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After the re-emergence of the world’s first mutant, world-destroyer Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan.
First thought that came to my mind, watching the opening scene of this film. Is this Stargate? But that would be unfair to Stargate, as it isn’t this camp. I am very disappointed with this film, that they haven’t utilised the wonderful source material, for a cohesive story. Such a rich source material filled with a variety of universes and well written characters. Since a fox cub (see what I did there?), I have been a fan the X-Men comics. I understand that in different medians, it is difficult to stick to the source material, but with this particular series, I don’t understand why they couldn’t or wouldn’t. Days Of Future Past was a good film, but was mediocre compared to First Class. I knew then things were taking a downturn with this series. And as a quip was made by a character after coming out from seeing Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi. ‘The third is always the worst.’ That would be funny, if not for the fact, that in this film’s case, it’s just true. I would rather watch The Last Stand again. And also Captain America: Civil War (You can find my review here ~Lone), was a very good film, the best in the series and the third film. So no Jean, they aren’t always the worst. And yes of course, Wolverine makes an appearance. Yawn. I love Wolverine, especially Hugh Jackman’s version, but let’s give the other characters a chance to shine, without him please. Although, well done for getting his Weapon X costume accurate. There were some new characters introduced in this film, but sadly they just go no screen time. One of note was Jubilee. Her costume looked great, the casting was good, but she got pretty much zip all screen time. You don’t even get to see her use her powers.
The plot is a convoluted mess, and doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do. It seems very desperate to repair the damage, the series has done to itself for the time travelling. It opens with Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) going through a ritual to transfer his consciousness to another mutant’s body, so he may stay young and beautiful, and acquire a new power. The humans revolt to kill him, and whilst he is incapacitated, his horsemen die protecting him, shielding him, in some kind of telekinetic energy. He slumbers for centuries, until the mega, bright 80’s. The scenes then travel through what the mutants are doing.
Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is a mutant rescuing Samaritan. She infiltrates a mutant cage fight in East Berlin, and rescues Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Angel (Ben Hardy). Angel flees, after his wing is injured by Nightcrawler in the cage match. Mystique takes Nightcrawler to a mutant trafficker Caliban, who helps her send Nightcrawler to America.
Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is working in a production factory in Poland, with a wife and a daughter (not Scarlet Witch). Where he is trying to live amongst the humans in peace, as Xavier does. Xavier (James McAvoy) and Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) are running the school for mutants, but disguised as a school for gifted children. Alex Summers (Lucas Till) collects his brother Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan), after his powers manifest and brings him to the school, so Xavier can help him. There he meets Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), a powerful telepath and telekinetic whom the other children are afraid of, since her nightmares make the school shake. They develop an attraction immediately. Storm (Alexandra Shipp) looks good, sporting a Mohawk, busy thieving on the streets of Cairo to support her and other street urchins, before she becomes Apocalypse’s new horseman, followed by Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel and Magneto. Apocalypse enhances each of their powers. But only Angel and Psylocke were Horsemen for Apocalypse, and they didn’t need their powers enhancing. Angel did have his wings transformed into metal, with technology. Storm has a poster of Mystique and longs to be just like her. As she was recorded saving the President Of The United States in Days Of Future Past. So she is some sort of ‘saviour’ for mutants.
Apocalypse is the first mutant and therefore loves his brothers and sisters. But then wants to destroy the world they live in, as the weaker species (humans) have taken over. I feel these motives are purely ridiculous, especially when taking into context, that if the world is destroyed, then how can they have a world for the mutants? He states he wants to rebuild it, but still he would need people to be alive, to help and rebuild it. Who wants to clean up that mess?
I don’t want to go into too many spoilers, so I will miss some of the plot points out. Xavier wants to find Magneto, and when he does, he learns he is with Apocalypse and then he discovers Xavier. Sensing a powerful telepath who can manipulate people, he decides Xavier is his next vessel. Xavier is kidnapped by Apocalypse and crew, leaving Mystique and the kids to rescue him. Before they can, Mystique and the left over grown ups are kidnapped by William Stryker. Nightcrawler uses his teleportation to get himself, Jean and Scott onto the helicopter, which is headed for a secret facility. As they are rescuing Mystique and crew, they meet Weapon X (Wolverine). Jean uses her telepathy to free him from the mind control and he runs off into the woods. Once they are all free, they then take on Apocalypse and crew.
Now for the cast. I really am not a fan of Sophie Turner. I didn’t like her performance in Game Of Thrones, and I just didn’t feel she was a very good Jean Grey. She just seemed devoid of emotions. Michael Fassbender was on top form as Magneto again, emulating his tortured soul. James McAvoy brings his comedic charm to the role of Xavier again. Jennifer Lawrence shines as Mystique. Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse was a nice surprise, but even he couldn’t save those terrible lines of dialogue. Evan Peters makes a return as Quicksilver, and my favourite version of him. His sarcastic quips are spot on for the character. Olivia Munn looked very much like Psylocke, but she didn’t get enough screen time, I felt. I am hoping they bring her back in the next film, and give her chance. Psylocke is one of my favourite characters. Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, well just another generic teenager. Alexandra Shipp as Storm, is also another one that didn’t get that screen time she needed. I thought she was a very good Storm. Ben Hardy as Angel, well he didn’t make much of an impact. Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler was fantastic. Not only did he look like Kurt Wagner, but also embodied him, with the nervous, but strong hero. Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert again, and I still don’t like Moira as a CIA agent.
As a fan of the comics, I really didn’t enjoy this film. It wasn’t a good superhero film, or a good action film. With Singer at the helm once more, I was expecting more. Sadly I was disappointed.
Based on the hit video game series, Batman must find a bomb planted by the Joker while dealing with a mysterious team of villains called, The Suicide Squad.
Leading on from the story of Batman: Arkham Origins, the last game that wasn’t overly great (because it wasn’t made by Rocksteady). This new DC Anime follows Amanda Wallers Suicide Squad on a mission to kill the Riddler.
The voice cast of the games and the animated Batman series from the 90’s return to voice the usual suspects, Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Joker (Troy Baker). This time around, Harley Quinn is voiced differently (although I genuinely thought it WAS Tara Strong, I’m surprised to find she was voiced brilliantly by Hynden Walch instead)
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For the majority of the film, Batman actually isn’t in it and honestly, it’s a stronger film for him NOT being there. This story is ALL ABOUT the Suicide Squad!
Made up of Deadshot (Neal McDonough), Harley Quinn, Killer Frost (Jennifer Hale), Black Spider (Giancarlo Esposito) and King Shark (John DiMaggio). The Suicide Squad are sent by Amander waller (CCH Pounder) to kill The Riddler (Matthew Gray Gubler), who happens to be in Arkham Asylum after Batman stopped Waller capturing Riddler at the beginning of the film and throwing him Arkham, instead of allowing Waller to kill him.
All the while, the Joker has a dirty bomb hidden somewhere in Gotham, ready to go off and Batman is on the hunt for it.
The animation quality is SUPREME, as is the story itself (besides, it has Harley Quinn in it, so of course it’s epic!) although it takes off after the not so great Batman: Arkham Origins game, it uses the games version of the characters, including Penguin (Nolan North) and Bane (John DiMaggio)
The characters are all believable, and even relateable, I have a new appreciation for Deadshot for instance, who is on the team for his daughter, not for his sin’s, like the other super villains.
Although it’s out now on iTunes, I’d definitely recommend grabbing Batman: Assault on Arkham when it’s DVD release drops in a couple of weeks, especially if you’ve played the Arkham games aswell
Ok, it’s not often we post fan made stuff (we really should do more, making a note for later), but when a project is actually OK’d by Games Workshop (who make Nintendo look easy going on Copyright stuff), I sit up and take note…
Check THIS out:
Ok, this looks epic, but what REALLY stands out is that this was rendered in Real Time, which is a big deal if you make videos
Still no release date for this, but looking THIS cool, I think it’s worth the wait!
A multi-layered series that looks back to the formative years of Ryu and Ken as they live a traditional warrior’s life in secluded Japan. The boys are, unknowingly, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as “Ansatsuken” (Assassin’s Fist). The series follows them as they learn about the mysterious past of their master, Goken, and the tragic, dark legacy of the Ansatsuken style. Can their destiny be changed, or will history repeat itself?
Well, time for our first on demand/youtube review and what a doozey of a review aswell…
Season 1 of Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, the follow on to the Youtube short from 2010, Streetfighter: Legacy, which showed a night time fight between Ryu and Ken and got the whole of Street Fighter fandom around the world salivating for a real live action Street Fighter spectacle (especially after the travesty that was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li)
This is very much a prequel to the First Street Fighter: World Warriors game/story and the years of Ryu (Mike Moh) and Ken Master (Christian Howard) training, aswell as the young life and training of their Sensei Goken (Akira Koieyama) and his brother Goki (Gaku Space), and his betrayal of Gotetsu (Togo Igawa) to become Akuma (Joey Ansah), the Demon of the No Hado!
The first thing that strikes straight away is the choreography of the training and fight scenes. The training is utterly wonderful to watch and the fight scenes, especially the CGI added for the ingame moves, like the Hadouken and ShoRyuKen look cool.
Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, the locations are stunning too, the perfect backdrop for the training of two young world warriors into the video game characters we’ve been knocking heads with for nearly 30 years now
What I WASN’T expecting, yet supremely surprised about was the introduction of Ken’s father (Mark Killeen) in Episode 4: A Rough Night, a boxer, who spends a day training with Ryu and Ken and showing them a few of his moves. What really stood out most in this episode was the bond and training these actors and fighters have, the moves and dialect is fluid and warm and the fighting/training is quick and beautiful to watch aswell.
But they also get a taste of street fighting at a local bar against some American GI’s (and leave them in a mess of course) in this episode, of course we see Ken in full flow offering large bets, while Ryu looks out of his depth and uncomfortable being thrown into the ring. Everything we know about these characters is there and real.
The real stand out throughout the series though is Goken, more than just their teacher, he’s a father figure and one that is respected and loved by both teenagers, and the flashbacks to his own training and trials with his brother Goki under the training of Gotetsu is part of the Street Fighter legacy that hasn’t been deeply looked into before now and it was good to get to know.
Goki’s transformation into Akuma is good to watch aswell, almost a rocky level montage of his body falling apart under the power of the No Hado and his transformation into the demon Akuma is great to watch.
The one thing that I don’t get with this series is why its even a series. All 12 episodes were released right away and at 9/10 minutes an episode, I have to ask why… If this was released on DVD/BluRay as a feature length episode, like , Then I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Here’s hoping Machinima see sense to release it as a movie.
Now, to get back into the dojo myself, this gave me a definite recharge to my No Hado!
