Now that I’ve finally got around to re-watching Wonder Woman and writing up a review to slot safely between Suicide Squad and Justice League, it’s finally time to rank ALL SIX WORLDS OF DC MOVIES!
Which, to be honest, compared to the ‘Ranking All 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies’, doesn’t sound quite so impressive. But still, it’ll be fun, and the list will obviously grow with the release of Shazam!, Wonder Woman 1984, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and The Batman.
When I first saw this movie, I actually enjoyed it. Oh, how times change. Upon repeat viewing (of the extended cut, this time around), I realised this film is ruddy awful.
The proximity to Dawn of Justice‘s release at the time must have coloured my opinion, because watching this film on its own highlights that it’s poorly paced and poorly written, with terrible characters and an absolutely awful villain. Yet another CGI mess comes to terrorise our heroes – why? And why Enchantress’ brother of all people? Who’s greenlighting this nonsense?!
And then, on top of all of that, the film also somehow manages to be really boring. The first fifteen minutes are fun, but after that, this film is a huge slog.
A bit later than everyone else, but I finally got round to seeing Glass. The Unbreakable review will follow at some point, I’m sure.
RELEASED: January 18th 2019 DIRECTED BY: M. Night Shyamalan WRITTEN BY: M. Night Shyamalan PRODUCED BY: M. Night Shyamalan, Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan & Jason Blum MUSIC BY: West Dylan Thordson STARRING: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clarke & Charlayne Woodard
Rejoice! This movie wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. It was actually kind of enjoyable. But also, like Split, pretty stupid.
Set two weeks after the events of Split, Glass sees David Dunn, now known as the Overseer, on the hunt for the super-powered serial killer known as the Horde. However, before the two can settle their differences, they are caught by the authorities and taken to the mental institution housing terrorist Elijah Price, the infamous ‘Mr. Glass’, where they are presented with the possibility that they are not actually superpowered beings, and their ‘abilities’ are all in their heads.
RELEASED: January 20th 2017 DIRECTED BY: M. Night Shyamalan WRITTEN BY: M. Night Shyamalan PRODUCED BY: M. Night Shyamalan, Marc Bienstock & Jason Blum MUSIC BY: West Dylan Thordson STARRING: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Brad William Henke, Sebastian Arcelus & Bruce Willis
I’ve never particularly been a fan of this series. Prior to Glass‘ release, Unbreakable and Split were amongst the only three M. Night Shyamalan film’s I’d seen (the third being The Village) and none of these films had left a lasting or favourable impression on me.
However, with Glass now in cinemas, I decided to go back and explore the prior films, starting with Split (because I seem to have lost my copy of Unbreakable and Split is on Netflix).
Split sees three young girls abducted by a man named Kevin Wendell Crumb. Crumb has dissociative identity disorder, and some of his split personalities have united to kidnap these girls as a tribute to an oncoming twenty-fourth personality, who is known only as ‘The Beast’.
Bit of a hefty title, I know. But I actually saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse like a week ago, and after seeing it wasn’t sure I really had anything to say that others hadn’t said already. But now, I’m finally ready to jot down my thoughts in what is mostly a review, but also my opinion of the character of Miles Morales across the various mediums.
RELEASED: December 14th 2018 DIRECTED BY: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman WRITTEN BY: Phil Lord & Rodney Rothman PRODUCED BY: Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller & Christina Steinberg MUSIC BY: Daniel Pemberton
STARRING: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, Zoë Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicholas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber & Chris Pine
When this movie was announced, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. Sure, I love Spider-Man, and I’m always down for a solidly animated movie, and heck – I’ve yet to see a Lord & Miller joint that I didn’t dig. But there was still one glaring problem slap-bang in the middle of that trailer that stopped me from getting invested: Miles Morales.
With the release of Justice League, Warner Bros. ended the first ‘phase’ of movies in their cinematic universe. Now, a year on, it’s time to take a look at the first film in ‘phase two’ of the rebranded ‘Worlds of DC’…
RELEASED: December 12th 2018 DIRECTED BY: James Wan WRITTEN BY: James Wan, Geoff Johns, Will Beall & David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick PRODUCED BY: Peter Safran & Rob Cowan MUSIC BY: Rupert Gregson-Williams
STARRING: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison & Nicole Kidman
In an age where comic book adaptations are in part rated on how much of that magically zany comic tone they can cram in, Aquaman may not just be King of the Oceans, but King of the Comic Book Movies too.
The film follows Arthur Curry, the son of a lighthouse keeper and the Queen of Atlantis, who is called upon by his ally Mera to help depose his half-brother, King Orm, who hopes to unite the remaining undersea kingdoms and wage war on the surface world.
With Batman: Arkham Knight being one of the first games I played on my Xbox, I figured that it would make sense, having now made the jump from Xbox One to PlayStation 4, to make Spider-Man my first new game, and as such, have spent the past week playing through it in all it’s glory. So now it’s time for my review!
There will be some spoilers for this game. I won’t go all out, but I may mention certain characters who don’t appear in the trailers, for instance.
RELEASED: September 7th 2018 DEVELOPED BY: Insomniac Games PUBLISHED BY: Sony Interactive Games
When I was younger, one of my favourite games was Spider-Man 2. The feeling of being able to swing around New York City as Spider-Man was unmatched. Since then, while I haven’t played all the Spider-Man games that have been released, the one’s I have played haven’t quite come close to matching that euphoric feeling of being Spider-Man. Off the top of my head, the open-world aspects of Ultimate Spider-Man and Web of Shadows had similarities, but felt lacking in other regards. Similarly, games like Shattered Dimensions didn’t reach the heights set by that original game. Now, of course, Spider-Man 2 wouldn’t hold up quite as well, but that’s no longer an issue, because Marvel and Sony’s new game, the simplistically titled Spider-Man, is everything Spider-Man 2 was and more.
Featuring an original story from veteran Spider-Man comic-book writers Dan Slott and Christos Gage, alongside Insomniac’s in-house team, Spider-Man sees a twenty-three year old Peter Parker, a college-graduate now working as a laboratory assistant for Otto Octavius, helping him perfect his prosthesis work. Meanwhile, in his ‘other life’ as the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’, Peter has finally managed to bring down Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, alongside his police chief ally Yuri Watanabe. But with the Kingpin now locked away, other forces, such as the nefarious Mister Negative, have set their sights on New York, and it’s up to Spider-Man to stop the city from falling into chaos.
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 an reference to a former university project that I carried on as its own site for several years before laying it to rest.
Mark Millar was a pretty hot commodity at Marvel during the 2000s, so this week, we’re returning to look at some more of his work. You’ll know the basic story from the hit 2016 film. It’s Avenger vs. Avenger. Friend vs. Friend. Captain America vs. Iron Man. It’s Marvel’s Civil War.
Published by: Marvel Comics Written by: Mark Millar Art by: Steve McNiven Year: 2007 Pages: 196
SPOTLIGHT CHARACTER:
CAPTAIN AMERICA
Real Name: Steven Grant Rogers Affiliation: The Avengers First Appearance: Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941)
As it became obvious America was destined to join the war that had consumed the world in the late 1930s, Steve Rogers became determined to do his part for the war effort. Continuously rejected due to his sickly stature, Steve was eventually found by Dr. Abraham Erskine, and enlisted into the army under ‘Project: Rebirth’. Injected with a serum of Erskine’s own design, Steve was transformed into a super-soldier; his body and mind enhanced to the peak of human potential. But tragedy struck, as Erskine was assassinated, leaving Steve the first and only in the proposed wave of super-soldiers. Fighting on the front lines as Captain America alongside his sidekick Bucky Barnes, Steve was eventually lost at sea, and frozen for several decades.
Eventually awakening in the modern era, Captain America returned to the spotlight as a symbol of hope and American power; his new mission – to protect both America, and the world, from any and all threats as the leader of the Mighty Avengers!
CAPTAIN AMERICA
