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Review – Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

23rd June 2021

Review – Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Directed by: JJ Abrams Produced by: JJ Abrams & Kathleen Kennedy Written by: Lawrence Kasdan & JJ Abrams Starring: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac & Adam Driver Release Date: December 17th 2015 Remember that time when an exciting, entertaining Star Wars movie came out for the first time in 30 years? Remember how everyone loved that movie at first and then everyone simultaneously turned on it? Well last night, I watched The Force Awakens for review for the first time in a few years and I still very much enjoyed it. Let’s begin by talking about the cast of this new trilogy. A lot has been said since this movie’s release about the wooden, phoned-in performances from this trilogy, some of which I agree with. However, going by this movie alone, the three leads are fantastic in their performances. Daisy Ridley does a fine job with Rey, John Boyega is probably the best he’ll be in the whole trilogy as Finn in this film and Oscar Isaac oozes charismas as Poe Dameron in the same way he does in all of his roles. Poe has the smallest role out of the three, which is my biggest and only complaint about the character. Issac is funny in the role, he is believable as an amazing pilot and he reeks of cool throughout the film. Finn works as the in-over-his-head character dealing with an inner conflict, but he still manages to be likeable and relatable. Rey is the most central of the three new main cast members and Daisy Ridley also delivers in her role for the most part. She sells the fairly bland character trope of dealing with an exciting new adventure calling her name pretty well. I do think in hindsight that she possibly could have done a bit more in a few of the movie’s scenes, as at times it does sort of feel like they could have cast anyone of a similar age in this role and they would have been just as good. Of course, the old cast are also back. Anthony Daniels as C3PO is just as irritating as he was 30 years ago. Carrie Fisher is back as Leia and the while lines she had are engaging and at times touching, she simply isn’t in the movie enough. As for Han, it is nice to see grumpy old gramps Harrison Ford actually looking enthusiastic and as if he is actually enjoying himself for a change. His performance surprisingly isn’t phoned in and he genuinely commits to the role just as much as he did 30 years ago. Also, out of the original returning cast, he is definitely the highlight. Now that we have discussed the light side, now let’s move onto the dark. These characters are nowhere near as strong as the protagonists. I don’t think that this was the fault of the actors though. Domnall Gleason as Hux does a decent job with his role being the super evil and almost Nazi-like character trope. It does feel a bit one-note, but he serves his purpose in the film’s larger narrative. Andy Serkis is intimidating in his performance as Snoke, which just makes it more of a shame when you see what they do to his character in the sequels. Adam Driver delivers one of the best performances in the movie as Kylo Ren, showing deep sadness and explosive anger, all while being an unhinged threatening presence. The problem here is that the villains in this movie just don’t have the same impact as the villains in the original trilogy. Hux and Ren are made out to be young and naïve and while Snoke is pulling the strings, but we only ever see him as a hologram and even then, we don’t see him all that much. Couple that along with the fact that we now that we know he was a mere puppet the whole time an he feels even less threatening. It is as if this film serves origin story for these villains, but in A New Hope, the villains and the Empire already felt like an established organisation. Whereas, in this movie it is as if a bunch of amateurs have happened across a new Death Star, because let’s not lie, that’s all that the Starkiller base really is. As for Captain Phasma? She is hardly worth talking about. She is in two scenes and does nothing in either of them besides let herself get taken advantage of. When I first saw the film, I remember thinking, “surely they will do more with her in the sequels though.” Spoilers; they don’t. A great deal has also been said in the last few years about JJ Abrams’ handling of the sequel trilogy and whether his attempt at damage control has done more harm that good for the franchise. Whether you agree with that or not, in this film at least, he captures the tone of what Star Wars should be perfectly. The Force Awakens is funny enough that it is constantly entertaining and never boring, but serious enough that the audience feels a genuine, palpable threat throughout. The score is also fantastic, as it always is when John Williams is involved. The movie’s special effects are spot on also. Some of the CGI characters are slightly distracting, namely Snoke, the tentacle monsters that show up briefly and the market owner that was in possession of the Falcon at the start of the movie played by Simon Pegg, but there were also a lot of puppets and practical effects used and it really pays off in the overall look of the movie. The pacing of this movie is very quick, with Abrams not really giving the viewers time to breathe and digest what just unfolded before throwing another dogfight or lightsaber battle at them, but you certainly can’t accuse it of being boring. The only issue is, because of all of the significant

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Review – Ready Player One (2018)

18th May 2021

Review – Ready Player One (2018) Directed by: Steven Spielberg Produced by: Steven Spielberg & Ernest Cline Written by: Zak Penn & Ernest Cline Starring: Tye Sheridan, Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn and Simon Pegg Release Date: March 28th 2018 (UK) Writing a review for Ready Player one is a task that requires several viewings of the movie due to all of all of the references and Easter eggs etc that are present in the film to take in. So please take comfort in knowing that I had to suffer for the sake of this review. After watching the movie a couple more times and watching a bunch of Easter egg videos on Youtube, I now feel more equipped to discuss the film. First off, I have never read the book that this film is based on. It has been recommended to me quite a few times, but I have never gotten around to reading it, so I went into this movie with no pre-conceived ideas of what it was going to be other than what I had seen in the various trailers. Let’s start with the good stuff. Although I have some issues with the overabundance of CGI onscreen, as a 3D animator myself I was extremely impressed at the sheer quality of the animation in the movie. I know that this thing had a pretty high budget behind it, but still the level of quality in the animation is really high throughout the film. The references are also pretty cool, at least for the first third of the movie but the novelty of seeing some of your favourite pop culture characters does wear off after a while and ends up feeling like a cheap gimmick before too long. Finally, if all you are looking for is a big dumb fun blockbuster, then this movie provides that in spades. Ok, onto the stuff that bothered me. As I said above, although the quality of the CGI is pretty incredible, the vast amount of it gets tiresome after a while. I also didn’t like the character designs at all; Parzival looks like a rejected piece of Final Fantasy artwork and Art3mis looks like a stereotypical version of a what a middle aged man thinks a cool hacker looks like with a weird resemblance to a feline. Aech just looked chunky and awkward, like something from a last-gen Gears Of War game, I-R0k’s weird, edgy, fantasy-based design didn’t fit his voice or the tone of the scenes he appeared in and Sorrento’s avatar just looked distractingly like a dastardly Clark Kent for some reason. Also, these original character designs seemed oddly out of place being surrounded by other characters from franchises that we already know like DC and Mortal Kombat, none of it meshed well at all. It also really annoyed me how they kept touching on the idea that someone in the Oasis might not necessarily look the same as they do in real life and if you ever met them in real life you would be sorely disappointed, only for the reason for all of this to be a small birthmark on Olivia Cooke’s character’s face. The way that they make her out to some sort of beast-like monster because of a minor skin-irregularity is ridiculous and also slightly offensive. Also, we are told during the movie’s opening sequence that the Oasis is a worldwide thing, where people from anywhere on the planet can meet up online and fight together or kill each other for coins. Then halfway through the movie, all of the characters meet up in a small ice cream truck in the real world and it turns out that they all live within a few miles of each other. It just made the whole thing feel really small scale. Another issue is that the movie is only 3 years old at this point and it already feels terribly dated. I don’t see this movie ageing very well in the long term at all and this is both due to the CGI and the references that they choose to include. Lastly, as I said earlier, if what you want out of this movie is mindless fun, then you’ll walk away satisfied, but the problem with that is that the movie seems to want to be more than that. The way that the movie treats itself and the way it was marketed along with the fact that it’s got Spielberg in the director’s chair, signifies that the filmmakers were intending for this to be this generation’s Back To The Future or Star Wars and on that front it totally fails. In these other movies that this film is aspiring to be, you care about what happens to the characters and want to see where they go, whereas here the audience cares way more about seeing the next popular franchise references than anything that happens to the main characters at the heart of this story and once you’ve seen the film, you are going to leave talking about the characters that appeared from outside franchises rather than the ones created for this story. The characters are also instantly forgettable, for example I have seen this film more than five times now and still couldn’t tell you the real world names of any of the characters other than Wade Watts and Sorrento and that’s only because he has the same name in the real world as he does in the Oasis. I also don’t care if I never see any of these characters again if I’m being honest. Apparently there is a sequel movie to this already in the early stages of development, as the first movie made a bunch of money at the box office and there is apparently a sequel book in the works, but frankly I wouldn’t care if I never saw any of these characters again and I don’t care where the story is going either. In conclusion, upon revisiting Ready Player One for review, it

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Review – Godzilla Vs Kong

17th June 2021

zilla vs king

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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 – New Avengers: Breakout

22nd December 2025

Review – New Avengers: Breakout Publisher: Marvel Comics Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Penciller: David Finch Inker: Danny Miki Colourist: Frank D’Armata Letterer: Albert Deschesne Release Date: August 17th 2005 When I was asked to go back and write a review for New Avengers: Breakout, I was initially excited by the prospect of getting to revisit this book. When I first read the TPB, I really enjoyed what Brian Michael Bendis did with the story and appreciated the way that he gave the Avengers comics a much-needed soft reboot. Seven years down the line from when I first read it, it unfortunately has not aged particularly well. Upon reading it for the first time, my favourite part of the story was the titular breakout sequence that takes place across the first two issues included in the book. This is still the case today upon re-reading the TBP. Whilst it is a fairly contrived situation, with the obvious foreshadowing of Foggy Nelson worrying about a breakout coming across as painfully obvious foreshadowing, the breakout sequence is fun. The action that takes place in this segment of the book is well-written and the rap-sheet style character briefs that are shown alongside the appearance of each major villain are cool. It is also a fascinating situation to see Matt Murdoch to be caught in, as a prison is a very bad place for a prosecuting lawyer to be during a prison break. Unfortunately, this is the only part of the book that I enjoyed re-reading for a second time. After the prison break takes place, the pace of the story grinds to a halt and then crawls very slowly to the end of the sixth issue. It felt so aimless and meandering whilst reading through it and I was constantly checking how much longer I still had to go before the book was done. This is never a good sign for a comic book story. The plot following the straightforward breakout sequence is also far more unnecessarily convoluted than it ever had to be. This is even referenced in the dialogue, when Spiderman quips at one point that he has “no idea what is going on, more so than usual!” Pointing out how overly confusing and messy your story is doesn’t make up for writing a convoluted mess of a plot Bendis. There is also an unfortunate section of the book where the male members of the team gawk at Spider-Woman after she suits up for the first time. It is fairly brief, but in a post me-too era, the panels haven’t aged particularly well at all. The lingering panel on Spider-Woman’s detailed physique in her skin-tight costume feels particularly off-putting and sleazy. In terms of the book’s artwork, I enjoyed David Finch’s pencils for the most part. I thought that the way that Jigsaw was drawn looked awesome, there was a particularly striking splash page of Carnage appearing behind foggy during the breakout sequence that I enjoyed and I thought that the Quinjet looked really cool in this book. That being said, there were certain panels where I was not a huge fan of how Steve Rodgers’ face was drawn. Some of his expressions looked somewhat goofy and even when he wasn’t being overly expressive, I wasn’t into the way that his features were drawn. Some of his poses also bend the laws of what is biologically possible. I also felt that there were some questionable colour choices on Frank D’Armata’s part. I usually enjoy D’Armata’s work, but not so much in this book. There was one page in particular that showed Daredevil in his full red costume standing in front of a red sky that was a very similar shade of red to The Man Without Fear’s costume. This meant that the character didn’t really stand out on the page, as the background colour was so similar to the costume’s colour. Overall, I was fairly disappointed upon revisiting New Avengers: Breakout for review. I wish that this wasn’t the case, but unfortunately this book simply did not stand up to the test of time in my eyes. It felt very dated at points and confusing and boring in others. This is probably my least favourite Brain Michael Bendis story that I’ve revisited recently for review.

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula

22nd December 2025

SUMMARY Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the graphic novelization of the virtuosic Francis Ford Coppola film adaption by the same name. A tale as old as time of transcendental terror and tragic temptation, resurrected by legendary comic titan, Roy Thomas, and reimagined through the eyes of the Hellboy visionary, Mike Mignola. For those unfamiliar with the story, it’s like Bridget Jones’ Diary but with vampires. Yeah, I said it. Who is Mina gonna hook up with in the end? ART First and foremost, and I cannot stress this enough, Mike Mignola was born to adapt Bram Stoker’s Dracula, especially the Coppola film. When rewatching the film in preparation for the graphic novelization, it was as if I was experiencing an inverse adaption. As if Coppola had brought Mignola’s artwork to life on the big screen in an alternate but believable reality. This was before I had even opened the novel. Much of the beauty and brilliance of the film stems from the paranormal performance from Gary Oldman as Count Dracula. While the art ironically mirrors his likeness – as well as the other members of the cast, the subtleties and tension of his scenes are lost when confined to the stoic panels of a comic book. Nyberg and Chiarello’s use of colour and shadows differs from Coppola’s film slightly but takes the setting to surprisingly familiar places. Where the film is dynamic and subtle in its use of lighting and colour, the graphic novel goes all out with bright and vibrant colours – especially the prime colours of blue, red and yellow, mixed with enclosing shrouds of darkness. Harkening back to the classic Hammer House of Horror films. WRITING It goes without saying that with a graphic novelisation of a film, the story will be drastically condensed so to balance the adaption with consistency and engagement, and rightly so; quality over quantity. That being said, with this adaption there are both pros and cons to that structure. Some notable quotables have been omitted from the dialogue like the fan favourite line “bloody wolves chasing me through some blue inferno!”. This however, is for good reason. Worse than Keanu’s delivery is the blue inferno effect itself so it makes sense to extinguish that flame. Conversely on the other hand, several alterations have been made to iconic lines. Most notably, “I never drink…wine.” has been replaced with the original novel’s “I do not sup.”. Kudos are in order for subverting the expectation while maintaining integrity, but it just doesn’t have the same finesse. Narratively, the passage of time is noticeably thinner than the film. A maddening month in Castle Dracula in this case feels more like a weekend whirlwind that is over before it even starts. Some more time building tension between Harker & Dracula would serve the retelling well as it is the unbeating heart of the bloodsucker bible. OVERALL The graphic novel is the obedient familiar Renfield to the masterful Dracula film adaption. A truly inspired and faithful work of art. Any issues I have with the novel are more nitpicky than damning critiques and said nitpicks come off as artistic choices as opposed to objective mistakes. You can see the seeds of this adaption in Mignola’s Hellboy: Blood & Iron, an animated film featuring the real-life Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. I half expected Hellboy to show up here and I wouldn’t be disappointed. Unquestionably, a treasured piece of fiction for fans of the Coppola film as well as the artwork and writing of Mike Mignola and Roy Thomas that is sure to quench a thirsty bloodlust!

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Invincible Episodes 1-3 Review

22nd December 2025

Invincible Episodes 1-3 ReviewDirected by – Robert Valley, Paul Furminger, Jeff AllenProduced by – Simon Racioppa, Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Catherine Winder, Seth Rogen, Evan GoldbergWritten by – Robert Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, Chris BlackStarring – Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, J. K. SimmonsReleased March 26, 2021Based on the Image Comics series from Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, and Cory Walker This past Friday, Amazon Prime Video released the first three episodes of the animated adaptation to the celebrated Image comic Invincible. The series follows 17-year-old Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) as he navigates the worlds of high school and superheroes after he gains superpowers from his father Omni-Man (J. K. Simmons), the world’s most popular superhero. This review will look at each of the three episodes released and will include spoilers. Episode One: “It’s About Time” The first episode began with an attack at the White House by two of the primary villains of the series, the Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson). The attack was thwarted by the Guardians of the Globe and Omni-Man. From there, the episode followed Mark Grayson as he went through a normal day for a high schooler dealing with bullies and a crappy fast food job until his powers finally kicked in. Omni-Man then tried to train his son in the basics of fighting and flying but it didn’t go terribly well. In an attempt to reconcile things, Omni-Man took Mark to a superhero tailor to get his official costume and Mark decided on the name of Invincible as his alias. At the end of the episode, Omni-Man tricked the Guardians of the Globe to their headquarters and slaughtered them all. Episode Two: “Here Goes Nothing” The Global Defense Agency found the murdered Guardians of the Globe and the injured Omni-Man. They took Omni-Man to their hospital but couldn’t save the Guardians. Meanwhile, Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown), investigated the murders and became suspicious of Omni-Man. While Omni-Man was in the hospital, the GDA sent Mark to help fight off an interdimensional invasion of aliens called the Flaxons in the middle of the city with the Teen Team, a group of teenage superheroes led by Robot (Zachary Quinto). The Teen Team managed to repel the aliens and Mark recognized one of the members, Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), as a classmate. She offered him membership with the team right before the Flaxons attack again. The team nearly lost before Omni-Man returned to save them. After the attempted invasion, the world is informed of the Guardians’ murder. Mark also had a brief fight with Allen the Alien, who evaluates the defenses of planets, before they realized that Allen had visited the wrong planet. Episode Three: “Who You Calling Ugly?” After the Guardians’ funeral, Damien Darkblood interrogated Omni-Man concerning the murder. Robot was tapped by the head of the GDA, Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins), to run the new Guardians of the Globe. Robot chose his fellow Teen Team members and Monster Girl (Grey Griffin), Black Samson (Khary Payton), and Shrinking Rae (Grey Griffin) for the roster, but the team quickly fell into disarray due to interteam drama. The Mauler Twins escaped from prison with help from Robot from the shadows. The episode ends with Darkblood interrogating Debbie Grayson (Sandra Oh), Omni-Man’s wife, about the murder. He found out that Omni-Man left out some details about the incident to her and left Debbie suspicious of Omni-Man. These three episodes are an excellent kick off for the show. They do a great job of drawing the viewer in, getting them to fall in love with the characters and world, and establishing the core relationships and themes of the series. The heart of the comic, being the relationship between the three Graysons and how superheroics affects their lives, is here in spades. While plenty changed from the comic, I don’t think anything is lost. The changes are often for the better. Invincible Episodes 1-3 Review continues below Check out our review of Invincible Volume 1 Acting The voice cast is stellar. You’d be hard pressed to find a more star studded cast for an animated project. Even the most minor of characters was given a top level voice actor, many of whom have worked with Kirkman in the past as The Walking Dead alum. Steven Yeun has a youthful excitement to his performance as Invincible that makes his character instantly likable. J. K. Simmons and Sandra Oh have a wonderful chemistry as Mark’s parents and Simmons is an instantly believable Superman allegory. Animation The animation, while slightly chunky at parts, has a simplistic charm to it that channels beloved superhero classics such as Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited. For those that enjoyed the extreme violence of the comic, the series has it in spades and animated blood has never looked this good! The blend of traditional and computer animation takes a minute to get used to, but it does work well. Despite this being an animated series, it is definitely not for children. Summary All in all, the start of Invincible is a very promising beginning for the series. If you’re a fan of the comic, there’s plenty of new things here to keep you interested while keeping the original feel and point of the story. If you’ve never read the comic, the show is an excellent story about superheroes, the price of superpowers, and family. If you enjoyed our Invincible Episodes 1-3 Review then leave a comment or give it your own rating below.

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Review – Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1-3

22nd December 2025

Review – Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1-3 Publisher: Marvel Writer: Richard Corben Artist: Richard Corben Letters: Jeff Eckleberry Release Date: November 5 2008 Master illustrator and comic book artist Richard Corben’s Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft is a respectful take on Howard Philips Lovecraft’s unsettling poems and short stories. Corben, who passed away just last December, lends his signature style to Lovecraft’s oeurve while retaining the original tone of ethereal weirdness. Story Corben maintains the simple language Lovecraft favored, and things are only changed if the new format necessitates it. For example, in ‘Dagon’, the fish-men materialize and conduct a ritual whereas they were originally described through the pictograms seen on the ‘Cyclopean monolith’. ‘The Canal’ features two black homosexual men, in effect updating Lovecraft, who is infamous for his racist sentiments, for the 21stcentury. The original poems and stories are tacked at the end of each adaptation, which is incredibly useful for realising the restraint in the changes masterfully applied by Corben. It is an accepted axiom that approaching anything Lovecraftian with conventional expectations of story and plot might lead you down the very same kind of madness you’re reading about. Just kidding, however you will be terribly disappointed though. To read HoH:L is to wander down dark streets which inevitably lead to turns into even darker corners. Eventually, something is revealed, but not enough to give you a full picture. It’s almost as if we mere human beings just can’t fathom the full breadth of the what we’re supposed to be paying witness to… and then the story ends. Lack of resolution on this scale repeated at the frequency that only a collection of Lovecraft tales could rouse leads to hefty feelings of disorientation and unease. Suffice it to say that Corben does a wonderful job converting the short stories and poems into the graphic novel format. Art It is no easy feat illustrating stories and poems that seldom extend beyond a single page, but Corben had some prior experience, having done Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe in 2006. Black and white with gray tones is the name of the game here, with Corben managing to expand the oft-sparse and abstract ideas presented by Lovecraft in his poems into something that threatens to jump off the page and into the real world of the reader. Given the notoriously difficult relations that Lovecraft and cosmic horror in general has to the big screen, Corben’s mono style lends a noir-ish cinematic feel to the Lovecraft yarns that is at once eerie and dreamlike, with many frames recall the nocturnal and creepy works of Junji Ito. Overall, Richard Corben honors the Lovecraft style whilst allowing his own distinct voice to be felt, both in the writing and the illustrations, which is a triumph. Additionally, the extension of the source text into something at once visually unique and confounding make this collection of three short stories and six poems stand out amidst the plethora of Lovecraft adaptations. If you enjoyed our Review of Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1-3 then leave a comment below or leave your own rating if you’ve already read it.

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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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