Working from home presents an opportunity to take lunch over a movie. ‘The Rona’ has affected the movie production industry in Hollywood adversely. Not only arse they not shooting, but it is not feasible to release any movies during this pandemic because releases make money from cinemas! 

Yes, which is one of the places we cannot go to due to ‘The Rona’. So no one in their right mind will launch anything right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars go into the making of these movies (even the flopped ones), so we know the movie makers will try as much as possible to push release dates further so that people can go to the premiers. 

We saw some great film productions in the last year that promised sequels that are worth the wait. Some adopted the MCUs post-credit sequel introductions, yet others just begged for sequels with their abrupt endings, …which were more like beginnings, really. Some franchises succeed at this sequel thing. Others disappoint and make you wish you hadn’t waited with bated breath for that heart-wrenching letdown! But we hope that these will not disappoint.

1. Black Widow

If you are an MCU fan (like I am), you know this one will be lit! It is an origin story of Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) played by Scarlett Johansson, who has been in the franchise since its (Chronological) inception in Captain America – The First Avenger. She is portrayed as a highly trained (former) spy who can manipulate people (bad guys, usually) to give up pivotal details of their plans, which she then uses to foil said plans. She is a skilled fighter who has held her own against “gods” and enhanced humans. She is easy on the eyes, too. 

We are eager to see this one because she left a tear or two in many eyes at the cinemas with her performance in Avengers Endgame. It will be marvelous (Ahem! Get it?) to see what made her tick, now that she is “dead”. I hope MCU doesn’t make that cliché move ofmaking her death out to be fake or something!

• Aquaman 2

Aquaman “entered” the DCU with the Justice League movie (where they made Superman’s death in Superman Vs. Batman out to be a fake!) He had one iconic line in that movie, “Mah men!” Haha. Aquaman was punishing to watch-for me. It had a tad too many plot conveniences. The introduction of the two villains (Manta’s pirating grandson and Orm, Aquaman’s half brother) was a poor choice. Black Manta’s (the grandson to Manta) character was not given enough time to develop. I made it through the whole movie alive…and disappointed.

So I am waiting for Aquaman 2 to redeem the first. Now that he has that spangle-y new mermaid suit and a hot chic on his side, I hope we can erase those bad plot conveniences and get some real writing done!

• A Quiet Place 2

This movie thrilled me. Yes. I found myself asking my children to be silent for no reason at times! I kept thinking about scenarios where we would definitely all be eaten because of all the noise they were making! 

It was a good one. It had a few inconsistencies and plot conveniences, but all in all, it was quite a good watch. I will gladly watch the sequel.

• Mulan

Okay! Okay! I know this one is not a sequel. This is the live action of the animation Mulan which gave us beautiful shower songs like “When will my reflection show who I am inside” and “Please Bring Honor to Us All” I loved those! I love these live actions that Disney is doing with their classic cartoons. We saw what a success the 2017 Beauty and the Beast was (It helps that Dan Stevens was there…and My, is a beautiful beast or what!).

They changed a few songs from the original cartoon (like they omitted “Human Again” entirely). Still, it was good to hear “How Does a Moment Last Forever” and the new lyrics to “Kill the Beast” which were absolutely hilarious! Haha!

The bar is set high for this one. I am keeping my eyes peeled!

• No Time to Die

Yikes! Another James Bond movie! They are even running out of titles! 

Fine, so let us see if this will be the last time Daniel Craig will play James Bond. Mother might have to recruit a younger, more expressive agent, because (let’s be honest) Craig has only two expressions, and one is just an intense version of the other! He reminds me of Steven Seagal! LOL! No, not Schwarzenegger! He plays a robot, it is allowed!

Okay, so these are top five on my To-watch list for upcoming movies.

I have also enjoyed the following (IMO underrated) movies:

1. Downsized
2. Bad Boys for Life
3. Gemini Man
4. Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse
5. Dolittle

And some throw backs:

1. Dr. Dolittle (of course, after watching the Robert Downey one, I had to watch the Eddie Murphy one!)
2. (And while I was binging on Eddie Murphy, I watched the funniest movie ever made! LOL!) Norbit
3. How to Train Your Dragon
4. The Great Wall (The CGI fight sequences were so cool!)
5. The Dictator (I just added this here so that you know better than to disagree with me! #indexfingertothoat Hahaa. No, really, I like that movie…#indexfingertothroat

Let us know what you are looking forward to. We will be glad to dig up those juicy morsels of what to expect when we can do this at the Cinemas again!

Author: Selinah O’wakwabi