Posted on May 6, 2010 by Darren
I’m on a bit of a Wolverine binge at the moment. I got the quite enjoyable Old Man Logan last week and am slowly working my way through the Wolverine Omnibus at the moment. I would have picked up Enemy of the State if it had a nice hardback version. But such is life. I figured I’d dip my toes into Marvel’s Ultimate line. Basically a shrewd marketing decision to launch all their titles from scratch – the hope being that the line could attract readers alienated by decades of continuity in mainstream comics. The experiment was a bit of a mixed success – Ultimate Spider-Man might be the most successful interpretation of the web-slinger this decade, but Ultimate X-Men left a lot to be desired. However, this continuity-free playground offered Marvel a chance to do two things: invite big-name film and television writers to handle their properties (such as allowing Lost scribe Brian K. Vaughan and Heroes writer Aron E. Coleite to work on Ultimate X-Men), but also to shameless release miniseries to capitalise on their big screen projects. Released between the big screen adaptations of The Incredible Hulk and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and featuring the work of Star Trek co-writer Damon Lindelof, this series attempts to do both. Does it succeed?
It's a game of two halves...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Comics, damon lindelof, leinil francis yu, marvel, marvel comics, review, ultimate hulk, ultimate marvel, ultimate universe, ultimate wolverine, ultimate wolverine vs. hulk, ultimate x-men, wolverine vs. hulk | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 5, 2010 by Darren
It’s hard to believe in retrospect, but the movie that kick started the whole superhero movie subgenre is nothing but a gigantic, big budget B-movie. And, trust me, that’s a compliment.
I guess this is a web review (geddit?)...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, green goblin, jk simmons, marvel, Movies, non-review review, review, sam raimi, spider man, willem dafoe | 6 Comments »
Posted on May 5, 2010 by Darren
This is one of my entries on the latest cross-blogging event, tracking down some of the most overrated movies of all time. It’s being run by Mike over at You Talking to Me. I can’t spoil the list by giving you any of the other titles, but I can tell you another entry will be appearing on this very blog before the week is out.
Let me pitch you a scene. It’s early 2002. There’s a whole rank of huge blockbusters looming. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Star Wars: Episode II; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Austin Powers in Goldmember; Men in Black II; Ice Age. And then there’s a strange one. Spider-Man, from that guy who made The Evil Dead. Really? Sure, Richard Donner’s Superman was great, but that was decades ago. Joel Schumacher had killed the Batman franchise only a few years back. That Bryan Singer fella had proved he wasn’t a one-hit wonder with X-Men, but it wasn’t exactly box office gold (only the eighth biggest film of 2000). Comic book movies were a strange proposition – transitioning the characters to the big screen just didn’t work naturally. Somethings aren’t meant to be adapted.
Has Spider-Man Blackened the Name of all Superhero Films?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blogging, comic book, comic book films, comic books, daredevil, films, Movie, Movies, spider man, spider-man 2, spider-man 3, spider-man ii, spider-man iii, superhero movies, superheroes | 10 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2010 by Darren
This post comes about from a bit of a debate that has emerged following the revelation of certain spoilers about Iron Man 2. Given that the movie is just out state side, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone stumbling across this page. I just find it an interesting abstract discussion: Are movie spoilers news? Or should web news outlets simply refuse on principle to publish these sorts of rumours?
Nick Fury has his eye on you...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: CHUD, films, iron man, iron man 2, Movies, secret endings, spoiler tags, spoiler warnings, spoilers | 6 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2010 by Darren
“Love,” someone suggests at a key moment in Joss Whedon’s big screen sequel to his cult television show Firefly, is what keeps a ship afloat, “Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she’s hurtin’ ‘fore she keens. Makes her a home.” In a way, it’s hard not to feel that he could just as easily be talking about this particular movie adaptation. Serenity is a movie which by all rights shouldn’t exist. Based on a television show unfairly cancelled by a network which couldn’t bring itself to offer it a fighting chance, it seems odd to see the series transitioned to the big screen in search of closure. The movie is itself an act of love – an act early in the film confused (understandably) with madness – love for the show, for its concepts and for those who gave it the benefit of the doubt that its own producers couldn’t.
Thank god there's a master at the helm...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: chiwetel ejiofor, film, firefly, joss whedon, malcolm reynolds, Movie, nathan filllon, non-review review, review, serenity, Television | 8 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2010 by Darren
And we are a year old today! 557 posts, quite a lot of words and a great deal of fun. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read us, thank you to all our friends and thank you to those people (especially the individual known as “the better half”) who have offered nothing but patience and encouragement. But that’s enough from me. Let’s get on the blogging. Woot!
We like to have our cake and eat it...
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anniversary, happy birthday, one year old | 18 Comments »
Posted on May 3, 2010 by Darren
Hey, I’ve been tagged by the always fantastic Aidan at Cut the Crap Movie Reviews to take part in a little movie-meme-related madness. This time it’s an interview-style questionaire. Can I phone a friend?
Over dramatic? Moi? Never!
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: me, meme, Movies, trivia | 12 Comments »
Posted on April 30, 2010 by Darren
Legacy. It’s all about legacy. What we leave for our children and what we inherit from our parents. Sometimes it’s bitterness and hatred, sometimes it’s more than we think. Iron Man as a concept is inherently linked to the Cold War and American foreign policy, so it’s a fitting theme for the sequel to tackle. Fathers and sons dominate the film, as does the simple and haunting fact that the now is shaped by the then. Some of us get to change the world, some of us simply leave big smoking craters behind us. Even the bad guy, a Russian, consciously evokes conflicts fading from memory that shaped our modern world.
Sometimes you just need to slow down and take a break...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: black widow, blockbuster, don cheadle, film, iron man, iron man 2, ivan vanko, jon favreau, justin hammer, marvel, Mickey Rourke, Movie, natasha romanov, nick fury, non-review review, review, robert downey, robert downey jnr., robert downey jr, sam rockwell, samuel l. jackson, scarlett johansson, tony stark, war machine, whiplash | 10 Comments »
Posted on April 29, 2010 by Darren
This is the poster for Buried, the indie thriller which is based around the idea of Ryan Reynolds being buried alive. I love a good high concept thriller (think Phone Booth or Cellular, for example) – but I especially love a cool high concept poster.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: buried, films, Movies, poster, ryan reynolds | 10 Comments »
Posted on April 29, 2010 by Darren
Date Night is a perfectly okay film (okay, maybe a tinsy bit better than “perfectly okay”, but “a tinsy bit better than than a perfectly okay film” just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as it should). It essentially coasts off its deliciously old-school comedy-of-errors premise and the charisma of its two leading actors (plus their ensemble of cameo! friends), while never really trying too hard or ever really hitting a note of pitch perfect comic genius. There are no lines you’ll be quoting to yourself for weeks afterwards (except maybe “kill shot!” every time somebody tilts their sideways gun at you – but I’ll assume that doesn’t happen too often).
Their date night is about to become a late night...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comedy, date night, film, Movie, non-review review, review, shaun levy, steve carrell, tina fey | 7 Comments »
