Marvel movies take a great deal of (often very warranted)
heat for being overly similar. It’s one thing to create an overarching
aesthetic in a shared cinematic universe and lay out markers that identify a film
as a piece of a larger work. It’s another when every film cranked out starts to
feel like the same damn thing. The comic book giant’s latest endeavor, the
mystical adventure Doctor Strange, is unique in that it both
manages to buck this trend while falling face-first into most of the pitfalls.
Marvel takes a lot of flack for their movies being a bit
same-y, which isn’t an entirely unfounded complaint. They’ve taken steps to mix
things up lately, most notably with Guardians of the Galaxy,
but later this year they’re going to take things in an entirely different
direction with Doctor Strange. And if you need proof that
this is like nothing we’ve witnessed thus far in the MCU, check out the new
trailer that just hit the airwaves.
Heists, dirty cops, shifting loyalties, betrayal, constant
tension, the Russian mob, more bullets than you can possibly count, copious
explosions, an incredible cast, and the guy who directed both The
Road and The Proposition. Ask me what I want in a
movie and I’ll likely read off most of the things I just listed, all of which
figure prominently in director John Hillcoat’s new crime film, Triple
9. All of the pieces are in place, and though this is a solid, grim offering,
one that I enjoyed well enough, Triple 9 never offers any
surprises and watches like scraps of other crime movies stitched together in
ways that don’t always fit. There are shades of Heat,
Sicario, Training Day, and more, but the
end result is a scattered, if exciting, dark, and passable thriller.
