REVIEW: PROJECT HAIL MARY

4/5

The Rocky/Grace Picture Show

156 Mins. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz & Lionel Boyce. Screenplay: Drew Goddard. Directed By: Phil Lord & Chistopher Miller. In: Theatres & On: Prime Video.

Come with me for the best Hail Mary play since a football pass, or 2Pac song. We already knew mainstream, but nuanced, novelist Andy Weir is right with the teen dreams of Ernest Cline to be today's Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov when it comes to science-fiction writing. Making movies with Ridley Scott and Matt Damon's 'The Martian', surviving life on Mars by harvesting food from farm fertilizing farts. That big blockbuster, is met with this beautiful one, 'Project Hail Mary', as Weir brings more realism to a potential extinction level event, like he did maintaining meal prep on the red planet. Yet this Drew Goddard ('Cloverfield', 'World War Z', 'Daredevil' (see you tomorrow)) adapted screenplay is a lot more fun than the real-world implications of our end of days. Thanks to the lovable directing duo of 'The LEGO Movie', '21 (and 22) Jump Street' and the 'Spider-Verse' chronicles, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. And their kaleidoscope of versed images.

Cloudy, with a chance of asteroids, this project follows the legendary likes of the inspired 'Interstellar' and the cerebral 'Ad Astra' in its, "in space no one can hear you scream...because they've become a 90-year-old in what for you, was nine minutes", ideas. Yet it shares more in common with Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey', or Denis Villeneuve's 'Arrival'...but we will get to all that. The ninth highest-grossing film of 2026, so far, it's just been out a weekend, and it's only March, is also the best Amazon MGM Studios movie since the 'Air' of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recruiting Michael Jordan to Nike really took off. Come fly with this, mind you, on the biggest interstellar IMAX screen of space before it goes to Prime Video streaming war with Netflix and Disney Plus. With Paramount out the bag Netflix was about to offer it, it's anyone's game now and, Amazon has already come prime with Chris Pratt's 'Mercy' and Chris Hemsworth's 'Crime 101'. Forget about 'The War Of The Worlds' product placement debacle.

Yet this is not a Chris (although he has a Lebowski cardigan to rival the cable knit of another Marvel man, Chris Evans in 'Knives Out'), but Ryan Gosling ('La La Land', 'Drive', 'Barbie'). A handsome Hollywood heartthrob playing way too good looking everymen (or Ken), like 'The Fall Guy' stunt, now he's happy and settled down with actress Eva Mendes (meeting on their best movie, 'The Place Beyond The Pines') and their family. Here, 'The Notebook' and 'Blue Valentine' star is a teacher like 'Half Nelson', wearing a yellow slicker that's a drain away from being grabbed by Pennywise. But he's already had 'First Man' astronaut experience. Let alone, science-fiction pedigree, with the brilliant 'Blade Runner 2049' sequel before his very own Star Wars vehicle. He'll need it, as he wakes up alone, like Chris Pratt on 'Passengers', with no memory of who he is, how he got here, or why? Looking like Jesus, and all set to be a saviour. He could pull a Pratt 'Passenger' move and rudely wake the rest of his crew up, but they now belong with the stars.

Heart-breaking, healing and hilarious, 'Project' will leave you crying with longing, and then so, with laughter. And the great Gosling plays it all perfectly, with heart, and the new trademark family movie fury, a la, Tom Hanks. There is a cast and crew, to go with the hot topics from his space storage closet, however. 'Anatomy Of A Fall' and 'The Zone Of Interest' star Sandra Hüller is just incredible after her own year, three years ago, in 2023. Best karaoke since Bill Murray in Tokyo. Whilst there's a buddy Costco comedy brewing with the always great Lionel Boyce, of 'The Bear' and Odd Future fame. But the real scene-stealing star of the show doesn't even have a face (hey, it worked for that dog (was it?) in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'). All credit to the puppet mastery and voice work of James Ortiz (soon to be the Andy Serkis of his collective craft) as the cute character creation Rocky, and a performance that will have you jumping for joy with your hands in the air at the top of the theatre steps. These two won't only try to save the world together, they'll also remake 'La La Land' promotional posters, with a dance just as iconic. Now, that's a sequel I want to see. Make that another 'Hail Mary' that lands. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'The Martian', 'First Man', 'Interstellar'.

REVIEW: PEAKY BLINDERS - THE IMMORTAL MAN

4/5

The Fallen Son

112 Mins. Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Barry Keoghan & Stephen Graham. Screenplay: Steven Knight. Director: Tom Harper. On: Netflix.

Blood is blind, as the sins of the father are visited on the son for 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man', in cinemas and on Netflix. The Steven Knight classic creation (directed by Tom Harper), that has inspired more barbershop crewcuts and flat caps than an old man's pub, getting the BBC Films treatment, much like Idris Elba's 'Luther: The Fallen Sun' in 2023. And akin to that tweed coat and red tie, the suited and booted in the face crime drama feels more like the series it is and always will be, but is great to be shown on the big-screen. 'Peaky Blinders' left our screens about the same time we stopped wearing masks, after six seasons and just over a decade. The last we saw of '28 Days Later' franchise face, Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby, he was an MP for the Labour Party. Since then Murphy's law ('Batman Begins', 'Inception', 'Dunkirk') saw his win a Best Actor Oscar for Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer', by order of the Oscar Academy. An immortal man, indeed.

Yet Cillian returns to the character we know him best for, the Birmingham city gangster, taking out the trash. Albeit looking a little salt and pepper different under that cap (like I can talk). Tooling around his home like Christian Bale's Batman in 'The Dark Knight Rises', writing his memoirs, dressed to the pistol like Daniel Craig, or a Bond audition he swears he's busy for. Crafting character confliction like no other (that used to be his 'Inception' co-star Leonardo's art), haunted to those old blue eyes by the crimes he's committed and the mistakes he's made. The Howard Hughes exile won't last long, mind you, as he's brought back into the fray. And what an entrance to the bar top, as The Garrison is back open for business. Stick a pin in this explosive scene being one of the most epic entrance's in the franchises formidable fire and brimstone run. But what would bring the iconic Tommy Shelby back? How about a dynamite Barry Keoghan? Who is he? The trailer already tells you, but if you're saving it, I'm mum, like the late, great Helen McCrory.

Polly, Arthur and all the Shelby's before are more than missing in action in this big-screen bluster. Yet Keoghan ('The Killing Of A Sacred Deer', 'The Banshees Of Inisherin', 'Saltburn') makes up for all of that like the actor of the moment that he is. A wowzah of a wild-card shooting from the hip, and a big-name who has already shown he's about to hold all the cards as The Joker in 'The Batman' sequel. But this livewire is just like the 'Eternals' star joining Thor and Hulk (AKA Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo) as a blonde bike bomber in 'Crime 101'. Barry looks born to don the cap, and his chemistry with Cillian was already set with what they shared on a boat to 'Dunkirk'. Thick as thieves, or thick as pig s###? As these two get down on the mud before Murphy's Shelby rides through the city on the back of a horse, caked in it, and covered with the reaching palms of his constituents. Now, that's how you look like the legend that you are. Barry may bring it, but Cillian has cultivated it for a decade now. And when he dons the military fatigues you know he's bringing a war with him. Armed or not.

Brutal and beautifully shot and slow burning, yet life learning, 'The Immortal Man' plays a blinder for 'Peaky' lore and disorder. 'Dune' and 'Mission: Impossible' series star Rebecca Ferguson ('The Greatest Showman', 'Life', 'Doctor Sleep') is as underused as she is underrated, yet undeniable. Bringing it recently with Netflix's 'A House Of Dynamite and Amazon MGM Studio 'Mercy'. And most of the Shelby clan may be floating down a canal, but Sophie Rundle is still here and leaving her mark. Elsewhere 'Adolescence' Emmy winner Stephen Graham steps in for a recurring big name, similar to Tom Hardy. Giving us a glimpse of the old Liverpool docks in this great British drama of decades gone that also pays tribute to BSA munitions factory female workforce, who refused to go home when bombs were being dropped all around them. 'Peaky Blinders' has always brought the big names and guns. Sam Neill and Claflin, a brutalist Adrien Brody, and Anya Taylor-Joy. The great Tim Roth is no exception either, shooting it out with Shelby. All for an epic end that will live on in the bleak midwinter of immortality like Nick Cave's red right hand. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Peaky Blinders', 'Oppenheimer', 'Luther: The Fallen Sun'.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: THE RISE OF THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - OUR BROTHER HILLEL

4/5

He Was Red Hot

95 Mins. Starring: Anthony Kiedis, Flea & John Frusciante. Director: Ben Feldman. On: Netflix.

Dave Navarro, Josh Klinghoffer, Will Ferrell? California's band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, have had more legendary former members than there are Lakers jerseys in the Los Angeles' rafters. Such is the nature of line-up changes in rock music, that feels like a sport in itself, the Grammy museum being just across the road from the purple and gold home in Figueroa. No past member, mind you, save the returning John Frusciante, was more of an iconic influence than late, great guitarist Hillel Slovak. The man that the great Frusciante based his own freaky styles on. He's here, on record, to tell you as such. One of the great guitar Gods we lost tragically in 1988, when he was just 26-years-young.

Next New Music Friday, Flea will finally give you his own solo project, 'Honora', that we just have to honour and trumpet. Set to be an instant classic like its iconic album artwork of record dedication love in black and white. The first RHCP release we've been peppered with since 2022's double-delight return of 'Love Unlimited' and the 'Return Of The Dream Canteen'. And this documentary, 'The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel', directed definitively by Ben Feldman, is the perfect precursor to this. Even though the band's official Instagram confirmed that this doc was actually unofficial, despite testimonials from Anthony Kiedis, Flea and John Frusciante...this was before the great Chad Smith's time to shine on the skins. Streaming on Netflix, for their own big weekend, after hitting a home run with the World Baseball Classic, following their strike-out on the Warner Bros. deal. Giving us not only their long-awaited 'Peaky Blinders' movie, 'The Immortal Man', but 'The Comeback' of South Korean pop juggernaut BTS for 'Arirang'.

Slovak was a sweet, sensitive soul, who was taken far too soon by the influence of drugs. In those LA times he was a rider of the storm, without a shirt, like the murals of the legendary Jim Morrison that open the doors to Venice Beach...wide. Hillel would journal like a beat poet and even scrawl sublime sketches that will remind you of the art of John Lennon...all in his own style, mind you. He had such an inspired impact on others. Especially Anthony and Michael...just wait until you hear the story of how he became "Flea". And why for this rise of the Red Hots is this film the perfect set-up for Balzary's solo set, next week? Because Hillel was the one who told Flea he should pick up a bass and slap it, like Este or Ami. Seeing Flea get emotional will break your heart in an utterly moving and sad story as Kiedis gets candid and compelling, too. Hillel Slovak appeared on four Chili Peppers albums, appearing on one track of the magnificent 'Mother's Milk', and the crosswalk with their sock of c###s out, 'The Abbey Road E.P.', but his memory and impression is still on the strings, punctuating their percussion to this day. The Red Hot Chili Peppers don't rise without their brother. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Devo', 'Keith Richards-Under The Influence', 'Red Hot Chili Peppers: Woodstock '99'.

REVIEW: BLUE MOON

4/5

Born To Be Blue

100 Mins. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Jonah Lees, Patrick Kennedy, Bobby Cannavale & Andrew Scott. Screenplay: Robert Kaplow. Director: Richard Linklater. In: Theatres.

Rodgers and Hart's 'Blue Moon', a standard of the great American songbook, sung by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billie Holiday and others, contains words that will leave an indelible impression on your heart. With lines like, "You knew just what I was there for/You heard me sayin' a prayer for/Someone I really could care for." And that's the yearning that burns the back of the lump in your throat, like the bourbon that should have stayed in the bottle, for the barstool counsel of this beautiful and bracing biopic of the same song name. All as the ever-versatile, like 'Hit Man', Richard Linklater ('Dazed and Confused', 'School Of Rock', 'A Scanner Darkly'), off a screenplay from 'Me and Orson Welles' novelist Robert Kaplow, reunites with his 'Boyhood' and 'Before' trilogy frequent collaborator and renaissance man Ethan Hawke ('Dead Poets Society', 'Training Day', 'Moonlight'). Tackling the life of lyricist Lorenz Hart. Straight from the sleeved heart perspective of Hart's own reflections on the night his former colleague Richard Rodgers' and his new partner, Oscar Hammerstein II, became the toast of the town, on Broadway, following the success of their musical 'Oklahoma!' with exclamation.

Ethan Hawke knows when he's beat. At The SAG...excuse me, The Actor Awards last week, you should have seen presenter Viola Davis and then Michael B. Jordan's reaction to him winning the Best Actor award for his dual defining performance in the perfect horror blockbuster 'Sinners'. As Jordan approached the stage humbly, Hawke, in a waistcoat for the ages, just had to stop him after his own loving reaction, as the two men clapped hands and embraced in respect. Ethan nudging him towards his podium like a proud parent so happy to see his contemporary take what is rightfully his. And that's kind of how the Academy Awards should play out with Hawke, and Kaplow, nominated. With all due respect to Leonardo DiCaprio ('One Battle After Another'), Wagner Moura ('The Secret Agent') and Timothée Chalamet ('Marty Supreme'), who may have just derailed his own campaign with those ballet and opera comments, but deserved it more for playing Dylan as 'A Complete Unknown'. The closest to Michael, is Hawke, however, in a perfect performance that is more than just a physical transformation, for an actor who really has been bringing it to his cinematic craft. Especially over the last decade.

From 'Born To Be Blue' to 'Blue Moon', Chet Baker to Lorenz Hart, Hawke now has a knack for playing troubled troubadours in brutal biopics that defy the Hollywood paint by numbers conventions. His conviction has also compelled us to some of his finest work like 'Taxi Driver' writer Paul Schrader's 'First Reformed'. He remade 'The Magnificent Seven', reuniting with Denzel Washington and 'Michael' director Antoine Fuqua. Directed a movie about 'Blaze' Foley. Hunted Billy 'The Kid' as Pat Garrett. Played an electric 'Tesla'. And even left the world behind with Netflix, Julia Roberts and others. But 2025, may have been his, and his 'Stranger Things' starring daughter, Maya's, best year yet. With the one for me, one for you of this and 'The Black Phone 2' Halloween sequel, as a new iconic villain. Not to mention 'The Lowdown' the Emmy's should have got for his "truthstorian." But here, with a barman to client counsel with the great Bobby Cannavale on fine form, he regales us with stories much like the compelling beginning of 'Predestination' when he had the bar towel. Breaking our heart and then touching our funny bone at a turn in equal measure.

Based on the letters between Elizabeth Weiland and Hart's heart, 'Blue Moon' is a lonely night spotlight portrait of a man's charismatic solidarity. You can see it from the lines that shake the beginning of this true story in quotes. Literally making it a Sony Pictures Classic. This comedy and tragedy garnering a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy. The Elizabethan muse in question, played with punch by rising star of our moment Margaret Qualley ('Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood', 'Drive-Away Dolls', 'The Substance' and a couple of Yorgos Lanthimos pictures) in a blonde look set to drop bombshells like her vivid vulnerability. There are big, Hammerstein and Sondheim, names all over the show, but it's Jonah Lees' Morty Rifkin who deserves his introduction for playing piano throughout. Not to mention Patrick Kennedy's 'Stuart Little' writer E.B. White, mostly keeping himself to himself and playing the background. Yet the 75th Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear goes to a sublime Andrew Scott ('Fleabag', 'Ripley', 'All Of Us Strangers') fresh off waking up the dead man, with 'Knives Out'. Now, isn't that just life imitating its art? Still, Hawke, and Hart, will still have their time again, to shine under the bluest of moons. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Maestro', 'A Complete Unknown', 'Born To Be Blue'.

REVIEW: WUTHERING HEIGHTS

3.5/5

In The Heights

136 Mins. Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Ewan Mitchell, Owen Cooper & Martin Clunes. Screenplay: Emerald Fennell. Director: Emerald Fennell. In: Theatres.

Weathering and withering the pages of Emily Brontë's first and only novel (her sisters Anne ('Agnes Grey') and Charlotte ('Jane Eyre') had a few more between them) right down to the spine, 'Wuthering Heights' has been adapted and lifted more times than pride and prejudice put together. It's even an epic Kate Bush song that could outrun the one that Max from 'Stranger Things' uses to free herself from Vecna. Now, following the 1992 classic featuring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, comes the 2026 version and era, produced, written and directed by 'Promising Young Woman' Emerald Fennell in feral mode. Reuniting with the 'Saltburn' of Jacob Elordi and 'Barbie' Margot Robbie to give us a romantic period drama so loosely based on Emily's 1847 text that "Wuthering Heights" is even in quotation marks. Scrawled on to a pane of glass in painful cursive. Yet there's still so much honour for the past that is prelude. So much so, even the promotional poster is gone with the wind. Arching back to the symbolism and shape of things to come.

Fennell has played with 'The Crown', as none other than Camilla Parker-Bowles, and appeared in period pieces like 'Anna Karenina' and 'The Danish Girl' as an actor. But it's behind the camera, where Emerald shines, and is at her most compelling, like in her classic with Carey Mulligan. The former 'Killing Eve' showrunner puts on quite a show here that she has everybody in a fluster. Some degrading critics are calling this disgraceful, but after the colour and shape of things to come in this art form on screen, people will be leeching off of Fennell's style for years. Sure, 'Wuthering Heights' is not perfect. It's not for everybody. But what is in this world where we want to have it our way like the King? Times move on. Even an older guy like me can't complain that the 'Once Upon A Dream' contemporary of Lana Del Rey isn't on the soundtrack. Because great British bold and beautiful singer Charli XCX, and a vocal range that haunts makes this 'Wuthering Heights' soundtrack her own actual album, going Gaga.

Wuthering with you, these heights are more like when Aussie Baz Luhrmann made a gaudy show of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' with Leonardo DiCaprio, Mulligan and Tobey Maguire before these roaring twenties. It really picks up in the third act, and that's not because of all the sex, but all the actual epic emotion behind it. Save for moments of true ignorant and intolerable cruelty that surely must be in the book, because you'll even wish they were left out, like certain infamous parts of Stephen King's 1000 plus page tome of 'IT'. This will have you all in true tears for all it does. And notes on the author, if, like me, you haven't read this book yet, you could literally get it on your Kindle right now (like me) for 14 pence. That might have been a lot of money back in the Brontë day, but you can come up with it and lint, right now. All whilst critics are still coming up with reasons to hate. Like the ridiculous one of superstar and icon Margot Robbie ('I, Tonya', 'Bombshell', 'Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood') being too old for this part. WHAT?! The Barbie and Harley icon who made her mark in 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', giving us one of her best, since Elizabeth I in 'Mary Queen Of Scots' and the ever underrated 'Babylon', is in her prime and perfect here.

Yet, it's Heathcliff that will steal your heart from the margins of this print. The euphoric Jacob Elordi has already played The King, Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's 'Priscilla', and he's just garnered an Oscar nomination for haunting as Oscar Isaac's creature in Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' epic on Netflix. Truly understanding the pain behind Mary Shelley's classic novel. And now he gets to do it with another legendary woman's words and work in another English literature epic. Seducing you, this young prince even has the look to show you he could play McCartney, with all due respect to the great Paul Mescal, whom deservingly so, will. The last moment he shares with 'Star Trek: Discovery' star Shazad Latif (The Jekyll and Hyde of 'Penny Dreadful') will break you, but what he does to fellow 'Saltburn' star Alison Oliver is unforgivable. Elsewhere 'The Whale', 'Kinds Of Kindness' and 'The Menu' star Hong Chau ('Inherent Vice', 'Downsizing', 'Asteroid City') steals the show, like she always does. Whilst Ewan Mitchell and legend Martin Clunes really are men behaving badly. Yet it's the 'Adolescence' of Emmy winner Owen Cooper who really reveals Heathcliff's heart. No one else hits those heights. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Frankenstein', 'Mary Queen Of Scots', 'The Great Gatsby'

TV REVIEW: LOVE THROUGH A PRISM

4/5

The Colour Of Love

20 Episodes. Starring: Atsumi Tanezaki, Koki Uchiyama, Megumi Han, Yōhei Azakami, Shogo Sakata, Yuki Kaji, Akari Kitō, Yūko Kaida, Junichi Suwabe, Sumire Uesaka & Hōchū Ōtsuka. Created By: Yoko Kamio. On: Netflix.

Love is the greatest art and early twentieth-century London serves as the compelling canvas for the new Netflix anime 'Love Through A Prism' from 'Boys Over Flowers' author Yoko Kamio (also adapted into a manga in the same month from 'Special A' student Maki Minami). Now, it's brushes over boys, or maybe not one, as a Japanese student from Yokohama heads to the Big Smoke to make her dreams of being the next Van Gogh, Matisse, or Hokusai come true. The voice of Anya Forger from anime megahit 'Spy x Family', Atsumi Tanezaki, plays the plucky lass, Lili, and you'll barely be able to recognize that it's her as she enters a great British school of art on the parental proviso that if she doesn't come top of her class within six months, she's to come back on the next ship heading for the port town that this writer now calls home in the Land of the Rising Sun.

If this all seems a little paint by numbers, then just you wait until you see the sketching pencil thrown into the blue paint works. Lili thought she already had her work cut out for her, from her literal fish pie mornings, to keeping up with a scholar (Hōchū Ōtsuka) who likes to quote Shakespeare more times than the Globe Theatre. But now she's literally met her match in the stoic Kit Church (Koki Uchiyama) who would rather break a pencil than crack a smile. But he'll offer you a piece of bread covered in charcoal, like he was a beggar on the streets running by the Thames he sketches, like the Houses Of Parliament. Now wouldn't it be something if our young Japanese exchange student fell in love with said passion project rival? Wanting Church to call Lili his one and only like The Smashing Pumpkins song for all this melancholy. You'll certainly fall in love with this amazing anime of brushstroke beauty. Big Ben looking bold as such, with some classic Cotswolds countryside takes to deliver you from the big city bluster.

There's even a Marks & Spencer's, like this was Hong Kong, for this Far East hit. Yet, it's when this London creative calling animation heads back home to Japan that things get really traditional for the iconic Japanese art form. Beautiful black and white stroking and serenading you to the pan crackling sizzles of the old film style, sounding like a needle has been dropped on a record. Ending this twenty-episode serial, that never gets old, with a Holy Trinity, heaven sent, big-three. There will be fireworks too, my new city is famous for them, as you'll never know quite where the paint will run in this anything but predictable plot. Voice actor stars Megumi Han, Yōhei Azakami, Shogo Sakata, Yuki Kaji, Akari Kitō, Yūko Kaida, Junichi Suwabe, Sumire Uesaka round out the rest of the cast in the pub that turns this all into one of the modern day's greatest art form's best works. With the blooming 'Star Flower' of Chilli Beans in closing, following Naoki 'naotyu-' Chiba's terrific theme. Through a prism of love, this has all the colours or rich vibrancy and life itself. Hang it in the grandest of galleries to look through. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Violet Evergarden', 'Kids On  The Slope', 'Miss Hokusai'.

TV REVIEW: WONDER MAN - Season 1

4/5

Wonderful 

8 Episodes. Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sir Ben Kingsley, X Mayo, Zlatko Burić, Arian Moayed, Byron Bowers, Joe Pantoliano & Josh Gad. Created By: Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Guest. On: Disney +.

Acting right, isn't it a wonder that they always say this about Marvel? The Los Angeles Lakers like hated franchise of entertainment. They drop a few duds, more like misfires, and everyone from newsprint to social media columns says that it's over. Only for them to lament the grand return when we see Robert Downey Jr. at Comic Con with a different iron mask, and Cap back on task for a dominant 'Doomsday' trailer that's bringing all the universes together, even those old X-Men favourite's playing original dress-up, like 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Marvel Television has already had genre bending hits ('WandaVision') with real depth. Let alone inspired instantly bingeable shows, released differently than their usual week-by-week scheduled programming ('Echo'). Because of that, critics were quick to call this one bad, when little hype and nary a trailer accompanied 'Wonder Man' in his Hollywood one. Until, like any young limelight upstart, this different, all the way to the credits, tough act to follow proved everyone wrong with its name in bright yellow lights.

Marvel Spotlight has already shone its gaze on a wider view of their comic-book world of graphic novels in gorgeous black and white. See the Halloween special 'Werewolf By Night', in colour, too, like the forthcoming 'Spider-Noir', starring 'Ghost Rider' Nicolas Cage on Amazon Prime. And a midseason break for this eight-episode wonder brings an actual comic character called Doorman (a brilliant Byron Bowers) to your front one. Even if it is 'Frozen' star Josh Gad who steals the show. He's not the only real actor getting in on the act of things, playing a fictional version of himself with epic exaggeration. How about 'The Matrix', 'The Fugitive' and 'Bad Boys' star Joe Pantoliano really showing you you shouldn't meet your heroes? Because this superhero story, from 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' and 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' director Destin Daniel Cretton and 'Hawkeye' producer Andrew Guest ('30 Rock', 'Community', 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine') on Disney Plus, is about the making of one. 'Wonder Man', the classic TV show and the Stan Lee, Don Heck and Jack Kirby character with ionic energy. Ionic Man anyone? We already have a Wonder Woman.

Not to be confused with a DC Amazonian princess played by Gal Gadot, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ('The Get Down', 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'The Adventures Of Cliff Booth') really is superpowered. After cutting his teeth in blockbusters like 'Baywatch' with The Rock and Hugh Jackman's 'The Greatest Showman', Yahya played Black Panther Bobby Seale in 'The Trial Of The Chicago 7', became 'Candyman' (after joining 'Us' with Jordan Peele) and even channelled Laurence Fishburne perfectly as Morpheus for 'The Matrix Resurrections'. Now the 'Ambulance' star is about to continue his terrific television run, taking over Denzel Washington's role as a 'Man On Fire'. But this hero for hire has already tried on capes on the other side of the street. Whether playing the Black Manta villain for the 'Aquaman' franchise, or pulling a Jason Mamoa Lobo and appearing beautifully in the HBO 'Watchman' show which we still shouldn't spoil. He even fought Captain America himself on 'Black Mirror'...and then some.  Yet through all of this, he was born to play Wonder Man, like this movie's director, played by 'Triangle Of Sadness' actor Zlatko Burić. The same man Hawkgirl dropped to his death in 'Superman' with a sexy look.

Marvel makes mistakes, sure, but the K.E.V.I.N. machine really knows how to pivot, and tie everything back together in a bold and beautiful bow. Because it's still all connected. In the worst example of whitewashing turned on its meta head, the M.C.U. made the legendary 'Iron Man' villain The Mandarin, a classically trained British bloke who loves football...I'm not calling it soccer. Pardon me, that English gentleman in different drapes was none other than the legendary Sir Ben Kingsley ('Lucky Number Slevin', 'Shutter Island', 'Hugo'). The Shakespearean actor who was both 'Gandhi', and a 'Sexy Beast'. Those who hated the 'Iron Man 3' twist found solace in the One Shot 'All Hail The King' with Scott McNairy. All before the one and only Trevor Slattery stole the show in Cretton's 'Shang-Chi' as the perfect surprise. Now, in 'Wonder Man', Kingsley gives more depth of heart and humour to Slattery. You'll never see him coming. And the beautiful bond formed with Mateen makes for the bromance of the year. They did that. Ready for another lesson? This show, with great turns from M.C.U. agent Arian Moayed ('No Way Home', 'Ms. Marvel') and comedian and 'The Daily Show' writer X Mayo, is the real marvel. Wonder no more. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'WandaVision', 'Watchmen', 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'.