How NOT To Hate "Transformers: Age of Extinction"

Promise, you won't die trying. 

Not like Optimus here.

So the latest Transformers movie Age Of Extinction  is out for awhile now. Fans of the film franchise has at least found enjoyment from the flick, the others, not so much. And here you are, you haven't seen the movie, you don't know if you want to see the movie. But your friends is calling you on your phone right now, check it. What does it say? DUDE (or girl) let's see the new Transformers movie! Wow, someone who wants to see a movie with you, and for that, some who calls you. A family member, a friend, your girlfriend/boyfriend, your family, your kid(s) or even maybe your boss who has a weird taste of movies and wants to bang you wants to see Transformers: Age Of Extinction with you. You haven't seen the movie  by now, probably because..

1. You don't like these Transformers movies
2. All the negative reviews restrain you from seeing the movie
3. You do want to see the movie, but you don't have time to do so. Or..
4. You're too broke to see a movie. 

Which ever of those is your reason, you're here to see a movie to be entertained, but with seeing this movie that is uncertain. You're unsure whether you'll like this movie or not. But you don't want your partner to be disappointed and made them feel their efforts unappreciated because they brought you to see a bad movie. So you'll want to like this movie and fight the urge to hate it. I hated this movie, fans of the film hated me because I hated the movie. But let it be me, the amateur blogger that gave this movie a D score, help you like this movie. Together, we will explore the ways of..

How NOT To Hate "Transformers: Age Of Extinction"

Now you might think this is like a very comedic blog, like I'm to pull off an Honest Trailers  on you. No, I'm being serious, I am definitely trying to help you. So without further ado, here we go.. 

Erase all memories of the first three films!

Erase all of them! That means there should be a giant X here.

Many have complained that this movie is practically a carbon copy of the first three, and by many I mean many. It's true, I saw it myself. But you might feel lucky if you haven't seen the first three, or you have but you couldn't remember them. You'll actually find the unnecessary humor necessary, it's like hearing the joker for the first time. You wouldn't mind that the fight scenes are restless, because this is your first time seeing one. You wouldn't find Mark Wahlberg's character's daughter a clone of Sam Witwicky's blonde girlfriend from the third film. In fact, you might actually care about the new batch of Autobots.

Be Creative!

If you don't what this is, you're lucky.

So you might find the fight scenes exhausting, the dialogues so stupid, T.J. Miller looks so stupid. Simple, just be creative. You find Mark Wahlberg's voice funny? dub his dialogue with your's, come up with something more interesting than what they're saying. You see his character's daughter looking so typical-slutty-Bayfied-girl, actually take time to appreciate her.

Remember her?

This is her now.

Everyone hated her on The Last Airbender as Katara, maybe it's time to give her credit that she finally bloomed as person and as an actress. While her acting isn't so good in this film, it's not as bad from her film with M. Night Shawarma. 

The Crusade

Now this one isn't originally mine, but it came from YouTuber Jeremy Jahn's review of the film, which you can check out below. His wisdom of words are as follow.

"..this is Michael Bay's mission in life, just to show people that they can get bored watching things blow up. Maybe he's this crusader, he's like I wanna make be a good filmmaker but people really just run after BS just because of this visual effects. so i'm gonna make a visual effects orgy of garbage so people can be like, Hey! maybe I don't like that. Michael bay's a crusader, he's doing it for better films.."

At the end of the day, it will always be your choice. If you've seen the movie and you hate it, it's okay. Be honest with your partner, but don't be so rude to him/her. After all, they made this effort to hangout with you. Maybe write a bad review about it one the net, and leave it as it is. Don't let it get to your head, don't let it ruin your day. If you however, did like this movie even without hesitating to hate it, then it's good for as well. Don't mind what other people think, if you feel that reading other people's critique of the film will unleash your inner fanboy/girl and put yourself on the rage cage. If you think you can, handle it with class. You can comment you disagree with a review, but don't be an ass. don;t let your emotions get the best of you, be reasonable to yourself and to others. Make this decision if you'll want to see the movie, if you don't want to see the movie, if you'll want to see it again or not and stand by that decision. If you see someone being a dick because of his/her hatred to the film, show him what's class and be the better person. at the end of the day.. 

it's just a movie and it will not hurt you. 

If you have any other ideas to how to hate this movvie less, let me know at the comment section below.

Transformers: Age Of Extinction now in theaters. 

Check my review of the film HERE

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Transformers: Age Of Extinction MOVIE REVIEW

Enough is enough!

The day comes when a nostalgic franchise is rebooted to the big screen with a specific film so promising, the studio just milks it out with disastrous and lackluster sequels. After Dark Of The Moon, I was pretty sure that we all deserve a break from Bay's Transformers franchise and we did, about 3 years. we were all convinced enough is enough. Their say? Screw everyone who thinks so! let's make another Transformers movie almost no one ever wanted and very little cared about. And who's dumb enough to see it after all the hate? ME and every other Crtic-wannabe like me out there who are curious about this film.

Going to this film, I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking by Transformers standards. I knew exactly what i was going to see; human characters that I'll never care about, a story so big and so dumb, robots fight to the death and explosions, explosions, Explosions, EXPLOSIONS, EXPLOSIONS. Oh, and unnecessary humor too. Well, this movie gave me all of them and TOO MUCH of them. 

The films has several different plot points:

Mark Whalberg's Cade Yeager, a single father and struggling inventor trying his best to give a better life for his daughter Tessa, played by Nicola Pelts, who is secretly having an affair with race car driver Shane Dyson, played by Jack reynor. Doing so, he accidentally discovers a wounded Optimus Prime and thus brings us to..

Optimus Prime reuniting the remaining Autobots; Bumblebee, Hound (John Goodman),

Crosshairs (John DiMaggio) and Drift (Ken Watanabe). Together with the humans they must stop a new villain arising in the form of..

Lockdown (Mark Ryan), a rouge Decepticon bounty hunter and the most promising villain of the franchise. Who has teamed-up with a paranoid government official Harold Attinger. Together, they hunt down the remainin Transformers in our planet and held them responsible for the events that occurred in Dark Of The Moon which basically destroyed Chicago. But they also got some big help from..

The business tycoon Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) and his technological firm Kinetic Sciences Institute (KSI). Who is working to revolutionize technology by making man-made Transformers. Which includes Galvatron (Frank Welker), which carries fragments of Megatron's mind, leader of the Decepticons. 

That's four different plot points and I'm not going to give out the fifth, yes there is a fifth sub plot. That sounds way too many for just one film to handle, and yes it is too many. The film had so many human characters that we all never cared about and yet we see most of the film's perspective through their eyes. Which is bummer 'cause WE JUST DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM. Marky Mark may have been the best actor of this movie, but even his performance can't cover up his co-stars flat acting abilities. 

But when the film delivers us the action, they GIVE us the action. BUT, there's just too many of them. Five Autobots and how many Transformers are with Lockdown and Galvatron? I can't even remember and i lost count, because there's just TOO MANY OF THEM. Might sound sweet, that means more robots fighting to the death, no it's not. It's exhausting and it's like the Energizer Bunny of summer action flicks, it doesn't want to stop when it needed to stop. You can simply watch the fight scenes cut into different parts when someone uploads it on YouTube and you wouldn't care what the story is about. Just don't watch them all at the same time, you might not believe all of them came from the same movie. 

Overall, the film just felt it dragged when it shouldn't be. It's really hard to be entertained with something that just goes way too fast and cram up everything to your face witha  movie that felt like it was more than two-hours long. Was it better than the first Transformer  movie? That depends, but maybe not for me. How about Revenge Of The Fallen? Yes it is better than that crap-fest. This film feels a lot like Dark Of The Moon, it's way too long with way too much things to tackle. It's either they didn't manage their time or they couldn't decide which plot point is a better story to tell.

This movie is completely unnecessary and I still stand by my statement about the film, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. 

(+)

Cool looking action

Lockdown's the most promising villain of this franchise

(-)

Way too long

Way too much

Just stop, please. 

Score: D

See Transformers: Age Of Extinction in theaters June 27.

"X-Men: Days Of Future Past" MOVIE REVIEW

After being busy for the past couple of weeks, I have finally seen X-Men: Days Of Future Past. The film's been out for awhile, and waves of positive reviews has already hit the web. The question is, what else is there for me to say? Well, let's find out, shall we.. 

Days Of Future Past is the glue to every X-Men movie out there. From the (very) best to the (very) worst of the franchise, the film's main purpose is to re-write its history intending to keep the good parts and taking away the terrible ones, no matter what the cost is. 

Out of all the X-Men movies, Days Of Future Past puts its focus on every aspect of the story and every essential characters of the film. Making it more plot and character driven, as opposed to being an extravagant fireworks display. Don't worry, the movie has a solid story to tell, a pretty compelling one. But you'll have to be patient enough to sit through that till the next fight scene/action sequence. 

The best characters in this movie (in my opinion), is hands down 70's Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and 70's Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender). Whatever chemistry they had way back in X-Men: First Class that got you invested with these two characters even more than their present day counterparts, it's all back. Not saying Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen didn't did good in their parts, because they did, but the former two are just undeniably better.

Now for the million-dollar-question, is Days of Future Past still Wolverine-Club-House? well, yes it kind of still is. But you just can't deny that Hugh Jackman is still doing a great job as The Wolverine. Too bad you don't get to see him much in action though. Jennifer Lawrence does a very good job of portraying a more mature and driven Mystique, making her far more than just the blue-chick with hot legs from the previous X-Men movies. The biggest surprise of this movie is easily Quicksilver. Whatever bad things i've said to him, I take it back. Honest, you'll just have to see the film to find it out yourselves. 

Some old faces are back, including new ones as well. But most of them are under used as characters. Which in truth, they are more like expendable mutants, what I call The X-pendables. Seriously, some of them are just there to be there and the others are just there to die. You know Sunspot? yeah the guy that got ****** up by Sentinels, yeah that's him. What an introduction to the silver screen. 

The main complain one can find about this movie is that there isn't much action scenes in it, and from the story's perspective it's pretty understandable why. 

The Sentinels, is as of today, the most dangerous villain(s) of the franchise. From head to toe, their soul purpose is to destroy mutants, and even humans that are destined to create mutants. With the set of powers they have, it's only logical to run in the opposite direction when one is approaching you. To win this war you don't fight the Sentinels, you run and think of something, which is what this movie does. Even if you hate them for killing The X-pendables, you just can't resist of liking them, because they are pretty good on what they are made to do. 

The movie did have a great story to tell, the only thing that pulled me out of the experience is the continuity errors. Too many unanswered questions with too many more questions to come that you'll hope be answered in the sequel. 

This film has a lot of nods to the previous films. Also the original score from X2: X-Men United  is back, hanks John Ottman! The special effects are look pretty good as well, though not sure if watching this in 3D will add the experience. 

X-Men: Days Of Future Past differs itself from any other comic book movies of this year. With a compelling story, great characters and a few but breathtaking fight scenes, this is easily the BEST X-Men movie to date.

(+) X-ceptional story with (+) X-cellent ensemble cast, but has some 

(-) pretty bad continuity errors

(+) X-travagant action, but (-) very few of them

Blanced with (+) X-traordinarily great characters, and (-) The X-pendables.

A+

"RoboCop (2014)" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years - and it's meant billions for OmniCorp's bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) - a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit - is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

The Review

What's up with Hollywood and remakes? I mean sure they go for the dead franchises (most of the time) and reinterpret them for the modern and contemporary audience. RoboCop was a classic way back 1987, but the sequels, the comics, the animated series that came after, let's just say every fan, everyone and everybody wanted to forget those existed. So why a remake? did anyone asked for it? how good was this remake?

Like my review of the original movie, let us first talk about the hero himself, RoboCop. Believe it or not, there's not much difference between with Alex Murphy. He feels very familiar to those who knew him way back, which is a good thing. He's badass, a very relatable family-guy. The only difference is that we get to see more of his human elements throughout the movie. It's a very good aspect for Alex Murphy, but maybe a problem for RoboCop. Way back at the classic film, almost every human aspect of RoboCop was stripped away from him entirely, with showing very little emotions at very little given time. This movie's RoboCop however is the opposite of that. He's still a man, fighting for his humanity all throughout the film under some circumstances. He's a Robo-Man-Cop, having an identity crisis of his own of who's in control; the part man or the part machine? Despite of this re-imagining, actor Joel Kinnaman still brings a spectacular performance as both characters. 

The action sequences is top-notch and very entertaining. The story, despite having similar themes to the original, is very different. First there is the PG-13 rating which makes this movie friendlier than the original, and yes you can have your 8 year old kids see this movie in the theaters. With that being said, the rating did however limited the movie's potential for grit. The themes of corruption, social displacement, authoritarianism and the biased media is still there but was never given any chance to be fully prominent making this universe seem less dystopian. The exploration of the human element in this movie is that aspect of the story that did stand out, making you like and care about the characters that you should like and care about, and hate the characters that you should hate. Though maybe it's not enough make-up for the constant lacking of this film, and talk about that anti-climatic ending.

Thankfully, the special effects and the production design isn't as problematic as everyone thought it would be. A few nods to the original franchise can bring a smile to a few faces. The cast did the best they could for this flick. 

Final Verdict

Overall, there's not really much about this film. Sure it's lightyears better than RoboCop 2 and beyond but it's still an enjoyable popcorn-flick.The movie has enough to get you invested with some of the characters, the story did it's best and did well for trying to be different and new.  When you're gonna do a remake, atleast do it like RoboCop. Don't just remake the whole thing, re-interpret it in ways that is fresh and new to the audience. Hoped it had a little more effort to it, but there is always room for improvement, hopefully when a sequel gets made. 

"The LEGO Movie" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

The LEGO (R) Movie" is the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO (R) adventure. The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet (Chris Pratt) an ordinary, rules- following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.

The Review

Wise men has foretold, and by wise men, I mean the internet, that a movie about a toy product who has brought major improvements on children's imagination and has brought severe pain to those adults who didn't mean to step on one. It's easy to see by the trailers you can call this a promotional stunt or as good ol' Macklemore said it "getting tricked by business." But by being familiar to the product itself, is actually fundamental for the viewers to fully appreciate this one of a kind experience. 

The movie revolves around Emmet, who is pretty much one of those super generic LEGO minifigures, with all of his generic-ness he's actually a lovable and funny character. Not only that, but you are fully invested with the adventures he has to live through and it's fun seeing him go with it. But what are adventures without great companions, Wyldstyle's fun, may start off as your generic-ass-kicking female character like Jessica Biel's Melina from Total Recall, but you'd be surprise how there's so much more to her character as the movie progresses. We also have Batman, probably the most recognizable of the bunch, who's dark and broody for the sake of being dark and broody, with that being said you really liked how he was portrayed in this movie. Vitruvius, Spaceman Benny, Craggy, Bad Cop/Good Cop and Uni-Kitty, there's no way you'd not like them at all. The voice acting also adds up to characters as well. You won't know the cast is star-studded and you'd probably wouldn't care when you're invested at these characters and how perfectly they were portrayed. Who knew Jonah Hill was Green Lantern and Channing Tatum was Superman? who knew?

The effects in this movie may not be at the caliber of those of Disney's, but are done right. It's all 3D but are done in a manner that it would look like stop-motion animation. It's pretty hard to get by it at first, you'd have to sit back for a couple of minutes so your eyes can adjust but once they do sink in it's all pretty good. The story as well is great, who knew a movie like these would even have a story? It's made for kids but you wouldn't think of that. It's funny on many parts, it has those moments that hits you right into your very soul. The story also plays on the fact that is has very generic tropes and makes fun of those tropes. Plus the endless pop culture references that would respective geeks and fans giggle with every smile reaching their ears. But with so much in this movie, you can't help the feeling that it's dragging in time. Most are worth the time, a few can just be simply removed and no one would noticed. 

Final Verdict

This movie, I find, has that Wreck-It-Ralph pop-culture reference type trope and has that The Matrix chosen one storyline. Generally, the story is nothing new, how it was executed was the one that convinced me (and probably you) that this is the first great movie of 2014. It's fun, heartening, it has a great message that everyone can be creative in so many ways possible, thanks to LEGO. Everything about this movie is truly awesome. 

"JLA Adventures: Trapped In Time" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

"Get ready for a battle of the ages when the Justice League faces off against its archenemies, the Legion of Doom, in an all-new movie from DC Comics. A mysterious being known as the Time Trapper arises, and a sinister plan led by Lex Luthor sends the Legion of Doom back in time to eliminate Superman before he becomes a hero and inspires others to do the same. For [members of the Justice League], along with teen super heroes Karate Kid and Dawnstar, the stakes have never been higher, the rescue mission never deadlier. So join the fight for the future as the Justice League confronts its ultimate challenge… the threat of having never existed!"

The Review

To be quiet honest, I thought this was going to suck horribly. You look at the cover art, read the title (I'll get to that later) and just skim through the synopsis, there's no way this movie is going to see the day it will have a much more wider release. After seeing the movie, the final product is quite surprising. 

The film opens up with a big battle between the Justice League vs. the Legion of Doom, it's very entertaining, action-packed and surprisingly engaging. The only things that could probably pull you off the experience is the terrible character designs and the terrible animation. You also have the very campy portrayal to the characters; design and dialogues wise. Jump into the introduction to the two REAL main characters of this movie: Karate Kid and Dawnstar. Karate Kid is your generic hot-head teenage metahuman with the powers of you-guessed-it and Dawnstar is your generic naive soon to be super heroine with pretty inconsistent powers that we can consider as quick-fix for certain plot points (you'll know what I mean when you see the movie). So these two are Legion of Superheroes-rejects for reasons so obvious and their crave for an unforgettable adventure came to be because you-guessed-it. The villains, damn those villains aren't they just as campy as the heroes? 

To be quite honest, the movie does have an interesting plot and a well written script. but for its short time frame limited the movie's potential for character development and escalation. It's either campy in a very good way or campy in a very bad way. which was unnecessary since they're trying to tone this down for younger audience. Also, some characters are terribly side-lined to the point that they're useless. For that matter, the entire Justice League is side-lined, Karate Kid and Dawnstar are the real stars of this flick, and that is not a good sign. Which makes the title very misleading, it's a JLA movie with the JLA barely in it, plus it's called Trapped In Time but NO ONE is really trapped in time, which makes it even more confusing.  


The Final Verdict

I don't really have that much to say for this film. It clearly has a target audience, the young ones and the young at hearts. The best way to describe this is that this is a Super Friends episode made for today. If you're not in for that kind of stuff, then this flick is not for you. Maybe if they take this more seriously, maybe you'll like it or have more interest of seeing it. 

"Justice League: War" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

When the powerful Darkseid and his massive, relentless forces invade Earth, a group of previously unaligned super heroes -- misunderstood and, in some cases, hunted by the authorities -- discover the only way to fend off the attack will be to work together as a cohesive unit. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Shazam and, in his origin story, Cyborg combine their respective talents in an all-out battle to save the planet.

The Review

For all its faults and short comings, you can't deny the fact that this is the most action-packed DC Animated Original Movie ever crafted. Director Jay Olivia, director of this movie, also happens to be the storyboard artist in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. And if you didn't know, that movie almost had 40-plus minutes of non-stop fight scenes, onslaughts, the unsettling visualization of urban terrorism that goes on and on and on... for 40-plus minutes, but damn they do have iconic shots and moments of its own. War has something similar, but less haunting and more entertaining. It also takes its time to stop and let the viewers breathe and it delivers when asked for more. But what really makes the action sequences work was to see our heroes giving almost everything they've got to take down the bad guys. I guess the animation department didn't want to go to the extreme violence though. You know Batman should have been dead with that strike, you know Wonder Woman should bleed a lot after that attack and somehow looks like everyone doesn't have a single scratch on them. 

The story itself is pretty basic. Like the source material, you can just simply look at the cover and predict almost 85% of the story. Alien invasion, heroes come together to stop the invasion, heroes saves the world, been there, done that. Though it does invest the viewers that 7 superheroes can fit in one movie. The group had excellent chemistry, surprisingly not everyone acted immature against the each other. Divided with their own tandems, everyone was given the chance to shine. My two favorite tandems would probably be Shazam/Cyborg and Batman/Green Lantern, the latter being the strongest one, character and story wise. There's also a few missed opportunities that you can spot here and there, when it comes to character interaction and development. Practically, the build up was enough but could have been more, but it somehow pave way to the forthcoming non-stop action sequences after sequences, in which in all honesty is what everyone will be looking for. Individually, everyone seems to be just as similar as how they were written in the source material, except for Shazam who was never in the comics. The dialogue though is a hit and miss. Sometimes it's powerful, others is flat and powerless and the rest is plain cheese. It's also good to point out the almost perfect portrayal of the main antagonist of the film, Darkseid, his enormous size, his threatening presence and his insane strenght and power has pushed everyone to their limits in terms of brute force. Somehow, you wished he would have pushed them more, like in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse where he was also portrayed as very malevolent towards his opponents.   

Not much to say at the other departments. The musical score is passable, not memorable though. The voice cast is superb, but wasn't given enough chance to stand out mostly because of the hit and miss dialogue. The film is bright and colorful and definitely less gruesome than Flashpoint Paradox, a film you can't just show to kids. But still be mindful of the violence at hand, and a few colorful dialogues as well. Adding up to the experience was the superb animation, though the ridiculous cell-shaded 3D objects and a few errors are still present.

The Final Verdict

This is basically the eye-candy of the DC Animated Original Movies. It's action packed, the characters had good chemistry on them, some iconic shots taken directly from the pages. Though the story plot is pretty simple and basic and the dialogue feels lukewarm. But still, this is a flick worth definitely checking out, highly recommend to pick this up on Blu-Ray when it's out.

Also, if I can get invested with 7 superheroes coming together on the screen and have an action packed, well written story on an hour and a half animated film, I could msot definitely had something better with a 2-plus hour long live action flick and add more improvements than the animated flick. So here's message for you guys...

"The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.

The Review

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit considered to be a timeless tale and its success a pinnacle to the fantasy genre. Successful enough for the author to work on it's sequel, Lord Of The Rings considered to be THE greatest among them. Less than a century later, Hollywood's live-action adaptation of Lord Of The Rings astounds the entire world, becoming one of the best trilogies of all time. But what of The Hobbit?

At this point, it is obvious that the book will be separated into three films; first act (An Unexpected Journey), second act (The Desolation of Smaug) and the third act (There And Back Again). The separation has it's advantages and sadly some disadvantages as well. Like the first installment, their's no doubt An Unexpected Journey and this film dragged at times. Their also seems to very little character development as the movie takes its time to fill in enough for the one you're watching but would leaving sufficient material for the next one. But Director Peter Jeckson has a few answers for the gaps that includes additional characters, plot points and over-exaggerating a scene or two, actually quite a few of them. 

One of the best things about the film is the cast. Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) was surprisingly one of the highlights of the movie, expanded with her growing romance with Kili (Aidan Turner). Also, Legolas is back. Yeah? remember that guy Hanna Montana (or Miley Cyrus before she turned into a Bizarro-version of herself) used to really crush on? Yeah, Orlando Bloom! He's back as Legolas. Younger, more agressive and surprisingly a jackass just like his old man, Thranduil (Lee Pace). Also, Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt) the skin-changer had very little screen time in this film. Then there's Bard (Luke Eavns, Orlando Bloom v.2) who did a pretty good job in his role, but surprisingly had more to do in the film than in the book. Lastly, we have the undeniably (one of, if not the) best dragon in a live-action film; Smaug, brought to life by Benedict Cumberbatch. Even if only being present in the third act of the film, Smaug has given enough suspense of being malevolent not only to Bilbo and the pack, but also to the audience as well. You think it's funny how a CG dragon is the best character of the movie, wait till you see the movie itself. 

Even if the certain aspect was received with mixed reviews, I would personally say that the 480 fps worked perfectly for this film. The film looking brighter than ever, thus reminding us the tonal difference of this film from The Lord Of The Rings. The film has also spectacular set pieces and landscape shots of New Zealand just looks gorgeous as you could remember it. Gladly, the movie had more action sequences in it. The filmmakers though has decided to over-exaggerate these scenes. Which in the viewer's perspective, could either add up the entertainment value or just seem to over the top and a bit out of proportion. Also, the movie has top-notch CG but no need to elaborate that, we already knew it since the first film. 

Final Verdict

With the second act of the booked stretched to have its own first, second and third act, Desolation of Smaug still feels hauled yet satisfying enough as a filler between the first film and the third film. There is enough goodies to entertain Tolkien fans, but casual viewers might feel that unlike The Lord Of The Rings films, there isn't enough material three films. Honestly, there could have been just two films. 

Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt and Stephen Hunter. "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug" is directed by Peter Jackson. The film is produced by Peter Jackson, Carolyne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug opens in theaters on December 13, 2013. 

"Thor: The Dark World" Movie REVIEW

Synopsis

Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, ashe battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

The Review

We've seen great superhero movies and terrible ones, Director Kenneth Branagh's 2011 epic "Thor" falls somewhere in between in those lines. It wasn't spectacular yet it's not a terrible movie. Thor had so much potential but with a rushed production, it came short on many aspects. That movie was "okay" for me, so I wasn't expecting much for this year's sequel. Back to the real question, how was the movie "Thor: The Dark World"? It was "okay". Let me elaborate.

With the 2011 film leaves room for growth and improvements for the sequel, Director Alan Taylor and the team did took their time and bigger budget given to them by the studio to surpass the first film. The change of director is clearly visible through the style of how the film was shot. The set pieces got some major improvements, Asgard looks more lively, functional and realistic in this movie whereas it seems the realm was lifeless and unpopulated in the first film. In short, Asgard looks more beautiful in this film. Granted I didn't see the movie in 3D, but the effects looks really promising on this film, probably one of this film's biggest selling point.

The cast did a pretty fine job. You'd be surprised how little screen time some of the other characters have, but it's understandable since it's a requirement of the plot that the main focuses would be Thor, Jane Foster and Loki. The actors who played these respective roles did there job done well. We see some characters grow from the previous releases. But there were no major improvements on their performances, nothing that we hadn't seen in Thor or in the 2012 mega-blockbuster The Avengers. 

Given the fact that this film had troubles way back in productions, some fear that it has left scars for the movie. Gladly in spite of its short comings, Thor: The Dark World still delivered enough goodies for fans and movie goers to enjoy. For starters, the movie was given a dark premise and the film heads on to a more serious tone as it should be. The action scenes was visually pure eye-candy; good editing, promising angles and a well choreograph throwdown. Unfortunately, it was the heart that was lacking in this movie. You feel that you should be engaged by the level of the impending threat, the drama that comes and even the villain itself Malekith (we'll get to him later). But you don't feel that engaged to this film as you should be. Then comes the part where most fans complain about some recent Marvel movies (I'm looking at you, Iron Man 3!) the humor. Thankfully the film has less humor than it should, but still features some unnecessary jokes that weren't even funny at all and some just felt forced. Now there's Malekith, who isn't even as threatening as our favorite Marvel villain, Loki. Just be honest, you'd still prefer the God of Mischief over the dark elf. 

This movie doesn't really had much easter eggs in it. Be sure to stay to the mid-credits as we are introduced to an semi-thrilling yet dull looking introduction for Marvel's next film "Guradians of The Galaxy". The end credit scene, was just pure cheese fest, passable if you didn't really care about Thor-Jane relationship. Also, there is one cameo appearance that I didn't expect to see, but I sure did enjoy a lot. 

Final Verdict

With our future Marvel movies aiming to be more family friendly and humor-filled, Thor: The Dark World was a well balanced film in term of tone, but lacks the heart as a movie itself. You feel like the movie avoided to be so bad but it didn't wanted to be the best. Sometimes, being just good isn't good enough. But if their's one thing this movie succeeds is that it surpassed it predecessor on many levels. 

Starring Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, “Thor: The Dark World” is directed by Alan Taylor. The film is produced by Kevin Feige, while executive producers are Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Victoria Alonso, Craig Kyle and Nigel Gostelow. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Thor: The Dark World opens in theaters on November 8, 2013.