TheRetroCritic

Where to start with this one? What could I possibly say that hasn't already been said? Indeed, this new Fantastic Four did not do well at all with the critics upon its release, nor did it do very well financially due to poor word-of-mouth. But was the film written off too quickly? Were critics much too harsh on it? Mmmwell... I'd love to say yes but this is one hard movie to defend. For one thing, the casting is tough to get behind. As brilliant as newcomer Miles Teller was in last year's mini-masterpiece Whiplash , he finds himself miscast here and, about halfway through the film, possibly due to increasing on-set shambles, soon stops giving a f***. As do we. House Of Cards ' Kate Mara is also miscast as our new Invisible Girl as she delivers no charisma or personality, something for which the script, I should point out, is entirely to blame. Jessica Alba may have been pretty dire as Sue Storm in the 2005 Fantastic Four but at least she seemed awake an

If the success of Guardians Of The Galaxy confirmed one thing it was that Marvel could, indeed, get away with making the most out-there, obscure comic book movie adaptations and turn them into gold. The plan was certainly to do that with Ant-Man but the departure of director Edgar Wright last year seemed to suggest that this was a troubled production doomed to not make Avengers -style zillions. The horror! And so, while Ant-Man certainly didn't wow audiences and critics quite as much as some of the (literally) bigger superhero movies, it still did a good job and put ants (and wasps) on the map! Paul Rudd, known mostly for his reliably goofy work in Judd Apatow-led comedies, turns out to be a solid choice to be the Ant-Man despite the fact that one feels the man, who gives a restrained performance here, was holding back from cracking all sorts of inappropriate jokes on set during the course of the movie. It should make for some inspired bloopers on the Blu-Ray, for

Yaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!

Our  The Big Rewind  podcast meets The Tomboy Tarts’  Tomboy Tirade   podcast and film reviewer  The Movie Rogue  in this Avengers-style special Summer blockbuster episode of the mighty Tirade! You can find both Tomboy Tirade and The Big Rewind on iTunes! The episode is up now, like, right NOW so check it out and subscribe! Click the link/picture above :)

Ever watch a film and feel slightly dumber after watching it? Well I finally checked out Guyver: Dark Hero , the sequel to The Guyver , and, let me tell ya, I’ve rarely felt this unsmart. Based on an anime series and a manga, this live-action effort was a cheap Hollywood production and was released straight-to-video in the US back in 1994. With a non-star cast leading the way, this sequel follows a dude, Sean (David Hayter, not Mark Hamill this time, sadly), who can turn into some kind of ghoulish superhero as he discovers that an archeological dig going on over in Utah may have the answers to his past he’s been looking for. As it turns out, he’s not the only “Guyver” out there and the finding of a spaceship unveils more uncomfortable truths about his alter ego's origin. Now I know it’s cheaper for this kind of low-budget production to just film in one place, one set, but 95% of this film takes place in and around the archaeological dig, making it feel a little claustr

Based on the 70's anime series, Casshern was a 2004 live-action film which looked very promising yet it left me feeling somewhat conflicted leaving the cinema after watching it: parts of it pissed me right off but other parts were all kinds of awesome. So how does Casshern fare now, after a re-watch? Much better, actually. The flaws I'd picked up on the first time watching it are still there and they are still distracting but the stuff that works in the film does very much outweigh them. If you're not familiar with the film's plot, it involves a Dr Frankenstein-style scientist (Akira Terao) who finds a way to regenerate dead tissue through what he calls Neo-Cells. During a war, a lightning bolt mysteriously hits his lab and, as a result, a new race of people is born. At the same time, his son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya) is killed in the war and he brings him back as some kind of superhero who ends up calling himself Casshern. The new "monsters", Neo-Sap

If I had to pick my favourite superhero film of this year, I'd definitely consider Thor: The Dark World , I'd sadly dismiss Iron Man 3 and I certainly wouldn't even think about The Wolverine . In the end, though, I'd pick Krrish 3 . How this franchise went from an awful E.T. meets Forrest Gump cheese-fest for the kiddos to a full-blown action franchise with mutants and superheroes is beyond me. Following in the footsteps of Robot and Ra.One , Krrish 3 is yet another bat-shit insane sci-fi Bollywood blockbuster that's super-long but super-fun. While not as gloriously out-there as Robot, Krrish 3 is an overall more rewarding experience than Ra.One which spent way too much time setting up its simplistic plot and not enough time being crazy-awesome. Though that opening sequence was all kinds of genius. Krrish 3 follows our hero (played by Hrithik Roshan) as he faces a new threat, a wheelchair-bound supervillain called Kaal (a brilliant Vivek Oberoi) whose pla

Hellboy 's a weird one... For one thing, I always liked the look of the trailers and always wanted to watch it but somehow never got around to. I would catch glimpses of it on TV every so often and it looked really good to me. Besides, I was a big fan of Pan's Labyrinth and I was really looking forward to checking out another Guillermo Del Toro flick. Having never read the comics, I really had nothing to go on so I had no specific expectations. Finally, post- Pacific Rim , this year, I did it: I watched the entire thing. And, you know what? Was slightly disappointed. Now I know I'm pretty late in the game and I should be happy that they even managed to make a Hellboy movie. I am! And there are a lot of things I like about Del Toro's film. For one, Ron Perlman is perfect for the role and it's literally impossible to picture anyone else playing Hellboy. Spot-on casting there. The combined efforts of Doug Jones and David Hyde Pearce bring fish dude Abe to

Ah Supergirl ... Is it weird that I've seen this movie more than once? Back in the day, if it had anything to do with Superman and it was on TV, you could be sure that I'd be watching: Lois & Clark , Superboy , Supergirl, it was all good as long as it involved that big red logo and someone wearing colourful, tight spandex with that very same big red logo on it. I always enjoyed Supergirl despite not knowing half of what was going on during it. As a kid, I just knew that Supergirl was Superman's cousin and that one day, she would be my girlfriend. That was it. Watching the movie today, it's pretty obvious why a lot of it went completely over my head. For one thing, it doesn't make any sense and for another it makes some odd choices plot-wise, to say the least. The film opens on some kind of Krypton-like location which we assume is in outer space but is in fact somewhere underwater through some kind of inter-dimensional gateway. Peter O'Toole and Mia

SPOILER WARNING F***. That'll teach me to get really excited about a blockbuster. Alright, how do I put this without pissing you guys off... Superman Returns was better. Woops... Sorry. I can't think of a film I was more looking forward to than Man Of Steel this year. On paper: there's no way it could have gone wrong. You had a brilliant cast, kick-ass trailers, some great writers behind it, Christopher Nolan as producer, Zack Snyder: a director known for making great-looking movies... But it all led to this: quite possibly the most charmless Superman movie to date. The film opens on the most Avatar -like Krypton you'll ever see (with touches of Dune thrown in for camp value) as we follow Jor-El (Russell Crowe) who is busy worrying about the fact that the entire planet is about to explode, though he doesn't seem too bothered about leaving the dying world himself, or getting his wife to safety somehow. Jor-El also happens to be at the heart of a

Here's the new Man Of Steel trailer. Still lookin' good ;)

The first film to really make superhero flicks into something genuinely big and epic, Superman: The Movie  is the classic that made Christopher Reeve into a star overnight, spawned 3 more sequels plus a slick modern homage not to mention made Superman into the iconic cinematic hero we all know him as. But how does it stand up today? Well, back in the day and even when I watched it as a kid, Superman was pure popcorn entertainment: it looked great, John Williams' score was, of course, amazing, and the whole thing was light, fun, creative and unique. From the Krypton opening where we meet Marlon Brando's light-suit-wearing Jor-El to the heroic time reversal at the end (I'll get to that one...) it was vintage comic book nonsense and I loved it. Hell, I was such a fan I even sat through Supergirl AND the Superboy TV series not to mention that corny 90's Lois & Clark show, all of which I dug completely and all because director Richard Donner once told us "Yo

The film that started it all... kind of. Jon Favreau's Iron Man was really the moment where Marvel revealed to the world their mad intentions of putting together crossover mega-movie  The Avengers . As we all know, they pulled it off remarkably but it could have all gone pear-shaped super early. I mean, with the likes of Captain America and Thor it wasn't going to be a walk in the park to make each character and their far-fetched stories plausible, let alone cram everybody into one movie. But Iron Man showed early on that you can make a silly superhero flick without screwing it up, creating a movie that, even to this day, is simply a lot of fun. Robert Downey Jr is genius billionaire douchebag Tony Stark, who is made to face the reality of his misguided work directly and henceforth grow a conscience. The entire movie is one big build-up to the creation of that badass armored suit with some cool action scenes and a last-minute villain thrown in for good measure. Because

Marvel Avengers Assemble ? What's with the new title?! Did they just realise this existed? Beat THAT Joss Whedon.

Captain America may technically be the First Avenger but, really, this was Marvel's final pawn setting up their epic, ambitious blockbuster crossover The Avengers . Beating past film incarnations of the character quality-wise was never going to be a big challenge so I had fair expectations for this one. Like Thor , Captain America is an inherently difficult superhero to pull-off on the big screen without it coming across as very dumb and/or very silly. Luckily, Marvel have done incredibly well to make their iconic character and his solo film work, creating a badass hero even non-Americans can happily root for without feeling particularly offended by the obligatory patriotism the character brings forth. The big revelation here is Chris Evans whose usual tongue-in-cheek persona could have easily made Captain America nothing more than a joke but the man plays it completely straight and is all the better for it. His Steve Rogers is a goody-two-shoes you nevertheless genuinely feel

Green Lantern is no Superman. As a character, green ring-toting Hal Jordan can be as likeably cocky as he wants he'll never be taken as seriously as his DC comics buddy. For one thing: his story is absurdity itself. Something about free will having a colour (?), purple aliens and magical glowing lanterns...? If only there was a live-action film! Oh... Well, they gave it a go. After the trailers popped up ages ago online, it seemed pretty clear that although clearly a lot of money was pumped into the project, a lot of Green Lantern would still fail to transcend the inherent silliness of the whole premise. Ryan 'Van Wilder' Reynolds alone seemed to lack a certain je-ne-sais-quoi one looks for in a superhero. Just look at Brandon Routh: adorable Clark Kent but The Man Of Steel? Surely you jest. Surprisingly though, Green Lantern is no disaster. In 3D, at least, it is visually fun even if the effects are very hit-and-miss. The CGI costume is a tad off-putting, a lot of

The trailer for Thor promised epic camp the likes of which hasn't been seen since Flash Gordon  and a lot of it looked like they probably would not work for a second. Frost giants? Yeah that won't be silly at all... And yet there I was, witnessing Norse Gods in shiny gold armour riding horses along a glass rainbow bridge, taking it all in and not even batting an eye. The entertainment value of the whole thing was such that I could easily go "nothing wrong here" and suspend my disbelief like I've never done before to accommodate this ridiculous, yet somewhat irresistible mythological superhero epic. For one thing, Asgard looks amazing: this is Marvel on a grand scale and, upon its release, it was probably the most ambitious superhero film ever made. Yes, when you take a step back it's like: "what is all this?" but if you allow yourself to go with it, you'll just love this visual feast. It's almost a shame Thor has to go to Earth, esp