I’ve been jaded with the MCU for a long time now. For at least the last half-dozen films, the whole thing has felt a bit creatively stagnant. Visually, it’s hard to separate one film from another; they all have a sense of sameness to them. The same is true tonally, too, with almost every film in the franchise using comedy to undercut its emotional moments and relying too much on spectacle and humor at the expense of meaningful, consistent character development. Avengers: Endgame had pretty much killed my interest in the MCU as a whole, with its terrible plotting and incoherent character arcs, but maybe these movies just aren’t for me. Even when the MCU took risks, like with Infinity War and Endgame, it still felt safe. That is, however, until the first batch of Disney+ MCU shows were announced. Sure, some of them felt like the same old, same old from the MCU (looking at you, Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but some seemed cool, unique, and interesting. Chief among them was WandaVision—a show about two characters I’ve never cared much about that featured an audacious and risky premise. Sounds exactly like my cup of tea. And, honestly, having seen the first two episodes, I’m pretty into it. While being extremely light on any kind of an overarching plot, the first two episodes of WandaVision are a love-letter to classic TV sitcoms that hints at some kind of broader, menacing mystery. If it can stick the landing, it could be something great. (4 out of 5 wands.)
NOTE: There will be spoilers for the first two episodes of WandaVision. Read at your own risk.
Continue readingWandaVision S01E01 (written by Jac Schaeffer, directed by Matt Shakman)
Wanda and Vision struggle to conceal their powers during dinner with Vision’s boss and his wife.
WandaVision S01E02 (written by Gretchen Enders, directed by Matt Shakman)
In an effort to fit in, Wanda and Vision perform a magic act in their community talent show.
It’s not exactly a secret that I’m not the biggest fan of the MCU. It’s not that I have anything against the series as a whole, and I’ve quite liked a number of the movies, but a much larger number of them tend to be exceedingly mediocre movies. There’s nothing wrong with a movie that’s just “okay” – but when it’s film after film after film that all feel the same and don’t aspire to be much better than simply “fine”, it can get really exhausting very quickly. There’s really only one or two MCU movies that I thought were actually bad (Civil War and Endgame), but both of them were huge team-up movies. I tend to have nicer thoughts for the solo films. As for this iteration of Spider-Man, well… I didn’t love his appearance in Civil War and Homecoming‘s tone felt a bit too ’80s-teen-movie at times for my tastes, but he’s a solid character and Tom Holland is doing a very good job with his portrayal and the character has some of the best villains in the entire Marvel universe (and Homecoming’s usage of The Vulture was very good), so I have more positive thoughts about Spider-Man than I do for some other MCU movies. So, with the upcoming release of the newest Spider-Man movie, Far From Home, it’s time to see what’s next for Spider-Man in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. Is this movie better than Endgame was? Answer: Yes, but that’s not exactly a high hurdle to clear – and Far From Home barely clears it. (This review will be as spoiler-free as possible, but if you don’t want to know anything about the movie, this is your warning.)
Thoroughly Modern Reviewer 