April 14, 2022 – Back to the wizarding world we went!

I enjoyed Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore a lot. It was, as always, wonderful to return to this world of magic and fantasy.

The plot was clear and not overly complicated, we jump into things right away and everything flows well. There were still twists and turns but it was nice to not have anything too over the top.

All the acting was brilliant of course, new and old characters alike. And of course the creatures introduced and seen were wonderful too. The music was beautiful as one would expect with these movies.

We have two movies left of this story, and considering one thing that happened at the end, things can ramp up now. I certainly have high expectations for movie five when we get it eventually.

There were aspects of the HP books that were touched upon in this and I liked seeing those threads connect. Though I’ll be interested to see if that continues with the last two films.

The action was great, there’s always some new little bit of magic we’ve not seen yet that just brings joy. It’s just such a fun world. I’ll always love it.

I know Ezra Miller has been having some bad press recently along with the past year or so, we’ll just have to see what comes of it. He’s not been making great choices.

I would certainly say that this made me miss seeing the wizarding world more often like before, I wouldn’t say no to WB making a series out of something. But, with everything that continues to go on with Rowling’s backward views, I think WB is just trying to get these movies done asap. It’s a shame, but again, we’ll have to see what the future holds.

Mid-credit scene: No

End-credit scene: No

March 31, 2022 – Morbius

Well, first thing’s first, it wasn’t horrible. The plot was simple, and thus a little predictable, it was okay but not great. And my knowledge of Morbius came from the 90’s Spider-Man animated series and the various times he’s showed up in the comics that I’ve read, so it’s not a lot. I did do some extra reading yesterday just to get a little more acquainted. And other than many stories with other marvel characters (mainly, of course, Spidey), there wasn’t a lot of stuff just on him besides his origin and then what it later became. So Sony basically had free reign. It basically was 5 ish main characters. Maybe 3 proper main ones and 2 side characters.

One thing that I did enjoy were the special effects. I think they were well done. The use of color and smoke was a nice touch.

I do wish there was a little more character development with the antagonist though. The actual antagonism of them came out of no where and wasn’t explained or hinted at. Maybe they were just a naturally violent person? Who knows.

I think Jared Leto did a good job here, Michael Morbius is a man of science but he doesn’t generally lean towards violence even in his vampiric form. Everything he does is about a cure.

There were a couple decisions at the end where I was a bit confused about. Though one of those things maybe less confusing and more, I don’t think that needed to happen. And the second thing I don’t understand why it happened (unless it’s because of the first). So, maybe we’ll see.

I really haven’t said a lot here just because it’s such a simple plot, I can’t really dig into it. It was a sequence of 10 ish plot points in all. Maybe 11.

Since there’s not a lot about Morbius when not interacting with other marvel characters, this movie doesn’t need to be judged against the comics much. It was nice to see Morbius on screen even if this is Sony. But this didn’t really “wow” me. Not that I expected it to. It’s an okay movie. Though I think I do have to put it below both Venom movies only because I liked the humor in the venom movies more than anything else in those movies XD.

Oh and another odd thing, the animated credits were so random. It’s was like a 70’s theme or something. It didn’t match the movie at all whatsoever. It just felt jarring.

Mid-credit scene: Yes. There are two, both during the animated credits. Both related. At first I was confused as to why what was happening was happening, then I guess I figured it out and was like eh, alright. The second one suggests more to come.

End-credit scene: No.

March 3, 2022 – The Batman.

First of all, it was fantastic! The plot wasn’t too complicated. The characters were well spaced out so everyone had their own time. The score was amazing of course. And as advertised, this showed the detective side of Batman much more than the other films.

Pattinson did quite well as Bruce. Showing us him during his second year as Batman where he’s known but still not yet quite trusted was a good move. Gotham is in a state of transition in many ways and everything felt built up in a way that offered change to come.

I wasn’t so sure about how they chose to portray Riddler from the promo information and the trailers and such, but it was well done. The characterization still seems a bit off when we see his goals and reasoning for what he’s doing, but it works for the story I suppose.

Selina Kyle. Zoë Kravitz was brilliant. There wasn’t too much about her past really other than what I feel like they made up for the plot, so that one part was a bit odd. But again, worked for the story. But she was great as this proto-Catwoman version of Selina. Also, Bruce and Selena’s chemistry was good. I mean Bruce is putting out his stoic kind of personality as Batman but it still works. And could set up for more down the line.

The action was certainly amazing. The fights were brutal and sound design assisted in that. The lighting was also well crafted. Of course it’s Gotham, so there’s a lot of darkness and the use of shadows was all over the place. Specifically the beginning of the movie when Batman is being introduced, the way the shadows are used in those sequences was probably a favorite aspect of the movie.

I may have to watch it again to really see if this is part of the movie, but I didn’t really feel the city of Gotham as a character. Sometimes with Batman projects, you watch or read and you just feel Gotham. There was a little bit of that, but as I said, I’ll watch it again to see for sure. But either way it didn’t detract from the movie.

It was a well done movie. Certainly one of the best Batman movies. The balance between crime fighter and detective was very well done. I’d still like to see Bruce be a bit more detective-like, but this was a good start.

Of course, we have no idea how we’ll see this iteration of Batman in the future of DC Films, but I’d be happy to see more of this. There were hints at what could be coming at the end, but we’ll see. This is on another Earth compared to the other DC Films as far as I remember being announced. But with the Flash movie basically being a Flashpoint story, this Batman could be ours in the future. Time will tell.

I certainly enjoyed The Batman. I hope that Pattinson stays in the role for a while.

Mid-credit scene: no

End-credit scene: not really a scene, but there’s something. You could probably guess what it is after seeing the movie, but if you want to stay, go for it.