Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

IMDb

Title: Mad Max: Fury Road
Distributor: Village Roadshow Pictures
Director: George Miller
Writer(s): George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, and Nicholas Hoult
MPAA Rating: Rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.
Running Time: 120 min
Synopsis: In a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, two rebels just might be able to restore order: Max, a man of action and of few words, and Furiosa, a woman of action who is looking to make it back to her childhood homeland.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 98% "Fresh", Top Critics: 98% "Fresh", Audience: 94% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 89 out of 100, Users: 9.1 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 87 out of 100

My Review

Source Material: A continuation of the Mad Max franchise.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Non-stop action from beginning to end. This is very much a high octane film. Some of the best action I have seen in years.

• Comedy Elements: I laugh at some of the ridiculousness shown on the screen. This is an action film through and through.

• Dramatic Elements: The drama plays out in the tension of the action sequences.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Mad Max take play in a post-apocalyptic world, so there is a good amount of Sci-fi elements.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 7.5: There is very little dialogue in this film. Tom Hardy as Max, probably has the fewest lines in the entire film. Most of his performance was grunts and groans. I really enjoy seeing Nicholas Hoult play the eccentric war boy named Nux. I would say the star of the film was Charlize Theron. She was the driving force behind the film. She portrays a great strong female lead.

• Cinematography: 9:  What makes the action in this film good, is the cinematography. This film does a great job at placing us, the audience, in the driver seat without placing us in the driver's seat. Most action films will use a shaky or jittery cameras to represent "being-in-the-action" but this film utilizes fluid and continuous shots to achieve that very same goal. I also liked the contrast between daytime shots and nighttime shots. The daytime was bright and orange (primarily because the film takes place in a sandy wasteland) while the nighttime was dark and blue.

• Direction: 7: George Miller is known for Mad Max, Babe, and Happy Feet. From my understanding, this film was more or less been a passion project for Miller, that passion was shown on the screen.

• Editing: 8: The cinematography and editing make the action in this film believable and watchable. I thought one of the major flaws of the Avengers: Age of Ultron was the pacing but in this film its one of its strengths.

• Screenplay: 6: I personally felt there wasn't enough development of the characters. For me, the only character that had a "clear" motivation was Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Most of that clarity came in the form of exposition, which didn't come until there was a slight break in the action. Let's be honest, we are not going into a Mad Max movie looking for a deep story. As long as there an action packed car chase, we fulfilled our exceptions of a Mad Max film.

• Sound and Music: 9: The action was great, the cinematography was great, but the music was fantastic. The music was even more of a driving force than Charlize Theron. I believe the music is what elevates this film into the good category for me.    

• VFX: 8: I like that most of the effects were practical, and If they weren't kudos to the vfx guys and girls.       

Overall: 7.5: I left the theater happy and I enjoyed the film overall, but I think it could have a little bit better story.     

What Do My Ratings Mean?

John Campea, Editor-In-Chief of AMC Movie New, posted an editorial video on how he reviews movies. I bring this up because I have a similar system when I review movies. For those of you who have been following me over the years know I use to grade movies using the common scale 90, 80, 70, 60 (A, B, C, D, or F) to judge films. I soon didn't like that system and switch to a numerical system (1 to 10). I want to further explain my system. 

0 = Worst of the Worst 
1 = Garbage, or Hated It 
2 = Awful, or Terrible
3 = Bad, or Disliked It 
4 = Poor 
5 = I Don’t Know, Not Sure, Indifferent 
6 = Average, Decent, or Okay 
7 = Good, Enjoyed It, or Liked It 
8 = Great, Grand, Wonderful 
9 = Awesome, Excellent, or Loved It 
10 = Perfection, or Oscar Worthy 

 Hopefully this is a useful tool for understanding my metric of reviewing movies.

A Series of Genres: Sci-Fi

I think it’s about time to wrap up this series. This genre study has been an adventure, to say the less. I want to end this series with my all-time favorite genre, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi). In my Fantasy post I defined Sci-Fi as being, “rooted in science or scientific theory that usually has an outer space setting.” I would like to take that definition and expand upon it. Science fiction films use science, pseudoscience, and / or scientific theories as their primary plot device. The “science” in these films tend to be partially fabricated, if not totally fabricated. Along with “science”, the Sci-Fi genre usually showcases these characteristics: outer space as a setting, time or interstellar travel, new technology, aliens, mutants, androids / robots being used as characters, or exploration of an else-world scenarios. Sci-Fi films give the audience an outlet to escape reality, much like the Fantasy genre dose, hence why most combined the two genres as Sci-Fi / Fantasy. 

There have been many visionaries, throughout history that have given us that escape. In the modern world, movies and their director are the ones responsible for proving that form of entertainment. I would like to share a handful of directors that have given us some of the best Sci-Fi worlds in cinema. First off there is J.J Abrams, he started his career as a television producer, creating shows like Alias, Lost, and Fringe. He then made a jump to the silver screen directing Mission: Impossible III, from there Abrams flexed his geek muscles and made the reboot to Star Trek. J.J. Abrams has continued down this Sci-Fi path directing Super 8, and the sequel to Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness. His latest project is none other than Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. 

The next director I have to mention is James Cameron, the father of The Terminator. Looking at James Cameron’s filmography he has written pretty much everything in the Terminator universe. James Cameron is also responsible for Avatar (not the Last Airbender) and their sequels, which he is currently working on. His plan is to film Avatar 2, 3, and 4 all back-to-back. Other Sci-Fi films James Cameron has been a part of include, The Abyss and Aliens. Before James Cameron there was Ridley Scott, who made Alien, the preceding film to Aliens. His very next film was Blade Runner, which is arguable one of best Sci-fi films ever made. Ridley Scott didn't touch the Sci-Fi genre again until 2012 with the film Prometheus, which was a prequel / spin-off to the Alien franchise. As far as, Ridley Scott future career goes, he is in talks of producing an Alien movie directed by Neill Blomkamp, along with a sequel to Prometheus. 

I’m going to move from Ridley Scott to Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is synonymous with filmmaking, his name has been attached to many different projects, spanning across film, television, and video games. I’m sure you have heard of this guy, but if not, let me rattle off some of his films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, and, War of the Worlds (remake). Those are only the Sci-Fi films he has directed, which is only the tip of the iceberg, especially if factor in all of the films he has produced. Form his resume it seems like he know what he is doing when to come to Sci-Fi. As a matter of fact, some of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi films were directed by Spielberg. 

If you have been paying attention, so far, then you may have realized that a lot of the films I have mentioned are big budget summer blockbuster films, with intense visual effects. To bring these vast worlds to life on the big screen, filmmakers have to create them digitally and sometime partially. For me, good VFX is a perfect balance of “real” and “fake” some may even call it, seamless. I found it interesting that most filmmakers that work on Sci-Fi films usually have to create new ways to capture visual effect shots. One of those filmmakers is George Lucas, who founded Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in 1975 while working on the first Star War film. ILM should sound fairly familiar because that company is responsible for most of the visual effects today. One of the films that stick out in my mind, which made major breakthroughs in visual effects and “CGI” is Tron (1982). 

Tron is credited as the first film to use extensive computer animation, but because of the capacity of the computers, at that time, the film only uses that form of technology for about twenty minutes of the film. The rest of the visual effect shots had to be done more traditionally by filming in black-and-white with an all-black backgrounds. The color bits were added in later with rotoscopic techniques and cel-animation. It’s been said that because of the process and cost, that form of animation hasn't really been used again in a feature film. The next film to have similar ambitions as Tron, visually speaking, was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was nearly ten years after Tron. T2’s visual effects, advanced the applications of CGI by being the first film to utilize natural human motion from a CG character. These advancements landed the film an Academy Award in the Best Visual Effects category. 

At the end of 1990’s, 1999 to be exact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science gave The Matrix and Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Personally, I think The Matrix has heavily inspired visual effect artists today, by popularizing the effect known as “bullet time” See this effect for the “first time” in the Matrix was one of the coolest things in a movie. I remember being in full amazement at point in the film. Now days, that effect or a variant of that effect is used quite often, case and point, Zack Snyder. 

I could spend a whole post talking about visual effects and CGI, and I may in the future, but we are here talking about Sci-Fi films. Well, Sci-Fi films and visual effect go hand-in-hand, especially films being made now. The visual effects in a Sci-Fi film tend to be its best quality, so much so, the Academy takes notice awarding them the Best Visual Effects Oscar. This category and other visual categories like Best Make-Up is really the only love the Academy shows towards Sci-Fi films. Every once in a while a Sci-Fi film is nominated for the Best Picture category. In 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was nominated for Best Picture but, Gandhi took home the prize that year. In recent years, the Best Picture category has expanded its potential list of nominations to ten nominations. Since that change, only five Sci-Fi films have been recognized as one of the greats: Avatar, District 9, Inception, Gravity, and Her. 

What Sci-Fi films are considered great? We have already examined some of the great directors that have produced great Sci-Fi films. We have even explored the world of visual effects and how Sci-Fi films have evolved that area of filmmaking. This exploration leads us into the many accolades these films have received for breathtaking visuals, some have even been nominated for the most prestigious film awards, The Academy Award (Oscar). Now, I want to share with you my favorite Sci-Fi films.

My favorite Big Budget Sci-Fi films are: 

1. Guardians of the Galaxy 
2. Tie: Interstellar / Inception 
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey 
5. Independence Day 

My favorite Indie Sci-Fi films are: 

1. Moon 
2. District 9 
3. Donnie Darko 
4. Sunshine 
5. Attack The Block 

• Recommendations: Her, Snowpiercer, and Ex Machina

Top Franchise in Sci-Fi:

1. Star Wars 
2. Back to the Future 
3. Jurassic Park 
4. Star Trek 
5. Terminator 

• Honorable Mention: Planet of the Apes 

I have mentioned before in this series that Star Wars was a Fantasy set in space. I still hold that to be true. The story element line up with many fantasy tales, but there a lot of Sci-Fi elements as well. Star Wars become a full Sci-Fi film, if you compare it to the definition I stated back in the first paragraph. I have been a Star Wars fan for quite some time, well since the 90’s when I first learned about Star Wars. My parents had the original Star War trilogy on VHS. I was part of the millions who watch every single prequel film at their midnight release. I understand why die hard Star Wars fan disown the prequels. As I aged, I began to sway with that line of thinking more and more because Star Wars became very kiddie. My excitement of Star Wars has been rekindled because of The Force Awakens. If you are a huge Star Wars fan, like me, than I suggest checking out AMC Jedi Council. It’s a weekly show, hosted by cast members of AMC Movie Talk, which covers everything Star Wars. 

Back to the Future is by far one of my all-time favorite movies. The funny thing about Back to the Future is that it could have been on any one of these genre lists. It is first and foremost a comedy, with the premises, what would it be like to hang out with your parents when they were a teenagers. To achieve that goal a time machine is in order, and if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? This film franchise first takes us back to 1955, were Marty has to hang out for a few days while Doc Brown figures outs how to send Marty back to 1985. The second film shows us the future, 2015, that right the future is now. In the third film, Doc has become trapped in 1885, the old west era, and Marty has to rescue him before Biff’s descendant kills him. Overall Back to the Future is a great action / adventure comedy with sci-fi elements. 

Have you ever been to a museum and seen dinosaur bones, or even a model of a dinosaur and think, “I want to see a real dinosaur?” Well, the Jurassic Park franchise made that dream come true. Steven Spielberg brought, a world where dinosaur can be visited by humans at a theme park named Jurassic Park. Our amazement is shared with the character Dr Grant (Sam Neill) when the first dinosaur is revealed. By the end of the film our opinion to see a real dinosaur, changes because of the apex predator known as the T-Rex. He reigns king of the dinosaur until the third movie, when the Spinosaurus becomes the new big bad dinosaur. The next film in the franchise is Jurassic World, it’s kind of a reboot. The film’s synopses: In an attempt to boost visitor’s attendance, park scientist create a new dinosaur by mixing the DNA of many different dinosaurs. This new species of dinosaur, Indominus Rex, escapes its enclosure causing death and destruction upon the park. It’s up to Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to save the day before too much damage has been done. 

I didn't really get into the Star Trek universe until the rebooted movies directed by J.J Abrams. These movies brought an updated version of the original Star Trek series / films, and revitalized the franchise. I personally liked The Next Generation television series a little better than the original series, but original series had a better set of films. Arguably, the best film in that franchise is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, some even claim it to be the best Sci-Fi film ever made. Star Trek is what I imagine when some say Sci-fi, because the characters have to use their own wits and science to solve the problems in the universe. Star Trek also screams Sci-Fi because of the tech. The original series didn't have that big of a budget, so the show’s creators had to be creative in creating “futuristic looking tech.” I know that some of these effects were achieved in the sound design, who could forget those classic beeps and bops. 

I almost didn't include The Terminator franchise because this film series hasn't made that immense of an impact on my viewing experience. I think I speak for most film fans that The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are the best of the franchise. Let’s be honest guys the only real reason we watched Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is to see Kristanna Loken in tight leathers. Besides the eye candy I didn't think that film was that good. Terminator Salvation was a decent film. I’m personally NOT the biggest fan of McG’s work. I kind of enjoyed his television show, Chuck, but that’s about it. I’m kind of looking forward to Terminator Genisys, primarily because of the cast: Jason Clark (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Lee Byung-hun (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator). For me the one person that keeps The Terminator franchise alive is Arnold Schwarzenegger. He made The Terminator / T-800 an iconic character. This movie made Arnold Schwarzenegger a cool action hero that you don’t want to mess with. 

Honorable Mention: Planet of the Apes nearly made it to my top five over The Terminator. The main reason I didn't include this franchise is because I haven’t really been that invested into the films. Much like Star Trek I was more or less introduced to the franchise with the reboots. I do remember watching the 1963 film with my father, one of the times it aired on the television network TCM. I barely remember the first rebooted film by Tim Burton, starring Mark Wahlberg. The newest incarnations of Planet of the Apes are really good. I think Andy Serkis should have gotten at least a nomination for best supporting actor for his work in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. I also think that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should have won the Oscar for best visual effect last year, over Interstellar. 

What are your favorite Sci-Fi films?

Review: Avengers Age of Ultron

IMDb

Title: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Distributor: Marvel Studios (Disney)
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer(s): Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader (Voice of Ultron), Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Paul Bettany. 
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and for some suggestive comments. .
Running Time: 141 min
Synopsis: When Tony Stark tries to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 75% "Fresh", Top Critics: 73% "Fresh", Audience: 99% "Want to See It"
Metacritic: Critics: 67 out of 100, Users: NA out of 10
MRQE Metric: 75 out of 100

My Review

Source Material: Based on characters and story elements created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.     

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: This film doesn't really stop, it jumps from one fight sequence to another seamlessly. If you are worried about action fatigue, don't, this film isn't, Man of Steel.     

• Comedy Elements: This film has the charm of the first Avengers film. There is one running joke throughout the film that keeps you laughing. Ultron also has some good lines.      

• Dramatic Elements: It is very much a summer blockbuster movie so the intense drama doesn't really shine.  

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: We are back in the MCU and Marvel superheroes reign supreme. They don't hold back on the Sci-fi / Fantasy goodness.        

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 8: I thought the acting was solid across the board, generally speaking. I think that Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen needed to have better Russian accents. I really enjoyed the banter between each team member. It made the team feel cohesive.          

• Cinematography: 7.5:  There were a good number of action sequences, so much so, that there was a bit of a sensory overload. With that being said, the film wasn't sicking, but there was a lot happening. I really liked when the film would take a break from the intense action to show the mental wear and tear the battles had on the characters. I think the cinematography capture those moods well. 

• Direction: 8: I think Joss Whedon did a fine job as the director. You can tell he was in command, by the performance the actors gave. I could have lived without some of the "Whedon-ism" but that's more of a writing complaint. 

• Editing: 7.5: I did like the balance between action and "drama" I felt it was a little bit on the fast paced site of the spectrum.       

• Screenplay: 8: I'm glad we got full back stories and character development in this film. Each superhero in the film felt human and not like a god. SPOILER-ish I'm not sure why Thor went on his "spirit quest", that scene felt out of place. The information gathered becomes more or less exposition later in the film.   

• Sound and Music: 7:  The music was good. 

• VFX: 9: Avengers: Age of Ultron has the most vfx shots in the MCU to date, topping out at over 3,000 shots. Every bit of those shots was in full color, meaning they look great.    

Overall: 8: It barely missed the mark of overtaking the first Avenger's film, but overall its a  great film. I plan on seeing it again. I highly recommend this film.         

The Second Star Wars Teaser Trailer Reaction

Happy Day One of Star Wars Celebration. My followers may remember my reaction to the first Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser trailer. I was, and still am, a defender of the new crossguard lightsaber, wielded by Kylo Ren. That teaser has given us, Star Wars fans, an appetite for more footage. Well, Disney delivered us that meal today with a new teaser trailer. I want to share some of my thoughts on this new teaser trailer. 

After the first play through I produced tears of joy. My excitement for Avenger: Age of Ultron is only a small fraction of my excitement for Star Wars: The Force Awakens after this teaser trailer. The opening shot of the crashed Star Destroyer and X-Wing brought me back into the world of Star Wars. That one shot made me remember the 1977 Star Wars. Hearing Luke’s voiceover, about how strong the force runs in his family, sold the new hotness that was about to come. 

I’m glad we finally get to see the new cast in full on action. I’m also liking the design of Kylo Ren mask, it kind of has a Revan feel to it. This teaser trailer brings with it the best of new and the old. I could go on for a long time on how awesome this trailer is, but I suggest just checking it out yourself.

A Series of Genres: Comic Book Movies

We are about one month away from the opening of Marvel’s Avengers Age of Ultron and the beginning of the summer blockbuster movie season. What a perfect way to get excited about the latest comic book movie, by dedicating this post, which is a part of my genre series, to comic book movies. My original plan was to save this genre to the end, so I could save the best for last. The last post in this series, animated film for those of you keeping track, through that plan out the window. There were a few other factors to focusing on this genre now, rather than later. One of those factors was a buddy of mine’s podcast title, Informal Talks. This podcast should sound somewhat familiar because this series was inspired by a post on their site. Anyways, in this past week’s episode Devon and friends began by talking about the latest movie news, which consisted primarily of comic book movies. Comments during the podcast were mostly about the new X-men, Batman, and Superman films and how they are “shit”. These comments got me heated, and jump started this post. 

I personally disagree with their comments, sort of. My disagreements are with the premise that those films are “shit” in general. I typically reserve that declaration for the worst of the worst, since that jargon is referring to defecation. I may be a little more empathic to the notion that the films didn’t do the characters justice. This area of expertise is where I have to tip my hat to Devon and the guests of Informal Talks, because they know WAY more about comic books than I do. Rightfully so, they have more creditably to how well the filmmaker adapted the various comic characters. With that being said I think a problem has arisen. In the sweaty nerd culture this problem is called the “Um, Actually” syndrome. This is the constant correction of people who spout the wrong information about the subject matters popular in the geek / nerd culture. These corrections are almost always prefaced by the phrase “um, actually.”  

For the well read this problem manifest in the form of, “The book was better” which is usually followed by a laundry list of inaccuracies. Simply, this is a bad argument when talking about movies, because movies are a different medium from books / comics. There may be a strong case to be had when talking about movies adapted from other materials, especially if major plot points or character were changed significantly. There is a debate waiting to be had on what constitutes as a significant change. Mr. Pedantic will get caught up on every little change and call them significant, whereas Mr. Apathetic is willing to let some details slide, as long as the core attributes are intact. I really don’t want this post to focus primarily on this subject, but I do want to showcase my line of thinking, when determining the best comic book movies. I attempt to measure all the attributes of a film, include the truthfulness to its source material, to get a better picture of their strengths and weakness, therefore receiving a more accurate analysis of the films. 

Hopefully this will give you a better idea on how I look at movies adapted from other materials. So, when I reveal my list, you know the metric of my measuring stick. Before I share with you my favorite comic book movies let’s explore this genre's history. A history that is the epitome of a roller coaster ride. A history that showcases a fight between DC Comics and Marvel Comic, as they race to the top of the box office. A history that start back in the 1940’s. 

In the 1940’s there were a number of Serial Films being produced featuring DC Comics two main superheroes, Superman and Batman. Batman made his first appearance in the 1943 in a Serial Films title Batman, staring Lewis Wilson as Bruce Wanye / Batman. Superman followed in 1948 in its own Serial titled, Superman, staring Kirk Alyn as Clark Kent / Superman. Other superheroes serials from the 1940’s included Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), The Phantom (1943) and Captain America (1944). 

The 1950’s was the decade for Superman with the TV series, Adventures of Superman, staring George Reeves, which spawn a movie titled Superman and the Mole Men. The following decade, the 1960’s, Batman took the spotlight with the TV Series, Batman, staring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. The cast of this television show would reprise their roles in 1966 with a full length feature titled, Batman: The Movie. DC Comics rode Superman and Batman to the bank throughout the 60’s and 70’s. Marvel tried to interject with their TV-made movies: Spider-Man (1977), Dr. Strange (1978), and Captain America and its sequel (1979). Marvel’s efforts were crushed in 1978 when Richard Donner released Superman (Superman: The Movie), starring Christopher Reeve. I would say this film kick started the comic book movie craze, which lead right into the 80’s 

Four, Superman related films came out during the 1980’s: Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), Supergirl (1984), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). Unfortunately the Superman films progressively worsen both in popularity and financially. Superman made a little over 300 million, while Superman IV made about 15.5 million. Marvel had success with their television show / TV made movies, during this time. Marvel only had one feature length film produced during the 80’s, that wasn’t TV made or direct to video, and that film was Howard the Duck. As the 80’s were coming to a close Tim Burton released a dark toned Batman film starring, Michael Keaton. The film's tone was heavily influenced by Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. It was this version of Batman that we as fans wanted, so much so, a film franchise was built upon it. 

The 90’s was a dark time for comic book movies, even for Batman, who had three films released in this decade: Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995), and Batman & Robin (1997). Batman & Robin is arguably the worst Batman movie ever made. George Clooney has been known for giving fans back their money for that film. DC Comics also produced Steel starring Shaquille O'Neal as John Henry Irons / Steel. Steel made less than 2 million at the box office. Marvel for the most part made their first major dent into the film world with Blade in 1998 which made about 131 million at the box office. It would take another two or so years before they revitalized the comic book movie genre. 

During The summer of the new millennium Bryan Singer gave us X-Men. X-Men made just shy of 300 million at the box office, with those numbers Marvel produced three more sequels / prequels: X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). Marvel continued to steamroll through the competition, producing at least one film every year. Primarily under the 20th Century Fox banner Marvel attempt to bring to alive many of their properties: Daredevil, Hulk, The Punisher, Elektra, Fantastic Four, and Ghost Rider. Some of these films were fairly successful, while the majority of them were not. Marvel had their most success over at Sony, with their Spider-Man franchise, starring Tobey Maguire. 

While Marvel was focusing on cranking out many films a year, DC focused on putting out “quality” films. In 2005, Christopher Nolan rebooted the Batman franchise. Then three years later, in 2008, Nolan gave us a sequel titled, The Dark Knight, which is arguably the best Batman film, if not the best comic book movie. During that same year Marvel launched their first two movies in what will later become the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) these two films were Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk, which was more of a reboot of Ang Lee’s Hulk from 2003. Also right around that same time we got our first taste of Zack Snyder’s style with the films 300 (2007), and Watchmen (2009). Zack Snyder could one of the main driving forces behind The DC Cinematic Universe as we enter the 2010’s. 

Well, we have made it to present time and comic book movie are a staple of the summer movie season. Right now, Marvel rules the box office with their films in the MCU, which is being led by The Avengers (2012), with 1.5 billion dollars at the box office. The 2010’s have also brought with it a great deal of reboots. Sony rebooted Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield called The Amazing Spider-Man. 20th Century Fox “rebooted” the X-Men franchise, using a younger cast, titled X-Men: First Class. Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. rebooted Superman, as the Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill. The reboots don’t end there, Fox plans on releasing a rebooted Fantastic Four film this summer. Also Marvel has a legal hand shake to use Spider-Man in the MCU which will lead to a reboot of the reboot. As far as the future goes, Marvel has a rough outline of movies to be released from now until 2019. DC has a similar plan, but focusing on establishing a cinematic universe themselves. 

There has been a fair amount of comic book movies throughout history, but which ones hold up as the best of the best. I’m going to give you my favorite comic book franchise. Before I do I want to warn you all, I’m a bit Marvel bias, so you may not see as much love for DC on this list. 

1. Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU) 
2. Christopher's Nolan's Batman Trilogy 
3. Sam Raimi’s Spider-man Trilogy 
4. X-Men Franchise 
5. Superman Franchise

At first I didn’t want to include the whole MCU because there are a lot of films included in that list. As I began to think of the films in the MCU only Iron Man has a full trilogy, so I decided to include all the films in the MCU. I will give you my top five films in the MCU: 

1. Marvel's The Avengers 
2. Guardians of the Galaxy 
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 
4. Iron Man 
5. Thor

Christopher Nolan raised the bar of what it means to be a comic book movie. The Dark Knight alone tops most people’s lists as one of the best comic book movies ever. I personally think the series ended on a weak note with The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight Rises is one of those films that is good overall, but has enough issues that it doesn't rise to greatness like its predecessors.

Sam Raimi has given me the better set of Spider-man films. The second Spider-man film in this trilogy is by far the best Spider-man movie, period. I believe Tobey Maguire gave us a better Peter Parker than Andrew Garfield. I’m not saying Garfield did a bad job, but he was too much of a “Chic Geek” or “Hipster”. Let’s be realistic here, the success of the Spider-man and X-men’s franchise had to be a big confidence boost for Marvel to create a cohesive cinematic universe. 

Do you remember the 90’s X-men cartoon opening theme? I’m not sure how much of that show influenced Bryan Singer, but from my perspective, most of the mutants showcased in that opening were placed in the first X-Men film. Then a few years later an even better X-Men movie came out. I can safely say X2: X-Men United is in my top ten favorite comic book movies. Then Bryan Singer left to direct Superman Returns, which lead to a major downgrade in quality. Matthew Vaughn was going to replace Singer at the helm, but left early on into production for personal reasons, his replacement was Brett Ratner. Ratner turned out a bad X-men film. Fox’s plans after X-Men: The Last Stand was to make a few origin stories, including Wolverine, Magneto, and “The First Class” (Cyclopes, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman). X-Men Origins: Wolverine more or less tanked. So, Fox brought back Matthew Vaughn as a director and allowed him to make his X-men film. He combined the Magneto origin story with his First Class story to create a prequel / “reboot” to the first X-men film. This film was going to take place in the 60’s and focus on a younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. The film had success and revitalized the franchise. A sequel titled, X-Men: Days of Future Past, was made with Bryan Singer at the helm. I thought DOFP was one of the best movies of this past summer, one word, Quicksilver. 

Superman is by far the most recognizable superhero, he is beloved by many including his films. Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman (Superman: The Move) pretty much defines who Superman was climatically. Yes, there were a few actors to bring Superman to life before Christopher Reeve, but it’s his take on the character that sticks in our minds. Like most comic book movies franchises, the films had a rapid decline in quality. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is arguably one of the worst comic movie ever made, and by far the worst Superman movie. Superman didn’t make another appearance on the big screen until 2006 with Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. It was a decent movie, but not the greatest Superman movie. I enjoyed the cast: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, and Kate Bosworth but I didn’t enjoy the story. Just a few years ago, summer 2013, we almost got a Superman film that was as good as the 1979 film. For me the Man of Steel was a good film, but the last 45 minutes gave me battle fatigue. Even with the “bad” I can’t wait for the next Superman film, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. 

What are your favorite comic book movies?

A Series of Genres: Animation

AMC Movie New launched their March Movie Madness Torment this past week. Last year they did the Best Comic Book Movies, this year they are going to do Best Animated films. Now that the brackets are released, movie fans, like you and me, can vote for the best animated films to proceed in the torment. John Campea, Editor-in-Chief, over at AMC Movie New explains it a bit better than me, in their video titled, “Animated Movie Madness Tournament Round 1 - AMC Movie News” On the surface, this post may seem like an advertisement for AMC Movie Talk, even though I highly recommend all of you to check out their new shows: AMC Heroes, AMC Jedi Council, and AMC Rewind, but it’s only an introduction to my next post in my genre series. 

Back in October of 2014, I set out a goal to write a series of post focusing on movie genres. I was determined to write at least one post each week, revealing my favorite movie franchise in each genre. A few weeks in, it turned into a bi-weekly project. Now it’s more or less a monthly project. With that being said I only have about three or four genres left to cover, which should lead us into the summer blockbuster season. Before I finish out my original plan for this series, I want to focus on animation films. I know there are a lot of people that categorize animation films as their own genre, but they’re not a genre. Animation is simply another medium for storytelling. Animation takes on many different forms, traditional 2-D animation, Stop-Motion / Claymation, and 3-D animation, to name a few. 

Animation is important to film history, we basically wouldn't have live action movies without it. Animation dates back to the Paleolithic cave painting era. We have found various cave paints with animals “in motion” symbolized by many legged creatures. In the 18th century, many spinning devices were created to achieve the illusion of motion of an illustration, most notably the Zoetrope. Animation evolved again in the form of flip books. In the 1900’s the flip book idea was expanded upon, which created what we know today as, traditional animation. Back then, each scene was drawn by hand, then photographed, then played back in rapid succession. Those techniques were improved upon spawning many short silent animated films. Walt Disney and the Warner Brother entered the animation game in the 20’s and 30’s, changing the industry forever. They brought color and sound to this new medium. Disney ran with this new medium, creating one of the first full length animation films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After that, animation evolved over the years, revealing different techniques, including stop-motion and computer animation. 

Now that you know a brief history of animation, let’s explore some of the greatest animation films. I want to let you guys know I’m a fan of Pixar and the films they produce. A few years back you may have caught me saying something along the line of, “Pixar is perfect.” During that same time frame I had to write a paper on a pioneer in the computer graphics world. I chose Edwin “Ed” Catmull, the president of Pixar, who helped design the software Pixar used to create their movies. I’m going to stray from my Pixar bias by not making a top 10 list complied of noting but Pixar films. Instead, I’m going to compile a hand full of top five lists that exemplify each of the animation styles. I have the lists broken down, more or less, by production companies: Pixar, Walt Disney Animation, DreamWorks Animation, Studio Ghibli, and Stop-Motion Animation. Let’s Get To It.

Pixar:

1. Toy Story Franchise
2. WALL-E
3. Up
4. The Incredibles
5. Monsters Inc.

Disney:

1. The Lion King
2. Aladdin
3. Mulan
4. The Jungle Book
5. Pinocchio

DreamWorks:

1. How to Train Your Dragon 
2. Kung Fu Panda 
3. Shrek 
4. The Prince of Egypt 
5. Megamind

Studio Ghibli:

1. Princess Mononoke 
2. Spirited Away 
3. Castle in the Sky 
4. Grave of the Fireflies 
5. Kiki’s Delivery Service

Stop-Motion Animation Films: 

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox 
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas 
3. Coraline 
4. Classic Christmas Claymation Movies 
5. James and the Giant Peach

This is where I normally write a short paragraph as to why each movie is on my list. Because of the sheer number of films I have included in this post, I have opted to only give explanations for the five number one’s. 

I would call the Toy Story franchise Pixar’s main flagship because that is where Pixar got its start in the animated feature film business. Before Pixar was an animation company they were a computer graphics company for Lucasfilms. George Lucas sold the technology rights to Steve Jobs for five million dollars. Jobs became the main investor of the new division. Dr. Edwin Catmull and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith ran the company as President and Executive Vice President. Walt Disney Studios took notice and started incorporating the “Pixar” technology into their projects. When “Pixar” was at its all-time low they hired on the Disney animator John Lasseter, who made a good case for the “Pixar” technology by making animated shorts, including Luxo Jr. This started a good relationship between Disney and Pixar, which lead a $26 million three picture deal with Disney. The first movie in this deal was Toy Story. Toy Story was inspired by one of Pixar’s animated shorts, Tin Toy, that tells a story from a small tin toy’s perspective. John Lasseter took that idea and expanded upon it, making a wonderful film. 

The Lion King is by far my all-time favorite animated Disney movie. If you have been following this series at all, you may recall The Lion King took my number one spot for best Musical Movie from the 90’s, rightfully so, with all the great musical numbers. There are many elements of this film that just work perfectly. I personally love the story the most, which draws inspiration from the biblical stories of Joseph, and Moses as well as the Shakespearean play Hamlet. I find it fascinating that The Lion King was one of the last movies, Disney made in the traditional way, before putting their faith in CGI animation that Pixar brought to the animation game. 

I tend to jokingly say something along the line of “DreamWorks animation makes one good movie out of ten.” Sadly, this is more or less true, I would even go as far to say they only have two or three great films, one of those being How to Train Your Dragon. What I like the most about How to Train Your Dragon is the personalities attached to the each character, including the dragons. Personally I think it was the personalities of the dragons, especially Toothless, that sold this film. 

Let’s talk about a group of animated films that I believe less people, including myself, have seen. I’m talking about the films that have come out of Studio Ghibli / Films by Hayao Miyazaki. These films are always very beautiful. It becomes fairly hard to describe the intricacies of these films. Most of these films are living paintings. With that being said, these films tactical serious themes and tell very human stories. Personally the film from Studio Ghibli that best exemplifies all those qualities is Princess Mononoke. 

I have a great deal of respect for a stop-motion animator. It takes a great deal of patience to work in that medium of animation. It’s safe to say most people would place The Nightmare Before Christmas at the top of their stop-motion animation list. That’s a fair placement because The Nightmare Before Christmas revolutionized that style of animation / storytelling. Even though I enjoy The Nightmare Before Christmas I personally like The Fantastic Mr. Fox, maybe it’s because they change all the curse words to “cuss”. The film also has a stellar cast and that’s another contributing factor to why I like this film. It’s such a fun movie. 

Well, you have seen my top animated movies, what are your favorites?