Mini Review - Logan

Wolverine has been regarded as one of the most popular X-men, he’s shown up in almost every X-men movie in one way or another, and has been the main character in the vast majority of them. That’s a testament to Hugh Jackman who elevated this character beyond his comic book popularity, to the fact that whilst Fantastic 4’s future in comics went into doubt after Secret Wars, the X-men survived and recently Wolverine was brought back into the fray in the Marvel Legacy title.

Logan, Jackman’s final performance as Wolverine is based on a comic book Old Man Logan, I have not read the comic book but I know it has a following, with him replacing Wolverine in certain X-men titles and having a steady performing solo book.

With the success of Deadpool, Fox knew that an R-rated comic book movie could be successful and given Wolverine’s powers and history, an R-rated movie was ripe for him. Of course, they want to mitigate the risk, the budget for this movie was $96m, about half what the budget of your average superhero blockbuster. It was very successful, earning $616.8m at the box office and having a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Mini Review - Deadpool

Time for a series of mini reviews that may not make the light of day until September. Happy September if that is the case. But let’s talk about the Merc with the mouth, Deadpool. At time of writing, which is in November 2017, a teaser trailer for Deadpool 2 has just released, and it’s funny as hell.

Sequel Month - Mini Review - X-men Apocalypse

Last year I did X-men month where I looked at all the X-men movies that had come out, except for this one, which hadn’t come out on DVD yet. I will get to Logan eventually, but know that it’s a great movie, so is Deadpool, but that is not the movie I’m here to talk about today. X-men Apocalypse came out in July of 2016 to a very mixed reception. It made $544 million on a $185m budget, this is not as good as Fox were hoping for, but enough to justify another sequel coming out next year.

#40 Dude, Where's My Car?

Comedy! It’s great, I love slapstick, I love standup, I love visual gags, I love witty dialogue, I love sarcasm, oh boy do I love sarcasm and I love ranting about things that don’t matter. Comedy! What I don’t like is Dude, where’s my car?

Dude, where’s my car came out in 2000 and was greatly successful, earning $73m on only a $13m budget. There were actually talks about a sequel but the scripts were ultimately shot down by Ashton Kutcher, he had such greats as Texas Rangers to be in, what a success that was.

But seriously, this movie was panned by critics at its time, with an 18% rotten tomatoes and a 30 on metacritic but in recent years, and partially thanks to multiple airings on television, it’s gained a bit of a cult following. But don’t think I’m being fooled, I’m going to tear this movie a new one, let’s dive in.

#34 Fant4stic (Rage Issues 2 year anniversary)

It's Rage Issues' 2nd year anniversary!!!

And yeah, it’s been a while now, our last rage review was in January and you can blame Marvel for the onslaught of new comics I’ve been picking up and just the fact there’s TV to review. Last year I looked at something that came under an umbrella of things I’d been reviewing – the Avatar franchise had been one of biggest investments to review.

This year, we’re not doing that. This year, we’re looking at a movie so bad, so terrible that Rotten Tomatoes gives it a mere 9% rating. So bad that the director, Josh Trank tweeted out that there was a better version of the film, but the studio messed with his vision.

Sh*t. Yep, we’re back in studio interference territory. (And yes, it's sort of a continuation since I've reviewed the other 2 - see the hub page - link below) As Josh Trank, in a move that will likely kill his career for all time, if the movie didn’t already, tweeted that he had a better version before the studio touched it. Truth? Well, I’ve heard some disturbing stories about his behaviour on-set which indicate otherwise but let’s give the movie a chance. And by that I mean let’s rip this piece of sh*t a new one!

#31 Dragonball Evolution

Oh sh*t

I’ve come across some terrible adaptations in my time and this is not the first time I’ve not had any involvement with the source material. So to clue me in, here’s what a friend of mine told me

People say that not only is this a bad movie, it’s worse than The Last Airbender. I’m not even sure that’s possible. But let’s find out anyway as we dig into Dragonball Evolution

Just to be clear, I’m approaching this from the perspective of someone who hasn’t seen the source material, and am judging it on its own merits. Movies generally have a wider audience than the material they’re adapting, so it should work as a movie on it’s own as well.

#28 - Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So, Fantastic 4 may have sucked but it made money so the inevitable sequel came out, and it sucks.

Released in 2007, this film managed only 37% on Rotten tomatoes and made $280m on it’s $130m budget, which is still more than the current movie is likely to make.

So I ask what makes a good comic book adaptation? Comic books characters have decades of history behind them making it quite difficult to come up with an idea that embraces the feel and spirit of the characters whilst also being unique in its own way. The biggest difference between a comic book adaptation and a book adaptation is the fact the story is (to an extent at least) completely original, it just stars the characters from the comic book.

Capturing the tone and feel of the characters is a struggle because the tone and feel of characters have changed over time through retcons and alternate universes. This is why I really didn’t mind the fact they went for the ultimate universe origins for the Fantastic 4 in their latest release, it makes sense to not re-tread old ground and release the same origin, like they did with Spider-man. (Spider-man’s origins in the mainstream and ultimate universe are pretty similar)

I don’t have a full answer for me take the cliff-notes versions of what the characters are like in the comics and craft a good story. The good story with well-paced and balanced action is key to a good superhero movie. Create a good dynamic between the characters and the rest will follow.

So, what goes wrong here? Let’s dive into Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer to find out.

#27 Fantastic 4

Oh boy, what was Marvel like before the cinematic universe, we had the Aang Lee Hulk movie, which sucked, we Spider-man movies which… in my personal opinion, sucked. Then we have the x-men movies produced by Fox. I confess I have not seen them, my love of Marvel started with the Avengers. (Maybe we’ll do a theme month with them, god knows there’s enough of them) so, Fox has a decent-ish record with the X-men, time to reboot the other marvel property they own, the Fantastic 4.

I’ll get to the new one when it comes out on DVD, there’s plenty to go through and to be honest, it’s worse than either of these but… that doesn’t stop them from being bad. Fox had gained the rights to Marvel’s characters in the 1990s and they would retain them as long as they keep making movies about them, the first one was made in 1994, but it was never released. Risking losing the rights back to Marvel, they decided to make another attempt for release in 2005

The film was financially successful, making $330m on its $100m budget, but gained a pretty poor critical response, only rated 27% on rotten tomatoes. This lead to it’s equally sh*tty (although in a very different way) sequel in 2007. But that’s for next week, let’s dig into to Fantastic 4.

I’ll be looking at the extended addition because that’s what I’ve got on my DVD.

Gotham Season 1 finale (episodes 21-22) review

As more Superhero shows begin to flood the market, I have to be more selective in which I post regular reviews about. It is with some regret that Gotham season 2 will not be reviewed (you'll see my reasoning during the reviews). But for now, see my opinions on the final 2 episodes of the show

Gotham episodes 19-20 review - Beasts of Prey/Under the Knife

As Gotham paves it's way to its finale, let's take a look at how the first 2 of its final 4 episodes begin to put the pieces in place

Gotham episode 18 review - Everyone has a Cobblepot

I was considering postponing this review, however, I like to keep my promises and I said that in the event of a hiatus, I'd post the review at the scheduled time anyway.

Gotham episodes 15-17 review

Sorry it's a day late, but here is my take on the next 3 episodes of Gotham, which seems to be the only series not taking a break.

Gotham Episodes 11-14 review

As shows have returned from their winter break, it's my hobby to review, so let's get started with Gotham

TV Month - Gotham Episodes 9-10 review - Harvey Dent/Lovecraft

TV Month is beginning to draw to a close, as we only have a Star Wars Rebels and a Flash review before December knocks on the door

Oh, and this, Gotham

TV Month - Gotham Episodes 7-8 review - Penguin's Umbrella/The Mask

Lots of stuff happens in these 2 episodes, so let's take a look at Gotham's latest outings, and see how much more awesome it can get (yeah, I enjoyed these episodes)

Gotham Episodes 5-6 review - Viper/Spirit of the Goat

Gotham Season 1 Episodes 2-4 review - Selena Kyle/The Baloonman/Arkham

Time to look back at our favourite gritty cop show, Gotham

Guilty Pleasures #7 - Daredevil

I don’t have too much to rage at at the moment, but let’s take a look at another film that I don’t think is as bad as critics have often thought it was, Daredevil

It’s another Guilty Pleasure from Marvel Comics, specifically this time it’s Fox division. I don't know much about the comics this is based upon, but what I do know is that the modern day Daredevil is a dark and gritty saga defined by writer Frank Miller. (Yeah, this is before everything he wrote turned to sh*t)

It was popular enough for a movie to be brought out in 2003, earning a 5.3 on Idmb, a 45% rotten tomatoes rating, and while it was profitable, it made less than $200 million, the budget for a modern day Superhero movie. 

So, let's dig into the movie, and see exactly what went right, and what went wrong.

Gotham Premiere Review

Apologies, this review was due on Monday but owing to laptop failure I could not upload it on that date. But, I intend to reconcile for that now, as here is the review of Gotham, from last week