Nick Nack New To Theaters (Catchup Edition Pt. 4) - We Are Groot (Another Family Affair) As Fast X Continues To Drive On, And Welcome To The Spider-Verse

It is another catchup episode of Nick Nack Goes to the Movies, and thank goodness they say good things come to those who wait.  It may not be as new to theaters, but we have a jam packed triple feature here.  Timely considering I just did a double feature of back to back movie viewings at Marcus Theaters.  Not the Barbenheimer cinematic event, this is something more casual.

So you wanna know what I am talkin here?  Do ya?  Well it is these cinematic beauties, or are they beasts?  Only you will find out by listening to me talk on the end cap to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Vol. 3.  

After that, we could not just talk about one super hero movie.  And while that The Flash movie will be discussed eventually on here, this is not that time.  Instead it is indeed another Marvel movie, just not an MCU one.  The second of the animated Spider-Man movies from Sony, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse could be an important milestone to this eventual proposed trilogy showing that Sony still can do it.

Lastly, this movie might not be a super hero movie, but with the suspension of disbelief, you might as well consider all of the Fast & Furious franchise something closer to these super hero movies.  The amount of people coming back from the dead and surviving things with the power of family, I will let you sort out where you classify these and the latest one, Fast X.

But pull up a comfy chair and a blanket, be you at home or your own office blanket, and take a listen to my take on this current cinemascape.  All that and more on Nick Nack Goes to the Movies.  And if you want more, check out all of our socials on every platform, not Threads yet, at either @NickNack_IC or @NickNackMovies !

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S4E4

-Intro/Jingle

-It is time with another episode of Nick Nack Goes to the Movies, really, the only movie review and discussion podcast you could ever want or need.  Holy guacamole and cheese louise it has been a minute minute since I made one of these.

-I have to admit, I fully intended to make an episode solely on Guardians of the Galaxy 3.  I think it deserves that at the very least being the end cap to easily one of the most consistent franchises of the MCU.  But when I got backlogged with just life events and a ton of movies coming out overall, I had to combine the latest few just to get caught up so I can give you all of the new things coming out in theaters as I continue to go to the movies.

-So, what is this double, well triple feature entry now.  Well, it should be obvious, even if I haven’t touched on this series a ton on this podcast yet.  It is the 11th entry of the Fast & Furious series, Fast X, never forget there is one more canonical entry with the spinoff with Jason Statham and The Rock.  

-And another Marvel, non MCU this time, movie.  Following the critical and surprising mass success of a Sony Spider-Man movie in the modern enough era.  Not Peter Parker as the leading man played by either Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield.  But finally putting the movie spotlight on Miles Morales.  And with that success, there came the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. 

-So, a couple of big budget blockbuster spring movies from big name franchises, here we are to talk on all 3.

-Actors

-So, I had to start with Guardians obviously, because well, even going into this I knew this one was going to be special, did not intend to compare the three, but if I have to, it feels like this has to be the favorite going into this clash.

-So obviously the main core of these movies are back, Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, look at him making in this episode twice, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Zoe Saldana, the character swap of a younger version of her who hasn’t been through all this stuff Gamora.  The new staples are also back with Sean Gunn and Pom Klementieff.

-But now that the obvious is out of the way, I did love to see a bit more Sylvester Stallone, sadly Smallville legend Michael Rosenbaum did not get to do much and Miley Cyrus was recast from the last one.  The reavers group did not do as much as was initially thought from the second volume of these, but at least they existed.  

-And the new major casts fit right in, Will Poulter who may have been a questionable cast at first, seems like a home run as a younger more naïve Adam Warlock and while we have discussed the ever-growing MCU villain problem, you now have Chew-Kew-dee EE-Woo-GE throwing his hat into the mix as The High Evolutionary.  We will get into how successful this villain is in this movie.

-And while they did not have a ton of Sci-Fi superstar Nathan Fillion, there is more of him over his voice role in the first one.  Just seeing that space rogue, face and all, he actually had some good moments here too, we gotta love it.  TBD is his TDK character will come back in any future Suicide Squad projects being technically alive in the last one.

-Also, for sure enjoy the fact that James Gunn is still casting his other usual suspects like Jennifer Holland and Michael Rooker.  The pipeline of people in this movie and Peacemaker/The Suicide Squad is a fun google search if you have some time.

-Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

-So it is worth noting that his movie does have some info that might have been nice to know like the setup from the holiday special on Disney Plus.  A really good holiday special at that with the likes of Kevin Bacon even.  But you might be a bit confused as to why our Guardians are where they are and what the setup is if you only had seen them from Guardians 2, Avengers Endgame, and maybe a bit from the not so strong entry of Thor 4.

-But before we do that, the soundtrack.  With these movies, you have to talk about it.  I don’t know if I love the sum of its parts musically over the first 2, we start to get to some newer comparatively rock and some more modern songs.  I am an oldies man, and some Heart, Bruce Springsteen, and a really good song by Rainbow (Since You’ve Been Gone) steals the show overall as the new Hooked on a feeling or come and get your love.  All of these are really good, sad we never got Space Oddity in here, but yeah.  Not as strong overall, maybe I just don’t care for the Beastie Boyz music or as much as I do love Florence and the machines, it didn’t fit the Guardians usual music vibes.  But that is over, so onto the story and such.  Just had to get into it briefly

-Initially these movies have given Peter Quill the leading role and the stories were still told by others, but not as much.  This movie takes an interesting and unique way of telling a third and closing chunk of the trilogy.  It gives us a ton of back story and weaves it into the present of one unlikely racoon.  

-I am not sure who I needed to learn the most about, Groot would have always been interesting, Gamora was sort of off the table, I think I wanted to have more satisfaction with Drax, but that would have involved more of a resolution with him and Thanos, but Rocket is an interesting once.

-And interesting is a good one, but more interesting it is than expected, and it is a really emotional story.  One of the best the MCU has ever delivered.  Early Iron Man and Captain America all had it, but consistently, outside of some Avengers moments, the Guardians movies have all had the most emotional resonance and hits.  And seeing how Rocket was made so long ago, a question we had, and his three cute, well 2 cute and one weird half spider one, the animal foursome of friends was something that I did not know I needed.  They were all just a bunch of naïve curious animal friends, and one of them was named teefs for having big walrus teeth.  What a moment

-Now, sadly, as we find out, they all got killed sadly for Rocket to make it out of there.  Now where is there, this new make the perfect race villain played by Chew-Kew-dee EE-Woo-GE.  The High Evolutionary is one of those villains that is just evil.  No real reason, just evil.

-Now while that happens throughout, that happens in parallel to the present.  And it is worth nothing that the Sovereign storyline from the second movies feels like a lifetime ago with all that has happened in the MCU.  But the chickens have finally come home to roost as Adam Warlock finally hatches, albeit early, from his cocoon to come and take revenge on the guardians for the slight they have put on his people.  He comes to the new HQ and wrecks the place up as the main cast of characters flee.  But all of this puts Rocket in critical condition.

-Man did all those trailers make us thing they were gonna kill at least him and Quill off.  They didn’t spoiler alert, but it was close.  But that sent us on a fun quest to deal with the Sovereign, save Rocket because of him being proprietary technology, and eventually deal with this High Evolutionary fellow.

-And of course, most important, we have to see Sylvester Stallone, star of the Expendables franchise, again.  And his crew, sadly minus Miley, but with past Gamora with no memory of the guardians, that is who she hangs with and where she hangs her hat.  Not that she isn’t of course with the OG gurdians almost immediately.

-While the tangent to the big space company didn’t add a ton for me, some setpiece moments did not do all that maybe the other two movies did, I did love to see live action Nathan Fillion get to do more after the first brief alien role and the cut second role.  He had humor and some darker semi-villain role moments.  Just happy he can stretch his legs more.  He doesn’t always get a ton of time to shine in recent James Gunn super hero movies now does he.

-The counter earth may have been a place where things slowed down a bit, but once it all became clear that so much of this was setup showing how so many races were just pawns and flawed experiments from the high evolutionary.  Expendable sentient beings that are showed and killed off without mercy.

-It takes a while for Rocket to wake up and the group to actually be all teamed up as one, but when they do, not only do we get some amazing action scenes, but the casting and role of Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock continues to shine.  His adolescent strong guy vibe works well.  He is imposing, but only up until you realize how empty-headed he is.  That and that actor’s comedic timing just works.  Like really, really well.

-If there is one thing this movie has, is a balance of fun and like really heaved hitting emotional strikes.  So many emotional moments.  I mean, heck they did the whole Harry Potter death purgatory scene but even sadder and better.  Harry didn’t want to die, Rocket kind of did.  But thankfully he gets brought back to live on for his dead animal friends.  All for Lyla, Teefs, and Floor.  

-The fight with everyone was actually pretty brutal, in the best possible way.  Not cutting anyone in half length-wise, but there was fluid going everywhere and some brutal either kills or maiming.  Not to the level of the hallway Netflix MCU scenes, but closer to that over a lot of other things we have seen of late.

-And this scene was of course important, but while we didn’t get the Drax closure we wanted in End Game or Infinity War, seeing him be the one to talk to, entertain, and save all of the newly created children, that was some big dad energy that we were once again maybe not expecting, but man did it help with his character arc and growth.  He was introduced as a destroyer, but he was a dad first and he ended his arc, just being a good dad to a bunch of orphan kids.

-Also, seeing the backstory of the high evolutionary’s face being all messed up, part of Rocket’s initial retribution to what it looks like under there after they kick his ass.  That was a satisfying moment.  Now they surprisingly let him live, but at least they knocked him down a few pegs.  

-But crazily enough, they save all the animals and people, but Quill almost dies going after his music player.  And while that felt super out of left field, I know there was a reason, but it did lead to Quill being saved from almost dying like Yondu did in the last one by a now good guy Adam Warlock.  Also, yes it was brief, but at least we got a small Michael Roker moment.  Love that actor from these movies and his redemption arc in Walking Dead, the early seasons.

-The end sends everyone off on their own ways, not all as exciting as others, but there is for sure something cool about Peter finally going home to earth to see his grandpa and the new guardians.  Groot and Rocket being the only original members of the team now along with Kraglin, Cosmo, that Russian talking dog who did add some fun parts to this movie overall, and a reformed Adam Warlock.  So that is the new family in this satisfying collection of Guardians movies.  Has to be one of the most complete franchises of the MCU.  But from this adoptive MCU family to another one, this one also with Vin Diesel.  Just more Corona and somehow less realism.

-Actors

-This Fast franchise is loaded with characters portrayed by big name actors.  After currently 11 entries, that is not surprising.  Especially when they keep bringing people back from the dead.  I’d say the usual people are in this, but pretty much outside of like Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, I will probably never really know the character names of these actors.  And for the most part, we watch these movies to see Ludacris drive cars or submarines and such.  

-But yeah, for a recap, everyone is back here, Michelle Rodriguez, who we just talked about last episode in the lovely D&D movie, Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuel of course from Game of Thrones who has now been in 4 of these, and Sung Kang as Han, one of the many people to come back from the dead in this franchise.  I feel like those are the big-name guys who have the most screen time.  But a lot of these people who are littered in this franchise get some time to shine at least, Jordana Brewster who I pretty much only knew from this series, I feel like I always forget between her and Rodriguez which one is the sister and which one is the wife of Dom.

-Remember when Luke Evans was in this Fast and Furious franchise?  Well I do, I enjoyed him as the big bad, but people have sort of forgot about him in these in lieu of his movie brother played by star of the Expendables franchise and the Meg, apparently movies, Jason Statham.  But all things aside, I really do like him, he has done some stellar work with Guy Ritchie movies like Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, we don’t talk about Revolver here.  And of course, Italian Job, the movie that got him seen by most of us and probably got him into this other car franchise.  And according to my dad, that one scene in the beginning of Homefront.  I bet you don’t remember that one.  But yeah, this really is just a JS appreciation post.  We love him on this podcast.

-He is not super in this movie, more like a small cameo like Brie Larson, Scott Eastwood, and surprisingly Helen Mirren.  That one is probably the craziest of all these.  How did they get her in this franchise after all?  Still waiting for them to bring back Cardi B after the last entry.  I assumed she was part of the Family!  Coronas and all.

-I know we just met John Cena as this franchise is concerned.  And while he may not be the longest tenured one, he is for sure a fun addition.  Maybe it is blending his Peacemaker character a bit, but his no-nonsense character from the last movie has a ton more fun now that he too is part of the family.

-Charlize Theron has now been in like 3 of these movies.  Two as the clear main villain.  They have redeemed villains before, but not like this.  Cipher, this tech woman who also just kills people sometimes, but I do wonder if they are gonna end up forgiving her and letting her join the group.  I doubt it, but this new movie does subvert some expectations which I of course like.

-It may be a known thing, but wow has Alan Ritchson grown as an actor that I am all about.  Sure, he played the dumb jock well in Blue Mountain State, but from his Hunger Games time to all his super hero work, I am happy to see him getting more time to shine, that and his scenes from Reacher on Tik Tok for sure make me want to check that out.  But for sure it was fun to see him take on another franchise, even in a supporting role.

-Now there are a ton of villains in this series who have come and gone, most have died.  Not all, but most.  And while Wa-Keem De All-me-Duh may not be the most memorable of the villains, I feel like a lot of fun things happened in Fast 5, sometimes that and 4 get super mixed up with one another.  But he has some great stints in tv shows overall and bringing him back for a small stint here, going back to the past for the sake of the future of the story of this franchise is a fun idea.  There is no clear trajectory for this franchise, but after this movie there is the idea of a revenge tour.  But to the new villain of the movie and potentially the future of the franchise.  Jason Momoa.  I don’t think there were too many ideas or expectations for him in this, either overall or by the fits he had on in all the trailers and such.  But as we get into this episode, there are so many good vibes around his casting and character.

-Fast X

-Plot is sort of secondary to Fast & Furious movies, but there is one that exists.  Can I tell you what happens in every entry and what the story is?  No, not really no.  There have been all sorts of things now with car races and heists going to submarines, spy satellites, and yes, even space.

-I can’t nevessarily tell you the plot of every movie or how we got here, but Dominic Toretto continues to steal things, grow his surrogate family, loose some members along the way, but they normally come back from the dead and pop up again.  Not as zombies though, this franchise has yet to dabble with that, even with the rumor of a Jurassic Park crossover.  The synergy would be strong with that one Universal Pictures.

-But assuming things don’t get Jurassic up in here, instead this franchise finds a way to go back to the past to try and find a second gear to take this franchise to overdrive and off into the sunset as it eventually finds a finish line for a race that started way back in 2001.

-The first 3 kind of stand out as their own with the OG 2 and whatever your opinion on Tokyo Drift is.  Once we get to Fast 6, I start to combine things when the British are coming with Statham and Owens, a lot of Chalize Theron, and eventually to where we are with John Cena and eventually now to Jason Momoa.

4 and 5 really blend together with the only major defining thing to break them apart is that the second one is the first of these movies with The Rock.  

-But 5 is the one that we are transported back to watching with Hernan Reyes, the big bad there, having a son played by our shining beacon of a hero of Aquaman, Jason Momoa.  

-I have talked about this before of not loving throwing lore that previously did not exist into a franchise retroactively, my favorite goofy slasher franchises are both guilty of this.  But actually, filming scenes and having some more realized moments that more of show another side of a story, it honestly felt better to me.  At least it was more believable for sure compared to giving Dom another sibling in the 10th entry.

-So, the last movie ended happily enough, but once again the crew is off on another globe-trotting adventure to, I guess this time just save the world?  They are either doing that or stealing stuff, sometimes stealing stuff to save the world.  

-This whole Agency group really changes things up a bit of a government group that the Dom family, Domily?  TBD if I will stick with that, they partner up with.  That was the whole Kurt Russell among others group, now Alan Ritchson is in charge of it.  But Dom is doing the domestic life so he can’t go bop around Italy to do something with a chip.  But I guess it is all a trick, which now makes way more sense with the reveal at the end of the movie with how this should have been easy to tell.

-So, what started as a classic F&F car heist to get some computer or chip eventually becomes a frame job and a race against the clock to stop a big ass metal ball bomb rolling around in Italy, and on fire.  I am in disbelief that a bomb on fire rolling around somehow never goes off, I am shook and weak at the same time.

-While Dom goes to save that family, he leaves his very real family after seemingly series regular villain Cyper tells them about the whole plot.

-All of this pales in comparison to just how much fun Jason Momoa is here.  He is hamming it up big time that would throw 90’s Batman villains to shame.  He is the reason to watch this movie.  You can like the cars and some of the actors, but he is the reason here.  From goofing around one second to menacing the next all with fire flamboyant fits.  I can’t explain how much he brings to spice up this somewhat repetitive franchise.

-It is not bad, you do the same thing with Expendables, Rambo, and a ton of other franchise that mostly give you more of the same.

-While the introduction was late and a bit much last movie, I really am happy here with John Cena.  His character is less dark like his last movie, but he is a bit more inspired by his Peacemaker character, especially from the HBO Max, now just Max, show.  And he gets a good chunk of time to shine either beating up guys throughout the Toretto house to getting his nephew safely to his hideout.  

-I for sure forgot about the big spy satellite in this franchise as the way to track seemingly everyone, but those plot points are not why we are here.  

-They do try to go vintage with having just a race to have a race with the villain but by the end it really doesn’t matter.  Other than have Cypher have a reluctant team up and a shocking reveal for Gal Gadot also being alive in this franchise, like Han, who we have to reunite in the next one, this all boils down to a big driving race moment of having Dom and John Cena race drive against Momoa to save their son/nephew, Lil B I think?

-I kind of forget what the rest of the Domily do outside of hang out with Pete Davidson for a smidge.  But really the big end points, John Cena having a car with in-essence cannons is cool to see, but gosh darn is it almost immediately broken.  That and him having to sacrifice himself to kind of save his nephew, it is emotional for sure.  But let’s be real, is he for real dead or will he come back too?  You just never really know.

-But what we do know is that we for sure have like the first person seemingly in Dom’s family betray them with Alan Ritchson, also shown later on in that Fast 5 flashback scene to always be working with Momoa and outside of that, the Pete Davisdon tangent crew might be blown up and Dom is at the bottom of a Dam with his son, alive for now.

-But the craziest most unbelievable surprise has to be that after the big off-screen feud, The Rock will be back for the sequel after a post credit scene.  No clue where all this is going or how many more movies will end up coming out before the checkered flag waves for the final time.  But this cliffhanger ending had one fun unique thing going for it.  And it is all thanks to the fun that Momoa brings to a villain role, something he is not known for.

- Actors

-As before, these movies are once again loaded up with a-list actors and some franchise returners, some are both.  Our titular lead is once again played by Shah-Meek Moore, still as strong as ever.  Outside of that, the main folks are pretty well-known vets or well up-and comers.  Bryan Tyree Henry is once again finding another role to crush his comedic energy, right following up his Bullet Train role, here as Jeff Morales.  Hailee Steinfeld has an expanded and more flushed out role as Gwen Stacey, the franchise feels like it has something closer to 2 leads now.

-Be it Scrubs or Dexter, obviously Dexter for me, you will still recognize Luna Lauren Velez’s voice as Rio Morales.  I was and never will be a New Girl guy, but I have enjoyed Jake Johnson in a number of things, and as the most Peter Parker we get in this franchise, he really does do some wonderful things with this role.  

-Some of the big-name voices are cameos, but I have to say it was super cool and fun to see all of the pop culture cameos, including archival beats from the first two live action movie Spider-Men with Garfield and Maguire.  But more unique, it has to be Peggy Lu from the Venom Franchise, that had to be the most unexpected neat moment, in all her live action glory.  

-Well that and of course a yet unseen Prowler outfitted Donald Glover reprising his role (maybe) from Spider-Man Homecoming.  You never really really know with multiverse variants if that is foreshadowing or just a nod to the history.  The last Spider-Man, played by Holland, did not get any time to shine.  But at least he got a shout-out.

-Outside of that, you might also have recognized the voices of JK Simmons being a version of J Jonah Jameson and 2 of the 3 Lonely Island men got voice roles in this, the lucky men being Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg.

-Other fun ones are another version of Mah-her-shah-la Ali’s Prowler, another super hero role for Jack Quaid, and coming off Bodies, Bodies, Bodies Amandla Stenberg joins in on the fun.  The list goes on and on with some of the big adds being another big-name Super Hero role for Oscar Isaac as the semi-villain Miguel O’Hara, Jason Schwartzman as another semi-to the main villain, and I wish he would come back to Black Panther, but at least Daniel Kah-lue-yah can have a part to play in this franchise.

-And while his name may not be household, I do like Shea Whigham pretty much after his long-standing role in Boardwalk Empire.  

-While that is all right as rain, there was no Nicholas Cage speaking role in this movie.  Hopefully and likely enough that will change with the third of these and most likely end cap to a lovely trilogy.  That is the last of this all so let’s get to the plot finally.

-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

-I don’ know what I needed or wanted from a sequel to Sony’s animated Spider-Man masterpiece with these Miles Morales focused movies.  But I of course was cool with more.

-The last one really focused heavily on this lead and had a few other Spider variants messing around in his story, his universe, and his rogue’s gallery.  We didn’t meet a ton, but we met enough.  This movie decided to give us a bit more backstory on the other two most important members, a lot a lot more Gwen Stacey and eventually a bit more of our fun New Girl acted Peter Parker who became not just another spider-man, but a spider dad.

-Gwen gets the backstory of how she became her universe’s spider-person, which maybe more comic savant people have heard before, but with the MCU and now the DCEU swan song doing multiverses, there are so many other stories that get to be told.  And original or not, seeing Peter Parker become the Lizard only to have Gwen kill him on accident and have her father blame her alter ego for that death, it is both classic Spider-Man and just a good heartbreaker.  That was an emotional and powerful way to kick things off before seeing Miles again.

-And it has to be said before that, holy hell was that sound mix horrid to start.  The Gwen V/O probably had some important stuff in there.  But we for sure as shoot never heard it in the first 3 minutes of the movie.  The drum sounds and mix was wayyyyy too hot.  Thankfully this only happened here, but gosh dang was it bad.  I heard it was coming, but that was the easiest where’s Waldo to find the problem area I have ever played.

-But outside of that, the creativity and animation styles here are once again super cool, obviously we meet more spider-people with the Oscar Isaac vampire spider-man leading an entire group of spider people/things.  Never forget the peter parked car and the T-Rex one, Pter Ptarker.  But starting off with a Leonardo DaVinci flying machine inspired vulture, super cool, especially for a fan of the Assassins creed early games and the Ezio storyline.  Bring more of those games to the Switch ASAP please!

-But outside of me craving more Switch games, happy for the eventual Arkham City to come, preferably not on Cloud gaming.  But to this story, it was as per-usual heartbreaking when that parent figure has to make that choice about what to do when they eventually discover their kid is a spider-person.  Sometimes, most time they are cool-ish with it, but more often than not, that person dies shortly after.  But seeing Gwen’s dad not accept her while threatening to arrest her, tough emotional moment for sure.

-But to the Miles story.  It is a bit of a coming of age story next step, kind of makes sense with the last movie of just butting heads a bit with your parents over odds and ends, and the one thing that happens to all spider people, being late to things, like all the time.  Classic example of course being Pizza time from spider man 2.  It is the worst thing of more quicksand of the more you save the day, the more you are late for personal life engagements, and the repercussions make scheduling and timing harder, especially fighting crime, the usual problem for these webslingers.

-That and being lonely, another spider-person thing, in his case, Miles is missing Gwen.  But this movie takes that loneliness out of it a bit for most spider-people with this whole group of them from all across the spider-verse, like the name of the movie. 

-Now with all of that, comes the creation and introduction of ‘The Spot”.  Can’t say I am familiar with this member of the rogues gallery.  There are so many well-known ones, and this just feels like another Polka Dot man from DC and that recent Suicide Squad movie.  

-Not sure all of that stuff, but that quote of Jeff Morales telling Spiderman during a villain monologue, why did you create that guy, I love when that scene comes up on my Tik Tok feed.  I actually like the idea here of someone getting, seemingly lame powers, that are also making it impossible to hide them, they are always there, like the old X-Men movies, and I guess all X-Men properties discuss.  But it is a villain by circumstance that through weird events, the hero actually made.  And while he starts as what we think of as a villain of the week, this is one of the final straws to becoming this outlandish and aggressive villain that is somehow scarier than anything from that first one.  Yes, OG Prowler had some moments, but not like this.  Not like this.

-Now we don’t really get to have the same cast of spider people, that would be too repetitive.  So now the big ones are Hobie Brown, Spider Punk, and Pavitr Parbhaker.  Gotta love the continued spider person intro sequences we get of them all having their own world and love interest and tragic backstory.  And while I love all this, and Lego spider-man, that whole thing being animated by a kid, this is all just a way to show our more minor inconvenience bad guy to absorbing all this energy to become something and someone else, a real problem.

-That and this brings the concept of canon events in spider persons lives.  All the time travel rules in all these movies exploring that and multiverses, this is a big no no rules moment here.  You mess up one of those, someone dying usually, it messes up the whole timeline and it disappears.  So many multiverse rules, so little time.

-Then we meet someone else who could be considered a villain of the story, the latest Oscar Isaac super character, Miguel O’Hara.  Not a real villain, but a real problem for our main spider people.  Also, unrelated, remember when Chris Pine voiced the Spiderman who died in the first of these movies?  Just throwing it out there.

-And once we get to the spider coalition, we start to see some of the fun cameos, before that we did have Peggy Lu again from her Venom role, a Donald Glover in live action dressed in the Prowler outfit, and archival footage of both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire movie roles.  Never did get Tom Holland, but we will have to live with a reference to him I guess.

-This storyline has familiar elements here and there, trying to replace yourself in a happy universe, multiverse of madness did it too, but there is a hint or a redemption arc where Miguel gets to atone for that, where they just killed of Wanda in MOM.

-Now having had his uncles death already, you figure Miles was done with deaths in the family.  But between the notion of him not being a real spider-man to saying his dad will die to be his actual cannon event, maybe you can have multiple?  Miles has to fight off every other spider man besties his 2 first movie friends here with Gwen and the Jake Johnson spider man to get back to hopefully his world to save his dad.  

-Now things don’t go according to plan as I expected, with a 2 part movie, someone was going to die, or there was going to be a cliff hanger.  This one was the later, and with some fun cliff hangers, Gwen gets some closer from her dad, a good story but not as much time was spent there throughout, more beginning and end, before she talks to Miles’ parents and gathers the gang from the first and second movies to help save Miles.

-Now where is he, in another multiverse, one where his dad is dead, his uncle aaron is alive, and he has a multiverse version of himself as the prowler.  Crazier things happen and we are left wondering what happens in the next entry.

-And before I get to the end, music is important in this movie too, not as much as some of the guardians movies, but I have to say, the first spiderverse movie had a better soundtrack, it has to be said.

-So, a lot happens in this movie, and I feel like the consensus is this one is better than the first one.  But that is not my take, it is another solid entry, but I miss the smaller more personal storyline of the first one.  And like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and the recently watched by me Twilight movies, this movie and my opinion on it as a 2 part movie will depend by a more defined legacy after seeing what the other part looks like. 

-So 3 movies up and 3 movies down, but it is that time of the show for some letterboxd content.

-Letterboxd ratings:

- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – 4 stars

- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – 3.5 stars

- Fast X – 3 stars

-wrap/call to action

-So that is all the time we have for this episode.  Fast X was totally fine all things considered.  You know what you get with one of these movies, and they all have been fine and fun, like Expendables but with cars.  This is no exception.  But man, what a way to wrap up the Guardians franchise and also have a certified smash hit in Phase 5 of the MCU.  Super important following the less than stellar first movie of the bunch with Ant-Man 3.  But let us not wallow or linger in bad vibes.  

-Lastly, another fine entry in these Spider-Man movies for Sony.  These animated movies have been strong and gosh I hope they can stick the landing in 2024.  All 3 of these movies were in it.  Either fun, or good and fun.  

-So, what do you think of these franchises.  Has the Guardians franchise been doing some good things overall for you and what have you thought of the trajectory of the Fast & Furious franchise?  And if you had to pick a favorite, which Spider-Verse movie has the lead for you so far?  Let me know on social media at Nick Nack Movies and Nick Nack underscore IC on Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and of course as the movie man I am, Letterboxd.  Can’t wait to see you there so cheers and as always, until next time cinephiles!