Redemption in Recent Movies!

Redemption in Movies!

'Deadpool' starring Ryan Reynolds has been out in cinemas for less than a month and has already wheeled in a whopping £250 million making it the 21st quickest movie to ever surpass that high sum of money. Not only has the film been a critical and commercial success, but it has also proved to be a redemption for Reynolds himself. After a failed portrayal of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, many thought that the character would be gone for good and not even Reynold would be able to save it from obscurity. A second bite at the superhero genre popped up for Reynolds as he was cast as Hal Jordan in DC's 'The Green Lantern'. The less said about 'The Green Lantern', the better. Two attempts and two failures from Reynolds in the world of superheroes. Who'd of thought that seven years later from these attempts, Reynolds would have knocked a second attempt at Deadpool out of the park with one of the most popular and successful superhero films of recent times?. Reynolds has most definitely redeemed himself from his past roles and has truly became a favourite in the superhero world. So this got me thinking. Who else has redeemed themselves in recent times after a couple of stinkers? This has been the case for many actors, directors and even franchises as a whole. So here's 5 of some of the most recent cases where redemption has truly been found!

1. Chris Evans 

With Reynolds redeeming himself in a big way with Deadpool recently, it only makes sense to start off with another superhero star. Chris Evans came to fame in 2005 when he was cast as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four and then reprised his role in 2007 in the sequel, The Silver Surfer. The films certainly didn't do as well as hoped with it receiving poor reviews. Evans would no longer take up the role as Jonny Storm and seemed to drift off away from the spotlight. This was until he was surprisingly cast as Steve Rodgers, better known as Captain America in the 2011 film of the same name. He was set to become a key figure of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he had been picked to play one of the lead characters. This came as a shock due to his past in a Marvel franchise and obviously people were sceptical of this choice. However Marvel won't have looked back. With a good performance in the first Captain America, Evans was already on the road to redemption. Evans was able to fully redeem himself when he was a key part of 'Avengers' which was a global success with Evans producing a great performance as Cap. Then two years later, he fully showed his star power as the lead in arguably Marvels best solo film, The Winter Soldier. Evans has came a long way since his time in the Fantastic Four and is now one of the faces of the Marvel company. He has truly redeemed himself and has done a fantastic job, exceeding our expectations by far.

2. Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves is most definitely one of Hollywood's nice guys. Whether it is him giving more than half of his Matrix paycheck to other members of the crew or donating loads of his wealth to numerous different charities. It can't be denied that Reeves is a great guy. It's his acting which splits people. Myself, I'm on the side who loves Keanu. 'Speed' is one of my most favourite action films of all time and I also get great enjoyment from 'Point Break' and 'The Matrix'. I am a big fan of Reeves work and love him at the helm of an action franchise. However recently in his career there have been a few stinkers. No matter how much I like Reeves, it has to be admitted that the work he's done lately hasn't been great. '47 Ronin' and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' were not some of his best work and has maybe set Reeves ability back a few steps in peoples minds. That was until last years John Wick. Keanu is most definitely back with a bang. John Wick was a fantastic action movie and was highly successful mainly due to Reeves slick performance. A great return for Reeves and with a sequel already being scheduled, it has definitely redeemed Reeves for his recent form.

3. Michael B Jordan

Now this one may seem like quite a harsh one. I have been a fan of Jordan ever since I seen him in the fantastic found footage superhero film 'Chronicle'. Then with Fruitvale Station, Jordan became one of Hollywood's hottest new talents and is being tipped for huge success. His abilities then earned himself the call up to become 'The Human Torch' in the rebooted 'Fant4stic'. Sound familiar? Shockingly this attempt at the Fantastic Four ended up being worse than the original and the movie was panned heavily by critics. Not one of Jordan's finest moments. However Jordan was very quick to redeem himself and did so in the same year as the star of 'Creed'. He was very unlucky to miss out on an Oscar nomination for his fantastic portrayal as Adonis Creed in the continuation of the Rocky franchise. An incredible performance that's made Jordan's future look even brighter. And soon everyone had forgot about that train wreck 'Fant4stic'.

4. M Night Shyamalan

Redemption isn't only just for actors. There may not of been a single person who had been on as bad a run as Shyamalan. He burst onto the scene in 1999 with 'The Sixth Sense' and may tipped him to become the next big thing, even calling him the next Steven Spielberg. Wow. Then with other successes such as 'Unbreakable' and 'Signs', the future looked good for Shyamalan and he was on a hot streak to match anyone. However the biggest streak of awfulness was yet to come as Shyamalan brought terrible movie after terrible movie to the big screen. It started with The 'Village' which was a box office success but didn't get the praise it seeked. It only got much worse after this with the boring 'Lady in the Water' being next which was incredibly awful. The non intentional hilarious 'The Happening' was next and due to this failure, many people were really questioning Shyamalan's abilities in film making. 'The Last Airbender' and 'After Earth' only furthered the confirmation of Shyamalan's decline with arguably his two worst creations in his library. From the next big thing to one of the worst directors currently working, it had all gone wrong for Shyamalan. Now I just recently watched 'The Vist' Shyamalan's latest movie and this more than shows that he has some talent. This movie was pretty good and he showed his talents very well of creating quite a creepy atmosphere and also provided some great comedy. It would be too quick to say that 'The Visit' has completely redeemed Shyamalan but it is most definitely a return to some of his better works and has made up a little for his past atrocities. Lets hope he can continue this in the near future.

5. Star Wars- The Force Awakens

Hey, who said redemption was only for individual people? If anything has redeemed itself in recent times, it is Star Wars. The prequels were a dark time for many fans of the original as they swapped the greatness of Luke, Han and Leia for mostly boring stories involving Obi Wan, a bratty Anakin and Padme. The prequels were most definitely not well received by the fans with many many people feeling that they were massive disappointments. That is why when it was announced in 2012 that Disney had ought Lucasfilm and there would be an episode 7, many were hopeful but also many were worried. There were high hopes that 'The Force Awakens' would bring back pride to the Star Wars saga. Albeit there was also great fear that the new instalment would only put the franchise further back. Well now over 3 years and currently £1,471,865,932 later, it can be confirmed that Star Wars has returned to it's glories of the past. The franchise is well and truly back on the right track and seems to be in good hands. With a blend of a fresh faced cast and nostalgia from the past, 'The Force Awakens' was able to create something that I'm sure that most movie fans would certainly enjoy. This is the first step to hopefully enabling us to get rid of the bad taste of the prequels. Thank you J.J Abrams for bringing the real Star Wars back to it's glory days and redeeming it for the time being.

So that's my short list of recent redemption in movies. There are quite a lot that you can choose from so let me know other particular cases of redemption. Once again thank you for reading, it means a lot!

By Angus McGregor