Martin's Musings

Let’s start with some good news: James Gunn’s take on Superman, perhaps the world’s best-known superhero, is a 180-degree departure from Zack Snyder’s take. Gunn’s Superman is not dark, glum, and overly serious. Rather, it’s bright, attractive, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. In fact, many frames and scenes of the movie look like they’re a live-action adaptation of something from the Silver Age. 

The problem is, the movie is also completely meh. It’s one of my least favorite films of the year so far.

When it was announced that James Gunn (writer and director of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies, among others) would be taking over the creative vision and leadership of DC Studios, included in his plans was a reboot of the entire DC Extended Universe. That meant the end was near for Zack Snyder’s version of the DCEU, a series of films marked by their overly serious and cold tone, and increasingly dark and gloomy images, not to mention an over-reliance on CGI. I’m talking, of course, about films like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League.

(Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and last year’s The Batman are not considered part of the DCEU.)

The films do have their fans — including those who, for years, pushed for the release of Snyder’s extended cut of Justice League. But they’re not good, and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what Gunn will do with the franchise.

Yes, there’s still an Aquaman sequel in the works. (Groan.) But before Snyder’s DCEU up and vanishes like a fart in the wind, director Andy Muschietti (It) and screenwriter Christina Hodson (Bumblebee) have stepped in to make sure it goes out with a little fight still left in it. Their The Flash is a super-fun and engaging movie that, while not without its faults, might actually be the best movie in the entire series.

Spider-Man: Far from Home wasn’t just the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s so-called “Phase Three,” it was the last MCU film that could reasonably be considered great.

Alright, fine. Could be considered very good.

Since then, the MCU’s big-screen output has been fair, at best, but mostly underwhelming, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever among the highlights and Eternals among the lowlights of Phase Four. Things have been better on the small screen, but no other series has been as good as WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were.

After the not-very-good Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, not to mention a less than inspiring The Marvels teaser trailer, it’s been more than fair to say that Marvel’s best days are behind us. MCU movies just aren’t as exciting as they used to be.

So, what a relief it is to report that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 stops the downward slide. While not a top-tier movie like, say, Captain America: Winter Soldier or Civil War, not to mention the original Black Panther, the conclusion of this offbeat trilogy is generally one of the better post-Endgame releases and an emotionally satisfying film for longtime fans.

Movie-watchers got their first look at Tom Holland in the Spider-suit last year, when the erstwhile Peter Parker was recruited by mentor Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) to help him in the fight against Captain America, et al. in Captain America: Civil War. Holland was such a blast of energy in the role that he practically stole the film right out from under stars Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans.

Now, Holland gets his own stand-alone Spider-Man film in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and shows that the inflated cameo was no fluke. This Spider-Man is the one we’ve been waiting for. Or, you might say, third time’s the charm. Continue reading →

Before you get too excited about that headline and the blog post that follows, I need to offer a brief disclaimer: I’ve only seen 10 movies so far this year. And these reviews are in order of when I saw them, which means they’re unranked.

So … sorry for the clickbait.

Alas, I wanted to clear the deck before any good movies come out. So here we go: My first 10 review blurbs of 2016. Continue reading →

In the month since I last posted a bunch of mini-reviews, I’ve seen seven more movies. So, rather than wait till the end of the quarter again, I wanted to post them now … while you can still act on my recommendations.

(Note: The numbers before each one reflect the number of movies I’ve seen so far this year.)  Continue reading →