Pete Messum Reviews...

Let me put some context behind this reaction - I haven't read The Hunger Games books. I started on Book 1, but got a bit bored, and the film left a sour taste in my mouth, so I decided to leave them to a time when I could actually get invested in the story and the rather peculiar writing style. I did however, see the first Hunger Games film, and it was a pile of rubbish. It constantly pandered to fans of the books by showing them exactly what they wanted to see without providing any context behind the story, characters or the world they inhabited. What exactly is the setting of The Hunger Games? I couldn't tell you without reading the book, or looking it up online, because the film doesn't explain. Why are there Hunger Games in the first place? Well, the film mentions something about unifying the Districts, but never actually explains why or what this actually has to do with the Games except for that the different Districts have two 12-16 year old citizens selected to ta

Ghosts of Christmas Past... Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead (2005). By Mark Gatiss. Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. Plot: The Doctor and Rose arrive in 19th Century Cardiff, where they encounter Charles Dickens - and some ghosts... Doctor Who is owned by the BBC. This review is for critical and analytical purposes only, and is made in fandom of the series. No copyright infringement intended.

Iron Man was taken. Marvel's Ant-Man (2015). Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas. Director: Peyton Reed. Plot: Thief Scott Lang, in a desperate attempt to get some money, takes on job to rob inventor Hank Pym's safe, until he realizes that he has stolen nothing more than an old suit. Pym's suit, it is revealed, allows him to shrink to ant-size, and back in the 1980s was the super hero Ant-Man, averting Cold War disasters. Pym enlists Scott to help him when his former assistant Darren Cross re-creates the technology on a military suit called the Yellowjacket, and they both, with help from Hank's daughter Hope, plan to steal the suit before it gets in the hands of the evil organisation Hydra. Ant-Man belongs to Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures. 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

Image © Marvel.com Ant-Man is a curious film. With over 10 years in development hell being pushed forward by director Edgar Wright, Ant-Man finally found a studio home at Marvel Studios and, after various delays, managed a 2015 slot. Alas though, Wright's vision was not to be and he left the project after "creative differences" with the Marvel execs and thus Peyton Reed took over as director and the film acquired two additional re-writers, including Scott Lang actor Paul Rudd. This production nightmare has finally made its way onto the big screen, and audiences await with baited breath as to how this has all turned out. To say Ant-Man is a small-scale film is factually correct and also a terrible pun, but its the one way to describe it. As many critics have said, its very much the opposite in scale to that of Avengers: Age of Ultron earlier this year, focused more so on a smaller set of characters and a simple heist job. The plot follows Scott Lang, who in a despera

Daredevil is a series that has developed a lot of hype since its release on Netflix. It seems few people were bothered about the two official trailers released by Marvel, and the sour taste of disappointment from Agents of SHIELD was still lingering, despite the modest success of Agent Carter in the US (which has been stuck on some awkward to watch channel here in the UK). I do worry that some people will set the bar too high for Daredevil to be great, but then again - it depends on what you're looking for. It feels very much like Marvel trying a new tone, approach and audience - more so for a teenage/adult or fan audience as opposed to more of a family audience like a majority of the films. While Agents of SHIELD also tried a darker approach in Season 2, it never really worked for the show. Daredevil, however, feels naturally suited to this tone, and delves into a story that feels very comfortable with its BBFC 15 certificate. I do feel whatever moments have actually been toned

I don't think I've ever actually taken the time out to make some kind of update article as to what the future of this website and its respective YouTube channel holds, but I'd also like to thank all my viewers/readers for actually taking the time out to watch/read what I thought of a film, TV series or audio drama. So yes, thank you. As for the updates, well I am hoping to see Ant-Man within the next week, and now with 7 free weeks (including a holiday, alas) video reviews might come more frequently. They go through phases of being released, and I understand that you're all long-overdue Arrow: Season 3, The Flash: Season 1 and Iron Man 2 reviews. Basically, the problem I have all comes down to actually writing these reviews. The Iron Man 2 review was all on-track until I read the review script aloud while recording and realized that the whole script was poorly structured and almost incoherent, funnily enough akin to the film itself. When I have A) the time and B) the m

I'm not looking forward to Suicide Squad. Don't get me wrong, I love the premise. I think the actors are great. I think the characters are great. As soon as that first image was revealed though, I realized it wasn't going to be a fun, slightly bizarre movie, but a dark, Gothic and tattoo-filled film to fit in with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's tonal approach. I thought the Suicide Squad were done really well in Arrow: season 2, with the characters previously established in earlier episodes so that the Suicide Squad episodes didn't need to have so much set-up of the villains. However, this film seems to want to juggle not three, but nine Suicide Squad members, the Joker and Amanda Waller as brand-new characters in a 2 hour movie. This means that 11 main characters will need to be fully-established, be given a character arc and have some kind of conclusion within a 2 to 2 1/2 hour movie. This simply won't work. This trailer looks so ble

X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014 was a brilliant film, proving to be the best of X-Men franchise so far, as well as being my 2nd favourite film of last year. X-Men: First Class before then was fantastic as well, even with some poor villains, and The Wolverine (2013) was also great, so even after X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand, the franchise has kept going. Days of Future Past seems to have reinvigorated 20th Century Fox's hopes for this franchise o get even bigger, with Fant4stic being sold as from the studio who brought you X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool and Gambit spin-offs coming next year, Wolverine 3 and Fant4stic 2 in 2017, X-Men: Apocalypse (the subject of this reaction) and Fantastic Four vs X-Men movie planned for 2018. Whoah. That's a hell of a lot of movies. Anyway, the SDCC trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse has been leaked online, so I decided to watch it and see what it was like. I was really surprised - Apocalypse looks brilliant. The

With Batman v Superman less than a year away and DC's billion dollar marketing campaign for their shared universe of films needing to be spent, San Diego Comic Con yesterday got a second trailer for Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the former of which has been released online in all its glory...all its 3 and 1/2 minutes of glory. Bloomin' heck! Talk about a long trailer! I worry that too much is being revealed too soon in this trailer. Sure, it was great to see Wonder Woman in action, but she was given no set-up or context in the trailer, so she almost didn't seem worthwhile including. That said, the studio will want to sell the character as early as possible to introduce her 2017 solo movie, and I'm sure many were happy to see her in action. I did feel far too much could have been cut from this trailer to make it a bit slicker, but I also understand that not too much seemed to be spoiled. Its interesting to see General Zod's dead body being left in the middle

After... that BBC America Doctor Who series 9 trailer, the BBC unveiled our first official glimpse of the new season of the long-running Sci-Fi show at San Diego Comic Con for the Doctor Who panel with Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez and Steven Moffat, and it looks fantastic! I should probably start off with the negatives. While the production team have finally turned the lights down, the whole series looks very under-saturated in terms of the colour palette, even if it doesn't look nearly as grim as the most recent Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, or even Warner Bros current DC Comics movies. Each episode seems to have a distinguished colour palette akin to previous seasons though, and the picture quality looks stunning in HD. I'm also disappointed to see a fleeting glimpse of the Daleks...doing nothing. Sure, bring back the Daleks, but give them something to do! Make them look scary in the trailer at least! I'm also not keen on a couple of shots taking up

Why can't wolves be good? Doctor Who: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways (2005). By Russell T Davies. Starring Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and John Barrowman. Plot: The Doctor finds himself on Big Brother. Rose finds herself on the Weakest Link. Captain Jack finds himself on a Television Series that even I don't remember. Doctor Who is owned by the BBC. This review is for critical and analytical purposes only, and is made in fandom of the series. No copyright infringement intended.

Old franchise, not obsolete. *The spoiler-free section of the review lasts until 4:59, where the spoiler-filled section begins.* Terminator Genisys (2015). Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke. Director: Alan Taylor Plot: When John Connor, leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah, from a Terminator assassin, an unexpected turn of events creates an altered timeline. Instead of a scared waitress, Sarah is a skilled fighter and has a Terminator guardian by her side. Faced with unlikely allies and dangerous new enemies, Reese sets out on an unexpected new mission: reset the future. Terminator Genisys belongs to Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures. 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.

Whoah! There's a hell of a lot of negativity surrounding this movie! Okay, first thing's first - ignore the haters and go see 'Terminator Genisys'. It deserves a good box office and probably needs some sequels if its going to to stand up to the criticisms its been getting since its release. Right, getting on with the review... 'The Terminator' in 1984 set a landmark in Science Fiction, and, followed by 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' in 1991, became a classic film series - only to be ruined by 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' and 'Terminator Salvation' in fans' eyes. So, here we are in the year of sequels (also known as 2015) with the fifth installment of the franchise, which hopes to set the stage for at least two further sequels to come. It does so by re-booting the franchise through some complicated time travel milarky that, lets face it, isn't worth focusing on. Basically, time has changed, and the future could become