DNYaMind Creations

Category: Reviews

  • My Spoiler-Free Review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day

    By Derrick Nadeau

    I am a huge Spider-Man fan! Spidey has been my number one favorite superhero since I was a wee little comic book fan. I have loved other superheroes over the years, but Spidey has ALWAYS been my absolute favorite above all else. Period. I am telling you this because I want you to know exactly where I am coming from in regard to this review. With that being said, historically I have mixed feelings about the various Spider-Man movies over the years…well, decades now. I loved the Tobey Maguire films when they came out, well, the first two anyway. In fact, the second Maguire Spider-Man still fits into my top five superhero films of all time, just don’t ask me where right now. The Andrew Garfield Spidey movies…I did not love so much. They weren’t completely horrible, but they were not good.

    I was very excited few years ago when it was announced that Sony (the holder of the movie rights to Spider-Man) was finally going to let Marvel Studios actually use Spider-Man in the MCU, and I was very hopeful when I heard that Tom Holland, someone I was not very familiar with, would be playing Spider-Man. Jump forward to the release of the first trilogy of Spider-Man movies, and though they had mixed results, I really love Tom Holland’s portrayal of both Spidey, and his alter ego Peter Parker. I also really loved seeing Spidey be a part of the MCU proper in the Avengers films as well as Civil War. To be honest, however, the last Spider-Man film, No Way Home, was fun to watch because of the crazy mix of all the previous Spideys and villains, but I have to admit that below the surface it was not necessarily the greatest of the Spider-Man movies. It certainly wasn’t the worst of the bunch either, so that’s certainly a plus.

    But, enough about the previous films, I just wanted to give you a baseline for this review of Brand New Day, the newest Spider-Man movie. All righty then, let’s dive right in! If you have read my previous reviews of Mandalorian And Grogu and Masters Of The Universe, and I highly recommend checking those out if you haven’t, you are familiar with a little thing I like to call “The Good, The Bad, And The Nitpicky”! The GBaN is where I talk about what I liked about the movie, what I did not like about the movie, and the things that were annoying but didn’t actually affect my enjoyment of the movie. Now, I like to end on a positive note, so I will begin with my nitpickys and work my way back to the goods. Are you ready? “Bonesaw is ready!” (That’s a reference to the first Tobey Maguire Spidey if you aren’t aware.”

    NITPICKYS

    I only have a couple of nitpickys to talk about (without spoiling anything), and I am pretty happy about that. My first nitpicky deals with the Hand ninja clan. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing the Hand in the movie, they are cool ninjas after all, but I don’t like the way they were introduced to the MCU and the way their origin felt thin. It really felt like the Hand was just put in the movie so they could have one big, admittedly awesome, fight scene and so their origin was kind of rushed. The only other nitpicky I have might not actually even be a nitpicky at all, and that is in regard to the main villain of the movie. I can’t spoil anything about who the villain is, though if you have read anything about the movie you probably have a pretty good idea who the villain is, but something about the way the character was introduced to the MCU felt weird to me. I really liked the character and the character’s story over all, I just wonder about the character being introduced in this way in this movie that makes me unsure about the character somehow. Since I can’t name the character, or even specify what is bugging me about the character, I guess I shouldn’t even bother talking about it in this review, should I? Ah well, I am not going to edit that part out because I spent time thinking about it and writing it. Perhaps some of you might have some clue what I am talking about. Or perhaps I am just rambling on for nothing. Moving on!

    THE BAD

    There is really only one bad thing about the movie as far as I am concerned, and that is the after credit scene. There is only one after credit scene at the very end of the credits, and I tell you this as a warning if you haven’t seen the movie yet, THE AFTER CREDIT SCENE IS NOT WORTH WAITING AROUND FOR! There, I feel better now. As any Marvel fan knows, the after credit scenes are often as fun as the actual movie itself when done correctly (remember when we first saw Thor’s hammer in that crater?), but when they are done poorly, it can be quite frustrating. The After credit scene from Brand New Day did not show anything cool, it was not entertaining, it did not introduce any cool new element to the MCU, and so it was frustrating after sitting through the entirety of the credits. Sure, the scene does hint at the Spidey’s future, but it was not worth the wait. If you really want to see the scene, just wait until the movie hits streaming.

    AND NOW…THE GOOD

    Honestly, there is so much good in this movie that I can’t talk about it all, especially without spoiling anything. What I can say is that the story was great, everyone in the movie was great, the movie itself was great. Brand New Day was exactly what I wanted from a Spider-Man film, and I loved every second of it! Tom Holland has really come into his own as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and I feel comfortable calling him my favorite movie Spidey (sorry Tobey). There were some great cameos from other MCU characters (both heroes and villains) that fit in so perfectly with the movie that they helped it feel like it was a perfect part of the MCU as a whole. Despite any questions I might have about the villain of the movie, I really loved the character and the storyarc of the character. The movie was emotional without overdoing it. The movie had the perfect amount of humor, especially for a Spidey film, without feeling overly “jokey”. There is a lot more I could mention, but I think you get the idea so I will stop there.

    FINAL VERDICT

    If you are a fan of Spider-Man, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! If you are a fan of the MCU and Marvel films, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! If you want to see how to do a superhero movie right, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! I guess, what I am trying to say is, don’t wait for this to come to streaming, GO SEE THIS MOVIE IN THE THEATER AS SOON AS YOU CAN! I can safely say that this is at the top of the list of Spider-Man movies, though I have to see it again to decide if it knocks Spider-Man 2 off of the number one spot. I loved this movie, and I think you will too. The movie is GOOD, and I am so happy to have experienced it.

    That’s all for this review kids. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I hope this review has helped. If you have seen the movie, I hope you have enjoyed and maybe even agreed with my thoughts. Until next time, stay safe out there webslingers!

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  • My Review of The Mandalorian And Grogu

    To begin with, a quick bit of background on my thoughts on this movie before actually watching it. As someone who co-hosts a Star Wars podcast (Wookie Radio, find it on the We Be Geeks Collective and wherever fine podcasts are downloaded), I have obviously been well aware of this movie since it’s inception. To be perfectly honest, I has some mixed feelings about this movie in the beginning. In fact, some might even say I had some actual misgivings about this movie. Please, allow me to explain.

    I have been a fan of The Mandalorian series on Disney Plus since the beginning of the series, even though it has had a few ups and downs over all. Season three of the series, in particular, was not my favorite of the three seasons for various reasons I will not get into here in this review. With that being said, I was a bit, shall we say, pessimistic when I first learned that Lucasfilm was planning a movie based on The Mandalorian. My main concern was that with season three, the last season before this movie, being a bit of a disappointment, would a movie based on these characters, though I do love them, be appropriate at this time. I should probably go back at some point and rewatch the third season to give it another chance, but that is neither here nor there. The main point of all of this rambling is that I did not have a lot of confidence that this movie needed to exist. I was more than ready for another season of The Mandalorian, but I didn’t think that the characters were ready for, or had the status for, a full length movie. The final box office numbers will be the ultimate judge of that, and that is why I was concerned about Lucasfilm putting out a Mandalorian And Grogu movie as opposed to just releasing another season of the show.

    With all of that being said, there is no way I was not going to see this movie when it came out in theaters. After all, it is a Star Wars movie, which I love, and it is based on characters that I am a huge fan of, so why wouldn’t I go to see it in the theater? That, of course, leaves the question, what did I think of the movie as a fan of Star Wars and both Mando and Grogu?

    I shall begin my review with a little segment that I created and have used many times on my various podcasts. That segment is a little thing I like to call, “The Good, The Bad, And The Nitpicky!” Just as it sounds, in this segment I pick out things that I really liked about the movie, some things I didn’t really like about the movie, and some things that were small annoyances about the movie that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the movie exactly, but were still things I noted. I like to end on a good note, so I will actually go in reverse order and begin with the small things that bugged me about the film:

    NITPICKYS

    My first nitpicky would probably surprise some people, and most likely I might be in a small minority with this nitpicky, but that’s what a nitpicky is basically, a small detail that bothers you for some reason. Some people reading this might not even know exactly what I am talking about, and those people could probably just ignore this nitpicky altogether. The nitpicky I am referring to is the cameo appearance by Dave Filoni, the man behind The Mandalorian and current man in charge at Lucasfilm. I should probably clarify that it is his first cameo in the film where he is sitting among the pilots at the rebel base when Mando shows up (that’s all I can say without spoilers), not the second cameo when he is piloting his ship. The first cameo bothered me mostly because he was wearing his cowboy hat, which is his trademark I know, in the mess hall. Seeing something like a cowboy hat really takes me out of a Star Wars movie for a moment that is just long enough to bother me. Bear in mind that it is the hat, and not the man himself, that irked me. I know, it’s probably a dumb nitpicky to some, but it bugged me, so it’s my nitpicky.

    I actually can’t think of any other nitpickys to add, which is a good thing. With that being said, let’s move on to our next segment:

    THE BAD

    In general, it’s better to have nitpickys than bads as nitpickys are small issues, and bads are…well…issues that are more serious and do affect one’s enjoyment of the film in some way. The good news is that I have but one single bad thing to say about this movie, and that is all. The one thing that I would say was bad is that there is a part of the movie (let’s say that it was when Grogu was watching over Mando to avoid major spoilers) that really slowed the momentum of the movie down. I understand the purpose of this part, but I feel like it could have been cut down a lot as it made that part of the movie drag a bit and could have definitely been shorter.

    That is the only thing that I found bad, so that brings me to my final segment:

    THE GOOD

    There are actually a lot of good things about this movie, but I will only mention a couple of them to save time and try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. To begin with, it’s a movie about Mando and Grogu, so it was great to see them both in action. I really did miss both of those characters, and they were handled perfectly. Speaking of action, there is some really great, fun action throughout the movie, starting with the opening scene (featuring the At-Ats from the trailers), and continuing on with some really great Mando fighting. This movie features Mando and Grogu in top form, and it is fun to watch. The special effects in this movie are fantastic, and it was great to see that they didn’t just turn Grogu into a CGI character, and the usage of practical effects felt right. The music, though not a John Williams soundtrack, was fitting for what we expect from The Mandalorian and was both exciting and intriguing. The story didn’t just focus on one major plot point, but rather moved seamlessly through a several plot points without feeling overwhelming. I thought it might be weird seeing Sigourney Weaver in Star Wars, but I really liked her character, and I thought she did a great job. I could continue to ramble on about everything I liked about this movie, but I feel I have gotten my point across.

    Now that I have covered THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE NITPICKY, it’s time for me to reveal MY FINAL VERDICT! Basically, I feel like this movie was actually a lot more fun than I was expecting, and if you are a fan of The Mandalorian, you will enjoy this movie. It fits right in with everything you would expect from the series, but amps up all the best parts nicely. The question still remains, did this need to be a movie rather than a couple of episodes of the show? My answer to that question is yes…and no. The actions scenes were amazing, and certainly deserved to be seen on the big screen, but there were a few slower scenes that would have been better served in the series, but overall, I was glad to see this movie on the big screen. Keep in mind that this movie is less about “saving the galaxy from a great evil”, and more about the interactions between the characters of the film, in particular, the relationship between The Mandalorian and Grogu. But, if that is what you goin expecting, I really do think you will enjoy the movie.