Film Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Synopsis:
A gentleman spy organisation offers an unlikely young man the chance to be in the secret service, but first he has to go through a series of tests with other, much more posh, competitors. At the same time, an American technology genius is becoming a major world threat.

The Good: 

• Great selection of established actors: Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Hamil and Jack Davenport.
• Taron Egerton, who plays Eggsy, delivers a very believable character who is quite endearing.
• There is a Pug involved.
• Great to see such Britishness involved, including some of the humour.
• Nice rags to riches story, with a great commentary on snobbery, self-image and climate change.
• The mix of action and comedy will appeal to a wide range of people.
• Great nods to Arthurian legend and some Bond satire involved.
• Awesome female villain. I loved the fact that she was a double amputee and was also really kick-ass. It could have bad connotations though if other films run with the same concept after the Oscar Pistorius trial.
• Follows that great trend of comics into films.
• Great clothing selection. Honestly, the suits, the umbrellas, the shoes, even the glasses were like an extra character.

The Bad:

• Slightly contemporary with mentions of Iggy Azelea so may not age well.
• Can verge on ridiculous comedy in places.
• Chavviness at the beginning may grate on some people.
• Quite gory!
• I am not sure about our villain. He only makes sense to a point with his motives and doesn't strike you as really being all in with his plan.

Overall:
A great film. Fun to watch, very accessible for many age groups and I would definitely buy it. Very entertaining and quite thoughtful too.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Film Review

In the future, the war is no longer between mutants and other mutants, or between human and mutants. The war is between the mutants and their human allies and the sentinels; machines developed specifically to combat mutants, able to identify the mutant-X gene and given the power to change themselves so that they do not succumb to mutant powers. The mutants are losing the war, and only a few remain. With no more time and their luck running out, they have one last hope; Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) must send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to the 1970s to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating the scientist who created the sentinels.

Rewind to the 1970s, 10 years after the events in X-Men: First Class, and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is a powerless, alcoholic mess, hiding away with Beast (Nicholas Hoult) in his home. Mystique is already set on her mission to destroy Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the man who has already experimented and killed many of her mutant friends in his attempt to fight them. Eric Lensherr/ Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is being kept in a high security prison at the heart of the pentagon after executing a high-profile assassination. Wolverine must bring all these people together and convince them that Trask must be saved in order for the sentinels to never exist.

The film is all-action, hardly pausing for breath. The initial scene is an epic fight sequence between the remaining X-Men and the sentinels, culminating in a confusing shift where it all seems never to have happened. In fact, the whole plot could get really confusing, but the film makers have done an excellent job of making it obvious what has happened; where time shifts have occurred and how the powers work. The explanations are in no way long-winded, meaning that they don't infringe on the plot and the pacing. Expect a lot of visual effects and awesome fight scenes, as well as some cool new characters.

Speaking of characters, this film has a massive cast. The addition of new mutants, such as the comic relief Quicksilver (Evan Peters) actually makes this film a lot more interesting, but it is fair to say that Quicksilver should have had more of a role because his involvement was pure brilliance. Also, for any comic-fans out there, there's a certain line that is sure to amuse you when he meets Magneto. I am afraid to say that Quicksilver's involvement in Marvel's Avengers 2 may fall short due to this depiction of the character. 

Fans of all the films will love the way that the old school and new school cast have been combined in this film to make both sets of films more cohesive. Well.. ish. However, quite a few will be thinking 'but didn't Professor X die in The Last Stand?', and the answer is yes, he did. But he managed to save his consciousness by going into the mind of a patient at a hospital. This in no way makes up for the fact that he still has his own body in Days of Future Past. As of yet, I haven't found an explanation for that obvious goof and have to conclude that this is meant to be in a separate Marvel Universe. Anyway, the awesomeness of seeing both versions of several characters, as well as cameos from Rogue, Jean Grey, Scott Summers and appearances from Colossus, Iceman, Storm and Stryker really make this film a fans dream.

So anyway, the acting was fairly good, with the most convincing portrayals by James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Hugh Jackman. However, McAvoy stand out as the clear winner of the acting trophy, as he plays a character that is struggling to deal with the loss of his childhood friend, the deaths of his newer friends and the loss of his legs. 

I had an issue though. I just couldn't find it in my heart to see Bolivar Trask as a villain. Maybe that was the point, and maybe it is also due to the fact that as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage could never be a villain. Instead, I saw Trask as a Doctor who was trying to save his species, while all the while having serious issues with his dwarfism, making him prone to overdoing it. 

Ultimately, the film is brilliant for anyone who loves action and superheroes. It completely reboots the franchise, almost making up for the anomalies and mistakes in the previous films while paving the way for some new material. I don't think we will be seeing the older generation of X-Men again, but it was nice having them around. This film gets a 9 out of 10.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 - Film Review

Caution: Spoilers!

Peter Parker is loving his new life as Spiderman, and even though he promised her father he wouldn't, he is also loving going out with Gwen Stacey. But things don't stay peachy for long when an accident at Oscorp creates an electrically charged villain, intent on seeking the attention he has craved all his life. Peter thinks things are looking up when his friend Harry arrives back in town, but he is dying, and Peter refuses to let him have some of his healing Spider-blood. To make matters even more complex, he also finds out some new information about his parents, and why they left him.

A lot of people are saying that this film has too much plot going on and too many bad guys, but I completely disagree with that. The plots are easy enough to follow, and add a lot of interest into what will surely be a brilliant third film. The film-makers are really setting up for the Green Goblin showdown, but the fact that they featured Electro as the main bad guy was really good. Funnily enough, you really do feel for Electro, even when he turns on Spiderman, because we all know that all he wants is for people to notice him, and to need him - I'm sure we can all relate to that. On the Green Goblin note, the film is also gearing up to include a couple more villains; we can see the famous Doc-Oc claws at Oscorp, as well as a lovely pair of Vulture wings.

Peter Parker as a character continues to grow and change as he struggles with his guilt about the death of Gwen's father, his own parents abandonment of him and hiding his superpowers from an inquisitive Aunt May. Still, when he is Spiderman, he manages the quick, witty remarks that come with the outfit. The film surprisingly manages to combine wit with action and emotion, making it all very well-balanced.

The music in the film is never really something I get into unless it is a musical, however, here the music was used to great effect as a way to enhance Electro's role, particularly in the fight scene. Whenever the electricity strikes something, the music reflects that, and creates a song and rhythm for us. This is a really interesting technique that I'd like to see more of, and made the scenes a lot more memorable.

Now for the shocker. There is this one moment where your heart is utterly in your mouth, or possibly spilling out of it all over the floor. Comic book fans, you know what happens, but I really don't want to spoil this moment for anyone. I teared up, because it was the most heartbreaking but strangely, beautifully poignant thing. In a superhero movie, these moments hardly exist; it's all about the action, and the hero, but in that moment he didn't matter so much. 

I can't think of that many bad points; the acting was fair to pretty damn good (Jamie Foxx being just plain awesome as the slightly man villain), the plot was fast with no room for boredom and you can just tell that the third installment is going to be a jaw-dropper as every plot-line culminates. I just hope that this time Peter has someone to give him a hand

9.5 (I should note that the 0.5 is taken off because it could be considered slightly too full-on in terms of plot, and also because the Green Goblin story seemed rushed through) out of 10. 

X-Men First Class

As you must all know by now, I rather like my superhero films. They tend to push boundaries in several ways: Special effects, concepts ranging from alien powers to radioactive spiders to genetic mutation, hot men in spandex.. Anyway, I find these films to be better than most because we find ourselves in an utterly different situation. This is no longer everyday life, it is what you make of it, and who is to say what is wrong and what is right?

The most recent X-Men film illustrates that last question perfectly. The film enables us to see everyones point of view; The normal human being, who is intimidated by the next stage of evolution and fears its own extinction. Charles Xavier, who empathises with all parties despite being a mutant and Erik Lehnsherr, believing there is a war coming and wishing revenge. As viewers, we can see the reasons for each character's actions. To them, what they think is right, and this quality in the film is something that I think everyone should appreciate.

This particular film is a prequel to the previous 3 movies, but not Wolverine, whose story, incidentally, is before and during this one, as we see by the fleeting cameo in which he tells Charles and Erik to 'fuck off' as they try to recruit him. I did take quite a lot of satisfaction from this as I do rather love Hugh Jackman and his antihero character.

There were, unfortunately, a lot of slip ups in this film. And I am fairly sure that quite a bit of it was true to the comics, but not so true to their other movies. Here are just a couple of them:

In X-Men: The Last Stand, when Xavier and Magneto visit Jean Grey as a child, Xavier can still walk. Xavier gets paralysed in First Class at a very young age, much before they go to see her. Magneto is meant to be in the Brotherhood at this point, and so may not have even accompanied Xavier to Jean Grey's childhood home.

In the first X-Men movie, Xavier says that Magneto helped him build Cerebro, however, in this film, Beast is the one to build it, and it is destroyed and not put back together before Magneto leaves to build his Brotherhood.

However, they do clear up quite a lot of questions that I had. Probably the biggest was how Xavier got paralysed in the first place. As I have not read the comics, I find the film very good in giving this kind of information, as well as Including characters that I know from the X-Men cartoon series.

The film stars all new actors in order to appeal to the younger audience, and in this respect they did a good job. I do think that they could have given a bit more to all the people who have seen the other films, though. Since the cast was entirely new and quite young, there was no way of recapturing the older generation and the lovers of the original films.

My favourite actor was probably Michael Fassbender in his performance of Erik/ Magneto due to his talent at getting across the mixed emotions that he feels with his facial expressions and body language. I think he did a good job of allowing the audience to get to know the character without hating him, quite like the way that Ian McKellen did in the original 3 movies. You can definitely see that he has studied the actor and taken character traits from him, only put them into a younger and therefore more volatile form.

Just to give a mention to another actor who I hold in quite high esteem, I think Nicholas Hoult did a brilliant job at being a geeky and rather sweet young version of Beast. I liked the way that the emotions of the young people were displayed, and the film did play a lot on attraction and self esteem. This, I felt, was a little too teenage even for me, so maybe the market could have been widened a little.

Overall I think this film is an 8 out of 10 as I very much enjoyed it and it had superb special effects. But it certainly isn't one for the huge fans or the originals, or for the comic book fans for that matter.

For me, I still think that X-Men Origins: Wolverine had it all.

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet gives a twist to that age old idea of Vigilateism. There are so many superhero movies out there.. Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, Superman, Daredevil, you name it. And we are always fed the idea that to be a hero you need lots of money or special powers. The same can be said here, as the main character does have a lot of money, but we don't actually see him using it.

This film reminds me so much of the recent hit movie Kickass, because the main characters just want to help the world however they can, with or without super powers. It also reminds me of Watchmen due to the serious antihero ideas that have been thrown in. The way that the Green Hornet tries to help people is through pretending to be a bad guy.

This film is not just about heroes though. The Green Hornet is more of a comedy than a hero movie. Yes, it has action, but it also has Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou (a virtually unknown actor who really surprised me by being hilarious and cool at the same time). In all, this is actually a ridicule of other superhero films that take themselves too seriously.

The weapons and effects in this film are exactly the type of thing you would come to expect from modern day. There are many explosions, car races, guns, and even some Grease style wheel spikes.

A downfall of the movie was that you never truly get into it. I felt that something big was always about to happen, but really the biggest part happened at the end. This confused me a bit, and although I was never bored, I found the end to not be so much of a climax because of it.

I give this film a 7/10 for effort and the ability to amuse, even if some of the plot was not always so good.

Thor

My knowledge of the Norse Gods is quite small compared to any other type of mythology. All I know is that Odin is the King of the Gods, Thor is the God of Thunder (and he has a mighty big hammer), Loki is the God of Mischief and that they all live in Asgard. And, thankfully, that is all I really needed to know for this film.

Marvel are famous for, well, comic books and films made out of their comics. Other previous films include The Green Lantern, Iron Man, X-Men and Spiderman. All of these films have actually been pretty successful, and I have to say, I really can't wait for my beloved X-Men prequel (X-Men: First Class) to come out in cinemas. Thor dangles precariously on the line between comic books and legend. He is in there with the likes of Beowulf, Robin Hood and Hercules and yet Marvel have made him a Superhero of sorts. Personally, I think that the film may be better than other comic book films because of this. It is no longer an everyday person who has powers, it is a God.

And boy does he act like one. Chris Hemsworth (who you may have seen at the very beginning of Star Trek, playing Captain Kirk's dad, as well as in the TV series, Home and Away) is absolutely brilliant, not to mention good looking with rather nice muscles. He not only managed to get me to dislike Thor at the beginning with his utter arrogance and pride, but he got me to really like him at the end. He was funny, with lines such as 'How dare you threaten the son of Odin with such a puny weapon' perfectly executed. I have to say, that one made me giggle, especially when he got tasered afterwards.

The rest of the cast were good, with notable appearances from the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman and Stellan Starsgard (known for his performances as Bootstrap Bill in Pirates of the Caribbean and Good Will Hunting). But who really wowed me was Tom Hiddleston, playing Loki. His character was complex and endearing. We like him and understand his actions, even though we know he is mischievous and underhand. Loki is often the 'bad' Norse God, and yet in this film we can see how he can be both good and bad.

Another thing that impressed me was the beautiful scenery of the other worlds. Asgard completely blew me away with its elegance and magical atmosphere, whilst the world of the Frost Giants was phenomenal in its icy glory, despite it almost falling apart. The characters themselves. especially in the magical realms, were well thought out. The Frost Giants looked ominous and frightening whilst the Gods of Asgard were clad in well designed costumes that were Viking-like and yet God-like at the same time.

I really enjoyed this film, and I thought the plot was well thought out, with the characters being multi-faceted and interesting. The scenes were well executed by a cast of good actors. One of the few downfalls was that this film has only came out in cinema in 3D. Being an avid film fan, I much prefer to watch the film than to be amazed at the 3Dness of it. In some action scenes, I missed parts because it made my eyes hurt to watch it. I do not like 3D at the best of times because I am a fairly jumpy viewer, but I saw no point in the film being 3D anyway.

To end, I give this film an 8 out of 10. Film Industry, your 3D has failed you this time. But apart from that glitch, Marvel has done a great job of making this comic a watchable film that fits into both the comic category and the mythology category, making it a film for fans of both.