The Movie Paradise

We are now four films deep into our legendary year for comic book movies. We had Deadpool which was awesome, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice which was decent, Captain America: Civil War which was awesome, and now we have X-Men: Apocalypse. After Bryan Singer returned to the series with the kickass X-Men: Days of Future Past, everyone was excited to see his next outing into the mutant franchise. Could this film be as good, if not better than Days of Future Past? It had a lot going for it. It was introducing fan-favorite villain Apocalypse, as well as giving us younger, new versions of the original cast. This movie was promised to have the new trilogy of X-Men films come full-circle, and set us up for the bright future of the franchise. While X-Men: Apocalypse is a good film, it doesn't live up to the expectations put on it, and does not compare to the excellence of its two predecessors. 
When the world's first mutant, the self-claiming god Apocalypse, reawakens, the X-Men …

Out of all the new upcoming Marvel movies, the one we know the least about is Thor: Ragnarok. We knew that Mark Ruffalo's Hulk would have a substantial role, that Cate Blanchett had joined to play the villain, and that previous love interest Natalie Portman has been bumped in favor of Tessa Thompson (Creed). Director Taika Waititi also joined to helm the project, in what was promised by Marvel to be Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) best and most epic outing. Other than that, not much has been known. But with the film gearing up to film in order to make its July of 2017 release date, more information has come out surrounding the film's characters and casting. 
Blanchett has been confirmed to be playing Hela, who rules the underworld and will be Marvel's first female villain. Thompson will play Valkyrie, an Asgardian warrior who has had a history with Thor in the comics, and will likely become the film's new love interest. However, among the character announcements were the…

I was never a big Star Trek fan, until J.J. Abrams came around and reinvented the franchise. I really like his first two films. I think they did a great job of semi-rebooting the franchise, and reshaping it for the next generation (pun intended). And I've been really looking forward to seeing the third installment in the series, now helmed by Fast and Furious director Justin Lin. I thought the casting of Idris Elba as the villain was fantastic, and I was excited to see Sofia Boutella from Kingsman: The Secret Service appear, but I was not a big fan of the first trailer. It felt too action-oriented, and more in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy rather than what the first two films were truly about. It felt like an unnatural turn for the series. So I've really been looking forward to seeing another trailer. I still have a lot of faith in this movie, and I was hoping for this trailer to get me excited again.
And it did, for the most part. It was definitely better than the firs…

Captain America: Civil War is right now in contention with Deadpool for being my favorite movie of the year. It was just an awesome movie to watch, and a fantastic theater experience. It satisfied every desire I had, and that airport battle is just so f*cking awesome! You can read our full review here. Since its release a few weeks ago, it has been breaking records left and right. People have said that this film is a disappointment box office-wise, but that's because they're judging it as if it were an Avengers movie. Compared to the previous two Captain America stand-alone films, Civil War has done outstanding! It made more in two weeks than what Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice made in five, and it's kept on going. And now we can officially say that Captain America: Civil War has crossed $1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office!

This isn't really overly surprising. Ever since its opening weekend numbers came out, and worldwide it had already made something l…

Proper Disney movies have never really been meant for me. I saw all the old animated movies, but they were never the pinnacle of my childhood. I reserved that for superheroes. But Beauty and the Beast was always an interesting story. I remember all the main beats of the animated film, and it is truly a classic story. So when I heard that it was among the films being remade in live action by Disney, I thought it had a lot of potential. You could make a really compelling film with today's technology. Plus, Disney just hit it out of the park with The Jungle Book (read our review here), so I'm game for anything they put out. So when I saw the first teaser trailer for the new Beauty and Beast was online, I was excited to see it.
This is very clearly a teaser trailer. We get practically nothing from this trailer. But still I liked it. We got a sweeping look at the mansion, with beautiful music playing in the background. We got to briefly hear Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen as Lumie…

So let's just say that the last Ghostbusters trailer wasn't very good. It captured the nostalgia and feel of the original Ghostbusters, but it didn't land really with the story or the comedy. So I've been waiting for a second trailer. I thought this could still be a really good, fun movie just with a bad first trailer. But as we've gotten closer and closer to its July release, we had yet to get another trailer. It's as if the studio didn't care about the bad PR the movie was getting from the trailer. But now we finally have a second trailer. I watched it with hopes that it would redeem the film, and actually make it look interesting. Sadly, it didn't really do that.
I do believe this is a better trailer than the first. But not by much. Again, it goes out of its way to spoil what could be big reveals (Chris Hemsworth being possess, the Marshmallow Man, etc.). The comedy was better, but still not very good. The only joke I like is the one Leslie Jones ma…

While the comic book movie genre has dominated theaters for almost two decades now, one thing it hasn't truly ventured into are female-led features. Sure, we had Elektra and Catwoman, but we've been trying to forget them ever since they came out. In the post-Marvel superhero movie era, we have not had a female-led film. Next year will produce our first, with the Gal GadotWonder Woman movie. In 2019, Marvel will put out its first in the form of Captain Marvel. But the lack of female comic book movies is palpable. There are so many rich characters in the comics (and in the movies. Just put out a damn Black Widow movie already!), and yet nothing has come out of it. But that may be changing very soon.
DC has announced plans to make a Harley Quinn movie starring Margot Robbie, continuing the character after her debut in this summer's Suicide Squad. This is awesome. Harley Quinn is a fan-favorite character, and Robbie is a brilliant actress. I think they could make a great, off-…

Two years ago today, I began The Movie Paradise. I didn't have any big ambitions with it-- I was simply a guy who loved movies and wanted to talk about them. So I created a blog and just started writing. I never expected it to become what it is today. After over thirty thousand hits, close to a thousand followers on Twitter, interviews and collaborations, I consider my site a success. For something that was never meant to be something to become something is an accomplishment in my eyes. Do I get millions of hits a day? Am I one of the top movie news sites on the Internet? F*ck no! Not even close. But I have created something that has become something, and that is achievement enough.
For two years I've continuously tried to develop and improve my site. I've redesigned the look of the site several times. I've tried out new editorial articles. Some have stuck and gone well, such as the Nerd Round-Ups. Others, not so much (remember when we had a podcast for like, five wee…

While many people were mixed on Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (read our review here), one thing was certain: Ben Affleck was awesome as Batman! He absolutely kicked ass, and may be the best Batman we've had to date. And now with Affleck being an executive producer on Justice League, all eyes are on his next few projects. While he is venturing out more into directing, he is also falling back on regular acting, such as in his next film, The Accountant. Affleck stars as a mathematician/secret agent. So he's pretty much stealing Matt Damon's two most popular films: Good Will Hunting and the Bourne films. I had no expectations for this movie, until I watched the trailer that was recently released.

I really liked this trailer. It is more than just a straight action film, but it feels more like a thriller. I think the tone of the trailer was fitting for the movie. The supporting cast looks great as well. Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, John Lithgow and Jon Bernthal are all tr…

Godzilla was a bit of a disappointment for me when I saw it in 2014. While it was big and spectacular, the writing was really lazy and most of the film was boring up until the end. But still I was excited to see director Gareth Edwards return to helm the sequel. I thought he did a good job reinventing the franchise, even if the movie itself wasn't the best. And Edwards has been attached to do the sequel for a while, now slated for an early 2019 release, after he finished directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But then plans for a Godzilla vs. King Kong movie emerged, and Kong: Skull Island began filing. Since Godzilla 2 became more than just a direct sequel of the original, we had not heard from Edwards at all. But now we know the future of his involvement in the franchise.
Edwards has officially dropped out of Godzilla 2, leaving many to speculate why. The consensus is that maybe he wanted to take a break from directing big budget films and do something smaller. But I have a fee…

After seeing Captain America: Civil War (read our review here), the Black Panther film quickly became one of my most anticipated upcoming Marvel films. The character, played by Chadwick Boseman, was incredible in Civil War, and was a truly great adaptation of the character. I am very excited for his stand-alone film, as I am very interested so see where they go with the character. Aside from maybe Spider-Man, Black Panther was the best part of Civil War. And with Ryan Coogler directing Black Panther, what's not to be excited about? But ever since Coogler joined, I've wondered if Michael B. Jordan would be involved in some capacity. Jordan has been the lead in Coogler's past two films, Fruitvale Station and last year's Creed. But with Boseman already playing the African superhero, it seemed as if Jordan would be sitting this one out... until now. 
Michael B. Jordan has officially signed on to be in Black Panther. Other than being excited, my first thought was that this…

There has yet to be a good video game movie adaptation. A lot of people think that may change with Warcraft this summer, but I don't like the looks of that film. It just looks like a boring, bloated, CGI mess. Now the other big video game movie coming out is Assassin's Creed, and this is a project I was interested in even before this trailer. First of all, I really like the video game series. It is very worthy of a cinematic interpretation. But that aside, look at the talent behind it! You have Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard starring, with Justin Kurzel from Macbeth directing. This movie has a lot of potential to be the first good video game movie adaptation, so I had high expectations when I watched the trailer. And I can safely say they were (mostly) met.
I really liked this trailer. It has a really cool vibe to it. It captures the feeling of the video games, with its visuals and its style. The actors all look fantastic in their roles. The action choreography looks…

It's official. After his cameo in X-Men: Apocalypse, Hugh Jackman will make his final appearance as the adamantium-clawed hero in next year's Wolverine 3. We don't know much about the project. We do know that it will (very loosely) follow the Old Man Logan story. It will in fact be set in the future, and will co-star Patrick Stewart's Professor X in a "buddy-cop" style film. But fan have been clamoring for years to see an R-rated Wolverine movie. In the staunch PG-13 X-Men universe, the odds were extremely unlikely. Wishful thinking, right? But after the explosive success of Deadpool, a hard-R property also made by Fox, those odds became a whole lot more possible.
In a recent interview with Collider, Wolverine 3 producer Simon Kinberg talked about the feel of the film, and may have given away its potential rating. Kinberg said: "It's a very radical, bold, different Wolverine than you've ever seen in any of these movies... it takes place in the fu…