(film review) - Deadpool

Deadpool. What the hell is a Deadpool? Well the answer to that is actually explained in the film.  I'm not 100% if this is correct to the comic book universe which has been retconned over the many years after the character was conceived, but like Deadpool, he derives from the Marvel comic book universe and is a genetically modified person.  Think of Captain America.  Think of Wolverine's adamantium covered bones and healing factor.  Think Spider-Man (A character they modelled Deadpool off of fusing him with Deadshot from DC. Comics).  The point I am trying to make here is that, Deadpool is an experiment and not necessarily a Mutant although he has the Mutant healing ability Wolverine has as he was also a part of the Weapon X program Wolverine was subjected to.  A point that was slightly/briefly covered in the terrible film, X-Men Origin: Wolverine, a film that brought us Deadpool as Wade Wilson and completely butchered his character and appearance.  This film basically gives you a better and more correct telling of Wade Wilson, the merc with a mouth who is a completely self-aware character and how he becomes Deadpool.

Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a Mercenary.  He will kill people for money and he has no problems with that.  A bit of an arsehole and a bit crazy (messed up in the head), he eventually meets a woman who he then falls in love with, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).  Whilst in this relationship, Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer which forces him to leave her to seek treatment at the hands of Francis/Ajax (Ed Skrein).  However, as the deal does not pan out to be exactly how it was initially intended, Wade must now correct the outcome of the experiment and save his girlfriend at the same time.  To add to Wade's troubles, both Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) join him on his quest.

First of all, this is a hilarious movie.  Maybe for some of you, some of the jokes may not hit, but there are soo many jokes throughout this film, you'd be forgiven if you thought this film was a comedy.  To be precise, this film is a revenge movie infused with a love story.  About a man trying to get his girl.  But as well as being a revenge story, a superhero comic book movie as well as one, NOT FOR KIDS, this film is firing on all cylinders.  If you have seen the marketing, the lewd/sexual jokes and the violence (including blood) in the trailers, this film basically spells out ADULT in every single way possible.  This is a character for adults with adult themes, although a superhero movie.  You will see the contrasts of his character and the X-Men characters when you watch the film which makes the movie work soo well.  Another element to this movie that makes the movie work soo well is that, Wade is a very self-aware character.  In the comics, he is THE ONLY CHARACTER in comic book history (I think), who knows he is in a comic book.  He would often approach subject matters outside of comic book lure and also address his readers.  This film does the same thing.  They stick soo close to the comics with this, the results are hilarious.  Poking fun and making jokes about anything and EVERYTHING! Blink and you will miss it, but there is a moment #Spoilers (I guess), that Deadpool actually moves the camera for the audience and at times he would randomly address the audience where the other characters won't have the foggiest of whom he is talking to.

Brilliantly executed by director Tim Miller and excellent acted by Ryan Reynolds.  With other actors doing a great job such as the main villain Ajax, his "sidekick"/Bodyguard Angeldust (Gina Carano), this film is bound to entertain.  The fact that they made this film for $58m dollars, which sounds like a lot, but in comic book movie standards is, peanuts, this film does not come off as sloppy, badly edited nor cheaply made.  I guess there is an argument to made in regards to a few shots but...$58 million? X-Men Origins Wolverine was made for $150m and the last X-Men film, Days of Future Past was made for $200m. How is that for context?

Have a watch, i'm sure you will love it.

(film review) - Creed

For those who know me, you know I love to watch movies.  For those who don't know, I only blog about movies I have seen in the cinema.  With that said, there are a ton of great or classic films I have not seen growing up and while some will shock and surprise you, others might even urge you to disown me.  Also, I do not watch movies which are halfway through a story.  I have to start from the beginning.  In regards to Creed, this is the 7th "Rocky" film from the Rocky franchise in which I have not seen before.  Well, properly.  Any of them.  But this is different, right?  Leave me and let me get on with it.

If you are completely new to the fold (like me, *cough, cough* - Sorta), Creed is a spin-off from the Rocky films starring Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, an underdog boxer, his struggles and rise to fame and eventually, his retirement (I think, I'm not entirely sure as I haven't seen them all properly or the last one).  Creed follows a similar beat.  Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) is a young guy with a passion for boxing trying to find his place and make a name for himself.  One might say it is in his veins and is the only thing that keeps him alive.  From having a troublesome childhood, Adonis has dreams of being a boxer like his father and although he has a lot going on for him in life, nothing gets his blood pumping more than boxing.  Wanting to become just like his father, a famous boxer, a champ, Adonis seeks the help of Rocky to train him.  Rocky being retired, at first is reluctant to train young Adonis but due to Adonis' drive and passion, ends up being trained by the famous Rocky Balboa to his first proper fight.  That's really about it.  Nothing more, nothing less really.  But this is a very well directed film.

The Director Ryan Coogler did a brilliant job of balancing old with the new and telling a story which stands on it's own away from the Rocky franchise but manages to stay connected.  A story about a young aspiring boxer trained by an old legend.  Charming in places, funny in others and the cinematography, for me, was great.  Angles and imagery.  The settings, how more "urban" it was without being oversaturated. The story isn't overly unexpected or surprising but their are some great moments with great dialog and scenes. What this film did for me, should do for others who haven't properly seen the rise of Rocky Balboa.  The true underdog story.  Having seen this film, I really wanted to watch all of the previous Rocky films and get an understanding of how Rocky became Rocky.  For those who have seen a few Rocky films and enjoyed them or are fans of the Rocky franchise, they should love this film.  This film sits firmly within the Rocky universe as it's own individual franchise apart from Rocky, but within the same wheelhouse.

Sylvester's acting was great.  I cannot compare his character to his previous, for obvious reasons, but as an old boxer who isn't caught up with today's youth, urban culture and/or society and technology, this film has some truly great moments of letting these shine through, especially with the training montages.  Michael is excellent in his portrayal of Adonis.  There is a scene where Adonis is talking with Rocky after an incident at a club and is somewhat emotional. That Coogler really knows how to touch you in that spot, even if it is slight.  I cannot wait to see more from the three, hopefully.  Go and see this film.  With the Oscars coming up, someone should be winning something.  The Director maybe?

(film review) - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

After spending almost a week, running, ducking, diving, jumping, swimming and rolling away from Star Wars Spoilers EVERYWHERE online, I am glad to say that I have finally watched the film and I loved it.  Yes, there are a few issues with it, but what film is perfect? I saw this film last night and I have spent all day reading and listening to what people thought, their reviews, what they liked and disliked and generally how the film made them feel.   For me, after watching this film, I wanted to see it again.  I will not go into spoilers, but I will try and review this film without giving a lot away.

Star Wars VII (7) is about the fall of the Galactic Empire, who inspire a military dictatorship now called the First Order who has begun executing it's plan to depose the New Republic and reclaim control of the galaxy.  The film picks up around 30 years since Return of the Jedi, after the fall of the Galactic Empire and a lot has changed.  Luke Skywalker is missing.  The veterans from the Rebel Alliance, in response to the First Order are now called the Resistance and they retaliate against the First Order and their new weapon of mass destruction.  With the introduction of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), an ace fighter pilot for the resistance who is captured by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order, he is taken to be interrogated for very important information.  Poe eventually meets Finn (John Boyega) who in turn meets Rey (Daisy Ridley) who later meet Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) to only be pulled into General Leia Organa's (Carrie Fisher) fight against the First Order.  With the odds stacked against them, success for the resistance seems nonexistent and it is now up to our heroes to defeat this new threat that is the First Order.

Now if you have seen A New Hope, there are blatant parallels with Episode IV and this is the aim.  Where a lot of Episodes I-III have a great deal of exposition, the general plot is given to you whilst the film flows at a rapid pace.  Having watched the film, you will leave the cinema thinking, one of two things, overwhelmed or underwhelmed and mainly because, although this is a good film, there are a lot of things missing, i.e exposition. Sitting or standing in circles discussing politics.  Relationships between characters are not forced, but not very well fleshed out to be majorly impactful.  The film acts as a springboard or a passing of the torch to the new characters and if you want to know about the older characters, watch the previous trilogy.  Moreover, you simply might have wanted a lot more than what JJ Abrams gave to us.  J J Abrams had a lot to do and without making this children's film (enjoyed by adults) run for too long, J J was only able to deliver on what I felt he did what the Prequel Trilogy didn't manage to do, but should have; and that is to produce and direct a film that resembles the original trilogy films which were made, update it with the technology we have now and deliver a quality product.  Although this was done in the prequel trilogy, sort of, a lot of the puppets, set pieces and acting (funnily enough) was not real.  Some of the acting didn't carry much weight.  Wooden or very bad dialogue/scripts.  The reason why a lot of people who have watched the original trilogy basically trash the prequel trilogy, is due to the way it was directed and how the characters acted and were portrayed along with the bad dialogue.  Too much kiddie elements to it with a lot of bad acting and bad characters.  The Force Awakens is a return to form and we can only see this progressing further into the next trilogy and beyond.

Things I didn't like about the movie, was the pacing.  It was too fast and even though it didn't feel rushed as such, everything moved quite rapidly once we got into the film and this didn't allow for some story elements or scenes to be 30 seconds longer just to fully appreciate the story, situation or dynamics.  With soo many things left open to the imagination or for us to wait until the sequel, although the film doesn't answer all our questions, it just gives us another bunch of questions you will have to figure out yourself or like I said, wait until the follow up film.

Seeing the Millennium Falcon again was great.  Sexy beast of a hunk of junk.  And the X-Wings are as sexy as they can ever be.  The sound and special effects are tip top and when it comes to the cinematography, nearly every single frame is a screenshot masterpiece.  Like, pause it at any moment and print screen, put it in a frame and hang it up.  Another gripe I didn't like was Lupita Nyong'o's character.  The character was fine, but we didn't need her for it and felt that this award winning actress was misused.  But other than that, this film is a stepping stone for the sequel and many more movies to come.  Hopefully the second movie doesn't get too dark.  Word has it, Star Wars Episode VIII (8) will be the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise.  I'm expecting explanations and a lot of people dying.  Dark days for the resistance.

Oh, by the way.  People don't understand the "HYPE" about this film.  For me, there is no "hype". If you appreciate storytelling and film, then you would get the "Hype", otherwise you just won't get it.  A lot of this is due to the knowledge of watching the original trilogy since 1977 and understanding what Star Wars has done for the movie industry.  What George Lucas has done for the movie industry.   Don't raise your hopes up either.  This is just the start of another journey to a galaxy far far away, long ago.

Enjoy