Posts

Marvel At Crossover Level Doing Well Without The Actual Crossovers (Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania review)

Image
Phase 5 has begun...through the perspectives of Scott Lang and the Ant Family. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is the third in the trilogy, and the 31st movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it expands further away from the palette cleansers this sub-franchise was known for into a Marvel epic that ventures into psychedelic sci-fi/fantasy proportions. Of course, previous cast members return with some new faces but the real reason most fans will be swarming to watch this will be to witness the rise of Kang played by the chameleon that is Jonathan Majors.  In this installment of the MCU, Scott is living his best life as a lauded hero and the author of his best-selling memoir while Hope is running PymVanDyne Foundation and of course, they are happily together. Cassie, now all grown up is an activist and like her father, keeps getting in trouble for doing the right thing. Hank and Janet are retired but Janet refuses to talk about her time in Quantum Realm after the attempt to resc...

Not The Apocalypse You Were Looking For (Knock At The Cabin review)

Image
Yes, my people. I am back after 2 months and writing from a new place. So, expect new Olive Opinion posts on whatever I had the time to watch and review like usual. To all the readers, Thank you for all the support lately, I hope you stick around.   M. Night Shyamalan has been no stranger to not bringing audiences to the big screen for people seem to be disappointed with what he has to offer these days, constantly comparing it to his seminal work on the Sixth Sense and Split while there are a few others that are mesmerized and happy to see what he presents next. Knock At The Cabin is not only a Shyamalan film but it was co-written and is an adaptation of the novel Cabin At The End Of The World by Paul G. Tremblay.  With a premise that involves a couple and their adopted daughter having a break-in by a bunch of 4 strangers, something is bound to intrigue audiences, right? With familiar talents like Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, and Servant alum Rupert Grint, the film has nothi...

Poor Marketing Ruins The Chances of a Great Disney Film (Disney's Strange World)

Image
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...

Cameron's Sequel/Passion Project Earns The Credit It's Been Given (Avatar The Way of Water)

Image
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...

A Heavy Piece of Animation For Adults (Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio)

Image
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...

Wednesday (Full Season Review)

Image
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...

Disenchanted Unfortunately Lives Up To Its Name (Disenchanted review)

Image
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...