X-Men: Apocalypse

I was a bit worried going into X-Men: Apocalypse, it came at a time when we had already seen three comic book movies within a space of a few months, and they had already showcased the best and worst the genre can offer. Its trailer showed off a film that made it seem as if we were about to watch Jennifer Lawrence and the X-Men and the early reviews were very mixed. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers though, what I saw last night really surprised me and although it may not be perfect, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Read on to find out why.

Ten years after the events of Days of Future Past, a lot of the cast return but are in very different places from where we left them (you’ll have to suspend your disbelief at the fact none of the cast have aged since...). Mystique is on her own, rescuing mutants where she can, Magneto has settled in Poland with a new family and Professor X has got his school up and running with a set of new students, most notably Jean Grey, played by Sophie Turner, Cyclops played by Tye Sheridan and Nightcrawler played by Kodi Smit-Mcphee. All is well until an old and very powerful mutant, Apocalypse played by Oscar Issac, is awoken, who then goes and recruits his four horsemen in order to destroy the world (I think?).

I’ll start by saying that this isn’t your usual X-Men movie; the scale is unlike anything you have seen in this franchise before. Whereas other superhero films have decided to go for personal stakes this year, X-Men has gone the opposite way and I believe this is where some of the criticisms comes from; we’ve seen world ending stakes before in comic book movies however, I would argue that because we haven’t seen it on this scale in the X-Men franchise it instead felt like an exciting new way to take these characters and it also made for some incredible action sequences.

Apocalypse is a very menacing villain and he has quite a screen presence however some of the descriptions of his powers and plans are a bit vague; is he a mutant Wi-Fi booster? Body shifter? Mover of Elements? The power to make characters more comic book accurate? Does he want to destroy the world or control everyone? This is ultimately where the film suffers most. Whether you get his plan or not it really delivers on full blown spectacle and he is very menacing character.

Thankfully the film doesn’t add spectacle at the cost of character development. Some characters get more than others mind but this film really sets up its newest mutants nicely and gives them a chance to shine as they’re testing the limits of their powers in very troubling time. This isn’t Jennifer Lawrence and the X-Men, but instead it’s an ensemble film without the plot leaning heavily on one character as many X-Men films tend to do. This helps this film feel more like an X-Men comic book than previous instalments, it feels like a team film, a team with a crazy bunch of powers which all get their shot in the limelight. It’s as if the films are leaning closer and closer to their source material and although we’re not fully there yet it does make me very excited for what we’ll see next.

I feel like this film has come about at the wrong time, I wish they would’ve waited a couple of months before releasing as I believe most general audiences might need some time away from the superhero genre after Civil War only being released under a month ago. I wouldn’t have minded them waiting either, they could have spent more time perfecting some CGI shots as some look more at home in a video game then a big budget summer blockbuster, or maybe they could have given Olivia Munn more to do as Psylocke who looked very badass but didn’t really get the chance to show off those awesome sword skills the actress has been posting online. Or even Storm, this time played by Alexandra Shipp who gets a bit more to do but not enough in my opinion!

If you’re a superhero fan but weren’t planning on going to see X-Men: Apocalypse this weekend then don’t be a fool, you’re going to have a lot of fun and get a kick out of how the franchise is now edging closer to its source material. It’s not ground-breaking in terms of what we’ve already seen from the genre but it is a different step for the franchise and you finally get to see everyone’s powers in full epic scale mixed with some great emotional characters beats and a pretty wicked score throughout. It’s not the best superhero film this year but it’s not the worst either! I’m rating the latest X-Men instalment a 3.5/5.

What did you think? Was it a hit or a disappointment? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Steve Jobs

It's been a while...

So recently I was able to take time from my busy schedule and go see a film I have been wanting to see for a long time; Steve Jobs. Now I don't have a fascination with the man himself but instead it was the talent behind his biopic that had me intrigued. First we have the amazing writer, Aaron Sorkin who wrote The Social Network and most recently TV series, The Newsroom. Secondly the director, Danny Boyle who is best known for Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. Fianlly it was the star of the show, Michael Fassbender who is one of my favourite actors, you probably know him most from the latest X-Men films where he played Magneto. If you're reading this blog it probably means you are a film fan and therefore, know why this is a big deal but if not, just know that these three guys are at the top of their league and so this collaboration between them is pretty darn huge and awesome.

The film is not your standard biopic. Instead Sorkin and Boyle decided to go for something different and allow the film to be made from three separate scenes, each the 20-40 minutes before a product launch spanned over twenty years or so. It's a brilliant creative decision that makes this film about Steve Jobs stand out above other biopics and the films about the man that have been done before and likely will be made in the future. It does mean that only certain aspects of Steve's life are brought into the film and explored, not that I am too fussed a lot of people know about his life and I was happy to see the film streamline this down to focus on a few key relationships.

Fassbender is great as Jobs, you can tell he really got into the character and portrays him in a way that is kind of tough but deep down you can feel something for the guy. He's a difficult character to like but I believe Fassbender finds a way to show some humanity beneath the hard shell of a man. The cast around Fassbender are also great, highlights include Kate Winslet (her performance great, however her accent does get strangely stronger after the first time jump...), Seth Rogen (absolutely great at doing a serious role as well as having perfect comedy timing), Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg and Katherine Waterstone. Sorkin's fast paced and witty dialogue all sounded great coming out of their mouths.

Due to scenario of the scenes and the amount of story the film wants to portray, some of the scenes come across quite theatrical but not in a bad way. A lot of the film is set in the San Fransisco Opera House and the score can be quite operatic, if anything the theatrical and operatic qualities going on in the background heighten the visuals and give the audience a sense of tension and care that may not usually have for the politics of computing.

The downside to the artistic structure of the film is familiarity, the structure of each act of the film is relatively the same and you know that Steve Jobs is going to have an updated argument with each of the characters we met in the first act, it's not always a bad thing but some of the scenes can drag when you're not as invested in certain storylines compared to others.

Overall though, this film is great, For me it doesn't quite reach the enjoyment I got from watching The Social Network but it is no way a bad film. The lengths the filmmakers have gone to make something different really pay off and we have something quite unique on our hands here with Steve Jobs, and although it may not always portray him as a decent person, I imagine that if he were here today he would be happy with it. I am giving Steve Jobs a rating of 4/5.

Thanks for reading!

X-Men: Days of Future Past

I was worried about the latest X-Men film going in to the cinema. The trailers looked promising but you never know with this franchise, it's always been very hit or miss after X2. Saying that, the prequel film X-Men: First Class was my favourite film of the franchise. That's right 'was' my favourite, because X-Men: Days of Future Past just completely blew my mind and exceeded all my expectations! Read on for my spoiler free, full review of the film.

Set in a dystopian future where the mutants are being hunted down by Sentinels, the only chance they have left is to send Wolverine back to the 1970's where he can try stop the bad events of the future ever happening. The film seams together the old cast with the new in a very ambitious 'inbetwequel' of sorts to patch together the X-Men Universe into something more linear then it previously was.

The cast is huge and the main members get a good amount of time to shine, however some new additions such as Bishop are there to show off their powers rather then bring anything new to the plot. That being said it does make for some pretty cool action scenes, but more on that later. For once this film does not feel like Wolverine and the X-Men, he has a big part to play but it's not his film as it has been in the past. This film belongs to the relationship between Professor X, Magneto and Mystique which is played out so well throughout. The characterisation of all three is brilliant and I lreally enjoy the love/hate relationship between Charles and Erik, which is explored even further in this film. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence are the highlights of the film in these roles. Peter Dinklage also shines as villain Boliver Trask, he may not be getting the brilliant material he gets as Tyrion on Game of Thrones but it was a nice change to see a different kind of villain that isn't just going to end up in a big boss battle at the end of the film. I also love the fact that the actor's size is not referred to throughout, it isn't a defining trait of the character, Dinklage was just the best actor for the part.

This film has a lot of heart, a lot of the characters are in a bad place at the beginning and it's all about whether they can regain hope and compromise for the greater good of the world and mutantkind. Writer Simon Kinberg has done a brilliant job of keeping these themes throughout and the final edit of the film is a really tight piece that balances all the different characters, times and emotions perfectly. Having Bryan Singer back was a god send as he really knows how to direct these characters, you can tell he is in his element with the X-Men and I hope that the recent allegations against him are false so he can come back to do more!

Visually this film looked great and there were some awesome action sequences where we get a really cool look at some of the mutant powers in action. Because this is a bigger budget film and more technologically advanced then the previous ones, we get to see some really epic sequences that prove to be some of the best we have seen in comic book movies so far. One of the best action sequences in the film comes surprisingly from Quicksliver, how ever stupid he looks, when using his super speed on camera it is treat and turns out to be one of the highlights of the film. Days of Future Past has raised the bar high for Age of Ultron who will be using a different iteration of the character next year.

It feels different to previous comic book films and doesn't abide by all the same rules making it something more than your average superhero movie. With the inclusion of the Sentinels, this finally feels like the X-Men from the comics and make no doubt, this film is definitely for X-Men fans with many little nods to the source material placed throughout, along with its pretty faithful adaptation to the actual comic arc it's based on. Going in with no knowledge of the films that came before it may prove a bit confusing but either way it's a lot of fun. It's going to wipe the bad taste of Wolverine Origins film and X-Men: The Last Stand from your mind. I really can't find much wrong with this film!

Overall this is the best X-Men film to be released so far. In fact it's up their with the best of comic book movies. It truly is something special and I cannot wait to watch it again! I'm giving X-Men: Days of Future Past a rating of 5/5. Remember to stay after the credits for a taste of big things to come!

What did you think of Days of Future Past? Best of the X-Men franchise or another miss? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

SDCC 2013 Thoughts #2

So here's some more thoughts from myself on some of the news straight out of Comic Con. This time looking at news from X-Men Days of Future Past, Sherlock, Batman Arkham Origins and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

So people at the convention were treated to a surprise from the upcoming X-Men Days of Future Past. The reveal was a look at the head of a Sentinel, one of the X-Men's greatest foes that will feature in the new film. Take a look at the pictures here:

Now in the comics the Sentinels are massive, so I am hoping this is just a scaled down model of the real thing. Either way it's looking pretty cool! We were also treated to the first official photos from the film that include some pretty awesome costumes!

Now in the widely popular BBC show made its way to Comic Con but unfortunately the two main stars weren't there to answer questions, instead they pre-recorded quite a comedic video which you can check out by clicking on this link: http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/07/18/sherlock-comic-con-benedict-cumberbatch/

Now for some gaming new, villain Copperhead has been revealed as a villain in the new Batman game Arkham Origins. Check out the trailer below:

Although there is no more gameplay footage in this one, it still looks pretty cool. However I am still unsure as to whether this game can stand up against the two previous games. Only time will tell.

Now for some more Spider-Man news. Although the panel hasn't been yet, Marc Webb still let the world in on a few tidbits of information including the composer for the film. The composer will apparently be Hans Zimmer! The man behind the incredible Dark Knight and Man of Steel soundtracks. I for one am very happy with this news! Webb also told us that we will get a trailer in the panel although it won't show Paul Giamatti's full suited Rhino as the VFX aren't ready yet. 

 Check back in later for more of my thoughts on the latest news from SDCC!