Marvel

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Black Widow adds shades of grey to the most interesting Avenger

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 10th July 2021

    People sure like to bitch about Marvel movies, huh? You've got the usual Film Twitter snobs, writing them off as "films for children". You've got the hard nerd right, who never met a female character they couldn't belittle. You've got the cinema purists, claiming they represent everything wrong with cinema and that Disney are sounding the death knell for the industry. We are now, what, 24 movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I'm not checking, I refuse to check) and it's never been easier to write a review of a Marvel movie - just reapply the same argument you did on the previous 23 films, file copy, commence smugness. People like to say the Marvel production line creates "cookie-cutter" movies, like that's somehow a bad thing. What, you don't like fucking cookies now? Enjoy your gluten-free artisanal crackers you tedious bores, because Black Widow is a triple-chocolate chunk cookie of a movie and it goes down real easy.

  • Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home but back to brilliant basics

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 28th June 2019

    The epic, end-of-times extravaganza of Endgame left us with many questions: Has the timeline now been irreparably changed? Who are the Avengers now? Where the fuck did Valkyrie suddenly get a flying horse? And also, how does the world adjust to half of its population now having a five-year age gap? What about all the parents that missed out on seeing their children grow up? All the spouses that remarried in that time? All those people that were snapped out of existence while on their way to return something to a shop, only to be brought back and find out that their receipt is now five years out of date? If those questions are going to be addressed at all, it isn’t happening with this first film out of the gate since the 'snapback'. No, this is just very much Spider-Man back to doing whatever a spider can.

  • Review: Avengers: Endgame is a fitting tribute to Earth's mightiest franchise

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 25th April 2019

    Fan or sceptic, hardened critic or casual movie-watcher, there is no denying that Marvel Studios has changed the face of cinema. These past 20-odd Marvel movies – for all the good and bad, for all the shawarmas and dramas, the Lady Sifs and Malekiths, the Jotunheims and Ed Norton times – have been a historic undertaking and seen record-breaking success. And Avengers: Endgame knows it. Not only does this film reach the narrative culmination of the Avengers to date, but it’s simultaneously a beautiful send-off, a greatest hits tour and a lap of honour. This is Marvel celebrating Marvel, and it is thoroughly deserved.

  • Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Matt Looker, Becky Suter, Ed Williamson, Luke Whiston | 28th March 2019

    It's the regular feature you assumed had been quietly abandoned - but we've got nothing else going on right now! We're back with another scintillating edition of Marvel's Cine-CHATIC Universe: this week/month/quarter, we're talking about James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy, but also, very much other things too.

  • Review: Captain Marvel is predictably great fun by numbers

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 5th March 2019

    It seems strange now to consider any new Marvel movie to be a risk. After 20 films, each amassing box office receipts equal to the size of entire national economies, surely a new instalment of the MCU can only ever be a sure thing at this stage? And yet, here we are, with a film that is about risky as Marvel gets now; not because this is its first female-fronted film (Wonder Woman has kapowed that glass ceiling already), but because we are dealing with a character most won’t know, with abilities that are supposed to be more powerful than anything we have ever seen before, played by a still relatively obscure lead actress. Oh and there’s that little thing of presenting her as the Endgame saviour of the Infinity War. Have no doubt, Marvel is rolling the dice here, even if they are safely loaded.

  • Review: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a superhero spectacle bar none

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 29th November 2018

    Aren't we supposed to be bored of superhero movies by now? 2018 has been a vintage year for the costumed crowd: Black Panther, Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Ant-Man & The Wasp, Incredibles 2 and Teen Titans Go! To The Movies have all excelled, and early word even suggests that Aquaman - Aquaman! - is converting disbelievers. This Sony animation from producers Lord & Miller is the third triple-A Spidey property to see release this year, after Avengers and the PS4 exclusive videogame, but even considering those high benchmarks and such a crowded field of contenders, it makes a strong case for being the best of the bunch - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a sprawling, wall-crawling visual masterpiece that's boundless in its creativity, kinetic in its dynamism and authentic to its core. It's the movie that finally nails the nirvana found between the twin mediums of comic-books and cinema.

  • A comprehensive timeline of Wesley Snipes trying to make Blade 4 happen

    Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 5th September 2018

    In 2012, the rights to Blade reverted back to Marvel, meaning that MCU head honcho Kevin Feige is able to finally achieve his original goal behind creating his cinematic universe in the first place: to greenlight and release Blade 4, starring a 56-year-old Wesley Snipes.

  • What if Ethan Hawke played ALL the superheroes? Huh? What happens then?

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 27th August 2018

    Indie actor Ethan Hawke caused shockwaves in the nerd community this week when he dared suggest that superhero movies are not as good as Ingrid Bergman movies. So, Ethan Hawke thinks we're a group of illiterate and reactionary morons, huh? BURN ETHAN HUNT TO THE GROUND.

  • Analysing the cast signatures on that Guardians Of The Galaxy support letter

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 31st July 2018

    Touching scenes online this week, as the cast members of Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy series banded together in a show of support for fired director James Gunn, by co-signing a letter that almost but not quite called for his reinstatement. Gunn, a former Troma filmmaker and purveyor of questionable humour, was fired by Disney after a bunch of right-wing lunatics, led by lisping dong Mike Cernovich, dredged up a bunch of offensive ten year-old tweets and weaponised their fake outrage in order to punish the director for his outspoken liberal views. It’s all very 2018, but let’s focus on the real issue here: MOVIE STAR SIGNATURES!

  • San Diego Comic-Con 2018 news round-up

    Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 23rd July 2018

    Geeks across the globe reconvened in San Diego this weekend for their annual meeting of dressing up and playing with toys and arguing over which superpower is the awesomest. Haha NERDS. Anyway, here's a round-up of all the super-cool and important film and TV stuff that happened.