Movie Review: The King's Speech

I don't like historical stories. Whether the old bygone period is set in warring Japan, colonial America or jolly old England I am very disinclined to pick up any kind of story set in those times. This particular aversion of mine could be traced back to my schooling days where I had to take History as a subject and thanks to my brain's horrible memory with dates, it has become a subject that I have very few fond memories of. So then what was I doing at the movies watching one of those based on a true story period pieces? I needed to do something while I waited for my brother to be done with the party and this was the highest rated movie available there. Were those ratings well deserved? I happy to say that they really were.

The movie follows the life of the Duke of York a.k.a. Bertie and his trials and tribulations in the decade prior to his coronation as King George VI. This particular English monarch was known to have a speech impediment in the form of a stammer and the story depicts his attempts to overcome it with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue. Of course, some dramatic and artistic liberties were taken here but from I've read, Mr. Logue's methods were as unconventional in real as they were on the silver screen. Some of the lines were also based on notes left behind in the real man's journal too though I honestly can't tell which ones were totally made up and which ones had a basis to go on. I really am curious to know whether or not the man actually did make a prince shout out "fuckfuckshitshitshittyshitshishitbuggerfuckshitfuckbloodyfuckfuckfuckandtits". That's not the actual line from the movie though, I paraphrased it due to my shoddy memory.

As you can most probably infer from the previous paragraph, the movie has its fair share of humor mixed in with the drama. I have always had a high regard for the British wit this movie features some truly brilliant bits of dialogue. Lionel is a huge source of all the subtle comedy that you'll see here as he likes to go around jabbing sticks around at authority. The man had big enough balls to sit on some holy chair and sacrilegiously point out that people have carved their names in the wood that seated a fair number of "assholes"(His words, not mine). The scripting was obviously top-notch while the cinematography that went with it was fitfully impeccable. No scene was wasted and no reason to leave your seat, even for a little while, was given. After the magnificent first and a half hours of the film I just couldn't bear to miss any of the last twenty minutes even for the toilet break I was in dire need of and I would recommend anyone finding themselves in a similar situation to mine to follow my lead as missing those last few minutes would mean doing an injustice to not only yourself but to every moviegoer in there with you.

Do not misunderstand my praises though. My words thus far may seem to paint the movie as surprise comedy but the movie is still at heart a dramaticly heartwarming tale of a man that fought hard to serve his duty to the best of his abilities. Colin Firth portrayal of the burdened man was so convincing in his anguish that I actually found his struggles to be rather moving. Watching the guy go through speech therapy looks incredibly comedic at first but gradually it becomes so very clear just how big of a hurdle this was to Bertie. By the time the climax arrives, you're going to be on the edge of your seats, silently cheering him on, as he works his way through that lengthy three minute speech. Many movies failed to induce tension into their audience and where so, so, so many life-or-death explosion-filled battles were incapable of doing so, this three minute speech by a man still struggling with his speech impediment had my complete and utter attention as he tried not to stumble on the devilish contraption that is the wireless. I honestly wanted to join in on the clapping that shortly followed the king's speech but it was a very bare theater and I wasn't so sure if I wanted to get odd looks.

In short, the movie was marvelously spectacular and deserves a going to the cinema right now. They even extended the screenings to the rest of the world after it did so well back on native soil even though it was never meant to. Fellow Bruneians should know that the screenings are set at the new smaller theaters with the very comfy chairs and surprisingly chilly air-conditioning. I will certainly be adding this to my list of favorite films and I hope that it wins whatever awards they've got lined up for grabbing. I dare anyone who's seen this to try and tell me why Colin Firth shouldn't be getting the Best Actor award of 2010 for playing Bertie cause there's simply no competition with this role.

Movie Review: The Green Hornet

Went to watch the Green Hornet earlier when I was having a new pair of spectacles made. Hadn’t changed them in five years so I figured I needed to kill some time with a movie before they got done. The Green Hornet wasn’t even on my “watch eventually” list but compared to the rest of the stuff that they were showing I decided that I’ll go with Seth Rogen’s latest work. I liked Pineapple Express and thought the music from the trailer was pretty kickass so I forked over cash to sit in on it. By the end of it I had two questions in my mind: 1) How is a man-child like Seth Rogen not one of those lousy Hollywood hacks that dare call themselves writers? 2) When’s the sequel?

The movie stars Seth Rogen as Brit Reid a.k.a. the Green Hornet, a party animal who’s the sole heir to a major newspaper company his father created, and Jay Chou as Kato, the mysterious Chinaman who grew up on the streets to be an engineering genius that works on the cars of rich men, kicks ass like some deranged renegade Mossad agent on the run and makes coffee so good that you just can’t live without it. Brit’s a disappointment in his father’s eyes so when he kicks the bucket, he decides to have a wild night out on the town by cutting off his memorial statue’s head with the help of Kato once he finds out just how awesome his coffee maker is. This leads them to a brawl with some gangbangers that start them off on their careers as pseudo-villain heroes.

Like I mentioned before, Seth Rogen is a surprisingly good writer. Barring the first dull twenty or so minutes of the movie, the writing’s pretty damn solid and even manages to play off the usual conventions of superhero movies to the point where the movie almost seems to be a deconstruction of the genre. The main characters are, at best, morally grey as they have no qualms about doing harm to the general populace, destroying public property and outright murder. At one point I had to feel sorry for the designated villain of the movie. Sure he doesn’t look like much but that’s no reason to keep putting down his style. If anything, he should be putting down theirs. The man had a double barreled gun, single handedly took out an up and coming gang and isn’t afraid to step in and brutalize his enemies in ways that cannot be considered as anything less than overkill. It makes me wonder about the man’s self-esteem as those greenhorns somehow managed to get him to switch from his casual suitwear to that hammy lame-ass red supervillain theme he had in the end. Still, that red motif contributed a good number of jokes to the already numerous repertoire to be had, most of which were sexual innuendos that flew over the heads of my fellow moviegoers half the time.

Aside from the refreshingly lighthearted yet serious script that drove the movie, the direction deserves it share of praise too. There was one particular scene that struck me as it really set the tone for the final act of the movie where the shit gets real. Seeing the antagonist send out a hit on the Green Hornet and just how in control he was of the city’s underbelly made for a great start to it. The action scenes were incredibly good as well and the Mythbusters will have you understand just how the absurdity of it all only made the film better. It wasn’t just the overt awesomeness of the stunts that made them so much fun to watch but the subtle ways they worked out on film. Some may only appreciate seeing a land rover fly over a bush and onto a road for the novelty of the flyover itself. I appreciated seeing that from a long shot as I’ve rarely seen one it shot from that angle making it all the more impressive. That was done by one of the bad guys by the way, everyone gets a chance to shine in these scenes really. Well, everyone named at least.

I'm no fan of the original source of the story or the very premise of this movie but the staff behind it made it work. It's not brilliant, it's not deep and the pretentious will be very inclined to call this film one only the juvenile and immature would enjoy but I had a great time watching this. Man-child be damned, Seth Rogen is a good writer and I cannot consider both Pineapple Express and the Green Hornet to be flukes. I can honestly tell you that this movie was one worth watching and it's worth watching at your nearest cinema. Perhaps if you are as fortunate as I was, you might even get seated next to some aesthetically pleasing bimbos that have watched the movie already. They certainly didn't make my movie experience any worse though they did make me wonder if there's more truth than meets the eye in that comparison between myself and a certain legendary lover of bimbos and suits.

Movie Review: Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer

For my first post of 2011 I’ve decided to go with a review of the Gundam 00 movie and thankfully enough it turned out to be as good as I had hoped it would be. Contrary to what a lot of people are saying the movie didn’t disappoint me in the least and all those complaints I’ve heard about it we completely blown out of proportion. Well, maybe not the whole 00 Qan[T] only having five minutes of screen time but I didn’t mind that in the least.

This was a pretty creepy scene.

The movie is the final act of the Gundam 00 where humanity finally makes first contact an unknown extraterrestrial lifeform from god knows where and the impending threat that their approach to Earth brings. With the Earth currently going through an era of peace under the new ESF administration Celestial Being has been keeping a low profile on their activities but this alien threat forces them out of hiding as Innovators with Quantum Brainwaves like Setsuna are the targets of this new menace. The threat proves to be far greater than they had imagined and Setsuna becomes the key to resolving this entire mess.

Raphael was the least impressive of the new machines and this was impressive.

These Braves are definitely on par with the 4th generation Gundams.

Wallpaper sized yo! Click it! TransGraham's Brave was awesome!

I personally feel that the movie was very well done and ended the series perfectly. Although the plot is pretty straightforward and simple I thought it served as a perfect conclusion for the entire Gundam 00 franchise. Not only did it tie up all the loose ends and bring back all the remaining characters for a grand finale, it also made good on its themes of understanding and conflict and finally showed us what Aeolia Schenberg intended for. With the exception of the very final scene which could have been handled better, the direction of the movie was superb and kept to a great pace that just made the movie feel a little too short at the end. I suspect there’s probably a director’s cut or the like in the works because I sincerely doubt that being exactly two hours long was a decision made by the production staff and not the executives. You have scenes where the ELS activities were genuinely unnerving and you can just feel the tension and intensity at times when the movie demanded your attention. Don’t think it was a completely serious affair though as they slipped in a few jokes here and there to keep the mood from going too sour. My favorite ones were where Billy told his all too enthusiastic lover to be gentle with him and the fact that Setsuna actually chuckled at Ian’s outrage at Mileina’s confession. Patrick even delivered a good one in the middle of the climax that had me partly relieved.

Sunrise should probably try that Gainax parody style on the next Gundam series.

Setsuna is actually smiling in this pic! Seriously!

I'm really liking this meme. So very much applicability.

The animation of course was top notch and made for insane levels of action in the final confrontation with so, so many things going on at once. You really have to be amazed at all the technical details they put in and the sheer brilliance behind the alien ELS. Their being living metal that operated on a hive mind and their modus operandi at understanding things made them absolutely perfect for their role as it showed just how easy it is for things to go very wrong when you don’t understand a thing about the opposite party. It gets bonus points from me for being a threat that was part alien part nanotech part robot and part legion.

Harute's scissor bits cut an ELS GN-X into 16 pieces like giant metal scissor piranha hybrids.

Wave motion cannon prep in Marute mode.

All hail to the new king of beam spam, Zabanya!!

See all those pink beams? God-tier beam spamming Zabanya!!

14 rifle bits, 4 shield bits, one arm armed with a rifle and a fuck load of missiles.

I’ve actually watched this movie twice now(and will probably watch it again at some point), before and after BSS released their subs and found that the only difference between the viewings were some small details that I missed out on the first time along with some small jokes that weren’t entirely due to the movie(transgraham. Lol. Very cheeky BSS.). That having been said, the movie is actually quite simplistic and quite easy to understand which is why I find it odd that there are people calling it a failure simply because the Qan[T] didn’t get to showcase all of its power. That obviously would have conflicted a lot with Setsuna’s character and the movie’s themes and I’d have been very disappointed if that’s all the movie amounted to. At any rate, they’d complain anyway about the hax and Setsuna being the new Jesus in Gundam even if the Qan[T] did take down the ELS like the director said it could. Anyone who actually applies to that mindset about the movie has clearly been taken in by the all too effective marketing that Bandai is notorious for.

Regular Trans-am, Buster Rifle Mode, charging... 7... 6...

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... FIRE!!

The sheer scale is just ridiculous.

There is no doubt that he really could have taken them ALL on. The ELS and the Humans.

Quantum Burst. More impressive than I thought it would be.

Keep in mind that Quantum Burst uses way more GN Particles than regular Trans-am.

Assuming that's the meter for his GN particle reserves on the right then the Hax is uber strong in this one.

To be honest, I actually had an embarrassingly difficult time writing this review thanks to all the little things I loved about it. There was so, so, so much I liked in there that it was very hard to fit it all in this review and it's gone past the thousand word mark already. It even has me posting up the most screenshots of I've ever put up for a review. Everyone had their moment in the spotlight to shine and shine spectacularly they did. The movie wrapped things up quite nicely and I honestly can’t see how they could continue the 00 universe from here. I mean they actually could but it’s going to be tricky feat considering how the story and cast are pretty much settled with the movie. Hopefully they’ll just leave the story at this and not try to follow it up with a sequel ala SEED Destiny cause the series is pretty much complete with this. Well that’s it for my review on the movie and let’s pray that the new Gundam series they’ve got lined up for us is something completely different cause now’s a very good time for something different. I could really go for something like nanomachine based technology with a female A.I. as the protagonist piloting a constantly adapting Gundam that’s the center of a new conflict. Just throwing the idea out there.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved through understanding.

Movie Review: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st

Finally got around to watching the Nanoha 1st movie that’s been hiding around somewhere amongst the other things I’ve got to get around to watching and I have to say I didn’t feel like I wasted two hours and ten minutes on this remake. I considered the first season of the Nanoha series to be its weakest but this retelling has me putting it on par with the second. By that I mean I thought the movie was pretty big improvement from the first season much like A’s was.

The movie recaps the events of the first season and chronicles the very beginning of Takamachi Nanoha’s life as a magical girl and her relationship with Fate Testarossa. Some sources like this one say that the movie itself is not only an alternate retelling but also exists in the franchise’s universe as well as a semi-biographical “based on a true story” movie, one that apparently that had consultation from the main characters as well so any changes anyone feels they’d like to complain about should voice them out to the in-universe production staff as well as Nanoha and Fate themselves but I think they’d find that the metaphorical meta wall is going to make that very difficult.

This actually is official promo art.

So what are these changes they made to the movie exactly and what do I think of them? The biggest one much to amusement is the fact that they downplayed Yuuno’s importance in the movie. Even after Nanoha found out that Yuuno was actually a boy and not a ferret she still let him sleep in the same room with her as a ferret and we get no mention of what happens to him after the incident is over. He basically demoted from an actual person to a magical pet. Make that of what you will but I’m taking that as further proof that Nanoha and Fate are two loving mamas happily raising their daughter with little to nil involvement from Yuuno. They obviously had a reason to increase the subtext behind their first meeting cause I definitely don’t remember Fate saying Nanoha’s name over and over again with increasing joy or their farewell hug being quite so intimate and long. You’d have to be blind not to see it by that point cause well… You know what, let me just show you:

I present the evidence right here

Exhibit A


Exhibit B


Exhibit C


Exhibit D


Exhibit E

Take that YuunoxNanoha shippers! NanohaxFate is the one true pairing!!!

Ahem! Well, my yuri fanboy tendencies aside they really did make quite a number a good changes to the movie. They cut out pretty much every bit of padding the first season had and replaced it with much better flowing scenes and great new action sequences and added in new scenes to show Nanoha’s development better as well as more backstory on Precia and Fate that really made the story even more tragic than it was before. The animation’s obviously improved by leaps and bounds compared to the original series but it’s not quite at the standard you’d come to expect from anime movies nowadays but more like a high quality OVA. That however does not apply to the battle scenes which are as I have said before are quite good. My favorite one was where Nanoha shot out a Starlight Breaker at Fate and leveled an entire city in the process proving that nine year old girls are a force to be reckoned with and possibly feared, especially with magical girls like Nanoha. There are many reasons why Nanoha is often compared to a Gundam and that right there is one of them – not very many Gundams are capable of demolishing an entire city in one blast. I think she probably still had it on stun too when she shot that cause there’s no way Fate could have survived it otherwise.

Just imagine what she really could do with this

All in all it was pretty good remake of the original season. They really improved on a lot with this one. Music, animation, emotional depth, logistics – everything really. They even paced the whole thing nicely enough that you’ll feel that two hours and ten minutes was just right for the movie. While I’d like to see a fourth season animated with the quality they put into the movie I’m pleased to know that the 2nd movie, the remake of the second season, is already in the works and is set to premiere in 2012. I’m really looking forward to that one since A’s was the best season of the series and am hoping that they somehow improve Nanoha’s Divine Buster sniping scene since that was the best part of the series. Here’s to even better Nanoha movies. Let’s hope that the Mayans aren’t right and we’ll get to live long enough to see the StrikerS remake.

My favorite frame of the movie

Movie Review: The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi

The long awaited animated movie adaptation of the fan favorite fourth installation in the Suzumiya Haruhi light novel series finally went on sale around two weeks ago and I am very pleased to say that Kyoto Animation pulled it off perfectly. It’s been years since I last read that particular novel but it’s still as clear to me in my memory now as when I had first read it which really is a testament as to how brilliant that book was. Having declared that I can honestly say with the utmost confidence that it is most faithful movie adaptation of any novel that I’ve ever seen.

The movie runs 2 hours and 43 minutes long and revolves around Kyon who suddenly woke up one day that the world around him had changed overnight as he slept. He doesn’t realize this at first but he slowly comes to this shocking revelation that all the odd discrepancies between his and everyone else’s memories culminating with the impossible return of his attempted murderer Asakura Ryouko in place of the ever troublesome brigade chief he’s come to know in the past few months of his life. Coming to grasp this world so similar to his and yet so significantly different to the one he has known all this time he must discover the truth behind the events that put him in this situation and find a way to fix things so that they go back to the way it was.

I don’t mean to come off as fanboy of the series with what I’m about to say about the movie but this is in my opinion one of the very best things that anime has to offer. The animation work seen in this movie is its biggest plus and deserves absolute praise as they just piled detail upon detail upon detail here. Every character named and unnamed feel like unique individuals while the scenery can be just so mindbogglingly breathtaking that you have to wonder just how much work they put into all of it. The audio that went with the visuals was also made use of superbly and conveyed the ambience and tone of the movie perfectly. We’d get quiet sombre melodies when we were meant to feel Kyon’s anguish and alienation in the world while uplifting, hopeful tunes when he’d find some form of a clue out of his predicament. Subtlety was clearly the key to making this as good as it is. They went as far as to show very small things like Yuki stroking a teapot to show just how timid she is in the new world and even put in sounds like the flapping of arms and the low humming of lights, sounds that we’d just ignore and tune out. KyoAni did far more than go the extra mile with this one, they ran a whole marathon just for the heck of it.

Kyon's defining moment

Though the movie is called the Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, she doesn’t really do much in the story and most of the focus goes to Kyon and Yuki. Disappearance is there to show just how much the two of have changed and what their roles in the messes that Haruhi brings them into means to them. When you think about it, there really isn’t much plot and is pretty much secondary to the characterisation but that more than makes up for it. You’re probably not even going to realize that with how great the scenes are. My favorite parts were when they played Asakura showing up in class like a horror scene, Kyon’s expanded inner conflict scene and also when Asakura showed up at the end to “protect” Yuki. Asakura showing up was just as good as the novel made it out to be but they really outdid themselves with Kyon’s inner conflict with whole symbolic way they went about it when it was just a bunch of lines in the book. As for Asakura’s protection, I just loved how psychotic she was while giving Kyon that pleased smile of hers.

Asakura the Happy Knife Wielding Psycho. My favorite character of the series.

I do have to point out that they did exaggerate some of Kyon’s reactions, particularly his outburst at Asakura but I think that just made the later scenes even more powerful, especially so for the self-confrontation scene. The movie can also seem a little draggy in the beginning but I suppose that was intended as bit of a refresher for fans since even Kyon lampshades the fact that it was a very long prologue. The rest of the movie though is quite enjoyable though so you’re probably not going to feel the length till maybe the end with Koizumi but that’ll wear off when you get to Yuki.

When I read the original novel I thought that Tanigawa Nagaru painted an amazing picture with his words but what I saw in its movie was an even grander one that surpassed. It really did make up for the whole Endless Eight troll they pulled on us in the second season and it was most certainly worth the wait. You might even want to watch it twice if you don’t mind the sitting down again for it for another few hours. Even if you don’t want to make just make sure wait till after the credits are done cause there’s an extra scene they threw in as fanservice for Yuki fans. Another really nice touch that wasn’t in the book.

This wasn't it but I thought it deserved to be shared

Movie Review: Gulliver’s Travels

Went to watch this with some of my friends some time ago when I was actually hoping to catch Warrior’s Way at the cinema that day. Unfortunately, maybe, they stopped showing it that day so we were left to choose a different movie to spend a couple hours on and our fallback movie, Tangled, wasn’t available. That left us with either this or Tron Legacy to watch and I really didn’t want to have to sit through that again so we opted for this. Frankly I’ve never liked any of Jack Black’s roles in the movies I’ve seen him in and this one just cemented my opinion of him – a noisy living indication for what movies I should stay away from. I really hated Nacho Libre by the way.

Jack Black’s latest offering to the ever increasing pile of crap they churn out over in Hollywood is just as you would imagine it to be, a story about a man-child set in the classic tale of the giant who finds himself in the classic tale’s island of Liliput where very, very, very tiny people live in a pre-tv age and view him as a giant beast. In this take of big man on tiny people island, Jack Black’s character is a guy who’s life is going nowhere and tries to impress the girl he’s taken a fancy to for the past five years by taking up a travel writing assignment despite having little to no experience with either of the necessary components of that task. He ends up going to the Bermuda Triangle where he gets caught up in this strange magical waterspout that has him washing up on the shores of Liliput and in a situation I suppose you could call an adventure.

I should start off with the biggest problem I had with the movie – either nobody on the writing team cared enough to write a good story or they hired a bunch of kids to the job. You can tell that they really aren’t bothering to use the other characters for anything and give them lines like “We are kidnapping you!”, “Oh! I am being kidnapped!” and my personal favorite, “She has been kidnapped!”. Whatever the case may be it seems that they tailored the whole thing to Jack Black and the type of acting he’s been pigeonholed into all this time and that was something I had hoped that the movie would avoid. I would have commended them for not throwing a single fart joke in there but they just had to replace it with showing a giant ass and moon us. Did I mention that at one point he had to piss floods of nasty brown liquid on a burning palace and save it? I can never unsee them and my memory continues to refuse utter and complete erasure from my brain banks.

Now let me share my thoughts on what they could have done to make the movie better – focus on the secondary characters. Though Gulliver was the eponymous main character of the movie I found that I wanted to see more of the other characters than him. I was actually cheering for the antagonist played by Chris O’Dowd, Roy of IT Crowd, who was an absolute delight to watch. I didn’t recognize him while I was watching movie but I certainly did like his take of the only sane man in Liliput. Besides that brilliant Irish funny man there was also Marshall of How I Met Your Mother fame. Both these men have shown just how much funnier they are than Jack Black in their respective shows and played their roles as best as the script would let them so I simply cannot not lament on how much better the movie could have been if they had been given more attention. The romantic subplot was just tacked onto the ridiculously predictable and unappealing main plotline and could have been explored better by having General Edward and Horatio square off against each other at some point. I mean seriously, who was actually expecting anything good out of Gulliver? Definitely not me.

In order to truly enjoy this movie I believe you’ll require two things: 1) The company of others to snark with and B) The ability to turn off your brain. I had the former but the latter would not come to me since I didn’t sneak an ice cold slushie or the like with me to give myself brainfreeze with that day. I don’t consider this a movie worth sitting down for an hour and a half at the cinema so I would suggest you don’t bother with this one unless you have elements 1 and B. If I had gone without either of these then I’d assume the people sitting next to me might mistake my ever frequent cringing for a seizure.

Movie Review: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I

So the movies are finally at the final stage of the series and the producers have deemed it necessary to split up the doorstop of a finale into two parts. Though that idea may seem a bit odd to fans who are not readers of the novels(They DO exist. I am related to some sadly), the adaptation of the seventh book really benefited a lot from this decision. I only deem the first two movies to be good adaptations of the novels and thought the two after were terribly off the mark. I didn’t even try to watch the fifth and sixth movies knowing their difficult length and literary density couldn’t be properly adapted even with 3 hours of time. That having been said, I am quite pleased to add the first part of finale to the list of movie adaptations I am satisfied with.

Usually I go through the synopsis of the movie or make some vague, relevant and hopefully witty snarking at its ridiculousness but I really shouldn’t have to bother with it this time. Anyone who actually requires me to recap what’s going on in this movie should go crawl back into the cave they live in and smash the final Harry Potter novel they have yet to read. Seriously, if you have to ask then this movie just isn’t for you.

Now for me to heap praises unto this movie and ignore whatever tiny insignificant scrap of dissatisfaction I may or may not have had about the movie. That’s not because I’m a fanboy of the series but rather because my memory tends to be very faulty when I try recalling those tiny, insignificant scraps of dissatisfaction are. Big ones are easy, small ones are not and my review happens to be based on its score as an adaptation rather a standalone movie so it is quite skewed here. Essentially, I consider to be a very well done adaptation that stripped down the story of its superfluous details and scenes and focused on the experiences that the trio go through. I personally didn’t mind that they left out Lupin’s visit to the Black house or that the new minister wasn’t as badass as he was in the books since spending precious time on secondary characters would only waste it. They also expanded certain scenes and moved them around in ways that actually helped keep the movie from dragging along as well as build up the first part as a prologue to the much more exciting latter half of the finale.

My favorite part of the movie was the whole animated segment with The Three Brothers tale since they changed from a lackluster bit of exposition by some guy to an enchantingly illustrated fairy tale that they threw at the end to set up the plot central magic artifacts of the finale. Put this together with the final scene of Voldemort finding the Elder Wand and shooting a pillar of lightning into the sky at the end and you have a very good cliffhanger to end on. I also liked that dance scene between Harry and Hermione they put in since it was perfect for conveying just how much the events of the movie have affected them in spite the fact that it was never in the book. I found it to be a very nice touch on the director’s part and has me looking forward to part two even more because of it. The fact that it seemed to be a jab directed at the HarryxHermione shippers also helped me appreciate the scene even more considering how oblivious you’d have to be to miss the obvious intention the author had with their relationship.

All in all it was very faithful and very well executed adaptation of the finale’s first part. No major flaws for fans like myself to shake their heads or fists at and very understandable changes that just made the movie experience stronger. I could scarcely believe how it stacks up in terms of ratings on rotten tomatoes but my guess is that a sizeable portion of the reviewers aren’t readers of the novels. Maybe it does seem weaker in comparison as a standalone movie but as an adaptation of what will no doubt be a classic for generations to come, it is exactly what I have been waiting for.

Movie Review: Tron Legacy

I have never watched the original Tron and frankly I’ve never been interested in the story so I figured this would be one of the movies I’d pass on and wait till it shows up on HBO next year. Unfortunately, my cousin talked me into it so I went anyway and surprise, surprise – I didn’t like it. Oh, and it was in 3D too so you can imagine my displeasure as I stumbled out of the cinema. I’m really starting to hate those damn glasses.

Anyways, Tron Legacy is the official sequel to the original cult classic of 30 years ago featuring cyber-people in the cyberspace of a game. I’ve read about the original movie’s plot and just the summary alone makes it out to be a more interesting story than that of its sequel. Legacy features the son of the original’s protagonist who has had to grow up without his father after he disappeared one night with even a clue of what might have happened to him only for a disconnected phone number of his to dial up a pager in the hands of his friend more than a decade later. The younger Flynn then discovers the world his father has been trapped inside of all these years and just why exactly he’s never ever been able to return. Now in the same predicament, he tries to get him and his father out of the Grid before the portal back to the real world closes.

While I was watching the movie, I just kept seeing ways where the plot could be more interesting and it bugs me that they decided to keep the story as plain as possible. I facepalmed when the absolutely FABULOUS Castor didn’t even bother try to take things into his own hands and mix things up after he got his hands on disc the big bad was after. That was a really huge waste of potential plot especially since they brought up the fact that there was a resistance in the Grid and with how bland Clu was as the main villain. That scene in the club looked like a great turning point for the story especially when the older Flynn came in showing off his cyberspace manipulation skills. Easily the best scene in the movie but they go and keep things so predictably dull that I took my time getting back from my toilet break.

Okay, aside from the lackluster plot there were also some very clumsy scenes, lines and characterization thrown in the movie. Sure the action scenes were pretty nice but the barely there at all 3D ruined it for me and I would have much preferred to see them make more panoramic takes of the Grid and have most of the action take place in the streets and towers instead of that aerial battle high up in the dark. What happened to that scene where a lightcycle fell from the top of a tower and rode down the sides of the walls? That may have been something from the game though but that was what I wanted to see, not a dogfight in the very foggy airs of cyberspace.

Basically it was one of those misguided attempts at 3D with plot that failed on both accounts. I was bored for a major portion of the movie and almost fell asleep at points. The sushi I snuck in helped keep me awake but that’s mainly because it’s hard to pick out which rolls you want to eat in the dark. My recommendation for this movie is just to pass it over for something more entertaining. I mean two straight hours of thinking “And this will happen, just like it always does” is clearly not worth the ticket fare, especially not the 3D ticket fare.

I’ve got another review set up for tomorrow. It’s a little late but I finally went to watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 at the cinema the day before I watched Tron Legacy. Glad I did too because the Mall Cineplex just opened up four new theatres. Though they might be smaller, they have very comfy chairs. And I cannot stress it too much when I say very comfy chairs. They even recline a bit and the ticket only cost half of Tron Legacy’s. I have to catch more movies in those new theatres.

Movie Review: Tangled

I recently went to the cinema to see the latest Disney movie with my siblings. I honestly didn’t have very high expectations even with the inclusion of Chuck’s Zachary Levi among the cast. The fact that the screenwriter of Bolt and much to my surprise, Fred Claus…ugh, was behind the writing really didn’t help either. At most I expected something along the lines of “Chuck: The Fairy Tale Version” to fill up the run time of the movie. To my pleasant surprise that’s exactly what I got plus a little more. To my unpleasant surprise, they only had 3D tickets available.

The movie is Disney’s take on the Rapunzel fairy tale making this another one of Disney’s princess movies so it’s basically guy saves girl from evil thing as they grow from their experiences together and fall in love with one another. It’s been a while since I watched one of those but I knew what to expect of the ending. Personally I didn’t mind it so much with this movie but the scenes at the end just didn’t strike a chord with me. I get that it was made to be a family movie but I feel that they could’ve gone in another direction with what they set up on the way to the ending.

Like I said before, this is basically “Chuck: The Fairy Tale Version” and as such you should expect brilliantly witty humor, great characters and an enjoyable if predictable plot. The only difference is that instead of the sharp and formidable Sarah you get the naive, wide-eyed and absolutely adorable Rapunzel. That and Casey’s a horse. Seriously, that is the most badass cg animal I’ve ever seen and I suspect it might even have the same rank as Casey or at the very least its medieval equivalent. “Chuck” puts on a braver face in this movie and snarks a little more frequently but it’s still basically Chuck and we still get some hilarious reactions from the guy. My favourite line is one of his and it’s given while he’s in a swordfight with !HorseCasey wielding a frying pan, “I have to tell you this is the strangest thing I have ever done!”. As for the adorable Rapunzel you should know that she’s got a “Moe” trope listed for her on the movie’s TvTropes page and it is well deserved considering the antics she gets up to in the movie. I really wouldn’t be surprised if I run into a doujinshi of the movie sometime in the future. All these great materials might actually spawn a decent sequel but given Disney’s tendency to drop the ball when it comes to them I wouldn’t count on it.

Now onto the bad points or rather the really bad point and the forgivable and expected snags that seem to very tenacious and hard to stamp out of the movie industry. These snags that I speak of can basically be attributed to the wanting to make movie more marketable resulting in the simplification of the writing and the outright black and white morality in the movie. Going by, well, most of the movie, you get the feeling that there was actually more to the story and that it could have gone for a more complex and more unorthodox ending. You don’t go out of your way to make such well written characters to have them play out such a simple conclusion. It’s something worth a short lamenting but not something would ruin the overall feel and fun of the film. What is worth lamenting over and over again however is the fact that they sold it a 3D movie when there was minimal 3D work done in there. The previews looked far more impressive in 3D than the movie ever did and that’s just sad. I would have preferred to watch it in 2D with more vivid colors and pay for it at the standard ticket price. 3D is an element that shouldn’t have to take away from the movie experience but when used badly it becomes easy to denounce its wonders. When used properly it would make even make me want to watch the Sorcerer’s Apprentice again in 3D and I just abhorred that piece of crap.

To sum it up, Tangled is a fun and surprisingly well done movie that I’d recommend to those curious enough to solicit my opinion of it. In fact, I imagine I’d enjoy watching it again but I suppose I’ll have to wait till the Disney, HBO or Star Movies channels start showing it sometime next year as I do not want to have to sit through another hour and a half of fun with 3D glasses over my own spectacles. I really hope they clean those damn things.

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Glad I could finally watch Edgar Wright’s latest work since it sadly never got around to premiering in theatres in Brunei for some reason even though the trailers did screen here a couple months ago. Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead are up there on my list of favourite movies along with V for Vendetta, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile so I figured I might as well get another one of the guy’s movies up there. Unfortunately, it’s not going up there. Can’t even say it was anywhere near the entrance but I’m quite certain it’ll make it into someone else’s list.

The movie is about this NEET in a band who goes by the name of Scott Pilgrim and has an in-movie rating of awesome. One day he sees this punk rocker-ish chick in the library and falls for her the instant he does and decides to do whatever he can to make her his girlfriend. He tries and after some pretty pathetic tries he sees some degree of success only to have one of her exs come in on one of his band’s performances with the intention of pummeling him into oblivion with his superpowers. Now getting and understanding this declaration of war, Scott now has to fight and defeat all seven evil exs of his new love interest. What follows after is a flurry awesome, flashy, loud and funny – everything a block buster should be and more.

Now let me address the strongest point of the movie – the writing. Edgar Wright is one of those sadly too few writers who’s capable of turning a convention on its head and show us a side that we would not expect and love it for that. Scott pilgrim’s script references so, so, so many different tropes and combines, inverts, subverts, averts and plays with them at such breakneck speeds that they almost flew over my head. I can’t imagine how confounding it must have been for those not equipped with the knowledge that comes with wasting time on TvTropes but I do know anyone would feel overwhelmed during this movie no matter what. The transitions between scenes does get disorientating from time to time and that does detract from the experience no matter how inventive it may be but I found the pacing to be quite well done in terms of cramming the fights and character establishing scenes.

I would say some star power from Simon Pegg probably could’ve pushed this movie right into my favourites list but that would be a lie. The actors played their parts brilliantly so I doubt his inclusion would have made much of a difference. It’s actually the romance that my most of my displeasure with the movie stems from which is an incredibly unusual thing for me to complain about. As marvelously fluid and tight the writing and directing was, the budding romance between Scott and Ramona just felt horribly forced. Love at first sight? Fine. Love makes you blind? Also fine. Going for the girl who’s still lukewarm towards you after having put you into one near death experience after another when it’s much easier to feel pity towards her rather than anything remotely close to affection while the girl who’s developed a stalker-level crush on you urges to go after her? Scott, not only did she blind you but her presence seems to have altered personalities in this movie including but not limited to your own. From a certain point of view that’s also a perfect demonstration of some brand of the Mary Sue trope which is a worth yet another kudos for Edgar Wright’s talent but I can’t say it justifies the bad romance here.

To sum things up, the film was flashy, action-packed and hilarious but all too easy to lose track of. Absolutely worth watching and I regret that I was not able to watch it on the silver screen but I just can’t bring myself to put it up as one of my favourites with my dissatisfactions towards the movie. Here’s hoping we’ll see the third of Edgar Wright’s, Simon Pegg’s and Nick Frost’s Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy sometime soon.

Movie Review: Fate/Stay - Night Unlimited Blade Works

Finally got around to watching the Unlimited Blade Works movie that I’ve been hoping for ever since I played through that scenario in the original. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait quite as long as most of the other fans did since that was more or less a year and a half ago. This adaptation of my favorite route in the game was a story that was simply far too epic and too grand to be told properly in just an hour and forty minutes.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the game, this is an alternate retelling of the Fate/Stay Night anime where a secret war held between seven magi and the heroic spirits they summon as their servants duke it out so they can attain the Holy Grail and have their greatest wish granted. In this route, Shirou and the others face off against Berserker in a slightly different way than in fate and this triggers a different chain of events that ultimately lead to a confrontation between Shirou and Archer.

If I remember right, Unlimited Blade Works took me a couple more hours more to finish than the Fate route did and had quite a bit more focus and characterization with Shirou and Rin as well as plenty of awesome battles. Unfortunately, it is because it so packed that this movie feels lacking. Battles are nothing short of amazing but the other aspects of this adaptation makes one wonder if the was really what they should have focused on. Scenes jump from one point to another with nary a proper transition leaving loads and loads of gap that have to be filled with prior knowledge of the story. To be precise, you have to play the Ultimate Blade Works route to really get the movie and even then the gaps are still pretty jarring. Almost all of the characterization is stripped away from the story and a lot of the build-up to the most GARsome battle in the game gets taken away as a result of this. The revelation of Archer’s identity comes off as underwhelming and seemingly pulled out of nowhere.

There really are only two things you can applaud about this movie: fantastic visuals and mind blowing battles. Sure, the studio still throws in those budget saving distance shots but in no way do they ever employ such tactics without throwing in some other element to make up for it during the battles. I’m guessing they knew there was just no way they were going to pull the story off properly so they decided to go all out on the glorious clashes between the characters. The final confrontation between Shirou and Archer was as close to perfection as it could get for an animated version of the battle with only one tiny flaw at the very end of it i.e. Shirou’s voice actor didn’t deliver that last bit as strongly as he should have. Everything else was just absolutely sublime in that battle so that’s easily forgiven though.

Basically, if you expected to see what made Unlimited Blade Works such a magnificent tale then you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if your only reason to watch it was to bear witness to the amazing battles that came with it then you won't be in the least. Ultimately, this movie was brilliantly and dazzlingly flashy but took to things so superficially that it will only make fans cry out that this should have been the story that got animated the first time around. Still worth watching though, some bits more than a few times.

Movie Review: Resident Evil Afterlife

Well, I wasn’t expecting myself to go see this movie but there weren’t any other good alternatives this week so me and my friends went off to see this. I personally couldn’t believe that they made yet another sequel to the horribly decayed adaptation of the Resident Evil games. Especially after the previous movie where someone came up with the brilliant idea of throwing psychokinesis into the mix. Seriously, espers in a movie based on a game about surviving a horde of zombies by blasting your way out of trouble with knives, pistols, rifles, grenades, sometimes a laser and finally a rocket launcher.

Thankfully, they realized the error of their ways and took care of that little snag right at the beginning of the movie with a sequence that would not look out of place in the Matrix trilogy or Akira. What follows after is a plot that I can actually admit to living up to the games’ premise though that too comes with a mixed bag of sentiments from me. Basically the main character finds herself on a search for other survivors as well as the mysterious sanctuary, Arcadia. She flies in where the survivors from the previous movie were supposed to have landed but discovers the location to be a desolate graveyard of planes. Finding a lone survivor suffering from amnesia, she makes way with her new companion in tow for Los Angeles where they find another group of survivors holed up in a prison complex as well as the mysterious Arcadia. Going through the usual survivor horror movie clichés, we are shown scenes of some of the survivors making it to Arcadia only to discover that Arcadia is not the sanctuary that it made itself out to be. They then have a last boss fight there, one that’s surprisingly faithful to the source material, after which the movie ends on a cliffhanger that just made me groan. There’s also a bonus scene halfway through the credits that made me wonder if they actually expected it to make us want to see the next movie even more.

As you can probably tell, I don’t think very highly of this movie and its series overall. The characters barely have any personality at all and are all just trying way too hard to be cool. The main character in particular is very guilty of this. She kills zombies on a daily basis and is a total badass by anyone’s standards but she walks and talks like a noob trying to be all that. Her actor really isn’t very convincing at this role. Even the Redfield siblings looked more badass than she did when she wasn’t performing stunts. The black guy had a similar vibe to him but I think the trope subversion he pulled off was amusing enough to like him. Not only was he the last of the cannon fodder to get taken away by the zombies, he was the only one to survive and show in a scene near the end.

I do have to admit one thing though, I was very impressed with the special effects they put into the movie. My eyes just popped wide open when the energy explosion just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Then the bubble imploded and I let out a low a whistle as it left gigantic hole in the middle of an apocalyptic Tokyo. The slow motion sequences they littered about throughout the entire movie however did not. Not only did they fail to make the action scenes any more exciting or enjoyable, they actually made them look completely silly.

All in all, I’d have to say it was a halfway decent movie. However, if you’re not like me and you don’t analyse the movie as you watch it then you can take the previous sentence and leave out the halfway part. For those of you who are still on the fence about seeing this movie, feel free to check out the list of holes I’ve found in the movie that I’ve hidden in the spoiler box below. Lastly, don’t expect a rocket launcher in the last boss fight. Apparently it was so faithful to the RE5’s last boss battle that I’m still doubting what my said about it not finishing up with a rocket launcher like in the prequels.

List of Holes

1. Why does Umbrella keep two snipers on guard outside of a nigh impenetrable underground zombie proof fortress?
2. If all the clones could do that super psycho blast then why didn’t they?
3. Alice is human so why does she live through the helicopter crash?
4. How did Claire survive brainwashed and drugged up for six months?
5. Why is there a prison in the middle of the city? Maybe not exactly in just the movie but who’d put a prison in the middle of a city in real life?
6. Why could that Mexican guy move those big wood boxes filled with stuff in them but struggle so much with an upside down drum barrel that looked empty?
7. Why did most of the survivors look nice and clean when Alice met them?
8. Guns don’t fire properly when wet. They shouldn’t have worked after having been in the water so long.
9. Why did Chris and Alice only take small arms with them out of the armory? There were plenty of automatic rifles and grenades in there and he had an army backpack that should have had enough space to store a couple at least.
10. Alice detonated a portion of the building she bungied off. Judging from the camera angle, the other end of the bungee cord should have gone with it.
11. Why didn’t Alice just go with the rest down the elevator? The zombies couldn’t have followed them down the elevator shaft even if she wasn’t gunning them down outside.
12. Those coin-powered sawed-off shotguns couldn’t have fit that many coins in there. They shouldn’t have fired like that either.
13. Bennet crashed the plane in a nose dive and got out pretty much unscathed. The deck was level enough for him to at least try and make a safer landing.
14. Where exactly did the people in the bloodied capsules go? There was a fresh trail of blood on the floor. For that matter, why didn’t any of the heroes see a bright crimson trail of red in an entirely white hall if they didn’t go missing in front of them?
15. Why don’t the heroes suspect the possibility of the people they rescued being zombies after seeing the bloodied capsules?
16. Why didn’t any blood ooze out from under Wesker when Chris and Claire were shooting him?
17. Wesker’s clothes are repaired and clean in his final scene. He was just shot repeatedly in the chest just minutes before.
18. Why would umbrella make a self destruct mechanism you can DETACH from the place to be exploded?

Movie Review: Vampires Suck

Vampires suck. Not just the movie's name but also both an opinion as well as a fact. However, unlike Friedberg and Seltzer, I really don't feel the urge to explain how that joke works. Knowing just exactly what kind of quality these guys churn out, I would have just waited maybe a year from now to watch it on one of the movie channels but somehow fate threw it my way and I gave it a shot today. The fact that I happen to think vampires are actually the creepy motherfuckers that they are instead of zombie sex gods that the media are out to market them as may have also added the extra motivation I needed to spend 75 minutes of my time to watch it.

The movie is basically a spoof of the Twilight series covering what I think was the first, second and last bit of the third book. I should probably blame TvTropes for knowing how much they were spoofing there and the Twilight series itself for only having so much plot to make fun of. For a more in depth synopsis on what the movie is like, go watch the trailers for the corresponding films of the books.

Let's start with what we've come to expect from the movies that these two notorious directors are known for. A shallow parody with every joke that's been filled with jokes they probably found over the internet as well as excessive and unfunny Take Thats at celebrities. That's what you're expecting with this movie and that's exactly what I saw. However, it seems that two have learnt a little since their last picture and have cut down on the unfunny business. There's still enough making fun of the Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga and other various icons to make you want to groan but they actually throw a some new twists to the long stale jokes they've put in. There were a couple of scenes that worked pretty well too. Though not exactly funny, I really cringed at how painful it looked during the self defense scene with Becca and her dad.

I actually have to give them some credit for the jokes(Edward: You guys are always trying to eat the girls I bring over! It's so unfair!)that actually made me laugh and the improved pacing that the movie had compared to their previous stuff. The flow was a lot more consistent and there was a good deal of foreshadowing in spite of the triviality of whatever they hinted at. I didn't think those guys even knew how to pull a Chekov's gun on us. I would definitely say that this was one of their better movies and was enjoyable enough to watch for its own merits. Not quite enough to pay movie tickets for but enough to watch with friends when you don't have to pay for it. They still suck at ending things though. They always seem to save the most out of place and anticlimactic jokes for last.

Movie Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Disney’s latest attempt to cash in on something old of theirs by using the guys who did National Treasure to make a movie that’s very loosely based on the original. For some, it was a welcomed attempt at reviving a classic while for many others, it was just uncalled for. I myself was hoping to see the nightmarish Chernabog appear at some point in the movie but I’m guessing the writers they hired felt it was better to recycle some unknown fantasy novel they got in a bargain bin somewhere. That’s just an assumption by the way, I have no proof to back that up save for the quality of the writing in the movie.

Let me get the synopsis out of the way so I can get to all the things in the movie that irked me. It’s about a kid named David who thanks to a “coincidence” meets up with a semi-immortal wizard named Balthazar Blake who has been looking for the Prime Merlinean, the chosen one that would one day finally destroy the evil Morgana Le Fay who wants to use an ancient forbidden spell that would revive all the dead evil wizards in the world so she could destroy it or something. Here’s the rundown for ten years later; Dave reunites with childhood crush, reunites with Balthazar, gets caught up in conflict of good vs. evil, chooses to be a wizard, gets closer to his mentor as well as his love interest, goes through some angst, has to choose the girl in a hostage situation, faces off with the big bad and saves the world and the people he’s gotten close to. Was that needlessly spoilery? Maybe. Should you be ashamed that you consider such cookie-cutter content spoilers? Yeah, you should be. This movie is just so horribly,horribly,horribly predictable.

Now onto my other complaints. First one starts right at the beginning of the movie. Someone had the brilliant idea of kicking off with a full blown back-story exposition that was both incredibly corny and ridiculously unnecessary. That scene alone easily killed off half of the potential the scenes had since it took out all the mystery that could have been weaved into the other scene. I can’t tell whether I should put the blame on the director or the writers but it just could have easily been both. Actually, since the director decides how the scenes play out I suppose I should blame Turtletaub for that. The rest of the scenes were either rushed, narmy, annoying, overdone, predictable or a combination of all those. I do have to admit that one or two special effects scenes were just pure awesome(TESLA COILS OF EVIL!) but that does not excuse the poor storytelling.

The characterization too was just awful. Sure the actors they got to play the roles were pretty good at their jobs but the characters themselves were underwhelming, most of them that is. Nicholas Cage’s portrayal of the self proclaimed slightly insane lone wizard who’s been walking the earth fighting off the forces of evil was pretty hammy in my opinion but I guess it’s justified in his case. The worst example was the mandatory love interest who cute and all but she just didn’t pass off as a believable character with her one-dimensional personality. She really should have been saved for the sequel and put more focus on the mentoring aspect. Thankfully, the evil mage Horvath(I’m surprised spell check didn’t redline this) brought every bit of class that was needed to make this film bearable. He’s easily the most likeable character in the film and now that I think about it, received the most characterization out of the entire cast with somewhat sympathetic reasons behind his actions. That wasn’t why I liked him though, it was actually the bowler hat, cane and evil Brit shtick that did the trick.

In conclusion, this movie was one bad decision after another. I groaned very much throughout the film with the exception of the scenes that involved the zappy Tesla coils, Horvath showing off and the magical broom mopping sequence that really could have stood to have been a minute longer. I dread the notion of a sequel if they’re using the same writing team, even if they have Horvath riding Chernabog during an eerily glowing green storm in the middle of the dessert because the writing for this movie shows exactly what’s why movie studios are losing money.

Movie Review: Inception

Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “Inception”, happens to be the movie I watched yesterday and I must say that it is probably his best work yet and we all know how difficult an accomplishment that is considering just how amazing Dark Knight was. The fact that it was in the works for a whole decade most definitely had something to do with that.

Inception is about a man who goes by the name of Dom Cobb who is in the business of stealing information from various people of various backgrounds while they sleep. The catch is that they do it in their dreams. Our protagonist is on the run from the law enforcers of the U.S. and presumably Interpol as well for a crime that he didn’t actually commit. He left his family behind to stay out of prison and is now looking for a way to return home without getting arrested the second he steps foot on American soil. He is offered a chance to do so through a job offer that is the exact opposite of what he does for a living. Instead of stealing an idea from an unsuspecting victim, he has to implant one that would lead to a major life decision – an act that has been known to be “impossible”. Fortunately for Mr. Cobb, he’s done the “impossible” before. This is where the ball really gets rolling.

The premise is certainly intriguing but Nolan actually goes beyond the initial concept and plays with the usual workings of a heist plot taking the movie to a whole new level of originality. Then there’s the way he goes about introducing the concept to us bit by bit through one revelation after another. He manages to use fantastic highly packed action sequences to establish how this dream larceny idea works while building up the audience expectations towards the actual caper they’ll be pulling off. The visual effects were simply mind-blowing in this film and though I wish I could say the same for the music, Hans Zimmer’s tracks did do the job they were supposed to, which is actually a bit of letdown since he usually comes up with at least one really catchy song per movie.

The story itself actually has a great deal of heart in it. This isn’t like one of those ocean’s numbers movies where the main point was to be flashy and clever. It’s about one man’s attempts to deal with the issues he has with having lost his family and his attempt to get over the baggage that came with that and move on with his life. The main character isn’t the only one to draw in the sympathy either since his crew’s target is actually quite likeable himself since his position as the Xanatos Sucker with daddy issues sets him up for a good deal of heartwarming scenes. In fact, I actually liked the target more than the DiCaprio’s character even though he had fewer scenes than him.

And like I mentioned earlier, the movie actually does have a lot good action scenes in this one. Just because this film had brains behind it doesn’t mean it ignores brawns in favor of appealing to just the eggheads. No, no. Nolan did what so very few movies even bother to try and do, combine the workings of his abstract dreamscape business with gun fights, car chases, brawls, natural disasters and various degrees of combustion. My favorite scene was the brawl in the hotel that for certain reasons kept shifting its gravity that it takes place on the floor, walls and ceiling of the corridor they were fighting in. Sure, tearing things up in a hotel corridor has been done thousands of times before but in this movie, watching the scene is actually a lot of fun to watch.

Despite the fact that pacing, action and climax being nowhere near the levels of Dark Knight, I still consider this to be the better Nolan movie. It’s the kind of movie that’s just as much fun to watch on the first time as it is on the eleventh. Dark Knight kept you on the edge of your seat with its escalating plot but Inception reels you into the dream with everything it has. Every moment stays just as strong even after you find out what exactly what happened and how things end up. Rather, it’s because you know what happened that makes you want to watch over and over since the movie actually does pull its own “Inception” on you. It puts this one single idea in your head with its beginning and reinforces throughout the rest of the movie. Unless you’re that dense a person, you’re going to have some trouble shaking off the effect the movie has on you. Chances are, reading this review will also back up that idea Nolan put in your head. Try not to let the mindscrewiness of the movie get to you and just appreciate how good a movie “Inception” is.

Movie Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me, a lovely title in my humble opinion. A title that doesn’t quite fit the tone of the film but is relevant enough to the movie itself that it works. I went off to watch it with some of my friends a yesterday hoping that I’d see a duel between two mad scientists in spite of the fact that I knew it was a family movie. My hopes were let down on that part however as it really did turn out to be a straight out family movie. I was really hoping to see a good loon in this movie too.

The story is about this supposedly world class villain named Gru voiced by Steve Carell who plots to pull off the crime of the century after having been one-upped by a newcomer in the supervillain business. I mean his character by the way but it would be interesting to see Steve Carell pursue a carreer in supervillainy. Anyways, his plan entails a shrink ray, a rocket ship, the moon and a bank loan from what’s obviously a shout out to the now defunct bank ran by the Lehman brothers. A problem arises when the new villain in the orange jumpsuit who goes by the name of Vector makes off with the guy’s newly stolen shrink ray and after having failed to retrieve the gun by himself, he adopts three little girls who hold the key to infiltrating vectors lair – cookies!

If you’re old enough to have sat through your fair share of parent rising to the occasion stories then you know what’s going to happen in the end. I certainly saw the plot move just as planned many times before but Gru handled the usual tropes so predictably that I was actual surprised at how normal they made his character. Sure, he treated everyone else like the villain he was known to be but he was totally an average joe when it came to the girls. Though that may be, this actually made the movie so much sweeter than I thought it would be. Chances are this movie is going to end up listed in the sugarwiki page of TvTropes because of that.

Plot and characterization aside, everything else exceeded my expectations. The music alone just blew me away in the first few minutes and several times again later in the movie. It was only at the end that I understood just why exactly the composition managed to do that – they put Hans Zimmer in charge of the sounds. They hired the guy who composed music for movies like the Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes and the Pirates of the Caribbean for an animated family movie of all things. It was certainly a strange movie to hear some of the best stuff he’s come with so far. Seriously, how did they get him to do this in the first place? Then there’s the cinematography they used in the movie. The director used a lot of interesting “camera angles” to show off the scenes. They used angles that I firmly believe that other works could have benefited from greatly. All these amazing visual and audio work actually added a lot to the already clever jokes they put in and made the movie a much a stronger work than it would have been otherwise. In fact, the movie’s show of technique itself in is a good enough reason to go and watch this movie.

With all that’s been said, Despicable Me is a pleasant family film however predictable may be. There’s a lot of room in the story for them to follow things up with sequels and the movie itself is endearing enough for you to want to watch more. Hopefully they’ll improve the plot for the next one and remember to keep the floating henchman as a brick joke any sequels they come up with. Come back around tomorrow for my review of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”, which also happens to have had their music composed by Hans Zimmer, which also makes his work on this movie even stranger since Inception’s tracks didn’t really grab me.

Movie Review: Knight and Day

Went off to see Tom Cruise’s latest movie where he looked to be having oodles of fun acting like unhinged loon he has come to be known as over the past few years. In the trailers we actually hear him say “I’ll kill myself then her!” and that line alone made me want to watch his latest production. I was absolutely certain that one line told us everything we needed to know about the movie, a zany action-packed shoot‘em up with Tom Cruise playing the screwball agent who falls in love with a dame who was unlucky enough to get caught up in his mess. Sadly, the craziness didn’t live up to my high expectations. The writing on the other hand actually exceeded the low expectations I had for it.

The movie starts off surprisingly quiet and much more evenly paced than I thought it would. Cameron Diaz bumps into Tom Cruise and through a misunderstanding on his pursuers’ part, she gets tangled up in this elaborate attempt on Cruise’s life and thus begins their involvement with one another.

Like I said, the craziness was much more modest than the trailers would have you believe but in spite of that the movie still had some pretty crazy stunts. I mean we see him dropping down onto cars, crash landing a plane, flipping vehicles over with bulls and guns and running around on rooftops but it turns out those scenes were taken out of context. The scenes that led up to and followed after them were of a much more subdued and serious nature though they still had a touch of absurdity in them. To be more specific, the scenes would have been totally dead serious if Cruise actually treated the events with any sense of urgency. But then again I’m chalking those unperturbed reactions of his were a result of his character’s life as a secret agent. Seriously, there’s a surprising amount depth in his character.

My biggest complaint for this movie is that the title didn’t really have much relevance to the actual plot and that it could have easily been “Miller and Day”, “Roy and Day” or “Spy and Day” and those would have actually had been more relevant. Then there’s the fastforwards between changing locations and the abundant use of the Noodle Incident trope to skip over some potentially interesting scenes. Sure, they used it cleverly enough for jokes and call backs but it felt a little more than lazy after the first time. I should also add that the Cruise’s character really seems to be the only character with a fleshed out personality here since I wouldn’t really say that there was very much done with Diaz’s June.

All in all, I found the movie to be good, nice even. However, it spread itself a little too thinly and didn’t stick with any one strong point. Humor, action and most characters feel almost half-assed at points and the movie could have been much more memorable if they prioritized any one of those things a bit more. One thing’s for certain though, if you’re going in there for Cruise then you won’t be disappointed. Unless you’re expecting him to go full loon that is. I’d sure like to see a movie about a loon sometime soon.

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Yesterday, I went off to watch what I’m hoping is the definite final movie in the Toy Story franchise because I’m not sure how I’d feel about another sequel after having seen such a fitting finale. I wasn’t actually planning to see it since I didn’t feel quite as strongly about the series as a whole some of my friends did. The first full CG movie released more than a decade ago may have been very impressive but the me at the time didn’t comprehend how impressive it was so my fondness for the first and the second movies weren’t quite as high as they were for movies involving Godzilla and Batman. Even now I feel that the plots of the first two were pretty simple and mediocre so I don’t feel the least bit compelled to watch them again on the Disney channel. However, when it comes to Toy Story 3, I do feel the urge to watch it again.

Toy Story 3 takes place more or less a decade after the last film so Andy has mostly forgotten about his old playmates who we see are still trying to gain the attention of their owner by whatever means they can use. However, after their latest attempt, Woody decides to call it quits after failing yet again to get Andy to play with them. The fact that Andy’s going off to college in the next few days also factors into his decision for them to stop and wait till he puts them all up in the attic. They decide to go along with that but just as Andy goes and does that, a misunderstanding occurs that gets all the toys except for Woody tossed out onto the curb which leads them to their decision to be donated to daycare centre where they can be played with instead of gathering dust at home.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was one of those kids who watched the first two as a kid and am now transitioning into the university phase of my education so there was a bit of nostalgia working its magic on me while I was watching but that only really kicked in during the final scenes which by the was some pretty strong stuff. The rest of the movie had to rely on the direction and story though. Thankfully, they were pretty strong too so I enjoyed myself a lot. There director played a lot with quite a few tropes and delivered loads of great jokes that wouldn’t have been quite as funny if he played them straight. Ken in particular wouldn’t been quite as good a character if he was played straight either.

My favorite bits, much like everyone else, were the Spanish Buzz scenes. Normal and Deluded Buzz were great at action scenes but Spanish Buzz brought a whole new level of fun to his character. If you haven’t seen the movie yet then let me just say Spanish Buzz is more than a good enough reason to fork over the ticket fee. Obviously, they decided to use bits of the original plotline for the third movie Disney came up with and I’m glad they did. The original plot was supposed to involve a recall of all Buzz Lightyear toys back to Taiwan and it would have included a scene where Buzz would be facing off with knock-offs of himself but for better or worse they went with the Andy going to college plot. After watching the movie I decided that it was for the better but I still lament upon the loss of the knock-off scene. Now that think about it, my enthusiasm for the third installment was severely dampened after hearing about the change in plot.

What really surprised me though was how much darker they made the movie in comparison to the first two. I mean this was aimed at both kids and the now grown up kids who watched the original so I was expecting something more of the same kids movie but the themes they touched upon in the movie were quite a bit more mature than what one would expect to see in a kids film. I’d also like to add that they handled them a lot better than most movies too, so much so that it made the climax and the conclusion so incredibly powerful that I actually thought for a second there that Pixar were really going to go with a downer ending. However, that was only for an instant as I immediately wondered where the LGM’s buggered off to. My question was answered one perfectly drawn out scene later. What followed after was the conclusion and I have to admit that my eyes got a little watery watching how much the toys meant to Andy. The look on his face when it came down to Woody who he was planning to bring with him to college was the ultimate pay-off in the movie after all that build up involving growing up and parting ways. I dare say I heard some sniffles coming from the back row at that moment and I must say that they were perfectly justified at that moment.

So in summary it was a magnificent film that I would not hesitate to say that it even surpassed WALL-E which I thought was downright brilliant. My advice is to watch the movie while it’s still on the silver screen rather than on Blu-ray, especially if your local cinema support 3D screenings. Pixar has outdone itself yet again people.