Tag Archives: Multiverse of Madness

Film Reviews

Film Review: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

STORY

In the Kingdom of Wakanda, T’Challa dies of some illness. His mother leads the nation but Wakanda slowly looks to become vulnerable to the intervention of the world powers.

Wakanda is alarmed by the arrival of Namor, the King of Talokan, a civilization that lives underwater. He proposes to become allies and protect each other by striking the world powers since T’Challa revealed Wakanda’s true nature to them by the end of the first film. And then the conflict begins.

REVIEW

The sequel of Black Panther holds immense sentimental value as Chadwick Bosman passed away from colon cancer a couple of years ago. It was decided that the sequel will still continue with no new actor to replace him for Black Panther. So it became a bigger challenge to proceed like that with a story that has the potential to deservingly continue the legacy that Chadwick left.

And I fully appreciate director Ryan Coogler to come up with a story and screenplay that strengthen the continuity. T’Challa’s sister Shuri is the new Black Panther and I think no one deserves more than her after Chadwick. The large gap that T’Challa has left to fill for impactful leadership is well-directed. The emergence of Namor further intensifies Shuri’s concern as the CIA is helpless this time.

During all this, Queen Ramonda gets a much more solid outing this time as compared to the previous film. And Angela Bassett has given a pretty remarkable performance, especially the scene where she breaks down and laments. Angela’s best feature about her role is the body language of grief that was carried well. She already had lost her husband in Civil War and her son at the start. And then Shuri got kidnapped.

Letitia Wright as Shuri in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

Surely, everyone heartfelt the funeral of T’Challa at the beginning. But my objection here is why none of the Avengers showed up at the funeral. I understand that the whole fighting crew will not assemble and attend the funeral of every superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when they die like Iron Man. But this was a different case due to the real death of an actor. And I loved how the MCU’s traditional opening credits fully honored him. He deserved that.

One can easily differentiate the directional artistry of this Wakanda Forever from most of the MCU films. The tone is serious and looks pretty much for a mature audience. The film slipped only once when Shuri and Okoye go to collect Riri.

SHAPING ‘YOUNG AVENGERS’

Speaking of Riri, one must have noticed that in the last couple of years, MCU has introduced young superheroes. Eli Bradley a.k.a. Patriot made a debut in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Hawkeye introduced Kate Bishop, Kamala Khan had her own show, Multiverse of Madness introduced America Chavez. Cassie Lang is to be properly introduced in Quantumania. And Hulk‘s son Skaar appeared in She-Hulk‘s last episode. Billy and Tommy were introduced in WandaVision and may develop their alter-egos of Wiccan and Speed in the upcoming Agatha series.

Shuri herself is quite young and now introduces Riri who is Ironheart. Ironheart is quite a new comic character created by Brian Michael Bendis that made debut a few years ago. She will have her own show later this year.

But my point is that maybe, a superhero team of Young Avengers is shaping that may assemble possibly in ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty‘. Just a theory from a comic geek. Although Doctor Strange is now leading the MCU, it will be awesome to see Peter Parker and Shuri lead the Young Avengers.

TALOKAN KING

I am very much delighted to see Namor’s debut. Although I am unsure if the origin story the film ran is accurate to comics because I have never read him but I liked the connection to how he is brought to this exciting world. So if you have any knowledge of how accurate is Namor in comics, share it with me.

CLOSING REMARKS

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a rare DNA amongst its equals in the MCU and deserves praise for being a film that stood for its story and matured well. Yes, at a length of 160 minutes, the film did slow down in the middle but justified because Namor was to be detailed. But the legacy of Wakanda and T’Challa has neither faded nor been ruined. It is convincingly amongst the best films Marvel Studios has ever produced.

RATING: 8.4/10

SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WATCH MY FILM REVIEW HERE

FOLLOW ‘THE DARK KNAIK’ ON OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

TIKTOK  https://www.tiktok.com/@thedarkknaik
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/thedarkknaik
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/thedarkknaik/

TWITTER

Film Reviews

Film Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

In a space between two different universes, America Chavez and Doctor Strange are chased and attacked by a demon that kills the latter. Chavez creates a portal and transports herself and Strange’s corpse to Earth-616, the universe on which most of the Marvel films are based. Chavez meets Strange and Wong and informs the threat the world faces because of her ability to travel the multiverse. When Strange consults Wanda about this urgent matter, he realizes that it was her who attacked Chavez to get her powers so that she can reunite with her family that she created in the tv show WandaVision.

Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

I am not sure if the plot is inspired by any comic book storyline but if I assume this to be an original screenplay then I will say this is a superb story to continue the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During all this process, making us watch WandaVision last year totally worked because that limited series completely developed Wanda’s character that build a lot of rage that came from her own madness. The connectivity in the MCU has always been impressive and as usual, this film also played the card exceptionally well.

A kind of story presented to the audience, I opine to have watched more superheroes involved due to the fact that Wanda’s threat to the human race should have alerted most of them if not all. Strange didn’t bother to seek assistance from anyone because this was actually a threat on a massive scale nor did anyone sense and showed up himself/herself. Being situated mostly in the same city, one must be thinking about where most of the saviors go in a particular superhero film when the city is under threat.

Introduction of America Chavez to the MCU is quite raw and director Sam Raimi should have touched on her origins in a proper way. Standing on memory lane is certainly not enough. And due to the fact that Chavez’s character remains unbaked, it was more awkward to watch such an important storyline, a game-changer in the MCU, was constructed between Strange and Wanda for Chavez.

One aspect that I felt betrayed and annoyed about in the film was killing all the members of the Illuminati. You just introduced them to the audience and gave us chills to watch the return of Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier. If that wasn’t enough, the makers fulfilled the everlasting wish to see John Krasinsky as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter. To my surprise, they even brought back Anson Mount as Black Bolt that he played in Inhumans, a show that met with extreme disappointment. And Sam Raimi killed them within twenty minutes. Despite the fact that those were alternate characters from different timelines, it was still cruel to kill the characters like that. I expected an exciting start by Illuminati in the MCU but all in vain.

I personally felt that the film was running hurriedly. Also, Sam Raimi’s direction gave the audience a little edge to hang on because the rollercoaster ride in the MCU films is almost alike. This film was a bit birdy but sloppy with less number of sequences shot with some care. In this film, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch is the winner as she impresses by executing her tragic character so well. Wanda has to be the best-developed character in the MCU that was written and continued with meticulous care.

Overall, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a sublime effort in carrying the torch of the MCU. It was a difficult script for a very significant moment in the universe. I won’t say that the film surpassed all the expectations, a hype that was built through the trailers but it was not even bad at all. This sequel was way better than the first Doctor Strange film.

RATINGS: 6.7/10