Pete Messum Reviews...

Ten years ago we had Fantastic 4 - a film adaptation of the popular comic book family consisting of Reed Richards, Susan and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, who suffered space radiation alongside the suspiciously-named Victor Von Doom and became the Fantastic Four and Dr Doom, who became pitted against each other. This was followed by Rise of the Silver Surfer back in 2007, and the franchise died quickly. Ten years later, we have a reboot - Fantastic Four - with a sequel scheduled for 2017 (ten years after the sequel to the last franchise). This film has been kept close under wraps by Twentieth Century Fox, but today, at long last, the first poster and trailer were revealed...only they revealed very little. While the trailer did seem to start off akin to Interstellar (but please can it be a lot better), it did work in teasing this new movie, even if it does seem to have come at least a month too late to do so. The visual FX musn't be anywhere near finished yet, although what

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)  was released in the US last year to meet critical aclaim, although the film was only released in the UK on New Year's Day, so its technically my first 2015 film review, and technically not. Yeah, its always great with staggered release dates... To be honest, I was hoping for the greatness promised by Birdman , but I had a horrible feeling that, like many awards-bait films, it really wasn't that great. Surprisingly,  Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)  was a fantastic film that seemed to come at just the right time for just the right audience and worked. While the story is certainly a topical one at the moment (to the extent where the film references Robert Downey Jr and Jeremy Renner in The Avengers ) its the wonderful quirky style of Birdman that brings it to life. The direction and cinematography in these sorts of films can be incredibly flat, resulting in a visually boring film that you kind of just sit thr

The one big problem with Marvel Studios' release schedule is that we are being hyped for one movie before the previous one has even come out, and because of this Ant-Man suffers greatly. There was a great hype over the first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron last September and even some hype for the second trailer, but Ant-Man had nothing, which is a shame. Ant-Man doesn't seem to adopt a wonderful fun and cheesy approach I wanted to see with Edgar Wright, and my fears of someone else trying to make the film more serious have come true. Ant-Man just seems a bit lifeless at the moment. The CGI looks unfinished, the dialogue in this trailer is 'meh' and the whole tease just feels like a waste of time - making the movie in question seem like a waste of time. Ant-Man will need to prove itself soon, because its got the problem that Guardians of the Galaxy didn't have - a not-so-great first impression. The trailer isn't bad and the film doesn't look bad, bu

So, several months ago I wrote an article explaining my thoughts on the first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a few days ago the second trailer was released, so I thought I'd better getting talking about it! The first thing I do not about the trailer is the inclusion of "I've Got No Strings" only a different variation, suggesting perhaps the music used in both trailers is by Brian Tyler as the Ultron theme for the film. Why that song? Maybe it will become more relevant in the film, save for the obvious metaphors. Or maybe its Joss Whedon's joke to the film being distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Ultron must truly be evil if he's quoting a beloved classic! One of the criticisms I've heard about this film is that it doesn't look particularly funny, despite the fact that most of the MCU trailers don't include the comedy aspects in the trailer. Iron Man 3 looked to be incredibly serious and doom-and-gloom, yet ended up being fun, hilari

After a mostly bloated and underwhelming selection of episodes (with some exceptions), Agents of SHIELD concludes the Autumn half of its second season with 'What They Become'. Reviewing the season so far as whole, I can't deny how disappointed I am with it. This time last year I was incredibly excited and just dying to see 'The Magical Place' (even if I had to wait an extra two months thanks to living into the UK), but right now, I'm not interested much in seeing Agents of SHIELD's return (whenever that's happening) and because of the disappointing nature of SHIELD, I'm not that bothered about Agent Carter. That being said, the first episodes of Agent Carter have had some good reviews, so hopefully it'll be better. I'm also judging this episode as a standalone episode in a series. Whatever problems the episodes beforehand may have had, I have judge this on its own merits. So, as a season so far, 'meh'. As a mid-season finale to t

Haven't watched Arrow yet? You have failed this city... Arrow: Season One  (2013/14). Starring:  Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Colin Donnell, David Ramsey, Willa Hollan, Susanna Thompson, Paul Blackthorne, Emily Bett Rickards, Colton Haynes, Manu Bennett and John Barrowman. Creators: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg. Plot: Oliver Queen returns after five years stranded on an island to Starling City, where he becomes the vigilante Green Arrow... Arrow: Season One  belongs to the CW / Warner Bros / DC Entertainment. Music is by Kevin Macleod and is royalty free. This video is for critical and entertainment purposes only. All copyright belongs to the rightful owners. No profit is made from the production of this video or any others.

While I am hoping to release a video sooner or later, I thought in case I don't, I'll release my thoughts on the best films of 2014 from all of the ones I have seen, which means that I can't write about The Lego Movie or The Imitation Game sadly. 10 - INTERSTELLAR If it wasn't for me having not seen  The Lego Movie  or  The Imitation Game, Interstellar wouldn't be on this list at all. However, it is what it is and while the film itself wasn't bad, it certainly was disappointing after Nolan's previous work, and so scraped an average rating from me. The characters were dull, the script was overlong and despite most of the film basing itself on real science, the ending just seemed to be nonsensical and barely explained. That being said, Nolan's direction was on top-form, the actors did a great job despite the characters and script and Hans Zimmer chucked in another good score for good measure. 9 - THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL I'm not familiar with m

The first season of Arrow seemed to come at the right time. In 2012, The Dark Knight Rises and Avengers Assemble came out at the cinemas, and became not only two of the highest grossing comic book movies of all time, but also two of the highest grossing movies of all time. For all those looking at what new TV Shows were starting that year, Arrow stood out as being based on a comic book, and following a fairly well-known superhero, brought into a more realistic world. Put simply, Arrow became a big success with fans and new audiences alike, so now that the series is currently on its mid-season break in its third year, I thought I’d make a spoiler-free review of Arrow Season One. Arrow follows Oliver Queen, son of a billionaire, who was thought to be dead for five years until he is rescued off the coast of the island of Lian Yu. However, when he returns home to his family and friends in Starling City, it becomes clear he is not the same man he was when he left. Half the series is

The last goodbye to Middle-Earth, until the studios get desperate. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans and Orlando Bloom. Director: Peter Jackson. Plot: Erebor has been reclaimed by Thorin and his company. However, as Lake Town suffers the wrath of Smaug, the armies of Middle-Earth prepare for a fight to death over the Mountain... The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies belongs to New Line Cinema, Warner Bros Pictures and Metro Goldwyn Meyer. Music is by Kevin Macleod and is royalty free. This video is for critical and entertainment purposes only. All copyright belongs to the rightful owners. No profit is made from the production of this video or any others.

Its finally here. The conclusion to Peter Jackson's epic The Hobbit trilogy and the final installment of what's been labelled as the Middle-Earth Legend. I suppose the big question is - was it all worth it? Expanding such a short book into three, three hour (I'm presuming The Battle of the Five Armies ' extended cut will be about that long) films? Well, the reason for this expansion of the book is mainly due to the book's style. A lot happens in terms of narrative across a few pages, but on screen to do it justice would take up a good half hour or so. The actual Battle of the Five Armies in the book is barely mentioned, with little detail, allowing director Peter Jackson to turn it into the next Battle of Helm's Deep. Unsurprisingly, the battle is pretty epic in both scale and content, and its clear the production team knew what they were doing. Its not the biggest battle of the Middle-Earth films, but considering this is only chronologically half-way throu