Opinions: Arrow (TV Series)

          For those of you who don’t know there’s a new television show called Arrow on Sky One (and The CW in America), based on the DC comic books character Green Arrow and here’s the secret part guy’s, it’s amazing. I feel DC and very smart at doing this small screen stuff as it really helps to build up the profile of lesser known characters and allow you time to get to know them and invest in them, it also allows you to introduce other characters and build a shared universe like what Marvel have done with their film franchises. It’s being made by a lot of the same people who made Smallville another DC television series that was amazing.

          This series feel like its taken a leaf from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and even Marvels approach of grounding everything in reality, which in my opinion helps you identify with the characters better. So who is this Green Arrow character I might hear you asking, well he’s one of DC’s better known main characters and I have to be completely honest I only ever knew of the character from references in and never knew his origin story, which is why I love this series so much it starts at the beginning and shows us how Oliver Queen the man becomes The Green Arrow.

          Now I can’t spoil too much I’m only 4 episodes in but the basic story is Oliver and his dad are on a boat trip and they crash, his father tells Oliver to right the family wrongs and shots himself in the head, this leaves Oliver trapped on an island for 5 years where he trains to become The Green Arrow. Once rescued his character is a billionaire playboy by day (cough, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, cough) but by night he is vigilante crime fighter The Green Arrow. Hopefully I’ve piqued your interest and you’ll want to go check out this series if not, well then fine, your loss.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) - Mark Webb

           I remember when I first heard they were planning on rebooting the Spider-Man film franchise, I was completely against is. The only reason to reboot a film franchise is if the previous version has taken the series to far from its original roots or there are no more possible stories that could take place in the already established universe and then there’s the third option that at least ten years has passed and it would be too costly/impractical to bring back the original cast. None of these reasons existed in my opinion in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man universe; different actor’s could have been cast and moved the timeline on a few years with little impact on the story in my opinion. But I can understand why they didn’t do this, I could of even forgiven it, if it wasn’t for the simple fact this would be another origin story, which is a little much to take in seems as we already saw this less than ten years ago, and was still fresh in our minds and was an amazing film and should have been left alone again in my opinion. But despite mine and many other people’s negativity towards the project on initial announcement the film went ahead and I have to admit I did warm to the idea of it especially as we were promised a film more faithful to the comic books origins and ideas fans know from it and the 90’s animated television show (web slingers). So to say the least I wasn’t looking forward to this film, but I wanted to see how it turned out.

          My first impression of the film is it’s the closest we’ll get to seeing Spider-Man in The Avengers at least for a while, people have said it might happen in The Avengers 2 but I won’t hold my breath just yet. Stylistically the film has a similar feel to the films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as in its very grounded in reality, the characters behave like real people and the choices they make even the ones we know they have to are made for very logical reasons and with one exception are very true to the character and reflect the maturity level of them. So when Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) dicks around with his super powers and in some way’s abuses them it feels natural, like something we all would do if we had superpowers and then when he matures again it doesn’t feel like the script just told him to start acting differently we see the decisions that lead him to step up and become a man. So to talk about plot for a bit, this version of Peter Parker is still in high school and is very much the current everybody, he’s still a good student (but not someone who sits in the front row), he’s still a photographer and he’s still good at science, and I like this change kind of making him an everyman instead of a nerd instantly makes him more relatable and likable as a character and makes his relationships with (eventual girlfriend) Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) and school bully Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka), very believable.

          It’s nice to see a fresh take on certain aspects of the Spider-Man character, like Sally Field portrayal of  a younger Aunt May but with others it feels quiet distracting and you’d rather they got it over with like Uncle Ben’s (Martin Sheen) infamous “With great power, comes great responsibility” spiel and eventual death. However for the most part I liked the retelling the one main issue I had though was having Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans) as the baddie in this film I feel Rhys Ifans did a great job with the role and was very enjoyable, the only problem was in the previous films we got to know Dr. Connors for two films as a minor background character and got attached to him so if Spider-Man 4 had of been made we would have been more attached to the Lizard and felt some of Peter’s resentment and hurt at having to attack and potentially kill him again I like what they did with the character but would of preferred if they had merely teased at it this film and have him as the baddie in the sequel but that’s personal opinion. And seems as though I’ve mentioned the rest of the main characters how could I leave out Captain George Stacey played brilliantly by Dennis Leary, I felt in many ways the film sets him up as the Commissioner Gordon, to Spider-Man’s Batman, but leaving that aside I feel the character is brilliantly developed as not only a police captain but also as a father, my main problem with him though is the promise he makes Peter take to stay away from Gwen when he’s dying and the fact that Peter does so immediately going so far as to not even attend the funeral of his then girlfriends father (this it the above mentioned character development gone amiss moment as no matter what he should have been there for her in my opinion).

          Ok final thoughts time, would I recommend this film? Yes I would highly. While I might not agree with the decisions behind its development I love the outcome and will defiantly be going to see the sequel when it comes out.

Opinions: The Avengers: Avenging Phil

His Name is Agent

          Ok I want to talk about the The Avengers, (I refuse to call it Avengers Assemble (Take that poorly produced 90's film based on a sucessful 60's British tv show)) a bit late I know but anyway.

          Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) didn't die in the movie, in my opinion he lived. So it doesnt suprise me in the slightest that Marvel announced him for the cast of the S.H.I.E.L.D. live action tv show their producing.

          Here's my hypothesis to back up my argument: Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) realized that the cards  Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) pulled out in the speech/debrief after Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was rescued/freed by his minions weren't in  Agent Coulsons pocket at the time when he was attacked (they had been in his locker), to which Nick Fury says "They needed the push".
So in my opinion what happened was Loki's spear missed Agent Coulson's important organs, he was still injured and probably thought he was going to die so due to this and his bloodloss he passed out (or fainted which is common in people who have serious injurys, especially once the adrenaline is gone), and then Nick Fury made up this story as an oppurtunity to unite the team, going so far as to retrieve the cards from Agent Coulson's locker and smear them with blood (pretty manipulative eh?).

         My next point is the golden rule in action films and horror films for that matter, if you dont see the body they aren't dead. Now I know Joss Whedon has a habit of killing characters to create tension (I mean look at Buffy by my count she's died and been raised/reborn at least 3 times (which isn't alot compared to Sam & Dean in Supernatural but i digress)), however I doubt Marvel would allow their most popular and competely orginal character to be killed off. But that's just my opinion.

          And incase you cant tell I love what Marvel have done in creating their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was a big risk and I honestly thought it couldn't be done, but it has been done and it's exceeded my wildest expectations.

Review: The Avengers (2012) - Joss Whedon

          I wrote this review the 1st of May for a page on Facebook hence the lack of relevance ha, I kept the review spoiler free, let me know what you think.

          Ok I went to see The Avengers last Thursday the 26th of April with my housemate and two guy from work. And it was amazing; if you know me you’ll know I said that words failed me when I tried to describe this film. Well know that I’ve had time to let it all sink in I feel I can more fully explain how mind-blowing the film was. Firstly I will not include spoilers in this review, and I would like to stress that you do not need to have seen all the Marvel films leading up to this movie or be a massive Marvel fan as the story is self contained and everything is explained with in the movie.Ok on to the meat and bones: This movie is great I saw it in 3D and while it was good I didn’t feel it was like Avatar when seeing it in 3D was essential, sure it adds to it but I don’t think id of missed it. The movie starts off with a big action scene and then unfolds the story afterwards (knowing the other films helps but its explained afterwards), the main plot point for the 1st half of the movie is recruiting all the super heroes and showing what they’ve been up to since their respective franchises and this helps add depth and character development and introduce 1st timers to the world and heroes. My favourite thing about this movie is that you can tell Joss Whedon was involved in the story and script as well as directing this beast of a movie, and as a fan of the man I just loved the dialogue (The man is a genius with dialogue he advances the plot at the rate it needs too and still makes the characters feel believable and fitting it in with the respective characters, enough gushing though back to the review). This was also one of the funniest movies I’ve been to in awhile there were a lot of genuine laugh out loud moments and in my opinion the Hulk steals the show, Dr. Banner is very relatable and the Hulk is the character you’re cheering on the most.This then brings me on to the second part of the film, and with most of the story out of the way the onslaught of fighting and special effects can begin and boy does it deliver on this front, it doesn’t feel like the next solo Avengers films budget has been used here it’s more like they added up the previous films budgets and doubled it the effects are jaw droppingly good. Just because you know a scene or character is CGI doesn’t mean you can tell that it is.In conclusion The Avengers (I refuse to call it Avengers Assemble) is an easy 10/10 for me and while I’ll admit I am slightly biased in this review, I still think non-fans will love this film equally, so go check it out while you can and see if you agree with me. This is my opinion please feel free to agree/disagree with me in the comments below and make sure to like this post and subscribe to our page for more film reviews and news as well as all your PS3 reviews and news. – Davey’s Reviews :)