Wanda Needed a Therapist: Marvel Did Her Dirty (Again) WARNING: Spoilers

We have learned to love Wanda Maximoff because truth be told, we love an underdog. Her first appearance as a vengeful villain in Age of Ultron was delicious and her joining the Avengers at the end of it was pretty exciting, finally she’s on the good side.

When she appeared on Civil War she became a villain again, making her look like the confused, most-likely-to-turn-a-villain character, then she did a 180 again in Infinity War and End-Game. Wandavision was a phenomenal success and made me like her a lot but she’s once again, turned into a villain, which in some parts felt disheartening but she gave us a solid by her undoing everything and sacrifed everything. Impeccable character development, especially her turning into The Scarlet Witch. 100% Badass. Imagine my surprise when the MOM trailer debuted and it seemed she will once again became the villain, and true enough, she was.

Maybe it was right the she sort of died at the end, making a hell of a sacrifice (again) instead of her just saving the day because we all know Wanda has been through so much and we know she’s kind. Fragile, but kind. Where is her support system, where are the other avengers? It seemed it was so easy for Marvel to make her the villain, doing her dirty, like what HBO did to Daenarys Targaryen with all the time it took to develop her character only to ambush all of that because it felt easy. She deserved so much more.

The movie felt like a huge playground for Sam Raimi, injecting every scene with his signature horror movie tricks. It felt very Raimi every time and that was a huge improvement from all the previous MCU movie because we all know Feigi is involved. We know Raimi had 100% creative freedom and it really showed.

The movie is exhausting, it’s non-stop carnage and you can’t help but feel dizzy. The difference between the first Strange movie and this was that the first one was on a straight trajectory of storytelling, which made the visual effect mesmerizing. On MOM it felt like it’s just another MCU movie and the visuals felt tired and very no-way-home which was a letdown. I love the one eyed monster though.

Overall, Multiverse of Madness will make the devoted fans mad in excitement but will not entice a growing number of fans suffering from superhero fatigue.

Grade: 6/10

Tailor-Made for The Most Devouted Fans

The critics weren’t kind to the sequel of the Fantastic Beasts that was released 2016 and I was very intrigued as to why. I see what could’ve made the critics hate it; I understand, but I don’t care.

This is J.K Rowling ultimate fan service, and only those true fans will feel the exhilaration and the jaw-dropping moments in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. There are millions of subplots that will put you in the edge of your seat. The visuals are the best in the Wizarding World ever, Harry Potter included. Peopel are saying how the magic was lost, the truth is, this is The Half-Blood Prince of this age; magic takes the backseat and turns into second-nature. Instead we are shown relationship, brotherhood, regrets, a little bit of politics, loyalty and a film that is about taking a side and standing up for it.

The visual effects of this film is absolutely on point. At times it was dizzyingly overwhelming in a good way. Cinematography is gorgeous and the scoring is outstanding. Johnny Depp brought Grindelwald to life and he did a great job. I was impressed with Jude Law, at times my heart melted with the reminder of Dumbledore’s kind eyes from the books. Law brought that here and it was so resonating. And I almost cried on the Leta Lestrangw Hogwarts memory. It captured how I felt seeing Hogwarts on the earlier films. It was so emotional and beautifully shot.

The ending left me frozen. It was so shocking and completely wasn’t what I expected at all. Now that’s how you drop a bomb. It’s one of those cinematic moments, in tradition of “I am your father” from Star Wars and “I see dead people” from The Sixth Sense. Very brilliant!

Crimes of Grindelwald only crime is the next one is not anytime soon. Potterheads rejoice. The Wizarding World has truly expanded and we can’t wait for more.

Grade: 4.5 / 5 Stars

Valak is Still Scary AF But That’s About It

I was personally invested into seeing The Nun as The Conjuring 2 is one of my favorite horror movie ever. Valak scared the living wits out of me when I first saw the now classic horror icon, it still does, but the origin story about this demon is nothing but a cash grab.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, since Anabelle Creation was a complete hit, critically and revenue-wise, so much that The Conjuring Universe officially became a thing. The Nun however, though not a complete disaster, still manages to provide a backstory for what is to come in this growing movie franchise.

The bad points of the movies were the cliches, bad dialogue, predictable story, gore and absolute disregard for logic. In retrospect, it made sense to me now as to why there were completely absurd moments in the film but hey, Valak is a deciever: so human logic will fail. Good points I must say, is the crisp cinematography, gorgeous colors and impressive sound mixing. I read somewhere James Wan was involved to the point the he did some re-shoots, but I was absolutely impressed with one scene where Valak was staring at the Nun and the camera goes upside slowly; it was clever and rather beautiful but in the moment of course that was horrifying.

I love how we only see Valak a few times. We saw a lot of nuns, but mostly we see nuns with covered faces but Valak we saw like 3 times only and of course in the climax. The blood of christ thing in this movie is absurd. I have so many questions regarding that but I’d rather not go into it.

I am in love with Taissa Farmiga, on how amazing she is on this film, it was her that was being referred to as The Nun. She was phenomenal and her acting was so good. She gave innocence with strength. She also wasn’t that type of horror movie protagonist who screams a lot.

The Nun is a necessary entry to the growing Conjuring Universe, but not very well thought of and ultimately not as scary as the others. Definitely the darkest chapter, and Valak is still scary AF. Do you watch it? Yes. Who doesn’t love a horror movie, even when it’s bad?

Grade: 3/5 Stars

Crazy Rich Asians / Crazily Cliche

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ so hyped up that I feared that I will end disappointed, even with all the great things people have to say about the movie. I also feared that I won’t like it because of my distate for rom-coms in general, but it turned out I didn’t like it for different reasons.

I felt no chemistry between the two leads, rachel and nick, in fact, I didn’t feel their relationship. There wasn’t enough background for them to want them to end up so badly. It also tries so hard to downplay just how crazy rich they were to avoid that dazzling, glittery feel of a luxurious lifestyle. It tries so hard to not feel Kardashian-ish, and I meant that as a compliment.

There were times I felt there that everything was being downplayed that I didn’t feel the major conflict when Rachel goes head to head with Nick’s mother. It went soapy and cheesy real fast.

The acting is so weird and awkward and just bad. The entire dialogue is so shamelessly dubbed that it distracts me from understanding anything.

It’s a modern Cinderella re-telling and it’s a decent one. In fact, it has its moments that I felt that long lost jitters in the stomach and it was from the wedding that is most certainly not by the main couple. The humor is spot-on and very relatable. The family drama is so overkill.

Crazy Rich Asians is not as crazy good as everyone says, but it’s a decent rom-com in recent memory.

Grade: 3/5 Stars

Toni Colette Gave Her Best Acting Ever And God Bless Her

I have set extremely high expectations for this movie and boy it did not disappoint, even on moments that I thought it would, but the movie is plain incredibly and genuinely scary.

It makes everyone in the audience uncomfortable, uneasy, and holding their breaths and that is mark of an excellent horror film. It’s never let up, not one second, and it gives you that betrayal that you think nothing’s coming your way but bam, everyone jumped out of their seats. It’s all good fun. And it lingers around you even after watching it, so sinister and treacherous and that made it so damn impressive.

The tone is pure evil, and it makes you feel sick. But the most impressive aspect of all is the exemplary performance by Toni Colette who deserves a nomination for next year’s Oscars after her haunting portrayal of a mother in existential crisis.

It’s a film where you literally cannot trust anyone from the cast. It’s superbly crafted and gave legitimate horror. Hereditary is one of the most scariest movies I watched and please no sequel.

Grade: 5 Stars

The Rock Cliched Himself So Good That It’s Terribly Bad

What is the point of watching the latest “The Rock” film when you basically already seen it before, only he’s getting more horrible every time.

The movie is full of cliches that at times it’s almost painful to watch. Sure take the carnage to Hong Kong but at least do something different other than punch relentlessly and unecessarily on practically everything and it’s all alright at the end because yet again, an American father figure has saved the day yet again.

It pretty much failed on everything and even on the most innocent aspects of the film it falls flat from a 200-story skycraper. Sure there are moments when you the height gives you the scare but all is lost when it lingers on it for an unnecessary amount of time that it just goes to just plain ridiculousness.

Even the building is badly done and very unrealistic that just a small amount of people was able to penetrate it so simply and almost easy. The whole thing is just ridiculous and overly-done.

Dwayne Johnson probably should think about doing actual acting and put all the money trail around him into good use.

Grade: 2 / 5 Stars

Evangiline Lilly Steals The Show

Rotten Tomatoes called it an MCU palate cleanser after the shocking turn of events on the Avengers: Infinity War. The timeline is aligned with IW and at the beginning of the fim you kinda already know what’s going the happen.

Ant-Man when released a few years back, was one of MCU’s easy to watch filler, and the sequel is no different, and one would think after the massive success of Black Panther Marvel would take it up a notch, but Ant-Man and the Wasp is not a bad movie, nor a great one; it’s a so-so but we suckers watch it anyway.

Something is so retro-off and I can’t really place it. I had high hopes for Marvel for late but this film feels like a letdown more than the absolution it supposed to bring us, perhaps all of that is reserved for Avengers 4 where we find everyone to be disappointingly alive but will die anyway on a complete different reason.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a decent addition to MCU but it sort of just give nothing to make it all better for those grieving still from Infinity War. I guess that’s the point.

Grade: 3.5/5 Stars

When Women Do Bad Things It’s Usually Very Glamorous

It’s like the ultimate assembly of Hollywood A-Listers headed by the incomparable Sandra Bullock. Really, it was glorious to see Mindy Kaling, Cate Blanchett, Ann Hathaway, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson, and freaking Helena Bonham-Carter.

It’s not a loud movie, nor as hilarious as you’d hope. It was a quiet film that slowly bakes into the ultimate moment when they rob a 150-million dollar necklace on the Met, and it was gloriously clever.

What I am really impressed about is the subtlety that is very Gary Ross and the women were never objectified, and that is really where the movie wins. You forget that it is a movie with a great women cast, instead they were really a bunch of people who wants to steal something and they happened to be woman.

Sure there are flaws in a narrative, but it pays homage to the Ocean’s franchise with Hollywood Dream Team of outstanding actors.

Grade: 4/5 Stars

When The 14-Year Wait Was Worth It

The Incredibles was a masterpiece, a classic. One can say it’s a part of this generation’s childhood, and it is. Incredibles was really an incredible concoction from a then young venture of Disney and Pixar 14 years ago and it took them this amount time to give a follow up.

This family of superheroes was identifiable with any growing families out there. Hot-headed, hormonal teenage daughter, curious son and a baby/toddler who lights up the room. It was pure joy seeing them back at it.

Though it has the same plot, it offered little growth as a family, it mainly examined family roles, gender roles (surprisingly) and trust. What if the mom is the bread winner? What if the dad takes over the household? You see, Mr. Incredible handled that extraordinarily when I thought we were up to see him snap. Instead he dedicated that time to get to know his family more and step up.

The animation was of course, phenomenal. After seeing the first movie again, the improvements in the graphic was outstanding without steering away from the original look. It’s almost like a Marvel Film and it almost went into avenging (thank god it didn’t).

It’s a family movie that is relatable to all ages. Funny and sentimental. Jack Jack stole the show with his 17 (and counting) powers, proving that when he grows up, he’s gonna the be the most incredible. Edna Mode was fun to see again, as well as Frozone who I didn’t know was Samuel L Jackson.

Incredibles 2 was graphically minimal, very aesthetic. But combined with Brad Bird story-telling and masterful directing, Incredibles 2 is a movie worth waiting for.

Grade: 5/5 Stars

Slightly Better Than The First

It is fair to say that Chris Pratt was underused on the sequel. Bryce Dallas-Howard did most of the ass-kicking and I realized a week after watching it that was deliberate.

We get more action as dinosaurs are going global. The desserted island, now at the brink of destruction as a volcano threatens to erupt, we get entangled to the false narrative of the mission to save them, instead it showed once again the main plot of all Jurassic movies: humans fuck it up all the damn time.

The visual effects are bad. Here, we get close-ups of dinosaurs hence we get to see animatronics. Although the movie falls into the cliche of predictability (on all action-driven film actually), it’s nevertheless more entertaining than ‘world.’ It is also more dramatic, tries to get dark at times, and really dark, sure nothing beats a dinosaur chase on pouring rain.

Overall, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feels like a filler and a setup for all the Jurassic World movies we’re all supposed to watch in the future.

Grade: 3/5 stars