X-Men: Days of Future Past - A Rant

I'm not quite why sure there's been such a huge reaction to the film version of X-Men: Days of Future Past (DoFP). As of this writing, the movie has a 91% aggregate score from critics on rottentomatoes.com and an absurdly high 95% from audiences. That's better than Captain America: Winter Soldier (89% and 94% respectively)!

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed DoFP and thought it was entertaining enough. However, it is nowhere near as good as Winter Soldier. That movie had everything going for it. A great tone, script, pace, acting, direction, humor, choreography, effects, continuity, fan service, respect for the source material, respect for the audience, respect for the filmmaking art... hell, it even had Robert Redford!

While DoFP does have some good things going for it, it's not the complete package that Winter Soldier was and while I realize it's a subjective thing, I don't feel it deserves to be called the "best" X-Men movie.

Here are some of the reasons why.

SPOILER WARNING.

Transformers: Age of Extinction Toys at SM Fairview!

Hey, did you guys miss the Transformers: Age of Extinction (AoE) toy launch at SM Megamall a few weeks back? Sad that you didn't get a chance to pick up Leader Class Optimus Prime or Grimlock? Still trying to get your hands on a Deluxe Class Slug?

Worry not, Autobots (or at least those near SM Fairview), you get another chance at the new AoE toys at the Transformers event at SM Fairview, Annex Atrium today!

There will be a distribution table today (Saturday, May 31, 2014) where you can get in on some "choice" releases like the new Voyager Hound and Voyager Galvatron from wave 2:

I'm not really into the Bayverse (they keep getting worse!), but if they float your boat, get on down to Fairview and get in line! They probably still have some of those Blitzwing clones and the LC toys, too. Not to mention some nice markdowns (I got a few of the Beast Hunter Voyagers at Megamall). Not sure about that Prime/Grimmy two-pack, but don't lose hope, toy collector!

Don't stop believing!

Thanks to Hasbro and Playkit Philippines, Toy Kingdom, and Cybertron Philippines for hooking us all up!

Godzilla

Short version, no spoilers? The slow burn of the new Godzilla movie would have been totally effective for me IF the payoff at the end was more amazing.

Basically, you're given an hour and a half of exposition from a couple of characters you care next to nothing for and then given a few shots of giant monsters pushing each other. And I don't mean awesome, low angle shots of monsters being thrown through buildings. I mean eye level wide shots of two monsters literally pushing each other like third graders.

That was pretty much the movie for me. Spoiler time.

Penny Dreadful

I don't spend as much time on the Web as I used to, so I was totally blindsided by Penny Dreadful, the new TV series from Showtime. Someone had just told me that it was good and that I should watch it. I didn't even bother reading up on it before hand. I figured that it’d be something like Grimm, or Sleepy Hollow; light, pseudo-horror, action-adventure-ish.

Penny Dreadful is NONE of those things.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

While I enjoyed Captain America: The First Avenger well enough, to say it was at the top of my list of favorite movies would be a lie. I was entertained by it, and I liked Chris Evans in the role, but the character was never really one of those I followed. When I first started comics, I was a kid and how could a boring guy with a shield stand up to characters like Wolverine with claws that poked through his skin? I mean, claws!

When I got older and started branching out, I realized that Marvel didn't always use him as jingoist propoganda, which by his costume would be the perfect role. They did stories that put him at odds with the government, where he questions authority and blind obedience. Those were pretty great stories.

Divergent

I tried.

Wanting to give the film a chance, I went and saw Divergent this weekend. Having become a fan of The Hunger Games after the movie came out, I've been going to see other movies based on Young Adult books. So far however, lightning hasn't struck twice. Beautiful Creatures was awful and City of Bones was an incoherent mess. Though not as awful as those two, Divergent doesn't come off much better.

When I looked up the movie online afterwards, it had a www.clickthecity.com user rating of 5 stars. I couldn't believe it, until I remembered the 143 minutes or so I spent watching the movie in the theater. Even at 10:30 am, fan girls were out in force and squealing with glee every 90 seconds or so.

Did “Four” (that’s the lead's name, seriously) take off his shirt?

SQUEAL!

Robocop

I'm embarrassed to say that like many nerds, I automatically jump to worst-case-scenario when it comes to news about adaptations to licences that I loved as a kid, and Robocop was one of them. When I heard that Hollywood was doing another movie about the murdered Detroit cop brought back to life by cybernetics to fight crime, my reaction was a less than stellar example of open-mindedness.

In fact, there may have been a generous measure of angry screaming, and some rather vigorous head-desking involved.

Justice League: War

Justice League: War is the cartoon equivalent of a Michael Bay movie: lots of action, explosions and silly women. If that's what you're looking for in a comic book feature, then this DVD from the guys over at Warner Bros. Animation is just the thing.

However, if you're like me and was a fan of the DC Animated Universe and its unparalleled success at creating a hugely entertaining inter-connected continuity with superior screenwriting and world building, then you'll be disappointed.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender

Let me admit that I was a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan. 'The Sixth Sense'? Wow. That movie was awesome, and still holds a lot of it's appeal after you already know the big ending. I also liked two of his follow up hits, 'Unbreakable' and 'The Village'. However, aside from those, he's put out turkey after turkey. There was the odd 'Signs' in which Mel Gibson faces off against aliens dumb enough to attack a planet whose surface is covered in about 70% water, a substance that is lethal to them. Then there was that awful 'The Happening' where Mark Wahlberg realizes that the plant population has banded together to get rid of human beings by forcing them to commit suicide (it's as dumb as it sounds). Don't even get me started with 'Lady in the Water.'

But by far, Mr. Shyamalan's biggest sin, the one movie that I now associate with his name and the cause for innumerable Internet rants, was 'The Last Airbender'.

Helix

I only got wind of SyFy's new show, ‘Helix,’ a few days before its premiere on the cable network on January 10, 2014. So far, I've seen three episodes and I’m hooked, eager to see what’s next.

The show is produced by Ronald D. Moore, the guy behind the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ reboot, and a mess of other creative guys from shows like ‘Alphas’ and ‘The X-Files,’ and movies like ‘Contact.’ The new show is the brainchild of Cameron Porsandeh, a writer who is new to me, but is who is now definitely on my radar. He brought it to Sony Pictures and they were able to pull in all this fantastic talent to flesh it out and connect ideas to make it cohesive, according to interviews.