Special: Now You See Me 2/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows/X-Men: Apocalypse Mini-Reviews

Now You See Me 2:

Synopsis: THE FOUR HORSEMEN (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan) return for a second mind-bending adventure, elevating the limits of stage illusion to new heights and taking them around the globe. One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public's adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, the illusionists resurface for a comeback performance in hopes of exposing the unethical practices of a tech magnate. The man behind their vanishing act is none other than WALTER MABRY (Daniel Radcliffe), a tech prodigy who threatens the Horsemen into pulling off their most impossible heist yet. Their only hope is to perform one last unprecedented stunt to clear their names and reveal the mastermind behind it all.

My thoughts: The first one blew me away when I first seen it since I really enjoy heist/tactical planning films so my expectations were high for the sequel and they were met. The magic choreography was stronger, especially Mark Ruffalo's fight scene though the end payoff wasn't nearly as entertaining as it's predecessor it's overall equally entertaining.

Final verdict: 5 card tricks out of 5.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows:

Synopsis: Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael return to theaters this summer to battle bigger, badder villains, alongside April O'Neil (Megan Fox), Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett), and a newcomer: the hockey-masked vigilante Casey Jones (Stephen Amell). After supervillain Shredder (Brian Tee) escapes custody, he joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) and two dimwitted henchmen, Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (WWE Superstar Stephen "Sheamus" Farrelly), to unleash a diabolical plan to take over the world. As the Turtles prepare to take on Shredder and his new crew, they find themselves facing an even greater evil with similar intentions: the notorious Krang.

My thoughts: Unlike the first entry, Out Of The Shadows isn't as memorable as it's predecessor. I will say they significantly toned down the Bay-style antics, however the humour isn't as prominent which makes it lose some luster as well even if it handles the out of the world elements in a more earthly way than you'd expect. But it's still the Turtles and it's still a solid popcorn flick.

Final verdict: 4 ooze containers out of 5.

X-Men: Apocalypse:

Synopsis: Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel's X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.

My thoughts: Definitely one of the weakest X-Men movies, although that's more to do with the fact they have been continually excellent than Apocalypse being bad. It was fun but it was a little more jumbled making it less coherent than the original 2 in the trilogy. The acting was stellar as always but it seemed they took one too many liberties with the script and it affected the pacing.

Final verdict: 4 ancient Egyptian mutants out of 5.

Special: The Jungle Book/Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice/Ratchet & Clank Mini-Reviews

The Jungle Book:

Synopsis: In this re-imagining of the classic collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, director Jon Favreau uses visually stunning CGI to create the community of animals surrounding Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a human boy adopted by a pack of wolves. The appearance of a villainous tiger named Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) forces Mowgli's guardian, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), to shepherd the child to safety in the "man village." Along the way, the boy meets an affable, lazy bear named Baloo (Bill Murray), as well as a snake with hypnotic powers (Scarlett Johansson) and an orangutan (Christopher Walken) who wants to harness the power of fire. Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito, and Garry Shandling also lend their voices to this adventure tale.

My thoughts? It'll be hard to beat Maleficent when it comes to these remakes but TJB is a big improvement over Cinderella. The CGI was beautiful and rather than recycle the same story we all know, they changed it enough to give it a whole new feel while keeping the originals greatness in tact.

Final verdict: 4 talking jungle animals out of 5.

Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice:

Synopsis: Batman and Superman clash over differing philosophies about what kind of heroism is needed to protect the world, while the public they're defending is becoming increasingly mindful of the damage that superheroes and masked vigilantes cause. However, the duo are soon forced to confront an even greater threat created by nefarious billionaire Lex Luthor.

My thoughts? I have now officially watched this film twice and I can say it still holds up. Is it a perfect movie? No, most films aren't, especially comic book films (Iron Man, The
Winter Soldier and TDK Trilogy being the exceptions). The shots are framed beautifully. Wonder Woman is a breath of fresh air in a male dominated industry (even Black Widow was reduced to love interest in Avengers 2). The CGI is great, although a bit overwhelming at times. Batfleck was great, Eisenberg's Luthor was eccentric, but at least if they aren't going to do him right they can change it up a bit so that was nice.

Final verdict: 5 superhero throw-downs out of 5.

Ratchet & Clank:

Synopsis: Ratchet and Clank tells the story of two unlikely heroes as they struggle to stop a vile alien named Chairman Drek from destroying every planet in the Solana Galaxy. When the two stumble upon a dangerous weapon capable of destroying entire planets, they must join forces with a team of colorful heroes called The Galactic Rangers in order to save the galaxy. Along the way they'll learn about heroism, friendship, and the importance of discovering one's own identity.

My thoughts? I have no background on Ratchet & Clank going in, the good news is this movie explains everything for me, It shows how they get together and what their motives are. The animation is reminiscent of the video games, unfortunately other than that it doesn't do a whole lot really well. It is what it is, a basic video game adaptation that'll make a few bucks on namesake alone so they don't put too much effort into it, Here's hoping the upcoming Assassins Creed and Warcraft can give video game films the leap forward we've all been expecting for years. Just have to wait for a "Spider-Man" to come through and breakthrough.

Final verdict: 3 devoured planets out of 5.

Special: DC Comics Films Dream Casting Part 2 - Villains

In the last instalment I touched on potential villains for the Suicide Squad movie and my pick was Black Mask. We also know Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is the villain in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, so I thought it would be fun to run down potential villains for the other announced films, starting with 2017's Wonder Woman...

Wonder Woman (2017):

Right off the bat I want to say Dr. Psycho would be the best choice to be Wonder Woman's first nemesis, he's a deadly telepath which would be the perfect balance to Wonder Woman and her lasso of truth. However I don't believe they go this way. Really depending on what they do with the script comes down to the villain. I think if we are getting an origin story similar to her New 52 origin you can go with either First Born or, more likely, Ares saving First Born for a latter movie perhaps starring the Injustice League. If we're not getting an origin and Wonder Woman is already loose in the world, which would make sense since I doubt in Dawn of Justice Bats and Supes go to Amazonia, the perfect villain would be Cheetah. As long as you're doing your first solo super hero film with a female lead, you might as well give her a female arch nemesis at the same time, couple this with WB scouring for female directors to lead the film, this has an opportunity to be the best girl power movement since the Spice Girls broke up.

Cast: Emily Blunt as Cheetah

Justice League (2017):

If you ask anyone who the first villain for the Justice League to face, and presumably come together to face is, you'd get a nearly unanimous Darkseid vote, that being said I don't think Darkseid is the best place to start, similar to what Marvel is doing with Thanos, I think it's best to build up Darkseid's destruction by using Brainiac in the first JL film. Not only is Brainiac an excellent villain, but he's from the cosmic side of the DCU so he can make reference that he needed to escape Planet X to avoid Darkseid and perhaps do a further buildup in Green Lantern (more on that later). I also support Brian Cranston as Brainiac, everyone wanted him to be Lex but I agree they needed to go younger with a younger Superman, however we can have Cranston be Brainiac's deep and intimidating voice in alien make-up/costume just fine.

Cast: Brian Cranston as Brainiac

The Flash (2018):

I think with The Flash, a lot depends on what works with the TV series, I think if they introduce The Rogues or Reverse-Flash/Zoom and they are popular that the film will use them. Another option is to avoid whoever the series uses, for example it may be possible that DC is forbidding The Rogues from forming until after the film was released so although people know the characters they're most likely flock to see them all together in a group taking on Barry... And yes it will be Barry, sorry West fans. I expect this to tie-in with Suicide Squad as one of the rogues will be cast in that film for sure. Not sure about the rest of the cast since I don't know many younger actors which DC is sure to fill the team with since they're going up against a young Ezra Miller as The Flash

Cast: ???? as Mirror Master, ???? as Captain Boomerang, ???? as Weather Wizard, Logan Lerman as Captain Cold.

Aquaman (2018):

Without knowing what happens in Justice League it's hard to know whether Arthur will start off fighting the Justice League or fighting with them to know if the "villain" from Aquaman will be a leaguer or an actual villain. Assuming that they listen to my dream casting Aquaman will be a leaguer from the start and in this solo film he'll return to the ocean to find out his father died and his mother is being held prisoner by Ocean Master, Arthur's brother. With help from the future Black Manta, Aquaman defeats his brother and takes the crown that is rightfully his, but not without Black Manta losing someone he cares for which sets in place Black Manta's future spot in the Injustice League.

Shazam (2019):

We already know The Rock is Black Adam... So let's just move on...

Justice League 2 (2019):

I've talked about the Injustice League, well here's where it comes to fruition headlined by Jared Leto's Joker (rumoured) and Eisenberg's Luthor while also featuring Black Manta (Aquaman), the Suicide Squad Rogue, Lerman as Captain Cold in my perfect world (The Flash), First Born (Wonder Woman), Black Adam (assuming Shazam is included), Deathstroke (Cyborg) and a human Green Lantern enemy, possibly Vandal Savage and he could conceivably start the team,

Cast: Viggo Mortensen as Vandal Savage, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jared Leto as The Joker, The Rock as Black Adam, Logan Lerman as Captain Cold, Sean Bean as Deathstroke, Karl Urban as First Born and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Black Manta.

Cyborg (2020):

Cyborg doesn't have any real archnemesis outside of the Teen/New Titans world, so they could skip comic book lore altogether here, but I hope they don't, as you might have guessed after reading my Justice League 2 casting I'm hoping Deathstroke. It'd be simple enough to do, after being thwarted (presumably) in JL2 Deathstroke, usually a mercenary for hire, can come after Cyborg for ruining his business, or maybe you have someone bigger (Trigon?) pulling the strings only to be discovered in the last scene where Raven shows up and informs Cyborg that her father was behind it, and it's time to get the Titans back together (yeaaaah!)

Cast: Sean Bean as Deathstroke

Green Lantern (2020):

Now this is where I'm torn, if you're doing a Lantern movie it needs to be Sinestro as the villain right? But if we want Darkseid in JL3 we'll want to allude to him in this film. Perhaps Mongul comes looking for a planet for Darkseid to conquer settling on Korugar (Sinestro's homeworld). Sinestro and Hal are forced to team up (Green Lanterns must protect worlds, Sinestro wants to protect his) after Mongul is defeated, Darkseid decides to take revenge by destroying Hal's homeworld Earth as he heads here Hal asks for Sinestro's help and Sinestro declines leading to a sequel along the lines of the Sinestro Corps War and into JL3 where Darkseid finally hits earth. Tough to cast the two villains here since they'll mostly be CGI (especially Darkseid), but I'll try anyway.

Cast: Ron Pearlman as Mongul, Javier Bardem as Darkseid.