Age of Ultron Archives - GeeksHaveGame

December 29, 2015December 29, 2015

BEST ‘GEEK’ FILMS of 2015 [Clergywide Top 5]: If I Ruled the World…

Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… ***drumroll please!*** GHG’s Top Movies of the Year.

While we included “Geek” in the title, GodHatesGeeks didn’t limit our writers to just nerd flicks; we just wanted to make sure this didn’t wind up a Tribeca “who’s who”. Indies, rom-coms, biopics, police dramas, and what-have-you are cool, and we included those so long as our list (for the most part) stayed true to the game.

Who had the best superhero film? Sci-Fi? Horror? Fantasy? Who faired better: Rey or Furiosa? Best animated? Find out below, and feel free to click on the respectibe bible scores to read our full reviews.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – “On par with the best [Star Wars] film in the last six, and, after more viewings, may even surpass it.” – 4.75/5
2. Ant-Man – 4.75/5
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.5/5
4. The Martian – 4.25/5
5. Creed – 4.25/5

Honorable mention: Buried Cain, Jurassic World, The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

"Brother" Myke Ladiona @onemyke — “Brother” Myke Ladiona
@onemyke

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.75/5
2. Inside Out – “IO takes beautifully developed characters through an honest, thought-out narrative with all the gorgeous visual cohesion that is to be expected.” – 4.75/5
3. Creed – 4.5/5
4. Sicario – “The vibrancy of Roger Deakins’ shots perfectly complemented the harsh and unrelenting narrative, without resorting to over-stylized filters.” – 4.5/5
5. Ex Machina – “Ex Machina‘s cohesive tone is helped by a steady, methodical pacing that gives equal weight to the plot developments as it does to the philosophical inquiries.” – 4.25/5

Honorable mention: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dope, Straight Outta Compton.

Stephanie "Lady Croft" Panisello @Steph_Panisello — Stephanie “Lady Croft” Panisello
@Steph_Panisello

1. The Revenant – “The marriage between the cinematography and the fighting is beautifully done; almost so perfect, that you wonder how close and personal the camera really is when blood splatters the lens.” – 5/5
2. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
3. The Martian – 4.5/5
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4/5
5. Inside Out – 4/5

Honorable mention: Minions.

"Cardinal" Gary Brooks — “Cardinal” Gary Brooks

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. The Avengers: Age of Ultron – 4.5/5
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4.5/5
4. Straight Outta Compton – 4.5/5
5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – 4.25/5

Honorable mention: Furious 7, Creed, Sicario.

"Deacon E" Esko @eskobts — “Deacon E” Esko
@eskobts

1. Straight Outta Compton – “The persona of each character is so unique and true to life, that I have a freshly renewed fear of Suge Knight and a new respect for Ice Cube.” – 5/5
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5/5
3. Avengers: Age Of Ultron – 4.25/5
4. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4/5
5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – 3.75/5

"Father" Joe Tower @whateverjoe — “Father” Joe Tower
@whateverjoe

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. Creed – 4.5/5
3. Straight Outta Compton – 4.5/5
4. Ex Machina – 4.5/5
5. Inside Out – 4/5

Honorable mention: Dope, Spotlight, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hateful Eight.

"The Priestess" Eva CEja @evaceja — “The Priestess” Eva CEja @evaceja

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5/5
2. The Hateful Eight – 4.75/5
3. Ex Machina – 4.75/5
4. The Martian – “After a few laughs, great tragedies, lots of tears, and awesome astrophysical endeavors, The Martian is a movie that will definitely hold on its own in 2015.” – 4.5/5
5. Crimson Peak – 4.5/5

Honorable mention: Creed, Jurassic World, Sisters, Trainwreck.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5/5
2. Ant-Man – 4.75/5
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.5/5
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 4.25/5
5. Furious 7 – 4.25/5

Kenny "Saint Superkick" Sanders @HueySkyywalker — Kenny “Saint Superkick” Sanders
@HueySkyywalker

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5/5
2. Straight Outta Compton – 4.5/5
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 4/5
4. Ant-Man – 4/5
5. Sicario – 3.5/5

"Reverend" Ryan Ford @nayrdrof — “Reverend” Ryan Ford @nayrdrof

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.75/5
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4.75/5
3. Ant-Man – 4.5/5
4. Inside Out – 4.5/5
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 4/5

Honorable mention: Jurassic World.

Taffeta "Dutchess" Darling @TheTaffetaDarling — Taffeta “Dutchess” Darling
@TheTaffetaDarling

1. Bone Tomahawk – 5/5
2. Ant-Man – 4.75/5
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.75/5
4. Jurassic World – 4.5/5
5. The Hateful Eight – 4.5/5

Honorable mention: Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina.

“El Sacerdote” J.L. Caraballo Twitter @captzaff007

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. Creed – 5/5
3. What We Do In The Shadows – “This film is brilliantly staged, and each character is given enough backstory to make them fascinating and hilarious at the same time — all which gives it a great emotional core.” – 4.5/5
4. The Martian – 4.25/5
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4/5

Honorable mention: White God, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, It Follows, Ant-Man, Dangerous Men (5/7 Bibles).

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. The Hateful Eight – 4.5/5
3. The Revenant – 4/5
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 3.75/5
5. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter – 3.5/5

Lisa "The Goddam" Wu @the_goddamn_wu — Lisa “The Goddam” Wu
@the_goddamn_wu

1. Jurassic World – 4.5/5
2. The Martian – 4.25/5
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4/5
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – 4/5
5. Mortdecai – 4/5

Honorable mention: Mad Max: Fury Road.

Alex "The Vicar" @gradet — Alex “The Vicar” Gradet
@gradet

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. Ex Machina – 5/5
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4.75/5
4. Creed – 4.5/5
5. Sicario – 4/5

Honorable mentions: Mistress America, Spotlight, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep: The Movie, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Trainwreck, Spy, Straight Outta Compton, What Happened Miss Simone?, Magic Mike XXL, The head-explodey scene in Kingsman: Secret Service.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 5/5
2. Inside Out – 5/5
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 4.75/5
4. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4.75/5
5. Black Mass – 4.5/5

Honorable mention: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Cinderella, Pan, Terminator: Genisys, Entourage, Straight Outta Compton, The Kingsman: Secret Service, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Good Dinosaur.

Ryan "Salvation" Scott @radio_adventure — Ryan “Salvation” Scott
@radio_adventure

1. Jurassic World – 4.75/5
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4.75/5
3. Spectre: 007 – 4.5/5
4. Mad Max: Fury Road – 4/5
5. It Follows – 4/5

Honorable mention: Spy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, San Andreas.

"The Apostate" Adam Mondschein @AdamMondschein — “The Apostate” Adam Mondschein
@AdamMondschein

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – “MMFR‘s rampaging chase, stunt work and CG blends into a seamless torrent of beautifully-choreographed violence.” – 10/5
2. Creed – 4.5/5
3. Straight Outta Compton – 4.5/5
4. The Hateful Eight – 4.5/5
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 4.5/5

Honorable mention: Ex Machina, Inside Out, Dope, Spotlight, The Revenant.

JaDarrell "The Belser" @TheBelser — JaDarrell “The Belser”
@TheBelser

1. Straight Outta Compton – 5/5
2. Dope – 4.5/5
3. Ant-Man – 4/5
4. Creed – “Creed is a true Rocky spin-off, not a Rocky rip-off; and yet while it pays homage to the original flicks, it’s very much its own movie — and a damn good one at that.” – 4/5
5. Avengers Age of Ultron – 3.5/5

Honorable mention: The Kingsman: Secret Service.

Jason "Bad Preacher" Bud — Jason “Bad Preacher” Bud

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. The Revenant – 5/5
3. Sicario – 4.75/5
4. The Hateful Eight – 4.5/5
5. Beasts of No Nation – 4.25/5

Honorable mention: Ex Machina, Spectre: 007.

Michelle "Magdalene" Kisner @RobotCookie — Michelle “Magdalene” Kisner
@RobotCookie

1. Ex Machina – 5/5
2. The Revenant – 5/5
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
4. The Hateful Eight – 4/5
5. Crimson Peak – 3/5

Honorable mention: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

"Monsignor" Travis Moody @TravMoody — “Monsignor” Travis Moody
@TravMoody

1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 5/5
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – “I can’t remember the last movie that kept this geek journalist so glued to his seat, hands clenched together throughout every second of every minute of every scene without a flinch.” – 4.75/5
3. Straight Outta Compton – 4.5/5
4. Inside Out – 4.5/5
5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – “Rogue Nation — arguably the franchise’s funniest film — offers an array of death-defying thrills that should get the heart beating faster than any other previous installment.” – 4.25/5

Honorable mention: The Hateful Eight, Ant-Man, The Revenant, Sicario, Terminator: Genisys, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Creed, Black Mass, The Martian.

GodHatesGeeks @GodHatesGeeks — GodHatesGeeks
@GodHatesGeeks

***GHG’s Best ‘Geek’ Films of the Year***

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (TEN 1st place votes; ONE 2nd place votes; SIX 3-5’s).

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (FIVE 1st place votes; FOUR 2nd place votes; EIGHT 3-5’s).

3. Straight Outta Compton (TWO 1st place votes; FIRST 2nd place votes; FOUR 3-5’s).

4. The Revenant (ONE 1st place votes; TWO 2nd place votes; ONE 3-5’s).

5. Ex Machina (ONE 1st place votes; ONE 2nd place votes; THREE 3-5’s).

***GHG’s Superhero Film of the Year***

–Ant-Man

***GHG’s Animated Movie of the Year***

–Inside Out

***GHG’s Honorable mention***

–Creed, Ant-Man, The Hateful Eight, Inside Out, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Martian, Sicario, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

Stay tuned for our Best Movies of 2015 Podcast, for a more in-depth listen on our Top 5’s, as well as Worst and Most Disappointing Movies of the Year, in addition to our forecast for 2016!!!

May 19, 2015

GHG Presents… THE WILD BRUNCH [Podcast, S01E03]: The Fashionable Spider-Man.

Listen up, Internet — it’s Episode 3 of THE WILD BRUNCH. Say what? You missed our hit debut, when the likes of frosted flake-crusted-french-toast met the one Chappie? Or our Western Omelette 2nd show explosion that was Fast/Furious 7?

But here’s your chance. It’s two dudes — two really neat dudes — talking about movies. You’d be at a loss not to join “The Vicar” ALEX GRADET and “Father” JOE TOWER this time, as we reflect on the world box-office destroying Age of Ultron — and ALL of the Marvel movies (and, hell, most of the superhero movies made to date, too!).

And, they are joined by none other than the founding clergygeek of this joint, “the one geek God hates”, TRAVIS “MONSIGNOR” MOODY.

Here’s the idea: once a month or so, we (that’s Alex Gradet and Joe Tower) will go see a movie, then go out to brunch afterward, and talk about it. Their conversations will be discursive, meandering rambles that we’ll then edit down to a tight 30-minutes of your time. (This one’s 60+, but it’s only right we went 60 on it; in fact Moody is displeased we didn’t air the whole 90!).

Got any thoughts on The Avengers: Age of Ultron, or our show? Feel free to drop us a line @wildbrunchpod and give us hell for not giving Thor flicks the credit (only Moody) feels they deserve.

Hey– that reminds me: Enjoy your brunch!

If the above PodBean Widget/Player isn’t working for ya, feel free to stream/download the podcast.

We’ll catch you next time, for JURASSIC WORLD/ANT-MAN!

May 2, 2015May 2, 2015

AVENGERS – AGE of ULTRON [Review Podcast]: Be Thou My Vision.

You’ve read the reviews. You’ve heard the horrible Eastern European accents. You watched Joss Whedon walk away unscathed. And, most of you loved it anyway…

Some hungry heroes... — Some hungry heroes…

Thankfully, for you, we are GodHatesGeeks— and it wouldn’t be GHG unless there was some hate going on. Just WHO would hate the sequel to arguably the greatest superhero movie ever?

One of these clown clergygeeks, of course…

“Special delivery!” (from left to right): Belser, Myke, Moody, Kenny, Bri, Spencer.

Do remember, THERE ARE ***SPOILERS*** in our unadultered, unprepared post-brews-and-food late-night review of Avengers: Age of Ultron. There was honestly no other way to podcast about Avengers 2 without ’em.

So do yourself and go see the movie (you cheapskate!) and then listen to our half-hour of zany analysis. You can either download/stream right here via Mediafire, or merely click on the Soundcloud player image just below…

Feel the need to let us know that you: Love us? HATE us? Hate Papa Justified? Want to his best friend?

Then leave us tweets and tweements @GodHatesGeeks. And stay tuned, because this ain’t all: We’ll be exploring more of the Age of Ultron with our pals Alex & Joe on the next Wild Brunch podcast.

Thanks for listening.

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014

SDCC 2014 Wrap-Up Show [#GHGtv, Ep. 0.2]: GodLovesRogues!

We’re back again with a teaser of the forthcoming #GHGtv debut, and our Wrap-Up of San Diego Comic-Con 2014!!!

Feel free to join our “Green Minister” Gabe Carrasco, “Brother” Myke Ladiona, “The Goddamn” Lisa Wu, and, your host, the “Monsignor” Travis Moody (and we THINK the “Divine” Derek Vigeant…somewhere…) as we present all our thoughts on The Big One‘s hefty offering of all things geek: comics, video games, sci-fi & fantasy TV & Film (err, Hall H), fun-houses, and much much more!

And, though we are still very much in alpha pre-beta production status (with a very special shout-out to the man behind the music, “Deacon E” Esko, our unfortunately-uncomfy-man-behind-the-handheld-cam “Dynast” Dana Keels & editing clergyman — and star of our initial teaser! — “Reverend” Ryan Ford), come explore the realms of SDCC with us anyway…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otv_SVwoCQQ

Also, lovely parishioners, don’t forget to subscribe to our BRAND-NEW YouTube Channel — GodHatesGeeksTV — and, of course, like our news page on Facebook and follow all of our updates on Twitter.

Til next year, San Diego!

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

GODZILLA [Review]: GodzillaLOVESGeeks.

SPOILER ALERT: A 350-foot monster destroys stuff. People run. Bad acting ensues.

But, thankfully, that’s not all.

Much like last week’s wickedly-web-split of Amazing Spider-Man 2, the All-New Godzilla NOW! offers two films: One, that is very cheer worthy, and a second, that should make you appreciate Pacific Rim that much more. Remember those mixed reviews? Looking back at Pac Rim, it had its share of sub-par performances, sure, but never by the technology at hand. And it had some cool fucking robots. Guillermo del Toro delivered a super dumb b-movie that also happen to be very, very smart.

DON'T CALL ME FAT!!! — WHO YOU CALLIN’ FAT??!!!!?!?

For Godzilla, director Gareth Edwards (Monsters) carries many of those same technical sensibilities. He delivers a giant radioactive lizard that we can all adore — you know, except for when another behemoth, a kinda-sorta-sometimes-maybe winged spider-pterodactyl that sounds like a mechanical Dinobot hogs up most of the screen. (No, I’m not talking about a newly beefed-up Kick-Ass either; although based on the strength of Aaron Taylor-Johnson‘s time in frame, perhaps I should.) Much of Godzilla isn’t about the famed 1954 “Gojira”, as the strangely more important MUTO — Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism — only add complications to an already haunting situation. How can you stop bulletproof monsters who suck off radiation? How can you stop people from going to the same movie over and over?

No more Large Popcorn with Extra Butter.

The movie opens up as promised. If you saw the trailer, one can hardly blame you for the excitement of a Japanese nuclear conspiracy-driven monster mash; a movie all dark and haunting and no less than fantastic until it once again resonates with 1998. I’ll get to the latter half of that sentence in a minute. More importantly to the many, the CGI battles Edwards conjures up are a wonder to look at. This Godzilla feels real. Feels nostalgic. And he better, considering how little you actually get to witness the big Liz’s presence. Yet, even if the b-movie brawls aren’t quite up to par with the royal rumbling between the Kaiju and the Jaeger of Pacific Rim, watching this film in IMAX is still quite the treat.

Don't worry, baby; your Quicksilver can get plenty of ince.. action with my Scarlet Witch on the next one. — Don’t worry, baby, we’ll have plenty of playtime together on Age of Ultron.

Unfortunately, Edwards also had the chance to make this Godzilla the noir monster film for the ages. For whatever rhyme or reason, the cool and colossal conspirational tone takes one skyscraper-stomping step back for action cheese. Hell, even Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranton could only bring so much levity to the film for so long. When an unfortunate array of circumstances leads his nuclear scientist to a most unfortunate detour, the consequential presence of two men — including his bomb-smart son — fail to pick up the slack. As good as Ken Watanabe (Inception) has been over the years, the Monsignor couldn’t help but either laugh or cringe every time the military went for direction from his all-too stilted Dr. Serizawa. In fact, the acting performances in this film are so varied, you’d think they were all reading scripts from different films. I mean, Sally Hawkins, were you even aware of the initial tone of… “GODZILLA!”?

Judging by my sentiment of this latest reboot, it’s clearly no less than a hot mess. Unlike Man of Steel, I didn’t find any humor, or, more importantly, any emotional connection to any of the characters or the who-what-where-how-and-why all this world-shakingly bizarre shit is happening!!! The same people who were angry at the fateful destruction of Metropolis are going to cheer for some thing who did far worse to San Francisco. And Hawaii. And Japan.

But, Godzilla, the King of the Monsters — he’s our hero!

Have fun.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla in theaters nationwide tomorrow, May 16th.

May 14, 2014May 14, 2014

AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D. [Season 1 Finale Review]: The Grateful Alive.

Just in time for the announcement that ABC was moving Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to a 9 p.m. time slot for the show’s second season, the MCU’s first television series finished off its premiere season with a bang. Well, a few bangs, a couple of explosions, several melee combos, and a rib stab. Yeah, that’s right. Someone face got stabbed with they own rib on primetime. While much of AoS’ first season tended to fall apart in the beginning, it started to stabilize again around the mid-season break, and continued to really kick it into high-gear with episode 17 – around the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. With last night’s season finale “Beginning of the End”, AoS stuck the landing as well as it could – considering the really shaky flight paths.

It should be stated up front that it’s going to take a lot to silence the inner-child in this Disciple long enough to write an objective review of a show like this. My adult-self recognizes many of the problems of the show — which I won’t get into here seeing as to the rest of the internet has already; but it’s hard not to be in awe that, not only do we live in a time where we have an ongoing Marvel movie universe that is artfully serialized and interconnected, we have a big-budget television show with supplemental storylines that are directly affected by what happens in that said universe.

Is that JESSICA DREW? Shh. Come on, man. I'm trying to take a good look at Mockingbird! — “Is that JESSICA DREW?” Shh… Come on, man. I’m trying to peep at MOCKINGBIRD!

Can we just be grateful for that for just one second? Sure it could have been better, but it could have also never existed? It’s better to have loved then lost. Er, maybe that isn’t the right context.

When in Rome?

That being said, it was definitely tough to see the name Whedon attached to a TV series about a rag-tag group of adventurers on a flying craft not be amazing. It was even tougher when there were complete sections of the season that weren’t even good. Granted, Joss Whedon has had his full attention on Age of Ultron — and it’s awfully difficult for any show to find a strong tone and voice in the first season. So just imagine how impossibly amplified that task was for a show that’s affiliated with some of the biggest movies of this generation! That being a double-edged sword, Agents was really allowed to finally blossom because of the Hydra-turn in Winter Soldier; which has given the eponymous Agents, and the show as a whole, a clear mission – a mission that was beautifully setup in the finale.

“Beginning of the End” is not really that apt of a title for this final episode. It’s a cute play on “End of the Beginning,” the title of episode 16, but we all know that nothing really ends in the Marvel Universe, it just kind of becomes something different and in this case S.H.I.E.L.D isn’t really ending, it’s going through another origin story.

Clearly raging after the missed Jordan restock. — Clear account of ‘Lok’s miss on that recent Jordan restock.

The episode begins with the really underwhelming reveal of who’s been pulling the strings of Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) — a.k.a. Deathlok — and the other eye-controlled soldiers: Cybertek industries. The scene mainly serves the purpose of transitioning to the main characters while setting up the fact that Cybertek has been “incentivizing” it’s employees; which is played as a joke in the beginning, but when it’s revealed what those incentives actually are, it makes these employees feel sicker than the writers probably wanted them to be. That’s when the episode picks up where the last one left off…

(Flip the page for more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!)

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