cajun67

Just finished watching it for the third time. This film has great moments, but overall just not a great script. The most confounding thing about the plot is that, despite being together for years at this point, Peter seems to have confided very little to her about his life as Spider-Man. Mary Jane doesn't even seem to know any details about the Green Goblin, who kidnapped her and tried to throw her off a bridge in the first film. So when Harry shows up for revenge, Peter is still not talking about what's going on, and it creates a dangerous situation for them both. Pete and MJ just don't have a very close relationship.

First the good. Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, and Chris Pine are wonderful and really carry the movie. There are some really cool fight sequences, and Gal Gadot is great as Wonder Woman. The not so good... The script is a bit of a mess. Shortcuts abound -- sometimes WW discovers powers that she just happens to need in the moment. Some things are never fully explained when you need them to be explained, you're just expected to pick up on it. There's a scene where WW is speaking in a low voice and can be heard perfectly, when the ambient noise is causing the other character to yell to be heard. And one rescue scene is just irredeemably bad. Lots of little things like that that pull you out of the moment. In all, it's not a terrible movie. It's just not a great movie, and as a fan of the superhero genre I doubt I'll ever watch it a second time.

Overall, I liked it. I think Fox had a few misfires with the X-Men franchise, but for me this movie was pretty solid. I think the reason the reviewers are so hard on it is that this is a fairly small story on the big screen. X-Men movies tend to be big, ambitious affairs; almost the entirety of this movie takes place in one location. This would have worked better as pilot episode of a New Mutants TV series. This was supposed to be released in mid-2018, and then Disney bought out 20th Century Fox and the film was put on hold for two years. This ended up being the last of Fox's X-Men movies, which is a shame because I would have loved to have seen the planned sequels.

This is a Terminator movie, so you already know what you are in for. Killer robot goes back in time to kill someone in order to change history. Humans in the future sent back a guardian to protect that person. Lots of car chases ensue. The franchise is stuck in a rut of repeating T1/T2 plotlines, and this film is exactly that, but with updated tech because we all think about tech differently than we did 35 years ago. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are fantastic, and do a lot of the heavy lifting here. It's a pretty good film, but don't expect anything groundbreaking here.

Just a warning, this is a very dark and violent film, but if you're into this sort of action drama, it's very good. Mads Mikkelsen is excellent in this role, and it's worth watching for him, alone. The first act is too cartoonish, as all of the main characters are introduced with their own title sequence. Honestly, no one cares about that. Most of those names are of no importance to the storyline. The only name you need to know is the main character (Duncan). But this movie gets progressively better, and finishes with a strong third act. The critics are really trashing this film, but honestly, I don't see it as all that different from similar films made from ultra-violent graphic novels. Again, this is a genre that either appeals to you or it doesn't.

The Kingsman movies are based on a comic book by Mark Millar, "The Secret Service". Millar is also the author of the "Kick-Ass" series. This movie is a helluva fun ride. If you loved the first one and are a fan of Matthew Vaughn's comic book movies in general, you'll love this one.

This review is of the extended cut. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not a great movie, either. There's a lot to like here, but like so many of the bad comic book movies, there's way too much going on. And when dumb stuff happens, you try not to think about it, just go with the flow. And as is typical of DC movies of late, there's too much of a rushed plot. None of these characters yet exist in the DC movie universe, so there's no appreciation of them. But we get the typical DC rushed backstory. That's great if you're a fan of the comics and you're already invested in these characters; I suspect most viewers will not be. It's hard not to make the Marvel/DC comparision. But DC isn't really learning why Marvel is making great movies. Marvel is building a universe. They are taking their time when they draw rich characters, and they don't bury them in character-heavy movies -- that is, until you've gotten to know each of them personally. Back to this movie. Very first problem I had with it -- about 20 mins in, I'm asking myself, "Why are they building a bad guy team when there's no threat?" Building a dysfunctional superpower team seems like it should be a Hail Mary pass, and not the first string players. I liked each of the villains (except Captain Boomerang, who's just ridiculous here). It would have been great if DC had taken their time, and done a Deadshot standalone movie first. Maybe a Harley Quinn/Joker movie (there were certainly enough flashback scenes that a basic story was coming through). Again, decent popcorn flick if you love the genre. If you're tired of comic book movies, it's a skip.

An amusing film, if not terribly entertaining. Let's face it; this is a film for a very niche audience -- former evangelicals who have left faith altogether. First of all, you have to have been an end-times obsessed evangelical to understand all of the apocalyptic references. Second, this film would be way too offensive to any current evangelical because of the language, alone. Ultimately, you have to keep reminding yourself of the absurdity of it all. Did I really believe all this **** was going to happen when I was an evangelical? Did I really believe that all of the "unsaved" would just go about their daily lives for seven years, waiting for the world to end? What works best about this film is that it is a satire of Christian apocalyticism that works by playing it straight. If, during your Christian life you watched films like "A Thief in the Night" and "Left Behind," then this is a good film to help you put all of that nonsense into perspective.

XM:DoFP is wonderful. It's not quite the story you remember from the comic books in the 80's, but the basic plot is there. Bolivar Trask has created a series of military robots known as the Sentinels, whose sole purpose is to hunt down and kill the mutant threat. Unfortunately, the Sentinels figure out that the threat is larger than that, and end up destroying all of human civilization. Wolverine must go back in time to stop the event that leads to the initial government funding of the Sentinels program. And of course, we are introduced to more mutants. Bishop is able to absorb energy from his fellow mutants and blast his foes with it. Blink, aside from being cute as hell, has an amazing portal ability that will leave you wanting to see more. Quicksilver simply steals the show with his incredible speed. Jennifer Lawrence is given a greatly increased role this time around, no doubt because of the success of her career in other films. And Michael Fassbender continues to grow into the role of the complicated Magneto. It's worth noting that X3 did a lot of damage to the franchise. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending of this film, but it does attempt to right the sins of the past.

LOVED IT! Possibly my favorite of the trilogy. The director shows us Tony Stark in ways we've not yet seen him before, and Robert Downey Jr is absolutely brilliant in the role. This is the fourth movie to feature Iron Man, and each time Marvel makes the suits more bad ass than before. Yes, the hardcore comic book fans will have a few gripes, but for the rest of us, this movie sets the bar very high for summer 2013 releases.

I'm a big fan of the superhero movie genre. I grew up on comic books. I don't expect movies to directly channel the comic books; there has to be some allowances for the different medium. I thought Daredevil and X3 were decent movie fare. Green Lantern is easily one of the worst big-budget superhero movies I've seen. The story was boring. The pacing was boring. The dialogue was boring. The chemistry between Reynolds and his female romantic lead? Boring. The villain was boring. The Corps was so amateurish that a noobie like Hal Jordan easily shows them up in the boss fight. This is a terrible movie.