What are you watching?

[starschwar]

First Steps was a bread sandwich of a movie.  They had a cool Jetsons world but spend a huge chunk of the movie in space so we don't get to see it.  They skipped the origin story, but also skipped early heroism so that already reformed villains can help.  Johnny deciphers an entire alien language from a small sentence - even for a comic book movie, I cannot suspend my disbelief that much.  Everybody - everybody - was miscast or mischaracterized.  I like Pedro Pascal, but that just isn't Reed Richards to me.  The Thing isn't a lovable grouch?  Why even adapt the character?!  The 2000s movies weren't very good, but Chiklis's Ben Grimm was just about perfect.  And that third act - I just kept predicting the two big story beats, and then they happened as I expected.

Some good, some bad, but mostly empty calories.  It's an aggressively C grade movie.  

As far as recent MCU film output (as in, post-Endgame), I'd put it above... Eternals, Doctor Strange 2, Thor 4, Ant-Man 3, Guardians 3, The Marvels, Captain America 4

But also it's substantially less enjoyable than... Spider-Man Far From Home, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man No Way Home, Black Panther 2, Deadpool and Wolverine, Thunderbolts

I don't go to theaters anymore, so no opinion on the newest Spidey.  But it has action choreography by Jackie Chan, and The Punisher is in it.  If I walk away giving that anything less than a C, something is truly wrong with the multiverse.