Avengers: Infinity War

April 25, 2018 Marc Aces

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has consistently proven to be an unprecedented blockbuster experiment in many ways over the last decade, but the long-teased arrival of Thanos has unquestionably been one of its most ambitious and risky maneuvers. Not only have fans waited for him through six years and 12 movies since his first on-screen appearance in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, but it has been repeatedly said by filmmakers that the ultra-villain's spotlight moment would be the adventure that every previous Marvel Studios film has been leading towards (a total of 18 features over 10 years). That's an unreasonable amount of pressure and hype to put on any single project -- and it's only multiplied by the insane popularity of the franchise.

The real crazy thing, though, is that they actually succeeded…

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2. Review

May 2, 2017 Marc Aces

Writer/director James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy is indeed a stunning film. It is full of brilliant creative energy and spirit, but there is one specific reason it continues to stand out in audiences' minds and continues to be my favorite of the marvel universe films after three years… the characters. More than just falling in love with the Guardians of the Galaxy blockbuster, moviegoers and myself fell in love with the Guardians of the Galaxy team -- connecting with this group of loveable ridiculous misfits who manage to find each other and become a dysfunctional family. It's Gunn's perfect understanding of this that clearly helped mold Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which smartly scales down plot in favor of personality -- and while the sequel doesn't pack the full punch of the original, it's a wonderful, beautiful follow-up that is richly dense in detail and features a parade of thrilling and fun surprises...

Fantastic 4 Film Review

August 7, 2015 Marc Aces

I feel that I should preface this review by stating that I am not the biggest fan of Fantastic 4 from any iterations of the comic book, so my expectations have been not at all high that someone someday will make a live-action Fantastic 4 movie that works. Fox’s latest attempt, directed by Josh Trank of Chronicle fame, doesn’t necessarily get things wrong as much as it doesn’t get the things it needs to right, which is a shame because there are a lot of interesting ideas that probably would have worked well in comic form. But what it amounts to here is essentially a 100-minute long trailer to a movie we never end up seeing, or better yet, wouldn’t want to see.

'Daredevil' Series Review

June 30, 2015 Marc Aces

Marvel Studios has always been a mixed bag for me. When they’re able to be very true to their characters and make the plot hit the beats of the big storylines, we can get a Guardians of The Galaxy or Winter Soldier out of them. Or, we can get a convoluted bag of half thought-out ideas with numerous plot holes, but they’re so visually interesting on screen we try not to think about it (aka Avengers: Age Of Ultron). When Marvel is able to make me believe all of these things share a continuity, it’s when I get most invested in theses movies of theirs. But one thing that is easily found in the source material that I don’t see in the movies are the normal people, the neighborhoods, and the rest of the world. Enter “Marvel’s Daredevil,” the first of five planned Netflix shows, which provides the exact storytelling boost that the MCU needed in my opinion.

Top 16 Movies of 2014

December 28, 2014 Marc Aces

This has been a good year for film in my eyes. We’ve been privy to what I believe was a nice array of storytelling from a major variety of different filmmakers. Now there may not have been too many movies that I flat-out loved this year (if I did this would’ve been a way longer list), but there were plenty that I liked a whole lot and deserved to at least be mentioned for attempting to take a tired premise and revamp it into a refresher on its particular genre. And it was also a swell year for studio tentpole pictures as there were a handful of filmmakers that found ways to turn multi-million dollar corporate investments into somewhat personal and slightly subversive pieces of entertainment. My own Top 16 list runs the gamut from big studio films to very small, contained dramas. If your favorite film wasn’t found on this list, there might be a chance I didn’t get around to seeing it. But if I did, let me reiterate that this is only my opinion, and if there was a favorite of yours that I may have overlooked, please post in the comment section below. I would love to hear what your top 10, 16, heck 35 movies of the year were.

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