John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

 

6/10

Starring

Keanu Reeves

Donnie Yen

Bill Skarsgård

Laurence Fishburne

 

Directed by Chad Stahelski

 

As a fan of the franchise, it was nice to see something that looked like the end. It is not like I will not line up to see a part 5, but the whole battle with the high table seemed to have needed an end, and this was ok for me.

The movie is too long, I think a slimmer down version would have made this movie perfect. Yes, there is nothing cooler than seeing Keanu Reeves in a suit dishing out the badass moves and gun shooting skills to the bad guys. But the movie did not just have this, it had it stretched out a lot. Whenever these scenes come up, get ready for a very elongated shoot and fight sequence.

That aside, there is much to love about this movie, the introduction of new characters, the complexity of old ones and the loyalty of friends who are tasked to either defend a friend or save a family.

John Wick 4, has our lead going all out to wanting to stop the table, then realizing that there is a better way to get what you want than just shooting and killing for the rest of your life.

John is no longer running from the table, but has decided to go after the table. He starts by killing one of the high table member and that brought the wrath of the table on John, and they started this by sending a message to the rest of John’s friend. They rendered Winston (manager of the New York continental) homeless by destroying his hotel.

Then they went after another continental in Osaka, which belonged to another of John’s friends. They also got the aid of Caine (Donnie Yen) a blind assassin who is also one of John’s friend, they had something on him and used that to set him loose on John.

Winston found John and was able to talk sense into him to stop all this, which does not seem to have any end, but they can use the rules of the table against them.

The movie is fun and ends in a way that we can breathe a little before we see John pick up the gun and go killing again.

I do not know what the plans are for the franchise in the future. There are many talks about spin-offs. Some regarding female assassins, but for me, I think I will very much appreciate a break from this world because if it is not John picking up the gun on another new adventure, I may not be fully engaged to see another badass. I wonder what they will come up with for this new killer to be mad about.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

4/10

Starring

Zachary Levi

Asher Angel

Jack Dylan Grazer

Rachel Zegler

Adam Brody

Ross Butler

Meagan Good

Lucy Liu

Djimon Hounsou

Helen Mirren

 

Directed by David F. Sandberg

 

This movie is horrible, it sucks reminds me more of those Disney Channel or Nickelodeon hero series and TV movies. The plot was just everywhere. There seem to be no focus on one thing, the director allowed the movie to get away from him, by letting too many things happening at the same time.

And who did the casting for this movie?

I have not seen worse casting for a trio of badies in a long time. The lady who plays Anne, Rachel Zegler was so bad at it, I just never wanted to see her on screen. I had to confirm that this was not her first acting gig, because she was that poor. Then we had Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren play Kalypso and Hespera in ways that just did not sell the role for me.

Now we have bad acting being shown from the Anne character. Second, the other two not fitting into their roles. Also, the movie having a predictable (like next level predictability) plot with disjointed events happening all around, and the director doing that lazy sewing everything up together in the end. In the end with all this put together it was a horrible time at the theatres, for me.

Weird enough the problem was not Zachary Levi, he alone was the reason I could stand watching this movie for as long as I did without just throwing in the towel and walking off.

The movie starts with us seeing the new family of Shazams struggling to work as a unit. Some getting so high on the fact that they are heroes (Freddy) and the others either too young to understand responsibility or too much of a teenager to understand sacrifice. We discover that Shazam’s (Billy) actions in the end of the first movie had consequences which released the three daughters of Atlas.

They got the Wizard’s staff and were ready to reign once more by resurrecting their realm. Elsewhere, Billy as Freddy has become the most difficult to manage and his falling for girl, placed him in harm’s way of the sisters as they take his powers. His family of friends show up, but the sisters take Freddy and seal up Philadelphia in a dome.

Now Billy and his new Shazam family must work together to save Freddy and stop the sisters.

With the current way things stand in the DC universe I do not know if this movie will be the first in he soft reboot, or part of the old DCEU.

What I do know is that, DC still has a lot of work to do when it comes to the movies they keep dishing out which never seem to be able to stand along side their MCU counterparts.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

 

 

6/10

 Starring          

Paul Rudd

Evangeline Lilly

Jonathan Majors

Kathryn Newton

 

Directed by Peyton Reed

 

Here we go MCU Phase 5 starts with Quantumania, this Ant-Man movie is the thirty-first movie in the MCU and not one of their best.

The movie plot follows how Cassie (Scott Lang's daughter) reveals to Hank and Janet that she has been working on a device to contact the Quantum Realm. In Janet's attempt to turn off the device, a portal opens sucking the whole crew (including Scott and Hope) into the Quantum Realm, where they discover a new world booming.

We then discover that when Janet was in the realm for 30 years, she lived a wild life filled with fighting and killing, she never mentioned her life in the realm to the others. There is a new power in charge of the Realm, Kang. Kang and Janet were at one-time working together to leave the Quantum Realm when Janet discovers his intent and sabotage his plans. Kang now ruler of the realm wants Janet and her family to come help fix the machine so he can leave the Quantum Realm.

Lately, the last two movies before this Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), have not been like magnificent. Love and Thunder was cool and funny which for me made up for the lack of a very convincing storyline, but Wakanda Forever was not it for me, just borderline ok and not what I expected from an MCU movie, it felt like it had much to say but was struggling to flesh it out. I enjoyed it but not as much as the first Black Panther movie.

This movie follows the path of Wakanda Forever as being just ok to skimp through. Then borrows the lack of a convincing storyline like Love and Thunder, then like  Love and Thunder wanted to fill the space with laughs.

If that was all that was wrong with this movie, then it would have gotten a 7 from me. They have much to say but struggle to flesh it out and the plot was just everywhere in this movie. There were too many things happening and why Marvel decided to pack it all into this movie is something I feel was a bad mistake.

We have the existence of a new world in the Quantum Realm to wrap our heads around. The existence of Kang to deal with. The life of Janet in the Quantum Realm is another thing we need to grasp quickly. Then when you think, the movie is done dropping all these things on you, then the end credits (which were two) drop two more things for you to deal with.

Bad pacing, weak storyline, the only thing this movie had going for it is the acting and the comedy that comes from the Ant-Man stories. For an MCU movie this movie fails to deliver more than just laughs, you will expect a better story and a strong lever waiting to be pulled in the upcoming Marvel movies.

In comparison to what I would have expected from MCU and the introduction of Kang, this movie is a 6/10.