Power Rangers Spoiler Free Review

Time to buckle in and everyone make sure you have your nostalgia goggles on, because today we’re talking about Power Rangers! Okay, we’re talking about the new Power Rangers film that just hit theaters this weekend. Is it good? Is it bad? Will by childhood be forever ruined by this abomination of a film? That’s what we’re here to tackle today! So read on! As usual, this will be absolutely spoiler-free so you can read without fear. Let’s get started.

First off, as I usually do with reviews, I’ll give you the quick background of my history with the franchise.

Short version: I owned this toy. The gold neck shield was detachable. It was awesome.

 

 As anyone who reads my reviews has probably gathered by now, I grew up on a healthy diet of late-80’s, early-90’s properties that are all now hitting that nostalgia sweet-spot and are making comebacks. Power Rangers is no exception. Mighty Morphin’ was my series, and just like fans talk about who ‘their’ Doctor is (Nine, by the way), so is the first American incarnation of the series my Rangers. Upon reflection, it is probably the thing that made me a fan of Suitmation as well.

Now that's how we did it in my day!

 So there is it, I’m showing my bias early and am doing my best not to let that color my reaction to this film. My kids have watched other incarnations of the show and have had a lot of fun with them, so they were looking to see how this would pan out as well. I’m going to do this a little differently than usual. I’m going to talk about the things I liked first, and then the things I didn’t like, second and then wrap it up at the end. So let’s do it.

First, let’s talk the positives. The Rangers in this movie actually looked and acted more like teenagers than in the original show (not like any of them are actually teenagers for the most part). They also don’t come ready with martial arts skills like a few of the original team did, and have to learn to fight once they get their powers. This made it more like normal kids put in an extraordinary situation. The acting from them was really good overall and you could buy that they were teenagers with teenager problems, and the film went with a less goody-goody group of kids this time. As we saw in the trailers, they’re in detention for one reason or another, hence the Breakfast Club comparisons I heard a lot of. These reasons run the gamut from fairly inoffensive to one particular character ending up there for doing something that is actually really awful. There was a good diversity to them as well, both in background and in personality that added to the whole ‘initially unwilling team-up’ thing. So I guess we got ‘teenagers with attitude’ this time.

Not your parents' Rangers

In the more fantastical characters you get the more well-known actors. Bryan Cranston as Zordon was really cool as a casting and as a reference. I mean, he’s great no matter what and he brought something a bit different to the character we didn’t get in the show. I also really liked his redesign, it was actually a nice step forward from the floating ghost-head thing. And if you weren’t a fan of Alpha 5 in the show, he’s a lot less irritating this time around. I think Bill Hader did a really good job of bringing the character to life without being that annoying character all over again. He was actually a bit snarky and his redesign looked better in the film than I thought based on the concept art. It really worked. Finally, we have Rita Repulsa as played by Elizabeth Banks. She’s definitely a creepier, more psychotic, and less cheesy than her TV counterpart and her backstory with Zordon showed briefly in the film kind of made me want to see that movie and how all that went down. You can tell Elizabeth Banks was having a ton of fun with this role and again, despite the naysayers on the costume design, she really brought it.

Speaking of character designs, there were some things I really liked in this movie. As I said above, the designs for Zordon, Alpha, and Rita all had updated designs that looked worked well for the movie. As far as the Rangers themselves go, I really did like the helmet part of the suits. They were nice updates to the originals while still maintaining the iconic appearance. I also thought that of all the zords, surprisingly, the Megazord looked the best. Based on toys and concepts and quick shots from the trailer I was not impressed, but it really did look cool in context, even if I would’ve rather seen a dude in a suit than a big CG construct. As far as individual zords go, the T. rex zord was the best looking of the bunch. The CG itself was overall good, nothing really wowing you as being phenomenal, but nothing glaringly Gods of Egypt bad either. Totally serviceable. The wirework in at least one scene was quite obviously wirework, but it was kind of one of those cheesier moments that kind of brought you back to the original, so I can’t really put it as a con. As far as the original goes, there were a number of nods and easter eggs for anyone like me watching to pick up on. Some were pretty obvious and some were quite subtle. I did like that (not really a spoiler) that at one part the Rangers were fighting putties in a quarry/mine area, cause you can’t have Power Rangers without a quarry fight! Actually, one of these nods was the thing that made me sit up and just grin because it was unexpected and amazing (you’ll know if you see it!).

real quarries probably aren't this exciting, are they?

Okay, now for the other stuff. The stuff that wasn’t as good. Sigh. I knew we’d get into this rotten stuff soon enough. Okay, without spoiling, there’s something right at the beginning that made me go ‘hey, wait a minute!’. Maybe that’s just me nitpicking for accuracy, but I would’ve picked something different to call it. But let’s get right into the meat of this, because there are some issues with this movie I need to talk about if I’m going to give you an honest review. First off, I was talking about designs up above, and I gotta talk about the ones that weren’t good as well. I didn’t like the Ranger suits. They went so far out of their way to make them modern and different but they feel like Tony Stark’s castoffs. Considering the tone of the film, these feel kind of cheesy (they even look make the otherwise well-made toys look cheap and chintzy) and I hate boobplate on female characters so much. This carries over into the zord designs, which they also really tried to modernize as well. But they’re overdone to the point where you can’t tell what they’re supposed to be outside of the red zord. I knew what they were only because I know what each zord is already, not because you could tell from the film. Although, the prize for worst design is Goldar, who we see in the trailer as the giant, hulking gold monster.  His design is awful, there is nothing to distinguish him as a character or as any… thing really. Had he not been called by name, you could have assumed he was just another of Rita’s creatures just on a larger scale. This is bad enough, but there really isn’t much to him, either. He’s more a plot device than a character, which is sad because Goldar is an iconic character in the original and it would have been nice to see him get some real love.

Let’s talk about the film itself, and not just my opinions on aesthetics. The action was overall good but there were a few shots where I just wanted them to pull that camera back a little wider so we could see better. Not as bad as Transformers, but it definitely was there a couple of times. As for the action, there wasn’t enough of it. Even the big finale is kind of… short. At the very least we should have gotten more action/fight scenes peppered throughout the film to keep the pace going, especially in the second act. It took way too long for it to really amp up and get exciting. Let’s not forget this is Power Rangers, you need that in there, no matter how much else you change.

Remember who you are

Before I get into plot and characters, I just want to mention the music. The music was really all over the place. There were some musical cues that I can only describe as weird. They do play the theme song, but its placement is so out-of-nowhere and sudden that it really threw me off a little. I personally would have put it elsewhere, and for both instances used only the instrumental. I’m not necessarily going to take issue with the other songs used, just because it isn’t my cup of tea doesn’t mean it isn’t someone else’s. It’s how they are used that was the weird part. It was just odd and pulled me out of the movie a couple of times.

Okay, let’s talk plot. The plot itself is fine. The characters are fine. How they put it all together… that’s where we run into problems. There is a lot to focus on, especially in greatly changing a world people are already familiar with. You’re going to need to give that background, I get that. But it really felt like with all the stuff they had to talk about, they just focused on the wrong things. They spent so much time telling us this kids were outcasts and screw-ups that we never really got to delve into the reasons why. The movie focuses mostly on Jason, then Billy and Kimberly. While I really like what they did with Billy and it was great to see his character at such a forefront, our time with Zack and Trini really suffered for it. And that really sucks, because their backstories were arguably the most interesting and I would’ve like to see more of them as opposed to constant Jason and Kimberly. It’s not even a show-don’t-tell problem, it’s a ‘they gave us actions, but not motives’ problem. They gave us the result, but not enough of the cause to really care about said result. It was overall a rather serious take on the franchise, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. As I said before, I loved the short ‘bootleg universe’ film that was done with the characters a couple of years ago. It was just when this film got too self-serious and lost its self-awareness that I just wanted it to lighten up on the melodrama already.

So, to sum up, what did I think of Power Rangers? It was okay. It wasn’t the mind-blowing revival that blew me out of my seat, but nor was it the abomination that destroyed something I loved as a child. It was totally….fine. And you know what, I hope it does well. I hope it does well enough that they can go forward with the idea from the mid-credits stinger (stay for that, by the way!) and make another one. Now that they’ve established these characters and we have that out of the way, let’s see the next one do something really fun with them, something big and loud and awesome and cool. Because there is potential here to make something good that old and new and young and old fans could really get behind. I didn’t outline all of these cons because I hated the film, but because I want to make the next potential film better. And I hope it is. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

7/10                  

Movie News Roundup!

Sadly, no movie reviews this time around. I hope to change that for next week, but for now, let’s look at some of the news around the internets. There's actually quite a lot to talk about; we've got superheroes, adaptations, rumors, anime, trailers and more! So let's get to it!



Wonder Woman Origin Trailer

We started off our week with a new trailer for the Wonder Woman film, dubbed the ‘origin’ trailer. There were some really interesting things in this trailer, including a young Diana and showing her Amazonian training. There are a few things that are especially intriguing to me: the idea that she should be trained to the extent that she is and that there is some truth that she shouldn’t know (I have a pet theory about this, but I could be way off on it). I really love one of the last shots there where she brings the gauntlets together lightning builds around them, it’s a great contrast to earlier in the trailer where their powers go off and she seems scared of it. I have hope for this one, and my little girl is really excited to see it, so I hope it all pans out.


Box Office
I just had to mention this quickly. Beauty and the Beast absolutely slayed this weekend, opening at $170 million domestic ($350 million worldwide total) and knocking Batman v. Superman off top spot for a March opening. It’s already the second-highest grossing film of the year behind Logan (which passed $500 million total worldwide). I haven’t seen it yet, so I have no idea how good the movie itself is, just that a lot of people must have been excited for and/or enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see how the next round of Disney live-action does, with Mulan scheduled for November of next year and Aladdin (directed by Guy Ritchie) about to begin casting. I’m intrigued, especially since they seem to be doing all of my favorites all at once.


Dark Tower 

 Now to another project I’m anticipating. Up till this point we have had so little regarding this adaptation/sequel-ish of Stephen King’s iconic gunslinger. No trailer yet, but now we’ve finally got a poster. I’m not entirely sure why they’ve gone the Inception/Doctor Strange angle for this, but it’s a neat visual. Especially Matthew McConaughey’s Man in Black upside down at the top, with Idris Elba’s Roland and Tom Taylor’s Jake at the bottom right-side up. As someone who loves the books, I can’t explain this choice, but I can tell you that the tagline is exactly what I thought they’d go with. It’ll bring in fans like me, even ones skeptical about the whole sequel/not adaptation of the thing, and pique the curiosity of people who don’t know what the phrase means in the context of the story. I also found an article posting a song (link is the whole thing from YouTube) that was supposedly supposed to be from the trailer that never materialized in October (though was apparently leaked. I didn’t see it either way). Again, another dark, moody cover of a classic. This one is somewhat better than the last few, at least. What makes me scratch my head is that it would be an excellent choice of song had they gone with Roland’s appearance from the book, but since they aren’t doing that, why use it? Either way, I really, really hope we get a trailer or something soon, if only to show us what we’re getting into come July.


Godzilla Anime

Let’s switch now from gunslingers to kaiju. Netflix is apparently working on an anime film featuring the King of the Monsters for later this year. It apparently has a more futuristic setting for the big guy to stomp through, and will be the 30^th Godzilla film produced by Toho. Not many other details yet, but once there’s more to tell, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Kaiju are a big deal (pun intended) in our house, so once it’s released, I’ll definitely be checking it out.

How big is Godzilla in our house? Big enough that Cookie Monster got a makeover for one of the kids' birthday parties.

Guardians Cast
What’s a movie news article without some Marvel, am I right? News is out that Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rosenbaum have parts in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 in roles that are significant to the film and the greater MCU. Of course, no word on who they are playing, but there is plenty of speculation back and forth on who they could be. This video posits Stallone could be playing an incarnation of Nova, but nothing else at this time. I’m not going to speculate too much (although I could totally see Rosenbaum as The Watcher) because who knows how Marvel/Disney is going to connect things at this point. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, unless we get another trailer that gives us something more.



Valerian Trailer for Trailer
So, director Luc Besson released a trailer for a trailer for his Valerian and the City of the Thousand Planets on Twitter for his birthday. It doesn’t really tell you anything new at this point. I’ll check out the full trailer on the 29^th and see what happens. I’m not overly interested in this one, the first trailer made me feel like someone had smashed Mass Effect and Guardians of the Galaxy together, but in a cynical way, not a good way. So that’s there, if you want to check it out.

Commander Shepard would like her armor back. With the N7 logo reattached.

More Matrix?
I’ve seen rumors swirling the past few days about a reboot of The Matrix. I am, for the record, absolutely against such a remake. Apparently now it’s not a remake, but another film set in the same universe. That I can deal with. I really liked The Animatrix, so I would be down to see more of that world that wasn’t a prequel or a retread or any of those fancy buzzwords. Because you aren’t going to recapture the greatness of that first film, so I’d much rather see other parts of this world and other stories.


Unleash the Archers
One final note to music and especially heavy metal fans. A favorite of ours, Unleash the Archers, has a new album coming out that you can preorder now! I already did, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it (my preorder said shipping to arrive June 2^nd). Just had to share some love for Canadian metal.


Well, that’s what I’ve got for this week, everyone. What do you think of some of these rumors/stories? Anything exciting, anything make you want to tear your hair out in frustration? Next time I’ll hopefully have some new reviews, Power Rangers is out next weekend, as is Life, or might hit up Beauty and the Beast, depending on how much time we have. See you then!

Kong: Skull Island Spoiler Free Review

Well, everyone here we are back again with another movie review! Today we’re going to talk about Kong: Skull Island, the latest incarnation of the classic character from Legendary in the same vein as 2014’s Godzilla, and in fact paving the way for an eventual rematch between the two characters. So let’s get right to it and see how it is!

First off, what I said above is true. This version of Kong is being set up to fight Legendary’s Godzilla in a film slated for 2020, a year after the release of the second Godzilla film which is currently in pre-production. I’ve seen this dubbed as ‘The Monsterverse’, which makes sense as the second Godzilla film is also supposed to bring back more of Toho’s iconic monsters. I mention this because I’ve seen people complaining about how this is a shared universe and ‘not everything has to be like Marvel’ and whatnot. I see the point they’re trying to make, but in this case, these creatures have crossed over and ‘shared a universe’ already long before Marvel started up the MCU so I think that’s a bit of an unfair complaint. This is little different from the Universal Monsters coming back starting with The Mummy later this year. And as far as Skull Island goes, there are references to Godzilla here and there but they’re subtle. But anyway, let’s get back to the movie itself.

First off, if you’re going into this film expecting a remake of the original 1933 story just set in a new time period, you’re going to be disappointed. The story here is not the iconic Kong story but something different entirely. This time around we’re in the 1970’s; the Vietnam War is coming to a close and a squad of soldiers has one more mission before going home. This turns out to be traveling to a newly discovered island to assist the scientists going to study it. As you can guess, things go downhill from there. In a lot of ways, this really is a Vietnam movie as well as a Kong movie, and it plays with a lot of the tropes from both genres. One of my favorite tropes that they use is the soundtrack (not the score, in this case). Oftentimes, the music is actually being played in-film by the characters instead of just over what’s going on and I thought that was a neat addition. And it’s a damn good soundtrack, too, full of late 60’s-early 70’s rock. Because what’s a Vietnam-era movie without a little Creedence Clearwater Revival, am I right? There are other references and nods to the genre but I feel like I need to watch the film again to get all of them. There are also nods to not only the tie-in universe, as I said above, but also homages to the other versions of Kong as well. Arguably one of the largest are the ‘Skull Crawlers’,

which are essentially bigger, meaner versions of the Two-Legged Lizard from the 1933 film.

I know he's kind of hard to see even in the circle.

There is also a line that one of the characters says that is self-referential for that particular actor that got a good chuckle out of us, as well.

Let’s talk about the characters. Now in both the story and the characters I found myself making a comparison between this film and another one that I wasn’t really expecting. In a lot of ways, this movie has a lot of similarities with the first Predator. Soldiers in a hostile jungle trying to find their way out, a group that has obviously been together a long time and knows one another well. I don’t usually watch other reviews for movies before I write my own but this time I ended up watching a few of our usual reviewers, and I found I really disagreed with them. Many complaints I heard had to do with the human characters and how they were just ‘stock characters’ and not very interesting. I didn’t have this particular problem. Maybe it was because I was reminded so much of Predator? I don’t know, but I didn’t find the characters that bad. You actually spend quite a lot of time with the soldiers and you do get a sense of who they are and you feel for them. Of any of the characters I would have wanted to spend more time with, it was actually the characters played by Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson, but it was a fairly large cast so sometimes that’s just how it goes. One character that I was concerned about going in was the one played by John C. Reilly, as the trailers made him seem really goofy and I didn’t want the film to screech to a halt when he showed up. That didn’t happen, and actually his character was incredibly interesting and actually quite affecting in parts. So anyone who was worried about that, it’s not bad, it really isn’t.

Finally, let’s talk about the big guy himself, Kong. Kong looks amazing, brought to life via motion capture and done by Industrial Light and Magic. He harkens back to the original in his more upright, not-just-a-giant-gorilla look from 1933. He is still very gorilla-like in his movements, but there is a sense that he’s something else.

There's also the whole size issue

He’s also very resourceful, and his fighting style varies depending on what he’s fighting and what’s on hand. He’s got a personality, but mostly he doesn’t really want anything to do with the people, either those on the island or those that show up. As to the island he inhabits, it’s gorgeous. There were times when they were flying over that I almost expected Journey to the Island from Jurassic Park to start playing (they did film in Hawaii, after all). It’s also populated by a variety of creatures with some really inventive designs and really adds to the other-worldliness and ‘lost’ nature of it all. As far as look goes, that are also some stylistic elements that are done in some scenes that I found really interesting and gave the film a really cool look without losing the feel or the time period by being overly slick. Even the colors are a little desaturated to be less modern-looking.

Everybody say 'sepia'!

That’s about it, I guess. This one is PG-13, so if you wanted to take the kiddies, as long as they are okay with things like the Jurassic Park series or the 2014 Godzilla then they should be fine. There were a couple of moments with the Skull Crawlers where our three-year-old wanted to hold my hand but otherwise it was fine. Also, stay to the end of the credits. That’s all I’ll say.
So in conclusion, I had a really good time with Kong: Skull Island. It was a solid film and a good set-up for the character to bring him into this new universe. I’d certainly recommend it.

8.5/10   (since I forgot to give a rating for my last couple of reviews )

Geostorm Trailer Drops!

I just had to share this will all of you. After a number of teasers popped up Tuesday, we were told that a full trailer for what will probably be one of the most anticipated movies of 2017 would be debuting Wednesday. I speak of course, about Geostorm. Yes, that weather-disaster thriller brought to us by Dean Devlin and starring Gerard Butler (why do you keep doing this to me, man?). Also, Jerry Bruckheimer and another director, Danny Cannon is involved too. It’s kind of complicated. But on to the trailer.

Now I just want to give some quick thoughts here. Firstly, the last disaster movie I actively watched was The Day After Tomorrow, so I’m a bit out of the game as far as these go. But this trailer was hilarious. It had everything: big, over-the-top set pieces just bleeding CGI all over, ridiculous premise that could probably be a lot more interesting if done more intelligently, a classic song done in an overly slow and melodramatic way… I could go on! I mean, it seems like they hire the same woman for every one of these trailer songs nowadays, so I guess she’s got a good thing going at least. To be honest, I thought the teasers (which I conveniently watched in one video) were a lot more intriguing and interesting than the full trailer. The viral/found/secret-government- footage quality of the teasers gave the clips a little extra something, a Cloverfield-esque feel that is probably better than it deserves. The trailer, in contrast, was just every trope of the genre and what you’d expect of a Devlin, Emmerich, or Bay film mashed into one big pile. Let’s be real, this movie is probably going to be terrible. Amazingly terrible, even. What we see of the effects are the same glossy, over-the-top kind we see in all of these kinds of films and which after a while just sort of runs together.

I miss the days of blowing up tiny White Houses

We’re pairing that with what looks like some dramatic family issues crammed in the corners to pad it out. There’s the usual ex-wife, a kid, a brother, all that good stuff which I’m sure will be integral to the story. And, as bad as this is probably going to be, some perverse part of my mind wants to see it in all its terrible glory, Gods of Egypt style. Or maybe I’m just a little loopy from digging ourselves out of the massive blizzard that just blew through our part of the world.

This was my car this morning. There was also a second drift on the other side.

Either way, we’ll see what happens come October. Our next film is Kong: Skull Island, hopefully this weekend as long as the weather cooperates. So I’ll see everyone then!

Logan- Spoiler Free Review

Hey, everyone, back with another movie review for you! I know there were a few trailers and whatnot this week but I got to see Logan and I really want to talk about that instead. If you are interested in the trailers, I’d say the one to check out this week if you want something new is the one for the new Duck Tales show coming out this year. It looks like it could be a lot of fun. But that’s not why we’re here, is it? I want to talk about Wolverine, and I’m sure you guys to do. So let’s talk Wolverine.

Anybody who’s read my movie ramblings knows I was really pumped for this one. This was Hugh Jackman’s last go as the character that he’s defined cinematically for almost twenty years.

has it really been that long since this scene?

This is a character that I and so many others have followed through a multitude of films, both good and bad, since 2000 (not counting anything before or outside that, I consider that separate). But it wasn’t even so much as needing to see this character through to the end for closure as it was that this movie just looked that good. I know you shouldn’t necessarily take the film at its trailer because there are really good trailers for really bad films and vice versa, but this one had me hook, line, and sinker from the first notes of Hurt in the first trailer. So I went in with high expectations and a lot of hype. Did it pan out? Yes, yes it did.

Let’s start with the R rating. This was a big deal. After Deadpool made R-rated superhero movies cool and profitable again, it was little surprise that Logan would go in that direction as well. As far as the current roster of cinematic superheroes go, the only one other than Deadpool that could really come into their own with the upped rating was Wolverine. He does great in other, lower ratings too, but for this solo film, it really lets you get into the character in a way we haven’t seen on screen before. It lets you finally get to that place, to see the dark, vicious, feral depths that are generally only hinted at in other appearances. And they really went for it. For the first time, you get to see what Logan’s claws really do when in action. There are buckets of blood here and between that and the language, this isn’t a movie to take your kids to. I do have to hand it to the special effects team, both digital and practical, they did some excellent work with those fights and their aftermaths. Really fantastic work there. The wirework as well was really great. I can’t really talk about it on a technical level, but to watch it I was very impressed. It wasn’t cheesy, and it fit the characters when they needed it.    

I don’t think it needs to be said that this is a dark film. I suppose that was kind of expected based on what we’d seen previous to release, but it really is a dark, harsh film. I found I really loved the soundtrack and how that it really complimented that feel. To be honest, several times during the score it really did evoke the feel of something like Hurt and if the song had started playing, it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least. It was a very melancholy score overall, and it really complimented the film and never overwhelmed what was happening on screen. In fact, it was quite minimalistic as far as scores go, never really going big in the way you’d see in something like Star Wars or some of the other superhero films. I liked the subdued nature of it, it really lended to the overall feel of the movie. The composer, Marco Beltrami, wasn’t a name that I knew offhand, but he did a beautiful job here of really accentuating the movie in a lovely, subtle way.

Moving on, let’s talk story and characters. The story, like I said, is a lot more somber than previous entries. That being said, there is still little bits of humor utilized throughout, just enough to keep it from being too depressing. I also found the story incredibly emotional as well. This really is a journey, both physically and mentally, for the characters. There is so much that each experiences through the course of the film. I refuse to say anything about the story itself, it something you have to see and experience for yourself. I will only say that if you found X-Men: Apocalypse too big and overblown comic-booky, that you will not have that problem here. Even the way the film is shot is very different from the standard fare of the genre, and it certainly doesn’t look like any of its X-Men predecessors. And the cast is stellar. Hugh Jackman has done Wolverine many times now, but the way he is in this film is a way that has only really been hinted at or skirted around before. There’s a familiarity to his arc, but it’s also very different at the same time. He really knows how to inhabit that character and bring him to life, even at this point in his life where he just seems so tired and done with it all. Sir Patrick Stewart is also back as Charles Xavier. I don’t really want to get into specifics here, but the way he plays Charles in the place he’s at in his life is riveting and heartbreaking. Watching them together you really get the sense of how long they’ve known one another and how deep that relationship is. The real standout here, however, was Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23 (it was in the trailers, so I don’t consider that a spoiler). This girl is going to be one watch, I think. This was her very first film and her only previous experience was a TV show, but wow, she was incredible here. Her character goes through such a range of emotions and with the way the character was presented through a lot of the film, a lot could have easily been lost with a lesser performance. But that was not the case at all. I was blown away, and I came away massively impressed and completely rooting for her. If they’re going to keep making these films, and especially now needing a replacement for Wolverine, then we have found it folks. Bring in X-23 and this actress. I would love, love to see more of her.

I so want to see little (and big!) X-23s this Halloween!

That brings me to my one negative about the film. The villain. The villain of the film is really only here to drive the plot forward. The X-Men films generally do good villains and this guy was just kind of meh. The rest of the story was strong enough that it wasn’t a huge problem with the film, but he was no Magneto, or Sebastian Shaw, or Mystique, or even Apocalypse (who I actually liked). Like I said, it doesn’t even really hurt the movie, but it’s there.

In conclusion? This movie is phenomenal. Go see it. There’s not much else to say. If you haven’t liked the standalone Wolverine films so far, I implore you to give them one more chance. Because third time was definitely the charm.