Captain America: Civil War Film Review

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Chadwick Boseman, Scarlett Johansson
Series: Marvel Cinematic Universe
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 147 Minutes

Wait... This Again?!

"Didn't I already go through this shit?!"

Much to my annoyance, this is becoming somewhat of a tagline for the past few months of my life. I'd hoped going to the theater to see Captain America: Civil War would change things, even if only for a little while, and I'd get to see what Rotten Tomatoes assured me was the smash hit superhero film of the century.

GUESS WHAT?!

The Amazing Spider-Man Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Marc Webb

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Dennis Leary

Series: The Amazing Spider-Man

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Length: 136 Minutes

The Amazing Spider-Man is the first film of a 2012 reboot of the original Spider-man film franchise. Again like Sam Raimi’s take on Spider-man in the previous franchise we get the origin story of Spider-man, albeit a different take, and Spider-man has different girl he is chasing this film in Gwen Stacey.

With the reboot of the franchise occurring after Spiderman 4 was nixed, and less than a decade after Raimi finished his trilogy the greedy movie making executive looking to exploit a money making character immediately comes to mind. However, the film does Spider-man justice and ultimately creates the best Spider-man film to date.

With the first film in what is assumed to be another Spider-man trilogy complete, it is safe to say that this franchise reboot may even be able to rival Nolan’s Batman franchise later on down the line. Until then this is an excellent re-start to the Spider-man franchise that has already surpassed the previous trilogy created by Raimi.

Deadpool Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Tim Miller

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano.

MPAA Rating: R

Series: Deadpool

Length: 108 minutes

I'm Going To Do To Your Face What Limp Bizkit Did To Music In The Late 90's

I'm not a fan of Deadpool the comic character, that being due to my ignorance of his existence rather than actually reading his stories. But when I saw this movie was going to be rated R, and that it would be taking liberal use of the language license those movies grant, I got pretty excited.  

The superhero formula has gotten old, and finally there was going to be a movie, that could help revitalize a fun film genre that has been showing signs of stagnation due to repetitive plot formulas and over-exposure to the masses ... so maybe my expectations were a little high, but that's what I was hoping for walking into the theater.

All-New X-Men: Here To Stay Comic Review

by The Wanderer 

Authors: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrators: Stuart Immonen
Publisher: Marvel
Genre: Superhero

Series: All New X-Men Volume 2

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(Spoilers for All-New X-Men Volume One are below).

Yesterday’s X-Men brought the original five X-Men into the future where they’ve met the current X-Men. Taking place after the Avengers vs. X-Men sequence, the younger X-Men learn about their future fates, and they make a surprising decision at the end of the first volume and choose to stay in the future.

All-New X-Men: Yesterday’s X-Men Comic Review

by The Wanderer 

Authors: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrators: Stuart Immonen
Publisher: Marvel
Genre: Superhero

Series: All New X-Men Volume 1

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It’s another rehashing of one of Marvel’s most lucrative (and largest) franchises … the X-Men.  I count myself amongst the skeptical readers when hearing about this relaunch, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised.  All-New X-Men comes out of the Avengers vs. X-Men story and continues from there.  You don’t have to pick that up before hand, I certainly didn’t, but it will fill in a lot of what’s going on currently at the start of the comic.

So spoilers for Avengers vs. X-Men are below ….

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear Comic Review

by The Wanderer   

Authors: Frank Miller 

Illustrators: John Romita Jr.

Publisher: Marvel

Genre: Superhero

Series: Daredevil

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The Blind Man Comet

Frank Miller’s Daredevil: The Man Without Fear begins the origin story of Matt Murdock, the man who would eventually become known as the Daredevil.  I’m not the biggest fan of the Daredevil character, especially since my introduction to him was the 2003 Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck. But this is a pretty strong comic, even though the plot was used for the first half of the before-mentioned movie. A lot of the little things that didn’t make it into the film really make a difference, and that’s why this version of the Daredevil story is successful and the other was not.  Also the comic doesn’t have Ben Affleck in it.

Thor: The Dark World Film Review

by The World Weary

Director: Alan Taylor

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddelston, Christopher Eccelston

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Length: 112 Minutes

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Thor is Heyah!

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe chugs through its “Phase Two” films, I began to wonder if anything good would come out. Iron Man 3 was an utter disappointment, and the trailer for Thor: The Dark World didn’t give me much hope. Not counting The Wolverine, which was fantastic, it seemed that the MCU had lost all its steam. Well, the good news is Thor: The Dark World is an unexpected surprise. I went in prepared to see another disaster like Iron Man 3, but instead what I got was a pretty enjoyable action film.

The Wolverine Film Review

by The World Weary

Director:James Mangold
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto
Series: X-Men
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 126 Minutes

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Feral Awesomeness

(This review features spoilers for X-Men: The Last Stand).

Since X2: X-Men United, fans of the series have been clamoring for a stand alone Wolverine film. The action scenes and the dive into Logan’s dark past made X2 one of the most exciting comic book films yet. After a disappointing trilogy ender, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released and became a total critical flop. The film was a letdown on almost every level and seemingly killed the franchise, until X-Men: First Class, but that film had nothing to do with our favorite feral immortal. Unwilling to give up on the beloved hero, Hugh Jackman teamed up with  director James Mangold in a last ditch effort to save the franchise and thankfully, this film saved the original X-Men series from certain doom.

Avengers vs X-Men Comic Review

by The Wanderer

Authors: Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, and Jonathan Hickman
Illustrators: John Romita Jr., Adam Kubert, and Olivier Coipel

Publisher: Marvel

Genre: Crossover

Series: Avengers vs X-Men (0-12)

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Bam, Pow, Punch, Kick, Kablam!

2012’s Avengers and X-Men crossover event is underwhelming.  Marvel’s two biggest superhero groups doing battle with one another has been a long waited for event … that just can’t deliver on the hype.  The story gets bogged down by too many dropped plot threads, forced insertions of storylines, and a ton superhero vs superhero moments that result in pointless draws or no-contests.

Iron Man 3 Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gywneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley

Series: Iron Man/ Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Length: 130 Minutes

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Until Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, third installments of superhero films had always been terrible.  In addition to this Iron Man 2 was a terrible sequel to a film franchise that seemed to promise so much more when the first Iron Man was released.

With that being said about third film’s in superhero trilogies, and the previous Iron Man film being the pointless overinflated action flick that it was, my expectations for Iron Man 3 were very low.  Maybe my low expectations allowed me to enjoy this film more than it warranted, but I can safely say this film is far better than the second Iron Man.  As for being the third film in a trilogy, it’s probably the second best trilogy concluding film in a super hero series with the exception of course of Dark Knight Rises.  Although in terms of quality, Iron Man 3 is no where near as good as Dark Knight Rises.

Overall, Iron Man 3 looks to bring closure to one of Marvel’s most profitable film franchises, and it largely does, but Iron Man 3 is far from perfect.

X-Men Film Review

by The World Weary

Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ian McKellen. Patrick Stewart
Series: X-Men

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 104 minutes

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Clawed and Flawed

X-Men is a fun but flawed film. Its extremely short running time is jam packed with so many characters that all but Wolverine and Rouge serve to simply appease fans with their mere presence. What the film lacks in character, it makes up for with an entertaining plot. This is the first Marvel film to truly feel like a comic book.