Above Average Joe Blogs

The Force Awakens seems like an aeon ago, when in reality, it was only in 2015, when it did what many thought impossible by supercharging a series long thought dead. Yes, I've got my reservations about that film (weird Marvel-esque humour, the film becomes lazier as it goes on, and some very on the nose dialogue) but it has grown on me a little more over time. What really got me back into Star Wars was The Last Jedi that for all its flaws (and it has flaws a plenty including an upping of the Marvel banter, and one rug pull too many, as well as a side plot that goes nowhere) felt like a film with a point and purpose, and which could serve as a great jumping off point for the trilogy closer.  Unfortunately, none of that has come to fruition in Rise of Skywalker, with J.J Abrams retaking the directorial duties after he last sat in that captain's chair for Force Awakens. In brief, before getting into spoiler territory, Abrams has seemingly taken Rian Johnson's directi...

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. And yet, you find yourself waking in a cold sweat, your heart beating fast, little do you know, this Christmas will be your last. Morning has come, you think, and with the dawn comes the opening of gifts long awaited. Then you notice the moon's baleful silver glow cascade through the gaps in your superhero adorned curtains. No gifts to tear open just yet, you realise as you cast a glance at your illuminated bedside clock. The clown grin stretched across the clock face, pulsing slime green, as the hands tremble slowly forward. 12:05am. He may still be here, you realise with glee. You slide out of bed, onto the soft carpet, and step into your superhero slippers. Mustn't let Him hear me sneak up on Him, you think. To your bedroom door you tiptoe, before reaching up the handle and pulling it open into the darkness of the landing. On the ...

For years and years, the film industry has been trying to hit gold with game to movie adaptations.  From the perfectly cast Angelina Jolie, in the cinematically dull Tomb Raider films (the original starred an American accented, pre-Bond, Daniel Craig, so that fan fiction of Bond and Croft teaming up exists, as well as a pre-Daenerys friend-zoned Iain "Jorah" Glenn), to the risible Doom flick (totally missing the point of the game being an action game with horror aesthetics and instead appearing to a remake of the original Resident Evil film). Strangely enough, to date, the best video game as a movie was one not based on a video game, namely Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It overtly blended the real and video game world, replete with 8-bit effects, beat-em up brawls, and boss fights. However, there is another film series, which has continued to get stronger with each entry is also borrowing heavily from video games to give you that non-stop action rush. The John Wick series. ...

Avengers: Infinity War was not a perfect movie. It was brave but bloated superhero epic with a killer send off and proof that Marvel can do villains correctly when they place them as the protagonist. Endgame is not as good byquite a stretch. It is good, but it never hits the highs of Infinity War, due to an overreliance on schmaltz and fan service, a meandering plot that makes very little sense, and a predictable CGI battle royale finale. However, hidden amongst the predictability there are again brave story beats and a fair bit more introspection than you'd expect in a MCU. If you are hardcore Marvel fan this may be all you want out of Endgame but for me, it fell short. There, that's my quick spoiler free review, but to really get into why I don't think it matches up to Infinity War I am going to have go deep into spoiler territory. So stick with this review if you've seen the film or care not for the spoilers. Endgame picks up within the near aftermath of Thanos...

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So I double dipped on duelling, daring, female led films this past weekend and saw both Alita: Battle Angel and Captain Marvel in the space of two days. The reason being for getting them back to back was that there had been a fair bit of comparison between them, particularly in terms of representation of strong female characters. Also hovering over both these movies, and most particularly over Captain Marvel, and threatening to derail any constructive criticism of these films like a fart in a lift or Jacuzzi, is a whole heap of non-controversy drummed up by internet basement dwellers on one side and overly zealous activists on the other. One side is claiming that Captain Marvel is either the worst film ever made, anti-male,  (?!?) and poorly acted and at the other end of the spectrum they are shouting that it is the second coming of the Suffragette movement, here to smash the glass ceiling (spoiler for this review - it is neither). Bar this paragraph I'm going to skip past t...

When people think of superhero movies now it is either the live action banter spectacular of the Marvel films, or the serious, dramatic, grandiose Nolan Bat-flicks (let's not talk of the current state of the DCU barring Wonder-Woman, can't speak for Aquaman yet). Yet both of these superhero visions, for want of a better word, lack the key link to their origins - the style of the comic book. Enter, swinging to win, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, fully embracing its comic book roots to provide you with a true comic book vision. Prior to seeing the film, I hadn't seen a whole lot of it by way of trailers or teasers, only a gathering buzz that this was something special. What made this all the more surprising was that these stellar reviews were about an animated film that wasn't emerging from the established giants in this field: Pixar, Disney, or to a lesser extent, Dreamworks. Instead, this film has the style of an arthouse movie, oozing auteur flare in the vi...