Black Widow
Dir. Cate Shortland Budget: $200 M Box Office: $379.8 M
IMDb: 6.7 Tomatometer: 79% Audience Score: 91%
Plot:
Twenty-fourth film, features Natasha Romanoff after the events of Civil War.
There are some that wish this film would have come before her passing in the story, while there are others simply grateful that we got a solo Black Widow film at all.
From a young age, Romanoff and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) are shown being part of undercover family.
After their parents (think more handlers) successfully steal S.H.I.E.L.D. intel, the young girls are sent to the Red Room by General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) to begin their excruciating Black Widow training.
We then cut forward to Romanoff helping Clint Barton blow up Dreykov’s office in Budapest, and she decides to join the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Cut forward some more to 2016, where Romanoff flees to Norway as a fugitive of the Sokovia Accords.
During this time, Belova discovers a synthetic gas that can undo the chemical effects of the Red Room and sends samples to Romanoff.
Once she receives the samples, she’s ambushed by Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
She escapes, and tracks Belova to learn the bomb didn’t kill Dreykov and that the Red Room is still in operation.
Once they track him down, Romanoff breaks her own nose to counteract surgeries done to her in the Red Room.
That still isn’t enough however, as Dreykov calls in his Black Widows to distract Romanoff while he makes his escape.
Belova hits the attackers with the synthetic gas turned antidote, and the two learn the locations of all the other Widows.
After using one of the antidotes on Taskmaster, Romanoff gives the vials to Belova to cure the remaining Widows.
The film ends with Romanoff being gifted a Quinjet, which she uses to free her friends on The Raft.
Post-credits scene takes place after Endgame, where Belova is shown being given a target to hunt: Clint Barton.
Thoughts:
This film was fine, but I can agree with the crowd on this one: it would have had much more impact on Romanoff’s story if it came out while the character was still alive.
But hey, who knows what the future holds.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton Budget: $175 M Box Office: $432.2 M
IMDb: 7.4 Tomatometer: 91% Audience Score: 98%
Plot:
Film twenty-five, starts off a thousand years ago with Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) forming The Ten Rings group.
This is after he finds the ten rings which grant inhuman powers including immortality.
With this, he’s able to overtake kingdoms and governments for a millennium. Cut to 1996, where Wenwu’s searching for a mystical and magical village called Ta Lo.
He travels through the enchanted forest where he encounters the guard, Ying Li (Fala Chen).
They hit it off, she leaves her village for him, he locks away his ten rings, and they have two children.
Several years later, a former rival organization called the Iron Gang finds and kills Li.
This causes Wenwu to bust out the rings, slaughters the present Iron Gang members, and retakes his mantle at the front of The Ten Rings.
He makes his son Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) go through intense martial arts training.
He doesn’t do the same for his daughter Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), which leads her to begin training herself.
When he’s 14, Shang-Chi is sent to take out the leader of The Iron Gang.
He complies but is left traumatized and flees to San Francisco as Shaun.
Cut to present day, where Shang-Chi is working as a car valet with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).
He’s attacked by The Ten Rings, and they steal his pendant that his mother gave to him.
Shang-Chi sets out to warn his sister, who has the matching pendant, and Katy insists she comes along.
He tells her about his gruesome past, and she still insists on helping him.
The two head to Macau, where they find Xialing running a fight club.
During the siblings’ encounter, Wenwu attacks with The Ten Rings and takes the three with them.
Once at the compound, Wenwu uses the two pendants to reveal a map to Ta Lo.
This is where he reveals he heard the voice of Li, and believes she’s trapped in the village.
He also shares that he plans to burn the village down if they’re not willing to release her.
This seems incredibly counter-intuitive, which is something the three immediately call out, and subsequently get imprisoned for.
While imprisoned they meet Trevor Slattery, who is locked up for previously impersonating Wenwu. The faceless being Morris (Dee Baker) is also there, who offers them safe travel to the village.
They all escape, and Morris takes the three to Ta Lo, which they learn is in a different dimension.
There they meet Li’s sister Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh), who tells them of the village’s origin.
Long ago, they were attacked by the Dweller-in-Darkness but saved by the Great Protector dragon, and they sealed the portal to the Dweller’s world.
She deduces the Dweller is reaching through however, impersonating Li to try and make Wenwu open the portal with the rings.
After little prep time, Wenwu and The Ten Rings launch an assault against the village.
He first launches Shang-Chi into the nearby lake, then starts to open the portal which allows some of the Dweller’s soul-eaters to seep through.
The Ten Rings shift their attention, and work alongside the villagers to stave off the new threat.
The Great Protector gives rise to Shang-Chi from the lake, who then fights Wenwu again.
After gaining the upper hand, Shang-Chi spares Wenwu’s life.
During that decision the Dweller is able to escape from the portal, and begins attacking Shang-Chi.
Wenwu steps in, gives Shang-Chi the mystical ten rings, and lays down his life to the Dweller.
This shift in power allows Shang-Chi, Katy, Xialing, and The Great Protector to defeat the Dweller.
After returning to their normal lives, Shang-Chi and Katy are summoned by Wong to the headquarters of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
Mid-credits scene has Wong introducing Shang-Chi and Katy to Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers, as they’re all curious as to the origin of the rings.
They learn the rings function as some sort of beacon.
Post-credits scene has Xialing become the leader of The Ten Rings, integrating women into training after she’d promised to disband the group outright.
Thoughts:
While at times this can feel more like a live-action Disney film than a Marvel film (you know what I mean by that), it’s a welcome addition to the MCU.
But it does raise a question or two.
Mainly, if Wenwu were such a destructive force for 1,000 years, wouldn’t he have at least been mentioned once before?
The Ten Rings have been around since Iron Man, but there they were more used as a launching point for Stark to become Iron Man.
Dangerous, sure, but not “wielding godly power” dangerous.
While the rings had been locked up for 12 years at that point, surely one of the countless individuals in the previous films would have known of their power.
It’s cool that The Ten Rings are being properly utilized, but it just doesn’t feel right within the context of the story as we know it.
Additionally, it’d be a fair assumption that this film did gangbusters in China.
They are the other primary demographic for these films, and with the attention to detail pertaining to certain aspects of Chinese culture, it would be stupid for this film to not have a theatrical release in China.
And that’s exactly what happened!
While some chalk it up to the fact that the CCP only allows so many foreign films a year to be shown, others attribute comments Liu had made a few years prior.
In an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corp., he described China as “a third-world country where people were dying of starvation”, which is why he and his family left the nation.
I’m not telling you one way or another on how to interpret that, but an interesting move all around, nonetheless.
Eternals
Dir. Chloé Zhao Budget: $200 M Box Office: $402.1 M
IMDb: 6.3 Tomatometer: 47% Audience Score: 77%
Plot:
Twenty-sixth entry which starts in 5000 BC with ten Eternals of various powers being sent to Earth by Arishem (David Kaye) to manage the population of Deviants, which could be detrimental to future intelligent life.
Once the ten – Ajak (Salma Hayek), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Thena (Angelina Jolie) – finish their work in 1521, they learn more about each other and decide it’s best to go their separate ways.
In the present Sersi and Sprite are shown living together and are attacked by a surviving Deviant named Kro (Bill Skarsgård).
Kro is chased off by Ikaris, and the three set out to find their former leader, Ajak.
They find her dead, and that her wish is for Sersi to take over as leader.
Sersi then learns that since the snap that brought everyone back, the planet is populated enough to give birth to Tiamut, a powerful Celestial which will destroy Earth.
She contacts the other Eternals, and they all meet at Druig’s hideout in the Amazon.
They’re quickly attacked by more Deviants, which turns into all the Deviants dying except Kro, who manages to kill Gilgamesh before escaping.
They come up with a plan to stop the rise of the Celestial and set out to find where it’s going to happen.
Makkari finds the site within an active volcano in the Indian Ocean, and the Eternals reconvene there.
Kro shows up only to be killed by Thena, and the group learns their original plan won’t work.
Due to infighting Ikaris is restrained, which means the Uni-Mind connection isn’t at full capacity, rendering Druig unable to put Tiamut to sleep.
Sersi tries to turn him into marble, but again isn’t strong enough to do so until Ikaris breaks free and helps with the cause.
After he flies into the sun (bc ofc he does), Sersi uses the remaining power to turn Sprite human.
Thena, Druig, and Makkari then set off to travel the galaxies, and warn their people of Celestials while Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo stay behind.
Once it seems the three are living normal lives on Earth again, Arishem teleports them to him, and warns that he will spare humanity if their memories prove they’re worthy of life.
He then takes them with him through a black hole. And that’s how the film ends.
Mid-credits scene introduces Pip the Troll (Patton Oswald) and his leader, and Thanos’ brother, Eros (Harry Styles), who’s offering help to Druig, Makkari, and Thena.
Post-credit scene shows Sersi’s boyfriend Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) opening a box containing the Ebony Blade and being asked offscreen if he’s ready.
Thoughts:
If you think that was tough to read, try watching it.
I’m willing to wager a reason why some audiences don’t care for this film is that it pitches a previously unestablished ensemble cast and doesn’t have enough time to properly flesh them all out.
Beyond that, there’s no real sense of urgency in the Eternals throughout the film.
They worked together for 6,500+ years, but still couldn’t manage to wipe out the entirety of the Deviants.
Instead of delivering this information in chronological order, the film will jump between the past and present every ten minutes for the first hour.
This approach can work with certain films, but when you’re establishing a new roster and a new scale of power to your over arching universe, this may not be the best way to deliver that information.
It can feel jarring and lacks consistency.
Speaking of lacking consistency, that scale of power this film establishes is inconsistent.
Right from the first scene the Eternals are shown to be these badass warriors, taking out Deviants with no sweat.
They’re even shown using their powers on one another to no avail.
That is, until the plot needs it to happen. The best example of this is Sprite.
Though she has the frame of a child, she’s shown to be able to hold her own and is as powerful as any other Eternal.
Until the plot needs her out of the way, and Druig knocks her out cold with a rock to the head.
Point being, there’s a reason this is the lowest ranked MCU film on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
I didn’t even talk about the implications of the Eternals being around for Thanos and they did nothing!
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Dir. Jon Watts Budget: $200 M Box Office: $1.920 B
IMDb: 8.3 Tomatometer: 93% Audience Score: 98%
Plot:
Twenty-seventh film, and easily the best film of the phase.
Peter Parker is still dealing with the after of Quentin Beck, as he framed Spider-Man for his death and revealed the hero’s identity to the world.
Parker, Aunt May, MJ, and Ned are quickly interrogated and charged by the Department of Damage Control, but their lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) gets the charges dropped.
Parker then goes to Stephen Strange for help casting a spell to make everyone forget who Spider-Man really is.
It is a feasible ask, until Parker makes numerous requests to let his web of people retain their memories.
Strange contains the spell as it’s becoming unstable and asks Parker to leave.
Soon after, Parker is ambushed by Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who’s able to rip the nanotech from the Spider Suit.
This immediately works against Octavius, as this allows Parker to disable his mechanical arms.
Just as Parker is regaining control of the situation, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) steps into attack.
Strange quickly teleports Parker to safety, and locks Octavius in a cell alongside Curt Connors (Dylan Baker).
Strange tells Parker that the unstable spell teleported people from other universes into this one, all of whom know Spider-Man’s identity.
Parker, MJ, and Ned set out to find these people, and quickly come across two: Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) and Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church).
We’re then shown Osborn grappling with his split personality, the Green Goblin.
He destroys the iconic mask, and meets with Parker, Dillon, Marko, and Octavius where the villains discuss the fact that they were all moments away from their demise before they were pulled into this universe.
As Strange is preparing to send them all back to their respective universes, Parker insists on curing their insanity and powers, giving them a chance to live normal lives.
Not taking no for an answer, Parker traps Strange in the Mirror Dimension, steals the spell, and takes the group to Happy Hogan’s apartment.
With the help of Aunt May and the Stark Industries tech, they’re able to cure Octavius.
Before they can start the next one however, Parker’s spider sense tingles, and an in-control Green Goblin storms into the apartment.
He convinces the other villains to take arms alongside him, and they escape while also fatally wounding Aunt May.
Her final words to Parker are “with great power, there must also come great responsibility”.
Ned and MJ are using Strange’s sling ring to try and locate Parker, but they instead find two alternate universe Parkers, affectionately dubbed Peter-Two (Toby Maguire) and Peter-Three (Andrew Garfield).
They all work together to find Parker, who’s devastated from the death of his aunt and wants to send the villains home to meet their fate.
The other Spider-Men console Parker, reminiscing about what they’ve lost, and how seeking revenge didn’t make it better.
They push forward in May’s honor, develop a cure for the other villains, and lure them to the Statue of Liberty.
Connors and Marko are cured by the alternate Spider-Men, Octavius cures Dillon, and Ned sets Strange loose from the Mirror Dimension.
Green Goblin flies into the scene and releases the unstable spell, pulling in tons of people from other universes that know who Spider-Man is.
In his rage Parker lunges at the Green Goblin but is stopped by Peter-Two who gets stabbed in the stomach.
Peter-Three helps Parker administer the cure to the Green Goblin, and Parker realizes the only way to keep the people he loves safe is to have them forget that he is Spider-Man, alongside everyone else.
He has Strange reset everyone’s memory and sends everyone back to their respective universes.
One of these individuals includes Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who’s shown leaving behind an amount of Venom symbiote.
After a couple weeks, Parker intends to reintroduce himself to Ned and MJ, try to get them to remember all the good memories they had together.
But after remembering the pain and suffering he’s put them through, he decides to just let them be.
While at May’s grave, Parker is inspired by Hogan to keep being a hero and goes home to make a new suit.
Thoughts:
While some may complain that the film leaned too heavy on the nostalgia, others feel this was a perfect story for the Spider-Men before, and the fruition of maturity for the current Spider-Man.
Parker had to deal with some heavy stuff in this film, and it’s likely going to take a toll on his psyche in future films.
Furthermore, many fans felt relieved when characters from previous films weren’t used as just one-shot winks to the audience, but rather real characters within the story that helped progress the plot.
This film is the embodiment of exploring new grounds while respecting previously established motives, even if they weren’t all established within the MCU.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Dir. Sam Raimi Budget: $200 M Box Office: $955.8 M
IMDb: 7.0 Tomatometer: 74% Audience Score: 85%
Plot:
Twenty-eighth film.
After being rescued by Stephen Strange, a young America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) explains that she’s being hunted due to her ability to travel through the multiverse when terrified.
She even brought her reality’s dead Strange with her by accident, showing how little control she has of the insane power.
Strange turns to Wanda Maximoff for help, but quickly learns that she’s the one hunting down Chavez so she can be reunited with alternative versions of her children, Billy and Tommy.
Strange refuses to let her take Chavez, which results in her destroying the Ministry in Kamar-Taj, as well as killing most of the sorcerers.
Chavez accidently teleports her and Strange to a different dimension, where Maximoff dreamwalks as that reality’s version until her Darkhold crown is destroyed by a surviving sorcerer.
As she forces Wong to help her make a new one at Mount Wundagore, Strange and Chavez are taken by that reality’s Karl Mordo to be brought before the Illuminati.
This group consists of Mordo himself, Peggy Carter, Blackagar Boltagon (Anson Mount), Maria Rambeau, Reed Richards (John Krasinski), and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).
They explain how they had to execute their Doctor Strange because he too wielded the Darkhold and became too dangerous to the universe.
Before they’re able to deliberate, Maximoff successfully dreamwalks into the scene, and wipes out the entire Illuminati except Mordo.
Strange and Chavez escape and enlist the help of this version’s Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) to get back to their reality.
In the space between universes the group finds the Book of Vishanti, which is supposed to contain knowledge on how to counter the Darkhold.
Before they have a chance to do anything, Maximoff destroys the book, and takes over Chavez’s mind.
She uses the child’s powers to send Strange and Palmer to a destroyed universe, where they encounter a Strange that’s been corrupted by the Darkhold.
Once our Strange wins the fight, he uses the Darkhold to dreamwalk the corpse that Chavez accidentally brought with her in the beginning of the film.
While dreamwalking, he has Wong take him to Chavez, who manages to send Maximoff to a different universe.
There she sees her children, but they recoil in fear as they know she’s not their real mother, which makes her reflect for a moment.
She decides to sacrifice herself to topple Mount Wundagore, which destroys the Darkhold throughout all the universes.
After everyone is back in their home universe and time has passed, Kamar-Taj is being restored and Chavez has begun training there.
Stange is shown to have developed a third eye due to his use of the Darkhold on a corpse.
Mid-credits scene shows Strange being approached by a sorceress, who warns of an impending doom thanks to his actions.
He goes with her into the Dark Dimension to try and rectify the mistake.
Thoughts:
While this film has some (mostly) great visuals and does contribute to the over arching plot, the lack of consistency with the characters is too much for some to shake.
We’re also getting to the point in the MCU where you need to have seen the other directly relating properties for the plot at hand to make sense.
You only fully understand Maximoff’s motivations and new sense of power if you’ve watched WandaVision.
Furthermore, she escalates the situation early on by slaughtering the sorcerers. Which I personally think is a great move, show us that she’s not here to mess around.
But then in the very next scene when she has Strange, Wong, and Chavez cornered, she puts in a miniscule amount of effort to attain her goals.
The person she needs to make it happen is ten feet away, you’d think this would be the now or never moment.
But they all just dink around until Chavez gets scared and teleports away.
The scene only becomes more awkward when you realize they are supposed to be the upper echelon of established power so far.
We’ve seen these characters do some pretty creative attacks when it hit the fan, but here they decide to talk it out and it’s just so underwhelming.
Granted, the attack isn’t supposed to be a drawn-out sequence, just a reason to have our heroes go from point a to point b.
Moments before we just saw her annihilate hundreds of innocent but powerful sorcerers to achieve her goal, and now that she’s mere feet from it she fumbles.
To encapsulate my thoughts on the film, it feels more like a follow-up to the WandaVision series than a Doctor Strange movie.
Which may be in part to Sam Raimi taking over as director and re-writing most the entire script just days before filming began.
Thor: Love and Thunder
Dir. Taika Waititi Budget: $250 M Box Office: $760.7 M
IMDb: 6.4 Tomatometer: 64% Audience Score: 77%
Plot:
Twenty-ninth entry.
Starts with Gorr (Christian Bale) and his daughter Love barely alive and trekking through a desert.
His daughter passes away, and he begins hearing a call which leads him to his god Rapu’s world. Gorr denounces his faith as Rapu openly mocks and belittles him, then Rapu starts to choke him.
The voice previously calling to Gorr was the Necrosword, which Gorr obtains and uses to kill Rapu.
The sword grants him powers to manipulate shadows and create monsters, but it slowly begins to influence and kill him.
He vows to kill all the gods, which leads us to Thor and his time with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
They receive a distress beacon from Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander), who warns the group that Gorr is coming for New Asgard.
Meanwhile, Jane Foster is shown to have stage four cancer and travels to New Asgard to seek medical help.
Upon her arrival, Mjonlir reforms and flies to her, as Thor enchanted the hammer to protect her years ago.
Gorr storms New Asgard just as a surprised Thor pulls up on the scene.
The two, Valkyrie, and Korg ward off Gorr, but not before he’s able to abduct a group of children to the shadow realm.
The four head to Omnipotence City to seek council with the other gods and try to formulate a plan.
Their leader Zeus (Russell Crowe) is dismissive and has them ordered to be locked away to make sure they don’t leak the city’s location to Gorr.
They say no thanks and hit Zeus with one of his own lightning bolts in their escape.
On their way to confront Gorr, Foster and Thor reconnect as she tells him of her diagnosis.
They make it to the Shadow Realm, where they learn that Stormbreaker is the key to entering Eternity’s realm, who can grant all-powerful wishes.
As Foster is realizing it’s a trap, Gorr rolls up on the gang, steals Stormbreaker, and leaves Thor to deal with a weakened Foster and Valkyrie.
He takes them back to New Asgard, where he learns Foster’s new powers are preventing her body from fighting the cancer.
Thor travels to Eternity’s altar and gives the imprisoned children powers to defend themselves against Gorr’s horde while he’s fighting Gorr.
As Gorr gets the upper hand, Foster comes in swinging and defends Thor.
They destroy his Necrosword, which frees him of its influence, but is still suffering the fatal consequences.
The three are then teleported to Eternity and is willing to grant Gorr one wish.
Thor begs him to revive his daughter instead of continuing down this path of god killing.
He then leaves Gorr to make his decision to tend to Foster, who ends up passing away in Thor’s arms.
After witnessing this, Gorr wishes for his daughter to be brought back, and with his dying breath asks Thor to take care of Love.
We’re then shown all the children safely back in New Asgard, Valkyrie and Lady Sif begin training them, and a statue of Foster’s honor is being commemorated.
Thor and Love are shown rushing into battle together, using Mjolnir and Stormbreaker.
Mid-credits scene has Zeus sending his son Hercules (Brett Goldstein) to kill Thor.
Post-credits scene has Foster being greeted by Heimdall at the gates of Valhalla.
Thoughts:
This film brings back Jane Foster and neatly wraps up her storyline, while also setting up the next fighters of Asgard with Love and the other children.
What this film doesn’t do however, is deliver a satisfying villain.
Right from the start his motivations are flimsy, as he directly blames Rupa for the death of his daughter.
One could argue that was the sword’s influence on him, even making him decide to pick up the sword in the first place.
But I would argue that to even hear that call, he would already have to be harboring hatred for the gods.
Maybe he was and that just wasn’t shown, but from the audience’s perspective his daughter died to circumstance, and he blamed the gods.
After he kills Rapu and vows to kill all gods, we don’t see him kill any other gods.
It’s briefly mentioned he’s been doing it, but we don’t know to what extent or how long he’s been doing it.
Next time we see him is when he’s attacking New Asgard and has Thor by the freaking neck but doesn’t kill him!
Movie’s gonna movie, I get that.
But when a villain is set up to be a powerful god-killer, then has one literally by the throat only to waste their shot by expositing, it makes them look weak and stupid!
It also undercuts any set-up of threat that this movie’s trying to establish, as that action right there tells the audience Gorr is not going to be directly responsible for any meaningful impact.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Dir. Ryan Coogler Budget: ? Box Office: ?
IMDb: ? Tomatometer: ? Audience Score: ?
Thoughts:
Thirtieth MCU film, final Phase Four entry, and the first on this list to not be released yet.
Slated for November 11, 2022, this film will follow Wakanda’s fight against the sea nation of Talokan and their leader Namor, following the death of King T’Challa.
This script was in response to Chadwick Boseman’s unfortunate loss to cancer, something that director Ryan Coogler had no idea was happening.
Disney has already stated that Boseman would not be recast or digitally added in posthumously, but there is a chance they’ll used already obtained footage of him to advance the story.
Shuri will likely take the mantle of Black Panther, and the upcoming film will catalogue her journey of power and loss.
This may be tasteless to some readers, but if that’s the route they’re going to take. We may get some emotionally charged scenes, with the actors using their actual grief over Boseman for the film.
And if treated correctly, could be a raw and emotion filled moment for both the audience and the actors.
On a brighter note, Michael B. Jordan is listed on some credits for this film.
While Kevin Feige has denied any rumors of his involvement, I do think it’s interesting at the end of the last Black Panther we see Killmonger hurl himself into the ocean, and the antagonists of this film are from an underwater nation.
