After the belly flop of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, I wasn’t feeling very confident in comic book movies. There were a few reasons to maintain my optimism. In my ranking of favourite comic book movies, I think Marvel holds at least five top spots. Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t anything to jump for joy about, but it kept the pace up, and introduced new interesting characters. Still, I was feeling more than a little apprehensive. Would Marvel’s incredible franchise finally crumble? Would my interest finally exhaust itself? No, and hell no, are the short answers.
The story of Civil War unfolds organically. The Avengers are under metaphorical fire from the international community after several civilians were killed and injured during an incident in Lagos. The US government, along with 116 other countries, want to put the Avengers under the control of the UN through the “Sokovia Accords”. Lines are drawn between those who sign the agreement, and those who want to remain independent. At the same time, Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, is being targeted.
The review contains some spoilers
While I’m a great fan of the British tv-comedy Peep Show, I’ve never been overly enthusiastic about its format. It took quite a few episodes before I could overlook the perspective filming, the constant staring into the camera from the actors, and the sometimes awkward and nauseating camera movements. Hardcore Henry is basically the last few minutes of the film Doom (2005) as a whole movie. I wasn’t convinced I could avoid throwing up, but the trailer did get me into the theater because this one I had to see.
My expectations had been thoroughly put to rest after a week of seeing different versions of the headline “What Batman vs. Superman did wrong.” Hopes already dashed, I was still going to try my damndest to like the movie. Hell, I will still defend Man of Steel (and even Superman Returns in my drunker moments). Without even having seen a trailer, I was still ready to defend this film. Oh boy.
The Revenant is a feat of strength, a relentless story of pure willpower. Almost all of it is filmed in the wild, with natural lighting. The violence is in a way too realistic to actually be realistic, if that can be understood. By the end I was exhausted. In fact I was silently pleading with the movie to end at least ten minutes before it did. I was quite literally squirming in my seat. Despite this, there is no denying it is an incredible production worthy of recommendation.
nd – A World Beyond was first announced I, like many others, became excited. The project had a lot of good and interesting names attached, I was a fan of Brad Bird, and it seemed like it could show off everyone’s creativity. When it hit theatres, however, I was surprised at how “meh” everyone reacted. So much so that I decided to skip the cinema experience and let everything stew until it came out on Netflix (or in this case Viaplay). I think this was the right decision as it put distance between me and the initial reactions. I found the film surprising in that it took a few turns I did not expect (mostly because of the reviews I had read), and because of the creativity I could plainly see. Although, there is a lot of “meh”-ness as well.
The bar was low. I was one of those who had been burned before. One of the disappointed ones of 1999. I had my own reasons for hating the prequels, though I must agree with most of what RedLetterMedia has put out, and Belated Media’s “alternative version” made me quite emotional. But, when the crawl started I was twelve years old again and JJ Abrams would have to make his worst movie ever for my hopes to be crushed. An average adventure film was all that was needed.
Film Dice 