The best time travel movies aren’t just about the mechanics of going back and forth in time; they create their own rules and use them to explore deeper themes. Like other powerful science fiction ideas, time travel can make us think about what it means to be human, our place in the universe, and even the way our society works.
The movie Fantastic Four: First Steps marked the beginning of a separate universe within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, introducing audiences to the unique, retro-future world of Earth-828. As the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday plans to bring the Fantastic Four together with the wider MCU team, we’ll be seeing much more of Earth-828 when that film hits theaters later this year.
Directed by David Gordon Green (known for the 2018 Halloween film) and featuring a strong cast including Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, and Ariana DeBose, the series Scarpetta comes with impressive credentials. It aims to compete with popular Prime Video crime dramas like Jack Ryan and Reacher. With plenty of source material available, Scarpetta, debuting this March, could become a major hit for Prime Video, potentially challenging Bosch as the platform’s leading crime series.
As a big movie fan, I’ve been following the Sonic the Hedgehog films since the first one came out in 2020. It’s based on the classic video games, and we’ve already gotten two sequels – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 2022 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 just this year in 2024. They even did a Knuckles series on TV in 2024! The director, Jeff Fowler, has been at the helm for all three movies, and Ben Schwartz is fantastic as the voice of Sonic.
Often called DanMachi by its fans, this anime is a fantastic example of modern fantasy. Adapted from a series of light novels by Fujino Omori, DanMachi has consistently delivered quality entertainment for over eleven years across five seasons. While the first season in 2015 didn’t initially generate much buzz, it quickly gained a dedicated fanbase and became a lasting success. Now, a new season is in development, and many are hopeful it will be the strongest one yet, though a release date hasn’t been announced.
Daniel Chong’s new climate change film is energetic, funny, and surprisingly wild for a children’s movie. It’s much more than a simple story about a girl talking to nature. The animals aren’t realistic at all – they’re part of a complex, almost epic world, similar to the one in Game of Thrones. In fact, one character is even called the king’s “paw!”
Adam Sandler became famous in the 1990s with successful comedies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy. Since 2015, he’s made movies exclusively for Netflix, including films such as Sandy Wexler, Murder Mystery, Hubie Halloween, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, and Happy Gilmore 2.
A new set of Spider-Man movies offers a great opportunity to revisit the core of what makes the character special. While Tom Holland’s initial films were enjoyable, it’s time to focus on Spider-Man’s origins as a neighborhood hero. After a decade in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man is ready to return to his street-level beginnings – and Marvel really needs that focus right now.
Spider-Man is the main character in most of his TV series and has been the solo hero in his live-action movies. Throughout his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has worn many different suits, each with its own unique look and features. Now, before he appears in a new suit closely based on the comics, Spider-Man is back in animated form wearing a truly impressive costume.
Here are a few impressions out of the films included in this year’s block...