Struggling actors Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley) try to earn roles in the remake of the superhero film Wonder Man.

A Marvel Project That Knows Exactly What It Is

Veteran Marvel Studios filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton teams with showrunner Andrew Guest to bring Wonder Man to life, but this is not the superhero epic audiences may be expecting. Instead, Marvel Television leans into a crackling social comedy where superheroes and Hollywood collide; and the choice pays off beautifully.

Both Cretton and Guest are acutely aware of where superhero cinema currently sits within the cultural zeitgeist. Wonder Man gives them the freedom to deliver sharp, tongue-in-cheek commentary on the genre itself, as well as on the vast industrial machine that now surrounds it. The series is deeply self-aware, inviting audiences behind the curtain in a way that feels fresh, playful, and genuinely insightful. It’s the kind of show that practically begs to be binged in a single sitting.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and the Weight of Imposter Syndrome

At the centre of the series is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a struggling Hollywood day player desperate for his big break. Simon pounds the pavement endlessly, clinging to the hope that his moment is just one audition away. He is imposter syndrome made flesh, a performer whose intense commitment to the Method has made life, and work, increasingly difficult.

Complicating matters is a secret Simon is desperate to hide: he possesses superhuman abilities, none of which he wants. Far from dreaming of superhero glory, Simon longs to be taken seriously as an actor, idolising the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, and Denzel Washington. This tension, between artistic ambition and unwanted power, is where much of Wonder Man finds its emotional and narrative drive. Abdul-Mateen II delivers a beautifully vulnerable performance, capturing shyness, pain, insecurity, and burning ambition in equal measure.

The Return of Trevor Slattery

One of the series’ great joys is the return of Sir Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery — lifelong thespian, former terrorist stooge, and now a man determined to reclaim his dignity. Declaring himself “thirteen years sober,” Trevor is eager for a comeback, and his pairing with Simon Williams forms the heart of the show’s comedic engine.

The arrival of a new superhero epic Wonder Man, a remake of a cult 1980s classic helmed by eccentric, spacey auteur Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić), offers both men a potential path to redemption. Kingsley is endlessly generous in the role, finding depth, humour, and surprising pathos in Trevor’s quest for relevance. Watching Kingsley and Abdul-Mateen II bounce off one another is pure streaming perfection, and their odd-couple chemistry is an absolute delight.

A Superhero Story About People, Not Powers

What truly sets Wonder Man apart is its refusal to focus on spectacle. Instead, it turns its attention to the people caught inside the superhero machine. This is sharp social satire, delivered with intelligence, warmth, and a steady stream of surprises.

At its core, Wonder Man is the story of two lost souls who find one another through a shared love of performance. Their friendship, forged through craft, insecurity, and ambition, gives the series its emotional backbone. It’s a celebration of cinema, acting, and theatrical expression, and the joy radiates from every frame.

Final Verdict

With Wonder Man, Marvel Television delivers an experience that feels genuinely marvellous, and easily one of the strongest Marvel Studios releases to date. Packed with nuance, intelligence, quirkiness, and, above all, heart, this is a series to savour.

Smart, funny, and unexpectedly moving, Wonder Man proves there are still bold new directions left to explore in the superhero genre, especially when creators are brave enough to look inward.

Wonder Man is streaming NOW on Disney+

Image: Disney+

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In this breakneck thriller from director-producer Michael Bay, decorated veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), desperate for money to cover his wife’s medical bills, asks for help from the one person he knows he shouldn’t—his adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal). A charismatic career criminal, Danny instead offers him a score: the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history: $32 million. With his wife’s survival on the line, Will can’t say no.

If Michael Bay has one special talent as a filmmaker it’s throwing everything at the cinema canvas and taking audiences for the ride of their lives in blockbuster after blockbuster, and his latest work, the high stakes action-thriller Ambulance, is sure to have your adrenal gland working overtime. With this latest blockbuster, Bay wastes no time in gearing up and he throws his audience straight into the action right from the opening frame. Bay sets the scene with a pair of long lost brothers, The Sharps, Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), whose criminal past and family life has seen them split apart until desperate times force them back together. Pulled into a bank robbery as an unwilling pawn, Will, goes along with Danny’s scheme. Everything is running fine until it doesn’t and soon the bullets start flying and the audience is thrown into one hell of a storm.

Following the robbery, which quickly goes to hell, Bay throws Danny and Will, two fugitives who are armed to the teeth and have all of LA law closing in around them into a surprise ambulance, which is overseen by ace EMT Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez), who is trying to save the life of a police officer who was shot in the midst of their botched robbery. And it’s here where things get interesting. Kinetic and fast-moving, Ambulance is a film that puts its foot on the accelerator and doesn’t let it off for a moment. Bay throws tension at the audience from every angle and as the chase moves forward things go from bad to worse, and the chaos closes in around our three passengers, you feel every single moment of this frantic action thriller and damn does Bay provide you with a rush!

Ambulance is effective as an action thriller because Bay invests in a story device that I like to label ‘action as narrative’. This is where the narrative is contained within the action and the pulsing beats, alongside the daring car chases, countless explosions and bursts of automatic gunfire, add to expressing the story. And this is exactly where Ambulance sits. With three characters who are out on the edge and stuck in a steel cage of a rolling ambulance that is travelling at speed across Los Angeles, the stakes could not be higher, and minute by minute the intensity ramps up. Ambulance is a film that delivers on a magnified level of suspense and Bay places a vice-like grip on his audience’s attention. There are plenty of moments, from an explosive gunfight on the streets of Los Angeles to freeway car smashing action, to an intense, visceral, and bloody open body surgery that will make you jump up in your seat, and all of it is a part of this rollercoaster experience of a movie.

Stepping onto the screen as charismatic bank robber Danny Sharp is Jake Gyllenhaal and the twisted and snappy character of Danny gives Gyllenhaal a lot of room to work in. Trading as a luxury sports car dealer, Danny is in fact a seasoned criminal and bank robber with a long family history tied to the Los Angeles criminal underworld. Longing for the gold ol’ days with his younger brother Will, and to make one hell of score, he soon finds himself in the crosshairs of LA law enforcement and that’s when things get crazy. Gyllenhaal moves from charismatic and cool to vindictive and frenzied quickly and he’s no man to be messed with. With a hair-trigger temper and an even quicker trigger finger, Danny is a criminal on edge and he makes for an intimidating antagonist, and with Gyllenhaal’s show of intensity and unpredictability in the role, audiences are certainly kept on edge.

Sitting across from Danny is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Will Sharp, Danny’s younger adoptive brother who walked out on him and their family’s criminal past a long time ago, but who now in desperation is drawn back to his brother’s criminal impulses. Where Danny is the impulse of Ambulance, Will is the film’s conscious. Abdul-Mateen II’s Will is a direct contradiction to Gyllenhaal’s Danny and their back and forth, which ranges from a close brotherhood bond to a vindictive and situation-induced hatred for one another keeps you on edge as an audience member. Abdul-Mateen II also shares a great chemistry with Gyllenhaal and you easily buy into their shared past as brothers as his stance as a good man in a bad situation tests his ability as a performer.

Stuck in between the Sharp brothers and staring into the barrel of a gun is Eiza Gonzalez as quick-thinking and wipsmart EMT Cam Thompson. Regarded as the best EMT working on the job, but who has a problem dealing with people and just compartmentalizing the carnage that she has to deal with day in and day out, Gonzalez’s Cam soon finds herself in the middle of an even more hectic situation and she becomes a foil for Danny and Will’s escape. While she might have a gun pointed at her, Cam is in no way any type of victim and she gets right in Danny’s face, especially when it comes to keeping the wounded cop alive in the back of her ambulance, the only insurance that Danny and Will have of any chance of survival. The narrative and fast pace of Ambulance certainly test Gonzalez as a performer and she stands up to the pressure and delivers a solid performance.

With Ambulance you’re very much a participant in the action and narrative of this fast-paced blockbuster and during the extreme moments of this film, you feel like you’re fully immersed in it, rather than just being a mere spectator. Bay holds nothing back with this bold and intense piece of cinema and you can literally smell the gun powder as he turns the streets of Los Angeles into a wrecking yard and things get crazier by the minute. While the carnage is mad and in your face, Bay’s reliance on practical effects makes the intensity of this film real, and there’s no doubting that the chaos that he orchestrates is anything but authentic. Bay makes Ambulance a true blockbuster spectacle and it’s a pulse-pounding experience to witness up close.

By the time the credits begin to roll on Ambulance, your adrenal gland will be working overtime and the adrenaline will be surging through your veins. This is a blockbuster film that doesn’t stop for a second and it’s one hell of a fun ride.

Image: Universal Pictures

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