Review: 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

by Nathaniel R

In the recent What If? series on Disney+, which is based on the comic book series of the same name, Marvel's writers could fashion any kind of variation on traditional heroes (and villains) and storylines without any actual consequences for the large familiar canon. Zombie avengers? Sure! Peggy Carter as Captain America? Why not! The What If? series of the 1970s was not quite the beginning of the Multiverse in comics but it was close enough. These thought experiments were always pitched as alternate realities (as opposed to pure fiction) though it took awhile before the effects were felt. The multiverse essentially became a shortcut to any type of retconning any storyteller wanted to do; Contrary to all that dialogue in Loki, Marvel has no "sacred" timeline given all the reversals, resurrections, reboots, and switcheroos. The multiverse virus was even more of an epidemic in DC comics, Marvel's top competitor.

Unfortunately if What If is essentially fan-fiction without the fans, then Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is arguably stingers without a movie. The latest MCU movie is positively awash in cameos and teases for future installments, resulting in a film that feels very much like an incoherent feature-length mid-credits scene... 

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Review: No fun to be had in 'Morbius'

By Ben Miller 

Too silly to take seriously, but too serious to be any fun, Daniel Espinosa's Morbius suffers from a lack of vision and commitment from its stars and filmmakers. Jared Leto stars as Dr. Michael Morbius, a brilliant scientist suffering from a rare blood disease that has been wrecking his body since childhood. Dr. Morbius is supported by his colleague Dr. Martin Bancroft (Adria Arjona) and his best friend Milo (Matt Smith), who also suffers from the same blood disease.

Morbius attempts to cure himself by using the genetic mapping of vampire bats to compliment his own DNA. You can guess that the experiments go array giving Morbius a form of vampirism...

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Yes No Maybe So: 'Nope', 'Deep Water', and 'Multiverse of Madness'

by Nathaniel R

No sooner did we get caught up on trailers with Jurassic World and such than the Superbowl hits which brings with it a new wave of teasers and trailers, not all of them airing during the game (that's expensive!) but here are the latest via our Yes No Maybe So™ habit. Join in the trifurcated breakdwon in the comments...

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Visual Effects Society: "Dune" and "Shang-Chi" lead among the Oscar hopefuls

by Nathaniel R

Dune Part One looks like the unsurprising leader going into the 20th annual Visual Effects Society Awards with six nominations. Shang Chi  trailed with four citations. (They have animated categories, too, and Encanto did very well in those races, scoring six nods). These guild prizes give us clues as to what Oscar's VFX branch might also like. Oscar has only one visual effects category, of course, while VES has several, since it's their whole purpose. Here's the list of nominations and aa guide to how the two correlated this year...

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Visual Effects Shortlist - Scene Breakdown

By Ben Miller

The 10 finalists for the Best Visual Effects Oscar were announced last week.  Though once reserved for films that pushed the boundaries of what films could visualize, the Oscars have since gravitated towards spectacle and bombast.  Of the 10 films, none came from an independent studio or had a budget less than $100 million.  That isn't to say their effects should be discounted, but don't expect to see something like Ex Machina or shortlisted documentary Welcome to Chechnya from last year.  This category is usually reserved for outright spectacle, and these shortlisted films reflect that.

Let's focus on one specific setpiece per film that highlights the visual effects artists...

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