The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Review

While many thought that the first Amazing Spider-Man film was unnecessary and perhaps came too soon after the original Spider-Man trilogy, I felt that it was the best way to reintroduce the ‘wise-cracking web-slinger’ onto the big screen. It was a fantastic film that sewed the seeds for many more great movies to follow.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is one of those films. While not as enjoyable as its predecessor, this sequel is still a mostly successful continuation of Peter Parker’s story as New York’s most loved superhero. It’s important to mention that the overall plot of the film is still, at its heart, a love story and that the other plot elements slot in around it. This is the area in which The Amazing Spider-Man 2 finds most of its success. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone reprise their roles excellently as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Their scenes together are by far, the most enjoyable parts of the film. The two actors have great chemistry, and there are a couple of scenes where I felt as if I was intruding on an intimate moment between two real people. This is the sort of thing that Marc Webb does really well as a director.

Mark Webb at his best.

This is still a Spider-Man film though, which means two things: action scenes and super-villains. The former is done very well. The action in the film is engaging and exciting. Since the villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery are colourful and possess crazy super powers, there are quite a few action sequences in the film that require a lot of CGI, so don’t be disappointed when you are greeted by a rather obviously computer animated Spider-Man on multiple occasions. The latter on the other hand, is not done as well. While Dane DeHaan makes for a fantastically creepy Green Goblin (helped by really good costume design), Jamie Foxx’s Electro is forgettable. From the beginning of the film, his character is emphasized as sympathetic. However, he never comes across this way. This is in no way the fault of Foxx. It shows that the writers did not have a particularly good understanding of the character which is a shame.

Goblin looking creepy!

The other area in which the film falls a little flat is in the way it handles Peter’s parents’ story. The story is set up really well in the opening of the film. It gives a sense of intrigue that makes the viewer more than a little curious. The resolution of this plotline however is not done well. The way the writers handled it made the story feel like an afterthought despite how much they tried to stress its importance.

Thankfully the presentation of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is just as good, if not better than that of the first film. The soundtrack, by Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams’ “supergroup” was enjoyable and accompanied the film well. I especially enjoyed ‘Paranoia’, the Electro theme. Listening to it gives you the same creepy feeling you get from watching Dane DeHaan’s performance.

The Amazing Spider-Man two is an enjoyable follow up to 2012’s Spider-Man reboot. Whilst it does fall flat in a few places, the film is a great action movie and love story with an ending that elicited a sincere emotional response from its audience and still manages to provide a setup for the upcoming third film and Sinister Six spinoff.

7.9/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Review

I’ll admit I didn't like Captain America: the First Avenger very much at all. That film really put me off Steve Rogers as a character. Even The Avengers didn't help, despite how fantastic that film was. This meant that by the time the trailer for Winter Soldier was released, I had just about given up on Cap. And then I watched the trailer…

The second Captain America film is fantastic. It focuses on a far more interesting aspect of the character which allows the film to go to some much more dark and surprising places. Winter Soldier is first and foremost a political thriller. It has an incredibly well developed plot with plenty of twists, turns and paranoia without forgetting that it is still a Marvel movie with certain elements that it needs to include. I’d rather not go into the specifics of the plot as nearly every moment in the film is important and if you haven’t seen the film yet I could run the risk of ruining it. To put it vaguely, the film deals with Cap’s struggles with being a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative and following orders post – Avengers.

The acting in Winter Soldier is phenomenal. Of course, Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers and does a good job. The stars of the show however, are Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. The character development for the two of them in the film is significant and complex. This makes their jobs as actors all the more difficult, which in turn makes their excellent performances even more impressive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Evans. The film doesn't do all that much to develop his character which rather limits the quality of Evans’ portrayal of the Captain. Thankfully, even though Captain America is very much the central character in the film, he is not its main focus. The film introduces some new and exciting characters whilst also bringing back some old ones from the first film and the Avengers. Among the new faces is Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/The Falcon. Mackie plays a similar role to James Rhodes in the Iron Man films in the sense that he is Cap’s wing-man (literally) and is there to provide witty dialogue as well as some really epic action set pieces. Whilst his role is not huge in this film, I would keep an eye out for him in Avengers: Age of Ultron next summer. Another new character is Alexander Pierce played by Robert Redford. Redford brings experience from 70s political thrillers and really shows that Marvel were serious about the tone and themes of this film.

Anthony Mackie as Falcon.

What really helped Captain America this time around, was the spectacle of the film. It showcased the creative team at Marvel’s true intentions for the character, as for once, Captain America felt like a legitimate superhero with legitimate powers. The abilities that come with the super soldier serum are shown to be devastatingly powerful whilst at the same time being precise and efficient. The shield as well is successfully presented as an effective and impressive weapon. This boosted my confidence in Cap as a superhero and as a character in general. This new take on Cap’s abilities played in well with the film’s astoundingly cool action scenes, the most impressive of which being those that saw Cap engaged in close quarters combat with the films villain – the faceless Winter Soldier after whom the film is titled. The choreography for these scenes is very impressive.

Cap vs Winter Soldier

I had very few problems with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Unfortunately, there were a couple. Chief among them being the lack of character development for Cap. The other big issue was the importance of having already seen the first film prior to watching the fantastic sequel. Captain America: the First Avenger was not a great film and because of this, not that many people will have seen it. This creates a problem when many of Winter Soldier’s biggest plot points stem from the events of the first film. So, if you do intend on going to see the film, I recommend that you first watch The First Avenger.

Captain America: the Winter Soldier is amazing. It is definitely the best phase two Marvel movie by a long shot. This is a film full to the brim with a gripping plot, witty dialogue, engrossing actions scenes and throws in a plot twist that is going to have a huge effect on Avengers two and phase three. I honestly can’t think of a single reason to not go and see this film.

9.2/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Concept Art

My Doctor Who Christmas Special and Twelfth Doctor Whishlist

Having just seen the Day of the Doctor, we are now without doctor who for about a month, and following that, several more. With all this spare time and anticipation to both Matt Smith's final episode and Peter Capaldi's debut as Twelve, I decided to come up with a few things that I want to see in the Christmas special and next series.

1. Mark Gatiss to write Matt Smith's final farewell and to take over as head writer for the next series- Despite Stephen Moffat being the head writer and the inevitability of him writing the Christmas special, I really do think that Gatiss is the superior writer and that he deals with the more emotional side of the Doctor far better. Not to mention that he is an actor himself and is therefore more likely to write a more convincing Doctor in Eleven's final moments.

2. Clara to stay on as the Doctor's companion after he regenerates - I'm not a big Clara fan. However, I do feel that it's important for a new Doctor to come into our lives with something familiar coming with him. I also feel that both the Doctor and his companions benefit from staying with each other after his regeneration because, in the past it has generally been the case that companions grow closer after seeing something as personal as a regeneration. I never particularly liked Rose as a character either, but I feel that after Nine regenerated into Ten, her relationship with the Doctor was much more interesting to watch.

3. Capaldi's Doctor to act like a grumpy old man - I was particularly excited when the BBC announced that Peter Capaldi would be playing the twelfth Doctor. I loved his performance as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop and that particular character was a very grumpy (and potty mouthed) Scotsman. I think that a grumpy, no nonsense Doctor would be so much fun to watch and would contrast excellently with Matt Smith's rather silly (but outstanding) performance.

So there you have it, my hopes and dreams for the near future of Doctor who. Happy anniversary, and here's to another 50 years!

Day of the Doctor - Review

Wow! Just wow!  As much as I have complained about Stephen Moffat in the past, one thing must be said in his defence: he certainly knows how to put on a show.

Day of the Doctor is a special episode of Doctor Who to celebrate the show’s 50^th anniversary. As an enormous fan of the series, I and all of my friends have been anticipating this episode since the first trailer was shown in July. I’m not going to bother warning you about spoilers in this review, because if you haven’t yet seen the episode and are reading this review first, I seriously doubt your sanity.

Before I talk about the many things I loved about Day of the Doctor, I’m going to have to wade through the sizable puddle of faults that the episode had.

Firstly, the plot of the episode was extraordinarily weak. Aside from all the exciting time war and past Doctor awesomeness, there was still around 45 minutes of boring zygon invasion storyline to sit through. As much as I love the zygons as monsters, I think that this was the wrong time to bring them back. Their only purpose was to facilitate a rather pretentious plot point about Gallifreyan art. Furthermore, the inclusion of Queen Elizabeth I was irritating and totally unnecessary. I’m sure Moffat could have come up with a much less annoying way of bringing the three Doctors together without reinforcing the illusion the David Tennant’s Doctor is only there to get the girls.

There were a few things that I was relieved about though. Firstly, I’m glad that they didn’t actually bring Rose back as Rose. As popular as she is, I never really liked Rose’s character and her eventual romantic relationship with the Doctor’s half human clone, and I think that bringing her back would have brought with her some unwanted baggage. I’m also relieved that Moffat didn’t completely change the show’s mythology as many of us were expecting (and dreading). I think that the way the Time Lords were saved was in excellent taste, as well as making Doctors 10 and War forget about the events of the episode, as having them remember would have been confusing and annoying in the long run.

This next paragraph concerns all the things that caused me to physically ‘nerd out’ on the sofa, so, what follows may be a little erratic and perhaps slightly confusing…

First of all, John Hurt’s performance as the War Doctor was enchanting. He was every bit as dramatic and mysterious as we’d hoped. Not only that, but he was also charming and funny and as curious as the Doctor should be. Secondly, the interactions between the three of them were fantastic. I loved how judgemental Tennant was of Smith and his characteristics. The best parts of the episode however, were all the bits of fan service that were thrown. There were perhaps too many to talk about all of them in one review so I will list my top five (in no particular order):

1. Tom Baker as the ‘Great Curator’.
2. Tennant’s TARDIS transforming into the current one.
3. 13 TARDISs!!!!!
4. The War Doctor’s Regeneration.
5. An appearance from Peter Capaldi as the 12^th Doctor.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Day of the Doctor, but not because of its story. It was a fun adventure with plenty of fan service and excitement along the way.

Scores:

Story – 5/10

Fan Service ∞/10

Time Lord Children Saved – 2.47 Billion

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Review

WARNING – MILD SPOILERS!

If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t planning on going to see Catching Fire. I thought that the book, whilst having a good premise, was not written at all well. I had mixed feelings about the film adaptation of the first book, and was rather apathetic and not at all confident that Catching Fire would be any good, especially since they had to change directors from the first film. However, when my friends asked me to go and see the film with them, I decided that it couldn’t be that bad and went along with them.

I’m so glad that I did. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was phenomenal. The new director brought so many improvements over the last film, not least the removal of shaky cam. One of my biggest gripes about the first film was the over use of shaky cam during action sequences to the point where it was hard to make out what was going on. To my relief, the use of this technique was practically non existent in the action scenes, which made the actual ‘hunger games’ section of the film so much more enjoyable.

The other element of the film which I think was handled better was the world outside of the games. Not only was this done better than in the previous film, but it was much more enjoyable than that part of the book. At the end of the first film, main characters; Katniss and Peeta, attempted to kill themselves rather than kill each other in the arena. But, rather than allowing them to do so, the game makers let them both live and have two victors. Unbeknownst to Katniss, her act of rebellion was seen by the other districts as a sign that they could rebel against the Capitol and win. The first part of the film deals with the aftermath of the first games and the methods the Capitol uses to quash the rebellion, much to the horror of Katniss and Peeta. This sequence is handled incredibly well in the sense that it was so much more emotionally involving and it really made me feel sorry for those who died or were punished for speaking out.

The film looks incredible too. The costume and set design looks exactly how you would expect it to from the way things are described in the book, and the CGI was impeccable. I especially enjoyed the design of the new arena. I won’t give away the secrets of the arena that made it so enjoyable, but I will say that it was really interesting and the many horrible things that the tributes have to go through inside it are very clever and serve not only to provide fun action scenes, but also to advance the story.

The games themselves take up the bulk of the film, and whilst I enjoyed the world building elements in the first half, the games are going to be the parts I will remember when I think about the film. As previously said, the arena was fascinating and the action was very exciting. I especially enjoyed the combat between tributes in this film since all of them were winners of previous Hunger Games. And the new characters that were introduced into the arena were far more memorable and fun to watch than those in the first film.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was amazing. In fact, I think it might be my favourite film of 2013, only perhaps coming second to Iron Man 3. The Hunger Games is one of very few franchises that actually improve, not only from the first film to the second, but also from book to film, and I’m very much looking forward to the two part final chapter of this series.

9/10

Hiatus and what's to come

So I had all these big plans for this blog. I posted a review schedule and I was determined to stick to it. But I've been very busy recently with exams etc. and I've had next to no time for reviews.

My plan now is to carry on writing reviews, but they will be far less frequent.

What's to come:
- Day of the Doctor (50th anniversary episode) - Review
- I have pre-ordered a Playstation 4 and will be giving both my impressions of the console itself and any games I purchase with the system.

This is only a rough plan and may not happen exactly as expected but I hope to deliver these reviews before the end of 2013.