Tag Archives: Marvel

Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 13th January 2017

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Week Ending 13th January 2017
Let the spendings diminish! I might finally get some coming back in the bank!

Comics


Only a small haul this week and I managed to read them all, I love catching up on my To Read Pile!

READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #3 from DC Comics. Managed to grab the cool Amanda Conner variant for this blatant cash-in of the popularity of the Suicide Squad movie and the anticipation of the Justice League movie. In short, it’s awesome. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andy Owens and Jesús Merino, this comics features all the faves from both teams, plus Killer Frost up against an enemy that may be more trouble than both teams can handle!

READ! Avengers #3 from Marvel Comics.continuing the Kang storyline by Mark Waid, with cool, painty art by Mike Del Mundo, this comic highlights the new Wasp and her morals and bravery. I think Nadia could be a new star in the Marvel U if she is handled correctly.

READ! Champions #4 from Marvel Comics. Written by Mark Waid with art by Humberto Ramos, who if I’m honest, doesn’t tick the boxes for things I like. I feel this comic is starting to lose its way, and this issue felt like it was a comic for kids, with a quick throwaway adventure in which a little is learnt about the Vision’s daughter, Viv, but not much else. This will probably be my last issue of this.

READ! Hawkeye #2 from Marvel Comics. Continues the story from the first issue. It still shows promise but I think Marvel are making the same mistakes they made in the 70s with just making female versions of male characters rather than giving them their own identity. This comic doesn’t just suffer from being she-Hawkeye, it also is too reminiscing of Jessica Jones. It does wear these influences on its sleeve, and evenjokes about it, but it might eventually be detrimental. Nice story and art though, hopefully that will be enough to keep it afloat.

READ! The Unstoppable Wasp #1 from Marvel Comics. Marvel continue their positive female character explosion with an awesome rendition of the Wasp, who is a ‘true’ female character rather than s she-version of another. No longer the Avengers’ Janet Van Dyne, we now have Henry Pym’s daughter from his first marriage, Nadia. This is a cool comic about young girls entering the field of science, and features Ms. Marvel as a contemporary of Nadia’s, and Mockingbird as an inspiration. I hope it lasts a long time as I like the fact that she is a positive intellectual character for young women. Another win from Marvel, like the new Hawkeye and Hulk titles. Nice story by Jeremy Whitley and some cool, fun and cartoony art by Elsa Charretier.

DVDs and Blurays 


Grabbed copies of The Neon Demon and Beyond the Gates. The Neon Demon I have been following and am excited to finally get to watch, and Beyond the Gates was suggested to me by Simon, who runs the action movie website Explosive Action and the synopsis enthralled me.

Soundtracks


Martin by Donald Rubenstein is the soundtrack from George Romero’s ‘vampire’ movie from the 70s. It’s a cool low-key soundtrack but represents the film beautifully


Stage Fright by Simon Boswell is a cool synthy soundtrack from the awesome American styled slasher film/ giallo from the 80s. The design of the cover is amazing, and the music is exactly the sort of thing I like. This edition is on a pretty cool clear vinyl.

Statue


A surprise delivery today with this Lady Thor Bishoujo figure from Kotobukiya! No doubt I’ll have a YouTube video for the Unboxing of this beauty soon.

Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 6th January 2017

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Week Ending 6th January 2017
Happy New Year, everyone, from the TWP and from the Nerds of Oz. Sales were continuing this week, so a bit of crap was grabbed!
Comics


Only managed to read a couple before this post, so only a few gets proper commentaries.

Batgirl #6 from DC Comics.

Harley’s Little Black Book #5 from DC Comics.

Justice League VS Suicide Squad #2 from DC Comics. I had to grab this variant cover one as I love Terry Dodson’s work, maybe as it’s slightly derivative of Adam Hughes’.

Teen Titans #3 from DC Comics.

Titans #3 from DC Comics.

READ! Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme #3 from Marvel Comics. Writer Robbie Thompson and artist Javier Rodriguez have sculpted an amazing story here where the Sorcerers Supreme through time are banded together to fight one evil. It’s a pretty cool tale focusing on a Native American character who is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance from Ghost Rider.

READ! Hulk #1 from Marvel Comics. Wow! Occasionally a comic comes along that changes your perspective about comics, and this is one of those. Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, has discovered that her cousin Bruce, the Incredible Hulk has been killed by a friend, Hawkeye during the second superhero civil war, a war that left her in a coma. She’s better now, but having trouble adjusting to being a regular person again, and resisting ‘Hulking out’. This is a story about loss and trauma, and making an attempt to restart your life, even though you are no longer the same person. Incredible storytelling, and subtle art.

Infamous Iron Man #3 from Marvel Comics.
Blurays and DVD


Grabbed an Australian DVD called ‘Red Billabong’ which looks bloody awful, but it’s Australian, so I thought I’d give it a go. Actually, I was wrong, it’s pretty good but has some ordinary CGI.

On bluray I grabbed the Australian release of The Hallow, based on a trailer I saw on the All Through The House Bluray. From Shameless Screen Entertainment I grabbed The Church and The Sect, and from Arrow Video I scored Hell Comes to Frogtown and The Guyver. Don’t Breathe was from last week, but cheekily made its way into this pic!


At the last minute, I also grabbed a steelbook of Stephen King’s IT!
Books


A ‘Strange’ week this week! See what I did there? I grabbed the Art of the Doctor Strange movie book, and one of the D&K encyclopaedias of Dr Strange!


Also I grabbed an awesome book about my favourite types of films, Euro horror, called Euro Gothic by Johnathon Rigby. 
Toys


Many years ago a had a full set of the Justice action figures until my Superman and Brainiac figures suffered from a little water damage, and now I have at least been able to replace the Superman one! I also have a Justice Society Superman one which has suffered the same fate, and I spend my days searching.

This other is a Figma Archetype Next: [she] which I intend on using as a model for drawing. I have been thinking of doing a comic again, and thought this would be a good idea to use as a model for it… and it’s cool!

Video Game Stuff


I grabbed Titanfall 2 when it first came out, but didn’t want to make the investment of $400 odd bucks to grab this helmet… thankfully, the Boxing Day sales continued and this, helmet only, not the game and other stuff, I managed to grab for $65. I’m as happy as I could be, this thing is awesome, and goes nicely with my Assassin’s Creed Hidden Knife and my Gears of War gun!

Nerds of Oz Collection Post: 30th December 2016

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Week Ending 30th December
Comics, and Pops, and Records: oh my!

Funko Pops

Horror Pops, not the band.


I know, I know, I wasn’t gonna buy more of these, but it’s Leatherface, Michael Myers and Pinhead: how could I resist?!?

Comics


I managed to read all my comics this week! How did I find the time?

READ! Harley Quinn #10 from DC Comics. Honestly I don’t know why I read Harley Quinn anymore. The stories are getting worse and worse and are usually just her going on silly inconsequential adventures, with a variety of artists that aren’t very good or funny. Occasionally they’ll do a serious one, but I think it’s time for a writer change on this one, sorry Jimmy and Amanda, I used to love the stories but now they just seem to be like old issues of Archie. Lame jokes and no real involvement with the rest of the DCU. At least a couple of art favourites of mine show up here in Bret Blevins and Joe Michael Linsner.

READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #1 from DC Comics. My two favourite teams from DC in a comic together? Yes please, though basically the plot will go that they’ll versus each other u til they realise they have a common enemy before begrudgingly working together. Comic Trope 101. The comic of course starts that way be we are also given a look into another group of bad guys who have banded together to,’save the world’ as the leader of them puts it. I won’t give away who they all are, but it’s nice to see the ‘main man’ of the DC universe back! Art by Jason Faibok is excellent, and the writing by Joshua Williamson is damned good too!

READ! Raven #4 from DC Comics. Continuing the tales of Raven of the Teen Titans. So far this comic has been amazing! I hope it continues in its Spiderman-ish teen alienation tales of woe and adventure. This comic just keeps going from strength to strength.

READ! Lady Mechanika: La Dama De La Muerte #3 from Benitez Productions. Awesome art and a pretty good story so far have made this anxiously looked forward to. Joe Benitez’s art is one of those things that both inspires me to draw, and makes me not want to draw as it is so beautiful. This issue doesn’t fail to impress! The bummer though it’s the Final issue… ARGH!

READ! Captain America: Sam Wilson #16 from Marvel Comics. I don’t normally buy this but it had Misty Knight on the cover carrying the shield: I’m buying that! If any character screams ‘Blaxploitation films’, it’s Misty Knight, and I LOVE Blaxploitation films! Tragically it doesn’t live up to its cover. The art is nice but it seems like it’s a fill-in issue. I probably won’t buy this title again. One, and done.

READ! Gamora #1 from Marvel Comics. She may not be on any Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise, but she at least gets a title of her own. Let’s hope it’s got some longevity. The story is written by Nicole Perlman and is fantastic, and supported well by really nice art by Marco Checchetto. I look forward to the next issue!

READ! The Mighty Captain Marvel #0 from Marvel Comics. I’ve always loved this character, from Ms. Marvel to Binary, so I’ll keep buying! It takes place after the terrible Civil War II which to me was an absolute travesty, especially after the awesome first Civil War which really was a thought provoking look at the whole super heroic experience from a ‘real world’ point of view. Anyway, now Marvel is in charge of Alpha Flight and is suffering from a touch of PTSD after Civil War II… hopefully she’ll get over it quickly and this book doesn’t end up just about ‘feelings’.

Magazines

Anime mags


I grabbed Otaku USA’s Dec 16 issue, and NEO’s issue 155. Due to my workplace, which has several anime fans, I am being dragged back into becoming a fan of anime, which I was many years ago. I have started on Eureka Seven AO, the sequel to an anime I like a few years ago called Eureka Seven.

Bluray



Which brings me to my bluray purchase, which includes collections 1, 2 and 3 of the anime RWBY, a horror from Monster Pictures called Satanic and the heart-stopping horror film Don’t Breathe. No doubt reviews if the movies are on their way!

Vinyl


Picked up three soundtracks at the Boxing Day sales: The Lego Movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Only listened to the Lego one so far which is by Devo’s Mark Mothersborough, and it has a fun vibe to it, and it starts with the epic ‘Everything is Awesome’.

Week Ending 23rd December

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A better weekly update of stuff this week with a great variety of stuff imvoleved, but first a small note. These weekly updates started on the Nerds of Oz website, but that is exclusively going to be for the podcast list from now, so technically this is the first TWP weekly buy update!

Movies


Grabbed four new movies this week.

The Mutilator from Arrow Video. Arrow video rarely disappoint, and I hope this will be just as trashy and slashy as their usual output!

All Through the House from Monster Pictures. Monster occasionally disappoint but I like how regular their output is and the price is occasionally right so I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt more often than not. Review coming soon.

Yoga Hosers from Reel DVD. Kevin Smith’s last few bits of output didn’t impress. His segment in ‘Holidays’ was the worst of them, and Tusk failed to entertain. I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. Review coming soon.


Last is an Australian bluray release of cult classic I Drink Your Blood! This limited edition comes with a repro of the VHS release, a ‘horror hypo’ and a sheet of I Drink Your Blood LSD sheets. Best thing about this release is it also comes with the films I Eat Your Skin and Blue Sextet! I love this film just because the exquisitely beautiful Lynn Lowry appears an a mute hippie!

Video Game


Watchdogs 2 from Ubi-soft. I liked the first one but wasn’t going to worry about this, but when EB Games discounted the edition with the statue, I leapt on it. I’ve played about 30 minutes, and totally dig it, though like with all video games, I’m not very good at it.

Comics


I haven’t quite gotten to read everything I grabbed this week, so some of these comments are about the art only, my apologies to the writers! I’ll point out which ones I managed to read before the blog post was published with a big ‘READ!’ before the comic’s comments.

READ! Red Sonja #0 from Dynamite.I’ve always loved Marvel’s re-do of Robert E. Howard’s Russian revolutionary character into Conan’s world, and the quality of art continues with this Dynamite collection. Unfortunately the story is a ‘person from the past gets sent to the future’ story, which is a bit generic, but if it opens some new opportunities for the character, I’ll at least give it a go.This was a ‘cheaper’ comic with not quite a full story, but with some cool sketchbook pages, and a buttload of adds!

READ! Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #5 from DC Comics. I’m really liking this series, and the fact it contains three of my favourite DC heroines doesn’t hurt. The quest for who is the new Oracle continues: it’s some really nice art with well written banter. Huntress has become particularly funny with her ‘should I kill him/her’ attitude.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #5 from DC Comics. I can’t comment on the quality of the writing in this series yet as I’ve not yet started reading it, but conceptually, the idea of a second rate Batman (in Red Hood), Wonder Woman(in Artemis) and Superman (with Bizarro) is both intriguing and hilarious. The art by Dexter Soy is solid too.

Suicide Squad #8 from DC Comics. Its Suicide Squad, and I have loved the Suicide Squad since the 80s when I first started reading it, and I grabbed the awesome alternate fractured Harley cover, so definitely loving it!

Supergirl #4 from DC Comics. I’m loving the TV series, so I thought I’d give the Rebirth Supergirl a go, just for nostalgia’s sake.

Superwoman #5 from DC Comics. I’ve never picked up an issue of this so I can’t make a comment on it at all yet, but this was bought due to the Supergirl TV series high as well!

READ! Hawkeye #1 from Marvel Comics. The re-sexing-of Marvel comics continues… only joking. I liked this character from the Young Avengers comics from a few years ago, and like the style of this comic. It’s a sweet mix of Alias, Veronica Mars and the New 52 Batgirl, and that ain’t a bad thing! I like the low key art, realistic with a David Lapham swagger to it, and the story is told efficiently with some smart dialogue.

 IVX #1 from Marvel Comics. Inhumans versus X-men is the new big thing for Marvel this season… I am wondering if they aren’t going to squeeze the X-men into a bunch of solo comics so the films don’t have to acknowledge their existence until Marvel movies regain control of the license. I will say though, a Marvel Universe with no Fantastic Four is no Marvel Universe in my books, not properly!

Books


The Art of Star Wars: Rogue One from Abrams. I can’t talk about this at all as I don’t open books about films until I’ve seen the film, so I’ll just say the price was right ($55 from Harry Hartogs) and it’ll look nice with my other ‘art of’ books.

Movie Merch


Normally I’d divide this up into it’s individual bits, but it’s ALL Assassin’s Creed so I thought I should share it! First is the book of the film, which I normally don’t open, like I said with the Rogue One book, but I couldn’t help but open this. It has some amazing pics from the film, and appears to be quite text heavy, so let’s hope it’s packed with information!

Next I have a couple of AC scotch glasses… I’d better start drinking scotch!


Lastly a couple of cosplay/ role play bits. A pretty cool Hidden Blade and a fancy Apple of Eden. Normally I would buy roleplay/ cosplay stuff but these are pretty cool!

A Little Bit of News…

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Yesterday I launched a brother site to this one called Nerds of Oz so I could separate my love of comics from my love of films. I have been a longtime collector of both, and it never felt quite right to have comic reviews, or my YouTube links about comics on this mainly movie related blog.

So from now on, no more comic reviews here at the TWP, you will, however, still get two weekly reviews, usually on a Monday and a Thursday, with an extra one popping up for special occasion, like my bonus Christmas review, coming soon.

Nerds of Oz will feature a Friday ‘haul’ post where I’ll show off my weekly comic or cominc related product post, with an occasional graphic novel, book, toy or statue review, hopefully every Tuesday, but that remains to be seen as I need to balance that site with this one, and make sure both get similar attention.

I hope you continue to support this site, and give my other one a go!

Have a great day!

Black Widow: The Name of the Rose comic review

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BLACK WIDOW: THE NAME OF THE ROSE



I have always been more of a fan of the low or no powered superheroes who tell low key crime stories: I like my heroes grounded a little. Subsequently, I really like characters like Batman, The Punisher, Captain America, Robin, Catwoman and their ilk… and yes, I know some of them are ‘enhanced’ but those with powers still have a gravity effect to them: no flying, invisibility, they can’t burst into flames etc etc. At the end of the day, if you fire enough bullets into these guys, they are going to die, and I like that sense of vulnerability. Don’t get me wrong, the galaxy spanning stories of Superman or Silver Surfer can be exiting, but I like to think that these guys are defending my neighbourhood, or country.

In amongst these characters is the wonderful Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanov, whom I have been a fan of since I first saw her in Daredevil comics in the 70s when she was ol’ Hornhead’s main squeeze. Thankfully since those days of the female hero not being of any use unless they are the girlfriend of a hero are gone, and the Widow has become a major player in the Marvel Universe, not just due to the many mini-series’ and regular series’ that have been released, but also due to the excellent portrayal by Scarlett Johansson in the various Marvel movies.
*sigh* Scarlett…
This review is of the hardcover collection of the story The Name of the Rose, which collects Black Widow Issues 1 to 5, with some additional bits and pieces from Enter the Heroic Age issue 1.

Story: There is essentially two stories in this collection. The first, Kelly Sue DeConnick’s story Coppélia, is little more than a throwaway introduction to the character, which name drops Captain America and displays an ineffective origin of Black Widow in 8 pages, told through actions rather than rehashing the story we have seen a hundred times over, but essentially, if you don’t know her origin, it appears a little vague. It’s generic, and the art does it no favours, but more on that later.

The main story, The Name of the Rose, is written by New York Times best selling fantasy author Marjorie Liu, who won a comics industry Eisner award for her work on Image Comics’ Monstress.

The story tells of Black Widow meeting up with an old acquaintance name Black Rose, but after the meeting she is assaulted and cut open. She is returned to Avengers HQ where Tony Stark (Iron Man), Logan (Wolverine) and James Buchanan Barnes (the Winter Soldier) watch over her whilst she recovers, but soon, rumours start spreading about Black Widow having files on all her friends, and she she will eventually use them to destroy their lives. Is this true, or is she being manipulated by someone from her past…

It feels to me like this story is one that writers only lend to heroines: the story ends up being about love, and loves lost, instead of just telling a good spy story. It seems to me it’s rare that a spy story would have a tender core to it, and for me it doesn’t quite sit well with Black Widow, who, let’s face it, is a reformed killer.

To her credit though, Widow is shown as a scrappy fighter with a streak of cruelty that leans her more towards the bad guy side of the Marvel Universe than the whit hat brigade!

It’s well written, but I would have preferred a straight spy story a lá James Bond or some of the Bendis/ Maleev stories that in recent years have been told through Daredevil or even the Death of Captain America tale delivered by Ed Brubaker.

The last few pages of this book are dedicated to an illustrated text history of Black Widow as well, me the alternate covers the the individual issues of the comic that came out on release.

Score: ***

Art: Spanish artist Daniel Acuña’s art in this is amazing, as his work mostly is. His work looks like it is done with something like Copic markers and has very few black lines on the interior surface of a subject, instead using darker shades of the main colour to provide those lines. He sites John Romita and Jack Kirby as influences and they are definitely present, along with Hal Foster and Kevin Nolan. 

This being a more realistic spy story than a straight up superhero one, his style suits it perfectly and is a pleasure to look at. A special note has to go to the cover of this collection as the Widow looks a little like Kat Von D, upon whom I have somewhat of a crush.

Unfortunately, the introduction to the story, from the aforementioned ‘Enter the Heroic Age’ comic, is done by far lesser artists Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson, provide a lacklustre first few pages to this collection. Their artistic efforts feel little more than a by-the-numbers ‘how to draw comics’ experience. If you overlook those pages, you’ll certainly enjoy the rest. The whole book loses a point for their efforts.

Score: ****

WIRIA: It’s a cool spy story, with only a touch of superheroics in it, illustrated beautifully… you’ll return to this for sure!

R.I.P. Steve Dillon

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Truly this year is seeing an absolute glut of creative people being taken from us.

Steven Dillon passed away on the 22nd of October at his home in New York.

Dillon gave comic fans so many amazing pieces of visual entertainment, starting on UK comics Hulk Weekly, before working on many titles such as Doctor Who Monthly (where he created Abslom Daak), to most fans though he was best known for his work on The Punisher, Hellblazer and the astounding Preacher. Along with artist Brett Ewins, he started the comic Deadline, which ran for 7 years.

His passing leaves an unfullable hole in comic art.

Rest in Peace, Mr Dillon.

X-Men Apocalypse (2016) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
X-men: Apocalypse (2016)

X-Men Australian Bluray Steelbook


Film: I got my first X-men comic in 1983. I remember it clearly as I received, like I did every Sunday, two comics when I went with my step-dad to the newsagency to get the Sunday paper. It must have been May or June in that year, and I remember it clearly as I got New Mutants issue 1 and The Uncanny X-men issue 167 and this started a decade long love of the mutant characters until the early nineties when Marvel decided that after being innovators of comics for so long, they now had to copy the ultra-violent stupidity of the first generation of Image comics after those artists and writers jumped ship.

Thankfully Marvel eventually mostly abandoned these imitations and went back to what they do best: solid stories with great art and innovation (though recently best Marvel and DC seem to have lost their ways again, what with Marvel re-living past glories with new versions of Secret Wars and Civil War, and DC with their constant 5 years cycle of rebooting their entire universe).

Aside from all that I do have to admit to loving most of the X-men films. I loved the first two, thought the first was overblown and overdone, then loved the First Class and Days of Future Past films, but how do I feel about X-men Apocalypse? I must prologue this review but pointing out I was never a fan of the character of Apocalypse…

Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse


Which leads us to the plot synopsis for X-Men Apocalypse.

We start in ancient Egypt, where En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), an ancient mutant, is engaging in a body transference to extend his life when two traitorous members of his group cause the temple he is in to collapse around him. En Sabah Nur absorbs the strength and powers of any mutants he body transfers into, and has with his four henchmen, ‘horsemen’ if you will, to help him on his quest for power. All of whom are destroyed by the collapsing temple.

Several centuries later, another group resurrect him and he sees this new world of 1983 to be full of power that he can tap into…

Meanwhile, Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) has turned his family home into a school for mutants so they can learn how to use their powers. Hank McCoy (Nicolas Hoult) help him at his school also. He has several new students, Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Kurt Wagner (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to add to his others that he is already teaching, but when Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) turns up to tell him that Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) has gone bad again after the murder of his family that he formed whilst hiding from the law after the events of the previous film.

Michael Fassbender as Magneto


Not only has he turned bad, though, he has also joined El Sabah Nur along with Psylocke (Olivia Mann), Ororo (Alexandra Shipp) and Angel (Ben Hardy) in his quest for domination.

If you’ve got so much happening, you may as well throw fan favourites Quicksilver (Evan Peters, in a sequence that is quite possibly the most fun ever had with super powers in a film), Alex (Lucas Till) and a certain clawed mutant that some people kind of like too.

Will all these good mutants be able to defeat these four horsemen and Apocalypse?

One would assume so, but how will they do it?!?

As you can immediately see by my synopsis, the movie has a LOT of cast and a LOT of stuff happening, and it almost requires the superpower of ‘ultimate attention span’ to keep up with it. Fan service is good in comic to movie situations, but this is ridiculous.

The key to the X-men films, and I guess all comic-to-film adaptations, is that your comic fandom has to be checked at the door, and X-Men Apocalypse is no exception. The movie history and the comic history follow different paths, but one still gets a thrill when one sees favourite heroes pop up, even if their comic history is in a different context.

Outside of those criticisms, the story isn’t bad though, it’s just plot and character heavy. Bryan Singer’s direction is as good as it ever was, and honestly I wish he would do more science fiction outside of the X-men scope.

The key to how clever these post X-men: First Class (2011) X-men films is though is how they still sit in with the other films, even though the timeline has been changed. It was an incredibly clever deus ex machina that was able to relaunch the series from the first trilogy to this one, and realistically, Apocalypse is another one to relaunch the series yet again.

X-Men Apocalypse is a pretty good film for sure, but there is constantly a hell of a lot happening, so don’t turn your back for a second. Thankfully due to their resets, the X-men movie universe doesn’t suffer from the entire weight of, say, the other Marvel Avengers films, in which the viewer has an obligation to see every film across multiple franchises to get the full story. Here at least one only has to watch the ‘X-men’ series, and the Wolverine and Deadpool films are merely garnishes.

Score: ****

X-Men Apocalypse Bluray Menu Screen


Format: This Australian bluray (steelbook) release of X-Men Apocalypse runs for approximately 143 minutes and is presented in an immaculate 2.40:1 aspect ratio with an amazing DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Master Audio.

Score: *****

Extras: A nice bunch of extras on this disc:

Deleted and Extended Scenes with Optional Introductions by Bryan Singer. There is a great tribute to John Hughes films in the scene titled ‘The Safety Dance’, these can be watched either with or without introductions by Singer.

Gag Reel is what it says it is, not the greatest of its type but certainly has a couple of funny moments. It’s not an all-day guffaw fest though!

Wrap Party Video is a series of behind the scenes clips put together to music. The title would suggest it was shown at the wrap party. 

X-men Apocalypse Unearthed is a series of 6 mini features which go together to make a complete ‘making of’. I don’t know why this had to be made into 6 smaller features when it could have been one total one, that’s not to say they aren’t interesting though! I have to say one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen is Bryan Singer face timing Patrick Stewart so he could watch James McAvoy get his head shaved so he could be a ‘proper’ Professor X. Is that meta or surreal? I can never tell.

Audio Commentary by Bryan Singer and Screenwriter Simon Kinberg is pretty good, but they get caught up in watching the film and there are a few breaks in the commentary.

Photo Galleries are something I normally hate if it’s just movie stills, but this is an amazing series of pre-production paintings and on-set photographs, so i’ll belay my normal complaints.

There are also a bunch of trailers of the film.

Easter Egg is just a hidden bit that could have been stuck in the gag reel that goes for about 5 seconds. Yawn.

This bluray edition also came with a digital download of the film.

Score: ****1/2

WISIA: Being an old comic fan means I love watching comic movies, over and over again, this won’t be any different.

Deadpool (2016) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Deadpool (2016)


Film:  

I never wanted to see Deadpool. 

I detested pretty much well everything that Rob Liefeld, comic ‘creator’ and ‘artist’ did to my favourite comic, which I had been collecting since issue 1, Marvel Comics’ brilliant The New Mutants, and every time I saw one of his new characters, I rolled my eyes at the crudely drawn, horrible characters. The New Mutants was a companion comic to The Uncanny X-Men that started in the early eighties and told of Professor X’s attempt to relaunch his school for super powered kids.

Deadpool was amongst those characters that helped execute it and I pretty much well ignored him until around 2004 when I was attracted to the art in a comic called Cable & Deadpool. I enjoyed that comic’s irreverent humour, but when it folded I didn’t actively pursue either character, so Deadpool and I drifted apart again.

I do however enjoy the X-Men movies, and if I’m completely honest, I loved Ryan Reynold’s portrayal of the character in the dreadful X-men Origins: Wolverine film, but mainly because they completely screwed him up, and I hoped that he would be retro-fitted out of the Marvel comic universe…


However, I must eat a large slice of humble pie as I just watched the film Deadpool… and loved it. The film is the first feature film from visual effects designer, now director Tim Miller from a script by Rhett Reece and Paul Wernick (both from Zombieland, which explains a lot about the comedy in this), from comic ideas from Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld.

Deadpool tells of ex-special ops guy Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) who now earns money as a mercenary, with the occasional good will job. He meets and falls in love with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and things seem to all be great until one night he passes out, and they discover he’s suffering from multiple cancers.

After some research he decides to take up an offer he’s received to have his cancer cured by having an artificial mutant gene introduced to his body by a man named Ajax (Ed Skrein), but what he doesn’t realise is, Ajax sells the mutated people as weapons.

Wilson is a giant smartarse, and takes great delight in teasing Ajax, who in turn tortures him as a petty revenge. The operation is successful and his body now has a healing factor akin to Wolverine’s, but it does have some cosmetic side effects… And perhaps fractured his mind.

So with his help from the X-men Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kepipic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Wilson becomes Deadpool, and seeks Ajax and his men out so he can reap bloody revenge…


This film is one of the most entertaining comic films I have ever seen, with perfect comedy timing and an element of violence not before seen in a mainstream Marvel character’s film. The cast is bang on with their performance and the choreography of the violence is catastrophic and awesome.

I must say that being a comic fan is of great benefit to watchers of this film, as is knowing that there have been other comic films around helps as there are references to everything from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, the previous cinematic appearance of Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds not-entirely successful turn as Green Lantern. It’s not essential though, but your experience is certainly enhanced by it. This is possibly one of the endearing things about this film: it is self-referential, it regularly breaks the fourth wall and enjoys the fact that it KNOWS it can’t be taken 100% seriously… Because you know, basically the concept of superheroes is one that is hard to take seriously.

The film also doesn’t stop at any point for a breather. From the beginning of this built-like-Pulp-Fiction movie, if you aren’t cringing at the hyper violence, you are laughing at the constant barrage of filth coming from the main characters, or perhaps are admiring the hot naked girls in the strip club, or wondering how they got away with the sex scene. The best idea anyone ever had about this film was to make it for adults: innuendo does NOT exist in Deadpool’s world.

Also, Stan Lee’s appearance, and I won’t spoil it here, was certainly different from any he’s done so far!

If I have to really dig deep into my hyper-critical reviewer pockets to pick on this film, but I did and I have. Very occasional there are some dodgy CGI physics, and the character Colossus is SO obviously an effect… I mean, he’s a giant walking metal mutant, by the just never felt like he was not completely present physically in the film, like when Jerry the mouse (from Tom and Jerry) danced with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh: most special effects take an element of deliberate ignorance by our brains to be effective, but I just never found him visually effective. Luckily his Boy Scout persona made that easier to overlook as he is Deadpool’s perfect straight man.

I am however being extraordinarily picky in this case as I liked the film so much and am just attempting to find some thing to take this film to task on.

The film is just so damn violent, so damn funny and so damn fun it’s like a traditional superhero film, but made by the guys who did The Story of Ricky with the script writer from Superbad. It’s hilariously violent, and violently hilarious. I think this 20th Century Fox production will open the eyes of other companies, including Marvel themselves, making superhero movies, and if the trailers to Warner Bros/ DC’s Suicide Squad are anything to go by, maybe they have…

Score: ****1/2

Format: This review was done with the Australian, region B, bluray (steelbook) edition, which runs for approximately 108 minutes, with a 2.40:1 image and a DTS-HD 7.1 audio, both of which are perfect. The package also comes with a digital download of the film.

Score: *****

Extras: 


Deleted Scenes with or without commentary by the director: The Raft, Cancer World Tour, , Extended Workshop Fight, Morgue, 5 Year Montage, No. 5 Bathroom, Extended Angel/ NTW Fight, Extended Rubble/ Gratuitous Worth It and Alt Coda. Some of these deleted and extended bits have unfinished CGI elements, but the lover of the making of films finds this interesting. Watching with Ritter’s commentary is quite informative as well.

I love me a good Gag Reel and this is excellent, a hoot and a holler, with heaps of dialogue freestyling from some of the cast.

From Comics to Screen… to Screen is a series of making-of mini docs including Origin…ier, Peoples and Muties, Stylin’, ‘Splosions and Magic! Watched from start to finish, these docos cover everything to do with the production of this film, and it’s entertaining as well.

We have Two Audio Commentaries on this disc too, one by Reynolds, Reese and Wernick and the other by Miller and Liefeld. Both commentaries tell of different processes and have different tales to tell of the production of the film, but both are heaps of fun and very informative.

There is a series of galleries for Concept Art, Costumes, Storyboards, Pre-vis and Stunt-Vis – Shipyard. Normally I hate stills galleries but this is a money saver as I won’t have to buy the expensive no-doubt-impending ‘Art of Deadpool’ hardcover book because all the images are here.

Deadpool’s Fun Sack is all the worldwide advertising for the film. It contains all the trailers and interstitials and a whole of bunch of posters.

Score: *****


WISIA: I’m already seeing it again. Nuff said!