Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written April 24th, 2019*

It feels weird just how far this series has come from its humble beginnings before being eaten up by Disney. I'm not saying Disney haven't improved the direction of this series (For the most part), but the films under Paramount certainly have a different tone, look and feel to them, for better or worse.

The First Avenger is a more earnest entry in the series that wears its honesty on its sleeve, making for a pretty entertaining and sweet World War 2 adventure that effectively sets up the Captain America trilogy and some of the groundwork for the MCU as a whole. 

Chris Evans makes for an easy to root for hero. A malnourished young adult from Brooklyn who wants nothing more than to do the right thing and help the war effort, despite the danger and his lack of anything close to combat skills. Evans makes the character work so well, so inherently earnest and likeable as he goes from scrawny asthmatic to 'roided up super-soldier.  It is weird seeing the CGI in making Chris Evans look so small though, while I remember it being very impressive back when this released, it doesn't hold up very well.

Not a lot of the CGI or action has aged well either in all honesty, but the more cartoony look of the film and special effects works in favour of its tone, making it feel like a more Indiana Jones esque take on World War 2 and Nazis. I mean, these aren't your Schindler's List monster Nazis, these are cartoonish super-villain Nazis, which I suppose they were, but the portrayal here is much harder to take seriously. 

I wasn't a massive fan of the look of the film either. It's very drab and colourless for the most part and made even worse by a 4K disc that only exacerbates these flaws. The whole film has this flat digital look to it. I always found the first two Avengers films to not look like actual films, but more big-budget TV. First Avenger suffers from the same problem. There's not really any moments of striking cinematography as everything just looks pretty bland and the direction lacks anything with a signature.

I sound like I'm criticising this a lot, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Which is also very much due to the character work with Steve Rogers and his journey. I particularly loved the travelling roadshow montage to Star Spangled Man that involved him punching a fake Hitler at the end of every performance, before realising he could make much more of a difference if he actually helped in battle. 

Then there's the romance with him and Peggy, which is probably the only romance in the MCU outside of Tony and Pepper that actually feels like it has any weight to it. I always forget just how touching the last moments of the film are, helped by the fact they have genuine chemistry throughout. Everything with Steve and Bucky is surprisingly effective too, especially knowing how that all goes in the next two Captain America films. 

Hugo Weaving's Red Skull is also a pretty solid villain. Again, his motivations are very cartoonish and his look is ridiculous, but it works in favour of the films tone. Even with the tone, I was surprised at just how violent this was at times too. When people get shot, there's pretty strong blood splatter and even a pretty shocking moment where Steve throws a nazi into a plane engine and he turns to bloody mulch, something the MCU would in no way get away with now. I'm amazed they even got away with it in a 12 rated film from 8 years ago. This came out 8 years ago, Jesus.


Captain America: The First Avenger is a solid first outing for the Evan's Steve Rogers, helped enormously by strong character work, Evan's earnest performance and fine campy tone that saves the film from it's forgettable action and bland, drab visual look. 


7/10 Dans

Captain America: The First Avenger is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written November 3rd, 2011*

For many people (Including myself) Ghost Protocol is the first film in the Mission: Impossible franchise that found a formula that launched the franchise from good to great. The first three films all had their own unique style and voice, for better or worse (MI2 is appalling), but they were lacking something. Thankfully Brad Bird came along and gave us an action film that rides the right line between action thriller and cartoony set-pieces.

It's so great to see that Tom Cruise still hasn't changed in 7 years. The set-piece on the tallest building in the world is just outrageous and exciting, the best the series got until this years Fallout. It's always just a treat to see Tom Cruise performance these stunts himself. He really gives it his all while delivering a charismatic and easy to root for Ethan Hunt.

This is also the first one that introduces Simon Pegg as the one of the main team members. He was in the third, but only as a tiny part, so it's much more interesting to see him in the field this time and bouncing off Hunt so well. It's strange to see Paula Patton leave such an impact in this film, but then never appear in another, there was a lot more chance to explore her character and whatever reason they didn't.

The only real weak spot of the team here is Jeremy Renner, who amounts to absolutely nothing. There's an intriguing backstory for his character that we learn throughout the run-time, making way for a very unearned and weird twist at the end. It's pretty easy to see why wasn't in Fallout and no one really noticed, because I nearly forgot he was in this one. It's weird just seeing a team work so well together, then Renner in the middle just having absolutely no chemistry at all with them.

The plot is what you'd come to expect at this point, it doesn't twist the formula massively, but it does what it tries to do so well. Ethan's team have to stop terrorist with nuclear codes while going country to country. It's fine. All absolutely fine. It's just a shame that the villains are very under-cooked and wasted. The only one that leaves a lasting impression is Lea Seydoux as an assassin responsible for starting the chain of events that kicks off the plot, so it's a shame she's written out pretty quickly to make way for a far less intimidating bad guy. 

There was a point where Ghost Protocol was my favourite Mission: Impossible film, but maybe due to the laws of diminishing returns or just preferring the slightly darker tone they went for in the next two films, I still really like Ghost Protocol, but don't quite love it. Watching it on 4K was at least a treat, an extremely impressive transfer that really showed off those yellows and Tom Cruise's gorgeous face. This is also the first time I'd notice just how poor some of the CGI in this was. The Kremlin explosion and nuke launching look utterly atrocious. 


Ghost Protocol starts the formula that has made the next few Mission: Impossibles so great. It's not perfect, but Brad Bird does a great job delivering us an extremely entertaining spy-thriller with a familiar plot, but insanely exciting set-pieces made even better with Tom Cruise's total commitment. 

8/10 Dans

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Colombiana (2011) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written July 31st, 2017*

"The Professional"

Originally written as a sequel to Leon: The Profession (seriously), that would have surrounded a grown up Matilda taking revenge on everyone who wronged her and Leon, but was scrapped do to rights issues and they changed the script around to make it an original film. Thank god.

Not that Colombiana is a good film on its own. I'm just thankful that the talent-less hack Olivier Megaton never got his disgusting worse than college level film making on the Leon name. 

I remember seeing Colombiana back when it came out and enjoying it, but I was about 14, so I was a fucktard who didn't know what good action making was. So I was prepared for the worst, but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. It's not amazing film, but for Megaton, it's a moderately mediocre, but mildly entertaining revenge film.

Zoe Saldana is a decent lead and carries an action role quite well. It's a shame that there's a lack of stuff for her character to do. There are some fun assassination scenes before it explodes into a bombastic finale. 

Megaton even manages to restrain his awful broken shakey-cam action for the most part, delivering some coherency to the set pieces. Don't get me wrong, when anything is close quarters action, it becomes a headache inducing nightmare, but still nowhere near as bad as his awful Taken sequels.


Colombiana is what it is, a watchable, but forgettable action film with some okay action and a decent lead. It's nothing special, but it didn't leave me with a sense of hatred and despair at the end of it, so that's something. Bonus points for using "Hurt" by Johnny Cash at the end.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 19th, 2017*
 More my thoughts on the series as a whole:

Well, my Harry Potter journey has come to an end, and what a beautiful, emotional and heartfelt end it came to. Deathly Hallows Part 2 is like the second half of Breaking Bad season 5. Everything put into 2 hours, to bring the series to an end, and it never stops.

This was everything I ever possibly could have wanted from a finale to a series. Everyone has closure and a chance to shine, while the epilogue is touching, beautiful and brings things full circle is the best way possible.

I was pretty hit-and-miss watching all the films back to back a few years ago, but this time they all clicked with me in one way or another. The earlier films have their flaws for sure and are easily the weakest of the lot, but they still were just what I needed right now, and I am happy about the fact I loved them all in some way.

It has been an incredible experience seeing these actors and characters grow in depth and complexity as the series progressed, going through things we've all been through, but in the backdrop of a fantasy world based around magic. The performances of every actor massively improves with each film and it is so noticeable, making each one feel like a genuine improvement on the the last. Even minor characters have evolved and been fully fleshed out, including ones you would not expect. The only exception I'd say was Malfoy, who was just rubbish from beginning to end. There was no reason to fear this villain, every single moment he had a chance to prove his villainy, he proved to be a coward and cry baby, to the point I have no idea why anyone even took him seriously for one second.

In Deathly Hallows Part 2 every scene had meaning and flowed, the action is gorgeous and some of the best of the entire franchise. The heartbreaking revelations are effective and just fucked me. David Yates has truly been a consistent director in the quality of the past few films and as much as I wish a load of different directors got to put their take on Potter on screen, I'm glad someone was able to follow through with their vision for the finale entries. That said, each different director has given something unique and memorable with the films directed.

Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood and I'm sad to see it go once again, but this was a hell of a ride revisiting them, and I cannot wait to do it again in the future. Give me my 4K boxset of the entire series. I will also be reading all the books soon.

10/10 Dans

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is out now in the UK on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now
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The Raid (2011) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 3rd, 2017*

I seem to enjoy The Raid less with every watch, I still like it, quite a bit even, but the more I watch it, the more the problems glare out at me. It's the same problem people have with the first John Wick (Which isn't a problem for me), but The Raid severely lacks in story and feels a lot longer than its 100 minutes runtime.

The story is fairly simple, a SWAT team get locked in an apartment complex and have to fight their way to the top to kill the big bad. It's video-gamey stuff and sadly came along way to close to the Dredd film with an extremely similar concept.

There is nothing wrong with The Raid's simple concept, it's just there is not a lot there, the main character is the only one given any depth, while everyone else is pure cannon fodder for the chaos that ensues. It doesn't help that the sequel is so much richer in character and story, but this was a decent jumping off point for the series.

Where The Raid obviously excells is with the action, the choreographed martial-arts and stunt work is incredible, it's brutal, extremely violent and kinetic. It's sadly let down by some glaringly CGI blood, but I can forgive that for such a low-budget film. The whole film is one long fight scene, to the point where it does get a little repetitive and some action scenes go on a bit longer than they need to, to the point where they start to lose impact.

The general look of the film is quite ugly too, everything looks washed out and quite dull, almost like a straight-to-DVD film. Again, I assume this is due to the budget, but a bit of colour could have gone a long way here. It's also made uglier by just how much prettier the sequel looks.

The Raid is certainly one of the best films of recent years due to its incredible stunt-work and action, but on rewatches and other films doing this a lot better, The Raid is slowly losing its impact.

7/10 Dans

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