What do you need to know about Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice that you haven’t already been told? This has easily been the most hyped movie of 2016 so far. In fact, there may not be another movie all year that receives this kind of publicity. And rightfully saw. This film pits arguably the most recognizable superheroes in the world against one another for the first time. If you saw a movie in the theater at any point between, say, November 2015 and March 2016, you likely saw a preview for this film. The preview does such a great job of not really letting us know who is the good guy and the bad guy. When we think we figure it out, we see a trailer portrayed in a completely different light. Marvel is doing the same thing with Iron Man and Captain America for the trailers of Captain America: Civil War (maybe even more effectively than the movie being reviewed today). It is interesting. It is even more interesting that these two rival companies are releasing these movies so close to one another. You could make the argument that Marvel could have waited until Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was released and then learned from any mistakes made while also capitalizing on what the Warner Brothers movie did well. But, as we know, that we have delayed production and would have probably pushed this movie to a release date to the beginning of 2018 at the earliest.
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Category Archives: Action
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
In a day and age where it seems like a new superhero movie is getting released every other week, it is hard for an average mainstream moviegoer to know which ones are worth watching, which ones to skip, and what order you should watch these movies. This seems to be particularly important with the Marvel movies and of even more importance with The Avenger movies. I have done my best to see The Avenger movies as they’ve been released, but there have been some that I have found to be terribly along the way, including Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. It certainly has not helped that Marvel characters who aren’t Avengers (like Spider-Man) are starting to show up in movies featuring The Avengers. It’s only a matter of time before all of these other Marvel characters (Ant-Man, Deadpool, etc.) start appearing in each newly released movie. At that time, it just might be time to give up. Don’t even get me started about the future when either Marvel or DC buys the other out and we get characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America, Flash, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Hulk, etc. all end up in the same movie. It won’t occur for a while, but when this market becomes stale many, many years from now, there will be too much money sitting on the table not to do it. Of course, the purists will also be upset those who write the comics (though they most likely already are), but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that money speaks.
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San Andreas (2015)
Not being a guy who is really into the disaster film genre anymore (I turned off movies like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 before I was even a third of the way in), I was more than tentative to give San Andreas a chance. It’s a genre that once held great interest to me in my younger days. I enjoyed movies like Independence Day, Deep Impact, Cloverfield while absolutely loving Titanic (my favorite movie of 1997), The Impossible (my favorite movie of 1992), World War Z (my second favorite movie of 2013), I Am Legend (my second favorite movie of 2007), War of the Worlds, The Perfect Storm and, shamefully, Armageddon. But for every success like Deep Impact or Poseidon, there seem to be films like Twister or The Core that set the disaster genre back. So, honestly, when I see a preview for a new disaster movie, my first instinct is to believe that it will be absolutely terrible. If it’s got somewhat of a science-fiction element (like World War Z) or if it is based on a true story (The Impossible) AND it does well with the critics, it gets more of a benefit of the doubt. If it has neither of those things, it most likely will not. I thought of the latter when I saw the first series of trailers for director Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) San Andreas.
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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Honestly, there is no point in reading this review until after you’ve seen the movie. There is no way that my review on a Star Wars movie will influence whether you see this movie or not. So this review will have spoilers. Not to belittle my review, but this is mostly my honest thoughts on the film and not whether you should see it. If you come here quickly to look at the score, I gave it an 89/100. Undoubtedly if you’ve watched the other films, you need to see this film in the theater. If you are newer to the franchise and wonder which movies you need to see before watching Episode VII, I would say you should watch IV, V, and VI. Those are the ones that will help you best understand this film. There is no need to see I, II, or III. I don’t know if you can fully appreciate VII without seeing IV, V, and VI first. It is assumed that you have seen these films. If you haven’t, there is no real effort or desire to explain anything that happened in the past. Continue reading Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The second-best action movie heading into the final month of the year has got to be Mad Max: Fury Road, which also happens to be one of the best remakes of a movie ever. I’ll be honest in saying that I did not like the 1979 original movie that started Mel Gibson. I waited until maybe five years ago to watch the film, preferring to keep it as one of those classics to watch on a rainy day. Not so much. It was more disappointing to me than both Blade Runner and Total Recall. That is saying something, as both of those movies I felt were overrated. Blade Runner gets some slack because it was so far ahead of its time. However, I still thought it was overrated. A few things about Mad Max: Fury Road before I get into the review. I mention that it is the second-best movie going into the final month. No action movie will beat the incredible Sicario, which will compete until the end for the best film of 2015. Also, December is when both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant were released, and I felt both were guarantees to be better than Mad Max: Fury Road. Also, this movie isn’t my type of movie anywhere. So while I will recognize it as a fine film, its score will be slightly better than how I felt when I watched it.
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