SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (Jon Watts, 2019)

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(*** / *****): Somehow missed this one but, as with all of the MCU Spideys, it was nothing if not a good time. Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon terrific; Gyllenhaal (unsurprisingly) a great Mysterio: changes made to the source character to fit him into the MCU worked well, especially the ones going back to the first IRON MAN film (Jeff Bridges appearances are always a win). Still, though, it was an MCU film, so it could've been so much more: standard lackings in visual distinction, visceral web-slinging wonder (Insomniac's games are far better in this department), and narrative oomph abound. Night Monkey forever.

X-Men ‘97, s1 (2024)

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(****+ / *****): A few stumbles in the early middle aside (the Rogue / Magneto stuff, especially, was pretty eh), this is how you do a revival: faithful yet fearless, unafraid to royally shake things up – but never for the sake of just doing it – and amplifying everything that made the original as special as it was into all that it could be today. Can’t wait for season two.

x-men in all their 1997 glory

ECHO (2024)

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Favorite Marvel series since WANDAVISION: fantastic performances all around, especially from Alaqua Cox and D'Onofrio whose father/daughter dynamic proved particularly affecting. Wears its TV-MA proudly, especially in the first few episodes (the DD fight was solid), but waters things down (Skateland being its last great action moment) by the end of its brisk five-episode run. Ending elicited a solid cheer, but given its earlier penchant for gritty, weighty action, I'd hoped for something to rival the DD/Fisk throwdown at the end of Netflix's first (and still best series of Marvel TV) season of DAREDEVIL: there was room for it – emotionally (even more so than DD, TBH) and run-time wise (36 minutes for the final episode seemed a bit too brisk), certainly. Wouldn't have diluted the power of the denouement. That being said, hope we get more: Alaqua Cox's Maya is, by far, my favorite addition to the Marvel pantheon in the D+ era.

echo still: maya kicks ass

three quick notes on SECRET INVASION 03 + 04

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  • While I loved the first 1/3, I can't, at this juncture, figure how they intend to wrap up this story in a satisfying fashion with two episodes to go. Perhaps the plan is to kill everyone on the show one by one and then, when everyone's dead, the show ends?

  • Thusly, the final episode will be Gravik killing all of the Graviks until there's none left except for himself...

  • But, in the post-credits sequence, Nick Fury emerges from the pile of Graviks, points his gun at final Gravik and says, "Now go the fuck to sleep." Smash cut to black.

links/2023w27

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