Movies
Review by Dario
September 14, 2008
Next Avengers
Heroes of Tomorrow
DVD
Lions Gate Films
Release Date: 09/02/08
Loosely based on a What If story, Avengers Next is the story of the children of The Avengers as they battle the evil force of Ultron in the last days of humanity stand against the evil artificial intelligence. I was actually surprised at how good this DVD was. The last few Marvel animated DVD’s I’ve watched have been pretty bad. Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2 and Doctor Strange. Only Iron Man and now Avengers Next have been the type of movies that I not only enjoyed but also would recommend to friends to watch.
The movie begins with a brief background on what happened and how Ultron finally defeated the Avengers in the form of a fairy tale to the children of the Avengers. James, the son of Captain America and Black Widow struggles with his legacy, Pym the son of Giant Man and Wasp shares his parents abilities in the form of shrinking and growth. Torunn the daughter of Thor also struggles to find her identity as daughter to a God raised amongst humans and Azari son of the Black Panther and Storm (although Storm as his mother isn’t spelled out it can be concluded as he has powers of lighting along with his fathers panther abilities.) All four children are raised in a beautiful island watched over by Tony (aka Iron Man) until the Vision makes an unexpected visit to the island and from there the children learn more and more of the truth until they are totally enmeshed in the war with Ultron and along the way reunite with the son of Hawkeye.
I really enjoyed how each character was portrayed, each one had their own distinct identity and by the end of the movie I really wanted more. Marvel should attempt more legacy characters and go out on a limb here, they could possibly start a successful run with these characters in the vain of the New Teen Titans run had years ago. I’d love to see this team ongoing as a cartoon network series.
Here’s hoping for more great things to come.
Review by Dario
July 2, 2008
Hancock
Director Peter Berg
Staring Will Smith
Jason Bateman
Charlize Theron
In the summer of superhero movies, Hancock takes a different road then most. Will Smith plays John Hancock, an immortal superhuman capable of flying, super strong and impervious to damage taken to a very human level. Instead of being the confident, adored hero of LA, Hancock is a foul mouthed, homeless alcoholic who through his heroic actions often does far more damage in his attempts at good deeds then he may mean too. Its no wonder that the public at large feels Hancock may be a bigger menace then hero but this still doesn't deter him from trying to help when he can. That is, until he saves the life of struggling PR executive Ray Embrey (played by Jason Bateman), a man with a big heart and sees the good in everyone. Ray convinces Hancock that he can do a better job and the two start down the long road of rehabilitation and revitalizing his image as a hero.
Now as interesting as this all is, that’s pretty much the highest point of the story and that’s only about an hour into it. The movie has some really awesome effects, action scenes and leaves a lot of background up to the viewers to piece together concerning the origin of Hancock (there's a great dinner scene where Batemans character runs the gambit of cliché hero origins but Hancock denies each one) but starts to take a downward turn after his release from jail. But even with this change of pace I found this to be a really entertaining movie and would suggest to fans of the superhero genre as a fun movie to see with a group of friends.
Pick by Revo
May 17, 2008
Speed Racer Review: [review disclaimer: not a professionally written review. Just a junkie’s opinion]
I loved this movie. I didn’t go in expecting much and was blown away by how much I actually liked the movie. That said; don’t go in expecting to see one of the greatest movies ever filmed. Go in wanting some good pre-summer fun and you will have it. There have been a lot of reviews trashing this movie. Ignore them! It’s a basic but solid story with a lot of cool over the top action. Also the stylized filming was great. It was a different and very refreshing feel from the standard movie look.
I may be a bit biased because I was a huge fan of the cartoon (I’m going to use the term “cartoon” not “anime” for this review because that’s what it was called when I watched it over 35 years ago). The movie really captured the feel of the original series. I found myself remembering things from the cartoon that I hadn’t thought about in over 3 decades. The movie brought me back to when I was a kid and couldn’t miss an episode of the cartoon. The cast all did well in bringing the cartoon to life especially John Goodman as Pops.
Now don’t feel you have to be a fan of the series to enjoy this movie. The characters and plot are well defined so you won’t find yourself asking who that is or what’s going on. Then just sit back and enjoy the battle royal of cars during the races and be ready to see every single color ever to exist flash before your eyes. Speed Racer Movie 2008
Great Movie 08
Check out more later!