The Cinematic Review-verse

Photo courtesy of Batman-News.com and Warner Bros. Pictures. Wyckoff native Ezra Miller’s (they/their) return as the Scarlet Speedster in the solo film The Flash was both heavy and goofy. And what it lacked in being at least 80% faithful to the Flashpoint comic, it made up for with riveting music reminiscent of John Williams, John Powell and Danny Elfman, crazy adventures/misadventures across the Speed Force, somewhat diverse casting, and proof that in Michael Keaton’s case, you don’t have to teach an old Bat new tricks. After saving the world with the Justice League, Barry Allen is still trying to get his family and life together. But once he finds that as The Flash that he can super-speed back in time, he goes back to prevent his mother’s murder, and inadvertently creates a multiverse of problems. It’s going to take Barry from Earth 2, an older, alternate Bruce Wayne, and Supergirl to help the Justice League comic relief to prevent the multiverse from going haywire. Add to that an al...

Flashpoint’s cover. Photo courtesy of Third Eye Comics and DC Comics. Today, I finished reading the Geoff Johns composition of ‘Flashpoint’. After weeks of putting it off, re-reading it today felt like watching Grant Gustin’s recently completed TV series and being sent back to Philosophy/Ethics in college. I’m no big Barry Allen expert, but this comic storyline came off as more burdensome compared to what I’ve seen of his lighthearted, awkward self in 2017’s Justice League film. I could relate to wishing I could go back in time to not have to say goodbye to a loved one. But as I said earlier, it was like Philosophy and Ethics all over again, given that you have to really think about how saving one life affects so many other ones. Flashpoint was very darkly toned with the graphics and depictions of wars tearing the Justice League apart, literally and metaphorically. But as heavy as this task was, Barry kept running to make everything right, if not for himself, then for his loved one...

  Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse comes out today. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures. What started off with good hard rock grooves ended with a cliffhanger that I hunger for a resolution to. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was fun in the beginning, then got heavy towards the end. It’s also very confusing with this multi-dimensional rift thing. Continuing a year from Into the Spider-Verse , Miles Morales, voiced by Shameik Moore , is still having trouble finding himself, between being Brooklyn’s newest Spider-Man and figuring out his life beyond the mask and electro-webs. But when Gwen Stacy , voiced by Hailee Steinfeld , comes from her dimension to his, Miles finds himself in a Pandora’s Box of crises that spell out how hard it is to be Spider-Man in every possible Earth. As for what I enjoyed about Across the Spider-Verse , I enjoyed hearing Gwen and Spider-Punk’s, voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, rocking music beats in the background as they dealt with the misadventures of being ...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Poster. Think of it like The Breakfast Club.  Photo taken by William Edward Beavers, V    Despite having some tough-to-watch in-depth moments for most of the titular heroes and soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was wholesome superhero fun.  In the third GOTG  film, we discover the origins behind Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper and motion-captured by Sean Gunn, along with the aftermath of the Peter/Gamora (Chris Pratt/Zoë Saldaña) dynamic after Endgame and future of the MCU space-based protagonists, namely Drax, Nebula, and Mantis (played by Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff). From seeing Rocket and Quill so bitter in the beginning over their respective tragic pasts, I thought the film would be just as sad as most of the MCU post- Endgame in general. But humor came back in the form of issues such as Kraglin (played by Sean Gunn) struggling to use Yondu’s arrow, Quill trying to go from Han Solo to Swayze, a...

  Shazam/Captain Marvel and family are in a deity duel. Photo courtesy of IGN and Warner Bros. Pictures. Shazam!: Fury of the Gods did a good job in showing family empowerment, female empowerment, and growth in some of the characters. I enjoyed Rachel Zegler's performance as Anthea and chemistry with Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer) and occasional goofy humor from the titular superhero (played by Zachary Levi), but it was more mature than the last film, in a good and bad way. For example, while still learning his powers, Billy Batson had to think about his future once he aged out of the foster care system, and he's still dealing with abandonment issues while struggling to find wisdom and lead his team. Good for character development, but it has to show more light than blue moments. And the film had more dark tone with the dark magic compared to the first film, angry goddess parts, and fantasy monsters. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu were truly fired up in their roles, He...

Michael Bakari Jordan's directorial debut of Creed III. Photo courtesy of MGM Studios. Creed III  was able to stand strong on its own as Adonis Creed forges his own legacy. Michael B. Jordan did a great job directing and acting, and it felt great to see him confront his past away from being Apollo Creed's son and figuring out what it truly means to have a family. Jonathan Major's character of Damian was much better than him as Kang the Conqueror a month prior. Tessa Thompson as Bianca had some fiery beats in the soundtrack and was a good black homage to Adrian from the past Rocky films and proved to be a proud black mom on her own.  It didn't feel good to see more struggles of being a black person in rough parts of South Central Los Angeles, but I guess the idea was to show that outside the boxing ring, the struggle to make it big in the world is still real, black or not. Either way, it showed a more in-depth look at Adonis Creed away from the usual boxing franchise, an...

  Ant-Man's back to his own franchise for the third time. Photo courtesy of Disney. Between some stunning (and some not) visual effects and CGI, more dark tone than humor, and lack of depth for the overall story and character of Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was not a great third edition of the franchise that showed a more heroic side for Passaic-native Paul Rudd. Kang was like a black Thanos, Darth Vader, and Loki all rolled into one, but the film didn't explain what made him a villain in the first place. There also wasn't much explanation as to how Bill Murray fit into the narrative. Compared to previous films, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym played a smaller role albeit with a little comic relief, but still came out like Han Solo in the end. Speaking of which, a lot of the landscape in the film looked like Star Wars' original trilogy from the 70s-80s.  Michelle Pfeiffer did a good job with her stunt and grunt work when h...