X-Men Days of Future Past Review

** Warning. Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you haven't seen the movie!**

The X-Men film franchise is one of the original comic book movie series that helped begin the big comic book movie hoorah that we are in now. It is now tied with Batman as having the most films in a franchise, but what separates X-Men is its continuity. It has been all over the place since X-Men 3 (remember that five star film?) the first Wolverine movie began ruining the continuity by showing a Charles Xavier in the 70's that will looking nothing like Xavier in the 60's that we will see in First Class, and showing that Sabertooth and Wolverine are brothers who have no memory of each other by the time of them meeting in the first film. Then First Class came out, arguably the best X-Men film, and went to the past and quite literally, the first class of the X-Men and introduced us to the relationship forming between Charles and Magneto. Well it's been a few years and it's time for a new film but this time it was all about cleaning up the continuity. Bryan Singer is back at the helm and prepared to fix everything that has been jumbled since he handed of the reigns.

Now it seems we are to completely ignore the first Wolverine movie which most people have already been doing for years. As much as we'd like to rule out X3, well we'll get to that. Days of Future Past combines the two casts of X-Men First Class and the original trilogy. We start the film of in the future where mutants have been almost hunted to extinction and the humans aren't that much better off. The world is dominated by giant mutant hunting robots known as Setinels, finally making their appearance after a tease in X3 (we keep coming back.) Kitty Pryde somehow has a power to send people's consciousness back in time to their younger body, which is never explained, and their team uses this ability to hide from the sentinels. Charles Xavier and his team including Wolverine, Storm, and Magneto find them and want to use their ability to send someone's mind back to the 70's to stop the sentinels before they begin. While the obvious choice to send back is Xavier, Wolverine is chosen as only his self repairing mind could survive the trip. I'll buy it. So this is where the franchises collide. Now my biggest problem with First Class, was that I was never sure if it was a prequel or a reboot. Well it turns out it was a prequel which wasn't my preferred choice but by the end of this film I was turned around. So Wolverine is now in his younger body and has to convince a now walking drunken Xavier to help him save the future. Now the trailer showed Xavier clearly walking and my need rage was about to go out of control because I couldn't believe the continuity would be so bad that they would ignore the paralysis that happened in just the last movie. However they explain everything and my rage subsided. After Xavier's school fell apart when most of his students were drafted to Vietnam, Hank McCoy developed a serum that would restore his walking but the side effect drained his powers, leaving us with a Xavier that is left to quarrel with the decision to save his legs or recover his powers. This film gives us a side of Xavier that we've never seen before (much like the last movie) and goes along with the much darker tone of this film, which let me tell you. This movie is really dark.

The scenes in the future, though brief, just feel completely hopeless. Due to the time travel to escape the sentinels we get to see main characters killed multiple times only for then to rewrite with Kitty Pryde's ability. These scenes are legitemtly heart breaking to watch the good guys decimated by these relentless machines. The opening of the movie that depicts this carnage is one of the highlights of the film and is the perfect way to grab you. The different mutants powers in tandem is a hell of a show and they have an interestif cast if characters with different powers to showcase. In fact the future scenes are where the get the most mutant variety because the scenes in the past are focused on a small group, mostly out of the main cast. There's a solid cast of mutants in the film which most don't even have a line of dialogue and are just in the future scenes for flashy fight scenes with creative powers. Even Storm, a main character of three previous movies, has only a handful of appearances and even fewer lines, but everyone has a role to play whether its fighting or part of the plot and they all play it well. Especially Quicksilver. Oh how I begged for more Quicksilver! I know a lot of people have been barking up this tree but Quicksilver really stole the show. It makes me doubt the version in the new Avengers movie could hope to compete. The character was well used and the immaturity of this young Quicksilver really played well.

Now while I give the movie a lot of praise, I had some issues with it. There really wasn't a lot if character development in this film compared to the last. Magneto felt like less of fleshed out character this time around and the intelligence of some of his actions don't seem to make sense. First of all, the idea of him controlling the sentinels is a cool idea but doesn't make a lot of sense. Also if he knows the fate of the future why does he go so far out of his way to make everything ten times worse at the end? I understand that Magneto has an agenda of his own, but maybe bide your time and choose a better oppurtunity at a later date, you know, after you've saved everyone's ass from giant killer robots of the future. And speaking of killer robots, it seems that this will be the last we see of sentinels for the X-Men series which is kind of a let down since we didn't get a lot of mutant fighting Sentinel action in the past with the Sentinels that resemble the ones we know and love. Also how many times do we have to keep dipping into that Stryker storyline? Its been three movies now that we've had Stryker in some villain role. We get it, X2 was awesome and Stryker was a cool bad guy. It's over. Move on! Leading up to the movie we had a lot of introductions to characters, via trailers and magazine covers, but some of these characters were just cameo spots. We see Toad for a total of two scenes and even Havok, a character that was a main hero in the first movie, has even less of a cameo. I also wasn't aware of how much of the plot was going to hang on Mystique but that is in a way faithful to the comic and also not really a bad thing since Jennifer Lawrence plays that role as good as Rebecca Romaijn ever did. 

Now let's talk about the end. The end is weak in the sense that all it takes is for Mystique to lower a gun to rewrite the whole future but everything else happening is pretty spectacular so I'll go with it. So yay the future is saved and now we come back to find out Cyclops and Jean are back alive and all of the horrible things that happened in X-Men 3 (we just can't escape it) have been corrected and we continue to ignore Origins Wolverine because X2 told that story way better. So now we have our original cast back and we've seen some awesome new mutants so we can only wait and see what happens in the next movie. Personally I hope to see Blink return and we all know Gambit is coming in being played by Mr Tatum himself which I can't wait to see how that turns out! Man people's opinions on him sure have shifted huh? Team Channing all the way!

Overall Days of Future Past is one of the best films in the franchise but I still feel that I liked the last film (First Class and not Wolverine 2) just slightly better. Easily my number two pick (First Class, Days of Future Past, X2.) While it's not a perfect film it goes a long way to straighten out this convoluted film franchise and sets us on the right path for the next X-Men movie which we all know is the Age of Apoaclypse and I can't wait to see what that movie has in store for us. I give X-Men Days of Future Past a four out of five.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

*** Spoiler Alert! Don't read if you haven't seen the film!***

The first Amazing Spider-Man film really rubbed me in a way I could never grasp. The first time I watched it I was very disappointed but came to actually love it after further viewings. Though I would never call it a great Spider-Man film, the first movie was passable as a fun, enjoyable, alternative take on the franchise, based more on my favorite line of Spider-Man comics. A lot of the material comes from the Ultimate Spider-Man series, with some other elements drawn from the main Amazing Spider-Man comics as well. While I still view the second Sam Raimi film as the best Spider-Man film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a fun and solid Spider-Man film, and a big step in building their own movie universe separate from the other Marvel films, but the script could have benefitted from another re-write.

The biggest problem I have with this sequel is that it seems more concerned with creating a universe than telling a story. The movie is riddled with name drops and hints at bigger things to come and the story that is happening is kind of shoved to the side. The tone of the movie is also strange. The first movie set up a very serious tone and was dark and brooding, which was really the biggest thing that separated it from the Raimi films, but this film was a lot more humorous and cartoony and on the lighter side for the most part. Not to say there isn't some dark in this movie either but it's not as prominent this time around. Spider-Man is supposed to be a more lighter character but I appreciate some dark tones to the story but it could have just been more balanced in the script.

While the film has been touted as having three villains it really only has one and a half. Electro is the main adversary and is well performed by Jamie Fox but is just absent from too much of the movie. Rhino bookends the movie with small action scenes at the beginning and end of the film. The Green Goblin, who is Harry Osborn as Norman dies early in the film, feels very shoehorned in and easily could have been reduced to a post credits appearance to set up for the next film. Instead we get a short fight with an unsatisfying ending that is overshadowed by a bigger event, the death of Gwen Stacy, which was an excellent scene. It always felt up in the air as to whether it not they would pull this move in this movie or the next but they pulled the trigger to a successful and heart wrenching scene. If only the story was rearranged a bit so we could have had more time with The Goblin, and then the scene would have been more impactful. It honestly feels like all of the villains get pushed aside in this movie. Spider-Man's first showdown with Electro in Time's Square is an amazing scene and then Electro is defeated and locked away until the ending. While he feels incredibly menacing you never feel a looming threat because he's never present. The bigger issue comes with The Green Goblin, who is only the Goblin for about ten minutes. Luckily all of this is held together by incredibly stellar performances.

The first time around I never felt like Andrew Garfield filled out the role. This time around there was no doubt that he is the perfect Spider-Man. Emma Stone was great in the first film and continues to be so here but this time around their chemistry is undeniable. Probably because this time around they were dating in real life. Jamie Foxx doesn't get the screen time he deserves but he makes the best out of it and brings his A game. Dane Dehaan is a great Harry Osborn and is an actor I've grown fond of since seeing him in his previous super heroesuqe film Chronicle. His transformation into the Green Goblin isn't earned from a script perspective but he delivers a performance worthy of a film of any caliber. There isn't much to say about Paul Giamatti's Rhino other than that he is clearly having a lot of fun in the role. I hope he gets to do more in future films but in the meantime his small contribution to the film was fun to say the least.

While the movie struggles to find its identity and seems more concerned with building a universe than telling a story, it's still a good Spider-Man film and a lot of fun to watch. It's not perfect and won't blow you away unless there is some action on the screen but Marc Webb is still a worthy director for the series but I wish the script would have gone through one more rewrite with a finer toothed comb. It's one of the best looking movies I've ever seen and the action exceeds many of the other comic book movies, but the script just can't keep up. Hopefully with Amazing Spider-Man 3 we will get a little more focus and less of the bigger picture they hope to create.

I give Amazing Spider-Man 2 a 3 out 5. Good, not great.

Moments That Stuck With Me

One of my favorite things about watching movies is sitting in a dark room and letting myself get drawn into the story unfolding in front of me. It's one of the greatest feelings to walk away from a really good or really powerful movie after letting yourself be taken away. I am a sucker for dramatic moments in film and I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about movies that have really left their mark on me because I thought they were extremely well done or just incredibly powerful.

One of my favorite movies of last year and probably my second favorite movie of all time was one that wasn't so popular to the general population but managed to leave a lasting impression on me. Tron Legacy came out last December and although I went into not expecting much as it was a sequel 20 years in the making I ended up being blown away and coming out of the theater feeling as though I had just watched the greatest movie ever made. I thought Tron Legacy had some of the best directed scenes I have ever witnessed and when mixed with its already fantastic soundtrack that I was listening to before I even saw the movie it left such an impression on me that my life became enveloped in everything Tron for the next few months. While I could point out many different scenes in this film such as the lightcycle battle or the entire climax of the movie, the one scene that struck me as the most powerful was Flynn telling his story to his son Sam. The flashback tells the story of what happened in the Tron universe between the first and second movie and is well put together and well edited. What really sells the scene to me is the acting from Jeff Bridges and the soundtrack that goes along with the scene. In my opinion it was one of the highlights to the movie and is still a scene I enjoy watching almost a year later.

Say what you will about the Star Wars prequels but I have been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid and while the prequel do have their flaws I still enjoy them just as much as any Star Wars movie. While Episode I and II were definitely the weakest Episode III did turn out to be a pretty great film and one of the best Star Wars movies. With this being the last Star Wars film and the final story of Anakin before turning into Darth Vader, it was all a build up to the end fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin. The fight alone was a powerful moment as these two men who were like brothers are now battling to the death over an ideal. While the whole fight as a great moment the most powerful is the end when Obi-Wan cuts off Anakin's arm and legs and delivers his speech before leaving him to die by the river of lava. This scene really showed the dynamic of these characters and how far Anakin had fallen as Obi-Wan still claims them to be brothers while the now crowned Darth Vader only screams in hate for his old master. This was actually to me the most powerful moment in any of the Star Wars saga next to Luke finding out Darth Vader is his father. George Lucas may have dropped the ball before but this scene can still speak to his abilities.

I don't often feel a physical reaction from watching difficult movies such as the Saw franchise. I never feel the need to puke and hardly ever cringe but buried was a movie that managed to affect me in a way that no other movie had done before. The entire movie takes place inside of a coffin and the only people you hear are Ryan Reynolds and the people he talks with on the phone. The movie is extremely claustrophobic and while that doesn't usually bother me Reynold's performance was just compelling enough to make me feel trapped inside this coffin just as he was. There were a few times through the movie where I found myself hard to breathe or holding my breathe. The film left me in a constant state of worry and even when I thought I knew how the movie was going to end it still managed to end strong and throw me for a loop multiple time before the credits rolled.

One of my favorite independent movies is The Boondock Saints. This movie was first introduced to me through a friend of mine and I fell in love with it instantly. The one scene I always point out from this film is the end court room scene. This one scene just demonstrates the total badassary of the Saints as they walk straight into a court room with a bag of guns and give a breathtaking speech before dropping the mafia boss to his knees and blowing him away right in a crowded court room. By this point in the story the Saints had gone through some shit, losing their friend and then finding their father, so to see this scene was the ultimate satisfaction. The sequel while not as good as the first was still still enjoyable and had an equally powerful scene where the father El Duce is playing Russian roulette with one of the villains. The scene is well established and the way it's edited you really feel the tension of these characters. One of the more interesting aspects of this scene is the villain character knows that even if he wins he will be killed by the sons but still goes with it just to be the one to kill their father who is a legend in the underground.

While watching a good movie is always an enjoyable experience the ones that stick with me are the films that have a scene I can't get out of my head even years after I have seen them. These films may not be the best examples or from my all-time favorite movies but they are still powerful moments in cinema that stuck with me. I would love to hear about any movie moments that you still remember lovingly to this day so if you want to share them feel free to sound off in the comments and you can always find me on Twitter @advent_crash.

Introduction and the Love for The Movies!

I can't remember what first drew me to the love of movies but I do know that it started when I was very young. Even to this day I still feel like a giddy school boy after watching a good flick. I remember going to our local video store and renting tapes almost every day and just watching any movie I could get my hands on. Now I'm in my twenties and nothing has changed except maybe the way I view movies, which is with a more creative focused mind. So who am I and what is the blog about?

My name is Jeremy and I am a movie enthusiast. I'm a writer for Darkstation.com as a video game journalist and reviewer. While I love games (and wrestling which you may notice from my other blog) I love movies even more. While I write mostly video game related articles I have been working towards my goal of screenwriting. I've been writing since I was in grade school and writing movies and television has always been my end goal. Well this year I have finally finished my first draft of my first feature length screenplay. I'm currently working on subsequent drafts, as well as my next script, but in between all of that I still like to take the time to talk about movies. So on this blog you will see a wide variety of movie discussion. I will do analysis topics, reviews, and just kind of off the cuff style writing. I will probably talk a lot about my own writing experiences and projects but not too in depth.

So here's a little information about me. I love all kinds of movies. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be snob or talk about how much better indie or art house movies are over blockbusters because I have a pretty wide (and let's face it, forgiving) palette. I just want to be entertained and I can find plenty of entertainment in movies that some consider bad or shallow. I'm just in it to be entertained so that's all I ask for. So here's just a little information about me and then we can get into some serious articles.

Now with any list of my movies, favorites are always subjective to what you've watched recently and my list is constantly changing but here are my top five favorite movies at the moment of this writing.

5. Tron Legacy
4. The Wrestler
3. Inception
2. Fight Club
1. Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

My Top 5 Directors

5. Kevin Smith
4. Martin Scorsese
3. Quentin Tarantino
2. Christopher Nolan
1. David Fincher

Favorite Television Shows

5. Monday Night RAW (Kind of a cheap response I know!)
4. Friends
3. Archer
2. The Walking Dead
1. Californication

So that's a little information about me. If you want to know more then please sound off in the comments and you can find me on Twitter @advent_crash.