Ben Affleck confirmed as new Batman [Breaking News]

So this morning I woke up to the news that Ben Affleck has been confirmed to play The Dark Knight himself, teaming up with Henry Cavill’s Clarke Kent/Kal-El/Superman, in the Superman/Batman movie set for a 2015 release … and I’m not sure how I feel about this. I had to check multiple reliable sources had reported this just to make sure it wasn’t a hoax, I checked my calendar to find it wasn’t in fact April 1st … Yes, this news is correct!

So, my first thought is … Ben Affleck must have forgotten what he said back in 2006:

“by playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero… Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again .”

Now, I do think Ben  can be forgiven for saying this, as after all it was only 3 years after the release of the dismal Marvel’s Daredevil, so the wound would still have been fresh. And to be frank, who wouldn’t want to don the Batsuit and hit the streets? I think in the art of fairness the quote should be allowed to be edited to :

“Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again … unless of course it is the costume of the most badass superhero around”

Although – these are big boots to fill. Christian Bale for me was so iconic in the role as Batman, I can’t help but feel that it is too soon to bring a new Batman into the DC universe. I think I’m going to have a hard time seeing anyone else as Batman for quite sometime, although bear in mind this isn’t set for release for another 2 years … so that might change (however unlikely).

I do have confidence that the move will be another great instalment in the DC universe,  alongside the fantastic Dark Knight trilogy, Watchmen and more recently Man of Steel (Green Lantern is discounted from this list for obvious reasons!). And the reason for this confidence is that Zac Snyder was the director for both Watchmen and Man of Steel – and with a hand in from Christopher Nolan, the driving force behind The Dark Knight this should move in the right direction – the only down side is I have yet to see Jonathan Nolan included as a writer yet, who was one of the main writers for the DK films. Hopefully though Snyder and Affleck can really make this character their own, and not just a carbon copy of the Bale/Nolan version.

But back to Affleck … I’m not his biggest fan, although I do quite like him and think he gets given a hard time, so it will be interesting to see how he copes swapping codes from Marvel to DC, as the hero Gotham deserves.

My initial thoughts on a new Batman is .. too soon guys, too soon.

What are your opinions on the casting of Affleck for this role? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Kick-Ass 2 … doesn’t kick ass [REVIEW]

So, my first review is of Kick-Ass 2 … and I am bitterly disappointed that this will be a negative review, especially being a fan of the orignal film.

This will include some spoilers – so if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend going away and watching it and then come back.

Where to begin – this film did a lot of things wrong, and not much right, and I usually prefer it to be the other way round.

So to start off with we all know that sequels very rarely live up to the original film, however some are worse than others, and this one is just terrible! Kick-Ass 2 just doesn’t have the same shock factor as the first film, for starters a 15 year old girl swearing is nothing to find out of the ordinary … and to be honest I felt the Hit Girl character arc to be very slow moving and offered very little at all to the progression of the film. To be honest with you, I’d rather be watching the Hit Girl from the original Kick Ass movie wreaking havoc, not trying to fit in with a bunch of over exaggerated high school girls.

Another big issue with this film is the violence. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t have a problem with violence in films, what I do have a problem with is when it is done so poorly. In the original, where Vaughn (director of Kick Ass) was able to have the graphic nature of the violence which felt real, but played along with a sense of humour, Wadlow (director of the sequel) misses the mark and seems to be trying to make this so graphic, that he in fact goes too far and it just doesn’t seem real; and what humour is in there, just isn’t funny. For large sections I was thinking to myself, this is trying to be like Super (starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page), and is nowhere near the quality (although I was always a bigger fan of Super than the original Kick Ass anyway), and the last thing you want to do is draw a negative comparison to another film.

The scene in the high school cafeteria is a great example of how Wadlow gets things wrong … the ‘out of both ends stick’ as I refer to it just seems ridiculous, and the CGI diarrhea is probably the worst CGI effect you will see in the cinema all year, and what makes it worse is the scene isn’t even funny – which it clearly was trying to be. However the worst example of this is when Wadlow attempts to make a joke around rape … which absolutely falls flat, there was no laughter (as well there shouldn’t be), just a groan of everyone in the cinema agreeing this was poor taste and way off the mark.

To break up this negativity I will now discuss the few parts I enjoyed. I thought Jim Carrey did a great job as Colonel Stars and Stripes, and would have liked to have seen him on the screen a lot more than he was – and it didn’t surprise me to read that pretty much the 2 funniest lines in the film were improvised by Jim himself. It doesn’t bode well for the writers that this was the case!  Also Donald Faison gave a good performance of Doctor Gravity, and was pretty much the only character that was relatable to in the whole film, but again didn’t see enough of the screen as he should have. In fact the scenes that featured the Justice Forever group were the most enjoyable parts but unfortunately were very few and far between.

But, for a large sections of this film, I just found myself bored, waiting for the scenes to happen that I knew were coming 20 minutes before they did. Almost every aspect of the film was predictable, from Dave’s dad being murdered to the shark attack. This film, unlike the original also lacked any real emotion. Now, the death of Dave’s father is emotional, and is probably the only time we get to see a character actually prove they have feelings. But nothing comes close to the death off Big Daddy in the original, which was immediately followed by the  punch in the guts shot of the gone cold cup of hot chocolate on the kitchen counter.  But, if you contrast this with the way the Justice Forever gang act after the death of Colonel Stars and Stripes, where their new friend and leader has been killed and decapitated – yet we see no emotion, the gang just sit in a coffee shop, suggest a collection for the Colonels sister to send some flowers, and that’s it, no-one seems even remotely upset … How can you not be affected by a murder and decapitation of your friend?!

The characters in this film have no depth – the three main characters are supposedly all driven by the commonality of the death of their fathers – yet this isn’t portrayed in any depth. You may also notice that there has been very little mention of Kick Ass himself in this review, and frankly this is because his character is so boring in this film, there isn’t much to say. Christoper Mintz-Plasse’s character was also boring and his insanity wasn’t funny enough, or dark enough … just leaving him sort of there in the middle, like a spoilt brat McLovin with a few red bulls in him. Although at least he was the playing the same role as in the original … I couldn’t help notice the not so subtle re-casts of Marcus (Mindy’s guardian) and Todd (the ‘why do I even feature in this move as I add nothing’ friend of Dave and Clarke).

All in all, a very disappointing sequel and one I shan’t be watching again in a hurry.

I’d give this a 3/10.

I’d love to know what you think, if you agree, disagree – please leave a comment with your thoughts.

First things first …

Hello, and welcome to my blog, pride and joy movies.

Basically, I have been meaning to set up a blog for quite sometime, but never gotten around to it – but now here we are.

I am by no means a movie expert, I just enjoy watching and discussing them – and really, this is what this blog will be all about. I will try to be posting at least once a week, and just starting out I imagine will be mostly reviews, of both those currently in the cinema and of older movies.

I hope that as I post new stuff people will comment, agreeing, disagreeing, sharing their own views, creating a forum for discussion – after all, isn’t that what blogging, and lets face it, movies are supposed to do? Bring people together to talk about a common interest.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. I hope you enjoy my thoughts, and I look forward to getting going and discussing movies with you.

Thats all for now.