UCF has had no problem in opening games for the last decade.

The Knights have won 10 straight opening day games, most of them against weaker FBS competition or FCS teams. A 36-31 win over Boise State in 2021 was the biggest marquee opening game in that run.

Even that was an odd game, delayed more than three hours by rain — there always seems to be a rain delay on opening night, including a more than hourlong delay last year in a 17-10 win against Jacksonville State.

That first game can always be a bit wonky.

It is always a bit of a mystery how a team plays in that first game. It is the first time a team sees someone else. Nobody knows if their defense dominating means the offense is not good or if the defense is that dominant.

This is the first step. This is their chance to turn from practice mode to game mode. That requires more detail and more problem solving. Nobody really knows how they will play until the ball kicks off.

UCF is turning the page and eager to play its first game and get its first opportunity against Bethune-Cookman on Thursday.

“I think one of the challenges of the first game is you’ve got to kind of get out of camp mode,” coach Scott Frost said. “Particularly with the way college football is now, we’ve been in practice mode for a long time. It’s time to flip the page and be in game mode. There is a little more attention to detail, a little more intensity that’s required. I want to make sure our guys are fired, ready to play playing fast.”

It has felt like UCF has been hungry to get back on the field after last season.

The Knights’ 5-7 2025 campaign was a sort of proof of concept considering how many new players were joining the team. It looked a bit clunky.

There is a certain familiarity that comes with the team now. The coaches have all worked together for a year. There are players returning and they had a full recruiting cycle to bring in the players they wanted. This is not some team stitched together.

Last year, the Knights’ defense established itself as one of the better units in the Big 12. But the offense struggled to find its identity.

This first game is a chance to see what the team has and how the team can pull everything together.

“I think it’s important to go out there and set a nice example,” Alonza Barnett III said. “But I don’t think one game, whether it is at the beginning of the season or the end of the season, defines a team. It’s about being the best team you can. When we go out there, it is about us and our execution, the preparation we put in during the week. At the end of the week, it’s just about going out there and showing that.”

Barnett’s arrival has brought loads of optimism. He was a big-time transfer after leading James Madison to the College Football Playoff.

Last year saw the Knights conclude a three-way battle for the starting quarterback in the first game. And even then, Dylan Fancher was injured in the first game, giving way to Tayven Jackson, who held the starting spot for the rest of the season.

The Knights will be sorting out some new roles on the offensive line and breaking in some new skill position players too. Duane Thomas Jr. and Dylan Wade are the best returning receivers. There is a lot of uncertainty in the weapons around Barnett.

But Barnett is at least established as the starter. And that gives the team a chance to establish itself.

“I think there is a new level of comfort within the offense, especially this offense with all the moving pieces. All the things that the quarterback is responsible for,” Barnett said. “The guys around me have made it easy on me. Just with their ability to make me right, spectacular catches, great blocking, the ability to take a regular five-yard run and take it 40 yards or maybe to the house. I think my game has upped a lot.”

The bigger goal for the first game is to take care of the basics. Frost does not want to be thinking about the bigger picture or looking ahead ot next Saturday’s crucial game at Pittsburgh.

Frost wants to see a clean game in Week One. That means no turnovers and limiting penalties. He wants the team to be organized and not beat themselves.

That is the challenge in the first game when the team has not established a rhythm and is figuring itself out. The team cannot beat itself. Especially against what appears to be an inferior opponent.

“Just playing with UCF fast and UCF fierce,” defensive back Antione Jackson said. “Guys flying around for the whole 60 minutes of the game. Just showing that we’re happy to be here.”

It has been a goal for UCF’s defense all camp to get more turnovers. But the main goal is to execute and play their game with the speed and force that Frost built in his first time at UCF.

The Knights still need to take care of their business right now. They want to get off on the right foot to make the most of their season.

“We’re going to get 12 tests this year,” Frost said. “I’ve said to the team a lot that UCF is not going to get a lot of attention, accolades or credit for anything until we go earn it. This is our first chance to go earn it.”

Everyone always feels like they grew up in the golden age of children’s television. We hold onto the shows we grew up with as a kid and began to expose us to the arts, cultural references and a way to understand the world.

I do not mean to brag, but I kind of think Millennials had it best.

It was not just the advent of Nicktoons on Nickelodeon, the competition from Disney Channel and Cartoon Network’s emergence of original programming. It was that those channels suddenly had inventory to fill with a 24-hour network to air. And so they dove into the past.

You not only grew up with new cartoons but all the old ones. The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo on Cartoon Network. Old Mickey Mouse cartoons on Disney Channel.

Nickelodeon for an hour had the Looney Tunes. It was a great introduction to kid-friendly but edgy comedy. Things that winked lovingly at the audience and hit all the slapstick and wisecracks that could form a young person’s sense of humor.

Why the Looney Tunes are not as culturally relevant is beyond me, even as they approach nearly 75 years old. The comedy is still timely, even if some of the cultural references are not.

Everyone knows Bugs Bunny to some degree.

And so one sketch that Looney Tunes returned to in The Coyote and the Road-Runner is hugely timeless. It is a silent movie, a simple chase, a brand of physical comedy, cosmic justice and so much more.

The setup for each Road-Runner cartoon is the same. And yet, it still hits every time. Just like every impact of the Coyote on the desert floor after falling off a cliff when one of his schemes goes awry.

It is a group of characters that deserves the light. It deserves to be seen and deserves to be a constant in our popular zeitgeist.

Like the Muppets, they are malleable to whatever they need to be. They can be a source of commentary on the world, but done so through the safe lens of children’s television. They can be punching bags and friends.

The world is better with them here.

This is the place to start to explain why the shelving of Coyote vs. ACME was so personal. It felt like a company taking this timeless thing that they owned and saying it was irrelevant. It was nothing more than a write-off.

Maybe the soulless cash grab that was Space Jam 2 said that too. The Looney Tunes had become nothing more than another IP to trot out with the expectation it would simply print money.

That is not what it often does. And so Warner Brothers callously put a unique script that cut to the soul of this property on the shelf as a tax write-off.

It is impossible to separate the off-camera story of Coyote vs. ACME from the story on screen — Wile E. Coyote at long last suing ACME for all of its faulty products.

This movie is a legal conspiracy thriller-type about an underdog taking on an all-powerful corporation, connected in a deep way to all levers of power and impossible to take down.

It is a great premise — it is why it worked as New Yorker article in 1990 and stayed in people’s minds as it received a few treatments in the intervening years. For anyone who watched Coyote try and fail to catch that Road-Runner, it feels like justice. All while letting the Road-Runner keep meeping its way across the desert.

The movie opens with a classic Coyote caper, giving the unfamiliar audience a chance to understand the gag. There are plenty of classic falls and mishaps along the way.

The filmmakers understood what makes a successful Looney Tunes cartoon. And they played that to great effect. That was the first reason why it was impossible not to smile ear to ear throughout this movie.

The next is that they found an earnestness and heart in a character that was not just his pure fanaticism. He was no longer the character you enjoy watching fall and fail time and time again.

In Coyote, they found redeeming qualities — his smarts, his hope and his resilience. There was something admirable to mine out of a cartoon villain character.

And they played that too. He teaches the main lawyer — a small claims attorney who cuts corenr and really does not want to work — not to give up. And that creates his determination to do right by him — even if the Coyote still is a bit singleminded.

That is the miracle of this film. The writers put the characters in an unusual situation but still stayed true to his character. It felt like an extended cartoon with a twist. But nothing changed about him.

Is this movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? That is the gold standard for live action/animation hybrids. Many people have been comparing this movie to that legendary classic.

To be sure, Coyote vs. ACME has its flaws. Where Roger Rabbit worked was that it was a pretty strong detective noir film that happened to have cartoons.

The weakness in Coyote vs. ACME does not work as a great legal thriller. It is just the device to tell this story. The courtroom scenes needed to be stronger — and while the finale is surprisingly gut-wrenching, it is ultimately a weak ending in a courtroom drama.

This is a flawed movie that keeps it from the pantheon.

That does not mean this is not a strong movie. That does not mean this is not worth the time.

Because ultimately what makes this movie work is not its conceit, it is the characters. It is the devotion to these looney, wacky world. And how it brings back the feeling of nostalgia of coming home to laugh for a 10-minute short.

We all could use that.

It is impossible to separate Coyote vs. ACME from its off-camera story. This is a movie about a beaten underdog getting his day in the sun. Perhaps even realizing what is actually important or who he really is.

Or not. It is a cartoon. It has its twists and turns. The Coyote’s story is driving this movie and it is ingenious how it gets to a very earned and emotional ending.

This is a crowd pleaser for sure. It hits all the right notes. It is a light in a vast desert of wasted IP. That this movie was nearly shelved and kept in the dark would have been the real crime.

The calendar is quickly turning toward the beginning of a new season.

As UCF took the field Monday morning for practice, school was starting that day. By the end of the week, they will be a week away from their opening game against Bethune-Cookman.

Training camp can be difficult. But it comes with the luxury of some time. That time is running out before the players get the chance to play again.

And for a UCF team still transitioning through many changes with a new coach and trying to carve their identity, they need all the time they can get to find themselves before their season begins.

Of course, time runs out. The calendar does not afford teams the chance to rest. Opening day comes before anyone is really ready.

Heading into this week’s practices, offensive coordinator Steve Cooper was feeling that sudden pressure. He urged his team to play with some urgency as they entered practice to seemingly catch up to the more advanced defense.

He left those practices and the team’s weekend scrimmage feeling a lot better. Of course, as defensive coordinator Alex Grinch noted, that means he was not feeling as good about his defense as he thought.

One thing is certain: The Knights are eager to see where they really stand by going against somebody else. They are eager for Thursday’s opener against Bethune-Cookman at the Bounce House.

“I’m really excited,” wide receiver Josh Derry said. “I love to come to work every day with these guys and get ready for the season. I think we’re in a good spot. Obviously continuing to grow every day and attacking every day. I have a great group of guys around me who love to work and push each other. Excited to get out there on Thursday.”

This is how every season goes.

Training camp is a grind and a difficult process. Laying the foundations and bringing a team together is a difficult and monotonous task. The month of camp before the games start is intentionally difficult. It is the time the team is fully together with no other distractions.

But everything is working toward the season and preparing for the games. Anyone can look good in a camp setting. It is when they get tested in games that things change.

As much as coaches want to try to simulate everything that could happen during a game, nobody knows how they will react when they face adversity in a game. That is the great unknown.

“At some point, we’re going to have to respond to that,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “That one drive, that one explosive, a turnover on offense, all those things that as coaches you pretend like you can practice and you try to put them in those scenarios, and you talk about them in meeting rooms. You always make a point to tell them you won’t have an emotional reaction when we are talking about them in the meeting room and the scoreboard says it’s 14-0 and we are down, but when it is 14-0 in the stadium, we are going to have a major emotional reaction. We have to make sure you lock into those moments and attack adversity.

“You don’t know. In some ways, that adds to the excitement as you go through it. You try to look for some of the signs as you go through practice and the offseason. In the end, Saturday game days are very unique. Until you are truly in it together, there is a level of anticipation as to what that’s going to be. We’re excited to find out with this group.”

The Knights are getting comfortable and confident with their group.

The team scrambled to get to 5-7 last year, after adding nearly 70 players in transfers and reshaping the entire roster.

There are considerably fewer changes this year. More players are returning. There was a foundation and a base to return to after last season.

That has brought some hope to the Knights. Even as they integrate new players like quarterback Alonza Barnett III.

UCF is not expected to be much more than a bowl team in a packed Big 12. The Knights still have a lot to prove. They hope Barnett can help spark an offense that struggled last season.

They hope he can make a bigger difference after last season left a lot of questions at quarterback.

“He’s special,” defensive back Braeden Marshall said. “The thing I can say is he is very smart. He has a lot of experience. It’s no surprise the reason he has had the success he has had at his past school. I can’t wait to see him in action against somebody else.”

But that remains the thing. Nobody really knows where the Knights stand. Nobody really knows how good this team can be.

In a conference that always holds a few surprises, UCF believes it can be a team that rises to the top as the season plays out.

That first game always provides a bit of a reality check. All the offseason hype becomes some reality to learn and grow from. It all becomes real.

Time is running out to prepare. And as excited as everyone is for that first game, there is still work to do.

“I think we’re all dedicated,” Derry said. “In camp, you go through a lot of trials and tribulations, ups and downs. Like [offensive coordinator Steve] Coop[er] said, you don’t want to ride that roller coaster. Have to continue to keep through the same pace and push forward. I think I’ve seen this team push through some tough moments but continue to grow every day.”

The Knights are marching closer to that opening game now. It will approach quicker than they know. It is already game week.

Soon the Knights will have some clearer answers about who they really are.

The opening of Apple TV’s The Dink starts promising enough.

It is the story of a heretofore untold wunderkind in the biggest match of his life against Andy Roddick. It happened when both were young pros, so it is plausible we would not think much of the match if we are being true to history.

That is a good setup for a sports comedy — a child prodigy who nearly made it against someone we do know about and lives with the emptiness of early hype and the bravado of someone who is trying to live out their glory days.

The ingredients are all there with Jake Johnson playing the main character, Dustin “The Hammer” Boyd. Ed Harris plays his demanding father. Mary Steenburgen plays his Yoda, teaching him the ways to grow and leave behind the unrealized glory of the past.

Throw in the typical conflict between the old stuffy, country club tennis (a good stand-in for golf and high class) going up against the upstart sport of the people, pickleball.

There are so many good ingredients to a fun movie.

And this just does not work. This, like its main character, is so much unrealized potential.

The jokes do not land or feel like they are tired cliches. There are plot lines and ideas that the movie explores and then quickly retreats from — including a romance between the mid-life crisis of Johnson’s character and the retirement age of Steenburgen that felt forced, cliched and out of place. It just does not come together.

The impetus of the story is that a wrist injury, caused by our main character trying to jump over a tennis net in celebration, forces him to demean himself and play pickleball as part of his recovery.

There, he is humbled by the senior citizens who prefer pickleball. This is a good opportunity to add some colorful characters, but like everything else, the movie does not fully embrace its zaniness.

It also never really embraces itself as a fish-out-of-water movie. The pickleball scenes are surprisingly scant. And it does not even really explore deeply how he has to change himself and hit it softer to win.

I will give the writers credit for making sure there are callbacks from throughout the movie that pay off in the final pickleball battle with Roddick. The plot is not random. There is some intentional writing.

But that actually makes me disappointed at all the lost potential. Nothing is over the top enough to be funny. The characters are not well-meaning, memorable or full of heart. There is that forced love story thrown in there — that goes nowhere, so it does not even feel rewarding.

Even Ed Harris’ overbearing father is too cartoonishly evil to make wanting his approval (and, yes, eventually getting it) feel rewarding.

This movie is a concept and not a fully fleshed-out thing.

I have not watched many of the bigger-name Apple TV movies that avoided theaters — think Ghosted — or even any of the other streamers. But it feels like this is the trend with streamers making their own movies.

They greenlight good concepts, attach stars to them and spit them out on the service to drive subscribers. Whether the movie is good or not is irrelevant.

And that just seems like a weird way to make movies. It makes the whole exercise feel like a checklist and a cash grab and not a piece of art.

That business strategy is whatever. It is easy to find those movies and avoid them - they are almost always on streaming, and The Dink should have had warning lights for me to avoid it — at least Happy Gilmore 2 tried and had established characters that could play on nostalgia.

What was disappointing about this movie is that it had the potential to be something fun, funny and filled with heart. This could have been a very enjoyable movie, even for what it is.

What annoys me when I watch a movie is when I feel the writers actively chose not to make the good version of their movie. The answers were obvious and they just ignored it for the lowest common denominator or whatever a computer told them to do.

This movie is paint-by-numbers. And like its titular character, it is a bunch of wasted potential.

When Scott Frost first arrived in Orlando in 2016, he brought with him the Oregon offense, or at least the promise of that.

UCFast quickly became a social media moniker. The Knights started taking the world by storm with the speed they were able to recruit and the fast-paced, no-huddle offense they implemented.

It became embedded in UCF’s culture and identity. This was the expectation.

That kind of offense has taken most of the nation by storm. It is no longer something unique — and maybe going out of vogue with how new everyone is to each other and how much communication and coordination it takes.

Anyone expecting Frost to arrive with the same offense run with the same intensity and speed probably needed to temper expectations.

The UCF offense feels like a work in progress after its first season since Frost returned. The mix of transfers and unable to settle on a quarterback quickly led to an offense that was still finding its footing. Frost was unable to ramp up to full speed.

In the end, UCF finished 13th in the Big 12 in scoring with 24.3 points per game and 12th in total offense with 378.8 yards per game.

It felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole for much of the season. It hardly looked like the offense Frost ran in his first time with the team, although you could see hints of it and the team trying to implement it as they got more comfortable.

The roster itself felt like a square peg in a round hole because he had to rebuild the entire roster through the transfer portal, essentially. It was a coach just filling a roster.

This year needed to be different. With his feet under him, Frost was a lot more focused with his recruiting. The team retained key players. This is a chance to get things right and build the program.

This is a chance to make the offense better.

Through the first weeks of camp, it has been about those baby steps. The Knights are not thinking about the big picture. Not yet.

Going with the process over the outcome,” offensive coordinator Steve Cooper said. “Sometimes when you are in practice, you are emotional because you are a coach, and it’s like those 18 periods of practice. You want the guys to have more juice. That’s great. It is important to have that energy. But it is so much more important for the execution. I think energy leads to the execution. When you pull the tape up, it’s about execution. You aren’t worried about the stuff between plays.”

UCF will have plenty of tools on offense.

The big prize transfer was quarterback Alonza Barnett, who led James Madison to the College Football Playoff last year. Unlike last year, the Knights are not sorting through three quarterbacks in training camp. Barnett is the unquestioned starter.

That has helped the team be more focused in camp and establish roles. It has helped put all the pieces in place.

There are still a lot of new faces offensively.

Stalwart receivers Dylan Wade and Duane Thomas Jr. return. But many of the skill positions will be new, including leading running back Taevion Swint, who missed most of his freshman year with an injury.

The offensive line is remade too with a few returning players.

UCF’s offense will still be playing catch-up to the defense, even if there is plenty of talent for this team to expand. And so UCF is trying to focus in camp on doing the right things so that it will be ready for the season.

“People talk about leading by example is not a real thing,” Cooper said. “It probably isn’t. That’s not a leader. That’s just doing your job. It makes it a whole lot easier if you are a new person or if you are talking about 1s and 2s, and the 2 has someone to look to who did it the right the first time. By osmosis, almost, it makes it a whole lot easier. The coaching points make a whole lot more sense.”

UCF will start to turn its attention to its season opener against Bethune-Cookman on Sept. 3 this week. The traditional Thursday opener will be coming fast.

The Knights will need to turn process into results sooner rather than later. Especially with a big game at Pitt looming in week two — one that could easily determine how good this team might actually be.

They are hoping they have made the right steps and can rekindle some of Frost’s former glory.

I have signed off Locked On Magic with that tag for the last three years, and I have truly, truly meant it.

I understand how blessed I am to be able to cover the team I grew up cheering and supporting for a living. And I knew it was asking a lot of my audience to support me above and beyond with a direct contribution.

When I decided to start this page, I was not really sure what I was doing.

I had just left Spectrum Sports 360 on Spectrum News 13. I felt more prepared and confident in what life as a freelancer would be like than the last time it had happened to me seven years ago. I had big ideas for this space and was eager to add something different to my offerings for Orlando Magic Daily and Locked On Magic.

Those would still be my core offerings. But I wanted to have the opportunity to give something extra to those willing to pay for it and for those willing to support me as I tried to make my Magic coverage full-time.

I am sitting back and reflecting on this part of my journey and everything that I have done. I am truly proud of the work I have done in this space.

But I am also thinking and looking ahead to what I want to accomplish this season. And more and more, I am seeing this added responsibility as something of a drain and something that is taking away from the crux of my coverage elsewhere.

It is with that in mind that I am sorry to announce that I will be shutting down my subscription services moving forward.

I have paused payments from the site. Please make sure that you have unsubscribed. I plan to keep it up to maintain its records (unless that becomes impossible).

I am not leaving the Magic beat. Far from it.

I am doing this so I can devote all of my attention to Orlando Magic Daily and Locked On Magic for the upcoming season. I want this to be the best coverage ever.

The past three years have truly been wondrous as I have traveled to cover games for the first time in my career and truly made owning the beat a full-time endeavor.

The support I have gotten from this space has truly helped me be able to do this.

I hope this space has added to your understanding of the team and been of some value to you as a fan.

It has also been tremendously more work. I am not afraid of a little extra work. I am really good at piling it on myself and expecting a lot from me.

But that is also something I know about myself.

I do not get personal very much. As a reporter, I hate being the story. Even as I have had to become more of a camera-facing personality and I became a freelancer, which requires me to sell myself as a brand -- and I am not great at it -- it is still uncomfortable for me to center the attention on me.

But this is as much about me as anything else.

I am not as young as I once was. It is still hard for me to believe I am 37 -- and I know I do not look it.

Some of those late nights after games have taken their toll on me. I have found myself unable to finish my work after games from pure exhaustion, only to wake up feeling rushed to fulfill my obligations for all the places I work.

That is on top of other freelance opportunities I pursue -- an Associated Press byline is still a bit of a pinch-me moment.

As I celebrated my birthday last July, my sister asked me what my goals were for the year. My honest response was to take better care of myself.

I have thought about that a ton for the past month-plus. And as I have tried to get myself through the basketball desert of August, I have found that I am stretching myself too thin. This obligation is straining me and preventing me from taking time for myself.

There is a lot of gallows humor being a reporter. We are a self-deprecating bunch -- again, it is not about us, so we diminish ourselves to lighten the mood.

I often joke, though, that my deadline is yesterday. It always feels like I am chasing. And there is very rarely a moment where I can hit pause.

Someone in a comment asked me recently when I take a vacation, and it often feels like I cannot. I am not wired to completely unplug -- my monthly theme park trips help me unplug for an afternoon and reset me even if they wipe me out from heat exhaustion when I get home.

I want the freedom to go to the gym for a 30-minute workout or relax a bit in the evenings and not feel like I have to catch up on OMD because I spent a few hours putting together something for the subscription services.

The other plain fact is that subscriptions have not grown. I am truly thankful for everyone who has made a financial pledge. It means the world to me.

I generally do not get hyperfocused on traffic. I am a believer that if you make good content and put it out in the world, people will find it.

But when you put good content behind a paywall, it becomes tougher to find. And I wanted to see bigger growth.

This is an industry-wide problem. Figuring out how to get people to pay for journalism is the great mystery of our time.

While I am proud of the work I did here -- and I hope you enjoy it -- it was discouraging to see how little traffic these posts received (across both Patreon and Substack, since I have been cross-posting, trying to find the right formula). It is hard to pour yourself into something knowing only a handful of people are reading.

This job can be really impersonal, and nothing feels lonelier than that.

My allegiance has always been to Magic fans and giving them the best analysis and perspective. Knowing that I was dividing my attention, I did not always feel like my audience got my best.

This is what this is really about — streamlining my coverage and attention so Magic fans can get my best and have me at my best. This is about no longer feeling like I am chasing the wheel (what we called not having recorded segments ready at Spectrum News 13). This is about allowing me the chance to take a step back so I can attack my coverage harder.

I am truly thankful for everyone who shared this space with me. I do not regret undertaking this endeavor.

I know you will all continue to follow me at Orlando Magic Daily and Locked On Magic. Neither of those are going anywhere. I am not leaving the Magic beat.

Thank you again so much for your support!

Orlando Magic fans have a baseline expectation for their team.

Much of the frustration last year was not about the team failing to live up to expectations. Everyone misses on a team, and predicting the future is hard. Injuries are impossible to foresee and change everything.

No, the distaste for the Magic’s season last year had more to do with the inconsistency in the team’s effort and intensity.

This Magic team was not living up to the legacy of the Heart and Hustle team from 1999-2000. Nobody expects teams to overachieve to that level. But they expect the effort and intensity.

That is why Darrell Armstrong and Bo Outlaw are still beloved. It is why Doc Rivers still has an impact and legacy. It is the baseline for this team.

The Magic failed to live up to that standard last year. And that is the foundation that collapsed.

As Sean Sweeney prepares for his first season, there is a lot of pressure to deliver results. Fans want to see the team take the next step in the standings. They want to see the offense become more expansive and creative.

But Sweeney’s first task is to hit this baseline. This is a defensive team first. And the Magic need to re-establish themselves as one of the best defensive teams in the league.

Subscribe now

Read more

When people think of Scott Frost, they tend to think about his offense.

When he arrived at UCF in 2016, he spoke about getting speed on the entire field. It was about going fast and bringing an up-tempo, no-huddle offense. His team put up some fireworks even then.

Frost was a quarterback — even though he was a linebackers coach in the NFL — at heart. And offense is where everyone associated his impact.

But even in that first stint, the Knights built a reputation for their fast defense. They swarmed to the ball and made big plays even if the offense took all the attention.

The Knights do not have their undefeated season or claim their national championship without the effort of their defense.

As Frost returned and tried to cobble together his team, everyone expected to see the explosive offense return. But that was more a work in progress with all the new players on the roster.

The defense is what stepped up.

It was not merely that defensive Malachi Lawrence went in the first round. Or that the defense ranked fourth in total yards allowed in the Big 12. Or that this is where the majority of UCF’s experience is returning this season.

The Knights’ defense is a big key to this team’s success.

But it was as raw and disheveled last year with so many new players. With many more players returning, the Knights are hoping to see a step up and be more consistent as the Knights try to return to a bowl game.

“I think there is a recognition of some missed opportunities from a year ago,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “A play or two here and a player or two there and we flip the schedule on its head in a positive standpoint. The bulk of the guys who return with us are on the older side. They have been through some wars and battles. They certainly recognize what UCF on their helmet means and want to leave on a good note.”

A lot of key defenders return, including last year’s leading tackler in Lewis Carter. He figures to anchor the team’s linebacker group. UCF is also hopeful to get Cole Kozlowski back after a court granted some players an extra year of eligibility.

Much of the Knights’ experience will come in the secondary, where Braeden Marshall, Antione Jackson and Jayden Bellamy all got ample experience last year with the Knights. DeMari Henderson at safety also played a lot last year.

The defensive line, which loses both edge rushers in Lawrence and Nyjalik Kelly and defensive tackle John Walker (transferred to Ohio State), still has talent and potential. Sincere Edwards got some time last year before an injury ended his season. Horace Lockett dealt with injuries too. Isaiah Nixon played last year and had 3.5 tackles for a loss.

There is a lot of confidence in what this group can do. And there is a lot more faith in what the team is running now.

“A little more buy-in. A lot more maturity,” Carter said. “A lot of guys have experience and played a good amount of ball. Guys are just willing to work.

“For me, it is easier to get through to guys. Especially with the amount of guys coming back, we have a good amount of guys who have been through the ups and downs that know the hurts, the ups throughout the season. Having familiar guys and bringing in more mature, experienced guys definitely makes it easy.”

Even the players that are new are fairly experienced. That is the nature of modern college football.

The Knights feel confident with the group they are bringing back defensively.

But like with everything with UCF this year, it all feels easier because the foundation is formed. The Knights can focus on improving on that foundation now.

“Yes, there is familiarity, but also what’s that group, what skill set do they bring and what kind of piece to the puzzle do they provide,” Grinch said. “From that standpoint, in so many ways, we do feel good about that group. It’s a group we like to work with. I say that confidently. You are not playing the role of coach and disciplinarian. You are coaching them.”

The Knights are eager to attack this season and improve on a solid defensive season.

UCF ranked eighth in sacks with 26. That is an area the team wants to improve, getting to the quarterback more.

The Knights also want to get more turnovers and set the offense up better for success.

UCF ranked 10th with just nine interceptions and 10th with eight forced fumbles. The Knights could get off the field most games, but they did not flip games or make those momentum-building plays that championship teams do.

The focus on getting turnovers is a big part of the team trying to evolve and improve.

It is a big part of the maturity the team is hoping to show this season.

“The grit is just in us,” Bellamy said. “We all want to compete and want to get turnovers. That’s the biggest thing we came into fall camp was getting turnovers. [Last year’s rank] that’s not really the standard of UCF football. If we can be top 10 and give the offense way better field position, we should be able to set them up for big success.”

The Knights are hoping that they can bring all of that together to have their defense be a major factor this season. They hope that it can better set up the offense for success and give it the time it needs to get into shape or take advantage of the arrival of Alonza Barnett.

It sees a group that is more mature and ready to take another step forward.

The confetti likely still has not been cleaned up off the streets of New York City.

Basketball hits different in the city. There is a reason Madison Square Garden is called the Mecca and that New York has its own basketball culture.

Everyone can complain about the over-emphasis the Knicks received during their difficult season for much of the past two decades. But a full and buzzing Madison Square Garden is truly a basketball palace and holy space.

The run they put together to get to and win the NBA Finals is certainly an all-timer, capped off by a Game 4 comeback win for the ages and one of the great game-winning plays in league history on OG Anunoby’s putback.

For all the doubts about the Knicks, they proved that having creators and scorers at all five positions is necessary in the league. They proved that having unwavering confidence and a cool demeanor make for champions. And having a player who rises to the moment as Jalen Brunson did is everything.

This felt like a special season. A team-of-destiny type of season. And that is just how championships feel like now.

Subscribe now

Read more

The NBA schedule can be a lot to digest.

Eighty-two games is as daunting as it sounds. And there are twists and turns in the process that will change the season in ways nobody can predict.

It is hard to look at the road ahead and say for certain whether the Orlando Magic’s season finale in Miami will mean anything or whether it will be a pro forma finish.

That is also because everything feels like it has the pressure turned all the way up.

The Magic are feeling the heat from their financial situation. They need to win to justify their massive payroll. Otherwise, the team will need to make some major changes.

They are feeling the pressure from a vastly improved Eastern Conference. The East felt tight last year with the Magic unable to climb to the top of the pack. Now, the Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat added elite players to their rosters. The Indiana Pacers are going to bounce back after their injury-filled season. The Washington Wizards added Trae Young and Anthony Davis, two players worthy of respect when they are healthy.

This is a tougher East. And every game is going to feel important.

Subscribe now

Read more

When Scott Frost arrived back at UCF in January, there were some familiar signs from his first stint still hanging in the training facility. His fingerprints were still everywhere.

But what was not was a roster to field a football team. He had to get to work immediately building a team, hitting the transfer portal to find nearly 70 players to fill out the team and get to the start of the season.

That UCF finished 5-7 and looked functional felt like a major success in his first season with that cobbled-together roster. Frost had to adjust to the personnel he had and the team made the most of it.

There were still transfers this season. But there were also plenty of players returning from last year’s season. The Knights are not starting from scratch again.

And that might be one of the bigger advantages UCF has this year over last year. They are not starting over. They have some foundation they can build upon and players who know what the coaching staff expects.

Add in players this coaching staff could spend a year recruiting and transfers targeted to fill needs and the Knights find themselves in a much different position.

“I think in a lot of ways, I’m more comfortable,” Frost said. “Most guys are more comfortable. The team is farther ahead. Everyone understands the mission. We have a lot better overall character on this football team. We’ve got more talent. I’m really looking forward to getting started.”

UCF is returning much more of its roster from last year, even with some key departures, especially on defense and the addition of a key player in James Madison transfer quarterback Alonza Barnett III. The Knights have 10 starters back from last year and an additional three starters from last year acquired through the transfer portal.

That does not count players who are expected to step up or return from injury like running back Tavion Swint or defensive end Sincere Edwards.

This is a much more experienced and talented team than what the Knights saw last year. And now they are carrying some history with them.

They know what UCF football is supposed to look like now.

“I wouldn’t say it feels different,” safety Jayden Bellamy said. “From a mindset and a culture, everything has still been the same. We just have players who are more bought in, more experienced and a lot of depth. That’s the big thing we didn’t really have last year. I feel like that’s the big thing.”

The team can move forward now that it has its base.

Frost said it is rare to see a new coaching staff do worse in its second year. Now everyone knows the rhythm it is trying to create. The coaching staff knows how to work together as much as the players do now.

“We definitely have built the foundation,” defensive tackle Horace Lockett said. “Every guy in here wants to win. That’s the number one goal here. We take that with everything we do. These guys push you too. We are doing this together. The foundation definitely is set.”

Frost did not want to talk much about last season because there were so many new players. He wanted to speak about raising the team’s standard and playing with a chip on their shoulder.

He is much more confident about the group he has put together this year. Part of that is because they have that familiarity and understanding of the standard the team is trying to set.

This is still a team not many are expecting much from.

In preseason polls, UCF is predicted to finish near the bottom of the conference. But the Big 12 is known for its surprises. The Knights believe they can shock a lot of people.

That is what everyone is working on now that many more players understand what it takes to succeed in the Big 12 after last season.

Everybody has the same goal. And everybody knows the standard.

“I just know this is a team that is eager to be good,” Frost said. “I don’t think we have any guys pulling the rope in the wrong direction. I don’t think we have any anchors. The team has really come together. There is a good bond on this team. I think that is a trait of a lot of really good teams.”

Time will tell if that connectivity and experience will pay off for the team this year and lead the Knights back to a bowl game and up the standings.

UCF did not have to start from scratch this year. And that will help the team build on its program.

The one thing UCF is not doing as much this year is getting to know an entirely new team. That is one less thing to do as the Knights look ahead to their season.

The Orlando Magic’s schedule came out on Thursday to as much fanfare as the schedule release typically garners.

There are 82 games every year. That part never changes.

What does change are the expectations and the hopes attached to that season.

Last year carried a lot of hope and expectation. Everyone looked for the areas the team could pick up steam and where we would learn whether this team was for real or not. The Magic never quite lived up to those expectations.

This season has a different vibe.

There is some quiet confidence that the team will match what it did last year. But trepidation about whether the team can deliver more. Nobody is sure what to expect this season. They only know the Eastern Conference is tougher.

That has everyone a bit down on the Magic.

It is easy to give in to some doom and gloom. The Magic have to prove themselves. That is the trick to the whole thing.

Orlando should be as good as any other team in the East on paper. Predicting results at this stage is just about confidence. And the Magic have not earned much confidence after their inconsistent season last year.

There will be 82 opportunities to change that narrative this coming season.

Subscribe now

Read more

It is hard to argue that Hollywood has no original ideas when Obsession and Backrooms were two of the biggest movies of the summer. Or when Christopher Nolan made a truly original take on The Odyssey, a 3,000-year-old story that never fails to reveal something new about us.

Still, Hollywood knows that the biggest seller might be nostalgia. And if there is a franchise to mine for attention, Hollywood will do its best to mine it.

No matter how silly, outmoded, or obscure it is. If it has a fan base, that is a wallet to target.

Credit to the filmmakers then that try to find something interesting to say while churning out a mega movie with some ridiculous premise that made sense when it was created or in that original format but does not make sense as a big Hollywood piece.

You have to applaud the effort when they make a story that has some charm, an earnestness to respect the source material but also the willingness to laugh at itself.

That is one of the reasons I have to give credit to Masters of the Universe. The directors are trying to hit at something interesting in the most ridiculous ways possible. The actors genuinely seem to be having fun putting this piece of IP on screen. And there are some genuinely enjoyable parts — including Jared Leto’s Skeletor eating up every scene he is in with overacting the character calls for.

This is a genuinely fun movie. One I wish I had seen in theaters. That has some big ideas it tries to hit at. But ultimately is too afraid to fully dive into.

There is some theory out there that Travis Knight fashioned his story about He-Man as a masculine answer to Barbie. This was a treatise on the pressures of masculinity and how society defines men and what a man should be.

That is certainly a worthy endeavor.

But while Barbie made its treatise on femininity and all of its contradictions the center of the film. It embraced the contradictions of its toy source material and all the commentary about it and used that to describe modern womanhood.

There are moments where Masters of the Universe and Adam, aka “He-Man,” tread on this.

Nicholas Galitzine plays Adam as an earnest and somewhat timid man. He is not the picture of red-pill masculinity, but becomes it when he says the words while holding the sword of power.

His father is portrayed as emotionally distant and holding only a narrow vision of how his prince must rule. It is about physical domination and conquest.

That is not who Adam is. At every moment he seems like a fanboy — giving all the characters the silly names everyone knows them by, including his own, He-Man. But he still has this sense of duty and responsibility to help his home.

The question is whether he has the willingness to fight or whether he can.

The scene at the end where Skeletor invades Adam’s mind — donning a Nike gym shirt while pumping iron to emphasize Adam’s emasculated energy at the gym surrounded by heavy lifters — which the filmmakers do their best to hide that their leading man has a bodybuilder’s frame as evidence when he transforms into He-Man.

There are some really interesting thoughts on masculinity that this movie scratches at.

But this is the difference between Masters of the Universe and Barbie.

There is a clear plot and story that has to hit. This is still a popcorn flick and an action movie. The moments of earnestness are interrupted by generic action and CGI nonsense, even if the characters have more depth.

This movie does not go all in on its big ideas. It is almost afraid to say something so daring about masculinity and invite criticism from some of the people who might be part of its target audience.

It snuck enough of those ideas in to feel like a missed opportunity.

Still, if you are looking for a non-serious, popcorn movie, Masters of the Universe is a good time. Its story is simple to follow, and its characters have dimension and are plenty likable. Everyone had a good time making this, and it shows.

This movie deserved more attention than it ultimately got. It was better than it got credit for.

It just was not all it could be or overcome how silly its premise ultimately is.

There is an old saying among golfers: “You cannot win the tournament in the first round, but you can certainly lose it.”

That is not quite how the Orlando Magic’s 2026 season went. That is more akin to Paolo Banchero’s rookie season when the team started 5-20 and finished .500 the rest of the season, a preview of their breakthrough during the next season.

When the schedule came out in August that year, everyone highlighted a franchise-first three-game homestand to begin the season. Everyone dreamed of a 6-2 or 7-3 start to the season as a base to begin growing.

They based that on the continuity between the coaching staff and most of the players. Desmond Bane felt additive rather than transformative, as transformative as it could be.

The Magic tripped out of the gate. And while the team ultimately caught up, getting over .500 for good by game 13 on Nov. 14 (the first NBA Cup game for the team). There is time to get things back on track.

But the warning lights were blinking when the Magic stumbled out to a 1-4 start.

Subscribe now

Read more

Last year, UCF had a lot of questions to answer about their program.

After a second straight disappointing finish in the Big 12 and a senior class that seemed poised to make the breakthrough for this program, the program was in some disarray. The sudden departure of coach Gus Malzahn to take over as offensive coordinator at in-state competitor Florida State only further put the Knights behind.

The team returned to a familiar name in Scott Frost to take over the program and restore it to its heyday.

But as happens in modern college football, when one coach departs, a lot of the roster goes with him.

UCF entered the season with nearly 70 players transferring in. The Knights had a three-way quarterback battle that never got settled until three games into the season when Tayven Jackson took the reins. UCF still finished a game short of bowl eligibility.

If the Knights were going to answer the big questions surrounding the program, it started with the basic one.

More players stayed and held over from last year. But the Knights needed to address their biggest need: A quarterback. The leader of the team. The most important position on the field.

In steps James Madison transfer Alonza Barnett III, perhaps the biggest transfer to arrive at UCF certainly in Frost’s tenure and perhaps since the transfer portal opened.

He brings with him a lot of talent — as did K.J. Jefferson from Arkansas and Brandon Wimbush of Notre Dame when they transferred in — and a lot of excitement and hope that he can help UCF make a breakthrough in the Big 12 for the first time.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to raise the standard of this program,” Barnett said. “Coach Frost’s vision of the program and spread that in the locker room. We have guys who not only have the attitude but the willingness to work. We all love each other and just continue to build that camaraderie throughout the year.”

Barnett led the Dukes to the College Football Playoff last year and immediately steps in as the team’s starting quarterback. That is one question UCF does not have to answer after it remained a constant question for the team throughout last season.

Barnett threw for 2,500+ yards in each of the last two seasons, including 2,806 yards last year. He had 23 touchdowns against eight interceptions as he was named the Sun Belt’s offensive player of the year.

In the College Football Playoff against Oregon, he threw for 273 yards and two touchdowns, adding a rushing touchdown for good measure.

That is the kind of player UCF is adding to anchor its offense.

“We brought him in here to help him be even better,” coach Scott Frost said. “He was elite last year. Hand him the reins and let him go. What I’ve seen over the course of the spring and the summer, my expectations and excitement about him have grown. The team looks to him, and that’s a good place to be where you have a guy at quarterback. We’re going to go as he goes.”

With no dominant ACC team, James Madison out of the Sun Belt took the last automatic bid, an error the College Football Playoff will prevent this season.

There is still that stigma of a Group of Five player graduating to the “big leagues” in a power conference. UCF did that themselves when they jumped to the Big 12 four years ago.

That is part of what attracted Barnett to UCF. There is an infrastructure here, even in Frost’s second year back on campus, that everyone feels can grow into something.

“When you are trying to establish a winning culture, a lot of times if you haven’t won, you don’t know what it takes,” quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton said. “You need guys who know what it takes to win to establish that culture. Za has done that and he’s going to help us establish that this year. We’re grateful to have him.”

Still, it was not without hiccups.

Barnett missed all of spring practice with an injury. He had to watch from the sideline — and the backup position is being held by two true freshmen at the moment. Offseason OTAs have helped him get back up to speed and integrated him into the team in a different way.

But everyone can see what he can bring to the team.

“It was pretty easy from the day he got here to now,” wide receiver Duane Thomas Jr. said. “It was really smooth. Last year, you were kind of splitting reps. Now you’ve got that guy. It’s a little bit smoother and a little bit easier. It’s been a good experience to be with him because he’s that dude. He can play ball and we’ve seen it time and time again.”

Everyone’s eyes are on the quarterback.

That was a position of massive need last year, with three players battling out in camp for the starting spot. Barnett is unequivocally the starter to begin this season. It has helped everyone fill in roles and given the team a clear leader.

If the Knights are going to surprise many make some noise in the Big 12, it will be because this transfer investment has cashed in.

“I think when you look at the playbook and look at the offense and the scheme itself, the scheme allows for people to be open,” Barnett said. “When you already have a scheme that naturally allows for people to be open and you fill those positions with skilled players that can go, run and block. The sky is the limit.”

Frost said the team is eager to improve. After finishing 5-7 last season, the team defied a lot of odds with how many new players were brought into the fold.

Still, the group fell short. They were missing that piece.

A quarterback can do a lot of work to tie a group together. That is what the Knights are expecting from Barnett this season.

No one is thinking much about the Orlando Magic right now.

When I go on national podcasts and tell people the Magic need to have championship aspirations and be pointing toward a championship this season, I get a few side-eyes and stares until I explain that being this close to the second apron, they kind of have to think that way.

Nobody is -- nor should be -- picking the Magic to win the Eastern Conference. They are typically open to the possibility that the Magic can win a playoff series. But everyone agrees they are not seemingly far off.

A lot of teams in the Eastern Conference could say that. That is how competitive the East can be.

There should be no outright dismissing of the Magic.

Subscribe now

Read more

Everyone is trying to learn the new NBA.

Whether they should have known or not beforehand, the realities of the NBA’s apron system and CBA rules are being felt around the league.

Orlando Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman warned for years that this moment would come for the team. Eventually, the team’s decent drafting would become expensive. Weltman has unwavering belief in the players he has drafted. Those contracts would stack at some point.

The Magic are staring those restrictions now.

Orlando is roughly $2.5 million beneath the second apron -- a space that only the Denver Nuggets are in right now, with the Cleveland Cavaliers slated to join after signing James Harden. The second apron has become a virtual hard cap.

The basics that everyone needs to know are that there is very little way to improve the roster if a team is in the second apron. Even being in the first apron comes with major restrictions -- the limited taxpayer mid-level exception and not being able to take on more salary in a trade.

Very quickly, the Magic are facing a situation where they must prove they are worth the massive payroll or else the team must retreat and regroup.

That may be what the team must do anyway.

Subscribe now

Read more

There is a lot of appraising and reappraising of Paolo Banchero’s game these days.

One group has sold off all of their Banchero stock, citing the advanced statistics and just a general distaste for his style of play. They think the Orlando Magic are making a mistake staying invested in him -- Sam Quinn said on The Third Apron the Magic should just trade Banchero for Michael Porter Jr. and whatever draft picks they can get because that number is only getting worse.

With the shocking trade of Jaylen Brown and the justifications that have come with it, there is now a little bit of pushback against those who only look at players for their numbers, stats and analytics. Surely the eye test means something.

It is easier to poke holes in the Banchero argument. His team has not won big yet. The Magic are good enough to make the playoffs, and Banchero is a big part of that. But the team has yet to get over the hump.

And the impatience in the league would suggest that nobody can wait for young players to develop, figure things out, or even get a new coach to present new ideas for his next step. Let alone let the player work in the offseason to regain his reputation.

Banchero did not have the season he wanted last season. He averaged only 22.2 points per game. He clearly looked like he was a step slow. Something was not right.

The Magic needed more from Banchero. It was less about his stats and more about the intangibles of leading and carrying a team. He could not really reach that level for most of last season.

But there were so many indicators that he had taken some important steps.

Subscribe now

Read more

When it comes to the Orlando Magic, there are a lot of debates to be had.

Almost all of them center around Paolo Banchero.

The Magic’s star is a lightning rod and a poster boy for a lot of the debates and shouting that happen around the NBA.

He is a high-volume scorer who puts up the counting stats that attract eyeballs. But his statistical profile does not fit a preferred vision of the NBA -- or in some cases a spreadsheet that measures the NBA without always watching it.

He is at the same time the player who has helped launch the Magic into the postseason and the one that is now holding them back from doing more.

There are people around the league who think the Magic should trade Banchero early before he loses all value and everyone catches up to what these people seem to have unearthed.

It is no secret that Banchero’s game is not a work of efficient art. It is no secret the Magic have never had a positive net rating with Banchero on the floor -- he was at -0.2 last year and -0.1 in 2024, arguably the team’s two best seasons with Banchero on the team.

It is no secret that Franz Wagner, his running mate, succeeds in all the analytic models that Banchero does not, making for an easy comparison and contrast for critics to poke holes in his balloon.

Whether it is fair or not, there is a lot of pressure on Banchero this season.

Subscribe now

Read more

Of all the superheroes that exist in the pantheon of comic books, it is hard not to argue that Spider-Man is the most universally beloved.

Why?

Spider-Man is not some cosmic hero with immeasurable powers. He is mostly confined to New York City. His powers are easy to explain and well-defined, but still kind of weird.

In most comic iterations, his webs are not even natural. He has to make them in a lab.

The genius of the Spider-Man story is in that. The secret to Spider-Man is his alter ego, Peter Parker.

Where alter egos around the Marvel and DC Universes are not the main story, Spider-Man is different, Peter Parker is ever present. He is Spider-Man and Spider-Man is Peter Parker.

Stan Lee used to always say he had to fight for Peter Parker. Nobody understood what made him different. It was that Parker had personal problems — that he worried about his relationships, had to fight to make rent, had a day job with a bad boss — that made him different. And it is when Parker is at the center of stories that Spider-Man makes the most sense.

All the successful Spider-Man movies have this innate understanding. It is that Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland have filled in Peter Parker’s shoes — in different ways — as much as the red and blue leotard.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a Peter Parker movie, even if he is in the suit for far more of it. It had to be after the way Far From Home ended with Parker choosing Spider-Man and protecting his friends over his Parker identity.

The “great power, great responsibility” line was finally deployed in the Holland universe and it became understood that Parker had to pick defending the world as Spider-Man over the friends and family he made as Parker. He had to sacrifice Parker to fulfill his Spider-Man responsibilities.

That is the central conflict in this new movie.

Parker is alone. His friends do not remember him. He lives in an attic. And he has poured himself into his work — something even his cooperating chief of police seems to be warning him about.

The added powers he is geting come explicitly from this isolation. He is depriving Peter to be Spider-Man.

Naturally, the antagonist is a strong one — a rarity in the Marvel universe oddly — because it challenges this exact idea. The antagonist (and that word is used intentionally) can jump their consciousness from person to person. They could be anyone and they are looking for something specific.

Parker is immune to these efforts (avoiding spoilers on this thing is hard). But the antagonist themselves makes you question identity and control. It is why it makes sense The Hulk makes an appearance to further introduce the question of identity and control.

Parker must learn through the movie to accept and nurture all parts of himself. He must shed some of his naivete and come to terms with who he is as Peter Parker, something he does at the end (Spider-Man will return).

This movie does a very good job telling this story. He cannot quite let go of the past he had to sacrifice. That still dances in his mind even though nobody else knows that history. He needs to spend time understanding who Peter Parker is because that motivates him to don the mask and take up that responsibility.

Parker ultimately wins the day and wins the fight because of another great speech from Marisa Tomei’s Mae Parker and the understanding that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one in the same. The mask is nothing — and potentially dangerous — without the good man behind it.

Some of this is not executed as well as it could have been. This movie is fitting a lot in a 2:45ish run time. It can drag a bit. It is a bit bloated with other Marvel — and even Spider-Man references (perfect Tombstone casting, by the way).

But Destin Daniel Cretton brought his kung fu sensibilities from Shang Chi to this movie and it makes for a new feeling while watching a Spider-Man movie. This movie is raw, personal and in your face.

The action feels closer than ever. The swinning through New York feels far more adrenaline-inducing. And the fight scenes have a pesonality to them — especially a highly Kung Fu influenced fight with the Hand at the end.

The best way to describe this is the suit looks real instead of the CGI Iron Man suit Holland wore in the first three movies. This feels more tactile. It not only meets the realism of the movie but the personal stakes of the film.

It was good to see this character get a new voice directing it. And it worked really well.

I would not call this the best Spider-Man film — give me Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 or Spider-Man Into the Spider-verse. But it deserves to be in that conversation.

And for the fourth movie with the same Spider-Man, that they could find some new ground to tread and still produce a crowd-pleasing movie is a true achievement.

This is a good movie with a character everyone knows.

This movie understands its character and why everyone keeps coming back to Spider-Man. It all came together in the best way.