by Stone Marshall | Aug 9, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
The first Mission Impossible movie was something rare – an intelligent blockbuster. The plot was dense and often, it was hard to follow who was double crossing whom. It eventually delivered a few iconic action scenes, turned Tom Cruise into a legitimate action hero and grafted a franchise worth billions. None of the sequels have been as lean and smart as the first directed by Brian de Palma and yet, they’re all entertaining as hell.
The latest installment, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation follows the formula to the hilt and while it isn’t a classic, it’s still very satisfying.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, it packages all the standard ingredients of a Mission Impossible movie into Rogue Nation.
1. Ethan Hunt (Cruise), on a mission that — gasp! — lands him in trouble.
2. A femme fatale, with a dubious motive.
3. A villain (Sean Harris) whose identity is unknown, but whose nefarious aims of global domination are obvious.
4. A snafu that compromises the entire Impossible Mission Force (IMF) and forces Hunt and his team to hide in the shadows and find whoever is responsible.
5. An enemy as well-trained as the IMF that wants to take out the IMF.
6. And Ving Rhames, in his trademark hat, who must clean up the mess and save Hunt.
McQuarrie is one of Cruise’s long time collaborators and an experienced Oscar-winning screenwriter who knows the Mission Impossible formula well enough to stick to the basics while adding details that mix things up. There’s no wasting time in Rogue Nation – Hunt’s mission goes haywire and the villain shows up very early on. Only this time, the bad guy is connected to the mysterious voice that generally asks Hunt if he wants to accept his mission.
Faust, the femme fatale, played by Rebecca Fergusson is without contest the most culturally significant female character in modern action cinema. Not only does Fergusson kick villainous butts in her action scenes, she does so with her acting too and successfully makes every other Bond girl and even Black Widow look artificial and wimpy. When a female character in a film is more interesting than Simon Pegg in a film, you know she’s something special.
The villain in Rogue Nation isn’t any old nemesis for Hunt. His supervillain activities are grounded in contemporary geopolitics and he’s always one step ahead of Hunt. It’s very satisfying to see Hunt going back to basics to snare the bad guy. And just when you think the origin of the The Syndicate is sounding filmy, McQuarrie springs a hilarious moment of subversion by bringing in a stoned British Prime Minister during the expository reveal.
Complementing the plot, the action does not disappoint – there’s a throwback to the motorbike sequence from MI:2, only McQuarrie shows you how director John Woo screwed that one up and how that stunt should be done. He manages an innate bond between Cruise and his bike at top speed – they just look awesome together.
Amazingly, the big action sequence is one you’ve already seen in the trailer. Not just that, it takes place in the opening scene instead of coming at the end of the film, as its climax. When the most anticipated scene happens at the very beginning, the film sets a bar for itself and happily, Rogue Nation meets it. Plus, if the plane stunt (executed by Cruise himself) doesn’t impress you, then the heart stopping underwater mission certainly will.
The final scene, on the other hand is rather unexpected because it is anti climactic. This may divide viewers, but there’s no denying how audacious it is of McQuarrie to develop a thematically-rich, subtle and elegant climax, rather than a nonsensical CGI orgy action set piece. McQuarrie demonstrates that character dynamics are sometimes more powerful than kung fu-karate-slow mo fights. Still, some might feel let down by the ‘lack of action’ at the end – after all they’re watching a Mission Impossible movie.
What everyone will agree on, however, is that the finale is way better than the cringe-inducing ‘Indian’ segment from the previous movie. If this is the direction that this franchise is taking, then it’s a good sign that there’s only a gap of two years until the next Mission Impossible.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation review: There’s a ‘bird’, a plane and Ethan Hunt at his best
by Stone Marshall | Aug 8, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
The Punisher is my favorite superhero and I was beyond psyched that Jon Bernthal would be portraying him on the next season of Daredevil.
Thanks to Steven Weintraub of Collider, we have our first look at the vigilante on the set of the Netflix series, albeit a bit blurry.
Now I know the images aren’t the best quality, but I’ll take what I can get. I’m a bit bummed we don’t get to see the classic skull design, but I’m digging the military style haircut. I have no doubt that this will be the best interpretation of the character yet.
The second season of Daredevil will arrive sometime in 2016.
First Look at Jon Bernthal as The Punisher in Daredevil Season 2
by Stone Marshall | Aug 7, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
The first thing I should tell you about these amazingly badass looking hooded jackets is that they don’t actually exist. They are concept designs, but the seriously need to be brought to life, because they are the best superhero hoodies that I’ve ever seen! These are perfectly slick looking designs. I mean seriously… what geek wouldn’t wear these? I’d buy the whole collection!
The designs were created by Deviant Art user seventhirtytwo, and I really hope that one day they become a reality!
Most Badass Superhero Hooded Jacket Designs Ever!
by Stone Marshall | Aug 6, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
It was recently reported that Tom Holland completed his shooting his scenes in Captain America: Civil War. Before Holland was cast, though, Joe and Anthony Russo were already shooting scenes with Spider-Man in them. The character was being played by a stunt double in costume. According to Movies.Birth.Death.:
“It’s important here to know that Tom Holland shooting his bit isn’t the same as Spider-Man shooting his bit. Spider-Man has been on that set for a while, played by stunt men. All you need Tom Holland for is any Peter Parker scenes, because otherwise he can come into a local recording studio and loop Spidey’s dialogue at any point between now and release. Basically if Spidey’s mask is off you need Tom Holland, but every other scene happens without him.”
There’s no exact information on how much screen time Spider-Man will have in the film, but I was hoping that it would at least be the same amount of time that Evan Peters’ Quicksilver had in X-Men: Days of Future Past and that it would include one insane scene to get fans extremely pumped up for the character. According to this latest update, it sounds like that actually might be the case! The report goes on to explain that Spidey will have more screen time than we might be expecting and that it will include an exciting fight scene:
“Sources have recently made it clear to me that there’s more Spider-Man in this movie than I expected. Spider-Man doesn’t just swing by and say hi – gets his hands dirty in this Civil War. He fights. And his fight scene might be the one that really gets fandom excited – not because of how top tier the face-off will be, but because of how profoundly dorky and unlike any other big screen superhero fight it will be.”
The description of this fight scene being “profoundly dorky” and “unlike any other big screen superhero fight” is very cool to hear. This is exactly the kind of thing fans have been wanting to see in a Spider-Man movie, and it looks like we’re actually going to get it!
I’m really hoping that fans get their first look at the new Spider-Man at D23. It would be even cooler if they showed him in action, but I seriously doubt they’ll do that. If I were Disney and Marvel I would show off the costume but not show any footage of Spider-Man in any of the trailers or TV spots. Save that awesomeness for the movie!
Captain America: Civil War will be released in theaters on May 6th, 2016.
Spider-Man Fight Scene in CIVIL WAR is describbed as “Profoundly Dorky”
by Stone Marshall | Aug 3, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
If you didn’t attend this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, that means you missed out on all the cool new trailers for tomorrow’s hottest cinematic properties (mostly from DC Comics this year). This also means you’re probably searching YouTube for leaked versions of all the awesomeness you didn’t get to experience yourself, squinting intently just to make out every blurry detail some dude’s iPhone couldn’t capture.
Well, if that’s a case, here’s another leaked trailer worth your strained vision!
The cast and crew of Deadpool took to San Diego this year to promote their upcoming superhero flick, and brought a BADASS first trailer that hit the West Coast so hard, tremors could be felt up and down California (unconfirmed). But if you’ve somehow avoided all the Deadpool frenzy these last few years, here’s a quick recap: Ryan Reynolds is playing the Merc With A Mouth, it’s SUPER R-rated, totally breaks the fourth wall, and looks to redeem Reynolds’ first failed attempt at playing Wade Wilson.
If this first trailer is anything like the final product, I’d say that director Tim Miller is doing a damn fine job handling Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s supposedly dynamite screenplay. From what we can see, Deadpool is built on EVERYTHING his Wolverine incarnation isn’t. He can talk, his constant sarcasm is definitely present, he curses like a sailor, kicks loads of ass, and looks like an “avocado had sex with an older avocado.” Reynolds even squeaks in a dig at his lackluster run as Green Lantern as well, shouting “…and please don’t make the super suit green! Or animated!” right before his operation. Can someone please explain why this movie took SO LONG to get greenlit?!
Joining Reynolds are Morena Baccarin as Copycat, Ed Skrein as Ajax, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Gina Carano as Angel Dust, Andre Tricoteux as Colossus, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead (who has THE COOLEST NAME EVER according to Deadpool). It’s a cast that’s built for both action and comedy, which drives home the fact that Miller knows the Deadpool movie fans want – nay – NEED.
Since this is only the leaked version, be sure to check back for the official release of the Deadpool trailer, and then raise your chimichangas for a celebratory toast! Of course, you’ll have to wait until February 12th, 2016 for the film’s actual release, but based on this first taste of content, it’ll be damn worth the wait!
The Deadpool Trailer From SDCC Has Appeared Online, And I Hope You’re Wearing Brown Pants
