Who Ranges The Power Rangers? - Power Rangers (2017)
It's been a long time since I've watched anything Power Rangers (but perhaps not as long as some people.) As a child, I watched the first incarnation of the show because it was full of superheroes, villains and mechs (I didn't fully know what mechs were at the time.) The show played with all my creative senses in ways I didn't understand at the time: my desire to have more of this world lead me to write about it, I suppose a childish version of fan-fiction. (I did the same for the X-Men cartoon and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.) These stories all taught me how to tell stories; what was my narrative aesthetic and what I liked (or hated) about characters and action.
Bullet Buffet - Free Fire (2016)
Director Ben Wheatley brought his latest film Free Fire to the ADIFF last week (the Audi Dublin International Film Festival, if you're not into your abbreviations.) The film has already been seen at a bunch of other festivals, but it seemed appropriate for Wheatley to bring this film back to this side of the atlantic. With him, Wheatley brought the Irish actors who feature in the film, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor and Patrick Bergin.
It's actually become something of a pilgrimage for Wheatley of recent years: he brought High Rise to last year's festival (yep, went to that as well) and Sightseers made an appearance back in 2012, a much smaller affair in the great scheme of things. Wheatley has moved from humble beginnings, and based on the Q&A after this screening, it seems that people liked it.
Holy Lego Bricks, Batman - The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Everyone has their own favourite take on the Batman character (and they will talk a lot about why their favourite is the 'right' one, ignoring every other Batman presented before them.) So it's quite rewarding to watch a film that brings the best of every Batman together, clicking the pieces into one functional and enjoyable whole.
Just like Lego really.
Well...that was an easy segue.
Up Up Down Down - As Above, So Below (2014)
In some alternate universe, I still write regular movie and video-game reviews, running my own entertainment website. In that same universe, I am now A FUCKING MEDIA MOGUL and next in line to be president of an undefined country.
In this universe, however, I'm a normal guy who's fallen out of the habit of being creative, shut down his old website and doesn't even have that many movies under the Reviews tab of this blog.
Civil War & Peace - Captain America: Civil War (2016)
It takes a special type of film to pit multiple superheroes against each other, to put good guys up against other good guys and see what happens.
Captain America: Civil War isn't even the only such film out this quarter. (Okay, so depending on where and when your quarter starts and finishes, maybe it's not the same quarter, but this film came out around six weeks after Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice.)
From The Cave To The Heavens - Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
Yeah, I saw Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. At this stage, a lot of people have seen it.
And a lot of people didn't like it.
No, I'm holding my punches there: a lot of people hated it, and have been spewing such horrible, affected vitriol in the general directions of this film that its making me question their fucking sanity. Because it's a film about fictional characters, and if you care that much about these characters and how they have been 'ruined' by this movie, then you don't really understand much about fiction or these characters.
Number Of The Beast - 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Decadence On The 30th Floor - High Rise (2015)
Based on the book of the same name by JG Ballard, High-Rise is a project long in the making, finally brought to our screens by Ben Wheatley. This is easily the biggest project of Wheatley's career so far: the director behind Kill List, Sightseers and A Field In England, Wheatley has finally gotten his teeth into a much larger project (cast, budget, content, you name it.) He brought High-Rise to the ADIFF (Audi Dublin International Film Festival, for the uninitiated) and appeared for a Q&A after the screening.
Farewell, X-Men
It's been a while since I've read comics properly. Real-life got in the way (real-life leaning towards a brain tumour and multiple surgeries and chemotherapy and radiotherapy.) I just didn't have the time for fantasy and drama and fiction any longer.
That broke my heart. The X-Men were and are a powerful metaphor for life for many reasons.
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