Currently being slammed by critics and sitting a very low score on rotten tomatoes, Hell Boy is a film I went into with zero expectations.
I just wanted something silly, entertaining and over the top, and the exactly what I got, and I must say, I enjoyed the..erm..hell out of it.
Directed by Neil Marshal, who has worked on Game of thrones and West World, this is not the Neil Marshall who gave us the horror masterpiece that is The Decent.
This is the Neil Marshal who gave us Dog Soldiers and Doomsday.
Silly, gory, surprising and does not give a **** about embracing it absurd concept to the full. David Harbor knocks it out of the park as Hellboy, and one thing he has over Ron Perlman's performance is a sense of threat; that he really could be evil of pushed too far.
The whole film moves at a fast pace and has a feel of a video game, but here it works, with a mix of Devil May Cry and God of War, especially in the combat and design of some creatures.
Maybe I was in a forgiving mood but the Bebop like villain Gruagach had me in stiches with his sweary mouth and English northern accent.
Go see it if you want some outrageous fantasy violence and a few laughs.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Avengers: Infinity War
(2018)
Good fun but ultimately one big Deus ex machina
26 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This is a wonderful event film which makes perfect cinema entertainment, however on reflection, and now my own hype for it has dissipated, there are quite a few questions and potential plot hole that actually bother me
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The film jumps straight into the end of Thor Ragnarok and Asgaurdian ship being destroyed with nearly all the Asgaurdians being killed. But what happened to Korg? They seemed to build him up in Ragnarok and he became an instant fan favourite, so for him to just be killed off screen seems a bit disrespectful to the character and the fans.
Also, why would the Hulk only show up right at the end? What was he doing? I understand it was so Loki could use the line 'we have a hulk', that Tony Stark used on him in Avengers, but there is no way the Hulk would have sat out the initial attack.
Speaking of the hulk, why, after getting a beating from Thanos, does he refuse to 'come out' for the rest of the film? This is not who THE HULK is!
Remember when the Hulk one punched that Jitari battle worm thing?
Marvel clearly does not.
He has been getting weaker each film and this time decides to sit it out despite the fate of the universe being at stake.
Also during this opening scene, the ship is badly damaged and clearly exposed to space. Ebony Maw, one of the Black Order, is here, unaffected by this, just like everyone else. But later in the film, being sucked out of his spaceship kills him and you see him freeze in space. Why? Earlier he was unaffected. There has to be consistency here.
Iron Mans suite is now so powerful it can pretty much do anything the writers need it to do. This was a problem for me in Black Panther, where they had the right tech for every eventuality, no matter how ridiculous it was. Now Iron Man has a nanotech suite that can morph into different shapes and create new weapons at will. Need a shield? No problem. Need a jet engine in place of your feet? No Problem. Need your hands to turn into giant pile drivers to punch Thanos in the face? No problem. Watching him is like watching a hyper kinetic anime with a cyborg who keeps powering up.
Two other members of the Black Order, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, go to collect the Mind Stone from Visions head, and give Vision and Wander, supposedly two of the more powerful MCU heroes, a real beat down trying to retrieve it. Just as it looks like they are going to lose, Steve Rodgers turns up just in time. But it is Black Widow, who jumps in and rather easily betters Proxima in hand-to-hand combat. Now, Black Widow is just a human with some good fighting skills. Proxima is a super powered agent of Thanos, who just gave vision and wander an ass whopping. This happens again later in the film and still makes no sense.
At another major point in the film, Thanos get pinned down and put to sleep by the Avengers. Spiderman and Iron man are trying to remove his infinity gauntlet whilst Drax stands around doing nothing to help. Just before they remove it, Peter Quill lets his emotions get the better of him and he smack's Thanos in the head with his gun, waking him up and then defeating the group. Thanos could have been stopped right here! If they removed the glove, DR Strange could have sent it off somewhere he couldn't find it. But no, they stand around and either do nothing or aggravate Thanos back to consciousness.
In the battle at Wakanda, the force field was shown to take the impact of a whole spacecraft landing on it. And yet for some reason, if enough aliens throw themselves at it, a few can squeeze through. Worried one or two may get in around the back, Black Panther opens the field letting in thousands, to try and contain them in one area. This was a really stupid plan by anyone standards as they are soon overrun.
But don't worry, Thor turns up just in time now he has his hammer back after a good old side quest and can use lighting attacks again. Oh but hang on? Wasn't the whole story Arc in Ragnarok that Thor would realise he didn't need the hammer to become the God of Thunder he was meant to be, and by the end, was far more powerful without it? But here he needs it again, it's like that story was just ignored so they could add in a side quest.
Also, if Thanos army had these huge digger machines that can bury under the force field, why not just use them in the first place? Come on now.
Iron Mans suite is now so powerful it can pretty much do anything the writers need it to do. This was a problem for me in Black Panther, where they had the right tech for every eventuality, no matter how ridiculous it was. Now Iron Man has a nanotech suite that can morph into different shapes and create new weapons at will. Need a shield? No problem. Need a jet engine in place of your feet? No Problem. Need your hands to turn into giant pile drivers to punch Thanos in the face? No problem. Watching him is like watching a hyper kinetic anime with a cyborg who keeps powering up.
Two other members of the Black Order, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, go to collect the Mind Stone from Visions head, and give Vision and Wander, supposedly two of the more powerful MCU heroes, a real beat down trying to retrieve it. Just as it looks like they are going to lose, Steve Rodgers turns up just in time. But it is Black Widow, who jumps in and rather easily betters Proxima in hand-to-hand combat. Now, Black Widow is just a human with some good fighting skills. Proxima is a super powered agent of Thanos, who just gave vision and wander an ass whopping. This happens again later in the film and still makes no sense.
At another major point in the film, Thanos get pinned down and put to sleep by the Avengers. Spiderman and Iron man are trying to remove his infinity gauntlet whilst Drax stands around doing nothing to help. Just before they remove it, Peter Quill lets his emotions get the better of him and he smack's Thanos in the head with his gun, waking him up and then defeating the group. Thanos could have been stopped right here! If they removed the glove, DR Strange could have sent it off somewhere he couldn't find it. But no, they stand around and either do nothing or aggravate Thanos back to consciousness.
In the battle at Wakanda, the force field was shown to take the impact of a whole spacecraft landing on it. And yet for some reason, if enough aliens throw themselves at it, a few can squeeze through. Worried one or two may get in around the back, Black Panther opens the field letting in thousands, to try and contain them in one area. This was a really stupid plan by anyone standards as they are soon overrun.
But don't worry, Thor turns up just in time now he has his hammer back after a good old side quest and can use lighting attacks again. Oh but hang on? Wasn't the whole story Arc in Ragnarok that Thor would realise he didn't need the hammer to become the God of Thunder he was meant to be, and by the end, was far more powerful without it? But here he needs it again, it's like that story was just ignored so they could add in a side quest.
Also, if Thanos army had these huge digger machines that can bury under the force field, why not just use them in the first place? Come on now.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
(2017)
Spiderman: Snoozefest
14 July 2017
Is the MCU now immune to negative reviews? Such is the love for Tony Stark and co. that anything they now appear seems impervious to fan boy criticism. Spiderman: Homecoming has been receiving glowing praise with some critics going as far to say this is the best Spiderman film yet and the best superhero film of the year so far. I sometimes thought as if I was watching a different film then, as to me this was big disappointment. I was bored watching it, and I felt like most of the audience was too. There was no laughter in the cinema during the 'comedy' moments, just lots of uncomfortable fidgeting.
After calls from fans to 'give it back Marvel 'it was great to see Spiderman appear with other Marvel hero's in the excellent Civil War, something that most us did not think we would ever see.
But maybe this is case of be careful what you wish for, as despite Marvel providing creative input, this feels like the lest Spiderman like Spiderman movie so far. SpiderIronman may be a better title or Ironspider?
Spiderman's suite is provided by Tony Stark, and aside from not being able to fly, works pretty much the same as his own suite. It has a similar heads up display, and array of weapons to select from, its own attachable drone and most its equivalent to Jarvis, called Karen (voiced by Jennifer Connelly, wife of Paul Bettany, aka Jarvis hmm)
It just didn't feel like I was watching Spiderman with all these gadgets. I did hope towards the end that maybe this was on purpose so when he was striped of them he would rely on his own ability. But this it was not be and he gets them all back.
This film try's hard to be funny and cool, with throwbacks to 80's John Hughes films. And in case you didn't get that, one scene even has a TV randomly placed showing the same John Hughes film it is paying homage to. Very meta hey? And when Peter Parkers best friend wears the Spiderman mask, its funny because he's fat right? Ahh good one lets all laugh at the fatty. The constant attempts at humour and usual MCU quips, strip the film of any tension.
Michael Keaton's Vulture could have been a great villain but is wasted. People hate on Spiderman 3, but at least I was never stifling yawns watching that. The opening fight in that film with Harry Osborne was far more exciting than any encounters Spiderman has with the Vulture here. The Vulture is a flying villain, so that should set up some vertigo inducing aerial battles through and over the city. But the best confrontation they have is sitting in a car.
Spiderman himself seems to be the cause of his own problems. He's the most accident-prone superhero this side of Mr Magoo. In this film he manages to indirectly blow up the Washington Monument, tear a ship in half and crash a plane into a beach, taking a fairground ride with it and possible killing dog walkers taking a stroll by the sea.
There is no sense of awe in this film. None of the epic and dizzying web swinging action we saw back in the Sam Raimi films. The actions scenes are lacklustre and ends in messy and scrappy CGI fight on a plane, of which somehow both Spiderman and the Vulture survive crashing and exploding on impact.
It speaks volumes when the recently shown preview of Spiderman on PS4 has better Spiderman action than this film provides at any point.
At the end of the film, a very annoying hipster girl who pops up now and again reveals her name is Michelle, but people call her MJ. What? Surely this is not going to be MJ? Michelle? Although I did read recently that producer Kevin Fegie has stated this is not the new Mary Jane. If that is so, why the MJ line? Just trolling for the sake of it. Hopefully this is not the 'real' Flash Thompson or 'real' Shocker either.
The film feels cheap. Its hard to say why, but it looks and feels like a kids film. Was it the director? Hard to say. I am big fan of his previous two releases. The best part of the film is the aforementioned stand off between Toomes and Parker in the car, which shows though the directors horror credentials. The film needed more of this, to generate tension and threat for our hero to come through. Sam Raimis horror skills also showed through on his films with that bruising fist fight between Goblin and Spiderman and the infamous hospital scene in Spiderman 2. Scary, brutal and brilliant. Such a shame we don't have these kind of scenes anymore.
I really hoped for something fresh and new with this but what we have is still very much Spiderman by committee, only now with added MCU cameos.
It's a shame but we will probably never get another Spiderman film that comes close to the greatness of Spiderman and Spiderman 2.
After calls from fans to 'give it back Marvel 'it was great to see Spiderman appear with other Marvel hero's in the excellent Civil War, something that most us did not think we would ever see.
But maybe this is case of be careful what you wish for, as despite Marvel providing creative input, this feels like the lest Spiderman like Spiderman movie so far. SpiderIronman may be a better title or Ironspider?
Spiderman's suite is provided by Tony Stark, and aside from not being able to fly, works pretty much the same as his own suite. It has a similar heads up display, and array of weapons to select from, its own attachable drone and most its equivalent to Jarvis, called Karen (voiced by Jennifer Connelly, wife of Paul Bettany, aka Jarvis hmm)
It just didn't feel like I was watching Spiderman with all these gadgets. I did hope towards the end that maybe this was on purpose so when he was striped of them he would rely on his own ability. But this it was not be and he gets them all back.
This film try's hard to be funny and cool, with throwbacks to 80's John Hughes films. And in case you didn't get that, one scene even has a TV randomly placed showing the same John Hughes film it is paying homage to. Very meta hey? And when Peter Parkers best friend wears the Spiderman mask, its funny because he's fat right? Ahh good one lets all laugh at the fatty. The constant attempts at humour and usual MCU quips, strip the film of any tension.
Michael Keaton's Vulture could have been a great villain but is wasted. People hate on Spiderman 3, but at least I was never stifling yawns watching that. The opening fight in that film with Harry Osborne was far more exciting than any encounters Spiderman has with the Vulture here. The Vulture is a flying villain, so that should set up some vertigo inducing aerial battles through and over the city. But the best confrontation they have is sitting in a car.
Spiderman himself seems to be the cause of his own problems. He's the most accident-prone superhero this side of Mr Magoo. In this film he manages to indirectly blow up the Washington Monument, tear a ship in half and crash a plane into a beach, taking a fairground ride with it and possible killing dog walkers taking a stroll by the sea.
There is no sense of awe in this film. None of the epic and dizzying web swinging action we saw back in the Sam Raimi films. The actions scenes are lacklustre and ends in messy and scrappy CGI fight on a plane, of which somehow both Spiderman and the Vulture survive crashing and exploding on impact.
It speaks volumes when the recently shown preview of Spiderman on PS4 has better Spiderman action than this film provides at any point.
At the end of the film, a very annoying hipster girl who pops up now and again reveals her name is Michelle, but people call her MJ. What? Surely this is not going to be MJ? Michelle? Although I did read recently that producer Kevin Fegie has stated this is not the new Mary Jane. If that is so, why the MJ line? Just trolling for the sake of it. Hopefully this is not the 'real' Flash Thompson or 'real' Shocker either.
The film feels cheap. Its hard to say why, but it looks and feels like a kids film. Was it the director? Hard to say. I am big fan of his previous two releases. The best part of the film is the aforementioned stand off between Toomes and Parker in the car, which shows though the directors horror credentials. The film needed more of this, to generate tension and threat for our hero to come through. Sam Raimis horror skills also showed through on his films with that bruising fist fight between Goblin and Spiderman and the infamous hospital scene in Spiderman 2. Scary, brutal and brilliant. Such a shame we don't have these kind of scenes anymore.
I really hoped for something fresh and new with this but what we have is still very much Spiderman by committee, only now with added MCU cameos.
It's a shame but we will probably never get another Spiderman film that comes close to the greatness of Spiderman and Spiderman 2.
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