The Olive Opinion

I have had a busy week with Christmas but I am finally here to review that last piece of Marvel content of the year. The Hawkeye served us with conclusions, shocking moments, and a lot to digest. In this season finale (hopefully there is a season 2 with this), Clint and Kate attempt to take down the Tracksuit Mafia once for all, which also involves Kate's mother, Eleanor, and the secret villain of the show - SPOILER ALERT!- Wilson Fisk AKA the Kingpin. You'd think that's it but how could we forget the return of Yelena, attempting to inflict her revenge on Clint, led to believe that he was responsible for Natasha's death.  This finale, although, not the strongest episode of the season, does successfully tie up the loose ends that were brought up in the first place. Whether excuted properly or not, is hard to say as most of the story arcs did not have time to properly get us wondering let alone rooting to learn more about due to the number of episodes and episode runtimes...

It has taken me 2 days to be able to write this and I finally gained the courage to do so. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has provided us a year full of content after a year of not having any. Now, the 2021 slate of movies has come to an end with the most anticipated release of the year, Spider-Man No Way Home. With Tom Holland returning as the titular role alongside Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and Jon Favreau, we welcome some familiar villainous faces. Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, and Jamie Foxx's from the Raimi and Webb Spider-Man movies return to introduce the repercussions of the Multiverse.  No Way Home takes place immediately after where Far From Home left us in the first credit scene where Mysterio reveals to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. This leaves Peter to be known as the most famous person in New York and not in a good way. This affects not only his life but everyone who is a part of his life which includes MJ and Ned. To make things right, he heads...

  As expected, episode 5 was a game-changer. Hawkeye is not only paving way for the character, Clint Barton, and the moniker itself as well as Barton's past as Ronin but also widening the MCU canon. With the picture above, you can clearly see that I am revealing a returning character from a previous film, Yelena Belova, from the Black Widow movie. I might be tackling a number of SPOILERS in this review. SO THIS IS YOUR WARNING.  ONCE AGAIN...  FINAL SPOILER WARNING AHEAD.    In this episode, we learn Yelena was dusted and fills the gap between the events of Black Widow film and the credit scene where she is hired to assassinate Clint Barton. At present time, it is clear that they are setting up Kate Bishop and Yelena to eventually have a friendship that Natasha and Clint had. The episode features a conversation between the leading women and it can be easily considered as the most refreshing and most tense moment so far. With that said, the chemistry between the ...

This show gets better and better. Hawkeye episode 4 does not create the waves we expect it to (they are apparently saving that for next week's penultimate episode), but this latest installment to the last series of the 2021 Marvel Studios features a great narrative.  Episode 4 is easy to be considered as the filler episode amongst the 6 but there was nothing uncompelling about it, fortunately. This new episode gives us a quieter approach to the show as Clint and Kate connect for the sake of the holidays since Clint can't be with his family on the days leading up to Christmas. The episode features a montage of the both really considering themselves as 'partners' and this was touching to see, especially when it comes to Clint's struggle to open up to another 'partner' since he blames himself for Natasha's death in Endgame.  Pointing nods towards Clint's past and relationship with Natasha is apparently the main motivation for Clint's deep-rooted nee...

I've been pretty busy with finals but finally made time to write the review for Hawkeye's third episode. Taking place immediately after the second episode, we are given an action-packed and one step further to the bigger conspiracy that was established. We get more comic book-adapted scenes especially the big action sequence that happened to be the highlight of the episode.  What made this episode so compelling was the opening sequence. We were finally given a peek at Alaqua Cox's character, Echo at the premiere and we were given quite an origin story in this one. Other than the fact that she was given some relevant character changes, the inclusion of Maya Lopez in this show and the MCU - especially the street-level parts of the franchise at least - has made things more interesting.  We also get to see more of Hawkeye's trick arrows. According to Clint Barton, we only got to see the less dangerous ones which included the likes of a sludge arrow, a kind-of-USB arrow, and...

Disney has always been all about magic and most of the time, family with its memorable animated features and Encanto is no different. Focusing on Colombian Latinx roots, we are introduced to the enchanted Madrigal family. Everyone in this 'miracle' family has a gift, a set of powers that include the likes of super strength, shapeshifting, healing, etc. However, Mirabel, our main character is the only one without powers, which leaves her out of place amongst the magical members of the family. Mirabel finally gains purpose when she is given the chance to investigate why the magic that keeps them together is threatened. To save her enchanted home and family, Mirabel goes on a journey of self-discovery and soul-searching to find her rightful place within the family tree even despite being not gifted.  Encanto is a fresh original story to come out of the minds of Disney but as original as it gets, it does not surpass the originality that made Moana or Zootopia special. Encanto provi...