After surprising most observers with a worldwide box office of $783 million (against a $58 million budget), it was inevitable that a Deadpool sequel would be produced and fast – within two years!
The reason why Fox’s The Gifted is resonating with us while CW’s slate of DC superhero shows continue to bore and annoy is simple – the stakes seem real and urgent for the mutant characters.
It’s time to stop being surprised about how good The Gifted is! Episode 3 “eXodus” continued the standard of excellence thus far experienced with this well-written mutant series.
With The Gifted, there are now three Marvel-based TV series – the other two being Agents of SHIELD and Legion – that have surpassed the entire slate of CW DC Comics-based series.
Expectations were predictably low for The Gifted, the latest Fox mutant TV series. Based on the synopsis, it appeared similar to Heroes and the first season of Agents of SHIELD. Thankfully, it exceeded our expectations!
Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world, whose sole inhabitant is the synthetic David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
Alright, let me get it out there right off the bat. I have never liked Deadpool. Mainly because… Rob Liefeld. Same reason I never liked Cable. Gimmicky characters without substance. Breaking the fourth wall by itself isn’t enough to mask the fact that Deadpool is a poor rip-off of Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke.
(Note: This review is filled with spoilers. Mainly because I find it hard to believe that after reading this, you would be insane enough to still want to watch this turkey!)
This Fantastic Four reboot never had a chance. From the get-go, geeks hated it. From director Josh Trank boasting about how his version would be a ‘game-changer’ to the controversial casting, this reboot has had a troubled journey. Sadly, the finished movie justifies the hate and then some.
In an attempt to ‘modernise’ the origins of the Fantastic Four – and borrowing from the Ultimate Fantastic Four series – the movie gutted out everything that made Fantastic Four so special in the first place. That sense of connection. One never got that sense from this movie.
In the comic book origin, scientist Reed Richards and pilot Ben Grimm were best friends; Susan Storm was Richards’ girlfriend and Johnny Storm was Susan’s brother. Without the pre-existing relationship between Reed and Susan, their link is tenuous. Also, in the movie, Susan and Johnny are adopted siblings and of different races as well. This made any connections between them rather hard to swallow.
From that poor foundation, it becomes impossible for Trank to build up an effective story with too many plot holes to fill. For example, Reed is recruited by the Baxter Institute by way of a science fair experiment? Ludicrous. Susan gets her power without even being part of the inter-dimensional jaunt? Illogical. After the accident, Reed disappears for a year – a plot point that fails to serve the story at all!
The movie takes ridiculous short-cuts throughout, without any explanation. We never see how the characters develop their powers – we are given the finished product instead. The battle scenes are incredibly lame and do not get me started how Fox utterly fucked up Doctor Doom yet again!
Firstly, how did Victor Von Doom survive for a year in Planet Zero (not the Negative Zone, as it should have been). Secondly, why are there no security precautions to deal with Doom when everyone who returned from Planet Zero has some incredible powers. Finally, why is it so easy for the Fantastic Four to dispatch Doom when earlier he was shown to kill people by merely looking at them?
Suffice to say that this is one of the worst superhero movies in recent memory and will take its rightful place alongside X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Superman Returns and Spider-Man 3.
DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE AND HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE ENOUGH OF A FAILURE SO THAT FOX WILL GIVE UP AND RETURN THE FANTASTIC FOUR TO MARVEL.
The Merc with the Mouth gets his own movie! And it certainly looks like Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool – though am not sure if that’s much of a compliment. And judging from the red band trailer, it’s everything you expected a Deadpool movie to be. Not quite sure if that’s a good thing though.
Deadpool hits theatres on 12th February 2016.
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 …
Well, with the successes of CW’s DC superheroes, it was inevitable that Fox would jump on the bandwagon with their stable of mutant stars. Guess Marvel will counter with New Inhumans, eh???
Source: Fox Mints ‘The New Mutants’ X-Men Spinoff; ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ Helmer Josh Boone To Direct
Total Film has exclusive new pix from the Fantastic Four reboot. No standard FF costumes for this movie it seems!
Well, it’s been slim pickings regarding the Fantastic Four reboot even after the release of the teaser trailer. But Empire has first pictures and here they are!
It’s Reed Richards (Miles Teller) in some kind of astronaut suit with Tim Blake Nelson (who is playing the Mole Man) in the background.
Susan Storm (Kate Mara) in a black outfit with bodies on the floor.
Finally, the first teaser trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie arrives and frankly, it’s looks fine to me. After all the trepidation of the supposedly ‘un-superheroic’ approach of the reboot, the movie comes across like a Warren Ellis comic book, specifically Ultimate Fantastic Four!
Of course, the movie could still suck but at this point of time, I am looking forward to see what Josh Trank has come up with. Check it out!
For a scifi-superhero movie that is slated for release later this year (August), virtually no advance information of the new Fantastic Four movie is available online except a couple of interviews, a plot summary and this fuzzy photograph (above) of the cast when shooting wrapped last year!
Yes, this reboot of the comic book that launched the Marvel Universe itself is only seven months away and the silence over at Fox is deafening. And can anyone blame Fox? After all, the initial buzz of having Chronicle’s Josh Trank helm the movie dissipated quickly when the cast was announced (Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm).
The last two choices were particularly controversial for obvious reasons as fans opined that physically, both Jordan and Bell did not resemble the characters whatsoever. The situation worsened when actors admitted that the movie would not be faithful to the source material – Mara confirmed that director Trank advised her NOT to read the comic book before shooting began!
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
Directed by Bryan Singer. Starring Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and many more.
Well, for once, the hype was justified. X-Men: Days of Future Past is no doubt one of the biggest comic book movie adaptations ever, not only for its epic scope but also for its large cast of characters. Essentially a sequel to X-Men: First Class with the younger (1973) versions of Professor X, Magneto, Mystique and the Beast joined by the original X-Men movie characters i.e. Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Storm, Colossus and older versions of Professor X and Magneto.
Despite the potential challenges that such a large cast provides and rather distasteful previous outing for the original X-Men movie characters (i.e. X-Men: The Last Stand), director Singer not only averts disaster but delivers a widescreen heartfelt superhero film that erases the atrocity that was X-Men: The Last Stand and quite like the Star Trek reboots, wipes the slate clean so that the X-franchise can begin anew. No mean feat.
One gets the sense that Singer wanted to make things right after abandoning these characters for Superman Returns and allowing X-Men: The Last Stand to tarnish the reputation of our merry band of mutants. There are action sequences of awe and humor that need to be seen more than once (Quicksilver anyone?) but there are also intimate character moments where hearts are touched and tough decisions are made in the name of the greater good. Seen together with X-Men: First Class, there is a powerful emotional resonance amongst the characters that shines through.
The acting is of the highest order and that is to expected when you consider the calibre of the talent involved. Kudos to the 15,000 involved in this stellar production and one can now only wait with bated breath for the final installment in this particular trilogy – X-Men: Apocalypse. Don’t miss this.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is showing in the cinemas now.
