Without knowing anything about Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, I had no particular expectations. Wanda and America Chavez (yay) would be main characters, and they’d hurtle through the multiverses being toyed with in the rather unsatisfying allusions and lead-ins offered in Loki and What If, then presented a…

Fantastic Beasts 3 was a pleasant return to what we were missing in movie 2. In fact, The Crimes of Grindelwald was terribly dark, with the problematic racist and sexist fridging of Nagini the show animal/sacrificed heroine. Another criticism of movie two is the muddled plot and very muddled characterization…

Fans loved Bridgerton season one. It brought a sweet joy to the pandemic and the cast was clearly having fun too. This time, the racial diversity doesn’t feel new — the Sharma sisters are from India and describe the culture there a bit, but they’re dressed as traditional English misses…

Xialing was a delight in Shang-Chi. She balances Katy the perky American girl as a disciplined martial artist, raised in a sexist family. Abandoned by her brother, ignored by her father, she becomes a spectacular warrior all on her own. After they discover her in her fight club (where she…

Shang-Chi enjoys subverting expectations even as it leans into them. It begins nodding to Iron Man, with a privileged man crashing his jeep far from home. Next, he meets a gifted woman, suggesting it will be a kung fu adventure, with its warrior heroine flying through the air and invoking…