The Venom films have had a rocky time. So has the entire Sony Spiderman universe.

But now Venom is synonymous with Tom Hardy. And whether you love or hate his portrayal of Eddie Brock and Venom – you have to admit he carries these films.

Venom: The Last Dance follows in the footsteps of its priors. An undercooked script with many-a-plot-hole. But it still has that Eddie-Venom banter to make you enjoy whatever is dished up.

Taking off after the events of the second film, Eddie is pinned as the killer of Detective Mulligan. But he’s not just on the run from the police. Oh yes, he has also caught the eye of a secret government operation and … more aliens.

The pure number of antagonistic forces set upon the two from the very beginning makes it clear they might not both survive this.

Reminiscent of a buddy road trip movie, Eddie and Venom have a lot of alone time. Tom Hardy does an immaculate job of bringing the two personalities to life. He injects their scenes with comical banter that could keep me entertained for hours.

There are a lot of new faces to take in with this film. It bit off more than it could chew – trying to introduce key new characters with not much time to fully delve into them.

Our new ‘big bad’ doesn’t get much screentime. Instead, he sends a hoard of his practically indestructible knulls after Eddie and Venom.

Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) – a symbiote researcher, is another character set up that feels half-assed. We get to see one tragic backstory flashback that becomes her reason for everything she does the entire film. I was more emotionally invested in Sadie, her loveable coworker.

In place of developing these evident ‘teeing up for the next film’ characters we’re simply given even more characters.

With the Michelle Williams hole to fill, the film had to find a new emotional centre. And this came in the way of the alien-loving couple and their kids. And they, of course, are conveniently placed to be the physical representation of the world Eddie and Venom are trying to save.

While the film lacks in overall cohesion and story, it does make up for it with its final battle. This film is definitely the most goriest instalment of the Venom films. The knulls have a wood chipper-esque function that turns anything they consume into a mist of blood. These creatures are a legitimate threat, which makes for an epic bloodbath.

But in the end, we know only one of our much-loved bonded duo can survive if they wish to save the universe. (It’s not spoilers if the movie is literally called ‘ The Last Dance’)

The tragedy is wrapped up in a some-what romantic montage to the backdrop of Maroon 5s memories. And I have to say, this was brilliant.

Was the whole movie brilliant? Hell no. Did I have a lot of fun? Hell yes.

The post Venom: The Last Dance (Sony Pictures – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Boy how I’ve missed a lot of the MCU as of late.

I can distinctly remember a time when I was seeing almost every movie that came out more or less on release day.

I saw ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ at some point, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was alright… aaaaand lemme do a quick Wikipedia search… ‘Black Widow’, I saw that one.

Those are the only Marvel movies I’ve seen in this decade. Bloody hell, seventeen-year-old me would never have believed it.

Going into Deadpool & Wolverine, hopefully that means I’m a little more inoculated against the Marvel fatigue that has well and truly set into the modern cultural landscape as these movies start coming and they don’t stop coming.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the thirty-fourth film in the MCU and is hotly anticipated for a couple of reasons beyond the ones I just mentioned.

Deadpool is the poster child for a modern fourth wall demolisher. He shares in-jokes with the audience, talks about studio politics, and will occasionally address a character by the name of the actor playing them. If you aren’t into comics and only consume superhero stuff through movies, there’s really nothing else quite like him (I’m told She-Hulk was similar, but nobody seemed to like it.)

But more importantly, Wolverine is back, and that’s a big deal.

Directed by Shawn Levy, we start with Ryan Reynolds’ eponymous merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool drifting through life without knowing what to do with himself. To his great joy he is pulled from such mundane hell to do superhero shit again, but as you might expect he is dropped right back down again when he is informed his entire universe is about to be destroyed. Apparently, due to some incredibly contrived reasons, Wolverine was single-handedly holding reality together and his death at the end of Logan has made things start to fall apart… somehow. Stop asking questions.

So now he has to find a living Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman finally in the iconic yellow suit, and find a way to save his universe.

So what we have here is a journey of two fundamentally unkillable warriors on a mission, one of whom cannot stop talking to save his life and the other who has anger issues.

As you might imagine, they fight a lot.

And since I mentioned they cannot die, those fights become extremely messy and end up accomplishing not much other than putting more gratuitous violence on the screen and moving the guy who makes fake blood up a tax bracket.

Combine that with universe jumping and Disney money bringing back a few old faces and you have a machine built for hype.

It’s all hype, all the way down.

They even have a moment where Deadpool stumbles onto a faithful recreation of the legendary Uncanny X-Men #251 cover with Wolverine crucified on the X over a field of skulls.

The plot is little more than a vehicle for more hype moments and jokes. It’s loaded with inconsistencies and unexplained phenomena. The entire climax of the film hinges upon a substantial unexplained plot development being handwaved as ‘we’re so awesome’. I can best describe the story beats as ‘stuff happening’ again and again, with fourth wall cuts and quips in between. I watched this with my dad and he claims he lost track of what was going on after the first third of the movie but had fun anyway… which kind of sums up the entire experience really.

It’s a Deadpool and Wolverine movie filled with Deadpool and Wolverine moments.

Every few minutes, a character or situation will be introduced for at least one other existing character to react to, usually by saying ‘Holy Shit’. The plot literally creates an entirely new mechanism for bringing back characters from previous dead end Marvel movies that often pre-date the MCU itself.

Hype, hype… hype. Honestly, it felt less like watching a movie and more like a two-hour TikTok video.

What else… oh yeah, the action. It’s excellent. That’s almost par for the course for a Marvel movie; even the worst ones can reliably be said to have some pretty decent fight scenes, but taking off the kid gloves and letting the characters say ‘fuck’ then successfully impale the guy who can survive such treatment through the head elevates it. Levy had two of the biggest ticket characters of Marvel in his pocket, and by god did he use them to make a glorious, bloody mess.

As for whether I’d recommend Deadpool & Wolverine, that’s the wrong question. If you’ve seen the first two Deadpool movies, then you already know if you are going to enjoy this. Honestly, I feel disingenuous having to even put a review score to it, you will either love it or hate it.

I’ll give it a three out of five, but your mileage may vary.

The post Deadpool & Wolverine (Marvel | Disney – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Rocksteady extends its Batman Arkham universe with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, pitting players, in the roles of DC’s comic book villains, against its legendary heroes.

Taking a group of character-controlled B-list DC characters and putting them up against the top-tier members of the Justice League is either arse-backwards or a very ballsy move on Rocksteady’s part. To be fair, it’s the same sort of bravado that blew up in Warner’s face with the first Suicide Squad movie but paid dividends the second time around.

The game starts with the motley crew of Joker’s ex-girlfriend Harley Quinn, the assassin Deadshot, Australian Captain Boomerang and the walking fish King Shark getting recruited into Amanda Waller’s Task Force X. They have a special mission. The extra-terrestrial villain, Brainiac has taken over Metropolis, killing millions. The Justice League have also fallen to Brainiac and now do his bidding. As you can guess, it’s up to the Suicide Squad to kill the Justice League.

Unlike the Batman Arkham games that preceded it, Suicide Squad isn’t just a single-player narrative adventure game, instead, it’s a co-op live service game. You can still play it solo, but the intent is that the game is played with others with new content continuously pumped at players. Like Fortnite, Sea of Thieves and other successful games that utilise this format, premium content and battle passes create an ongoing revenue flow for the publisher. Players can still, however, continue to play the game for free without the extras.

It’s been a very lucrative genre for some publishers, but an absolute disaster for others, The Avengers and that mother-of-all-failures, Anthem, for example. It’s still too early to call for Suicide Squad, but the game’s story and very well realised game world give it an advantage.

The writing is faultless, the way the members of the Suicide Squad are portrayed is spot on. King Shark is a fish out of water, Captain Boomerang is a self-serving prick, Harley Quinn is suitably maniacal and Deadshot is conflicted. They are all under the command of Amanda Waller, played equally psychotically by Jedi Survivor’s Debra Wilson. The game draws on James Gunn’s slightly madcap take on the gang, allowing the game to deliver some laugh-out-loud moments.

The gameplay is mission-based, with players traversing the vast city of Metropolis. The city is meticulously detailed, offering some vertical gameplay. All over the city, Brainiac’s legion of monsters are all vying for a fight, it’s almost impossible to get to a destination without a skirmish on the way.

Locomotion is a big part of the game, with each character having a unique way of getting about. Harley Quinn has Batman’s grapple, aimed by a drone to give her abilities akin to Spider-man’s web-swinging. Captain Boomerang uses a device based on The Flash’s powers to travel almost instantly to a destination, King Shark can jump and Deadshot has a jetpack.

The character’s inspired abilities make combat entertaining and sometimes exhilarating. Timed attacks and breaking shields using weapon combos mix things up. The game has a looter-shooter element like the Borderlands games, meaning that you are always swapping out your equipment to gain an advantage.

The fetch quests are punctuated by confrontations with members of the Justice League, propelling the story. Unfortunately, it is the story that carries the game, particularly a worry as it is the gameplay that live service games rely on for continued success.

As well as the story, game visuals are the other standout. As with all the Batman Arkham games, Kill the Justice League looks amazing. The characters all look superb, maintaining the aesthetics of the series and giving the comic-book setting a real-world feel. The return of characters and villains from the previous games and some new ones from the DC comics, reimagined for this new game, add a bit of fan service. Metropolis swaps the gothic look of Gotham City for a futuristic cityscape, albeit one that has suffered at the hands of Brainiac’s invasion.

I still can’t get over feeling that this game has been forced on me, that the suits at Warners knew this was a game we didn’t want. We wanted a Justice League game, but we were not going to get it.

I’m not saying that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a bad game- it is not at all. The story, the characters, the setting, and the combat all mesh nicely into a game that’s fun to play with friends or solo. But I still feel it’s a wasted opportunity and worry about the game’s longevity as a live service game.

At best, the game is an interesting and entertaining take on the DC universe. At worst Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a game that draws upon a failed movie and its much better sequel, relying on the goodwill of the Arkham games whilst irreverently mining the legacy of DC’s iconic heroes.

The post Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Kamala Khan is not your typical teen.

Infused with extraordinary power via a celestial bracelet and having a very deep obsession over Captain Marvel, her ordinary life is about to get a galactic do-over.

Many, many light years away a civil war has broken out following the demise of the Supreme Intelligence as the Kree destroy their own planet warring with eachother.

This leads to Dar-Ben (Zawe Ashton) needing to source resources from other worlds, while on the hunt for the other bracelet, called the Quantum Bands.

She aims to pair the Quantum Bands with her weapon, the ‘Ultimate Weapon’ which causes a rift to fracture open in space and time. This does not go undetected by S.W.O.R.D.

What plays out in Disney’s Marvel Studio’s The Marvels is a light hearted, very family friendly action fest as Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyona Parris) join forces against Dar-Ben, and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani)  aka Ms. Marvel gets to her wildest dreams fulfilled and bought is in to the team.

The rip in space causes all three to blip between worlds, sporadically, replacing one with the other in their respective Universes.

The trio must travel through dimensions to not only take the the other Quantum Band from Dar-Ben, stop her from destroying other planets but also restore order to space and time.

With the help from Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and a lot of Tentacle-Kitty’s a battle ensues worthy of any Marvel superhero film.

The Marvels has a few laugh out loud moments coupled with explosive CGI and action. An entertaining film that’s right for the entire family to see.

Girl power!

The post The Marvels (Marvel Studio’s – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A Mexican family, alien technology and a large Corp on a mission to create the ultimate cyber soldier.

DC’s Blue Beetle sees Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) return home from college to his close and diverse family who are falling on hard times.

Planning on getting a high paid job, Jaime and his sister end up as house cleaners for the head of Kord corporation, Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon).

A chance encounter with the daughter of Kord founder Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) sees Jaime get a loose job offer.

When Jaime heads to Kord Tower for his apparent job interview with Jenny Kord, he randomly encounters her as she is fleeing from security. She hands Jaime a box and tells him not to open it and keep it safe.

Naturally, later, he opens it. Inside is an alien Scarab bot, that ends up fusing with Jaime, thus creating the super-hero Blue Beetle.

We experience some excellent CGI and Jaime becoming the hero he was destined to be.

However, Blue Beetle, for me, was a bit too safe. It is definitely a family friendly film.

Entertaining but nothing more. Blue Beetle is worthy of a watch, but a watch once.

The post Blue Beetle (Warner Bros. – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The teenaged superhero return in an a comedy-esque magic infused adventure saving the Earth from some pissed off gods.

It’s been a few years since the first Shazam! film (2019) and the foster kids of the Vasquez family are in their mid to late teens.

For Billy Batson (Asher Angel) his main worry is that as he turns 18 he will have to leave the family. A family with teen kids that are slowly dividing as they come in to their own.

But as always, when someone needs saving or evil needs to be bought down they come together in their adult superhero guises.

The story follows on from the destruction of the Wizard’s staff and defeat of Thaddeus Sivana at the hands of Shazam (Zachary Levi) Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu) retrieve the broken staff that holds the powers Shazam and his step siblings have from a museum in Greece.

They also capture the Wizard and force him to repair it so they can set upon their planned path of revenge.

While this is all going on, Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), who is still having a hard time at school meets a new girl, Anne (Rachel Zegler). But there’s a bit more to Anne than you’d expect and Billy indulges his crush on Wonder Woman.

What plays out is an action monster-filled comedic story seeing the ‘Shazamily’ facing odds against them.

Shazam: Fury of the Gods was a surprise. More entertaining and witty than I thought it would be.

If you loved the first film, go and see this one, but if you’re yet to see 2019’s Shazam, see that first as this new one has a lot of throwbacks.

The post Shazam: Fury of the Gods (Warner Bros. – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

If there is one thing that the Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super movies have taught us, it’s that they don’t need 60 episodes to tell a good story.

Time and time again they manage to cram in a bunch of good story, good fights, and good character work into 90 minutes. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero did it again.

If you aren’t a fan of the franchise, this may be a tough watch to initially get into. The movie does some light explanation about how Magenta has taken over Red Ribbon since his father was beaten. This of course is from Dragon Ball.

Then you will get to know about how Red Ribbon came back thanks to Dr Gero which feeds into how his grandson Dr. Hedo gains his massive knowledge. So here is the link to Dragon Ball Z.  If all of that was gobblety gook, then you will still be able to enjoy the movie, but I suspect there is a lot you will be missing.

The movie itself has our new friend Magenta who enlists the knowledge of Dr. Hedo to make some new androids.  It turns out that Dr. Hedo didn’t know his grandfather so has no actual knowledge of his motives, and as such isn’t corrupted or interested in evil. He just wants to make cool ass androids, and so he does.  Bring on Gamma 1 and Gamma 2.

Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 want to take on and destroy our usual heroes thanks to Magenta’s twisting of the truths. It turns out the world (somehow) still knows very little about the idea of aliens being on earth, this is despite the existence of camera technology and the massive fights and explosions that have occurred, but not been captured?

Maybe don’t think too much about that. Anyway, they believe that the aliens are there to corrupt and then destroy earth, and so these new Superheroes must save the day.

The movie does a great setup by positioning Goku, Vegeta and Brollly off earth training.

Thanks to an unfortunate ice cream incident Whis misses Bulma calling and so that is where they stay. This allows our old heroes Piccolo and Gohan to take center stage, with some help of the others of course. We get some slices of minor spy and espionage work, some training with Pan, and some really decent humour along the way. I mean it isn’t all great, it is Dragon Ball Super so of course there are going to be some low hanging fruit, but I definitely chuckled more than I expected.

The animation varies from above average, to absolutely astounding.

For most of the movie it is just a higher budget version of Dragon Ball Super. But once that final fight broke out it was petty damn incredible. As always there is a final attack and man they put some serious budget into that scene, which really helps the pay off. I won’t dig too much more into it, but seeing is believing.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero manages to strike a decent balance between fan service from all 3 series plus Dragon Ball Fighterz, while also telling a new story. The final boss was a little underdeveloped but it did give some great opportunities for other characters to shine. Some good laughs, some great action, and some serious throwbacks. It won’t blow you away but it will entertain you.

The post Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero (Anime) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Disney+ has announced that Marvel Studios’ “Eternals,” one of the biggest movies of the year, will start streaming exclusively on Disney+ on January 12, 2022.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest team of Super Heroes has led cinema audiences on an exciting journey spanning thousands of years, and now the Eternals are bringing all of that signature Marvel Studios’ action, spectacle and thrill to Disney+.

“Eternals” joins 13 other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies now streaming in IMAX Enhanced on Disney+, which gives subscribers more picture with an expanded aspect ratio for an immersive viewing experience at home (content availability varies by region).

Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” follows a group of heroes from beyond the stars who had protected the Earth since the dawn of man. When monstrous creatures called the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, the Eternals are forced to reunite in order to defend humanity once again.

The outstanding ensemble cast includes Gemma Chan as humankind-loving Sersi, Richard Madden as the all-powerful Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as cosmic-powered Kingo, Lia McHugh as the eternally young, old-soul Sprite, Brian Tyree Henry as the intelligent inventor Phastos, Lauren Ridloff as the super-fast Makkari, Barry Keoghan as aloof loner Druig, Don Lee as the powerful Gilgamesh, with Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, with Salma Hayek as the wise and spiritual leader Ajak, and Angelina Jolie as the fierce warrior Thena.

Chloé Zhao directs the film, and Kevin Feige and Nate Moore are the producers, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Kevin de la Noy serving as executive producers. The screen story is by Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo, and the screenplay is by Chloé Zhao and Chloé Zhao & Patrick Burleigh and Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo.

The post ‘ETERNALS’ RELEASING ON DISNEY+ appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Life incarcerated or life on the line, for the DC super villains, placing their life in danger for a reduced sentence seems to be the best option.

Warner Bros has just released Suicide Squad 2 (aka The Suicide Squad). An anti-superhero sequel that sees baddies do good things. But not by choice.

They are implanted with an explosive device that can be triggered at anytime by their enforcer, the steely cold s Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who is the director of A.R.G.U.S. in charge of the Task Force X program.

Suicide Squad 2 sees a new Squad assembled together with Weasel, Captain Boomerang, T.D.K, Savant, Javelin and lead by Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).

But should things go awry there’s a back up that also includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) along with Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Rat Catcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and Bloodsport (Idris Elba).

There’s unrest on the South American island of Corto Maltese where a military Dictator Mateo Suárez (Joaquín Cosío) has taken rule of the nation, murdering the prior ruling family dynasty.

This new Governance is fiercely anti-America and this has the US authorities worried and the only way to infiltrate this new regime is to locate The Thinker (Peter Capaldi) and team up with local rebel fighters.

But there’s more going on on this island with an extraterrestrial twist.

The humor, action is resumed, if not ramped up in this sequel, mixed with blood and gore.

I still love the first Suicide Squad film (2016) and traditionally sequels don’t quite live up to their predecessor. Suicide Squad 2 bucks that trend and has the jump on the first film.

Loved. Go see it.

The post Suicide Squad 2 (Warner Bros. – 2021) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Join the Justice League – again in an epic bulk sized Zack Snyder Cut.

Originally released in 2017 the superhero movie picks up after the death of Superman.

Metropolis is in mourning as the saviour of the Earth is now gone. Forever.

This is the perfect time for evil to rise up again…

Three boxes when combined, open a portal to great doom.

An inter-dimensional brute called Steppenwolf with an army of Parademons has his own debts to pay and does so by conquering worlds.

To do this he needs to locate the three boxes which for centuries have been guarded by the Amazonians, Atlantians and man.

As Steppenwolf defeats the varying races and acquires the boxes it is up to Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Cyborg to save Earth.

But combined their strength and powers may not be enough without Superman.

Directed by Zack Snyder the film was hailed by fans as legendary – but fans wanted to see more.

Now in 2021 fandom has been satisfied with Justice League – the Zack Snyder Cut releasing.

At 4+ hours of DC hero action the film is split in to 6 parts with an Epilogue.

STG was given exclusive access to the film before release and I have got to say – marathoning Justice League – the Zack Snyder Cut did not seem like 4 hours.

Delving deeper in to each character, offering up the minute details that ended up on the cutting room floor – alot of footage has been added in without breaking the fluidity of the original story – if anything making it all that more immersive.

Oh and there’s a few bonuses too – which I wont do any spoilers on.

Whether you have a few hours to spare or don’t, if you’re a DC fan and loved 2017’s Justice League this is for you. for the fans.

Justice League – the Snyder Cut is available on Sky Movies, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand.

The post Justice League Snyder Cut (Warner Bros. – 2021) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.