Reaction & Review | Venom

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2018. That movie is "Venom".

Now, this movie is a bit of a special case for me. Because, I do remember seeing the teaser trailer for this movie back in 2018. And, at the time, I didn't have that much interest in checking it out. But, since that time, my curiosity began to grow. In part, it has to with the people who have criticized this movie. I'll get to that in just a moment.

Now I do know that this movie is mainly focused on the title character for this movie. And I'm perfectly fine with that. Because, I do like the character of Venom, through watching both the Spider-Man animated series from the 90's, and watching "The Spectacular Spider-Man". Speaking of Spidey, since this is a movie mainly focused on Venom, Spider-Man is not mentioned here. Mostly because, there is some sort of copyright issues involving the character of Spider-Man between Sony and Disney, which I'm not going to get into here. And that's probably a good thing, because I have, mostly, lost interest in Spider-Man. The last good Spider-Man movie that I watched, at least to me, was "Spider-Man 2". Released all the way back in 2002. I have not seen "Spider-Man 3", strangely enough, but I may get around to watching it one day. I haven't seen "Spider-Man: Homecoming" or "Spider-Man: Far From Home", mainly because I don't have any interest in watching those movies. The only other thing I do know about this movie is that Venom, AKA Eddie Brock, is played by Tom Hardy. And the last time that I watched Tom Hardy be involved in a super-hero movie was when he played Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises". Which, I'm willing to admit that his performance in that movie was...kinda questionable, at best. So I'm hoping that he'll pull off a better performance in this movie than what he did in "The Dark Knight Rises".

Now, I have heard mixed things about this movie. I've heard some people say that it's a really good movie, and is definitely worth watching. I've heard other people say that the movie is a rushed out piece of shit with dated special effects, and that no human being should waste their time on it. As for myself, I'm going into this movie completely blind because, outside of that teaser trailer, I have not seen a clip of this movie. And I'm genuinely hoping that this movie will be amazing. But there is that possibility that this could really suck. So, the only thing for me to do at this point, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Venom".

20 minutes later

So, 6 months later, after Eddie Brock has lost his fiancee and job, he's out drinking. I have a question. Where he's getting the money from? If he's fired from his job as an investigator, then what's his alternative source for income? He clearly has enough money  to buy a drink, so he must've found another job at some point during the six months after being fired. I'm really not trying to blow holes into this story, because, so far, the movie has been pretty good. I'm just kinda hoping the movie will explain that bit at some point.

11 minutes later

OK, guys, I really like how Eddie Brock's ex-fiance's new boyfriend just claimed that he is a fan of Brock's work and the people he took down. And that one of them that was mentioned was Eddie's ex-fiance. The way it was mentioned was actually pretty funny, I gotta admit that.

13 minutes later

Well, guys...I can now say this much. Eddie Brock has certainly become a lot weirder now that the symbiosis is now a part of his body. I totally understand that it's to be expected, considering the symbiosis. But still, it kinda caught me off guard slightly.

15 minutes later

So, guys, I'm getting my very first look at Venom here and...he looks really cool. And the CG on him looks pretty good, too. OK granted, it's nothing amazing, but it's certainly rather good for what it is. Plus, he looks really intimidating and badass, as well. And I'm really digging it.

6 minutes later

You know, guys, I would never expect to watch a Marvel movie where Venom calls Brock a pussy for taking the elevator, instead of jumping out of a window from a really tall building. That is definitely interesting and rather funny, too.

11 minutes later

OK, why does Carlton's symbiote look almost exactly like Venom's? It's kinda weird and off putting. I'm sorry, guys, but, for some reason, I can't quite get over on how this symbiote that's infecting Carlton looks almost exactly like Venom. It's a little bit distracting, to me.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Venom". And the movie ends with some...really god awful hip-hop music. You know what? I'm just gonna shut the movie off...OK. You know, guys, I'm pleasantly surprised. I said at the start of this that I barely had any interest in watching this movie. But, over time, I eventually started to develop interest because of things I had heard from both fans and critics. Mostly mixed things, but still. Well...I'd like to say that I definitely missed out on checking this thing out in theaters, because the movie wound up being really good. So now let's talk about this movie, shall we?

I may as well start with the writing, because the writing here is really well done. Now, mind you, since this is a story about Venom, I wasn't really expecting the story to be completely original, since you're basically working with an origin story about Eddie Brock becoming Venom. And that does apply here. However, that's not going to kill this movie for you. Because I'm gonna tell you this now, guys, our characters are all likable. Well, except for maybe Riot, but I'll get to him later. We get a ton of character development on Eddie Brock, and Venom ends up being really cool, too. Speaking of which, I do want to mention humor. Because this movie has a pretty sizable amount of it. Now, I've often complained about how badly Marvel handles humor in their movies. Specifically, more so the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies where humor is forced and shoved down the viewers throats, and almost none of it is funny. At least, to me it isn't. Case in point, in my review of "Iron Man 2" a couple of weeks ago, I commented on how the banter between certain characters such as Tony and Pepper ends up being completely unnatural, to where it feels like they have no chemistry with each other. Well, this movie shows you how to do comedic banter right. The interactions between Brock and Venom are mountains better than the bullshit that was shown in "Iron Man 2". These characters have chemistry and they get along rather well. And it's not just when they have to do comedic banter. They feel like they are one in the same. They both feel like they are losers and that they can get what they want, if they cooperate. It's some really solid character depth between the two. Now granted, there are a couple of moments where the interactions between Venom and Brock are a little...childish, let's just say. Especially towards the very end of the movie. But that's really just a minor thing that almost no one is going to notice or care about.

Speaking of which, there are a couple of minor issues that I have with writing. The first one is something that I brought up way early on in the movie. So, we see Eddie Brock getting fired from his job after he does some digging on some information that his fiancee has on Carlton Drake. This also leads to Anne, his fiancee, getting fired from her job as a defense attorney. So it leads to her breaking off her engagement with Brock. So the movie jumps to six months later, and the first thing we see is Eddie Brock drinking at a bar. I was asking where exactly was he getting the money from? Because we see him living in a shitty apartment, so that must've mean he had gotten a new job at some point. But that's not the case, because we see him searching for jobs in the paper and online. Now perhaps maybe he still had a lot of money saved up after being fired from his job, but it's been six months since he was fired from being an investigator. How does he still have money after six months? Now, I will admit, I am not a financial expert, and I'm pretty sure that being paid as an investigator would earn someone a lot of money, but you would think that you would have something else lined up for a second job and not rely on what amount of money you had earned from your previous job. I totally understand that I'm putting way too much thought into this, but it was just something that kinda bugged me a little bit, so I thought it would be enough to make mention of.

The other issue that I had with writing involves our villain for this movie, Riot. And it really has to do with his appearance. Now, Riot is a symbiote, much like Venom. So when he envelopes Carlton Drake, we get to finally see what he looks like. And...he looks just like Venom, only much grayer. So, does that mean that the other symbiotes look exactly like Venom, only with a slightly different color? It's strange for me to see Riot look like this, because we get to see him transferring his symbiosis from host to host throughout the entire movie. And you would think that he would look intimidating and threatening once we build up to his reveal. And, to an extent, he is a threatening villain. But when you finally see him, he just looks like a shorter version of Venom, with a grayish color. And, to me, that just screams laziness, because he just looks like a shitty recolor of Venom. Now, that's probably just more of a character design flaw, and, to me, his character would've looked a whole lot better, had he had a different look to him. But I will say that, barring the shitty recolor, Riot is still a decent villain, so I'm not going to harp the movie on that. The other thing that I had an issue with is the pacing. Because we don't get to see Venom up until the one hour mark, in a movie that's about an hour and 40 something minutes. And I'm not counting the long amount of credits that come after the end of the movie. And normally, I would make a bigger issue out of it, however, because the movie was very entertaining to watch, I'm willing to give that a pass. However, I could totally see someone noticing that, and it could potentially take someone out of the movie, because it takes quite a while until we officially get to see Venom in action. But still guys, barring that, the writing is still really good, and I can say that despite the slight pacing issues, the movie works it to it's advantage.

So, now let's get to the acting. I mentioned at the start of this Reaction & Review that the last time I saw Tom Hardy play any kind of character in a superhero movie, was when he played Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises". And I was a little skeptical about going into this movie, because I do remember his performance as Bane was a little bit questionable. Well, after watching this movie, I can say that Tom Hardy has proven, to me, that he can act very well as both Venom and Eddie Brock. And it is just amazing stuff here. When he has to do weird shit because Venom is inside his body, he does it really well. When he has to give out some sort of emotion, he does it really well. Guys, Tom Hardy hits it out of the park in this movie, and he showed why that he is the reason to watch this movie. And, mind you, everyone else turns in really good showings, too. I'm trying to come up with even one actor that might've phoned in their performance, but I can't. Guys, everybody turns in a really awesome showing, and I have to give praise to all of the actors for giving it their all in this movie.

Now, let's talk about the special effects. One thing I mentioned earlier in this movie was that the people who criticized this movie said that it had dated special effects. And to a certain degree, that is the case here. More so for Riot, than Venom. Because the CG on Riot looks kinda shitty, when you compare it to Venom being in CG. And again, it probably has to do more-so with the color of his character design, because the color scheme doesn't seem to mesh well with Riot. And, like I said earlier, it probably would've helped if Riot had somewhat more of an original design, instead of just looking like a shitty recolor of Venom. But that's just me, personally. The CG on Venom, however, looks really good. Again, it's not amazing, but it still looks really cool and intimidating in it's own right. And Venom really stands out as, like, the best thing to look at in this entire movie, when it comes to special effects.

Camerawork here is awesome. The lighting is well lit. The sound-mix is mixed perfectly. Music...is a bit of a mixed bag. The score is fine. It's nothing amazing, but it works for the movie. The songs, however, are shit. Now, mind you, there isn't a whole lot of songs in this movie, but I'm mainly talking about the song that plays at the beginning, and the song that plays at the end of the movie. The song that plays at the start of the movie, after the title screen goes by, sounds terrible. Because it sounds like the singer was auto-tuning his voice, and I really hate that kind of thing, because auto-tuning sounds horrible on any singer that attempts that shit. The other song that plays at the end of the movie sounds like a really shitty hip-hop cover for our title character. And I have listened to a lot of hip-hop in my life, but this is honestly one of the worst hip-hop songs I have heard in many years. And that's saying a lot, because there a lot of really terrible hip-hops songs, and this one ranks high up there. It's not the worst, but it still sounds really bad.

So, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Venom"? Oh, hell yes. This thing is amazing. It's fun, it's entertaining, and if you're a Spider-Man fan, then this is going to an amazing movie. And I'm so happy that I finally got to watch this. So much so, I have to wonder why I didn't watch this thing in theaters when I had the chance? But since I got to cover it for this series, I'm still all-the-more happy that I finally got around to seeing this thing. Now, before I end it here, I do know that there is a sequel in the works. And all I got to say is bring on the sequel. I will totally watch it whenever I get that chance. And this movie is going to have a very happy spot on my DVD shelf.

And so, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until, next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1992. That movie is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Now, I do remember vaguely catching this movie on TV a long time ago. But I don't remember a thing from it. I do know that this movie was made a few years before the television series premiered. I also know that the movie stars Kristy Swanson, who plays a cheerleader that ends up becoming a vampire hunter in some way. I do not know how at this time, but I am going to find out soon enough. Now admittedly, I haven't really seen the Buffy TV series. The only real experience that I ever had with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was when I played a video game version of it on the GameCube. And I do remember it being kinda fun, albeit a little difficult.

The only other thing I do know about this movie is the writer; Joss Whedon. And Whedon is a very polarizing figure in the world of media. More specifically, his movies. Because he wrote and directed "The Avengers". Which I did see, and it was pretty good. But he also wrote the sequel "Avengers: Age of Ultron". Which I saw a bit of, and I don't remember much about it, outside of one thing. And that's how he writes characters. Because he usually has some sort of a bad habit of writing characters as if they act the same way, talk the same way. Basically, he writes one type of character, and then copies and pastes it to most other characters that he writes. And, to me, that just comes off as laziness. And I do know that not only did he write the script for this movie, but he also created the Buffy TV series for it a few years later. Now while I can't say really much about the TV series, I am certainly hoping that this movie won't fall into the same problem that Whedon has, when it comes to his writing involving "The Avengers" movies.

So the only thing for me to do at this point, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

15 minutes later

Well, guys, I can you tell this much so far. Whedon's writing is already starting to show how stupid the dialogue is in this movie. I have yet to find a single likable character, or even an interesting moment that has happened, thus far. I understand it's still early, and this movie has plenty of time to get better, but, right now, I'm not really liking the dialogue in this movie, guys.

14 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. Merrick wanted to make sure that Buffy was the chosen one to slay these vampires, so he threw a knife at her head just so she could catch it. And he just stated that only the chosen one could have caught it. Well, what happens if someone else catches the knife? Are they deemed as the chosen one's, too? I understand that I might be reading too much into that, but the thought of it just occurred to me, you know?

5 minutes later

Wow. OK. Never thought I would see a movie where someone blows a Push Pin from their mouth and kill a fly with it. That was actually kinda cool.

15 minutes later

Wait a second here. So this basketball coach doesn't notice this guy's ears are totally different from the other players, and yet, he'll allow him to play on the court. What sense does that make? I totally understand that the coach doesn't know that this guy is really a vampire, but I still would've at least asked if there was something wrong with his ears. It would make just some semblance of sense, in my eyes. Then again, these "vampires" don't really look like vampires, but I'll get into that when I cover the special effects for this movie.

12 minutes later

You know, guys, this movie started off kinda shit, and now this movie's slowly becoming really dull. I genuinely was hoping for this movie to get interesting, and I haven't even gotten that yet. I am hoping for the next 20 minutes or so will give me something that will be halfway interesting, but at this point, those hopes are slowly fading, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. Well...that certainly was disappointing. You know, guys, I was sorta hoping that this movie would be interesting or, in some way, be funny. However, it doesn't really work here. So I guess I should start with writing, as I usually do.

As I stated earlier, I haven't really seen the Buffy TV series. My only experience with Buffy was a video game that I played back on the GameCube. And I do remember the game being kinda fun. I also remember that the writing for that game was actually kinda witty and clever. So, you know what? Even though this movie kinda sucked, it's not enough for me to turn away from the TV series. At some point, I'm probably gonna look into checking out the TV series by buying the first two seasons on DVD, and see where it goes from there. I just kinda hope that that the writing in that series is better than what was shown here. Because this movie's writing is incredibly weak. Now, I mentioned at the start of this that this movie was a horror comedy. And, bless it, this movie was trying to aim for humor. But the humor here doesn't really work because none of it is witty, or funny in the slightest. And it also doesn't help that the dialogue for about half the movie is kinda shit. And that's mainly because the characters in this movie are mostly shallow and lifeless. Now, when I say that, I'm mainly talking about anybody that isn't either Buffy or Merrick.

For example, we have Buffy's friends, who I believe were also cheerleaders. I could be totally wrong there, but I digress. And their dialogue is mostly just valley-girl bullshit. That's not saying much, since valley girls don't have any personality to begin with. Then we have Pike, who admittedly, does do something in this movie. Such as when he notices Benny, a friend of his who died near the start of the movie, becoming a vampire. And then he gets the idea to get out of town because of all the weird stuff that's happening. Well, it probably would've helped if Pike didn't have the personality of dried paint. And that's all I could think of, every time he showed up on screen. I was kinda hoping that he would've been bitten by one of the vampires, but sadly, that didn't happen. Speaking of which, we also have our villain for this movie, Lothos. I honestly thought he would be a much bigger threat. But the most intimidating thing he does in this movie is stare at Buffy, who gets entranced by his stare. The only other notable thing he does in this movie, and this is going to be a slight spoiler, is that he kills Merrick, who I'll get to in a moment. But outside of that, Lothos is really kind of a shitty villain overall. And his final fight with Buffy ends up being really short and not interesting the slightest. And that's really the movie's biggest problem is that the writing is so bland, that I was struggling to stay awake during the latter portion of the movie. I was trying to find something that was halfway interesting, and the best thing that I could come up with was when Buffy shoots a Push Pin out of her mouth and kills a fly with it. And if that's the best thing this movie could come up with that was close to being interesting, then that is sad, especially considering that you have a movie involving vampires that fail to be interesting or threatening in any way.

Now, I will say that, barring most of the side characters, Buffy is really the only one who has any development. And it makes sense, because she is the main character, hence the title of this movie. We see her starting out as kind of a stupid valley girl with her friends. And then, later on, we get to see her become the vampire slayer that most people know about her. And helping her is Merrick. Because he was the one who chose her because of her birthright. And he was the only character that I kinda liked, because he was the only character, that wasn't Buffy, who struck me as an interesting character. It's kind of a pity that he gets killed off later on in the movie, leaving the only other character, who has somewhat of a personality to speak of. Unfortunately, even I found Buffy to be a little bit dull. Because despite her development, her personality never struck me as interesting. Now, I will say that her character doesn't suck. It's just, I never found the character of Buffy to be interesting or unique. At least, to me, I never found her interesting. So, I can easily say that the writing here is very weak, at least when it comes to the characters.

Now let's get to the acting. And I will say that, even though the writing was incredibly weak, the acting here was decent. I'm willing to go out and say that even though the characters were mostly dull and shallow, all of the cast members were able to take those one dimensional characters and kinda make it work. I can also say that Kristy Swanson does a great job playing as Buffy. Now, mind you, the acting in this movie is not going to set the world on fire, but it's certainly passable for what the actors had to work with. So even though I wasn't a fan of the writing, I can certainly praise the actors for taking a shallow script and running with it.

So now let's talk about the special effects. And this here, at least to me, is where my biggest problem comes in with this movie. Now, there really isn't a whole lot of special effects. I can recall one moment where there was CG fire, but since the effect was so trivial, I'm not gonna bother going into that. What I can talk about are the makeup effects on the vampires. Because it looks as though there is almost no makeup on them to differentiate themselves from other people. Now, for like two or three vampires, you can totally see the makeup effects on them, because they look different enough to look like vampires. And I'm also going to include Lothos. He also looks like a vampire with the makeup on his face. But almost every other vampire looks exactly like a normal person because of their lack of makeup on them. The only way you could tell that they are vampires is if you notice their sharp teeth. But you wouldn't be able to tell that because of their skin color, with one exception that I'll get to, and doesn't look to be different from any other human. Speaking of which, I'm still thinking about that vampire who was playing at the basketball game. And I asked why the basketball coach didn't notice the vampire's ears or teeth. Now I could be remembering that he never saw the teeth, but he should've been able to see guy's ears and somewhat pale skin to ask if something was wrong with him, which probably would've netted a different reaction out of the coach. But no, he doesn't notice that at all. In fact, because of the lack of makeup effects in this movie, I would not be shocked if Stephanie Meyer looked at this movie and thought that this is how vampires should look like when she was creating the "Twilight" movies. Now, I understand that the theory could be entirely bullshit, and it probably is. But still, the idea just came to me, so take it for what you will. So, guys, the special effects in this movie are mostly cheap, because of the lack of makeup effects for the vampires.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting is well lit. The sound-mix is mixed well. The music...kinda sucks. A lot of the songs here are kinda shit. Well, kinda shit, even by the standards of early 90's rock music. And none of it here is memorable, or is even going to stick out at you, unless you're a fan of those really awful rock songs from the early 90's. Beyond that though, the soundtrack for this movie is incredibly forgetful.

So, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? Um...not really. I could maybe recommend it if you're a fan of the TV show. But other than that, it's kinda difficult for me to recommend it to anyone else. It fails at being a horror comedy, so I can't recommend it to fans of horror comedies. In fact, that's really where this movie fails at is the incredibly weak writing. Well that, and the special effects. But still, if you have never seen the TV show, or if you're not a fan of Buffy, then avoid this thing. It's not worth picking up, and there are far better horror comedies that you can watch. For example, I'm probably going to go watch "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" after I'm done putting this review together. Because I want to watch a better horror comedy. And this movie didn't really offer much of that. But again, I will say that, even though I wasn't a fan of this movie, I still might look into the television series, because it probably has better writing and interesting characters. So at least I can thank this movie enough for that. But still...it's not a movie that I plan on revisiting ever again.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Iron Man 2

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm taking a look at a movie from 2010. That movie is "Iron Man 2".

Now, there's a bit of a story behind this one. You see, I have seen the first "Iron Man" movie many, many times. Because it still stands as the best movie that Marvel has put out within their Cinematic Universe. Which leads me to my next point. I am not a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it's not so much the movies themselves that I have an issue with, although there are a few exceptions, but it's more so the Marvel Cinematic Universe fanbase that I have issues with. You see, with each new movie that comes out in that Cinematic Universe, most fans and fanboys will cite that movie as the best Marvel movie to date. They did it with "Guardians of the Galaxy", they did it with "Captain America: Civil War", they did it with "Avengers: Infinity War", and they did it with "Avengers: Endgame". And, mind you, I have only a seen a handful of movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And two of the movies I mentioned, both "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Captain America: Civil War", I have seen both of those. While everyone else was gloating about how those were the best Marvel movies to date, I went ahead and said that both movies, at least to me, were just average. Well, in the case of "Guardians of the Galaxy", that movie was boring as shit. But, I'm not going to dwell on that too much. Point is, I'm not a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because the fans and fanboys make too much of a big deal out of those movies.

So anyway, as I mentioned before, I have seen and loved the first "Iron Man" movie. Around the time that the trailers started coming out for "Iron Man 2", I did want to go see it at one point. But my family and I never ended up going to theaters to go watch it. And as time went on, I ended up completely forgetting about it. In fact, out of the entire "Iron Man" trilogy, this is the one movie that nobody ever talks about anymore. They'll mention the first movie, and they'll mention the third movie, for better or for worse, but I never hear anybody ever mention or talk about the second movie. Which is, probably, a good thing for me, because I'm going into this movie completely blind, and I'm going to see if this movie will finally be worth it, after missing out on it all these years.

Now...I really want to like this movie. But I have to remind myself that I watched "Ant-Man and the Wasp", which was a complete pile of shit. So, I know Marvel can fuck up on sequels. But I'm hoping that "Iron Man 2" won't stray the path of that movie. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie can possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Iron Man 2".

6 minutes later

Well, guys, I am able to say one thing so far. Whether this movie ends up being good or bad, I can say that the music is already amazing. Why? AC/DC. That's why.

10 minutes later

So Tony's little device was able to let him hack into their screens and use it against them to expose other countries making their own copies of the Iron Man suit. Dude, that is fucking awesome. I would love to have something like that. It would make exposing corruption a whole lot easier, you know?

14 minutes later

Wait, so Tony Stark can just insert himself into a Grand Prix? I get that Tony Stark wants to one-up himself over Justin Hammer, but it seems sorta off to me that Tony can just replace another driver with himself in it just like that, you know?

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I may have found a problem with this movie. And it has to do with the movie's villain Ivan. Ivan is not threatening in anyway, and, so far, he's been a complete pushover. And after getting a look at his background, I'm still not convinced that I should be taking him seriously. I certainly hope that, before the movie is done, he will gain some credibility. But right now, I'm not really feeling it, guys.

7 minutes later

Well, somehow, I'm not surprised to see Tony Stark drunk, while wearing the Iron Man suit. At least I know now where the jokes of his drinking come from. So...I guess that's something.

5 minutes later

You know, guys, a thought just occurred to me. How does Rhodey even know how to operate an Iron Man suit? I understand that he's had Air Force training, but those were with planes. This is just a suit that Tony Stark has had experience with because he's the one who created it. I understand that I might be reading too much into that, but I want to know. How does Rhodey know how to operate the Iron Man suit? I'm kinda curious about that, guys, and I kinda hope this movie tries to attempt to explain that.

18 minutes later

I think I may have found another problem with this movie, guys. This movie is trying to have the same comedic banter as the first movie. The problem with that is the dialogue. The dialogue with these interactions feels rather unnatural, and it's becoming kinda tedious and dull with each time that this movie tries to attempt comedic banter. I kinda hope that these banters will get better, as the movie goes along. But right now, I'm beginning to get a little tired of it, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Iron Man 2". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Where to even to start? Well, I can say that this movie is definitely not as good as I wanted it to be. Now, I want you to note that this is not a bad movie. In fact, I can say that it's far better than the last few movies from Marvel that I have watched. But when you're making a sequel to a movie that was just so good on it's own, you have a lot to live up to. And unfortunately, this movie doesn't do that. So, let's start by talking about the writing.

Now, prior to going into this movie, I went ahead and re-watched the first "Iron Man" movie. And I remember one of the things that I liked about it so much was because of the strong writing. The characters were likable, and while it did have humor, none of it felt like it was unnatural or hokey. And that's where one of my problems comes in is with the dialogue. Now, mind you, when I mention the dialogue, I'm talking about whenever characters such as Tony Stark, Pepper, and Rhodey have to banter off each other. The first two, more so than Rhodey. And since his dialogue is very minimal between banters, I'm going to give him a slight pass. With Tony and Pepper, every time that they're on screen together, I almost have to cringe, because they're clearly trying to replicate the humor in the first movie. But it worked there because, as I said, the interactions they had in the first movie felt natural. They talked as if they were regular human beings. And whatever goofy dialogue that they had didn't feel like it was dragging itself out. This movie, however, has dialogue that really hurts both characters, because it feels like they don't have a connection like they did in the first movie. To a point, where both characters almost become unlikable to each other throughout the movie. One scene I can remember, in particular, is when Tony Stark is in Pepper's office, and he had brought a box of strawberries, even though Pepper doesn't like strawberries. And every time that I heard Tony Stark stumble through his dialogue, I just wanted to take a pickaxe and shove it in the writer's head, because the dialogue was just painful to listen to. And it's not just an issue with Tony and Pepper. There are moments throughout this movie where the characters have to constantly talk over each other, and it just gets tiresome to listen to. And it ends up taking you out of the movie a bit, because these constant moments of the characters talking over each other won't make you care about what they're trying to say.

Now, beyond the dialogue banter being complete shit, the rest of the writing is still OK. Because this movie does continue the story of Tony Stark, now that everyone knows that he's Iron Man. The character development with him, not counting the awful banter, is done really well. Pepper still is mostly the same character, only now she has to take on the responsibilities of CEO of Stark Industries, thanks to being suggested by it by Tony. And then we have Rhodey, a buddy of Tony Stark's, still a part of the Air Force. And he later ends up wearing an Iron Man suit after a dispute between him and Tony. Which I'm still trying to figure out how exactly was Rhodey able to operate an Iron Man suit with relative ease? Now I know Rhodey's a smart guy, and he knows how to fly, as part of the Air Force. But, like I said, this was a suit that was created by Tony Stark. I was gonna suggest that maybe, at one point, Tony showed him how to fly the suit. But that argument got shot down because Tony, even though he's still drunk, was able to see some sense and notice that Rhodey was wearing an Iron Man suit. Which Tony doesn't take too well to. So there is that issue, which I was hoping that the movie would come out and try to explain why Rhodey was able to wear an Iron Man suit. But that doesn't end up happening.

So we have those three returning characters. We also have the introduction of Natasha Romanoff and Nick Fury. And they're there to establish the Avengers quota. So, unless you've never seen any of the Marvel movies going into "The Avengers", then that's what they're here for. And then we have our villain for this movie Ivan. And this is where my biggest issue with the movie's writing comes in. Ivan is just a shitty villain. He isn't threatening in any way, and I was hoping that he would get better as the movie went along. But unfortunately, that doesn't end up happening. And he, ultimately, ends up being a pushover. Because he's easily beaten when he first encounters Tony Stark at a Grand Prix, that Tony himself ends up participating. And then during a "prison break", and I'm gonna use the term "prison break" as loosely as possible, he ends up getting captured easily by Justin Hammer's guards. And, a little bit of a spoiler here, his final showdown ends up really disappointing, and showcases why he wasn't a really good villain. Not only that, but all he does in the movie is just build drones for Justin Hammer, even though it's not what Mr. Hammer had intended, in terms of what Ivan did with Mr. Hammer drones, but that's neither here nor there. And Ivan spends a lot of time doing just that throughout the movie. And, to be honest, it kinda makes his character, somewhat, boring. There was one moment where I thought he was at his best, and that's when Justin Hammer's newly designed drones are being controlled by Ivan, including the Iron Man suit being worn by Rhodey. He really does seem like a better villain, when working behind the scenes, instead of him being out in front of battle. And if it was just more of a battle of the minds between Tony Stark and Ivan, I genuinely think that it would've made Ivan a better villain for Tony to overcome. But no. As I said, Ivan comes off as a pushover, and is in no way threatening. And compared to Obadiah, the villain from the first "Iron Man" movie, Ivan is definitely nowhere in Obadiah's league.

So, aside from all of that, the writing is still OK. It's just, if you were to try and compare it with the first movie, you might end up thinking that the movie sucks. But, in all honesty, it doesn't. Because it's still a decent movie in it's own right. And even with the stuff involving the banter is going to be trivial in the long run for most others, because some people will end up liking the banter. It's just banter that didn't really work for me. Now, aside from the writing, what about the acting? Well, the acting is great. Everybody turns in a fantastic showing. But then again, considering that's it's a sequel to one of the biggest films of 2008, it would be considered a crime if anybody turned in a showing that was considered terrible. So, we do have fantastic acting. I do need to talk about casting for a moment. Because, I know that there are those who haven't seen the first "Iron Man" movie, and I feel it would be beneficial if I talked about it here. In the first movie, Rhodey was played by an actor known as Terrence Howard. And in this movie, he looks like a completely different person. Well, that's because in this movie, Rhodey is played by Don Cheadle. Now, I don't know why Terrence Howard didn't come back for this movie. Maybe it was because either of a cost issue, or he just had other work lined up for him at the time. But regardless of the reason of why, Terrence Howard doesn't come back here. And if you have seen the first "Iron Man" movie and not the second, you would not notice the complete shift in different actors until you watch the second movie. Now, why would I bring this issue up? Well, I did watch "Captain America: Civil War", which was the first movie I saw Don Cheadle in as Rhodey. And if I hadn't seen that movie, I would've not gotten use to the acting from him in "Iron Man 2". And I can say that, regardless of the huge shift in actors, Don Cheadle turns in a really good showing. Now admittedly, I do prefer Terrence Howard's performance as Rhodey over Don Cheadle's, but I'm still not going to fault Cheadle in any way. So, the acting from everybody is fantastic.

Special effects in this movie are also fantastic. Most of it is what you would expect to see if you have seen the first "Iron Man" movie. But again, this is a sequel to a big time movie, so it would've been a cardinal sin if the special effects in this movie weren't any good. Camerawork is awesome. The lighting is well lit. The sound-mix is mixed well. The music in both score and soundtrack are great. Now it's not from the same person who did the music in the first movie, but it's still good enough, to a point where you won't notice the difference in music, or even care. I mean, you get an awesome song from AC/DC, and I even heard "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen playing at one point. Guys, the music in this movie is great, especially if you're a fan of those kinds of songs.

So when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Iron Man 2"? If you were a fan of the first movie, then I would say go ahead and check it out. The only thing I would have to warn you on is that you shouldn't expect this movie to be better than the first. Because if you go into it with that kind of mindset, then you're probably not going to end up enjoying the movie as much as you should. As for me, this movie was just OK. Like I said, the movie isn't bad, but it could've been so much better. And after finally getting a chance to watch it...I can kinda see why nobody ever talks about this movie anymore. And as for whether or not I will watch "Iron Man 3"...well, considering I've heard nothing but mixed things about it, I don't want to think about that right now. I'll just stick to watching the first movie, because it's still that good. I kinda want to go back and watch it again, to be honest. So, I'm gonna go ahead and do that after I finish putting this review together.

And, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care. And will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Superman: Red Son

 

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Yes, guys, as promised, I am officially starting up my new themed marathon for this series. Where, for the next two months, I'm gonna be covering movies that are related to comic books. And I've decided to kick off this new themed marathon with a movie that came out last year. It is an animated film from 2020. Of course, I am talking about "Superman: Red Son".

Now, I didn't know that this movie even existed until I found it at Walmart last year for about $13. I could be off by the price by a bit, but regardless of the price, I picked it up. Mainly because, it's a part of DC's direct-to-video animated movies that DC has been putting out for a number of years now. And, for the most part, I have really enjoyed those lineup of movies. Granted, there are some exceptions, but I'm not going to dwell on that here.

As for this movie, I actually do know a little bit about it. I know that the story that this movie is based on is a three issue mini series that DC released in 2003, and it's part of the Elseworlds Universe. Now, for those who don't know what that means, Elseworlds is, basically, a non-canon timeline of the DC universe where writers could write stories under the Elseworlds publications, and not worry about messing things up in the main canon of DC's Comics Universe.

As for the case of "Superman: Red Son", the premise goes like this. What if instead of Superman landing in the middle bumsville Kansas, he lands in Russia during the Soviet Union? And he is leading the Communist Party to advance their ideologies?

That, guys, sounds like a fucking amazing premise. And I'm very interested to see what exactly they can do by taking that comic book and turn it into an hour and 25 minute movie. And the only way I'm gonna find that out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Superman: Red Son".

14 minutes later

Wait, so Superman's X-ray vision can't see through lead? I...didn't even know that. I could've sworn that Superman could see through just about anything with his X-Ray vision. Perhaps, maybe, it was something that I may have overlooked at some point. But I guess you learn something new everyday, don't ya?

8 minutes later

Holy shit...well, guys...even though it was a quick death, it was probably the most painful death I have ever seen Superman give out. And considering who it was that he killed, I can't say that he didn't fucking deserve it. That was...fucking awesome. And good on Superman for doing so.

16 minutes later

OK...I wasn't expecting Superior Man to die in that kind of matter. That was just...incredibly morbid. Wow.

4 minutes later

Wait, so Superman, or Soviet Superman I should say, managed to reprogram Braniac, one of the most iconic villains of the Superman lore, as part of the Soviet state? That is something I never thought Superman would be able to do. But considering the Superman in this movie, I wouldn't put it past him to pull something like that off.

1 minute later

...Well, guys, I just saw this movie's version of Batman blow up an entire museum full of people. And...he's blowing up other buildings all across Moscow...you know, I think I'm already starting to like this version of Batman, guys. Plus, the remark he gave after blowing up the museum was hilariously dark, too. I wasn't expecting that.

12 minutes later

You know, guys, just seeing Batman literally beating the shit out of Soviet Superman like a rag doll is something that I didn't think was possible. But considering the plan that Batman had in order to get Superman into this kind of state, I am rather impressed he was able to pull it off.

8 minutes later

OK, I have a question, and this is kind of a serious one. So, we're seeing a bunch of Hal Jordan's crew flying with the powers of the Green Lantern Corp. Where the hell did they get all of the rings of the Green Lantern? Did they just, like, recreate them? Or did the other members of the Green Lantern Corp get together to help Hal Jordan? I'm really curious, guys, and it's beginning to bug me slightly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Superman: Red Son". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Where to even start? Well, after seeing this movie, I am really interested in checking out the mini series that this thing was based on. Not just to see what they had to adapt in order to turn this into an hour and a half movie, but because the story is so good on it's own, despite what might've been left out here.

Now, before I get into the writing, I need to clarify one thing that I mentioned when I was watching the movie. And it was something that I brought up at the start of this Reaction & Review. It was the issue of Superman not being able to see through lead. So, when the movie was going on, I decided to look it up myself, and according to what I've found, apparently, X-ray's, in general, can't see through lead. Because it is far, far too dense for them to see through. And admittedly, it does make some level of sense. So, I'm not going to fault the movie for that here. Mainly because, I didn't know that basic fact. But then again, I'm not a doctor, so I guess you could say I lack any knowledge in that area.

But anyway, let's finally get into the writing, shall we? The writing here is really solid. As I mentioned at the start of this, the concept of Superman leading the Communist Party to advance it's ideologies sounds like an amazing premise, and it certainly does live up to just about all of it. There is one thing that I do have to question in terms of writing. And that is something I brought up way late in the film, but I still want to know where did Hal Jordan's crew get all of the Green Lantern rings? Because, earlier on before that, we get a scene where Luthor and President Kennedy are showing Hal Jordan a damaged ship with the Green Lantern insignia. And then we see a body of Abin Sur. And if you know your comic book history, then you pretty much know where this is going. However, in this movie, Abin Sur is already dead. So by the powers of Luthor, Hal Jordan inherits the Green Lantern ring, and, well, he becomes the new Green Lantern. Now, I don't mind that slight change from Hal Jordan's backstory, but the one thing I'm curious about was where did the rest of the rings comes from? Because as I mentioned before, we get to see the rest of Hal's flight crew inheriting the powers of the Green Lantern Corp. But we don't get any kind of explanation as to where, or how, the other rings were obtained. I, originally, thought it might've been recreated, but I figured the U.S. wouldn't be capable of doing so because they don't have that kind of technology. I'm also wondering why all of the people who inherited the rings are regular humans? The only two of those who makes sense are John Stewart, because John was the Green Lantern from the Justice League cartoon. And, of course, the other one being Guy Gardner. But everyone else is just some nameless pilot. I may not be the biggest historian when it comes to the Green Lantern Corp, but I could've sworn that the Green Lantern Corp was a group of different alien races. So why exactly do these flight crew members have these rings? Did the Green Lantern Corp just have a few extra rings laying around and decided to give them away as a charity? I don't know. Now perhaps maybe there was more to this little side plot in the mini series. And if there was, I'm curious to know as to what exactly was the issue involving the missing Green Lantern rings.

Now, aside from that one issue, everything else is great. The characters here are very well developed. I really like how Superman is facing the conflicts on what he should be doing to advance the Soviet State's ideologies, and whether or not how he's doing it is either right or wrong. It is some really gripping stuff. One of my favorite things about this movie is the character depth. And my favorite has to go to Batman. Now, it's not because it's Batman, even though I, admittedly, have a bit of a bias towards him, since he is one of my favorite superheroes of all time. The reason is that he's not really a hero in this story. Hell, he's not even an anti-hero. No, he's a straight up terrorist in this movie. Because we see him blow up tons and tons of buildings, which gets Superman's attention, especially after he kidnaps Wonder Woman with the Lasso of Truth. And as he's beating the holy hell out of him, he explains to Superman that what's he's doing is no better than how Stalin would've done things, by enslaving the people in his own way to advance the Soviet ideologies. And the one sided battle basically ends up being a battle of morals, because, with Superman, you already know why he's doing the things that he's doing. With Batman, he wants chaos and should let the people to decide their own fate with their freedom. To me, guys, the one sided fight was one of the biggest highlights for me when it came to this movie.

So, guys, the writing here is great. And even with the issue involving the Green Lantern rings is not going to kill this movie for you. In fact, if anything, it's a really minor issue in the long run, because the rest of the movie is just that good. The acting is also really good. One of them I was kinda surprised by is Roger Craig Smith as Batman. Now, mind you, he has played Batman in the past. And I'm mainly talking about the stuff that I'm familiar with such as Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate. Though the latter kinda sucked as a video game, but I'm not going to dwell on that too much. So I am familiar with his voice work as Batman. But here, he is able to pull off a Russian accent with this version of Batman, and you wouldn't even notice that it was him. In fact, I didn't know who voiced him until the credits started rolling. And he makes Batman, in this movie, his own character. And I'm always happy to see someone that isn't Kevin Conroy, try to take their own spin on an establishing character and make it work. And, mind you, I love Kevin Conroy as Batman. But I don't want to just see him take on the voice role of Batman. I want to see others do their own take on the character. And Roger Craig Smith knows how to do that here, and I'm really happy to see that here in this movie. Everyone else in the cast does a fantastic job. Nobody here phones in a performance that I would say kinda sucked, or the actors just didn't care. So I can safely that the acting is top notch.

Animation here is really good. It's really similar to stuff that you would see in other DC animated films such as "Justice League: War", "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse", "Justice League: Throne of Atlantis", and many others where the art style is consistent with the several movies I mentioned. And it still looks amazing here. What doesn't look amazing, however, is the CG. The CG in this movie is mostly used on vehicles, such as cars. And the cars in this movie looks absolutely hideous in CG. There were maybe, like, a few shots where I would see cars that would look like boxes. And the cars looks so poorly rendered, that it really stands out, especially when you consider that the rest of the hand drawn animation is so good. And it's not just the cars that have this issue. It's also an issue with Brainiac's ship. And Brainiac's ship looks almost as bad as the CG cars that are in this movie. Now it doesn't look like a boxed car like the CG cars in this movie, but it still looks horrendous in CG. And it's kinda shameful, considering that this movie was released in 2020, and you have CG that looks as though it came out of the early 2000's. There really is no excuse for the CG to look this bad in 2020. Now, beyond the terrible CG, the rest of the animation is fluid and great. And, as I just mentioned, the art style is really good, too.

Music here is really good. The sound-mix is awesome. Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "Superman: Red Son"? Oh, hell yes. This movie is great. Now, do I think it's the best DC animated film I have ever seen? No. This thing is nowhere near as good as movies such as "Superman vs. The Elite" or "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay". And considering that "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay" is one of my favorite DC animated films of all time, that would be very difficult for "Superman: Red Son" to overcome. But still, guys, if you are fan of these direct-to-video animated movies that DC has put out, then I would say go check it out. It's a fantastic movie in it's own right. And seeing as how I mentioned both "Superman vs. The Elite" and "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay", I kinda want to go and marathon both of those movies, so I'm gonna go do that. And "Superman: Red Son" is gonna have a happy spot on my DVD shelf.

And, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.