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 in what order you should watch these movies. This is particularly important with the Marvel movies and even more important with The Avenger movies. I have done my best to see The Avengers movies as they’ve been released, but I haven’t always been successful. It certainly has not helped that Marvel characters who aren’t Avengers (like Spider-Man) are starting to appear 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 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 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 by those who write the comics (though they most likely already are), but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that money speaks.
Category Archives: Science Fiction
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 of a Star Wars movie will influence your decision to see it or not. So this review will have spoilers. To be clear, this is not a review to belittle, but rather my honest thoughts on the film, not a recommendation on 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’ll want to see this one in the theater. If you’re new to the franchise and wonder which movies you need to see before watching Episode VII, I would recommend watching IV, V, and VI. Those are the ones that will help you best understand this film. You don’t need to see I, II, or III. I’m not sure 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)
The Martian (2015)
Fans of the self-published debut novel will not be disappointed by Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Gladiator) adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian. This is a good movie that should be viewed in 3D on the largest screen that you can see it on. While it doesn’t come close to delivering the same experience as Gravity or even Interstellar, it is one of the rare movies that truly benefits from being seen in 3D. Before I get into this review, I want to mention that I will try to write it from the standpoint of someone who has not read the fictional novel as best as I can, as I know this is something that most people have not read. With that said, I will refer to the book.
I will present some spoilers, but I will provide notice before diving into any of these. If you read around the paragraphs marked spoilers, you will be okay with reading this review before seeing this movie. The Martian is a very good movie, but it is not great. I was not disappointed by it. If I hadn’t read the novel, I think that maybe the trailers and the hype would have left me wanting more. This movie currently sits as my #6 movie of 2015, but I believe there is less than a 1% chance it will finish in my end-of-year top 10. It didn’t have the emotional impact Gravity had, nor does it have the What did I miss? I need to watch this movie again type of feeling Interstellar had. Also, as I will touch on later, something was missing from the performances overall, especially given that Scott landed the cast of the year. While I will heavily critique this movie, I really liked it. It was a very good adaptation of the book. It held my interest throughout its 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Ant-Man (2015)
I’ll preface this review by saying that I liked Ant-Man, but that I know that if I do end up seeing Ant-Man 2, I won’t enjoy it. I say that because traditionally I like superhero origin stories (except for when that same character gets retold over and over and over again like Superman, which, on a side note, I have yet to see a Superman movie that I’ve even remotely enjoyed, but I am expecting huge things from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). However, as with over 90% of movies that have sequels, superhero movies generally get worse (usually much worse) with each subsequent release.
Of course, there are exceptions. Batman Begins was fantastic, but The Dark Knight is my favorite superhero movie. Iron Man and Spider-Man are both incredible movies, but there wasn’t much drop-off to Iron Man 2 or Spider-Man 2. Now Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man 3 were both much worse. But when you think about it, when is the 5th, 4th, or 3rd movie of a franchise ever really the best one? Hardly ever. 90% of the time, it’s the first franchise movie that is the best. I wish viewer franchises would make movies. I want to see even fewer remakes. But that is a different topic for another day. Continue reading Ant-Man (2015)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
I wanted to like Terminator Genisys. I did. I know it got slammed by the critics (26% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), but I am a fan of the franchise. I even watched Terminator Salvation (a movie that Christian Bale should never have wasted his time with) a few days prior in anticipation of this movie. I knew all about the movie’s problems. I knew that fans of the franchise would, at the very least, be disappointed. I knew that many of the die-hards were upset with this movie. I had heard that it was confusing and difficult to follow. I knew that the trailer gave away the movie’s major twist. Yet I was willing to forget all of these things and held out hope that this movie could be more. I mean, this was the Terminator franchise. It couldn’t be worse than Predators, Live Free or Die Hard, or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, could it? Those three movies were packed full of junk (especially Indiana Jones) and should never have been made.