Old Man of Sorrows

The following is my review of the 2017 film ‘Logan’ and does contain spoilers.

Firstly, this film is exceptionally performed as an action and suspense piece. The visuals, although subtle at times will hit you later on after viewing the scenes. The action was played out in a manner that is pleasing to both comic enthusiasts, as well as fans of the previous X-men based films who may not be familiar with the comic roots.

Secondly, the level of violence in the film has been highly sought-after since the first cinematic portrayal of “Wolverine”. It wasn’t gratuitous, and although the film is based in science fiction the gore was quite realistic as well as gratifying. Tasteful brutality.

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Thirdly, accuracy to the source material is something that I personally look for in a comic book adaptation. This film was close enough as far as individual traits of the protagonist, and the mini-protagonist/agitator if you will. If you’re familiar with the comic version of Wolverine then you know that all the man wants is peace but just when he has finally found it, it is snatched away through the mayhem that follows him. A true “man of sorrows” if ever there had been one. This film captured that (without elaborating on it though) but really could’ve stretched a few more films out with it.

Fourthly, the pace of the film is excellent in my opinion. I’m sure some editors would assume that comic book readers want a quick, fast-paced romp of a film with cheap visuals and one-liners to amuse a juvenile angst within them. But that couldn’t be further from the truth of many of us who were anticipating this film. The pace is perfect in this film, not rushing itself but taking its time to knead the dough and get all that air out. By the end, after you take it out of the oven, you’ve got a very well-made and scrumptious Marvel bakery classic.

Fifthly, and really my only major complaint of the film was the use of expletives as filler words. The only well-place use of “Fudge Usually Coats Kit-kats” was an argument scene. The rest were kind of just cursing for the sake of filling a rating. And don’t get me started on the completely unnecessary “nipple shot”. To be honest, I would’ve preferred a flashback of Weapon X naked Logan, or some gruesome castration scene to help earn that rating.

Sixthly, the film’s story which borrowed from different comic story arcs (without giving away too much) was not as predictable as it may’ve seemed. To avoid any ultra-spoilers I’ll just leave it at that.

For me as a lifelong Marvel comic reader, I loved the film. It was the wolverine movie that I’ve always wanted to see, and simultaneously the film I was afraid of ever having to see. If that makes sense. 9.5/10

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Strange Indoctrination

The following is a review of the recently released Marvel Studios film, ‘Dr. Strange’

I will attempt to write this review without spoilers, but viewing the film prior to reading this review is still recommended.

First, I will say that this film rendition of Marvel’s resident sorcerer supreme is quite beautiful to look at. The visual effects, although slightly frail at times (barely noticeable) are still vibrant and mesmerizing. The look of the film has a very accurate feel, based on what I’ve always imagined a Dr. Strange film to look like. The scale is positively overwhelming and excusably so, considering the subject matter is magic, and therefore should be limitless.

The film has a tone to it that Marvel fans of both the films and of the comics are accustomed to. The well timed and well executed moments of humor are exactly what we were brought up on, as readers of the comics. There’s a light tone, but also a very thought-out darker tone that peeks in ever so often.an excellent mixture given the amount of real-life skeptics who will also view the film.

And finally, the story. As a nearly lifelong Marvel reader I always rush to a Marvel Comic based film, just to see my favorite characters brought to life on the big screen. My only major desire when going to see one is that the filmmakers stay as true to the source material as possible. I don’t mind them staying so-true that it becomes predictable, I just want the “accurate authenticity” if you will. This film and it’s story, as far as my knowledge of the Strange canon, is about 80 to 85% accurate. The character is closer to 100% accurate, in my observation.

One thing that I loved about this film, is my recognition to some of the information introduced to Strange. I’ve read some of Manly P. Hall’s work, and hearing some of what he spoke of in his books, in this film, was gratifying.

On a scale of 1 to 10: This film gets an 8.5 from me.

This One’s Just Temporarily Out of Order

An Informative Report on Ghostbusters 2016

Now here is my review of ‘Ghostbusters’ 2016

1. The film looks great. The visuals get slightly generic towards the final act, but it doesn’t ruin the overall look of the film.

2. Humor doesn’t fall flat. Most of what was intended to be humorous, I found to be humorous. As I expected, McKinnon and Jones shined in the film. They were really the main draw for my anticipation after seeing the original trailer.

3. My biggest peeve was the writer giving respectable cameos to everyone except Mr. Murray. He was so pivotal to the original films, yet his character was not likable.

There really wasn’t even a point to having these cameos: the characters weren’t really involved in the story. I prefer Mr. Akaroyd’s original vision of the original members training the newer members.

4. Gender-based mockery: All except on ghost was male, and they pretty much spat in the face of the beloved Ghostbusters logo by having it turn out to be subversive. The original film didn’t need to put women down, or code dialogue to fit a “The Future is Female” rhetoric. But this film did just that.

And taking the time (as well as several scenes) to address the YouTube trailer controversy was pointless.

5. The overall tone of the film seemed to be focused on spite, spite for negative portrayals of females in film and television. Why use Ghostbusters to get back at previous instances of sexism in film? I do not know, you’d have to ask Pascal & Feige that question.

But those of us who grew up on the original know that it (the original franchise) wasn’t sexist toward females in any way. Hemsworth’s character “Kevin” was the dimwitted hunky guy who’s only hired for his looks.
Some say it’s just turning the tables on how females are portrayed but I don’t remember “Janine” being hired for her looks (as gorgeous as Ms. Potts is) in the original film. And she was far from dimwitted.

6. Why recreate scenes from the original, when you can simply write new and creative scenes? I don’t know, you’d have to ask the writer about that one. And all the Ghostbusters were female, why wasn’t the antagonist female as well?

7. Leslie Jones. Firstly, yes, she had some dialogue that was stereotypical of Blacks in Hollyweird. But for the most part her role was just fine, with only a few minuscule lines of typical “Token Black” characteristics.

She was an addition to the comedy in the film, I really can’t imagine having watched it without her. I will not go to the sequel (and there’d better be one) if she doesn’t return as “Patty”

As a lifelong fan of the original franchise (released on my first year birthday) I assumed I would at least enjoy this film, after seeing it I can honestly say that it was enjoyable. I mean they played Debarge, I wasn’t going to not-like it.

But my biggest problem with the film is the character given to Mr. Murray, other than that, with one point removed for Mr. Murray, and one point removed for the Feministic undertone I give it 7/10

In my egalitarian world you don’t need to mock men to respect women. And I think Mr. Akaroyd and Mr. Reitman’s vision of ‘Ghostbusters 3’ would’ve been nearly perfect.
Involving Cern, being an egalitarian centered cast, and respecting the original team? Now that would’ve been a dream come true. I just wish Pascal saw it that way.

The Age of Marvelous Cinema

Here is my review for the film ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

Firstly, I must say that my anticipation for this film was so thick, you’d think I added an entire box of starch to it.
So going into the theater to finally view it I was excited and hopeful, having never really been let down by Mr. Singer’s contribution to the X-Men filmography. I will give my points in “bullet form”

1. The violence was magnificent, pushing the PG-13 rating to a glimpse of an R rating. This was much appreciated because the comics have always had a degree of maturity in their ambiance. I think back to my favorite volume of ‘X-Men’ comics, Vol. 2 (1990’s) and I remember the Upstarts and the whole sensuality of characters like Kwannon, and I hoped for a more mature presentation of the story in this film.

2. The wardrobe design all except for En Sabah Nur, were all fantastical in design and made for an exceptional translation from the artists’ imagination to costume design. I never imagined Ms. Munn as Kwannon, but she certainly pulled the look off.

3. I would have preferred more development for characters like Ororo, Psyloche, and, Jubilation Lee. These characters really just appeared for visual effect, much like Bishop in ‘Days of Future Past’ It is for this reason I wish a Netflix series were in the works for a Vol.2 based ‘X-Men’ series.

4. As the previous films have included, this installment into the X-Men franchise possessed a strong dramatic element in it’s emotional efforts. One scene in particular involved a lead character and their reaction to the obstruction of solidarity.

Overall I was very pleased with this film, and even though it did not meet my exact expectations, it did satisfy my anticipation.
I give it a personal 9 out of 10

Kid Friendly But Adult Comprehended

This is my review (and theorizations) for the animated film, ‘Zootopia’.

As a life long fan of Japanese Animated films, favoring such titles as ‘Fist of the North Star’ and ‘Vampire Hunter D’, I appreciate the less violent and more antiseptic stories that American film makers have presented over the years.

From such films as ‘Fern Gully’ and ‘Hoodwinked’, to more creative and witty films like ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and ‘Finding Nemo’. So this film, ‘Zootopia’ really captured my attention and made me laugh, think, and theorize.

First let me say this film is brilliantly coded with specific symbolism. For instance, there’s a character resembling a sheep who is suggested to have an intimate relationship with a lion. How can this be interpreted? Go back to the biblical text of Revelation:
“In the last days, the lion shall lay down with the lamb.”

Or how about the whole idea of a “Bunny” being interested as a female?

The mention of Predators being turned into “savages” with a plant, plant symbolizing marijuana? And of course the most obvious was the frequently referred “multiple” rabbits joke. If you’ve ever heard the crass expression “Screw like rabbits.” as to say they have so much sex, that they make dozens of rabbits.

This is just me drawing conclusions for the practice of it but in all actuality, writers often encode things into their writing. One instance that stood out to me was the line that the lead character gave, “We Bunnies don’t mind calling each other ‘cute’ but it’s kind of offensive when someone else does it.”

That line made me think of blacks calling themselves a specific racial epithet without remorse, but will take great offense when called that same epithet by any other ethnicity.

Aside from all of those theories and drawn conclusions, the film was very entertaining, very well written, and authentically animated with those terrific facial expressions and movements.
I give it a 10 out of 10

A League of Injustice

Okay, here we go with my ‘Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ review.
I will attempt to write this completely free of spoilers for the film, but I will however discuss the comic books openly.

Let me state briefly that when it comes to comic book based films I am very hard to displease. I enjoyed Elektra, had excitement with X-Men 3, liked ‘Man of Steel’ more than any other Superman rendition, and really dug Ang Lee’s ‘Incredible Hulk’ from back in the early millennium. So you can see how easily I’m pleased with comic book based movies. Now on to this film.

First I must say that as a standalone film, this was poorly executed. It played more like a sequel to ‘Man of Steel’ rather than a standalone character collaboration film. If I may I’m going to write some points for this film in bullet form.

1. Affleck was excellent as Wayne. He really looked like a ‘Dark Knight Returns’ version of Bruce, who also played like a viable animated series come to life version. I was very pleased with his portrayal.

2. It might’ve just been me but Jeremy Irons seemed way to young to be our beloved Alfred in this film. They really should’ve cast him as Alfred in a flashback seen instead. However, his demeanor and mannerisms as Alfred were pretty good though.

3. (Possible spoiler) This film had to contain what I saw as quite possibly the worst depiction of Mr. & Mrs. Wayne’s iconic demise. Just bad all around. Think back to ‘Batman Begins’ and the excellent way that was depicted, then think further back to Burton’s vision of the events and you’ll see much better executions of this very significant moment in the Batman mythos.

4. Mr. Eisenberg did not do Lex Luther any justice whatsoever. I expected him to really bring a fresh new light hearted element to Lex, but not so said the brown turtle.

5. The only Zack Snyder film that I thoroughly enjoyed, was ‘Sucker Punch’ and that’s just because I’m a big Jena Malone fan. This film was shot nicely as far as the standard scenes but the pace just wasn’t pleasing. Too much slow motion to convey emotion (instead of letting the story’s point do that) and too much background music. I think Nolan would’ve made a much better execution of this story.

6. I desperately want to discuss this film’s depiction of their physical confrontation but I’ve kept it virtually spoiler free so far, I’d like to keep it that way. I’ll just say that their confrontation in this film was an insult, an unintentional mockery of their Comic Book battles.

I loved Nolan’s ambiance of Batman, and Goyer’s articulation of his story. I think if Christopher Nolan had continued his ‘Dark Knight’ series with David Goyer , adding in a story arc involving ‘Man of Steel’ they probably would’ve done the entire story a lot more justly.

On a scale of 1, to 10: I give this film a strong 5, and that’s me being generous. Disjointed is a good word to use in describing this film, also excessive. I was thoroughly displeased with this film and its attempt to pit such iconic and beloved characters against one another. I can only pray, hope, and finger-cross this does not happen with ‘Suicide Squad’ later on this year.

The Deep End of a Deadpool

First I must confess that I am sanctified and well versed in the gospel of Marvel. I grew up reading comics and since the earliest I can remember, I have not gone an entire year without reading some comic from some publisher. So I was very much anticipant of this film, patiently awaiting it with high hopes.

Tonight, after a year of eager impetuousness I finally got to watch. And I was only disappointed with one thing regarding the film, the length. Personally, I don’t mind a lengthy comic-based film at all. In fact, I would prefer a two hour plus film when it comes to these beloved characters. This film was roughly around ninety minutes, my only minuscule disappointment. 

Now on to the favorable aspects of the film:

1. Brilliant humor: The jokes were sharp and the delivery was skillful.

2. Exciting action: The main reason some kids should definitely be taken to see it, top notch action.

3. Close and 3/4 a cigar source material accuracy: The writers were true enough to the source material, and the actors and filmmakers understood the character and tone of the comics. They got it right.

4. Visual satisfactory: I had a dream a few weeks ago, and in it I went to see the film and Wade was hacking and slashing limbs with his Katanas. This was a time warped vision, because that’s exactly what was storyboarded. In fact, it could’ve been a bit more gore. Like Blade one style.

As a fan of the character, I highly recommend this film. 9/10 (Minus one point only for duration)