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.

Guilty Pleasures #27 - X-men Month - X-men: Days of Future Past

We’ve reached the conclusion of Hugh Jackm… I mean X-men month with the most recent X-men movie on DVD, it’s X-men: Days of Future Past. And helping things along is the return of Bryan Singer as director, his last X-men film was the best of the ones so far, being X-men 2.

I must admit, like the other X-men movies, I didn’t see this in the cinema, seeing a teaser for it as a mid-credits scene in the Amazing Spider-man 2 (Mark Webb was under contract with Fox at the time, but was allowed to work on this film in exchange for that) kinda rubbed me the wrong way at the time, instead I waited until it was out on DVD.

In terms of audience reaction, it’s probably got the best up there with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes (at time of writing matching Captain America: Civil war and up there with the Dark Knight and the Avengers, 2 of my absolute favourite movies. Oh and also Iron Man, which was good… I need to do a Marvel theme month, I mean actual Marvel, not Fox or Sony Marvel.

Anyway, it’s also the most successful of the X-men movies, earning $750m at the box office on a $200m budget.

But let’s take a look at the movie itself and see how it holds up. For the record I’m not using the extended version because I don’t have that DVD.

Guilty Pleasures #27: Samuel L Jackson Month - Avengers: Age of Ultron

It’s Samuel L Jackson Month

And yeah… I’m cheating a bit with this one, since Jackson barely appears but screw it, it’s my review blog and I say this counts! So, yeah, it’s the Avengers

Yeah… The Avengers was my first Marvel Movie. And I f*cking loved it. But that’s not to say it was entirely flawless, the first half or so can kinda drag and the way the Chitauri are defeated is kinda dumb but it’s 2 hours of entertainment. How long is this movie again?

2hrs 21 minutes

Goody! Yeah, despite making over a billion dollars, again, this movie has received a fair amount of critical backlash and some of it is kinda undeserved and I’m here to defend its corner, I’m not gonna tell you it’s a perfect movie, there’s no such thing and this isn’t even close. I also have a message for most of the critics of this movie but that’s for later, let’s dig into 2 hrs 21 minutes of Avengers: Age of Ultron

4 Issue Test #18 - Uncanny Avengers

Now if there’s one facet of the Marvel Universe they’ve expanded since Secret Wars, it’s the Avengers, there are 6 different Avengers titles out there, each with a unique roster. Those titles are: All New All Different Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, The Ultimates, Squadron Supreme and A-Force. I’m going to be looking at Uncanny Avengers and All New All Different Avengers. I’m picking up more than enough Marvel titles for this to suffice.

So, I suppose I’d better mention the cast of this book. Steve Rogers: Former Captain America, he’s not an active hero in this book. The Human Torch, former member of the Fantastic 4, but with the Richards family no longer present thanks to Secret Wars and Ben Grimm chumming up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s in this title. Filling our quota for mutants (the Uncanny Avengers aka the Unity Division was initially a route to peace between mutants and humans) we have the power absorber Rogue and the merc with the mouth Deadpool. In the magic-users’ category, we have Doctor Voodoo. I don’t know who he is. In the Inhumans category we have Synapse, I have no f*cking clue who she is and Quicksilver, who was retconned into being an inhuman to screw over Fox.

Before we begin in earnest, I think it also fair to look at Uncanny Avengers Annual #1. I’ll be brief, it’s rare that a series will get an issue this early in its run. But there’s a reason for it here: it’s a marketing gimmick to get people interested in the Scarlet Witch comic. Bear in mind, Scarlet Witch is not a member of the Uncanny Avengers. In fact this story centres around magic users and barely features them. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS! With that said, let’s dig into the real content.