Universes of Future Past - The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Review

Director: Matt Shakman

Notable Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles

 

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is gorgeously designed to look like it's caught in a time vortex between "the future" and 1960s New York City. It's the kind of production design that ought to catch some Oscar buzz early next year, and it's a shining example of some of the intriguing aspects of this "first" film of the new phase of the MCU. Right away from the trailers, one could tell that there was going to be a little more thought and effort thrown into the mix for this latest adaptation of Marvel’s First Family. To be fair, there was no way it could be worse than Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four (2015).

 

However, First Steps is also a film that seems to be caught in a time vortex between moving the MCU forward in refreshing ways and maintaining the status quo. For every progressive choice it makes for the franchise, it seemingly takes a step or two back out of fear of moving too far away from the blueprint that has made the MCU a movie juggernaut. It's an unfortunate balancing act that never seemingly manages to find its momentum and leaves one wondering what First Steps might have been with just a smidge more courage.

 

Kickstart My Heart - Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) Review

Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara

Notable Cast: Kikunosuke Toya, Reina Ueda, Shiori Izawa, Tomori Kusunoki, Shogo Sakata, Fairouz Ai, Karin Takahashi, Natsuki Hanae, Yuuya Uchida, Maaya Uchida

 

The first season of the Chainsaw Man anime absolutely had me hook, line, and sinker. I was so taken by its strange tonal balances, cinematic moments, and the sheer lunacy of its violence and tragedies that I ended up purchasing every volume of the manga. And I purchase each new volume on day one of its release in the US. But the anime is now three years old, no season two has come, and the animation studio behind it seemed far more interested in other projects than continuing on with the sensational anime. 

 

Turns out, they were working on a theatrical film to continue the animated adaptation. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc is perhaps a perfect distillation of everything fantastic about the Chainsaw Man anime. It’s a relatively tight package —a shorter story arc within the larger story — that distills all the tonal insanity, gory action, and emotional collateral damage of the series into an impressively crafted feature-length film that exemplifies the modern anime film. 

 

Spooktacular Tapes: V/H/S/Halloween (2025) Review

Directors: Bryan M. Ferguson, Anna Zlokovic, Paco Plaza, Casper Kelly, Alex Ross Perry, Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman

 

It was once reasonably reliable, for at least a decade or so, that if it were the Halloween season, we would get one new entry into a major horror franchise. It was Saw for a while, then Paranormal Activity, and then there seemed to be a gap. That is, until Shudder decided to bring together a new V/H/S entry each October. Truthfully, I was a fan of the series from the first film, even when its quality ebbs and flows, so the decision to make this a yearly event was very welcome in my house. Last year, they started to morph the anthology series into more thematic entries, with the sci-fi slanted V/H/S/Beyond, so with bated breath we all awaited to find out what the 2025 edition would be. 

 

Turns out they called it V/H/S/Halloween. Oh. Perhaps not the most thrilling or unique choice for a theme, but here we are.