"Black Panther"

I don’t know how to put this. I did not like it. I think it was over exemplified because a black superhero has its own movie. I’m all for diversity, I truly am. I am very glad that there were a number of strong characters in this movie, characters that children can look up to.

Hold up, let’s talk about that. I remember when this movie was playing in theaters, a lot of people were petitioning to screen it for free to young black children. A lot of people were killed in this movie. Okoye had her throat slit open (I rewatched the movie and found that I'm a white racist motherf*cker. Let's just move on.). Zuri was stabbed in the gut. Sterling K. Brown was speared in the chest by his brother. Gollum shot a man in the back while he was running away. And you thought it was okay to let hundreds of kids watch this?

One other impressive thing the movie does that’s lesser known is that they crammed all 17 movies into one. I mean come on, the guy is a black Tony Stark, a black Dr. Banner, a black Thor (the main plot hit this one hard), their community is a black S.H.I.E.L.D., the final battle ripped off Civil War, Gollum turned into Peter Quill in this one demanding music in the chase scene, and the Hobbit is a more likable Agent Coulson. Yeah, I said it.

Borrowing from Spider-Man: Homecoming, T’Challa, ahem, comes home to assume the Wakandan throne. As king, he searches for Gollum to bring justice to Wakanda. Instead, he interferes with Agent Ross from the CIA and unearths a secret past that his late father is a black Odin. Well, a reverse black Odin that is. Instead of stealing a child and making him a black Loki, he abandons him, which turns him into a black Loki anyway because he came for the throne. After defeating Killmonger, T’Challa borrows from The Winter Soldier script in spilling Wakanda’s secrets. Sort of. We think. We only have some white boy’s remarks on the country’s appearance and the look on T’Challa’s face. But all I can say is SHUT UP, WHITE BOY!

I watched the HISHE review on Black Panther, and Daniel Baxter made some pretty decent points. He says T’Challa’s role was to decide on whether to keep the old ways or expand out and be open to the world. This has got be hard for the most unchill character in the MCU. The movie shows his maturity to prove he is fit to be king, unlike his white counterpart, and everyone is being given memorable lines, like “WHATTRETHOSE?.”

A few more questions that were bothering me. When T’Chaka dies in Civil War, T’Challa emerges as the Black Panther to avenge his father. In this movie, his powers are stripped by drinking some natural serum and he had to prove his strength. Did he have the Black Panther powers all along? Was he just standing by in case the previous Black Panther dies? Can there be two Black Panthers? Could T’Chaka still be a Black Panther in his old age? We’ll never know on that one. Can there be a lady Black Panther? We almost had this possibility when Mama suggested Nakia take the herb. The movie did try very hard to give female characters better roles, but they still do all the work.
There was a lot of praise for Killmonger being the best villain Marvel has to offer so far. No, no he's not. He wanted to revolutionize and rule the world. Maybe he's the best because he manages to persuade T'Challa to modernize Wakanda, that's it. There is nothing else that separates him from the rest.
My mother felt the movie was racist towards white people, calling them colonizers. I understand her anger, but after centuries of calling black people all kinds of names, we really don't get a right to complain. 

Eighteen movies in, and I think we’ve forgotten how to tell a proper story. So, now we’re just borrowing the other movies and trying something new. At this point, it might break Marvel if it tried to actually make an original story from the comics.

*                            *                           *

Really random thought, I’m sorry. I woke up in the middle night and I thought about this. I tried very hard not to look before seeing Infinity War, but memes are EVERYWHERE! Tony crying over Peter’s dissolved remains made me think of a theory I’m sure somebody else already beat me to. Is Tony Stark Peter Parker’s illegitimate father?

Think about it. In Iron Man 3, an old girlfriend resurfaces, who has a twelve-year-old son. She was working for, um <gulp>, The Mandarin, and she gets killed, leaving a child behind. I know her name was Hanson, but what if Peter assumed Parker when he moved in with Aunt May? By the time Peter Parker shows up in Civil War, he’s the appropriate age. Even his brief appearance in Iron Man 2 made sense. He was the right age then, too. The Homecoming has another meaning other than what we know. Tony is reconnecting with his long lost son.

My theory is probably dangling by a thread, but it sure adds depth to what lies ahead.

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Released On: February 16, 2018
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman 
Director: Ryan Coogler
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.4/10

Awards

Golden Globes

• Best Motion Picture Drama - Nominated
• Best Original Song "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Original Score Ludwig Göransson - Nominated

Grammy Awards

• Album of the Year Black Panther: The Album - Nominated
• Song of the Year "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Record of the Year "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Rap/Sung Performance "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Song Written For Visual Media "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Rap Performance "King's Dead" - Winner
• Best Rap Song "King's Dead" - Nominated
• Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media Ludwig Göransson - Winner

Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Nominated
• Best Original Score Ludwig Göransson - Winner
• Best Original Song "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Costume Design Ruth E. Carter - Winner
• Best Production Design - Hannah Beachler & Jay Hart - Winner
• Best Sound Editing - Benjamin A. Burt & Steve Boeddeker - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing - Peter Devlin, Steve Boeddeker & Brandon Proctor - Nominated

(Click to view more awards for "Black Panther".)

Videos
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Black Panther in 17 Minutes Or Less
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Black Panther
How It Should Have Ended - How Black Panther Should Have Ended - Animated Parody
How It Should Have Ended - Black Panther - HISHE Review (Spoilers)
Saturday Night Live - Black Jeopardy with Chadwick Boseman - SNL

"X-Men: Days of Future Past"

The X-men are back at it this time bringing you the recycled plots of Men in Black 3 and Back to the Future. A 1973 Mystique could kill rising tech superstar Bolivar Trask who has created an army of mutant killing robots they have waged war on mutants and humans alike 50 years in the future. It is up to Logan to meet up with a young Charles Xavier and a young Erik Lenscherr to bring an end to the set now present.
But it doesn't come very easy. With the shadow of the Vietnam War still hovering over, Charles has given up on his gifted school for youngsters. He is taking a serum which then takes away his telepathy powers and gives him his legs back. The young Hank McCoy accompanies them. He, too, is using his serum to suppress his beast mode. Eric is in prison for killing President Kennedy though he claims that he was trying to save him because Kennedy was a mutant.
With Mystique everywhere transforming into everyone, she was pretty hard to track to eventually Charles was able to get into her mind and convinced her not to kill Trask and not to make mutants the enemy. Logan was drowning in the river but he wakes up it back in his bed at Professor X's School.
It's like as if the first three movies never happened. I mean Jean Grey is alive, Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, is alive. Storm is alive as we saw in the final battle she dies. Even Rogue is back with Bobby, AKA Iceman. She left after the events of The Last Stand. I laughed at the Quicksilver sequence where he changed everything is awesome! I mean that has to be the best part of the whole movie. Other than that, it's a complete f*cking waste of time.
It's like the last fourteen years no longer matter. This franchise kicked off with a rocking start, and it was downhill from there. And their only solution is to go back and erase it all. Let's backtrack to see if any of it makes sense.
In the first X-Men, Magneto was out and about until he is caught in the third act. There was no mention of Magneto killing Kennedy at all. All Magneto wants is to have mutants rule the world. Why is killing a mutant president part of the plan?
In First Class, we see Mystique go with Magneto because she wanted to. In the first trilogy, she was part of Magneto's plan until her mutant gene was eliminated. In this movie, she seems to be on her own agenda which would cause the apocalypse.
Hank was working on the serum in First Class, which amplified his beastly appearance. Then he had the audacity to finish the serum after Mystique tells him to be proud of his mutation. And side note, I saw this movie before I saw First Class. I was led to believe that Professor X's paralysis is the side effect to his telepathy. He was shot in the back; it has nothing to do with his powers.
I will give it to this movie to have the balls to rather than reboot the entire franchise, they create an alternate timeline where Logan will have to go back and fix it. But there again. In First Class, Logan told Charles and Erik where to take it in 1962. Charles should have remembered Logan when the angry Canadian is now showing up at his door asking for help.
It tried. This movie tried. A for effort.

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Released On: May 23, 2014

Rating: PG-13

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage

Director: Bryan Singer

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% Certified Fresh

IMDb Score: 8.0/10

Awards

Academy Awards

• Best Visual Effects - Nominated

Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture - Nominated
• Best Director Bryan Singer - Nominated
• Best Editing John Ottman - Nominated
• Best Costume Louise Mingenbach - Nominated
• Best Make-up Adrien Morot & Norma Hill-Patton - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "X-Men: Days of Future Past".)

Videos

CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With X-Men: Days of Future Past

Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - X-Men: Days of Future Past

How It Should Have Ended - How X-Men: Days of Future Past Should Have Ended

"Thor: Ragnarok"

Thor returns in his third solo outing that seems to rip off Guardians of the Galaxy with the jokes. They almost even cross paths when Valkyrie wanted to fuel her ship on Xandar.

Loki is now king of Asgard in the form of Odin. Odin’s been cast out and sent to Norway. The movie’s plot is kicked off as Odin dissolves into a fireball, and Hela, who’s supposed to be hella scary, shows up and banishes Loki and Thor to a planet where rules don’t apply and is run by Dr. Ian Malcolm, excuse me, the Grandmaster, in Jeff Goldblum’s best yet cartoonishly performance.

Thor’s hammer is destroyed, his hair is cut by Stan Lee, the demon barber on Fleet Street, and he’s thrown into recycled plots from Ben-Hur (the good one) and Gladiator. He is forced to fight the Grandmaster’s undefeated champion who turns out to be, surprise, The Incredible Hulk, his first appearance since he went AWOL in Age of Ultron. They duke it out and then Thor tries to persuade Hulk to de-hulk and become Bruce Banner again. The studio seems to be really indecisive about what the Hulk can and can’t do. In his own movie, Banner is struggling to gain control of his power. In The Avengers, Banner says he’s always angry and he’s able to control it. In Age of Ultron, Natasha had to do this weird hand stroking lullaby thing to get Bruce to change back, which Thor tried to use in this movie but ultimately failed. But on the upside to this, the Hulk was more verbal in this movie than in the other films. They form a plan to return to Asgard to stop Hela, joined by Valkyrie, a disgraced Asgardian warrior, and Korg and Miek, two fellow gladiators. In a plot recycled from Age of Ultron, they save the people of Asgard and let Hela burn with the Night of Bald Mountain guy.

It was very convenient that Thor killed the Night on Bald Mountain guy so that his skull is right where they need it to stop Hela.

We already know Dr. Strange makes an appearance in this movie, from the end credit scene in his own movie, and, damn, he is funny. His appearance in the film may be the best cameo ever. Sorry, Stan. I’m sure you probably expected more from him, which I gathered from the HISHE review on this movie. But I think they did the best they could do in this amount of time. He was only in the movie for five minutes; they can’t show you everything he can do, besides shifting through rooms, trading Thor’s tea for beer, and sending Thor and Loki to Norway to find Odin. If they did more than that, they would run out of things to demonstrate his power with later.

I feel a slight trend in the meh third installments. Iron Man 3 didn’t do any Iron Man-ing, Captain America: Civil War definitely didn’t do any Captain America-ing, and Thor didn’t do any Thor-ing, but he really didn’t really have a choice. Which reminds me, Thor had the power all along? Then why did he cart around that hammer for? Yeah, yeah, it's meant to help Thor control his strength, and, sure, it packs a punch and it makes a good prisoner weight but that’s all it is. It’s worthless.

This movie’s end credits scene is the Grandmaster being taken over from a mutiny. But there is a possibility he will be back. It is otherwise another pointless scene.

And since when is Asgard a people, not a place? They’re lucky that the Night on Bald Mountain guy didn’t pick up on that or otherwise, they’d be Asgardian toast.

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Released On: November 3, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Cate Blanchett
Director: Taika Waititi
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.9/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Motion Picture Release - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress in a Film Tessa Thompson - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Thor: Ragnarok")

Videos
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Thor Ragnarok in 15 Minutes Or Less
How It Should Have Ended - How Thor Ragnarok Should Have Ended
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Thor: Ragnarok
How It Should Have Ended - Thor Ragnarok - HISHE Review (SPOILERS)

"The Wolverine"

Haunted by the death of Jean Grey, Logan has run off into the wilderness where he lives before he gets swept up by a mysterious Japanese girl, who happens to work with a former captor from when Logan was held a prisoner in Nagasaki the day the atomic bomb was dropped. That soldier has requested his presence because he wished to relieve Logan of the pain of living forever and exchange for him to live forever as Logan would live a mortal life. When the soldier mysteriously dies, a group of Yakuza henchmen swooped in during the funeral and kidnapped the soldier's granddaughter. Or at least try to as Logan swooped in to save the day, which he paid the price for.
Suddenly Wolverine's healing powers do not work. Every shot, every stab, every punch slowed him down. Meanwhile, he and Mariko, the soldier's granddaughter, traveled south from Tokyo to Nagasaki, where he was once held prisoner, where they will be safe. Throughout the movie, Logan struggles to get over Jean Grey's death, though the nightmares he encounters keep getting worse.
Eventually, the Yakuza caught up and capture Mariko, so Logan has no choice but to go after them. He has also found out that the soldier's son, Singen, was the one who put a hit out on Mariko, his daughter, because it is said that the grandfather left in his will everything to her.
What's more unsettling was that a mysterious Jennifer Lawrence-like character is sneaking around, with her viper tongue and venomous spit, that it turns out she was working for the soldier who turns out to still be alive, as it is a common Marvel trait. A special suit made of adamantium was keeping him alive until he has Logan cornered, his claws cut, and he was drilling out Logan's blood into his own until Mariko picked up Logan severed claws and threw them like knives into her grandfather and killed him.
Mariko has gone on to lead the company, that she at first resented, and Logan went back to who-knows-where because the movie really didn't give us an answer on that; he just said he wanted to go up as he got into the plane. There is an end credit scene set two years later, as Logan is going through airport security he noticed that the metal around him was being manipulated and turns around to find that Magneto is behind him. Magneto froze the metal in his body causing him to not move. The last time we saw Magneto was without his powers as the cure was injected into his chest. Another major surprise is that Professor X made an appearance. Last time we saw him was when Jean Grey disintegrated him and the last movie as well, and then he was in the end credits scene in that one, stating he was alive. Logan asked the same question everyone had on their minds when they saw this, including me. How was it possible? And all Xavier could give us was that Logan was not the only one with extraordinary gifts. Does that mean Xavier can reassemble himself after being obliterated from a rage infested siren that Logan had to kill in order to save humanity? And how come Magneto has powers again?
I remember this movie coming out and I believe the trailers made it look like Logan was going to learn the samurai especially since the soldier that Logan once saved called him a samurai. A ronin, if you will, a samurai without a master. I saw none of that in this movie and I am disappointed. All it is is just another 2½-hour action fest watching Logan slice up a couple people, hang onto bullet trains, and take two dozen arrows to the back. It's nice to see that he was able to get over the death of Jean Grey, but it makes me wonder...
I've always wondered why Wolverine was only able to get his own movies. I know he is a respected icon, everyone loves him, everyone loves Hugh Jackman playing him. I know the X-Men Origins story is a bust after seeing the very first one, but that doesn't mean the others don't deserve their own origin stories. Especially since there's too many of them; at least give them a show.

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Released On: July 26, 2013
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Tao Okamoto, Famke Janssen
Director: James Mangold
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
IMDb Score: 6.7/10

Awards

Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "The Wolverine.")

Videos
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With The Wolverine in 11 Minutes or Less

"Spider-Man: Homecoming"

From the studio that still has its Marvel property in their grasp, and Marvel, comes yet another take on the spectacular web-slinger with a much more complicated back story, or lack thereof. I didn’t watch the cartoons, the Sam Raimi movies, or the Amazing reboot, but this is the superhero I know the most through the thirty-page books and sticker books I got as a kid, and I feel cheated by the studio’s decision on what can Spider-Man do.

Spider-Man doesn’t shoot webbing from his hands. In fact, he secretly makes the webbing in his chemistry class. His Spidey senses don’t seem to tingle. Instead, he just flies around swinging from building to building looking for trouble. The only thing he can do is climb on walls and be super strong. And on top of that, his suit is made by Iron Man, who is now suddenly his mentor.

This really isn’t an origin story, but more of a follow up on Peter Parker after his debut in Civil War. But that’s where it starts to go wrong. The movie opens up on his phone recording the events from him flying to Berlin to fighting Captain America to him flipping out in his hotel room. I understand that Peter is just a child, and this a childlike thing to do. But this totally derails what we saw in Civil War as this slick teenage boy in blue and red tights that just stole Cap’s shield, and now he’s a child again. This whole film is a carbon copy of the main character being worthy of the powers he’s been given. Where have we seen that before in the MCU? <cough><cough>Thor<cough>

I have said in the past that Iron Man has become a joke. Not anymore. Iron Man is an abomination and an asshole. My God, I never wanted to punch anyone more, except Shawn in I, Tonya, but that’s another story. Tony Stark has become the “parent” we all hated. Not giving the hero a chance, dodging him at every move, and when Peter tries to prove himself, he’s stripped of his suit, left with nothing but the crappy one he made himself, and when he’s made himself worthy, they’re all friends again. Tony Stark, has anyone ever told you that you’re an asshole? If not, allow me to be the first. YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE! I HATE YOU! If I were Peter, I would have told where to take it when you tried to be his buddy again. And I have a question for you, sir, the whole ordeal with and Happy and the plane leaving Avengers Tower, was that a test for Peter? Let me remind you, f*cker, that you left the fate of the Avengers, the fate of your career, and the fate of your fortune in the hands of a fifteen-year-old with basically no powers! And you hoped that he succeeded! Happy, you are on my Ex list, too! I hate you too!

(Let the record show that I love you, RDJ and Jon Favreau, you guys were awesome in these roles and you played them so well.)

Let’s talk about Vulture, whoever he is. He never really was called Vulture. And he really wasn’t a villain. He was mad that Tony Stark, once again, took over cleaning up from the Battle of New York, leaving Toomes nearly bankrupt, and he decides to steal parts from the cleanup and make weapons. The movie needs to figure out how its timeline goes. This story takes place eight years after the Battle of New York, which happened in 2012. Eight years later, it should be 2020. Does that mean this movie takes place in the future? Does that mean all installments from here on out are set in the future? Does Civil War take place in the future because this movie picks up where Civil War leaves off? Or did the Battle of New York actually take place in 2009, since this movie was released in 2017?

I’m unsure as to how to rate Michael Keaton, as I’ve seen him in good movies and bad, and he’s pretty average in both. But I feel, however, that he was squandered in this money hungry cartoon villain that also happens to be Peter’s crush’s dad.

Let’s talk about that. Peter, like all boys, is struggling to navigate high school and finding a girl to date. He likes Liz, but he also knows what she thinks about Spider-Man; we learn in an F, Marry or Kill game that she says Spider-Man is Spider-Man. So he’s lame in her eyes, and now possibly the enemy for putting her father in jail. Meanwhile, he clashes with the rebellious Negasonic Teenage Warhead-like Zendaya, who we see in the end that she wants to Rewrite the Stars with Peter though he doesn’t know it yet.

Peter and Tony do make a good pair, however, in terms of how they conceal their identities. (I’m calm now, my anger has subsided.) Tony just blatantly told the world he’s Iron Man while Peter is too sure of himself that no one was watching before he takes off his mask. Doing so, he blows his cover to his best friend, who is a literal representation of us in the sense that we become excited that our best friends secretly fights crime, and his aunt, who he tried to so hard not to tell. I’m sure that that was coming eventually, but I never thought that it would be at the end in his bedroom yelling ”WHAT THE—“ before going to credits. Was that supposed to be for laughs? Because that wasn’t funny.

I want to talk about the suit before I go. Again, Peter can’t shoot webbing out of his hands, though in other films he manages to do it just fine. The new suit given to him, by Tony, can communicate with him, allows him to see and hear his surroundings from far away, and can shoot multiple forms of webbing. The suit also comes with a drone to fly around Peter when he needs it to. Is that supposed to make up for the one power he was gifted with that he no longer has? His all-powerful, sentient, suit is a substitute to him shooting webbing? And how did he find a recipe to make his webbing? How come he hasn’t been caught yet? Doesn’t the teacher wonder why an extra beaker was dirty and some supplies are missing? Does Peter Parker watch Breaking Bad?

Oh, and one more thing. Pepper resurfaces at the end to be disappointed about Peter turning down the Avengers. Then Tony surprises her with a ring that Happy has been carrying around since 2008, to give the press something. First of all, the hell you did, Happy! You were busy taking Rolls Royces onto the Formula 1 track and taking down exploding Terminators to be watching a ring for eight years. And why did Pepper get back with Tony? They broke up because he was a handful. At least, that’s what they said in the movies. (Wink!)

Sorry, last time. The biggest question we still don’t the answer to is how Tony knew Peter was Spider-Man. I know I have my theory, but I want to hear it from the man himself.

I’m really starting to think that Marvel is more focused on how much they can get away with in a PG-13 rated film in terms of language, violence, and sexual innuendoes. The violence is implied, but it’s getting more aggressive. The language is getting more atrocious. Zendaya flips off Peter; that’s not cool. And the F, Marry, or Kill should not be in a PG-13 film for children.

I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: July 7, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Marisa Tomei, Zendaya
Director: Jon Watts Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.5/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Motion Picture Release - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor in a Film Michael Keaton - Nominated
• Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Film Tom Holland - Winner
• Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Film Zendaya - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Spider-Man: Homecoming")

Videos
How It Should Have Ended - How Spider-Man Homecoming Should Have Ended
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Spider-Man: Homecoming
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Spider-Man: Homecoming

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 4

Admit it. You were hoping to see some robot boobs on national television. Newcomer Aida, an android, was changing her clothes after getting shot when she takes off her blouse displaying two gunshot wounds on her chest. Up close, they could have been nipples. But the camera pulls out to show that her bra is still on, you pervert.
But robots flashing us on television isn't the only thing we should worry about. This season of Agents brings a new level of What the F*ck! to the table.
First off, they bring in the Ghost Rider, a demon with a flaming skull and a flaming hot rod to match. He serves as a vigilante to bring evil souls to justice. This brings problems To Daisy and the others because S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to go public again, this time under new leadership. Jeffrey Mace is an Inhuman with immense strength, and he likes to do everything by books, reporting to General Talbot, classifications, not saying "Let's go" to everything.
Scottish James Cameron decides to build an android that would serve the purpose of being a human shield, hence the gunshot wounds mentioned above. When called upon, Aida is instructed to read the Darkhold, a mysterious book that will teach the readers the secrets of the universe. This is where they build a portal to other dimensions for Ghost Rider to take the souls he caught with him. First, it starts with Ghost Rider's uncle's coworkers. In the past, they were trying to create a machine that would create matter out of thin air. the result of the disaster left them looking like ghosts. Then the uncle immersed himself into the machine to make him able to create matter out of his hands. Ghost Rider had to make the hard choice by dragging his uncle through the portal.
Just when you thought they were done, Aida has other surprises. She and Scottish James Cameron captured select members of the crew and replaced them with life-like LMD models of them. The real members where put into an OASIS type of thing called the Framework, where people plugged in can live their lives without the one thing they regret in their past; that's been erased in the Framework. By the time they figure it out, it's just Daisy and Simmons. So they plug in themselves to retrieve the others and enter a literal virtual hell.
Hydra rules the land in this universe. Why are we bringing up that dead octopus again? In this world, Coulson is a school teacher that is one conspiracy away from donning a tinfoil hat. May is a Hydra with regret of SAVING the Inhuman girl from Bahrain, where she attacked students at Columbia University. Mack is living as a single father to his daughter, who died in the real world. Daisy and...sighs...Ward are Hydra agents and Simmons is dead. Fitz is the renown Doctor in Hydra where not only was he in a good relationship with his father but he's never met Simmons. Aida, calling herself Ophelia because Alice would have been way too easy considering Project Looking Glass, is Madame Hydra, and she's on a mission to create a human body for herself so she can be a real girl.
This creates some problems in this world because Fitz is almost untouchable and Mack refuses to leave because of his daughter. Luckily Daisy and Simmons have help from Jeffrey Mace, also plugged into the Framework, he is the leader of a resistance team with actual immense strength, whereas in the real world he doesn't have any; it was concocted out of a cocktail made by Daisy's father. And to our surprise, Ward is a member of the resistance. I kept waiting for Ward to narc on them but it never happened. With the help of regretful Scottish James Cameron, Daisy and Simmons make it out with nearly everyone alive; Mace died saving children from a crumbling Hydra recreation facility. But they're not done yet. The real world is in chaos now, since the LMD version of Coulson and Company have destroyed the base and Mace's body washed up on the beach. Aida has completed the project and made herself a human body flooded with emotions...and other things, like Inhuman powers.
Right when they thought they were through, Ghost Rider emerges and takes Aida with her. It should be a happy ending, right?
General Talbot is now in the hospital, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. is wanted for questioning. We end the series with Coulson in a space prison.
The structure of this season was rather thorough and structured, like season 3, but it was all over the place, like season 2. This season was meant to be three different sagas that are connected. If you look on Wikipedia at the episodes, they are sectioned off with "Ghost Rider", "LMD", and "Agents of Hydra". The title sequence changed four times this season. I knew Ghost Rider would return by the end of the season, and yet, I completely forgot that Ghost Rider would return at the end of the season.
It was ironic and wrong that Mace would lie about his Inhuman status just because the government wanted an Inhuman director for S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy may have not been in the game since she went rogue at the time, but what about Yo-Yo or the dude that can bend steel? I think Yo-Yo would be more qualified. It's kind of expected to see Mace be confident in front of the cameras but feel useless leading S.H.I.E.L.D., especially after they found out he's not an Inhuman. But it proves the compassion we are accustomed to in Coulson by keeping him as the director, even though he's still sore from being removed.
At this point, the series is in the hands of Fitz and Simmons. Every season there's some new reason to keep the two apart, and we have to fight alongside them to come back to each other. First, it was Fitz having brain damage, then it was Simmons leaving for Hydra, then Simmons gets sucked into a magic rock to another planet where Fitz jumps in after her to save her, and now there's an alternate reality where Simmons is an enemy of the state and Fitz can kill her if pleases. Watch, next season Simmons will get amnesia and Fitz will have to learn how to fall in love with her again, like The F*cking Vow.
Also at this point, Daisy is no longer the center of the story. I don't know who is, but it's definitely not her. What started as a fearless hacker recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D. is now a bitter war-torn agent, just like the rest of them.
And why are still fighting Inhumans? Is it bad enough that I'm comparing them to the X-Men? There should be a Men In Black scenario where they neuralize people and make them forget Inhumans exist. I am tired of the Inhuman fight. But it'll never go away, will it?
I never really get to talk about the series fitting into the MCU. There are no movies that connect this season, so now would be a good time to talk. It's interesting to see how the mysterious organization, that only comes up in conversation in the movies, really functions behind the scenes. However, it's a little confusing sometimes when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell in season 1; since then, S.H.I.E.L.D. fell off the map in the movies. Well, that was their intention, I guess because S.H.I.E.L.D. is now off the map. But there has got to be some mention in the movies like a wanted poster of Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider in the Avengers meeting room just casually in the background, or have Tony Stark watch the news and General Talbot is shouting about stuff that goes on in S.H.I.E.L.D. But maybe "it doesn't work that way." It doesn't this way either if you don't watch the movies, which would make the people at Marvel Studios explode.
I'm starting to lose steam on this show, but I don't want to quit just yet. I'm hoping that season 5 will shock me with what it will bring.

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Aired: September 20, 2016 – May 16, 2017
Rating: TV-14
Stars: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, John Hannah
Directors: Billy Gierhart, Vincent Misiano, Magnus Martens, Brad Turner, Kate Woods, Jesse Bochco, Kevin Tancharoen, Garry A. Brown, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Wendey Stanzler, Jed Whedon, Oz Scott, Eric Laneuville
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
IMDb Score: 8.8/10 (Average)

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 4.)