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

When Tony Stark’s world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

Ok, Avengers Phase 2 begins here and get’s off to a strong start
Many people were put off by the low showing by Iron Man 2 and I can totally understand that, it wasn’t the top notch film it could have been, but as part of a whole, it added to Avengers

*Spoilers ahead*

So now we are in Phase 2 and after the events of the Alien invasion of New York by Loki and his alien army, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering from Post Traumatic stress Disorder and having nightmares about the invasion that he nearly gave his life to stop.
This is also causing issues with his relationship with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is now completely running Stark Industries (didn;t she quit the job at the end of Iron Man 2?!?) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is now her bodyguard and the head of Stark Industries security aswell

The film starts strongly before kicking back to a flashback of Tony at New Years 1999/2000 and we meet Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), a molecular botonist not only having a fling with Tony, but looking for his help to make her research, named “Extremis”, work, without blowing up.  At this point we also meet Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who tries, and fails spectacularly, to try and get Tony to join AIM (Advanced Ideas Mechanics), but Tony leaves him waiting on the roof of the hotel without meeting him as the Year 2000 celebrations kick off

We then jump back to the present day and again Aldrich Killian is a very changed man, but still trying to team up with Tony and bring him into AIM, at this point, Happy becomes suspicious and starts to follow up on Aldrich and his bodyguard.  This leads Happy into an explosive situation that lands him in the hospital and rattles Tony’s cage.   This is where we properly meet the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), an enigmatic terrorist, more than happy to kill and threaten to get what he wants. 

Tony, now rattled, threatens the Mandarin via the press outside the hospital and brings us back to the opening, explosive action scene.

Now, the first thing to notice about Iron Man 3 is how it’s shot.   There is a huge difference between this and all the Phase 1 Avengers films.   It’s much slicker, the special effects are a massive step up, but there is a LOT of comedy. 
Shane Black, does a great job with the film, even the slow parts of the film are filled with content to keep you interested.  But when you realise that this is the same director who wrote most of the Lethal Weapon films, you start to see just how well he has done the film for the star and in Robert Downey Jr. he has a star that can pull off comedic moments, even if the heaviest of action (although it’s a shame Iron Man 3 could be the retirement film for RDJ as shellhead).  The story and direction of the film follows Stark fantastically, there’s no getting to know this character, there’s no character development for the main cast as we’ve had two films for that already.
BUT, thats where the film falls over for other characters like Maya Hansen, Killian and ESPECIALLY the Mandarin.  The film leaves a lot of WTF moments, ESPECIALLY for comic book fans who know all these story moments and wonder, not only why they are there, but why they are merging characters…   Ok, Iron Patriot can’t be Norman Osbourne, not yet anyway, or at least until Sony and Disney do a deal to bring Spiderman back into the fold, but Iron Patriot in the comics was Norman Osbourne when he made the government turn on the Avengers and he took over and made the Dark Avengers and he stole all Tony’s armour secrets.

These issues aren’t just limited to Iron Patriot, but also the main plotline of the film, “Extremis”!  In the comics, it was Tony that was infected with the virus, but it allowed him to merge with the armour and changed the way he used it, not so here and I think that was a major mistake for the fans, we want the Extremis armour, we want to see the armour not just flying to Tony, but coming out of his body and being part of him!

Did these things hurt the film?  No, the character development hurt it a little, but the huge story changes from the comics, not so much.
Now, Phase 2 of avengers has a strong start, as I mentioned above, but we have a few films that could go either way and hurt the franchise…

We’re into mainly sequels now and here’s hoping the good pace that Shane Black started with Iron Man 3 is kept up with the rest.  
Thor 2 is potentially the one that could sink Phase 2, Thor was generally left on the back burner of Phase 1, people are happy to leave it and Thor 2 could go the same way, but we’ll have to wait until October to find out, but it’ll be worth the wait

If you’ve seen all of Phase 1, watch Iron Man 3.  If you haven’t, watch them first or you will be missing key info needed to enjoy this film

Solid 8/10 though

~Lone

Ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives his nemesis, detective Max Lewinsky, one last chance to catch the man he’s always been after.

March was an interesting month for movie fans, ESPECIALLY James McAvoy fans, as not only was he in Welcome to the Punch, but also the CRAZY Trance aswell (which I’ll be writing the review of later this week (yes I’m catching up on reviews)

So yes, Welcome to the Punch, is a proper old school British gangster film, with a star cast of the finest calibre British actors aswell.

Now I must say from the off, I am a huge fan of British films, especially the gangster films like Lock, Stock and L4yer cake.  But Welcome to the Punch added an even grittier, almost American story to the British gangster styling that works really well.

James McAvoy plays Max Lewinsky, a London detective that’s injured while trying to arrest Mark Strong‘s character, Jacob Sternwood.

A gruff and injured detective, still injured and trying to move on with his injury and his job and life and smarting from missing out on capturing Jacob.  His captain, played by the awesome David Morrissey, and his partner/girlfriend, played by the very attractive Andrea Riseborough, try to keep him on track, but he is slowly spiralling into anger and depression.

During this time, Sternwood’s son has gotten himself into a heist gone bad and before he can escape the country to join his dad in Iceland, his injuries get the better of him and he ends up in hospital, bringing Jacob back to London to find out what happened and in the process, brings him back into the sights of Max.

Of course nothing is as simple and the two very soon realise more is going on than they realise and the grittier side of the story starts to unfold

Now, compared to other gritty British gangster films, especially those that Danny Boyle have done (because lets face it, he’s one of our best Directors), Welcome to the Punch is up there!  I’ll definitely be adding it to my DvD/BluRay collection next to Lock, Stock and L4yer cake for sure.  The story is solid, the characters are believable, but not over the top and the actors playing them are all top notch aswell.  It’s also beautifully shot aswell, all the sets are rather lavish and believable aswell.

If you haven’t already seen it (yes this review is a little late, ok its a month late I know, I forgot to post it earlier), then make sure you grab it on Netflix or DvD/BluRay when you can, it deserves space on your shelf/hard drive for sure!

8/10

~Lone