Kubo And The Two Strings - Laika does it again

Kubo And The Two Strings is the latest stop-motion animated film from the studio Laika. You know them from films like Coraline, ParaNorman and the Boxtrolls, and this film tells the story of a young boy named Kubo, who through various circumstances that I don't want to ruin for you find himself on an adventure with a monkey and a beetle searching for three very specific objects that he believes he can use to do battle against an evil force from his past.

If you guys know anything about me, you know that I love animation, but I specifically love stop-motion animation a lot. I love this art form, I have ever since I was a kid. the early days of old animated shows like bump in the night to newer things like Wallace and Gromit, and then Laika came along with their beautiful films and have blown me away consistently, save for the Boxtrolls which I thought was just ‘fine’. But ParaNorman was fantastic and Coraline to me, is one of the best animated films ever made and I like Kubo even more than Coraline.

For me, this is Laika’s best film so far, and I am a huge fan of their studio. Similar to Zootopia earlier this year, this movie reminded me why I love animated film so much. This is a glorious, beautifully animated film that rarely has a dull moment, in fact it doesn't. This movie is constantly entertaining, this is such a well-directed movie too. Even though I am such a big fan of Laika, I just didn't expect this movie to be as thoughtful or mature as it was, and to use various themes that I think a lot of the kids that saw this movie probably aren't even going to pick up on yet until their older. But that's okay because this is also an action-packed extremely fun adventure film that can work on multiple levels. You can watch this movie as a more mature film or you can enjoy the adventure and the spectacle because it is beautiful to look at.

The voice work is all uniformly great, the animation as I've already said I could sing its praises forever, it's fantastic to look at and the amount of work that's put into these movies is absolutely staggering, and it's never been more impressive in any of Laika’s films than it is in this one. The action sequences are extremely fantastic, the characters are also very entertaining, the Monkey especially stole the entire film for me, you're gonna love the monkey she's awesome. It's also a film brimming with imagination that asks kids to be imaginative, to use their imagination and to think beyond our own physical world that's in front of us and to think about other more important things as well, which is a hugely important message for kids and adults.

I have but one small issue with this movie, and it's once the main villain is revealed, his motivation for being evil and for doing what he's doing is very murky and kind of unclear, and doesn't really make sense. I get it from the perspective that the film is telling me as I watch it, but it just doesn't really connect with me as a clear motivation for doing what he's doing. Before I started typing this review, I was like ‘should I say what I'm thinking but I'm thinking it so I'm going to say it’. I honestly think that if Laika continues on this level of animation, on this level of storytelling for the next few years in the next few decades, I think we might have the next Studio Ghibli on our hands. These guys are making quality films and my god Kubo is a beautiful one.

Grade - A

Besides the fact this movie is really that good, I strongly suggest seeing it because Laika’s film simply don't make enough money, and they need to, it's one of the biggest reasons why Studio Ghibli had to close its doors, they just weren't making enough money. Laika needs to make some money because they are making some of the best animated films out there. Go see this movie this weekend support them it's worth your time guys.

Suicide Squad - Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaah

Suicide Squad is finally here from writer director David Ayer, the man who brought us movies like Training Day ‘yes’, Sabotage ‘meh’ . And if you guys know anything about this movie or these characters, you know that it is an assemblage of the baddies, this is like the Justice League of the bad guys. Viola Davis wants to recruit these people to go out into the city to defeat this thing that's wreaking havoc in the middle of the city, and a beam is shooting up to the sky and it's a big deserted City and there's a battle so you know it's a comic book movie… or the new Ghostbusters… that happens a lot in movies is what I'm saying.

Now I was really excited for this movie, not just because I enjoy the comics and I love these characters, but because of the cast involved and the director. I think Training Day is an excellent movie, and I like end of watch maybe even a little bit more. I think David Ayer is super talented, so I was so excited to see what he can bring to this universe because not only is he directing, but he's also writing so that's a big creative talent working with all these awesome characters, and a plethora of great source material we'll talk more about that in a minute.

Let's talk about pros first: Will Smith as Deadshot, I really like this character, he's one of the very few people in this team that’s given any bit of characterization. He has a daughter, you learn a little bit more about his past, there's a really integral scene involving another DC Comics character that gives him some humanity, and it makes you feel for him. I also thought he was very entertaining and a lot of his jokes hit. That's another positive, this movie is more lighthearted, it does have humour, and it feels like the characters are having fun. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, she was exactly like the animated series character, she did a great job capturing that characters unhinged insanity while also, similar to Deadshot, having just a small thorough line of humanity peeking out of it.

The first 20 to 30 minutes or so we're pretty good, although there is a lot of people telling us about characters. There's a big difference between us watching something happen to a character, and another character that we don't know just coming in and saying “here's what you need to know about this person, because we don't really have any time to set up these characters, let's just get to the big beam in the sky”. For instance, if you had never heard of Superman before, or he was a more obscure comic book character, and he comes on screen and somebody says “this is Superman, his planet was destroyed, he has no family, feel bad for him”. That's essentially most of the characterization we get for the members of the Suicide Squad, except for Deadshot and Harley Quinn, and a lot of their stories are told through excessive flashbacks.

The brief appearances by Batman were awesome. Ben Affleck once again looks amazing as this character and I want to see Ben Affleck as Batman in a great movie. Also, believe it or not, Jai Courtney was not awful, he was actually pretty good as Captain Boomerang and a fun and likable presence… miracles do happen. And last on my list of pros is Jared Leto as the Joker. I think that he is doing something really cool. I think that he's doing something very different, I like his portrayal of the Joker. It wasn't exactly like Nicholson, it wasn't exactly like ledger, it was sort of a combination of the best of the both, and he also had some really cool visual things going on with his face and his outfits, there were some good moments with him, and that leads me into my cons.

When I said there were some good moments with the Joker, that's absolutely what I meant. He's barely in this movie, don't go to this movie excited about Jared Leto as the Joker, because you're not going to get much of it. His scenes are so minimal that when I think back on the movie, I can't think of that one scene with the Joker. I can't think of a standout scene, he doesn’t have an interrogation scene like in the Dark Knight. He doesn't have a ‘Ahh, and I thought my jokes were bad scene’ he has nothing like that. He's just got a couple lines every here in there scattered throughout the movie, that was a big disappointment for me because a lot of the marketing kept his performance very under wraps like it was this big awesome thing, but in reality they just didn't have that much footage to work with because he's barely in this movie.

The second and third act is a gigantic city scene, it all just kind of bleeds together and becomes one big messy scene. I could tell they were trying to make a more contained film which I am all for, I love contained movies, I love smaller movies that have big ideas to take place in one small environment, but that claustrophobia just wasn't there and that feeling of in the moment, real-time action just wasn't there because there is some seriously choppy editing going on here, and a ton of shit was cut out I KNOW it. There has got to be a ton of deleted scenes on this Blu-ray, and I am really curious to find out about that, because there's also a lot of scenes that do feel very much so tacked on. There's this elevator fight scene with Harley Quinn that really felt like it was a reshoot scene.

From the beginning of the second act all the way to the finale, it just felt like so much had been cut out and removed from this movie, to where it was just bare bones action sequences and a few conversations. Now there was one aspect of this movie that I was very curious about because it was kept from almost all marketing, and that is the villain. Now if you don't know who the villain of this movie is and you don't want to know who the villain of this movie is, I'm going to talk about the villain now. I don't consider it a spoiler but if you don't want to know who the villain is or my thoughts on said villain, then I will let you know that I'm about to discuss it. That's my way of respecting you guys.

The villain in this movie is in Enchantress, she’s this which character who can do all kinds of crazy things, she has a relationship with one of the people involved with the Suicide Squad, and so there's some tension there because she's also this which enchantress that can take over people and make them do things, and she turns a random person into Incubus, and this guy just kind of starts wreaking havoc and she just starts running around and doing like hip moves and making like weird faces and twirling her arms around. One of my friends said she looked like she was hula dancing most of the time, and I gotta tell you guys straight up, there were aspects of this finale that reminded me of Fan4stic, it is THAT messy. At one point one character is in dire danger and you're positive this character is dead, things that are like tentacles are like going through this person's body and shit, and like five minutes later this character just walks on screen their clothes are perfect there's no dirt there's no sweat and there like “hey what's up - I'm fine”

So in truth, the storytelling here is very poor, it's a very choppy film, there are entire things that just feel ripped out and left on the cutting room floor. I'm very curious to see what this Blu-ray looks like in the special features. There are good portrayals some of these characters in this movie like the Joker, like Harley Quinn, like Deadshot. There are aspects of these characters I really enjoyed, I wanted way more Jared Leto, because I was intrigued by what he was doing. There are some good jokes, there are some fun scenes but the action sequences feel very pedestrian and there doesn't seem to be anything special about them, there's just a lot of weird shapes coming out of the sides of the frame and people slice through them and shoot them and nothing really happens of much weight or importance. Suicide Squad, while better than Batman v Superman in my opinion, was still disappointing.

Grade - C+

Also another quick pro, the score by Steven Price is very good as well

Star Trek Beyond - A Summer Blast

Star Trek Beyond is directed by Justin Lin, the man behind the most recent Fast and Furious films and the best I might add, and it stars all these people. All these people are in the movies you knew that already. Due to a series of catastrophic events to the Enterprise, it crash lands on a planet where all of the Enterprise crew are scattered as they try to survive from the evil wrath of Krall, played by Idris Elba who's after a very specific piece of technology that has been hidden away on the Enterprise for many years. His reasons for wanting this device are unclear, but what is absolutely crystal clear is that he's an evil person who is going to kill everybody and it's not good.

The trailers for this movie were underwhelming to say the least, and I'm a big star trek fan, so that's not good. Anyone who didn't give a shit about Star Trek definitely didn’t give a shit about this movie when they saw the trailers. The poster campaign however was awesome, the posters for this movie were really exciting so I didn't really know what to think.

I'll tell you what: this is proof positive once again that trailers really don't mean shit. Trailers are just a marketing tool to get us into the movie in the end though, what really matters is the film. And this one was damn GOOD, this surprised me, really big surprise. Star Trek beyond is an absolute blast, I was entertained from opening to close. This was a ton of fun in the theatre, a big summer blockbuster with all the things you want to see. Explosions and fun action sequences, good characters with good humour, and a respect for the original. This movie is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and it does it very well, not only because it's a very entertaining, fast-paced Star Trek adventure but because it does pay respect to the original cast to the original crew.

It does have an affinity for it and you can feel it through almost every scene in this movie, a few in particular that actually made me tear up, and it was a happy cry, it was just like a warm, good feeling that you don't get that often in movies. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are both once again fantastic as Kirk and Spock. I loved seeing these characters on the screen, but what I really liked about Beyond is that the previous two films have really explored Kirk and Spock’s relationship, so this one really gave a lot of time to Spock and Bones played by Karl Urban, because these two characters get separated from everyone else and they have to make their way through this wilderness of this odd planet there on, and they have a lot of dialogue together, and the dialogue for them is really good classic Spock and Bones stuff, and a lot of this is written by Simon Pegg, and his writing partner, and I was genuinely very impressed with their writing because this movie has a great feeling of character. Because the most important things about the Star Trek movies no matter what you want to say, it's the characters.

Star Trek movies stopped being very original a long time ago because there's really only so much you can do with a space ship and a crew and aliens and the galaxy and stuff. What makes these movies special are the characters, what keeps us coming back to these movies are the characters. And this movie is well aware that because there's a ton of character depth woven throughout this movie, it's not just a lot of fun action, it is a damn entertaining movie that knows how to be a summer blockbuster, but also build character and that is great to see.

Idris Elba plays the main bad guy of this movie and of course he’s Idris Elba, so he's pretty badass as this character. The character is not given quite as much depth as you would want for a long portion of the movie, and for the majority of the movie I was like ‘eh he's fine as a character’ Idris Elba was great as his character, he did a lot of really cool stuff with his voice, I don't know how much of that was post sound work. I thought he was great as this menacing person who's after this device and you bought into his character, but there wasn't much going on there, and you were sort of murky on his entire motivation. Until the third act, (no spoilers) but then I was like ‘OH okay there's ok yeah I can get behind that’ so when you're watching this movie during the first two acts, if you're feeling like he's kind of a ‘Eh’ villain, wait, patience is a virtue. But easily my favourite new edition of this movie is the character of Jaylah. This is one badass woman, oh my god she was cool, I loved her character, she looked awesome, the makeup work was fantastic, she was a fun character that had good humour woven throughout her, but she could also kick a lot of ass which is really fun to see but she was never annoying, she never overstayed her welcome, there wasn't anything about her character that bug me she was just awesome.

So do I like this one as much as the other two? No I don't, I think it's my least favourite of this trilogy for a few reasons number. One being that the first act is a bit meandering, it takes a while to get the movie really going at least for me. There are fun things to look at and it's never boring, but it just didn't hook me until the second act. And then the third act got even better, this is that rare movie where each act builds upon the last and for me, got better as it went along that's hard to do. Usually a movie peaks at one point or peaks at the end but isn't that good in the beginning or peaks in the middle or something. This movie has a steady incline of awesomeness. Justin Lin genuinely surprised me, the action is not quite as intense and laser edged in regards to how visceral JJ Abrams directs his films, but the smaller character moments are well realized, the script respects the original characters as well as these new characters and understands the Star Trek mythos, and understands how to make a fun Star Trek movie. This is an extremely good and fun Star Trek film that for me wasn't quite as good as those first two, and does not have as compelling a villain as Benedict Cumberbatch was in Into Darkness, but Star Trek Beyond was a blast it's a very good Summer movie and it's an overall good Star Trek movie.

Grade - A-

Also I just want to say, rest in peace Leonard Nimoy you are a legend, and rest in peace Anton Yelchin, gone way too soon.

Jason Bourne - GODDAMNIT

Jason Bourne is directed by Paul Greengrass and stars Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander and Julia Stiles. In case you didn’t know, I loved all three of the previous Bourne movies. The Bourne trilogy (I'm excluding Bourne Legacy) is one of my favourite trilogies. These are fantastic action movies so naturally, I was pumped out of my mind that Paul Greengrass is returning with Matt Damon once again to tell another chapter in this man's life, and since I don't want to spoil anything because the trailers are very vague, I will just say that Bourne is trying to uncover certain secrets of his past. Certain things that are very personal to him that he now has knowledge of is setting him on a revenge path to try to learn exactly who is responsible for certain things that happened.

So going in this movie I was just ‘Yes just, please be good, please, please be good’ and this movie starts of very strong. There is a fantastic motorcycle chase during a riot, and it is absolutely visceral it is so very exciting. I love this opening, it was very fast paced, it hooks you almost instantly. Some things occur during this chase that also hook you emotionally and you're like ‘Yes this is going to be damn great I am ready let's do this’. We learn more about Alicia Vikander’s character, we learn more about Tommy Lee Jones’ character and then we get into the real story of the film, the meat of this movie. There's this subplot involving someone who is launching this new form of social media that has people concerned about privacy and a lot of the film is dedicated to this, and about halfway through this movie, I said in my head ‘This is the worst of the Matt Damon ones isn't it? -.-

yep it is

This is by no means a bad movie, it is light years beyond the Bourne Legacy, it is better directed, there are better action sequences, it's better acted, it has a better story, it’s just easily the worst of the Matt Damon Bourne’s and one of the biggest reasons is because this story is not very compelling, and I love the Bourne films for their action, and this movie absolutely has fantastic action sequences, that opening motorcycle chase is awesome, there's an amazing car chase, there's a fantastic fight scene, the action in this movie is not what disappointed me. What disappointed me is this story is just not that riveting, there's definitely a revenge aspect to this movie, not just from the heroes perspective but also from the villain which was very unexpected and that added something to the movie, but the entire story surrounding this social media guru who is about to launch this platform that has people concerned about invasion of privacy grinds this film to a halt every time it is brought up, and it's brought up a lot and I gotta say usually when I tell you guys that a movie is good I'm happy about that, I'm very excited about the fact that I just saw a good movie but this movie should have been much better than good, this should have been spectacular, and the action sequences are, they really are. This is a very competent awesome and fun action movie with a great performance from Matt Damon, a great performance from Tommy Lee Jones and maybe the best performance in the whole movie from Alicia Vikander.

This movie is filled with great performances, strong direction and technically proficient action scenes. But I got to say, the dialogue just wasn't that compelling, as a huge fan of the Bourne movies, I am disappointed, this movie should have been a viscerally entertaining experience that wasn't just a great action movie, but also a very good story, and what they try to do, there are morsels of ‘yes go in that direction now, forget about the damn social media shit, go in the direction you're going at, yes stay in this path yes, oh we're back to speeches about the social media platform why? Why was that such a focus in this movie?’ It grinded the story to a halt, this movie should have been a straight-up revenge movie and when it was, it was compelling when it wasn't, it was boring.

I really enjoyed the Jason Bourne film overall from an action standpoint, from a performance standpoint but in comparison to Identity, Supremacy and especially Ultimatum, this is a disappointment. It still is good though, this isn't a bad movie, and it’s not like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull disappointing, like that movie is actually kind of bad. This movie is at least good, it has fantastic scenes and great performances and very strong direction. But the story just wasn't as compelling or as riveting as it should have been and I left disappointed.

In all honesty, it is a good movie, a movie that I will buy on blu-ray a movie that I can actually tell you to go see but, like I said this should have been much better, considering the talent and the films that came before it. I am hoping that they make another one and that they lock down the story and just make it be about this character, who gives a shit about his social media thing what the hell was that?

Grade - B

B for Bourne I guess?

The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling in a physical action-comedy? Whoever thought of the idea should be crowned genius of the year. With dynamite timing and uproarious gestures, Gosling mines his diverse abilities and becomes a blast in The Nice Guys, directed by Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang scribe Shane Black. Co-written by Black and Anthony Bagarozzi, this nonstop-hilarious buddy-cop film is both a committed rekindling of the old formula Black aced throughout his career and a playful wink to the genre, bouncily walking on the fine line with occasional backflips.

Not that Gosling’s character, Holland March, a clumsy, drunken private eye living in 1977 Los Angeles, is exactly a cop, per se. (He’s often hired by confused old ladies looking for their dead family members.) And neither is his eventual partner, the ultra-serious tough guy Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe, beefed up and effective), who rakes in hard cash by beating up his clients’ enemies. What could possibly go wrong when these two pair up out of obligation?

A lot—especially when the backdrop is a gritty-to-the-touch Tinseltown (captured by veteran cinematographer Philippe Rousselot in earthy colors) drowning in orange smog and overtaken by the golden age of porn. Think a dash of Chinatown’s noir sprinkled over Boogie Nights, and you’re in the ballpark, with Nixon on the cover of Forbes, Jaws 2 decorating roadside billboards and exquisite period details shining on every corner.

When the death of a porn star named Misty Mountains—seen in the film’s gloriously funny opening sequence set to the beat of the Temptations’ “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone”—unites the widowed March and divorced Healy in search of another adult entertainer, the missing Amelia, the duo enter a sprawling maze of shady power structures and dead stakeholders. Along the way, they hang out among Dirk Diggler and Rollergirl wannabes in spectacular bejeweled garments and receive a considerable amount of help from March’s badass 12-year-old daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice), who possesses far superior PI chops than her panicky dad.

Between a gorgeously grandiose finale, memorable parts for Yaya DaCosta and Kim Basinger and a juicy soundtrack that includes Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & the Gang, The Nice Guys is the perfect, incredibly crafted yet laid-back procedural we’ve been starved for. Even when it sometimes seems that the endless jokes are being thrown against a wall to see what sticks, The Nice Guys, on the whole, summons that victorious, innocent feeling of seeing likable heroes win while having fun along the way. It’s nice, guys.

Grade - A+

X-Men Apocalypse

The X-Men movie franchise has been a mixed bag up to this point, with nine films that have ranged from bona fide hits (Deadpool, X-Men: Days of Future Past) to projects that fans would probably rather forget (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). The majority, however, rest somewhere between the two extremes, offering a balance of good and bad that can differ wildly depending on who you ask.

It’s in the latter category that X-Men: Apocalypse, the latest installment of the franchise, seems destined to end up.

Directed by Bryan Singer, who has helmed four of the six films that make up the original X-Men trilogy and the recent, rebooted trilogy, X-Men: Apocalypse pits the popular mutant team against one of its greatest foes, En Sabah Nur — a mutant villain known as “Apocalypse.” Possessing the power of countless other mutants who sacrificed their bodies and abilities to him ages ago, Apocalypse wakes from entombment beneath Cairo in the 1980s, and after seeing the world as it is, decides that it’s time to burn it all down and start over. Bummer.

Cast in the role of Apocalypse is Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ex Machina actor Oscar Isaac, who does a surprisingly good job of being over-the-top sinister without becoming outright silly, which is no small feat given how easily the character could slip into the latter. Apocalypse is joined in his destructive crusade by the master of magnetism, Magneto, played once again by ever-reliable franchise actor Michael Fassbender. Assisting them are three newcomers to the rebooted franchise, including The Newsroom actress Olivia Munn in the role of telekinetic ninja Psylocke, Alexandra Shipp as the weather-controlling Ororo “Storm” Munroe, and Ben Hardy as the winged mutant Angel.

Apocalypse and his “Four Horsemen” are opposed by returning franchise characters Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Hank “Beast” McCoy (Nicholas Hoult), Raven “Mystique” Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence), and Peter “Quicksilver” Maximoff (Evan Peters). They’re joined by a group of new, young mutants familiar to X-Men fans, with Tye Sheridan as Scott “Cyclops” Summers, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner in the role of Jean Grey, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler.

X-Men: First Class actress Rose Byrne also reprises her role as CIA agent (and non-mutant) Moira MacTaggert.

While the film takes some dark turns, X-Men: Apocalypse does a nice job of striking a relatively consistent tone in the sweet spot somewhere between the brighter, more lighthearted Marvel Studios movies and the dour, dark vibe of Warner Bros.’ live-action DC Comics universe. It’s a tone that has served the franchise well so far (with occasional exceptions for spinoff projects like Deadpool) and allows the films to explore the sort of serious themes the X-Men comics were known for dealing with — prejudice, civil rights, etc — while retaining the fantastic elements that make the team’s adventures so entertaining.

Although Apocalypse opts to focus on more simple, well-worn themes — revenge and redemption — it avoids being too heavy-handed, and lets the characters and the action drive the story forward rather than lecturing the audience.

Of the newcomers not named Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner offers the most compelling performance of the bunch as Jean Grey. Along with shouldering the weight of what seems to be some big storylines to come, she also holds her own in scenes that pair her with McAvoy, Lawrence, and some of the other, high-profile cast members. Sadly, neither Olivia Munn or Ben Hardy do much to elevate their characters beyond background players, and despite getting plenty of opportunity to shine, the other newcomers don’t offer a whole lot, though it’s exciting to think of their potential in future films.

Much like in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the real standout in Apocalypse is Peters’ fleet-footed mutant Quicksilver, who’s given another memorable sequence that showcases not just his superhuman ability and sense of humor, but also some brilliant cinematography and visual-effects work from the film’s behind-the-camera team. Clearly, Singer set out to up the ante after the clever “Time in a Bottle” sequence from Days of Future Past received so much praise, and the result is an even more complicated sequence that begs to be watched a few times over.

Although McAvoy, Fassbender, and Lawrence continue to anchor the rebooted franchise (and do as good a job of it as one would expect from actors that have one Oscar win and six nominations between them), Apocalypse goes out of its way to indicate that this might not be the case for long. Even more than it explores themes of revenge and forgiveness, Apocalypse seems intent on letting its audience know that the franchise is passing the torch — to the point where it occasionally doubles back on plot points just to hammer home that there’s a new class of X-Men.

Of the three films that make up the rebooted franchise so far, X-Men: Apocalypse manages to feel like the most self-contained story of the bunch. Still, despite having the freedom to to take its characters in new directions without the obligation of supplying origin stories or resolving conflicting continuities, it doesn’t seem inclined to make any major changes to the status quo beyond adding some new faces to the team’s roster. When the dust finally settles, it feels as if narrowly averting the end of the world has simply been business as usual for the characters.

In this and so many other ways, Apocalypse feels the most like the comics that inspired it than any of the X-Men movies so far. The players in the story — good and bad — are assembled, the conflict ensues, and disaster is only avoided with the help of some moral heel-turns from conflicted characters and heroes tapping into reserves they never knew they had. When the villain is finally defeated, all the pieces of the story reset in preparation for the next adventure.

It’s a narrative formula that has worked for countless comic-book story arcs over the years, and when it’s done well  — as it is in Apocalypse — it serves the movies based on them just as successfully.

In a franchise that has remained reliably entertaining — though not always great — over the course of the previous eight films, X-Men: Apocalypse does nothing to buck that trend, offering a compelling story that moves along at a good pace with some unique, exciting sequences that set it apart from its peers. It doesn’t live up to the epic, nothing-will-be-the-same promise of its title, but it does right by the series in giving fans an adventure inspired by the comics in many of (if not all) the right ways.

Grade - A-

Captain America: Civil War - O.o

When the Avengers first assembled four years ago, it felt like a grand culmination, the ultimate Marvel superhero event: its Big Four characters united (well, eventually) against a colossal planetary threat. Since then, the studio’s ever-expanding Cinematic Universe has delivered sequels of varying quality and introduced new heroes in stand-alone movies (well, as close to stand-alone as Marvel can ever get), but it’s never quite matched the ensemble-balancing finesse and Earth-quaking action scale of Joss Whedon’s initial assembling. Certainly not in his clunkier, team-gathering follow up, Age Of Ultron. Not until now.

Captain America: Civil War is the best Marvel Studios movie yet. There, I said it. First, and most importantly, it does what the best Marvel films do: juggling multiple characters so each is allowed its moment in a story that pushes forward the series’ overall continuity, while also forming and concluding its own cogent plot. So here Scarlet Witch (Elisabeth Olsen) wrestles with the consequences of her immense power; Vision (Paul Bettany) starts getting to grips with being ‘human’; Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) finds herself torn when the battle line is drawn; and supposed retiree Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) just can’t stay out of the fight.

Then there are the new recruits: Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman, playing it gravelly and furrow-browed), nimble protector of a secretive African nation who has his own beef with Bucky; and a quippy kid from Queens (Tom Holland) who crawls up walls in a red-and-blue outfit and can shoot webs at people. His introduction to the action is resoundingly joyous, the reboot the character truly deserves. (“I don’t know if you’ve been in a fight before,” he’s told by one opponent, “but there’s not usually this much talk.”) Even Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man receives more than a tokenistic ‘hey it’s him!’ cameo, and in spectacle terms at least, is given the film’s biggest scene.

At its not-so-soft-and-gooey centre, though, is the friendship between Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), two war buddies out of time, one of them out of his mind. Stan remains, for the most part, as blank and frosty as he was in The Winter Soldier, allowing only the occasional warm glint of ’40s sidekick Bucky. Evans, meanwhile, further hones a role he’s effortlessly owned for five movies now, pushing Steve to impressive new depths and reminding us that his straight arrow still has a dangerous edge. The Steve/Bucky thread stretches back to the first Captain America, and is what makes this Cap Three rather than Avengers Two-and-a-half. But built around that is the bigger conflict that, despite the title, does place it as a direct sequel to Age Of Ultron.

In a similar way that Zack Snyder’s DC-world reacted to Superman’s ascension and the emergence of its “metahumans” — though here it is more lightly and elegantly handled — the world of the Avengers has had enough of these “enhanced” agents wreaking collateral havoc and decided, not unreasonably, to bring them to account. So US Secretary Of State William Ross (reappearing for the first time since he was just a monster-chasing General in The Incredible Hulk) presents the Sokovia Accord, signed by 117 countries, which states the Avengers should be answerable to the United Nations. Wracked with guilt over his Ultron faux-pas, Tony Stark’s all for it, and Robert Downey Jr burdens the still occasionally glib hero with a weight-of-the-world weariness that is well matched by his own MCU mileage. But stubborn Steve, distrustful of the post-war world’s version of ‘authority’, refuses to sign on the dotted line.

It’s bold of writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to place their title hero in the most obviously dubious position. If the Avengers don’t answer to the UN, who should they answer to? And Steve’s defence of Bucky is questionable: he may be his childhood friend, but now he’s a lethal, robot-armed killing machine forever in danger of being reactivated. It’s fair enough that he should be brought to heel, right? Then again, there are flaws in Tony’s arguments, too, especially the problematic evidence on which he rests them. Who the audience should agree with is hardly a clear-cut matter.

It’s even bolder that the conflict at the film’s heart doesn’t pander to genre convention and become sidetracked by a grandstanding supervillain plot. And this is the second way Civil War earns our ‘Greatest Marvel Yet’ accolade: by rising above the series’ greatest weakness. Too often, the snappy writing and slick action in these films is undermined by flimsy big bads and formulaic final acts. Yet there is no Loki or Ultron (or, for that matter, Lex Luthor) equivalent this time. Not a whiff of Thanos, or any more of those forgettable Marvel sub-baddies with ‘The’ for a middle name. There is a meddling manipulator — of course there is — but, interestingly, their agenda is as blurred as Steve’s and Tony’s. Arguably just as sympathetic, too. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo don’t just want to rocket your heart into your mouth with their action sequences, which have the tight choreography of a Greengrass Bourne, and the brutal flair of a Gareth Evans rumble; they want to keep your brain firmly engaged, too.

Who needs a villain when you have Steve and Tony? Both protagonists. Both antagonists. And drawing other power-people to their cause in surprising ways. The clashes go far beyond the set-up squabbles of Avengers Assemble. Or even that other big 2016 superhero showdown. Forget Batman v Superman. Here you get Ant-Man v Spider-Man, Hawkeye v Black Widow, Scarlet Witch v Vision, The Winter Soldier v Black Panther and (well, duh) Captain America v Iron Man, all rolled into one. And that is what you call the ultimate Marvel superhero event.

Grade - A+