Official Deadpool Trailer Breakdown + Reaction

It's not a STRETCH to say Fan4stic was a FLAMING pile, a mess of a THING with a third act that should have stayed INVISIBLE

I've seen bad films that end bad, I've seen films that start off bad and end good and now I've seen a film start good, become mediocre, and end horribly wrong! 

Welcome to Chamorro Cinema where today I'm reviewing Fant4STIC. Was it good? Was it Bad? Maybe a little of both? Let's get to it...

♫ It's alright cuz' I'm saved by Kebbell ♫ (The Characters)

Look, when it comes to the characters in this film we need to address two things; First, the actors are not to blame for how bad this movie was...and Second, it was a poor concept in the first place to make Degrassi: The Baxter years.

Miles Teller, for my money, is one of the better actors of his generation and when you pair him with the likes of Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, and Fricken' Tim Blake Nelson, this is a dream cast...for a different movie.

Reed Richards has one of the highest regarded minds in the Marvel Universe. He is a brilliant

theoretician and has engineering skills on par with Tony Stark. In this film, Reed comes across as someone who definitely has some machining chops and is certainly a genius, but is rarely the smartest man in the room. He always seems like one cog in the machine, never the engine itself. This is at odds with the Reed Richards that we all know from the comics, in which he is constantly trying to solve scientific problems even to the detriment of his relationships with his family.

In the film he comes across more as a passive member of the team; he is content to allow Victor and Franklin to be center stage and he is happy to be in back playing his triangle. Even when he is pulling his Bruce Banner - guerilla science routine, he is still just working in another transporter...in this film he's a one trick pony. 

Sue Storm in the comics is considerably younger than Reed (he's six years her senior). She is not a

genius, as she has been portrayed in the films, but an actress that is romantically involved with Reed. She convinces Reed to let her and her brother accompany him and Ben on his shuttle test - they are bombarded with cosmic rays and badabing-badaboom they become the Fantastic Four.  Sue is one of the more interesting characters in the comics. She is the heart and soul of the team and having trained with Iron Fist, is one of their most competent fighters. Her husband's commitment to science and sense of nobility often drives a wedge between them, insomuch as they have been separated and she's had relationships with Namor, but it's her love for Reed which she has had since she was a 13 year old girl that always brings them back together.

In the film, you get the impression that Reed has a crush on Sue, but they never appear to be in any sort of relationship; in fact, the romantic plot threads seem like something Josh Trank was uncomfortable with. There is never any real chemistry between Reed and Sue, and Victor's unrequited feelings are straight out of the Twilight play book (lots of rapey stares). But beyond that, I think the film did a fair to middling job of setting up her character, I would have liked to see less intensity and more of that compassion that is part of the DNA of this character in the comics. 

Johnny Storm in the comics is an aspiring actor, ex-firefighter, ex-auto mechanic, that loves the

attention he receives as the Human Torch. He is often brash and a showboat but is always heroic.

In this film Johnny is a tough, street-racer type that is loyal to his friends. I think that Johnny has the best material in this film. He actually has interesting relationships with the other characters, the underpinnings of some strain between him and his golden child sister, a desire to be something more and to prove his worth to his dad, he's loyal to Reed and to Victor (even though they bust each others balls). He plays the character with a believable swagger and motivation that the campy version played by Chris Evans lacked.

Benjamin Grimm in the comics is a tortured soul. Of all his teammates he is the only one that can't

live a normal life. He was born into hardship and poverty. His older brother was killed in a street fight and these events molded him into a street tough. He eventually meets Reed in college, where he played football and studied engineering. He eventually becomes a test pilot and...well you know the rest. He is pretty much universally liked by every superhero in the Marvel Universe and has had a couple of long term relationships. His most notable relationship being with the blind Alicia Masters.

In this film Ben is a friend only to Reed. He has no other connections to any of the other characters. He is absent for half of act one, seen sporadically in act two, and assists in the epic showdown  couple of punches that comprises act three. There seems to be this wall between him and Johnny and Sue, they almost never interact. He doesn't seem to be a tough guy, athlete, or engineer. In fact, early on he seems more like Reed's lovely assistant than his partner. This makes us not care about him...He actually seems more like a henchman than a hero. He is supposed to seem tortured by the violence that he is forced to inflict by the government but none of that translates. 

Dr. Doom is one of the top tier Marvel villains and one that we all want to see done right in film...and

we are still waiting. In the comics, Victor is the child of Romani nomads (one of whom is a witch) in the fictional country of Latveria. He is a genius and studies alongside Reed Richards at Empire University. Reed tries to warn Victor about a flaw in a machine he's building but Victor presses on anyway; the machine explodes and disfigures his face (actually, Ben Grimm tampered with the machine to get back at Victor for being a douche). Dr. Doom then goes to Tibet, builds his mask and armor...learns some magic...takes over Latveria...becomes a super-villain intent on taking out Reed.

In the film we get some of that...Victor is from Latveria based on a piece of paper we see and an on-again off-again accent, and Reed did figure out how to make Victor's equipment work while they studied together at the Baxter building...but mostly Victor is a friend. He seems to like Reed and is more interested in complaining about the baby boomers ruining the planet than vengeance.  He is given the shaft in this movie. He is given almost no backstory or material to work with and then he is made into one of the most ridiculous movie villains ever. 

The Story is no more, there is only DOOM (SPOILERS)

So Fant4stic actually started out with some promise. I knew going into it that they were going for a younger cast so starting with Reed and Ben in 5th grade instead of college was inevitable, and for the most part I enjoyed those sequences. As a fan of the comics there were all sorts of goodies in there... references to H.E.R.B.I.E. and the fact that we saw Ben and his older brother's home life and the cycle of abuse that he went through; however, none of this pays off because Reed in this film is only focused on one thing...teleporting. 

If we are going to see an art film version of the Fantastic Four then go for it! We should have seen more of Reed's strained relationship with his parents...We should have seen Ben's brother die...We should have spent more time with these characters so that we can see the need to have a father figure, like Franklin Storm, take them in, and in the end it makes his death meaningful. 

We should have seen Ben get into the Baxter Institute, but fail out because he was always just the Vannah to Reed's Sajak. That could have been interesting and it could have given him more interactions with Sue, Victor and Johnny. 

My point is that if we are going to do the CW version of Marvel then let's commit -  let's see some sparks between Sue and Reed, let's have some of that tension between her and Victor...I know we are talking theoretical physics, but can't we have a little chemistry. Let's see Ben and Johnny have a little rivalry as the two jocks trying to be the Alpha Male among the egg heads...

But none of that is here - Ben is set up and then disappears.  We get a glossed over love triangle between Victor, Reed, and Sue that seems like a stalker and that nerdy guy that lets you copy his homework are pursuing a girl that they are both scared to talk to. We get a Johnny Storm that is a street-racer who can fix anything...but doesn't fix anything. We get a Victor that is supposed to be a jerk and difficult to work with, but he seems to bond fine with the team. It's all very vanilla...until the accident.

The accident is the best part of this movie...once the poop hits the fan we get these great horror elements to go along with the sci-fi ones. Victor is killed by the green stuff inside of glow sticks. The doors on the transporter won't close, letting rocks into Ben's capsule and Johnny is engulfed by flames. It was intense and well executed. The way Reed is stretched out and anguished over not knowing what happened to his friends, the way Johnny is writhing as he is in flames and Ben's pleas for help were all heart-wrenching and that was a perfect realistic take on the material. 

After that things go downhill fast. We have a one year time jump and Ben is a government weapon and Johnny is training to be the same. Sue is good at turning herself and other objects invisible, but still having a bit of trouble with flying and producing force fields. Reed is in Central America building another transporter...like you do, when there is a change to your biochemistry you use physics instead of, you know, um medical science. They eventually track him down because he is the only one who can finish Franklin's transporter...which makes no sense because you would have to assume that the Baxter institute had records of how that all worked the first time. There is some good material there between Ben and Reed on the plane but just like everything in this movie, there were glimmers of promise that never paid off.

After Reed fixes the transporter a team of astronauts goes in and they find that Victor is very much alive and dressed in a children's Halloween costume. He decided to come back to earth and kill everyone, then to protect his world he is going to merge Mustafar his world with ours. He has a bunch of abilities that range from telekinetics to making people explode to burning father figures and finally controlling everything on his planet. The Fantastic Four follow him through the portal and after a few punches he is destroyed and our dimension is saved in the most anti-climactic battle in the history of cinema (and that includes Aslan simply roaring to end the battle in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe). 

THE VERDICT

I was actually PISSED at the end of the movie. There was no reason on God's green earth (or Zero's barren wasteland) that this movie couldn't have worked. It had a stellar cast and a director that had demonstrated that he knew how to combine sci-fi with superheroes. I wanted this to be good and the first 20 minutes or so were, then I have to assume they talked to Sony and brought on whoever the story editor was on the Amazing Spider-man to just come in and screw crap up a little. Throughout this disaster of a film there were moments that could have been great, but it failed to deliver on it's promise. 

It wasn't as bad as Twitter made it out to be, but it was very disappointing. It was like losing your virginity on prom night; the night was romantic and magical, but the main event was messy, rushed and filled with empty promises.

But let me know what you think in the comments below. You can also follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Keep it locked right here to Chamorro Cinema for more NERDTASTIC NEWS with an ISLAND VIEW!

Thanks for reading! PEACE!

Breaking down the Official Deadpool Trailer!

Hafa adai loyal readers, most likely loyal reader (thanks sweets you are the best wife ever ;)...well the time has come and we have our first official Deadpool trailer!

Since it's not Wolverine, Spidey, the Avengers, Superman or Batman I have to assume that most of us don't really know who Deadpool is but your nephew Matthew who is really into all this superhero stuff is super excited about this Deadpool and you're curious to see what all the hullabaloo is about...am I right? You're in luck, welcome to Chamorro Cinema, tonight I'm talking (typing...talping?) the merc with a mouth!

Deadpool debuted in 1991 as a mercenary with super agility who is very similar to Deathstroke from DC; in fact, this comparison is even what inspired the characters name, Wade Wilson, an obvious homage to Slade Wilson, the real name of Deathstroke. He has an accelerated healing factor, which at times is better and more rapid than Wolverine's; he's survived decapitations and complete incineration.

When he initially appeared in the New Mutants #98, he is hired to take out Cable and the New Mutants. He appeared in X-force and other comics until landing his first mini-series in 1993. In 1997 he received his own solo series and has continued to be one of Marvel's most popular characters.

Now that the bases are covered... on to the good stuff!

Reynolds and Baccarin in Deadpool

The trailer opens with  a pre-Deadpool Wade Wilson and Vanessa Carlysle. It seems like we are going to see a very believable couple coming to terms with the fact that Wade has cancer of the liver, lungs, prostate and brain.

Copycat in the comics

For those of you not familiar with Vanessa in the comics, she is actually the mutant known as Copycat. Think J-Law in X-Men but she can alter herself on a cellular level, which means she can also mimic powers and some memories. She is experimented on by Weapon X (Yes the same Weapon X that experimented on Wolverine).

Jed Rees as the Recruiter

From here we meet "The Recruiter", played by the head alien on Galaxy Quest. He offers to turn Wade into a superhero (Deadpool hates superheroes). He accepts on the condition that they do right by him and not make the superhero suit green or animated, in a hilarious jab at Reynolds' last super hero outing Green Lantern. There are a few quick cuts to the experimentation/training he receives. In this montage, we are introduced to Ajax and Angel Dust.

Ed Skrein as AJAX in Deadpool

Ajax looks to be a pretty close translation to his comic persona. Francis (Ajax) has one name because, just like Cher, he has had so much work done that he can no longer feel anything  and seems to live only to subject people to sadistic torture.

Gina Carano as Angel Dust

Angel Dust is a mutant that they put way too much thought into...meaning her power is strange because it is too specific. She has the power to increase her adrenaline which gives her super strength, they couldn't have just gave her super strength because that would be crazy talk....that's too unbelievable...teleportation, controlling the weather, laser eyes all that is fine but once you say super strength, well that's a bridge too far.

From there we get a shot by shot from the "leaked" test footage. It's obviously less cartoony and some of the gags are in different places. It's an awesome sequence and it's a whole lotta fun! We see that the violence in this one and the language is going to be very HARD "R", which is what the fans say they want, but without those Bieber Bucks coming in from the tweens this one might not command Avengers sized boxoffice. We don't see his superhuman powers per say but we do see a huge hole shot in his forearm...so I'm guessing...just a hunch really, that that hole's gonna heal itself right up.

The real payoff is the appearance of Colossus and Nagasonic Teenage Warhead.

Andre Tricoteux taking over for Daniel Cudmore as Colussus  

 Colossus has been a mainstay of the X-Men since 1975. Piotr Rasputin is an artist, lover of Kitty Pryde, oh yeah and he can turn his whole frickin' body to metal! He also, as a side note, saved all of Mutant kind from the legacy virus at the cost of his own life, but comics being what they are, his body was stolen by an alien who returned him to life and then he became the Juggernaut...an avatar of the pheonix force...so yeah, that habitually shirtless guy who is in all the old X-Men movies for 5 minutes at a time? Turns out he's kinda a big deal!

♫♪ Teenage Wasteland ♫♪

Nagasonic is a different story, she debuted in the early 2000's as a student of Emma Frost. She's a telepath with limited precognition. Her big claim to fame is that she had recurring nightmares that Genosha would be destroyed...that's all. In this flick she is being played by Brianna Hildebrand, don't worry I've never heard of her either. She is a member of the X-Men and we will see her all suited up in yellow and blue.

Word is that they originally had Doctor Octopus Garrison Kane, filling this role but had to switch it due to budgetary issues. I guess cybernetic arms are more expensive than staring at someone with a really focused look.

After that we meet T.J. Miller, playing Weasel, who is essentially a more profane version of his character in Transformers: A.O.E. In the comics, Jack Hammer is am informant and arms dealer who is also Deadpool's best friend. We also meet Blind Al, played by Leslie Uggams, she is Deadpool's prisoner/maid. She helps out around the house, he doesn't kill her and keeps her safe.

So there we go! Fans have been clamoring for this movie since X-Men Origins and I think so far, so good. I'm shocked that Fox is letting Deadpool get its hands on so many mutants... but truthfully apart from Colossus none of them will make a huge impact on continuity (not like X-Men cares about continuity). I want to know what you think, leave me a comment below. You can also follow me on twitter @manuelmendiola or subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive even more Nerdtastic News with an Island View!

Thanks for reading! PEACE!

Robin in the new DC cinematic universe

Wait the Hunger Games Chick Isn't Robin? Well This is HAWKWARD!

And the rumor wheel in the sky keeps on turning...

It appears that Jena Malone (Hunger Games) is rumored to be playing Barbara Gordon in the upcoming Batman v. Superman, and not Carrie Kelly as initially thought. I mean, why would we think that? The film's story is only adapted from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and she only dyed her hair red and cut it...and she only looks the part and....okay, I think I can see why we might have thought that. 

Well, if we aren't going to see her sporting the iconic red and green costume, then the question I have is who should? Welcome to Chamorro Cinema and today I'm talking Robin!

1. Dick Grayson

This is the Robin most people know and love from the classic comics and the 60's Batman TV Show. Dick Grayson was brought to life in the 1990's by Chris O'Donnell during the Shumacher era and was a bright spot in the otherwise crappy Batman Forever film.

After premiering in 1940 looking like Errol Flynn at Christmas, Dick Grayson remained Batman's Sidekick until the 1980's when he left to become Nightwing. He even donned the cowl in the early 2000's after Bruce gets stuck traveling through time. 

This is the Sidekick I want in the BatFleck films - not as Robin, but as Nightwing! Based on the San Diego Comic Con trailer it appears that they have borrowed from the Death in the Family story line, which means that Jason Todd has already succeeded Dick Grayson as Robin and has been murdered by the Joker. This has had an obvious impact on Batman and he keeps Jason's costume in the bat cave and who better to help bring Bruce back from the heart of darkness than another member of the bat family. He could just be Dick Grayson (*Cough * Jared Padalecki * Cough) in BatFleck Begins:Dawn of the unfair comparison to the Nolan films and we can later see him as Nightwing, assisting during the climax before doing a solo film...of course that's once they've milked Bats for all he's worth. Not to mention his epic showdown with Jason in the "Battle For the Cowl" would make for some excellent material later down the road.

2. Jason Todd

Jason Todd took over for Dick Grayson in the 80's as a red headed carbon copy (except his parents were murdered by Killer Croc). This was ret-conned after Crisis on Infinite Earths and he was rewritten as a brunette street orphan who tried to give the Batmobile the ol' chop shop treatment. He was harder edged than the lighthearted Dick Grayson and so beloved that the fans of the comics voted to kill him off. He later emerged as the Red Hood, who is pretty much the bat family version of the Punisher. 

It appears that he is already dead during Batman v. Superman so not much of a chance that he will make an appearance as Robin. I would be interested in seeing him as the Red Hood, NOT AS THE JOKER, but it is a cool theory though. 

3. Tim Drake

Tim Drake was a fanboy that got the chance to actually become Robin in 1989 after displaying his mean detective skills. Drake is the leader of Young Justice and the Teen Titans. He also is the Robin that stars in both of those cartoons. He eventually becomes Red Robin.

Tim is the most likely candidate for the big screen treatment of the boy wonder. Dylan O'Brien (or, you know, whoever) will have a lot of material to pull from in bringing this character to life. I think they will have the easiest time adapting this character, and when the time is right transitioning him to Red Robin, a TV series where he makes burgers served with endless fries. With Dick Grayson headlining the Titans TV Show for TNT he is the most logical least confusing choice. 

4. Stephanie Brown

Tim Drake's love interest replaced him as the girl wonder after he quit. She was the only Robin to be "Fired" and was later killed by Black Mask. Since this is comic books, it was later revealed that her death was faked and she is now the new Batgirl. 

Since it's rumored that Jena Malone is playing Batgirl/Oracle it's most likely that Stephanie and Barbara will be combined into one character. It allows Robin and Batgirl to be romantically involved and since we know Leto's Joker likes to hurt people really, really... bad, they can adapt the killing joke and we can get the same emotional resonance as Steph getting tortured and killed by Black Mask.

5. Damian Wayne

See "Snowballs Chance" or "Marvel secures X-Men Rights from Fox". This will not happen in the BatFleck film unless we start talking Batman VI: The Undiscovered Cash Grab. There is too much foundation work to be laid before we can bring Damian to the screen. We need to introduce the League of Assassins and Talia al Ghul, their relationship and her having his kid and the kid has to be old enough to become Robin. The only way this works is if the film ties into the Nolan trilogy and Marion Cotillard reprises the role, or we gloss over all that stuff and we pump a whole boatload of exposition into the movie.

Let me know what you think. Leave me a comment below, Subscribe to my channel on YouTube. You can also follow me on Twitter @ManuelMendiola, where I talk a lot about comics and the films that I love. 

So keep it locked to Chamorro Cinema. Thank you for reading. PEACE!