So….uh….it's been a while….
But between the end of September up until now it's been…
She-Hulk
Werewolf By Night
Andor
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Combined with school, work, birthdays, and starting to introduce my kids to The Twilight Zone which they've been surprisingly getting in to….and also pimping my ride for the holidays…..
I've been busy as crap….so Moonknight & Multiverse of Madness took a bit to get through….but here we are!
Moonknight
First thing I gotta say….the talent of Oscar Isaac was wasted on Star Wars. I didn't realize this guy could be this fun to watch on screen because honestly he was my least favorite out of the cast from the sequel trilogy. But dang does he play this role well!
The whole first episode is done so amazing setting him up as this pathetic loser that you're sympathetic to because of how well he plays it. And what drew me in even more in this first episode is the way the whole split personality was portrayed. I'm a big sucker for these types of characters where they can talk to different versions of themselves (or characters like Venom where it's a separate being inside them…which after watching this I realize now more than ever how much I need to watch those 2 flicks).
But back to Oscar Isaac…
If this role had been done poorly the whole show would've sucked. Hands down I'm just going to assume that even if you didn't like this show, you still appreciated how well of a job he did. And at this point I can't tell (nor have I bothered to look it up) who's a British actor and who isn't…these guys are just getting too dang good with the accents (take note Done Cheadle in the next Ocean's 11 movie).
And what was even more fun was how they seemed to work in a few horror elements in this first episode…
There's a scene in an elevator in the first episode (bear with me I'm writing this months after viewing the first episode) where he's trying to escape this creepy figure (who we find out later is Khonshu) and if they had made Khonshu look a little less "clean CGI" and a little more…real…I think it straight up would have freaked my kids out. It's always fun to get a little surprise horror elements in anything you watch in my opinion. And as always I wish they'd have gone just a little darker/scarier…but still enjoyed it (spooked my kids a bit too).
I'm going to jump around here because this next part was a kick in the nuts for me….
Episode 5…when we see Marc's backstory with his brother. As soon as the scene showed them going into the cave with it raining I knew what was coming. Not sure if anyone reading this is a fan of MrBallen on YouTube, but I can't tell you how many tragic real life stories he's told dealing with this very thing of adults (and kids) getting trapped in caves they shouldn't have gone in from rain or something else and dying.
And the scene that follows with the birthday…crap like that is my kryptonite…I'll break down every dang time in those moments.
I mean…good grief MCU you might as well of had his dog break away from his leash and get hit by a bus for a side dish to the main course of a gut punch episode 5 was! Sheesh! And I'm not complaining it was just so unexpected that I was ding dang mess during that whole scene.
(fair warning these clips have random zoom-ins which I'm assuming is to avoid copyright infringement and the last 30 seconds gets a little loud with the youtubers signature ending)
And while we're discussing actors…man…I just love Ethan Hawke in any role I've ever seen him in. He's just so much fun to watch! Probably the best version of him though in this is when we see him as the psychiatrist. Just such a massive switch from the main baddie in the show…and yet he was still so believable. Y'all ever seen the Magnificent 7 remake?
Just a few complaints but not too many…
Episode 3 was a complete mess and just confused the hell out of me. Had to pause it and start over later on when they made it inside the tomb and had their "trial" to try and wrap my head around what was going on. And even then it was still odd.
Could have done without the girlfriend but didn't know until the end that she's apparently a character/super hero as well so finally made sense at that point.
As amazing as episode 5 was…man…it was tough to understand and I still don't know if I fully do. The entire time I was questioning what was real and what wasn't…which by itself is perfectly fine and can be amazing story telling but I still can't remember if they clearly addressed what was actually real in the show!
Overall I was happily surprised with this one! And to tie this up…this series had one of the funniest cliffhanger endings to a MCU episode to date….
Multiverse of Madness
Ok…let me preface this by saying I really wanted to like this movie. I love Dr. Strange's character and if you recall I fell in love with the first movie…and with that being said…
Was it actually terrible? No. But definitely was below my expectations. And to clarify my position on this one…it had gotten spoiled to me that Reed Richards and Professor X himself were going to be in this. So I didn't get the benefit of that big surprise.
So what was good? Well Dr. Strange himself was really fun to see him back on screen and getting to see him banter with Wong was something I had missed for a while. And surprisingly the young girl (which I had to turn on CC while watching because I couldn't believe her actual name was America) grew on me pretty quick and didn't really get annoying…
And even though it had gotten spoiled, I still really enjoyed seeing the illuminati crew. Which hands down had the best death scenes in the entire movie.
But I had to laugh at Reed Richards when the fight with Scarlet Witch was getting ready…..I mean dude…..what the hell did you think was going to happen???? You've got people surrounding you with all these crazy powers like controlling people's minds, bending reality, female superman pretty much (x2), loud mouth explosion guy…and all you can do is stretch…
The best death scene hands down was captain tuning fork…that was brutal and is probably one of the top death scenes in the entire MCU! We need more of this!
So what are the complaints…
Man this was a hard one to follow at times. They had just introduced this whole concept of dreaming being somehow connected to the multiverse, and before I had very much time to even wrap my head around that, they're already expanding on it with this book that allows people who use it to take over the bodies of themselves in the multiverse while they're dreaming….and it was just a little too far out there for me. So instead of getting engrossed in the story, I'm just trying to keep up with all these crazy new rules they're putting in place.
It was way too obvious what was coming with our protagonists. Right from the beginning when it's the old, "Oh I can't control my powers" and "This is the only way…as in…I must kill you cause you can't control your powers" …duh…obviously Ms. America is going to learn to control her powers at the end and our Dr. Strange isn't going to try and kill her. So there was zero suspense on where this story was going to go.
I can appreciate them trying to go the horror route here at times…but it just wasn't enough for me…like this for example:
Have that crazy witch come out of that gong screaming bloody murder…have her skin getting ripped from the metal as she crawls through…drop a swear and call Ms America a giant "B"...we've seen creepy women crawl out of things before…
And later on we get this:
That's not scary! Have her becoming corrupted by that book…make her skin look like crap…make her eyes black…have her hair falling out…if you want horror then go full horror dangit…the Ring was PG-13 too…
This was just dang weird…but kinda cool too:
This however was really cool…just needed more stuff like this:
So in the end…I know I knocked it a bit but it wasn't a bad movie. I'm glad I got to see Dr. Strange again and got to see some new characters as well. The story (while complicated as all get out) was interesting and I'm glad they went all out with the story itself. But in the end it didn't seem to amount to much and while the story itself was different than what we've seen in the MCU so far, it was pretty predictable what was going to happen with our 2 heroes so odds are this'll be one I'll probably never watch again.
Ms. Marvel….that's all that's left!
Phase 1 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3278723
Phase 2 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3285463
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 1): Dr. Strange / GotG Vol 2 / Civil War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3287952
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 2): Ragnarok / Black Panther / Homecoming
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3290581
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 3): Infinity War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3291814
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 4): Ant Man & The Wasp / Captain Marvel
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3294976
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 5): Endgame
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3297903
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 1): No Way Home / WandaVision
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3300455
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 2): Falcon & Winter Soldier / Loki
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3301758
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 3): Black Widow & What If?
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3303765
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 4): Shang Chi / Eternals / Hawkeye
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3314856
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 5): No Way Home
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3320932
But between the end of September up until now it's been…
She-Hulk
Werewolf By Night
Andor
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Combined with school, work, birthdays, and starting to introduce my kids to The Twilight Zone which they've been surprisingly getting in to….and also pimping my ride for the holidays…..
I've been busy as crap….so Moonknight & Multiverse of Madness took a bit to get through….but here we are!
Moonknight
First thing I gotta say….the talent of Oscar Isaac was wasted on Star Wars. I didn't realize this guy could be this fun to watch on screen because honestly he was my least favorite out of the cast from the sequel trilogy. But dang does he play this role well!
The whole first episode is done so amazing setting him up as this pathetic loser that you're sympathetic to because of how well he plays it. And what drew me in even more in this first episode is the way the whole split personality was portrayed. I'm a big sucker for these types of characters where they can talk to different versions of themselves (or characters like Venom where it's a separate being inside them…which after watching this I realize now more than ever how much I need to watch those 2 flicks).
But back to Oscar Isaac…
If this role had been done poorly the whole show would've sucked. Hands down I'm just going to assume that even if you didn't like this show, you still appreciated how well of a job he did. And at this point I can't tell (nor have I bothered to look it up) who's a British actor and who isn't…these guys are just getting too dang good with the accents (take note Done Cheadle in the next Ocean's 11 movie).
And what was even more fun was how they seemed to work in a few horror elements in this first episode…
There's a scene in an elevator in the first episode (bear with me I'm writing this months after viewing the first episode) where he's trying to escape this creepy figure (who we find out later is Khonshu) and if they had made Khonshu look a little less "clean CGI" and a little more…real…I think it straight up would have freaked my kids out. It's always fun to get a little surprise horror elements in anything you watch in my opinion. And as always I wish they'd have gone just a little darker/scarier…but still enjoyed it (spooked my kids a bit too).
I'm going to jump around here because this next part was a kick in the nuts for me….
Episode 5…when we see Marc's backstory with his brother. As soon as the scene showed them going into the cave with it raining I knew what was coming. Not sure if anyone reading this is a fan of MrBallen on YouTube, but I can't tell you how many tragic real life stories he's told dealing with this very thing of adults (and kids) getting trapped in caves they shouldn't have gone in from rain or something else and dying.
And the scene that follows with the birthday…crap like that is my kryptonite…I'll break down every dang time in those moments.
I mean…good grief MCU you might as well of had his dog break away from his leash and get hit by a bus for a side dish to the main course of a gut punch episode 5 was! Sheesh! And I'm not complaining it was just so unexpected that I was ding dang mess during that whole scene.
(fair warning these clips have random zoom-ins which I'm assuming is to avoid copyright infringement and the last 30 seconds gets a little loud with the youtubers signature ending)
And while we're discussing actors…man…I just love Ethan Hawke in any role I've ever seen him in. He's just so much fun to watch! Probably the best version of him though in this is when we see him as the psychiatrist. Just such a massive switch from the main baddie in the show…and yet he was still so believable. Y'all ever seen the Magnificent 7 remake?
Just a few complaints but not too many…
Episode 3 was a complete mess and just confused the hell out of me. Had to pause it and start over later on when they made it inside the tomb and had their "trial" to try and wrap my head around what was going on. And even then it was still odd.
Could have done without the girlfriend but didn't know until the end that she's apparently a character/super hero as well so finally made sense at that point.
As amazing as episode 5 was…man…it was tough to understand and I still don't know if I fully do. The entire time I was questioning what was real and what wasn't…which by itself is perfectly fine and can be amazing story telling but I still can't remember if they clearly addressed what was actually real in the show!
Overall I was happily surprised with this one! And to tie this up…this series had one of the funniest cliffhanger endings to a MCU episode to date….
Multiverse of Madness
Ok…let me preface this by saying I really wanted to like this movie. I love Dr. Strange's character and if you recall I fell in love with the first movie…and with that being said…
Was it actually terrible? No. But definitely was below my expectations. And to clarify my position on this one…it had gotten spoiled to me that Reed Richards and Professor X himself were going to be in this. So I didn't get the benefit of that big surprise.
So what was good? Well Dr. Strange himself was really fun to see him back on screen and getting to see him banter with Wong was something I had missed for a while. And surprisingly the young girl (which I had to turn on CC while watching because I couldn't believe her actual name was America) grew on me pretty quick and didn't really get annoying…
And even though it had gotten spoiled, I still really enjoyed seeing the illuminati crew. Which hands down had the best death scenes in the entire movie.
But I had to laugh at Reed Richards when the fight with Scarlet Witch was getting ready…..I mean dude…..what the hell did you think was going to happen???? You've got people surrounding you with all these crazy powers like controlling people's minds, bending reality, female superman pretty much (x2), loud mouth explosion guy…and all you can do is stretch…
The best death scene hands down was captain tuning fork…that was brutal and is probably one of the top death scenes in the entire MCU! We need more of this!
So what are the complaints…
Man this was a hard one to follow at times. They had just introduced this whole concept of dreaming being somehow connected to the multiverse, and before I had very much time to even wrap my head around that, they're already expanding on it with this book that allows people who use it to take over the bodies of themselves in the multiverse while they're dreaming….and it was just a little too far out there for me. So instead of getting engrossed in the story, I'm just trying to keep up with all these crazy new rules they're putting in place.
It was way too obvious what was coming with our protagonists. Right from the beginning when it's the old, "Oh I can't control my powers" and "This is the only way…as in…I must kill you cause you can't control your powers" …duh…obviously Ms. America is going to learn to control her powers at the end and our Dr. Strange isn't going to try and kill her. So there was zero suspense on where this story was going to go.
I can appreciate them trying to go the horror route here at times…but it just wasn't enough for me…like this for example:
Have that crazy witch come out of that gong screaming bloody murder…have her skin getting ripped from the metal as she crawls through…drop a swear and call Ms America a giant "B"...we've seen creepy women crawl out of things before…
And later on we get this:
That's not scary! Have her becoming corrupted by that book…make her skin look like crap…make her eyes black…have her hair falling out…if you want horror then go full horror dangit…the Ring was PG-13 too…
This was just dang weird…but kinda cool too:
This however was really cool…just needed more stuff like this:
So in the end…I know I knocked it a bit but it wasn't a bad movie. I'm glad I got to see Dr. Strange again and got to see some new characters as well. The story (while complicated as all get out) was interesting and I'm glad they went all out with the story itself. But in the end it didn't seem to amount to much and while the story itself was different than what we've seen in the MCU so far, it was pretty predictable what was going to happen with our 2 heroes so odds are this'll be one I'll probably never watch again.
Ms. Marvel….that's all that's left!
Phase 1 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3278723
Phase 2 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3285463
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 1): Dr. Strange / GotG Vol 2 / Civil War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3287952
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 2): Ragnarok / Black Panther / Homecoming
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3290581
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 3): Infinity War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3291814
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 4): Ant Man & The Wasp / Captain Marvel
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3294976
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 5): Endgame
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3297903
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 1): No Way Home / WandaVision
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3300455
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 2): Falcon & Winter Soldier / Loki
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3301758
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 3): Black Widow & What If?
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3303765
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 4): Shang Chi / Eternals / Hawkeye
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3314856
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 5): No Way Home
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3320932