Monday, March 8

Tag: Comic Book

Review: Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
17Dec By Paskalis DamarNo Comments
Movie Review

Review: Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Diana Prince a.k.a. Wonder Woman, portrayed as eloquently as ever by Gal Gadot, makes a sweet come back in Wonder Woman 1984, set in the titular year at least 66 years after she's last seen in the Armistice of 11 November. The heroine is currently living a serene routine as Smithsonian Institution expert in Washington while cautiously and secretly helping people and fighting crimes. When an ambitious con-artist, Max Lord (Pedro Pascal), comes up with a foul plot that might cause ridiculously mythical cataclysms around the world and turn an innocent gemologist and Diana's colleague, Barbara Minerva (Kirsten Wiig), into an apex predator like never before, she must take her super-heroine mantle once more even when she's faced to the ultimate vulnerability she doesn't know she has. (more&...
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Review: Bloodshot (2020)
13Mar By Paskalis DamarNo Comments
Movie Review

Review: Bloodshot (2020)

Vin Diesel single-handedly bears the burdens of spectacles in Bloodshot, a live-action adaptation of a Valiant Comics property. With narrative reminiscing the story of RoboCop, the super-human story is meant to a throwback to retro-action movies involving conspiracies, tech-wars, and cold action sequences. A while ago, Bloodshot was intended to open a certain kind of shared universe (involving another Valiant property, Harbinger); but, the idea was now scraped, even when the projects still develop, and that's possibly a correct decision. Diesel is an ex-military man who was kidnapped and assassinated with his wife (Talulah Riley). He's then brought back to life by a group of scientists led by Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) with literal bloodshot transfused into his dead body in the enti...
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Review: Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
6Feb By Paskalis DamarNo Comments
Movie Review

Review: Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Lately, Warner Bros-DC has continued to indulge in the sweet taste of triumph after their Extended Universe fiasco (culminating in the disoriented Justice League). Their new recipe to focus on a more standalone, vibrant feature (learning the best from Wonder Woman) has proven to be fruitful. Aquaman proves his worth, Shazam is highly entertaining, and the somber Joker is a serious inferno—a real award contender. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is about to prove that the recipe, after all, works. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) returns from Suicide Squad with a completely different arc. She will, then, narrate the whole story with her audacious voice-over and occasional breaking-the-fourth-wall look straight to the audiences sassily. Harley's narration is...
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Review: Gundala (2019)
31Aug By Paskalis Damar2 Comments
Focus: Indonesia, Movie Review

Review: Gundala (2019)

Gundala, based on a comic book series by Hasmi, is set to kick-start the ambitious Indonesian superheroes' shared universe projected as 'Jagad Sinematik BumiLangit' or 'BumiLangit Cinematic Universe' (mainly inspired by the renowned Marvel Cinematic Universe and the now-defunct DC Extended Universe). To set the grand plan—which includes 8 movies for its first phase with, at least, 19 known characters announced—in motion, Gundala must translate the comic book story into a grounded, do-able and entertaining cinematic experience that can distance itself from the million-dollar Hollywood influence. To helm this showpiece, Joko Anwar (A Copy of My Mind, Satan's Slave) is the most obvious choice to have the integrity and vision to decipher all the codes. Anwar treats the movie as an origin ...
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Review Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
4Jul By Paskalis Damar4 Comments
Movie Review

Review Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

A lot of things happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the last two years. There was the Snap in Avengers: Infinity War that dusted half of the humanity; and there was the Blip in Avengers: Endgame, which brought everyone back. The earth’s mightiest heroes annihilated Thanos and his orders but also suffers an enormous casualty, making the whole victory a Pyrrhic one. Since then, the world changes, people adapt accordingly and Spider-Man: Far From Home attempts to address the post-Endgame world with a homecoming. (more…)
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Review Dark Phoenix (2019)
19Jun By Paskalis DamarNo Comments
Movie Review

Review Dark Phoenix (2019)

It's time to bid farewell to the X-Men saga we once knew since 2000. Surviving for almost two decades, the franchise has gone through ups (X-Men, X2, X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past) and downs (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: Apocalypse). When it's high, it's soaring high, setting the bar high for other comic book movies; but, when it's down, it's down low. The mutant saga, known for its serious allegory to the marginalized people living in this harsh world, deserves an, at least, meaningful closure. It's sad that for the final showdown (to mark the end of the Fox era before the possible Disney-fueled reincarnation), X-Men is inclined to wrap it moderately with Dark Phoenix a.k.a. a missing chance. (more…)
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Review Avengers: Endgame (2019)
29Apr By Paskalis Damar1 Comment
Movie Review

Review Avengers: Endgame (2019)

After 11 years, 21 movies (3 of them are the official Avengers movies) and 1 sharing universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually heads to the endgame of its thoroughly built infinity stone arc with Avengers: Endgame. The road has never been easy, although it is indeed glimmering with box office receipts. And yet, what Kevin Feige has been doing with Marvel properties for the last decade (including the fighting to acquire back some characters co-owned with other studios) is, possibly, the eighth wonder—a cinematic breakthrough that nobody had never dared to imagine before. Endgame is set to be 22nd movie and, especially, a grand 3-hour event of closure to this over-than-a-decade long journey. (more…)
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Review Captain Marvel (2019)
9Mar By Paskalis Damar4 Comments
Movie Review

Review Captain Marvel (2019)

Ever since Thanos wreaking havoc in Infinity War, the wave of expectation about the real 'avenger' to avenge The Avengers hasn't even plummeted down. Audiences seem to take the thing seriously and, since that emotionally relieving post-credit scene of Marvel's most emotionally draining movie yet, expectations are soaring high. Only if Captain Marvel—the studio's first solo female movie—could level up to the altitude, will those expectations be quenched. (more…)
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Review Wiro Sableng: Pendekar Kapak Maut Naga Geni 212 (2018)
3Sep By Paskalis Damar2 Comments
Focus: Indonesia, Movie Review

Review Wiro Sableng: Pendekar Kapak Maut Naga Geni 212 (2018)

Review Wiro Sableng 212 Warrior: Wiro Sableng (trans. Crazy Wiro), a character created by Bastian Tito, is one of the most renowned & legendary martial art warriors in Indonesian comic scene—along with Panji Tengkorak (Skull Panji) and Si Buta dari Goa Hantu (Blind Warrior from Ghost Cave). From comic book, Wiro Sableng had been adapted into a several movies and, most notably, long-running television series that had gained cult-following and launched a one-hit wonder status to the star, Ken Ken. In 2018, a latest incarnation of the famous character is brought into existence by Angga D. Sasongko (Filosofi Kopi series, Bukaan 8), backed by Lifelike Pictures and Hollywood mogul, Twentieth Century Fox. (more…)
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Review Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
7Jul By Paskalis Damar1 Comment
Movie Review

Review Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Movie review Ant-Man and the Wasp: Back in 2015, a small-scale, lesser-known superhero named 'Ant-Man' carrying heavy-scale burden to follow up the Marvel's ambitious (yet convoluted) assemble, Avengers: Age of Ultron was almost unimaginable. Stormed with production issue—when the appointed director, Edgar Wright, left due to creative difference and get replaced by Yes Man director, Peyton Reed—Ant-Man was, again, almost an expected trainwreck. Only, it did not end up becoming one; it instead becomes one of Marvel's most prominent standalone movies which blends superhero action, unapologetic comedy and warm family drama. In 2018, Ant-Man makes a come-back in a similar role to the previous film—to clean the palette after the devastating Avengers: Infinity War. In doing so, Ant-Man and the W...
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Justice League (2017) – Review
17Nov By Paskalis Damar3 Comments
Movie Review

Justice League (2017) – Review

Review: Let’s break down Justice League into good news and bad news first. The good news is Justice League shows that DC has actually learned how to concoct a story out of their metahumans (yes, for them, the word ‘superhero’ is overrated) extensively since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and how to sweeten up their preferably dark universe with proper humors, too, ever since Suicide Squad. While the bad news: the good news only slightly helps the film from being a total mess. Following rave reviews showering Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and news of reshoots along with post-production galore to Avengers’ helmer, Joss Whedon, expectation flown high on how Justice League would finally do the justice to DC. At some points, it might live up the expectation; thanks to balance between Zack Sn...
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Review
27Apr By Paskalis Damar5 Comments
Movie Review

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Review

Review: Recapturing the magic of the original/first film is often an arduous quest, even by Marvel standards. Let’s forget not about how Joss Whedon’s misery, in crafting Age of Ultron to follow up the groundbreaking Avengers assemble, could not live up to the expectation. Given that record, it’s not a big surprise that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 falls flat in its attempt to live up the virtuoso of Marvel’s biggest gamble; what’s surprising: it still makes an awesome fun-tertaining space bravura centering on galaxy’s most favorite dysfunctional ‘family.’ Element of surprise is what’s missed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The Guardians – along with their closest relatives – aren’t unfamiliar faces anymore; same goes to Awesome Mix, the intergalactic vistas, and the typical jokes and...
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Doctor Strange (2016) – Review
30Oct By Paskalis Damar5 Comments
Movie Review

Doctor Strange (2016) – Review

Review: Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has expanded at accelerating pace to some level we can fathom where it leads anymore. Along its long run, all Earth’s mightiest heroes in Avengers have contributed to numbers of on-screen collateral damage more than any franchises have ever done. They even acknowledge it in and exploit it as the cause of Civil War, which is a clever move. Yet, as one character in Marvel’s latest tenure Doctor Strange said, “Avengers protect Earth from physical dangers.” As it highlights the physical attacks hence the collateral damage, how about the supernatural or metaphysical attack? That’s where the Sorcerer Supreme gets his solid slot in MCU. In fact Doctor Strange is another biggest gamble Marvel ever done since Guardians of the Galaxy. It appears mostly as a st...
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Suicide Squad (2016) – Review
5Aug By Paskalis Damar12 Comments
Movie Review

Suicide Squad (2016) – Review

Review: Say DC and Warner Bros misinterpret the legacy of Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy for its dark, bleak, and sorrowful atmosphere albeit more grounded approach to reality; DC Extended Universe might still have a spark of hope in eccentrically dark Suicide Squad to save the ship from sinking after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice got lambasted a while ago. Yet, that’s not the story. I wanted so bad to like Suicide Squad. It has a completely fresh idea like no other studios ever done before, in this lucrative season of superhero films: assembling the most notorious comic book villains to do a job that Superman or Batman supposed to do. Moreover, writer/director David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) reintroduces the dark and gritty atmosphere, the scapegoat of BvS’s free fall, as a powerfu...
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) – Review
4Jun By Paskalis Damar2 Comments
Movie Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) – Review

Review: Back to 2014, a hard reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles re-introduced the Cowabunga brothers with a new light – not an anarchically explosive one, but still goofy and comical as it should be. Most criticism to the predecessor is aimed towards its dim-witty plot and its tendency to be ‘April O’Neil and TMNT’ which really ‘censors’ audiences’ craving towards the titular heroes. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows presents a slightly sheer improvement on its run. At least, the sub-title is honest in defining two major improvements the sequel has made. First, those turtles are finally going non-underground, partially leaving the traditional ninja’s standard of operation, with garbage truck as a war-truck. Second, and most importantly, our titular characters are finall...
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