The Olive Opinion

Yet another Disney feature was banned from Malaysia because of homophobia but Strange World was left high and dry for a few other reasons as well. After Lightyear and Thor Love and Thunder, Strange World is the third film presented by Disney (a film from the original empire, rather from acquisited ones) suffered from alleged box office loss due to an inclusion of a gay character when in actuality, Disney made an half-ass effort in marketing that didn't manage to convince audiences to want to at least try the film out.  Strange World takes place in the fictional city of Avalonia and centers around the men of the Clade family. Jaeger Clade is a famous explorer who vowed to impart his legacy to his only son, Searcher but rejects it to have a life outside his father's well-known expeditions. After his father is assumed and pronounced dead, Searcher is a hero to the people of Avalonia for discovering a rare resource called Pando that he managed to mass produce to become the sole pow...

13 years ago, Avatar revolutionized cinema and made 3D an experience worth considering but not many movies have made that a viable option. Avatar is still the highest-grossing movie of all time and for an undeniable reason. James Cameron's passion project of a sequel has finally arrived to hopefully break as many records as it possibly can while also living up to the predecessor's unforgettable reputation.  Avatar The Way of Water immediately deals with the repercussions of the original film as the Avatar program is still up and running. In Pandora, Jake and Neytiri are living the ideal Na'vi life as a married couple and parents to 3 children, Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri and Tuk, alongside adopted child, Kiri and guardian to a human child, Spider, an unepxted extension of the family. When a new threat emerges, the Sully family relocates to a new Na'vi clan that resides by the sea. As tensions rise, the family has to learn and protect their new home.  James Cameron has inde...

Guillermo Del Toro is a visionary filmmaker with a dark imagination and themes that appeal to aspects of a developed mind. With films like Pan's Labyrinth, the fan-favorite Hellboy, and Oscar-winning Shape of Water under his belt, audiences can only imagine what he would do with a classic adaptation like Pinocchio. This will be quite a feat considering Disney attempted a remake of their classic tale that I was quite fond of despite everyone's vocal opinions of the changes made.  Del Toro's Pinocchio follows the same premise of a grieving Gepetto creating a puppet in the image of his passed son. Unlike the wholesome Disney story, this adaptation provides a more realistic, human-origin story of the enchanted puppet. With the inclusion of death, Italian folklore, and the consequences of war into a tale of a puppet who wants to be a real boy, the film means to only compete by leaning into the cautionary messages rather than wonder.  There's no doubt that the vision presente...

The Addams Family has been adapted only several times leaving missable dents in the genre of dark comedy and the macabre that could only leave fans of the iconic family to be satisfied rather than introduce them to a broader audience. However, with this new iteration of the kooky family with Wednesday Addams front and center on a platform like Netflix, the family can be recognized more prominently than ever before especially in an eight-episode first season that is extremely good.  As previously said, this show centers around Wednesday, portrayed by modern scream queen Jenna Ortega, who is sent to a boarding school called Nevermore Academy, after releasing a bunch of piranhas that munched on Pugsley's bullies. In this school where her parents met and welcomes all outcasts, (that's what they are calling the supernatural creatures this time around) is where she finds herself involved in a murder investigation, haunted by her family's ancestry while trying to juggle the common...

Giselle and company return for the long-awaited sequel of the cult classic, Enchanted where we finally see what happens after Happily Ever After. 15 years since the original, Disenchanted brings back its original cast (except Rachel Covey who was recast) for an all-new magic-filled adventure with new original songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schaefer. As a fan of Enchanted, hearing news of this sequel being developed was one I didn't think possible. Yet here we are and this sequel was not worth the wait.  The premise revolves around Giselle now, married to Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and stepmother to Morgan (Gabriella Baldachinno), feeling like her Happily Ever After was not what she expected. So, she decides to uproot the family to the suburbs, a town called Monroeville, owned by Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph). Once again, moving there isn't the fairy tale it claims to be with Robert struggling to commute to his firm via train back and forth while Morgan has to settle in a new sc...

It is the end of Phase 4 and what a way to leave this session on grief and rebirth in one of the biggest franchises by revisiting the world of Black Panther. This sequel, titled Wakanda Forever, may not only bring audiences back to the fictional advanced African nation but also deals with the absence and loss of the beloved Chadwick Boseman. However, it is a Marvel feature so, expect immense world-building and introductions to characters that will play more significant parts in upcoming crossovers.  Wakanda Forever centers around everyone who cared for T'Challa, as we enter each of their perspectives on how they deal with his death. The storyline mostly focuses on Shuri as we see her struggling immensely by pushing to avoid dealing with her pain by constantly working, and creating technological advancements for her fellow Wakandans. With that, the world seems to be using this time of time of vulnerability to be adamant with T'Challa's promise to share vibranium with the res...

Dwayne Johnson has endlessly been promising that Black Adam was going to change the hierarchy of the DECU and the proof is here. Bringing the Shazam villain to the big screen comes with a set of challenges, taking a book of Sony's cinematic plan to adapt all of Spider-Man's villains in order to present anti-hero stories that dabble in villainy but end up heroic by the end of the third act. Surprisingly, DC takes this route to introduce not only to introduce audiences to Teth Adam but a team of iconic characters that were sidelined.  One can only fly to Black Adam's aid for the sake of Dwayne Johnson's way of handling this role. The film adapts the character scarcely from the comics in order to make it more permissible to vouch for not all but only one of Rock's signature styles of acting. The monotone, stoic deliveries of dialogue and the character's mannerisms worked, but only so far to not lean into any other characteristic. What bothered me the most is the la...