Sunday, July 29, 2012
Review: The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/
The Dark Knight Rises is rated Worth It.
I love the smell of spoilers in the morning.
This movie was amazing. The movie starts off with the lastest Batman villan, Bane, kidnapping a scientist in a daring mid-air heist. Afterwords, we learn that Bruce Wayne has more-or-less retired from being Batman after the events of The Dark Knight, and that Batman had taken the fall for Harvey Dent's death. Bruce had become a recluse since then, and was partially crippled from the many injuries he had taken. This changes when Catwoman breaks into Bruce's house during a party, and steals his mother's pearl necklace - as well as his fingerprints. This kind of gets gets him into the swing of things, but not quite returning as Batman yet. That happens when Bane uses his fingerprints to help to help a corrupt businessman steal WayneCorp from him. Afterwords, to the surprise of nobody, Bane double-crosses the businessman, and uses his secret army that was underneath the city to take over the city. He also breaks Batman's back, and imprisons half-way him across the world. To make a long story short, Bruce escapes, and returns to Gotham, and Bane is defeated. I won't give away the end, since there is a plot twist that you can see coming if you know you Batman lore, and it would kind of ruin it if you know ahead of time.
This movie could have easily be a mindless action movie, and I would still would have given it a worth it. But that is not what this movie is about (or, in fact, this trilogy). This has excellent dialog, good acting (except for Christian Bale's Batman voice, of course) and even deals with a genuinely mature concepts - such as, is it right to blame an innocent man for a crime he did not commit, and hold up a villan as a hero if it allows you to clean up the corruption of your city? What does it take for someone to let go of a tragedy, and get on with their life? The way they handle these concepts is subtle (for an action movie) and they SHOW you how they handle them, rather then do a preachy speech (though they tend to use these to introduce the concepts. Fortunately, the excellent dialog keeps the speeches from being cheesy). They also keep their use of Batman (and Bale's Batman voice) to a minimum; make no mistake, this movie is mostly about Bane.
So over all, this movie is so very much Worth It.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Review: Men in Black 3
Men in Black 3: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1409024/
Men in Black 3 is rated Worth It.
Of all the spoilers in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
MiB3 - what can you say? I really didn't like it in the beginning 20 minutes or so. It was a little too cheesy, and had a couple scenes that made me facepalm. Then Will Smith went back in time...And the movie got good after that.
The story is pretty simple - An alien Tommy Lee Jones caught in 1969 escapes from prison, travels back in time and kills TLJ. Will Smith is able to remember TLJ due to plot convenience, and travels back to rescue him.
Other than that there is not much too say - this is one of those movies where saying anything kinda gives it away. It isn't the best movie - especially towards the beginning - but overall it is enjoyable. My only other major problem is that it wasn't very memorable - except for a few scenes towards the end, it just doesn't stick in my mind.
So, Worth It.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Review: Prometheus
Prometheus: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/
Prometheus is rated Not Worth It.
Dees are some nice spoilers. Be a shame if somethin' happened to them.
Damn it, the Alien movie franchise is dead, can we stop trying to resuscitate its decaying corpse? This movie isn't exactly helping; the whole point of this movie was to explain where the Aliens came from, which it did - in the last freaking minute of the movie. (Literally, the last minute of the last scene). Other than that take Aliens (the second Alien movie), remove the aliens from it, and pad the parts without the aliens with some pseudo-philosophical crap, and that's what this movie is.
On top of it being Aliens without the aliens, it had some pretty stupid plot holes. For instance, early on in the movie the characters encounter the old alien space ship (human aliens, not the HR Giger ones) they discover that the place still has breathable air. So they take off the helmets of their space suits. Because there totally couldn't be any alien bio weapons in the cargo hold of the ship that can infect them...OH WAIT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THERE WAS. (In fairness to the movie, that is not what gets most of them, but c'mon people - did you hit your head when you went into the cave that was the spaceship?)
Another part is when they find one of the human aliens and release him from cryo stasis - in spite of the fact that they already freaking knew that this was an alien warship, and that it was carrying bio-weapons to attack Earth with, and that the human alien would, therefore, not exactly be up for a chat over tea when they woke him up.
Yet another thing is the alien himself - he woke up, attacks and kills everybody in the same room as him on the ship, and hops in the pilot seat and takes off to drop the bio-weapons on Earth. OK, A. Why didn't you check the ship to make sure that they didn't, say plant a bomb to destroy your engines or something (they didn't, the characters were nearly as dumb as the alien. In fact, the only weapons they brought were pistols and flamethrowers!), B. Shoot their ship so they couldn't, oh I dont know, suicide ram your ship with theirs, and cause you to crash (which is what they did do) and C. Play along, and find a way to wake up the other people on the other ships in your fleet and EASILY OVERPOWER THE SMALL CREW OF 17 PEOPLE ON THE ONE SHIP THEY BROUGHT! Also, it didn't cross your mind that, oh they were able send a ship across interstellar space maybe they might have a FREAKING FLEET OF SHIPS TO PROTECT EARTH WITH? OR THAT THEY HAVE MASTERED TECHNOLOGY FAR ENOUGH THAT THEY MIGHT JUST NUKE YOU, CONSIDERING THAT THEY HAD DEVELOPED INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, AND THAT NUCLEAR/FUSION TECHNOLOGY WOULD BE NECESSARY FOR THAT? Did you think that you could take on Earth WITH YOUR ONE SHIP?
So, in short Not Worth It.
Prometheus is rated Not Worth It.
Dees are some nice spoilers. Be a shame if somethin' happened to them.
Damn it, the Alien movie franchise is dead, can we stop trying to resuscitate its decaying corpse? This movie isn't exactly helping; the whole point of this movie was to explain where the Aliens came from, which it did - in the last freaking minute of the movie. (Literally, the last minute of the last scene). Other than that take Aliens (the second Alien movie), remove the aliens from it, and pad the parts without the aliens with some pseudo-philosophical crap, and that's what this movie is.
On top of it being Aliens without the aliens, it had some pretty stupid plot holes. For instance, early on in the movie the characters encounter the old alien space ship (human aliens, not the HR Giger ones) they discover that the place still has breathable air. So they take off the helmets of their space suits. Because there totally couldn't be any alien bio weapons in the cargo hold of the ship that can infect them...OH WAIT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THERE WAS. (In fairness to the movie, that is not what gets most of them, but c'mon people - did you hit your head when you went into the cave that was the spaceship?)
Another part is when they find one of the human aliens and release him from cryo stasis - in spite of the fact that they already freaking knew that this was an alien warship, and that it was carrying bio-weapons to attack Earth with, and that the human alien would, therefore, not exactly be up for a chat over tea when they woke him up.
Yet another thing is the alien himself - he woke up, attacks and kills everybody in the same room as him on the ship, and hops in the pilot seat and takes off to drop the bio-weapons on Earth. OK, A. Why didn't you check the ship to make sure that they didn't, say plant a bomb to destroy your engines or something (they didn't, the characters were nearly as dumb as the alien. In fact, the only weapons they brought were pistols and flamethrowers!), B. Shoot their ship so they couldn't, oh I dont know, suicide ram your ship with theirs, and cause you to crash (which is what they did do) and C. Play along, and find a way to wake up the other people on the other ships in your fleet and EASILY OVERPOWER THE SMALL CREW OF 17 PEOPLE ON THE ONE SHIP THEY BROUGHT! Also, it didn't cross your mind that, oh they were able send a ship across interstellar space maybe they might have a FREAKING FLEET OF SHIPS TO PROTECT EARTH WITH? OR THAT THEY HAVE MASTERED TECHNOLOGY FAR ENOUGH THAT THEY MIGHT JUST NUKE YOU, CONSIDERING THAT THEY HAD DEVELOPED INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, AND THAT NUCLEAR/FUSION TECHNOLOGY WOULD BE NECESSARY FOR THAT? Did you think that you could take on Earth WITH YOUR ONE SHIP?
So, in short Not Worth It.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Review: The Avengers
The Avengers: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/
The Avengers is rated Worth It.
SPOILERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS!
I liked this movie. It took the other Marvel movies that have come out in the last 5 years (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor) and tied them together in one movie. The plot is more-or-less what you would expect: Loki from Thor steals the plot macguffin, and is working with aliens to take over the Earth, so Samuel L Jackson gets the heroes from the other Marvel movies together to stop him. Initially, the heroes don't trust each other (of course) or Samuel L. Jackson (he working for a government agency called Shield, and they were using the plot macguffin to make weapons) but they overcome that and defeat the alien invasion at the end of the movie.
The movie felt a little rushed in places, especially towards the big alien fight, and they glossed over certain things. But these can be forgiven, as A: this is a mindless action movie, and B: this is based of a comic book. These kind of liberties are often taken in these mediums.
The special effects are up to par with the other Marvel movies, and the fighting was pretty good. The also plot wasn't to bad. Also, there were no real slow parts in the movie.
Overall, Worth It.
The Avengers is rated Worth It.
SPOILERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS!
I liked this movie. It took the other Marvel movies that have come out in the last 5 years (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor) and tied them together in one movie. The plot is more-or-less what you would expect: Loki from Thor steals the plot macguffin, and is working with aliens to take over the Earth, so Samuel L Jackson gets the heroes from the other Marvel movies together to stop him. Initially, the heroes don't trust each other (of course) or Samuel L. Jackson (he working for a government agency called Shield, and they were using the plot macguffin to make weapons) but they overcome that and defeat the alien invasion at the end of the movie.
The movie felt a little rushed in places, especially towards the big alien fight, and they glossed over certain things. But these can be forgiven, as A: this is a mindless action movie, and B: this is based of a comic book. These kind of liberties are often taken in these mediums.
The special effects are up to par with the other Marvel movies, and the fighting was pretty good. The also plot wasn't to bad. Also, there were no real slow parts in the movie.
Overall, Worth It.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Review: Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077368/
Dark Shadows is rated not worth it.
SPOILERS
This movie had the potential to be a decent movie. In fact, it had the potential to be two decent movies -and that was it's problem. It wanted to be a parody of Dark Shadows, while at the same time being Dark Shadows. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
The main problem it had is that the movie would go along, re-telling the story of Dark Shadows (which is about a cursed family who have a vampire ancestor that is unearthed, and helps rebuild the family fortune), but then one of the "funny" vampire guy doesn't understand the 1970's parody bits would happen, which deflated the drama of the scene rather than adding to it. On top of that, some of the "funny" bits were cringe-worthy, and made me face-palm more than once.
The final problem this movie had was the ending - the movie kind of fell apart here, and they relied on some ass-pulls to keep it going. For example, the rebellious teenage daughter was suddenly revealed to be a werewolf, with no hints beforehand that she was a werewolf.
Overall, I initially considered this a Not Worth It (except for Dark Shadows fans), but I realized this movie will probably cheese off Dark Shadows fans; so just a Not Worth It for everybody. Also, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp - you can do better than this.
Dark Shadows is rated not worth it.
SPOILERS
This movie had the potential to be a decent movie. In fact, it had the potential to be two decent movies -and that was it's problem. It wanted to be a parody of Dark Shadows, while at the same time being Dark Shadows. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
The main problem it had is that the movie would go along, re-telling the story of Dark Shadows (which is about a cursed family who have a vampire ancestor that is unearthed, and helps rebuild the family fortune), but then one of the "funny" vampire guy doesn't understand the 1970's parody bits would happen, which deflated the drama of the scene rather than adding to it. On top of that, some of the "funny" bits were cringe-worthy, and made me face-palm more than once.
The final problem this movie had was the ending - the movie kind of fell apart here, and they relied on some ass-pulls to keep it going. For example, the rebellious teenage daughter was suddenly revealed to be a werewolf, with no hints beforehand that she was a werewolf.
Overall, I initially considered this a Not Worth It (except for Dark Shadows fans), but I realized this movie will probably cheese off Dark Shadows fans; so just a Not Worth It for everybody. Also, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp - you can do better than this.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Review: The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259521/
The Cabin in the Woods is rated Worth It
Blah Blah Spoilers Blah.
I was honestly not expecting much when I went in to watch this. The only thing that piqued my interest is when I saw that it was written and produced by Joss Whedon. I will admit, the beginning was so stereotypical for a slasher movie that I just about wrote it off as a "Paying the Bills" movie for Joss. The only thing keeping my interest was the weird agency watching the 5 slasher movie characters.
Note: the next part has MAJOR spoilers - they might actually spoil the movie.
As it turns out, the reason why the 5 slasher characters were acting so stereotypical is because the agency was using pheromones and other chemicals to mind control into being that way. The stoner guy actually points out that they do not normally act the way they do during the movie. In addition, the agency also finds random groups of people and puts them in horror movie scenarios that are under their control. The mind control is to keep the people from going to far off script. The reason the agency is doing this is because there are ancient gods that require blood sacrifices to keep from destroying the Earth. Every time they kill somebody in one of their "horror movies" they feed the blood down to their ritual chamber, to appease these gods. They also imply that they sell footage from this to movie studios as a way of funding their operation.
In other words, every horror movie that you have ever seen is actually a snuff film that this agency has recorded, and the reason that everybody acts so stupid in horror movies is because the agency has to control them. And they control them for an additional reason: the people in horror movies have to die in a specific order, otherwise the ritual doesn't work.
There were some other interesting concepts that this movie explores: for instance when the 5 characters go down into the cellar, they find a room full of weird objects, and depending on which one gets activated first is what type of horror monster that they get. The agency even had a BETTING POOL on which one the 5 got!
Unfortunately for the agency, something goes wrong. The stoner guy got his hands on some weed that somehow nullified the chemicals that they use to control the people, allowing his to figure out what was going on enough to keep from being killed. After all the other characters except one of the girls dies in typical zombie redneck torture family style (that is the monster option they activated, by the way), he and she get into the hidden elevator that brings the monsters to the cabin, end up in the facility that is under the cabin. They end up unleashing to monsters into the facility, killing most ofthe agency members.
The ending for this is kind of a twist, so rather than revealing it I recommend going and seeing it for yourself.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It isn't without its flaws - you can figure them out if you think about it for a few minutes. However, if you want a good horror movie with a unique concept, than this is your movie. Worth the money I paid to see it.
The Cabin in the Woods is rated Worth It
Blah Blah Spoilers Blah.
I was honestly not expecting much when I went in to watch this. The only thing that piqued my interest is when I saw that it was written and produced by Joss Whedon. I will admit, the beginning was so stereotypical for a slasher movie that I just about wrote it off as a "Paying the Bills" movie for Joss. The only thing keeping my interest was the weird agency watching the 5 slasher movie characters.
Note: the next part has MAJOR spoilers - they might actually spoil the movie.
As it turns out, the reason why the 5 slasher characters were acting so stereotypical is because the agency was using pheromones and other chemicals to mind control into being that way. The stoner guy actually points out that they do not normally act the way they do during the movie. In addition, the agency also finds random groups of people and puts them in horror movie scenarios that are under their control. The mind control is to keep the people from going to far off script. The reason the agency is doing this is because there are ancient gods that require blood sacrifices to keep from destroying the Earth. Every time they kill somebody in one of their "horror movies" they feed the blood down to their ritual chamber, to appease these gods. They also imply that they sell footage from this to movie studios as a way of funding their operation.
In other words, every horror movie that you have ever seen is actually a snuff film that this agency has recorded, and the reason that everybody acts so stupid in horror movies is because the agency has to control them. And they control them for an additional reason: the people in horror movies have to die in a specific order, otherwise the ritual doesn't work.
There were some other interesting concepts that this movie explores: for instance when the 5 characters go down into the cellar, they find a room full of weird objects, and depending on which one gets activated first is what type of horror monster that they get. The agency even had a BETTING POOL on which one the 5 got!
Unfortunately for the agency, something goes wrong. The stoner guy got his hands on some weed that somehow nullified the chemicals that they use to control the people, allowing his to figure out what was going on enough to keep from being killed. After all the other characters except one of the girls dies in typical zombie redneck torture family style (that is the monster option they activated, by the way), he and she get into the hidden elevator that brings the monsters to the cabin, end up in the facility that is under the cabin. They end up unleashing to monsters into the facility, killing most ofthe agency members.
The ending for this is kind of a twist, so rather than revealing it I recommend going and seeing it for yourself.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It isn't without its flaws - you can figure them out if you think about it for a few minutes. However, if you want a good horror movie with a unique concept, than this is your movie. Worth the money I paid to see it.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Review: Wrath of the Titans
Wrath of the Titans: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646987/
Wrath of the Titans is rated Worth It.
Spoilers, of course.
This was a fun movie to watch. It has Perseus from the first movie (2010's Clash of the Titans) going into the Underworld to rescue his Dad, Zeus from Hades and Ares, who are stealing Zeus' power to free Zeus' and Hades' Dad, Cronus. Cronus breaks free, but Perseus kills him with the magical plot device spear. Also the Gods all die, mostly due to Ares.
The story was kinda shallow; they would do a quick intro, maybe a minutes worth of plot exposition, and then fighty action ensues. Seriously, there is better plot development from the Street Fighter II manual. However, that doesn't really hurt this movie that much, since you aren't there to watch Citizen Freaking Cain; you are there to watch a sword and sandals action movie. Of which this movie does fairly well. The action scenes in this movies were plentiful and entertaining, ranging from good to awesome. The CGI used wasn't too fake looking, which is always good in a movie like this.
So in short, it is good for what it is - a shallow S&S action movie, (the fun kind you can turn your brain off at and enjoy) and was worth the money I paid to see it.
Wrath of the Titans is rated Worth It.
Spoilers, of course.
This was a fun movie to watch. It has Perseus from the first movie (2010's Clash of the Titans) going into the Underworld to rescue his Dad, Zeus from Hades and Ares, who are stealing Zeus' power to free Zeus' and Hades' Dad, Cronus. Cronus breaks free, but Perseus kills him with the magical plot device spear. Also the Gods all die, mostly due to Ares.
The story was kinda shallow; they would do a quick intro, maybe a minutes worth of plot exposition, and then fighty action ensues. Seriously, there is better plot development from the Street Fighter II manual. However, that doesn't really hurt this movie that much, since you aren't there to watch Citizen Freaking Cain; you are there to watch a sword and sandals action movie. Of which this movie does fairly well. The action scenes in this movies were plentiful and entertaining, ranging from good to awesome. The CGI used wasn't too fake looking, which is always good in a movie like this.
So in short, it is good for what it is - a shallow S&S action movie, (the fun kind you can turn your brain off at and enjoy) and was worth the money I paid to see it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)