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X-Men: Days of Future Past

/ / Movie Reviews
  • 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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Re-released on Home Video: The Last Samurai

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Last Samurai
  • IMDb: link

The Last Samurai

Released in theaters in 2003, director and co-writer Edward Zwick‘s film stars Tom Cruise as a former U.S. Army captain slowly drinking himself to death while hiding from the ghosts of his past and the massacre of Indian tribes in the American West which his intelligence helped facilitate. Brought out of his stupor by his former commanding officer (Tony Goldwyn), Nathan Algren is given the opportunity to travel to Japan and instruct the Imperial Japanese Army in modern warfare to suppress a samurai uprising.

Through a twist of fate Algren is captured by the samurai and taken deep into the mountains where he spends the winter as a guest of Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and living in the home of a woman (Koyuki) who his actions have turned into a widow. Algren and Katsumoto’s unlikely friendship is the cornerstone to the film as the pair learn, despite cultural differences, they have far more in common than either initially realizes.

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Godzilla

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Godzilla (2014)
  • IMDB: link

GodzillaGodzilla returns to the big screen in an American film for the first time since 1998. Although better than Roland Emmerich‘s much despised film, while outdoing the director known for CGI disaster porn, the new version of Godzilla isn’t without its own issues. As a summer popcorn flick the new Godzilla may satisfy in the short term but it’s unlikely to entice me to return to its story anytime soon (if ever).

Opening in 1999 in the Philippines where an ancient monster is awoken before it makes its way to Japan unseen (this happens more than you’d expect in the film) and destroys a nuclear reactor to feed on the radioactivity for the next 15 years, the film jumps forward to present day where the scientist in charge of the facility (Bryan Cranston) still struggles with what really happened. Although much of the extended opening centers around Cranston (which could be trimmed considerably), the movie’s main character is the scientist’s son Lieutenant Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a bomb disposal expert whose skills will come in quite handy before the end of the film.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • IMDB: link

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Building on the groundwork laid two years ago in The Amazing Spider-Man, the sequel returns all the core members of the first film (minus the Lizard) while continuing the story of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and the harsh lessons which frame Spider-Man’s mythology.

Although needing to spend the time setting up two different villain origin stories, one of the aspects of the sequel I most enjoyed was the fact that it never lost focus that this is primarily Peter Parker’s movie. Jamie Foxx is adequate as Electro, a super-villain with the power to absorb and control electricity, even if he’s given a rushed paint-by-the-numbers origin that relies on the introverted electrical engineer going from confused super-powered freak just trying to understand what has happened to him and deal with his new taste for all things electric to full-on super-villain a little too quickly for my tastes. The same could be said for Harry Osborne (Dane DeHaan) whose relationship with Peter doesn’t have enough time to develop and deteriorate to the point that the script needs to earn its eventual payoff.

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Samurai Jack #7

/ / Comics

Samurai Jack #7With Samurai Jack and the Scotsman both turned into females by the Leprechauns the pair’s two-issue gender-bending adventures continue as Samurai Jacqueline and the Scotswoman seek to complete their bargain with the devious imps and confront the giant Cuhullin the Cruel.

Only after confronting the massive creature in battle do Jack and the Scotsman uncover just how much they’ve been played by the evil imps and decide to do what they can to set things right. With the spell broken due to the giant’s wailing breaking the music of the curse (which is only slightly less awkward than it sounds), the restored Jack and Scotsman come up with a plan to help Cuhullin and teach the Leprechauns a much-deserved lesson.

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