Dare Me If You Dare

Netflix just released its latest juggernaut series, Daredevil. Starring Charlie Cox, who played a gay Duke in Downton Abbey as the titular hero. Unlike the childish Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, Daredevil is leaning towards the DC-grim-and-gritty tone which is amazing. Netflix shows always have high production values and quality, like the immensely binge-worthy House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Daredevil falls behind those two flagship series but it is way beyond the CW-ish effort to retell one of the greatest explorers in the world, yes, I'm talking about the quite unwatchable Marco Polo. Binge-wise, Daredevil doesn't make you consume your time because each episode takes its time and you cannot just watch it all (or maybe now I'm just mature). It took me three days to watch the latest season of House of Cards and maybe four days to watch last year's OITNB, but Daredevil took me around one week. Quality-wise it is the best superhero series by far. I never really got into CW's superhero shows, I used to love Smallville but it got too campy for me, especially after Lana Lang exited. I never even finished Arrow pilot and The Flash was pretty bad for me. And then comes Gotham which is not only the bottom of the barrel but maybe way under the barrel. It's so bad, you actually can feel your IQ declining by just watching that.

nope this one's from the series

Daredevil, where to start... We can start from that badly-received film adaptation starring the now Bruce Wayne/Batman Ben Affleck in 2003. Even though it was universally-hated, I think it is quite remarkable that Daredevil got made before any other existing superhero. His story isn't that good anyway, blind lawyer turns vigilante. I completely forgot the theatrical version, but I got my hands to the Director's Cut recently. Many of the reviewers on IMDb said it's great but I still think it's average at best. I only like Jennifer Garner there, and usually I don't like Jennifer Garner. The fights are slow, the CGI was bad (considering we had Spider-Man just a year before), and the acting was ew (Colin Farrell might be buying all Daredevil DVDs just to burn it at his Irish home because that's what I would do if I were him).

Fast forward 12 years later we have a winning team at Netflix, headed by Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard that turned that bad taste into a five-star hotel taste. Casting Charlie Cox from Stardust fame as the titular hero and the rising Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk is inspired. Also future breakout stars Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll. If I don't see the three of them in a great movie anytime soon, then we can conclude that Hollywood hates Netflix. Daredevil is a very far-fetched concept but Drew Goddard handled it in the best way possible.

There are so many things to like and love. Charlie Cox's spot-on portrayal as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. The simple black costume. Elden Henson as Foggy which could be highly annoying but doesn't. Expanded role for Karen Page which introduces us to the amazing Deborah Ann Woll. That backstory with Battlin' Jack Murdock. The vulnerable yet ruthless Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin played by multilingual Vincent D'Onofrio. The gritty great story. The minimum amount of the usual Marvel easter eggs. The production values. The necessary violence and gore. The title sequence and theme song.

I hope they don't ruin the series by cramming to many easter eggs though. I've heard rumors they're going to introduce Elektra and Bullseye in season two. If done well, it could be great but if done badly, Netflix is going to get a new Gotham.

This Week On... We Have No Avengers This Month

I don't know if this is some kind of American torture on Japanese people as a part of their long game on the retaliation of Pearl Harbor. Or this is Japanese self-torture on their war losses after the two atomic bombs, you know, that Bushido code and stuff. But the fact that the Japanese release of definitely the biggest movie of the summer, Avengers: Age of Ultron is delayed until July 4 is killing me. Not the reality that I have to wait for two months, because I've done worse with Star Trek Into Darkness and Thor: The Dark World (4 MONTHS WAIT). It is the necessary manoeuvre that I'm about to take to avoid imminent spoilers from the disgusting attention-seeking geeks of the internet who posts spoilers on YouTube comments and also to avoid over-sharing from the click-hungry, zero-quality movie blogs who decides that every single scene in Avengers is worth analyzing. OH LOOK AT THE HULK HOLDING HANDS WITH SCARLETT JOHANSSON! Yes, I'm going to stay away from the Internet for two months. But I will still post something here though, don't worry. It's just those posts won't have anything to do with them Earth's mightiest heroes.

But for now, let's rank the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe, now includes Phase Two!
Deja vu? If you're an avid reader of this blog (which you aren't), I ranked pre-The Avengers Marvel movies three years ago exactly in this timeframe. Yeah, there's some reshuffling in the order, because you know, my own character development and stuff.

10. Captain America: The First Avenger
It is the type of property that wasted goodwill (I don't know what that meant). I've only watched this twice and I almost fell asleep at the exact same point. It is not the action-packed superhero movie that we were promised. It sucked that the movie sucked because the cast is pretty awesome. It is also sad that this lackluster movie spawned a potentially awesome TV series that unfortunately turned out to be pretty lackluster as well. Man, I really like Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter so why can't Marvel make something good with her in it. And also, boo hoo, you just wasted Natalie Dormer big time in this film.

9. Iron Man 2
The movie's a mess. I don't know how to put it. If this were TV, this would be the equivalent of Gotham. Yes, it has that many easter eggs for future installments, many cameos. OK it's not as bad as Gotham. It has a pretty solid action though but still the story's all over the place. Yes, Scarlett's first outing as Black Widow might be one of the few things that saved this from being a total mess.

8. Iron Man 3

It's sad to see how Iron Man fell this much. The action scenes are amazing. But this film is the death of the ideology of being a hero. Tony Stark spent most of his Iron Man outings cowering in the safety of his Iron Man simulation making the suit do all the work but put himself out of harm's way. Don't make me start on those unfunny supposed-to-be-funny scenes. And of course that weak twist. And that fire-breathing Guy Pearce. Oh, so many to hate.

7. Thor: The Dark World

It's a very hollow movie, with very little consequences aside from having Agent Coulson cleaning up the mess in London. Let's make Thor movies about Thor vs. Loki because that's what people want to see. And what was that white alien doing? Nobody knows. All we know was that Tom Hiddleston owned this movie.

6. The Incredible Hulk

This is such a good movie if you think about it. Before being a cinematic universe was cool. Marvel infused just the right amount of easter eggs: not too much. Edward Norton was solid. Tim Roth was amazing. It's also refreshing to see a really mean-looking Hulk, rather than the current, a bit sappy one. I guess that's what you get when you use Mark Ruffalo's face. Hey, no hate for Ruffalo, he did a very good job. It just makes you wonder what Norton would bring if he's still Banner.

5. The Avengers

The movie could be better. It's those kiddie jokes that ruined the movies, that puny god scene or when the Hulk punched Thor out of nowhere. WHY. Despite all the stupid going on, the movie changes the landscape for being the first superhero team-up film. And executed so well than expected. The alien thing might turn off some people but yeah, it's just awesome to see those heroes team-up.

4. Thor

This one is also a very well-done film. This movie has that a different vibe with the other Marvel movies. I'd go out on a limb and say that this film is among the top three best directed Marvel movies along with Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man. Different with The Dark World, this one doesn't feel generic, it's original, it's grand. It's what you get when you have Kenneth Branagh on board, a superhero film on a Shakespearian scale.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy

I could love this movie more, if it's not for the over-praising that filled the Internet (guys, this movie doesn't deserve Best Picture at the Oscars, okay?). It's a fresh and a weird take on the superhero genre as well. And surprisingly, it works. The cast is instantly lovable. The juxtaposition with classic tunes only made it even better. And that dance-off scene--simply one of the best scenes of 2014.

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2014 was a pretty big year for Marvel. Two movies, two game-changers. Unlike Iron Man movies which declined though time, the Cap is taking a big step by changing the course of MCU as a whole. It also doesn't feel like a generic punch-em beat-em superhero film, there's more story into it. It made Agents of SHIELD bad and good too. So, it's a big game-changer. The only sad thing is that the sub-titular character is shoved way behind for this huge story development.

1. Iron Man

Still the best film of them all is the one that started it all. We could have game-changers, but this film is the game-maker. Without it, MCU would be lost. Casting RDJ is of course a big win. He practically set the whole mood for the rest of the films. Hiring Jon Favreau is also a gamble but it worked. The whole film is a gamble and it is great. While Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy might be the best superhero films, Iron Man might be the only Marvel movie that could come close to the same level of greatness.

So, see you in two months for something Avengers related

Although, next I might talk about Daredevil.

Furiouser and Furiouser

It's still remarkable to see that Fast & Furious franchise is hitting installment number seven and it's still growing. However, the growth was brought to a halt when one of the main stars of the film Paul Walker, who's in six of the seven films portraying Brian O'Conner died in an accident. The world was taken aback by this incident which only shows how Fast & Furious went from being a B-grade racing film to an A-grade world phenom blockbuster, especially since Fast Five took a turn in the franchise's direction. Like the franchise itself, the cast is also growing by adding Hollywood vets Kurt Russell and Djimon Hounsou to Game of Thrones breakout star Nathalie Emmanuel who played Khaleesi's right hand woman, Missandei.

The story takes off right after the sixth one. Owen Shaw's brother, Deckard (Jason Statham) seeks revenge after what happened in the events of the sixth movie (apparently Owen survived the plane crash but Gisele didn't!). Deckard started hunting Dom's crew one by one, starting from Han which was killed in Tokyo. It was already Dom vs Deckard but Dom got an offer to more effectively locate Deckard wherever he may be, using a software called God's Eye. Dom and his crew need to get to God's Eye creator in order to use it to find Deckard.

Talk about a super convoluted plot! It would make sense IF Deckard isn't actually looking for the crew. What is the use of God's Eye when Deckard is actually the one who's going near Dom and his crew? That's like the biggest gaping plot hole in this movie. Then there's also a group of mercenaries whose allegiance and objectives are super vague. They're just there to bring a little hollow substance to the plot which obviously didn't work. But I can forgive that plot hole a little because it gave us Nathalie Emmanuel to shine in this film. Apparently Khaleesi broke the wheel and let Missandei out to hack some computers. The stunts were awesome and I got to see the film in IMAX 3D which is just amazing. But however, the never-ending action sequence is definitely too much for a 2.5 hour runtime. Your mind became numb for the repetitive action especially that silly Diesel vs Statham fight which was good for the first five minutes but that fight ending is so bad. The film under-used Jason Statham badly. And "When you're in a street fight, the street always wins" is one of your worst lines of the year.

Tyrese brings some humor and charm, while Vin Diesel is still that big, muscly good guy. It is a shame that Dwayne Johnson isn't joining much of the action here because everytime he's on screen the movie got way more interesting. Michelle Rodriguez is an all-round badass, she's like the poster girl for Hollywood badass and for the last two movies she has fought two MMA champions, how badass. And then there's Paul Walker whose death looms large over the film. Weta's Paul Walker CGI is amazingly seamless, it won't show until you started looking for it. It's so good. The ending for this movie is just perfect. It's a perfect sendoff to Paul Walker, obviously one of the many Hollywood stars who went away too soon. The movie did an honorable way for Paul Walker and it is very hard not to shed a tear during the ending. Despite being the lesser of Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, Fast & Furious 7 is just a great start to what might be the most explosive summer in years. Fast & Furious 7: rated 3/4