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Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender
Director:Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
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What’s this? A good multi-superhero movie that isn’t made by Marvel Studios?
As movie franchises go, the X-Men movies mean a lot to me. Not only do I remember where I was when I first saw X-Men III: The Last Standin cinemas back in 2006, I also remember what I was wearing and who I was with. I was so damn excited for that movie and to see it play out as such a mess after the first two X-Men films had literally made me interested in comic book mythology was not the greatest feeling. Three years later the release of the underdone and just generally awful X-Men Origins: Wolverine meant the franchise was suddenly “only 50% good”, and while 2011’s X-Men First Classwas a triumphant return to form with a fun political twist and last year’s The Wolverinedidn’t suck, the franchise was still lagging far behind the efforts of Disney’s Marvel cinematic universe. And there was still that lingering bad taste in my mouth from 2006. Well, not anymore.
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Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston
Director:Gareth Edwards (In the Shadow of the Moon, Monsters) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
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I feel it’s worth mentioning for the sake of this review that I don’t really have any sort of connection to Godzilla in any of his various incarnations over the last half century or so – I didn’t even see the 1998 movie despite being a fresh-faced nine year old with plenty of similar interests at the time. My limited knowledge of the king of the monsters and his kaiju buddies comes from other forms of referential media, starting with that Season 2 South Park episode where Barbara Streisand reveals her true form and goes on a rampage. My exposure to this new Gareth Edwards take on the Godzilla mythos is limited to one trailer I saw last month in the cinema.
That being said, the 2014 Godzilla is pretty damn cool, and with some rebalances it could well have been one of my favourite movies of this year. It’s a shame that the film’s human elements aren’t more engaging.
Time to make good use of an extremely rare case where Australia gets a huge movie before the US does.
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Starring: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, Emma Stone
Director:Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
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I’m still questioning why the first Amazing Spider-Manhad to play out the way it did in 2012. Sure, I get the business reasons behind Sony Pictures wanting to keep the Spider-Man license and thus needing to churn out another film within a certain number of years after the conclusion of the Sam Raimi trilogy of Spidey flicks. But I’m sure I don’t stand alone in the camp of people wondering why said situation had to mean a reboot functioning almost identically to the first 2002 Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man 2presents an opportunity for the aptly named Marc Webb and his gang to kick on, having established their groundwork, and show what sets this new version of Spider-Man apart from the mostly well-regarded Raimi movies. In this regard, ASM2succeeds, which is great, but disappointingly it fails to learn from the mistakes that plagued Raimi‘s Spider-Man 3 – the one that had too many villains vying for attention. It’s just a wee bit over-indulgent.
Oh my word, it’s almost May. Do I have some things to catch up on.
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Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
Director:Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Limitless) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
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Cynical mode activated. Here comes yet another Lionsgate young adult teen novel series stretched into more movies than is necessary for the sake of raking in extra money, following in the footsteps of Twilight and The Hunger Games. Brace yourselves, because Neil Burger‘s Divergentis a post-apocalyptic tale with a female protagonist, a radically restructured dystopian society with distinct costumes that indicate moral allegiance and a bit of romance thrown in. Now where have we seen that before?
Cynical mode deactivated. I was introduced to the Divergent saga (written by the surprisingly young Veronica Roth) much the same way as I was The Hunger Games– an interested sibling and the promise of a “next big thing”. Yes, in a way that makes me a part of Lionsgate’s ideal demographic, who still isn’t over the buzz generated by The Hunger Games– I mean, just look at the first Divergent trailer and compare it to any of the HGones. But I am a notoriously appalling reader of fiction and yet I got through the first Divergentbook relatively painlessly. Why? Because there is more to this series than a checklist of popular modern elements – its themes go deeper – or at least more intimate – than politics, into a more personal ideological space. Its futuristic Chicago is divided into five factions, each one requiring its members to adhere to a single prevailing virtue (Knowledge, courage, selflessness, kindness and honesty respectively). I’d easily recommend the book, for the most part, to anyone interested in its concept. The movie? Not quite as much. It’s certainly watchable, and it gets several things right, but it has issues.
So we are coming to the end of another Guest Week and here is the well-informed opinion of a man I’ve known for over a decade.
—Written by Opinion_Invalid—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
Firstly, a massive thank you to the author of this blog – Ryan (Vagrantesque), for allowing me the opportunity to voice my personal opinions with a top-ten countdown. I have made every effort to ensure that the accuracy of the information in this article is correct, however I cannot vouch for its total reliability. Please note that I have not included every individual release that each of these voice actors have been involved in – I have resolved to simply listing the first/most appropriate film, television show or videogame from which I am familiar with their work…
No. 10 Harry Shearer
Voice of:Seymour Skinner, Montgomery Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, and many more (The Simpsons)
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Harry Shearer, of This Is Spinal Tap fame, provides the voice behind a very replete roster of Springfield denizens – largely comprised of the more sophisticated male roles in the popular television series. Hugely impressive is Shearer’s incredibly diverse range of inflections individualised for each particular part, along with the remarkable ability to alternate freely between the dialogue of Mr Burns and Waylon Smithers in a single take of recording. Equally deserving of mention is Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria, both of whom dub the voices behind a mind-boggling number of characters in the show.
We dive into the second half of Guest Week with an Iranian-born movie/gaming fanatic packing some prior experience writing for entertainment media publications in his home country.
—Written by XVSting—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
July 2008. The latest installment of Gotham’s caped crusader was released and unexpectedly, it changed the face of comic book movies forever. The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan was not only the most appreciated comic book even to this date, but it elevated the comic book genre from cheesy-colorful costumes to award winning dark tales. With extraordinary performances and breathtaking action, The Dark Knight shattered every single barrier and expectation audiences had from a comic book movie. 2008 was also the birth of the first installment of Disney’s fresh cinematic universe that would revolutionise the genre with their masterfully planned strategy. The question is, did titles like 2012’s The Avengers benefit audiences and related movies by creating a new standard, or has their greatness damaged the smaller and solo franchises? Let’s get started and see how far our beloved and flashy comic book movies have come!
The battle is on.
While the world didn’t end at 2012, it was definitely a landmark year for comic book movies. As a kid (and I’m positive this was the same for all comic book fans), all I ever wanted was to see a crossover between characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men together in a movie (Even a small reference would make me happy). Hence the reason why I loved games such as Marvel vs Capcom or Marvel Ultimate Alliance so much – they were one of the few entertainment media sources where fans could experience all those characters together in one picture. As I grew up, and essentially got more informed about the industry, that dream slowly faded away due to the multiply copyright dramas of each character and their respective rights holders. As much as I love and appreciate the greatness of The Avengers for turning mine and probably all comic book fans’ dream into reality, it has created a set of fresh expectations for viewers and related studios. In short, Avengers was so good, everyone is now taking their own approach to catch up with Disney’s meticulously planned universe. Does that help us to see more extravagant movies with all-star characters? Yes. Has it affected the quality and progress of titles that are following this path? Well… this is where I think comic movies and generally most of the blockbuster trend might be going wrong.
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Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson
Director:Anthony & Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood, You, Me & Dupree) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
My feelings on the first Captain Americafilm were mixed. I thought it had an exciting and well-executed first half that unfortunately turned into a straightforward, by-the-numbers superhero baddie chase by the end. The film failed to make me care about the Captain the way I did about Iron Man or even Thor. The “straight man” shtick that has defined the character throughout his long existence just didn’t resonate with me in that first film, as cool as his promotional scenes/song were, though I know others might have felt differently. Once The Avengerscame along, however, I understood his appeal. In the context of a rather dysfunctional superhero team, Cap’s level head and idealistic focus on what needed to be done made him a tangibly purposeful character who redeemed his allies just by being there. So writing him into the corruption-addled centre of what is essentially a 1970s-style political thriller, complete with Robert Redford, is actually a really good idea as it turns out.
And so begins a mini-landslide of impossibly exciting movie releases.
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Starring: Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, Arifin Putra
Director:Gareth Evans (Merantau, The Raid) Rating:R18+ -◊-◊-◊-◊-
The limited release of The Raid 2 (full name The Raid 2: Berandal) in Australia and indeed around the world suggests that not enough people saw the first The Raid movie. That’s perfectly understandable; after all it’s an Indonesian language film without any instantly recognisable Hollywood stars. The only probable way you’d have heard about it is if a friend recommended it to you. So if this is the first you’re hearing of it, please, friend, go see that film. If you like action movies for their action sequences above all else, you will be hard pressed to find a better film in recent memory than The Raid. That is the highest and most honest praise I can send its way. It is a brutal, stylishly framed triumph and several Hollywood blockbusters are already attempting to emulate its approach.
Now that I’ve said this, go track down the movie and watch it. When you’re done, come back here and read on.
By some fluke of scheduling I actually managed to watch the live broadcast of the Oscars this afternoon (though I was multitasking at the time), so like last year I have written my thoughts on the big awards here as I saw them happen, before giving them some editing and posting them up. Yay for timeliness! Please enjoy.
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto
I can’t deny that Jared Leto is a talented actor, at least from what I’ve seen of his limited celluloid work in the likes of Fight Club and Requiem For a Dream. He gave a politically charged speech (meaning anyone playing a drinking game like this would have been off to a good start) that was also deeply personal. The first of a number of indications for the night that Dallas Buyers Club just might be worth seeing.
That’s it. This is as high as I’m ever gonna score on Flappy Bird. I’m done with this stupid game.
I kinda wanted to get to 30, but I also kinda need my iPad for important stuff, so having it broken due to blunt force wall impact trauma is probably best avoided.
Oh yeah, while we’re on the topic of awful things, I made the rather embarrassing mistake of leaving out a big entry on my 2014 most anticipated movies list last week. This genuinely would have been number 2, wedged between the new X-Men movie and Interstellar. Behold the awesome trailer for The Raid 2: Berandal:
Vagrant Rant 