Isaac's Film Reviews

Time is of the essence. Film review by Isaac Handelman X-Men: Days of Future Past is just the sort of ultra-ambitious blockbuster outing that could have gone horribly wrong in a multitude of ways. The large, ensemble cast could have easily overcrowded the proceedings. The time-hopping narrative could have become convoluted. The need to balance between new and old characters could have made for a film lacking in focus or even purpose. The good news is that Days of Future Past manages, remarkably, not to fall victim to any of these potentially major caveats. Though it doesn’t quite reach the dramatic heights of 2011’s prequel First Class , Days is a triumphant crowd-pleaser in the truest sense. Days of Future Past caters to both fans of the original trilogy and to those of First Class by pulling off a deft balancing act between the franchise’s young and old character sets. The film’s narrative stands well enough on its own that newcomers need not be scared off, though a cert...

Enjoy your power. Game review by Isaac Handelman Though it’s divergent in theme, tone and style from its predecessors, Infamous: Second Son is effectively the culmination of Sucker Punch’s experience working on the Infamous franchise. Featuring exhilarating super powers, engaging characters, and a beautiful open-world to explore, Second Son is a huge, enormously entertaining adventure that shines as an early highlight of the PlayStation 4's library. Second Son takes place in an alternate reality where special people called conduits are endowed with superhuman abilities. The public fear of these individuals has led to the creation of the Department of Unified Protection, a government agency dedicated to capturing and imprisoning conduits in order to keep them from wreaking havoc on society. The game’s vision of a paranoid near-future rife with government surveillance and hypocrisy isn’t exactly subtle in its exploration of discrimination-related themes, but it’s engagin...

" You’re hiding something out there, and it’s going to send us back to the stone age!" Film review by Isaac Handelman It’s been a bumpy road as of late for the King of Monsters. After being put out of commission for a decade and a half by Roland Emmerich’s infamous Americanized reimagining, many questioned whether the towering mutant lizard would ever again recapture his big-screen dominance. Luckily, those concerns can now be put to rest; Gareth Edward’s newest remake marks Godzilla’s triumphant return -- and likely signals a new beginning for the franchise. Right out of the gate, the new Godzilla establishes its reverence for the original Japanese creation. Despite the majority of its cast being American and the final confrontation being shifted from Tokyo to San Francisco, Godzilla remains respectful to the source film. The King of Monsters is a true sight to behold; though not necessarily the largest onscreen monster ever conceived, the new Godzilla’s scale i...

By Isaac Handelman 10. Transformers: Age of Extinction - June 27 The original Transformers trilogy wasn’t exactly hailed as a series of cinematic masterpieces, but they did excel in one area: delivering huge, exciting, giant-robot-versus-giant-robot battles on the big screen. Age of Extinction , a quasi-reboot, looks to retain this strength while dropping Shia LaBeouf in favor of venerable action star Mark Wahlberg; if all goes as planned, the result will be a Transformers movie that retains audience interest even when its titular robots aren’t smashing each other to bits. 9. 22 Jump Street - June 13 Comedy sequels don’t typically hold up to a high quality standard, but if 22 Jump Street ’s hilarious trailers are anything to go by, this continuation of the 2012 hit could just be the exception to the rule. The jump from high school to college should allow for plenty of lewd shenanigans, and, if nothing else, we’ll at least get to see Jonah Hill talk in a ridiculous Mexic...