Dracula Untold Movie Review

I had very high hopes for Dracula and I have to say the movie exceeded my expectations.  And that my readers, is not an easy thing to accomplish.  There was one scene in particular where Vlad fights a Turk army as a vampire for the first time which was just thrilling.  Although, truth be told, it was kind of difficult to see what was going on what with the dark atmosphere and quick flashing movements. Still, even considering that it was awesome.  I also liked that they added knowledge of Vlad's background, not just as an adult but the bits about him growing up.  That would make a great story by itself.  Or at the very least someone should write facfiction about it.

Near the end though, and this is a SPOILER, Vlad created an army of vampires.  I don't really see why he needed those people.  People that tried to burn him alive the day before. How could you not expect betrayal in that situation?  I can name one reason Vlad would do such a thing, but even so it was an excessive and unneeded act,  also a stupid and desperate one.  Along with that, I didn't like that he abandoned his child.  Just because he's a "monster" now doesn't mean he can't be a good father.  I can understand his reasoning behind it though.  If Vlad came back for him he'd have been hunted down and treated like a demon.

All in all, Dracula is totally worth watching.  Defiantly a movie to watch again.

The Boy With The Cuck-koo Clock Heart - Movie Review

SPOILERS

In the beginning I could not wrap my mind around this rather unique film.  Things just spiral off in weird dreamlike tangents.  However, as you continue watching the story unfolds and you can't not fall in love with it.  That is until Jack throws his key over the side of a cliff.  The key that keeps his heart working! Just so he could kiss a girl.  Which while a sweet gesture, was horrifying.  Perhaps I should explain the storyline first.  Jack has a clockwork heart obviously.  One that can be easily overloaded if he feels emotions too strongly.  He falls in love with a girl.  Which is totally predictable outcome but hey.  I won't give everything away so you'll have to watch the movie for the rest.

Still, it ends at the cliff scene so be warned.  Normally, I would write off a story like this but the animators did a great job, the music was lovely, and the characters have really large vocabularies that they use to word thing in the most beautiful ways.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 - Movie Review

I didn't expect this movie to be quite so sad.  If you've seen the trailer then you know that Hiccup's mom is in the movie and I'm conflicted about that.  She had been gone for twenty years. For a good cause yes, but was there really no way for her to check up on her family?  Not once in that amount of time?  Despite that, everyone forgives her instantaneously.  I don't think I would have let it go so easily.  Eventually, sure, but only after more extensive questioning of motives.  Besides that, there were parts of the movie not well thought out or fully explained.  I don't want to give too much of the plot away, however, so I'll leave it at that.  Personally, there were several aspects of the movie I would have liked to see expanded on.  One particular character for instance catches my interest.  A movie, or mini-movie about his life would be an interesting tale.  Furthermore, he seemed to be more of an afterthought than anything else.  And, Hiccup's relationship with Astrid was practically non existent.  A lot more was done with the parents than anyone else, even though they had less screen time together than others.

There were many awe inspiring scenes, most of course involving the dragons, which by themselves make the movie worth watching. Counteracting that were quite a few depressing scenes and humor taken almost directly from the first movie.

Dragons 2 is a good movie, not the greatest maybe, but still good.  I would watch it again.

Edge of Tomorrow - Movie Review

Definitely worth seeing, Edge of Tomorrow is my new favorite action film.  Though, not quite what I expected it more than exceeded my expectations.  I had heard from my brother that some people didn't like the ending and that worried me a bit.  Things were looking dire but I loved the eventual outcome.  Truthfully, based on the commercials, I expected more romance however there was little.  The main characters only kissed once or twice that I recall and even then it was right before one or both of them died.  So, romance wise this movie is a no.  Action wise, hell yes!  There are so many awesome fight scenes.  I would have liked to see more on the island itself with Cage's team but as a whole this is a great film.  At times Rita was just beyond brutal.  She was ruthless and uncaring of those she thought under her station.  I did not like that.  At all.  She was also a bit repetitive, however, what else can you expect in a repeating war zone situation? So, I can't really fault her for that.  Cage was also a coward in the beginning.  Not someone made for war and instead someone forced into it.  So, that was interesting, seeing them or more specifically K change for the better.  The aliens themselves were very similar to the Moorwens from Outlander.  Less intelligent in some respects but similar all the same.

Anyways, I would give this movie 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who loves fighting, aliens and robotics.  This movie is full of action, humor, and the barest hint of romance.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Movie Review

I've put this off long enough.  The movie was crap.  Almost everyone died and I'm not even sure what the storyline was suppose to be.  There were at least three of them.  That said, I would say it's just barely worth watching.  Certainly not something I'd want to watch twice.

The whole film was basically a moral quandary for Peter on whether or not he should date what's-her-name because in the last movie the girls father's dying wish was for Peter to stay away.  Naturally, Peter felt guilty about this and it ends badly.  I was near tears.

Now, the commercials lead you to believe that the movie involves some blue guy as the main protagonist but really that guy was hardly around.  I mean literally, he's only reason for fighting is because "nobody sees me".  Finally, Harry Osbourne has some hereditary disease that his dying father just told him about and suddenly he acts like he's got days left and things happen.  I won't say too much about that but he does end up a crazed evil mastermind.

All in all, I think the creators just tried too hard.  They should have focused more on blue sparks with hints of love problems then adding all the other characters they did.  The green goblin should have been left for Spider-Man 3.

One last peeve!  The constant whistling and theme song ringtones were completely unnecessary.  I mean, once or twice would have been great but they were constant.

Frozen - Movie Review

Frozen is a pretty good movie with brilliant animation and some really genius ideas with the ice that looked beautiful.  Jack Frost should learn a few of those tricks.   Erroneously, I though that this wasn't a musical, so you can imagine my shock once people started breaking out in song.  Even then, the first two (three if you count the intro music) songs I actually liked.  Everything after that was grating.  Still, the humor managed to offset the damage done more often than not so, this still makes my top ten favorite animations list.

Side notes/minor spoilers:  I had hoped Elsa would get together with Kristoff and I still can't imagine why that didn't happen.  Oh well.  I also strongly dislike how wolves were portrayed in this film.  Wolves do not go around attacking people.  They just don't, nor do they need any more bad publicity while they're an endangered species.

Thor The Dark World - Movie Review

Thor 2 is brilliant absolutely brilliant.  The action scenes alone (of which there were many) make the movie.  There's also a healthy dose of humor to balance out the more somber bits.  Darcy's character in particular played a big role along with intern-what's-his-name in making the movie so light.  On the flip-side, I wanted to cry for Loki.  There were a few parts in which he almost died and I had minor panic attacks.  Not fun I tell you, not fun at all.  That loony, Erik, didn't help matters by being so joyful about it either.  I am especially happy with the ending although I worry a little because I missed the extra bit after the credits.  I really feel like I missed out on something of importance.

 

Now I've have a few comments/complaints to make, the first being Loki's happy and more than a little mischievous attitude once he's out of prison.  Does anyone else notice the drastic change from the Avengers movie?  You may argue that Loki wasn't the happiest camper in the first Thor movie but there were extenuating circumstances there (i.e. finding out he had been lied to his entire life).  There's so many more discrepancies but I'll save them for a later date.  The second thing I wanted to make note of is the complete lack of respect and disregard of life Asgardians have against any realm but their own.  I largely suspect that the only reason they haven't killed Earth/Midgard is because they think of humans an children, idiotic children.  Just how many worlds have the Asgardians destroyed?  How many lives were lost?

 

 

The Wolverine - Movie Review

I hated this movie, it was just awful for so many reasons.  So many.  That said, the effects were good, there were plenty of great action scenes, and more than a few houmorus bits.  My favorite being the part were those two old ladies forced him to take a bath and afterwards Logan said, "I feel violated".  What I didn't like however was the storyline and the people (all save Wolverine).  Right up until the very end I was considering pretending this movie never happened.  Seriously, it was that bad.  I can't say why my opinion changed because I don't know myself.  But, whatever it was made the whole ordeal worth it.  In a way I'm reminded of the movie The Devils Own, in certain respects.  I'll leave it to you to figure out what those are.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi - Movie Review

I originally though that this movie would be about how Jiro became such an amazing chef but turns out that it's more about the daily effort and strive for perfection than anything else.  Personally I think he goes a bit overboard and is unreasonably harsh.  That said, his sushi making skills are unrivaled.  Overall, I found the movie over the top for something so simple, it drifted off into slow motion sushi making one to many times.  And, don't even get me started on the animal cruelty aspect (a fish was flayed alive! And that wasn't the least of it).  Still, you do want to strive to be the best at whatever it is you do by the end. 

Side-note: My strawberry seeds are growing!

Star Trek Into Darkness - Movie Review

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Very dramatic.  A bit over the top actually (don't take that the wrong way, I loved every second of it).  All in all, I would say the previous Star Trek was better, though.  That said, Benedict Cumberbatch is a phenomenal actor.  For I while there I thought his character Khan might not be so bad.  Alas, I was wrong.  Which in my opinion was a fail on the director's part.  I'm not trying to sound stuck up here, but I would have loved to see Khan working with the Enterprise.  Instead we are left with the basic good vs evil scenario.  And, how likely is it really that a superhuman genius would loose in the end if he hadn't planed it out that way?  Why did he bother saving Kirk if he was just going to kill him five minutes later?  Don't try to tell me it was because he needed him because at that point Khan could have pulled it off without Kirk's help.

One detail I noticed was that on the Enterprise there are multiple humanoid species, but at the academy (or wherever it is that all those speeches were given) the only non-human I saw was Spock.  Where did they all go?

Green Lantern - Movie Reiew

I don't know what all the bad publicity has been about, Green Lantern wasn't too shabby.   In fact, I found it quite amusing.  A pick-me-up type of film.  I only reason I can think of is that people were in love with the comics and found the movie paled in comparison.  I've never been one for comics though.  Personally, whatever I read/see first is always my favorite.  I think it's because I get a certain feel for the characters and the idea of them in my mind is shattered when I met their counterparts.

One more thing, Green Lantern is not weak against the color yellow!  That's like saying fire is weak against water because it's blue (bad analogy I know, but I can't think of a better one at the moment).

What I didn't get was how calmly Hal reacted to learning about aliens.  Most people, I expect, would freak out.  But, he took it in stride.  Almost like it was an everyday occurrence.  Honestly though, I think I would react the same.  I mean come on, thinking we are the only ones in the universe is just arrogant.

Upcoming Movie # 8 - 2 Guns

For me 2 Guns is a pick-me-up type; which means lots of humor, action, and interesting set-up.  I have high hopes for this movie, but it does seem like one of those that looks really good in the trailer but then leads to disappointment on screen.  Still, that could just be me.

Release Date is August 2nd, 2013

On a side-note, what's up with Denzel Washington?  I keep hearing his name everywhere and I know I've seen him in movies before (recently too).  It's just that his characters are never memorable to me.  It's not that he does a bad job as they all act the same.

Movie Review - Save House

Despite the agonizingly slow start (I was two seconds away from falling asleep) this was a pretty good movie.  Eventually it picked up the pace and didn't slow down for a second after that.  However nothing about the movie struck me as being particularly original.

That said, there were tons of good action scenes and I liked the characters (though for the majority of the film I thought Frost was a major asshole).

Premium Rush

Once again I have put off watching a movie only to be pleasantly surprised at how good it turned out to be.

After watching the trailer I thought that Premium Rush was going to be a stupid overdone joke of a film, instead it was action packed and kept me interested throughout.  I had no idea bike messengers had such a dangerous job.  I'll defiantly watch this again.