Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015; Matthew Vaughan / Jane Goldman and Vaughan)

After watching Samuel L Motherfucking Jackson's villain defeated by Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Michael Caine as the eponymous Kingsmen I couldn't help thinking: If you're a gazillionaire with the resources and willingness to save the planet, and you happen to be a person of colour, a bunch of honkies with delusions of knights and chivalry will stop you and protect the status quo.

Chappie (2015; Neill Blomkamp / Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)

District 9 just fuckin' rocked, didn't it? Social commentary as sci-fi action film, it had awesome, eye-popping tech, smart, adaptable and resourceful villains, and a protagonist that was classic Joe Campbell.

The long-awaited Elysium had a jaw-dropping trailer and premise but the final product was really just District 9 on a bigger scale. I hoped it was just a sophomoric misstep.

Watching Chappie is like watching a very expensive assembly of the dumbest parts of Star Wars Episodes I–III, Return of the Jedi, and Robocop 2 and 3: a tedious asssult of infantile characterisation and insulting story-telling that no amount of action can save.

Meh.

Daredevil S01 (Netflix, 2015–)

The casting is what got me interested: the always — always — awesome Vincent D'Onofrio as the villain, and the ever underrated Scott Glenn as a crotchety ol' cuss of a mentor. A wonderful surprise is Rosario Dawson who has the best lines and chemistry with lead Charlie Cox who inhabits the character well enough but is surprisingly the least interesting thing in Daredevil.

Overall, the show hits the right notes, taking cues from each of the Frank Miller and Brian Michael Bendis runs that respectively humanised and grounded the character in the comics, and efficiently builds a world — nay, an arena — for hours of future fun.

Recommended.