The latest cinema incarnation of Dr Dolittle begins promisingly. Through an old school animated montage, we learn of the Victorian-era vet, Dr John Dolittle’s unique ability to talk to animals, his global quest to free them from suffering, his marriage to the love of his life, Lily and his retreat behind the walls of his animal sanctuary following her death.
Read moreAfter 11 years and a seemingly endless procession of ear drum and eyeball pummelling films, the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to a close with the three-hour behemoth Avengers: Endgame. This collision of superhero action flick, high-tech sci-fi film, Tolkienesque fantasy epic and pompous Wagnerian myth has so far received reviews verging on the orgasmic with some
Read moreOne of the favourite novelties of Marvel Comics is the superhero team-up edition where most of the big-name heroes depart their usual narratives to unite against an enormous muscly super villain. That’s the premise of the latest Marvel movie, the epic Avengers: Infinity Wars, a grand finale of sorts but not the end of the Avengers movie juggernaut. Here, Thanos, a
Read moreSuper heroes being taken to task by the US government over the collateral damage of their battles with pompous villains… haven’t we seen this before? Yes, the vague plot outline for Captain America Civil War does recall Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice but unlike that loud, murky-looking DC Comics adaptation, the Marvel film is actually a lot of fun.
Read moreAvengers: Age of Ultron is the 11th Marvel comics cinema adaptation and the series is feeling a little tired. The first Iron Man and Avengers films cleverly balanced dynamic action with cheeky humour and an inventive vision of futuristic technology but the many Marvel superhero films that have followed, including Age of Ultron, have, unfortunately, become tiresome and infuriatingly cluttered
Read moreBy 2008 the Marvel Comics adaptations weren’t looking too healthy. The Fantastic Four films had been turkeys and the overlong and confusing Spiderman 3 had skittled the high expectations raised by the sensational Spiderman 2. Iron Man, however, was like a 50,000 vault surge of electricity to the ailing Frankenstein corpse of superhero movies. The film combined powerful dynamic action
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