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The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
As a life long matrix fan, this film makes me hold my head in shame
I have spent my entire childhood desiring another matrix movie. I remember spending hours on Internet forums reading fan theory after fan theory about how the matrix could end up with a sequel. After watching the three original movies, one could always find something new in these movies even after 2 decades of consistent viewing... so when I saw that there was going to be a new matrix movie, I had all of the highest hopes in the world....
Until the movie dropped and wound up being pathetic garbage. That is the only two words that can sufficiently describe the monstrosity that is the matrix resurrections. Since there are so many parts of the movie that I absolutely hate, I feel like it's only fair to start off with what the movie does fairly well. First off, the unreal engine looks fantastic. The colors are so bright and vibrant. I think it's really sad that they ditched the original overwhelming green theme that were present in the original trilogy, but at least the color scheme looks great. They also do a really good job of recreating scenes from the original trilogy and making them their own. They reuse a lot of old set pieces and it kind of feels like taking a trip down memory lane.
The new cast also did a lot better than I expected them too. Neil Patrick Harris kills it as the analyst. I'm really hoping that this movie opens the door for him to start playing in a lot more serious action movies. In a non Shakespearean movie, Harris is the most Shakespearean actor there is. If you are looking for a fresh face on the blockbuster action movie set list, add Neil Patrick Harris. He adds a certain twang to the tone of the movie, and I love how mystical his character is. Personally would rather have seen him play Smith, but that's not what we got. However, there's no exaggeration; Neil Patrick Harris nails his role. It's sad to see such a talented actor wasted in such a substandard film.
One other really good thing that this movie managed to get away with was the score. I think a good part of this movie relies off of nostalgia for the old trilogy and much of the soundtrack is taken directly from those old movies. While they do sprinkle in some new pieces, much of the old soundtrack is omnipresent.
I truly have no idea how they managed to mess up their own creation so bad. Each other movie in the franchise had a deliberate theme and answered the question, "what is the matrix," in their own unique way. The first one, the matrix is a measure of control. The second one, the matrix is only part of a bigger control scheme. The third one, the matrix is the bridge of dependency for humans and machines. Resurrections? No idea. No really. I gave it a good bit of thought about the matrix and they gave absolutely no good explanation as to what the matrix is supposed to be. Much of the lessons in this movie are so abstract. The film spends literally 2 and a half hours trying to explain what the matrix and utterly fails in the worst way possible. The matrix used to be philosophical. Even in the sequels, the matrix has always been very focused on epistemology and existentialism. This movie has none of that. They took the amazing philosophical ramblings we grew to love and threw them right out of the window.
How is it possible for a movie from the same franchise to have worse effects and worse cgi than its counterparts released more than 20 years ago? The original trilogy had a perfect mix of CGI and practical prop effects that looks real. The old movies managed to withstand the test of time, but this movie looks like it came out before all the three. We used to get amazing choreography matched with cutting edge cgi out of this series. Now we get Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss acting like pieces of wood in over zealous slow mo with absolutely nothing resembling the original series' choreography or effects. No seriously. Go back and watch the first three films, and make note of the cgi and special effects and then go and watch this one.
They do so much damage to the original characters and who they are supposed to be. Neo was not a force user. He fought with his bare hands and feet. He did not push people around and snarl his teeth when people shot at him. No. He stood up smugly, lifted one hand, stopped a cloud of bullets and then invited an entire group of mercenary programs to have their way with him. In this movie, we get neo moaning and groaning and clearly got all of his combat training from a discount Jedi academy. I'm not taking old age as an excuse for this. If Keanu can still play in John wick and own it, then he can do the same for this role which got him on the map in the first place. They literally trashed the character of Neo so they could get out of having to choreograph a fight sequence. He can't even fly. Neo isn't the only character they tarnish. They absolutely trash Niobe too. Niobe is a stuck up piece in this film. She's not the stern, talented, and respectable ship captain we traveled through the mechanical lines with. No. In this movie, we meet Niobe who now hates everyone and everything. Remember when Niobe said she didn't believe in the one, but believed in Neo? Yeah. That went right out the window. I am ashamed of how they treated Niobe. Some characters are very difficult to recognize because of how much terrible makeup and discount customs they smother all over them.
Lana wachowski does not know how young people talk. I have never seen a more in vain attempt at trying to sound like a young person "speaking the lingo," than I've seen in this movie. It is probably the most cringe inducing feature of this movie when it shows some of the "modern time," ways of speaking. Nobody says "b t dubs." Nobody goes into an office siting and says that they are "mega shook." They even literally say the name of the production company as a pseudo attempt at being funny I guess?
This movie was made in protest. In a world where reboots and sequels are ever rampant, Lana Wachowski directed this movie with no intention of making it good. The whole movie kept giving hints about how reboots and sequels are a grueling process. It almost felt like the screenwriters were complaining to the audience that we wanted this movie; how dare us ask for a sequel to a movie we love.
I always try to give new movies the benefit of the doubt especially one as sought after as this one. However, in this case, the benefit is the doubt. I urge anyone who is a true fan to the original trilogy to look at this movie with bitter disgust. We did not deserve such a bad trilogy and everyone involved with the writing and production should be ashamed that they managed to mess up such a beloved trilogy so much. Thanks for breaking my heart.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Please ignore the abysmal fanbase, this is an original story that works well
I really enjoyed this rendition of Star Wars. Keep in mind, I try to go into every movie very very optimistically. I like to be as subjective to the film as possible, because I think it really gets the reader thinking about their thoughts. This is a very good Star Wars movie, and it definitely deserves praise. This is not to say it's without its faults; there are things wrong with this movie that simply cannot be ignored. However overall, I thought the movie was an eye candy success.
I thought that the plot was very thought-provoking and well put together. One thing I've always appreciated about Disney is how their films always have a moral message behind them. For instance, in Pixar's(owned by Disney) Toy Story, the overall theme of the series was to take life slowly, and live in the moment because one day we will miss all of the things we did before. A Bug's Life showed us that you can be different, as long as you be yourself, and you'll come through in the end. How does this pertain to Star Wars? The overall theme in the movie was failure teaching us to be better. Most people associate failure with shame, and unhappiness, but this movie shows us that failure is inevitable. The film is loaded with red(more on that later). Red is obviously a symbol for failure in this movie. Snoke's throne room was loaded with red; this is important because all critical scenes that happen in this room discuss failure. Ben failed Snoke when he couldn't defeat Rei. Smoke failed to see who Ben's true enemy was. Rei failed in redeeming Ben . All of these scenes happen in this room, and the room is literally covered in red. Even in the chase through the caves in the Millennium falcon are shot in this overwhelming red hue. We see red symbolizing failure again in the final act where Finn and the last of the resistance are trying to destroy the door cannon. There is no coincidence that white salt setting leaves a red trace when it's disturbed. The trails of the gliders leave a red mist as they move. However, despite all of the resistence's clear and valiant efforts, they fail to destroy the canon. After the door is destroyed, and The First Order is about to ransack the base, you can see all of the overturned red salt. Although extremely gorgeous, this scene showcases all of the resistance's failures. It resembled a bloody battle that had been lost. However, what ends up saving them was coming to terms from them and learning from them. "Failure is the greatest teacher." I think the ending of the little boy who is presumable a Jedi, was a fantastic way to show off how the galaxy will hear of the failures; they will see these failures, but at the end of the day, they are still there. There is still something to fight for, stil something to learn, still something worth being.
The aesthetics in the film were top notch. The CGI looked beautiful! A lot of the film is shot in space, so naturally there are a lot of space battles. You can almost drool at the way the fighters and X-Wings looked in mid fight. The set was dashing with color, and the sounds were so nostalgic yet so new at the same time. However, it's not the CGI that amazed me. What amazed me were the practical effects. Rian Johnson created his own piece of the Star Wars universe and did so in such a grand scale. The entire casino on the distant planet was all practical. China sets, puppets, chips, tables, slots, golden staircases. All of these were made with great care and amazing tact. However, nothing will beat the amazing costumes in this film. The costumes were all practical, and looked gorgeous. The red guard, the casino police, storm troopers, captain phasma, all practical, all real. Not to mention that simple things such as rifles and blasters are all practical props. All of the droids are practical too. The films aesthetics are the absolute best ever made in a Star Wars film.
I thought overall, our main characters are very well developed. This is especially true when looking at Kyle Ren. He is a very complex character which makes it really difficult to see what he truly stands for as a character. I loved/hated that the main villain changes in such a tragic and dramatic way. I feel like it really took Kylo Ren's status of a secondary villain to a primary villain. His ascent to the supreme leader status was definitely given a proper catalyst for his future character.
I thought the chemistry between Rai and Ben was very believable and something we didn't really expect. Whether the atrocious fanbase of Star Wars wants to admit it, the two characters are connected. Both of whom have shoddy relationships with their parents, both have mentors who have taught them the ways of the force, both of them have a loyal military force at their back, and most of all, both of them are conflicted with themseleves. The two characters both form a methaphorical yin-yang. Rey, this seemingly innocent young girl trying to learn the ways of the force is not at all shocked by her experience with the dark side of the force. I enjoy how this character which is supposed to be from the good side is shown toying with the dark side of the force without hesitation. Kylo Ren, this seemingly evil member of the most evil force in the universe is shown having conflict with the humanity in himself. We see him refuse to kill his mother, lie to General Hux about who really killed Snoke, save Rey's life. While this character is shrouded in darkness, we do see some of the light in him. And I thought that this balance of what is good and what is bad between these two characters did tons of justice for character development in this new trilogy.
While the film was overall a success in my eyes, I have to say that there are parts of the film that leave much to be desired. While this may seem unfair to judge this film as part of the trilogy rather than its own film, I will lay judgment down to the fact that this new trilogy creates tons of false hype for its characters. The first example of this has to be Snoke. The Force Awakens introduces Snoke to the trilogy as this supreme evil which is more powerful than anything in the universe. The Force Awakens had me feeling that Snoke was going to be a pivotal character in the series. While the argument can be made that he still is s pivotal character, he is in all the wrong ways. What could have been the most amazing villain in Star Wars history is lost in a bland and very predictable way. I feel like a lot of the hype that was made towards Snoke was very ill-made and the story gives viewers an accidental middle finger in the way that he died. Andy Serkis played the role so well, and it's a shame that he probably won't be returning to the role of Snoke.
Disney humor is very distinct. It's hard to explain exactly what Disney humor is, but once you see it, you know it. I feel like there were a lot of blatant attempts at humor that simply don't work and obviously aimed at children. The first example of this was in the beginning of the film where Poe is talking to General Hux via radio. I feel that Poe pretending to not be able to hear Hux was so cliche; it was an overused trope we've seen in so many different films. If Rian Johnson was attempting to make us laugh at this, he failed in epic proportions.
Look I get it. Disney owns the Star Wars universe now. And I understand that Disney wants to show us more of this ginormous universe. However, this doesn't mean that you can throw in random strange-looking creatures just for the sake of showing strange-looking creatures. I remember seeing the very first trailer for this film and thinking to myself that the creatures might be an a zealous issue, and j was exactly right. Throwing in random creatures serves no purpose than to show off to the world that this is MY universe, and I want there to be random giants with nipples that give me milk, and why not throw in a random musk that comes from their head? While we're at it, why don't we just throw these random birds all over the place that serve no purpose to the plot other than to take up screen place. Here are some crystal foxes too. I'm not sure why the film spent so much time showing these random creatures, but I don't think anyone was impressed.
Lastly, I want to touch on Leia Organa. I have to cut this producers some slack for not expecting Carrie Fisher to unfortunately die too young. However, I just don't see what her real purpose was in this film. She offered no theme-building ideologies, she had lackluster screentime, and she was given pretentious glamor in the script. For a general in charge of an entire fleet and battalion of resistence warriors, she was not given any proper character development. To be quite honest, I thought that Carrie Fisher's performance was her weakest yet. I thought her lines were delivered very cheasily, and the directors made her only sound like she was a cranky woman. This is the woman we've seen fight through an entire rebellion before, and she was given no justice to her former character. I am very ashamed to see such an amazing character have such a bland and anticlimactic end.
Guys despite its obvious flaws, this is a good Star Wars movie. I don't know what it's going to take for people to see that their fanbase is not sacred and democratic. This fanbase has done more damage to Star Wars than any writer ever could. This film isn't the original trilogy. Even the first film of this new trilogy, a film that directly modeled the very first Star Wars movie ever written doesn't shine like the original movies do. They never will. Stop trying to think that they will. See this film for what it is: an original storyline that works well.
Dunkirk (2017)
Elegantly shot, yet lacking character development.
A rather unfair notion moviegoers have about Christopher Nolan is that every movie he creates must be instant classics. This notion is unfair mainly because no writer on the face of the earth constantly pumps out classic after classic. While I will agree that Nolan has a beautiful resume under his belt(as well as being my favorite filmmaker), he is only human, and is not perfect.
After seeing screen writing paradigms like Memento, Inception, and Interstellar, I fell in love with the characters that Nolan has created. I went into Dunkirk expecting to fall in love with a new set of characters all over again. Dunkirk just didn't deliver any form of character development at all. Unfortunately for Nolan fans, there is no main character for this film. Some actors get more screen time than others, however, the jury is still out on exactly who the story's perspective is told. However, the perspective changes 3 times, and in very rapid succession. We see either a young infantrymen, a trained pilot, or a group of civilians attempting to evacuate Dunkirk. These all sound like excellent ideas for characters, however, we know nothing about these people. Nolan did a fantastic job of making every moment of the movie have some sort of suspense. You were always on the edge of your seat hoping the worst wouldn't happen. However, I feel like the movie did a GROSS disservice to itself by lacking character development. A movie that is written to be this suspenseful should go hand in hand with amazing characters we hope don't die. Except, what we get is a very watered down attempt at suspense, and it really leaves a lot to be desired from the screen writing. For instance, Tom Hardy played a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Seeing him shoot down enemy planes with ease was very satisfying, however, at the end, when we see him captured by German soldiers, we have absolutely no clue why he purposely did that to himself. In fact, we know nothing about the man. All we know is that he is a damn pilot. What's even worse is that Tom Harry's character is a huge plot driver. To make such big plot decisions based off of characters who we know nothing about is very frustrating and overall a very cheap way to write a film.
While the film's plot leaves much to be desired, Nolan absolutely nailed the cinematography and effects. Christopher Nolan is the absolute master of practical effects, and you can really see the difference on the screen. I found myself drooling at some of the shots in this film. Some of the shots in this film last for 15-25 seconds all by themselves. It is no joke when I say that one of the best shots in cinema history is when Tom Hardy is flying, and the camera follows the plane. You can see the entire city of Dunkirk France in the background. This was an absolutely gorgeous shot, as well as many others. The action sequences in the film absolutely blew me away too. Right from the very beginning, the film's action sequences sounded, felt, and looked so close to real, I almost thought I was there myself.
Being a long time fan of Christopher Nolan, I have to say that I am disappointed in this film. Again, I would never have thought that a polished writer like Nolan would ever have a problem with character development. However, this is not the worst Christopher Nolan film to date, and is definitely better than Insomnia(not that that's saying anything).
Finding Dory (2016)
A heart-wrenching story of a fish... I'm serious.
Finding dory was a great, fun, and emotional journey from start to finish. While the film is definitely aimed at family audiences in 2016, the people who grew up watching Finding Nemo when they were younger will definitely appreciate this film as much as everyone else.
Pixar for the most part stayed true to the original film. We obviously have the same characters, the same actors (except for one) and the same overall universe. Pixar did a great job of connecting the dots between the two movies. Some of the same scores from the last film. For instance in the last film when Marin followed the boat, the same score is used when we see Dory's perspective of how the two met. It's a nice little touch, and it really shows how much detail the writers went into creating the character. It really is a puzzle how Pixar manages to create these visually stunning animated films every year. The picture was great! Really tiny details such as dust particles, or individual grains of sand, and other fine touches really add to the great depth the animators went into making the film from the ground up.
As usual, Pixar had very little flaws in their work. I felt like Nemo was poorly used. Sure they make references to the other films, but it's the way Nemo says things to his dad that anger me. For instance, Nemo tried to tell Marlin he should trust people because he keeps making him feel like they can't do it. And then they just drop it there, and don't say anything about it again.
For the second time in my life, I had the joy of being able to go see a Pixar film. This, and Tou Story 3 are the only two Pixar movies I've ever seen in a theatre. And I'll go ahead and say that I love Pixar's work even better on the big screen. Truly a sequel worth seeing, and a sequel that everyone should love.
The Revenant (2015)
Eye Candy, but Still Meh...
Right off of the bat, I'd like to say that the film has some of the absolute BEST cinematography I've ever seen. I don't know how the producers managed to get so many long-shots in there. There are literally shots that will last 5 minutes without cutting in between. This is especially true at the beginning. If anything, this film should definitely receive tons of praise for its cinematography alone. Hand-in-hand with the cinematography are the visual effects. Next to the Martian, this film has some of the best visual effects that I've seen this year. This is especially true with the bear mauling scene. The bear literally looks real, and the manage to generate drool coming from its mouth and landing on Leo's forehead, however, the bear was never there in the first place. The effects looked gorgeous, and I really enjoyed seeing them on the big screen.
However, despite the great visual effects, and the stellar cinematography, the film just wasn't up to my expectations. When I saw that this film had 4 golden globe awards including best acting, I truly expected to see a breath taking performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, but I was greatly disappointed. Sure he did great job of acting like he was in pain, and acting like he couldn't talk, however, this is nothing that we haven't seen before. Even in low- budget films, we see acting of a similar caliber where people are suffering for their roles. There simply just wasn't enough lines for Leo to peak our interests or to really steal the show. Leo spends most of his time on screen grunting, screaming, and breathing super heavily. I'm sure that any other trained Hollywood actor could pull this off too; his performance was very bland.
The other actors seemed very one-dimensional. There were some great actors in this cast: Tom Hardy, Leo DiCaprio, Domhnall Gleeson, however, I feel like the director spent most of his time on capturing the environment rather than the actors of the film. Throughout the film, I feel like the acting was done in one take. From the beginning with the dispute between Glass and Fitzgerald, to the scene with Fitzgerald and Glass' son. The performances given just seemed so rushed, and I know for a fact the actors can do better.
The director for whatever odd reason liked to put slow-motion in areas that didn't need slow-motion. This is really shown in transitions back into the wild. The running time is 156 minutes, and could have been trimmed down to 140 minutes by getting rid of all of the unnecessary slow-motion. Minute after minute, we see nothing but trees. Trees and the moon. This really doesn't do anything for the audience but remind us that we are in the cold weather. Which was kind of implied anyways.
Overall, the film was visually appealing, but the acting was not great. The talent in this movie was very much skimped for the excellent cinematography and effects. The film was fun to watch, but nothing ground-breaking, and unfortunately for his fans, I don't see Leo getting his Oscar from this film.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Just sit down, and enjoy the movie!!!!
Right off the bat, I'll go ahead and say that this is unlike any other movie that I've seen before. This truly was a masterpiece of a film! No director handles dialogue quite the way that Tarantino does. This review will be a spoiler-free review of what to expect of this film.
First and foremost, do NOT listen to negativity that you hear on a lot of film sites. The negativity in the film can most be attributed to the fact that Tarantino made a very controversial comment about the NYPD saying that they are all murderers. This gave a lot of former fans of Tarantino a negative and unfair bias of people who are now going into this film to hate it. Put aside your biases, forget that this movie is a Tarantino film. Go into the movie theater with a positive attitude, and be ready to be amazed.
First off, the dialogue in the movie is utterly fantastic! Each character has his or her own dialects and ways of speaking that are each unique to each other. For instance, the southern sheriff has a different way of speaking than a retired war-veteran does. This is captured perfectly in the lines of the people just by the way they speak. It really creates a diverse atmosphere in the film and really shows the difference in characters.
Again with the dialogue, the writer spends as much time as he can putting in subtle exposition-dialogue so the audience can really understand who and what the characters are. He doesn't do this through constant monologues or any other form of cliché per-se. He does this through funny arguments, and simple conversations. Sure the build-up to the climax is very long, and may seem slow, but this is definitely okay in the fact that we fully understand who are characters are.
This was definitely not some cheap screenplay that a movie studio purchased from a back-door writer. This is a high-quality well- written masterpiece. The plot of the film is ingeniously planned out and subtly foreshadowed at the beginning of the film. There are lots of subtle things that we as the audience see thinking nothing of, but actually have bigger meaning than one might think. There are lots of subtle details that we may not notice, but will be brought to our attention by a character. I thought that the writer really showed that he had everything in mind already played out, and wasn't just writing as he went along. I love the fact that the writer really adds an "everything happens for a reason" kind of tone to the movie.
This is not your typical western with a typical dueling cowboy soundtrack. The soundtrack of the film sounded very ominous and fit the overall tone of the movie perfectly. Tarantino used this film to his advantage tons of times in the film. He did this especially well in a sequence of the raging blizzard outside; the ominous organ is blaring in our ears and only gets louder when the wind blows harder. Then all of sudden, the shot quickly changes to indoors where it's calmer and warmer. The change from the soundtrack felt like a snap of a finger, and the writer used this masterfully. Just like Jaws, this film has it's own special sinister score that shows when danger is near, and I personally believe that this score should be just as iconic.
Man oh man! The acting was just perfect in the film. Every character was played perfectly by an awesome ensemble cast. These faces are very familiar to fans of QT films. As I said before, each character had different dialects. Not only was the overall tone of the characters masterfully shown in the movie, but the manner of speaking felt very authentic. Frequent QT actor Samuel Jackson played his role perfectly. I figured since this is his 2nd western movie with QT and his 6th movie with QT as well, he'd show a bit of other characters that he played in his movie. However, this was simply not the case. He showed no trace of his other characters and masterfully acted in this film. The character that he plays was suited perfectly for him, and I feel like even Samuel L. Jackson as well as the rest of the ensemble cast loved their characters.
Again as I said before, do not go into this film wanting to hate it. Go into the film with a positive attitude and just sit down and enjoy the damn movie. Who cares about what Tarantino said, who cares about any controversial statements he might have made. As we saw in all of his other movies, Tarantino is a very controversial man, and should just be given to his credit on screen rather than in person. Focus on the awesome dialogue, acting, and overall great film itself! Go out and see it! You will not be disappointed.
P.S. I very rarely rate movies a full 10.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
Loyal to the book, and loyal to the screen
Considering the lack of major events in the previous Hunger Games film, I was hoping that I would get a much better, more powerful movie in its direct sequel. I will say that, that this definitely doesn't have anywhere near as much action as there was in the first two films, but overall, the movie is definitely one of the better from the four. I wasn't disappointed at the way it turned out.
With exception of the first film, I feel like when I watch one of these movies, they almost make them to be their own stand-alone film. This is especially true in this movie. When you watch this movie, the way it is portrayed on the screen, it doesn't necessarily instantly ring "Hunger Games Movie." You watch Harry Potter, or Divergent series, you can just tell the films are from the franchise from the way that they write the dialogue, create the shots, and just the tone the movie sets. Rather than wasting effort to make sure the audience knows this is a Hunger Games movie, I feel like the producers did a great job of making the film not seem like it would be from a franchise. This movie was definitely written to be a blockbuster movie rather than a Hunger Games Movie.
Being loyal to the book is a very hard thing to accomplish when adapting to the screen. You have to take into consideration that not every point can be kept when making a 2 hour movie. The film-makers are burdened with the task of keeping certain points, and discarding the others. Sometimes you even have to change some of the events from the book to fit the screen time. Nine times out of ten, the writers don't get it right, but in very rare instances, they do. Man oh man did the writers do a fantastic job of cutting the fat from the book for the screen. Rather than Katnis getting shot, recovering, then training, then asking for a field commission to get onto the battlefield, the writers took 100 pages of time-consuming events, and trimmed down into 10 minutes. Instead of Katniss having to make a slow recovery, she only had minor injuries from her gunshot wounds. Her superiors decided that she was to stay in district 13. Rather than follow their commands, she decides to sneak onto a cargo ship and go into battle. This saves a lot of screen time, and overall makes the movie go by a lot faster, and makes it way more entertaining in the long run. This was one of the many decisions that really made the story-line seem better on the screen.
They were definitely spot on in a lot of the action scenes. Especially the sewer scene with the mutts. They did a fantastic job of choreographing that whole scene, and leading up to the tragic ending. It almost made book-readers feel like something different was going to happen. The lead up was great, the effects were great, the choreography was great, just the entire scene was almost perfect. The only thing they didn't get right was the portrayal of the mutts. The way they were supposed to look was like a lizard creature with yellow eyes and very sharp teeth, but these creatures almost looked like the Aliens from the self-titled movies. They didn't really look as scaly as they could have.
The ending. Now spoilers!!! I urge you to skip over this section if you don't want to know the ending. The ending was horrendously portrayed. They got the dialogue down, they got the characters down, and they got the overall setting down perfectly. Except there's just one problem, the actual execution was awful. I'm talking about the "do you love me," scene at the end. She is supposed to say, "real." This is supposed to be a very conclusive moment, and really leaves the audience on a heartwarming note. This is simply not the case in the movie. Katnis answers too quickly, and overall it just feels like the whole scene was sub-par. Francis Lawrence just didn't really capture the effect the lines were supposed to create properly, and made the moment seem conclusive. Again. This was supposed to be the end of all their hardships, and the beginning of the happiness of their free world without tyranny. Likewise, the epilogue was horribly done as well. The makeup was terrible. The artists did a terrible job of making the two seem older, and their efforts were very obvious. The point of aging makeup is that it is supposed to look real, and not look like there was an artist ever touching the face. The writers did a terrible job of quoting the book. In the book, Katniss is talking to you. She is telling you what she feels about her children, and why she has nightmares. The writers very obvious wanted to change this to moment where she was talking to her baby, but it was just done so badly. The lines were almost a direct quote from book, and the performance was just so fake. I felt like she was just saying the lines simply because the writers put it in the script. I feel this part of the script was never revised.
However, despite the ending, I do feel like this was a success of a movie, and definitely deserves praise. This is definitely a film that all fans of the franchise should see, and enjoy. The plot was great, and the loyalty to the book was very apparent. If you have read the books, go right ahead and see the film for yourself. It's a way that you can call yourself a "real" fan of the series. :)
Spectre (2015)
Good Close To Craig Era
For those of you who haven't seen this film yet, I urge you to go out and see it. Definitely a great close to the Craig Era. Craig definitely has suited Bond well in the entire franchise, and he's done it yet again in this one too. However, it wasn't anywhere near as good as Skyfall or Casino Royale. I know it says 8/10, but I really would like to give it a 7.5/10
Basically, Bond gets a message from a special someone, who gives him a lead on an unknown suspect. Bond travels to Mexico to discover a trace of a sinister organization, and is shocked by what he finds.
Acting was great. Nobody seemed fake or anything like that; expect the usual characters, and positions as well as titles. Ralph Fiennes does a great job of playing the head of MI6. He just has this way of seeming so professional, and staying so calm. Daniel Craig does such a good job of playing Bond. Each actor who plays bond has their own taste, and Craig plays Bond like a bad-ass skilled guy who loves his job.
The plot of the film was fairly decent, however I feel like they could have spent more time adding onto the back-story of the villains. They kind of just, appear, and they don't really add anything to the plot that wasn't already there to begin with. I'm glad that they offer tie-ins to the former films, but they just don't coincide like they should. It kind of feels forced the way they added the "final" villain into the mix.The way the plot was set up was also forced as well. They barely talk about how Bond was given his leads, and so on. As for the other villains, some of them don't really speak, but give off this vibe that I want to like them, but I just can't because I don't know anything about them. Also, this is one of the only Bond films where Bond is on his own. You'll see what I mean by that, but for now, just know that MI6 is not going to be helping Bond like they should.
What the film does do good of, is keeping the characters the same. The tone of the characters have stayed almost identical to what it was in almost all of the other films. Money penny is still a really cool secretary, Bond is still bad-ass, Q is hilarious, and so on. So be prepared to see your old characters back on the screen again.
Visual effects were great! Nothing looked CGI; of course I don't know, but I have a feeling that everything was shot on camera, and very little CGI was used in the making of this movie. Explosions look awesome, and sound awesome. Gun fights are very much up to par; coupled with gun fights, the fight scenes are very well choreographed, and leave us on the edge of our seats wondering who will win.
Overall, I'd say it was a good film, and I urge you all to go see it. Not as good as its predecessors, but still very much worth a viewing. Acting was great, visual effects were amazing, and the fight scenes were pulse-pounding. Just expect a tiny bit of a week character development. But other than that guys, I very much urge you to see the movie.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
Most disappointing film of the year
I don't even know if I want to do the review of this film. I feel like my review has more depth than the plot of this film. Good lord, I try to keep these reviews as professional as I can. I even try not to include spoilers, because I want people to go out and see the movie themselves, but good lord in heaven, I mean it quite literally, this film was possibly the biggest let-down all year. You can't spoil something like this, because there's nothing to spoil. I don't feel like the screenwriters took the time to write anything down. They kind of just wrote down brainstorms, and payed the actors to improv them on screen.
As usual with the other films, we seem to carry our cameras around almost obscenely. Nobody, and I mean nobody, carries a camera around for no reason like that. It makes the realism of the movie seem so faked, and unreal. That's something you can yell at the entire series for. What makes the obsessive camera-use even worse, is the fact that they try to address it in this film, but do so....miserably. "Do these people film everything?" Said one of the characters, and then goes on to see his brother film everything.
Good lord the plot was just so poorly written. They created a really good thing for themselves in this film. They started it out very well, except for one problem, they didn't carry it out very well. They for whatever reason, thought that it was a good idea to create wrinkles in the plots of the earlier movies, by showing older tapes of the 1988 events, and then cutting to "ritual sessions" that weren't part of the tape in the first place. They show the two sisters being able to see into the newer house. And then, it just stops. The writers must have forgotten that they put that in there, because they never mention it again. It literally had nothing to do with the plot. All it did was make way for a cheap jump scare. They left a lot of things unexplained, such as where Toby came from, what happened to Christi, where the ghost camera came from, and all sorts of other points. The producers butcher their old plots, with the plot of this movie. The worshipers need the blood of Hunter, and the blood of Leila to make one of the 7 fathers of Hell, real. So goodbye the premise of the first born son, and breeding witches to find the first born sons. It will not be missed.
The producers have to understand that throwing in jump scares, and creepy faces every 10 minutes, do not make for a scary film, and does not create suspense. All jump scares create, is a sense of not wanting to be scared. That is all the film is filled with. It does not make for a good film.
The visual effects were definitely low budget. Just because the "ghost" looks like a blob of oil, doesn't mean that it looks convincing. The movie looks like they added effects in right before it was launched to critics for review. Every special effect in the film was just poorly made, and felt rushed. Especially at the end, where Toby is in real form. First off, they thought that because he is in the night vision lens It was just a man, with bare feet. It was rather sad. They made Toby sound like he was going to be a Beezlebub lamb, with crazy inhuman features. Good lord we were sadly disappointed. That seems to happen a lot in this movie.
The only good part about the movie is that the acting is actually pretty decent. The actors were great for the terrible screen writing they had to deal with. Child acting is hard thing to deal with, and getting used to; it can make giving the sense of realism nearly impossible, but the child actors in this film were pretty decent. They definitely have a bright future ahead of them.
Please, for the love of God, do not go out and lose brain cells because you watched this film. It is literally in no way worth it. The writing was terrible, the effects were terrible, and pretty much everything about his movie was just terrible. Spare yourself.
The Martian (2015)
A definitive, eye candy success!
The Martian was a great, fun science fiction staple in Ridley Scott's career. Of all genres of films that he's tried, this one was definitely spot on where it needed to be. Visuals were great, acting was very warm, and appealing to the audience. In short, the film is about an astronaut stranded on mars with almost no way of contact top earth.
Be prepared to have your mind positively blown by the visual effects in this film. This film takes the effects in Gravity, shuts them off, and tears the switch off. The setting literally looks like mars. A perfect red sky, red desolate sand, and lots and lots of red barren mountains. Zero gravity in the film is practically flawless, however Scott is really picky and choosy with Martian gravity which is about a third of earth. One aspect of gravity effects that was rather impressive was the shift from zero gravity, to earth gravity all on the same ship. Nothing like that has been done before.
Scott was for the most part pretty solid on keeping the science reasonable. The facts about the martian soil were correct, the rocket science was pretty much correct, so expect to be even more amazed that a lot of what happens in the film is pretty much possible! However, the time delay for radio signals would be about a half an hour, and that was pretty much ignored in the film.
The film had an all star cast. Matt Damon did a fantastic job playing an astronaut scientist who knows what he's doing, and can keep both his sanity, and his sense of humor even though he could die at any moment. A good actor knows how to make every character different than the other he played, and Matt Damon showed no trace of his previous roles, and carried out his own phenomenally. Be prepared to fall in love with Damon's performance.
The plot was very linear, and was super easy to follow. The screenplay wrote enough not to make obvious exposition lines, but also made it clear to the audience what was going on. The screenwriter didn't just throw you into the dark and expected you to make sense of the universe on your own. cough* Christopher Nolan. However, he used way too many sour jabs at humor. There were so many pointless jokes and gags that made the plot seem less serious. It really takes away from the suspense.
Definitely go see the film. Definitely worth seeing in theaters. Be prepared for a fun, epic joy ride from start to finish.
Doragon Bôru Zetto Fukkatsu no 'Efu' (2015)
Satisfying, but Not Groundbreaking
For the first time in 20 years, I have finally had the privilege to go into a movie theater to see Dragonball Z! I had a high expectations list, as I didn't really care too much for the previous Dragonball movie.
I will say overall, the film was great! My buddy and I had a great time watching this, and it was good to see that Akira Still has some creativity under his belt even though he is 60 years old now!
For the plot, expect to learn some new things about the Dragonball universe. Some characters will teach new techniques that you will find very intriguing! It definitely opens up a lot of doors for the Dragonball universe. The story-line was not too complicated, and was easy enough to swallow without any analyzing. I did see a few inaccuracies to the plot, which didn't coincide with the plot of the original anime, such as where Frieza went after he died in the anime; it is completely different in the movie. I won't give too much information as to where, but let's just say it's a special place for special people :) They mentioned some of the old characters, but unfortunately, they didn't get any screen-time. I was hoping this film was going to be a full reunion of the whole Z- Crew, however, I was disappointed. :( The balance of action, and speaking was masterfully balanced in the writing! There was enough speaking for the plot to be established, without making it seem like a Michael Bay movie, and the action was complete fun from start to finish. They definitely improved from the last film on that aspect!
As always, you will have the urge to scream along with the voice actors! It's amazing how the voice-actors character voices have barely aged at all, even with the hours upon hours of loud screaming. Sean Schemmel does a wonderful job as always screaming his lungs out, and going right back into character flawlessly. However, they did change the actor for Frieza. For one of two reasons, either the old one wasn't paid enough for it, or he just didn't want to be in it period, so expect to be surprised by the different voice of Frieza.
The animation was good, and bad at the same time. Unfortunately, Toei animations kept the film at the standard 28 fps (if you aren't tech savvy, that's really bad for an animated film) which would occasionally seem laggy, and choppy. The art though was phenomenal! Akira did a really good job of integrating both 3d and 2d drawings into one. Most animes you see out there won't do that. So that's definitely a plus!
I had a lot of fun seeing the old crew back together again, and it was definitely reassuring to see that the voice actors are still around and love their characters just as much as we do. I urge every DBZ fan to go out and see the film, and enjoy it. You won't be disappointed, and you will have a good time!
Unfriended (2014)
Not going to lie, I was scared to death!
Unfriended is an unusual type of horror movie, but I am glad that they made it. I am an avid reader of creepypastas, and I have heard of the creepypasta, username666. I won't go into detail here about that, but it's creepy stuff. We often see horror movies that are either studio made, or just found-footage style. This is completely different, and that's why I loved this. I use facebook, skype, and spotify about every day. After seeing this movie, it made me scared to even touch those things!
The plot was great, and had a good enough back-story for the audience to understand who everyone was, and why the events were happening. You weren't just thrown right into dark expecting to make sense of the events. (Christopher Nolan I'm pointing at you) They did an excellent job creating a story that is very much applicable to today's society. That's what made this movie so scary to me. It was a bit far fetched to say that the dead can come back to make you kill yourself, but this is a horror movie, and it's designed to scare you. They mention that the dead can possess you, and make you do things, but they never really hint at it actually being done. When we some of the people die, we just see them dying, or them doing it themselves. They never really hint at, or say why this was done, so be prepared for that.
The effects were above average. The blood, and gore looks real, and it doesn't look like make up and CGI. It actually looks pretty convincing. I get it, they are trying to hide the fact that it's not really a studio that's created this mess, HOWEVER, it's so obvious that this was made in a studio. The producers don't understand that just because you add static to the picture, doesn't make it look genuinely like Skype.
The acting was great! All of the actors/actresses played their parts perfectly! They truly acted like teenagers, and you could just here 17/18 year old puppy love when they say, "baby I love you." Since I am a part of this generation, I can easily say that it was perfectly demonstrated in the acting!
All in all, I will say that it was a good movie. Unfortunately, it used a lot of old fashioned scares, like jump scares, and creepy faces at the end. Definitely the scariest movie I have ever seen! And that is saying something!
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Good movie, but not ingenious.
I had a good time watching this film. It had a good plot, and the acting was definitive. This and signs, which will come out two years after this film, are the only two shyamalan films that have impressed me. The plot summed up is that an impeccable child psychologist is gunned down by one of his old patients. A year later, the psychologist appears to have made a full recovery. He meets an emotionally unstable boy, who appears to have a few mental, and social problems. After meeting the boy, he learns that he has a secret dark gift: he is able to see dead people.
The acting was great. For being only 11 years old in this film, Haley Joel Osment did a fantastic job portraying an outcast, who is terrified of his own shadow. Definitely one of the more talented child actors of this era in film. Bruce Willis did a fantastic job of playing a workaholic psychologist, who is in some marital problems. His reaction to the uncovered secret at the end of the film was almost perfect, until after he calmed down. That one scene ruined his performance for almost the entire movie.
The cinematography was up to par, but up to par only. It really wasn't anything game changing, or ground breaking. These are the old cinematic tricks, and I feel that these are the only thing that Shyamalan knows. Close ups, hand helds, and gods eyes over and over again. It was done well with what he had, but it was really bland after a while. Considering most people don't watch a movie for its cinematography, I can't really take off a star for that.
The writing. Okay here we go. Some of you may hate me, some of you may love me. This is 16 years after the film was released. I will say that for the time, this was a good plot twist and almost something new. Just because the famous plot twist at the end was new, doesn't mean it was good. It really was kind of expected and didn't surprise me at all. We see a lot of clichés in this movie. Single mom with two jobs, emotionally unstable social outcast with a secret gift, workaholic with marriage problems, bully who is superior in every way ends up being the outcast in the end, and so on. It's fine that he uses them in his writing, but they just don't impress anyone in the end. Oh here we go again! The elephant in the room. The ending. The plot twist at the end. He was dead all along! Gasp!* but not really. Yes it was clever for him to be dead the whole time, but he made the clues too obvious. He never talks to anyone, his wife never makes eye contact, he almost always wears the same clothes, nobody acknowledges he's even there. I mean for gods sake, the dude was shot in his kidney. You pretty much knew he was dead when Cole said he saw dead people. The twist was delivered horribly as well. The ring falls on the floor. okay? So she had his ring? Who talks in their sleep like that anyways? You're telling me that in all the time that he spent away from his wife, he didn't notice that everybody was ignoring him? Nobody heard a kid talking to air since normal people can't see ghosts? This is a very noteworthy paradox that nobody seems to address. Why didn't the boy tell him that he was dead? Surely he could see that the counselor was dead, so why didn't he tell him? Why wasn't he afraid? Why was he scared when he said he was getting a new counselor? He wasn't talking to a counselor in real life anyways. Another thing, is this seriously the only case that a child psychologist deals with? You see at the beginning, he has a folder full of cases, and this is the only one he is dealing with?
Overall, I think the movie was a very creative, very fun ride from start to finish. I just see lots of plot holes. This was a great film for its time, but to me, this film is not something that I will remember forever, and it is not staple in film. For the repeated plot holes, and poor clichés, I take off 3 stars.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
Satisfyingly Surprising!
First off I'd like to say that I have long been a fan of the hunger games books. I have read all three of them, and after reading this book, I despised it! The book just didn't have a satisfying plot for me and no real suspense. But enough about book reviews, this is a movie review. I mention my disgust for the book because I went into the theater ready to hate the movie. I thought it was going to be the same plot with the same old characters, and I was going to be disappointed plus out 18 dollars for paying for my other critiquing buddy.
I am glad to say that I was wrong! Wow! I'm not going to lie, but this movie blew me away! Usually books based off of the movie have a lot of details left out of the final product. I guess you can say that the book is always better than the movie. This movie disproves that rule! There is actually more detail and more feelings in this movie than what was in the book.
Now obviously they can't keep every detail the same as the book, but they did a great job compensating for what they couldn't do, for they could do. In the book you are just thrown into district 12 ruins and you don't have a clue why Katniss is even there in the first place. In this movie, she wakes up in the hospital and is suffering from her recurrent nightmares again. She hasn't seen the ruins of district 12 or doesn't have any idea how many people died. This gives her the fuel to become the mocking jay for the rebellion. In the book she just does because she wants to get peeta back. Jennifer Lawrence does a stupendous job of giving the feeling of being petrified when she sees the ruins in district 12. You feel the exact way Katniss would if you saw what she saw!
For the first time ever, the writers are giving the people who actually read the books a treat when they watch this movie. The first being something small, but still satisfying. The cat! You never really get the vibe of how much she hates that Cat in the previous two movies. In the book she hates the cat to death and she wanted it to die. Half of the audience laughed when they saw the cat, and half didn't. The second treat you get from the producers is the hanging tree song. In the movie it is just a song that she sang from the top of her head and all the districts sang it but not the capital. In the book, it goes so much further than that. People who don't read the book don't know that her father was a great singer and that her dad would sing that song to her. The song gave you chills when you heard it and it made you honk so harshly about her dad.
The movie does a great job with staying true to the book while adding adjustments to make the story better. The book is from Katniss' perspective making what happens in the other districts unknown unless she is told. There is a lot of boring talking that happens in the book before any real action goes on because of this. This goes for the rebellion at the dam, the forest, or even the tribute rescue mission. Katniss simply doesn't know what goes on. The producers got to cheat with this and show you what really happens alleviating a lot of the boring filler pain from the book. There was true suspense and even boom readers didn't know what was going to happen at times!
This isn't something that I can really use to promote seeing this movie, but I will say that my perception and image in my mind was damn near identical to what the film crew put together. I was amazed on how the hospital looked! I figured it was like they were taking my mind and putting it on screen!
I will say that they fell short on making peeta look different after every time you see him on TV. Katniss kept saying his voice sounded different and that he looked different, and she was worried what they were doing to him. He didn't look any different. And I didn't see why she was flipping out.
This is either Juliane Moore's fault or the directors fault, but the character of Coin was not the same as it was supposed to be. Coin is more sinister, and not fully understood in the book, while in the movie, she is very well respected and she's kind of a badass! You can't help but like her. I don't want to like her because of what she does to.... I guess I'll save that :)
The movie does a great job of creating this feeling of helplessness and suspense. The best example is when the capital bombs district 13. You panic just as much as the citizens do when you see the citizens, and when the shot changes to Coin, you are pretty much begging them to do something about it. You feel so helpless when they realize that all they can do is wait it out.
Overall I give it a 9/10 for how good a movie this is! The acting was great, the cgi was great, the the music was great, and it's loyalty to the boom was great! I take one star off to the mess up with the makeup on peeta, and the wrong portrayal of Coin. Other than that this is by far the best hunger games movie to date, and I would recommend this movie to anyone!