As always, I like to seek out the newest and best martial arts films from around the world but unfortunately, the truly high quality ones are few and far between. For every Raid 2 or Ip Man, there are a dozen others like Wolf Warrior or The Protector 2. The latest martial arts movie I got a hold of is the 2015 Hong Kong action thriller SPL 2: A Time for Consequences, released this year in the United States under the title Kill Zone 2.
Read MoreRemembering The Bourne Saga
Back in 2002, we received the first entry in what would become a popular and engaging franchise of action-packed spy thrillers – The Bourne Identity, which has gone on to spawn four sequels, the most recent being this summer's Jason Bourne. So let’s take a look back at these films and see what makes them so great, but be warned, this article will contain heavy spoilers for the first three films in the series.
Read MoreIs A Successful “Batman: The Killing Joke” Adaptation Even Possible?
It takes a lot for a graphic novel to still have staying power after nearly thirty years. There are so many different comic books and comics-related media out there that it can be quite challenging to tell a story that stands out from the rest, but British writer Alan Moore’s seminal and controversial graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke has done just that since its original publication in 1988.
In the years since, many different portrayals of the Joker, both live-action and animated, have come and gone but almost all of them have elements rooted in The Killing Joke. With the book itself having finally gotten its own animated adaptation this year, was it able to live up to the literary uniqueness of its original much-buzzed-about source material?
Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most iconic sci-fi shows ever - Star Trek. Coinciding with this is the release of Star Trek Beyond, the newest film in the rebooted film series that began with 2009’s Star Trek. So is this newest film a worthy entry, or best forgotten like Star Trek: Nemesis?
Read MoreThe Cinematic Journey Of Spider-Man (Part 4)
In case you haven’t yet, make sure to check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this article first!
In May of 2012, Marvel Studios broke box-office records and exceeded all expectations with The Avengers, a virtually unprecedented crossover film event that brought together the lead characters from four separate superhero franchises in a fun and surprisingly cohesive way thanks to a sharp script and tight direction from geek darling Joss Whedon. On paper, putting an iron-clad billionaire, a World War II-era super soldier, a mythical god from another realm, a temperamental mad scientist, and a pair of assassins in the same room together just didn’t seem like something that should work in a movie, but the five films preceding The Avengers slowly and successfully established a colorful comic-booky world, light-hearted tone, and self-aware sense of humor, which allowed audiences to buy right into it.
Once The Avengers became lovingly embraced by the entire world, you could just sense that other movie studios instantly began scrambling around to desperately find their own shared universes that could compete with Marvel. That same summer, Sony Pictures released The Amazing Spider-Man, which completely erased the continuity of Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy and started entirely from scratch with another retelling of the origin story. Now played by Andrew Garfield, we once again followed Peter Parker’s journey to becoming Spider-Man, which I honestly felt was done way better and with a lot more passion in the original Spider-Man film.
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