Author: torstenvblog

And of course we come to the sequel and premature end of the Amazing Spider-man series. I’m saying this right now, theatrically in 3-D this movie is freaking awesome. Without that? Eh, let’s get into that.

Picking up almost two years later, Peter and Gwen are graduating high school, Spider-man has gotten experience under his belt but the memory of Gwen’s father haunts him as well as the mysteries of his parents and the fear for Gwen’s safety. His long estranged childhood friend Harry Osborn reappears after his father passes away from a genetic disorder and the two reconnect until Harry comes face to face with the same infliction. Spider-man also finds himself put to the test when villain Electro appears after another Oscorp based accident occurs when Spider-man obsessed fan Max Dillon falls into a pit of genetically altered electric eels after being shocked- nope I ain’t making that up…oh and Sinister Six shit too…

If you really loved these movies, I’m deeply sorry you won’t get no kind of conclusion to the multiple plots left open because this movie is primarily world building fluff, sequel bait. Garfield is much better a second time around and the supporting cast does well mainly. My favorite part is Jaime Fox as Electro, accompanied by a interesting score I can’t get out of my head. The fight scenes are much cooler. My biggest problem is the amount of shit is crammed into the film which makes it feel bloated, and because this was the end of it and wasn’t continued, it feels largely pointless. Also, Rhino. Oh I don’t know what the hell made them think anything about Rhino was a good idea. I can’t tell you if Electro or the Goblin to be is supposed to be the main villain. Overall, in my opinion, it’s not a terrible Spider-man film but the overuse of universe sequel bait kills it.Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Well, because I O.Ded on DC for a bit, I’ve been covering miscellaneous Marvel movies like every Fantastic 4 movie and Daredevil. Today, bumming around my other job, I flipped a coin to either talk about Spider-man or Punisher. Guess who won?

The Amazing Spider-man is the 2012 reboot of the beloved wallcrawler, but in a darker, more grounded tone that tried to be more true to the comics. Essentially we get another origin story, only this time having a thread focusing on Peter’s parents and Peter’s search for answers about them, leading him to Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s old partner and soon to be Spider-man’s first enemy, the Lizard.

Ok, this is a tricky one. I like that Spidey has web-shooters and we have Gwen Stacy as his love interest, not Mary Jane. I love the supporting cast, especially Emma Stone as Gwen and Rhys Ifans as Connors/ Lizard, though he is under used. I like the use of P.O.V shots when Spider-man is being Spider-man and the acrobatic stuff is pretty sweet to watch. That’s about it for me. Rest of this movie pissed me off something fierce.  I do not like Andrew Garfield’s take on Peter Parker- I felt he was too whiny and kinda emo nor his take on Spider-man- I felt he trash talked too much and was a wuss when it came to fighting. I get it, he’s not a huge brawler but dammit you got insane reflexes and you’re twenty times stronger than your average guy, I don’t think you need to run from a couple muggers. Oh, and I love how he pretty much says Fuck it trying to find Uncle Ben’s killer after a five minute montage. And oh the costume. Savior won’t allow me to use the language I require to describe my dark, black hearted disdain for that costume.  Lizard looks ok but I think they could have used a better design. Honestly, this movie feels like Spider-man for the YA Twilight crowd in a lot of ways. It took multiple viewings but overall I’m ok with it but I prefer the Rami trilogy much more. I haven’t seen Homecoming yet. I know the debate is out on McGuire vs Garfield as better Spidey so I recommend watching both series and deciding for yourself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ambitious is 1 way to describe this movie. Bloated and off are others. This wasn’t easy but (sigh) let’s do this.

Valerian is a sci-fi epic about agents Valerian and Laureline that are trying to uncover a mystery involving mass alien genocide and military cover up. There’s a place called Alpha where thousands of species converge and prosper for the benefit of all. Well I just summed up all the important shit in two sentences and this movie is over 2 hours, but feels like 3.

Best thing Valerian has going for it is how beautifully detailed the worlds are and how much there is to see. Other than that, this movie is a mess. The casting of Valerian and Laureline, Dane Dehaan and Cara Delevingne, ain’t right and they have shit to no chemistry to pull off the romantic tension. Dehaan a lot of times kinda feels like bargain bin Chris Pine Capt. Kirk and Delevingne seems like a pretty droid at times with flat deliveries. Clive Owen plays military bad guy 101, enough said. Rhianna gives the movie’s best performance but she ain’t really in this for long. As I said, this thing feels longer than it is and it shouldn’t because something is always happening. Seriously with the pair getting thrown into predicaments and all the side plots, I forgot what the hell the movie was about twice- I’m not exaggerating. Honestly, I felt like was watching someone trying to cram a whole RPG into a 2 and a half hour movie and wasn’t taking no on trimming it down. I can’t recommend this unless you are a HUGE science fiction buff. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Before he was the Bat, he was Devil in a movie that people liked when it first came out but soured in time. It did get Ben Affleck with Jennifer Garner, so that’s something.

Daredevil is the story of Matt Murdock,, the man without fear. Blinded by chemicals as a young boy in a accident after seeing something that broke his heart, he quickly learned he had something more, his other senses were raised to superhuman sharpness. While his father fought his way to redemption, Matt learned to perfect his new skills and learned to fight like his dad. Like every hero to be though, his father is beaten to death in a alley for not throwing a fight and the pain drives Matt to grow up to become a attorney by day who’s falling in love with a beautiful, mysterious woman named Elektra and the costumed vigilante Daredevil at night, hunting the Kingpin of crime in Hell’s Kitchen and his assassin Bullseye.

I’m getting this out of the way, yes, the Netflix series is WAY better than the movie but people crap on the movie more than they should. 14 years later, I still enjoy it. I can’t in no way proclaim to be a fan of the comics; I never read any. There’s some pretty badass moments and in a pre Nolan- Batman world, I liked how it was a dark superhero movie that had a little camp in it. I thought Affleck did fine as Murdock and Daredevil. I think the late and great Michael Clarke Duncan was great as Kingpin. Jennifer Garner was fine as Elektra but there’s a couple of times she drops the ball with the line delivery and WTF is with the outfit at the end. Collin Farell as Bullseye is probably the weakest link, he ain’t really got much personality and just kills shit in cool ways. Actually, I take that back, the weakest link is the damn playground scene. Oh my god that was cheesy as fuck. Overall, it’s not a masterpiece but it’s got some cool stuff in it so I’d recommend it a pre owned or crap bin price. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Of the three cinematic iterations of Fantastic 4, only the 2005 film was successful enough to get a sequel two years later…and here we get one of the worst villain reveals of the last decade, but that’s for the end. And yeah, I’m going to spoil it.

So the Fantastic 4 are world famous celebrities and superheroes, and the world eagerly awaits the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. While everyone prepares, Reed is knee deep in research on a set of strange occurrences happened around the globe. Random points around the world experience drastic environmental shifts after a mysterious comet like object races past them. Meanwhile, in Latveria, a deformed and pissed off Dr. Doom searches the source out himself, finding a man like silver creature on what looks like a surf board. They have a altercation and Doom gets served by it’s energy blast, but miraculously the creature heals him. During the wedding, the creature appears. Johnny chases him but the surfer catches him and something weird happens to Johnny; if he touches another one of the group, he switches powers with them. When Reed and the military are at ends to capture the Silver Surfer, Doom comes into play. Sue makes contact with the surfer and she discovers he is but a herald for a much greater danger, his master Galactus…

I’m going to say Galactus kills this movie. One of the greatest foes in all of Marvel is reduced to a storm cloud- Shame on you. The cast does ok and the effects are pretty cool at times but overall it’s just as forgettable as the first, but I can’t say its terrible. Worth a crap bin hit or Netflix. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

For years I’ve heard this movie was an unwatchable train wreck- the worst Fantastic 4 adaptation and one of the worst superhero movies of all time. At face value, it seems so but I can definitely say don’t judge a book by it’s cover here.

It begins with a college aged Reed Richards and and Victor Von Doom trying to capture energy from a space anomaly called Colossus. Reed and his best friend Ben Grimm live at Mrs. Storm’s Boarding House with her and her two children Sue and Johnny. The experiment backfires and even after Ben tries to save him, Victor seemingly dies. Ten years Reed has founding to go into space, and assembles a crew of his friends to take on the mission. They get hit with a cosmic power and crash unharmed but changed, hunted by a foe Reed knows too well.

Ok, this movie isn’t a gem but doesn’t nearly deserve the hate it gets. There’s a strong B Sci-fi movie element to it, but for much of the Fantastic 4 lore is B movie material. The group has better chemistry than the big screen renditions and importantly I have to say, this movie touches on there origin but actually has the 4 do real superhero stuff like Johnny saving New York from Doom’s laser. I actually got really pissed watching this because it blows my mind that a movie with a 100 times less the budget than three other iterations had more heart and did more justice to the 4 and got pissed on so bad. Overall, I recommend it if you like B movies or are a Fantastic 4 fan and it’s on Youtube for free. Best Wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory…Flame On!