Tag Archives: Marvel

Iron Man and Hulk Heroes United Review

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Technically speaking there is no and in the title, but I don’t really care for using the & symbol that much and just leaving it blank could be odd. In this case, I’d say that using “and” is the right move. Is this film really as terrible as its reputation? Well, that would have been nearly impossible from the get go and it’s still a decently good Marvel film. The animation is the main thing that really holds it back. First off, let’s get the plot out of the way!

The Hulk and the Abomination get into a brawl as the film begins. The Hulk was just resting and showing the world that he is not to be trifled with so he wasn’t prepared for such an attack. The Hulk is quickly subdued (By a pair of robots…he did beat the Abomination btw!) and kidnapped. After the scientists realize that they are in over their heads, they leave. (They so say sorry though!) The Hulk breaks out the saves the Abomination’s life, but a spark escapes from the battle. Ironman appears and they quickly get into a fight. The Hulk quickly takes him down and they agree to make a temporary truce to defeat the mighty Zzzax. Ironman and Hulk are as different as two heroes can be and they Really don’t get along. Will they really be able to pull off such an ambitious team up!?

Well, that’s the plot in a nutshell! The film is a little over an hour, but they do try to cram a lot of things in. We get a bunch of Wendigo creatures at one point that really come out of nowhere! The Abomination is here of course and Zzzax serves as the main villain as he uses many of Ironman’s old armors. It’s a pretty good array of villains that we’ve got here and the film has almost nonstop action. What is keeping this film from cracking a solid 7 like your average action film? It’s the animation!

This film uses CG-I and that was mistake number one. Always go for Hand Drawn when you’re making a true animated film. Ironically, these graphics would be perfectly acceptable for a PS4 cash in game or something on the mobile. For a real video game or a film…this just won’t cut it! There is a lot of lag to be seen between character movements and the fight scenes can look really fake at times. The bullets leave random explosions when they hit that appear as if they were put on the Hulk’s character by photoshop. Nothing about this really screams professional and the animation really brings it down. Contrary to popular belief, animation is easily one of the most important factors in a film. It’s (nearly) as important as the writing. Examples of this include Samurai Jack and Symbiotic Titan. Both of those shows are in the pretty good range, but they easily could have jumped up an extra point or two into the great category. 1-2 points may sound pretty small, but considering that it is out of 10…that is a pretty big jump. Let’s face it, a 6/10 looks much worse than an 8/10 and a 2/10 is scarier than a 4/10. Two points can make a difference. In this case, the film lost a firm point with the animation.

That being said, if the movie was incredible in all of the other areas, I’m sure that it would have still done pretty well. The problem is that the rest of the film is really only average. The writing is what you would expect from Marvel. Ironman and Hulk have settled into their stereotypical personalities pretty well and you can really tell what they will say before they even speak. There are several puns in the film at least, but they aren’t as original as the ones over at DC. (Not to play the DC card this early in the fight…)

The soundtrack is actually really good in this film. I’ll say that it was one of the surprising positives involved. It really felt like they stole some music from the DCAU, but I’m not going to go there. Wherever the music was from, it was really good and it definitely made the film a little more enjoyable. A good tune can make everything seem cooler.

The film actually has some pretty deep environmental messages. Zzzax isn’t completely bad as he just wants to protect the planet from the humans who continue to fill the landfills across the world. As with Ultron, Zzzax realizes that the extinction of mankind is the only way to save the day. Ironman reminds him that humans are still a pretty young race and that they are getting closer to using clean energy. It’s all empty words and Zzzax knows it. Humans continue to use up more and more power while polluting the planet, but I suppose that it’s an issue for another time. Still, it was interesting that Marvel added this part in and combined with the elements from the Technovore film…maybe they will start including things like this in their films. I’m always ready to talk about the environment so I wouldn’t mind seeing it in the film.

So, there isn’t a whole lot to say about Ironman and Hulk. Ironman loves to find some humor in the situations that he gets involved in and he’s pretty proud of himself. He takes the credit for everything and he acts as if he was tougher than everyone else. He’s so confident that he will beat the Hulk until he’s quickly crushed. He’s a pretty good character here since he doesn’t have time to fulfill his less desirable character traits in the film. Trying to blast Hulk in the eyes wasn’t cool even though he claimed that it could help the Hulk. (He didn’t try again so I’m not sure if I buy that) The Hulk is also what you would expect. This is the smarter Hulk that we are used too from the various Avenger cartoons. He puts Abomination in his place, but he’s easily crushed by robots several times in the films. He’s another big punching bag when it all boils down to it. It’s a trait that many superheroes have at this point. They act all high and mighty, but they crumble at the first attack from a decent villain. It’s films like this that really make me pick Link or Gagaga Girl in a fight against these guys.

Zzzax has a pretty nifty design and he makes for a good villain. The way that he talks can be annoying though since he has a hisssssss for each word and he likes to take his time a little too much. Abomination is another confident fighter who can’t back up his tough words. He also has a fun CGI design for this one. Power wise, he does seem to be clearly outmatched by the Hulk though. The Wendigos didn’t have any character in this film, but maybe that’s for the best.

Surprisingly, the movie actually drags on a bit. It’s only a little over an hour, but thanks to the CGI it’ll feel like a lot longer. Each fight scene looks the same and you’ll get tired of seeing the two heroes getting beaten up by the electro robots for so long. They’re basically powerless and it’s more than a little embarrassing. It really could have ended after the first 30 minutes and it may have been a little cooler. It would have had the same score though so maybe this is for the best. Ironically, the fact that it’s pure action without much plot gives it a lot of replay value. This is actually a film that I wouldn’t mind rewatching in the near future.

We can’t forget to mention that there is an after credits scene! It leads into the next film for those of you who are actually interested. I guess the writers really want to keep things confined though since the two scientists from this film seem like they will be returning with a new threat. It’s an epic scene in theory, but not in execution as the film couldn’t really make the scene as threatening and intense as it really could have been.

Comparing this to DC’s last big superhero team up..it’s pretty sad. Superman/Batman Apocalypse (Notice how I appropriately switched the title a little bit?) smashed this film in animation, crushed it in fight scenes, demolished it in character development, burned it in pacing, and thoroughly destroyed it overall. This is why I don’t even think that there is a debate in as far as who creates the better films/TV shows overall between Marvel and DC. DC is just too good at this point. I don’t think that Marvel will ever make a film to match the DC title that I mentioned. It’s bold, but I seriously don’t think that Marvel has it in them. We can hope of course. (While we are “hoping” I’ll be checking out Throne of Atlantis!)

Overall, This film is nowhere near as bad as the reviews suggest. It’s par for the course for Marvel and while it’s nothing special, it’s nothing bad either. It’s just a good action story where we get to see two iconic heroes team up. It could certainly be a lot worse and one plus is that it’s always enjoyable to see a classic Avengers battle. I like to think that Ironman would have won the battle though and Jarvis’ statistics seemed flawed. No way does the power type end up beating the speed type more often than not. The only reason why Ironman was humiliated in that fight was because he wasn’t fighting properly. The point of a speed type is to use your speed…not fly right into the power type to make it a fist fight. I recommend checking this out if you’re just looking for a casual watch (Since this is basically just a pilot to “insert any Marvel show” it works as a Saturday Morning Cartoon) to see your favorite Marvel heroes duking it out. Of course, I would sooner just recommend watching the original Ultimate Avengers since that one was pretty solid! (The Hulk fight there was intense!)

Overall 6/10

Inhumans The Origin of the Inhumans Review

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The Inhumans have been getting a pretty big push over at Marvel so it’s a pretty good time to check out some of their first comics. It’s mostly Fantastic Four adventures where the Inhumans just happen to be present, but I’ll take it. I’ve always found the Inhumans to be rather unnecessary, but maybe this collection could change my mind…maybe! It was a pretty good collection, but it was just lacking something.

Naturally, there are a lot of plots within this collection, but most of them are stand alone stories. We see the Frightful Four arrive to challenge the Fantastic Four on more than one occasion. Medusa is one of their members, which leads to inevitable battles with the Inhumans. (Johnny’s friendship with Crystal also complicates matters) The final part of the collection is dedicated to mini adventures with the Inhumans during the Thor comics. Thor’s part is cut out unfortunately and the stakes are noticably lower, but they’re decently fun short stories.

It should be noted that the Fantastic Four comics are typically pretty solid. They don’t tend to be quite as interesting as the other big hitters like Spider-Man, the X Men, or the Avengers, but their adventures can be pretty fun. What limits them is their small roster of 4 and the fact that they typically don’t open their ranks up to the public. So, you know what to expect in each issue and the actual story will need to be interesting to help you not mind the lack of character development. Well, this collection gives three of the members some character development due to some intriguing circumstances that change them so it’s an interesting time for the Inhumans to appear.

Mr Fantastic’s personality has definitely changed a lot during his encounters with Invisible Woman. He is typically the intelligent leader that we’ve all come to know, but he can be very testy with her. “Not now woman” is the kind of line that you can expect to hear from him. I know that this used to be something that was generally accepted back in the day, but I’m certainly glad that people don’t talk like that nowadays! There are two main reasons as to why Reed and Sue’s relationship is so strained. Reed Richards doesn’t see her as a Fantastic Four member anymore as he can only look at her as his wife and Sue keeps trying too hard to be helpful while also pulling pranks on Reed to get him to notice her. This doesn’t go very well for either of them, which causes a lot of arguments.

Both of them are to blame depending on the circumstances. Sue pretended to be dead at one point to get back at Reed and she also continues to bring up their honey moon when Reed is more worried about Johnny’s troubles and what’s going to happen to them. It doesn’t really seem like the time to think about those things. On the other hand, Reed tends to blow up at just about anything that Sue says and he continues to treat her as an underling. His orders are basically absolute and they must be followed!

Despite this, Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman are still pretty close throughout the collection. They have their differences, but they start to work through them in their final appearances in this collection. They finally manage to go on the honey moon and they are able to keep their personal lives separate from the superhero biz. Once things are back to normal, they’re back to being good characters.

Mr Fantastic is still one of my favorite Marvel characters and he gets a lot of action in this collection. “Now you see why they call me Mr Fantastic!” is one of his big lines as he charges into powerful foes. He never backs down and he’s a very sensible leader. I dare say that he’s better at leading a team than Captain America or Cyclops! Invisible Woman is also closer to mastering her abilities in this batch and they come in handy many times. She shields the Fantastic Four from large explosions, tidal waves, and many other things. Being able to make her teammates invisible is very handy for just about any mission and her force abilities can affect any foe. She may not have realized that she’s potentially the most dangerous member of the team yet, but she’s definitely getting there.

The Human Torch can be a little annoying in this batch. This is during the time where he became distracted by Crystal and she was the only person that he would talk about. He kept on trying to shatter the barrier during a mini arc that felt like it would drag on forever with his college roommate. Teleporting from place to place was a decent plan, but it didn’t really work out very well. Reed Richards kept commenting that the Human Torch was finally a man because of this, but I wouldn’t say that the situation made the Human Torch more manly at all. He still pitched in to help whenever the need arose, but the Thing still does most of the work. Most of the villains have some excuse for why the Human Torch can’t burn them and it can be pretty sad for the guy. Technically, the Human Torch is still a pretty dangerous fighter, but he just tends to be out of his league. This was not his best appearance to say the least. (And he insulted Lockjaw, which isn’t cool)

The Thing is definitely in character since he’s constantly insulting himself and reminding the team that he is a monster. He definitely doesn’t like how he looks, but it could be a whole lot worse. Power wise, this could be the Thing’s most impressive outing. He’s able to defeat Black Bolt in a fist fight and he was also holding his own against Gorgon and Dragon Man. Whenever a strong opponent appears, you can bet that the Thing will be the last one standing. His personality can be a little too mopey for me, but he also has his moments where he can be likable so it really depends. It’s always good to see how determined he is and the Thing never goes down quickly. I like different aspects of his character while I don’t care for others. At least I can say that he’s a complex character!
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Black Bolt is the legendary leader of the Inhumans and you can be sure that he’ll get a huge role in the upcoming Inhumans film. I’m not really a fan of the character and I blame the recent Fantastic Four run where things got cosmic and epic. The overall arc was great and I really enjoyed the series, but it contained all of the worst traits from Black Bolt. He was very proud and full of himself the whole time and he acted more like a villain than a hero. “It’s because he’s King” but that’s not a good enough excuse. Kings have to make the tough calls sometimes, but other characters have handled their royalty better. (Yu-Gi-Oh for example)

Luckily, this is before that era and maybe it was just that series since Black Bolt looked good in Infinity. (From what I saw) Black Bolt is a pretty heroic leader in these comics. Of course, most leaders were pretty heroic back in these days, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Black Bolt is pretty likable here. He risks life and limb to help the Inhumans escape their (basically anyway) prison. He’s also acknowledged as one of the stronger fighters and he’s likely the strongest fighter here aside from the Thing and maybe Gorgon. (He could take out the Thing and Gorgon if he yelled though) I definitely have no qualms with him here and maybe this is a good sign for the fearless leader.

The elemental master Crystal gets a large role and hers is probably the largest aside from Medusa. I can’t say that her role was too great though. She was a little more reasonable than the Human Torch, but she gets a little too caught up in the romance of it all. She should be trying to help her comrades find an island to stay at while the humans go away. Heading for Johnny does allow her to save Mr Fantastic and play a critical role in several other dangerous situations though, so there is always a good silver lining. Unfortunately, Crystal doesn’t really get to fight that much here, but we do see that she at least has the potential to be very powerful.

Medusa gets the largest role from all of the Inhumans (arguably I suppose), but it’s mainly because her first few appearances come before the Inhumans appear. Before the Inhumans were invented appeared, she was a member of the Frightful Four and she challenged the Fantastic Four with these allies. She always met with defeat, but the Frightful Four did give the Fantastic Four a run for their money on quite a few occasions. She eventually started to change into a nicer person and then the Inhumans arrived to claim her. By that point, any shred of toughness was basically gone since an arranged marriage was coming. Luckily, the Fantastic Four don’t let this kind of thing slide and that’s how they jumped in to fight the Inhumans. I think Medusa could have put up more of a fight when she was taken and I can’t really accept how she went from total villain to possible hero so quickly. As such, I can’t say that I’m a big fan of hers. She was better as a villain.

Maximus is the most popular Inhumans villain, but he doesn’t really have that much strength. He doesn’t even really have a super power, which is always a disadvantage in this kind of comic. He goes insane for most of the collection and his only cohesive thoughts aren’t that good. He’s as petty as a villain can be and I doubt that anyone will be rooting for him at any point. He wants to be King, but he doesn’t even know what to do when he is King. He had his chances, but he was doomed from the start. I will admit that it was a little annoying to see the Inhumans following him at the beginning of the collection. They must have thought that they had joined the Shiar for a second there! Trust me, you won’t miss Maximus when his appearances are over!

Gorgon is another Inhuman who had a decently large role in this volume and he was easily one of the better members. That’s not saying a whole lot and I definitely wouldn’t be putting him in any Top 10 Marvel character lists anytime soon, but his abilities are definitely impressive. With a single stomp he can take out a city and that probably makes him the second strongest Inhuman behind Black Bolt. His fight against the Thing was intense and it’s a shame that he didn’t really get to use his abilities after that comic. I suppose that the fights would be over a little too quickly if he got to fight.

Karnak knows advanced martial art skills and he can find the weak point in any object. Essentially, this means that the writers can have him break whatever he wants whenever he wants. He’s not very likable though and I dare say that he’s the worst member of the Inhumans. He’s seriously out of his league in every fight because he’s still a human physically. Having advanced martial arts is cool, but I’m sure that Ironfist or Spiderman could still outfight him.

Triton is the water member of the group and he’s not that powerful physically, but he’s good underwater. (Who would have guessed right?) He does have a key moment where he ends up saving Reed Richards, but he mostly spends the collection getting knocked out or just being a non factor in the fights. He’s a pretty bland character compared to the others, but I would still say that he is better than Karnak.
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Blastaar is only around for a quick issue, but he is definitely a formidable opponent. He gets a whole lot of feats during his trip in the negative zone and even the Sandman is intimidated by him. The Sandman was decently good in this collection since he fears no one and he talks tough to the end, but I still prefer him in later issues. Paste Pot Pete and the Wizard are so forgettable that I don’t even need to mention them. (The Wizard will always be one of my least favorite FF villains. At least Paste Pot Pete is good in the Spiderman series.) Blastaar really gives the Fantastic Four a tough time and it’s similar to Darkseid in that the heroes seem to be outmatched. (When Superman isn’t around of course) It makes for a solid stand alone comic.

Dragon Man and Black Panther get small roles as they aid the Fantastic Four. Dragon Man is in over his head as he faces Gorgon, but his heart’s in the right place. He’s pretty heroic and he thinks that Crystal is in danger so he attacks. He definitely gets the short end of the stick here though and his ending is downright tragic. You really feel bad for the poor guy. The Black Panther gets to appear briefly for his daily page filled with hype and his wise words of wisdom. He attacks the Inhumans and he naturally overwhelms them until Black Bolt arrives. Black Panther implies that Black Bolt would give him a good fight, which made me smirk a little. I have nothing against Black Panther, but if I had to name a character that I felt was the most overhyped in Marvel…he may actually be at the top of the list! He’s still a good character though and he ends up helping out in the big battle.

Most of the villains in this collection were pretty good, but Psycho Man was definitely not one of them. I’ve always found him to be pretty dull and his arc in a recent Spiderman collection was one of the only downers to be found. He relies on his minions to fight and he really has no distinct characteristics. I really hope that he never appears in the cinematic universe and he should be fazed out. He’s just too weak to be a real threat to the Fantastic Four.

Ronan is one of the final villains to appear in this collection. I still can’t say that I find him to be too impressive in the comics, but that’s mostly because he wasn’t established as Thor level until the more modern days. That’s not to say that he doesn’t get his props here though. It’s safe to say that he could also take the Fantastic Four down depending on the circumstances and it’s heavily implied that he is much stronger than the Sentry 459. (Who gave the Fantastic Four a beating)

The Sentry 459 was a solid guardian and he actually got some character development. He technically feels no emotions, but he sure acted like he had them in his flashback with the Inhumans. He doesn’t bare any ill will towards the heroes, but they invaded his island so they have to pay the price. He’s pretty impressive looking and I wish that EMH had kept this design. (Although he still looked cool there) For a one shot villain, he makes for a nice opponent.

The artwork for the comics is pretty good. It’s what you would expect from the classic Marvel days and I always enjoyed this style. It has its advantages and while it may not look quite as sleek as some of the newer comics from the current days, you can’t underestimate the fact that it was a lot of work. No fancy computers back in those days so they drew the comics as best as they could. A good amount of work was put in and you can tell from the backgrounds and the emotions of the characters.

The fight scenes in this volume are pretty solid. They involve more strategy than the other teams because the Fantastic Four aren’t quite as powerful as the Avengers or the X Men. That being said, the Thing is always ready to slug it out and he has three really good fights against Gorgon, Black Bolt, and Dragon Man. He fights several others as well and he puts up an admirable fight against the Psycho Man. The rest of the team also get their share of action and Reed really tries to show just how powerful he can be by thinking of advanced tricks that he can perform with his stretching abilities. The action scenes definitely hold up well against the other comic book brawls that you may be used too.

There really aren’t any negatives in this collection. I guess you could say that the romance was a bit much and it could start to drag on, but it’s not as bad as it would have been if it was a modern comic. One thing that keeps this comic from getting a higher score is that there was no story that really blew me away. The fights were great and we got several story arcs, but there weren’t any moments that would make me take a step back or go high five my dog. The team fight between the Frightful Four and the Fantastic Four as well as Black Bolt vs Thing would be the highlights for the collection though. The short stories about the Inhumans were definitely a little lacking in excitement since nothing really happened in those. I would say that this could be a negative, but the mini comics are so short that they can’t really hurt and the collection Did have well over 300 pages in it so it can afford to have some moments that didn’t have action.

Overall, This was a solid collection of Marvel comics. It was really a Fantastic Four collection, but I suppose that the Inhuman mini comics as the end help it live up to the title. They don’t even appear for the first few comics, which was intriguing. I definitely recommend this to any Marvel fan who wants to be introduced to the Inhumans. If you’re a Fantastic Four fan, then you’ll definitely like this one as well. This bundle definitely has some fun issues and it’ll never get boring since the writing was really good back in those days. You won’t regret picking this title up and it takes a while to finish the volume since it’s so long. Length is always an important part of any media! This may be the last Fantastic Four adventure that I read for a while so I tried to make this one count!

Overall 7/10

X Men Days of Future Past Review

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How many of you clicked on this one thinking that it was a review for the film? No worries, I already reviewed that one. This is the comic version where it originally took place. I’m sure that there are many tie ins and stories to flesh out the event, but this is the meat of the Arc. It’s only about 2-3 comics long so it’s fairly short, but you can definitely see some of the similarities. It’s good to finally read the famous event and we’ve also got a few stand alone issues here as well.

The first issue is a very large recap told from Cyclops’ point of view. He explains how Professor X has merely been using the X Men this entire time and he never saw it until now. The Professor was unreasonable and now Cyclops has taken a leave of absence. The Professor doesn’t seem to notice how upset Cyclops is, but Cyclops is keeping to himself. Will Cyclops ever join the team again? Only time will tell. This is all after Phoenix died in the Phoenix saga so he is definitely under the weather.

The next comic is the first big mission for the X Men without Cyclops. It’s Nightcrawler’s birthday and it should have been a happy one, but one of his presents blows up and destroys him. Professor X calls in Doctor Strange to see if any magic was involved. (I guess he suspected magic for some reason…) Strange announced that Nightcrawler’s soul is gone and they follow him into the depths of Hell. Doctor Strange believes that there is something wrong with the place since it has changed a whole lot, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Ah well, it’s time to go save their friend!

The Days of Future Past arc starts off in the future. We see that the resistance isn’t doing so well and the Sentinels are just too powerful. Franklin Richards, Wolverine, Shadow Cat, and Storm are some of the last fighters still alive. They decide to use Rachel’s abilities to send Shadow Cat back in time to stop the madness before it ever begins. Rachel Summers is able to transport Shadow Cat’s mind into the past and she must stop Senator Kelly from being assassinated. Will the Xmen believe her and can time really be changed!? Meanwhile, the future X Men may be doomed on their end since changes in the past don’t always affect the future…but create new futures.

There’s also a comic involving the Alpha Flight. Wolverine never officially left them so he has to go and clear things up. Unsure if this will end up being a peaceful venture, Professor X tells Nightcrawler to go with him. This turns out to be a good move since the Wendigo is in the area and he’s not going to be satisfied with anything short of a win.

Finally, we have a Christmas issue. The X Men all head to their respective homes to enjoy their Christmas break while Shadow Cat has to stay at the mansion since she has nowhere to go. She takes her mind off of this by working in the danger room, but she hears a crash. A dangerous creature that looks like a Xenomorph has broken into the mansion and it’s headed for her. This monster is as smart as they come and it’s very powerful as well. This could be Shadow Cat’s final Christmas!

That was definitely a decently good batch of comics. It wasn’t quite as action packed as usual and I did miss Cyclops, but we still got our share of fights. The best issues were definitely the Days of Future Past ones even if it did feel like there was a lot of plot hax. The saving Nightcrawler comic would probably be last despite the guest star as that one didn’t even have much of a physical enemy to defeat. You always need someone to punch!

The art is pretty good and you will be reminded of the 90’s Xmen TV show. The Uncanny roster is pretty good although I would have liked to see Cyclops a little more. It’s easy to discern what’s happening and things never get too chaotic. This collection is fairly short and it doesn’t crack 200 pages, but it’s still a decent amount of value. 5-6 comics is the norm for most of the shorter comic collections anyway. Just take a look at any New 52 collection or recent Marvel book and this is the size.

Shadow Cat may as well be the main character of the collection since she plays a big part in the Days of Future Past arc while getting her own Christmas comic. She’s a decent character, but I can’t say that she really does anything to set herself apart from the crowd. She’s mostly just trying to fit in during this stage and she hasn’t really mastered her powers yet. We do know that she will be a lot tougher in the future though and there’s no reason to dislike her right now. She just needs a little more personality and she’ll be set.

Dr Strange doesn’t look that good this time. He’s the Sorcerer Supreme, but he’s really getting pulverized in the magic battle by this new entity. He puts on a brave face and he does get some good magical blasts off, but it’s heavily implied that he is being toyed with. Professor X called him into protect the X Men, but it appears that this is not what really happened. It was surprising to see him on the losing edge since Dr Strange is all but invincible in the older comics. Not even he can beat cosmic entities I suppose.

Wolverine is as good as always. He still launches right at the opponents and he was critical in the mission to save Nightcrawler. It’s easy to see why he became a fan favorite and he was definitely the best character in the collection. Protecting his friends is his first priority even if he won’t admit it and he’s probably the most experienced fighter on the team. His healing factor isn’t as good as it is in today’s comics, but it’s good enough for him to be a threat. I really had no complaints with him.

Storm is faced with the pressures of being team leader so she’s pretty stressed out for most of the comics. She’s also wary of a new dance instructor who is helping Shadow Cat and I’m sure that there is a reason behind this. Hopefully she remembers to keep her guard up. Storm is a pretty powerful fighter, but her abilities completely depend on her location. She’s not very good at fighting in closed placed since her powers need space in order to work properly. As a last resort, she is very good at hand to hand combat. She has one of the toughest ordeals in the collection since she is forcibly turned into a snake and changing back is pretty painful. She’s doing a decent job at being team leader, but there are times when we can all admit that Cyclops is missed. Hopefully she can keep the members together until then.

Colossus serves as the nice member who has a rage out moment every comic for shock value. He definitely talks a good game, but Colossus is typically outmatched. It would be good to see him use his super strength a little more effectively, but it never works. Either he’s paired up with someone that can absorb physical attacks like the Blob or he’s fighting a Sentinel who can just blast him away. Colossus is still a good character, but he needs to fight more and talk less when the going gets tough. He has potential to be one of the X Men’s all time heavy hitters after all.

Nightcrawler doesn’t look very good. His sob story is pretty dicey. He murdered someone by mistake since he had meant to spare the person, but he then says that he would do it again if need be. He’s also a little…petty in some issues. He tells the team to their faces that he was almost disappointed since he thought they had forgotten his Birthday. Not really the best thing to say aloud. He’s also the weak link of the team, which means that he is beaten up in just about every comic. The Wendigo takes him out in one shot and the team is forced to go into a fake hell to save him. He definitely gets the team into a lot of trouble and he’s just not very likable here. At least he is trying to make friends with everyone and he’s a nice guy; Nightcrawler just needs to work on his abilities and get his priorities straight.

Cyclops has finally learned to make his own decisions and the character development is good for him. He’s in a pretty sad mood the entire time, but it’s excusable due to the previous circumstances. He seems to be performing odd jobs as he walks across the world and I’m sure that he’ll be back to pwning as the X Men leader in no time. The Wendigo made for a decent villain in one of the stand alone comics. He’s definitely as tough as always and he defeated Nightcrawler pretty easily. I’ve never really considered him to be a match for someone like the Hulk, but he’s definitely played off to be that strong. If his strength were to increase like the Hulk’s, then it would be more of a fight. Still, he may be the toughest villain in this collection.

Professor X doesn’t get a huge role this time. He tries to help out when chaos breaks lose in Days of Future Past and he’s quickly caught up on the events thanks to a quick mind scan, but he forgot to actually use his abilities and Mystique quickly took him out. That was definitely a poor showing by the Professor and we can only hope that he will keep his guard up from now on. He still seems like a pretty good leader, but the X Men definitely trust him a lot less than they used too. I guess it is hard to trust someone who can read your mind so it’s always going to be tough for the Professor. Let’s hope that he can prove his loyalty to them when the time comes.

It’s really good to see the classic Sentinels back in the spotlight. As cool as it is to see the newer variations, nothing beats the classics. It’s really nostalgic to see them tossing the X Men around and they definitely get a lot of props in this collection. One blast is able to completely overwhelm Wolverine’s healing factor and take him out for the count and Colossus was similarly defeated in quick succession. I don’t really believe that these guys would end up taking out the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but they’re still fun villains to have around. There are thousands of them after all so they can’t lose right!?

N’Garai is the name of the demon that attacked Shadow Cat. It’s just one of the N’Garai of course as the name only refers to the species as a whole. That guy was definitely pretty brutal and it was a lot more durable than I would have guessed. Aside from plot convenience, Shadow Cat really had no chance against him. Thanks to his soul damaging abilities, the N’Garai can actually damage the opponent through their intangibility. That’s a pretty nifty ability to have. I would say that this creature is instantly cooler than the Brood and it’s probably in the top 3 best random Marvel aliens that has no mind. So, only counting the beasts that can’t talk and are basically like monsters.

After reading Days of Future Past, I am surprised at how well known it is. I guess the plot was definitely very unique at the time, but it’s just so short. I was expecting it to be at least 5 issues. We still had the President Assassination plot at least and it’s essentially a condensed version of the film with different characters. It was a good two parter to be sure, but not quite legendary. At least we got a classic team fight between the Brotherhood and the X Men. Those are always pretty fun.

I can’t say that I cared for the hell comic all that much. It’s always interesting to see how it is portrayed of course, but it’s mostly lacking in action. Colossus mentions that hell is one of the reasons why he doesn’t believe in God, since it would mean accepting such a place as real. It’s an intriguing point since it almost sounds like he does think there is a God, but he doesn’t believe it because of hell. Meaning…that he does accept that God exists, but doesn’t accept Hell. Can’t really go halfway though since not believing in it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It was a little sad to see that Nightcrawler had no comeback during their debates and he was quickly silenced each time. He needs to prep his answers ahead of time I suppose. The other comics were pretty standard, but fun adventures.

Overall, This is a pretty solid batch of comics. They definitely aren’t quite as action packed as usual, but they’re pretty good. I think they could have been a little more engaging at times since the Days of Future Past arc was pretty interesting while the others were really just there. I enjoyed them of course, but you weren’t very intrigued by what was happening. The fights were fun and that’s just about it. The Alpha Flight don’t really make you think about anything deep and the Christmas comic was just a fun chase. I still say that a little more action would have helped. I recommend this collection to all X Men fans and especially if you haven’t read Days of Future Past before. If you have, then it’s time to check out X Sanction for more future conspiracies!

Overall 6/10

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

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Well, Guardians of The Galaxy is definitely a film that everyone has been looking forward to for a very long time. The MCU could finally continue and this installment was going to give us a lot of data for the series. Of course, all of the characters are essentially new to the franchise so it was still a little risky. Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being another solid entry into the MCU and I’m ready for a sequel, but let’s take a more in depth look at it. I aim to keep spoilers to a minimum and will do my best to avoid them entirely, but I recommend watching the film before you read my review…just in case.

The film starts off with a scene on Earth as Star Lord is abducted by aliens when his mother passes away. Years pass and he is now a wanted man by many individuals. He finds a mysterious artifact in a tomb and now he is in a lot of danger. Ronan sends Gamora out to go take the orb from Star Lord while Rocket and Groot want to get the main character for his large bounty. After they bond and fight, the heroes realize that they’re going to have to team up if they want to have any hope of stopping Ronan. Can these individuals team up to face the enemies that no single hero could face alone? Let’s hope so!

Star Lord is the main character of our tale. His character seems to be based off of Captain Kirk’s to an extent. He shares traits with many of the classic heroes, which is likely intentional. He was definitely one of the more interesting characters, but every time he would have a really cool scene that would almost make you a fan, he would do something to negate it. As I mentioned earlier, he shares some traits with Kirk. One of these traits is unfortunately the fact that he flirts a whole lot. His first scene has a rather anticlimatic moment where we realize that he isn’t the only person aboard his ship. The scene really didn’t have a point and it was just so we could see how far Star Lord had fallen.

When he’s not flirting, Star Lord can be a pretty cool character. His mask is pretty epic and he’s a surprisingly good fighter. His plans aren’t bad and he was able to hold his own against Gamora and the others. The fact that he went after his MP3 player at one point was also a pretty cool scene. He typically made sure to do the right thing and he was a solid character for the most part. I just couldn’t like him by the end because the flirting was a little overdone, but he’s still a charismatic lead.

Gamora is an interesting case as well. Her character personality was all right, but I felt that her reputation was undeserved. Everyone seems to know her because of how skilled she is. The problem is that she never looks that tough on screen. Sure, she beats up a few prison guards at one point, but she typically loses the big battles. While she had the upper hand against Drax the first time they met, she never really had any other impressive moments. Her battle against Nebula was good of course, but I don’t see how she fell for the classic thunder rope trick. She also seemed pretty worried the whole time she was in prison. Those were some pretty tough odds, but they mentioned how she had been genetically altered so I figured that the extra power and speed would serve her well.

Personality wise, she’s definitely more heroic than I had figured. I definitely didn’t mind that since it was unexpected in a good way, but it did seem rather sudden. I guess Ronan has never tried to do something this large before or she may have defected sooner. As long as she doesn’t let Star Lord get to her in the sequel, she should stay as a decently good character. I do expect her to look more impressive combat wise in the sequel though. For “the world’s deadliest woman” she only appeared to be slightly stronger than Black Widow. We can expect her DC counterpart (Wonder Woman) to be a little more impressive so Gamora’s going to have to play catch up.

Rocket is a character that Marvel has worked hard to promote. He has a pretty solid fanbase so his portrayal in this film was definitely going to be looked at in detail by his fans. I like Rocket, although I wouldn’t call myself one of his bigger fans. I can see the appeal of the character and I’m always up for another Sgt. Rock. Rocket is shown to be the smartest member of the group and he has a lot of experience. He has broken out of many prisons before and he knows how to take them over from the inside by using Groot.

His drunk scene seemed pretty out of place though and it was a way of expanding his backstory a bit. I could have taken a pass on that part. His backstory is definitely pretty grim, but it should hopefully not appear on screen as the reference is probably all that we need to know about it. It’s definitely hard not to like Rocket from the start. His thunder zap against Star Lord was pretty good and he’s always confident. He’s a little weak physically compared to the others, but he’s always got Groot at his side so he does well in fights. It’s no stretch to say that he’s definitely the best member on the team.
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Drax is probably my least favorite member of the group. It’s close, but I just never cared for this depiction of Drax. Remember the good ole days where he had a cape and his abilities were more on the level of the Hulk or Vision? I don’t know exactly when he changed, but ever since the reboot of his character began…they never looked back. This Drax is more of a generic warrior who likes to fight. You can say that he’s the power member of the group.

The problem is that he’s pretty weak. You can’t compare him to other fighters like Thor or the Hulk. He’s probably around Captain America level in physical power and I would easily take the Avenger to win a fight between them. Drax spends the entire film getting crushed by the opponents. Gamora nearly ends him, Ronan is on a different level, and Korath also throws him around for a while. This is because Drax doesn’t really have any technique to his fighting and he just relies on brute strength. He seems a little out of place in a comic book film.

Power aside, I also don’t really care for his personality. He doesn’t really know a lot about Earth and traditional customs, but we already have Gamora for that angle. (At least music wise) He’s not very smart, but Groot already serves that purpose. Drax really doesn’t add anything to the team and that’s probably another reason why I don’t care for him. I would have preferred Adam Warlock or Captain Marvel to replace this fighter. It helps that he cheered (Rocket is guilty of this too) when the animal got eaten. He could get better in the sequel..but we shall see.

Groot is the final member of the Guardians of The Galaxy and I’m likely not as much of a fan as most of the viewers. Personality-wise, he’s pretty decent. He seems to only partially understand the others or he just doesn’t think about it all that much. At the very least, he has no problem with disrupting the plan and doing things his way. He is pretty heroic for the most part though and he makes the tough calls. I can’t say that I was a big fan of his scene in the prison though. There were other ways in which he could have taken out the tough guy. I just never liked the branches through the nose technique before as I find it rather gruesome.

The main reason why I didn’t care all that much for Groot is the whole “I am Groot” part. It’s essentially like Chewie’s roar in Star Wars. Characters can just understand it somehow and then they put the pieces together. It may be okay once in a while, but the more that it occurs, the more that I don’t really enjoy it. I’d prefer to at least have some subs in this case. Groot is definitely a lot more durable than the other Guardians though and he would likely win in a fist fight.

Thanos finally gets to show himself in this film. Viewers of the Avengers series who prefer not to watch any of the other installments will likely be upset since they are expecting him to get a big role in Avengers II. This wasn’t to be and we can only hope that Thanos does join us for Avengers III. All signs point to it at the moment at least, but you could almost think that Thanos would be the big villain for Guardians 2.

His design seems to be a little different from the Avengers film, but it’s a little hard to tell since the lighting is pretty dark. His outfit is modeled after the comics, but all of the color has been drained from it. It reminds me of Wonder Woman’s new costume in the Batman vs Superman film coming out. (Color scheme wise) The outfit is bronze/gold and there isn’t any color to it. It definitely looks menacing though and Thanos essentially looks like a purple Hulk with armor. I don’t really have any complaints about the armor’s design. I definitely would have preferred the classic gold and blue, but this works.

Character wise, Thanos and Ronan have some banter as threats are implied and spoken outright. Nebula tells Ronan that Thanos is stronger than him, which is a solid continuation of the hype train for Thanos. I’m all aboard of course, but making Thanos stronger than Ronan isn’t very impressive. It’s a start of course, but this is why we’re waiting for his first actual fight. He reminds me of Darkseid and his throne is pretty good. Whether he has his first fight in a Guardians or Avengers film, it should be pretty epic.

Ronan is the main villain of the Guardians film. He’s a decent villain, although I would say that he’s not quite as tough as he could have been thanks to the film’s main characters. Since none of the heroes are very strong, they had to be careful about him. I would say that Ronan’s strength could be comparable to Iron Man’s armor if not a little stronger than that. Due to some circumstances in the film, his abilities do get better at one point and his weapon becomes truly devastating. It reminded me of Malekith in Thor: The Dark World. Once amped up, he could probably give Thor or the Hulk a pretty good run for their money.
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Character wise, I found him to be very similar to Malekith. Ronan’s main goal is to destroy various civilizations and one in particular because he doesn’t believe in the peace treaty. He’s not with the Kree in this continuity as he commands a rebel force and he works with Thanos. He could be a little generic and executing defenseless civilians is a little petty. I’d say that he didn’t leave much of a lasting impression and he was a decent villain by the end. That’s still an improvement over most of the MCU villains though. I would have liked to see him go up against Thanos, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Nebula doesn’t get much of a role in this film, but she is regarded as a tough fighter. She has a brief fight with Gamora and we don’t really know much else about her. Her design is good and I’m always open to cyborgs. She seems to comprehend Thanos’ power more than the others and she naturally resents him. What she will do next will likely impact the plot of the sequel a lot. She makes for a good rival to Gamora and I don’t have much else to say about her just yet.

Yondu is pretty different from the comics, but it works for the film. He’s a lot older than you may have guessed and unlike Hawkeye, he only uses one arrow. It’s the whole quantity vs quality debate and his arrow is definitely well built. It’s like a laser and it’s sound based, which is pretty good. Yondu is definitely a threat and he could likely take out the Guardians of The Galaxy with decent ease. He would likely have some trouble against opponents with sound abilities or quick reflexes, but his arrow is quite fast so the reflexes would have to be on a high level. He’s not a very interesting villain though and his power is his saving grace. I don’t mind all that much if he appears in the sequel, but they have to be careful about how he fights. This ability leaves a lot of room for plot convenience and we don’t want that. Having someone give him an accurate fight will be a challenge, but a fun one to see on screen.

Korath gets a minor role in this film as well and he only gets one real fight scene against Drax. He looks a little stronger than you may have guessed, but the film did hint at it when he recovered from Star Lord’s thunder blast so quickly. He’s really just a nameless minion in the end in terms of plot importance. His design isn’t very interesting and he’s basically a throwaway character. I can’t say that I mind him all that much, but he’s definitely not going to be the next big threat.

I can’t say that I like the Collector anymore here than I did in Thor: The Dark World. He’s still a complete villain and I don’t understand why the Asgardians trust him. He’s useful for information, but the heroes should have shut down his base of operations a long time ago. You feel bad for his minions and things definitely get a little dicey for them. Hopefully this will be his last appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s really no need for him to appear any further anyway.

The Other makes his glorious return into the Marvel universe with this film. I have to say that I had only been mildly been expecting him to get a decent role here so that was pretty cool. Once again, he talks pretty tough to Ronan and I like how he’s always on top of things. The Other fears no being! (Not even Thanos…..) Apparently, he knew about some plans and schemes, but neglected to tell Ronan because The Other is a Boss. We don’t get to see any of his super speed in this film though so I have to wonder if it was forgotten or if the Other just couldn’t be bothered to use it. I’m hoping that he gets another solid role in the future where he can show off his abilities to their fullest.

Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a very important film for the MCU. We learn a lot of things about the cosmic order in this continuity and Thanos appearing is certainly important as well. Everything is a lot more casual in the film to the point where you feel bad for S.H.I.E.L.D. Nobody on Earth even knows about Thanos, but it’s casual knowledge in this film. We get to see his domain and many planets fear him. It’s hard to describe, but it definitely makes the Guardians appear to be on a different level from the Avengers knowledge wise even if they can’t compete in power.

We even learned about the Celestials and we get a really cool action scene involving a planet blowing up. I’ve always wanted to see a planet blow up on screen and this film got to show us this. That’s a visual that I expect to see in future DBZ films and I guess this film beat it to the punch. Skipping this film isn’t a wise move if you want to stay in touch with what is happening in the world.

The fight scenes in the film are definitely some of the better ones in the MCU. We’re not looking at anything like Thor vs Kurse or Captain America vs Winter Soldier yet, but the space fights are really fun. Star Lord’s blaster is pretty effective and we haven’t gotten a lot of gun fights in the series prior to this film. Definitely no space blasters and I was glad to see them appear. I wouldn’t have minded if everyone used guns in the film since the effects made the blaster fights really stand out.

A welcome positive for this film is the light tone that is similar to the Avengers. The film typically has a scene intended to make you laugh every few minutes and the humor is pretty well done. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and that’s a good thing. It helped to minimize the damage in a negative that is coming up and it also gives the film a lot more replay value than other films that came out this year. (TMNT, Godzilla, Dawn of the Planet of The Apes, Xmen, etc.) It would certainly be a lot easier to watch this film again than any of those.

The light tone is really what helped the film not get hurt too badly by the animal violence. The animal violence guaranteed that I wouldn’t give this film an 8 like Captain America. It wasn’t very bad, but there was one pretty sad scene at the bar. We see an animal eating another one and it’s done for sport. The characters actually don’t mind this and they encourage the barbaric game. There’s also the scene at the very beginning of the film where Star Lord is beating up on a lot of small lizards. That was pretty sad to see since it was completely unnecessary to the plot. We definitely don’t need animal violence in our films and hopefully this doesn’t become more of a trend with Marvel. (I still won’t forget the dog scene in The Incredible Hulk)

I will say that the film did have a little more language than the average MCU film. Mostly, it tended to come from Rocket, but they all chipped in a little. Luckily, we don’t get the line that offers the big word. It’s mostly just a lot of s and a worlds, but they do add up a little more than usual. It was likely to show that these guys were definitely not as heroic as the Avengers, but we already knew that from Star Lord.

Finally, I think the film tried a little too hard to be emotional at some points. “You’re asking us to die” quickly comes to mind as everyone gets serious and it’s a solemn moment. It’s almost inevitable for a film and especially one that is as happy as this one. After all, the heroes have to finally realize the gravity of the situation at some point, which will make things serious. It’s a cost of being a light series, but it’s a light one. The opening scene at the hospital was also pretty sad, but it really didn’t do the film any favors. Why not give the hero a happy origin story instead? What makes the origin a little sadder than usual is the fact that they made sure it was a realistic origin that could happen to anyone before the UFO came. Taking away that scene and one or two others would have allowed the film to keep it’s happy stride and to never look back. I think that would have made the film even better.
The soundtrack for the film is definitely solid. I’ve always been a fan of the classic songs from the 1980’s and beyond. It was a good time to be a listener and they just don’t make songs like they used too. We got a whole bunch of classic songs in the film and I was glad to see that I recognized two of them. The main theme that was seen in all of the trailers and on Star Lord’s MP3 player is easily the best song. Most of the others are pretty solid as well, but that one definitely had what it takes. The tune that Star Lord listens to in the very beginning was pretty good as well.

Naturally, we get an after credits scene in the film. There is a small sort of bonus scene early on, but I barely count it since nothing really happens. The actual after credits scene is another comedy clip so it’s not there to advance the plot, but it is a pretty good one. The novelty of the scene is the best part and while I would have preferred a Thanos vs Ultron fight to set up Avengers 2, this will have to do for now. You should hopefully recognize what the after credits scene means…hopefully.

Now, this film is Disney like Star Wars and it’s the first big space epic in a while. After the similar poster came out, I’m sure that we all quickly thought of Star Wars. It’s definitely worth mentioning that they do have a lot of similarities. We get adaptions/homages/similar circumstances to the Dark Vader and Lord Palpatine plot through Thanos and Ronan. We get a space fight scene where a lot of small ships go for the large one like in Star Wars. Groot is pretty similar to Chewbacca and Star Lord’s relationship to Yondu is identical to Han Solo’s time with Jabba The Hut. Gamora and the main heroine of Star Wars also have some mild similarities as they already had a mission and then the other heroes jump in and wreck her plans while attempting to help. There are other similarities and some of these are naturally coincidences since it’s hard not to adapt them when doing a sci-fi film. It definitely had a Star Wars feel to it though and that’s pretty nice. Star Wars definitely had a lot of good things going for it even if it started to make some mistakes down the road.
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Overall, I definitely recommend checking out Guardians of The Galaxy. I love superhero team films because watching the team form is always great. The opening fight scene with the members is pretty great and I definitely place that as my favorite scene. The film is pretty fun to watch and the action scenes are great as well. The film did have some negatives for me, but there aren’t any scenes where you’ll seriously grimace except for the animal violence. This installment can definitely hold its own against the other titles and I’m looking forward to the sequel. We’ll see if Thanos really is one of the major players to face them. Either way, expect a lot of action and excitement along with some more great tunes.

Overall 7/10

X Men Days of Future Past Review

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This was definitely the Xmen film that everyone had been waiting for. It had been a while since First Class so it’s only natural that everyone was excited about this one. It would link up the original trilogy with First Class and finally tie everything together. It was a great move on Fox’s part and I’ve always loved time travel stories. I believe that the very concept makes plot holes jump in all at once, but they’re worth it for the sheer fact that it’s time travel! I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this was the greatest comic book film ever as I’ve heard around the web, but it was a good film.

The film starts out with the heroes in the future as they do battle against the Sentinels. It’s basically a wasteland at this point and there aren’t many mutants that are still alive and ready to continue the fight. The Xmen decide that their only hope is to go back in time and stop this from ever occurring. Professor X wants to go, but Wolverine is the only one that can handle the strain on his mind. They send his consciousness back into his body from the 70’s and Wolverine must assemble what’s left of the Xmen to correct the timeline. The question is…does it need correcting? We’ll talk about the ethics of time travelling later on in the review.

Mystique has decided that she’s going to destroy Trask for the suffering that he has brought to the mutant cause and she’s also freeing other mutants along the way. Professor X doesn’t want anything to do with this and Magneto has plans of his own. It’s going to be tough for Wolverine to bring everything together, but at least he has the Beast with him. He just needs to stop the Government from making the Sentinels…how hard can that be?

Wolverine is a pretty commanding figure as you may have expected from previous films. He still talks big and we get a classic scene where some guys try to shoot Wolverine and he quickly takes them down. The problem is that we are mostly seeing Logan and not Wolverine. Wolverine gets an extremely brief fight against a robot, but that is basically it. The rest of his action scenes are against humans who cant really fight back. He looked pretty intense in his future outfit, but the fight scenes were not meant to be. Unfortunately, his few action scenes were not very kind. Wolverine looks terrible against the robot and I cant say that his final fight was great either. His role was smaller than you may have guessed from the trailers and he’s basically there to be the “old pro.” That’s the vibe that I got from him. He’ll finish the job if the others are unable to do so, but he’s mostly there to watch. Unfortunately…he isn’t much of a last defense.

Mystique is one of the main characters in the film. As she continues in her investigation to take Trask down: Mystique needs to evade the heroes. She does pretty well and manages to make the heroes look bad at several points. She does a really good job of following Trask to his base, but she is outmatched by the heroes. Aside from outsmarting them, she doesn’t stand a great chance in a fight. She plays the part of the hardcore Anti Hero and she does it pretty well. You start to root for her when she saves the first mutants and it helps that her subplot is infinitely more interesting than Wolverine’s. She’s surprisingly good at following Trask’s trail and she’s basically a secret agent. She can definitely hold her own in a hand to hand fight and she ended up looking much more impressive than Wolverine. This is easily her best film appearance.

Magneto gets a bigger role in the past than in the present, but he looks pretty good in both. As an old man; Magneto is definitely still pretty good in a fight and he does inflict some damage. His powers have their limitations, but I thought that his portrayal was accurate considering his age. The past Magneto was pretty nostalgic because it felt like his role in First Class. He got to have his own plot on the side and nobody could really stop him. He’d go wherever he wanted to go and just cause mayhem. He had a clever plan involving metal and a group of Sentinels, which was pretty good. He should definitely be considered as a villain in the film due to his extreme sides, but one could make the case that he’s an Anti Hero. (Anti Hero is typically still a villain, but someone who is committing evil acts for a good cause. Magneto’s actions stretch this a little bit, which is why I just thought of him as the villain) Whether Magneto was a hero or a villain; he’s always been a pretty likable character. His scenes on the Airplane were good and I always enjoy a good veiled threat from one “hero” to another.

Professor X is one of the worst characters in the film. (Past version) I understand that he wants to get away from the whole mutant problem and seeing them go off to fight a losing war in Vietnam was probably sad…but it completely destroyed his personality. (Also, if America has Xmen in the Vietnam War…I’m confident that we would have won. Also, couldn’t Charles have just altered some memories so that the Xmen wouldn’t have to be drafted? It seems simple enough) Charles is now a drunk person who uses injections to keep his powers away. Any scene with him in it was pretty bad. Magneto even has to point out how awful Charles’ actions were as he let their students be destroyed through the years. Xavier definitely should have done a better job of trying to protect them.
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It also makes you wonder how he goes back to normal. Without Wolverine entering the timestream…how could Professor Xavier become the man that we saw in the first film? As it stands, it’s really hard to picture him going bald and then deciding to help mutants again. I’ll assume that his shots ran out and it helped him go back to the way that he was, but I can’t say that it seems likely. A bit of a fault with this subplot in the film, but every time travel story has its issues. It’s just one of the unspoken rules about time travel. The current Xavier was pretty good and he’s about what you would expect. Unfortunately, telepathy has never been good against Sentinels.

I definitely was not a fan of the Beast in this film. I don’t like how they basically made him into a Hulk and I don’t like him in either form. The effects for his Beast Mode are surprisingly unrealistic and they over hype him. (I don’t see him doing so well against Wolverine) I definitely would have been glad if he wasn’t in the film and it’s a scary thought to see that he’s the only Xman left at one point. These were definitely dark times for the heroes.

Quicksilver was pretty good in this film and I have to say that it will be tough for Avengers 2 to top his portrayal here. Speedsters should basically be invincible when they appear due to how slow everything is in comparison. In Quicksilver’s scene, we see just how slow everything is compared to him. Bullets are in slow motion and those are already moving at supersonic speeds. I don’t see how he can endure it when characters talk to him because it must take whole minutes for the sound to get to him. It’s one of the phenomenons of super speedsters so I don’t generally think about it that much. Just accepting it is a lot simpler, but I can’t accept a random person landing a hit on a speedster. Luckily, Quicksilver’s speed is accurate and he looks very good during his speed scenes. I definitely can’t wait to see him in the sequel.

The Sentinels in the present are very cool. They’re powerful and the designs give them a very horrifying appearance that is perfect for them. Sentinels should definitely be intimidating and the film captured this. I’m a little skeptical about the humans creating something this hi tech, but I’ll just assume that they got some other worldy help on the project. Naturally, the Sentinels in the past are very unimpressive and downright weak, but they’re more than a match for Wolverine. It would be nice to see the present Sentinels get some more screen time, but their few scenes were very good. They can definitely hold their own against the mutants.

Aside from the main mutants in the past; we also have the team from the future. Storm, Sunspot, Warpath, Shadow Cat, Iceman, Blink, and Bishop. They have a pretty limited amount of screen time, but the cameos are still fun for fans. Storm is able to make a pretty impressive storm that takes care of some of the ships. I would have liked to see some more lightning as well, but we can’t have it all. Shadow Cat doesn’t get to fight since she’s busy with her time travel abilities, but she’s a decent character. Warpath is pretty silent for most of the film and the average moviegoer may wonder how a guy with two daggers is still alive in these tough times. Warpath is outmatched from start to finish, but at least he tries. Iceman and Sunspot use their elemental blasts, but none of them are really that effective against the Sentinels. Good for temporary measures, but that’s about it. Iceman’s idea to wake up Shadow Cat was decent since a tactical retreat could have been in order. With his ice slides, I like to think that he would have made it pretty far. Bishop had a cool design and his powers were epic, but he was pretty inconsequential. He didn’t do a whole lot of damage and he should have focused on releasing his energy quicker as they started to blast him. It was a waste of his abilities in that scene.
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Blink did the best against the Sentinels and her powers are formidable. Creating portals wherever she wants too is an excellent ability and it’s one that should be more than enough to buy time against the Sentinels. Unfortunately, she lets her guard down and moves a little too slowly at one point. Something like that was bound to happen at some point, but I wouldn’t have minded if she had escaped. With her abilities, she can basically launch a one person offensive against the Sentinels for a long time.

Trask and Stryker are both extremely unlikable. It’s natural to dislike them since we’re supposed to be rooting for the heroes to win. Still, it is possible to make villains that are likable and these two don’t fit the bill. Since they are basically the only villains for the heroes to face in the past…it doesn’t really help matters. Both of them can’t fight at all so they have to hide behind other people with guns and just hope for the best. Stryker has a gun, but I don’t believe that it will really help him.

Back to the time travel part of the film. The Xmen send Wolverine back in time so that he can change things and help them all out. Naturally, it’s understandable that they would want to change things because of how everything turned out, but…why not use time travel for other cases. They could have used it to go back in time and stop the Phoenix from destroying Cyclops. They could have gone back in time to stop the bullet from taking out Professor X’s legs and so on. Ultimately, if you time travel once…there is no turning back. There will always be other things that they could have done with it. Why not save Abraham Lincoln or Kennedy while they’re at it? Ultimately, the Xmen are doing it to help their position and I’m sure that many others would do the same, but it’s still not the best move considering that the repercussions will be worse for others. Some will be better off and others will lose out thanks to this deal.

Another part of time travel stories that I never buy is the fact that things got so bad so quickly. I don’t believe that the humans could take down the mutant race with a bunch of Sentinels. There are far too many mutants and the government can’t hide something so big. The mutants would quickly find out about the Sentinels and it would be game over. Some of the mutants must have an EMP related ability and naturally we have control over time. Taking over minds or just nuking the planet…either way this wouldn’t work. There’s no way that the human race would band together for the Sentinel program and at least one country would fire the first nuke. World War III would begin and there wouldn’t be any survivors. The few that may live through such an event wouldn’t have time to form a government and launch thousands of sentinels. The whole situation is about as unbelievable as the Age of Ultron…and that was unbelievable! I just don’t tend to believe any scenario where all of the heroes are defeated so easily. (Not to mention the villains. Naturally this means that I will never buy into Spiderman 2099’s continuity. It just doesn’t make sense)

This time I can’t really say that there was much of a soundtrack. There are some light background themes playing, but none of them are really memorable and you may figure that they were free domain music. It’s not the next Winter Soldier or Amazing Spider Man 2 in that regard, but an unmemorable soundtrack is better than a bad one.

While Days of Future Past was good; I ranked Amazing Spiderman 2 and Captain America higher than it. This is mainly due to the following reasons that I will get into. First, the film lacks fight scenes. We get two fight scenes in the future with the Sentinels and that’s about it. In the past, the only opponents are random humans and unfinished robots. Beast has a small scuffle with Magneto, but it’s barely even worth calling it a fight. The past scenes are decently interesting at times, but also a little boring for others. I felt that the film could have used a little cut in the runtime or just focused on the present more. At least give Trask a mutant body guard to that we could have some fights. I was really surprised by how little fighting there was and that was the first big strike.

Next, I didn’t like how weak the mutants look. Wolverine yells in pain when some guys shoot him and then he yells again when someone throws in another bullet. By this point…isn’t he used to getting shot? I get that the regeneration factor doesn’t take away the pain, but his reaction felt very dramatized. The present scenes don’t help the mutants either. While it does make the Sentinels look tough in comparison; I would expect a much better fight from the Xmen. How about using teamwork and letting Warpath get a clean shot at the Sentinel’s head through a portal? Long range fighters like Iceman and Bishop should have fired from afar instead of running right into the Sentinel’s range. The Xmen were humiliated in the fight and we got to see them get completely crushed twice. Storm also let her guard down in a critical moment, which was likely sad for fans. Weakness in the heroes is something that I criticize Transformers 3 for (And likely 4 based off of the trailers) and it can definitely bring a film down if you’re a fan of the character. The Sentinels could have still looked impressive if they had some more resistance from the Xmen. It’s a delicate line to tread for the film, but it is crucial.

Those were my two big complaints with the film. Despite the new Spider Man film not being regarded as a masterpiece, it didn’t make these mistakes. There was constant action throughout and Spider Man looked very impressive during his fights. He never went in unprepared for action. The film never dragged on for me because it was a blast. Winter Soldier may have had a bit of a slow middle, but it made up for this with higher stakes than these two films and really great hand to hand scenes.

Naturally, the film has an after credits scene, which should lead to an epic sequel. I’ll admit that I was underwhelmed by the scene, but that’s because I had high expectations. I basically knew that this character would appear in the scene, but I expected him to look a little more grand. Like the Thanos scene in the MCU franchise. The scenery also wasn’t my favorite and I wanted a little more action, but it’s only a single scene so we can’t expect too much out of it. While this film may not have felt like an Xmen/Superhero film; the sequel could definitely get that vibe. If they adapt this villain correctly; then it’s safe to say that big things should be expected!
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Overall, this was a good Xmen film. It lacked action and dragged on for a while, but it was good to finally have another film in the series. (Wolverine films can’t make up for the other Xmen not getting to appear) The stakes were technically very high since the future was dire, but it didn’t feel that way in the present. From the moment that Wolverine went into the past everything seemed safe. Even if he had to go, Professor X and Magneto are now aware of the danger so the Sentinel program would never be allowed to advance into such dangerous territories. The ending was really good and it’s a fun way to end the franchise. (Ignoring the sequel coming up) I’m pretty happy for Wolerine since he usually gets the short end of the stick, but he can finally enjoy himself now. I still recommend this film to superhero fans, but don’t walk in expecting a lot of action and explosions. Think of it as an Ocean’s Eleven tale as Wolverine must gather up some friends to take down the villain’s plans. As a side note, the final scene of the film is probably one of the best ones in the franchise. Wolverine finally gets taken down a peg as someone puts him in his place. The line was epic and it’s the type of moment that will make an audience blow up with rage and excitement. It’s a scene that you don’t want to miss!

Overall 6/10