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Daredevil season 2 (I've seen Season 1 but this is a review for season 2)

There's a new vigilante on the streets known as The Punisher, a former war veteran whose family was murdered by the mafia. Daredevil has to stop him before any more blood is shed but he won't go down without a fight. Meanwhile the shady organisation known as The Hand is back and they plan something big for New York. Charlie Cox returns as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, a blind lawyer-by-day who fights crime as a masked vigilante by night. Jon Bernthal, Élodie Yung, and Stephen Rider join the cast for this season and it's one you'll be able to binge watch all week.

Like the first season the acting is solid and the three lead characters have great chemistry together. There are impressive visuals throughout, interesting characters like the mysterious Elektra and returning characters like Wilson Fisk played yet again by Vincent D'Onofrio. There are relatable characters like Foggy and Karen and it focuses a lot on them and their ordeals adding an extra level of drama to it. They are both constantly digging for answers and always seem to get the bad end of the stick. The court scenes are great to watch as they are intriguing and tense putting their relationships to the limit.

Thirteen episodes is a too much for any show but Daredevil Season 2 manages each episode fine. It starts off slow so it can build up it's characters and it doesn't slump towards the end with its final episodes being among it's best. It's the best of the Netflix series with some great acting, dialogue and cinematography. The action scenes are extremely violent with its many brutal hallway fights, prison brawls and shootouts. There are some amazing choreographed hand to to hand fights involving Daredevil, Elektra and a lot of highly skilled ninjas. Sometimes the ninja fights can be overwhelming but most of them look really good considering being shot in mostly dark environments.

Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle / Punisher was a huge standout - A man who was wronged by the mob and the justice system, he decides to take the law into his own hands taking out the mob one bar at a time. Castle chooses to kill his enemies whearas Matt Murdock / Daredevil likes to give them a chance and it creates a conflict between them which really gives the show it's edge. Seeing Bernthal share scenes with Charlie Cox are some of the most enjoyable parts of the show. They put flashbacks to good use giving us more clarity as to why Matt / Daredevil is the way he is and its also a good way to give new characters like Elektra some backstory too.

Like season 1, season 2 is definitely worth watching. Give all the Netflix Marvel shows a look because there is something there for everyone. I would highly recommend The Punisher too which is even more violent.

It's been over 40 years since the multi-Oscar winning Rocky hit cinemas with the equally good Rocky II coming out shortly after however the series got a little bit silly with the fourth and fifth chapters. It wasn't until 2006 when the series was reinvigorated and brought back to its more grounded roots with Rocky Balboa which I highly recommend! The first Creed came out in 2015 earning Stallone a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination. It was a spinoff to the franchise but it still focused on plot lines from those films while also creating its own legacy. It made Michael B Jordan a star and he's certainly one of the best actors working today.

Starring Michael B Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone. Adonis and Bianca settle down and plan to get married but Ivan Drago comes back out of shadows to pit his son against Creed. Ryan Cooglar returns but only as executive producer, thankfully the tone he set with the first film still remains untouched here. First time director Steven Caple Jr does a fine job with it pushing great performances from everyone. The film looks and sounds great and he builds on the characters and develops their stories even further.

With a screenplay by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone the writing is a little more clichéd but it feels more and more like the original franchise with nods to all of the earlier films. There are a lot of emotional scenes and some good character moments and it delves further into their past than the last film did. There is never a dull moment there is always something interesting happening that pushes the story forward. There are things that work better than the previous film but there are also a few things that drag it down like the repeated story elements. At times there's a feeling of Déjà vu as it's structured in a similar way to Rocky III - It shows him at the top of his game, then there is a mid section defeat where he has to pick himself up and he even goes to train in an isolated location.

Annoyingly Drago is still a man of few words and his son played by real life boxer Florian Munteanu is in every way the same. 30 years after losing the fight to Rocky, Drago has been cast out from society ever since. His own wife disowned him and their son and so there's a feeling of empathy for them both. The pair don't get much screen time but they still have a good story arc regardless and Dolph Lundren gives a much better performance than his last outing as Drago which was wooden by comparison. There is a lot of drama in the film and the fight sequences pack a real punch, the sound effects are so good with each punch sounding like they really hurt. Seeing Stallone and Lundgren share scenes together is every bit as intense as you would hope. There's also more chemistry between Michael B Jordan and Tessa Thompson who both give terrific performances.

The opponent from the last film was more one dimensional than the one here. With him being the son of the man who killed Apollo Creed, it makes the fight more personal and we learn a few things about him as the film progresses. Sly Stallone was great and he gets some emotional scenes often reminiscing events of his past but the film didn't really need his presence here. He just lingers around most of the time with nothing much to do but it's still good seeing him in the role of Rocky. The music score by Ludwig Göransson has some great themes to it but it doesn't quite capture the same feeling of the previous films. With hip hop tracks by artists such as Future, Meek Mill, and White Dave the soundtrack gives it a modern feel which will connect with new audiences. There is already talk of another Creed film where we see Clubber Lang (Mr T) make a return with his son, hopefully this doesn't happen because it will most likely ruin the franchise, Creed II was a great send off to the series.

Ant-Man & The Wasp Review 3/5

It's insane to think all of this started with Iron Man back in 2008 which by comparison is more grounded and realistic. Now we have a hulk, talking raccoons, gods, witches, walking trees, giant men/tiny men, giant ants, aliens, robots and wizards. But it's based off comics so all of this crazy surreal stuff is normal. The great thing about the MCU is all of these crazy characters are set within our world and they manage to make it work so well (even if some of them go overboard with the comedy).

Two years after the events of Civil War, the Sokovian Accords have made it difficult for superheroes to operate and our characters once again have to go rogue. With just three days left on his house arrest Scott Lang is approached by Hope to help bring her mother back from the quantum realm.

It's complicated to explain but if you have seen the previous film you'll know that the quantum realm is a very microscopic place she has been trapped in for thirty years. Anyway scientist Hank Pym has made his own device to extract her but he needs a final piece to finish it. They have to buy it from an arms dealer played by Walton Goggins and naturally things go awry. It becomes a chase thriller where our characters are constantly being pursued.

Ant-Man & The Wasp takes it to even more ridiculous outlandish levels. All of this shrinking/enlarging technology is quite implausible but at the same time amusing - There are giant ant assistants, Hank Pym has a collection of cars which he can enlarge to regular sized cars and their lab can shrink and turn into a pull along case.

The action scenes are so entertaining and with all the size changing mumbo jumbo it just makes them more visually engrossing. It's not as intense as Civil War or Infinity War but with its lighthearted tone and some comedic moments it's in the same league as Guardians of the Galaxy.

With various story arcs and characters the plot gets a little thin from time to time as it relies on exposition to push the story forward - "Do you guys just put the word 'quantum' in front of everything" utters Paul Rudd, and it's the self deprecating humour like this that makes all this exposition almost forgivable.

It also requires you to have seen both Ant-Man and Civil War as it references those storylines quite a lot. If you haven't already seen those films I really recommend them, I recommend all of the MCU films (except Thor The Dark World and Incredible Hulk).

Ghost is an interesting character with a good backstory, she just wants to save herself from dying but she sometimes goes to extreme measures to get what she wants. However she doesn't really get much focus because of other characters like Walton Goggins' character who is just there purely for no other reason other than to pursue our protagonists.

It's one of the least memorable of the series because it mimics a lot from the first film and requires you to be upto date with the films, it doesn't really stand well as it's own film because it gets too concerned referencing the others. But if you can see past the flaws it's a wildly entertaining chapter to the MCU franchise with some great special effects, action and humour that even pokes fun at the previous films. Oh and the de-ageing effects used to make some actors look younger look flawless.