Werewolf by Night (2022)

 

Monsters stalk the shadows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Hunters stalk those monsters.

For years, the leader of these Hunters has been Ulysses Bloodstone, but with his death, the position is now open.  Five experienced monster hunters, including a man named Jack Russell, are summoned by Ulysses' widow, Verussa, to Bloodstone Manor. There, they are instructed to participate in a competitive hunt to determine their new leader, who will wield the powerful Bloodstone. Gate-crashing this competition is Ulysses' estranged daughter Elsa, who - despite Verussa's clear hostility - also demands the right to compete for the Bloodstone.

The hunt begins in a large maze on the grounds of the manor, with a captured monster that has been implanted with the Bloodstone as the hunters' quarry.  Kill the creature, retrieve the Bloodstone, become the boss.

It all seems very straightforward, except that not everyone at the hunt is there for the reasons they pretend ...

This Marvel special presentation is a one-hour one-shot that draws a lot of inspiration from - and includes a lot of references toward - the Universal Films monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s.  As an aging, long time film geek, I enjoyed and appreciated these elements.  I do wonder how of it they will translate for a younger, more casual audience.  While I think that Werewolf by Night is entertaining on its own merits, I do wonder if people will be confused by some design choices when they don't have the context of those (now nearly 90-year old!) films.

The most obvious design choice coming from this inspiration is that the show is filmed almost entirely in black and white.  I think it's a good choice.  It looks great overall, with lots of excellent shadow work.  It also allows the show to really highlight the Bloodstone, which is left a bright ruby red and thus really stands out in the footage.  It also allows the final coda of the film to be in colour, providing a nice contrast to the gloomy proceedings that preceded it.

It turns out that Werewolf by Night is as much Elsa Bloodstone's story as it is that of the titular character. Elsa is played by Laura Donnelly, who was one of the two best things about Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (Ed Speelers was the other, thanks to actually having a character arc to work with).  I hope we will see more of her in the wider MCU - possibly in the upcoming Blade movie?  I certainly don't intend to take anything away from the rest of the cast in this, though - everyone does a good job.

Overall, this is a howling good time.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

 

The Lego world finds itself under threat from bizarre invaders from another realm.  These attacks leave great devastation, and the realm of Brickburg has become "Apocalypseburg", a ruinous, devastated wasteland populated by grim, hard-bitten survivors.

Well, by grim, hard-bitten survivors and Emmet, who somehow still manages to stay upbeat.  Possibly because he hasn't quite grasped the seriousness of the situation.  Certainly, that's everyone else's perception.

Even Emmett's positivity will be tested, however, when the invader General Sweet Mayhem kidnaps all of Emmet's friends, including his love interest Lucy, and takes them to the shape-shifting empress of the "Systar System", Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi.

Emmett sets out in pursuit, but is knocked off course and nearly killed.  Only the last-minute intervention of the rugged adventurer Rex Dangervest saves his life.  The duo team up, determined to thwart whatever evil plan the Queen is hatching.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Lego Movie.  I thought it was a very clever, and a huge amount of fun.  This sequel is ... okay.  I didn't dislike it, but it didn't quite hit the same heights, for me.  While it did feature plenty of clever jokes and exciting adventures, there are a couple of flaws that detracted from it, for me.

One of these is that the setting of this film is much less grounded in Lego itself.  I loved the original film's use of both Lego's infinite capacity for reconfiguration, and its fundamental abstractions from reality, to create the literal 'building blocks' of Bricksburg and its inhabitants' lives.  This second film uses lot of other kinds of toys as well, all of which are significantly less versatile.  As a setting, this melange is technically more varied, but to my mind less interesting.

This film also includes many more 'real world' elements and footage included here than the first film; we're regularly reminded that the characters are experiencing the 'in fiction' version of real world events.  I'm not a huge fan of this.  It's a risky thing to remind the audience that what they are seeing is not real, and I really don't think I have ever seen it pay off.  Reminding the audience 'this is all toys' does tie in to certain specific plot elements later, but it also underlines that certain other plot-points make no sense if the Lego world is not real.  You can't have it both ways, movie.

Ultimately, I thought this was decent, but I did not like it anywhere near as much as the first.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

 

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Walters just wants to focus on her legal career and isn't really interested in becoming a superhero. But when your cousin is The Incredible Hulk, you don't always get a choice in these things.  In this case, accidental exposure to her cousin's blood leaves Jen with her own case of a burly, super-strong, green-skinned alter ego.

On the plus side, Jen doesn't have anywhere near the anger management issues of her cousin.  Life as a woman has taught her a lot about controlling her negative emotions.  So she figures she can just continue living her life as she has been.

That works about as well as you might expect.  A superpowered influencer named Titania attempts to trash Jen's courtroom in a big to escape her own trial. One 'Hulk out' moment later, the escape attempt is over; but so is Jen's case and her career as a public prosecutor.

Jen finds her only job offer is from the firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, which specialises in cases involving superhumans.  And they want 'the She-Hulk', not Jennifer Walters.  Oh, and her first case is to try and win parole for her cousin's former adversary, The Abomination.

Things can't get worse from here, right?  Well, unfortunately for Jen, this is the 21st Century, and there are always to tear down and humiliate powerful, successful women.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law blends elements of two different runs of Marvel's She-Hulk comic.  One is the series where she was a lawyer who happened to have super-powers.  The other is the series where she knew she was in a comic book and would often break the fourth wall to talk to the writer or the audience.  The show similarly has Jen pause the on-screen action to directly speak to the audience.

Acknowledging the audience can be a risky technique to employ.  It's not uncommon for people to find that it jars them out of their suspension of disbelief, for instance.  And some people find it reduces their emotional connection because the characters are acknowledging that it is 'fake'.  Still, there are plenty of cases where it has worked, often in comedies; which She-Hulk definitely is.

Directly addressing male privilege and toxic masculinity are also risky things to do; if you mock man-babies, they will react badly.  And indeed, they predictably lost their minds about this show and tried to review bomb it.  Thereby rather proving the show's point, if you ask me.

Overall, I thought there was a lot to like about She-Hulk.  Tatiana Maslany is predictable excellent in the lead role, demonstrating once more her exceptional range and adaptability.  She is ably supported by the rest of the cast, as well.

I also liked that the show makes clear that Jen wants to be accepted and respected for her purely human abilities, such as her intelligence and hard work, and not just for the super-powers that have been dumped into her lap.

There were a lot of complaints about the visual effects, particularly She-Hulk herself.  In my opinion, these are overstated, and probably at least in part stem from the above-mentioned man-baby review bombing: complaining about special effects rather than the "toxic masculinity is a problem" themes gives plausible deniability about why the review bombing is happening.

Do I have any complaints?  Just one, really.  The show's finale ties heavily into the 'breaking the fourth wall' aspect of the series, and it certainly went in a direction I did not expect. I can't say that I liked it very much, honestly, and I was not alone in this. I thought it was an unsatisfying way to resolve things.

On the other hand, I know some people really did like - it is definitely a controversial choice that has provoked a lot of interesting discussion - so you may really enjoy it.

Even though I didn't much care for the final episode, I enjoyed the show overall am I glad I watched it.  I would certainly give a second series a shot.

The Princess (2022)

 

The unnamed Princess of an unnamed kingdom awakens to find herself locked in the top of her castle's highest tower, there to await a forced wedding with the nobleman Julius.  Since the laws of the land say that a woman cannot inherit the throne, and the king has no sons, this marriage would make Julius the heir to the throne.

With the castle in their hands, Julius and his mercenaries do not expect any further trouble, but they are about to find out why the Princess always made her father so exasperated: despite his objections, she has studied martial arts for most of her life.  

The Princess kills the two mercenaries sent to guard her, then begins to make her way down the tower, using her lethal martial arts skills and knowledge of the castle's secret passageways to kill or avoid the mercenaries that are searching for her.

But the numbers of those mercenaries steadily grow, and the Princess can't get out of every single scrape unharmed.  Can one young woman, no matter how skilful, prevail against such odds?

The Princess begins in media res, using flashbacks to explain how the title character came to be imprisoned as well as how she learned her deadly skills.  This is a smart play since it lets the movie immediately leap into the first of its many action sequences.  The film thus hits the ground at pace, dragging the audience along for a theme park style ride of ever escalating action hijinks.

And I have to say, the film's action choreography team deserve kudos for the work they have done here.  The Princess has many fight and stunt sequences throughout its length, and in lazy hands those scenes could easily have become tediously repetitious.  Fortunately, the choreography team have done an excellent job of keeping them varied and interesting.  They have ensured that the Princess faces many different situations and many different enemies, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and complications, which helps keep the action fresh and distinctive.

The film's script also uses occasional moments of humour - often but not only slapstick or mild farce - to leaven the action and give the film a bit of variety.  This is a smart decision, because even with the creative choreography, the film does maybe start to run a little out of steam in its latter stages.  I think this is because it is so high octane, right from the start, that it struggles to find a real 'gear change'.  That limits its ability to create a sense of escalating danger.

The most obvious example of this failing comes in the death of one of Julius's primary agents.  This character was lots of fun and got built up really well - they are, in fact, rather more interesting and engaging than Julius himself - but their ultimate defeat doesn't feel all that much more difficult or special than that of many of the other villains.

That lack of escalating stakes aside, The Princess is a fun action romp.  I certainly don't regret having seen it.

Ms Marvel (2022)

 

Kamala Khan is a 16-year-old Pakistani-American high school student from Jersey City. Kamals's an aspiring artist, avid gamer, and devout Avengers fan - particularly Captain Marvel. She's also living with the challenges of being brown and Muslim in the modern day United States.

While Kamala does have a circle of friends - Muslim and non-Muslim alike - she's very much on the fringes of mainstream society, a situation she dreams of changing by nailing it with the best Captain Marvel cosplay anyone's ever seen.

What she actually gets instead is unexpected super-powers, which seem to stem (or perhaps, have been triggered) by a golden bangle that used to belong to her grandmother.

As Kamala struggles to adjust to her new abilities, and use them for good, her accidents and fledging efforts to be a hero attract attention from multiple parties, including the US Department of Damage Control, and inter-dimensional beings known as the Clandestine.  Who of these are friends and who are enemies?  Kamala might lose her freedom or her life if she gets the answer wrong.

Ms. Marvel is a thoroughly enjoyable superhero coming-of-age, outsider to champion style tale.  It's anchored by an excellent cast; Iman Vellani brings real charm and pathos to the central role of Kamala, and she's ably supported by the talented group of actors who play her friends and family.  I hope we get to see them feature in the upcoming film The Marvels as I think there's a lot of fun possibilities in seeing these characters interact with the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I also liked that the show draws a lot of its back-story and development from the 1947 Partition of India.  It's good to see a Disney show draw on an event from non-US/European history.  It was a traumatic and dangerous time - up to 2 million people may have died - that's largely unknown or forgotten in the west, but which continues to have profound implications in Asian politics.  It was also good to see the characters spend time in Pakistan (at least, in the fiction; in the real world, these scenes appear to have actually been filled in Thailand and in Atlanta).

If I was forced to find fault with the show, I would probably call out that it tries to pack an awful lot of story into only six episodes.  The Clandestine plotline moves very fast as a result, and feels a bit rushed at times.  Some secondary characters also end up not being given as much time as I would have liked to see spent with them.  Another couple of episodes would, I think, have given the show more time to breathe.  

I certainly wouldn't have objected to spending more time with Kamala and Co., and if the worst thing I can say about a program is that I wanted more, it's safe to say that it's one I enjoyed!

Avalon High (2010)

 

When Allie Pennington enrols at Avalon High, she expects her school experience to be much as it always is.  A six or twelve month pitstop while her parents, both scholars of medieval literature, work out a contract at a local university and then move on.

Allie's expectations are wrong for two reasons.  First, because her parents have decided it is time to spend a few years in one place, so their daughter can have a stable preparation for college.  And second; because Avalon High is steeped in Arthurian lore and some of the student body seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to figures from Camelot.

Could an ancient prophecy really be pointing to her dreamy classmate Will as the reincarnation of King Arthur himself?  And could his rebellious step-brother equally be the evil Mordred?  It seems crazy, but all the pieces seem to fit.  The only question seems to be, can Allie save this reincarnation of the Round Table from the fate that befell the original?

Avalon High is based on the Meg Cabot novel of the same name.  I've read the book, and much as with the Maze Runner movie, this is one of those relatively rare cases where the film is a significant improvement on the book.  Cabot's novel has literally no twists or surprises; it's just A-B-C-D, following the most obvious for the plot.

This is not to say that the plot of the movie isn't frequently obvious; the script doesn't just sign-post upcoming developments, it puts them on floodlit billboards surrounded by blinking lights.  But it picks a more interesting set of revelations to unfold, and at least pretends that other outcomes are possible.  If nothing else, that allows the audience to feel smart if they guess what's coming.  Whereas the book tells you "this is what is going to happen" ... and then just has it happen.

The movie is definitely helped by a likeable young cast.  They gamely take on the sometimes unsubtle dialogue and chintzy costuming of the film, and generally make a good fist of it.  It's no surprise to me that they've largely gone on to enjoy solidly successful careers in film & TV.

Ultimately, Avalon High is not a particularly innovative or deep piece of film-making, but it is capably executed, breezy fun that tidily ticks off the beats of its plot.  Harmless family adventure with a few chuckles along the way.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

 

Ten years after the destruction of the Jedi and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi is in hiding on the desert planet of Tatooine, where he watches over the young Luke Skywalker.

Kenobi's mission requires him to keep his head down and avoid drawing any Imperial attention.  The Empire's Jedi-hunting Inquisitors are ruthless and effective, and respond to even the faintest hint of Jedi activity.

Despite many temptations to take a stand against injustice, Kenobi refuses to abandon his charge.  Nothing is important enough to abandon Luke.  Or so he thinks.

But then word comes that the young Princess Leia Organa has been kidnapped, and - as you almost certainly already know, unless you've lived under a rock for the last four decades - Leia is every bit as important as Luke.  It seems that Kenobi will have to buckle on his light sabre for one more mission, after all.

Obi-Wan Kenobi never quite managed to make me forget that the fates of many of these characters have been thoroughly defined over the past four decades, but it is honestly about as good and exciting an adventure as it can be, given the canonical narrative straight-jacket within which it must work.  While the futures of major Star Wars characters like Obi-Wan, Leia and Darth Vader are already established, the show wisely looks to introduce new characters about whose lives and fates real tension can be established.  It also does a surprisingly deft job of allowing Kenobi to have a planet-hopping adventure that could reasonably have gone unmentioned before now.  Smart scripting work, overall, even if it can't entirely take eliminate the weaknesses from being a 'flashback' story.

The show also profits from strong central performance.  Ewan McGregor is predictably excellent as Obi-Wan, very much channelling that Alec Guinness vibe for the role; but he is well-matched by the precocious Vivien Lyra Blair as young Leia.  She's an excellent choice, believably a younger, spirited-but-still-naïve version of the character as played by Carrie Fisher.

On the villainous side, Moses Ingram does good work in the role of the Jedi-hunting 'Third Sister', slowly revealing a more complex character than her brash aggression initially suggests.  Regrettably, Ingram suffered a lot of racial abuse and death threats online over the role, which were completely unjustified and hateful, and regrettably show how many people still want Star Wars (and for that matter, other media) to go back to just being all white dudes.

Another thing I enjoyed was the show's choice to depict Owen and Beru as much more than just the querulous aunt and uncle of A New Hope. It's a nice acknowledgement that, with all that was ultimately revealed in the films, they had to be very brave to take him in.  Of course, when the original film came out, little of that context was there!  It's good to see the writers recognising that it makes sense to change their characterisation, given the way the franchise has developed since then.

On the subject of the franchise's development, I do hope to see less trading on nostalgia in the future, with Star Wars. For one thing, there's really only so much space between the lines to fill in this earlier material.  For another, a franchise that is constantly feeding on its own history like this is not growing or evolving, and will ultimately become stale.

Until then, though, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a solid show, and well worth your time if you are a Star Wars fan.  Just don't be a Star Wars fan who is also a racist dirtbag, please.

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

 

Audrey Stockman spends her birthday upset after being abruptly dumped by her boyfriend Drew.  What may be most galling of all is that only her BFF Morgan seems suitably upset on her behalf.

There's more to Drew's sudden break-up than Audrey knows, however, as she learns when she is abducted by two mysterious men.  They inform her that Drew was actually a CIA agent, and has gone missing.  They ask her to let them know if she hears from Drew, then let her go.

This is pretty much the signal for Audrey's life (and Morgan's, since as besties they are kind of a two-for-one deal) to become very complicated.  Spies, assassins and all kinds of other dangerous individuals are suddenly very interested in her, and in particular, in an old trophy of Drew's that she has in her possession.

Armed only with their moxie, Audrey and Morgan now have to stay one step ahead of everyone who is chasing them, while trying to unravel the significance of the trophy.  It's going to be a wild ride!

I very much enjoyed The Spy Who Dumped Me, and think there is a lot about it to like.  For one thing, stars Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon have great chemistry together and are a huge amount as the out-of-their-depth Audrey and Morgan.  For another, when the humour works, it really works - the carjacking scene may be one of the funniest things I've seen this year.  The script also maintains momentum pretty well; I was never bored.

But it is still a bit of an uneven movie in some respects.  One of the key ones is that it attempts to blend outrageous farce - such as the carjacking scene, to name but one example - with extravagant, high octane, high body count action scenes.  It's at times a bit jarring to see Kunis and McKinnon being affably goofy amidst the carnage that is wrought around them.

Overall though, this was pretty good fun.  Glad I watched it.