(series review) [STREAMING] - X-Men '97: Season 2 - Episode 1, 2 & 3

 

If you read my review of the first season of X-Men '97, you'll know I loved it. It captured everything that made the '90s series special, but with a richer colour palette, stronger voice acting and even more ambitious storytelling. Best of all, it fully respected what came before, continuing storylines from the original five seasons instead of pretending they never happened.

It never spoon-fed the audience or leaned too far into being overly mature or childish. The themes were darker, but it was still every bit as accessible as the original series. Rather than a reboot or retelling, it felt like a genuine continuation—just upgraded.

Now we're two years on, with Beau DeMayo no longer involved. It'll be interesting to see where the storytelling goes, but based on these opening episodes, the series hasn't missed a beat.

Episode 1

Following the events of Season 1, the X-Men have vanished, leaving Bishop and Forge to search for them across time. Forge eventually finds Storm, Wolverine, Morph, Cyclops, Jean and Nathan Summers in the distant future, where Mother Askani leads the fight against Apocalypse. Realising they'll need more allies, Cable joins forces with Psylocke and Archangel to recruit two new members for the battle ahead.

Episode 2

Back in 1997, mutant children flee to the X-Mansion seeking safety, only to be intercepted by X-Factor, the government's mutant task force. Meanwhile, Cable assembles his new X-Force team to hunt one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, War. A meeting with Emma Frost quickly goes sideways, landing them in X-Factor's custody, but Jubilee finds a way to rescue the captured mutants and get them to safety.

Episode 3

In ancient Egypt, Magneto believes En Sabah Nur can still be saved, while Charles insists his future as Apocalypse is inevitable. Magneto attempts to steer him onto a different path, but Rama-Tut's manipulations continue pushing En Sabah Nur towards his destiny. Elsewhere, Beast, Nightcrawler, Rogue and Professor X study future technology in the hope of returning home, only to be accused of working alongside Rama-Tut. As tensions boil over, En Sabah Nur clashes with the X-Men, Bishop joins the fight, and Rama-Tut moves to eliminate them all.

(trailer review) - Marvel Zombies

What is interesting is that I do not really care for Zombies. I like Zombies in film, Zombies in TV shows, and to an extent, Zombies in gaming, but as for animation, I do not really care for it. I mean, it's cool and all, but maybe it's the context of this that does not necessarily grab me. Even the Marvel Zombies in the 'Marvel's What If...' series episode, or episodes (I cannot remember how many there were), those episodes were ok, just ok. You get to see some cool 'mash-ups' of characters or team-ups that you would not normally see in film, or we haven't yet seen in film. But with that said, this looks absolutely great!

I'm not sure what it is, and this could actually wind up being trash, but having the Red Guardian, Black Widow 2, Ms Marvel, Spider-Man (because, of course...), Shang-Chi and Blade (fused with Moon Knight, maybe) is absolutely crazy and I love it. I do not remember the last time I rewound and paused a trailer just to see something again and for clarity. The first was the arrow through the 'TV-MA' sign because I did in fact, blinked and missed it, but the tram part where a zombie (I thought the zombie was Bucky) reaches out to grab (I am assuming Ms. Marvel), the introduction of Blade Moon Knight (like, is that meant to be Blade? Oh wow, he has fangs, its Mahershala Ali's Blade, THAT'S INTERESTING), a Zombie Ant-Man getting sliced in half and one of the coolest shots of Spider-Man using his webbing to rip off all the heads of the Zombies, is an absolutely great frame. But the money shot (or moment) is the action scene they conclude with in the trailer, and that's Khonsu Blade (Moon Knight) fighting someone with a sword and absolutely slices and dices the zombie up in true Blade fashion, phenomenal. Sold! Give me more action like that, cool lines, great mash-ups and team-ups, and I'm good. I just hope it is any good, sorry, any great.

(episode review) - Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man : Episode 1 & 2

 So this dropped a few days ago, and honestly, I didn't care for it. I knew Marvel was developing it, but when I saw the trailer some time back, I was not overly keen on the art style, which seemed a little childish to me. Yes, it pays homage to one of Marvel's greatest artists, but the Spider-verse movies are superb artistically, and this simply feels like a huge step back. With that said, we can have different variations of art concepts for Spiderman and anything else, right? So, I gave it a watch, so here is what I thought.

We start off with Peter getting himself ready for school. There are some nice touches to establish the world we are living in, like the Ironman "toy" or whatever it is hanging from the rear view mirror. When Uncle Ben is mentioned, there is a little glimmer and shine from Aunt May's wedding ring and straight off the bat, we are introduced to another Marvel character we all know. After the opening set of sequences, we go onto the intro just before the title card, and we are introduced to a rendition of the well-known Spider-Man theme song with some Hip-Hop or upbeat music infused into it. It's ok; I can take it or leave it, but just like the original theme, it is catchy. When the show starts, after the title card, it is a new day, and Peter is getting himself ready for school again. The same thing happens again, but this time Peter puts on the Spidey suit. It is very training-wheels-esque, but it is functional. As we all know, Spider-Man is always late because he is always fighting crime, so by the end of the episode, Peter goes home, and we are introduced to his guest.

The second episode continues with the introduction of the guest, and we find out who this person is, why they are there and what they want. This later leads to the introduction to other characters and places we are familiar with from the comics, and while there are some interesting choices, I was more intrigued with how these other characters will play a part in this show. It ends with a secret coming out, and I can only assume that from here on out, we will loosely follow the MCU's story path but from a different perspective.

The show is okay —not terrible—but so far, it has me intrigued. Some of the characters introduced have never been introduced in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), so it would be interesting to see how their stories interweave with Peters's going forward.
From the jump, we are given an LGBTQ+ character, AND there are some culture-bending as well as gender-bending with some characters, but I had zero issues with this and found it cool. For years, characters have been drawn a certain way and kept that way through all the different Spiderman mediums, so although they may change the shape, size and design of characters to keep them fresh, gender and culture-bending characters bring a brand new perspective. I just wonder how this Peter's relationship will work and their dynamics with all these other characters. Will he be part of the Avengers, will he have a "guy in the chair", will there be a bully? One character I found interesting was a guy we are introduced to, and we get to see his family dynamics at home and his background. I really enjoyed the portrayal of that one clever and smart child who is lucky to go to the school he goes to, and he is likely the only person in his family who is lucky enough to be where he is. They never shied away from how other people see this person and likely, people just like him.

This is only the first two episodes, so we shall see how it all pans out for this show, but so far, it's alright. I am sure it will get better.

(series review) [STREAMING] - Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

 

Absolute nonsense but absolutely fun and entertaining is what I would describe this show. To explain, let me take it back to the very first Tomb Raider game back in the 90's. Lara and her polygonal-ly pointy tits and square jaw were an amazing game for the time. It was essentially Indiana Jones as a woman, without a fedora or a whip but armed with two pistols, a backpack and eventually a shotgun, roaming the world looking for ancient artefacts and killing, possibly endangered species. This game essentially appealed to young boys like myself at the time. The game was a success which spawned a series of games (Tomb Raider 1 - 6) and some others, then a couple of movies starring Angelina Jolie. Years later a reboot of the franchise gave us a Trilogy (so far) and another movie in-between that starring Alicia Vikander. From what I understand, this animated series exists in the rebooted series and takes place after the 2018 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' storyline. For context, I played the original Tomb Raider 1 & 2, 'Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness', 'Tomb Raider: Legend', 'Tomb Raider Anniversary', 'Tomb Raider Underworld' and the rebooted 'Tomb Raider Trilogy which consists of 'Tomb Raider', 'Rise of the Tomb Raider and 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider''. I only got Anniversary because it was essentially a remaster of the original 'Tomb Raider' and I wanted to have a refresher, to reminisce on the old game and to note all the changes/improvements they made, but the rebooted franchise is referred to as the "Survivor Trilogy" and I really enjoyed it. Each game got better and better in the tools Lara had, what she could do and the overarching storyline with the mystery behind her father's murder and the secret organisation behind it. This picks up from there and I enjoyed it. So why is it absolute nonsense? I'll explain.

Lara Croft (Hayley Atwell) is hosting an event and a mysterious man pops up and talks to her. Stating they are the same, eventually an artefact Lara had in her possession is stolen and Lara is pulled into a mystery that involves retrieving the artefact and restoring the balance of the world.

This is a basic Tomb Raider fair. But what makes the show "nonsense" for me, is the sheer "believability" of Lara's move-set and the things she can do, endure and "achieve". For example, Lara, (although having played the first rebooted game and completed it), I referred to her as a "Spider-Monkey", my nickname for her as the way I moved her in the game (because I needed her to move that way in the game for my own survival), was nothing short of spider and monkey-like. Clambering, jumping, swinging, back-flipping, etc. This show went above and beyond anything a normal human could do. Lara got flung around and battered by people and beasts and there were a few scrapes and bruises. There were times Lara would have definitely broken a bone, joint, or back or had her head crushed in, but she survives as if her bones are made from titanium. Lastly, what she achieved in this show was "ok" because it fell within the realms the puzzles and tasks you would normally get in the game but there is a moment where two people are needed for a particular puzzle and this is achieved with two people but in the game, it is always Lara by herself so it made me feel that maybe they should have referenced that somehow because in the game, it is only you doing everything by yourself. I did not like the voice acting for Zip because it sounded too stereotypically black and I felt the show did lean a little too heavy on that. But other than these minor issues, Lara being superhuman in her abilities. essentially or the voice acting for Zipp, I actually loved the series, the voice acting and Lara's portrayal.

Hayley Atwell at this point has a very distinguishable voice for me. She is Captain Margaret "Peggy" Carter from the MCU, live action and voice acting, so what she brings to Lara Croft is that well-spoken "posh" Old English cadence and dialogue mixed with a young and upbeat persona of someone who is also carefree. I am not sure if a Millie Bobby Brown would have achieved the levels Hayley achieved with this rendition of the Lara Croft character as what we got, was someone who sounded as though she has seen things, experienced and gone through a lot. There is even a comment where Lara says "We have seen worse", which makes perfect sense when you play the reboot trilogy of games. So in short, Hayley is great as Lara and also brings a vulnerability to the character because she has gone through so much as well as lost those who are important to her. It was refreshing to see our hero. All the other voice actors bar Zipp, I enjoyed as they all brought a level of complexity and layers to their performance, even Zipp. it was nice to be reintroduced to the old characters from the games as well as some new characters that expand Lara's world as well as the references to previous adventures.

As for the storyline, pretty straightforward and not unlike many of the people Lara comes across in her games, people who want to seek an ancient artefact for whatever cause they have and end up close to destroying the world because of their megalomaniacal ideas or cult-like ideologies. In a Tomb Raider game, you are often confronted with ancient mythical lore which are old folk tales that are real but either believed as folk tales or truth and this often brings you to areas of the world you would never see as they are inaccessible by conventional means or they are buried and forgotten, this show touches on that accurately. So, the action in some of these parts literally felt like a video game. How Lara could jump really high and pull off moves no ordinary human could, but if you were playing the game, you could, so that was the "battle" I had where I had to relate the movement to gameplay. With that said, they laced a few moves from the actual game which was nice to see.

The music and animation was great. I saw angles and movement I feel rivals Attack on Titan or Demon Slayer, but watching Lara move the way she does with the animation was slick. There is a lot of close-quarters combat rather than the gun-toting or bow-and-arrowing you usually have in the games, but I was fine with that. In the game, Lara has to be very resourceful and this show shows some of that which was also very good to see. No, you do not see her make a bow and arrow from scratch by picking up random twigs and scraps like in the game but you do see her try to achieve something from bare minimal tools at her disposal. 

All in all, entertaining. There could be a few logic holes here and there or "how does that work" moments, but I saw it as a Tomb Raider game, animated into anime with a bit more story to it and I was totally fine with that. It did not drag, it did not feel forced and it neither pushed the story any further than where the last game left you. I think all I want now, is the next game and to continue from where we left off from the rebooted trilogy.

Also, if this is very well received, I can see them making a series on Aloy from the Horizon series.

(rendom film review) - Encanto

I was going to watch this movie yesterday, but I got distracted.  So I watched it today on the trusty ol' Disney Plus and whilst I didn't much care for the movie when it was advertised and when trailers came out, upon hearing how good it was and/or charming, it's December 29th 2021.  It's like 12:00pm, what else am I going to do?  So of course, I watched it.  Was the film as good as people have said it was. Ummm, yeah.

Encanto is about a woman who is blessed with a magical house when she loses her partner.  Left alone with 3 children to raise, she eventually raise these three children in this magical house and when the children become of age, a door within the magical house is presented and if chosen, you are imbued with magical talents. This is then seen to be passed down through generations and generations however, when Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) is not granted any powers, she tries to find a way to simply live with being different in her family, but with the pressure of not being special like the rest of her siblings and family, she goes on a quest to search and try and find what her real purpose is.

I loved this movie.  The ending, I felt was a little weak and I didn't really understand it, but other than that, I loved the meaning/story behind this movie.  In a lot of families and likely more prevalent in families of people of colour, there is a pressure, unspoken or even spoken to please or perform. A pressure to be or do what family see you as not allowing you to be your own person.  These pressures can make or break people and in some or many cases, cast you aside from your family due to arguments or the butting of heads leading family members no longer talking/communicating.  These are very real themes and Disney touches on these themes with majesty.

At first, I thought there was going to be some kind of death and Disney was going to pull on my heart strings that way because they are always killing off a parent or something like that, but the formula on this one is different and touches you in a different way.  The animation was by far, the best animated photorealistic animation I have ever scene so far and although the magical house seemed a little crazy at first, I settled into it and really enjoyed it for what it was, along with the music numbers.  Whilst there was only one song that didn't really work with me, there was another song that was (I believe in Spanish) that was great. I loved it. I loved what it was saying any it touched me in a way that warmed my heart.

Whilst not aimed at my demographic, the film has a general appeal to adults and well as children who are yet to make choices in their life as they are not sure where they are going or know where they are going but feel a type of way due to family and what they bring to the table under "duress" in some cases. This film was funny! The voice acting was great and the storytelling was soo spot on.  One of my favourite characters was a character who could hear everything including over long distances. The way they used this character was amazing and was very accurate (in my opinion) to the portrayal of people with her ability. I also loved the interaction between Dolores Madrigal and one of her cousins and the way she would react towards them.  The film was a great watch and uplifting as well sad in some places. A nice watch between time if you want something to watch which is fun and enjoyable.  It's also on Disney Plus.

(short film review) - Canvas

Around October of last year (2019), before the impending doom that was the Corona Virus hit the world, I decided to review new or current running streaming/TV shows as they come out.  Ones I'd obviously watch and enjoy or at least take an interest in.  Some shows came to a finalé and others were in their second/third season.  While this had to be some great foresight I never knew I had because ALL I'D BE WATCHING IN THE NEW YEAR IS STREAMING MOVIES AND SHOWS...lol. So I guess it worked out to my benefit.  Something to give an opinion on as Cinemas are closed.  But to review a short film, a film that is barely even 10 minutes is a bit of a stretch but I guess, why not.  The short film had something to say and so do I!

Canvas centres around an elderly man who is a still-life painter.  It would seem he has painted his whole life or at least, it is something that he loves doing, enough that his granddaughter comes to visit and also displays talents in drawing.  However, this elderly man has lost the passion for art for reasons I won't go into, but as this short story plays out, in just less than 10 minutes, we discover the the reasons why and if he is able to enjoy painting again.

This is a beautiful short film.  Silent with sound effects and no actual words.  The artistry of the drawings and how the animation is animated, the detail, amazing.  I'm thinking if Toy Story 4 was more detailed than this, but I am unsure.  This short film might be boring to some as there really isn't much to it, but the themes do hit and there is something to be said about the story or message behind this little short film.  Bound to evoke some kind of emotion.  Granted I don't think I could deal with a longer version of this, maybe more characters etc, but I do believe this short film did what it was aiming for.

Imagine, I tried not to spoil a just under 10 minute short film and I may have actually succeeded....maybe.
Enjoy!

(trailer review) - SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run

I've never been a SpongeBob fan so I never got the appeal.  It's the same with Dragonball Z, I just never got into it or got the appeal, so watching this trailer, kids or not, just didn't appeal to me.
When he falls into the water and soaks it up and inflates, that made me burst out laughing and the part where they get to the "Vegas" place and are bedazzled by all it's wonder, made me smile, but other than that, maybe a newer and better trailer, maybe, just maybe I'll be more interested.  But as it stands I could care less.

Directed by Tim Hill with voice acting by Tom Kenny.

(trailer review) - Scooby-Doo

When I was younger I used to watch Scooby-Doo.  Always trying to track the bad guy as I'm sure it is a murder mystery cartoon...or if not murder, people go missing, no? I really can't remember and really don't care at this point.  But I remember it used to be fun especially when they introduced Scrappy-Doo, the tiny version of scooby that loved to fight.  However, once I was told that Scooby-Doo and the gang was a bunch of Hippy druggies and that only Shaggy talks to Scooby and Scooby talks back to Shaggy (kinda like Stu and his Mum in Family Guy, that kinda thing, sorta) and they understand each other because Shaggy is constantly high.  I had no idea they were hippies when I was watching it as a young boy.  Plus, you don't see shaggy on drugs or taking them (Kids TV), but he seems to be clearly on it.  It was at that moment, my mind was blown.  I cannot validate this and maybe this information is wrong, but I've never cared to try and find out if it were true or not, or if it made sense.

As for this movie trailer, it isn't for me and I really don't care for an origin story of Shaggy and Scooby.  They are not aiming this film at me as I am NOT the demographic and it doesn't seem like a movie as clever as a Disney Pixar's Toy Story or Incredibles for it to also appeal to adults, ie myself, so I have nothing to really say about it as I wasn't entertained by it.  What I did like about it though, was the updated animation and how the characters were drawn, I really liked that.  The drawings were very modern but they kept the aesthetic which I loved.  Other than that, this needs to amaze me to be interested and I really don't see that happening.

Directed by Tony Cervone and starring Kiersey Clemons, Zac Efron, Will Forte, Jason Isaacs, Ken Jeong & Tracy Morgan

(trailer review) - Onward

From the creators of Incredibles and "" as a Disney Pixar movie?  I'm definitely involved.  It seems as though they have got World of Warcraft infused with a family dynamic and modern day "everyday life" spin that will make it an interested movie. I liked the Half-way dad and the dressing up making seem like a full sized adult, it gave me some giggles.  Besides, I like Chris Pratt, Octavia Spencer and Tom Holland, so it would be nice to hear their voices give life to these characters. I'll go to see this when this comes out.

Directed by Dan Scanlon and starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt