An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

I missed this one at the cinema over the summer and damn I wish I hadn’t.

We’ve had some stunning special effects films this year, (Iron Man 3 for instance) but this is a tour de force of special effects!

Now I am a sucker for illusion (just ask Movian, he rarely paid for a round just because of his card tricks) and Now You See Me had me totally sucked in from teh beginning

I’ve become a bit of a fan of Mark Ruffalo since Avengers (of course taking over the HULK role from Edward Norton, and honestly, I think it was a good change) and he is damned good as the FBI agent continually on the back foot and spun around by the Four Horseman.  His Interpol partner Alma Dray (played by Mélanie Laurent) is a great juxtaposition to Ruffalo’s Dylan Rhodes, Learning and reading all about the culture of magic and magicians circle, etc, plus a budding romance that is actually quite sweet.

Of course, the stars of the film are the Four Horsemen, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinnley (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco).  Jack is the new boy, picked for his brilliant pick pocketing and illusion skills, but Atlas, Reeves and McKinnley have history (Reeves being Atlas’ assistant in the past and then going her own way solo), all bought together by a mysterious figure and given all the tools and planning for a year of amazing magic and illusion (and a few massive bank heists thrown in the mix)

The film is a rollercoaster ride, its a constant up and down, but the pace is magnificent.  The characters work brilliantly, including Morgan Freeman‘s Thaddeus Bradley, who professionally debunks and exposes magicians tricks after not getting into the magic circle himself and wanting revenge on the whole business, plus Michael Caine‘s Arthur Tressler, the Four Horseman’s financial backer (or is he :P)

This is, as I said, an amazing film, it’s beautiful, it’s funny and grimm in equal measure, the characters are genuinely likeable and you will them on.   The action is grand and the effects are LITERALLY magical (sorry, I had to)

If you haven’t seen this film, go get it

9/10  A Must See!

~Lone

An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman’s Atlantis and Wonder Woman’s Amazons

The DC animated film series has caught up with the changes for the “New 52” that happened in the comics

And strangely, the speedster is the reason for this HUGE change, unlike the usual suspects of Superman or Batman

The film starts with a young Barry Allen and his mum stuck on the side of the road, car broken down and instantly you see the bond this mother and son have (plus a very Spiderman-esque, “With great power, comes great resposibility” moment too).  This quickly shifts to Barry coming home to find his mother dead from a home invasion on her b’day.

Now I’ll admit, I’ve always seen the Speedster as the joker of the Justice League, but Flashpoint Paradox shows him as a responsible and loving member of the team instead.  Yes there are wise cracks, but this story shows even more so how Flash is the soul of this team.  Now we’ve seen what happens when Lex Luthor killed Flash, the JLA become the Justice Lords and took over the world, but what about a world where Flash’s mother survived the home invasion, Bruce died in the alleyway instead of his mother and father, Superman was found by the government instead of the Kents, Aquaman and Wonder Woman formed an alliance, that led to war after they have an affair and Mara is killed by Wonder Woman and Aquaman looks for revenge…  Well, the world is pretty fucked up to be fair and Barry Allen is the only man who can fix it (Well, Superman could if he wasn’t a reclusive frail man that has no clue)

I had to read up on this after watching it as I am MASSIVELY behind on DC comics of late (Sorry, but Marvel has held my attention far more in teh last few years)

Flashpoint was the end of the “52” years and the start of the “New 52” reboot and it makes complete sense.  BUT, unless you know what changed, you just have to accept the changes and the WTF moment you get at the end of this animated film

Now I’ve said this before and I will say it again.

Marvel have won the live action films for their heroes and although I loved Man of Steel, I was NOT a fan of The Dark Knight Trilogy.  I would be exceptionally happy if DC stuck to doing the animated films, while Marvel stick to doing the feature films.

Flashpoint Paradox is a perfect animated film from DC and leads us straight into Justice League: War, which is coming next year (there is even a little post credits scene that brings that into readiness)

The animation at the start was a little off and sometimes I’m not a fan of the animation style in this film, especially when it comes to some of the fight scenes where they are trying to show power in the characters (the elongated look of the character, almost Aeon Flux style), but I like the changes to the characters and the story is top notch aswell, so it is totally deserving a space in your DvD/BluRay shelves

8/10

Buy It!

~Lone

The world is turned upside down as Flash wakes up devoid of his super powers in the all-new DC Universe Original Animated Movie.

An Unstoppable Android On The Horizon. A Mysterious Fireball Hurtling Toward Earth. A Fearless and Beautiful Reporter who’ll stop at nothing to get her story. Its just another day for the Heroic “Man of Steel”, only this time for better or for worse, he has his unpredictable cousin,”Supergirl” by his side. The Gritty adventure begins as Superman learns about the ruthless Force known as “Brainiac“, who has seized and miniaturized “Krypton’s” capital city of Kandor. Determined to liberate the captured Metropolis and protect his home planet from Braniac’s increasing power, Superman takes on his most menacing enemy yet in this DC Animated original Movie Based on the Gripping Comic Book Miniseries.

Superman: Brainiac is up there as one of the best Superman comic stories/graphic novels of all time, and the animated version takes the story to a whole new level.

The animation is slick (with a couple of minor niggles which are easily over looked in the whole) and some great voice acting by the likes of Matt Bomer as Superman, Stana Katic as Lois Lane and John Noble as Brainiac

We learn one of the origin stories of Brainiac and has thirst for knowledge and how Supergirl came to Earth and how different she is from Superman, because although she was born before Kal-El, Kara Zor-El was in statis on the trip to Earth and never went through the wormhole Kal-el’s ship did, so she is still a teenager who just gained powers under our yellow son, compared to Clark who grew up and learned about them naturally.  Her teenage angst, mainly directed AT Superman for trying to reign her in while she comes to terms with her baby cousin now being 15 years older than her.

We also get to see just how powerful Superman (and Supergirl) really can be, we see both hold back AND cut loose with their powers and emotions (esecially a teenage girls emotions, couple with super powers *shudder*), but there is a lot of character here too, from Superman trying to look after, yet protect his cousin, PLUS his reckless girlfriend Lois, to Lois wanting to take her relationship with Clark public and also getting to know Kara, to Kara finding herself.   Then we also have Brainiacs character, how he works and thinks and why he does what he does.

The films running time of 75 minutes flies past as the story keeps pace really easily.  The story has been lovingly done from the comic story and barely misses a step.

The fight scenes are gorgeous to watch aswell, the animation, as I said above is slick and the character design style is very uptodate

The drawings is crisp and although stylised, looks good too (better than the last Superman/Batman anime anyway).  It has just the right hint of Japanese style anime, but western drawing style that keeps it fluid

This is a perfect Anime/Movie for a fan and even a novice alike.  Lets just hope this summers Man of Steel lives upto the billing, but if not, at least we have one fantastic superman film this year

8/10  you need this in your collection!

~Lone