I attempted to watch The Running Man recently due to this movie due to come out, and not only did I try to watch it at a silly time and I fell asleep, when I tried to watch it again, I just was not paying any attention, but the parts I caught, some bits I remembered and other bits I did not. But having "watched" a reaction video to Predator 2 (because it has been a long time since I've seen that movie also, I noticed the same actress Predator 2 was in The Running Man movie, which therefore reminded me that I need to get back onto that 1987 film and focus all my attention on it in it's entirety before moving onto this new one. But with that said, this trailer looks like it is actually going to be as crazy, manic and chaotic, and I like that a lot.
First of all, I like the stylistic look of this movie. It is set in a future, but not a crazy future like a 'Blade Runner', 'Fifth Element' or anything, more like an 'Edge of Tomorrow', noting the helicopter with 4 rotary spinning blades. We are given the situation, "for the next 30 days, everyone in the country is going to try and murder him," as he has joined the game show to win money for his family and possibly his sick daughter. He will be hunted by anyone and everyone, but he just needs to survive for 30 days. It is also noted in the trailer by his wife that people do not come back when they enter the game, and it is also mentioned that the game is rigged. Whoever Josh Brolin is playing, even states, "we cannot let him win". There are people who are cheering him on because if he wins, it will give them hope to join the game and win too. Playing a game to win money is giving me vibes of Squid Game, but this is comical, sadistic and presented like a gameshow, like the original movie where Squid Game is simply dark and sadistic. The Running Man was one of my faves when I was younger, so I will definitely watch this, especially as it does look good.
I was more of an Arnold guy than a Sly guy. I believe my cousin liked them both, as he had the popular movies of the 80s. Total Recall, Predator, Cobra, Rambo, The Running Man. He was two years older than me, so I was too young, but I watched those movies off the back of him, and The Running Man was definitely one of my favourites. One of Arnold's best, next to The Terminator and True Lies, not to mention the aforementioned Predator. The original movie was set in an Arena, and the protagonist had to get through all the different stages, beating all the bosses to win, but this looks different, and I'd be lying if I told you that I watched this trailer and did not compare it to the original.
This trailer took me a little while to get used to what they were going for, the tone and the story, because as I mentioned before, it was set in an arena, and this one seems to be set within the world, and the contestant has to try and survive for 30 days. The original had flashy, flashy suits, explosions and deaths, whereas this one seems to be a little isolated, but in Edgar Wright's fashion, had style. I was getting Baby Driver vibes (only loosely) likely due to cinematography and action scenes, but it did look entertaining, so maybe a second trailer will sell it more, but as this is meant to be closer to the Stephen King novel, maybe this might end up being a lot better.
We are at a stage in our lives and in Marvel's franchise that an origin movie may now be out of place. I mean our lord savour, Kevin Feige has mentioned no more origin movies, yet this one is a semi origin movie with a twist and ultimately, Marvel has stumbled with this one. It's sad to say, but they have and although I will review the film, I won't go into all the details and spoil anything, but reasons as to why they stumbled but didn't fall.
Marvel have stumbled with many films. Their way of doing something different and/or when they first started out, they were slowly piecing together what they wanted to do with the franchise. The Incredible Hulk is good, Ironman 2 is good, Thor: The Dark World is good and Ironman 3 is Goodish (not one of my favourites at all), but Marvel have had greater and many more hits than misses and have made small ret-cons here and there. One of the major ones of recent, by no fault of their own I guess, was with the Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, regarding the year. But that came down to communication and "admin" error? However, this is something that has been more forgiving by fans and helps with the integrating of such character into a grander story. If the new and upcoming Avengers: Endgame grosses around 3 billion worldwide, we are looking at a 10 Billion Dollar Franchise. 10 Billion. That's 9 zeroes.
But how does Captain Marvel's story fit into this? Well, any way Marvel can squeeze it in...for the women of the world!?
Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is a Kree operative for Starforce who goes by the name of Vers. She is a confident, upbeat, determined, yet hard-headed woman who get's the job done at any cost. She has a good moral compass but is plagued by dreams and visions of what seems to be another life. On a mission to eradicate the Kree's sworn enemies, The Skrulls, the mission goes wrong and from that point, Carol aka Vers spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out the mysteries of her dreams and visions, who she really is and what and whom she is ultimately fighting for.
It sounds great on paper, but I personally feel that this movie could have been executed in a better way. This is where I feel they stumbled, and not fell. I felt that it was not fully fleshed out and that some of the characters could have had more depth as well as maybe, the film being a psychological thriller, a bit like how 'The Winter Soldier' was a 70's political thriller. With the themes in the movie, this film could have touched on that in a big way. What is real and what isn't. Who am I? Total Recall did that. And for the most part, that movie is a classic for many reasons. But they would still need to cater to the young ladies of the world to aspire to be Captain Marvel.
I didn't hate the film as I quite enjoyed it. Brie is not miscast at all and their are some great visuals and some really quiet moments that allow particular characters to shine. Lashana Lynch is great as well as Samuel L. Jackson. But as I said earlier, some character development with some other characters would have made the story a bit meatier. There are some decent visual gags as well as the many mid-nighties references. With many easter eggs and visual references of movies from that era, this movie hits it out of the park, but ultimately felt like a Phase 1 Movie in a Phase 3 world. Doctor Strange is a origin movie, even Black Panther, yet these movies feel like they pack more of a punch, especially with Black Panther...and this woman has glowing fists! I felt that it was shoehorned into the MCU because DC made a Wonder Woman movie which was very good. And these two giants are in deep competition with each other, so there is always a company trying to out-do the other and this is possibly another reason why Marvel stumbles.
A lot of people are saying Carol is over powered and personally, although that is somewhat true, I feel we should have more powerful characters in the MCU, because this is how we will separate the many different tiers of these heroes and be able to tell a variety and multitude of different stories. Phase 4 is looking to be great and varied, especially with the conclusion of the Fox Deal, I'm very interested in seeing what Carol will be doing in Avengers: Endgame and after. A sequel and the many prospects it has is great fore the future of the MCU as well as the many women and little girls who will feel empowered by Captain Marvel.
Marvel Studios took a huge gamble with Guardians of the Galaxy by making this comic into a film. If you did not know, in which you ought to, the over arching storyline regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe films are, Thanos wants to destroy EVERYTHING! I'm not entirely sure if it is all life on particular planets or all life as we know it, but he wants to destroy EVERYTHING. This is the nature of his character. In order for him to do that, I believe, would be to Ashley Catchem the 6 or so Infinity Gems/Stones, attach them to the Infinite Gauntlet and he would be able to do whatever he pleases. He would be unstoppable.
So, to understand this a touch further over the films, Captain America: The First Avenger and Avengers Assemble, deal with the Tessaract which is a Infinity Stone. There are rumours that there is another Infinity Stone in Avengers Assemble, but we will not see that, I'm assuming until Avengers: Age of Ultron. The other Infinity Stone was seen in the Thor: The Dark World movie, so that could be 3 so far, and the rest remains to be seen over the background story arc over the next few films.
Guardians of the Galaxy, is a film which is to bridge the gap between Earth and the cosmos. Although this was achieved with Thor, in this film, you get a better sense of a wider and greater existence of space, spaceships and aliens along with an imminent threat which spans across not only Earth, but the Galaxy as we know it or not know it. I'll explain.
The film starts off with a young Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who is seen being abducted from Earth with his little backpack and Walkman. You then see him 20 years later exploring a derelict planet for an artefact. Think of it as Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones, but in space. He Stumbles across Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) in which he narrowly escapes, heads to Xander, the home of the Nova Corps in which he gets into a situation which leaves him imprisoned. At this point, he teams up with 4 other guys, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) & his friend Groot (Vin Diesel) who decide to work together from that point onwards for a greater cause, sort of. There is a lot more to the film, but I would be spoiling it. Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), along with Nebula (Karen Gillian), under directions from Thanos (Josh Brolin), go after the artefact, currently being held by Star Lord and they find themselves in an entanglement between Ronan the Accuser, Yondu and the significance of the artefact in their possession. The Guardians of the Galaxy must come together and make the right choice.
This film for me was NOT the best Marvel film of this year, as I do believe, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is, but is most definitely a great film. The film doesn't take itself too seriously and the characters are weird and wonderful with a lot of depth. The film is visually, stunning and you really do get a feel of space and the many different worlds you see. A little bit like Thor, but greater. Most of all, the film is very funny. The characters work very well together, although their dynamic is weird and with their depth, they more or less bounce off one another as they work as a team.
My only faults I found with this movie, was that, the villain could have been explored a little more have been a bit more villainy. Also, although everyone more or less had a back story, it would have been nice to go that little bit deeper with the back stories of the Guardians and I did feel that Gamora, being the universes most deadliest assassin was watered down and I just didn't see enough from her.
But with that said, A great film to watch. Very entertaining. It is like watching Avengers: Assemble again but with a weird looking cast and a barrel of laughs. Go out and see it before the sequel comes out.
So, it has been a year since I last did a review on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and it has come around again in which the sequel has just come out and I have seen it and it is absolutely great.
Just so you know from the get go, I liked the first hobbit film a great deal. One thing I didn't mention in my review was, although the film was beautiful and was at a steady pace, I did feel at a certain point that this film was dragging a little or possibly I was expecting a little bit more than just a steady pace. It might have been when my mind clock/stopwatch alerted me to the fact that this film has gone past the 2 hour mark, in which I'm sure this happens with a lot of people. But for the sequel in the Hobbit Trilogy, my clock/stopwatch may have done a single beep rather than alarm bells ringing for 5mins.
The film starts with Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) in a Bar and gets approached by Gandelf the Grey (Ian McKellen). They have a conversation which then takes us to where we last left off in the first Hobbit film. The Dwarfs and Bilbo (Martin Freeman) are still trying to make their way to the Mountain because they need to obtain the Arkenstone and potentially slay a dragon. However, as the adventure would go, they come across Spiders that want to eat them, Elves that want to kill them, a Bowman who is trying to hide them and a Dragon who is trying to burn them...oh, and everything else in sight.
There isn't any real point in going on about the film to be honest as I'd only be repeating what I had said before about the previous Hobbit film and the sequel trilogies. Peter Jackson is an epic storyteller and his direction is great. Yes, he is milking the book for all it's worth, but when you tell a story like this, to me, it only makes sense. A lot of people might feel disappointed with this film and/or pleased that this film has elements added to the very thin book which is the Hobbit or some "key" elements taken away from the book. Some might argue that some parts of the film is relevant to the story and are not needed, but sometimes in story telling, the very detail which is unheard of or not mentioned can also play a key role in some cases.
The cinematography, the acting, the flow of the film, in which I might add was much faster paced and laced with more action and tension than the first film. The action, like I said, the fight scenes, MORE majestic. As I mentioned earlier, I did think during the film, "this is a long film", but I knew it was and I stayed engaged, where in the first film, although I loved it, there was more of a sigh when I remembered how long the film was during watching it. And although I care not much for the Dwalfs, I absolutely love their dynamics and co-ordination. They flow like 1 constant conscience although they are all very different individuals. The comedy was there as well and not to mention Legolas. Legolas for me was the reason why I was more hyped about this film over the first film. Legolas drew me to this film as I absolutely love his character. Such a bad ass.
If you love the sequel trilogies and the first Hobbit Movie, you will love this sequel in the prequel Trilogy. When you get to the Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) part as well, you will be fuming at the very end. Yes, 365 or so days until the next film, There and Back Again. Enjoy!
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