Category: Opinion

As requested, we begin our journey into the four classic Batman films with by far the best. In fact, I’d put Tim Burton’s first Batman film up there with one of the best adaptations of a superhero I can think of.

Gotham, a beautiful city by day but a crime infested hellhole at night. The police are corrupt or pretty ineffective against the crime bosses. But a bat stalks the night, taking down criminals. Eccentric Bruce Wayne by day and the menacing Batman at night he protects Gotham while evading the police. But a run in with mob enforcer Jack Napier with change his life as Jack falls into a vat of chemicals, emerging as his nemesis, Joker. Meanwhile reporter Vicky Vale is trying to uncover the bat’s secret identity but gets dragged into something bigger as we realized Batman and Joker have more history than we first thought….

This movie is a certifiable classic, being a damn good modern noir and a trend setter, influencing superhero films today. While the story is simple, the characters are flushed out and I love the dark tone of the movie. Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson are amazing as Batman and Joker; I’d say Nicholson is the most accurate portrayal of Joker we’ve had on screen to date. The setting is beautiful as well and the score is terrific.  Absolutely check this movie out. May the gaming gods bring you glory, while you dance with the devil in the pale moonlight.

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.

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.

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.

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.