X-men the last stand….?oh wait no (X-men Dark Phoenix review)

** Possible Spoilers **

X-men Dark Phoenix the closing film in the fox marvel franchise that has spanned almost two decades starting with X-men in the year 2000, due to the Disney purchase of fox this means this will be the last fox produced X-men film.

The film is watchable and I mean that, it had its pluses but the negatives really do outweigh them. X-men is a franchise plagued like Europe in the dark ages but instead of death and horrible boils we have a studio that likes to interfere, and also a continuity that is worse than any thing ever put to film, with characters that appear and disappear, and are out of place in a timeline sense. 

First of all the stuff i liked, the action ( when there was some ) is pleasing i feel like the 18 month push backs for rewrites allowed the post production team to really touch up the finite details in the film. It does look amazing from the space mission to the use of powers in the film. The other saving grace or graces for the film are of course Micheal Fassbender and James McAovy these two have nailed it in every film as the main leads of Magneto and Professor X the issue is they are not around enough. Magneto scenes are great in the film powerful and emotive he is one of the characters in the X-men films that stands out always and the casting of Fassbender is still epic, an Oscar level actor for a character that is broken and divided thought out his history in the comics and the films. 

Unfortunately that is all I could find good with the film, firstly the dark phoenix saga is one  of the greatest comic book arcs in modern history yet fox has now had two attempts at the story and ballsed it up twice. Sophie Turner is not great in this film do not get me wrong shes excellent in Game of Thrones but in the X-men franchise i feel like she is not the right person to play the character the writing of Jean Grey in these reboots has not been good, she just seems a bit stale in the role and one dimensional. The films other bad guys (the weird skrull rip offs) are shocking all they do is have a meeting and then turn up for a punch fest i cant understand why they are even in the film they do not add anything to the story really, other than wanting a new home world and the Phoenix power. Cyclops is a character that fox once again have failed to get right, he is meant to be the leader the central hub to the team when Wolverine is not there, a leader of mutants and regarded as a strong person yet in these films hes always portrayed as a whinny child who couldn’t lead shit, the line “if you hurt her ill fucking kill you” was the funniest part of the film i forgot when that was delivered that the film was not in fact a comedy.

I do not want this to become a rant for 800 words so ill stop there all i can say is maybe watch it when it comes on Netflix if or you are super bored one day but this is a farewell to a franchise that will be rebooted under a studio that gets it in the next 5 years all hail marvel studios and Kevin “everything i touch is golden” Feige. 

 

My face after film had ended the sadness and pain from sitting there for nearly 2 hours 

 

My rating:  ★★

IMDb: 6.1/10 

Rotten Tomatoes: 23% 

Godzilla: Royal Rumble (Godzilla: King of the monsters review)

Godzilla King of the Monsters , lives up to the name this is what we wanted in 2014 with the release of Godzilla huge monster fights batshit crazy and amazing visuals. The film centers around the titans being woken up to reset the natural order and Godzilla living up to his name, strapping on his big boy shoes and fucking up anyone that comes into contact with him. When you go into this film do not expect an Oscar baited film if you do go home as you wont enjoy this at all.

The film is great a huge spectacle with some of the best fights like this put screen the hydra is horrifying the scale of these creatures are massive, it is a feast for the eyes, the cinematography of this film is amazing, the wide angle shots, almost like a double page spread in a comic book are epic capturing the wonder and terror of watching these things come to blows. The human cast is great Ken Wantanbe once again giving us the cool old man vibes I would watch anything with that man is in and Kyle Chandlers super hero dad role is great as well given the human characters a strong focal point and of course the monsters they hold there own as well. As already mentioned the design and CGI of these beast are immense the scale of which is executed perfectly. One of the best parts of this film is when Godzilla goes full Dragon-Ball Z super saiyan and fucks up Ghidorah at the end of the film. The mythos as well built up is great giving background to the monsters and really going balls to the wall in terms of the history and connected universe that Warner are trying to build around there big monster franchise.

A few things I thought fell flat were that of Charles Dances character he is there for no reason then to have a old man baddie as we have and old man goodie in Ken, he is given context but that context does not add or even get built upon really until the wasted post credit scene. Sally Hawkins is killed in such a disrespectful way its like “did that just actually happen”. The film also plays off the fact that don’t want high end acting even though as I have said the cast is great there are a few lines from some characters that fall really flat or are cringe worthy.

The film however is a must see it has heart and emotion mixed in with that big popcorn spectral we all enjoy at this time of year i would highly recommend seeing this film in the cinema due to that the best to capture the scale of it all .

“This was missing however”

My rating: ★★★★

IMDb: 6.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 40%

Aladdin and the Fresh Prince ( Aladdin 2019 )

So I saw Aladdin today. As a child of the 90s, Disney films were a big part of my childhood. Epic films like The Lion King, Oliver and Company, Hercules and of course Aladdin were among the VHS tapes that were played over and over again. So when I heard this was going to be part of Disney’s live action reboots I was skeptical. The animated version is so great with one of best performances of the genie by the late great Robin Williams but, I was pleasantly surprised.

The films cast were stellar, firstly Mena Massoud was a perfect casting, funny and charming in the lead role and had great chemistry with Naomi Scott (Princess Jasmine). Both of these brought a great fun atmosphere to both these icons of the house of mouse. Will Smith as the genie was great, I was worried from the set pics and trailers it wouldn’t fullfil my nostalgia but he brings full on big willy style to the role, he really makes it his own and is one if the best character in the movie. Really great comedic chops and really good chemistry with Mena.

The musical numbers in the film really bring back the nostalgia along with additional cast Abu the monkey and the magic carpet adding great family moments. The bad guy Jafar was great, menacing but not in an over the top fashion.

One complaint of the film would be the first 15 minutes seemed slow and some times the musical numbers seem to slow the movie down, not all of them but one or two of them. Guy Ritchie does a great job, some slight Ritche film elements but this is a Disney film so we can’t expect lines from snatch and lock stock, “get your hands of my soup” or “I’ll cut your fucking Jacob’s off” to appear in the film.

Overall I would highly recommend this as a great watch, nostalgic and fun.

My raiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

IMDb: 7.2

Rotten Tomatoes: 58%

Rocketman (2019)

I saw Rocketman the other day, the film about Elton John. This film, other than Avengers Endgame of course, has to be one of the best so far this year.

The film flows so well from serious to dramatical parts. Lead Taron Egerton (kingsman) excels at really getting commited to the role, really becoming the main man himself, giving you laughs and tears and showing off the dark sides to Elton’s career but also the more light hearted momments. Going from dramatical scenes to full blown Broadway musical style numbers may seem like a strange thematical direction but Dexter Fletcher, the director, makes each musical moment make sense, each song progresses the story and makes it fit so well, giving you a great insight to where Elton’s mental state was at that moment in time.

Not only is Egerton excellent at embodying the character but knocks it out of the park with the musical numbers. What he does really well is not to try and do any impression of Elton’s voice, which could of been disasterous, but Egertons heart felt dramatic chops shine through when delivering the powerful performances. The way in which these parts are shot feel like a fairytale fantasy, highlights of which would be the performance of the banger Crocodile Rock.

Not only is the lead and the director amazing, the supporting cast were excellent Richard King of the north Madden was incredible and so was Billy Elliot himself Jamie bell, who I think after people have seen this will be reminded how great of an actor he is, the chemistry between him and Egerton is superb.

It’s hard to fault this film really, I can’t recommend it enough.

My overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

IMDb: 7.7

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

https://youtu.be/S3vO8E2e6G0

Watch out, I think this could do really well at the oscars.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new film blog reviewing everything and anything from point break to the shining from remember the titans to con air film is just the best.

I am a huge fan of film a recent graduate of history with a BA and MA in history but even then everytime I could realate a film into my work I would. It’s funny how the most recent king Kong could be seen as a secret Vietnam film and a interesting commentry on that moment in history ( I promise there will not be that much deep shit)

I hope you enjoy my take on film please feel free to hit me up with films to watch or to review or if you have another take on things I have said. As a great clown faced man once said…..”and here…we…go” – the joker 

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