Category Archives: 10’s movies
Justice League Dark
Justice League Dark 2017
While this isn’t the first comic book movie to be released in 2017, this is the first 2017 comic book movie that I’ve gotten around to watching. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of DC’s animated movies and especially those directed by Jay Oliva. There’s just something about his action and style that gets to me every time. This is also the next in the continuing series of movies loosely connected continuity surrounding the expanding Justice League. And this had the right amount of action, humor, and drama to keep me hooked from beginning to end. Even though I was only vaguely familiar with many of the characters in this film, I connected with them and enjoyed this from beginning to end. Especially with its connection to the unfairly cancelled NBC series Constantine. My only real gripe with this film is that once again it pushed Batman front and center when he had no real reason to be included in this story other than the fact that he is DC’s cash cow and has to be included in every possible thing they do.
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Blue is the Warmest Color
Blue is the Warmest Color 2013
As of this moment, this is what I will refer to as the final “major” superhero or comic book film that I had yet to watch and review since starting this site. It’s one that I’ve put off for a variety of reasons. One of which is the multiple, extended, and explicit sex scenes over the course of this three hour movie. Now, I’m not generally one to shy away from sex and nudity, but when you’re the father of a 10 year old girl who has a very bad habit of staying up much later than she should, you tend to be very careful about what you watch in the living room. But once I got past that hurdle albeit in shorter chunks over the course of four evenings, I did enjoy the extended and raw tale of a young woman finding herself through school, romance, and sexuality. And while I myself am not a teenager, a woman, or gay, there was still plenty about Adele’s journey that I strongly related to throughout the course of this film.
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Red 2
Red 2 2013
I’ve almost completed my recent goal of watching and reviewing the last few major comic book films I have yet to cover here. This film came out during the second year of this site and it was the first summer where I started to realize how many comic book films were actually coming out and how difficult it was for me to keep up with all of them. And since this was a sequel to a film that I had yet to see, it was one of those that fell through the cracks until now. I hadn’t really heard much about this film, and what little I did hear was generally mixed. But since I did enjoy the first one so much, I though I would enjoy this one as well. There is definitely a different tone to this film, and while the plot still isn’t much to speak of, I did laugh more often and harder than I did in the first film, so it’s got that going for it at least.
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RED
RED 2010
I’ve almost completed another one of my mini-goals to have watched every “major” comic book movie ever made. This was another film that came out during a time when I wasn’t watching many movies, and especially not many R rated movies. I’ve just come off of a review where I completely fell in love with the Losers and I’m not entirely sure that I would have loved that film quite as much had I seen this one first. It follows a somewhat similar set up, only instead of a disgraced and left-for-dead team of CIA operatives who at one point break into the CIA with plenty of comedy, this is a group of retired CIA operatives who at one point break into the CIA with plenty of comedy. While the caliber of acting in the Losers was decent, with Chris Evans, Idris Elba, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, this cast is a significantly higher caliber with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and plenty more. While I do still love the Losers, I think RED beats it out in almost every possible way, aside from having a character with multiple awesome t-shirts.
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The Losers
The Losers 2010
I’m continuing my journey to watch the last of the most major comic book films that I’ve missed these past five years and it’s almost astonishing that I’ve put this film off for so long. While it wasn’t a big hit in 2010 when it was released, it is one of the many comic book films featuring Chris Evans in a major role. It’s somewhat surprising that it has such a low rating, and I’m curious if any of it has to do with the marketing or just the time it was released as I watched this film with little to no expectations and absolutely loved the hell out of it. It reminded me a little bit of a combination between Tropic Thunder with less comedy and Two Guns with more coherence.
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Cowboys & Aliens
Cowboys & Aliens 2011
Now that I’ve finished watching every comic book movie of 2016, my latest quest is to finish watching every major comic book movie ever made. And while this may have been a large task a few years ago, depending on what metric you look at, I only have six movies left that have had a significant box office take and have more than a few thousand user ratings on IMDB. This movie, the Losers, Red, Red 2, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Push. So my goal is to finish off these last few films during the rest of January and all I’ll have left is the obscure and new releases left to cover. Coming back to today’s film, I pretty much skipped over this film when it was released in theaters. It wasn’t on my radar at all, and afterwards it pretty much fell off the face of the internet. It’s an odd mix of genres, a sci-fi western works better when there’s western elements in a sci-fi setting rather than vice versa. Though I suppose I was a fan of Brisco County Jr. But this film did not work for me or my wife whatsoever. It just never felt quite right and we couldn’t get past the incredulity of cowboys fighting highly advanced aliens.
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Max Steel
Max Steel 2016
I’m a few days behind, but after watching this, I have covered every single comic book and superhero movie released in the US in 2016. I missed it in theaters because everyone else did. It was only in my area for one week and I was busy that week, but it’s out on home video now so I reluctantly caught up with it. I knew nothing at all about Max Steel the toys, or the cartoon, but based on the trailer it looked like a lesser version of Power Rangers without the giant robots and only one teen. And that’s pretty much what I got out of it. This is really the definition of standard teen superhero origin story that hits all the markers and never really makes a name for itself to stand out in the crowd. It’s not an awful movie, but it’s so mediocre and unoriginal in nearly everything it does that it’s a complete bore. And even though it’s unlikely that it matters, since this is a relatively new movie, here’s your warning that I will be discussing the movie in full, including potential spoilers.
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Almost Super: The Demolisher
The Demolisher 2015
I often find it fascinating where my whims take me. Lately, I have been making more of a point to borrow movies from my local library and I’m often surprised by the smaller, independent movies that they have available. During my last trip, I saw a blu-ray on their new release shelf that caught my eye. It was called the Demolisher, the font of the title had a comic book feel to it, and reading the back of the box it looked and sounded like a cross between the Punisher, and possibly Judge Dredd just based on the riot gear outfit. I didn’t pick it up right away, but I did check out the trailer and was impressed enough to check it out the next time I was there. While I ultimately decided that it didn’t quite fit my criteria for a superhero movie: there is a costume, but not really any alter ego, and it’s more about vengeance than vigilantism. But after watching it, I did find the film rather fascinating and well made enough that I wanted to talk about it here on this site. The cinematography is gorgeous in places, and the film doesn’t fall into the low budget trap of too much expository dialogue, instead it allows the scene to play out often silently, or near silently. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but it was quite fascinating.
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Crimson
Crimson 2013
I’m always on the lookout for superhero and comic book movies, especially some of the more obscure ones. But it still came as a surprise when I was looking through the DVD section of my library in a relatively small suburb of Chicago when I happened to see a DVD that caught my eye for this film. It surprised me even more when I looked it up on IMDB and saw that it only had 13 user ratings which made me wonder how it ended up in this library in the first place. But less surprisingly was that it was an ultra low budget film along the lines of something like Captain Battle or the Amazing Bulk, only with surprisingly lower production values, acting, or much of anything else.
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Antboy 3
Antboy 3 2016
Continuing on in my catching up of the last few 2016 films that have slipped past me is the latest in the Danish superhero Antboy franchise. I thought the first Antboy was ok, the second one was a lot of fun, so I was excited to finally get the chance to watch the third and supposedly final entry in this series. Not to mention that all three are currently available to stream on Netflix in the US. Since they are still marketed as kids movies, they are dubbed in English, but do yourself a favor and if you’re watching it because you’re a fan of superhero movies, do yourself a favor and watch it in the original Danish audio. Typically I tend to watch dubs over subs, but that’s usually due to one of two reasons: either it’s a cheesy film to begin with and the bad-to-mediocre dubs add to the camp factor, or it’s a newer animated feature and the dub is done in a highly professional manner that’s a similar quality to the original performances. This one falls between the two, what little I listened to of the dub is very mediocre in quality so it really detracts from the overall film. That said, I did think that this was a fitting end to the trilogy and quite possibly the best of the bunch.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 