Transformers

Before the original Transformers movie was released back in 2007 producer Tom DeSanto had "a very cool idea" to introduce the Dinobots. While director Michael Bay was interested writer Roberto Orci claimed they did not incorporate these characters into the following sequels because they could not think of a way to justify the Dinobots' choice of form. Orci also admitted he was also dismissive of the Dinobots because he did not like dinosaurs ("I recognise I am weird in that department," he said).
But he became fonder of them during filming of subsequent movies because of their popularity with fans. He added "I couldn't see why a Transformer would feel the need to disguise himself in front of a bunch of lizards. Movie-wise, I mean. Once the general audience is fully on board with the whole thing, maybe we will see Dinobots in the future."

That time has finally arrived. It was confirmed yesterday that Grimlock and his other Dinobot chums will be making an appearance in Transformers 4 (arriving in 2014) and after the dissapoinment for me that was the last two movies this has sparked my interest in seeing this 4th movie in the franchise.
producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed in an interview with The Beijing News.
“I can not disclose the specifics, but you can be sure that the arrival of the Dinobots will give the audience a lot to be excited about".
I absolutely loved the dinobots as a kid and to finally see them in a live action movie will be exciting.
Despite the excitement though I'm still not sure how they will work on the big screen so await eagerly for next years release.

'Whats that noise outside dear?'

'Im not sure, I looked through the window but there just appears to be a large truck and a 15ft reinforced steel Tyranosaurus Rex on the street, seems normal....'

The Watch (2012) - COSTCO SECURITY MOTHER F**KERS!

Four men who form a neighbourhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines and find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion.

 I'm really not sure why so many people dislike The Watch? I saw it for the first time this week and thought it was one of the funniest films I'd seen in a long time. It's a crazy fun movie you can watch with your friends and have a good laugh at.
Ben Stiller is a bit hit and miss for me with his movies but I really liked him in this. Just like Vince Vaughn who is hilarious along with Jonah Hill who I've never seen in a movie before. For me though Richard Ayoade, our very own Brit was the funniest in this film. I've seen him in The Mighty Boosh and I.T Crowd and it's nice to see his humor comes through on the big screen as well.
I think some people were just expecting Independence day or Invasion of The Bodysnatchers?
Lots of comedies weren't big hits when they were released, but gained cult status later on so I hope this get's the recognition it deserves eventually.

THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD YOURSELF has put me at ease should I ever get infected.

Yesterday I discovered The Walking Dead: DEAD YOURSELF app. Being the fan I am of the comic and the show I immediately decided to Zombify myself.

Even I was a bit disturbed with the results but at least if there ever is a zombie apocalypse and I do get turned it's peace of mind for me to know I'll look convincing as a member of the undead.

To undead yourself go here http://deadyourself.com/ !

The Amazing Spider-Man: Web slings into my favourite superhero films.

It's not until you watch Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man again you realise how poor Sam Raimi's films were.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Raimi's films, Spider-Man was an interesting and good if slightly underwhelming film. Spider-Man 2 was completely awesome. Spider-Man 3 was a total mess but the reboot is more the sort of Spider-Man I liked reading within the Ultimate version of the character. Marc Webb has done a great job of telling what is essentially the same story over again, but in a more in-depth way.

Andrew Garfield portrays the science genius of Peter Parker without being the full blown nerd that Toby Maguire was perfectly and while Raimi's Spider-man films brought in many new fans for the franchise and made Spidey more 'mainstream' I think many did not realise MJ didn't actually come into Peter's life until later. I think the absence of her in this film was a good decision because Gwen Stacy (Peter's first love) played an important role in his younger years. Emma Stone was a breath of fresh air compared to the eventual tedium that was Kirsten Dunst as MJ.

Rhys Ifans as Curt Conner's/The Lizard was ok but nothing special. He gets enough screen-time and action to be a pretty cool villain but if I've one complaint with him it's that I wish they would've his face look more reptile looking. The CGI is very well done on him. I also liked that they didn't make Connor's really evil, just insane because of the serum. Also the fact that they didn't kill him off makes me happy. I wouldn't mind seeing him again sometime.
I really enjoyed Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben he was far better than Cliff Robertson (from Raimi's films). The same goes for Sally Fields as Aunt May over Rosemary Harris. Denis Leary as Captain Stacy was also brilliant.
The subway scene where Peter first experiences his new found powers is a favourite of mine and I loved the good Lord Stan Lee's cameo.
The only thing about this film that bugs me is the convenience of the layout of cranes throughout the city towards the end of the film. It was going so well without that silliness  and that had to go and ruin it. All in all though I think Marc Webb has done a superb job on the Spider-man reboot

I look forward to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which is due in 2014. Jamie Foxx has already signed as Electro and only last week it was reported Paul Giamatti has joined the cast as Rhino. I'm not sure how I feel about the Rhino news but it's almost like it's heading toward Batman & Robin territory. I'm looking forward to it.

DREDD - A CHARACTER FINALLY DONE JUSTICE.

"Ma-Ma is not the law... I am the law."

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character from the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD and is the magazine's longest running character having been featured within it's pages since its second issue in 1977. For people not aware Dredd is a law enforcement officer in a violent North American city of the future called Mega City One. It's here that uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner. Dredd and his fellow Judges are empowered to arrest, sentence, and even execute criminals on the spot.

My first experience of Judge Dredd was as a teenager back in the 90's where I would sit in my local library and read complete books starring him. The stories were often quite graphic in violence but also had the charm of being able to pull of emotional elements such as humour, sadness and in some cases thought provoking dilemma.

That was all I knew of Dredd really until the infamous 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone as the no nonsense lawman of the future. The visual effects and designs in the film were brilliant but the major problem was Stallone. His performance in the film bares no resemblance to the the dark and gritty anti hero of Judge Dredd I remember in the comic strip. He also breaks the rule most hardcore Dredd fans were annoyed about. He removes the helmet.

Part of the mystery of Dredd was the fact you never see his face making him more mysterious and just the face of the law. Last time I looked someone had posted the full movie on You Tube so if you have never seen it then check it out. I'll be honest when I say it's an enjoyable film but not a very good representation of the character if you ask me.

Fast forward seventeen years and the Peter Travis/Alex Garland movie DREDD is absolutely nothing like the Stallone film. It's a million times better.

Any worries about it being as bad as the Stallone movie are all shot down in the opening chase scene and the amount of bullets, action and gore that follows. 

"Sir, helmets interfere with my psychic abilities."

"Think a bullet in the head might interfere with them more."

Karl Urban is Dredd and was born to play this role. He delivers the serious nature of the character while still giving him a bit of humanity. It's another fine edition to his already growing CV and shows what a chameleon he is when it comes to the different roles he takes. He manages to balance the harshness of Dredd while still managing to make you smile at the sly humour he puts across with some of his lines and actions.

The rest of the cast do their job well. Olivia Thirlby (an actress I hadn't heard of before this) is excellent as Psi Judge Cassandra Anderson. Tough, sexy and providing a spark of humanity and idealism to counter Dredd's  more cynical outlook. I do think Lena Headey's Ma-Ma could of used some more screen time and a bit more fleshing out character wise though. 

While she was a threat in all the scenes she was in when I look back now she doesn't actually do much. I did enjoy the slo-mo and psychic effects. They are suitably trippy.

Mega City One (the small glimpses we see of it) is perfectly envisioned to suit the brutal look of the film. I'll admit it wasn't  translated from the comics 100% but it works in the context of the film and the characters, and that is far better than just simply copying what existed on the page.

I also love Paul Leonard-Morgan's electronic music for the film. I picked up the soundtrack a while back and it's worth a listen on it's own.

I am absolutely gutted though that it's unlikely there will be a sequel due to bad box office takings. This film deserved to do much better yet I think people were put off for many reasons that escape me.

I keep my fingers crossed in hope.

The Dark Knight Rises - Review

"Calm down, Doctor! Now's not the time for fear. That comes later."

I was a bit late coming to the Nolan Batman films. I didn't see Batman Begins until a few years after it came out and even then the only reason I did was The Dark Knight had a release date the following year.
I really didn't rate the film on a first viewing. Maybe it was because I was expecting Batman to be in it more and I didn't realise how much of an origin story it was going to be.
One thing that was clear though was Christian Bale was good in the duel role of Bruce Wayne/Batman and that director Christopher Nolan's take on one of DC's famous sons would be a much more real affair than it's predecessors.

Eventually on repeat viewings I came round to liking it and it set me up for The Dark Knight which much to my distaste was going to feature Heath Ledger as one of comics most iconic villains The Joker. We all know what an idiot I am when it came to that little gripe. Ledger was amazing as Joker and it's a shame he never saw the huge reaction and praise he was given for his part.
Overall I can't describe how much I've enjoyed The Dark Knight and always assumed a 3rd film was certain considering that film ended with Batman on the run.

I've been looking forward to the final movie The Dark Knight Rises for an absolute age. When I heard Tom Hardy had been cast as Bane I was absolutely ecstatic. Tom Hardy is a brilliant actor and the news he was going to be the main bad guy in the final film had me really excited.

The thing was though that when you mentioned Bane to people they would refer to Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. This wasn't the best representation of the character. I started to get a bit annoyed and in the end gave up explaining to people that Nolan's version would be nothing like that.
I think Tom's portrayal is up there with Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight although he doesn't quite steal the show as Ledger's Joker did.

Where as Heath's Joker was absolutely terrifying to watch due to being crazy Tom's Bane is the complete opposite. He encourages fear in people just by his size and the sheer ease he uses violence to eliminate people he no longer has time for. I was very happy to see they kept Bane breaking Batman's back in the film. For a while I thought they were going to skip what was once such a pivotal plot point in the comics. That whole fight before hand was brilliant and fantastically brutal. I loved it.

I think it's fair that many people have complained about Bane's voice and at first I thought this was an issue myself. On reflection though it wasn't a problem for me really. Just a few lines I didn't understand but that was more down to the cinema sound system. His actual accent worked well and I like how most people expected Bane to just be a thug when in fact he's an intellectual. You may or may not know the mask Hardy had to wear was actually a prosthetic makeup attached to his face. I think as an actor he did well considering we only really saw his eyes all the way through the film.


"We both know that I have to kill you now. Well… You will just have to imagine the fire"

 I loved how despite Talia al Ghul telling Bane to keep Batman alive he waits until she is gone before going to hang him anyway. Bane's death was the only thing I found disappointing. Although I suppose it was a realistic way for him to bow out.

Christian Bale's is amazing and in this movie he makes his Bruce/Batman an even more tragic figure than in the previous films. I'm always a bit critical of Bale but I can't really fault him in this. He managed to get across perfectly the sadness, guilt and fear Bruce is feeling and the sense of responsibility he feels when it comes to protecting Gotham. The end of the film is a real emotional kick and I like how the citizens of Gotham come to accept what a hero Batman is by the end of the film by having a statue in his honor.
 Michael Caine as always does a fine job as Alfred and it's true what a friend said to me a few days back. "When Michael Caine cries on film he can make you blub like a baby". He wasn't in this film as much as I'd liked him to of been but his story arc in the trilogy is sewn up nicely and we are left with the feeling Alfred can now move on with his own life knowing that Bruce is happy.

Hathaway's Catwoman is a magnetic presence whenever she's on screen and she has great chemistry with Bale. Selina may be the good bad girl, the thief with a heart of gold, but Hathaway plays her with a wounded spirit and an edge that makes her feel genuine and sympathetic even when she's being naughty.

As expected Gary Oldman as Gordon did a splendid job and so did Morgan Freeman. I should probably say more regarding these two but does it really need to be done? Both brilliant actors that are good in near enough anything they are in.

Joseph Gordon Levitt gets a high rating from me as his contribution to this film cannot be ignored. If anything he has one of the most important story arcs in the whole film. Ever since his character was announced fans (myself included) were speculating what his role in the movie was. I thought it was awesome that "Robin" John Blake is passed the torch in an indirect way by Bruce at the end of the film and what really geeked me out was reading on line that the actual character of Blake (created by Christopher Nolan) was actually a mixture of the 3 different characters in the DC comic to of worked alongside Bruce as Robin. Looking back now you can see all the incidents that John tells us having gone on in his life have molded and shaped him a lot like it did the various Boy Wonders in the comics over the years. "Robin Begins" anyone?

Overall I think The Dark Knight Rises was a good end to what has been a fantastic trilogy of Batman films. There is already speculation that there may be a Catwoman spin-off. Something I don't want to see as I think it would spoil what has been created already. That also goes for what I just said about with a Robin spin-off. Let's just leave it now and wait for the expected Batman reboot that has already been announced for the next few years.

Batman in Christopher Nolan's films was the hero Gotham deserved. He was a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.

A quote from Richard Donner talking about Christopher Reeve.

"I think about him a lot. There’s nobody that could have played that role the way he played it. I don’t think anyone will ever come along and play it like he played it — others will have to play it different — and on top of that, he was a really special individual. A great kid, a great person, loving and devoted, a great sense of humor and the personification of a good friend."

Wonderful quote I had to share with you.