Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). In New York, mysterious radioactive ooze has mutated four sewer turtles into talking, walking ninjas
FANTASY CASTING: Live Action Bioshock
FANTASY CASTING: Live Action Bioshock With so many reboots, serial killer documentaries and adaptations in the film and TV world today, I sit here and wonder why there’s no live action adaptation of Bioshock. A glorious art deco world full of substance, suspense and philosophical conundrums. While it is a pipe dream right now, cinema and TV have shown us that it is possible. Fans want to see it. Many creators WANT to make it. People NEED to experience it. And if it fails? Who cares, at least it’s not another reboot or serial killer documentary! Just as a heads up, if you’d like to listen to a more in depth discussion on this subject, our most recent episode of BGCP: Disassembled covers this very topic with myself, Ian and Dan! We can’t stress enough, this is NOT official, this is what we want to see from an adaptation. With that being said, here is our fantasy casting of a live action Bioshock. STORY So, what is our story? The game itself? Too well known. A totally made up scenario within the setting? Too dangerous. No, instead I have opted for the under-appreciated and in some cases unheard of prequel novel, Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley. World War II has finally ended and the world sits in Atlasian contemplation of what comes next. One dreamer, Andrew Ryan, asks the question, is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? With this and anyone worth their weight in gold, Ryan assures and procures his own future. His own Eden. His own Utopia. His own…Rapture; a shining city below the sea. A safe haven Atlantis for the idealist, artist and scientist, where no government, censorship or morals can stop you from being the best version of you. No gods or kings, only man. However, as Ryan will soon find out, give humanity an inch and they’ll take a mile. DIRECTOR & FORMAT For a story built on a lavish art deco utopia with a dark dystopian nightmare lurking in the depths, there are a bunch of directors you could choose to bring Rapture to life. One in particular already tried! Gore Verbinski (best known for Pirates of The Caribbean films) was lined up to direct a Bioshock film but unfortunately it never grew into a reality due to budgeting and an external concern for the subject matter. While we never got this film, Verbinski did in fact create the closest thing we have to a Bioshock film in 2016 with the underrated gem, A Cure For Wellness. Despite Verbinski’s noble efforts, I feel there are only two possible directors to undertake such a grand affair. The decision comes from a separate choice of whether to make this a feature length film or a systematic series. For a feature length film, I elect the Big Daddy creature creator, Guillermo Del Toro. Who else could bring the Big Daddy to life but the dark fantasy fanatic himself? With the success of his art deco fantasy, The Shape of Water, I feel that Del Toro would feel right at home in Rapture. On the other hand, if we were to get a TV series focusing on corrupt character developments and Electro Bolt shock horror, why not the TV storyteller terror that is Ryan Murphy. Best known for his terrifyingly diverse and engaging work on American Horror Story, Murphy would be the ideal candidate to bring Andrew Ryan’s vision to television so to showcase a fascinatingly frightening world without boundaries or limits. Not to mention much of his go-to cast would be perfect for several roles. Calling it now, American Horror Story: Rapture. FANTASY CAST Now for the fun part. With Rapture hosting only the best and brightest guests to live in an underwater world, who else but Rapture’s Best and Brightest to headline the film/show? ANDREW RYAN Who else to start off the fantasy casting than the Marxist man-made man himself, Andrew Ryan. An immigrant with a dream of a better world built on charm, patience and hardwork. Really anyone with a pencil moustache could do the job but that’s not what Ryan would want. We need someone that proudly holds an enigmatic presence with the words, “I am Andrew Ryan.” In an ideal world, we’d have Vincent Price to step into the dapper shoes of Andrew Ryan but alas that dream is just that, a dream. There are a multitude of secondary candidates that each could bring their own vigour and stoicism to the role; Evan Peters or Benedict Cumberbatch for example. My top two picks however are Johnny Depp and Ewan McGregor. Depp is no stranger to playing misunderstood outsiders, especially in a lavish setting. As well as this, he is a naturally enigmatic and charming individual with a darkness befitting of a mad man with a good point. Ewan McGregor is my wildcard for this. In contrast to Depp, McGregor is in waking life, an innocent and inviting gentleman; someone who you can trust and vice versa. With that being said, the twist of his gentle demeanour provides a perfect alibi for building a city of supreme freewill and moral corruption (this could also be flipped to Fontaine). BILL MCDONAGH Scarcely making an appearance in the main game, Bill is instead an important figure within the prequel novel Bioshock: Rapture. A cockney working Joe that believes in playing the cards he’s dealt and making the most of it with no time for outlandish thoughts or societal perceptions. Taken under the wing of the Ryan to become his right-hand handy man, his place in Rapture is paramount to its success…or it’s undoing. For this role, Bill needs an actor who isn’t afraid to get rough and has a commanding authority, but they also have to look the part. My first choice was Scotland’s resident grizzled badass, Tommy Flanagan. I wouldn’t be against his proud and powerful Glaswegian twang replacing a cockney accent as both are befitting of the character.
Glass (2019) Review: M. Night Shyamalan’s Polarizing Sequel
Review – Glass (2019) Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan Written by: M. Night Shyamalan Produced by: Jason Blum & M. Night Shyamalan Starring: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis & Samuel L. Jackson Release Date: January 18th 2019 I revisited Glass for review last night and I did not enjoy it. Glass is the 3rd movie in M. Night Shyamalan’s pseudo superhero trilogy following Unbreakable and Split. Unfortunately it is probably the worst movie out of the three and doesn’t live up to the twenty years of build-up it had going into it. Full spoilers will be present through this review as it’s kind of hard to discuss the film without spoiling anything. The movie opens with what is essentially a condensed version of both Unbreakable and Split. We see Bruce Willis’ Dennis Dunn stalking criminals in his poncho and we see James MacAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb keeping four young girls captured in an abandoned warehouse. The old ‘unstoppable force meets immovable object,’ trope plays out and the two of them wind up getting caught by Sarah Paulson and her team, who apparently specialise in investigating those who have delusions about having superhuman powers. She brings the two of them to a mental hospital where she is keeping Samuel L Jackson’s Mr Glass. Sarah Paulson’s character then spends the next chunk of the movie trying to convince the three that the powers that they believe they possess is actually in their heads and there is a real-world, logical explanation to everything that they can do. This part of the film is actually pretty interesting in the ideas that it poses and I liked where the film was going at this point. Then the third act happens and we are reminded why Shyamalan so desperately needs an editor to keep his ideas in check. There is this huge build up that takes place teasing an epic fight between Dunn and The Beast at the top of some huge brand new building in the middle of the city. Unfortunately we never get there and instead we just get some mediocre action choreography in a medium sized car park between the two. The whole thing ends with the fairly contrived ret-con twist that Kevin’s dad was in the same train crash that Dunn survived and Mr Glass caused, thus making Mr Glass the ‘creator,’ of both superheroes. Then the three characters die in an extremely anticlimactic fashion. The Beast breaks a couple of Mr Glass’ bones and he falls out of his wheelchair and dies, (even though this is something that we have seen happen to him in Unbreakable and he survived it.) Then a sniper randomly shoots Kevin even though the beast is tamed by the appearance of Anya Taylor-Joy’s character, Casey from Split. He just gets shot once and dies with hardly any fanfare. Then David Dunn is drowned in a puddle as Sarah Paulson explains that she is part of a secret organisation that hunts people who believe that they are superheroes. They determine whether or not they really are superheroes through a pretty drawn-out process and then proceeds to kill them if they do in fact possess superpowers. We also see that for some reason this group apparently only meets in crowded public restaurants in the middle of the city centre in broad daylight and have to wait until any non members of this super secret club, (that just killed 3 people in a public car park in broad daylight in front of cops and family members,) have left the restaurant before they can discuss business. Then it turns out that Mr Glass leaked the footage from the hospital security cameras online so that people would see that superheroes really do exist. If you are someone that hasn’t seen the movie and doesn’t care about spoilers so you just read this review anyway; your brain is probably falling out of your ear after reading my description of the third act and that’s because on paper this whole sequence of events is absolutely ludicrous and the fact that no one pointed this out during the movie’s production is mind-boggling. What a waste after two solid movies and a decent two first acts worth of build up… There are some positives I took away though. It is as much of an absolute joy to watch James McAvoy play so many totally different characters convincingly in one scene as it was in Split, maybe even more so here as we get to see even more personalities emerge and in even quicker succession. He is an utterly phenomenal actor. It is also cool to see Mr Glass and David Dunn after twenty years to see where they are at in their lives and how they have been spending their time since the events of Unbreakable. There are also some nice shots and camera angles in the film, (more so in the first two acts of the story,) and some nice colour scheme aesthetics going on in certain compositions that made some shots more interesting to look at. Overall, this movie could have been so much more and in the end it throws away some really potentially interesting plot threads in favour for a few tacked on twists and gives us nothing more than a half-baked conclusion to an otherwise solid trilogy. If you enjoyed Dan’s review of Glass, you can check out what he thought of Us (2019) here.
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Review – Us (2019)
Review – Us (2019) Directed by: Jordan Peele Written by: Jordan Peele Produced by: Jordan Peele & Jason Blum Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke & Elisabeth Moss Release Date: March 22nd 2019 (UK) I re-watched Us last night for review and I really enjoyed getting to revisit it. Us is directed by comedian turned horror auteur Jordan Peele and after how much I loved Get Out, I was very much looking forward to seeing this when it first released. I do think that if Us had came before Get Out, I probably would have enjoyed it more, as for every element that I enjoyed in Us, I couldn’t help but keep thinking that it had already been done better in Get Out. One of the main differences between the two films though, is just how quickly things go South. In Get Out, the first 3 quarters of the movie were all build up before things eventually got nuts in the last 30 minutes, whereas in Us we are only just at the end of the first act when crazy antics start to go down. I get why Peele did this from a film-making perspective. In Get Out, we didn’t really know what we were in for and he had the benefit of keeping us in the dark for as long as he wanted to, whereas in Us we all went in expecting bizarre things to take place. So ,rather than messing about for too long building tension, Peele lets things get weird fairly early in the film. Whether you prefer the slower burn of Get Out like I did, or the faster pace in Us will be down to personal preference. The worst thing about Us is that it is following Get Out. Even when something really cool happens, it was done better in Get Out. Take the score for example; it is pretty great in Us, but was superior in Get Out. The same goes for the editing, the script, the cinematography and a whole load of other technical elements. One thing that did stand out was the fantastic use of lighting. It was perfect in every scene throughout the film and conveyed the feelings that Peele was subjecting the audience to flawlessly. The performances were also great. The whole cast did a fantastic job, (including the kids,) but the stand outs for me were Lupita Nyong’o and Elisabeth Moss. They were pretty good as the normal versions of their characters, but they really shone when they got to play the psychotic doppelgangers, for way more reasons than just how scary they were. Another thing about the film that I appreciated was that for the most part it doesn’t treat you like you are dumb, with one blatant exception. The film opens on a shot of an old CRT TV showing various adverts. One of these is an advert for Santa Cruz tourism and another tells us that the year is 1986. In the very next shot we are shown a title card reading, “Santa Cruz, 1986.” This isn’t an outrageous inclusion, just one that causes an eye-roll for anyone actually paying attention to what they are seeing onscreen. Another thing that didn’t quite work for me was the use of comedy. Where Get Out used comedy to cut away from the intensity and give the audience a breather, Us intertwined it more with the carnage, which made it come off as fairly messy in parts. Don’t get me wrong, the film’s comedic dialogue is well written and well delivered, I just feel that it could have been implemented a bit better. Overall, Us is another great horror/thriller from Jordan Peele. I know that I compared it to Get Out all the way through this review, but even when watching it, it is extremely hard not to make comparisons. That does not mean that this is a bad movie by any stretch though and I am very much looking forward to seeing whatever Peele’s next project happens to be. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review of Us, see what he thought of Andy Muschietti’s It movie here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com
IT: Chapter One Review – Does Pennywise Still Scare in 2026?
Review – It: Chapter One Directed by: Andy Muschietti Written by: Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga (Screenplay) & Stephen King (Book) Produced by: Barbara Muschietti Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Finn Wolfhard & Sophia Lillis Release Date: September 8th 2017 I re-watched It: Chapter One recently for review and I had a pretty good time going back to it. It is not a perfect movie by any stretch, but as far as remakes of classic horror movies usually go, this could have been a lot worse. The 2017 remake of IT was highly anticipated by Stephen King fans around the world upon its release and being a huge fan of King myself and growing up reading his stuff meant that I was one of these excited fans. I also loved the original 1990 version starring Tim Curry when I was younger, so I was really hoping that this remake wouldn’t suck. Let’s go through what I like about the movie first of all. The movie opens with the tragic and brutal death of Georgie Denborough. Just like the book, he follows his paper sailboat down a storm drain, where he first encounters IT. This first appearance of Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise sets the tone for the rest of the movie; unflinching and horrifying. I felt that this intro was extremely effective in setting up what the audience could expect from this adaption, both tonally and visually. I think that performances given by the child actors in the movie are phenomenal, much better than I had anticipated before seeing the film. They all do a great job with the material they are given and each manage to bring some range to their roles. I like the visuals for the most part and appreciate the use of mostly practical effects, my highlights being the headless burning boy in the library and when Pennywise’s entire head opens up to consume Beverly. I enjoy the fact that the movie serves as both a coming of age story and as a horror movie. Stranger Things was clearly inspired by the original IT and this version is clearly inspired by Stanger Things, which is nice to see as a fan of both series. I like how the movie was about kids, but deals with adult themes in a mature manner. I also admire how the movie works in a fair amount of comedic moments whilst still remaining frightening. Another thing that I appreciate are the few moments of subtle creepiness that the film sprinkles throughout, such as the kids TV show that can be heard in the background talking about how ‘you should dance along with the clown,’ and encouraging you to be violent etc, I think that this is a really nice touch. Also, during the library scene where Ben is flipping through the history book, you see IT taking the form of the librarian in the background, as she stands really creepily staring at Ben from the background of the scene. This really freaked me out when I first noticed it. I also like how some of the jump-scares worked, but unfortunately not all of them do. Now onto what I don’t like about the film; my biggest issue with this movie is how formulaic it ends up feeling by around the halfway mark. With each new member of the losers club we are introduced to, we find out what the kid is scared of, then IT appears to them as the aforementioned fear, then we get a jump-scare and the scene cuts away, the next kid is introduced and the same thing happens again. This occurs repeatedly about eight times and by the fifth or sixth time it isn’t scary any longer. The worst thing that a horror movie can be is to become predictable and I’m sorry to say that this is what happens here. It ends up feeling like a checklist: 1. A child is introduced into the movie. Check2. Some exposition is given for why they are scared of a certain thing. Check3. IT takes the form of said fear and scares the kid. Check4. Jumpscare happens and we abruptly cut to the next scene. Check5. Rinse and repeat. Some of the jump-scares do work though. Although the jump-scare during the projector screen is very obviously telegraphed, the fact that Pennywise is so huge in that scene did take me by surprise during my first viewing, which is a nice touch. Also the scene I mentioned earlier with the headless boy in the library is well structured in the sense that once the boy is chasing Ben through the library you think that you have already seen the scare, but when Pennywise leapt out from nowhere it was a genuine surprise. The sound design is another element of the movie that I had a love/hate relationship with. For me, good sound design is essential to any worthwhile horror movie. I think that the score used in the film was fantastic; the varied pieces perfectly complement the tone of each scene they are used in. I also think that some of the sound effects are very well implemented in places. At other points though, the audio just annoys me. The most egregious example of this is after Beverly smacks her dad across the head and IT appears behind her and grabs her. The sound that occurs here is ear piercingly loud, to the point that it is uncomfortable. Its not scary, its not enjoyable, its just obnoxiously loud. It also comes across as lazy; it’s as if in post production someone decided that that scene wasn’t scary enough, so as a quick fix they just put in a painfully loud noise. Another technical element that bothers me in places is the lighting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy how a lot of the scenes take place in broad daylight, meaning that we get to see IT in all of his terrifying glory. And in some scenes the lack of lighting adds a sense
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Review – Deadpool
Review – Deadpool Directed by: Tim Miller Produced by: Ryan Reynolds & Stan Lee Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein & Morena Baccarin Release Date: February 10th 2016 (UK) Believe it or not, this movie came out over five years ago, so I thought that it was high time to go back and revisit the first Deadpool movie for review. It is hard to imagine now following the huge success of this film and its sequel, but there was a time when many thought that this movie would never get made, but I am very glad that it did. The movie served as an origin story to Deadpool, – something that was long awaited by many comic fans. The movie version of The Merc With A Mouth is fairly faithful to his comic book counterpart, at least much more so than the previous iteration of the character that Ryan Reynolds played. Reynolds is fantastic as Deadpool in this film, he truly was born to play the character in my opinion. He brings the crass, funny, violent and energetic energy needed for Deadpool. He manages to consistently do this along with being pretty similar to comic book Deadpool, with the only thing missing from this version being the multiple voices in his head. Now that the rights to the character are with Disney following their acquisition of 20th Century Fox and Deadpool has been confirmed to be joining the MCU, hopefully that is a character trait that we will see developed in future movies. The movie’s plot is pretty straightforward but it is well-written and delivers on what we need it to; humour and action. We are introduced to Wade Wilson and shown how he got his powers after being diagnosed with incurable cancer via flashback. From there we basically follow him while he attempts to track down Ajax, or Francis, (the guy that turned him into Deadpool and made him deformed,) so that he can cure his skin and give him back his good looks. The screenplay isn’t exactly of a Nolan-level complexity, but it doesn’t need to be and it works. The one thing that was always going to either make or break this movie, was the humour. However, the script captures Deadpool’s signature meta humour perfectly, which is an essential as it is a crucial component in what makes up this character and is one of the main reasons why so many people love him. So, if you are one of these fans, don’t fret as the movie is chock full of clever fourth wall breaks and pop-culture references. The film was granted an R-rating by the studio and the filmmakers take full advantage of that fact, with constant violence and egregious amounts of blood splattered along with plenty of f-bombs being dropped throughout the film’s dialogue. The hip hop based score also adds to the energetic tone of the movie and helps to add to the excitement of the action scenes throughout. Overall, whether you are a fan of the Deadpool comic or not, as long as you are into crass humour, over the top cartoon violence and R rated superhero movies, then there is no reason why you won’t love this movie. It is also still the best Fox superhero movie that we ever got some may even argue that it is the best R-rated superhero movie ever produced. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review of Deadpool, you can check out what he thought of the sequel here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com
Review – Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Review – Kingsman: The Golden Circle Directed by: Matthew Vaughn Written by: Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman Produced by: Dave Gibbons & Mark Millar Starring: Taron Edgerton, Colin Firth & Pedro Pascal Release Date: September 20th 2017 In the wake of the release of Jupiter’s Legacy on Netflix, I decided to revisit Kingsman: The Golden Circle for review. When I first saw this movie back in 2017, I was extremely disappointed at how much of a let down it was in comparison to its predecessor. I thought that now we are a few years separated from that initial disappointment that it would be a good time to look back and see if I still feel the same about the sequel to Kingsman. You can look at this movie from two different perspectives. If you choose to see it as a dumb, switch-your-brain-off spy movie and are only going for the crazy, insane action scenes, then you will have a good time. If you are looking for a decent comic book movie that serves as an adequate sequel to the first movie and sets up a potential future franchise, then you will probably leave feeling similar to how I did; pretty disappointed. The first movie was released with no hype behind it and for most people was a pleasant surprise. This film had a lot more to live up to and unfortunately it never quite gets there. Although the movie does feel like a sequel, (and not a great one,) it still isn’t the worst sequel I’ve ever seen to a comic book movie. Julianne Moore plays the antagonist in the movie and whilst her motivations for what she is doing are questionable, you can clearly tell she is having a lot of fun with the character and that results in a fun performance to watch. The action scenes are as fast paced and as fun as you would want them to be and although they do feel cartoony, there are a few crazy set pieces that you can not help but grin at. This movie also introduces the Statesman, an American version of the Kingsman who work out of a whisky factory rather than a tailor’s shop. Jeff Bridges and Halle Berry don’t get much screen time, which is fine, but Channing Tatum is hardly in the movie at all. All of this despite him appearing on a lot of the marketing for the film prior to release. I think he is onscreen in Hateful Eight for longer than he is in this! Also, the decision to bring Colin Firth’s character back from the dead is still a jarring one due to the explanation for this being sort of anti-climactic. Essentially, The Statesman have came up with a cure to gunshot wounds to the head and any other fatal wound that you may sustain. The process involves wrapping the wound in a gel strip and then inflating it with two syringes. Sure, you can argue this is a heightened reality where crazy stuff like this is entirely possible, but my problem with it, is that it immediately lowers all of the stakes. If anyone can be brought back from the dead, then how is there any peril left for the characters in the franchise? After this whole revelation, they kill off Merlin, the character played by Mark Strong. His death is really pathetic and something that could have easily been avoided. Eggsy accidentally steps on a landmine, (even though they specifically point out that they are using a minesweeper,) then Merlin sprays the mine with a freeze gel so that Eggsy can step off of the mine and Merlin takes his place, then he distracts some guards and gets blown up. What I’m left wondering is the limit of what can be fixed with the regeneration strip. Surely if a bullet to the head can be walked off, then getting blown up by a landmine is fair game? Could they not have tried piecing him together like a jigsaw a wrapping him in the magic gel strips? I guess they could bring him back in the next movie and I’m sure if they do, we will know when the first trailer for Kingsman 3 is released, since Colin Firth’s resurrection was spoiled in the trailers for this movie. Overall this isn’t a bad movie, it’s just disappointing. There are some entertaining action scenes, but rubbish dialogue and ridiculous plot elements make this inferior to the first Kingsman movie and pretty mediocre overall. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, you can check out our review of Jupiter’s Legacy here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com
Review – Black Panther
Review – Black Panther Directed by: Ryan Coogler Written by: Ryan Coogler & Joe Cole Produced by: Stan Lee & Kevin Feige Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan & Lupita Nyong’o Release Date: February 2nd 2018 (UK) I recently revisited Black Panther for review and it is still pretty great. Chadwick Boseman’s starring role as the titular hero is immense and I really enjoyed how he chose to give a subdued, collected performance in the film. This is something that I didn’t expect the first time that I watched Black Panther. Bearing in mind that the first time that we ever saw this character onscreen was in Civil War and while I understand he was on a revenge quest in that movie, he conveyed an sense of energy that isn’t present in Black Panther. I have since heard that this was a decision made by Chadwick Boseman and Ryan Coogler when they were settling on their vision of who Black Panther should be. There are a lot of stand out performances in the film though Michael B Jordan, (who is a Coogler movie staple at this point,) give us one of the best Marvel villains that we have seen thus far. At the very least, Killmonger had the most believable motivation for doing villainous things that we had seen up until that point in the MCU. The rest of the cast bring their A game too, including Danai Guira, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whittaker, Martin Freeman and Sterling K Brown who are all great here. The costume design and sets are fantastic to look at, but some of the character CGI does look a bit too bouncy and unrealistic. I also feel that the movie drags a bit in the second act and the mid-section of the movie also features a lot of very expositional dialogue, meaning that this is the low point for the movie’s script Lastly, I really enjoy this movie’s soundtrack and feel that it greatly adds to the excitement of certain scenes throughout the movie. In summary, Black Panther is a pretty great entry into the MCU and although it isn’t one of Marvel’s best, it is far from their worst. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review of Black Panther, you can check out what he thought of Thor: Ragnarok here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE
Review – Justice Society: World War II
Review – Justice Society: World War II. “You know what you have to do, mate. Clear the board. Start again…” and so Flash takes up back to the start!
Review – Bumblebee (2018)
Review – Bumblebee (2018) Directed by: Travis Knight Written by: Christina Hodson Produced by: Michael Bay Starring: Hailee Steinfeld & John Cena Release Date: December 24th 2018 (UK) When this movie dropped in late 2018, I never paid any attention to it. Everything in the Transformers series had been awful since the first movie and although I knew that Michael Bay wasn’t directing this one, I was still more than happy to skip it. However, after it opened to rave reviews, it peaked my interest a bit. I was hearing all sorts of good things, with this movie even being compared to the likes of ET and The Goonies. Reluctantly, I eventually got around to checking out Bumblebee to see if it could live up to the hype surrounding it, but unfortunately it didn’t. So, recently I decided to revisit Bumblebee for review to see if it could win me over and hopefully change my mind. I went into this movie the first time with fairly lofty expectations, but that was due to what I had heard from other people through word-of-mouth. In fact, I don’t think I heard one bad review for this thing, so I really was expecting something great. So for my re-watch, I had my expectations tempered and unfortunately, it is still just a mediocre Hollywood shlock-fest with some pretty impressive CGI, but a painfully formulaic story with a lazy script and actors phoning in their performances. Let’s start with the main positive of the movie; the CGI. The animators really did do an incredible job here and there are some truly awesome action sequences that were really impressive to witness, (it is just unfortunate that we had already seen most of these sequences prior to seeing the movie in the trailers.) The robots also felt much more grimy, weighty and realistic in this film as opposed to the more slick and polished feel that they all had in Bay’s Transformers movies, which helped to make it more convincing that the robots were actually present in the room with the actors rather than being added in later in post production. The other bright spot in the movie was John Cena. Sure, he has played the stereotypical army jarhead plenty of times before, but he is still charismatic and engaging whenever he is onscreen. His career is definitely benefitting from taking roles like this where he is able to be taken less seriously rather than trying to be a super serious action star in forgettable movies like The Marine. Unfortunately that is about it for the positives, everything else is extremely lazy and generic. The direction is serviceable, the cinematography is nothing special and the score goes through the motions it has to in order to meet the tone of each scene. The script is full of extremely cheesy lines which is delivered half heartedly by the cast who it feels like are pretty much sleepwalking through this thing for the most part. Some characters are fairly irritating such as Memo and Ron, but nothing anywhere near as egregious as Mudflap and Skids from the previous Transformers movies. And that last statement pretty much sums up my opinion on this movie. Sure, it isn’t anywhere near as annoying, obnoxious, or cringe-inducing as the movies that Michael Bay previously gave us in the main Transformers series, but it is still really cheesy and lazy and isn’t anything special at all. I think that this movie serves as a lesson for managing your expectations when going to see a film. Due to the fact that the previous Transformers movies are SO bad and so poorly regarded, most people went into this one with little to no expectation that it would be any good. When it actually turned out to be surprisingly half decent, people were so shocked that they began telling everyone else how fantastic this thing was, when it actually isn’t fantastic in any way. It is just less garbage than what we were getting before with these movies. Then, because of all of these brilliant reviews, other people went in expecting something substantial and meaningful and came away sorely disappointed because it turned out to be unremarkable and mediocre. Overall, I probably would have got more out of this movie if I was told beforehand to just switch off my brain and expect a cheesy popcorn flick. Instead I went in expecting this generation’s E.T because of the overblown reviews and was let down pretty hard. It is not the worst film of 2018 and it is better than anything else in the Transformers series since the first movie, but it is still not anything special. There are a few highs throughout the movie, but in general it is pretty unremarkable and I don’t seeing it standing the test of time in the same way that the movies that it’s being compared to have done. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s Bumblebee review, you can check out what he thought of The Predator here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com