Tag: Disney

Tron: Ares (2025) | REVIEW

Jared Leto in TRON: ARES — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Joachim Rønning (Young Woman and the Sea) — Screenplay by Jesse Wigutow.

One good thing that Tron: Ares immediately accomplished was getting me to give Tron: Legacy a rewatch. Back in the day, I greatly enjoyed Legacy, which was essentially Disney’s attempt to get their own Matrix clone, but I hadn’t rewatched it in so long. Though Legacy has its issues with performance, runtime, and slightly dated visual effects, it is such a good time.  Its visual style was effective, Daft Punk’s music was sensational, and Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges were joys to watch. It may have been style over substance, but it was genuinely entertaining and has rightfully earned a cult following in recent years despite underwhelming at the box office. Now, with Tron: Ares, Disney has switched out Joseph Kosinski for Joachim Rønning, Daft Punk for Nine Inch Nails, the digital world for the real world, and the cold blue look for a reddish one. Unfortunately, while there are things to like about Tron: Ares, the writing and casting let it down. 

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) | REVIEW

The Thing, the Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, and the Human Torch in THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS — PHOTO: Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Matt Shakman (WandaVision) — Screenplay by Josh Friedman (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Eric Pearson (Thunderbolts*), Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer.

Although the Avengers are today the most well-known superhero group, even though the X-Men dominated the big screen in the 2000s, it was, in actuality, the Fantastic Four that were the original Marvel Comics team. Though Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four and found great popularity for the team often referred to as the ‘First Family,’ the team of four has long struggled to find the same success on the big screen that the Avengers and X-Men have enjoyed. Prior to this new live-action attempt at making a successful Fantastic Four film, there were four other films, none of which found success with fans and critics. There was the 1990s Roger Corman-produced, low-budget, and unreleased adaptation, then Tim Story got to release two fairly campy films about Marvel’s First Family in the mid-2000s both of which were largely dismissed by critics, before Chronicle-director Josh Trank got to sit in the director’s chair for 20th Century Fox’s Razzie Award-winning dark and gritty reboot, which Trank, notably, disowned publicly on Social Media during its week of release. It seems that it isn’t all that simple to make a good film about four of Marvel’s most iconic characters. Thankfully, this latest attempt succeeds where prior films failed. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a strong superhero film that possesses a strong audiovisual identity and aesthetic, and it also does a good job of honoring the characters and the original creators. 

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Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) | REVIEW

A hulking Predator in PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS — PHOTO: DISNEY.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg — Screenplay by Micho Robert Rutare.

With 2022’s Prey, 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg proved himself capable of shepherding the Predator franchise and steering it in a new and exciting direction. Now, in 2025, Trachtenberg’s next moves with the iconic sci-fi horror action film series are coming our way. This November, his second live-action Predator-film, Predator: Badlands, is set to premiere theatrically, but if you’re jonesing for more Trachtenberg-Predator goodness right now, then you’ll be happy to know that Disney+/Hulu just released a brand new Predator from Trachtenberg that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from this franchise, given the fact that it is actually a fully animated film. That may not sound like the ideal way to tell these stories, but, in actuality, Trachtenberg has, with Predator: Killer of Killers, used the medium to pull off some genuine wish-fulfillment Predator movie moments that are exactly as out there and as gory as you could possibly like.

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Inside Out 2 (2024) | REVIEW

Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser), Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) in Inside Out 2 — PHOTO: Disney.

Directed by Kelsey Mann — Screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein.

Following a string of films that were either dumped onto Disney+ or that disappointed critics and/or audiences, I think it is fair to say that, earlier this year, Pixar got its groove back. With the long-awaited release of Inside Out 2, Pixar had one of its golden internal properties back out in theaters, and it certainly felt like they had something here as it did well with critics, as well as found the type of audience that propelled it to breaking records. Eventually, Inside Out 2 became the biggest animated film ever made based on its box office numbers. But, as a major fan of the original film, which I declared a masterpiece when it was released, I was curious if the long-awaited sequel was actually as good as its reputation suggested. Well, I’ve now finally seen the emotionally-driven sequel. While I don’t think it is as novel of a film as the first one, or a masterpiece for that matter, I definitely think the sequel is a worthy follow-up to Pixar’s emotionally rich sensation.

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Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) | REVIEW

Deadpool looking up at the Wolverine in Shawn Levy’s DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy; The Adam Project) — Screenplay by Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, and Shawn Levy.

Later this year, it’ll have been 7 years since Disney’s acquisition of Fox was announced. Included in the Fox acquisition were its assets including ‘their’ portion of Marvel characters, which had long been unable to be a part of Disney’s immensely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe of stories. I think a lot of fans out there will have, at that time, thought that years later they would have all been integrated into the Disney-Marvel-connected universe of live-action films, but, in actuality, it’s been quite slow. Certain characters have popped up in relatively insignificant ways, the classic X-Men theme song has played once or twice, and, sure, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) did have some non-committal fun with the characters that Marvel fans have been desperate to have alongside the Avengers. Now, though, a significant part of that wait is over. Shawn Levy’s Deadpool and Wolverine is the first Marvel Studios film to be explicitly about a Marvel-Fox character and his integration into Marvel Studios. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it’s the one character that is the least audience-safe Disney character of them all: Deadpool, who is known for his R-rated violence and crude humor. Going into this film the big question for many fans was whether or not Disney, through Marvel Studios, would allow Deadpool to actually be the character that fans have come to know and love. The answer, which I can now give after having seen the much-anticipated film, is a resounding ‘yes.’

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‘The Eras Tour,’ ‘STEVE! (martin),’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews

(Clockwise L-R) STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (APPLE TV+), Der Amerikanische Freund (Filmverlag der Autoren), Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Disney+), Role Play (Prime Video), and Wish (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures).

In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I give you my thoughts on 1) a recent two-part documentary that I enjoyed quite a bit, 2) my first Wim Wenders film, 3) one of the biggest event films of last year, 4) a streaming film that didn’t fully work for me, and, finally, 5) a Disney film that is chock-full of references.

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Quiz Lady (2023) | REVIEW

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh in Jessica Yu’s Quiz Lady — PHOTO: 20th Century Studios.

Directed by Jessica Yu — Screenplay by Jen D’Angelo.

Jessica Yu’s Quiz Lady follows Anne (played by Awkwafina), a young woman with social anxiety and an obsession with a certain game show named ‘Can’t Stop the Quiz.’ One day, she is informed that her mother has fled the home that she was in and left for Macau presumably to gamble and get out of her gambling debt in America. This information also reaches Anne’s older sister Jenny (played by Sandra Oh), who is a decidedly more outgoing party girl, and they reconnect for a few days. On one of those days, Jenny secretly records and uploads a video of Anne watching her favorite game show. It becomes an instant hit online as Anne knows every single answer to every single question.

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Loki: Season Two (2023) | REVIEW

Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

It’s no secret that since the launch of Disney+ required Marvel Studios to produce a litany of superhero series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been in a bit of an identity crisis, which is also partly due to how the Marvel films in the post-Avengers: Endgame era haven’t always felt like they were pushing the overarching story forward in exciting ways that also spoke to its characters and their growth. There are always exceptions — like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on the film side or Wandavision on the streaming series side — but Marvel Studios has lately been feeling like it’s been stuck in mud, with the release of the star-studded but already forgotten Secret Invasion, which crash-landed, being a notable attempt that failed to really find an audience or audience excitement. Because of all of this it feels really good to be able to say that Loki: Season 2 is a return to form for Marvel — it’s a great show and one of the very best things that’s been put out by Marvel Studios since the release of the outstanding Avengers: Endgame.

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Ahsoka: Season One (2023) | REVIEW

Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in AHSOKA — PHOTO: Disney+ / Lucasfilm.

Series created by Dave Filoni — Episodes directed by Dave Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Rick Famuyiwa.

Ever since the now-Disney-owned Star Wars franchise ended its sequel film trilogy to mixed reception in 2019, the stories about a galaxy of heroes set a long time ago have had its live-action portion relegated to streaming television, even though its films once revolutionized and forever changed Hollywood. On the one hand, it makes sense to try to grow the franchise on the small screen and win over new audiences that may one day follow the lasersword-wielding heroes back to the big screen. However, what I find to currently be the case is that rather than telling bold new stories to gain a new audience on the small screen, what the head honchos at Lucasfilm are doing is, instead, servicing die-hard fans. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the shows are executed at a relatively high level, but, more often than not, what we have been getting are these almost vapid easter-egg-filled series that either don’t have enough meat on the bone to justify a full series (and thus ought to have been a film instead) or a series that doesn’t have enough episodes to have complete and rich story and character arcs.

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Ed Sheeran’s The Sum of It All is Better Than Your Average Modern Music Documentary | Review

Everyone gets a documentary nowadays. Whether it’s Apple TV+, Disney+, or Netflix, you can find several documentaries highlighting musicians. Naturally, some of these documentaries are more fascinating than others. Some music documentaries are put out to function as tell-all documentations of a tour or the construction of an album, others function as these musician origin stories that are obviously heavily constructed by the musician so that the right story is told from their point of view. The very best music documentaries get to find a way under the skin of their artist. On the surface, this Ed Sheeran docu-series may look exactly like one of the many unremarkable types of music documentaries. But once you dive right in and follow along, you are met with the kind of documentary that goes more than merely skin deep.

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