’s MCU, the first (and for now only) phase of my rebooted hypothetical DCEU will be hot on its heels.  So, until next time, ta-ta for now.

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Film Review - Green Lantern: Beware My Power

Our look into the films of 2022 now steps away from cinema releases to explore the animated direct-to-home-release market.  More specifically, we’re checking out the fifth instalment in DC’s Tomorrowverse continuity, or as it’s better known, Green Lantern: Beware My Power…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Former US Marine and Medal of Honor recipient John Stewart, struggling with civilian life after the military, witnesses a spaceship crash nearby. The occupant, one of the Guardians of the Universe, dies of his injuries, and the Power Ring he carries, previously owned by Hal Jordan, attaches itself to Stewart's finger. The ring flies Stewart up to the Justice League Watchtower, where he meets Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, and Vixen. With the Guardians of the Universe unresponsive and Jordan's apparent death, Stewart and Green Arrow use Ganthet's repaired ship to travel to Oa, which they discover in ruins and the Green Lantern Corps slaughtered. They also encounter Thanagarian warrior Shayera Hol, who indicates security footage showing a Rannian ship docking at Oa just before the attack.

Shayera explains that the Thanagarian-Rannian war had briefly ended, with Jordan overseeing a joint project using Zeta-Beam technology to benefit both planets. The experiment went haywire, transporting Thanagar into Rann's atmosphere, upsetting the ecosystem of both planets, restarting the war, and apparently killing Jordan and thousands of Thanagarians and Rannians. Shayera accuses Rann of sabotaging the experiment and attacking Oa, but Stewart and Green Arrow insist they investigate further.

The team travels to a Rannian military outpost that was raided by Thanagarians, where they encounter Rannian hero Adam Strange, presumed deceased but teleported at random by Zeta-Beams' attraction to him. Strange denies that Rann attacked Oa and leads them to Rannian forces, engaged in a battle with Thanagarian forces. Rannian Captain Kantus reveals that Rannian scientist Sardath has converted the Zeta-Beam project into a doomsday weapon to destroy Thanagar, the location of which is known only to the Rannian High Command. Shayera and Strange review footage from past attacks and discover that a third party has been impersonating both Rannian and Thanagarian ships to further the war.

Retracing the trajectories of the imposter ships, the team discovers a base hidden inside an asteroid, where they battle the Yellow Lanterns, along with a group of galactic assassins including Lord Damyn, Kanjar Ro and Despero, before being captured by their leader Sinestro. Jordan is revealed to be alive, having released his ring and been taken prisoner after Sinestro sabotaged the Zeta-Beam experiment. They escape as Sinestro and his Lanterns attack Rann to find the location of Sardath's doomsday weapon. Using the Zeta-Beams, Sardath teleports them to his secret base, but Sinestro and his Lanterns follow and attack. During the battle, Stewart reluctantly kills Sinestro and Jordan brutally kills two of Sinestro's assassins leaving Green Arrow and John Stewart suspicious of his actions.

After obtaining the Zeta-Beam data, Jordan suddenly kills Sardath; he reveals that, when he was captured, Sinestro had infected him with the Parallax Entity, corrupting him. After Sinestro had destroyed the Green Lanterns, Jordan had claimed all their rings for himself, enhancing his power to a godlike state. With the Zeta-Beam technology, Jordan intends to destroy both Rann and Thanagar in a quest to end conflict across the galaxy.

Stewart and Jordan battle until Green Arrow is forced to shoot and kill Jordan. They are unable to stop the weapon from firing, but Strange flies in the path of the Zeta-Beam, teleporting it and himself to parts unknown. Stewart and Green Arrow return to Earth, and Stewart sends Jordan's rings to their new wearers to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps. Shayera departs from Earth, in Ganthet's spaceship, promising to Green Arrow and Stewart they would meet again soon knowing Rann and Thanagar will need the new Green Lantern Corps to help rebuild both worlds when a ceasefire is ordered. Stewart proposes dinner and a toast to "absent friends" to Green Arrow, to which he replies "and maybe a few new ones".

Review:

For me, the Tomorrowverse continuity started off well but not brilliantly on Superman: Man of Tomorrow with a 7/10, then improved to 9/10 on Justice Society: World War II before hitting top marks with the two films that comprise an adaptation of Batman: The Long Halloween.  Now we get a fifth film centring on Green Lantern, or more specifically John Stewart, one of two humans added to GL lore in the so-called “bronze age” of comics that runs throughout the 70’s and 80’s at a rough guess.  John Stewart is one of the earliest Black superheroes in the DC universe, and while he’s had a lot of screentime thanks to his use in DC’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited shows of the early 2000’s, he’s not been as utilised in any film productions, with most home-release animated films favouring the use of Hal Jordan as the main Green Lantern for Earth.

Given this, one might think this film would be a welcome change of pace, and for people coming to it without much comics knowledge, it probably is.  Regardless of whether you have that knowledge or not, the film is well-animated, well-acted and has a decent plot, albeit heavily packed with characters some people may lack a wider awareness of.  This is an on-going issue with DC animated films, and indeed with superhero films as a whole now; failing to provide sufficient exposition for less well-versed audiences to pick up all the references to hand.  One can only hope that as Marvel completes its Multiverse saga in the MCU and James Gunn reboots DC’s live-action film continuity, they start to learn this and better inform new audiences about key information.

Going back to the other issue I mentioned, let’s consider why this John Stewart-centric film might not be favoured by people who know the source material.  Of the two plot threads being used from the comics, one is the story of Hal Jordan’s downfall into villainy that destroyed the Green Lantern Corps back in the 1990’s.  Now in the comics, John Stewart and Guy Gardner had already been Green Lanterns alongside Hal for years by this point, so the original story didn’t involve either of them taking over as sole remaining Green Lantern.  Instead, it was freelance artist Kyle Rayner who fulfilled that role, with John appearing during Kyle’s tenure initially as a kind of mentor figure, then later returning to the GL role when Kyle needed to leave Earth.  Eventually, after Hal was resurrected and redeemed, he, Guy, John and Kyle were all GLs together.

What this means is that this film, while trying to tout DC’s diversity credentials by putting John Stewart in the spotlight, isn’t giving us a story that is truly John Stewart’s own story.  It’s taking stories that focused on other Green Lanterns and putting him in their shoes, and this is where a lot of superhero storytelling that touts equality and diversity falls down at the moment.  Yes, you’ve got a Black man wearing the GL ring and uniform, and you’ve got his prior backstory of being in the US Marine corps, but then he’s basically just slotting into other adventures that were had by other GLs originally.  Why not adapt stories that heavily featured John in the comics, or give him a new and original story unique to him?  Alternatively, John Stewart had five seasons of animated screentime in the DCAU and guest appearances in the DCAMU, whereas Kyle Rayner has only had two guest appearances and one non-appearance mention in the DCAU.  If they wanted to use the Parallax story arc, why not use Kyle Rayner since he was actually part of that story?

The fact that Hawkgirl shows up in the film is a nice nod back to John Stewart’s DCAU incarnation, and the reference will help fans of those animated shows accept the various departures from source material, but for me, it spoils things a little to have John Stewart headline an adaptation of stories that belong to other Green Lanterns.  I can only hope that once the currently unfolding Crisis on Infinite Earths film trilogy concludes the Tomorrowverse, the Parallax storyline can be re-adapted in a more comics-accurate way while John Stewart gets to headline stories that his and his alone.  Overall, I give this film 6 out of 10.

#film review #tomorrowverse

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Film Review - Thor: Love and Thunder

Carrying on with our reviews of cinema releases from 2022, it’s time to hop back to the MCU and take a look at the somewhat mixed bag of a film that is Thor: Love and Thunder…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Gorr and his daughter, Love, the last of their race, struggle in a barren desert. Despite their prayers to their god, Rapu, Love dies. The god-killing Necrosword calls to Gorr, leading him to Rapu's lush realm. After Rapu cruelly mocks and dismisses Gorr's plight, he renounces the god, causing Rapu to strangle him. The Necrosword offers itself to Gorr, who kills Rapu with it and vows to kill all gods. Gorr is granted the ability to manipulate shadows and produce monsters but is cursed with impending death and corruption under the sword's influence.

Thor has joined the Guardians of the Galaxy after the Avengers' battle against Thanos. He learns of a distress signal from Sif, so he parts ways with the team. He finds an injured Sif, who warns that Gorr's next target is New Asgard. Meanwhile, Dr Jane Foster, Thor's ex-girlfriend, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. With medical treatment proving ineffective, she travels to New Asgard hoping that Thor's hammer Mjolnir, which was previously fractured by Hela, might heal her.

Due to an enchantment Thor unknowingly placed on it years earlier to protect Foster, Mjolnir reforges and bonds itself to her. Thor arrives in New Asgard just as Gorr's attack begins. Thor is surprised to find Foster wielding Mjolnir, but teams up with her, Valkyrie, and Korg to fight Gorr. The group thwarts Gorr, but he escapes, kidnapping a number of Asgardian children and imprisoning them in the Shadow Realm. The group travels to Omnipotence City to warn the other gods and ask for their help in creating an army. The leader of the gods, Zeus, is unwilling to help, thinking they can remain safe and hidden from Gorr in the City; he also believes that Gorr will not be able to achieve his stated goal of visiting the realm of Eternity, where he will be granted one wish, presumably to destroy all gods. As a security precaution, Zeus orders the group's capture to prevent them from exposing the City's location to Gorr. When Zeus injures Korg, Thor responds by using Zeus’ thunderbolt to impale him, and Valkyrie steals the thunderbolt before they escape to confront Gorr in the Shadow Realm. On the way, Thor learns of Foster's cancer diagnosis.

The group arrive at the Shadow Realm but are unable to locate the children. Foster sees ancient drawings that depict Thor's battle-axe Stormbreaker as a way to summon the Bifrost to enter Eternity, and deduces the trap laid out by Gorr. She throws away Stormbreaker to prevent Gorr from accessing it. However, Gorr overpowers the group and threatens to kill Foster, forcing Thor to summon it back. Gorr successfully steals Stormbreaker and injures Valkyrie before a weakened Foster collapses.

Upon traveling back to New Asgard, Thor discovers that Foster's Thor form is not allowing her body to naturally fight the cancer. Due to this, Thor travels to Eternity's altar alone and, using Zeus's thunderbolt, imbues the children with his power to fight Gorr's monsters while he battles Gorr. When Foster senses that Gorr is about to kill Thor, she joins the battle with Mjolnir to save him. They destroy the Necrosword, freeing Gorr from its influence, but the three are brought into Eternity's realm. With Gorr poised to make his wish, Thor implores Gorr to revive his daughter instead of destroying the gods. Thor then leaves Gorr to make his decision and attends to Foster, who succumbs to her illness and dies in his arms. Moved by their display, Gorr wishes for Eternity to revive Love, which it grants. As Gorr dies from the curse, he requests Thor to take care of Love.

In the aftermath, the children return to New Asgard, where Valkyrie and Sif commence their training, and a monument is erected in Foster’s memory. Thor adopts Love, who accompanies him in his heroics, with Thor wielding Mjolnir and Love wielding Stormbreaker.

In a mid-credits scene, back in Omnipotence City, a recuperating Zeus sends his son Hercules to kill Thor. In a post-credits scene, Foster arrives at the gates of Valhalla, here Heimdall welcomes her.

Review:

When it comes to Thor being put on the big screen, my view is that Marvel started out exactly right, stayed right up as far as The Dark World, then started to lose the plot only slightly on Ragnarök, and then we get Love and Thunder somewhat derailing things further.  As someone who has actually read the comics, the increasingly comedic Thor we’ve been presented with under Taika Waititi’s direction is not how Thor is supposed to be.  I get that Hemsworth wanted to play another side to the character and he’s been hanging around Tony Stark a lot, but that doesn’t mean Thor has to waste time trying to be Tony.  There are a lot of people I’ve been around a lot through work or being friends, or even family, but I don’t try to act like them.  I act like me because that’s who I am, and by the same token, Marvel should let Thor be Thor.  If Hemsworth doesn’t like, maybe it’s time to either finish off the character or replace the actor.

As a result of the over-use of comedy on a fairly serious character, not to mention the subject matter of the film’s plot, it’s easy to understand why Marvel Studios are looking elsewhere in terms of directors for Thor’s fifth solo film.  Russel Crowe’s use of a Greek accent for Zeus is as questionable as allowing Karl Urban to voice the Asgardian Skurge like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses.  In Urban’s case, it clashed with the established unaccented English used by all Asgardian characters previously, while the Greek accent when combined with some of the sillier mannerisms and comedy lines in use makes it hard to take Zeus seriously.  It’s even worse when you see the costume.  Seriously, did these people not do their research?

Another issue was the bringing back of Jane Foster to do her pseudo-Thor role.  While I have no issue with seeing Jane lift the hammer and fight alongside Thor, the story thread has many flaws.  First, Thor is not a superhero mantle like Captain America or Iron Man.  Only Thor is Thor and his hammer only grants those who are worthy his powers, not his name.  Outside of the Avengers Assemble animated series, no one at Marvel gets this.  If Jane is going to lift the hammer and be a superhero, that’s fine, but she’s not Thor, she’s whatever codename she either invents or is given.  Two, Asgardian weapons heal, so the idea that Mjolnir makes her cancer worse is completely counter to that.  Either the weapons heal people or they don’t; you can’t have it both ways, so don’t.  Lastly, like much of the rest of the film, it’s all played too much for comedy.

Of course, all these flaws stem from Waititi, who many sources now seem to claim had no real knowledge of or love for Thor and the comic book source material related to him.  He took on the task of directing this film and its predecessor simply as a job to be paid for.  While I respect that the film industry is ultimately a field of work and people are in their chosen area of that industry to earn a living, I would think that you’d want to do the best job possible to ensure regular employment.  That means investing in the franchises to which you are recruited, doing proper research and creating films that work for both new fans and those of us coming to this knowing comics, past films and so on.

This all being said, most of the cast performs well in their various roles despite, we’re set up to have the MCU shift its focus from Norse gods to Olympian ones for Thor 5, and we get some explanation for why Thor and Jane broke up pre-Ragnarök, even if it didn’t quite make sense for an Asgardian god of thunder to be getting into such petty and stupid domestic disagreements.  No wonder Crowe was asking when gods became a joke in the mid-credits scene; Thor and Jane splitting up like some sitcom-of-the-week couple is a stupid joke against Marvel fans, and I for one am not laughing.  I give this film only 6 out of 10, and strongly recommend the following for Thor 5;

-Take Thor back to being a serious hero and have as few MCU humour beats as possible.

-Have Thor hand the mantle of top MCU deity to Hercules by the end of the film.

-Give Zeus and any other Olympians better costuming; robes are cool but leave the white tutus behind like the one Zeus was wearing, as it just looked silly.

-Keep Taika Waititi out of it.  Yes, that means no Korg, but that’s a small price to pay to give Thor his proper respect as a character.

#film review #mcu #thor love and thunder

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Film Review - Jurassic World: Dominion

Continuing our look into 2022 cinema releases, let’s shift from the MCU to another long-running science fiction franchise and look at the sixth instalment in the Jurassic film franchise, Jurassic World: Dominion…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Four years after the Lockwood Estate incident and the volcanic eruption on Isla Nublar, once-extinct dinosaurs freely roam the Earth. Amid global efforts to control them, Biosyn Genetics establishes a dinosaur preserve in Italy's Dolomites which conducts genomics research, ostensibly for pharmacological applications.

Claire Dearing, Zia Rodriguez, and Franklin Webb investigate illegal dinosaur breeding sites; Claire's partner, Owen Grady, helps relocate stray dinosaurs. At their remote cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Claire and Owen secretly raise 14-year-old Maisie Lockwood, Benjamin Lockwood's biogenetic granddaughter, and protect her from groups seeking to exploit her unique genetic makeup. When Blue, the Velociraptor raised by Owen, arrives at the cabin with an asexually-reproduced hatchling, Maisie names it Beta. Increasingly frustrated living in seclusion, Maisie sneaks away to explore. Mercenaries searching for Maisie find and kidnap her and capture Beta.

Meanwhile, swarms of giant locusts are decimating U.S. crops. Dr. Ellie Sattler, who is no longer married, observes that crops grown with Biosyn seeds are left uneaten, raising suspicions that Biosyn created the insects. Ellie takes a captured locust to her former partner, palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant. They determine the locust was genetically engineered with Cretaceous-period arthropod DNA and contemporary migratory locusts.

Franklin, now with the CIA's dangerous-species division in San Francisco, informs Claire and Owen that Maisie may have been taken to Malta. Upon arrival, Claire and Owen infiltrate a dinosaur black market with Owen's former Jurassic World colleague Barry Sembène, who is leading a French Intelligence raid. Carnivorous dinosaurs are unleashed during the foray, wreaking havoc. When Claire and Owen learn that Maisie and Beta were transported to Biosyn, sympathetic cargo pilot Kayla Watts agrees to fly them there.

Chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm now works for Biosyn. He sought Ellie's help to expose CEO Dr. Lewis Dodgson after communications director Ramsay Cole warned him of Dodgson's illegal activities. Dodgson is exploiting dinosaurs and coerces former InGen geneticist Dr. Henry Wu to modify the transgenic locust to let Biosyn corner the world's food supply. Wu denounces the plan, saying it will cause an ecological collapse as the locusts spread unchecked. Wu meets Maisie and explains that his former colleague, Dr. Charlotte Lockwood (Benjamin Lockwood's deceased daughter), used her own DNA to replicate and give birth to the genetically identical Maisie. Charlotte altered Maisie's DNA to prevent her from inheriting the fatal disease which she had. Wu believes that Maisie and Beta's asexual conception and DNA are key to creating a pathogen to halt the locust outbreak.

A Quetzalcoatlus attacks Kayla's plane in Biosyn's airspace, forcing Owen and Kayla to crash land while Claire is ejected. After separate encounters with a Therizinosaurus, Pyroraptor and Dilophosaurus, the three regroup. Inside Biosyn, Ian and Ramsay covertly advise Ellie and Alan on where to obtain a locust DNA sample. While searching for the lab, they encounter Maisie. Discovering the breach, Dodgson attempts to incinerate the locusts to destroy evidence; some locusts escape through an air vent, sparking a wildfire around the preserve.

Alan, Ellie, and Maisie barely escape the facility before finding Ian. They meet Owen, Claire and Kayla, with Ramsay later joining them. Dodgson flees with dinosaur embryos via a hyperloop, but becomes trapped after Claire and Ellie reroute the power and is then killed by three Dilophosaurus. As the group works together, Owen, with Alan and Maisie's help, captures Beta. They and Wu escape in a Biosyn helicopter during a battle between a Giganotosaurus and the first park's veteran Tyrannosaurus, aided by the Therizinosaurus.

Ellie and Alan rekindle their romantic relationship before testifying with Ian and Ramsay against Biosyn. Owen, Claire, and Maisie return home and reunite Beta and Blue. Wu releases a host locust carrying the pathogen, gradually eradicating the swarms. Dinosaurs and humans adapt to a new co-existence, and the United Nations declares Biosyn Valley an international dinosaur sanctuary.

Review:

So over three new Jurassic films, we’ve gone from a second attempt at a dinosaur theme park that used “world” in the title to a world in which dinosaurs have now reached the wider world, yet it hasn’t really lived up the title of the trilogy at all.  Instead, we’re pulled up short, and not in the best manner possible.  I mean, I can understand why to some degree.  The studio executives at Universal doubtless want to keep the franchise alive over the long-term, and of course they’re probably anxious not to imitate something like Planet of the Apes where humanity is being supplanted by another species due to scientific meddling.

However, by not putting us into a humans vs dinosaurs survival scenario, the film lacks any real resonance.  The plot largely revolves around one genetically engineered human girl and a bunch of locusts modified with prehistoric genetics, making the dinosaurs virtually superfluous and not really tackling their impact on the world.  I expected more around dinosaurs out-competing modern animals, causing widespread ecological mayhem by themselves and some debate on whether they should be killed to restore the eco-systems we know, contained to minimise further damage, or could humanity adapt by scaling up our current approaches to animal management.

The result of not doing this is the Jurassic franchise wasting time rehashing old plot points and issues we’ve already seen umpteen times already, and then trying to compensate with the blatant fan-service of putting the original trilogy of Dern, Goldblum and Neill in alongside the Jurassic World duo.  Another original JP character comes back in the form of Dodgson, but due to the original actor having since been tried and convicted of child sex offences (at least according to Wikipedia), we get a change of actor.  Apparently, Dodgson plays a larger role in the novels that the initial films were based on, and core elements of the character remain consistent across both film and books, but I’m not wild about the Steve Jobs-like presentation of the character given by actor Campbell Scott in this film.

The key reason why I’m not wild about this is because a few years ago, Disney did a Ducktales reboot series in which they do the same kind of thing with a new character for that series, and it also plays too much into the trope of human villains in Jurassic films being weaselly, smarmy jerks that present little to no real threat.  They ultimately just wind up as dinosaur food without really doing anything beyond spouting the odd line or two that basically broadcasts that they’re detestable people.  Just once, it would be nice to see a human villain in a Jurassic film pose a major threat instead of being some irksome twit.  Only the hunter Roland Tembo from Jurassic Park: The Lost World comes close in that respect.

As much as I respect this film for its decent plot, issue exploration, acting and good fan service, it fails to keep the dinosaurs central to the plot or provide a better class of antagonist, issues that I think the upcoming seventh Jurassic film will need to address to keep the franchise viable.  Overall, I give it 7 out of 10.

#film review #jurassic world

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Film Review - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Having been off film reviews for the first half of February 2024 tackling submissions to literary agencies, it’s time to get back on track with my film review backlog.  Continuing our look into 2022 cinema releases, the time has come to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or more accurately the Marvel Multimedia Multiverse, as we take a look at Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

America Chavez and a version of Stephen Strange are chased by a demon in the space between universes while searching for the Book of Vishanti. Strange is killed and Chavez accidentally creates a portal that transports herself and Strange's corpse to Earth-616, where that universe's version of Stephen Strange rescues Chavez from another demon with help from Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme. Chavez explains that the beings are hunting her because she has the power to travel through the multiverse, and it is explained that dreams are glimpses into the lives of multiversal counterparts.

Recognizing witchcraft runes on the demon, Strange consults Wanda Maximoff but realizes that she is responsible for the attacks. After acquiring the Darkhold and becoming the Scarlet Witch, Wanda believes that taking Chavez's powers and traveling through the multiverse will allow her to reunite with Billy and Tommy, the children she created during her time in Westview. When Strange refuses to surrender Chavez, Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj and kills many sorcerers. Chavez accidentally transports herself and Strange to Earth-838. Wanda uses the Darkhold to "dreamwalk", taking control of her Earth-838 counterpart who lives a suburban life with her own Billy and Tommy. After a surviving sorceress sacrifices herself to destroy the Darkhold and break the dreamwalk, an enraged Wanda forces Wong to lead her to Mount Wundagore, the source of the Darkhold's power, to reestablish the dreamwalk.

While searching for help, Strange and Chavez are apprehended by Earth-838's Sorcerer Supreme, Karl Mordo, and brought before the Illuminati, a group consisting of Mordo, Peggy Carter, Blackagar Boltagon, Maria Rambeau, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier. They explain that through reckless use of their universe's Darkhold in an attempt to defeat Thanos, Earth-838's Strange triggered a universe-destroying "incursion". After defeating Thanos, the Illuminati executed their Strange to prevent him from causing more harm. Mordo believes that Earth-616's Strange is similarly dangerous, but Wanda reestablishes her dreamwalk at Mount Wundagore and arrives in her Earth-838 counterpart's body before the Illuminati can pass judgment. She brutally kills all the Illuminati except Mordo, who Strange subdues before fleeing with Chavez. The two escape with help from the Earth-838 version of Strange's ex-fiancé, Christine Palmer, a scientist working with the Illuminati.

Strange, Chavez, and Palmer enter the space between universes to find the Book of Vishanti, which is the antithesis of the Darkhold, but Wanda appears and destroys it. She then takes over Chavez's mind and uses her powers to send Strange and Palmer to an incursion-destroyed universe. Strange defeats the destroyed universe's Strange, who has been corrupted by his Darkhold, and then uses that Darkhold to dreamwalk into the body of his deceased counterpart on Earth-616. With Wong's help, Strange saves Chavez from Wanda and encourages Chavez to use her abilities. Chavez transports Wanda to Earth-838, where she sees Billy and Tommy recoil from her in fear while crying for their real mother. Realizing the error of her ways, Wanda relents and uses her powers to bring down Mount Wundagore, simultaneously destroying all copies of the Darkhold throughout the multiverse and sacrificing herself in the process. Chavez returns Strange and Palmer to their respective universes.

Sometime later, Kamar-Taj is under repair and the surviving sorcerers, joined by Chavez, continue training. Strange develops a third eye as a result of using the Darkhold and dreamwalking into a corpse. In a mid-credits scene, Strange is approached by a sorceress who warns him that his actions have triggered an incursion that he must help fix. Strange follows her into the Dark Dimension.

Review:

To explain my comment in the introductory paragraph before we begin, I feel that the term Marvel Cinematic Universe has ceased to be applied correctly by Marvel, one of a few issues I have with the production decisions leading to this film.  As someone with autism, I have a tendency to err on the side of being literal, and while the MCU abided with the literal definition of itself pre-Endgame, the post-Endgame era has become increasingly abstract in this regard.  Streaming shows have gone from being optional extras to part of the core continuity, which not only puts lie to the term cinematic because the primary story arc of the continuity is no longer strictly based in cinema products, but also makes fans like me who don’t want to stream feel left out.

Why don’t I want to stream?  Because each streaming service is effectively a single channel, and I don’t want to have to pay for just one channel just to get a few shows.  I want to pay for a range of channels and access the shows I want to watch from each, which is how traditional TV works.  Disney’s new model that Marvel is forced to abide by alienates people like me, especially in films like this where exposition covering the missed material is limited.  As such, I’m making up the difference with research on Wiki sites and based on my comics knowledge, neither of which is a good substitute for core content being in the format I want it in.

The second point where Marvel is no longer sticking to the MCU title is in the fact that we’re now dealing with multiple universes within a multiverse.  This proves problematic because now non-Marvel Studio films made using Marvel film rights have been claimed by Kevin Feige as part of the MCU.  For someone like me with literal understanding of language, this makes no sense because it would mean having to work every non-Marvel Studios film story into the same world and timeline as the MCU we have known to date.  What Feige actually means, of course, is that these films comprise other universes within the Marvel Multiverse, but like most neurotypicals, he’s not bothered to use the literal and correct language, thus creating confusion for some of us.

When you combine these issues with some of Marvel’s other recent failings like rushed production, insufficient exposition generally and so on, you’re not going to get films that fire on all cylinders.  This Doctor Strange film has elements that exemplify this, beginning with insufficient exposition to explain the non-cinematic events of Wandavision to explain what happens in this film, so fans who haven’t seen that show like myself and failed to do research before watching are going to feel a bit confused.  This detracts from the film’s ability to be a stand-alone story like most pre-Endgame MCU films, depriving it of a key strength of those earlier films.

The film does well, however, in exploring Wanda’s grief and the lengths a grieving mother might go to if not properly supported with that grief.  However, I think that Strange’s character was very much off-model from his first solo film.  In the first film, Strange was still clinging to his oath as a medical doctor to avoid killing, but through Infinity War, Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home and now this film, he’s become as casual and off-hand about sacrificing others as a lot of MCU heroes.  Indeed, the so-called “heroes” of the MCU being quite anti-hero in nature is something I’ve noticed for a while, and I really hope someone starts correcting that.

Of course, much like Spider-Man: No Way Home, this film is trying to provide a lot of fan service, such as bringing back Patrick Stewart as Professor X and putting John Krasinski in as a version of Reed Richards.  Sadly, 838-Richards is a total idiot by giving away key tactical information to a reality-altering opponent, showcasing how the rushed production of MCU material is compromising its quality.  All the more reason to drop the streaming shows, or at least hive them off from the core narrative of the MCU so that more focus can be put on getting the films right.  It would also be nice to see other actors play different multiversal variants as the Multiverse saga progresses, as so far, the willingness to use different actors is mostly linked to bringing back actors from non-MCU productions, and otherwise the same actor is used in all versions.  Krasinski appears to be the lone exception so far, so this needs to be improved on.

Another writing issue is that Strange claims the MCU version of Mordo has been trying to kill him since the events of his first solo film, but there’s been no MCU films between that film and this one to show that.  Moreover, given how the first Doctor Strange film ended, we should have seen Strange having a clash with Mordo or more references to such clashes happening prior to this film.  It’s a nice reference to the comics, but it’s bad writing in a film continuity.  Clearly Marvel needs someone to proof their scripts and cross-reference them with the canon of their film continuity to date.

What is not an issue, despite closed-minded opinions to the contrary, is the depiction of America Chavez having two biological mothers.  I say this because the concept of multiverse has been explored well before the MCU tackled it, and not just in Marvel and DC comic continuities.  The British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf also explored the concept initially in its second season finale “Parallel Universe”, in which the Red Dwarf crew travelled to a world where women were not only the dominant gender, but the physical laws were reversed so that men would conceive and carry babies instead of women.  This is because not all universes within a multiverse follow identical scientific laws, and America Chavez may not be from a universe that follows our real-life biological knowledge.  As the character herself says in the film, the first rule of the multiverse is that you know nothing.

Overall, the film is well-cast, acted well, has some good underlying issues and tackles the multiverse concept well.  It’s just unfortunate that it has been saddled with various writing errors and poor decisions behind the scenes that reduce the quality of the end product.  In balancing these issues out and deciding on a score, I would give this film 7 out of 10.  It’s a decent film, but it would have been better under different circumstances, and I’m also not wild on Wanda insisting on using magic all the time to solve her inability to have babies with or without an android.  Maybe try adoption sometime?

#film review #mcu

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Ramble of the month February 2024: 90’s MCU phase 5 – transitioning from Secret Wars to Infinity Wars

Having spent much of last month and a fair bit of this one working on submissions to literary agencies for my autism book, this month’s ramble and the one for next month took a bit of a back seat, and as such I’ve still not been able to vary myself away from delving further into my hypothetical Marvel and DC film universes.  Apologies to anyone who, like me, were hoping to vary things more.  However, hopefully what we cover in this ramble and the next will make up for it, and as April will be Autism Awareness time, I can guarantee something different for then.

By this point, I’m sure readers don’t need as much of a recap on what these posts to do with my 90’s-based MCU are about.  Long story short, I’ve done what the meme makers don’t; looked at the comic book and real-world history of Marvel from that era to create an actual 90’s based MCU instead of putting 90’s actors into a present-day MCU.  However, as we’re into a fifth phase and well past the 1990’s, we should at least quickly review phases 1-4 first.

Phase 1:

1992: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man

1993: Thor, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp

1994: Captain America: Fantastic Four 2, Iron Man 2

1995: X-Men, Avengers, Daredevil

Phase 2:

1996: Spider-Man 2, Thor: Land of Enchantment, Silver Surfer

1997: Hulk vs Wolverine, Fantastic Four: Doomsday, Iron Man 3

1998: Captain America: Society of Serpents, Daredevil 2, X-Men 2

1999: Avenger 2, Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange

Phase 3:

2000: Fantastic Four: World War III, Thor: Ragnarök, Daredevil 3

2001: Hulk: Rise of the Leader, X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, Avengers: Under Siege

2002: Doctor Strange 2, The Captain, Spider-Man 4

2003: Captain Britain, Fantastic Four: Enter the Negative Zone, Ghost Rider

Phase 4:

2004: Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Secret Wars: Part I

2005: Excalibur, Defenders, Ghost Rider 2

2006: X-Factor, Secret Wars: Part II, Heroes For Hire

2007: Namor the Submariner, Doctor Strange 3, Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin

As discussed in previous rambles, phase 1 was all about establishing the MCU and its characters, phase 2 was about the expansion and development of the continuity, while phase 3 was mostly about many characters and teams losing, being put on the back foot and so on.  Phase 4 then covered Secret Wars, which temporarily deprived Earth of some major MCU heroes to put them through a real alien war, and in the process also allowed some other heroes to come to the fore.  Phase 5 then becomes about following on from some of those plot threads while beginning the set-up for this MCU’s version of the Infinity War.  So, let’s quickly show you the phase 5 slate and then get right into the details of these would-be films.

Phase 5:

2008: Spider-Man 5, Fantastic Four: Unthinkable, Ms Marvel

2009: Elektra, Black Panther 2, Defenders 2

2010: X-Men: Proteus, Spider-Man 6, Ant-Man 2

2011: Silver Surfer 2, Avengers vs X-Men, Ghost Rider 3

Spider-Man 5 (2008) Directed by Matthew Vaughan

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

May Parker = Marg Helgenberger

Flash Thompson = Ben Affleck

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson = Denzel Washington

Betty Brant = Parker Posey

Ned Leeds = John Barrowman

Eddie Brock = Wentworth Miller

Randy Robertson = Taye Diggs

Harry Osborn = Ryan Phillipe

Mary-Jane Watson = Alison Hannigan

Herman Schultz/Shocker = Patrick Muldoon

Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat = Elisha Cuthbert

Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin = Michael Keaton

Quentin Beck/Mysterio = Nathan Fillion

Captain Jean DeWolff = Jessica Biel

Detective Stanley Carter/”Sin Eater” = James Marsden

In the first three Spider-Man films, we built up to Peter befriending the Osborns and dating Gwen, only for the Green Goblin/Death of Gwen story arcs to play out in Spider-Man 3.  The fourth film then gave Peter a clash with the Sinister Six as he struggles to come to terms with Gwen’s death.  Following Secret Wars, Peter now has the alien costume, and so film 5 is basically the alien costume story arc.  Sounding a little too much like the Raimi/Maguire Spider-Man 3?  Trust me, it’s not like that and for two key reasons.  Firstly, I’m not trying to shoe-horn Venom in for the third act, just set him up for another film.  Second, I’ve chosen Wentworth Miller of Prison Break and The Flash fame to play Eddie Brock, and that’s far from being our only change.

In this film, Peter’s occupied trying to stop a series of illusion thefts being committed on behalf of a new “kingpin”, who turns out to be the Hobgoblin, while also having to track down a notorious serial killer called the “Sin Eater”.  As the alien costume influences Peter ever more, the question becomes less will he stop all the criminals, but rather will he become one.  Matters are further complicated when costume thief Black Cat begins seducing Spider-Man and the alien costume pushes Peter to accept this despite his relationship with Mary-Jane.  The film culminates with a chance clash with the Shocker revealing the alien nature of Peter’s costume, forcing him to finally fight it off.  Eddie Brock gaining the symbiote is then handled in a credit’s scene.

Direction-wise, I picked Matthew Vaughan as he’s a proven superhero film director due to his work on X-Men: First Class.  He’s the fourth director to take a hand on Spider-Man solo film in this hypothetical MCU, with John Hughes having directed the first two, and 3 and 4 being handled by Frank Darabont and Martin Campbell, respectively.

Fantastic Four: Unthinkable (2008) Directed by Roland Emmerich

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic = Tom Hanks

Susan Storm (Richards)/Invisible Woman = Meg Ryan

Johnny Storm/Human Torch = David Spade

Ben Grimm/Thing = Bryan Cranston

Alicia Masters = Heather Graham

Agatha Harkness = Angela Lansbury

Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom = Goran Višnjić

Hauptmann = Ronald Guttman

Nick Fury = Tommy Lee Jones

Black Bolt = Pierce Brosnan

Medusa = Elizabeth Hurley

Crystal = Dina Meyer

Gorgon = J.G. Hertzler

Karnak = Alexander Siddig

Triton = Orlando Bloom

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner = Christian Bale

Barbara "Bobbi" Morse/Mockingbird = Rebecca Romijn-Stamos

Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo = Doug E. Doug

Having had the Fantastic Four directed by Leonard Nemoy (films 1-2), Steven Spielberg (films 3-4) and Ridley Scott (film 5), this MCU closes out their share of films under the stewardship of Roland Emmerich, notable for such films as Independence Day, White House Down and Midway.  This film adapts the events of the storylines ‘Unthinkable’ and ‘Authoritative Action’, but leaves the events of ‘Hereafter’ to the comics and begins introducing the Infinity Stones.  Since non-comics fans and fans who haven’t read those stories won’t get those references, let’s do a quick summary.

In the comics, Doctor Doom turned to magic for an attack on the Fantastic Four, which resulted in Reed and Sue’s son Franklin being taken to hell, and the team having to storm Latveria to get him back.  During the incident, Doom scarred Reed before being dragged into hell.  Afterwards, Reed seized control of Latveria to dismantle Doom’s arsenal and craft a permanent prison for Doom, one in which Reed would serve as warden.  However, when the rest of the team tried to stop Reed, Doom somehow began to possess each in turn, ultimately forcing Reed to kill Ben Grimm just to stop Doom.  The events of the Hereafter arc involved a trip into the afterlife to bring Ben back, in the process healing Reed’s scars.

In this film, Franklin is kidnapped and taken to a demon dimension, and Sue leads a rescue team comprised of her, Ben Grimm, Brother Voodoo and the Black Panther to save Franklin while Reed and Johnny attack Doom, aided by the Inhumans and Namor the Submariner.  The attack seemingly defeats Doom, after which Reed leads the F4 to Latveria, seizing control of the nation.  Fearing Doom is somehow influencing Reed, Nick Fury of SHIELD intervenes along with Mockingbird, Voodoo, Namor and T’Challa, only for the seemingly captured Doom to begin telepathically controlling the other F4 members.  Ultimately, Reed manages to force a feedback that wipes Doom’s mind, but in the process, Ben Grimm dies as he does in the comics.  With Ben’s death, the Fantastic Four decide to step back from hero work, becoming a think tank called the Future Foundation.

The bulk of the film’s cast is from past films, with the only new addition being mystical nanny Agatha Harkness, played by Angela Lansbury in better keeping with the comics version of the character.  As for the Infinity Stone I mentioned, that would be the mind stone, which Doom uses to control the various F4 members until Reed works out Doom is channelling the stone’s power and creates the feedback.

Ms Marvel (2008) Directed by Gates McFadden

Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel = Melissa Joan Hart

Michael Barnett = Brian Krause

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Frank Gianelli = Rory Cochrane

Tracey Burke = Kate Mulgrew

Tabitha Townsend = Kyla Pratt

Lynn Andersen = Amanda Seyfried

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

When it comes to trying to tackle Carol Danvers in films, one story that’s yet to hit the big screen is the story of her downfall against the X-Man Rogue back when Rogue was part of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  Indeed, the 90’s animated series of the X-Men is the only adaptation to handle this, and they did it by neatly sidestepping some disturbing backstory.  Long story short, there was a story arc in the Avengers comics around the late 70’s/early 80’s where Carol (then codenamed Ms Marvel) was mind-controlled and raped by an extra-dimensional being so he could be reborn in a body compatible with Earth, then after fast-growing to adulthood, his presence caused a bunch of time disruptions.  When Carol then agreed to go with this being, the Avengers made no effort to prevent this.

When Chris Claremont wrote Rogue into Avengers Annual 10 and showed Rogue rocking Carol’s powers, the question that came to be asked was why Carol hadn’t sought out the Avengers upon returning to Earth, and the answer was made clear.  The team hadn’t shown any real concern for Carol during her strange accelerated pregnancy, and then let her go off with a blatantly mind-controlling rapist from another dimension.  As such, telling the story of Carol clashing with Rogue and the Brotherhood should never be an exact re-telling.  Claremont’s story in Avengers Annual 10 was as much about correcting what the writer of the main comics at that time had written, and with film adaptations, you’re better off just taking a different path entirely.

In this case, we’re showing Carol working as an investigative journalist for a Daily Bugle-owned women’s magazine, who uses the Ms Marvel identity to tackle crime where needed.  This is based on her original run in the comics, so we have Jameson borrowed from the Spider-Man films while using the magazine staff from the comics for supporting roles.  As for the villains, roles from past films like Mystique and Pyro are combined with newly cast actors to give us our second MCU Brotherhood.  The film draws in a mix of acting talent, with Melissa Joan Hart reprising the role of Carol Danvers, and Trek alumni Gates McFadden directing the film.  McFadden has played the mutant Plague/Pestilence for three X-films before this and has some directing experience, making her a good choice for this project.

Elektra (2009) Directed by Roxann Dawson

Elektra Natchios = Leonor Varela

Stick = Scott Glenn

Stone = Sigourney Weaver

Kirigi = Daniel Henney

Frank Simpson/Nuke = John Cena

Matsu'o Tsurayaba = Hiroyuki Sanada

Kwannon = Kelly Hu

Turk Barrett = Gary Dourdan

The story of Elektra following her death in Daredevil is one Fox didn’t quite get right, in large part because they tried to incorporate plot elements and tropes that didn’t tonally fit with the character.  Having used two Daredevil films to set her up before giving the character a one-shot solo film, I think the best thing is taking those bits out.  Instead, we get the Hand going after the Chaste with Elektra in the middle, and when Elektra proves more than they can handle, they bring in the pill-popping assassin known as Nuke.  It’s a straight-up martial arts action film initially, but then becomes a more Punisher-like action film when Nuke comes on the scene.

Trek alumni Roxann Dawson takes the helm because she’s one of the few women I know of that would be directing anything back around this time.  Considering that films with female leads are often better handled by female directors, it makes sense to try and make this the case wherever possible.  The cast is either retained from past films of picked to be more comic-accurate.  Case-in-point, picking American actor Scott Glenn to play Stick rather than English actor Terrence Stamp.

Black Panther 2 (2009) Directed by Tim Burton

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Shuri = Tatyana Ali

Ramonda = Alfre Woodard

T'Chaka = Courtney B. Vance

W'Kabi = Chiwetel Ejiofor

Okoye = Nia Long

Zuri = Joseph Marcell

M'Baku = Idris Elba

Nakia = Lupita Nyong'o

Monica Lynne = Kerry Washington

Baron Macabre = Sterling K Brown

Jerome Beechman/Mandrill = Joaquin Phoenix

Nekra Sinclair = Toks Olagundoye

Kevin Plundarr/Ka-Zar = Chris Hemsworth

Shanna O'Hara = Scarlett Johansson

Zaladane = Jolene Blalock

Everett Ross = Martin Freeman

In Black Panther 2, T’Challa becomes allied with Ka-Zar of the Savage Land when it turns out his hidden jungle in Antarctica houses a cache of Vibranium to rival Wakanda’s.  Most would-be Vibranium hunters baulk at trying to gain the Antarctic variety due to the dinosaurs, but soon both nations are threatened when the woman-controlling mutant Mandrill, his adoptive sister Nekra, the Savage Land priestess Zaladane and Wakandan criminal Baron Macabre team up.  Due to the inclusion of some of these villains, I opted to switch from Tim Story to Tim Burton from a directing stand-point.  This film also features a change of role for a couple of real-world MCU alumni.

Defenders 2 (2009) Directed by Stephen Sommers

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner = Christian Bale

Bruce Banner/Hulk = John Cusack

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Valkyrie = Diane Kruger

Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk = Josh Duhamel

Patsy Walker/Hellcat = Mena Suvari

Wong = Will Yun Lee

Clea = Keira Knightley

Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo = Doug E. Doug

Dr Anthony Druid = Mark Strong

Daimon Hellstrom = James Van Der Beek

Dr Tania Belinsky (Belinskaya)/Red Guardian = Beatrice Rosen

Dr Arthur Nagan = Julian McMahon

Dr Jerold "Jerry" Morgan = Stellan Skarsgård

Ruby Thursday = Alyssa Milano

Harvey Schlemerman/Chondu the Mystic = Stanley Tucci

Shuma-Gorath = Geoffrey Rush

The Defenders, Marvel’s superhero non-team, return for a second instalment at this point, and I’ve picked Stephen Sommers as director based on him directing a live-action GI Joe film around the same time.  In this film, the few routinely active Defenders learn via immigrant Russian doctor and superhero Red Guardian that a team of scientists called the Headmen have stolen the Reality Stone from AIM in an effort to seize world power for themselves.  Allying with Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Defenders seek to stop the Headmen while Clea joins with Brother Voodoo, Dr Druid and Daimon Hellstrom to try and bring back Doctor Strange from the extra-dimensional limbo he sacrificed himself to in Doctor Strange 3.  At the same time, the Silver Surfer seeks the Hulk.  The whole team then comes together when the Headmen open a portal for Shuma-Gorath, in the process transforming into their strange comic-style appearances.

Everyone from Dr Druid on down in the cast list is new.  As for why we’re skipping over the original male Red Guardian and focusing on the second female iteration for this MCU, there’s two reasons.  First, the second female iteration served as a Defender in the original comics, and second, these MCU rambles are focused on the main film continuity, which in this version of the MCU is strictly cinematic.  TV shows, while allowed as tie-ins, are optional content, and while I’d happily allow a TV show to dive in on Black Widow and some other characters, I think a film was and is a bit much for a character with so little solo comics content.

X-Men: Proteus (2010) Directed by LeVar Burton

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Polaris/Lorna Dane = Jeri Ryan

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Beast/Hank McCoy = Alec Baldwin

Robert Drake/Iceman = Michael Weatherley

Banshee/Sean Cassidy = Liam Neeson

Dr Moira Mactaggert = Olivia Williams

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Kevin Mactaggert/Proteus = Iain De Caestecker

Joseph Mactaggert = John Hannah

Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane = Bonnie Wright

Danielle Moonstar = Selena Gomez

Jubilee = Chloe Bennett

Everett Thomas/Synch = Christopher Massey

Douglas Ramsey/Cypher = Devon Bostick

With the third X-Men film Fall of the Mutants having split the X-Men up, and a combination of the Secret Wars duology, Excalibur and X-Factor films following events for the divided team, this fourth X-Men film is intended to reunite some of the scattered team into a new whole.  It also gives Rogue her defection from the Brotherhood following the events of Ms Marvel.  In this film, Moira Mactaggert’s son Proteus emerges as a dangerous mutant and begins a rampage across to Scotland.  With Excalibur unavailable, X-Factor is summoned while the X-Men pursue Mystique’s Brotherhood to Scotland.  The two teams meet up and reunite when they find Professor X is also with Moira, having been recuperating on Muir Island since being released from a SHIELD hospital (this is set-up over end-credit scenes for Fall of the Mutants and X-Factor).

Direction-wise, the X-Men have been handled initially by Jonathan Demme and then Jonathan Frakes in films bearing their team’s name, while Excalibur was helmed by Christopher Nolan and X-Factor by LeVar Burton.  For this film, I’ve put Burton back in the director’s chair.  Casting-wise, I imagine same fans will be perplexed by my choice of Chloe Bennett for Jubilee.  This is because Bennett is of a mixed ancestry that includes having a Chinese mother, and while the ideal is always to try for exact representation from the comics, there aren’t many actresses active in Hollywood around the time of this film with even one parent of Chinese descent, let alone two.

As such, the question becomes which do you compromise; Jubilee’s racial background or her nationality?  My choice, compromise slightly on racial background and bring in some plot threads relating to prejudice against people of mixed race.  Quite honestly, characters of mixed race are among those groups under-represented in film and TV, so if I have to compromise, let me at least try and do so in a positive way.

Spider-Man 6 (2010) Directed by Matthew Vaughan

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

May Parker = Marg Helgenberger

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson = Denzel Washington

Betty Brant = Parker Posey

Ned Leeds = John Barrowman

Eddie Brock/Venom = Wentworth Miller

Randy Robertson = Taye Diggs

Mary-Jane Watson-Parker = Alison Hannigan

Flash Thompson = Ben Affleck

Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat = Elisha Cuthbert

Sha Shan Nguyen = Grace Park

Captain Jean DeWolff = Jessica Biel

Anne Weying = Michelle Williams

Principal Harrington = Viggo Mortensen

Lance Bannon = Hayden Christensen

Gloria "Glory" Grant = Candice Patton

In the sixth of our Spider-Man films, and the last to both start and end with Peter Parker wearing the webs, we showcase Peter and MJ preparing for their upcoming wedding, but the pair are stalked by Eddie Brock, who has now joined with the Venom symbiote and seeks to make Peter’s life hell.  He attempts to manipulate the Black Cat into being his co-conspirator as well, preying on her jealousy after the symbiote-free Spider-Man resists her seduction.  The story ultimately culminates in Venom trying to force Peter into a no-win situation where he has to choose who to save; Mary-Jane or Felicia.  Matthew Vaughan returns to direct, and we get a few extra supporting cast members in lieu of the various villains of Spider-Man 5.

Ant-Man 2 (2010) Directed by Peyton Reed

Hank Pym/Ant-Man = Michael Douglas

Scott Lang/Ant-Man II = Paul Rudd

Maggie Lang = Judy Greer

Cassie Lang = Joey King

William Cross/Crossfire = Ethan Hawke

Taskmaster = Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Alex Gentry/Porcupine = Nick Offerman

Janice Lincoln/Beetle = Naya Rivera

Having left Ant-Man alone in terms of solo films since phase 1, phase 2 marks a return for Hank Pym, who by this point has been out of action since a mental break-down forced him to retire.  Now of sound mind again, he tries to deal with tech thief Crossfire, who steals the prototype for a new, more aggressive variant of the Ant-Man suit, the Yellowjacket.  However, Hank’s old suit is not safe to use as it clashes with his neuro-chemistry, risking more mental break-down.  Even worse, it’s been stolen.  In tracking down the Ant-Man suit, Hank encounters desperate divorced father Scott Lang, who stole the suit to get money to cover his daughter’s medical treatment.

With this film, the aim is to pass the mantle of Ant-Man to Scott Lang in a more comics-accurate manner, while at the same time preserving certain casting that the MCU got right, hence why Pym, Scott and Maggie are all retained from the real MCU.  In terms of Cassie, I switched to Joey King as she’s had a remarkably steady record of employment for a non-Disney child actress, and I think she’s a great choice to take up this role for the remainder of this hypothetical MCU.  Direction-wise, I figured it best to stick with the choices of the real MCU and go for Peyton Reed, having had to go with Sam Raimi on the 90’s-made first Ant-Man of this MCU.

Silver Surfer 2 (2011) Directed by JJ Abrams

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Thanos = Josh Brolin

Mentor = Michael McKean

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

Gamora = Zoe Saldana

Drax the Destroyer = Dean Cain

Adam Warlock = Chris Pine

Pip the Troll = Peter Dinklage

Nebula = Emma Stone

Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel = Jude Law

Following the events of Defenders 2, the Silver Surfer finds himself drawn into yet more Infinity Stone adventures when Kree hero Captain Marvel and the android Drax the Destroyer come to Earth with Adam Warlock, keeper of the Soul Gem.  Hot on their heels are Thanos and Nebula, each of whom has begun to seek the Infinity Stones.  Worse still, Mar-Vell is dying of cancer.  The film is meant to advance the Infinity Stones plot while also adapting the death of Mar-Vell from the comics, not to mention setting up for the Guardians of the Galaxy to appear in the next phase.

For direction, I’ve picked JJ Abrams based on his Star Trek and Star Wars work making him a decent choice for a space-based hero like the Silver Surfer.  In terms of casting, we have a few reprises from past films in this 90’s MCU and from the real MCU.  However, some shifts have also occurred, most notably with Drax due to wanting to use his original comics origins over the revised MCU/later comics version.  The would-be autistic representation of Bautista and Gunn’s Drax quickly become so much farce, so as an autistic person, I’d just as soon avoid that and go down the android route, thanks very much.

Avengers vs X-Men (2011) Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Steve Rogers/Captain America = Brad Pitt

Thor = Dolph Lundgren

Janet Van Dyne/Wasp = Catherine Zeta Jones

Iron Man/Tony Stark = Tom Selleck

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk = Lucy Lawless

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Sam Wilson/Falcon = Will Smith

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Carol Danvers = Melissa Joan Hart

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

Frank Bohannan/Crimson Commando = Harrison Ford

Louis Hamilton/Stonewall = James Brolin

Martin Fletcher/Super-Sabre = Peter Fonda

Dr Valerie Cooper = Malin Åkerman

Sebastian Gilbreti/Bastion = Bruce Greenwood

Congressman Rev. William Stryker = Eric Roberts

Forge = Jimmy Smits

There have been two occasions in Marvel comics where the X-Men and Avengers have been drawn into direct conflict, at least using multiple issues of a comic and to my knowledge.  The first is the 1980’s mini-series X-Men versus Avengers, where the Avengers attempted to arrest Magneto to resume his trial before the world court, while the Soviet Super-Soldiers sought to arrest Magneto for his actions in X-Men #150.  As Magneto was part of the X-Men at the time, this naturally put all three teams at odds with each other.  The second occasion was the AvX storyline in which Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus and Magik became possessed by the Phoenix Force, something the Avengers tried to prevent and later combat.

While this film draws on the basic concept of both series, that something sets the Avengers and the X-Men at odds with each other, it’s not about arresting Magneto or issues with the Phoenix force.  Instead, the issue is Rogue; her status as a mutant terrorist is used to convince the Avengers to apprehend the X-Men.  This is bad timing, as the X-Men are working with Rogue to help restore the mind of Carol Danvers.  The masterminds of the plot are rabid anti-mutant politician William Stryker and government advisor Sebastian, who in reality is a new form of sentinel in disguise.  Luckily, government advisor and secret mutant Forge is suspicious of Bastion and convinces NSA director Dr Valerie Cooper to set up a contingency plan.

As a result, the film builds to a climax where, after the intervention of Spider-Man ends a major fight between the two teams, Bastion unleashes his prime sentinels.  Enter Mystique’s expanded Brotherhood in their guise as community service government heroes Freedom Force, and the stage is set for a truly epic battle.  Direction-wise, I opted for Jonathan Frakes to helm this entry, and while many actors are reprising roles from past films, everyone from Crimson Commando on down is new to the MCU as of this film.

Ghost Rider 3 (2011) Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider = Connor Trinneer

Roxanne Simpson = Jessica Alba

Eric Brooks/Blade = Jamie Foxx

Rachel Van Helsing = Cote De Pablo

Daimon Hellstrom = James Van Der Beek

Vlad Tepish/Dracula = Mads Mikkelsen

Lilith = Felicity Jones

Mephistopheles = Jeffery Combs

Phase 5 of our 90’s MCU closes out by bringing Johnny Blaze’s time as Ghost Rider to its conclusion, in a story where Johnny teams up with Blade, Rachel Van Helsing and Daimon Hellstrom against Dracula and his daughter Lilith, who are secretly in league with Mephistopheles.  The film is partly an original plot and partly an adaptation of the end of the original Ghost Rider run of comics, though it’s far from being the last Ghost Rider film of this MCU.  Just as the comics would have others take up the Ghost Rider curse after Blaze, so too will this MCU move onto those later riders in turn.  Having used Tim Burton on the first two Ghost Rider films in this MCU, I’ve picked Mark Steven Johnson who handled the 2007 Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider film to take on this third instalment of 90’s MCU Ghost Rider.

This wraps up our look into phase 5 of this 90’s-based MCU; next month, we’ll cover phase 5 of our alternate DC movie universe.  Until then, ta-ta for now.

#fancast #mcu

[phantom-le6]

Film Review - Operation Mincemeat

For our next cinema release of 2022, we’re looking back into World War 2-based films as we check out Operation Mincemeat…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In 1943, the United Kingdom is entrenched in World War II. Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu, a Jewish barrister, remains in England while his wife Iris and their children travel to safety in the United States. Montagu takes a break from practising law when he is appointed to the Twenty Committee. His secretary, Hester Leggett, comes with him.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill has promised the US that the Allies will invade Sicily by July of that year in order to push further north. However, Sicily is considered an obvious target and may be defended by the Wehrmacht. Admiral Godfrey thinks that Britain must trick Nazi Germany into believing the Allies will invade Greece. Charles Cholmondeley proposes an operation from the Trout Memo, which would entail a corpse carrying false secrets washing ashore. Despite Godfrey's doubts, he gives Montagu and Cholmondeley permission to plan the operation with Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming.

Montagu and Cholmondeley obtain the body of a vagrant named Glyndwr Michael, who died by possible suicidal poisoning. He is given the false identity of Major William Martin, Royal Marines, with a detailed backstory and ID photos. A widowed secretary in the office, Jean Leslie, offers a photo of herself to serve as Martin's fake fiancée, "Pam", in exchange for a position on the team co-ordinating the operation. The team fabricate items for Martin to carry in his pockets, including theatre tickets, personal bills and a love letter from "Pam" written by Hester. Cholmondeley is attracted to Jean, but soon comes to believe that Montagu and Jean share romantic feelings. This causes Cholmondeley to grow jealous and occasionally lash out at Montagu. Complications ensue when Michael's sister arrives to claim his body, but she is turned away by Montagu and Cholmondeley.

Godfrey suspects Montagu's brother, Ivor, is a spy for the USSR. He bribes Cholmondeley to spy on Montagu and, in return, Godfrey will locate and return the remains of Cholmondeley's brother, who was killed in action in Chittagong, Bengal. Cholmondeley reluctantly agrees.

Specialist MI5 driver St John "Jock" Horsfall transports Montagu, Cholmondeley and the corpse to the submarine base at Holy Loch. The corpse is then loaded onto the submarine HMS Seraph. On 30 April, the Seraph arrives in the Gulf of Cádiz and drops the corpse into the ocean. It is found by fishermen in Huelva, Spain. Operation Mincemeat staff attempt to get the fake documents to Madrid. However, the mission is hampered by bad luck, as the Spanish have resisted Nazi influence more than expected. Captain David Ainsworth, the British naval attaché in Madrid, meets with Colonel Cerruti of the Spanish secret police in one last attempt to get the papers to the Germans. When Martin's personal items are returned to London, a specialist works out that the documents have been tampered with. This gives Operation Mincemeat staff hope that Germany retrieved the false information.

Jean is threatened by Teddy, a waiter at a club the team has frequented, claiming to be a spy for an anti-Hitler plot within Germany. She tells him that Major Martin was travelling under an alias but the classified information was genuine. After Teddy leaves, Jean informs Montagu and Cholmondeley. They come to believe that Colonel Alexis von Roenne, who controls intelligence in the German Army High Command, sent Teddy to verify information so von Roenne could undermine Hitler. However, they have no way of being sure. Montagu takes Jean to his home for protection, but she accepts a job in Special Operations and plans to leave London. Montagu convinces her to stay at least until the operation has been completed.

On 10 July, the Allied invasion of Sicily begins. News arrives that the Allies suffered limited casualties, the enemy is retreating, and the beaches have been held. Afterwards, Cholmondeley admits he received his brother's remains in return for spying on Montagu. Feeling sympathetic and relieved that Operation Mincemeat was a success, Montagu offers to buy Cholmondeley a drink even though it is eight in the morning.

The epilogue says that Montagu reunited with Iris after the war, Jean married a soldier, Hester continued as Director of the Admiralty Secretarial Unit, and Cholmondeley remained with MI5 until 1952, later married, and travelled widely. Major William Martin's identity was revealed to be Glyndwr Michael in 1997 when an epitaph, with his real name, was added to Martin's headstone in Spain.

Review:

This is a very different variety of war film to most, as it steps away from the front-line of battle and obvious action-packed warfare to focus on intelligence work conducted to ensure the success of combat operations.  This makes Operation Mincemeat a breath of fresh air when you consider that most war films can be a long slog through action scene after action scene, focusing on little more than guns, tanks, planes and just general mindless violence.  The film also tries as much as possible to be historically accurate, again a relief for those of us who may find that film and TV can at times push drama and action over true-to-life substance too far at times.

This being said, the film does apparently fall short in places by taking artistic license in places, most notably the apparent love triangle between Montagu, Jean and Cholmondeley.  I say apparent love triangle because I’m not sure it quite qualifies.  We certainly see that Cholmondeley is attracted to Jean, and at one point Montagu also advances some affection for her, but it’s not explicitly put across as being a romantic affection, nor is any clear and obvious romantic interest shown by Jean towards either man.  Instead, we just get a bunch of ambiguous moments that are read, whether wrongly or not, as being romantic by others because they don’t know the real state of play and make assumptions.  Given that everyone involved is an intelligence operative, the idea that they would be making assumptions about anything is very concerning indeed.

This aside, the film is well-acted, with the likes of Colin Firth, Jason Isaacs and others doing a great job of making this more sedate type of war story very entertaining.  For James Bond fans, there’s also the occasional nod to that world via the presence of Ian Fleming, the intelligence agent who would go on to write Bond in the original novels.  If I have any criticism of this film beyond the insertion and handling of the love triangle, which I feel wasn’t particularly necessary, it’s the lack of proper introduction to the various characters.  I first watched this film on Blu-Ray, and I had to have the subtitles on to learn who everyone was.

Although the film does kind of make introductions as it goes along, many of these are too soft-spoken and, at times, they’re insufficiently explicit.  If you’re a very linear thinker, as I am, then you’ll often want proper introductions to characters quite soon after each appearance.  This is especially true if you’re not acquainted with the real-world events and characters that the film portrays.  This is another case of a film not taking the proper time to work the correct level of information to engage an audience, making the film tricky to follow for anyone who hasn’t studied World War II intelligence history.

Given these flaws, set against an otherwise excellent film, I would balance out the final score at 7 out of 10.

#film review #operation mincemeat