(film review) - The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story (Short Film)

 

Now this is clever marketing. It was not so long ago that the studio put out an announcement saying that there would be some delays on part 2 of "Across the Spider-Verse" and having seen the latest episode of Invincible, season 2 with the comic book artist/creator stating animation takes a very long time, putting this short film together does two things. Not only does it give the fans a little something from the team at the studio who have been delivering such an amazing story in both Spider-Verse movies, 'Into the Spider-Verse' and 'Across the Spider-Verse Part 1', but this short film also brings to light mental health and how one might feel when they feel they have too much on their plate to deal with and how to go about.

It is known within society that there is this thing about being a man and everything that comes along with being a man. Not to show weakness, not to show emotion, men do not cry. Along with a barrage of other things. Men will tend to bottle things up keeping their "problems" to themselves. Yes, there would be an outlet for some men when they have things on their mind, gaming, creative writing or drawing, gym, jogging or any kind of sport, but at the same time, the problems can still be there. This short film shows Miles trying to battle "The Spider Within" by himself when he could have just hung out with his father. With all the external pressures Miles is going through, juggling life as Spider-Man and as Miles Morales the school student, the pressure gets to him hence why he feels tired and goes to his room. Battling your problems or "demons" on a day-to-day is exhausting and if you are not facing them by talking about them with someone (and this should be someone you trust) this can help ease the pressure and weight of the problems you are carrying on your shoulders/back and help releave some of that stress. Miles leaves his room and talks to his father as they go out to get some fresh air and talk. They say walking is good to help clear your mind, but talking to someone is also very good, so it is implied that Miles will feel a lot better and less stressed having got things off of his chest.

At this point, talking about the graphics/animation, voice acting, music and such, is redundant at this point when you think about how great the movies have been. I guess there is a point to be made that the quality could have dipped for a short film, but the work ethic of the team behind the movies has not dropped and has only got better from the first movie to the sequel. You see a little action, but this short film is more to showcase the pressure Miles is under, how he feels and how he feels overwhelmed. This is a great taster/"filler" for the time being whilst we wait for 'part 2' to be released, but until then this is nice, plus it sends a positive message for all the men out there.

(episode review) - Invincible: Season 2 - Episode 7

With something as good as this show, it is criminal that we only have 8 episodes; there was a break part of the way through and now that it is back and we are only a few episodes in, I feel this show is being ripped away from me. It's like, I just got you back and now you are going away again [insert tear-filled eyes here]. The show is THAT good and this episode is proof of that.

If you have not been following this season, we started off with Mark Grayson depressed and not knowing where he stands in the world now that his father is gone. The city, along with the world is devastated that the famously good superhero Omni-Man, was a bad guy and Mark's father has died. Mark's mother Debbie, is dealing with the events of the finale of the first season badly and has been comforting herself with alcohol; and Cecil is demanding more from Mark because he does not trust him. Not only that, with a lot of time away from school and studying, Mark is struggling to maintain his grades and a relationship with Amber because they lack quality time as he is always off saving the world.

With the rest of the team, Atom-Eve is struggling with her choice of not being a superhero and doesn't see herself being a part of a team anymore. The Immortal does not trust Mark. Rudy is trying to help Beastgirl and her powers which is frustrating her. A Martian shape-shifter is trying to infiltrate the team. Also, a man who wants to save the world and make it a better place gets into an accident when Mark tries to stop the situation which leaves him deformed, full of knowledge from all the other versions of himself across the multiverse and he has sworn vengeance towards Mark. A lot is going on.

This episode was excellently written, directed and choreographed with pretty much, everything you want from an episode or at least, that is how I felt after watching. There was love, drama, heartbreak, fights, redemption, trauma and more fights and I must say, I did get a little emotional, why? Well, sometimes in life, you can do your absolute best and it just does not seem like it is good enough. By the end of the episode, I was thinking, Mark cannot seem to catch a break and on many levels, reminded me of Peter Parker which is possibly the reason why I have seen crossover pictures with them in it as they are both VERY alike. A young man trying to juggle his powers and keep the city/world safe, keep and maintain a relationship and also go to school and study. It just gets on top and Mark feels useless at times but continues to do his best to try and fight for what he feels is morally right, which is what makes him more human than Viltrumite, but the Empire is coming.

The music on the show is always great and the comedic moments for me, land very well. I am not sure if it was the previous episode or the episode before, but the Guardians of the Globe were fighting this massive being and in a moment of pause it said to the Guardians "...you should tremble before my unlimited power"...there was a long pause and then The Immortal simply replied..."No!" The delivery was excellent and so funny that I laughed so hard. Another moment was when Mark was talking to someone at the comic convention and he was explaining artwork and what creators do to try and speed up their work by cutting corners which acted as an answer to many fans of the show we are currently watching and enjoying (Invincible) but are always moaning that a show (or any animated show, for that matter) is taking too long to come out. It was a meta fourth-wall "break" that I found hilarious.

Minor spoiler for this season also; having learned everything with his father Nolan, the fact that he has a brother, Mark has to do whatever he can to protect his mother, brother and girlfriend from a threat he simply is not prepared for. Also, Alan the Alien might be the only person who might be able to help.

There is so much going on and I will admit, there are times that the show does not balance ALL the story arcs out very well and if they are inter-connected at all, but with the end-credits stinger, I imagine Mark will need to fight Angstrum Levi and Alan will go back to Earth with a surprise guest in town to help defend Earth from the Viltrumites.

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(trailer review) - Alien: Romulus

The two greatest Alien films from the 80's is Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). One was Horror/ Sci-Fi where the other was Horror/Action. Ridley Scott and James Cameron respectively and nobody seems to have been able to capture the success, tone, atmosphere and dread these two films achieved I. The 80's. When Ridley came back for Prometheus (he should have called it, Alien: Prometheus) and Alien: Covenant, even he could not nAtch his earlier work. I mean those two moves were good, but not great, unlike Alien. James put a spin on the franchise by making it a little more militaristic, but the dread was still there. The characters were there, the quotes were there, the story was there. So seeing this trailer, not only does it harken back to this franchise, but Fede Alvarez might be onto a winner here because he might have hotythe formula right.

Although what I saw felt a tad bit polished, the dread was there. People on a starship with the "facehugger" aliens running rampant trying to latch on and impregnate you and kill you with the chest buster. Those things, the way they move, creepy! I am getting both Alien and Aliens from this trailer and although I heard this is set between both movies, there is a bar to meet and it would seem Fede may have met it. I do not want to hype this up in my own head but, did you not feel a sense of panic and dread for these defenceless people? The Alien franchise has not all been brilliant, but the lore is there. Let's just hope this ends up being a modern day classic from an old school classic because these alien movies can go on forever, but more hits and better stories are needed.

(trailer review) - The Penguin

A lot of people had their reservations about Robert Pattinson. He played a vampire that sparkled and glistened in the light in that famous franchise, Twilight. I'm sure he was hated worldwide and with some people, still is, but he has definitely become a more accomplished actor since. So, The Batman was met with some resistance at first, but the film was really good and Colin Farrell as The Penguin was simply incredible. The prosthetics, the clothing and mannerisms, the accent, if you were not told it was Colin Farrell in the role, would you even know? And this trailer is a tiny portion of what he delivered in the small role he had in The Batman.

This trailer is a teaser of the show and not only is Colin showing us why he has a spin-off show (because he is so great in the role), this show looks like it will centre around the rise of The Penguin in Gotham City as I am sure there will be a power vacuum after the events of The Batman movie so maybe we will see some other villains. Maybe we will also see Batman himself messing up some guys, but we will need to remember as the audience, this will be a show about The Penguin and NOT The Batman and hopefully, this will help flesh out Gotham City even more with the different villains and maybe even the different parts of the city the villains will fight to occupy. Maybe during this show, we will see the erection of the Iceberg Lounge. However this show will go, I am definitely going to watch it because the world created by Matt Reeves was very well done.

(trailer review) - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

 

Have you seen Beetlejuice before? The first Beetlejuice movie came out in 1988, one year before one of the best Batman movies from one of the best actors who has ever played as Batman, in a film directed by Tim Burton called, Batman. Seeing Michael Keaton don his suit again recently in The Flash film with Ezra Miller, was one of the best moments in comic book movie history (for fans of course). Your favourite actor, your favourite Batman, back looking great. But this is Beetlejuice, one of the wildest, comedy-horrors from over 3 decades ago. The first movie is almost 40 years old and they want to go back to this movie and I am guessing, try to make a franchise out of it, similar to what they are trying to do with Top Gun among many many others. I could not tell you the last time I watched this movie, maybe on VHS, but the film is creepy and funny or at least it was creepy for me when I watched it many moons ago. However as I have not watched it in such a long time, I am not sure if it holds up, so a sequel might be...just MIGHT BE, a little, to late?

This is a teaser trailer and it does not show us much at all. What I will say is, what they showed, the mini town set reminded me of the first film, I remembered that. I believe that is in the attick of the house. Other than the red bridge reminding me of the IT movie, in terms of memorabilia, the model town set was just about it. Seeing Winona Ryder, cool, I guess but I think I just need to re-watch the first movie and also see a better trailer. This one is not terrible, but it just doed not show anything, especially as it has been nearly 40 years, show us something, other than Michael Keaton in the Beetlejuice outfit. I love the line though, "The Juice Is Loose'. Also, the marketing is amazing, like...if you know how it works, the title alone is simply great. Let's just hope the second trailer is better and that we are not just reviving movies from many years ago just to make a sequel nobody has asked for and to do a bad job with it.

(trailer review) - Monkey Man

So I heard recently that Monkey Man played at South by South West (SXSW) and received a 10 minute standing ovation which emotionally moved the actor turned first time director to tears. As a Londoner, I am extremely proud of Dev since his breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire and whilst he has not done many movies, he had been very selective as to what he wants to do and at 33 years old, in a handful of movies and now directing, it would seem that directing is his passion and with the reviews this film is getting and with the backing of Jordan Peel himself, Dev may be one of the very few actor turn directors that will be revered as truly talented doing both, like a Ben Affleck, Jordan Peele and Daniel Kaluuya. This trailer is the first trailer, but dialled all the way up and it looks great!

Although I will be trying my best to not repeat the things I said for the first trailer, I actually may not be able to help it. This film looks amazing with a John Wick tone to it. John Wick was an assassin out of the game and went back in as he was seeking revenge. This is another tale of revenge and this looks stylish, funny and great. A man who looks like he becomes a fighter only to take out the man responsible for his mother's death, maybe? I am not sure, but frankly, I do not care because this is the type of action I like. Right up my street. Let's go!

(trailer review) - The Fall Guy

 

Is this essentially an action rom-com? This trailer is giving me vibes of Rom-Com masquerading as an action movie and, I think I love it. At present, Ryan Gosling cannot do anything wrong. His role as Ken in the Barbie movie was great. To be fair, the film was simply great, but he was also really good in it. He has previously been in a lot of good to great movies and I believe I first saw him in 'Gangster Squad'. He had already done 'Drive' by this point, a film which was loved, but the film I loved and really enjoyed him in was 'The Nice Guys' with Russell Crowe directed by Shane Black. It gave me Kiss Kiss Bang Bang feels. But it was his role in Drive and La La Land that garnered him praise as an actor, in my opinion. People cannot stop mentioning his name. I cannot say I've seen many of his films but I do recognise his talent. With that said, I have loved Emily Blunt since I first recognised her in Looper. She's a great actress. When she starred alongside Tom Cruise in 'Edge of Tomorrow', I knew I wanted to see more of her and her projects. This trailer looks like we have two people having fun and rifting off one another and this looks really good! Plus it is always great to see Winston Duke from Black Panther and US.

From what I can tell, the star of a movie goes missing, so they send the stuntman to go and find him, but he stumbles across bad guys (who possibly killed the actor, unless he is in hiding), finds a dead body, stumbles across drugs and the stuntman has to get himself out of the many situations he finds himself in whilst trying to stay alive, solve the mystery and not get himself killed, so I guess it helps that he is a stuntman.......oh, and he has a crush on the director of a movie he is working in whom he had previously been on a date with and is also trying to find love in the middle of it all. This is barmy, but it looks like it is definitely worth a watch and a fun time at the movies.

(trailer review) - Supacell

 

The first thing I will say is a huge congratulations to man like Rapman. I do not know him at all, but he is from South London, like myself, and his film Blue Story was great. My review is on the site and I could not help but feel nostalgia watching that movie in certain moments. This film seems to be about people with superpowers and Peckham seems to be front and centre in this trailer which warms my heart since I am from that area along with Giggs, Boyega, among many others. But as this film is NOT grounded at all, considering there are superpowers involved and is also a Netflix series, it would be interesting to see how grounded he can make it feel, telling a story with struggles we could relate to as people on a human level.

A man surprises his girlfriend with a car and plans to marry her and start a future with her, but when he disappears and gets a glimpse into the future and finds that she is dead, he makes it his mission to save her from a fate he saw. A very interesting concept but I am not sure what the relevance of the other people with superpowers is, but it seems like the person said, "...all 4 people need to survive", maybe? It is unclear as to the powerset of each superpowered person if they do have different powers or if they are inter-connected and linked in some way, their role in the death or preservation of this man's fiancé, so another trailer would do this show great for a little more background to the story, otherwise it does look like a film about gangs or a gang in London and some people who have superpowers. Like, how did they get their superpowers? Were all these people "chosen" or in the same area at the same time, born with them and later in life, the powers came to them, like the mutant gene from X-Men? I'm intrigued regardless because Rapman is involved and because I am a Londoner. I cannot be the only person who will watch the show

(trailer review) - The Acolyte

 

I think it goes without saying that the Star Wars franchise is in a state of flux. There have been some good movies which had no structure or plan to stabilise the franchise for great storytelling and the TV Shows have been the same. The TV shows have been small stories with particular characters where the story could have been fleshed out more with better execution. For example, I did not mind 'Ahsoka' although there were some small execution problems with it. 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' was exactly the same, but the execution was even worse and the storyline was fairly poor in comparison with some crazy antics, not to mention 'The Book of Boba Fett' which was borderline terrible for many reasons. I enjoyed it or I could say, I could see where they were going with it or wanted to do, but failed. Out of the TV shows, the 'Rogue One' prequel 'Andor' was great. 'The Mandolorian', is great (although some people have issues with it, issues I do not agree with). Season 7 of 'The Clone Wars' was good, the spin-off 'The Bad Batch' is also very good. The throughline problem with it all is the execution. Soo much lore and stories to mine but it is executed badly with no real foresight. So when a trailer for ALL of these shows looks great, especially this one, in the back of your mind in recent years, you can not help to start thinking, "but is this going to be any good?"

This trailer is good and it is great to see Carrie-Anne Moss, Trinity to all you Matrix lovers, doing a 'Force Push' and close-quarters combat. It is really good seeing her in scenes like this. This is only a teaser trailer, so there is not a storyline attached to the trailer as such, but we do understand that the Jedi are being killed off and it looks like it is going to be a murder mystery "detective" story with (maybe) Carrie-Anne investigating. The quality of the visuals looks great and seeing a vast number of Jedi drawing their lightsabres harkens back to 'Attack of the Clones' when all the Jedi were fighting in that arena. Hopefully, the show will dig deeper into the lore so we can understand what makes a lightsabre yellow or what type of Jedi use it. This is meant to be several years before 'A Phantom Menace', so hopefully we are very removed from any events from it. If this show ends up being, 'The Rise of Palpatine', I will be very upset, we do ot need that. Let's tell more stories not connected to The Skywalkers as Star Wars has a vast amount of lore and history it can go into to tell great stories.

(trailer review) - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

First of all, I'll just get this off of my chest before anyone thinks that this "completionist" has completed and watched all the Mad Max movies...I have not, but I will, I will at some point. I just want to say, are we not cloning humans yet? Have we got there in our technology? It is 2024 and we are not cloning humans? Are we not cloning George Miller? He is 79, still making films and I kid you not, watching Mad Max: Fury Road was so good, although I did not go back to the cinema to watch it again, I thoroughly enjoyed it and just thinking about that movie brings joy to my heart. I will watch it whenever it is on. Why are we not cloning him? Visually stunning, chaotic, absurd, manic and a lot of fun! I will never forget the moment I saw the guitar man in Fury Road. My heart was filled with so much joy because I was viewing something I did not think I wanted in a movie and this trailer, this trailer...THIS TRAILER, looks like George has doubled-down on those insane ideas and I actually cannot wait to see this!

So this trailer gives us a little more than the last trailer. It would seem Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) gets kidnapped and taken away from her family and friends only to work with The Immortal Joe to possibly, take down the antagonist played by Chris Hemsworth. It is likely The Immortal Joe kidnapped her also and is using her as one of his top people, henchman as it were. The visuals here are, Fury Road dialled up to 11. There is a wide shot with what looks like hundreds of vehicles driving in the desert from a birds-eye view and it looks amazing. The colours, the stunts, that road rage and anarchy, the deaths. However, the shot that really sold me on this trailer and the film is a, Chris Hemsworth who has played Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who wears a red cape, is seen here, wearing a red cape, standing on a chariot that is being pulled by 3 biker-less motorbikes and he turns it with reigns like an actual chariot with horses. Like, what? How insane is that? I absolutely love it and I have to see this in Imax, I just have to. If not, Superscreen. Hemsworth is killing it also! Absolutely killing it!

(trailer review) - Rebel Moon: Part 2 - The Scargiver

Blimey, where do I start? Zack is an incredible director and out of the (possibly) 15 movies he has directed (maybe a little more), I have seen 13 of them and really enjoyed 12. It is really like that for me. I truly enjoy a Zack Snyder movie but part 1 of Rebel Moon, while I will not say it is trash, it is very hollow. A chopped-up and rushed movie that does not get anywhere with lots of exposition, stagnant dialogue and weightless characters with a protagonist with the charisma of a grape. In my review, I also stated the film felt like a part 1 as opposed to other movies which were a part 1 that came out that year AND maybe part 2 will be better. This trailer does look really good!

First of all, what are you doing with a blue glowing sword thingy with someone heading towards you, shooting, fighting and messing up all your troops and you are simply walking backwards with your sword in hand not trying to attack? Are you not attacking because you do not want to hurt your fellow troops or are you simply waiting to be tagged in? It's a stylish sideways "hallway fight" that seemed a little silly or choreographed in a way you could see the problems with the fight and scene. Secondly, where are the characters? Did all the other characters die in the first movie after she recruited them? I just cannot remember. I just do not know. I am not sold but, I am going to watch it because I enjoyed the first part even with its problems. I am sold on the visuals (it's Zack Snyder, but of course I am), sold on the robot fighting and I think the best bit in this trailer, is the sliding down diagonally and fighting at the same time. I really feel like I have not seen that in a movie before. Falling and fighting, yes, but sliding down and fighting, I do not think so. Anyway, let's just hope this part two heightens and lifts up part 1 like Dune part 2 did for Dune part 1. 

(trailer review) - The Crow

The Crow is a remake of an old film from the 90's where the lead actor died on set in a freak-accident where a real bullet was used to kill Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee. The film was loved and became a cult hit among fans, but for a very long time since, they have been trying to get this franchise up and running again. They call it 'development hell' when they cannot seem to get a project to go ahead and it is ridiculed with set backs after set backs. At one point, Jason Mamoa was set to be the lead and I think that is where I last knew where we were with this project, until now. Bill "The 'IT' Clown is the lead and this looks really good.

I never saw the 90's film and I think there was a time I saw parts of it or wanted to, but in all honesty, I think I was caught up on the "curse" of the Lee family more than wanting to watch this movie, but with that said, a man out for revenge to avenge his slain wife, but he was also slain too but comes from the dead to seek his revenge, I love the idea of that. Max Payne without Max Payne dying, and I LOVE Max Payne, but not the Max Payne film. This trailer shows us the love between man and woman, them both being killed and the lore about crows and death. After that, all the gruesome and some stylish kills. It looks very violent, but hopefully it will not be over the top with the violence and kills. As I think about violence and kills, I'm thinking of the prison scene in season two of Daredevil, right up my street. That shot where he shoots himself in the body to kill the man behind him is excellent. Let's just hope this is done well because Bill is a great actor, maybe he can make a franchise out of this.

(film review) - Dune: Part 2

I wanted to watch this movie for a third time before I started to review it. Why? Well, because I wanted to watch the movie in IMAX and the second time I watched this movie, I did not get to watch it in IMAX but I've decided to review the movie anyway. If I am going to be brutally honest, if I did not see the beautiful cinematography whilst sitting in a super screen and listened to the excellent music accompanying the movie in my viewing experience, I am likely to fail to understand and appreciate that experience times 'x' number of times in an IMAX screening. I have taken onboard that this movie is best viewed on an IMAX screen (and I really believe it is), but this movie is best watched in the cinema full stop. An IMAX screen is only going to heighten the experience. Whilst I'd love my experience to be heightened for this movie, I have to say, superscreen is just as good and that is because, the movie is simply, JUST THAT GOOD! I'll explain.

The movie picks up where part one left off. Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica is with the Fremin to learn about their culture and as his father Leto Atreides mentioned in the first movie, to harness desert power. However, Leto was killed by the Harkonens set up by the Emperor and Paul is being viewed as the prophet from the stories the Fremin were told as children. With the inconsistent visions of death and other, through leadership over the fremin, Paul must find a way to make sense of his visions and learn the Fremin way.

A lot of people are throwing the word 'Masterpiece' around and on my first viewing, I noticed the time (clock-watching) more than I did in the first movie but I feel that was due to me being apprehensive of what was to come next and eagerly interested in what was going to happen next. When I left the cinema, I went home, put netflix on and proceeded to watch part 1 again, like immediately. I fell asleep because it was after 12am, but I watched it the following day. On the second viewing, I had the confirmation I needed. Thoughts I had but could not confirm or any discrepancies I had, were ironed out. I will not say this movie is a sci-fi masterpiece like some but I will say, although Denis has stated he is working on Dune Messiah (Dune Messiah) and I am not sure if you would call that a part 3 or the sequel to a two-parter as these two movies are truly amazing and once Messiah is completed and is as good or better than this movie, we might be looking at the greatest Sci-Fi masterpiece and or "trilogy" in cinema.

Upon watching part 1 after watching part 2, part 2 feeds and elevates part 1 in ways you could not foresee without watching it. And part one feeds into (naturally) part 2 as the story is foretold or alluded to at the beginning of each movie. Crazy. And you will only notice this on the rewatch. The film is soo cleverly directed, it helps to watch the movie two or three times so when this third movie is due out, I am defintely going to rewatch part 1 and 2 again.

I really enjoyed this movie and I really do believe I will watch this movie again and again and not get bored of it. The score, incredible. It hits you, especially at some moments in the movie at particular scenes. You feel like you are actually in the movie with the characters. The acting, great! You get more from Zendeya this time around and more from Xavier Bardem. He is actually the best character in the movie and possibly the franchise at this point. I can only imagine in the third movie, he will die for the cause, especially as his character is very strongly devoted. As it was written. The story of Paul changes from the first movie and the transformation and acting from Timothee is great. Especially the last few scenes. He is a force at this point and his acting demonstrates this.

There is no much more I can say about this film other than, if you like sci-fi you are more than likely going to like this. There are a lot of religious undertones that may rub you up the wrong way or other, but I would be lying if I said the movie did not make me think about religion and how stories are told whether true or not. For Paul it is also a difficult one because he feels he is not the person they all think he is, but then everything he ends up doing pushes him into the person they all think he is, purposefulness or by manipulation. It will be real interesting to see where things go from here, but as a sequel to Dune part 1. This sequel is great and a definite must see!