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Captain Marvel (2019)
Captain Marvel (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure
Marvel Studios has once again launched a new franchise within their expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe with the arrival of “Captain Marvel”. The film tells the origin of the title character (Brie Larson), who struggles with gaps in her memory while serving as a Kree Protector under the supervision of Yon-Rogg (Jude Law).

When things do not go as planned during a mission; the good Captain finds herself on Earth forced to wait for her crew to retrieve her. The gaps in her memory combined with the arrival of the shape-shifting Skrulls are bad enough, but now there is also the arrival of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) for her to contend with.

Being set in the 90s we get a Fury that has yet to be awakened to what is truly out there so he finds the claims of alien beings a bit hard to grasp until fate pairs him with the Captain who must stop the threat posed by the aliens and unlock the mystery of her missing memories.

While the film takes a while to get going; there is enough action scattered throughout to keep your interest and the finale is a rousing FX showcase that really helps establish the character and delivers what fans expect.

Naturally there is a good amount of humor along the way and the dynamic between Larson and Jackson is very good and I hope we get to see them paired on future Marvel adventures.

The supporting cast of Jude Law, Annette Bening, and Ben Mendelsohn is great and it was nice to see many other characters from past Marvel films appear as younger versions of themselves.

The film had to balance establishing the character and setting up further adventures with making sure audiences understood her importance and why her presence in “Avengers: Endgame” is connected and does so very well.

Larson was amazing in the title role as she portrays a strength and confidence without ever being arrogant but there is also a quick wit and at times; a vulnerability that makes her character more well-rounded than people would expect from a comic based film.

It is amazing to me how Marvel Studios can take some of their lesser known characters and turn them into Box Office gold and their winning formula continues with this entertaining new franchise.

http://sknr.net/2019/03/05/captain-marvel/
  
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
Home Run
Spiderman Far From Home while more like add on dlc to the far superior Homecoming is packed with enough breathtaking moments & genuinely touching character moments to make is a top notch Spidey road trip. I cant deny Im a sucker for anything Spiderman related so please take my review as possibly slightly bias. At first Far from home had me extremely worried as some of the writing is borderline awful, some acting felt extremely off & its strange offbeat comedy is thrown at us so thick & fast I was eeeessshing more than I was laughing. However about half an hour in something changed & all the things I hated started to come together & I really felt my self becoming really involved with it all. I think what the movie had actually managed to do was not only remind me of the 90s animated show but almost recreate its feel in live action form too. Full of exposition & plot twists I saw coming a mile off Far from home still managed to keep me invested in its characters & raise the stakes/tension constantly as the film went on. What started off as a silly predictable romp actually ended up being a thrilling adrenaline rush filled with pulse pounding busy action scenes that utilised slow motion & unique camera tracking brilliantly as well as a finally thats heartfelt & extremely touching. Themes of new love & the rush it brings as well as its beautiful awkwardness are so relatable & believable & its darker themes of how the worlds gullibility/naivety/social media can be used against us as a weapon are scarily current also. Jake gyllenhaal is literally of the chain as mysterio & I would go as far as saying brings THE best acting I've ever seen in any marvel film so far. Seriously his performance is next level especially when you compare how his character behaves in the first half of the film against in the second half going from quiet, bland, weak & emotionless to unstable, intelligent, overconfident & tactical with some intense/harrowing use of his powers too. One of the most comic like comic book superhero films we've had so far its dorky, full of awesome action, twists/turns & a kickass villain so sit back & take it for what it is pure enjoyment.
  
Blade (1998)
Blade (1998)
1998 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
7
7.5 (32 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Blade is undeniably a product of it's time. It's the late 90s, everyone loves leather and shades, everyone loves Wesley Snipes, everyone loves dumb one liners, so the character of Blade is ripe for adaption.
But the importance of this gory action flick should absolutely not be understated. Not only was it the first proper big (ish) budget Marvel film, but it's pre dates Black Panther as the first superhero film with a black lead, and it pre dates The Punisher as the first R-rated Marvel blockbuster.
But in a pre X-Men world, comic book movies weren't a big deal at this point. I actually remember me and my friends sneakily renting and watching it (we were 10 at the time...) and none of them even knowing that Blade was even a comic book!

Here we are all these years later and the Blade trilogy is now remembered fondly (well, at least the first two are!)
Wesley Snipes is of course the star of this particular vehicle, and here, he is the most Wesley Snipes he's ever been. The cheesy one liners still come off well, and lend a nice comedic edge to the buckets of blood on display. The charm that he brings to the Blade character is the main reason why it's been hard to imagine anyone else in the role for so long (although I am here all day long for Mahershala Ali)
The other big character throughout the trilogy is Whistler, played by Kris Kristofferson, just generally being old, grumpy and badass, and is honestly the best character in the whole thing (here's hoping the MCU introduce a Whistler series on Disney+...)
Stephen Dorff plays Deacon Frost, the films villain, and he's really not much more than a generic superhero bad guy (the first of many).

The choreography and the fight scenes are pretty great, and the willingness to go hard R is what set Blade apart before comic book movies became a thing. It's sooooo bloody in parts, that it verges heavily into horror territory.
The CGI effects are utterly horrible by todays standards, but it's not used nearly enough to discredit the film too much.

Blade is a decent enough adaption of the cult Marvel series, and is a fun, gory blockbuster, but as mentioned, it's an important step in comic book cinema. Long live Blade!
  
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Juliette Jackson recommended track Beetlebum by Blur in Blur by Blur in Music (curated)

 
Blur by Blur
Blur by Blur
1997 | Alternative, Indie, Rock
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Beetlebum by Blur

(0 Ratings)

Track

"Again, with Blur it was hard to pick just one. I really love how this song starts, I like that guitar part, the scratching chuggy thing and then the way it explodes into this Beatles-y chorus. "I think Graham Coxon might be my favourite guitarist ever. It's that same thing: he's always offsetting Damon Albarn's beautiful melodies with really freaky, strange discordant guitar lines. I think they like different music, right? I remember Graham Coxon loved My Bloody Valentine, really droney guitar music like that and Damon Albarn is more poppy, and that combination together sounds so cool. You can always hear Graham under all Blur's songs, just making it all so much cooler. “I wasn't really caught up in the Britpop war, I grew up hearing it come through my older brother and sister's bedroom walls really. They used to play Blur and Oasis and Pulp, there was no distinction. There was no war going on in our house. We just loved all of it! “I feel bad but I haven't listened to Blur's most recent album. I need to listen to more new music but I'm pretty lazy about it. I love songs that I know and you know that feeling when you can sing along to a song that you love? You can't do that with new music or you have to get to know it first. It's just laziness! I always find listening to other people's music inspiring and I'm always like ""ooh I wanna write a song that's like this!"" And quite often that'll be a spark into something else entirely, but I don't wake up in the morning and put on an album in the way I imagine a lot of people do. I listen to music in the van a lot, that's where I listen to music the most. “I'll see new bands at festivals or Soph is really on top of new music. In the van it's normally Spotify, we have a playlist that we play all the time but there's no new music on it, its pure 80s’ and 90s’ sentimental classics. It's called FM FM! It was created and started by our wonderful ex-tour manager. We all love Magic FM, so it was meant to be the whole of their playlist made without adverts. It's so long that you could listen to it for days and not hear the same song twice."

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Graham Massey recommended Welcome by Santana in Music (curated)

 
Welcome by Santana
Welcome by Santana
1973 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I ended up with this record because it was at that point in my teenage years when I was swapping records with my mates at school. We were all a long-haired, Afghan coat-wearing gang into Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and all those classic rock guitar bands. And Santana were almost amongst that; even when you go to albums like Abraxas and the early albums, they have a quite exotic kind of quality about them, so when Welcome came out, it was really rejected by the gang. It was like, ""Whoah! They've gone too far! What is this nonsense? We don't understand it!"" I got someone else's copy of it and I really started to sink into it. There are so many signposts in this record to the jazz world that has sustained me through the years. The first time I heard the words ""John Coltrane"" was through this record. Alice Coltrane is on the first track, which is this version of Dvořák's 'Going Home', which is adapted from his New World Symphony. It's like a classical piece played on a Mellotron. It's very dramatic and it's got nothing to do with rock music and more to do with that spiritual jazz that Alice Coltrane was knocking about. At that point, you couldn't give Alice Coltrane records away, and it's interesting that they didn't really gain currency until the late 90s. And then you've got people like Leon Thomas on the record, the guy who did the yodeling on Pharoah Sanders' records, which would lead you to his records. And John McLaughlin is on there, which would then lead you to The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Back then, you'd find these names on records and then when you were in the record shop, you'd find these names again and it all connected up like dot-to-dots. The concept of ""fusion"" throws up so many bad images because there's a load of shit there, but there's also so much good stuff as well. With this album, I opened the door expecting that rock guitar thing, but the sound of this record is fascinating: it has so much air in it and you can hear the sound of the room being pushed around. To me, this record is like audio sunshine and it transports me to some transcendental place."

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Ross (3284 KP) rated Rogue: Untouched in Books

May 11, 2021  
Rogue: Untouched
Rogue: Untouched
Alisa Kwitney | 2021 | Comics & Graphic Novels, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great X-person origin story+
Anyone who has seen the first X-men film will be aware of Rogue's backstory to an extent - an unfortunate teenage snog leaving a boy in a coma and resulting in her spending all her time isolated from touching others and spending her allowance on gloves.

In that film, Rogue is played by the wonderful Anna Paquin, who also starred as Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. It both helped and confused me that in this book Rogue is waiting tables in a smalltown diner, blurring the lines between Rogue and Sookie for me. I kept expecting a vampire to walk through the diner doors. Instead, we are treated to the superb cajun Gambit, my favourite character from the early 90s cartoon series. He helps Rogue (Anna Marie) to discover that she has some mutant powers and how they could be used.

At the same time, Rogue meets two mysterious ladies who are seeking new students for their academy and encourage her to take a chance and give up her waiting career.

Rogue then finds herself embroiled in Gambit's past exploits with a mutant slave trader and has to quickly learn to use her powers (and those of the mutants around her) to escape their capture.

The book flows well, with plenty of character development for Rogue and a satisfying cast of familiar and new (to me at least!) mutants along the way - including one late reveal that I'm sure all readers will see coming a mile off.

While the book never dragged and the pace was great, I did struggle to get through this book as quickly as I had hoped. This is more down to things going on outwith my reading schedule (stupidly listening to 500 albums, marking professional exams and the kids' school holidays). However, while I can't quite put my finger on anything specific, the book didn't quite drag me back in for a sneaky 10 minutes during the day.

I did enjoy this book, as with some of the other Marvel novels issued recently, and would recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit super-hero-y but in a novel.
I received a free advance copy of this book from the publishers and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
2019 | Horror
Liar liar pants on fire
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark feels like if it had been released in the 90s then it probably would of been quite an entertaining/passable movie but as it stands now it brings nothing we haven't seen a million times already to the table & sadly not even nostalgia can save it from becoming tiresome after just 40minutes in. One thing I certainly can not fault here is its high production standards, its not only shot extremely well but sets & creatures are all interesting/creative & are show clear inspiration from classic horror movies & their tropes. A huge problem is tension, tone & pacing however. Tone is somwhere in between Goosebumps & a Conjuring movie on one side its far to goofy/tame to cater to adults then on the other its far too scary/disturbing for kids but it never seems to find the right balance between the two. Its creature also while they look good loose their menace & terror due to being shown far to much for extended periods of time leading to times where they would become laughable & taken less seriously by the audience. Plot & situations are also highly predictable & this the seems to make the already long run time sem like an eternity leading to scenes that are especially far to dialog heavy which killing the pacing because we already know what's coming next. Story is unnecessarily long winded in a need to try & make the film different but once it reaches its conclusion its hard to care because its really not an interesting tale at all. Themes of how the simple power of story telling, lies & made up tales can effect peoples lives in the most drastic of ways are very interesting but not particularly executed well instead becoming jumbled & contradicted when mixed into the long drawn out plot. Acting is so so but no one really stands out or expresses emotion that belivable making character connections hard. So sadly I cant recomend seeing this movie, while its fine & quite well made its just bland/uninteresting & everything thats good about it is spoiled/shown in the trailer (if you've seen trailer the film will be extremely predictable for you & offer no surprises). Save your money or go see crawl instead.