Invincible S01E05 is the fifth instalment of the first season of an animated superhero action-adventure TV drama streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The series is based on the Image Comic of the same name, created by writer Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and artist Cory Walker.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S01E04 is the fourth instalment of a six-part superhero streaming TV drama miniseries. Set six months after the events of Avengers : Endgame, the miniseries continues to expand on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) after the 5 year blip, and the impact this has on the world, and of course, on the superheroes themselves.
Invincible S01E04 is the fourth instalment of the first season of an animated superhero action-adventure TV drama streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The series is based on the Image Comic of the same name, created by writer Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and artist Cory Walker.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S01E03 is the third instalment of a six-part superhero streaming TV drama miniseries. Set six months after the events of Avengers : Endgame, the miniseries continues to expand on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) after the 5 year blip, and the impact this has on the world, and of course, on the superheroes themselves.
Invincible is an animated superhero action-adventure TV drama streaming on Amazon Prime Video. This review covers Invincible S01E01 – S01E03, which were released recently on the streaming platform. The series is based on the Image Comic of the same name, created by writer Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and artist Cory Walker.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S01E02 is the second instalment of a six-part superhero streaming TV action-adventure drama miniseries. Set six months after the events of Avengers : Endgame, the miniseries continues to expand on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) after the 5 year blip, and the impact this has on the world, and of course, on the superheroes themselves.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the literal revenge of the nerds. Fandom’s fanatical insistence that Warner Bros release the Snyder Cut over the years led to this unlikely movie becoming a reality in the surreal circumstances of 2021. Sure, it’s a gimmick to sell HBO Max and might not have happened otherwise. Who cares?
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With the Disney+ streaming platform being available worldwide since February this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) movies can be found in one convenient place. Power of Pop has been a staunch supporter of the MCU since the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (which is not available on Disney+) in 2008. Thus, we continue our look back at the MCU with probably its most significant movie, 2012’s The Avengers.
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I believe in story analysis. As a pop culture commentator writing about film and TV, it is important to discuss story using rules of story analysis. Without story, films and TV shows would merely be a collection of loosely connected events and action sequences. With regards to Wonder Woman 1984, I had previously posted a non-spoilers review. Perhaps it is time for a story analysis of Wonder Woman 1984 to illustrate my point.
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Wonder Woman 1984 is a superhero action-adventure drama based on the DC character of the same name. Directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot as the titular character, Wonder Woman 1984 is the sequel to the successful 2017 eponymous film.
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The Dark Knight Trilogy Analysis begins …
Christopher Nolan’s much vaunted Dark Knight Trilogy consisted of Batman Begins (BB), The Dark Knight (TDK) and The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR). The trilogy has been credited for legitimising superhero movies after the damage done by the campy Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.
Buffalo Boys is helmed by first time director Mike Wiluan and jointly produced by Infinite Frameworks and Zhao Wei Films.
Synopsis
The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test. directed by Justin Lin from a screenplay by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. Starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and Idris Elba (Krall).
Synopsis
Stranger Things is a 8-part Netflix original series set in Indiana 1983, where a young boy vanishes into thin air and a mysterious girl with strange powers suddenly appears at about the same time. Directed by The Duffer Brothers and starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour & Matthew Modine.
Captain America : Civil War is a superhero action-adventure drama set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What follows is our non-spoiler review.
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If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that The Brothers Grimsby (starring Sacha Baron Cohen & Mark Strong as the titular characters) is a pisstake of every Mark Millar movie adaptation!
In hindsight, 2015 has proven to be a rather disappointing year for geek movies. Despite the hype accorded to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, JJ Abrams’ reboot of the franchise proved less than satisfying but that could not stop the movie from grossing over a billion at the box office (and still going strong at time of posting).
Kirk teleporting
A couple of factoids before we move on, dear PoP geek reader.
Enterprise gets destroyed… again!
First, Justin Lin (of Fast & Furious fame 3-6) directs (JJ Abrams had some other scifi movie to work on!). Second, this movie is being released in 2016 — the most saturated geek movie year EVAH!
When news was announced about the cast for Captain America : Civil War, folks starting referring to the sequel as Avengers 2.5. But based on the first trailer, it’s clearly a Cap movie – it’s just that Cap’s quest for justice for his friend Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier) leads him to war with Iron Man and his team.
Which is a clever twist to how the original comic book story played it. It’s about Cap being loyal to his best friend in the face of virtually impossible odds. What a story this is going to be! And we get a first look at Black Panther too! 2016 is going to be an amazing superhero movie year.
Check it out now.
The most anticipated movie of the year has released a new trailer. If I am understanding the implications of what is depicted in this trailer correctly, after the Battle of Endor and the Return of the Jedi, something happened to thwart the actual return of the Jedi because 30 years later, the very idea of the Force is now a myth. Isn’t this the premise of Star Wars: A New Hope? So unlike the numerous books that chronicled post-ROTJ events (which has now been rendered non-Canon by Disney), we are back to square one.
Once more, we have a young adult living on the desert planet looking up to the skies, we have a malevolent force wearing a helmet and we have the threat of the Death Star (see the poster below) – so Star Wars: The Force Awaken is in reality a REBOOT! Sigh. What an alarming and revolting development! Hopefully, I am wrong in my assessment of the trailer. Cuz, even though the visuals are amazing and awe-inspiring, if that is indeed the plot of the new Star Wars movie, then it is going to be a disappointment. Don’t fuck it up, JJ!
Watch the new trailer.
Check out also this amazing clip that combines all the footage so far in the Ultimate Trailer!
Last time out, Fox botched its characterisation of Dr Doom – one of the most iconic of super-villains – and that, and it’s rather campy approach marked its first attempt at adapting Marvel’s Fantastic Four as a failure. Watching this final trailer for this FF reboot, it is clear that the critical point of acceptance will once again hinge on the handling of Doom.
Apart from that, based on the trailers so far, this reboot looks like a serviceable origin story, using the Ultimate Fantastic Four series as a strong inspiration. In a year of mega-blockbusters like Fast and Furious 7, Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys letting us down on the basic story front, hopefully Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four will surprise us all with a solid plot and characters, even as Marvel Studios itself roots for it to fail.
Fantastic Four opens in Singapore on 6th August.
… still there’s more …
What is there to say? Shit just got real. Be prepared for the feels.
… still there’s more …
You see that image above? That’s really what modern day blockbusters have done with plot, characterisation and narrative logic. Gobbled it all up in the name of box office green. Special effects rather than good writing create ‘tension’ and ‘drama’. This visual feast has audiences going ga-ga over the empty spectacle while ignoring plot holes & shallow one-dimensional characters. But it’s all okay, it’s only a movie so relax, why don’t you?
Well, remember that you reap what you sow. All the box office millions earned by movies like Jurassic World and less we forget, the Transformers franchise only leads to more similar movies. As it is, movie studios are terrified about releasing ‘genre’ films unless it’s a sequel, reboot or book/comic/TV adaptation and the mega-success of Jurassic World simply cements that opinion.
There’s little point in going into these issues in detail but suffice to say that: –
1. Bryce Dallas Howard’s character spends the entire film in high heels whilst running and battling dinosaurs.
2. The manner in which the ‘evil’ dinosaur is defeated by the ‘good’ dinosaurs is preposterous.
But why bother about making sense when you can make US$500 million in a weekend instead?
*Sigh*
