Kick-Ass

If you're unsure about whether or not this is a film you might enjoy I'm going to start this review with one simple fact that is sure to help. Kick-Ass was the first film I had ever seen which dropped the C-bomb, it is spoken 37 minutes into the film by an 11 year old girl, moments before she massacres a room full of men with a double bladed sword. Still interested? Read on...

The Dark Knight Rises

Seven years ago Christopher Nolan unleashed a film that was to be the start of a new Batman franchise. Batman Begins wowed viewers and took them back to the dark, gritty roots of the character that had been defiled by the gaudy neon paint of the characters previous outing, Batman & Robin. Four years ago Nolan followed up his origins story by pitting the hero against his ultimate long-standing enemy, The Joker. An immaculate performance and brilliant storytelling propelled The Dark Knight to comic-movie history, securing the franchise as the creme-de-la-creme of superhero films. Nineteen hours ago I sat in my seat at my local Odeon and watched the trailers roll before the third and final film in Nolan's trilogy began, The Dark Knight Rises.

*WARNING* May contain mild spoilers.

Comic Con '12

Over the past four days, Thursday through Sunday, countless numbers of people descended upon San Diego for their 2012 Comic-Con, meeting their idols, dressing as their favourite characters and having their minds repeatedly blown with awesome news and footage of upcoming films, games and TV shows. Over these same four days I have spent 36 and a half hours sat at work, competing with complaints, the after effects of a power-outage and my own desire to sleep.

Due to all this time spent at work I have been receiving my drip-feed of Comic Con updates via various Twitter accounts and the odd blog. Several items have caught my heavy-lidded eye, and a lot of what I've read has been positive, which is always good, so I thought I would put together a collection of the updates that have got me the most (or least) excited.

1. Man of Steel.
As with most films that get a panel at the convention, Man of Steel got an exclusive poster for the event. Unlike many films that get a poster at the convention, Man of Steel's was pure awesome-sauce.
This poster alone has amped up my excitement for this new iteration of the famed boy-scout to a new high, the stylish, Nolanised footage that was apparently shown is also helping though, and I can't wait to see it. I love the simplicity of this poster, it's dark, it shows of the stunning detail of the new costume (which I actually love), and it sets an unmistakable tone for what this film is going to be. Cannot wait!

2. Ant-Man.
So ever since news arrived of Marvel pushing a film featuring their beloved hero Ant-Man, I've been more than a little underwhelmed. With a perfect (in my mind) Avengers line-up I have been fairly sceptical at the prospect of this size-altering addition to the crew. However, descriptions of the footage previewed at the panel has piqued my interest. It sounds as though the depiction of the little (or large, it depends) fellow's powers will actually be a little brilliant, and a hella funny. With Edgar Wright at the helm the comedic tone is sure to be present, I just hope Marvel isn't pushing for fully-fledged comedy after the success of The Avenger's and The Amazing Spider-Man's numerous one-liners.

3. Title Cards.

More Marvel, as the studio released the title cards for their next phase of films. Guardian's of the Galaxy has yet to do more than simply cameo on my radar, so nothing much to say on that, or the standardly basic Iron Man 3 card. Then we have the sequels to Captain America and Thor, complete with two awkward sub-titles, The Winter Soldier, and The Dark World respectively. 'The Winter Soldier' just sounds a little daft to me, losing some of the epicness of 'The First Avenger', and actually just sounds like the variant costume for a Cap action figure. Obviously the title will get comic fans super-pumped for the return of (Spoiler maybe?!) Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), but it's still a crappy title to what is an interesting storyline. Similarly The Dark World, I assume, should sound intriguing and mysterious, but is just dull and unnecessary.

4. Mondo.
So the famed art house revealed yet another fantastic poster, this time for The Dark Knight Rises, designed by Olly Moss. Not only that, but they also revealed that this particular print will be available for mass purchase, a first for the group, who specialise in collectors pieces, with the total number of purchases defining the total number of prints. As great as this is I can't help but feel the poster could be a little ...better? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a stunning design, but I just expected something a little more from Mr Moss. I'm a huge fan of his posters, the simplistic designs which play utilise colour and shapes brilliantly, I especially loved his poster for a Black Widow movie released earlier in the year. This Dark Knight Rises piece is just abit too ...I don't know. I really can't put my finger on it.

5. Buffy Turns 20.
I love Buffy. This year marks twenty years since the original film hit cinemas and so it's lovely to see that there is still enough interest to warrant a panel. The panel featured writers of both the show and the comics, along with Nicholas Brendan, Clare Kramer and James Martsers. It was essentially just a Buffy-love fest with everyone sharing their favourite moments and memories. I would have absolutely loved to have been there. I just hope this doesn't add any momentum to the proposed reboot film.

There were tons of other revelations and exciting panels this year but I won't go into detail with all of those. Pacific Rim sounds extremely interesting, Godzilla sounds just plain awesome and upcoming game Injustice: Gods Among Us is looking slightly better than I initially thought. But only slightly. Oh, and the trailer for the next half of True Blood Season 5 was epic.

Has anyone else been following the updates from the convention? Anything I forgot to mention or need to check out?

Avengers Assemble

At the time of writing this review I have seen (The) Avengers Assemble a total of four times, twice in 2D, once in 3D and my initial viewing in IMAX 3D. This film has become one of the biggest ever cinematic releases, garnering an incredible one and a half billion dollars, and has been lauded one of the greatest comic book films ever made. Here are my two cents.

Black Swan

A spotlight descends upon the figure of a young woman. She is wearing a sparkling white dress and, as she begins to dance, is joined by a male dressed entirely in black. The camera swiftly follows as the two weave in and out of each others' movements and the male transforms into a crow like figure. The girl desperately tries to flee the presence of the creature but is overcome. As white feathers fall to the ground around her the girl flutters her arms in a newly revealed swan costume. And so, Black Swan begins.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Just ten years after Sam Raimi's original Spiderman trilogy hit cinema screens Marvel has brought their most prized superhero back for a rebooted adventure. Continuing in the vein of darker grown-up comic adaptations Spidey's latest outing is an emotionally packed film full of action, humour and an exceptional cast which tries its best to distinguish itself as a completely separate entity to the aforementioned franchise.

The Adventure Is About To Begin....

Happy July Everyone!

So a couple of days ago a teaser poster made its way online. This poster is for a movie not expected until 2014. That movie is Paddington!

For any of you that are unfamiliar this this cuddly chap, Paddington Brown is an extremely polite bear that regularly gets himself into trouble. He also adores marmalade sandwiches and cups of cocoa.

Honestly, I was excited as hell when I heard the news of a Paddington Bear adaptation, and seeing a poster has amped that excitement up so much more (even with a date so far away and potentially post-end-of-the-world). I grew up watching that fluffy little fella and read a few of the books too. I am seriously a little bit in love with him.

The film is being written by the same guy who wrote Mr Beans Holiday (take from that what you will) and will feature a CGI Paddington within a live action world. I'm not sure how I feel about this as I truly think that the stop-motion teddy used in the original TV series had such a great charm, more-so than any computer generated creation could. But I can't judge just yet as there have been no official images besides this poster and CGI has come an awful long way in recent years, heres hoping for something much improved from the awfully rendered Scooby-Doo (shudder) from 2002 or Smurfs (cringe) from last year. Fingers crossed that  Paddington lives up to the hype that I'm placing on it.

Anywho, here's the poster. What do you guys think? Anyone else as excited as me? Probably not.