HONEY, I'M HOME! // A REVIEW OF "WANDAVISION"

BY MATEO MORENO

It's been a long wait, but Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is here! And unlike the past four phases, this one includes, and kicks off with, the television world (or streaming world, however you look at it these days). Marvel has had television series in the past (Agents of Shield, Runaways, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage to name a few) and although each series would hint at the larger cinematic universe, none of them were officially tied to it. Now with WANDAVISION, the first of several Disney+ series planned, the TV and film universes are one world. And since the line-up to Phase Four seems to heavily rely on altered reality and the multiverse, WandaVision is the perfect launching pad.

From the very moment the first episode starts, we can see that it's unlike any other Marvel project to date. For one, it's a sitcom. Specifically, a sitcom from the 1950's. Shades of I Love Lucy hangs all over the black and white pilot which features Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) living the perfect suburban life. They have just moved into the neighborhood and to their neighbors, they are just another couple. Little do they know, Wanda can make things float and fly and Vision is actually a Cyborg. They hide their true identities in a retro sitcom way, much like Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie. Wanda is a stay at home housewife while Vision works at a local company that does...well, no one actually seems to know what they do there. But Vision is really good at it and since he started, productivity is through the roof! Life seems good.

Yet something is off. Namely, how the hell is this happening? Anyone who's watched the Marvel films knows that Wanda and Vision are superheroes, part of The Avengers and in the giant battle to end all battles with Thanos, Vision was killed. So... how is he here? And why do neither of them seem to remember anything? No questions are answered in the first two episodes, building the series as a slow burn mystery wrapped in a retro shell. Surrounding them are several architype of characters, each building on the weirdness of the world. There's the nosy neighbor Agnes, played to perfection by Kathryn Hahn. There's Vision's boss and wife (Fred Melamed, Debra Jo Rupp) who are part of a very unsettling dinner in the first episode. Several others show up in the second episode, which has a time jump to the 60's yet no one seems to notice.

Yes, Virginia, this is a VERY different Marvel property and it works splendidly. Besides beings a new unique way to tell a superhero story, it's also a legit funny and charming sitcom with two fantastic comedic performances from Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. Their comic timing is so good you may wonder why they haven't been doing comedic roles for years. A slapstick plotline in the second episode is simply sublime yet under all the comedy is the mystery of what's going on, slowly leaking out through weirdness sprinkled through the plot and strange commercials within the show. In the comics, Wanda can manipulate time and reality, so it's not a far jump to guess that's what may be happening here. But why and who's controlling it all? Set over nine episodes (the first two are now streaming on Disney+), WANDAVISION is the perfect antidote of both the hardcore and novice Marvel fan wanting to see their favorite heroes spin in new directions. And what a direction it is.

GRADE: A

BASED ON CHARACTERS FROM THE MARVEL UNIVERSE CREATED BY Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas SERIES CREATED BY Jac Schaeffer WRITTEN BY Jac Schaeffer, Gretchen Enders DIRECTED BY Matt Shakman STARRING Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Tayonah Parris, Fred Melamed, Debra Jo Rupp, Emma Caulfield Ford, Asif Ali, David Lengel, Randall Park, Kat Dennings. NOW STREAMING ON DISNEY PLUS

LOVE, IN THE TIME OF BULLETS // A FILM REVIEW OF "DEADPOOL"

BY MATEO MORENO

It seems like you can't throw a stone nowadays without hitting a comic book movie. From Captain America: Civil War to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice to Suicide Squad, 2016 alone has seven films on the docks (and that's just the major films being released). But possibly the only one to truly break the mold (unless Suicide Squad follows suit) will be DEADPOOL, the smart-alec, wham bam, fanboy's fever dream of a comic book movie starring Ryan Reynolds. It's not like ANY comic book movie you've seen before, and it shines from the parody of opening movie credits to the final tag at the end.

Several years ago the "Movie-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" was released (aka X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and instead of making the Deadpool character (also played by Ryan Reynolds) look like...you know... DEADPOOL, they sewed his mouth shut and gave him claws. And no costume. So pretty much the EXACT opposite of what the character is. Reynolds wanted to make the character like he is in the comic, but the powers that be would have none of it (Congrats on that guys. You're now the proud creators of the most hated X-Men movie of all time). Test footage in 2012 was shot using Reynolds and making it exactly like the comics: violent, hilarious, and very foul-mouthed. Apparently the studio didn't bite (some sources say that studio heads said mostly "I don't get it") and it didn't come to be. Cut to 2014 and the internet. Someone leaks that footage online and it goes viral. Crazy viral. And that, my friends, is how the movie Deadpool became a reality. See, the internet IS good for something (besides lurking around The ArtsWire Weekly)!

Ryan Reynolds plays Wade Wilson, a former special ops soldier who likes to take on bad guys worse than him and getting paid for it. He hangs out at his buddy Weasel's (T.J. Miller) bar where he meets the girl of his dreams, the bad ass Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, who in the comics is also a mutant but here there's no signs of that). The two fall for each other until one day Wade finds out that he has a late-stage Cancer. So rather than have the love of his life watch him wither away, he agrees to an experimental procedure that promises to both cure his cancer and lock any dormant mutant abilities that he may have. Well, as you can guys, things are going to go very badly.

The two baddies heading the operation are Ajax (Game of Thrones Ed Skrein) and Angel Dust (Ex MMA fighter Gina Carano) and they put Wade through the ringer, each time proving unsuccessful until a desperate attempts leaves Wade horribly disfigured, but with a healing factor that has indeed cured his Cancer. He attempts to go back to his girlfriend but is fearful of what she would think of his now gnarly looks. So he makes a costume and becomes DeadPool, slowly going through one bad guy after another while hunting for Ajax, the man he holds responsible for it all.

What works so brilliantly is how well Director Tim Miller and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick know Deadpool. He seems to literally jump off of the comic page in exact form, both in appearance, attitude, and humor. In the comics he breaks the fourth wall, talking to the reader and realizes he's in a comic book. He's foul mouthed, violent, and throws out jokes like they're the air he breathes. The Deadpool in this movie is exactly the same. He knows he's in a Deadpool movie, jokes about the differences of the actors playing Professor X, swears A LOT, and loves his violence. Reynolds was born to play Deadpool, and it's in large part of him that this film exists, and that this film succeeds as it does. He's always been a charmer on screen, but often is saddled with a film that doesn't meet him in terms of quality. Here he's finally got his due and shines in every moment. Baccarin is great in a role that is regulated slightly higher than just the typical girlfriend mourning role. She is a bad ass, so hopefully the sequel will explore that. Joining him in the fight are X-Men Colossus (motion captured but voiced by Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) who run away with one of the best superhero names ever. Kapicic is spot on with Colossus and the filmmakers really capture the comic book essence of him through the motion capture work. Hildebrand delivers a fine, funny spunk as the gothic mutant teen, who has slightly different powers than she does in the comic (here she's basically Cannonball) which works just fine being that she's a barely known character anyway. As the heavies, Skrein has much more to do as Ajax and scene chews with the best of 'em. Carano looks great and is a striking force onscreen, even though she says very little. All in all, it's fun, filthy, hilarious, and (dare I say) a revolutionary move for the superhero genre. I hope filmmakers will walk away with the lesson that we need to respect the source material and trust that the fans are out there and will come, even without a $200 million dollar budget. But that's doubtful. The lesson they probably learned is that more things should not be Rated R and break the fourth wall! Which is not the lesson, but hey, if that's what it takes to get Deadpool and his sure to be franchise running, I'll take it.

MATEO'S GRADE: A-

Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick Directed by Tim Miller Based on the character created by Fabian Nicieza & Rob Liefeld Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano. Now playing

DEADPOOL OFFICIAL TRAILER

MATEO MORENO is an actor, writer, and a playwright. His plays Happily After Tonight, Bohemian Valentine, & Within Our Walls have been produced in NY and beyond (TBG Theatre, NY International Fringe Festival, Planet Connections Festivity, Boomerang Theatre, and FOHS Theatre). He most recently co-stared in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play City of Glass at The New Ohio Theatre. Mateo is also part of Athena Theatre's 2016 Playwrighting Group. He lives in Brooklyn.

IT'S CLOBBERING TIME // A FILM REVIEW OF "FANTASTIC FOUR"

BY MATEO MORENO

First thing first: The new reboot of Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR is not nearly as bad as all of the articles popping up everywhere would have you think. Now, that's not to say it's a good film, or even really an enjoyable one. There are fragments of a more substantial, evenly made film sprinkled throughout. There are hints of an interesting plot. But this is most definitely a Frankenstein film, pieced together from this version and that version. You can feel the moments where it spiraled out of control, where the studio took over and started making it more generic. This past Saturday, director Josh Trank himself tweeted his displeasure of the film, saying there was a much more "interesting" film in the can a year ago. He quickly deleted it, and then 20th Century Fox, to paraphrase an iconic phrase, clobbered him. They revealed the fractured set life, rebuilding multiple sets, how the studio was unhappy, diva like behavior from the director himself, and that he was essentially fired from the film. So there is now two threads of thought: That the studio had been protecting Trank up until now and finally had enough, revealing what a screw up he apparently was. Or Trank did indeed have his vision wrestled away from him, and that there was a better film somewhere buried underneath. Or maybe there's a third train of thought: there was never a good version of this film and it was destined to be worse that laughably bad, something the last two films definitely were. It was destined to be substantially mediocre. (WARNING: SNARK AHEAD)

Miles Teller plays Reed Richards, a genius from grade school and up. When he, along with help from his buddy Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), create an interdimensional portal, the teacher running the fare (his science teacher from grade school played by Dan Castellaneta, i.e. Homer Simpson because apparently there is only one teacher from Grade School to High School) who's running disqualifies them for resorting to "magic tricks." Perhaps he didn't see where something disappeared and then rea-frickin-ppeared before their eyes. Or maybe he's just a dick. Or a terrible science teacher. Or blind. Or all three. Disqualified they may be, but Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E Cathey) of the Baxter Foundation witnesses it, along with his daughter Sue Storm (Kate Mara) and gives Reed a scholarship. And he gives Ben...well, nothing. Not even a participation ribbon. Oh well. At least he has his dick of a brother to go home to, who apparently is the person who first said, "It's Clobbering Time" while beating the shit out of Ben (Face. To. Palm.).

After that we go into a lot of scientific work. A LOT OF IT. In a dark building with nothing interesting to look at. In fact, we rarely leave this building for the rest of the film, except to go to a badly CGI'd world. Eventually, Reed and Sue team up with the former Baxter Foundation student, the now extremely sullen Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell, who gets his soon to be name when Sue says to him, "Look at Doctor Doom over here..." Uggghhhh) and her brother Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) to do a little interdimensional travel - TO THE NEGATIVE ZONE. Reed brings his buddy Ben along, because he needs someone to become The Thing he trusts him and wants his oldest friend by his side. Sue Storm decides to stay behind, because she's a girl, and the boys go do what boys do best: screw stuff up. The trip goes horribly bad and Reed, Johnny, and Ben return highly affected by their trip. Victor doesn't make it back but spends the next year remembering how much he hates his old kind-of-but-not-really "friends." And since Sue is sitting at the computer when they get back, a blast hits her and affects her too. Um, okay. Now Reed can bend himself to crazy lengths (literally), Johnny can turn into a living Human Torch, Sue can become Invisible and send energy bursts, and Ben is disfigured as a living rock-man. Everyone deals with this differently, but none as bad as Reed, who gets the hell out of dodge and leaves his friends behind. Classic Reed. He’ll never learn.

We then cut to a year later or so and Sue, Johnny, and Ben are now The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing (though I don't think they're ever called by their monikers). They work for the government now and have been honing their skills for the past year. Victor returns from that shitty ass CGI'd world he got stuck in and is crazy psycho now (at least he's finally emitting emotions). He wants to destroy the world. So Reed returns (we find out he's been trying to find a way to rescue Ben all this time. I would have suggested to, you know, go back to the building that you left him in, but that's just me) and the four of them go after him as a team for the first time. Speaking of first time, the final act of the film is really the first time we see "Action" in this film. That's right, this is an Action film largely without any Action. You know that awesome scene in the trailer with The Thing dropping from a plane in the sky and landing down below to kick ass? Yeah that's not in the movie anymore. Actually, A LOT of things aren't in the movie anymore that once were, and you feel it. There's been reports of reshoots, rewriting, and lots of backstage drama ever since it went into production, and it's all very visible once you see the film. Early on, Marvel Comics distanced themselves from the project, discontinuing their FF comic, stopping productions on all toys, and in the recent comic book "Punisher #14" they even had a sequence where they blow up actors starring in a FF movie who looked A LOT like this cast (seriously, they did. It's hilarious. Google it)". Scenes jump wildly through various styles and what starts as a character piece quickly loses all forms of character development in favor of... nothing much. Certainly not more action. Until the very end where a third act from an entirely different, action packed, badly written and badly CGI'd Fantastic Four appears. Teller's facial hair appears and disappears from scene to scene, Mara's hair goes from different shades to different styles to obvious wigs, Ben disappears from most of the movie, Johnny has ZERO of his famous "snark" from the comics (as you can tell, I'm a fan of snark in the right moment), and there is almost zero chemistry between anyone. Doom is suddenly Magneto and Professor X (he can basically do anything except have a cool looking costume). And not a trace of anyone actually having fun.

I don't blame the actors. Well, most of them. Toby Kebbell is literally the WORST Doctor Doom choice ever. You could have cast Toby Keith and it probably would have turned out better. He has no danger to his characterization at all and is more of a mawkish dickhead than a fearsome villain. But Teller, Mara, Jordan, and Bell are all very good actors, and you can see them trying to swim as fast as their feet can paddle, but to no use. So who's to blame for the mess that now represents this reboot? Many other websites and magazines have commented on things that were cut and reshot, which starts to explain what might have happened (There's a great view of several of them HERE, courtesy of ScreenCrush). However, unless Trank is allowed to recut HIS vision of the film, we may never really know how much was on him and how much was the studio takeover. And let's be honest; he's NEVER going to be able to do that. Ah, well, at least Doom didn't turn out to be Victor Domashev, a blogger, as Toby Kebbell mentioned in an interview early on and immediately got flamed by the entirety of the Internet. And The Human Torch and The Thing do look pretty dope. Now, the only thing that remains crystal clear is this: FOX has now had three attempts to make this franchise happen, and they've failed three times. They're done. They won't be making another solo adventure or their "kind of in the works" Fantastic Four VS X-Men movie. The rights to these characters need to go back to Marvel Studios ASAP, back into hands that can lovingly make the "correct version" of the FF. Probably not in a solo movie, but perhaps in co-starring roles or cameos (Infinity War anyone?) or in a Netflix series, where they can take their time and flesh out Marvel's first family. And recast Doom. They'll probably recast everyone, but don't forget to recast Doom.

Also, recast Doom.

MATEO'S GRADE: D+

Based on the comics created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby Written by Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg, & Josh Trank Directed by Josh Trank Starring: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson Now Showing in Theatres Nationwide

MATEO MORENO  recently won a bet on who could hold their breath the longest underwater. He won the bet, having beat local loudmouth Jimmy "Thunderbird" Thomas with a record breaking "fourteen minutes." True, part of that time was him unconscious and the other part was him being revived, but he still counts it, and is now $20 richer. Take THAT Thunderbird! He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.