After The Credits: Concussion

Such a waste of an important opportunity at touching on head injuries.

After The Credits: Creed & The Rocky Universe

Rather than give my perspective to Creed, I decided to do a retrospective on the Rocky films as a supplement to the Creed film. I really shat on Rocky 5 in this audio review & think the first 2 films were a tad overrated compared to Rocky 3. Nevertheless, enjoy.

After The Credits: Victor Frankenstein

Really wanted to like this film, but it was a slow burn, throughout. While Daniel Radcliffe & James McAvoy tried here, the movie, ultimately, felt like a slog, at best.

Pros: The two leads, nice f/x work

Cons: 40 minutes aren't interesting

After The Credits: Spectre (Audio Movie Reviews)

I needed a couple of weeks before I decided on a clearer view of this film before I gave it a proper opinion, rather than to blab on. Spectre's a broken film that I somehow managed to enjoy. Considering that I had to suffer through the long middle, I think that's why the 3rd act felt weird. I gave it a 3.5 out of 5, but purely out of mercy, nothing else.

The Wanderer Speaks (The Film Wanderer Podcast)

Trying this podcasting thing again. This time, It'll be different, and a whole lot better.

Best in Movies 2014: 2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Directed by Marc Webb

Produced by Avi Arad & Matt Tolmach

Story by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Jeff Pinker & James Vanderbilt

Score by Hans Zimmer & The Magnificent Six

Cinematography by Dan Mindel

Distributed by Columbia Pictures (Sony)

      Don't adjust your perception with my ranking with Amazing Spider-Man 2. Seriously, this is not a drill. I hold this film in high regard, all things considering how people have felt with the direction of the character has taken. A couple of think-pieces nor a significant event at Sony is going encourage me to cave into the "franchise fatigue" talking points. In order to understand ASM2's plight, it all starts with Sony and their haphazardness for not having confidence in their true vision of the character. Then again, companies do desperate things to stay in the current. Before I go into appreciating the film proper, since this is a "best of" list, I have to excoriate Sony's ridiculous ideas for their once-promising universe in the "Amazing" series. When the company dealt with a hacking scandal of their own, one of the leaks discussed an Aunt May film, where Peter Parker's aunt, apparently, was once a spy in the eyes of the executives at Sony. Now, I'm not a "that wasn't in the comics" guy, but that's a big stretch for a side character who only offers her kander to Peter. Other properties, such as The Sinister Six, Black Cat, Venom are either on hold or don't exist in the plans for Marvel/Sony with their joint relationship into. With the license now co-produced by those two companies, the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe is all but dead. The movie, itself, is my favorite Spider-Man film until the newest one comes out in 2017. It's a shame that Andrew Garfield wasn't realized sooner, because, he's an excellent Spider-man, more so than Tobey Maguire. Yes, the basis of the film is structured as an origin story with a couple of new touches, but if this is the Spider-Man film we got back in the early 2000s, instead of the movie we actually got during that era, I think it might've been treated better, nostalgically. Now, I don't find it revolutionary or daunting; however, the film hits on some heavy emotional moments, like the way Gwen Stacy's death is depicted. Given its lasting appeal, or Sony's erratic vision, this was the Spider-Man film that I wanted for decades, for better or worse. I'll just have to live with the insults from people who weren't as enthralled as I was. 

The Stacy/Parker Connection

     From the get-go, you're pulled into the realm of the Stacy/Parker relationship. Of the things TASM 2 gets right, it's the love story. To be fair, it's more than just a situation of love, rather than just a buddy-buddy relationship. To the casual comic book fan, such as myself, we know the legend of Peter Parker and his heroics. Gwen Stacy's a compelling character, because she's not another damsel in distress needing to be saved, a tired cinema trope, to be honest. She doesn't mind doing heroics deeds for Spider-Man, even if he doesn't request for her help, so her safety can be assured. She wants to help defeat Electro? Check. Tips on Battery overcharges? Check. Isn't afraid of consequences? Big Check. It isn't so much that Gwen is dependent on becoming something meant to be revered, it's that she doesn't allow some of the people in her life to control destiny. As for Peter, well, he doesn't want her to be harmed at all. Typically, he doesn't want anyone to be harmed, since, we know that a big character trait about Spider-Man is on the impact of losing a significant other. Him being a significant level of responsibility for allowing that to happen. What makes Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone's roles impactful is, you believe they are these characters, because, they work so well together, regardless of their off-screen relationship. It's what makes the tumultuous demise of Gwen Stacy all the more heartbreaking during Spider-Man's fight in the clock tower with the Green Goblin. Despite all of his actions to keep her safe, something grim was bound to happen during the course of the film, we just didn't expect it to be so wretched. They have that innate ability to engage the audience without it all feeling like a derivative of the older films that tried to add the varying ranges of drama, comedy & action, but waned over time. At least, in this iteration, character development between the two was superb. 

Electro

     When Marc Webb selected Jamie Foxx to play Electro, I didn't have any concerns about his approach to him. Some seemed to be resentful to the fact that, Foxx might not be up for the role or nerds would slam his performance because it represented a significant change for how, perhaps, he was represented in the comics. I think if they went with the classic yellow and green spandex, we'd probably  more scrutiny compared to what it received beforehand. His Max Dillon comes across as crazed & needy. A man with smart ideas for Oscorp, but he never gets the credit for his products. Once he's picked on, he has these thoughts in his head of what he'd like to do those who mess with him, but he doesn't do anything to them. Of course, when he gets his powers from an accident, he's unsure of the power he gains (no pun intended) and when feels Spider-Man turned on him, as a result of a Sniper fire, when NYPD attempted to neutralize Max. Electro's also interesting since it feels like a sociopath surrounded by people who don't like him. The usage of Pharrell's voice to add to Max's instability adds another layer to him. 

The Future of Spider-Man Movies/Closing

     

     With Sony feelings a ton of uncertainty from fans & critics from the last film, they did the very thing to revitalize their franchise player, put him in the MCU along side Marvel Studios other characters. Also, Andrew Garfield will no longer be the webhead in later installments of the series, since Marvel wants a younger Spider-Man. Tom Holland looks to meet those requirements to be the one, given he's only 19 and can actually do things a Spider can't. Sony & Marvel will now co-produce the movies, put they can use the character in Marvel properties now. Whatever the next story in this franchise is, hopefully will be in well hands. I did love Amazing 2, and I say that with no regrets at all. I'll definitely miss Garfield's enthusiasm, charm, wise cracks, etc. He was a believable Spider-Man, but with the next one going in a different direction, it should be interesting how things are developed. 

Summer Movie Pandemonium, 2015

      I can relate to the Summer Box Office schedule. It's always busy, very jammed & it can be wearying. It's been a long time since I wrote something (Day & Night jobs have me in a jam, at the moment) and, so I figured, I'd be irresponsible, if I didn't discuss the summer films for 2015. Sure, I could've saved my money on something more, alas, this is my 'something more'. Originally, I'd plan on talking about each movie, separately, which is normally how I review movies, but with work obligations catching up with blogging, It was difficult to make both worlds meet in a proper fashion. So, here, I'll write an overview of the movies that I saw this summer to recap this segment of the year. A quick review of each film, sort of.

     By my count, I've watched 16 movies during the May-August section of the movie year, easily my highest mark as a movie buff during this time of year. 4 of those, I've watched at least 2 times or more (Avengers 2, M:I 5, Mad Max 4, & Ant-man). The only thing that I'm disappointed by, is that I didn't see more to increase that number. I didn't get to see Minions or Inside Out to build on that number (And, I work a lot of hours just to see these films late at night, sometimes). At the same time, when you work on building something you love doing, you have to push yourself to the highest of limits just to accomplish seemingly impossible odds. Hopefully, because of that, I can get back into the flow of this. The following list is done in no particular order, but if you must know my favorite movie of the summer? It was, indeed, Avengers 2. 

The Best

Avengers: Age of Ultron: My favorite moment about Avengers 2, was never getting sucked into the expectations made by the fans or media. Surely, I have many moments when I was Awed by what I was witnessing from Ultron, The Maximoff's, Vision or the team, itself; but when you hide expectations from yourself, expecting everything to come forth, is when I felt, Age of Ultron met just about every single expectation. Will these moments top the ones from the first? Depends on how you expect things to go. Sometimes, the best ways to go into movies, is to not have a bloated vision of what to expect, just let it play out. My only regret? I never got to see it in theaters in the same month for a 4th time. Not because I got tired of my experience with the spectacle, but I had car trouble, which prevented me from seeing it a 4th time.  

Mad Max: Fury Road: George Miller went through many hurdles towards getting this film made, suffering through Mel Gibson's issues, The US dollar collapsing with Australia's dollar, 9/11, reshoots, etc. Survived even Tom Hardy getting frustrated with Miller, at one point, with the 450 hours of footage shot. Basically, Fury Road is the movie equivalent to Jak X, except there are no power-ups or ottsels roaming the screen. There are little plot cues in the film, since everything, literally keeps moving. Tom Hardy does a great job at recapturing Gibson's version of Max Rockatansky from mannerisms & body language, while Charlize Theron is commanding as Furiosa. It helped having seen the first three to get a background as to what I was going to encounter. It was pure excellence, to say the least.

 Dope: One of the most important films of 2015.  

 Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation: Tom Cruise might as well start going all Death Wish on these films, soon enough. Rebecca Ferguson is a worthy edition to this installment.

 Amy: Director Asif Kapadia outdid himself with this film after his documentary on Ayrton Senna. I don't think anyone can structure a documentary like he does. I knew Amy Winehouse was damaged, but, yeah; she went through it.

Ant-Man: Oh snap, Marvel can do heist films, too? Yup, loved it.

Straight Outta Compton: Could've been a prolific biopic. As a movie, though, it's a great time.

The Surprises

Jurassic World: Only thing better that would've been better than Bryce Dallas Howard's light blue heels, is if they came with a turbo thrusters option. 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E: Straight Outta Compton jacked this film from making more money than it should have. Wish it got more notoriety, but, ya know, bad break.

Trainwreck: Truly a Judd Apatow film, but one that doesn't go hard for being more than what it should be, which is a good thing. 

The D Train: A Jack Black/James Marsden flick that was truly forgotten. Came out the same month as Age of Ultron did. 

Vacation: Ed Helms accomplished his one goal: Don't be like Vegas Vacation. 

The Doldrums

Tomorrowland: The dullest $200 million dollar film of all-time. Even duller than Superman Returns

Fantastic Four (2015 reboot): Felt like my rating of this film kept dropping every day. That entire cast has my deepest sympathies. 

Mistress America: Didn't necessarily hate it, I just couldn't vibe with it. 

No Escape: If Owen Wilson is your lead in a action/drama movie and he's his comedic self in it? You're just trying too hard.