Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey
Synopsis: Ghostbusters 2016 starts with Erin Gilbert, Abby Yates, Jillian Holtzmann, and Patty Tolan getting together as Ghostbusters. There is a sudden increase in spectral activity and intensity. As the Ghsotbusters visit each site, they find remnants of some kind of device that appears to be drawing the ghosts more fully into the material world.
Turns out there is a person placing lures out at hotspots along ley lines in the city. All to the purpose of thinning the barrier between the material and spiritual planes. It is up to the Ghostbusters to stop them.
TL;DR Glad the story is not a clone of the original, but the juvenile humor made it fall flat for me. (more…)
Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown
Synopsis:
Orcs travel from their dying world to Azaroth. They are using a mystical power source called the Fell that feeds on living things. They need to gather many humans, demi-humans, etc on the Azaroth side to bring over the rest of their population.
The Human kingdon at Stormwind is opposing the Orcs and receive no support from the other races of Azaroth. The Humans seek the aid of their Guardian (think Gandolf) of Azaroth. The Humans end up capturing a Half-Orc for information on their new enemy.
The Humans wage an attack with their remaining forces to stop the Orcs from opening a gate to their homeworld and prevent the rest of the Orcs from coming through.
TL;DR Meh. All over the place plot. Pure setup for a franchise without good storytelling. Save your money and wait for it to hit Netflix or SyFy.
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Olivia Munn, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Lana Condor
The movie opens with Apocalypse getting set to transfer his consciousness into a new host in ancient Egypt. While he styles himself as a God, not everyone follows him blindly. While he is in the middle of the transition and vulnerable, some guards cause the pyramid to collapse on him and his Horsemen. One of the Horsemen are able to shield Apocalypse’s body until he is wakened in the present day.
We cut to 1983 and are introduced to how mutants are viewed in society and where the survivors of the last 2 movies are. Raven is helping our mutants escape from opressors, introducing us to Angel and Nightcrawler in a forced gladiator pit. Charles has renovated his home into a school for mutants. We have Jean Grey and Jubilee attending as well as various others. Alex has gone to help his brother, Scott, deal with the awakening of his powers. Hank is a teacher at the school. Erik has forged a new identity and is married with a child, lying low. Moira is following rumors of an Apocalypse cult in Egypt.
Moira is present when Apocalypse awakens. He goes on a recruiting drive for his 4 Horsemen, Magneto, Storm, Pyslocke & Angel, and abducts Charles for his powers. He has the intention on causing a global catastrophe to “thin the herd” and rule the survivors. Then the race is on for the new X-Men to rescue Charles and stop Apocalypse and his Horsemen.
TL;DR Ok entry. Not the worst of the entire franchise. But nowhere near the best either. Loved the introduction of the young x-men. Quicksilver stole the show.
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl
Blu-ray
DVD
After a terrible accident in Lagos with civilian casualties (on top of the events in Age of Ultron), Tony Stark and the UN come up with a charter for the Avengers. A charter that would make them answer to the UN and only be deployed where the UN deems necessary. Most of the members sign the form, except Cap, Falcon and Scarlet Witch. When there is a bombing at a UN meeting, the world begins a massive manhunt for the Winter Soldier. We get to see a bit of Winter Soldier’s 90s career with Hydra when he goes after a couple in a car and retrieves something that looks like the Super Soldier formula.
The military going after Bucky are given the orders to shoot to kill. Cap is most definitely against this and attempts to bring him in alive. Firmly putting him against the world governments, Tony Stark, and the other Avengers. Plus Black Panther. Unfortunately, T’Chala’s father was killed in the UN bombing. With this, we get Black Panther also going after Bucky.
We get a nice little chase sequence that ends with Bucky, Cap, Falcon and Black Panther being brought into custody. Zemo makes his way in and activates some Hydra programming left in Bucky. Zemo slips out and Bucky escapes after giving Zemo a debriefing. Cap and Falcon also make it out in pursuit of Bucky.
As a result of this, Iron Man and Cap begin recruiting among their friends for a showdown. Giving us the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduction of Spider-Man.
TL;DR Go see it. This is how you do a superhero movie with a lot of characters in it.
First things first – this movie is presented entirely in first person. The movie starts out with Henry waking up in a Bacta-like tank. He sees a beautiful doctor (Haley Bennett as Estelle) attaching cybernetic limbs. She informs him that she is his wife and that memory loss is a temporary side effect from the life saving procedures he has undergone. The base they are in gets raided by Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), a telekinetic meglomaniac, before his voice module gets installed. During Henry and Estelle’s escape, she gets captured by Akan and we are introduced to Jimmy (Sharlto Copley). The best friend the amnesiac Henry could hope for. Jimmy works with Henry for him to attempt to get a better battery for his systems, his wife back, revenge on Akan.
TL;DR – Fun action romp. Turn your brain off and enjoy the ride
Ghostbusters 2016 starts with Erin Gilbert, Abby Yates, Jillian Holtzmann, and Patty Tolan getting together as Ghostbusters. There is a sudden increase in spectral activity and intensity. As the Ghsotbusters visit each site, they find remnants of some kind of device that appears to be drawing the ghosts more fully into the material world.
