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Fantastic Four (2015)
Fantastic Four (2015)
2015 | Action
An absolute snooze
Here comes yet another superhero film. Ending Marvel’s year that has included the charming Big Hero 6, the overstuffed Avengers: Age of Ultron and the surprisingly excellent Ant-Man, the Fox produced Fantastic Four reboot has a tough job trying to get audiences to forget the horror that came before it.

It’s been a tough ride for the quartet of heroes, but does director Josh Trank’s modern day reimagining of Marvel’s first team do enough to change perceptions?

Not by a long shot. Despite some excellent special effects, this yawnfest of a film that was plagued by rumours of constant behind-the-scenes tension and last-minute editing doesn’t have an ounce of originality in its short 100 minute running time.

Miles Teller (Insurgent), Kate Mara (Transcendence), Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle) and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) take on the roles of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm respectively and are fine, if lacking in any real chemistry.

Fantastic Four is above all, an origins story as the four young adults try to crack interdimensional travel. Naturally, things don’t go quite to plan and they, alongside fellow colleague Victor Von Doom end up with an unusual set of powers – with Doom becoming the main antagonist.

Unfortunately, the plot, devised by no less than three writers is a complete bore. There is hardly anything of interest throughout the entire film as Trank pushes his cast from one underwhelming set piece to another.

When things do get tense, it’s only for a five minute scene involving Doom breaking out of a research facility. This is when we get to see what Fantastic Four could’ve been, a dark and brooding film with a disturbing villain at its core.

However, it seems this has been pushed back to make way for an unusually flat sense of humour and an uninteresting origins story. Marvel films live and die on their comedic elements and unfortunately Fantastic Four is as poor as they come.

Nevertheless, the film’s special effects are on the whole, very good. The other dimension looks fantastic and The Thing in particular is rendered using excellent motion capture animation.

An underwhelming climax wraps up a bitterly disappointing outing for the four heroes. Most superhero films end with a spectacular showdown of good versus evil but Fantastic Four has none of this. The ending is clichéd, short and has no real payoff.

Overall, expectations were already low for this reboot and despite director Josh Trank’s obvious talent for direction, this talent is nowhere to be found in Fantastic Four.

A cast that doesn’t gel together, a poor soundtrack and a lack of tonal balance ensures it will rest alongside X-Men Origins: Wolverine as proof that Marvel Studios needs the rights to all of its heroes returning to it.

https://moviemetropolis.net/2015/08/09/an-absolute-snooze-fantastic-four-review/
  
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
This Phoenix Failed To Rise From It's Ashes
Dark Phoenix is a superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics X-Men and the Dark Phoenix Saga story arc. It was produced by 20th Century Fox and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Simon Kinberg. It stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Sophie Turner.


In 1975, Professor Charles Xavier takes 8 year-old Jean Grey to his School for Gifted Youngsters, when she inadvertently kills her parents causing a car crash with her telekinesis. In 1992, the space shuttle Endeavor is critically damaged by a solar flare and the X-Men respond to save the astronauts. While rescuing the astronauts, Jean becomes stranded as the shuttle is struck by the energy. To save the X-Men's aircraft from destruction, she absorbs all of it into her body and as a result, her psychic powers are greatly amplified when she survives. Jean spirals out of control, wrestling with her personal demons and this increasingly unstable power that begins tearing her X-Men family apart.


This movie makes me so upset as a long time Marvel fan. If you never heard of the X-Men or watched any of the movies, you could probably say this movie was good. And honestly it was "okay" when I saw it in theaters, I guess with all the bad reviews coming out I thought, wow, it could have been worse. But no, after sitting down and discussing it with my brother and him bringing up some points as well as others that I brought up to him. As well as seeing some reviews, where critics brought up A Lot of other points as well, and this movie was actually pretty bad. Now the special effects were pretty good for the most part, and the acting was good but it was really weird because I felt that so many characters were acting out of character. Or that their motivations didn't match their actions compared to how their characters should actually be. Once again the Dark Phoenix story gets butchered and doesn't come close to the greatness of the cartoon episodes let alone the comics. Stupidest part (and I'm trying really hard to not put spoilers) was from the trailer where Cyclops says the kids are calling you Phoenix. Because after that, they couldn't say that her powers were the Phoenix because it would be like some kind of weird coincidence. The villains were very boring and dull and cliche motivations, Sophie Turner's acting wasn't bad but she just didn't pull off a believable Jean Grey. And the music was good but really out of place in times. Don't even get me started on how they totally didn't take into account how the X-Men and others powers are supposed to work. I give this movie a 5/10. It's just average.
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Hawkeye in TV

Dec 23, 2021  
Hawkeye
Hawkeye
2021 | Action, Drama
7
7.6 (9 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
Marvel Studios continue their streak of enjoyable mini-series with Hawkeye, a series that was met with a fair amount of indifference upon its announcement, which is understandable. On the surface , Clint Barton isn't the most exciting Avenger to build a series around, but Hawkeye surprises with a team of decent writers, and a story adapted from Matt Fraction and David Aja's acclaimed comic book run.
Most of Barton's specific plot beats revolve around his family, and his loss of hearing. The human elements ensure that he remains a relatable, street level character. The "Hawkeye" that this series is really about of course is MCU newcomer Kate Bishop, a fan favourite comic character who is portrayed wonderfully by Hailee Steinfeld. The series is essentially her origin story, and I for one can't wait to see her in future projects. The chemistry between Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner is great, and provides a huge amount of heart to the overall story.
Florence Pugh has a welcome return as Yelena, and her involvement ensures that Hawkeye is as much of a tribute to Black Widow as anything else, and serves some much needed closure for her concluded story arc that has been frustratingly absent since the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Elsewhere, the likes of Vera Farmiga, Tony Dalton, and Alaqua Cox make up a strong supporting cast, and sets up an upcoming series for Echo, a deeper cut from the Marvel vaults, but one that I'm intrigued to see develop.
And then of course, there's motherfucking Kingpin. Arguably the most popular character from the Netflix shows, the decision to bring Vincent Donofrio back as Wilson Fisk is a smart one. His presence in the MCU is incredibly exciting to me, and Donofrio does and excellent job once again, at filling the boots of one of Marvel's most intimidating villains. Welcome back sir.
There are plenty of exciting action set pieces sprinkled throughout (a car chase involving various trick arrows is a particular highlight) and the decision to keep Hawkeye firmly street level in its execution is a wise one. It allows New York City to feel like a character in it's own right, and the Christmas setting adds to that. It does feel like a proper holiday watch at times, and this is probably why the show feels so goofy on more than one occasion. I know that the MCU likes to keep the mood light for the most part, and is often found guilty of undercutting serious or epic moments with jokes. Hawkeye occasionally goes overboard with these moments, especially in the finale. It's not enough to derail what is an incredibly entertaining series, but it's a little frustrating.

Overall though, Hawkeye is another decent and fleshed out mini series in this sprawling franchise. The extra runtime of a season has ensured that all of the MCU shows this year have been high quality and worth watching. I just hope it's not too long until we get a Kate Bishop/Yelena reunion!
  
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
2017 | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Soundtrack (3 more)
Kurt Russell
Yondu
Baby Groot
Chris Pratt (1 more)
Gold Bitches
A soundtrack with a bonus movie
Following on from the success of the first movie (from which I became a Marvel converter), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 had big breeches to fill. And they, somewhat filled them.


I still prefer Vol 1, however I feel that most sequel's don't usually live up to the first movie. But that doesn't mean they didn't try. Vol 2 hit us with another kickass soundtrack that leaves us foot tapping for weeks post-movie. Any movie that includes 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac can never be THAT bad in my opinion.

The movie missed the mark slightly in terms of acting. Chris Pratt was charismatic and funny in Vol 1, but in Vol 2 I found that I spent more time cringing at his acting rather than enjoying it. This was disappointing as I always deemed the first film to be Star Lord ft. everyone else, but this film felt more like everyone else ft. Star Lord.
Karen Gillan was also fairly vapid in her acting, which was disappointing as she was given a much larger role in this movie. Nebula was a fairly interesting character in Vol 1, but I just wanted her to leave my screen in Vol 2.


Great work with the relationship between Rocket and Yondu, I was pleasantly surprised by this addition and found it the most interesting plotline of the movie.
  
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
Action/Adventure
Character (Hero/Villain/Normal) Selection (0 more)
Racing Mechanic (0 more)
Save the World LEGO Marvel Superheroes!
I've been playing this one for a couple of weeks now and have honestly enjoyed this entry in the LEGO-verse. Played about 50+ hours now and still have around 15 to 18% to do (don't have my game up or I'd give the exact percentage).

The story line itself is very engaging and it's own creature (in other words it is not following a movie or book, it is it's own stand alone story.) There are over 100 characters to gain throughout the story and free roam. Deadpool's Red Brick chapters were a delight if a bit simple.


Biggest complaint is the game mechanics where it comes to the races in the game. I've only managed a meager three or four of the twenty plus available and that is due to sheer luck. As of this moment I am not sure I will 100% this LEGO entry and it is totally due to the races.


Overall, even with the races being such a hassle, I've really enjoyed running around town as the various characters. They have the more common notable heroes and villains as well as some not so common characters (IE: Squirrel Girl). With the multitude of available characters very few overlap so it is very refreshing to actually have to use almost everyone for something (be it a maze, race, free play, etc).
  
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
2015 | Action, Sci-Fi
Visuals, effects, fight choreography, (0 more)
Cartoonish characterizations, poor storytelling, preachy (0 more)
All Flash, No Bang
There are some major flaws with Age of Ultron. Didn't realize how bad it was until our most recent watch through of the Marvel movies. Joss Whedon's flaws run rampant in this film. If you find truth in the film stop reading now as I do not wish to ruin it for you.

Whedon does an excellent job at making television shows which does not translate very well to the big screen. He rushed this plot to get to his favorite parts, the fight scenes. The action has more screen time than any character arc. This reduces the characters to cartoonish caricatures of the work done in prior films. There is no real plot development, just jumping from one fight to the next. Ultron was reduced to a mere means to fight, which made it less believable rather than frightening; which Ultron should have been.

The story theme, "Justice was served because the Avengers are mightier than Ultron" became preachy when counterpoints were not set up in believable or thought provoking ways. Ultimately, it fell flat and was just a means to set up future films.

A better example of the theme in a better story format is "Civil War". Wherein the Russo's present the idea that justice was served, however, neither side was correct due to the complex nature of the issue.
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Venom (2018) in Movies

Nov 1, 2018  
Venom (2018)
Venom (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
Much better than expected
Considering some of the terrible critics reviews for this I was expecting it to be horrendous, but for the most part it was actually quite enjoyable.

Tom Hardy makes this film. He is fantastic as Eddie Brock and Venom, even if he does go a little ott cringey in parts. He really injects some much needed humour and likeability into this film, without him this really would have been terrible. Some of the CGI is patchy in parts and the final fight scene is overwhelming due to the sheer amount of CGI going on. There's some dodgy editing and an even dodgier script, and the ending feels rather rushed. Riz Ahmed is a great actor but vastly underused, and to echo every other reviews Michelle Williams is absolutely awful. She contributed nothing other than major irritation for the entire film.

I'm not a massive comic person but do recall Venom from comics and some of the earlier Spiderman cartoons, and I'm actually fairly impressed with this origin story and how Venom has been portrayed. Let's face it, they couldn't get much worse than what came out in Spiderman 3. Whilst this film has a lot of faults, it's still very entertaining.

I do wish they'd given this a proper Marvel film though. It already comes across as quite dark, and I think this could've been fantastic had they given it a Deadpool type makeover.
  
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
2013 | Action, Sci-Fi
Seeing Tony stark prove himself without his suit it is a funny film and has some interesting ideas and villain reveal is amusing (0 more)
The true main villain is a let down with his absolutely poor motivation being somewhat repetitive of the previous series especially as we will never see a confrontation between Tony and his archenemy (1 more)
Also having stark quit at the end seems pointless as we knew he was in the next avengers film
Iron man 3 a mixed final film
Contains spoilers, click to show
So here it is the final film of marvel's iron man series with Tony stark unlikely to return due to his death in endgame which means we will never see him fight the real mandarin look for him in shang chi however Downey is his usual great self and stark character arc is nice nod to avengers about him being just as heroic without his suit and his ptsd and the supporting cast are just as great.

The film is a fun action piece and has many hilarious moments.

It's shame the film has such a lame villain the twist while being funny you soon stop laughing that your left with another crap mcu villain something marvel is improving on fortunely his motivation are poor and he is a let down also the film with stark giving up being iron man felt redundant given we knew he was in age of ultron

Overall this still an enjoyable watch and will thrill the family
  
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
Tom Holland. He was made for this reboot (0 more)
Pales compared to homecoming. (0 more)
Was great just not as good as the last
Homecoming was so much fun that, in a way, "Far From Home" had an almost impossible task. In the 10000000th reboot of the comic hero favourite, Marvel got it spot on, having this Spiderman be a geeky kid on a journey of self discovery, awkward in his neediness and unsure of his capabilities. Its created a vulnerable Spiderman that everyone can relate to and love and most importantly root for.

Far From Home is post 'Endgame' and sees Spidey thrown into the unwanted position of being one of the few Avengers around. Now he has to take on a ew threat where things are not all they seem to be but no spoilers here.

What lets this film down compared to its predecessor is there is a lack of surprises and character growth for Tom Holland to play with. However its still a lot of fun as we see him become night monkey and fight the forces of darkness once again, this time through various locations in Europe (I'm sure the writer just put some European cities on their wish list and wrote a movie around it just so they could stay).

Its still a lot of fun and loveable. I just want a little more but there is no way this franchise is stopping yet.
  
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
2018 | Action, Animation, Sci-Fi
I honestly think this is one of the best films ever made. Not only is the animation super cool but the story, the characters, the actors in the film, all of it. Magnificent. My favorite thing about this film is the clashing of the worlds, you could say. What I love so much about Marvel is not only the movies but the shows too. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Agent Carter, they're all great - but in reality, they live in their own bubbles. Obviously the Netflix shows interact, and S.H.I.E.L.D is somewhat important when talking about the MCU. Into the Spider-Verse merges bits that you see in the comic books, not only in the animation but the characters. We have seen Green Goblin over and over again in the live-action films - both Toby McGuire's and Andrew Garfield's. But we don't see Kingpin. Plus, if you've watched Daredevil, you get a good idea of who Kingpin is and what his backstory is so you know why he's doing what he does in Into the Spider-Verse.

There are just layers to this film that are missing from some of the other films that have been done. The only ones to compare it to are those in the MCU, but even still, those are planned and minute if you don't pay attention. I just really love this film and I'm super pumped for the second one.