Reviews

The Marvels is a fun, often silly, romp elevated by committed performances from the leads. Iman Vellani and her on-screen family were highlights of the often underwhelming Ms Marvel, so it's great to see them all again here. Brie Larson puts in another charismatic performance as Captain Marvel, nicely balancing her cockiness and rashness - clearly attributes she had even before she became ultra-powerful and unlikely to to be softened by it - with humour and endearing awkwardness. Teyonah Parris as Monica is the brains of the trio, and the chemistry and camaraderie between these three lead actors is what makes it so engaging. Plus Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury is, of course, always ridiculously cool.

It's probably the case that a lot of what happens here won't make a lot of sense if you've not seen a lot of the previous MCU adventures, particularly Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel and WandaVision. And despite the world-ending threat, it seems somehow insubstantial. But it doesn't take itself too seriously and has a wacky comic-book vibe, and I found it an enjoyable watch. There's been way too much MCU content churned out in recent years, and it seems likely that some of these characters won't get another outing as a result of a probably overdue cull, but I think that would be a pity. I do hope we'll get to see their continuing adventures.

After all the running around in the last episode, this one sees a change of pace as our heroes are holed up in Queen Bavmorda's abandoned, creepy stronghold while they try to cure Graydon, who was infected last week by the same corruption that turned Ballantine.

This is an opportunity to explore and develop the relationships between different configurations of characters, and see some flashbacks to events in the castle from the 1988 film as well as to find out more about new characters' and the antagonists. While there's still plenty of banter, there was a change in tone to something that if not wholly original at least was unusual and interesting. In fact, while it reminded me of something, I can't put my finger on what. Classic Doctor Who is the closest I can get, but that doesn't seem quite right!

The plot was still a bit hit and miss, and the priorities of the characters questionable even in the context of a haunted castle messing with their heads. But I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, including getting more more insight into Graydon, whom I'm finding one of the most compelling new characters, and the indications we're going to be finding out more about the enemy and what's going on with kidnapped Airk in the next episode.

This was the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and introduced one of its most iconic characters. While it has its cringeworthy moments, we see the seeds of the self-aware wit, the stylish action and the compelling charm of Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark/Iron Man that made the franchise such a huge success.

The movie did, however, do its best to alienate me in its early scenes. I assume that it intended to set up Tony Stark as a charming if selfish playboy, but all Downey's appeal can't prevent him coming across as the sort of greasy, entitled creep that the MeToo movement has since hopefully made us more wary of. We see him, for example, making unnecessary comments to a female soldier about her gender and appearance and apparently staffing his private jet with pole dancers (at least I hope so, as it would be even worse if they were primarily cabin staff who were nevertheless expected to do sexy dancing). And the film doesn't do enough to distance itself from Stark's sleaziness when it does things like show the female soldier laughing at Stark's comments without any apparent awareness that this is too often an uncomfortable defence mechanism that women feel they have to deploy, or invite us to laugh when Pepper Potts, Stark's general dogsbody, is unpleasantly rude to a female journalist whom Tony discards after a one-night stand.

Still, once Tony is kidnapped by a violent criminal organisation calling themselves the Ten Rings, things start looking up for the film if not for our protagonist. Instead of the weapon the gang want him to make, he constructs his first Iron Man suit and uses it to blast to freedom. Back in the USA, his blinkers about the impact of his company's weapons removed, he announces a corporate change of direction and as a result is sidelined by its board, including Jeff Bridges's Obidiah Stane. With time on his hands, Tony begins perfecting his Iron Man suit, and freed from the necessity of acting an oleaginous womaniser, the humour and charm that Robert Downey Jr brought to his portrayal of Tony Stark can start to shine.

The scenes in which he builds and tests his suits are well-done, and the special effects are mainly still convincing today. The suit apparently has real weight, and the ways in which it assembles as Tony puts it on and moves once he's in it are extremely cool. The action is exciting, despite or perhaps because of being relatively restrained and small-scale in comparison to some later Marvel films.

The plot is straightforward and Jeff Bridges's Obidiah Stane, while enjoyable, isn't particularly nuanced or ground-breaking as an antagonist. But that's probably expected and forgivable in an origin story like this. The budding romance between Tony and Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts is surprisingly sweet, given that neither character starts off as particularly sympathetic. And Clark Gregg steals all his scenes as slightly awkward SHIELD agent Phil Coulson.

So, in short, this is an imperfect film that is still worth a watch as laying the groundwork for a phenomenon, as well as having enough positives as the film progresses to earn forgiveness for the ick-factor of its opening scenes.

An improvement on the previous two episodes, in which the show seems to have more clearly determined that it wants to be a fantasy comedy adventure in the mould of The Princess Bride. There are even some Rodents of Unusual Size ... that aren't much more convincingly real than those in the 1987 film. There are more laughs, including an almost Coen-brothers-esque turn from Hannah Waddingham as woodswoman Hubert. Not that it's all jokes: the episode has its action, mild body horror and tragedy, though the plot seemed a bit ropey. Or maybe it was just hard to work out what was going on through all the darkness, rain and gloom. The show hasn't suddenly become original, and it's still got some way to go, but on the whole this is a promising sign that it's finding its groove.

This is a heavy-handed, misfiring legal comedy that nevertheless has some enjoyable moments, engaging performances and fun cameos from members of the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

After a road accident with her cousin Bruce Banner, attorney Jen Walters becomes liable to transform into a 6'7" green hulk. The show follows her as she comes to terms with the disruption this metamorphosis has on her professional and personal life, grows to love her inner and outer hulk and, through embracing her alter ego, grows in confidence as her "normal" self.

Unfortunately, the show relies too much on clunking cringe comedy, making Jen a curiously old-fashioned Bridget Jones/Ally McBeal type klutz who looks professionally incompetent, repeatedly incapable of undertaking basic due diligence. Seeing Jen overcoming imposter syndrome would have been one thing, but the show too often makes her actually pathetic.

Each show in the season is a stand-alone mini legal drama, but there's also an overarching thread. The selection of a Gamergate/incel type online group as the big bad is interesting, but I'm not sure that the oversimplification for comedic purposes of this genuinely chilling tendency is helpful. In fact, the show's critique of the complex intersectional structural forces that drive sexism in today's Western society often amounts to no more than throwaway jokes or caricatures of awful men. I know it's a comedy, but I'd still hope for something more sophisticated in 2022.

The series does feature a number of memorable characters both old and new. Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky/Abomination, who debuted in 2008's pre-MCU The Incredible Hulk, has had his own struggles with transforming into a monster and is a clever choice to guest star in this show. His never wholly believable transformation into a super-calm retreat owner is fun, and if the scene in which he and his therapy group of mutants and wannabe heroes help Jen come to terms with herself is overlong and overdone, it's still both amusing and good role modelling of men addressing their mental health.

Renée Elise Goldsberry is great as as Lucy-Liu-in-Ally-McBeal-alike Mallory Book, Jen's terrifyingly competent, ice queen colleague. Josh Segarra was an unexpected joy as another of Jen's colleagues, Pug, who while superficially the type of oblivious bro that the show lambasts, showed himself to be a loyal ally to Jen and unthreatened by the successful women with whom he was surrounded.

It was fab to see Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock/Daredevil join the MCU proper, and his chemistry with both Jen and She-Hulk was wonderful. Jameela Jamil has a blast tearing up the scenery as unhinged overpowered wellness purveyor Titania. Seeing the equilibrium of Mark Ruffalo's post-Infinity War "Smart Hulk" tested by his understandable chagrin at Jen's so much smoother adaptation to being a hulk was fun. And, as Jen remarks in one of her to-camera asides, everyone loves a cameo from Wong, and his friendship with Patty Guggenheim's hilariously awful party girl Madisynn is a joy.

The comic-book She-Hulk is a knowing, fourth-wall breaking commentator on her own stories, and that the show shares this is one of my favourite things about it. In fact, I'd have liked to see more of the self-aware, smart-mouthed Jen we get in the asides in the actual action of the show. The utterly bonkers finale, when She-Hulk completely breaks out of the show to critique the Endgame-ish set-piece conclusion, was one of my favourite episodes. Though admittedly this facet didn't always come off, and it would have been good to see it and the show's other absurdities embraced more wholeheartedly.

The special effects in the show aren't terrible, though She-Hulk's super-smooth complexion unfortunately recalls Princess Fiona from Shrek, and her CGI body seems to lack real heft. And while the show did have the odd fight scene, quite rightly these were often short and not the real focus.

Despite the fact I wasn't a fan, I half want a second season. The more confident Jen/She-Hulk of the last couple of episodes would be a far more compelling protagonist, though admittedly the writers would have to find more character development for her if she's not to become boring. The premise does have potential and Tatiana Maslany and the other performers who did their best to redeem this ham-fisted comedy deserve more.

This is a stylish, post WWII-set action thriller in which the titular Agent Peggy Carter struggles to overcome her grief at the loss of Steve Rogers at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, and to be effective in her chosen profession in the face of sexist obstructionism.

We first meet her in New York, still working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) which is trying to reinvent itself as a peacetime agency combatting threats outside the expertise of regular security organisations. But her loyalties are tested when Howard Stark, who has been accused of selling tech to enemy powers, asks her to go rogue to help clear his name.

What follows is an often enjoyable adventure that makes imaginative use of Marvel comic book source material, such as a reappearance of the Howling Commandoes (who we met in Captain America: The First Avenger), a version of Johann Fennhoff aka Doctor Faustus (wonderfully played with kindly ruthlessness by Ralph Brown) and a representative of an early iteration of the training programme that eventually produced Black Widow.

It is nonsense, though, with numerous plot holes and implausible actions by heroes and villains alike. And in its keenness to show Peggy's struggles in a world of men, the series is both unsophisticated in its portrayal of the sexism of the time and does a disservice to the many other women who were fighting to succeed in male-dominated fields at the same time and who are conspicuous by their absence.

The second series, which relocates the action to Los Angeles, goes some way to redressing the balance, with a welcome expanded role for Lesley Boone as SSR agent/receptionist Rose and the introduction of Wynn Everett as actress and scientist Whitney Frost, who is presumably inspired by real-life 1940s movie-star and inventor Hedy Lamarr as well as by comic book character Madame Masque, with whom she shares a name though not a whole lot else. The story is even more batty than that of the first series, but it's still enjoyable nonsense.

Hayley Atwell is excellent throughout as Peggy Carter, exuding competence and self-confidence even when making suspect operational choices, and always looking supremely stylish and put-together. Her chemistry with Howard Stark's butler, Jarvis, is engaging, at its best having something of the energy of Steed and Mrs Peel of The Avengers (the 1960s British TV show rather than the Marvel superhero collective). And Peggy's relationships with other characters make for some interesting twists and turns over the course of the two seasons, my unexpected favourite being that with her obnoxious colleague Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray).

While the show is far from perfect, it has much to recommend it and it's a real pity it didn't get to continue. With another season or two to fully get into its stride it could have been so much better.

Captain America's introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a good, old-fashioned adventure. It's set mainly during WWII and follows Steve Rogers' journey from asthmatic weakling rejected by the army to war-time hero, culminating in a long, cold sleep that brings him into the present day. Chris Evans is perfect as Steve Rogers, and is surrounded by an able supporting cast. This is a war film that manages to avoid being either jingoistic or cynical, and if its sexual politics are a bit cringeworthy for the 21st century, I'll let it slide given the era in which it's set and that it's a tiny part of the film.

The film is exciting and humorous and shows us who Steve Rogers was back in the day, setting the scene perfectly for his future MCU appearances. It's a pity that we leave so many fun characters back in the 1940s, like the Howling Commandos who actually appeared with the war-time Sergeant Fury in the comics and cleverly get to play a role here, but at least we get to meet them again along with Peggy Carter and Howard Stark in the series Agent Carter.

This is a flawed addition to the Star Wars canon that takes some decent ideas and an interesting period in galactic history and fumbles them. Nevertheless, there's enough in it to make it worth a watch for fans, and younger viewers and those who recall The Phantom Menace and its two successors with more fondness than I do are likely to find things to enjoy.

We start with a recap of scenes from those three films, which culminated in the fall to the dark side of Jedi master Obi-Wan's student, Anakin Skywalker, and the death of Anakin's wife, Padme, after secretly giving birth to a twin boy and girl. The girl, Leia, is adopted by Senator Bail Organa, and the boy, Luke, sent to Tatooine to live with his aunt and uncle.

We then jump forward ten years to find a disillusioned Obi-Wan living on Tatooine, his Jedi skills rusty and his connection to the Force apparently weakened by the guilt he feels for failing to prevent Anakin's fall. He works a menial job (cutting up large chunks of meat very slowly then leaving them lying around) and keeps an eye on Luke from afar. This humdrum existence is initially interrupted by the arrival of Inquistors, whose role is to chase down remaining Jedi, and then by Bail Organa who arrives to beg for Obi-Wan's help to rescue Leia, who has been kidnapped. The rest of the series follows the quest to return Leia home and Obi-Wan's journey of reconciliation to his mistakes of the past.

Ewan McGregor reprises his role as Obi-Wan with convincing inner pain and, when given a chance, gentle humour. Overall, I'd say he succeeds in his stated aim of bridging the transition of his Obi-Wan from the first trilogy of the Skywalker Saga to that played by Alec Guinness in the second.

Young Vivien Lyra Blair, when not forced into inconsistent brattishness by the scriptwriters, does a truly astonishing job as ten-going-on-sixty Leia. Her interactions with her adoptive parents and snotty cousin are a particular joy. She's totally believable as someone who will grow up not only into the Carrie Fisher of A New Hope, but also the Carrie Fisher of the final trilogy.

I'm sure Hayden Christensen relished the opportunity to play Darth Vader after playing Anakin in the first trilogy, and he does a decent job, particularly in the final showdown, but isn't given much to work with. The first meeting between Obi-Wan, who had believed his former student dead, and Vader was unfortunately torpedoed by poor writing and plotting though that's not Christensen's fault. At least he gets the opportunity to display a bit more range in flashbacks to Obi-Wan and Anakin training together.

We also get some engaging new characters, such as Kumail Nanjiani as con-man Haja Estree, and Indira Varma as disillusioned imperial officer Tala, as well as other supporting characters.

The Inquisitors apparently made their screen debut in one of the animated series I've not seen. They're a nice idea and they're pretty cool-looking villains, but the execution lacks depth. Moses Ingram does as good a job as possible with Inquisitor Reva/Third Sister given the limitations of the script she has to work with, and hers is a potentially interesting character who feels disappointingly thrown away in the course of the shoddy plotting that is unfortunately characteristic of the series.

And that's the problem. All these competent performances can't save a plot that is clunking and nonsensical by turns. It's also disappointingly unoriginal, rehashing recognisable Star Wars elements into a not particularly new whole. Of course, we want Star Wars to be Star Wars, but there is surely some scope for new takes without losing the essence, particularly now there are just so many films and series.

A story that made sense would be my first priority, but I'd also hoped to see more insight into the slide into totalitarianism and the role that ordinary people played in this political upheaval. Representations of this weren't completely missing of course, but with the odd exception such as a scene-stealing appearance from Zach-Braff-voiced transport driver and Empire sympathiser Freck, they were trite and uninteresting.

To be fair to this show, its flaws aren't peculiar to it within the Star Wars universe, much as I love it. In fact, I don't think this series is significantly worse than The Phantom Menace and its two successors, to which it is much more a sequel in style and spirit, as well as in its disappointments, than it is a prequel to the 1970s/80s films. I'd just hoped that, with all the years, experience, successes and mistakes since those were released, we'd get something better.

When Willow was released in 1988, I was in my mid-teens and though I think I did see it not long after that and have watched it once or twice in the years since, it's not a film that had stuck in my memory or affections. However, with an imminent new Disney+ sequel series, I thought I'd give it another shot and was pleasantly surprised to find more to like than I'd recalled.

The story, written by George Lucas, is a pick-'n'-mix of fantasy genre staples. We have evil sorceror Queen Bavmorda, played by Jean Marsh as though she's in panto, who is seeking a new-born child prophesied to become empress Elora Danan and end her evil reign. We see the baby placed in a river and found by the children of farmer and aspiring sorceror Willow (Warwick Davis), who sets out on a quest to return her to her people, encountering on the way swordsman Madmartigan, who is a kind of fantasy Han Solo played by Val Kilmer, sorceress-turned-possum Raziel (Patricia Hayes), Bavmorda's daughter and general (Joanne Whalley), and some irritating if occasionally amusing brownies (Kevin Pollak and Rick Overton).

But while the story elements aren't original, the film is self-aware enough to realise this and have fun with the tropes. It's not as comedic in intent as near-contemporary fantasy classics The Princess Bride (1987) and Labyrinth (1986), but nor does it take itself seriously, and it has heart in bucketloads.

Warwick Davis, who was 17 during filming, is way too young to play a convincing father of two, and it's a slightly puzzling decision to make him one when apparently the role was written with him in mind after George Lucas had been impressed by his performance in The Return of the Jedi. But I guess I can see dramatic reasons for such a choice, and Willow's journey from farmer to a sorceror who has the courage, if not necessarily the skill, to face Bavmorda is compelling. His relationships with mentor Raziel, reluctant hero Madmartigan and baby Elora Danan feel authentic and are the heart of the film.

Madmartigan is a scoundrel and selfish womaniser and, like Joanne Whalley's Sorsha, you'd quite like to kick him in the face in the early parts of the film. But he's played with such charm by Val Kilmer that, also like Sorsha, you can't help falling in love with him. Whalley herself is great as Sorsha, ruthless and strong but still showing us vulnerability and torn loyalties. There are also some memorable minor characters, such as as Willow's friend Meegosh (David Steinberg) and Madmartigan's sort-of-friend Airk (Gavan O'Herlihy).

Some of the special effects have held up reasonably well but others have dated, and by today's standards the production values are a bit shoddy. And while the film has a sense of humour, it's not quite witty enough to carry off its rather clichéd premise.

Despite this, it's a charming, heart-warming adventure that is still worth a watch, particularly if you're planning to follow the Disney+ series that picks up the story a couple of decades later.

Well the finale of this show wasn't terrible, which is better than I feared to after the first couple of episodes. It was certainly not free of the WTF? Moments that characterised many of the poorly plotted previous episodes, but there was still a half-way satisfying confrontation between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader and it was generally interesting and well-acted. After binging all the episodes in succession, I'm going to sleep on it before writing my review of the series as a whole but I will say that I am disappointed with the treatment of Reva. She was a potentially interesting character who it feels has been thrown away. At least we know what happens to other major characters in this series, and can see how they got from where we leave them here to where we pick them up in A New Hope. But where Reva is left here is most unsatisfying and raises many questions, while at the same time it's hard to want to see more given the disappointment of this show.

In this episode, we see Vader and Reva track Obi-Wan and Leia to Path headquarters and finally get confirmation of Reva's secret. It's not exactly a surprise, but I'll give it a point for being what I was hoping for. The plot is as full of gaping holes and obvious moves as ever, but I'll give another point for a genuinely moving sacrifice in the course of the stormtrooper invasion. With one episode left, there's not enough time to make this series good, but this episode at least gives some hope that the finale won't be quite as bad as I'd been fearing. I just wish it were likely to be as good as it might have been.

I don't know if this episode was a bit better or if my expectations have now been lowered to the extent that I'm fearing worse than this. The plot, which has Obi-Wan and Tala breaking into Inquisitor HQ to rescue Leia, is still stuffed full of worn out Star Wars tropes that need to be given a twist if they're to be satisfying these days, and is also often nonsense. But at least it was quite exciting and we saw more excellent acting from young Vivien Lyra Blair as Leia, and from Moses Ingram who is doing the best possible job with the cliche-ridden script for Reva she's been handed. I'm still desperately hoping that there's more to Reva than we're being led to believe. There's clearly some twist coming but I'm less and less confident it's one that will redeem the story.

This third episode has elements that somehow look and feel more like Star Wars, but it's still largely clunkingly obvious and nonsensical by turns. Obi-Wan and Leia have escaped to a mining colony and directed to meet a contact who they've been told can help them. There's a quite nicely judged encounter with transport driver Freck, voiced by Zach Braff, illustrating ordinary life with the Empire and that not all its supporters are uniformed goons, and Indira Varma is good as rebel contact Tala, though I have questions about how exactly her cover worked, as well as the topologically-puzzling tunnel she leads Obi-Wan and Leia into. We get more intriguing hints that Third Sister/Reva's interest in Obi-Wan may not be as straightforward as ambition to impress Darth Vader, or perhaps I'm reading too much into it, and more evidence that Obi-Wan's skills aren't what they were either through disuse or more. Still we're half way through the series and I'd really hoped it would have picked up more by now. But there's still time ... just.

This second episode relocates the action to Blade-runneresque Daiyu, with Obi-Wan in search of kidnapped Princess Leia. We find out more about the Inquisitors, who I still think are a cool idea made OTT panto villains. Vivien Lyra Blair, who impressed me in the first episode, still has her moments but the writers have made her inconsistent and too bratty. Kumail Nanjiani puts in an enjoyable turn as con-man Haja Estree, and is the best thing in this episode. There's also some decent fight scenes and it's interesting to get hints that Obi-Wan's avoidance of use of the Force may not be as straightforward as him choosing to forego it. Still, this second episode is still chock full of cliches and worn tropes, so there's a lot for this series to do if it's going to add anything genuinely new and interesting to the Star Wars universe.

We start with a recap consisting mainly of scenes from the first (by in-universe chronology) trilogy of the Skywalker saga, which culminated in promising Jedi student of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, turning to the dark side, leaving wife Padme to die giving birth to a twin boy and girl, after which the girl, Leia, is adopted by Senator Bail Organa, and the boy, Luke, sent to Tatooine to live with his aunt and uncle. We then jump forward ten years to find a disillusioned, conscience-stricken Obi-Wan living on Tatooine working a menial job that seems to involve cutting up large chunks of meat very slowly then leaving them lying around. He is keeping an eye on Luke from afar, much against the wishes of Luke's uncle Owen. This humdrum existence is interrupted by the arrival of Inquistors, chasing down remaining Jedi. And we also get to see a ten year old Leia, chafing under the restrictions of her privileged life.

The Inquisitors are a nice idea, but so far are too much pantomime villains, especially the violent, impulsive Third Sister who seems to have a particular interest in tracking down Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan's guilt-induced apathy is overdone, with Ewan McGregor's best scene in this series opener being a mildly amusing interaction with a Jawa. The highlight of the episode was young Vivien Lyra Blair as Leia, particularly in her interactions with her adoptive parents and snotty cousin.

Still, I live in hope that things will improve. There's so much potential in this time period in the Star Wars universe, as the galaxy slides ever further into totalitarianism. Fingers crossed this series will do more justice to it than this opener promises.

The original Doctor Strange movie was a psychedelic injection of fresh air into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a genuinely different aesthetic from the films that had gone before, with mind-blowing, reality-kaleidoscoping fight scenes and a whole different mythos. Some of that weirdness is lost in this follow-up, much as that may seem an odd thing to say of a film in which we briefly find ourselves in a universe where everything is made of paint. But there are still imaginative depictions of magic, most notably (pun not intended) in a musical battle in an alternative universe. Director Sam Raimi's horror sensibilities are also clearly on display and this is perhaps the goriest entry yet in the MCU, but as with Raimi's other films this often comes across more as halloween fun than as genuinely scary. And as Doctor Strange ventures out into the multiverse to help universe-hopping teen America Chavez, who is being chased by monstrous beings, we get to play with the possibilities of seeing Doctor Strange and other Marvel characters in alternative realities, including a different-universe Illuminati with some enjoyable cameos.

Where this film falls down hard, for me, is in the motivations of the main antagonist, which it feels we're meant to sympathise with but actually make absolutely no sense. The best Marvel villains, like Thanos or Wenwu, do dreadful things for comprehensible reasons, and that's clearly what this film was aiming for but, while the villain's pain was understandable, the actions they took as a result were bonkers. The film did have an explanation of this in the form of corruption by dark magic, but would have done better both to play up that element but also tweak the setup to provide a better reason for multiversal meddling. It's hard to say more without giving away plot twists, which I don't like to do despite the fact they're already unlikely to be a surprise to anyone who has been reading about this film.

A second bug-bear is that while this film follows WandaVision, and pretty much requires you to know what happened in it, it appears to negate its conclusion. This could have been managed without fundamentally changing the plot of the film by some defter scriptwriting, but as it is I resented this undermining of a series that I'd loved.

Still, there was some important character development for Stephen Strange as he finally learns it's not all about him and gets to confront his regrets over lost love Christine. We learn more about the multiverse and its threats, which is no doubt going to be important as we move forward into Phase 5, and meet an enjoyable new character who can navigate it in America Chavez. The film is fun and engaging as long as you focus on the scenes in front of you and don't think too hard about the overarching plot, so for me this is basically a seven star film that gets an additional half star, rounded up to eight, for bringing something new to the MCU in tone and aesthetic.

Oh, and I do hope that we'll get to see the main antagonist again. They deserved better than this as their swan song.

A beautiful film that brings a new dimension, both metaphorically and literally, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has a style and tone that is quite different from others in the franchise, though it shares the sly humour and ability to poke fun at itself that has become characteristic of the MCU. The film nicely shakes off the shackles of Shang-Chi's somewhat questionable comic book origins by making a film that appears to owe more to Chinese culture than the Western one that spawned the comics. The most obvious influence is wuxia, a genre of films that are most likely to be familiar to Western moviegoers lacking any great knowledge of Chinese film, like myself, from examples such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers.

This is most obvious in the gorgeous fight scenes, in which a physical confrontation can also be a conversation and a battle as much of ideologies as of hands and fists. It feels entirely plausible that Shang-Chi's parents come to know one another and fall in love over the course of a fight, and it's genuinely moving when, at the end, Shang-Chi adopts a fighting style that is recognisably a fusion of his father and mother's, showing he has come to terms with both sides of his heritage. This is made possible by the excellent cast, many of whom have the awe-inspiring martial arts skills that allow more flexibility and immediacy in the way fights are filmed than would be possible had the shots had to cater for swapping in stunt-doubles.

This includes Simu Liu as the title character, who pivots successfully between comedy and drama on his journey from slacker valet parker to super-hero, triggered when henchmen of his ancient crime lord father attack him on a bus, stealing a necklace given to him by his mother, who came from a mystical village in another dimension but was murdered when he was young. Shang-Chi sets out to find his estranged sister, who he believes will be the next target, and stop his father. Tony Cheung plays Shang-Chi's father and main antagonist with a quiet menace and deep heartbreak that put him up there, along with Josh Brolin's Thanos, as the best of the MCU's villains. And while I'm not generally a fan of gobby comedy sidekicks, Awkwafina is fantastic as Shang-Chi's fellow slacker, Katy, and the friendship between those two is the heart of the film. I'm hoping that the talent for archery Katy discovered in the course of the film and the fact she was included when Shang-Chi meets other Avengers at the end of the film mean she might have a superhero identity of her own in store.

I could have done with less of Ben Kingsley's actor Trevor Slattery. It was good to address the previous appearance of "The Mandarin" in the MCU, but despite some amusing interactions, the character just seemed too much of a parody when compared to the subtlety of many of the other performances. Contrast can often be good, but for me this was too jarring. I'm also not entirely convinced by the plot, which seemed merely to be a rough framework on which to hang the story beats, fight scenes and character development.

However, for me Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is up there amongst the better of the MCU entries, and shows that it's still possible to do something different within the universe while remaining recognisably part of it, even after all these years and films. I'll look forward to the return of Shang-Chi and others we met in this film in future.

Based on the book by Ernest Cline, though not following its plot closely, Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future where environmental and societal breakdown has led to widespread poverty, with rich and poor alike escaping from grim reality into the OASIS, a Second Life-like virtual reality created by reclusive genius and cyberpunk Willy Wonka James Halliday. Halliday has died, and announced that the inheritor to his company and vast wealth will be determined by an "Easter Egg" hunt following clues he has hidden within the OASIS. Our hero, Wade Watts, is an orphan who lives with his aunt in a slum of stacked trailers, and spends his free time in the OASIS as "Parzival", an egg hunter, or "gunter", one of the die-hard seekers of Halliday's clues who spend their time combing through details of his life and the pop cultural artefacts he loved in the hope of solving Halliday's puzzle. The film follows Wade as he makes progress, makes friends despite his initial determined unclannishness, falls in love with fellow gunter Art3mis and battles corporate greed in the form of Innovative Online Industries.

The references to the 80s nerd culture of Halliday's childhood sit more lightly in the visual medium of the film than they did in the book, which I suspect is a good thing. I was puzzled that a book that, like the film, seemed so clearly targeted at today's teens spent so long on nostalgia for the products of the era of my own childhood. The OASIS looks fab, and the dystopian futuristic "real-world" is quite nicely depicted too. The film has things to say about the climate crisis, monetisation of online spaces, the community of fandom, the balance between real and online life, and how people can construct different identities online but still build real relationships. None of these things are particularly sophisticated, but they're important topics for our times and it's good they're raised at all. And while I could wish that the central romance was a bit more complex than cool, pretty, apparently female online avatar turns out to be a front for a cool, pretty, real-life girl, albeit one with a bit of a hang-up about a birthmark, this film is fun, geeky wish-fulfilment and I'm not going to begrudge it.

(As a postscript, watching this film did get me investigating online whether there were any plans for an adaptation of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, a book that Ready Player One in some respects reminded me of, but which I much preferred. It appears that there is a possible Prime series in development, albeit one that looks to be moving very slowly. I will keep my fingers crossed!)

I'm writing this review having just watched Captain Marvel for the second time, and it was way more fun than I remembered. In it, we see Kree soldier Vers confront her forgotten past and embrace her future as the most powerful Marvel superhero of all.

The film dodges some of the dramatic disadvantages of such an overpowered character by only having her come into her full strength late in the film, but even before she truly becomes Captain Marvel, Vers is pretty bulletproof both physically and emotionally. She's arrogant and obnoxious, but redeemed by the glint of mischief in her eyes, a clear joy in doing what she does best, and the relationships she builds or rekindles in the course of the film. Brie Larson does a good job as Vers, and though I'd like to have seen more vulnerability in the face of her dawning realisation that neither she nor her society are what she thought, I guess that's not who the character is.

It's left to the supporting cast to provide more emotional depth and variety, and they are a generally well-realised bunch of characters. It was a treat to see more of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, who is an excellent sidekick for Vers's antics on Earth, Jude Law is nicely apparently good-humoured but slightly patronising as Vers's commander and mentor, and Lashana Lynch is warm but fierce as her best friend, to name just a few.

I appreciated that the goodies and baddies weren't necessarily who we were initially led to believe they were, though I could have done with more shades of grey and less simply swapping around of black and white. And I enjoyed that Captain Marvel showed us some precursors to events in Guardians of the Galaxy as well as the impetus towards the Avengers initiative.

In conclusion, this is a solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, establishing characters that I'll be glad to see in future instalments. It's enjoyable with plenty of humour and a catchy early 90s soundtrack, and there's nothing really wrong with it. But there have been a lot of these Marvel movies now, and there's nothing to really set it apart and make me go "wow" either, so for me this sits alongside a number of other fun and competent but on the whole unremarkable films in the franchise.

The Ant-Man film was a surprise gem of Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2, taking one of the sillier and least likely comic book heroes and making him compelling and real in a film with genuine heart and loads of laughs. This Phase 3 outing is more of the same. It's not quite as good as the original, perhaps because expectations are now higher, but Paul Rudd puts on another excellent performance as lovable rogue Scott Lang/Ant-Man, rejoined by a cast of memorable characters from his ex-con cronies Luis and co, to his predecessor as Ant-Man Hank Pym and his daughter Hope who now has a suit of her own and some kick-ass fighting moves as the Wasp. There's also a welcome return of Scott's daughter Cassie and his ex-wife and her new husband, role-modelling a healthy, loving, modern extended family. Plus an amusing turn from new face Agent Woo who subsequently turned up in WandaVision.

Despite some fun and frantic fights and chases, making great use of the possibilities of changing sizes of people and objects, it's less violent than many of the other Marvel outings, and while it's hard to believe there were no injuries in the course of the car crashes and fights, not to mention buildings appearing unexpectedly, I don't think anyone actually dies. The stakes are also lower, while the plights of Hope's mum who is stuck in the quantum zone and of Ava, a young woman dying after a childhood accident with a quantum tunnel, are important and Walton Goggins's greedy crooked businessman certainly is asking for his comeuppance, no universes, planets or even cities are at risk. This makes for some good, uncomplicated fun, but also feels a bit lightweight compared to some of the other Marvel offerings. And the "science" is of course madder than ever, and best not thought about too much if at all.

While this sequel doesn't have the same wow factor as the original and feels in some way TV sized rather than cinematic, it's a worthy successor and fantastic at being just what it is. I'm looking forward to Ant-Man and the Wasp's next return in Quantumania.

It's perhaps not entirely fair of me, but I think I would have given this movie at least one more star if it had come out before Endgame. It was an enjoyable action thriller set in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, filling in some details of what Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow got up to while the Avengers weren't exactly getting on. It has heaps of comedy and excellent performances from Scarlett Johansson as Natasha, scene-stealing Florence Pugh as her "little sister" Yelena, and hammy but hilarious David Harbour and morally ambiguous Rachel Weisz as her "parents". The setup was wonderfully done, with a young Nat and her "family" embedded as sleeper agents in the US but broken up when their mission ends. But while on paper the stakes were high, with Nat battling the resurgence of the Widow programme that produced her, which despite her previous efforts has come back stronger and even more exploitative, the story somehow still felt too slight to do the character justice when even on first watch we know what happens down the line. Still it was lovely to know that Nat had refound this family and particularly her little sister, and it was a great introduction to Yelena who we meet again in Hawkeye and will hopefully see much more of in future. And if you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch this before you've seen all the MCU Phase 3 movies, I'd recommend watching it immediately after Captain America: Civil War, and at least before Infinity War and definitely before Endgame.

This is a welcome return for the God of Thunder, playing up the comedic tone established in other recent outings but also giving us a reasonably scary and compelling big bad in the form of Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher and a moving depiction of Natalie Portman's Jane Foster struggling with cancer and finding her inner hero. It's fun to see Thor's interactions with the Guardians of the Galaxy and great to see him fighting back from the rock bottom he hit between Infinity War and Endgame. Chris Hemsworth does a lovely job of depicting Thor as a superficially oblivious heroic meathead, while giving us glimpses of the character's underlying vulnerability and brittleness after his world and family has been systematically destroyed. He, and the rest of the cast, give us plenty of laughs along the way. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the chemistry between Hemsworth and real-life daughter India Rose as Love at the end of the film is just adorable.

Unfortunately, despite its many good points, the film is marred by self-indulgence. Director Taika Waititi's character, Korg, who I've enjoyed in previous films, it turns out is better in much smaller doses than we get here. Too often we descend into cheap jokes or clunking parody, eg about Thor's "dad bod" at the start of the film and Russell Crowe's cringeworthy Zeus. At its best, the film successfully both upholds and affectionately sends up comic book heroism, but it sleepwalks too often into the obvious gag or cliche. I do hope we'll get to see Thor again, but also that the mixed reception to this film will be the wake-up call needed to prompt a more thoughtful and interesting approach to his next appearance.

I so wanted to enjoy The Rings of Power series but though it gave us glimpses of the show it could have been, and I hope still may turn into in subsequent seasons, this first outing failed to live up to its potential.

There are plenty of positives that give some basis for optimism about the future. Both settings and costumes are gorgeous, building on the aesthetic of Peter Jackson's films. The central concept is sound, with the events surrounding the forging of the rings of power and the build-up to the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron offering plenty of potential intrigue and excitement, even if some liberties need to be taken with the timeline drawn up by Tolkien to make it work. And there are some stand-out performances among characters both old and new: Sophie Nomvete as dwarven Princess Disa, Ismael Cruz Cordova as stoic but romantic elven soldier Arondir, Robert Aramayo as a younger Elrond and Megan Richards as plucky and loyal harfoot Poppy.

Quite rightly for a Middle Earth tale, there were some lovely depictions of friendship, such as between Elrond and dwarven Prince Durin and harfoots Nori and Poppy. Trying to understand unfolding events and where new characters might fit into the stories we know sent me on some enjoyable forays into the lore, and the show deserves kudos for making us wait for the pay-off for some mysteries, even if that meant that in some cases the surprise was lost.

But unfortunately the answers to some of the biggest questions, when they came, didn't quite make enough sense to be wholly satisfying and despite the slow build somehow still managed to feel rushed. And while the depiction of key characters like Galadriel and Halbrand had their moments and on the whole improved as the series progressed, either the script or the acting wasn't good enough to save the characters from being wooden archetypes or the show being smothered by its own self-importance. It felt too much as though we were seeing the machinery behind the story and could easily reverse engineer the character outlines setting out their personality traits, motivations and planned development, but too rarely did they come to life as real people. To be fair, this is a criticism that can be levelled at Tolkien's writing and Peter Jackson's films at times, too, but this series is standing on the shoulders of giants and should be doing better and showing us more of what is great, rather than what is flawed, about its predecessors.

I hope that the next promised seasons will show a defter hand, and despite my reservations about this first season I will be coming back to find out.

Based on the initial episodes currently available, this is shaping up to be an engaging, swashbuckling adventure that, while stuffed with fantasy cliches, at least has some fun playing with them.

In the 1988 film to which this show is a sequel, and which is probably useful though not essential prior viewing, warrior princess Sorsha, scoundrel swordsman Madmartigan and farmer-turned-sorceror Willow save baby Elora Danan, prophesied saviour, and defeat Sorsha's mother, evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda.

This series opens a couple of decades later, with Sorsha ruling and Madmartigan missing for some years. Both Princess Kit, their daughter, and her twin brother, Airk (in a nice touch, named after a friend of Madmartigan's from the original film) are chips off the old block, taking after their cocky, selfish yet charming father in different ways. Kit's mother is trying to push her into marrying scholarly but drippy Prince Graydon to help unite the realm against a looming evil. But the night before the planned wedding, the castle is attacked by some really creepy-looking baddies and Airk kidnapped. Kit sets out to rescue him with a party including her friend and aspiring knight, Jade, Graydon, and freed prisoner Boorman. Along the way, they pick up "Dove", who works in the castle kitchens and has set off herself to help Airk, with whom she believes herself to be in love, and of course the titular sorceror, Willow.

The acting is generally decent, with stand-out performances in the early episodes from Amar Chadha-Patel as rogueish Boorman, Hannah Waddingham as a Coen-brothers-esque woodswoman, and Annabelle Davis as Mims, the daughter of her real-life dad Warwick Davis's character, Willow. Honourable mentions also go to Ellie Bamber, whose comedic delivery saves Dove from saccharine sweetness, Tony Revolori, who makes Graydon more than simply a one-dimensional undesirable suitor, and Graham Hughes as Willow's friend Silas. Oddly enough, it's returning actor Warwick Davis who seems least comfortable with his character. He delivers his dry one-liners with aplomb, but is awfully unconvincing with longer speeches. Though to be fair to him, there is some horribly clunky dialogue and exposition.

Like probably too much fantasy, the generally impressively realised setting of Willow resembles mediaeval Europe, but it quite rightly doesn't feel constrained to pretend it's set in this real past or to adopt cod olde-worlde speech patterns or attitudes. It's not quite as full-on swashbuckling comedy as The Princess Bride or Pirates of the Caribbean, but like the original Willow movie it doesn't take itself or its characters too seriously.

It doesn't feel as though it's quite found its tone or groove yet, and the story and script are going to have to become a whole lot cleverer if they're going to carry off the show's unoriginal premise and plethora of fantasy stereotypes. But there are some real laughs in the first episodes that offer some grounds for optimism that the writers and actors do have the ability to deliver a witty, enjoyable story that affectionately subverts familiar fantasy tropes.

Towards the end of a first episode that felt very much like the original series, this new take on Masters of the Universe threw its characters a massive curveball and asked what they would do next. What follows is a twisty, fun adventure with unlikely alliances, some slyly funny lines and moments of tear-jerking pathos. The whole is elevated by fantastic voice performances by a star cast (Lena Headey as Evil-Lyn was my favourite, against some stiff competition from Mark Hamill as Skeletor, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela, and frankly the whole excellent cast). The detractors are right that Adam/He-Man isn't the main focus of these first five episodes, and that this new series plays with and in some ways subverts the original, but it does so in a way that feels affectionate and true to the characters while bringing a modern sensibility which means this is more than a continuation or remake. While it's clear that the latter is what some people would prefer, others (myself included) would find that dull and pointless. So I personally am glad Kevin Smith and team were brave enough to create a MOTU that is not only a joy for those of us old enough to fondly recall the original while recognising that the world has moved on since it was made, but also brings the franchise up-to-date for today's kids.