I Just Watched (Films)

[Raid]

Deadpool and Wolverine

Oh thank god, there's still someone that works at Disney that isn't just a hideous, amorphous amalgamation of seventeen focus groups and twelve censor panels, or that at least hasn't been injected by whatever Mickey Mouse logo-shaped nanoprobes that they use and forced to serve the hive mind. I was genuinely worried that the Fox acquisition would have ruined this, but it's every bit as good, maybe even better than the first two. The additional budget mostly didn't make it feel disingenuous - there was one cameo that felt a bit forced and out of place (see spoiler text), but aside from that it still felt like a scrappy B-movie. I laughed my arse off throughout.

Spoiler

The cameo was Wesley Snipes as Blade. Every other cameo felt like a pick from the Marvel c-list, characters that had a cult following but that hadn't really made it to prime time, at least on the big screen. Blade though was a massive hit, and one of the three film series that really laid the groundwork for the superhero trend of the late 2000s and 2010s. If they'd had someone else play him it would have been fine because they could have made a joke out of it.

And, much as I've taken the piss out of Fox for putting their X-Men characters in black leather instead of their actual costumes, the Wolverine mask looked absolutely hilarious in live-action - in a way that absolutely worked ror this film, don't get me wrong, but I'm wondering if maybe they had a point after all.

[Snowy]

Alien Romulus - watched last night with very little in the way of expectations, with Alien and Predator movies generally being awful. Ended up pleasantly surprised - it wasn't anything close to Alien/Aliens but I would say it slots in around Alien 3 in the overall franchise order of quality.

I know Raid plans to watch it so won't give any details whatsoever of the plot. The cast are all young, I would guess twenties, and several have something of a jarring London pikey vibe, but I guess that's preferable to the usual casting of 'douchey/hipster Murrican'. They act it well, especially the lead and her 'brother'. It also introduces some new stuff to the canon, if stuff like that appeals.

Snowy's potted review: Worth a watch.