Review : Wonder Woman

“Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny.”

So just for full disclosure, I’ve had Wonder Woman’s theme as my phone ring tone, for like a year now, needless to say I have been nothing but super hyped waiting for this movie, and my expectations were super high. All that being said, this movie is pretty awesome. Gal Gadot, is honestly the greatest incarnation of the character we have ever gotten, and she brings everything to the role. She’s absolutely stunning, she brings the physicality, and she does excellent at playing both the strong, soft, and funny moments. However, she does have some help in here in a fantastically played secondary character in Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor. The two had a great chemistry and they played extremely well off of each other, especially in the softer more quiet moments in here. And even for all the great action in here, a lot of the best scene are honestly these soft, quiet, and subtle scenes between Chris and Gal (and some others with the other supporting cast). Like I said before though, the action in this movie is here, and its very well done. The film itself is also absolutely stunning when it needs and wants to be, doing a great job at juxtaposing the colour and vibrance of places like Themyscira, against the drab and dull world of man and of war. Wonder Woman is truly a film firing on all cylinders here, from acting, to action, and everything in-between. All in all, I think this movie will be a bit of a game changer, and come Monday, will likely be the most successful female directed and lead film we’ve ever seen. Go see it right now!

Review Score : 9 out of 10

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

“Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ continues the team’s adventures as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage.”

Guardians 2 takes us back to the most unique corner of the Marvel cinematic universe, and it does so with some style. This movie is very much like the movie before it, but its also somewhat of the complete opposite to the previous film. What I mean by that, is that Guardians 2 takes the team and the story line to a place where the first movie never went as far as character development, and the relationships between them. The movie here while it tells also a smaller story, it still tells one that has universal consequences. All the main characters are back here, plus some new team members that add a surprising amount of heart and life to the team, and movie, that could have felt a little flat in parts if we only had the original cast here. This is also most certainly the most isolated of all the Marvel movies, especially with the story told in this second movie, which is good and bad. On the one hand, it does help keep the story trim and tight, but it also makes the movie devoid of that extra spark that playing off of all the previous movies in the universe brings. All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, brings us another great soundtrack, some truly special and spectacular visual effects, and a real sense of family, but something about just seems to lack that little bit extra that the first movie had. Also, there are like 5 after/post/mid/during credit scenes here, so sit back relax and enjoy that.

Review Score: 7.5 out of 10

Review : Sausage Party

“A sausage strives to discover the truth about his existence.”

Simple premiss, solid execution, but this movie is a great example of it would have been better without the trailer, but without the trailer no one would see it. If you’re like me, and the trailers for this movie had you rolling across the floor, then you will enjoy Sausage Party, but you will feel somewhat let down I think. To be clear the movie is funny, and does have funny moments, but a lot of them have already been seen, and there is also just a lot of connective tissue in this movie that just isn’t super funny. This movie is also most certainly rated R, and it goes everywhere you think it could and beyond. At points that raunchiness seems a bit forced just to push the envelope, but at other times it fits perfectly with the sick and twisted world created for these walking, talking and everything elseing grocery items. The movie does make great use of its soundtrack and those songs come in at perfect times. They also do well to play on popular stereo types and some good play on words action. All in all, Sausage Party I’d say is a success, and is funny, but if you’re going in there with high expectations like I was, be prepared for a let down.

Review Score : 6.5 out of 10

 

Review : Suicide Squad

“A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency.”

To address the Elephant in the room, no this movie isn’t as bad as all those early reviews said, but it isn’t amazing either. So this movie really is a mixed bag. On one hand, this is genuinely the first time we get to see these kind of adaptations of some fan favourite characters, and seeing that in itself is a great thing. They also don’t hold back on the weirdness and strangeness that make a lot of these characters so compelling. Most everyone here really does a good job with their individual characters, and through one way or another we get deeper looks into most of the cast, and why they may be the way they are. This movie however isn’t without problems or faults. The biggest of those being the storytelling, not the plot, but the way David Ayer seeks to tell the story itself. That narrative execution can get pretty messy at times, giving the movie a very cut and jump feeling at times, where some scenes seem to just come out of no where and just as quickly, are gone again. When the movie is set on its path its fine, it when it takes some of it detours that it can get sloppy, which is really a shame because it keeps this movie from truly living up to its full potential. All in all, its still worth a look, especially if you’re a fan of these characters and are interested in seeing them come to life on the biggest screen.

Review Score : 7 out of 10

Review : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Out of the shadows

“As Shredder joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady to take over the world, the Turtles must confront an even greater nemesis: the notorious Krang.”

Megan Fox is hot, things explode, everything is ridiculous, all facts about the brand new TMNT: Out of the Shadows. Now I know many of you are probably wondering what I really expected from this movie, and honestly, not much. The first movie I honestly enjoyed more than I though I would, and I was hoping for similar from this movie, and more or less I was let down. From the very start, this movie is absolutely over the top crazy. Every, and  I mean EVERY character in this movie is an absolute caricature of themselves and what they could be. There isn’t any of the heart that the first movie had. The plot is more or less just excuse after excuse for action set pieces, which would be fine if the scenes seemed impactful or fun, but they weren’t. The movie itself moves at this break neck pace, that does nothing to help with any of these problems. All this movie is concerned with, is making sure Megan Fox always looks good (and she does so congrats there), and making shiny things explode and telling all its actors to shout all the time about any and everything.

Review Score : 3.5 out of 10

Review: X-Men Apocalypse

“With the emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan.”

All trilogies face a very difficult proposition. They are always meant to build from the first to the last, getting better and better as we go. However, most times the final movie in trilogies tends to be a let down, and the question now is… is X-Men apocalypse one of those? Yes and no. To just get over it from the start, this movie is not as good as Days of future past, but that was an incredibly high bar to try and overcome. It does do a good job at trying to get there though. This movie does live up to his name however, on delivering on both the character Apocalypse, and giving us an actual Apocalyptic event which raises the stakes from the last two movies. That being said, thats not to say this isn’t a good movie, but it does lack the lustre of its last two counterparts. The movie does give us some nice set pieces and it really does deliver in the emotional components, but it just seems to be lacking something. The shine of the past two movies does get a bit dulled here, amidst some scenes that were supremely well done in an overall movie that I do like a lot, but for some reason it just can’t reach that peak of potential. The casting here is also really well done, its nice to see a new lease on life for characters like Jean Grey and Cyclops, whom haven’t always had the best goes at it. This all might sound like a lot of gloom and doom, but I really need to reiterate how much I do like this movie. All in all, I think X-Men Apocalypse is one of those movies that I like now, but will like more as time goes by, and even if it won’t get to the Days of Future Past level, I do think it warrants this trilogy’s legitimacy in the best of what this genre has to offer.

Review Score: 8 out of 10

Captain America vs Batman

Now that the much anticipated Captain America: Civil War is out, it got me thinking about what will eventually go down as the best comic book movie trilogy of all time. For the longest time, the Nolan Batman trilogy has pretty much been the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world when it comes to this idea, but now, we truly have a contender to the belt (and a soon to be third possible contender when we get to see X-Men Apocalypse later this month). Now that we have finally seen the full realisation of the Captain America trilogy we can really get into a full comparison of the two. Lets look at the numbers first:

Batman Begins: 48 Million opening weekend (US) and a 374 Million worldwide total earning.

The Dark Knight: 158 Million opening weekend (US) and 1 Billion worldwide total earning.

The Dark Knight Rises: 160 Million opening weekend (US) and 1.1 Billion worldwide total earning.

That gives the Batman trilogy a total of 2.4 Billion earned, with an average opening weekend total of 122 Million.

Captain America The first Avenger: 65 Million opening weekend (US) and 370 Million worldwide total earning.

Captain America The Winter Soldier: 95 Million opening weekend (US) and 714 Million worldwide total earning.

Captain America Civil War: 179 Million opening weekend (US) and currently 767 Million worldwide at current date.

That gives the Captain America trilogy a total of 1.8 Billion currently, with Civil War still having a substantial run in cinemas to complete, and an average opening weekend total of 113 Million.

The movies are pretty close when it comes to dollars, and I fully expect that by the time Civil War is done its cinematic run, the total numbers I referenced above will be much, much closer. Another way we can look at these movies is to compare their relative ratings, and I’ve decided to use what I think most people use and respect as an good rating standard, in there Rottentomatoes scores.

 

Batman                                                                    Captain America

Batman Begins: 85%                                             The First Avenger: 80%

The Dark Knight: 94%                                          The Winter Soldier: 89%

The Dark Knight Rises: 87%                               Civil War: 90%currently

That gives the Batman trilogy an average rating of 89% and the Captain America movies at 86% (baring a big jump in the current rating for Civil War).

So now that you’ve seen all the numbers and stats, do you think the Batman Trilogy still reigns supreme, or has the usurper Captain America taken over?