2014 Summer Movie Season Awards by Matt Harrison

So this is my 100th post on this blog and I thought I'd do something a little different for it. The 2014 summer movie season has been really fantastic in my opinion and I'd thought I'd give my favourite movies of the summer some recognition with awards I literally made up this morning...


Movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Raid 2 will not be awarded anything as I saw them both in late March/April time. I didn't see every movie of the summer but I saw all of the big ones so without further delay let's begin:



Best Hero - Caesar (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Out of all of the characters in the movies which came out this summer, none were more heroic than Caesar. Andy Serkis put in the best performance of his career and gave incredible raw humanity to a CGI ape. The character of Caesar is one of the best ever created and through him channels an incredible amount of human emotion. Plus he's a badass leader, and winner of Best Hero.



Best Villain - Koba (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Toby Kebbell's amazing performance as Koba proved that Andy Serkis has made motion capture a thing which any actor can do. Out of all of the villains this summer Koba had the most menacing presence and did the most evil things. And on top of that you could actually understand what his motivations were, unlike villains like Ronan the Accuser or Bolivar Trask.



Best action scene - The Tank scene (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)


We were blessed with some awesome action this summer. I considered putting in the Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past, the Normandy beach fight in Edge of Tomorrow and the cheer inducing final battle from Godzilla, but this one blew my mind the most. When I first saw it I was in awe of how it was created and stunned when I thought about the detail that must have gone into directing and shooting a scene like that. Please watch it if you haven't already, but you must have seen the film by now, right?



Best comic book movie - X-Men: Days of Future Past

I really liked Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought that the characters were all brilliant, the action was good and I loved just how funny it was and how it didn't take itself to seriously. However, X-Men: Days of Future Past was a much more solid movie with amazing performances from actors who transformed into their characters. It had smart writing, amazing action and real drama and tension similar to what Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had. I loved this movie and thought it was the best comic book movie of the summer.



Best music - Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot are awesome and yes the movie was funny as hell so I couldn't leave the Guardians out. So I thought about it for a while before I realised that it had the best music of any summer film by far. The actual score itself was sufficient but the addition of "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" added so much into the film's character and personality. The opening scene with Star Lord still impresses me when I think about it today...



Best animated movie - How to Train Your Dragon 2

It had absolutely no competition. It was easily the best animated film of the summer.



Best comedy - 22 Jump Street

There were a lot of really funny movies this summer like Bad Neighbours and Guardians of the Galaxy. But I laughed the hardest in 22 Jump Street. The chemistry and timing between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is spot on and the "kitchen scene" with Ice Cube is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.



Best limited release - Boyhood

Richard Linklater's Boyhood proved that good things are worth waiting for. It took him 12 years to make this 2 hour and 45 minute long film and it paid off because it naturally and authentically captured the essence of childhood and growing up better than any film before it. It was an easy watch and deserves some recognition.



Best trailer - Interstellar trailer 1 

A lot of cool trailers landed this summer but none excited me more than the first full length Interstellar trailer which came out in mid May. The thing gives me goose bumps even now when I watch it. I love the way it intrigues you without spoiling anything, plus Hans Zimmer's score which progressively builds up in the background is perfect.



Most anticipated fall movie - Interstellar

It stars some very good actors, has the best musician in Hollywood producing it's score and has the best director working today directing it. Christopher Nolan has made some of my all time favourite movies like Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy. He's yet to let me down and I can't wait to see his next movie despite not knowing a thing about it.



Worst movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction

A Million Ways to Die in the West let me down horribly, Tammy was terrible and The Purge: Anarchy didn't work for me. But I've gone with Transformers as my least favourite summer movie because it was everything that I hated about a Michael Bay film; shit CGI, an incomprehensibly stupid plot, dumb military dialogue, awful humour, weak and 1 dimensional boring characters and that same irritating and epileptic directing style. It's awful and I hate that it has made over $1 billion worldwide.



Best movie - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

It has real human emotion, drama and tension. It has incredible acting and memorable characters. It has an unpredictable story. It has jaw dropping action and CGI. It's a beautifully directed movie and is a marvel to look at on the big screen. It has everything a great summer movie should have. We don't need brain-numbing Transformers action to get a good summer blockbuster, we need everything Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has. This is how you make a blockbuster. It's not only my favourite movie of the summer, but my favourite of the entire year.



That was actually really fun to do! If you agree/disagree with any of my choices please comment below and put your winners for each of the categories. I will be doing a Fall movie preview very soon and I hope I enjoy my next 100 posts as much as I have my first 100. I'll keep up the movie reviews, spoilers and movie news stuff plus I hope to introduce 2 new regular segments for this blog as well in the coming weeks so look at forward to that. What a summer its been and here's to an awesome Fall and Winter!

Thanks for reading,
Matt

Marvel Cinematic Universe Release Dates Revealed - My Predictions

DC/Warner Brother's weren't the only studio to recently set release dates for their shared movie universe. Marvel, who's cinematic universe has already been well established, has set 6 more release dates to add to a few movies which have already been confirmed for Phase 3. Like I did with DC's, I will now try (and most likely fail) to predict what movies will come out on the confirmed dates.

These are just my predictions for what they will be. Some of the dates already have confirmed movies occupying them, and they will be clearly indicated. So from now until early 2019, this is how I see the MCU playing out:


May 1st 2015 - Avengers: Age of Ultron  (CONFIRMED)

----------------------------------------------- END OF PHASE 2 --------------------------------------------------

July 17th 2015 - Ant-Man  (CONFIRMED)

May 6th 2016 - Captain America 3  (CONFIRMED)

July 8th 2016 - Doctor Strange  (CONFIRMED)

May 5th 2017 - Thor 3

July 28th 2017 - Guardians of the Galaxy 2  (CONFIRMED)

November 3rd 2017 - Ms Marvel

May 5th 2018 - Avengers 3

----------------------------------------------- END OF PHASE 3 -------------------------------------------------

July 6th 2018 - Black Panther

November 2nd 2018 - The Inhumans

May 3rd 2019 - The Incredible Hulk 2


So we know that The Avengers: Age of Ultron will finalise phase 2 and, barring any more production issues, Ant-Man will kick of Phase 3 just 2 and a half months after phase 2 wraps up. Other confirmed movies for Phase 3 are Captain America 3 (where the Russo brothers will return to direct), Doctor Strange (to be directed by Scott Derickson) and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (where James Gunn will also return to direct).

The rest is all guess work, but I think that Thor 3 will come out between Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. As far as I'm aware a script has been written and it would only make sense considering Avenger's comrades Iron Man and Captain America will both have their trilogies by then.

As for the November 2017 date, I think that'll be Ms Marvel. Marvel have hinted at a female led superhero movie and I think its about time we got one. Many speculate that Black Widow could get her own movie in 2017, but I don't think that would be necessary considering she gets enough screen time in the Captain America movies.

I believe that Phase 3 will end in 2018 and not 2019 as I think Marvel will keep to their 3 year gap. I think The Avengers 3 will happen then and will conclude Phase 3, and hopefully we'll see Thanos being a badass in it!

The 3 movies which I believe will be in Phase 4 are Black Panther, The Inhumans and a solo Hulk movie. Black Panther has been talked about a lot by Kevin Feige much like Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy were, and they've both got their movies! Speaking of Guardians, I believe that movie has proven that an Inhumans movie can work and that they can introduce one more relatively unknown superhero team and make it work.

I want a solo Hulk movie a lot and I think it'll come out in May 2019. I believe the Hulk has a huge hand to play in The Avengers 2 and 3 and we'll see his story arc (hopefully) continue into Phase 4.

So those are my predictions. Agree or disagree? Comment below.

Thanks for reading,
Matt

SPOILER Review - Guardians of the Galaxy

This is an official spoiler warning for Guardians of the Galaxy, so if you haven't seen it yet then please don't read this.

So if you're still reading you have probably already seen the intergalactic awesomeness and fun which is Guardians of the Galaxy. I really enjoyed the film and gave it a B+ in my original review, but I wanted to explain some more things I liked in the film which could come across as spoilers.

The film opens with young Star Lord on Earth and the first scene is pretty emotional. The poor boy is sat there listening to his "awesome mix volume 1" music in a hospital with his mother lying on her death bed. The mother dies, little Star Lord pretty much breaks down, runs outside and is captured by Yondu on a spaceship. I said that Star Lord had the most depth as a character already and the movie illustrates that through it's soundtrack, which is basically just 1980's classics. This is the music his mother gave to him, and Star Lord listens to it as it is the last attachment he has to his mother and Earth for that matter. I loved the soundtrack by the way. The score was sufficient but the 1980s hits were all fantastic.

We then cut to Star Lord as an older man and he is set to retrieve something. While he's doing this, he's listening to his music, dancing and booting small rat-like alien creatures. It was about at this point I realised the tone they were going for, and boy did it pay off throughout the rest of the film. Star Lord is then captured by Korath (one of Ronan's servants) and I thought that they would arrest him for taking the orb. It didn't pan out like that; it turns out Star Lord is a badass, and he escapes!

He tries selling this orb to someone but as soon as he mentions Ronan's name the buyer basically says "f*ck that sh*t" and kicks him out. Then he meets Gamora and shortly after that Rocket Racoon and Groot. What I loved was how the group didn't actually get along together at first. They only form the team when they all find kindred spirit in eachother as they're all basically outcasts. The group then ends up getting arrested and more awesome 80s music plays and more comedy ensues.

In the prison we see at the start that the four, and now Drax, all have different motivations concerning the orb that Star Lord found. Gamora wants it to be rid of Ronan and Thanos, Drax wants it to exert revenge on Ronan for killing his wife and daughter and Rocket/Groot want it for... money! They escape the prison in a really funny and entertaining action sequence which has one of my favourite parts of the film in it. It was that part where Drax chucks Rocket the gun and he's spinning around shooting things on Groot's shoulders.

Meanwhile we go to Ronan and we find out that he has been tasked to retrieve this orb for Thanos (it's an infinity gem, so obviously Thanos would want it) so he can blow up Xandar. I think Ronan want's the planet blown up because he has kind of dated beliefs and he just doesn't like this peace treaty which they signed. He's a pretty weak villain in my opinion, but we get to see Thanos at last and it did not disappoint.

The Guardians then go to a place called Knowhere which is like a hideout for Outlaws and it also happens to be a huge head of a Celestial being. There we meet The Collector again and he basically explains that the orb is in fact an infinity gem, 1 of 6 objects of immense power. We then get a neat demonstration of that when one of his servants blows up his entire collection.

We skip ahead now and Ronan requires the orb and says screw you Thanos, I'm going to blow up Xandar and then I'm coming for you. The Guardians basically decide that they're not going to let billions of people die at the hands of Ronan and they board the ship. They come across Ronan's servant Nebula (Gamora's sister) before Drax blows her up with bazooka. One of the funniest moments in a comic book movie I swear. Although that is soon topped when Groot in that one scene basically pummels those guys to death before turning around and letting out a cheeky smile! I said it before and I will say it again, this movie was so freaking funny!

The movie was also touching at times. It got me the most when Groot shielded the Guardians and basically sacrificed himself for them. "We are Groot". Man I nearly cried over a CGI tree. What is my life coming too!

Ronan's ship crashes and we come to that bit in all superhero films where we have the final showdown. However, this time the main villain is distracted by the hero challenging him to a dance off. Would anyone else other than Star Lord risk the fate of the galaxy over a dance off? No they wouldn't, and that is why Star Lord is as cool as anything!

Ronan is basically defeated and the orb is then locked away by the Nova corps. Groot doesn't die in the end as Rocket recovers a twig and places it in plant pot so he can grow again. The Guardians have their record cleaned and go off on another intergalactic space adventure.

The post credits scene also made me laugh. It was literally just Howard the Duck talking to The Collector amongst the ruins of his destroyed collection. Could it happen? Nah probably not...

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic entrant into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and really excelled with it's surprising bursts of emotion, it's witty humour and it's characters. I'm so glad we're getting a sequel and I can't wait for the day The Guardians and The Avengers team up to battle Thanos. And I hope Drax is the one that kills him!


Thanks for reading,
Matt

Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review

Before this movie was announced did you honestly know who the Guardians of the Galaxy were? I didn't, but now I do and they're awesome!

Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn and yet again sees the Marvel Cinematic Universe expand even more, this time in the far reaches of space. It is definitely Marvel's most ambitious film to date as it takes a group of relatively unknown comic book characters and gives them their moments to shine. Chris Pratt plays Star Lord, a human being captured by an alien ship at a very young age, who steals a mysterious power source in the shape of an orb. This then leads him to form a team with a group of 4 other misfits; Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket with the goal of stopping Ronan the Accuser from destroying the Galaxy.

Yet again Marvel have produced a fantastically fun movie only this time they're giving us a space adventure movie which doesn't take itself too seriously. I enjoyed the movie a hell of a lot and I'm glad that they've announced a sequel.

The movie has in my opinion one of the best moulds of drama and humour I have ever seen. I found myself laughing quite consistently throughout the movie, particularly one scene which involves all 5 of them sitting in a circle. 80% of the jokes either hit sufficiently or left me gut busting and it is by far Marvel's funniest film to date. And Chris Pratt as Star Lord is honestly at the centre of most of the humour in this movie and he is awesome as this character. He's a badass in combat but at the same time is the character with the most depth and development.

The band of misfits all work well off each other and they really are an interesting bunch of characters. Zoe Saldana is perfect for the role of Gamora and has a really intriguing backstory which involves Thanos, the big purple guy in the post credits scene of The Avengers. Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, is also awesome yet so cute at the same time. He was involved in my favourite few moments of the movie; one of which was comedy gold and the other a dramatic scene which actually really got to me.

Rocket Racoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, steals the show. Rocket is so funny. Plus he looks awesome as well. You'd expect a Marvel movie to look good and this movie lives up to that. It has these grand epic shots of space and of different planets and also has some cool and colourful special effects which look amazing, particularly Rocket's fur.

Dave Bautista in my opinion does take time to slip into the role of Drax and he isn't exactly the greatest actor on the planet. But when he does get all warmed up he does have some great moments which are pretty goddam hilarious. I keep saying it but this is honestly one of the funniest movies I've seen all year. Whenever it may begin to seem it is becoming too serious the movie does a 180 and starts to spoof itself. It's very self aware and I really liked that.

I do have small issues with it including how some of the jokes in the first half did fall flat and the dialogue became woolly, fluffy exposition at times. The movie did do that a few times where it felt as if a character was giving unnecessary backstory for the sake of telling the audience these things.

My biggest issue with the film is the villainous characters. Korath, Nebula and The Collector appear in the movie and I didn't really care much about them. The main villain is Ronan the Accuser and while it was cool to see how he linked with Thanos, he wasn't a good villain for me as he had no backstory and his motivations were never clear, he was only there to be the bad guy.

As far as criticisms go that's it. Guardians of the Galaxy proves that Marvel can make relatively unknown characters awesome by putting them in fun, hilarious adventure films which Guardians is. It's a hell of a fun time which I recommend you see. Also, if you think the post credits scene will tease The Avengers: Age of Ultron, you may be disappointed. But I wasn't, I just found it funny:


Rating - B+


1 sentence summary - A self aware comic book movie with great humour, action and interesting characters.


I will be doing a spoiler review for this movie which should be up by tomorrow.


Thanks for reading,
Matt

Marvel Cimatic Universe Ideas - Phases 2 & 3

In a random Marvel mood today so I decided to give to anyone that reads this a few of my ideas about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what future films should come out between now and 2018. Please bare in mind that these are just my personal ideas. Nothing here is fixed or confirmed; they are literally just random ideas I came up with and I would do if I were in Kevin Feige's position. Obviously I'm not so you got nothing to worry about.


Phase 2 of Marvel includes the movies Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron. I'm going to assume that what happens in all of these movies before the second Avengers is that all the characters safely make their way through their movies and have to team up with their Avengers colleagues again.

So Avengers: Age of Ultron. We know for sure that the villain will of course be Ultron. However his origin story is yet to be confirmed and Ant Man is not in the movie, which is crucial to Ultron's creation in the comic books. My theory is that Ultron will be the responsibility of the Avengers. I have a theory that Tony Stark (Iron Man) will create Ultron by pouring in his own artificial intelligence (Jarvis).

As for the heroes involved, I would like to see the original 6 plus Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. As for the plot, I would like to see a final battle with the Avengers all fighting Ultron across the globe. Also, Joss Whedon is known for killing off characters we love. So I would expect a few deaths in this movie. If I were to pick and chose, I would predict that Ultron will kill Black Widow and  Hawkeye. I also predict that the Avengers will stop Ultron but at a huge cost. After all the death and destruction caused, the people and the Government would surely want the Avengers to disband.

I have a theory this will happen. However I also believe that future films will involve Nick Fury secretly recruiting other Marvel heroes into his team for the next Avengers movie, which should come out in 2018.

And what of the Hulk? I would like Marvel to use inspiration from one of the best Hulk storyline's ever written (Planet Hulk) to tie this character in to future instalments. Whedon confirmed that the Avengers: Age of Ultron will take the character to "dark places". Does that hint towards the Planet Hulk storyline?

Spoiler alert! The Planet Hulk storyline begins where the Marvel version of the Illuminati (perhaps the people Nick Fury was talking to over the 4 televisions in Avengers Assemble?) believe that the Hulk is too dangerous to live on the earth. Why could that be? Could it be because in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Hulk is permanently transformed? Anyway, he is shipped off into space and then assembles an army on a far off planet to come back to Earth and take revenge on those who betrayed him (The Illuminati, SHIELD, The Avengers etc.). That storyline is called World War Hulk.

I would love that to happen but perhaps not in that exact way! I will talk more of the Hulk later..

Ant Man is scheduled for a November 6th 2015 release date. It will tell his origin story. I would like not only an origin story but also Ultron to be involved. Perhaps he has been locked away in a maximum security prison threatening to escape? If he were to, that would further devastate a planet affected heavily by the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Therefore, Ant Man can not let that happen. He could stop Ultron and then be secretly recruited by Nick Fury at the end. As for who could play Hank Pym and Ant Man, Adrien Brody, Simon Pegg and Benedict Cumberbatch have all been mentioned. Personally, I've no clue who they will cast!

Also, will Wasp be involved? I hope she is in the movie but in a War Machine/Falcon kind of way (they're a hero, but not in the Avengers as there would be too many people!).

So that's Ant Man. Then I think 3 movies will come out before the Avengers 3.

The first, hopefully in a Summer 2016 slot, Black Panther. One of the most over-looked characters in Marvel comic books, Black Panther would be perfect for his own solo movie plus involvement in an Avengers movie. The movie has been rumoured before and I hope that it does happen. This will be another origin story. As for the role of the Black Panther I would have loved Idris Elba in the role. But because he plays a character in Thor: The Dark World, he is unable to. The favourite for the part is Chadwick Boseman: I could see that working! As for the villain, no idea. I would chose one that would sufficiently test Black Panther's resolve and allow him to impress Nick Fury before being recruited into the Avengers.

The next movie I would put in either late Summer 2016 or November 2016, is a Doctor Strange movie. Who wouldn't mind seeing that? Yet again, I would have this as another stand alone movie before the character is recruited into the Avengers. Johnny Depp for the role, absolutely! I wouldn't know what villain to cast in the movie though. The 3 movies I've discussed mainly produce more characters to the cinematic universe and add freshness to the story. They may seem slightly irrelevant to the whole cinematic universe, but it would do what Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America did, it will give us a good introduction to the characters.

Also notice how I have not mentioned a third Thor or Captain America film. I think 3 Avengers movie plus 2 stand alone movies are enough for those characters as I would rather see new characters come in. The addition of the 3 characters above means the Avengers increase to a total of 8: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Quicksilver, Scarlett Witch, Ant Man, Black Panther and Doctor Strange. War Machine and Falcon not involved, Hawkeye and Black Widow dead. Also, there has been some talk of Vin Diesel playing Vision. Don't really want that, no offence!

Now for the 4th and final movie that would be put in before the Avengers 3. I would schedule it for a Summer 2017 release, as it's a big movie. I would call it Guardians of the Galaxy: Planet Hulk. This may seem far-fetched and not loyal to the source material I know, but hey? Iron Man 3 butchered The Mandarin and the Avengers: Age of Ultron will not involve Ant Man, who is crucial to Ultron's origin!

The Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is set to introduce us to a much larger cinematic universe. It is also introducing us to a very important character in Thanos, the Avenger's adversary. Can they amalgamate Hulk into this? Yes they could! Hulk could land on a planet where the Guardians of the Galaxy are in that present moment. Hulk, angered and confused, could stumble across Thanos, who offers him the chance of turning back to Bruce Banner for good.

The plot could involve Thanos using the Hulk in a Marvel civil war movie way! He could take on the guardians in the pursuit of the six infinity gems. The gems are crucial as they are needed to power the infinity gauntlet, which is essentially a device which grants omnipotence to it's wielder. It gives him/her control over time, space, power, soul, mind and reality. Thanos would require this in an effort to destroy the Avengers as well as use it to control the mind of the Incredible Hulk.

Then we have the Avengers 3(2018) , or as I would call it, The Avengers: The Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos comes to earth and uses the Infinity Gauntlet to terrorise the earth as well as to control the Hulk and make him kill his former Avengers teammates.

This would be sooooo cool to watch! This would be my ultimate fantasy!

As for the movie's ending, Thanos and the Hulk would be stopped at great cost! The Hulk could be reluctantly killed by the Avengers. But what of Thanos?

As cheesy as this sounds, I would like the people of Earth to stop him. You know just regular people. This would make the Avengers believe that the Earth is in safe hands with it's people and they would agree to formally disband for good as Earth no longer needs Superheroes to defend itself. Plus, stopping Thanos would send out a huge message to the rest of the galaxy, would it not? Come to Earth, you get defeated!

Then, who knows? Marvel would have to use their universe for other purposes if they followed my route! Obviously they won't, but this is the way I would like it to go and also involves/ doesn't involve characters I would like/not like to see on the big screen.

Those are my thoughts on the Marvel Universe for phases 2 and 3. They don't involve X Men or the Fantastic Four as Fox own the rights to those and they would not meet on screen. The same can be said for Spiderman and Sony.

What do you think will happen from now until 2018in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Comment below and let me know.

As always, thanks for reading,
Matt