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

Superman has gotten quite a few films over the years. I have enjoyed all of them (Excluding Superman Returns) but none of them had the explosive fight scenes that today’s films contain. This film was a good opportunity to show that Superman can have a dynamic action sequence. Plus after the big disappointment that was Superman Returns, we needed a real Superman film!

Before we get into the action segments, let’s go over the plot. Right off the bat you know that it won’t be your average Superman origin story. Krypton looks like something out of Star Wars and it’s definitely a good way to start off the film. General Zod and his minions come into play almost immediately and take on the Council. Jor El takes them on while Superman heads to earth. It was a solid beginning and I liked Jor El’s robot assistants. I could have done without Superman being born into the world scene (It definitely dragged on) but it’s a little thing that won’t hurt the experience. After that we get to see Superman as a fisherman and save people from drowning, but it’s only once Kal El dons the legendary costume that the film picks up again. (On a side note, the new Superman costume is definitely pretty cool. I wouldn’t say that it beats the traditional one, but I have no problems with it. It beats the costumes that most superheroes have)

Now, you won’t want to go into this film comparing everyone to how their DCAU counterparts would act. The characters are definitely different and while they aren’t awful…they aren’t that great either. Lois Lane wasn’t quite the brave reporter that she usually is and her (very brief) romance with Superman comes out of left field. Their scene together definitely wasn’t necessary and I could have done without it. Perry White seemed off during the whole film and the rest of the Daily Planet staff never got to do anything important. Jor El was a pretty good character and he was a good fighter. (Although he let his guard down at a critical time) Jonathon Kent was one of the worst characters in the film. Not only does he tell Superman that he should have let a bus full of innocent kids die so that he could hide his super abilities, but also risks his dog’s life for the “greater good”. Almost every line that Pa Kent said made me cringe a little deep inside. This definitely wasn’t the character that I grew up with and unlike Superman, it wasn’t a good new version. While I wouldn’t say that Superman’s new attitude is better than the classic personality, it’s not a negative change. Jonathon Kent is no longer a character that can be looked up too or admired. Superman’s a good character as always and I didn’t mind his new personality. He doesn’t tend to mock his opponents or brag as much as he used too, but he gets the job done.

Let’s check in with the villains. General Zod made for a good opponent, but was a pretty two dimensional character. I wouldn’t call it a negative thing and I’d still take him over (Sorry folks) the Joker and Loki. General Zod talked a big game, but he could back it up and trade blows with one of the strongest superheroes on the planet. His two main minions, Faora and the power hitter of the group (No idea what his name was though) were also pretty interesting characters. Faora stole the show in hand to hand combat and definitely put up an excellent fight against Superman. (Faora taking on Wonder Woman would make for a great fight) Faora got more screen time than the 3rd minion and even rivals General Zod. Zod may have gotten the final fight scene against Superman, but Faora fought Superman as well as terminated many of the army grunts. The 3rd minion didn’t get much of a role, but had a pretty good fight with Superman and I thought that he was a pretty good fighter.

Now, would the villains have been as cool without the epic fight scenes? I highly doubt it! The fight scenes in Man of Steel are definitely top notch and definitely the best fight scenes in any live action film. There is no film that can even compare with Man of Steel’s action scenes. Avengers, Godzilla, even Spiderman, none of them had the speed and power that the Man of Steel’s battle scenes brought to the table. The soundtrack also gave the battle scenes an extra boost as the music complemented the scenes perfectly. They definitely reminded the audience that these fight scenes had high stakes. As for General Zod’s ending…I can definitely see how it would be controversial. I don’t think that it absolutely needed to happen and I’m maybe a bit skeptical that such a thing would be done to Zod, but hey…it happened in the comics (Albeit in a similar way) didn’t it? So, it wasn’t an extremely shocking thing to me.

The one problem about being a great film is that it puts more pressure on the sequel. We’re going to need more than Lex Luthor if the next film is to match up against this one. Doomsday or Darkseid would make for a pretty great villain, but there aren’t many other Superman villains who could help the sequel surpass this one. General Zod and his men were the perfect adversaries for Superman since they could (almost) match him blow for blow. Still, I will hold out hope for the sequel, after all I hadn’t thought that this film had much potential after seeing the first trailer.

Overall, the Man of Steel is a film that you’ll definitely want to check out. It’s easily the greatest film in a looooong time. Definitely top 5 material and excluding a certain Kaiju series…it is the greatest (live action) film of all time. I highly recommend checking out this film while it’s still in theaters. You won’t regret it!

Overall 9/10

The Beast From (the) Haunted Cave is an old horror (It doesn’t feel like one) film that involves a group of criminals who plan to rob a town and then escape by tricking the skiing instructor into letting them stay at his cabin. After that they would make a quick getaway in their Helicopter (Or Plane, I forget at the moment, but it was definitely an aerial vehicle!) Once the monster comes in…will their plan succeed!?

Alright, let’s start off with the characters. This film had a pretty awful cast and you’ll finish the film without remembering a single name. Now the film was only a little over an hour so you didn’t get to see that characters for a very long amount of time, but it was definitely enough. If you can’t make a character interesting within the first 30 minutes of his screen time, then he’ll never get cool. Also, the film moves at a really slow pace. The first 30+ minutes is spent developing the romance between the two main characters and having the villains make small talk. The film would have been better if they could have cut out most of the romance, made the characters more likable, and also show the police taking on the monster.

That being said, let’s talk about the monster. He is easily one of the weakest monsters in movie history. This isn’t even an exaggeration folks, he can barely overpower a human. When the main monster can barely beat a human, then what can he do!? He seemed to be a of a spider-human hybrid, but he’s far too slow to be a real threat. Even when he does capture his victims, he doesn’t actually finish them off for a while. One human managed to stay alive for almost 2 days until he finally finished her off. The monster doesn’t have much of a presence in the film because he tends to stick to the shadows, but even when he steps out it’s usually not for the best.

The Beast From (The) Haunted Cave is definitely not a film that I recommend. Even if you are a big monster fan, then I recommend checking out Godzilla, Gamera, or the Beast from 20000 Fathoms. Those movies know how to show off a monster and make him a threat. This monster was no such thing and even though the film is short, you’ll find that it feels like a never ending summer blockbuster.

Overall 3/10