I haven’t quite finished reviewing all the older Marvel films yet, although I did finish watching them, so that’s half a victory. But having seen Infinity War, I’m not sure I can hold back my thoughts and feelings, so it’s review time! [Spoiler-free]
RELEASED: April 26th 2017 DIRECTED BY: The Russo Brothers WRITTEN BY: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Don Cheadle, Zoe Saldana, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Benecio del Toro, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillen, Idris Elba, Benedict Wong, Sebastian Stan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Letitia Wainwright, William Hurt & Josh Brolin
Wow, just wow.
Back in 2012, the world watched in awe as Joss Whedon assembled the six Avengers. In 2016, the Russo Brothers brought together twelve heroes to throw down over the Sokovia Accords, and it was even more exciting. Two years on, and the Russo Brothers now have nineteen heroes under their command (and that’s not even including the various other side-characters like Wong, Okoye and so on) and would you believe, they’ve somehow managed to pull it off again. But this time, it’s even better.
After his various lackeys fail to claim the Infinity Stones in Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos leads his children on a cosmic rampage towards Earth to finally complete his spiritual journey to gain ultimate power. With the Avengers shattered after the events of Captain America: Civil War, what hope do the remaining heroes have against this threat of unspeakable proportions, even with the help of Star-Lord and his Guardians of the Galaxy?
I’ll be honest, it’s been a while since I actually saw Black Panther, and I could do with giving it a rewatch. However, I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, and have kept my ‘notes’ in the back of my mind; plus, my job gives me the benefit of being able to catch little snippets of the film when I’m at work.
So with that in mind, here’s my review of Marvel’s most recent movie, Black Panther.
RELEASED: February 16th 2018 DIRECTED BY: Ryan Coogler WRITTEN BY: Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige MUSIC BY: Ludwig Göransson STARRING: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Martin Freeman & Andy Serkis
Black Panther is a pretty awesome film. And being the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to star a black superhero, I feel like we (both black people and society as a whole), really lucked out. And in that regard, I can see why people are so fond of this film.
However, while it is very good, I don’t believe it’s as good as everyone else seems to think.
Black Panther starts mere days after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and see’s T’Challa return home to his hidden African nation of Wakanda in light of his father, the king’s, death. However, as T’Challa ascends to the throne, he’s beset on all sides by enemies of the state, forgotten heirs and treasonous subordinates, all of whom threaten to make his rule an extremely short one.
This post was originally published on my now defunct site, New to Comics.
New to Comics is a segment where I look at various comic-books, explaining their background, reviewing them, and breaking them down for readers unfamiliar to the medium. The title is a reference to a former university project that I carried on as its own site for several years before laying it to rest.
As you may have guessed from the topic of the month, I find concepts like religion and mythology rather interesting, even if I don’t buy into them 100%. As such, I figured I’d round out by ‘Mythology Month’ with a story that doesn’t feature any superheroes – it’s a more ‘indie’ sort of comic (although it’s not all that indie; pretty mainstream really) but does, at times, have a rather heavy focus on religion.
Going forward, this is the way things’ll probably go – two or three superhero focused weeks, then a fourth that looks at something not from the ‘Big Two’s mainline universes. This week, from DC’s Vertigo Imprint, it’s Preacher: Book One.
Published by: DC Comics’ Vertigo Imprint Written by: Garth Ennis Art by: Steve Dillon Pages: 352
WHAT’s THE STORY?
Preacher has taken a step into the spotlight in recent years, as its the basis of the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg & Sam Caitlin-produced adaptation on AMC, and widely available through Amazon Prime.
Personally, I’m a big fan of the TV show. It has its ups and downs, but it’s something me and my girlfriend will sit down to watch every time there’s a new episode, which is something I can say about very few series (it’s rare that a TV show outside of Doctor Who can keep my attention for its entire run). But prior to now, I’d never gotten round to actually reading the source material. All I knew was that it apparently differed quite a lot, with season one of the show acting as more of a prequel than a direct adaptation.
This post was originally published on 26/10/2017, but has been moved back to fit in with my MCU review series.
This is it. The end of the line. With one week left to go before Avengers: Infinity War hits, I’ve made it to the last Marvel Movie of the series (chronologically). Well, sort of; I already wrote this review a while ago, but the overall watching experience has been fun. Anyway, here we go; it’s Thor: Ragnarok!
RELEASED: October 27th 2017 DIRECTED BY: Taika Waititi WRITTEN BY: Craig Kyle, Eric Pearson & Christopher Yost PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige MUSIC BY: Mark Mothersbaugh STARRING: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba, Karl Urban & Anthony Hopkins
When I first heard that Taika Waititi had been brought on to lighten the tone of what was, at the time, a very dark script, I was worried. Not because I didn’t have faith in Waititi; What We Do In The Shadows is hilarious, and Hunt For The Wilderpeople has since become one of my favourite films. The problem was that with a title like ‘Ragnarok’, the usual, light-hearted, quippy Marvel style didn’t seem appropriate.
And when you start watching the film, you may think that Waititi has indeed sacrificed the true themes of the story in favour of directing yet another bubbly Marvel movie. The majority of elements from Thor‘s mythology are quickly sidelined and supporting characters are killed off with abandon, so that Thor and Loki can be carted off to Sakaar, where they can have a colourful Guardians of the Galaxy-esque adventure.
My fears started to subside when it came to humour. While Thor: Ragnarok definitely has it’s fair share of jokes, the humour is done in a way that it actually fits the moment. The jokes are more sporadic than other Marvel movies, but when they come about, they’re better crafted than, say, hammering down the fact that ‘Taserface’ is stupid name over and over (looking at you Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2).
But that’s just one piece of the puzzle, and serves as one of many factors that make you realise that by the time you reach the film’s climax, Waititi was definitely the right man for the job.
The result is the best Thor movie so far, the best Hulk movie so far, and probably one of the best Marvel movies in the seventeen-film strong series.
The film follows Thor as he seeks to hold off Ragnarok, the ‘end of all things’. During this quest, a string of encounters with Surtur, Doctor Strange, his brother Loki and his long-lost sister Hela sends the God of Thunder on a journey of self-discovery that leads him to the planet Sakaar. There, Thor is forced to become a gladiator, but finds unlikely allies in the form of a forgotten Valkyrie and the incredible Hulk.
This post was originally published on 14/07/2017, but has been moved back to fit in with my MCU review series.
Continuing to bring back some of my old reviews here, today looks at Sony’s third attempt at making the perfect movie Spider-Man, this time in collaboration with Marvel Studios; it’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
RELEASED: 7th July 2016 DIRECTED BY: Jon Watts WRITTEN BY: John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Jonathan Goldstein, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers & Jon Watts PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige & Amy Pascal STARRING: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Zendaya, Tony Revolori, Logan Marshall-Green, Bokeem Woodbine, Michael Chernus, Donald Glover & Robert Downey Jr.
The main problem with Spider-Man: Homecoming is that the casual viewer may falsely believe that Sony was wholly responsible for making this film, what with their company names being plastered all over the opening and closing credits. Which, frankly, is a shame, because this film was made by Marvel Studios, and financed by Sony; and it would truly be a terrible thing if Sony got the credit for what is, to date, one of Marvel Studios’ best films.
In terms of story, the film is surprising on several levels. Firstly, it’s generally understood that the more writers you pump into a film, the messier it gets. That, paired with the fact that the whole storyline is seemingly stuffed into the above trailer, could give cause for concern. But I can assure you that you don’t need to worry about either of those factors.
This post was originally published on my now defunct site, New to Comics.
New to Comics is a segment where I look at various comic-books, explaining their background, reviewing them, and breaking them down for readers unfamiliar to the medium. The title is a reference to a former university project that I carried on as its own site for several years before laying it to rest.
Although I have themes planned out until the end of the year, sometimes plans change, and to round out the superhero-comic section of my mythology-focused month, I decided to switch things up by looking at Darkseid, one of the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe. Partly for something different, partly due to budgetary restrictions, this week’s comic is Final Crisis, a story I read before some time ago, but have decided to come back to as it sees Darkseid’s ultimate goal realised…
Published by: DC Comics Written by: Grant Morrison Art by: J. G. Jones & Marco Rudy Pages: 352
SPOTLIGHT CHARACTER:
DARKSEID
Real Name: Uxas Affiliation: The New Gods First Appearance:Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (November 1970)
Uxas began his reign of tyranny by using his devious nature to sow seeds of discontent among the Old Gods, before stealing their powers one by one. With the Old Gods wiped out, and only he and his brother remaining, Uxas became one of the first of the New Gods. But while his brother created the paradise of New Genesis under the alias of Highfather, Uxas created the hellscape known as Apokolips. Here, he raised a vile and wretched race of beings, who teetered on the brink of war with Highfather’s own purer species. To hold off all out war, the two New God Lords traded their infant sons. As a result, Darkseid’s spawn grew up to be the great hero of New Genesis, Orion, while Highfather’s son lived a tortured life where he learned to be the master escape artist Mister Miracle. With his sights now turned away from the other Gods, Darkseid has since turned his attention to Earth and discovering the Anti-Life Equation.
This post was originally published on my other site, NewToComics.com, but has been moved back to fit in with my MCU review series – if you’re a fan of (or want to be a fan of) comic-books, check it out!
Although it’s coming in three years after its predecessor, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is only set a few months after the events of the first film. So straight off the back of our Guardians of the Galaxy review, here’s Volume Two.
RELEASED: 28th April 2017 DIRECTED BY: James Gunn WRITTEN BY: James Gunn PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige MUSIC BY: Tyler Bates STARRING: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Sean Gunn, Chris Sullivan, Sylvester Stallone & Kurt Russell
Before Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 was released, Captain America was the only Marvel series that delivered a sequel that was better than the original film. Post-Guardians vol. 2 release, Captain America‘s record remains unchallenged. That’s not to say Guardians vol. 2 is a bad film; it’s plenty entertaining – but much like Iron Man 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron before it, it crams in so much, that the weight of all its content holds it back from being one of the best Marvel movies, like many expected it to be.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 picks up a few months after the events of the first film. The Guardians, enjoying their newfound fame after saving the galaxy, are in the midst of fulfilling a contract with the perfectionist, golden-skinned Sovereign – protecting their valuable energy source from an extra-dimension creature. However, when Rocket slights the Sovereign after they complete their mission, the full force of their armada comes after the Guardians, which in turn attracts the attention of Star-Lord’s (Chris Pratt) father, Ego (Kurt Russell), an ancient celestial being who, over his centuries long life, has taken the form of a living planet, and is able to interact with mortal beings through humanoid avatars. As Star-Lord comes to terms with having finally found his father, Nebula comes gunning for Gamora, while Yondu and his Ravagers are hired by the Sovereign to retrieve the Guardians so they can pay for Rocket’s actions.
