The Jungle Book

Lots of people have a nostalgic attachment to Disney’s first take on The Jungle Book, but I'm not one of them; there are a couple of catchy songs in there, but there’s not a whole lot in the way of story, or even characters. So I thought it was an odd choice for a live-action remake, but the fact that there’s so much space to fill in means that on reflection, it probably makes more sense than Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid.

And it really works - the script fleshes out the world and the characters, and builds a more robust plot with actual stakes. The credits describe it as "based on the books by Rudyard Kipling", so perhaps the changes come from this being a more accurate adaptation, but either way, it's a much better story than the 1967 version.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The cliff-notes version is this: the writing is as good as it's ever been, and Naughty Dog have squeezed near-unbelievable performance out of the PS4. The gameplay is... well, it's Uncharted: slightly floaty (but mostly forgiving) puzzle/platforming interspersed with fairly loose gunplay, but both are spiced up by the introduction of a grappling hook, which opens up possibilities for both traversal and Tarzan-swinging aerial takedowns that simply never get old.

Narrative-driven games are always more difficult to talk about. Potential spoilers abound, even when discussing the opening stages.

So I'll try and avoid spoilers, as always, but... Pyrates - ye be warned.

X-MEN: Apocalypse

For the most part, movie versions of comic book properties have largely avoided the convoluted continuity that’s always been (for me) the biggest barrier to reading comic books. With the ongoing success of the MCU, however - and to a lesser extent, Deadpool and Batman v Superman - we’re starting to see more and more characters forming larger and larger teams.

The X-MEN franchise's ownership by Fox means that (for now) Avengers crossovers are off the table - but there have been a LOT of X-Men over the years, and X-MEN: Apocalypse wants to play with them all.

To that end, it brings back most of the First Class/Days of Future Past roster (Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, Havok, Quicksilver), along with the titular Apocalypse; joining them are new versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Angel, plus cinematic newcomers Psylocke, Jubilee, and Caliban.

Most of these characters have very little to do; aside from Magento, Apocalypse's horsemen serve the same basic function as set decoration.

Jubilee's entire contribution is taking Nightcrawler to the mall.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Yeah.... I’m a little bit late. The Force Awakens released on Blu-Ray in April, but I hadn’t seen it since it opened theatrically in December, and yesterday seemed as good a time as any to revisit.

The reason I put off rewatching it for so long was….

Okay, so a little bit of personal history: the high bar for Star Wars, walking into The Force Awakens, was The Empire Strikes Back, which is probably my favourite movie. When The Phantom Menace was still in production, I avoided pretty much everything about it (only to be spoiled by the soundtrack listing - thanks a lot, Qui-Gon’s Noble End), only to be horribly disappointed.

Two days before Attack of the Clones was released, I read the screenplay, which is the clearest demonstration I can come up with for how much The Phantom Menace had damaged my affection for the franchise.

The Force Awakens was going to be different, though - the first new “main series” Star Wars in a decade, with not just a new director, but one who was a self-professed fan. Even watching Abrams’ Star Trek, he seemed like he’d be a better fit for a galaxy far, far away….

Captain America: Civil War

It's good.

Really, really good.

...I guess I need more than that?  Okay, then...

Captain America: Civil War isn't just a sequel to Age of Ultron, although it is that as well; it's also a sequel to The Winter Soldier and The Avengers - even Ant-Man, to an extent. It's the first Marvel movie that seems to really reward - if not outright rely on - knowing who all these guys are, and if you've skipped any of the four movies mentioned above, you might find yourself a little confused.

Especially by Vision.

Having said that, it does a pretty good job of re-establishing who people are and how they relate, without getting bogged down in retreading stuff you already know if you rewatched the lead-up recently.

I'm going to try and avoid spoiling anything, but be warned - if you want to go in blind, all you need to know is this:

It's good.

Really, really good.

Hitman: Sapienza

Six and a half weeks after it launched, I've still not done everything there is to do in Hitman's excellent inaugural mission, Paris; so of course, here comes episode two, set in the sunnyAmalfi coast town of Sapienza.

If I didn't manage to rinse Paris yet, I don't think I'll ever see everything there is to see here - Sapienza is colossal. Aside from the villa that acts as a sort of focus for the new Story mission - which itself feels almost a third the size of the Palais de Walewska in Paris - there are winding streets, apartments, offices, a beach, boat docks, sewers, and more to explore.

And of course, there are loads of NPCs to choke unconscious before stealing their clothes.

The Road to Civil War - Avengers: Age of Ultron

With Captain America: Civil War less than a week away (for the UK; two, if you’re Stateside), I’ve gone back to rewatch some of the MCU movies leading up to it. The most directly-related, I figure, are Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, so those are the ones I’m going to be looking at. It’s been a while since I’ve seen most of these, so it’s interesting to revisit them with a new perspective: both the passage of time, and the knowledge of just how successful Marvel’s grand cinematic experiment actually turned out to be.

I previously reviewed Age of Ultron for this blog, but it's interesting to go back to it - both with a little bit of hindsight, and the lead-up movies fresh in mind.

Ultimately, Age of Ultron is a movie that I feel a little bit conflicted about; a lot of the sequences are great, and the dialogue is solid, zingy Whedon, but some of the character beats still feel odd, even if nothing is outright wrong.

This is now the third time I've seen it, and having previously watched it with the commentary track on, I think I understand better what Age of Ultron is attempting - even if I'm not sure it succeeded on all counts.

The Road to Civil War - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

With Captain America: Civil War less than a week away (for the UK; two, if you’re Stateside), I’ve gone back to rewatch some of the MCU movies leading up to it. The most directly-related, I figure, are Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, so those are the ones I’m going to be looking at. It’s been a while since I’ve seen most of these, so it’s interesting to revisit them with a new perspective: both the passage of time, and the knowledge of just how successful Marvel’s grand cinematic experiment actually turned out to be.

Much has been made of Steve Rogers' status as the man out of time; a guy from a simpler time, with simpler values. Usually, this is to show how a more straightforward, black-and-white, right-and-wrong attitude is better. And yeah, Steve always tries to do The Right Thing; but a Good Guy Doing Good Things isn't interesting - the core of good storytelling is conflict - so the question with The Winter Soldier is, how do you make Steve Rogers conflicted?

The Road to Civil War - The Avengers (Avengers Assemble)

With Captain America: Civil War less than a week away (for the UK; two, if you’re Stateside), I’ve gone back to rewatch some of the MCU movies leading up to it. The most directly-related, I figure, are Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, so those are the ones I’m going to be looking at. It’s been a while since I’ve seen most of these, so it’s interesting to revisit them with a new perspective: both the passage of time, and the knowledge of just how successful Marvel’s grand cinematic experiment actually turned out to be.

It’s hard to imagine, after four years and over a billion dollars, a time when The Avengers seemed like a risky proposition - but even with the successes of Iron Man, Thor, and The First Avenger, a team-up movie on this scale was a big gamble. Getting Nerd God Joss Whedon to take the helm helped build up a lot of good will, though - after if anyone could handle an ensemble this outlandish, it was going to be Whedon.

So out it came, and the rest is incredibly profitable history. Marvel cemented themselves as a box-office force to be reckoned with, letting them run wild with their weirder properties and led us to the five-year slate of releases ahead, including Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel - all of which would have been completely unimaginable a few years ago.

So, the gamble paid off - in just about every way. The Avengers Assembled, and to a great reception.

So, four years and six more movies later, how does it stand up?

The Road to Civil War - Captain America: The First Avenger

With Captain America: Civil War a week away (for the UK; two, if you’re Stateside), I’ve gone back to rewatch some of the MCU movies leading up to it. The most directly-related, I figure, are Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s been a while since I’ve seen most of these, so it’s interesting to revisit them with a new perspective: both the passage of time, and the knowledge of just how successful Marvel’s grand cinematic experiment actually turned out to be.

When Captain America: The First Avenger was initially released, I liked it, but less than I wanted to. It had most of the ingredients - the performances are pretty universally great, especially Chris Evans’ earnest, noble Steve Rogers, and the script has all the wit and character that are Marvel’s hallmarks - but I remember leaving the cinema with a sense of airlessness, a lack of gravity to the whole thing, like there was never any real feeling of threat.

Part of that I put down to director Joe Johnson, whose 1991 movie The Rocketeer - which also revolves around an average-guy-turned-hero fighting nazis in the 1940s - left me with a similar lack of more visceral excitement. Maybe before, I just wasn’t paying attention, though - The First Avenger is better than I remembered.

A lot better.