X-Men: Days of Future Past

  • Title: X-Men: Days of Future Past
  • IMDB: link

X-Men: Days of Future PastHoping to bridge the gap between the success of X-Men: First Class and the more star-studded original X-Men films, and wash the taste of how horrifically that series ended, 20th Century Fox brought back director Bryan Singer and decided on adapting one of the long-running comic’s most popular stories for the big screen. The task set before Singer was no small one but the director steps up with X-Men: Days of Future Past and, in a Geoff Johns-ian effort of making disparate (and often inane) pieces fit, finds a way to deliver the best X-Men movie to date.

Opening in a dystopian not-too-far future the film sets up its basic premise of the time travel of a character’s mental consciousness in an opening action sequence involving Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) along with several mutants we haven’t seen before: Bishop (Omar Sy), Warpath (Booboo Stewart), Blink (Bingbing Fan), and Sunspot (Adan Canto). What we learn is that Kitty can send a X-Men’s mind back in time to his younger self to warn of coming dangers and change the outcome.

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First Look – Big Hero 6

  • Title: Big Hero 6
  • IMDB: link

Based on the comic of the same name, Disney’s first animated Marvel movie centers around a group of six superheroes are recruited by the Japanese government to protect the nation. Set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo this initial teaser gives us a look at young prodigy Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax who hope to join the fledgling team. The voice cast includes Josh Hutcherson, Freddie Highmore, Jamie Chung, T.J. Miller, Samuel L. Jackson, and Maya Rudolph. The film opens in theaters on November 7th.

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Batman – Christmas with the Joker

  • Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Christmas with the Joker
  • wiki: link

Batman - Christmas with the Joker

In honor of Batman‘s 75th Anniversary we turn out attention back to the Dark Knight’s more memorable moments on the big and small screen with another episode from Batman: The Animated Series. Although the episode was held to air during a more holiday-appropirate air date, “Christmas with the Joker” was the second episode of Batman: The Animated Series to be produced. Featuring the first appearance of both the Joker (Mark Hamill) and the Dick Grayson Robin (Loren Lester), the episode further built on the groundwork laid by “On Leather Wings” by introducing Arkham Asylum and reporter Summer Gleason (Mari Devon) for the first time.

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Chef

  • Title: Chef
  • IMDb: link

ChefAlthough the storyline doesn’t veer far from well-established basic themes we’ve seen in countless films over the years involving reinventing your life, father-son dynamics, road trips, and overcoming adversity, with the right ingredients and cast writer/director/star Jon Favreau delivers a sumptuous treat as delectable as the various food on display. Calling on the help of a handful of his old Iron Man buddies, Favreau offers up his best film yet in front of, or behind, the camera.

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Justice League United #1

Justice League United #1Not as strong as the new series’ opening zero issue, Justice League United #1 features the newly constituted Justice League Canadian team taking on a giant monster who is more than a match for Green Arrow, Animal Man, Stargirl, and the Martian Manhunter. While offering the same humor of last month’s issue, and wasting no time to get Adam Strange into a New 52 version of his trademark costume, things get a little bloodier this time around (particularly in the B-story involving Hawkman‘s battle with pseudo-Lobo in space).

While I still think this group of heroes can work, I’m having some doubts about the initial set-up here as it looks like it’s going to take at least a couple more issues to bring the full team together and make sense of things. A more straightforward first story, more centered on establishing the dynamics of the group and how the team works together would probably have worked better rather than throwing us into a pair of separate stories light years apart which are likely only to get more complicated as the Canadian group is transported to Rann. For fans.

[DC, $3.99]

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