As many people will already know, Thor is one of the many characters from the infamous Marvel Comics franchaise. Over the years due to the success of the Marvel cinematic universe, Thor amoungst many other superheros and characters have grown hugely in popularity with a wide range of fans from a whole new generation. The God of Thunder himself has already featured in the Avengers films - Avengers Assemble (2012) and Avengers Age of Ultron (2015) and has also been in the spotlight in his own films - Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013.) Now four years on in 2017 we have the release of Thor: Ragnarok, the third installment from Thor. A highly anticipated film to many fans of the marvel films. Ragnarok really had a lot to live up to after the release of many other fantastic feature films from Marvel including the huge action packed Captain America: Civil War and the introduction of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Dr. Strange which all saw great success. Here's a brief summary of the film: The Goddess of Death - Hela (Cate Blanchett) has found a way to return to Asgard after exile many years ago to claim the throne for herself. After an attempt to stop the villain, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds himself ending up on Sakkar, which can be likened to a huge landfill site and is ruled by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) who then sends our beloved God of Thunder to the fighting pits. After then re-uniting with MIA (missing in action) avenger ,The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and an introduction to Asgard's Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) team Thor try to defeat Hela and overthrow her dark reign. The trailers for this movie appeared to showcase Thor in a whole new light. This was definitey the case. Despite the darkness from Blanchett's Hela, there was a much lighter feel and it provided much more of a comical value in comparison to the previous Thor movies. When approached by people to ask about my opinion on whether the film was a good one or not, I have always answered with the same response every single time. which is, to quote myself "If you loved the Guardians of the Galaxy films then you will really enjoy Ragnarok." I will be very surprised if I am the only person to see huge similarities between these films. Throughout the entire feature there are gags and puns (Mostly filled with amusing, filthy innuendo) thrown at us from all angles. Most of them coming from newly introduced character Korg. A human shaped being made from rubble and rock very similar in appearance to the fantastic four hero 'The Thing'. This brilliant personality was perfectly portrayed by the film's director Taika Waititi. Thus proving no end to his talents. Adding this amount of humour was a brilliant move by the writing team behind the film because it totally works. Everyone in the room including myself and my partner were laughing for around 2 hours. Lets talk about the cast. Of course we were all excited to see Chris Hemsworth return to our screen once again as the well built blonde haired Asgardian we all know and love. He has always, in my eyes played the character to perfection and is every bit the part of Thor. This time round, again it was awesome to see a much lighter side to Hemsworth's character. We have seen some lighthearted fun with him before but not to the extent that we see in Ragnarok. This film definitely brings out the best of Hemsworth's Thor to date. Of course we have to also discuss the return of Loki, the adoptive brother of our titular character. It would seem that fans have been waiting to see Loki return for quite some time. We last saw Loki in Thor: The Dark World back in 2013. I for one was rather excited to see the character return as he is my favourite of the Marvel Villains within the MCU . Although technically not a stereotypical villain, Loki does indeed cause havoc wherever he goes. British actor Tom Hiddleston once again puts on a flawless performance to portray our favourite greasy haired trickster. The bond on screen between Hemsworth and Hiddleston really stood out in this film, it was clear to see that they really enjoyed filming scenes together. The actors' brotherly relationship on the big screen were both amusing and somewhat enticing. You would never know from one scene to the next if the two would be friend or foe, pretty much like common sibling rivalry, but on a much larger and more dangerous scale. During one scene the brothers are trying to escape from a dangerous situation on a mission to find a ship to leave sakkar, as the ship hangar is heavily guarded, to gain access Thor and Loki had to think of some sort of diversion. This was when we saw their rather amusing "Help me!" stunt. Help me was basically Thor carrying loki into the hangar shouting "Help! My brother is dying!" as Loki is 'limp' and leaning on his brother. As the guards attempted to help Thor he then launched Loki at them leaving the guards unconscious on the ground. This really stood out for me as it was a great time to see the two characters working well together as siblings should. Plus I won't lie, it was very amusing and made me chuckle. As I have just spoken about Sakkar lets very quickly react to Jeff Goldblum's character within the film. I was disappointed with The Grandmaster to be honest. Goldblum is a well known Hollywood actor and has played some memorable roles. I feel that they could have utilised him so much more in this role. Although the role at times was intriguing and amusing, there just wasn't enough of the flamboyant Grandmaster. There was a lot of hype based around the casting of Goldblum before filming took place and I kind of feel like saying "what was all the hype about?" maybe it's just me. I don't know. I also can't forget to mention how happy I was to see a cameo appearance of Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Stephen Strange. I am a huge fan of Benedict anyway and I loved him playing the role of Dr. Strange in his own standalone film as the sorcerer supreme. I loved that Ragnarok showcased just how much Dr Strange has progressed on his sorcery journey since we last saw his character last year in 2016. It was also quite interesting to see such a difference to Mark Ruffalo's character The Hulk. He was still the somewhat scary green gamma-fuelled monster we are already used to and there were both brilliant fun filled and intense scenes between him and Hemsworth. It was also good to see a little reference to Avengers Assemble. When Loki sees Hulk again for the first time since hulk 'smashed' the god of mischief all those years ago, Loki goes into a comical panic mode. The one thing I found a little hard to get used to was hearing The Hulk speak more frequently with a much wider range of vocabulary and sarcastic comments. This is something we haven't really seen from Bruce Banner's alter ego, usually all we hear is the famous "Hulk Smash!". There are two more main characters left to mention. Both big female roles. Lets go with Cate Blanchett's Hela first. Firstly can I just say doesn't Blanchett look amazing?! She totally rocked the badass pvc/leather attire with the dark grungy make up and long black hair. Although, I can't help but think that she looks like the lovechild of Gene Simmons and Alice Cooper. But still she looked amazing! Considering Hela was the big bad villain of Ragnarok there really wasn't enough of her. It was great that she too was given some witty lines within her script, and she had a really great back story which I could mention but I don't want to be revealing big spoilers. If you've read the graphic novels then you will understand what I am talking about. As much as I liked Hela,when we did see her unfortunately quite a few of her scenes seemed a little drab. I mean, don't get me wrong there were a couple of big scenes where we see her doing some pretty horrid stuff including slaughtering many Asgardians, awakening a zombie army and riding on a giant black wolf which wasn't boring as such, but I must admit as effective as her hair sweep/horns transformation was as far as CGI effects go, I did get a bit bored of seeing her swipe her hair back and forth between the long black hair and the horn display on her head every few seconds. Lastly a great new addition to the mix. Valkyrie. Valkyries are basically an army of female warriors that are sworn to protect the realm of Asgard and the people that live within it. The Valkyrie we meet is a single warrior played by actress Tessa Thompson. Her role can be likened to the character of Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander - as seen in previous Thor movies and also Marvel's TV Series Agents Of Shield). Valkyrie like Sif is an independent, strong woman but with a bit of a drinking problem. The first time we are introduced to Thompson's character we see her in a drunken state falling off the edge of her grounded ship and into a pile of junk. This is a character that I think will become quite popular within the MCU. All in all, Thor: Ragnarok was definitely not the film that I has anticipated it would be. It was far better and I really enjoyed it. Some people may think it's a little too cheesy but to be honest I love a good comedy film. Even if you aren't into the superhero style movies you will still love this one. I would definitely state that it is one of the must see films of this year (2017) and it could possibly even be one of the best Marvel movies to date, slowly creeping in behind Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in my opinion. It was just a well rounded piece of art, the soundtrack is awesome, the casting was almost perfect, the story was enticing, plus fellow ladies (and some guys), it was rather good to see the shirtless Thor once more (wink, wink). I believe Marvel's next step up the MCU ladder is the release of Black Panther in early 2018, and then bring on Avengers: Infinity War! This review is currently on my own review website https://kasimmons8.wixsite.com/therealviewroom

This film is the sequel to 'Bad Moms' (2016) which focused on the challenging, demanding and amazing role that is motherhood. In the first film we meet characters Amy (Mila Kunis), Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell) that are all facing challenges with their families and daily routines. Bad Moms showed us that it is actually OK not to be a stereotypical 'perfect' parent as there is no such thing. We see the three ladies learning to lighten their load as mothers and form an unlikely friendship. With of course a couple of hiccups along the way. In the beginning of the sequel we see lead character Amy (Kunis) sitting on her staircase at home on Christmas eve looking rather depressed explaining to the audience that she is the worst mom and she has ruined Christmas. We then see a flash back which takes place around 5 days before Christmas Eve. This shows Amy and returning character Carla (Hahn) and Kiki (Bell) all now appearing to lead settled and happy family lives. This is until the most stressful time of the year comes around. Yep, Christmas! As the characters in the film tell us, there is so much to do in such a short space of time. Buy "presents for everyone in your life including a candle for the coffee guy", "decorate", "bake cookies", attend children's school performances and so on. This very much links up to the same theme as the first film. Being a stressed out mother. This film then ramps up the pressure for the frontal characters by adding the arrival of their parents coming to stay with them for the holiday period. The sequel veers off into two different directions leaving the audience with not only two stories to follow but also many different character perspectives too. So now we are witnessing the lives of three unappreciated, stressed out mothers dealing with the Christmas rush, but we are also seeing the three characters deal with their own mother-daughter conflicts at the same time. In A Bad Moms Christmas we are introduced to new characters, the Bad Moms mothers - Amy's mother, Ruth (Christine Baranski) the controlling perfectionist, Sandy (Cheryl Hines), the mother of Kiki with rather unusual behaviour caused by her daughter attachment issues which includes watching her daughter and son-in-law "go at it like monkeys" and Isis (Susan Sarandon) "like the terrorist group" who is Carla's leather clad and drug fuelled parent who only has time for her daughter when she is low on funds. As well as the return of Jay Hernandez as boyfriend of newly divorced Amy, we also meet new background characters including Amy's father Hank (Peter Gallagher) - a man that is a bit of a pushover and is very much under the thumb of wife Ruth who describes him as a man that "has a brain the size of a walnut" and Justin Hartley who portrays the rather appealing hunk Ty Swindel, a fireman turned exotic dancer after a strip club owner had discovered his "Large cock". Like the prequel, A Bad Moms Christmas is a film full of montages featuring characters Amy, Carla and Kiki in a number of scenarios portraying their rather childish, irresponsible and drunken 'bad mom' behaviour. These scenes are very entertaining and full comedy gold. One of which shows the three ladies running riot around a shopping mall creating havoc after getting drunk in the food court. Together we see them steal a silver christmas tree from a well known footwear store, testing out massage goods and giving a very unsuspecting Santa Claus a group lap dance. As expected, the film is full of sexual references and filthy humour. It even featured Jesse's (Hernandez) young daughter often saying "Oh my fucking God!" after hearing this phrase being repeated while characters Amy and Jesse had previously shared an intimate evening. Another memorable scene which really amused me was when spa therapist Carla is visited at work by a male client that is attending his booking for a wax session. In walks Ty Swindel (Hartley) in nothing but a skimpy towel around his waist. Not really leaving too much to the imagination. After the towel is removed and reveals to Hahn's character the rather "large parking cone" hiding underneath, he and Carla immediately hit it off especially after discovering they are both from Cleveland. During the scene we see the two share general chit chat about their lives while Carla is casually waxing the balls and butt crack of this handsome human being. We see her ripping wax strips from his body warning him of the incoming "slight sting on your nut sack" while he continues to smile at her without a single flinch. He then raises his legs up over his head and says to her "I can pull my butt crack open for you if you want". Most of the humour does centre around the loud and rampant Carla, although in my opinion there was another that completely stole the show. Amy's mother Ruth. As mentioned earlier in this review we meet the mothers of the original trio. A Character that really stood out to me was Ruth. Amy's uptight and domineering mother is brought to life by actress Christine Baranski. The relationship between Amy and Ruth is a strained one. No matter her efforts Kunis' character can not do anything right to please her mother. Ruth is always putting her daughter down with catty comments such as "stop dicking around" and "Amy you are a mom, moms don't enjoy they give joy, that's how being a mom works. So this hideous tree does not give joy to anybody" after setting eyes on Amy's stolen Christmas tree from lady foot locker. Also "if you think for one second that I'm gonna let your lazy shenanigans ruin Christmas for this entire family, then you are very much mistaken" after Amy has decided to have a relaxed Christmas with her family. Baranski's character is also seen on multiple occasions showering her grandchildren with expensive and unnecessary gifts before the big day. Amy and Ruth are constantly squabbling and we even see a wild west style dodge ball showdown between the pair which is a hilarious scene. We later learn in the film that the character Ruth is the way she is because her mother was also rather hard on her as a child and still even to the present day, leading her to believe that she is "worthless" and very insecure about herself as a mother. Due to the discovery of this Amy is encouraged by her father Hank (Gallagher) to fix her relationship with her 'mom'. To me Ruth came across very much like the role of Beverly Hofstadter, which Baranski plays on very popular comedy series The Big Bang Theory. A woman with a hard exterior and a lack of affection for her children or their achievements but also a comedy genius. Cheryl Hines also brings a lot of inappropriate comedy to the big screen. She portrays Kiki's mother Sandy. The character is very lonely and needy after the loss of her husband some years ago and heavily relies on her daughter Kiki as a friend, daughter and idol. Sandy will often wear clothing with her daughter's face on and tries hard to look exactly like her daughter too. her behaviour towards Kiki is so inappropriate to the extent where she is often seen smelling Kiki's hair whenever they are close to one another. Kiki decides that she has had enough but doesn't want to upset her mother so she takes her mother to a therapy session in an attempt to get her to ease off and allow her some space. During the session Kiki eventually breaks the news to her mother that she needs her to back off as she needs her own personal space with her family to which we then see Sandy announce "I have cancer!, cancer of the heart" in front of the therapist who of course can see right through this sudden confession. To be honest this isn't something I found funny. Emotional manipulation isn't something that should be made into comedy. Sandy rolls off an ever changing list of fake ailments from heart cancer to gallstones and strep throat to try to get her daughter to feel guilty about wanting to spend time away from her. It felt like the writers had invaded the Cards Against Humanity packs for the inspiration behind these scenes. Funny to some but in poor taste to others. Unfortunately there isn't too much that I can say about Susan Sarandon in this movie. She plays the role of Isis well, although there isn't as much of her as there is of Hines and Baranski. When we do see Isis she is often drunk or high while sporting a cowboy hat and a leather jacket. As a mother Isis has neglected her daughter and grandson over the years. She doesn't even know her grandson's name which is Jaxon. Carla and Isis are two peas in a pod. They are two generations of the exact same person. The only difference is that Carla is now trying to become a more responsible parent by working in a spa. Isis is a free spirit and often gambles and steals rather than earning her own income. We even see mother and daughter literally as partners in crime as they wait together outside a supermarket entrance with a trolley claiming to collect food for the homeless and end up stopping shoppers and clearly stealing items from their bags of shopping. Isis was cast well and Sarandon looked great in her rock chick role but I think there is more that the writers could have done with the character. At the end of the film we see Sandy, Ruth and Isis also form an unlikely friendship just like their daughters in Bad Moms. We see the three leave with bags packed and heading out the door in style to catch a plane to Las Vegas. This has clearly indicated that there could be a high chance of a Bad Grandmas film. We could even get to meet the strict mother of Ruth too. I would love for this to happen! I really enjoyed Bad Moms and I liked A Bad Moms Christmas even more. This may not become a classic Christmas film, but it certainly is a great comedy. If you are like Amy, Carla and Kiki are feeling the strain of parenthood, I suggest you join your mothers, sisters and girl friends and take a night off to see this film. A Bad Moms Christmas is just what's needed for a fun filled ladies night out. And if you dare to, take your partners along too. My partner isn't keen on comedies yet I saw him laughing a lot while watching this. This film is a definite must see. This review is currently on my own review website https://kasimmons8.wixsite.com/therealviewroom

So it's finally here! DC's Justice League is undoubtedly one of the most in demand graphic novels to be brought to life on the silver screen to join the DCU (DC Universe). After the huge success of Wonder Woman earlier this year, Justice League and the team behind it had a lot of pressure to get this film just right. Synopsis In Batman vs Superman, we saw the man of steel take his final breath at the hands of Lex Luthor's creation, Doomsday. We now see the return of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) along with many others of the population of planet earth learning to live in a world without Superman (Henry Cavill). Crime rates have risen and people have lost all hope. Bruce and Diana soon realise that there is a much greater evil heading their way. Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds). The two heroes unite once again to seek out others to form a team so they can save the world. After all "You can't save the world alone". With some help from Bruce's butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons) and some Wayne Enterprises technology, the two heroes set out to recruit the nerdy loner that is Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) , also known as The Flash, half machine half man hybrid Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and the one and only Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), the sea king we all know to be Aquaman. Review The first thing we see in the film is a video recording of Superman being interviewed by a child asking him about being a superhero. The recorded video (filmed before Superman's demise) shows a very close shot of our hero trying to answer questions before then pausing while the camera is still rolling, leaving us as the audience to sit and focus on Superman's face while deep in thought. This is where my first critical thought came into my mind. While watching this I was sat thinking to myself "Has Superman had botox?" Yes you will probably know what I am about to say as it's been all over the internet and in a lot of articles in magazines and pretty much every other review. The terrible CGI in an attempt to cover up the actor's moustache. I'm sure many of you will know that during the time Henry Cavill was shooting scenes for Justice League, he was also bound to another contract at the same time. In this other contract he had been instructed not to shave off the moustache. So the 'brilliant' CGI team behind the Justice League were left to manage the situation. Well....They didn't. You can even see the outline of the amazing moustache if you look close enough. It did make me chuckle. I try not to critisize CGI too much in films as I know it takes a lot of hard work to be able to achieve great CGI results for films, games etc and I also know that it's something I'd be completely useless at. But unfortunately this was so hard not to miss. This awful attempt to cover up some facial hair was the one talking point that took over the entire film in all media. Which in my opinion really isn't fair. Just because the graphics in this instance may have been a bit of a blunder, it doesn't mean that the whole film was ruined. So lets discuss the heroes that form our favourite DC comics team. We had previously seen plenty of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman from previous films (Man Of Steel, Batman vs Superman and Wonder Woman) so we already know what we feel about those actors in those roles. Personally I think those three couldn't have been cast any better. I really like Ben Affleck's Batman. When he was first cast I was a little unsure, but he is actually now my favourite version of the Gotham hero. It was great to see a lighter side to the man behind the Gotham bat, a rather amusing example of this was when meeting Barry Allen the youngster asked Wayne "So what's your superpower?" To which we see Affleck's character reply with the simple response "I'm rich." What was great about Batman/Bruce this time around was that the audience got to see much more of the bond between him and household butler Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons). The two men were often sharing scenes in the batcave working together at the helm to keep the team together and remain focused on their mission. We even saw them sharing a little banter such as Alfred commenting of the severity of the impending attack on earth by saying "one misses the day when one's biggest concerns were exploding wind up penguins" A very clever nod to the well known batman villain Oswald Cobblepot or better known as The Penguin. Justice League was completely dominated by the amazing Wonder Woman. She was awesome! I loved her in her own film and even more so in this one, not only because she was an absolute force to be reckoned with while in battle, but also because we got to see a more vulnerable side to Gadot's amazon princess. After seeing her at the beginning of the film fighting crime in a bank and working in a museum talking to a colleague saying she was doing "nothing very interesting" over the weekend, we then learn that she is afraid to lead and take charge when given the opportunity to do so. She is hiding behind a lot of raw emotion and dealing with her inner demons following the death of her love Steve Trevor (portrayed by actor Chris Pine) in her own debut film. Yet we still see Diana at her strongest in this film. Her courage to fight to protect the ones she vows to protect sees her through. She also becomes the voice of reason and takes on a mother figure role when the new recruits join the Justice League. She does so by helping them to build up their confidence to be able to fight alongside her and Batman. Particularly when we see her reaching out to new league member Victor Stone. Stone, doubts himself in many ways after being rebuilt as a machine by his father in an attempt to save his life after an terrible accident some time ago. Later on in the film Diana mutters under her breath "I work with children" which is of course, her stating the obvious lack of maturity from her 'co-workers'. As I have already mentioned him let move onto Cyborg. This version of Cyborg/Victor Stone is portrayed by Ray Fisher. Fisher is an American stage actor who is best known for his comedy role in 'The Good, The Bad and The Confused'. We saw a brief introduction to Cyborg in a small snippet of video footage within the Batman vs Superman film. Now this is the one character I was least looking forward to seeing in the Justice League film. I love the graphic novels but Cyborg is not a character I can favour. So I did have very little expectations for this character. I really was proven wrong. Fisher's version of the well known comic book hero was rather captivating, his back story is well known but it was quite emotional to see it in more depth in this film. Not only did I learn to like the character of Victor Stone but I also really enjoyed Cyborg too. We see so much more to the character than ever before with his abilities to become a computer and also a weapon. It's quite interesting to see how he learns bit by bit to control his not so human half with cannons for hands and being able to fly I think Cyborg will be an interesting hero to watch grow over time. Especially as his own solo film has now been announced. Let's move onto The Flash. Barry Allen himself. I love this character and again when Ezra Miller was cast as the scarlet speedster for this film, I did feel my mood drop a little. The only film I had seen Miller appear in before this one was the Harry Potter spin off 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'. Which he was great in but wasn't The Flash that I wanted to see on the big screen. Not only that, my biggest reason for originally doubting him in this role was because the announcement of his casting was around the same time that Grant Gustin's version of Barry Allen had just hit our tv screens in the CW series 'The Flash'. I loved Gustin's version of the flash immediately and found it hard to accept someone else (Other than John Wesley Shipp) filling those speedy shoes. Again I was completely wrong about my concerns with this casting choice. It actually turned out that I thought that Ezra Miller's flash was brilliant! His version of a young, inexperienced and immature Barry Allen was just what the film and the DC universe needed. He brought a lot of the comedy value to the film with statements including him telling Bruce Wayne that the flash suit was for his extreme ice dancing hobby and shouting out rather loudly "Oh awesome, that's the Bat signal! That's your...! oh shh (holds finger to mouth) sorry, that mean's we have to go now" while talking to Bruce and Diana after seeing the call for Batman for the first time. Unfortunately this is where I have to refer to the not so great CGI. The flash's suit looked awesome and battered like it was still a working progress which was great to see. But on the other hand, when watching scenes of Miller's Flash in battle or even just running, the effects really let him down. It was pretty clear that a treadmill was used during the filming of his scenes, which yes is fair enough, but it just didn't look like much effort had been made at all in covering that up. Also I remember watching one scene where we see him running and his legs are flaying around everywhere, which was actually quite amusing but not very professional for a huge film such as this one. One other complaint that I have about the Flash was a scene was completely cut which the audience had seen in the trailer for the film. This was a scene where Barry Allen is appearing to gently touch a glass panel which then shatters in front of him due to the effect of the speed force within his body. This can be said for quite a lot of the scenes that the trailer had promised us. Many were removed from the theatrical cut. The last of our new heroes is Jason Momoa's Aquaman. Also known as Arthur Curry and the King of Atlantis. I think Momoa is great at what he does, but he does appear to be a bit of a one trick pony, playing similar roles on screen. The badass, the hard man, the one you really don't want to get into an argument with. It was great to see him speak with a light hearted american accent as he is mostly known for speaking Dothraki in his role as the very serious Khal Drogo in the TV series Game Of Thrones. I have read the Aquaman comic books and I am quite fond of them and he is nothing at all like the Arthur Curry that I know and love. The thing with this character is that he is often portrayed as rubbish or weakest member of the Justice League and I think because of this they wanted him seen in a different light for the film. A beefy, tribal tattooed, long haired ladies man type of specimen. Yes Aquaman can be appealing on the eye I suppose and he is somewhat muscular and to be honest I liked the metallic suit. I can see why they chose this appearance for Aquaman in this film because of those reasons but that does not explain the country bumpkin (sorry, not politically correct I know) phrases and mannerisms of Momoa's sea king. I mean is he a cowboy dressed as a fish or is he the king of Atlantis looking to work on a cattle ranch in his spare time? (No offence to cattle ranch workers or home owners at all, you all work very hard, but this is not Aquaman!). I really liked seeing Jason Momoa in a comedy type role in some scenes of the film, it makes a change from what we are used to seeing from him and this was great, but why on earth was he made to say "ma, maaaaan!", "Yeeeeee Hoooooo!" and "Dressed like a bat, I dig it" when seeing Bruce Wayne in his suit for the first time. It's not all negative for Mr Curry though. He shares a scene underwater in Atlantis with his soon to be queen Mera as they fight the villain Steppenwolf to protect the mother box that is hidden under the sea. I thought Amber Heard looked amazing as Mera. She looked almost identical to her animated counterpart in the books. Her character is not one to be messed with so it's good to see her warning Aquaman of the seriousness of the situation and how important it is for him to step up as the king of Atlantis. His first scene where we see him in action as Aquaman was fantastic. We see him use his trident to stop an impending flood of water heading towards the rest of the league while in a tunnel during battle. What an entrance! I am very intrigued to see how Momoa's character will develop in his own standalone feature and despite the quirks I wasn't so keen on during Justice League I actually did like the character. I may have rambled on a fair amount about our newly formed team of heroes but I can't forget the smaller characters either. As mentioned previously in my review it was great to see more of Irons' Alfred but also the return of JK Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon. Unfortunately there still wasn't enough of him though. One moment that I thought may have been significant in the film was when Gordon can be seen discussing a big case with another officer explaining that he will deal with it. Why this particular officer? Why not have it said behind closed doors? Could this be the introduction of detective Joe West? The adopted father to Barry Allen from the comics. We will have to wait and see in the Flashpoint movie. Another background character included Amy Adam's Lois Lane, a front runner in Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman but we saw a lot less of the daily planet reporter this time around. The most memorable scene we see her in is when she is brought in by Batman as "the big guns" to calm a newly resurrected Clark Kent. So the villain of this film. Steppenwolf. The god in search of his beloved motherboxes to bring them together and then destroy the planet. Voiced by Ciaran Hinds the character wasn't brilliant. He looked the part with his horns on his helmet very much like Ares who we saw in Wonder Woman. But there's not much more that I can say about him. His minions which were flying creepy looking zombie soldiers did most of his work for him in finding the mother boxes. Every now and again we'd see Steppenwolf actually fight his own battles. Plus the big showdown at the end. The only point where this villain stood out for me was at the beginning of the film where he is seen taunting the Amazons in Themyscira. And that's not for anything that he did or said, but at that point I really loved the scenes where the Amazon women are in battle with him and his flying zombies. The scenes were so thrilling and well choreographed that it really grabbed my attention. Other than that I thought that Steppenwolf was a bit of a 'meh' character. Lastly I want to mention about the films end credit scenes. SPOILER ALERT! There were not one but two end credit scenes. The first we didn't have to wait too long to see. It showed Superman and The Flash standing on what appeared to be a runway joking with each other about which one of them is the fastest. They are then seen speeding off into a blur before the scene goes black. Roll on some more credits and we get the big one! This scene I did actually know about before going to see the film and it was one I was so excited to see on the big screen. As it started I sat in my seat flapping my hands with excitement like a performing sea lion as I continued to watch. The scene starts with an officer in a prison walking up to a cell which was for Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenburg) only for the officer to find a crazy mad man in Luthor's place. We then see a boat with people on board only to then see Lex Luthor and some of his guards talking to someone about a plan to destroy our beloved heroes. And who was he talking to? Slade Wilson in full costume! Deathstroke himself! Many people have been waiting for the appearance of this character for quite some time. Particularly fans of the CW's Arrow. The TV series based on the life of Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow (played by Stephen Amell) has already seen one version of Deathstroke which is a character that many grew fond of. We have seen the portrayal of the character from actor Manu Bennett in this series so people are rather intrigued to see just how the role will play out with the casting of Joe Manganiello. Only time will tell. Lets round this up then. I really loved this film, I liked the story, the characters, the costumes and if it were just based on that I would be giving Justice League a full score of 5 out of 5. But because I was able to find a fair amount of flaws and let downs with it I am not able to give it a top score. It is definitely one that I do recommend to watch and I cannot wait to be able to own it on release to go with the rest of my nerdy comic book film collection to be able to watch it time and time again. This review is currently on my own review website https://kasimmons8.wixsite.com/therealviewroom

It's December 2017 and time for us to finally see the big release that many of us have been waiting to see for the last two years. I am of course talking about Episode VIII - Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This is also the long awaited return of Luke Skywalker. The last time Mark Hamill's Skywalker was seen on screen was back in 2015 at the end of The Force Awakens (Episode VII) while standing on a cliff side on a secluded island in front of Rey (Daisy Ridley) as she attempts to reunite the Jedi master with his infamous blue lightsaber. The Last Jedi picks up right from where the Force Awakens ends. Film Synopsis General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and the rest of The Resistance continue their fight against The First Order which is commanded by the Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). The Resistance's best pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac), leads a a risky but effective mission to destroy the Dreadnaught - an empire ship loaded with heavy artillery. Meanwhile Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found her way on to the uncharted island of Ahch-To to try to convince a depressed and hermit like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to return to his sister and the resistance to save the galaxy from Snoke and a conflicted Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) after he had murdered his father Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and continues to cause heartache for mother Leia. Review Firstly for those of you feeling anxious, this is a no spoiler review. Maybe some small parts of the plot are mentioned but no big spoilers. Is The Last Jedi the greatest Star Wars release yet? Maybe not, but it is definitely in my top three. I loved the Force Awakens, but unfortunately I wasn't too impressed with Rogue One (yes I know it's a spin off). Despite believing Felicity Jones was the best casting choice for the role of Jyn Erso. So episode VIII really had to be good for me. It did not disappoint. Director and writer Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom and Looper), was the man in charge of The Last Jedi. He did an amazing job! This film, in my opinion is so totally different from any other film within the Star Wars franchise. If you love the typical Star Wars traits such as space battles with tie fighters and X-wings, the intense emotion from lightsaber duels and some interesting wildlife then you will love The Last Jedi. As I've mentioned the wildlife, I have to talk about the ones in this feature. Even if you haven't yet seen the film I'm sure you will have seen Porgs everywhere. In social media, plush toys in shops, on clothing and more. "Porgs are native to Ahch-To, and can be found dwelling along the cliffs of the island where Luke and Rey are. In many ways, they’re the Star Wars version of puffins. They build nests. They can fly. Their babies are called porglets."-www.starwars.com. So incase you weren't aware of what a Porg is, now you know. To be honest the little puffin like birds aren't overly important to the story, but they do add the cute factor and introduce some comedy as they seem to be nothing but an annoyance to poor Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). The second new critter I will briefly discuss are the visually stunning crystal arctic foxes that are seen towards the end of the movie as "they inhabit the "mineral-rich world of Crait" -https://www.altpress.com/news/entry/star_wars_the_last_jedi_new_creature_vulptex The crystal foxes are actually identified as Vulpex and they are slightly more relevant to the character's story compared to the Porgs. Of course the film sees the return of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac), General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) BB-8 and more. In this installment director and writer Rian Johnson has also introduced new characters including quirky resistance engineer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), Leia's second in command, lilac haired Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) and DJ (Benicio Del Toro), a well known scoundrel to many across the galaxy. So lets briefly discuss the plot lines without revealing the rather large spoilers. The Force Awakens left us asking a lot of questions. Some of them are answered in The Last Jedi. Does Luke (Hamill) accept his old lightsaber from Rey? Without spoiling the answer to that question I will use a quote from master Skywalker himself "This is not going to go the way you think!" There's not much more I can tell you other than that regarding the passing of the baton. Does Rey find out who her parents are? Rey is shown in a rather trippy scene after asking 'the force' who her parents are. I won't go into it too much as it will ruin the suspense for you all. This was a very different thing to see in a Star Wars film but it did work. Also through a psychic connection (slight little spoiler) with Kylo Ren (Driver), Rey (Ridley) does eventually find out who her parents are, even though deep down she's always known the origin of her lineage. Some people I have spoken to don't agree with the outcome and believe it's a cover up for the real reveal, but I will allow you to make up your own mind and form your own opinions on that one. Lets go further into a discussion about Rey and Kylo/Ben's phsycic connection. Which actually brings up more questions in itself. Why or how are they connected? Are they related like Leia and Luke? Will Kylo Ren convince Rey to turn to the dark side? Will Rey be able to find the good in Kylo Ren and convince him to return to the light side? Some of them are answered later on in the film. So thats something to look out for. But the connection between the two characters does reel you in. I thought it was one of the best points within the feature. Adam Driver is remarkably brilliant in this film. I was not impressed with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo at all in The Force Awakens as he was full of impatient toddler like tantrums and not much else. I thought for a Sith he was a very weak character. He totally turned me into a Kylo Ren fan this time around. He really stood out. Not only is he physically and emotionally scarred, it is abundantly clear that he is still feeling very conflicted about his actions after murdering his father Han Solo (Harrison Ford) so the emotions that he portrays are really intriguing to watch. The only thing that I thought where his character was ruined was a scene depicting a shirtless Kylo Ren. It really wasn't necessary at all and probably was just an attempt to add the 'sexy' factor to the film, especially after the interest of Princess Leia's slave costume in Return of the Jedi. In continuation, for now I'll stay with the characters of The First order. Episode VIII sees the return of the fair skinned, fiery haired General Armitage Hux (Domhnall Gleeson). With his raspy and impatient tone, he remains at Kylo Ren's side working under the orders of the Supreme Leader Snoke (Serkis). As a General of the First Order, Hux is the man responsible for the many attempts to eliminate The Resistance. It was great to see more of Gleeson's on edge character in this film. Not only that he also provided us with a lot of quick witted comments bringing a sense of humour to the role too. Something we wouldn't necessarily expect to see coming from a vengeful straight faced First Order General. This is mostly seen within the first few moments within the film as there is a little on screen banter between Poe (Issac) and Hux as they converse via a communication call. Now the next character I will mention is one that I was looking forward to seeing as they definitely weren't included enough in The Force Awakens. That character is the chrome covered Captain Phasma. Captain Phasma is a female storm trooper portrayed by actress Gwendoline Christie, who has previously been seen on our television screens as Brienne of Tarth in the hugely popular series Game of Thrones. Captain Phasma products and write ups were everywhere when Christie was initially cast. Her mannerisms are very similar to her Game of Thrones counterpart, except Phasma is a bit of a cold hearted bitch. So I and I'm sure that many others had expected great things from this character. But she was completely under used in The Force Awakens and unfortunately her role in the Last Jedi was no different. We still saw very little of her on screen and when we did it was usually momentarily with simple one liners - Mostly insults such as "rebel scum!" aimed at former storm trooper turned Resistance hero, Finn (John Boyega). She really could have added so much more to the story. But sadly no. Maybe it was due to the actress' busy work schedule while continuing to work on Game of Thrones and other recent projects for the BBC. We may never know. I can't really move on from The First Order until I have mentioned the main villain of the film. The Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Not much is given away regarding his background story. Leaving us with possibly more questions. Although we do get to see him in his physical form this time around compared to usually seeing him as a hologram previously. Although very intimidating and clearly harnessing great power, we see very little of the 'big bad villain'. He is only seen in his what i call throne room. A large spacious room with blood red walls, containing a chair for the unsightly villain while he is surrounded by his guards, all in red. That's The First order discussed and done. I won't go into too much detail about characters that I haven't yet included in the review, if I do it's likely that I will end up ruining the mystery of the film. As many of you have seen in the trailers for the film, Finn (Boyega) is no longer at Rey's (Ridley) side. He has found a new partner in Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) when it comes to working on their own mission in an attempt to help save their friends lives. The pair work have great on screen chemistry and together they come to explore the planet Canto Bight which is basically the Las Vegas of the Star Wars universe. Tran's character is a very likeable one, she makes a great asset to the cast line up. Lastly when talking about individual characters I have to include of course our main heroes. Rey, Luke and Leia. As we already know from the trailers, Rey is in training with Luke so he is able to teach her the ways of the force. Rey begs for Luke's help as she explains "I need someone to show me my place in all of this" as she is already aware of her potential. The relationship between the two characters is somewhat rocky to begin with but it does develop more as the film continues. I was so pleased to see not only the return of Luke to the big screen, but Hamill too. I think he is one of those actors that is so diverse and unique, he's just brilliant. Hamill completely dominated the majority of the story in The Last Jedi. It's something that fans have been desperate to see for years. Not only does he deliver the most dramatic and emotional performance in the film but he also wins the award for probably the most humorous moments too. Also once again we saw an amazing performance from Daisy Ridley as Rey. She just keeps getting better and better. Unfortunately the film was overshadowed by the fact that the world lost a true cinematic icon back in December 2016. The one and only Carrie Fisher. Thankfully she had finished filming her scenes for Episode VIII before her passing, so this gave us the opportunity to see our Princess and ballsy heroine one last time. She gave a very strong performance as Leia and it is sure to be one that will never be forgotten. The film certainly gave Princess Leia the ending that she deserved and it really was a beautiful tribute to Fisher. Within the end credits there is also a touching dedication to the actress which simply wrote "In loving memory of our princess. CARRIE FISHER". Carrie you will forever be our princess. "May the force be with you always." With stunning visual effects, an amazing cast, interesting characters, plot twists and a completely new take on a Star Wars adventure, Rian Johnson absolutely nailed it. Even though I felt like aspects of the film could have made room for a little improvement, it does not take away the fact that I have just watched a fantastic cinematic release and I definitely have every intention on seeing it again. Whether you love Star Wars or not you will absolutely love this film. This review is currently on my own review website https://kasimmons8.wixsite.com/therealviewroom