Spring Movie 2018 Rampage

On 05/18/2018 at 01:28 AM by Cary Woodham

There were actually quite a few movies that came out this Spring that interested me, so here’s a blog about them. I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, and I’ll try to make any spoilers I make very subtle, but just in case, I’ll put a spoiler warning here anyway.

Early Man

OK so technically this movie came out in February so I guess it’s really a Winter movie, but I’ll put it here anyway. This was a stop motion clay animated movie done by the folks at Aardman, who also did Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run. They’ve also done a lot of popular ads like the Chevron cars and Serta mattress sheep. I’m a huge fan of Aardman so I had to see this movie. It’s a movie about cavemen trying to save their land from the upcoming bronze age tribe. Lots of Flintstones-like jokes involving animals imitating modern appliances. I almost expected the cockroach acting as an electric razor to say, “It’s a living,” when one character was done shaving his face with it. Anyway, the two tribes challenge each other to a soccer (or football) match, so it becomes a sports movie after that. And since it’s about soccer (football), it has a very European feel to it. But Aardman is in the UK, so most of their stuff is like that anyway. I think many of the soccer jokes would probably go over most Americans’ heads, unless they were avid international soccer fans. But it was still a fun movie and I’m glad I saw it.

Pacific Rim Uprising

The first Pacific Rim movie kind of came out of nowhere for me. My family was like, “Hey, let’s go see Pacific Rim,” and I was like, “What’s that?” And they said, “You’ve never heard of it? It’s a giant monster movie.” And as a fan of those, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it. But I loved it. I didn’t like the sequel quite as much, as it had some slow spots here and there and there wasn’t enough giant monster fighting and I think parts of the plot were written by a five-year-old. But it was still pretty entertaining and you shouldn’t expect much from these kinds of movies anyway. And I’m happy to report that the voice of GlaDOS returns as the computer voice in this sequel, too.

Rampage

My brother Jeff and I played the heck out of Rampage World Tour back in the day, and I remember the original Rampage game before any of my brothers were even a thought. So since we have such a history with the games, you know we HAD to see this movie. I kind of wish there was more giant monster carnage, but otherwise it wasn’t that bad. About on par with Pacific Rim Uprising, which isn’t shabby. And again, you really shouldn’t expect much out of these movies anyway. They didn’t get the story quite right, but then, Rampage didn’t have much of a story to begin with. I can’t believe how crowded the movie theater was, though. I guess the Rampage games were more popular than I thought. World Tour did get two sequels on the PSOne, so, yeah (and a GBA puzzle game and a GameCube remake). A little girl in the seat behind us was very concerned with George the Ape’s welfare, though, asking her parents every so often if George was OK. They did have a classic Rampage arcade machine in the movie, just to remind folks what this was based off of. And the lab rat from one of the World Tour sequels made a cameo appearance. After the movie, my brother Jeff and I thought about what other classic arcade games could be made into movies. Asteroids? Spy Hunter? (that actually almost happened) Jeff asked if I would see a SiniStar movie and I said NOPE!

Avengers: Infinity War

Out of all the movies I saw this Spring, the Avengers one was definitely the best. Lots of action and never a dull moment. I don’t really read comic books, so most of my knowledge of Marvel comes from the movies, LEGO games, and the Marvel vs. Capcom series. This movie pretty much had the same plot as Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, except with no Capcom characters and I liked the ending better in the Marvel vs. Capcom game. So in the movie, a purple guy with a big chin takes all these Skittles stones for his Power Glove so he can be really strong. And the good guys try and stop him.

You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t remember a lot of the characters’ names. And the movie didn’t help matters either. They really needed “Hello My Name Is…” tags to wear. In the first quarter of the movie, they kept referring to a guy named Steve Rogers, and I had to turn to my brother Jeff to find out who the heck that was. Oh, it’s Captain America. WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY THAT IN THE MOVIE! And Captain America, please wear your uniform so I know who you are. Same goes for Black Spider. If you have red hair in the other movies, don’t dye it here to confuse me. Guess she wanted to separate herself from Red Magic Lady.

And boy you had better see ALL the other Marvel movies so you know who everyone is here. Even though this was an Avengers movie, they could’ve called this Guardians of the Galaxy 3 or Captain America 4 or Iron Man…what are they on now? 12? Even the new Spider-Man is in this one. Luckily I just saw that one on Netflix (or not, as I didn’t like Spider-Man Homecoming at all). Unfortunately I skipped out on Black Panther in the theaters, so when he was in this movie, I didn’t know what was going on. OK the last past of this paragraph is the most spoiler-y, so skip past it if you don’t want that. So you know they’ll make another Avengers movie so the good guys can “Kefka” their way out of this one and “Dragon Ball Z” the whole thing. I wonder if they’ll make a movie based on my favorite Marvel character. Can you guess who that is?

Spring Movies I Missed

Like I just said, I skipped out on the Black Panther movie when it was in theaters. I just didn’t know who that character was and figured I would just watch it on Netflix. There were a few other movies I did that with this Spring, so I figured I’d go over those as well.

I have a strong interest in children’s books, so I was curious about the Paddington Bear movie that came out a few years ago. I didn’t see it in theaters, but I did watch it on Netflix and it wasn’t that bad. There was a sequel a few months ago that I didn’t see, but I might on Netflix as well. I found it interesting that the mom in the movie was played by the same lady who was in one of the new Godzilla movies. Plus I think she’s pretty, but don’t tell anyone I said that. I wonder if she’s in the Paddington sequel. Strangely enough, even though I’m interested in children’s books, the new Peter Rabbit movie didn’t reel me in much.

I never really got into the Tomb Raider games, so I skipped out on the new Tomb Raider movie as well. But I’ll try to see it on Netflix. And even though Ready Player One is about video games, it seemed more like pandering to me (like the Scott Pilgrim movie), so I didn’t see it either. Maybe one of you folks can convince me to see it on Netflix. And finally, when I went to see the Early Man movie, they had a preview for another stop motion movie called Isle of Dogs. But I don’t think it was showing in any theater near me as I don’t remember seeing it out at all, so I’ll have to Netflix that one as well.

Summer Movies I Want to See

There’s not really a whole lot of movies this summer I want to see. Just four (or five). I’ll list them here and maybe when I see them all, I write a blog about them like I did here. Anyway, the ones I want to see are: Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Incredibles 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Ant Man and the Wasp. Rifftrax is also doing the 80’s movie Krull in late August, so I’ll try to see that one as well.

In the comments section, let me know what you think of the movies I saw, and tell me about the movies you saw and want to see. That’s all for now! Later! --Cary

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/18/2018 at 05:58 AM

I played the crap out of Rampage too. And Xenophobe!!! Great games!

I liked Infinity War, thought it was done really well, but I'm kind of mad I have to wait to see what happens.

Cary Woodham

05/18/2018 at 04:32 PM

You know I never really got into Xenophobe that much. But it sure was popular. I remember seeing it in nearly every arcade when it was new.

I'm just wondering if they wrote themselves into a corner with Infinity War.

PS I love Krull.

05/18/2018 at 04:37 PM

When Krull was in theaters I was just a iittle kid, so I didnt see it then. But years later when it was on HBO I watched it. Did you know there was a Krull arcade game back then?

I don't think I've seen Krull since then, so it'll be fun to watch it again on Rifftrax. Now that I'm older, I have a better appreciation for all those cheesy barbarian fantasy movies that were so popular in the 80s. I think my favorites of that time are Dark Crystal (because Jim Henson) and Red Sonja because...well just because.

Rifftrax is doing another theater showing of Space Mutiny, but that was already on MST3K so I will skip out on that one since it'll probablly have most of the same jokes.

05/18/2018 at 06:03 PM

Dark Crystal is great!!! Red Sonya... maybe not, Ha ha.

05/20/2018 at 08:56 PM

No, Red Sonja's not good, but it's still stupidly entertaining.

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/18/2018 at 08:15 AM

I really want to see early man now. I loved wallace and gromit growing up. Didn't know they did those ads, but makes perfect sense given the style.

PR Uprising came around my bday, but I just wasn't interested enough.

Rampage honestly didn't look too bad, but again I just wasn't interested enough. Maybe if I'd had a MoviePass. Hmm ... Spy Hunter could definitely be a movie, but idk if they'd throw the needed budget at it given its reltive obscurity. Then again, here we are talking about Rampage. I used to rent World Tour or play it in the arcade a lot.

Yeah, I wasn't as devastated by that ending to Infinity War as other people because of just what you mentioned, though I think some characters who ... Before that really won't be coming back. Is your favourite character Captain Marvel? I had to look up the after credits to know who that was.

Paddington is decent enough, but Paddington 2 is really great! You should see it.

Also, the mom in Paddington was in Shape of Water, but um ... Well, maybe you should just skip that one if you want to continue seeing her as just Paddington's sweet mother. Lol

Tomb Raider was exactly what you'd expect, so catching it on Netflix is a good idea.

I wanted to see Ready Player One, but felt similar to you about it just being a reference fest, so I'll probably rent somewhere down the line unless it is still in theaters (I did hear the visuals are great).

However, I have to say, as someone who isn't all that big a fan of the Scott Pilgrim movie, there's definitely a lot more to tat one than pandering and game references. I thought SP was very unique both visually and in story structure ... I just didn't find it as funny as others did.

I saw Isle of Dogs in Lufkin a week or so after its release, so it HAD to be playing in Dallas somewhere. I really liked it, but you can rent that one and still have a good time, so no biggie.

My list of films to see is pretty much yours plus deadpool 2

05/18/2018 at 04:51 PM

When Wallace and Gromit were first out, I was in college. I took a clay animation class (not in college) so I have a lot of respect for what they do.

You know, when those 3-D Spy Hunter remakes were out on PS2, there were talks and rumors of a Spy Hunter movie. I don't know if Spy Hunter is all that obscure, though. I saw it everywhere when I was a kid, and on the NES they even took a Japanese car battle game that had nothing to do with Spy Hunter and named it Super Spy Hunter when bringing it to the US. Even Teen Titans Go (hate that cartoon) made fun of Spy Hunter in one episode.

My brother Jeff LOVED Spy Hunter when he was little. On one of my classic game collections, he sat there and played it for like, two hours straight one time when he was five.

My favorite Marvel character is not Captain Marvel. I didn't even know who that was until I played Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Not sure how she's going to save the day when all those other super heroes couldn't. What do you know about that character? Anything cool I would like?

My favorite Marvel character is one I didn't know about until I played Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And the only reason why she's my favorite is because Phoenix Wright was in her ending. Plus she's really strong and also is my favorite color. That should give you some clues.

I just saw Paddington 2 last night, actually. It came in the mail via Netflix. Both Paddingon movies are pretty good little kids films. Nothing I'd see in a theater, but still fun to watch at home.

As an actress, the lady who played the mom in Paddington can probably change personalities in a drop of a hat. Heck, in the new Godzilla movie she was a serious military lady. I just think she's pretty. Actually a lot of celebrities are pretty, but she stuck out in my mind for some reason. Not sure why.

But I'll probably skip The Shape of Water unless you can convince me otherwise. Besides, I already know the shape of water. It's blobby and all liquidy.

I did see Scott Pilgrim at home and just didn't like it. I don't even think I watched it all the way through. I dunno, just didn't click with me.

05/18/2018 at 06:38 PM

I loved PS2 and GCN Spy Hunter and knew of the older games, but I still think both that franchise and Rampage are somewhat obscure currently. I think Rampage underperformed here in the states, but probably did great overseas.

I feel dumb now for not seeing your profile pic is She Hulk. Lol As for Capt. Marvel, I googled the after credits scene of Infinity War and found out that symbol on Sam Jackson's beeper was hers. Thus concludes my knowledge of Captain Marvel.

For me, Paddington is an average rental, but Paddington 2 was one of the best theater experiences I've had in years. I do tend to automatically like movies more when I see them in theaters though.

I think maybe it's because her and Gal Godot are physically attractive in a way that makes them seem like they'd also have kind personalities, but that's my take. And I loved Shape of Water, but it is an acquired taste I do not think you'd like, so no recommendation for you to see it. Lol Same goes for Deadpool 2, which I saw this afternoon.

I honestly feel about the same as you on SP, but still think it's a really unique movie. I wish I liked it more than I actually do in a way.

05/20/2018 at 08:59 PM

When you say Rampage underperformed here in the States, do you mean the games or movies? Because I think the games did pretty well if World Tour spawned two home sequels.

Gal Gadot was the new Wonder Woman movie lady, right? That was a good movie. Except she didn't spin around and around like in the 1970's Wonder Woman TV show. I bet there were a lot of dizzy little girls in the 70's. In the new movie, there were a lot of cool ladies on Wonder Woman Island, too.

KnightDriver

05/22/2018 at 12:28 PM

I was psyched for Early Man but it was a sports movie, and about a sport I don't care much for, Soccer. I loved the animation though. Can't miss an Aardman movie.

I think they almost forgot about the giant monster fighing in Pacific Rim 2. It took SOOOO long for them to get to that. How could they do that? Pacific Rim only exists for the giant monster fights. That's all I go to it for. And Charlie Day, the mad Kaiju loving scientist. He's great.

05/22/2018 at 10:26 PM

Well the scientists are in the sequel, but I take it you saw the movie already.

05/22/2018 at 10:33 PM

Yea, I had to. The first one was just dumb fun.

05/22/2018 at 11:16 PM

Yup, me too. You going to go watch any of those other movies I talked about?

05/23/2018 at 10:42 PM

I saw Isle of Dogs and liked it. I'm going to see Solo this weekend and I will definitely see Incredibles 2. Rifftrax doing Krull sounds fun too.

05/24/2018 at 12:23 AM

Are you going to see the Avengers movie?

Man that Isle of Dogs movie must've just came in went in a blink of an eye in theaters. I kept a watch for when it would be showing around here and I never saw a theater that had it.

I hope I can see the Solo movie soon. It'll be hard since I have to work Memorial Day weekend and will be going to E3 soon after. Hopefully it'll be in the theaters long enough. Movies don't stay in theaters as long as they used to.

05/24/2018 at 10:18 PM

Probably not now. I almost went a couple of times but I'm still between jobs, so I'm super picky. Otherwise I would've checked it out despite my misgivings.

05/24/2018 at 10:32 PM

Maybe you can check it out at the dollar movie, if you have one of those in your area.

05/25/2018 at 02:18 PM

I wish I had a dollar movie around here. About the best I can do is see a matinee for $10.

05/25/2018 at 08:56 PM

Oh yuck. No wonder why you don't see as many movies. Not only do we have a dollar theater, matinees at most places are just 5 to 6 bucks.

PixlBit