Posts Tagged ‘marvel’
11
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: accuser, bautista, chris, dave, Film, galaxy, groot, guardians, marvel, of, pratt, raccoon, Review, rocket, ronan, saldana, the, wrestler, zoe. Leave a comment
Even though this movie just came out in Australian cinemas officially, I feel so behind the times right now. So many of my friends got advanced screening tickets…
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Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista
Director: James Gunn (Slither, Super)
Rating: M
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I often talk about how important expectation is to how you perceive a movie (or anything, really), but I didn’t really know what to expect quality-wise from Guardians of the Galaxy. I mean sure, the trailers and interviews sold it as a wild west-style sci-fi action comedy, and that is thus far a different and exciting direction for Marvel Studios, but it was also billed as another team-up movie “from the studio that brought you The Avengers“, which arguably made it a more ambitious project because none of the five members of the titular Guardians had enjoyed any prior screen time, while each of the four main Avengers got his own movie. And yet the Hollywood studio with the longest hot streak at the moment has once again married a promising small-time director (Super‘s James Gunn this time) with a big budget and a clear sense of fun to create a real winner. Obscure subject matter it may be, but Guardians of the Galaxy is great.
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26
May
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2014, blink, days, dinklage, Film, fox, future, magneto, marvel, Movie, mystique, of, past, Review, superhero, trask, wolverine, x, xavier, xmen. Leave a comment
Ooh boy, been waiting for this one for a while…
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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 Stand in 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 Class was a triumphant return to form with a fun political twist and last year’s The Wolverine didn’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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20
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: batman, book, comic, Dark, dc, Film, galaxy, guardians, Iron, Knight, Man, marvel, Movie, of, steel, superman. Leave a comment
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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13
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, action, america, Avengers, captain, evans, Film, marvel, Review, soldier, winter. 1 comment
What a time to go to the movies.
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Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson
Director: Anthony & Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood, You, Me & Dupree)
Rating: M
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My feelings on the first Captain America film 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 Avengers came 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.
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Vagrant Rant 