She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Whose Show is This? and Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – Probably my favourite of the Disney+ Series so far, and the first to make the most of the narrative medium it was on.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

How do you tie up a season that has been so joyfully chaotic as we have gotten so far? Do you bring back Wong (Benedict Wong) because everyone loves Wong? Do you add a splash of Daredevil (Charlie Cox) because people can’t get enough of him? Do you bring in a secret cameo that didn’t get spoiled in the first trailer for the show? After watching it, I can tell you that you did not expect to land where were ended up. In today’s review, we will first look at the season finale and then take a broader look at the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, after trying to take She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) down all season because they don’t like that she is a woman with Hulk powers. In Ribbit and Rip It, the group of assholes finally found their moment to strike when Jen was getting an award for being a good lawyer. While that was happening, they broadcast intimate images taken without her permission, trying to slut-shame her with revenge porn. In that moment of complete degradation of privacy, She-Hulk lashed out at the televisions showing the abuse, but now people see her as a monster, and cue old-timey opening titles. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Superhuman Law – TV Review

TL;DR – She-Hulk continues to be a delightful and fun romp

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Courtroom sketches of last week's episode.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

One of the significant issues that the MCU has had when making the jump to Disney+ has been finding the right tone and setting. Shows have struggled to land their feet or find a reason to exist over so many episodes. So far, She-Hulk has avoided those fates because it knows exactly what it wants to be and shines while doing it.  

So to set the scene, last week in A Normal Amount of Rage, we got to find out how Jennifer ‘Jen’ Walters (Tatiana Maslany) became She-Hulk. It just took a crash and her trying to save her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and some accidental blood contamination, and now she can go Green. Hoping to keep that secret was dashed when Titania (Jameela Jamil) crashed into the courtroom, and Jen had to Hulk up to stop the jury from being killed. You would think saving people’s lives would be rewarded? But instead, Jen is fired from the DA’s office. Things are looking down when she is offered a job by Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) at the law firm GLK&H. The only catch is that she has to represent Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) or, as he is more commonly called, Abomination. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: A Normal Amount of Rage – TV Review

TL;DR – This week could be titled ‘backstory the episode’, but I think it worked because it got all of this out of the way while also letting Tatiana Maslany shine.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Bruce about to wake Jennifer up with a horn.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

When the new slate of Disney+ MCU shows was announced, a lot piqued my interest, but I have to be honest, She-Hulk was not one of them. The idea did not click with me, and I didn’t have the joy of the comics to carry me through. But. When I heard that Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black fame was being cast in the lead. Well, I can be honest and say that one casting choice made this a much watch, and now that I have seen the first episode, I can say this was a good choice.

So to set the scene, we open in on Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), who is preparing a significant closing argument for a case she is working on. But before we go there, she talks to the audience and tells them she will explain her backstory first. Several months earlier, she was on a trip with her cousin Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) when a Sakaaran ship dropped out of the sky and caused their car to crash. As Jennifer tries to help Bruce out of the crashed car, some of his blood falls into a cut on Jennifer’s arm, infecting her with the same gamma radiation that turned Bruce into the Hulk. When Jennifer wakes up, she is in Bruce’s lab in Mexico because it is time for her to learn what it means to be the She-Hulk. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Adam Project – Movie Review

TL;DR –  While it is not doing anything revolutionary, what is there, is perfectly fine.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this movie.

The Adam Project. Image Credit: Netflix.

The Adam Project Review

There are many things a film can be, it can be revolutionary, it can be a disaster, or worse still, it could just be boring. But then a film can also just be okay, not dull, still perfectly watchable, yet not looking to shake anything up. Today, we look at a film that fits into this category, full of neat things, but not a whole lot else.   

So to set the scene, we open with the very ominous phrase “time travel exists, you just don’t know it yet”, as, in 2050, a fighter pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) blasts into the atmosphere and makes a time jump as another ship tries to shoot him out of the sky. In 2022, Adam Reed (Walker Scobell) is running for his life after mothing off to several bullies. His mother, Elli (Jennifer Garner), picks him up from school because he was also suspended even though he was attacked. As his mum goes out for a date, a crash explodes in the forest behind the house, and that is when Adam finds Adam sitting in his late father’s garage.

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Movie Review – Dark Waters

TL;DR – A film that comes at you like the rising tide, slow at first and then before you know it you have become overwhelmed     

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Dark Waters. Image Credit: Universal Studios.

Review


Having grown up in the era of Erin Brockovich, I am hard-wired to like a good biopic, especially one where someone takes down a major corporation that should have known better. Well, today we get to see a film that does pretty much all of that and does it very well indeed.

So to set the scene, we open back in the 1970s as a bunch of kids go skinny dipping in a lake in Parkersburg, West Virginia only to get shoed away from the site by men from the DuPont Corporation in a boat firing foam at a residue building up on the surface. Sometime later, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) has just been made a partner in the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm when he is interrupted in a meeting by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) an old friend of Robert’s grandmother. He has a problem with his farm, ever since DuPont built a rubbish tip next door to his property all of his cattle have been dying of odd diseases. Robert is reluctant to intercede but he makes a trip out to Parkersburg and finds things are not what they seem.

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Movie Review – Avengers: Infinity War

TL;DR Infinity War brings everyone together and then tares them apart leaving you with a foreboding as to what will happen next, but also an excitement as they try to work it all out.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars (this is a tentative score, it might change after Part 2)

Post-Credit Scene – There is an end credit scene

Avengers Infinity War Banner

Review

It should be no surprise that I have been eagerly awaiting the new Avengers film. In preparation not only did I map out the Marvel Cinematic Universe (see here) but I also ranked every film released in the build-up (see here). However, if I am to be perfectly honest, part of this stemmed from a nervousness, could they stick the landing, could they create a story that would give justice to all the desperate characters they were involved, could they actually bring on Thanos? Well as you can probably tell I have seen the film now, so I can now answer those questions … sort of. Now a quick note today, there will be [SPOILERS] for several of the recently released Marvel films including Thor: Ragnarok (see review) and Black Panther (see review). As well as this, I will try to avoid most of the major spoilers until a paragraph at the end when we discuss the ending, but because of how quick the film moves this is just a general [SPOILER] warning if you have not seen the film yet.

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Movie Review – Thor: Ragnarok

TL;DR – A visual extravaganza, Taika Waititi with the cast and crew gave their all to this film, and it amazing to watch.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a Mid and End Credit Scene

Thor: Ragnarok. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney

Review

Wow, what an amazing end to a film trilogy, and one of the strongest so far for Marvel. I’ve always had a kind of indecisive feeling towards the Thor films so far. They have been a case of fantastic casting matched with just ok storylines. Now when you have Anthony Hopkins going gangbusters, then even a bad script will look good, but overall I just thought the Thor films were ok and nothing more. To be fair, I think it was a testament to the quality of Marvel’s films that while Thor might have been my least favourite Marvel films it was because they were only ok, not fantastic. However, I was honestly wondering with everyone doing their big Cinematic Universes now if superhero fatigue would set in given my relationship with the films so far, but nope this film was a riot from start to end and I highly recommend it. So today we will set the scene, and then have a look at all the factors that went into making the film work. However because of the nature of Thor Ragnarok and its story, we are going to hit spoilers much earlier than we would normally do, so to be on the safe side I am implementing a [SPOILER] warning from this point onwards.

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Movie Review – Spotlight

TL;DR – This is a real life story that needed to be told, of scumbags who hurt children and them covered it up, I just wish it had been done a bit better.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Spotlight. Image Credit: Open Road Films.

Review

Spotlight is the real life story of the Spotlight team of The Boston Globe. This is a team of investigative journalists who pick their own stories to investigate, sometimes spending years researching their cases. In early 2001 after some prompting, they start looking into the Catholic Church in the Boston area and how they handled sexual abuse cases. Here they discover that it is not just a couple of bad apples and that it is a much bigger problem, one the Church knew about and one they covered up.

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Movie Review – The Avengers: Age of Ultron

TL;DR – Not as good as the first Avengers, but still a great movie and a great addition to this whole experiment

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Image Credit: Disney.

Review

Well phase 2 is almost over (still have Ant Man to go) and the culmination of the last few years has to lead us to this, and you know what, it was bloody good.

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