Let's Review: X-Men: Apocalypse

Let’s not lie to ourselves and say we don’t like the X-Men. Marvel sure seems to have a beef against them. They’ve been trying to underplay their uncanny band of mutants left and right. I don’t know if the rest of you have been paying attention but the recent storylines being published ranges from finding a new cure for mutants to a virus that is killing them as well as making them infertile. At the same time Marvel has been up-playing Inhumans as the new mutant across most of their mediums. Unfortunately, they have a very hard pill to as they are slowly coming to realize no one really cares about the Inhumans hence the reason why no one really knows who they are, whereas the X-Men have been one of your strongest brands for over 50 years. I know Marvel wants the rights back from Fox but that doesn’t mean they should try to kill of one of their best franchises. Whereas the media blackout from Marvel regarding the Fantastic Four might’ve worked (the film being bad didn’t hurt either), the X-Men franchise is still beating strong and with a wealth of wonderful storylines to adapt will keep doing so for quite some time. So with that rant out of the way, how did I feel about the new film?

The Negative

This film draaaaaaaaaaaaged really badly. The movie is about 2 and a half hours long and it just feels like it. I think it was a problem with the pacing as I felt like I was watching the same standing around discussing scene over and over again just is various different locations. The main villain himself didn’t do much for the vast majority of the flick but that made sense because he was an unstoppable powerhouse who whenever he actually did something it was to a massive scale and terrifying. Apocalypse should have won but for film convenience he regularly sat back and did very little. I feel like the film would have been better if we had one massive exposition scene and then just got on with things quickly.

The Positive

I just can’t stay mad at this film. As an X-Men fan this movie was filled to the brim with wonderful nods to the fans. I fear these things will mean very little to the average film-goers but for me it truly made this film fantastic. Little things like getting to see Cyclops wear his iconic blue uniform for the first time, or finally getting a proper adaptation of Wolverine’s Weapon X harness made the kid-nerd in my explode in excitement. The very fact that we got an adaptation of the Apocalypse storyline in film alone made me extremely excited. Superhero films for the longest time only wanted to be taken seriously and attempted to only adapt some of the more feasible storylines or even worse change things so that they could be taken more serious. I have been overjoyed with the fact that superhero films are now adapting some of the weirder sides of their comic book counterparts and even better the audiences are loving it. Something like this or Guardians of the Galaxy would never have seen the light of day during the early 2000’s when superhero films were just starting to take off again.

In Conclusion

It does my nerdy heart good to see films embrace superheroes and comic books for what they are, a wild ride into the fantastic. I’m very curious to see what will become of the X-Men franchise now that the prequel trilogy is over. Sure the series has had a few flops but if they keep up this momentum, I’m certain that the X-Men franchise will never die, despite how Marvel wishes to break it before getting it back under their thumb. 4.5 out of 5.

Let's Review: Ratchet & Clank

I am a huge fan of the Ratchet & Clank franchise. I am one of many that grew up playing these games and always thought that it should be adapted to the big screen. Someone out there certainly heard us as this film finally got enough steam to be made. Though my fears now wash over me as I know that the vast majority of video game to film adaptations are usually quite terrible. In fact, I am finding it a bit hard to list one that actually did well. At the same time its Ratchet & Clank, how terrible could it be? ……Let’s review Ratchet & Clank.

The Negative

I have never seen a film that quite missed the point as badly as this one. I almost want to say no one actually played the games whoever made this film yet it was Insomniac Games that actually helped produce this.  Many of the tropes of the series were just plan gone or looked at as weird. The two main characters honestly don’t even have that much dialogue with one another as they are separate from each other for most of the film, because the film thinks it’s weird that Clank would ride on Ratchet’s back like a backpack even though that is the video games ENTIRE modus operandi. The movie also over looks some of the most basic aspects of the games such as grind rails. How amazing would an action sequence where Ratchet goes across grind rails fighting enemies would have looked had it been on the big screen? That doesn’t even go over the fact that I’m entirely certain Ratchet uses his signature Omniwrench twice. I felt like I was watching a Zorro film where they decided that he never used a horse because that would be too weird and stopped him from using his whip but thank god he pulled out his sword twice. Everything that makes the games fun and exciting were simply gone from this movie.

And now for my biggest complaint….HOW DO YOU INCLUDE THE R.Y.N.O. BUT DO NOT FIRE IT ONCE!?!?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? THAT COULD HAVE VERY WELL SAVED THE ENTIRE FILM FOR ME BUT INSTEAD WE SAW IT ONCE AND IT WAS DESTROYED IN 5 SECONDS! WHY WOULD YOU INCLUDE ONE OF THE GREATEST WEAPONS FROM ANY GAME SIMPLY NOT TO USE IT?!?! SERIOUSLY!?!?......... ‘Ahem’. I do apologize. I may have gotten a little too upset there. Moving on.

The Positive

What do you really want me to put here. The story was so-so and bare minimum reusable garbage that regularly flies out of the mouth of Hollywood. For how awesome Ratchet and Clank can look in video games the CGI on this outing was okay at times but you could tell when they avoiding exceeding their animation budget. The voice acting of the original cast members of the game were good, even though the film tried to drown them out among famous actors (many of whom did not give a great performance). I’m sorry I may be getting into overly cruel territory but this film really disappointed me.

In Conclusion

This film was bad. As a fan of this franchise I am neither happy this film got made nor am I pleased that I got to see it. This film was just devoid of everything that makes this series great and I am truly upset that this will turn many new possible fans away from this great series, even worse it might convince producers that people are no longer interested in seeing more games come out. All in all this was a bad turn out and I’m worried about what this might mean for the future of this dynamic duo. 0.5 out of 5.  

Let's Review: The Jungle Book

I think it’s interesting that Disney is on a massive live action adaptation kick lately. In a time in film when everyone is complaining about remake after remake, Disney is still pushing ahead with this. Even then this latest stream of live action Disney remakes has had some good and some bad. The trailers for this movie looked good but I honestly wasn’t sure what I would be walking away with. Let’s review The Jungle Book.

The Negative

I feel like the CGI was 50/50. It’s really hard to describe the type of stylization they used for all of the animals in the film but it was like photorealistic without ever ignoring the fact that what we were looking at was CGI. I was always aware of the fact that what I was watching was probably all green screen. Certainly many of the main character models were very solid; I have to praise the Baloo model in particular, as it was certainly a standout for the film.

I really didn’t care for the fact that they turned one of the best lines from the book into an oddly propaganda speech in the movie. The Law of the Jungle is used less as unspoken words to live by and more a rehearsed oath that characters rather unenthusiastically speak multiple times in the film. The movie even pokes fun at it when Baloo calls it out for being propaganda (even though he too recites it unenthusiastically by the end of the film). It simply felt like one of the best lines wasn’t really understood and instead got repeated to the point where it hardly meant anything at all.

The Positive

The best thing going for this film is the amazing voice cast they got to play these iconic characters. If Disney was going to drag this story out of their vault “one last time” they at least did it with voice actors who could perfectly re-create the characters that we love. Bill Murray as Baloo and Ben Kingsley as Bagheera are both wonderfully performed. I had two concerns with the film and that was Christopher Walken’s King Louie and Neel Sethi’s Mowgli. Luckily both performed wonderfully and really stood out in the film. Competent child actors are really hard to find but Neel Sethi did an amazing job as Mowgli.

In Conclusion

The film is another solid adaptation of The Jungle Book and unfortunately that’s about it. I’m worried that in Disney’s rush to readapt all of their properties to live action they are simply going to just rehash all of the old storylines instead of trying to explore something new within these stories. I feel if you are going to adapt something again you should try to adapt it in a way that sheds new light on different aspects otherwise what was the point in doing a new feature altogether? 3.4 out of 5.

Let's Review: Deadpool

I’ll be entirely honest when I say that this film had me worried. As a Deadpool fan I had already been massively disappointed by his appearance in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film; and I know for a fact that I’m not the only one.  Like most characters in fiction, Deadpool has a special place in the hearts of the fans and we want to see the character given the proper adaptation that he deserves. From the interviews you could tell that the people running this project had a passion for this character and that can mean all the difference. So did Deadpool disappoint every fan’s dreams again? Let’s review Deadpool.

The Negative

The villain was sorely underdeveloped. I can’t exactly blame them either. Deadpool’s tone has the ride the edge of being a crude comedy while also retelling some of the darker aspects of the character. Deadpool certainly has some skeletons in his closet and the overly dark nature of such things would have been ill fitting in the tone that the film was going for. Having a villain that was mostly nondescript certainly didn’t hurt as it was easy to have the villain simply be a villain for evils sake. Though I do wonder what kind of film could have been made had we flipped the coin and sought to adapt the character’s darker nature instead.

Some people will never be happy. Certainly I’ve been on both ends of this sword before, but they did have to change certain aspects of Deadpool’s story in order to allow it to flow better as a cohesive plotline for the film. Now I’ve never been one to shy away from saying that the source material is better (which it is) but the changes made here really aren’t that bad considering the end result. I’m saying that I understand if certain fans will feel jaded but I for once was not affected by the changes made.

The Positive

The reason the changes didn’t really bother me is because as fans we got WAY more than I was every expecting to receive. Despite having to change certain aspects of the story I have never seen a more pure adaptation of a comic book character than with this film. What we got was the character Deadpool in a movie and I could not have been happier. Even better the film also adapted a great deal of Deadpool’s personal side characters, which is something even the video game didn’t do. Little touches like that certainly proved to me that this was a passion project by the producers and it really paid off for them.

Not only was this a good superhero film, it was also one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard in a theater. Between the opening credits sequence that went out of its way to insult everybody who had worked on this film to the series of 4^th wall breaks where Deadpool addressed us all personally, I was simply overjoyed to see that the tone of this character was captured so magnificently.

In Conclusion

This was by all means a really good film, a film that I will probably find myself re-watching multiple times over the years whenever I feel like I need a good laugh. I’m sure I stand with many in the awe and wonder that allowed this film to be made so perfectly for the fans. Even if you are not a longtime fan of Deadpool, I highly recommend checking out this film as it will certainly try its hardest to get you there. 4.9 out of 5.

Let's Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Anyone who knows me knows that Star Wars is my favorite movie. I absolutely love this franchise and my excitement as well as my expectations were incredibly high before this movie came out. I honestly didn’t hate the prequel films, sure they weren’t as good as the original trilogy but what could really beat those films. I knew without a doubt that I would love this new film just like all the other Star Wars films before it. Was I right? Let’s review Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

The Negative

I didn’t like it……..well that’s not entirely fair nor is it entirely true. As with a lot of movies in my library I eventually come around on the film after a few more times viewing it, but I will admit that my initial reaction to the film was disappointment. I feel like The Force Awakens is missing some special ingredient that will allow it to stand out in the Star Wars franchise. The film is almost a complete copy of Episode IV: A New Hope and I know I am certainly not the only one that feels that way. Now just being a copy of Episode IV isn’t really that bad in its own right, you could copy worse films. What makes this a bad thing is that the film honestly doesn’t have any moments that truly define it as its own. For as much as fans gripe about Episode I, it at least had the amazing Pod Race sequence and the stunning 3 way lightsaber battle at the end. Episode VII suffers from not having any really jaw dropping action sequences. The starfighter segments are just sort of there and the lightsaber battle at the end is undoubtedly lackluster.

I think this wouldn’t have been a problem if the film’s plot was more original but it just feels like sequences we have seen done better before. I think the film was so desperate to get us back to that galaxy far far away that we knew and loved from the original trilogy that it forgot to be really distinctive in any way or fashion. The film brought back practical effects but many of them didn’t look particular good or stood out too much. We brought back John Williams, but aside from a few notable pieces most of the soundtrack just felt like re-hashes of the old series. This is my overall problem with Episode VII, it’s not a bad film by far but it’s unimaginative, unoriginal, and uninspired. Now being within the Star Wars pantheon of films, being the most indistinctive is probably one of the worst things to be known for and it feels even worse knowing that the rich expanded universe was discarded for a reused plotline.

The Positive

Now that I’ve gotten that rant out of the way, let’s talk about what I do walk away from this movie with. I think Episode VII did in one movie what the Prequel series couldn’t do in 3, have memorable characters. All of the new main characters have distinctive personality quirks and personal goals that make them all stand out wonderfully. This was a major problem in the prequels where the majority of the characters were incredibly bland and lifeless. I am significantly more excited to see what becomes of these characters far more than I would anyone from the prequel series.

In Conclusion

Like many films I feel like my opinion on them waxes and wanes as time goes on and I figured that given enough time I would eventually come to enjoy The Force Awakens. Actually the thing that helped me the most was going out and buying a massive visual encyclopedia that let me divulge into every little secret the film had to offer (I really shouldn’t be asking for a massive exposition speech). I enjoy the film but I also think it might be one of the weaker outings Star Wars has to offer. When I think about the Star Wars films I think about how each of them brought something new and fantastical to this already rich world, while Episode 7 certainly adds to this already rich universe it also feels like not enough.  3.7 out of 5.