Venom 3 trailer - June 4

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In particular, I really hate my family sometimes… and this is all I want to say about it, because this post is not about their character assassinations, but rather about ‘Venom’.

Well, the trailer for the third, and final, ‘Venom’ film, coming in October 2024, most likely. It is a chaotic mess, but in a good way.

First, Tom Hardy is stealing the show, because of course he does. He has been carrying the ‘Venom’ films from the start, and so hooray! He makes the ‘Venom’ franchise great, but that said…

The first ‘Venom’ film was unimportant… but it was original, and already separate/distinct from MCU. Yes, it was rather underwhelming, as the main villain of the film was a discount Carnage, but never fear – the second film flat-out featured Carnage, with Venom’s character and character history being reset. In addition, Anne Weying, or whatever her last name is, starring as the She-Venom. Right now, she is notably absent from the last movie’s promo; it is almost all about Eddie and Venom on one hand, and the alien symbiotes coming to Earth. Wait, doesn’t this sound familiar?

Of course, it is – this was the plot of the first ‘Venom’ film, where Venom, as well as several other symbiotes, came to Earth. Aside from Venom and Riot, they did not make it, but also they came to Earth as a scouting party of sorts. Riot tried to return to their home planet, but Venom stopped it, saving Earth from the alien invasion because Venom’s race is not really friendly towards others, as Carnage and particularly Riot demonstrated. However, the first ‘Venom’ film also featured a Dr. Dora Skirth, a female scientist ally of Eddie, who had a forced bonding attempt with a yellow-colored symbiote, and both died, abruptly. The trailer for the third ‘Venom’ film also features a female scientist, who might bond with a yellow-colored symbiote… or she might not. She is also an ally of a military commander who might be baron Mordo in disguise… or he might not be. Anything else?

Well, the Lizard, (last seen in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’), aka Curt Connors, might be in the movie as well, at least as a cameo. Since ‘Morbius’ showed that Sony is quietly shifting MCU’s Spider-Man characters over to its’ own universe, this is quite a possibility, especially since we saw a shot of a lizard (namely a little reptile without any augmentations), in the trailer too. However, ‘Morbius’ is nowhere as successful as the ‘Venom’ films are, so it is questionable, if the Lizard and co. are appearing; the ‘Kraven’ might need to succeed first in order for this to happen, perhaps.

That said, so far the most confusing issue here is Ms. Chin and the absence of Anne. Yes, this movie seems to be mostly about Eddie and Venom’s bromance, but still? Why are this duo dancing with Ms. Chin of all people? So far, she was only a supporting character, nothing more, is she going to be more important in the third movie, or is it more of the Spider-verse shenanigans? In the second Miles film, Ms. Chin did have a cameo, showing that Venom’s universe is a part of the greater Spider-verse somehow, so who knows…

That said, keep in mind that Sony’s movies are a mixed bag, but they work best when they do more original material than just simple follow the lines hero’s journey or things like that, and both of the previous ‘Venom’ movies proved this point; the trailer for the third film – ditto. Therefore, I, for one, am excited for it to come out (in movie theaters only, apparently), in autumn 2024.

For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!

Dr. Strange 2 movie - May 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film instead, now that there is no worry about spoilers. Therefore, what about it?

…Not unlike most of the Phase 4 MCU TV series, ‘Dr. Strange 2’ was a transitional tale, even moreso than ‘Black Widow-2021’ was. Both of the movie’s main characters – Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff – emerged greatly changed between the movie’s start and finish; the rest of the characters – well…

- America Chavez is a brand-new character in MCU, so she does not need to change; her being in MCU is a change enough.

- Mordo got rebooted in a manner of speaking, since the Mordo we saw in this movie was a Mordo from a different universe than the one we saw in the first ‘Dr. Strange’ film, (2016), though the two versions of the good baron were similar enough to each other.

- Christine Palmer changed from the titular character’s main love interest into, well, not – she seems to be engaged to someone else now, and with Clea appearing in the mid-credits scene, clearly, she and Stephen are done with each other for now.

- And Wong… apparently, he is the sorcerer supreme in the film; I am not sure if it is the main timeline or one of the secondary though; regardless, Wong underwent some of his own changes, so yay for him!.. What next?

…The movie is wonderful in the way that ‘Morbius-2022’ was not: the script, the plot, the acting and the scenery all work, and the fact that ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is firmly rooted in ‘the greater MCU’, helps as well. This movie is a direct continuation of both ‘Dr. Strange 1’ film, and the WV TV series; Wanda Maximoff finally reaps what she has sown on one hand, while Dr. Strange continues to evolve as a hero and to make new friends. Pause.

Yes, the latter point is important enough for further elaboration: in MCU especially, heroes tend to have friends, while villains do not. Admittedly, the titular characters of such shows as ‘Loki’ and MK have blurred the line some, but the distinction is still there, even as Loki and MK become ‘proper’ heroes, (whether willing or reluctant or something else is another issue altogether). As such, Wanda’s growing social isolation since the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ film is a clear (one out of) sign that something is wrong with her, (at least on the obvious level). By contrast, Dr. Strange has no such problems – he’s got Wong, he got Christine, (more or less), by the end of his second film he’s got America, he may have Peter Parker and his friends… well, the last one is kind of squeaky, as at the end of ‘No Way Home’ Peter got his wish for total anonymity, and now he has to figure out as to where to from here to get out of this mess. Still, unlike Wanda, Peter does not appear to have turned to unholy magics to bring back his aunt back from the dead, but, again, when it was touch and go with the Green Goblin, Peter did have friends – and his counterparts from another two realities – to keep him afloat. Wanda Maximoff, on the other hand – not so much, unfortunately…

Getting back on track, another important point made by ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is that you cannot use the multiverse to replace what you have lost; the infinite realm of possibilities also has an infinite number of ‘yous’ using/utilizing those possibilities…but Michelle Yeoh’s take on the multiverse has already depicted this concept before this film did, so, what’s next?

America’s sexual orientation? Not unlike Disney/MCU’s overall policy, this aspect of her character was underwhelming…though in RL, Disney is already in trouble with U.S. Republican party regarding their take on the U.S. sexual minorities, while overseas, in China, the ‘No Way Home’ film was banned/censored because it used the Statue of Liberty, among other things. That said, clearly Sony and Disney/MCU have their issues with each other still, as Spider-Man also got firmly sidelined in the main Marvel MCU timeline; fair enough, the rest of MCU is moving on.

…One important point relates to the element of horror in the movie; while ‘Dr. Strange 2’ can be rather gory at times, (and we might get to it later), someone – at ‘The Wrap’, I think – proclaimed that ‘Dr. Strange’ isn’t supposed to entertain fans. I am sorry, but what is it supposed to do? Give Cumberbatch, Olsen and co. justification for their career choices? ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a movie designed to entertain, rather than to educate and/or to inform, for example.

This brings us to the Illuminati, or at least – to one of their versions, which existed only for Wanda to kill them and to gain more XP in the process… I mean, to show the audience as to how much she fallen since the events in WV, and that is a lot. In WV, Wanda was bad enough, when she mentally enslaved the entire town of Westview with her powers in her grief, but now she is just killing people – and very powerful people, too. That said, the critiques that the Illuminati served only as props to show-off the new dark Wanda are quite justified, and the use of those characters in the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ movie are justified – maybe some different approach to give Wanda more XP would have been better…

However, ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is still a good movie, one that aimed to properly depict the multiverse of MCU for the first time, (even ‘No Way Home’ was more of a forerunner instead). The restraints of live-action films (it’s slightly different with TV series, as AoS’ S7 showed), is such that ‘Dr. Strange 2’ focuses on alternate versions of Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff only, but because ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a good film, this take works, so yay!

…And for now, then, this is it. ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a good film, very enjoyable, (relatively aware of its’ limitations, and may not always be as imaginative as you’d expect, but still the good outweighs the bad here), and very fun to watch, so watch it! Otherwise, I will see you all soon!

Moon Knight, Suit - April 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. The second episode of ‘Moon Knight’, maybe?

Unfortunately, not. See, the problem with ‘Moon Knight’ is that it is about as detached from MCU, as ‘Morbius’ is; only while ‘Morbius’ is a separate universe from MCU, ‘Moon Knight’ isn’t. Hence, the notable lack of anything MCU-related in the second episode by now is becoming kind of grating.

No, seriously, when you compare ‘Morbius’ to ‘Shang-Chi’, the lack of Marvel-related Easter eggs and co. is notable…which is expected, (see above), but in ‘Moon Knight’? You would think that we would have encountered at least one Iron Man (or some other Avengers’) graffiti by now as a minimum; but no – we have a seemingly ordinary world, inhabited by Steven, an ordinary man, who abruptly finds himself in extraordinary situation, complete with Egyptian gods. The gods themselves we have discussed in the series’ premiere, and so far, there is little development… but what! The dog-headed demons are not caught by video cameras and co. so poor Steven got fired!

…Well of course they are not seen by electronic equipment, (and maybe even by muggles, cough). If they were, the situation in ‘Moon Knight’ would be different, more derived, because not unlike ‘Morbius’, the plot in ‘Moon Knight’ is also quite basic so far: it is ‘The Bourne Identity’ meeting Rick Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’, save that ‘The Kane Chronicles’ have treated the Egyptian gods more respectfully, professionally as well, but that isn’t the point.

The point is that Oscar Isaac seems to be doing Tom Hardy’s shtick in ‘Moon Knight’, and then there is also Khonshu doing his thing to try to cover this rip-off up. The movies in ‘Venom’ series have their problems, and we’ve talked about this, but they’re also quite successful, and I’m guessing that MCU decided to emulate them, as Steven/Marc summon their suit in a manner not unlike how Venom takes over Eddie in the films. I am guessing that Sony and Disney/MCU have worked out their professional differences for the latter to try this sort of thing. What is left?

…I got a chance to see ‘The Bad Guys’ in not quite legal manner cough. Now there is an interesting movie, actually, as beneath the colorful candy wrapper it sought to talk about such fundamental matters as good, evil, (ok, badness) and redemption. It is quite Biblical, and there is even a ‘Mr. Snake’ to further drive that adjective home, since you cannot go badder than a snake, which stood in for ‘The Great Adversary’ in the original Book. Yet even he – the Snake character is male in the film – becomes a ‘good guy’ by the film’s finale. Hurray, but the movie’s message is marred by several issues.

Firstly, the child-friendly wrapper gets quite heavy at time from time, so the underlying message gets quite lost. And second, while venturing bravely to talk about such monotheistic issues in an increasingly polytheistic West, the movie may not have been brave enough; ‘Mr. Snake’ might be biblical, but Mr. Wolf and The Crimson Paw, (a fox), are more of fairy tale/folklore elements, and fairly baseline too. A wolf and a fox, really?! Moreover, a red fox at that – they could have used an Arctic fox or a grey fox instead; they could have used a porcupine or a coyote; but no – a fox for a wolf.

In reality, wolves ignore foxes normally, which is good, because otherwise? The former can easily overpower and eat the latter, but that is real life, where politicians – no offence, Ms. Foxington – are not necessarily ‘good guys’, eh? But real life has little connection to children films, so let’s just accept ‘The Bad Guys’ as a good film – and the ‘Moon Knight’ as a struggling MCU TV show – and move on.

This is it for now; see you all soon!

Morbius - April 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and that is especially true with the extended family angle. Still, I did give as well as I got, so I should not complain too much, therefore let us move onto ‘Morbius’. What can be said about that film?

It is an origin story, and it is done by Sony, rather than by Disney/MCU, hence its’ lackluster appearance and delivery. The original ‘Venom’ film had the same problem, but it had Tom Hardy and his antics as the titular duo to counteract this; ‘Morbius’, instead, has Jared Leto, who is a good actor, sure, but, apparently, this is not enough.

One may argue that it is unfair to compare ‘Morbius’ to something like ‘Shang-Chi’, which is also an origin story but is done much more glamorously and colorfully and so on, but the problem is that the same has plagued ‘Venom’ – the original film, and ‘Carnage’ wasn’t that much better. Let us elaborate.

In MCU, origin stories tend to introduce other elements and Easter eggs quickly on; Phase 1 may have had its’ problems, but by the time the first ‘Avengers’ film arrived they got past it…by making a bigger, better show than what ‘Sony’ is doing with its’ Marvel characters so far. The first ‘Venom’ film had a script that was rather confusing, in a threadbare sort of way, and ‘Carnage’ was really a reboot of the first film, one that simplified its’ characters, especially Eddie, Venom and Ann, and not in a better way, I would say. What was consistent in that aspect of the SUMC-franchise were aliens; ‘Venom’ and co. were dealing with them and only with them. Hence why AoS was so good in the MCU franchise in that they dealt not just with Hydra, but with other threats; pity that it had outlasted its’ promise and ended in a whimper rather than a bang, no matter how much the cast and the crew tried to pretend otherwise. By contrast, ‘Morbius’ has started with a whimper – it is a variant vampire movie with some ‘Batman’-like aesthetics that don’t really mesh.

…Speaking of DC and ‘Batman’, the Caped Crusader had tangled with vampires, primarily Dracula, who comes and goes to both DC and Marvel at will, but he usually does not become infested with the virus of vampirism himself, and he usually is not associated with vampires at all. Hence, ‘Batman’-like imagery in ‘Morbius’ isn’t very appropriate and it doesn’t work too well either.

The vampire angle itself… it is one of the reasons as to why I remembered AoS – just as AoS had worked the Hydra threat into the ground, so has the cinematography in general done with the vampire threat; Dracula, at least, has panache and authenticity on his side, a certain gravitas, if you will. Michael Morbius – not so much.

Again, it all comes down to the treatment of the character – I first met ‘the living vampire’ during the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon series, (which was a Spider-Man centered MCU, cough). The show had Peter’s origin story done canonically – he was bitten by a radioactive spider and became Spider-Man – and then in S2 his blood and DNA began to mutate, and he began to search for a cure. Enter Morbius, who was Peter’s fellow student in the university, who discovered Peter’s blood sample and began to experiment with it, trying to figure out as to how Peter was able to mutate it, cough. Enter the lab’s vampire bat, (one of  - did I mention that Dr. Connors, aka the Lizard, was running the class in that universe?), who also got irradiated by the lab’s technology, and then it bit Morbius, turning him into ‘a living vampire’, just as a spider turned Peter into Spider-Man. You have to admit, this does sound more glamorous than what Sony did with Morbius in the movie. So what?

So, the problem with ‘Morbius’ is that there’s no Spider-Man in it; whereas Venom did evolve to be an independent character with their own thing, (did you follow ‘the King in Black’ story arch, in particular?), so they can carry their own movie, and even several, but with Morbius this isn’t the case – ‘the living vampire’ has rather faded into obscurity by now, so people aren’t too impressed or excited by his arrival on the big screen, and the trailers didn’t make things any better, unfortunately. People went into theaters – or got to see ‘Morbius’ otherwise – with low expectations already, and the show gave them just that – a variant vampire movie with very little Marvel content, even less so than ‘Venom’ did – and ‘Venom’ does have more oomph in Marvel than ‘Morbius’ does. (See above). So, what is left?

Unfortunately, nothing. Sony’s ‘Morbius’ movie delivered what it promised to do – to introduce Morbius, the living vampire into the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters and that what it did to do. Sadly, the delivery portion of the plan was underperforming, but that may not matter in the end – Sony is not licked yet, according to some news. Ah well, good luck to Sony, then!

For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

Morbius trailer 1 - Jan 13

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Extra clause: I hate myself for being me. I still hate my family for making everything worse, but, sadly, after this weekend I re-examined myself and realized that I am a worthless, pathetic, pitiful man myself that rather deserves this wretched life… New topic, then?

So, Sony, in association with Marvel™, (and maybe Disney), will be releasing ‘Morbius’ this summer, (aka 2020). My first encounter with him was in 1990’s ‘Spider-Man Animated Series’, where he was one of Spider-Man’s tougher and more resilient foes, from S2 onwards. Why, he was something of a foil to Parker for a while – just as a radioactive spider bit Peter, so a radioactive vampire bat bit Michael! In the 2020 film, there is no Parker/Morbius rivalry, even though the film is taking place in the Marvel™ universe: there are Easter eggs showing that this happened after Peter got framed by Mysterio in the second Tom Holland ‘Spider-Man’ film, there are direct references to both Tom Holland ‘Spider-Man’ movies and Sony’s ‘Venom-2018’ film, meaning that MCU and ‘Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters’ are beginning to merge. There are talks of Vulture or Scorpion, (from the first THSM film) building MCU’s version of the ‘Sinister Six’ posse, an informal gathering of six villains who aim to destroy Spider-Man, so who’s to say that this version of this gang won’t feature Morbius, the living vampire?

Of course, since this is only the first trailer of what is shaping to be a really good film, it is too early to tell if the Sinister Six is coming to the silver screen anytime soon. Instead, obviously, this film will be focusing on Morbius and his backstory – so far it’s too early to figure out as to who will be Morbius’ opponent this time, but apparently, one of the characters shown in the trailer might be MCU/SUMC version of Hunger, another vampire villain from the Marvel™, so why not? Yes, it is rather reminiscent of ‘Venom-2018’, where the titular character had to face-off a villain who was a bigger, badder and stronger version of him, (Riot), leaving us wondering as to what Carnage will bring to the next ‘Venom’ movie: among the Marvel™ villains, Carnage isn’t the smartest one, he just prefers to run around and kill everyone, while sprouting claws, blades and spikes – just as Riot did in ‘Venom-2018’, so we’ll have to wait and see as to what MCU/SUMC Carnage will bring to the table. Back to Morbius?

In some ways, the movie Morbius and the already-mentioned Eddie from ‘Venom-2018’ are not too different: Eddie is, or was, a formidable journalist, Morbius is a brilliant doctor. Eddie is suffering from unemployment, Morbius – from some disease that is reminiscent of polio. Eddie got a long-suffering girlfriend/fiancé that is supportive, but has some reservations, and so does Morbius; Eddie’s Anne ends up helping him with Riot, and Morbius’? There’s already some speculation – in the comics, Morbius’ girlfriend tends to end up a living vampire herself, and then tragically die, whereas in the 1990’s ‘Spider-Man’ animated series Morbius ended up teaming with the Black Cat, (Felicia Hardy) and Blade, (yes, think Wesley Snipes here), to take down vampires back in Europe and beyond. Blade is returning to Marvel movies after the Wesley Snipes trilogy, (also back in the 1990s), though he will not be played by WS, but there is no sign of him here, in this trailer.

Instead, we get a glimpse of someone named Simon Stroud, who used to be an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the comics, but here he will probably be a FBI agent or someone similar, given that SUMC, MCU in general, and AoS in particular have a rather complicated relationship with each other, but then again, we’ll never know until the movie is released in summer 2020. Still, there already is supposition that this Stroud character will be helping Morbius out of tight spots, so yay for him! Eddie could also use someone like that, and with the evidence that Vulture – or Scorpion – building a criminal posse, who is to say that their paths – and that of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man – will not cross anytime soon? It would certainly be cool!

…In other words, Tom Holland will be voicing a dog character in the upcoming ‘Dolittle-2020’ movie alongside other illustrious actors, including his old friend Robert Downey Jr., cough, who will be playing the titular character, aka the Iron Man without armor but with a Welsh accent. Also (kind of) yay – Tom Holland was really good as a voice actor in ‘Spies in Disguise’ film back in 2019, and here, judging by the clips, he sounds quite promising. Good for him and the rest of his co-stars in the upcoming 2020 ‘Dolittle’ movie, because as we have talked before, real life sucks.

Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!