(series review) - Ironheart

 

To be clear, Disney-Marvel has made some questionable decisions lately. When I say of late, within the last six years. For me, it stemmed from a scene in Endgame (so obviously longer than six years), but there was a moment when all the women came together to fight. It had nothing to do with women coming together to fight, but more about the heavy-handedness of it all that even the show 'The Boys' made fun of it. With that said, it is all about directives and execution. Ryan Coogler had directives for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and under the circumstances, his execution was near flawless, considering the challenges he faced. Bringing a character like Riri into the MCU is obviously something they wanted to do, a black girl with intellect on par with Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Shuri, so in Wakanda Forever, she goes. It was not an excellent fit, but Ryan made it work the best way he could. Riri was a decent addition to the movie, but was ultimately not needed; it drove the plot along. So here is the series, something they mentioned many years ago, which was in production and finished many years ago too. Under the mandate of Bob Chapek, formet Disney CEO who wanted everything out quick and fast and also onto Disney Plus, this show was struck with issues like a few movies and other shows of thay era, but the show...well, whilst not amazing or great, I still had a great time with it.

The first episode sets us up with what this story is going to be about: Riri dealing with her lost best friend and trying to find a different type of hustle to raise money to build an Iron suit. She finds a group of "Robin Hood-esque" people led by The Hood, aka Parker, where she feels she will be able to get money fast.

The second episode introduces Riri's AI N.A.T.A.L.I.E, who looks just like her best friend. While they both try to figure out how the AI came into being, Riri wants to complete a couple of missions for The Hood and his gang, but Riri needs more components for her suit when the 1st mission is complete. Riri also tries to figure out how The Hood uses his powers or where they derive from.

The third episode introduces Joe, a guy who has been living under the tech radar with his own dreams of being a revolutionist, but wants to stay as far from his father's endeavours as possible. He helps Riri, and Riri can continue with the heist, but things go wrong when the lab starts to lock down.

The fourth episode leaves Joe in a situation where The Hood helps him out and offers him assistance with his tech. Riri seeks help from her mother and her mother's friend at a magic shop that realises the nature or origin of The Hood's powers are rooted somewhere unfathomable. Xavier, Natalie's brother and Riri's friend, is forced to confront Riri's AI.

In the fifth episode, The Hood's gang decide to leave Parker to go on the last heist alone. Angry, Parker brings Zeke along with him, and Riri decides to armour up against The Hood to fight magic with magic.

The sixth and final episode gives us the origin story of The Hood and the deal he made to become who he is. Riri and The Hood battle it out, but ultimately, neither of them becomes the victor.

In short, the show was entertaining. It had its shortcomings with some of the story beats, the pacing, some logistics and The Hood's crew, but other than that, I really enjoyed the show.

Riri is a great but flawed character. She is acted very well by Dominique Thorne, and she is very relatable, other than the fact that she can build iron suits and is super intelligent. She is someone who, like most of us, runs away from things they do not want to face head-on. She makes silly decisions, but ultimately, she is a good person. Seeing Riri have panic attacks due to her realisation and the weight of her actions is very real and relatable. The N.A.T.A.L.I.E AI played by Lyric Ross, for me, steals the show. With so much personality and youthfulness, the AI is different to ALL other AIs in the MCU and stands apart by being just as clever as Riri but also acts as Riri's best friend. Their interaction and chemistry are undeniable.

Parker, aka The Hood, played by Anthony Ramos, is not one-dimensional. When we get to the latter episodes, you see where he has come from and why he is the way he is. He is not necessarily a bad person, as he also has layers like Riri, but is easily manipulated due to his drive and goals. His cousin John, played by Manny Montana, is loyal and faithful to Parker. You could see him as the person pulling the strings because he has a quiet demeanour about him, and he isn't just a henchman. He looks out for his cousin and protects him no matter what. All these characters and the acting from the actors are great, with zero flaws.

The Hood's crew. They are just in the show to act as Parker's henchmen to do what he asks them to do and to help pull off the heists. It is possible Parker could pull the heists off by himself, but he also wants his friends to earn money. None of these characters really stand out, nor do you care about them. You might want to know the backgrounds of maybe 2 of them. But ultimately, they are in this show to help build it out and flesh out the world. They are not important, even if one of them does mention a place we have heard before a few times in the MCU. Another character who was great was Joe. The chemistry between Dominique and Alden works well! His character is great, and he plays the character great, but going forward, it would be great to see more of Joe.

The mother, mother's friend and daughter are side characters I wish I got more screen time with and found out a bit more about them. Even the dad was great. Maybe after Doctor Strange 3, we might get something that has been mentioned (rumored) and an interesting and different Marvel show rather than film is defintely the way forward here, and maybe it can open up to a lot of possibilities epecially with fleshing out the MCU even more, but they were great side characters.

The show, as stated earlier, was entertaining, and it did act more like a show than a film spliced into six, but with that said, the show felt a little rushed to me. There seemed to be no sense of time passing, so the show feels like it spans a week, if that, rather than maybe two weeks or a month. Maybe it does or maybe it is shorter, but it seems like a lot gets done within hours from when the show starts to when it ends.

The music is great, and the special effects for a TV Show are great. The Iron suit looks great on screen, and it really pops. A lot of money has gone into it, and it shows.  It is a very high film quality, and the Iron suits look amazing, especially as they are all different from one another.

Although this show is likely to get mixed reviews over a myriad of reasons, ultimately the show is heading places that require a season 2 or the story to continue elsewhere. How the show ends is very ballsy for Disney and is all in line with the character. It had been a while since we had seen a flawed character like Riri, and this type of storytelling needs to continue within the MCU. If you have not seen it, give it a watch; it is not that demanding of your time, and it is entertaining. Hopefully, we can see more of these great side characters to open the doors for something else. Considering this show was delayed and chopped and re-written and this and that, the end result was not terrible, and for those who think it was, maybe consider Secret Invasion, or Echo or She-Hulk or Hawkeye or Moon Knight! I enjoyed Echo. She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Hawkeye were ok, but I do believe people are quick to say something is trash, forgetting other shows they called trash that came before it. It is not top quality and needs a bit of work here and there, but we have a good show with a great character and supporting characters, with an ending that needs resolving 

(trailer review) - Ironheart

There is a very high possibility that this show is going to be trash. I say that because you have to read between the lines and take in all the information you know about the delays, the reshoots, the 4 or 5 years it has taken to get this official trailer out to us, that the MCU has been struggling in the past two phases because the content has been hit and miss due to the corpoerate running of Disney and their change of leadership and mandates. This show was given life when Bob Chapek wanted shows and movies, now now now! I cannot say that I have hope for this due to knowing all this information and feeling some concerns over the handling of the property, which could very well lead to the poor execution of this show, having it been rushed out but, with that said, this trailer has definitely sold it for me. I would not say I am excited and I cannot wait, but I will say, "consider my interest piqued".

Straight off as an introduction or reintroduction (for those who did not watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), they show us how book and street smart Riri is, but as we go further into the trailer we see a few snippets of Riri's time in Wakanda as she states she wants to make something iconic. I am guessing that with trying to fulfil her dreams, she needs money, something she does not have, and she leans on and  "befriends" a person who states he can get her money, and is likely the Bad Guy of the show, her benefactor, maybe mentor too. I am not sure where the show will be going because there has been a lot of things that has changed over the years since, 'Armour Wars' being one of them, so I am ultimately wondering, if this is simply a standalone show telling her story of how she has continued since the Black Panther sequel? I mean, displaying her intellect and her skillset is one thing, and it is cool, we saw that, but if the show does not really connect to the larger MCU in some way, why do we want to watch it? I love the fact that she has created an AI that looks lifelike (Maybe a way we can get RDJ back like as an AI construct like in the comics), and if the rumours are true, the guy at the end, if he turns out to be who he has been rumoured to be, it will be really interesting to see where they take that character. The show looks great, magic and technology, but looks can be deceiving. I legit feel that at the moment, Marvel is currently operating on a "we win one, we lose one, we win one, we lose one, we..." distribution structure with their projects, film and TV, until they are fully back on track with quality, but I cannot help to think, unless the armour she creates helps Doctor Doom in some way, why? I'd be surprised if this turns out half decent, but I would definitely want it to be fully decent, and I hope it is.

(film review) - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

You know what is really wild to me? This movie coming to an end and I was smiling from ear to ear gassed about what I had just watched (for context, to be gassed, is to be excited). I mean, I had watched the trailer and given the trailer high praise. As I said in my trailer review "...Michael Bay took my childhood cartoons and ruined them..." (I guess I was also referring to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films too, as he was a producer on them). Although Michael Bay was also a producer of the 2018's Bumblebee movie (It should have been called 'Transformers: Bumblebee'), I am guessing he did not meddle with that one because that movie was far better than the previous Transformers movies and it is quite possible, he learned from possibly poking his nose in where it did not belong for TMNT. The Bumblebee movie was really good and I was hoping for more...and it looks like we have got it, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and for me, it did not disappoint!

Noah, an ex-military electronics expert is trying to get by and support his family, but when he decides to take on a risky job for his friend Reek, Noah is catapulted into a world of robots in disguise who have learned of a planet-eating alien seeking to devour Earth. Noah must join the Autobots to help save the planet, even if it means joining up with the Maximals.

I will start with the negatives first. The Music. Do not get me wrong, the music was fantastic and there was a moment towards the end of the movie where a certain song came on and the scene was simply perfect. I was smiling so hard, enjoying the moment way too much for a Transformers movie. The special effects, in places; not great. This might be due to the budget Steven was given but in a couple of places, it seemed very 'green screen'. The nostalgia factor. Where this movie is set in the 90s I am not sure, if the movie came out in the 90s the film would have simply felt like it fit in with the times we are "currently in", but as I grew up through that time and we are currently out of that time, some 30 years ago, I felt that the 90s influence was somewhat heavy-handed. Not as heavy-handed as Captain Marvel, but I just felt like it was just a tad too much nostalgia for me. The Humans. Nobody cares about them. Nobody wants them in a Transformers movie. They get in the way, they do dumb things and for the most part, they are simply there to also help hold the audience's hand for exposition. On top of that, they are also there to help keep what would be a special effects-heavy movie, costs down, but for the most part, the humans were not terrible, they help bring a little humour and help ground the movie.

The positives, loads! The story was a simple one; bad guy coming to do bad things, so the relatable [human] good guy teams up with unknown [robotic] good guys to help stop the [robotic] bad guy from succeeding, nothing new right? But I will say, Steven handled the franchise with care. I never watched Beast Wars nor did I care for it, but seeing these animals looked absolutely great. The size of the Autobots and the size of the Maximals compared to humans is staggering. They all just looked great and very well realised. The Music, although sounding like a 90s best hip-hop hits album, was really good. The irony of going to the cinema to watch this movie on this occasion for me was, whilst a song from a band is currently playing in the movie, the very same band is currently at the same complex I am in and likely performing, had performed or due to perform the very same song I am currently listening to. Trippy. All the music pieces were a great fit, but I do think it was a little heavy-handed as a lot of the music was back-to-back-to-back. The fighting scenes. Whilst I ultimately did not get what I wanted (and I will not mention or allude to it due to spoilers), the fighting scenes were really good. The action was really good and the 3rd act was surprisingly good, especially when that particular song I mentioned earlier dropped. I think I was in the cinema by myself and I really should have cheered as loud as I could because the moment was simply great and I wouldn't have been disturbing anyone, but it was soo good. The humour' decent. While I will say, having Pete Davidson as Mirage was funny, I felt that maybe they could have made some of the lines uttered in the movie less cheesy, but I guess we need a little bit of cheese now and then. The voice acting. Pete Davidson; great. I was not aware he could do some brilliant voice acting and having Peter Cullen is always a bonus, but I had no idea, Ron Pearlman, Colman Domingo and Peter Dinklage were in this lending their talents.

In regards to the rest of the movie, there was a Lord of the Rings moment, visually anyway, when you see it, you will know and the acting was not superb, especially as it is a Transformers movie so I could not have expected anything less (how the movie and the characters were written), but Dominque Fishback is the anchor to this movie while Anthony Ramos was just ok to me. I felt Anthony's quieter scenes with Dean Scott Vazquez were better and written very well, whereas his other moments could have been fleshed out more. There is also a moment with Dominique which was really good too, but ultimately, I feel his character could have been written and acted out better. But other than that and some other moments that do not escape any Transformers movie, on the whole, a very good watch, especially if you leave any opinions of previous movies and the bad taste in your mouth from them, at the door before you sit and watch. Lastly, the mid-credits scene; interesting, very interesting. I wonder what Hasbro has in store, hopefully, something great than trying to build a universe and simply messing it up just because they are trying to build a universe as capable, vast and great as the MCU, like how DC and Universal have previously tried and failed trying to do so, although DC might actually be able to salvage what is left of that mess. If you can, go out and see this movie as it IS a lot better than the previous movies we have had before.

(trailer review) - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

I believe I grew out of Transformers early when I was young. ThunderCats, BraveStarr and such, were always my bag. I mean a robot that turns into a car, plane, gun or ghetto blaster boom box with cassettes that turn into birds. It's great! But Michael Bay took my childhood cartoons and ruined them. I have said in the past on here that Michael IS a capable director, but he just does things in a way that is, just...visually boombastic and very unnecessary. I think I even made a comparison to Zack Snyder at some point, but Zack is ALL style and more substance than Bay. If you have not seen Bumblebee, the last Transformers movie, that was great. It was a really good film that did not rely on slow-mo and plants exploding taking out city blocks, it was just a really decent movie. Stephen Caple Jr., Coming off the back of Creed II, I will definitely say, is a capable director from the branches of Ryan Coogler, but dealing with a big-budget movie like this is interesting and a sight to behold. With that said, this trailer looks GREAT!!!

So, I was never into the animal transformers at all so I know completely nothing about it, but doesn't this movie look beautiful! The robot versions of animals look magnificent, the way they move and manoeuvre. What looks like a cheeter, the bird (maybe a hawk), they look great! Is that Mirage or another autobot? I am definitely acting like I know more names than Prime, Megatron and Galvatron...oh and Hot Rod. Ok, Starscream, Soundwave and Rachet. It will be interesting to actually watch this and hopefully bring the franchise back to how it should be...maybe more like Bumblebee. Oh...and please have a Cybertron moment or something remotely close to it because that Cybertron moment in Bumblebee was soo good.