The summer wouldn't be summer without an X-Men movie, and for 2013, we have The Wolverine. After the disappointing and rather languid X-Men Origins: Wolverine, James Mangold has been charged with bringing fresh impetus to a character that has some of the richest, most fascinating and indeed some of the most excitingly open (given the very handy fact that he is immortal) … [Read more...]
Review: Man of Steel (2013)
Man of Steel is the bold, brash, blue-ish grey reboot of the Superman mythos by director Zack Snyder. Taking the more Christopher Nolan route than the recent Marvel route, he presents to his audience a dark and brooding take on the last son of Krypton that follows Kal-El's growth from wonderkid to Super-Man and has him lead the charge into the new DC Cinematic Universe. … [Read more...]
Iron Man 3 (2013) review by That Film Guy
When the original Iron Man was released in 2008, it was the first Marvel film to have been produced and created by the comic book leviathan independently from other studios. It must seem unthinkable to fans now that it could have been anything but a success, but at the time it represented a big financial outlay on, if we're honest, one of the lesser comic book characters, with … [Read more...]
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) review by That Film Guy
The sequel to the moderate successful, but critically panned Fantastic Four was released in 2007 and reunited the original cast and director Tim Story. Drawing influence from a number of classic stories from the original comic book run, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer takes the action from New York to London to outer space, taking $289m from a budget of $130m along … [Read more...]
Fantastic Four (2005) review by That Film Guy
Based on one of Marvel Comics longest running title, Fantastic Four was released in 2005 and was the third major studio comic book release of the year following Batman Begins and Elektra. Directed by Tim Story it took over $330m at the box office from a budget of $100m making it a mild commercial success. … [Read more...]
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) review by That Film Dude
Pretty much everyone of a certain age remembers watching Batman: The Animated Series as a kid, and rather a lot of them continued watching it into adulthood; after all, why shouldn't they? With a tone that was a great blend of the darkness of Batman with the more silly, comic book-y moments, (case in point: the episode Heart of Ice) a great voice cast and a fantastic main … [Read more...]
Superman Returns (2006) review by That Film Dude
19 years after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace crashed and burned, taking the Superman franchise with it, a fifth film was finally released, acting as a sequel to Superman II while completely ignoring the events of the third and fourth installments. On its release, Superman Returns divided the fanbase and continues to do so to this day. The amount of criticism it gets is … [Read more...]
Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
[pullquote cite="" type="left, right"][amazon text=Amazon&template=carousel&chan=that film guy&asin=B008JARIIA][/pullquote] Hype for new films is a wonderful thing, it allows us to look forward to certain releases and allows us to create marquee events around the release of big-name films. Too much hype can be damaging however. 2012 saw the release of each of these … [Read more...]
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) review by That Film Guy
Coming only five years after the release of Spider-Man 3 is a reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, moving focus away from the Sam Raimi trilogy and more toward the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series. There has been a move closer toward the comic books with elements like Peter Parker no longer fires webbing from his wrist, but rather has to create webbing which he installs in a … [Read more...]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) review by That Film Guy
Following the success of the X-Men trilogy, lead actor Hugh Jackman who had gone from a veritable nobody to an A-List star was given his own spin-off film. X-Men Origins: Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood of Tsotsi fame, was a moderate success taking $373m from a budget of $150m. Its success was probably harmed by a pirate copy of the film being distributed on the internet … [Read more...]