The Wolverine (3D)

I very nearly went to see The Worlds End (again) today instead of this..

Any hoo, here's a synopsis..  In this movie we find our hero living in a cave, looking like he fits right in and suffering from reoccurring nightmares.. It transpires that a Japanese soldier he saved at Nagasaki during THAT fateful bombing wants to repay him and has tracked him down. Cut to Japan and it turns out that the soldier in question has turned into a successful businessman... with a few tricks up his sleeve..

This film was... ok.
First the plus points.. It carries on after the 'hit and miss' X-Men 3 and takes that film into account continuity wise. Which I thought was admirable. (I thought they'd do a Superman Returns and ignore the last ones).
It had been seen in the trailer, but the bullet train sequence was genuinely exciting and well choreographed.
There was more humour in this too, which was lacking in previous superhero movies.
There was also an excellent 'end of credits' scene, well kind of 'mid credits' really, that had a couple of brilliant cameos.  I'm assuming it's a warm up for 'Day's Of Future Past'.
On the negative side, there wasn't enough other mutants for more liking (some may see this as a plus point)
And really the film was just average.. No particular standout moments (except the bullet train sequence). I didn't come out of the film thinking "Can't wait to see that again!"

Overall, an ok ***





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The Worlds End

Whoo hoo! Here I am in Cardiff and this time it's 'The Worlds End'.

This is another one I've been looking forward to, despite the trailer not really doing it for me..

Ok, basic synopsis goes thus... Simon Pegg plays Gary King (I think) a 40 something failure who blames his lack of success in life on a pub crawl that he and his chums failed to complete back in his youth.. So, in order to achieve some closure, he gathers his mates together and attempts to complete the 'golden mile' pub crawl once and for all. Ok, that's a VERY basic synopsis but it sets up the general tone of the movie..

I loved this one.. It has a head start as I'm a big fan of "Shaun Of The Dead" (SOTD) and "Hot Fuzz" (HF).  Plus I think I may have been the only one that really enjoyed "Scott Pilgrim Vs The World"..

A lot of reviewers have commented on how it loses its way after the initial half hour or so and I can see their point. I laughed out loud for the first 3rd of the film (could have been more). But I still enjoyed the rest of the film. SOTD and HF both had a similar setup in that they start off with normal people living normal lives... Then it goes bonkers!?!  

There's some good supporting roles in this too. Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsden are all excellent as the reluctant chums. Nick Frost plays the straight, sober guy this time (to start with at least).

It defiantly deserves a second viewing as the gags came thick and fast..

Overall, an enjoyable ****

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Pacific Rim 2D

It's the hottest day of the year today (29c) so what better way to spend it than sat in a nice, dark, air conditioned cinema..

This is another film I was looking forward to. The trailers made it look 'interesting' to say the least. I was willing to overlook the Transformer 3&4 comparisons because Guillmero Del Toro was directing and I'm a big fan of the Hellboys and Pans Labyrinth.. To be fair though, I think this is not up to his usual standards.
Firstly the good points. The CGI robots fighting CGI monsters is excellent and very well executed.. Ok that should be good POINT..

Now the bad points. The acting is terrible! This could be down to the script though. But even Idris Elba couldn't save it. Now I know some people like to jump straight into the action (as in this film) but here, in my opinion, the back story was too rushed.. They should have played it out a bit more, you know, got to know the lead characters history a bit.
There were a bit too many cliched characters too.. The pair of scientists in particular..
Overall I was disappointed

Rating. **1/2
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