All right, as you guys may remember from my review of the first film, the film was pretty good and had a nice chunk of action, without getting too dark and generic. The first film had a pretty satisfying ending, so what would the sequel do?

Well, the plot is decent as Frank and his partner Marvin are framed because someone leaked an article claiming that they know about “Nightshade”. Frank wants to stay retired, but things get personal when someone makes an attempt on Marvin’s life. With Sarah goading him on the whole time, Frank finally accepts that it is time to return to the field. Unfortunately for them, “Nightshade” is pretty important, so every big organization on the planet is after them. M16, CIA, etc. There are a lot more villains that are out to destroy Frank and his allies this time around.

The soundtrack is pretty solid and you’ll remember the music for a while. The brief Death Metal music was interesting and the main theme that plays whenever they switch countries is pretty cool. The overall atmosphere of the film is still pretty light as it was in the first film.

Red 2 contains a lot of explosions and action throughout the first film, but Frank himself, doesn’t get to take up most of the screentime. This time he has to share a lot of it with other fighters such as Han. Marvin’s still pretty smart and seems to be the most capable agent in the field.

Frank himself is about the same as he was in the first film, but not quite as good. He’s still pretty tough in a fight, but he’s constantly worrying about Sarah and actually pulls a rookie (Or should I say, James Bond) mistake as he falls for someone’s charms and that person drugs him. He looked pretty bad for a while, but during the climax he’s back to the usual. Unfortunately, there are some things that you can’t come back from, and that error is one of them.

Marvin still has a lot of plans up his sleeve and he’s always ready for just about anything. He hasn’t changed much, which is good, but arguably the pressure gets to him towards the end as he makes a crucial phone call. I’d say that he was easily the best character once again, but Han gives him some pretty good competition for that title. Han was a solid addition to the cast and he’s pretty skilled. I dare say that he could possibly defeat Frank, but it would be close. He’ll definitely remind you of Storm Shadow while he’s fighting and his scenes are definitely cool. (Him popping out of nowhere with the machine gun is definitely one of the best scenes in the film)

Sarah is much braver than in the first film and she’s much more enthusiastic than Frank is about the situation. She enjoys being an agent now, but she suffers from her competition against Katya. She ends up using pretty unheroic methods to get the mission done and I don’t believe that “The End justifies the means” logic. She is still a better character than Katya, but I preferred her depiction in the first film.

Katya is the agent from Russia. She’s pretty high ranked and can get bailed out of jails within an hour. Her fighting skills don’t seem to be as good as the main cast’s, but she doesn’t get to fight that often. She was a pretty bad character and I can’t take her seriously as a “villain”

Victoria gets a small role in this film. M16 needs her to prove her loyalty by destroying/capturing Frank and his cohorts. The film really tries to show us how great a shot she is, but…she never hits the opponents. In one scene, a really loud death metal song plays as she dramatically takes out her gun. She takes out the opponents….after about a dozen+ shots. She was all right in this film, but not one of the better agents. She’s still better than Ivan, who gets a really small cameo/guest star role. It’s a pretty bad role and won’t help me gain respect for the character.

The final villain of the film is pretty intense and he manages to take on a battalion of soldiers while behind bars and not containing any guns or bullets. It’s pretty intense, but makes you feel bad for the army guys. Sleeping on the job doesn’t pay. The explosion at the end looks pretty cool and was a nice way to end the action scenes.

So, Red 2 is a pretty solid addition to the franchise. I wouldn’t say that it was as good as the first, but it was a good film. It suffered from more romance than the original and less hand to hand fight scenes, but the soundtrack kept it afloat. The car chases were also pretty intense and I think that a sequel would be fun. The ending in this one makes a sequel more likely than the previous film’s.

Overall 6/10

Priest is a Vampire action film that came out back in 2011. I’m not usually a Vampire fan, but I’ve always liked one series on the subject. (Records of a Fallen Vampire) Does this movie change my mind about Vampire films? Well, they stick away from the biting cliche (For the most part) but the Vampire look like zombies for the most part.

The film starts out by telling us that Vampires came and started slaughtering the humans. So they called in the Priests. (In an animated scene that may make you wince if you don’t have a stomach for violence. Of course it is animated, so maybe you’ll let it slide) The Priests have some mild superhuman abilities (Like Captain America) which makes them strong enough to fight the Vampires. Throughout the film, the Priest doesn’t seem that superhuman, but superhuman enough to win most of his battles. The world has lived in peace for ages and they believe the Vampire threat to be over. One day, a girl is kidnapped by Vampires, so her friend enlists the help of The Priest to save her. The Priest goes to help, but now the other Priests are ordered to take him down.

Priest is a pretty good main character and he does what he can to help save the world. He’s made a lot of sacrifices, but he believes that he’s done them for a good cause and he always does what he thinks is right. The Church doesn’t see eye to eye with the Priest, so he is forced to renounce his vows and become a fugitive. “To go against the Church, is to go against God!” is the Church’s catchphrase, but the Priest seems to know that the line is completely false and he continues to have faith. The only moment that seemed a bit sketchy was when he interrogated a Vampire. I still have never believed that good guys have to resort to such crude methods. (Take Superman. He interrogates all right, but in a more heroic way) The Priest didn’t seem that strong, but he still did some decent damage to the Vampires.

The Priestess arrives later on in the film, but with her quick close combat skills and athletics, she makes quick work out of a lot of zomb-Vampires. She didn’t look so good in her initial appearance, but she made up for it during her later fights. The Vampires never knew what hit them!

Hicks is the friend of Lucy (The girl who was kidnapped) and he comes along for the ride. The problem is that he’s a mere mortal wielding a gun. He doesn’t stand a chance against the Vampires and is quickly dispatched when the battles start. Adding him was to make us have a human to root for I suppose. He could have been worse, but I can’t say that he was a great character.

We can’t forget about Black Hat! He’s the main villain of the film and his abilities far surpass that of the main cast. He’s faster and stronger than the Priest and he sees everyone in slow motion. Because of that, he completely dominates in every fight that he’s in. I always get worried when a character is so much stronger than the others because it means that the ending will have to have some major plot hax. (Plot Hax = A scene that wouldn’t really happen, but needs to happen so that the heroes can win. Or the opposite) Black Hat made for a pretty good villain. His only negative scene would probably be losing control at the end. I thought he had more will power than that, but overall that didn’t stop him from being a compelling villain.

The Council at the Church were pretty uninteresting characters. They refuse to believe in the Vampires and are quick to judge others. In the future, the Church seems to have been corrupted. Or at least, the Church definitely seemed a little off. The title makes it obvious that the film will have some religious elements, and it definitely does. The main character claims to draw strength from God and all of the good guys supposedly believe in him. Of course, the main characters murder many vampires, breaking one of the 10 Commandments every other second. Was it necessary? It’s one of those moral questions that you will need to ask yourself. At least the Priest never seemed to break any of the others and seemed to be a pretty honorable guy.

Overall, it’s a decently good film. You should be warned that the violence is very excessive and you probably wouldn’t want to take your kids to watch this film. The action can get as intense as Bleach, but luckily there are only a few cringe worthy scenes. (Animal violence) The fight scenes are decent and while there are missed opportunities in the film, it did a decent job of capturing the future. (Much better than the Hunger Games, but it’s no Final Fantasy) (Actually, now that I’ve brought it up. The film has a lot of resemblances to the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie. Same type of motorcycles, The City is extremely similar, hmmmm…) Anyway, if you like Vampire movies, then this is a good one to check out. If you’re looking for a futuristic action blockbuster, then head on over to Tron Legacy.

Overall 6/10

With the sequel nearly upon us, what better timing to watch Red than now right? Red plays out a bit like a James Bourne film and Frank Moses is constantly on the run. He knows how to handle himself so he’s usually not the one who’s in immediate danger. He has some partners who can be pretty tough as well.

Frank Moses has retired and he’s currently living the good life at home. He still does his daily workout but at least now there’s no pressure. He can do things at his own pace, but one day he is attacked by a hit squad. He dispatches them pretty easily, but now he needs to find out who is after him. Also he had been talking to Sarah Ross over the phone for a while and she was now a target as well. The two of them need to evade the hitmen long enough to find out what is going on.

Frank is a decent main character and for the most part he takes down just about everyone with ease. He’s very experienced at this sort of thing and we learn that he had a very legendary past. He’s made a lot of contacts over the years and they help him out. Some help in small ways and others play a very active role in helping him live through this.

Sarah is one of the other main characters of the film. While she doesn’t have any fighting experience to speak of, she takes it all pretty calmly towards the end. She did have one big fall that almost wrecked everyone’s chances, but I guess she had to make a mistake at some point. Cooper is the main antagonist of the film, but he’s technically not a bad guy. He’s just following orders (Which are pretty sketchy, then again..this is the government!) and he’s a pretty good fighter. He’s the only guy who actually gives Frank a decent fight. Cooper was one of the better characters in the film.

Joe Matheson is another ally, but I didn’t really like him. He never helped that much and his scenes just weren’t as good as the other guys. I think he could have been dropped from the film and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Victoria and Ivan were also not that great. Ivan seemed to be thrown in at the last second and all of Victoria’s character development went down the drain during her final scenes.

Marvin Boggs was a pretty strong character and he’s the only one who seemed to be even more experienced than Frank. He was the only one to notice several things that saved their lives. He’s also a pretty good shot and he’s definitely not someone that you want to underestimate. His bear was also pretty intense.

Overall, Red was better than I had expected. The action was pretty good and the soundtrack was also solid. One negative was that the romance lasted a little longer than necessary. I think that they could have cut out all of those subplots and the film would have been even more epic. Still, Red is a pretty solid action film and I’d recommend it to the average moviegoer.

Overall 6/10

After the record breaking film that was The Avengers, there was definitely a lot of pressure on Iron Man 3. It would be the first film in the next wave of Marvel films that would come out before Avengers 2. Not to mention that the 2nd Iron Man film’s reception hadn’t been quite as good as the 1st.

The plot for the Iron Man 3 film was loosely based off of the Extremis storyline from the comics. The movie is drastically different from the comics with the only similarities being the Extremis serum and some of the character names. Dr. Aldrich Killian gets a decently large role in this film and we can’t forget about the Mandarin. One thing about the plot is that it does drag on for a while. The intro featured Tony Stark in the past, but was pretty boring and a whole third of the film had almost no point (Snow scenes where he meets a kid) If the film had cut out a good 30-40 minutes, it probably would have helped the pacing a lot. The interaction between the characters is definitely the weakest in the trilogy and you’re going to find yourself waiting for an action scene to pop up. Not to mention that there isn’t really a character that you can find yourself rooting for. Tony Stark is fun to watch during certain scenes, but others make you dislike him.

Pepper Potts and Rhodey get to appear in the film with very different roles. Rhodey looks pretty awful the whole time and his scenes definitely keep up the whole “War Machine always loses” trend. The way he lost made him look like a complete amateur and while they attempt to cover it up by giving him great aim with a gun, it just wasn’t enough. Pepper Potts is mostly just there for most of the film, but her role gets better during the climax. Definitely the best that she’s looked in the trilogy. Happy Hogan gets a bit of a role, but he’s pretty outmatched the entire time and he was only okay. He definitely could have handled things a bit better, but he was a lot better than in the first two films.

Tony Stark is portrayed as an inexperienced hero in this film. He’s technically a genius, but he doesn’t show it that much as he underestimates his opponents. He threatens the Mandarin on live TV and even tells the guy where he lives. It was Definitely a good thing to do and I’m glad that Stark made the right move, but the rest of his plan was pretty awful. Not only did he fail to evacuate his home, but he took the time to test out a suit that didn’t have any combat capabilities at the time. His home also didn’t have any security around it, so it was a walk in the park for enemies to come in and wreck the place.

The plot hits its low point when Iron Man goes to a snowy area and meets up with a kid. You don’t need to remember his name because the actual character doesn’t have much of a purpose in the film. Tony Stark keeps having stress attacks and it makes for a very bad subplot. Tony is not the kind of character who would let the near death experience (In the end of the Avengers movie) traumatize him like that. I really don’t think it would happen and he later gets over it for pretty much no reason. Stark also upgrades his tech so that it will respond to him whenever he needs it. Now he doesn’t have to even carry the armor with him as long as he can move to activate them from afar. It’s a decent improvement, but the film doesn’t exploit it this fact that much. He uses it plenty of times, but we never get to see it used that well for combat situations.

Alright, let’s finally start talking about some of the film’s positives! The villains in this film are a huge step up from the first two. The Iron Monger and Whiplash weren’t much of a threat and could barely hold their own. The Extremis meta humans provided Iron Man with a much better fight and they could do some fatal damage. The thing is, they were possibly too powerful. Iron Man couldn’t keep up with them at all and spent most of the film getting knocked around. If he had kept his traditional armor (From the first two films and Avengers) I think that the battle would have gone very differently. As it was, his new armors seemed to be far weaker and are not durable at all. One good shot would end just about any of his armors. Iron Man has to defeat most of them with good ole fashioned ingenuity, but most of his wins are a bit far fetched in the film. Either way, it’s better to have a villain that’s too powerful than one that’s extremely weak. The extremis villains made for epic fights and I wouldn’t mind seeing some of them in Avengers 2.

I haven’t mentioned the Mandarin much, but there isn’t much to say about him. At first he’s one of the most generic villains of all time and he’s basically a carbon copy of Bane. After his “epic” plot twist, you’ll either see him in a new light or just facepalm at the movie. I can’t say that I minded the twist, but if they had done it to a character that I actually had liked, I would have doomed the movie at that very moment. Killian gets the biggest role as far as villains go and he was alright. He was definitely a powerful opponent, but I can’t say much for his personality.

The climax is the best part of the film and it’s what saved Iron Man 3 from getting a mediocre score. Stark and his army of Iron Men team up to take on the Extremis super humans. The armors put up a brave fight and we get to see a lot of cameos that will make fans smile. Unfortunately they’re all pretty weak defense wise and one good attack will shatter them. They make up for this in sheer numbers and Iron Man has to go through many of them in his big battle against Killian. The climax is definitely pretty fun and it beats the climaxes of most of Marvel’s other big films. There are countless explosions and there are plenty of fights happening at once. Make sure that you keep your eyes peeled so that you see everything that’s happening.

Unfortunately the film ends on a really negative note. Stark makes a really bad move involving the “Clean Slate” protocol and also gets rid of an ally’s superpowers that would have come in handy for the future. The film also has a really underwhelming after credits scene that I didn’t find funny or epic. I would still recommend this film, but it is one that you can wait until DVD to watch. It’s a good addition to the marvel franchise, but nothing awe inspiring.

Overall 6/10