Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

The Good
+ It's Spider-Man
+ <-- That guy, Andrew Garfield
+ Emma Stone
+ It's freaking Spider-Man!

The Bad
- No Willem Dafoe
- ...
- I fail at "bads" in movies this year

Spoiler Danger
None

The Avengers Review

The Good
+ Characters
+ Amazing writing and directing
+ No super hero felt overdone

The Bad
- Um... it ended...

Spoiler Danger
No spoilers

Review - Inception

Two years ago, I sat down to write the review for a movie that I thought would be the best movie I'd ever see. The surroundings were a little different - I lived in a different place then, had a room mate and a cat. I had central air conditioning then too (something I miss desperately right now). Times have changed a bit, I drive  a different car, hold a different position at work, and none of this has to do with the movie I'm trying to review right now.

In the two years between The Dark Knight and Inception, Christopher Nolan's genius has grown in leaps and bounds. It took me a week from the first time I saw Inception until now, when , after the third time I've seen it, I'm sitting down to write the review. My intention in delaying this long was to prevent myself from rambling about the brilliance of the movie like a fool for a few pages. Well, a week has come and gone. I'm fresh off my third viewing of the movie, and I'm still not past mindless rambling yet.

Inception Looks to be Awesome

All right. First big summer movie is right around the corner. Christopher Nolan's newest film is almost upon us. I've been a fan of Nolan's movies since Memento, and he further solidified his position as one of the best movie minds around with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It should be sufficient to say that I'm almost drooling with anticipation. Plus, as an added benefit, the movie is currently pulling in a 97% on the Tomatometer.

Can't. Freaking. Wait.

In the mean time, enjoy the trailer!

New Mortal Kombat Trailer... or Not

So, I'm sitting at work, and a friend of mine, whose opinions I respect highly (well, most of the time anyway...) IMs me and says, "Have you seen the trailer for the new Mortal Kombat movie?"

"No."

"You should. It's badass."

He sends me the link. In the back of my head, I'm thinking, yeah right. Mortal Kombat movie and badass should not be used together in the same thought. Ever.

Review - Iron Man 2

I walked into the theater to see Iron Man 2 with mixed feelings – everybody I knew who saw the movie at the Thursday midnight release thought it was OK at best. Some of the comments were substantially more demeaning. On the other hand, I had my own confidence that as long as they stuck to what made the original a great movie, I’d leave the theater happy.

Review - Avatar

Spoiler Danger Low

So, on Saturday, I watched Avatar in theaters. I must admit that I wasn't particularly excited about the movie prior to its release. I was put off by the early trailers that spoke highly of the effects but didn't hint at any sort of depth to the story or characters. But, a couple of weeks ago, a real trailer was released, and that's when I started to get excited.

So, anyway, I was supposed to see the movie at the Thursday night/Friday morning midnight showing, but the theater sold out before I had the chance to purchase tickets. Instead, I went on Saturday with my best friend, his girlfriend, and a slew of her friends. Drama ensued as the other group purchased tickets separately, and they ended up purchasing tickets to the 7:30 showing instead of the 7:00 showing they told me we were going to. After much hubbub, we did finally end up in the same showing. And what a show it was.

Avatar, in a phrase, kicks ass.

Iron Man 2 Trailer #1 Now Showing

Last year, we were treated to the surprise breakout superhero hit movie in Iron Man. Next year, we will be treated to the follow up. The first trailer has been posted online, it's spreading like wildfire! Back is all the witty and egotistical humor of Tony Stark - as played by the fantastic Robert Downey Jr (I maintain that he was born to play this role, given his real life parallels). Plus, the cast has seriously been bolstered for the second iteration. Mickey Rourke plays the new villain Whiplash. You may remember Mickey from that little film called The Wrestler. I have a genuine soft spot for that movie (much like my soft spot for pretty much every movie Darren Aronofsky has ever touched). Plus Gweneth Paltrow returns as the lovely Pepper Potts. Additionally, we get Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell (starred solo in Moon - great movie, btw), and Samuel L. Jackson (that's Samuel L. Fucking Jackson!!!).

Plus you also get a bonus appearance: Stan Lee as (wait for it...) Larry King. ROFLcopter

What more could you ask for?

Oh, you could ask for the actual trailer instead of my talking about it. Well, it's not up on the YouTube yet, and therefore not embeddable, but mash on over to Apple's website for a look-see. It does require Quicktime though.

Avatar Next Weekend

OK, so now I want to see this movie. This trailer has convinced me. Previously, there were complaints that the trailers weren't showing any depth of character or story (both thtings that James Cameron is known for), but this trailer rectifies that. That, and the fact that I've been looking forward to seeing Sam Worthington in a movie that wasn't trash (ahem, Terminator). Behold, the revelatory trailer inside.

Twilight Conquers The Dark Knight

I couldn't believe it when I read it. The newest episode of the Twilight Saga - New Moon - had the largest opening day gross ever. Better even than one of the greatest movies ever in The Dark Knight. How did this happen???

New Moon (Yes, it's Infecting This Blog Too)

I can write about this only because everybody in my office area at work has been talking about this movie for months. It's only picked up in intensity over the last few weeks as we've approached... tonight. Well, last night actually. Last night at midnight, fans swarmed into movie theaters to witness the release of the second movie in Stephanie Meyer's ridiculously popular Twilight Saga. My thoughts...

Calling all Blog Readers - I Need Help!

Good evening, everybody.

Yes, yes, I am still working on my SGU writeup, but life has been getting in the way of sitting down to work on it. I'd like to sit down Saturday morning and watch "Life" and complete my writeup prior to heading up to the mountain country (read: BFE) to celebrate my birthday/thanksgiving with my parents. Here's my crossed fingers.

Anyway, the point of this blog is simple. Tonight on Twitter, I was introduced to a movie called Johnny Got His Gun, and I simply must watch this movie. You see, it's one of those thinking pieces, and we all know how madly in love with thinking movies I am. It also stars one Ben McKenzie of Southland fame, and we all know how great an actor he is. Problem is, I can't find this movie anywhere. Amazon, torrents, ebay, nada. It's pissing me the frick off.

So, if anybody owns a copy or knows where to obtain one, I'm all ears. Shoot me an email or drop it in the comments. Thanks ahead of time!

NOTE: There were two versions of this film made, one in 1971, and one in 2008. I'm looking for the latter.

Clash of the Titans Remake Coming 2010

The next movie up in the Hollywood remake-athon is Clash of the Titans. This only crosses my radar because I happen to be a sucker for Greek mythology, and this is squarely in line with that. the tale follows the myth of Perseus, who is on a typically Greek-epic quest to save Princess Andromeda. Along the way, he must battle the likes of Medusa and the Kraken. Should be a fittingly explosive effects bonanza.

But who to play the lead role of Perseus?

Wait, is that...?

Why, yes it is! That's Sam Worthington, man of both Avatar and Terminator fame. Given that he was the only reason Terminator wasn't a complete waste of time, I'm excited to see he's got the lead role in this one (and doesn't spend all his time playing a CGI blue dude).

Count me in. Check out the trailer!

New Resident Evil Movie

Yes, it has been confirmed, there is another Resident Evil movie on the horizon. Hip hip hooray!

Resident Evil: Afterlife will once again star Milla Jovovich as Alice and Ali Larter (also of Heroes fame) as Claire Redfield. But, for the first time, we also get treated to Claire's brother, Chris, who will be played by none other than Wentworth Miller.

Who's that, you may be asking. Well, aside from Robert Knepper, Miller (who played Michael Scofield) was the only reason Prison Break (the first season) was any good. I am quite excited to see him in something other than the Prison Break franchise, so count me in for the new Resident Evil movie. Woot!

One notable downside of the movie is that it is being shot in 3D. As is every movie ever nowadays. I find the whole idea of a 3D movie to be ridiculous and unnecessary. It's a stupid gimmick to get people to pay extra to see what amounts to the same damn movie. I saw Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (I will write a review for that one... it was bad) in 3D and it was ridiculous thta I paid an extra $2.50 to see it that way.

Anyway, Resident Evil: Afterlife is on its way. Wentworth Miller is the bomb, so it has the potential to be the best RE movie to date.

Review - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Yes, I have finally watched a movie called Perfume.

It started out with a text message conversation. My friend wanted to hang out and watch a movie tonight.
I thought: Cool!

He said he had a movie in mind that he thought I'd like.
I thought: Cool!

He said it was called Perfume.
I thought: ........ummmmmm......

He said it was my type of movie and he is seldom wrong when he says that, so we watched it.

Wow!

I went into this movie with the expectation that it would be only decent enough to warrant the "you'll like it" comment from my friend. I came out utterly blown away with this intensely marvelous movie.

I'll say it again. Wow!

And something else: Brilliant.

The story of this movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before - a boy is born with an unusually strong sense of smell. He smells, it seems, much as a dog would smell, and he sees the world through the vibrant colors of olfactory. The story traces his life as he strives to create the ultimate scent. I take that back, it's not really the creation of the ultimate scent. He is working to capture wonderful scents so they never fade, which leads him down the path that is, for lack of a better term, dark.

I know, I know, it sounds silly. Downright stupid even. I get it. I thought the same thing. But trust me, it is anything but brainless. The story is dark, a little twisted, sometimes downright humorous, and has one hell of an ending. The ending, in fact, struck me as completely strange until I sat down and thought about it for a bit. It suddenly all made sense... It fit with the movie's themes and was a cute little jab at human nature to boot. Brilliant.

Easily the best thing about the movie was Ben Whishaw. I'm not familiar with him from any of his other work, though a quick IMDB search reveals that he seems to stick mostly to period pieces (this movie takes place in France in the 18th century). I wish he was in more, as we can definitely add him to the list of actors and actresses that I'd pay to see in a movie. Whishaw plays the central character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Let me take a moment to say that I don't think even more well-known character actors like Johnny Depp or Russell Crowe could create a more believable, richer, or deeper character than Whishaw portrayed with Grenouille. Grenouille has twitches and ticks and mannerisms, a distinctive speech pattern, quirks in the way he moves, and a vast array of subtle facial expressions. Not one expression or movement is out of character, not one word or breath. The movie gave me plenty of time to find fault, as there were many, many moments in the movie where the camera would just sit on Grenouille, and I got to watch his reaction to other things that were happening or being said off screen. Whishaw pulls each moment off fantastically.

Also of note, both Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman are in the movie, and both are superb as well. I should say that Hoffman's accent grated on me a little, but that is a trifling concern when held up against everything else in the movie.

The score felt overdone in some places, but on the whole, it was a pleasure to listen to.

I wish I could say more, but I don't want to risk spoiling anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet and may want to. If you haven't seen it yet, I implore you to go rent it and give it a shot. It's 2.5 hours very well spent.

Oh, one final thing that really stuck out to me in this movie was the camera work. The crew had the unenviable task of taking a story that is all about smell and making audiences feel that with only video. The camera does a wonderful job of visually connecting us to what Grenouille is smelling. The shots are up close and personal, you can see the little details, the textures, and the colors explode off the screen. Throughout I was thinking to myself that this must be how he sees the world, all the detail. It was pleasantly surprising.

Anyway, enough rambling before I start to give things away. Go watch this movie... NOW!

Score: 9.8/10.0

Review - 9 The Movie

I must admit, the primary reason I wanted to see 9 was to see how good a movie could be that used Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home" for their trailer music. The trailers for the movie gave me some chills, as the use of Coheed's amazing music was top notch.

So, what then, of the movie?

First and foremost, I was sitting near somebody who smelled obnoxiously bad... atrocious really. So, some of my enjoyment of the movie was leached as I tried to find something better-smelling to put in front of my nose... my ticket stub, the inside of my shirt, my finger....

Anyway, stinky people gripes aside, the movie was quite a treat. The standout feature of the film was easily its visual appeal. The animation is superb; the attention to detail borders on perfectionism. The characters, visually, are fully realized and smoothly animated. In fact, most of the care I felt for the characters was driven by their animations, their facial expressions (so poignant for creatures made of potato sacks), and their body language. There is so much to absorb on the screen, it is sometimes a challenge to take it all in.

Also of note, the voice acting is great. Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, and company were spot on in almost every scene in the movie. Make no mistake, it's the animation that truly brings the characters to life, but the voice acting certainly doesn't hurt either.

The story, while a tad cliche, is interesting and exceptionally dark. I've heard many a tale of folks who saw that movie with their kids and ended up leaving because of how disturbing some of the scenes are. Yes, things die, yes there are some very dark visuals, but it is rated PG-13 after all.

The movie is certainly part cautionary tale - of the "artificial intelligence is bad" variety - and in that aspect, the story fails, as other movies (I, Robot; Eagle Eye) have done it previously and better. Yet, its achievement is its interesting little quirks and its entertainment value.

This is certainly not to say the movie is without fault, as it's got its fair share of them. First and foremost, the character development is utterly lacking in numerous areas. Take, for example, the character 2. Much of the story revolves around this character, indirectly, but we have so little chance to get to know him, it's hard to care how his large piece of the story ends up. Give me characters that are more fully realized, like 5, 7, 9, and 1, and I'm quite happy. The rest of the characters, no matter how central a role they play, never feel like anything more than husks, like potato sacks with eyes. The movie clocks in at a stumpy 79 minutes. I really would have enjoyed the movie more thoroughly had they added an extra 10 minutes even and devoted it to more fully fleshing out the characters.

Ordinarily, I'd come out of a movie like this a little upset that I'd wasted time and money watching it. There was something enchanting about 9, however, something that took what could have been a waste of time and turned it into a thoroughly enjoyable movie. By the end of the movie, even through the nauseating smell, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and the characters, I cared about what happened and wanted the good guys to come out on top. For that alone it was well worth the time and money.

Score: 7.5/10.0

Star Trek - Back in IMAX for a Limited Time

OK, folks. If you were one of the peeps that did not see Star Trek in full IMAX glory, Paramount Pictures is giving you another chance to do it. Starting this Friday, Star Trek will be re-released in 85 IMAX theaters across the country.

Do yourself a favor and GO SEE IT. I would love to go, but the IMAX screens here in Colorado are not participating (again... Star Trek was never in IMAX here).

You can find a full list of participating theaters here.

Review - District 9

I'll be up front with you, this one's gonna be short. No, no, I'm not being lazy - There actually is good reason for it. Allow me to 'splain.

I knew very little about the movie going into the film. I had seen the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer, but neither of those gave much away. Thankfully, we had marketing that allowed the audience to discover the movie as it was meant to be discovered, unlike certain other summer blockbusters (*cough* Terminator).

Most of the joy of the movie was in the discovery. I had few expectations as to what the story would hold, and I was richly rewarded for it as this dark world revealed itself. Make no mistake, many, many things in this movie were done correctly, but the true pleasure of the movie is watching as it defies what we have come to expect from our sci-fi movies. This is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi. No. This breaks the barrier of brainless sci-fi movies and enters the realm of Science Fiction - it is intelligent, it requires you to think, and it's got something to say.

This is why, dear readers, I cannot write a full, detailed review - the fear of spoiling something. The less you have heard about this movie going in, the more you will enjoy it.

I will say that Sharlto Copley turns in an absolutely stellar performace as a naive but intelligent lead who is just brimming with character. The score is sparse, but spot on. Most importantly, though, Neill Blomkamp does a truly excellent job of creating this alien species with whom you can't help but sympathize. Not only that, but they completely steal the show. The sheer amount of chacter the "Prawns" have is awe-inspiring, and it will be hard to pay attention to anything else any time they're on the screen.

District 9 is a remarkable, groundbreaking achievement in modern film. It will surely go down as a classic, one that taught the modern movie-going audience that movies need not spoon feed us to grab our attention, and they can defy even the most concrete genre expectations to make something completely original and utterly brilliant.

Score: 9.8/10.0

Review - G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra

Let me start things off by summing up this movie: fun, but lacking any intelligence at all.

After much debacle with the group I normally see movies with, I ended up going with a couple of coworkers to a right-after-work showing of Joe. The theater started off empty, but ended up filling up quickly. And for an opening day showing, the audience was about as responsive as a turnip.

The reason for this, I believe, was the sheer stupidity of this film. The story was lame in the places it existed at all. The acting varied between so-so and awful, and the CGI... well, I'll get to that in a bit.

So, the story. What little of it there is. The Cobras steal a shipment of warheads that are filled with little robot things that eat anything the missile impacts. Think of these as the little microbot things that are set to destroy the world in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Exact same idea, except these things have a green tint and can be disabled via a "kill switch" that has a conveniently big OFF button. Oh, and they function as a mind control device too.

This is also an origins story, so there's a ton of flashbacks, mostly involving Duke and The Baroness (Ana) and the two ninjas. These back story bits are lamentably boring, which brings me to a great summation of the story. When things aren't blowing up, this movie drags.

Part of the reason for this is the acting. It kind of runs back and forth between decent and laughably bad. Channing Tatum plays Duke, the real All American Hero of the bunch. I like Tatum sometimes and don't like him other times. In Joe, he sorta falls right in the middle. It wasn't a bad acting job, but there weren't any stand up WOW moments either. Dennis Quaid played General Hawk, and was just bad at it. It seemed to me like he had the wrong expression on his face pretty much every second he was on camera. It was like he wanted to just burst out into giggling fits... the "I can't believe to I took this job" kind of giggling fits. Sianna Miller (Ana) and Rachel Nichols (Scarlett) provide the movie's eye candy without providing much in the way of substance.

Of the whole bunch, my favorite actor here was Ray Park. Folks may remember him as Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1. In Joe, he plays Snake Eyes, covered head to toe in black, and he doesn't say a word the entire movie. His costume definitely could have done without the lips though. Also, Byung-hun Lee plays the other ninja, Storm Shadow. Together with Ray Park, he put on some silly awesome fight scenes. Their story was the only back story I found myself interested in, and I'd be fine if they made the next G.I. Joe movie about those two only.

Yet, not all the blame for a bad story (or lack of interest in said story) can be placed on the actors. The writing in this movie is trash. The script is chock full of dense one-liners that made my very soul hurt with their idiocy and/or cliched nature. Many of the lines were awkward, particularly in the more mushy parts, and many times I found myself scratching my head wondering if people actually spoke such mindless things as often as this troop did.

Way back when I first posted the trailer for this movie on my blog, I said that I was worried that the movie would be a special effects bonanza without much in the way of storyline. So, the storyline was definitely shabby at best, so what about the special effects?

I tried for a while to find a nicer way to put this, but I really can't. The CGI in this movie looks like it was ripped straight out of one of those SyFy original movies. Invasion of the Killer Ants or some such. It was atrocious. I could see every blue screened shot, pick out every fake bolt of lightning or explosion. Nothing looked even remotely realistic. Take, for example, the G6 accelerator suits (read: Halo's MJOLNIR armor). Even in the fastest-paced scenes, I could clearly see how Channing Tatum's face was digitally pasted onto the helmet's visor. Utterly lame. It's been a good few years since I've seen CGI that bad out of a summer blockbuster, and I hope I never have to see it again.

Which leaves us with the action. This was the movie's saving grace. the action was fun. The explosions looked fake as hell, but it was fun watching everything blow up. The fighting took place against an obvious green screen, but hey, it was cool to watch it happen. The ninja fights really stole the show, though. I could have watched those parts for 2 hours, and this movie would have gotten a better score out of me. Paramount, if there's going to be a sequel to this movie (there is, it's already been announced), please take note: MORE NINJAS.

That's not to say the action was all hunky-dory. It wasn't. My most bitter complaint with the action was the silly and stupid use of slow-mo to try to heighten the tension... or something. Stephen Sommers (the director) apparently thought random bits of slow motion are really cool and decided to go to town with the effect. I'm OK with a bit of Matrix style in movies where appropriate, but there was no sense to the bits that got the slow-mo treatment (an explosion here, a missile there), so it aggravated me every time it happened.

Also, next time you are making a score for a military movie, find somebody who knows how to write military themes like Steve Jablonsky or Brian Tyler or somebody. Alan Silvestri's score for this movie was much like Dennis Quaid's facial expressions... just wrong.

There was one other thing this movie did wrong. Marketing. The movie suffered from some of the worst marketing I've seen leading up to a movie's release. The trailers were mind numbing, the TV spots were unexciting, the banners all over websites were equally uninspiring. Paramount decided it would be fun to not let critics see the movie early, then promptly released TV commercials with some of the nicer comments from the critics the day after the movie released. Lame... and slightly hypocritical considering the reasoning behind not releasing it early in the first place was because they wanted to let audiences, not critics, define the movie. While the marketing doesn't really affect the final movie, it is still notable as a failure. It also might have had something to do with the disappointing $56.2m the movie took in this weekend.

Anyway, the movie wasn't a complete bomb. It wasn't as bad as either Terminator or Wolverine, because it was at least fun. However, poor writing, mediocre acting, a bad score, transparent story, awful CGI, and idiotic slow-mo keep this movie from being anywhere near good. It was an entertaining waste of 2 hours, but I'd recommend waiting until you can rent this one. On standard DVD, because the special effect will be particularly fugly on Blu Ray. This is particularly sad, because the only time the movie is really enjoyable is when things are going BOOM.

Score: 4.0/10

G.I. Joe - Finally, There are Reviews!

After a week filled with press regarding Paramount's decision not to show the movie to critics, the G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra is finally out today.

Earlier in the week, Paramount said it would not show the movie to critics prior to the movie's release today. Paramount cites the disparity between the critical reviews for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the audience reaction. Critics hated it, audiences loved it (to the tune of over $388m so far). Instead, it screened the movie in front on military bases and other, smaller venues. Several smaller reviewers, mostly bloggers, were permitted to see the film before today as well, and most of their comments on Rotten Tomatoes were quite positive. Prior to today, the aggregate score for the movie was between 85-91%. Not bad, considering a trailer so awful it actually lowered my opinion of the movie. My co-workers have been at this conspiracy theory thing all morning in which Paramount paid off said bloggers to give the movie some great reviews going into the opening.

It seems that G.I. Joe may fall victim to the Transformers bug (if you could call Transformers a victim, given it's success), assuming it does well at the box office. Since the movie has released, it's Rotten Tomatoes score has plummeted to a pitiful 47%. This may not seem bad (especially considering Transformers' abysmal 21%), but when you consider that almost half of the fresh ratings (11 of the 23) came from those small bloggers whose reviews were up and glowing prior to the release, it's not so hot. I'm not buyin' into the conspiracy stuff, but it is very odd to see that big a difference in the reviews between the screenings and the release. Of course, most movies are shown to critics before the release, so that's skewing things as well.

Anyway, I should be off to see the flick tonight, so look for the review here later this weekend. On Monday, we'll take a peek at how well the last action movie of the summer fared, and see how much closer Transformers gets to the $400m mark.