[EXPRESSO] Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3 (2023) | Third Time’s The Charm

The overdue closing chapter of the beloved Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy if finally here, with its 3^rd volume that does signal an end for this particular line up of characters and their stories.

We know we’ll hear the name “Guardians Of The Galaxy” again, somehow, but let’s make it clear that this feels like the final entry and provides closure, without being too bothered by any overarching or carryover plot points building to anything bigger for what it’s now Phase 5, but in hindsight (given the Johathan Majors controversy and its fallout), maybe that’s for the best.

Volume 3 sees the Guardians chilling in their home base of Knowhere, with Quill still not dealing well with the “Gamora situation”, until a mysterious foe attacks them to capture Rocket, and after failing the gang (including the alternate universe Gamora we got from Avengers Endgame) is forced to confront The High Evolutionary (colluding with the Sovereign race, still hankering for revenge on the Guardians after the events of the second movie), an eugenetics cyborg genius from Rocket’s past, in order to save their friend from imminent death.

As the trailer alluded, this one deals heavily on Rocket’s horrendous origin story by the hand of the villain, The High Evolutionary, which is a truly despicable monster obsessed with creating the “perfectiom” and makes for a very good villain.

It’s no surprise GOTG Vol. 3 had very big expectations to live up to (since it’s also one of the MCU series people loved the most over the years, unsurprisingly so), and i can safely say it does not disappoint, with Gunn still putting out very fun space adventures with cool fight scenes, stylish use of vintage licensed music, good humour, good emotional scenes that pack a punch, great, lovable characters, etc.

Highly recommended.

[EXPRESSO] Halloween Ends (2022) | (Wake Me) Up Inside (When)

If nothing else, Halloween Ends lives up to the name, because it’s indeed the conclusion of this new Halloween trilogy and ideally the series.. for now. We did this dance before.

Burdened withh the unenviable task of basically salvaging the trilogy after Kills destroyed any goodwill Halloween 2018 built up.. Halloween Ends almost manages it.

4 years have passed since the events of Halloween Kills, with Michael Myers vanished and Haddonfield residents reacting in different ways, from blaming it all on Laurie Strode (now writing a book about her experiences) to exploiting the events, but all still trying to move on.

Though the focus isn’t on Laurie Strode so much, but on a new character, Corey, a babysitter that was involved in a fatal accident during on a Halloween night that branded him for life as a psycho.

This brings the narrative into an intriguing direction i won’t spoil, ultimately ties into the Laurie-Michael struggle, and continues to grow the theme of Haddonfield’s being a character in itself, so i can’t deny Halloween Ends does a lot of things that work.

…. for what it WANTS you to remember from the previous movies, hoping that you forgot a lot of the stuff that actually happened in Halloween Kills, and the whole communal aspect it’s undermined by how the script can’t resist making a lot of these people self righteous assholes or bullies in order to make their deaths satisfying. At least Kills didn’t try to have it both ways.

That and the layers of throwbacks to the original movie become kinda tiresome.

Overall, it’s not bad, it’s decent, the series has been a lot better and a lot worse, Halloween Ends it’s just another flawed but enjoyable entry with some good stuff in it as much as squandered ideas.

[EXPRESSO] Full Metal Alchemist The Final Chapter: The Final Alchemy/The Last Transmutation (2022) | Finally Finality Forever

Well, that was quicker than i expected, as part 2 of the finale for the live-action FMA movie trilogy is now available worldwide on Netflix.

For those of you unaware, yep, they made 3 of these things, and btw, SPOILERS beware, because this adapts the final part of the manga, picking up exactly where Scar The Avenger ended, with Envy, Edward and Ling getting swallowed up inside Gluttony… after we’re introduced to Izumi and her husband meeting Hohenheim, father of the Elric brothers.

Then we’re up to the frozen fort of Briggs, meeting Olivia Armstrong, and the whole conspiracy behind the Homunculus, Van Hohenheim and the foundation of Amestris is revealed.

As with the previous movies, there are some changes and cuts to the plot (including some axed characters), , but – as said before – it’s fairly faithful all thing considered, and as one would expect it’s the longer one, almost clocking at 2 hours and a half.

Though i wish it was a bit longer, as in some istances they kinda overdo it and you get the feel that you somehow missed some scenes, as the editor just assumes the audience to already know exactly what was supposed to happen, while rushing, abridging the shit out or outright cutting sequences that were reasonably expected to be included.

Even more odd as this issue could have mostly resolved with 10/15 extra minutes, it’s the final movie of this trilogy and it’s already pretty long, but still, nothing that seriously harms the experience, same for the somewhat inconsistent quality of the cheapish CG for the Homunculus.

Overall, The Last Transmutation it’s on par with the previous FMA live-action movies in terms of quality, it’s decent and mostly faithful, regardless of any “need” for these to exist in the first place.