The School of Movies Archive

[Digital Drift 2014]

I never thought I’d find myself defending this film.

In actuality we’re not, we’re just saying it’s not the worst X-Men movie and stating the few reasons why it’s not entirely awful. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a stinker nonetheless. Tedious action, lame mutants, barely characterized beyond their powers (again), CGI claws that never fail to distract, stupid script riven with plot holes, ruined fan favourites Deadpool and Gambit, balsa wood performances and most of the cast seem like they’re having a thoroughly terrible time.

Worst of all this mishandled not one but two key Wolverine stories. Weapon X and Origin, in a way that means there’s no point attempting them again, so sour will the taste of this remain. It very nearly killed the already flat-lining X-Men series.

But we’re the best we are at what we do and what we do ain’t pretty, so we also highlight the few stronger points that make it not quite as complete a failure as everyone remembers. The pinpricks of light in the darkness. Enjoy… Bub.

[Digital Drift 2014]

This is the worst. 

The very worst onscreen incarnation of the X-Men, and not simply because it screwed up the Dark Phoenix saga in a way that will take many years to remedy. 

It is in point of fact abundantly clear on investigation that meddling Fox executives combined with a creative team who seemingly didn’t care what occurred onscreen or what state they left the series in once the enforced release date was reached created the perfect Storm to send a potentially accomplished franchise hurtling into the doldrums. It’s one of the few movies that actively required erasing from existence to correct the horrendousness that it entailed.

But allow us to elaborate on these points. We promise that even if you disagree with our impassioned rantings that you’ll be entertained. 

[Digital Drift 2014]

This is one of the all-time fan-favourite X-Men films, following up on the promise of the slight original with far more detail, exciting action, grander scale and emotional wallop. We give it a ton of credit for its strong points which expand the world and further legitimizes the mutant conflict.

However this movie also contains two of the most series-breaking scenarios at its climax. Everybody was having too much fun at the cinema to notice at the time and nobody ever mentions this, but we’re going to… X2 pretty much destroys the characters of both Charles and Erik in a way that is only remedied in First Class eight years later. 

Overall it’s still a very strong entry in the series and far above the dregs of The Last Stand and Origins, but there are character and narrative inconsistencies that need to be taken into account.

Next week, it all goes horribly wrong!

[Digital Drift 2014]

Looking back on the 2000 original it is both extremely important in legitimising the real life comic superhero movie for modern times and increasingly a relic of a bygone age when this sort of thing was considered a flaky risk and where low budgets, self-conscious cast members, dismal costumes, short running times and pedestrian action sequences were acceptable.

That being said there are also some excellent performances within, especially Stewart, McKellen and the breakout star, Huge Action. Had this been a mishandled flop, the course of the Marvel movie might have been very different. Then again, Spider-Man was already in production and it’s possible a reboot would have changed the course of the X-Men in movies, one that has instead sailed on for fourteen years and off into the future.

On that note if you’d like to better understand the convoluted, contradictory history laid down in the X-Men movies be sure to check out “X-Men Movie Timeline [Days of Future Past Explained ]” on YouTube. It clarifies a hell of a lot with a three-universes theory that compliments and augments the explanation given in the seventh movie. 

[Digital Drift 2014]

This is the one we’ve been rounding up to. All the stops are pulled out and we are in full meta mode this time round. 

01.38: We begin with a review from Sharon and myself, zeroing in on what drove us crazy about the film’s structure and character development but closing out with what we really loved about it despite so much holding the movie back. 

51.45: With Bob Chipman, AKA MovieBob from The Escapist as our guest we discuss the possible futures of Spider-Man. This was a match-up a lot of people were angling for, but we chose not to butt heads over why we do or don’t engage with the Webb or Raimi movie series’. Instead we focused on what we have in common which is that all three of us want the Amazing series to stop right this very minute. 

Guest:

Bob Chipman of Moviebob

[Digital Drift 2014]

This is the first of two of the toughest movies we have ever had to review. With so much love for at least the first two Raimi films out there and no real time to be without Spider-Man and start to miss him, this movie made by necessity, along with its sequel trod on a lot of people’s toes. There are folks out there who absolutely hate them, many of whom are people whose opinions we take very seriously.

We found good things and bad things. That’s all we’ll say now.

[Digital Drift 2014]

This one has been even more long-awaited than the first two Spider-Man reviews, because while it’s fun to listen to great movies being praised and slightly less fun to hear about the flaws that either don’t bother you or will now bother you every time you see the movie, everybody loves hearing a film that disappointed the entire planet getting torn to shreds.

As it turns out, this is less a torrent of anger and frustration as it is a clever disassembly of the ten plot lines that were mashed together into this bloated mess. What we found is that to get this to make sense and be a better, leaner, more focused film in the editing process you would actually have to remove some of the best elements. This was a melange of narrative contradictions that left many people stumped as the easy targets for what was wrong; too many villains, mistreatment of the Venom character and Peter being too emo all got blamed. In actuality it runs deeper. Find out where, why and how, right here. 

[Digital Drift 2014]

This is the second of our Spider-Man shows and since last week folks have been champing at the bit for more. We take that as a good sign, but again this even more beloved entry in the original trilogy still has issues that bother us. 

Some weak key casting, spurious character motivation and occasionally baffling leaps in logic are all elements that most people don’t tend to notice in this one, principally because  it’s almost certainly the best Spidey film on a technical scale. It delivers more emotion, more spectacle, more threat, more exhilaration, more depth and more fun even than its predecessor. Along with X2 it became the benchmark for the superhero sequel, expanding on the story rather than simply repeating the formula. 

Peter is genuinely troubled in this, to the point where his body and mind appear to rebel against him, forcing him to be Spider-Man NO MORE! Fortunately relateable antagonist Doc Oc is on the scene to peel the flesh from MJ’s bones (Rated PG) and give Pete the motivation he needs to get back in the spandex for a phenomenal, breakneck (literally) train fight. 

[Digital Drift 2014]

For the first of our Spider-Man podcasts we travel back to 2002 and the film that not only started it all for the wall-crawler on the big screen, but arguably brought the superhero blockbuster to true legitimacy. 

Now this has long been considered a sacred cow, not quite as sacred as its sequel which you slight at your peril, but widely understood to be a superb superhero movie. Well here at Digital Drift we have a habit of holding the untouchable to higher account. We did it with Donner’s Superman, Burton’s Batman and very shortly we’ll be doing it with Singer’s X-Men. We’ve found while reviewing these that there is no perfect Spider-Man film yet, and just like Superman, maybe there never will be. What we can do, however is examine the flaws and celebrate the strengths of each of them (yes, even Spider-Man 3). 

Spidey is a hero defined by the events in his life and the enemies he faces. This is the one with the origin of Spider-Man… OK it’s the one with the origin and the organic web-shooters. It’s also the one with Green Goblin… OK it’s the one with Norman Osborn… OK it’s the one with Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn in more than just a delusional cameo. See our problem? 

The real question is, in a post-Avengers world can a lone Marvel hero in his own little world offer us the same level of engaging, epic adventure? Spidey swings, J.J. shouts, Aunt May Worries, MJ pouts, Kroeger croons, MJ swoons, and all the while Tobey Maguire’s pallid, expressionless cow’s flank of a face occupies the screen. There’s no doubt about it, we’re gonna get emails.

[Digital Drift 2014]

The second solo outing for Captain America has already proved immensely popular and we focus on what a strong, lean, politically charged action thriller it is. Far now from the Nazi-punching Indiana Jones style adventure of The First Avenger and separated from the volatile super team of which he had to make his mark as a significant member, this time Steve Rogers is left all alone in a world he’s seven decades out of step with.

As well as welcome newcomers Falcon and Winter Soldier we talk Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and how this advances and changes the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading up to Avengers: Age of Ultron. 

Guests:

Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse

Neil Taylor of TheKidDogg

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst