Review: Captain America 2 - The Winter Soldier

Seeing as he gets a name check in the title, you'd expect the Winter Soldier to have a bigger part in the second Captain America film - but in fact he ends someone playing second fiddle to the main villain and looks like he's spent too long listening to 30 Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance to be any real threat.

That's not the only problem with this sequel either, with the biggest problem facing this this film (and the Marvel Universe as a whole) is that since Agent Coulson's reappearance in Agents of Shield, it's tough to believe for a second that anyone is in any real danger at any point in the plot. That said the Marvel films have their formula down to a tee, with impressive action sequences interspersed with snappy one-liners to lighten the mood, meaning the Captain America 2 is always entertaining, but future films need to up their game to hit the heights of previous successes.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

This latest take on the Spider-Man origin story takes a darker and grittier tone than the recent trilogy of Raimi films - and although its still a world away from Batman-levels of blackness, the more realistic feel does its best to blow away any cobwebs still left after the dreadful Spider-Man 3 and Tobey Macquire's best Saturday Night Fever audition.

New lead Andrew Garfield quickly convinces as the superhero-to-be, tetchy and twitchy enough to convince as geek Peter Parker, but charismatic enough to make you believe you he'd actually have a chance with someone like Emma Stone - its no surprise the real life couple have great chemistry and Stone's Stacy is helped by being more than someone just to be rescued at the end.

However its Martin Sheen who is the real star of the show as Parker's Uncle Ben, popping up at the right moments to give the film a gravitas much like Michael Caine's Alfred and the standard does drop noticeably as Sheen's scenes come to an end - Rhys Ifans does a sound job as the villain, but doesn't have too much to work with as Sony have saved the bigger name bad guys for the inevitable sequels that will follow.

The Spider-Man origin story is a well-worn tale, but this reboot does enough things different and enough things well to make sure it comfortably exceed expectations.

Review: Captain America - The First Avenger

The final offering in Marvel's Avengers origin stories, Captain America offers two hours of fun, but ultimately forgettable action - yet deserves credit for how it manages to avoid becoming the nationalistic nightmare that Matt Stone and Trey Parker so successfully lampooned in Team America: World Police.

Chris Evans is excellent in the lead role, his softly spoken portrayal of Steve Rodgers standing out against the usual OTT performances you've come to expect from Marvels' Superhero films. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is the stand out amongst the supporting cast, but one of Captain America's main problems is that there's too many of them - The Cap's crew coming and going in the blink of an eye being the case in point for too many cast members spoiling the broth.

Captain America also falls short of hitting the heights of the Superhero genre by just kind of petering out towards an end thanks to the lack of a big action sequence or the feeling that he's ever really in any real danger at some point resulting in a leaving the cinema in a bit on anticlimax.

*speaking of which don't bother staying after the credits this time - I'm pretty sure the original post credit sequence was moved to the end of the film and you just get a rubbish Avengers trailer this time.

Review: X Men - First Class

The most powerful super-power on show is that of Magneto's helmet, that suddenly makes Michael Fassbender shout in an Irish accent out of nowhere for the last half an hour.

Herein lies one of the main problems of X-Men: First Class, by sticking(ish!) to the timeline of the other films, the other mutants in the film are a bit rubbish for the most part. The film is at its best whenever McAvoy and Fassbender are together, hwich makes you wish they just did X-Men Origins: Magneto and had Fassbender mess around a the Jewish Bond for the full 2 hours.

Review: Thor

About as subtle as a hammer to the face - and there's a fair bit of that going on from the get go. Some of the dialogue up up there with Gran Torino in the unintentional comedy stakes, but Thor remains Thor-oughly good fun throughout thanks to a great cast that dives into the material head first, embracing the campness of it all.