Category Reviews

Aug 10 2023

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Has A Soaring Second Season

Yes, yes, those who have seen the second season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds must be going insane and for good reason. The episode “Hegemony” ends in a cliffhanger! What’s worse is the fact that the production of the third season of the TV show has come to a complete halt because of the ongoing writers and actors strike. So it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll get to see the conclusion of the second season finale. However, “Hegemony” is the final proof that the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been a soaring triumph.

It was critical for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to have a successful second season to keep up the praise it received with its inaugural season and to measure up with the triumphant final season of Star Trek: Picard. After all, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streamed mere weeks after Star Trek: Picard concluded and it had to at least be competent unlike Star Trek: Discovery. Thankfully, the second season was able to pull it off and deliver exceptionally well executed standalone episodes. Not every episode was a homerun but they were fantastic, and even pushed the creative envelope. The two episodes that best exemplify this were “Subspace Rhapsody” and “Those Old Scientists”.

“Subspace Rhapsody” had the audacity to be a musical and it was actually entertaining and provided interesting character insights, such as Uhura’s (Celia Rose) loneliness, La’an’s (Christina Chong) willingness to face her emotions, and Spock (Ethan Peck) and Christine Chapel’s (Jess Bush) doomed relationship.

Meanwhile, “Those Old Scientists” demonstrated that unlike the uneven comedic attempts in the first season, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was able to deliver very humorous episodes. At the same time, the episode was a truly great crossover with the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks as Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Mariner Beckett (Tawny Newsome) made their live-action debuts. They also served as representatives of fans by the way they kept gushing over the OG Star Trek characters.

The best episodes in the season however, were “Under the Cloak of War”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and the previously mentioned “Hegemony”. The episodes were your more traditional Star Trek yarns, but they were exceptional.

“Under the Cloak of War” offered a sobering look at the impact the Klingon War had with Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Christine Chapel as they had to interact with a notorious Klingon general (Robert Wisdom) who defected to the Federation. While the two dealt with their emotions in the present day, intense flashbacks of their time during the Klingon War were vivid and evoked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Dominion episodes.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” was an above average Star Trek time travel episode as La’an, along with an alternate version of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), wind up in Toronto during the mid-21st century. What made the episode stand out was the chemistry between the two and La’an’s dilemma as she faced her ancestral history (she is a descendant of the infamous Khan Noonien Singh).

 “Hegemony” brought back the Gorn, the reptilian enemy race of the the Federation, and they were as deadly and frightening as ever. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) had to find a way to evacuate colonists off a world that has been claimed by the Gorn. The mood of the episode was chilling and foreboding as it had elements of Alien, and as a bonus we get to meet the new version of the future miracle worker, Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn). The actor perfectly captured the essence of Scotty without seeming like a parody.  But as mentioned at the start of this review, the episode ends on a cliffhanger. Nuts! Come on you mega-rich studio execs, find a way to properly compensate the writers and actors who are the backbone of your products!

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Jul 27 2023

A Disappointing Secret Invasion

The six-part Secret Invasion TV series on Disney + streamed its final episode last night and unfortunately it was as mid as the rest of the series. To go into why it was so mediocre and par for the course with the recent TV shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) there will be major spoilers from this point on.

Secret Invasion had a lot to admire, notably Samuel L. Jackson as former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, Olivia Colman as British secret agent Sonya Falsworth, and some terrific dialouge. There was one riveting moment where Fury explained, using his childhood memories in the segragated south, why humanity would never accept alien beings living on Earth. But the overall feeling of the series feels underwhelming and done on the cheap, which is surprising given that it supposedly had a large budget.

Like every comic-book adaptation, Secret Invasion was very loosely based on the Marvel Comics mini-series of the same name in that it only adapted the basic premise that alien shape shifters called Skrulls infiltrated Earth’s human populace. Unlike the comic books there weren’t any Skrulls impersonating superheroes except for Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine (Don Cheadle). There aren’t any epic battles between superheroes and their alien counterparts, and there is a lack of paranoia about who was a Skrull like in the comic books where readers were shocked that several superheroes were impersonated by Skrulls for years.

Yes, there was Rhodey, but that was it, and by the way he acted at the start of the series it was fairly obvious that he was a Skrull. There were a few other revelations but they lacked any dramatic punch because most of these people never appeared before in the MCU. The TV series was just begging for appearances from many established characters, yet that never happened. Sure, it was unrealistic to expect Chris Hemsworth or Paul Rudd to show up, but the MCU has so many distinctive minor characters that could have appeared to play into the paranoia by revelations that they were Skrulls. What is it, they ran out of money to pay these actors? Did the showrunners seriously expected viewers to be shocked when it was revealed that the prime minister of the United Kingdom was a Skrull? Big deal! This faux prime minister did not even do anything!

The storyline followed Nick Fury as he learned that a million Skrulls are living as refugees on Earth disguised as humans. One of them, Gravik (KIngsley Ben-Adir) was a former spy who worked with Fury and is now a terrorist intent on turning Earth into a new homeworld for his race. To do this, Gravik planned to start World War III by using his clandestine Skrull army to instigate a conflict between the United States and Russia. With limited resources, except the help of his Skrull friend Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). Fury has to muster all his connections and skills to stop Gravik and his followers.

What could have been an intense and paranoid political thriller came off as underwhelming aside from a few bright moments throughout the show. Many elements of the storyline do not make sense. For instance, Skrulls were immune to radiation, which is why Gravik wanted to start a third world war. He reasoned that when humanity was wiped out by the fallout radiation the remaining Skrulls would inherit the Earth. But did he stop to consider that Skrulls would be just as vulnerable to the shockwaves and firestorms from the nuclear explosions? What about the biosphere of Earth, could the Skrulls survive on a poisoned planet with no food available and destroyed infrastructures?

Then there were the attempts to assasinate the president of the United States (Dermot Mulroney). There was a sequence in the fifth episode where the president’s motorcade in England was attacked by Gravik’s forces. It was exciting, but it was nagging to see how lightly protected the motorcade was or how it was put into a vulnerable position in the first place. Some lines of dialogue that the Secret Service was severely compromised would have helped here. The poor lines of defense are even more noticeable in scenes were the president was in a British hospital with very few people around him. He should have had an army surrounding him after the motorcade attack and most likely the Secret Service would have whisked him off to Air Force One. Instead we are expected to believe that Fury was able to slink into the hospital without any serious opposition.

There were these cheap dramatic moments of Fury facing off with the Rhodey Skrull. Every time the Skrull would get the upper hand because he was disguised as Rhodey. So why didn’t Fury do what Falsworth did in other scenes when dealing with Skrulls and just shoot him? She showed that injuring a Skrull would have revealed that their blood was a different color and boom, the fake Rhodey would have been exposed.

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Jul 1 2023

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Is A Fine Finale For The Legendary Hero

Harrison Ford returns one final time in his famous role as the swashbuckling archaeologist Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise has been in development hell for several years and it seemed that it wouldn’t ever be made.

Many fans were skeptical that the fifth installment would be able to compare to the previous four films directed by Steven Spielberg. Adding to the doubts were Ford’s age (he turns 81 this month) and the mixed reactions to the fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So, the question most of us have is does the film deliver? For the most part, yes it does.

 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens with an extended flashback sequence in 1944 where Indiana or Indy is battling Nazis in Europe during the waning days of World War II. Unlike the previous films, there aren’t any title cards that establish the time and place, which was disappointing.

Anyway, Indy and his friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) are after a macguffin called the Lance of Longinus, which the Nazis possess. A German astrophysicist named Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson) that is working for the Nazis deduces that the artifact is a fake and tells his superiors about half of another artifact that he possesses. It’s called the Antikythera or the Dial of Destiny and it could help Germany win the war. Before long, Jones and Shaw clash with Voller and the Nazis and are able to acquire the Dial from Voller.

The film flashes forward to 1969 in New York City. Jones is now an old, embittered man who emulates Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino. He is about to retire as an archaeology professor in Hunter College and cannot be bothered to join in the citywide celebrations over the Apollo 11 moon landings. He runs into Shaw’s daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who is a treasure hunter and archaeology student and wants to acquire the Dial of Destiny, which is in the college’s storeroom. Also interested in the Dial is Voller himself and his henchmen. After the war, Voller fled to the United States and helped NASA with their efforts to get to the moon. Voller is able to steal the Dial and sets out to find the other half, which is somewhere in Europe.

It turns out that the device was built by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, and allows a person to track fissures or cracks in time, which would let that person travel to different time periods. Obviously, Voller wants to use the re-assembled device go back to Nazi Germany and win the war. The film turns into an extended series of exciting chases as Indy and Helena try to find the other half of the Dial as well and stay one step ahead of Voller and his goons.

Even though Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was not directed by Steven Spielberg, the film is still a fun adventure while trying to evoke the spirit of the older films in the franchise. While director James Mangold cannot compare to the great Spielberg, he does an admirable job with this film.

In a way, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny echoes some themes from Mangold’s Logan, in that that film also dealt with an aging hero past his prime who is forced to go on one last adventure. Don’t worry Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is not bleak like Logan, but the themes about aging are well explored. Indy’s age and his lot in life in the late ‘60s may alarm some fans but this honest look at the aging hero in the twilight of his life is a novel theme that had not been explored before in the franchise. On the other hand, his physical feats and invulnerability given his ages does stretch credibility.  

The film is similar to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in that the macguffin is more sci-fi based, but unlike the fourth film it doesn’t have sci-fi tropes involving aliens and flying saucers. The Dial’s usage was quite astonishing and fit in well with Jones’ world view. It’s too bad there cannot be another film that would make up a trilogy where Indiana Jones sought sci-fi based macguffins instead of the religious ones he hunted in the first three films. Oh well.

 A huge reason why Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny works is due to Ford himself. He pours himself wholeheartedly into the role since he knows it is the last time he will play the plucky archaeologist. At this point, Ford is an acting legend that should be treasured and most of us are grateful he was able to don his fedora and leather jacket one last time. The other actors are also excellent in the film including Waller-Bridge and Mikkelson.

The production perfectly captured the look of the different time periods. The special effects, especially the de-aging done for Ford when he played the character in the 1940s was excellent aside from a few quick hiccups. But Mangold was able to keep the action and story moving along to keep us from focusing on the occasional effects flaw.

The only other gripe about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is that it is a bit long. It tries to capture the feel of the Spielberg films and while it quite can’t do it, the effort was commendable. As mentioned above, the story usually keeps moving and we’re engaged during the ride. However, it does not have silly moments like nuked fridges and is also not afraid to have more grounded and emotional moments for Indy. But don’t worry, once the action starts, Indiana Jones finds his old groove, which is always a delight to watch.

José Soto

Jun 18 2023

The Flash Is A Fun Sendoff For The DCEU

After years of delays and behind-the-scenes controversies, The Flash, the “final” film of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), is finally here. Fortunately, despite its flaws and the real-life, alleged criminal actions of its star Ezra Miller, the film was worth the wait.

The Flash is a very loose adaptation of the Flashpoint DC Comics mini-series where time-travel actions by the Flash disrupt his timeline. The film takes place during a day-in-the-life of the titular character, Barry Allen aka the Flash (Miller), who performs his superspeed heroics while carrying on in his lonely civilian life. He is trying to find evidence to prove that his father, Henry (Ron Livingston) is innocent of killing Barry’s mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú), when Barry was a child. During a moment of grief, Barry runs so fast he momentarily time travels. This gives him the idea to use his abilities to go further back in time to save his mother. Even though his friend Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) warns him of the dangers with tampering with time, Barry decides to go through his plan anyway and succeeds.

During his journey back to his own time, Barry becomes stranded ten years in his past. After reuniting with his mother and father, Barry soon encounters his younger self and realizes he arrived at the day when he got his superspeed powers. The attempt to ensure that the younger Barry gets his powers succeeds, but the present-day Barry loses his powers. What’s worse is that a short while later, the Kryptonian warlord Zod (Michael Shannon) arrives with his army on Earth to conquer the planet. Barry learns that in this world Superman, who defeated Zod in Man of Steel, does not exist and the only existing superhero is a retired Batman (Michael Keaton). It is up to the three to find a way to defeat Zod and recreate Barry’s powers.

There is so much to enjoy in The Flash, which is one of the best DCEU films. Let’s start with Miller’s performance as both Barrys. Yes, the DCEU version may be too strange and quirky, but Miller is able to create two distinct versions of the same character. One who is immature and very obnoxious, while the slightly older version is more mature, sensible and even sympathetic, although his brash actions created the temporal crisis. The way the film had the actor interact with his film was flawless thanks to clever editing and effects.

Speaking of effects, they are the one major flaw of The Flash. Several sequences are masterful and eye-popping, especially whenever the Flash travels through the speed force, or when our heroes and Supergirl (Sasha Calle) battle Zod and his forces. But other times it is painfully obvious that bad CG is being used. This happens in the film’s opening scenes when the Flash tries to save a bunch of fake-looking infants who are falling from a high-rise hospital and at one point later in the film when several characters are showcased in other universes. It’s not clear what happened, perhaps the producers ran out of money and the film studio Warner Bros. refused to provide more funds. Director Andy Muschietti offered a nonsensical explanation that this was intentional so we could see how the Flash sees the world around him while he is traveling at hyper speeds. Bullshit!

We’ll probably get the real story years from now. But seriously, it would have been better if stock footage from other films and TV shows were used during the scenes where the Flash views other universes. This worked in the recent episode of Titans when Beast Boy glimpsed other universes including the DCEU. What was surprising was that we did not see the CW/Arrowverse version of the Flash played by Grant Gustin. This was unusual since Miller made a brief cameo as the Flash during the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event a few years ago. The other cameos seen are fun especially for DC fans.  

Uneven special effects aside, The Flash is a fun, surprisingly humorous and spirited superhero film that has a lot of heart. Its last merit is rather surprising and credit goes to Miller and Muschietti. The emotional beats are very aching during the film’s final act when Barry has to acknowledge some painful truths about life. There was one scene near the very end that was so heart wrenching even though it was inevitable.

As well as Miller was in both roles, the other performers like Keaton and Calle also turn in fine performances. Obviously, it was great seeing Keaton reprise his iconic role as he found a new spark and purpose in his life, which was to help Barry.  The relationship between the two was the heart of Flashpoint and was essentially recreated in this film, although the film has little to do with the comic book storyline. It was also a treat to see Affleck reprising his role as Batman, as well, even though this will be the actor’s final performance as the superhero. The one brief moment we see his version of Bruce interacting with Barry showed the two have a natural chemistry and it will be missed.

Without going into spoilers it is not clear where the film leaves off in terms of the disrupted timeline. There was an original ending that was nixed in favor of what turns out to be a joke, and a bad one at that for those who loathe some of the older Batman films. Given its dismal box office performance and Miller’s situation it is doubtful this version of the Flash will return as this is the end of the DCEU. Still, The Flash is an enjoyable time-travel/superhero yarn that sends off the DCEU on a high note.

Jun 4 2023

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Embarks On A Stunning, Visual Journey Throughout The Spider-Verse

When it was announced that the release date for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was delayed, there was reason for alarm. Originally the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was supposed to have come out last year, but its release was pushed to this year. Often such significant delays mean that the production of a film is troubled and the finished product winds up being a disappointment. Thankfully, that is not the case with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which excels past Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in so many ways in terms of story and visuals.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opens with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) recounting her life as Spider-Woman (or Spider-Gwen) in her own universe and why she left it to explore other universes with different variants of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. After the lengthy prologue, we meet again Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the Spider-Man of Universe 1610. He has the typical Spider-Man struggles of juggling his civilian life as a teenager with that of fighting crime as Spider-Man.

On his way to meet his parents, Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) and Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry), Spider-Man comes across a supervillain called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose body is covered with removable spots that are portals throughout inter-dimensional space. For example, if Spider-Man punches him in the chest and there is a spot there, Spider-Man’s fist will go through the spot and emerge behind Spider-Man to end up hitting the superhero instead.

The Spot is obsessed with getting revenge on Spider-Man because he blames the superhero for his dilemma. It turns out he was one of the scientists present in the first film where Miles and other Spider-powered heroes destroyed a collider machine that allowed travel between universes. The Spot gained his powers after being caught in the explosion of the collider and we also find out that the scientist was partly responsible for Miles becoming Spider-Man.

After the Spot is defeated and humiliated by Spider-Man, he gains the ability to travel throughout the multiverse and seeks out other colliders in those universes to empower himself even more. This decision will not only endanger the multiverse but severely affect Miles’ personal life.

As the Spot explores other realities, Miles is visited by Spider-Gwen, who is now part of the inter-dimensional Spider-Society that guards the Web of Life and Destiny by seeking out dimensional anomalies throughout the multiverse. She was looking for the Spot, who has become an anomaly traveling throughout several universes. Miles soon joins her as she returns to Spider-Society headquarters on Earth 928 and meets numerous variants of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, including their leader, Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac).

Spider-Man 2099 explains to Miles that all the universes are intertwined in a delicate metaphysical web with canon events, which are important moments in time for those universes. Disrupting those events will eventually unravel universes and this affects Miles in a crucial way after learning that in all of the Spider-Men and Spider-Women universes have canon events that involve the deaths of distinct police captains. Miles deduces that his father, who was just promoted to a captain, will soon die. He comes into direct conflict with the Spider-Society since he resolves to save his father at all costs, canon event be damned.

In this day and age of overhype from fans and critics it is easy to dismiss praise for many films. However, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse lives up to the hype because it is truly one of the finest animated and superhero films ever produced. Like the first film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a visual feast that incorporates different animation styles and frame rates. The best examples of this are with how Spider-Gwen is represented with soft watercolor palettes, while Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) is animated with harsh punk rock art whose clothing is animated at a different frame rate than the character himself. In other examples, the heroes fight a Vulture (Jorma Taccone) from a Renaissance-styled universe looks like a Da Vinci sketch that has come to animated life with sepia colors; we also meet Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider (Adam Sanberg), who is animated as a ‘90s-style character with overripe muscle lines and bright colors.

The visual canvas of the film is very busy with wild animation and numerous Easter eggs. Some scenes feature actual panels from classic Spider-Man comics and even images from live-action films. It will take numerous viewings of this film for anyone to fully spot all of them. Each scene is so painstakingly animated and colored, which leaves us with a film that is just dazzling to the eyes.

Of course, all of the visuals would be meaningless without compelling story and characters, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also excels in this area. So much emotion is conveyed that is either subtle or outlandish. Just like the first film, this sequel is a coming-of-age yarn only with our hero having harder choices to make in his life as he grows into adulthood. Anyone is readily able to relate to Miles’ ethical dilemma of the needs of the many outweighing those of the few and we would probably make the same choice he made. What also helped with the film’s emotional stakes is that it took time to develop Miles’ relationship with his parents, which is full of angst and love. We understand their point of view as they struggle to relate to their son who is growing up to be a man.

Another character who has her own emotional arc is Gwen, who feels alienated and alone in her world. Unable to connect to her father, she in a sense runs away, only in this case she runs away from her universe. The deepening friendship she has with Miles is a true emotional anchor in the film and feels so natural as these two alienated teens are able to connect to one another.

Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), who served as a mentor to Miles in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has a reduced role in this film, which is regrettable. Still, it was a delight seeing him again and what he was been up to. Hopefully, he will have a larger role in the second sequel coming next year.

As many have learned, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ends on a cliffhanger and it is an intense one. But fear not, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will come out in theaters in March 2024, which is less than a year away and we were able to handle the wait between these films. Given how Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is much better than the original, which in itself was a classic, we can only hope that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will excel past this sequel or at least stick the landing.

 José Soto