(film review) - Thunderbolts*

The Marvel franchise is a bit of a rollercoaster ride at the moment. Movie-wise, since the end of Endgame (or Spider-Man: Far From Home, the last film in Phase 3), we have had hits and misses coming from Marvel. More movies that hit, and only a handful that have missed completely, and others that are just ok. 'Black Widow' started Phase 4, and whilst it was not trash or just ok, because in my opinion, it was a hit, it had its problems, coming out way too late was one of them. 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' was an absolute hit, 'Eternals' was good but received mixed reviews, 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' was a hit, 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' was mostly a hit, but it did have some story problems that brought the movie down as well as execution, so we can say that it was just ok, 'Thor: Love and Thunder' was a miss. It had all the promise in the world, but they went too silly with it, and Gorr was not as intimidating as he could have been or should have been. 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' was a hit, but was held down by the incredible loss of Chadwick Boseman. What Ryan Coogler achieved is nothing short of a miracle, AND after the aftermath of the pandemic. 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' was ok. Johnathan Majors was not the issue with this movie at all, and maybe they should have kept with the more sinister end they were rumoured to go for. 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' was excellent, 'The Marvels' was just ok, it had it's problems, 'Deadpool & Wolverine' was excellent, and 'Captain America: Brave New World' was ok as it was a weak story riddled with patch-work ideas put together with the promise of something soo much better. Now that I have listed the movies in order of release and my subjective thoughts on how they went, which ones were bad and which were good, ok, etc, the movies on the whole since Endgame are not all that bad. What is it, three to four ok movies? At a push, five to six out of the twelve they have put out? Let's call it six, ok-to-bad movies; it balances out. Not to mention the TV shows they have put out, which are also hits and misses. I guess what I am trying to say here is, although people are saying Marvel is back, movie-wise, they are "fine", but what we do need is less 'ok' and more 'good to excellent' for the ship to feel that it is back on course. I feel the rollercoaster of the movies and the rollercoaster of the TV shows has not helped the fans feel that Marvel is in the right position to right the ship, but if this movie is anything to go by, I think they are.

The Thunderbolts* is about a group of individual characters, led by Yelena, a former Black Widow, who is sent on a mission that brings not only her, but a group of troubled individuals, all riddled with their own personal issues, who find themselves working together to ultimately tackle the big bad.

It is a simple premise, but the subject matter is great and something that can feel a little bit like a bit of a downer. Usually with these movies, we are dealing with 'smack', 'pow', 'crash', 'explosions' that we are too busy having fun watching our heroes beat the brakes off of a bad guy, but when you are dealing with life troubles and personal things that way you down, life is not as fun anymore and this movie touches on personal trauma and dealing with it, somewhat similar to how the TV show Hawkeye dealt with Clint Barton being a normal human being. 

Florence Pugh is incredible in this as she tries to navigate her past and her current life. If you have seen Black Widow, you will understand her character a bit more, especially with the angle of The Red Guardian being involved in that movie and their relationship. It is the conversation between these two people that had me a little emotional. When one person feels lost with no one to reach out to, and another person feels lost and does not know how to reach out, you are at a stalemate of two people who could communicate only if one of them did something, you know. Check on your friend. It is beautiful, but real storytelling, and it helps to make our characters feel like normal people. If you take notice in that scene also, these two are out in the open having a conversation, and people are naturally walking by, some people looking, but people are minding their own business whilst two people are having a meaningful conversation. That is real life. I am pretty sure I saw some people looking over at them, talking, but the decision for that allowed me to connect more with these characters. For the most part, they are "normal" people going through normal day-to-day things, kinda. As for Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen, they are great as the supporting cast, along with David Harbour, but the banter between Yelena, Ghost and John Walker is comedy gold. Throw in Red Guardian for more laughs and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) being ultimately, the serious granddad of them all, all worked well. A team that should not work, does not work, but they make it work. As for Lewis Pullman, I am not sure if I would have preferred Steven Yeun more because of his voice acting, and the emotion he puts into his characters is incredible, but Lewis did a great job. Lewis plays a character who is ultimately the same as the others; he has his own issues and/or demons that he wrestles with on a day-to-day basis, like the rest of them, so he fits into the team of "troubled" heroes just fine. What he brings to his character, Bob, has many different layers. His facial acting in some places seemed a little off for me, but I know it was the vulnerability he was portraying, but when he shifts from the sheepish and vulnerable to the more stern, decisive and vulnerable is where he sold it for me. I understood and recognised him as me at times in my life that I could honestly relate to, and THIS is why this movie hits. This is why the movie is relatable, because whether these are people with fantastic skills and abilities or people with enhanced strength and stamina, for the most part, they are still human.

The visuals and the music is great! There is a character design I was not fully sold on in this movie, but with that said, the other design was also a little bit of a turn-off, but I understand why they did it, especially as that design is what is always used to depict the idea of what it is (no spoilers here). There are some great shots and cinematography that are pretty much "comic book accurate". For example, there is a "drone" shot (a shot from high up) where there is a building, and you see one lone person walking towards it. In the comics, you'd see the exact same thing and the footsteps behind them. Also, the mood of this movie, although dark in places, has splashes of colour that spill into the scenes that help bring the joy and positivity that also work hand-in-hand with the score.

So not only is the storyline great and cohesive, the acting is spot-on, fun, funny and dramatic, the visuals are great, the music is great, the action is superb, like The Winter Soldier level of choreography, with two after credits scenes, one mid-credit and one post-credit, both that are really good and the second one even better as it does the old traditional, "does this play into the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?", I would say that this is a great watch and Marvel are on the right track to becoming great again. We just need more quality storylines and risks taken because they have not missed in their casting, just in their execution and of late, it does not seem as though Marvel has taken many risks when taking risks is what they were built on.

 

(trailer review) - Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City

 

What I will say off the bat is, the Resident Evil movies were terrible.  They were horrendous BUT, some people liked them and had fun with them.  I was not one of those people.  I saw the first movie and it looked nothing like the first game I played and never completed on the first PlayStation (later called the PSOne).  I then went on to play a little bit of Resident Evil 2 and if I'm honest, I just couldn't get into them how I wanted because those computer games scared me a little, but I would run out of bullets and all that puzzle solving, hassle.  I did get and play Resident Evil 5 and I actually did really enjoy that one.  I was always intrigued with Resident evil and the lore was sooo interesting, but it really did stem from the first game...the mansion, the locked doors, the Lickers, so that first movie was just garbage and I believe I saw another after that, which was also garbage, but THIS trailer, well...it looks alright.

The Music is terrible in this trailer, I'll say that, but the although the special effects in places isn't great at all, I do really like this trailer.  It does come across as a little cheap and I understand why this movie might be 30 million if that, to make, but it does seem like the movie has stuck as close to the first two games as possible whilst giving it a little face-lift with some of the characters and a little bit of the story.  What I would hope more than anything, is that they have or WILL work with the Biohazard team AND get as close to the story and lore as possible because the Resident Evil story is great and spans several decades.  I do feel they could have made this trailer scary and more tension based because even The Batman trailer is more scary and tension-filled.

Directed by Johannes Roberts and starring Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue and Neal McDonough

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(film review) - Ant-Man and the Wasp

So, recently we had Infinity War and Thanos came and shut things down.  He did what he came to do and that is (in case you didn't know), reduce the galaxy to half.  I won't go into his reasoning as that would be spoilers for those who may not have seen Infinity War yet, plus I've said enough already, but I can assure you, the post credits scene is something to look out for at the end of this movie.  But with that said, this movie is also a must see to give us an idea of what is to come next AND the fact that this movie is absolutely hilarious and a nice palette cleanser for what had JUST HAPPENED in the MCU.  I'll explain.

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers have disbanded and everyone has gone their separate ways.  Due to Ant-Man's involvement, this has driven both Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank into hiding.  Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is on house arrest and spends his time trying to entertain himself and his daughter when she comes around and only has a few days left.  Hope and Hank (Michael Douglas) are planning on a rescue mission to the quantum realm and as Scott having been there, Hope reaches out to Scott to bring back a ghost from the past.  Meanwhile, a Ghost and a black market dealer Sonny Birch (Walton Goggins) are also after the technology making things difficult for both the mission and Scott.

First of all, this movie is a tremendous palette cleanser for the previous MCU movie as this movie is light-hearted and incredibly funny, the polar opposite to Infinity War.  There are moments that are touching, moments that are serious and lots of action with a ton of funny moments.  A comedy heist just like the original Ant-Man movie but this one may actually be funnier.

There are some great acting from the supporting cast members such as Michael Peña, Hannah John-Kamen and David Dastmalchian, the former and latter being returning characters.  The score is superb and Peyton Reed has done it again and I can only dream and Hope for a 3rd movie directed by him because he knows what he is doing to bring light-hearted fun and entertainment combined with action.

It was great seeing Lawrence Fishburne come over from DC and the ending credits is something that is required to stay behind for due to the nature of these Marvel Cinematic Universe movies which give you an insight to what may happen next.  If you can, watch it, you will laugh your head off and it is a feel good movie.

(film review) - Ready Player One

If I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, I've not seen a Steven Spielberg movie in a while.  Well directed by anyway, as he does produce a lot of movies.  The last directed movie I saw was The Adventures of Tintin and the last produced movie, well executive produced anyway, Transformers: The Last Knight.  While I fell asleep watching Tintin (but I did like it, I was just exhausted), I can say I didn't really like Transformers: The Last Knight because although it was the usual Transformers fun, it was essentially not that great.  So, seeing the trailer for this movie and all the easter eggs, I knew this was going to have, made for a really interesting watch.  And having seen the movie, I can tell you exactly how it was.

In the real world 18 year old Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), otherwise known as his avatar handle Parzival in the virtual world is known as a Gunter.  He lives in Columbus Ohio with his Aunt and does what most people do in their living conditions, escape reality to enter the virtual world of the Oasis.  The Oasis (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow is a place where you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want and be whomever you want to be.  Wade aka Parzival is an avid gift hunter and spends his time tracking gifts and collecting coins, but when James Halliday dies, a prerecorded message went out to all users enabling them to own and control the Oasis if they are able to find the 3 keys hidden in the Oasis.  But with power, comes corruption and corporate.  Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the CEO of Innovative Online Industries also wants to seek out the 3 hidden keys to control the Oasis himself, so the ultimate hunt and a game of cat and mouse ensues as everyone in the Oasis tries to track down all the clues to finding the hidden keys with a powerful and hungry Nolan who will stop at nothing, even if it means real world crime, just to achieve his goal.

I tried not to spoil this movie by giving too much away, but with that said, the plot it straight forward, but the fun comes with the chase, the tension and of course, the many many many easter eggs littered throughout the movie.  An Easter Egg is a item/object that represents real life or universal pop culture.  It is a message, image, or feature hidden in a video game, film, or other, usually electronic, medium and it's sole purpose is to be found but may represent, ie. real life or pop culture.  A lot of films will do this, but if you are still unsure and you have played video games or have watched TV/Movies over the years and still do not know what an Easter Egg is, THIS movie will DEFINITELY have you understand what one is before the movie is even quarter of it's way through.  Another reason as to what makes this movie fun to watch is EXACTLY this and how many you can find.  Steven Spielberg (and just like the book this movie is based on) uses all the references he possibly can grabbing from past directing work, games and Warner Bros. content.  This means that, not only is the DeLorean time machine from the film Back to the Future franchise directed by Robert Zemeckis in it, a film which is under Steven Spielberg's production company and Spielberg being the mentor of Robert, but there is a very brief Batman cameo, a Warner Bros intellectual Property and a prominent Iron Giant cameo among many many more.  Not to give too much away but you will see popular game characters and as we are in the world of gaming, a lot of things you will come to recognise as a gamer, like a lot of things you'd come to recognise as a watcher of movies.  Wreck it Ralph did something similar.

Spielberg will have you rewatching this movie over and over again because not only is it fun, but the easter eggs alone will keep you busy.  The acting is superb although cheesy in some places and if i'm honest, I didn't realise the film would have more than a few curse words, but if you are a gamer, curse words are apart of your vocabulary.  Although I had only seen Tye as Cyclops of the recent X-Men franchise at this point, he was very good in this movie and acting along side Ben, made for good tension and drama.  It was also nice to see, Hannah John-Kamen, who I had recently seen in Tomb Raider and is in the up and coming Ant-Man and the Wasp.

If you like Nostalgia, movies, gaming and that classic Steven Spielberg directed movies such as Batteries Not Included or anything else you found fun in the 80's, this movie is definitely for you!  Plus, there is no way you will see EVERY Easter Egg in one viewing, have a re-watch.