The Creator (2023)

Having been a fan of Gareth Edwards since seeing 2010’s ‘Monsters’, I was keen to see what he would do in his first film since 2016’s Rogue One. I liked that film a lot more than most people seemed to.  The budget of this film is the story of my review because it cost a reported $80 million dollars and yet it looks like it cost $200million. It looks more expensive than some of the most recent Marvel films and tv shows. There is a similar style to Rogue One which might put some people off but I found it worked in the films’ favour.

Admittedly the plot isn’t the greatest and it did feel like it was buckling under the pressure of justifying the visuals. Normally I would baulk at the phrase style over substance but I think that it’s true for this film. I love this film and think it should be seen by everyone on the biggest screen possible but I would be lying if i said i loved the plot because it doesn't work quite as well as it could have done. I think that John David Washington does a good job as Joshua and through his performance I ended up rooting for his character. I always like Allison Janney in whatever she is in and normally she is playing the goodie but in this movie she is the villain and she is having a lot of fun with it.  

This isn’t the best Gareth Edwards film that there is but i think what is most impressive about it and the reason why people should watch it is that it shows that you don’t have to spend $200 million to make something look spectacular. It shouldn’t come as a surprise as ‘Monsters’ was done on a shoestring budget and looked better than a lot of films out at that time with 10 times the budget. If Edwards could get a story that did his visuals justice then he would easily be one of the best directors around.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

I have been a huge fan of Kenneth Branagh’s version of Poirot since the first film. Murder on the Orient Express is a great film that is stunning to look at (more of that later). Death on the Nile was ok but I think it was hurt by some of the cast being a distraction for different reasons. I was looking forward to this film because it was based on a Agatha Christie story I wasn't aware of and the trailers made it look interesting. It’s also worth pointing out that I saw this at Showcase Cinema’s XPlus screening and I was the only person there. From times to time, seeing a film at the beginning of the day on Saturday does yield this result. I think the last time this happened was when I went to see Babylon.

The set up of the film that it is 1947 and Poirot is now retired but people keep trying to get him back into the investigating game but it is Tina Fey’s Ariadne that convinces him to attend a party where at the end of it a seance is going to occur and Ariadne wants Poirot to either debunk medium  Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) or support her. It’s a this stage that it seems like this is going to be a different type of Poirot story but then Reynolds is killed and then Dr Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dorian) is killed and this is where this film starts to feel like a traditional Poirot movie/story.

There are many things I like about this film. Firstly its a great story that appeared in the trailer to have a supernatural vibe to it and that vibe is in the plot but it is explained away in such a manner that it feels like it doesn't betray the film. Poirot is seeing and hearing things not because he believes in them and has betrayed his regimental way of thinking but it is in fact because he has been drugged. There are multiple mysteries, what happened to the daughter as well as the deaths and the supernatural angle and yet the film deals with them in a good way and everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow by the time the film ends.

The performances are all really good. Kenneth Branagh is great as Poirot and whilst his moustache isn’t as over the top as it was in Orient Express, its still part of his character and Branagh clearly enjoys playing him. Hopefully there will be more films in the future. Tina Fey is rather good as effectively the sidekick although her motives aren’t always the most helpful to Poirot and it feels like she has let Poirot down by the end of the movie. I haven’t seen many Tina Fey performances but this has to be one of the better ones. Jamie Dorian is very good as the mentally broken Ferrier. He has some lovely moments with his son Leo (played by Jude Hill). Michelle Yeoh was clearly the big name of the supporting cast having won her Oscar earlier this year and she was also very good in this but I would have liked her to be in it more. The rest of the supporting cast is very good and there isn’t really a weak performance.

Another thing I liked about this film was how beautiful it looked. Despite it taking place largely at night, the film looks stunning. It looks as stunning as Murder on the Orient Express. I don’t remember Death on the Nile looking stunning and in fact thought it looked a bit cheap but every shot in the film looks stunning. The singular setting is used well because despite largely taking place in the one house, it's so big that it can move into several huge rooms and yet feel like they are isolated. The resolution of the murders was also creative and I thought that the clues dropped into the story were well done and it all added up to make for a satisfying conclusion

After the (ever so slightly) disappointing Death on the Nile, it feels like a return to form for Poirot. There is potential for many more Poirot films with Kenneth Branagh at the helm and he directs these films with a style that might seem striking at first but seems confident and the pace is kept at a steady pace so it never feels like it plodding along and I was never bored. Very much in my top 10 of the year so far. 

The Equalizer 3 (2023)

I’ll admit that I came to the Equalizer films late. They never seemed to appeal to me when the first two came out and no one that I knew or any YouTube channels seemed to be highlighting these films as a must see. I thought I would take a chance with the first one and I quite enjoyed it, the second one was ok but nowhere near as good. The beauty of this third film is that you don’t really need to have seen the first two to understand Denzel Washington’s character of the style of the film. It’s based on the TV series of the same name that aired from 1985 to 1989 and in this film, Robert is in Sicily and after getting shot by a scared kid, he ends up in a picture postcard and takes on the local mafia. 

The plot is straight forward although they introduced a sub plot which seems to me to have been introduced to show people that the film could be more than just a standard shoot em up. The introduction of Dakota Fanning as Emma seemed a bit pointless as she didn’t really do very much and when its revealed that she is the daughter of Sarah from the first two films which I saw coming and I don’t normally see these things coming but you could see it coming a mile away. If you took out Emma then the course of this film would have happened exactly the same way. This film is the 2023 equivalent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

I loved the setting for this film. No real justification to set in in Sicily but I am glad they did every shot of the town was beautiful to look at and at no point during the 1 hour and 45 minute run time was I ever bored or felt like nothing was happening. Antoine Fuqua wasn’t a director I thought very highly of but after these films and the 2016 Magnificent Seven reboot, my opinion of him has changed. He keeps the action going but allows time for the heartfelt moments to take centre stage without them feeling too soppy. 

I think that as good as this series is, it is slightly inferior version of the John Wick films. Those films are fun to watch but don’t take themselves too seriously whereas The Equalizer films have a bit more of a straight face to them. The film has a very thin plot but you watch these films to see Denzel Washington beat up bad people. The film has some really good action scenes and Washington has become the better version of what Liam Neeson’s character in Taken was. The film ends with Robert getting the pension money that a couple were robbed of and were about to leave their home. The film leaves the path open for a fourth Equalizer and hopefully there is another one because Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua are a good double act and as long as the films don’t get too convoluted then people will keep seeing them for years to come although with Washington nearly 69, its hard to see how many more there could be. If there aren’t anymore then this trilogy of movies will belong in any argument about good trilogies. 

The Equalizer 3 is a good film that and should be seen.

Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

I went to see Meg 2 on National Cinema Day here in the UK. Basically all tickets for most if not all films in the cinema on September 2nd would be £3 instead of the usual £11 that I would normally pay. I was going to see The Equalizer 3 but put idea on hold so I could go and see a film that I wanted to see but didn't want to pay £11 to see. I didn't mind wasting £3 on Meg 2.

First of all the screening was quite busy as it seemed that people had the same idea as me. What I did find surprising was that there seemed a lot of kids who were under the 12 age limit for this 12A film. (NOTE: The BBFC say that anyone under the age of 12 can see a 12 certificated film as long as they are accompanied by an adult who thinks they can cope with the subject matter. Or at least that's my understanding of it.) 

There is something quite fun about a film where Jason Statham takes on a giant shark or whatever its suppose to be. I found this film to be far more fun to watch that the first one. The film is stupid but the charm of the film is that it knows that it is stupid and doesn't really try to hide that. There is also something that seems to be have been ripped off from Jurassic World where Chris Pratt's character can communicate with the raptors with a clicker and we get the same sort of thing here but its used more as a way of being part of the finale.

The film isn't perfect (not a shocker I know) but I thought that the villain(s) were not particularly relevant to the plot. The woman who seemed to be masterminding the plan was rather bland, the woman who was working for the base and is revealed to be the traitor was a bit predictable and there wasn't much the actress could do to make her seem interesting and the guy that Jason Statham's character put in jail was the most effective villain but was never treated as anything other than a lackey. The lack of a credible villain hurt the film and I would go so far as to say that it hindered the flow of the film because all we wanted to go and see this film for was seeing Jason Statham do what he does quite well. Act badly and beat people/animals up. There was one moment where I thought that I was over thinking this film and its when they are using the helicopter to escape and it has no fuel and when they fill it up the dial goes from empty to full in no time at all and I found myself saying (in my head) 'HANG ON....THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!! Yes I have become one of those people.

The film was worth the £3 so I am probably being more generous to it than if I had paid £11 but I thought the film was fun. It was directed in a good way with Ben 'In the Earth' Wheatley who manages to somehow elevate the rather B-Movie plot and premise to something that could be enjoyed. Not sure whether there needs to be a third Meg film but I suppose there didn't need to be a second one and here we are.

Blue Beetle (2023)

You know when you come across something and its getting such a kicking that you feel sorry for it? Well that's how I felt about Blue Beetle. The film seems to be getting such a negative reaction that its doomed to fail. I wanted to see this film because I think that the current crop of DC films have been hugely disappointing. 

The film is a more straight forward and traditional superhero movie which is a blessed relief after Marvel seem to have got most people think that they need convoluted and increasing number of plot strands. This has Jamie get given a burger box by Jenny and is told not to open the box but of course the film wouldn't happen and so he opens the box and is given the super powers. It seems like this is how superhero movies use to be but has fallen out of style for some reason. The thing that gets me annoyed is when the family has a go at Jenny for what has happened to Jaime when Jenny told him NOT TO OPEN THE BOX!!!! 

Susan Sarandon is ok in the film. She doesn't quite have the menace that the character needed and came across as a weak villain. I like Sarandon and happy that she is employed but she seemed miscast in this. Bruna Marquezine was hampered by a character that seemed like a spoilt brat that wasn't listened to even though she had good ideas to Jaime's love interest in the second act. It's not Marquezine's fault but more with the fact that the script didn't seem to allow her to be anything else.

The response to the trailer seemed to doom it to its fate. At the end of the trailer the line is uttered "Batman's a fascist". I saw this trailer before The Flash and thought that it may not have been a good idea to have a trailer playing which said that the character in the film we are about to see is a fascist but I was prepared to hold off on judgement until I saw the line in context and in context the line is more comedic than anything else. This is because George Lopez's character is the comic relief for the film and so anything he says apart from the heartfelt moments are not to be taken too seriously so the 'Batman is a fascist' line is something that could be taken as a joke at the very least. The director didn't seem to help himself when it seemed like he was overjoyed when people were getting cross with that line.

 
George Lopez was for most of the film the best thing about the family but then Nana came into the story in a way I did not see coming. At first I wondered what the point of the character was as Rudy seemed to be playing the comic relief quite well and Nana was just there in the background of a scene like a lamp or a plotted plant but when the story kicks into top gear she is revealed to be this kick ass former soldier who knows how to handle the weapon and I loved the film from this moment on. I thought that Xolo Maridueña was good as the lead and if there were to have been more Blue Beetle films then I could see the character become stronger and more confident but in this 'first' film he doesn't quite have those character traits that a superhero character needs.
Blue Beetle is fine. It's not terrible and its not great. It seems a waste of time to get worked up about a film that probably wont have any impact on James Gunn's DCU plans. It works on its own terms and is the most enjoyable/best DCU film of 2023 which isn't the compliment that I wish it would be.

Oppenheimer (2023)

I have been looking forward to this film for over a year. Ever since I heard about it I knew I wanted to see it and my main worry going into the screening was similar to the worry I had when I went to see 'Last Night in Soho' was whether it would live up to my expectations. Like 'Last Night in Soho' I am relieved to say that those worries were unfounded. Oppenheimer is a brilliant film and probably my favourite Nolan film since 'Insomnia' (I have to state that I haven't seem 'Memento'). 

The film follows Oppenheimer (played superbly by Cillian Murphy) as he helps create the atomic bomb but in a way the film is actually about the complexities of Oppenheimer. How his relationship with women wasnt normal and how he was basically picked on by the U.S government because he may have been a communist even though the film shows that he may have liked the ideas of the communist party he wasnt a member of the party even though everyone around him seems to have been. Even after the bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film focuses its attention on the security briefing hearings and how the U.S. government were trying their best to screw Oppenheimer and there is a mystery at the beginning of the film about what Oppenheimer and Einstein said to each other which we dont hear and its finally revealed at the end and in the hands of a lesser director it would have been an anti-climax but with Nolan, it becomes a lovely moment and worth the nearly 2 and a half hour wait.

Cillian Murphy is excellent as Oppenheimer and even though he is always good in whatever he is in he is on another level here. Robert Downey Jr almost steels the show for me as he is so horrible to Oppenheimer and deceptive that he makes you forget he was ever Iron Man. Emily Blunt is very good as Kitty in a role which is really tough to deliver convincingly because Kitty was a very complex person and Florence Pugh does well with her brief role as Jean Tatlock.

The film has the highest number of big names in one place since Avengers Endgame (probably more). There is Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Josh Hartnett, Matt Damon, Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, James Remar & Gary Oldman and all of them are very good. Matt Damon was according to IMDB trivia, on a break from acting as a promise to his wife and the only condition for this break was that he could return to acting if Christopher Nolan came calling which he obviously did and its a great performance from Damon. His best probably since the Jason Bourne films.

Nolan deserves a lot of praise for this film. I was really disappointed with Tenet because I felt like it was Nolan being way too smart for his own good. Inception was a smart film but Tenet made that film feel like it was for dummies. This is a massive return to form. I thought that at 3 hours it was going to drag but it never did. I was NEVER bored at any point and 90 minutes films have felt longer than Oppenheimer. This is because Nolan always ensures something interesting is happening. He has written a screenplay which has lot of science in it but makes it clear enough so everyone can understand it (to a point). He also has all these big names and gives them enough material to shine and show what they can do. 

Oppenheimer is currently my favourite film of the year. Its the first 5 star film since 'The Banshees of Inisherin' and if this isn't my film of the year by the time we go into 2024 then I am really looking forward to what is yet to come. There is a great documentary called 'To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb' (https://boxd.it/HqSy) which is an excellent companion piece to this movie and shows how good the attention to detail was in 'Oppenheimer'

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023)

The first Mission: Impossible film in 5 years starts off a two part adventure which sees Ethan Hunt (and team) try and get a key to destroy an AI force known as 'The Entity'. This first part is basically going to try and get the two parts of the key and that is essentially the single plot of the movie which I don't mind because it keeps things simple and allows the action to take centre stage and that's why we pay to see these films. 

Like other MI films, this film has settings all over the world and makes the story feel a lot more epic and important. The chase scene in Rome was very much (as all the action scenes are) but I was reminded of the chase in Indiana Jones 5 and how tame and dare I say it....dull it seems in comparison to this. All the action scenes are very well done and even the exposition scenes in between were done in such a way that were entertaining. 

Tom Cruise is the king of these films and possibly even the action genre. He might be in his 60's but he still has the energy of someone half his age. All the supporting cast were great and there wasn't a weak link in the chain. Hayley Atwell & Pom Klementieff seem to have moved away from the MCU effectively as Grace and Paris respectively and I thought that Klementieff played a role similar to Dave Bautista played in Skyfall and just as well in my opinion. If I had an issue with the film is that it is slightly too long. It loses a bit of pacing just before we get to the Orient Express but if they had cut 10-15 minutes out of it then I would have rated this a bit higher. It's 163 minutes and to say that it could only lose 10-15 minutes and be better shows how good the rest of the film is.

I enjoyed the film very much and looking forward to the second part.

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Let’s be honest, the Insidious series isn’t the greatest in movie history. The first one was ok, the second was not great and I don’t even remember the third one with the fourth one being interesting but only because it featured Lin Shayne in the lead role. This one returns to the main family with Patrick Wilson taking the helm behind the camera. The set up is that Dalton is off to college but his suppressed memories start to come back and his relationship with his dad Josh (Wilson) is somewhat strained.

The first half of the film is very boring. There was very little in the way of plot and it seemed like people moping around and Dalton being a dick to his dad and his dad not really sure what he should be doing. Once the plot does get going things get good but it takes a long time to get to this stage and not even jump scares make any difference. There is one jump scare that I thought was quite good and it was when Dalton was in the MRI scanner and the monster climbs towards him. 

It’s not the worst film in the series but it’s not the best. The first half really lets the film down because if I was reviewing the second half then this would be a pretty decent horror film but sadly he lack of action, the lack of any energy from the film or actors does the film no favours. I thought that Patrick Wilson does a good job in the directors chair but I think that the script lets him down. Ty Simpkins is the real star oft the film but doesn’t come across very well to begin with as he is horrible to pretty much everyone but does mellow out. 

The film does feature Rose Byrne at the beginning and at the end and she’s fine in that but to be honest I don’t think her limited involvement in the story was because of her availability but because there was little enough for Patrick Wilson to do that it would have been just as big a waste of Byrne if she were more involved in the film. 

I have a feeling that this film is not going to be the last in the series because like most Blum films they are cheap to make and will make way more than their budget back. I hope in the next instalment there is more thought put into the plot. 

On a side note, when I went to the cinema I had never seen so many people get up and down than during this screening. It was lunchtime on a Saturday so there was a decent number in the screening and yet people were getting up and down showing that people weren’t that engaged in the story. 

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

It’s been about 12 years since i saw my last Transformers movie. I saw the first in 2007 and enjoyed it, the second one was such a depressing experience that I went home and watched the animated 1986 movie to remind myself what a good  Transformers movie was like, I watched the next one but gave up on the series because it became clear that Michael Bay was a hack director who was ruining the series. So because I knew Unicron was the baddie in this film, I thought that I would give the series another go.

The first thing I noticed about this film was that the plot was much better than the Michael Bay films. There was a bit too much establishing how tough things were for Noah and his family but I understand that they have to set the character up so that we cared but I personally could have done without that. Noah is a good character who is played well by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback is always good and whilst this isnt the best performance she has given, I thought she was very good in this. There was a nice balance and dynamic between the two characters and they worked well together.

Inevitably the film has to be about robots hitting each other and it is done way better than in the Michael Bay films because you can actually see what is going on and as a result can get emotionally connected with it. Unicron is very well realised and his size means it cant get involved in the plot as much as most baddies could so the film comes up with Scourge who is an effective second villain.

The film is directed by Steven Caple Jr who directed the weakest in the Creed series (2) does a very good job of keeping things moving and interesting. In the hands of a lesser director, this would have been a mess but because of the care that Caple Jr put into the movie, I found myself caring about the humans and the robots and was able to follow what was going on. 

I very much enjoyed Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. This series is never going to be breaking into anyone’s Top 5 but i thought it did what it needed to and it did it very well and restored my faith in the series. Very much looking forward to 

Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indiana Jones is a series that is much loved. Personally I think that Last Crusade is the best one of the original trilogy but i could accept peoples argument for the others being their favourite. The film sees Indy travelling with his god-daughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and get two pieces of a dial which Mads Mikkelsen’s Dr Juergen Voller is trying to get so he can go back in time to change the outcome of the Second World War.

Harrison Ford is as good as ever as Indy although the de-aging was slightly off pointing. It’s not that he didn’t look like 1980’s Indy but he didn't sound like 1980’s Indy so there was a mish-mash of two Indy’s which at first was off putting.

The main problem with the film is that Helena Shaw is clearing being set up as the new lead but she is so unlikeable that no one would really care about her. She actually admits that she is only looking for the dial because she wants the fame. This is what they want their strong female lead’s motivation to be. Her lack of connection is not helped by the fact that Phoebe Waller-Bridge is just terrible as Helena. I haven’t seen Fleabag but either she messed up what the character was suppose to be or the screenplay did but something went wrong because you need the character to be likeable to a certain extent and its well in the second hour of the film before she becomes more likeable but by that point no one really cares.

The less said about how stupid the time travel portion of the film, the better. I never thought that they could come up with a worse idea than aliens in a Indy film, but they managed it with this film and it was as this point the film went off the rails for me. Up until this point, the film at least (despite its flaws) came across as an Indy film but then it was like the writers threw their hands up in the air and admitted they didnt know what to do with the plot. That is where $300 million can get you. Remember that this film cost $300 million dollars ($350 million depending on other reports).

I like James Mangold as a director but to be honest can’t see what he was able to bring to the picture. Logan was a brilliant movie and arguably one of the best featuring a Marvel character but this was a massive disappointment and it’s a shame that it turned out the way it did. Dial of Destiny is not as bad as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but that was an easy bar to clear. But there is no way on earth that anyone involved in this film can say with their hand of their heart that this is the way that they wanted Indiana Jones to end. It’s clear that they were trying to make Helena Shaw the new Indy but this was such a bad attempt to spawn a spin-off that I doubt we will be seeing Helena in any films anytime soon. This film exists purely because….. I don’t actually know what. It has been 15 years since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and no one was really itching to see an 81 Indiana Jones hobbling around and there didnt really seem to be much enthusiasm for this film other than the desire to bring out a recognisable franchise back to help Disney line their pockets because everything else seems to be failing (mainly at Marvel).

Goodbye Indy, at least we will have the trilogy to remember you by.

Rating - 3.5/5

Asteroid City (2023)

Wes Anderson is one of those directors who knows what sort of film you are going to get before you even see it. He has a style that is unmistakable and I think having a style is something that we don’t see enough of in today’s movie world. 

I love the way the film looks, I love the way the camera moves and the colours that were used in this film were beautiful. I wanted to spend time in this world and it's been a while since I have been able to say that. The plot isn’t anything flashy but it doesnt need to be and it works for this film. I think that Anderson’s quirky style can be a bit off-putting for a lot of people but I think when it works like it does in ‘The Grand Budapest hotel’ then the time flies and it's one of the most beautiful looking films i have seen. 

It would not be a good review without talking about the performances and they are really good. Jason Schwartzman is very good as Augie but I found Scarlett Johansson to be very good as Midge. She has shown in films like this and ‘Jojo Rabbit’ that she is more than Black Widow and can act really well. There are way too many big names to include in this review and for the fact that you probably want to get on with your life then i will limit it to Tom Hanks as Stanley Zak, Tilda Swindon as Dr. Hickenlooper, Bryan Cranston as The Host and Edward Norton as Conrad Earp. Each one of these gives a performance which shows how good they can be when the material and the style of the film allows them to. I always like watching Bryan Cranston and despite the perhaps limited character, he makes his short (ish) screen time count.

Asteroid City is a very good movie and one that should be seen. I was slightly disappointed with ‘The French Dispatch’ but this was a return to form. Is it as good as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’? I’m not sure. I think plot wise then Hotel is the better film but in terms of visuals this is by far his best film.

The Flash (2023)

Now I suspect that I am going to be in the minority on this one and say that I enjoyed this film. Ok it's not perfect by any means but I think that this film turned out to be a lot better than it really should have been. The troubles of Ezra Miller almost meant that we weren’t going to see this film and perhaps most people wish we hadn’t.

The film was sold to me on Michael Keaton returning as Batman. I always have a soft spot for Keaton’s Batman films. It was a shame we didn’t get more of his Batman in films but its nice to see the Keaton renaissance continue. The only issue I had with Keaton’s involvement in the film is that he has to do a lot of action scenes and at 72 it did stretch believability that he was able to beat up people half his age. I know its a superhero film but stretching logic can only be done so much.

I think that the biggest issue with the film is how bad the special effects look. The opening part features CGI babies being put into microwaves and just trying to not fall to their deaths and they look so bad. Sadly that wasn't the last we would see bad CGI in this film as the matrix world or whatever it was looked cheap and naff. I can’t believe that someone looked at that and thought it was good enough to  be released. By the way I am not blaming the special effects or visual effects workers because they were probably given little time to make it look acceptable. 

The scene where we see multiple Superman’s and Batmans were quite good and I liked the inclusion of Nicholas Cage’s version as we never got to see that. I thought it was a nice little nod to what could have been. I know some people might not have been impressed with the visuals in this bit but i thought it was one of the few times when it looked good. The inclusion of George Clooney at the end was head scratching. He is probably the worst Batman/Bruce Wayne so to have him appear just goes to show how low the character went at one point in time. 

The Flash is better than it should have been and the fact it wasn't a dumpster fire is impressive. I don’t think that Ezra Miller deserves the credit for that and think that Andy Muschietti managed to native the potential disasters of trying to cram too much into the story rather well. It’s unlikely that we are going to get anymore Flash movies for the foreseeable future although it was always going to be tough to make a Flash movie work.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 (2023)

It’s been a difficult few years for Marvel. They used to be able to put out hit after hit despite the plot not being the best. But we live in a post Endgame world and I could count on one hand how many Marvel films I have enjoyed. 2 - This and Shang-Chi and that wasn't the best film ever. This film has been delayed because James Gunn got fire and because of him making Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, this film has come out six years after Volume Two. 

It does feel like there is an end of an era feel to it which must have freaked Marvel out because GOTG is one of the few reliable hits they have and now it feels like this has come to the end of its lifespan. It did feel at times like they were trying to kill time until they could get to the meat of the story. Thankfully the characters are so well written and well acted that they can keep you entertained until the main plot picks up again.

It’s rare that I am impressed with camerawork in a Marvel film because it's usually soulless at worst and mediocre at best. Marvel don’t hire directors who can implement their vision and instead rely on directors that can film scene A and then go on and film scene B. Occasionally someone with the style that James Gunn has means we get some good shots and the big shootout was don’t with an energy that should keep the tik-tok generation engaged and yet allows us to see what is happening. It’s a great scene. 

I do hope they don’t do anymore with these actors because it would badly undo all the good work and goodwill that has gone into Volume 3. I think that since the first one came out in 2014, Marvel and everyone else has tried to replicate what has made these three films work and they have failed. The main reason is James Gunn who knows how to have a good plot, funny characters that can do the emotional stuff when needed and use a killer soundtrack. Honestly it's just James Gunn and Edgar Wright that can put out a great soundtrack.