The Leverton Review

  This is, surprisingly, the first Marvel film. It's gone down in history as being something of a bad film, but honestly, I love it. It's the story of a duck man, who gets plucked from his peaceful existence, and transported through the powers of Weird Science to our planet. The special effects, while venturing into the area of The Uncanny Valley, are quite good for their time. And the film is entertaining. Howard is funny, irritable, and everything you would expect from a man duck. He's like a more well-adjusted Donald Duck. The problem that many people have with the film is that a human being falls in love with a duck. But in defence of this plot point, Howard is a conscious, sentient being. He has all of the intelligence, or lack thereof, of a middle-aged man duck. I imagine if aliens came to Earth, and they somewhat thought like us, there would be interspecies love. No the creepy thing is not the interspecies connection, it's the fact that Howard is clearly 20 to 30...

 I watched this movie with no great expectations.  I think for most people, the attraction of the MCU has faded.  It's not surprising after the over saturation of the content over the past few years.  I think last year there were six tv shows and four movies.  And honestly, I've never been a huge fan of the characters.  But I have to admit that there are two things that Marvel does well...emotionally resonant scenes and big action.  Wakanda Forever had both.  It was far too long, and I think this was affected by the premature death of Chadwick Boseman.  It was hard to balance an emotional story of farewell to that character with an absurd one of fish-people being angry with Wakanda. This leads me to my biggest problem with the portrayal of Wakanda, and the fish people in the MCU.  Vibranium is supposed to give both countries this amazing technological advantage over the rest of the world to the extent that major powers like the US are af...