Review of Logan

17 years! Nothing shows my age more than the fact that I remember going to the theatres to see the first X-Men movie and seeing Hugh Jackman playing the role that would define his career; Wolverine. 17 years later, we are here; Hugh Jackman playing the Wolverine one last time.

Inspired by the story/character “Old Man Logan”, “Logan” starts in the year 2029. Mutants are on the brink of extinction, with no new mutants having been born in 25 years. With his healing factor, James "Logan" Howlett, formerly known as Wolverine, is still around. Living with the last few mutants left in the world, Caliban and Professor Charles Xavier, Logan works as a chauffeur and hustled for drugs for the benefit of Prof X whose mind is deteriorating due to his old age.

However Logan is approached by a woman, Gabriela, who want to hire him to escort her and an 11-year-old girl named Laura to a place in North Dakota called "Eden". Logan refused but he is soon approached by a man named Donald Pierce who is looking for Gabriela.

After reluctantly accepting the job from Gabriela, Logan discovers that she has been murdered. Logan, Xavier, and Laura escape from Pierce and his cybernetically-enhanced men but Caliban is captured. Looking through a video left behind by Gabriela, Logan and Xavier learn that Laura is a mutant breed by a company called, Transigen.

Transigen has been breeding mutant children using DNA samples from several mutants for the "X-23" project, but as the children got older, the company found the children to be more difficult to control and decided to put them down. The nurses taking care of the children however thought differently and helped the children to escape. Gabriela is one of those nurses and approached Logan because Laura was created using Logan’s DNA. She is, for all intent and purpose, Logan’s daughter. From there, it’s a road trip with the trio trying their best to get away from Pierce and get Laura to safety.

First off, let’s get to the elephant in the room. Yes; not only is “Logan” is not only the swansong of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, it is also the swansong of Patrick Stewart as Prof X. Both actors have indicated that this is the last time they would be portraying the characters and after seeing the movie, I hope both keep their word because this movie is a hell of a way to say goodbye.

“Logan” is great! It is not just a great superhero movie; it is a great movie period! A lot of people have said the movie is like a western and I could see why. Logan and Prof X are like two aging gunslingers going out on one last ride and they went out like heroes! This is a fitting end to the characters and I hope I never see Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart as Wolverine and Prof X ever again because they set the bar high in this movie and it’s just that hard to see how they could top it.

Not only that, “Logan” also set things up nicely at the end for Laura to take over the role as the Wolverine. Considering that X-23 has taken over the name of Wolverine in the comics already, this would exactly be in line with the comics. FOX could even use her and her friends as X-Force.

The only unfortunate thing about the movie is the lack of a good villain. This has been the problem with the Wolverine movies from the start and it continue on with this one. Pierce was never a true threat to Logan and X-24 is just forgettable. Dr. Zander Rice might as well be named Mad Doctor XXX.

Outside that problem, the movie was great. “Logan” is a gritty, violent, but thoughtful superhero movie that in my mind is the best X-Men movie ever. The bittersweet yet uplifting end of the movie reminds me of the ending of La La Land; sad, sweet, and perfect. Watch “Logan”, this movie is great! 

Review of John Wick 2

What is the strangest Hollywood action franchise currently in existence? If your answer is John Wick, then give yourself a clap because you are right.

In 2014, an action film starring former A-lister Keanu Reeves came to the screen and knocked everyone’s socks off with non-stop, stylist, beautifully choreographed action scenes. It was a fun film that was a surprise hit. Come 2017 and we now have John Wick: Chapter 2 and it is still a non-stop, stylist, beautifully choreographed action film!

Director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves doubled down on what made the first film tick and then went on a “world-building” mode as we get to see the world John Wick is set in. Set shortly after the end of the first film, John Wick tracks down his stolen 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 at a chop shop owned by Abram Tarasov, brother of Viggo and uncle of Iosef. He dispatches Tarasov's men in a violent fight that heavily damages his car but spares Tarasov after getting an agreement of "peace" between the two.

After arranging repairs for his car, John is visited by Italian crime lord Santino D'Antonio who called in a “marker” John owned him. An unbreakable promise between the two parties, John had no choice but to agree to kill Santino’s sister, Gianna. After doing the deed, as John expected, Santino send his men to kill John to tie up loose ends.

They failed and Santino put out a $7 million open contract on John's death. John goes after Santino and while he managed to kill his men, Santino himself escape to the Continental. He makes it clear that he intends to seek indefinite refuge there but John shoots and kills D'Antonio, opening himself to retaliation from the whole of the underworld.

As I wrote earlier, John Wick 2 is a doubling down of John Wick so if you like the first movie, you would probably like this one as well. The movie is bigger, with more car chases, more gun-fu, and more locations. The film starts with a bang and the action do not stop.

It is also pretty funny with some comedic moments mixed in. The script and plot is nothing to write home about but the witty dialogue was a pleasant surprise and served the film well. Helping this is the simple fact that few can served up one-liners with a face more stonily than Keanu Reeves.

However don’t hope for any emotional scenes like the one in the first movie where John screamed at Viggo on why he needs to kill his son just for killing his dog. John Wick 2 is a far less emotionally engaging film than the first movie, and there aren’t a lot of people to cheer for in this movie. The movie makes no bones about the fact that almost everyone, including John Wick, is a “bad-guy” and the movie is about bad people killing worse people.

Still, if you are looking for an action thrill ride, you can’t go wrong with John Wick 2. This is one film that’s know it’s an action flick and is unafraid to show it. Watch it!  

Review of La La Land

The movie award season is upon us and this year the hot favourite to sweep the season is the feel-good musicial, La La Land. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, La La Land is director’s Damien Chazell’s follow-up to his 2014 film Whiplash and much like Whiplash, music played a big role in the movie.

Gosling’s Sebastian Wilder is a musical purist in LA who has just spent his last penny trying and failing to open a jazz club in the city. He meets Stone’s Mia Dolan and the movie is about how the duo chased their dreams amidst setback after setback. Back by strong performances from the two leads, smart direction from Chazall, and good songs; La La Land is one of those strange movie that managed to be both a great romantic comedy and a wonderful drama.

In short, it is great!

It is an exceptional film that pays homage to classic musicals while making it’s mark on the genre. Some people are already calling the movie a classic; I won’t go that far but I can see why they would say so. La La Land is an endearing film that you could watch endless times without getting tired of. Director Damien Chazell had a clear vision for the movie and he implemented it beautifully.

In this, he is helped ably by Gosling and Stone who gave it their all in their performances. The two leads are not natural singers or dancers and that, strangely, played well in the movie. Emma Stone was especially good in this movie and I would be shocked if she didn’t win Best Actress at the Oscars. Honestly I never thought much of her as an actress before La La Land. She’s cute and commendable but I never thought of her as a great actress. I do now. 

I also have to give pops to the ending of this movie. All I can say is “WOW”! The bittersweet ending was just perfect. It shows the cost the two leads made to make their fantasies happen, yet at the same time, it was not a downer but a celebration. Yes, there are scenes of what-could-have-been and they were beautiful in themselves, but in the end these two made it and they were not going to give up their success for anything.   

La La Land is nominated for a record-tying fourteen Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards. I’m pretty sure it won’t win that many but after watching the movie I can understand why they got so many nominations. It is just one hell of a movie. Watch it!  

Review of Rogue One

When I heard that Rogue One was out, I thought it made sense for Disney to make the movie. After all, The Force Awakens was nothing but a remake of A New Hope so for Disney to go back to the lore of A New Hope makes perfect sense for the gutless wimpy company that created Mickey Mouse.

Rant off; now onto the movie.

Rogue One is the latest of the Star Wars movie and unlike The Force Awakens, it is very different from all the previous instalments of the franchise. More than any of the other Star Wars movies, this one was a war movie and in a way, it’s strange it took them so long to make a war movie of Star War because…well, the whole saga is about the never-ending war between good and evil right?

More importantly, the movie works!

The movie is about the construction of the Death Star and how it affects lives even before it began blowing up planets. The movie starts with Imperial weapons developer Orson Krennic catching up with fugitive research scientist Galen Erso. Krennic need Galen to complete the Death Star and Erso's wife Lyra was killed in the ensuing confrontation. However their daughter Jyn managed to escape and is taken to safety by Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera.

Fast forward 15 years and we now see the adult Jyn in prison. However she was soon busted out by the Rebels. At the Rebels main base on Yavin 4, Rebel leader Mon Mothma informed Jyn that the Rebels broke her out for a reason; a pilot Bodhi Rook had defected from the Empire and he claims he got a message from Galen about the Death Star. However this pilot is being held by Gerrera.

Led by Rebel intelligence captain Cassian Andor and his droid K-2SO, Jyn travelled to Jedha in an attempt to extract Rook. With the aid of blind spiritual warrior Chirrut Îmwe and his mercenary friend Baze Malbus, Jyn makes contact with Gerrera who shows her a message from Galen. Galen had secretly built a weakness into the Death Star and directs them to retrieve the schematics from a high-security Imperial data bank on the planet Scarif to discover it.

However the Imperial knows something is up and Krennic orders a low-powered shot from the Death Star to destroy Jedha's capital, causing the death of Gerrera and his group. Grand Moff Tarkin congratulates Krennic on the success of the Death Star before using Rook's defection and security leak to take control of the superweapon. From there, it becomes a race as the Rebels tries to steal the plans from Scarif while the Imperial try to find out what Galen was hiding from them.

Just looking at the plot of the movie and you could tell that Rogue One is no remake. To me, that by itself makes the movie far superior to the imitative crap called The Force Awakens. Rogue One was also helped by some solid performances. Felicity Jones was solid as the lead, but I was really impressed by Mads Mikkelsen who made the most of a very limited role. His performance as Galen was nothing short of excellent and he even managed to make Galen’s dying speech work for him. Considering how ridiculous the dialog was, that took skill!

There was also some beautiful action in this movie. The battle of Scarif was sprawling and confusing, but that’s the way it usually is in war and the movie didn’t shy away from that. The movie also didn’t shy away from the deaths. I won’t spoil the ending but I must say I’m a little surprised by the final death toll of the movie.

I shall always say director Gareth Edwards, writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, must all be massive Star Wars fans because they successfully made a Star War movie that link neatly into the existing plot of the original Star Wars trilogy. As it has been widely said almost by everyone who had seen the movie, the end of Rogue One goes neatly into the start of A New Hope and that was great to see.

However not everything in the movie worked, especially the middle section of the movie. There was a lot of moving parts as the story jump from planet to planet, and not always for a good reason. It seems that the writers believe more locations equal to the movie being more epic, so prompt have the characters flying all over the place.

The movie also assumed you had watched all the Star Wars movies already. When Jimmy Smits showed up as Bail Organa, the movie assumed you know who and how important he is. Same goes for Mon Mothma, Grand Moff Tarkin, and several others.

Overall however, Rogue One is a fine addition to the Star Wars saga and gives me new hope (pun intended) that Disney is not going to destroy the franchise as I had feared after The Force Awakens. Watch it! 

Review of The Accountant

Much like his good friend Matt Damon, I always found Ben Affleck to be a strange person to be an action star. However much like Matt Damon, Affleck has been a surprising effective action star. “The Town”; “Batman vs Superman”; and now Affleck did it again in “The Accountant”.

The film has Affleck as Christian Wolff, a mathematical genius who works mainly as a forensic accountant for dangerous criminal organizations that are experiencing internal embezzlement. Such work got the attention of the U.S Treasury Department whose director, Raymond King (J. K. Simmons) want to catch Wolff before his retirement.

However all the Treasury Department knows of Wolff is that he is good, and that his alias is "The Accountant”. With little to nothing to go on, King blackmail young Treasury analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to help him identify and arrest the “Accountant”. With the heat on, Wolff was advised by his friend "The Voice" to lay low and take a non-criminal account.

The case is auditing the books of robotics corporation Living Robotics, whose in-house accountant, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), found suspicious financial discrepancies. The company's CEO, Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) willingly cooperates with Wolff's investigation while believing Dana's findings to be a mistake. Wolff discovers that $61 million dollars has been embezzled from the company. From there, Wolff finds his life in danger as an assassin (Jon Bernthal) target him for death and he find that Dana is also targeted by the assassination team.

Now I know the reviews of “The Accountant” have been decidedly mixed but I enjoyed it immensely. Ben Affleck is excellent in this movie, giving a committed performance that brought Wolff to life. Whether he was killing assassins or solving math problems, Wolff was a believable character.

In fact, I say the cast on the whole was excellent. Both Simmons and Bernthal made the most of their limited time on screen and Cynthia Addai-Robinson gave Medina the right mix of intelligence and desperate to make the character work. However the best part of the movie for me was the slightly sweet, off-beat feel of the movie.

This film has several complex things going on at the same time; pained social interactions, brutal intense action scene, complex math accounting problem; yet the movie does works! Director Gavin O'Connor works in the twists well and for an action film, the movie has some surprising emotional depth. I could see the connection between Wolff and his assassin a mile away but when it happened, the scene worked remarkably well. A lot of that has to do with the acting but the direction of the film also helps.

Having said all that, some things in the film did not work. The reviews of the film is mixed and while I don’t agree, I can see why that’s the case. Like I said earlier, the movie has many gears in play and you can argue that there was too much. The movie has a scattershot feel to it and fans who like their action movie to be focused on good guy- bad guy action will be disappointed with this film.

On the whole, I thought the movie to be excellent and I would highly recommend it. Much like “John Wick”, I have a feeling “The Accountant” will be a franchise. If that’s true, then I will be here for the sequel. It’s good. 

Review of Captain America: Civil War

After Captain America: Winter Soldier (which I liked a lot), Captain America seem to have taken over the mantle of the main Marvel franchise from Iron Man. For most of Captain America: Civil War; that view holds up.

Taking place about a year after Avengers: Age of Ultron, the movie starts with the Avengers laying in wait for Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo in a cameo). In the ensuring fight, Rumlow blows himself up, hoping to kill Captain America (Chris Evans). Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) saves the Captain by moving the blast into the sky with telekinesis.

Unfortunately, the blast destroys a nearby building, killing several humanitarian workers from the kingdom of Wakanda. The situation becomes a political hot potato and U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) informs the Avengers of the Sokovia Accords. The Accords will establish a UN panel to oversee and control The Avengers.

The team is divided on this with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) supporting the accords and Rogers wanting the team to remind independent of any government. At the UN conference in Vienna where the accords are to be ratified, a bomb kills the king of Wakanda. Security footage shows the bomber being Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier. The new king of Wakanda, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), vows vengeance.

Informed of the government's intentions to kill him, Rogers decides to bring in Barnes, his childhood friend and war comrade, alive. The situation escalates and The Avengers are spilt into two, with members either with Iron Man or Captain America.

Now, as a movie, I thought Captain America: Civil War was excellent. Much like the recent Batman vs Superman, it asked serious questions about violence and vigilantism only this time, the movie has guys on both sides of the equation. This gave Captain America: Civil War an advantage as the movie is able to switch views convincingly.

Credit must also be given to directors Anthony and Joe Russo who managed to successfully juggle all the characters in the movie. Everyone got a chance to shine, even long mostly forgotten heroes like War Machine (Don Cheadle). However the best lines go to new heroes like Spiderman (Tom Holland), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) so it’s not like the directors don’t know where the current Marvel movie is going.

The action was mostly solid and with a strong story, everything looks great…until the end of the movie.

Say what you want about Batman vs Superman, but one thing almost everyone agrees on is that BvS landed the ending. The ending of that movie was great. It was wonderful. The ending of Captain America: Civil War unfortunately sucks!

I won’t spoilt the ending here but after all the fights, the arguments, and the big reveal near the end; Stark and Rogers came to an “understanding”. The unfortunate thing is I can’t understand how that understanding came about after just a letter and a promise of future help?

I’m sorry but even for a superhero movie, that’s ridiculous. I can understand Marvel felt a need to have both Iron Man and Captain America staying friendly with each other for the movies going forward but this ending looks like something from another movie. It just doesn’t make sense.

That in essence was the movie. A good, almost great, movie that was utterly destroyed by an ending that came from another movie. Good movie…pity about the ending though. 

Review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

If you need me to tell you what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, then you are obviously a guy I don’t know and someone I have no interest in knowing.

The first feature film to show both Batman and Superman together has been promoted like crazy by Warner Bros. Pictures. The backlash by critics and Marvel fanboys has been just as intense. So in the end, who is right?

I fall strictly on the side that says Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a kick-ass movie that do not deserve half the criticism it has been receiving. Luckily, I’m not alone because fans throughout the world has been flocking to see the movie. At last count, the movie earned over US$750 million and still counting. No matter what they say, this movie is a hit and a richly deserved one.

Directed by Zack Snyder, starring Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, the movie begins 18 months after Man of Steel. The destructive attack by General Zod in Metropolis has made Superman a controversial figure. Half the world fear him and the other half worship him. On his part, billionaire Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a potential threat to humanity and aims to find a way to stop him. Superman also has the same view on Batman, seeing the Bat of Gotham as a threat who do more harm than good.

Outside the two, other players are also in the action. LexCorp's mogul Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) tries to convince Senator June Finch (Holly Hunter) to allow him to import Kryptonite retrieved from the Indian Ocean as a "deterrent" against Kryptonians. He also wants access to Zod's body and the Kryptonian scout ship. Gal Gadot appears as a woman named Prince who also has an agenda of her own.

In the end, Lex orchestrates events that force Batman and Superman into conflict and unleashes a monstrous creature called Doomsday. A monster so powerful, it require Superman, Batman and Prince to join forces to defeat it.

Now considering all the criticism the movie has been getting, you must be wondering what I like about the movie. Simply put, I like the fact director Zack Snyder takes so much risk with the movie.

Unlike the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this is a movie that has a vision and is bold enough to implant it. In some way, I think that’s one of the reason why so many people dislike it. This is a movie with its’ own vision of the superheroes and does not care about the previous visions in other movies. Case in point; Batman.

Ben Affleck’s Batman is one that has been operating in Gotham for over 20 years and is jaded by his fight. Forget the vision by Christian Bale, Michael Keaton or Val Kilmer; this is a brand new Batman that has never been seen before in film and that was great.

I also like how the movie refuse to hold your hand. Gal Gadot’s character is clearly Wonder Woman but the name “Wonder Woman” was never mention once in the movie. Ditto for the only characters. Aquaman; Cyborg; The Flash? You don’t know who they are? Too bad. Go Google it. This movie do not serve things up on a plate and I love it!

The ending fight was also very good. When Wonder Woman show up and you could see the Trinity together for the first time; Wow! (You don’t know who are the Trinity? Go Google it).  The performances of the main actors were also very good. Ben Affleck's performance as Batman was excellent and Gal Gadot made good use of her character’s limited screen time.

However, I’m less of a fan with the performances of some of the other characters. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor was strange. So much so that I just can’t take him seriously as a threat to Batman or Superman, much less both of them together.

The movie was also a movie of 2 halves. The first half was a mystery with Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and Prince moving quietly to get an advantage on each other. The second part of the movie was more like a regular superhero movie with fights and destruction the order of the day. The two halves perhaps does not gel as well as they should.

On the whole however, I thought there were way more pluses than minuses in the movie. The critics are wrong about this one, this is a very good movie. See it and judge for yourself. 

Review of Deadpool

Like its comic book character, the movie version of Deadpool is like a cockroach that just refused to die.  The movie version of Deadpool first showed up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine where the character ended up with it’s mouth sewn shut and it’s head chopped off.

However using the Days of Future Past reset, director Tim Miller with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick totally ignore the version in X-Men Origins and created a version far similar to the character’s comic book origin. As the box office shows, it worked! With a total gross of over US$600 million worldwide, Deadpool is a huge gamble that had paid off handsomely for 20^th Century Fox.

Reprising his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, actor Ryan Reynolds is Wade Wilson. A former Special Forces operator who now works as a mercenary in New York City, Wade meets escort Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) at a local bar and they become romantically attached. One year later, Wade proposes to her and she accepts. However Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer and though Vanessa chose remains by his side, he does not want her to watch him die and enter a secret program that offers a possible cure for his cancer.

At a laboratory, Wade met Ajax (Ed Skrein) and Angel Dust (Gina Carano) and discover the program he signed up for was an experimental one where they try to awaken the latent mutant genes within the subjects. To do this, the subjects are subjected to days of torture to induce stress and to trigger the mutation. Ajax also reveals to Wade their true purpose: to make super-powered slaves to be sold to wealthy customers.

After horrendous torture, Wade develops a healing factor that cures his cancer but also leaves him severely disfigured as a side-effect. He escapes and attacks Ajax but hesitated when told that his disfigurement can be cured. Using the moment of hesitation, Ajax manages to defeat Wade and impales him with a bar. He then leaves Wade for dead in the burning laboratory.

Of course, Wade survived and after consulting his best friend Weasel (T.J. Millar), Wade decides to hunt down Ajax and have his disfigurement cured. He becomes a masked vigilante and takes the name of (you guess it) "Deadpool". His confrontation with Ajax leads to a huge battle along an expressway which got the attention of two X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Ajax escape from Deadpool and goes on the counterattack. He goes to Weasel's bar with Angel and learns about Vanessa. In response, Weasel calls Wade and tells him Vanessa is in danger but they were too late. Ajax and Angel kidnapped Vanessa and Deadpool is forced to enlist Colossus and Negasonic to help him rescue her.

As I said earlier, Deadpool was a huge gamble. One of the reasons it was considered a gamble was the simple fact that it was an R-rated superhero comic book adaption. There’s just not many of those around. Luckily the brutal combat and foul-mouth antics gives the film a crazy energy that fits the character to a T and film-goers are lapping it up.

A lot of the credit has to go to Ryan Reynolds. I will admit I’m not a big fan of the actor. His CV has far more misses than hits and I never understood why he’s considered a big movie star. Deadpool makes me “get it”. I finally understand why people in Hollywood like him so much. His performance here proves to me he can be great if given the right role and this, Deadpool, was a role he was born to do. His winking while breaking the fourth wall was especially effective.

The movie was also gleefully irrelevant. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it more interested in creating a fun movie. That it does manage. Deadpool is fast, funny, and mercilessly not family-friendly. The encouragement Deadpool gave his Indian taxi-driver was hilarious, totally unkid-friendly and has some of the best scenes in the movie.

Of course, the movie is not perfect. For a movie that’s so wonderfully non-standard, the ending was very much so. A damsel-in-distress, a tortured hero, and a happy ending; been there and done that. It just doesn’t gel with the rest of the movie.

Also, I never felt there was any danger to Deadpool. Ajax and Angel were just not creditable threats to a guy who can regenerate a hand that’s been chopped off. This is one movie that required a bigger badder villain than what was on offer. On the power meter, Ajax and Angel just weren’t on the level of Deadpool and that was a problem.

However, I would still recommend the movie. The movie is a breath of fresh air much like Guardians of the Galaxy, and I think that’s a good thing for the superhero genre. Deadpool is very much a black comedy and one that works. Come on Cable!

Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

No need for me to tell you what Star Wars: The Force Awakens is because you have to be living under a rock not to know about it. Breaking box office records left, right, and centre, the latest Star War movie is also the first from Disney after they bought out the franchise from George Lucas.

The hype for this movie is such that even non-fans of Star Wars had to see the film just to see what it was about. Kudos to the marketing team at Disney; they deserved a raise for the promotion of the film. That is especially the case now because after seeing the movie…I have to unfortunately say I didn’t like it.

Now I know the movie has been a hit with audiences and it is already one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, but I’m afraid that has more to do with the Star Wars brand than the movie itself. Now I won’t say Star Wars: The Force Awakens has no redeeming features or that it’s worse than the Star Wars prequels, but it’s nowhere near as good as fans say it is.

On the plus side, the actors in the movie gave strong performances and it was especially great to see Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford back as General (no more Princess or golden bikini) Leia and Han Solo. Ford especially seems to be having a great time and stole every scene he was in. The newcomers fared less well but there’s no Jar Jar in this one.

The movie also boasts many action sequences that were very good. The air battle at Takodana between the Resistance and The First order comes to mind, but there were others like Rey's and Finn's escape from Jakku in the Millennium Falcon.

However for me, the minuses far outset the pluses.

The main problem I have with the movie is the simple fact that it's not a "new" Star Wars movie. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a remake of Star Wars: A New Hope!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens’s chief protagonist, Rey (Daisy Ridley), is basically Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. The relationship between Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) is similar to what Luke and Han had in A New Hope. BB-8 is R2-D2 (with a secret map/message included). Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is Darth Vader and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo is Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi (in more ways than one). Now having characters that are similar to the characters in A New Hope is one thing, but having the same plot as in A New Hope?

The opening scene has The First Order arriving on Jakku, a desert planet like Tatooine. We have Rey and Finn escaping The First Order guided by a smuggler, Han Solo. We have a superweapon, The Sunkiller, that’s capable of destroying planets which the heroes need to destroy by attacking a small weakness in it. Hell, the final X-Wing assault on The Sunkiller is almost a carbon copy of the attack on the Death Star!

Halfway through this movie I thought I was watching a remake of A New Hope. When the credits started rolling, I knew for a fact that I was watching a remake. I mean the prequels sucked, but at least Lucas was trying something different. This one is more like director J. J. Abrams wanted to remake A New Hope but decided to call it Episode VII instead.

I know Abrams is a great Star Wars fan but there’s a difference between paying homage to something and…well, rehashing everything. There’s not a shred of originality in this movie, almost everything was recycled from the other Star Wars movies. That is just ridiculous.

As a rule, I don’t write review of movies I don’t like but I have to make an exception for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I wanted to like the movie so much and I think I would have…if someone had told me beforehand that I would be watching a remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. 

I mean it's not even A New Hope version 2.0. It was simply "Star Wars: A New Hope (The Remake)"!

Review of Inside Out

The race for this year's Oscar of Best Animated Feature Film is over. Pixar has won the award many times before with films like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E and several others; they are going to get another one this year with Inside Out.

Inside Out is set in the mind of 11 year old, Riley Andersen (Kaitlyn Dias). Five emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), lead Riley through life as they influence Riley's actions and memories. Joy is the chief and this cause Riley to be a bubbly happy young girl.

Things change when Riley's parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) moved to San Francisco and this caused changes in Riley's personality. As Joy tries to maintain Riley's bubbly outlook, Sadness began to grow more powerful, changing Riley's outlook in life.

Now growing up can be a bumpy road and in Inside Out, we have one of the best film ever made showing the joy and sadness of growing pains. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, viewers get a front row seat on the turmoil that goes on inside her mind.

This film is without question close to the heart of director Pete Docter who has publicly said that he too faced problems when his family relocated to Denmark when he was young. The experience must have been a great help to the director because the heart of this film shines brightly. The story may be simple but it was touching as hell with adults more than likely to shed a tear or two as the film progresses.

I loved the way the film didn't try to dumb things down. Inside Out is smart and pull no punches as it shows the innocence that is lost as one grows up. What's more, the film wasn't shy about it's message that even "bad" emotions like anger and sadness are needed for a child to grow up to be a well-adjusted person. Now that's takes courage, especially for a animated movie.

Yes, I will admit that the kids may have some problem understanding this film. The film also takes a little while to get going but that's about it. Outside those minor details, the rest of the film is just pure gold.

Hell, forget about the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Inside Out is bold, sweet, funny, sad, and heartbreaking. Even the accompany short animated film, titled Lava, was great. Forget about the Animated Oscar, this film deserves at least a nomination for Best Picture. It is that good!

Review of Jurassic World

I went into the theatre with very low expectations, but left thinking that this movie was much better than it had any right to be. That in short is Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park film series.

Jurassic World starts 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, with the dream of billionaire John Hammond now realized. Jurassic World is a fully-operational theme park island, full of dinosaurs for kids and adults. However operating a theme park with living dinosaurs is very expensive and the park’s team of scientists led by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) engineer a new species of dinosaur in an effort to attract lucrative sponsors and increase attendances. As expected, it is a terrible idea with the new dino, Indominus Rex, soon breaking free of its enclosure and heading off on a homicidal rampage across the island.

As I said earlier, this movie is much better than I expected. I think director Colin Trevorrow must be a fan of the series because he knew just what to do. He paced the movie well and managed to film a summer blockbuster that’s also a character-driven movie. Sure there are scenes of carnage but it’s never mindless and it always works in the context of the movie.

The film is also ridiculously funny in parts. Look out for a scene when Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) turned back to help Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), only to have Claire running right past him without a care. It had the whole theatre laughing. The chemistry between the two leads is also the reason why the romance between Owen and Claire works. You can see quite clearly why these two very different people may fall in love despite been chased by man-eating dinosaurs.

I also love the way the movie paid homage to the original film, part of the movie even took place at the original headquarters of Jurassic Park. Outside that, the story is also very close to that of the original. Man’s ambition creates great things but with greed, arrogance and hubris, our ambition also creates chaos and death. That’s just the way we are.

Of course, the film is not perfect. The main villain Vic Hoskins’ (Vincent D’Onofrio) idea of using raptors as weapons in the U.S Army is stupid. I understand that suspension of disbelief is needed for a movie about dinosaurs but the idea is so out there, there’s almost no redeeming quality to it. I mean the army doesn’t even use lions or tigers and this character wants them to use raptors? That’s not crazy, just stupid.

On the whole however, Jurassic World is a very good movie. The deft hand of director Colin Trevorrow gave us a wonderful adventure film that’s accessible to all and it’s a worthy sequel to the original Jurassic Park. I was never a huge fan of the Jurassic series, but this movie made me look forward to the next movie in the series.

That’s just how good Jurassic World is.

Review of “Avengers: Age of Ultron"

With the success of “The Avengers”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” has a lot to live up to. While it’s almost impossible for this sequel to recapture the magic of the original, I have to say that despite what everyone on the internet says, director Joss Whedon has done enough not to let anyone down.

The movie starts in the Eastern European country of Sokovia with the Avengers team raiding the Hydra outpost of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. The Baron had been experimenting on humans using the scepter wielded by Loki in the first movie and the team wanted the scepter back. They got more than they bargain for when two enhanced beings, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, got into the field. 

Pietro has superhuman speed while his twin sister Wanda can manipulate minds and throw energy blasts. Although they won the battle, the Avengers did not come out of it unscathed. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was severely injured in the battle while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) was given terrible visions by Wanda.

In the end, Stark took possession of Loki's scepter and secretly used it to complete his "Ultron" global defense program with a lot of help from Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Ultron was designed as an A.I. initiative to combat global threats before they occurred but Stark and Banner could not get it to work properly. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions as Ultron activated itself. The now sentient Ultron believed the biggest threat to the world is the human race and the race must be eradicated to save the planet.

From there, it became a battle between the Avengers and Stark's rogue A.I. with the Avengers gaining new allies in the process.

First off, do not compare this to “The Avengers”. The first movie was a magical movie moment that’s impossible to recapture. It is just not something you can re-capture, so don't even bother hoping this sequel will be able to reach the same highs. If you managed do this, then you will see that “Avengers: Age of Ultron” has a lot going for it.

Several excellent battles, a ton of humor, and character moments for the heroes who do not have their own movies. Hulk, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye each has their moments in the sun in Age of Ultron and I thought this was a good idea. The other 3 heroes have their own movie franchise so giving much needed screen time to these 3 was a smart move.  

The battles were also excellent with the highlight clearly being the battle between Hulk and Stark’s “Hulkbuster” armor. The end battle between the Avengers and Ultron in Sokovia lasted a little too long in my view, but it was still an excellent set piece.

I also liked the end when Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow greet and prepare to train the new members of The Avengers; War Machine, Wanda, the Vision, and Falcon. This passing of the baton moment was great and I just hope they don’t destroy the whole thing by immediately getting the original members back in the next movie.

That might be forlorn hope though as the return of Nick Fury (Samuel L.Jackson) shows. The return of Fury came out of nowhere and is one of the things I don’t like about “Age of Ultron”. I understand that you need to give every character at least a moment to shine but this led the movie to be laden with a lot of scenes that in the grand scheme of things were totally unnecessary.

Chief of which was the nonsensical love story between Black Widow and the Hulk. Where the hell did that come from? What’s worse was the scene when they decided to run away after the battle with Ultron. That’s totally against the Black Widow character as portrayed in the MCU.

There's also the problem of understanding how interconnected the MCU truly is. At the end of "The Avengers", Loki's scepter was firmly in the hands of the Avengers but at the start f the movie, Hydra has it. To understand this, you need to know what happened in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD". 

These points notwithstanding, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is a fun, funny movie that tried to be more than action film. It just have the unfortunate situation of being the sequel of one of the greatest superhero movie of all time. It's by no means a bad movie, watch it for a good time, and just remember not to compare it to the original.

Review of Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2014 spy action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn and in my humble view should be tilted, “The Kind of Movie A James Bond Should Be”!

Based on the comic book “The Secret Service”, by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, the Kingsman follows the recruitment and training of a potential secret agent, Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) into a secret spy organisation known as “The Kingsman”.

The movie starts 17 years ago when during a mission in the Middle East, a Kingsman mission went haywire and a Kingsman candidate died. Harry Hart (Colin Firth), codenamed "Galahad," blamed himself for the death and personally delivers a bravery medal to the man's widow and young son, Gary "Eggsy" Unwin.

Seventeen years later, a Kingsman agent codenamed “Lancelot” died while attempting to rescue a climate scientist James Arnold, leading to an opening in the Kingsman ranks. Soon after, Eggsy, now an unemployed aimless young adult, got arrested for stealing a car and Hart arranged for his release. After a short trial, Hart offered Eggsy a chance to enter the Kingsman ranks which Eggsy quickly accepted.

From there, the film spilt into two. One part showing the training of Eggsy, while the other showing Hart’s investigation into the death of Lancelot.

First off, this is a fun movie! The slam-bang action about British secret agents is aimed squarely at James Bond and it was deliciously done. Vaughn is clearly a James Bond fan and even when the script poke fun at the genre, you could see the glee in it all.

Vaughn is helped by some excellent performances from his cast. Taron Egerton was doable as the wide-eyed rookie, Colin Firth shown some unexpected action chops as Galahad, but a James spy movie is only as good as its villains and you just can’t beat Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella!

Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine is the kind of over-the-top, take-over-the-world villain James Bond villains used to be and Jackson looks like he is having a ball playing him. I have never heard of Sofia Boutella but she more than held her own against Jackson. Her character, Gazelle, is an assassin with bladed prosthetic legs but not only that, Boutella managed to portray Gazelle as a devoted henchmen who truly liked, maybe even love, her employer. The interplay between the Valentine and Gazelle were one of the highlights of the movie. It is cute, menacing and lovable; all at the same time!

I also like how shameless Vaughn is to the James Bond references. A Swedish princess, an anal sex gag, and martini shaken, not stirred? Man, I wouldn’t be shock if the makers of the James Bond films start suing but it is fun to watch.

Of course not everything was perfect. I find some of the violence to be slightly unnecessary. The action in the church was seriously overdone and I don’t think anyone need to see so many heads getting blown up at the end of the film.

Overall however, Kingsman is a movie worth watching. Whether you are a James Bond fan or an action fan, you should watch it. It is that fun! 

Review of Whiplash

Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, Whiplash is a drama starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons on the pursuit of greatness and the sacrifice needed to achieve it. More importantly, it is a film on the desire for greatness and the harm it can inflict on people striving for it.

Teller is young jazz drummer, Andrew Neiman, who attends the Shaffer Conservatory of Music in Manhattan, one of the best music schools in the country. J. K. Simmons is Terence Fletcher, the school’s fearsome maestro of jazz. After seeing Andrew at practice, Fletcher took the budding young musician under his wing and subsequently bully, insult, and terrorize his young charge into becoming a better musician.

Andrew not only takes what Fletcher dishes out, he willing destroys his personal life (breaking up with his girlfriend, distancing himself from his father) in order to achieve the impossible standards Fletcher demands. However as Fletcher’s demands increased, things comes to a head and the teacher/student relationship breaks down.

Now a lot of people probably had already heard/read about how J. K. Simmons is a shoo-in for the Best Supporting Actor award at the Oscars this year; believe the hype!

Simmons’ portrayal of Fletcher is powerful to say the least. He is the teacher from hell as he pushes Andrew and his other charges to practice and rehearse till they drop. He is driven to get the best out of his students and if this means screaming at them with sexual and religious insults and making them practice till their hands bleed; then that’s the price they have to pay.

In most other films, Fletcher would be the clear-cut villain but in a testimony of Simmons’ ability as an actor, we never lose the sight that Fletcher is first and foremost a teacher. His drive to make the next great jazz player is so all-consuming that he fails to grasp the greatness right in front of him. When he finally realized Andrew’s greatness in the stunning finale, Fletcher’s shock, surprise and final acceptance was something to behold.

However the movie would not work with just J. K. Simmons. I have to say the whole cast was excellent. Miles Teller was in every scene of the movie and I could see why he is so highly rated in Hollywood. His Andrew Neiman was put through hell and Teller’s performance was up to it.

Even the secondary actors were very good. Paul Reiser was almost unrecognizable as Andrew’s loving father and Melissa Benoist (Andrew’s girlfriend) made the most of her limited scenes. Music may be the main drive of Whiplash, but it was the actors that made the film works.

Of course, the direction given by Damien Chazelle helps a great deal. This was obviously a very personal film for the writer/director and throughout the movie, you could sense just how important the movie is to him. Whiplash seems like a labor of love for Chazelle and if this movie is any indication of what’s to come, he could be the next big thing in the director chair.

The movie is of course not without some problems. The setup for the finale was to me way too brief. There’s no way a professional band would just allow Andrew to just come in to perform at a big concert without at least one rehearsal. Also the way the rest of the band managed to follow Andrew’s lead when he went on his impromptu solo was unrealistic, maybe the only unrealistic feature in the whole film.

On the whole however, I have to promote Whiplash as a movie worth watching. The excellent cast and steady direction of the director make Whiplash an uncomfortable but wonderful movie. Anchored by great performances from both its leads, this is one movie you will not forget in a hurry. Watch it! 

Review of John Wick

If there’s one line to describe John Wick, it is this; John Wick is a kick-ass action movie.

That’s it. Those of you looking for Oscar winning performances or tear-jerking dramas, go someplace else but if you are looking for a slick polish action movie, then this Keanu Reeves film is one you need to watch.

Reeves stars as John Wick, a man who just lost his wife Helen to cancer. Knowing she was dying, his wife posthumously send a gift to him in the form of a puppy named Daisy, hoping the puppy would help Wick cope with his grief. Wick and Daisy connects but their relationship is cut short when a Russian gang member named Iosef (Alfie Allen) broke into Wick’s home, killed Daisy and stole Wick’s car.

After that, Iosef bought the car to a chop-shop but the shop owner Aureilo (John Leguizamo) refused to have anything to do with the car and even punched Iosef for bringing the vehicle into his shop. Iosef immediately reports the incident to his father Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), the head of a major Russian crime syndicate in New York. Aureilo explained to Viggo what happened and Viggo beat and berate his son. He then explained to Iosef and his second-in-command Avi (Dean Winters) who John Wick was; one of the best assassin in the world, nicknamed the "Boogeyman".

From there, it’s one straight line of a vengeance movie as Wick faced off against Viggo, who in an effort to protect his son, put a $2 million bounty on Wick’s head.

As I said earlier, John Wick is an action movie and a very good one. The fights are stylish and the way Keanu Reeves handle the action scenes is something to behold. This is a welcome return to form for Reeves who has been threading water for the past couple years ever since the Matrix trilogy ended.

Also the way the movie expanded John Wick’s world was very well done. The revelation that Wick was part of an old assassin society based around an unassuming hotel named the Continental was marvellous. Although they weren’t in the movie much, directors by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski clearly show that the society has its own rules and code of conduct and anyone who runs afoul of them will have to suffer the consequences.

I also liked the performances of the actors in the movie. Reeves was great and so were the supporting actors. When Viggo first learned of what happened, all he said was, “Oh” and Nyqvist nailed the scene. Nyqvist with that one word managed to convey Viggo’s shock, surprise and rage. Never had so much been said on such a simple word.

However, not everyone was great. I know Adrianne Palicki has managed to gain a reputation as an action actress but I thought she was terrible as Ms. Perkins. She just didn’t seem comfortable at all as the movie femme fatale. I can’t help but think that another actress would have done a much better job at it.

I also thought the ending was poor. After all the kinetic shootouts and fights, the ending was kind of passé. A fist fight in the rain at the docks? I seem that a thousand times before and I didn’t need to see another one.

However on the whole, I thought John Wick was an excellent action movie. The action was cool and while the story was simple, it got the job done. Bring on the sequel! 

Review of The Purge: Anarchy

I’ll be honest; I watched “The Purge: Anarchy” strictly because I enjoyed the first film. Starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey, I thought “The Purge” was a solid movie that was let down by a kooky ending.

Written and directed by James DeMonaco, the Purge series takes place in a future America where once every year, there is a 12-hour period where all crime, including murder, is legal. “The Purge: Anarchy” takes place a year after the original showing us the sixth annual Purge. As the people countdown to the hour of the start, the film showcased how 3 different groups of people got caught up in the annual “holiday” and how they fight and survived the night.

Starring Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, and Zoë Soul, I have to say “The Purge: Anarchy” is an improvement on the first film. Not only that, I have to say I’m very impressed by James DeMonaco’s ability to turn the premise of the Purge into something vastly different from the first film.

“The Purge” was a movie that showed an upper-class family trying to survive the night after their much valued security has been penetrated, “The Purge: Anarchy” went the other way. The sequel showcase people from the lower class, the ways they try to survive the night and how the annual purge is more than a holiday for people to release their aggression, it is also a way of population control for the government.

Not only that; whereas the first Purge was more of a tense thriller, Anarchy is an action movie. Gangs, paramilitary police, men on mission of vengeance like Frank Grillo’s character populated the movie and the action sequences are on a whole other level from the first movie.

Of course, having a man like Grillo in the leading role help immensely. A solid actor who made a name in supporting roles of movies like “Warrior”, “The Grey”, and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “The Purge: Anarchy” shows how well Grillo could be in the leading role of an action movie. He is a lean mean fighting machine and the movie makes me wonder why Hollywood hasn’t make him an action star yet. This is a guy who could be the next Liam Neeson.

However the main problem that hamstrung the first film also affects Anarchy; the ending sucks! James DeMonaco really went looking for a good ending in this movie and he did not succeed.

Spoiler Alert! I mean after 12 hours of hell, Frank Grillo’s character suddenly decide NOT to take vengeance? Now I admit there’s a laundry list of characters throughout the film trying to convince the man not to take vengeance on the man who accidently killed his son but for him to suddenly decide not to do the deed just does not jell with the determined character that was portrayed throughout the film. I personally think it was a cop-out by DeMonaco.

Another (minor) point that got me was the timeline of this film. This was the sixth Purge so it meant that the purge the previous year was the fifth. However in “The Purge”, Ethan Hawke’s character explained to his young teenage son that when they were younger, both him and his wife went out purging. Does that mean they went out even when they had tween kids at home? That doesn’t make sense.

Still, the Purge series is a fascinating concept that was taken to a logical and engaging new level in “The Purge: Anarchy”. A sequel that’s actually better than the first film, watch this movie for a brutal action movie that is also thought provoking.

Review of Guardians of the Galaxy

With all their Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers movies, Marvel Studios made a much needed change of pace in their latest film, Guardians of the Galaxy. Arguably their biggest gamble yet, it is also arguably Marvel’s most fun film to date.

The movie starts in 1988 when a young Peter Quill is abducted by aliens and carried off into deep space. Twenty-six years later, Quill (Chris Pratt) double-crossed his boss (and abductor) Yondu Udonta by stealing a valuable orb from under his nose.

However when Quill attempt to sell the orb on the Nova Corps home world of Xandar, he discovers that there are no takers as the orb is coveted by the renegade Kree warlord, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Not only that, he is then promptly ambushed by the assassin, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who attempts to steal the orb for Ronan.

A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: the genetically engineered raccoon Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), and the tree-like humanoid Groot (Vin Diesel). The local police force, the Nova Corps, then arrives and arrests everyone.

The whole group is sent to a prison called The Kyln where an inmate, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan. Quill persuades Drax not to kill Gamora who reveals to the group that she was going to betray Ronan by selling the orb to a private collector.

Rocket Raccoon engineered a jailbreak and Gamera lead the group to Knowhere, a remote spaceport for the criminals of the galaxy. The group meets Gamora's contact, Taneleer Tivan, who opens the orb to reveal an Infinity Stone, an item powerful enough to destroy entire planets.

Lured by Drax, Ronan arrives at Knowhere and leave with the Stone after easily defeating the Destroyer. Forced with no options, Quill contacts Yondu to rescue the group and negotiate a truce by convincing Yondu that they can only recover the orb working together.

Working with Yondu’s crew, The Ravagers, the group finally caught up with Ronan on Xandar where they faced the might of the Accuser alongside the Nova Corps. The battle gave Quill’s group their name, the Guardians of the Galaxy!

Now after watching the film, I must say I'm kind of mixed on it. On one hand, Guardians of the Galaxy is something new from the normal Marvel fare and that's good for the company but on the other…the film just missed something from being great.

Guardians is a fun but flawed movie. Taking place in space with Earth only briefly seen at the start, Guardians does many things right. It has great music, an excellent script and able direction from director James Gunn.

It also has some good performances from its cast. Chris Pratt nailed his role as the arrogant, overconfident rogue with a heart of gold in Peter Quill, while former wrestler Dave Bautista show surprisingly good comic timing in his role as Drax. Even Zoe Saldana, more known for her looks than acting abilities, was excellent as Gamora.

The real stars of the show however were the 2 CGI characters of the Guardians. Moving Picture Company (MPC), who worked on creating Groot, and Framestore, who worked on creating Rocket, really outdid themselves on the creation of the Guardians. Both characters were amazingly, especially the final credit scene with the dancing baby Groot. I dare anyone to see that scene and not have a smile on his face. You literally have to be an “Inhuman” not to smile. Bradley Cooper (voice of Rocket) and Vin Diesel (voice of Groot) were also great. Who knew there were so many ways to say 3 words?

However, as good as Guardians is, it is strictly in the good but not great category. The biggest problem I see is the lack of supporting characters in the movie. In a way that understandable as the main focus is on the Guardians, but why have Glenn Close in the movie and do NOTHING with her? That’s just a bloody waste of talent.

I found the villains kind of understated. Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Lee Pace did their best but when you have both of them reporting to Thanos halfway through the film, it leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that these 2 are minions. Also, Michael Rooker’s Yondu is a bit of a joke. In the comics, Yondu is a deadly warrior/archer. Here, he is a blue skinned redneck!

Overall, I have to say the film is worth a watch. It is a bit of a rojak film with wit, action and comedy all mixed together, but it’s a good mix. It’s not the space epic I was hoping for but it’s entertaining and fun. And in the end, that’s why we watch movies. Take a look for a good time. 

Review of Begin Again

One thing regular readers of my blog would probably notice is that I do a monthly review of a book, movie or game I had played, seen or read. However what most people probably don’t know is that I only do reviews of stuff I liked.

The reason is simple. Reviews takes time to write and I much rather write about stuff I like than stuff I don’t. This month I had seen 3 movies; Transformer: Age of Extinction, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Begin Again. Of the 3, I am now writing a review of Being Again.

That should tell you what I think of the film. In simple terms, I thought Transformer: Age of Extinction was crap, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was good but not great, and Begin Again was the best of the lot.

Written and directed by John Carney, Begin Again stars Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, James Corden and Adam Levine (in his acting debut). Now when you read that line-up and hear that this is a musical, it is understandable that you will have doubts about the movie. However you need to get rid of them and see this movie because it is really great!

The movie starts when a disgraced record-label executive, Dan (Mark Ruffalo), stumble upon singer-songwriter Gretta (Keira Knightley) performing in a small New York bar and is immediately captivated by her raw talent. From this chance encounter, the duo embarked on a friendship that turns into a promising collaboration between the two lost talents.

Using flashbacks, we discover the backstory of the duo. Gretta and her long-time boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine) were songwriting partners who came to New York when he land a deal with a major label after scoring a hit song on a movie. The trappings of fame proved too much for Dave however and he soon strayed. Gretta left their apartment and took up residence with a close friend who literally forced her to go to a bar with an open-mike night.

Dan is a down-and-out music executive who had lost his way due to a failed marriage and excessive drinking. Things have become so bad that his business partner Saul (Mos Def) fired him from Distressed Records, an independent label the duo had co-founded. After a heated argument with his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) over their teenage daughter Violet (Hailee Steinfeld), Dan then goes on a drinking binge which ultimately brings him into the bar that night.

After a night of reflection, Gretta agree to make the album but they got rejected from Saul. Dan and Gretta then decided to produce the album on their own. Recruiting a team of talented (and very bored) musicians, they recorded the album live during the summer at various public locations around New York City and formed a friendship that bonded them both personally and professionally.

Like I said earlier, Begin Again is a great film. Not only that, it is remarkably refreshing! Writer and director John Carney made a joyous movie about songwriters and the way their lives and their work influence each other. It is a movie about love, family, and relationships, but (and this is important) this is no rom-com. Knightley and Ruffalo make for one of the most unusual engaging couples of the year yet the movie made sure their relationship is strictly friendship.

I find that great! In almost every other film out there, the two leads would get together in the end but director Carney firmly says, "NO". He just refused to pamper to the public and that gave the movie the perfect ending.

Another thing that helped was the performance of the actors. Ruffalo was, as per usual, a delightful to watch. He was charming, roguish, and scruffy, all at the same time. Knightley however was just outstanding.

Quite frankly I never thought the queen of the corset got this in her but she got the vibe of an indie artist down pat. A lot has been made about her doing her own singing in this film, but I thought her acting was what's outstanding. Her singing was just so-so in my view but her acting performance was great. The scene where she sang out her rage and anger on Dave's voicemail was superb. She made me believe she was this character and with all the period dramas I had seen her in, that's not easy.

Also, the two leads were ably supported by their co-stars. Mos Def was especially good in the role of Dan's business partner Saul. In just a few brief scenes, he managed to convey a full range of emotions, from his reluctant firing of Dan to his attempted wheeling dealing of Gretta. Adam Levine (of Maroon 5 and The Voice) was also very good. Dave is a good man who did not manage to handle the fame that came his way, made a stupid mistake and regretted it. Levine played him beautiful.

The only sore spot I can see in this film was a mistake made in editing. After getting the musicians together, the band got to practicing and we saw two new musicians; the drummer and the bass-player. However after that, we got a scene where Dan and Gretta met with a former discovery of Dan, Troublegum, asking for his help. Troublegum agreed to provide two artists for the band but the thing is, the drummer and the bass-player (who we see in the background behind Troublegum) were the two artists we seen practicing with the band earlier. That is a bad mistake.

However, beside that I just can't say anything bad about this film. It's great. Watch it!

Review of Godzilla

Yes, this film is another Hollywood reboot of the famed Godzilla film franchise. However unlike the 1998 Roland Emmerich-directed monstrosity, where a giant lizard pretended to be The King of Monsters, this Hollywood remake is actually good.

We can all thank director Gareth Edwards for this. After gaining fame and critical acclaim for 2010 "Monsters", the British director had disappeared for a few years but Godzilla marks a great comeback for the director.

The film starts when Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) found the fossil of a giant animal in the Philippines. After some exploration, they found two egg-shaped pods, one of which had already hatched.

The action jumped to Japan where the Janjira Nuclear Plant near Tokyo suffered a meltdown. Plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) lost his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) due to the incident. The authorities quickly attributed the disaster to an earthquake and quarantined the Janjira area.

15 years later, Lieutenant Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) had to return to Japan to bail out his father, Joe, from prison. Joe believed that the government is covering up the incident of the meltdown and for the past few years, he has been trying to figure out exactly what happened that caused his wife’s death. He convinced his son to enter the quarantine area with him where they were quickly captured by Japanese security.  

While he and his son were prisoners of the government, a giant creature comes to life and began rampaging through ruins of the reactor. The creature flew off towards the U.S and Dr. Serizawa believes that it is flying there to meet another creature. While the two creatures, called MUTO, rushed to meet up with each other, another giant creature is rising from the deeps of the sea. What is this creature? Well, if I need to tell you that, you're watching the wrong movie.

What this film got right is that it stayed faithful to the source material. The movie retold the origins of Godzilla in contemporary times as a "terrifying force of nature" who is neither good or evil. It is just there and any damage it caused to humankind is more due to our mistakes than it's actions. You would think staying faithful to the source material is a given but we are talking about Hollywood here so...

The film also got amazing special effects and good monster fighting. The main battle at the end when Godzilla fought 2 on 1 against the two MUTO was the highlight of a series of excellent monster beat-down. I knows there had been some complains but I thought director Gareth Edwards did the smart thing by waiting before showing Godzilla in its full glory. He let the tension slowly build but when we finally saw Godzilla up close on the San Francisco bridge, it was a sight to behold. The same thing with its radioactive blast. When Godzilla finally use it, it was "Hell Yeah!". 

The film is also, rather surprisingly for a monster flick, anchored by a couple of very good performance from its' actors. Ken Watanabe and Bryan Cranston gave solid performances but I thought David Strathairn as Rear Admiral William Stenz was the standout. In his brief appearance, he managed to show a man who knows he is in over his head but determined to do everything he can to save as many lives as he could.

As good as the film was, there were some bad spots. 

Chief among them was lead actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Now it is amazing to see the geeky guy from Kick-Ass turned into this beefcake, but I have to agree with all the critics regarding his performance. Tried as he might, Taylor-Johnson just isn't that good as an actor. Worse, at times he seem disinterested in this film. 

I also have to question why the film always switch to the humans whenever the monster fight. A MUTO and Godzilla fights and halfway through, we see the humans viewing the fight...through a TV? Come on, I understand the (useless) need to have a human perspective but do we need to have that every time they fight?

Still, Godzilla is excellent. The film is exciting, well-directed and a visual spectacle. Sure the story isn't much to shout about but it is workable and honestly, if you are watching Godzilla for the story...well, you really need to see more movies. Bring on the sequel! 

Review of Captain America: Winter Soldier

First off, let me admit one thing; I didn’t like Captain America: The First Avenger. It’s an okay action war movie but it didn’t resonate with me. Honestly, I just have no interest in watching a superhero fighting in WWII.

Captain America: Winter Soldier however is a movie I like.

Sequel to 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, the film is also the ninth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and as such, the movie got most of its’ cast back with Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) all back in action.

The story takes place about 2 years after the Battle of New York (as shown in the Avengers movie), and Steve Rogers is now living in Washington, D.C. Working for S.H.I.E.L.D, he and Black Widow are sent on a mission to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from pirates led by mercenary Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre). Unknown to Rogers, the Black Widow has another mission of her own and the two conflicting missions allow Batroc to escape. Something Rogers then confront Fury on.

An unapologetic Fury shows Rogers the extent he’s willing to go to eliminate threats to the safety of the world; three next-gen Helicarriers linked to spy satellites and designed to preemptively kill enemies from afar. Fury is then ambushed and injured by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier, but not before warning Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised.

From there, the movie becomes an old-school conspiracy thriller as Captain America and his allies try to uncover who has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and what their agenda is.

Just this plot alone makes this a better movie than The First Avenger! Captain America: Winter Soldier is an edgier, more complex movie that embraced the question of the trade-off the world has made post 9/11. Back by a sharp script written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directors Anthony and Joe Russo put together a movie that feels almost Bourne-like at times.

A well-balanced film, there are some powerful scenes in this film not least of which is the confrontation between Nick Fury and Alexander Pierce. Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford (as Pierce) knocked the scene out of the park as they try to convince each other on the righteousness of their cause. I found Robert Redford to be an extremely convincing, compelling villain and hope he’ll return in some form to the role (hint, hint).

Chris Evans also did a fine job here as he grows into the Steve Rogers role. Vastly more comfortable now, Evans play Rogers as the character he is; a man out of time who’s unsure of his role in the modern world but is still going to fight because as the ultimate soldier, that’s the only thing he knows how to do. Evans Rogers’ vulnerability in this film, while still being a kick-ass name-taking super-soldier, is brilliantly portrayed by Evans. 

I also liked the name-dropping of various Marvel characters throughout the movie. You got Stark, Banner, and Doctor Strange and outside them, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver at the very end. As the saying goes, a hero is only as good as his villains and in this movie, the villains were very impressive. Outside Pierce, both Batroc the Leaper and Crossbones were great. Frank Grillo’s Brock Rumlow (Crossbones) is a bad-ass who pretty much beat up everyone in the movie not named Steve Rogers.

Of course there are some sore points.

I give the film credit for trying but I just can’t buy the link between Steve Rogers and Bucky. If you did not see the first movie, the friendship between the two would make little sense and even if you did, you’ll have a hard time understanding why their friendship is so important to Rogers that he’ll risked the safety of the world for it.  

Also, I felt the performance of Scarlett Johansson stuck up like a sore thumb in this movie. I don’t know if it’s because of the great performances here by other people (Evans, Redford etc) but Scarlett Johansson look bored in this movie. Her Black Widow in Avengers and Iron Man 2 were much, much better.

However this second Captain America installment is without doubt one of the better

film in the MCU and even if you are not into superhero movies, Captain America: Winter Soldier also works as an espionage thriller. In short, Captain America: Winter Soldier isn’t just a good superhero movie; it’s a good movie period!