Dr. K

Talking Movies: It: Chapter Two

13/09/201926/01/2022Dr. K3 Comments

Released: September 2019
Director: Andy Muschietti
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
Budget: $60 to 79 million
Stars: James McAvoy, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Jay Ryan, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård

The Plot:
Twenty-seven years after facing and defeating Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Skarsgård), the Losers’ Club are called back to Derry to face the terror of It once again but, in order to overcome their greatest fears, they must first remember their past and rekindle their friendship.

The Background:
It: Chapter Two is, obviously the sequel (or second part) to the hugely-successful It (Muschietti, 2017), which retroactively retitled itself It: Chapter One just before the credits rolled. Given the length and structure of Stephen King’s original 1986 novel, it only made sense to split the story into two parts (which was all-but-inevitable when Chapter One raked in over $700 million against a $35 million budget), and everyone involved has clearly gone to great lengths to secure some big and talented names to help bolster Chapter Two even further.

The Review:
Chapter Two picks up twenty-seven years after the conclusion of Chapter One; a grown-up Mike Hanlon (Mustafa), who has stayed in Derry the entire time and become somewhat obsessed with watching for signs of Pennywise and haunted by his memories of the first movie, is forced to call his old friends up when It awakens and begins not only abducting, dismembering, and eating children but also calls out to the Losers to settle their score.

It2Losers — It: Chapter Two *certainly excels with its casting.*

Unfortunately for Mike, the Losers are all grown-up, successful adults with no memories of Derry, Pennywise, or their friendship; Bill (McAvoy) is a successful writer who overcame his stutter in favour of struggling with writing good endings to his books, Beverley (Chastain) has become a successful fashion designer who is trapped in an abusive marriage, Ben (Ryan) is now a fit and healthy architect, Eddie (Ransone) works as a risk assessor, has traded a fat mother for a fat wife, and fell back into his dependence on medicines and his inhaler, Richie (Hader) has become a stand-up comedian, and Stan (Bean)…well, it’s not said in the film what he does, but he’s grown up too. However, Mike’s phone call is enough to reignite the Loser’s memories (for better and worse) and compel them to return to Derry in record time to get caught up and piece together their memories, and their friendship, to perform an ancient ritual that Mike believes will destroy Pennywise once and for all.

It2Horror — It: Chapter Two *definitely ups the gore and horror.*

As I may have mentioned in my review of Chapter One, It is, unquestionably, my favourite novel of all time; King builds his characters so well that I can’t help but feel for each of them and, as I have grown older, my connection to the themes of It (friendship, childhood, adulthood) has only grown stronger. While I enjoyed Stephen King’s It (Wallace, 199) and Tim Curry’s rampant portrayal of Pennywise, I always felt like It needed another shake of the stick, one free form the restrictions of a made-for-television miniseries. While Chapter One altered some elements of King’s novel (changing the time period, adding new scares, altering some of the motivations and so forth), I didn’t really mind this and the movie didn’t disappoint in showcasing how malevolent and psychotic Pennywise can be.

It2Kids — *The kids make a much welcome return thanks to flashbacks.*

Chapter Two, however, faces the same problem as the 1990 miniseries (and one also present in the book) in that it must now live and die on the strength of the adult version of the Loser’s Club. Given that Chapter One pulled a lot of its presentation and inspiration from Stranger Things (Various, 2016 to present) and the fact that the kids were so good in their roles, this is a tall order but the cast of Chapter Two largely fulfils this by bringing in some great talent for the adult roles.

*Richie and Eddie’s banter keeps the film lively and energetic.*

Hader and Ransone especially stand out; their foul-mouthed banter and close friendship adds a lot of heart and levity to the film, while McAvoy and Chastain bring the emotional weight and acting nuance. Mustafa portrays Mike far from the wise mentor figure he assumed in the 1990 miniseries and instead pulls more from the fatigued, terrified obsession that Mike struggles with in the book. Unfortunately, there once again isn’t too much for Ben or Stan to do this time around; Ryan is serviceable in the role but, where child-Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) assumed Mike’s role of historian and exposition in Chapter One, adult-Ben is mainly there as a mediator and to rediscover his love for Beverley. Once again, Skarsgård steals the show as Pennywise; unlike Curry’s madcap performance, Skarsgård is a creepy, legitimately terrifying force who loves to mess with Its prey before It feeds. Chapter Two feeds (pun intended) Pennywise a far greater body count as he chomps down on adults and children alike, literally biting the heads of Its prey in a shockingly gruesome display. Skarsgård also gets a one-up on Curry in that the finale thankfully does not lose his visage or presence, allowing the final confrontation between Pennywise and the Losers to be far more entertaining while still staying true to the source material.

It2Pennywise — *Skarsgård remains a truly creepy Pennywise.*

Despite upping the gore and creepy visuals, the bulk of Chapter Two’s scares again rely on jump scares, which is fine as they’re generally well done and Pennywise is a very charismatic presence, but the film does struggle with its pacing at bit. For example, Mike rings the Losers and they all arrive literally moments later with little issue. This does happen in the book and the miniseries but it stuck out to me as a little rushed as the film then slows down a bit so we can get truncated snippets of their lives. A couple of examples of this are Bev making very short work of her husband when he attacks her, with little to none of the catharsis given in the book to this moment, and Ben summing up his weight loss in one line, which is very disappointing considering how hard John Ritter fought to include an abridged version of Ben’s weight-loss story in the miniseries. However, I think some of these pacing issues will be absolved if you watch both parts back-to-back as one big movie (or, even better, they release a supercut version), that way you won’t lose any momentum as you’ll be familiar with all the characters. Also, when the film includes the original child actors, it makes the wise decision to include new scenes, storylines, and scares that pull more material from the book so it never really feels like its treading over the same ground or telling us things we already know.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Fundamentally, Chapter Two follows many of the same beats as the book and the miniseries but there are some interesting wrinkles; one of the biggest is the idea that Richie is actually in love with Eddie and has been harbouring an unspoken homosexual love for him this entire time, which I never even thought of or picked up on when I read the book. Another is Mike managing to escape the attack by the aged Henry Bowers (Teach Grant) with only a flesh wound, allowing him to not only participate in the final battle but finish up his character arc when his desperate belief in the Ritual of Chüd faisl to destroy Pennywise and Mike is revealed to be severely traumatised by his childhood nightmare. A big spoiler for anyone who hasn’t read the book is that Stan never makes it back to Derry, opting to slit his wrists instead. In the book and miniseries, he leaves a chilling message scrawled on his bathroom tiles (simply the word “It”), which is a genuinely spine-tingling moment; here, it’s a brief blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion and, rather than killing himself because he was unable to face his fears and knew that pennywise was due to reproduce, Stan instead kills himself so that his fear won’t hold back the Losers and will galvanise them. This is given a heroic air in the film, which helps keep Stan a part of the group, but it’s never really presented as a motivation for the Losers sticking around to face Pennywise again.

Eddie also ends up dead in the finale; honestly, I thought that Mike was going to die (either in his place or as well), given his presence in the end, but Mike survives and Eddie gets impaled by one of It’s Spider-legs. This comes after Eddie has overcome Bowers and found the strength to strike what appears to be a fatal blow to the Spider and, before he dies, Eddie allows the Losers to realise that they can defeat It by disowning their fear of It and reducing It to a weak form, allowing Eddie to die a hero. This is a small issue, however; the new It movies seem to favour an oversimplification of It’s desire to inspire fear in Its prey. In the book, It likes Its prey to be scared because it improves the taste of the flesh and It delights in tormenting Its victims but, in these films, the Losers are able to defeat It by standing up to It and rejecting their fear of It, reducing It to little more than a blubbing baby. This was a factor in the book, miniseries, and Chapter One but, generally, Pennywise is enraged at the Losers hurting It and making It experience fear, rather than being powered by fear. It’s not a massive issue, as it’s a perfectly acceptable adaptation of Pennywise, but, as I say, it is a bit simplified. Similarly, Chapter Two seems to prefer the idea that It is actually an extraterrestrial lifeform that crashed to ancient Derry on a meteor, rather than an unspeakable eldritch horror; It’s true from is still living light but, rather than a Lovecraftian mass of orange lights that defy life, Chapter Two realises this form as three spinning orbs. Again, a fine way to show it and to hint at there being more to It, but a bit of an oversimplification.

Finally, one thing I feel would have helped with the film’s pacing is just omitting Henry Bowers completely. Henry (Nicholas Hamilton) took an unquestionably fatal tumble in Chapter One and his inclusion, while true enough to the book, is diluted so much that it would have been probably a lot better and easier to say Henry died and have It take the form of a zombified Bowers to attack Eddie. The time spent with Henry, brief though it may be, could then have been put into showing the adult Losers’ lives a bit more prior to returning to Derry. A big plot point for Bill is that everyone loves his books but hates the endings he writes; this is not-so-subtly based on real-life criticisms of a lot of King’s work, especially It. I, however, was always happy with the idea that It is best translated as a giant Spider; it worked as a metaphor and the ending always hit me hard as the Losers sacrifice so much to end Pennywsie’s threat and it’s a real poignant reflection of what it’s like to grow up and forget (or grow apart from) the friends that were once so important to you. Chapter Two, however, actually improved on the ending in a way that I found heart-warming in that, unlike in the book and miniseries, the Losers don’t lose their memories of each other after defeating Pennywise. Them losing Stan and Eddie and their memories after working so hard to remember everything always broke my heart so this really made me happy. Stephen King’s gratuitous cameo could have been shorter, though…like, he has a lot of lines and a lot of time was spent on indulging him.

The Summary:
While not as good as It: Chapter One, It: Chapter Two is still a solid horror movie; there’s plenty of creepy moments, gore, and a surprising amount of humour here that’s sure to appeal to fans of the first movie. Allowances have to be made for the characters we became attached to now being grown up and the cast does a great job stepping into the shoes of their younger counterparts; the cast is scarily fitting, which really helps to adjust to this narrative shift. While some of the plot points are a bit weaker and the ending may be disappointing to some, as a massive fan of the book I was very satisfied and just as touched by the ending, especially some of the tweaks they made that, in my opinion, actually improved it.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

The Teamos Connection

02/09/201901/08/2024Dr. K2 Comments

The Teamos Connection is a collection of stories I wrote over the course of many years revolving around a malevolent biological research facility that doubles as the largest and most profitable supermarket retailer in the United Kingdom.

Each story in the collection is laced with dark comedy, macabre imagery, and controversial content and is available to buy from Amazon using the below links.

Book One: Consequences
For Barry Reese, Teamos cost him his livelihood, family, and sanity, and left his oldest daughter, Sophie, desperate for answers. Now, Sophie has returned home to continue her father’s work, unaware that a cold, calculating new manager is determined to avenge the damage caused by her father.
Buy on Amazon

Book Two: Parasite
Bored by their mundane jobs at their local Teamos petrol station, Wayne Grace and Eddie Conner fill their time mocking their supervisor, flaunting company policy, and bombarding customers with an irritated sarcasm. However, their ordinary lives are turned upside down when an amorphous alien organism arrives to fulfil its one purpose: to consume!
Buy on Amazon

Book Three: The Morning After
For student Gavin Jackson, Teamos is simply the local supermarket where his best friend and roommate, Craig Cooper, works a menial job. Tonight, Gavin hopes to finally make a move on the girl upstairs but the revels take a gruesome turn for the worst after the unexpected arrival of a ravenous beast that tears through the student dwelling with a voracious appetite!
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Book Four: The Late Shift
Simon Forrester has the unenviable task of supervising the nightshift at a large Teamos supermarket as the Team Deputy. However, when a mysterious delivery arrives and Forrester undergoes a dramatic, painful, and horrifying transformation, he witnesses the horrific truth beneath Teamos with his own eyes…
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Book Five: Outbreak
In a Teamos Biodevelopment lab, a team of scientists find themselves under siege when a hoard of flesh-eating undead run rampant, forcing them to attempt to fight back with their latest test subject.
Buy on Amazon

Book Six: Loose Ends
Michelle Reese’s life was turned upside down when Teamos cost her father his livelihood and sanity. Already at rock bottom, her downward spiral is exacerbated when her estranged sister dies and Michelle’s is suddenly abducted by the mysterious Claude and forced to journey towards Teamos Headquarters and the settling of a lifelong grudge!
Buy on Amazon

The Complete Collection
Available as paperback and e-Book, The Teamos Connection: The Complete Collection collects all six of these short stories alongside two additional tales, Personal Best and The Stranger which further flesh out the mythos of the Teamos Connection.
Buy on Amazon

The Complete Collection: Deluxe Edition
Available only in hardback, Deluxe Edition of The Teamos Connection: The Complete Collection includes everything from the paperback version alongside an exclusive seventh story and bonus materials!
Coming Soon

Movie Night: Angel Has Fallen

30/08/201903/07/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: August 2019
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Distributor: Lionsgate
Budget: $40 million
Stars: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Huston, and Nick Nolte

The Plot:
After United States President Allan Trumbull (Freeman) is attacked and nearly killed in an assassination attempt, decorated Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler) is framed for the plot and forced to go on the run in an attempt to clear his name and uncover a plot to usurp the interests of the US government.

The Background:
Olympus Has Fallen (Fuqua, 2013) was a surprising hit when it came out, make over $170 million worldwide against a $70 million budget; in it, Butler picked up the torch from John McClane (Bruce Willis) and became this generations new (or, perhaps, newest) “Everyman” action hero in what was, almost unashamedly, “Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988) in the White House”. London Has Fallen (Najafi, 2016) followed, upping the states by throwing Banning into a massive city-wide attack; London has Fallen also proved a financial success, making over $200 million on a $60 million budget so, by now, we’ve established that this Fallen franchise makes money by revisiting all the best, over-the-tope narratives and action tropes of the early-to-mid-nineties action movies.

The Review:
Angel Has Fallen scales the narrative and its over-the-top elements back for the most part to focus more on a character study of Banning, the man, rather than the stereotypical, invincible action hero. Banning, suffering from neck and spinal injuries and the onset of age, is confronted with his own mortality and the very real possibility that his time may soon be over as he trades field work for a desk job. Hiding the truth of his condition from his wife, Leah (now played by Piper Perabo), Banning opens the film struggling with giving up his action-orientated lifestyle, an issue exacerbated by his reunion with Wade Jennings (Huston), a former Ranger friend who has long since been relegated to the side due to age.

Amidst these issues, a devastating drone attack wipes out Banning’s entire security detail and leaves President Trumbull in a coma; when he awakens in hospital, banning finds himself in handcuffs and being grilled by FBI agent Helen Thompson (Smith). Evidence found at the scene implicates Banning for the attack so he is summarily arrested and disgraced; however, when the true culprits attempt to kill him, Banning manages to escape and is forced to turn to his long-estranged father, Clay (Nolte) for shelter while he tries to figure out who has framed him and how to stop further attempts on Trumbull’s life.

AngelHasFallenVulnerability — *Banning is struggling with the wear and tear of age.*

As I said, for the most part, this is a far cry from the bombastic action of the last two Fallen movies, trading over-the-top spectacle for a more sombre, grounded story; the focus is squarely on Banning and we see a more human, vulnerable side to him and explore his past and childhood far more than I was expecting. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t a whole bunch of explosions and big action sequences it’s just, if you’re a fan of that sort of thing, you’ll have to wait for the last act of the movie for Banning to rediscover his place as an action hero as, after the initial assassination attempt, it’s more of a character deconstruction than a non-stop action thrill ride. This isn’t a bad thing; in fact it’s a pleasant surprise to flesh out Banning’s otherwise-stereotypical action hero persona and show him to be as vulnerable to the wear and tear of time and the job he does, rather than simply immune to it or ignoring it.

AngelHasFallenClay — *Nolte is a fantatsic addition, though a bit underused by the finale.*

Nolte is an interesting addition to the cast; he’s obviously quite old at this point, which makes it difficult to understand him, but he has some fantastic banter with Butler and he’s a really fun addition to the story, though he doesn’t really factor into the finale of the film too much, to the point where I nearly forgot he was in the movie for a moment. Another criticism I had revolved around the shaky, close-ups that featured prominently not just in action sequences but also in regular dialogue scenes; Butler’s face literally fills the screen at some points and it’s a bit jarring and unnecessary. Thankfully, this does take a backseat when drones are exploding and guns are firing but it returns for a lot of the close combat action sequences, which makes these scenes unfortunately difficult to follow.

The Nitty-Gritty:
If you’ve ever seen Danny Huston in a movie before, you know that he is the mastermind behind the attempt on the President’s life; annoyed that he’s no longer young and fit enough to be on the front line, he joins forces with Vice-President Martin Kirby (Nelson) to take out Trumbull, and Banning, in a misguided and arrogant attempt to restore strength and order to the United States. Having said that, Huston is a fantastic dark mirror to Butler and I bought them as former comrades and dug the twisted code of honour that Jennings has, as he would rather die in battle than wither away through old age, but it definitely would have meant a lot more if we had seen or heard of Jennings prior to this movie. Oddly, President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) doesn’t feature in this movie and isn’t mentioned at all, which I found very jarring after two massive, over-the-top action pieces that specifically revolved around saving his life and ensuring his safety. It would have been nice to see him get a mention, be woven into the story, or maybe even have Trumbull take Kirby’s role and be the one trying to reignite war with the Russians.

The Summary:
Angel Has Fallen isn’t as big and stupid as its predecessors; for the most part, it’s a grittier, more grounded action affair. However, when the traditional bombastic Fallen elements do crop up, it compliments the film’s more introspective moments, making for a decent and enjoyable film. It might be a non-stop, over-the-top action spectacle like its predecessors (or even other action movies), but it’s puts a neat twist on the invincible action hero trope and was serviceable enough as a fitting end to this franchise.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Talking Movies: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

08/08/201917/04/2023Dr. K1 Comment

Released: August 2019
Director: David Leitch
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Budget: $200 million
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, and Vanessa Kirby

Plot:
Spinning out of the Fast and the Furious (Various, 2001 to present) franchise, DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) is forced to team up with mercenary Deckard Shaw (Statham) when rogue MI6 agent-turned-cyborg Brixton Lore (Elba) leads a terrorist organisation in trying to acquire a potentially world-ending virus.

Background:
The Fast and the Furious franchise is a funny beast; what started as a vague remake of Point Break (Bigelow, 1991), but with cars rather than surfboards, became an over-the-top heist franchise and, finally, a pseudo-superhero series where its invincible characters can pretty much solve any problem with a bunch of cool cars, the concept of family, and being big, unapologetic alpha males. Seriously, this franchise taught me that the best way to solve any issue is to change gear or hit the nitrous and I am constantly amused at how the franchise has turned the traditional action genre on its head. Like, normally in action moves, you’ll get quick cuts or shots of guys reloaded or throwing punches but, in the Fast and the Furious movies, these are replaced with sudden and dramatic gear changes. Anyway, ever since the franchise returned to prominence with Fast & Furious (Lin, 2009), the films have done nothing but make money…shit-loads of money! With Dwayne Johnson joining the franchise in Fast & Furious 5 (ibid, 2011), the producers have finally decided to capitalise on his charisma, box office appeal, popularity, and money-making ability by throwing him together with Jason Statham as two guys who can’t stand each other and are forced to work together in a big, over-the-top, car-centric, superpowered version of Tango & Cash (Konchalovsky, 1989).

The Review:
Right off the bat, Hobbs & Shaw introduces us to Brixton, a man who unapologetically describes himself as the “bad guy”; Brixton is decked out in a bulletproof uniform, has cybernetic implants, and is, for all intents and purposes, “Black Superman”. His goal is to acquire a “programmable virus” that will wipe out the weakest of the human race so that only the strongest and the fittest can survive but, when MI6 agent Hattie Shaw (Kirby) injects herself with the virus and evades him, Brixton uses the vast resources of his shady organisation, Eteon, to frame Hattie, forcing the CIA to draft in Hobbs and Shaw to track her down, acquire the virus, and stop Brixton.

Hobbs&ShawTeam.PNG — *Hobbs and Shaw must put aside their egos to battle Brixton.*

Hobbs and Shaw are presented as being polar opposites; Hobbs is a massive mountain of a man who uses his brute strength to get results while Shaw is more about finesse and subtlety. Not only that, their personalities clash in the wildest of ways; despite working together and seemingly burying the hatchet in Fast & Furious 8 (Gray, 2017), Hobbs and Shaw still cannot stand one another and are always a razor’s edge from getting into a fist fight, making for some truly amusing verbal exchanges and insults shared between the two. Hobbs & Shaw is a non-stop thrill ride of a movie; when there aren’t big fight sequences, there’s an over-the-top car chase; when those two things aren’t on screen, there might be a fire fight or, when all else fails, the movie falls back on the chemistry and the banter between Hobbs and Shaw, which could honestly carry the entire movie without the action sequences. I went into this fully expecting a comically over-the-top action movie and I wasn’t disappointed; I swear one day this franchise will end up in space, so “Black Superman” isn’t too much of a stretch and it’s best to just sit back and enjoy the ride once Hobbs and Shaw get behind the wheels of their cars and start pulling off crazy stunts, jumps, and actions that would obviously never work in the “real world” but the real world sucks and is boring so why would you want to see that anyway?

The Nitty-Gritty:
Not much to spoil here, really; there’s fights, cars, and guns. Hattie, as you may have guessed from her name, is Shaw’s estranged sister and a big part of the movie is dedicated to revealing that Shaw was setup by Brixton back when they worked together in MI6, which helps to give his previously malevolent character some humanity. It’s never really revealed exactly what Eteon did to improve Brixton; he ahs a mechanical spine and some cybernetic implants in his eyes but there’s no real specifics behind his superhuman status. Eteon is headed up by an unseen, disembodied, digitally-altered voice, however, who hints to a past with Hobbs and is clearly being setup for future movies, which may detail more about what Eteon is about.

Hobbs&ShawBrixton.PNG — *Idris Elba clearly relishes being “Black Superman”.*

Hobbs also gets a character arc where he is forced to return to his home in Samoa and his estranged family when Hobbs and Shaw are framed by Eteon, leading to the deepest exploration of Johnson’s family heritage than we’ve ever seen on film before. His real-life cousin, Roman Reigns, even pops up as Hobbs’ brother; however, despite this role being promoted as Reigns’ big break into Hollywood, he doesn’t have a single line, doesn’t really do anything except hit a Spear and fight alongside Hobbs and his brothers, and the role is little more than a cameo as Hobbs is primarily focused on repairing his relationship with his brother, Jonah (Cliff Curtis). Speaking of cameos, Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, and Kevin Hart all pop up, to varying degrees of success. Mirren, as Shaw’s mother, is classically understated and never wears out here welcome but Reynolds appears to have been drafted in as Kurt Russell wasn’t available to reprise his role as Mr. Nobody and Hart is clearly there as he’s the Rock’s buddy. Both guys are onscreen, seemingly ad-libbing, for a long time, with Hart’s cameo especially being a glaring addition that left me itching for the scene to move on and get back to the action.

The Summary:
Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw is a great time; sometimes, it’s good to just go to the movies, switch your brain off, and enjoy an alpha male odd-couple begrudgingly learning to tolerate each other and work together towards a greater good. The film has some fantastic dialogue between the two, some big action sequences, and walks the line between the ridiculous and the fantastic with such unapologetic glee that it can’t help but be a really enjoyable experience.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

10 FTW: Things I Hate About Movies

23/07/201917/10/2025Dr. K21 Comments

So, when it comes to movies, I am surprisingly optimistic. This may be because I would never pay to see a movie if I wasn’t reasonably sure that I was going to enjoy it and because I stick to genres and franchises that I know I like, but I usually go into a film with certain expectations and, as long as those are met, I am generally satisfied. With that said, there are some things about movies that drive me mad…or, at least, annoy me. Tropes that I would like to see less or, if not phased out entirely, and I’m come up with ten of them to rant about right now.

10FTWGuardians — 10 Lack of Opening Credits

I’m fairly certain I’m the only person who cares about these days, where everyone is all about cutting right to the action, and I do understand that but there’s something I find innately lazy and annoying about not even seeing the movie’s title appear onscreen at the start of a film. We have to sit through grandiose logo sequences for movie studios, some that last about three minutes and sometimes watching up to five in quick succession, but we can’t just plaster the movie’s title on the screen? I believe the earliest I was exposed to this was in RoboCop 2 (Kershner, 1990) but it’s become especially noticeably in the works of Marvel Studios. I’m not expecting entire cast credits, as these can be admittedly annoying to sit through (though you can just place them over the opening scene, as in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Snyder, 2016) or the Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014 to 2023) films, but just throw the movie’s title up there and help me out a bit!

10FTWSpidey — 9 Pointless Post-Credit Scenes

I am a sucker for post-credit scenes; Marvel Studios have popularised this to the point where it’s now expected that every movie has some kind of pre-, mid-, or post-credits scene. Unfortunately, a lot of them aren’t really worth sitting through ten minutes of credits for. Marvel have become especially lazy with this in recent years; no longer to their post-credit scenes set up further events or hints of things to come and, instead, they’re usually just throwaway gags or scenes purposely made to troll us (I’m looking at you, Spider-Man: Homecoming (Watts, 2017)!) These days, it seems like the pivotal, must-see scenes for Marvel movies now come before the credits rather than after them and the worst thing about a lot of these is that they are often used to hint at sequels that either never come or are fundamentally altered between movies; this is especially true of the DC Extended Universe but it also applies to the Dark Universe, which is seemingly dead in the water.

10FTWRaiders — 8 Mismatching Title Fonts

Another thing that really bugs me is when movies use a specific title font for the posters, merchandise, and DVD covers but never actually use this font or logo in the film. Take Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981), which has that awesome orange font for its logo but instead uses a simpler, less grandiose font in the film. What’s worse is that Spielberg used the Indiana Jones logo for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (ibid, 1984) but reverted back to the much less exciting font for the subsequent Indy films. While Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (2005 to 2012) may not have had the most exciting title font ever, at least this was uniform across the film and merchandise. It seemed like Warner Brothers were employing this as the standard font for their DC movies…until Green Lantern (Campbell, 2011) ruined it by using the basic font on the posters and a far more exciting, comic-inspired font in the movie!

You know what really gets my arse up? Numbers in movies are sequential; you have the first movie, then the second, then the third and so forth so, when movies use a number in their title, a 2 should mean it’s the second movie and, therefore, a continuation of the first. But, instead, movies like to slap a 2, 3, or even a 4 on there when, in actual fact, it’s a prequel! Tarzan 2 (Smith, 2005) and Insidious: Chapter 3 (Whannell, 2015) are perfect examples of this but, for a better example, take a look at the Scorpion King (2002 to 2018) franchises! The Scorpion King (Russell, 2002) is a spin-off of the Mummy (1999 to 2008) franchise, taking place before The MMovie Night: The Mummy (1999)ummy (Sommers, 1999). Its sequel, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, despite having a 2 in its title, is actually a prequel with the subsequent three sequels all being sequels to The Scorpion King, resulting in the following viewing order:

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
The Scorpion King
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (Reine, 2012)
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (Elliot, 2015)
The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (Paul, 2018)
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns (Sommers, 2001)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Cohen, 2008)

I grew up in an age where special effects were constantly evolving, where complex camera techniques and detailed prosthetics were the order of the day. Consider the laborious effort that went into composting all of the matte paintings, models, and sets in Aliens (Cameron, 1986), a film that also employed fantastic suits, miniatures, and puppets that really made it seem as though there were hundreds of Xenomorphs out for Sigourney Weaver’s blood. Nowadays, filmmakers just CGI the hell out of it and be done with it and, while this can result in some breath-taking movies and action scenes, often it’s an egregious use of a tool that should be used to enhance films rather than overwhelm them. Let’s talk, again, about George Lucas, one of the pioneers of practical effects, who used puppets, models, and complex filming techniques to craft his original Star Wars trilogy (1977 to 1983). However, when it came time for him to produce the prequel trilogy (1999 to 2005), he used nothing but green screens, digitally adding almost every element of the films in after this actors stumbled through scenes with no frame of reference. Honestly, just because you can use CGI to create all the Clone Troopers doesn’t mean you should and, to me, it just seems unnecessarily lazy and an arrogant use of your time, budget, and resources.

I’m probably the only person who will admit to liking the Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man films (2012; 2014). I loved the suit in The Amazing Spider-Man, the slightly different take on Peter Parker’s origin, and that it looked like Sony were finally going to be setting up the Sinister Six…and then The Amazing Spider-Man 2 happened. Despite making $700 million worldwide against a nearly $300 million budget, reception of the film was mixed and, rather than finish the series off with a finale, Sony finally decided to cooperate with Marvel Studios and opted to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. However, rather than integrate the MCU with the Amazing films (as had been previously suggested), Marvel Studios opted to complete recast the character, bringing in Tom Holland. Now, I like Holland as Peter/Spidey, but his introduction in Captain America: Civil War (Russo Brothers, 2016) came just two years after Garfield’s last appearance. Considering The Amazing Spider-Man rebooted the franchise only five years after Spider-Man 3 (Raimi, 2007), that is a lot of reboots and changes to Spider-Man in a very short amount of time. Halloween (Green, 2018), Hellboy (Marshall, 2019), and Terminator: Dark Fate (Miller, 2019) are also guilty of this, falling back on rebooting, retconning, or straight-up ignoring previous movies and returning “to their roots”. The DCEU has also suffered from Warner Brothers panicking to the reactions to their darker, gritty comic book movies, which caused Justice League (Snyder/Whedon, 2017) to suffer from rewrites and drastic changes.

The Wilhelm Scream used to be cute, a fun little recurring gag in movies. Like the creator cameos (popularised in recent years by Stan Lee showing up in Marvel movies), this used to be a fun Easter Egg for knowing audiences. Now, though, I have come to really despise this over used sound effect. It has been done to death in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films alone but seems to crop in every movie you see these days and I am just so sick of hearing it; it really takes me out of the experience and just makes me grimace every time it gets snuck in there.

Movie titles should be simple and striking; they should relate what’s going to happen and give the general gist of the movie. They should not be a chore to read or be indistinguishable from other film titles and, yet, we live in a world with films like The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Story, 2005), and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Wyatt, 2011). Here’s some alternative titles just for those movies: Tomb of the Mummy, Fantastic 4: Doomsday, Rise of the Apes. As for Batman v Superman, I don’t think it ever should have had a title at all; it literally should have just been the Batman and Superman logos on top of each other, with the film referred to as Batman/Superman. Let’s not forget such lazy titles as Solo: A Star Wars Story (Howard, 2018), The Wolverine (Mangold, 2013), and The Dark Knight Rises, all of which could have easily been called Smuggler’s Run, Wolverine: Ronin, and Knightfall. Don’t even get me started on all the movies we got with Rise of, Age of, and Dawn of in their titles not that long ago!

I’m looking at Spider-Man 3 for this one; by the time that movie came out, it was pretty well known that a lot of comic book fans weren’t too happy with the revelation that Jack Napier/the Joker (Jack Nicholson) was the man who gunned down Bruce Wayne’s (Michael Keaton) parents in Batman (Burton, 1989). Yet, Sam Raimi seemingly didn’t hesitate at all to do exactly the same thing when he fingered Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church) as the gun man in his movie. And why? Just so there would be a “connection” between Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) and Sandman…despite the fact we already had a personal connection between Spidey and Harry Osborn/”New Goblin” (James Franco). It wasn’t the only mistake he made in that movie but it was one of the most baffling, especially considering all the controversy surrounding the Joker revelation. We saw a similar situation when Green Lantern decided that Parallax (Clancy Brown) would be much more effective as a big ol’, CGI mess of a space cloud, something that worked out just as well for Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer. Similarly, Justice League didn’t earn itself any favours by repeated the same “big fight against a CGI monstrosity” from both Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad (Ayer, 2016), which were its direct predecessors and the subject of a lot of online backlash.

I touched on this earlier but there’s nothing I hate more than a film series or sequels completely ignoring their established continuity. The X-Men (Various, 2000 to present) series is the worst offender of this, throwing continuity out of the window with every entry and thinking it’s cute to poke fun at it in their Deadpool (Various, 2016; 2018) spin-offs. The Terminator series (Various, 1984 to present) is also just as bad with this, mainly because the film rights keep being passed between different studios and bodies, but it seems like every new Terminator movie disregards chunks of, if not the entirety of, their previous entries, making for a disjointed franchise that’s difficult to care about, with Terminator: Dark Fate being a mish-mash of its predecessors rather than something fresh and new. I get that, sometimes, aspects of films or entire movies/sequels aren’t received too well but I would much rather the screenwriters tried to address and move on from any problems rather than simply ignoring them or waving them away. If you’re just going to ignore what’s come before, make a remake or reboot and start completely fresh; otherwise, try something a little lazy than just ignoring entire movies.

How about you? What tropes of movies and cinema do you dislike? Let me know in the comments, or if you think I’m full of shit.

Game Corner: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox 360)

21/07/201927/01/2024Dr. K7 Comments

One of the things I love about Xbox Game Pass is that it allows me to play videogames I’ve either always wanted to play, haven’t played in a long time and can just farm for Achievements, or games I’ve always wanted to play, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, 1997). Now, I’m not an especially well-versed player of the Castlevania series (Konami, 1986 to present); I’ve only ever owned one game in the franchise, the abysmal Castlevania (Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe, 1999) for the Nintendo 64, and I’ve only ever completed one title in the franchise, Super Castlevania IV (Konami, 1991), courtesy of the Super SNES Classic Edition. This, as I may have mentioned a few times before, is mainly due to growing up without the income necessary to allow me to own both a Nintendo and a SEGA console; however, I have been a fan of the franchise regardless and have always wanted to play more games from the series. After having a great time with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Inti Creates, 2018), a fantastically well-crafted homage to the Castlevania franchise, I jumped at the chance to give Symphony of the Night a spin.

CastlevaniaStory — *Alucard is on a mission to confront his father.*

As I understand it, Symphony of the Night is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (Konami, 1993) and the game opens with the final events of its predecessor, with acclaimed vampire hunter Richter Belmont taking on and defeating Count Dracula. Despite this supposedly forcing Dracula into a one-hundred-year slumber, the Count’s castle, Castlevania, reappears four years later and, with Richter missing, Dracula’s dhampir son, Alucard (who had previously battled his father in Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (ibid, 1989), alongside Richter’s ancestor, Trevor Belmont), heads into the monster-infested castle to destroy his father. I remember Super Castlevania IV being a fun little romp; you explore a vibrant gothic landscape, upgrade your whip with easily-found power-ups, and battle enemies and bosses that naturally increase in difficulty. Symphony of the Night, however, is a steep learning curve to the uninitiated; it doesn’t take long to get a handle on the basics but you really need to be paying attention to your surroundings and what every weapon and skill does so you can proceed further and further into Castlevania. The voice acting is classic cheese but the music is atmospheric and fitting to the environment; more importantly, the gameplay and controls are tight and responsive. There are very few cheap deaths in this game; no bottomless pits or instant kill traps here. If you get killed, it’s probably your own damn fault as you waded in unprepared or took on a boss or swarm of enemies with low health or the wrong items equipped, making the game a test of your actual gaming skills rather than an exercise in frustration.

CastlevaniaForms — *Alucard can become a bat, wolf, or mist to reach new areas.*

Alucard begins the game fully powered up and ready to take on the forces of evil but quickly encounters Dracula’s chief underling, the Grim Reaper, who strips Alucard of all his items and reduces the player down to simple punches. Alucard breaks from the franchise’s tradition of featuring a whip-wielding protagonist and, instead, favours a sword and shield, which can be equipped to different hands (and buttons), though other weapons (including rods, which are similar to the whip) and items can be acquired and equipped as Alucard makes his way through Castlevania. Alucard can also pick up sub-weapons by breaking pots, vases, lamps, and other items; these range from throwing knives, to Holy Water, to protective Bibles, and even fancy lightning. Alucard can only hold one sub-weapon at a time, though, but, whenever he picks up a new sub-weapon, his existing sub-weapon drops to the floor for a short time so you can pick it back up if you don’t fancy trading out. Also similar to other Castlevania titles, Alucard can pick up money, hearts (which, in a move I’ve never understood, allow him to use his sub-weapon rather than replenish his health) and restore his health by picking up pot roasts and potions. Power-ups to increase Alucard’s health and heart count can also be found scattered throughout Castlevania, as can better weapons and equipment, though these are often protected by bosses or hidden away in areas that will require Alucard to obtain other abilities or transformations. Being a dhampir, Alucard has some nifty abilities that other series characters were probably lacking; he can dash away from enemies with a press of a button (but not forwards, which is a bit annoying), cast magic, double jump, breath underwater, and transform into a wolf, bat, or mist to reach new areas. However, most of these abilities will need to be found by use of copious amounts of back-tracking; for example, you may spot a new area up on the ceiling that you cannot reach with Alucard’s standard jump, so you’ll have to acquire the bat or mist transformation to get up there and explore new areas.

*Be prepared to face some messed-up enemies…*

Symphony of the Night features a lot of RPG elements to its action-orientated gameplay; defeating enemies and bosses gains Alucard experience points and, with enough points, he will level up and his stats (attack, defence, and so forth) will improve. In addition to equipping weapons and shields to do more damage or reduce enemy attacks, Alucard can also equip armour, jewellery, and other items to boost his stats or for other perks. Item management is key here as some weapons require two hands to wield, some deal or defend against specific element attacks and will thus be better suited to certain bosses, and some weapon and shield combinations confer Alucard with very helpful buffs (such as the shield delivering massive damage while simultaneously restoring Alucard’s health). Alongside saving (which can only be done in designated save rooms scattered through Castlevania), exploring Castlevania is a chore in itself; the castle is massive, stretching vertically and horizontally, and the game never holds your hand once in trying to navigate through its maze-like rooms. You can visit a librarian to purchase items and a map but you’ll still need to visit every room and squeeze through every nook and cranny if you want to find the best items, skills, and weapons. As Alucard explores Castlevania, he encounters many nightmarish foes, from zombies and skeletons to monstrous gargoyles, possessed books, and broom-riding witches, all of which can pose a significant threat as the player must equip a healing item in place of a weapon in order to use it and such items are scarce.

CastlevaniaBosses — Symphony of the Night *has some massive boss battles.*

Luckily, Alucard can also acquire familiars who will follow him around and provide assistance; the faerie will heal Alucard without the need to assign an item (though it can be easy to burn through your inventory this way) and the demon will attack enemies and press switches you cannot reach. These are extremely useful but also quite limited; it might be because I wasn’t quite sure how to use the familiars but it seemed like they wouldn’t attack every enemy or heal me as often as I would like, making them a little unreliable. Alucard also has to face some massive bosses, including a minotaur, a mummy, and a succubus, the gigantic, lightning-wielding Galamoth, and even evil doppelgängers of himself and characters from Castlevania III. Some of the bosses, like the Gaibon, Slogra, and Werewolf, even appear later in the game as regular enemies (though Alucard should be strong enough to wipe the floor with them by that point) and the majority of the boss battles require some level of strategy in order to get around their attack patterns.

*Richter’s turned to the dark side…or has he?*

While exploring Castlevania, Alucard comes across Maria Renard, who is searching the castle for Richter; however, when Alucard finds Richter, he is revealed to be plotting Dracula’s return in order to give his life meaning. The battle against Richter can quickly go sideways unless Alucard obtains the Holy Glasses from Maria (which can only be found by getting the Gold and Silver Rings from opposite ends of the castle and using a sub-weapon to activate a clock…because of course); the glasses allow the player to see a mysterious orb controlling Richter and destroying this will free him from the evil influence of the wizard Shaft. Shaft then taunts Alucard and goads him into following him further and it was at this point that I prepared myself for the final confrontation…only to be transported to an exact replica of Castlevania…only upside-down and filled with tougher enemies! The Reverse Castle caught me completely off-guard and added maybe another weekend to my playthrough; it seemed as though every time I seemed to be making progress and getting closer to the end, Symphony of the Night threw another curve ball at me that expanded the map and the narrative further and the Reverse Castle was no exception. It was simultaneously exhilarating and frustrating, especially as the Reverse Castle’s enemies often appear in large groups and strange combinations that force the player to flee more often than not.

*Play as Richter for a more traditional* Castlevania *experience.*

Alucard must battle five sub-bosses in the Reverse Castle to acquire Dracula’s body parts, which is the only way to unlock the final confrontation against both Shaft and the Count himself. However, the Reverse Castle is also home to some false sub-bosses, who instead drop power-ups for Alucard that you will need in order to succeed. If, like me, you missed a bunch of ability power-ups and transformations before entering the Reverse Castle, you’ll also have to backtrack to the standard castle in order to be able to swim in the upside-down water or damage enemies with your mist attack, two skills that are essential to safely navigating the Reverse Castle. In terms of replay value, Symphony of the Night features a huge map to explore and the chances are high that, even when you reach the final battle with Dracula, you won’t have explored all 200.6% of the game. If you’re playing the Xbox 360 version, there are obviously a few Achievements to get along the way (the 200.6% thing is one of them) and you can even play as Richter if you enter “RICHTER” as your player name, which makes the game both harder and more like Super Castlevania IV as you now control a whip-wielding vampire hunter. There’s also a bestiary to complete by encountering every enemy and boss in the game but the game favours extending its playtime considerably through the Reverse Castle, rather than any significant post-game features.

*Dracula presents a tough challenge…unless you know what you’re doing.*

In the end, I really enjoyed Symphony of the Night; it was tough but in a way that challenged me to be a better player. It’s annoying that Alucard’s shield doesn’t seem to block every enemy attack and that he can’t dash forwards but these are minor complaints (honestly, I hardly ever even used the shield so it’s a mute point, really). The music is great, the graphics, sprites, and backgrounds are all really well-drawn and heavily detailed, and the gameplay mechanics are solid. The RPG elements are just right for me; you don’t have to do a lot of arduous bullshit to upgrade specific stats or whatever. Alucard simply gets stronger and stronger as he levels-up and equipping the right items and equipment will buff him up further. As only the second Castlevania title I’ve ever played from start to finish, Symphony of the Night was a great experience and actually has me hungering for more from Konami’s franchise. Luckily, they have me covered as the Castlevania Anniversary Collection (ibid, 2019) is now available on Xbox One so I guess I know what I’ll be aiming to take on next…

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: Spider-Man: Far From Home

11/07/201911/01/2025Dr. K8 Comments

Released: July 2019
Director: Jon Watts
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $160 million
Stars: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jon Favreau

The Plot:
Following Avengers: Endgame (Russo Brothers, 2019), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Holland) is struggling with the death of his friend, mentor, and father-figure, Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jnr). However, he is once again forced to choose between living his life as a normal high school student and saving the world when he is recruited by Nick Fury (Jackson) to battle monstrous elemental creatures alongside the charismatic Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Gyllenhaal).

The Background:
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Watts, 2017) fleshed out Spider-Man’s role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a quirky, inexperienced-but-enthusiastic young superhero who longed to be an Avenger but, eventually, learned to keep his feet on the ground as a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. However, after his excursion into outer space and his efforts in standing against Thanos (Josh Bolin), it’s safe to say that a lot of things have changed for Spider-Man. As the first MCU movie post-Endgame, Far From Home serves not only as the final movie in Marvel’s third phase of movies but also the first step in an uncertain future for the MCU, where, seemingly, anything can happen.

The Review:
Spider-Man: Far From Home is, once again, a high school comedy first with a high-octane superhero film threaded through it; as a result, the film’s primary focus is on comedy and awkward moments, particularly involving Peter and his attempts to express his feelings for MJ (Zedanya) and his ongoing friendship with Ned Leeds (Batalon). While it could be argued that the MCU’s increasing focus on comedy undermines some of the more dramatic moments in their bigger, more cosmic-focused movies, it’s perfectly at home in a Spider-Man film as the character has always been about his snarky sense of humour.

*At its core,* Far From Home is a high school comedy first.

That’s not to say that Far From Home doesn’t have its fair share of impressive action sequences, though. As in Homecoming, Marvel have taken one of Spidey’s lesser foes and not only cast a spectacular actor in the role but also improved the character by leaps and bounds by casting him as a potential replacement for Iron Man. Mysterio, who is decked out in a fantastically realised version of the character’s classic costume, is at the heart of the film’s action sequences as he goes toe-to-toe with the gigantic Elementals, creatures made of earth, wind, fire, and water that threaten to destroy entire cities. Additionally, Beck acts as a mentor and confidante to Peter, offering advice and understanding at a time when he is struggling with his identity and responsibility.

*The Elementals threaten to destroy entire cities!*

Seeking a brief hiatus from his duties as Spider-Man and the pressure of living up to Iron Man’s legacy, Peter jumps at the chance to go on a trip to Europe with his class. However, soon after landing, he is approached by Nick Fury and reluctantly recruited to help battle the Elementals. This brings the MCU Spidey much closer to his classic comic book portrayal as he is now forced to constantly choose between his desires and dreams and living a normal life and using his powers to do good while also struggling with the idea that he cannot live up to Stark’s expectations.

The Nitty-Gritty:
The moment I saw that Mysterio was the villain in this movie, I knew that he would turn out to be the bad guy; I mean, we all did, right? Beck claims to be from a parallel world, confirming a multiverse in the MCU, and appears to be a charismatic, confident, and well-honed superhero in his own right. Beck ticks every box for Fury and, especially, Peter, who is struggling to assume the role of Iron Man, and Peter is only too happy to hand over control of Stark’s A.I. to Beck…only for Beck to reveal his true nature as a complete and utter fraud.

*Peter is still reeling from Stark’s death.*

A former Stark employee, Beck created the virtual reality technology we previously saw Stark showcase in Captain America: Civil War (Russo Brothers, 2016) and grew embittered when he was fired by Stark. Feeling used and undervalued, he teamed up with other resentful Stark employees to use drones and virtual reality tech to create a superhero so universally loved that he would not only become an Avenger but also get his hands on Stark’s limitless technology.

*Only the MCU could take something as lame as this and make it awesome.*

As I said, I knew this twist would come but even I was starting to get fooled by the character, so great is Gyllenhaal’s performance; Beck not only defends and befriends Peter, he seems to have all the motivation and experience necessary to be a trusted and reliable hero. Once the turn is revealed, though, the character’s darker side starts to come through wonderfully, making for some fantastically nightmarish fight scenes. This is where the idea to use a lame villain like Mysterio is totally justified as the best part about using Mysterio is the potentially limitless visuals his illusion-tech offers, and Far From Home definitely delivered on that front. So far, I am really happy with the portrayal of Spider-Man’s villains in the MCU; if they can make his lesser villains this interesting and dangerous, imagine what they will do with his heavy-hitters!

As per the trailer, it is revealed that MJ has figured out that Peter is Spider-Man; MJ is featured pretty strongly before this but actually has something to do and plays a small role in the finale once she reveals this knowledge. This also culminates in Peter and MJ officially hooking up, though the film’s first post credits scene may put some strain on that relationship going forward. So, with his illusions revealed and Spider-Man wading through an army of drones, Mysterio takes a stray bullet and dies, self-righteous to the end. Fury has accepted Spider-Man and given him props, Peter is finally with MJ, and everything seems to be tied up in a nice little bow…and then J.K. Simmons returns as J. Jonah Jameson to reveal that Beck used doctored footage to frame Spider-Man for his death and the drone attacks and to reveal Peter’s true identity to the world! It was amazing to see Simmons back in the role, though I am curious to see another actor’s take on Jameson, but the revelation of Spidey’s identity will no doubt cause him some serious issues in future Spider-Man movies.

The Summary:
Spider-Man: Far From Home is a rollercoaster ride of action, comedy, and heart as Peter struggles with his relationships, the expectations placed upon him, and some potentially world-ending situations. Gyllenhaal shines as Beck and raises Mysterio’s profile wonderfully, providing a perfect substitute for Iron Man in Spidey’s life, and the dialogue, action scenes, and tone of the film are an exhilarating ride that takes everything that was good in Spider-Man: Homecoming and dials it up to eleven while still laying some interesting foundations for the future of the MCU.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: X-Men: Dark Phoenix

24/06/201904/07/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: June 2019
Director: Simon Kinberg
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $200 million
Stars: James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence

Plot:
Ten years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse (Singer, 2016), the X-Men have become celebrated superheroes. After answering a distress call from NASA, Jean Grey (Turner) is exposed to cosmic energies that send her powers rampant. With their teammate confused, conflicted, and being corrupted, the X-Men find their loyalties and friendships tested as they race to keep Jean from harming others with her newfound powers.

Background:
The X-Men franchise (Various, 2000 to present) has had a tumultuous history in recent years; after X-Men (Singer, 2000) helped audiences to take superheroes films seriously and popularise the genre as a money-making endeavour, the series has taken a bit of a downturn since 20^th Century Fox decided to produce a series of films stupidly marketed as prequels that were actually soft reboots that have done nothing but screw up the franchise’s continuity and timeline with each instalment. X-Men: Apocalypse is largely regarded as being a disappointment, despite making a load of money at the box office, and, in the years since its release, 20^th Century Fox has been acquired by Disney, meaning that the X-Men will soon be integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in some way, shape, or form. However, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, was already in production before this purchase, meaning that this is the last gasp for this franchise in its current form.

The Review:
Considering that Disney will one day bring the X-Men into the MCU, Dark Phoenix seems largely redundant; the timeline and continuity of the films, and this franchise, is too messed up to sustain itself much less be integrated into the MCU without a complete recast and reboot, meaning that it really doesn’t matter how good, or bad, this film is, what it does, or how it ends. As a result, there’s a distinct lack of agency and investment when watching Dark Phoenix and all you can really hope for is that it does a better job of adapting the much-lauded Dark Phoenix Saga (Claremont, Bryne, et al, 1976 to 1977) than X-Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006). The answer is that it does, in some ways, and doesn’t in other ways; for example, making the Phoenix a dark, suppressed aspect of Jean Grey’s (Famke Janssen) personality was actually a much neater, relatable way of realising the character in the grounded, semi-realistic context of the first X-Men movies. Dark Phoenix, however, uses the space element by having Jean bombarded with a destructive cosmic force that simply enhances her powers to dangerous levels.

*Vuk seeks to obtain or control to Phoenix Force.*

If this is more comic accurate then I guess that’s fine but Dark Phoenix also introduces a bunch of shapeshifting aliens, the D’Bari, who come to Earth seeking to obtain or control the cosmic force. Their primary agent, Vuk (Chastain), manages to help twist Jean against her team mates to facilitate her turn into the titular Dark Phoenix but there’s something off-putting about aliens suddenly and so awkwardly being thrust into this franchise that I found a little jarring. I think the D’Bari could have just as easily been a radical group of Mutants who see Jean as their saviour or they could even been replaced completely by Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Fassbender) and his Brotherhood of Mutants, similar to how Magneto (Ian McKellen) helped to corrupt Jean in The Last Stand.

*The X-Men are decked out in matching, comic-accurate costumes.*

There are some other questionable choices at work here as well; for example, at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, the X-Men were decked out in some very swanky, mid-nineties comics-accurate costumes that they have promptly ditched in favour of uniform suits to help emphasise that they are a team to the media and society, while these are also comic accurate, it’s a shame we never got to see Scott Summers/Cyclops (Sheridan) rocking that outfit from the end of X-Men: Apocalypse. Also, Professor Charles Xavier (McAvoy) undergoes a bit of an odd character twist in this movie; despite apparently reuniting with Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) in X-Men: Apocalypse, Moira is nowhere to be seen and, instead, Xavier is basking in the adulation of the media and the relationship he has with the US government (which includes a hot line directly to the Oval Office and public commendations from the President (Brian d’Arcy James)). This changes Xavier’s entire motivations from the preservation of Mutantkind and the protection of humanity to an ego trip and skews his entire drive to forming the X-Men into wanting fame and respect, which is very jarring and out of character. At the same time, Xavier is also portrayed as being less than noble due to tampering with Jean’s mind, which raises the ire of Hank McCoy/Beast (Hoult) so much that he brands Xavier a monster and joins forces with Magneto. Yet, Xavier’s tampering is nowhere near the level seen in The Last Stand and you would think that one of his closest friends and allies, who stuck with him through addiction and the deaths of their team mates, would see that he was just trying to protect Jean.

Instead, both Hank and Jean turn to Magneto in their time of need, which is a very odd way to push the character into the plot. Magneto has formed a community of Mutants of the island of Genosha and has no desire to be involved in the outside world any more. Personally, I am glad that Dark Phoenix is the end of this series of movies as I am so sick of seeing each of these films jump forward another ten years and find yet another preposterous way of neutering Magneto; at the end of X-Men: First Class (Singer, 2011), Magneto had evolved into a fully-costumed version of the character who was actively recruiting Mutants for his Brotherhood and seeking to attack humanity but, in X-Men: Days of Future Past (ibid, 2014) he was in jail and portrayed as an anti-hero who was trying to protect Mutants until the end when he became a fully-costumed version of the character seeking to attack humanity. Then, in X-Men: Apocalypse, he inexplicably had a family and had retired from his “war” until he became a fully-costumed version of the character seeking to attack humanity…and then redeemed himself at the end and now, once again, he’s back to simply being another dark shade of grey in a film largely comprised of characters who are struggling between good and evil. As for the other X-Men, Sheridan actually has a decent amount to do as Cyclops but every quickly takes a backseat as Xavier leads the X-Men into battle to try and save Jean. He, like Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp) simply follows Xavier’s leads and orders without question and each of them are simply…there…because they are X-Men.

Cyclops gets a bit more to do given that he’s emotionally and physically involved with Jean but, once again, this adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga is less about Scott and Jean’s relationship than it really should be. Luckily, as I mentioned before, Sophie Turner is absolutely gorgeous; she portrays Jean’s conflict and emotion very well, seems to relish the opportunity to do more and showcase more range, and is absolutely stunning. I live for the day when she and Amber Heard can be onscreen together; I may actually die! Given that the main plot of the movie revolves around Jean struggling with her increasingly out of control powers, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is more about characters and deconstruction their relationships than it is about action sequences. Jean’s powers and abilities increase and become more destructive as the film goes on, which makes her a real threat to the other characters, and there is a pretty good action scene that takes place on a train but the film is more about the emotional rollercoaster of Jean’s turn and struggle with her morality. Unfortunately, given that we know that this is the last film for this interpretations of these characters, it’s difficult to care about that, especially as Jean was only introduced in the last X-Men movie and it’s hard to be that invested in her sudden emotional struggle when she’s not a very well fleshed out character. Hell, we’ve followed Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and Raven Darkhölme/Mystique (Lawrence) this whole time and it’s hard to really be that invested in them as they undergo exactly the same character arcs in each movie, never age despite being in their sixties at this point, and have some questionable character arcs in this movie that basically make them either bland (in the case of Mystique), completely different (Xavier), or one-note (Magneto) despite strong performances by McAvoy and Fassbender.

The Nitty-Gritty:
If you’ve watched the trailers for this movie, you may have guessed that Jean kills Mystique in this film and, honestly, I could not be happier about that. I am not a fan of Jennifer Lawrence and her performance as Mystique leaves a lot to be desired, especially in this film, where she basically sleepwalks through every scene she’s in. I really don’t like Mystique being the field leader of the X-Men and every line she says is so stilted and forced that it’s a pain to watch. Luckily, though, she tried to appeal to Jean’s good nature and, unable to control her new powers, jeans blasts her away and impales her on some debris, finally ridding us of the character once and for all.

*Once again, we’re forced to question Xavier’s morality.*

I mean, obviously that completely destroys the timeline, but the X-Men timeline is completely fucked at this point anyway. Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters) is back and now part of the X-Men team but, as always, he’s basically there for one slow-motion action sequence before he is blasted by Jean and hospitalised for the entire movie until the epilogue because, as always, his super-speed would allow him to end things to quickly and, rather than try and use the character in a decent way or tie up the lingering plot thread regarding his parentage, lazy writing took precedence and he was relegated to little more than a cameo. As mentioned, Xavier tampers with Jean’s mind a bit in this movie; this time, he blocks out traumatic memories of when she caused her parents’ car to flip and accidentally killed her mother. The cosmic forces causes some of these memories tor eturn and she flips out, turning against Xavier almost instantly despite the truth being that her father was afraid of her and Xavier took her in to raise as his own in a protected environment, which you would think she would know simply by virtue of being….raised by Xavier in a protected environment. Instead, Beast, grieving for Mystique, rages at Xavier for his actions, Jean tries to kill him, and Magneto treats Xavier as the “real bad guy” simply because he tried to spare a young girl from relieving a traumatic memory.

*A cosmic force corrupts Jean’s powers.*

Jean going to Genosha is such a weird scene; she has no reason to really go there and asking Magneto how he stopped killing is a pretty flimsy reason to go. She’s literally there just so the X-Men cane find out where she is and also go and all get captured by the government; it would have made much more sense to have Magneto take Vuk’s place and offer Jean sanctuary, only to turn on her in the same way once he realised/found out that she killed Mystique. Beast teaming up with Magneto was equally weird, given their history, but I guess makes a bit of sense given that he knows Magneto will want Jean dead after she killed Mystique, though the X-Men turned on and fought against each other pretty quickly and easily when you think about it. Similar to The Last Stand, the actual Dark Phoenix stuff ends up being quite lacklustre and rushed; again, since we haven’t really been following Jean’s story for that long, it’s hard to be that invested in her turn to the dark side. I really think these movies would have benefitted from being complete, obvious reboots set entirely in the mid-sixties to late-seventies rather than bouncing forward ten years each time to desperately try and chase the first X-Men movie despite obviously not being a precursor to the film any more. In the end, Jean comes to her senses and sacrifices herself to destroy Vuk, which seems like a hollow sacrifice and a move made simply because the Dark Phoenix Saga always ends with Jean dying. This also screws up the timeline as we already saw Jean alive and well in the Good Future at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past but, again, nobody cares about continuity in these movies anyway.

The Summary:
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is…okay. It’s not the worst X-Men movie ever made but, as a final swansong for these characters and this cast, it’s very mediocre and feels more like a by-the-numbers sequel rather than a conclusive finale. It was better than I thought it would be but far from the epic saga the source material deserves, and that’s coming from someone who views the Dark Phoenix Saga as an overrated story that didn’t need another adaptation.

My Rating:

Terrible

Movie Night: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

09/06/201931/05/2025Dr. K4 Comments

Released: June 2019
Director: Michael Dougherty
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $170 to 200 million
Stars: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Charles Dance, and Ken Watanabe

The Plot:
Five years after Godzilla first revealed himself, the covert organisation Monarch has been studying other “Titans” around the world. However, when rogue MI6 agent Alan Jonah (Dance) plots to unleash the Titans to reshape the world, Monarch must fight alongside Godzilla to defend the planet.

The Background:
After a watered down showing in Godzilla (Emmerich, 1998), Godzilla (Edwards, 2014) reintroduced Toho’s classic kaijū creature to a worldwide audience but was far from the fast-paced, action-orientated giant monster movie I was expecting. Rather than take inspiration from some of the later Godzilla films or even from Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013), Godzilla drew more from Cloverfield (Reeves, 2008) and Edwards’ own Monsters (2010), preferring subtly and atmospheric build up rather than full-on monster action. After making over $500 million from a $160 million budget, a sequel was inevitable and, after King: Skull Island (Vogt-Roberts, 2017) set the stage for the introduction of more of the classic Toho kaijū creatures, the stage is set for Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse.

The Review:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a massive film (no pun intended); without wasting any time at all, we are immediately thrown into a world where giant creatures (known as “Titans”) are lying dormant throughout the world under the supervision of Monarch. The world is waiting anxiously for the next Titan emergence, unsure which are here to protect us and which are there to destroy us; this is tied in closely to one of the many protagonists that features in this movie, Dr. Mark Russell (Chandler), whose son died during a battle between Godzilla and an unnamed Titan.

GodzillaJonah — *Charles Dance steals every scene he’s in.*

While Russell is therefore very much against Godzilla and all Titans, his estranged wife, Dr. Emma Russell (Farmiga), who has developed a machine (known as the ORCA) that can analyse and emit Titan sound patterns. Alongside their daughter, Madison (Brown), Emma uses the ORCA to awaken and calm the mythical Mothra but they are abducted by the renegade eco-terrorist Alan Jonah (Dance), who wants to use the ORCA to awaken all of the Titans and destroy the world so that the scourge of humanity can be cured.

*As always, humans detract from the monster action.*

Like all Godzilla movies, King of the Monsters is let down by its human characters; there are a lot of human characters in this film and I can’t say that I was massively interested in any of them apart from Jonah and the returning Dr. Ishirō Serizawa (Watanabe), both of whom could have easily been featured more prominently in the movie. The family drama between the Russells is nothing you haven’t seen before and contains some truly baffling twists that leave you scratching your head every time the characters stop to spout their exposition.

*Rodan makes a triumphant return to cinema screens.*

However, Godzilla movies are always really about one thing: massive monsters wrecking shit and fighting each other. While Godzilla featured the titular character sparingly, which was frustrating for me as a big Godzilla fan but a pretty good introduction to the character for audiences who had never experienced him before, King of the Monsters features him very heavily; now, though, Godzilla has to share screen time with three other Titans that will be familiar to any fan of the franchise: Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. King of the Monsters also features a truly epic soundtrack; the classic Godzilla theme is back, bringing a real ominous menace to Godzilla (despite him being a purely heroic character in the Monsterverse), and the classic Mothra theme and song gets featured as well, and the sound and music really helps ramp up the tension and the action in the movie.

*King Ghidorah isn’t here to play games!*

Seeing Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah onscreen is amazing and their effects look spectacular; it would just be nice to see them in either full day light, as in Kong: Skull Island, or at least lit up by anything other than a film tint or lightning. King of the Monsters also features a truly epic soundtrack; the classic Godzilla theme is back, bringing a real ominous menace to Godzilla (despite him being a purely heroic character in the Monsterverse), and the classic Mothra theme and song gets featured as well, and the sound and music really helps ramp up the tension and the action in the movie. While the film features far more monster-on-monster battles than its predecessor, it still falls back on the tired trope of these battles taking place at night, in the rain, in the sea, or otherwise somewhat obscured by other plot elements. One nice change, though, is that the human characters are usually right there in the middle of the action so it makes sense to cut back to them and the film never awkwardly and abruptly cuts away from its kaijū action like its predecessor.

The Nitty-Gritty:
It’s a Godzilla movie, so you know he’s going to wreck some serious shit and the trailers already showed that he battles Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. What wasn’t really shown, though, was that there are apparently seventeen Titans across the world, all of which get awakened in this movie but we only really focus on a handful of them. The movie makes many mentions of King Kong and Skull Island to set up the upcoming Godzilla vs. King Kong movie but Kong doesn’t actually appear in any meaningful way here; the other Titans we do see appeared to be original creations to me (one seems to be another MUTO, one is a giant woolly mammoth, one is a giant crab…), which was a little disappointing but then I guess it makes sense to not showcase all of the classic kaijū without a proper introduction. King of the Monsters has some nice throwbacks to previous Godzilla movies; for the bulk of the movie, King Ghidorah is referred to as “Monster Zero”, the Navy uses an Oxygen Destroyer missile to try and kill Godzilla and King Ghidorah, Godzilla ends up needing to be resurrected by a nuclear bomb and takes on a version of his “Burning Godzilla” form (like in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (Ōmori, 1991) and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (Okawara, 1995), respectively), and the movie is basically a remake of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Honda, 1964).

GodzillaMothra — *Titans are lying dormant across the globe.*

Emma turns out to actually be allied with Jonah, which started as a surprising betrayal and then very quickly descended into a nonsensical decision. Like Jonah, she believes that humanity needs to be culled by the Titans so the that world can flourish and recover from pollution and overpopulation and all that usual stuff but, unlike Jonah, you never really feel that she has the same conviction or basis for this belief. I honestly believe the movie would have worked better if Jonah had killed Emma to obtain the ORCA and simply taken Madison hostage, then we could have delved a bit more into Jonah’s twisted world view without having Emma there to make the whole thing seem crazier than it actually is. Aside from this, the Oxygen Destroyer fails to kills King Ghidorah because he’s actually an alien life form and not of the Earth’s natural order; it does, however, appear to kill Godzilla, which allows King Ghidorah to awaken all of the Titans at once and compel them to rampage across the globe. Monarch tracks Godzilla to his radioactive undersea refuge, planning to use a nuke to kick-start his recovery, and Serizawa willingly sacrifices himself to set off the bomb and bring Godzilla back to full power. Godzilla’s emergence following this is truly epic and, for a moment, seems like he may have turned against humanity but, no, he instead uses his newfound strength to team up with Mothra against King Ghidorah and Rodan for a massive final battle.

*Though obscured by nigth and rain, Godzilla is still impressive to look at.*

If you know anything about Godzilla movies and Mothra, you already know that Mothra dies in this battle; seriously, Mothra always dies, generally to transfer her power to Godzilla or to inspire Godzilla to battle and it’s no different here. Godzilla is able to destroy King Ghidorah using its out of control nuclear power (which looked, for a moment, like he was going to meltdown as in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah) and is hailed as the new king of the monsters by the remaining Titans. Over the credits, we get many mentions of another Mothra egg, earthquakes and disturbances on Skull Island, Jonah purchasing one of Ghidorah’s heads, and more Titans awakening across the globe to set up Godzilla vs. King Kong and future Monsterverse movies. Interestingly, the one criticism I have about this movie is that it might have made more sense to do Godzilla vs. King Kong here to help bridge the gap between Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island and do the big Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah showdown as the third movie as I find the idea that Kong can stand against Godzilla laughable, to be honest. I imagine that the movie will be more about a scuffle between the two Titans before they team up against more monsters escaping from the hollow earth but, my main concern, is that it’s hard to top King Ghidorah, who is Godzilla’s biggest foe….maybe they’ll do Destoroyah though…

The Summary:
If you were disappointed by the lack of monster action in Godzilla, then Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the movie for you. If you dislike human protagonists taking away from giant monster battles, then Godzilla: King of the Monsters may still disappoint but it is inevitable and unavoidable for movies like this to have human plots alongside their monster action. For a movie like Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it’s best to switch your brain off and go along for the ride as, in the end, all that matters is that giant monsters are waking up and Godzilla has to fight them to defend the world and, when it comes to monster-on-monster battles, Godzilla: King of the Monsters has you covered.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

26/05/201902/09/2025Dr. K2 Comments

Released: May 2019
Director: Chad Stahelski
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Budget: $55 million
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Mark Dacascos, and Asia Kate Dillon

Plot:
On the run with a $14 million bounty on his head, former hitman John Wick (Reeves) must fight for his life against not only a city full of assassins looking to cash in but also his former masters, who will stop at nothing to kill him.

The Background:
John Wick (Stahelski, 2014) was a surprise hit that both reinvigorated Keanu Reeves’ career and showcased, with brutal glee, that violent action movies can still be popular and profitable. In a world where action movies are often watered down affairs, John Wick opted for a smorgasbord of head shots, tightly choreographed fight scenes, and high-octane, no-nonsense brutality that was only further escalated in John Wick: Chapter 2 (ibid, 2017). While Chapter 2 had a few narrative flaws, it still upped the action and the fight scenes and anticipation was high when, at the end, Wick committed the ultimate sin by killing a member of the High Table on hallowed Continental grounds.

The Review:
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (which, if we’re honest, is one hell of a mouthful of a title) picks up only a few minutes after the end of Chapter 2, with John Wick desperately battling through his wounds and scores of assassins looking to collect the $14 million bounty in order to retrieve a few personal items to help him get the bounty off of his head. With few friends left and few avenues to go down, Wick finds his life made all the more miserable when an Adjudicator (Dillon) visits his allies Winston (McShane) and the Bowery King (Fishburne) to punish them for helping Wick in Chapter 2. As part of this, she recruits the help of Zero (Dacascos) and his students to further compound the highly trained killers looking to collect on Wick’s bounty.

JW3Dogs — *Wick is forced to call in some old favours…*

As with a lot of sequels, Parabellum chooses to expand its scope internationally; after battling through New York, Wick manages to secure passage to Casablanca and Wick also ends up traversing a harsh desert, helping to give the film (and its multi-layered world) a unique visual flair. Wick is forced to turn to Sofia (Berry) for help in trying to appeal to the Elder of the High Table and get his bounty lifted but, along the way, he must fight scores of assassins and killers in increasingly brutal fight scenes and action sequences. This is where the strength of Parabellum, and the John Wick franchise, lies; like its predecessors, Parabellum’s plot is incredibly simple, allowing the world and intricate network of assassins to be expanded even further while Wick uses any means necessary to stay alive.

JW3Fights — *Wick is more than capable of handling mutliple foes…*

Wick is a character who doesn’t mess around; if he has a means to kill someone, he’ll use it, and he’s more than capable of engaging bigger, or multiple, foes, even with his bare hands. Once he gets a firearm in his hands, though, he doesn’t hesitate to unload his trademark gut shot/head shot combination at every opportunity. Parabellum is largely padded out by lengthy fight scenes, some of which you could argue go on a little too long, but it honestly never gets old seeing Wick find new ways to bludgeon his enemies to death or adapt to new situations. I am a massive fan of Keanu Reeves; I’ve enjoyed a lot of his movies and he’s an incredibly inspirational guy in real life too. Wick is a perfect character for his particular acting style, being soft spoken and direct; he doesn’t say too much and, when he does, generally opts for simple, short statements. Wick is generally cold and calculating in battle but is quick to rage and has a truly heartbreaking reason to stay alive. While it seems like he is set to undergo a dramatic character change mid-way through the movie, however, this plot point is suddenly and strangely dropped but the reward for this is some of the most brutal and exciting fight scenes put to film.

The Nitty-Gritty:
There isn’t too much to spoil here; John Wick beats a guy to death with a book, stabs another guy in the eye, and kills his way out of pretty much every situation he is in; however, the central plot revolves around Wick trying to appeal to the Elder of the High Table to have the bounty lifted and this is where some of Parabellum’s issues lie. Wick goes to great lengths, pushing himself to the point of death, to gain an audience with the Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui) and, in the end, is asked to do two things to get his bounty lifted: sever his ring finger and give up his wedding ring (and “his weakness”) and kill Winston, a man he considers a close friend. Wick, desperate to stay alive to remember his wife, doesn’t hesitate to do the former and it seems as though he is set to become the emotionless, remorseless Baba Yaga of legend but, when the time comes to kill Winston, Wick instead decides to spare his friend and fight alongside Charon (Lance Reddick) to defend the Continental.However, while they are able to route the Adjudicator’s army and Wick defeats Zero, Wick is seemingly betrayed by Winston in order for him to stay in the employ and favour of the High Table. Winston shoots Wick off the rooftop but Wick survives (thanks to his bulletproof suit and being John fuckin’ Wick) and is taken to the Bowery King, who was badly scarred by Zero earlier in the film, apparently setting the two up to fight against the High Table in a fourth movie. While it seems as though Winston knew Wick would survive and that his betrayal seems to have been planned, this turn right at the end of the film left me a little more confused than I expected to be. it seems that the conclusion is setting up Wick, Charon, Winston, and the Bowery King to join forces against the High Table and go to actual war but, instead of that or Wick degenerating into the ruthless killer he is said to have been, we’re left with an uncertain future for the inevitable fourth film, which is good for building anticipation but I think it might have landed better if it had been a bit more obvious that Winston hadn’t truly betrayed Wick.

The Summary:
If there’s one word you could use to sum up the John Wick franchise, it’s consistency (well, “brutality” would also work…); each movie is tightly choreographed and filmed, has some spectacular action scenes, and ups the ante in an effortless way. It’s quickly become a film franchise where it’s hard to pick a favourite, as each entry is just as good as the last; though John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum has some issues with its narrative choices, it more than makes up for it with its rich world and vicious fight sequences that make it a must-see for anyone who is a fan of action movies or wants to get into the genre.

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Talking Movies: It: Chapter Two

My Rating:

Great Stuff

The Teamos Connection

Movie Night: Angel Has Fallen

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Talking Movies: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

My Rating:

Pretty Good

10 FTW: Things I Hate About Movies

Game Corner: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox 360)

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: Spider-Man: Far From Home

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: X-Men: Dark Phoenix

My Rating:

Terrible

Movie Night: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Movie Night: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

My Rating:

Pretty Good

My Rating:

Great Stuff

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Pretty Good

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Terrible

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Pretty Good

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