X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)

Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Peter Dinklage, Halle Berry, Evan Peters, Josh Helman
Certificate: 12
Genre: Superhero
Awards: None

X-Men: Days Of Future past is a sequel, prequel, prequel sequel and reboot to various different films in the franchise and combines the cast of the original three films with that of First Class. This is done by sending Wolverine (Jackman) back in time from an apocalyptic future to help the Magneto (McKellan/Fassbender) and Xavier (Stewart/McAvoy)'s younger selves stop it from happening.

Because the cast is so vast, some get a lot more screen time than others. If you are a Magneto fan, you may be disappointed as Fassbender is featured much less frequently than McAvoy whilst McKellan is even harder to find. Dinklage's human baddie has little time to shine (yet somehow he still does) while new character, Quicksiver (Peters) has a brilliant introduction but is then left forgotten. The film is not damaged by this as the main characters are still really interesting and watchable, but it can be a little disappointing.

The film succeeds in its story as it takes twists and turns that keep you guessing throughout while the action scenes are spectacular. With the sprinkle of humour, X-Men 7 becomes a great film that surpasses most of the franchise.

With Bryan Singer back in the directors chair however, some aspects of First Class (In my opinion the best X-Men film thus far) are lost. Henry Jackman's music is replaced by that of Singer regular John Ottmon whilst all characters not already in Singer's previous films are killed offscreen before the film.

With so many directors and other creative people being part of the X-Men franchise, somebody is always going to be disappointed. On its own merits X-Men:DOFP is incredibly enjoyable film. Franchise-wise its still the second best and has kept the gates open for more. There is no need for a reboot yet, thankfully.

*****Brilliant

Ran (1985)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada
Certificate: 15
Genre: War, Drama
Awards: Best costume design

Ran is Akira Kurusawa's great epic, featuring five different armies and a vast array of characters that are each given their time to shine. The story follows Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Nakadai) who decides to give his kingdom to his sons. He outlaws one of them and the other two turn on him which leads him down the path of madness..

Ran is a visual paradise with astounding colours and costumes. The film is masterfully shot to make the film as beautiful as it is epic. The amount of characters is similar to The Lord Of The Rings as characters such as captains, jesters and servants are given as much depth to their character as the main lords.

Ran is an outstanding film with great cinematography that allows it to have amazing battle sequences, haunting imagery and emphasis on the tragedies that are scattered within it while the story is intriguing and shocks with unexpected twists and turns.

*****Brilliant

Godzilla (2014)

Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olson, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston
Certificate: 12
Genre: Action, Sci Fi
Awards: None

The king of the monsters is returns once again and is on fantastic form, for the beginning anyway. Bryan Cranston, who has been featured heavily in the trailers, is the heart of the film as he delivers a a great and moving performance. Unfortunately, he is not in for long.

The obvious choice for main character after Cranston is Ken Watanabe as Dr Serizawa, a Godzilla expert who's father was killed at Hiroshoma. An interesting backstory and an intriguing character overall, but the film decides to choose Johnson's military man to header the film. This leaves us with a bland and boring main character who cannot divert our attention to the fact that Godzilla is hardly there.

When Godzilla does arrive, however, the action scenes are great. The monster battles are glorious to watch and some parts are awe inspiring. Edwards does strangely conceal some of the action scenes with news reports which may be intended to intrigue but instead only affronts.

To conclude, Godzilla is well worth a watch for the good bits, but the two best features of the film are not there for long and then you're left with a rather bland and boring guy doing stuff.

****Good

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)

Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan
Certificate: 12
Genre: Superhero
Awards: None

Having not seen the first instalment of the Spiderman reboot, this is the first film featuring Peter Parker I have seen since the Sam Raimi's Spiderman 3. Unfortunately the majority of the film is even more disappointing.

TASM2 features three villains, yet none work well. Each are visually stunning and great to look out with the actors giving good performances but the characters themselves are not given enough depth. Like most of Spiderman's villains,  Elektro (Foxx) is shown to be a sympathetic character to us for the first half of the film. However, this is forgotten near the end. Harry Osbourne (DeHaan) arc is also surprisingly quick as he becomes the green goblin way earlier than expected.

The ending of the film does give a more commendable feature. It shows that the movie has guts and is willing to go further than most, yet even the execution after the climax is very poor.

Overall The Amazing Spiderman 2 is a very weak movie that has the saving grace of a good ending. However, that does not make up for the two hours that proceeded it.

***Okay