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Fantastic Four: First Steps (Theatrical) 2025

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Set in an alternate reality, steeped in 1960s retro futuristic aesthetic, FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS was easily the best on-screen interpretation of the titular quartet, not just among movies but I would be so bold as to say among cartoons as well.   It was a briskly paced plot but its focus on the Four never wavered, giving us some surprising depth as we accompany our main characters through life changing events.   A quick in-universe montage got us up to speed on the world of the Fantastic Four: Scientists Reed Richards and Susan Storm, her brother Johnny Storm and Reed’s ace pilot pal Ben Grimm are caught in cosmic rays during a space expedition and granted super powers. They quickly become the heroes of earth protecting the world from super criminals, sometimes with force as a last resort, but often times through diplomacy.  Fast forward 4 years later, the world is at peace, former villains are reformed (somewhat), and now Reed and Sue are expecting their first ...

Superman (Theatrical) 2025

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With a monumental marketing campaign including light shows, banners on world landmarks, daily social media blasts, and even a publicity tour across the world, you would have to be a cave dweller to not know about SUPERMAN (2025). Its trailers promise a fun story, action packed, with a mix of comedy and tragedy. In that aspect, the movie mostly delivered.  The highlight of the movie for me are its actors and the characters they played. David Corenswet dons the cape as Clark Kent aka Superman. He’s simply a good person wanting to do the right thing with his gifts. His was a very earnest portrayal, human in every respect and down to earth despite his high flying powers . My favourites however were Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachael Brosnahan as fellow reporter and Superman’s love interest Lois Lane.  Hoult combines elements from past Luthor portrayals, balancing the calm calculated savvy businessman Luthor, made most popular by Clancy Brown’s portrayal in the 90s Superman...

Fantastic Four (Disney+) 1994-1995

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“Don’t need to fear they’re here. Just call the Four! 🎶 Fantastic Four!” That’s from the lyrics of the opening theme to 1994’s Fantastic Four cartoon. It is upbeat, catchy, but really really corny. I would be lying if I said it did not evoke some heavy nostalgia in me for this was one of those childhood cartoons that I followed almost religiously.  Debuting in 1994 as part of the "Marvel Action Hour" along side "IRON MAN", FANTASTIC FOUR boasted two seasons of wildly varying quality to the point where they were almost like two wholly different shows. Other than the voices, everything from the music to the art and animation changed drastically between seasons and thankfully for the better.  Setting nostalgia aside and watching this as an adult, I found the first season of the 90s Fantastic Four animated series to be cheesy albeit charming in a cheap 80s toy commercial cartoon sort of way.  Weird poses, clunky character motion and a mediocre frame rate. The designs l...

Jurassic World: Rebirth (Theatrical) 2025

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JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH was not something I was clamouring for. Where 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion gave a nice send off to both the characters introduced in 2015’s Jurassic world and the original Jurassic Park, JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH as its name suggests, is a soft reboot: it continues with just the basic premise of where Dominion left off but kickstarts a new status quo with new characters and no ties to the originals. No easy feat considering how part of the appeal of the previous Jurassic World movies was the nostalgia factor.  I went into this with low expectations. For me, I considered the book on Jurassic park/world closed and tied up in a nice little bow. And now it was opened again. The trailers presented two vastly different sub plots that I could not imagine how they would come together: one was a mercenary group sent to a quarantined island of dinosaurs to retrieve blood from specific species, and another was a family who got stranded on that same island and have to su...