My Top 5 Problems with Today's Film Critics and The Film Fandom

     Hey everyone and welcome back. So...as of recently I'm not really enjoying film critics and/or the film community. Now yes I know not every single fandom is perfect but that's still no excuse to be what's the polite wording...exhausting, yeah let's use that word. So enough of this very terrible opening, let's get to it. Here are my top five problems with film critics and the fandom.

#5. A Race to Be The Snarkiest

Yeah you all have probably seen this. You know whenever a new film comes out and it sucks the reviews on film reviews websites like Rotten Tomatoes (ugh!) everything starts out as a review then turns to an insult contest. And that's what I don't like. For some reason nowadays whenever a film comes out whether it be good or bad someone anyone has to act this way. They say their reviewing the film but their not. Both critics and fans need to realize there's a differences between criticism and just being a troll.

#4. Not Finding a Grey Area



For some reason as of late it feels like no one whether it's a film critic or film fan can find a grey area in movies. It's either the film is super amazing or it's awful and should never be heard of again. The reason why I hate this is because while yes you have your good movies and your bad movies there is still a lot of films that fall in the category of being okay. Not awful not spectacular just okay. One example is 2016's Suicide Squad or last years Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets. While those films had problems there still was a lot of good things in them. But nope they sucked they didn't fall in the only two ratings. Anything that isn't rated certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes or 10/10 on IMDb it's an awful film. I just hate how black and white the fandom/critics have made films.





#3. Thinking They Know What Goes Into Making a Movie



This one's going to a bit longer so bare with him here. Basically what I'm trying to say is a lot ofcritics/fans have been acting like they know what goes into making a film. Even though I lot of them can be broken into two categories. On one said we have the filmmaker who's also a film critic. My problem with this these filmmakers/film critics have this attitude as if the film their reviewing is something they could have done better. But then you look at the filmography and they mostly deal with very very VERY small independent movies. I'm talking a budget they were lucky enough to get at the $25,000 mark. In short these filmmakers/film critics really need to stop acting like they could do better then their more high budgeted directors. Because I guarantee if you were do give them the job of directing a big budgeted blockbuster mostly likely some of them would crack under that pressure. Then we have the film critic who's just that a film critic. Not somebody who was a stage hand, VFX artist, or even the mic guy, just the film critic. My problem with them is they sometimes act like they know the behind the scenes process but some of them don't. Now they do have a good moment that says they have some kind of idea of what's going but I large majority of the time not so much. So filmmakers/film critics and plain regular film critics please stop acting like you know something when even you know you don't.





#2. Not Knowing What They Want



So to my recent memory both critics and the film community can't seem to know what they want from filmmakers. One of the biggest examples is when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out they complained about how the film was so dark and serious. So Warner Bros. decided to make Justice League more lighter than the previous movie. But even with this change they still complained and said things like it lacks substance unlike Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I couldn't believe they said that since that's what they wanted! Okay so critics/film fans want movies to be more "fun" than dark fine. Then Rampage came and it's basically what they wanted. Even though the film was dark in some places it was still a turn-off your brain flick. But they still complained! The main complaint being they wished for more drama by having the giant animals to be human first then transform to animals, instead of animals being made bigger. What they were saying is can this be a little bit darker? But they previously said they don't want dark stuff in their movies. So it's this consist they got what they want but they still want to moan and groan.





#1. Judging a Movie Before It's Release



Oh my god! This one drives me absolutely crazy! I can not stand this! Now a lot of times this is to be expected whenever a poster, trailer, or even a commercial has been released people feel the need to criticize it. But their not criticize any of those their judging the whole film based on a bad poster or trailer. One example of this is when the first Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom trailer came out people were saying it looks dumb or the writers were ripping off The Lost World: Jurassic Park II. Remember this was a teaser trailer not the actual film, they were criticizing a teaser. The number one rule for me is review the final product not the marketing. For example in my opinion Spider-Man: Homecoming had some pretty bad marketing. One trailer spoiled how Spider-Man gets out of that boat that was splitting apart, the choice of song for the first trailer was terrible, Iron Man was involved in so much of the marketing fans were worried it would be Iron Man: Homecoming and let's not forget this horrendous excuse of a poster.

By the way, that Iron Man pose was used at least three more times for other posters.

So yeah the marketing was not filling me up with the best confidants for this movie but I still didn't want to judge the movie based on marketing. Then July 7, 2017 rolled in and you know what the film was good not perfect but good. This is what every critic/fan should be doing. They can criticize the marketing all they want that's fine but they need sit and wait for they actual film to come before making any sort of judgment on the film's quality.

That's going to do it for me folks. So enjoy the rest of your day.

State of The Project (Jul 7th - Aug 2nd)




Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review




Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)




Jul 19th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars: Battlefront III




Jul 23rd - A Look Back at Superman: Doomsday (2007)




Jul 26th - The Death of Superman Review




Jul 30th - My Top 5 Problems with Today's Film Critics and The Film Fandom




Aug 2nd - Is It True? - Andy's Mom is Jessie's Owner






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

The Death of Superman Review

The Death of Superman is animated superhero film based on the shocking story The Death of Superman. It is the 32nd entire in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies filmography and the eleventh film in the DC Animated Movie Universe. The film is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment. The Death of Superman is written by Peter J. Tomasi and directed by Jake Castorena and Sam Liu.

The story is people are terrified and are being killed left and right by a creature called Doomsday. The Justice League arrive to stop the force of nature but are quickly taken down. Only Superman remains standing and is the only one that can stop this monstrosity.

Initial Reaction

Now as a fan of Superman I was fully pumped for this movie. Yes we did kinda get that back in 2007 with Superman: Doomsday but they cut so many things out of that story that you really missed out on somethings. So when I heard that DC would do a more faithful adaptation on The Death of Superman that sounded awesome. What also made me excited was we were finally gonna get another animated Superman movie. We haven't gotten one of those since 2013. Since then all we got were 5 Justice League films, 2 Teen Titans films, 7 Batman movies, and 1 Suicide Squad flick. So yeah a Superman animated movie was long overdue.

Cons




The only thing I didn't like about the film was Rainn Wilson as Lex Luthor. The voice he provided just didn't sit well with me. Throughout the film it just sounded like Lex was just a tad bit nasally.





Middle Ground




One thing I'm really mixed on is Superman/Clark Kent and Lois being in a relationship. What puts in such a grey area for me is it just felt kind of out of the blue. Because from Justice League: War to Justice League vs. Teen Titans we've had Superman and Wonder Woman as a couple. But the thing is with Clark and Lois being in a relationship it does provide emotional weight to the story and it is the filmmakers being accurate to the comic story arc. So yeah like I said I'm very much mixed on the whole Clark and Lois thing.





Pros




What I loved most about the movie is there are things in here that are accurate to the comics. Such as Doomsday in his green suit, the Justice League (not Justice League International like the comics. Just wanted to point that out) fighting Doomsday before Superman arrives, and many other things. Another thing to enjoy from The Death of Superman is much like Superman: Doomsday we do get some clever easter eggs. One those being many shots inspired by Zack Snyder's films Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and one particular shot that looked like it was taken from Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman. The other enjoyable thing about this movie is it's way more brutal than Superman: Doomsday. There's a more splattered blood, we hear more bones crunching, and Superman's fight with Doomsday is a lot more intense. Now to talk about the animation. I've said it in previous reviews for other DC animated movies and I'll say it again. Despite being a direct-to-video film the animation is good. It's nothing that's going to win them an award but given how other direct-to-video animated films look I'll take it.






The Death of Superman is quite an enjoyable DC animated film. It adapts more things from the comics that Superman: Doomsday left out, so good easter eggs/references, being more brutal and intense than the previous film Superman: Doomsday, and having some good animation along the way. I'm sort of mixed with Clark and Lois being a couple since previously in the DC Animated Movie Universe it was Superman and Wonder Woman but at the same time it did give us a good subplot and emotional moments. The only thing I didn't like was Wilson's Luthor voice.





My final rating is Good





State of The Project (Jul 5th - Jul 30th)




Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)




Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review




Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)




Jul 19th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars: Battlefront III




Jul 23rd - A Look Back at Superman: Doomsday (2007)




Jul 26th - The Death of Superman Review




Jul 30th - My Top 5 Problems with Today's Film Critics and The Film Fandom






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

A Look Back at Superman: Doomsday

With The Death of Superman arriving tomorrow, I figured it would be a good idea to review the first animated film to kill Superman off.

Superman: Doomsday is 2007 animated direct-to-video superhero film, adapted from DC Comics' storyline The Death of Superman. It was the first film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. The movie is produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Premiere, and DC Comics and distributed by Warner Home Video. Superman: Doomsday was written by Duane Capizzi and Bruce Timm and directed by Lauren Montgomery, Brandon Vietti, and Bruce Timm.

The story is genetically-engineered creature known as Doomsday has escaped from his prison. The perfect killing machine goes on a rampage all the way to Metropolis. The only one who can stop this monster is Superman.

• Negatives

The only thing I really didn't like was the subplot between Lois and Clark Kent/Superman. For some reason the writers wanted Lois not to know Superman's secret identity. I don't understand this because there are some scenes where she acts like she doesn't know but then you get scenes where Lois goes to the Kent farm and talks to Martha. When that scene happened I was confused. So it felt like a consent back and forth.

• Mix

One thing I have a mixed feeling on is Adam Baldwin as Superman. The voice he provide isn't bad but whenever I heard Superman or Clark Kent talk it felt like he was just a little bit tired. Like Adam wasn't fully awake when recording his lines.

• Positives

One thing I did like about the film like many other DC animated movies were the action scenes. They were fast paced and exciting. My favorites were well obviously Superman vs. Doomsday and the final fight between the two Supermen.

Another thing I also enjoyed was were the little easter eggs in this film. You get things from Superman: The Animated Series, items from the Fleischer Superman cartoon shorts, and a cameo by Kevin Smith. If any of you understand that last one give yourselves a pat on the back.

One other thing to enjoy about this film was when Superman died. I really enjoy those scenes because it showed some emotion. We get interviews with people who were Superman fans, people Superman saved, and just be quietness and the only sounds you are typical background sounds you expect to hear like a phone ringing.

Now since Doomsday was in this film how is he? Well he does everything you expect Doomsday to do. He kills things left and right, he destroys things like tanks, and of course he kills Superman. So they definitely kept all the things that made Doomsday in here and if your a fan of this villain, you'll be pleased.

Superman: Doomsday while not my favorite animated Superman film it's still a film I enjoyed. The action is awesome, the little easter eggs, the mourning Superman's death was played good, and Doomsday was kept comic accurate. One thing that was in a grey area was Baldwin's voice for Superman and the thing I didn't like was the subplot about Lois not liking that Superman won't tell her he's other identity.

My final rating is Okay

State of The Project (Jul 2nd - Jul 26th)

Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)

Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review

Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)

Jul 19th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars: Battlefront III

Jul 23rd - A Look Back at Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Jul 26th - The Death of Superman Review

NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars Battlefront III

Welcome back everyone to another editon of Raiders of The Lost Media. This time around I tell you about a video game Star Wars fans wanted but unfortunaly didn't get. Also a surprise part of this will briefly tell you about Star Wars: Battlefront IV.

Part One - What was Star Wars: Battlefront III?

Star Wars: Battlefront III was the expected third installment to the Star Wars: Battlefront series. The game went throught various stages of "development hell" before being cancelled.

Part Two - Development Hell

Now typically when I do these there usually in short paragraphs, but for this game that's not the case. For this part I'll break the game's history down by years. So this is going to get long so bare with me.

2006

LucasArts approaches Free Radical Design and ask them to make Battlefront III. Due to the nature of of the project and the fact that they'd be working on a Star Wars game, Free Radical accepts the company's offer and begin to work on Battlefront III. They see this as a great opportunity to show what their team is capable of and their engine.

2007

Work still continues. Mid-late of that year bulids were compiled for use to test on consoles, though they are still in a very rough stage. Relations between LucasArts and Free Radical Design are still good, however things at LucasArts are shaky.

2008 - The Downfall of Free Radical Design

Now during this year this is when things get crazy. Over at Free Radical Design things are not looking good. The Haze team has been struggling for some time now, and Ubisoft has been sending producers over to Free Radical to get the game ready in time for it's release, as it has already been delayed from the PlayStation 3's launch. These producers have been very tough on the team and morale is beginning to thin; rumors are going around that Free Radical is sending Battlefront III developers over to Haze (thought as the circumstances show, this is not out of free will and has more to do with contractual obligations and the fact they want Haze out the door). David Doak and Steve Ellis have decided to come clean to LucasArts and ask for a delayed release date for Battlefront III, due to internal studio struggles. This is unfortunate because around this time Jim Ward has left the company and LucasArts' management was running the company until the new CEO arrived. However they agree that this will not bode well for Free Radical Design.




Somewhere in mid-2008, Darrell Rodriguez arrives and begin to cut cost at LA. Countless projects have been cancelled and many employees are laid off. Free Radical begins to notice and now starting to worry. Because of how far the project is, Rodriguez allows Free Radical to continue work on Battlefront III. This turns from being a dream to a nightmare for them, as he is now pushing the company and the project as far as he can and as a result morale for Free Radical is beginning to drop yet again. This was the last thing they wanted. Eventually relations with Free Radical Design and LucasArts get strained so bad that LucasArts refuses to pay Free Radical. They then set unreachable milestones and force the company to work unpaid.




In late 2008, Rebellion finds out about the struggles over at Free Radical Design and offers to finish Battlefront III for them. LucasArts catches wind of this and shelves the idea. Meanwhile enthusiasm for Free Radical is still declining, this would later force David Doak to leave the company because he couldn't handle the stress LA is forcing him to deal with. Regardless Free Radical still wants to finish the game. During this time relations between Free Radical and LucasArts have finally hit an all time low. Internal videos are being shown to LA employees, depicting Free Radical Design's take on the studio management. This crosses a line and Darrell Rodriguez orders the game to be cancelled. He's fully aware that money in Free Radical's bank is beginning to run low and so he refuses to pay them the amount owned in the contract. He then forces them into a corner by explaining that he will take them to court and make the case until money ran out, or give them a very small sum if they just walk away. Free Radical at this point is in no position to fight LucasArts, so they had to accept the small sum and walk away. During the Christmas season, Free Radical Design has no choice but to enter administration. All the months of unpaid work had run their bank account, and the money they accepted from LA was only a small amount of what they were actually owned. Soon after their Christmas party, Free Radical employees arrived to work to find the doors locked and a note telling them to meet up at a local hotel. It was there that a vast majority of them would find out that they no longer had jobs and were here to collect their severance packages. Those who were allowed to remain were told to gut the studio and pack up all their equipment so they were ready to move into their new studio. Crytek eventually bought Free Radical Design and all the employees who still had jobs now work for Crytek developers.






2009 - Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

LucasArts begins talks with Rebellion. Even though they didn't pay Free Radical Design for six months, they still invested a lot of money into the project. Initially, the plan was to finish the game, but with a deadline for a game to be finished by the end of the year wasn't possible. Rebellion decides to create a handheld version of the game, and so they import the raw assets into their won engine and create "Elite Squadron" a bare-bone version of Battlefront III.

2010 - Star Wars: Battlefront Online

Slant Six Games begins production of Star Wars: Battlefront Online. The game was meant to be a downloadable-only and released only on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Pieces of concept art were made, but the game failed because of lack of enthusiasm.

2011 to 2012 - The Final Nail in The Coffin

Somewhere in December of 2011 rumors fly around that Sparks Unlimited are working on Star Wars Battlefront III. Journalist and fans believe this because at the time the company was working on an unannounced game for LucasArts and refused to to reveal if it was Battlefront III their comment was

"We cannot comment at this time. Please wait for the announcement by LucasArts".

However this dream was shot down on April 12, 2012 when it was revealed the game Sparks Unlimited was working was Lost Plant 3. The game was officially cancelled when back in Oct 30, 2012 Disney bought Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4 billion dollars, since they bought Lucasfilm that meant that Disney also bought LucasArts. They would later cease all internal development at LucasArts and laid off most of it's staff. A new Star Wars Battlefront game would be released on Nov 17, 2015 by EA.

Part Three - Video

So far the only video related to Star Wars Battlefront III is one released by GamerSpawn showcasing the pre-release alpha gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WeX41WfOsY

Part Four - Star Wars Battlefront IV

On Mar 16 of this year concept art would surface showing the cancelled game Star Wars Battlefront IV. It would have been a very different game compared to the other installments of the series. Rather than attempt to fit into previous film and game's canon it would have taken place in an alternate reality where Anakin never turned to the dark side but instead his son Luke and his master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Along with other realities such Darth Maul never being a Sith but a Jedi. It definitely would have been an interesting game. I'll provide you with a link to the concept art but fair warning there's a total of 158 images so if you don't have that much time I recommend you look at some of these instead of all of them. https://imgur.com/gallery/k3N2d










Well that's going to do it for this edition of Raiders of The Lost Media. Next time I'll be doing another one of these and it will be yet another video game. What is it? Here's a hint: Flawless Victory! Fatality!






State of The Project (Jun 23rd - Jul 23rd)




Jun 23rd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review




Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever




Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)




Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review




Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)




Jul 19th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars: Battlefront III




Jul 23rd - A Look Back at Superman: Doomsday (2007)






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)

Hello everybody and welcome to yet another What You Probably Didn't Know About. As you can tell by the title I will be doing the 1984 action classic The Terminator. So enough of this intro let's get right into it.

1. The beginning of production had to be postponed for nine months, because Arnold Schwarzenegger was commitment to Conan the Destroyer (1984). During this time James Cameron wanted to be working but didn't have the time to do a whole other film so he took on a writing assignment; this turned out to be Aliens (1986).

2. While filming the final shot, a police car arrived. And the scene was being shot without a permit. One crew member told the police officer that it was his son's film school project and that they had just the last shot left. Then the excuse worked. No seriously the cop actually believed them.








3. In the beginning of the movie, Sarah Connor receives a message on her answering machine. The voice on that message is James Cameron himself.









4. The puppet of Arnold Schwarzenegger's face took six months to make.











5. Shots through the Terminator's vision shows a dump of the ROM assembler code for the Apple II operating system. If you own an Apple II, enter at the basic prompt: ] call -151* p this will give you the Terminator point of view.








6. The teaser trailer is narrated by Peter Cullen, best known for being the voice of Optimus Prime.







7. Wolfie (James Cameron's German Shepherd) can be seen at the Tiki Motel.








8. The Terminator's endoskeleton was very heavy and difficult to carry for Stan Winston's team. They later found that building a prop robot out of metal is realistic but not practical.







9. In the original script the Terminator was going to steal a car in the beginning of the film. In that scene the Terminator was observing an old woman getting into a car and as she saw the Terminator she would panic and put the car in reverse while hitting a trash can, correcting herself, put the car into drive then speed off. The Terminator then enters the car and then would mimic what the elderly woman did.







10. This is the only time in the Terminator franchise where the Terminator changes his hairstyle. When the Terminator breaks into an apartment in the self-repair sequence, his hairstyle is different compared to the one he had earlier. This is because he runs through fire caused by a car explosion where he's hair is burned. He also loses his eyebrows, and spends the rest of the movie without them.









11. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to avoid Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn as much as possible. His reason being The Terminator was trying to kill them not form connections.








12. Mel Gibson turned down the role of The Terminator, thinking he wasn't right for the role. After seeing the film he praised Schwarzenegger as the right choice.









13. O.J. Simpson was considered for the role of The Terminator, but the producers feared he was "too nice" to be take seriously as a cold-blooded killer (this was before he went on trail for murder by the way). Later in 1990 Dark Horse Comics printed issues using his likeness (again before he went on trail).










14. While shooting the film James Cameron often resorted to what he called "Guerilla Film Making" as a way to get around acquiring permits needed to film certain areas. This involved the production crew and actors to work quickly arriving at a specific location, shooting the scenes and leaving before the police arrived. As a result, some of the people seen in a few shots are actual everyday people completely unaware they are in a movie. This was also used for reshoots with Cameron even calling Arnold at 3:00am to meet him at a location in full costume to quickly reshoot a scene. This would explain why most of the film occurs at night.






That's going to do it for this installment of What You Probably Didn't Know About. Come back on August 27th for another edition and this time it's all about the 1976 classic Rocky.

State of The Project (Jun 21st - Jul 19th)




Jun 21st - Raiders of The Lost Media - Overwatch: First Strike




Jun 23rd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review




Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever




Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)




Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review




Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)




Jul 19th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Star Wars: Battlefront III






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

Ant-Man and The Wasp Review

Ant-Man and The Wasp is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics' characters Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne/Wasp. It's the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man and the twentieth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ant-Man and The Wasp is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is written by Paul Rudd, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, and Chris McKenna and directed by Peyton Reed.

The story is Scott Lang is under house arrest due to the events of Captain America: Civil War. He tries to balance his life as a father and as the hero Ant-Man. Then when a new villain appears named Ghost, Scott must team up with Hope who now goes by the name The Wasp.

Intital Reaction

In all honest I wasn't fully invested into this film like I was with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. Mainly because the marketing hasn't been very good. The first trailer ended with a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser being thrown at a bad guy then being enlarged, which just looked stupid. Then the second trailer while there wasn't a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser the music was just not right. What was the song you might be asking? The song they choosed for the second trailer was a remix of It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. Yeah the marketing wasn't giving me much hope but I prefer to judge a movie by it's final product and not marketing.

Cons




One thing I didn't like about the movie was yet again Luis. Seriously I don't understand why the writers kept using as comedic relief. He's not funny! It also didn't help his character that during a car chase he kept shouting "We're gonna die! I don't want to die"! If Marvel ever makes an Ant-Man 3 can they please not use Luis. My other problem with the film was the post-credit scene. It was very much a letdown and pointless compared to the mid-credit scene.







Middle Ground




The part of this movie that's in a mix bag is the humor. There a parts were it's very much funny but then much like Thor: Ragnarok you get a really good moment but then it's ruined when a joke happens. One example of this is when Hank, Scott, and Hope are all in their van together coming up with a plan against Ghost and emotional it's played very well. Then Luis drives up shouting "Whassup"? (do people even say that anymore?)







Pros



One thing I enjoyed from the film was Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas' chemistry. It's amazing how well they work off each other. Another thing I liked was Ghost's backstory. It's probably just me but I really felt bad for her and what she was going through. I'm also giving film credit the beautiful shots of the Quantum Realm. My favorite shot was when Hank was in there. What I also liked about the film was the action. Once again like Ant-Man we get really good action scenes. The best ones was when The Wasp first appears and that car chase. The final thing I praise the movie for is the mid-credit scene. Without giving any spoilers all I'll say is it send chills up my spine.






Ant-Man and The Wasp while nothing really special it's still a fun film to see. Rudd, Lilly, and Douglas' chemistry still strong after the first Ant-Man movie, Ghost had a great backstory/good motivation for the things she's doing, those shots of the Quantum Realm were amazing, the action gets you excited, and that mid-credit scene just wow. The one thing that could have been better were some of the jokes. The only thing that brings the film down for me is Luis (seriously Marvel stop using him as comedic relief he's not good at it).





My final rating is Good






State of The Project (Jun 18th - Jul 16th)




Jun 18th - Differences Between Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Who Censored Roger Rabbit




Jun 21st - Raiders of The Lost Media - Overwatch: First Strike




Jun 23rd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review




Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever




Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)




Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review




Jul 16th - What You Probably Didn't Know About The Terminator (1984)






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)

Ant-Man is a 2015 superhero film based of the Marvel characters of Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Ant-Man is the twelfth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Ant-Man was written by Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright and directed by Peyton Reed.

The story is former thief Scott Lang has been recruited by Hank Pym for an important job. With the help of Hank and his daughter Hope, Scott must stop the company's CEO Darren Cross from replicating the formula that makes Pym particles.

• Negatives

My only problem with Ant-Man is Luis. A lot of people were hyping him up as the funniest character in the film and personally I don't see it.

• Mix

I've got nothing to say. So let's move on.

• Positives

One thing I liked about the film was how they explained the science behind how the character's can shrink and what are the limits. But it's not just the explanation but also how quickly they tell you. There's not one scene where the science behind Pym particles feels drawn out.

The other positive to give this film is how you feel bad for Scott Lang. While yes he is a criminal but at the same he's a loving father. And throughout the whole film you really just want him to spend time with his daughter.

Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket was a pretty good villain. What I really liked about this character was that he thought he was the good guy. He always thought he was doing the right thing. Even though us the audience know better.



My other complaint to the film is the action. Despite it being two very small people fighting there was a lot great moments. There not my favorite scenes of all time but there still awesome.



The last thing I'll give this movie credit for is how small the stakes are. Now yes Yellowjacket wants to take over the world but the whole finale is different from previous MCU films. All the scenes are don't feature big huge destruction like the Avengers films or Guardians of the Galaxy. It's just between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket.






Ant-Man while not my favorite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films is still something to be enjoyed. Explaining the Pym particles is simple and not confusing, Scott Lang is a good character that you'll get attached to, Yellowjacket is a good villain, the action was fun, and it was a breath of fresh air to see the stakes in an MCU movie be toned down but still have some weight to it. My only complaint is Luis.





My final rating is Good






State of The Project (Jun 16th - Jul 7th)



Jun 16th - Incredibles 2 Review



Jun 18th - Differences Between Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Who Censored Roger Rabbit



Jun 21st - Raiders of The Lost Media - Overwatch: First Strike



Jun 23rd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review



Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever



Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015)



Jul 7th - Ant-Man and The Wasp Review






NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!

Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Hello everyone and welcome back to Cinematic Disasters. The segment where I review terrible movies and this time were looking at Ballistic: Eck vs. Sever.

Ballistic: Eck vs. Sever is a 2002 action-thriller movie. The film was produced by Franchise Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Ballistic is written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Wych Kaosayananda (under the pseudonym "Kaos").

The story is FBI Agent Jeremiah Ecks has been brought back to the force to help find Agent Sever. While on this mission Ecks starts piecing things together that may be connected to both him and Sever.

My Thoughts

After watching I realized the film should have just been called Ballistic instead of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Now yes Ballistic is a very generic name but...it would have been more honest. I'll explain as we go on.

Okay everyone I want you to pay attention to Sever's introduction here because quite honestly I laughed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqFc-dQiPxI. As you just saw why would a couple of armed men want to do hand-to-hand combat with Sever? You have guns just shoot her! There is literally no reasons for them to walk up when they could just fire at will. These are the worst security guards ever.

Then we get to Jeremiah Ecks in a bar. Two agents walk up to him and say they were sent by his former boss Julio Martin. Then after Ecks beats the crap out of them Julio casually walks right up Ecks. So...Julio was in the bar the whole time? Then what was the point of sending the two agents when he was there!? I mean what was the plan? Get the two agents to drag Ecks to him when he was only 5 feet away? I swear this movie is just getting worse with each and every passing scene.

Then we get this piece of dialogue

Jeremiah Ecks: You went to her funeral.

Julio Martin: You saw a closed casket.

Jeremiah Ecks: Where is she?

Julio Martin: .....I don't know.

Jeremiah Ecks: Then why are you?

Julio Martin: I need you to do a job for me.

Jeremiah Ecks: Where is my wife?

Julio Martin: I'm sorry. I need you to...

Jeremiah Ecks: Where is she?

Julio Martin: When the job is done I'll give you what I got.

Now I brought this specific exchange of words because image being Ecks at this point. Your former boss walks up to you one day is like "hey your wife that's been dead for seven years turns out she's alive. Who knew"? Then your boss tells you he doesn't know about where she currently is but if you do this job for him then I'll give you more information of her whereabouts. If first you say you don't know then after I ask a second you tell me do a job then you'll give me more information how am I suppose to trust you at that point?

So it turns out Julio needs Ecks to find Robert Gant's son. Why thought? Their the FBI. You mean to tell me you have nobody else who can to this job? What makes it even worse is not only has Ecks not worked for them for several years but he doesn't have any inside information nor does he know who Sever is. Hell nobody knows who Sever is, so why even bother bring Ecks here anyways?



Then later we're introduced to a new character named Ross aka "The Prince of Darkness". To be honest I just laughed at that moment. Because one I am so willing to believe that's just a name he give to himself and two they said that's his nickname. That's not a nickname a nickname is something short like Mike. Also nothing says generic bad guy like a title called "The Prince of Darkness". And last but not least Ross is the most cardboard cut of evil henchmen ever. He even comes with the most bland dialogue to back up his genericness.



Later on in the film we're told Gant wanted the perfect assassin so he made this tiny robot thing that can kill someone once it's in there bloodstream, then press a button and nobody knows you did it. But this brings up some questions. Like one how do you get it into someone's bloodstream? Remember this is a mechanical bug so the process can't be easy. I mean does someone have to inhale it? Or can you put it into there bloodstream directly? If it's the second option someone's definitely gonna know it was you. It's kind of hard to be sneaky when you have to inject your target with a needle. And another thing if your supposedly going to get away with murder with this machine, doesn't that leave behind a trail? Because you just put of robot in someone's blood. A simply x-ray or maybe even an autopsy will ruin your plans.



Then we cut straight to a mall where Sever, Gant's men, the DIA, and everybody else is there. I mean it when I say we cut straight to that scene. We have no idea how anybody found out that Sever was even at that specific mall. Also we finally see what Ecks' brilliant plan was to find Sever...it was wait in the car and listen to the police scanner. That's not me making a cheap joke folks that's Ecks' plan. Seriously nobody in the freaking FBI thought of this. Then we see a shoot out insure and yet again nobody can take Sever down. We have both Gant's men and the DIA attacking this woman and you mean to tell me nobody can at least give her a flesh wound or a bruise. Writers there's a differences between skilled badass and having really dumb armed forces. Then after Sever comes back to the scene of the crime (no reason is giving, she just randomly comes back) we finally get our big fight between our two stars. Oh boy is it a let down. The fight scene between them is so awkward. The best way to describe is when your rehearsing for a fight scene then the actually fight. What I mean by that is both of our title characters moved very slowly. Also remember when I said the film should have been titled Ballistic instead of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever? Well the reason why I said that was because this fight scene is our only fight scene between them. They have no round 2 or anything, because after that fight they meet up later and team up.



Now this film does contain a lot of action but it's not really exciting and I didn't care for it. Mainly because it's all done so horribly. During Ecks and Sever's fight some parts are in really time while others are in slow motion, but the slow-mo shots are unnecessary. But even if this movie did have great action I still wouldn't care because there's not a good story to back it up.



The other problem with this film is the lack of character development. Everyone by the end of the movie more or less is the same as when the film first started. And speaking of character we're told that Sever was an orphan and she was later trained to the ultimate killing machine with no emotions. But yet she wants revenge on Gant because he got her son and husband killed. So she's suppose to be an emotionless killer but yet her motive is based on emotion that being anger. If this doesn't convinced you that the writers have no idea how to write, then I don't know what will. In matter of fact this was the perfect opportunity to have us the audience connect with her but the writers thought "nah let's just breeze past that. Nobody's interested in that. All they want is our really boring action scenes".



Then we later see Ecks meet up with his wife Rayne and absolutely no emotions are shared. I mean they were married and one thought the other was dead for seven years and there's no tearful reunion. Then we're told in a flashback that Rayne, Ecks, and Gant were all friends. Which brings up so many things.


1.  If they were friends have come Ecks acted like he had no idea who Gant was? The writers explanation was that he's name use to be Agent Clark. But if he was an agent how come Julio and the rest of the FBI?



2. Even if they didn't know who Gant was they have this whole library of Ross' whereabouts so I can only assume that maybe they had footage or a photo of Gant meeting up with him.



3. If they do have video/photos of Gant why not show them to Ecks? Since Ecks knows him they could have shown his face then Ecks could have been like "Oh my god I know who that man is"!



Later on we're told that Gant staged Rayne's (who at this moment is going by the name Vinn) death by blowing up two cars to I guess kill Ecks and convince Vinn that he was dead. But the question is why did he do it? It's simply really...he wanted to steal Rayne away from Ecks. First off that's incredibly desperate. Second he's big plan to do this was to blow up Ecks' car then blow up a completely different car that has no purpose. So when this happened there was no investigating? Nobody called FBI or anything? It was "well two cars exploded and FBI agent Ecks is alive and we only see him...so everyone else is dead. Including Ecks' wife". Also the truth is going to come out eventually. Then what's going to be he's big plan huh? How is going to explain this? Not to mention it would have been next to impossible to pull this off. I mean Ecks and Rayne were married so there had to be a big group of friends and family who knew each one. I mean if they went to each other's funeral there's going to be an awkward moment. And even if they didn't go to a funeral then there would have been somebody anybody that was close to them and would have been seen either Ecks or Rayne both alive and well.





Anyways I would go into more details but I've had enough of this movie. All I'll say is if I was reviewing films back in 2002 (which would have been impossible since I would have been six years old but still) Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever would have been my number one worst movie of 2002. The action scenes are boring and awfully done, the characters are bland and clichéd, and the story just seems to be all over the place.





My final rating is Destroy It!





Well that was painful but lucky for me I'll be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with my reviews of Ant-Man and it's sequel Ant-Man and The Wasp. So look out for those.






State of The Project (Jun 14th - Jul 5th)



Jun 14th - A Look Back at The Incredibles (2004)



Jun 16th - Incredibles 2 Review



Jun 21st - Raiders of The Lost Media - Overwatch: First Strike



Jun 23rd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review



Jul 2nd - Cinematic Disasters - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever



Jul 5th - A Look Back at Ant-Man (2015) - This review will go up at 6:00pm (Eastern) and 3:00pm (Pacific). The reason being I'll be seeing an earlier screening of Ant-Man and The Wasp.





NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU!