Ranking the MCU Films: April 2015 Edition

This is going to be a short post because I’ve already talked about these movies a lot in the past. With that said, here’s how I currently rank the 10 films (pre-release of ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I guess you can say this is a ‘Top 10’ list because, in my opinion, there’s yet to be a ‘bad’ MCU film. Sure, there have been some ‘mediocre’ entries in the franchise but none that were ‘stinkers’.

10. IRON MAN 2

While it’s nowhere near as ‘bad’ as some say it is, the writing is still a bit of a mess, ultimately resulting in a case of ‘sequel-itis’; a film that tried to do a bit too much.

9. THE INCREDIBLE HULK

I do still prefer this film over the 2003 ‘Hulk’ and I like the film’s effective (maybe a little over-done) use of emotional moments. But, with the recasting of Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo in the role of Hulk, this film ultimately is the least connected of the MCU nowadays. Not as messy of a story as ‘Iron Man 2’, though.

8. THOR: THE DARK WORLD

‘Thor: The Dark World’ does some things better than its predecessor, namely smoother action sequences and polished visuals. But in the end it suffers from having the weakest of the MCU villains, mostly because the film gave more screen-time to Loki due to his increasing popularity, and for playing things a little more safe, especially compared to the other Phase 2 films. It’s still a lot of fun to watch, which if you ask me is what really matters.

7. THOR

What could’ve been a disastrous entry in the MCU lineup due to it potentially coming off as being cheesy ends up not falling victim to that at all, being the first to truly expand the MCU beyond Earth and benefitting from solid direction from Kenneth Branagh, a brilliant lead performance by Chris Hemsworth, and above all else a nice balance in tone as it shifts between Earth and Asgard.

6. IRON MAN

It may seem shocking to some of you that I rank the first ‘Iron Man’ film so low, but ultimately this just goes to show how far the MCU has come since its early days. That’s nothing against ‘Iron Man’ though as it’s a well-directed, well-written, and well-acted superhero flick with an excellently set-up origin story for arguably the MCU’s most popular hero.

5. IRON MAN 3

Easily the most underrated MCU film to date, mostly because it gets a lot of unfair flak, mostly due to the Mandarin twist, WHICH ACTUALLY WORKED!!!

4. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Chris Evans’ earnest and charismatic performance as the Cap makes this a fun, old-school summer blockbuster and one with one of the greatest non-Avengers ensemble casts in the entire MCU.

3. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

But suffice it to say, ‘Winter Soldier’ took Captain America, and the MCU, one step further. The bold routes taken in this film made a huge impact on the MCU as a whole but ‘Winter Soldier’ is also a well-constructed homage to the spy thrillers of the 70’s with excellent direction by the Russo Brothers and a great ensemble cast.

2. THE AVENGERS

All of the great build-up of the MCU’s Phase 1 led to this… a truly epic team-up of the MCU’s well-established heroes under the great direction of Joss Whedon. What’s not to love?

1. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

So why do I like this film more than either ‘Avengers’ or ‘Winter Soldier’? Because while I was initially hesitant about this film due to it focusing on a much more obscure superhero team in the Marvel Universe, I was thankfully proven wrong as ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ had much to love about it; great direction from James Gunn, a phenomenal ensemble cast, and, as I noted yesterday, a highly underrated villain, first of all. But then you factor in the fact that this film is the funniest of the MCU films while also effectively balancing the humor with genuinely heartfelt emotional moments. And that’s why ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is my favorite MCU film to date.

Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains

With the release of ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ almost upon us, I was looking into doing a post related to the MCU. But of course, since I’ve already talked about all of the 10 films that have, at the time I am writing this, been released here in the U.S. (‘Iron Man’ to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’) in a very considerable amount of detail over the past few years, I realized that there weren’t many ideas for me to work off of without retreading too far into material that I’ve already written about in the past. Ultimately, I decided to do a list, but not of the films though for the record, a brief post of my current rankings will be released tomorrow. Instead, I’m going to look at one of the major aspects of the MCU; the villains. With that said though, it’s safe to say that there are a lot of people out there who feel that the villains are actually the weakest part of the franchise save for one; Loki. As I noted before in my Spoiler Post of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, I feel that we should stop comparing other MCU villains to Loki because I fear that Loki’s turn as the villain in the first ‘Avengers’ film set the bar so damn high that now other MCU villains are, in my opinion, getting unfairly compared to Loki. Not every superhero movie needs a ‘stand-out’ villain and in the case of the MCU, I feel that the great amount of character development for the main heroes more often than not makes up for their villains’ shortcomings.

Now with that said, I do agree that there has definitely been some ‘weak’ MCU villains. Not all comic book movie villains are going to be great and some of the MCU villains have definitely been proof of that. But I don’t think that all of the non-Loki MCU villains are, quote on quote, ‘bad’. In fact, I find that some are even a little underrated, again this being due to the fact that I don’t hold them all to the high standards set by Loki. So today I’m ranking the 8 main villains of the MCU so far. Why 8 even though there’s been 10 MCU films to date? Well first off, when I get to Loki, I’m accounting for both of his two turns as the main villain in an MCU rather than just splitting them up into two separate entries. But not only that, I’m not going to include ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ on this list because I feel that there isn’t a ‘main villain’ in that film, per se. Technically speaking, HYDRA are the ‘main villains’ of the film but I’m focusing more on the singular character ‘villains’ just to keep things fair. And no, I don’t consider ‘The Winter Soldier’ as a ‘main villain’, even though his name is in the title of the film, because he’s more of a ‘henchman’ for HYDRA. So now that I got all of that out of the way, it’s time to rank the main villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from worst to best.

8. Malekith- THOR: THE DARK WORLD

At the end of the day, the weakest MCU villain to date is easily Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, from ‘Thor: The Dark World’. While this film is nowhere near as bad as some might say it is, unfortunately Malekith’s role in the film kind of serves as the shining example of why many feel that almost all of the MCU villains are weak and while of course I disagree with that notion, there’s no denying that Malekith is an incredibly mediocre main villain. I’ve heard that a lot of his backstory in the film ended up on the cutting room floor, including a whole subplot about his family. If it’s real, then that stuff is never brought up once in the entire film and it’s just a case of him seeking revenge against Asgard after Thor’s grandfather Bor defeated his forces of Dark Elves many eons before the events of the film. So okay, the villain’s under-written… that wouldn’t be such a big deal if the villain at least had an entertaining screen presence. But that’s not the case here; Eccleston is hindered not only by all of his character’s makeup but also the fact that he speaks most of his lines in the Dark Elves’ dialect. And ultimately he really wasn’t that intimidating as he was easily defeated by Thor and his friends at the end. It’s sad that a great actor like Eccleston was wasted here, primarily due to the fact that the filmmakers decided to give Loki a far more substantial role than originally intended due to his increasing popularity in the wake of ‘The Avengers’. So in other words, because Loki was so damn popular, it resulted in Malekith becoming the MCU’s weakest big baddie as a result of being pushed aside.

7. Whiplash- IRON MAN 2

We go from one weak villain wasting a potentially awesome casting choice to another with Ivan Vanko AKA Whiplash, the main villain of ‘Iron Man 2’… or to be more specific, the main villain for the first third or so of the film who then becomes the pawn of the other ‘villain’ in the film, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), in the second act, and then puts himself back in charge again for the finale. Suffice it to say ‘Iron Man 2’ was a bit of a mess in terms of its story, and Whiplash’s overall role in the film is proof of that. Even Mickey Rourke was pissed at Marvel for how they handled his role in the film. Unlike Malekith, Vanko’s back-story is actually set up generally well for the most part. It’s shown that his father Anton used to work with Tony’s father Howard, who had him deported to Russia when he tried to sell the arc reactor invention that they both developed. So because of this set-up, establishing that he probably had a rough life due to his father losing all of his credibility after being deported, Whiplash had potential to be a memorable villain. But, as I just noted earlier, he becomes the secondary villain for the second half of the film and because of it never really gets the chance to shine. Justin Hammer is a more memorable villain than he is. A sad disappointing turnout for what could’ve been a really fun villain but if anything, he wasn’t shoved aside just because another villain was highly popular like Malekith.

6. Emil Blonsky- THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Now we’re getting into the MCU villains that I did like, starting with Emil Blonsky, AKA Abomination, from ‘The Incredible Hulk’. Now while I’ve heard some people list Blonsky as the weakest of the MCU villains, or near the bottom for the most part, I’d say that he’s actually a bit of an underrated villain. First of all, Tim Roth’s presence in the role is pretty damn memorable (“If that thing shows up again, you’re going to have a lot of professional tough guys pissing in their pants.”). That in my opinion is why most of these Marvel Cinematic Universe villains are better than what most give them credit for; their overall screen presence more often than not makes up for their shortcomings in terms of character development. With that said, I do think that Blonsky’s still an interesting villain. He’s a soldier who’s ‘past his prime’ who finds an opportunity to recapture his former glory when General Ross enlists him to help track down Bruce Banner. It soon leads him into taking a small dose of the ‘super soldier’ serum but it doesn’t stop Hulk from pretty much decimating him in battle. However, Blonsky ends up surviving this little encounter and slowly becomes insane, which leads to him transforming into another giant monster; ‘The Abomination’. First off, I love the visual design for Abomination; he’s basically a tan-colored version of the Hulk but with bones protruding from his back. The finale between Abomination and Hulk is pretty awesome as they smash through Harlem. So overall, I’d say Blonsky is an entertaining MCU villain; nowhere near the best, hence why he’s only at Number 6 on this list, but nowhere near the worst either.

5. Obadiah Stane- IRON MAN

Leading off as the first villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Tony Stark’s mentor/business partner Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges, in the first ‘Iron Man’. Nowadays, it’s pretty interesting to look back upon the first ‘Iron Man’, first released at a time where no one would’ve ever guessed that Marvel would be able to create a successful ‘Cinematic Universe’ that would bring together Marvel’s greatest heroes. Of course we all know how that has since turned out but while there have been better MCU villains that have come in the years since ‘Iron Man’, Stane is still a pretty memorable adversary for Tony Stark. Of course you can’t go wrong when your villain is played by a charismatic actor like Jeff ‘The Dude’ Bridges. There’s some solid build-up for his character too, as we slowly but surely see how he’s going behind Tony’s back, orchestrating his kidnapping by the Ten Rings and developing his own ‘Iron Man’-like suit after recovering Tony’s Mark 1 suit that he used to escape imprisonment. While the finale of ‘Iron Man 2’ rehashed the ‘Iron Man suit vs. Iron Man suit’ final battle, the finale of the first ‘Iron Man’ is still pretty memorable even though it of course has since been out-shadowed by other MCU film finales. So ultimately I’m mainly basing this around the fact that ‘Iron Man’ was the first MCU film back when the MCU was in its infancy. A lot has happened since then but I still find Obadiah Stane to be a memorable ‘first villain’ for the MCU… things were only going to get better as time went on.

4. The Red Skull- CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Taking the award for being one of the best, arguably the best, cast MCU villain to date is Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull, the main adversary in the first ‘Captain America’ film. Weaving of course had already made quite the impression as the villainous Agent Smith in the ‘Matrix’ trilogy and that translated well into the character Johann Schmidt, head of the Nazi science division known as HYDRA. It is revealed that he also took the same ‘super soldier’ serum that Steve Rogers takes but at the time the serum hadn’t been perfected yet and it resulted in some permanent side-effects, namely the red-colored skull that earned him the nickname ‘Red Skull’. The makeup work for Red Skull is quite excellent and Weaving’s performance helps make something that could’ve been cheesy look pretty darn intimidating. And on that note, another great thing about Red Skull is that he has such a great presence. He may not actually do ‘that much’ within the film itself but you can certainly see his influence on major events throughout the course of the film. While it seemed like Red Skull was killed off at the end of the film, dissolved by the Tesseract, there have been rumors that he could return for a future film. I even saw some people speculate that it was going to be revealed in ‘Winter Soldier’ that Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) was the ‘Red Skull’. Of course that was proven false but unfortunately it doesn’t look like Weaving is going to reprise his role in a future MCU film. Regardless, he did make quite a good impression in ‘First Avenger’ and that’s all that matters.

3. Ronan the Accuser- GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Now here is where I majorly disagree with critics. Lee Pace’s Ronan, the main villain of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, has generally been considered to be the weakest part of the film, with reasons ranging from the usual ‘underdeveloped character’ argument to him being too serious in a film that was much more light-hearted and funny in nature. Not only that, but James Gunn did say in an interview with Screen Junkies that he did have to cut some of the stuff with Ronan. Despite that, though, I think Ronan’s a severely underappreciated villain. And there are three main reasons for this, which I’ve talked about before in the past in my Spoiler Post for the film. For one thing, there is at least a clear motivation for his character; he’s a radical Kree who seeks to take over Xandar in retaliation against the recent treaty between his people and the Nova Corps of Xandar. To do so, he allies with Thanos to go after the Power Orb, which of course we learn is actually an Infinity Stone, so that he can bring it to Thanos who would then help him destroy Xandar. I mean, if anything, it’s a better motive than just being evil… because! And at least he got more to work with than Malekith in ‘Thor: The Dark World’.

Also unlike Malekith, Ronan is actually a pretty intimidating adversary for the Guardians. Case in point? During the finale, he actually does manage to get back up after seemingly being defeated not once, but twice in the span of about 10-15 minutes. As I noted earlier in this post, you didn’t see that with Malekith. But then there’s one more major reason why I think Ronan is a far better villain than most people give him credit for; HE DEFIES FRIGGING THANOS!! Yes, after stealing back the Stone back from the Guardians, Ronan takes it for himself in an act of defiance against the Mad Titan. Yes, he’s still defeated in the end by the Guardians but going up against Thanos, and no I don’t care about the fact that he’s yet to do anything major in these films, and basically saying ‘screw you’ to him? That takes guts; you didn’t see Loki do that in ‘Avengers’ now, did you? That is why I’m much more positive about Ronan and Nebula than most, even though the latter was screwed over by the fact that she wasn’t given anything to do in the first half of the film, because they did something that no other MCU villain has ever done. Could there have been more done with them? Yes, and thankfully Nebula did survive the final battle so hopefully she’ll be brought back in future films, maybe even ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. But as is, Ronan is far from being a ‘weak’ villain and in fact, I’d say he’s one of the MCU’s best villains. ‘Guardians’ wouldn’t be my favorite MCU film if I thought that he wasn’t a memorable villain.

2. Aldrich Killian- IRON MAN 3

‘Iron Man 3’ is easily the most underrated film in the MCU… as such its villain, Aldrich Killian, is a pretty damn underrated MCU villain. Now of course, we all know what happened with this film in regards to the controversial twist involving the Mandarin. The person who we thought to be the Mandarin as advertised in the promotional material for the film was actually a drunk British actor by the name of Trevor Slattery who was merely a pawn in the master plan of Killian. During the final battle, Killian proclaims that ‘he is the Mandarin’ though, as revealed in the MCU One Shot ‘All Hail the King’, there still is a real ‘Mandarin’ out there and suffice it to say he ain’t happy about what Killian and Slattery have been doing. Hopefully this isn’t a result of the backlash against the controversial twist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the twist did actually work from a story perspective and was actually a nice little bait-and-switch that, to paraphrase the iconic line from Slattery, ‘we never saw coming’. As for Killian, first of all it’s great to see Guy Pearce continuing to get good work in Hollywood because he really is quite the underrated actor. Pearce makes Killian a great foil to Tony and yes his whole villainous plot is very much reminiscent of Syndrome’s in ‘The Incredibles’ right down to the same general specific beats of the plot. But that’s okay because Pearce still manages to make Killian a pretty damn compelling/charismatic villain. I know that there are people out there who are still pissed about the whole Mandarin twist but I implore those folks to let that frustration go and give this film, and its entertaining baddie, a second chance.

1. Loki- THOR/THE AVENGERS

At the end of the day, though, despite all that I’ve said in defense of most of the other MCU villains, there’s no denying that Loki is still the greatest ‘film’ villain that the MCU has ever had; I say ‘film’ because, as I mentioned earlier this month, I feel that Kingpin, through ‘Marvel’s Daredevil’, has actually overtaken Loki’s space as the best MCU villain to date. But of course Loki’s turn as the big bad in ‘Avengers’ is still a highly iconic supervillain performance, even if it now results in everyone unfairly comparing other MCU villains to him. Of course this wasn’t the first time that Loki had been the main villain of an MCU film as he originally started out as the main villain in the first ‘Thor’ film. However I hate to say it, but despite Tom Hiddleston’s excellent performance in the role and a really solid amount of set-up for the character in regards to his relationship with Thor and his overall scheme (get Thor banished so that he could become king of Asgard), I didn’t really find him to be that much of a threat in the first ‘Thor’ film. I mean it’s probably just because this was a film centered on a literal God of Thunder but despite all that Loki did in that film, he was ‘sort of, kind of’ easily defeated by Thor.

In ‘Avengers’, however, with his newfound ability to take control of the minds of his enemies, which he uses on Dr. Selvig and Hawkeye, and his army of Chitauri soldiers, suddenly Loki became much more intimidating. Now he was a legitimate threat, one that required more than just his brother to stop him; this was a job for ‘The Avengers’, setting the stage for one of the most epic superhero films of all time. And here was where Hiddleston really started to get into the role, oozing charisma more than any MCU villain that came before or after him. He was so popular that his role in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ was expanded upon… at the cost of the character development for that film’s villain, Malekith. See what happens when you build something up like that, folks? It can ruin other things, like a villain that could’ve been awesome but ultimately was shoved aside in favor of the far more popular one. Still, who doesn’t love Loki? And with the ending of ‘Thor: The Dark World’ showing that he was now secretly in control of Asgard in place of Odin, it’ll be very interesting to see what happens next with everyone’s favorite ‘God of Mischief’.

So that’s how I rank all of the major MCU villains to date. Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow for my updated rankings of the first 10 Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

Next Month on Rhode Island Movie Corner

It’s arguably the most iconic media franchise in all of pop culture. What started as just an $11 million sci-fi film from California-born director George Lucas has since resulted in five additional films, numerous TV series and video games, and much, much more. And this December, this highly beloved series will finally return to the big screen under the direction of J.J. Abrams with ‘The Force Awakens’. You know exactly what I’m talking about; it’s ‘Star Wars’. And next month, in honor of May 4^th AKA ‘Star Wars Day’, I’m celebrating this quintessential sci-fi franchise with a whole month of ‘Star Wars’ related content on this blog; it’s ‘Star Wars’ Month here on Rhode Island Movie Corner. All throughout the month of May, every Friday, I’ll be releasing a new blog post focusing on some of the many elements of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. Of course I’ll be talking about the films, both the original and the prequel trilogies, but I’ll also be giving my own thoughts on the controversial changes made to the original films, will be looking at some of the franchise’s TV series, and will also be listing my Top 10 favorite ‘Star Wars’ video games. For the record, though, the first of these posts will be released next Monday, on ‘Star Wars Day’, instead of this Friday due to scheduling conflicts with a certain superhero film coming out this week. But after that, every subsequent ‘Star Wars’ post will be released on Friday.

MAY 4TH- Original Trilogy (Episodes IV-VI)

MAY 8TH- ‘Special Edition’ Changes

MAY 15TH- Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I-III)

MAY 22TH- TV Series- ‘Clone Wars’ (2003) / ‘The Clone Wars’+ Movie (2008)

MAY 29TH- Top 10 Favorite ‘Star Wars’ video games

Can’t wait to start talking about one of my favorite film franchises of all-time but for now, ‘May the Force be With You!’

Unfriended (2015) review

The recent advancements in technology over the past few years have allowed us to further connect with people in ways we never could before, especially with the creation of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. However, this isn’t always a good thing. If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now; sometimes the internet can tend to be really negative. I’ve seen that plenty of times when it comes to film discussions but then you also have something much, much worse like cyber-bullying. As if bullying wasn’t bad enough, now bullies are able to torment their victims online, in many cases anonymously meaning that the bullying victim could potentially have no way of finding who’s doing it to them. This whole practice sets up the plot of Blumhouse Productions’ newest film, ‘Unfriended’, in which an extreme act of cyber-bullying comes back to haunt a bunch of teenagers who were at the forefront of it all. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really not the biggest fan of horror films. I don’t really go see horror films in the theater unless the premise intrigues me. Hence why last year, around this exact time in fact, I went to go see the film ‘Oculus’ which, if you recall, I wasn’t the biggest fan of (though I do promise that I’ll give that film a second chance in the future). So ‘Unfriended’ was another case of a horror film that actually did interest me based on its premise; either that or I’ve been inundated with its ads online for the past month, which sort of made me obligated to check it out.

It is established that, a year before the events of the film, a high-school student named Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), committed suicide after being mercilessly tormented by her peers after an embarrassing video of her passed out drunk at a party was posted online. Exactly one year after this, a bunch of her former classmates; Blaire (Shelley Hennig), Mitch (Moses Jacob Storm), Jess (Renee Olstead), Ken (Jacob Wysocki), and Adam (Will Peltz), have a group chat on Skype. Everything seems to be going well until they realize that there’s another person in the chat with them; ‘billie227’. They soon realize that this anonymous account belonged to Laura and despite all of their efforts, they have no way of getting rid of this mystery caller. Soon enough, the caller starts to become much more threatening towards them, demanding them to tell it who was responsible for posting the video of Laura and threatening to kill them if they sign out of Skype. As time goes on, and the mysterious force begins to take them out one by one, the friends’ dark secrets begin to be uncovered. Not only do these reveals test their friendship, but it’s shown that they actually played a major part in Laura’s harassment, including the fact that one of them was the one responsible for posting the embarrassing video of her in the first place.

So the idea behind this movie is that it all takes place on Blaire’s computer screen as the main characters are chatting on Skype. As gimmicky as that sounds, and let’s be honest it sort of does, it is actually done to pretty great effect here. It’s not like it all takes place on Skype, which definitely could’ve become really boring after a while. Throughout the film, we see Blaire do other things on her computer, like watch videos online, send messages to her boyfriend Mitch and later ‘Laura’, and so on. And because it centers on Blaire more than the other main characters, we do definitely see the whole situation from her point of view, like how sometimes she re-types some of her responses to people online. The film also does a good job establishing a sense of ‘realism’ (you know, as ‘realistic’ as a horror film can get) through the way the Skype conversation is presented. Having used Skype many times before to record podcasts with my group ‘The Feature Presentation’, we have experienced problems such as lag and audio/video cut-offs. In any other movie, the ‘call’ that the characters are in probably would’ve looked ‘perfect’ without any issues arising with the technology. But that’s not the case here, as we do frequently see the video lag and cut off video and audio at times. Technically speaking, this is sort of along the lines of being a ‘found-footage’ film. As such, it actually does do something new with the genre, which I think we can all agree has been generally overdone in the past few years.

I loved the ways that ‘Laura’ messed with her victims, like in one scene she has them play the game ‘Never Have I Ever’ and as the game goes on, some of their dirty secrets are brought up, from rumors that they’ve spread about each other to affairs that they’ve had behind their friends’ backs. Heck, at one point, as they start to argue, ‘Laura’ starts playing a song about liars that can’t be turned off, which I thought was pretty funny. The film does highlight why cyber-bullying is a bad thing, but that also results in some of the film’s shortcomings. Because the thing is, being that this film is about a bunch of teens who are being targeted by a supernatural force because of their participation in the bullying that one girl had to deal with, the main characters aren’t exactly likable. But then again, they’re basically just your standard horror film character stereotypes so we don’t really care about them anyway. This is one case where you do actually find yourself rooting for the killer. But ultimately, we don’t ever really learn anything about this ‘killer’ either. I mean I know the film is implying that it’s Laura but at no point do we ever get an official answer on that or how this is all being done. Heck, at one point, I thought it was going to be that the killer was revealed to be Laura’s uncle, who’s mentioned at one point in the film during a conversation between Blaire and Mitch. I’m not spoiling anything when I say that it isn’t.

In the end, I guess you can say that I admire this movie more for its execution than I do in regards to the writing. Because while this film does show why cyber-bullying is just bad on all accounts, this also means that the main characters, who are all horror stereotypes, are unlikable because they played a part in the cyber-bullying of their classmate Laura, who ended up killing herself because of it. And as much as this is a case where, given the situation, you’re actually rooting for the killer due to what happened to her, we never get a clear idea of who this killer is supposed to be or how this is even happening in the first place. Without the whole ‘online/Skype’ angle, this would’ve just been your run-of-the-mill clichéd teen horror flick. It still is, but because of the inventive direction they took with telling the story, as well as its solid establishment of realism primarily though portraying the typical Skype conversation, it’s not as big of an issue here compared to a film like ‘Annabelle’ or ‘Ouija’. Of course keep in mind I’m not a fan of horror films so these aren’t the kind of movies I usually see. But even with that said, I did like ‘Unfriended’. I may not have been ‘scared’ by it, per se, but I will give it credit for actually doing a really good job in terms of suspense and paranoia through its solid execution of its online-themed set-up. As far as horror films go, I can’t say that this is an absolute ‘must-see’ but given some of the other horror films that have come out over the past few years, this one does have more to offer.

Rating: 3/5

Marvel's Daredevil (2015): Season Review

(WARNING: Potentially Minor Spoilers Ahead! Don’t worry, I won’t give away ‘too much’)

In 2003, Marvel made its first major attempt to bring the character of Daredevil to the big screen. But ultimately, the 2003 film ‘Daredevil’ starring Ben Affleck in the title role of Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil, ‘The Man without Fear’, ended up becoming one of the most hated superhero films of the pre-MCU superhero film era… at least amongst the people of the internet. A few weeks ago, I went on record stating that I didn’t ‘hate’ the film. I’m not saying that it was a ‘great’ superhero film, far from it in fact, but ultimately 2003’s ‘Daredevil’ was just a case of a film that got neutered by the studio to appeal to a larger audience despite the fact that Daredevil is considered to be one of Marvel’s darker lead characters. If anything, it wasn’t 100% the fault of either Affleck or director Mark Steven Johnson. Because of the mixed-to-negative reaction, plans for a sequel fell by the wayside and Fox’s attempts to reboot the franchise ultimately didn’t pan out either. So, in 2012, the rights to the character of Daredevil returned to Marvel Studios and as a result, now we have the ‘Daredevil’ TV series, the first in a new group of shows that Marvel will produce with Netflix over the next few years centered around the characters collectively known as ‘The Defenders’. This new ‘Daredevil’ immediately makes one hell of a great impression, much more so than its 2003 film predecessor, thanks to its perfect execution of tone and atmosphere as well as a terrific cast highlighted by one of the best screen villains of recent memory.

As a kid, Hell’s Kitchen native Matt Murdock was blinded by radioactive material after he helped save a man from getting hit by a car. But while he does end up losing his vision, Matt’s other senses become more heightened and after his father, wrestler ‘Battlin’ Jack Murdock, is killed after not throwing a fight, he begins to hone his newfound abilities with an old martial artist named Stick (Scott Glenn). Years later, Matt (Charlie Cox) and his best friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) open up a new law firm. At night, Matt becomes ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen’, a vigilante who deals with the rampant crime of the area. Matt and Foggy soon take on their first client, a young woman named Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) who finds herself caught in the middle of a pension embezzlement scheme that is going on at the company she works for. While Matt and Foggy help protect her from being prosecuted, this soon leads Matt, through his vigilante persona, to investigate further into the matter. As he deals with the various criminal gangs of Hell’s Kitchen, from the Russian mob to the Yakuza, he soon ends up crossing paths with the one who’s really behind it all, businessman Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has plans for Hell’s Kitchen that Matt, Karen, Foggy, and many others soon find themselves roped into. 

Right off the bat, I can tell you that this is nothing like the 2003 ‘Daredevil’ in that it’s not a toned-down PG-13 affair; this show is rated TV-MA for a reason. It’s much darker in tone and far more violent than anything we’ve seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But at the same time, it’s not 100% dark to the point where it starts to become way too unpleasant to watch. Amidst all of the violence and darkness of the plot, the series still manages to lighten things up at just the right times, namely through the solid camaraderie between Matt and Foggy. I’ve talked before about my apprehension towards DC’s alleged ‘no joke’ mandate for their upcoming slate of films and if that ends up being the case, then DC should really take notes because this show, along with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, are prime examples of how you can do a more serious superhero film/TV series without being ‘too grim’, which I feel that DC went a little too far with when they made ‘Man of Steel’. Along with that, the show does a nice job in terms of pacing as it doesn’t rush into things too fast. It takes its time in order to develop the plot and characters. I guess you can say that’s the advantage that TV shows have over films in that they’re not constricted by having to get everything across in just around two hours.

The action sequences are quite excellent, with probably the best of the bunch being the one near the end of Episode 2, when Daredevil fights off a Russian gang in order to save a young boy that they’ve kidnapped. The whole fight sequence is done in a single long take which, if I’m right, we’ve never really seen before from superhero films. And keeping in line with the show’s darker tone and TV-MA rating, they’re much more brutal than what we’ve seen from the MCU films. When characters are injured, you hear the bones crack when they’re hit, giving you a clear idea of what just happened to them. You see the bloodshed whenever someone gets stabbed or slashed. And boy let me tell you, some of the deaths in this show are brutal, particularly in Episodes 3 and 4, without giving away any of the details about how they happen. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see action sequences as brutal as these in the MCU films but that’s okay because I prefer the films stay that way anyway. But suffice it to say if you are looking for a darker/more violent superhero property then you’ll definitely gravitate towards this series. I’m not one of those people who feel that a lot of these superhero films are all just the same but at the same time I will admit that this series does provide a nice bit of variety when compared to most superhero films due to it being much more adult.

With no offense to Ben Affleck, Charlie Cox immediately establishes himself as the superior Daredevil. In the role of the first major anti-hero of the MCU, Cox does a great job at capturing Matt Murdock’s moral turmoil as he constantly tries to justify to both those around him and even himself that what he’s doing is right. Backing Cox up are Woll and Henson as Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, two roles that, in this series, are expanded upon much more than what one might expect from this kind of show. If this show had gone another way, these two characters probably would’ve been nothing more than just the helpless damsel in distress and the goofy sidekick, respectively. But thankfully that’s not the case here as Karen and Foggy are just as fleshed out in terms of character development as much as Matt. Karen, as soon as she gets caught up in the main conflict of the series, gets involved with it just as much as Matt, without the whole ‘vigilante’ thing of course. And while Foggy definitely is the primary source of comic relief for the series, that’s not all there is to his character. One of the most crucial episodes of the series is Episode 10, aptly titled ‘Nelson v. Murdock’, in which a big reveal (don’t worry, no spoilers) at the end of the previous episode results in Foggy and Matt coming to odds over recent events. Overall, the series has a rock solid cast from top to bottom.

Ultimately, however, the biggest stand-out of the cast is easily Vincent D’Onofrio, who’s perfectly cast in the role of Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin in the comics. In fact, I’m just going to say it; he’s the best villain that Marvel Studios has had to date, even better than everyone’s favorite villain Loki. Fisk, as D’Onofrio portrays him, is a truly fascinating main villain and is set up pretty well in that regard. Heck, he doesn’t even appear on screen until the end of the third episode, though he does make a brief vocal appearance in the first episode. A lot of times, he’s very soft-spoken but when he gets angry, that’s where you really don’t want to mess with him. That soft-spoken nature, along with the numerous times he tells people that sometimes he feels ‘alone’, definitely must’ve come from the character’s troubled past. And that troubled past is the focal point of what is, in my opinion, the best episode of this season, Episode 8, in which we see how Fisk truly became the person he is today. In some ways, there are times where we even pity Fisk, like when he tries to navigate through a relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) and we see how much that relationship affects him. The end result is an extremely well-layered main villain and I hope that Fisk might get the chance to appear in a future MCU film.

At this point in time, I’d argue that Marvel is now officially on DC’s level when it comes to Grade-A superhero TV series. After a rocky start, one that I still stand behind as being better than what most give it credit for, ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has now really stood out as far as these shows go thanks in no small part to the big HYDRA reveal of ‘Winter Soldier’. Earlier this year, we then got a kick-ass period comic book show with a terrific female lead in the form of ‘Agent Carter’. And now, we can officially add ‘Daredevil’ to this mix of great Marvel shows. Unlike the last major adaptation of ‘Daredevil’, this version stays much more true to its comic book roots and, unlike its MCU film brethren, isn’t afraid to be more brutal in terms of violence and darker in tone. Thankfully, unlike something like ‘Man of Steel’, this show doesn’t go 100% dark and effectively lightens up the darker ordeals of the story at just the right moments. It’s all topped off by a terrific ensemble cast highlighted by Charlie Cox’s definitive portrayal of Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s outstanding turn as the Kingpin, a villain so great he even gives Loki a run for his money as the MCU’s greatest antagonist to date. Marvel Studios is off to a great start with these Netflix-produced TV shows and hopefully we’ll get to see another season of this fantastic TV show (not counting the definite future appearances of Daredevil in the other series).

Season Rating: 5/5!

Furious 7 (2015) review

In some ways, it’s still hard to believe that the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise has now been going on for more than a decade. At first, it was just a simple street-racing franchise that, while consistently commercially successful, never were big hits with critics. But then, to everyone’s surprise, it suddenly became one of the biggest film franchises in recent years. Having not been a ‘fan’ of the series in its early years, the fourth film, 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’, was the one that first got me interested in the series, even though in retrospect I realize I’m kind of in the minority when it comes to liking that film. Ultimately though, the series really started to shine with the fifth entry, 2011’s ‘Fast Five’, the first entry in the series to, to everyone’s surprise, do really well with critics. There were many reasons for this upgrade in quality. There was the return of many of the series’ former leads, resulting in the series’ first true ‘ensemble’ cast. There was the overall shift in regards to the series’ plots from street-racing to heists. And of course, there was the very welcome addition of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the role of DSS agent Luke Hobbs. Just like that, the franchise became relevant again, soon followed by an equally awesome, and arguably better, follow-up in 2013 in the form of ‘Fast and Furious 6’, the first entry in the series that I was genuinely looking forward to. There’s no better way to say it; those last three movies made me a ‘F&F’ fan.

Now Dom and his crew (or, to use a more proper term, ‘family’) are back for the seventh entry (yes, seventh) of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, ‘Furious 7’. This time, however, the film is under a different director (a first since 2003’s ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’). James Wan, who has mainly been known for his work on horror films like ‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’, and ‘The Conjuring’, takes over directing duties from Justin Lin, who had directed every entry of the series since 2006’s ‘Tokyo Drift’, for this new film. But of course, as we all know, that isn’t the biggest headline surrounding the film. Sadly, a more tragic one is. On November 30, 2013, while on break from shooting the film, series lead Paul Walker was killed in a single-car accident. Filming was only half-done at the time of his death so the production was temporarily put on hold so that the filmmakers could figure out a way to finish the film without Walker. As a result, ‘Furious 7’ now serves as not only a tribute to one of the series’ biggest stars, but also as the final film for Walker’s character Brian O’Connor. Needless to say, the film really delivers on representing Walker’s legacy with the franchise. But of course, this is also a ‘Fast and Furious’ movie and even with the change in directors, ‘Furious 7’ still succeeds in being a dumb and over-the-top but ultimately fun as hell action film that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t try to be something it’s not.

At the end of ‘Fast and Furious 6’, former street racer/criminal Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew; Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dom’s girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Tej Parker (Ludacris), and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) had finally returned home to the States after helping DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) take down Owen Shaw and his crew in London. However, not long after, they soon find themselves being hunted by Shaw’s older brother Deckard (Jason Statham), who seeks revenge against Dom and co. for what they did to his brother. As it was revealed in the post-credits scene for ‘Furious 6’, Deckard was the one responsible for the death of Han (Sung Kang) in ‘Tokyo Drift’ which, for those who are new to the franchise, is actually this new film’s immediate predecessor being that it takes place after the events of the fourth, fifth, and sixth films. He follows that up by injuring Hobbs and nearly killing Dom, Mia, and Brian when their house is destroyed by a bomb. Not wanting to have to deal with another funeral for one of their family members, Dom and his crew team up with the government, specifically agent ‘Mr. Nobody’ (Kurt Russell), to find a computer program known as ‘God’s Eye’, developed by hacker Megan Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), that would allow them to track anyone on Earth through digital devices. In return, the gov’t will allow Dom and the crew to use it to track down Shaw.

I mean, at this point, you should definitely know what you’re getting yourselves into when you watch these movies; this is the seventh entry in the franchise after all. You don’t watch them for the plot, that’s for sure. In fact, the MacGuffin they’re after in this film is actually unnecessary to their goal (I’ll explain why in a little bit). But of course, that’s not what these movies are all about. By now, the filmmakers have become very much aware of what these movies are; dumb fun, and they just roll with it. ‘Furious 7’ is no exception. Despite the fact that he’s not really as experienced in regards to directing action compared to someone like Justin Lin, James Wan does a really good job for his first major action film. The action sequences are just as crazy and physics/logic-defying as ever. This is a film where cars drop out of a plane, one super-fancy and super-rare car jumps between skyscrapers, and the characters constantly find themselves doing death-defying stunts. Of course, pretty much all of these stunts would be implausible in real life but who cares? And like I said before, at this point who even cares about the plot? It just serves as a way for Dom and crew to keep doing these awesome stunts. But even with the minimalist plot, one common theme that has basically been the defining trait of the whole franchise since the very beginning is the concept of family, which is even more relevant in this one given the death of Walker.

Without spoiling anything major, he is given a really fitting and touching send-off that is guaranteed to make even the toughest folks cry. The camaraderie amongst the main leads, from Walker to Diesel to Rodriguez to Johnson (by the way, some fans may be a little disappointed to know that Hobbs’ role in this film is much more diminished then it was in 5 and 6 given that he’s taken out of commission early on by Shaw for most of the film) to Gibson to Ludacris and so on and so on. And in my opinion, this is the greatest strength of the franchise; the fact that the relationships between the main characters feels very much genuine. Like with the last film, this entry also benefits from some fun additions to the cast, from Russell to Emmanuel to Djimon Hounsou, the latter of whom plays a mercenary who Dom and crew keep running into. As the main villain, Statham definitely brings the right intimidating presence in the role but ultimately he’s rather underused in some cases. Remember that whole thing I said earlier about the whole MacGuffin of the film being unnecessary? Well that’s because Shaw literally shows up for every major set piece in the film. So really Dom and crew didn’t even need that program to find Shaw because he always manages to find them first. He may be the older brother of Owen Shaw, but in the end the younger brother is still the best ‘F&F’ villain to date.

‘Furious 7’ probably won’t convert over anyone who isn’t a fan of the franchise. Like its predecessors, it’s over-the-top, stupid, and full of logic-bending, physics-messing, and death-defying stunts. But that’s why they’re so damn entertaining to watch and ‘Furious 7’ is once again proof of that. Yeah the plot is pretty weak, with the whole MacGuffin that the team is looking for being ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things, but as I’ve said plenty of times in this review, who seriously goes into a film like this looking for top-quality writing? ‘Furious 7’ is just loads of fun while also maintaining the strengths of the most recent entries of the franchise, namely the great camaraderie of its cast and perhaps most importantly its keen sense of fun. I’ll admit that part of me kind of misses Justin Lin’s presence behind the camera but overall James Wan does do a really solid job for what was his first major foray into the action genre. And of course, I guarantee you that you’re going to be crying when this film ends as the characters, the franchise, and ultimately all of us say goodbye to Paul Walker. Regardless of what you thought of him as an actor, it’s clear that he was, above all else, a good man and he will be sorely missed. ‘Furious 7’ not only succeeds at being what the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies have become in the last few years but by also serving as a touching tribute to Walker’s legacy.

Rating: 4/5

#ForPaul

2015 Preview: April

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films that will be hitting theaters in 2015. This is Part 4 of 12 and today we’re looking at the upcoming releases for the month of April. While the summer movie season technically starts in May, many people believe that it’s slowly beginning to move back a month or two considering the fact that a lot of big-name blockbusters are starting to get released in the months of March and April. However, to be perfectly honest, this month’s lineup is a little light in terms of new releases. There’s literally only one major wide release each for the first two weeks of the month. But that’s not going to stop us from taking a look at what’s coming out this month, so let’s get started as we look into the films of April 2015.

APRIL 3- Only one wide release this week, but it’s a big one with a lot of buzz surrounding it. Unfortunately, not all of it for the right reasons.

*James Wan (‘The Conjuring’, ‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’) takes over directing duties from Justin Lin for ‘Furious 7’, the seventh entry in the highly successful ‘Fast and the Furious’ franchise. In this film, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew find themselves being hunted by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the brother of ‘Fast and Furious 6’ villain Owen Shaw, who seeks revenge for his brother’s death. The main cast of the series (Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, among others) reprise their roles from the previous films, joined in this film by Lucas Black (reprising his role as Sean Boswell from the third entry, ‘Tokyo Drift’), Nathalie Emmanuel, Ronda Rousey, and Kurt Russell, among others.

Of course, as you all know, this film was marred by tragedy in November 2013, when star Paul Walker died in a car crash while on break from shooting this film. Since then, production was put on a short hiatus before filming resumed, with this film now set to retire his character Brian O’Connor.

APRIL 10- Yet again, only one wide release but I’ll also throw in another noteworthy film coming out this weekend.

*The newest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, ‘The Longest Ride’ stars Britt Robertson and Scott Eastwood as a college student and ex-champion bull rider, respectively, who fall in love and end up helping an older man (Alan Alda) when he ends up in a car accident. Their lives become connected to the man when he starts to reminisce about his wife.

*Also hitting theaters this weekend (though not listed as a ‘wide’ release on Box Office Mojo) is ‘Ex-Machina’, the directorial debut of writer Alex Garland (‘Dredd’, ’28 Days Later’). The film centers around a computer programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) who is selected to come to the reclusive mountain home of a famous tech CEO (Oscar Issac). While there, he is informed that he going to perform a ‘Turing Test’ on a humanoid android A.I. named Ava (Alicia Vikander).

APRIL 17- Seems like this was the prime spot this month as four (!) new wide releases debut.

*Based on the novel of the same name by Tom Rob Smith, ‘Child 44’ stars Tom Hardy as an MGB agent in the Stalin-era of the Soviet Union who investigates into a series of child murders. The film also stars Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, and Gary Oldman.

*Disneynature’s newest film, ‘Monkey Kingdom’, centers on a family of monkeys who must find a new home when their old home is overrun by another tribe of monkeys. The film is narrated by Tina Fey.

*Kevin James reprises his role of mall cop Paul Blart in ‘Paul Blart Mall Cop 2’, the sequel to 2009’s surprise commercial hit ‘Paul Blart Mall Cop’. In this film, Blart and his daughter Maya take a vacation to Las Vegas where Blart once again finds himself in the middle of a takeover situation, this time of the hotel that he and his daughter are staying at.

*The newest horror film from Blumhouse Productions (their second in three months following February’s ‘The Lazarus Effect’), ‘Unfriended’ takes place a year after a high school student named Laura Barns killed herself after being mercilessly mocked online over a video of her passed out while at a party. When six of her former classmates have a Skype conversation on the anniversary of her death, they soon find themselves having to deal with a mysterious 7^th person who joins the conversation on Laura’s old account. This mysterious stranger then proceeds to threaten them with death if any of them log out of Skype.

APRIL 24- And finally we have a pair of dramas to close out the month.

*Blake Lively stars in ‘The Age of Adaline’ in which she plays a woman who, following a car accident, ends up being stricken with ‘immortality’, never aging past 27 for eight decades. The film also stars Ellen Burstyn and Harrison Ford.

*Finally there’s ‘Little Boy’, in which a young boy tries to find a way to end World War II so that his father can come home. The film stars Kevin James, Emily Watson, and Tom Wilkinson.

And those are the films set to come in April 2015. Thanks for reading and check back next month for Part 5 of this year-long preview as we officially start off the summer movie season with the films of May.