Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Hey, everyone, I'm back to review all the big blockbusters this year. Guess what...Yours truly was invited to see a special screening of this movie, last night, even before the midnight showing premiering tonight. I am here to answer the question everyone is asking...Does this movie suck?  Lets dive into this review and find out:

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice- Well, it has been years of hatred towards this movie, as far back when the lead actors were revealed. On going jokes and mean internet comments galore. This movie is DC's way of catching up to the massive momentum Marvel has going for them in Hollywood.

Plot- Ok, there are like 5 plots going on at once in this movie. There's the Batman segment setting him up. Then the continuation of the "Man of Steel" following the huge battle in Metropolis. Followed by setting up Wonder Woman, and then there's the actual fight between Batman and Superman. Finally, the final plot the set up for the obvious Justice League movie in the future. Whew... Yeah, you really have no time to get any character development. Yes, its true we really don't need such a thing because we should all know these iconic characters already. Still, its important for a story telling point... this movie felt like I was on a roller coaster, and just zipping through it, no time to stop and really enjoy the good parts.

There are going to be many people eating crow about Ben Affleck playing Batman. Kevin Smith was right, Mr. Affleck was a great choice. Gal Gadot, also got tremendous flack for being cast as Wonder Woman, but she played a strong, enticing part... much like I would believe the real Wonder Woman would act. Then of course Henry Cavill, as Superman... still is a emotionless void. He could be replaced and I believe no one would notice honestly. Jesse Eisenberg, i wanted to reach into the screen and choke this moron... he was terrible...enough said.

Was it a great movie? It was good, but I was wishing it another movie most of the time.

Final Verdict- 5.5/10, Probably save your money on this one, or just go and watch the last 45 minutes of the movie.

Many more movie coming out this year, and Ill be there this time to review them all. This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have to.

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron

Oh, man, I am excited...so excited! Its that time of year again, summer blockbuster season, and your favorite reviewer is here to give the low down on the big summer blockbusters. Well, the season gets a huge HULK sized kick off with this film, so lets start the review:

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron- Well, the first "Avengers" film was astounding! It's even rated it a 10/10 on my Final Verdict scores. Now, three years of seeing screen shots of the filming of the movie, rumors being throwing around on the internet, and then adding to the mix some awesome trailers. I was very much hyped for this film, and I think all of that might been my downfall. It's a Marvel movie even if it wasn't the greatest, I have noticed walking at least satisfied and got my moneys worth.

Plot- I'm not sure what the time frame is exactly in the world of the Avengers, but they have been busy since the big attack on New York City. Captain America calls the shots at S.H.I.E.L.D., and leads the team. After an opening battle scene, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark discover an A.I. inside the scepter from the first film. Things happen, boom Ultron, save the world, honestly, if I go any further I will spoil things.

The cast, has the same amazing chemistry they did in all the films, which I love the most, and I am so glad that wasn't lost or tarnished in anyway. The problem I have with this film is, well, it wasn't really that over the top. Sure, the fight between Hulk and Iron Man is really good, but the team fights, really seemed redundant at this point. Yes, they were fighting a horde of robots at the end of the movie, BUT WE HAVE SEEN THIS ALREADY... How is this DIFFERENT from fighting a horde of aliens like the first film? Plus, there was so much being thrown into the mix, I thought i needed to bring a pen and paper to take notes. This way I can go back if I missed any of the plot to read later!

Final Verdict- 8.5/10, Go, see the movie. I mean, its still a comic nerd's wet dream, but the big climax scenes become redundant quickly.

More movies to go, This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have to!

Guardians of the Galaxy

The summer block buster season is coming closer to an end. We are coming to the month, where the best of the best is thrown our way, and your favorite movie reviewer is there to get the info for you to save your money or not. Now this next movie, did i want to rejoice, or did I want to shoot a rocket into my eye? Lets find out as we dive into this review shall we:

Guardians of the Galaxy- To be honest, when i first heard about this movie I had mixed emotions, and I really leaned to not wanting to see it. Then I saw the trailers for it at the beginning of almost every movie this summer. I have to say I began to love the characters more and more. The trailer gave this very easy going, happy feeling with its perfect choice of a song, and the movie had that feeling literally the whole time.

The plot was simple yet engaging at the same time. It had the main character, Peter Quill aka Star Lord, stealing a mysterious floating orb from an old ruin. He is suddenly engaged by these men demanding he hands over the orb immediately. He is able to escape, but is now a wanted man! Then one by one enter all of the characters. Our heroes struggle to keep the orb, containing one of the infinity gems, away from a powerful villain named Ronan.

Each character had it own time to shine, and each had surprisingly enough time to show their personalities very well. Hell, in 2 hours and 2 minutes, there was a tremendous amount of character development. I mean, each of the five people you really kinda fell for them. Take the character, Rocket for example, you learn that he hates what he is, and hates the fact that he was even created. Don't you dare call him vermin or a pest! You really feel for him. The characters are, like I said, extremely likeable and charismatic. They all have their moments of comic relief and one liners. One of my many favorite lines in the movie was this:

Rocket: Don't bother explaining it to him. It will just go over his head.

Drax: It will never go over my head. I'm too fast! I will just catch it!

The line was delivered so well, with just a dry sense of humor that I just lost it when it was said. The movie overall was written well, and everything just flowed nicely. The action scenes were heart pounding with loads of eye candy, and then you mix that together with comic relief... BOOM, you got a hell of a combination there ladies and gentlemen for a summer block buster hit!






Final Verdict-10/10, It honestly has everything you want in a movie and more. Tons of action, great character development, and huge must see in theaters! Highly recommended for everyone!

That's it for now, loyal readers as I get ready to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this Friday... and I'll try to sneak that in before I go away to Europe for an entire month! This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have to!

X-MEN: Days of Future Past

Hey, everyone welcome to another edition to Phil Goes to the Movies, and I hope everyone really likes the new lay out of the blog. I want to thank an amazing woman I was blessed with for giving a woman's touch, and making this blog prettier on the eyes. Thank you sweet heart, I love you! Today, I return to review another super hero title. This is the second of the superhero movie block busters coming out this summer. Did it make me rejoice in its victory, or did I want to back in time to stop myself from ever seeing this movie? Lets dive in:

 X-MEN: Days of Future Past- Ok, when i saw this trailer back in January, I couldn't wait to see this movie. The songs chosen for it stirred emotion and got me amped up. Because when i was younger, three comics i loved to read were Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, and X-MEN. Well, the casts from both the X-MEN trilogy and the newer X-MEN: Origin movies come to together in this film. I love everyone they chose to play the characters on the silver screen. I love it even more they are the same people for the last 10 years still playing this parts. So important for any kind of sequel to successfully work, so they were already on the right track.

The plot, real simple, is humanity created Sentinels to defeat the mutant threat once and for all, but the Sentinels designed to protect the human race turned on them. Now they have declared war on both human and mutant alike. Due to the fact that humans give birth to mutants, therefore, logic dictates destroy them all to wipe the threat for good. The surviving mutants devise a plan to send someone back in time to stop this terrible future from ever existing.

There was some really powerful scenes when the Sentinels were just unleashing on the mutants, and killing them just brutally. You felt the hopelessness they portrayed as each hero was being struck down one by one. The acting was top notch, and there were a lot of laughs here and there between characters with playful banter. Unfortunately, I can't go too deep about the things in this movie because it might give things away!

The only thing I had a problem with, and this is very small and very trivial. Kitty Pride aka Shadowcat, some how had the ability to send someone's conscience back into the past. I was unaware she had this "ability", but like i said its only something me as a fan had a problem with... so I'm just sharing as a fan.

Final Verdict- 9/10, it was hands down the best X-MEN movie to date. Brian Singer returning as director was the best thing for this franchise. I highly recommend for everyone to see this in theaters whenever they are able too.

More movies to come this summer block buster season, and I will be there for all of them for you guys. This way you know which movies are worth your hard earned money! For now this is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have too!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Sooooo, excited for this summer block buster season, so many movies I want to see. Welcome back everyone for another edition of Phil Goes to the Movies. Today, I am reviewing one of my favorite superheroes of all time, Spider-Man. Now, did the sequel make me want jump for joy, or did it make me want to hang myself with web shooters? Lets find out as we swing into this review:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2- Ok, I was one of those people that were pissed off when I saw the trailer for this film because they did show waaaay too much. Even though, I practically saw the movie for free, thanks to the jackass editor of trailer I went to see it anyway. Now, its hard to really review this movie without giving too much away, so I will do the best I can not to ruin it for my readers. Before, I dive in, people have been asking me, who do i prefer as Spider-Man, Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield? Ok, real quick, I like both actors and their betrayals of the character. I do enjoy Andrew Garfield more, I guess because the writing for the character is just better. I believe thats the fairest way to decide. Because, if Toby's version wasn't written so EMO, it would have been a harder choice between the two. Okay, I got that out of the way, back to the review.

The plot continues a little bit in the future, where Peter and Gwen are graduated high school, and time seems to be moving along as they as continue their romance. Peter is seeing Gwen's father more and more guilt stricken from the promise Peter made to the dying man to stay away from Gwen Stacy. This causes a rift in their relationship as it being tested constantly in the film. At the same time, dealing with other issues in Peter Parker's life such as family and returning friends. Plus, finding out more about his parents.

The villains, Jamie Foxx is a talented actor, so it was no surprise to me that he would play a great part as the murderous, unstable Electro. I loved the way he looked and he moved around, with that freaky theme song he had playing every time he was on screen. When he use his powers it was visually stimulating to say the least. Dane DeHaan, played a very different Harry Osborn, where in the comics Harry was always shown as a meek character, and this version portrayed him as a ruthless business man-getting what he wants... SPOILER, Rhino is in the movie the last 5 minutes of the movie, so no big loss there, not sure why they said there was 3 villains in this movie where it felt more like 1.5 villains.

I had some issues with the movie, but they were small nothing to really deter me. One that stands out in my mind the most, is the scene, where Gwen Stacy insists on helping Peter defeat Electro. She states like 2 to 3 times only she knows how to get the system back online. When she gets to the room, theres a plastic cover, with big red letters on it saying,"MASTER RESET." Really? Spider-Man couldn't have figured that out? Was there a great amount of training to learn how to pull a freaking lever?

Final Verdict- 8/10, I enjoyed watching Spider-Man swing through the city, the fight scenes were eye candy to watch, and I really liked the people chosen for their roles.


Go see this film yes, its the movie is long, but what big block buster isn't in the 2 hour plus mark anymore? Well thats it for me for now, many more reviews on their way... This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have too!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Welcome one and all to another edition of Phil Goes to the Movies, and I am here to review yet another superhero movie. Seems like there are going to be many superhero movies this year, and I'll be there to review them all. Today, I'm looking at "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Did it deliver, or did I want to throw myself into traffic after watching it? Lets find out as we dive into this review.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier-  This would be the 3rd movie involving the characters post "The Avengers". Seeing how the last two were quite the lack luster, I was really hoping this one would hit home. The best part is the characters have already been established in a few movies already, so all the set up is out of the way. This means we get to the good stuff right away, and this movie wasted no time with the action. Right off the bat, Captain America and the Black Widow are teaming up to rescue some captured agents of shield from some terrorists. This scene was so well done, in my opinion, due to the chemistry between the two characters. One by one they take out the armed guards as they have some witty banter. This just made it appear more as if the characters were extremely comfortable in their element.

One thing this movie did right was it gave each character a chance to shine. I got a chance to see more development of the Black Widow as she showed she's incredible intelligent as well as a bad ass in combat. I especially loved how she kept trying to set up Captain America, romantically, when she kicking people across the room, and she doesn't even bat an eye lash in the process. The one thing I found comical was no matter what happened to her, her hair never became messed up. She was shot, thrown around, nearly blown to pieces, and countless other stuff, her hair never seemed to be out of place.... maybe thats her super power!

The newest edition to the line up of superheroes is Falcon played by Anthony Mackie. He really gave off that feeling he would do anything for a brother in arms. He was very likeable and again the chemistry between him and Chris Evans was believable and honest. I really like the look they gave him over the really cheesy comic verison.

The fight scenes in this movie were fantastic, and it really showed Captain America's superior fighting capabilities in hand to hand combat. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way, and its really small.... but i gotta bring it up! Theres a scene in the movie where a bad guy is shooting a gatling gun at our hero, the captain. Now, Captain America is using the trademark shield to block the bullets and run at him. Soooo not a single bullet dared to hit something other than the shield... my point is his legs are completely unprotected. I'm not a combat expert, buuuut if a super solider was coming at me, blocking all my bullets with his shield. I would aim for the unprotected KNEE CAPS, just saying! I guess, when your name is thug #33, you don't think of these things.... oh well!

The villain, played by Sebastian Stan, his character was actually pretty bad ass as the Winter Soldier. It was nice to see that, post "The Avengers" we finally had a villain that could leave an impact. Now, I can forgive this guy, for being the villain in the movie, "The Covenant"... you are redeemed sir!

Final Verdict- 8.5/10, it had many moments of seeing the super heroes as just people, which was very well done. The action scenes were really well done, and the actors were all well chosen for their parts. I would definitely recommend seeing this in theaters, and this movie got me pretty pumped for the Avengers 2.

Well, thats all for now boys and girls, still have a plethora of movies i wanna see this coming blockbuster season. This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have too!

The Wolverine

Welcome to another edition of Phil Goes to the Movies, today, I get to review my favorite movie genres, comic book movies. The big super hero fad cash in, which is going on, and boy are they making ridiculous money doing it... so no way will this ever end any time soon. Now, one of my favorite comic books was the X-Men, and for 10 years now they still haven't really made an X-Men movie that good... I mean "X-Men: First Class" was pretty good, but still there were things that annoyed me about the movie.... then again, those things were just fan boy things, the movie itself was fine. Well, lets tackle the newest installment of the X-Men movies... 10 years later did Hugh Jackman disappoint?


The Wolverine- The movie starts out with Logan in exile, in the middle of no where, living like a mountain man. He's still haunted by dreams and visions of Jean Grey, so this movie definitely takes place some time after X-Men: The Last Stand. Now, as a fan of X-Men, i absolutely hated X-Men 3, and just pretend it was never created. Hell, i had to google the title of X-men 3, because thats how much i have erased it from my memory.

Now, Logan has made a vow to the late Jean Grey, he would never kill again. He gets into a bar fight, and before he breaks his vow, a mysterious woman comes to rescue him in a sense. I like this character, shes looks like a cross between being a vicious killer and your best friend's kid sister that grew up. I don't know what it was about this character, but she was a blast to watch kick a ton of ass.

Now, the obvious thing i loved about this movie is Hugh Jackman, this guy jsut owns the character as Logan/Wolverine. Its been 10 years, and he is as charismatic as he was in first the X-men movie. I dunno, he just seems to nail down the rage factor, and really gives the character life. I mean, his performance really reflects from the actual pages from the comic... Hugh is the wolverine, just like Kevin Conroy is the Batman, and Mark Hamill is the Joker. It would be hard to see someone else playing these roles.

The plot of the movie, it was fast paced and well done.Unfortunately, in these movies the villains are very important, and the villain was a female named Viper. Nothing was special about this character, I mean she did some cool snake like things, like peeling her skin to recover from injuries. She had some crazy poisons, but overall she was really blah and forgettable. The only i can remember about her was the actress playing the part was really hot. Other than that, whoopie-freaking-doo! Then, of course enter the Silver Samurai, another boring villain, and they completely changed him around from what he is in the comics. Unfortunately, if i dive any more into the villains the plot, i will give away the twists, so take it from me... it was pretty was weak and predictable. I did think it was funny how quickly Wolverine forgot his vow to Jean, and began slices mother fuckers up real quick. Then what was the point of the vow then? Waste of time that lil plot point was....stupid.

There were some great action sequences, my favorite had to be hands down the bullet train, and everyone fighting on top of it. The one thing this movie needed and some people might agree or disagree, but it needs to be rated R, not PG-13. To truly get to see Wolverine slice and dice, we need the ability to see some true violence and gore.... thats just me!

Final Verdict- 6/10, it was a good movie, but there are better super hero movies out there. To me this movie lacked a true villain.

There were many other things that happened in this movie, which aggravated me, but they didn't persuade me in my decision of rating the movie. The flaws just disappointed me as an X-Men fan. Scroll down past my sign off and see the things that bothered me. The summer movie season is nearly finished, and there some more i need to review. This is Phil Goes to the Movies, so you don't have too!


Spoilers



I hated the Silver Samurai was a body suit keeping the sick old man alive. This villain is a bad ass his mutant powers, and ability to cut through anything. Instead we get a weak ass plot device!

Now, mutant powers can be taken, stolen, or moved from one person or another. Plus, they didn't even explain how the hell thats possible. Because the powers are in the person's genes, and by taking his healing powers, kills him? WTF

I cant stand that Adamantium can destroy itself, which now Wolverine's claws were cut off, and they grew back as the bone claws. Wonderful!