Deadpool

deadpool movie

I end my list of X- Men reviews with arguably the best film to come out of the series. The little r-rated superhero movie that could.

Wade Wilson was a normal guy that did some questionable shit for money and had some military background skills. He met a messed up chick named Vanessa and Wade and Vanessa feel in love. practically soul mates. Well, Wade gets inoperable cancer. Life Sucks. But as he hangs out in despair at his favorite bar, a shady looking dude offers him a possible cure if he comes with him. Not wanting to have Vanessa watch him suffer, he says screw it and goes with the guy. Under director Ajax aka Francis, Wade is tortured in an attempt to make him develop a mutation, which he does. Wade regenerates. But the problem is the cancer mutated and disfigured him. After fighting Ajax, Wade takes up the mantle of Deadpool and sets off on his quest for revenge, while getting lectured by some X Men along the way…

Wow. Just freaking wow. Ryan Reynolds has gotten gotten the short end of the stick when it came to superhero movies in the past, including his first run as Wilson in X Men Origins: Wolverine as well as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern , which he makes a joke at in this movie. This time, he gets to fully immerse himself in the character and he is Deadpool to a T. The supporting cast is great as well. Besides being a hilarious comedy, it is balanced with some awesome action scenes and there is surprisingly a lot of heart. I absolutely recommend this to fans and even people who aren’t into the genre. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

X-Men: Apocalypse

xmen apocalypse

Look at this poster. Study it’s dark tone and how Apocalypse looks sinister and gives you a strong sense of foreboding. Good. That ain’t the movie you are getting.

Long ago there existed an extremely powerful mutant in Egypt, god-like even. He was followed by four disciples, mutants that he imbued with more power than they already had. While most of Egypt viewed this mutant as god, others didn’t and caused a pyramid to crash on him and he went into hibernation for like 2000 years until he woke up after a excavation. Apocalypse pretty much wants his god-like reign back so he finds Psylocke, Storm, Angel, and a devastated Magneto to empower as his Four Horsemen and it’s up to the mismatched X Men to stop him…

This is the weakest link of the whole trilogy and personally it’s my least favorite X Men movie. Apocalypse, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most devastatingly powerful mutants in Marvel history. He is damn near unkillable and the amount of badassness he possesses is insane. Despite this, in the movie he really doesn’t do jack shit but look awkward. The horsemen he chooses make no sense either; in fact he just kinda chooses whoever he comes across. But let’s talk about the X-Men. We get younger versions of classics like Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler as well as more Mystique- who pretty much is whole on Mockingjay by now and Beast. None of the new kids really sold me. What became a trend with these prequels is every movie being a new decade and this damn movie plays the 80’s card hard. Like annoyingly hard. Nightcrawler is pulling a Thriller era MJ for most of it. Honestly, again, I stuck around for McAvoy and Fassbender again, who rock it again as X and Magneto. And the destruction is solid if you like disaster movies but it is heavy on the CGI. My final verdict is it’s a decent popcorn action film but it’s a shitty X-Men movie. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

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Here we come to a bridge between the prequels and the original trilogy…and unintentional Terminator skin.

So the future has been taken over the Sentinels, large, nearly indestructible robots designed to hunt mutants. Most of the world is either dead or imprisoned. What’s left of the X-Men joined with Magneto and are on the run, struggling to stay one step ahead. The last shot they have to save themselves is to send Wolverine back in time to stop Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels whose death would start a chain of events leading there present. Wolverine is sent to the 70’s, a decade after First Class. The Xavier he finds is depressed and drug dependent, suffering a nasty break down over losing students in Vietnam and being paralyzed. Magneto is in prison. To find Mystique, he’ll need the help of Prof X, Magneto, Beast, and a young speed demon we can’t call QuickSilver I think, because legal bullshit. But can they save the past in time before the future crashes down on them…

I can’t say I read the book so I can’t really compare the two. That being said, Days of Future Past is a pretty good movie. Again McAvoy and Fassbender shine as well as Jackman as Wolverine. It was really awesome to have both Prof X’s and Magneto’s in one movie. Granted, though very much a Terminator skin, it is good at creating a bleak atmosphere, making hope all the more sweeter. It doesn’t feel the most original but it’s a pretty good watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

X-Men: First Class

xmen 1st class

Between Wolverine films, the X-Men films looked dead on the outside. Thankfully, despite even my own doubts, we got probably one of my favorite superhero movies.

Continuing after the intro to the original X- Men movie, we get a further glimpse into the hell young Erik Lehnserr would endure at the hands of Sebastian Shaw and we see the violent quest for revenge Magneto goes on to kill him. Along the way he meets newly doctored Charles Xavier and his best friend Raven, mutants aiding the government in finding Shaw before him and the Hellfire Club cause WW3 so mutants can reign supreme. Xavier, Magneto and a small band of young mutants have to hone there gifts to combat the Hellfire Club as the country’s last line of defense.

Ok, I’m going to take my nerd hat off a second. I know Mystique, Banshee and Havoc were not original X-Men (fun fact: Cyclops, Marvel Girl aka Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, and Beast were the original first class in the comics.) I know Magneto didn’t put Xavier in the wheelchair. But, as a movie, it is pretty damn good. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender do phenomenal as Prof X and Magneto in there younger years and the rest of the cast fits in really well too. The effects and the score are very cool. The only thing that dented the movie for me was the whole Magneto putting Xavier in the chair thing; it is a minor smudge on a otherwise badass prequel. I highly recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Wolverine

the wolverine

This is one of those rare times I’m pretty damn divided on what I think and feel about a movie. Certainly not the colossal dumpster fire X Men Origins: Wolverine was, but nowhere near as raw and unrestrained as Logan was, I think it’s safe to call this the middle child of the Wolverine trilogy.

The film begins in WW2. Logan saves the life of a Japanese soldier by shielding him from missile fire that would have surely killed him. In astonishment, the soldier watches Logan regenerate before his eyes. He promises to repay our favorite clawed mutant one day. Fast forward to present day and Logan is drifting, alone after the events of X Men: The Last Stand , mourning the deaths of Prof. X, Cyclops, and especially Jean Grey. He is sick of not being able to die. The soldier he saved is dying now of old age, and offers Logan a chance to finally die by curing him of his regenerative ability. Suddenly he finds himself getting caught up in an adventure through Japan, vulnerable and kicking ass as a plot unfolds around him…

This time around, the story, effects, and characters are much better done. Honestly, I liked the movie a lot until the final villain reveal at the end.  Besides it feeling out of left field and tacked on as a way to keep this a standard superhero flick, as a nerd I can tell you it’s pretty damn WTF. Besides the final act, you can 100% tell the Pg-13 rating suffocated this movie. There were times it felt held back and damn I’m sorry but a movie solely about a dude with unbreakable metal claws doesn’t sound kid friendly to me. But, as I said, there was much more heart and appreciation for the characters and source material this time around. I think it’s worth checking out at bargain bin price. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deep Blue Sea 2 trailer

deep blue sea 2

So here’s a small detour from my X- Men reviews to bring you my thoughts on the trailer for Deep Blue Sea 2. I covered Deep Blue Sea not long ago, so I figured strike the iron while its hot. Honestly, from what I’m gathering, a lot of this looks like a damn retread of the first. A lot of the sets look really damn similar to the facility from the first and even what they reveal of the plot sounds kinda close. You can tell it’s a straight-to video because we don’t get anyone from the first and I have to say the sharks don’t look great. Why did we need a sequel? May the gaming gods bring you glory as we wait and sea I guess- yes, I made a pun.

X Men Origins: Wolverine

wolverine origins

Wolverine, Deadpool, and Gambit deserved to be in much better movies than this piece of shit. Thankfully, Deadpool got the movie he so desperately needed and Wolverine finally got his perfect fit with Logan , and well, I’m sure we’ll get that fabled Gambit movie eventually when, yanno SpongeBob becomes President.

As the title suggests, this is the story of Logan’s origins to becoming the Wolverine. Mutant brothers James Logan Howlett ( Wolverine) and Victor Creed (Sabretooth) are have fought wars through the ages, always having each others backs. But as time goes on, they find themselves divided after Victor grows blood thirsty and Logan is tired of bloodshed. Logan settles down but that good enough for Sabretooth, who kills his wife, sending Logan down the path that would get him his famous claws and…ugh.

I have to be honest, this movie is the epitome of misguided bullshit. These movies ass-squirts characters out left and right and no one is really that well developed except the few main characters, which ain’t done right either. Honestly, I don’t think the writers or the directer did jack shit when it came to research. Every Marvel fan knows the violent rage we felt when Deadpool, Merc with a mouth, had his fucking mouth sewn shut and given Baraka blades, heat vision and a bunch of shit powers because…reasons! Sabretooth was not only miscast, but royally screws the continuity but of course, this movie flips that little thing off. The effects are mainly crap with ok parts throughout. I will say Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kirsch, and Liev Schrieber try there asses off to help pull this through but unfortunately its not enough. I don’t recommend this to say the least. Pick up comics, discover the awesome, dark, and graphic tale of Wolverine and Weapon X and ignore this watered down, ignorant bull crap. In the end, friends don’t let friends watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

X Men: The Last Stand

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Director Bryan Singer was given a choice after coming off of his sucess with the first two X Men films: do X3 or hope on to the WB and do Superman Returns. He went to Superman and damn you can tell.

How does the mutant community react when the government develops a cure? Magneto takes the amount of outrage from the news to gather a remarkable army with his young protege, Pyro. Meanwhile, Rogue is thrilled. Many of the X Men are still mourning over the death of Jean Grey, taking it the worst is her fiance Cyclops who is suffering a grand amount of depression. But something is telling him to see her, and he discovers Jean is alive. Here we discover Jean’s secretly ultra powerful and Prof X has had to tie her powers down mentally, but they are now unleashed as…ugh…the Phoenix. So Wolverine must ban together with X Men young and old for a final stand to save the cure and stop Phoenix….

Ok, I don’t hate this movie. If you want a straight up action flick, it is pretty entertaining. Kelsey Grammer is another amazingly perfect casting as Beast. Where the movie begins to fail is the fact they are essentially cramming two giant ass plots into a movie that’s just two hours, not really giving either the depth they deserve. Also, Wolverine becomes the main focus of the movie, the other X Men are just minor characters like Storm and Beast, or just there like Rogue, Iceman, Angel, or Cyclops. There are two times I feel the effects go overboard but other than that, they are solid. In the end, being the worst of the original trilogy, it is still a solid movie. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

X2: X men United

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This was one of the first times I was ever was pumped for a sequel. As a kid I was obsessed with the first film. It was slick, it was deep and it was epic. So how did the second of the original trilogy come out?

When a mutant named Nightcrawler attacks the president of the US, the shit hits the fan. A new foe named Stryker uses this attack to launch on Prof. X’s school in order to capture and detain mutants. Meanwhile, Wolverine returns to the school just in time after not finding answers to his forgotten origins, escaping with Rogue, her boyfriend IceMan, and there friend Pyro. Stryker wants to use Xavier to exterminate mutant kind so it’s up to the X men, Magneto and Mystique to stop him while Wolverine learns his true origin…

X2 is nearly a superior sequel. There are more badass action scenes, cool characters, and great dramatic scenes. What begins to become apparent is the favoritism towards Wolverine starts to creep in but in this case it isn’t a hindrance yet. Also, I’m not a fan of the blatant Jean Grey sacrifice to open the Phoenix plot line nor do I like the Lady DeathStrike portrayal. Despite these grips, it is a great movie and I recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.