This Week in Film September 24th- 30th 2018

Well…. I may have underestimated just how well my new series would go down. In just one-week last week’s news became my blogs third most viewed post ever! Truly bonkers. SO, to celebrate I’ve decided to do this every Sunday. As always thank you all for the support, every single person reading this is a legend. So, this week has been another ferocious week in terms of trailers which saved my bacon because there isn’t much I had t say on this week’s big release Night School didn’t drag me to the cinema. Venom Review this Thursday hopefully! Without further ado let’s talk about this week.

X-Men: Wingless Phoenix.

Where did it all go wrong for this series. X-Men: First Class was stunning, vibrant and brought us new versions of iconic characters that matched the originals. X-Men: Days of Future Past upped the stakes and created a time travel film which wasn’t a complete mess and once again the new guys shown like stars. Wait I do know where it all went wrong X-Men: Apocalypse is what went wrong. Everyone just seemed to stop caring. The once New generations were now series veterans who were being given pretty much the same material to work with but if it was written by a Soap Opera writer. The new cast were insanely bland with not one of them sticking out. The film was the first major miss for the series since The Last Stand. So how do you make up for the misfire. Well obviously, you remake the most iconic comic in the series but make it the exact same as the failed attempt from 12 years ago. What? Sophie Turner is not a strong enough actress to carry this film, it’s the harsh truth people. Jennifer Lawrence shouldn’t be anywhere near this considering how much she hates the part. McAvoy and Fassbender looked so tired of being spoon fed the same dialogue for years now. Magneto is evil again because of course he is. This all just feels like a rethread of all the meh parts of the series. This film is repeating the exact same mistakes as Apocalypse. Simon Kinberg is being hung to dry by being given this film as his first directorial attempt. The Fox X-Men series, the series that arguably made superhero films cool is sadly going to end on a whimper. But hey at least we’ll have a cool Quicksilver scene. UPDATE TO THIS STORY DOWN BELOW.

Bumblebee stays on the Fastlane.

They did it, they finally did it. A good Transformer movie. Dare I say even great? This new Bumblebee trailer has me more excited for a Transformer movie than any of the Michael Bay entries (all 700 of them). This is the Transformers we know and love. It may sound stupid to say but they transform convincingly! Not only are the effects of them transforming spectacular but when they’re in robot form they look like the vehicles they are.  These are the Transformers I grew up with. Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Blitzwing, Dropkick, Shatter and Shockwave are all hear. My inner child cheered for joy when I see Optimus Prime in all his glory. Not only are the effects superb but the coming of age story makes this feel like ET but with robots. Haylee Steinfeld stars as Charlie Watson who in only a two-minute trailer seems more compelling than Shia LaBeof or Mark Walberg ever were in the series. John Cena the most likable man in the world in the main antagonist in the film in a genius casting choice considering how much wrestling fans, myself included, have been dying for him to be a villain for years. Travis Knight is using his first opportunity to direct live action, he directed Kubo and the Two Strings, perfectly as he appears to have created a Transformers film that isn’t punch yourself in the face stupid. Who would have thought one of my most anticipated films of the year would be a Transformers spinoff?

Harley Quinn’s Birds of Prey takes flight.

Just when you think DC don’t know what it’s doing it comes back fighting. Following last week’s magnificent Joker reveal it has been revealed that Harley Quinn is getting her movie. Released on February 7^th, 2020 Birds of Prey is going to star Margot Robbie once again as Harley Quinn. Comic book fans will know that the Birds of Prey series is an all-female ensemble that fights crime. Normally fronted by Black Canary and Batgirl it will be interesting to see how Harley Quinn fares as the leader. Now it’s easy to be pessimistic about this news considering the shambles that was Suicide Squad, but I think this might be decent. The best news that came from all of this is the casting of Huntress and Black Canary. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is confirmed to be playing Huntress which is tremendous news for DC. Winstead is one of the best actresses in Hollywood, she gave one of my favourite performances of recent years in 10 Cloverfield Lane. Jurnee Smollet-Bell is confirmed to play Black Canary. The only thing I’ve seen Smollet-Bell in is Friday Night Lights where she played Jess in the last 2 seasons, which is one of my favourite tv series of all time.  Credit where credit is due, following Justice League (Don’t get me started on that film) they are knocking it out of the park with their casting. Fingers crossed they start churning out more movies like Wonder Woman sooner rather than later.

Creed II enters final training phase.

Rocky IV is my favourite Rocky film of all time. Not even in an ironic way, that film holds such a special place to me. I love everything about it. I love James Browne, Ivan Drago, THAT training montage, the robot and THAT speech. This film is the film equivalent of an 80s-time capsule. Little did I expect the sequel to Rocky IV to be Creed II. Creed II dropped it’s second trailer this week and man am I board. Creed II is going to be a boxing revenge flick. Michael B Jordan looks immense once again as Adonis, the young actor is having the best year of his career thanks to Black Panther and this is another opportunity for him to show the world how good he is once again. I’m looking forward to seeing how the film manages to balance the emotional fighting and the physical fighting as well as the first film. Director Steven Caple Jr. is filling in for Ryan Coogler so let’s wait and see how the reasonably unknown director does. It’s always good to see Stallone on screen, the man was robbed of an Oscar for the first Creed. Dolph Lundgren is still the evil bastard that I remember but his son played by Florian Munteanu looks like a machine. Here’s hoping that the ex-boxers acting is as good as his look. Drago Jr V Creed Jr is going to be a knockout but come on guys lets be honest we want some more Rocky V Ivan. DO IT FOR APOLLO.

Fantastic Beats and Where to Trailer.

I’ve watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 4 times since it was released. Despite of this I still don’t have the faintest memory of what happened in that fil. It just didn’t click with me in the same way Harry Potter did. The visuals in the film were tremendous but it was bogged down by having to be an origin story and super dull characters. Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander was one of the most boring protagonists I ever seen in a blockbuster. It’s safe to say that The Crimes of Grindelwald wasn’t exactly on my radar. Surprisingly this new trailer was interesting mainly thanks to two people. Jude Law as Dumbledore has injected life into this franchise, having an actor of such high calibre play such an iconic character is a genius move. If the film rakes in the hundreds of millions, it’s expected to make then I expect a Dumbledore spinoff very soon. Even though he’s a garbage person there is no denying that Depp as the titled antagonist might just work. He seems much less goofy than usual (there’s not a hat in sight) and it’s possible that he might give a stellar performance like his early work. This franchise needs compelling characters because honestly, I couldn’t tell you the name of any other human in the first film that isn’t Newt. For the record anyone getting up in arms over the casting of Claudia Kim as Nagini needs to seriously sort out their priorities. Fantastic Beats 2 may very well be the most pleasant surprise of the year for me. Now that is magic.

20^th Century Fox insist they will still be a thing this time next year.

20^th Century Fox changed some of their releases for the millionth time 

so here is a quick summary for each.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix – This film was meant to be out in 2 months, then pushed back to Valentines day and now pushed back to June 7^th.  Clearly the studio knows this is the next Logan.

Gambit – Come on guys let’s just admit defeat, this movie will never see the light of day

Alita: Battle Angel – If you can’t compete with Bumblebee and Aquaman the best thing to do is run away to a February Release. Oh, by the way this film cost $200 million to make but let’s ignore that.

New pg-13 Deadpool 2: - Wholesome Christmas fun for all the family.

And Finally…..

Tom Hanks please be my Neighbour.