2015 Fantastic Four Review

Alright, here we go….

Let me start with the storyline.

Listen here, Fox, having an introduction that’s over an HOUR long is totally fine, but then make the movie about 3 hours to compensate. The fact that the heroes only get their powers almost halfway through the movie is ridiculous. The ending felt like a total anticlimax because of how pressed it was. The “super epic” battle at the end is supposed to make us cheer for and love the team, but it was over in ten minutes. It not only left the audience going “Whaaaat?”, but it made the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer the main event of the entire time in that cinema. I also thought that dragging the government into the story was too much. There was so much focus on “Planet Zero” (the other dimension) that we never got to see any character development or chemistry. The CGI was a little sloppy, the characters were flat, the story was stretched and then rushed, and the villain was pathetic.

Seriously, Fox?

*clears throat* Now, let’s go through the characters. I understand Fox needed to reboot F4 to refresh their contract, but COME ON! 2 STARS ON IMDB?

I expected such greatness…

1. Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards)

Played by Miles Teller, this character was actually phenomenal. He makes the entire movie worth watching, which is saying something. True, the Reed in this movie was very young, but Teller did an incredible job of bringing Reed’s adorable, dorky character to life. The only person in the movie with any personality, they could really rename the film Mr. Fantastic and a couple other people we couldn’t be bothered to make awesome. But throwing CGI at an audience is not enough to make them happy. It can actually be offensive to hardcore fans. Fox is on very thin ice right now, and we all throw up a little in our mouths when we hear there’s going to be a sequel on June 9th, 2017.

2. The Invisible Woman (Sue Storm)

The pretty face of Kate Mara isn’t enough for Sue. She’s supposed to be an incredibly smart, stubborn and independent woman who cares about others. She’s also supposed to fall in love with Reed, but any kind of relationship between the two was so forced it made me gag. Her powers were disappointing too. The only thing she did with them was make a big blue hamster ball around the others. Also, instead of allowing people to have a quick, painless death by disintegration, she let them bounce off her forcefield and fall half a kilometer to their death. Well done, Sue! Seriously neglected and flat, Sue Storm was painful to watch, extracting a groan from the audience whenever she appeared on the screen.

3. The Thing (Ben Grimm)

Ok, first of all, where are his pants???

Anyway, in this film he’s played by actor Jamie Bell, who’s actually a very good performer (You might recognise him from the movie Jumper). It wasn’t his fault he had a completely unnecessary origin story and was for some arbitrary reason working for the government and killing people. Ben Grimm is a scientist himself, he’d never kill people, even if it meant he could fix himself. No development whatsoever for him, which really is a shame considering what an amazing person he was. The original F4 portrayed all his struggles from losing his wife to losing his fork, but this Thing was just a lump of CGI that punched other things.

4. The Human Torch (Johnny Storm)

Really? REALLY? Sue and Johnny are supposed to be BROTHER AND SISTER. Why did you feel the need to make Sue adopted? Whyyyyyy?

Johnny Storm is supposed to be a stuck-up, obnoxious, hilarious daredevil to provide comic relief. In the 2015 film (played by Michael B. Jordan), he was just an immature stranger to the audience who liked his powers and wasn’t really at all funny.

Chris Evans did an amazing job in 2005, though. It’s still so entertaining.

4. Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom)

I’m not mad…ok I’m a little mad.

Toby Kebbell did an awesome job of Doom, but OH MY GOSH WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM FOX?

Not only is one of the greatest Marvel Villains of all time defeated in ten minutes by four people who don’t even know how to fight together, Doom looks like a glowing wood sprite trying to pull off a Robin Hood cosplay.

You know everybody pronounces this “Fantfourstic”, right Fox?

All in all, Reed Richards was awesome but pretty much everything else was a disaster. It’s basically like a trailer for a DC movie complete with all the spoilers!

This makes me want to go watch the old Fantastic Four. Also, where was our Stan Lee Cameo? You did pretty well with X-Men First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. DO NOT SCREW UP APOCALYPSE.

Anyway, *big sigh* have a marvelous day and appreciate the old cast.

Deadpool Movie

Get ready, ladies and gentleman, for the wise-cracking freak with the erratic yet sadistically amusing personality. Hitting the silver screen on 12th February 2016, Deadpool will reboot himself into the X-Men Universe. Fox still owns the rights to him as he appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with a slightly disappointing backstory, but it’s thankfully been redone. After years of fumbling around with possible story lines, scripts and directors it’s finally been confirmed that our devilishly funny Wade Wilson will come to our cinemas. His character will be completely remade and every bit as hilariously awesome as we expect. To get a taste of  the things to come, click here. WARNING: The short video does contain mature content.

The Thesis for the 2016 film from Marvel is as follows: Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, Deadpool tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life

So we’re following the comics with this so far, which is great, but there’s no telling what Tim Miller (the director) is planning for Wade. Miller’s never given us a Marvel movie before, so let’s hope he can live up to our unreasonably high expectations. I just really don’t want the movie to be just another boring backstory.

BUT, judging from the teaser, it probably won’t be. The lovable and amusing actor Ryan Reynolds will be playing as Wade, just like he did in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. *whispers* which was terrible.

I think we shall just forget the past and instead look to the near future. February 12 to be exact. Deadpool is an insanely funny merc like no other, and without a doubt will tantalize our thirst for a sequel…or something. You never can tell with Deadpool. Wade will also have some friends…or enemies, we don’t know. They are Copycat (Morena Baccarin) and Weasel (T.J. Miller) which provides even more satisfaction. Who doesn’t love it when someone tries to interact with Deadpool?

The movie will be R-rated, but that’s okay. I mean, Deadpool can’t be Deadpool without his characteristic behavior of killing, swearing or cracking naughty jokes. It’s a good thing small kids won’t see his antics because you need a more mature mind to handle this particular character. So I’m definitely looking forward to this crimson troublemaker coming to the movie houses, are you?

And as always, have a marvelous day. 😉

Character of the Month: Ulysses Klaw

What a name…Ulysses…. Anyway, he’s the main villain for the hero Black Panther, and we even got to see him in Age of Ultron!

Yeah, that creepy Wakandan guy (played by Andy Serkis) with the South African accent. Who knew Klaw’s greatest weakness was cuttlefish? (Reference to AOU)

Yes that’s a cuttlefish

Ulysses has always been obsessed with the power of sound waves, and wants to use vibranium as a medium for his devices because of how incredibly volatile the metal is.

It was important that Ultron kinda chopped his arm off because Klaw does have a missing hand. He attaches a very powerful sound converter to his stub and uses it to sonic boom the snot out of anyone who threatens him.

The dude has great durability and strength and is sometimes even able to convert himself into pure sonic energy. O.o Also, it’s pretty difficult  to sneak up on him since he uses sonar to sense his surroundings. I bet he’d be great at a game of Stalk the Lantern.

The reason he has a missing limb in the comics and how he came to be an enemy of Black Panther is due to him being such a douchebag. He dueled Black Panther’s father, T’Chaka, who was the chief of the Wakandan tribe. He cheated though, and killed T’Chaka in cold blood right in front of his son. Young Black Panther (T’Challa is his name) was so outraged that he attacked Klaw and Ulysses had to run away at the cost of his hand. Still grieving over his father’s unceremonious death, Black Panther continues to fight Klaw, who seems to grow more powerful every time they meet.

We shall certainly see this noisy villain in the future, and definitely in the Black Panther movie coming out in a few years time.

This ruthless manipulator of sound is one mean bad guy for Black Panther, his power only matched by his hatred for Wakanda.

Looks like T’Challa had better watch his back.

And as always, have a marvelous day.  😉

Crossbones

Crossbones is not a very well known guy, but by the time Civil War rolls around, you will know him very well. You remember that guy from Captain America: The Winter Soldier who tried to taze Steve and beat the snot out of Falcon?

He’s played by the actor Frank Grillo (whom you might’ve recognised from The Purge…which of course…I’ve never watched), and yes, that’s Crossbones. They don’t mention it in the movie, but if you ever were so bored that you actually looked up the cast members for The Winter Soldier film, then you would see Frank Grillo over the name Crossbones.

In the comics, Crossbones (his real name is Brock Rumlow) literally hops around from one affiliation to another, originally hired by Red Skull. It’d take me just over a day to list everywhere Crossbones has been, so I’ll only list the important stuff.

1. Crossbones can really take a hit

The guy gets beaten within an inch of his life in pretty much every comic. Let’s see, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Winter Soldier, Captain America, Taskmaster, Magneto and a lot more fun people have all taken out their inner frustrations on this guy. Maybe he should become a therapist….

2. Crossbones is a bit of a badass.

Sure, he may get pummeled to a pulp a lot, but he pummels people to a pulp a lot as well. Crossbones has extensive training in street-fighting, military stuff, different types of martial arts and is a student of the Taskmaster. Oh yes…the dude is also tall and very muscular, moving with a beautiful prancing athletic grace unusual for a man of his bulk. He is a skilled pilot and driver too, and can beat anyone at a game of Need For Speed. Crossbones is also an expert marksman with guns, bows, throwing knives and can play a mean game of darts. Rumlow always carries his lucky fighting knife and has a collapsible crossbow that he can easily fit into his handbag. *finally takes a breath* He also has spring-loaded hidden blades in his gloves just for those moments when he really just wants to stab someone in the face.

3. Crossbones really doesn’t like Captain America

In case you didn’t already gather this from the film he’s in and the fact that he worked for Red Skull, yes, he is rather loathed to Steve Rogers. It is unclear exactly what his motives for killing Steve in Civil War is…I mean besides the stuff mentioned above, but it is most likely he was hired by somebody. That somebody is most probably Baron Zemo. Just a guess, but it does make sense since he did work for Zemo in the comics. Although he could just be working for the government to hunt down “rogue superheroes”, yeah, maybe it’s just that. As long as he gets to punch Steve I think he’s happy.

4. Crossbones kills cap

Yes, sorry if I spoilt it for you, but in the comics, Cap loses Civil War. He gets placed in prison and unceremoniously killed by Crossbones, but don’t despair Freedom Fans, who knows what will happen? Personally I’m on team Cap! *cries in the corner*

MCU did a pretty amazing job of replicating his costume too!

Yeah Civil War I’m so excited!

Cap…

Spider-Man’s Strange Habit

No, I’m not talking about biting nails or eating all the peanut butter crackers when everyone’s asleep. Spider-Man’s strange habit, although not his fault, is that he can’t decide what actor he wants to use, what universe he wants to be in or what trilogy he wants to throw at us…

The 1977 Spider-Man film won’t be discussed, as that was well before my time and it was actually made to be aired on television, so unfortunately you’ll have to decide for yourself what you want to think of it.

  

Back in the day, when the trilogy with Tobey Maguire came out, we were all pretty happy. There was a bucketload of awesome villains to chew on, storylines we hadn’t seen before and impressive CGI for that time. Maguire did a really good job of being a nerdy Peter Parker, but in my opinion, he didn’t cut it with being the hilarious, silly and quick-witted Webslinger. There wasn’t enough of a personality change between Peter Parker and Spider-Man for me. Also, Mary Jane was pretty much the bane of that entire trilogy. She was the completely cliche girlfriend who always gets taken by the bad guys and screams like a helpless little girl whenever she’s in trouble. Plus, let’s be real, Kirsten Dunst didn’t impress me in the slightest with her acting. But, characters such as Green Goblin, Uncle Ben, Harry Osborn, Jameson, Doctor Octopus, Venom and Sandman were paired with excellent and capable actors, which made for rounded characters and antagonists that you could sympathise with. Summarised, the first trilogy was a great introduction to Spider-Man and certainly whet everyone’s appetites for the age of superhero movies.

And seriously though, Tobey’s facial expressions alone would have been reason enough to remake the series. I’m not even going to mention Spider-Man 3….

I’m just gonna leave that there.

Now, we all know that Spider-Man hasn’t been able to appear in other superhero movies because SONY owned the rights to him. This was a pain in the neck, but SONY saw all the awesome brand new movies Marvel was making and how much money they earned, so SONY looked behind them, grabbed the nearest money-making thing, and remade the Spider-Man movies.

 

Cue The Amazing Spider-Man. What difference does ‘Amazing’ make? No idea, but two more Webslinger movies popped out of SONY about 10 years later with new actors and new storylines. The thing is though, you remember how I mentioned that Tobey didn’t give enough contrast to his characters? Well, Andrew Garfield managed to do a little better, but his problem was the opposite. He had the Spider-Man character down, but he couldn’t quite pull off the Peter Parker. Emma Stone was perfect for the Gwen Stacey roll, especially because the director thankfully pulled away from the usual superhero’s girlfriend mould to a young woman who could handle herself and actually help the hero, not cause problems for him. This second shot at Spider-Man used different villains, which was cool, but they still had to stick to the whole Harry Osborn/Green Goblin and Uncle Ben dying thing, which was okay, but a little stale. Overall though, the new Spider-Man movies were more appealing to me because the actors, CGI and character development was a lot better. Yay for Sony!

Or so you’d think…

I don’t know how the conversation between Marvel and SONY went, but out of the blue, Marvel comes marching home proudly with Spider-Man held firmly under its arm. SONY had sold the rights back to the MCU. That was good news for upcoming movies like Civil War and Infinity Wars, but bad news for the actors who were literally just left hanging after just one sequel.

So now, we’re expecting a NEW reboot for Spider-Man with NEW actors…AGAIN.

Let’s hope this next actor can pull it all off, since he’s been sucked into a jumbled up collection of heroes, villains, storylines and interconnectivity that Marvel just loves to throw around like confetti.

Sorry, Tobey, looks like you’ve been left in the dust.

And, as always, have a marvelous day. 😉

Why Quicksilver Isn’t actually Dead

Sorry if you didn’t know he died in Age of Ultron, but I can’t take it anymore. I needed these reasons more to convince myself he’s coming back because I was personally devastated, but here they are. I’m not going into how it happened (for that you’ll have to see the film) but he did die a hero.

I didn’t see it coming ;_;

1.Aaron Taylor-Johnson (the actor) has signed a contract with Marvel to appear in at least 3 more films.

2. It has been shown that Quicksilver has regenerative abilities and can easily shrug off a single bullet wound.

3. Quicksilver’s body was taken with on board the lifeboat-ship thing back to SHIELD’s Helicarrier before the city exploded.

4. In pretty much every single recent Marvel movie to date, someone has died but not really. Like, seriously….

Yeah…

5. When Cap said “If you die, walk it off.”, the screen was zoomed in on Quicksilver. Yeah, Cap really said that.

 That logic…

And there you have it, Quicksilver IS NOT DEAD.

I think…

Captain America In Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron

Steve Rogers was no doubt a main character in the movie, doing his usual thing of issuing sensible orders to the entire team. His attitude towards doing what’s right didn’t change a bit, as he refused to leave the flying city of Sokovia until every civilian was off, even if there was a good chance he could have died because of it. Now, we’ve seen this behaviour in Cap before, we all expect it from him, but more interestingly, we start to see a developing sense of anger inside him. Steve very rarely shows aggression, but it is clear in Age of Ultron that he is extremely bothered by something. The vision Steve received from Scarlet Witch definitely rattled him, showing him his old friends from the past all having a wonderful time. (Granted, the ‘dream’ was irritatingly enigmatic, but I’m doing my best here) This, coupled with his growing impatience for Iron Man’s mistakes, is fueling a fire that will eventually turn Steve into a different person altogether. I imagine our same Captain America, but with a burning purpose set alight by years of terrible experience. I can see him going beyond his boundaries, pushing his comfort zone and proving that he will do anything to put things right. And I mean anything….

Ant-Man (Scott Lang)

Can you believe Ant-Man is making cinemas on July 17? Although Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, (the original Ant-Man and inventor of the technology) will be in the movie, he is not the main character. The protagonist is a convict named Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, who will be the one wearing and using the shrinking suit. The trailer shows you in the ins and outs of what’s going on, but very expertly conceals any surprises in the storyline.

If you want to see the trailer, click here.

I personally adore Hank Pym as a scientist Ant-Man, but I’m in love with the idea that a conflicted burglar will change his stripes and become the hero he has always wanted to be. As I’ve mentioned, Scott turned to robbery as his career as an electronics expert didn’t provide him with enough money to support his family. Soon though, Scott was apprehended for his crimes and sentenced to time in jail. After 3 years of good behaviour, he was released on parole. Even though he was able to continue studying electronics in prison, Scott’s wife divorced him, leaving him and his daughter alone. Unfortunately, after his release, Scott’s daughter, Cassie Lang, developed a serious heart condition that required more money to treat than Scott had. Desperate to save his daughter, he resorted back to thievery.

As fate would have it, the very mansion Scott tried to rob belonged to Hank Pym. Scott managed to steal the Ant-Man suit and gear, leaving the mansion with his awesome new abilities. He used to suit to further his goals by breaking into Cross Technological Enterprises, but when inside, he found Dr.Erica Sondheim was being held prisoner. Scott knew that this doctor was the only person capable of saving Cassie, so he freed her.

Erica was able to treat Cassie and Scott, feeling terrible for his crimes, decided to return the suit to Pym. It turns out Hank Pym knew about Scott’s use of the suit and was impressed. He allowed Scott to keep the suit, provided he only used it for good. So began the age of the second Ant-Man. (Seriously, I would have  changed the name too)

The trailer reveals the villain of the film, which is a man who is obviously rivalled to Hank Pym’s work. In the comics, the Yellowjacket suit was an adaptation to the Ant-Man suit with the same if not more abilities. The trailer portrays that this suit gets stolen by his rival (Man, hank really need to upgrade the security of his suits) and used for malicious intent. I’m not gonna lie though, the Yellowjacket suit looks pretty badass.

Looks like it’s going to be up to Scott to use the Ant-Man suit and his little insect buddies to stop Yellowjacket. Are you a fan of this pint-sized hero? The film comes to movie houses July 17, so begin the countdown, and remember, have a marvelous day!

Character Of The Month

First character of the month: The lovable Groot. In case you were wondering what the heck he actually is, he’s a Flora Colossus from Planet X. Although he doesn’t say much besides “I am Groot” in the 2014 movie Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s truly a hero everyone loves. Yup, Marvel made you cry over a tree that has a three-word vocabulary.

The voice talents of Vin Diesel and performance capture of Krystian Godlewski brought this tree-like individual to life as a loveable oddity and a fit companion for anyone, especially a certain raccoon.

His powers include regeneration, growth, the ability to absorb wood to feed, control over plants, resistance to fire and, believe it or not, genius-level intellect. Whether or not it was portrayed well in the film, Groot is actually incredibly smart for such a plant-like individual. He also has a strong connection to forest critters. (ok, I made that one up)

Don’t be mistaken by his soft eyes and sweet smile, Groot can certainly be a worthy foe. Although not aggressive unless provoked, Groot can seriously kill you in about a thousand different ways, so don’t make him mad. This is one hero who’s bark is worse than his bite. 😉

Age of Ultron

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

First post, what else? The epic sequel to Marvel’s Avengers came to my cinemas on April 24th 2015, and I was blown away. The trailer and TV Spots, coupled with Ultron being my favorite villain and Quicksilver my favorite hero, simply set my thirst for the film on fire! I am pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest, and although opinions on some aspects of the movie vary, I can’t find anything that didn’t make Age of Ultron a complete 10/10 for me.

NOTE- *SPOILERS AHEAD* I cannot stress this enough. Please do not read ahead unless you have seen the film. I’m going to be discussing events that unfolded during the movie that have seriously impacted me and others I’ve chatted to IN A GOOD WAY (I’ll do the negative stuff another time). Note that these are my opinions and you’re entitled to your own.

Things I Thought Were Outstanding and Downright Epic.

(Heck, I could go on for the whole day here but I’ll only list a few.)

1. The Maximoff Twins

Here we have the greatly anticipated Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, and although their backstory was completely reimagined, there is no doubt they were phenomenal characters.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson acted as Pietro Maximoff, a young Sokovian with greatly increased speed as his ‘superpower’, given to him by the power of the Mind Gem.

Elizabeth Olsen acted as Wanda Maximoff, Pietro’s twin sister, with her classic hex powers, also given to her by the Mind Gem. Her abilities to manipulate a person’s mind were used to great effect against the Avengers, causing their greatest fears to come to life.

The representation of this powerful duo was incredibly well-done, considering the personalities, powers and even speech was mimicked to perfection. I’m not going to lie, I cried like a baby when Pietro died, but I’ll explain my reasons for him not actually being dead another time.

2. Hulkbuster Armour

The Hulkbuster armour, or ‘Veronica’, was a CGI marvel (excuse the pun). The all-out brawl between Hulk and Iron Man in this action-packed scene was both hilarious and breath-taking. I especially liked the fact that it was filmed in my own city, Johannesburg, South Africa, to represent Wakanda. We certainly got our fill of seeing the Incredible Hulk in all his glory, even if he did turn my hometown to rubble.

3. Ultron

The bad boy himself. James Spader’s voice alone brought passion, malice and realism to Ultron’s voice, not even mentioning the incredible motion-capture of the robot’s facial expressions and amusing personality. I thoroughly enjoyed how human-like Ultron was, no matter how defiant he was at being at all likened to a person’s mind. The fact that his consciousness was based on Tony Stark’s mindset compiled with the thirst for ultimate control made this shiny hunk of metal more than a force to be reckoned with. Instead of being a stoic machine with a single purpose of cleansing the world, Ultron had compassion, lust, anger and even fear. This is what made him so effective. The fact that every single person sitting in that movie house could actually see his point. Sure, none of us want to be wiped off the face of the planet, but Ultron’s right. Humans and peace don’t mix. That is what gave him an edge over our own consciences.

4. The Vision

I seriously don’t need to say a lot about this guy. Words aren’t even needed. Well done Paul Bettany, and absolutely well done Joss Whedon for bringing this character to life in a more stunning way than any fan could’ve asked for. You sure ticked all the boxes here, and I have seriously not heard anyone say, ‘Man, Vision sucked.’ Also, nice touch adding JARVIS to the mix there. Vey well played, Joss.

5. Mid-Credit Scene

It’s basically just Thanos Picking up his empty Infinity Gauntlet like a total badass and saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” BOOM!

I just love how all the Marvel movies now are pointing towards infinity  Wars (Avengers 3) coming out in 2018 and 2019.

Looks like The Avengers are going to need all the help they can get…

Well, that’s all for now folks. Have a Marvelous Day 😉