Marvel Cinematic Universe series

  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Disney Streaming, September 2022) Considering the let-down that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Phase Four” has been so far, it’s almost a relief if Thor: Love and Thunder ends up being a surprisingly average entry. It may even be a double relief considering how low the Thor series started, with two of the worse pre-Phase-Four films in the series. Taika Waititi is back as writer-director, but the pleasant surprise of the jokey third instalment had faded a bit—and what’s left often rings false. In keeping with much of Phase Four, Love and Thunder is aggressively insistent about its self-righteousness: Taking down its masculine hero as caricature in the film’s first half, putting all of its chips on showy grrl-power shtick that feels old when overdone (although I did like most of the interactions between the two female leads) and frequently going overboard with the comedy even as it also tries to cram more serious material. The result feels confused yet self-satisfied, dull even when it loudly announces how it’s subverting expectations. Screaming goats are among the film’s lesser annoyances when the film gleefully plays with God-level characters and notions of death and the afterlife… making the various struggles of the characters feel increasingly meaningless. (Not to mention increasingly at odds with more realistic aspects of the MCU, but that’s the harvest of desperately making the MCU as wide-spanning and incoherent as the comic books—if you get the feeling that it’s all sound and fury signifying nothing, well, you’ve arrived at the right location.)  What’s more solid are some of the series regulars: Chris Hemsworth is great as Thor when the film allows him to be, Tessa Thompson remains one of my favourites for a reason, and Russell Crowe makes a bombastic but enjoyable supporting appearance as none other than Zeus. It’s not all good, however: Christian Bale is unrecognizable and unremarkable as a generic villain, while Nathalie Portman seems lost in an underwritten and atonal subplot. Love and Thunder all feels messy and unfinished, which is also an increasing issue with an MCU that has convinced itself that audiences won’t care, and there’s always the next movie to turn things around. Except that if we’re to compare the reputation of the MCU at this end of Phase Four to the one immediately following Endgame, well, maybe they’re not turning things around.

  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Disney Streaming, June 2022) It’s been a few rough years for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following the climactic punctuation of Avengers: Endgame. While the Spider-Man movies have been generally well-received, other attempts to introduce new characters (or retrofit a Black Widow prequel) have been more yawn-inducing than anything else. Fortunately, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is more successful – both at presenting new adventures for a familiar character, but also in blending in a few new influences. It’s also, but not for the first time (considering the cinematic universe blending of Spider-Man: No Way Home) a Marvel Cinematic Universe film that pulls threads from previous entries and TV shows, meaning that you need to be conversant with material spanning a number of media formats in order to get the most of it. This is probably considered an asset for the MCU brain trust, who would love nothing more than to suck up all available entertainment time from their audiences, effectively transforming them from moviegoers to MCU-goers (or, specifically, Disney+ subscribers). But let’s move on from this, because there are a few interesting things to talk about in terms of character development and how self-confident the MCU can be at this point. The most notable aspect of this Multiverse of Madness, for instance, is how it’s willing to do some face-heel turns for a major character, and actively consider the possibility that its arrogant protagonist has extensive potential for self-serving evil. This plays out against a substantially more sombre tone than other films in the series – some marketing twaddle made much out of this being the MCU’s first horror film and while that typical overstatement (the Lovecraftian monster that opens up the film is cuddly enough to be plushable), there’s no denying that director Sam Raimi is pushing the envelope in less-than-desirable dimensions by suggesting a few gory deaths later on. There’s the usual number of winks and nods and portents of future adventures – I wasn’t a fan of the dark-universe Avengers, but if that suggests John Krasinski as Reed Richards, then I’m paying attention. Benedict Cumberbatch has a more interesting role (and film) this time around than in the first Doctor Strange film, while Xochitl Gomez has a much better introduction to a new character than many of the last few standalone films. The film’s last act even brings in Marvel Zombies in a relatively clever way, and there’s a terrific minute-long sequence in which dozens of parallel universes are glimpsed. The advantages of multiverses at this point of the MCU are obvious, and even outweigh the inevitable disappointment that we’re not exploring all of them. Still, in the end, and even subtracting points from the nagging feeling that the MCU is an unsustainable black hole of film dollars and attention, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a strong entry in the series, one that shows that there’s life after Endgame and that even stressing the film series with the comics’ anything-goes blend of technology, magic, fantasy, science fiction and parallel universes is a workable proposition.