ScottBang

As a Marvel Man, I'm bummed. Without question a huge disappointment. I don't blame Sam Raimi. He did the best he could given the script or lack thereof. It's not that they WASTED the Illuminati or that expectations were too high. It's the fact that NO character had any arc whatsoever. The movie is the definition of shallow and soulless. Nothing or no one has any depth. Even shifting it in to a Scarlet Witch centric movie felt one dimensional and completely unsatisfying. The saving grace is the visuals and "trippy" fight scenes. Despite some truly awful special effects at times (when a film is 75 CGI, I guess some scenes can't merit enough budget) the visuals carry the load. Besides being heartless, the contrivances and flat out dumb plot turns also hurt a great deal. The one new character introduced (America Chavez) typifies everything wrong with this misfire. She is a plot device that registers as nothing but a shallow and ridiculous shadow of an actual character. Again, no character arc at all but her turn happens in moronic fashion because of one line of dialogue. Somewhere in all this there was a good movie. Shame that what actually hit the screen wasn't it.

An absolute home run in terms of character study and storytelling. This is hard-nosed faith based done right. It's an amazing amalgam of old school grit and honest reflection. It will forever hold the record for cussing and f-bombs for this subject matter. And, that's a good thing. The entire first act is set up and not what was expected at all. Back when awards actually mattered, Mark Wahlberg would have been a serious Oscar contender for his performance in this film. He, honest to God, (literally) delivers a masterpiece performance. His weight gain alone showed his commitment to doing justice to this work. Fr. Stu was an amazing individual whose growth and gifts through suffering will forever inspire those who watch this movie with an open heart and mind. A forever immortal that I personally will never forget thanks to this film.

The blind loyalists are out in full. This movie is low quality and, frankly, is quite dumb. Anyone saying otherwise is either a blind fan or likes the woke "white guy bad" messaging. Either way, ignore people with agendas.