"They F*cked Up The Mandarin!"
No they didn’t. At best, The Mandarin has always been a B or C list villain, so what makes him so different to the numerous other villains that have been reimagined during their transition to the big screen? The reaction is easily explained; Marvel managed to fool fans and not everyone liked the fact that they had the wool pulled over their eyes. It was a damn clever twist that was extremely well received (with raucous laughter) in both the press screening I attended and the two regular showings afterwards. Did it make some people mad because of the way the character had been depicted in advertising? Marvel never lied to us, they just didn’t show us the full picture! At the end of the day, we’re talking about an extremely lame villain who simply did not fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on Iron Man. He’s outdated and not even a recent update from Matt Fraction was able to make him even remotely relatable or interesting. Instead, The Mandarin became a useful way of telling a solid story in
Iron Man 3 and it seems to me that the villain only developed a vocal fanbase AFTER the release of this movie...
"There Was Too Much Destruction In Man of Steel’s Final Battle!"
Seriously? The two most powerful beings on Earth go head to head in the middle of one of the biggest cities on the planet and you don’t think there’s going to be some major collateral damage? Superman has never had the opportunity to fully test out his powers, while Zod has absolutely no interest in the humans; he wants to kill them all and turn the Earth into Krypton. Widescale destruction was inevitable and with the lives of billions on the line, Superman’s #1 priority was stopping Zod once and for all. He had no time to protect the civilians on such a small scale when so many lives were at risk. And let’s face it; had this final battle taken place in the North Pole or out in the desert, the complaint would have been that there wasn’t anywhere near enough destruction!
"The Ending Of Star Trek Into Darkness Was Too Similar To Wrath Of Khan!"
Many viewed the way that
Star Trek Into Darkness ended as being far too similar to
Wrath of Khan. While there were some elements which were clearly taken straight from that movie, many seemed unable to tell the difference between paying homage and ripping something off. J.J. Abrams’ movie did the former, but with a twist and some added emotional depth and action sequences. The fact is, the majority of people who saw this movie won’t have seen
Wrath of Khan. You could even argue that no one under the age of 30 (perhaps older) has even heard of the actor who played the villain in that so-called classic! To compare the two movies – has everyone forgotten that they’re set in the same universe, just with an altered timeline? – in this respect is more than a little ridiculous, especially after that powerhouse performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Get over it Trekkies.
"The Wolverine Was Average At Best..."
I got sick of seeing this particular comment after posting my review of
The Wolverine and then in subsequent articles about its success at the box office. Average? Really?! I went into this movie with unbelievably low expectations – I enjoyed James Mangold’s
3:10 To Yuma, but
Knight & Day was excruciatingly bad – but this was a damn good Wolverine movie. No, it wasn’t all that faithful to the comic book version of the Japan saga, but it WAS true to the character. Incredible action sequences, cracking dialogue and one of the best after-credits scene ever featured in a Marvel movie,
The Wolverine more than made up for
X-Men Origins: Wolverine and both set the stage for
X-Men: Days of Future Past and delivered the Wolverine movie we’d all been waiting for. Fox have made A LOT of mistakes, but hating on them this time was hugely unjustified.