Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

After her scene-stealing theatrical debut in Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman got the limelight all to herself with her own movie in 2017. The movie was a big fat hit with both audiences and critics, grossing over 800 million dollars at the worldwide box office and earning a 93% (as of this writing) on Rotten Tomatoes. Its success was such that it vaulted the then relatively unknown Gal Gadot into the Hollywood A-list as well. After all of that critical and financial success, we were bound to get a sequel eventually. (I mean, not counting her appearance in Justice League, that is.) And three years later, here we are with Wonder Woman 1984.

And while it's been a movie I've been hotly anticipating all year, I also have to admit that it was one of the biggest cinematic disappointments I've seen in a while. There were some things I liked about WW84, as it's called in the movie's promotional material, but it certainly wasn't the spectacle I spent all year hoping for either.

As the title implies, the movie takes us to the year 1984. Calling herself Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) so she can blend in with the world outside Themyscira, she continues to fight crime as "Wonder Woman" while working as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institute. She keeps her coworkers at arm's length for the sake of her privacy, but eventually befriends Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), a meek, insecure woman who is constantly overlooked by everyone.

After Wonder Woman breaks up a robbery at a jewelry store, the FBI brings a set of black market antiquities recovered from the robbery to the Smithsonian to be identified. Among these pieces is the Dreamstone, a mysterious gem that is believed to grant the wishes of whomever holds it. This ends up proving true, as both Diana and Barbara inadvertently make wishes that are mystically granted. Barbara becomes as strong, beautiful, and confident as Diana, while Diana's long-dead lover Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) is brought back to life in the body of another man.

The Dreamstone itself was bought on the black market by Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), a failing businessman hoping to use the stone's power to prove that he's not the loser his company's investors believe him to be. He sweet-talks Barbara into letting him into her office, where he acquires the Dreamstone and wishes to become the stone itself.

But the powers of the Dreamstone have one catch: for every wish granted, there is a terrible price to pay. Diana sees her powers becoming diminished, while Barbara's loses all sense of compassion and empathy as her jealousy for Diana consumes her. And as for Maxwell, he travels around the world granting wishes to the rich and powerful so that he can accumulate more power for himself. But his machinations cause so much sociopolitical disruption that it pushes the world to the brink of World War III. Diana and Steve are forced into action, desperate to stop Maxwell before he causes the Cold War to become a nuclear war.

Santa Claus left a big pile of mediocrity and disappointment in my stocking this Christmas, and it came wrapped in a big box labeled "Wonder Woman 1984." As much as the first movie got right, the sequel gets just as much wrong. It's unnecessarily long, much of the special effects are questionable, and the worst part of all is that it's just kinda dull. I honestly hate to say it, but with the exception of the cast, Wonder Woman 1984 is a wholly unremarkable movie.

There's no one specific thing about Wonder Woman 1984 that drags it down, but rather several things that combine into a big cocktail of letdown. Let's start, as I usually do, with the direction. Behind the camera once again is Patty Jenkins, who I'd hoped would be able to replicate the magic of the first movie. But alas, the sequel suffers from an inconsistent pacing that leads to long stretches where nothing happens and action scenes that are nowhere near as thrilling or awe-inspiring as the ones we saw in 2017.

The movie boasts a 151-minute runtime, and there is absolutely no reason for it to be that long. Watching it at home on a streaming device is one thing, since you can at least fast forward during the dull parts. But you shouldn't have to do that. After a prologue that sees a young Diana competing in a race on Themyscira (an 11-minute sequence that should've been no more than five if it had to be in the movie at all), we have a scene where Diana stops a robbery at a mall before the movie slows to a crawl for the rest of the first hour. Things perk up a little around the 45-minute mark when Chris Pine enters the movie, but so little happens for such a long period that it's easy to tune out for much of the first half of the movie.

The movie also suffers from some of the worst special effects I've seen in a long time. There's the obvious usage of green screens, shots of Diana running that look like someone is learning how to use a marionette, and a few moments where the Lasso of Truth looks like a glowing golden cartoon. And let's not forget a scene where Diana saves some kids from being ran over during a car chase, and the kids are as fake as fake can get. It looks like Diana is swinging in and rescuing that marionette I was talking about a few sentences ago.

As I was sorting through the notes I'd written as my prep for this review, I saw discussions on social media and Reddit debating that the bad effects may be intentional, that they're supposed to make the movie be something of a throwback to Christopher Reeve's Superman movies from the '80s. I'm not sure if I believe that because the movie being set in 1984 becomes completely irrelevant about halfway into the movie. Yeah, the President looks kinda sorta like Ronald Reagan, Maxwell Lord looks kinda sorta like Donald Trump circa 1984, there's the fashion and a reference to the "Star Wars" missile defense system. But they never really lean into the '80s aesthetic. Stranger Things and the 2007 version of It do a way better job of capturing that vibe.

I also have to question the strength of the movie's screenplay. Credited to Jenkins, Dave Callaham, and renowned comic book writer Geoff Johns, the script is best described as "weak." The story isn't nearly strong enough to support the long running time, and the characters aren't done any justice either. Everything feels paint-by-numbers, with no real passion behind anything.

And I had more issues with the script beyond that. For starters, I wish they'd done something crazy with the whole wishes thing. Am I to believe that nobody wished for something really stupid or bizarre? Couldn't we get at least one throwaway gag where somebody wished for a pet dinosaur? Or maybe someone wished that their dog could talk? We did have one brief moment where we see someone wished to be a farmer and got a herd of cattle in the park across from his apartment building, but things could've been a lot more off the wall. Sure, it might've ended up like that one episode of Supernatural from 2008 where a little girl wished for her teddy bear to be alive. But I'd have laughed my butt off if they'd done something ridiculous with it.

I also felt conflicted about Barbara Minerva, whom comic book fans know as "Cheetah." Not only is the character written like a half-assed version of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in Batman Returns, but I couldn't find any real redeeming qualities for the character. There's no catharsis factor when Diana eventually defeats her in their climactic battle, because there's literally nothing to Cheetah other than "she's a loser that turned into a jealous mega-bitch." There's nothing deep or complex about her. Maxwell Lord at least has a young son that he adores, but is blinded by his greed. Cheetah has nothing beyond her own selfishness and envy. That's why I said there's no catharsis, because we never get to see any chinks in her armor, never get to see anything that could redeem her.

That said, there's one scene near the beginning of the movie where she gives a dinner plate to a homeless man she's friendly with. The man turns up later when she beats up an attempted rapist, but none of this adds anything to Cheetah's arc since it's never referenced beyond these two brief moments. The Dreamstone stealing all of Cheetah's empathy and compassion feels hollow when when we only get to see it for about ten seconds. And to be honest, you probably could've cut her out of the movie entirely and outside of one scene where she helps Maxwell avoid being captured by Wonder Woman, it wouldn't have hindered the movie in the slightest. It just seems like they wanted someone for Wonder Woman to physically fight, and that was it.

Another thing that I thought was weird was that throughout the movie, Wonder Woman saves numerous people and asks them not to tell anyone about her. She played a role in World War I, with pictures of her to prove it. Am I to believe that nobody has ever told anyone else about the gorgeous woman with superpowers in the sixty-six years between the first movie's events and WW84? At one point we see a picture of Diana with an elderly lady I'm assuming is Etta Candy from the first movie, and I'm supposed to believe that nobody asked why Etta's friend hasn't aged a day since 1918?

If she pulled a "Connor MacLeod in Highlander" and kept a low profile while changing identities every so often so nobody noticed her, that'd be one thing. But when you're running around fighting crime with a glowing golden lasso while wearing a red and blue Xena: Warrior Princess costume, that's not exactly keeping a low profile. Maybe she pulled some strings and got her participation in the war buried and didn't break out the Wonder Woman stuff again until just before the events of WW84, I don't know. The whole thing just seems a little odd to me, y'know?

And then there's the climax itself. There's a moment where Diana delivers a soliloquy about how beautiful and important the truth is. It's framed in such a way that it looks like she's speaking directly to the audience, and combined with the hamfisted dialogue, it's all quite awkward. It feels like they were trying to sneak in an indictment of the whole "fake news" thing that's popped up over the last few years. And even if it isn't, it feels very forced, and it damn near took me out of the movie altogether. And honestly, the whole "Gal Gadot talking to the camera about how lying is bad" thing is a really stupid way to end your superhero movie.

But at least the cast is strong despite the less-than-stellar writing. Kristen Wiig's casting still feels odd to me, considering she's primarily known for her work in comedy. It'd be like hiring Kate McKinnon to play a villain in a horror movie. But Wiig isn't bad at all, being especially good during Cheetah's awkward, nerdy phase. And while it's odd seeing her play a selfish bitch that's consumed with envy, Wiig pulls it off well. She wasn't given a lot to work with, but she tried her best and I won't hold that against her.

Chris Pine, meanwhile, returns to the role of Steve Trevor and once again does a great job. He and Gal Gadot have an electric chemistry together, and his awe at seeing the evolution of aeronautics and discovering that space travel had been invented is adorable.

I also really liked Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord. He plays the character like a drug addict that's hooked on power, so much so that it's literally killing him. But he needs that next fix, that next rush, that next bit of anything that will make him feel whole. Pascal is awesome in the role; the fact that villains quite like Maxwell Lord aren't that common in superhero movies helps him give a unique performance that I was really impressed by.

And last but most certainly not least is Gal Gadot. A few dodgy line readings aside, Gadot once again shows why she was the perfect actress to play Wonder Woman. She is utterly fabulous as the all-loving, kindhearted idealist and ferocious warrior. Gadot is wasted playing the role in such a mediocre movie, something that makes me wish WW84 had been better and hoping that a third movie that improves on this one's mistakes can be made in the near future. Gadot and the character deserve so much better.

Truth be told, the audience deserves better as well. You want people to sign up for HBO Max or go to a theater on Christmas Day (and during a global pandemic, no less) to see your movie, and this is the best you can give them? I know DC doesn't have the best cinematic track record over the last decade or so, but the first Wonder Woman movie was so fantastic that one would be justified in getting their hopes up for a sequel. And it sucks seeing that sequel squander all of its potential by being such a colossal disappointment. Of all the ways to close out the terrible year that was 2020, I'd have liked to have ended it with a good movie. But we didn't get it with Wonder Woman 1984. Here's hoping that 2021 will be better, and that Warner Bros. and DC can come up with something to redeem Wonder Woman in the future.

Final Rating: **

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

I've recently learned that the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" might actually be pretty good advice. To explain, I was in no way, shape, or form looking forward to seeing Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). I've loved the Harley Quinn character since she made her debut on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, but I got absolutely sick of seeing her all over the place after Suicide Squad put her on the mainstream map. And then there's Birds of Prey's advertising campaign making the movie look almost unbearably obnoxious, like it was going to double down all the things I hated about Suicide Squad. It all blended together to make a movie I was convinced that I was not going to enjoy.

But I did go see Birds of Prey anyway, because I'll go see every comic book movie no matter how bad I think it'll turn out. And you know what? It proved me wrong. The movie's flaws are right there for everyone to see, but I'd be lying if I said the movie wasn't also a whole lot of fun. It's an absolute blast, and I'm glad the movie was able to make me change my tune.

Since we last saw her, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been unceremoniously dumped by the Joker. Dating that psychotic clown provided by her with a lot of protection, since nobody would dare cross him. But once word gets out that she's newly single, everyone Harley has ever wronged is out to get her.

Among her new enemies is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), a narcissistic mob boss looking to take over all of Gotham City's criminal underworld. Part of his plan to accomplish this involves a diamond worth millions of dollars. The downside of that is that he sent his chief lieutenant, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), to procure the diamond, only for it to be stolen from him by teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Harley offers to retrieve the diamond for Roman in exchange for her life, and he accepts... only to put a bounty on Cassandra as she leaves, just to spice things up.

Meanwhile, Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) is using her status as both a singer in Roman's nightclub and his personal chauffeur to discreetly leak information to police detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). And Detective Montoya herself is up to her neck in an investigation into a crossbow-wielding killer calling herself "the Huntress" (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who's been cutting a bloody swath through all of Gotham's organized crime families with Roman being the next name on her list. All of these plot threads are slammed together, and Harley, Dinah, Montoya, and the Huntress are forced to team up to protect Cassandra and fight Roman and every other angry mobster in Gotham City.

The last time we saw Harley Quinn on a movie screen, I called the movie DC's answer to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. And now, four years later, she's appearing in what I would call DC's answer to Deadpool. But this time around, it's not a negative comparison at all. Harley ditching the dead weight of the Suicide Squad and Jared Leto's Joker would have been a decent enough change by itself, but add in an over-the-top sense of humor, a frenetic, almost chaotic energy, and a wafer-thin fourth wall, and you have all the makings of a cinematic carnival ride. Birds of Prey is a wild, colorful, and downright entertaining movie that I really enjoyed.

Harley says at the beginning of the movie that she's looking for a fresh start, and the "riot grrrl" aesthetic that director Cathy Yan brings to the movie goes a long way in establishing it. If it weren't for Margot Robbie, you'd almost never guess that this Harley and the one from Suicide Squad are the same character thanks largely to how Yan crafts the world around her. This is only Yan's second feature-length movie, but there's no signs of inexperience to be seen here. She has a unique eye for storytelling, comedy, and action, showing off all three as our adventure progresses. Yan constructs the movie in a way that makes it feel different from the other movies in the DC Extended Universe. It may not be as visually stunning as Aquaman or as awe-inspiring as Wonder Woman, but Yan gives the movie a vibe that makes it more entertaining than you'd expect it to be.

Unfortunately, I wish I could say the same for the script. Written by Christina Hodson, the script is all over the place in terms of quality. It's like a wild seesaw ride between great and crap, a shift that I found made the rest of the movie have to work harder to overcome. I can't say that I didn't particularly car for how lame Roman Sionis and Victor Szasz were, but I especially hate how Hodson wrote Cassandra Cain. The Cassandra from the comics was trained from birth to be a living weapon with no need for spoken languages (to the point that she was depicted as being both mute and illiterate for a time), before eventually finding her way to Gotham City and becoming the third "Batgirl." The Cassandra of Birds of Prey is a foulmouthed teenage pickpocket who's never even heard of the Joker and lacks all of the complexities of the character from the comics. It's like Hodson just picked a name at random from the comics and ran with it.

But Hodson does do right by Harley, I can say that. Not only does Yan make her look like a total badass (it helps that John Wick director Chad Stahleski helped choreograph some of the fight scenes), but Hodson also turns her into a fourth-wall breaking loon. I compared her to Deadpool earlier, and I still feel that's an apt comparison. (Since she's part of a team here, maybe it's closer to Deadpool 2?) But I could also say that Harley comes off like an insane Bugs Bunny. Harley bouncing back and forth between an off-the-wall clown and a bit more serious, outright mocking Roman's plans and diagnosing his inadequacies (she's got a Ph.D. in psychology, after all) while winking to the audience, makes for some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

The cast, meanwhile, is a mixed bag. Chris Messina is forgettable as Victor Zsasz and Ewan McGregor is almost too cartoony for my taste. I frankly had a hard time taking McGregor seriously as our villain, if I'm going to be truthful. And Ella Jay Basco is, from my perspective, the worst part of the movie. I was already frustrated with how much they'd changed the character of Cassandra around so much, but I also found Basco to be pretty lousy. The more I saw her, the more I wanted the movie to hurry up and get to someone else. If the goal was to have Basco play an annoying brat that you'd want Harley and everyone else to ditch after the first twenty minutes, then mission accomplished.

The rest of the cast isn't so bad, though. Rosie Perez and Jurnee Smollett-Bell hand in fine performances, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead is really funny as the Huntress. But despite the movie's title, the Birds of Prey are secondary characters at best. The movie belongs almost exclusively to Harley Quinn and, by extension, Margot Robbie. Robbie was undoubtedly my favorite part of Suicide Squad, and she ups her game now that the spotlight is primarily on her. Free from having to play Harley as just Joker's girlfriend and nothing more, Robbie turns Harley into a comedic force of nature, a technicolor tornado you can't take your eyes off of. She completely carries the movie on her back, doing so in such a way that part of me had hoped they would've just made her the sole protagonist and not worried about the Birds of Prey. Robbie is nothing short of amazing in the role; I couldn't imagine anyone else playing a better live-action Harley.

Birds of Prey is nowhere near perfect. Some of the acting is pretty bad and the script isn't exactly what one would call strong. But I can't overstate just how truly entertaining it is. The movie exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations and then some. It's an enjoyable, energetic, exciting spectacle that revels in being both entertaining and absurd. Birds of Prey is a fine entry into the burgeoning "girl power" niche within the superhero genre, and I'm looking forward to seeing just where Harley and her new friends go from here.

Final Rating: ***

Shazam! (2019)

Remember how Marvel Studios released a movie starring Captain Marvel last month? I bet you didn't realize that DC Comics has their own Captain Marvel too. No, really!

Their Captain Marvel made his debut in Fawcett Comics' Whiz Comics #2 in 1939, the creation of Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. He was a nearly instant success, his comics even outselling Superman's at one point in the '40s. But a combination of the dwindling popularity of superheroes following World War II and a lawsuit from DC Comics (who alleged that Captain Marvel was a ripoff of Superman), Fawcett Comics canceled all of Captain Marvel's comics by 1954.

He was eventually revived by DC Comics in 1972 after a little legal wheeling and dealing, but Marvel Comics had trademarked the "Captain Marvel" name in the intervening years. The original version's books were rebranded "Shazam!" as a result (eventually becoming the character's actual name during DC's "New 52" reboot in 2012), and the rest is history. The character was popular enough to spawn a live-action TV show that ran from 1974 to 1976 on CBS, and has appeared in in DC's animated work and the occasional video game (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Injustice: Gods Among Us come to mind), but he's never been one of their top-tier characters.

But then Hollywood came knocking, and now DC's Captain Marvel is getting his own blockbuster movie. Of course, the name is different, but not much else has changed. And while the DC Extended Universe has gotten a lot of flack in the past for how weak their movies have been, but I'll tell you this: Shazam! is a hell of a lot of fun.

Fourteen-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) has spent most of his life bouncing in and out of every foster home in Philadelphia. He never stays for long, constantly running away to search for the birth mother he hasn't seen in years. As the movie begins, he's dropped off at a new home that's populated by a few other foster kids. Among them is Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a physically handicapped fan of superheroes who immediately welcomes Billy into their family.

Billy initially dismisses Freddy and his other foster siblings since he's not planning on sticking around for long, but he can't help but save Freddy from some schoolyard bullies. The bullies end up chasing Billy into a subway car, where he is magically transported to a cave called home by the ancient wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou). The dying wizard has spent centuries searching for someone pure of heart to inherit his powers and defend the world, and Billy is his last hope. All Billy has to do is say the wizard's name, and he is transformed into an adult (Zachary Levi) with a multitude of amazing superpowers.

An astounded Billy returns home and reveals his situation to Freddy, and the pair start exploring the adult Billy's new superpowers. Their training videos end up going viral online, and Billy starts irresponsibly using his powers to start busking around the city.

Doing so, however, draws the attention of Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who was called by the wizard as a child in 1974 but was ultimately deemed unworthy. He was left immensely bitter by the rejection and has spent every moment since then obsessed with claiming that power he believes is rightfully his. While Billy spends his time doing parlor tricks with his powers for tourists, Sivana accomplishes his lifelong goal and finds a way back to the wizard's cave. He steals a mystical orb that imbues him with the demonic essence of the Seven Deadly Sins, returning to Philadelphia determined to force Billy to surrender the powers of Shazam to him.

I can't say that I was all that familiar with Shazam before seeing the movie. I'd heard of the character, sure, but my previous experiences with him have been the video game appearances I mentioned earlier and a 2005 episode of Justice League Unlimited where he fights Superman. But I went into the movie excited because of how good the trailers were, and I was far from disappointed. Shazam! not only rivals Wonder Woman for the title of "best movie in the DC Extended Universe," but is genuinely one of the most entertaining superhero movies I've seen in a while. It's wonderfully charming, with lovable characters and a real emotional weight to it. It felt to me like a more modern, more comedic take on what Richard Donner did with Superman in 1978, and I am never gonna complain about something like that.

Shazam! is the third feature-length movie from director David F. Sandberg, and I thought he did a great job at the helm. He plays the movie more for comedy, which is a refreshing change of pace considering how seriously most movies in this genre seem to take themselves nowadays. The movie actually plays like a superhero version of the classic Tom Hanks movie Big, right down to a fight between Shazam and Sivana going over a giant piano on the floor of a toy store. That isn't a bad thing either, since it makes for an entertaining time at the movies. The DC Extended Universe gets a lot of well-deserved flack because of how unrelentingly grim Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were. While that doesn't necessarily apply to Wonder Woman or Aquaman, Shazam! does its own part to break the mold. It's not a bleak, dreary tale with no hope, but instead features characters that truly care for one another and a superhero that's actually having fun instead of feeling miserable.

I also liked that Sandberg focuses more on developing the characters instead of letting the special effects dominate the movie. The more the movie progresses, the more you want to see where Billy and his foster family go and how they grow together. Yeah, we've got the standard "hero vs. villain" effects-heavy showdown at the end of the movie, but it's still done in such a way that it feels like a logical conclusion for the paths the characters have taken.

The screenplay goes a long way in helping that, as well. Loosely based on Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's comic book story that rebooted Shazam as part of DC's "New 52" relaunch, the script by Henry Gayden (from a story by Gayden and Darren Lemke) has a huge amount of heart in it. It doesn't feel like your typical origin story, mainly because of the strong emotional depth of the movie. It's best exemplified by how Billy and Sivana are polar opposites of one another. Billy was abandoned by his mother and spent his whole life searching for her before stumbling into a family that loves him unconditionally. Sivana, meanwhile, spent his whole life searching for a way to get rid of the father and brother he hated, and was found by a group of monsters that use him for their own nefarious ends. Billy's powers were gifted to him, though he believed himself unworthy of them; Sivana stole his powers and greedily sought more. They're two sides of the same coin, their arcs moving in such a way that makes the story more fascinating to watch as it plays out.

But perhaps the best part of Shazam! is its cast, all of whom hand in strong performances. I really enjoyed Faithe Herman as Billy's enthusiastic little sister Darla, while Jack Dylan Grazer is fantastic as Freddy. He's really funny in the role and proves himself to be the perfect sidekick for both the teenagew and adult versions of Billy.

Mark Strong, meanwhile, brings a real sense of menace to the character of Sivana. The movie establishes that Sivana's fatal flaw is how much he covets power because of how ineffectual he felt as a child. Strong effortlessly shows that, playing Sivana with all the jealousy and anger someone like that would feel towards people he felt looked down on him, and how corrupted he is by the power he has.

And that brings us to the two actors playing Billy Batson. Asher Angel is perfect as the teenage Billy, bring some serious feelings of longing and melancholy to the character. His loneliness is front and center, along with some of the ego he develops as the videos of his superpowers go viral, and Angel makes it all believable. Zachary Levi, on the other hand, is hilarious as the adult Billy. Not only does he convincingly play an adult version of Asher, mannerisms and all, but as his viral notoriety go to his head and he starts showing off more, Levi gets funnier and funnier as the movie goes along. He's obviously having a blast playing Shazam, and it's an infectious kind of fun.

And I could say something similar about Shazam! as a whole that I said about Levi: it gets better and better with each passing moment. By the end, you don't want it to be over because it's 131 minutes of pure fun. I honestly can't say enough positive things about the movie; I hate to sound hyperbolic, but it's true. And while Shazam! might be left in the dust once Marvel's Avengers: Endgame is released in three weeks, I'm happy that DC could provide us with an entertaining diversion before we get there. There's plenty of magic in Shazam!, and you'd be doing yourself a favor by checking it out.

Final Rating: ****

Aquaman (2018)

Out of all the superheroes in the DC Comics pantheon, Aquaman has to be the one with the worst public perception. The creation of writer Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris, he debuted in 1941, but has spent much of the last few decades as a punchline. A lot of people must've never seen anything other than his appearances on the old Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon from the '70s and '80s, because "Aquaman is lame because he talks to fish" is one of the hokiest, most tired jokes out there.

A movie based on Aquaman was even a recurring gag on the old HBO show Entourage, with a lot of humor stemming from how unlikely such a thing would happen in real life. But here we are, talking about the second movie featuring Aquaman in a major role. And it's a solo movie too! And you know what? The Aquaman movie is not a joke; it's actually pretty great.

The movie begins with a brief prologue taking us to Massachusetts circa 1985, where lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison) finds an unconscious woman washed up on the shore during a storm. She awakens and introduces herself as Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), queen of the mythical underwater kingdom of Atlantis. The two fall in love and eventually conceive a son they name Arthur.

Atlanna, however, is soon forced to return to Atlantis to fulfill her side of an arranged marriage. Her young son grows up to be extraordinarily strong and fast, and finds he can telepathically communicate with aquatic life. He hones his abilities and becomes a skilled warrior under the tutelage of an Atlantean named Vulko (Willem Dafoe), but ultimately chooses to stay among the surface dwellers after discovering that his mother had been killed once the king of Atlantis learned she'd given birth to a surface dweller's child.

Cut to the present day, a few months after the events of Justice League. The adult Arthur (Jason Momoa) has styled himself into a sea-faring vigilante the media has nicknamed "Aquaman." He is approached by Mera (Amber Heard), the princess of another underwater kingdom. She comes bearing a warning, that the reigning king of Atlantis, Orm (Patrick Wilson), plans to instigate a war with the surface world with the combined armies of the Seven Seas.

Knowing nothing good could come from Orm's war, Mera has sought out Arthur so that he may use his status as Orm's older half-brother — and thus the rightful king of Atlantis — to challenge Orm's claim to the throne and prevent the war. He is initially hesitant to accept, still bitter about his mother's death. He's convinced to help, however, when a massive tidal wave manufactured by Orm wreaks havoc on much of America's east coast.

Their initial attempts to step in don't quite go as planned, and Arthur and Mera soon find themselves on the run. While they search for a mythical trident that will help Arthur stake a proper claim as king, they must avoid the machinations of both Orm and "Black Manta" (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a dangerous pirate armed with experimental Atlantean weapons and a personal grudge too settle with Arthur.

I've never been a big Aquaman fan. Nothing against the character, but I've never been really drawn to him. I haven't read any of his comics, and I missed out on quite a bit of his appearances in animation. My only past real experience with Aquaman before his big-screen debut last year was Alan Ritchson's appearances as the character on four episodes of Smallville. But I did like Jason Momoa's take on the role in Justice League, I'm a fan of the director, and I'll see pretty much every comic book movie that comes out, so I wasn't about to skip this movie. And truth be told, I can't say that I was disappointed. The movie feels like a throwback to the cheesy comic book flicks from the '90s. Sure, not all those movies were good, but that isn't an insult to Aquaman. Far from it, because Aquaman takes that and makes itself a hell of a lot of fun.

At the helm is James Wan, who honestly isn't the first person I'd think of when it comes to directing a movie like this. He's no stranger to action movies, having made Death Sentence and Furious 7 in the past, but I've always associated him with the horror genre. The guy co-created the Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring franchises after all. But Wan is a talented filmmaker no matter what genre you put him in, and he shows it with Aquaman. Starting with a 30-second sequence at the movie's beginning that sees Atlanna fight off a number of Atlantean soldiers in Arther's childhood home in one unbroken shot, we can see that Wan means business.

Wan's direction here is outstanding, filling the movie with one visually stunning scene after another. Whether it be the action sequences or even just the digital set design, Wan builds a movie that is amazing to look at. The undersea scenes, especially Atlantis, look like an aquatic version of the world from Avatar, a visual feast blues, purples, greens, and golds looking absolutely beautiful. It's also helped by the movie's amazing cinematography, which makes the movie look even more incredible if you see the movie in 3D like I did.

And as I said before, Wan might be particularly recognized for his horror movies, but he knows his way around an action movie too. I already mentioned Atlanna's fight at the beginning of the movie, and it gets even better and more exciting as we progress. There's a scene where Arthur and Mera fight Black Manta and the Atlantean commandos in Sicily, the heroic duo are pursued by and brawl with their enemies on rooftops and through homes with neither side being able to really get the upper hand until the very end of the scene. It reminds one of the thrilling parking lot chase scene from Wan's own Death Sentence. The scene is amazing, and just when you think it can't be topped, the movie ends up proving you wrong.

The cast is a mixed bag, though I can't complain much about what I disliked. Dolph Lundgren (who appears in a small role as Mera's father) and Temuera Morrison put forth likable performances, as do Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II isn't bad, meanwhile, but he's forgettable. He only has three or four scenes in the movie, with maybe only fifteen minutes of screen time in the whole thing. Most of that is action scenes where he was most likely replaced by a stuntman or a CGI stand-in for the scenes where he's in the Black Manta armor. But I will say that whenever they get around to making Aquaman 2, I hope to see more of what Abdul-Mateen can do.

I also can't say I particularly cared for Amber Heard. She and Jason Momoa don't have much on-screen chemistry together from what I could tell, and her performance feels sorta one-note.  The whole "Mera thinks Aquaman is an idiot and the surface world is uncivilized, but then she changes her mind over time" thing and the belligerent sexual tension concept are played out but could be blamed on the script, but I didn't think Heard did much to make it tolerable.

But I will say, though, that we did get two fantastic performances from our hero and our villain. Patrick Wilson is no stranger to superhero movies (having starred in Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation), and he's also turned up on several of Wan's past movies, so I was excited to see him turn up here. He plays Orm as the ultimate douchebag. If the movie had been made in the '80s, he'd be accused of doing his best impression of William Zabka. Wilson plays Orm in such a way that you can't wait for Aquaman to put him in his place and punch him right in the mouth. It's rare that I've seen Wilson play a bad guy, and I kinda hope he does it more often in the future because I thought he was great.

Speaking of great, I can't say enough good things about Jason Momoa. He was one of my favorite parts of Justice League, and he does another awesome job here. Momoa plays Aquaman with a charming likability, but even when he's cracking jokes and being kind of a goofball, he always makes the character feel like a total badass. One gets the feeling that if you met this Aquaman in real life, he'd be the life of the party and your best friend if he liked you, but God help you if he didn't like you.

If there were any lingering jokes about Aquaman being lame, then James Wan and Jason Momoa have killed them dead. The movie has its flaws, sure, but they're easily overlooked because the movie is just so much fun. Aquaman never ceases to be exciting, providing two and a half hours of pure, unadulterated entertainment from beginning to end. So if you're on the fence about Aquaman, unsure about whether or not you should check it out, I'll totally recommend seeing it. It's most certainly worth your time.

Final Rating: ***

Justice League (2017)

Even before I actually started reading comic books on a regular basis, I loved DC Comics. I grew up watching DC's characters in cartoons, TV shows, and movies, and I've always held them very close to my heart even if I hadn't always been familiar with their origins on the printed page. So when I'd heard that Warner Bros. was going to borrow an idea from Marvel Studios and create a shared cinematic universe featuring DC's heroes and villains, I was excited... until I actually saw the movies.

As good as Wonder Woman might have been, the utter awfulness of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad really dampened any sort of excitement I had for what's been named "the DC Extended Universe." But regardless, I was still drawn to Justice League. I mean, how could I not go see it? And while it's certainly a very, very flawed movie, I still enjoyed it for what it was.

Thousands of years ago, Earth was invaded by the warlord Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and the armies of the dystopian planet of Apokolips. He was ultimately repelled by the combined efforts of humanity, the gods of Olympus, the Amazons, the people of the mythical undersea kingdom of Atlantis, and members of the Green Lantern Corps. Steppenwolf's weapons, three powerful artifacts known as "Mother Boxes," were separated and hidden away.

Fast forward to the present day. Humanity has become more bitter and cynical than ever before in the wake of Superman's death. It is this despair that reactivates the long-dormant Mother Boxes and draws Steppenwolf back to Earth to search for them. Realizing the high likelihood that he might succeed in doing so, Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) begin putting together their own team of super-powered individuals to fight him. Their recruits:

• Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), the half-human heir to the throne of Atlantis
• Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), a nerdy college student who uses his ability to move at superhuman speed to operate as a vigilante known as "The Flash"
• Victor Stone (Ray Fisher), a former college football star whose body was rebuilt with cybernetic enhancements via a Mother Box after a near-fatal accident

And while the team puts up a good fight against Steppenwolf in their first encounter with him, Batman decides that they need a little extra something to bring to their next battle: a resurrected Superman (Henry Cavill). It's a risky plan, one that might not even work, but it might be their only hope.

I entered Justice League with a fair bit of trepidation for a number of reasons. One was the movie's shaky production, which I'll get into later. There's also the fact that DC's movies don't exactly have the best track record lately. Not only have the movies building to Justice League been lousy (with the exception of Wonder Woman), but they've also felt like they're just there to be there, with

When Marvel started their initial build from Iron Man to The Avengers, the majority of the major players got their own individual movies (or plenty of significant screen time if they weren't flying solo) so that the audience would know who they were and connect to them. They took the time to build their universe and mapped out everything, sometimes even years in advance. Each successive movie plants at least some tiny little seed to be expanded upon in later installments, whether we notice it at first or not. And considering that their continued use of that formula has made them billions of dollars at the worldwide box office, I'd be willing to bet that they won't be changing it up much in the future.

DC, on the other hand, hasn't really done any of that. It's really evident that they only had the idea to do a shared universe was something they came up after the success of Man of Steel instead of something they'd planned all along. Their movies seem disjointed, disconnected, none of them remotely feeling like they should or could be taking place in the same world. Yeah, Batman and Flash might've made cameos in Suicide Squad, but the build to Justice League comes across like trying to put together a puzzle with none of the right pieces.

I don't really believe I'm exaggerating when I say I think they've been rushing to get to a movie starring the Justice League but didn't care how they got there. Rather than have a concise game plan from the start, DC has just thrown whatever they could at a wall and ran with whatever they believed would stick. And it's honestly hard to make a connection to these characters when the movie hasn't earned it. Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were the kind of movies you'd have expected to be made by some 16-year-old edgelord who thinks the idea of clearly defined good guys and bad guys is stupid and that idealism is for chumps, while Suicide Squad is basically what you'd get if Guardians of the Galaxy was made inside of a Spencer's Gifts with characters who weren't as developed or likable. Wonder Woman was a fantastic way to let us get to know the character after she showed up in Batman v Superman, but that still leaves us with the rest. Could Warner Bros. and DC not been a bit more patient? Would it have killed them to establish as many major players as they could' before approaching the Justice League?

It wouldn't have hurt anybody if they'd waited another year or two to make this movie. Give the audience something to establish this Flash and show us what sets him apart from the Flash that Grant Gustin plays on that show on The CW. Give the audience something to show that Aquaman is more than just the "lol he talks to fish" jokes that have been told about him for years. Do something, anything, to show us why Cyborg belongs in the Justice League and that he's more than just "that one Teen Titan that says 'booyah.'" (I'm of the opinion that they also should've gone with the Martian Manhunter or one of the Green Lanterns instead of Cyborg, but that's just me.) I'm not saying give them their own solo movies right out of the gate; Marvel's Black Widow and Hawkeye haven't had their own solo movies and I still couldn't imagine the Avengers without them. I'd have just appreciated a little something from the newcomers other than "oh yeah, these guys are here now, we'll fill in the details later if we get the time."

The movie's rocky production did it no favors either. While Zack Snyder is credited as the movie's sole director, he left the movie during post-production to deal with his daughter's tragic suicide. Joss Whedon, who Warner Bros. had previously brought on to rewrite Chris Terrio's script, was tagged with completing the movie. This included not just finishing post-production, but doing extensive reshoots too. You can definitely see Whedon's influence on the final product, especially in the dialogue and in the movie's sense of humor. It doesn't feel anything like the dark, morose movies that Snyder made. Elements of Snyder's typical style are still here, but they're toned down, almost as if Whedon was trying to reign in what he couldn't completely change.

The bad part is that with Whedon taking over only a few months ago, the final product feels rushed. There's the dodgy CGI, for starters. Steppenwolf looks like absolute crap, as does most of the final battle against Steppenwolf and his Parademons. And the less said about the hysterically atrocious work they did removing the mustache Henry Cavill had to grow for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the better. One also gets the feeling that quite a lot of the movie was left on the cutting room floor to keep the movie at a two-hour running time. Maybe that's where all of Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg's backstories went?

The movie also suffers from having a ridiculously weak villain. I'd never even heard of Steppenwolf prior to seeing the movie. And the character as he's presented here isn't much. He just doesn't seem like the kind of character that would need the entire Justice League to take him down. Maybe Warner Bros. mandated that they had to save Darkseid for a potential sequel? He probably wouldn't have been half as awesome as the one in the comics, or the one Michael Ironside voiced in the various DC cartoons developed by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini during the latter half of the '90s and early '00s. But still, I'd have loved to have seen Darkseid.

I'll say this much, though: the majority of the cast is great, so the movie at least has that going for it. Ray Fisher is forgettable as Cyborg and Ezra Miller is honestly kinda annoying as the Flash. But everybody else is great. Ben Affleck once again makes a better Batman than people thought he'd be when he was first hired for the role. I spoke of solo movies earlier, and I'd really like to see one starring Affleck's Batman.

Jason Momoa, meanwhile, is a total badass in his first outing as Aquaman. He gives off a vibe of being the coolest guy in the room, and easily makes one forget all the corny jokes about Aquaman being lame. I also thought that Gal Gadot was once again fabulous as Wonder Woman. She plays the role with a ton of heart and conviction, and again reaffirms my belief that they couldn't have hired a better actress for the role.

And then there's Henry Cavill, who finally gets to play the Superman I always dreamed he could be here. Despite how poorly Zack Snyder wrote the character in the past, Cavill has always shown a ton of potential that he could be a fantastic Superman with the right material. And there's some strong glimpses of it here, even if Cavill doesn't have a whole lot of screen time compared to the rest of the cast. Seeing him save the day by laying in a few punches to Steppenwolf before dropping everything to save some civilians in peril, all while Danny Elfman's brief interpretation of John Williams' classic Superman theme from 1978 plays? Oh yeah, I want to see more of that Superman!

A Justice League movie could've happened back in 2007, believe it or not. Mad Max creator George Miller was hired to direct what would've been called Justice League: Mortal, along with a cast. But it was canceled due to a combination of budgetary woes and the Writer's Guild strike. Ten years later, the Justice League have finally hit the big screen and the results are... okay, I guess. It's not a particularly bad movie, but it also isn't that great either. It's one of those movies that's just kinda there. It's at least the second-best entry in the DC Expanded Universe, though that's damning it with faint praise. Could've been worse, though; I could've been stuck watching Batman v Superman again.

Final Rating:**½

Wonder Woman (2017)

After the critical and box office failures of Catwoman and Elektra a decade ago, Hollywood seemingly became convinced that female-led superhero movies couldn't work. And ever since then, nobody seems to have made any serious attempt to try again. Yeah, we've had Mystique, Storm, and Jean Grey in the X-Men movies, but they've spent nearly two decades stuck in the shadow of Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor Xavier. The closest any major studio has gotten to giving a female character a role with any real, significant, meaningful substance to it in all that time has been Scarlett Johansson having a major supporting role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But then along came Wonder Woman to shake everything up.

Created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston and an uncredited H.G. Peter, Wonder Woman brought a big dose of girl power to the male-dominated superhero genre. She wasn't some damsel in distress that needed a hero to rescue her; she was the damsel that saved herself. And through all the ups and downs the comic book industry has gone through, and through numerous retools and reimaginings, Wonder Woman has persisted, staying in print on a regular basis since her debut and becoming just as important to DC Comics as Superman and Batman.

But unlike her caped colleagues, Wonder Woman hasn't seen a whole lot of success beyond the printed page. With the notable exception of the classic 1970s TV show starring Lynda Carter, she hadn't really appeared anywhere beyond the various cartoons based on the Justice League. However, when Warner Bros. decided to follow in Marvel's footsteps and create their own cinematic universe starring the heroes and villains of DC Comics, Wonder Woman finally got her big break as a movie star. Her appearance in Batman v Superman was one of the few genuine highlights of that dreadful movie, and with the release of her own theatrical solo adventure, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see it. And after the string of misfires the DC Extended Universe has had lately, the Wonder Woman movie is exactly the shot in the arm it needs.

Welcome to Themyscira, a beautiful, secluded island in the Mediterranean Sea that is called home by a proud race of warrior women known as the Amazons. Created by the gods of Mount Olympus to protect humanity, the Amazons relentlessly train as soldiers in preparation for the prophesied return of Ares, the villainous god of war who slayed his fellow gods before being defeated by a mortally-wounded Zeus.

Unique among the Amazons is Diana (Gal Gadot), daughter of Queen Hyppolyta (Connie Nielsen). Despite being imbued with all of the same physical gifts as the rest of her people and trained ten times harder than anyone else, Hyppolyta still attempts to shelter her daughter from combat and discourage her from being like the other Amazons.

That all changes when Diana rescues Air Force captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) from drowning after his plane is shot down just off the island's coast. He reveals under interrogation that, unbeknownst to the Amazons, World War I has been raging for four years and that he is an Allied spy. In Steve's possession is a notebook he'd managed to steal from Dr. Isabel Maru (Elena Anaya), a chemist working under the command of General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston) of the German army. In this notebook is evidence that Maru has not only developed an advanced, even deadlier version of mustard gas, but that Ludendorff plans to use it in an attack on London.

Diana believes the war to be the handiwork of Ares and agrees to accompany Steve back to England so he can deliver Dr. Maru's notes to his superiors. But when Diana and Steve are stonewalled by the Allied forces' top brass as an armistice is close to being signed, they're forced to the front lines to stop Ludendorff and Maru from releasing their gas and changing the tide of the war.

The fourth time's the charm, it seems. I say that because after three movies that struggled to achieve even mediocrity, the DC Extended Universe finally has a winner. Wonder Woman is, no pun intended, wonderful. The movie is a 141-minute adventure that is exciting, compelling, at times awe-inspiring. It's not a flawless movie, but it is a strong effort that I absolutely loved.

At the helm is Patty Jenkins, who has spent the better part of the last decade working in television. Wonder Woman is only her second feature-length directorial effort, following the Aileen Wuoronos biopic Monster in 2003. And while Monster and Wonder Woman are on completely different ends of the specturm in terms of both the size of their productions and the personalities of their main characters, Jenkins proves herself more than capable of playing with the boys in their summer blockbuster territory.

Jenkins does not approach the movie with the overbearing gloom and senseless destruction we saw in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, nor does she turn the movie into a ridiculous mess like what Suicide Squad turned out to be. She instead seems to draw inspiration from Captain America: The First Avenger. Both movies feel rather close in style, especially considering that both movies are period pieces that see superheroes sent to a war in Europe. But that's not to say that Jenkins merely copied that movie wholesale. That doesn't strike me as being the case at all. She does more to capture the horrors of war here than Joe Johnston did in The First Avenger, and to be honest, as much as I love Cap's first adventure as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are parts of Wonder Woman that blow it out of the water.

Take, for example, the scene where Diana leaps out of the trenches and marches into "No Man's Land" so she can liberate a German-occupied village, brushing off bullets and mortar shells with her shield and wrist bracers. It's an utterly amazing, breathtaking scene that how much of a warrior and how much of a hero Diana is. Jenkins puts the scene together masterfully, a perfect blend of cinematography, music, stunts, special effects, and actors perfectly encapsulating their assigned roles. Just thinking about that scene gives me goosebumps. And the moment shortly thereafter, when Diana leaps into a second story window and takes out a group of German soldiers set to the strains of her leitmotif from Batman v Superman, is one hell of an adrenaline rush.

She also has an amazing cast to work with as well. Everyone contributes a fine performance, but I'd be lying if I said anyone other than Gal Gadot and Chris Pine were the standouts. Pine is charming and charismatic, and he and Gadot have a palpable chemistry together. And I'll confess that it's kinda neat seeing a movie where a man is the female hero's token love interest instead of the other way around.

But honestly, nobody is seeing the movie for Chris Pine. Everybody is seeing it for Gal Gadot, and those that are will not be disappointed because Gadot is tremendous here. She captures everything Wonder Woman is and should be. Gadot makes her more than just a warrior; she's graceful, hopeful, idealistic, an agent of peace and compassion that has no qualms about standing up for what she believes in. For the last forty years, Lynda Carter alone has been associated with the role, but Gadot makes it her own with her fantastic performance. In short, Gal Gadot puts the "wonder" in "Wonder Woman."

When I said earlier that the movie has flaws, I wasn't lying. The plot is nothing exceptional and Diana's climactic confrontation with Ares is practically interchangeable with the final battle from pretty much any other random superhero movie from the last fifteen years. But if those are the only negative things I can think to say about Wonder Woman, then the movie is doing pretty damn good for itself. I honestly cannot say enough positive things about the movie; it's everything I'd hoped it could've been. And between you and me, I have yet to figure out why it took so long for Wonder Woman to get her own starring role in a movie? Superman and Batman can get fourteen movies between them 1978 and now, but Wonder Woman just now gets one? Here's hoping she gets a few more to make up for lost time.

Final Rating: ****

Dr. Strange (1978)

At the tail end of the '70s, Marvel Comics teamed up with CBS to translate some of their superheroes from the printed page to the world of television. But while the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno-led The Incredible Hulk proved to be a big hit and became a memorable part of that era's pop culture, other efforts weren't so fruitful. A Spider-Man TV show lasted only a handful of episodes that aired sporadically between 1977 and 1979, while there were two incredibly hokey Captain America movies that ultimately never led to a series.

And then there's the case of Dr. Strange. Despite the success of the title character's comic books, he's so unlike Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Captain America that I'm actually surprised that they decided to give him a shot at TV stardom. I'm guessing that it wasn't much of a success, considering that it never made it past a pilot episode that aired on CBS on September 6, 1978. But there's nothing wrong with trying, is there? So as the Sorcerer Supreme makes his big-budget theatrical debut today as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I figured I might as well look back nearly forty years and see if Doctor Strange could have had as much success on the small screen as I'm sure he will on the big screen.

Beyond our world lies a realm of such mystic wonder that only a select few can truly comprehend it. This realm is host to a constant war between good and evil with our plane of existence hanging in the balance. Defending us in this battle is Thomas Lindmer (John Mills), a powerful wizard who holds the title of "Sorcerer Supreme." With him out of the way, the vile beasts opposing him would be able to invade and conquer Earth.

But the battle is taking its toll on a weakening Lindmer, who must soon pass the Sorcerer Supreme mantle to a successor before all is lost. Realizing that this will be their best time to strike, evil sorceress Morgan Le Fay (Jessica Walter) is sent by her dark masters to eliminate their foe before his successor can be found.

To do this, she arrives in New York City and possesses a young woman named Clea Lake (Eddie Benton), who she uses to push Lindmer off a bridge. He survives unharmed, but the possession leaves Clea so mentally scarred that she is taken to the nearest hospital's psychiatric ward and left in the care of brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Strange (Peter Hooten). Lindmer and his assistant Wong (Clyde Kusatsu) follow her to Dr. Strange, discovering that the fates have aligned to make him the next Sorcerer Supreme.

Despite his initial skepticism, Strange becomes intrigued by what Lindmer is trying to sell him and follows him down the rabbit hole into a world of magic and mysticism. And it's a good thing too, because if Le Fay is to be defeated and the world saved, Strange will have to fully tap into his potential and embrace his new role as the Sorcerer Supreme.

Thanks to a combination of low ratings and poor reviews at the time, CBS chose not to pick up Dr. Strange as a series. And honestly, I can see why. While this pilot really picks up during the second half, the first act is so lifeless and dull that by the time something interested happened, I'd begun to mentally check out by that point. It wasn't until the last thirty minutes of the movie that it really re-captured my attention. But it isn't bad, either; it actually shows some promise. The cast is good, and the effects aren't bad for a made-for-TV movie produced at the tail end of the '70s. And had it gone to series, I could've seen it finding something of a cult following similar to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. But it's not perfect, so let's get into why.

This pilot was written and directed by Philip DeGuere, who was no stranger to television. At the time he made Dr. Strange, he'd most notably written episodes of Baretta and The Bionic Woman among others, and would go on to create the long-running show Simon & Simon just a few years after this. But I can't say I was particularly enthusiastic about DeGuere's work here. As far as his script goes, there's not a lot here to justify its 90-minute length. A lot of scenes feel like padding or don't really add much to the story otherwise, but my guess is that these scenes were here to add threats that would be followed if the pilot got picked up as a series or in any potential sequel movies. But all it does here is make the movie feel like it had 45 minutes of story stretched out to an hour and a half.

The story also suffers from having a tremendously weak villain. The depiction of Morgan Le Fay here is a shallow, one-dimensional character who does practically nothing except for giving people the stink-eye for the majority of the movie. The ending implies a change for the charactor's methods, but considering that there was never any follow-up, we're just stick with this boring, uninteresting villain.

DeGuere's direction is a bit better than his writing, though I wasn't really too impressed with it either. I know I should probably judge a 1970s TV production differently than a theatrically released movie, but there's isn't a lot worth talking about here. At least not until the movie is almost over, anyway. Thanks to all the meandering around that it does in the first half, the movie is almost a chore to watch for quite a bit of time. DeGuere does spice things up in the second half by picking up the pace and giving us some action and the occasional trippy visual, but it's almost too little, too late. By the time things really get interesting, it's almost over.

At least the cast, for the most part, is what really elevates the movie. The exception is Jessica Walter, who you'll most likely recognize from her roles on Arrested Development and Archer, isn't really given much to work with here. She's not awful, but Walter is wasted playing a flat character with nothing really going for it.

I could very nearly say the same for Eddie Benton, who would be credited as "Anne-Marie Martin" for much of her later career (which includes 251 episodes of Days of Our Lives during the first half of the '80s, as well as co-writing the script for Twister). Benton doesn't have a lot demanded of her here, and I get the feeling that the character would have developed more over the course of a series. But Benton does what she can with the role, and puts forth a watchable performance at the very least.

On the other hand, I really liked John Mills, whose earnestness in the role made him feel very much akin to Alec Guinness' performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi. He contributes possibly the best performance in the whole thing, with Peter Hooten coming in a close second. I thought Hooten started off a bit on the dull side at first, but really began to win me over as the movie progressed. He's got a unique charm to him that really makes me wish for some kind of follow-up to the movie, be it a series or a sequel, because I'd enjoy seeing Hooten play the character as the fully fleshed-out Sorcerer Supreme that we saw in the closing moments here.

If this review feels like it's all over the place, I'll take part of the blame for that. It's not often that I watch or write about failed television pilots from the '70s. But to be fair, the movie is kinda all over the place itself. Its imperfections are boldly on display for anyone and everyone to see. Could Dr. Strange have worked as a TV series? Sure, I believe so. I saw some real potential deep down here. And I did leave wanting to see where they could have gone next creatively. But when it's said and done, Dr. Strange is just sorta... okay, I guess. But at least that's better than bad, right?

Final Rating: **

Suicide Squad (2016)

Two years ago, Marvel Studios gave us a movie starring a gang of morally-ambiguous misfits that, in the realm of the comic books they originated from, were D-list characters at best. So when Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be a big fat hit at the box office, DC Comics decided that when it came time for them to create their own cinematic universe, they'd do something similar with the Suicide Squad.

The group initially appeared in 1959 as a team of elite commandos taking on dangerous missions following the disbanding of the Justice Society, but the concept was completely reimagined by writer/artist John Ostrander in 1987. Drawing inspiration from The Dirty Dozen, Ostrander revived the Suicide Squad as a covert ops team with a revolving roster of minor villains wrangled into the group. The Suicide Squad has made a number of off-and-on appearances in the comics ever since, and eventually popping up in animation, video games, and now their own live-action movie. And folks, if you thought that was Batman v Superman was bad, you're probably not gonna like Suicide Squad very much either. 

The death of Superman has shocked the world. It's also left its political leaders with an unshakable sense of dread. Superman may have been one of the good guys, but what would happen if another being with similar abilities decided he wanted to be a villain instead? To combat this, government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has convinced the CIA to sign off on a project she's conceived called "Task Force X." The project would see a number of dangerous criminals cobbled together and sent into black-ops missions with the promise of reduced prison sentences and extra perks during their stay in jail. And if things go south or someone goes rogue, that's where plausible deniability comes in.

The team is placed under the command of Special Forces member Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and expert swordswoman Katana (Karen Fukuhara), and all it needs are a few lucky recruits. And for her merry band of misfits, Waller has assembled...

• Deadshot (Will Smith), the world's deadliest assassin...
• Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a former prison psychiatrist who became a mentally-disturbed loose cannon after being seduced by one of her patients, the notorious Joker (Jared Leto)...
• Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), an Australian bank robber whose nickname comes from his preferred weapon of choice...
• El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), an ex-gangbanger who can summon and control fire...
• Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who was born with an incredibly rare genetic condition that has made him into a reptilian beast...
• Slipknot (Adam Beach), a mercenary whose specialty lies in the use of ropes and grappling hooks...
• ...and Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevigne), a meek archaeologist whose body hosts the spirit of an ancient and powerful sorceress known as "the Enhantress."

Things take an immediate turn south, however, when Enchantress takes full control of June's body and decides that if humanity will no longer worship her as they did millennia ago, they must be exterminated. She awakens her brother, the demonic Incubus (Alain Chanoine), and the duo starts building a mystical weapon with which they will accomplish their ultimate goal. Waller deploys Task Force X to the city that Enchantress and Incubus are occupying with orders to extract a high-profile target, but standing in their way are two pissed-off godlike beings and a bunch of creatures under their control.

I wanted to like Suicide Squad. I desperately wanted to walk out of that theater and write a rave review where I'd tell you to run to the nearest theater and see it as soon as you possibly could because Suicide Squad is the coolest movie ever. But I'm unable to do so. The truth of the matter is that Suicide Squad is kinda weak, to be honest with you. As I implied in the introduction, one gets the feeling that Warner Bros. and DC Comics saw the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and chose to make their own version, right down to having a bunch of classic rock and pop songs on the soundtrack. But Suicide Squad has none of the charm or heart that made Guardians so much fun. The direction is lazy, the plot is hokey, the characterizations are wafer-thin, and the whole thing is just plain unappealing.

Writer/director David Ayer is no stranger to action movies, having worked on quite a few over the last few years. You'd think he'd have plenty of experience in making them, but he left Suicide Squad lacking. It feels like some generic, low-budget flick that would've gone straight to DVD and ended up in the $5 discount bin at Walmart within a year, not a summer blockbuster starring a bunch of DC Comics characters. It doesn't help that the movie's schizophrenic pacing puts it all over the place, never letting it establish any sort of consistent flow. It's hard for a movie to get into any real groove when it feels like it's been edited with a chainsaw.

Ayer's script also leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. A lot of the dialogue is hokey and hackneyed (Rick Flag's exposition and introductions of Katana and Slipknot stand out in particular), while other parts try so desperately to sound cool when they're corny almost to the point of being laughable. Take, for example, when Harley comments "that's a killer app!" when Flag remotely detonates one of the explosive collars that Task Force X wear, or when Deadshot tells Harley to "stay evil, dollface" after the two come to an agreement about their fates. If lines like these are supposed to be jokes, they aren't very funny. If they're supposed to be serious, then they just sound lame.

The characters are also almost all one-note caricatures, with any sort of development being slim to nil. You can make a movie about villains and antiheroes and give them some depth, but it seems Ayer couldn't be bothered with that. The characters only seem to exist to go from action scene to action scene while making cute little quips every so often, and that's it.

The movie also suffers from having some extremely weak villains. Enchantress is an absolutely boring villain, and Incubus is even worse than that. The Suicide Squad themselves might be relatively flat, but that's more than I can say for Enchantress and Incubus. They're sub-generic baddies who are only there as an excuse to bring our protagonists together. Enhantress and Incubus also suffer because the digital effects used to create them is ridiculously dodgy. Cara Delevigne's live-action face looks really awkward on a badly animated CGI body, while Incubus doesn't even remotely look realistic (especially during his fight with El Diablo during the climax). I've heard the movie cost $170 million to make, and if that's the case, couldn't they have funneled a little more towards the digital effects budget?

A talented cast could probably elevate mediocre material, but the majority of the cast barely register at a level I'd call "okay, I guess." Jai Courtney has some funny moments as the sleazy Captain Boomerang, but the best among the cast are Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Smith and Robbie are a lot of fun as Deadshot and Harley (even in spite of the occasional dodgy bits of dialogue I mentioned earlier), so much so that I'd say this whole slog of a movie is worth sitting through just for them.

But I'd gladly take actors phoning in their performances over the utter shitshow that is Jared Leto as Joker. The garish costumes, metal teeth, and the stupid tattoos on his face are bad enough, and those can easily be blamed on the movie's costuming and makeup departments. But Leto is also laughably bad in the role. Every second he's on the screen, you can't help but wonder just what the hell he was thinking. And for that matter, what the hell was Ayer thinking when he let Leto carry on with this utterly ridiculous, unlikable, and frankly repellent performance? This was really the best he could get out of Leto? I get that the actors who've played Joker in the past have all been beloved and iconic in their own ways, and that Leto probably wanted to go in his own direction with the character. But he's just so awful here that he becomes memorable for all the wrong reasons.

If Batman v Superman wasn't enough of a sign, then Suicide Squad is further proof that Warner Bros. is so focused on the billions of dollars that Marvel Studios and the Avengers are raking in that they're ignoring why those movies are so successful. Suicide Squad itself is just an absolute mess of a movie. A poor script, lackluster direction, and only two decent performances from its sizable ensemble cast make it an absolute trainwreck from start to finish. It's slightly better than Batman v Superman, but that's just damning it with faint praise. It's like saying being punched in the face is better than being kicked in the balls. I'd only really recommend seeing it if you absolutely have to see every single comic book movie that comes out of Hollywood. You otherwise aren't missing a lot otherwise, and you're probably better off waiting for it to turn up on Netflix or HBO. It's just another stumbling block for Warner Bros. and DC as they attempt to catch up to their competition, and I really hate to say that.

Final Rating: **

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

It was in the summer of 2006 that Marvel Comics published Civil War, a massive company-wide storyline built around a seven-issue series by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. Civil War had a huge (albeit somewhat temporary) effect on the Marvel universe, shaking up the status quo in a number of ways, most notably with the public revelation of Spider-Man's secret identity and the assassination of Captain America.

And despite the mixed reaction it got from readers and critics during its original run, it still remains one of Marvel's most talked-about stories even a decade later. Elements of it appeared in the Avengers cartoons on Disney XD, it inspired the story for Activision's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 video game in 2009, and now, ten years later, it has crept into the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of Captain America: Civil War.

Much like the comic that inspired it, the movie seeks to shake up the status quo by pitting the Avengers against not a god, not alien invaders, not an army of killer robots, but one another. And in a summer that already gave us one horrible attempt at pitting hero against hero, it's nice to see someone take that idea and make a good movie out of it.

We begin in Lagos, as the Avengers have arrived to stop members of Hydra from acquiring a deadly biological weapon. They are successful in stopping Hydra, but an attempt by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to thwart a suicide bomber accidentally causes a number of civilian casualties. With public opinion of the Avengers already drastically declining following the incident with Ultron, this only adds fuel to the fire and leads to the United Nations to pass what it calls "the Sokovia Accords." These accords would establish a committee to oversee the Avengers, essentially putting them at the UN's beck and call.

The Sokovia Accords split the Avengers right down the middle, with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) on one side, believing that forfeiting the team's autonomy would make them political pawns instead of protectors. On the other side, however, is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), whose guilt over his role in Ultron's rampage has convinced him that the Avengers need to be governed by outside sources who would hold them accountable for their actions.

But things get really shaken up when it comes time for the Accords to be ratified in Vienna. Ten people — among them, the king of the African nation of Wakanda — are killed when the UN conference building is bombed, with all evidence pointing to Steve's old friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Already an international fugitive because of his past actions as the Winter Soldier, he immediately shoots to Public Enemy #1 across the globe despite his protests of innocence.

Not only does this mean that every law enforcement agency in Europe is looking for Bucky, but so are the Avengers that have agreed to sign the Accords. Also on the hunt is Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) of Wakanda, who has vowed to kill him and avenge his father's death. Steve is steadfast in his defense of Bucky, however, further ruining the strained relationship between he and Tony and forcing the Avengers to pick sides as the tensions rapidly reach a boiling point.

DC Comics just can't catch a break. It's bad enough that Batman v Superman was met with terrible reviews and awful word of mouth, but Civil War is pretty stiff evidence that Marvel Studios can make what is essentially the same movie and do it a hell of a lot better. Civil War is everything that Batman v Superman is not: fun, exciting, serious but never dour, and willing to let its heroes actually be heroic even in spite of their personal flaws and their quarrels with one another. And even when the movie is at its weakest, Civil War is still proof that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is firmly standing at the top of the superhero movie mountain.

Returning to direct the continuing adventures of Captain America are Joe and Anthony Russo, who once again do a fantastic job behind the camera. The movie itself is essentially Avengers 3 in all but name, but considering that the Avengers are actually fighting one another instead of some giant alien threat or an army of killer robots, it has a different feel than Joss Whedon's two movies. It feels more personal, more intimate. By putting the focus entirely on the Avengers themselves rather than their battles with some new supervillain, the Russo brothers add a level of drama you don't really see in movies like these. We the audience have spent the better part of the last decade watching these characters develop on the big screen, seeing their universe blossom and grow as they fought alongside one another. And to see them come to blows really makes the movie feel a lot more drawn in, if that makes sense. Things look differently when you're fighting your friends instead of your enemies.

But that's not to say the Russos don't cut loose and give us the spectacle we've come to expect. Oh, there's plenty of that. While I'd say the airport battle royale pitting Captain America's Avengers against Iron Man's Avengers is most certainly the movie's biggest draw and quite a bit of focus is put on it, the Russos make sure that each action sequence is the right blend of exciting, tense, and emotional. And as I said before, that feeling of intimacy makes the action feel different. The stakes feel higher since the Avengers are their own opponents for a change.

While the Russos direction is solid, the script penned by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely isn't always perfect. I doubt Mackie and McFeely wanted to write another political thriller in the same vein as The Winter Soldier, but I actually would've liked seeing that. The Sokovia Accords don't really seem that important in the scope of things, as the movie becomes more about the Winter Soldier being the wedge driven between Captain America and Iron Man rather than the Accords. The fact that this seemingly important plot device doesn't really seem that important at all makes me wonder why they even bothered. I mean, I'm sure future Avengers movies will show us that it's changed the MCU's status quo much like Millar and McNiven's comic book did, but for now, it feels a little pointless.

Speaking of pointless, I really don't see why the movie needed appearances from Ant-Man and Spider-Man. Outside of showing off that Marvel Studios had reached a deal with Sony that allowed Spidey to join the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, I just don't get why either he or Ant-Man really needed to be in the movie. But I will admit, however, that their presence here is still quite welcomed at the very least.

I'm also surprised by just how little the movie's actual villain appears in the movie. The vast majority of the movie's plot is set into motion by Helmut Zemo (played by Daniel Brühl), who is barely in the movie at all. I'd honestly be surprised if the total sum of his screen time surpassed twenty minutes. Did they just not come up with anything for Brühl to do? Did they prefer a villain who was working in the background so as not to distract from the whole "Steve vs. Tony" dynamic? It's probably more the latter than the former, but it still sometimes gives the impression that Zemo is a non-factor. Maybe I'm just used to seeing the villains being put on something even remotely resembling equal footing with the protagonists in these movies as far as screen presence goes, I don't know.

But let's move along to the cast, pretty much all of whom hand in strong performances. It seems like that's par for the course with the MCU, but it's still worth saying. Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman are great as Spider-Man and Black Panther respectively, and I really liked what Elizabeth Olsen brought to the table as Scarlet Witch. I wish she'd been able to do this in a smaller movie more focused on her character rather than playing a secondary role among an ensemble cast, because I'd love to see how Olsen would play Wanda when the spotlight is shining on her alone. Olsen playing Wanda as being scared of her powers accidentally hurting people and being unsure of herself make for a fascinating bit of character study had the character's arc not been one of a whole bunch of different things going on in the movie.

The movie also boasts some great moments from Sebastian Stan and Paul Bettany (who returns as Vision), and the aforementioned Daniel Brühl makes the most of his limited screen time. But the stars of the show are very obviously Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. Both of them once again step up to the plate and knock it out of the park as Captain America and Iron Man. Their performances are exactly whet this movie needed; both characters are justified in their beliefs, and Evans and Downey play their parts in a way that a viewer leaning one way or the other as to whose side they'd chose to be on is totally reasonable.

While I personally think Civil War is the weakest of the Captain America trilogy, it's only because The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier are just that damn good. Civil War is still a very entertaining, very exciting way to spend two and a half hours at the movies. And that's a hell of a lot more than I can say for that absolute mess Zack Snyder and DC Comics made with Batman and Superman.

Final Rating: ***½