The Cinematic Review-verse

Gamora starts off as a lethal weapon. Photo courtesy of Reddit. Then Gamora fooled around and fell in love with Star-Lord. Photo courtesy of Fandom. I enjoy Volume 1 of the  Guardians of the Galaxy films. It's like Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the case of combining action on the job with comic and dramatic elements. Gamora is like Black Widow in that she seems to be a bewitching lethal weapon at first, but she has more human elements than meets the eye.  Nebula got tortured into becoming a cybernetic warrior. Photo courtesy of Comic Basics. By the end of GOTG Vol. 2, she got warrior skills, and a true sister. Photo courtesy of The Mary Sue. The same goes for her sister Nebula and her teammate Rocket Raccoon, in that they both just want to be loved and act all psychotic and macho because no one wants to give them that love, until Peter Quill dances in like Kevin Bacon to stop the bigots with polls up their butts. At first, Rocket Raccoon lived for how much this was gonna hurt. Photo c...

Photo courtesy of MGM. Last night, I saw  Bottoms . There were few enjoyable moments, emphasis on  few , but with all due respect, it just  reminded me of more tired high school drama that I don’t want people to see.  For starters, two high school lesbians, played by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, start a fight club just to  hook up with cheerleaders. Havana Rose Liu’s character of Isabel said to Ayo Edebiri’s character of Josie  that she didn’t have to go along with this just to start a relationship with her, and Liu was right. The  whole idea that just because parts of high school don’t think you’re popular and you have to lie and go  to extreme lengths to prove them wrong is not a good message to send to people today.  Mostly because I’m not a fan of hot-tempered vulgar language amongst kids today, fictional or  otherwise, I didn’t find it all very enjoyable. One part I did was when Hazel, played by Ruby Cruz, stuck it  to the m...

  DC's  Blue Beetle.  Photo courtesy of DC Comics.   In DC Comics’ latest cinematic venture, they’ve hit their own Beetlemania in the case of the lead superhero being Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle . Xolo Maridueña was able to shed and share some of his Cobra Kai  skin playing Reyes in an adrenaline-filled, high-flying superhero escapade, with a doting, embarrassing family behind him. Blue Beetle tells their version of In the Heights with Reyes returning to Palmera City after college graduation. Family problems arise that Reyes is determined to take care of, even if he ends up in a collision course with an alien scarab and the ruthless Victoria Kord, played by Susan Sarandon, on his tail. But when all hope seems lost, Reyes takes up the mantle of Blue Beetle, armed with wings, gauntlets, and swords. As I said, Maridueña’s character of Jaime Reyes was similar to his role as Miguel Diaz in Cobra Kai . They are both undaunted at wanting to make a better life in thi...

The newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, actually voiced by teenagers this time. Courtesy of collider.com and Paramount Pictures. I was shell-shocked in a great way once I saw “permanent teenager” Seth Rogen’s production of the latest cinematic presentation of the pizza king quartet. From showing the TMNT in a better light in front of humans to their awkward teenage angst to including NWA’s Ice Cube as a Shaft -knockoff, this film was the best I’ve seen of the Turtles. In a New York with animation reminiscent of the comic book style from the Spider-Verse films, four turtle brothers-Leonardo, voiced by Nicolas Cantu, Donatello, voiced by Micah Abbey, Raphael, voiced by Brady Noon, and Michelangelo, voiced by Shamon Brown, Jr.-are on a mission to get humankind to accept them. But add to that a mutant Superfly, voiced by Ice Cube, on a reign of terror and the titular Mutant Mayhem begins. It’s going to take ninjitsu, their adoptive father Splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan, their new human a...

Disney/Pixar's 'Elemental.' Photo courtesy of movieposters.com and Disney. While most of the story of Elemental was too similar to other films such as Shrek 2, it was nonetheless adorable between the romance of the main characters and the bright lights of their city and fellow populace. Elemental was also abundant in awkward young adult humor and comical yet tense family drama. Elemental tells the story of Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple, voiced by Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athi e, anthropomorphic beings of fire and water, and how they try to overcome distrustful history between their kinds in order to protect their families and their blossoming romantic relationship. From the opening, I picked up a Zootopia- type vibe in the case of Ember's parents hoping to start a new life in Element City. The city had beautiful buildings and colorful characters, regardless of who splashes the water, prunes the fruits, or accidentally burns things to a crisp. Lewis' character of E...

Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford as Helena Shaw and Indiana Jones in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.' Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. Even though the plot was a recycling of the original Indiana Jones adventures from the '80s, it was still good to see Harrison Ford go out for one last quest with his signature bullwhip, leather jacket, and trusty fedora in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . There were also great lengths of humorous treachery by Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy's latest partner-in-crime and intrepid scoring from John Williams , as usual. Now set in the Space Age in the late 1960s, Indiana Jones is retiring from his professor position and has become lonely and bitter. But a younger archaeologist named Helena Shaw , played by Waller-Bridge, brings him back to his audacious ways to hunt for an artifact called the Dial of Destiny . Among many obstacles against Jones and Shaw are a twisted physicist, played by Mads Mikkelsen , an enemy of Jon...

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...