Godzilla (2014)

Well the long anticipated Hollywood Godzilla is here and I have to say it's pretty good and unlike Hollywood's previous attempt this is recognisably based on the classic Godzilla movies produced by Toho studios in Japan.

I guess the biggest problem this movie faces is being compared to last years Pacific Rim which was also a movie featuring giant monsters along with giant mechanical battle suits destroying huge cityscapes and while that also happens in Godzilla ( minus the giant battle suits ) I was hoping for a film that was perhaps a little lighter in tone and a little more fun, I loved Pacific Rim but I only rather liked Godzilla.

This new Godzilla has outstanding production values as you would expect, there has been some criticism of aspects of the redesign of the title monster but I rather like the new look myself, I'm sure they will tweak things a little in any future sequels but I'm hoping they don't change things too much.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was Bryan Cranston's performance in it, I thought he was grating and very annoying and I usually find him to be quite likable as an actor, thankfully he didn't have to carry the entire movie.

Godzilla is a good movie but I don't think it will be known as great one, I think things need to lighten up just a little and have a bit more fun but this new franchise is off to a good start and seems to be in good hands.

Superman: Ending Battle

Basically this is the collected version of a multi-issue battle with no real plot and extremely average to poor in places art.

It might be someones idea of fun but it wasn't mine.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Blu-ray

I'm a big Star Trek fan and anyone who knows me knows at least that much about me, I own all the TV series and the movies but it always bothered me that the post 60s TV Star Trek series looked pretty crappy even on DVD, I never knew why but they just didn't look as good as I thought they should compared to other shows that had been released on DVD.

Well thank goodness for high definition I guess because sensing the opportunity to make a buck the powers that be in TV land have located all the individual elements used to make the show, dusted them off and reassembled the episodes again for a Blu-ray release and the result is rather impressive.

This is Star Trek: The Next Generation looking and sounding far better than it has before considering these episodes were made in the 80s, the have their flaws in places to be sure but I suspect this is as good as the show is ever going to or could look.

Is it worth the upgrade if you have he episodes on DVD ?, probably only if you are a big fan of the show, season one was pretty uneven in terms of story quality, the Next Generation team hadn't hit their stride yet in terms of storytelling or in some cases acting, there are some nice extras included with this set such as the feature length making of season 1 documentary but I imagine that will only appeal to hardcore fans of the show.

At the end of the day I'm glad I bought this set but it took me a long time to get through it, this isn't Star Trek at it's finest but this was the beginning of a new era for the franchise.

Kiss: Attack of the Phantoms

I'll bet this seemed like a great idea at the time, Kiss were dominating the charts so what could be better than a Kiss movie ?

Well as it turns out pretty much anything, this movie is just terrible, the only positive thing I can say about it is that it had some nice footage of the band performing in concert.

Shockingly this movie feels like Kiss meets Scooby-Doo at times but then it was a Hanna-Barbera Production.

Maybe they would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Last night I watched Captain America: Winter Soldier and I enjoyed it a lot but I didn't think it lived up to the hype and I certainly wouldn't say it's one of the best superhero movies ever made.

I saw Cap 2 with a friend of mine and he wasn't / isn't really a comics fan but pretty much the first thing he asked after the film was are they going to make a Black Widow movie and I agree that this needs to happen, Black Widow kicked all kinds of ass in this movie and I think a solo movie is a fantastic idea

Chris Evans IS Captain America in exactly the same way Christopher Reeve IS Superman, some people just seem to be born to play a certain part and Evans is a fantastic Captain America.

I would never have thought Falcon would be cool but I really liked the movie interpretation of the character, I was also impressed by the inclusion of a decent version of a comic villain like Batroc who I always thought was pretty dumb.

Sanctuary Season 2

What the hell happened to this show ?, the first season started of pretty weak but improved over it's run, season 2 started out with some decent episodes but then it just started a rapid downhill slide in terms of quality going from bad to worse and finally flat out ridiculous.

It's a shame, it's a fun idea let down by some terrible scripts that ignore the realities of some situations for the sake of convenience, I little proof reading and a decent editor would have gone a long way towards making season 2 much better than it was.

She-Hulk: Single Green Female

I'm guessing this was supposed to be funny but the humor didn't work for me, there were lots of references to the wider Marvel Universe and those were fun.

I like the concept of a law firm the works on cases involving clients with super powers but this is another series that introduces a cool idea but the fails to deliver on it's promise.

I'm prepared to bet this was probably a fairly well liked series but I'm grumpy and old and I've only really enjoyed the She-Hulk character when it was written in a reasonably serious manner.