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Movie Night: Spider-Man: No Way Home

16/12/202125/08/2025Dr. K13 Comments

Released: 17 December 2021
Director: Jon Watts
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $200 million
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, and Benedict Cumberbatch

The Plot:
After having his secret identity publicly outed, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Holland) finds himself branded a murderer and requests Doctor Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) cast a spell to make everyone forget his identity. However, when the spell is corrupted, reality is fractured and Peter is beset by foes from across the multiverse seeking to avenge themselves against Spider-Man, no matter what world he’s from!

The Background:
Following the massive success of the original Spider-Man trilogy (Raimi, 2000 to 2007) and the largely mediocre reception of the poorly-timed reboot films, Marvel Studios were finally able to achieve the impossible when they reached an agreement to include a new version of the iconic web-slinger in their interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Tom Holland took on the role of a young, fresh-faced take on the character and debuted in spectacular fashion in Captain America: Civil War (Russo and Russo, 2016) before spinning off (no pun intended) into the incredibly successful Spider-Man: Homecoming (Watts, 2017). Spider-Man: Far From Home’s (ibid, 2019) impressive $1.132 million box office proved that the MCU could sustain the success it had amassed even after the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Endgame (Russo and Russo, 2019) but development of a third outing for the character was initially stalled when financial disputes threatened to see the character once again pulled from Marvel’s control. After these issues were resolved, and following a delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, production finally got underway in late-2020 and, almost immediately, rumours began circulating regarding the possible return of actors from the previous Spider-Man franchises. These were only exacerbated when Benedict Cumberbatch was confirmed to reprise his role as Dr. Strange, a character who was already scheduled to have his own multiversal adventure, and when the long-awaited trailer was finally released following a leak, confirming that Alfred Molina would be returning as Doctor Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus thanks to digital de-aging. Finally, after months of speculation and wild fan rumours, the film’s final trailers confirmed that this story would tackle Spider-Man’s varied cinematic multiverse and the film received an official release date. Thanks to bringing together elements from across Spider-Man’s cinematic legacy, Spider-Man: No Way Home was met by unanimous praise; critics lauded the performances and heart of the film, in addition to atmosphere and chemistry between the actors, and the film made a mammoth $1.916 billion at the box office.

The Review:
I feel it’s only fair to emphasise here that I simply cannot find the language to talk about this film without using spoilers. If the title and various warnings aren’t enough for you, then this text should be: here be spoilers, and I’m not planning on holding back as I feel the movie deserves to be discussed in detail and the only way to do that is to talk about spoilers. Also, I was initially torn when it came to this film; the build up to it saw some really toxic opinions and members of the fandom rear their ugly heads, and the marketing has been a bit all over the place. Sony showed a surprising amount of restraint with their trailers, and maybe held them off a little too long, but it definitely built up a great deal of hype and intrigue surrounding it and it felt good to be excited and curious about a movie for a change. Having said that, though…be better, people, come on. If you have a favourite Spider-Man, that’s great, but don’t rag on people for having a different opinion. Spider-Man is really lucky as he has had so many adaptations and so much representation, so many live-action portrayals, and all of them have been extremely accurate to the source material and exciting outings in their own right, so maybe just be thankful that the web-head gets so much love and is so popular rather than being ungrateful or attacking others for their opinions?

*Jameson’s smear campaign spells personal trouble for Spider-Man and his friends.*

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up immediately where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off, with blustering, loud-mouthing online personality J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) gleefully broadcasting edited footage sent to him by Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) that not only implicates Peter as a murderer but also outs his secret identity to the entire world. Naturally, this sends New York City into a bit of an uproar and, pretty much immediately, both Spider-Man and his new girlfriend Michelle Jones-Watson/M. J. (Zendaya) are swamped by a mob that is split between worshipping and condemning Spider-Man, paparazzi looking to get a sound bite, and cops seeking to question Peter’s involvement in Beck’s death. Despite his best efforts to escape the chaos, and to break the news to his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and his begrudging friend and handler, Harold “Happy” Hogan (Jon Favreau), Peter and his friends and family are soon apprehended by the Department of Damage Control (DODC), which has now extended its scope into being a federal agency responsible for such matters. Although M. J. and May remain tight-lipped on the matter, Peter’s bungling but loyal friend Ned Leeds (Batalon) and Peter himself don’t exactly help his case, and Peter is left overwhelmed by the barrage of accusations and the public’s awareness of his true identity. Any legal ramifications concerning these matters are quickly swept under the table, however; although Happy and May recently ended their fling (much to Happy’s dismay), the Parkers are given sanctuary at Happy’s secure apartment and an especially good blind lawyer is able to ensure that the charges against Peter are dropped. However, public opinion remains divided; since the world considers Mysterio a hero, many people condemn Spider-Man (which isn’t helped by Jameson’s continuing smear campaign against Peter) and Peter is treated with both awe, fear, and adulation by his fellow pupils. Thankfully, he has M. J. and Ned there to support him through it; despite the revelation uprooting their lives and thrusting them into the spotlight as well, they remain his loyal and understanding companions, which is always sweet to see. While Peter appreciates this, and could probably have adjusted to the major changes in his life with their support, his guilt and shame are magnified when neither her, Ned, or M. J. are able to successfully get into college.

*Peter turns to Dr. Strange for help, but muddles the spell and causes reality to fracture as a result.*

Because of the media storm and controversy surrounding Peter, no college wants to risk being associated with any of them, and Peter is guilt-ridden at having cost his loved ones the chance of realising their dreams. Yet, even though this has happened, M. J. and Ned still take it on the chin and remain optimistic (or, at least, put on a brave face, in M. J.’s case) and neither of them blame Peter for this, but it does little to alleviate his guilt. Desperate for a solution, Peter seeks out the council of Dr. Strange (who, it is amusingly revealed, is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme thanks to being snapped away for five years; Wong (Benedict Wong) has assumed the position instead, which could potentially be explored to greater humourous effect in Strange’s upcoming movie). Although Wong cautions against it, Dr. Strange offers to cast a complicated and dangerous spell that will erase the knowledge of Peter’s secret identity from everyone in the world; however, Peter starts to panic mid-way through the spell and requests that May, M. J., Ned, and Happy be exempt from the erasure, which causes Strange to lose control of the spell and contain it within a jewel least it wreak havoc upon the world…and the multiverse. The relationship between Dr. Strange and Peter is notably different to what we saw between Peter and Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr); Strange isn’t a mentor to Peter, he’s more like a work associate, and he’s willing to help the kid out because of his efforts at restoring half the population, but he’s easily frustrated by Peter’s naivety and ignorance, especially when it comes to the world of magic, and angered that Peter risked tampering with the fabric of reality before properly exploring all of the real-world options available to him or learning to adapt to the changes in his life.

*Molina makes a triumphant return as the crazed Doc Ock, who’s intrigued by the MCU.*

Determined to make up for this, Peter tracks down a college professor to plead M. J. and Ned’s case, only to suddenly be attacked by a face very familiar to us but completely alien to him as Dr. Octopus attacks the Queensboro Bridge in a confused rage, ranting at Peter and demanding to know what happened to his “machine”. Though confused by the villain’s sudden appearance, Spider-Man holds his own in impressive fashion thanks to the advanced technology and gadgets built into his Iron Spider costume, saving lives while fending off Doc Ock’s mechanical arms; his genius mind addled by the corrupting influence of his mechanical tentacles, Doc Ock is intrigued by the Iron Spider’s nanotechnology but startled to find a very different face behind the mask. His confusion soon turns to manic frustration when Peter is able to use the suit’s nanotech to take control of Doc Ock’s arms and render him helpless, and Octavius’s rage is only incensed further when he suddenly finds himself a prisoner in a dark catacomb beneath Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Although dismissive of the idea of magic and vehemently rejecting the idea that he needs help or to be fixed, Doc Ock is intrigued to see the evidence of a multiverse surrounding him; not only has he met the MCU version of Peter and M. J., but he shares his prison with Doctor Curt Connors/The Lizard (Rhys Ifans), a monstrous creature Dr. Strange was able to subdue offscreen and who is very clearly from another reality. Ock’s curiosity is only piqued further when he and Peter catch a fleeting glimpse of another Spider-foe Octavius knows all-too-well, Doctor Norman Osbourn/The Green Goblin (Dafoe), before being imprisoned.

*Peter finds a number of monstrous, and maniacal, villains have crossed over into the MCU.*

Angered at the incursions that have slipped into their world because of Peter’s ignorance, Dr. Strange demands that he and his friends “Scooby-Doo this shit!” and round up the visitors so they can be sent home; he grants Peter a magically-charged gadget that allows him to shoot a web that instantly teleports the villains to the prison, and Peter is forced to turn his suit inside-out after it gets ruined by paint thrown by a mob. Although he initially heads out to track down the Green Goblin, Peter instead finds Max Dillon/Electro (Foxx), who draws power from electricity lines to regain his physical form and alter the nature of his powers. Disorientated at having being violently ripped from his reality, Electro lashes out in anger, and Peter is only saved by the timely intervention of Flint Marko/The Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church), who helps Peter subdue and capture Electro. However, upon realising that he’s trapped on another world, the Sandman also grows antagonistic and winds up confined as a result, and Peter learns from each of them the nature of their personalities, their worlds, and their fates: Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Electro are all fated to die in battle with Spider-Man, and returning them home would seal that fate, and that’s something Peter cannot, in good conscience, allow.

*The Green Goblin quickly re-establishes himself as Peter’s greatest threat.*

This brings him into conflict with Dr. Strange, who is determined to activate the jewel and send the visitors back home regardless since he’s weighing the fate and stability of the entire multiverse rather than the lives of a few villains. When Peter tries to take the jewel from him, a bit of a scuffle ensues in which we see Peter is able to control his body even while forced into his astral force thanks to this spider-sense, and his knowledge of geometry also allows him to figure out the mirror dimensions, web up Strange, and leave him stranded there while he works to cure the villains. While he has good intentions, and his friends and family support his efforts, and he is even able to convince the villains to trust him to help keep them alive, Peter underestimates the depths of Norman’s psychosis. Rendered a meek, bewildered scientist who is lost and in pain, Norman willingly works alongside Peter to help fix Doc Ock, returning the tentacled menace to his more good-natured self, but Norman’s dark half, the Green Goblin, soon resurfaces to throw Peter’s entire plan out the window. I got a real kick out of seeing Norman and Otto being familiar with each other, and the Lizard and Electro also having a familiarity with each other, it really helped to flesh out their respective worlds and deliver exposition regarding the characters to those who might not be familiar with them. While it’s disappointing that the Sandman was rendered entirely in his sand form for 90% of the movie, and the Lizard was basically a non-factor (there’s even a moment where he is simply confined to a van and forgotten about until the film’s big climax needs to happen), both Doc Ock and the Green Goblin play significant roles in the story. The Goblin wraps the remains of his God-awful suit in a tatter cloak and Dafoe’s demented facial expressions get to shine trough as he operates entirely unmasked throughout the film; he’s also far more vicious and deadly than ever before, cackling in Peter’s face and taunting him at every turn. While all of these returning actors slipped back into their roles perfectly (and even got a chance at redemption, in Electro’s case), Dafoe steals the show ones again as a maniacal and vicious villain who simply wants to cause Peter pain, no matter which Peter it is!

The Nitty-Gritty :
When I first heard that Tom Holland’s third solo movie was going to delve into the multiverse, I have to admit that I was disappointed and annoyed; I enjoyed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey, and Rothman, 2018) but even with that film I questioned the logic of confusing matters with multidimensional shenanigans. The MCU definitely seems to be gearing towards exploring the multiverse, but I expected this to be confined to Dr. Strange’s solo films and worried that bringing in faces from the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films would just be pandering and confusing. Not only that, but I’m of the firm belief that every role can be recast: Dafoe, Simmons, and Molina were all fantastic in their previous iterations but who’s to say that another actor wouldn’t be just as good, if not better? I expected this third Spider-Man movie would be the perfect excuse to finally bring the Sinister Six to life using the villains already established in the MCU: Adrian Toomes/The Vulture (Michael Keaton), Herman Schultz/The Shocker (Bokeem Woodbine), Mac Gargan/The Scorpion (Michael Mando), and even Mysterio (he was the master of illusions, after all) could all have returned and joined forces with two new villains (ideally an all-new Doc Ock) to collect a bounty on Spider-Man. Hell, I was more excited at the prospect of Charlie Cox returning as Matt Murdock/Daredevil or Spider-Man being forced to go on the run and teaming up with the Netflix Defenders than complicating things with multiverse hijinks, and I still maintain that it makes zero sense to have Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) exist in a separate universe when it would have been far simpler to have him be based in San Francisco but still exist in the MCU (like how other MCU heroes and movies take place in different cities but those characters don’t have to be transported through time and space to interact).

*Spider-Man butts heads with Dr. Strange regarding how to deal with the villains.*

And yet….man, was it a thrill to see Alfred Molina return in the role! Bringing back these iconic actors in their most famous villain roles might be unapologetic fan service but it was fan service executed almost to perfection. I say “almost” as we were one villain short from an iteration of the Sinister Six; Eddie doesn’t show up into the mid-credits scene and he is teleported back where he came from without having any impact on the movie (though he does leave a part of himself behind…) and there was no secret sixth villain added to the roster. However, that’s not to say that the five villains we did get were disappointing…far from it! Since the MCU is different to where he came from, Electro is able to not only reconstitute his body, but also alters his powers; the addition of an Arc Reactor only pushes his powers even further, allowing him to resemble his traditional comic book appearance far closer than in his original iteration. The Sandman may be in sand form for the majority of the film, but he remains an emotionally conflicted character; at first, he helps Peter, and even tries to talk sense into some of the villains, but the idea of being kept from his home world and his daughter pushes him against the web-slinger out of pure self-preservation. This motivation is the driving force behind many of the villains, as they have either accepted their monstrous new powers or have no wish to be sent away to die. In the case of Doc Ock and the Lizard, this is due to technology or mutation clouding their judgement; when Peter repairs the inhibitor chip on Ock’s neck, he becomes much more agreeable and even helps Peter to hold off the villains in the finale, and when the Lizard ingests the cure and returns to his human form, he returns to his more docile personality.

*Peter is devastated by loss and pushed to the edge by the Green Goblin.*

The same is also true of the Green Goblin, however Norman’s psychosis is far more manipulative, calculating, and violent. He has no desire to return home to meet his end and absolutely brutalises Peter to keep him from trying to cure him; the Goblin quickly re-establishes himself as Peter’s most dangerous and notorious foe not only by swaying the other villains into turning on Peter, but delivering a massive beatdown on him that leaves him helpless to keep his Aunt May from harm. Although Peter manages to shield May from the Goblin’s pumpkin bomb, the glider blindsides her and leaves her with a fatal wound, and she tragically dies in his arms, leaving him heartbroken and with her final words of encouragement ringing in his ears: “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” May’s death devastates Peter, and drives him into a quest for revenge against the Goblin; no longer merely satisfied to cure or help the villains, he wishes nothing less than the Goblin’s death at his hands, and it’s a true moment of despair for the young Avenger. No Way Home really puts Peter through the wringer, pushing his morals and optimistic outlook to breaking point, and really burdens him with the guilt of having indirectly caused his mother-figure’s death by trying to help the villains rather than allowing them to return home and potentially die as fated.

*Spider-Man gets some unexpected help to fend off the combined threat of these multiversal villains.*

Desperate to find Peter and give their support, M. J. and Ned mess about with one of Dr. Strange’s sling-rings and discover the presence of two more familiar faces who slipped through the dimensional barriers and are determined to help and let me tell you…I have never seen a cinema explode into rapturous applause before but my screening blew the roof off when Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire made their long-awaited, and long-rumoured, return to their famous roles. Both arrived due to Strange’s spell and have been trying to track down MCU-Peter, and both have arrived from later in their careers, finally giving us a coda to their stories: Webb-Peter reveals that he struggled to cope after failing to save Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and almost lost himself to his rage at one point, and that he has thrown himself into his duties as Spider-Man to cope. Raimi-Peter is noticeably older, but still in good shape, and, though haunted by his failures and losses, maintains that he and M. J. (Kirsten Dunst) found a way to carry on). The scenes with the three Peters are an obvious highlight and they share some fantastic line sand banter together; Webb-Peter is elated to have found “brothers” and they work together to synthesise cures for the villains based on their previous experiences and scientific acumen. They also share stories of their adventures and powers, with Webb-Peter and MCU-Peter both being astounded (and a little disturbed) by Raimi-Peter’s organic webbing, Raimi-Peter extending a much-needed pep talk to Webb-Peter, and both Webb- and Raimi-Peter being impressed by MCU-Peter’s space adventures. Seeing them work together, offering MCU-Peter support and understanding, is fantastic as Webb-Peter delivers an emotional soliloquy about his failures (and gets to make amends for it by catching M. J. in a truly emotional moment) and Raimi-Peter relates the messages passed on to him by his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), and MCU-Peter is even able to help them get past being solo heroes and work together using his experiences of teamwork as an Avenger.

*The multiversal breach rages out of control, leading to Peter making a selfless sacrifice…*

With three Spider-Man working together, the Lizard, the Sandman, and Electro are all subdued and returned to their human forms, presumably alleviating them of their madness and violent tendencies, in a mind-blowing final confrontation around the Statue of Liberty (which is being refurbished to hold Captain America’s shield aloft). Despite the best efforts of his alternative counterparts, though, MCU-Peter is driven into a rage and attacks the Green Goblin mercilessly and even prepares to deliver a fatal blow with his own glider, only for Raimi-Peter to intervene (and get stabbed in the back for his efforts). Ultimately, MCU-Peter delivers a cure, rather than a kill, to his newest foe and Norman is left an emotional and remorseful wreck, though this pales in comparison to the threat unleashed by one of his pumpkin bombs as Strange’s spell is blown free and miscellaneous, vaguely-defined villains and intruders from all across the multiverse threaten to converge on the MCU. Dr. Strange struggles to contain the spell and, determined to make amends for his previous mistake, MCU-Peter decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and has Strange cast a new spell that will make everyone, everywhere, forget all about Peter Parker. He thanks his counterparts for their help and bids an emotional farewell to M. J. and Ned, promising to find them and rekindle their friendship/relationship after the spell is cast, but hesitates upon seeing how happy and better off M. J. and Ned are without him in their lives. Ultimately, Peter chooses to leave them be and fashions a new, 100% comic accurate costume for himself using his counterparts’ suits as inspiration and finally gets his big, triumphant final swing as he begins a new life safe in the knowledge that no one knows his true identity any more…and that he’s not alone in the vast, dangerous multiverse.

The Summary:
After viewing that first trailer and seeing Doc Ock show up once again, my mind was pretty much blown when it came to this movie. It raised so many questions, many of them being concerns that Tom’s third solo outing would get overwhelmed or bogged down by multiverse shenanigans and blatant fan service. Subsequent trailers helped shed a bit more light on the film, and I began to calm down a bit and predict that these returning characters wouldn’t be as integral to the narrative as many were making out. This turned out to be true, to a degree; the villains are definitely a big part of the film, but Spider-Man: No Way Home still does a fantastic job of focusing on Peter, his relationships, his growth, and his identity crisis. Could we have seen a grittier, more grounded film that dealt with him being on the run and learning to adapt to his tumultuous new public life? For sure, yes, and I would also argue that many of these villains could have been recast and reimagined as MCU characters and it would have worked just as well, but again there is such a thrill to be had at seeing these actors return to their iconic roles and, in many cases, reinvigorate their characters with the benefit of hindsight. I loved that Peter’s focus was on others the entire time; his selflessness is a driving force of his character, and every decision he makes is to try and benefit either his friends or family or to save lives. This is motivated by his guilt, of course, as they would only be in danger because of him, and he remains a flawed character trying to make amends for his mistakes, which is the quintessential essence of Spider-Man for me. More than any other Spider-Man, MCU-Peter tries to help even the most villainous characters rather than condemn them to death, it was truly heart-breaking to see him o devastated by Aunt May’s death that he was willing to cross that line. Of course, the undisputable highlight is seeing Tom Holland share the screen with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield; while it’s painfully obvious that all three actors weren’t on set or in the studio at the same time for every shot (whether due to Covid or scheduling), it’s still a blast to see them interacting, hearing those iconic themes, and seeing them in action. Once I accepted that No Way Home was going to be a multiverse adventure, my hope was that the film would go all-out to deliver on its potential…and I’m happy to say that it went above and beyond! Action-packed, emotional, and amusing throughout, Spider-Man: No Way Home may very well be in the top-tier of Spider-Man adventures and I am very excited to see where Peter’s journey takes him now that his status quo has been so dramatically changed.

My Rating:

Fantastic

Have you seen Spider-Man: No Way Home? Were you excited at the idea of iconic Spider-Man villains making their return or do you think that the multiverse stuff should stay in the Dr. Strange movies? What did you think to the way the film handled the public’s knowledge of Spider-Man’s identity and would you have preferred to see this explored a little more in-depth? Which of the returning villains was your favourite, and how excited were you to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield return (and Charlie Cox finally be incorporated into the movies)? Were you disappointed that we came so close to the Sinister Six and that Venom didn’t have a role in the film? Where do you see the MCU-Spider-Man’s story going from here? Whatever your thoughts on Spider-Man: No Way Home, leave a comment below.

Movie Night: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

10/12/202106/05/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 24 November 2021
Director: Johannes Roberts
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $25 million
Stars: Kaya Scodelario, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hopper, and Neal McDonough

The Plot:
In the year 1998, the grim post-industrial town of Raccoon City has just lost its biggest employer, the Umbrella Corporation. While college student Claire Redfield (Scodelario) believes Umbrella has polluted the town’s water, her estranged brother Chris (Amell) and his team investigate a nearby mansion and find the area swarming with flesh-eating zombies! Claire is forced to team up with rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (Jogia) to survive and unravel the mystery behind the outbreak and of her traumatic childhood.

The Background:
Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996) began life as a seminal “survival-horror” title for Sony’s burgeoning PlayStation that emphasised atmospheric horror and conserving resources. Although the original title suffered a bit from the PlayStation’s blocky and clunky graphics and mechanics and dodgy, B-movie voice acting, the game was a best-seller for the PlayStation and bolstered by a number of sequels. Resident Evil 2 (ibid, 1998) improved on many of these mechanics and, alongside, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (ibid, 1999), established much of the lore and groundwork before the fourth game forever changed up the formula for a new generation of gamers. The franchise’s success inevitably led to discussions of a live-action adaptation, which initially had legendary zombie horror maestro George A. Romero attached to direct before Constantin Film placed Paul W. S. Anderson in charge of the film series, which eventually included six live-action films. The movies, which were more of an action/horror genre, starred Anderson’s wife, Mila Jovovich and, despite earning a mostly negative reception, became the most successful and profitable live-action adaptation of a videogame series, though I can safely say that I was left disappointed by their lack of fidelity to the source material. After Anderson’s series concluded, Constantin Films began developing a much-needed reboot, and director James Wan initially expressed interest in the project before dropping out to direct Mortal Kombat (Wan, 2021) and being replaced by Johannes Roberts. Roberts aimed to return to the same dark, foreboding, and fun horror of the original videogames and the capture the traditional spirit of the source material by returning to the original locations, time period, and heavily featuring the popular videogame characters. Initial reactions, however, we less than encouraging, with many criticising the film’s B-movie feel; this was only exacerbated when Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City released and criticised for its lack of substance and character development. The film was praised for its fidelity to the source material and references for long-time fans, however, and grossed $42 million worldwide; additionally, both the director and star Robbie Amell have expressed interest in returning for a sequel and tackling some of the later games in the long-running franchise.

The Review:
I feel like I need to preface this review with the revelation that, while I am a big fan of the Resident Evil videogames, I am not a fan of Paul W. S. Anderson’s live-action franchise. I spent a year of my PhD researching the history of zombie cinema, watching and studying and delving into Anderson’s movies, and I came out the other end absolutely loathing them. The only one I even remotely enjoy is Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Witt, 2004), and that’s purely because it’s the closest adaptation of my favourite games in the series (Resident Evil 2 and 3: Nemesis). I absolutely despise Alice (Jovovich), hated how Anderson ignored, cherry-picked, or diluted the source material and its iconic characters, and was actually a little insulted by how continuity was continuously thrown out of the window with the next movie purely for the same of slapping together a new plot. To me, Anderson’s films, while successful, are not Resident Evil; they do a decent job of adapting a different elements of the source material and zombie troupes but the result is this incomprehensible mish-mash of ideas that have been done much better elsewhere and with the Resident Evil title slapped on it purely to make money. And, make no mistake, they did make money and were popular enough to become their own independent franchise from the source material, but I longed for something a bit more faithful to the games I grew up with so I was excited at the prospect of a new Resident Evil adaptation that not only featured the iconic characters in starring roles but also revisited the events of the videogames…even if it was lumbered with a ridiculous title.

*Chris and Claire’s fractured relationship is a central story of the film.*

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City opens with Chris and Claire as young children (Daxton Grey Gujral and Lauren Bill) at the Raccoon City Orphanage; there they, and many other children, are cared for by the Umbrella Corporation and scientist Doctor William Birkin (McDonough). While this scene does go on a little longer than you might expect, it establishes a few key elements that crop up throughout the film; first and foremost, that Chris and Claire’s relationship is an important part of the story, the mystery surrounding what Birkin and Umbrella are doing with these children, and the existence of the malformed Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa). Lisa watches and visits Claire, scaring her but also arousing her suspicions, but Chris never sees the young Trevor and despairs of Claire’s stories. The story then jumps ahead a few years to 1998 to find Claire all grown up and journeying to the veritable ghost town of Raccoon City to reunite with her brother, who has joined the Raccoon City Police Department’s (RPD) special operations team, Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) and all but given up on her younger sister. Their relationship is strained, to say the least, since Claire ran away from the orphanage and left Chris alone; with no one else to turn to, he came to see Birkin as a father-figure and grew up a loyal representative of Umbrella and dedicated law enforcement officer, so he’s less than thrilled when Claire breaks into his house spouting conspiracy theories about Umbrella poisoning Raccoon City’s water supply.

*Leon is oddly characterised as a bumbling fool who often makes an ass of himself.*

Raccoon City has declined over the years after the Umbrella Corporation randomly pulled themselves out of the area, leave only a handful of staff and those too poor to leave behind to fend for themselves. As a result, the RPD is a bit under-staffed and has little choice but to accept the unlikeliest of recruits, such as rookie Leon. A young, fresh-faced, inexperienced cop, Leon is a recent transfer to the RPD thanks to the grace of his father, who ensured that he continued on with his law enforcement career after an embarrassing mishap where he shot his partner in the ass. Consequently, Leon is constantly berated, talked down to, and the butt (no pun intended) of other character’s jokes and frustrations…and he certainly deserves this treatment. A lackadaisical kid who’s in way over his head just manning the front desk, Leon fumbles with police protocol almost as much as with his firearm; he has no idea how to handle a shotgun, is easily disarmed by desperate conspiracy theorist Ben Bertolucci (Josh Cruddas), and is constantly just getting in people’s way and asking questions rather than actually being a pro-active and resourceful character. He’s kind of here as the film’s comic relief, though he doesn’t actually make any jokes, and his character arc is a very slow burn from being an awkward and unreliable rookie to building his confidence towards being more useful and capable, but it’s not handled too well.

*The S.T.A.R.S. team are a tight-knit group, but Wesker has secretly got his own agenda.*

RPD police chief Brain Irons (Logue) has little time for Leon’s antics, and is frustrated by a spate of mysterious attacks and killing across town. Reports of a chewed-up body at the old Spenser Mansion raise his ire further and, when Bravo team fails to report in from their investigation, he sends in Chris and the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team to find out what happened. Alpha team is also made up of jock commander Albert Wesker (Hopper), trigger happy bad-ass Jill Valentine (John-Kamen), expendable nobody Richard Aiken (Chad Rook), and pilot Brad Vickers (Nathan Dales); they are an overconfident, militant bunch who have a friendly camaraderie that include splaying pranks on hapless colleagues like Leon and some sexual chemistry between Jill and Wesker. They travel to the mansion for a side story that is basically a condensed adaptation of the original Resident Evil and involves them exploring the dark, elaborate mansion with only their torches and a whole mess of submachine gun ammo on hand. Upon being dispatched, however, Wesker receives a mysterious page and is led to a PalmPilot that contains a map of the mansion, which is all part of a pre-arranged agreement with an unknown third party to led him to Birkin’s research and score him a big payday at the cost of betraying his teammates.

*Though a loyal family man, Birkin’s research leads to a horrifying outbreak of zombies and monsters.*

With Chris busying fending off the recently reanimated dead at the Spenser Mansion, Claire is forced to team up with Irons and Leon inside the police station for the Resident Evil 2 aspect of the film; the RPD is as beautifully true to the source material as the mansion, but it quickly becomes apparent that they can’t hold out against the increasing zombie horde. Irons leads them to the orphanage, which contains a secret passage to the mansion, and Claire is forced to face a traumatic experience from her childhood where Birkin tried to ship her off the mansion for experimentation with the mysterious T-Virus. Claire managed to escape, and has been trying to uncover the truth about Umbrella ever since; although a Licker shreds up Irons, Leon and Claire are aided by the grown-up Lisa Trevor and meet up with Chris right as he’s in the middle of being overwhelmed by zombies. Thanks to Wesker’s knowledge, the survivors are led to a secret passage in the mansion, which leads to a confrontation between Wesker and Birkin. A creepy, clinical scientist, Birkin is given layers of humanity through his devoted (and naïve) wife, Annette Birkin (Janet Porter), and innocent young daughter, Sherry (Holly De Barros); unlike his paranoid, self-absorbed, and malevolent videogame counterpart, Birkin is a loving father and equally concerned with getting his family to safety as he is preserving his research into the G-Virus. His desire to protect both leads him to pulling a gun on Wesker and getting riddled with bullets, and his desperate plea to Annette to inject him with the G-Virus so he can survive his wounds.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City owes a lot to the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes in terms of its visual presentation; the cinematography is dark, gritty, rain-swept and gory just like in those games and the representations of familiar areas like the mansion and RPD are ripped right out of the high definition remakes of Capcom’s classics. The fidelity to the source material is so strong here; the orphanage and S.T.A.R.S. office is exactly like in Resident Evil 2, Chris, Leon, and Claire are all decked out in game-accurate outfits, even the Arklay mountains match up with the videogames. A surprising amount of time is spent with the trucker (Pat Thornton), who has only a brief role in Resident Evil 2 but, here, plays a pivotal role in bringing Claire to Raccoon City and expositing some background on the city, and the film is punctuated by both eighties horror tropes such as constantly onscreen reminders of what time it is (since the city is on a countdown to destruction) and onscreen text that recalls the opening of the original Resident Evil. The film’s title font is event exactly the same as the classic titles, and many of the shots and events are pulled right from the videogames; Vickers crashes his helicopter into the mansion, similar to a chopper smashing into the RPD, Chris’s first encounter with a zombie is almost exactly like in Resident Evil, and stormtrooper-like members of Umbrella Security Service even appear in a cameo role.

*Some characters suffer from the writing and differ considerably from their videogame counterparts.*

Unlike Paul W. S. Anderson’s films, the focus of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is squarely on adaptations of the videogame characters, however long-term fans of the videogames may be a little disappointed with how some characters are represented. He clear standout is Claire; she’s a little more capable and has a bit of a chip on her shoulder compared to her videogame counterpart, but is a strong, bad-ass central character here and more than able to wield a shotgun, pick locks, and beat zombie dogs to death with melee weapons. Chris also fares pretty well; he’s much more the unprepared cop rather than a boulder-punching bad-ass and, while he doesn’t have as much nuance as Claire, he’s got just enough personality to not just be some meathead or stoic military brat. Unfortunately, my favourite character in the franchise, Leon, gets well and truly shafted here; never have I ever seen the character portrayed as such a bumbling klutz and it’s truly baffling that the film can be so true to the videogames in so many ways and bungle one of the most capable and popular characters so completely. It seems the writer/director decided to really overemphasise Leon’s rookie status and portray him as an incompetent fool who as no idea what’s happening, trips over his own feet, and constantly needs his ass pulling out of the fire. He does grow as the film progresses, but sadly not completely; thanks to Claire giving him a kick up the ass, he becomes more useful and even gets to deliver the coup de grâce to the film’s big-bad with a rocket launcher, but he definitely survives more due to the assistance of others and in spite of his incompetent nature.

*While Birkin is surprising layered, Wesker is very different from his usual cold, calculating persona.*

Another character who suffers quite a bit is Wesker; this isn’t the cold, calculating, manipulative puppet master you know from the videogames and is, instead, a bit of a cock-sure douche who Jill fawns over with doe eyes, banters with his teammates, and betrays his team for money rather than because he’s working for (or directly against) Umbrella. For much of the film, Wesker is actually surprisingly likeable; he leads his team efficiently, clearly cares for them, and even when he reveals his true intentions, he is remorseful. When he confronts Birkin, he repeatedly gives the doctor the chance to hand over the G-Virus samples peacefully and is distraught when he is forced to gun down Birkin and Annette. The implication is that his mysterious benefactors have some kind of sway over him and are forcing him to go down a dark path, or that the money is too good to turn down, and he expresses his regret and even apologises to Jill and Chris and directs them to the exit after being shot to death by Jill. Jill is also a little different to her videogame counterpart, and previous live-action portrayals; as mentioned, she’s quick to pull her gun and has eyes for Wesker, ignoring Chris’s clear attraction to her in favour of her commander, but luckily this aspect isn’t dwelled on too much (there’s no actual romance between her and Wesker, no kiss or anything, but she is clearly hurt by his betrayal as more than just a teammate). Birkin is noticeably altered as well in a way that makes him a touch more sympathetic, but not completely absolved of all evil as Claire stumbles across evidence that he has been experimenting on children as part of what he calls “God’s work” and developed the virus that is responsible for the city’s horrific events.

*Zombies aren’t too commonplace in the film, but grotesque monsters are still a constant threat.*

While Anderson’s previous efforts did include their fair share of zombie action, zombies were pretty much relegated to cannon fodder and annoyances to move his characters along and insert an action scene here and there. In Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, zombies are actually few and far between; thanks to Raccoon City being all-but deserted, we don’t really get any sweeping, dramatic shots of an army of the living dead. The zombies we do get are quite different to the usual depiction as well; they’re fast, as is to be expected, and much more vocal and animalistic than the traditional Resident Evil shambling hordes. They do attack in a ravenous fury, however, and relentlessly pursue fresh meat; they overwhelm Richard, chewing him up in an instant, though Chris is somehow able to fend a whole gaggle of them off with only a lighter as a light source. In the orphanage, Irons, Claire, and Leon are attacked by a Resident Evil movie staple, the Licker. As in Anderson’s films, the Licker is merely a more ferocious inconvenience; it reduces Irons to bloody ribbons but is easily subdued by Lisa Trevor, who is recast from a tortured monstrosity to a sympathetic tragedy of Birkin’s experiments. Also included are the infected crows and zombified dogs, but the depiction of the T-Virus is also a little different; according to Ben, the entire town was slowly exposed to the virus over a long period of time, and Umbrella even issued shots to its staff and the RPD officers to stave off their infection (though it’s not really clear as to why they would do this), and the focus is less on depicting the motivations behind developing the virus and more on the impact it has on the survivors.

*Birkin undergoes a grotesque mutation that forces Leon to finally step up.*

After Wesker and Birkin kill each other, Chris, Claire, Leon, and Jill follow Wesker’s directions to an underground train to will take them (and Sherry) to safety. However, exposure to the G-Virus causes Birkin to undergo a horrific mutation; his right arm becomes a monstrous claw-like appendage and disgusting tumour-like eyes glisten out from his skin. Driven by an animalistic urge, he hunts the survivors, attacking Chris and taunting him (an addition I can get behind as it retains McDonough’s visage and deliver), and reunited the estranged siblings as Claire comes to his aid. Wounds only exacerbate the G-Virus, however, mutating Birkin into a grotesque monstrosity that franchise fans will recognise as “G”; it attacks the train, sporting Birkin’s wailing, agonised face on its torso, and threatens to eviscerate all of the survivors. They are saved by the unlikeliest of heroes as Leon blasts the monstrous Birkin in the face with a rocket launcher (dangerously close to Claire and Chris, but they survive thanks to Plot Armour) and the survivors manage to escape Raccoon City right as it collapses in on itself and is erased from the face of the Earth. In the aftermath, Umbrella believes that they have contained the outbreak and eliminated any witnesses, unaware of the five survivors, and Wesker suddenly wakes up in a body bag in a mysterious facility. There, the mysterious Ada Wong (Lily Gao), provides him with sunglasses to ease his newfound sensitivity to light and forcibly drafted into an unknown fate. I applaud the confidence in the film’s ability to get a sequel, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it does get on in some way, shape, or form but I do think it might have been better to have this scene take place after the credits rather than mid-way through them.

The Summary:
I went into Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City with pretty low expectations; I was excited by how faithful to the first two games it seemed from the trailers and images, but wasn’t impressed with the odd title and heard that it wasn’t that great. Specifically, I heard all about the assassination of Leon’s character and Wesker’s odd characterisation, and criticisms about it being little more than a dumb B-level monster movie. While I was displeased with Leon’s characterisation, and surprised at the take on Wesker, I would still say that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is better than every single one of Paul W. S. Anderson’s previous live-action adaptations put together. It’s so true to the games (which were B-level monster movies at heart) that I’m genuinely surprised to see Anderson listed as a producer since he seemed determined to ignore everything but the most popular aspects of the source material. While the film still has a focus more on action rather than survival, the characters, locations, and atmosphere are so perfectly in-tune with the classic Resident Evil videogames that it easily compensates for any misgivings I may have about some of the characterisations. If the film does get a sequel, I’d like to see these issues addressed as part of a larger story and character arc, but I was very entertained by Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’s back-to-basics approach. For me, Resident Evil works best when it’s a gory, horrifying battle for survival against zombies and other monsters and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City definitely meets these criteria. I’d even go as far as to say that, despite some missteps with Leon and Wesker, this is the live-action Resident Evil movie fans have been waited for since Capcom first considered producing an adaptation and that there’s enough here fans of the videogames, and of gory action/horror films, to really sink their teeth into.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Have you seen Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City? How do you think it compares to the previous live-action films and the videogames it is based on? Which character was your favourite, and what did you think to Leon and Wesker’s characterisation? Did you enjoy the B-movie trappings of the film or did you prefer Paul W. S. Anderson’s more bombastic approach? Would you like to see a sequel to the film or were you disappointed by it? Which Resident Evil videogame is your favourite? I’d love to hear your thoughts on Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, so sign up to leave a comment below or leave a comment on my social media.

Movie Night: Logan

28/11/202104/07/2024Dr. K7 Comments

Released: 3 March 2017
Director: James Mangold
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Budget: $97 to 127 million
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen, and Richard E. Grant

The Plot:
It’s 2029 and Mutants are all but extinct. Jaded, world-weary, and suffering from Adamantium poisoning due to his weakened healing factor, James Howlett/Logan (Jackman) has been trying to keep the increasingly-dementia-ridden Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart) out of harm’s way but his already tumultuous life is thrown one last curveball when they are forced into protecting Laura/X-23 (Keen) from a group of mercenaries seeking to retrieve her and genetically engineer Mutants as potential soldiers.

The Background:
By 2017, 20th Century Fox had more than profited from their various X-Men movies and spin-offs, which had raked in over $1,800,000,000 at the box office. Although The Wolverine (ibid, 2013) received mixed reviews upon release, a sequel was still put into development thanks, in no small part, to the film’s worldwide gross of over $300 million and Hugh Jackman’s popularity and commitment to the role. Rather than produce a direct continuation of the last film, and on keeping with the loose continuity of Fox’s X-Men franchise, this new film drew inspiration from movies like The Wrestler (Aronofsky, 2008) and Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992) as well as storylines such as “Old Man Logan” (Millar, et al, 2008 to 2009). Purposely developed to be the conclusion to Jackman’s time in the role, the film took the surprisingly simple title of Logan and was produced as an R-rated film in order to make Jackman’s last outing the most violent yet. Afforded a much smaller budget than its predecessors, Logan went on to be an unprecedented critical and commercial success, earning over $600 million at the box office and drawing rave reviews across the board for its bleak tone, violence, and emotionally affecting end to the character’s extraordinary popularity. Though potential follow-ups were thrown into uncertainty when Disney purchased the 20^th Century Fox, regaining the rights to the X-Men franchise, among others, in the process, Jackman has, so far, remained adamant that Logan would be his last go-around in the role.

The Review:
Set in the far future of 2029, Logan (who has, somehow, regained all of, if not most of, his memories and now openly refers to himself as “James Howlett” and is even (mysteriously) carrying an Adamantium bullet from X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Hood, 2009) that he plans to use to kill himself with at some point) is now a dishevelled, world-weary, broken down limo driver who is succumbing to Adamantium poisoning and his weakened healing factor, which allows him to drink himself into a stupor but also results in a prominent limp and a visible amount of pain and discomfort. Completely done with the X-Men, Mutants, and pretty much everything in life, he has no time for anything or anyone, much less the assholes trying to steal the tyres off his limo. He doesn’t want to fight anymore and just wants to be left alone but is incredibly irritable and quick to anger because of everything he’s been through and brutally skewers, slices, and dices the thieves when they push him too far; though he is hurt in the process, he’s more annoyed that they damaged his limo.

*Logan and Xavier have a rocky, dysfunctional father-son relationship.*

Logan has no time or patience at the best of times but least of all of those who call him “Wolverine”, proposition him, or oppose him; he dismisses Gabriela Lopez’s (Elizabeth Rodriguez) pleas for help until she promises him a big bundle of cash and is angrily dismissive of the semi-cybernetic Donald Pierce (Holbrook). He just wants to be left alone and has no interest in helping or fighting anyone so, when Laura ends up in his care, he is extremely annoyed at being dragged out of his hole and Xavier’s insistence that they help and protect her. Logan is working as a limo driver to save up the money to buy a yacht and disappear from civilisation forever with the decrepit and increasingly irascible Xavier; Xavier now suffers from bouts of dementia, which results in mood swings, a fractured perception of time and reality, an overall grouchy demeanour and spite-filled outbursts, and, worse of all, awful seizures which cause incredible pain to those in his vicinity. He has a tumultuous relationship with Logan, resembling a petulant child at times, but also trying to stress the importance of Laura’s existence and safety and is still trying to teach him to be a better man.

*Xavier’s seizures make him a very real danger to those around him.*

Logan, of course, is the only one able to endure Xavier’s abuse and is doing everything he can to keep Xavier safe, and others safe from him, and to administer his medication to him. He sticks by the Professor out of a begrudging love and loyalty, seeing him as a father-figure, but isn’t happy about what he’s become, the world they live in, or the life he leads. It’s very heavily hinted that the Professor killed all of the X-Men during one of his seizures, which is haunting Logan and causing him incredible grief and pain since he, presumably, witnessed it and he has to live with the knowledge of it. We see a sample of Xavier’s seizures early on and Caliban (Merchant) complains about how they’re getting worse but we don’t really see their true, devastating effects until later in the film when Xavier lapses into a violent episode as Peirce’s men are coming for him and Laura. The effect is an intense, crippling version of Xavier’s “freeze ability” first seen in X-Men 2 (Singer, 2003), rendering all within his vicinity helpless and wracked with pain. This results in one of the film’s standout moments as Logan, struggling against the effects of Xavier’s mind the way a man struggles against the tide, rams his claws into Peirce’s men with a violent ruthlessness. Even after Logan delivers Xavier’s medicine and stops the seizure, though, it has lasting effects as those who suffered from it lie in agony or struggle to regain their composure.

*Pierce is full of the kind of egotism that only youth can bring.*

Caliban isn’t really given a lot of backstory or focus but Merchant does a decent job with the limited time he has; it’s nice to see new Mutants/characters involved in the franchise but, beyond acting as Logan’s conscience and trying make him realise the hopelessness and gravity of their situation, he doesn’t really have much else to do except get used and abused by Pierce, add to Logan’s grief, be ignored, and sacrifice himself in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Pierce (though he does take some of the other Reavers out with him). Pierce, though, is a charismatic, arrogant antagonist; he’s full of the kind of egotism that only youth can bring and attempts to coerce Logan into co-operating before leading a raid on his Mexican hideout. Though persistent, he’s clearly in over his head but determined to see his mission through; still, at least he’s not another guy-in-a-suit villain. In the end, he meets his need not at Logan’s hands but at the hands of a new batch of young Mutants, his commitment to the mission turning out to be his downfall, though he does last a little longer than his employer, Doctor Zander Rice (Grant).

*Rice is, honestly, a waste of Grant’s talents and simply there to be the film’s “mastermind”.*

Personally, I feel the inclusion of Rice is a little unnecessary; it’s a bit of a waste of Grant’s talents and stature as an actor and I almost feel like it would have worked better if he had showed up for the finale in a quick cameo rather than being peppered throughout the film simply to deliver exposition. Rice is basically a substitute for Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox); a scientist who is experimenting on, and fascinated by, Mutants. The difference, though, is that Price unwittingly caused the extinction/suppression of Mutants through his research and is now working to genetically engineer a new generation of Mutants by splicing the genes of the older generation, such as the X-Men and, of course, Logan. Price is a slimy, manipulative individual; pragmatic and logical but also entirely convinced that his way is just and yet, at the same time, marvels at X-24’s (Jackman) efficiency and savagery. His villain is the kind of hypocritical kind who believes he was only trying to help humanity and, having accidentally effectively wiped Mutants out, is now trying to rebuild Mutants according to his design.

*Laura is the breakout character, being both an innocent child and a whirling ball of savage fury.*

Of course, Laura is the standout character; initially little more than a scared, unassuming little girl, she is a whirlwind of feral fury and naïve innocence. The two combined are a dangerous combination, making her unpredictable and violent at the best of times, though easily appeased by childish wants and desires (cereal with too much milk, X-Men comics, kiddy rides, snacks, funky sunglasses, fiddling with everything she sees and the like). When her life is in danger, or those around her are threatened, she reacts with a primal, savage fury, attacking and killing on instinct, and is every bit the animal that Logan has fought against all these years. As the film progresses, Laura opens up more, speaking first in angry Spanish and then in angry English; her and Logan begrudgingly bond, forming a dysfunctional family dynamic alongside Xavier, and her safety becomes his final mission and reason for living over the course of the film. Having buried his oldest friend and mentor, Logan is vulnerable and grieving and, in that moment, comes to see Laura as a true person, his daughter, rather than simply a liability or mission.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Of course, what separates Logan from its predecessors is its excessive violence, gore, and profanity (which Jackman secured by selflessly taking a pay cut); Logan is covered in scars and bruises, his claws sever limbs and skewer his prey without mercy and in extremely brutal fashion. Irritable and grouchy, Logan is quick to a fiery temper and has no time for decorum or mercy this time around and this is reflected in the way he mercilessly dismembers those who get in his way, as though losing the X-Men finally removed the last vestiges of his humanity and he’s been left with its tattered remnants.

*Despite his rage, Logan is crippled by chronic pain and a lifetime of injuries and fatigue.*

This is clearly the most vulnerable and distraught we’ve ever seen Logan; perhaps the closest parallel was when he was living like a hermit at the beginning of The Wolverine. Here, though, he’s lost absolutely everything and is suffering inside and out; we saw him struggling with a dodgy healing factor in The Wolverine but it’s far worse here as not only does he struggle to heal, or heal properly, but all his old wounds are resurfacing and he is slowly dying from, and being crippled by, Adamantium poisoning. He suffers from a persistent cough, is clearly in constant pain, and is now forced to wear glasses to read, watch phone screens, and to see properly. Despite this, Logan continues to fight with a savage fury when pushed; he fights through the pain, uses it even, which results in a number of visceral, brutal action scenes but also allows the film to explore Logan’s humanity in a way we haven’t seen before. Ultimately he succeeds in this but in a thematic way since Laura uses the bullet to blow X-24’s head off.

*Xavier meets a gruesome end after a rare, and tragic, moment of clarity.*

Xavier is a broken-down shell of his former self; frail and weak and far from his usual eloquent sense. Prone to bouts of profanity and cruel spite, Xavier is a shadow of the man he used to be and is entirely dependant upon, and resentful of, Logan and Caliban. Of course, Xavier’s condition makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; his outbursts and vindictiveness could be due to his dementia since he perks up once Laura comes into their lives. Xavier is transformed by the conformation of a new breed of Mutants, determined to protect Laura and get her to the rest of her kind, and becomes more of a kindly old grandfather. This make sit all the more tragic when, in a moment of clarity and sanity, he is brutally murdered by X-24 and dies believing that Logan, his last remaining student and friend, killed him.

*In death, Logan finally finds the peace he has long desired and ensures that his legacy will live on.*

Logan is deeply affected by Xavier’s death; he is horrified at the thought that his mentor and father-figure died thinking he had turned on him and uses that anger as motivation in his fight against Pierce, Rice, and X-24 but he is hopelessly outmatched by his younger, stronger clone. All the determination, rage, and will in the world don’t really help Logan in a one-on-one fight and he is forced to use whatever means he can, including both taking Rice’s serum and sacrificing his own life, to end X-24’s threat. In the end, Logan is able to deliver Laura to her fellow new Mutants and dies to protect her; in the process, he finds the peace he has long desired in that his legacy gets to live on and he finally gave his life for something worthwhile, a chance for a new generation of Mutants to live free in the world. It’s a poignant scene, one that is a fitting farewell for Jackman and his iconic role, though a part of me would have preferred to see Liev Schreiber return as Victor Creed rather than a clone of Logan.

*X-24 emobides Logan’s darker, animalistic side of Logan and exists as his dark mirror.*

However, X-24 has obvious thematic reasons to exist; superficially, he represents everything Logan has fought to not be over the years, being little more than a savage animal forced to blindly and unquestioningly follow orders. Additionally, he is the younger, stronger version of Logan (with none of the age, scars, blemishes, or pain that Logan carries) meaning that, in fighting X-24, Logan is literally and figuratively fighting against himself, his past, and the most savage parts of his nature. Again, though, I do feel like Creed could have fulfilled this in exactly the same way (X-24 even resembles Creed in many ways) but I guess it’s more explicit this way and keeps the filmmakers from referencing one of the more unfavourably-received X-Men films. Still, I’m glad, and actually kind of surprised, that the filmmakers decided to not keep X-24 around in an attempt to leave the door open for Jackman’s return and the film definitely seems to be setting Laura up to be the next Wolverine.

*As great as the film is, there are some questionable moments to nitpick.*

There are some things that bother me about the film, however; first and foremost is, obviously, its sketchy continuity. Apparently, this film takes place in the “Good Future” seen at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past (Singer, 2014), which is fine but a little depressing that, no matter which timeline you follow, the X-Men are doomed to suffer and die. Second, there’s the massive lull the film takes with Logan, Xavier, and Laura stop to help a family on the highway and end up getting close to them; it works, again in a thematic sense, to remind Logan of what it means to be happy and have a family but it does kind of slow the film down and it’s a pretty cheap way to up the body count, add to Logan’s grief and rage, and to sell X-24 as a relentless killer. Add to that Gabriella’s incredibly well edited phone video, which stretches plausibility not only through its professional construction but also through her ability to record all of that footage without being spotted. Finally, there’s the vague explanation of what happened to the X-Men and the other Mutants; I can appreciate the subtle ways the film hints at its story and what has happened but, considering how wildly different the world is since we last saw the X-Men and Wolverine, a little more consistency and exposition would have gone a long way, instead, we’re left with a lot of questions and unresolved plot points; it definitely feels like they were setting up for a spin-off involving and, arguably, I feel like The New Mutants (Boone, 2020) should have explored her and the other new breed of Mutants to help expand upon this premise and the success of the film but it is what it is and for an emotional last chapter for Jackman and Logan it excels in every regard.

The Summary:
While the X-Men films have always been big, action-packed features full of special effects and increasingly elaborate action scenes, Wolverine’s solo efforts have always strived to have a slightly different flavour; even X-Men Origins: Wolverine dabbled in being a war movie and trying to tell a more intimate, focused story amidst its bombastic action. However, this becomes undeniably explicit in Logan, which is, essential, as much road trip film and a Western as it is in an intense character study; heavily influenced by Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns” (1964 to 1966) and classic Westerns like Shane (Stevens, 1953), Logan is the exploration of a tortured, jaded loner just trying to exist in a world that has long past him by but who is forced back into prominence by the hands of fate. Logan is a very different kind of comic book/superhero movie; it’s not full of bombastic action or overly-choreographed set pieces and is, instead, a much more subdued exploration of the longevity, suffering, and mortality of the man we know as Wolverine. However, when the action and fights do happen, they’re fast, brutal, and viciously intense and, perhaps, the best way to describe Logan: intense. It’s a far cry from the loud, frenetic action of other X-Men films, especially X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and is all the better for it, finally unleashing the animalistic nature of Wolverine and showing just how dangerous and violent he can be while also being, essentially, a character study, or deconstruction, of Logan and allowing him both the chance to be the ferocious character he has battled against all this time and give him the send-off he deserves.

My Rating:

Fantastic

What did you think of Logan? How do you feel it compares to the other X-Men and Wolverine movies? What are your thoughts on the presentation of a broken down, dying Logan and the introduction of X-23? Were there any parts of the film that disappointed you? Would you have liked to see Liev Schreiber return? Do you think Hugh Jackman will ever be tempted to return to the character in some way, shape, or form or do you feel it’s best to pass the role on to someone else; if so, who, and do you want Laura to assume Wolverine’s mantle? Whatever your thoughts, please leave a comment below.

Movie Night: The Wolverine

21/11/202104/07/2024Dr. K8 Comments

Released: July 2013
Director: James Mangold
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox
Budget: $100 to 132 million
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee, and Famke Janssen

The Plot:
Haunted by memories of Jean Grey (Jansssen), Logan/Wolverine (Jackman) is called back to Japan by the dying wish of an old friend, Ichirō Yashida (Yamanouchi), who offers to end Logan’s immortality. However, when Yashida dies, his granddaughter, Mariko (Okamoto) is targeted by assassins, and Logan’s healing factor is compromised, Logan is begrudgingly forced to protect her and uncover a conspiracy with Yashida’s vast corporation.

The Background:
20^th Century Fox had vastly profited from their X-Men movies, the first three of which earned them over $600 million. Though X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Hood, 2009) was met with mixed reviews, the film grossed over $300 million against a $150 million budget and Hugh Jackman’s popularity as the character all-but ensured that some kind of sequel would be put into production. After deciding to draw upon elements from Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s work on the character’s time in Japan, famed director Darren Aronofsky was brought on to direct; Aronofsky was responsible not only for the film’s blunt and unimaginative title but also restructuring the film as a standalone spin-off rather than a straight-up sequel to X-Men Origins. By 2011, however, Aronofsky had exited the project due to vast amount of overseas shooting the film would require and James Mangold was brought in as a replacement. Produced on a smaller budget than X-Men Origins, The Wolverine had a somewhat shaky box office; it’s currently the seventh-highest grossing film in the franchise, earning less in worldwide revenue than the much-maligned X-Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006) but still more than the much-lauded X-Men 2 (Singer, 2003). Critically, however, the film fared far better than its predecessor, with the general consensus being that it was a far more accurate portrayal of the character. Personally, I have to admit that I missed the more recognisable X-characters of the previous film and the chance to shed more light on Wolverine’s complex and storied history but I did appreciate the film’s more brutal nature and grittier, more focused direction.

The Review:
In keeping with the theme of the previous X-Men movies, The Wolverine opens with a particularly gruelling and thrilling scene that sets the tone for the film to follow. In this case, we find Logan being held in an armour-plated well as a prison of war in Nagaski mere moments before the fateful atomic bomb is about to drop. Understandably panicked by the incoming wall of fiery death, young Japanese soldier Ichirō Yashida (Ken Wamamura) is too afraid to commit ritual seppuku but, having seen how Yashida risked his life to free prisons and give them a chance to escape, and fully aware of what’s to come, Logan manages to escape from his prison and shield Yashida from harm at the bottom of the well.

*Memories of Jean haunt Logan’s dreams.*

Surprisingly, rather than continue this narrative and fill in a large missing chunk from Wolverine’s early life, the film then jumps ahead to a few years after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand. Although Wolverine has not only recovered his missing memories, this is both a blessing and a curse as not only is he now (conveniently for this film’s plot) haunted by memories of Nagasaki, he’s also haunted by dreams of Jean Grey (Janssen). In them, he and Jean are happy and content in the afterlife; however, this perfect illusion is continually shattered by the brutal remind of how he skewered the love of his life and his desire to be with her in death. It seems that, despite appearing content and well-adjusted at the end of The Last Stand, Logan was unable to cope with what he did to another man’s wife that he decided, after minimal interactions with, that he loved and walked away not only from the X-Men but also the name of the Wolverine, vowing never to kill or endanger others again.

*Thanks to Viper, Logan spends most of the movie with his healing factor on the fritz.*

However, Logan is soon approached by Yukio (Fukushima), a Mutant with limited pre-cognitive powers who tracks him down to not only offer him Yashida’s blade but also accompany Logan to Tokyo so that Yashida can pass along his thanks before he succumbs to the caner that is eating away at his body. Initially resistant, Logan is eventually convinced to tag along for one day and is horrified to find that Yashida is offering to somehow remove his superhuman healing factor so that others can benefit from it and he can finally live out a normal, mortal life. While in Japan, Logan has a tense introduction to Yashida’s son, Shingen (Sanada) and granddaughter, Mariko (Okamoto), but is nevertheless adamant about heading back home as soon as possible. However, while tormented by his nightmares, Logan is attacked by Yashida’s doctor, Viper (Khodchenkova), and wakes to find Yashida has died in the night. Receiving a frosty reception at the funeral, Logan is immediately alerted to things not being quite right and is thrust into action once more when Yakuza thugs open fire and attempt to kidnap Mariko. In the fracas, Logan receives a few gunshots (included a blast from a shotgun and point-blank range) and is confused, and shocked, to find that his healing factor is mysteriously dulled. This does little to keep him down, though, and he is able to largely shrug off gunfire long enough to get Mariko to relative safety. As a result, a large portion of The Wolverine focuses on Logan’s damaged healing factor causing him both here and there and questions regarding his perceived immortality as he both tries to reconcile his past actions and get to the bottom of a conspiracy within Yashida’s vast organisation.

*Logan’s complex, volatile character is finally explored in some depth*.

As you might expect, Hugh Jackman is the unmistakable star of the show once more; now a far more tortured, broken man than we’ve seen before, this is a Logan who is visibly tired of the death and heartbreak that seems to follow him at every turn. Initially content to hide away from the world, he is forced back to Japan out of little more than the last vestiges of honour within him but is quick to do the right thing and defend Mariko when it appears her fiancé and father want her dead. Rather than being the cool, charismatic loner we’ve seen before, however, this Logan is a cynical, grouchy ex-soldier who just wants to be left alone and is desperately trying to suppress his violent urges. Honestly, it’s the version of Logan we should have gotten in X-Men Origins: Wolverine; world-weary and wanting death but not quite ready for it, he slowly comes to realise this his animalistic nature can be used for good and eventually comes to reclaim his title of the Wolverine.

*Japan, and Japanese culture and traditions, plays a big role in the film’s plot and visual identity.*

Compared to every other X-Men movie that came before it, The Wolverine is a much grittier, more focused affair; the story centres entirely on Logan and his inner emotional turmoil and his reluctance to get involved in the convoluted drama and conspiracy that has infected Yashida’s company. The Japanese setting works wonderfully to visually separate it from the other films as well and much of the film is focused on Japanese traditions and mysticism; Logan is like a vagrant stranger in his world, constantly referred to as a rōnin (a “samurai without a master”) or a gaijin (a derogatory Japanese word for an outsider or foreigner), who doesn’t fit and is not welcome. The simple, open countryside’s and urban landscapes of Tokyo give the film a visual identity that is truly unique; this isn’t another bombastic X-Men movie taking place in a large, familiar urban space or a grey-coloured military lab and it really adds to the film’s appeal at aesthetic.

*Mariko and Yukio both help to bring Logan back into the fight* *in different ways.*

It also helps that a large portion of the film includes subtitles; Japanese characters routinely speak to each other, and Logan, in their native tongue, adding a coat of legitimacy to its setting. All too often, foreign characters simply speak in English all the time and having them speak in Japanese helps to add to the other-worldliness of the setting and empathise with Logan, who doesn’t understand a word of Japanese. Logan’s newfound vulnerability is also clearly meant to help us empathise with him as it means he struggles to recover from injuries and is in near-constant pain, a step slower than usual, and actually has to struggle to succeed rather than simply charging head-first into battle. Of course, he’s not alone in his fight but rather than sharing screen time with other colourful, fan favourite Mutants, Logan spends most of his time associating with Yukio and growing closer to Mariko. The moment she is introduced, Yukio is portrayed as a bad-ass character in here own right; her pre-cognitive abilities work in conjunction with her athleticism and skill with a blade to make her a formidable opponent and ally. Mariko, on the other hand, is much more of a damsel in distress; initially, Logan sees her as little more than a pampered, self-entitled princess but she’s soon revealed to be oppressed by the desires of her father, fiancé, and her devotion to maintaining the honour of her family. She’s a damaged, conflicted character but is also able to put up a bit of a fight when needed so she isn’t just some screaming, helpless trophy to be fought over.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Up until now, we’ve seen glimpses of Logan’s vicious nature but The Wolverine goes above and beyond in portraying just how brutal and savage Wolverine can be. Initially reluctant to fight, much less kill, when Logan unsheathes his claws to fight, it’s with a fast, ruthless ferocity; every blow is designed to either kill or maim and you truly get the sense of an animal being unleashed in full force. For the majority of the film, Logan is chopping apart nameless, faceless Yakuza goons; he faces a new test in the form of Viper, a seductive, snake-like Mutant who is able to use her toxins to dull his senses and her medical expertise to suppress his healing factor. While the two don’t really come to blows (the honour of dispatching her is left to Yukio), Logan is able to match swords with Shingen, who has garbed himself in the ceremonial armour of the Silver Samurai. It’s in this fight that Logan regains his sense of identity and honour but it’s merely the beginning of the end for the film.

*Logan is forced to operate on himself to restore his full abilities.*

The decision to dull Logan’s healing factor didn’t sit right with me at the time as I was more interested in seeing a nigh-invincible Wolverine cutting down foes and being emotionally vulnerable rather than physically but it actually does work quite well in the film. That is until the revelation that it’s not some toxic or Mutant suppressant keeping his powers dulled but a weird little spider robot thing attached to his heart. Quite how that works is beyond me but it makes for a tense scene where Logan, having already been told by Yukio that he would die holding his heart in his hand, is forced to cut himself open and remove the device. It’s been suggested that Yukio’s vision actually foreshadowed Logan’s eventual, dramatic death in Logan (Mangold, 2017) but I don’t actually agree with that; Yukio specifically says that he saw Logan lying on the operating table with his lifeless heart in his hand but Logan is clearly impaled on a tree in a forest holding the very-much-alive hand of his “daughter” in Logan so I think this is a bit of a stretch, to say the least.

*The actual Silver Samurai seems to conflict with the film’s more grounded, gritty tone.*

After spending most of its runtime being almost the exact opposite of X-Men Origins (gritty and introspective, brutal and reflective rather than loud and bombastic), The Wolverine ends with a massive, knock-down brawl between Logan and a huge mech suit of armour. This true Silver Samurai is not only made from the same indestructible Adamantium that coast Logan’s bones but also wields two gigantic blades that are able to cut off Logan’s claws! Revealed to be Yashida, who faked his death and orchestrated everything just to forcibly extract Logan’s healing ability from the marrow of his bone claws, this finale is notably at odds with the tone of the rest of the film but is, nevertheless, quite the exciting end to the film. You really get the sense at Logan is in actual danger thanks to the Silver Samurai’s ability to actually hurt him, which is good for raising the stakes for the finale, but I wasn’t a fan of how Wolverine leaves the film with his entire Adamantium skeleton intact exact for his claws. The bone claws are a fun addition to his character and backstory but are pretty lame by themselves and I would have liked to see him just dip them into some Adamantium to recoat them or something.

*Xavier and Magneto turn up alive and fully powered, hinted at a greater threat to come…*

Simultaneously, though, I wasn’t a fan of how the next film simply gave him back the Adamantium claws without any explanation. Speaking of which, The Wolverine’s mid-credits sequence sees the inexplicable return of the fully repowered Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who seek to recruit Wolverine to face an impending threat. A tantalising scene that raises a lot of interesting questions, this scene, and all the character development and story potential of The Wolverine’s finale, would be either swept away or forgotten completely in subsequent films. What happened to Yukio, for example, who ends the film as Logan’s self-appointed bodyguard? What happened in the two years between the final scene and the mid-credits scene? Why did Fox cut a scene in which Logan receives his traditional costume? Well…okay, I can kind of understand that last one but, thanks to the mess Fox made of the X-Men timeline and their complete disregarding of continuity, The Wolverine ends up being this really good, really engaging partially standalone story that exists in a weird bubble where it’s not really canon, but kind of is, but nothing that happens in it factors into Logan’s next appearances in any way.

The Summary:
Ever since Wolverine’s introduction in the first X-Men movie, I was waiting for a movie, and a depiction of the character, like The Wolverine. Far darker, grittier, and more brutal than his previous depictions, this is the first X-Men film to truly delve into the meat of the character’s complexities. As much as I enjoy, and apologise for, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, there’s no denying that The Wolverine, despite its bland title and tonally contradictory finale, surpasses its predecessor in every way. The oriental setting really adds to the film, as does Jackman’s bulkier (and yet more streamlined) look. Showing Logan as being constantly torn by his actions, haunted by his memories, and struggling with the dichotomy of being a weary immortal soldier who is tired of life but not quite ready die is a fascinating dive into the character’s nuances and psyche. Punctuated by fight scenes that cast a wider light on just how vicious the character can be and let down only by the fact that subsequent sequels failed to really expand upon where The Wolverine leaves the character, The Wolverine is easily one of the best X-Men movies, perhaps surpassed only by the even bleaker and grittier Logan.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

What did you think about The Wolverine? Do you find that it’s a far better portrayal of the character compared to X-Men Origins: Wolverine or do you, perhaps, feel that it’s a bit over-rated? How did you feel about Wolverine’s healing factor being suppressed and the inclusion of the Silver Samurai? Which Wolverine story arc from the comics was your favourite? How would you like to see Wolverine re-introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Whatever your thoughts about Wolverine and the X-Men, feel free to leave a comment below.

Movie Night: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

14/11/202113/11/2025Dr. K10 Comments

Released: April 2009
Director: Gavin Hood
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox
Budget: $150 million
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, Will.i.am, and Ryan Reynolds

The Plot:
Mutant brothers James Howlett (Jackman) and Victor Creed (Schreiber) are drafted to Major William Stryker’s (Huston) Team X. However, when his murderous sibling goes wild, Logan volunteers for a radical procedure to make him indestructible.

The Background:
20^th Century Fox had vastly profited from their acquisition of the X-Men movie rights from Marvel Comics. Under their banner, the first three X-Men movies (Various, 2000 to 2006) had made over $600 million and, soon after X-Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006) brought the trilogy to an end, development began on a series of spin-offs focusing on solo X-Men. Chief among these was, of course, the character of Wolverine; the role had catapulted the relatively-unknown Australian actor Hugh Jackman to superstardom and was the natural choice for a spin-off given how popular the character and his rich recently-uncovered backstory was. Collaborating on the script in order to craft a more interpersonal story, Jackman and director Gavin Hood aimed to explore the duelling nature of Wolverine’s animalistic character. Popular X-Men characters like Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Reynolds) and Demy LeBeau/Gambit (Kitsch) were incorporated into the script, which sought to explore the complex relationship between Logan, Victor, and Stryker based on both their characterisations in the comics and the world Bryan Singer had establish in his first two X-Men movies. Sadly, much like X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Origins Wolverine received mixed to average reviews upon release; despite earning more than double its budget at the box office, X-Men Origins is largely regarded unfavourably by the majority of fans and critics alike. Personally, I always enjoyed the film, which was far more in the vein of X-Men 2 (Singer, 2003) than the third film; I liked that it introduced new and interesting Mutants and feel that it gets a bad reputation despite being an unashamedly enjoyable popcorn action film.

The Review:
When X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released, the details of Wolverine’s early years had already been published in Marvel Comics some eight years prior; still, the revelation that James Howlett (Troye Sivan) had began life as a sickly boy in the 1800s was still relatively fresh for many readers who were more used to seeing Logan hooked into machinery and brainwashed into being a merciless killer as Weapon X. Unfortunately, as interesting as it would be to delve into Howlett’s early years and the details of his friendship with the young Victor Creed (Michael-James Olsen), X-Men Origins has no time for that as, within the first five minutes or so, young James has seen his father murdered, unsheathed his bone claws for the first time, killed his father’s murderer only to discover that his victim was actually his real father, and gone on the run with his similarly-powered half-brother. Sadly, this manic pacing is a theme for X-Men Origins; it’s all quick cuts and revelation after revelation in 1845 and then, as the film’s opening credits roll, we see James and Victor (now Jackman and Schreiber, respectively) taking part in every major war over the next hundred years or so. The montage, easily one of the more impressive parts of the film and which arguably should have made up the bulk of the movie’s runtime, does a great job of showing how James grows increasingly jaded with their mercenary lifestyle and how Victor grows equally bloodthirsty over time.

*Logan eventually becomes disillusioned with Team X’s increasingly violent methods.*

Eventually, the two are put before a firing squad after Victor kills his commanding officer. Obviously, this doesn’t actually kill the two so they are immediately recruited by Stryker, who drafts them into Team X, a group of highly skilled Mutants under his command. James and Victor go on what is implied to be many missions but, thanks to the film’s breakneck pace actually seems more like one mission, alongside such notable Mutants as Wade Wilson, Fred Dux (Kevin Durand), John Wraith (will.i.am), Agent Zero (Henney), and Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan). Unfortunately, Victor’s bloodlust can no longer be controlled and, when Stryker orders the team to slaughter innocent sin order to get his hands on a mysterious mineral, James walks away from the team.

*Jackman is unquestionably the star of this film, shining at every turn.*

Taking the name Logan (why this name is never explained), James spends the next six years making a modest living as a lumberjack in Canada alongside his lover, Kayla Silverfox (Collins). However, after Stryker shows up to warn Logan that their old team mates are being slaughtered, Kayla is killed by Victor and, overcome with grief and rage, Logan willingly volunteers to have Adamantium surgically grated to his skeleton to give him the tools to enact his revenge against his half-brother. Once again, the star of the show here is Hugh Jackman; now at his most toned and muscular and fully at ease with the role of Wolverine, Jackman’s charisma and animal magnetism help X-Men Origins to stay engaging even in its most head-scratching moments. Jackman does a fantastic job of conveying the myriad of emotions Logan goes through, from his more tender, vulnerable moments to his raw, animalistic brutality. Unfortunately, much is made throughout the film (and in the first three X-Men movies) of Wolverine’s animal side; Stryker (Brian Cox) hinted that, in his past, Wolverine wasn’t a very nice person and X-Men Origins also hints that he did some terrible things during the many wars he fought in…but we never see this. Sure, he’s a tortured character because of his traumatic memories of war and is a formidable beast when enraged but, for the most part, he’s the same honourable, good-natured person we’ve seen in the original trilogy. It would have been far more engaging and interesting to really delve into Wolverine’s time as a cold-blooded killer who slowly grows to become disillusioned with that life compared to Victor, who relishes in killing and giving in to his animal nature.

*Schreiber is clearly relishing this role and is more than a match for Jackman.*

Speaking of Victor, Schreiber was an inspired choice to bring the character to life. Like many comics, X-Men Origins hints very strongly that Victor and Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) are the same character but never fully lands on one side of the fence or the other; certainly, Schreiber’s loquacious nature and cold, calculated charisma separate him from mane’s more bestial portrayal but, in any case, Victor is a fantastic parallel to Logan. Sadistic and heartless, he kills for the fun of it and simply wishes to prove that he’s better than his half-brother, which he does at every turn. It’s surprising, then, when it is revealed that Victor wouldn’t be able to survive the Adamantium bonding process; perhaps this was a lie on Stryker’s part, though, as Victor is consistently shown to be Logan’s better at every turn save for that line and one brief scuffle between them before the finale.

*As good as an actor as Huston is, Stryker’s motives and logic are all over the place in* X-Men Origins.

After making an impact in X-Men 2 and considering the importance his character has on Wolverine’s early years, it’s only nature that Stryker plays a big role in this film as the puppet master. Yet, while Huston is a great actor and brings a certain scenery-chewing relish to the role, he’s physically nothing like Brian Cox so it’s a bit weird to me that they chose to cast him. Add to that the fact that Stryker’s plan is needlessly convoluted and bone-headed (he tricks Logan into joining Team X, allows him to leave, has one of his agents (spoiler: it’s Kayla) shack up with him, then fakes her death, pretends like Victor isn’t under his control when we know he clearly is, is somehow able to convince Logan to become indestructible and then, when Logan escapes the Weapon X facility, Stryker’s first order (to a guy whose only power is “expert marksmanship”) is to kill their now invincible creation!) and you have a villain who is charismatic enough to fulfil his role as the master manipulator but flawed in his onscreen execution.

*Gambit’s role is brief but surprisingly enjoyable and important to the plot*.

Such flaws are evident throughout X-Men Origins, I’m afraid to say; the film’s wonky pacing and questionable plot see characters either being tricked or used with ridiculous ease (you’d think Wolverine, of all people, would be able to tell that Kayla’s death was faked, surely) or simply stumble upon the information they need or into the location where the information they need is. The scene where Logan interrogates Dux (now transformed in the Blob) is a great example; it’s a fun scene, one of my favourites, but Dux isn’t able to tell Logan everything he knows so, of course, he sends him to New Orleans to track down another Mutant, Gambit, who knows Stryker’s exact location. Honestly, Gambit has a far bigger and more prominent role in the film than I originally believed; slightly bigger than a cameo but not quite a co-star, he exists to guide Wolverine to what ends up being a pretty obvious location for his final showdown but, while Kitsch is pretty enjoyable in the role, it’s hard to look past his elaborate superhuman acrobatics. I guess you can make the argument that his Mutant ability to super-charge kinetic energy allows him to perform superhuman leaps and bounds but that doesn’t really help explain how Zero goes flying all over the place all the time. Yet…I find myself enjoying these action and fight sequences. They’re loud and over the top but what’s wrong with that? The scene where Wolverine tries to out-race Zero’s helicopter on a motorcycle is pretty awesome, as is his dramatic takedown of said helicopter (which sees him clinging onto it as it crash lands) and the obvious trailer shot of Logan dramatically walking away from the explosion, as cliché as it is, hits all the right spots for me as an action movie fan. Wolverine’s fight scenes are equally enjoyable; similar to Logan’s fight scenes from X-Men 2, Logan fights with a vicious, brutal intensity where the animal side of him everyone likes to talk about so much really comes to the forefront.

The Nitty-Gritty:
As much as I enjoy X-Men Origins, however, it’s tough to look past the film’s narrative flaws. As a prequel to X-Men (Singer, 2000), though, the film does line up fairly well (far better than the quadrilogy of “prequels” that were to follow), it’s just a shame that the filmmakers were in such a rush to cram everything into this one movie. This could easily have been restructured to show Logan’s early childhood and time during the war and then his time with Team X, leading to a falling out and with Victor over their methods. The second film could have then shown Wolverine transformed into Weapon X as we saw in the otherwise-disappointing X-Men: Apocalypse (Singer, 2016), with that film and that procedure being responsible for his memory loss, than then the third and final movie could have just been The Wolverine (Mangold, 2013) or even Logan (ibid, 2017). Instead, we rush through all of Wolverine’s greatest hits at a breakneck pace all to get to a point that somewhat awkwardly leads into the start of the first X-Men.

*Logan’s ultimate fate is a bit rushed and messy but still somewhat affecting in its bleak execution.*

Despite that, however, I still find the scene where Stryker blasts Wolverine in the head with a few Adamantium bullets quite heartbreaking. It’s a messy way to go about his memory loss considering having his healing factor be responsible is a far more cerebral and interesting explanation but it’s still tragic to see him awaken surrounded by death and destruction with no idea who he is or where he is. The implication of this ending, and the final act of the film, is that Logan spent the next fifteen-or-so years relying solely on his instincts, which is kind of ironic considering there was probably some evidence left behind on Three Mile Island to explain his origins. Sadly, however, the X-Men films never filled in the gap between this one and X-Men (at least, not fully, as the films go out of their way to ignore or retcon this entire film) so we never really know what he got up to or what happened to Victor (unless he really did devolve into a mindless, semi-mute brute).

*Reynolds was perfectly cast but dealt a bad hand here. Luckily, it wouldn’t be his last time in the role.*

Of course, you can’t talk about X-Men Origins without addressing the elephant in the room: Deadpool. Reynolds was perfectly cast as Wade Wilson back in the day and it’s clear from the post-credit sequence that Fox were planning a spin-off for the character all along but, yes, it is disappointing to see the character chopped up and butchered into a weird amalgamation of recognisable Mutant powers as Weapon XI (Scott Adkins) rather than the fast-talking, unkillable “Merc With a Mouth” we all know and love. It’s weird watching this film back now as they could just as easily have had a more traditional Deadpool be Logan and Victor’s final opponent; lose the Adamantium blades and the optic blasts and just have him be a super-healing, super-skilled soldier who is loyal to Stryker. Or, better yet, simply imply that wade was killed and have Victor, now a feral animal, be the film’s final “boss” and then do a post-credits scene that shows Wade alive and well and working as a mercenary. Luckily for Reynolds, and for us all, Deadpool would eventually get his spin-off and it was absolutely brilliant but, thanks to the convoluted mess that the X-Men franchise has become, those films sit in a weird bubble of continuity where everything and nothing is canon at the same time.

X-Men Origins *uses its cameos to fill some gaps in the franchise’s once-stable timeline.*

Speaking of canon, this film obviously concludes with what was, to me (at the time, anyway), a pretty shocking cameo by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who arrives on Three Mile Island to rescue Stryker’s Mutant prisoners. Sure, the de-aging affects aren’t as good as in X-Men: The Last Stand but this was a very welcome cameo for me and helped to fill a gap in what was, at the time, a straight forward timeline. While I also applaud the way the film attempts to place a little bit more spotlight on Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tim Pocock) and even goes out of its way to show that he never sees or hears Wolverine so as not to create a continuity error, once again the character is somewhat shafted by his ham-fisted inclusion; I liked that Stryker sent Victor specifically to hunt Cyclops down, as though his powers were fundamental to Weapon XI, but the fact that Cyclops is already wearing ruby-tinted sunglasses to keep his powers in check is a little odd as I always assumed this was a solution provided by Xavier. Still, it’s fun to him and a few other recognisable Mutants in little cameos and that the film allows for other popular or B-list X-characters to be included without Wolverine sucking all of the spotlight away from the traditional X-Men thanks to Jackman’s screen presence, charisma, and popularity.

The Summary:
I don’t know what it is about X-Men Origins: Wolverine but…I still really like it. yes, the plot is nonsensical and all over the place, rushing through some story beats that could be a movie all by themselves and lingering on others that are far less interesting and yes it does do a disservice to Deadpool and raise a lot of questions that subsequent X-Men movies and spin-offs largely ignore. But it’s just so much fun! Maybe it’s because I grew up with loud, bombastic action movies but I find this film immensely enjoyable in a lot of ways. It’s fun when it needs to be, bad-ass when necessary, and even touching at times. It’s over the top and mindless action, yes, but what’s wrong with that? Honestly, it irks me that the franchise went out of its way to ignore or retcon this film as it cost us Schreiber returning to the series and caused continuity to be thrown out of the window. Maybe Wolverine deserved better than a big, dumb action movie but sometimes big, dumb fun is just big, dumb, and fun and that’s okay.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What did you think about X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Do you think it deserves the reputation it gets or do you, like me, find it to be an enjoyable entry in the franchise? How did you feel about the way the film treated Deadpool and the relationship between Logan and Victor? How would you like to see Wolverine re-introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? How are you celebrating the month of Wolverine’s debut? Whatever your thoughts about Wolverine and the X-Men, feel free to leave a comment below.

Movie Night: Eternals

11/11/202129/09/2024Dr. K9 Comments

Released: 5 November 2021
Director: Chloé Zhao
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $200 million
Stars: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Bill Skarsgård, and Kit Harington.

The Plot:
Over 7,000 years ago, the God-like Celestials charged their superpowered, immortal creations, the Eternals, with defending the fledgling planet Earth from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. After destroying the Deviants, the Eternals lived among humanity and went their separate ways; however, when the Deviants re-emerge following the return of half the world’s population, reunite to protect humanity from this monstrous threat.

The Background:
Jeez, okay…this is a tough one for me. So, after the legendary Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics in 1970, he created a race of cosmic, God-like beings called the New Gods and intended to tell a finite story with his creations before the comic book was cancelled. When he then returned to Marvel, he developed a startling similar concept initially titled “The Celestials” before being legally advised to change the title. Although The Eternals was cancelled, Kirby’s plotlines were later resolved in other Marvel publications and the characters and their mythology played a pivotal role in the wider Marvel universe. Although I am mildly aware of the Celestials and Thanos’ status as a Deviant, however, I can’t say that I have ever encountered the Eternals in all my years of reading comics so I was intrigued when the team was announced as being part of the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which director Chloé Zhao aimed to further expand the scope of the MCU. Featuring a diverse cast of characters and story spanning several centuries, MCU maestro Kevin Feige was eager to delve further into the MCU’s cosmic history and introduce a new ensemble of characters to their ever-growing series of interconnected films. Although Eternals was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the visual effects team continued to work remotely and the film was finally released to largely mixed reviews. After being review-bombed by bigots, critics praised the visuals of the film while also questioning the pace and characterisation; others questioned Marvel’s attempts to branch out from their usual formula while praising the deconstruction of the superhero genre, though Eternals’ worldwide gross of over $171 million would point to it being a relative financial success.

The Review:
So, as I mentioned, I had no expectations for Eternals; I know absolutely nothing about the characters and have never encountered this group in all my years of reading comics, but I often find that this actually helps with my perception of a movie (I wasn’t really familiar with the Guardians of the Galaxy and I loved those films). Still, it seems like we’re only really getting this movie because Inhumans (Various, 2017) failed to impress as there was a time when Marvel where really pushing the Inhumans to the forefront of their comics. In fact, I believe the Inhumans are tangentially related to the Eternals in the comics, but it definitely seems like Marvel Studios are abandoning tackling the Inhumans and have turned to the Eternals in their stead. Introducing the Eternals means expanding the cosmic scale of the MCU beyond even the scope of the Thor movies (Various, 2011 to present) as these characters, and their creators, came into existence before even the Infinity Stones were created, meaning that they’re not just akin to Gods but also responsible for inspiring humanity’s evolution, innovation, and mythology.

*The film doesn’t spend much time dwelling on the romantic drama between these characters.*

Even more than the Guardians of the Galaxy films (Gunn, 2014 to present), Eternals is an ensemble film and, more so than any other MCU movie so far, the film’s characters are a tight-knit group of superhuman character. Before Eternals, the MCU’s teams have been a mishmash of egos and personalities who struggled to get along, but the Eternals are more like a family of God-like beings who are initially heartbroken when they go their separate ways. Sersi (Chan) is the closest thing we have to a main character; an empathetic Eternal who’s able to transmutate matter upon physical contact and who has a strong connection with humanity. For centuries, Sersei was engaged in a romantic relationship with Ikarus (Madden), the most powerful of the Eternals; while all of the Eternals exhibit superhuman strength and durability, Ikarus can fly and fire lasers from his eyes and yet, despite his great power, he isn’t chosen to lead the team: the honour falls to the conflicted Sersei. Left heartbroken after their relationship ended with little explanation, Sersei has been living as museum curator and dating Dane Whitman (Harrington), who actually barely appears in the film; I expected Dane to be the audience surrogate but he only really bookends the film and we simply learn what’s happening alongside the Eternals as they reunite. This means that their isn’t really a love triangle between Sersei, Dane, and Ikarus, though a mild one does exist thanks to the presence of Sprite (McHugh), an Eternal cursed to remain a child and who can conjure illusions at will, who carries a torch for Ikarus.

*The Eternals have gone their separate ways and lived amongst us in secret for centuries.*

When the Deviants suddenly appear, Sersei, Dane, and Sprite are saved by Ikarus and, since the Eternals were charged with destroying these monstrous beings, they quickly realise that they need to reunite with their comrades. Naturally, they seek out their spiritual leader Ajak (Hayek), who not only has the ability to heal their injuries but can also commune with their creator, the titanic Celestial Arishem (David Kaye), and communicates His will to the team. However, they discover Ajak dead, slaughtered by the Deviants, and this responsibility passes to Sersei and, in the process, she learns a terrible truth about the Eternals’ origins and the true nature of their mission on Earth. This only spurs her to reunite with her follow Eternals, which leads them to India, where they find Kingo (Nanjiani) revelling in fame as a popular Bollywood star. Easily one of the most entertaining characters in the film, Kingo can fire bolts of cosmic energy from his fingers and brings along his valet, Karun (Harish Patel), to document the trip and, in the process, provide not only an audience surrogate but another highlight of the film. As powerful as Ikarus is, he is matched perhaps only by Gilgamesh (Lee) and Thena (Jolie), who retired to Australia hundreds of years ago after the battle-hungry Thena began to suffer from the “Mahd Wy’ry”, a condition that causes her to remember her past conflicts and drives her into a mindless aggression against her fellow Eternals. While Thena is able to conjure weapons from thin air and lives for battle, Gilgamesh turns his cosmic powers into his hands to boost his physical strength ever further. This comes in handy when the group braves Druig’s (Keoghan) sanctuary and defend it from Deviants; able to manipulate the minds of others at will, Druig was the first of the group to question their mission and Arishem’s decree that they not interfere in human conflicts unless Deviants are involved, and chose to separate himself not just from his fellow Eternals, but the wider world itself in order to protect generations of people. While Druig is initially sceptical, he’s soon convinced to rejoin his comrades by the scale of the threat they face and after being reunited with Makkari (Ridloff), an Eternal with superhuman speed and who can only communicate through sign language.

*Easily Marvel’s most diverse movie yet, though the main antagonists were largely forgettable.*

At this point, you’ve probably noticed that Eternals is packed full of diversity and representation; each character looks and sounds different and Marvel are definitely widening the scope of their fictional world with this team. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the depiction of Phastos (Henry) as not only being openly gay, but in a same-sex relationship and raising a young boy, giving us the MCU’s first male-on-male kiss. Like Druig, Phastos is initially reluctant to reunite with his fellow Eternals; a master builder, he lost faith in humanity after his technological innovations eventually led to the creation of nuclear weapons and further conflict. However, his love for his family and desire to protect them spur him forward and the group is finally reunited…only to find that the Deviants have changed significantly over the years. Amongst their number stands an alpha, Kro (Skarsgård), who starts off as the largest and most intimidating of his monstrous brethren and eventually evolves into a sentient, humanoid form after absorbing the powers and lifeforce of a few of the Eternals. This gives him the ability to speak, heal his wounds, wield similar cosmic energy as the Eternals, and alter his fellow Deviants into far more grotesque and versatile forms. This means the Deviants can fly, attack with razor-sharp claws, and chomp down on their prey; they’re also incredibly durable and aggressive, but actually don’t appear all that much in the film. Kro, especially, doesn’t reach his humanoid form for some time and then vanishes for a huge hunk of the movie, only reappearing very briefly in the finale, as the Deviant threat is soon usurped by another, far more personal and dangerous menace.

The Nitty-Gritty:
It actually kind of sickens me to see so many bigots and haters dump on this film just because it features a lot of diversity; sure, there’s quite a lot packed in here all at once but we live in a world where diversity is the norm. just look around your office, or school, or local supermarket; everyone looks and sounds different, so why shouldn’t that be the case in superhero movies? Eternals was, in many ways, a great way to highlight diversity in the MCU for the first time and, since I’m unfamiliar with these characters, I really don’t care if this means their gender, skin colour, or sexual orientation has changed. Take Kingo, a recognisably Indian and very spiritual Eternal; he’s easily a stand-out character in the film thanks to his egotistical attitude and him revelling in his celebrity status, and Karun helps to add a real heart to the film since he is in awe of the Eternals. Then there’s Makkari, the MCU’s first deaf character, who exhibits a fantastic sense of enthusiasm and personality through her sign language, and the fact that all of the characters have distinct and interesting accents to help them standout from the rest of the MCU. Eternals is also a visually impressive movie; it’s clear that the MCU is definitely going for more visually distinct and experimental films in Phase Four and Eternals is probably the most beautiful MCU movie to date. The film constantly jumps to different eras and moments in human history, and different locations across the globe, as well as bombarding the viewer with some surreal cosmic imagery and some incredible costume design for the titular group.

*While the film is incredibly visually appealing, its hampered by a bloated cast and some redundancies.*

The Eternals’ powers and technology are equally intriguing; there’s a real Stargate (Emmerich, 1994) vibe to the presentation of their ship and influence upon humanity, and their cosmic powers are augmented by distinct, gold-laced CGI that’s comprised of suitably Kirby-esque swirls and patterns. Their costumes, though sadly absent for a great deal of the film, are equally impressive; unlike any other costumes in the MCU, the Eternals are garbed in a form-fitting, regal attire that is sleek, sexy, and colourful while still appearing comfortable and practical. Everything looks great until Kro takes on his human form; then the CGI takes a noticeable hit and he appears extremely out of place and cheap-looking, which is a shame as the Deviants didn’t look too bad for the most part (even though they were just big, generic monster-things). Thankfully, the film excels in the depiction of the Celestials and when fleshing out the cosmic history of the MCU; we’ve seen hints to this before, and even some brief scenes of Celestials here and there, but Eternals goes all-in with depicting these God-like beings in full and basically positioning them as being responsible for life on Earth and countless other worlds and integral elements of the wider cosmic balance. It has to be said, though, that the film does suffer from being a bit bloated; there are ten main characters, each of whom only exhibit the one power, and while the cast is very charismatic and does a pretty good job of standing out and making the most of their screen time, it definitely feels like six or maybe eight characters would have been more manageable. Like, Makkari was fine but probably could have been removed completely, and Gilgamesh could probably have been cut as well, and Ajak’s personality traits probably could have been merged into Thena to give her a bit more to do beyond just going crazy here and there.

*Kro’s effects are a bit of a letdown and there’s a lot of exposition to sit through here.*

Similarly, there are some other areas where Eternals also fails to hit its mark; although there is a great deal of action and the trademark MCU snark in the film, there’s noticeably far les than in other MCU movies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; not every movie, even if it’s a superhero movie, needs to be full-on mindless action all the time, but there isn’t really anything on show here to separate this from other MCU movies where we’ve seen similar powers and abilities done far better. Eternals is, however, a much more deliberate and meditative entry in the MCU; the debates between the Eternals regarding whether to weigh the lives of one world against countless others in the vast cosmos is intriguing, and the Eternals are quite a complex group of characters; created to do Arishem’s bidding, they follow Arishem’s word without question and regard Him with the reverence we reserve for our Gods. Over time, some of them question Arishem’s design for them and the world, while others remain steadfastly loyal to the will of Arishem to a fault, which infuses the film’s narrative with a fascinating religious undercurrent. However, Eternals falls into a trap that plagues many movies that need to explain a lot of lore; it’s the first MCU film to feature opening text explaining the background of the Eternals, but then Sersei relates some of it to Dane, and the others bring Kaurn up to speed, and then there’s a long piece of exposition between Arishem and Sersei that she then tells the others about. For me, that’s a lot of redundant exposition; I feel it might have been better to veer more towards a more visual and implied narrative and then spread the exposition out a bit, but I also suspect that the opening text was added in just to make sure audiences understand what’s going on.

*The Eternals are rocked to learn the truth behind their origins and mission.*

I suppose it’s not too surprising that the Deviants and Kro fail to make much of an impression as antagonists in the film as their threat is completely overshadowed by Ikarus. Initially a devout follower of Arishem, Ajak grows to truly care for the Earth and sees the vast potential of humanity after they reversed the effects of the Snap, which leads her to planning to oppose Arishem’s true design for the Eternals. It turns out that they’re not there to protect the world, but are actually there to help foster the planet’s population to feed a young Celestial, Tiamut, who’s growing in the centre of the Earth and will destroy the world upon awakening. Ikarus is so devoted to Arishem that he allows Ajak to be killed by deviants and then actively fights against his friends and family, and even his beloved Sersei, to bring their mission to an end so that their memories can be erased and they can be sent to another world, as has happened over and over throughout the ages. It has to be said, though, that there are some flaws in this twist; it turns out that the Eternals are basically akin to robots, creations of the Celestials that are programmed “not to evolve” (even though they clearly do, emotionally at least), so why wouldn’t the Celestials just recall them after the Deviants are wiped out and only dispatch them when the creatures return? It also seems extremely unlikely that the Eternals wouldn’t have rebelled against their master’s grand plans in the past, so a bit strange that Arishem wouldn’t do a more thorough job of wiping their memories. The emergence of the Deviants is also more of a coincidence than anything else, and Tiamut’s awakening has only been hastened by the Snap, and Kro’s potential as a character and an antagonist is completely stunted by Ikarus’ mid-way heel turn and I almost feel like it might’ve been better to have him and Sprite teaming up from the start and have the Deviants the Eternals face be mere illusions. Regardless, Sersei and the others are determined to save the world and spare Tiamut’s life so that thousands of lives can be created by His powers; initially, they plan to do this by creating the “Uni-Mind” and vastly augmenting Druig’s power to put Tiamut to sleep. However, Ikarus’ fanatical devotion to awakening the Celestial leads Sersei with no choice but to turn the emerging Celestial to marble, freezing it in place, and Ikarus is so remorseful for his actions that he willingly commits suicide by flying into the centre of the sun. In the aftermath, Druig, Thena, and Makkari head out into the galaxy to find the other Eternals and inform them of the truth, while Arishem dramatically arrives to abduct Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo and judge whether humanity is worthy of saving and Dane is so rattled by the experience that he prepares to take up the cursed sword of his ancestors…

The Summary:
As I said, I went into Eternals with little no expectations; I saw the trailers and imagined that it would be a visually stunning and atmospheric entry in the MCU, and it definitely is that. Marvel are clearly taking some chances in Phase Four and experimenting with more diversity, variety, and unexpected directions going forward; it’s fascinating to see them go all-in with some of Marvel and Jack Kirby’s more surreal cosmic aspects and really opens the franchise up to an endless number of possibilities. This is juxtaposed by the same grounded, realistic approach to the subject matter that we saw in the likes of Thor (Branagh, 2011) that helps to introduce these wild concepts by framing them against real-world events, technology, and mythology to show how this fictional world has been influenced by these demigods. When the action does kick in, it’s pretty impressive and I like how each of the Eternals looks, sounds, and feels distinct and exhibits unique powers that make them formidable in their own right but almost unstoppable when their united against their monstrous enemies. However, Eternals is far more interested in world-building, moral discussions, and character analysis in a bid to present something of a deconstruction of the typical superhero movie. This may or may not land for you; for me, it did for the most part, but I felt the exposition could have been paced out better and the film would have benefitted from a little less hand-holding and veering more towards abstract visuals, but there’s no denying that it did an exceptional job of bringing a fresh group of sexy and powerful characters into the MCU which I imagine will have a significant impact on the franchise going forward.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you seen Eternals? If so, what did you think to it and where would you rank it against the other films in the MCU? Which of the characters was your favourite? What did you think to the diversity and variety on offer in the film? Do you like seeing the cosmic scope of the MCU or do you prefer their more grounded and relatable stories? Are you familiar with the Eternals and, if so, how do you think the film worked as an adaptation? Whatever you thought about Eternals, sign up to leave a reply down below or drop a comment on my social media.

Movie Night: V for Vendetta

05/11/202121/10/2023Dr. KLeave a comment

Released: 17 March 2006
Director: James McTeigue
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $50 to 54 million
Stars: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Tim Pigott-Smith, Roger Allam, Stephen Fry, and John Hurt

The Plot:
In a world where the United Kingdom is subject to a neo-fascist totalitarian regime headed by High Chancellor Adam Sutler (Hurt), the unassuming Evey Hammond (Portman) find sherself caught up in masked anarchist and freedom fighter V’s (Weaving) attempts to ignite a revolution through elaborate terrorist acts themed after the legendary Guy Fawkes.

The Background:
V for Vendetta began life as a black-and-white serial written by the legendary Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd and published in the short-lived UK anthology Warrior between 1982 and 1985 before being picked up, colourised, and completed, by DC Comics in 1989. Influenced by a variety of literary works, V for Vendetta was a bleak, uncompromising tale of a morally ambiguous anarchist rallying against a totalitarian government and is generally regarded as one of the more subversive and influential comic books ever made. The production of a live-action adaptation can be traced back to 1988, when producer Joel Silver acquired the rights, but didn’t begin to gain traction until the late-nineties when Andy and Larry Wachowski (as they were known then) became involved in the production. Actor James Purefoy famously walked out of the title role after six weeks of filming and Moore, of course, hated the script and the idea of an adaptation, but V For Vendetta was a decent box office success with a gross of over $130 million. Critically, the film was also quite well received and became an influential cult hit.

The Review:
V for Vendetta immediately begins by emphasising the overall thrust of V’s crusade: that, while a man might be forgotten, killed, or mere flesh and blood, an idea can live forever to inspire others into acting. It’s this belief that permeates throughout the film alongside the oppressive governmental regime that dominates this alternative version of the United Kingdom. When we are first introduced to V, it’s on the eve of the beginning of his masterplan for revolution; garbing himself in a black outfit, cape, and eerily emotionless Guy Fawkes mask, he stumbles upon Evey being assaulted by Fingermen, the secret police of this world, and immediately beats them into submission while spouting eloquent quotations. V’s mystery is immediately apparent not only because his entire face and figure is obscured but also through the verbosity of his vocabulary; approaching his crusade like a dramatic role, he exudes a theatrical flair and polite, curious personality that immediately captivates Evey’s attention despite her better nature.

*V is an enigmatic, anti-authoritative persona is a mixture of eloquence and violence.*

V’s more melodramatic and articulate moments are offset by a disturbing unpredictability and ambiguity that makes him appear more than a little insane through his explosive methods, revolutionary opinions, and anti-authoritative stance. V destroys the Old Bailey using explosives, theatrical fireworks, and the sounds of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’. From there, V’s methods and agenda only escalate as he storms the office of the British Television Network (BTN) and forces them to broadcast a message of insurrection and revolution to take place in one year’s time, on the fifth of November, to take a stand against the oppressive government. V’s message affects the film’s characters in a variety of ways; Evey is awe-struck, families and viewers are puzzled and curious, and he is quickly branded a terrorist by the tyrannical government.

*After rising to power, Norsefire continued to spread fear and oppression by controlling the media.*

The Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist totalitarian regime that rules the UK, the Norsefire Party, spreads its God-fearing message primarily through the media in the form of Lewis Prothero (Allam); an extremely aggressive and spiteful individual, Prothero has an immense level of power and influence on the country as he spreads lies and messages of fear and hate to keep the populace under the rule of, and dependent upon, Chancellor Adam Sutler. Norsefire’s rise to power came after a series of orchestrated events that saw the country besieged by plague and death and, in their fear, they turned to Sutler and his promises of order, only to find that minorities, faiths, and sexualities were not only oppressed but cruelly ostracised, hunted, experimented upon, and killed by Sutler’s party.

*Creedy is Sutler’s main force in removing insurgents and seeks to usurp Sutler’s authority.*

Years later, the United Kingdom has become a bastion of law and order because of this fear; whereas former political powers like the United States are now little more than a “leper farm”, “England prevails” thanks to Sutler blacklisting music and arts, controlling the media, and having Creedy (Pigott-Smith) remove those who dare to oppose him. Creedy, a spiteful and cruel man, was the one who suggested Norsefire launch a viral attack on their own country to consolidate their power and takes his job very seriously; when insurgents rise up, he personally leads his men in breaking into their houses, beating them mercilessly, wrapping their heads in a black sack, and taking them away to be tortured and killed. His relationship with Sutler deteriorates over the course of the film when Sutler places the blame on V’s actions and elusiveness solely on Creedy’s inability to track him down and end him and V is able to manipulate Creedy’s aspirations to usurp Sutler’s position while still making him pay for his past crimes.

*While Finch is horrified by the truths he uncovers, Deitrich is inspired to mock the government.*

Equally perplexed by V’s crusade is Chief Inspector Finch (Rea), an Irish-born policeman who is horrified by V’s actions and broadcast but, in the course of trying to find him before Creedy can make him disappear, is horrified to uncover evidence that the Norsefire Party were responsible for a devastating plague and numerous deaths. His faith in the system already faltering at the beginning of the film, it is shaken to its core when he learns of V’s backstory and the horrifying experiments he and many others were subjected to, which turn him into something of a reluctant ally. V’s message strikes a chord with many others across the country, including Gordon Deitrich (Fry), a charismatic and entertaining talk show host who has been forced to live a lie his entire life since he is secretly gay and homosexuals are effectively outlawed. This leads to an amusing sequence in which he openly mocks Sutler on live television which, in turn, emphasises the tyrannical cruelty of the government when he is quickly bagged up and killed by Creedy. Other random members of the public are similarly inspired by V’s message and pay the price for it and, in turn, inspire others to take a more proactive stand against their oppressors.

*Evey has been beaten down by her losses but is awestruck by the strength of V’s conviction.*

V’s primary ally, however, is Evey; acting as the audience surrogate, we are introduced to V’s world (the “Shadow Gallery”) and learn about the specifics of his agenda through her; initially a timid and inconsequential character, she is captivated by V’s mystery, the strength of his conviction, and magnetic presence. Having suffered through many losses and tragedies, Evey is initially a product of the oppressive world in which she lives; she doesn’t like the rules, regulations, and actions of the government but feels powerless to do anything about it and prefers to stay out of politics. While she comes to bond with V even after his more questionable and violent actions, and feels an immense deal of pity and sympathy for him, she nonetheless attempts to escape and finds herself subjected to round the clock torture and isolation.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Conspiracy, revenge, and oppression are the name of the game in V for Vendetta; Norsefire went to extreme lengths to secure the vote and confidence of the public and covered everything up, from deleting military records and killing those who would expose or oppose them. The St. Mary’s virus devastated Ireland, and much of the UK, resulting in numerous deaths and was purposely released into the water supply by Norsefire to consolidate their power. Ever since, they’ve enforced strict curfews, rounded up homosexuals, people of colour, and all those with conflicting religious beliefs and lorded their superiority over those who were once their political betters. Hurt, who famously portrayed a contrary role in Nineteen Eighty-Four (Radford, 1984), demands nothing less than complete obedience, compliance, and results from his underlings; represented as a an aggressive, demanding voice shouting through a television screen for most of the film, his position and authority is never in question and he takes V’s actions and open defiance as a personal insult to him and everything he’s built.

*Delia is the only one to regret her part in V’s suffering and welcomes her end at his hands.*

Those within the Norsefire Party are deplorable and reprehensible individuals. Prothero was formally the commander of the detention camp that was responsible for producing the St. Mary’s virus and the suffering V and his fellow prisoners underwent; Bishop Lilliman (John Standing) is little more than a disgusting paedophile; and Creedy is a sadistic thug. The only real exceptions are Finch, who begrudgingly complies with the will of his superiors even before his faith is shaken, and Doctor Delia Surridge (Sinéad Cusack), the woman responsible for the experiments that led to the creation of V and the St. Mary’s virus and vaccine. Back during her time at the detention centre, she was a morally appalling woman who grew to hate the lethargic and miserable state of those she was experimenting on but, upon seeing her work go up in flames and coming eye-to-eye with a horrifically burned inmate, came to regret her actions. Changing her name and living in constant fear of reprisal, she accepts her fate at V’s hands willingly and is the only one of his tormentors to repent for her part in his suffering and to whom he shows a modicum of mercy.

*V’s true face and identity remain a mystery as he is 100% committed to his vendetta and ideals.*

V’s mission, for all his theatricality and grandstanding about brining down the government, boils down to simple revenge; referring to his actions as “justice”, he is driven by the desire to hunt down and punish those responsible for his suffering and the horrific scars he clear still carries from the fire. We never see V without his mask or without his face being obscured by shadow or some other disguise and his true identity is never fully revealed; clearly, he was some kind of genetic aberration to have been locked up and experimented on but there’s also more to him than simply being gay or a different creed or colour since he is able to endure unimaginable pain, exhibits near-superhuman levels of strength and durability, and is skilfully adapt with knives and in hand-to-hand combat.

*V subjects Evey to round the clock torture to free her from the fear that has been holding her back.*

The mystery of V’s true nature and origin is left intentionally vague, as it is in the comic book, in favour of the idea of V being more important than his physical form. In an effort to teach Evey the same lessons he learned, he subjects her to round the clock torture and forces her to live a very similar life of isolation and desperation as he was subjected to so that she can both better understand his motives, see the world for what it really is, and be freed of the fear and lethargy that has held her back her whole life. While Portman’s English accent is a bit dodgy at times, she more than makes up for it during this horrific sequence where she has her beautiful curly locks shaved, is hosed down and interrogated over and over again, and left in a cold, dank, desolate cell with only a rat and the writings of a fellow prisoner for comfort. Enraged at V’s treatment, she nevertheless discovers a strength and resolve she never knew existed and honours her promise to return to him for his revolution; however, while he pulls the lever that will usher in V’s new age, she doesn’t assume his identity like in the comic book but remains a changed and resolute character nevertheless. V’s treatment of Evey adds to his questionable moral nature; he’s fully willing to maim and kill those who wronged him, or who get in his way, to say nothing of forcing Evey to endure constant torture and, yet, he is disgusted not just at his actions but at those who made him the man he is today.

*Despite having fallen in love with Evey, V is committed to his idea of a world free from oppression.*

Having turned his back on his humanity and committed himself to a bulletproof idea, his conviction is strong enough to allow him to endure multiple gunshots and to give his life for his cause, knowing full well that he won’t live to see the dawn of his new age and grateful for the end of his suffering. Through Evey, though, he finds a kindred spirit and she even offers him something else to live for, something more akin to a normal life for the two of them, but he adamantly refuses, despite his love for her, since he is so dedicated to his crusade. Arguably insane and blinded by his obsession, V’s message of revolution is the kick up the arse the British public need to shake them out of their apathy; this dystopian version of the UK is ruled by fear and hatred of other races, creeds, and sexualities even before the rise of Norsefire, who are little more than a Nazi regime. Until V came along, normal, everyday civilians merely went along with the ruling body, accepting it as the way things were and beaten down by submission and subjugation but, in the end, it is the normal, every British public who assume V’s guise and march through the streets of London, stand up to the government’s military might, and witness the dramatic destruction of the Houses of Parliament. In that moment, they all become V and witness the symbolic destruction of the ruling authority just as V’s actions remove the tyrants in power and give power, and truth, back to the people to do with as they wish. It’s a startlingly effective message to stand up to totalitarian rule, whether foreign or domestic, and the lengths to which governments will go to to control their people; in the end, it takes subversive, even terrorist acts to force people into action, though the film goes to great lengths to justify V’s actions and to only have those who are morally questionable label him as a terrorist.

The Summary:
When I first saw V for Vendetta, I hadn’t read the original comic book; based on how much I enjoyed the film, I was inspired to read the source material and, while there are a great deal of thematic and notable differences between the two, V for Vendetta is still a really solid adaptation and an effective film in its own right. Much of this is, largely, due to the incredible enigmatic performance of Hugo Weaving in the title role; despite his face being completely obscured by an unnerving visage, he exudes a multitude of emotions, from conviction to sympathy to self-righteous anger, and his eloquent delivery and dulcet tones bring as much characterisation as his dramatic body language and gestures. It’s a captivating performance, one sadly rarely replicated in comic book movies where actors constantly remove their masks, and is surpassed only by the political and emotional heart of the film. V for Vendetta’s world is one that seems to grow more and more relatable each day as cameras, surveillance, and control dominate our everyday lives more and more each day; governments become unreliable, their methods questionable, and the idea that apathy rules our society is powerfully relatable in an age were media controls us with carefully constructed messages and versions of the truth. The message is clear; V even says it himself in the film: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people” and, while the comic’s more subtle and intricate means of depicting its messages are replaced by for more explicit Nazi iconography and action-packed moments, the film does a commendable job of bringing Moore’s work to life and it remains one of the more thought provoking comic book movies.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of V for Vendetta? How do you feel it compares to the source material? What did you think to Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman’s performances and the themes and message of the film? What do you think V’s true origins were? How comfortable are you with the power of the media and the increased surveillance we are met with these days? Which of Alan Moore’s works is your favourite? How are you celebrating Bonfire Night tonight? Whatever your thoughts on V for Vendetta, or the works of Alan Moore, go ahead and leave a comment down below.

Movie Night [Asterix Anniversary]: Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion

28/10/202129/10/2024Dr. KLeave a comment

Asterix the Gaul (and his best friend Obelix) first debuted on 29 October 1959 as a serial in the French/Belgium magazine Pilote. Since then, the plucky Gauls have gone on to have many adventures in comic books, videogames, and feature-length productions and Asterix himself has become a popular and enduring character in his native France and around the world as Asterix’s stories have been translated into over a hundred languages across the world. I may be a day early in celebrating this anniversary as it coincides with the release of the SEGA Mega Drive but I’ll take any excuse to talk about Asterix’s amusing escapades.

Released: 5 December 2018
Director: Louis Clichy and Alexandre Astier
Distributor: Société Nouvelle de Distribution/Altitude
Budget: Unknown
Stars: Ken Kramer, C. Ernst Harth, John Innes, Fleur Delahunty, and Michael Shepherd

The Plot:
In 50 B.C. ancient France (then known as Gaul), has been entirely conquered by Julius Caesar (Mark Oliver) and his army of Romans…except for one small village of indomitable Gauls given superhuman strength by the druid Getafix’s (Innes). However, when Getafix starts to worry about his mortality, he embarks on a quest across Gaul, accompanied by the village’s most powerful warriors, Asterix (Kramer) and Obelix (Harth), in search of an heir.

The Background:
Asterix was created by writer René Goscinny and artist Albert Uderzo in 1959 and first appeared in Pilote before being collected into a single volume. Since then, the duo produced volumes on an annual basis until 1997, when Goscinny tragically died; after continuing solo for a while, Uderzo eventually signed the rights over to a new generation of creators so that Asterix’s stories could continue. Since then, Asterix has been an incredibly popular character the world over, selling nearly 400 million books and has been adapted into a series of animated, and live-action, features. The first, Astérix the Gaul (Goossens, 1967), was produced with Goscinny and Uderzo’s input and the two were heavily involved in subsequent productions. Nine animated features were produced between 1967 and 2014, where the animation made the jump from 2D to 3D with Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods (Clichy and Astier, 2014), which was France’s highest-grossing animated film of that year. Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion followed about four years later; based on an original story by Astier, the film made over $2 million on its opening night and eventually grossed over $46 million.

The Review:
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion begins with Getafix out in the forest cutting ingredients for his magic potion with a golden sickle; he’s a sprightly, lively old man, hopping and jumping all over the place and handling his sickle with an effortless pizazz. Unfortunately, his luck runs out and he takes a particularly nasty fall from a treetop. Having seriously injured his ankle, Getafix is despondent and angry at his stumble and decides to search out a young successor in order to pass down his greatest secret; since the secret can only be passed from one druid to another, this means Getafix must leave the village to seek out his heir. Getafix’s decision to seek out an heir worries both Asterix and the village chief, Vitalstatistix (Don Brown), as they’re concerned that Getafix is giving up too easily and that a new druid will misuse the magic potion. To allay their fears, Getafix suggests that Asterix and Obelix accompany him to ensure that his chosen successor uses the magic potion as wisely as he and that their village can continue to resist the Roman invasion.

*Getafix’s injury causes him to a crisis of confidence, much to Asterix’s chagrin.*

Getafix’s mission is opposed by the malevolent druid Demonix (Shephard), a practitioner of forbidden magic who greatly resembles Prolix from Asterix and the Soothsayer (Goscinny and Uderzo, 1972) and is capable of conjuring will-o’-the-wisps to hypnotise and manipulate others. His power is so frightful that he’s even able to freeze the mighty Obelix in his tracks like a statue Demonix is disgusted that Getafix has wasted his magic potion on his village and wishes to take the secret from himself to satisfy his desires for power and glory. To facilitate this, he strikes a deal with Caesar that will see him manipulate the promising young druid Cholerix (Michael Adamthwaite) in order to learn the secret of the magic potion. After forcing Cholerix to mage the potion, Demonix augments it further and consumes it, becoming a super-powered sorcerer and threatening not only the Gauls but the Romans as well with his vast powers.

*Demonix’s plot to learn Getafix’s secret sees him manipulate the young druid Cholerix.*

Getafix is dismayed to find that all the young druids he meets are either charlatans or incompetents and, as a result, he’s excited at the potential Cholerix. Although Cholerix initially rejects Demonix’s advice, he falters when standing before his peers and potential mentor and decides to conjure Demonix’s useless spell and, in the process, impresses Getafix. However, Cholerix is almost immediately dismayed at Getafix’s choice as he knows he basically deceived the druid and is forced to brew up the magic potion before Demonix’s eyes in order to save the village from being destroyed by the Romans.

*Pectin impresses with her curiosity, gumption, and inventiveness.*

Asterix is enraged to discover that a young girl from the village, Pectin (Delahunty), has stowed away in Getafix’s cauldron; despite women being forbidden from the Forest of the Carnutes, Getafix is impressed with Pectin’s ingenuity and craftsmanship and allows her to accompany him to the druids’ gathering in disguise as a boy. Her presence and curiosity is the perfect way to coax exposition out of the druids (in the form of a traditional, hand-drawn animation) regarding Getafix’s past with Demonix and she proves instrumental in thwarting Deominx after he consumes his augmented magic potion, proving herself to, potentially, be worthy of taking Getafix’s place someday.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion is full of little gags and slapstick comedy, mainly revolving around fights and the physical pratfalls the many characters get into; the routine of village life and the Roman garrisons is amusingly introduced to the tunes of Dead or Alive’s ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’, with characters performing their everyday actions in tune to the beat of the song. As is the case with many Asterix stories, there’s an ongoing rivalry and animosity between Unhygienix (Jason Simpson) and Fulliautomatix (Scott McNeil), a gang of pirates continuously run afoul of the Gauls even when they’re safely out at sea, the Romans are generally portrayed as being reluctant warriors who are in fear of the Gauls’ strength, and the Gauls using chickens to fly in and attack the Romans. There’s also a running gag in the film that the druids can speak and understand the snorts and grunts of boars; indeed, boars themselves play quite a large role in this animated and are far more prominent than they usually are, getting into all kinds of scrapes and hijinks similar to Scrat from the Ice Age films (Various, 2002 to present).

*As there are a lot of characters in the film, some inevitably get reduced to mere comic relief.*

There’s a great number of characters in the film, more so than usual since Gettafix’s search takes him all over Gaul. However, all the village men (except for Cacofonix (Cownden)), decide to follow along with the quest to add some additional comic relief to the film through their tendency to argue and brawl with each other at the slightest provocation. Although the village is left only in the care of the women and Getafix’s limited magic potion reserves, the Gaulish women are, as always, more than capable of holding their own against the Roman forces, who are ordered to attack again and again to exhaust their reserves. The druids also get a lot of play in the film; their gathering is little more than a piss-up and the druids misunderstand the boar’s message and think Getafix has just brought them all together for a big party and Getafix is stunned to discover that the druids’ age-old traditions of passing information only through word of mouth has given way to “crib notes”.

*Rather than focus on Asterix and Obelix, the film is much more about Getafix and a group effort.*

When Getafix’s search initially proves fruitless, Asterix loses his temper; he’s annoyed that Getafix has let such a simple stumble throw him so completely and, in an amusing outburst, hands his helmet, dagger, magic potion, and status as the village’s top warrior over to Geriatrix (Ron Halder) in order to make his point and storms away. This does, however, allow him to stumble upon Demonix’s plot to collaborate with the Romans but he basically disappears from a big chunk of the film after he’s helplessly bound and gagged. Even when he’s rescued, he’s just one part of an unsuccessful team effort between the Romans and the Gauls to take down the gigantic, invincible, and super-strong Demonix and, in the end, it is Getafix’s resourcefulness and magic that saves the day. It’s a bit unusual to watch an Asterix film where Asterix ends up having such a small role but the bulk of the story revolves around Getafix and his shaken self-confidence so I guess it makes sense but Asterix and the Big Fight (Grimond/Weiss, 1989) was a very Getafix-heavy film and that still placed Asterix in a prominent role in its narrative.

The Summary:
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion is a very fun and entertaining little romp. While I preferred the traditional, 2D animation of the previous films, the computer-generated characters are gorgeous to look at, full of life and little details and character quirks that really make them lively and amusing. It’s not one of the more action-packed Asterix stories, and it’s a little disappointing how small a role Asterix and, especially, Obelix play in the plot but it’s got a lot of funny little moments and gags peppered throughout it and really captures the quirky spirit of the comic books. As a lifelong Asterix fan, it’s heart-warming to see the character is still so popular and beloved that he continues to be relevant in a crowded genre and there’s clearly been a lot of care and attention put into bringing these unique and memorable characters to life. The story is pure Asterix and feels reminiscent of many of the books but also manages to stand out on its own merits through its distinctive visual and narrative flair and I’d say it’s definitely worth a watch for fans of the source material and should keep both kids and parents sufficiently amused with its wackier moments.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you seen Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion? If so, what did you think to it? Are you a fan of the CGI Asterix films or do you prefer the traditional, 2D animated features? Which character, book, or movie is your favourite? How are you celebrating Asterix and Obelix’s birthday this year? Whatever your thoughts on Asterix, feel free to leave a comment below.

Movie Night: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

25/10/202109/11/2024Dr. K6 Comments

Released: 15 October 2021
Director: Andy Serkis
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $110 million
Stars: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, and Stephen Graham

The Plot:
After the events of Venom (Fleischer, 2018), investigative journalist Eddie Brock’s (Hardy) struggles to co-exist with the alien symbiote Venom. Their lives are further complicated when serial killer Cletus Kasady (Harrelson) gains his own symbiote and begins a reign of terror as the maniacal Carnage.

The Background:
Originally depicted as a simple black costume acquired by Peter Parker/Spider-Man on an alien world, Venom eventually became their own character when the costume was revealed to be alive and bonded with the unhinged Eddie Brock to torment Spider-Man. Since their debut, Spidey-Man’s dark doppelgänger has become one of Marvel Comics’ most popular anti-heroes and one of Spider-Man’s most recognisable foes. So popular are Venom that they’ve made regular appearances in Spider-Man videogames and cartoons and were awkwardly shoe-horned into Spider-Man 3 (Raimi, 2008) for an impressive, if rushed, big-screen debut. Although the idea of a live-action Venom film had been doing the rounds in Hollywood since 1997, the idea only gained significant momentum after this film and eventually culminated in the frankly unprecedented casting of Tom Hardy in the title role for what became a commercially successful solo film despite mixed reviews and questions as to its relations to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Development of a sequel began in 2019; although Ruben Fleischer was unable to return, Andy Serkis took over directing duties and worked closely with Hardy to develop the film’s script. Although popular Venom antagonist Carnage was nixed as the main antagonist of the first film, Woody Harrelson appeared as the character’s human host as a tease for the sequel and took a gamble by signing on for the sequel before a script was even written. Although Venom: Let There Be Carnage was delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Serkis aimed to use the additional time to help spruce up the film’s visual effects and Hardy confirmed that he was signed on for a third film. Upon release, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was met with mostly positive reviews that praised the madcap nature of the relationship between Eddie and Venom. Though some criticised the film’s over-the-top moments, Let There Be Carnage eventually grossed over $500 million worldwide, more than justifying a third entry in 2024.

The Review:
After coming to terms with his newfound relationship with the alien symbiote known as Venom, Eddie Brock ended Venom in a pretty good place: he was determined to get back to written journalism, and win back the heart of his old flame, Anne Weying (Williams), and reached a compromise with the symbiote where the creature would be allowed to live within Eddie’s body on the provision that it only attacked, killed, and, crucially, ate bad guys. Venom: Let There Be Carnage walks the characters back a little bit and finds the two not operating as a lethal protector, but once again largely at odds with each other.

*Eddie is burdened by Venom’s constant need to feed and desire to take out bad guys.*

This is primarily because Eddie has been placating the symbiote with chocolate and live chickens rather than letting it ate the brains of bad guys; frustrated at being held back by Eddie’s morals, the symbiote frequently lashes out at him and demands to be let loose, but Eddie continues to exert his control over the alien parasite to avoid attracting undue attention. This gives the movie a very prominent “odd couple”/“buddy cop” feeling as Venom is basically an oversized toddler who just wants to go out and have a good time and doesn’t see why they have to hide themselves. A constant, nagging voice in Eddie’s head, Venom continually tries to give Eddie advice and push him into giving into his violent urges, which weighs heavily on Eddie; he seems to be absolutely burdened by the responsibility of housing and pacifying Venom, who represents his inner desires that he suppresses in order to live a simple life out of the spotlight. Venom resents Eddie’s hesitation in holding them back and wants to be out there, stalking bad guys and letting itself loose, rather than being cooped up in Eddie’s body and apartment. Still, Eddie’s concerns are largely validated; Detective Patrick Mulligan (Graham) is incredibly suspicious of Eddie, not just because he always happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the unexplained events of the first film, but also because he’s the only person that notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady will talk to and Mulligan believes that Eddie is holding back information purely to bolster his own journalistic career.

*Mulligan’s convinced Eddie’s holding out on him, while Eddie laments losing Anne.*

Still a far cry from having his own, regular journalism show on television, Eddie endures Cletus’s repeated requests to talk to him primarily to help get his life back on track and to bring some relief to the families of Kasady’s victims. However, he comes across as being a selfish, self-serving reporter since to reveal the truth to Mulligan would mean his imprisonment, at best, and him and the symbiote being shipped off to some governmental facility somewhere. Venom’s near-perfect visual recall and artistic ability help Eddie to identify where Cletus has buried a number of his victims, instantly making Eddie an overnight celebrity and condemning Kasady to a lethal injection. Eddie’s exhilaration at his career turnaround is short-lived, however, when Anne reveals that she’s now engaged to the kindly Doctor Dan Lewis (Reid Scott); heartbroken at having lost his former love, tensions between Eddie and Venom finally come to boiling point, resulting in an amusing physical confrontation between the two that sees the symbiote separating itself from Eddie and heading out to live its own life. This results in a pretty amusing little side story where Venom jumps between multiple, unsuitable hosts, using them up one at a time as it tours through the colourful city streets and seeks out enjoyment. Being separated from Eddie causes Venom to slowly starve and realise how much it took Eddie for granted, while Eddie’s life generally improves without the symbiote weighing him down. This is where Anne plays her most prominent role; she doesn’t have as much to do as in the first film but makes for a great mediator between Edie and Venom, interjecting in their domestic dispute to bring them back together and force them to admit how much they need each other.

*Kasady and Shriek’s relationship is taken to the next level when he obtains his own symbiote.*

The two are soon forced to make amends, however, when Kasady suddenly sprouts a symbiote of his own; an absolutely crackpot murderer, Kasady feels a connection with Eddie due to believing them to be very similar people, with comparable backgrounds. Heavily abused as a child and with a long history of violence, Cletus is seemingly out of his mind and completely unremorseful of his actions, which have condemned him to death. During his final interview with Eddie, Kasady suddenly snaps and takes a bite out of Eddie’s hand, consuming a part of the symbiote which violently bubbles to the surface while he’s receiving his lethal injection. Dubbing himself Carnage, Kasady goes on an absolute rampage throughout the prison, killing several guards and breaking free of his confinement; he quickly comes to an understanding with his newfound alien partner that sees them joining forces to destroy their “father” and to reunite Kasady with his old girlfriend, Frances Barrison/Shriek (Harris), a Mutant sporting an ear-piercing scream who was the one source of light in Kasady’s life as a child. Of course, like Venom in the first movie (and also this one), Carnage is somewhat hampered by the film’s 15 rating; in the comics, Kasady is one of the most extreme and brutal villains from the “Dark Age” of comic books, slicing and dicing people on a whim and causing… well, carnage…with no rhyme or reason and entirely for the thrill of it. The entire point of the character was to be a more extreme version of Venom so that the symbiote could shift into more of an anti-hero role but, in the movies, Eddie is a far more stable and much nicer guy than his comic book counterpart, and Venom repeatedly states its desire to protect people from bad guys, meaning that the two are already much softer than in the comics. Still, Kasady remains as nutty as his comic book counterpart, but also far more focused; he genuinely loves Frances and wants to not only reunite with her for a killing spree but also protect her from harm, a weakness not shared by his Marvel Comics incarnation. His motivation for targeting Eddie also stems from a need to feel a genuine connection with someone, which is a far cry from just desiring senseless slaughter, but the abilities of the symbiote certainly dial all of Kasady’s worst impulses up to eleven. While bloodshed is kept to a minimum and there’s little in the way of the slasher-villain antics of his comic book counterpart, Carnage quickly amasses a pretty impressive body count and certain looks completely unhinged thanks to some top-notch CGI and being augmented to be larger and more unhinged than its “father”. With Carnage going on a tear and endangering lives, Eddie and Venom are reunited by Anne and forced to once again realise that they need each other to survive and to be special, and come together once more to confront their progeny and establish themselves as a lethal protector.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Director Andy Serkis definitely ups the ante in terms of the film’s presentation and the balance between action and humour; flashbacks to Kasady’s past are rendered using both younger actors an crudely-drawn animations to depict some of the younger Kasady’s more violent acts, which all helps to add to the character’s unhinged state of mind. The banter and dialogue between Eddie and Venom is one of the highlights of the film; Venom is constantly popping out and threatening to eat people’s heads or berating Eddie for being “weak”, and its tentacles are often whipping around mashing together food or causing mischief, which was very amusing. Thanks to having spent the majority of Venom’s runtime establishing Eddie and Venom as characters, Venom: Let There Be Carnage doesn’t have to worry about being shackled by the restraints of an origin story for them and we get to see Venom in all their glory pretty soon into the movie, which is great but does result in a bit of a rushed beginning to the film where it seems like it’s going to be a mindless, jump-cut-heavy action film but, thankfully, Serkis soon gets the film’s pacing under control and focus on the evolving dynamic between Eddie and Venom.

*The conflict between Eddie and Venom forms a central element of the film’s plot.*

Since we know who these characters are, much of the time spent with them is focused on showing how tension between the two are growing. This is primarily so that Eddie can lose his “powers” midway through the film and the two can relearn just how dependant they are on each other, but also allows the film the time to flesh out Kasady’s character and backstory, something he sorely needed. I actually disliked how Kasady was just tacked onto the end of Venom as a mid-credits teaser; it kind of came out of nowhere and probably left a lot of audiences unfamiliar with the characters confused as to why Woody Harrelson was sitting in a cell and sporting a bizarre wig. Personally, I would have had a recurring element of Venom be Eddie trying to gain an audience with Kasady in order to turn his career around, and only be granted this by the end, just to help foreshadow their meeting a bit but Venom: Let There Be Carnage definitely makes up for this. Harrelson seems to be having the time of his life, chewing the scenery and stealing the show as the unhinged Kasady, a madman who writes postcards and letters in a bizarre script and brags about how many people he’s killed. He was a psychopath even before acquiring his symbiote, and joining with Carnage simple allows his sordid ambitions to be completely free from any mortal restraints.

*The effects do a great job of bringing Venom and Carnage to life and making them visually distinct.*

The relationship between Kasady and Carnage is as different from the comics as the one between Eddie and Venom, too; in the comics, Kasady and his symbiote form a perfect union, a symbiosis so complete that they refer to themselves as “I” instead of “we” and the symbiote even merged with Kasady’s blood, making them functionally inseparable. Here, the two converse independently like Eddie and Venom and come to a mutually beneficial arrangement very quickly, meaning that there is no conflict between the two like there is between Eddie and Venom, which allows the character to fulfil its criteria of being the most violent impulses of Venom dialled up to eleven and completely off the hook. Carnage’s threat is also accentuated by the fact that its actually bigger and much more versatile than Venom, which is also a welcome change; unlike Carlton Drake/Riot (Riz Ahmed) in the last film, Carnage is so much more visually distinct, being red, rippling with tentacles and malice, and sporting so many different abilities that even Venom is hesitant to go head-to-head with it because of how violent and dangerous the “red [ones]” can be. This results in some far more impressive and visually interesting action and fight scenes; indeed, Venom looks better than ever, all glossy and shiny and ferocious, and the effects used to bring the symbiote and its tentacles to life look much more impressive this time around. Carnage, especially, looks fantastic; I love how its so visually distinct from Venom, which really helps make their fight scenes easier to follow and far more vicious than in the last film; Kasady’s transformations are disturbing and violent as well, and just about the only thing I disliked about Carnage was that its voice was a little low (I always imagined Carnage to just shriek like a madman).

The Summary:
My expectations for Venom: Let There Be Carnage were quite low, to be honest; I enjoyed Venom but I think it was a major misstep to do the character’s story without involving some version of Spider-Man. The film just about pulled it off, but I still feel like critical elements of the character were (and continue to be) missing as a result; still, it was a pretty decent, if somewhat flawed, little action piece that was only hampered by its rating. I knew all along that Venom: Let There Be Carnage wouldn’t be rated any higher than a 15 as it just makes business sense to help it make the most money it possibly can, so I was fully prepared to see a more neutered version of Carnage but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. The odd couple dynamic between Eddie and Venom was brilliant, as was their banter and their tumultuous relationship in general, and it’s great seeing Tom Hardy’s physicality and dedication to these characters on show. The special effects were far better this time around as well; I may not like that Venom is lacking their iconic spider-symbol, but they look phenomenal here and there are far more scenes and action sequences of Venom this time around, which I greatly appreciate as a long-time fan of the character. Woody Harrelson absolutely stole the show as Cletus Kasady and Carnage, though; sure, the character is notably altered and he’s not tearing hapless innocents apart with reckless abandon, but I think this is the closest and most accurate portrayal of the character that we’re ever likely to get and they did a great job of accentuating Kasady’s madness and the ferocious nature of his symbiote. In the end, I expected Venom: Let There Be Carnage to be little more than just more of the same of the last film but it ended up being so much more and something far closer to the Venom I grew up reading in Marvel Comics.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Have you seen Venom: Let There Be Carnage? If so, what did you think to it? Did you like the relationship between Eddie Brock and Venom and their odd couple dynamic? What were your thoughts on Celetus Kasady and Carnage? Were you happy with the action and pace of the film and how do you feel it compares to the first movie? What did you think to the mid-credits teaser and where would you like to see the character go in the future? What are some of your favourite Venom and/or Carnage stories from the comics? Sign up to leave your thoughts on Venom: Let There Be Carnage down below or comment on my social media with your opinions.

Movie Night: No Time to Die

07/10/202126/10/2025Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 30 September 2021
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Distributor: United Artists Releasing / Universal Pictures
Budget: $250 to 301 million
Stars: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, and Christoph Waltz

The Plot:
Five years after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Waltz), super spy James Bond/007 (Craig) has retired from active service to be with his love, Doctor Madeleine Swan (Seydoux). However, when he his old friend Felix Leiter (Wright) asks him to investigate a missing scientist, Bond is brought violently back into the world of betrayal and terrorism when he is pitted against terrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Malek).

The Background:
James Bond, the charming and sophisticated MI6 agent with a license to kill, is the creation of former navy intelligence officer-turned-writer Ian Fleming. As beloved as his 007 novels were, the character was forever immortalised through the late, great Sean Connery, who would be just one of many actors to portray the superspy in perhaps the most successful cinematic franchise of all time. In 2005, amidst much unwarranted controversy, Daniel Craig assumed the iconic role for a gritty, modern reboot of the long-running franchise; Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006) was a massive critical and commercial success and effectively revitalised the series after it had become stagnated. Much to the chagrin of Craig, who became increasingly disillusioned with the role, more successes soon followed, with Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) surpassing Casino Royale’s achievements and Spectre (ibid, 2015) earning rave reviews. Development of the twenty-fifth Bond film began in 2016, with director Danny Boyle initially attached to the project before he bowed out over script concerns. Cary Joji Fukunaga came onboard in 2018 and the film’s title was announced in 2019 but the jury was out over whether Craig would reprise his role. Although Craig eventually signed on to No Time to Die, he stated that the film would be his last go-around as 007 and the script was tailoured to reflect this sentiment. As with al of Craig’s Bond movies, No Time to Die was set to feature a sequential narrative from the previous films and included a number of returning cast and characters; like all great Bond movies, filming took place all around the world and included a number of spectacular stunt sequences. The film’s release was repeatedly delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic but No Time to Die finally released in the United Kingdom on September 30^th to largely positive reviews that emphasised Craig’s performance and the film’s action sequences while criticising the film’s lengthy runtime, and a final worldwide gross of almost $775 million.

The Review:
No Time to Die kicks off with one of the most longest, if not the longest, pre-title sequences in any James Bond film that basically serves a number of purposes; first, we get to see a flashback to Madeline’s childhood where, as a young girl (Coline Defaud), witnessed her mother being brutally gunned down by Safin, a psychotic killer with a bit of a limb and sporting an unsettling Noh mask. Safin’s motivation here is actually somewhat relatable as Madeline’s father, Mister White (Jesper Christensen), killed Safin’s entire family as part of a Spectre assassination. Although Madeline and Bond have retired to Italy to be together, leaving behind Bond’s tumultuous life, but are still haunted by the ghosts of their respective pasts; Madeline promises to reveal this part of her past to Bond after he makes peace with his former love, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), and in process unwittingly sets Bond’s paranoid into overdrive as he is summarily attacked by Spectre agents, led by Primo/Cyclops (Dali Benssalah), and he separates himself from Madeline to both keep her safe and because he feels he can’t trust her. The film then jumps to five years later, Bond has set himself up in Jamaica and is so far off the grid that MI6 has assumed that he has died. However, when Spectre agents kidnap scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) to weaponise the devastating “Heracles” virus that MI6 chief, Gareth Mallory/M (Fiennes) developed off the books to specifically target and eliminate individuals while negating collateral damage, both MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are understandably perturbed at the implications of this virus being in the wrong hands. When M discovers that his darkest secret has been dug up for the world to see, he becomes very cagey and snippy with his employees Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Wishaw), and Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and demands that Obruchev and his research be retrieved as quickly and surreptitiously as possible. Bond is begrudgingly brought into the investigation by CIA operative Felix Leiter, whom he embraces as an old friend; having been absent from the last two Bond movies, it’s great to see Felix make a comeback, if only briefly, and it’s just one of many heartwarming moments in the film that help humanise Bond, with Bond even referring to Felix as his brother at one point.

*Bond is drawn back into espionage after appearing to be betrayed, only to find he’s been replaced.*

Bond doesn’t truly return to his former, violent life until he crosses paths with Nomi (Lynch), a no-nonsense, militaristic agent who, in case you couldn’t guess, has replaced Bond as the new 007. The two initially have a frosty relationship, with Nomi brushing off Bond’s advice and experience and basically continuing on her mission with little regard for Bond’s presence. While Bond played it fast and loose with the rules and regulations, Nomi is all business and follows her orders without questions, making for a less glamorous but strikingly efficient spy, but her heckles are raised when M ends up reinstating Bond as an active 00 agent following a tense and heated confrontation between the two. The more they work together, however, a mutual respect develops between the two, to the point where Nomi requests that Bond regain his 007 number (his actual new 00 number is never revealed), and any concerns that Nomi is being setup to replace James Bond in future films are largely dashed as she never takes the spotlight away from Bond and she largely exists as a competent support character for Bond. Bond has a number of other allies helping him both officially and unofficially; when Bond agrees to help Felix, he is partnered with the lovely and excitable Paloma (Ana de Armas), a CIA agent on her first assignment who’s more than capable of kicking ass even while in a very revealing silk dress. Paloma helps Bond infiltrate a mass gathering of Spectre agents, which is revealed to be a trap setup by Blofeld to kill bond using Heracles, however all of Spectre end up being killed instead when Obruchev reprograms the nanobots to target the Spectre agents, which was a bit of an anti-climatic end to one of Bond’s most notorious and iconic evil organisations. After arguing with M over Heracles, Bond works independently to find out more information about the virus and concludes that he needs to gain access to Blofeld; to do this, he asks Moneypenny and Q for help, and they’re able to help him hack into a bionic eye used my Primo to reveal crucial information that gets Bond reinstated at MI6. Q actually plays a surprisingly big role in the film as he’s out in the field on more than one occasion and even communicates with Bond and Nomi through their earpieces in the finale, which is something I’ve never seen in a Bond film before. It does lead to an amusing moment where Q prepares to walk Bond through a complex procedure to open up the blast doors and allow Safin’s base to be bombarded with a missile assault and Bond simply frantically presses every button and pulls every lever.

*Safin makes an immediate impression before becoming a bit of a cliché, fanatical villain.*

The main villain of the film, Safin, is largely absent for much of the film and left as this mysterious, unknown third party. Instead, most of the film’s early going is focused on the remnants of Spectre, which Blofeld is secretly controlling while being locked up and isolated in prison. He’s been able to do this because he’s been diagnosed as clinically insane and spends his days muttering and mumbling in his cell and refuses to talk to anyone except his psychiatrist, Madeline. This leads to an awkward reunion between Bond and Madeline, and a tense reunion between Bond and his adopted brother; Blofeld delights in taunting Bond and having outwitted him, and the irony that the two now have a common enemy as Safin is specifically targeting Spectre agents and Blofeld himself to get his revenge. Unfortunately, we don’t really get to see too much of Blofeld here, and I continue to be unimpressed with Waltz’s performance as the character, which just a little too quirky and unhinged for my tastes considering how refined the character usually is. Safin picks up some of the slack in this regard, appearing to echo classic bond villains such as Doctor Julius No (Joseph Wiseman), Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens), and Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) in his soft-spoken, unsettling menace and sporting a disturbing skin condition. Safin is motivated to kill all of Spectre after they caused the death of his family, but his plot shifts to worldwide mass murderer after he acquires Heracles, which escalates his favoured method of using plants for a variety of nefarious purposes into reshaping the world into his own image. When he’s first introduced, Safin is clad in a white snowsuit and wearing an expressionless mask, resulting in a twisted visage as he hunts down the young Madeline, and the entire sequence is framed like a slasher horror film; however, when Safin finally returns later in the film, he’s set aside his mask and is just another disquieting, unhinged Bond villain in a suit with delusions of grandeur.

The Nitty-Gritty:
One of the most highly anticipated traditions of any James Bond film is the title sequence, in which the chosen song for the film plays over images of scantily-clad women, guns, and other obscure imagery tangentially related to the film. No Time to Die not only brings back the iconic gun barrel sequence (which also gets a call-back later in the film when Bond shoots an assailant down a curved tunnel) but the title sequence even recalls the very first title sequence of the series by bringing back the multiple circular dots that blared at the screen in the opening of Dr. No (Young, 1962), before descending into the usual iconography of guns firing and images of the main actors looking morose. It’s a pretty decent title sequence but for one crucial element; the title song itself, “No Time to Die”, by Billie Eilish. Now, admittedly, I am not a fan of Eilish; I find her music grating, depressing, and uninspiring, but I went into this willing to set aside these prejudices (after all, I’m not fan of Adele or Sam Smith and their Bond themes were pretty good) and remained unimpressed. I just don’t think the song really works; it never properly kicks into a higher gear and just sets a bleak, miserable tone for that the film doesn’t really reflect. The song really should have been a celebration of Bond’s life and emphasised this being the end of an era, and instead just conveys the same dullness of your average gloomy Billie Eilish song. Thankfully, some of these themes of it being a celebration of all things Bond and the end of Craig’s time as the character are revisited throughout the film; Louis Armstrong’s “We Have all the Time in the World” plays in the beginning and ending of the film, which is a nice (if unexpected) call-back to On her Majesty’s Secret Service (Hunt, 1969), and even had me half-expecting to see Madeline gunned down by one of Blofeld’s agents as she and Bond are racing through Italy.

*Armed with his most iconic gadgets and teamed with beautiful allies, Bond is as effective as ever.*

Additionally, Bond drives his iconic Aston Martin DB5, which is outfitted with all of the classic gadgets of old, and there’s even a touching tribute to Judi Dench and Bernard Lee as portraits of them adorn the walls of MI6. I actually really love the call-backs to classic Bond aesthetics that finally got reintroduced to the series in Skyfall, such as the door to M’s office (and the office itself) while still keeping things grounded in the current times with modern technology. We even get a spin on Bond’s classic watch gadget as Q furnishes him with a watch capable of emitting a short-range, high-frequency electromagnetic pulse that pays off beautifully in offing Primo (but is apparently unable to affect the nanobots coursing through Bond’s bloodstream, which is where I expected the gadget to really come into play). As mentioned, the film’s opening is starkly different to those of other Bond films not just for its length but also for the way its short, which mirrors a slasher horror film, with Safin even appearing and being portrayed as an unsettling masked home invader. Safin’s casual brutality is mirrored in Bond’s ruthlessness; both characters are completely at ease with killing (even executing) others in the line of duty, and Safin even proposes that the two are more alike that they may seem at first glance. Interestingly, the idea that Bond has “lost a step” due to his advancing age, injuries, and being out of action for so long is largely cast aside here; it could have been revisited once he meets and works alongside Nomi but, instead Bond is running, fighting, and chasing down bad guys with very few signs of having slowed down. If anything, Bond’s more effective and brutal than ever; he’s easily able to evade Primo and his mercenaries by leaping from a bridge with only a precarious wire for support, races across Italy on a motorcycle, has a series of brutal fistfights that continue to highlight Craig’s Bond’s adaptability when brawling, and the film is punctuated by a number of car chases against both jeeps and a helicopter to help keep things exhilarating. Yes, it’s a long film, even for a Bond movie, but all Bond movies are quite long and it never really felt like it was dragging all that much; I could see a few scenes and even characters being trimmed and maybe cutting back on some of the sweeping establishing shots, but overall I was quite satisfied with the length of the film and the amount of action packed in between its slower, more poignant moments.

*Blofeld manipulates events from his prison cell before being unceremoniously offed by Safin.*

Many Bond films become so iconic because of their villains, and as ever there’s a number of bad guys bumping around in No Time to Die; Primo stands out for his bulging bionic eye, but is mainly just Spectre’s main henchman and gets very little to do beyond cropping up to cause Bond headaches throughout the film. Bond’s focus shifts towards tracking down CIA operative Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen) after he proves to be a double-agent working for Spectre; Nash, a nervous and overly enthusiastic agent, plays a pivotal role in the film’s early going when his betrayal leads to the tragic death of Felix and it’s incredibly cathartic seeing Bond brutally brush the slimy little weasel under a jeep. Obruchev is the living McGuffin of the film, being a slightly neurotic Russian scientist who at first seems to be reluctantly assisting Spectre and Safin and soon turns out to enjoy his work on the nanobots a little too much, meaning he more than deserves his gruesome dip into an acid bath at Nomi’s hands. And then there’s Blofeld, the ultimate puppet master of the film who continues to torment his stepbrother even while locked up; their interaction is a bevy of emotions, with Bond flipping between eccentricity and seething rage, leading to him choking Blofeld while spitting “Die, Blofeld!” Although Bond pulls back at the last minute, and gets berated by Tanner for losing control of his emotions, Blofeld is revealed to have died thanks to Bond unknowingly being exposed to nanobots specifically programmed to kill the Spectre head honcho, which was a death as anticlimactic as it was predictable (we see Madeline spraying herself with Safin’s nanobots, and Bond grab her wrist, prior to Bond choking Blofeld). Safin’s plot involves the use of Heracles, a vast array of nanobots that can be set to kill specific targets by programming them with DNA; once they’re inside your body, they’re there for ever and will pass from host to host until they reach their intended target, and Safin even has Obruchev modify them to kill the bloodline of the target as well. M’s direct involvement in this project casts an ugly shade of grey on the character, leading him into conflict with Bond and driving him to use every resource available, even at the expense of keeping the Prime Minister out of the loop and the world on the brink of war, just to eradicate Heracles once and for all. Safin’s jump from wanting revenge against Spectre to destroying most of the world’s population is quite the leap, but he is fully prepared to do this and has more than enough resources to pull it off; how he has these resources isn’t really explained (I guess he appropriated them from Spectre?) but he does sport a suitably ominous repurposes World War Two base as his headquarters and apparently has a background in using poisonous and otherwise toxic plants in his research. This only bolsters his nanobot technology and, while he is far from a physical threat to Bond, actually ends up making him Bond’s most formidable adversary ever as he’s able to infect Bond with nanobots that make his touch lethal to Madeline, effectively destroying any hope he could have of a normal life with her in the process.

*To ensure the safety of his love, his child, and the world, Bond makes the ultimate sacrifice.*

The movie may not have time to die, but the characters certainly do! As mentioned, Felix is the first to go in an emotionally charged scene that sees Bond desperately trying to haul his friend’s injured body to safety and then being forced to watch him die right in front of his eyes after he succumbs to Nash’s gunshot. Much of his immediate motivation revolves around wanting to avenge and honour Felix’s death, though I do think it might have had even more impact if Felix had joined Bond and Paloma on their mission (or even, dare I say it, replaced Paloma entirely) just so we could have seen the two interacting a little bit more and working together in the field. Blofeld also lives to die another day as, despite Bond’s best efforts to ensure that he has a long and unhappy existence rotting away in prison, Safin succeeds in offing the Spectre head through his proxies. I wasn’t exactly blown away by Waltz’s performance in the role, but I do have a fondness for the character’s iconography and impact on the franchise, so it was a bit disappointing to see him brought in as a Doctor Hannibal Lecter-type (Anthony Hopkins) character only to be killed off in anticlimactic fashion. Finally, believe it or not, No Time to Die actually has the balls to kill off the iconic superspy! All throughout the movie, Bond experiences and cheats death at every turn (he survives at least two explosions at close range with minimal damage beyond impaired hearing) and has been assumed dead for at least five years, but No Time to Die finds the character in a position where he’s finally achieved a sense of happiness that he had been searching for since the days of Casino Royale. However, his past haunts him so much that he immediately believes that Madeline has betrayed him, which costs him valuable time with her, and the two quickly rekindle their romance once they reunite, but, more crucially, means he misses out on experiencing fatherhood as he finds Madeline has sired his child, Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet). While she’s initially stated to not be his, it’s pretty obvious that she is, even to Bond, and he makes it a priority to rescue her, and Madeline, from Safin after he and Nomi infiltrate his base to shut down his operation. While successful, Bond is injured by multiple gunshots and drawn into a physical altercation with Safin, which sees him brutally snap the terrorist’s arm but being infected with nanobots that will kill Madeline and Mathilde if he touches them. After executing Safin, Bond is forced to stay behind on the island and open the blast doors so that the military’s missile strike will destroy the facility, bidding a heartfelt farewell to Madeline before being killed in the bombardment. In the aftermath, his life and sacrifice are toasted by M, Nomi, Q, and Moneypenny while Madeline prepares to regale her daughter with stories of her father. I kind of suspected that this might happen given the trailers and Craig’s desire to step away from the role, but also thought that the character would simply fake his death to finally retire from his violent life and be succeeded by Nomi, but the film actually went all-in with finishing off the character in perhaps the most dramatic way possible that hit with an impact I honestly wasn’t expecting.

The Summary:
No Time to Die is another strong effort in the Daniel Craig-era of James Bond movies; since his Bond films have all largely been sequential, it’s definitely advisable to be somewhat familiar with his previous outings as the character since the entire film is framed as a celebration of Bond’s life and career and a swansong not just to Craig but the character itself. Never before has a James Bond film positioned the renowned superspy in such an uncharacteristic position where he is largely retired from active service and focused entirely on living a normal life as the world passes him by, and his return to action seems to reinvigorate not just the character but those around him as well, with many of his allies excited to be working alongside him once again. Safin starts off as a strong and visually intriguing character, before descending into cliché Bond villainy and plotting to destroy the world for tenuous reasons, and Blofeld’s big return may be largely squandered but these issues are largely secondary compared to the continued character study into Bond’s emotional journey. Craig’s Bond is probably to most developed and complex of all the Bonds since we’ve witnessed his tumultuous and tragic evolution into an impassive spy and his struggle to reconcile his duty with his desire to lay down his guns, and all of this culminates in his stunned discovery that he has a child out their in a world and something more tangible worth fighting, and dying, for. The execution of Bond’s ultimate end may not land well for some; yes, it’s overly dramatic and reminded me of the overblown farewells modern-day Doctor Who actors give when they leave the role, and leaves a lot of questions regarding the series going forward. Will they recast and reboot again, or will they try and continue the story in this world with Nomi as the new 007? It’s hard to tell, and the film may end up being overshadowed by being “the one where Bond dies”, but I felt that it was an emotional and poignant journey and end for the character, and that the film was a strong and enjoyable outing throughout, and I’m excited to see where the series goes next if they do recast.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Have you seen No Time to Die? If so, what did you think to it and where would you rank it against other James Bond films, especially Daniel Craig’s earlier efforts? What did you think to Safin, his characterisation and his plot, and Blofeld’s brief return? Were you impressed by Nomi and would you like to see her get her own solo film as 007 going forward? Which of the character’s deaths was the most surprising and memorable for you and what did you think to the decision to kill Bond off? Are you pissed off that I spoiled the entire film rather than dancing around the plot? What is your favourite James Bond film and who would you like to see cast in the role someday? Whatever you thought about No Time to Die, sign up to leave a comment below or leave a response on my social media.

My Rating:

Fantastic

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Fantastic

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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