Colossus – Movies of the Soul

What is the movie about? :: Years after murdering the man who gave him the mutant superpowers the hard way in the first movie, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is working as a mercenary, but on his own terms, while mocking Wolverine. He hopes to start a family with his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin). But it is then that one of his targets whom he missed, manages to strike back, killing Vanessa in the process. Wade is quick to kill the man who is responsible for her death, and even tries to kill himself in an explosion; but he grows back as Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) takes him to join the X-Men, with Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) not being fond of the not-so-superhero joining the team. But Colossus has him as a trainee and lets him join them on their very next mission.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: After a vision of Vanessa, and trying to put his heart at the right place, he decides to help the X-Men to deal with a teenage mutant Russell Collins a.k.a. Firefist (Julian Dennison) who has gone violent at an orphanage for mutants. X-Men join with human soldiers to gain control over the mutant who is looking highly unstable. As Deadpool realizes that Russell was abused and tortured by the orphanage staff, he decides to help him, and ends up killing one of the staff members too, before being stopped by Colossus. Russell and Wade are taken to an isolated prison for mutants, known as Icebox. Collars are used to negate their powers, and without them, Wade slowly and steadily begins to go back to his previous state, with tumout growing inside him – he gets weaker than ever.

And what is follow with the events? :: It is then that a cybernetic soldier Cable (Josh Brolin) whose family is murdered by Russell in the future, travels back in time to kill him before he becomes that brutal murderer. Wade tries to defend Russell against Cable, but denies any attachment to him so that the boy could be safe inside the prison without him. Wade ends up outside the prison, and after having a vision of Vanessa again, decides to help Russell, no matter what happens. For the same, he assembles a team which he calls X-Force – Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), Peter (Rob Delaney) and Vanisher (Brad Pitt) are hired to be part of the group, as they hope to stop the mutant warrior from future. But Russell has his own ideas to stop Cable, and it will not prove to be nice for the newly formed X-Force.

The defence of Deadpool 2 :: This one’s capability to bring some entertainment can never be questioned, especially with the comic side, and some action to go with it. You can see that it refers to movies in both Marvel and DC Universe, with references including the latter being so dark. The movie does have some nice main characters, other than its superhero and a kid who is conveniently placed in the middle of everything – it has one lady whose superpower is luck, and one of the most powerful mutants, along with a time traveler mutant warrior from the future – these two are of more strength than anyone else, and you can do nothing but to love them so much. Deadpool 2 is that kind of a movie which won’t apologize for its nonsense which is surely there, and is it is that kind of fun nonsense that we need to be prepared for, unlike our usual Thor: Ragnarok, Logan, Captain America: Civil War or Black Panther from Marvel.

The claws of flaw :: Well, Deadpool 2, just like Deadpool, is not the superhero movie for the kids and families – it just not the right kind of film. The violence and gore remains rather not that good, that too with the whole thing being censored to arrive at this level. Unlike the other superheroes, Deadpool is surely that kind of a person whom we can’t admire – he is that selfish hero in one way or the other, that we need to see dead; but he just doesn’t. This movie surely has no real respect for anyone either, and that is reflected on the character as well as the dialogues of the main character. Some of the dialogues which seem to be close to being funny never really gets there, and there are those jokes which go wandering away, leaving no effect at all. The action sequences could have been better too, and the emotional side struggles, thanks to some stupid dialogues in between.

The performers of the soul :: The movie is about the two people more than anyone ele – these two have played two big characters on the big screen in two different movies. Ryan Reynolds has been Green Lantern before, and it is that DC Universe that he makes fun of in this movie as Deadpool. Then there is Josh Brolin whom we last saw as Thanos, and here he is, as Cable, in the same Marvel Universe. Both of them are really good, making this movie better than what it really is, with its low level plot that doesn’t raise the bar. Zazie Beetz is great fun in this movie, and you also love Brianna Hildebrand who has less time on the screen, but has that special effect when there. Morena Baccarin is another actress whom we wanted to see more here, and as lovely as she is here, there is only less time for her to show here skills. The rest of the cast is just mostly okay.

How it finishes :: Deadpool was never known to be the superhero that someone would wish to admire for anything other than saving the day. Being a rather selfish hero, this one was never supposed to appeal to the usual superhero admirers – even with that selfless act added in the end. There seems to be no real attempt to make this one feel better than the first movie, and there is certainly no special ingredient added to it. But we can safely say that it will provide some entertainment with the funny side and the action that comes with it. The family audience will surely have to choose Avengers: Infinity War over this one or one of those Malayalam movies in the theatres. Well, the ‘A’ certificate is sure to make that happen easily.

Release date: 18th May 2018
Running time: 119 minutes
Directed by: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy, Stefan Kapicic, Terry Crews, Lewis Tan, Bill Skarsgard, Rob Delaney, Brad Pitt (cameo)

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Premise of The Shaman :: For thousands of years, men have undergone vigorous training to become the Shamans. These well-trained people have traveled into the other world, finding and healing the souls of people. In the beginning of the twenty third century, they are no longer the healers, but mankind’s deadliest weapon, as there is more that they can do during a war. The year is 2204, after seventy three years of continuous war and destruction. There is a long battle going on between The Atlantic Alliance and The White Federation and the world is in chaos. According to the Shaman’s school of thought, every creature or object has a soul. As the Shamans go into the other world known as the Netherworld and convert or destroy the souls of their enemies’ huge battle machines, both sides come up with defensive strategies against the Shaman attacks.

What is it about? :: These intelligent machines are widely used for battles during the times, and they are the toughest opponents which are better to be dealt with indirectly, as direct confrontation is leads to too many casualities. As a Shaman called Joshua (Danny Shayler) tries to convert the soul of one enemy battle colossus which has destroyed about two thousand men, this one is ready for him. The soul of the colossus (Susanne Wuest) knows that he is coming, and has read information about him. Joshua has a troubled past which can be used against him if known. In the other world, the machine will use his own strength, the manipulation against him. He will have four minutes to deal with this machine or he will die with the troops and his squire Lene (David Sayers). Can he come up with something special here?

The defence of The Shaman :: The short film gets you into the story right in the beginning with an introduction and some interesting information about the premise – it makes sure that we have the idea what is to come next. Then, we are introduced into the movie’s story-line related to the Shaman called Joshua and his battles. There are some stunning visuals to go with the story. The visual splendour is the kind of thing which can challenge those big Hollywood movies, as the futuristic world devastated by wars will immediately catch your attention – the explosions add to it. The idea is no different as it is worth making a full length movie which runs for at least two hours. There is strength in the core, and we can be sure that it can be developed into big movie, and we can only hope that if it does, it releases at this part of the world.

How is The Shaman special? :: The Shaman has a special place among the short films, and it is one of the best which I have watched. As Hollywood comes up with too many remakes, it is always nice to see a new idea instead of bringing the same thing again and again. The idea which is used in this short film is also something which got a lot of potential. There is absolutely no dull moment in this one, and you are completely into the idea of Shaman, soul, Netherworld and the connections being made. The Shaman has that kind of a universe which can be developed a lot. There can be a prequel as well as a sequel in the form of full length movies, because the theme will catch the audience attention with ease. The science fiction fans are sure to love the basic idea and its development.

Soul exploration :: This is my first attempt at reviewing a short film, and The Shaman is a good flick to start doing the same. Throughout this movie and as the film ended, I was hoping that this was longer, even as a short film, I wished for at least ten to fifteen more minutes. When the idea is great and it also looks fantastic, I would wonder why one won’t want the movie to go on for a very long time. You can watch the trailer of the movie below to understand what this short film is going to be about. I am sure that you will find it an interesting trailer, and it gives a nice idea about what the movie is about. It should have you interested to watch the complete short film which is shared in the end.

Performers of the soul :: There are two characters who get most of the attention, and there are three who are the main characters – the Shaman, the Squire and the Soul of the Colossus. The performances in The Shaman were actually very good, especially with Danny Shayler who plays the titular character and Susanne Wuest who plays the Soul of the Colossus. The sequence between them is well done, which is why one would want to have them again if there is a full length movie getting made. A more detailed sequence between them would do a longer movie a lot good, and it will be the first thing I expect along with the tales of the Shaman as a person. David Sayers as Lene also does a good job here. We can be sure that the talent does exist here, and there will be more to come if there is a full length movie.

Further details about The Shaman :: The Shaman premiered at the New York based Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was also screened at many other film festivals around the world. The trailer of the movie had over four million views on Youtube. The whole movie is now available on Youtube to watch, and has subtitles in English, Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese. It is also online on Vimeo as of now and was also selected into the Vimeo Staff Picks. It was also featured in Short of the Week. The movie has a rating of 7.5 on the IMDb, and it is surely ahead of most of the short films that you watch these days. It is mentioned as one of the best short films of the year, and one can be sure that it is deserving of that description. You can watch the full short film at the Youtube link below and come up with an opinion.

Release date: 17th November 2015 (Online); 18th April 2015 (Premiere)
Running time: 17 minutes
Directed by: Marco Kalantari
Starring: Danny Shayler, David Sayers, Susanne Wuest, Edmund Jäger, Adam Thomas Wright, Anton Noori, Stefan Bernhard, Samuel Jung

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.