In the first film the mother of the family was saved from the “quantum world”. This time the entire family finds itself there, allowing the creators to make a weird and (too) computerized strange world which is in some ways remarkably alike the normal world.
Of course the family Pym / Van Dyke encounters a foe, but also rebels who they will help in their cause and at the same time attempt to get back to their own dimension.
The third “Guardians” focusses on ‘Rocket the Racoon’. Het gets wounded in the opening scene and the other guardians have to dig into his past in order to be able to help him.
Rocket was created in the laboratory of a mad scientist who is trying to create a perfect and peacefull society. His creations that are not perfect, such as Rocket, are disgarded. Needles to say that that did not work with Rocket.
The Guardians are once more joined by Nebula. I am unsure if space dog Cosmo was already in an earlier volume.
As we know the “Guardians” films this one is a bit more on the friend-group comedy side of the Marvel films.
As for the other character of the summer 2024 movie hit, the Wolverine appears to be a personage from the X-Men films that forms another part of the Marvel franchise than the ‘cinematic universe’?
Anyway, two boys become werewolves, they keep on fighting wars along the centuries and in the end are picked up by a man named “Stryker” who has an army of other “mutants”. Logan does not like that job and leaves, only to be hunted down by his brother many years later. He is mutated even more and turns against his former employer, by then going by the name of “Wolverine”.
What is a bit odd is that Ryan Reynolds is also in the film and he is also a fast-talking guy. He is turned into a Frankenstein type mutant killer named “Deadpool”, but this is quite a different Deadpool than the one from the 2016 movie, or is it?
Anyway, another Marvel revenge action film.
Because I knew neither character from the new Marvel blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” I decided to watch the first “Deadpool”.
The movie is on the screwball side filled with boring (usually sex) jokes. It does not help that I am not particularly fond of Ryan Reynolds. A good point is that his girl is the beautiful Morena Baccarin whom we know from “Gotham“.
Deadpool is an antihero. He is an annoying murderer for hire, but when he gets cancer, he is transformed into a superhero. The side effects of the procedure turn this into a revenge movie though.
So we have an invincible, smart talking guy, going after the people who wrecked his life. Nothing very interesting or even enjoying.
Marvel introduced yet another new troupe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The eternals are a party of extraterrestrial super heroes, a team of which has been sent to earth to protect humanity against a type of alien super monsters. Also the eternals help humanity evolve.
The story is made a bit too ‘grand’. These eternals are -of course- ‘gods’. They are even called Gilgamesh, Ikarus, etc. They have been around for 7000 years and can’t really interfere in human affairs.
The monsters have supposedly been long whiped out, but they return and a new battle ensues. The eternals have tried to live relatively normal lives and now have to get the team together again to fight the improved version of the monsters.
Besides a few joking references to other Marvel characters, there is no connection to the ‘Cinematic Universe’.
The film is not the most interesting in the Marvel franchise.
This time no Romanov or Fury, “Iron Man 3” is a ‘stand-alone’ Marvel. Stark has anxiety attacks but still has to fight a bad guy.
The story is not too interesting, but there are great parts of Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce. The latter looks quite the same as he does in “Memento“.
The film does not really have surprises. The story taps into the terrorist scare and of course the opponents have something that even Iron Man cannot simply brush aside. Towards the weak end, the story is wrapped up in the last five minutes.
Iron Man / Tony Stark is not exactly my favourite Marvel character, so I skipped the “Iron Man” movies so far. Actually. In “Iron Man 2” he is not so bad. Perhaps because he is a bit of the tragic character.
In “Iron Man 2” we have both Gwyneth Paltrow (as Pepper of course) and Scarlett Johansson (as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff, apparently not yet “Black Widow“) which is a plus. And Mickey Rourke is an amusing bad guy. We also see the dawn of the Avengers, as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) yet has to recruit Iron Man for his team.
For the rest, Iron Man is hunted by Ivan Vanko, plus the competition tries to outsmart him. Together these opponents wreck havoc which Iron Man sets right, without the help of the other Avengers, as that team appears to be non-existent yet.
So perhaps “Iron Man 2” fits in the larger Marvel story and was it a good idea to watch it after all. I suppose I might now also watch “Iron Man 3” (2013).
Even compared to the previous Thor films, this one is quite ‘screwball’. Not too bad humour though.
Thor teams up with the Gardians of the Galaxy to fight a new arch enemy (a great Christian Bale btw) and in doing so he finds out that the hammer that his sister destroyed has been reassembled by his ex Jane (Natalie Portman) who is now “mighty Thor”. Thor made himself a new axe for a replacement and tries to prevent ever again falling in love.
In order to fight Gorr, a group of three visit Zeus (an amusing Russell Crowe), but he refused to help out, so another party is created to help prevent Gorr killing all the Gods and all that with the usual action, comedy and drama.
Thor’s sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) is the one to wreak havoc this time. Thor and Loki fall off the Bifrost trying to prevent Hela from entering Asgard and they end up on the same planet. This planet is ruled by “Grandmaster” (an amusing Jeff Goldblum) where he has a bit of Videodrome-type fights. There Thor meets an old pal.
The first task is to get off the thrash-planet and then of course to defeat Hela which succeeds in an unexpected way that gives an amusing twist to the actual Ragnarök theme.
There is another known Marvel character in the film: Dr. Strange.
Early in the “fourth fase” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new director gets a whole new storyline.
A Chinese legend of a man is told who became immortal when he obtained ‘the ten rings’. Not just immortal, Xu is unconquerable. After a few centuries of battle he tries to settle down, have kids, grow old. Of course things do not turn out that way.
We mostly follow Xu’s son Shaun (Shang-Chi) who lives his life parking cars, whose past catches up with him. He needs to return to his land of birth and find his sister to fight his father. A not too interesting story unfolds.
I wonder how this new storyline will be woven into the rest. There is a Wakanda-like land beyond a waterfall, new dark and light creatures, etc.
The film is not boring, but I wonder why something completely new was found necessary.