MCU Archives - Cinematic Insights

Venom (2018) Review

(1.5 / 4)

Tonally jumbled, an abundance of plot contrivances, and a strange lead performance make ‘Venom’ far from a symbiotic experience. Especially for today’s viewer’s accustomed to the consistently top-quality superhero stories from the MCU.

The long-gestating Venom standalone film finally sees the light of day this weekend, and considering the extent to which superhero films have evolved over the last decade, the film is in a very crowded and competitive landscape. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe churning out endless high quality stories, the bar has never been higher for fledgling origin stories that are not explicitly connected to the MCU world. For Venom to thrive, it is essential that the story find a new angle to explore, and the idea of a protagonist with villainous tendencies could have fit the bill. Although the film does admittedly run with this approach, Venom is ultimately a failure due to how poorly constructed the film is, leaving one with the question “Why was this made?”

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Critical Divide: Why Fans and Critics are Split on Venom

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The 4 Biggest Reasons Why Audiences and Critics are Divided on the Film

With Venom now officially in theaters everywhere, the critical consensus is in and it wasn’t kind to the razor-toothed alien, as the film scored a paltry 31% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 35 from Metacritic. Despite many critics lamenting the poor screenplay and confused tone, this doesn’t seem to be halting the film’s path to financial success, as Venom has secured the highest opening of any film released during the month of October with an astonishing $80 million gross. Although box office returns, especially those from the first week, aren’t always indicative of favorable reception, the B+ CinemaScore from general audiences indicates that most moviegoers are pleased with the quality of the antihero origin story. This begs the question, “Why is there such a discrepancy regarding the film’s reception?”

Here are the 4 biggest reasons why general audiences had an overall positive attitude towards Venom:

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Ant-Man and the Wasp Review

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(3 / 4)

Featuring winning performances from its titular characters and inventive visual gags, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a buzzy feel-good Summer popcorn movie, even if the story’s familiarity serves as a prime example of Marvel’s worst tendencies when it comes to sequels.

In a release strategy reminiscent of 2015’s Ant-Man, we once again find a small-stakes adventure featuring the well-meaning but morally grey Scott Lang following arguably the most ambitious and grand story yet with Infinity War. Although never critical or financial failures, Marvel has had a mixed track record in terms of ingenuity when it comes to their sequels. On one hand we have films like Thor: Ragnarok and Captain America: The Winter Solider which took risks in order to produce superior films to their prior films. On the other hand, however, some sequel efforts such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: The Dark World are almost carbon copies of their predecessors and despite being enjoyable, they end up coming off as shallow and lazy. Unfortunately, Ant-Man and the Wasp is more Thor: The Dark World than Thor: Ragnarok as it is essentially a retread of the first film’s plot points, leading to a somewhat disappointing chapter for a largely phenomenal Phase 3 of Marvel films. Yet, the film has a lot going for it, and despite being disappointing by Marvel’s standard, Ant-Man and the Wasp is still one of the more enjoyable Summer blockbusters around.

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Are Marvel Films Making Us Smarter?

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It has become fun to bash the Marvel films.

There is no denying that despite increasing box office receipts and new records being broken with seemingly each new entry, the franchise has encountered mounting snobbery and cynicism from various critics and media outlets, as seems to be the nature with anything that is massively popular. A common criticism of the films is that they are overly reliant on prior stories with a particularly negative assessment from the New Yorker denigrating Infinity War as nothing more than a two-and-a-half-hour ad for the films that preceded it and those that will follow.

Others, such as a piece from Film School Rejects, have criticized the franchise’s adverse impact on storytelling, stating that the films’ proclivity for constantly teasing future installments with post-credit scenes reduces the impact the current stories are having. The mass genocide depicted during the conclusion of Infinity War was especially criticized as feeling inconsequential due to so many of the “deceased” characters having sequels already teased from their own respective film’s post-credit scenes. Additionally, the article criticizes how difficult it is for new fans to jump in thanks to the story being crafted in a way that requires seeing every prior film to completely understand the events depicted and fully reap the emotional payoffs.

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Deadpool 2 Review

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(2.5 / 4)

With solid additions to the cast and exhilarating action sequences, Deadpool 2 is an improvement to its predecessor, even if the relentless meta-humor grows tiresome.

The Deadpool franchise has become the alternative for fans of the superhero genre who prefer their action spectacle to be paired with crude and profanity-laced humor instead of the family friendly quipping variant of the MCU. Upon seeing the original Deadpool film in 2016 I recall being extremely impressed by the film’s willingness to embrace its R-rating and the revolutionary self-awareness of the film’s place in the real world. After watching Deadpool a second time at home, I found that much of the novelty had worn off and it was apparent that the film’s ceaseless emphasis on being as R-rated as possible made the story feel monotonous over time and dampened my enjoyment. While Deadpool 2 manages to improve upon the formula of the original that will no doubt provide an enjoyable experience for fans of its predecessor, the same issues of the first cause the film to falter as it progresses.

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Avengers: Infinity War Review

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(3.5 / 4)

After 10 years and nearly 20 films that have been building to this particular story, Avengers: Infinity War has finally arrived in theaters. With the built-up anticipation from the years of waiting as well as the film’s ambitions to interweave nearly every featured MCU protagonist while also introducing new locations and a new antagonist, there are colossal expectations attached to this film. Despite the Marvel series being no stranger to defying conventional wisdom regarding the number of characters that can successfully be included in a new story, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I had doubts about whether directors Anthony and Joe Russo would be able live up to the insurmountable hype and pull off their most ambitious feat to date. I am elated to say that Infinity War not only met, but exceeded my expectations by producing an epic spectacle that manages to be one of the most thrilling and emotionally resonant chapters of the entire MCU series.

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Ant-Man Review

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(3 / 4)

In continued anticipation for The Avengers: Infinity War as well as the upcoming sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, it seemed logical that Marvel’s Ant-Man was worth analyzing again. Although I hadn’t seen the film in several years, I remember enjoying the film a lot during its initial release and I’m happy to report that it holds up well upon a re-watch, however, I did come away with some new insights. With the slew of other films in the MCU portfolio, it would have been easy for Ant-Man to have been overshadowed by its more epic predecessors. Coming off the heels of the release of Age of Ultron during the Summer of 2015, Ant-Man was jarringly simple in scope as the stakes were nowhere near the grandiose peril demonstrated by its MCU predecessor. However, this simplicity is the film’s greatest strength and despite being less ambitious in some ways Ant-Man provides an oddly fresh experience that sets the film apart from the other MCU films.

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Thor: The Dark World Review

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(2 / 4)

With the release of Avengers: Infinity War nearing closer and Thor: Ragnarok being one of the most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe releases it seems appropriate to revisit Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World directed by Alan Taylor. As this movie was released several years ago now I will be discussing some light spoilers in this review. Although it’s been some time since I last saw The Dark World I recall enjoying the film, but even during that time being aware that this was far from the best the MCU had to offer. I see now that during the time of its release I was still desperately chasing a high to replicate an experience resembling the first time I saw The Avengers and examining the film now I see that The Dark World is the worst film in the MCU to date.

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