Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Recently, the MCU expanded to reach it’s 30th film–Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Though this is the second Black Panther movie in the MCU, a lot has happened in the MCU since the character’s first feature-film starring role back in 2018–both fictionally and in real life. The lead character died for five years of fictional time (along with the half of the rest of the MCU), and then returned to life in time to help defeat the big bad of the day, Thanos. But then, tragically, starring actor Chadwick Boseman died of cancer at the young age of 43, something which took almost everyone outside of the man’s inner circle by surprise.

In response to this, Marvel and Ryan Coogler opted to continue with the Black Panther sequel without recasting the role of King T’Challa or relying on recent CGI technology to re-create the actor’s presence in the film. The result is a movie which deals head on with the emotions related to grief and death, and explores the impact of what it means to have lost a beloved brother, son and king. It’s in this emotional space that the film is the most successful, and we really get a story that is quite unique amongst all the others that the MCU has brought to the big screen, and that is genuinely worth telling.

Spoilers Ahead

2021 – Things I Enjoyed (to some degree)

Yesterday I listed a bunch of things about 2022 that I’m looking forward to–“shallow” things if you will, such as movies and TV shows.

Not wanting 2021 to feel left out, now we’ll also list similarly shallow things that the year gave us that I watched and mostly enjoyed. Twenty-one things specifically, in a rough countdown style…

There may be a few spoilers here if there are things you haven’t seen yet.

2022 – Things to Look Forward To

Happy New Year!

Life is about faith, hope, love, and all the things that spring from that, like relationships and purpose and peace and joy. However, my blog tends to be more about things that I just think are fun or quirky or interesting. So with that in mind here are some things I’m looking forward to, especially movies & TV shows and the like, in 2022…

And just to be clever like that, here are twenty-two things that we are anticipating seeing in 2022, ranked roughly in ascending order of my interest.

MCU / Doctor Who Actor Connections

Along the lines of some other posts I’ve been doing lately (like here), I did some quick but extensive research to find out what actor from Doctor Who have also appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

(Daily Doctor Who #238)

100 Years, 100 Creators – Part 8 (Final)

Over a few posts, I’ve been choosing different creators or creative teams–novelist, composer, scriptwriter, comic book artist, etc–who have influenced or inspired me, and in most cases brought me a lot of enjoyment.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (Many, many Spoilers)

And with Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Marvel Cinematic Universe closes out it’s third “phase” of production, and enters into a post-Endgame world…a world with no Tony Stark.

(Alternate) Box Office Blockbuster Tourney: Round Four

So as explained some time ago, we are again playing a seeded tournament-style elimination game amongst each of the US domestic box office champion movies from the last 32 years, but this time with all-female judges.  Seeding was done via Rotten Tomatoes scores, with ties broken with Metacritic scores.  Three of our five judges have voted on each match-up of two films, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser skulking off into obscurity, until we eventually reach our overall Champion!

(Alternate) Box Office Blockbuster Tourney: Round Three

So as explained some time ago, we are again playing a seeded tournament-style elimination game amongst each of the US domestic box office champion movies from the last 32 years, but this time with all-female judges.  Seeding was done via Rotten Tomatoes scores, with ties broken with Metacritic scores.  Three of our five judges will vote on each match-up of two films, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser skulking off into obscurity, until we have our overall Champion!

Avengers Endgame–Ideas, Observations, Miscellany, and one more Big One

I’ve already written a lengthy, rambling review of this movie, the 22^nd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 1^st ever movie to conclude such a massive multiple movie, multiple franchise theatrical epic.

Box Office Blockbuster Tourney: Round Three

So as explained before, we are playing a seeded tournament-style elimination game amongst each of the US domestic box office champion movies from the last 32 years.  Seeding was done via Rotten Tomatoes scores, with ties broken with Metacritic scores.  Three of our six judges will vote on each match-up of two films, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser skulking off into obscurity, until we have our overall Champion!