Walking in to the theatre I was filled with both excitement an apprehension. As a child of the (American) Power Rangers revolution I was unsure what they could have done to update this cheesy mixture of spandex-laden teenagers doing an unnecessary quantity of backflips. Turns out they can remove both the spandex as well as the backflips in place of awesome space suits and actual fighting.
Well…what can I say about this movie. As short of words I am now I was equally gobsmacked at the start of the credits (and some 30minutes later). The film starts in a not-to-distant future, where mutants have all but died out, with Logan and Xavier on their last legs. Logan’s healing abilities have slowed right down and Xavier is suffering from some sort of dementia combined with seizures. Unexpected events as well as the fate of their kind send them on their last journey together and this was quite simply spectacular for a number of reasons.
If you were to sit in the restaurant equivalent of the Hollywood script industry it would probably go like this.
You are shown to your generic NY diner style booth by a generic waiter and offered a menu that has been through a thousand hands before yours.
‘Can I interest you in the specials today?’
‘Not today’
‘Can I get you anything to drink’
‘Yes, I’d like a standard diet cola please.’
‘Coming right up’
First off, any concerns that the X-Men reboot trilogy would end with a repeat of the disaster that was X3:The Last Stand have been put to bed. Apocalypse is nowhere near that bad, on the contrary in parts it's actually pretty enjoyable; it's also not the end of this run of X-Men films.
Ok, here we go...
Captain America: Civil War is a clever, tense and often emotional, rollercoaster ride of a film; charting the struggle within the Avengers as Rogers & Co. have the fallout from their actions laid out before them. Consequence is the over-riding theme of the film.
You can guess by the title of this rant that there are spoilers included in this article.
There are indeed spoilers.
Yes spoilers that spoil things in three movies.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Spectre
Star Wars - The Force Awakens.
And although at least two of these spoilers are now going to be common knowledge, I wanted to talk about WHY those spoilers exist , since there are parallels between all three.
So just to make absolutely sure that you have all had opportunity to not read any further. There are SPOILERS!!
To say I was excited about seeing these films is perhaps somewhat of an understatement. I love the series and was more than intrigued to see how well it would translate on to the big screen.
To set the stage for the uninitiated: Attack on Titan is set 100 years after the remnants of humanity seal themselves behind a series of concentric walls to protect themselves from giant, man eating monsters called Titans. The denizens of the walled area have grown complacent and many question whether the Titans are actually real or merely a tale told to keep people in check.
Twenty-four films in do we need an introduction?
No of course not.
So let's get the less successful stuff out of the way first.
It's too long by probably about 30 mins. In fact the whole final act of the film is superfluous.
The plot is convoluted and requires at least a cursory knowledge of ALL of the immediately preceding three films (yes even the really bad one that no-one can remember - oh you know, ‘Quarrel Of Something…’).
UPDATE: Details of UK release and screenings: http://tickets.attackontitanmovie.co.uk/
Last week’s Manchester Comic Con was an incredibly fun and surreal experience, from seeing the mass of ‘Attack on Titan’ cosplay to dancing ‘Metal Gear Solid’ cardboard boxes. I am still waiting on a few videos of Q and A sessions from the event covering the voice of Naruto, cast from the Arrow and two of Doctors (Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy). Unfortunately no gaming news from this event, but have no fear gamescom is pretty much here.
You know when you leave the cinema and there's that uncomfortable silence as folks are still trying to sum up how they actually feel about the movie that just paid to go and see?
Didn't happen this time - it was clear that this pile of garbage was fired out of someones nose with all the force and beligerence of an elephant with a cold.