7 January 2019
Ranking lists of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. There are many like it, but this one is mine. The MCU has changed the nature of cinematic franchises – every studio is trying desperately to ape the model that they have created, without truly understanding what they’ve done and how they’ve done it (which is standard operating procedure for Hollywood, but…
17 August 2018
In a way, I feel a bit sorry for Ant-Man and the Wasp: it’s a film of less substance in the MCU, being a fun caper movie in the same vein as Ant-Man; it’s coming after the huge events of Avengers: Infinity War; and it’s arriving after a tremendous run of MCU films in the past eight months (Thor: Ragnarok,…
30 April 2018
This is a spoiler-free review of Avengers: Infinity War, the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film 10 years in the making, so I’m not going to be a dick and ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it. I just want to share my reactions to having watched the film and basically telling you how much I…
17 April 2018
The fact that a Black Panther film exists is a great thing. The fact that it is a massive global success is a fantastic thing. The fact that it’s also a very good film is a wonderful thing. The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be the most reliable place to get enjoyable superheroic films, as Black Panther provides the action,…
17 November 2017
Imagine someone telling you that, after the cinematic debut of Thor: The Dark World, the third Thor film would be an out-and-out comedy, and it would be as funny as hell – you would not believe them because it would sound bonkers. Well, now you have to apologise to this fictional person I’ve just invented for not saying that to…
26 May 2017
If you ever need a sure-fire test to work out if a film is truly enjoyable, I have it for you: watch it the first time with the audio description/subtitles in your own language on-screen. Because, based on watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in the cinema where that actually happened, I still enjoyed the hell out of this…
4 November 2016
Despite all the horrible things that are happening in the real world at the moment, there are some things that help – the fact that we live in a world where a Doctor Strange film is in cinemas and is an anticipated event is one of the nice things. The fact that it’s an entertaining and enjoyable film makes it…
9 May 2016
Things have been hectic at Clandestine Critic Casa, with lots of decorating and gardening and associated stuff getting in the way of reading and reviewing comic books (I’ve got a stack of first issues to write about that’s piling up, so consider yourself warned). So it was nice to have an afternoon to view the latest film in the Marvel…
31 July 2015
If you are even slightly pop-culture literate, you’ll know that Ant-Man was going to be directed by Edgar Wright, from a script by him and Joe Cornish; it was a project that Wright had been developing for several years, only to leave at almost the last minute due to ‘creative differences’, to be replaced by the less stylistic Peyton Reed,…
5 May 2015
I felt sorry for Joss Whedon, the successful, talented, smart, funny, creatively satisfied man. A little bit. Not only did he have to follow up his own success by writing and directing the sequel to the third largest grossing film so far, but he also had to contend with the myriad of other factors involved in making a blockbuster film…