Edge of Reason Reviews

I'm just a guy who has a passion for movies and anything that has to do with a silver screen.

[bsmithscolaro]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 01  Review

Creator: Joss Whedon

Starring: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, and Chloe Bennet

First Air  Date: September 27th 2013

It has been a very long time since I’ve done a television review, and since the MCU seems to becoming a television powerhouse  it’s only fitting I review their shows. Television always was DC’s playground, say what you will about their movies but they have given us some of the best Superhero related television shows ever. From Batman the Animated series all the way to Arrow (I have yet to watch it but I hear it’s great) DC was always the TV guy. After the Avengers destroyed box office numbers Marvel announced that they would be making the leap from the big screen to the small. Agents of SHIELD was their first show and to make it even better Joss Whedon would be involved in some way, now Whedon is the king of geek television, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, need I say more? Everyone was excited for a show that would be primarily focused on the peacekeeping organization that never really got its time to shine in the MCU movies. To make it even better fan favourite Phil Coulson was going to be coming back from the dead to head the show, everyone was excited and then it aired.

I hate to say it but I originally dropped this show after three episodes. Most shows have growing pains when they first start out but nothing as bad as SHIELD. Even after watching the entire first season (which I ended up enjoying) I have to say those first few episodes are pretty bad. Agents didn’t know what it wanted to be, was it a spy thriller show? Or a monster of the week series in the vein of the X-Files? Well it’s kind of both but if you watch the show and can’t find the strength to get past those first few episodes than heed my advice and the rest of the fan base, it does get better.  I’m not kidding, Agents of SHIELD started out as a muck of a series and then when you least expect it the series pulls a bunny out of it’s hat and immediately becomes incredible.

Agent’s takes place some time after Iron man 3, the world now is aware that there are people on Earth that have extraordinary abilities, some are willing to exploit these individuals for profit, others want to protect them, and some just want to know the truth. Enter a freshly resurrected Phil Coulson who is tasked with creating a small task force to take care of special cases all across the globe, from powered individuals to strange objects of unknown origin, Coulson's team is on the case. However around every turn for Coulson and his team is the mysterious organization Centipede and their even more mysterious leader the “Clairvoyant”. Who the Clairvoyant is and what his endgame is for SHIELD will rock the very foundations of the organization, and the MCU.

Just like the Avengers Agents is an ensemble show. The cast is pretty large and each member of Coulsons team do have their own personalities, it just takes a long time to get attached to any of them. Of course the one character that should help you through all of this is Phil Coulson, a character who was more of a fun little cameo in Phase 01 of the MCU. Now we get to know Coulson like never before, sure it’s awesome that he is the star of his show but I personally find that bringing him back from the dead sort of sullies his sacrifice in the Avengers, because it was his death the Avengers, well, avenged.

His arc for most of the show is surrounded behind his mysterious resurrection and "T.A.H.I.T.I" (it's a beautiful place), the answer to this question is sort of a let down but it gives us some great scenes with Coulson that gives Clark Gregg some room to work with unlike the other MCU films. It’s a double edged sword but Coulson still remains a great character, regardless of how Joss Whedon feels about bringing him back (I don’t even want to get into that bag of marbles).

Our eyes into the world of Agents of SHIELD come from Skye played by Chloe Bennet, Skye is a hacker who works for the Rising Tide, a organization that wants to dig up any meat on SHIELD and the superhero phenomenon that’s sweeping the globe. Before she knows it she is brought into Coulson’s group and plays a very important role in the series. At first I really hated this character, I take it up actually to Joss Whedon’s writing (I know what is this madness!?), I can stand almost anything Whedon writes but for some reason that first episode really went out of it’s way to make her annoying. As the series progressed however and we learn a little more about the mystery that is Skye I found myself genuinely caring about her well being and I am still very interested in knowing her past which is more interesting than Coulsons arc.

Brett Dalton plays Grant Ward, the muscle of the group. He is your typical pretty boy action star with a brooding past, the character is very boring but it is all done intentionally. Wait until you reach the middle point of the show, you are going to be in for a real treat with this guy. The techies of the group are Fitz and Simmons played by Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge. I found them annoying at first as well, but after episode 6 which in my opinion is the best episode in the season, I found myself really starting to dig these characters.

Now I’ve saved her for last, but the best character in the entire show is Melinda May played by Ming-Na Wen. This character is everything I wanted in this show and is the one reason why I stuck with the lacklustre first half of the show. She's the strong female character that the MCU actually needs. Her purpose isn’t to just become a love interest for the hero, instead she is a force to reckon with and I actually think she’s the only female character in the MCU who strikes up a sexual relationship with someone not out of love. I love May, I’d actually just watch a show with her as the only character.

Like I said in the beginning of this review,  the first half of the season is a mixed bag. Sometimes you’ll get lacklustre episodes like the pilot, but then you’ll quickly get a gem like episode 6 (FZZT). There is a ton of cringe inducing lines that actually made me want to drop the show, but you know what I made a promise! I am finishing the MCU in it’s entirety and I will not let some bad episodes in a show get in the way. Just when I thought that I couldn’t take the show something happened, the Winter Soldier came out. The release of the Winter Soldier and it’s drastic effects it has on the MCU quickly made Agents of SHIELD an amazing show. I was giving single episodes 6’s and 5’s but I quickly noticed that either they fired the writing staff and hired new competent writers, or the Winter Soldier was something that this show desperately needed. The series quickly goes a 180 and treads into darker territory.

Many people just tell new viewers to watch episode 01 and skip right to the Winter Soldier fallout. Don’t do that, this is a Joss Whedon show remember, even the most pointless monster of the week episodes somehow make an important plot point in later episodes. I found myself actually excited when the Hydra weapon from episode 02 made an appearance down the line. Things matter in this show, and because of that it made me appreciate the earlier episodes a little bit more.

There are a few good Whedon cameos in the show, off the top of my head I think there were three actors that I noticed from his other works. One in particular plays a very important role in the season and I think he does a good job, but I won’t spoil it just watch that for yourself. There are also a few MCU cameos sprinkled throughout, and don’t think you’ll be seeing any of the Avengers in the show, that’s a very unrealistic thought to even consider,those actors were busy doing other projects when this show was being filmed, and will most likely still be when the series continues.

The show does have a really rough start, more so than most series and if you do stick with it you’ll find yourself having a pretty good time. I know it’s hard to believe internet hype sometimes but for once the hype and good word of mouth is real, Agents is a better show once you hit the middle point. It seems that there are two different shows that are inhabiting the season, one lackluster muck of a show and an incredible spy thriller that really lives up to what was promised when the show was pitched.

I give the first season of Agents a 7/10

It if wasn’t for the first half of the season I would be giving this an 8. But there are problems with the show, the characters kind of suck and the episodes just seem like fodder until later. I had a great time watching it and you can now consider me a fan.

[bsmithscolaro]

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

Director: Joss Whedon

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo

Original Release Date: May 1st 2015

After three years the sequel to the most successful superhero movie of all time has finally dawned upon us. I know I said I’d review this after I watched everything that the MCU has to offer, but I fell behind and I am most certainly not missing Age of Ultron for anything. I’ll have a review up for the first season of Agents of SHIELD very soon, but in the meantime lets talk about the Avengers, because lets face it we care about that more.

Age of Ultron does not wait to get the action going. The movie starts right as the Avengers lay siege to a secret Hydra base, it’s there that Tony Stark discovers that Hydra has been conducting experiments with Chitauri technology, and more importantly the staff given to Loki by the mad titan Thanos. Using the alien technology within the staff Stark decides to finish the Ultron Project, a means to put a “suit of armour” around the world when the Avengers cannot defend it. Unfortunately for Stark the powerful A.I becomes self aware and declares that Humans are the true danger to the planet and that the only way to save the world is for the extinction of the Human race.

Just like the first film where this movie stays strong is when our characters interact outside of combat. Joss Whedon loves his banter, and Age of Ultron certainly shows it. Just seeing these characters interact is a comic book geeks dream come true, and while the novelty of the Avengers teaming up has died off that doesn’t mean we can’t get some great scenes with our favourite heroes. It seems like Whedon has thrown his skill with banter up to an 11 because every single scene holds something special, each interaction is a stand out point amongst itself and any viewer can find something new to pick up on with the rapid pace dialogue.

The action set pieces in this movie are even more spectacular than the first film. Age of Ultron has more action than the first and every time our Avengers suit  up insanity will ensue. Every action scene is filled with multiple things at once, and Whedon really wants us to see our Avengers in action, now the crazed insanity of all the fight scenes are a little hard on the eyes and I might sound like a cranky old man but there is just so much on screen sometimes, but that’s my only complaint with the action, it’s all spectacular.

It seems that Whedon heard the pleas of many fans after the first film because many characters who don’t have their own franchises are given so much room to breath, especially Hawkeye.  Jeremy Renner didn’t get much to do in the first movie, for most of the run time he was a lapdog of Loki. In Age of Ultron Whedon has made sure that Hawkeye is the standout Avenger amongst the original cast (more on the new players soon). Whedon has really encapsulated Clint’s dry sense of humour and probably the funniest moment in the entire movie is given to the character during the films climax. Black Widow and the Hulk are also given a lot to do in this movie but their side plot is one of the many problems this movie has.

Our new Avengers are Quick Silver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Now I won’t talk about Vision because his character is best experienced fresh with no knowledge at all of his inclusion, but know this. Vision is one of the best parts of the entire movie and I cannot wait to see where they go with his character.

Many fans (myself included) were worried about how Marvel would translate Quicksilver on the big screen. Fox has already portrayed the character to utter perfection in last summers Days of Future Past. Now Aaron Taylor-Johnson does do a commendable job with the character but I have to say Evan Peters is still the better Quicksilver, and with that kitchen scene in Days of Future Past Age of Ultron couldn’t even hope to best it. Marvel does do a pretty good job at explaining how Quicksilver and his sister are not Mutants but at the end of the day I don’t think this iteration of the character will resonate with anyone.

Now the best, and I really mean the best character in this movie is Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch. I’ve been a very big fan of the youngest Olsen for a while now, it seems that within the last few years she’s finally making her mark on big budget films and Age of Ultron has assured us that we are going to see a lot of her in the future. Scarlet Witch’s  powers are complicated to say the least, the reality warping Mutant has been depowered quite a bit for this film, but she is still a force to reckon with. Scarlet Witch alone is a bigger threat to the Avengers than Ultron himself, and for the first two acts of the film both Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are lackies to the insane A.I. With all that’s going on in the movie telling the origin story of two new characters seemed like quite a feat, but Whedon somehow manages in one scene to make both characters motivations seem realistic.  I could watch Scarlet Witch use her abilities all day, the way she moves her hands is an intricate dance that’s hypnotising, I’m very happy that she’s now on the team.

His name is in the title and I have been waiting to see James Spader’s menacing Ultron face  the Avengers, unfortunately he’s the weakest part of the entire film. It really kills me to say this because every trailer made Ultron out to be the power threat and villain that the MCU desperately needed. Spader’s voice is a perfect fit to the character, its smooth and charming yet menacing and creepy, just what the character needs. However we never get to feel that Ultron is a threat at all to the Avengers, I even think Aldrich Killian could dismantle the A.I’s many bodies with ease.

If you’ve seen any of the trailers you’re going to have to throw any preconceived notions out of your head because Age of Ultron and the character himself are nothing that has been advertised. Ultron is a joking clown, and since Tony Stark has put his personality in the A.I it makes sense, but two Tony Starks are far too many.  I really think Kevin Feige needs to take a step back because Age of Ultron suffers from the same issues that Thor the Dark World had. The cutting room floor took away all of the character development that could have made a very interesting villain. We are given no reason to believe in Ultron’s motivations nor why he even hates Humans. He is created, goes insane almost instantly, fights the Avengers and then appears in his full form in a castle. It’s jarring to say the least and is a big shame because this character was what these movies needed.

Now this movie is far from perfect and it’s because Joss Whedon had to cut an hour out of the movie, yes you read that right. Age of Ultron was originally 3.5 hours long, I think that people would honestly sit through a over 3 hour Marvel film at this point. The movie never really feels like it starts, it feels like you’re in the middle of the movie. Plot points seem to already be developed and underway with no buildup at all. How do the Avengers know that Baron Strucker has Loki’s scepter? Why is Tony Stark Iron man again? And more importantly, where did the Ultron project come from? It seems that Stark had already been working on the project before the movie started, but as an audience we don’t know that. This isn’t a comic book it’s a movie and the two are very different mediums. Audiences sort of need to have these things figured out for them. Did Hank Pym originally start the Ultron Project but scrapped it?Or is it just a continuation of what Stark was doing in Iron man 3 (which seems more pointless than ever now).

There are also far to many random plot lines that only serve to lead up to future films. I thought after Iron man 2 Marvel had  learned their lesson. Age of Ultron feels like a buildup for Civil War and Infinity War Part I and II. Doing this just makes Age of Ultron feel sort of pointless, we need to feel that Ultrons plan is a terrifying world ending calamity; knowing that Thanos is out there plotting to use the Infinity Stones for his own means makes everything in this movie feel insignificant.

The Black Widow Hulk relationship also falls flat. Now, I’m not one to hate in any relationships in superhero movies, they just need to work. This relationship feels so out of left field, there is no buildup to it at all and as far as I’m concerned this was never even hinted at in the first Avengers film. What about Betty, Bruce? Seems like Marvel is just continuing to ignore the Incredible Hulk’s existence (probably because it’s a Universal film).  I also thought it was very strange that Bruce needs Natasha to calm himself down when he was the Hulk. I thought that after the first Avengers it was established that he could control it. It’s not like Joss to ignore/write over continuity, so I’m really curious why he did that.

The score by Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman also falls flat. It feels very generic and forgettable and I cannot remember a single track from the film that was memorable. I even went back and listened to the soundtrack on it’s own and even Elfman’s work is very forgettable, which is a true shame because I know the two are very good composers. Tracks just all sound the same and don’t mesh well. I really miss Silvestri's score, at least some of his themes are used and they’re the only stand out pieces in the music.

I also personally found the effects to be off as well. The cg looks, well, cg. You can tell that the Hulk and Ultron are not there, they feel disconnected from the rest of the sets and look very fake. For a film series that primarily relies on big cg effects you’d think that they would have put more work into the final print. The cg in the Incredible Hulk is more impressive than what's on display here.

I know that Marvel is now known for its comedic aspects, but this movie could have used less comedy. Now before you go and call me a cynic let me reiterate something I said in my Iron man 3 review. Comedy is fine, but when it doesn’t serve the story it shouldn’t be there. Almost every line is a one liner from a character, now I don’t want all my movies to be dark and brooding like the Dark Knight but when the stakes are as high as in this I sort of want the situation to feel dire and you just don’t get that with this movie. The first Iron man and the Winter Soldier had the perfect balance in my opinion of humor and action, I just wish this movie followed their amazing example.

Age of Ultron is like a beautiful car crash, it’s filled with  great moments but there are so many issues with the plot. I think that everything that was cut could have served the film, instead the movie feels sort of jumbled and makes many of the issues in almost every category apparent. Is it better than the first Avengers? No, but it is still a fun film to watch even with it’s issues. I would still tell people to go see this movie because there is still some fun to be had. I just feel there were too many missed opportunities in what could have been an excellent film. A movie is only as good as it’s villain and when all of the promotional material is focused on Ultron you really wish there was more to be had once you walk out of the theatre.

Age of Ultron feels like filler, nothing mattered in this movie because we are always reminded that Thanos is out there trying to obtain the Infinity Stones. I thought this movie was supposed to be its own self contained story? Looks like it isn’t and Marvel really put themselves in a corner in the end.

I give the movie a 7/10

I am looking forward for the deleted scenes that have been confirmed to be on the bluray when it hits shelves. I just hope we don’t have an Amazing Spider-man situation on our hands here because it’s really looking like history is repeating itself.

[bsmithscolaro]

Beyond the Black Rainbow a Short Review

Director: Panos Cosmatos

Starring: Michael Rodgers, Eva Allan, and Scott Hylands

Original Release Date: December 31st 2010

Okay, I lied. I know I said that after reviewing Thor the Dark World that I’d be taking a break from reviews until I’d finished Agents of SHIELD. Well it just so happens that I watched a little independent horror movie last night that shattered my mind. That movie was called Beyond the Black Rainbow. I had heard of this movie on forums, and I’d seen the cover art for the film (although I can’t really pinpoint where) and while suffering a boring Monday evening surfing Netflix I discovered this gem. I thought, “what the hell” and clicked play, not knowing exactly what I was going to be getting myself into. I have never been more thankful for a spur of the moment movie screening in my entire life.

Beyond the Black Rainbow is a tribute of sorts to the old experimental science fiction films from the 70’s and 80’s. As director Panos Cosmatos puts it “the best way to watch this is to discover it as it unfolds.” So I’ll try my best to not give too much of the plot away because this movie is truly best watched without having any indication on what it’s about. To put it lightly, the film takes place in the 1980’s and tells the story of Elena, a young girl who is being kept in a strange futuristic compound. When she finds a way to escape the facility her deranged psychiatrist obsessively hunts her down.

This movie is just like an onion, a strange comparison for sure but it is one of the few ways I can describe this movie. Every scene reveals another layer behind the mystery that is Elena. Why is she being kept in this strange compound? What is the deal with her psychiatrist? And more importantly, what is the dark purpose behind the Arboria Institute? All of these questions are answered but you must be fully attuned to the film to find these answers because Beyond the Black Rainbow is a very slow meticulously crafted piece of work that demands its audience to take it’s time to reveal it’s story. One of the only movies that come to mind when I think of  this movie is 2001 a Space Odyssey, which is one of my favourite movies of all time.

Back in 2010 there were so many movies that tried to emulate the look and feel of a 70’s and 80’s flick. Most of them however failed in that regard, Panos Cosmatos has given us something that feels like a long lost science fiction classic. If you had no idea that this movie was made in 2010 you would have assumed that this was an older film. Down to the film grains (which aren't always annoyingly present like other films have tried to emulate) to the hypnotic synthesized score, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a beautiful visual feast. I highly recommend watching this movie in a dark room with the sound cranked up as far as you can bear it, you won’t regret it. I do not say this for a lot of movies, but Beyond the Black Rainbow is truly an experience that you should watch at least once in your life.

As I made the comparison with 2001 I have to say that just like the mentioned film Beyond is not for everyone. The movie is slow, minutes will go by without hardly any dialogue and the film might come across as a tad pretentious to some viewers. If you can look past this you’ll be in for a psychedelic trip that no other movie out there can comprehend. I don’t recommend watching this high, you won’t be having a good night. If you’re brave of heart though feel free to do so and let me know how you fared.

The cast is very small in this movie, there are only five major characters throughout the entire film. The stand-out performance in this film is Michael Rodgers as Barry Nyle, the psychiatrist tasked with looking after Elena. The moment you see him walk into his dimly lit orange neon room you can tell that something is really off about this man. Rodgers gives one of the most unnerving performances I've ever seen. Each line is delivered in a slow quiet drone, each intake of breath feels like a noose slowly wrapping itself around your neck.  Nyle represents the fear in every woman, a man who in essence uses his power and status to exploit and torment his victims. He is a despicable and horrifying man, but you can’t help but be attracted to this devil of a character.

Eva Allan is our protagonist Elena. A girl of very few words, we never really hear Elena talk that much throughout the course of the movie. She is more of an observer, trying her best to navigate the maze that has been created by Nyle. Evan uses her physicality to convey everything that we need to see, and feel from the character. This might make her harder to relate to for others but I find that this choice was a very well executed decision that really served the movie and story.

Those with a fetish for set designs and cinematography will be in nirvana when they watch this movie. From the odd chairs to the dangerous Sentonauts there is something of note with every single frame of the film. You could pause any scene and quickly frame it as a piece of art. This movie is gorgeous, and I know I've been gushing over the visuals in this movie but I simply can't help it. Beyond the Black Rainbow is sex for the senses, the movie is burned into my mind and I want to go back and watch it again, there is so much to take in and analyse.

I want to keep this review short and sweet because like the director said this movie really needs to be a fresh experience for those who are fortunate enough to watch it. Take my word for it, this movie is amazing and you should stop whatever you’re doing and watch it right away. It’s on Netflix so its very easy to access. The only negative I have with this movie is that Panos Cosmatos has not directed another movie since Beyond first  made its rounds in film festivals.

I give this an 8/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Thor the Dark World Review

Director: Alan Taylor

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston

Original Release Date: November 8th 2013

I know that chronologically after Iron man 3 I should be reviewing Agents of SHIELD. Because of the way the show is formatted, and since I also want to watch the MCU in its chronological release order I'm still currently marathoning the first season; and watching every episode leading up to the next big film in Phase 02, so obviously I shall be reviewing the second Thor film first.

I remember having a whirlwind of emotions leading up to the release of this movie, I hated Iron man 3 and had given up on Agents so I really didn't know how the Dark World was going to turn out. It certainly did have all the makings of a good film, one of the directors from Game of Thrones was attached to helm the project and the Ninth Doctor himself was to play the films villain. Seemed liked a union made in geek heaven, fortunately Thor the Dark World is an improvement over Iron man 3, unfortunately it’s still not as good as it should have been.

Taking place two years after the events of Thor, the Dark World has Asgards ancient enemies the Dark Elves returning to wreak havoc on the universe. The might of Malekith and his Dark Elf army is too much for even Asgard to contain and Thor finds himself in a position that could cause even further damage, freeing and allying himself with his brother Loki.

Thor the Dark World is a mix bag for me, on one hand it’s a very good movie giving fans everything that they wanted from the last Thor movie, more Asgard. On the other hand it is plagued still with some of the problems that were in the first film. Sure, these issues ( more on these later)  are not as prominent as they were last time, but they still hinder the movie from being great. I must admit I miss Kenneth Branagh as director, he gave the first movie a much needed Shakespearean flair that made Asgard and its inhabitants believable. Asgard in the Dark world and Asgard in Thor look like two very different places. There doesn't seem to be much on the continuity side when it came to the interiors of the Realm Eternal.

Places like this

Become this

Now obviously the exteriors of Asgard look the same as they did in the first film, but it makes the movie feel more  like Game of Thrones than Thor.  Partick Doyle is also out as the films composer, and the movie is infamously known for having Marvel studios change the score of the movie months before  release. This unfortunately harms the movie because the score is very unmemorable and bland, it doesn't have the flare that the first film had.

All the cast is great in their roles, seeing as how Asgard now takes it’s rightful place as the primary setting for the movie we get the more interesting characters taking centre stage. Anthony Hopkins is given more screen time as Odin, and even Heimdall is given a little action scene during one of the best action pieces in the movie. The smart decision however was to give Rene Russo’s character Frigga a far more important role in the story of the film. Instead of standing next to her husbands side and giving motherly advice to her children, we see her taking a more active role in the plot, which is also one of the major influences in getting the two brothers to unite against Malekith.

Chris Hemsworth is great as Thor, by this point it's becoming clear that he is the only actor that is capable of playing this role. Natalie Portman also surprisingly returns after having some disputes with Marvel, however I think this is just an obligation to her contract. Sif and the Warriors Three are still as entertaining as ever, and Zachary Levi has swept in to replace Josh Dallas as Frandal. I normally would be very annoyed with this but I think Levi gives the character a more playful personality that was really missing in Dallas's performance. I will obviously touch on Loki, but first I need to talk about some of the new players in the movie because Hiddleston’s performance, although great really hurt these next two characters.

Christopher Eccleston is a fantastic actor, he is highly acclaimed in the UK and has been in quite a few big films that have made their way overseas. He is obviously known as the Ninth Doctor in BBC’s Doctor Who reboot, and he unfortunately was Destro in G.I Joe Rise of Cobra. Don’t let G.I Joe worry you, I highly suggest watching 28 Days Later and the Others, he is great in both films.

In Thor the Dark World Eccleston is unrecognisable as Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, the character and the entire race of Dark Elves all have a very interesting look to them. These Elves do not look like they belong in Middle-earth. They seem more like Star Trek villains than anything else, brandishing high-tech weapons and space ships.  Christopher Eccleston gives Malekith a very menacing presence, unfortunately his character is given absolutely nothing to work with at all. In fact the character himself isn't even a threat to Thor. Malekiths lackey Algrim (Adewale akinnuoye-agbaje) is a far more imposing threat to Thor and causes the most damage to the character. Malekith himself is missing the essential character development to make a good villain, even the worst of Marvel’s villains have had at least a little back story to them. In Thor the Dark World all we know about Malekith is that he is pissed off for some reason or another and wants to cover the universe in shadow *insert clichéd plot her*. In the end we are given what in my opinion, is the worst villain in the MCU.

This wasn't always the case however, the character of Malekith was completely different from the final product that we got in the movie. The character that we got  was a husk leftover from all of the scenes that were cut from the movie, yes you heard me right there were scenes that were cut from the movie, here is a quote from Eccleston himself.

“There is a kind of tragic quality to his quest. Because he’s lost his wife, he’s lost his children. He’s lost everything. And he returns for revenge. And the agent for his revenge is the Aether. If he gets hold of that, he is omnipotent.”

None of that is even present in the movie, if we were given more scenes like this Malekith could of had the potential to be one of the best villains in the MCU. Using his own pain to have Thor unearth the truth behind the corrupt and genocidal reasons behind the war with the Dark Elves. It would even of made Thor relate to Malekith's pain since Thor also loses someone very important in the film, but hey it was cut for one primary reason alone, Loki.

Yes you heard me right, Loki is the reason that all of this was cut, call me crazy but it doesn't take that much effort to put the pieces  together. News was flying that re-shoots were under way to include more scenes with Thor’s infamous brother, and lets face it, he's the real reason behind Thor’s success as a film franchise. After Thor and the Avengers Loki exploded, the character alone is more popular than Iron man, he has legions of fans jumping in their shoes to see his sly smirk and hear his witty dialogue. I'm all for Loki, Hiddleston has given us one of the best comic book performances since Heath Ledgers Joker, the character has some great dimensions to him which makes him seem less of a villain and more of a tragic-hero, but this isn't Loki’s movie, we've had two of them already and one of them was the Avengers! Thor has more villains that Marvel can pull from, we don’t need more Loki. If Marvel keeps throwing the character at us like this than he is unfortunately going to become stale, I don’t care if he has a group of fans at his beck and call, Loki might have some interesting schemes up his sleeve but he is a pretty predictable character. Marvel obviously isn't going to listen because Loki is apparently going to appear in Age of Ultron and will be the villain in Thor Ragnarok.

Now Loki’s scenes weren't the only other additions to the shoot, nope. For some reason Marvel thought it would be a wonderful idea to include a Darcy subplot. You heard me right, Darcy the most negatively received MCU character other than Trevor Slattery. While Jane is adventuring with Thor in Asgard; Darcy and her stupid new intern named Ian go on a journey to find Professor Selvig, who after being controlled by Loki has gone insane.  Now these characters do play a part in the final showdown (a bit too much for my liking) but these scenes really could have been cut from the movie and the plot would have remained intact. When Jane returns to Earth there easily could have been a scene of Thor breaking Slevig out of the loony bin, it would have been a full circle for the two characters, since Selvig broke Thor out of SHIELD custody;and we could have skipped all the useless Darcy scenes.

Marvel, adding other scenes can help a movie, Loki is a popular character but you must remember who the main character is and who the villain is. You cannot add scenes at the expense of story and character development. This alone is why this movie is not nearly as good as it could be and it is  frustrating. there is a great movie under the surface of Thor the Dark World, I always find myself highly enjoying the movie until I'm quickly reminded on how the movie failed story wise. Sure, Thor was a great success, but at this point anything Marvel makes will be a financial success. I cant see it in conscious why anyone would even think this movie would be amazing because it is entirely mediocre (my opinion though). Marvel you set a standard for yourself with the Avengers and for the first half of Phase 02 you really did not stand up to the plate.

Thor the Dark world is a funny movie, painfully so. Most of the dire situations have to be broken in with some funny one liner and that also is not necessary. Like I said in my Iron man 3 review, I am fine with comedy but if it doesn't add to the story than cut it altogether. Thor the Dark world actually gives us a pretty dire situation, and I understand that characters like Fandral, Loki and Darcy can find humour in almost anything (that's comic relief folks) but the entire movie doesn't have to be a comedy.

And I understand that the final events in this all happened within the span of 20 minutes but I must say, where was SHIELD. I'm watching Agents right now, and in a episode before this movie they investigate gravitational disturbances. Apparently London is a hotspot for dimensional rifts, so where the hell is SHIELD? This is their playing field, right? And the things that happen in the movies climax make me wonder what qualifies as an Avenger mission. Loki summons a portal in New York and the Avengers are there within minutes. Malekith appears in London and starts harnessing a galaxy destroying Infinity Stone and begins to destroy all Nine Realms yet only Thor and two jets come to save the day?

Thor the Dark World isn't terrible, it has some good moments but it isn't what it could have been. I'm going to be pretty gracious with my rating, and I'm going to give Thor the Dark World a

7/10

The movie easily is a 6 but I did find some redeeming things about the movie. Loki’s scenes with Thor are great and the action and Dark Elves make the movie worth the price for the film, but the added scenes at the extent of cutting the plot really bugs me. Now I won’t be reviewing anything from the MCU in a while now because I've already written a review for Captain America the Winter Soldier and you can read that here. Until then I'm going to be watching Agents and taking a little break, see you until then.

[bsmithscolaro]

Cinderella (2015) Review

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Madden

Original release date: March 13th 2015

I guess because it’s a new decade we need another retelling of Cinderella. I'm pretty sure there has been at least three different versions of this story in the last ten years, from modern-day retellings to musicals. If it’s a popular fairy tale that teaches women that if they find a nice rich guy and if they’re pretty that all of their dreams will come true; you can bet that you’ll see that story rehashed. Cinderella has been clouding the minds of girls for years. We honestly just had a Cinderella movie last year, one of the main plots from Into the Woods was Cinderella (played by Anna Kendrick). However I don’t think that there has ever been a live action version of the classic Disney film from the 50’s. Disney seems to be on a  live action kick, we've had last summers Maleficent and now we got a Peter Pan and Jungle Book movie in the works. Now sure I might sound a tiny bit cynical, but since I'm watching the first season of Agents of Shield I don’t have anything to review so I thought what the hell. I always liked the 1950’s movie as a kid, but do I really need to see the same story told to me again for the umpteenth time? It all rests on Kenneth Branagh, did he make a movie that just simply goes through the checklist of story points from the animated classic, or offer up something new to the table to a story that has been beaten  more times than I can think of.

By now you probably already know the story of Cinderella, but for the sake of this review I’ll detail the plot. Cinderella tells the story of young Ella, a beautiful young girl who always sees the best in everything and everyone. After the death of her mother Ella’s father marries the Lady Tremaine, who comes sweeping in with her two daughters to live with the widowed family. When Ella’s father dies during a business trip Lady Tremaine quickly takes control of the household and reduces Ella to a slave. Ella’s life seems hopeless, but when she has a chance encounter with the Prince of the realm she learns that there might be a chance for her to escape the evil grasp of her stepmother and find true love and happiness.

I really wasn't expecting much when I saw this movie. Not that it didn't look interesting it’s just I've seen this story more times than I can count, the real question was; could I sit through a 2 hour retelling of a 74 minute animated children's flick. Thankfully this new rendition of Cinderella is a really solid movie. Kenneth Branagh just has a knack for the big grandiose period pieces. As I've stated in my Thor Review that Branagh’s Shakespearean training really helps the director to craft a fantastic film. Cinderella is a gorgeous looking movie, from cinematography, set design and costumes this movie is vibrant and alive. I wouldn't be surprised if Cinderella is nominated for one of these categories during next year's Oscars. Be it a Marvel epic, Shakespearean tragedy or Mary Shelley’s classic horror tale all of Branagh’s period pieces are amazing to watch, I was in awe of the film and I am very happy that the films crew were able to create a very believable fantasy setting. My only complain (and it’s a nitpick at that) was that the Prince’s castle wasn't the Cinderella castle from the animated film and Disney's parks, the building itself is Disney’s trademark it would have been really awesome to see the iconic palace on the big screen.

Now I've never watched Downton Abbey so I had no idea who Lily James was, but my god is she great. She was absolutely superb as the title character. James was able to find the perfect medium between the aloof nature of Cinderella and the sincere qualities that one expects to find from a Disney princess. I really hope she gets more work because I couldn't take my eyes of the screen, if the character of Cinderella failed to deliver on screen the entire movie would have fallen apart.

Cate Blanchett plays our villain, the horrible Lady Tremaine. You can tell Blanchett was having the time of her life in this movie. Her performance just oozes with evil, some might find her performance a bit over the top but I think it was a really good contrast with Lily James's subdue performance. Even Tremaine’s daughters were a bit goofy but I think that was the point, you’re not supposed to like these characters or find them interesting, they are annoying, spoiled brats who are abusing a poor naive girl into servitude. The film does try to give a little reasoning behind Tremaine’s hatred towards Ella but I personally found that to be flat. We don’t always need a reasoning behind why someone is a bad person, sometimes people are just plain nasty and evil.

Now I don’t know about you but Richard Madden was quite, umm, charming as the Prince. A complete flip from his character in Game of Thrones, Madden and Lily had this amazing chemistry that just seeped out of the screen and infected me. That man has quite the smile, I found myself fawning over the man like a child with a crush.

We also have Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, Stellan Skarsgard as the Duke, Derek Jacobi as the king (who actually has a legitimate reason for wanting his son to marry) and Hayley Atwell as Ella’s mother. Now Helena Bonham Carter is a great actor and I like her a lot however I found her performance to be unsettling for some reason. Perhaps it’s because I'm used to her being,well, herself. Something about the Fairy Godmother gave me the willies and I can’t really explain it, her big eyes and big teeth just disturbed me.

I really enjoyed the added back story to Ella, I don’t truly recall the reasoning behind why Tremaine moved into Ella’s home; but I haven’t watched the animated movie in years so that’s probably why. The movie’s opening was very heart wrenching, and although she is only on screen for ten minutes Hayley Atwell gives a very memorable performance. I really liked seeing how Ella gained her philosophy and kind nature.

The soundtrack for the movie is also superb, probably because it was conducted by Patrick Doyle, the man who brought the awesome soundtrack to Thor. There’s this magical essence to the music in this movie that helps every scene flow in a very nice way, almost like a dream.

Now this might be a nitpick but I found some bad continuity errors in the script, usually I’d let that fly because no movie is perfect, but these were pretty big plot points that seemed to be changed at a moments notice. Now these might be spoilers but everyone knows the story of Cinderella so I don’t really see how I’ll be spoiling it.

So Ella really wants to go to the ball and Lady Tremaine sends Ella out to get three dresses made for the ball; one for Tremaine herself and the other two for her daughters. Ella decides to make her down dress if she is to go to the ball, when she is revealed to Tremaine before she sets out she tells her that the dress she is wearing belonged to her mother. This wasn't explained at all, the narrator said that Ella made the dress and you even see her making it. Another moment of strange continuity is right after the ball, Ella hides one of her glass slippers in some dirt near the fireplace. The next scene Ella is looking for it under the floorboards of her room in the attic, how did it get there? A second ago it was in some soot not the floor. Sure this might be nitpicking but these are two very important items and moments in the film, I'm surprised no one caught onto this while filming.

I did find myself checking my watch as the film went on, that’s because I've seen Cinderella so many times in hundreds of iterations. There wasn't anything really new that was brought to the plate, now I get that Disney wants to introduce the story to a new generation and that’s fine, but the animated movie still holds up and you can find it anywhere. If I had the option to show Cinderella to someone I would have chosen the animated movie over this, the run time might be a hard hitter for some kids because they can never stay put and might find it boring at times.

Cinderella is a pretty good movie, unfortunately I've seen this story far to many times to count and that really bogged it down for me. But the production value and acting were superb and really saved the movie in the end. I'm happy I went and saw it and I would recommend it to people, but if you’re sick and tired of the story you might want to stay home.

I give the 2015 rendition of Cinderella a

7/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Iron man 3 Review

Director: Shane Black

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle

Original Release Date: May 3rd, 2013

May 3rd 2013, I remember that night very well. The anticipation was high, the summer weather was in perfect equilibrium, and I was in line waiting to see Iron man 3; the beginning of Marvel’s Phase 02. Everyone wanted to see this movie. Marvel Studios were finally hitting their stride, they had given us not only one of the most successful movies ever, but one of the best comic book films period. At this point in the game Marvel really could do no wrong, or could they?

I remember leaving the theatre feeling confused, I remember thinking  "what did I just watch?" The only emotion I could comprehend was disappointment and a huge sense of betrayal. Iron man 3 is my least favourite Marvel film, and with very good reason. The movie had everything going for it but it just fell through the cracks. I tried my hardest to get everyone to avoid this movie like the plague, but obviously everyone was going to see it, it’s the sequel to the Avengers for fucks sake! you’re not going to just stay at home playing with your thumbs when the summer movie season was kicking off with a Marvel film. As the case with most Iron man movies the last time I watched this was when it premiered back in 2013, and I've been very glad that I haven’t revisited it, until now that is. Seeing as how Tony Stark is playing such a crucial role in Age of Ultron, and since I'm apparently a completionist with a masochistic streak I went back and trudged through Iron man 3 for a second time.

The movie picks up six months after the Avengers and Tony Stark isn't having the best of times. Suffering from ptsd after having a near fatal incident involving a crazed Asgardian, aliens from another dimension and a tactical nuke. The only solace that the billionaire playboy philanthropist has is his Iron man suits, which he is churning out at an almost inhuman pace. Pepper and Rhodey are both worried for Tony’s well being but he doesn't seem to care. Enter the Mandarin, the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist organization that was responsible for Tony’s kidnapping in the first film. The Mandarin has a bone to pick with America and is going to teach the President a few history lessons. When Tony Stark foolishly calls out the terrorist leader he finds his entire world destroyed, as he goes on a journey to find out who exactly is the Mandarin.

You almost had me Iron man 3, you almost did. I was so close to actually loving you! That’s because the first half of this movie is one of the best Marvel films. With such a solid build up to the Ten Rings and their plot I couldn't help but remember the fun ride I had back when I first saw the film. I always wanted a darker Iron man, maybe it’s because I can’t stand the character. I always thought that Tony Stark needed a real humbling experience, Iron man 2 sort of tried to deliver us that; but that movie was one huge misstep, but hey at least it wasn't as bad as this. Now the movie does have some very good points.

This is the best RDJ has been since the first Iron man movie, he could play the character in his sleep at this point. I found that giving the character ptsd was a very smart and realistic choice. The guy’s world literally blew up in the Avengers, for the past two standalone films all that Stark has had to deal with was terrorism, now he’s taken part in a dimension hopping war.

The movie has a creeping sense of dread the moment the film starts, you know something big is going to go down and Shane Black does create a very terrifying faceless terrorist corps that seems to have eyes everywhere. I love the Ten Rings, I think that it’s one of the better “realistic” takes on a comic book characters powers and completely makes sense in the world that's in the MCU. They seem to pop up everywhere and actually pose a threat to our hero, who after the second movie seemed to be able to stop all of his problems with the press of a button. Tony Stark needed a very intimidating threat, and we got that for the most part.

Now this movie has been out now for two years, so what I'm going to talk about is basic common knowledge in the comic book movie community. I need to get this out of the way because it’s a topic that will pop up in every Iron man 3 review until the end of time, we’re going to talk about the Mandarin. The Mandarin is probably Iron man’s only iconic foe, he’s the iron avengers Joker. Of course the character is a little racist in the comics, throwing at us all the typical Chinese stereotypes that Stan Lee could think of, but I think that might be a tiny bit unfair. I don’t see anyone having a issue with Red Skull and Hydra, but they’re Nazi’s so its fine apparently. I'm not going to get into that issue because it’s another thing entirely. Now it could be argued that the Mandarin is still a racist character in this movie, but I'm pretty sure with the way the plot unfolded trying to give us a message in xenophobia that it’s all intentional.

Now Ben Kingsley can be a damn fine actor and sure he’s in a lot of very questionable projects to say the least, but the casting was perfect. Ben Kingsley gives a truly terrifying performance and for the  few scenes that we have with him he was easily becoming the best MCU villain since Loki. He had a motive other than just wanting to destroy America, he was a guy sick with how the States were slowly infecting other cultures and taking bits and pieces from other countries, and using them for their own machinations. Sure, the reasoning is flawed but he’s a villain and it’s a motive I can get behind. The scene where the Mandarin gives his “last” lesson is probably my favourite scene in the movie it showed that the Mandarin really was a force to reckon with and wasn't going to play nice.  Tony Stark never even had a scene with the guy which made him even more terrifying, all we got were his cronies. Superpowered infused former vets that had a real problem with the country, then the third act happened and it was revealed that the guy who we thought was the Mandarin wasn't, he is an actor named Trevor Slattery. Now this twist easily could break the movie for people. My own girlfriend told me that if we weren't with our friend that she would have walked out of the theatre.

Now the guy who was the films real villain was Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce. The problem with this is that we had no build up for this character at all. Most of the movie is focused on the mystery of who the Mandarin is. Killian’s motives for trying to kill Tony Stark is one of the most poorly written plots I’ve seen in a movie it was like a two year old wrote it. Okay Tony Stark stood you up, he does that to everyone! What started out as a purely original villain plot turned into your typical Iron man movie, rich guy hates Tony Stark because he embarrassed him and now wants revenge. It doesn't help that his evil scheme is one of the most confusing and convoluted messes I've seen in a comic flick.

Now Marvel made one of their little One Shot’s called All Hail the King which fixed many of the problems with the Mandarin, it’s revealed that there is actually a real Mandarin. Now Marvel has said that this was always the plan, I highly doubt that. This is just damage control at it’s poorest form. Marvel you made a wrong move, live with it and learn from your mistake instead of trying to pander to a certain group of people. You only get one shot at delivering the Mandarin to viewers effectively for the first time. Seeing as how Iron man 4 isn't even in the works I don’t see why this was necessary, we aren't going to have the Mandarin be the next big Avengers threat. You don’t need them all to take him down, you just need Iron man.

Now the Mandarin stuff isn't the only problem with this movie, Iron man 3 is riddled with issues. For the entire movie Tony Stark’s new MK-42 armour seems to not be the best tool in the shed. It’s unreliable in it’s functioning and seems to fall apart all the time (a running gag in the movie hyuk!). Now yes, they say in the movie that it’s just a prototype, but I don’t see a MK-3.2, when Tony Stark makes a suit that thing is the best damned thing that he can make. Even the other suits you see in the movie all serve a different purpose, functions that MK-42 doesn't even display, so how can it be a prototype? What’s it leading up to? The MK-7 took a direct blow from Thors hammer, and it STILL GOT UP! MK-42 falls apart from being hit by a truck or a freaking pole. Yeah I get it that no one is in it and it’s designed to detach and  couple together at a moments notice, but the thing should be able to stay together once it’s in it’s full form.

Remember in Iron man 2 when Tony Stark created a new element? Yeah I do to, it’s the same element that saved his life and gave Stark Industries (and this is a direct quote from Stark himself in the Avengers)“Self sustaining-energy source”. Well I guess that element wasn't that self-sustaining because the MK-42 needs to be recharged every ten minutes. But hey it’s all for laughs, which is what this movie is all about at the end of the day.

Tony Stark’s humour is cranked up to an obnoxiously annoying degree, I think every other line is a sarcastic quip at someone .Yes your movie is funny but that doesn't make it good. I found myself laughing at some of the jokes but when the plot to your movie is absolute shit not even your funny jokes can save it.

Now Iron man 3 was the first post-Avengers movie, this leads to a problem that plagues in my opinion most of Phase 02. Once you have the Avengers team up its really hard to not think of them coming together to take on any threat. Now I don’t expect to see every single Avenger in a movie, but when the President of the United States get’s kidnapped and is being held hostage for like 8 hours I would like to think that Shield, Hawkeye, Black Widow or Captain America would show up to help Tony Stark. The destruction of Starks house is on the news I highly doubt Nick Fury just assumed Stark died in the attack. Shield would be looking for him and for the Mandarin who not only is attacking the country but has a small army of superpowered thugs who really don’t care if they’re noticed or not. Multiple people see these guys, this is what Shield does they investigate this sort of stuff, but you don’t even see them in this, both Iron man movies had Shield in them. They showed up when Tony Stark was being a drunken idiot but not when he is assumed dead?

The end of the movie is also really convenient. Things that were major plot points in the past two films are brushed over with a magic wand. We are supposed to believe that after this movie Tony Stark will never and I mean NEVER be Iron man again. Good luck trying to sell that when he’s an Avenger and obviously will suit up again in Age of Ultron. The entire sacrifice of his super hero identity would only work if

1.This was RDJ’s last run as the character and Marvel studios were planning on retiring the character for good

2. or the character would just be Tony Stark with no iron man and act as the consultant to Shield.

But we got to sell more Iron man toys so Stark is suiting up again for Age of Ultron.

Now there are some things that are good about this movie, like I said the first half is awesome. For one Brian Tyler’s score is pretty great, I really didn't care for the music in the past two Iron man films, I thought they were really forgettable, but even after watching this abomination I find myself humming it’s main theme. Also the final action scene is really awesome, it almost saves this movie. I do like that Aldrich Killian didn't have another Iron man suit he was a guy with superpowers. Sure some of his powers look ridiculous and make no sense but for the most part it works. Marvel Studios, having a guy breath fire might sound cool on paper but it looks ridiculous on screen, even for a MCU film.

Iron man 3 is a horrible movie, in my opinion it's right there with X-men Origins Wolverine. Now I don’t have a vendetta against the character of Iron man, I actually really liked the first film after I saw it a second time. However this movie still leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Of course you’ll have to watch it since the things that happen in this movie obviously have leaked into Age of Ultron. The movie does have it’s fans, and I'm truly happy that some people actually got something out of this because this was one of my most anticipated movies of 2013. I was actually excited to see a Iron man movie, but it falls flat. The movie feels like two separate films, one really good one and a second horrible film. Unfortunately for Iron man 3 that second film outweighs the first one.

Iron man 3 is terrible, Marvel Studios can do no wrong some say, I highly disagree because this movie and the one following it (although it is better than this) are riddled with problems I give this crap heap a

5/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Marvels the Avengers Review

Director: Joss Whedon

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo

Original Release date: May 4th 2012

So much anticipation followed this movie, the year of 2012 was ripe with set footage and news of Marvels Studios big picture event. Everyone wanted to know details about the plot, rumours were flying everywhere, and nerds were quickly entering nirvana. This was something completely unprecedented, no one ever thought a movie like this would come together, a merger of the biggest comic book stars into one massive picture. It was an obvious move really, but quite a spectacular one at that. For the first time in cinema history the worlds biggest action stars were all going to be fighting side-by-side to protect the planet, and Marvel even signed on nerd god Joss Whedon; creator of some of my favourite TV shows (Buffy and Angel). The only worry everyone had was that this movie would fall victim to the hype, thankfully it didn't because Marvel’s the Avengers is one of the highest grossing movies of all time.

The Avengers takes place approximately one year after Thor. Nick Fury and Shield have obtained the mysterious cube known as the Tesseract, the very thing that Hydra coveted during WW II. Unfortunately for Shield and the rest of Earth the cube acts as a gateway between worlds and with the help of a mysterious and very powerful benefactor; Loki has come to Earth seeking vengeance on his brother, and our unconditional surrender to his rule. Nick Fury must do something that he thought would never happen in our lifetime, call upon the Avengers Initiative.

This movie is fantastic, it has everything you could want from a big summer blockbuster, there is plenty of action, great characters and some of the funniest comedic moments in any film and that is all a testament to the writing of Joss Whedon. Joss is a geek at heart and knows the material quite well, he’s written comics under the X-men line and has even got some of his shows comic series of their own. If you take an individual who cares for the source material and have them not only direct, but write your film; you’re going to have one masterful film.  The great thing about some of the humour in this movie is that it’s not right in your face like the Iron man films, instead many of the punchlines of the jokes in the movie come minutes after the set-up making viewers actually pay attention to the witty dialogue in the movie even today I'm still discovering little moments to chuckle at.

I really have no idea how Joss did it, it is so easy to mess a movie of this magnitude up. Each member of the enormous cast are larger than life characters with egos that could shatter galaxies. It’s hard to give every member of the Avengers something to do but Joss gives each character a moment to shine. Now I'm not going to talk about characters like Tony Stark or Captain America because I've already elaborated on them in my other reviews, instead I want to focus on some of the newer additions to the cast and some that I haven’t really touched on yet.

Clark Gregg has had a presence in almost all of the Phase 01 films. Agent Coulson first appeared in the very first Iron man film. He was always that agent guy in the background but it wasn't until Thor that we all realised that maybe there was something more to the guy than we all thought. The Avengers is really Agent Coulson's time to shine, no longer is he a small role forced to be on the sidelines as the superheroes have their testosterone death matches in populated areas. Coulson plays a major role in getting the Avengers to sort out their differences and pool their resources together to defeat Loki and his mysterious Chitarui army. After the Avengers, fans really began to take a liking to the film created character. Coulson is so popular that he’s even appeared in Marvel Comics making him a comic canon character, and of course there is Agents of Shield, but we’ll get to that in due time.

Cobie Smulders is widely known as Robin Scherbatski from How I met your Mother, however in the MCU she’s Maria Hill. Hill is one of Shields best agents and is even higher up than Coulson himself. As Nick Fury’s right hand girl she’s the one calling many shots throughout the movie, Hill has doubts about the Avengers Initiative, and she has every right to, it’s one of the riskiest moves Shield or any government agency has ever pulled off. If the team does not work well together it could have horrible consequences for the world. I really like how they introduced her character in the Avengers, Hill is a very significant Shield agent in the comics and instead of giving her a big huge introduction they establish her as if she’s always been there; just behind the scenes. I am sure we are going to see a lot more of her in Phase 03 seeing as Civil War is the first big film in that section of the MCU and Hill plays a very important role within Shield in that series. Cobie Smulders does an excellent job, and although I'm not the biggest Hill fan in the comics I find the character to be far more likeable in the films.

Our newest addition to the Avengers is Clint Barton aka Hawkeye played by Jeremy Renner. I feel really bad for Renner because he had only a small cameo in Thor but is given hardly anything to do until the last 20 minutes of the film. Most of the movie Hawkeye is Loki’s lapdog, being controlled by Loki’s strange sceptre. Once Barton turns back to the good side he’s a very funny and amusing character, there is a lot of dry wit in his scenes and his sarcastic nature gives a good parallel to Tony Stark. However out of all of the Avengers so far Hawkeye is the one who has hardly any screen time, he hasn't made an appearance in any of the Phase 02 films accept for next months Age of Ultron. Whedon says that he’s given him more to do and I hope that’s true because that movie has an even bigger cast than this one.

Tom Hiddleston is always fantastic as Loki, the Avengers gives viewers a chance to see how the events of Thor have broke his mind. The guy is insane and has quickly gone from genocide to wanting to control Midgard/Earth, and of course we all know this is so that he can prove himself to daddy and show that he can be an exceptional ruler. Although even with all of his charm and bluster we all know that there is a far bigger and more powerful threat behind the would-be king. A character that hasn't really made a move on the Avengers as of yet, but I'm sure we will see plenty of him in Avengers Infinity War parts I and II *cough* Thanos *cough*.

The biggest surprise though for this movie was Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk. I still prefer Edward Norton as the character and I’m not entirely sure of why he wasn’t asked to come back for the Avengers, but it is still the same character and Ruffalo adds a lot to what was established in the Incredible Hulk. We find Banner living in India trying his best to distance himself from the world, however this time he is in complete control of “the other guy”. This has all come at a price though, Banner is always within his own personal bubble trying his best to not make contact with anyone or anything. If you just watch him closely you can see that Bruce is always holding his own hands like he’s cradling himself. He might have control of the Hulk but he is still very afraid of the possibility that he might lose control and hurt someone in the process.

The action in the film is all saved for the big finale, yes there are some fight scenes and the Hellicarrier battle is really neat, but most of the movie is focused on the Avengers fighting amongst themselves. Like I said they all have their own egos and philosophies, they all think that their way is the right way and everyone should bow down and follow. This adds to some great conflict in the movie and if you listen closely to the many arguments between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, and hold them to memory you can see their effects in Iron man 3. Once Loki begins his invasion of Earth all gloves come off in one of the most amazing final acts in the MCU. I love the big continuous shot where you see each Avenger taking on the threat of Loki’s army in their own unique way. The movie plays on each character's strength and showcases them in a fabulous array of arrows, kicks and repulsor blasts.

Anything that’s been said about the Avengers has already been said, it’s the movie that truly made Marvel Studios and the MCU a big worldwide phenomenon. Everyone sees their movies now and almost everyone has watched the Avengers.

Of course you should watch this movie, its amazing. Even if you haven’t watched any of the Phase 01 movies I think there is still so much that a first time viewer can get out of watching the movie. Watching the other Phase 01 films just adds to the experience of the movie.

I give Marvel’s the Avengers a

8.5/10

This is such an amazing movie and a very important one at that. After the success of the Avengers we've seen so many studios trying to scramble under Marvel’s shadow by trying to create their own cinematic universe. From DC to Harry Potter we are seeing sequels to franchises coming out of the woodwork to try and find the success that Marvel has had, and to this day no one has even come close.

[bsmithscolaro]

Captain America the First Avenger Review

Director: Joe Johnston

Starring: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell and Hugo Weaving

Original Release Date: July 22nd 2011

This movie is probably the hardest for me to review out of phase 01. The problem with it isn't that it’s a bad movie, far from it. It just so happens that Captain America is my favourite superhero. Watching this without fan boy goggles was pretty hard because the First Avenger in my opinion is still a great film. I first experienced Cap back during the Bucky era, Steve was doing his own stuff with SHIELD at the time and Bucky had taken the mantel as Captain America. I was enthralled, I bought the comic on a whim during a weekly comic book run with a friend. I learned that everything I had disliked about the character was hardly true at all. The latest issues of Captain America play out quite differently from what people expect, it's also unfortunate because Cap is clearly the Aquaman of the Marvel universe. People think he’s useless without his famous shield and can hardly do anything other than throw the thing around. Because of the MCU however people have seen that Captain America is a badass and is more than just a man in blue tights.

The vast majority of the First Avengers takes place during World War II. Steve Rogers, a young man who is really patriotic and wants to fight for his country continues to get denied access to the military due to his obvious physical disadvantages. With his best friend Bucky getting shipped off Steve quickly takes another shot at trying to apply, luckily for Steve Rogers he’s chosen to become a candidate in the super soldier program and to lead the fight against the Nazi deep science division known only as Hydra. As Captain America Steve has to put a stop to Hydra’s plans and defeat their leader, the mysterious Red Skull.

I’ve got to admit I have a big soft spot for this movie. Sure it’s not as action packed as movies like Iron man or the Incredible Hulk but I don’t think that’s what director Joe Johnston was going for when he made this movie. The picture feels like an old WW II propaganda flick mixed with a dash of an old science fiction serial. The movie has a very fun and light-hearted feel to it which harkens to the early days of the Captain America comic which was originally used as a propaganda piece during WW II. The very first issue of the comic had Cap punching Adolf Hitler which has become a very famous cover in the comic industry.

I never thought I’d see Chris Evans as Captain America, the actor at the time was known as being the Human Torch from the early Fantastic 4 films. After his turn as Johnny Storm I could only see Evans as that character, fortunately the moment I saw the First Avenger I realised that this man was born to be Cap. Chris Evans is perfect, from the physical aspects of the character down to his philosophies. Rumour has it that after phase 3 he’s going to hang up the shield, but I really don’t think we've had enough Steve Rogers yet. I just feel that Evans brings an old american charm to the character, Captain America is the full embodiment of all the values that the United States is supposed to stand for, he’s the american dream personified.

Hayley Atwell plays agent Peggy Carter, one of the head officers in the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Obviously she becomes the love interest for Steve as the movie progresses, but I really like her relationship with Steve. The romance between the two characters doesn't feel forced like Thor and Jane’s you can see a chemistry between the two the moment Steve goes for training. The other great thing about Carter is that she isn't just a love interest, out of all of the romantic characters in the MCU she’s one of the few that can hold her own next to the hero of the movie. She even leads an assault on Hydra’s base during the films climax. I really love this character and I have yet to watch Agent Carter but I plan to do so once I catch up on Agents of SHIELD.

Hugo Weaving is our villain, Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull. When you have Hugo Weaving playing a villain you know the movie is going to have a great antagonist. The man made an entire career off of playing one of the most iconic scifi villains of the 20th century, Agent Smith from the Matrix. As Red Skull Weaving gives a deliciously evil performance that reminds me of a villain from a Universal Horror flick. Sure he is hamming it up, but a character like Red Skull makes scenery chewing very easy. I know Hugo Weaving does not want to return to the character at all, which is a shame because I personally think Red Skull is one of the best villains in Phase 1.

Captain America might be my favourite superhero but Sebastian Stan plays my personal favourite Marvel character of all time, James Buchanan Barnes. The movie takes a small twist on the characters origins and make him more of a leading man than a little kid whose Cap’s right hand guy. I can accept a change like this because it’s highly unrealistic to have a child running around on the battlefields of WW II. In the First Avenger Bucky is a soldier fully capable of doing things on his own without the help of his superpowered best friend, and as everyone has already seen by now, Bucky becomes a major player in the future of the MCU. The movie also has Tommy Lee Jones in the movie and Dominic Cooper as young Howard Stark, the father to everyone's favourite armoured Avenger.

The problems I have with this movie are minor, some of the special effects could have been cleaned up a bit and there are some pretty bad green screen shots in the film. I also would have liked it if the movie showcased more of Cap’s arsenal, he doesn't just need his shield to fight, the guy is one of the best martial artists in the entire Marvel Universe. The trailers are also kind of misleading as well, most of the action shots that are presented in the trailer are all part of a big montage that happens halfway through the movie. I personally don’t have a problem with that but I can see how that could be a potential break for some viewers.

Captain America the First Avenger is a fun film, sure it’s purpose is to get Steve into modern day New York for the Avengers, but I still think there is tons of fun to have in the movie. I love the character and I think that this first movie really captures the essence of Cap’s origins from the original comic. I give the movie a

8/10

Maybe it’s fan boy goggles but I truly love this movie, it has a special place in my heart as a film that not only showed casual viewers that Captain America could be cool, but really gave us that feel of the character when he was first introduced to the world.

[seiryuus]

"Live a good life for me."

[bsmithscolaro]

Nightbreed the Theatrical Cut: A Short Review

Director: Clive Barker

Starring: Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, and David Cronenberg

Original Release Date: February 16th 1990

If you are well versed in the insane genre that is horror I'm sure you've heard the name Clive Barker. The man is an author, painter and sometimes director. He has given us one of the most iconic horror franchises such as Hellraiser and Candyman and has created one of the most memorable and iconic faces in horror, Pinhead and the Cenobites.

I’ll admit I'm not a big Barker fan. It’s not that I don’t like him, I've only seen  few movies on his work and read only half of one of his books ( Mister B. Gone). I’ll admit that the first two Hellraiser films are amazing horror movies (sequels not that much) and Midnight Meat train was a huge surprise, but what I didn't know was that Clive Barker directed a movie back in the 90’s. A movie based on one of his novels that was supposed to be the beginning of a supposed franchise. The studio unfortunately had their way with the final cut and what audiences got was a jumbled mess that shouldn't have even been thrown into theatres, I'm talking about the now cult classic Nightbreed. Two versions of the movie currently exist to own, the theatrical cut and the Directors Cut which hit shelves last October. I'm going to review both films, and since this is my first foray into Barker’s strange film and I was pretty excited.

Nightbreed tells us the unfortunate story of Aaron Boone, a young man living in Calgary who is convinced by his psychiatrist Dr. Decker that he is responsible but a string of murders in the area. Unfortunately for Boone the real murderer is Decker himself, who's trying to pin his killings on his susceptible patient. The police eventually catch up to Boone and the results are not that pretty as Boone is gunned down. Boone awakens in the mysterious world of Midian a world that monsters call home.

Nightbreed has the makings of a strong movie, the creature designs are amazing and highly original and the soundtrack by Danny Elfman is amazing. Clive Barker really didn't have any luck when it came to this movie, apparently most of the vision that he had intended to show audiences were destroyed by studio interference. This is such a shame because I can see an amazing movie underneath Nightbreed’s skin, it wants to rip out of the screen and roar loud and proudly, instead the movie hardly makes any sense at all.

I understand this had become a huge cult hit but the movie is a muddled incoherent mess. I understand there’s the main conflict between Boone and Decker, but the movie likes to throw in some plot points that seem to have mattered in the original cut of the film but for whatever reason were all trimmed down. I've heard that Clive Barker was forced to cut many scenes out in order for the studio to produce it. It always makes me sad to see a studio not fully trust their directors, some of the most infamous cases are David Lynch’s Dune and David Finchers directorial début, Alien 3. I found that many scenes seem to just flow in a very strange way, it seemed that there was some soul missing from the movie. I couldn't tell you any other characters name other than Boone and Decker, even the highly creative monsters seem to muddle together by the end of the movie. Also, who was the priest? I assume this character was used to set up a sequel but the way the movie handles his character hardly warrant’s anything. Plot threads also start up at their own convenience, like the scene near the very end of the movie where one of the Nightbreed talk about some prophecy. This is something that’s never mentioned in the movie at all, and by this point there was about 10 minutes left in the movie.

Craig Sheffer is pretty dull as Boone. Sure the David Boreanaz lookalike has a good hero look but I literally did not care for his character. I understand there was some connection between Boone and his forgettable girlfriend but the movie doesn't give you any reason to give a crap about the two nor their plight. It’s not a good sign when you care very little for the protagonist of a movie, now I've talked about disliking characters like Iron man, but at least he’s funny. Boone is a highly unwatchable hero who risk’s an entire race’s existence over some doe eyed girl.

Decker is the only interesting character in this movie and is perhaps the most iconic. I have a strong feeling that the design for Decker was a huge inspiration for Scarecrow in Batman Begins. I think what makes Decker so awesome is that he’s played by one of my favourite directors, David Cronenberg. I know directors sometime play roles in movies but  usually its a small cameo type role. Cronenberg is the chief villain of the movie and he’s fantastic. Sure some of his lines are kind of stiff but it makes his “button eye” murder scenes all the more chilling. However I don’t understand how he says he’s been destined to kill the Nightbreed, I'm just going to chalk that up to being another misstep in the editing process.

Danny Elfman’s score is pretty awesome, back in the 80’s and 90’s he was everywhere. I think some of his best work actually came out of the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s his Beetlejuice and Batman theme’s are awesome and the score in Nightbreed is a major highpoint. It adds the dark fantasy feel that the movie strives for and adds tension in all the right scenes.

There’s a lot to love in Nightbreed but there is more to hate. The theatrical cut seems to be incoherent with hardly any good character development at all, I can’t see how this movie is so highly acclaimed by horror fans. The monster make-up and Decker himself save this movie from itself, I just hope the Directors Cut is just as good.

I give the theatrical cut of Nightbreed a

6/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Thor Review

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston

Original Release Date: May 6th 2011

The first two Iron man movies and the Incredible Hulk continued to remind us that something big was on the horizon. Marvel Studios loved to tease that something incredible was certainly coming, but with each movie taking place on Earth we never really had that scope of enormity that comes with Marvel comics, that was until Thor was released. Thor was Marvels first real gamble, this was a hero not based on Earth in fact he had never even been to our world. Thor was otherworldly and this movie demanded to be set in another place mixing the modern day superhero movie with myths and legends.

There was always talk about making a Thor movie, but no one really thought audiences would fully commit to a character like this, Marvel Studios however thought it was time and with the first Thor movie we were given some of the most popular MCU characters, even one that rivals Tony Stark himself in popularity.

Thor tells the story of the god of thunder himself from Norse mythology. The son of Odin is about to ascend to the throne of Asgard and rule the nine realms, however not all goes according to plan. When Asgards ancient enemies the Frost Giants decide to attack  and reclaim a stolen artifact Thor brashly retaliates against the race which gets him banished to Midgard (Earth). Stripped off his title and all of his power Thor must live as a mortal man in our realm, but when Thor’s jealous brother Loki takes the throne and threatens to destroy all realms the god of thunder must learn what it means to be a hero and reclaim his power.

Thor was a character I never really connected with as a kid. Sure I knew who he was but the character was never one that I wanted to go out and read and learn more about. I went into this movie hardly knowing anything about the character, which is always a good thing because I tend to know a little too much when I see a comic book movie. The extent of my Thor knowledge was that the main character had a hammer, was a Norse god and his brother Loki was an asshole. Thor wasn't really on the average movie goer’s conscious when the movie was first announced and director Kenneth Branagh really had his work cut out for him. Not only was this a movie unlike anything the director had done before, but he had to sell the world that this character live in and translate it on screen effectively.

An actor/director of Shakespearean background the Oscar nom was a solid choice for a movie like Thor. I never really realised how Shakespearian the character could be, Thor has the makings of a great story from the classic playwright. You have kings and warring nations, a conspiracy within the palace walls, family bonds and of course betrayal. Branagh really threw in all of his knowledge of his training into this movie, even throwing Thespian Anthony Hopkins in this film and Canada’s own Colm Feore. Thor works like a play, at least when it is in Asgard and not Earth, which leads to a few things that I feel should get out of the way first because they really bog this movie down.

Yes, Asgard is in this movie, and the realm eternal is like a character itself. Unfortunately not enough time is spent on Asgard, instead most of the movie is in a small New Mexico town on Earth. Every time a short Asgardian scene cuts to Earth you can’t help but feel the movie slows to a complete halt. Now I know you need to sell the few cautious people that Thor is from Asgard and make his character believable, but after that first amazing shot in the films prologue you can’t but already be sold on this world. Asgard is unlike anything we've seen before in a comic book movie, the visuals are jaw dropping and to go back to a dusty and boring New Mexico town is a major disservice. It also doesn't help that most of the Human characters are annoying in their own right (I'm looking at you Darcy).

I don’t have anything against Kat Dennings, I think she’s a funny actress and I've never really been annoyed with her, but I cannot stand her in this movie. I know that the character has taken off and has generated her own little group of fans. That’s fine, I'm okay with that but I think the movie could have used less “Darcy Humour” as I’ll coin it. She’s always throwing out a stupid one liner that is hardly ever funny. Also if you took Darcy out of the movie the film's story would still flow in an effective manner, this is because Darcy does nothing for the story.  The stupid humour of Darcy is actually one of the major reasons why I don’t like Thor as much as I want to, because she’s in the vast majority of the movie.

Darcy aside the rest of the cast is fine, no one overstepped their boundaries in the film. Chris Hemsworth is a perfect fit for Thor, at the time he had only really been in J.J Abrams first Star Trek movie as Kirks father in the prologue, a small role but still an important role. Hemsworth is just perfect as Thor, it’s one of those roles where you can’t see the actor as anyone else. Sure, Hemsworth has tried his hardest to branch off of the Avengers films, doing movies like Rush and January's Black Hat, but you still can’t help but see the god of thunder. Chris is able to show us the ferocity of Thor, his emotional core and even the humour that is spread throughout this movie. Thor is a strong three dimensional character who hits all the right notes in his performance. During his workout schedule the actor actually got so big that they had to redesign the costume because he couldn't fit in it, now that is some dedication.  

Natalie Portman walked off of her Oscar winning performance in Black Swan strait onto the set of Thor. She plays Jane Foster, an astrophysicist who stumbles upon Thor and the realm of Asgard when he is banished to Earth.  In typical comic book fashion her character really doesn't do that much, she’s supposed to be the audiences eyes into the world of Thor but her character is just used to shoehorn another romantic relationship in a comic book movie that unfortunately doesn't really work. I've never really bought the relationship between Jane and Thor, sure Portman is a great actress and she gives a really strong performance, but when you really think about the movie her character is just there to swoon over Thor.

Now the movies real find unfortunately is not Hemsworth, it’s in fact the villain. At this point Marvel really was not having that much luck on it’s villains and still is to this day. Sure I love the Abomination, but Whiplash and Iron Monger really left more to desire. Loki on the other hand is a  revelation and is still  the best villain in the MCU. Tom Hiddleston was virtually unheard of  but once Thor came out the man is now a household name. Loki isn't your typical baddie, sure his legions of fans love to say he’s misunderstood (not the case the guy is a nut). His real endgame in Thor is far more complex than simply wanting to destroy the world and rule Asgard. All Loki wants is to be accepted by his father and be Thor’s equal, who always overshadowed his magic wielding younger brother. Finding out his true heritage simply breaks the man, sure he was always a trickster causing problems throughout Asgard, but as the movie goes on you see that there is a hidden madness and obsession with besting Thor and being a better king than even his father.

The great thing about the conflict between Thor and Loki is that our hero actually has a reason to not kill his arch nemesis. Unlike Batman who has a strong no kill rule and can never get around to killing the Joker (seriously if you just kill him the world would be a better place), Thor loves his brother no matter what and does not want to fight him. Even when Loki sends the Destroyer to kill Thor and his friends the god of thunder tries to talk his brother out of it, claiming that he does not know what he’s done to hurt him. This leads to a fantastic conflict, one that is the best within the MCU and has been a focal point for three movies now (including this one) .

The rest of the cast is great, you have Jamie Alexander as Sif, Ray Stevenson, Josh Dallas, Tadanobu Asano as the Warriors Three. Even Idris Elba, Stellen Skarsgard and Rene Russo make appearances in the films. However we must talk about Anthony Hopkins as Odin, there is just something about Anthony Hopkins, the man can make even the worst film a little classier. He is a fantastic choice as the All-Father and I really hope he sticks around for a long time, there is a strong commanding presence with Hopkins that resonates throughout the movie. I'm actually surprised he said yes to this movie, I never would have thought I’d see Anthony Hopkins in a big film like this, but here he is playing one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe.

I'm a big fan of movie soundtracks, I think that even if a bad movie has a solid score that it can enhance it tremendously. To this day and of course in my own opinion, Thor has one of the best soundtracks in the MCU. I always find myself humming the Asgard theme, the soundtrack scored by Patrick Doyle is amazing. I have no idea why he wasn't put on Thor the Dark World, the music in Thor soars high above  any comic book movie score. There's a powerful and emotional core to the music in this movie that makes even the most mundane scenes feel epic and grandiose. I'm very happy to have this score in my collection.

Now there aren't many action scenes in Thor, probably the best action piece is about a half hour into the movie, after that the rest of the movie is on Earth. Now Thor is obviously stronger than anything that comes his way, this makes every fight seem short, and without any tension. You know Thor is going to clobber anyone but that's the fun of it. This was one of my major problems with Iron man 2, It seemed like Tony Stark would just press a button somewhere and destroy everything in his path. Thor on the other hand is a god, I can give this movie a pass because I know what I'm getting into. I went here to see the god of thunder throw down on inferior enemies that for whatever reason think they could take the guy on one-on-one.

Thor is a pretty good movie, unfortunately the movie is filled with stupid humour that makes almost every scene on Earth feel annoying and like a chore. We also spend far to much time there as well which is completely uninteresting, I’d rather be in Asgard and see the amazing sets and costumes that inhabit the great realm. To much of the film focuses on things that don’t feel that necessary, and Natalie Portman is degraded to a stupid love story that does not feel earned.

I give Thor a 7/10

It’s a solid movie but it’s just missing the mark. I think Marvel didn't feel that confident yet with their otherworldly characters. That’s why we got a lot of dumb Earth scenes instead of what people came to the movies to see, Asgard. Still check it out, you’re going to have to anyway since this movie has the strongest connections to the first Avengers film.

[bsmithscolaro]

Iron Man 2 Review

Director: Jon Faverau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle

Original Release Date: May 7th  2010

After the massive success that was Iron man, Marvel studios quickly leapt at a chance to make a sequel to their first big hit before the Avengers hit theatres. They were so adamant on getting a sequel out that they shortened production time from three years to only two, which is quite a massive feat. How exactly did Faverau pull a movie of this scale off in half the time that it took to make the first Iron man? The answer is simple, he didn’t and unfortunately for Faverau and Marvel Studios Iron man 2 was the first big misstep in the MCU.

Taking place six months after the first movie, Iron man 2 illustrates the political repercussions that Tony Stark and his Iron man suit have made on the world. Everyone wants in on the technology, and the United States government want Stark to turn it in in order to replicate the tech. However  this isn’t the least of Starks problems, his arc reactor is slowly killing him and time is running short for the billionaire, but when a vengeful Russian replicates Starks own technology the world slowly starts to crumble around Tony Stark.

This is honestly the most compacted version I can think of for the plot that is Iron man 2. This movie is cluttered with sideplots that would have made the little summary I gave above an entire three paragraphs. This is the fault however of Marvel studios and their need to churn out a second Iron man movie. Now when I first saw Iron man 2 I absolutely hated it, but as is the case with most Iron man movies I revisited it before I saw the Avengers and I came to a new conclusion. This isn’t a horrible movie, its just a big disappointment, and when you think about it how could it not be? Everything was working against this movie. The first film is near perfection and is still one of the best in the MCU, the short time it took Faverau to shoot this film would easily bog down on the quality of the film, and Marvel studios themselves went and pulled a full Sony by heavily involving themselves in the editing process of the films final cut.  Even the actors of the movie (especially Mickey Rourke) have expressed their distaste in the movie.

I’m not one to dwell on the negatives first when there are positives in the movie, and frankly the only real positive I have with this is the cast. Most of the familiar faces are back, you’ve got Downey as Stark and Paltrow as Potts. However this movie does like to go out of it’s way to make the two original cast members very unlikeable.

Tony Stark is dying in this movie, he’s hit rock bottom and for Stark there is no other option but death.  Most of the character development that was made in the first film for Tony is completely thrown out the window, it seems he didn’t really learn anything from his struggles last time around. Sure his narcissistic attitude is still in check, he wouldn’t be Tony Stark without it, but most of Iron man was dedicated on Tony becoming a better man and being an honourable person and a hero. Like I said in my Iron man review after the first film it seemed like Marvel studios completely forgot what made Tony such a (arguably) likeable character. They took the heart out and just added the snarky humour, and this movie is on full gear with comedy. Now I don’t necessarily hate comedy, nor the light tone that inhabits most of these movies, but there is a time and place for humour and it seems like Stark just can’t stop, especially when he’s dealing with death and the threat of the government replicating his suit (which they do). Just because he’s dying does not mean that the character should become a bigger ass than he was in the first film. Many people I know who knew nothing about the character of Tony Stark had no idea that he was an alcoholic, it’s one of the characters most famous arcs. Boy where they surprised, and I’m assuming everyone else was who had no idea who the character was (and face it Iron man was a c-lister at best before the first  movie) to because Tony Stark is one sloppy drunk in this movie.

Hey kids, want to see Iron man pee in his suit and act like a complete and utter depressing train wreck? Well you’ll get tons of that in this movie! Tony is hardly likeable at all I don’t understand how people like him, especially in this movie. His ego has skyrocketed to godlike status, something which one the films villain addresses early on. Sure he’s funny and I laugh quite a bit at his jokes, but just because a movie is funny does not mean it’s good. This isn’t a comedy, it’s an action movie, and yes I know that tons of action movies have comedic parts to them, but if the humour isn’t serving the plot than it shouldn’t be in the movie, it’s just filler trying to disguise the flaws in a film.

Pepper Potts on the other hand is more annoying than anything. Because of Tony’s attitude throughout the movie we see her only when she’s upset, a typical Mary Jane Spider-man 3 scenario. Every scene Gwenyth Paltrow is in Pepper just gripes at Tony’s immaturity. Sure, he’s being a complete idiot and she’s annoyed, but at least show us one scene where she’s happy. Remember all that good chemistry from the first film? It’s completely gone in this, Pepper is annoyed at Tony because he is clearly hiding something from her, and instead of acting like Tony normally  would he instead acts like a jealous 13 year old boy  leaving clues in order for her to figure out that he’s dying. But hey, why couldn’t he just tell her upfront? I thought Pepper Potts was the only person Tony could trust in the world, he even said so in the first movie when she dips her hand in his chest. Now of course I don’t want Pepper to just smile and let Tony get away with what he’s doing, I’m not like that, of course she has every right to be mad at Stark it’s just that it isn’t handled properly. She’s not really given anything to do in the movie, unlike the first one where she played an integral part in Stane’s demise.

Now because this is Iron man 2 what would be better than one Iron man? Two, and that’s what we get with Rhodey as he continues the snippet that was hinted at in the last movie. Unfortunately the character had to be recast and is now played by Don Cheadle. I really don’t have that much of a problem with the recasting in this movie, normally I’d be pretty upset because it’s one of my major pet peeves when it comes to movies, however Cheadle surpasses Terrence Howard in the role. Rhodey is given a lot more to do this time around than the first one, he’s torn between his orders from the military to get the suit from Tony, and protecting his best friends interests. Now Howard was great in the role but after watching Iron man 2 you can sort of see how Howard was “sleeping” through the role, Cheadle acts like he cares. Every fan of the character was waiting for the moment when Rhodey would become War Machine, who I frankly prefer over Iron man. A big portion of the movie is dedicated to this origin story of sorts, and is a major subplot in multitude of subplots that are scattered in this movie.

You only really get a good look at War Machine at the films climax and unfortunately Marvel has seen to it that we don’t get to see much of War Machine at all because the suit hasn’t made an appearance since this movie. Maybe Age of Ultron will fix this because Rhodey is slated to return there, the extent of his involvement in the plot though is currently unknown.

Back when this movie first came out we were seeing a revival in Mickey Rourke’s career. The Wrestler had reignited the old 80’s stars career and Iron man 2 was the second film on the slate for the actor. Rourke plays one of the films villains Ivan Vanko, or Whiplash as he’s known in the comics. I find it strange that they chose Whiplash as a villain because he’s fairly low on the roster when it comes to Iron man’s rogues gallery, perhaps Marvel was hoping to have the same success with Whiplash as they did with Iron man, unfortunately the villain falls flat and it’s not entirely Rourke’s fault. Vanko (he’s never called Whiplash) is actually a pretty interesting character, he’s out for revenge against Tony due to something Tony’s father did to Vanko senior in the past. This leads to a really good conflict and throughout the first 40 minutes of the movie Vanko is a pretty good villain. His plan is unique in that he doesn’t want to kill Tony, he wants to watch the world crumble around him and “watch god bleed”. The great thing about this is that he actually succeeded in his plans only 10 minutes after he first encounters Stark.

After that he’s stolen by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) who I personally see as Iron man 2’s main baddie. Once that happens everything that made the character interesting slowly devolves where Vanko plays dumb Russian for two hours. You can see during the first part of the movie that Faverau and co. wanted to do something truly interesting and unique with Vanko, unfortunately Marvel wanted a movie out as soon as possible and Vanko quickly changed from a methodical and intimidating villain to your typical comic book baddie.  Rourke has also stated his complete and utter hatred for this movie, even last year when he appeared on the Late Show Rourke was asked if  he hates comic book movies Rourke replies with “I don’t hate comic book movies, I hate Marvel movies”. You see Mickey Rourke actually put in a lot of work with the character, travelling to Russia for three months to get the accent down ( something Scarlett Johansson did not) and added all these layers to the character which were thrown on the cutting room floor.

This was the first time Marvel did this to a villain, and it wouldn’t be the last. When we visit a certain Phase 02 film I’ll talk about a certain pointed ear baddie who really got shafted when it came to final cut.  Sure you could argue that Rourke might be talking out of his ass and trying to place the blame on someone for the poor reception the movie got, but you can see in the jail scene where Vanko explains his plot that they actually were going to go with something a little more heavy than what you’d normally expect. There’s even an alternate final showdown between Vanko and Iron man that is a huge polar opposite to what we got in the final product.  Vanko started out as a guy who was just going to sit and wait for the world to destroy Tony Stark, he also apparently knows that Tony is dying. I find this strange because no one knows Tony is dying except Tony, how the heck does Vanko know that Stark is dying from the reactor? Sure you could argue that since Vanko knows arc reactor tech that he could come to an assumption that Starks dying, but really even Pepper Potts the closest person to him has no idea that he’s dying. This just makes the rest of Vanko’s plot seem redundant, he knows Tony is just going to die, that's what makes his first plan all the more terrifying at first. Not only is this Starks last week of life but his entire world is going to crumble around him. Instead Vanko decides to somehow make a gigantic Iron man suit on top of helping Hammer fix his drone army before Stark Expo and fix his whips, and he does this all in a week. It took Tony around three months to build the Marc 01, how the hell does he even accomplish this! and to top it off why would he use this suit to try and kill Tony? He knows he’s going to die and has no idea that Stark created a new element.

Like all the other Iron man movies, this one loves it’s red herring when it comes to its supposed “main antagonist”. “Whiplash” was advertised on everything, when in fact the real villain was Sam Rockwell. Now, I love Sam Rockwell he’s a great actor but he just plays a sleazier Obadiah Stane. 

I get that they wanted Justin Hammer to play a wanna be Tony Stark, but when you have Tony Stark on overdrive having some idiot kid brother making stupid jokes that don’t fly really bogs the experience down. People always talk about how Marvel Studios never goes against the source material. Look anywhere, people defend the studios faithfulness left and right. So please tell me, why was Justin Hammer some sleaze ball instead of the business savy elderly tech rival from the comics? Most of Hammer’s scenes feel like some weird comedy routine with Vanko and it just does not work.

Scarlett Johansson makes her first appearance as Black Widow in this movie, but she really didn’t have to be in the film. I feel like the character was shoehorned into the movie in order to get everyone excited for the Avengers, and that was the purpose of this movie. There are some parallels between Iron man 2 and last years the Amazing Spider-man 2.  They were both set up movies that threw everything they could think of on the screen, now I quite enjoyed TASM 2 but they really wanted to set up their (now defunct) Spider-man Cinematic Universe and they really went out of their way to tell you that. Iron man 2 is the same, we got Captain America references, Hulk references, and every single Samuel L. Jackson scene. Nick Fury also did not need to be in this movie, he has maybe three scenes but each one is just an extended version of the stinger from Iron man 1, we already know Iron man is going to be in the Avengers you don’t need to tell us every time Nick Fury shows up for exposition dialogue. Also, what’s the point of denying Iron man a spot on the Avengers, we all know he is a member regardless of the stupid Consultant title that they throw around, he’s still an Avenger and is advertised as one.

Now one of the big problems are the subplots. This movie wanted to be so many things when really it should have just been about Tony Stark against the government and Vanko. Instead this movie has multiple threads going at the same time and it makes the movie bloated and a little boring.

At the top of my head here are all the sub plots I can think of

1.Tony Stark Dying

2.Rhodey becoming War Machine

3.Justin Hammer trying to outdo Tony Stark

4.Pepper Potts dealing with becoming Stark Industries new CEO

5.Black Widow’s shadowing of Tony Stark

6.Tony Stark dealing with his daddy issues and alcoholism

7.Gary Shandling......why?

Now that's a lot for one two hour movie to handle. These aren’t just tiny little threads, each of these subplots are huge and take up a lot of time to wrap up. Because of this every action scene is cut short, and the final fight with Vanko is around two minutes. Of course I don’t want my movies to be just explosions and action, but come on this is a superhero movie we expect action.

I can see why Jon Faverau didn’t want to direct Iron man 3. Marvel studios own interference actually robbed us all of a pretty decent movie. Now there is still some fun to have in Iron man 2, it’s pretty funny and some of the action scenes are neat. Just lower your expectations because this movie does not even hold a candle to the original.

6/10

[bsmithscolaro]

the Incredible Hulk Review

Director: Louis Leterrier Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and Tim Roth Original Release date: June 8th 2008 

After the train-wreck that was Ang Lee’s Hulk from 2003, I don’t think anyone expected to see the green rage monster bursting onto screens again, but after five years it seemed we were wrong. Marvel Studios had gotten their rites back to the character and it looked like we were all going to go through another origin story with the Hulk, thankfully that was not the case. The end product turned out to be a movie that completely shattered expectations and is, in my opinion, the best pre-Avengers film in Phase 01. As always this is a spoiler review, so I might touch upon things that could potentially ruin the movie, so if you have yet to watch the Incredible Hulk I suggest you do so before reading.

Taking place during the events of Iron man 2, the Hulk starts out with Bruce Banner on the run from the government. He’s been in hiding for a few years now and has started to undergo some anger management to control the beast within and has started looking for a cure to his condition. Unfortunately for Bruce nothing can go his way, the government and general “Thunderbolt” Ross are hot on his trail and Bruce must once again travel back to the one place he never thought he’d return to, home. All of these events culminate in a gigantic smash down between the Hulk and the government created Abomination.

I love this movie, out of all of Phase 01 this is the one film I’ve seen the most. I’m pretty upset with myself that I never got around to seeing this in theatres because it must have been quite the spectacle. This was the movie that proved to audiences that Marvel Studios knew what their fans wanted when it came to their characters. By doing a genius move and showing the origin story of the Hulk throughout the opening credits we were able to have a movie that brushed over what everyone already knew, and showcase exactly what a Hulk movie was supposed to be. I always thought it was a good kick in the groin for Universal studios, because throughout the movie they mention that Bruce’s first Hulk-out happened five years before the events of the film. That date would be the release of last Hulk movie, a fun little jab at the last film that was basically panned by everyone.

The cast in this movie (and most of the MCU films) is superb. I honestly think they couldn’t have picked a better cast. Edward Norton was the ideal choice for Bruce Banner, looking through the special features on the DVD I own you can see the dedication that Norton had for the character and source material. Not only was he Bruce but Norton was heavily involved with the creation of the Hulk, down to his posture and movements. Of course the character is now being spearheaded by Mark Ruffalo, who also does the motion capture for the Hulk, but I actually prefer Norton's take on the character. Bruce Banner is a tragic character, as it stands he’s the most broken out of the Avengers so far. His life was shattered and everything that he once loved was either taken from him or pushed aside by Banner himself. During the events of this movie Bruce Banner is public enemy number 1. Everyone is after him, he can’t even walk into a convenience store without the police showing up trying to take him in. He’s trying to get the Hulk under control and every scene in this movie is a struggle, life is stressful and you really wonder what would happen if you were put in a situation with a time bomb ticking off inside of you.

I know that the beginning of the movie tends to be the part that most people don’t like, I disagree. I find the entire first act to be completely nerve wrecking. Bruce Banner is a time bomb, you never know if he’s going to blow up and destroy everything in sight, and when it happens Louis Leterrier films it like a monster film, you only get quick glances at the Hulk before the big money shot, now that’s how you film the Hulk.  Call me crazy, but I think the Hulk looks better in this movie than in the Avengers. Every time Hulk movies you can see his muscles contracting, you see the blood pumping through his veins. It's like he's ready to explode.

Liv Tyler stars as Betty Ross, Bruce Banners former girlfriend and co-worker. She hasn’t been in contact with Bruce since his initial transformation into the Hulk, and she has since then moved on with her life, believing that he is dead. Of course when Bruce comes back all those feelings rush back to Betty and she throws herself head first into the conflict between Bruce and her father Ross. I think Liv Tyler is great in this, I’ve heard that people aren’t the biggest fans of her work but I’ve always found her to be a wonderful actress. There is just something so sincere about her presence in any movie, especially this one because Liv Tyler really had her work cut out of her. Just like Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron man, the Incredible Hulk demands a performance of two individuals who have known each other for years. Liv has tremendous chemistry with Norton, but she also has to work with a character that isn’t even on set, the Hulk. It makes the computer animated Hulk all the more realistic when you have someone acting alongside it who gives a truly heart wrenching performance. It really is beauty and the beast, you can tell that Betty truly loves Bruce, even when he's a jolly green giant on steroids. I think one of the major crimes of this movie is completely forgetting about Betty, because it looks like Marvel is trying to get a Bruce and Black Widow relationship off the ground in Age of Ultron. Most of the things that make this movie good have been forgotten by Marvel, but I’ll touch on that later.

Tim Roth stars as the films villain, Emil Blonsky. Blonsky is an ageing soldier hired on by Ross to hunt down Banner, of course Blonsky gets more than what he bargained for when he first comes into contact with the Hulk. After that, catching the Hulk becomes Blonsky’s primary obsession, and he’s willing to undergo anything to catch the beast, even if that means sacrificing his humanity in the process. 

Blonsky has always been one of my favourite MCU villains, there is so much to the character that you only pick up on with repeat viewings, at least I did. You don’t get much of a backstory on the guy, but you learn some very important traits to the soldier. Blonsky is a man who is passing out of his prime, he’s a middle age man who belongs at a desk now rather than the field. During one of the first action set pieces in the movie, you can see Blonsky struggling to catch up with the other soldiers who are frantically trying to catch Bruce. Blonsky is an objective driven man, he is never use to failure and  is met with a huge green colossal of a failure when he returns as the sole survivor from the first attempt to catch Bruce. After that we see Blonsky’s dream to be a constant soldier fulfilled when he is given the second phase of the super soldier serum, each time Blonsky meets Bruce he is stronger and faster, however each time we get a good look a Blonsky we can see the cracks slowly forming. This is a man who wants to live forever, to recapture his days of youth, and he finally gets that chance. Blonsky’s story is one of Hubris plain and simple. He gets all that he wanted but the results for that power is as Sterns puts it “an abomination”.

Tim Roth not only gave an excellent performance as Blonsky but was completely committed at playing the Abomination. Roth did the entire motion capture performance of the creature, and what makes Abomination scarier than the Hulk, is that he’s not just a creature driven by rage. There is a cunning behind Abomination, an intelligence that not even the Hulk fully possesses. This is what makes Abomination the perfect opponent for the Hulk, during their final fight Abomination goes out of his way to hurt Ross and Betty, knowing full well that this will fully anger the Hulk, he wants to see Bruce angry, and he wants to make the Hulk furious. Not only is he a danger to everyone around him, but he  even uses the Hulks anger as a weapon to cause massive amounts of destruction. The film also stars the fantastic William Hurt as General Ross. You can say that he is the villain for most of the film until the final act. All Ross wants is to control the Hulk as a weapon, and he will do anything to get him. He really is a despicable man, even going as far as arresting his own daughter because she’s been helping Bruce, all Ross cares about is himself. Tim Blake Nelson is also in the movie as Samuel Sterns a character who is mentioned throughout the film as Mr. Blue, but is only revealed for about fifteen minutes. He’s a character that probably will have a big impact on the rest of the MCU, unfortunately he’s been forgotten like the rest of the film. I like to call this the red haired step-child of the MCU. Marvel never likes to mention this movie in the other films. It’s almost like they want it to go away, the movie has a very strong and different feel to it and I think that’s what makes it special. Marvel even went out of their way to retcon the stinger in the movie, which oddly enough isn’t during the end credits, it’s actually placed right at the end of the movie before the credits, I made a post last year about the Marvel One-shots  where I talk more about the stinger so I suggest you check it out if you want to learn more about it. Another issue about this movie is that characters are never mentioned again, where is Sterns? This is the guy who will become the Leader, who is basically the Hulk’s Joker.

We don’t even hear any mention of Ross ever again, who apparently re-opened the Super Soldier program from WW II which, as any Marvel fan would tell you, created Captain America. The only other mention of this movie is during Iron man 2, and it’s a blink and you’ll miss it one to. I think Marvel likes to forget about this movie because it was still a Universal studios picture, not Paramount (who owned the MCU before Disney). The movie is darker, grittier and has a very melancholic tone to it. Bruce Banner is a tragic character and I don’t want a fun happy-go-lucky movie like the Iron man films, tragic characters should have tragic movies. Hell, even in the very bloated Phase 03 that’s coming up there isn’t even talks about a second Hulk movie. It seems that the Hulk will never get a proper standalone sequel to this underrated movie. The Incredible Hulk is a fantastic movie, it has the makings of a perfect comic book movie and has one of the best climaxes in the entire MCU. I’ve still yet to see a final fight that’s even as good as the Hulk Abomination fight. 

The Incredible Hulk is easily a 8/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Iron man Review

Director: Jon Faverau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges

Original Release Date: May 2nd 2008

In one month from now we’ll all be lining up to see Avengers Age of Ultron, the climax of Phase 02 of the MCU. I am a very particular fellow and whenever a new instalment in a film series comes out I have to watch the previous chapters. It goes without saying that since 2008 the MCU has developed quite the library, with over 10 films, two television series, and 1 new Netflix series on the way in April, there is a lot to digest in Marvels expansive universe.  So before I see Age of Ultron and Ant-man I’ve decided to review the entirety of the MCU so far, from it’s movies to the two seasons of Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter and the soon to be released Daredevil. The first on the list naturally, is 2008’s Iron man.

Before I get onto this review I have to say that there will be spoilers, most of Phase 01 has been out for a while now and is pretty accessible, so if you have yet to watch Iron man (why haven’t you yet?) do so before you read this.

Now I personally don’t like Iron man, he’s never been a character that has resonated with me. When the movie came out I wasn’t all that excited since I find the character to be boring and irritating, but this was back when we got comic book movies once every few years (hard to believe that now) so I had to go see it. I remember not really enjoying the first Iron man movie which might be due to the Dark Knight trailer I saw before the movie. You’re going to find a particular trend when it comes to me and Iron man. They are the only MCU movies I’ve only seen once in theatres and the only ones I’ve ever bought before the next big instalment to the MCU, so in this case I finally got around to buying this when it’s sequel came out, and my opinion on the first  Iron man changed drastically, I started with hating the movie to loving it.

Iron man is an origin story, and it’s certainly one of the best. The film starts out with weapons manufacture Tony Stark getting kidnapped by a terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings. During his time in captivity (approximately three months) he has an epiphany, he realizes that the weapons that his company has made to protect the world are now being used by groups that would try to harm it. So when Stark makes a daring escape he decides with his new-found philanthropic ideals to create the Iron man suit and uses it to strike back at those who would use his own technology for their own corrupted deeds.

. 

If we are talking about Iron man than we have to talk about the character Tony Stark. After seven years everything I'm about to say is going to be just me preaching to the choir, but Robert Downey Jr gives probably one of the best comic book performances, ever!  Rarely can you picture another actor as a character, and just like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine by this point you can’t see anyone else as Tony Stark.  The Iron man movies are really performance driven films, every single Iron man movie is completely devoured by Downey’s performance as Stark, and even though it seems like we won’t be getting any Iron man movies in phase 03 the character will still play a major part in the first film, Civil War. Downey owns this character and is able to bring forth everything that makes the character memorable for comic readers, and Iron man was the career saver for Robert Downey Jr, without this movie people wouldn’t be talking about the actor today.

Now it wouldn’t be fair if I just talked about Robert Downey Jr and not the rest of the cast. Iron man has a pretty marvellous cast, all of the top billed actors are fantastic. Terrance Howard is pretty great as Rhodey but there isn’t much room for the character to grow in this movie. Seeing as how Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle in Iron man 2, there isn’t really much to say here  since most of his arc is fleshed out in Iron man 2. However Terrance does do a good job, and the guy is a great actor in his own right, its just unfortunate that he was replaced due to a wage dispute, but in the end it was for the better since Cheadle has proven to be superior in the role.

Now she isn’t in the top billing but we always have to talk about Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. I’ve always loved this character, I think Paltrow is fantastic in the Iron man movies, she just brings this undeniable wit and sincerity to the movie, and seeing as how most of her scenes are with the film stealing Downey, she holds her own and is able to not be crushed under the weight of Tony Stark’s shadow like everyone else. Both Gwyneth and Robert Downey Jr have great chemistry. The relationship between Tony and Pepper doesn’t seem forced at all and is one of the major plus points in the movie. I rarely ever buy the shoehorned love relationships that are in most superhero movies, but this one feels genuine in it’s development and seeing as how both characters have known each other for years before the events of the film, both actors show in their performances a long history between boss and assistant.

Finally, we have the great Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, think of him as Tony Starks right hand man when it comes to Stark Industries. Jeff Bridges is very good in this movie he quickly flips the personality of Stane very quickly as the film progresses. When the movie starts out he seems like quite the lovable guy, like most of Bridges performances, but once act 3 hits we quickly see Stane bring out his sinister nature as the film’s primary antagonist. I haven’t seen Jeff Bridges as sinister as this since the Vanishing.  I always thought the scene where Pepper looks through Stane’s computer only to be discovered by him to be incredibly tense, and in my opinion Stane has been the best villain out of the Iron man movies, which unfortunately isn’t saying too much.

Sure, Bridges is great in the movie but only a real comic fan would know that he’d be the villain of the piece. For the average movie goer the twist that he in fact was the bad guy all along doesn’t really feel earned, and this leads to a continued trend in the Iron man films. Every film makes you think one character is the villain only to learn that in fact some greedy businessman was behind everything, trust me I’ll touch on that in the other Iron man films. I would have preferred if Raza ( Faran Tahir) was the villain of the movie and just focus on Iron man facing terrorists. Tahir is misused in almost every film I've seen him in and he gives a really menacing performance in the first act. I’ll give it a pass though for this movie  since it’s the origin story, we’ve got to learn everything we can about Tony.

Paul Bettany also provides his voice to the movie as the computer program JARVIS, who in the comics is Stark’s butler. I’m only giving Bettany a little mention here because the character of JARVIS will become a major player down the line in Age of Ultron, and if you don’t know much about the plot of the movie than I won’t spoil it here.

One of the things I really love about this movie is that it truly feels like a standalone piece. When this came out we didn’t know about the MCU or the Avengers. The only time anyone got a sniff at what Marvel Studios was planning was during the post credit scene, and this was back when people didn’t know to stay after some movies. So the first two movies in the MCU really feel disconnected thematically, they feel like two different beasts from the rest of phase 01 and the MCU. They take more darker risks and aren’t the fun tongue and cheek humoured filled films that inhabit most of the MCU. Of course I love how the MCU has turned out, we are getting some great films, I just like how this movie doesn’t feel like the other films. For example, during the prologue of the movie we see Tony get hit by the shrapnel and there is this great shot of Tony lying on the ground and blood slowly seeping through his shirt, we wouldn’t get anything like that now in the MCU.

When this movie first came out I wouldn’t even have thought that Jon Faverau could direct a big superhero flick, he proved me wrong. Faverau really has a passion for the character which is something that every superhero movie needs, studios don’t seem to understand how necessary it is to get someone who actually is a fan of the source material to direct the movie, the love for the character and world they inhabit  seeps into the project and makes for a great film, this is why the first two Spider-man movies were so well done.  Scenes where Stark flies in the suit look incredible and the blending between cg and an actual Iron man suit are flawless. Iron man is a really slick looking film that takes itself seriously but doesn’t delve into Dark Knight territory. When I talk about wanting a Marvel movie that has humour but is serious this is what I’m talking about. I personally hate the character of Tony Stark, and I try not to let my distaste for the character get in the way of a good movie experience. In my opinion I can only really stand Tony Stark in this movie. I just can’t connect with his cocky attitude and witty one liners, now they’re in this movie no doubt, but not to the extent of the other films. Faverau knew what he was doing, and he's even inserted himself into the MCU as Happy Hogan, a small cameo role in this film but his interaction in the Iron man films have increased.

The score by Ramai Djawadi is really forgettable, I really hope his work on the Warcraft movie is better than this because he really missed the mark, it’s a shame because I like his work on Game of Thrones.The score tries it’s best to blend orchestral flair with guitar riffs but it really doesn’t work for me, I actually prefer the score for Iron man 3 over this. I also  don’t understand why they use the song Iron man by Black Sabbath, sure it says Iron man but it has hardly anything to do with the character, I’m just nitpicking when it comes to that though.

Iron man is a really fun film, it’s one of the best origin stories out there when it comes to comics and it is one of the better MCU films. It’s able to blend the serious tones and humour to a perfect extent that the other two films fail to comprehend. The action is pretty slick and Robert Downey Jr gives a career  saving performance that people will remember for the rest of his career, he is Iron man.

I give Iron man a 8/10

[bsmithscolaro]

Interstellar Review

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew Mccounaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain

Released: November 5th 2014

"We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us."

    These words are said by Cooper, Matthew Mccounaughey's character in Christopher Nolan's latest film Interstellar. Exploration has always been a key factor in our own history one could say that we are always tempted by the unknown and what's out there. We've been exploring our world the moment that we've had concious thought as a race, always looking for resources and shelter. Exploration is not only a key factor in our lives but every living creature. It's been said countless times that Space is the final frontier, we will eventually leave our planet and there's already talk on creating a colony on Mars. Countless films have come out over the decades detailing space exploration and the troubles that beset the brave Women and Men that venture off of our native home. No movie though has ever captured the imagination of the world and film makers like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now I know I said I'd be reviewing every Kubrick movie (I only got through Spartacus) I do intend to finish that promise just bear with me. 

Still to this day there has not been a movie that has come close to the epic scope that is 2001. Many have tried of course, but no one seems to be able to do what Kubrick was able to accomplish so many years ago. Of course Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is the first movie we've had in years that even comes close to skimming on the surface of 2001. Many have said that this movie triumphs 2001 in almost every way, of course its all up to ones personal interpretation of a movie and their own tastes. I'm not here to knock anyone's opinion over but I will say this. Interstellar is a good movie but in no way is it anything like 2001. Comparing the two is almost inevitable since they are the only two movies that are similar in some regard, but Interstellar isn't the perfect masterpiece that everyone's making it out to be. 2001 is one of my favourite movies, so when another movie comes along claiming to be "this generations 2001" and "it triumphs over 2001 in every way" I'm going to check it out. Now I'm not a Nolan hater and I didn't go into this movie trying to attack it, in fact I've been looking forward to it for a long time now. My excitement was at a peak because frankly, I really wanted this to be on the same league as 2001, sadly it just isn't the case but it is still a fantastic film. 

Interstellar takes place in the future and Earth has seen better days. A terrible blight has completely destroyed most of Earth's soil making growing any food almost impossible. The only food left to the world is corn (ironic because corn is in everything these days), to make matters worse the planets atmosphere is slowly being eroded by a blight and by the time many children see adulthood they'll die of suffocation, our worlds time is up. A Farmer named Cooper (Mccounaughey) is chosen by the remainder of NASA to embark on a last ditch effort to save our race. By travelling through a newly discovered worm hole Cooper and a team of astronauts ( Hathaway, Wes Bently and David Gyasi) but travel to another galaxy to find a new world for Humans to eventually colonize.

Of course saying anything more about the plot would completely spoil the experience of seeing Interstellar, and I'm telling you it is quite the experience. It's best going into this movie knowing hardly anything. The promotional campaign of the film has done a pretty spectacular job at keeping many of the films secrets, even the surprise cameo near the end of the film. As with every single film in his impressive resume, Christopher Nolan has crafted a technical wonder. Every technical detail  is laid out to utter perfection, the cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytemma is marvellous. Seeing as how Nolan's preferred choice Wally Pfister was directing his own movie (Transcendence)  during the filming of Interstellar, Nolan had to go with someone else, and he chose the perfect person for the job. Interstellar is shot with such gorgeous beauty every shot is incredible and all tells something valuable about the many worlds of Interstellar. Seeing black holes made my mouth drop, and that first trip into the worm hole is something that has to been seen to believe. 

As always Hans Zimmer scores Nolans journey into space, I personally loved the soundtrack. It had a very creepy otherworldly feel to it much like 2001's score. Zimmer seems to love to use simplistic notes for the themes of Nolans movie and put them on repeat, this gives the movie a haunting feel. However the score might be to overpowering for others. If you thought that Inceptions score was loud and obnoxious, well be prepared for almost three hours of loud organ thumping, because the majority of the score of this movie is exactly that. 

Now the acting is across the board in this movie. As always Matthew Mccounaughey is amazing, I still don't know where this talent has come from. Of course he is sort of a joke amongst many now but the man can surely act and I think that Interstellar is one of his best performances. Anne Hathaway is also pretty good in the movie as well, I just feel like there was something slightly missing from her but that is another problem all together that lies within the script. The movie also has a pretty impressive cast; Jessia Chastain is great as always, Wes Bently (personal favourite), David Gyasi, Casey Affleck and Nolan favourite Michael Caine are all good in their roles, but the best actor in the entire film heck the best character mind you! Is performed by Bill Irwin, if you don't know what character I'm talking about I wont spoil it because Bill Iriwn gave a very unexpected comedic performance that the heavy materiel in the movie relied on. There's also a great child performance from Mackenzie Foy who plays Coops daughter Murph. Most of the entire emotional core of the movie relies on the relationship between Coop and his Daughter. It is the anchor of the plot, however this leads into some of the many problems that Interstellar has, and trust me this movie is far from perfect.

Even with all of the scientific and quantum theories riddled throughout the film there is just something that's sort of off about Interstellar's script. If you're a fan of heavy over explanatory dialogue that spoon-feeds the audience, you wont have a problem with the writing. However this is not an actors movie. Remember how I said that most of the positives of this movie are on a technical aspect? That's because this movie is mainly for the technical wonder of the trip. Most of the characters in the movie are not there to serve the plot, in fact almost every character in the entire movie just float along because "the script demanded them to". There are also huge character arcs in this movie that contradict everything that was established for certain characters early on the film, I wont give spoilers right now (I have a section for that) but the primary  victim of this is Anne Hathaway's character Brand, who's entire drive for the film is the very thing that makes many people criticize the depiction of women in film. 

The great thing about 2001 was that you had to figure out what was going on, instead Christopher Nolan and crew have decided that the audience isn't smart enough to understand the vast and epic scope of the movie. So for the entire controversial third act (I still don't know if I'm on board with it) basically has Coop and another character spoon-feed the audience the entire plot of the movie, basically giving their own commentary on what's going on on screen. Look, even after seeing the movie what went on wasn't that complex, anyone could have figured it out. That's where 2001 succeeds and Interstellar fails, 2001 didn't pander to the audience, it knew what it was and you either loved it or hate it, and this is where I'm going to end all comparisons to 2001. 

Other than Coop and Murph hardly any of the other characters have any development in the slightest. The movie does try it's hardest to make you feel an emotional punch in the gut but I always found myself asking "why should I care? You haven't given me anything to indicate that I should care". All you have to go on is Coop constantly saying throughout the movie "I miss Murph!" For a guy that really loves his Daughter he completely neglects his son in the process who becomes the most underdeveloped character in the film. There is a moment in the movie revolving around his son during one of the films more tense moments and I felt lost. It's not that I didn't understand the movie its just that just like Anne Hathaway's character Cooper son does this complete 180 in his motivations and his own personality. 

Now this point here might depend on theatre that I watched the film in, but I've noticed similar complaints. The sound mixing in this movie is awful! I have no idea what they were thinking, some parts of the movie are completely muffled out by Zimmers booming score and the rockets of the space engines. If you see the movie come back and tell me you could understand, in 100% actual clarity what the entire crew were saying when they left Earth's atmosphere to begin their voyage. Looking around at the audience I noticed many people inching closer to the screen, not because of any emotional pull but because they couldn't hear the movie. I even  heard many whisper "what did they say?". Now this isn't like Bane's voice in the Dark Knight Rises which as we know was intentionally muffled to the point of exhaustion (before being changed in post)  a movie like Interstellar needs the audience to understand what the characters are saying since the film is filled with scientific theories and terms, you need to understand the movie. Especially during a crucial  scene like leaving Earth for the very first time.

Now one of the things that really bothers me to no end is completely up to the certain personal tastes of certain viewers. It's hard to talk about this because it's a major plot point and theme in the movie. All I can say is that something happens in the film that complete goes against science and all the theories in the film in general. Now I know, this is science fiction, but there is a big difference between the hard science fiction that Interstellar represents and the science fiction "fantasy" that's in almost every sicfi film. The way Coop solves Earth's problems is almost like something out of a Matt Smith Doctor Who episode, and not a good one.  So before I go on talking about the last act of the movie I will let you know there be spoilers so scroll away now because there's a lot I need to get off my chest. 

Spoilers on what I don't like!!!!!!!!!!

    So as I said, Coop solves Earth's problems with something that completely goes against all laws of physics. This is the only way I can effectively describe the ending.

By travelling through a black hole Coop uses the power of love to survive the trip, then being trapped in a 5-dimensional tesseract, he possess a watch, with the power of love to give his daughter an equation to harness gravity. 

Yes this is the last act of the movie, I loath when the answer to everyone's problems is love. Love is not, I repeat, not a fantastical other worldly force that binds the universe. All it is in the deepest sense is our animalistic attachment to mate and reproduce the species. In a movie that is labelled as hard scifi, even going as far as having a physics be a producer and consultant for the film, you should not have love be quantifiable!!!!! It makes no sense at all in the world created in Interstellar, I would let it pass in something like Guardians of the Galaxy it would just be a slight annoyance. Even in Harry Potter I hate how love is something that is more powerful than any magic. This is 80/ 90's garbage that does not belong in a movie like this. At first I thought it was just a theory explained by a character that was only an analogy, but nope. Love, the answer to Earth's problems is love because it can transcend time and space.

Now for the entire movie Coops drive, his "raison de vivre" is to get back to his daughter and family. His love for his daughter was so powerful that it literally transcended time and space! So what happens when he is reunited with his daughter after 120 years? She tells him to leave 30 seconds after they meet! I just sat through a three hour movie essentially about a man trying to get back to his daughter (oh his son isn't there either because screw him I guess) she tells him to pack up and leave and go look for Anne Hathaway's character. Like Murph, I understand you're old and dying and want to be with the family you've made, but do you know half of the crap that Coop went through to even see you again!? This was one of the few moments in the movie that I actually cried due to the fantastic performance from Ellen Burstyn and then they swept the rug out from under my feet by having Murph tell her dad to just go.

Now, this isn't the only part of the movie with terrible writing, oh no. Remember when I said that Anne Hathaway's character completely changes through the movie, I mean it. When we first meet Brand she is stoic and all about her mission and saving Humanity, it's her life's work as she puts it early on in the voyage. Everything she does is for the mission, she has this unwavering resolve and because of this she gets Doyle (Wes Bently) killed in the process on a planet where 1 hour is 7 back on Earth.So what happens when they have to chose another planet to take a look at? Brand tells Coop to go to the one with her boyfriend on it because she believes in her love for him. Where did this even come from!? Not anywhere in the movie is it referenced that Brand had any sort of love interest. Also you're telling me that one of the few people that not only are charged with saving our race, but is one of the higher up officers on the mission is doing it because she needs her man!? Also this is the beginning of the love is quantifiable garbage that the movie spouts. And this isn't the only MASSIVE character change.

Coop has a son, I know it's hard to believe because this character didn't need to be in the movie at all. It's revealed quite early that Coops son Tom will not amount to anything in life and become a farmer, so he does. He gives up on his Father after not hearing from him in twenty four years. This is honestly the only other heavy emotional moment in the movie due to Coops reaction to seeing his son drastically age before his eyes via recorded messages.

During his time Tom becomes a farmer and stays on his family's home. There is this sub-plot that starts going on when Murph notices that his son is coughing quite a bit due to the constant dust storms. We then quickly learn that they all have black lung and could die. So Tom I guess becomes a psychopath and decides to keep his family locked in the house and goes as far as physically assaulting a doctor. I don't know, it's poor writing at its finest. Maybe if I see the movie one more time I'll understand this point but there isn't any build up to Toms sudden shift of personality. It's a stupid character and if he was taken out of the film the movie would still be intact. 

Spoilers end

                        I know its considered almost sacrilege to even question anything Nolan does. Interstellar is a good movie don't get me wrong I enjoyed it quite a bit and I'll be buying it on day 01 of its home release. However the movie has problems and they can't be overlooked. Some of them might just depend on who is watching the movie, because film is subjective. Interstellar is more about the technical wonder than the actual plot. The movie is riddled with exposition dialogue to an annoying extent and there are some major plot problems that hop around. But I was on the edge of my seat for a good portion of the movie. It's just that final little act  just nudged me the wrong way. If my opinion does change (because this seems like a movie to sit on) I'll update this and add what I thought. 

As it stands though, Interstellar is a fantastic voyage, there isn't a lot of movies like this and it really is an ambiguous project. But just because the movie has a very big and epic scope to it does not give it a pass to be the "masterpiece" people are making it out to be

I give Interstellar a 8/10

It's good like I said, but I personally think Inception was the better Nolan foray into scifi. But if you are going to see Interstellar make sure you watch it on the biggest screen possible with the best sound, you won't regret it.

[bsmithscolaro]

an Anniversary for all the Wrong Reasons: Evangelion 3.33 one year later

Hey there, remember me? Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, life has been busy so I haven't had much time for my blog. However this here is something that I absolutely must write because I feel that this here is something in general that must be addressed to anime fans and the dubbing industry as a whole.

If you've been reading my blog you probably know that I am a huge Neon Genesis Evangelion fan. It is my favourite anime of all time and I've written reviews for the series and every single film. Now I was browsing Amazon looking at prices for the extended editions of the Hobbit when I came across this here.

Now you're probably wondering why this issue here is a big deal and why I am pretty distressed over this. If you look at the top of the picture you can see that it says that I pre ordered Evangelion 3.33 on December twelfth of 2013. By next week I will have had Eva 3.33 pre-ordered for a year, want to know the kicker to all of this? Funimation has still not given the movie a release date!

Now of course I have seen the movie, its actually fantastic, I've even thrown a review for it which you can read right here. Now Evangelion 3.33 was released in Japan back in 2012 and in typical Eva fashion received many mixed reviews. However the movie was highly successful and  naturally was labelled for an English release, as where the other two movies in the Rebuild series. 

Funimation Entertainment (or Funi to fans for short) is the company that has been responsible for distributing the recent Evangelion titles to the public. Now I know that there are different distributors around the world for Eva: Manga UK handles, well, the UK, and Madman for Australia. However Funi is the company that holds the primary distribution rights, and every other company has to go by Funi's business model whether they like it or not. Now I'm all for supporting the dubbing industry, I know there is the sub vs. dub debate that will frankly never be resolved. I do know that if it was not for dubbing most anime would more than likely be undiscovered and the wonderful media niche that we all know and love today wouldn't be what is. Of course if you want to support official releases and hate dubbing, there are outlets that you can go to for that but that is beside the point.

I don't really enjoy downloading movies. As someone who really loves film and animation it's just something I can't do. However if I do download a movie/stream (which is hardly ever) it usually is for a property like Eva that wont hit North America for a couple of years, but I always make a point of buying the official product when its released (if I enjoy it which is normally the case). So naturally when Eva 3.33 was announced for a North American release I pre-ordered it without a second thought, little did I know that I'd be writing this a year later without the movie that I've longed for. Of course you can say that I'm being completely childish and unreasonable because there are more important things to be all worked up about, but it's not the delay that's set me off, oh no, the problem lies with Funimation themselves and the blatant lying (up to debate) and lack of any information on the delay of the film. 

Now Funimation is truly a great company I have to get that out there before I continue. They've been in the business for decades now and have provided some of the best dubs in recent memory (FMA anyone?) and brought Dragon Ball out of Japan and into our homes, so you can already see their lasting power within the anime community with some of the best properties under their belt.  Now in order for me to fully explain why so many other Eva fans including myself are upset I'm going to have to paint a picture on the current status of the movie. 

Now if you don't really know what I'm talking about Eva 3.33 is part of the Rebuild of Evangelion, a anime movie series by Eva creator Hideaki Anno which according to Anno  is the true take on the story that was told in the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.  Eva 3.33 is the third film and unlike the other two films in the series is truly treading in unfamiliar territory. Unlike the last two films, 1.11 and 2.22 which largely was similar to the original series Eva 3.33 is  a fresh  new story which is why it was so successful in Japan. Within minutes of it's original theatrical release fan subtitled cam rips of the film began popping up on torrent and streaming sites. Even when the film was released on home video in its native country fans across seas quickly ordered the Japanese version of the film and fan subbed it for others to watch online, this was how I originally came across the movie. But even then, some fans refused to watch these torrents, they wanted to support the official release of the movie which really shows the dedication of some fans.  Unfortunately some have still not had the chance to watch the movie. 

The last two films in the series that Funi had produced did see limited theatrical runs, so naturally Eva 3.33 was going to get the same treatment. The news of Eva 3.33's dub broke at the 2013 New York Comic Con (NYCC), where a special screening of the dubbed film was shown to hundreds of Eva and anime fans. Two months later Funi announced on their blog that the movie was going to have a official theatrical run with a home release of February eighteenth, the only way that fans would get to see the movie was if they demanded it to be shown at their local theatre. I was lucky enough to have the Niagara Square Cineplex to show the film, not once  but TWICE! Due to the tremendous ticket sails, two showings of the film were shown, one in Japanese the other in English (I saw the dub of the film obviously) 

About one week later the news broke, the dreaded blog post that changed everything. On December the eighteenth 2013 Funimation announced that Evangelion 3.33 was going to be delayed due to the enormous demand for the theatrical showings of the movie. In order to accommodate as many Evangelion fans as possible Funimation extended the films theatrical run in order for the film to be seen by as many people as possible. I think anyone can see that in reality the entire blog post  and move in general  was just for the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, because in reality that's why any company would orchestrate a move like this. So many disgruntle fans swallowed the news and waited. Some were smart and flat out cancelled their pre-orders on the spot, back then it seemed like a rather dramatic reaction but as time has shown us perhaps that move was probably the best course of action. Other distributors of the movie (Madmen and Manga) also  had to delay their releases because Funi held the main distributing rights, and if North America wasn't getting the movie you can damn be sure that no one else would either.

So, fans began to speculate when would the movie be released, many fans couldn't see the film in theatres due to location issues so the home release was their only bet at seeing the movie, and still some fans have not watched the movie yet! Many speculated that the movie would follow the path of 2.22 and be released in the spring (2.22 hit theatres in February of 2010 and was released in April of that year). Many anime movies see home release after theatre runs about three to four months after their initial screening, so this wasn't out of the realm of possibilities, but alas no news came. When I say no news I literally mean that there was absolutely nothing coming out of any of the anime news outlets. Even Funimation refused to comment on the delay of the movie. Fans took to storm on social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook asking Funimation what the hold up was, but there was nothing but silence. Even on their own blog post where they announced the delay they refused to say anything (however they have stated what the hold up was but we'll get to that). The delay was annoying, sure, but it wasn't what was setting off fans, it was the pure fact that Funi would not say anything about the current state of the project, even a "we're working on it" would have sufficed, but no they refused to comment.

Now Evangelion is a pretty big title, in fact its probably one of the biggest mecha anime series ever, right next to Gundam. Eva is one of Funi's biggest titles with legions of fans, to leave them in the cold was a very bad marketing move. Of course in order to make everyone happy Funi did announce the release of Attack on Titan, in fact their blog exploded with AoT news, from casting updates to the different variant editions that you could pre-order. After this any Eva posts got smothered by other news as time went on. Even the final two episodes in Hellsing Ultimate got announced during this time frame. In other words it all came

(see what I did there?)

So the seasons changed and low and behold finally after months of speculation news broke out on why Eva 3.33 was delayed. According to Funi the Japanese studio responsible for the film (Studio Khara) were not to impressed with the dub of the movie and demanded that it be changed. So for the time being Funi were being  forced to go back to square one and work closely with the Japanese production company at dubbing the film for a second time. Now having seeing the film  I actually praised the dub, I loved it in fact and found little to no problems with it. Of course even if dubbing isn't your cup of tea almost any anime release comes with the original Japanese audio that you can watch at your leisure.  Now delaying it due to discrepancies between studios  does sound like a reasonable reason as to why the movie was delayed, some people have bought it, I however am not so easily convinced and I'll let you know why.

If you are taking any form of art from another country and translating it to another language for other audiences you more than likely have been working closely with the original creators of said project. Funi is known for creating pretty extraordinary dubs and having good working relationships with Japanese production teams. This movie was being treated completely different from it's two predecessors, it wasn't just having a limited screening, no, Evangelion 3.33 was being shown across the world at festivals and at theatres in a massive theatrical run. This is a big deal, how the heck did Funi not even screen this to both  Khara and Anno!? Obviously the creators of the movie would want to see what is being done to their product and say what needs to be changed. Funi should have been working with Khara from the very beginning of production, so why didn't they?

Now I might be extending my reach a little bit here but I think the major problem all comes down to one simple factor $$. The past two Evangelion movies racked in major profit which I bet Funi was not even expecting, seeing as how Evangelion hadn't really been in the spot light for almost a decade. Like all big corporations that start out doing something because they love it, money and greed always become a major factor in the evolution of any corporate machine. I honestly think that Funi just went ahead and produced the movie without screening it to Anno or Studio Khara, it's the only explanation for why Khara would not be pleased with the dub of the movie. The production time for the English version of Eva 3.33 was done in half the time it took for 1.11 and 2.22 to come to North America. I was surprised that we were honestly getting the movie a year after it was released in Japan, that's almost not heard of when it comes to anime dubbing.  However we have seen a slight increase on the demand and release of both manga and anime within the last 6 years. Even the English version of the Naruto manga is a few months behind its Japanese release (sadly Naruto has ended).Only the highest priority projects get treatment like this. For example the latest Dragon Ball movie, Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods came out in Japan in March 2013 and saw an English release, a theatrical one mind you, on August 5th of 2014. The movie then right after it was finished its tour took two months to come out on bluray,  I own it and have watched it many times now and highly suggest you check it out if you love DBZ.

Of course this is all the rambling of an disgruntled fanboy so why should you care right? I think that any anime loving fan should look at this and actually be ashamed that this is the practise that the business is currently running on. Obviously my statement on Funi rushing production is just an assumption, it is probably not the case and I'm just being paranoid, but you can see all the signs there that this could possibly be the result of a rushed production and a campaign to suck up as much profit as possible from fans. Funimation was even able to release the final two OVA (original video animation) for Hellsing Ultimate, and on time! Even after that entire project was faced with countless roadblocks. Funi was able to push it out while pleasing both Geneon/Universal and the original Japanese Production team. If Funi can release both Battle of Gods and Hellsing Ultimate in a timely fashion than clearly You Can (Not) Redo couldn't be that hard to get on the shelves, let me remind you that the movie was originally supposed to come out in February, Both DBZ and Hellsing were released in October, so that's 8 months past when the film was supposed to be released.

Currently as it stands the status of the project still remains up in the air. The last anyone heard from Funi was last month (November 19th to be exact) when a moderator on their blog finally  noticed the comment section on the post was still going strong, even after the news of the delay was first announced. All that could be reported was  a non answer and news fans already knew.

"We don't have any further updates other than we are working directly with the Japanese studio and the original creator on the home video release. This is taking longer than normal since there are more steps in the process, and the Japanese studio has requested to add their own subtitled track "

  As it stands this is all that fans have to go by for now. So far it looks like the movie will be released sometime next year (hopefully), all Eva fans have to do is continue to patiently wait. 

As I look at my pending Amazon order I am always tempted to just click cancel, to just order it when an official release date is announced. But there is a part of me that's hopeful that someday, maybe even tomorrow Funi will pull their act together and finally have this thing completed. I've stuck with it for a year I might as well hold out for as long as it takes. Funimation is a good company but this is completely unacceptable, now this would all fall under first world problems under anyone's books and as a 23 year old I feel like my anger towards the situation belongs to an 8 year old, but hey, I've been waiting for things longer *cough* Final Fantasy XV/Versus XIII *cough*

[bsmithscolaro]

X-Men: Days of Future Past Review

Director: Bryan Singer

Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender

Released: May 23rd 2014

Based on Characters appearing in: Marvel Comics

Finally,  at the end of my X-MenAthon, the wait and hype is now over I have finally seen X-Men: Days of Future Past and it was awesome! I am going to try my hardest to not to rush into a fan boy rant, but this movie hit all the points just perfectly and it has never been a better time to be an X-Men fan. The idea of crossing both the Original Trilogy and First Class cast is not new. When First Class was in theatres it was reported that the production team wanted to created a movie where both timelines run side by side in order to solve a dangerous problem. The plan was to have another First Class film and then move strait into a big cross over film; of course Fox went straight for the gold and gave us a film that is a First Class sequel, a Last Stand Sequel, a Wolverine Sequel and a reboot all wrapped into one amazing package.

The first move that made everyone excited was bringing back Bryan Singer, this is his franchise and he knows how to direct a damn good X-Men film. The only thing that would have made this all the more worthwhile was if they brought back David Hayter. The script is a major component to what we see on screen. Sure the Director calls the shots but remember, if your script is trash, your movie will be trash. Days of Future Past is not trash, no it is the best X-Men movie ever! It easily replaced First Class as my favourite X-Men movie. Now enough of me ranting about how much I loved the film, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Taking place in the year 2026, Days of Future Past gives us a Terminator-esque future. The planet has been destroyed and conquered by the Mutant killing robots known as the Sentinels. The Sentinels have brought the entire Mutant race to the brink of extinction, making our heroes members of an endangered species. But the death and carnage doesn't stop with the Mutants, the Sentinels have taken their programming to its efficient peak, killing men that could pass on the X-Gene and women who are pregnant with children who could be Mutants. The remainder of the Mutant race have banded together to form a resistance against the machines, lead by old freinemies Charles Xavier/Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen) the Mutant resistance is about to face its final battle against the deadly machines.  In a last ditch effort to end the war once and for all the resistance uses Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), to send Logan (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to stop Raven/ Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) an event that sends the Sentinel program towards its terrible conclusion.  Logan must unite both young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) to save not only Trask, but the future as well.

Yeah the plot is a complicated one, but when you throw time travel into the mix it’s hard to not have a complicated movie. Days of Future Past however is able to weave it’s time travel and not make it seem like a complicated mess like in movies like Looper, and series such as Doctor Who.  As far as I'm concerned the movie didn't contradict its own rules when it came to time travel, and it was a pretty interesting method indeed. By sending a consciousness back into its past, the person or “observer” would be able to interact and observe its past almost like being in a dream. The moment the person wakes up however anything that was perceived by that person ultimately becomes reality. It is an interesting concept and sending Wolverine back does back sense (as much as fans like to cry about it). In the original comics it was Pryde herself who is sent back into the past; however the problem with this is that the character was first introduced in the Last Stand as a teenager. If the past segments take place in 73 than it is impossible for her to travel back through time, the only thing that would be accomplished would be Kitty erasing herself from history.  Seeing as how Logan has the ability to heal he is the perfect medium to bridge the two franchises, and it helps that Jackman has hardly aged a day.

As always the cast in these movies are huge, but that’s really an understatement, the cast in Days of Future Past is the largest Mutant ensemble in the entire X-Men franchise. Many fans-myself included-were worried that we’d just get another Last Stand or Origins. There were far too many characters and two separate plot lines for the film to juggle, how was Singer going to pull it off? However the movie does a fantastic job at making sure that every character has a chance to shine, even minuscule characters like Havok have something to do.

Of course like all X-Men related films our leading man is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Jackman already proved in the Wolverine that he could play the viscous beast without even trying; Days of Future Past has taken his past role into consideration. We don’t get the same performance that was in the last film; instead Days of Future Past gives us yet another different Wolverine. This is a situation where Logan can’t just use his claws to get what he wants. He has to use his "wonderful" people skills to unite two very conflicted friends who are prepared to rip each other’s heads off every second they can get.  He is forced into going towards a more peaceful route, and there are scenes where Wolverine tries his hardest to teach life lessons to a very lost Charles Xavier.

This leads right into the performance that stole the show for me, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier. In First Class McAvoy showed us a very human and relatable Xavier, in First Class we get to see something I never thought was possible, a wounded Xavier. Sure he has his legs back (which are one of the many time line corrections the movie helps fix) but on the inside he is a shell of the man he used to be. From the first trailer I knew that McAvoy was going to be the most intriguing part of the entire movie. This is a Xavier who has lost all hope, his best friend turned into a terrorist, the girl he considered his sister abandoning him and is quickly becoming a murderer. Of course many of these problems are linked back to Charles who will not admit that he messed up. McAvoy has humanized Charles to an even greater extend than in his last outing as the character. His scenes are filled with such a melancholy that it’s hard to believe that this is the Professor X who helps so many people find their way in the world in the future.

Fassbender on the other hand just knocks it out of the park as Magneto. He was so good in First Class and after the film he went on to being in some of the most memorable roles in recent years, he even was nominated for an Oscar. Erik this time around isn't the confused and lost man that was in First Class, we get to see Magneto in all of his egotistical glory. This is a Magneto to be afraid of and Fassbender makes us remember why exactly McKellen was considered such a threat in the first place. All that anger that was originally directed towards Shaw and the Nazi’s has now been thrown towards Humanity and anyone that doesn't see Lensherr’s vision of Mutant Superiority.  Some of the best scenes in the movie are when both Xavier and Lensherr debate amongst themselves, the best thing about their portrayals is that you can see where they are coming from and at the same time see the massive faults in their actions.  I was more impressed with Fassbender this time around compared to First Class, which is saying a lot because he was my favourite part of that movie.

Jennifer Lawrence also returns as Raven/Mystique, when we last saw her Raven was a very conflicted young woman. Worried about how the world would react due to her looks, but with some convincing on Erik’s side, she joined the Brotherhood. Days of Future Past really has Mystique as the figurehead of the entire Brotherhood organization and if anyone had complaints about Lawrence's portrayal of Mystique from the first film, they will lay all judgements to rest. Just like in the Original Trilogy, Mystique kicks-ass, this film marks the defining moment in her character growth, we see the event that will shape Raven into the deadly Mutant assassin Mystique. In fact most of the central conflict of the film revolves around the salvation of Ravens soul. She is torn between both the two men in her life and the mission she’s on, to kill Bolivar Trask. Of course she thinks what she’s doing is right but it has horrible ramifications for the future.

Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage plays the films villain Bolivar Trask. Trask is the man who creates the Sentinel program and is basically responsible for the way the future shapes up to be the horrible place it is. I found that the casting was brilliant, of course you see past the height of the actor and actually see Trask as Trask, but I see a little deeper into the casting choice of Dinklage. Dawrfism is largely caused by Achondroplasia which is a genetic Mutation. Trask is technically a Mutant, just not one with powers, so I find the irony that a man who is essentially a Mutant who has had to deal with prejudice his entire life would ultimately create a weapon that would completely annihilate a people who have suffered from the same issues, to be completely interesting. Trask unfortunately is pretty underdeveloped and Dinklage is horribly underused, the man is a fantastic actor, but he does bring his A game for the film.

Like I said the film has an enormous cast weaving both the old and newer generation of X-Men actors, I can’t even list all of the people that are in this movie it would just take way to long to go through them all. All I can say however is that every actor in the movie does their absolute best. I'm pretty sure this is the largest ensemble cast out of any Superhero movie, Marvel/Disney has a lot to live up to with.

However there is one character in this movie that I feel deserves special notice. A character that had received a lot of flack during the promotional campaign for the movie, of course I'm talking about Quicksilver who is played by American Horror Story’s Evan Peters. Everyone had their doubts about Quicksilver, his costume looked really ridiculous and there was that Carles jr. ad that got everyone fuming. But Peters is one of the best parts of the movie and I'm upset the character was just a glorified cameo; I really wanted Quicksilver to be in the entire film. I think the choice to cut him short was the same reason why Darwin was killed off so quickly in First Class. Quicksilver’s abilities would render almost any conflict in the film absolute, he’s so fast that he could defeat almost any enemy and you basically wouldn't have a film. However they never tell you what his fate is in the future, I'm curious if the Sentinels were even able to kill him.  Peters does a good job and the rumour is that he will be returning in X-Men: Apocalypse, I hope it’s true because another rumour is we’ll get to see a young Nightcrawler in that film as well. I’d love to see those two characters go at it with their abilities, be it a race of sorts or an actual fight. Disney has a lot to live up to with their version of Quicksilver in Age of Ultron. 

The soundtrack for the movie is also pretty great as well, John Ottman who scored X2 returns for Days of Future Past. That means you get to hear some of the awesome themes that were present in the second film. This really helped to set the tone for the movie, this is Singers picture and even having some of the music from one of his films just made it feels right. I hope Ottman sticks around because it’s great to hear those old themes that I heard when I was 11.

There are not many problems in the movie only tiny nitpicks. For example how can Kitty send people through time? The movie never fully explains this to the audience, is it a secondary mutation? If so, how does it work? We only get to know the result, how does phasing through walls= time travel? It is a very small nitpick but I wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't such a major plot point in the movie. Also, although I loathe X-Men Origins has it been completely retconned? You see, in the film Wolverine travels back to 1973 during the Vietnam War; he apparently is guarding some mobster’s daughter, but this completely contradicts Origins! By this point in time Logan should be with Victor Creed fighting in the war. Does this mean that X-Men Origins is no longer canon? I’d like to think so, but in the Wolverine Logan mentions Kayla and on all the official timelines for the films the events of Origins still plays a crucial part. Perhaps Fox wants us to forget the movie happened, perhaps it took place in some alternate universe? There is Time Travel now so it isn't that far fetched, it’s just going to have to be the answer for now, and I'm not that upset about it not being canon.

At the end of the day though there is hardly anything to complain about when it comes to Days of Future Past, the movie is basically perfect and ends with so many possibilities that I can’t wait to see where the X-Men franchise takes us now, so I give X-Men: Days of Future Past a

9/10

It is that good! I wasn't excepting to watch a comic book movie this year that was as good as the Winter Soldier, but Fox has somehow done it. Days of Future Past needs to be watched by everyone, and make sure to stay after the credits to get a glimpse at the villains that will be in the sequel.

So, that’s the end of my X-MenAthon, it was a pretty bumpy ride but in the end it had a pretty great pay off. So in conclusion to all of these movies I'm going to rate the X-Men franchise as a whole, but first here is my list of favourite X-Men films (as of now)

1)      Days of Future Past

2)      First Class

3)      X2

4)      The Wolverine

5)      X-men

6)      The Last Stand

7)      Origins

As for the entire X-Men franchise I give it a

8/10

There are some great films in here and Days of Future Past is an amazing addition, but it was a pretty bumpy road with some incredibly forgettable films that almost ruined the entire franchise. But the rest of time you’ll get a very great bunch of comic book movies that have  become just as iconic as Marvels Avengers films.