The Wolverine - A Review

3 Stars - Okay

The Wolverine is the latest film in the X-Men series. It follows X-Men 3 in the timeline seeing Wolverine distraught by guilt pulling his life together through a samurai adventure... only a kind of boring samurai adventure with no good villains.

For starters this film, as with most of the X-Men films gets a good amount of stuff right, the character development for Wolverine is solid and the follow up of his guilt over killing Jean in X-Men 3 is welcome. However the plot of the film is fairly bland and the action is okay at best. The villains might just be the worst in any of the films, nothing remotely memorable anywhere.

Sorry, what is it you do again?

In short, I'd say maybe wait for TV unless you're a die-hard X-Men fan, also when you do watch wait for a mid-credits scene, it's better than the rest of the film.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox - A Review

1.5 Stars - Meh

I guess it was bound to happen that they would make a film based on the Flashpoint event, the event that created the New 52. The trouble is that Flashpoint wasn't very good and neither is this film.

There are a lot of interesting ideas in Flashpoint, but they aren't explored very well, especially in the confines of a film where you don't have a lot of time to properly look into things. The Superman is woefully underused, Hal Jordan's short storyline is pointless, Wonder Woman and Aquaman's backstory isn't given enough focus and the really cool relationship between Batman and the Joker is barely touched on. Also where did Citizen Cold go exactly?

The animation is fine and the voice acting is at DC's usual high standards, but the story is awful. Since the whole thing takes place in this parallel world that we know will be returned to normal by the end there are no stakes and you're just waiting for the inevitable to happen, and it just feels slow and boring as a result.

Flashpoint Batman's still kind of cool though

In short, I'd say give this one a miss.

The World's End - A Review

5 Stars - Excellent

The Cornetto Trilogy is back for its final installment, the mint flavoured ice cream that is The World's End. I went into this film with very high expectations following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, two of my favourite films. This is every bit as good, if not better than both.

The comedy is dead on, keeping you laughing all the way through, except at certain points where emotion seeps in and you're almost crying. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are both on exceptional form, this time somewhat reversing their usual roles as this time Frost is more of a straight man and Pegg is the childish and silly one. They both create wonderful characters that you really sympathise with and genuinely want to see survive, the same can be said of the great supporting cast, which features Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike, David Bradley and several others.

The writing and direction are wonderful. Edgar Wright just gets comedy and parody in a way not many people do these days, because his parodies of genres are made with such love and appreciation towards those genres that they could be viewed as one of them, not just jokes at their expense.

someone start singing little green bag...

In short an absolute must watch. In fact, why are you sitting here reading this? Go see it right now!

Monsters University - A Review

3.5 Stars - Okay

So this is the film I was probably most worried about all summer. I love Monster's Inc. and was afraid this would ruin it. It didn't, but the whole thing still feels like a somewhat pointless and in some ways slightly tragic enterprise...

This film does a fair few things right, the characters are well designed and the animation is as beautiful as you would expect from Pixar, the performances are very solid and gives a good amount of emotional development within the film.

However from the word go in this film Mike wants to be a scarer, but we know he never will be because we've seen the original film, so really the whole thing is just watching him fail, which is kind of sad when you think about it.

There's also a lovely little short called the Blue Umbrella, which is one of the most visually stunning things Pixar has ever done.

Just so damn pretty

In short, I'd say worth a watch, but only at the cinema if you're a die hard Pixar fan, otherwise maybe wait for TV

Pacific Rim - A Review

4 Stars - Fun

This is the film the power rangers wishes it could be...

Pacific Rim is a great fun action film with giant robots, called Jaegers,  fighting giant aliens, called Kaiju. That's basically all you need to know about it, even the most hardened cynic would be hard pressed not to just sit back for some of the action packed awesome.

There are also good performances, especially from Idris Elba who continues to prove why he's more awesome than everyone else in whatever film he's in.

However the CGI can sometimes get a bit tiring on the eyes as the entirely CG action scenes can sometimes go on for way too long. I didn't see it in 3D, but my eyes were a bit sore by the end regardless.

He just exudes awesome... even with a porn tash

In short, great fun, worth a watch.

A Non-Trekkie's Perspective - Star Trek series 1

When I was a kid I never watched Star Trek. For many that's somewhat hard to believe, it's one of those shows everyone seems to have grown up watching and loving. I was never into it though, my classic show of choice as a kid was Batman. First thing of Star Trek I saw was the 2009 J.J. Abrams reboot, and it wasn't until recently that I actually tried to watch Star Trek the show and see if it was worth it. My plan here is to watch each series and give my opinions on them as a whole, highlighting episodes that I thought worked well and ones that didn't. Once I work through the series I shall move onto the films. Then when it gets to the point with the films that Next Generation series starts I'll start watching that too as I want to do this as close to the original timeline as possible.

Series 1 episode 1: The Man Trap

I felt that the series got off to a fairly mediocre start with The Man Trap. It didn't really take the time to introduce the characters and concepts and wasn't all that interesting an opening episode. However it soon started to pick up and before I knew it, I was kind of hooked. The characters are all great fun, the acting often cheesy and campy and many of the stories have interesting ideas that raise some interesting moral questions, some handled better than others.

The First of these more interesting stories for me was Episode 3 Where No Man Has Gone Before In this episode an ordinary crewman, who is an old friend of Captain Kirk's gains mysterious godlike powers and the story looks into how these develop and how power can corrupt a man's mind. It also forces Kirk to make hard decision and kill his friend. There was also some good stuff with the medical scanners making for a creepy underscoring to some tense scenes.

Series 1 episode 3: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Star Trek, like most good Sci-Fi can range from the clever, to the scary, to the downright goofy. Such as the episode Shore Leave. This episode features, amongst other things, The White Rabbit, from Alice in Wonderland, Don Juan and Sulu battling a Samurai as the crew's thoughts are brought to life. It's good for them to not take everything so seriously all the time and it gives the series a sense of fun that extends beyond it just being 60s camp.

However they were not all good episodes, for example Mudd's Women was less than stellar. A con man brings three bewitching women aboard the enterprise and they take drugs to make themselves more beautiful and want husbands, but the beauty can come from confidence and I stopped caring about 5 minutes in.

Another of these lesser episodes is unfortunately the series finale Operation: Annihilate! where there would have been potential for some strong emotional development for Kirk, as it featured his brother, sister-in-law and nephew, but the only one with any lines is the sister-in-law. This could have had a vulnerable and hurt Kirk trying to save them above the cost to others and eventually having to let go. But instead they're just sort of forgotten about to make way for not all that interesting plot they have.

What would have made a far better finale would have been the penultimate episode The City On The Edge Of Forever this sees Kirk and Spock travelling to the 1930s to stop a deranged Bones from altering history. However Kirk falls in love with a local woman and soon realises that saving the future will come at a great personal price. It has good drama, some good comedy and genuine character moments.

series 1 episode 28: The City On The Edge of Forever

Overall I would say this is a very entertaining series. Has some very fun and clever stories and highly energetic and likable characters. While I'm not yet in the awe of it that many people are there's still a whole lot of the show left and I look forward to boldly going where I've never gone before.

Now You See Me - A Review

3.5 Stars - Fun

So if you took Ocean's Eleven and mixed it with the Prestige, you'd get something like this. Fun times.

There's nothing especially new on display here, it's a basic heist film with some elements of a basic magic film thrown in. What makes it fun is the performances and film making. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are all as good as you would expect and the rest of the cast are all great fun too.

There is certainly a lot to admire here, and while it is fairly simple and predictable it makes for it by being plenty of fun.

More things need Woody Harrelson in a hat

In short, good fun and worth a watch, but maybe wait for TV