1. Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man 2. Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon 3.

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

Even Mark Webb is willing to admit that Mark Webbs The Amazing Spider-Man wasnt all that great. Yeah, there were a lot of things I would have done differently says the director of his 2012 reboot. But you see- the difference with this film is that the script is really good. Suuuuure, you say. Just another director making excuses and trying to pull me in to a sequel to an incredibly mediocre film. Maybe youre right! But maybe, just maybe, youre WRONG! For his second swing at Marvels most famous superhero, Webb has resorted to a formula that hasnt exactly worked out for Spidey-directors in the past: sticking THREE villains in your film, as Sam Raimi did in 2007s Spider-Man 3 to little acclaim. Once again, Webb is confident in his latest film, and seems to think he can pull the hat-trick trick off. Paul Giamatti is really only in the movie for five minutes he declares. Hes probably not lying, although the Rhino-heavy marketing would suggest otherwise! Also facing off against Peter Parker are Jamie Foxxs hoodie-

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield as Gwen and Peter.

clad scientist Electro, whom we dearly hope isnt another Lizard (the first ASMs incredibly boring antagonist) and Dane DeHaans Harry Osbourne (Norman Oz is played by Chris Cooper, but doesnt look set to be doing any hoverboarding this time round!) As for the ladies Andrew Garfields Parker will be seen on screen with, Emma Stone returns as Gwen Stacy who, if comics lore and the costume of purple-skirtand-knee-high-black-boots are to be believed, may not see this film through to the closing credits! Shailene Woodley was originally cast as secondary love interest Mary Jane Watson (played by Kirsten Dunst in the Raimi trilogy), but has apparently been cut from the second (if not third and fourth) ASM entries. Yes- there are two more of these coming soon! The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is released on May 4.

Neill Blompkamp, director of District 9 and Elysium, has spoken at great length- including in a TED talk- about his intense interest in the scientific ideal referred to as the singularityin which computers will become developed to the extent that they will be fully capable of operating on their

own. This includes the idea that it will be possible for the human brain to be uploaded and operate purely inside a computer. So why isnt Blompkamp directing Transcendence, the tale of scientist Will Caster (Johnny Depp), who, on the brink of a major

discovery that will change the world, is shot with a poisoned bullet and put into a near-fatal coma. His consciousness is hence uploaded to a digitally monitored network by his wife and colleague (Rebecca Hall) and, largely for the purpose of narrative coherence, the seemingly insane experiment actually pays off! However, Casters longing for knowledge quickly develops into an obsession with gaining power, and everything starts to go FZZT! Joining Depp and Hall in the cast are Chris Nolan veterans Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman, as well as Paul Bettany and Kate Mara. Oh yeah- we forgot to mention that Pfister was the cinematographer on, among other films, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, and that Nolan himself is an Executive Producer on this film! Transcendence is released on April 18.

THE MUPPETS TAKE EUROPE

It should be immediately clear to even the stupidest Muppet that any Disney film which begins with an ultra-meta song about sequels and features a Seventh Seal reference within minutes is intended to appeal to both children and adults- Tinker Bell & The Pirate Fairy this aint. However, Muppets Most Wanted is a far too lovingly made and wellmeaning film to ever resort to the nudge-wink parent-pleasing Scorsese jokes of, say, Shark Tale, or the endless Marlon Brando impersonation Will Ferrell performs in Megamind. Oh no! James Bobin is a man who knows how to make a film that uses subtlety rather than bluntness and charm rather than loud noises to keep its allaged audience entertained, and Most Wanted is by all means a very friendly familyfriendly family film. Most Wanted (originally titled the far more original The Muppets Again!, a title which is referred to in the opening number) opens with the final frame of 2011s The Muppets, a deeply nostalgic and sincere take on Jim Hensons band of felt misfits which, whilst being made with incredible passion by Bobin and writer/star Jason Segel (both lifelong Muppet fans), crossed a line into saccharine territory towards the end. Due in large part to the absence of the eternally cheerful Segel and Amy Adams and the presence of Ricky Gervais (among others), this is undoubtedly a far more cynical film than the 2011 adventure, or any previous Muppet film for that matter. In all fairness, its hard not to be cynical when, firstly, your film is using one of the most clichd frameworks of all time in order to tell its story at a very meta level, and secondly, half of your bloody Disney film is set in a Siberian

Gulag prison! The set-up for this is simple: Kermit is framed by his evil Russian doppelgnger (Constantine, the worlds most dangerous frog) whilst in Berlin on The Muppets world tour (organised by Gervais Dominic Badguy) and thrown in The Gulag. Sounds simple, doesnt it? Especially considering this is in essence a film directed at 5-10 year old children! Tina Fey excels as Nadia, the seemingly stern guard of The Gulag, who slowly is revealed to be a Kermit super fan and ends up singing about eight times throughout the film! Including extended cameos from Ray Liotta, Jemaine Clement and Danny Trejo as Kermits fellow inmates, the Gulag section of the film is consistently original and brilliantly entertaining, and you know what? It NEVER resorts to cheap pop culture references! The world tour takes the rest of the Muppets (along with Constantine, masquerading as Kermit and doing a hilarious impersonation of the very American frog) from Berlin (special guest: Christoph Waltz) to Madrid (special guest: Salma Hayek) to a little neighbouring city to BuzzHub DUBLIN! Oh, Dublin! How rarely do we see you in a major Hollywood film, and what a treat it is to see a 20-minute portion which was clearly entirely filmed on a sound stage in LA, pretending to be Irelands capital! The Muppets play the fictional Dublin Theatre, next door to the fictional Irish National Bank, whilst Dominic Badguy bribes an Irish Times journalist (Hugh Bonneville, doing an awful accent) into giving the show a good review (watch out Tara Brady- Disney may be doing the same). The reason for Badguy taking the gang around Europe by train (backwards)? He is Constantines Number Two (as it emphasises in a brilliant duet between the criminal duo) and between them they are attempting to steal the

Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Ty Burrell, as I say every time he brings out a film (which is far too rarely), is one of my favourite living actors, and his talents are underused on the mediocre current season of ABCs Modern Family (granted he is being paid about $1m per episode). There is quite a good chance that his performance as Interpol detective Jean-Pierre Napoleon opposite Sam The Eagle here could be his major cinematic breakout. Driving around in a criminally large tiny car and singing a superb song about police interrogations, Jean and Sam are the best detective duo since Sherlock and Watson, and would be great in True Detectives second season! Its hard to remember the weak points amongst this bucket of joy, but a horribly misjudged duet between Miss Piggy and Celine Dion certainly sticks out. Also, the character of Walter who was introduced so brilliantly in The Muppets is somewhat underused, but with Segels character absent, there isnt really anywhere for his character arc to go. The plot may have been seen a thousand times before, the locations may be used in ridiculous ways, the songs may not be as timeless as those in the 2011 film, and the script may not be as lovingly crafted, but Muppets Most Wanted is a very special family film indeed- one that every single person in the family will adore. I have never been more excited for a soundtrack album in my entire life, and I havent been more looking forward to rewatching a film since Gravity. I dearly hope Disney dont give this franchise to a new team whilst Bobin directs Alice: Through The Looking Glass, because they have a very special formula on their hands here! Wait a few years, Disney! Between The Muppets and Most Wanted, we have enough Muppet Magic to keep us happy until 2020!

AIR FORCE LIAM

The poster for Non-Stop unashamedly shows Liam Neeson shooting his gun wildly as he jumps horizontally. This is, in many ways, a massive spoiler for the film, as Neeson doent actually shoot his weapon until about 20 minutes before the end. Instead, he spends almost every second of NonStop brandishing his gun and threatening to shoot people, as it to be expected from the self-invented Neeson genre we will call Dad GunAnd-Run, which the actor created with hits like Taken late into his 50s. Non-Stop comes from the director of Neesons 2011 Hitchockian dud Unknown, a film which took the European cityscape of Taken and the mystery of The Bourne Identity and created the most overblown, nonsensical pile of rubbish this side of Tron Legacy. This newest film looks, in almost every way, like it should be a lot better, it is undoubtedly is. However, if you go in expecting a tense, well-made airplane thriller to the tune of Wes Cravens Red Eye, prepare to be disappointed. Without Neeson, the film clearly wouldnt exist, and no other actor currently working would be able to get away with the lack of acting he brings to the table here. Shouting, waving his arms around and looking at people/things with a look of Hmmmm in his eyes, Neeson doesnt so much inhabit the character of Brian Mills as inhabit the clothes he wore in Unknown and Taken 2. The supporting cast of Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery and, surprisingly, Lupita NyongO, all try their very best to not burst out laughing reading out lines like How is that possible? and Oh my GOD!. As for the story, its about as awful as that of Unknown, but the incredibly claustrophobic airplane setting provides some film-redeeming tension which saves the film from being boring for the majority of its thankfully short running time. Towards the end, things go a bit Olympus Has Fallen and its hard not to burst out laughing, but were not watching 12 Years A Slave, are we? Seriously, are we? I mean, Lupita NyongO IS IN this film (why she is, I dont know).

THE MAGNIFICENT ANDERSON

When Joss Whedons The Avengers was released in 2012, it was praised for being the closest a filmmaker had ever come to recreating the experience of reading a comic book on screen. Likewise, watching any one of Wes Andersons films feels like reading a great American novel, with expertly crafted descriptions of every character, location and prop, and an atmosphere so engaging that you feel as if you are reading the words being spoken off a page. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Andersons first foray into semi-fictional European history, is his most novelistic film to date, in particular due to its Russian Doll framing device, which mirrors David Mitchells Cloud Atlas, as narrative doors open to reveal new periods and sets of characters before closing again. To some cynics, it may look as if Hotel is Andersons Monument s Men, a film with a seemingly ideal ensemble cast, but none of whom actually try to act and are hampered by a weak script. However, it is anything but. All of Andersons friends and past collaborators who turn up for very small cameos really do bring what is available of their A-game. Why? Because working with Anderson has, for many of them, either made (in the case of Jason Schwartzman) or rejuvenated (Bill Murray, Bob Balaban) their careers. For some (Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan), its just a chance to

experience one of the most finely tuned and well-working directorial machines on Earth. All of these actors fill the screen with their unique characters of various shapes and sizes, but at the centre of the madness is The Grand Budapest Hotel itself, a deliciously iced cake of a building the exterior of which resembles a painting, the interior appearing to have been stolen from Orson Welles The Magnificent Ambersons with its long corridors, vast ballrooms and weaving staircases. Jude Laws Young Writer is staying when he encounters a mysterious old man (F. Murray Abraham) who, upon being revealed as the owner of the hotel, recounts the story of his relationship with the building to Law. We then revert to Abrahams younger self (newcomer Tony Revolori, in arguably the best debut performance since Moonrise Kingdoms Gilman and Hayward), lobby boy during wartime and protg to Ralph Fiennes equally sleazy and charming M. Gustave. Fiennes performance isnt so much a revelation as the climax to several years of career-defining roles that have seen him go from playing The Period Drama Villain to The Period Drama Hero to Fantasy Villain With CGI Face. His poetry quoting and faux laughing are a brilliant cover as he woos elderly women (the most notable of which is played by Swinton) and steals a valuable painting to which he only has partial ownership in order to give himself and Revoloris Zero a better life. Amongst the seemingly endless cameos, it is primarily Willem Dafoe and Ed Norton who truly stand out, as a hired goon and army commander, respectively, both hamming it up in the best way imaginable. Adrien Brody is unfortunately miscast as the films primary antagonist, and Harvey Keitel sadly underused in an understandably short turn. The biggest problem with the cast is certainly the choosing of the aforementioned Ronan as Zeros love interest. As a citizen of the country where Ronan is most idolized (her native Ireland), I can say from a front row perspective that she is one of the most overrated actors of her generation, constantly stealing roles from better young actors in potentially superior films. I dearly hope Anderson doesnt use her in such a big role (or in any role, for that matter) again. After watching Hotel, it becomes clear that Moonrise Kingdom was Andersons most personal film, and may always be his most moving. With its instantly relatable tale of quirky childhood love and the youthful perspective on the ridiculous behaviour of the surrounding adults, Kingdom may have been Andersons masterpiece. Hotel isnt even a contender for his best film, seriously lacking the depth of Kingdom or Tennenbaums or the charm of Rushmore or Mr Fox. However, none of the directors usual magic is lost amongst the Film of Actors and Sets, especially when the Mlis-esque paper mach landscapes transition into an adorably cheap actionpacked chase, and a small animated Russian dancer appears halfway through the end credits. It will most likely improve upon multiple viewing, and is unarguably another great nail in Andersons box of great films, but The Grand Budapest Hotel is under no circumstances a classic.

This is something special. Something very special indeed

An entire issue of X-Men. Launches April 20, 2014 at Midnight.