SUICIDE SQUAD: HELL TO PAY

The next entry in the DC Animated movies and the next entry in the DC Animated Universe, which it feels like we have been quite a while since we last went back, the last one was the previously reviewed Teen Titans the Judas Contract. Now if you recall, I actually felt that film was really good and we were going back on track on how these DC Animated films went. Something I like about DC’s films and comics, but at least they kind of know when they have made a bad call, something that I am starting to notice that Marvel is doing less and less with their comics but succeeding with in their films. Now true DC is kind of playing catch-up at this point in time and let’s face it they are in a bit of trouble now since the fate of the DC Cinematic Universe is completely up in the air at this point and we have no idea where it is going from here.

So, DC fans are really going to be relying on this series. Suicide Squad Hell to Pay is a very interesting on in my opinion because it’s just weird that it is coming out now. I would have thought they would try to capitalise on the Suicide Squad live action film that came out in 2016, which if you recall from my earlier review, I did not think too favourably on and thought it was just ok at best. Hell to Pay might be trying to capitalise on the fact that supposedly Suicide Squad 2 is out next year, but again the DC Cinematic Universe is so up in the air at this point, god knows if that film is even going to happen.

With Sam Liu returning to direct and with Alan Burnett of Batman the Animated series fame writing, how did this Suicide Squad film turn out.

People going into this film expecting it to be like the live action film might be bit surprised. The film in a lot of ways is a lot more different and surprisingly more violent since it has a 15 rating and uses that to its success, yes, the animated film is more grim and dark than the live action film!! Go figure!!

Unlike the live action film, this film is not the first appearance of the Suicide Squad in terms of chononically . This film starts out that they have been active for quite some time. We get an opening segment to show them in action and then we are brought into the plot. The plot this time being that Amanda Waller, played by Vanessa Williams has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She commissions a Suicide Squad off the books to get her, “I joke you not” a “get out of hell free” card that supposedly belongs to Dr Fate and his masters. The DC Universe, where every religion is correct and they can occasionally go to war with one another. I am not even joking, the gods go to war with each other in a DC Universe. The team consists of Deadshot played by Christian Slater, Bronze Tiger, played by Billy Brown, Killer Frost, played by Kristin Bauer van Straten, Copperhead, played by Gideon Emery, Captain Boomergang played by Liam McIntyre and Harley Quinn, played by Tara Strong. The thing is though, the get out of hell free card is in the hands of Vandal Savage, played by Jim Pirri, not to mention that Flash villain Zoom, played by C. Thomas Howell has also organised a team of villains to get the card back himself.

You can probably tell one of the issues that Suicide Squad Hell To Pay has from the start just from that introduction alone, there is a lot of characters and many of them feel like they are on the side lines. There are a few surprising ones in this one and a few aren’t surprise. Savage’s daughter and her girlfriend who is a recent escapee from Apocalypse seem like they are going to be playing a big role in the film, but they disappear after one action scene and a few of the villains feel like they are on the side lines. Surprisingly, Harley Quinn is rather on the side, granted, she narratively doesn’t have much reason to be here, but she just feels like she is here to crack one liners, because for some reason, DC feels the need to turn Harley Quinn into their version of Deadpool! I’m not surpised in saying that I think Batman Assault on Arkham, which largely focused on the Suicide Squad did a much better job of balancing its characters and the team is a lot more similar to that group than the live action movie. In fact, many of the characters from the live action movie are not in the team, the only recurring ones from the live action film being Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn and Deadshot. Copperhead, is purely brought in, for example, to be a replacement for Killer Croc, and Bronze Tiger is definitely a stand in for El Diablo. Though, with Bronze Tiger, he feels like he stands out the most, he is not necessarily much of a villain per say, I haven’t actually read that many comics that Bronze Tiger appears in but I don’t remember him being this much of a saint as he is in this series. I think he has been toned down quite a bit so that the audience has a proxy to root for since it’s quite hard to root for most of these characters, since again, “they’re the bad guys”.

One thing I will say about this film is that this film understood that the Suicide Squad was enough of an attraction to base a story around and they didn’t feel the need to insert Batman or anyone else to add a recognisable character, I am looking at you Justice League Dark.

Where Hell to Pay succeeds well is in the level of violence. The film understood that it is better not to tone down a story like this and as a result we get one of the more brutal DC animated movies in quite some time, we also get one of the better ones.

Now, once again, the film is very short, but it actually runs a lot longer, without the credits it runs about one hour and fifteen minutes. I actually found by one point the film was really running low on time and as a result, the final act feels like it sped up. Zoom’s portion of the film is an especially surprising factor, since he is mostly again in the background until the final portion of the film, when his role is rather explained. Zoom’s origins in the film tie back to a previous film, which I didn’t genuinely see coming, however, the twist will not make sense unless you saw that particular film or at least read the comic that it is based off of. I won’t say which one it is because I don’t want to give it away for the people who have seen that film and read the comic, but needless to say, I actually felt the twist worked quite well, even if it does a little bit out of left field.

Another thing I would like to point out, Vandal Savage is wasted in this film. You take one of the best bad guys in the DC Universe and he barely gets anything to do. Savage’s biggest problem is that he is rather under-whelming, he doesn’t do much!! Granted, Jim Pirri is an excellent choice to play the character and he gives it his all, but it doesn’t change the fact that the character does not have that much screen time.

I also have the same problem I have with a lot of DC projects now, which is the needless insertion of Batman characters to ride out the recognisability for people that are more aware of Batman than any other characters since his films have been the most successful. This ranges from a pointless two faced cameo and Professor Pyg is even in it, although once again, he is one of the weaker aspects of the film since he, again, is not given much to do. Again, I think Assault on Arkham did a much better job of creating a large cast of characters and giving everyone something to do and as a result the group felt more like a gelled unit. That’s not to say I don’t think this one works as well. This one works pretty dam good and they got dam close at times. I do like the chemistry between the various members of the squad. However, I don’t think it’s quite as good as Assault on Arkham and I would definitely recommend that movie first.

I also think fans might be surprised, if they are not aware too much of the character, that Deadshot doesn’t look like Will Smith anymore. But let me tell you, Christian Slater is much more suited to playing Deadshot than Will Smith is, since Will Smith’s problem is that he plays the role too nice. I know Will Smith tries to pay absolute arse’s but too much of his nice nature comes through, that’s why he is not so believable in a film like Seven Pounds or Suicide Squad. Christian Slater, however, does bring something interesting to the role. While I am not a fan of the actor, I think he suits the character very well and clearly his casting is considered a big deal by the staff since his name is plastered on the advertising for the film. Tara Strong is an excellent Harley Quinn as we have seen in the past, but again, she is wasted in this film. Vanessa Williams is alright as Amanda Waller, though I don’t appreciate the fact they went with her new 52 design, which I don’t think is as good. Billy Brown does a pretty decent job playing Bronze Tiger and I really think Kristin Bauer van Straten gets down the role of Killer Frost well. Gideon Emery does a pretty dam good job as Copperhead and rather weirdly, we get Liam McIntyre playing Captain Boomerang, which means, yes there is an Australian actor playing Captain Boomerang, but people might recognise him playing Weather Wizard in the Flash TV series, which means this actor has now played two Flash Villains. C. Thomas Howell, who has been in previous DC productions reprises his role as Professor Zoom, which is a role he has played in the past and does a dam good job once again, I still think this actor is one of the best people to play the role.

I also really still like the animation. I have already talked in the past about how much I am a bit half and half when it comes to the replication of Jim Lee’s art style, but I am glad to say it’s been put to use well here and I am glad that there is no restraint on the violence which is what a film like this needs. Plus, the animation as a whole does a dam good job. The action scenes are brilliantly shot and take advantage of the various characters various abilities.

Suicide Squad Hell to Pay is an example of how you do a Suicide Squad right. While I’m not sure it reaches the heights that Batman Assault on Arkham did, I do think Hell to Pay is superior to the live action film and is a worthwhile purchase for DC fan boys. It, however, will not appeal to you if you are already put off by the Suicide Squad and it is certainly not going to convince anyone who more preferred Gail Simone’s Secret Six, which was a similar comic series but tends to be more well regarded by DC fans. The film is available on Blueray and I would highly recommend you check it out if you get a chance.

With that, it’s time to move on. The DC animated films will be back with the first in the two part movie around the death of Superman storyline, which the Blueray contains a sneak peak of. Next week, it’s the most ambitious cross over yet because next week I will be giving my thoughts on the movie that all the Marvel movies have been building up to, it’s Avengers Infinity War.

“RAMPAGE”

Here’s what you need to know about Rampage. It was an arcade game from way back and with very little plot, which was to be expected in those days, you weren’t playing a video game for the plot, you were playing it to kill time. But as a result, I actually think that some of these video games might make decent movies considering that their lack of plot means that they get a chance for the creative staff to do what they want to do. Rampage, though, really doesn’t have as much of a cult following per say as some other games. This was not as popular as say Space Invaders or Pac Man and oh, god, just thinking about the possibility of those getting films, Jesus Christ!!!

But, surely, with New Line Cinema acquiring the rights to the game, they put it in the hands of a decent director, enter Bred Peyton, who is a name that you are probably not familiar with, but you might be familiar with his films. He has produced a lot of ok films, but his directing jobs included the terrible Captain Dog sequel, but rather recently, he directed the Journey sequel, called The Mysterious Island and he once again is teaming up with Dwayne Johnson for this film, who he also teamed up with for San Andreas, yes he directed that piece of sh.. too and he will be teaming up with the actor again for announced the San Andreas sequel, which until researching this film, I genuinely didn’t know was coming out and I cannot wait to tear that film a new one. However, let it not be said that I am not a fair man and I did go into this film planning to judge it properly. So, how did Bray Peyton do at transferring this arcade classic to the silver screen.

Rampage is about a series of experiments that fall from space. They cause genetic engineering for DNA causing animals to grow and gain incredible rage, apparently for military reasons, it doesn’t make much sense to me. It affects a wolf called Ralph, a crocodile called croc, most notably an albino ape named George, who is looked after upon by his handler Davis Okoye, played by Dwayne Johnson. However, after he start growing and exhibiting rage inducing habits, he is contacted by Dr Kate Caldwell, played by Naomie Harris, who helps him out after telling him that a bio-medical engineering company run by Claire and Brett Wyden, played by Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy. However, the animals are breaking loose and are all heading for Chicago where the company hopes to take the research data, (because at this point it makes total sense). Davis wants to calm down George so he can keep his friend safe and Kate wants to get revenge on the company. Oh and there is also an American Government Agent around, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Rampage has a very thin plot, even with it having to pay tribute to the video game. Though, the only reference is a rampage arcade video machine in one of the offices, which is such a meta-reference that it’s hardly ever done. The last time I saw it was in the terrible Double Dragon movie and believe me, that is not a film you should be borrowing from! Speaking of which, this film borrows from an endless number of sources, it’s pretty much every modern Blockbuster, in fact it actually looks like it is shot in the same universe as San Andreas. The two films have remarkably similar cinematography. My sense of déjà vu was not helped by the fact that I saw the Rock in a helicopter again! He claims he is an amateur, but outside of that, he might as well be playing the exact same character. Believe me, San Andreas is not the only film, this film borrows quite heavily from the Michael Bey Ninja Turtles Film of all things and especially borrows a lot from Jurrassic World, including one early scene with the wolf, that was so reminiscent of the famous scene of the special operatives trying to get the Edominous Rex from Jurrassic World. I would be very surprised if Steven Speilberg doesn’t sue for plagerism! Yes, that bad!

The film clearly doesn’t have any actual ideas of its own and it is trying to pull from an endless number of resources and it seems to be aware that it is a PG13 film, so as a result it can’t go all out like an R rated film could, but it also wants to push the boundaries at times. One example is the swearing, it is so inconsistent, there are several scenes where they go all out with it and some scenes where it is cut off in advance. It’s almost as if they wanted to be exactly precise with on what they could get away with in a PG13 film.

What’s more, there is very little actual character development in this film. George is the only one who gets much of a focus, with Ralph having not as much screen time and Croc isn’t even on screen until the climax. In fact the other film this borrows quite heavily from is the recent Godzilla re-boot and even then it is a much better example of how you do a Godzilla film than the actual Godzilla film, that is saying a lot!

Rampage is seriously devoid of much meaningful content considering the way it is shot. The film runs for one hour fifteen minutes but it feels as if it could run for an hour and a half, with how dull it all feels. This is every single action Blockbuster that is coming out in recent memory and there is not real thing to separate it. In fact I even found some of its imagery in poor quite taste, particularly with the 9/11 comment occasions in it which haven’t been this bad since Man of Steel.

George is not nearly done as well as other examples of motion capture apes. This is certainly no Andy Circus in the Planet of the Apes movies or even the motion capture that was used for Kong Skull Island, which I still stand by is a better film than people make it out to be.

But the worst part about this film is the villains. I can’t believe that they are going with the simple greed and make money for the military, which by the way is full of military stereotypes that I am so sick of in these films, can we do one film where we don’t depict the military as a bunch of jackasses that want to blow everything up. But these villains are just some of the stupidest idiots I have actually seen. There plan makes no sense. These things are out of control. Even if you do manage to get some of the samples off them after the military takes them out, what good is it! It’s utterly meaningless unless you sell it on the black market, which they made no intention of doing. Without going into too much spoiler detail, though with this film there is not much reason, since the trailer is basically the entire film, they are going to lure them to the top of their building using a sound frequency. One how the hell does no one else notice that they are doing that and two, what good is that if the military doesn’t take them out, which they are struggling to do already and three, why will not one draw two and two together, that the massive rampaging animals are drawn to your exact same building all at the same time! They try to make out they are going to blame Naomie Harris’s character, but unless the FBI in this world are as dense as a freeking Chihuahua, there is not chance that anyone is falling for this.

I seriously can’t believe that Malin Akerman took this role on, what the hell happened. You are an alright actress, you did alright as Silk Spectre in Watchmen. Oh, and before you feel too sorry for Jake Lacy, he is also in the upcoming Johnny English film, so don’t feel too bad for him. I will say that Dwayne Johnson is a good actor, but he is just one of those actors that you struggle to separate him from the character. It’s the exact same problems you can have with actors like Leonardo D’Caprio and Tom Cruise and Jim Carey has also kind of got that going on, you just see the actor. In this case it actually kind of works since he is basically an action star so he suits the role well. Naomie Harris is doing fine, but whoever told her to do an American accent really needs to re-think their ideas, because she is not good as an American. What’s more, it’s very inconsistent, her accent fails quite a few times because you notice her British inflections. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is alright as the Government agent, although he is not really given much to actually do.

There is one thing I will say about the film and that is that it’s special effects are ok and the fight scenes are ok. They are at least not all shot right close so you have no idea what is going on, but they all suffer from repetitiveness given the limited ability of giving them things they can be given to do. What’s more, it’s actually alright in 3D. I would say if you are going to see the film, the 3D presentation is quite good, especially considering a lot of scenes are shown from quite a height, which 3D enhances, though be warned, some of these action scenes are full of such screwing with Physics that you won’t be able to spend your disbelief. Yes, I am spending my disbelief that these giant animals are roaming around Chicago, but what they do with a helicopter is not possible, you would be dead!

Rampage is a film that is too stupid for its own good. It’s not even one of those Blockbusters that you can sit back and enjoy. It’s really bad! There are parts that I found funny and some good action scenes, but that is really all I can say for it. The villains are what ultimately fails this film, since they feel like they fit in more with the 80’s and the 90’s than they do with the 2010’s. I think this is one that should be saved as a rental at best and will play better in that crowd, though if you want to get the best out of the special effects, you are better of seeing it in cinema’s since I think many of them won’t translate to Television very well. This is also a long film that feels very short and it ultimately feels like not much is accomplished by the end. Don’t be stupid like me and stick around for the credits, there is no post-credit scene.

Well, that’s it for Rampage. Now, in two weeks time I will be reviewing Avengers Infinity Way, but as usual, I would like to have it work with a DC animated film, so as a result, next week, I will be checking out the latest DC animated film to come out, Suicide Squad Hell To Pay.

“READY PLAYER ONE”

“how did it turn out”?

Ready Player Ones is set in the year 2047. The real world has basically gone to pot so as a result, most of the people spend more of their time in a video game called The Oasis, which is kind of a video game/virtual world similar to that of Second Life with a bit of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft thrown into the mix, because it’s an environment where you can look and be anything. The world was created by a man called Halliday, played by Mark Rylance, however, before his death he decided to leave a little thing behind. The rules are quite simple, players would have to find three keys, the locations of which would all be in games that were hidden behind riddles. Whoever finds the keys would find the location of a Golden Easter Egg, which would give that play control of The Oasis. Five years have passed since that event, based on a player called Wade aka Parzival, played by Tye Sheridan is one of the few players searching for the egg. He is assisted by other players including Samantha aka Art3mis, played by Olivia Cooke. As a result, they actually figure out the first riddle to get the first key, however, this puts them in conflict with a Broadband company called IOI, which is led by boss man Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn. It’s up to them to get the Easter Egg before IOI gets their hands on it and uses The Oasis to impress people even further and live it access to The Oasis by providing paywalls and subscription services. (Are you sure these guys aren’t an allegory for EA)!!

Seriously, I am surprised that the novel this is based on came out in 2011, this is prevalent in gaming now, especially with the Loot Box issue and it’s one of the things that took me a bit out of the experience, but I will explain that in a minute. One of the things that is astounding about Ready Player One is the simple cost that must have gone to Warner Bros. Warner Bros does not own all of these characters at this point in time. Ok, so they wouldn’t have any trouble with say getting, Batman, since well Batman is a DC character and DC is owned by Warner Bros. But the fact that this environment means that players can make their avatar a movie, a video game character, an Anime character, whatever, must have put them under a lot of strain. Say, for example Sonic the Hedgehog who only briefly appears in the background in a couple of scenes, at that point not only have you got to call up Sega to get the rights to use him, but you have also got to call up Paramount Pictures who hold the film rights for Sonic the Hedgehog and since Paramount is making a Sonic the Hedgehog film that will be coming out next year, you can bet they probably charged a high amount. You have also got to go to Microsoft and Bunji to ask about using Master Chief from the Halo games. You have got to call up Nickelodeon to get the Ninja Turtles. You have got to call up Blizzard Entertainment for Tracer from Overwatch, Sunrise Entertainment for Golem characters, it must have been a tall order. Now as big as a geek out that this film is and believe me, the references and the geek out moments are there, there are a few things that are obviously rather absent. Disney characters and characters owned by Disney are rather limited, although a few Marvel characters do make appearances, but Star Wars is largely absent from the entire film and I suspect Japanese companies were less than willing to give their licences as there are not as much Anime references as I was expecting. Maybe I missed them, but I only caught two, which was extra surprising since two of the main characters are Japanese. It’s not really a complaint, however, because the sheer amount they get is amazing and they never feel distracting, it’s just ‘huh, there is a character dressed as Hello Kitty or ‘there’s Deloreon from Back to the Future’. The book was firmly set around 80’s nostalgia, which was the intention of the author, so most of the references came from the 80’s, and the main character is based on Asian style. The 80’s Asian style certainly played a factor in it, it carried over from the novel quite well, however, to make sure there is more of an appeal, there are also a lot of reference for 90’s kids and millennials, which is much to the film benefit. It is also the reason why Set Anime didn’t play too much of a role, considering its phenomenon in popular culture is more of a product of the recent decade and it was more obscure in the 80’s and 90’s, with very few titles making their way over, hence the only two I could find were Akira and Golem. Though, I suspect a second watch will mean I will be able to spot more.

The sheer amount of references also will warrant a second run through, but as I mentioned, they never feel distracting.

The film isn’t really doing anything new, it’s a very by the numbers story. The sheer amount of pop culture that is put into the film is really what is helping it stand out. Though it never ultimately feels like a massive exercise in advertising. There are only a few blatant bits of advertising that I saw, mainly from Minecraft and Pizza Hut. The latter of which wasn’t even in the gaming world, which felt even more off. But the thing I appreciated about the film was, they managed to make both The Oasis and the real world feel very imaginative, there is clearly a lot of work that has been done. There is so much computer animation in The Oasis that it feels almost half animated. I have seen reviews that compare the film to Tron, which is not a bad comparison, the two films are very similar in a lot of senses. However, I also spiked comparisons to the TV series Sword Art on Line and there is also more a direct comparison in that this film is very similar to the movie to Summer Wars, which is a bad comparison to make considering that Summer Wars was a much better film!

It’s you very typical rebellion story, with the corporate big wig that wants to take over. Though it feels very modern in a sense of this is kind of what is wrong with the gaming industry today. Mainly, that he wants to make the full product be hidden behind a paywall that you will get over time. Something that is being scoffed at by gamers even today. Hell, this is even affected me the other week, I brought a copy of Sea of Thieves at full price, only to find out that I will not be getting the full content that I was promised until a few months down the line! If there was a company that was forcing these kind of things on this kind of game to me, you bet I will be taking up full arms and joining the rebellion!!! This is something that really takes me out of the game, considering that The Oasis would not be a good game in this sense, which is the mechanic of the game. Now this is where I go a bit off on my video game knowledge, considering that I play a lot of video games, but put it this way, most games of this type will punish you slightly if you fail, but you also have an opportunity to build back your success, so it will only be a slight inconvenience, other games are the exception (insert Dark Soul’s joke here)!

The Oasis doesn’t give that option, it’s a one life system, you lose and you lose everything. I mean everything!!! You have to start your character from the ground up. I guarantee, anyone who would play that game would get frustrated and leave immediately. The game does kind of show you that only certain players take the risk and the majority just stick to building up their character to the stage they want to and then just play the game however they want. It’s not a major criticism, but it is something that took me out of the story, which is kind of weird because its sounding like I really didn’t like this movie! No, I really liked Ready Player One.

Ready Player One has a ton of flaws, there are plot holes at the Wild Zoo including, why the hell it took five years for any gamers to figure out the system. I am telling you, with these modern completions culture, there is no way you would ever get into a situation where it would take five years to figure out. Someone would figure it out!! The creator of Five Nights at Freddies can’t even hide half of his content for more than a few months and he is being deliberately cryptic. What’s more, I am surprised no one ever thought to hack the game, this is done all the time!! Where do you think half of the controversies around Grand Theft Auto came out, it’s because someone was hacking the system to modify it. Gamers do this all the time!

But despite all of that and some of the stupid moments, Ready Player One is Blockbuster entertainment in its purest form. It’s one of those films that you just shut up and enjoy it’s the ultimate decant movie. But it also holds some of its own original identity. It has certain ideas of what it wants to be and it goes for it. Spielberg is really good at doing these fun Blockbusters that are just good popcorn fun. This is an excellent “turn off your brain” film as a result, since it’s not insulting to the viewership.

The characters aren’t amazingly interesting. Samantha is kind of an interesting character in that she doesn’t want to get close to Wade in the real world because she believes he will be disappointed by her birth mark on her face, something that doesn’t play as much of an impact as you would expect, but that is really the only edge to her. Granted I have read a bit about the characters in the book and frankly it feels a bit like they are improvements over their book counterparts, who are not incredibly enjoyable. These ones might be a bit blander, but as a result they are also a lot more likeable. The other main characters include Aech, who has a cool design and interesting pay off when we find out about them in the real world, along with Sho and Daito, the Japanese siblings who are dressed in Samurai gear in the real world. They are given some good times to shine in their own individual moments and they work quite well. The characters as a whole, give some pretty good performances. Tye Sheridan, who is a decent up and coming actor, who recently played Scott Summers in the recent X Men Apocalypse moves well into this role, he certainly has a bit more credibility to his career, though now thanks to this film and playing Cyclops in some of the X Men movies, he is set for life with Cons. Olivia Cooke gives a decent performance, she is a lot less recognisable, she had a small role in Ouija and also played Rachael in Me Earl and the Dying Girl, but there is not too much to her, she also played Lizzi Cree in the Lion house Golem, which was another decent performance. Lena Waithe has a good role and gives a decent performance in the film and I did enjoy Phillip Zhao and Win Morisaki, who give some excellent performances. The veteran cast is also pretty good. Ben Mendelsohn does a pretty good job as the corporate big wig and I also really liked Mark Rylance’s performance, he does a very good job playing the introvert who doesn’t really understand the rest of the world. Simon Pegg is in the film briefly, but he is given a rather thankless role, which never feels like it hits the significance the creators were aiming for, but as usual, it’s Simon Pegg and he is good even in terrible films! T.J. Miller is back in this film and his performance is rather middling for me, he’s not as bad as in his performance in the Emoji movie, but it’s not as good as his performance in Deadpool.

The special effects and action scenes are both shot amazingly. I normally don’t like action films and over use of CG for action scenes, but man does this film get it right. These scenes are shot great and I really enjoyed it overall. This includes a couple of absolutely brilliant battle scenes later on, which I won’t dare spoil, since they have some excellent choreography and I believe those moments are best experienced for yourself.

Ready Play One might not be an amazing ground breaking film, but it’s an excellent popcorn film, with tons of excellent moments to geek out with. I am going to re-watch this film a couple of times, considering how many references there are in and just trying to spot all of them!! Spielberg delivers an excellent Blockbuster, but it also has an interesting message, which I think a lot of people can take to heart. It’s just a really good film that made me happy and to be honest, after the last couple of weeks, considering some of the films I have reviewed, I will personally take that.

I saw the film in Imax 3D and you would expect a film like this to do really well in the 3D, and believe me there are some good scenes for the 3D, but I don’t believe it’s necessary for your enjoyment and a 2D screening will do you just as well. Fortunately, this film knows how to shoot 3D since most of the scenes have plenty of light and most of them use heightened scale to highlight the 3D. Despite the fact this film has a 12a rating, I would err a bit of caution in taking kids to see it, the middle portion of the film is taken up by the second challenge which is related to an 80’s horror movie, which is definitely not a 12a. I would also like to point out that half the jokes and references in that scene you are not going to get if you haven’t already seen the film, which I am pretty sure that some of the younger members of the audience I was with had not.

Well that’s it for this week. I’m wasn’t sure what I would review next week, since it was between the re-make of Death Wish or the horror film A Quiet Place, but I don’t have much of a connection with Death Wish so I will skip it and do a horror movie next. Next week I will be reviewing A Quiet Place.

“PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING”

Ok, you are probably expecting me to tear into this one considering it is another giant robot movie and I have gone on record several times saying I really don’t like the Transformers movies. Well, you are wrong, I really like Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro doing a loving tribute to both Japanese Meck shows and Kaiju movies. The film is a good one and it was a real surprise for me considering that I was expecting to hate it, like the Transformer movies and I ended up coming out really enjoying it.

Now I personally was not a person in need of a specific Pacific Rim sequel, I felt like the story had been wrapped up rather nicely. However I wasn’t too upset by the notion of a Pacific Rim sequel. Unfortunately, this was held up because Guillermo del Toro, director of the first film was obviously directing Shade of Water and didn’t have time to direct this, so he is in the producers credit and in the role of director is Steven S. DeKnight, a showrunner who ran both Smallville and was a producer for Drew Goddard’s Daredevil series on NetFlix. While he has directed episodes of TV shows and TV movies, this is his first directorial feature. But you, know I really liked Daredevil, and if he can do that well, maybe this will be his chance to shine.

While the trailers were not giving me much confidence, I went into this with an open mind. That is important, I was giving this film the opportunity.

Taking place ten years after the events of the first film, we follow the story of Jake Pentecost played by John Boyega, the son of Stacker Pentecost, Idris Elda’s character from the first film. He’s not exactly up to the standard of his father, however, being rather brash and selling stolen Jaeger Tech to fund his lifestyle. He, however, gets into trouble when dealing with a young scrap dealer called Amara Namani, played by Cailee Spaeny and is then captured and forced back into the military programme. Jake, thinks he is not going to be around that long considering that there is a new drone programme coming out of China, which could make pilots obsolete. However, the pre-cursers are planning another invasion and are planning to hijack the drones in order to reopen the Pacific Rim and unleash the Kaiju back on the world. Are you getting all that? Good, because there is not much more to this film.

The thing about Pacific Rim is that as much as it borrowed and played tribute to Mecca Anime, it’s also very clear that it was also influential back to Japan as has been rather evident by the recent series Darling and the Franxx, which is an excellent series that men and my friends probably recommended very heavily in our last Anime Amigos Vlog. The thing is, I was kind of hoping that Pacific Rim Uprising would have some rather interesting ideas and while the drone idea is a good one, considering it does the whole “is the machine better than man or is the machine only as good as the man”, it never really goes anywhere. That is this film in a nutshell, there are lots of things that are just “there”, they are just not that well developed. I actually thought what this film reminded me of and it came to me whilst I was watching it. This feels very similar to Independence Day Resurgence, which I reviewed back in 2016, which was another late sequel to a franchise that really didn’t need to be a franchise, it could have easily stood alone with just one film. The difference between those films was that Independence Day Resurgence was much worse! Pacific Rim: Uprising still had some good moments to it. Some of the action scenes are decently shot and are miles better than any of the Transform movies. John Boyega is somewhat likeable in his role and for one time he is allowed to keep his London accent, plus it doesn’t feel like much has been lost in terms of the special effects department. The special effects are still pretty much the same, although I will be discussing them more later, since I still have my gripes with them.

Here’s the real problem with Pacific Rim: Uprising, who cares!! It doesn’t really give you much reason to care. It doesn’t really feel like much of a coherent film, it feels more like a lot of plot points that have been sort of bolted together in the hopes that it will kind of work. Granted I have seen films do this much worse, we are not talking like Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 level, incoherent plot, but everything is given the bare minimum amount of time. The possible trades to the human cause is over and done with very quickly, the new cadets which feel like they are brought in to bring in a younger audience, which is something the first film really didn’t need are very under characterised, including newcomer Cailee Spaeny who initially looked like she would be a main character before being pushed to the side lines very quickly. Now it’s no surprise that there are very few returning actors in this film, in fact the only ones that did return were Burn Gorman and Charlie Day and briefly Rinko Kikuchi, whose role is so bare minimal she feels like a thankless cameo. Most of the newcomers are also not given big enough roles to really be much of an impact. Scott Eastwood, son Clint is brought in to be a partner to Jake, but he basically boils down to be a gruff military type and him and the cadets feel more like they have come out of the more recent Enders Game adaptation.

There is actually a decent plot twist further into the film and I was actually surprised by one of the directs they took it, but again, it goes absolutely nowhere. As a result, this film feels remarkably short and it’s not actually that short, including credits, the film comes in a one hour fifty-one minutes, but if you go into this expecting a lot of giant robots versus Kaiju battles, well, you are not far off. There are a lot of action scenes involving Jaegers fighting each other but the Kaiju are not actually on screen that long, they don’t actually appear until the final thirty minutes of the film, including the even bigger one than usual that’s been bigged up in the trailers. No pun intended! As a result, the film feels phenomenally empty. I get a sense that there were a lot of scripts lying around and a lot of ideas on paper, but a lot of these were left on the cutting room floor. However, I don’t have evidence to back that up. The film just does not have as much substance as the previous one did. It’s phenomenally lacking in that sense.

What’s more the acting is not as good as the first film. John Boyega I would still say is one of the best British actors working today and frankly he has gone from strength to strength since going from the brilliant film Attack the Block to being in the Star Wars franchise and now the Pacific Rim franchise, but he is the only decent performance out of the lot! Charlie Day for example is really annoying in this film. He wasn’t great in the first film, but man did they turn him up to eleven in this one! There are also a few moments that are also really unintentionally funny. I think I annoyed the people around me by laughing at several moments I wasn’t supposed to. Not my fault!!

At the end of the day, I know I shouldn’t be taking a film like this seriously. This is giant robots fighting Godzilla rejects – how serious can you take this. But the original seemed to have a lot of heart and a lot of care put into it that you could forgive the silly nature of it. This second film doesn’t have that luxury and it ultimately feels like a cash grab. It never descends into the level of terribleness that the Transformer films do. I had some fun moments watching this film, but despite the plot holes it creates, there were a lot more moments that left me unenthused by the overall content.

I did say I would talk about the action scenes and well, despite the fact that some of them are pretty good, not all of them succeed. The action scenes also are not shot as good as the first one. There were some interesting ideas hear, but it ultimately reeks of borrowing a little bit too much from other films that have action scenes that don’t do it as well. Again, we never descend into terrible cinematography of the Transformer films and thankfully there is no shaky cam in this film, thank goodness that is dying! But, yes, this is not as good as the original.

Pacific Rim Uprising is a valiant attempt to follow off what was a very successful film with critics and audiences, but it ultimately feels like a stale cash grab. If you liked the first one, there is no guarantee you will like the second one. It feels flat, this is one of the most bland and flat films I have seen in a while and it just does not have the same charm and effort put into it that the original had. It’s not a bad film by any stretch, some parts of it really work, but when this film doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work!! I think there was an aim for this film to be two and a half hours, and if it had been I could see if having more substance since it would have had more time to build up the characters and the plot, but as it stands, it’s not really there. So, I would say watch it, but watch it with caution. There is no guarantee that you are going to like this one. Ultimately I think I came out of the film thinking it was ok at best and drab at worst.

For the love of god, I have done so many disappointing films already this year, it feels like there have been much more negative reviews in 2018 than positive, so I am hoping , really hoping that the next film I review is much better.

Next time I take a look into what has been one of the most anticipated films of this year for me, Stephen Spielberg’s pop culture epic, Ready Player One.

“TOMB RAIDER”

Tomb Raider is the latest in what is becoming a series of video game movies, many of which have been commissioned in order to catapult off the success of the comic book movie industry, which is booming right now. But Tomb Raider has an uphill struggle right off the bat, for a start it has to be not only an adaptation of the game, it also has to re-boot a franchise which had already been adapted to film previously. In case anyone is wondering, no I am not a fan of the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider films, personally, while I think they had their awesome moments, they ultimately fell at the first hurdle. Angelina Jolie does feel slightly miscast.

When the new Lara Croft film was announced, I was personally kind of optimistic when I saw the trailer for it and especially when I heard about the casting of Alicia Vikander, the Oscar winning actress of the Danish Girl being placed into the lead role. It ultimately also came down to the director and that’s where it gets kind of interesting. The film is directed by Roar Uthaug, a Norwegian film director with a somewhat middling career. From what I have gathered, because I have never seen any of his films, he has never made anything terrible, but he has also never made anything great either. But again, that is based purely on other’s opinions. So, how does this new Tomb Raider turn out?

Tomb Raider, as usual is the story of Lara Croft, played by Alicia Vikander who after the disappearance of her father Lord Richard Croft on an expedition, played by Dominic West, goes to find him in the hopes of bringing him home, if he is still alive out there, or at least discover what fated him, after being presented with his last puzzle to her by her guardian Ana Miller, played by Kristin Scott Thomas. This leads her to an island in Japan, where a group called Trinity, whose intention is to uncover the Tomb of the deadly Japanese Queen, who supposedly can be the lord of death, led by Mathias Vogel, played by Walton Goggins.

Yes, that’s pretty much the film in a nutshell. Tomb Raider is not really breaking many clichés. It does them very well, but don’t go into this expecting anything new. The film is largely based off the recent rebooted games, which is hardly surprising, considering Square Enix, the current holders for the licence were involved in the production. As a result, people familiar with the previous film might be surprised by certain aspects of this character. For example, the new games sort of dropped her double pistols in favour of a bow and arrow, which she used for most of this film. The character is also not as confident as the Angelina Jolie character, since this is a character just starting out. One of the things I really appreciated about this film is that they didn’t go down the route of the first film of Lara being pure sex appeal and wish fulfilment. They actually give a lot more of a character to her, again which is rather indicative of the recent rebooted video game franchise. There certainly are elements of the previous incarnation and a lot of her back story has been brought back for it. The new games though give a sense of survivalist, rather than just an archaeologist, which is rather reflected in the film since it takes quite a long time into the film to get to the tomb. The film runs at one hundred and eighteen minutes in total, but it does take quite a while for anything plot significant to happen. I think this is down to a couple of factors, the major one being that this film has to introduce Lara Croft, introduce this world and get us to know the cast pretty well. It does a decent job of it and that’s where I think the film truly succeeds. Some of the best action sequences are quite early on, including a very good cycle chase throughout London at the beginning and a par ore running scene in the dock of Hong Kong is also another great one. Despite having a Norwegian director, the film feels very British in a sense, and it’s not just down to the casting of Alicia Vikander and Dominic West, other cream of the crop British talent seem to be turning up for the film, including the previously mention Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi and even Nick Frost has a cameo in the film because all of these movies seem to want to have a cameo from a well known celebrity nerd.

The film also shoots London incredibly well. Many films, both British and abroad tend to over romanticise London and don’t really portray large side of it, the Paddington films for example certainly do this, but I let that one slide because it’s meant to be based on a children’s book. Tomb Raider probably does a really good job of showing the various contrasts to the city and the location shots are done incredibly well. I fear for the amount of people that had to take the tube to work because they had to close the roads for the previously mentioned bike chase scene, considering just how many cyclists were involved in it.

But if there is one thing that really makes this film excel, it’s Lara herself. Vikander clearly shows in interviews how much she cares about the character and does a very good portraying her. Unlike the Jolie performance, she does show the character having flaws and fears and she plays this role very well. I also, really want to say that she did a phenomenal job getting into shape for the role and did some excellent training since she does an excellent job in the action scenes. Her dedication to the character definitely succeeds. Where she is let down, however, is with the editor. Now some of these scenes are shot fantastically and when they are on point they are phenomenal, this film has some excellent tracking shots and when scenes are allowed to just play, they work out quite well. The problem is that some of the scenes were edited appallingly, some scenes have way too many quick cuts, so as a result it’s very difficult to tell what is going on since by the time you come to your senses of what angle we are seeing the scene at now, the thing has already happened. If you are going to put that much effort into getting Vikander to do all of these stunts, some of which she had to do reshoots for, you could at least do a good job editing those scenes to show the effort that was put in to choreographing them. I will say, this is a minor complaint and none of the action scenes are wholly bad.

I think many people will be surprised that this Tomb Raider film is based on Japanese Mythology, though I suspect this is also a concession to Asian audiences since it was a co-production with Square Enix. I actually found it very surprising that a film about Japanese Mythology didn’t have any Japanese actors. I don’t understand why the villain augmentation didn’t bring on anyone who can speak Japanese when breaking into an ancient Japanese tomb. Real smart guys!!

There is not much of a supporting cast in this film. Daniel Wu is pretty good in his role, playing the ships captain who takes Lara to the island, even if he has one of the quickest character turns that I have seen and a lot of aspects of his character aren’t really addressed all that much, and I know Walton Goggins is trying his best, but he is playing a boring villain. He actually starts out quite interesting and early on I thought he was going to be a good villain. But good god, he gets boring really fast and he ultimately feels rather ineffective since he doesn’t really do much in the film. He ultimately has a motive that he doesn’t really care what is in the tomb, he just wants to bring something back to his bosses so he can go home to his family. But this creates total whiplash. On the one hand they want us to think of him as an evil villain that we want to hate, but at the same time they want us to by sympathetic to his motives and you can’t have it both ways. It’s what I like to refer to as Danny DeVito playing the Penguin syndrome.

The plot is also really kind of start stop in this film as well. It felt like some portions of the film were really just like one long action scene, but I will say they at least captured the look and the feel of Tomb Raider, many video games do make attempts but ultimately fail in that regard, I am looking at you Assassin’s Creed film!! But at least this one feels like it has been thought through. Some of the set designs and some of the scenes look like they were taken directly out of the game and it is clear the directors and the writers understood their source material.

In short, I think Tomb Raider is pretty good, I don’t think it’s great all things considered, the pacing of the film doesn’t quite work and the plot has the attitude of ‘just do an action scene to keep it going, because it’s actually quite thin’ and there are lots of portions that kind of don’t make sense, but I think it’s pretty good, all things considered. It was certainly better than I was expecting. Vikander is pretty good in the lead role and I wouldn’t mind seeing her play Lara again in some capacity. Whilst the film’s action scenes are compromised in some places they are ultimately pretty decently made, there are some good tracking shots, the acting is pretty decent from the rest of the board. If it had better villains I think I would have given this one a bit more of a pass. But ultimately, this was better than I was expecting and I think anyone on the fence about this one should give it a go. By the way do not see this film in 3D like I did, some of these shots are so dark, the 3D glasses make them almost impossible to see, for the love of god, how many times do I have to say “3D works well when there is plenty of light so the darkening effect of the glasses doesn’t compromise your film viewing”, why is that so difficult to understand!! The film does close with a mid-credit scene and there is set up for the possibility if a sequel, and I would certainly like to see one, because I honestly preferred this film to both of the Angelina Jolie films, simply because I think this had a much better main character.

Next time, I review Pacific Rim Uprising.

“GAME NIGHT”

Ok, full disclosure, I picked Game Night for the very specific reason that the trailer led me to believe the film might have some interesting twists. The film potentially has an interesting concept and while the trailer did not completely sell me, I thought it could go so either way, it might be worth a watch.

The film is directed by the team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the writing team behind Spiderman Homecoming, which is a film I rather enjoyed, however, they have not been involved in writing credits, that credit goes to Mark Perez, a rather hack writer, who hasn’t done any work in eight years! His last job being writing and directing, from what I have heard, the rather average TV movie Black Nine, but this guy’s credits also include developing the story for Herbie Fully Loaded and writing the screenplay for the awful Country Bears movie.

So, the question really comes, did Game Night have it’s interesting twists or was it another bland American comedy like I was expecting.

Filmed about a couple, Max and Annie, played by Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams respectively, an overly competitive couple who are brought together by their love of games of all sorts, board games, trivia games, video games, you name it. They host regular game nights, however, Max’s brother Brooks, played by Kyle Chandler takes over hosting duty for once and sets up a murder mystery themed party. He invites the other members of the group, including Ryan played by Billy Magnussen who is partnered with work colleague Sarah played by Sharon Horgan and husband and wife team Kevin and Michelle, played by Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury. They are told that one member of the group is going to get taken by a team of actors and it is the other’s job to find them. However, after Brooks is taken, the group realise that it is not a play and he has genuinely been taken and it races on to get Brooks back and deal with the kidnappers.

Ok, if you are going into this expecting there to be anything more than what you are expecting, for this film to be really smart and blur lines of what is real and what is not, don’t!! The film firmly establishes early on what is real and what isn’t and it never makes much of a play to separate the two out. In fact, the film is very un-original, but it is at least very candid in that, since it makes a lot of references to the movies it is parodying, with the exception of the David Fincher movie The Game, which it is very clearly trying to live up to, someone should tell these directors that they are not David Fincher! You know when people say that films feel like they are coming off a factory line, this is one of the films they are talking about. Ok, granted, some films can bar the trend, some have already come out this year, however, I am not certain this is one of them. This definitely feels like it should have come out in the January/February dread to make fact that there was little competition. It should not have been coming out the same time that Black Panther was in cinemas, which I think will ultimately lead to its failure at the Box Office.

Game Night feels like many other American comedies that are out like it, if you have seen a lot of American comedies, this is nothing different. Sharon Horgan may be the exception to the rule since she is the only non-American cast member of the group, but her casting feels like its pandering to International audiences, which they never should have tried for in the first place. That’s not to say I dislike all American comedies, far from it, some of my favourite comedy films came from America and some of these films buck the trend. Game Night is not one of them, this is one of those films you would expect Jason Bateman to be in. He plays these roles with a real smug depreciation to him, as in, he knows this isn’t great, but this is the sort of role he can play. Bateman is fine in this role, he suits comedy quite well, but I am beginning to feel that the films he is appearing in are becoming so ‘samey’, they are beginning to merge into one. In case anyone wants an example of an American comedy that bucks the trend I kind of enjoyed, then look no further than the Dwaine Johnson, Kevin Smith vehicle Central Intelligence, which, while nothing great was better than I was expecting it to be.

Now I sound like I am bashing the film, but I am not doing that. There are some genuinely funny jokes in this film, I probably laughed to at least half of the, but the gags don’t exactly work all the time, because they are too broad and often don’t make much sense, or the running gags will go on too long. The particular case being a fight between Kevin and Michelle over discovering that Michelle slept with a celebrity and Kevin trying to guess which one it is, is particularly groan inducing since it goes absolutely nowhere. There are also a few gags that are so signposted, but they are just waiting for the actors to walk into it. Rachel McAdams particularly gets a few of these and you feel so sorry for her, she is a genuinely good actress that you wonder what she has done being reduced to this. In the short, when the gags hit, they hit well, when they miss, they miss by a mile and there are more misses than hits. If I was to talk about a big hit, it would be Jesse Plemons role as the creepy neighbourhood cop Gay who wants to get invited to the Games Night since his wife divorced him. He is a scene stealer in every single scene he is in, because Jesse clearly understands that gags like this are done best when actors play it straight. One of my big problems with American comedy films is that they are often scripted so that the characters know what they are doing is funny, which reminds me of the great Eric Morcambe quote, which he said to Andre Previn before their famous sketch, which as “we three must not know that what we are doing is funny, no matter what” ! That’s not to say that I think British comedies are better, oh no, we have exactly the same trappings, we just do it differently. For example, I am very sick and tired of British cringe comedy of “oh isn’t this an embarrassing situation”, it got old real fast.

My particular problem with this one, however, is it is a film that pretends it is smarter than it is. This film is never going to reach Gone Girl heights of layers upon layers of plot and the film never pretends it’s gone that far, but it does pretend it’s smarter than it really is. I think this film would have done better had it been a bit more broader in certain areas, but it ultimately feels like it is trying too hard. This is definitely in the casting of Kyle Chandler, who is a fantastic actor, who deserves way better than to be in this and is clearly not bringing his A material into this role. For god’s sake man, I saw you in Manchester By the Sea and you were fantastic in that movie. What happened here??

The film is the height of stupidity towards the end. Granted, there is an excellent scene involving sneaking a Faberge Egg out of a rich tycoon’s house that involves a fantastic running shot that has had some very good editing done to make it look like it was shot in one take, you might have fooled me if you hadn’t made some of the cuts a bit obvious, including one that was particularly obvious!! However, it then tries to have a few twists, which ultimately fail the film and by the ending resolution, feel entirely pointless. Even Jesse loses what was funny about him at this point, for Christ’s sake man, you were great in Black Mirror and Black mask and you were doing so well here, what happened?? The ending felt ultimately stupid and like nothing had been accomplished. Plus, the cameos were really strange. Danny Huston makes an appearance in the film and seems like he not bothered to be there at all and Dexter himself, Michael C Hall shows up for about ten minutes, only to be completely wasted and given absolutely nothing funny to do.

The acting all around is rather decent at times and I have seen these actors be funny in other things, but they don’t tend to do so well here. Sharon Horgan for example is very funny in most of her British TV appearances that I have seen her in, however, here, she is not given enough good material to work with and despite being partnered with Billy Magnusson, they don’t have very much chemistry on screen and they are a very unbelievable couple. As a result of all this, the film might have a few laughs, but it is ultimately rather a mess.

Game Night is ultimately a film that pretends it is different to its contemporary’s tries way too hard and only has so many good gags in it. It is not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, it did have a few funny moments, but it ultimately feels like a rather flawed and devoid experience that you are going to forget very quickly. It’s not helped by the fact that the film is trying too hard to be a parody of David Finch’s The Game, without really understanding what made that film as good as it did. As a result, it is a mess. Whilst I do respect parts of it, it really does not deserve it’s eighty-two percent on Rotten Tomatoes, something is up with that score!

Well if you think that is enough for me and comedy for a while, then don’t hold your breath, next week I am going to be talking about another comedy film, based on a trailer that looked very good for me, in what I reckon will be a very interesting film as I see Gringo, starring David Oyelowo.

“BATMAN: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT”

Whilst this isn’t the first DC animated film to be an elseworld story, it’s the first one to be based on an existing elseworld storyline. The concept of an elseworld is that you take familiar characters but change them around or place them in a situation not unlike their own situation, very different to what you would expect. Such as, Superman Red Son which imagined Superman landing in Russia as opposed to America or Batman and Dracula Red Rain where Batman becomes a vampire. In fact, Batman is often the target since his world and cast of characters really suit it well.

Gotham By Gaslight was the very first elseworld story so it makes sense to adapt this one first, with Sam Liu returning to direct. I was wondering how DC were going to adapt Gotham By Gaslight, seeing as how it’s such a short comic, not really conducive for anything outside of an animated short, possibly thirteen minutes long. So, it was obvious that the source material was going to be stretched to fit the one hour ten minute running time.

With all that being said, how did Gotham By Gaslight turn out?

Gotham By Gaslight is a very simple story. The streets are being stalked by a killer calling himself Jack the Ripper and on his trail is Batman, played by Bruce Greenwood as well as a cabaret performer Selina Kyle, played by Jennifer Carpenter. Batman works hard to unmask the identity of the Ripper and prevent any more murders from taking place. Yes, it is a very simple story, it’s basically Batman in a Victorian version of Gotham hunting down Jack the Ripper.

For someone who is very knowledgeable on the subject of Jack the Ripper, I was very interested to see just how well researched the movie is. There are certainly a few Easter Eggs for people familiar with the subject. But the big question really is how would they adapt the graphic novel. Well, considering how many changes have been made from the graphic novel, I would say remarkably well. The biggest changes are several character additions, that simply were not in the original novel, such as Hugo Strange, Selina Kyle and Poison Ivy, the latter of which becomes a murder victim. It also accomplishes what the graphic novel achieved, was not to dis-enhance how brutal Jack the Rippers crimes were. He still kills street prostitutes in horrific fashion and there is actual commentary on the times. However, I also feel some people will be a bit annoyed by a lot of aspects of the case, considering how this one is very different in many ways to the actual case. No while the film does do a good job of implementing a Victorian era of Batman and actually managed to amazingly not resort to over-use of steam punk gadgets, it does also have a lot of interesting ideas of how to work the characters. For example, Selina Kyle, they go for a proto-suffragette role which would not be out of place with the woman who becomes Cat Woman. Hugo Strange has delusional ideas of mental health treatment that wouldn’t be out of place in the time and there are all sorts of talks about them being on the cusp of new technologies with the turn of century coming soon.

Overall, I would say this is a pretty good Batman story. They certainly play up the investigative side rather than the vigilante side, which is pretty apt considering there is only one villain in this one. I personally felt that I liked the rivalry between Batman and Jack the Ripper. Overall, it’s a very well-crafted story. I think this is one of the best version of Selina Kyle in a long time for example and I was thoroughly amazed at the animation which has lovingly recreated the comic and setting. Plus, the soundtrack is brilliant, suitably fitting the time, including an excellent musical performance in the middle of the film. The animation also does an excellent job of doing some great action scenes, which certainly do not feel out of place with typical Batman movies, however, it also manages to work the environment of the Victorian period in very well.

Gotham by Gaslight also has a terrific cast, including Bruce Greenwood reprising his role as Batman, who you probably recognise as playing the character in both the Young Justice TV series and in probably my favourite Batman movie ever, Under the Red Hood. He once again gets back in the role brilliantly, he is probably the best actor to play the role outside of Kevin Conroy. Jennifer Carpenter makes an excellent Selina Kyle and is one of the best actresses to play the role. Special mention should go to Anthony Head, who you may recognise as Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mr Finch in Dr Who, The Prime Minister in Little Britain as Alfred Pennyworth, and he is actually really great at this role. He should seriously be considered for playing this role in the future, he is absolutely great in it, the problem is he is not given enough scenes to really work it but I was actually surprised as to how well he did. Scott Patterson from the Saw movies does well as this world’s version of James Gordon and I really liked Uri Lowenthal as Harvey Dent. In fact, most of the cast are made up of typical voice actors, such as John DiMaggio, who plays Chief Bullock, Tara Strong in multiple role and some particularly great performances from Kari Wuhrer.

Now, that being said, at this point I do have to go into some negatives because Gotham By Gaslight has a couple of them.

For a start, despite the fact that they actually did adapt the comic well I don’t think the design of the Bat suits for this film translated very well and I think it would have suited better sticking closer to the comic. I also think the ending is amazing. The movie gives several red herrings to the identity of Jack the Ripper and when it finally decides on one, well granted it’s a decent twist and we never see it coming, there were no sole hints throughout the film that suggested this was a possibility. Though it does lead to some excellent scenes, it’s ultimate good idea, you should have built it up a bit more. There is no real “ah ah”  moment, it’s like “ok what” ! Plus, this has one of the most abrupt ending of any DC animated film. It doesn’t really conclude, it more just ends with several plot points left dangling.

As a result, the film does an amazing routine before it fails to stick the landing and it’s a dam shame because Gotham By Gaslight was potentially one of the best DC animated films to date. It this is to set a new trend for DC animated to produce more films based on their elseworld, I would be completely for it, since Gotham By Gaslight is a pretty decent film with some very good action and very good characters. I would have said it was an excellent film if it’s ending had been slightly better, but as is, this is still a good film that I would recommend you check out. I personally would like to see a film like Superman The Red Son get developed and if you are worried about going into this film if you have a squeamish nature, don’t worry this film never goes all out with the gore.

The DC animated films return later this year with a Suicide Squad film, which I have some expectation for, but considering how badly the Suicide Squad is being handled at the minute, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Well, that’s me done for another week.

“BLACK PANTHER”

Black Panther is a hell of a milestone for the MCU at this point, considering that it is not only the first of these films to be fronted by a black superhero and a predominantly black cast, but it is also the final film in prep before the Infinity War, which will premiere in April. Black Panther may not be making his first appearance in the MCU, having appeared in 2016 Captain America Civil War, but we only really got a sense of the character, we didn’t get a sense of his world, for a lack of a better term. Not that the MCU hadn’t mentioned various factors around Black Panther, for example Age of Ultron featured a fight scene in the fictional African nation of Wakanda.

So, how does Black Panther close up the gap of the MCU leading into Infinity War.

Black Panther has got to be one of the most brisk Marvel films I have seen in a while. The film definitely does not feel like it has the two hour fifteen minute running time that it is confirmed to have. Maybe it’s getting to a stage where these Marvel films have gotten too formulated that they seem to be brisking through them. It also seems like many actors are now getting their characters killed off because they don’t want to be tied down to contracts, without giving too much away, I am beginning to notice that many are signing up for roles which they will not be able to return from. Black Panther, however, is a pretty good film. Despite the fact that it doesn’t feel like a nearly two and a half hour film, it doesn’t feel like a film that I am bored at any point watching or I am annoyed at any point watching. It actually kind of fits the characters quite well since this film feels very isolated from the MCU. There’s no real cameos from any of the Avengers at this point in the film and most of the film takes place in the fictional African nation. In fact, the only connection to the MCU are some flashbacks to events in Civil War and the inclusion of Martin Freeman playing Everett K Ross, his character from Civil War, who finally gets a more prominent role in this film, which I am personally quite glad for, since I was actually wondering what was the point in bringing Martin Freeman into this very minor role in the MCU that didn’t have much room for him to expand was, considering how much of a big name he has become with the success of both Sherlock and the Hobbit Trilogy.

The main Superhero, however, is one that I am actually enjoying this time around. I haven’t read much Black Panther, but I am aware of the character and I especially enjoyed the character in The Avengers Animated Series, Earth’s Mightiest Hero’s. However, I think some people might be disappoint by just how much Black Panther there is in this movie, considering he is not on screen in the costume for that many scenes. However, when he is, they really are some of the best scenes of the film. I am also kind of amazed by just how well the story kind of sets up its cast of character, its location and its story line. The MCU films have always had an issue of feeling like they have been trying to pander to the whole shared Universe concept at the expense of its own film. Something that Black Panther does not get wrong where a film like Batman V Superman did get wrong with its respective shared Universe and particularly in the case in The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, which attempted to set up its dark Universe. This actually rather surprised me in a sense considering that I was expecting there to be some massive tie-ins to Infinity War, but it is surprisingly self-contained, which I found even more surpising considering that judging by the trailers, Wakunda is going to play a big part in Infinity War and considering how big the cast of characters are going to be for that film, you can only imagine.

The side characters in this film are all genuinely rather interesting, though I think the scene stealing character is Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o who could easily have just been a generic love interest, but is actually proved to be one helluva ass kicking machine. I would also like to point out Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, who really throws herself into this performance and of course we have our comic relief from T’Challa’s sister Shuri who is played by Letitia Wright, who you may recognise from being in an episode of Black Mirror, and luckily her career has recovered after being in The Commuter. I also was surprised to find the Oscar nominated actor Daniel Kaluuya, as W’Kabi in this, who played the lead role in Get Out, which earnt him the Oscar nomination. He has proven that not only can he do an American accent he apparently can do a very good African accent as well. The side characters deliver some interesting and various contributions to the performances, but they don’t detract from the main Superhero. Now I will give Black Panther credit on one thing, it does try to address one of the problems the MCU has had up to this point, and tries to have a good balance between the hero and the villain, since past villains have been ‘not exactly great’ and I will admit that Michael B Jordan does his best to deliver a good performance and play a good version of Killmonger. Killmonger was a good choice of villain and they kept most of his origin story intact, with a slight few tweeks to make it a more personal story to T’Challa, but I digress. The problem is that I think with a lot of focus on him, we realise his plan makes no sense! Without spoiling anything, he is expecting to do something that would be something very big that wouldn’t have any consequences with the outside world and has no guarantee of actually working. They definitely got down the character’s motivation well, but let’s just say, I will not be adding him to the list of the MCU villains that I really like, such as Wilson Fisk in Daredevil, Killgrave in Jessica Jones, Loci from Thor and the Avenger’s movies and Zemo from Captain America Civil War.

Ok, so the villain is not that great but I will say they get the hero story down well. I was wondering if they could get a decent character arc out of Black Panther, since they got such a big character arc out of him in Captain America Civil War, I am pleased to say, however, they get a very good arc out of him and it’s a very personal one. Something I think the MCU has kind of struggled with outside of the Captain America films. You can’t criticise the MCU for getting its hero’s right and its villains not so well when it is working quite well at this point in time and I do keep enjoying these films coming back. Plus Chadwick Boseman delivers an excellent performance in this role.

Right, let’s get to the action scenes. They don’t start out very well at all, with some very appalling editing, but they do fix it up later down the line along with some excellent scenes. A tracking shot with a fight scene in a casino springs to mind and for the most part the action scenes are well and contain some awesome set pieces. But, here’s my big advice for the love of God, DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IN 3D. I saw the film in 2D, there were some scenes that were shot so dark I was struggling to tell what was going on and I believe if you were wearing the 3D glasses, the darkening effect of them would make it almost impossible to see. I suspect many of the scenes work quite well in the third dimension, but I would not recommend it in that format.

Black Panther is a very good entry into the MCU franchise, something I dramatically enjoyed and was a good film to keep me going until Infinity War comes out in a couple of months. It has some decent action scenes, the storyline is pretty good, if not having a bit of a weak villain, since his plot doesn’t make much sense and the acting is all round pretty good. Especially considering that many of the scenes had to be acted in kosser. (Please note I don’t actually know if it was kosser, but I detected a hint of it, I apologise if I got that wrong). This is one of the better Superhero films to come out in recent memory and I really liked it.

I am moving away from Marvel next week and I am going to DC as I go back to my yearly tradition of reviewing all the DC Animated films, by reviewing Batman, Gotham by Gaslight.

“THE 15:17 TO PARIS”

Yes, I know I was supposed to review Winchester, but the film had done so poor with the critics on its opening week that there were virtually no screenings in Liverpool, I found one screening at 11.00pm for 2 days at the weekend. I have no ride home, no thanks. I enjoy doing this but I am not willing to pay for a taxi at a cost of £50.00 at 1.00am.

So, I decided to pick the first film I could see on the board that qualified. There wasn’t 50 Shades Freed!!! I’ve managed to maintain this idea that I wasn’t going to review any of the 50 Shades movies, and I have managed to stick to that!

Now I knew virtually nothing about this film, I have only just found out about its existence. The 15:17 to Paris is an extraordinary true story about three guys that were travelling across Europe from America, (technically, there are about four or five of them involved in the big part of the story, but they don’t get much of a mention in this film, which is why I have left them out). The boarded a train from Amsterdam to Paris. At the same time, they stopped a lone gunman who started an attack on the train and they managed to subdue him long enough for the authorities to deal with it.

Now it is a hell of a story of true heroism, and who took on the story of true American heroes, well, Clint Eastwood of course because he hasn’t done enough of those films lately. Seriously, the guy is now three for three with American Sniper and the previously reviewed Sully. Seriously, Clint please do a different film!! I have talked a lot about Clint Eastwood’s directing style in my Sully review, so if you want to know my thoughts about him as a director in bigger detail, go and read that review. In short, I think he is a decent director, but he cannot avoid keeping his politics out of his films and I think it is often to the films detriment, which was the case in Sully and especially in American Sniper, which other directors who has seemed interested in the project seemed to have more interesting ways to go with the film. Yes, in case you can’t tell, I am not much of a fan of the film American Sniper.

The 15:17 to Paris was going to be just a normal biopic, however, it’s different in the fact that this one had the original three guys who were involved in it playing themselves. Something that I though was a bit of a weird decision. You often will hire people to play these roles, but when I decided to pick this up, after doing my brief research of it, I was interested to see where Clint would go with this. Because of the way this film is structured and the fact that most of what I have talked about in this opening segment, I am not going to go into this film with the same structure that I normally review my films with. Since I don’t believe that it would serve the purpose and the way I want to talk about this film is slightly different.

Off the bat, there is a lot to talk discuss about this film. Clint, on the one hand does succeed on a lot of levels. The scenes on the train are actually very good. They are very well handled, feel very real and obviously come from not just the consultation with the guys, but their own personal experience. The sets are decent and well designed as well, when sets are actually used, I will get into that in more detail later. The fact of the matter is though, the title is a little misleading, since, well, it’s not really about the train ride. The train ride itself only takes up about ten minutes at the end of the film, at most. You know how many people say that a lot of films based on true stories twist the events too much and are not true to life, it’s all lies, lies, lies, it didn’t happen like this, it didn’t happen like that. They often have to do that to make a decent story structure, some of that embellishment is alright. I always think it is ok as long as they stick within the boundaries of what happened and often they fix stories which were interesting enough to actually warrant making slight embellishments. For example, I really enjoyed the film The Disaster Artist, but the reason that worked as a biopic was because there was a decent story with various events that happened along the way. It wasn’t just the fact that they were filming the room. The problem with this story is that there is not too much to it.

The story can really be discussed in three or four stages. There was, when they were kids, about 11-14, which is kind of an interesting part and we see a lot about them and the child actors they get do a decent job in their roles. We see them becoming friends, their back stories and the trouble they get into at school. It’s also where a lot of the more known actors appear, though, granted, most of them are known for being on American Television. Then we get into the various military training for the two, mainly Spencer and Alek, the latter of which did actually serve in Afghanistan. Then we are basically in their holiday. Yes, that is basically it, not much actually happens, they are just on holiday, it’s like watching someone’s holiday video on YouTube. Hell, I have seen holiday videos on YouTube more interesting. I could have watched several Vlogs from Fun for Louis and I would have had a more interesting time. Seriously though, check out his Vlog, it’s amazingly more fun than you would expect. I have actually become addicted to watching it.

By the time we get to the actual incident, I was bored out of my skull! Because it is so authentic to life, there is not enough time to depict the incident and as a result the film is padded to hell. This film either needed to change its focus and make certain embellishments or was just outright a bad idea from the start. I seriously can’t recall a film I have seen in recent memory that was so padded with unnecessary rubbish! Half of this film is pure padding. They go to Venice, nothing happens! Next, they are in Germany, nothing happens! Amsterdam, they go for a night out. I was getting my hopes up when they meet a fellow traveller in Venice, but nothing happens there! They just hang out with her for a while. Well, it’s just reliving the holiday. Granted, they did get the rights to film in many cases in the actual locations, which meant the studio must have hated the amount of travel expenses that added up. Thanks to this film I now know the Trevi fountain has reopened, which means I need to go back to Rome at some point. But I can’t tell you how bored I was watching this film.

It’s an extraordinary story, but I think I would have been better invested if I had seen this as a documentary, which was what Mark Commode suggested. Seeing a story like this does mean that more people will see this and take more from it and as we learn about the story, for that it is fine. But for the love of god this film is so droll.

As I mentioned, it does have its highlights. The kids acting is alright and the genuine guys give good performances, but then again, they are playing themselves so it’s not like they have to stretch themselves. The blame of this film does not lie with them. The blame really lies with whoever set up this film’s structure, which is a fundamental problem.

Not to mention this film feels a lot longer than it actually is. The film comes in at one hour thirty-five minutes, but it feels like it goes on for about two hours, and not in a good way. There is also not much to talk about what happened after the event, which I am very surprised about. Especially considering that the film opens up a ton of plot points about the guys which I assumed were going to be followed up on. For example, Spencer moving between different aspects of the Army who he is training for. Did Alek go back Afghanistan. What is going on with Anthony. I genuinely don’t know what happened after the events. Now granted, what these guys did was amazing, he had so many rounds on him it was estimated that he could have probably killed everyone on the train and it would have been a disaster, luckily only one guy was shot and he did manage to pull through. By the time we get to the incident, it’s too little too late.

The other thing I will say about this film is that I did enjoy cinematography. This is a very well shot film and I could believe I was watching these guy’s home movie, but I would rather not have watched these guys home movie, I would want to watch an actual movie. That’s about it, that’s all I have got about this film, I don’t have anything else to say.

The 15:17 to Paris is a decent attempt at an idea for a film but it is fundamentally flawed from the start. This film’s structure leads it to being a boring mess that doesn’t amount to much. The film starts out alright and has a decent ending, but by the time we actually get there, it’s too little, too late, because it’s droll middle portion that goes absolutely nowhere, which is ironic considering it’s about travelling across Europe. I commend Clint Eastwood’s idea with this film, but it needed a better structure and it needed another re-write.

Well, no question about what is coming up next week, I am getting away from Clint Eastwood and I am going back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, I am reviewing the first Superhero movie to be fronted by a black Superhero, Black Panther.

Thank a lot for reading my review. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and I am surprised I didn’t mention anything about taking the train to work today after seeing this film!!