Friday 22 January 2016

TRAILER PARK: SUICIDE SQUAD


Yes. Yes! YES! Ladies and gentleman, THAT is how you make a trailer!

The new Suicide Squad trailer debuted during CW's DC Films Present The Dawn of the Justice League special, which included advance looks at Batman V.Superman and Wonder Woman. But I think it’s safe to say that Suicide Squad stole the show.


There are at least two-dozen pause-worthy moments in this trailer and, quite frankly, shows just how sloppy and uninspiring Batman V Superman’s December trailer really was.

This new trailer gives us (slightly) extended looks at Killer Croc (0:46), The Joker, Harley Quinn, and shows Will Smith’s Dead Shot in action. We also get a better look at Jai Courtney (Terminator: Genisys) as Captain Boomerang and Joel Kinnaman (Robocop) as Rick Flagg — two actors who’ve been pretty underwhelming on the big screen so far. Hopefully this is a turning point for both of them.

What’s not given away (thankfully!) is the supernatural element in the trailer — specifically the character with extending tendrils at 1:44 and 1:52 and …something at 2:03. There’s some insane damage to a cityscape at 1:06, and we see henchman wearing strange armor at 1:48 going up against Dead Shot. I’ve read articles that assume Joker will be the main antagonist of Suicide Squad but these shots suggest otherwise.

I’ve officially written more posts about Suicide Squad than any other movie, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is the best trailer to come to the Trailer Park. It gives us a great glimpse of most of the Squad without giving away too much of the plot, there’s a tasty sprinkling of action without giving away the climax, and every shot looks outstanding. And, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody is a nice touch. It might be too soon to say, but I think hiring David Ayer to direct Suicide Squad is going to pay off for DC in a big way.

Step aside Captain America: Civil War. Suicide Squad is my new most anticipated movie for 2016.

There. I said it. Now let’s keep watching this trailer on repeat.

Suicide Squad debuts August 5th, 2016. But, if you can’t wait that long, I highly recommend Assault on Arkham for some animated Suicide Squad action.




Friday 15 January 2016

The Worst of 2015: FANT4STIC



And the winner for the most obvious blog post imaginable goes to… me!

Okay, so unless you’ve been living an Internet-free existence for the last six moths, this choice should come as no surprise. Fantastic Four made it onto every single “Worst of 2015” list I’ve seen this month. Not only was it a terrible superhero movie, it was far worse than both Fantastic Four (2005) and the inexplicably titled 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) — two movies that I prefer to call abominations.

But why was it such a bad movie? This is one of the rare films that even hardcore comic book movie lovers might have skipped. And after the slough of scathing reviews following the release, they can be forgiven —even director Josh Trank famously disowned the film via Twitter. But I couldn’t have forgiven myself if I didn’t at least try to get through this film. And, you know what? I was kind of surprised by what I saw.

Fant4stic is not entirely unwatchable. It’s dreadful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not so bad that I had to stop watching entirely (*ahem* Transformers 4). Because my expectations were lowered so dramatically, I was almost pleasantly surprised that I could get through the movie in a single run. That being said, there is no excuse for a superhero film this bad. I’ve seen Chronicle, Josh Trank’s sci-fi found footage film, and it was a very enjoyable movie — one of the best found-footage films I’ve seen, which isn’t the biggest compliment, I know. And Fant4stic is no Chronicle. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why it went wrong, only what went wrong. Here are the four biggest problems with Fant4stic.



1. IT’S DULL AS DISHWATER

Muted tones, serious dialogue, and grim settings (pun intended) are great and all. The Dark Knight had all three. But if your story has no momentum, no drama, no character development to speak of, it’s not going to work. The main characters are apparently working on the greatest discovery of mankind and it never feels like an amazing experience. There is no sense of awe, of wonder, of excitement. The story just kind of chugs along with bland dialogue, bland settings, and bland characters. Oh, and the greatest discovery of mankind, an alternate dimension that exists just beyond our ability to see, is also incredibly bland. Think of the moment Matthew McConaughey enters the wormhole in Interstellar. It’s the exact opposite of that. The two previous Fantastic Four films were cheesy as hell, yes, but at least they were somewhat entertaining.

2. THE PACING

Many reviews of Fant4stic mention the immense amount of setup, and it’s true, 90% of the film is about setting up these characters so that we can see them gain their powers. Then the set up continues! I waited 90 minutes for a 5-minute fight sequence with Doom. And the heroes (if you can call them that) don't discover their abilities. They just suddenly have them after their experiment goes wrong. This might be a small detail to gripe about, but imagine how much more dramatic it would be if you gradually realize your body can stretch or that your body is catching fire and you can’t control it. In a film riddled with missed opportunities, this is just one of them.



3. DOOM IS DISPOSABLE

There’s been controversy over this character from the very beginning. First, his name wasn’t Victor Von Doom and fanboys complained. So, they changed it back. Then, a photo of Doom on set leaked onto the Internet and, well, he looked awful. Look, I am a comic book fan but I am no fanboy. I don’t care if his name is Victor Von Doom or not. I don’t care if he’s a computer hacker or the ruler of a foreign country. All I care about is seeing an interesting character on screen who’s portrayed well, makes sense, has a purpose and represents a real threat to the protagonists. Only that last box was checked.

I like Toby Kebbell. I thought he was excellent in Black Mirror and I think he could have been an interesting Dr. Doom if the script allowed. But instead he’s just a dick. He’s a self-righteous, self-important, quasi-intellectual dick who thinks that world leaders will exploit the alternate dimension for resources just like they’ve exploited our world. What’s his solution? Destroy the world! Makes a lot of sense, I know. Also, where did he get his cape!?

It’s not like the heroes were characterized well either. Sue Storm likes music and looking for patterns. Why does she mention this? Because she’ll listen to music and look for a pattern at some convenient point in the film. Johnny Storm, her brother, likes cars… Yep, that’s his entire character. Ben Grimm had potential to be interesting — he comes from a poor family and is basically roped into the experiment by his best friend, Reed Richards. We’re meant to feel for Ben and Reed when, after their transformations, their friendship falls apart. Nope. I feel nothing. I was literally numb through the entire film.



4. IT ISN’T MARVEL

Of course, this would be true even if the film turned out well. But I think a big reason why this film didn’t work is because the talent behind Marvel’s Cinematic Universe wasn’t guiding this story from the start. Like X-Men, the film rights for Fantastic Four are owned by 20th Century Fox (There were even talks of a possible crossover had Fant4stic actually delivered). These rights are meant to eventually revert back to Marvel if Fox doesn’t produce a film within a given amount of time.

All I have to say to Fox is that the Fantastic Four was Stan Lee's first big success. Had he not created them, X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, all might not exist today. The guy is 93 years old. 93. Years. Old. You had three chances to get it right and you failed miserably every time. Now, unless he has super powers, he’ll very likely die before he sees a good Fantastic Four movie. Shame on you, Fox! Bad Fox! Bad!



Friday 8 January 2016

The Best of 2015: KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE



Welcome back, dear reader(s). School is back in session, my independent comic book is getting closer and closer to completion, and it’s time for me to get back to blogging. Since we’ve wrapped up 2015, I thought I’d start the year with a best-of-the-year pick and follow up next week with my choice for the worst comic book movie of 2015. *Spoiler Alert* It’s Fantastic Four.

Last year, I did a series of “Year in Review” posts detailing the best and worst in a few different categories. But, for now, I’m going to stick to simply the best and worst releases, then possibly detail the best and worst heroes and villains from the last year. Without further ado, here’s my pick for the best comic book movie of 2015.

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE


Let me start on a down note by saying that 2015 was, overall, a rather disappointing year for comic book movies. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Although, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was the box office titan out of this year’s titles, it fell very short creatively for me. There was a small lot of live-action CBM productions to choose from, including just Kingsman, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant Man, and *ahem* Fantastic Four. And while some of these were clearly better than others, there were no stand-up-and-cheer moments in the theater — just a couple of enjoyable, if flawed, pictures worth seeing — at least on video.

Speaking of disappointments, Specter, the most recent Bond film, has shown that the Superman of the spy genre has worn out his welcome, at least for now. And it was Bond’s move towards more dark storytelling that inspired Matthew Vaughn (director of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class) to direct Kingsman: The Secret Service — based on the Mark Miller/Dave Gibbons comic of the same name. The story follows a young, up-to-no-good-but-loveable teen named Eggsy who’s drafted into a secret spy organization and trained by a master spy named Harry Hart, played by the always-affable Colin Firth.



If breathing some life into the spy genre was Vaughn’s mission, he most certainly succeeded. Kingsman is nothing if not a fun movie, mixing dark comic book violence with colorful characters and scenarios — both of which Vaughn is known for. The church riot briefly seen in the trailer is a gory delight and Samuel L. Jackson steals every one of his scenes as Richmond Valentine, a billionaire philanthropist who loves McDonalds and over-the-top evil lairs.

While watching the first trailer, Kingsman didn’t look like that interesting of a project until I saw that Vaughn’s name was attached. And the movie, while featuring a few great surprises, was much like like the trailer: At face value, the story isn’t all that interesting, and its greatest redeeming quality is that it has Vaughn’s name written all over it.

Like in Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, Vaughn has mastered a fine balance of comic book imagery, action choreography and pacing, along with some very memorable new characters we’ve never seen on film before. (I can’t decide who I like more: Valentine or Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw). Speaking of X-Men: First Class, Kingsman definitely lends itself more towards comedy. And I found the story of a young man training to become a super spy like his father was more compelling in Wanted (2008). So while Kingsman is definitely another great Matthew Vaughn movie, and the best comic book movie of 2015, I’m hoping the best of 2016 receives a standing ovation.