Suicide Squad

                  I've gotta admit, this movie rocked. I haven't really been a fan of DC Movies much what with BvS being such a disappointment (except for Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman) and Green Lantern being a flop (except for Blake Lively, I think you know that the girls were the only good parts in those films). But I highly respect Christopher Nolan for making The Dark Knight Trilogy (one of the best trilogies I've ever seen). So anyway, I really enjoyed this movie. It was real fun!

S   U   I   C   I   D   E      S   Q   U   A   D

                  Superman is dead. The US Government is afraid of future superhuman threats. The question that they have been asking is “What if the next Superman comes and kills us all?” What are

they gonna do? The idea of one particular individual, Amanda Waller, is to assemble a team of very dangerous people who can take on a threat as big as a superman.

On this team are Deadshot (Will Smith, Concussion, Independence Day, MIB Trilogy), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Terminator: Genisys), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez, Quarantine), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Pompeii, Concussion), Katana (Karen Fukuhara), and the Enchantress (Cara Delevingne, Paper Towns). The film takes some time to give background to some of the villains in the beginning, then continues onto the main plot.

I will relay the story of the Enchantress, seeing as it is quite important to the rest of the

film. An archaeologist by the name of June Moon goes hunting for ancient artifacts, and she landed in the wrong hole. She found a little voodoo doll it looks like, and she accidentally snapped the head off of it. Then a dark being came out of it and possessed her. June now hosts the Enchantress.

The US Government then read up on the Enchantress and saw that whoever had her heart would be able to control her. So they looked for her heart and found it. Alright so the trouble starts when June and her boyfriend, Rick Flag, the military leader of the Suicide Squad, are in their room together. June starts writhing and then when Rick goes over to her, she's turned into the Enchantress.

She teleports out of the room and goes to the military vault where they are holding another voodoo doll that holds her brother. She then teleports to a local subway men's bathroom and breaks the head off the doll. The spirit comes out and possesses the man closest to it. The Enchantress tells her brother to gather his strength, because she's got a plan to make the humans bow down to them again. Apparently, they were considered gods back in the time before they were confined in the dolls.

So the Enchantress poofs outta there and back to Rick and turns back into June. Meanwhile, the brother goes destroying the subway and eating people… I guess? I think that's what

happens. But basically, he gets super strong and starts to destroy all of New York. So June is called in by the US Government while the Suicide Squad is being rounded up. June and Rick go into the sewers to blow a bomb at the brother. In order to do that, June has to let the Enchantress out.

June turns into the Enchantress, but instead of taking the bomb to the brother, she sets it off and then poofs outta there. Rick shuts it off and reports that the Enchantress bailed. Pissed off, Amanda Waller starts stabbing the Enchantress's heart. The brother gives her sister some power so that she can start executing her plan to rid the world of its armies so that they'll bow down to the Enchantress and her brother.

The Suicide Squad comes together and they go in to stop the Enchantress, and well… I'll let you see how that plays out. It's worth your time, probably one of the best DC Films since Man of Steel. Yes, I enjoyed that movie, but hated BvS. Sorry folks.

 S   U   I   C   I   D   E      S   Q   U   A   D

Ratings:

Family Friendliness- 7/10 Stars This isn't a film to take your kids to. I mean, it's funny, but it's kind of dark. The fact that it takes place during one evening contributes I guess.

Story Line- 7/10 Bats (as in baseball bats) It was a good story, but it was kind of weak. I mean, it was enough to carry the movie through to completion, but it wasn't astounding. Now I haven't mentioned the Joker at all because his role was so small, it's like they didn't even need him. He wasn't that important. But everything was well done.

Story-Action Balance- 8/10 Guns  For the amount of story that was present, there was a very good balance between the action and what the story being told. The action was really cool, especially El Diablo. He was awesome near the end of the movie. I won't say what happens but it was awesome. 

Soundtrack- 10/10 Skulls Now I don't normally do this with my movies, and it might become something that I regularly include, but I cannot neglect how amazing this soundtrack was. There was an awesome blend of classic 70's and even some rap like Eminem that really brought the whole film together and gave it so much character. I absolutely loved it, and I've been listening to it on Spotify over and over again. PLEASE GIVE IT A LISTEN!!!

Comic Accuracy- 8/10 Enchantresses  I don't really follow DC Comics, but for what I know, they did a very good job for their casting. Margot Robbie was a gem, Adewale was a funny but menacing Killer Croc, Jay Hernandez was a cool Diablo, but the only thing I wasn't too happy with was Jared Leto as the Joker. I will always love Heath Ledger, and I don't think that Leto could live up to Ledger's legacy. But I'm hoping that they'll take Leto's Joker into a new direction where I can learn to respect him for his context as the Joker, like Jack Nicholson in Michael Keaton's Batman.

Overall- 8/10 Hearts  Now I will admit that I gave this an additional rating (soundtrack) to give the movie review a bit of a boost for its overall score, but I really loved this movie. I would see it two more times in a row and I'd still love it. I highly recommend this film. DC Fanboys and Fangirls... here is a DC Film worth seeing and giving credit. The critics were definitely wrong about this one.

Bibliography:

"Suicide Squad Poster" <http://sdccblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Suicide-Squad-2016-Poster.jpg>

"Suicide Squad Enchantress" <http://cdn.hitfix.com/photos/6282994/suicide-squad-cara-delevingne-enchantress.jpg>

"Suicide Squad" <http://img.cinemablend.com/cb/c/e/b/a/4/6/ceba46ed7c7cd79ac9d8670ea86cb41b6644604b95aac7927cde7e2655f97c19.jpg>

"Suicide Squad Trailer" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmRih_VtVAs>  

Jason Bourne

It's been awhile I'll admit since I blogged, but I've seen three movies worth reviewing, so those will be put up over the next three days. Sorry for the inactivity, but you will still see me around here and there whenever there's a good movie to talk about. So without further-a-do, Jason Bourne!

J A S O N B O U R N E

Jason Bourne has been living off of the grid for a number of years after the events of The Bourne Ultimatum. He's been going around fighting for money, knocking them out with only one or

two punches. Nicky Parsons has also been off the grid trying to expose the CIA’s secret operations. She goes to a warehouse and hacks into the CIA’s mainframe and pulls out files on all of their operations from Treadstone to Black Rock, a new op that, we find later on, will spy on everyone in the USA through an app.

When Nicky downloads the files, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a computer analyst, puts a malware on the files so that once they're opened, the CIA can track where the files are. So Nicky gets the files and then goes to find Bourne in Germany during a protest. All the while, the CIA follows Nicky and they are trying to get the files back.

They send an agent there to go take her out, but the they soon find out that Bourne is involved. Heather Lee is the head of the operation to get Parsons and hopefully bring Bourne in or to kill him. Tommy Lee Jones was the one to give Heather the operation and wants Bourne dead. So there's a whole skirmish where Bourne takes out the Alpha Squad that was sent in and is trying to avoid Bravo.

Nicky and Bourne split up so they can meet up somewhere else. The agent sent in to take out Nicky arrives and is about to run Nicky over but Bourne comes in on a cop’s motorcycle. They book it and the agent receives instructions from Lee to go to a building, assume a sniper position and take out Nicky. He assumes the position and while he's waiting for the shot, Nicky tells Bourne there's more to Treadstone that involves his father.

Just as she says that, she gets shot and Bourne and Nicky fly off the bike. The sniper however does not move out. He stays behind waiting for Bourne, which Lee picks up as the two having history. Bourne doesn't show in time so the sniper finishes Nicky off just as she throws the drive containing the CIA files to Bourne. Then he leaves. Bourne grabs the drive and goes to a hacker who opens the files.

As soon as the files are opened, Lee tracks Bourne down as he's reading the files. Should I say what they're about? Well, all I'll say is that they reveal more about Bourne's origins. Lee accesses

a phone nearby and uses the phone to wipe the drive, then she calls Bourne. She wants to bring him in. Tommy Lee Jones doesn't.

So he takes the phone from Lee and keeps Bourne occupied while a police force is inbound. Lee texts the phone telling Bourne to get out. She does some research on Bourne and finds out that she could use his feeling of missing a part of himself after leaving Treadstone to bring him in. She asks Tommy Lee Jones to head an operation to get Bourne cornered. He agrees but calls the agent that killed Nicky and makes his own operation with him. As Nick Fury would call it, Jones compartmentalizes. The day of Lee’s op, the agent kills Lee’s Alpha and Bravo Teams and goes to kill Bourne.

There's a lot more that happens afterwards, and I've told enough. It's worth watching trust me. There's plenty of action, punching, explosions, and a lot of cool CIA Agent stuff that only Bourne can pull off because he's a freaking boss. I think they should have him say "I'm Bourne," because he's just as badass as Batman, if not more so.

Ratings:

Story-line- 8/10 Stars The story isn't very important, but it does carry the movie so that it doesn't seem like it's just another Michael Bay film where everything blows up. It's also interesting to see how this one kind of ties off the other four Bourne films, and gives more insight into who Jason is and why he joined.

Family Friendliness- 7/10 Agents More for your 13 year olds and up, there is a lot of blood and fighting and violence. A lot of things go BOOM but it's really cool to see.

Story-Action Balance- 8/10 Pistols There is a nice balance of where the story is continued and how the action comes into play because of the story. There really isn't a place where you'll lose where the story left off, so you'll be able to keep up.

Overall- 8/10 Agencies This is a phenomenal movie, and I loved seeing Matt Damon coming back to reprise his role as the agent that could kick James Bond's butt anytime anywhere. They should make a movie about that, I'd love to see Bourne kick Bond in the face. Sorry 007 lovers.

J A S O N B O U R N E

Bibliography: "Jason Bourne" <https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/jason-bourne.jpg>

"Jason Bourne Heather Lee" <https://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/10457/283659_022.jpg>

"Jason Bourne Tommy Lee Jones" <http://3ipycv2ugat81cqgps20hwke.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Jason-Bourne-2786582.jpg>
"Jason Bourne Wallpaper 2016" <https://www.cinematerial.com/media/posters/md/u7/u7kdx60p.jpg?v=1468076422>

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

You thought X-MEN III was awful, and you were right. But that's because Bryan Singer wasn't behind the wheel. Get ready for the next chapter in the X-Men Cinematic Universe that will blow your mind and give a few much needed answers that have been raised ever since X-MEN: First Class came out. So buckle up and settle in for a helluva ride.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD! 
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!


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                  The film begins in Egypt at around 6000 BC with a ritual taking place. The ritual is for Apocalypse because he's gotten old, and he wants to transfer his conscience to

Apocalypse

another body so that he can basically be immortal. 

                   The ritual begins and his Four Horsemen, basically his four disciples, are present to protect him. However, the soldiers of the Egyptian guard have a plan up their sleeves. "Death to the false god!" they yell as they collapse the giant pyramid where the ritual is taking place. This is Apocalypse's weakest moment, so he can be killed. However, the Four Horsemen protect him, and he's buried. 

                    The transfer wasn't completed, therefore Apocalypse is in a kind of suspension. He's not dead, and he's not alive. He stays there for most of history until the film fast forwards to the year 1983. Here, the film follows multiple story lines, and the way I explain them may not be in the order of the movie. So, sorry in advance. 

                     Eric Lehnsherr (Magneto) has tried living a normal life after the events of X-

The Four Horsemen

Men: Days of Future Past, and has so far been successful. He's married and has a 10 year old mutant daughter who can influence animals. They're living in peace until there's an accident at the metal plant he's working at and he saves a guy from being crushed. 

                     Now if you remember back to 10 years prior, Eric turned the world's cameras on himself, and he was known as a mutant to be feared. Naturally, all of the workers saw that on tv and report Eric to the authorities. They capture his daughter and want Eric to turn himself in.

                    However, as Eric is being taken away, his daughter becomes angry and animals begin reacting, starting to encircle the officers. One of them has a bow and arrow poised and ready to fire, and he gets distracted by the birds and lets fly. The arrow pierces

The 1983 X-Men

Eric's daughter through into his wife. Pissed off as you can imagine, he kills all of the officers. He then proceeds to kill the men at the metal plant where he works. 
                    Moira McTaggart has continued as an undercover CIA Agent for the past 21 years, and this time we find her in Egypt. She followed two men that have the mark of Apocalypse. They're in a kind of cult. She follows them into the tomb that we know contains the suspended body of Apocalypse, and she walks in on a ritual to revive him.
                    He's revived and teleports out of his tomb to find four new Horsemen. His teleportation literally shakes the entire earth, and the X-Men feel it. Jean reacts to it and sees the end of the world in a dream. Turns out that that's not too far off from the truth.
                     Apocalypse comes across a young girl who can control weather and recruits her as a Horseman. This female figure we know as the famous Storm. Fun act, Storm is actually Stan Lee's favorite female Marvel character. Anyway, Apocalypse enhances Storm's powers so she can unlock her full potential. 
                     At the same time, Mystique has continued to help mutants outta trouble, one of them being Kurt Wagner, otherwise known as Nightcrawler. He's fighting Angel and she saves him. They then go to Xavier because Raven hears that Eric is in trouble in

The Ritual Pyramid for Apocalypse in Egypt, 6000 BC

Germany because he killed a bunch of people. 
                    Back to Eric. Just as he's about to kill the men in the metal plant, Apocalypse teleports to him with Angel and Psylocke. He brings him to Auschwitz, where Eric first used his powers. There, Eric discovers he can summon metal that is buried deep beneath the surface of the Earth. Magneto's true potential is shown here, and it is just an awesome display of his true power, and I was happy I got to witness it.
                     So hearing about the giant earthquake that Jean reacted to, Charles goes to Cerebro and finds Moira in Egypt, coming out of the newly collapsed tomb. They then go visit her in Langley. She tells them about Apocalypse and know that he's bad news. From here, it picks up. I don't wanna spoil anything more than I already have, but you should go see it. It's awesome.

Ratings: 
Family Friendliness- 7/10 X-Men Definitely not for the little ones. Then again, how many family friendly movies are out there right? Kids ages 12 and up is a good range for the film. There's a lot of violence, and a swear word or two; maybe three. There is some blood, and it's quite realistic, but other than that it should be good. No sexual content of any kind whatsoever.
Story Line- 9/10 Horsemen The story was phenomenal. Now, I don't keep up with X-Men as much, but I sure appreciated the movie. It was totally awesome, and a lot of things came into play, like the classic X-Men suits. You've just gotta remember that there's been a lot of time jumps in between the newest X-Men movies so that you don't get confused. 
Story-Action Balance- 9/10 Cerebros It was very nicely balanced between all of the action fight scenes, the comedic relief, and the overall plot. Nothing felt too overwhelming, and it was always fun to get a good laugh from almost every character. Even Xavier had a few moments!
Overall- 8/10 Jets You can do the math if you'd like, but I think that the movie was very good. It was definitely a step up from X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: First Class. Each film keeps getting better and better, kinda like the Avengers films, and I'm glad that the X-Men Cinematic Universe has taken a turn for the best. I can't wait to see what Bryan Singer's gonna do next!

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A   P   O   C   A   L   Y   P   S   E

Bibliography: "X-Men: Apocalypse Trailer" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jer8XjMrUB4>

"X-Men: Apocalypse Apocalypse" <http://cdn1-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/gallery/bts-x-men-apocalypse/xmen0007.jpg>

"X-Men: Apocalypse The Four Horsemen" <https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1HAs4XLhSZw/maxresdefault.jpg>

"X-Men: Apocalyspe Poster Defend" <http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/x-men-apocalypse-poster-defend.jpg>

"X-Men: Apocalypse Pyramid" <https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2016/04/cf7941ae4cc1-600x400.jpg>

Captain America: Civil War

No words are needed. But there are definitely spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk. I'll put the warning in bold too, just in case you didn't catch it.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

C A P T A I N   A M E R I C A:

C I V I L   W A R

                  The film begins with the Avengers on another mission in Sokovia, looking for the villain who calls himself Crossbones. He's been evading the Avengers for awhile, but they've got him

now. Cap and Crossbones fight, and then Cap has him kneeling in front of him. He interrogates him and Crossbones pulls a grenade pin. 
                          But Scarlet Witch contains the blast and throws him into a building where he blows up, killing hundreds of people. This sends a bad message to the rest of the world about the Avengers, and for good reason. Therefore, a world conference is called, and the Sokovia Accords are adopted by over 150 countries to regulate the Avengers. 
                          Captain America sees this as bad because if the Accords are adopted (and they are), that means that where the governments of the world may want the Avengers doesn't necessarily mean that that's where they need to be. In other words, their right to choose is taken away so as to hopefully

protect the world. 
                          Present at the conference is Black Widow, T'Challa (prince of Wakanda), and many other world leaders. Cap has officially gone rogue, A-Wall, whatever you wanna call it. But him and his team are wanted and are officially considered vigilantes. 
                          Now this isn't all there is too the whole movie. Baron Zemo is actually the mastermind behind the entire operation, because his family died in Sokovia. Therefore, he's angry at the Avengers. However, he knows that he himself cannot destroy them, so he makes it so that they destroy themselves by staging murders that are supposedly done by the Winter Soldier. 
                          Later on you find out that Bucky is innocent, but at one point he does get triggered and turns all bad. But it's okay because he turns back into regular Bucky as soon as he's knocked out. Along for the ride is everyone's favorite comedic hero, Spider-Man! Then we get to see Giant Man and Black Panther kick some serious butt. 
                          If you haven't seen the film already, get up off of your butt and go see it. It's totally worth the price of admission and popcorn and pop. Just do it, you won't regret it.


Ratings:
Family Friendliness: 7/10 Shields- Now, I get it, it's a Marvel movie, and there's nothing sexual or anything along those lines. But you gotta think of the parents that don't like language, and there's a little bit of that. Plus there's a helluva lotta fighting, and there's some scenes with minimal blood. It's still a great film though.
Story-line: 8/10 Accords- Now if you're anything like me, you'd be disappointed that it wasn't the X-Men that caused this whole thing like in the comics. But if you are anything like me, you'll be happy that they made do with what they had. Also, they did a good job of bringing back any and all of the major happenings from the best movies that were devastating to the world. It really ties the MCU together, and I'm happy with everything that they did. Especially with Spider-Man and Black Panther.
Story-Action Balance: 9/10 Webs- Alright this is a new feature. For this film, it did an excellent job of balancing the story and action. While the action was happening, you knew why it was happening. It wasn't a Fast and Furious, "wait, they're crashing in cars cuz why???" You could actually follow.
Comic Accuracy: 7/10 Claws- I'm sorry, I'm just a real stickler about this, but to be honest, what with Marvel had, they did a phenomenal job. Pick up the comics and read. They're totally worth the hours of following.
Overall: 9/10- Technically, the score should be 7. But that's okay, I gave it a curve. If you see it, you'll know why. And it was a pretty generous curve at that too.

C A P T A I N   A M E R I C A:

C I V I L   W A R

Bibliography: "Captain America: Civil War Both Sides" <http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/captain-america-civil-war-1280x641.jpg>

"Captain America: Civil War Spider-Man" <http://static1.techinsider.io/image/56e1d83e9105844e018b598e-2158-1136/captain-america-spider-man.jpg>
"Captain America: Civil War Trailer" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us>

The Jungle Book (2016)

Who doesn't love the Bare Necessities? Or who doesn't Wanna Be Like You? "I wanna walk like you, talk like you tooo!!!" Jon Favreau does a magnificent job of bringing the beloved Disney cartoon to life. Get ready, fasten your seatbelts, for The Jungle Book.

WARNING!!! SPOILERS!!!

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J    U    N    G    L    E

B    O    O    K

                  Mowgli is a man-cub that changed the jungle forever. And Bagheera recounts his story. The movie begins with Mowgli running from Bagheera and running with the pack of wolves that he was raised with. He's been raised a wolf, but he hasn't grown as fast as a wolf. 

                  We see how Mowgli's been raised as the pack's own, and he is still learning. But he's family.

                  The year drags on and there's a dry season. No rain falls for a long time, and the Peace Rock is exposed. This is the rock where, if there isn't enough water for everyone, they all go to the rock to share the remaining water. There's no hunting, fighting, or preying of any kind. 

                   The rock is exposed for everyone... including Sheer Khan. Sheer Khan is a fierce tiger looking for revenge on a certain man-cub, Mowgli. Sheer Khan's face is partially burned, and he is blind in his left eye. At this point, Sheer Khan has waited about eight or nine years to finally hunt

down Mowgli. He tells Akeela, the leader of the Wolf Pack, that he wants Mowgli, or animals will die. 
                   So begins Mowgli's journey to go to the man-village. Along the way, he encounters Kaa (Scarlett Johansson, Lucy), Baloo (Bill Murray), and King Louie (Christopher Walken). It is an unforgettable journey that will leave you wanting to see it again and again. Oh, and there's a pretty epic battle with Shere Khan (Idris Elba, Thor: The Dark World). 


Ratings: 
Family Friendliness: 8.5/10- No movie can be perfectly family friendly, but this movie is quite near it. There is some killing that may even shock a parent, and it does get pretty violent. But those moments are always outweighed by the fact that the rest of the film is fun! Get ready for those musical numbers!
Story-line: 9/10- Jon Favreau does a phenomenal job of staying close to the original story, and you feel like the cartoon hopped right out at you and was replaced with real-life creatures and a real boy!
Re-watch Probability: Very High (9/10)- Numbers say it all.

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B    O    O    K

Bibliography: 

"The Jungle Book 2016 Poster" <http://media.comicbook.com/2016/01/the-jungle-book-2016-poster-header-165110.jpg>

"The Jungle Book Bare Necessities" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dhSdnDb3tk>

"The Jungle Book 2016 Shere Khan" <http://static2.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/jungle-book-first-clip-feature.jpg>