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. 

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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.

Batman Vs. Robin MOVIE REVIEW

Batman Vs. Robin is a direct-to-video animated film which is part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. It is a direct sequel to last year's Son Of Batman. Voice actors Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allan, David McCallum and Sean Maher reprise their respective roles.

In the film, Batman and Robin continues to clash in regards to their trust issues with each other. In the midst of the struggle is the re-emergence of an old-school local criminal secret society, the Court Of Owls. Batman and Robin must then decide if they are to face the threat as a unified team or to give-in to the Court Of Owls schemes of turning the dynamic duo against one another.

Batman Vs. Robin has undeniably improved from its predecessor. The film tries to be a bit more focused on having the audience by into the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Damien Wayne, who is Batman and Robin respectively incase you didn't know, as opposed to how Son Of Batman did it, which felt it dragged on for centuries. Most of the main plot points were fleshed out just fine. Do keep in mind that the film is extremely focused on Batman and Robin so they take the lion's share of the film's attention, sorry Nightwing and Alfred fans. 

Now I don't really have any problems with the characters and how they were written, except one, Damien Wayne. I don't know, I'm just not a fan of this kid. Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy Son Of Batman that much.

The animation is still top notch, though most character designs seems a bit off. The voice actors did a great job, it's like they're aware that they're aware that they have to do better than last time and they certainly did. 

Director Jay Oliva usually hits the mark on directing animated fight scenes, which is a lot in this film. The final 20 minutes or so (I lost track) was just an endless onslaught of fight scenes and each fight scene keeps getting better than the last.

Now of course, we wouldn't call this movie Batman Vs. Robin if there wasn't any fight between Batman and Robin. Though I'm not gonna tell you who won the fight, it was still very satisfying to see. Compare to the final fight between Batman and Red Hood in Batman: Under The Red Hood, this fight is a tad bit shorter but is still packed.

While I wouldn't call this as one the finest DC Animated films, Batman Vs. Robin still did a good job at improving from its predecessor. I would say it could have been more, but at the same it could have been worse. It's a fun time for Bat-fans and a must have for any fan boy out there. 

(+)

Intense fight scenes

Better writing

Moderate entertainment value

Almost unapologetic brutal and obscene

(-)

Felt longer

Score: B

Batman Vs. Robin arrives at April 14, 2015

Run All Night MOVIE REVIEW

Big thanks to Warner Bros. Philippines for giving the chance to see this movie. 

Run All Night is an action-thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Starring Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Common and Ed Harris.

This film features your typical grim, hammered and withered-Liam Neeson that we've been seeing since Taken. Whose going through his typical guilt-driven emotional dilemma caused by his very dark past. What I'm trying to say is Liam is still playing the same role and has been going with the same thing ever since still in this movie. 

It's given that the film's going to be typical and cliched, but the golden the remains, is this movie part of Liam Neeson's list of good films or bad films? Let me elaborate.

A lot of the supporting cast didn't really stick, but still did fair. Joel Kinnaman was pretty legitimate on what he was appointed to do, which could have been really compelling, but for Joel's part there's not really much to own with a middling character. And then there's Common, does it really have to be Common? Then again, why not?

The story's pretty much what you've imagine or guessed just by reading the title. It's very simple, easy to follow, the grit was necessary. Some of the dramatic parts, well, most of the dramatic parts wasn't really as fascinating as it should, but it's not what we came for. 

We came for the action, the suspense, and more non-stop action. Nothing really ground breaking, but are definitely breath taking, thrilling and utmost entertaining. 

The practical effects are stunning, but it's the CGI that almost killed the experience. And what's with the flying camera shots? Whose idea was to put a GoPro on Superman and put him in charge on filming? There's even this one particular action scene where the camera's shaking like hell.. Was the camera man having spasms? That's just mean for whoever put the guy in charge. 

What I'm trying to say is, if you have seen movies like Taken (all of them), Non-Stop, Unknown, The Grey and such, you've probably already seen 70-80% of Run All Night. But to answer the question, yes, it's still a very entertaining movie.

(+)

Liam Neeson kicking butts

Pretty fair cast ad characters

Dark and twisted, with some sense of humor

(-)

Absurd screenplay

Lack of challenge 

Ineffective drama

Score: C

Run All Night opens at March 12 in Philippines cinemas everywhere.

Jupiter Ascending MOVIE REVIEW

Destiny, The Wachowski edition.

Jupiter Ascending is the 2015 space opera film directed by The Wachowskis siblings. It stars Mila Kunis as housekeeper/caretaker/scrubber-of-toilets Jupiter Jones and Channing Tatum as genetically-engineered ex-military Caine Wise. Here Caine informs Jupiter of her destiny that embarks them on an intergalactic journey. 

It's a good thing I came into this film knowing nothing about it. Isaw no trailer or TV spots, I just stared at the poster for like 30 seconds and try to assets what this movie is about. Turns out that plan was a good idea, because there some cool stuff that's best experienced at first sight. 

We can all agree that the siblings do know how to make a visually appealing movie. Everything looks gorgeous. It's given that the some of the CG stuff looked pretty obvious. But think of it like this, you are watching someone play a video game with a tremendous amount of frame rates at their expense, that's so high it almost looked very real. And the action scenes, definitely worth watching on IMAX. 

I remember watching a YouTube video about different YouTubers discussing the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One of the commentator said that today's film industry were lacking of filmmakers who dares to go bold and original towards ideas, where fresh new concepts where big-budget material like Star Wars itself at its time. The Wachowskis did exactly that with Jupiter's Ascending and I'm really happy about that. 

Now you must be wondering, what's with the Destiny reference? Well like the game, it's fun play or watch someone else play it. Overall it's visually appealing and a really fun experience. But when the game tries to sell you some story, you just don't really care.

The script is where this movie goes way down to the stink hole. The film is filled of layers and layers and layers of backstory and on top of that the main story that at some point we are required to understand and care about, it's just that we can't. I can't point out the reason why, is it because the dialogues are cringe-worthy? Some of the actors looked like they're doing a chore rather than feeling the role? And the others just go way over the top?

All-in-all, Jupiter Ascending is a masterpiece in the visual department. Don't expect more outside that department and the film will become less and less enjoyable the more you think about it. 

(+)

Stunning visuals

Insane action set-pieces

Pretty hardcore film score

(-)

Dreadful dialogue

Uninteresting story

Score: C

Jupiter Ascending now in theaters

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis MOVIE REVIEW

The Aquaman movie we deserve. 

Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis is the sequel to the 2014 DC Animated film Justice League: War. Based from the DC Comics event, it features returning actors Jason O'Mara, Christopher Gorham, Sean Astin, along with new voice actors Matt Lanter, Jerry O'Connell, Nathan Fillion among others. The film is written by Heath Corson and directed by Ethan Spaulding.

The film takes place sometime after War where athlantean Prince Orm wage war against humanity after accusing them of the damages that was made by Darkseid's invasion. Queen Atlanna seeks her first born son Arthur Curry as the only key for peace between the two worlds. Caught in between is the Justice League, who has been inactive as a unit as they continue to pursue their career and lives separately. 

For the easy question, is this a good film? Yes, but let us elaborate more. The film is equal parts Aquaman Begins and Exodus to the Justice League story. Fans who are expecting equal shares of iconic moments for their favorite characters will be slightly disappointed as Aquaman takes the lion's share of the film's attention when it comes to individual characters. Though it should be said that some of the others had their share of iconic moments, just not much. As if the Justice League in its entire was treated as a single character with seven personifications and not everyone was treated equally.

Unlike its predecessor where we were bombarded with non-stop action scenes, this film made a bigger room for the story, build-up, some exploits here and there that could build up to something for future films. The plot about Aquaman's origins can seem basic to some, but in a way is really solid written though obviously limited by the running time. The story that surrounds the League itself is uneven. It is the point in the film where it either drags or catches up really quick, affecting the overall pacing of the film. 

After all the build up was done, the film went on full-blast in releasing all of its action scenes. Almost every one of them heart-pounding, at times brutal and at some point iconic. But with so many time the film focused on the story they manage to show just enough action set pieces, nothing more nothing less, and the climax piece just ended sudden. 

The animation is still top notch, even with a limited budget. There some really sticky cheesy moments at parts here and there. The voice acting is split, it's either the actor is feeling the role or he/she's doing a chore. 

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis still hasn't found the right balance in showing story and action, but has shown potential to being much more if given more time and resources. In itself, it is still exemplary enough to satisfy fans and new comers. Definitely a must see for fans and curious minds, now if only Jason Momoa can show us that Aquaman can carry his own SOLO movie. 

(+)

Aquman Begins

Calculated action

Light humor and drama

(-)

Inconsistent pacing

Overall limited

Score: B+

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis will be available in Blu Ray and DVD in January 27. 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb MOVIE REVIEW

I wished we had a museum like that, or maybe not.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is the second sequel to the Night of the Museum franchise featuring the return of actors Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan along with the late Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams and much more, with director Shawn Levy. We also see some new faces with Rebel Wilson, Dan Stevens, Ben Kingsley and much more.

Let's get straight to the point, what do I think about this movie? It really is not much. Admittedly the film started with a high energy, but somewhere in the middle or in the second act everything was just, dull and sometimes even awkward. The movie had a few scenes that warrants some solid laughs here and there, but you can't help to to notice the gap in between those scenes. It's like waiting 10 minutes or so to laugh that hard again (which isn't really hard as you think) and those gaps are just, dragging.

There were some funny moments too that we've seen in the previous films, or at least that's what I think. To be perfectly honest, I don't exactly know if I was missing something in this film by not remembering much about the previous one. All I remember about Night at the Museum 2 was Amy Adams playing a wax Amelia Earhart, a bunch of Cupids who sounds a lot like the Jonas Brothers or are they the Jonas Brothers? and not much. The first film I remember pretty well. 

There were also some moments that were meant to pull your heart strings and make you roll on the floor and cry or at least make you tear by just a bit, but here's thing. Most of those scenes were at the ending involving what could have been a really powerful farewell. Even the one with Robin Williams felt real, probably because you know what happened to him here in real life making his character's farewell felt a bit personal between him and you and I really like things like that. But after all those what-could-have-made-me-cry scenes, they have to pull off this one scene where every single one of those farewells went completely flat. I tried to look at it in a different perspective and it makes more sense than it did before, but that ain't really much. In my eyes and in my heart, those said scenes just felt powerless on me. 

The movie still had some entertaining action and comedy scenes that will satisfy both the young ones and the young at heart. Some awesome performances and some good CGI and film score. There's this one clever scene that I liked, wasn't the best, but definitely smart.  

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb had all the right elements for a finale, but not enough firepower to be really effective. 

(+)

Great performances

Tidbits of chuckle-fill scenes

Good action set pieces

Promising plot

(-)

So-so overall execution

Ineffective emotional scenes

Dull moments

Score: C+

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb now in theaters.