Hellboy (2019) - Review

Review:

*Originally written April 12th, 2019*

It's impossible to talk about about this reboot of Hellboy without bringing up the fact this is a reboot no one asked for. The fans of the Del Toro Hellboy films (A series of films that have a cult and dedicated fanbase) wanted Hellboy 3, not a reboot. There's no way round that and it was a struggle to even watch this without the fond memories of how much better Del Toro's films were.

I try to go into films with an open mind. Even ones that have everything stacked against it, despite some less than great trailers, but some ace posters. I try to see the positives. Neil Marshall is an interesting choice of a director, helming some of Game of Thrones best episodes and responsible for some great cult horror films in The Descent and Dog Soldiers (One I need to rewatch). Then the pretty stacked cast with David Harbour in the lead role, Ian McShane as his father and Sasha Lane gave me a small glimmer of hope. These attempts at looking for the positives were sadly in vein as Hellboy is currently sitting as possibly the worst film I've seen in cinemas this year (The worst of the worst are currently reserved as Netflix Originals)

This is pretty much a disaster on all levels. A charmless bore of an action-horror that tries to riff off much better films without even trying to attempt what makes them great. There's clear shades of Guardians of the Galaxy with its poppy soundtrack and a tone that seems more akin to Deadpool with its sarcastic humour that tries so hard and grotesque gore.

Harbour certainly tries his best and is definitely a good choice for the role of Hellboy, as is Ian McShane as Hellboy's father. Both excellent actors who try their best with such horrific writing. Hellboy's grouchy, reluctant hero attitude is definitely there, but there is never a reason to care. His character jumps from decision to decision with no real motivation, I was honestly baffled by some of the choices made by his character. There's a point made about his being a freak among the people and wanting monsters to have the chance he had, but aside from a tantrum he throws, he never shows this with his actions. Especially in a truly terrible character turn at the end that just comes out of nowhere.

Then his relationship with Ian McShane is completely charmless and without any chemistry or heart that made the one between Ron Perlman's Hellboy and John Hurt so engaging. All they really do is argue while Hellboy throws a tantrum. It was so boring and repetitive to watch. They try and make this relationship a central part of the film, but it never works. It's just a waste of Ian McShane, which is a sin in itself.

Sasha Lane at least brings some character to her role with a character that I was worried might end up being like that awful female character in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom where everything was a snarky comment or cringe-inducing interaction that would make a 13 year old girl who still uses Tumblr go "That's so me", but thankfully that wasn't the case. She was actually one of the only characters that actually had any sort of motivation due to her past with Hellboy and her parents. A little more focus and involving her in the plot would have gone a long way. 

One of the more worrying aspects of this was the casting of Milla Jovavich, an actress I genuinely believe has never been in a good film (Aside from Fifth Element, which I'm not even a big fan of). Unsurprisingly, she made for a damn awful villain, hamming up every scene she had by chewing through the scenery. I think she might have been the only one aware of the sort of film she was in, but hey, this is still probably one of the best films she's been in. Good for her! Plus as 90% of her character seemed to be CGI, she probably got to do very little for a solid paycheck. Think Cara Deleveigne in Suicide Squad. 

Oh, and Daniel Dae Kim is here doing very little with a very predictable character-arc. He seems to have this sad effect of having supporting roles in and being so utterly forgettable, which is such a shame, as he was great in Lost, despite how trash that show got towards the end. I should rewatch Lost at some point. 

A lot was made about how this was the "Edgier" and more violent reboot of Hellboy that commits to the gore and adult content of its comic. In all fairness, it does commit to this. There are some grotesque images and gore, especially towards the end as civilians are slaughtered and torn apart by some weird creature thing. Marshall clearly nails the idea in his head here, but the execution is less than desired. The gore looks cheap and ugly, as does most of the film. 

Marshall was definitely restrained by a much lower budget than Del Toro's films and it shows. The trailers made a big showcase of those money shots of a flame-covered Hellboy holding a sword and riding a dragon, but in the film, those trailer shots are as much as you see. It's literally those two shots. It's kind of embarrassing how the trailer promised some gonzo action and insanity like that, but never commit to it in the film.

Aside from those few choice moments of gore and some admittedly great character designs (Some of the things are gross and looked awesome), the CGI is poor throughout. Making all of the action scenes feel lifeless and filmed on a green screen. Del Toro's films were a grand display of creative and gorgeous practical designs and action, rarely relying on overblown CGI, this is the exact opposite. The only moment the action has any sort of fluidity to it is a brief moment in the epilogue that lasts a minute and left me thinking "Where on earth was this for the past two hours?" 


I didn't have any real hopes for Hellboy and unsurprisingly this is just a mess of a reboot. One that just made me yearn for another film by Del Toro or at the very least just want to watch the first two excellent films again. A charmless, lifeless and try-hard bore that has probably killed this franchise for good now and it's probably for the best. What a waste of a cast and concept. Cinema is dead.

3/10 Dans

Hellboy is out now in cinemas in the UK, with a 4K UHD Steelbook available to pre-order from Zavvi
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The Incredible Hulk (2008) - 4K Review

Review:

*Originally written September 1st, 2018*

I know The Incredible Hulk gets a lot of flack for its quality and it has more or less been forgotten in the overall run of the MCU and it's not hard to see why, but in all honesty, it's just a remarkably okay entry. It's no less aggressively mediocre than the first Avengers film, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Iron Man 2 or a bunch of the other 3 star entries of the MCU. 

It's all just by the numbers and competent. It's a huge step down from the first Iron Man in terms of freshness, but it still has its merits. Edward Norton makes for a great Bruce Banner, he lacks the goofy charm Ruffalo later brings to the role, but Norton goes for something different and a bit more serious and I was okay with that.

My biggest gripe is that studios don't seem to know what to do with The Hulk in his own film. I have very little memory of Ang Lee's Hulk, but I remember that being truly awful. This reboot covers a lot of ground we already know and have seen in countless other comic-book  films. Guy with powers is on the run from the government while not being being to be with the woman he loves, while ironically her father is the man hunting him. It's all just fine. 

It's always fun to see the Hulk smash shit up and while the CGI on The Hulk himself hasn't aged massively well, it's still enjoyable chaos with some memorable bursts of action. One could argue Hulk looks too much like Daddy Shrek, but this is definitely not a problem for me.

There's also the annoying superhero film trope of the villain having the same powers as the hero and using them for evil, which is exactly what happens here. Tim Roth is a fine actor, highly underrated even and while it was somewhat of a joy to see him ham it up outrageously, when he actually turns into abomination, I had unfortunate flashbacks to Doomsday in Batman vs Superman. Which is also an ugly, cave troll looking piece of CGI. That said, I wish they would have brought Roth back in the MCU at some point, but I can confidently assume that will never happen now.

Some of more minor things I liked here are a few little moments. There were some nice moments between Banner and Betty Rose, even if she is another one of the MCU's disposable love interests that are nothing less than an afterthought. They really need to work on that. Then there's the heart rate monitor watch that Banner uses to stop himself becoming the Hulk. It might be a bit of a cheap move that maybe simplifies his change a bit much, but I don't know, I thought it was a nice touch.


There's not really a lot else to say here, The Incredible Hulk probably deserves the hate it receives, but I kinda like it, it's remarkably watchable and does very little in the way of interesting, but in terms of the MCU, it's just another watchable, if forgettable entry. Universal and Disney need to sort out the rights issues so at least one of them can make another solo Hulk film again.

6/10 Dans

The Incredible Hulk is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
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Black Panther (2018) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written February 17th, 2018*

I went into Black Panther with relatively low expectations. I find most of the first standalone films in the MCU to be their weakest. I wasn't surprised by the critical acclaim Panther received though, good or bad, these films get a free pass from the critics, so I went in not knowing entirely what to expect. To my surprise, this was pretty excellent and while it suffers from a few of the problems most superhero films succumb to, this manages to fix a few of them.

This opens an entire new world within the MCU, Wakanda is a gorgeous, fascinating place that mixes futuristic sci-fi ideas with old fashioned tribal aesthetics. I have to bring up the society's backward system of using a monarchy and royal family though, such a stupid and broken system and only leads to the trouble they get into at the end on the film. They had it coming.

Black Panther wasn't the best in Civil War, but Chadwick Boseman really makes the role is own here, a near James Bond like figure with charisma and gravitas to him that makes him insanely watchable. Aside from a few lingering threads to Civil War, his story feels entirely standalone, which I always appreciate in this now 18 film franchise. 

Boseman is joined by a cast of very memorable supporting characters too. Panther's sister is a sort of Q like presence that provides the team with gadgets and weapons, Martin Freeman is given a lot more to do than he did and Civil War, I was surprised at how much screen-time he was given too, I suspected he was going to be nothing more than a cameo, but he's a pretty big supporting character.

On the villain side of things, Michael B. Jordan is excellent, one of the finest villains in the MCU yet, a sympathetic sociopath with clear motivations, motivations you could actually get behind and a surprisingly emotional character arc. He was a far cry from the wasted bad guys the MCU usually put out. Andy Serkis was also great fun in his role, I just wish he got more screen-time in this whole thing.

Coogler directs the 135 minute film with a brisk pace and the whole film does look gorgeous (The MCU seems to have finally broken away from the awful televisual look that plagued Avengers 1-2 and Captain 2-3). Some of the action is fluid and kinetic to watch, it's just a shame the film succumbs to that annoying third act where boring pieces of ugly CGI hit each other. The final fight on the train tracks is disgusting to watch, some of the worst special effects the MCU has had to date. Which is a shame considering how small in scale the early scenes were.

I wasn't a huge fan of all the hip-hop music either, a lot of the time it just didn't fit and felt forced, but at the very least it was far more memorable than the utterly forgettable score here. I'm pretty convinced there wasn't one at all in all honesty?

One of my biggest problems in this series has been the lame humour that ruined some of their films. Thankfully, this is a lot better in that department, the writers know when to shut the characters up and let the tension in a scene breathe, rather than ruin it with an embarrassing joke to make 6 year old children laugh. It's not all perfect though, that lame humour does pop up every now and then, a particular character towards the end ruined some potentially effective scenes.


Black Panther is far better than I was expecting, a gorgeous, beautiful film that expands the MCU, tells its own story and finally delivers a great villain, it's just shame it falls into the third act trap of bombastic garbage CGI towards the end.

8/10 Dans

Black Panther is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Thor: Ragnarok (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 26th, 2017*

"Third time's the charm"

They finally did it. It took Marvel three attempts, but they've finally made a Thor solo film that didn't make me want to kill myself. The first two Thor films are by far the worst outings of the MCU (Aside from the pathetic Age of Ultron). Thankfully, Disney seem to finally be allowing directors to finally take creative control and make unique films. For the third time in a row this year, Marvel have knocked it out the park and have finally dropped that garbage televisual look many of their films have.

Thor: Ragnarok is a gorgeous, gorgeous film with a striking and varied colour palette. They seem to be moving more in the direction of Guardians of the Galaxy with its zany and cosmic weirdness and they embrace it, which I loved. There's so many cool and different sci-fi ideas and designs here to embrace here. It's the only Thor film that I feel will grow on me with each watch. 

Chris Hemsworth is still great as The God of Thunder, Thor. Playing it charming and funny. There's not much range outside of that, but I'll get to that with my main problem with the film. I was surprised by Tom Hiddleston as Loki here. Loki is a character I've grown sick of in the recent years. We get it, he's smug and slimy, there's been a few times for him to stretch, but being played as the joke rather than the threat really worked here. Mark Ruffalo is a welcome return as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, it's shame we'll probably never get a solo film with him, but Ruffalo continues to be an excellent Hulk. The visual effects artist also seem to improve him with each portrayal too.

What makes Thor: Ragnarok so strong is just how much fun it is. We jump from location to location. Most of the film takes place on a planet run by an overlord played by the always excellent Jeff Goldblum, where Thor is forced to be a gladiator while his home is being taken over by a new threat 'Hela' (Cate Blanchett). I always appreciate when these films tell their own stories without the need to be annoyingly connected with the rest of the MCU. Aside from a couple of references, Ragnarok stand completely on its own. 

My main problem with Ragnarok is the same problem I had with Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2. The jokes. There's just too many and they weigh down any kind of emotion the film could have had. It seemed any moment there was potential for a tense scene, it would be undercut by a joke. Not to say it wasn't funny, most of the jokes are actually very solid. It's just I wish they'd let some stuff breathe more and make us care. It's all good fun, but it felt like a very emotionless film, despite some of the big events that happen.

Then there's a common problem with Marvel films. The villain. Cate Blanchett doesn't give a bad performance at all, she's actually pretty fun in the role, hamming it up completely. It's just there's not a lot to the character, making her another disposable Marvel villain that will be quickly forgotten. At the very least, it's an improvement on those stupid goblins from The Dark World. Karl Urban is also pretty wasted as the secondary villain, he has a moment to shine towards the end, but was mostly just there.

If there's a big problem Marvel overcame this time, it's the score. Ragnarok delivers a wonderfully '80s electronic score that suited the film perfectly from Mark Mothersbaugh. It's the first film from the MCU where I've actually remembered stuff from the score. There's also a few choice songs spread throughout. 

Marvel are now officially 3 for 3 with their MCU films this year and Thor: Ragnarok is a massive improvement on the previous two films. It's a little hollow, but it's a gorgeous, fun and funny blast of a sci-fi adventure. Keep it up, Marvel. 

8/10 Dans

Thor: Ragnarok is out now in cinemas in the UK

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The Defenders (Season 1) (2017) - TV Review

Review:

*Originally written August 20th, 2017*

"Defenders Assemble"

Marvel and Netflix's The Defenders has been a show a long time in the making. We've had 2 seasons of Daredevil and a season each of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist to set this up. For the most part, The Defenders is a success, it's a hell of a lot better than the painful Iron Fist and I liked it a bit more than Luke Cage and Daredevil season 2, but it never reaches the insane heights of Daredevil and Jessica Jones debut seasons.

Things are a bit muddled at the beginning. 2 of the Defenders are obviously needed back in New York for the inevitable team-up, but it makes the finales of Luke Cage and Iron Fist kinda pointless. They made a big deal of Cage going to prison in his show, but he's quickly released by Foggy Nelson in the opening moments of the premier, while Iron Fist is called back from China once he realises the real threat is in New York. There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect and lack of communication from show runners in setting up this series.

Things really shine when the team are finally put together. A whole episode takes place in a Chinese restaurant, and The Defenders get to interact and riff off each other. This is when the show is at its strongest. The cast have really chemistry together. Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock in particular have some of the best scenes.  Iron Fist is also at his best when he's with Luke Cage, but he's still a whiny bitch when he's on his own.

This show clearly didn't learn from the mistakes of Iron Fist (The panned final stage before The Defenders). In all fairness, this was already filmed and they clearly didn't have time to learn from the reception of Iron Fist. Still, Danny Rand is still the most annoying part of the show. He's so annoying and whiny. Which is a great shame when the rest of the team are so great.

Things also fail in the hands of the villains. Sigourney Weaver is completely wasted in a muddled villain that guess what? Listens to classical music! It's wildly unoriginal and she had the potential to be a villain on the same level as Wilson Fisk or Kilgrave. All the stuff with The Hand doesn't help. They sucked in Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist, and they suck here. They at the very least are finally given some weight as a credible threat here to a point. Elektra is also back as essentially a rip-off of The Winter Soldier, back from the dead with an erased memory but can get flashbacks at the mere mention of her name.

There is some exceptional action spread throughout where each character gets their chance to shine. The boardroom fight in the fifth episode in particular has some real kinetic energy to it and I wish we got just a bit more of that. It's a shame that the finale lacked much of a real punch. There's a big action scene towards the end involving all The Defenders, but it lacked any real threat or fun. Hip-hop music also starts playing and stops out of nowhere for no discernable reason, it was really strange and felt like it was trying to tap into Luke Cage's unique style, but failed miserable and just came off as weird.

The consequences of the finale is also outrageous. I know Daredevil is a lawyer by day, but there is no way The Defenders would get away with the borderline terrorist act they committed.  The finale at least puts all The Defenders in an interesting place at the end (Except Iron Fist. Fuck Iron Fist).

I did appreciate the colour schemes. It was very faithful to the individual TV shows. Daredevil's scenes are mostly red, Jessica's are drenched in muted blues and Luke's scenes are primarily yellow. Bringing these shows together really worked stylistically without losing what made each member unique.

The Defenders wasn't amazing, but it's a step in the right direction for Netflix's Marvel Universe after a couple of missteps. There is real room for improvement (Especially in fucking Iron Fist), but for the most part, it was all good fun with some great character moments and everyone got to a chance to shine. 

7/10 Dans

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X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 18th, 2016*

"Apocalyptic"

I am baffled by the mixed reviews X-Men: Apocalypse has been getting. Honestly, I am so confused. I've always found the X-Men franchise to be the most consistent of the superhero franchises at the moment, sure it's had its lows (The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine), but in terms of cinematic film-making and meaningful storytelling, I've always felt this series has rose above the rest.

The ninth installment in the X-Men franchise takes us to 1983, set 10 years after the events of Days of Future Past. The oldest known mutant 'Apocalypse' awakens in the current day and vows to cleanse the Earth of life with the help of 4 mutants, so it's up to Professor Xavier, Mystique and new group of teenage X-Men to stop them.

I was a bit suspect with this, considering the reviews, some even said it was worst than The Last Stand, so I didn't know what I was in for, but to be honest, I thought it was great. Hell, it might even be my favourite film in the series so far.

I loved the new cast. It's the same characters we know from the original trilogy, but young and still getting to know their powers. Although the events from this film has made the timeline with these films an utter train wreck. I know Days of Future Past had the time travel stuff, but it's all so confusing, and that doesn't even include where Deadpool fits into this universe.

The strongest part of these new X-Men films has always been Michael Fassbender's Magneto, which was once again, amazing. His earlier scenes were extremely strong, emotionally resonant and oddly powerful when they needed to be. It's just shame he spends the second half of the film as a background sidekick to the inferior and less compelling Apocalypse.

The rest of the returning cast are great too, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are reliable as ever, but Evan Peters completely tops himself as Quicksilver once again by having one of the best and funniest scenes from any comic-book movie which managed to top his scene from the last one and make a mockery of the MCU version of Quicksilver, which is just laughable in comparison.

I was a bit disappointed by the setting. First Class captured the swinging '60s pretty well and Days of Future Past made use of its '70s setting, Apocalypse on the other hand does nothing with the '80s. Aside from a couple of music choices, this felt like it could have been set in any era. It was fun to see the younger mutants come out of a screening of Return of the Jedi, even taking the oppurtinity of taking a meta jab at The Last Stand by adressing "The third one is always the worst".

On the main villain side of things, Oscar Isaac, a very competent actor is wasted as Apocalypse. There were some things I liked with him. His voice was very intimidating and I the way he killed people was pretty cool at times. There's just no real motivation here for his character compared to say Magneto, who we've seen be torn down by humanity, so we can understand why he does what he does, Apocalypse is just wanting to destroy the world because well, I'm not too sure to be honest? Something about mankind having technology that can destroy them or something?

I was surprised at just how violent this was too, it really pushes boundaries at what a 12A/PG-13 can get away with. People are stabbed, decapitated and melted in pretty graphic ways and things get pretty grizzly and quite bloody when a certain X-Man makes a cameo in a brief but memorable scene. 

The action was pretty great though. I've always loved this series ability to have all these characters with different powers combine in fun and different ways. While the main action doesn't hit till the end of the film, it really worked. We've seen the massive, city-wide destruction before in superhero films, but here it feels like the actual stakes matter with characters we care about. It also helps that these films actual look and feel like real films, as opposed to the MCU's televisual look. 

I don't mean to take jabs at the MCU, but notice how they manage to tell a story without every other scene used to try and set-up other films. It's nice to have a franchise where each film can be watched as its own thing, sure they all connect, but you can pick any of these films up and they tell their own self-contained story.


Despite the mixed reviews, I found X-Men: Apocalypse to be another excellent entry in the X-Men franchise with another powerhouse performance from Michael Fassbender, great action, genuine emotional depth and characters you actually care about.

8/10 Dans

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Kick-Ass (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written September 4th, 2015*

"Show's over, motherfuckers"

Anyone who knows me will be surprised it took me 413 films to get to Kick-Ass. I watched the inferior, but still OK sequel at the beginning of the year, but I held off on re-watching this. Back when I was 13 in 2010, this film was all the rage and I fell in love with it, because I wasn't old enough to see it at the cinema and I wanted to see it so badly, I learned how to use torrents to see it. For some reason there was a DVD quality download back when it was in cinemas? Weird. I made my friends watch this film several times till they hated it, which was my fault, but ah well. This film was my life through my teens.

This was my favourite film for years, before getting dethroned by Fight Club, but guess fucking what. After watching it again, Kick-Ass has re earned its place as my number one of all-time. I thought the law of diminishing returns would take effect on this film after watching it nearly 30 times it must be by now? Easily over 20, but I still get the same joy and I did from watching it for the first time, apart from some iffy special effects due to the low budget and the CGI blood, everything in Kick-Ass is beautiful. 

Matthew Vaughn's style is colourful and gorgeous, his action scenes pack an emotional and artistic punch. That Strobe scene is still my favourite scene in any film ever and while most grown men have the thumbs up in the lava scene from Terminator 2, I have Kick-Ass's strobe scene. It is a thing of beauty, it packed an insane emotional punch that I never thought could be possible from a film like this. John Murphy's remix of Surface of the Sun from Danny Boyle's Sunshine is utterly gorgeous and fits the scene perfectly.

The performances are all excellent, Nicolas Cage gives his best performance in the past 15 years as the Batman wannabe vigilante father that impersonates Adam West's Batman, but becomes him own thing in an awesome action scene set in a warehouse. Aaron-Taylor Johnson who is pretty bland in everything else but this also gives a great performance, brilliantly capturing that every day geek who tries to become a realistic superhero, but fails miserably.

You all know who the real stand-out is of Kick-Ass though, I don't want to hyperbole here, but Chloe Grace Moretz gives what might be the best child performance ever in film history as the scene stealing Hit-Girl. The 12 year old is responsible for the body-count of about 50 people in the run-time and each action scene in memorable and insanely enjoyable. The father daughter relationship between Hit-Girl and Nicolas Cage's Big-Daddy is one of the most endearing and heartbreaking things I've ever seen. I don't usually relate emotionally to any film, but here just meshes together perfectly for me.


I'm completely biased about Kick-Ass, but I'm not even going to pretend i don't love everything about it and after a tiny bit of thinking, I would only be lying to myself if I didn't say this was my favourite film ever. I've seen and loved it dozens of times and I'm going to watch and love it dozens of times more.

10/10 Dans

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Suicide Squad (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written August 5th, 2016*

"Worst. Heroes. Ever"

Suicide Squad will be a strange beast in terms of cinema for 2016. The first trailer hit and no one was excited, it looked like a boring and lifeless slog. Then we got a second trailer, where the tone had a complete face-lift, we were shown a candy-coloured and fun film that looked to drop that dreary takes itself too seriously problem people seem to have with DC films. Then we arrive to 2 days ago and the reviews dropped and they were poor to say the least. Everyone turned on the film without seeing it and reports came out from the behind the scenes problems. So was this the complete disaster people are saying it is? Well yes and no?

There are two words that describe Suicide Squad in equal measure: Messy and entertaining. The film is a complete mess through and through. A lot of stuff doesn't make sense and a lot of it feels like it was left on the cutting room floor. I feel this is going to be another Batman V Superman situation where we get a much improved cut on the Blu-ray release. Saying this, the film is a hell of a lot of fun, it's one the most entertaining films I've seen all year, alongside Hardcore Henry and Deadpool.

Does a film being purely entertaining mean it's good? No, but I went to have a good time and that's exactly what I got. The problems with it are huge though. If a film reminds you of this years 'Gods of Egypt', then that is a big problem. It is so much fun though, the two hours breezed by and it was a refreshing change of pace from the DCEU's two previous films. I'm beginning to think that the problems are very much studio interference. David Ayer is a trusted director, I've not hated anything he's made yet (I'll even defend Sabotage) and there are glimpses of a truly great film here, it's just bogged down with a lot of crude editing and a truly awful finale.

But the main reason everyone is here is for two reasons: Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Jared Leto's Joker. They're both fantastic. I fell in love with Harley Quinn based on the trailers and Robbie did an insanely good job and stole the scene whenever she appeared, she was funny, handled action well and she was definitely psychotic. Her performance was anything but subtle, but she did feel like a comic-book character bought to life, which was awesome. The only other point of reference for Harley Quinn for me is the Arkham games and I felt Robbie lived up to that extremely well.

Then we had Jared Leto's Joker. This was the big one. The late Heath Ledger's performance as the Clown Prince of Crime has gone down in history as one of the greatest performances of all-time, which is well earned, he was a true powerhouse. Does Jared Leto match or even top Ledger? Well, no. But he was great. It was hard to tell, as he wasn't in it much, barely scraping in 15 minutes of screen time. He does make the most of every scene he is in though. He was terrifying, his cackle worked and it stayed with me. I was so glad they didn't try and copy Ledger's performance and they did their own thing with it. I loved the look of the character, people complained about the tattoos, but whatever I thought he looked awesome. I was reminded a little of James Franco's role in Spring Breakers at times though. The biggest problem with The Joker was by no means his performance, but what they do with the character. The Joker has no impact on the story of Suicide Squad. He's poorly implemented as a side story to the what the Squad are doing, but his actions have no overall effect on any of the plot. I cannot wait to see what they do with his character in future films, but here... pointless.

We're introduced to the rest of the Suicide Squad several times, which felt so odd. The first act is essentially a montage of introducing these characters, each of the members have their own song. That's another thing, the soundtrack is awesome, especially during the first act, lots of classic rock and whatnot. It just felt weird that we were shown what the character is capable of, alright cool, but instead they decide to show us what they can do again and it's like OK?

For instance when we first meet Will Smith's Deadshot. We see him performance an assassination, showing that he is an incredible shot. Then we're shown this again in an extended scene at a shooting range. I don't know why we had to be shown this twice, we get it, he's a good shot. Did Ayer think the audience was that stupid that we'd forget this information after 20 minutes? It was strange, no other member got this treatment.

That's another strange thing too. I wasn't too sure who the lead character would be in Suicide Squad, but this is very much a Will Smith vehicle. I'm not too fond of Will Smith in all honesty, but he was actually pretty good here. One of his best roles in years. He bought a heart to Suicide Squad that I didn't expect. Sure, it has some cheesy moments, he's doing it for his kid, but it worked and at least added some depth to the character that the rest of the members were sorely lacking.

Which brings me to the rest of the crew, who are utter canon fodder as far as I'm concerned. Jai Courtney gives his best performance to date, but his character is just nothing. A violent Australian who drinks in the middle of a fight. His character does nothing in the finale. The fire one, El Diablo gets a backstory in the form of an expositional talk at a bar that felt unnecessary. Killer Croc is just nothing, his design is awful. The last member of the team is completely wasted, an excuse to show off the explosives planted in their heads. He was essentially the first girl to die Battle Royale to show what the explosive collars did.

On the villain (Well, bigger villains) side of things. Cara Delevingne is awful. When she wasn't The Enchantress she was fine, but when she was, my word was she bad. I had no idea what they were going for. The design of here character was terrible, she looked like the little girl from The Ring wearing a skimpy outfit. The other truly bad guy of the piece, Amanda Waller, was awesome, Viola Davis's performance was more evil and messed up than anything the actual Squad did on screen.

This culminated to an awful and cliche finale. The whole "World destroying portal in the sky" thing has been boring for a while now. And what did Suicide Squad do? Exactly that. Most of the Squad get their moment to shine, one of them has the emotional epiphany and then its over, but not before one of the worst uses of CGI all year. The henchman to Cara Delevingne's Enchantress looks abhorrent, it looks recycled from Gods of Egypt. I cannot believe that this CGI abomination was allowed to make it to the screen. I complained about Doomsday at the end of Batman V Superman, but that looked way more convincing, which is impressive in itself (But not in a good way).


Some minor things that bugged me. This takes place in a post Batman V Superman world. Sure, okay. But where was Batman, The Flash or Wonder Woman during these world ending events of Suicide Squad? I know it's not their film, but if you set it in the same world, it feels weird that they wouldn't be trying to stop in some way. Batman does appear though, with about 3 minutes of screen time, if that. My other complaint, which is isn't the films fault is the age rating. This got slapped with a '15' rating in the UK, which is utter shambles, none of the content in this justifies this at all. I don't understand the BBFC at times, the Ultimate Edition of Batman V Superman is way more violent than this and that still got its 12 rating. So... what the hell?

6/10 Dans

Suicide Squad is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written July 23rd, 2016*

"The joke's on me"

I was very much looking forward to this. I haven't read the comic, but everyone talked about it like it was the second coming of Jesus. An R-rated Batman film. It had potential to be amazing.

Well, this is mostly just a horrible mess. The voice performances are great, Mark Hamill is incredible as expected as The Joker. The inclusion of both Hamill and Kevin Conroy makes me feel like it could be canon to the Arkham game series (Which I love).

It just falls apart in its horribly sadistic and pointless feeling story that borders on torture porn with its treatment of the only female character. Barbara Gordon is so sexualized in this, it is disgusting, it felt like Michael Bay directed an animation at some points. What they do in a scene with her and Batman just felt wrong and a little disturbing.

We spend the first 30 minutes utterly destroying what could have been a really strong female character and reducing her to a immature school girl with a crush on Batman that takes things to a place that had no right to be there. They even shoehorn in an awfully offensive and stereotypically camp gay character that just left me thinking "Wow". The writers must have never interacted with a real gay person and based this character on over the top parodies.

The whole thing about Joker's backstory sucked. What makes The Joker great is his mysterious past. By telling us what happened to him in increasingly uninteresting flashbacks really takes away from his character. i'm really, really confused by what the purpose was to that whole entire subplot.
While I really didn't like this. I will admit they were some inspired moments. The Joker's funhouse ride was effectively disturbing and his musical number was awesome. Aside from that and the animation, everything else sucked.

It did at least earn its much talked about 'R' rating due to its content. There's some bloody shootouts, beatings, an implied rape and someone gets beaten to a pulp. I would have liked to have seen this kind of content in a better written Batman film, but instead we're stuck with this.

The script was just awful. Filled with cringeworthy lines and terrible dialogue that was almost laughable. And at 70 minutes this still felt too long. The first 20 minutes are such a drag too. I don't know how big the comic is, but by the looks of it, they really struggled to get this thing up to feature length.

I really have no idea what they were going for with this. If I hear people say "Oh, but that was in the comic". Well, then the comic sucked too, or it translated better on paper. This was just horrible.

If this truly is one of the best Batman stories ever, then this adaptation of The Killing Joke is a complete failure on all levels. I can only imagine how much better this could have been had it had a real budget and been bought to lice-action with a much better crew behind it. One of my biggest disappointments of the year.

2/10 Dans

Batman: The Killing Joke is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Deadpool (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written February 10th, 2016*

"I'm touching myself tonight"

Here it is, in all its foul-mouthed, violent glory, my most anticipated film of the year. I really did wonder if they could live up to the insanely high standards set by the genius marketing campaign. I am so fucking happy to say that I had a motherfucking blast with Deadpool.

Part origin story, part revenge story and part love story, Deadpool brings the merc with a mouth to the big screen in all his meta glory. The film opens with the action scene shown in all the trailers and goes back and forth between present day and how Wade Wilson becomes the deformed psychopath Deadpool. I was extremely surprised at how all this was handled, despite being really bored of origin stories, like really fucking bored, Deadpool tries and gets all that out the way as fast as it can to make way for Deadpool's revenge mission. During all this we see his relationship with this hooker with a heart of gold, which was actually quite sweet and gave a heart to the core of the film.

Aside from the game I played on PS4, I really have no other point of reference to Deadpool, aside from X-men Origins: Wolverine, which was mocked and referenced a few times. I felt that character was put on the big screen to great success, Ryan Reynold's gave an incredibly charismatic performance that brought charm and humour to this completely violent man child. He could even be quite sweet at times, giving his view on love which was "Finding someone who brings out the best in you and never letting them go", it was a cheesy line, but I agree.

 I also thought Deadpool's constant fourth-wall breaking would get irritating, but it was nowhere near as relentless as I thought it would be and every moment he does was gold, in fact every line that comes out of his mouth was pretty much laugh out loud hilarious. I relate to Deadpool in some ways, much to the annoyance of my friends, I break the fourth wall in real life, which makes me sound insane at times, but it's who I am and I embraced it, so fuck you.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of major X-Men cameos, if you were expecting an appearance from Wolverine, then don't. I did like the two X-Men they did use though, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, both of which are annoyed by Deadpool's antics, but do eventually join him on his quest for revenge.

It was also a shame that Deadpool also fell into the same trap that all comic-book films that aren't DC fall into.... bland villains. Ed Skrein did a better job than he did in the awful Transporter Refueled, but his character was just a big piece of meh that was only there to serve as a plot device for Deadpool to battle. Gina Carano was serviceable as the main villain's henchman, but still very forgettable.

The biggest thing that Deadpool does different from most other comic-book films is that R rating, and it did deserve it. We get constant F-bombs, graphic violence, including dismemberment's and even some T and A, which is where we get Stan Lee's cameo. It doesn't make the film more mature than other superhero films (far from it), but it does give it an edge over Marvel's other films and makes it far more fun. I think I'll happily put Deadpool alongside the first Kick-Ass, Kingsman and Dredd in a hopefully growing list of excellent R-rated comic-book films.

Being a first time director, I was interested to see how Tim Miller would handle this, and he did a great job. The 100 minutes run at a crazy pace, I was never bored for a second. The few action scenes were all excellent, loved the mix of gun-play and sword-play which was extremely well choreographed. It also must have been a tricky job to make such an insane character such as Deadpool accessible to mainstream audiences, from what I know, they obviously had to restrain Deadpool's more abstract plotting and actions to introduce him for the first time, but I hope with the sequels, they explore Deadpool's chaotic and rampant journeys. What makes Deadpool so interesting is his mind, even he doesn't know who he is, everything is a joke to him, he does insane shit, he even got bored once and decided to kill everyone in the Marvel universe. I got why they played it safe and fair enough.

Deadpool is Fox's gamble and it paid of better than I could have hoped, it's fast, funny, meta, violent and featured what might be the best performance of Ryan Reynold's career. Deadpool 2 has already been announced, I cannot wait.

Oh, and wait till after the end credits if you wanna see Deadpool's homage to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

9/10 Dans

Deadpool is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 16th, 2017*

"An Epic of Epic Epicness" 

Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a film I've seen countless times, and I still enjoy with each watch, but despite the bigger budget and scale, Scott Pilgrim feels like a step backwards from Wright's Cornetto trilogy of smaller, British comedies.

This might be due to the fact, Scott Pilgrim is aimed much more at teenagers, who grew up with Nintendo and stuff, which is fine, but it lacks what made Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End so special. I just feel like a maybe growing out of this film a little, which is a shame, because this is a film I've been watching fairly consistently for the past 7 years (Fuck me, this is 7 years old).

After rewatching the Cornetto Trilogy then this, it feels a lot less mature, filled with weaker and easier jokes. Not to say Scott Pilgrim isn't funny, there are a hell of a lot of gags that land, but quite a few are just a bit.... shit. I remember liking a lot of the comic-book and video-game influences that come off the screen like the "Pee bar", but again, now, it's just a bit shit.

To be more positive, Scott Pilgrim truly does feel like an Edgar Wright film. It's fast-paced, well edited and filled with beautifully chereographed action. Each of the battles with the "Evil Ex's" each have their own unique style and feel, making each fight different and exciting.

Michael Cera was born to play Scott Pilgrim, the loveable nerd and slacker who has to fight his way through the love of his life's 7 evil ex's in order to win her heart. It's not out of the way of most Cera roles, but he slips effortlessy into the role, giving us a loveable protagonist to root for.

Like all Wright films, the supporting cast are all fantastically memorable, such as Keiran Culkin as Scott's gay roommate, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Scott's love interest Ramona. Then there's the evil ex's, each of which are great. The standout being Chris Evan's as an egotistical action film star who is ultimately defeated by his own ego.

The soundtrack is great too, with mostly original songs from the film's fictional band 'Sex Bob-omb', a garage rock band delivering surprisingly good music for what they're meant to be. Brie Larson's cover of Black Sheep is also excellent in of the film's more memorable musical pieces.

I do really appreciate how unique and different Scott Pilgrim is. It really has its own distinct style that was a really hard sell for a mainstream audience, leading to it being a huge flop and only making half its budget, despite strong reviews. As much as it doesn't hold up like I'd want it to, there's no denying there's no other film like this.

Scott Pilgrim is Edgar Wright's weakest work, but is still a great comic-book film, a fast, fun and unique ride that's unlike anything you've ever seen. A stylish rush of pure hipster adrenaline.

8/10 Dans

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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