Excelsior, fellow Comicviners. It is I, the tired and old neighborhood GS. Today I am going to review the recently Black Panther sequel in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. There will be spoilers down below, I will do my best to mark them in black so if you don't want to see them don't look at them, or ctrl F that ish to the in conclusion for the overall take. So here we go.

Summary

Black Panther Wakanda Forever is the sequel to Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, starring Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Winston Duke as M'Baku, and Danai Gurira as Michonne I mean Okoye. It welcomes new comers Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, and Tenoch Huerta as the antagonist in Namor. A new threat emerges from the deep to threaten Wakanda after the passing of their protector and King T'Challa. A young scientist invents the only machine on the planet that can detect vibranium. It is up to Shuri and Okoye to find the scientist to protect her from the Navi, I mean Atlanteans, I mean not-Atlanteans, I mean the Telokans, and any other worldly powers searching for her while protecting their home of Wakanda from the invading forces.

Pros

Acting: First thing out the gate, this movie was acted very well. Laticia Wright really stepped up her game here to carry as much as she could in a film that was definitely missing its centerpiece in Chadwick Boseman. No one will replace Chadwick. This doesn't try and do that. It very much understands this and tries its best to play around it, and I feel that is when the movie is actually at its best. Its the moments when the characters talk, and grieve and show the emotions that they have while exploring loss but also presenting poise and firmness that one must have when ruling a nation as powerful as Wakanda. Angela Bassett to me literally stole every scene she was in. They tried to make her look old and weathered, and tired and hurt. But she gives powerful deliveries and speeches and just owns the room when she is on screen. As I said before Laticia really does step it up. Her dynamic with Okoye is done very well. We see Shuri grow and develop with her struggles, and I find her to be a much more enjoyable character for it. Danai is just so good at what she does. Whether its showing emotion, fighting, stoicism, she is fantastic. Winston Duke is great as M'Baku, being kind of the comedy relief at times but also just dropping small, golden nuggets here and there that are much appreciated. Tenoch Huerta does fine with what he's given. He's caring to his people, he's intimidating when he has to be. Unfortunately, I will get to this later, the depiction of Namor in this movie falls short IMO. And Lupita Nyongo does great with little time she actually has in the movie.

Cinematography: The cinematography in this movie is definitely a step up from the first one. If I'm being honest, the CGI fest and fights in the first movie, the weird rotating camera angles etc all kinda hurt my eyes. This movie did a lot better in its camera shots. The fight scenes were much better in this movie. The landscape is beautiful, the shots underwater were done very well. I think Coogler just did a better job directing those types of imagery here in this movie than the first one.

Music: The score was done fairly well. No problems there. It was heartfelt when it needed to be, almost eerie at times, picked up in the action. Sometimes the songs did fall or drag on longer than they should have IMO, but overall it was fine.

SFX: Kind of going back to the cinematography, the effects in this movie were much better than the first one. The underwater shots were good, Telokan looked visually impressive for the most part. Wakanda is stunning as usual. The movie was a good looking film.

Chadwick Tributes: The tributes to Chadwick in this movie were some of the best parts. All heartfelt, solemn, and at times I wasn't sure if it was the actors actuing or the people expressing how they felt with Boseman's passing. The passion there was beautifully done and I think they honored him in this moments wonderfully.

Serious Tone: We got a serious tone in the movie. Some jokes here and there were funny but overall,

Cons

The Plot: The plot wasn't good. I will flat out say everything felt kinda forced. A civilization no one has ever heard of in Telokan wants this scientist that made this machine that can find vibranium and in order to protect his city and people, Namor just shows up in Wakanda somehow and threatens that they need to find the scientist or he will unleash an army big enough to "have a soldier for every blade of grass in Wakanda". So they got to find Riri Williams to protect her and now the US Government is after them, and she becomes the most important person in the universe because vibranium can only exist inside Wakanda and preposterous it be anywhere else. And because this scientist exists to build this machine, Namor can't risk the world finding Telokan so he will kill her then destroy the rest of the world, but wants Wakanda to join them so they can all do it together and then just live in peace. Kind of a weak motif but that is what they went with.

Pacing: This movie was way too long. It had no reason to be almost 3 hours. It had too much happening that it felt overstuffed. Lots of moments just never were able to breathe. Riri Williams didn't need to be here. The stuff with Martin Freeman and the Americans didn't need to be here. Then we get something like the queen's death when she drowns. They show her swimming one moment then run into the throne room and she's just face down in the puddle. They try and revive her to no avail, then they're at her funeral and her pod gets lifted up into space. Nothing in this whole 2-3 minutes of scenes were impactful yet I had people in the theater crying over this. There was a flashback kind of scene in the end fight that just dragged on forever. There was just pacing issues all around in this film that could've been avoided if they cut some of the extra fat and I think it would've made the movie better. And because of this issue I found the film struggling to really depict who the main character was supposed to be. I think Angela Bassett and Okoye really carried the first 2/3's of this movie and kinda forgot Shuri was there, She does shine in the end, but wasn't this supposed to be her movie about becoming the Black Panther? Didn't feel like it.

Riri Williams: I did not like her. Nothing against Dominique Thorne as an actress, I don't know enough about her. But I felt she was arrogant at introduction without the charisma, overacted a lot of her parts. Her suits were horrible looking. She is the focal point around a lot of this plot but every reason they tried to get you to care about her, it didn't work. I felt her inclusion in this movie was more of a detriment actually. It took time away from Shuri's development and character arc and it just muddled things way too much.

Exposition: This movie talks a lot. It does. The Telokans are supposed to be this highly advanced civilization that can compete with Wakanda, but they invade in on whales and have these water bombs, and outside of like a brief glimpse at the city which has this sun thing, there really isn't anything that suggests such. Riri Williams is amazing, and smart and the best at what she does, and the only one that can build such a machine to find vibranium, because? It just kind of expects you to take these things at face value, and doesn't really show it.

The Namor Conundrum

Something different here, I don't normally go into character analyses, but I write a 2 paragraph statement on my disappointment in the handling of Namor. I think Tenoch did very well with what he was given. The depiction of Namor was not great IMO. So if you would like to read that, it does include spoilers, I will leave it here.

In Conclusion

This movie definitely has a hole in it. I think without Boseman it suffers. So I will say this...don't go in comparing this movie to the first one. I myself am not a huge fan of the first Black Panther movie. Just thought it was kind of an okay movie but Boseman shined in that movie. He was the best part in Civil War IMO as well. He's a badass in Infinity War for what time he was given. So you can feel that void in Wakanda Forever. So this one tries. I think the actresses, because it is very female led, all stepped it up. It was acted well, shot well, looks good. But that can't save it from its shortcomings to me. The plot is muddled, way too overstuffed, weak motives for the villain, and they tried to make it kind of empathetic towards his cause, but if you take a step back, it isn't a good one. Pacing issues, unnecessary characters added in that just dragged it down. I think Ryan Coogler did somethings better in this movie that the first suffered from like better fights, better cinematography, but without Chadwick it does feel it. And what this movie has in the shortcomings, I think it takes away from the good. If they had no Riri Williams, kept Martin Freeman's angle out, and I appreciate what they tried to do with Namor, it just didn't work for me, I think this movie could've been great. So this is a hard one for me to rate. I give it a 6.5 with potential for a 7. It's not bad, it's more exciting that something like Captain Marvel and Eternals, but I just could never get fully engaged or care about anything going on.

Final Verdict: 6.5-7/10

Oh, hello, Comicvine. Good to see you again. I'm alive somewhat, and I have crawled out of my weirdly hibernative state to bring you a new GS Review. Just got done watching the new predator movie Prey. I will do my best to keep it as spoiler free as possible, but I might have some and if I do I will black them out. And if you just want to skip to my final thoughts, ctrl F that ish and yeah. So here's my thoughts on the movie.

Summary

Hulu's new movie Prey was directed by Daniel Trachtenberg, and stars Amber Midthunder as our protagonist, Naru, a Comanche woman that wants to become a hunter. After going out on a hunt, Naru comes to the conclusion something big is out in the forest, hunting and killing even the most dangerous animals, the Predator (played by Dan Deliegro). She must protect her tribe and defeat the alien hunter in this prequel to the Predator franchise.

Pros:

Plot: The plot here is rather simplistic, which to me is a big breathe of fresh air in the Predator franchise. A predator gets dropped in the forest in the 1700's and it kills some animals, some people, and a young woman that wants to get out of her tribe's traditional roles of staying back, discovers a big bad alien and wants to kill it. It really is a straight forward plot, it doesn't do too much and I think it really takes what made the first Predator perfect. Those were soldiers in the woods and they come to realize an even bigger, badder threat is out than them, forcing them to go from soldiers to hunters in order to beat the alien and survive in all the greatness of an 80's action movies led by the Bodfather himself in Arnold Schwarzenegger. This movie trimmed a lot of the fat that the last 4 movies in the Predator series did, no super predators, predaliens, villainous Topher Graces, dropping on predator planets, no crossovers, predator dogs. You get where I am going with this? This focuses on Naru, a couple tribe members and their survival against a much deadlier and more advanced threat.

Cast: The cast was done really well, IMO. I knew no one in this movie. I didn't realize Amber Midthunder was the girl in Legion and even then I barely watched much of that. Dakota Beavers plays her brother, Taabe, and the best warrior of the tribe. And he comes across as a mostly supportive older brother and understands his sister's plight. Their chemistry together is done very well Dan Deliegro was so good as the Predator. And there is Saarii the dog. And even all the other supportive casts really did their jobs well, regardless of screen time.

Pacing: I thought the pacing was done pretty well. We get a good amount of character development for the first third of the movie, so it is a bit slow. But it makes us understand Naru's plight. But once we get to this one specific scene in the movie, the pacing really ramps up and it keeps on it. I think the movie found a good length, not being too short, not being too long and does what it needs to while giving certain things enough time to breathe.

The Predator: The Predator was done extremely well in this movie. I loved the toned down and practical design they went with. It looks barbaric, it's imposing, and Dan Deliegro really played the savagery up. It's not afraid to get its hands dirty. The effects with it were mostly done well. I really have no complaints with the creature.

Fights and Gore: This movie does not shy away from the gore. There are some absolutely brutal scenes in this movie and with it being a Predator movie, it should. The fights were done well, the scenes were shot well, and everything mostly made sense or at least attempts to. We see Naru training and fighting and hunting, so we get she can fight and handle herself. We get she is very smart, a great tracker, though not the biggest or strongest. Even the last fight, with which what the Predator has gone through, there is an argument why it works.

Cinematography and CGI: The cinematography was done really well again. The scenery was beautiful, the shots with the characters were personal. The shifts with day to night done rather well. Some shots of the Predator were done really well, but I will expand on that just a bit more in the con section.

Fanservice: The movie had a few callbacks in it to the OG movies. We get a cigar stub in it, which was a callback to Dutch. We get the 1715 Adolini pistol held by Donald Glover in Predator 2.

Cons

Tropey: I know it's 2022 and Hollywood loves strong, female characters, and having men put down women because men. And most modern mainstream writers don't know how to do that dynamic anymore and just make them great at everything. I'm looking at you, Rey. And there is a certain part of the internet that hates these strong female characters, and you have that sect that just hates any attempt at this. This movie does have a bit of that. We have one character that is just kind of asshole and constantly makes remarks about why Naru doesn't belong on a hunt. We have other characters making statements that she doesn't belong on the hunt. We get she is headstrong and plucky and wants to try and hunt. It does beat you over the head quite a bit for the first 30 minutes, however, I don't think that takes away from the movie itself, though. The movie does address this concept later on and it does attempt to make things make sense. And I don't count any of that as a knock against Amber, because I think she does her job well in this film.

CGI: I will say some of the initial CGI shots in the beginning of the movie were not the best. The original shot of the cloaking from the Predator was also not the best, I do say it does correct itself and as said earlier, the shots do seem to get better as the film goes on.

In Conclusion:

I ended up really liking this movie and was surprised it was released on Hulu. I think what this movie does well is that it goes back to the beginning of what made the first Predator great. As I said before it lessens the scope of things, simplifies the plot, it takes itself seriously. There are no stupid predogs, no assburgers are made. It keeps things streamlined. It keeps things personal. The fights are great. Things are brutal, intense. Amber Midthunder and Dakota Beavers have really good chemistry as brother and sister. The Predator was done to perfection. While it does have that "men holding woman down" bit of dynamic at points, it stays true to the fact it took place in the 1700's where women in those tribes didn't hunt and stayed home and were healers etc. However, outside of the dude that just keeps beating that dead horse, once it gets past that the movie picks up and I found myself enjoying the ride and liking Naru. And once the CGI course corrects itself, it gets good. I think this is the best Predator movie we've had in the last 30+ years, and from a film standpoint, up there with the OG.

Final Verdict 8/10

What's good, CV? Site bugs? Crappy political agendas forced into our comic books at the cost of desecrating our beloved childhood characters as mouthpieces? Oh...not a lot then. Well the theaters are opening up and here is our first Marvel movie after 2 years, and the long awaited solo movie that Scarlett Johansson has deserved for almost a decade now, Black Widow. As usual, there will be potential spoilers down below, I will try and black those pieces out so if you do not want to read them then don't, or if you want to skip to the end of the review for my final thoughts, just scroll really fast or control F that ish In Conclusion and do it. But anyways, here we go.

Synopsis

Black Widow is a 2021 film that is directed by Cate Shortland, and stars the beautiful Scarlett Johansson (simp), David Harbour as the Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, (new simp), Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff, OT Fagbenle as Guy Friend, and Ray Winstone as the villainous Dreykov. The movie starts with a bit of an origin story as to how Natasha got into the Red Room from her days as a child. After that, we head to our modern day where the film is set directly after the events of Civil War and before Infinity War. Nat is the on the run from the government and goes into hiding where she ultimately gets pulled in to face the ghosts of her past.

Pros

Acting: Just right out of the gate, the acting was top notch in this film. Everyone from Scarlett, Florence, Winstone, Weisz, Fagbenle to the random widows etc all did their parts incredibly well. When they had to be angry, you could see it. When they had to be sad, you could see it. When it was funny, it was funny. I think Florence was really the standout for me. I think she really stole a lot of the scenes, she was a badass, looked the part, was still funny at times with her deadpan humor. Scarlett I think she proved here she could actually lead a big blockbuster movie like this. I know she's had her own solo movies before like Lucy etc, but it was never Marvel big. She's always seemed to have been relegated as big star support cast. She's great, and I think Scarlett nailed what she was trying to do in this movie.

Action: Just straight up, the fights were awesome. The first 15 minutes was pretty cool. The fight choreography was great, the action was well done. We had enough explosions and that makes brain do a happy. Watching Natasha fight a room full of Widows and hold her own really solidified as her as one of the best fighters in the MCU. We had some epic CGI scenes that were kind of outlandish, but hey, still cool to me.

Cinematography: The movie itself looked great. We had great shots, awesome environments, the settings were done very well.

Music: I've seen some people disagree on this part a lot and fair, it is what it is, but I actually liked the music. The opening credits especially was awesome. The song selection for some of the scenes was done pretty well. Unfortunately, outside of those, nothing really stuck out. But Marvel since the success of Guardians has seemingly had to add in some type of song in almost all the movies to use as a plot point. We get a good ole' U.S. of A classic here, and I loved it.

Dreykov: I haven't seen much said about Ray Winstone, but he was a highlight for me. The one thing Marvel has been pretty bad about is the villains. Outside of Thanos, Bucky, Red Skull,originally Loki, and I liked Ronan (went out like a punk) the villains have been pretty forgettable or turned into jokes. We never got that with Dreykov. He was a very Kingpin/Zemo-esque villain and played the mental game and politics. We see the scope and control that he potentially had. He wasn't over the top corny and had contingencies for almost everything. While he wasn't in the film for very long, Winstone made me want him to actually get got. I think he's going to go down as a rather underrated villain and unfortunately is overshadowed by Taskmaster, which I will be getting into now.

Humor: I'll say for the most part I did enjoy the humor in this movie. What I think it did well despite the Marvel formula of ruining the tension so much with jokes is it kept the levity of most of the scenes when it needed to. I think as far as Marvel movies go, this was done better. Not perfect, but I will say done better.

Cons

Taskmaster: I'm about to spoil this, soooo...yeah. They Barakapool'd Taskmaster, y'all. That was a very Untaskmaster Taskmaster. Turns out to be a girl named Antonia, (at least a Tony reference), isn't cocky, says nothing, has a magic backpack of weapons, had this dramatic thunk every footstep, like you're armor isn't that heavy. Just a waste of such a sought after character. At least the fights were cool.

Plot/Script: The overall plot was pretty weak. A lot of things seemed to happen just to happen, and because of that Natasha seems more of like an observer in her own movie vs really being the one to drive things forward. What this movie really suffers from was a case of the don't knows. Where did this antigen stuff come from? Don't know. Who made it? We don't know. How does her friend keep finding super expensive things so much? Don't know. Did he have a name? Don't remember. Why are her and Yelena fighting in the safe house? Don't know. How did Yelena know of her safe house and to store this case of vials there and that they would go to Nat's supposedly hidden bunker because of friend? Don't know. How did Taskmaster track these mysterious vials across the planet, but lose track of them in a subway just because of a trail of blood? Don't know. Why is Red Guardian in prison? Don't know How did a little girl survive a bomb exploding in her face and a multistory building collapsing on her? Don't know. I'm okay with movies having some plotholes, and not everything needs to be explained, but that stuff can sometime catch up and I think hurts it more than helps it.

50/50

I'm gonna do something new here. I feel in terms of Marvel movies, and you can say this in a lot of movies I guess, Marvel has taken gambles on certain things that I don't think is inherently wrong and depending on how you..take it in can add or take away things from a movie. Because of this, I don't think it's really fair to stick them in a bad category. For example, Trevor from Iron man 3. Was it funny? Honestly, yes. At my first time seeing the movie, I hated it. I think it ruined the chance of the real Mandarin. Instead we got some weird Extremis/Fin Fang Foom human thing with Guy Pierce. But at the time, some people really liked that twist and they enjoyed the movie for it. Did that twist itself really ruin the movie? No. Certain creative liberties don't need to be taken or made, like the entirety of Captain Marvel, but just because one is and it doesn't go over well, doesn't mean it's a bad movie entirely.

David Harbour: Does he play his part really well in this movie? Yes, he actually does. I liked him in this movie. I thought he played the boisterous, self-centered old man living in his glory days really well. He was strong, he absolutely looked the part of a literal bear of a man, he had some pretty cool "oh, shit" moments. But I can see on the flip side, he can be annoying. I don't think it was a really accurate representation of Red Guardian. Not all of his jokes landed. I think I've seen some people complain they were fat-shaming him by using him being overweight as jokes and compared it to Ragnarok Thor, when some characters and people are assholes like Rocket, though we love him and he has a heart of gold in that furry little body of his. All I'm gonna say is he was a lot better here than in Hellboy, so he gets a plus from me.

Winter Soldier Inspiration: This movie I can say was heavily inspired by the Winter Soldier. I get it's a movie focusing on a spy, so there's only so much to be done, but it does take a lot of elements from WS, which I find to be probably Marvel's best movie overall, outside of something big like Infinity War. So it does kind of I feel come across as a WS-lite almost. There is a lot of twists, some obvious, some not as obvious. But being 50/50, I did have some knee jerk reactions before my brain started piecing stuff together. Nat did some good prep shit in this movie, some were done well, others...eh. So how you can take these I think will determine some of the impact of the movie. Unless you predicted everything going on, then you sir, madame, or whatever pronoun you are comfortable with is playing 5-D chess with Thought Robot and Living Tribunal while some of us are playing Tic Tac Toe against the drunk uncle on napkin at Red Lobster with one of those three crayons they gave us.

Family: Good thing this came out around F9 because it does have a lot of family. I think I might move this to a con, but I get what they were trying to do with it. There is a forcible family dynamic trying to be shoved here, but at times they make mention of why there is no familial connection. So I feel like this movie acknowledges what it is trying to do but also has enough wherewithal to acknowledge why it can also not work.

In Conclusion

Overall, all I will say is to get an accurate assumption of this movie, go see this movie when you can. It's the first Marvel movie in 2 years during a pandemic. I've seen so many different opinions of such as "this being a failure" or "this is awesome, they did everything right". Both of which, I don't think are true, but aren't inherently wrong either. My personal opinion...I liked it. I think this movie should've happened before Captain Marvel, which I believe I gave a 5. Captain Marvel to me is essentially the family cookout that you don't want to go to, but have to go to and while you may get a laugh or two out of it, you realize it's a completely unnecessary event with some bad decisions sprinkled in. This movie itself didn't necessarily need to happen either, but it DESERVEDLY needed to happen. This movie does suffer from it's plot at its core. It does suffer from another bad villain and butchering of a character. It did force the family dynamic a bit much at times. But while it has its faults, I did enjoy myself almost the entire way through. I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the interactions, I enjoyed the passing of the torch to Yelena. I loved the fights. I laughed. The end credits kind of kicked me in the balls too because it acknowledged the reality of the MCU going forward without Natasha. So while the plot suffers to make it an average movie, it's really the cast chemistry and fights that really managed to pull this movie up just above being average to an average Marvel movie with more heart. I do think it could've been better, but it was a decent send off for Scarlett, and if she's happy, we should be happy.

Final Rating: 7/10

Greetings and salutations, I don't really know why I'm writing this, but I felt like doing a blog. This is more for me to get my eyes, but also potentially open up discussion about this anime. No secret on here, as I've said it before, but one of my favorite animes of all time was Inuyasha. Inuyasha was one of the first animes I remember fully getting into, and it's definitely been one that I've grown to respect more as I matured and got older, and being capable of understanding things better. I give it so much credit because from bell to bell, I felt like it was one of those near perfect animes. What Inuyasha did right was never really focus on power levels and was character driving plot. It never mishandled too many characters IMO, and each main character felt important and always useful. The protagonist was never the strongest demon, Sesshomaru by far was. We got to see characters grow, develop and feed off one another to the point it seemed balanced. The villains were great for the most part, Lady Centipede, Koga being a rival, Sesshomaru, The Band of Seven, and of course Naraku and his underlings. The world built and lore was deep and rich. The openings and closing were always great. Inuyasha had a lot to love and I still think does. So with this sequel being announced and produced and pushed out amidst the worst year of most of our lives, I was excited. So these are my thoughts on this series so far being 10 episodes in.

Synopsis

14 years has passed since the ending of the main series, and we are introduced to the daughters of Sesshomaru, and Inuyasha respectively. They travel the land, fighting a group of demons led by the great demon Kirinmaru, said to rival Sesshomaru in power. And in doing so are wrapped up in their own trials and tribulations while also uncovering the mysteries of their past.

Pros:

Characters: Right off the bat, in typical Inuyasha fashion, the characters are the highlight of the series. We have the demon twins, Setsuna and Towa, the daughters of Sesshomaru. And we have the quarter demon of Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome. We also have their traveling companion of Takechiyo, who is the designated shape-shifter of the team, basically their version of Shippo. I love these characters. From their designs to personalities to abilities and choice of weapons, everything is different and rather unique to them. The subtle things like Setsuna's jawline, eyes shape, and face being almost identical to her father's while Towa has more of his colorization. It's not just some hair color and a face whisker to say who their dad is. Both look like him down to a tea in their own ways. Setsuna is also a spitting image of her dad personality wise, cold, calm, and collected. Moroha is the split right down the middle of her dad and mom. She very much has Inuyasha's face, but Kagome's eyes and hair, but also has the fangs and claws sticking out like her dad. The side characters are enjoyable, but really the focus is on the daughters and I think they are well done.

Moroha: Moroha gets her own section here. She is by the best out of the 3 daughters. Her energy, personality, her abilities, her presence on screen is the focal point of a lot of stuff. She's funny, a badass, and it's really hard not to like her. I think she's the best thing on this show, and if you take anything away from it, watching her is a treat.

Plot: This one is kind of a double edged sword. The plot is a mystery for the most part. We know Kirinmaru is a bad guy, supposedly so is Sesshomaru, and despite this, we only get breadcrumbs each episode, and then that just kind of makes more questions. The girls don't know much about their parents, and we don't know much about what happened to them. So we kind of learn things as they learn things. They get a mission, show up to the village or stumble on one, kill some demons and move on and maybe get some info. So following along with the girls, who are almost at ground zero like we are, is kind of an enjoyable ride. And one thing it does in Inuyasha fashion, is it does give the girls their own spotlights. So it may seem like one gets kind of tossed on the back burner, but it's just to give the other some time to develop.

Lack of Nostalgia: I vote this as a good thing, and I think this is a point people tend to either praise the series for or fall off. This series is very much the story of the daughters. This is their show. So what this series does is tease a lot, but in such small quantities that what the old cast did is of almost no relevance and we don't know what they are doing either. So it doesn't have to rely on those old elements to carry this series. But with that said, it does feel like Inuyasha. It feels like their world, from the opening to closing music, to the elements that made Inuyasha great. It very much carries those same elements but being its own thing entirely.

Music: As I just said, the music. The intro could be a bit better, but the outro fits 100 percent. It's soft and calming but fits the girls really well. I've loved the endings of Inuyasha since My Will and the ferris wheel from season 1.

VA: All the voice acting is great. That's all I need to say.

Cons

Plot/Pacing: This is where things start to fall on that other side of the sword. The pacing at times seems rushed, and with that, we still get so many teasers of the old characters but being 10 episodes we still almost know nothing. So while I said the lack of nostalgia is great for the story purposes, if you come into this really expecting much focus on the old crew, it's not there, and it's a mystery. So being 10 episodes in, some people have kind of fallen off the ride because they are in it for the old cast. But if you can get past that, it makes the series much more enjoyable.

Villains: So far the villains have been pretty forgettable. It's kind of like each villain has been a MCU villain. They show up, have a vendetta for whatever reason, then get beat. Nothing really lasts, and the girls just kind of steamroll through them with some effort. They all have problems with Sesshomaru, again for whatever reason, but that isn't touched upon. The old series had Naraku, Jokotsu, Kagura, Bankotsu, Sesshomaru for most of it. Even the movie villains were great. So with that said, it never really feels like anyone is in danger.

The Twins: So me being a big fan of Sesshomaru, I like Setsuna more than Towa. I like her design more, her powers, her naginata was an awesome weapon. But, she is kind of one dimensional. She is very robotic, but for her that works. What we don't have yet though is an explanation for her being like this. So she is very much like her dad, but Sesshomaru grew to care Rin at least and Kohaku, and protected Sango and her kids, so he's apart of the group. But we knew he was arrogant, only wanted power, despised his dad because of Inuyasha but also at the same time wanted to be like him. Status drove Sesshomaru and that is why he is the way he is. Setsuna....is just like him. So that coldness I feel can turn off some from her. On the flip side, Towa is much more likable, but she is a Mary Sue. She tends to develop a new ability for whatever reason, no build up. She just does things. But again, I do like both of them, they just have their flaws.

Animation: The animation kind of dips at times. It is a weekly anime so that is probably why. Just something that is noticeable.

Rating: Oh, I also believe the rating is a bit lower than Inuyasha. If not, it doesn't swear as much, and there is much blood. So again, just something to know.

Exposition: Like Inuyasha, this series is decently heavy on exposition, Myoga pops up and says whatever is convenient at the time and problem solved. But its predecessor did that.

In Conclusion

So yeah. That is it. It is a very enjoyable series so far IMO. At its core, I enjoy it. This show has been a successful sequel so far. I think what made Inuyasha special, this show follows that. It allows its own characters to be the focal point and drive the story. Because of that I respect it doesn't rely on too much on the old series. But because it does use them as a mystery, I think with how a lot of it isn't told by now between episodes 1-10, it is a bit annoying. With that said, I don't think that is a reason to shoot it down like some have. Couple that with some pacing issues, it can be better. So if you like Inuyasha but can deal with that, I think you might enjoy it.

Rating Thus Far: 7.5/10

Someone in my recent Top 5 Wolverine Costumes list mentioned my Cyclops one and I just decided to re-read through it for shiggles and was sparked by inspiration of my least favorite Cyclops costumes. So after some research and self-reflection I decided why not? Cyclops is a character that has had some really good, really bad, and some really polarizing costumes. If you want to check out my 5 Favorite Cyclops costumes, I will link that here. I've always felt almost like an outsider amongst Cyclops fans because I genuinely don't feel like my opinions of the character match the majority of what I see as the common general answers in certain things, so as I was making this list I fully expect some "negative" feedback. So let me remind you, this is all subjective. So let's get to it.

5. Jim Lee Era

Dropping bombs right away. Created by Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, debuting in X-Men Volume 2, issue 1. This outfit of Cyclops is arguably the most iconic costume and is regarded as the quintessential outfit for Mr. Scott Summers. But guess what? I never found the appeal. I don't actually hate this costume but it's kind of...meh to me. Between the solid blue spandex, the banana yellow trunks on the outside, the thick gold pirate boots, gloves, and the belt and strap combo just always looked kind of silly to me. The gold visor also always looked kind of clunky to me too. And there seems to be some weird obsession with a certain niche of Cyclops fans have about the "chestnut/chocolate brown hair flowing free. I don't get it. This isn't a bad outfit by any means. It is a very 90's outfit, but it just never appealed to me. I'd actually say Larocca did it better, which is on my top 5 favorite Cyclops outfits and why I believe so.

4. Classic Blue

The first individualized costume that Scott received from Xavier in X-Men #39. Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, this to me is one of the cases that I agree with the full body outfit not working. I made a case in my other list or in another thread that I actually like a lot of the "head condom" outfits but they are very much based on the actual color scheme and design. This is one of the ones that while an early costume I don't feel aged very well. It's basic in it's color scheme with the solid blue...full body spandex. It has the same problems I had with the Jim Lee costume with the banana yellow underwear, boots, gloves and visor. To me I feel like the best full body costumes Scott has are the ones that are streamlined like his Astonishing outfit or the Revolutionary one, as controversial and deviating that one was, it just flowed better. This one, like the Jim Lee design, are just too bulky in appearance and seem thrown together. It's a classic costume, but I can't say it's a good one outside of nostalgia.

3. New X-Men

Debuting in Grant Morrison's and Frank Quitley's "New" X-Men 114, this costume itself was very much a big detraction from Scott's usual body spandex outfits, and Frank drew him well...very slim. I will say I think Grant Morrison's X-Men run will go down as one of the top 3 runs of all time. What I will say though is the artwork was very inconsistent to me. I think some panels were done very well but I think Quitley really took Scott's nickname a bit too far. Everything from Scott's build to the shape of his face was slim. The visor itself was not a good change up, IMO, after years of clunky looking gold ones to barely a thin strip running across his eyes. The outfit itself didn't really scream hero and I know Whedon made a remark about returning to the superhero look in Astonishing right after. This outfit to me was more suitable for Wolverine. This is something I can see Cyclops ordering a hot dog and swinging by Jean's at 6 vs saving a child from a burning building. Between inconsistent artwork and I think the concept itself, it just didn't work for me, but on an aesthetic level, I'd say it's not his worst. It worked for the story, though.

2. O5

And back to the classics and this is as classic as it gets. This is Scott's first costume and I hated it. The dark blue/ sometimes black depending on the take, with the yellow, the thick boots, and visor looking like it grew from Scott's face, I don't like the outfits. It's very generic looking and makes him look like some fodder goon of some bad guy's gang vs a superhero.

1. Honeymoon Outfit

Digging deep on this one guys, but holy shit was it bad. Appearing only 1 time did this legendary outfit ever appear. Debuting and ending in X-Men #35 by the creative team of Fabian Nicieza and Liam Sharp. We're going to give Scott a dark blue outfit, orange shoulder pad like sleeves, a chin strap, the thickest visor we can and a tape measure going over his head. Make him look like he was a defensive lineman from back in the day and decided to bust out the old game clothes to see if he can still fit on his honeymoon years later. It's a bad one and definitely a good thing this costume never saw the light of day again. I don't think we needed Scott to look like he was going to cut an 80's WWF promo on Ricky Steamboat or something.

There you have it, folks. My least 5 favorite Cyclops outfits. I know I'm committing heresy with some of these but oops. Maybe I want to watch the fandom burn? But I would never do something like that. As usual, feel free to comment, hate, thumbs up, make your lists, comment and whatever below. Thanks for reading and I'll catch you guys next time.

It's been awhile since I did a blog. About a year ago, I did a Top 5 favorite Cyclops costumes in honor of my favorite character. Since I did that and had some odd fun doing it, I've been wanting to do one for my other favorite in Wolverine but never got around to it. Welp, I find myself with a day off and some time to kill and decided why not? So lets slice on into it. Small disclaimer, this is strictly 616 Wolverine. I do actually enjoy some of his other costumes in different media such as both outfits from X-Men Evolution, the orange and black and the eventual dark blue short t-shirt like costume, or Ultimate Wolverine's outfit, which is just awesome. I'd throw in Days of Future Past and Old Man Logan in there as great outfits as well.

5. Patch

Never has a secret identity been as convincing as Clark Kent and his glasses until Patch happened. Going to a dive bar, dressing up Casablanca style and throwing on an eyepatch while the rest of your distinguishing features sat out was a brilliant idea, almost as great as the fishnet mask. Created by Chris Claremont and John Buscema for Wolverine's first ongoing ever. I'm completely joking with this as a top 5, but I feel an honorable mention needed to be made since the actual story itself was a big deal for the character and quite a fun read.

5. Ablation Armor

I might be a bit of a hypocrite for this one since my disdain for Paul Cornell's take on Wolverine is quite known and still haunts me to this day as arguably the worst long term run on Wolverine ever. I could pull up some one shots or minis that were worse, but Cornell did one hell of a job at dismantling everything that made Wolverine, well, Wolverine. But...I will give credit where it is due, I really liked the Ablation Armor. Created by Kris Anka in 2014, this armor was for Wolverine when he was powerless. It is a suit of armor that could protect him from a nuclear reactor while he also carried a gun and with built in claws so he didn't have to cut himself. The design itself is rather simple, as it breaks away from the general blue and yellow costume Logan is known for. The costume itself tends to rotate between an orange or gold color with black X on it depending on the artist, but Stegman really took the outfit to a new level.

4. Secret War

A very brief and I feel slightly underrated costume, the Secret War costume designed by Gabriele Dell 'Otto in Brian Michael Bendis' Secret War. To me, this costume is very similar in why I like Cyclops' Eve of Destruction costume in that it seems to fly by so quick, yet this one is even more under the radar. This outfit was meant to be more stealthy and sleek, with the darker shade of blue, almost a navy color, with the streaks of yellow being splashed in. It is very similar to the Ultimate Wolverine outfit, one I'm a very big fan of. This one in particular I got my first introduction to it back years and years ago when I was in high school and this was an alternate costume for Wolverine in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

3. Tan and Brown

A long time fan favorite costume for Wolverine is the tan and brown costume, originally created by John Byrne in X-Men 139, 40 years ago. I felt this costume works for Wolverine a little bit better than the yellow and blue, being of a slightly darker yet more...wild and animal like in color scheme. It's made some pop-ups in stories over the years, but recently made more of a comeback, being brought to light again during Rosenberg's Uncanny X-Men run, with art done by Salvador Larroca, who made the outfit look beautiful. It is also currently being used by Wolverine in Hickman and Percy's X-Men books. I'm glad to see it has made a comeback and is so far here to stay.

2. X-Force

For a 5'3 or slightly taller, depending on who is drawing, assassin/soldier/ninja/samurai/animal unkillable, unbreakable, death machine, I think the X-Force outfit is the perfect representation of Wolverine. I give Wolverine props for being stealthy and killy(?) in the colors of the Swedeish flag, but this one does the trick. This costume debuted in X-Force Volume 3 issue 1, written by Chris Yost, Craig Kyle, and drawn by Clayton Crain, holy alliteration, Batman. The silver/grey and black are so simple in terms of color scheme, but in execution standout enough to make it bold. The red eyes also add another unique level to it. If it were up to me, this would be Wolverine's quintessential costume. I think as far as how he is a character, as a fighter, and what he is capable of, this captures him and suits him best as far as superhero outfits go. But I will say I'm also kind of glad it is a special occasion or "X-Force" only costume so the novelty of it doesn't wear off.

1. Civilian

Wolverine himself is a loner at heart. His best stories, IMO, have been told when he's off on his doing his own thing, maybe killing some ninjas, sipping some whiskey, riding his motorcycle, that sort of thing. I think he is also great on a team because of his conflicting nature with a lot of his teammates and his own self. But, the bright blue and yellow to me is a nostalgic costume, but also very heavily influenced by who is actually drawing it. If I had to pick, Cassaday from Astonishing nailed a great modern take and so does someone like Dell'Otto, Deodato, Immonen, Bianchi, but they themselves are good artists. But there is something with Logan being in a tank top, some jeans, leather jacket and maybe a cowboy hat and dog tags that feel right. It's simple and it works.

Welp, there you have it. My top 5 Wolverine costumes. Depending on how this one goes, I might make a part 2 but featuring other costumes from alternate universes or picking up some from 616. Like I said, I do not hate the blue and yellow, I think it's very dependent, so if I do it, it would be like a specific incarnation or volume. We'll see.

Welcome to the latest installment of GS Review. Today I'm reviewing the newly released

Just to start off if you want a much better review than this will be, go check out @theamazingspidey's review of the movie. It's a fantastic review, and I pretty much agree with everything he says, but I have a few view points of my own that differ. And I will link that review here. I hope you don't mind I linked it here. I'll take it down otherwise.

Anyways, onto the review. There will be spoilers ahead, so as usual, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read on. If you have seen the movie or don't care about spoilers, then read ahead.

Synopsis

The Joker, directed by Todd Philips, stars Joaquin Phoenix as he portrays the former mental patient and aspiring comedian Arthur Fleck. Fleck lives with his mother Penny Fleck, played by Frances Conroy, as they reside in a run down apartment in the crime riddled town of Gotham. As events start to happen in his life we follow Arthur's decent into madness into becoming the titular character, the Joker.

Pros

Acting: Right out of the gate, everyone nailed every single role they were given in this movie. Frances Conroy plays the not so right in the head mother. Her chemistry with Joaquin was done very well. Brett Cullen played what I imagine most politicians would seem like in real life in Thomas Wayne, rich, powerful, saying the right things on TV but an absolute jerk in person. Zazie Beetz plays the love interest in Sophie Dumon, and her "interactions" with Arthur. Robert De Niro could really play a two faced talk show comedian if he wanted. But aside from everyone as a supporting cast, Phoenix was a spectacle.

Phoenix: Joaquin was absolutely incredible in this movie. I have a soft spot for him since he played Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, (big Cash fan here). I feel he is a very underrated actor. Every time he was on screen he stole the show. The subtleties of things like just how he carried himself in the beginning, walking hunched over, almost skiddish. Him truggling with his laughing condition that just caused him pain and something he seemed so insecure about. His disturbing dances and all that to help cope with his problems almost. And eventually to him practically not so much overcoming his issues, but embracing them to when he finally becomes the Joker. You see the glimpses in his psychosis, hallucinations and his breakdowns and all that. You just see that shift in character and swagger. And his dedication to the portrayal in becoming so thin and emaciated looking. Everything Joaquin did in this movie shows he was 100% dedicated to this role and absolutely killed it.

Cinematography and Soundtrack: All the shots were great. The scenes and backgrounds done so well. And the music was near perfect for every scene. No complaints.

Writing: One thing I was very hesitant with this movie originally was the fact I didn't want to feel sympathetic and glorify the Joker. He is nothing to glorify. He's a monster of a human being if you can call him that. With that said, you do feel sympathy for Arthur and the world is just utterly shitting on him. Every one in this movie does something to him and you finally see that snap. And when he does these heinous acts you don't root for him. It's an introspective on "this could be anyone" after all the stuff he went through. Just one bad day away from being him. The pacing was well done, but I felt it kind of a got bit rushed at the end, which I will cover more later. Philips did a great job directing, and Joaquin did a magnificent job portraying that. And I loved the Dark Knight Returns reference with him killing Murray. So well done.

Cons

With this movie, I didn't really have any major cons. What might piss some people off is I didn't think this movie was much a of comic book movie. It was just a movie portraying the psychosis of a mental patient that turns into a killer based on what happens in his life. It was very much like Taxi Driver and Kings of Comedy but they just had to throw in a bit of Batman lore like this movie just so happened in Gotham. And this guy just happened to become the Joker. And even then, I didn't really feel like he was the Joker. I get it's an origin film, but he never came across as being the real Joker to me. He seemed kind of simple at times and never completely in control of the room. Never came across as that mad genius that the Joker is. Like he could kill a few guys in the room, and do some heinous things but isn't commanding the space. And in the vain of it being a grounded film, Heath's Joker did command the room, but Joaquin's didn't despite both supposedly grounded takes on the Batman mythos. So I don't want that excuse, it doesn't fly with me. And I felt some of the comic stuff they threw in didn't fit either, like the Wayne's died in this movie too, even going so far as to show the pearl necklace. It felt kind of forced and a bit rushed to remind you this is a comic book movie. I just didn't see the movie as a comic book movie, IMO.

In Conclusion:

The movie is fantastic. The movie is a great introspective movie and very much a mirror up to society. It is thought provoking and I will say each person will respond a little bit different to it. But I think it is a little too general in the concepts used to really say it is a total Joker movie. Regardless, Joaquin is a fantastic Joker and really makes the role his own. Heath would be proud.

Final Rating: 8.5/10

I've been in an artsy mood lately, and in a day an age where comic creators just pump out new costumes like hot cakes, I sat down and thought, what are some of my favorites? So I'm doing that. Today, I go through my top 5 costumes of favorite character, tied with Wolverine who will be next, and picked Cyclops. As a disclaimer, this is all in my opinion of course, feel free to comment, list your own, whatever. But again...my opinion. So let's get to it.

5. Eric The Red

Sexy, right? This is just a joke. I'm kidding.

5. Jim Lee Design 2.0

I am probably one of the few Cyclops fans that does not care for the original Claremont/Jim Lee design. I always found it boring, just not aesthetically pleasing to me. I know it's THEE Cyclops design, but I never liked it. However, I do like the modernized take on it from Rosenberg's Uncanny X-Men that Larrocca gave us by mixing it with the silver visor and the longer hair. I think it worked pretty well for the gritty run and overall, looked pretty cool.

4. X-Factor 2.0

I really liked this version in comparison to the first. I think it was a very big change from the classic blue and yellow that Cyclops is very famous in general when it came to his classic costumes. The white X and boots against the dark blue meshed really well and I think it's a really cool concept.

3. Eve of Destruction

A very short lived costume for Scott. Post Apoc possessed Cyclops came back with a much more reckless and darker persona with a costume to match. A very big step up from his more famous decor by completely abandoning all traces of blue or gold. The silver and black really stood out on Scott with this outfit and I thought it was a very awesome step outside the box and definitely an outfit that was a pure reflection of the character at the time. One outfit I wished we had for a little longer.

1st Place Tie. Astonishing/Utopia

I know the 2 have very minor differences, but I lump them together for the most part. I loved this outfit, and for a long time, it was my favorite. It is tied for 1st place, just kind of depends on the day. With that said, I love it. The darker blue, the gold trimming, the greaves, the silver visor. Going back to being a hero and an outfit given to us in my favorite X-Men run of all time by Whedon and Cassaday. It screamed superhero but also fit with Scott stepping out of Xavier's shadow and showing he could be the quintessential X-Man. Definitely was a nice change and one that stuck for almost 10 years. This was definitely my era of Cyclops.

1st Place Tie. Revolutionary/Marvel Now

So I'm probably gonna get mixed opinions and some flack for it, but I love this outfit. I will admit I hated it at first. I really did. The X-Visor, the red, it was Bachalo, who at the time was in a drawing slump before Uncanny with Bendis. But overtime, and Bachalo actually doing well, and the occasional Immonen and Anka pop up drawing it, they really brought the outfit to life. It is such a stark contrast to Cyclops' original color pallet, but the crimson alternating with black while the ruby red lines and visor set apart the costume. It really gave Cyclops a presence whenever he was in the room and just shown to how he has grown from that skiddish 15 year old to being an early 30ish a leader and bold adult. It is a costume I miss as I felt like we didn't get as much out of it as we could have, but for what we had, I have to say it is hands down a top 2 for me with the Astonishing outfit.

Why hello there. Have you seen Dark Phoenix yet? Thinking you might want to? Well, then don't read this if you care about spoilers. If you don't read ahead and thank you for your time.

Synopsis

The movie opens with Jean Grey as a child driving with her family. Her powers start to manifest over the radio with her mom, she causes her mom to sleep and they crash into another car with Jean being the only survivor...pr so they say. Xavier meets her, tells her that her parents are dead (I'm Batman), and he convinces her to go to the school. Fast forward, the to present X-Men time in their timeline, and the X-Men are popular and loved by all. Xavier's school is flourishing, life is good. They head to space to save some astronauts after a phone call from the president and while on this mission, the Phoenix Force shows up, possesses Jean, and now everything is turned up. She goes mad over the realization her father is alive and Xavier lied to her and this sets up the rest of the plot going forward. And there is a sub group of aliens that they barely touched on that are the main bad guys. Now its the X-Men, Magneto, and the D'bari chasing after Jean.

Pros

Fassbender: I'm just going to outright say that Fassbender was the only real good actor in this movie. I say that as a fan of Evan Peters and James McAvoy, but Fassbender really stole any scene he was in. He looked great when fighting Jean over a helicopter, he was all into it. It was great, because she wasn't. And even though he was in the movie, he didn't really do a whole lot, so he was pretty limited, but out of everyone, he was right.

Dazzler: We got Dazzler....that is all.

Final Fight: The final fight was very brief, but we see Jean start atomizing people, which was kind of cool. Aside from that, the rest of the fighting was lackluster or boring.

Xavier's Ego: While I am not going to put McAvoy as a pro in this movie for reasons I will state later, but they actually touched on the fact that Xavier at times is a douchebag, not the holier than thou, can do no wrong, mutant activist and will mess with people's minds. I get in First Class and DoFP they show him being young and all that, or depressed as all hell to the point of being broken, but they really drove that emphasis home in this movie before he kind of snaps out of that side of him later. Not really a major pro to the movie, but definitely a nice touch to see.

Cons:

Strap in, here we go.

Sophie Turner: So, I wrote a review for X-Men: Apocalypse some years back and I ragged on Sophie Turner as an actress in that movie for having a serious case of Kristen Stewart Twilight Derp face. I can in this movie, say it really isn't better. She has an amazing ability to completely disconnect her emotions, voice, and whatever her body is doing all at once. When she is sucking in the Phoenix Force, she is screaming in pain, her face looks completely apathetic. When she is fighting with Magneto over a helicopter, she looks so nervous and out of place with this half-assed hand raise while Erik is straining and going all out. Then she looks at him and is like "HAHA 2 HANDS" and then he raises 2 hands. I can see like a cocky look and hand raise because she is that much stronger, or maybe some kind of strain. Nope, none of that. No emotion. When she sounds angry, she looks bored. When she is acting angry, her voice sounds bored. I have never watched an episode of Game of Thrones, so I don't know what Sophie Turner's ability as an actress is, but as Jean Grey in both movies, she has been nothing but an utter disappointment.

Mystique is a Mistake: JLaw just gave lifeless speeches, some "change the name to X-Women because the girls do all the saving". Really? From the character that betrayed her family and almost ruined life for mutantkind by going rogue and trying to assassinate world powers? Sounds good, Mystique. It's really disappointing that Jennifer Lawrence did, I think, a really good job in DoFP, to phoning it in Apoc and doing no better in this one. She just sounded like some person giving the generic after school special speech. I was glad she got Logan'd on a piece of wood. And then her be the reason everyone gets their shit straight or motives from? Really? Mystique? I said it in my Apoc review, Jennifer Lawrence just doesn't seem to care. She shouldn't have been brought back for this movie or given as much screen time she was given before her character was killed.

Acting: The acting in this movie was really subpar. The conversations between characters felt so forced, so rushed, so....lifeless. Nothing was allowed a chance to breathe until later in the movie, like it took awhile for them to warm up or something. McAvoy himself included. Evan Peters didn't get much attention, so he didn't do bad. Alexandra Shipp was ok. Sheridan's Cyclops was lifeless again. At least he said "Jean" a lot, if we want to get accurate enough. *Shrugs*. The whole cast was jam packed, but they all seemed like they didn't want to be there.

D' Bari: So the main antagonists in this movie were the D'Bari. You ever hear of them? No? Youz sez noh? Well, they were a (I believe) one time panel about how their planet was destroyed by the Phoenix Force in 1980, which is where the connection to the movie comes in, but were mentioned before that in 1964 in Avengers. With that said, I don't recall they mentioned as the D'Bari, they get shoe-horned into the movie, and all the actors playing them (aside from Jessica Chastain, who is a good actress) were terrible. They all either didn't speak or were monotone as hell, did these horribly over exaggerated runs, floppy arms and shitty fighting. Nothing was said about who they were, unless it was brief and I missed it, what they could do and so on. All that they wanted the Phoenix since it destroyed their planet, and they will destroy Earth and restart their world there. We could've had the Shiar, maybe someone like Cassandra Nova, nah. We get a literal, bottom of the barrel group of aliens, portrayed as crappy stereotype monsters. Their powers weren't explained, Chastain had telekinesis I guess, healing, some telepathy, shapeshifting, and strength. Such a little explanation and a total waste of time with them as a whole.

Fighting: The fighting was terrible, completely lackluster, and such a small scale. Magneto had trouble getting a subway car from the the tunnel, but could almost destroy the planet and float an entire stadium in previous movies. Why? Storm barely did jack and was having trouble with a dude with control over dreadlocks, and I've seen the argument, "there wuz ppl around", nothing was said so keep the excuses to yourself. Selene looked terrible, and just reminded me of the spike chick in the Last Stand. Cyclops missed a slow floating Magneto going over a bus or something from 10 feet away. The train fight was, again, just boring. Magneto had the best moments, but just completely forgettable. This movie had the weakest fight scenes in any of the movies. The Phoenix itself was such a low scale thing too, it was disappointing.

Nightcrawler Went Full Azazel: It was kind of cool to see Nightcrawler go nuts, like stabbing these guys through the neck with his tail kind of nuts, but Kodi McPhee is just so cringey as Nightcrawler. He kind of got away with it in Apoc for being younger, but he just looked so awkward in this movie. Oh, and what set him off to go nuts? A soldier getting hurt, one that was attacking them, kidnapping and imprisoning his friends. It wasn't Magneto that did it, Jean going Dark Phoenix-lite, Hank joining Magneto, Mystique dying. No, it was the soldier that already did a bunch of crap to him and his friends. He had nothing on X-2 Kurt at all, that scene is still one of the best.

CGI: I will say, the visuals at times, particularly the space scenes, looked like cheap scifi movies. Again, lazy.

In Conclusion:

I knew this movie wasn't going to be the best. I didn't expect too much at all, to be honest, but I went with the benefit of the doubt and I have to say, it was garbage. Lazy writing. Lazy acting. Poor CGI. Weak villains. Waste of potential. Sophie Turner CANNOT lead a movie right now. It sucks that this is the last movie we have Fassbender and McAvoy in their respective roles, and this is how that ends. This movie could've been better than Apoc, which I didn't think was even that bad. I gave it a 6. This was worse than that. This was worse than Last Stand and I will say worse than Origins.

Final Verdict: 2/10

Oh, boy oh boy oh boy oh boy. I was super excited about this film. I was a big Godzilla fan growing up, and I've always liked it even into adulthood. And now we have a monster universe with amazing advancements in technology for amazing visual spectacles and experiences and opportunities for great things. With that said, Let's get into the review. There will be spoilers soooo....leave if you care, thank you if you don't or have seen the movie and are willing to read through my opinion.

Synopsis

We follow the Russells, Mark, Emma, and Madison, all played by Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, and Millie Bobby Brown. They lost a son in the original attack of 2014. 5 years later, Mark is a wildlife photographer, Emma works for Monarch helping in the titans experiment, and Madison is the kid...yeah. Anyway, Emma makes a device that can create sounds using the same frequency of the titans to control them. She is there at the Mothra awakening, some eco-terrorists invade, shoot them and kidnap Emma and Madison. Dr. Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, and his team get Mark and they embark on a quest to save his wife and kid. And Godzilla is there, and he is pissed someone is awakening Ghidorah, the eco terrorists, and it's an ancient rivalry and Ghidorah is awakened, and we get some epic fights from there on.

Pros

Monsters and CGI: So the CGI and visuals in this movie is absolutely amazing to me. The details of Mothra, Rodan, Godzilla, and Ghidorah on top of the sheer scope of them is amazing. We have some awesome shots of Godzilla and Ghidorah standing across from one an another and it was amazing. The kid in me was screaming the entire time. Rodan fighting the pilots and going after Ghidora was a favorite of mine given the aerial fight. Mothra was beautifully done, really establishing that queen and royal status of her. She was also just a straight savage in her few fights, I think she was a big take away for me. And Godzilla and Ghidorah's final battle was also well done. And we get to see Burning Godzilla, and how he finally finishes off Ghidorah was brutal. Remember the spiral ray into the Muto from 2014? They definitely one up it this time. I won't give that away, but I marked out.

Lore: I was happy with some of the nods they gave to the past movies. I was happy we saw a Mothra egg, and she was definitely represented by the twin sisters, which they also represented in past generations. They kept Ghidorah as an alien, which I was unsure if they would do, but I'm glad they kept it. We also got references to Final Wars with Burning Godzilla, and the oxygen destroyer. So it was some nice callbacks to all that.

More Monsters: We got more focus on the monsters this time around, instead of just that build up and only 5 minutes of Godzilla in the 2014 movie.

Side Characters: I don't go to a Godzilla movie to see humans, I don't. I know some of the humans may help set up the fights and such in Godzilla movies, but I don;'t go for them. So I will discuss the main characters in the next section, but some of the characters weren't bad. Serizawa was likable and played his role well. His teammates were also not bad. I liked 2 supporting cast characters we got were Rick and a soldier named Barnes, who were pretty likable, and at times I believe were the fan commentary to some of the things going on. Rick I can see being annoying to some with his sarcastic attitude at times, but I found him speaking somethings on my mind. And Millie Bobby Brown carried her weight as well. I just don't think she really added much.

Cons

Script: So the script was definitely very muddled. We start with a kidnapping, but it was Emma who set the whole thing up, and she wants to save the world by controlling the titans, Mark wants them dead, but they have to follow Godzilla. Ghidorah is awakened (by Emma) and she blows up the base, and leaves her husband for dead. Some soldiers die, but G and Ghidorah fight but he flies away and now Ghidorah is flying away, and now Rodan is woken up by Emma, and he fights Ghidorah. Godzilla shows up, and makes the save, but he is shot with an oxygen destroyer, and now Godzilla is dead, but he isn't. Mothra shows up and communicates with him. Humans go down and find an underwater vortex that takes them to an ancient civilization, and Godzilla is healing in there, but Serizawa takes a nuke down there and it explodes and Godzilla is juiced up and healed. He comes back, we get more monster fights, we get more humans in the way and yeah. Just way too many things going on, lots of human cut aways and scene injections. We definitely got more monster stuff, but the humans kind of still suck.

Humans: They suck again. It's been awhile since I've seen Godzilla 2014, but I didn't hate Olsen and Johnson's characters. At least they were decent people. In this, Emma is a genocidal maniac that got her friends killed willingly, blew up a military base in front of her ex husband and daughter. Apologizes, kind of, but then says humans are the infection and they will awaken the titans and then use her device to control them, literally gambling with billions of lives. Mark, or in this case discount Tom Cruise, is great at every thing. He is a sarcastic asshole with a response for everything, knows how to fix everything, wants the monsters dead, but eventually it kind of dies down to help Godzilla. But if someone asks him something, he has a sarcastic reply like when someone asks why to bring up Godzilla's territory patterns, and he makes some remark about "opening tour boats" or something like that. He immediately knew how to open the hangar doors when they were jammed. He came up with nukes to feed Godzilla. He managed to get in the military base, almost left some soldiers but went back. He's just an all around terrible person. He's a step below Emma because she is batshit crazy. Barnes makes the remark that if they were his parents, he would run away to. And Millie was a child in 2014 played by Lexi Rabe (3000), and now 5 years later, she's able to cook, drink coffee, and say shit...that time jump made sense where? The main family just sucked.

Tropes: The movie was pretty tropish. Lots of last minute saves, slomo monster jumps, etc.

In Conclusion:

The movie itself had some real highs. From a purely visual perspective, and the fights, awesome. I loved it. The world building with how many monsters there are also leaves a lot of potential, but it was brought down due to some constant tropes, last minute saves, and the human characters for the most part being absolutely terrible, which to me brings the rating down. I recommend it to see the fights, but don't expect much as far as plot goes, and tune the humans out.

Final Rating: 6/10