Movies - BGCP Comic Con

Review – The Dark Knight (2008)

2nd March 2022

Review – The Dark Knight (2008) Directed by: Christopher Nolan Produced by: Chris Nolan & Charles Rovan Written by: Chris Nolan, Jonathan Nolan & David S. Goyer Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman & Michael Caine Release Date: July 24th 2008 (UK) Getting to revisit The Dark Knight for review 13 years after its original release was incredible. It still holds up as the best superhero film ever made up until this point in my eyes. Whilst a few movies, (such as Logan and Winter Soldier,) have come close to the quality of TDK, for me there is nothing that has surpassed it in the last decade. There is so much to love here, whether it is Nolan’s deliberate and effective direction, Hans Zimmer’s uplifting yet melancholy score, the beautifully epic cinematography provided by Wally Pfister and of course Heath Ledger’s incredible, electrifying performance as the Clown Prince Of Crime. The movie starts as it means to go on, with an awesome opening sequence introducing the Joker. It plays out like a short film that could even be viewed independently of the rest of the movie and still make complete sense. We see a group of criminals dressed in clown masks robbing a bank and offing each other one by one after they complete their part of the heist. This all builds up to the reveal of the enigmatic Joker, complete with an awesome Cesar Romero reference in the Joker’s mask as well. The sequence works so well, because it shows even those who aren’t comic book fans or aren’t familiar with these characters, exactly what kind of villain we are dealing with. On the other hand though, there is a lot here for long time fans of Batman comics as well. A good amount of plot elements in the movie were taken from one of my favourite Batman stories ever written; The Long Halloween. Things such as the Harvey Dent working with Jim Gordon and Batman to prevent crime to then go on to show his eventual transformation into the totally unhinged Two-Face. The design choices for the characters were also clearly inspired by a comic by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, simply titled: Joker. Batman: The Long Halloween Cast Announced Lastly, the ending of the movie shares similar elements to the ending of The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, in that they both end with Batman being framed for a murder he didn’t commit and subsequently having to go into hiding and retire from crime fighting. Overall, this is a perfect movie in my opinion. It is an astonishing achievement for a comic book movie and it is a great crime epic in its own right as well. The performances across the board are great, with Heath Ledger being the obvious standout and absolutely stealing every single scene that he appears in. The technical elements of the movie are great and it is just a fantastic cinematic experience all around. I first saw the movie in IMAX and that definitely was the premium way to initially experience this movie, but no matter what format you watch it on, it is hard to deny that The Dark Knight is a cinematic masterpiece. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] Read our review for The Long Halloween here. Or check out our review for The Dark Knight Returns 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

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Review – Justice League (2017)

22nd December 2025

Review – Justice League (2017) Directed by: Zack Snyder (but really Joss Whedon) Produced by: Charles Roven & Deborah Snyder Written by: Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon and Chris Terrio Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, and Ezra Miller Release Date: November 17th 2017 (UK) Last Friday, a movie dropped that most comic book fans have been hotly anticipating for the last few decades; Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Regardless of what you may think of the Snydercut, it is hard to deny that the fact that it was actually made and put out is a significant turn of events within the movie industry. A lot has already been said about the precedent that it sets for the sway that fan campaigns could have over movies going forward, but that is a whole other conversation for another time. Instead, in this review for Justice League, I want to look at the theatrical cut of the film. Finished off by Joss Whedon after Zack Snyder had to abandon the project due to a personal family tragedy and put out into the world in 2017, the original cut of this film took somewhat of a beating upon release. I remember seeing it at the time and being unimpressed, but also not finding it offensively bad either. I re-watched it recently for this review to help discern the major differences between this cut and the Snydercut and it there is no denying that it is certainly a very different movie. This movie had a lot going against it going in; to start with, there was the previously mentioned replacement of its director mid-production. There was a large amount of pressure put on the film by fans to be as good as Whedon’s other major superhero team up movie; The Avengers. It also acted as the follow up to the critical disappointment that was Dawn of Justice, with the studio scrambling to claw back some of the goodwill from fans and critics through weird marketing choices, in the hope that at the very least, Justice League could at least be a commercial success. Lastly, there is also the fact that comic book fans had been waiting for decades to see the Justice League appear on the big screen, so that alone brings a fair amount of pressure with it. All of this combined meant that Justice League had a lot to live up to. With all of this said, even after seeing the far superior Snydercut of the movie, Justice League is still just an okay movie. It is by no means a great piece of cinema, but its fine. It is certainly not the worst film in the DCEU; I’m not sure whether that says more about Justice League 2017 or the DCEU as a whole, but I’ll leave that for you to ponder. The first half of the 2017 cut is extremely choppy and unfocused and feels more like a grab bag of scenes cut together to resemble a story rather than any sort of coherent story. Then the last half of the movie plays it incredibly safe and plays out exactly how you would predict. There are no surprises or twists and then the credits roll and half heartedly set up a potential sequel, which is fairly laughable knowing what we know now about the utter failure that was Warner Brothers attempting to force the DCEU into becoming a significant part of superhero pop-culture. In terms of reviewing Justice League 2017, there isn’t really much to talk about; which is disappointing. Although Batman V Superman left a great deal to be desired as far as being a decent comic book movie, it at least gave all of us plenty to talk about. The cast are alright, I enjoyed seeing Affleck as Batman as I always do and I love his chemistry with Alfred in both cuts of this movie. Cavill puts in a decent Superman performance if you can get by that extremely dodgy CGI upper lip. Gal Gadot is great as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher does fine in his greatly reduced role as Cyborg and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman is pretty one-dimensional, because the DCEU’s Aquaman is written to be remarkably one-dimensional in every film he appears in. Ezra Miller is annoying but clearly supposed to be the comic relief in the film. JK Simmons is wasted as Jim Gordon, but it’s nice to see Amy Adams in a reduced role here. I don’t hate Amy Adams, but I have never been a fan of her portrayal as Lois Lane and surprisingly, she actually serves a purpose in this film, as opposed to pondering about with a camera looking surprised. The SFX varies greatly, with some really impressive visual effects and some that look like absolute garbage and could have been handled better. Something else that could have been handled far better was the resurrection of Superman. As a long time comic book fan and knowing the significance of this plot point in the comics, it feels extremely rushed and half-hearted by comparison in this film. Overall, it’s not the worst movie in the world; it’s not even the worst movie in this universe, but really it should have been far better than it is. The Justice League movie should have been so much better than, ‘just okay,’ It’s crazy to think that this film released just a month after Thor: Ragnarok, and managed to be significantly worse than the third sequel to one of the least popular Avengers’ solo films. Justice League should have blown a Thor movie out of the water, both commercially and critically, yet here we are.

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Review – Zack Snyder’s Justice League

22nd December 2025

Review – Zack Snyder’s Justice League Directed by: Zack Snyder Produced by: Charles Roven & Deborah Snyder Written by: Zack Snyder, Will Beall, and Chris Terrio Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, and Ezra Miller Release Date: March 18, 2021 It’s difficult to talk about Zack Snyder’s Justice League without talking about its older bizarro clone from 2017, simply titled ‘Justice League’ sans author attribution. Likewise, it’s almost impossible to watch the film if you’ve seen the original Frankenstein’s monster of a movie without constantly thinking back to that experience and noticing what’s different without much effort. When it comes down to it, Zack Snyder’s Justice League (which I will henceforth refer to as ZSJL for the mercy of my fingers) is the same skeleton as the 2017 film. The story beats are, at their core, either identical or very similar. However, like a house that’s been remodeled, though the floor plan might be recognizable, everything from the roofing to the baseboards is new and ever so slightly different. Also, someone added a few new rooms. Some of those rooms feel like they should have been there from the start, and some of them are glorified storage cabinets that probably weren’t necessary. But when WB gives you a renovation budget of 70 millions USD, you make the biggest damn house you can. Review – Shazam! And so it goes with the release of the long fabled Snyder Cut, finally unearthed, finished, and unleashed to the masses on HBO Max at a whopping four hours in length. It feels like a strange side effect of the Covid pandemic that’s gripped the world and shut down movie theaters for the past year as of March 2021 along with the long of WB’s burgeoning streaming service, and would almost certainly not exist without that mixture of elements. Yet, here we are, four years after the critically and commercially maligned theatrical draft of the project, ready to watch a product that we were told multiple times over the years was not real, and never would be. The real question now is, does it outshine the 2017 version of the first ever big screen DC superhero team up? Find out in our review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. STORY For those just joining us, or who skipped or don’t remember the original theatrical version of this movie, the premise goes a little like this: Superman is dead at the hands of a cave troll. Sorry, I mean, Doomsday. Batman has been warned of an enemy of some sort coming to earth by a twitchy Lex Luthor via Jesse Eisenberg, and has told Wonder Woman that they need to find and unite the other super beings in their world to combat this nebulous threat. The threat comes in the form of an invasion by the demonic Steppenwolf from the hell world of Apokolips, searching for three artifacts known as Mother Boxes that will unite and do… something. To stop him, Batman will have to gather the world’s soon-to-be greatest heroes and, inevitably, when that isn’t enough, resurrect the fallen Kryptonian. This all remains more or less true in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The biggest change in this restored, original vision of Zack Snyder’s Superhero get-together is just a general addition of breathing room. Though we’re familiar with Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Diana Prince from previous films, ZSJL bears the burden of introducing the audience to two new characters almost entirely from scratch. The 2017 cut of Justice League made some significant changes to the presentation of Barry Allen and Victor Stone, and after watching this new cut of the movie it is immediately apparent how much these cuts really hurt the perceived soul of the film. Some might call this new version ‘bloated’, but the increased scope for these two heroes is appreciable. Review – Aquaman Victor Stone, also known as Cyborg, is elevated from a moving, breathing plot point in what might be the biggest set of additions. Whole sub-plots, scenes, and backstory are reintegrated into the movie that make victor a much more well rounded character with an actual arc throughout the movie. Somewhat ironically, the portrayal of Cyborg in the Zack Snyder cut and the fleshing out of his relationship with his father and the world around him makes him far more human. Second to that are the changes made to Barry Allen. Barry only really receives one additional scene in the film, and arguably it’s a scene that could easily be removed without losing much in the plot or character. What really sticks out for Barry is the actual tone and importance of the character. In the 2017 cut, Barry is very much the inexperienced new kid, requiring a pep talk from Bruce Wayne before engaging in the very first major battle of the film. His role in the ultimate climax of the film is essentially played for laughs as he’s shuffled off to the side to rescue a stranded family and play second fiddle to a CGI Henry Cavill carrying an entire building several feet away. Barry is still the same hyperactive, somewhat awkward ball of energy as played by Ezra Miller in this version, but he is noticeably more competent. Requiring neither pep talks, nor pratfalls onto anyone’s chest for giggles, this version of The Flash clearly knows how to use his powers. Thanks to that, he’s granted a much deeper level of agency in this film. Without giving too much away for those who haven’t braved the four hour journey yet, Barry now plays a crucial role in the final third of the movie that is both awesome to watch, and perhaps lays the seeds down for the upcoming Flashpoint movie that is still planned as of 2021. eview – Man Of Steel Finally, third and perhaps most unexpected, is a complete overhaul of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf in his 2017 incarnation was entirely forgettable except for just how jarringly generic he was as a villain.

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Review – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

17th May 2021

Review – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Directed by: Gareth Edwards Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy Written by: Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna & Alan Tudyk Release Date: December 15th 2016 Half a decade after its release, I decided that it was time to go back and review Rogue One, (aka the best Star Wars movie to be released following the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm.) Upon its release, the film recieved rave reviews; with one review of Rogue One going as far as to compare it in quality to Empire Strikes Back, (widely considered to be the superior Star Wars film.) It actually also garnered a fair amount of Oscar buzz for that years awards ceremony. All of this, – along with the fact that it was following the positively received Force Awakens, – meant that audience expectations were set pretty high going in. For me, the film lived up to my personal expectations that I had for it at the time and in the years with every subsequent viewing, it has actually grown on me even more. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to write an entirely glowing review for Rogue One, as the movie still has its flaws. There are some parts of the film that I loved and some that I didn’t and to really get into the meat of that, I am going to have do delve into spoiler territory. The movie is 5 years old at the time of writing this review, so everyone should have really seen it by now. One of my favourite things about the movie is how well it ties into the start of A New Hope and how it actually fixes that movie’s biggest plot-hole by explaining that the weak point in the Death Star was installed on purpose by Galen Erso while designing the battle station under the Empire’s thumb, so that the Rebels would have a chance to destroy it. I also loved the fact that the movie had the guts to kills off the entire Rogue One crew at the end, which is something that they really had to do since none of these characters are ever mentioned at any point in the original trilogy. And that corridor scene at the end with Vader was possibly the best scene I’ve seen in the cinema in the last 5 years, but I will talk more about why I love it so much later in the review. Those are the stand out positives of the movie for me, however there were also a few flaws throughout the film. First of all, that Grand Mof Tarkin CGI recreation of Peter Cushing is awful, the whole thing looks like a character from the Clone Wars animated series. When he is first introduced it is through a glass reflection on a window he is looking out of and in that part of the scene it was fairly convincing, however he then turns around and the camera moves to a medium close up shot and all of a sudden it feels like watching a video game cutscene. Guy Henry was the actor who did the motion capture for Tarkin and he actually looks relatively similar to Peter Cushing, so why they didn’t just apply some makeup to Guy Henry and dye his hair gray to resemble Cushing more and recast the Tarkin role is beyond me. It would also have also been a lot cheaper than the CG method that they decided to go with. Either that or he should have only been seen in the reflection of the glass, since that was the only time that the CGI effect actually looked convincing. However, I do think that the CGI recreation of 1970’s Carrie Fischer at the end of the movie is slightly more convincing and if it wasn’t for her eyes and the movement in her mouth, it would be way more difficult to tell that that is a CGI character. Another flaw I have with this movie is the how rushed and choppy the first act feels. The characters are all introduced quickly and vaguely, then it takes a good while for them to actually form up as a team. I get that introducing a whole cast of brand new characters in a short space of time isn’t always easy, but they could have handled it better than how they do here. In a lot of ways Rogue One actually works as a contrast to Force Awakens. In Force Awakens, the plot is essentially the same as A New Hope and is a fairly by the book, traditional Star Wars story, but the characters were what makes that movie entertaining. If the characters in Force Awakens weren’t as well written, that movie would have been mediocre at best. In Rogue One, the characters are pretty shallow and underdeveloped. They are introduced quickly and by the end of the movie none of them have really had a proper character arc. However that is not what this movie is about. This film is about a team of people coming together in order to complete a task that sets up the events of the original trilogy and in that sense this movie does what it sets out to do. An example of this is the robot character K2SO, who I thought was going to start off with no humanity, then over the course of the movie realize the value of human life and then sacrifice himself for the greater good at the movie’s climax, but it transpires that the only real reason that he is helping the Rebels, is because he has been programmed to do so. This I feel sums up the level of character development present in the movie and demonstrates that it is not necessary in the film as that isn’t the movie’s purpose. What Force Awakens lacked in an original plot, it made up for in character development and what Rogue One lacks in

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Review – Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

23rd June 2021

Review – Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice Directed by: Zack Snyder Produced by: Charles Roven & Deborah Snyder Written by: David S. Goyer & Chris Terrio Starring: Ben Affleck & Henry Cavill Release Date: March 25th 2016 A lot has happened since this movie first released half a decade ago. We have lived through the explosive fan backlash to the original cut, had an ultimate cut blu-ray release that fixed some of the theatrical cut’s problems, suffered through a watered down, colour-graded sequel from Joss “Brunch,” Whedon, finally surviving a worldwide pandemic and witnessing a monumental online campaign to get to see Zack Snyder’s untainted vision of an epic superhero team-up blockbuster that is mostly free from studio meddling. So really what is left to say? Well in the wake of the Snydercut being released, I revisited the theatrical cut of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice for review and realised that I do still have a lot to say about the film. First off, let me give you some context regarding the complex relationship that I have with this movie. For the last eight years I have been reading and collecting comics to an obsessive level and it is actually predominately because of this movie. I have always been a superhero fan (especially Batman,) and I had read some comics in my youth, but when this movie was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, (8 years ago!!) I was so hyped that I decided that I had to read the comic that this film was taking inspiration from. So I went to my local A1 Comics and bought The Dark Knight Returns, which underwhelmed me but that’s another story. Since then I have become a huge comic book fan due to this movie. So clearly I have a personal attachment to the film. Which means I went in seriously wanting to love it and what was not to love here? It would have been so difficult to get this wrong. It is Batman fighting Superman on the big screen, how amazing is it that this actually happened? And yet somehow they still managed to royally screw it up… Do you read? You will. And then realise how superior the comic that this film is based on is to the actual movie itself, (and I’m not even a massive fan of the source material.) I revisited 10 Cloverfield Lane this week for review and while that movie isn’t perfect, what makes that film great is exactly what makes BvS subpar. 10CL had a small team of people working on a restrictive budget, so every aspect of the movie was scrutinised and perfected to make up the end product and that attention to detail really paid off. BvS had a huge budget and a massive team of people working on it and I think that is what gives the movie it’s unfocused and sloppy feel. The script is a mess, there are clearly scenes cut, the editing is jarring, not all of the performances were up to scratch and while the imagery and visuals are incredible, the best way to describe this movie is all style and no substance. I like Zack Snyder, I love his Watchmen movie, I like 300 and I enjoyed Man of Steel, but I can’t help but feel that this was his fault. His decision to make years of comic book stories into one two and a half hour movie honestly baffles me. The events of this movie should have taken place over at least three movies. This movie really is all over the place and the pace and tone are random at best. Let’s talk about the best part of the movie, which is quite easily Ben Affleck’s Batman and Jeremy Irons’ Alfred. Seeing the two characters and their chemistry are worth the ticket price of the film alone. This is probably the most faithful to the source material Batman that we have had on the big screen to date, except for one pretty major change. Batman in DoJ is pretty much Punisher in a cowl. During the Batmobile chase he questionably kills some goons. I mean, some of them could have survived… If they had Wolverine’s healing powers I guess? But then there is that badass warehouse scene that we all remember fondly during which, he near enough shoots some guys himself. If you can get over this and see this as an alternate version of Batman you should be able to appreciate Affleck’s performance though, which by the way is amazing, he knocks it out of the park. I would have liked some kind of reference to it, even a scene where he discusses breaking his code with Alfred, just a few lines would have made me get on board with this version of the character a lot quicker. Critics have been calling Henry Cavill’s Superman performance wooden for years now, but I have always felt that is too harsh. He was perfectly serviceable in this movie but he was never going to be praised for his memorable performance either. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is a standout, my only complaint is that she isn’t in the movie enough as Wonder Woman. Jesse Eisenberg is the stand out worst performance in the movie. It isn’t necessarily a bad performance, it just does not fit that character at all. He was truly miscast here, if they had cast him as Riddler in the Batman solo movie and he put in this performance I would be praising him like mad. Lex Luthor shouldn’t be crazy on a surface level, he should be a respectable businessman and an intellectual force to be reckoned with and he will go out of his way to ensure that this is what everyone sees him as. It should only ever be the people closest to him that that he allows to see him crack. He certainly shouldn’t be making strange noises and gestures like someone with Tourette’s

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Review – Deadpool 2

20th May 2021

Review – Deadpool 2 Directed by: David Leitch Produced by: Ryan Reynolds & Stan Lee Written by: Rhett Reese & Ryan Reynolds Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin & Morena Baccarin Release Date: May 15th 2018 (UK) I was recently asked to review Deadpool 2 for the site and I honestly went back to it reluctantly. Although I did enjoy the movie when it came out, it has never had the same re-watchability as the first one and although it is only a 3 year old movie, I wasn’t expecting it to have aged very well. Thankfully my negative preconceptions were misplaced and I ended up actually having a really good time re-watching Deadpool 2 for review. Deadpool 2 is the kind of sequel that knows exactly what it is. It doesn’t pretend to be anything original and it’s main focus is getting a laugh out of it’s audience over anything else. It succeeds greatly at this with the film being hilarious throughout and it comes very close to being as funny as it’s predecessor, it just doesn’t quite get there. I think that the main reason for this is because it chooses to focus more on a story than the last one did and through that, the humour loses some of the momentum that it builds up. Although the first movie’s laughs have better momentum, an argument could be made for this movie’s individual lines being funnier. My particular favourite was the jab Deadpool makes at his creator Rob Liefeld for not being able to draw feet properly in his comics. Check out our fantasy MCU Casting for the X-Men I loved how they chose to show off Domino’s powers. Her power of ‘luck,’ could have came across really lame onscreen, but David Leitch’s fantastic direction helped it to come across brilliantly. I also loved the cameos, from the room full of X-Men, to Brad Pitt as the Vanisher. When they killed Vanessa at the start of the movie, I was disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing her character develop in this movie and I felt like just killing her off to give Deadpool motivation for his arc in the movie was pretty lazy. Then, they immediately rectified it with the hilarious Bond-esque opening title sequence. Later on, I thought that they were going to make Vanessa become Death, who is Deadpool’s love interest in the comics because he has so many encounters with her, but at the end of the movie we see Deadpool going back in time to reverse her death from happening, which also sort of negates a lot of the emotional beats that the movie surprisingly managed to hit during it’s finale. The Juggernaught is the movie’s surprise villain and while it is nice to see him in his comic accurate form, the CGI used is really cartoony and even hard to swallow in a surreal superhero movie like this one. However, that’s not why anybody watches a Deadpool movie. If I was looking for deep, meaningful character arcs and realistic CGI, there are a ton of other movies for that. Deadpool is there to make you laugh and there is no doubt that it succeeds at that. There are some comedic moments that feel oddly dated, like the constant references to dubstep for example and I feel like they missed a trick not bringing up the fact that the director was swapped out during the film’s production or the real life scandals involving TJ Miller, but every joke earns at least a chuckle, which justifies it’s place in the film. It may not as quite as novel because we have seen it before, but there are plenty of scenes in here that will have you laughing out loud in the cinema and fans of the character will not be disappointed. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] 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

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Review – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (video game)

23rd November 2025

Review – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (video game) Developer: Beenox Publisher: Activision Genre: Action-Adventure Writer: Christos Gage Release Date: April 17th 2014 You are probably thinking Dan, why the hell are you putting out a review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game in 2021? It was a poorly reviewed movie tie-in game that came out seven years ago. That is a very valid question. I chose to go back and review The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game because I actually believe it is one of the most relevant games I have ever played in terms of the wider gaming landscape. So yeah you may have me rumbled, this won’t be so much a review of The Amazing Spiderman 2 for PS4 as it will be a commentary on bad games in general and their place in the modern gaming landscape. I first played this game about three years after its initial release; picking it up cheap in an era that was dominated by Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham games. I remember that I had just come off of finally getting around to playing Until Dawn after putting it off for a long time. Until Dawn is a well made, well written, well acted, well executed teen horror story that had atmosphere and intrigue in spades. I then went on to play a game that I thought was mediocre by comparison, DMC Definitive Edition. When playing through the story I remember being so underwhelmed and disappointed in what they had turned this once great franchise into; an angsty, melodramatic, arcade slash ‘em up with as much depth as the shallow end of the kiddies swimming pool. I remember thinking, what a waste of cash and time. What a piece of garbage. Oh how naïve I was, as I had no idea how much worse it could get. The first thing that I was painfully reminded of upon revisiting The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was that this game graphically is at the same level if not worse than the first Amazing Spiderman game that was first released back on PS3. In 2021, after playing Insomniac’s 2018 Spider-Man game it is even more pitiful to look at than it was at the time. However, games with under par graphics can still be fun and UI’s and poly counts aren’t everything, So I began working my way through the game. Let’s start with the only positive that this game has going for it, the web slinging. Traversal feels and looks great in the game, zipping around NYC is a treat and when everything works correctly, you can pull off some truly spectacular acrobatics while shooting around in mid air. The shoulder buttons on the controller are matched to Spidey’s arms, left trigger for left swing, right trigger for right swing, and unlike the first Amazing Spiderman game, in this one the web shooters have to be aimed at a building in order to perform a successful swing. The important phrase here, is ‘when it works.’ There were several times when I would be right next to a building and press the trigger to swing, only to hear Spidey say, ‘Hey, this just in, web slingers need something to stick to.’ I realise that Spidey, that’s why I’m pressing the trigger on the side where the huge goddamn skyscraper is. Also, there would be times when I had a decent amount of momentum going, swing left, right, left, right consecutively and as I pressed the left trigger again to attach to the building on my left. Then, for some odd reason, Spidey would fire his right hand web shooter, attaching to a distant building on the right. Thus, turning me away from the direction I was swinging and totally ruining my momentum. This was particularly frustrating during boss fights and chase sequences or when swinging against the clock. Still though traversal is fun, – it is not a patch on Spider-Man 2018, but it still holds up fairly well. Now that the game’s one positive is out of the way, let’s rip this thing apart. Animations are stiff, glitches are common and every cutscene in the game ends abruptly with an awkward animation that resembles the look of a news anchor when they run out of words to read off the teleprompter, but the camera is still rolling. I have no idea why they decided to add a dialogue system, it is so unnecessary and out of place and has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the game’s narrative. It was simply included just for the sake of having a dialogue option. The plot is fairly standard, but is bearable for the first two thirds of the game, however the point that the publishers told the development team to get a move on and meet the deadline to coincide with the release of the movie becomes instantly clear. The last 5 or so chapters in the game are so rushed it’s like going through a checklist. The first bossfight in the last third of the game is pretty mundane, but at least there is an attempt at a build up to it. However after that fight you are teleported to the top of a skyscraper to battle Electro in a boss fight with the least build up in any game ever developed. So you do that and then you are corrected, this next boss fight with the Green Goblin is the least build up to a boss fight in any game ever developed. You don’t see the transformation of either Electro or the Goblin and honestly, if I hadn’t seen the movie that goes with this game, I would not have had a clue about what was going on. Then it’s as if the game remembers that they made a half cocked attempt at introducing Carnage away back at the beginning of the story and so they throw in another out of the blue boss fight to end the game. This lack of story build

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Review – The Cloverfield Paradox

22nd December 2025

Remember That Time That An Out-Of-Nowhere Secret Movie Ruined The Entire Franchise? Review – The Cloverfield Paradox Directed by: Julius Onah Produced by: J.J. Abrams & Matt Reeves Written by: Oren Uziel Starring: Daniel Bruhl, David Oyelowo & Elizabeth Debicki Release Date: February 5th 2018 Right, quick disclaimer – this is going to be less of a review of The Cloverfield Paradox and more of a rant on how this movie ruins any Cloverfield movies going forward. In terms of reviewing this film, I actually don’t think that this film is as bad as most other people have been saying. There are actually some cool moments and neat ideas here, they just don’t really work when they are all put together like this movie tried to do. I liked the cast, I thought that the set was cool, I even enjoyed some of the more cheesy sci-fi clichés in the film, but the whole point of the first two Cloverfield movies is that these planet altering events aren’t explained. Even if you totally disregard the fact that this ‘explanation,’ actually makes no sense when you think about the timeline of the first movie’s events, half the fun of the first movie was trying to work out exactly wtf was going on, this half arsed attempt at explaining it just ruins any of that potential fun. Then, the second movie established that the ‘Cloverfield,’ label was more of an umbrella that went over these exciting sci-fi movies. Sure, it ties the movies together as a franchise, but there are no obvious links between the franchise entries and that’s ok. Think of the ‘Cloverfield,’ title as being similar to the ‘Twilight Zone.’ Not everything has to make sense and call back/forward to another entry in the franchise. The tenuous links we had in the other movies, like how it was mentioned in 10CL that Howard worked at a satellite company before building his underground bunker, was more than enough to constitute a link and spark the online fan theories, we didn’t need any more than that. Then there was all of the online marketing stuff involving Slusho and Tagruato, which was so clever and unique and elevated the first movie from being a mediocre monster flick to something intriguing and ripe for discussion. Now this movie comes along and claims that all of these events are interconnected, even though the events of of the previous two movies took place years before the events of Cloverfield Paradox. Then they think by showing us a huge version of Clover from the first movie at the end of Paradox just automatically makes everything okay? Why did they not just make this movie about a group of astronauts on a space station having some weird shit happening to them, (like the original script for this film was written,) and then call it Cloverfield: God Particle? (which was the movie’s original title.) They could have still had Stambler’s brother on the news at the start talking about how the crew’s mission is dangerous and that would be enough to link this to the other movies. Why they included the appearance of Clover at the end of Paradox and the other half arsed attempts to tie the other two movies into this one is beyond me. It is so unnecessary and defeats the whole point of the Cloverfield franchise as a whole. That is the reason I didn’t like this movie, not because of the movie itself. The film itself was ok, but what it tried to do in terms of connecting these movies was stupid and unnecessary and may have ruined any other Cloverfield movies going forward.

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A Case For Venom: As Bad As You Remember?

19th January 2026

Review – Venom (2018) Directed by: Ruben Fleischer Produced by: Avi Arad, Tom Hardy & Stan Lee Written by: Jeff Pinker & Scott Rosenberg Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams & Riz Ahmed Release Date: October 3rd 2018 (UK) I shouldn’t have enjoyed revisiting Venom for review anywhere near as much as I did. I remember when the film first came out not being on-board with it at all going in. I wasn’t interested in a Spiderman-less Spiderman universe and the trailers didn’t exactly sell me on it either. It looked like they were messing with the origin of Venom too much and the action set pieces didn’t look too impressive. Then there was the fact that the review embargo was only lifted a day before the movie’s release, then there were the terrible reviews. All of this led to me going into the film with a morbid curiosity and expecting a total mess. However, I am happy to report that after I saw Venom for the first time, it actually really pleasantly surprised me and I had a ton of fun with it and I even had fun whilst re-watching it a second for this review! When I heard that Tom Hardy was playing Eddie Brock, I was really gutted because I think that he would have been the perfect choice for the MCU’s Wolverine. I also thought that this was going to be a mistake in terms of Hardy’s career; out of all of the superhero movies he could have been a part of, he chose Venom? I was happy to be proven wrong, Hardy was great in both his role as Eddie Brock and as Venom. He was funny, scary and heartfelt at all the right moments and it always looked like he was having a good time whilst playing the character. This movie did remind me a lot of Upgrade, which was also a Sci-fi movie released in 2018 with a protagonist who gains a voice in his head and extraordinary powers that he doesn’t have any control over. Coincidentally Tom Hardy also looks strikingly similar to the lead actor in Upgrade; Logan-Marshall Green. If I had to compare the two movies, I personally preferred Upgrade, but I still had a lot of fun with both of them. And that’s the best thing about this movie, it is fun. Sure, it’s not a comic book accurate Venom origin and it’s not directly connected to the MCU’s Spiderman and it’s not up to snuff compared to any of the recent entries in the MCU, but it is a ton of fun to watch this violent alien join forces with a witty, down on his luck reporter and wreak havoc across a city. I’m going to drop a few spoilers going forward, so if you have yet to see the movie, you should probably click away now. The thing that was really bothering me during the opening of the movie was; why is this story taking place in San Francisco? Eddie Brock is a New Yorker, not a San Franciscan. Then they addressed that issue and explained that he had moved away from New York. It was only a brief, throwaway line, but they didn’t have to bother including it and I appreciate that they did. I also really enjoyed the brief appearance of She-Venom. Sure, the odds that this symbiote that rejects almost every human host that it comes into contact with, just happens to bond perfectly with both parties in this couple, is a bit of a stretch. However, this is a comic book movie about an alien symbiote, so I’m willing to accept a few stretches in the movie’s logic. Lastly I like the fact that they teased Carnage in the post credits tease and I am glad that they got Woody Harrelson to play him, as he is one of my favourite actors… but my God he looked really dumb in that red wig, like almost parody bad. It is still just as jarring on a second viewing. Overall, although I had extremely low expectations going into Venom, it exceeded them by a great deal. Sure, it’s not Infinity War or Endgame and it’s not even Spiderman: Far From Home, but it is a lot of fun and there is definitely a good amount of enjoyment to be had in Venom.

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Review – Aquaman (2018)

22nd December 2025

Review – Aquaman (2018) Directed by: James Wan Produced by: Geoff Johns & Zack Snyder Written by: Geoff Johns & James Wan Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard & Willem Dafoe Release Date: September 12th 2018 (UK) Re-watching Aquaman for review was the first time that I have seen it since seeing it in the cinema upon its release. When going to see it for the first time, I remember being quite excited for the movie after hearing the glowing reviews and praise it got at the time. I am also a fan of Jason Momoa and James Wan, so I was really hoping for this to be at least as good as Wonder Woman. Also, being a long time fan of DC Comics, I also hoped to see them find their footing cinematically and I thought that this could finally be the start of that. Unfortunately I left the cinema feeling pretty underwhelmed and not much has changed since then. The movie opens by telling the story of how Aquaman’s parents came to meet and fall in love, even though they are from vastly different worlds. This whole sequence is brilliant and I was totally on-board for what was to come afterwards. Sadly, this opening sequence is by far the best part of the entire movie. From this point on it descends into a mediocre action adventure flick with story elements very reminiscent of Thor and Black Panther, (two movies that are vastly superior to this one.) From a direction standpoint, it is clear that James Wan knows how to visually capture a scene in the most beautiful and intriguing way possible, which is especially evident during the trench sequence. His direction during all of the action sequences is great, with Nicole Kidman’s trident work in the opening scene and the rooftop sequence with Black Manta, Mera and Aquaman being the highlights. I don’t think that my issue with this movie is due to the direction lacking in any aspect. The only questionable choice in my opinion, was the choice to shoot the big Black Manta scene in broad daylight. It just looked slightly naff and would have came across much better if shot in darker conditions under the cover of night. Nor do I think that it is the fault of any of the cast members. I think that Momoa does a great job in the title role and he looks incredible in the full on Aquaman suit, (which I don’t think many other actors could legitimately pull off.) I think that Patrick Wilson did a decent job as the evil slightly cheesy power hungry half brother of Aquaman. I also enjoyed Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren and Nicole Kidman in each of their scenes. I think that the major culprit in this movie, – feeling a bit forced at times, – was the lazy script that the actors had to work with. Almost every scene plays out in the exact same way; with the characters that we are following turning up to a new location, meeting up with a character, (usually Willem Dafoe,) listening to them spout a bunch of expositional dialogue and then mid sentence bad guys will attack and an explosion will go off cutting the conversation short. Then we will get a well shot action sequence with super dynamic cinematography, then the characters will figure out where they need to go next, they will go to the next location and the process will be rinsed and repeated for the duration of the movie. Overall, Aquaman is not a bad superhero movie, there is a lot of fun to be had here with the badass action sequences. Unfortunately the lazy script holds the movie back from being as good as the glowing reviews told me it would be and it is by no means the best of the DC solo movies. PS. Although I don’t think that the movie in general was up to the highest level of quality, the CGI is objectively breath-taking in every scene and I totally agreed with James Wan that it was nothing short of an atrocity that the SFX team on this movie were snubbed for the 2019 Oscars ceremony.

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