The Cinematic Review-verse

  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever poster. Photo courtesy of Disney. When I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Friday night, I was reluctant at first because of the reminders of grieving a loss. From the first scene, it seemed pretty heavy, and god rest Chadwick Boseman's soul. And the plot and musical score seemed similar to other films, namely The Lion King  and Aquaman , and it was heavy again with more reminders of the violent racism other people of color had to face . But the good parts of the film came from Dominique Thorne's character of Riri Williams/Ironheart with her scientific genius and geeking out with Shuri, Angela Bassett's empowering mother spirit (she should get an Oscar for this), Letitia Wright as Shuri for snapping out of the grief in time, the fighting choreography, and the costumes and makeup. I'd recommend you try not to read too much into the dark parts of the film, but try to do what Rihanna did and lift yourselves up, lift Chadwick Boseman up, a...

Photo courtesy of Amazon and Disney. Michael J. Fox played a former child actor turned struggling child actor agent named Mikey Chapman. But the better side of him is brought out when he becomes the agent of a snarky yet witty kid named Angie Vega, played by Christina Vidal. While it wasn't the best I've seen of Fox-- then again, I haven't seen a lot of roles that can beat his adventurous McFly days, it was good to see that like Dwayne Johnson in The Game Plan, he learned how to take care of family and himself at the same time when a little girl waltzed into his life. I'd say people would enjoy Angie and Mikey's chemistry, and I enjoyed Angie's quick witz and fiery spirit. And there were some times I enjoyed Fox's charming humor. If you ask me, maybe Fox did this to relfect on his own times as a kid with his son. Either way, the story seems familiar, like Annie and The Game Plan, and it's not the best light of Nathan Lane, Cyndi Lauper or young David Kr...

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures From the opening scene of Kahndaq, it didn't seem like Black Adam was original, given that its location seemed similar to Amazon from Wonder Woman or Ancient Rome, places like that. However, Dwayne Johnson's character did stretch the perception of what it means to be a hero and, while it was a step back from his usual tough yet fun-loving characters, showed that he was not a complete villain depending on who he fights for. Black Adam is about Teth-Adam, who gets powers from those who created Captain Marvel/Shazam, and uses those powers to liberate his enslaved people in Ancient and modern Kahndaq. But the Justice Society, led by Hawkman, tries to intervene in his perceived villainous acts. Adam and the Society will have to learn to work together when a bigger entity comes to destroy Earth as we know it. Almost everything I saw in this film was similar to Black Panther : the debate over who is the villain, the politics, the freedom from sl...