Posts Tagged ‘feature’
The Avengers: Review
An unlikely group of heroes (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow) are recruited by S.H.E.I.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to take part in the “Avengers Initiative” when the world is threatened by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and an army of alien beings known as the Chitauri.
Marvel has been setting this movie up for the past four years through careful planning and weaving stories together. Since the special clip after Iron Man have people been waiting for the day that The Avengers would arrive in theaters. Well finally the day arrived……..and it was glorious. Each film that led up to this provided a small piece of The Avengers puzzle and it all fit together nicely. From the very start of the film it was full of action with Loki making his presence felt. Little by little the other characters were reintroduced (not that they really needed to be) with the most time I think being given to The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). I had my hesitations with Ruffalo seeing as this is the third incarnation of The Hulk in recent years but that quickly went away after seeing the chemistry between him and the rest of the cast. Especially Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). I’m not going to go as far as saying he stole the show but he came pretty damn close. I did like that they did show a bit of a “alpha dog” situation with Iron Man and Captain America (Chris Evans) like the way they would show in the comics but by the end of the movie Cap was throwing out orders and plans of attack like a true leader. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was again fantastic as the God of Thunder (even though I believe they referred to him as a demi-god). He was a perfect fit to spit out the Joss Whedon one-liners that were given to him. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) were a perfect pairing. Seperate they were fantastic but when they shared the screen together you could see the sparks fly. There are rumors of individual films for Hawkeye and Black Widow but I think I “team-up” film would be waaaay better. I only have two (very small) issues with the movie. One of them being the burying of Loki. I feel like they built him up to be this huge villian and he essentially just got used for comic relief on a few occasions (it did provide some really funny moments though) and the focus kind of strayed from him. The second one was the lack of any sort of elaboration of Captain America being thawed out in the present time. From the looks of it the movie picked up a short time after the Cap movie and they showed in a brief moment flashbacks what happened but didn’t really go into the way he felt at all. I mean, a guy being suddenly thawed out in modern times would probably mess with his brain a bit. Maybe they’ll do that for CA2 but I still think they should’ve addressed it a bit. Other than that the movie did really well at giving each hero enough screen time and their “hero moment”. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan and I felt like the writing was really solid and the film was a Marvel film with little Whedon moments thrown in here and there. That was nice. As of this moment of me typing this up everyone should have already seen The Avengers once if not a few times. If not, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!
Side Note: Something you should already know. Stay until after the credits.
The Hunger Games: Review
Based on the young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale. This movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic nation known as Panem where it is also divided into districts. Every year a televised battle to the death known as The Hunger Games occurs that pits a boy and a girl (picked from a lottery) from the ages 12 to 18 from each district against each other. The battlefield is vast and the children’s survival skills are put to the test. There can only be one survivor.
I purposely stayed away from reading the books because when I did get to see I wanted to watch it with a clean palette so to speak. Usually everyone always comes out of the movie saying the same thing “The book was way better”. After giving you that small disclaimer I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie. It took a premise that had been similarly done before (ex: The Running Man and Battle Royale) and did it on a much bigger scale. I was pleasantly surprised by it and personally cant wait for the rest of the movies to come out. The ONLY thing that made me cringe just a bit was a moment when the “gamemakers” started to manipulate the battle environment and 3 words slipped from my mouth. The Truman Show. It reminded me so much of that movie but a lot less funny. Everything else in the flick was action packed and suspenseful and had a great blend of it being a primitive land but with an obvious futuristic twist. The action sequences were great and smart as well but had ALOT of camera movement. I’m sure it was to hide the child on child violence but it did get a bit annoying at times. Jennifer Lawrence did a really fantastic job as did Josh Hutcherson (which was the real curveball for me). Jennifer is already skyrocketing and look for the same to happen with Josh as well. I give this a big two thumbs up and check it out if you haven’t already!!
The Darkest Hour: Review
Emile Hirsch stars in this sci-fi/action movie about a pair of friends that take a business trip to Moscow Russia. When the deal goes sour the decide to go out on the town to drown their sorrows. As the evening progresses and they leave an establishment, they see glowing alien creatures coming from the sky that soon turn invisible. As the surrounding citizens get closer to inspect the creatures they find out quickly that they didn’t come in peace. Now all that matters is their survival and to find how to stop them.
I enjoyed this flick quite a bit. I think mainly because I’m a big fan of sci-fi movies. This isn’t the best sci-fi movie I’ve seen but it was still pretty interesting. The fact that the threat is invisible added a certain amount of suspense to it as well. The aliens themselves were unique also. They weren’t seen at all for the most part but when they were revealed their look was a cross between the aliens from Independance Day and a some sort of glowing ball of energy (sorry, that’s the best I could come up with….lol). At times it did kind of feel like a big budget SyFy Original movie but I think the thing that did keep it afloat was Emile Hirsch. His acting ability really did help make this movie enjoyable as well and I thought he did really good in an action environment. Too bad there wasn’t a sweet Eddie Vedder sountrack to go along with it (I kid, I kid). This movie had a very ambitious ending and left it open to a sequel but I think thats asking for a little too much. Either way, if you dig alien invasion movies then it won’t hurt to “Redbox” it and give this a view.
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Review
This is fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series directed by Brad Bird and starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Hunt’s IMF (Impossible Missions Force) team is recruited to retrieve files from the Kremlin in Moscow that contain information about someone named “Cobalt”. In the midst of their mission their position is given away by someone that has broadcasted the teams’ radio frequency to personnel within the Kremlin. As Hunt and his team quickly escape, a bomb is detonated that completely destroys the building and implicates the US in the attack. Russia sees it as an “act of war” and in doing that causes the President of the United States to implement “Ghost Protocol” which is a black ops contingency plan that disavows all knowledge of the IMF and makes them take the blame. It’s now up to them to find a way to clear their names and figure out what Cobalt has to do with all of this.
I was a big fan of the very first film. The second and third ones didn’t really do it for me so I always held the first one to be my favorite. MIGP I feel really brought it back to what the series started with, lots of action and lots of twists and turns. This one was super enjoyable from start to finish and had everything you wanted in a spy movie. The action scenes are intense with my favorite being the building climb in Dubai. You can’t have a Mission Impossible movie without cool gadgets (just like a 007 flick) and it definitely had its share of them including a really kick ass projector (you must see it to realize what I mean). Tom Cruise makes being a secret agent seem like a walk in the park. So much so that it starts to make you wonder about the man (I’m kidding………….or am I?). He has to be some sort of genetically engineered being or something because this guy does all or most of his own stunts. I mean it gives great credibility to the movie but damn that’s crazy. Jeremy Renner really shined in this movie and was neck and neck with Cruise the whole way as far as “action star appeal”. There were rumors circulating at one point that Renner would be Cruise’s successor in this franchise but those reports were quickly shot down and after seeing MIGP I could see why one would think that. Simon Pegg can really do no wrong in my book. He was great as the Intel guy of the group and of course provided some of the comic relief as well. This man can go from low-budget comedies to big-budget action flicks without even missing a step whatsoever. The stunning Paula Patton was the female ass kicker of the group and did exactly that. She did that left and right throughout the movie and looked great doing it. I’m hoping that when/if the decide to do an MI5 that they keep this team together and keep somewhat of the same formula that they have. Like they say: If it aint broke, don’t try and fix it. You gotta see it!
The Woman in Black: Review
Starring Daniel Radcliffe as a young lawyer named Arthur Kipps, who is hired to handle the estate of Alice Darblow in a small English town after a horrible accident happens on the property (surrounded by marshlands). Soon enough a “woman in black” is spotted around the town and children being to mysteriously take their own lives. The people there realize that these incidents started to happen as soon as Kipps arrived in town and want him gone. He refuses to abandon the job that he was hired to do. As the days pass, Kipps himself comes face to face with the “woman in black” and now must find out what she is after and why.
This was a very pleasant surprise I must say. I saw Daniel Radcliffe and immediately thought “Aw hell, Harry Potter is in a horror movie” and that’s probably what alot of people thought as well I’m sure but that’s definitely not the case. Radcliffe really shows that he’s able to breakout of his HP legacy and try something fairly new for him (now all he needs is to be cast in a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and he’ll be set). This movie had all the best elements in an old school horror flick. The scares, the suspense and a little bit to be left to the imagination. It’s refreshing to see a horror flick that isn’t all about the blood and gore (not that I dont like those too) all the time. The ending was rather surprising but I do wish it would have ended with a bigger bang. Be that as it may, I recommend viewers that love classic horror to watch it and people that aren’t should definitely give it a chance. You’re sure to enjoy it.
