Categories
Movies Review

REVIEW – Captain America: Brave New World

Well, bless Marvel, even with diminished attendance and reviewers increasingly booing their efforts, they just keep on working to build their little narratives, piece by piece, film by film. The latest installment of the soap opera of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, directed by Julius Onah (whose most notable flick ’til now was the third CLOVERFIELD movie, the one that was on Netflix), picks up several ongoing threads from prior projects, including a few long-thought to be dropped, and seeks to provide some resolutions while moving other pieces forward towards the next big finale on the roadmap.

Categories
Action Figures Marvel Legends

Figure Friday – Across the Spider-Verse Spider-Gwen Ver. 2

One of the more surprising waves of Marvel Legends action figures in 2024 was a second wave of Across the Spider-Verse figures based on the summer 2023 film. Despite racking up a healthy box office, I feel like the minute it was revealed that its sequel, the intended concluding chapter of this multiversal animated Spider-saga, was going to miss its overly optimistic release date, that kinda let the air out of these movies’ tires and folks just stopped talking about them. (I could be wrong on that, I swear that’s the vibe I got.) And yet, it was very cool to see new figures for characters who didn’t get one before — Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man India) and shock villain Miles G. Morales (his universe’s Prowler) got nifty whole-new-sculpt figures with dazzling detail … which I didn’t buy. No, me, I bought a couple of the reruns, including the focus of this week’s figure post: yet another Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman.

Categories
Movies Review

REVIEW – Deadpool & Wolverine

Somehow even more foul-mouthed and in-jokey than I’d expected, though by-and-large I don’t think it hurts the movie or its narrative? Not that I could actually tell, of course, steeped as I am in this stuff — when my mom asked why so-and-so was in this movie (filling in that blank would probably constitute a spoiler), I immediately had the answer, one that your average filmgoer, EHH, probably wouldn’t have. Though sometimes the profanity does get a LITTLE hat-on-a-hat.

Anyway, yes, let’s try the spoiler-lite version of the plot: Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) has given up on the hero/merc gig, no longer romping around in the red suit and is instead wearing a toupee and selling cars with his pal from the 2nd movie, Dennis (Rob Delaney). But soon fortune smiles on ol’ Wade, sort of, when he is whisked away to the TVA — again, I *think* the movie imparts enough knowledge of how this works without watching the Disney+ LOKI show, but how the hell would I know for sure? — by agents under the command of Paradox (the extremely smarmy Matthew Macfadyen) and a choice is offered. With the life he’s been reminded he still loves, even if it hasn’t gone the way he wanted, threatened, Deadpool hops across time streams and grabs the first multiversal Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in his TENTH live action appearance as the Canadian berserker) he can honestly get his hands on in order to try and prevent, let’s say, a great undoing.

Categories
Movies Review

REVIEW – The Marvels

I hate to dismiss other folks’ opinions out of hand, but I can’t shake the feeling that the people hating on this flick are reviewing something that’s not actually the movie on the screen. Like, they got annoyed with one or two other Marvel Studios pictures in the last couple of years and are carrying that into this one, or they’ve internalized that “oh no, trouble at Marvel!” Variety article that was going around a week or two ago. What’s on the screen is a fun and touching story of bonding and regrets, making up for mistakes and lost time, with a first-rate cast and some truly terrific action.

Oh, and cats. Lots and lots of cats.

Categories
Back Issue Haul Comics

This Week’s Comics Haul 7/1/23

It’s shockingly rare that me and my pal David’s every-other-week trips to Joplin to poke ’round the big chain stores for action figures and the two Vintage Stocks for back issues and current comics that I failed to order via my usual mail order place actually coincide with the big holiday weekend sales, but it did hit just right this past weekend, so I came home this time ’round with one hundred and fifteen comics, many of which were buy-one-get-one dollar books. Bear in mind, once again, the weird way Vintage Stock handles these during the holiday weekend sales is that it’s buy-one-get-one per price point, so I find myself fishing around for one more $1.99 comic because I’ve got nine of them and dang it, I need just one more free one, c’mon!

Now that I’ve gone through all of these for the blog, of course, I now also have to stick these in their right & proper spots in the ridiculous piles I’ve got all around my apartment — or, to banish them to the short boxes ’til such point as I decide I’ve got enough of whatever run to actually sit down & read ’em. Why do I make this into so much work for myself? Ugh.