Category: Marvel
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Iron Man Three (2013 review)
4 outta 5 The thing with Marvel’s The Avengers was that it was an uber-superhero movie that blew the genre wide open by being 6 superhero flicks. Iron Man 3 is singular but ambitious since this is kind of indie action thriller with flying robot suits. At times the movie’s determination to strip Iron Man…
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Fantastic Four: First Steps
5 outta 5 After three 20th Century Fox movies and one buried Roger Corman film, the 4th version of Marvel’s First Family in Fantastic Four: First Steps absolutely nails it. It is fairly disconnected from the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (despite that teaser at the end of Thunderbolts*) and has its own unique vibe. This…
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Fant4stic (2015 review)
2 outta 5 In the long, long ago of the early 1990s, there was a movie called The Fantastic Four that was made simply so a studio could hang onto the license. Now history repeats itself. The primary reason the most recent Fantastic Four film exists is so another movie studio, 20th Century Fox, can…
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (’07 review)
1 outta 5 When I sat down to watch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, I thought “Okay, Director Tim Story, try and wow me.” This was a cynical response to having suffered through the original Fantastic Four movie. However, shockingly, the opening of this sequel immediately wowed me. The first shot involves a…
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Fantastic Four (2005 review)
2 outta 5 Fantastic Four is a cookie-cutter superhero movie. Insert Origin Plot A, mix liberally with a climatic fight with supervillian Plot B, stir and serve. There’s hardly any superheroing done in the flick until the very end. Nothing is driving the movie, aside from a laundry list of explanations about superpowers, complaints about…
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Thunderbolts*
4 outta 5 Thunderbolts* is a sturdy entry into the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it works surprisingly well as a standalone adventure, which is quite the trick as it’s part of an ongoing saga and a significant chunk of characters here were introduced in Disney Plus exclusive releases. It is also funny and madcap…
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Captain America: Brave New World
4 outta 5 Captain America: Brave New World is the 4th Captain America movie, coming almost 9 years after the superlative Captain America: Civil War, with this one featuring a new character as Cap. The trade was in Avengers: Endgame, when Steve Rogers gave Sam Wilson the shield, so probably everyone knows why Sam is…
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Eternals (2021 review)
3 outta 5 Newly minted best picture writer/director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) is the latest filmmaker to take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Eternals. The MCU has always mashed up different genres with a superhero twist and Eternals turns out to be the MCU’s attempt at a picturesque art-house indie with a lush visual tapestry…
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Captain America: Civil War (2016 review)
5 outta 5 While the superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been causing destruction in the name of freedom for years in Captain America: Civil War consequences are dealt with. It keeps the Captain America series fresh by swapping styles yet again; the First Avenger was a two-fisted World War II epic, Winter Soldier…
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014 review)
4 outta 5 With Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World spinning off from The Avengers, they can’t work without that chunk of the puzzle. While Captain America: The Winter Soldier plays directly with leftover pieces of Avengers via the super-spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. it is actually more of a sequel to Captain America: The…