“Marketing and fourth wall breaking are arguably too meta. An audience paying to rebel against nay-saying corporate figureheads by seeing Deadpool – “the movie the studio didn’t want to make” or some such nonsense – are simultaneously paying a salary. Involving lesser X-Men mutants only furthers the agenda. Never mind that jokes about throwing away cash on prior Reynolds superhero failures are totally okay; we’re all supposed to laugh at ourselves for expecting better.”
Filed under Movie/Blu-ray Reviews
“Integral to the Fantastic Four as characters is acceptance – being okay with differences, making the most out of what you are, even if that is “fantastically” unique. Here being different means being confined to rooms or being forced to hide out in a secluded forest until an inter-dimensional madmen opens a black hole. For what they were, the mid-2000 Fantastic Four films made the title heroes superstars. They were loved and appreciated by society at large for their unique qualities. The reboot reviles their existence, treating them like disabled animals in cages to serve an agenda of authoritative paranoia.”
Filed under Movie/Blu-ray Reviews
“And this is the best kind of popcorn blur in the comic sense, a film engorging on ideas and proving snappy with its naming conventions: Age of Ultron. This is not a future. Ultron’s age is today where our interconnected computer systems are unavoidably vulnerable, our reliance on technology is distressing, and the capability of rights-crushing surveillance via these systems is certain to be tragic. Age of Ultron, as with every should-be-repetitive-by-now-but-its-not Marvel movie, covers the warnings and perceptive observations with doses of humor. The gags fly in equal tandem with the action, but the urgency is not lost. Accessibility instead of preaching.”
Filed under Features
“Maybe there is a sensibility we, the audience, have been trained and lured into this. So out there is Guardians, it tips the logistical scales with talking rodents and his tree compatriot. This is the side of Marvel’s comics they typically hid from mainstream audiences, where names such as the twisting Yondu Udonta and Korath are spoken with ease. Once, this film studio strove to make Iron Man a real entity – or at least as real as something of his ilk could be. They crafted Incredible Hulk into emotional metaphors of confusion, loss, and uncontrolled rage.
Now we have pro wrestler Dave Bautista in rusty make-up battling the green skinned Zoe Saldana. What a world.”
Read my full review of Guardians of the Galaxy at DoBlu
Filed under Other
Matt Paprocki 