Author: Dom

Film review: The Marvels

There’s a lot of weird stuff happening around this film. First, it was released later than planned, and second, it was released without the usual wall-to-wall guest appearances and press junkets that usuall accompany a Marvel film release. So, in the midst (or rather, close to the end) of the writers’ strike, no one should be too surprised that The Marvels had something of a soft launch. What did surprise me though, was the amount of glee floating around the Twittersphere when declaring that this was the worst weekend opening for a Marvel flick, ever. Never mind the fact that it was still the highest-grossing movie for that weekend. Without diving into the conspiracy swamp, I did wonder if there was something about the film that was attracting such vitrole.

This was a rare outing for a superhero film, in that it was fronted by not one, but three female characters, something we haven’t seen since Wakanda Forever. We also had a female villain too, in the form Zawe Ashton, who gave a creditable perfomance as the Kree Accuser, Dar-Benn.

Iman Vellani did a superb job of bringing her Ms Marvel character from the Disney+ to the big screen; same with Lashana Lynch who eased Monica Rambeau from WandaVision to make the third side of the body-swapping triangle.

So how was it? Well, formulaic, but it’s a formula that works, and Marvel can now churn them out in its sleep. And again, maybe that’s the problem, but hell, why change what you know works?

The Marvels was the usual mix of camaraderie, action, sorrow and sacrifice. The ending lacked the dynamism of the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Ⅲ, but it was enjoyable, with a nice post-credit surprise thrown in for good measure.

Ignore the naysers; if you’re a fan of the Marvel franchise, there’s no reason why you won’t enjoy this one.

The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka

This was very nearly the best book I’ve read this year. The plot was original, the settings: detailed and numerous, and the characters: an eclectic group of genius-level misfits.

The Flicker Men

Meet Eric Argus: a scientist/quantum mechanic with a drink problem. He formulates an experiment, the outcome of which changes depending on whether it is being observed or not.

Nope. Scratch that.

The outcome of the experiment changes depending on whether the results will be examined in the future.

As if this isn’t mind-blowing enough, Eric also realises that animals observing the experiment do not change the outcome.

So, has Eric discovered evidence of the human soul?

As you can imagine, Eric’s discovery brings him unwanted attention and fame (it means he has to be reliably sober most of the time now), not to mention the interest of the pro-life lobby: if an unborn infant can be shown to possess a soul, then aborting it would be tantamount to murder.

And once the pro-lifers get involved, then Eric’s life turns into a runaway express train.

Now, I said this was almost the best book I’ve read this year – and it was, almost.

Once the complex science behind the plot had been explained, the pace slowed down dramatically. There was a lot of driving around to different places, during which the environment expanded to cover theoretical alternate universes. People were dispatched in gruesome fashion, and it all felt as though it was building toward something momentous … but it sort of petered out by the time the climax arrived. I think The Flicker Men held a lot of promise, but didn’t quite deliver.

But what it did deliver was a masterclass in excellent prose. The characterisation was also, top notch. The complexity of the science was brilliantly handled, I just think it was just the ending where it somehow failed to deliver.