In recent years, comic book movies have gotten better and better each year and this year is no exception. Being box office hits and receiving mostly positive reviews, the majority of this year's superhero films has been great. Let's have a look at them:
Avengers Assemble
With Captain America and Thor completing the line up last year, this was obviously going to happen this year. What's interesting about this film is that it's Disney's first ever Marvel distributed film after the acquisition of the company, but obviously as part of the deal, they would allow Paramount's log to appear in this film and it's promotional content. All the reoccurring actors from Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger are here (with the acceptation of Bruce Banner/Hulk who is played this time by Mark Ruffalo after some negotiations with the original actor from The Incredible Hulk, Edward Norton and Marvel went down) and you get references from those films throughout the entire film (along with the traditional cameo from legendary comic book writer, Stan Lee who you get to see towards the end). Thor's brother Loki has returned and has acquired the tessaract from one of S.H.I.E.L.D's facilities and plans to wreck havoc across the world. Nick Fury, the organisation's leader if you prefer, decides that the Avengers Initiative must be put back to work and sends agents to find and recruit Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (Hulk) and Steve Rogers (Captain America) while the location of Thor remains unknown until later on in the film. The majority of the film, has all the members of the team trying to get used to working as a team which then later leads up to an epic battle against Loki and his minions in NY. It's a great film that gives fans what they've been asking for. Now all we need is a Justice League film and we'll be happy (although we won't be getting that for a few years, but with an Avengers sequel in the works, we may be in trouble).
Men in Black 3
Now many of you don't know this, but Men in Black was originally a comic book. It's hard to believe that, but it's possible for a franchise like this. So it's been 15 years since the first film and by now, you would think that Tommy Lee Jones has retired from acting and Will Smith has had enough of the industry and has his son take his place. You'd be wrong. So after 10 years since the last film, MIB's former leader has died and has his role taken over by a woman played by Emma Thompson. K's past is torn upside down when Boris the Animal escapes a prison on the moon and has the intention of killing K in his past. With all known traces of K vanished, J must now time travel and prevent K's younger self from dying at the hands of Boris. In this process, we get an idea of K's past and a more emotional side of J. It was a film that fans have been waiting for and while the majority of it has slapstick comedy, it's still a very enjoyable film to watch.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Now while many people believe that this is a long awaited continuation from Spider-Man 3, it's not. It's the start of a completely brand new series which after it's conclusion, will then allow Disney to acquire it seeing as they own Marvel now. For the most part, the story is basically the origins of Spider-Man, but told in a different way to Toby Maguire's trilogy and has a different antagonist called Lizard who was originally a scientist as Oscorp until an experiment of his, goes horribly wrong. I haven't actually seen this film, so I can't really tell you what it's like and so forth, but what I do know, is that it was a box office success and received positive reviews from critics. If you like Spider-Man, then this may be the movie for you (and yes, it does have a Stan Lee cameo).
The Dark Knight Rises
After the success of The Dark Knight, I knew that another film in the series, will be on the way. Serving as the last film in the series, we see a more emotional and unstable Bruce Wayne, who since the death of Harvey Dent, has come to the conclusion that Batman is no more, but when he discovers that a terrorist called Bane (who is completely different to his comic book counterpart) has invaded Gotham and plans to wreck havoc across the city (even going as far as separating the city from the rest of the world), he seeks the help of Selina Kyle and dressed as Batman, plans an all out fight against the criminal himself (which many viewers may find disturbing and quite emotional). I find it to be a very powerful film, that manages to reference some of the best Batman stories to date (including Frank Miller's critically acclaimed The Dark Knight Returns series) and has a very strong storyline and great character development that concludes the series on a good and satisfactory note. Any hardcore Batman fan (like yours truly) will enjoy this film as much as its predecessor.
Dredd
Whenever I see a review of this film, I feel that the whole film is overlooked from what it actually is. Sure it may be strictly 3D (until the home release of course), but for the most part, it stays true to the comic book series (unlike the last film) and has plenty of violence and action throughout. So the story is that Dredd is asked to evaluate the newest member of the team of Judges, Cassandra Anderson, in a mission that was originally to find out who is responsible of the murder of two men in the tower block called Peach Trees, but then ends up being a race against time to find and kill the film's main antagonist, Ma-Ma who thanks to her team of hackers, has managed to lockdown the tower block and will only unlock them when the 2 Judges are given to her. In addition to this, a new addictive drug known as Slow-Mo has been introduced which as it's name implies, is a drug that once used, causes the user's perception of time to go to 1% of normal. It's a very good and heart pounding film that is just badass all the way through.
So there you have it. Let's hope next year's set are even better or just as good as this year's lot.
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