Project Power: Popping Pills

Project Power is an action science fiction film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. We are shown a version of New Orleans where a dangerous new street drug that gives people superpowers is all the rage. Who is behind it is unclear, but that doesn’t stop one former army major (Jamie Foxx), from trying to bring in all down and save his kidnapped daughter.

I thought this film had a very cool concept, I enjoyed the gritty very real world feel it had; despite a premise that could easily have gone in a silly, superhero direction. It is made very clear to us the audience that these people aren’t superheroes, they’re regular messed up people who are just doing what they can to try and take control of their own reality.

The soundtrack nicely pushes this authentic feel, with each song feeling very necessary and well attached to a certain scene; there was only one song that I found to be clunky and out of place and even slightly awkward.

The performances were stellar from all three leads; however I think anyone would tell you that this is Foxx’s movie and he makes the most of every second he is on-screen. It is also nice to see Joseph Gordon Levitt pop back up, I feel like its been a while since I have seen him in a big budget film.

My one complaint would be that it feels very Netflix. It is of course a Netflix action film, but therein lies the problem, because Netflix seems to keep to a formula with these kind of movies they all end up feeling very samey and there are times when this film feels like it is falling into that trap. Not a huge indictment of the film itself more one for Netflix’s action movies in general.

Overall, a fun ride with a lot to say and some great performances not one that I would need to watch again, however.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Deathstroke, Knights And Dragons: The Real Dark Knight Of The DC Universe

Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons is an animated film set within the DC animated universe. The plot tells the story of Slade Wilson (Michael Chiklis), the world’s best mercenary who is targeted by the villainous organisation HIVE. They take Slade’s son hostage and he has to get him back.

This was a very cool unexpected release, the animation style of this is pitch perfect. I loved the very obvious anime influence and the way the character looked and moved, I thought quite a few of the action scenes were beautifully done and looked very impressive.

I enjoyed the dive into Slade and who he is, with a focus on his family and the effect his work has on them. It was nice seeing him in more of an antihero role rather than as a villain as he normally appears, I think the character has a lot of potential and I would like to see his character get the live action treatment in the DCEU.

My only issue with the film is that the narrative repeats itself, it does this as Slade’s son is taken twice and he has to save him twice within the same film. I understand why it’s done to show his character growth and how he changed his approach the second time around, but I personally thought it would have worked better if the two hostage scenes had happened across two separate films.

Overall, this is one of the best DC Animated films I have seen in a long time, it is cool and badass, and just fun to watch.

Pros.

Showing Slade’s heroic side

The action scenes

The anime influence

The ending, teasing more to come.

Cons.

The narrative repetition

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Thor Dark World: I’m Guessing No One Was Happy On This Set

Thor Dark World is a superhero action film in The Marvel Cinematic Universe directed by Alan Taylor. The plot finds the evil Dark Elves resurfaced with plans to plunge the entire universe into darkness, there is only one person who can stop them, Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth).

This film is widely regarded as one of the worst, if not the worst film in all of the MCU and there is good reason for it. Unlike most of the MCU that is insanely rewatchable I have only seen this film twice.

The first Thor film was the underrated gem of the first phase of the MCU, and was far better than it had any right to be. Part of the reason for this for me at least was the relationship between Thor and the humans of Earth, but more importantly Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). I enjoyed the dynamic between the two characters, and I thought they had one of the best love stories of the MCU. How they managed to screw it up so much in this film is baffling. Thor and Jane no longer have any chemistry and Portman seems like she doesn’t want to be there, a pattern with her.

However, where the Thor and Jane relationship lacks this film does improve and build upon the relationship between Thor and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), in a way which made them and the film better. This would lead well into Thor Ragnarök.

Another issue with this film is that they entirely waste Christopher Eccleston as the villain Malekith. Eccleston is one of the best British actors without question, so when they gave him such a bland and underserved character it was almost like an insult. I won’t go after the MCU for weak villains as it is an easy and well-worn target.

Also the supporting cast from the first film return and are either wasted or tarnished and embarrassed it is a mixture of the two.

Pros.

The Thor/ Loki plotline

Cons.

Ruins the romance

Wastes Eccleston

Spits on the minor supporting characters

It is dull

1.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Wonder Woman: The Shining Light Of The DCEU

Wonder Woman is a superhero film directed by Patty Jenkins. The plot centres of Amazonian warrior Diana (Gal Gadot), who becomes entangled with a WW1 plot and who finds out that she is a demigod. There is a lot going on, but hey it’s a superhero film.

Before I get into this review I just want to say that this film is probably my favourite DCEU film to date, closely followed by Shazam, and I believe it achieves a lot of what Captain Marvel was going for in terms of female empowerment, but is often short changed in favour of the inferior MCU film.

Gadot really did prove all of the haters wrong, she perfectly embodied the character on screen and became almost synonymous with the role. Diana as a character is easy to root for and is very down to earth and likeable despite not being mortal.

The colour pallet of this film and the use of humour really help this film to set itself apart from the wider DCEU and establish it as something with its own identity. I really think this film nails how to use comedy in a superhero film it has several funny sequences including the penis scene early on with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), which made me laugh, but hey I also laughed at the “what are those” line in Black Panther. The humour also doesn’t take away from the badass action, as is the problem with the MCU a lot of the time.

Yes, I know I can’t talk about the film without addressing the final CGI boss fight that does let the film down and ends it on some what of a sour note, it is a shame, but the rest of the film more than make up for it.

Overall probably the best DCEU film.

Pros.

The comedy

Diana and Steve

Gal Gadot

The Action

The WW1 setting

Cons.

The final fight

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Iron Man 3: The MCU’s First Slip Up

Iron Man 3 is a superhero action film directed by Shane Black. The plot sees Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), suffer with the consequences of being Iron Man. It is a very human story. The you have some nonsense with serums and old enemies seeking out Stark. However, at its heart it is a story about Tony finding a new place in the world and coping with it.

This review may be controversial.

So, this film had a big task to accomplish it had to follow Iron Man 1 and 2 (which I enjoyed), and also serve to end the Iron Man trilogy, that is a tall order by any means. I applaud Shane Black for making this a more stripped back story, focusing on Tony as a human being rather than a superhero. Having him have to use his mind to get himself out of trouble rather than this armour or his Superhero pals. As a character study piece it gets thumbs up from me, however, this is not a character study film this is a superhero film.

It is in that regard that I think this film falls apart. The promise of Ben Kingsley as the famous Iron Man villain the Mandarin was a tantalising one indeed, so when they revealed that the he wasn’t the actual Mandarin and was actually an actor it was more than a little disappointing. The real villain of the film was a one note baddy whose name I can’t even remember, the subversion didn’t work and was later undone in further material.

Overall an ambitious film in a lot of ways, it succeeds as a character study it fails as a superhero film.

Pros.

Making Tony Stark human.

Not including other Avengers (outside of Rhodey)

Giving Pepper something to do

Cons.

The twist doesn’t work

It adds nothing to the MCU as a whole and ends up feeling quite inconsequential

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Batman, Assault On Arkham: Fear The BAT

Batman: Assault On Arkham is an animated superhero film directed by Jay Oliva and Ethan Spaulding. The plot follows the infamous Task Force X/ or as they’re otherwise known The Suicide Squad as they lead an Amanda Waller directed raid on Arkham Asylum in an effort to retrieve an object of immense value from within its walls.

I have been meaning to watching this film for some time, I really like the DC animated movie universe, and this is yet another jewel in it. Though I liked it, this film is what the DCEU Suicide Squad movie should have been. An adult and gritty take on the Batman rouges gallery that isn’t constantly trying to get you to care about and root for its leads. This film knows that the members of the Suicide Squad are villains and treats them as such.

I like the lethality this film has towards its characters, it reminds me of the comic books, people die in the Suicide Squad all the time hence the name; so I appreciate that this film doesn’t pull any punches in that regard. I also enjoyed the Batman fight scene, I thought it was very Arkham esque; I later learned that this film was in the same universe as the Arkham games and that made sense.

Overall, I liked the tone and approach of this film. I also enjoyed the animation, I thought it was very easy on the eye and wasn’t too over the top. I would gladly watch another film set in this universe as I think there are more stories to be told and more characters to explore. That might be my only real issue with the film the characters were not flushed out at all.

Pros.

The animation.

The tone.

The fight with Batman.

The violence overall.

Cons.

The character feel very one note.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke.

Shazam: Big 2.0

Shazam is a superhero film directed by David F. Sandberg, it is the 7^th instalment in the DCEU. The plot follows Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a young foster kid who has spent most of his life trying to find his biological mum after she abandoned him at a fair. One day an old wizard calls upon Billy to take up the mantel of Shazam (Zachery Levi), and stop the evil that the 7 Deadly Sins have bought into the world, as well as defeat evil scientist Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).

Of all the DC Comics heroes Shazam is probably the one that I am the least familiar with, as such it was neat to learn his origin story. I think the story choice of having Billy be a foster kid that constantly runs away from foster homes to look for his mum, who he believes is the only family he needs, only to have it turn out that his mum deliberately abandoned him is an inspired choice. This choice was surprisingly dark for a family film and I appreciated that. What’s more this gave the moment when Billy finally excepts his foster family far more emotional weight.

As anyone who has ever seen Chuck can tell you Zachery Levi might be the most charming man on the planet, he was great in the Thor films though he only had a small part and he is terrific here in a larger superhero role. He perfectly captures the Big mentality, being a kid’s brain in the body of a grown man, as he plays the character with a healthy does of innocence and naivety. When his big hero moment finally comes it feels earned.

Furthermore, Mark Strong does a great turn as the villain, his character is threatening and menacing and dominates the screen every time he appears. Strong proves once again that he is one of the most versatile actors currently working. The boardroom scene is one of my favourites of last year, you will know why when you watch it.

I think this might be the most underrated and perhaps the best DCEU film. The emotional stakes are pitch perfect, Zachery Levi is magnificent, and the film isn’t afraid to get dark, which it does several times to great effect.

Pros.

Zachery Levi.

The darkness.

The humour.

The emotional stakes.

The wider universe.

Cons.

None, I have seen this several times and it holds up each watch.

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

X-Men Dark Phoenix: No More Mutants Please

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is a superhero film directed by Simon Kinberg; it belongs to 20^th Century Fox’s now defunct XCU (X-Men cinematic universe), taking place after the events of X-Men Apocalypse and is based on the Phoenix Saga from Marvel Comics.

Prior to writing this review I had been putting off watching this for a second time, it is a horrible film. Can I just ask the question before we get into the review, who thought letting Simon Kinberg a man who can’t even write films lead alone direct them, direct this was a good idea? All of the good X-Men films had very little involvement from this hack, or if he was involved, he was heavily reigned in by the director of whichever movie he was working on.

That said let’s get into the review.

First off, the action scenes in this film are atrocious, when you realise that they belong to a block-buster superhero film they seem even worse. They are a mad rush of CGI paired with the weakest blandest fight scenes you might ever see in your life, it is so lifeless and boring, it makes you wonder if they gave up on this film before it even started filming, and Fox wanted to release it just so it would cost, new franchise owners, Disney money; makes you think.

Secondly the acting, I can’t even bring myself to really go into this, so I will only talk about 2 noticeable bad performances, the rest are painfully average and feel so underdeveloped that you begin to question whether they even exist. James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto are the only 2 okay performances and even then, the incredibly bad, prequel era George Lucas esque bad, writing takes away anything it can from either performance.

The first of the woeful performances is Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. If I had to put together a list of the worst performances, or worst actors of 2019 Turner would surely be on it. I understand she was in Game Of Thrones and that was popular, empathies on was, but that doesn’t mean she is a good actress. Her performance has as much range and emotion as a bin bag floating down the side of the road, she can’t maintain an accent and as such it keeps slipping, she just can’t act, she can’t and if Hollywood learns one lesson from last year it should be to dump Sophie Turner as fast as they can.

The second performance and perhaps the more controversial pick is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Never before in the history of film has it been clearer that an actor has only been in a film because they were contractually obligated to be. It is clear from the very first moment she appears on screen, in her human form because Lawrence doesn’t like the makeup, she is being payed millions to wear, that she doesn’t want to be there. Her now infamous line of “you should change the name to X-Women”, made me both cringe and feel annoyed at the same time, and shows everything that is wrong with this film.

Overall, I have to say bravo to Dark Phoenix as it actually made me like the rotting carcass that is X-Men: The Last Stand so well done for that!

Pros.

McAvoy and Fassbender are okay.

Cons.

Sophie Turner shouldn’t be cast.

Jennifer Lawrence should have left when she stopped caring, they should have let her go.

Someone should have stopped Simon Kinberg from ripping the X-Men apart.

The overuse of CGI hurts.

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Birds Of Prey: Margot Robbie’s Vanity Project

Birds of Prey is a superhero film based on the DC characters of the same name directed by Cathy Yan. It serves as sequel to Suicide Squad and is set in the DC Universe. The plot of this film is that following her break-up from the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), set out to find out who she is and live her own life, she then gets targeted by a local drug lord and gets mixed up with a wide assortment of characters.

Why did you do this DC? You were on such a streak recently, but then this film came out; which may be the weakest film in the DCEU, but hey I like Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad so what do I know.

My issues with this film are on a fundamental level, firstly this isn’t a Birds of Prey film, it’s a Harley Quinn film that is using that name. Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) are in the film for maybe 30 minutes in total and are shockingly underused. This film is all about Harley Quinn and it isn’t afraid to show it. Adding to that Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a future Bat-girl is also in this film and she may be played by one of the most annoying child actors ever; but that is low hanging fruit, so I won’t rag on it too much.

This film is clearly heavily inspired by the New 52 run on Harley Quinn, which I loved, it has a lot of tonal similarities, but where the comic works the film doesn’t. I don’t know if it is issues in translating it over, but it just seems like it is trying to hard. The random asides, musical and otherwise and the jumping around in time for no real reason, reek to me of them trying too hard to make it edgy and random. Robbie is clearly doing her best Deadpool impression as well. I think the fact that this film doesn’t have Poison Ivy in it, to act as a new love interest for Harley is one hell of a missed opportunity.

The thing I dislike the most about this film is its message which is as aggressive as a punch to the throat. We have two incredibly on the nose scenes in this film, we have on scene where Harley is almost taken advantage of, why include this in your Harley Quinn superhero film as it just sticks out? As well as another scene of Black Canary singing ‘it’s a man’s world’ and it is like I get it film I get your point can you please stop ramming it down my throat it is off putting; showing once again that Hollywood doesn’t understand the meaning of subtly. Moreover, later in the film we have a scene where Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), forces a woman to strip, which once again feels out of place and he hasn’t shown any behaviour before that suggests he would do that kind of evil deed rather than just having her killed. All of these scenes are incredibly jarring and take you out of the experience and make it feel as though you’re being lectured to.

To conclude no wonder this film underperformed it tries too hard, misses a huge character opportunity and has as much subtly as a brick to the face.

Pros.

The Birds of Prey barring Harley are cool, it’s a shame they are barely developed.

Cons.

Robbie is trying to be Deadpool see the police evidence locker cocaine scene to see what I mean, it’s obvious.

Cassandra Cain is ridiculously annoying every time she is on screen.

The constant lectures.

The over the top randomness of it all.

1/5.

Reviewed by Luke

Avengers Endgame: The MCU Reigns Supreme

Avengers Endgame is a marvel superhero film that serves as the culmination to the Infinity Saga and previous 23 films of the MCU. The plot of the film follows our defeated heroes after half of their numbers were decimated by Thanos (Josh Brolin), in the infamous snap, the heroes have to find away to undo the damage done and bring back their fallen friends.

First of the bat I just want to say that it is possible to watch this film without having seen the previous films, or even Infinity War which acted as a part 1 to this film. However, it will be a lot easier to follow and will mean a whole lot more to you if you have seen the previous instalments.

As a film that brings together everything that the MCU has been building towards for years this film is a triumph. Characters that have been with us since the beginning are wrapped up in the most pleasing and emotionally satisfying way and new characters are introduced and remind us of the bright future the MCU has.

The one issue this film has is that it is too good of an ending. By that I mean this feels like the end of the MCU and when you realise that it isn’t it takes away from it a little bit, as well as reducing the importance of upcoming films. If the franchise had ended with Robert Downy Jr’s Iron Man saying, “I am Iron Man” and saving the universe as he dies, it would have beautifully book ended the series, but sadly it kept going.

I think this film achieves something very few other films have, or ever will, and that is have a huge supporting cast that gives each one of their characters a chance to shine. Whether you like Thor (Chris Hemsworth), or Spider-man (Tom Holland), each character is moved forward in a meaningful way and given fantastic development.

The villains bar Thanos are crucially underdeveloped, which is an issue that has afflicted a lot of MCU films over the years, they’re defeated far too easily and don’t actually feel like a threat to the heroes. Thanos however, is a great villain as he isn’t just the evil for evils sake kind of villain, he thinks that what he wants to do will make the universe a better place which adds a great sense of moral ambiguity to this character.

Overall, for better or for worse this film has had a huge impact on the film landscape and beautifully shows what the MCU was building to, it would have worked well as an ending, but we will just have to wait and see how they follow it up.

Pros.

A beautiful culmination.

“I Am Iron Man”.

Wrapping up characters in a great way.

Cons.

Cheap villains.

It makes the upcoming films feel less important.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke