Tag Archives: Wyatt Russell

Thunderbolts* (The New Avengers) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a perfectly fine film, with strong performances and an interesting villain. Unfortunately, it feels like it is constantly being held back from reaching its potential.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A Humvee gets yeeted into the air.

Thunderbolts* Review –

I think it has been no secret that the MCU has been struggling to find its way in a post-Endgame world. It has had more misses than swings, which has forced a course correction into safety in many places. Thus, Ant-Man loses its charm and Captain America becomes just okay. It is in that space where they announced: what if the MCU did their version of Suicide Squad with a bunch of characters left over from the other films but also make it PG for some reason? It honestly sounds like a poor pitch, but then the first trailer dropped, and all of a sudden, there was a ray of hope. Now we see if that hope was warranted.   

So, to set the scene, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the head of the CIA and totally not still working for her own company that is up to so many illegal activities that she is now under impeachment from the US Congress. Knowing she has to clean house, she sends her undercover agents across the world to destroy any evidence of what she was working on. However, then they are the only link between the illegal stuff and her, so what do you do? Oh, maybe you get Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) & Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) to go to the same secluded warehouse, each with the mission to kill the other and then incinerate all the evidence one there are just bodies left … what could go wrong … Oh, and why is Bob (Lewis Pullman) down here?

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Beyond Logic & Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It may have left the best for last as it ratchets up the tension and the monsters.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Godzilla surfaces.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

Well, we have reached the end of our first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and what a fascinating season it was. We got governmental intrigue, timey-wimey physics, and also some giant roar monsters. In our final update for the season, we are first going to take a look at whether they stuck the landing in this final episode and then also how well the season worked as a whole.

So, to set the scene, At the end of Axis Mundi, everything went wrong. The monsters attacked the old nuclear plant in Kazakhstan, setting off the explosions, and throwing Cate (Anna Sawai), May (Kiersey Clemons), and Shaw (Kurt Russell) into the portal and badly wounding Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and Tim (Joe Tippett). Cate thought she was going to die. The last thing she expected to find was herself alive in the underworld or that the person who would come to her rescue was none other than her grandmother Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), who had not aged a day. We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – The Way Out – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is the first week where we have an almost restrained jump around the timeline.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Monarch holding facility in Alaska.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

It has been a couple of good years for Godzilla, and this year has been no exception. But coming off the hot heals of the delightful Godzilla Minus One, we dive back into the world of intrigue and more than a bit of family dysfunction.

So to set the scene, at the end of Parallels and Interiors, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), May (Kiersey Clemons), and an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) got rescued by the skin of their teeth just before they became titan food, or just succumb to the Alaskan Cold. The only issue is that their rescuers were Monarch who imprisoned them. Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) and Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) wonder just what to do with the group and decide to let them go with a long leach to see what they dig up. Well, one quick trip from Nome, Alaska, to the ruins of San Fransisco because if their father had one secret office, he might have a second. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Parallels and Interiors – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is the first week where we have an almost restrained jump around the timeline.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

After racing forward, you need to consolidate your gains or at least reveal some of the cards you are working with. For Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, that time is now, because things are starting to hit the fan.  

So to set the scene, we open in on Utah, 2015, where Barnes is sitting watch at Outpost 47, and some weird beeping comes from her equipment, a piece of equipment that should not be getting set off. Coincidently, at the end of Secrets and Lies, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), May (Kiersey Clemons), and an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) come face to face with a monster that breathes cold air, and it is not happy they just landed on its mountain. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Secrets and Lies – TV Review

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TL;DR – After grounding our story, we start escalating this week.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

a cammera lens

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

While I did not attend this to happen, this week has been very MonsterVerse-focused, with us exploring the first episodes of Monarch, as well as a dive back to the original 2014 Godzilla film that set this universe off (only this cinematic universe, I know Godzilla has had several of them in its lifetime). Well, all good things have to come to an end, well, an end till we come back next week, but it is time to look at the third episode of this opening bunch when things start unravelling fast.  

So to set the scene, at the end of Departure, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), and May (Kiersey Clemons) found an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) living in a retirement home. However, it was not just an average home for the elderly. It was also a Monarch prison facility. Well, a short tour and a cut ankle monitor later and Shaw escapes, and well, if Monarch was not after them before, they sure are now. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – TV Review

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TL;DR – The mystery starts to catch up with people as enemies loom over the secrets of Monarch.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

USS Lawton

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

In the last episode with Aftermath, we got to dip our toes into this multi-generation mystery surrounding the Monarch organisation, the group behind monitoring/studying/controlling/exploiting the Kaiju of the MonsterVerse. It was enough to intrigue, but today’s episode needs to take it up a notch, which it does.

So to set the scene, we open in Manila, 1952, as Lt Shaw (Wyatt Russell) sporting a shiner on his left eye. When he is given a mission by General Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl) to escort a Japanese scientist on a mission, some awkward introductions later, he and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) are crashing through the jungles of Mindoro hunting down odd radiation. Meanwhile, back in 2015 Tokyo, the revelations that Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira) had two families echoed through the lives of Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe). We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Aftermath – TV Review

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TL;DR – This was a fascinating start, jumping between timelines and preparing us for the approaching mystery.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

The Monarch logo.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

If you look out to the cinematic landscape, you can see a world full of cinematic universes, or at least the attempt to make cinematic universes that never get anywhere. But as my list of them keeps growing, there is one that has been intriguing me, the MonsterVerse. It always felt like it was holding on with the skin of its teeth, but when doing that, it provided some of the best entertainment that I have seen in a while. Today, we jump into its first attempt at episodic television exploring the aftermath of tragedy.  

So to set the scene, we open on Skull Island in 1973, where Bill Randa (John Goodman) gives a heartfelt goodbye before he thinks he will die from a giant spider. The spider met a crab, but still, his goodbye made it out, and in 2013, it was picked up in the Sea of Japan. In 2015, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) is returning home to Tokyo to settle her late father’s affairs. She was in San Francisco when Godzilla attacked, and the memories run deep as she sees how Tokyo prepares for the next attack. But nothing equipped her for what she found when she entered her father’s Tokyo apartment. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: Truth – TV Review

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TL;DR – It takes what could have been a boilerplate story, and elevates it with emotion and strength.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a Mid-Credit Scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ subscription that viewed this episode.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: Truth. Image Credit: Disney+.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Review –

If there is one running theme that we have been seeing so far in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, actions have consequences that can ripple out. We have seen that pop up time and time again, but this week it reveals itself in sharp contrast after the events of The Whole World is Watching and the desecration of a symbol in a moment of anger.

So to set the scene, we pick up right after the closing frames of last week’s episode with John Walker (Wyatt Russell) running from the scene covered in blood and still brandishing the murder weapon. He is trying to justify the unjustifiable when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Sam (Anthony Mackie) catch up to him in a warehouse. They both know that after what happened and that John’s best case scenario at this point is that he is not court marshalled, but his tenure as Captain America is over. As they try to talk John down from the cliff and disarm him of his shield, John sees what they are doing and attacks without abandon. 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 Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The Whole World is Watching – TV Review

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TL;DR – This episode is like a storm approaching over the horizon. You see it coming, you feel the wind, you know something bad is about to strike, but you are not prepared even then.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no End Credit Scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ subscription that viewed this episode.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The Whole World is Watching. Image Credit: Disney+.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Review –

Many people feel that comic book films are nothing but popcorn trash, just there to fill in time with some pretty colours and then send you on your way. However, when we look at just the Marvel Cinematic Universe [and there is a whole lot more than that], then that statement simply does not hold water. We just watched an entire season of WandaVision exploring the legacy of trauma and what that does to a person. I mean, Thor: Ragnarok is all about post-colonial societies and how they whitewash and inevitably have to rectify with the darkness of their pasts. Sometimes, that means tearing the state down completely. Then it should be no surprise that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier set in a world trying to recover from a great cataclysm would have something of relevance to say, and this week they were most explicit about it.    

So to set the scene, at the end of Power Broker, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Sam (Anthony Mackie), and Zemo (Daniel Brühl) had arrived in Latvia in the hopes of tracking Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) down. However, they were not the only ones on the hunt because as they arrive at their safe house, Bucky spots Wakandan tech lying around and traces it back to Ayo (Florence Kasumba), one of the Dora Milaje. As she is one of the people that helped Bucky get rid of his programming, she is most upset that he was the one that broke Zemo out of jail. However, as Zemo is just ‘a means to an ends’ Ayo will give Bucky eight hours, and then she is taking Zemo for herself. 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 Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The Star-Spangled Man – TV Review

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TL;DR – It deepens the world and brings on the banter.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no End Credit Scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ subscription that viewed this episode.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The Star-Spangled Man. Image Credit: Disney+.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Review –

There are few times that I have seen the internet come together and agree on something. Well, at the end of last week’s episode New World Order, we had such a moment when the world united and went, “That is not my Cap!”. This week we start unpacking that thought (because some of the cast have the same feelings) and look at a world on the precipice.

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s episode, the world was introduced to a new Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell). This week we open with a homecoming of sorts as John returns to his old high school with all the pomp one can circumstance. The sight of him wearing Cap’s shield finally forces Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) back together, if only to bicker all the way to Munich. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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