Akaanksh Desaraju

Score – 9/10 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is an amalgam of good animation, comedy and emotions beautifully delivered with the power of friendship and togetherness being superior to everything else. The movie has a simple story line where multiple, parallel universes collide and the writers take good use of this by writing enthralling character arcs which give out a simple message, ‘That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.’ The great aspect of this film is how it builds an emotional relationship with very less screen time. For example, the protagonist Miles and his Uncle Aaron hardly share a few scenes together yet one can understand the emotions they share for each other with just a single scene. So is the relationship of Peni Parker and her father, they don’t even talk to each other but still, the emotions are justified. The actions scenes were amazingly well done. The finale was great and a sequel is undeniable.

SHAZAM! MOVIE REVIEW SCORE – 9.5/10 ‘Shazam!’ is, unexpectedly, a wonderful movie with a great plot and solid characters hidden beneath the cover of good acting and brilliant comedy. The show-stealing factor was not Zachary Levi’s Shazam but actually Asher Angel’s Billy Batson. The entire film is a huge relief from the typical superhero films as it has probably the least destruction ever in a comic-book adaptation. Ever since their inception, most comic book movies had a final fight in New York or in a replica of it disguised as a fictional city. ‘Shazam!’ breathes in life to the story by changing the setting to a much better setting of Philadelphia. It also gives the main character a satisfying character arc, which the DCEU has failed to do so far. Even the supporting characters feel much more human and alive, and have their own motives and moments. What’s wrong with the film? A Christmas release would’ve suited the film’s setting more than a mid-summer release. In the end, there is a cameo from a JLA Member which isn’t that good.

SCORE – 4.5/10 In spite of the hype surrounding movie, ‘Justice League’ hardly gets off the ground and is by far the worst superhero film ever made. That doesn’t mean that this movie was void of entertainment. It had a few funny one-liners and a bit of sarcasm too. But these elements aren’t enough to make a good story which producers didn’t realize and now are paying a heavy toll for it. The main problem with the movie was the pacing. The entire first act was nearly 45 minutes long and the story went nowhere in the entirety of it. The movie changes the character of Bruce Wayne from a dark, brooding figure in ‘Batman V Superman’ to a funny billionaire without any actual growth. The same is applied to Wonder Woman, whose character arc in her solo film is completely forgotten. The next problem is Flash, the speedster who runs faster than the speed of light. In all the other interpretations of the character, he was portrayed as a friend and an adviser to Bruce Wayne/Batman. But in this movie, he was portrayed as an awkward teenager only to show DC’s vague attempt at replicating their rival Marvel’s Peter Parker/Tony Stark relationship. Even the second and third act wasn’t void of huge problems. In the second act, Wonder Woman gives a forced exposition of the awful CGI villain – ‘Steppenwolf’. Then, all those characters just ‘Come Together’ without any particular reason and fight with Steppenwolf and his minions – ‘The Parademons’. The fight hardly results in the favor of one side with no consequences to anyone and all of a sudden, Batman feels that Superman is the only way they can win-seriously DC? Fine, let’s accept Batman’s decision and move on with the plot. The heroes successfully resurrect Superman, which results in a bad favor for the third act. First, it’s the heavily criticized way how superman looked with that awful facial hair removal CGI effect on a $300 million budget film which is more than that of Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’. The second problem with Superman’s resurrection is that he can now basically do everything making the team look incompetent. He can save the beat up Steppenwolf like he is a fly and save the citizens residing on that CGI battlefield at the same time. This makes every hero’s part in the team questionable. Now, after the colossal failure of the ‘Justice League’, it is time for WB to re-consider their attempt to build with two movies what Marvel did in 10 years and rather focus on developing characters through their solo films. Still, ‘Justice League’ isn’t void of entertainment and if you are a fan of the comics you’ll enjoy all the Easter Eggs Zack Snyder sprayed all over the film.

SCORE – 8/10 Coming in as a sequel to one of the most forgettable MCU films ‘Ant-Man’, ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ manages to be better than that and has enough substance in it to keep the audience engaged. Michael Pena’s Luis gives the comedic tone that was much needed for this film to avoid being a mediocre one. Paul Rudd too, along with being a superhero also provides some warmth to the film. ‘The Ghost’ can be considered as a disappointing villain which means that it broke Marvel’s streak of good villains that started with Killmonger in ‘Black Panther’ and ended with Thanos in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. The film had a lot of forced exposition and weak, unnatural character development. The film digs deeper and explores the Quantum Realm, giving as a clue of what could happen in ‘Avengers 4’. Also, the post-credits are directly connected to the ending of ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’