Mini Review - Superman Returns

I know it’s been a while, but we’re back to Superman.

2018 was a year I decided not to cover 2 movies because of the unfortunate and horrific things levied against Kevin Spacey (which continued after I finished writing this, seriously, f*ck Kevin Spacey). But there is a time to separate the art from an artist and refusing to cover them because of one actor is insulting to everyone else involved, so I’ll be doing mini reviews of Superman Returns and Baby Driver over the coming weeks.

Superman returns was intended as a sort of tribute to the Christopher Reeve Superman era, as well as an attempt to breathe new life into the franchise after the horrendous performance of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It didn’t work out very well, it made only $390m on a $200m budget, thanks to a dismal performance overseas.

Whilst critics tend to like it, most praises came with a few caveats, so let’s dig into the… 2 hours and 37 minutes!!! Holy sh*t, this is a long movie!

Netflix Retrospective: Voltron: Legendary Defender season 4 episodes 1-3

For the next couple of weeks, we’re back to Voltron. Strap in folks, we’re in for a good one.

#69 - Blade Trinity

We had to get here eventually, although with my track record, I expected you didn’t think as quickly. The final movie in the Blade Trilogy did have some issues behind the scenes, and they mostly revolve around the attitude of the star Wesley Snipes.

There’s no real getting around these issues. Apparently, Snipes would spend most of the day in his trailer smoking weed and would only come onto sets for close ups, letting his body double do anything else. He was particularly rude to most of the cast and called for the firing of writer/director David S Goyer, after having attacked him. Oh, and he later sued the production studio for his lack of screen time.

David S Goyer is his own can of worms. From the stupid sexist comment about the She Hulk being created to have someone for the Hulk to sleep with (you are aware they’re related right? That’s disgusting) and for of course being among the writing team of Batman vs Superman.  That said, he’d already written Blade’s 1 and 2, and wrote some of the Nolan Batman trilogy so it can’t be all bad... can it?

Oh no…

Yeah, this movie did badly, making a $125m on a $65m budget, that is likely a studio loss when you factor in theatre cuts and promotion and it was savaged by critics, with a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So, I’m braced and have excessive amounts of alcohol at my disposal, let’s dive into Blade Trinity

Mini Review - Jumanji

Soon, we’ll be looking at the movie I actually want to cover: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle but for the sake of completion, we’ll look at the original first. Based on the novel by Chris Van Allsberg, the movie was released in 1995 and was successful at the box office, earning $262m on its $65m budget. It’s also received some acclaim, being rated number 48 on Channel 4’s top family movies in 2005, but it’s reception on Rotten Tomatoes is a more mixed 53% with an average score of 5.7/10, audiences rated it a 62% with an average 3.2/5

#68 - Doctor Who - The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

It’s January so time for a Doctor Who review, only the one this year, I’m not covering the New Year’s special. I try and do reviews 2 months in advance and that would completely put me off schedule, maybe next year.

Anyway, you may remember me recovering the Wedding of River Song, spoiler alert: it sucked. But immediately following that was another Doctor Who Christmas special, written by the Grand Moffat himself. Can he redeem the franchise after his last abysmal effort? You already know which review type I’m doing, so you already know the answer to that, let’s dig in

Guilty Pleasures #51 - Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I haven’t even said anything yet!

OK, this is going to be a controversial one, but it’s time to talk Star Wars again. The Force Awakens was initially popular, but soon a backlash began to set in with people complaining that, amongst other things, it was too similar to the original Star Wars movies. An opinion that has some validity, in my opinion; whilst it does perhaps play it too safe with certain elements, I believe it does have enough differences that it stands on its own

There was no such wait for the Last Jedi backlash, people were divided on this from the start, with critics giving it glowing reviews and audiences…. Not so much. There are many complaints people have about this film, some of which I feel stem from the general direction of the Force Awakens, some that are genuine and some are… bullsh*t. Life tip: use the words ‘Social Justice Warrior’ (or SJW) in your argument and you’ve already lost it.

Fair warning, I don’t think this movie is perfect, although I have praised it in the past, so I’m gonna bring attention to the faults of the movie. But I’m also gonna point out when people are just making sh*t up!