Into the Longbox

And then there was Black Adam. Let's end the comic book movie season with THIS movie. Look, you'll probably hear how the Rock produced, pushed for this film, blah blah blah. It's a passion project, blah blah blah. Sometimes that passion blinds people to what the end product is. This movie is not good. It's a movie, sure. I wouldn't say it's good.  At this point, you know what you get with the Rock and his acting. Somehow he seems to have less of the charisma here. He wants to be a guy that is so bad ass, he doesn't talk much, but he punches stuff a lot. And flies everywhere. And lift things. You know what, I see why the Rock wanted this movie. He wanted to look cool. Indulge me for a few minutes while I make a wrestling analogy to describe what I was thinking as I watched this movie. It's very apropos here. Black Adam is this new "hero" on the scene and he wants to get over with the crowd. So he is shown handling people with ease and is built u...

This image is as dumb as the movie itself I'm not going to bury the lead here. This movie is extraordinarily stupid. It should not exist. For those not in the know, Sony has the rights to a number of Spider-Man characters, but share actual Spider-Man with Disney right now. So in an effort to keep the rights, they pump out Spider-Man adjacent nonsense like the Venom movies or THIS movie right here. A movie absolutely no one asked for. Morbius is a C list Spider-Man villain on his BEST day. A sign that Sony should have moved on. Yet, here we are. I'm sure the egotistical Jared Leto thought he could somehow elevate this property. He is sorely mistaken.  Part of my main problem with this movie is they take a stupid comic book concept and try to play it straight like it is believable. A guy is like, "Imma go get bit by a bunch of vampire bats cause science blah blah something something" and they just roll with it. Then he gets powers but is like a vampire, but not. The bat...

Hi there. It's that friend you have that is in to comics. I know this blog should talk more comic stuff, but there's SO MANY SHOWS based on comics, my focus has shifted a little. So the topic of this post is that Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special that popped up on Disney+ a week ago. What I am going to say is independent of this review, but I gotta say it. I don't love the exponential increase in Marvel content Disney has been pushing out. This is going to accelerate people's super hero burnout. We have long ago reached a oversaturation point. Have they been good? Mostly, yeah, but they have not paced themselves. By the time they get to the bottom of the vast list of characters, no one is going to care anymore. Sorry. This special. James Gunn has been hit or miss for me. I loved Guardians of the Galaxy and Peacemaker. I hated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and The Suicide Squad. What did I think of this? I think it falls in the middle. It was fun and I liked it a l...

I'm going to save my usual pre-amble nonsense and just jump into my review of the movie while it's fresh in my mind. Did I love the movie? Yes! Was it better than the first one? Well, no, but that's not a bad thing. It's different. I would give it a 9/10 if we want to put numbers on things. That first movie was fueled by the unmistakable charisma of the late Chadwick Boseman. We are at a unique moment right now. I've never recalled an actor being so closely tied to a character that his actual death was tied into a movie that felt like a loving eulogy. Chadwick Boseman is clearly missed and this movie does not shy away from it. There is such a palpable sadness in the beginning of this movie that is really a gut punch. There is a long moment of silence for when the Marvel logo pops up and I want you to pay attention to it because it is different.  Let this be a warning to you, there is a lot of emotional, gut punches in this movie. Did I cry a bit? I would be lying if...

Y'all know I'm a die hard Black Panther fan. I own almost 90% of his solo stuff that's ever been released. I've read some great stories and some not so great stories. Through it all, I never felt the way I do now. A few months ago I shared my thoughts on the first issue of this new run. Has it gotten better? No. Instead of giving this blanket statement, let me share my reasons why. Over the past year or two, they've transformed Wakanda into a democracy. A modern take on an old comic book mythos is okay. I don't mind this. I've been reading comics for a while and something is going to happen where this is going to revert back. It's just the nature of the beast, so I don't sweat changes like this. Where I have a problem is with the writing. I get that Marvel wants synergy between the comics and the movies. Black Panther was a C List character at best about fifteen years ago. Now he's become more prominent and is among the A-Listers. To try and bui...

I put season one, because there is no way this doesn't get a second season. It is more than deserving. Oh, hello. Welcome to my review of the recently finished She-Hulk series on Disney+. Another in an exponentially growing list of Marvel properties getting TV shows. The money train left the station a long time ago and it seems just about any and everything is getting green-lit. Fortunately, they have all mostly been successful in one way or another. I think this show falls in the success category. I will put this out here. I'm a little biased. I've been reading every iteration of She-Hulk for almost the last twenty years. She does the fourth wall breaking that Deadpool does, but less annoying. Correction, Deadpool does the fourth wall breaking SHE does. It's just his property got released into the public first. Anyways, I was excited for this show when I heard it was happening. I was even more excited when I heard that the talented Tatiana Maslany was cast as the titul...

Sneaky Marvel. This just snuck out to Disney+ with little fanfare, but what a nice surprise it was. I remember seeing a trailer for this a while back and then instantly forgot about it. Being as we're in Halloween season, it's perfect timing. Let me get right to it. This is the Marvel short we didn't know we needed. It was a lot of fun. It harkens back to the old days of monster films. It's in black and white for the most part, with pops of color here and there to accentuate things. There's the cigarettes burns in the top right corner of the screen as if it was on a projector. The way some of the shots are framed and just the general vibe of it had an old monster feel. However, the action and special effects were not. There was some great hand to hand action mixed in here and that kind of stuff is my bread and butter. There were legitimate moments that made me go, "Oh SHIT", which is the space I like to be in when I see some cool martial arts moves come ou...