Top 20 Movies of 2014

Welcome to the second and last of my most biased list of 2014. Here I'll be sharing my TOP 20 MOVIES OF 2014. They don't have to be the best nor the worst, but if I liked them, loved them or just enjoyed the hell out of them, they'll be on this list. 

If some of your favorite movie(s) are not on this list, it's probably because I've never seen them or I never really liked them.

So without further ado, here's my list..

20) Interstellar

This film could have been easily placed at the top 10, if it weren't for the less-polished story. Nevertheless, the movie had the most spectacular visuals of space in cinema this year. Director Christopher Nolan did his best to bring us to the deepest reaches of space and he didn't disappoint 

19) Big Hero 6

2014 is definitely the year Marvel ruled the cinema world. Here they've handed Disney some of their most obscure properties and together (but mostly Disney) they've have made one of the most action-packed and entertaining animated film in a long time. Marvel -1, Disney Animation - 1, it's a win-win. 

18) Guardians Of The Galaxy

Speaking of Marvel, here's a game changer to the superhero movies. Taking some old school comic book that only hardcore Marvel fans have read (plus its modern incarnation) and adapt it to the big screen. What could go wrong? Everything, it could have been a disaster, thankfully it didn't. 

17) John Wick

It's nice to see an action-packed film that's not dumb. This film defys every single action movie who gives away good story for good action. It's just nice to see Keanu Reeves back at a good entertaining action film.

16) Chef

Chef was pretty straightforward. Once the film starts it's journey into the highroad of feel-good, it never stops going upwards. Watch this with an entire buffet right in front of you and you are in heaven. 

 15) The Babadook 

To be honest, I didn't see a lot of horror movies because of it's very low standards. Thank goodness, Director Jennifer Kent decided to spit on them and show them how it's done. This is real horror, and it's not even based on a true story. 

14) The Wind Rises

Director Hayao Miyazaki never loses grace and touch, and for his last entry he decides to go out with a bang. It's everything you'd love and expect from him, simply beautiful, elegant and really REALLY moving. Plus, knowing the fact that this is his swan song makes you wanna stand up and cheer for him as soon as the credits roll. 

13) The Fault In Our Stars 

You gotta give YouTuber John Green for writing a spectacular teen novel without breaking the teen novel-cookie cutter, well maybe just a bit. What's even more spectacular is that the film perfectly captures the essence of the book. The film definitely deserved the praises it gets, unlike the other teen novel-movies out there, yuck. 

12) Edge Of Tomorrow

So it's a movie based from a manga that is based from a book, but compared every other sci-fi/action movies out there this felt more original and miles ahead more entertaining. Somewhere, Tom Cruise is doing his Risky Business stint with his fellow Scientologist, probably on top of Oprah's sofa.  

11) Under The Skin

Oh my, this film got my heart beating real fast and that is very unusual for an art house film. And yes, EVERYTHING about Scar Jo is art. 

10) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In terms of Marvel movies, the ones that are the REAL game changers are the ones that had a rough start. Before this it's popular statement that Captain America films are mediocre, until brothers Director Anthony and Joe Russo came up with the best way to end the trend. Make Captain America: The Winter Soldier the best action-packed, political thriller, spy, superhero film ever made. Funny enough, this used to be my number 1 movie of 2014, until I saw better films mention above.   

9) How To Train Your Dragon 2

I had little kids asking if there are animated films better than Frozen, then I brought them to see this movie, they were educated. This is how you make an epic and meaningful animated movie, better than Frozen, better than the first How To Train Your Dragon movie and the best animated film of 2014. 

8) The Raid 2

True that movie didn't had the suspense of the first film, but it still got the grit and speed of it's predecessor, if not, better. Everything is in a larger scale and you feel the jeopardy every character is in. People say "why call the movie The Raid 2 if they weren't even raiding anything crucial like the first film?" Well it's simply because the entire city is an oversize version of the same apartment and in both places, all hell breaks loose. 

7) Nightcrawler

Wanna be educated how to be the best of what you do? Let a creepy guy that looks like Jake Gylenhall enlighten you. Every sleekness of the scenes and every suspense just felt so real. Lesson learned, never underestimate a skinny white guy. 

6) Gone Girl

A very unhealthy movie to see with your significant other, the film is thought-provoking, spine-chilling and very eerie from every shot, every performance and even the music. What a film to make you feel like you know nothing about what's going on. 

5) X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Time-travel is very difficult plot point to tackle, even so these film managed to handle it very well and remain consistent throughout the entire film. It never loses it cool and class. The franchise had some tough times and this film was the savior. The more I watch it, the more I appreciate it. Thus, making it the best superhero movie of 2014. 

4) Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Just when you thought you're done with movies about monkeys, wait 'till you see this (and Rise, seriously watch that first before watching this. You'd never expect that a movie like this will have you emotionally attached to it in a great extent and will make your visuals entertained from point A to point B. The movie could have been simply Call Of Duty: Monkey Warfare, but it's way more than that. 

3) Frank 

Michael Fassbender is on a roll this year. From mass murdering mutant to deranged talented musician. Frank and his friends will bring you on an strange journey of finding your identity and your groove. Perhaps the film's greatest asset is its weirdness and makes you wonder, maybe being weird will indeed set you free.

2) Whiplash

Just when Peter Parker thought he had the worst version of J.K. Simmons, wait till Reed Richard comes and smack him in his face, or throw a chair at him like what J.K. Simmons' character did at him. If the movie taught me one thing, is that the journey to out performing yourself is pure "nightmare". What this film is a nightmare, a brilliant, inspiring and well-acted one. 

Before I reveal my number 1 pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

1) The Theory Of Everything

Never in my mind and in my heart I would ever realize that I would be so attached, so moved and so mesmerize to the beauty and tragedy of Stephen Hawking's life. The movie could have been easily a semi-boring biopic, but no the film played with our heartstrings by making our hearts overjoyed with the happy and lovely scenes and break it whenever it wants to. Despite all the tragedy, the film made us want to focus on the beauty of life throughout the darkness. If Stephen and Jane can do it, so can you. It's moving, touching and inspirational and thus my Top 1 movie of 2014. 

There you have it, my top 20 movies of 2014. I hope you guys have a great 2014 and i'll see you guys next year with more reviews and shenanigans. See you all in 2015!

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies MOVIE REVIEW

Goodbye, Middle-Earth. 

Writer and Director Peter Jackson has dedicated 14 years of his life bringing Middle-Earth to life on the big screen with hopes of having us audience engage on this phenomenal journey on a personal level as if we are part of this fantasy world. After 5 films, we have now come to this point where we have to see Peter Jackson's final last journey to Middle-Earth. The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies has duties to accomplish..

1. The film has to be a fitting ending to The Hobbit trilogy
2. The film has to tie-in very well with The Lord of The Rings trilogy
3. The film has to be a satisfying end to Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth saga
4. The film has to be amazingly entertaining in itself 

Biggest question, is The Battle of The Five Armies a fitting end to The Hobbit trilogy? Yes and no. The film did what it could to end on a really high note. Every story arc that we've explored in the preceding films at least had an emotional and satisfying closure in them. Perhaps the arc with Bilbo Baggins and Thorin are the most emotional ones. The film is relatively short, which makes us feel the the first two films should have been a lot shorter, making the trilogy less over stuffed. 

The one character who surprisingly shined out the most was Luke Evan's Bard, making him the equivalent of Aragorn from The Lord of The Rings. For a film that is called The Hobbit, Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins took a back seat on this film though he made the most out of the screen time he has and so does other main characters. 

Many criticize the film for being a bit cartoon-y compared to The Lord of The Rings movies and while it's true it's a bit unfair to judge it that way since this is a film that is adapted from a children's novel, so it's expected to be more colorful than the much darker LOTR films. Though it;s hard not to miss the practical effects the previous LOTR films since this film is over-packed with CGI. I never saw the film in 48fps and it still looks shinier than any LOTR films.

The main highlights of this movie though is the battle of the five armies which takes up half the run time of the film, give or take. There's never a shortage of it in this film, but at the same time it won't tire the viewers like other action packed films. When the brief build-up moves out of the way, everyone and everything goes to war. 

How does it stack up as ending to both a saga though? Not much since it's both the ending to The Hobbit trilogy and the bridge to The Lord of The Rings films. Return of The Kings might seem more of a fitting ending to the saga than this film. 

In its own The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies has it's shortcomings that prevented it from being as epic as The Return Of The King, but it is a great ending for The Hobbit trilogy and surely is the best of the three and if this is Peter Jackson's swan song to Middle-Earth, then he sure did went out with a bang. 

(+)

Great character/arcs

Brief build up

Everything else goes to war

(-)

Sudden ending 

Weighed down by its predecessors 

Score: A-

The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies now in theaters.

Interstellar MOVIE REVIEW

Oh.. Nolan... 

Interstellar is a modern day Space Odyssey film starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Cain, Jessica Chastain and a lot of actors you probably didn;t see their names at the movie posters. This film is also the latest addition of director Christopher Nolan to his impressive resume. 

In terms of scale, this is most definitely Nolan's most ambitious and humongous visual journey, it has Nolan's signature of grand, extravagant and BEAUTIFUL visuals using practical effects for the most part. Seriously, the movie looks so BEAUTIFUL, typing the word beautiful in caps lock isn't just enough. If you guys have the extra bucks, go watch this on IMAX 3D, it's so worth the money. 

Another great aspect of Nolan's talent is his story telling. The best bits of the story and scriptwriting are human elements of the film. Almost every essential characters of this film is layered at best and the awesome performances of their respective actors gives us the best flavors of the film. The film is also a family drama and is surprisingly the best element of the story. This film packs with a lot of emotions and you'll definitely want our heroes to succeed on what they do. 

Unfortunately, the film's weakest point us the plot that surrounds the space odyssey itself. With the focus of it bounces from the film's own interpretation of relativity, black holes to its connection tot he power of love, somehow you'll find yourself wanting to pull out a remote control, put the film on pause and call Christopher Nolan to just help ease the intake and process of this knowledge.  

Interstellar is definitely a film that must be first experienced in the theaters, especially on IMAX. Even if you'll find a hard time taking in some of the crazy absurd ideas and explanations, you'll still have plenty of time to awe at the visuals.  

Despite being too convoluted, Interstellar is Christopher Nolan's most ambitious, most beautiful, most stunning and most emotional project ever. Plus, he definitely brought the right cast and crew to make this project a masterpiece. 

(+)

Stunning visuals

Great performances

Nolan's most human project

(-)

Broken logic and ideas

3 Hours, seriously!?

Score: A-

Interstellar now in theaters. 

Big Hero 6 MOVIE REVIEW

It was quite funny to hear the people at my cinema's reaction to the fact that Big Hero 6 is a Marvel franchise.. quite funny...

Right now is a good time for a comic book fan to be alive, with the upcoming film releases from both Marvel and DC, plus now we can get Marvel movies in the form of Disney animated films, oh yeah this is the good life. 

Big Hero 6 is the story of Hiro Hamada and his inflatable companion Baymax, who sets on an adventure that will bring the two of them and their "Nerd" friends to the path of becoming the superhero team of San Fransokyo.

The movie maybe titled Big Hero 6, but the very core of this film is Hiro and Baymax. Individually, they are likable characters, but together they're just so lovable you don't wanna let go of these two, especially Baymanx, everybody needs a hug from Baymax, The rest might fall on the background, but make no mistake they're still some really good side characters. 

The animation is easily beautiful. Especially San Fransokyo, I would move to that place if I can, and if that place existed. It's a combination of the best things from San Francisco and Tokyo, I'll leave the rest to your imagination. The amazing CG animation did help a lot to bring more flavors to an already roller coaster ride that is the big sequences, especially the action scenes. 

The movie seemed to borrow a lot of elements from previous blockbuster films, Familiar concepts, but new faces and believe me they still work. The action's fun and exciting and it plays the strings of your heart when it wants to.

Even if some concepts are familiar, even if didn't reach the epic-ness of previous Disney efforts, Big Hero 6 is still entertaining, amusing and one of the most beautiful animated films of 2014. It's a refreshing tale that has nothing to prove to the others, it is its own masterpiece. 

(+)

Entertaining from beginning to end 

Outstanding animation

The personal nurse (Baymax! duh!)

(-)

Borrowed elements, with refreshing takes

Score: A

Big Hero 6 now in theaters

Chef (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

I made a terrible mistake watching this movie with an empty stomach, true story. 

After directing big-budget movies for the past couple or so years, Directr Jon Favreau decided it's time to go back-to-basics and hence the idea of making a movie about cooking, titled "Chef". The movie follows professional chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau), who after an altercation that went public, decided to quit his job in Los Angeles and go back to his hometown in Miami to fix up a food truck. Thus embarks a journey of celebration of food that you could have easily seen in TLC, but the movie isn't really just about that.

As a kid who likes food, I've spent my sembreak watching TLC almost every chance I can get. Until my parent, my siblings and some of my friends started to tag along, we ended up being a bunch of people with an absurd interest with cooking and food. I remember watching this movie weeks ago and I was definitely blown by the experience, but the succeeding weeks was so hectic and heartbreaking I forgot to talk about this film . One night I was so burnout and hungry I wanted to eat and watch a movie, until I remember this particular film. The first time I saw this, I was devastatingly hungry, so what I did is I made a myself a bunch of sandwiches and watched this movie for the full experience. It was still as lovely as I remember it, a food porn movie.

The movie, to begin with, was well acted. The character Carl might seem like a Mary-Sue to director/actor Jon Favreau, as the character struggles on being connected to his broken family under a busy schedule, which is probably why we feel every aspect of Carl. He's also under illusion of freedom to do his thing, but realizes that as long as he's working for someone he's never going to get that freedom that he wants. So when he basically burst throughout his own barriers and have that freedom that he's so craving for, all you want to do is to cheer for him and buy food from his food truck. 

The movie is also a part-family road trip film, since he has his son Percy (Emjay Anthony) with him in his journey in the food truck. With the two, trying to strengthen their bond under the circumstances of being in a broken family, along with his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara). Martin (John Leguizamo) was a surprisingly likable character, not gonna lie. 

The movie is simply a feel-good experience, when it starts to go down that path. There's so much stuff in this movie that just hits all the right moves, all the right ingedients and all the right flavors, I don't wanna talk about all of them. You'll have to see this film whenever you get the chance. 

I guess my only gripe would be the profanity. I know they were going on a realistic approach with this film, but the profanity was unnecessary for me.

If you want a real food adventure, go out there and find the best food that best suits your cravings, or you can watch this film before you go out or you can do both. Chef definitely tells you to do both. 

(+)

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

Simple, but dynamic story/script

Great cast

(-)

Vulgarity

Score: A

Chef is now available in DVD, Blu Ray and Digital HD.

You can order Chef and other movies online here at CD Universe.

Frank (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Imagine Micheal Fassbender wearing the Frank paper-mache head, wearing Magneto's helmet.

Frank is a 2014 comedy-drama directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy and Michael Fassbender as the title character. 

The movie basically follows Domhnall's character, Jon, a hopeful musician, as he is burnout from his regular life and finds an opportunity to break free from his daily routine when he came across with this rather eccentric band led by Michael Fassbender's Frank. 

You know that feeling when you wake up in the morning and you have important things to do, but instead you found yourself looking through your window and outside you see a group of people just goofing around and you don't know why, but your curiosity might trigger your body to go outside and get to know these people more until you realize you started to play with them?

Jon is our window to over these people. He is always the one trying to get the answers we are looking for. Even with his talents he is so ordinary that our inner average selves relates to him. Until he finally goes outside and play with Frank and his band that we realize not only Jon is getting sucked into this madness, but so are we. Domhnall did a great job portraying our looking-glass character. Even the character Jon himself, he's a well written character.

Speaking of well written characters, there tons of them here, but Frank shines out of them the most. There's a lot of mystery about this guy, he's like a cartoon character, one who doesn't blend well with real people, but gives this film its primary flavors. Even Michael's performance as Frank wasn't too obvious, which adds up to the mystery backing his big paper-mache head. 

The movie is also hilarious. I don't say that a lot about movies, but when a movie makes something grim and depressing funny and you don't feel guilty about it, it definitely deserves the credit. 

The film's also something of a musical. The best way to describe the music is like listening to some very deep indie music. It's not made for everyone. It may not even sound music to some, but it is. It's not pop music, I'll tell you that much.

The film itself is an adventure/roadtrip/self discovery film. Watching it makes you think about how miserable your life can be and how you can just simply set yourself free from it. It also has interesting message about the art of music itself. Sometimes, taking away its uniqueness also means taking away its specialty and makes it plain, ordinary and boring, like how your everyday life is.

The thing is, the movie works so perfectly being bizarre. You take that away and this film is nothing special anymore. 

To be quite honest, watching this movie is a refreshing experience. Its got a lot of heart and spirit, but as how the movie suggest, taking something away from it would make it less unique. 

(+)

Uniqueness

Humor

Overall direction and screenplay

Soronprfbs

Frank

(-)

Not pop

Sudden ending

Score: A-

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Sabotage LATE MOVIE REVIEW

Finally, he got tired of saying "get to the choppa!"

Sabotage is one of the most recent post-governor film of Arnold Schwarzenegger which also stars a ridiculous amount of star powered actors. Directed by David Ayer, the film centers around Arnold's character Breacher dealing with some sort of depression after facing some disadvantages of being an old DEA agent and other shenanigans as well.  

On the plus side, I can say that this is Arnold's best performance as of late. He really did justice to his rather dark character. I kind of feel sorry for the guy, most of his roles as of late had been kind of a joke aimed at himself, to the point where he felt like he had to make fun of himself while portraying those characters. At least here, he was given a more serious character and he did a good job portraying Breacher. 

But that isn't enough to cover up the 5#!+ that this movie is.

At least the story was thought through. Those two pages that tells the entire story with brief descriptions and only minimal dialogues, that's where they got it right. 

But there's this script with crappy, disgusting, unlikable characters. Some of them are even inconsistent and does things out of character. Granted a few of them were given each time to shine, but even the actors found it hard to shine through.

The movie also had this weird potential to be a good mystery thriller. There's this charade that's going on that even a summa cum laude would die to know the truth. Yet, all of this was mashed up with nonsense over nonsense. The movie terribly slowed down somewhere in the middle and when you get to the big revelation, you have already forgotten that there's this big mystery that you have to solve because your mind is crowded with other unrelated stuff from the movie.  

And what's up with the gore? I mean I can see they're going for realism. I have nothing against violence in films, you've seen me go fanboy on The Raid. As long as they are justified and makes a lot of sense. The violence in this movie is just simply unjustified, senseless and everything was only to throw it to your face. Are you still realistic even with a toned-down violence? Yes! This movie doesn't understand that. 

But overall, in spite of the negatives this movie had, I didn't hate it as much I should. It's just that I don't want to see it again.

With very few things to like about this film, Sabotage lingers on mindless story telling, unlikable characters and ludicrous violence way more than it should. 

(+)

Best Arnold lead since post-governor

"Okay" action set pieces

(-)

Terrible (looking) characters

Senseless violence

Too much junk covering the good stuff

Score: C-

Sabotage is now available on DVD, Blu Ray and Digital HD.

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The Expendables 3 MOVIE REVIEW

Let's just pretend none of us saw the leaked copy online. 

The Expendables 3 is.. you guessed it.. the third installment of The Expendables franchise which stars your favorite 80's-early 2000's action stars as they team up in the ultimate throwback to 80's action movies.

The shortest verdict I could give this.. it is bad. It's a bad movie. Done, go on and move on with your life. Still here? Okay, let's talk about it. 

If you've seen the previous movies, you'll know what you're into with this one. You don't expect Academy worthy writing and performances, you just want old men kicking butts and throwing 80's cliched lines at one another. This specific movie, tries to deviate itself from the formula in a certain extent. 

Starting with the new blood, just like the old men they're okay. Kellan Lutz's character is actually the best one out of them. I mean they're all bad actors and they all play mediocre characters, I'm just saying that out of all of them he's the one who did a decent job of making his character at least likable and at some point relatable, I was actually rooting for this guy in the movie. 

Let me address something first about Ronda Rousey. For those of you who didn't know, she basically said what most haters would say about Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman (who is set to appear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) which included; she's not physically imposing and she [Ronda] would make a better Wonder Woman than Gal. First, she's right about kicking Gal's buns, she can. She is fully equipped to take down bad guys and her figure compliments that. Plus she's a really good looking person, she's beautiful you can't deny that. What I thought was "..well if she wanted to be Wonder Woman, why didn't she audition for the role?.." Physically, she has that Wonder Woman body, I can see that. But Wonder Woman/Princess Diana/Diana Prince isn't just all about outer beauty and buff-ness. I'm just saying, if her performance as an actress from this film serves as her audition tape for that role, I can see why Zack Snyder would pick Gal Gadot over her. Gal's a mediocre actress, but compared to what Ronda has shown here, I'm just saying she'll have a tall mountain to climb to be Wonder Woman. But who knows? Maybe she'll improve next time, maybe she can play Hawkgirl next time. 

Basically the point of this new blood is that Sylvester Stallone's character couldn't take his old team to missions anymore so he tried new stuff. The premise wasn't terrible to be honest, it adds new flavor this rather old and rehashed movie. I'm just saying it didn't stand up to me like this movie wanted it to. 

The best actors of this movie are definitely Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes. You can tell they are the three that had the most fun. Especially Mel Gibson, which the character he portrays I call the best villain of this franchise. The rest just plays a parodied, Jar Jar Binks-ed version of themselves and they're getting tired of it. 

Actually, the movie is getting tired of itself. It's just the same thing over and over again, now for the third time. For me there's nothing wrong with that, all they have to do is to give their best at what they do and what they're supposed to achieve. That is not the case here, the old cast looks tired, it's the same writing again. Everything just looks and feels tired and weary, and they also edited the action scenes that felt Rated-R to fit the PG-13 rating? C'mon!

Seriously, the movie's too tired of itself even I'm too exhausted to write a review for it.

New faces, but same old tricks and they're not even giving their best on this one.

(+)

Still a fun time when the action happens

At least it tried new things

Best villain of the franchise

(-)

Dumb writing

Tired movie

PG-13, seriously?

Score:  C-

The Expendables 3 in theaters now.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

COWABUNGA INDEED!

Today we welcome this generations live-action adaptation of our beloved four ninja, mutant, turtles, teenagers or as we call them- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

I'm not going to pretend that you don't know what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, if you've seen this movie and you're reading this review YOU KNOW what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are. But I'm guessing some of you didn't know or at least haven't seen the previous live-action films.

I was tempted to do a ..MOVIES IN ONE GO! article for the previous movies, then I saw the movies. What I have to say is very short...

I saw all four previous films and I know there are huge fans of the films out there. But I'm sorry, they are just bad movies, all of them, and this one isn't different. If you're going to crap on this film because it's ruining your nostalgia, please don't, those TMNT movies of your generation are just as bad as this one. Don't worry, all the kids of this generation's film will probably say the same, don;t worry I'll tell them the same thing when the time comes. But again, I'm sorry, but they are what they are, a bunch of really bad movies made to entertain kids. Let the kids of this generation have their fun, same as you had yours back in the day. 

The four turtles; Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, are all spot on. From their characteristics and their interactions and chemistry not only towards each other, but also from every other character is spot on. I'm not even bothered by their looks, I think it worked pretty well for me, and for them for the most part. The turtles are easily the best thing in this movie, which the film itself is sadly a mess. 

My main problem with this film is that they got the Turtles right, but we don't get to see enough turtles. I don't really like comparing movies from one franchise to another film from another franchise, but this film could have been as fun as Guardians Of The Galaxy. I can look past the silly writing, the villains that I don't care about, the illogical thinking this film has IF we had the Turtles leading us on this adventure. The problem is, they're not the drivers of this bus, she is..

I mean, I get it, the filmmakers believes that this film would need a touch from a sex symbol, so BAM! Megan Fox as April O' Neal. But she never goes away on this movie, she is everywhere. I want less April, more Turtles, how hard can that be? But considering how badly this character was written, I'd say Megan did a decent job as this film's April O' Neal.

There are so many useless and wasted characters in this movie, but the one that bugged me the most is Shredder. Again I apologize for the comparison, but Shredder is like that Marvel Cinematic Universe villain that is so physically imposing, but is so shallow in-depth like Malekith, Ronan or even Whiplash. 

This film obviously has some terrible writing in it. I mean I know that the concept of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is just plain silly from head-to-toe, but at least it deserves a decent writing and logic to it.

But I will say this, the film has some pretty hardcore action scenes. The first couple of fights, the fight on the snow and even the The Amazing Spider-Man-esque climax, they all looked really awesome. 

Lastly, even though Michael Bay is attached to this film as a producer and not a director, I kinda wish that he directed this instead of Jonathan Liebesman. Because if you're gonna make a Bay-tastic film, there's no other guy that can make this look authentic and real Bay-tastic than the Bay-man himself. Don't hire a director that would abandon his own style just to project a Bay-tastic film, just get Michael Bay. It's that simple. 

Regardless of how silly and dumb this movie is, you're still going to have a fun time with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That is if you can wait for them to spring into action.

(+)

Leonardo

Donatello

Raphael

Michelangelo

(-)

Everything else

Score: C+

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in theaters now. 

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