Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) directed by Matt Shakman

 I did not have high expectations for this film. The look of it was interesting, an alternative Earth with 1960's aesthetics. Pedro pascal seems a weird choice for tall and angular Reed Richards (Mr. Fantasic) and marvel's superhero offerings seem to have run their course. I was pleasantly surprised. Setting the action on an alternative Earth freed it from endless superhero match ups and the world was pretty cool to look at. All the actors were good in the roles and it avoided most of the pitfalls that have turned me off these CGI spectacle driver films lately. I thought the cast gave some heart to the events and the story and managed to get through the "Reed feels guilt for the accident that transformed them all" we "we are all family" sentiments (well earned in this one) without feeling too trope heavy or superficial. It's not a deep film, it's a good one. Entertaining, light where it needs to be and about people you care about. There is, of course, a big fight at the end with the monstrous Galactus but they use guile and a team effort over just punching and brute force. I will definately watch a second one with this cast. 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson

 

The sequel to the 2018 Spriderman: Into the Spiderverse was a long time coming and at 2 hours, a long time to watch as well. While it did better at the box-office than the first film I think this one has at least one major flaw I cannot overlook. 

To start with, I LOVED the first movie. It was breath fresh air in it pacing, style and animation. The story was gripping and managed to be exciting and heart wrenching at times. I thought it might be good, but it was great. The second film is lesser as one might expect but it still has eye popping animation and good character development, for the most part, of the main actors and uses the multiverse concept in interesting ways to move the story along and to add some unexpected twists. I can’t say the movie was boring in any way or cut corners animation wise or went in a direction that took away from the overall quality of the production. So what is the problem?

The problem starts with the villain who is barely there and milk toast. I am not sure if we are supposed to care about him at all, the personal life of Miles Morales was fantastic and keeps getting interrupted by a bad guy I have investment in. A bigger issue was the ending…or lack of an ending might be a better way to put it. There isn’t an ending! There is a sequel tease that makes no sense. If a they cut out some of the overlong senses at the multiverse HQ they could have wrapped this up in a few minutes and not made the movie any longer. The 3rd film was already has supposed to have been released by now but there is no sign of it as of this writing. In my opinion it ruins the movie, which I was liking the ride if was taking me on until it suddenly ended seemingly within minutes of a resolution. It felt like a cheat and a cheap ploy instead of a cliffhanger for the next instalment. 

Spiderman: No Way Home (2021) directed by Jon Watts

 

The third film instalment with Tom Holland as the titular Spiderman is, once again another fun, fast moving film. Well, fun is mostly right, this film has a fair amount of pathos and outright tragedy infused into it. To avoid spoilers on a fairly new film I won't got too deep into that but this movie does change the lightness that has been a trademark of the first two film into something that gives the character more depth and actually brings him closer to the the tone of other Spiderman incarnations that focused on his guilt and loneliness as a superhero. 

Peter parker was exposed as the superhero in the last movie which has caused all sorts of trouble and he asks Dr Strange to cast a spell to make the world forget who Spiderman is and it goes terribly wrong, opening a rift in the multiverse which brings in not only 2 other Spidermans but villain from movies from other studios.  It's brilliantly done! The previous actors playing the crusader reprise their roles and while it has great comic effect it also give them a chance to bring the Holland's version in line with theirs... the three are connected by tragedy and they each help the other to learn to live with it. 

Classic villain played by the original actors bring nostalgia but also add a certain heaviness to the film I didn't expect. They go beyond fan service and are essential to the story. 

Dracula - Sovereign of the Damned (1980) animated Marvel Comics adaption

 

It is no secret I am a fan of the 1970s comic book "Tomb of Dracula" and particularly the artwork of Gene Colan. It was a great comic that ran 7 years and had a fairly steady storyline form start to finish. 

This is an animated TV show version taken directly from the comic. I had heard it existed and finally saw it online, as you can now too!  I wasn't expecting artwork anywhere close to the books and I didn't get it but they did make an effort to keep the characters similar to their original look. The backdrops have much to be desired and the animation itself is very low end. The dubbing in English is pretty awful.

They do keep to the storyline, the one where Dracula is worshipped by a Satanist cult and they did not shy away from the more shocking elements including a little nudity. What really did shake me was they included Dracula's newborn baby son getting shot in the face! I have NO idea who this project was aimed at. Certainly not Saturday morning kid show audiences and it's a little too kiddy looking for teenagers. 

All in all I would say if you are a "Tomb of Dracula" fan it is worth a look, otherwise it might confuse the hell out of you.