DUNKIRK: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

War movies. Let’s face it, they’ve been done to death. We’ve seen every type of war movie and in many respects, they all kind of blend into one with a lot of the same characters, same moments and same beats just repeated over and over again with just a different set of actors and interchanging between different eras of war in the 20th and 21st century. War movies have in many ways, gone the way of the Western, not really feeling as relevant as they used to. So I guess the big question is, why would Christopher Nolan delve into such a well-trodden genre? Well much like Film Noir, the Comic Book genre and Science Fiction, to reinvent them in his own Nolan-esque way. 

So Dunkirk is based on the true story of 400,000 allied soldiers stranded in the town of Dunkirk in France. Surrounded by German soldiers, these worn down men are just trying to get home, but when they can’t get off the beach to get home, home comes to them. We have Tom Hardy in the sky, Cillian Murphy at sea and Harry Styles on land; Hardy is trying to keep the enemy at bay and himself out of the ocean, Murphy is in the ocean trying to get to any land other than Dunkirk and Styles, along with so many other soldiers, is just trying to get away. So in-between a story that takes place at land, on sea and in the air, Christopher Nolan adds an extra element to the storytelling: all three stories are told in three different timelines, over a period of one hour, one day, and one week. 

Yet again, Christopher Nolan uses discontinuous editing to force us as an audience to pay attention. It’s not enough that the film already has rich visuals, a nerve-wracking soundtrack and intense challenges for all involved, Nolan demands your full-attention by effortlessly switching between each of the three timelines as we witness a war film that really harkens back to the kind of films that inspired many other great filmmakers. 

But what else has Nolan done to reinvigorate a rather dormant or at the very least repetitive genre? One of the big things which is a staple of a Nolan blockbuster is his insistence on scope and scale. With Wally Pfister moving more into the director’s chair, Nolan returns with the cinematographer from Interstellar who just knows how to fill the frame. Each shot has incredible depth and when the action happens, intensity kicks in for the simple fact that you can always see the danger getting closer and closer as our characters try to figure out what to do. Whether it be bullets or bombs there’s something about the cinematography that really grips you as each character struggles for their own type of survival in this film. 

Adding to the scope and scale of the cinematography, is just how much of the footage has been done in camera. Sinking real ships and flying real planes adds to the realism that Christopher Nolan is projecting towards the audience. Yes of course there is some CGI in the footage, but only to enhance what is already there as opposed to over-powering what is already there. However there is no doubting just how scary these sequences would be in reality when we see water engulf hundreds of soldiers trapped in a ship or the height in which soldiers travel in the air when an explosion hits. Nolan pushes the IMAX format in ways that just constantly reminds you of how many people were trapped on that beach and delivers some powerful vertigo in the dogfights which makes you realize why George Lucas watched World War II dogfight footage and felt inspired to make Star Wars. It only makes me wonder what kind of filmmakers will emerge after seeing this film. 

Of course it wouldn’t be a Christopher Nolan film without a Hans Zimmer soundtrack and this time he hasn’t fallen asleep on the organ like he did on Interstellar but rather gives us an intense soundtrack with an incredible sense of urgency that is driven by the constant ticking of Nolan’s own stopwatch. The music is expertly placed and keeps you on the edge of your seat. In the quiet moments, the ticking reminds you that you are never safe, but when it’s loud, it has meaning, it has an effect and it has you squirming in your seat. 

This is definitely one of Nolan’s strongest films to date, however, this film will not be for everyone, sometimes it will not be for every Nolan fan. Those accustomed to the traditional tropes and conventions of a war movie may feel a little disconcerted by some of Nolan’s choices. One of the biggest things you will notice in the film is that there is very lite on dialogue - as a matter of fact the films entire dialogue probably fits on maybe five to six pages of the completed script. You would struggle to be able to name any of the characters because most characters don’t talk to one another. There are no moments where characters are sitting around campfires sharing stories from home, there’s no ham-fisted expositional dialogue to let the audience know the name, rank and serial number of any of the characters - it’s just a very believable way in which these characters would interact in a situation like this. When the enemy may shoot at you from any possible vantage point, why would you talk, let alone whisper? When you are trying to survive amongst guns and explosions, do you really need casual discussions for the benefit of the audience? This may throw some people off, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not a more realistic take on the situation. 

Another thing that may throw some fans of war movies is the complete lack of blood. Done countless times in films like Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket we were given insight into the horrors of war and this time, Nolan takes a different approach. Much like Spielberg threw us into the thick of it at the start of Saving Private Ryan, Nolan immerses us in the experience through the noise, the dirt and the uncertainty - he just doesn’t show the blood, we see the impact of these events on the characters through their actions and the creases in their faces and this is just as effective, but some war movie buffs may find the bloodless battle a detraction. 

Ultimately, with Nolan doing what he does best thanks to scale, scope, realism, Zimmerism along with discontinuous editing, we get another film that will appease most Nolan fanatics and please many a war movie fan. With some elements that some may struggle to get past for enjoyment, there is no denying that the film is intense, engaging and lean thanks to Nolan’s shortest runtime since his first film The Following. Nolan fans will argue where this ranks amongst all his other work but when the bar is set so high with Nolan, it’s an argument worth having, although the benefit of time and hindsight may help to properly rank when all is said and done.

Dunkirk gets Four and a Quarter really solid Stars (yes, even the quarter star is solid) 

BABY DRIVER: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

You know, there has been so much talk about how “cool” Baby Driver is. So many critics and people saying, “man it’s so cool”, “it just oozes coolness”. The film has been a long time coming and now that it’s finally out and I’ve seen it, and I finally get it: this film is cool. It’s so cool that it’s almost like James Dean, Quentin Tarantino and David Bowie just got together and made “Three Men & A Baby Driver” kind of cool. 

So the film stars Ansel Elgort, who plays Baby, an incredibly talented getaway driver who drives to the beat of an astounding soundtrack. When Baby has finally paid off his debt to a criminal mastermind played by Kevin Spacey, he is pulled back into the world of bank robberies, car-jacking and danger around every corner when this new job pairs Baby with some volatile yet indispensably cool characters including Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, and Eiza Gonzalez. In between all this Baby is trying to run away with his new love Debora played by Lily James and try to protect his ailing foster-dad played by CJ Jones - oh yeah and it has a killer soundtrack and was written and directed by Edgar Wright.

Now it has been a long time between drives for Edgar Wright with one of the more obvious reasons being his commitment and then departure from 2015’s Ant-Man however this film really does feel like the return of an old creative buddy who wants to show you his latest batch of awesomeness. Of course no sooner than five minutes into the film we’ve had smarter storytelling, better cinematography and more creative car stunts than all of the Fast & Furious films combined. 

But what is that makes Edgar Wright a one-of-a-kind director. It’s hard to pick a director that has the same type of creative energy and enthusiasm as Edgar Wright, and that’s no disrespect to other directors, it’s just that Edgar Wright films have a very unique feel. A rewatch-ability built from some incredibly passionate and layered filmmaking; from the storyline, to the cinematography, to the editing, to the unadulterated embrace of the genre, Edgar Wright films always have that special something. And Baby Driver is no different.  

So what makes Baby Driver’s storyline so good? Well, it’s fairly simple: clear good guys, clear bad guys, clear motivations for all characters involved and ultimately this leads to Edgar Wright being able to layer the film with lots of incredibly subtle foreshadowing which will have you wanting to watch the film again and again. Be it the simple turn of phrase by a character, a innocent looking action of one of the key cast or something simply happening in the background; all of this adds up to great foreshadowing that links every element of the story together. 

The cinematography is slick once again thanks to Edgar Wright’s third collaboration with The Matrix’s Bill Pope who has really helped to craft some of the most intense car and foot chases since The French Connection and as I mentioned before, leaves the Fast & Furious franchise in the slow lane. But beyond this, Bill Pope frames each shot to have impact, to have meaning; this obviously feeds into Edgar Wright’s foreshadowing and storytelling, but ultimately means your eyes are glued to the screen at all times. 

Add to all this, Edgar Wright’s editing style which keeps the story moving, keeps the film lean and only enhances Bill Pope’s cinematography. The film moves so fast that blinking seems like a sin and reinforces yet again that the film needs to be seen more than once just to absorb everything that is infused into the film. Much like his previous films, this movie is edited in time with the soundtrack, however this time the soundtrack plays an even bigger role. It drives the story and sets the pace, and like all the songs featured in the film, it is fast, lean and pulsating to say the least. 

Of course, the editing, cinematography and storyline are all in service to the getaway driver genre - much like all of Edgar Wright’s films, he fully immerses himself and the audience into the genre. Every word, every action is in service to the genre: characters act the way we expect in this genre, the beats hit the way they should in this genre and Wright manages to imprint a freshness to all these elements due to his passion for a project. 

But is this film for everybody? It should be, but it won’t, some viewers may find the convenience and connections within the film all too… convenient. The humor may not be to everyone’s taste and the genre may not necessarily be that appealing. However, if you are looking for something fresh, fun and most importantly in a world filled with prequels, sequels, inbetweenquels, adaptations, and remakes, something that’s original; you may just find something to watch and rewatch again and again. 

Baby Driver gets Four and a Half mixtape burn-out getaway good times out of Five.

SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

In one of Marvel’s more riskier moves, in the wake of Captain America Civil War, Doctor Strange and Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, we get a film about a teenage boy being, mentored shall we say, by an eccentric older gentleman who happens to be a billionaire and insists on making said teenage boy wear skin-tight spandex and perform acrobatics.  However, in all seriousness, it’s the movie that every Marvel fan has been waiting for for nearly a decade now: a Spider-Man film set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe; but the big question is, is this film “amazing”? 

No, no, no, no…. It’s not “amazing”, it’s “spectacular”!!

So it’s two months after the events of Civil War and eight years after the Battle Of New York and a minor headache trying to figure out the timeline considering The Avengers came out in 2012; we have a young Peter Parker balancing high school and aspirations to be an Avenger. He’s dodging his friends and other responsibilities all in hope of Iron Man giving him a call for a new adventure. Meanwhile, Adrian Toomes, played by the original Batman Michael Keaton has been secretly scavenging weaponry from all of The Avengers previous battles, however when Spidey and The Vulture cross paths, things escalate for everyone involved. 

Now Marvel fans do not need to be convinced to see this film - they’re all already up to their third screening of this whilst I’m furiously working away on this review - however, what about general audiences who are on the fence with yet another Spider-Man reboot or just aren’t as invested in following the ever expansive cinematic universe and dump-trucks filled with money that is also known as Marvel Studios? 

The main things to address are the concerns these people may have: first off, the film does not rehash the origin story yet again, we are not inflicted with another tortured angst-ridden Peter Parker, it’s a kid who actually enjoys being Spider-Man; Even though Robert Downey Jnr. features heavily in the trailers, this is not Iron Man 4 (or Iron Man 5 if you consider Civil War to be Iron Man 4) - Tony Stark and Iron Man show up in very small chunks and at no point overshadows the story of Spider-Man. The one-and-done bland villain problem of other Marvel movies is absent in this film because Michael Keaton creates genuine motivation for his character and can flick between charming and menacing with seasoned ease. There’s no light-beam in the sky or death from above tropes to this film, Spider-Man Homecoming keeps it grounded whilst still providing some really spectacular aerial acrobatics.  Overall, for a character who has been in seven films in total over the last fifteen years and seen three actors portray a well known and well-treaded character, Spider-Man Homecoming manages to keep things fresh.  

This no doubt comes down to the talent on-screen. Tom Holland is the Peter Parker and Spider-Man you never realized that you needed so badly. His childlike glee and fascination with everything is accompanied by insecurities and a unsureness that are relatable and endearing. Whether he is hyper-actively asking a thousand and one questions to Happy Hogan or his suit, or hanging his head sheepishly when being spoken down to by Tony Stark or The Vulture; Tom Holland is easily the most fascinating of the Spider-Men we have had over the last fifteen years. Thankfully Tom Holland is also supported by a diverse cast which once again keep this interpretation feeling fresh. It is more representative of a high school environment and adds new layers to characters that we may or may not have seen before. For example, Tony Revolori’s Flash Thompson is still a bully, but a different type of bully to previous versions of the character - and of course, Jacob Batalon’s Ned Lees and Peter Parker are just the most adorable best friends I’ve seen on screen in a long time and easily has become a new #FriendshipGoal.

If there was one complaint or fault, and it is only minimal, is that with such a large and diverse cast, some characters don’t really get an opportunity to properly shine or reach their full potential. Now some may say that the casting choices of the smaller roles were nothing more than stunt casting, however I would say that casting people like Donald Glover, Hannibal Burness and Martin Starr in these smaller roles helps to make those smaller moments stand out. Each adds their own charm to characters that could easily have been ignored otherwise. 

Of course it wouldn’t be a Marvel film without Easter eggs and this film has more Easter eggs flying left, right and centre than a meth-fueled Easter bunny trying to stash the evidence before the Easter bunny police arrive. Keen eyes will see lots of references to the previous films, there is some real world-building of just the Spider-Man universe with things that are said, characters that show up along with other great things that include very subtle visual explanations for why actors such as Kenneth Choi shows up in this film despite already having played a character in Captain America The First Avenger. 

Ultimately, Spider-Man Homecoming is a welcome return to form after several poorly conceived Sony Spider-Man films. This movie builds on the promise shown in Captain America Civil War and offers a wide range of fresh possibilities for Marvel’s favorite future Avenger. With Avengers Infinity War only ten months away, Spider-Man Homecoming will have you thwipping for more. 

Spider-Man Homecoming gets Four and a Quarter out of Five meth-fueled Easter bunnies showering us with lovely Marvel Easter eggs.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

You know, after five films over the span of the last ten years, you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael Bay actually likes Transformers, however, five films in and all evidence points towards one thing: Michael Bay doesn’t give a f*&k! He doesn’t care for characters, for mythology, he doesn’t give a f*&k about storytelling, aspect ratios and doesn’t give a f*&k about the human f*&king race!!

OK, so before we start, I should say that this will probably turn out to be more rant than review. 

So five films in and we’re still doing the same damn things. Yes Shia LeBouf is no longer here but we’re stuck with Marky Mark and we still have the same story being recycled over and over again: As always, we discover that the Transformers have been on Earth before, impending doom is on the horizon and a Earth-saving Maguffin is found by a human and both the Autobots and Decepticons are both in pursuit of said Maguffin. A whole bunch of human characters chew up screen-time which ultimately adds up to nothing more than padding. Big battles, non-sensical action, pointless plots and sub-plots, cringe-inducing humour, over-stuffed climax, convenient plot-devices to wrap up the finale, end with Optimus Prime sending out yet another message to Transformers to visit Earth to set up yet another f*&king sequel. 

The film offers very little in new material and offers us all the same things that we have seen before/ suffered through before. You’d hope that after five films, Michael Bay would have learned a couple of things about story-telling but unfortunately, we are stuck with the same problems that we have had in the previous four films. What problems you may ask? 

Well yet again we have set up that leads to no legitimate pay-off let alone a connection to what passes for a storyline. Remember we saw dinosaurs at the beginning of Age Of Extinction and that had nothing to do with the rest of the film let alone the Dinobots?  Well this time we have Stanley Tucci playing Merlin in Medieval Times; there is no attempt to explain or resolve why Tucci is playing two different characters in the same film franchise. We have humans working with Decepticons again for… reasons. Yet again, a bunch of robot characters are introduced, they are all broad stereotypes and then none of them actually feature in the film in favor of a bunch of useless human characters who are all equal parts annoying and assholes. The film decides to retcon the mythology set-up in the previous films yet again - meaning lots of expositional bullsh*t that eats up the run-time and makes all previous storylines defunct, questionable and overall frustrating. 

Of course, Michael Bay also considers himself a comedian, and we are not spared from his perceived “comedy gold” in this film. Bay thinks he’s a funny guy but his “comedy” is even more frequent in this film and more tone-deaf than ever. Comedy is just wedged in the oddest places in this movie and interrupts any flow or momentum the movie might be garnering. On top of this, as always, Michael Bay’s idea of funny harbours deep-seated racism, misogyny, homophobia and sexism whether it be one of these things or a combination in a single character or moment, be it directly, indirectly or back-handily; yet again, Michael Bay has not learned anything from previous films. 

If I had to award this film one credit, it’s the same credit that you have to award the previous films: Industrial Light & Magic’s special effects are jaw-dropping, they really have managed to create photorealistic giant talking robots that look like they exist in the real-world (just as long as the real world doesn’t have to include physics or gravity).  However, even these great visual effects are undercut by Michael Bay’s insistence on switching between three different aspect ratios throughout the film - does he use this in a smart way that enhances the story? Well, to summarise, Bay likes to use the I-Max camera whenever he is filming this installments “hot chick” played by The Inbetweeners’ Laura Haddock and then uses a regular old boring 35mm camera when shooting Marky Mark - even when they are in the same scene together! So yeah, no real artistic integrity can be argued here….

Now as a fan of the original animated series, I just struggle to see how this franchise has always managed to get it so wrong. I don’t want a carbon copy of the animated series, but I always feel that these films have just missed the point of what made the original TV series so great. It was a simple story about good guys and bad guys. The bad guys wanted to rip the Earth of its’ natural resources with no care for human casualties, whilst the Autobots did everything in their power to protect. The show was filled with great themes of honour, loyalty, deception and betrayal - yet was essentially one giant toy commercial. Somehow these films have only ever focused on being a toy commercial, a toy commercial with lots of sponsors and product placement. Moving forward, if this is Bay’s final outing, I hope that the franchise tries to capture the simplicity of the TV series and not get bogged down in all these unnecessary sub-plots and pointless Maguffin-quests. 

Transformers: The Last Knight gets One Star for visual effects and a thousand prayers to whatever god you pray to that this will be Michael Bay’s last swing at this series. 

BAYWATCH: SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW:

If there is one thing that you can say about Baywatch is that it is full of eye-candy. It’s not just one-sided eye-candy, doesn’t matter if you’re into guys or girls, Baywatch has eye-candy for all, so much eye-candy in fact that it’s bound to give you ocular diabetes. Unfortunately though, the storyline and plot points in the movie-adaptation of the cult TV series from the 90’s is also a lot like candy, except it will rot your brain. 

So you’ve got The Rock playing Mitch Buchannon, your normal everyday, run of the mill life guard who is just testosterone squeezed into a swimmer’s rashie and when he takes on three new trainee lifeguards which includes Alexandra Daddario as attractive swimsuit model number 3, Jon Bass as chubby comedic relief and of course walking human perfection, Mr. Chiseled-Jaw and rock-hard abs-man Zac Efron. The storyline is, well, what you’d expect from a Baywatch episode: drugs, murder, explosions, and apparently the only people who can stop it all are the Baywatch-crew. 

Before I completely bash the film, it should go without saying that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zac Efron have excellent chemistry together. They’re both charming, they bounce off each other well and I would definitely pay to see them in a movie together again, but maybe not a Baywatch sequel. The comedy is funny, it’s just a pity that we don’t get anything fresh from the film that wasn’t featured in the trailers. 

Unfortunately outside of Zac Efron and The Rock, the rest of the cast are mostly a let down - not because of their acting ability, but just because they have just shy of literally nothing to do. The female leads have nothing to do, often you forget that many of them are there, the male support cast show up randomly and are often there to do short burst of ad-lib comedy, and unlike their bathing suits, none of the characters are really fleshed out. You have Jon Bass as the chubby comic relief and Kelly Rohrbach as CJ Parker whose relationship can only be described as screen-writer masturbatory fantasies of the most unrealistic order - although it’s hard to identify which of the nine screen writers credited to this film is responsible for such limp masturbatory-fantasies. 

Outside of this though, the film does struggle quite a bit: firstly, and this is just my nit-picky personality, but the film is just a train wreck of continuity issues - I think the continuity guy on set was too busy inspecting the thigh-gaps and not paying attention to their actual job. The film also has clearly missing scenes along with plot points that are completely forgotten about and are left completely unresolved.    

So look, I’d never pick a fight with Dwayne Johnson, however I do know that he said that this film was made for the fans and not the critics. I thought to myself, fair enough, but what does he mean by “fans” - I think people sometimes confuse remembering a TV show existed and being a fan… I know at one point, Baywatch the TV series had a world-wide viewership of a billion people, but I’ve never heard anyone ever clamoring for more Baywatch; I’ve never heard anyone say that they own all the episodes on DVD or that they are glad that they held off for the Blu-Ray anamorphic remastered editions of the series, I think most people would struggle to remember a single storyline from even one episode - the show is not available on Netflix and most young viewers today have never heard of it. I’ve never heard of people cramming into “Baywatch conventions” so while I appreciate that the film was made for “fans” all I ask is, which “fans” are they talking about?

Overall, the film had potential to be good, but it squandered this potential by prematurely ejaculating all of their best material in the trailers. The Rock and Zac Efron are great, but vacuum up all the screen time and charisma of those around them. Some more self-aware humour and saving some of your A-game comedy for the silver screen and taking just a little more time in the editing room and maybe the promise of a sequel during the end credits might have been more welcoming…

Baywatch gets One and a Half jokes out of Five that would have made the film better if we hadn’t seen them across the three dozen trailers and TV spots prior to release. 

WONDER WOMAN: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

So Wonder Woman is out in cinemas and a lot riding on her immaculately well-toned shoulders. Despite it being 75 years in the making, and the first female-lead superhero movie providing you don't count Supergirl, Tank Girl, Barbwire, Catwoman and Elektra; this film has staggeringly high expectations and trepidation due to being the fourth film in the DC Extended Universe and putting it politely, the first three films garnered mixed responses; putting it more accurately though, the first three films made the internet a very unpleasant cesspool where, mostly angry and insecure middle-aged men, hurled verbal abuse and death threats towards one another for a couple of months after each films release. So after a nervous wait for many people, it is Lasso Of Truth time to find out whether there is room for a strong female hero in the capes and codpiece cinema landscape....

So Wonder Woman is set in World War I, where we start in Themyscira, head to London and then find ourselves in the middle of The Great War. We meet Steve Trevor, a pilot played by the new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, who crash lands on an Amazonian Island, he meets Diana Prince who travels with him to London to learn about the world of men and help win the war to end all wars. In between all this we get something very different from the most recent DC films: it's colourful, meaningful, humorous and most surprising, enjoyable.

Now look, we could waste time talking about the similarities with Captain America The First Avenger’s war setting and the first Thor film’s fish out of water plot-line, but honestly it’s pointless because you may as well blame every other World War set film and fish out of water storyline for just reusing the same tropes. We could also talk about the undercooked villains and the overcooked final fight but that’s just par for the course with superhero films; you either go big or go home, or you have a really fleshed out villain to enhance the overall film, but at the expense of the heroes story. 

So let’s talk about what really separates Wonder Woman from the other DC Films and even all other comic book movies: the films incredible ability to convey empathy. Not since Richard Donner’s original Superman movie have we had a comic book hero show such earnest and empathy. It’s actually refreshing to go back to the storytelling of yesteryear yet still feeling incredibly modern. Wonder Woman herself along with Pine’s Steve Trevor struggle to come to grips the horrors of war and even goes as far as to show that it’s not just black and white, or good vs. evil. There are some great little references to Christopher Reeve’s Superman with gender-reversal twist, but still managing to make Chris Pine and Gal Gadot’s characters equals as opposed to the old damsel in distress syndrome. Of course in between all this fleshing out of war and gender roles back in the early 1900’s, the film also takes time to comment on the inequalities between men in a man’s world - highlighting how the color of one’s skin and entitlement really benefitted white men. It’s not labored on, but it’s surprising to see that kind of commentary in a big tentpole blockbuster. 

The other really refreshing thing about the latest DC Film is that the story has been put first over moments, plus every single moment feels earned. The film takes time to breath-in the worlds of Themyscira and London, we get to know Diana Prince and Steve Trevor long before she takes to the battle field and when she does, it’s an earned moment that sits up there with Superman taking his first flight or Batman’s first big reveal. Unlike the other recent DC Films, this doesn’t rush through everything, nor does it expect the audience to have a detailed knowledge of Wonder Woman’s comic book back catalogue in order to get lots of throw away references. There’s no dream sequences within dream sequences, no sudden character personality flips or Martha moments - in comparison to the other films in the DC Cinematic Universe, it plays it safe - but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a highly enjoyable film.  

The film’s dialogue can be a little clunky at times, but the it is more natural than the other DC Films and many of the Marvel Films. There is still pontificating and still a lot of expositional dialogue, but it is all delivered in a way that seems fitting as it is often filtered around some good conversations and debates between Pine and Gadot. Add to this director Patty Jenkins work on television to still allow for the quiet moments that would normally get lost in a big blockbuster. From learning how to dance, discussing aspirations outside of being a soldier to the discussing social conventions, it is these smaller moments that make the bigger more bombastic moments all the more meaningful.  

Ultimately, this is best film that’s been released to date by the DC Extended Universe, yes at this stage that’s not that high a bar to jump, but jump it does and in the most spectacular fashion you could hope for. With splashes of colour in the right places, characters you actually care about, moments that are threaded together between scenes instead of one moment rear-ending into another moment constantly, it feels like DC might finally be getting onto the right track. The jury is still out on The Justice League and I’m still a little apprehensive about that coming out in November, but the best compliment I can give Wonder Woman is that it is the first film from the DC Extended Universe that I want to have in my Blu-Ray collection. 

Wonder Woman, the film that’s so good it could be mistaken for a Marvel movie gets Four Marvelous Stars out of Five.

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

You know I think it’s a little misleading to call the John Wick films action movies, they’re more like action-porn, but you know, high class action-porn with like a storyline and everything. Of course like any good action-porn, it starts with the action foreplay and teases us and teases us with all the potential gun-play and then we get hit the full-blown gun-porn going all over the walls, along with your back, neck and chest to the point where you’ll probably be spent before the end of the film. 

So Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick, a hired gun who kills like he’s Neo in The Matrix - however after killing eighty-four people in the last film over a dog and a stolen car, he is simply looking to retire once more; but when an old debt is called-in, John Wick must lock and load one more time for a gun-porn-extravaganza. Now this film could have easily run the risk of being another Taken 2 or Hangover 2 but instead, director Chad Stahelski delves further into the shady and clandestine assassin society and brings an assortment of new and returning actors with Deadwood’s Ian McShane returning and a Matrix reunion with Lawrence Fishburne. We also have Common as a hard-hitting assassin and Ruby Rose as, well, just a mute version of Ruby Rose, so you know, if that’s your thing… 

Much like the original, the film is incredibly creative with all it’s kills. Influenced from the Korean action movies, we have unflinching death-battles that involve Glock 17’s, Glock 26’s, AR-15’s, Benelli M4’s, fists, vehicles, pencils, knives and rope just to name a few. Once again, it’s more of a ballet of action sequences than the Jason Bourne-style shaky-cam of the last decade and it’s just as refreshing as it was in the first film mostly because they build so much on all the things you loved in the first one. There is an array of assassins, some cool, some funny, but all brutal killers; we have an expanded understanding of the secret societies John Wick is associated with and the film still plays with the extreme hard-hitting violence being broken up with a samurai-like respect for holy ground and moments of peace.

Of course don’t let the quiet moments fool you into thinking the film has pacing issues, the movie does some really clever editing to propel the narrative forward and for the most part you’re just white-knuckling it for the majority of the film. We delve deeper into the world both inside and outside of The Continental and before the credits roll and you’re clearly spent the filmmakers are good enough to confidently let us know that there’s another John Wick film coming and all I can say about that is: where can I buy my ticket for that film? 

John Wick Chapter 2 gets Four out of Five spent shell casings all over the walls, along with your back, neck and chest.

ALIEN: COVENANT: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

Space, where they only send the smartest dumb people to die, or is it the dumbest smart people, either way, space, the place people go to die. 

Remember when the Alien films were just straight-forward monster movies set in space where unsuspecting crews always wound up faced with one or more fearsome Xenomorphs? You know, we had two good ones, two not so good ones, those Alien Vs Predator movies that really shouldn’t count and then we had Ridley Scott come back to the series and decided that we needed a shit-ton of backstory, mythology and theological questions about the origins of human existence and the whole Alien-aspect of the movies can just kind of take a backseat. After Prometheus disappointed most fans and has been the subject of so many video essays on how just painfully dumb it was, does Alien Covenant fair any better? 

Set ten years after Prometheus we find ourselves on the spaceship Covenant, a deep space mission where vicious solar-winds cause the ship to lose it’s captain and in the process they intercept a distress signal that means the team diverts from their current mission to find another spaceship which ultimately leads to their doom (wait, wait, I know that that sounds like the synopsis to the movie Sunshine, but that is exactly how this film starts). So anyway, with over two thousand souls on board the Covenant, it is up to the fourteen brave crew who clearly skipped out on the three day training course that involved contamination and contagion control, to scout a new planet and avoid alien-creatures that don’t believe in personal boundaries. 

Look, I really wanted to like this film and it is a step up from Prometheus, but it still suffers from a lot of the same problems: a lot of pontificating about the meaning of life, a lot of people making very stupid decisions and a lot of characters you just don’t care about; Danny McBride is a stand-out plus the only good thing from Prometheus, Michael Fassbender, is back, and this time they double-down on him - which is both good and bad. There are some good points though, the film, much like Prometheus, looks great and this is all down to Ridley Scott, regardless of the varying quality of his work, he is a brilliant visual stylist. We get more Alien looking Aliens this time and the film seems to be heading in the right direction when it comes to connecting with the original films, all be it very slowly. 

There are pacing issues in the film, with yet again, too many ideas trying to be explored in a two hour runtime. Scott even went as far as producing a series of short films to help fill in some of the gaps which is great if you knew they were out there to watch, otherwise audiences unaware of these short films would just be wondering why big name actors only had thirty seconds of screen time in the actual film. Honestly, a lot of the elements in the short films could have been put into the actual film and they could have cut out some of the duller and unnecessary moments from the overall runtime. 

Overall, the film is still a disappointment, it is better than Prometheus, but not by much. When you bring back the director that started it all, you kind of hope that they remember what made the series so great in the first place: the original films thrived on regular people being out of their depths in an isolated location dealing with really horrific creatures. These last two films seem focused on characters with Icarus-Syndrome which ultimately makes them less empathetic to the audience. 

Alien Covenant gets Two out of Five Stars (or Two out of Five really overly ambitious ideas which make me yearn for the Neil Blomkamp Alien film that will never come…)

GET OUT: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

If the new intense Horror-Satire Get Out teaches us only one thing, it is do not go to meet the parents (as in do not go to meet the parents the event as opposed to do not go to Meet The Parents the movie - actually you know what, do not watch Meet The Parents the movie, it’s a horror, but in a completely different way.) Having just hit Australian shores, having dominated the American box office, Get Out is a must-see in theaters so that you don’t feel left out of everyone else’s conversation. 

So the story is about a young talented African-American photographer who goes to meet his caucasian girlfriends parents all the way out at their secluded family-estate, and once they arrive, something just doesn’t seem right. Now I’d love to tell you more but the less you know about the film the better. Honestly, going in as cold as possible is probably the best way to experience this well-crafted social-horror movie that explores so many aspects about racism in America, if not the wider world. 

Written and directed by comedian Jordan Peele, this film really explores the social awkwardness, the in-built racism and prejudice people can have, the out-and-out racism, along with the back-handed racism in a way that is tense, unnerving, uncomfortable, horrifying, but also incredibly funny. You'll be surprised how much you laugh in the film in between all the moments where you are covering your eyes. Not because the film is violent or gory , but because each scene, each moment is just shaped in a way where you are thinking and rethinking the words or actions of characters, you hold your breath as someone says something or your heart-rate picks up as two characters look at each other and you are wondering if this is going to be the lynchpin that sets off the horror you know is going to come. 

Now a lot of this is down to the way Jordan Peele drip-feeds information to you throughout the film. Things happen, people say things that can be taken multiple ways, and still you know very little about what is actually going on; You spend your time trying to piece story threads together, figure out people’s motivations and intentions, you start guessing and re-guessing what’s really happening with all these weird white people and even when things come to a head, you’re still questioning what’s really happening and if there are still more twists to come. 

Much like 2014’s It Follows, this film is effective in its horror with an understated approach. And where It Follows explored STDs, Get Out has something to say about how African-Americans are generalized and how even a perceived compliment can be an example of brutal back-handed racism. The film will have you talking afterwards, obviously after you’ve seen the doctor about what to do when you’ve bitten all your fingernails off, so don’t be left out of the conversation and get yourself to the cinemas to see what many are already calling not just the best Horror of the year, but the best film of the year. 

Get Out gets Four and Three-Quarter Stars out of Five (or Four and Three-Quarter fingernails bitten right down to your friggin’ knuckles)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOLUME 2: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

So the A-holes are back and after setting such high expectations and such a huge box office result with the first film, how do you really follow that up? Well, with a whole lot of close-to-the-bone daddy-issues peppered through a series of huge set-pieces, massive splashes of colour, on-point musical cues and mostly well placed humour. They’re off to save the galaxy for a second time, but can this band of misfits win the audience over for a second time? The short answer: yes!

Set six months after the original film, the Guardians Of The Galaxy essentially are guns for hire, not necessarily mercenaries, but they are willing to do the jobs that others are not. After pissing off their latest employer, the guardians have a chance encounter with none other than Peter Quill’s dad, Ego The Living Planet (or Ego The Living Human who looks frightfully like an aged-up Jack Burton who went full-Big Trouble In Little China all up in his own planet). The team get split up, The Ravengers get involved, there’s lots of quips, lots of action, and if you allow yourself, maybe a tear or two come the end. 

When comparing this to it’s predecessor, I have to say that honestly, I enjoyed it more than the original - however I might be in the minority in that department. I personally, was not as big a fan of the original as many other people were; I felt the humour beats were always half-a-second out of whack, I thought the action sequences were too “wire-worky” and the characters were a little flat. This sequel has improved on all of those aspects. The humour hits, the action looks and feels a whole lot better and a lot of the characters, including second-tier characters such as Yondu and Nebula get really fleshed out in this film. There are a few similar story beats to the original such as a visit to Earth, a music-lead title sequence amongst other things, but each of these beats are done in a refreshing way which doesn’t make it feel like they’re just retreading the same formula. 

This film thankfully steers away from the Star Wars feel of the original and now appears to be veering more into the Star Trek tone, which I believe the series is all the better for, but most enjoyably, writer/director James Gunn has taken influences from beyond just the Trek and Wars Universes and you even have the look and feel of other great Sci-Fi series such as Firefly and the criminally under-appreciated Lexx. 

The film also delivers on the soundtrack once again, playing a key role in Peter’s relationships with his many different family quadrants within this film. There are songs that will make you smile, songs that will amp you up and songs that will hit you in the cavity where your heart used to be. Much like the original, the songs help shape the overarching themes of the film, and this time the film goes much deeper than a normal Marvel film and far deeper than anything Star Wars has ever done. The theme of family is strong in this film, and not in a Vin Diesel having a barbecue and saying the word “family” as many times as he can in the run-time kind of way. No the family themes go deep in this film and are centred very much around Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill - exploring the differences in fatherly-relationships - the difference between the biological father and the father that raises you, the family you are born with and the family that you choose. 

Of course, in-between all this heavy “family stuff” there are some cool sequences such as a really inventive Yondu whistling spear sequence, a Rocket holding his own set-piece, cameos from Sylvester Stallonethat are brief, but clearly world-building, plus we get a Stan Lee cameo that finally supports one of the biggest fan-theories that people have had since Stan started appearing in the MCU. We get a whole bunch of post-credit scenes, some funny but some that are making bold statements about what to expect for the third Guardians movie, and of course there is Baby Groot. Many will call him the scene-stealer, but I wouldn’t go that far, I found many other things that were more enjoyable than Baby Groot - but none the less, he was still awesome. 

The film isn’t without its’ faults though: It’s easily fifteen minutes too long, and there are one of two sequences where you feel the need to call B.S. on how the characters survive some of the big explosions and fights. The film also suffers from one of the big problems that struck Avengers Age Of Ultron; some moments are just undercut by the desire to make a joke - it’s not as bad as Age Of Ultron in many respects and admittedly the third act negates a lot of this complaint, but it would be nice every now and then not to be reminded every twenty-five seconds that these characters are funny. Thankfully though, one of the biggest complaints about Marvel films is notably absent in this movie: the “death from above” trope has been replaced with a “death from everywhere” approach. It’s coming from above, below, the left, the right and places we haven’t even thought of yet - and this certainly makes for a refreshing change passing through Phase Three. 

Overall, if you fell head-over-heels in love with the original, then you might feel just slightly let down by this film because you are not necessarily getting “more of the same”, however, if you’re like me, and felt the original was just slightly lacking, then this might just hit all the right notes. With a whole universe of cosmic possibilities on the horizon, Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2 will have you buying soundtracks, have you buying Baby Groot figures and will have you rewatching Kurt Russell’s back catalogue of films. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2 gets Four and a Quarter out of Five Stars (or Four and a Quarter out of Five questions about where Baby Groot got that severed toe from…) 

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

You know, it’s taken eight films, but I finally get it. I finally understand the Fast And Furious franchise. If you just put your brain into neutral, and go along for the ride, you’ll enjoy it. If you just dim the headlights, pull in the side mirrors and don’t look in the rear-vision mirror, then you are bound to enjoy the gas-guzzling craziness that is the eighth film in the forever going series that started as Point Break with cars and has now become The Avengers with cars, The Fate Of The Furious. 

In a post-Paul Walker world, the gang from the Fast & Furious family must face their toughest challenge yet: they must avoid being sucked into the charisma-vacuum that is Vin Diesel as he turns against his teammates for “reasons”. Now when the trailer first hit, hardcore fans of the series were shocked to see that Dominic Torretto would be playing the villain, leading many of them to come up with a variety of theories as to why he would do such a thing. Some thought that it might be a Dom from an alternative universe or possibly a clone, a long-lost twin brother, the character of Riddick trying to wedge himself into this franchise, it could have been a highly sophisticated robot, it could be Dom from an alternate future coming back to reset the past, the list goes on. Spoiler alert: it is none of those things and even though the reason for going rogue is somewhat understandable, literally every single one of those previous theories was a legitimate probability because, after watching this instalment, this series really has lost all sense of reality - but it’s still fun. 

Zombie-cars - zombie-friggin’ cars, cars vs. submarines and physic-defying stunts just go to prove that this film didn’t just jump the shark - that happened a couple of films ago; this film jumps the shark, takes the shark out for dinner, wines and dines the shark, gives the shark the best night of its life, promises to call the shark the next morning, and then several weeks later the shark discovers that the film is now dating the shark’s sister and she’s already pregnant. So yeah, the film really does go over the top with some of its’ ideas, however it does need to be acknowledged that everything is done really well: the practical stunts are impressive, the fight sequences are like high-end music videos and the special effects really do bring scale to these crazy ideas. 

The cast is huge and ever expanding as each film seems to add more and more characters to the line-up - it seems that if you’ve shown up once in one of these films, you’re guaranteed recurring roles in all of the subsequent sequels. Although, I am starting to notice a pattern in the series: the big-bad from the previous film always seems to join the team and they become bosom-buddies for the next chapter. Of course, these films are painfully formulaic now anyway so what do you expect. You know the drill: open in an exotic location for a street-race to remind the audience that these films used to be about street-racing, a big-bad arrives, the team get back together, team formulate a plan, and ends with cars jumping or exploding out of planes, tanks, submarines, dinosaurs, whatever they can get their hands on. But once again, I have to admit: it is fun.

Getting back to the cast though, fans should be happy to know that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a bigger role than the previous film, he teams up with Jason Statham and this has now become my new favourite on-screen couple (sorry Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence) and a Rock/Statham spin-off movie needs to happen. The rest of the cast do what they do so well: Tyrese Gibson is the comedy, Ludacris is the nerdy-charm, Michelle Rodriguez is the bad-ass and we add Scott Eastwood as cut-price Kurt Russell for when he’s had enough of the series, Helen Mirren as a bad British stereotype and Charlize Theron as Cipher - a cyber terrorist who blah, blah, blah, let’s just get to car chases and explosions. And then there is Vin Diesel, the charisma-vacuum, I know hardcore fans will say that he is the heart and soul of this franchise (now that Paul Walker is gone), but his character has just been frozen in stasis since the first film - there is no development to his character, stuff happens to him but he seems incapable of reacting in anyway that may affect his “tough-guy” brand. With characters like Hobbs and Deckard keeping the interest, it may be time for Diesel to take a backseat to the franchise once more. 

Overall, The Fate Of The Furious is exactly what it says on the label: a car chase movie of logic-defying proportions. If you can switch your brain off then you are bound to have some fun, but seriously, do not think too hard. If the calculations of the length of the runway in the climax to the sixth film did your head in then you will not want to do the calculations of how fast a submarine can move through ice that can support the weight of cars, tanks and humvees. The film is very fun, but very dumb; it is fun, but man it is very, very dumb.

The Fate Of The Furious gets Three out of Five Stars (or Three out of Five jaded sharks waiting for that phone call that will never come…)      

KONG: SKULL ISLAND: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

Kong: Skull Island! It’s big, it’s hairy and it’s a very interesting beast of a movie, all be it a beast that’s over a 100 feet tall and weighing about 300 tonnes. You see, it’s an interesting beast because it’s got all these really amazing parts such Loki, Captain Marvel and Nick Fury all in the same film, it has a very sweaty and humid Apocalypse Now look and feel, along with a surprisingly larger number of monster smack-downs than you’d usually expect in the film’s lean two hour run-time, however the care factor for both the characters and the beast in question seem to be lost somewhere within this enigmatic island of mystery….

So Kong: Skull Island is set in 1973 where a team of US soldiers fresh from the war with Vietnam are sent in as escorts to an island where scientists hope to uncover an abundance of gigantic pixel-based lifeforms. No sooner do they arrive on the island than they meet with said pixel giants and it becomes a battle for survival to get to the other side of the island without getting killed by, well literally anything - it seems these guys can’t seem to even sit down on a log without it coming to life. 

Now even though it sounds like I’m wailing on the film, it is surprisingly fun, there is no drag time within the film and the giant monster fight sequences are all very cool. You can definitely see ever cent of the $190 million budget up there on the big screen, even if sometimes it just amounts to a bunch of pixels beating the sh*t out of each other in an environment where gravity and physics seem to be an optional extra. 

The film itself opens pretty lightening quick. We get our first glimpses of Kong in the first two minutes and they don't drag their feet with his reveal once the cast reach the island. This isn't a Jaws or 2014's Godzilla with their long drawn out reveals, we just get straight to the point, especially when compared to the 2005 Peter Jackson remake. Of course in between that first and second reveal of Kong, the film works at a coke-fueled screenwriters pace to get through all the necessary character development which often means revealing character plot points and motivations with very forced and clunky expositional dialogue that's not too dissimilar to a Christopher Nolan film, although this is even clunkier than that. 

The film introduces us to the usual archetypes of the army along with the traditional scientist types: we have Shea Whigham's surly but dedicated army type, a slimmed down John Goodman as the shady scientist government agent, Toby Kebbell in thankless soldier role number 1 and then Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and Thomas Mann as thankless soldier and scientist roles number 3,4,5 and so on and so forth; and then of course we have Tian Jing, recently seen in The Great Wall, as a scientist who has a total of maybe 6 lines but helps to guarantee a Chinese release date. 

But the big stars of the film are Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson who are, just kind of there, they don’t really have much to do nor do we really know anything about them other than he’s a tracker and she’s a photographer, but thankfully we have Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly to pick up the slack. Once again, both these characters have very little development but at least Jackson is given a Captain Ahab style intensity whilst Reilly plays up the Dennis Hopper psychedelic-acid-trauma victim from Apocalypse Now, who provides some good humour and the only bit of heart to the film. 

The visuals in this film are incredibly striking. Cinematographer Larry Fong, who lensed *cough-cough* Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice really lets loose with some snappy fast paced visuals that gives us some real spectacle whether it be a quick bar fight featuring Hiddleston or Kong himself slam-dunking army helicopters left right and centre. The score by Henry Jackman, who gave us soundtracks for films like Kick Ass, Captain America The Winter Soldier and Big Hero 6, sounds fantastic, if not a little familiar, which is kind of the trick to a Henry Jackman score but none the less still sounds awesome. And of course director Jordan Vogt-Roberts gives us some inventive action sequences that have been somewhat inspired by James Cameron’s Aliens and John McTiernan’s Predator, although there are one or two sequences that are just laugh out loud stupid - now I’m sure they looked good as storyboards and sounded good on paper but once they are on the actual screen, you can’t help but think to yourself, “really?” 

Overall, the film is fun and fast-paced with flashy visuals and incredible pixel-related death-matches aplenty, however the film does suffer from the care-factor issue where when a character dies it has no impact and when a character survives you’re neither bothered to see them alive or still in the film. It is worth seeing on the big screen for sure but go for the monkey and not the people.

Kong: Pixel Island - I mean Kong: Skull Island gets Two and a “Meh” out of Five Stars, maybe three stars if I add an extra “Meh” 

LOGAN: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

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So this is it, if Hugh Jackman is to be believed, this will be the last time we see the Jacked-Man play Wolverine. Although he has been said on more than one occasion before that he was hanging up the claws. Hell, he’s probably said “one last time” more often than Michael Bay has with Transformers. However, this time it feels like it could be true, because after seeing Hugh Jackman and James Mangold’s Logan, there is no better farewell for a character that has been with us for seventeen years. 

Loosely based on Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s comic book classic Old Man Logan, we find ourselves in the year 2029 where mutants are now few and far between, Professor X’s once brilliant mind is slowly deteriorating and Logan himself is a broken man, covered in as many scars as he has regrets. Hiding out as a limo driver along the Mexican border and trying to avoid everything that makes him the Wolverine, Logan takes one last job to protect a mother and her young daughter from some savage men and get them both to a safe place. 

Now when actors or directors say they will only return to the role if the script is right you’re often left walking out of Spectre or Jason Bourne going “seriously, that’s the best script you can come up with?” so it’s acceptable to be a little sceptical when Jackman said he would only do one last Wolverine movie if the script is absolutely perfect. Thankfully though, Jackman was true to his word. 

So the film itself excels in comparison to all the previous X-Men films: the stakes are more personal, the tone is as coarse as the grittiest of sandpaper, and the violence in this film makes you realise just how comical last year’s Deadpool really was. Make no mistake about it, this is a violent movie, do not be bringing your kids to see this because you think those X-Men movies are so family-friendly and adventurous. Getting back to the film as a whole, this is the Wolverine that Hugh Jackman has promised from the very beginning, we get the berserker Wolverine, we get a Wolverine who walks away from a fight looking like he just lost a three-way machete-match between Jason Voorhees  and Freddy Krueger. But throughout all those beatings, the most important thing this film delivers on is a character study of not only James Howlett, but Professor Charles Xavier. 

Between the burst of well orchestrated violence and action set pieces that often defy the traditional conventions and then turn those conventions on their head to be used in new and inventive ways, we explore the mindset of both Jackman’s Logan and Stewart’s Xavier. Knowing that this may be the last time we see these character together again, James Mangold isn’t afraid to have some long stretches where character moments just get the chance to breathe. In this J.J. Abrams ADD-riddled approach to storytelling nowadays where there needs to be an action sequence every ten minutes in case the audience gets sleepy, Logan takes the more 70’s approach to filmmaking and lets us really get to know the characters so that when the action hits, and hits hard, it really is like three Adamantium claws to the guts when we see these beloved characters fighting, bleeding and screaming, for their lives. Some may find the pacing in this 137 minute road movie a bit of a slog, but the pay offs and character arcs are worth taking the “Ritalin” for.      

Even though the trailers have all been stellar, along with the amazing black and white photography James Mangold has been releasing constantly throughout production, there are still some concerns that people may have had. The great thing is, none of these concerns are even remotely an issue. Those comic book fans who don’t feel it can live up to the Old Man Logan story for obvious licensing reason need not worry, Logan is just a brutal and affecting as the original story and stands on its own above all previous X-Men films. Those who thought introducing a kid into the mix was going to be a recipe for box office poison, fear not, Laura, or as she is also known X-23, is a bad-ass and a real scene stealer at times, but make no doubt, it is not at the expense of Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart who both bring their A-game to this film. 

So a lot of other reviewers seem to be drawing comparisons to The Dark Knight with regards to quality and quite frankly, I think that’s lazy and pretty inaccurate: Logan is its’ own beast and more in line with some of Clint Eastwood’s classics such as Unforgiven and Gran Torino. Jackman, much like Eastwood is putting his well-known persona to rest in this film. It has sprinkles of Unforgiven with the Western look and feel all throughout whilst the themes of coming to terms with age and attitudes that were so heavily laboured in Gran Torino can be found within Jackman’s very nuanced performance. On top of this there are countless other influences throughout the film such as Children Of Men with the “no more mutants” theme, there’s a Mad Max aesthetic to the wastelands they travel through, there’s elements of The Terminator along with classic cowboy movies like Shane and Mickey Rourke’s redemption tale in The Wrestler. 

Is the film perfect? Near enough. The only complaints I would have would be the most fickle of complaints. Moments where I felt that another character from Wolverine’s past may have served as a better physical antagonist, however the physical threat that Logan goes up against, really is surprising. The villains are not really fleshed out, however that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interesting, and much like in the Marvel Studio films, the villains are never as important as the heroes journey, and I’m ok with that.  

Overall, this is nothing short of a fantastic stand-alone X-Men movie that doesn’t labor the previous films mythology or continuity which makes for one of the more refreshing comic book films we have seen in a long while, mostly because it’s not trying to be a comic book movie, but rather just be a great film. With seventeen years of investment in these characters, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart have definitely earned their dues, whilst for the first time in a comic book movie, we have a film that hits you like three Adamantium claws in the heart, and you will find yourself crying on more than one occasion. And if that’s not indicative of how this film sets a new standard for comic book movies, then I don’t know what is.  

Logan gets Four and a Half out of Five Stars (or Four and a Half out of Five Adamantium claws right through your very soul)