I had heard good things about this film so was quite looking forward to it, especially with it being led by Florence Pugh who is fabulous as Yelena - vulnerable but dangerous. I wasn’t expecting this to end up being the best Marvel movie for a long time, if ever! It’s so good and I think that’s because it’s entirely character driven. There’s not even the traditional ten minutes of special effects that really have no impact on the film at all. It was all about this collection of misfits, reluctantly working together, and finding out a lot about themselves along the way.

Hmm, this wasn’t a bad Marvel film, we’ve certainly seen worse. But it was kinda dull. Certainly at the beginning, it felt very boring, politics and stuff. It was very like the TV show that it follows on from, calm and plodding and just getting on with things. But it did start to get better and more interesting as it went along, which is unusual for a Marvel movie, they normally tend to get worse. So, you know, watch it if you want to keep up with the Marvel stuff, but otherwise give it a miss.

This was so good. Obviously! You’ve got everything brilliant about Deadpool, the meta moments, breaking the fourth wall, the endless stream of jokes and ripping on the people that pay the bills (spends the whole time slagging off the multiverse whilst also being a solid multiverse movie!)… and then adds in the great buddy comedy with an even grumpier variant of Wolverine.

I didn’t have huge hopes for this film, if I’m honest, because you know Marvel is not having the best track record recently. It’s not getting good reviews. To fully enjoy it, you have to have done quite a lot of homework, previous movies and several of the TV shows. And, of course, it’s helmed by three awesome women, so completely understandable that a vocal section of the audience don’t like it. Thankfully, I have done that homework and I love awesome women, and that resulted in a very enjoyable watching experience. I loved the camaraderie between the three, how they learned to work together and use their quirks to the fullest. A high point in some recent Marvel mediocrity.

I wanted to try knitting in multiple colours, having previously done a bit of stripe work on full rows but not mixing it up mid-row. I found these patterns for Marvel icons in squares and thought that looked quite a fun place to start.

The second season of Loki drew to a close this week, and I’m going to be honest, it was a pretty big disappointment. The whole series, in fact, hasn’t lived up to the fun and glory of the first one, even though this time out the stakes were higher and the time travel even more prevalent. The biggest problem I had with it was not enough time spent with the characters being themselves. The great thing about the first serious was the back and forth nature of the relationship between Mobius and Loki. We only got to see that fully in the third episode, title 1893, where they went back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair and chased around together like idiots. That was fun and brilliant.

This is a really hard film to review because the good stuff was exceptional but the bad stuff was - oof. I honestly came out of it saying I would rather watch Eternals, and that’s saying a lot. I loved the banter between the gang, Drax and Mantis continuing to be a brilliant comedy duo, Quill going through many emotions, and Nebula growing as a leader. The music was brilliant, and the visuals were all very well done. But honestly, I could barely cope with the flashback stuff. Fine to be raising awareness of animal experimentation but there was so much of it, and the juxtaposition from that to someone in the present day being funny meant I couldn’t appreciate that comedy as much as it deserved. After each flashback I was just wanting to switch off and do something else… every time.

We’re all aware that Marvel has been having a shocker recently, a run of really bad films only saved by a run of really good TV shows. I have to admit, the trailer for this one didn’t make me think it was going to be any better but thankfully it was. Marginally. It was mostly pulled back from the brink by the people - Paul Rudd can carry almost anything, Michael Douglas’ obsession with ants was great, and Kathryn Newton was a great, if a little earnest, addition to the family.

Hmm, bit of a disappointment this one. The tribute to Chadwick Boseman was great and I appreciate the characters needed room to grieve, but the film was far too long for the story it had to tell. There’s a good movie in there, it just got swallowed up by negative points like the length, the fact that it’s trying to be Avatar, that the awesome science kid isn’t really given much to do.

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn’t take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future but for now, I had to settle for just browsing the online store.

I had mixed feelings going into this series - I was curious how they would give She-Hulk a believable origin story in a short time, and somehow keep that alongside the legal drama that it was promised to be. However, it looked like it was going to be fun and Tatiana Maslany is absolutely outstanding so I knew whatever it did turn out to be we could at least trust in her.

Well this was an experience. It was hilarious, it really leaned in to all the jokes that were started in Ragnarok and then threw in a load more for good measure. The tone is really set right at the start when Thor is single-handedly thwarting an army, and can do the splits cartoon-style as something of a gag. That sometimes doesn’t quite butt up against the darker side so well, there’s some really quite scary stuff in here, certainly enough to give me nightmares, let alone kids, and the juxtaposition between the two tones is a bit odd.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to dominate a lot of my viewing, with recent additions having mixed results. I’m loving a lot of the TV content they’ve developed, while some of the movies have been less successful for me (I’m looking at you Eternals). One thing I’ve really enjoyed, though, is the Marvel Studios: Assembled series. I’ve mentioned it before when it highlighted some great things about the making of Shang-Chi but there have been a lot more episodes since. For every big TV series or movie that is released, the team put out an accompanying Assembled episode which goes behind the scenes of how the content has been put together. (Oddly, the first six were grouped together as a series and the rest as standalone episodes but you can find them if you search ‘Assembled’.)

If you had to say to me, which of the Guardian’s of the Galaxy would make the perfect subject of their own spin-off TV show, I don’t think Groot would be my first choice. Baby Groot is, of course, adorable, but the limited dialogue offered by everyone’s favourite tree-based character would seem to reduce what any follow up shows could be about.

This just feels like a hot mess of a movie. Doctor Strange has always been about the weird visuals, with his mirror dimension and all, but there’s so much of that in here, you barely know whether you’re coming or going. The horror elements seemed ramped up - some pretty gruesome deaths in quite graphic detail, alongside moments of serial killer, zombies, it felt like there was barely an original idea in the piece.

Ten days of comics later, and I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I’m going to be reading all the Marvel comics that have ever been published. I like the idea of it, of course, but by day twenty I felt like the vast array of comics available was starting to get a bit wearing. I quite like browsing the covers and revelling in all the creativity that has gone into these issues - but picking what I actually want to read has been a challenge.

So far, my 30 Day Challenges have fallen into one of two themes - either trying to embed a habit, or really giving something a good go. The comic book challenge is the latter, something I’ve thought about and dipped into occasionally but never had the stamina to keep up a good streak of comic book reading. One thing I didn’t mention in my introductory post, is that the vastness of the various superhero universes is another thing that has previously put me off. And my reading for the first 10 days has proved that is something I was right to be nervous about.

Thankfully, this movie was a step back to the great for Spider-Man, ending this first trilogy of films on a really high note. It wasn’t perfect but it was very well done, particularly as the Multiverse aspect could have been very confusing. The more elements you throw into a movie, the more messy it gets, but this was handled spectacularly, remaining entertaining all the way through.

Back in November, I wrote a post/whinge about how difficult it was to track down the Marvel One Shot shorts that complement the main series. They were all over the place, some as film extras, some their own thing on Disney+, some not appearing anywhere official. Well! Disney must have been listening because they’ve just released all the One Shots as their own special episodes on the Disney+ streaming service.

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this one. The trailers didn’t make it look that interesting, and it seems quite removed from the rest of the universe, and although it was a stellar cast, it felt like too many people to get invested in. Unfortunately, my expectations were bang on - this was so boring and it felt like it dragged the rest of the universe down a couple of notches with it.

If we rewind six months of so, and ask my former self if the upcoming Hawkeye TV show would have been my most anticipated of the new MCU TV outings, I would have laughed long and hard. But then they signed up Hailee Steinfeld, then they set it at Christmas, and then they made all the artwork and superhero uniforms purple. Tick, tick, tick. The season finale was released yesterday, bringing to a close a six-episode arc that introduced a new character to Hawkeye’s life, as well as bringing in some returning faces both friend and foe. And you know what? I loved it. Every episode was well crafted, the banter between first Clint and Kate, and then Kate and Yelena, was top notch, it had a good mystery at the heart, solved a lot but also left plenty of questions open, and it was a heartwarming journey into living with grief as well.

I’ll be honest with you here: yes, there were a couple of things I wanted to point towards on the subject of the recent Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But the real reason for this post is an excuse to talk about Simu Liu, who I have become somewhat obsessed with ever since watching the film first time round. That’s the good thing about having a blog, no matter how much or little you post, you can spend lots and lots of time researching things that you’re interested in!

Recently, I watched Shang-Chi, the latest Marvel movie, and it was really good but I couldn’t have predicted the road it would lead me down. After watching the movie, I dug into the behind the scenes documentary that also popped up on Disney+ at the same time. It was a great look at how the movie came together, the thoughts behind updating the character and bringing some legendary martial arts into the Marvel world.

The length of the title of this film made me nervous, but I shouldn’t have been because it’s a top notch Marvel movie, and a great set of new characters to get on board with. I enjoyed it, and particularly liked the fact our main two protagonists were friends from start to finish. There were a few questions on some of the plot points but nothing so irritating to ruin the story.

A fun fact from Disney’s behind the scenes of the recent Loki series is that the God of Mischief has been on the big screen for less than two hours out of the fifty or so available in The Infinity Saga. Two hours across ten years, and yet this character is so incredible popular. I saw one of those weird bracket competitions on Twitter for who was the MCU’s best villain and it came down to Thanos vs Loki. Villain is a bit harsh for the Asgardian scamp, and I don’t actually know who won out of the two of those, but it does show how popular he really is.

Wahey, this was a great movie and totally worth waiting for! Finally Scarlett Johansson gets to take centre stage and this is such a great movie for her but also as an ensemble piece with her extended family. It took a little while to get going, filling in that backstory and showing Natasha in hiding from the authorities, but once the action started and the espionage got under way, it was a rollercoaster ride to the end.

If you’ve read any of my Film Watch posts for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ll have noticed a trend towards the end of the first three phases that goes something like: ‘I think this is a good film but I’ve totally lost the plot and don’t know what’s going on. I’ll have to go back and rewatch the movies and do some homework.’ Well, with the bonus of ever-extending lockdowns, I’ve actually managed to do it! I set about rewatching the Marvel movies all the way from Iron Man through the latest Spider-Man, and not just watching with my eyes but making notes at the same time. At first the notes were supposed to just be people and places, to try and keep track of who exists, the crossovers and the locations. It ended up a bit more extensive than that, but oof, it’s helpful.

I can see why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was scheduled to be the first of the new breed of Marvel TV shows to appear on Disney+. It’s a more standard superhero series than the innovative approach taken by WandaVision. However, I loved both of them equally in different ways. Falcon was a much calmer show, despite traditional action sequences, superhero fight scenes and plenty of drama. Although it had all that you might expect from a MCU movie, Falcon had a lot more. There was a deeper dive into the psychological effects of living in this world, whether that is regret from things you’ve done, how hard it is on the people left behind, or how much courage you have to have to take up the mantle.

This weekend, I finished watching the final season of Agents of Shield and it was, as expected, brilliant and moving, hopeful and emotional, and an action-packed time-travelling ride to the end. The first thing to say about it is thank goodness it came to a good conclusion, that for the most part the time-travel story made sense, and it was a happy ever after for almost all of the characters. Phew!

The first two episodes of WandaVision appeared on Disney+ this week and I very quickly devoured them both. I wasn’t expecting to be as interested as I was, thought maybe I’d check it out when I had the time, but all the hype surrounding it completely sucked me in. Here are five immediate thoughts about the show: In navigating the menus to get to the show, Disney+ recommended their new Marvel Legends series and I’m so glad I watched this first. It introduces a bit of backstory to the characters that are appearing in their new line up of TV shows, so at the moment just two episodes of about eight minutes each featuring Wanda and then Vision. It was super useful. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I can’t keep up with the Marvel Universe even when I’m in the middle of the movies, so a quick reminder of their history made all the difference.

So I did this round up last year, quickly running through other posts that had already collected upcoming releases and pulling out films that I thought I’d be interested in. Turns out, I picked twelve films and only managed to watch half of them. Oh well! Let’s see how well I do this year. For reference, I’ve looked at the BBC, a selection from Total Film and a pretty long list on IGN.

So many muddled thoughts after this one. Firstly, it felt too soon after Avengers. I needed more time to process what had happened, and I don’t get why this movie is the end of the current phase rather than the huge epic that Avengers was. And then, I’ve been so in love with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, he’s been the best thing in the Avengers for a while, but this one didn’t quite hit the same mark. I guess he’s changed since the events of the previous Marvel movies.

I recently discovered the podcast Robot or Not which is an audio show where: “Jason Snell asks John Siracusa to rule on the meaning of various words and concepts. It’s not just about robots anymore.” I have been listening to the entire back catalogue, partly because the episodes are so short but also because they’re so fascinating. As the title suggests, the concept started out solely about robots but has branched out to food, ethics, religion and actually quite a lot about food. One of the older episodes I listened to was all about how to distinguish between movies and television these days.

Having gotten through the Avengers Endgame ordeal with only minor spoilers, attention now turns back to Agents of Shield. Previous seasons, we have paused watching this show because there are links to the big bad Marvel world and we didn’t want to go around spoiling ourselves as that would just be silly. Turns out, we needn’t have worried. There aren’t any spoilers in season six of Agents of Shield, due to several reasons.

Some of the recent Marvel news that has been filtering out of Hollywood has made me feel like this is a film series I just don’t want to follow anymore. Combine that with how much I didn’t enjoy the two-part Infinity War and Endgame story, and I was losing interest by the second. I was confident that every single film that went by was getting lower and lower scores from me and that it was all going to hell in a handbasket.

I rated Infinity War a 1 out of 5, and this movie gets a 2 because it left me slightly less despondent and down in the dumps about everything. But only marginally. There was more to like in here. They did the time travel thing I like of revisiting existing activities from a different angle (seeing Starlord dancing outside of his headphones was hilarious), only slightly tinged by not being able to remember it all from first time round.

So, this was probably my second favourite Marvel movie after Black Panther. It was good and inspirational and nice and the music was incredible. I wish all movies were set in the 90s because omg those songs. On the one hand, Carol Danvers is an incredible hero. Your normal but awesome fighter pilot military woman who then gets next level powers to defend the universe from the big bad.

Weirdly, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I liked the first one, and it’s Paul Rudd for crying out loud, but I just felt a bit meh about it. Thankfully, the movie was really good. Funny, emotional in places, and with a good story that makes sense. There was that usual bit of ‘what the hell is going on I don’t remember any Marvel movies I’m going to have to watch all of them again’ thing which was kinda annoying, but once past that, it was great.

Two recent conversations about movies have made me realise there’s a key component of the digital rental process that is missing and would make life so much better. At the moment, on Apple in particular, you can buy a film for a high price initially that drops the longer a film has been in the world. Or you can rent a film for a slightly lower price but only keep it for a certain amount of time.

There are lots of articles written at this time of year looking back on the months gone and looking forward to the next twelve, and I’ve been intrigued by the variety of “best upcoming films” that have been touted. How many of them am I looking forward to? I had a browse through a few articles (Wired and The Guardian, in particular) and picked out the films that stood out to me.

Oof. You know, I’ve really been struggling with these Avengers films over the last few years. I quite enjoy the individual standalone episodes but when they all come together and you have to start remembering and knowing and doing your homework and keeping track of so many characters in the same place, it starts to become less like fun and more like a chore.

This was SO GOOD. Great story, fabulous actors, a new spin on the superhero tales we’ve seen so many times now. It does, unfortunately, suffer from being part of the Marvel universe in that we just can’t remember anything anymore and all the nuances are lost. But that aside, as a standalone film, it’s incredible.

I did go into this film with a real sense of misgiving, I just didn’t want to watch. That’s what Marvel has done to me, the far-reaching universe has overwhelmed. Having said that, I should have had some faith, because this current phase we’re in (third?) has been pretty good. Ant-Man was funny, Deadpool hilarious, Guardians of the Galaxy a real treat. So I should have had more faith.

Really, properly loved this film. After the ringer Spider-Man has been put through (as a concept, not the character himself), I wasn’t expecting much from this one, but it worked on every level. I tweeted immediately afterwards, which sums up my feelings: Was not expecting the new Spider-Man to be any good but I’ve just watched it and I, for want of a better phrase, can’t even.

I sort of can’t sum up my feelings about this film, it was so good. It’s just over two hours long, but quite honestly, it took us about four hours to watch because we had to keep pausing and rewatching the awesomeness. The David Hasselhoff bit, the Zune, Baby Groot being adorable, Drax being hilarious, it was all just brilliant.

This week, I just finished watching season four of Agents of Shield, and my word, it was an incredible ride. (Vague spoilers below, nothing major.) I’ve loved watching the trials and tribulations of these Shield agents since the show first began, but it has gradually been improving in quality to the point that this series was an absolute triumph. My affection for the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been wearing thin recently, the novelty of so many inter-connected movies has long since worn off and now all that is left is a strong feeling of being overwhelmed and consistently unable to keep up. At least with a TV show, it is for the most part self-contained. The odd reference to the bigger universe is a bonus and easily ignored, although it’s fair to say the events of each season are affected by what happens in that big bad world.

I was wary of watching this for too reasons: Firstly, I have that Marvel fatigue where I’m nervous of not remembering all the things required to enjoy a MCU film, and secondly, I had heard it was Inception-like, so expected it would be complicated. Both those concerns were unfounded. It stands alone as a Marvel movie at the moment, and although there were Inception moments, it wasn’t a confusing concept. In fact, there weren’t just Inception moments, it felt like there was barely an original thought in there.

My feelings about this film are mostly not that positive, but here’s a breakdown of some of the main points - the good ones first: I love the concept - repercussions from superhero destruction have been a bugbear of mine for a while so it’s good to see that addressed, and that it causes its own problems as well.

I was super excited to watch the new Jessica Jones series on Netflix. I’d not got on board with Daredevil, but this was something different. The concept appealed 100% - Marvel expanding their universe with female characters at the helm? Bring it on. Netflix allowing us to binge watch the entire series at once? I’m on board! The trouble is, it arrived just before I got to my latest exam break, so I had the pain of avoiding spoilers and looking wistfully at the Netflix tweets about the series, waiting, waiting, waiting until I could find the time to watch.

I wanted to love this, because I’m a huge Paul Rudd fan, and Marvel has rarely let us down to date. I just couldn’t quite get on board with it, though. It seemed like a great cast assembled, but they never quite gelled together in a way that the other groups have. There were a lot of good things about the film, a few funny moments, some nice action sequences, and some clever ideas. But I had three pretty significant issues with the whole thing.