X-Men: Days of Future Past review

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST:

AN ENTERTAINING BLAST FROM THE PAST AND ANOTHER X-CELLENT REASON WHY WE LOVE OUR MUTANTS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** 1/2 out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

(From left to right) Iceman, Charles Xavier, Beast, Wolverine, Mystique, Professor X, and Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Days of Future Past

            Everyone’s favorite team of mutants is back in the latest chapter of the successful X-Men film franchise, based on the popular Marvel Comics series. Thankfully it’s not another prequel or spinoff, it’s an official sequel to 2006’s X-Men 3: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class (It’s basically a sequel to the last sequel and the first prequel), once again directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns).

            Most of the cast from the previous X-Men movies reprise their iconic roles including Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Charles Xavier, better known as Professor X, Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit) as Professor X’s counterpart, Magneto, Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing, The Prestige, Les Miserables) as everyone’s favorite metal-clawed mutant, Wolverine, James McAvoy (Arthur Christmas, The Last King of Scotland) as young Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Prometheus) as young Magneto, Erik Lensherr, Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) as the Shapeshifting Mystique, Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies, Jack the Giant Slayer) as the big and hairy Beast, and many other familiar faces.

            In an apocalyptic future where mutants are being hunted by giant robots created by the scheming military scientist, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage-Elf, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Game of Thrones) and Professor X has teamed up with his evil counterpart, Magneto to end the war between humans and mutant forever. Accompanying them are Wolverine, Storm (Halle Berry-Swordfish, Die Another Day, Cloud Atlas), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page-Juno, Inception, The East), and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore).

            Wolverine volunteers to go back in time to inform young Charles Xavier of what will happen if the war continues.

            Charles, Wolverine, and Beast must break Erik Lensherr/young Magneto out of his prison, inform him what is going to happen in the future, and find Erik’s old partner in crime, Mystique, who is hot on Bolivar’s tracks and plans to kill him for creating robots to hunt down mutants, just for being different.

            Overall X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the best films in the X-Men franchise, up there with X2: X-Men United, though I would have to say X2 is still a little better. It’s nice to see the X-Men mutants together again after the previous prequels and spinoffs like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, and The Wolverine, we haven’t seen most of these characters since X-Men 3: The Last Stand, so it’s quite refreshing to see them protect humans and mutants once more.

            As far as comic book movies go, the story is definitely more complex than the previous films in the series. It’s not Inception complex, but it certainly isn’t a straightforward action movie.

            Besides being one of the best films in the X-Men series, Days of Future Past might even be one of the best comic book movies of the year, better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and up with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. So, if you were disappointed with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or found it underwhelming, perhaps you’d be better off revisiting the X-Men, it’s complex but it doesn’t have as many plot elements as Spider-Man.

            Honestly this could have been a strong way to end the X-Men series, it felt very self-contained in the end, but we have a few more films in the series coming up, starting with X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.

            Until then, we have X-Men: Days of Future Past to fill in, it’s better than X-Men 3: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it might even be better than The Wolverine from last year, so enjoy an “X-cellent” blast from the past with everyone’s favorite mutants.

Godzilla review

GODZILLA:

A WELCOMING RETURN OF THE KING OF THE MONSTERS AND AN ATOMIC BLAST OF GOOD OLD MONSTER BEATING FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Godzilla attacking Japan once again in Godzilla

            GOJIRA! (Or Godzilla) is back and bigger than ever in the second re-imagining of the popular Japanese movie monster from Toho by the US, the first being the 1998 Roland Emmerich movie. No, it’s nothing like the 1998 movie, no Matthew Broderick, no Godzilla laying eggs, no Godzilla being an oversized iguana, and no piles of fish.

            In the directing chair is newcomer, Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy) as the main human protagonist, Ford Brody, a US Navy soldier who lost his mother after a laboratory accident when he was young. For a human character in a monster movie, Aaron does a decent job portraying his character and manages to have some witty remarks and effective emotion at the same time, unlike Broderick’s awkward Niko Tatopoulos performance.

            Fifteen years after the accident, Ford has been living in San Francisco with his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen-Martha Marcy May Marlene) and five year old son.

            When he is called in for an important he mission, he discovers that a nuclear accident occurred in 1954 and an indestructible creature was awakened, what could this unstoppable force be? Why, none other than the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla.

            In more recent years, the same incident occurred and a new monster was created, known as the MUTO, a winged creature with long hook-like claws and a powerful blast that can wipe out a city’s power supply. Honestly it looks like a hybrid of a Kaiju from Pacific Rim and the monster from Cloverfield.

            The MUTO finds its way to places like Hawaii, Japan, and Las Vegas, and starts causing havoc everywhere. Flying around the city destroying buildings and knocking the power out with its powerful roar.

            Fed up with all the destruction, the US Navy decides to unleash Godzilla to battle the MUTO and save the world from total annihilation.

            Compared to the 1998 Godzilla movie, this new re-imagining of the classic monster surpasses the previous US film in just about every way. The CG effects are much more impressive and Godzilla’s design actually looks like Godzilla and not a giant iguana humping buildings in New York City and eating piles of a lot of fish.

            Besides the special effects, every time Godzilla battles the MUTO is exciting and so awesome, it leaves you at the edge of your seat and cheering. That’s what everyone paid to see, watching monsters beating the hell out of each other, glad it didn’t disappoint and no references to those stupid Godzilla babies.

            Granted the original Japanese films are still impressive for their times and the campiness of the films do have a charm to them, but there are plenty of elements from the original movies thrown in here, so die-hard fans won’t be disappointed.

            It’s nice to see Godzilla on the big screen again in the US, back before this film there were only two Japanese films, Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla 2000 and Roland Emmerich’s 1998 crap-fest released here in the US. Fans will probably love it and newcomers will most likely get into the colossal Godzilla franchise through this movie, hopefully this will lead to a brand new franchise with rebooted versions of some of the other iconic monsters like Mothra, Ghidorah, Destoroyah, or Mechagodzilla.

            So maybe now we can forget about the Emmerich Godzilla, thanks to this Atomic Breath blast of monstrous fun.

Neighbors review

NEIGHBORS:

RECKLESS NEIGHBORS AND LAUGH OUT LOUD GAGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Seth Rogen and Zac Efron are “Bad” Neighbors

            Call the police because there’s going to be loud music, drugs, and lots of sex in the new comedy, Neighbors. Directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, The Five-Year Engagement) and starring Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad, This is the End) and Zac Efron (High School Musical trilogy, Hairspray, 17 Again) and filled the brim with crude and vulgar jokes and cruel pranks.

            Seth and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, X-Men: First Class, The Place Beyond the Pines) star as Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple, living peacefully in suburbia and taking care of their baby daughter. That is until their new neighbors come to town and they are forced to live next to a fraternity house of reckless college students, led by Teddy Sanders (Efron).

             Mac and Kelly are fed up with all the partying, noise, and loud music, so they start coming up with all of these plans to make them move out of the neighborhood. But sadly Teddy and his fraternity have firepower too and start pulling cruel pranks on them, most notably stealing their air bags out of the car and putting them in Mac’s office chair; soon a simple neighbor rivalry turns into an outrageous battle between family and frat.

            Overall, I wouldn’t consider Neighbors to be as hilarious as Seth Rogen’s previous comedy, This is the End, but for what the film is, it’s still very funny and offers plenty of laughs that kept me entertained from start to finish. Seth and Rose are very funny, especially when they’re trying to act cool to the new neighbors when they move in, Zac Efron does an outstanding job portraying Teddy, the leader of the fraternity and has plenty of comedic material to work with, I think he might be becoming a favorite actor of mine.

            Besides the main cast, some of the supporting cast members generate some laughs, like Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Kick-Ass, Pitch Perfect), Dave Franco (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Warm Bodies), and Craig Roberts (Submarine, Jane Eyre) as three of the fraternity members, Scoonie, Pete, and Assjuice, Ike Barnholtz as Mac and Kelly’s hilariously awkward friend, Jimmy and Carla Gallo (Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) as his ex-wife, Paula.

            Like I said before, it’s not as funny as This is the End, but when things get funny, it’s really funny stuff. All the pranks and crude gags get a big laugh and the majority of them hit bulls-eye.

            Pump up some laughs and throw a wild party with this hysterical comedy that will most likely offend your “Neighbors”.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 review

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2:

THE AVERAGE SPIDER-MAN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

Spider-Man saving the day in The Amazing Spider-Man 2

            Spidey swings back into action in the highly anticipated sequel to the 2012 blockbuster, The Amazing Spider-Man, the reboot of the successful Spider-Man film trilogy. The first film was a grittier, darker, and more intense re-imaging of the iconic Marvel Comics superhero; a little rough around the edges but it was a clever and entertaining new take.

            Of course the new Spider-Man world was going to expand with a couple of sequels, this being one of them, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This movie honestly felt a little “lighter” and less intense than its predecessor, felt more like a traditional comic book movie, much like the original Tobey Maguire trilogy.

            Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Emma Stone (Superbad, Easy A, Zombieland) reprise their roles as now high school graduate, Peter Parker, better known as the radioactive web-slinger, Spider-Man, and his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy as they continue trying to adapt to Peter’s second life of fighting crime as Spidey and getting their relationship on the right track. Suddenly, after a freak accident as Oscorp Industries, a scientist and nerdy Spider-Man fan, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx-Django Unchained, White House Down) is transformed into the shocking Electro, who soon becomes power mad and threatens to take out New York City’s power if he doesn’t find Spider-Man.

            Meanwhile, Peter’s old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan-Lincoln, Chronicle, The Place Beyond the Pines) returns to town as the new CEO of Oscorp after the passing of his father, Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper-The Muppets). So Peter and Harry do a little catching up since Harry was gone for a long time.

            Unfortunately things get pretty ugly, when Harry tells Peter that he is dying and needs a sample of Spider-Man’s genetically altered blood to keep him alive. Soon, he finds an alternative by becoming the menacing Green Goblin and teams up with Electro, and the two of them plot to destroy Spider-Man.

            Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, while a slight step backwards from its predecessor, it’s still decent popcorn fun. It has plenty of eye candy special effects, gripping action scenes, and some goofy comedy from wise cracking, Spidey.

            What’s definitely a big improvement over the last movie, is the villain, Electro, he is much more intimidating and awesome than the Lizard, I’m not saying the Lizard wasn’t a cool villain, he was, but Electro just nukes the competition, more like zaps the competition. It also had a major improvement with the Green Goblin, compared to Willem Dafoe in the original Spider-Man movie, this time he’s not a mad scientist wearing a silly costume, instead Osborn actually becomes a goblin and the makeup, costume, and Glider are pretty awesome.

            Like the first one, besides having cool action and pretty colors flying around, the character development is pretty strong too. Andrew Garfield, for the most part is still very likable as Peter and Emma Stone is a faithful partner as Gwen, definitely better than Mary Jane Watson, sorry Kirsten Dunst, nothing personal.

            Besides Peter and Gwen, Peter’s relationship with his Aunt May (Sally Field-Lincoln) is also incredibly strong, you can see the troubles they’re going through together and you want to see them get through it.

            So for the most part, I had fun with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it did have a couple of problems. One of them was juggling three villains in the movie, Electro, Green Goblin, and the Rhino (Paul Giamatti-Win Win, Saving Mr. Banks) and let’s just say people who were waiting in anticipation for the Rhino may be disappointed, I can’t believe I’m saying this but Spider-Man 3 did a better job incorporating three villains, but just slightly.

            The only other issue I personally have is that the ending is a little weak and felt rushed, although it did leave doors open for a third movie, so hopefully it will continue where this one left off.

            If you’re a fan of Spider-Man and enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man, you’ll probably enjoy this one fine, it’s a fun silly comic book movie with some awesome bad guys. But if you want a more clever and unique Marvel film, I’d say wait for X-Men: Days of Future Past or Guardians of the Galaxy.