Review Roundup - Stone Protectors

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019)

To paraphrase Commando... this was the last time. Until next time? Well I'd hardly say no chance since Marvel Studios has however many decades of material lined up, but this really is an ending of sorts. Not to the entire franchise, but a nice satisfying conclusion to just about everything from Iron Man in 2008 up to now. It's also a three hour movie about heroes dealing with loss, heroes having their resolves tested and of course heroes making quips and punching things. It's certainly an action packed bonanza of epic proportions that will leave fans satisfied, but at the same time it's a monolithic film with a lot of shifts in tone and a lot of characters to cover. Like the previous chapter in the story it's one big balancing act, and with a few exceptions it generally succeeds.

Monster Bites - Mysterious Islands

SON OF GODZILLA (1967)

Okay here we go... time for some absurd noise. In more ways than one. Of course not many releases in this series, or the Toho line-up as a whole, are particularly sombre. But your mileage may vary here depending on your thoughts about the classic Godzilla franchise and whether you think making light of the title character is a big deal or not. For all those fans who want to debate whether the big guy is a father, a mother, or just an adoptive parent, there will be others who see this purely as a lurid monster comedy. Some get pretty defensive about it all, as if they need to defend Godzilla's stoicism for some reason, but personally I'm of the mindset that this is complete nonsense and should be treated as such.

Monster Bites - The Ominous Star

GORATH (1962)

Time to take a trip into science fiction b-movie madness with yet another Ishiro Honda film. This one might be more along the lines of When Worlds Collide than anything else, but I still have to cover it here. They do manage to sneak in a hilarious arctic creature feature moment during the third act, because why wouldn't they, but this is more of an Earth versus outer space itself kind of story. A story in which they decide that to avoid a rogue planet destroying humankind they have to... move the Earth out of the way. But the tone isn't entirely ludicrous by any means and this is generally a sombre effort that is often concerned with collecting together scientific minds and making noble sacrifices for the good the world.

Monster Bites - New Mutants

GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE (1989)

For a change of pace (well in terms of approach rather than subject matter) I thought it was time to return to monster mayhem, but also to reappraise a few entries in the Godzilla series. You see these are films that I was pretty lukewarm about initially when viewing them several years prior to this. But they're instalments that fans often bring up when talking about their favourites in the franchise. So I thought what the hell, why not do a double bill of sci-fi nonsense and see if I was more invested than I remember being in the past. To cut a long story short... a good time was had by all.

Review Roundup - Warlords of Atlantis

AQUAMAN (2018)

Time for a superhero movie, just for a change. In this case everyone's least remembered barbarian Jason Momoa as Aquaman, or Arthur to his friends. See this is what I would classify as an exercise in over-indulgence. Not in the dark and grey Man of Steel sense but in a wild and ridiculous adventure sense. It's bloated and messy and often contains way too many neon laser blasting armour costumes, but at the same time this feels like an all or nothing effort with a lot of creative energy. There's also a lot of cheese. It's not a film that I would really call good... but one that I still found myself enjoying for one reason or another.

Review Roundup - Annual Thing

2018 CATCH UP - PART FOUR

So this late entry to the annual review catchup comes at a stage when I've kind of become tired with keeping tabs of all the newer releases and yet somehow I still feel the need to push forward. Which is kind of appropriate since all of these are sequels, with some starting to feel unwarranted. Some are definitely more tired and embarrassing than others. They're all follow ups to releases that I've enjoyed which fuels a certain level of bias but at the same time it's fair to consider how much they stand alone and work in their own right as entertainment. As someone once said it's not over 'til it's over...

Scorecard

MARCH 

FILM OF THE MONTH Rocky ☆☆☆☆
Dog Soldiers ☆☆☆☆
The Private Life of Henry VIII ☆☆☆☆
The Blues Brothers ☆☆☆☆
The Running Man ☆☆☆☆