Marvel's Ant-Man MOVIE REVIEW

So I just found out today that Ant-Man just topped this weekend's box office, but falls short on the estimates. I mean it's a good movie, but can you really blame people for not wanting to see a movie about a superhero named Ant-Man? Their loss though 'cause liked I said, it's a good movie.

The thing is that in every superhero movie, the titular character(s) should always own the show. Thankfully, the filmmakers found a way to make both Ant-Men, Scott Lang (present) and Hank Pym (past), pretty damn great characters to root for. It's nice to see the contrast between these two people and see them interact with one another.There's something these two that makes our extraordinary vision towards superheroes, human. 

Compared to Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Ant-Man is A LOT smaller in scale. But once the viewers are taken into the realms of our tiny superhero, the experience is other-worldly. Often times seeing movies like these in 3D felt unnecessary, but this time seeing it in 3D really adds-up to the experience. 

I also LOVE the way this movie ties into the rest of the Marvel movies. It doesn't feel forced or redundant, it felt natural and flowed perfectly at the time it needed to be addressed and it's fun to see a couple of folks from the previous films show up here on Ant-Man.

It's very unusual for the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 to end with an origin story and with that Ant-Man actually had a quite a bit few tropes that were acquired from the first Iron Man movie. I wouldn't go into details and I wouldn't say it's a bad thing because if it worked for Iron Man then it also worked for Ant-Man. 

I fear that the film will suffer the loss of its original writers Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the former being the original director. Good thing is that it didn't really deteriorate, but the changes somewhat held back the movie. It could have been more witty, some characters could have been written better, this could have been THE definitive action-comedy experience from Marvel, but it still a fine movie. 

There's still a lot of great things about this movie. The cast is spectacular, Paul Rudd (Scott Lang) and Michael Douglas (Hank Pym) are my two favorites. There's some good humor in it and the action/adventure sequences truly are immersive, considering the scope when you really think about it. I mean it's a guy who shrink to a size of an ant and pulls off a heist, to us it looks like tiny ants trying to get tiny bits of your food, but to him it's like Die-Hard meets Guardians Of The Galaxy, even though none of those movies were heist movies but you get the point. 

Like every other Marvel movies, Ant-Man is adventurous, action-packed, comedic at times and above all else, a full fledged fun experience. It may not be a perfect movie, but this film in particular shines above its peers because it tells us that sometimes you don't have to be bigger to be better. 

(+)

Enter the world of the Ant-Man (the Microverse)

The Ant-Men

Wright-ish influences

Great cast

(-)

Wright-less Wright film

Score: A-

Marvel's Ant-Man now showing in theaters.

Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron (SPOILER FILLED) MOVIE REVIEW

CLICK HERE TO READ THE SPOILER FREE REVIEW.

WARNING, THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO READ THE NON-SPOILER FILLED REVIEW. Now don't say I didn't told you so. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron starts out with a very comic book-y, Joss Whedon-y, giant fight sequence between the Avengers vs. what remains of the evil organization H.Y.D.R.A. led by Baron Strucker somewhere in the high a snowy part of Europe. The Avengers mission is to retrieve the Loki's Sceptre from Baron and as they were able to infiltrate the base and knock out Baron, they run in with the Maximoff Twins, Pietro the speedster and Wanda the weird mind bender. As Peitro shows off his ability against some Avengers, Wanda sneaks and messes up Tony Starks mind with vision; the defeat (and perhaps death) of The Avengers after they went on with a round 2 match against the Chitauri. 

Frightened by this, Tony Stark had a brilliant idea on how to prevent such trouble and damage, proceed with the Ultron program with the use of Loki's Sceptre. Because he's Tony Stark, he kept this a secret from his teams mates, except from an dismayed-Bruce Banner and went on to pursue with his plans and thus Ultron is born.

Unfortunately, Ultron (as an artificial intelligence) is displeased with how the humans run the world (or atleast with what he saw) thus set out a plan to make things right, restore peace by eliminating all human life form. So he kills the other artificial intelligence in the room J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers at the Avengers Tower as he caught them off guard. 

The Avengers disassembled (pun intended) Ultron but his consciousness traveled through the internet and this makes every single one of our superheroes mad at Stark. Jumping back to the twins, Pietro and Wanda were contacted by Ultron, now with a new body and promises them that together they will destroy the Avengers.

Team Ultron and The Avengers faced again once more at the cargo ship of Ulysses Klaue, a smuggler on the strongest metal on earth vibranium, which is what Ultron is after for. The Avengers failed to subdue Team Ultron as they got their heads messed up by Wanda with visions. Natasha under going the Black Widow program, Steve with his dream dance with Peggy Carter, Thor with something bad going on in Asgard and Bruce with something that makes him mad. Probably a sad, disappointing and furious face of Betty Ross knowing this growing thing going on with him and Natasha. As Bruce is forced to wreck havoc in South Africa as Hulk, a back-up less Iron Man pursues him with his Hulkbuster armor. Now in what point of time did Tony made this armor and what made him do this armor? I don't know, they never said, just roll with it. 

Because of the incident, The Avengers had to go hiding for a while at a barn which turned out to be Clint Barton's home with his wife and kids, which brings our heroes to an internal turmoil among themselves. Thor temporarily left the team to pursue some unanswered questions from his visions. Nick Fury randomly shows up to be this not-a-director-but-a-concerned-old-man. 

Ultron uses the vibranium to create a new artificial intelligent life form, powerful and bent with his vision. The Avengers knew about this so Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow went on a sparring match with Ultron and his buddies through South 'Korea, or atleast Seoul to steal the Ultron's new A.I. that is still in process. They successfully snatched the packaged and they were able to bring a long a now convinced-that-The-Avengers-are-good-and-Ultron-is-bad Maximoff twins, but Black Widow is kidnapped. 

The Avengers had a small fight among themselves, a sample of a physical confrontation that foreshadows Captain America: Civil War (Captain America v Iron Man, yes it really did happen, but it was short) as they were debating whether it is a good idea to activate Ultron's A.I. and probably use it against him. Thor interferes the fight and activates the A.I. who keeps saying the word vision, thus maybe we should call him Vision. Thor did this because he had some sort of clarity from his premonition, which we never really saw get resolved. Thor concluded that it is okay to trust Vision, since he carried his mighty hammer. 

Steve called it enough, it's payback time and put an end to this. So with all they got, they pursued Ultron who took over Baron's base and terrorizes a city nearby, but before doing so they made sure everyone got out of the city and save Black Widow, or so they thought. Before they could get anyone out, Ultron unveiled his ultimate plan. It is to create a gigantic propeller with the vibranium, carry half of the city into orbit with it and strike the earth down with the floating city like a meteorite in hopes to create an explosion powerful enough to wipe humanity, I kid you not, this is his plan. Thus embarks on a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonngg roller coaster of action, destruction, superheroes vs. robots. 

As you might have guessed it, The Avengers thwarted Ultron and his plan with a little help from Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. who just randomly pop-out of nowhere to help and with them is War Machine. Lots of casualty and one in particular is the life of one of the heroes; Pietro. Yes, it is Pietro who died. Ultron is "killed" by Vision and mission accomplished. 

Sometime has passed, the New Avengers head quarters was formed. Iron Man and Thor left The Avengers, Hulk went missing after the fight with Ultron, which made Natasha sad, and Captain America formed the New Avengers; War Machine, Falcon, Vision, Wanda Maximoff, Black Widow and of course, Captain America. With one epic final shot the last lines (from Captain America) are "Avengers, Assemble!", but before he could say the second word the screen cuts to black into the credit scenes. 

There is no after-credit scene, but there is a mid-credit scene. With Thanos, finally getting his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet and says the words "finally, I will handle this myself.." or something like that. I think I'm paraphrasing it, but I'm pretty sure he said something like that. 

In terms of visual entertainment, I liked this movie a lot. There are a lot of action sequences and a lot to choose from. The final fight was long, very long. I really like the humor in this film, there is a good amount of them. Some of the work, others don't, but that's normal. The characters interactions are top notch, especially the way how they unconventional relate themselves to each other as monsters and how we the audience segregate the good monsters from the bad monsters. 

There are certain things I don't understand though like, why does Ultron hate being related/compared to Tony Stark when he acts, thinks and speaks so much like Tony Stark?

I didn't mind the build-up to the Black Panther movie with Ulysses Klaue, I initially though it was going to feel forcefully stuffed, but it worked out just fine. 

The visions the Avengers had were visually haunting. We get a better look to Natasha's past in the Black Widow program. We get to see Steve feeling incomplete as he really didn't witnessed and experienced the end of the war and also his supposedly dance with Peggy Carter, thus showing him how much of a war freak he is. 

It is those Thor that makes me scratch my head. It is about asgardians partying to their death and Heimdall blaming their impending doom to Odinson. So he went to see Erik Selvig to get some sort of resolution from this that we never got to see. But it did contribute to the story, still this a big question mark on my book. 

Now there's this thing with Black Widow and Hulk. Practically, it wanted to show how tormented these two souls are and shows that they are destructive monsters of the team. But it's hard to get invested with this. But to the grander scheme of things, this just felt random. Not in a bad way though, but let's just say it wasn't as touching and moving as it should. 

I was really pumped up to see the New Avengers and this made me intrigued to see this roster in action. 

Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron hits theaters this April.

Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron (Spoiler-Free) MOVIE REVIEW

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SPOILER-FILLED REVIEW 

After 2 and so years of waiting, we now have the opportunity to witness the first of many (hopefully) sequel to the massive-behemoth The Avengers (2012) and Writer/Director Joss Whedon's swan song to the franchise, Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

This Hulk-sized sequels is jam packed with action, adventure and humor that we all loved from the first film, but now with a dash of dimness with what could possibly the darkest movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2. 

Everyone and everybody just wanna know, is this movie better than The Avengers? Did it exceed all expectations? Now to answer the questions.

Realistically, Ultron failed to recapture the magic of the first film. You know? that feeling of thrill and excitement of seeing our beloved heroes on-screen side-by-side for the first time. For me, this is plainly unfair for the film. This is simply because the film isn't trying to do so. The first scene of the film is one epic action sequence with The Avengers already in the midst of action. No, this isn't the first time you saw them kicking butts, wrecking stuff and exchanging witty banters. As the how the film quotes it, Ultron simply "run with it" and you should too. The magic from the first film is now off the table, Ultron is a different kind of magic. 

In terms of entertainment value, Ultron never felt short in pleasing it's audience. There is a good amount of fight scenes that could pretty much satisfy anyone. You want Iron Man vs. Ultron? Done. Captain America vs. Ultron? Sure. Thor vs. Ultron? Why Not? These and more of it, it's there to punch its way in through your eyes and will blow your mind. 

Oh and did I say the witty banters? Yes, they never go away and they are as many as the punches each Avengers threw. Well maybe not, but you get the point. Writer and director Joss Whedon knew that he needed fire extinguishers to the heat, a tasty snack to cool off the chili and so he delivers. 

The film also took its time to focus more on the relationships and connections between each Avengers and how it contributes to the menacing scheme of the titular villain, Ultron. 

Ultron (James Spader) acted more like Tony Stark's twisted reflection than being the Pinocchio to Stark's Geppetto. It's interesting to see how these face-off each other, both physically and mentally. 

Tonally, Ultron in many ways is similar to the first film, but different on others. It's bigger, bolder, tougher, darker, but with all these changes is still very comfortable on its own skin. It's a very comic book-ish movie and most probably the most out of all the Phase 2 movies and it proudly wears it. 

Now this is where the rest of the disappointment comes from.  

The story itself isn't as solid and focused as one would say. In movies like this, it's hard to become emotionally invested to the grand scheme of things especially in the ones that you should, when they're not selling it to you very well. Why is thing here? Why is this person there? Should I ship this? There are certain elements of the story that just doesn't work simply because they're not earned  and some make you feel the movie is just dragging on and makes you say "I don't care about this" because you simply feel the need to be invested to real deal and not be distracted with this certain plot points that leads to future films, but just makes the movie clustered with more stuff. A person can only chew so much until that person unintentionally spits some of the food and drool with saliva. Plus the final act started with so much energy and power and it never stops until when it ended the whole thing just felt anti-climatic. These are some of the prominent problems or blockbuster movies particularly superhero films and this film did nothing about it, except they just roll with it. 

Between this and the first film, I like Ultron  better. Because visually it's more entertaining, plus the fact that it's bigger and meaner. But bigger and meaner isn't always better I might say. 

So if you're a person who this movie change your mind about your own personal negative thoughts about superhero flicks in general, if you wanted to see a movie that would prove Birdman wrong, there's a good chance this movie might disappoint you. But worry not die-hard and casual fans, Avengers: Age Of Ultron is fun and energetic enough to keep you entertained, thus making it a solid sequel. 

Score: B+ 

Marvel's Avengers Age Of Ultron hits theaters this April.

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

MARVEL STUDIOS' BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3 Announcements THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS

So basically, Marvel Studios has invited a lot of press and fans alike to a mysterious event in Los Angeles that is probably still on going right now as I type this blog.

For those who haven't figured it out, I live in a different continent FAR AWAY from Los Angeles, so as all of these things unfold, I am at my bed quietly taking a power nap. 

But tonight I found a benefit for sleeping really early and then waking up early as well. A good friend of mine sent me a link to keep me updated on that specific event as I watch everything fall into their places, and what have I learned?

Marvel Studios is on a roll tonight!

A total of 9 movies consisting their Phase 3 act for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I'm about to give my thoughts and opinions on this films one-by-one right now because I'm running out of ideas for intros.

First movie on the list is Captain America: Serpent Society...

nah, just kidding, Captain America: Civil War will see the return of Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (Arrested Development, Community, Captain America: The Winter Soldier DUH!), with actor Chris Evans returning as the Star-Spangled-Man-With-A-Plan and taking with him is MCU's resident armored avenger Robert Downey Jr. as.. you know.. Iron Man.

*insert duh! pic here*

Iron Man? on a Captain America movie!? Well to be honest, anything is better than an Iron Man 4 movie at this point. 

With very few heroes with secret identities in the MCU currently, it's interesting to see where will they take this specific story even as many of the comic's pivotal characters are not in Disney/Marvel's grasp, but only time will tell. Maybe some of this studios will change there, or won't.

and then an announcement was made for Doctor Strange, to be directed by Scott Derickson (Sinister, Deliver Us From Evil) starring every-fanboy-wishes-it-will-be-Benedict Cumbervatch-but-let's-be-honest-it's-still-not-confirmed and god knows who else. The film is to be released on November 4, 2016 and was suggested introducing us to the super natural side and parallel dimensions of the MCU. Not much has been announced for this one, will we see Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen? Who's going to be the villain? We'll wait and see. 

The following year will see Guardians of The Galaxy 2 or as some of friends call it the sequel to ther  ooga chaka ooga chaka movie. To be honest, this is the one I'm most confident seeing, probably because as how the first film suggested, it takes place galaxies away from where the heat is going on, so basically that alone gives this film more creative freedom than the others, but a certain Marvel movie might feature our beloved Guardians teaming up with Earth's Mightiest Heroes against a common threat, if you know what I'm talking about.

BTW, Guardians of The Galaxy 2 will see the return of director Jams Gunn and many of its cast, The film is to be released on May 5, 2017.

Taking Guardians of The Galaxy 2's original release date of June 28, 2017 is Thor: Ragnarok, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki respectively. The movie is said to be "the end of all things", well atleast maybe for Thor and his godly friends (and family, maybe even his "girlfriend") and is said to pick up after Avengers: Age Ultron. I don't really have that much to say other than I hope this won't be as mediocre as Thor: The Dark World. Is director Alan Taylor returning though? They don't know so I don't know, but we'll see.

Finally, a Black Panther  movie to be released on November 3, 2017 (MCU's last film for 2017), starring Chadwick Boseman (42). Did anyone see this casting coming? If so, raise your hands, anyone? Exactly! To me this is a biggest surprise. I don't want to speculate too much on this one, I want my mind clear of speculations and expectations for this film, and just let this concept art here sink deep inside my brain as it should...

Let that sink in.

Moving on is Captain Marvel and The Inhumans to be released on July 6 and November 2 of 2018 respectively. 

You might be asking, why are did I put this two together? Well, these two happens to be fillers between Marvel's first two-parter film (or event). Captain Marvel maybe Marvel's answer to WB/DC's Wonder Woman and The Inhumans as replacement for X-Men which are on Fox? Maybe. No directors, writers and actors are announced as of the moment.

And then finally, the biggest event of Phase 3. An event so big they have to divide this film into 2 movies, Avengers: Infinity War..

Much like WB/DC's Justice League, Marvel Phase 3's biggest finisher is a two-parter. Other than the fact that this film will be based on Marvel Comics' The Infinity Saga, but knowing Marvel Studios I'm in for all changes and surprises. So like most of this films, I will clear my head for any speculation, but my expectations are off the roof, and I live in a very tall house. Part 1is to be released on May 4, 2018 and then Part 2 will be released on May 3, 2019. 

Now this is how you make an announcement!

So that's it, Marvel's 10 biggest upcoming movies. Are you guys excited to see all of them? Maybe just some of them? Are you happy we'll be getting 20 SUPERHERO FILMS IN TOTAL from Marvel Studios and WB/DC (excluding other franchises)?

Guardians Of The Galaxy MOVIE REVIEW

Marvel with ADHD... in Space!

(No disrespect to people with ADHD)

Isn't it refreshing to see a Marvel movie that deviates from it's famous franchises like The Avengers, Spider-Man and X-Men? Guardians Of The Galaxy is Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures' attempt to introduce the Marvel Cosmic Universe in a whole new different perspective in the silver screen.

Let me get this one down first. if you're going to the theater thinking that you're going to see the Citizen Kane of Marvel in space? Get out of the theater. But if you happened to enjoy sci-fi movies like JJ Abrams' Star Trek movies or you're expecting something better that is as good but not as epic as Star Wars, you can stay. 

The best way I could describe Guardians Of The Galaxy is like going to your high school field trip. like your history teacher arranged a field trip to the museum that will give you that sensational feeling of visiting historical places that is very essential to the world that you live in. But you would most likely won't remember any of them. Instead, you will hang out with the cool kids on your bus who makes the most fun out of the experience by taking selfies, reliving old stories and old jokes and just clowning around. And when your history teacher gives an exam that is based from your field trip, your best chances of getting a passable score is that essay you have to write about your unforgettable experience with your classmates on the field trip. Which was hanging out with the cool kids who made the most fun out of the trip, taking selfies and reliving old stories and old jokes. 

Let's start off with the cool kids, the Guardians. The focus is mainly on Peter Quill/Star Lord, played by Chris Pratt. Chris is perfect as Star Lord, his attitude and his energy really is the strongest foundation of the group. The other Guardians did have characters of themselves as well and the film did a great job of giving each time to shine on showcasing the skills, talent and chemistry towards each other. Some have back stories that somehow did warmed your heart, others you just don't seem to care. Probably because of the established humor, but will get into that more later. 

The villains in this movie did a great job of demonstrating their overwhelming power, especially Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace. It's just that most them just seem to be there without any solid purpose. So we need a powerful villain, here's who. We need someone to counter Gamora, here's Nebula. Why them? because this and that, why this and that? Well I don't know. Die-hard fans may know, but regular viewers could care less. 

About that field trip, yeah you wouldn't probably care much about that field trip. Even if die-hard fans have cogs inside their brain spinning like crazy when the characters visit places here and their and even with the Easter eggs, regular views might find themselves isolated because even with an explanation they would still want to know most of the answers, it's just that they won't get it here. In the sequels, probably. Theirs a big universe out their, but even the story didn't feel obligated to even just get most of the tip of the ice bergs, making it sort of paper thin. Without the Guardians and some of the other characters, the movie could have been easily boring and forgettable.

But what made this movie totally worth it is the action pieces. They are just epic, amazing and they look great on IMAX 3D. If Star Wars VII can't live up to that then they are in big trouble. Also the humor is surprisingly really good, I didn't have to set my brains to stun like in Iron Man 3 so I could consume the humor. They are calculated, but they do pay-off big time.

The biggest compliment I can give this movie is getting the tone right, which is this film is a fun roller coaster ride. The soundtrack did helped a lot of getting the timbre flowing smoothly. But it bugs me when people at my theater laugh at those scenes where they shouldn't laugh, I don't know if it's my problem or just theirs.

I can say, out of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, this was the one I had MOST fun time with. They are sincere with the grit, the humor is calculated, but like the action when it all goes down they pay-off big time. Even if the film alienate non-die hard fans, they still would enjoy this film a lot. This film wouldn't be as fun without the Guardians and no other Marvel cosmic characters can make this experience as entertaining and lively as Guardians Of The Galaxy.

(+)

The chemistry of the Guardians

When they kick ass

Great humor

Epic action

The Guardians.. (again, I know, they are)

(-)

Big universe crammed in just one movie

Too many unanswered questions

Lack of dramatic touch

Score: B+

Guardians Of The Galaxy now in theaters.

Subscribe to my Blog.

Follow me on Twitter.

Check me out on Moviepilot.com

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes MOVIE REVIEW

Cause talking apes ain't no monkey business.

So it's been a while since we had our last Apes film. While I do agree that MOST of them are great films, the hype of this movie didn't get me too excited to revisit the old movies or even follow every single trailer this movie had. Maybe it's just me who's not a big fan of the franchise, maybe because the franchise as a whole isn't my cup of tea. So by now, you should figure out that this review is coming from someone who is not a big Apes fan. 

Just to let you guys know, I've seen some Apes movies. The first movie, I've seen a long, long long, time ago and I only remember fractions of it. The second I saw was actually Tim Burton's reboot, it was the first Apes film I saw ever. Thankfully I don't remember much about that movie, I remember a scene where Mark Whalberg walks into the Abraham Lincoln statue who's face is replaced with an ape's, then that's about it. The last one, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, however, is undeniably a crafted masterpiece, probably one of my favorite movies of that year. So move on to this latest one, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, what did I think of it? Let me break it down for you. 

The film picks about ten years after the spreading of the Simian Virus or ALZ-113 which occurred during the last moments of the previous film. Since then, a line in the sand was drawn between Ceasar's community of freed apes and the surviving humans, which included; Malcolm (Jason Clarke), Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), Ellie (Keri Russell), Alexander (Kodi Smith-McPhee|) among others. 

Like the previous film, this one takes it's time to establish every character that should feel essential to us and the story that would circulate this entire movie. But unlike the previous one, this had to juggle up between the perspective of the apes and the humans, both tries to keep peace and order but certain acts of paranoia from both parties might put these two into war, so it would determine who is the greater and lesser being. 

Andy Serkis returns as our beloved Mo-cap CG Ceasar, who as the film progresses grows a strong connection with Malcolm. At heart both are similar characters and their connection is just too good to be put into words, I mean seriously, go see the movie now, or at least after reading my review.

I'm just gonna get this down right away because as you can tell by now, I'm lost for words for this movie, it is that great. I know I'm watching and invested on an Apes film when I badly need to pee and I've been holding for more that two-hours or even longer. The movie doesn't even feel like it's two-hours long, because you don't get bored by the fact that this movie never runs out of tensions. Plus when it all finally goes down, IT GOES DOWN. Ape versus ape fight, apes charging while riding horses and using two machine guns, humans fighting back with good old machine guns, I mean seriously, what more do you want?

The entire cast is great, though some are underplayed, all are great. The film looks beautiful. From the revealing shots, the CG mo-cap apes, visually this film is flawless, kudos to Director Matt Reeves, CG masters Weta Digital and the rest of the crew. 

Lastly, I have to be honest, this is like the second time I teared up on a summer blockbuster this year. There's just this scene that will punch you right into your heart and it gets you until every every drop of tear falls down into your eye. Seriously, you have to see it to believe it. 

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is a living proof why there's still hope for reboots. It is THE BEST SCI-FI movie so far, and this one is quite possibly hard to surpass. With it's relevant theme and ground breaking visuals, this has definitely improved from it's predecessor. But I'm pretty sure George Taylor would damn this movie somewhere. 

(+)

Breath-taking storySpectacular castGround breaking visualsHyper realistic CG apesThat climax!

(-)

A few forced expositionsSome nit-pick that I just did above that would probably won't even matter cause this movie is AWESOME!

 Score: A+

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes in theaters now!

Subscribe to my blog

Follow me on Twitter

Check me out on Moviepilot

"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+

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" MOVIE REVIEW

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it's action-packed, drama-heavy, (one of) the best teen-rom chemistry and pure comical adventure. Put them altogether and it's quite a mess.

I must say this one of, if not, my most anticipated movie of 2014. Been waiting for this sequel since the first movie came out in 2012, but before we proceed to my review of this film, let me first discuss my thoughts on the first film.

The Amazing Spider-Man was the re-boot of the franchise that came out way back in 2012. The film had an excellent cast, a good story with a really good twist to it. I ended up enjoying the movie, thinking this is the superior Spider-Man movie. But for some reason, the film isn't staying on me on home video. I started to see the flaws of the film that bothered most of the film's naysayers. 

First off, while the film did have clever fight scenes, but none are as memorable as the ones we've seen before. The film also brings up many question we all hoped will be all answered, but most aren't, which serves its purpose to build up for future sequels. And, the film is just too gritty and dark for Spider-Man. I get that they're trying a more realistic and practical approach to Spidey and even if they delivered well, it just feels odd the more you watch it. 

Now that I have covered the first film in three paragraphs, we now proceed to the matter at hand. 

Right off the bat, let me say that this is the coolest looking movie I've seen so far this year. By any means, the film is a lot more colorful than the first one. This film feels alot more confident about being a Spider-man movie, whereas the first film tries to live under the shadow of Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy. It almost feels like a re-boot of a re-boot. It doesn't feel like a sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man at all, until someone mentions Dr. Curt Connors and the trouble he caused as Lizard. 

The film features Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, who is at the prime of his career as Spider-Man. Granted, the actor never looked 19-20 years old to me or to anyone at the theater, but he has perfectly portrayed a young man who has to deal with his double life as an ordinary college kid and superhero, even if life gets more "complicated". Andrew Garfield IS THE quintessential live-action Spider-Man. This is probably one of the biggest praise I could give to this movie.

Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey is also another hit in terms of acting and as a well written character. Thank goodness she's more than a damsel in distress, and even on a few occasions she is the hero, which makes her even more likable as a leading actress and probably one of the best in all comic book movies. 

The chemistry between Peter and Gwen are actually better than ever. We're talking about some really good teen romance chemistry that has ever been put to screen. There on and off relationship might be one of the reasons this movie drags up a bit, but you just can't get enough of seeing this two together on screen. 

Jaime did a good job portraying Spider-Man's super stalker, Max Dillion. Who then falls victim to an accident which will transform him to the electrifying freak show Electro. Serving as the main antagonist of the film, Electro has showcased his power, and by that, I mean he's absurdly powerful. He has imposed a real and great threat not only to Spider-Man but to the entire island of New York. Seriously, this guy puts whatever Lizard has up against Spider-Man to shame. 

Another great performance was from Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn. He's definitely a better Harry Osborn than James Franco, seriously. And, him turning into the Green Goblin? Way different beast than William Dafoe. This guy is definitely killing it. 

The film does have some iconic fight scenes. Especially the fight scene at Times Square, were Spider-Man and Electro head on the battle of full on power and character, as both characters are portrayed perfectly in the scene and the collision was just brilliant. And, they are really colorful and brighter than ever, not like the first film where you could barely see the light. 

The film's story itself, however, feels bloated, not because it had too many characters, but it had too many plots. The film is goes into different directions, from one plot point to another, it's just all over the place. Sometimes it forgets the importance of each plot points to the point that things just fall short in terms of execution. 

Take the villains for example. This film is two hours long, and with three villains you feel like that length of time should be enough to cover the buildup of each villains. But nope, Rhino was only in the movie for like four minutes, Electro somehow completely disappears from the film in certain point in time and Venom had more screen time in Spider-Man 3 than Green Goblin did here. 

And as I have mentioned earlier, this films does drag. With all these drama, tension and build up, it's really hard to not miss Peter put on that Spidey suit and do his Spidey stuff. It would have been all good all these fillers captures our interest so we wouldn't realize that it is killing our time. But it's hard to not notice that almost have of them are repetitive. 

Would it be better if Peter and Gwen just break up in the first film and this film had Peter struggling to win Gwen back, instead of the on-and-off again route they went that is undeniable cute but repetitive? 

And with all this time killers, it's really disheartening to see the villains be underplayed. Taken, they are really good villains and they are well portrayed, but there's just not enough explorations to these characters to make us invested to their sudden twisted faith. At one point they are troubled souls and in a blink of an eye they are full on hateful super villains, no questions asked. Where's the buildup to these characters? Give us time to actually believe they have good reason to hate Spider-Man.

But with all these troubled build up do come together perfectly in the third act. The film just became more exciting during Spidey's last fight with Electro and then everyone just had chills when Green Goblin comes to take down Spider-Man. The "final fight" was thrilling, even if it was horrendously short. 

And talk about build up, we all know why certain characters that could have been in the movie, shouldn't have been in the movie are in the movie. That is their purpose was to build up for future sequels. This film also feels a bit like Iron Man 2, the film strays away from the actual story to focus on a buildup that contributes nothing to the story, as if the movie would have been better without it. That's marketing crap, you know, when you show 75% of the film in trailers? 

And yes that one scene we all knew coming. Even though we've read it in the comics, even though if it was hinted many times in the trailers, when everything came down, it still hits you hard like the first time. Especially if you're unfamiliar with the comics or trailers, I can hear people at my theater crying and I teared up a bit. Yes, this is the first time it happened in any comic book movies to me. It was a bit different, but perfectly portrayed, yet it still hits you in your gut, really hard. 

The movie is filled with iconic shots, looks like Director Marc Webb learned a thing or two from Zack Snyder. He's also very attached to soundtrack of this film. He wanted the music that would feel as contemporary and kinetic as Spider-Man, and composers Hans Zimmer and the Magnificent Six has come up with the perfect soundtrack for the film. It surely isn't Zimmer's best work compared to others, but it's definitely a step up the previous score of the first film. This film is definitely a must-see in 3D, no questions asked. 

If you're expecting a mid-credit scene, just go when the credits starts rolling. It's just another marketing crap that doesn't really make sense. 

Final Verdict 

If there's one thing we've learned about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is that whenever you make a sequel of something, you always go bigger. But sometimes, bigger isn't always better. If you can look past its obvious short comings and its messy buildup, this film can be something truly Amazing.  

It's disappointing I couldn't give this movie an A, because it doesn't deserve an A. However, I'm relieved that this film will never get my lowest grading. Because no matter how scruffy the story is, this movie is just visually amazing and I loved every single bit of its visual extravaganza and I just can't deny that. That's why I have to give them credit for that. 

You can check out my original fan-made poster I used for this review on my DeviantART account by clicking HERE.