‘Godzilla Minus One’ Is One of My Favorite Movies of 2023

 Me and Godzilla? We go way back.

Growing up in Westchester, NY, each summer I would eagerly look forward to WPIX 11’s annual “Godzillathon,” which promised a weeklong celebration of The King of the Monsters and his titanic assemblage of enemies and allies, including Mothra, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, King Ghidorah and a giant crustacean named Ebirah, to whom I can easily attribute my lifelong affinity for lobster. I would tape 4-hour stretches of the marathon on VHS and obsess over them … although if I’m being honest, I would mostly fast-forward to the monster fights and skip the human stuff.

Looking back, I wouldn’t say I’ve necessarily carried that immense love of Godzilla to my adult life. I have an immense appreciation for the classic and haunting 1954 original Gojira, I made the 1998 Roland Emerich film my personality for at least a month that summer – thanks in no small part to its incredible soundtrack and not much else – and I’ve had a complicated relationship with the current run of American Godzilla films. I’ve added some of the Bandai and Super 7 figures to my collection, sure, but if someone were to grill me on the ins and outs of The Heisei Era, I would be at a loss.

But something happened when I saw the trailer for the first time a few weeks ago. This looked FRESH. This looked INTENSE. This looked MUST SEE. So, I linked up with a fellow kaiju-curious buddy and ventured out on a cold December evening to absorb Godzilla Minus One and to see if it lived up to the monstrous hype. And … man. This Godzilla Minus One movie is SPECTACULAR. And it’s sad. And I also can’t stop thinking about it one week later.

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One is a new beginning for The King of the Monsters set in the wake of World War II as a survivor’s guilt-ridden kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) struggles to rebuild his life in war-torn Japan. His internal conflict is magnified by external forces, as an unkillable creature known to locals as Godzilla emerges and begins destroying U.S. warships en route to Japan. Kōichi and his found family are pitted against this unspeakable horror as they fight to defend their homeland against further obliteration.

What immediately struck me about Godzilla Minus One is that it owes as much to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as it does to the 70-year canon of Godzilla films. It’s hard not to compare Kōichi’s new friends on a minesweeping boat to the crew of the Orca, nor is it a stretch to think of Chief Brody when our heroes were trying to trick Godzilla into catching maritime mines in his mouth so they can shoot them and make them explode in his maw. There is also a satisfying emphasis on suspense, a touching human story, humor that doesn’t feel forced, and some heart-wrenching character moments that make Godzilla Minus One feel like classic Spielberg in the best way possible.

Let’s talk about The Big Guy. At a meager budget of just $15 million, Godzilla is stunningly rendered in CGI that looks better than most major U.S. studio films released this year. His immense scale is felt throughout, and each time he uses his heat ray is suitably terrifying, as it carries with it the force of an atomic bomb. If you can, see Godzilla Minus One on the biggest screen possible. Streaming on TV won’t do the raw ferocity of this new Godzilla justice.

Godzilla Minus One is the first Godzilla movie I have seen as an adult that has absolutely blown me away, and I hope Toho continues this story with more films and more monsters.

‘The Marvels’ Had the MCU’s Worst Opening Weekend and It Deserved Better

 

I caught and quite enjoyed Marvel Studios’ The Marvels Friday night … but I guess not a lot of people did.

Deadline reports that the film – directed by Nia DaCosta and starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani and Samuel L. Jackson – is posting a $47 million three-day opening, which is the worst opening weekend in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with a $200 million+ budget, one has to imagine that Kevin Feige and the key stakeholders at Marvel Studios are putting plans in place to ensure it’s only up from here.

But here’s the thing – The Marvels is actually pretty good, and is absolutely not deserving of the “worst opening” distinction. It’s far from the worst Marvel project released this year, even! 

Yeah, that’s right! I liked it! And judging by its 62% Tomatometer Score and 85% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, I’m not alone. It’s fun, has a lot of Marvel wackiness that I tend to enjoy, and the three titular Marvels shine. But with all its interstellar action and kinetic power-swapping fight scenes, it somehow feels small for a Marvel movie, so the folks clamoring for the next Avengers: Endgame-level epic will find nothing like that here (although my theater ERUPTED during a certain character’s mid-credit scene appearance). But it is just “pretty good” in my eyes, and it wouldn’t crack my MCU Top 10 or even come close to it. That’s fine.

If the movie is actually enjoyable, though, then what exactly went wrong? Some will say the brand recognition for Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau isn’t very strong, and that it’s asking a lot of casual fans to expect them to absorb two or three different streaming series to understand how we got to this point (in reality, the film does a pretty good job bringing people up to speed). Some will also note that the SAG-AFTRA strike ended just one day prior to the film’s release, which didn’t really allow for the type of media blitz and celebrity appearances that this type of film typically entails. And, still, there will be those out there – you know the type – who will say that people don’t want female-led blockbusters and that Marvel Studios’ “pandering” has caught up with them, even though Barbie and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour proved otherwise in big, big, sparkly ways.

My hypothesis? If a film isn’t publicly perceived as a massive cultural event, which was the case for Barbie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Oppenheimer and, more recently, Five Nights at Freddy’s, audiences will choose to skip the theater and remain in the comfort of their home because it’s A) cheaper and B) where they can see everything eventually by employing a small amount of patience. The economy still stinks, movie tickets are more expensive than ever, and the options people have for entertainment at home are staggering. Unless any of those factors change, “pretty good” superhero movies like The Marvels will continue to struggle finding those Endgame audiences, perpetuating the false narrative that the MCU is “dead” and that the only way to save it is to either bring back the original Avengers roster – including deceased characters Iron Man and Black Widow – or to reboot the universe entirely. I hate both of those options, for the record. I think it boils down to making bigger swings in theaters and reserving “smaller” stories that don’t have universe-shattering implications for streaming. Audiences have changed since 2019.

But as I said earlier, The Marvels is fun, and if you’re able to cut through the static and the negative press, you’ll find an entertaining movie that’s full of heart. The MCU is alive and well, despite those reports of its demise, but their theatrical strategy is still struggling to adapt to a post-COVID, pro-streaming entertainment landscape. Slowing down – both for the benefit of the audience as well as the people working behind the scenes – and strategically building to must-see theatrical events could be the key to saving the universe … at the box office, at least.

 

‘Spider-Man 2’ is My Game of the Year

 SPOILERS AHEAD

As someone with limited “free time,” I’m not ashamed to admit that I completed Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man 2 twice since its Oct. 20 release. Yes, I’m aware that was only two weeks ago as of this writing, and yes, I’m aware that there are other games out there worthy of my time, including Baldur’s Gate 3 and the spectacular-by-all-accounts Super Mario Bros. Wonder on Nintendo Switch. I’ll get to those, surely, but after an initial jaunt through Insomniac’s lovingly crafted Marvel epic, I needed to swing through it again. But I had a legitimate reason to run it back … honest.

Last week, after spending just a few hours with the game, I vowed to take my time with it. But, of course, certain story and gameplay elements – nearly all of which involved some ridiculously fun, slimy, Symbiote powers – compelled me onward. I ignored prompts to explore optional side stories as I launched myself toward an inevitable and emotional confrontation with Venom/Harry Osborn. Ignoring chances to gain and upgrade abilities for both Peter Parker and Miles Morales (including those tied to health, enemy damage and all-important Focus meters), I haphazardly turned a relatively straightforward action-adventure game into a white-knuckle Dark Souls-like experience. I made it through the story on the default Amazing difficulty, but with no shortage of expletives or urges to hurl my controller across the room. The thrill of completion (which happened 3 a.m. last Wednesday, by the way), quickly turned to regret, as my desire to complete the game before it got spoiled for me on social media robbed me of the fun I could have had with it. Congratulations, Past James, you played yourself.

So, the next night, I started a new game determined to explore as much of the optional content as I could and to level up both Spider-Men accordingly. I was introduced to a pre-Symbiote Cletus Kasady. I helped a woman find and reconnect with her grandfather. I experienced the world as Miles’ Deaf love interest Hailey, in one of the coolest and most thoughtful side missions I’ve ever played. Oh, and I also saved New York City and the world from alien slime monsters. All in a work for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man(s).

I’m certain we’ll get more content via DLC, as was the case with 2018’s Spider-Man, and perhaps we’ll even get a shorter follow-up like Insomniac’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which brought the franchise to the PS5 for the first time. But even as it stands, Spider-Man 2 is my favorite game in this series and, for me, is the best game of 2023. From the intricate story to the satisfying traversal to the ways in which the combat gets increasingly fun the more you play, I have not had more fun with any other game this year. And I might even play through it again before the New Year. 

 Granted, I’m wearing Spider-Man socks and staring at a shelf of Spider-Man action figures as I type this, so take all of this with a massive grain of Spider-Salt before you come at me on X (formerly Twitter). Thwip, thwip.  

Sticking Power: ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’ First Impressions

 

There are only a few games in the past five years or so that have completely captured my imagination and my free time – I’m sure plenty of folks riding out the final days of their 30s can relate. But of that handful of titles, three stand out above all others: Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and, most recently, Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 (officially named  Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but I think you’ll know what game I’m talking about even if I skip that formality moving forward).

Developer Insomniac Games has cracked the code as far as what makes Spider-Man compelling not only as a fictional character – that efficacy has been proven across just about every medium known to man except maybe Broadway – but as a playable character in a video game. Never before has it been so fun to aimlessly explore a virtual environment as it has been with these three games. And Spider-Man 2 is easily the best one yet.

The game looks beautiful, and whether I’m swinging between buildings as Peter Parker or Miles Morales or soaring above them with the use of the game’s brand-new Web Wings mechanics, I’m in love with the exploration, and many of my waking hours not spent playing the game have involved thinking about it … and that’s just the traversal!

Without getting into spoiler territory (you’ll get their soon enough if you scroll your TikTok FYP long enough), Spider-Man 2 weaves together the various threads from the original game, its DLC and Miles’ spectacular spinoff title to craft a massive narrative that pulls from a half-decade of Spidey lore to create something fresh. If you think you know Venom’s story already, you don’t. And because we’ve all gotten so comfortable with a Spider-Man multiverse many times over in recent years, it’s not at all jarring when Insomniac decides to make a massive departure from the source material. It’s refreshing! New is good! Stop complaining! 

Equally refreshing is the combat, which retains the frenetic, controlled chaos of previous entries while giving both Miles and Peter new, distinct abilities. Miles gets a strange upgrade to his Venom Blast abilities, while Peter … well, let’s just say his movements get more fluid this time around.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Spider-Man 2 is how excited I am to TAKE. IT. SLOW. With many recent games that I actually quite enjoyed – including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, God of War: Ragnarok, and Final Fantasy XVI – I’ve been compelled to move through the main story as fast as possible to absorb it and move on because of that “adulting” (ugh) thing I alluded to earlier. But I’m enjoying just being in Spider-Man 2’s world that I’m in no rush to get to the ending. Much like the titular Wall-Crawlers, I think I’ll stick around in Spider-Man 2 for a while.

On ‘Ahsoka,’ ‘Loki’ and Franchise Fatigue

 

Season 3 of The Mandalorian was OK.

Yes, it pains me to write that. The Mandalorian – universally beloved and merchandised thanks to the genius inclusion of a cooing Yoda-like baby now named Din Grogu – had gone from the absolute beacon of hope for the Star Wars franchise to “pretty good” in the eyes of many viewers, including myself. Now, maybe that’s because Andor had sufficiently and surprisingly raised the bar in terms of what a Star Wars TV show could be. Maybe it’s because we’ve been so sufficiently spoiled by new Star Wars stories that it takes much more to excite us. Qui-Gon Jinn himself, Liam Neeson, told Conan O’Brien earlier this year, “There’s so many spinoffs of Star Wars. It’s diluting it to me, and it’s taken away the mystery and the magic in a weird way.”

That makes a lot of sense, right? If we’re constantly fed – and Star Wars fans are fed these days – we’re not all that likely to salivate over the next meal. This is probably why Ahsoka, which debuted in August, was a bit hard for me to get into for the first few episodes. I liked it just fine, but I was shocked by how nitpicky and blasé I was about the whole thing. I felt like I could predict exactly where the story was going and how the season would wrap up.

And then Anakin freaking Skywalker showed up and s*** got REAL.

From the return of The Chosen One to some emotional Rebels reunions to Grand Admiral Thrawn just Thrawning it up every time he was onscreen, Ahsoka became one of my favorite Star Wars things ever. And given where the season wound up (Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano stranded on a strange world alongside new enemies, a rogue Jedi unraveling mysteries of the Force, and Thrawn about to unleash HELL on the New Republic), I genuinely have no idea what’s in store next for that galaxy far, far away … and that’s damned exciting.

We’ve been at a point in many fictional cinematic universes – including Marvel, Star Wars, and DC – in which it feels like we’ve been treading water for a while now. Ever since The Rise of Skywalker and Avengers: Endgame, fans have been waiting for the next big event to propel their respective overarching stories forward (and that event unfortunately wasn’t Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). In DC’s case, we’re just burning through already-completed movies until James Gunn’s reboot happens. This is one of the reasons why phrases like “superhero fatigue” and “franchise fatigue” have been thrown around so much lately. Heck, even Andor – for all its many high points – is essentially just filling in the gaps between other films and shows.  

Ahsoka, meanwhile, just shook up the entire Star Wars galaxy and left us on the edge of our seats. Loki, now in its second season, is about to similarly make sense of all this Marvel Multiverse stuff we’ve been living in for the past few years. They’re breaking the formula and giving us new stories, new perspectives, and new questions to ask. Hell, I’d say given Star Wars and Marvel Studios’ recent output, they’re as good as they’ve ever been. So perhaps it’s not fatigue for fans … it’s impatience.

Fortunately, it seems, the wait is over.

‘Mutant Mayhem’ is the Best TMNT Reimagining Yet

 

If you ever want to send me into an existential spiral, simply ask me this question:

“James, who is your favorite Ninja Turtle?”

When asked this question prior to a screening of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, I froze up. How can I choose just one?! I relate to the hot-headed Raphael more often than I’d like to, but I typically aspire to be a carefree party dude like Michelangelo. Professionally, however, I aim to channel the leadership of Leonardo and the problem-solving skills of Donatello. So, I guess that speaks to one of the reasons why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has thrived as a now-multigenerational franchise for nearly 40 years. For everyone who grew up with them, the Turtles continue showing us who we are and who we want to be.

Nickelodeon has refreshed the brand a few times since acquiring the franchise in 2009, including two animated series and a bizarre duet of Michael Bay-produced films that made our heroes gigantic and Hulk-like (downplaying the “Ninja” part of their moniker) and visually unappealing (doubling down on “Mutant,” I suppose). The third film under the Nick umbrella turns up the volume on the “Teenage” aspect of the property and breaks off the knob. And the result is an irresistibly charming new take on the Turtles that oozes (ha) authenticity and reinvents the characters for an entirely new audience.  

Directed by Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs. the Machines), who collaborated on the screenplay with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit, Mutant Mayhem uses a beautiful animation style reminiscent of the Spider-Verse series – a CGI hand-drawn aesthetic with a dash of stop-motion charm. Add in top-tier voice work from actual teenagers paired up with an all-star cast filling out the mutant menagerie and what you get is something that looks, feels, and sounds intricately, lovingly and effectively crafted.

The story takes place several years after Master Splinter (Jackie Chan) finds our ooze-covered protagonists in a sewer and trains them in the ways of the ninja to help them protect themselves from the dangers of the human world. Named after Renaissance artists, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey) and Raphael (Brady Noon) grow into restless pizza-loving teenagers curious about the world outside their sewer den. While stopping a robbery during a grocery run, they meet fellow teenager and reporter April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) who, like the Turtles, yearns for acceptance and validation. With April documenting their every move, the Turtles aim to track down and defeat a criminal known as Superfly (Ice Cube) to earn the city’s respect. While confronting him, however, they find that they’re not the only mutants in town and, as the title suggests, mayhem ensues.

Fans of the classic cartoon, toys, video games and Archie Comics will find many familiar faces and names in Mutant Mayhem, including Bebop (Rogen), Rocksteady (John Cena), Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), Wingnut (Natasia Demitriou), Ray Fillet (Post Malone), Genghis Frog (Hannibal Burress), Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), and Scumbug (who only speaks in “vermin”). One of my few complaints about the film is that there are so many side characters they don’t really have much of a chance to shine individually, but I suppose with the announced sequel and two-season animated Paramount+ series already in development, we’ll get to know each of them individually in due time.

As mentioned earlier, the most endearing aspect of Mutant Mayhem is the fact that the Turtles talk and act like actual teenagers – perhaps for the first time in the franchise’s history. The way they goof on each other, support each other and crack jokes with each other makes it seem like these are actual 15-year-olds who spend a lot of time together. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the funnier moments between the Turtles were improvised in the recording booth. It’s special, and I can’t wait to see and hear more from this cast in future installments.

At 99 minutes – short for a superhero epic in 2023 – Mutant Mayhem does leave you wanting more in the best way possible. And judging by THAT mid-credit scene, massive things are on the way. But even as a self-contained story, I absolutely loved Mutant Mayhem, and it’s my favorite TMNT movie since the 1990 original. And to paraphrase Mikey from that film, man, I love being a Turtles fan.

 

New ‘Ahsoka’ Trailer Drops Potential ‘Rebels’ Bombshell

 

If you weren’t already salivating like a womprat at a bantha roast over Ahsoka, you probably are now.

Lucasfilm unveiled a new trailer for their upcoming Star Wars Disney+ series that gives us new looks at Lars Mikkelsen’s Grand Admiral Thrawn, Eman Esfandi’s Ezra Bridger, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Hera Syndulla, the villainous Shin Hati and Baylan Skoll (Ivanna Sakhno and the late Ray Stevenson) post-Rebels relationship between Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) … or apparently their lack of one.

“You never made things easy for me,” says Sabine, her arms crossed in defiance. “… Master.”

Wait.

WAIT.

Did I miss something? Indeed, it seems as though Ahsoka and Sabine had a falling out that ended their Master/Apprentice kinship, which either means that Ahsoka simply served as a secular mentor to the younger Sabine … or that the Mandalorian demolitions expert and graffiti enthusiast is Force-sensitive.

This is either Dave Filoni shrugging his shoulders at four seasons of his own TV show that hardly hinted at Sabine’s Force abilities, or we’re due for a massive retconny revelation about her when the series debuts next month.

Join me in obsessing over the Ahsoka trailer below, and don’t miss the series’ two-episode premiere Aug. 23, exclusively on Disney+.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Diminishing Returns?

 

Indiana Jones came out of retirement for one last adventure on June 30 for James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a film rife with nostalgia in Disney’s continued plundering of time-tested IP in pursuit of theatrical fortune and glory. Given the lukewarm box office reception in its debut weekend, during which it fell short of projections by whipping up just $82 million domestically over five days, it’s safe to say that fortune eluded Indy this time around – especially given its $300 million budget. As for the glory? Well, that depends.

Way back in 2008, I was remarkably high on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a film that became the subject of much derision due to its fridge-nuking propensity for silliness. Although I affirm that Crystal Skull is still the weakest in the series to this day (spoiler: Dial of Destiny is a stronger film), it still has that classic Steven Spielberg charm in spots and features Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones – one of the greatest marriages of actor and character in movie history.

And it’s that strength of Ford’s performance that carries much of Dial of Destiny, even when it veers into the realm of the preposterous. Infamously a curmudgeon in the press these days, Ford, 80, has a twinkle in his eye as he closes the curtain on a character that he, Spielberg and George Lucas created more than 40 years ago. Indy alumni Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies return as Marion Ravenwood and Sallah, joined by series newcomers Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw, Ethann Isidore as aspiring aviator Teddy, and Mads Mikkelsen as the villainous Jürgen Voller. The story, which spans several decades, revolves around Archimedes’ Dial, a device that gives its wielder the power to transcend space and time.

Mangold had big shoes to fill in directing the first and only Indiana Jones film not helmed by Spielberg, but as he did with the phenomenal Logan, he tells a compelling story about an aging hero coming to terms with the mistakes of the past and the mounting limits of his mortality. A well-paced first act shows us a younger World War II-era Indy (by way of some impressive de-aging technology) escaping Nazis on board a speeding train, where we’re introduced to the film’s main villain and the titular Dial (or at least half of it). We then catch up with an elderly Indy in 1969 on the cusp of his retirement, but a chance reconnection with his estranged goddaughter Helena brings him back into conflict with Nazis and back into pursuit of an artifact that has the power to alter the course of history.

A fun first act gives way to a muddy middle that caused me to look at my own Dial of Destiny (my watch) a few times, and the climax is going to be something scholars (nerds) debate for a long, long time. That said, for a series that’s featured beating hearts plucked from chests, an eleventh-century knight living long enough to learn the Charleston and actual ALIENS, I didn’t bump into the film’s final scenes as much as some other people on the internet and I’m satisfied with where Indy ultimately winds up.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny likely won’t be the most memorable film you see this year or even this summer, and anyone expecting it to reach the highs of the original three films will be as disappointed as Walter Donovan when he wet his whistle in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. That said, getting to see Ford as Indiana Jones one more time goes a long way. And when it comes to long-running, decades-spanning franchises – Indy or otherwise – it’s not the years. It’s the mileage.  

The DCEU Goes Across the Bat-Verse with ‘The Flash’

 

Nostalgia is a powerful tool in the era of the “Legacy Sequel.” From Star Wars to Spider-Man to Jurassic World to Ghostbusters, franchises are banking on millennials’ intense desire to see their childhood heroes brought back into the spotlight alongside contemporary protagonists for “one more adventure.” And I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t say I was sold on Andy Muschietti’s The Flash the moment I saw Michael Keaton don his iconic Batman cape and cowl in the trailer. If The Flash delivered on the Keaton Bat-Goods, I would be more than satisfied with the rest of it.

Yes, Keaton delivers, and if you’re planning on seeing The Flash solely to see your childhood Batman mix it up on the big screen once again – those wonderful toys in tow – you won’t be disappointed. Of course, with that must come a strong understanding that this is not his movie.

To provide a sense of what Batman means to me, let’s take a step or perhaps a slow-motion sprint (ha) back in time to the 1980s with Kenner’s Super Powers Collection, an assortment of DC figures complete with character-specific action features that would give me my first two superhero action figures: Batman and Superman. I honestly can’t recall whatever became of my Batman. It was either lost to a supermarket floor somewhere or fell victim to a couch cushion boobytrap (Adam West has been through worse). The Superman, however, was the Sheriff Woody to my Andy, and I took that mini-Man of Steel everywhere until he, too, was lost to the Phantom Zone. Toy Biz ultimately rekindled my interest in superhero action figures in 1989 with the release of their line of movie- and comic-inspired figures tying into Tim Burton’s smash-hit Batman film, which included a Keaton-adjacent black-suited Batman, a semi-Jack Nicholson Joker, the henchman of all henchmen named only Bob the Goon, and an assortment of other DC characters not in that film, including Robin, Mr. Freeze, The Penguin and, of course, Superman.

I didn’t see Burton’s Batman until it arrived on home video, and even though Nicholson’s Joker TERRIFIED me, I was hooked. And when I learned that there would be a sequel featuring Penguin and Catwoman, I was overcome with Batmania. The only cure was, apparently, to beg my parents for as many Batman Returns consumer products as possible, including Kenner’s fantastic action figure line that gave us about 984 different versions of Batman, a Penguin that looked nothing like Danny DeVito, a Catwoman no one could find in any stores, a Robin that wasn’t even hinted at in the final film, and a set of Penguin Commandos. These were penguins that had rockets strapped to their backs. Penguin. Commandos. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Batman Returns?

Of course, my dad took me to see the film – my first PG-13 movie in theaters – and although it sparked a mild panic among parents’ groups and corporate partners for its sexual content, violent nose-biting, and the omnipresent ooze spewing forth from Penguin’s mouth, there really wasn’t anything else I could think about in the summer of 1992. Rest assured, I rolled into King Street Elementary School the following year with a full array of Batman Returns school supplies and quoting Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck before quoting Christopher Walken was cool. “Expensive baubles” indeed. 

And even as a kid raised on Star Wars, Keaton’s Batman quickly became one of my favorite fictional heroes. From the voice to the attitude to the way he effortlessly took down the bad guys (sometimes to a permanent end, as purists have always pointed out), Keaton’s Caped Crusader was cooler than vichyssoise, a soup that, as Alfred Pennyworth himself taught us, is “supposed to be cold.”

But we’re here to talk about The Flash, aren’t we? This is a film that puts a red-and-yellow bow on Zack Snyder’s DCEU before the James Gunn-led reboot of the film universe. It’s also a film that’s surprisingly fun, full of genuine laughs and boisterous action set pieces that are sure to entertain. And yes, Keaton’s not the only returning hero in this one, and some of the cameos are maddeningly fun, but I won’t spoil them here. I’ll leave that to the TikTokers who spoiled them for me.

But there’s also a super-powered elephant in the room when it comes to The Flash thanks to the much publicized and troubling recent actions of its star, Ezra Miller. It’s difficult to separate the actor from the work in many instances, and it can be a heavy lift to do so here, but I will say that Miller carries much of the film through their comedic timing and the emotional weight they bring to a character who, frankly, wasn’t given all that much to do in either cut of Justice League that came before. Barry Allen is kind of a goober – he admits that repeatedly throughout the film – and with a story that demands two Barrys on-screen through much of it, this could have been a real chore of a movie. But it isn’t. It’s kind of a blast, and it’s a lot more fun than I thought it would be. 

But what’s it about, anyway? The Flash revolves around Barry learning he can use his speedster abilities to travel through time. Barry, obsessed with clearing his father’s name for the murder of his mother years earlier, comes to a powerful realization: What if that murder never even happened? After manipulating one small moment in the past – and encountering a mysterious and violent creature between timelines that sends him off-course – Barry finds himself in an alternate universe one decade earlier. In this world, Barry has yet to gain his powers, Superman doesn’t exist, and Batman has retired. So, when General Zod shows up with a Kryptonian army (as he did in 2011’s Man of Steel), it’s up to Barry to team up with his younger self, an elder Dark Knight and a Kryptonian who is not Kal-El to stop Zod and, ultimately, keep reality from imploding on itself.

There’s a lot of action in this film that’s thrilling to watch despite some surprisingly janky CGI, including a sequence involving multiple computer-animated babies that was almost uncomfortable to watch. There were also some slow-motion running sequences that elicited laughter from the audience I was with (I might have joined them), which is probably not the intended reaction for a film about a character who, well, runs.  

Despite its flaws, the fun I had with The Flash was undeniable, as was the Joker-esque smile plastered across my face whenever Keaton was on-screen. To paraphrase Bruce Wayne himself, I wanted The Flash to get nuts. And it got nuts.

Why ‘Spider-Verse’ Might Become One of Our Greatest Trilogies

 

I have a confession to make: I wasn’t all that excited about 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the lead-up to its release. At the time, Marvel fans were still reeling from Avengers: Infinity War, and with Tom Holland’s Spidey claiming his rightful place as one of the central figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an animated multiverse movie about Miles Morales felt like a side dish. Ancillary. Unimportant. Kids’ stuff.

Then, of course, I saw the movie, which not only changed what I thought a Spider-Man film could be, but what animated films were capable of in general. Much like Spider-Ham eating a hot dog, I was wrong. Way wrong.

Meanwhile, the MCU’s Spidey story would continue beyond Endgame with Far from Home and No Way Home, the latter of which brought classic Peter Parkers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back into the tights – alongside some familiar villains – in what became the most crowd-pleasing Spider-Man story ever brought to film … until this past Friday when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered.

I’m clearly not alone in loving the film, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. In fact, in what is a statistical near-impossibility, social media seems united in their praise for the sequel, which somehow distills a multiverse-spanning narrative into a rich character study for main characters Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac). Marrying swaggering bombast with careful craftsmanship, this film honors 80 years of Spider-Man canon across media while telling an all-new story about heroism, found family, identity and – since this is a Spidey flick after all – great power and the responsibility that comes with it.

But of course, that story is far from over. In a move that knocked us all back from the edge of our seats, Across the Spider-Verse ends with a big ol’ “To Be Continued,” forcing us to wait until the next issue sequel arrives next March in the form of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. And without getting into spoiler territory (because even a few days after release, that would be criminal), Miles and friends find themselves in a precarious spot (ha!) before the credits roll, so the next few months are going to be excruciating as we wait to see what happens next. But until that point, I plan on watching Across the Spider-Verse many, many more times. From the wide variety of animation styles on display to the sheer volume of activity and characters filling the frame at times, this film demands repeat viewing.

It's admittedly rare these days to find myself truly compelled to watch a Marvel film more than once. The aforementioned No Way Home aside, the post-Endgame MCU stories have felt more like DLC than bonafide superhero epics – secondary to the already-completed main quest that reached its logical conclusion four years ago. Fortunately, the outstanding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 changed all that by bringing us one of the best MCU films ever last month (thank you, James Gunn!) and the non-MCU-but-very-much-still-connected-to-the-MCU Across the Spider-Verse kept that momentum going in a major way. And if Miles sticks the landing next March, we might be considering the Spider-Verse trilogy not only one of the best superhero trilogies of all time, but one of the greatest movie trilogies PERIOD.

So yeah, about Spider-Verse being a side dish? There’s been a change to the menu. Now, True Believers, we feast.

‘Mandalorian’ Musings: Was the Season 3 Finale Underwhelming?

 

Remember how I said that Gorian Shard was “The New Gigachad of the Star Wars Universe”? Well, seeing as how he suffered a terrible case of getting blown the f*** up in his second appearance, I might have overestimated his relevance and longevity in that galaxy far, far away.

But my new favorite space-faring swamp monster was just one of many surprises in The Mandalorian Season 3. Jack Black! Lizzo! Christopher Lloyd! Zeb! Glowing popsicles! Oh, and the gigantic Mythosaur, Grogu driving IG-11 1G-12 like a mech suit, Moff Gideon’s cloning plot and Bo-Katan’s ascent to the throne of Mandalore. I suppose those were big deals too.

The season culminated in a grand finale that dropped April 19, a crowd-pleaser of a climax that saw the Mandalorians defeat Gideon’s and reclaim their home planet as Din Djarin finally adopted (Din) Grogu as his son. With a home on Navarro and the promise of new adventures ahead – helping the New Republic wipe out the Imperial Remnant – the season acts not only as a conclusion to the current season, but the end of an era for these characters.

Pretty satisfying, right? Well, hold on a minute.

When it comes to nerd properties these days, we’ve been conditioned to expect a lot of our season finales. Hell, the last episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 gave us Luke Skywalker in his PRIME with the aid of some cutting-edge tech. Given the barrage of surprises and cameos, including celebrity guest spots and Rebels’ Zeb, mentioned earlier, this season – for better and for worse – leaned heavy on the unexpected. So when the story wrapped up in a fairly conventional way, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed. And I’m honestly not sure what I expected. Grand Admiral Thrawn appearing in live action for the first time? A Mythosaur rampage? Taylor Swift as a Porg breeder? In any event, a well-made finale left me feeling hollow for some reason. But it’s not you, Star Wars, it’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

 But seeing as how Star Wars Jedi: Survivor drops this Friday – the same day Return of the Jedi comes back to theaters for its 40th anniversary – I’m sure I’ll get over it. 

‘Mandalorian’ Musings: I’m Obsessed with Gorian Shard, and I Don’t Care Who Knows It

This might surprise none of you, but I love a good Star Wars alien. As a kid I would spend way too much time rewatching Return of the Jedi’s Jabba’s Palace scenes to gaze upon the slimy, rubbery, and occasionally puppety denizens of the corpulent crime boss’ court. The action figures I would always gravitate toward first were the weird guys with names like Momaw Nadon and Amanaman. I yearned to know how Max Rebo, Droopy McCool and Sy Snootles linked up to become the hottest musical act on the Outer Rim. So yeah, I like my Star Wars when it’s weird.

However, since we’re getting new Star Wars media on a fairly regular basis these days – including Disney+ shows, video games and more books and comics than I reasonably have time to read – it’s rare to be outright shocked and delighted by a singular, brand-new alien design. But that all changed this past Wednesday.

The fantastic Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian brought us many things to enjoy this past week: Greef Karga’s cape droids, Grogu interacting and almost squeezing the life out of tiny droidsmiths, a massive crocodile monster and a fairly intense space battle pitting Mando against pirates. But it was the leader of those pirates that stopped me in my tracks and made me shout “WHAT?!” at an all-too-inappropriate volume for 7 a.m. 

Enter Pirate King Gorian Shard: The New Gigachad of the Star Wars Universe.

I mean … look at him. A bizarre cross between Swamp Thing and Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with just a dash of Sigmund the Sea Monster, this is a character that deserves a Hasbro Star Wars Black Series figure, multiple Funko POP! bobbleheads and a trilogy of novels detailing his meteoric rise through the pirate ranks. He should be a photo op at Galaxy’s Edge. He should be my new best friend. 

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s just hope he shows up again on this season of The Mandalorian or, at the very least, one of the upcoming live-action shows. The Shard Squad demands it.

'The Last of Us' and the Deceptively Long Sequel

 

Just like everybody else on the planet with an HBO Max account, I’m absolutely captivated by HBO’s The Last of Us, a stirring TV adaptation of Naughty Dog’s exceptional 2013 video game of the same name. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are scary good as series stars Joel and Ellie, while the mushroom-headed Clickers, Bloaters and other infected creatures populating the show’s post-apocalyptic ruins are just plain scary. They’re fungi, but they’re not fun guys.

Yikes. If you’re booing, I earned it. I’ll see myself out after the next few paragraphs.

Because I’m desperate to be an authority on where the series is going as friends and family gush about the series, I completed the first Last of Us game a few weeks ago. It took me about 12 hours, and although I’m not a huge fan of stealth games – the very reason why it has taken me so long to complete a single playthrough of the first game – I’m glad I took the time and thoroughly enjoyed the story. Of course, I couldn’t stop there, so I immediately downloaded The Last of Us Part 2. I’d heard how heart-wrenchingly heavy the 2020 sequel is, and it didn’t sound like something that would be an absolute blast from a narrative perspective, but I breezed through the first game fairly quickly and was confident I would do the same for the follow-up. I wouldn’t be depressed for too long, would I?

I WOULD.

I’d reached the apparent climax to the story at about 12 hours. Stealing an hour or two a night, this had taken me about two weeks. I cried, I winced, I screamed out loud a few times and I was excited to wrap things up. But the story didn’t end there. In fact, the game took me back in time, to replay the previous three days’ events from the perspective of the antagonist.

I was only halfway done.

Damn it all.

There might have been a time in my life when I would have been stoked to have so much game left to play. I recall many late nights with games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – worlds and universes I wanted to explore for hours on end. Yet, with a little less than 12 hours of gameplay remaining, I found myself frustrated. How dare Naughty Dog painstakingly craft an intricate long-form narrative dissecting the perils of revenge! Don’t they respect my time?! I’ve got stuff to do.

After completing my playthrough just an hour prior to this writing, I couldn’t help but shake that weird feeling that I liked the story – loved it, even – but I wished it happened in about half the time. Perhaps this was me coming to grips that I’ve aged out of the core demographic for video games in general, and they’re not necessarily designed for dudes in their late 30s whose solitary downtime is limited. Or perhaps a pandemic-ravaged dystopia isn’t exactly somewhere I love escaping to when I’m relaxing. Check the price of eggs lately. We’re basically living in it.

Regardless, I put down my controller fully satisfied with the story that was told and look forward to seeing what’s next, both in games and on HBO Max. To Naughty Dog, thank you. You’ve crafted an incredible and LENGTHY story that’s becoming an all-time great HBO series as I type. But to all game developers, I beg you: Make your games shorter. Exhausted Elder Millennials everywhere will thank you.

It’s not you. It’s us.

No, I Didn’t Buy the $30 Ant-Man Popcorn Helmet

While strolling into my local AMC Theatre bright and early on a Saturday morning (10:30 a.m.) to take in an IMAX screening of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, I turned my eyes to the concession stand for something even remotely appropriate for the relatively early hour. Sadly, they were all sold out of breakfast nachos and bacon, egg and cheese dogs (my favorite), so I went with a large popcorn and a Diet Coke. After all, butter goes on toast just fine and corn is the base for just about every cereal known to man, so I was able to justify the chronologically questionable dietary decision. And Diet Coke is the third cousin of coffee (once removed), so I think we can all give me a pass on that one.

But there was something else that gave me pause at the snack counter as the theater employee slowly blinked at the 39-year-old man in a Baby Groot T-shirt: no less than seven Ant-Man helmets staring out at the lobby from a dimly lit display.

Ant-Man helmets with light-up features.

Ant-Man helmets that open from the top to hold popcorn.

ANT-MAN HELMETS THAT LET YOU EAT SNACKS OUT OF PAUL RUDD’S HEAD.

The price? $29.99. The value? Infinite.

I’ve bought a lot of popcorn buckets in my time. Yes, that’s a sentence I typed in earnest. I have a Ghostbusters: Afterlife bucket shaped like the rusted Ecto-1 from the film. I have a tin Star Wars: The Force Awakens BB-8 bucket, which has taken up residence in our laundry room as a dryer lint repository. So, yeah, I’m kind of a bucket head. No big deal. But THIS? This was perhaps the finest licensed popcorn bucket I had ever seen. The image above simply doesn’t do it justice.

So it is with great pain that I inform you that I did not purchase AMC’s Ant-Man helmet popcorn bucket. Perhaps it was the $30 price tag that ultimately dissuaded me. Maybe it was the realization that I have to somehow make ROOM in my collection for things like this. At the time, though, my public response was far more practical as I slid away from the counter with my absolutely insane first meal of the day. “Aw, man,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe if you could actually wear it … “

Yep. That’s what clinched it for me, at least in the eyes of AMC Theatres. 

Anyway, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a really fun movie that I liked but did not love. Jonathan Majors is a phenomenal Kang who I look forward to seeing much more of in the future, and Rudd and the rest of the cast brought a charming “let’s just go with it” vibe to what is, at times, a very silly movie that hints at higher stakes later in Phase 5. If you liked Peyton Reed’s prior Ant-Man flicks, you’ll probably like this one, which steers very close to the tried-and-true Marvel formula – especially in the third act. There’s not a ton of meat on the bone from a narrative perspective, but it’s a fun time at the movies that gets weird with it. And that’s fine by me.

To reiterate, I liked Quantumania. Perhaps I would have loved it if I bought that Ant-Man popcorn bucket, but I guess I’ll never know in this reality. But somewhere out there in the infinite Multiverse exists a James Wortman proudly displaying that bucket on his shelf (but not on his head). If you meet that guy before I do, ask him what he thinks.

Can ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Cure Marvel Fatigue?

I’ll preface everything I’m about to write with the fact that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Marvel Comics fan. I hoarded the trading cards in the early ‘90s, I pretty much quit Little League Baseball because it conflicted with new episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series on Saturday mornings, and my office bookshelves are lined with Hasbro Marvel Legends, Funko POP! Spideys, graded first appearances and more trade paperbacks than I’ll ever have time to read. We’re living in an era in which the anticipation between Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series and theatrical releases is near-nonexistent. Heck, you just might need the Time Stone to stay caught up on everything these days! Amirite?!

The cinematic spinner rack is positively brimming with content, which is great. After all, no one’s holding a repulsor glove to your head and forcing you to watch it all. But I ask you: When was the last time you were really, truly excited about an upcoming Marvel Studios movie? When was the last time you had the chance to be really, truly excited about an upcoming Marvel Studios movie? That might be hard to answer.

The latest phase of the MCU has been largely about rebuilding and setting the stage for the future. New heroes, new villains, new conflicts, new realities. There have been crowd-pleasers (Spider-Man: No Way Home), surprise hits (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), surprise misses (Eternals), tonal rollercoasters (Thor: Love and Thunder), underrated series (Hawkeye, Loki), slow burns (Moon Knight), fourth-wall breaks (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), and emotional farewells (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). We even got bizarre special presentations like Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. CONTENT! SO! MUCH! CONTENT!

People can debate about the quality of each and every one of those projects – hell, that’s half the fun of being a comic book fan – but I think we can all agree that Marvel Studios’ aggressive output makes it harder to build up anticipation for any individual project (and before anyone calls me out, Star Wars is also guilty of content hyperdrive as of late). This Marvel malaise is compounded by the general feeling that this absolute glut of new shows and films are not – at least on the surface – leading up to the next big threat. With Thanos out of the picture, it feels like the story campaign of the MCU’s figurative video game is over and we’re just playing the side quests and multiversal DLC.

But that is seemingly all changing with the high-stakes Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – releasing nearly three months after Marvel Studios’ most recent project, the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which feels like the biggest release gap we’ve had in a while. A new trailer for the third Ant-Man film dropped Monday night, giving us more of a glimpse at Jonathan Majors’ menacing Kang – the next big bad of the MCU (you previously saw him as a version of this character in Loki). Will Paul Rudd’s insectoid Avenger make it out alive in this one, or will he be squashed beneath Kang’s boot? We’ll find out February 17.

Watch the trailer below!