Tag Archives: superhero

Apr 30 2013

Review | Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3

Directed by Shane Black

The third film in the Iron Man series is set shortly after the events which occurred in Avengers, but Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is not celebrating any victories. Inwardly he is struggling to come to terms with these recent events (simply referred to as New York) Iron Man 3 Teaser Posterand suffers anxiety attacks due to post-traumatic stress. He has withdrawn himself to a certain degree, spending most of his time tinkering in his workshop while Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is left to run Stark Industries, and Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) rules the skies in his War Machine suit, now re-branded as the Iron Patriot. As a result of all his spare time, Stark has made some impressive changes to the Iron Man suits, which are at times funny, but also very cool.

While Iron Man has been in semi-retirement, a new evil has risen in the form of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who indiscriminately slaughters men, women and children, with the help of his new breed of super soldier, and defies all, claiming that the United States is getting what is coming to it. In a confrontation with the media, Tony Stark impulsively dares the Mandarin to bring the fight to him, which he promptly does, destroying Stark’s entire house with Tony and Pepper barely managing to escape. Stark goes AWOL trying to figure out the mystery of The Mandarin and has to do so without the help of his Iron Man suit. He proves that he is not just a hero because of his armored suit, but he is quite the formidable foe with even the most basic of tools. We get to see Iron Man in his simplest, most basic form. No glamour, no computers, just the genius that is Tony Stark. Then when the going gets rough we also get to see what he can do with his entire workshop. Tony Stark is not perfect and his weaknesses are laid bare in this story but he proves that he is still a hero even when everything has been taken away from him.

The first movie to be released as part of Marvel’s Phase 2, Iron Man 3 had a lot to live up to. Especially being the first Marvel movie to come out since Avengers. How do you create a bigger battle than the one that earth’s mightiest heroes had to face?  Well, Iron Man 3 wasn’t out to try and go bigger or more impressive, yet I was more impressed. The story was deeper and the villains seemed more villainous. Iron Man had to face this threat on his own. There was no S.H.I.E.L.D. or Avengers team to back him up this time. One has to assume they were busy dealing with their own problems. As always, Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect fit for Tony Stark. Anyone can put on an Iron Man suit but in my eyes only Downey Jr. could be Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow had more than one moment to shine this time as Pepper got her chance to be the hero. I could feel the emotion shown in her face at the times when she showed her care for Tony. Without giving away too much of the plot I will say that Ben Kingsley was great as The Mandarin but I was disappointed with how his role played out, through no fault of his own. His acting was impeccable. Guy Peirce was also a very cool calculating bad guy as Aldrich Killian. These Marvel movies never fail to keep a sense of humor through it all and Iron Man is always great with his deadpan wit.

Written by Ben Freeman

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Mar 5 2013

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man

Directed by Marc Webb

Spider-ManIs it just irony, or does it mean he was always meant for the job, when a guy named Webb directs a movie about a kid who develops Spider-like super powers?  Well either way I’m a fan of his work, having previously directed one of my favorite movies, 500 Days of Summer.

Everyone knows the story, a geeky young school boy is bitten by a spider and becomes Spider-Man, compelled to fight crime, right wrongs and be a symbol of justice to all around him. Forever haunted by the fact that he could have prevented the death of his uncle Ben, he devotes his life to fighting evil, always plagued by the idea that no one he loves will ever be truly safe.

I’ll admit it was Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie that made me a fan of the whole franchise in the first place, but there were many things I liked about The Amazing Spider-Man that I thought were better than the 2002 Spider-Man, such as the handmade web shooters and the inclusion of Gwen Stacey.  The handmade web shooters are a brilliant way to show just how intelligent Peter Parker is.  He uses both his scientific knowledge to create the web fluid and his techno-geek side to come up with the shooters which can change to shoot different types and shapes of webbing. Peter’s love interest, Gwen Stacy, is played by the beautiful Emma Stone and she is faultless as always.  She isn’t just a pretty face but comes across as a real person, an intelligent woman, who isn’t just the damsel in distress, but is a great character who has some depth to her. Another thing that this movie includes which was seriously lacking from the previous movies is the witty banter that just doesn’t let up whenever Spider-Man is taking down the villains.

I couldn’t help chuckling to myself when they desperately wanted to say “With great power comes great responsibility” but didn’t want to sound the same as the old Spidey movie.

The one thing that didn’t come across is that Peter Parker is supposed to be a nerd, a loser at the bottom of the pecking order at school, but he was portrayed as a cool kid with attitude and even his high school nemesis Flash Thompson was trying to be nice to him after the first fight, when Peter stood up to him and was beaten up for it.

The costumes were well done, Gwen looked like she’d stepped off the page of one of the comics and spidey looked great with all the detail in the suit.

I couldn’t help feeling like there was nothing new in the story itself but at the same time I can forgive them for that because this is a reboot and they have to retell the beginning, before going on to other things, so I look forward to seeing where the take us in the coming sequels.

Overall this movie looks great, delivers a few laughs and was entertaining the whole way through.  Definitely one of the better movies of 2012.

Written by Ben Freeman

Avengers Assemble
Jun 6 2012

Avengers Assemble (2012)

Marvel’s The Avengers is the eagerly awaited convergence of the Marvel Studios superhero films, starting in 2008 with Iron Man and ending last summer with Captain America: The First Avenger. While it may not be appreciated or understood by those who have not seen the earlier films, and although it relies more on spectacle and less on plot, it’s nevertheless a fun and exciting action extravaganza – a comic book film in every sense. Having recently co-written and produced the highly overrated horror spoof The Cabin in the Woods, writer/director Joss Whedon delivers an entertaining escapist fantasy that’s just as funny as it is pulse-pounding. He also gives us plenty of eye candy, only some of which is enhanced by the film’s presentation in post-conversion 3D.

I have no baggage attached to the various characters or the comic books from which they came, so any potential observations or complaints that this movie is not faithful to its source material will fall on deaf ears. All I can respond to are the stories as they appeared on the big screen. Despite various writers, directors, and stylistic approaches, I’ve been pleased with the results. Even Thor, generally the least liked of the intertwined series, had just enough to earn my seal of approval. The standard was set with Iron Man, which remains the best of the Marvel series and still ranks as one of the greatest superhero films ever made. I think I was right in not expecting The Avengers to top it; it allowed me to enjoy the film for what it is and not for what it should be.

The plot revolves around the teaming of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), a recently unfrozen Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, the third actor to assume the role in the last ten years), the thunder god Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and the skilled archer Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) under the supervision of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of a covert government organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Essentially, the must save the world from Thor’s evil adoptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who plots to subjugate humanity by opening a wormhole and unleashing ruthless alien warriors. To achieve this goal, he must recapture a glowing blue cube known as the Tesseract, a powerful but potentially deadly energy source.

The rest is pretty much just window dressing. We have plenty comic book peril and violence; there’s hand-to-hand combat and laser blasts, exploding air freighters and smashing Hulks, hammering Thors and the devastation of Manhattan, which is essentially the go-to city for glorious destruction. We have floating monstrosities that look like giant eels clad in armour. We have numerous references to the previous Marvel films, including appearances by Gwyneth Paltrow, Clark Gregg, and Stellan Skarsgård (alas, Natalie Portman makes it in only as a portrait on a computer screen). We have mutual distrust amongst the Avengers and Fury’s hidden agenda. We have Loki acting like an arrogant dictator, forcing a large crowd of people to kneel before him. And yes, we even have a cameo appearance by Stan Lee.

Whedon has never been a master of dialogue, although his flippant style is perfectly suited for the Tony Stark character, who has always possessed a biting wit and a natural superiority complex. The rest of the characters sound a bit goofy, although I guess that was the intention. Consider Gregg’s character, Agent Phil Coulson; when he finally meets Steve Rogers in person, he drops his aloof mystique and becomes an excited fan-boy eager to have his collection of Captain America trading cards autographed. This movie proves that visuals have always been Whedon’s strong suit. In the case of The Avengers, he uses them to evoke not only excitement but also a sense of humour; some of the funniest sight gags are reserved for the Incredible Hulk, who truly is only good for smashing things.

Movies like Marvel’s The Avengers are a unique marketing opportunity – a franchise assembled from other franchises that will itself inevitably spawn a new franchise. This is not a criticism, merely an observation. As long as I’m being entertained, it doesn’t matter to me how much a product is packaged, even if it comes within an inch of its life. I was very much entertained. Having said that, I can’t help but wonder how much mileage this series has left. Can five separate films and one convergence adequately serve as the basis for an Avengers sequel? Will the original five inspire any sequels of their own? Story wise, I find myself growing wary. The last thing I want is for all the fun to stop. One of the quickest ways to make that happen is to allow franchises to overstay their welcome.

Written by Chris Pandolfi

Green Lantern Vol 1 Sinestro
Apr 25 2012

Green Lantern Vol 1: Sinestro

When DC re-launched all their titles in September last year the aim was to get rid of all that pesky continuity building up with their characters and get some new readers into comics, as well as revitalising long term fans. This is mostly what DC stuck to, however Green Lantern is the one series that must have missed the memo about the whole thing, sure it started at issue 1 again however the story is a direct continuation of the old Green Lantern series before the reboot. Granted a big reason for the title not changing is the big shake up a few years ago when Hal Jordan returned to life, which was a natural jumping on point for new readers too. The Graphic Novels from ‘Rebirth’ onwards are still in print and easy to get a hold of, meaning any new Green Lantern readers already had an easy access point and didn’t need another one in the reboot, especially considering it would have just rehashed stories from just a few years ago. With this in mind the (new) first volume of Green Lantern is not a good place to start for new readers, however for existing readers it’s quite a ride.

The story picks up right after War of the Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan has been stripped of his Green Lantern ring for his reckless behaviour and former Lantern turned Corps enemy Sinestro has taken his place as the protector of Sector 2814. It’s an enjoyable twist seeing Sinestro returned to the role of a Green Lantern and it does seem like Geoff Johns has been hinting at this ever since Rebirth when Sinestro was adamant everything he did was for the benefit of the Corps. Obviously Sinestro’s old Corps are not happy about this change, they see it as a betrayal, and the feeling is mutual as the Sinestro Corps have taken over Korugar and enslaved its population. Obviously Sinestro isn’t happy about his home world being enslaved and he vows to launch an attack on his former allies, however he’s going to need a little help, help from a certain ex-green lantern.

At the beginning of the story we get to see Hal Jordan trying to get used to civilian life back on Earth and failing spectacularly, he’s way behind on his rent, his relationship with Carol Ferris is on thin ice and to top it all off he’s sent to jail after trying to break up a fight that turned out to be a script part of a film. With this in mind how could Hal refuse a temporary Green Lantern ring from Sinestro in exchange for his help in the attack against Korugar. After all the recent Green Lantern stories where Hal has been the centre of attention with an insane amount of power behind him it’s strange to see him at rock bottom having to team up with his old nemesis just to be able to fly again, but things go back to their usual form once the duo are on Korugar.

Once the story picks up its the usual Geoff Johns affair, there’s a lot of action, a few revelations and the hint of what’s to come in future issues to keep readers coming back for more. John’s is really building up Sinestro as the main star of the Green Lantern comics at the moment and the character slips back into the role of Hal’s mentor, albeit an unwanted one, with great ease. Sinestro also comes across as someone who has a great deal of knowledge about the universe, and especially the Green Lantern rings, teaching Hal how to make his suit ‘go dark’ when they’re needed to be stealthy. There’s also a lot of building up of Sinestro’s back-story when he runs into and subsequently rescues one of the first people on Korugar to accept and support him as the Green Lantern of their world. It’s obvious that Sinestro is here to stay for quite some time.

The battle for Korugar is over fairly quickly and frankly it’s a little underwhelming after the usual big fights we’ve become accustomed to in the Green Lantern series, there’s a slight surprise in the middle of the battle but once Sinestro does his ring creating trick a few more times the battle is pretty predictable. Geoff Johns can’t help but skip back to the guardians, who are fast becoming the villains in a series about a group of heroes they created, and their plans for the future, they’ve deemed the Green Lantern corps a failure just as their first attempt at bringing peace to the galaxy, the manhunters, were before them, therefore they agree to make a new army to replace the lanterns. Obviously the most emotional of the guardians, Ganthet, doesn’t agree with this conclusion especially when it is deemed the lantern corps must be destroyed to make way for this new army so the other guardians use their powers to make Ganthet like them, emotionless. It’s a little disappointing to see Ganthet ripped apart like this, his character has been getting built up for a while now, making his own blue lantern corps, leading the charge in blackest night and even becoming the star of his own series (Emerald warriors) and he’s been the unique voice amongst the guardians who readers could really root for, now he’s identical to the other guardians.

The story ends on a bittersweet note as we see Hal Jordan back on Earth sans Green Lantern ring actually starting to get used to normal life and making headway with his relationship with Carol Ferris, and still managing to be a hero in his own way all at the same time! However Hals happiness is not destined to last, at the same time as this Sinestro is still tracking down the members of his old corps and after failing to bring out the hero in an old enemy Starstorm Sinestro decides that Hal is the only one capable of being his sidekick and flies back to Earth to re-recruit the former Green Lantern. It’s such a shame that Hals time without powers is so short in this story, there was real potential to build upon that and show that he doesn’t have to depend on the ring to be happy, though it does throw out the question can Hal and Carol ever be happy together as long as he has a Green Lantern ring?

Doug Mahnke does a brilliant job on the artwork during the whole story, with a little help from guest artist Mike Choi at the end, and the Green Lantern series is somewhere where artists can really show off their imagination creating constructs and colourist really shine being able to add an extra dimension to the contracts, especially since Johns introduced the other coloured corps too. The only problem with Mahnke’s art is characters can seem a little bit stoic when they’re meant to be thinking or reacting and there did seem to be a few bare backgrounds during the series, however I suspect that is due to DCs strict deadline policies for the monthly comics after the new 52, which would explain the guest artist near the end of the arc too. Choi’s artwork was a pleasant surprise however, and definitely fits the more mundane storyline in the last issue.

Verdict

A strong continuation of the Green Lantern mythos that is not intended for new readers, though it does add a lot for existing Green Lantern fans. As always there are some strong hints from Geoff Johns at the future of the Green Lanterns, and Doug Mahnke shines on art duties.

3/5

Written by Paul Lightfoot

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Apr 3 2012

Spider-Man Reign

Spider-man Reign

Spider-man Reign takes an interesting concept, first brought into prominence by The Dark Knight Returns, of retired superheroes and applies it to the Spider-man mythos. DKR really pioneered the dark gritty style of looking at what superheroes do when they retire, and if they actually can, andKaare Andrews, the writer/artist on Reign, takes a lot of inspiration from the classic Batman tale. Andrews acknowledges this however and names the TV reporters in the story, a device used in DKR, after Frank Miller, LynnVarley and Klaus Janson, the creators of Dark Knight Returns.

The story here is pretty simple, things have taken a turn for the worse in New York city after the government decides to take a more authoritarian approach to supervillians in the city and sets up their own, much more violent, police force called the Reign. Superheroes, and even wearing a mask in public, have been outlawed and sometime when this was happening Spider-Man retired, being in his 60-70s by this point however he’s still making a living taking small time jobs to support himself and his wife Mary Jane.

The general premise has a very post 9/11 feel about it, the mayor of New York is in the process of building a huge electric dome around the city to stop anyone, or anything, from getting in and ordinary citizens are giving up their basic civil rights in order to make this happen. People’s freedom of speech is gradually getting eroded and J. Jonah Jameson sold the Daily Bugle, once he found out Peter Parker was Spider-Man, to a huge media company, that is under the influence of the government. The war on terror parallels are laid a little bit thick for me, and it really feels like Reign is trying to be a call to arms against a corrupt government that is a little over the top.

The conspiracy theories are nipped in the bud fairly quickly however once its revealed that Venom is the one behind the whole thing, taking on the form of the Mayors aide and using the giant dome to trap the citizens of New York in with some other symbiotes.

This is one of the few times I’ve really been surprised with the reasoning behind a villains plan, Spider-man rejected the alien symbiote, Venom, and really didn’t spare a second though about its feelings leaving the alien all alone on a planet it didn’t really want to be on, its a brilliant twist by Andrews and adds to the layers of responsibility atop Peters shoulders. There are a few other twists and turns along the way, and a literal Deus Ex Machina to boot, that I won’t spoil, there is a lot of ingenuity to Andrews writing in Reign and she comes up with some more brilliant explanations for things we’ve always wondered about in the Spider-manmythos, plus there’s a nice little side story for Sandman, after all not every villain is evil.

The artwork here is really simple, but iconic, and Andrews has added a real visceral feel to the New York she presents here, Spider-man may be old but you can see the raw power jumping off the page. There’s some brilliant splash pages presented during the story and there’s a real theme of pain, emotional and physical, carried over from the original series covers that really carries through to the art here. Andrews art does seem to be the type that you’ll either love or hate however, and does look like it has been passed through a computer at some point, like a lot of comic art these days, personally I really like the artwork here, its as iconic as the character it portrays.

Verdict

Marvels take on The Dark Knight Returns is surprisingly entertaining, mixing some solid artwork with a shocking tale of a retired Spider-man in a totalitarian New York. The post9/11 imagery may be a bit thick but it’s worth wading through.

Written by Paul Lightfoot


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Batman Gates of Gotham
Apr 2 2012

Batman Gates of Gotham

Batman: Gates of Gotham

We all know the origins of Batman, Robin, Nightwing and the rest of the Bat Family and now in Gates of Gotham Scott Snyder is really starting to flesh out the origin of the city they protect, Gotham. The story is set in the interim period where Dick Grayson, the first Robin, was acting as Batman in Gotham and follows the investigation of a bomber in the city destroying famous landmarks. Continue reading →