Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

Transformers:  Age of Extinction 

Director: Michael Bay

Cast Headliners:  Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Peter Cullen, Kelsey Grammer

Original Release Date: June 29, 2014

            Where does one even begin for a review of the Transformers franchise? It’s like an overgrown gnarly beast that everyone keeps feeding wealth too; so I guess the way to go is just jump in and start attacking its weak points.  This FOURTH entry is Transformers: Age of Extinction, in which the Autobots are on the run and “Cade Yeager” (Mark Wahlberg) finds a mysterious big red truck which can only be one prime robot.  What follows is , to say the least, a very wild ride.

            Shia Labeouf as well as every other human character from the past installments are gone, with not even a bare mention. This is a “total reboot” yet it feels very similar to what has come before.  Cade Yeager is one of several of the new non-bot heroes, which includes his bickering daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) and her Irish racer boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), as well as “goofy” friend Lucas (TJ Miller).  Aside from Wahlberg’s Cade, it’s very hard to build empathy for these characters. Somehow this movie manages to both make the plot about the relationship between these three be irritating while also occasionally forgetting about it.   Not all humans are annoying however, with one villain in the turncoat CIA leader Harold Attinger( a fearsome Kelsey Grammer) and an even more interesting and funny character in the wacky CEO of KSI Industries Joshua Joyce(Stanley Tucci who has some of the best lines).

            This is a movie of contradictions. There’s lame characters, but then  (I’ll hesitantly say) good ones such as Cade, in which Wahlberg gives a very zany performance. The Autobots are also very distinct this time which is a nice change of pace, classics Optimus Prime(Peter Cullen who manages to make the leader of the Transformers more interesting each time he portrays him) and Bumblebee are joined by newcomers such as the WW2-esque Hound (John Goodman),  cowboy bandit-like Crosshairs, and samurai Drift (Ken Watanabe).  Action scenes are now more tolerable because one can tell its combatants apart more easily.

            That is, when they’re fighting the CIA agents or minions of vile intergalactic bounty hunter Lockdown.  There’s a faction in the film of new “human made transformers”  made by KSI Industries that transform by an incredible looking new nanomachine style.  But they look so similar to the Autobots that fight scenes can become confusing.

            However, there are some really pretty shots and visual effects. A few of the action scenes, especially the segment onboard Lockdown’s mothership above Chicago ( does Michael Bay have something against this city?) are awesome.   However they are a detraction when the movie runs too long and involves all these random side characters and enemy factions.  It’s a big chaotic mess.  It’s almost as if director Michael Bay thought “how can I out-Michael Bay myself?” and added more senseless explosions to the point of parody.  The movie is also headache inducingly long, and it has some odd camera angles, and silly country music, and even ironically some bad visual effects randomly mixed in,  and the dinobots are in it for so few minutes compared to their marketing push, and the China set segment could’ve been another movie….and…and!

            It’s a very rough movie, the franchise has lost so much of its original glamour. However in a odd way it is so entertaining due to its cheesiness. If taken as a serious film, it fails aside from some minorly entertaing plot twists and action segements. But as a Marky-Mark Weirdness Experience, it’s kinda really good.  It definitely cannot be called boring. The ending makes me worried that the next one cannot even be that and induced a big laugh from myaudience, in a serious science fiction film  7.38 out of 10

22 Jump Street Review

22 Jump Street

Director: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Cast Headliners:  Channing Tatium, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube

Original Release Date: June 13, 2014

At some point 21 Jump Street was a serious police drama from the 1980’s starring Johnny Depp.   Then at a later point in 2012 it was rebooted with a film that had a approached which can simply be described as “radically different.”  The series has now become a comedy, and the premise of “cops going undercover in schools” totally worked when it came to humor.  Where before in all incarnations of the franchise the setting had been in high schools, now it has transitioned to taking place in a college.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg(Channing Tatum) go on their mission to college sent by Cpt.Jackson (Ice Cube) of the now-22 Jump Street department. A lot of the jokes in this film happen on many levels; in this case the movie’s a sequel and they had to move down the street.  This is a trademark of directors  Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who have another good movie in 2014 after the brilliant Lego Movie in February.  Many times the movie references the fact that’s it’s a sequel and so on, which is good the first few time and less so after.

            One of the things 22 Jump Street mocks about itself is the fact that it’s so similar to the first film. And yes, there are a lot of parallels.  A fresh perspective comes from the fact that they are in college. So there’s the tropes of frats, and professors, and all the various mischief college brings.  The best laughs comes from Greg joining a fraternity and finding a new best friend in Zook(great up-and-comer Wyatt Russel) much to Schmidt’s agitation.   There’s not much that hasn’t really not been seen in a college movie before however.

            There’s some ok action sidelined to the laughs.  The situations are so extreme, the laughs very constant.  It’s a silly movie that will deliver to its target audience.  It’s more of the same and that’s not a bad thing for this very, very silly comedy. 8 out of 10

Edge of Tommorow Review

Edge of Tommorow 

Director: Doug Liman 

Cast Headliners:  Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt

Original Release Date: June 6, 2014

            Edge of Tommorow is based on a manga titled All You Need is Kill. It takes place in the not-too-distant future on a Earth that has been assaulted and subsequently occupied by dangerous alien creatures called “Mimics” for their ability to seemingly be able to copy the combat tactics of the allied United Defense Forces.

            It’s interesting that one of the best assets of this film is the least explosive.  Tom Cruise plays Major William Cage, a military man in the UDF who had been used to being behind a desk and not the front lines. Through shenangins he finds himself being prepared to deploy on the frontlines of the war against the Mimics against his will.   Cage is incredibly charismatic and Cruise’s performance as him really ties the movie together. 

            A movie about Tom Cruise being forced into being a grunt in an alien war would be enticing enough but things are complicated when he is exposed to Mimic blood which makes him repeat the previous day up until when he dies, over and over.  At times it can be overwhelming to the brain to see repetition of scenes, but luckily Cruise’s performance and director Doug Liman’s crisp editing make it tolerable.  He is joined in this quest by fellow soldier Sgt. Rita Vrataski(Emily Blunt) who is the only other person to have this power as well.  If Cruise is the heart of the movie,  Blunt’s Rita is its ultimate cool with her fierce demeanor and combat skills.  Their dialogue is pretty good and the two of them become a great team.  There is definitely a complex bent to this film.

            The action scenes are solid nonetheless. The UDF soldiers have awesome armored battle suits fitted with AI, rockets, and powerful jumps. It’s like something out of a video game, the difference being though that the enemies are sometimes hard to see. The Mimics move so fast it is at times hard to see them. It’s almost as if the soldiers are shooting so slickly and awesome at… nothing.   But this is not always the case; some of the action moments are absolutely incredible due to the film’s great visuals.

            Edge of Tommorow manages to make the “repeating day” formula work in a sci-fi context. It’s not perfect, but it’s highlights do shine.  8.2 out of 10  

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Review

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Director: Dean DeBlois

Cast Headliners:  Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrara, Djimon Hounsou  

Original Release Date: June 13, 2014

2010’s How to Train Your Dragon, first a series of children’s fantasy novels, was a big hit for DreamWorks Animation. The film combined a fun premise (Vikings vs dragons!) with some cool animation and some humorous likeable characters. How To Train Your Dragon 2 further improves on these strong traits to make a thrilling adventure.

This sequel resumes the story five years after the events of the previous one.  Dragons and the vikings of Berk live in harmony. This addition is great since it allows for even more exciting action set pieces involving the dragon riders.  Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his adorable yet cool dragon Toothless explore the lands around Berk charting out new territories.  Problems arise when a conspiracy starts involving both an army of dragon hunters led by the ferocious Drago (Djimon Hounsou)  and a dragon warlord.

It would ruin the film’s joys to give away what happens in the plot, but rest assured that it has a surprisingly decent depth for this medium. Veteran characters like Astrid(America Ferrera), Snotlout(Jonah Hill), Fishlegs(Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and the other such friends of Hiccup get more screentime and entertaining moments.  It’s also great to see the talks between Hiccup’s father Stoick( Gerard Butler) , Hiccup, and the blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson).  Newcomer Erett(Kit Harrington) is also a great addition the cast of characters.  The movie has a pretty good mix between lighthearted humor, fantastical adventure action, and even some emotional drama.

            The dragons are, as expected, the stars of the show. They shine with color and neat design, and their “culture” is much more elaborated upon in this.  They are just some of the surprises of the film.  Their human peers in the story sometimes get a too silly or fall a bit flat, but their clashes can be awe inspiring.  This has taken everything from the first film up a notch, and it’s worth checking out. 8.5 out of 10

X-Men: Days of Future Past Review

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast Headliners:  Hugh Jackman, James McAcvoy , Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, many many others

Original Release Date: May 23rd, 2014

            Within movies, the superhero world that is one of the longest running and iconic is the X-Men. These “mutants” are born with incredible powerful abilities and the franchise has gone all over the place (really , it’s quite shocking the same franchise can contain X-Men Origins: Wolverine and also X-men: First Class)  but has maintained a core of the deep issues these characters face.  It’s very reassuring then that the newest entry, X-Men Days of Future Past,  is a stellar greatest hits of mutants and successfully mashes up both of its storylines to move the saga towards a form of epic conclusion it deserves.

            The movie is interesting as it serves as both an “X-Men 4” and a “X-Men First Class 2.”  The plotlines from both previous separate series films are continued forward as well as elements from 2013’s The Wolverine and even references to Origins: Wolverine.  While the film has solid storytelling and pacing, because of its intricate web of references to past entries in the series it recommendable only to those who have seen all 6 of the preceding X-Men movies.  The best part is that this gargantuan task works.

            It’s great to see familiar faces return to the dark future of a post-apocalyptic world where mutants have been rounded up and killed by the incredibly cool “Sentinel” robots.  Old friends Wolverine(Hugh Jackman), Professor X(Patrick Stewart), Mageneto(Ian McLellan ), Storm (Halle Berry), Kitty(Ellen Page), Colossus(Daniel Cudmore) and are the resistance, assisted by newcomers such as the portal creating Blink, energy using Bishop, and agile Warpath.  This future storyline would have been cool enough as its own movie; there are some incredibly intense action scenes of the crew surviving against the Sentinels.  The stakes are incredibly high however, and there are some emotional final stands made.  Again and again the last X-Men alive are slaughtered only for Kitty to use her time powers to go back and warn the group of where the next attack will be. A more permanent solution arises in sending Wolverine not back to just weeks ago, but years to his younger body.  The future or “present” era only appears sporadically through the film and the shift is sometimes jarring. But it is redeemed by the veteran cast members all giving performances just like the old movies, if not even further aided by the desperate atmosphere.

            1973 is where Wolverine arrives, the year Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) killed Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) and kickstarted the Sentinel program.  These three have some of the most screen time, and this is good because they are powerful characters and actors. Lawrence is great as the now more villain-like Mystique, however she does have random awkward “funny” lines or two.   Because of the Magneto/Professor X/Wolverine/etc dynamics it also feels like Dinklage’s Trask is underused.

            What works once again are the younger characters of the 1973 era.  Director Bryan Singer has done a good job taking over the reins of the feel of the more fresh younger cast, and its even complemented by funky music. The ageless Wolverine fits perfectly alongside the young Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and Beast (Nicholas Hoult).  It’s a riveting twisting and turning plot, but it’s held together by the great dynamics between this group.  There are some tense standoffs between Xavier and Erik, and its mostly impressive how each character has their own individual story add to the overall “stop the Sentinels from screwing over the world” story.

            There are some great visuals and action set-pieces. One can really tell that this has the highest budget of the series; there are some jaw dropping moments of spectacle.  The most cool sequence involves new character Quicksilver (Evan Peters) who has the ability to travel insanely fast.  Where a neat enough scene would have been to see him merely quickly take out enemies,  the best idea ever was to see how HE sees the world: in slow motion. This moment is a snazzy combo of awesome and hilarious. 

            One of the complaints would be that Quicksilver is only featured in a small segment of the overall film. Since the movie has so many characters, it’s understandable but the shuffling overwhelms at times, like the two simultaneous time periods.  Its flaws also play into the timeline, which is understandable since the franchise is so messed up. Luckily, this solves everything with some…things. Still doesn’t explain flaws such as why the Toad in this movie has messed up skin and goggles fused into his head while the one from X-men “1” looked totally different.  This is just one example of the luckily handful of plotholes. But that’s to be expected from time travel, things might get messy.

            X-Men DOFP managed to capture the greatest characters, stylistic elements, and reasons to love the past legends of these characters.  It’s quite a ride, it’s not perfect, but it has a lot on its plate. It manages to both be a tribute and a finale to everything that has come before and fill in the gaps, and yet it also paves the way for a tantalizing new world of possibilities for the future.  8.64 out of 10

             

            

Godzilla Review

Godzilla Review

Director: Gareth Edwards

Cast Headliners:  Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe

Original Release Date: May 16th, 2014

            He has been called the King of Monsters, a god lizard, Gojira. But to us he is Godzilla, the most classic representation of the idea of a giant monster destroying cities. The Godzilla franchise has a long and storied history of cheesy yet epic bouts between this beast and his many equally frightening foes; they are some of Japan’s defining pop culture exports though however they ended after a point.  The rights to a new Godzilla film have ended up not with Japanese  company Toho again, but with Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. After the very lame 1998 American version which had Matthew Broderick and radically different atmospheres and visuals to the original, it can gladly be said that this time Godzilla “2014” gets right why these movies can be awesome experiences.

            In some ways the film tries to capture the messages of the original 1954 titular movie. Godzilla was the nightmare climax of the nuclear era, a threat spawned by man.  This movie takes a twist on that by saying the entire Cold War was merely attempts to kill this titanic beast.  Like any good monster movie, at first there is only small references to Godzilla and his kin.  We are introduced to the Brodys, expats living in Japan (clever clever).  15 year prior to the main events of the film, something happens at a nuclear power plant where Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is a physicist along with his wife Sandy (Juliette) and their son Ford. After this flashback, and other events which set the cauldron bubbling, happen it jumps to 15 years later where Joe and his son (now played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson) are estranged. Ford returns home from a tour of duty as an EOD military expert to his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) before he has to return to Japan as his father has become involved in shenanigans.

            A question to ask might be, “I thought this movie was about a giant lizard destroying cities?”  A good one to ask, as it seems a large part of the film is about the humans. The slow build to hell breaking loose is interesting, but at times the human element of the film drags it down. Bryan Cranson is absolutely brilliant in his role and the only notable quality acting performance of the movie aside from Godzilla himself, but sadly his time on screen with his ranting about conspiracies to hide Godzilla is only a small segment of the entire experience.  The view of Ford as an on-foot soldier during the monster’s attack is pretty good but not always so, it feels like a distraction from the best parts. However there are effective and awe-inspiring uses of his and other people perspectives of the giant beast’s combat.  Even less entertaining are when we see Elle’s experience (which there are a bit too much as well).  However, another good human element is Dr.Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) who seems to understand the power of Godzilla and whose ideal of “let them fight” enhances the thought provoking factor of nature’s fury.

            When there are not people having dramatic dialogues or military missions happening, there’s massive epic destruction. This is the most exciting part of the movie, and interestingly once “they appear” it gets mixed in with other parts.  For besides Godzilla (who looks perfect in his insanely tremendous size and finely detailed scales and spikes), there are a pair of new monsters in the “mutos.”  It’s interesting enough to see Godzilla just merely exist and be massive, but what makes up the soul of these movies are when he fights against equally deadly enemies.  The mutos resemble the xenomorph aliens from Ridley Scott’s franchise and are just as cool to see tower over and destroy cities as the King of Monsters.  One of them even flies; when fight scenes between the beasts actually do happen there’s some incredible “choreography.”  The fact that director Gareth Edwards was able to have some classic Godzilla vs other giant monster fights in the movie is a wonderful reason why this is so much better than the 1998 American movie. We don’t want to see Godzilla fight tanks and helicopters forever, we want him to throw creatures into buildings and shoot blue laser beams.  Luckily after a point the slow buildup gives way to a mostly constant stream of intense action.  The visuals look gorgeous, it is highly recommended to see this on a IMAX screen if possible.

            Godzilla feels at times a lesser part in a movie which features his name on it, which is perhaps not the best thing.  The atmosphere is very grim and dark, but it is not consistent as sometimes it will feel slightly less so. That is what the original films were though; they jumped all over the place in their style.  It is perhaps best that they didn’t stick with being totally grim. Overall it maintains a quo of epic classic Godzilla spectacle mixed in with a human perspective that’s hit or miss.  It is a really good reboot the big guy deserves and delivers on the simple pure fun that fans or general audiences will like and kicks off the summer blockbuster season in style. (insert Godzilla roar which sounds especially awesome in this version)  for  8.45 out of 10

The Amazing Spiderman 2 Review

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Director: Marc Webb

Cast Headliners:  Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane Dehaan, Jamie Foxx

Original Release Date: May 2nd, 2014

            It seems like the most famous superheroes have the most troubled careers in the cinemas.  Unlike the stream of Avengers-related movies, Batman and Superman went through periods of downtime and Spiderman faced his own problems. 2012’s The Amazing Spiderman reboot faced the difficulty of having to balance starting things fresh with a new world while also surprising the viewers.  It mostly was a success, and while it did heavily re-use from the 2002 Raimi directed first film it also brought a fresh feeling with its new younger cast of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy as highlights. Lurking in the background of the movie was new content to the Spiderman mythos, seeds for deeper meanings to the web-crawling hero.  In The Amazing Spiderman 2, many of those seeds sprout and the results are not always the best.

            Spiderman/Peter Parker continues to roam around New York City doing typical superhero antics (I must mention the great new re-design of his costume, really being nearly perfect to the comics) which is causing friction with both Gwen and his Aunt May (Sally Field). Once again the themes here seem to be borrowed from the previous trilogy but luckily the relationship between Peter and Gwen has some quality charming writing and scenes. Garfield and Stone are the acting heart of this movie and give overarching glue to its many other jagged and jumbled pieces. 

            Let’s get to those jagged and jumbled pieces.  The romantic plotline is fine enough, but when other bits of humor appear they are often very lame.  What makes Garfield portray a good Spiderman is how he brings a charisma even when wearing the costume through one-liners, just as the hero from the comics should. But the lines here are often very cheesy and corny and not even in a comic’s way. At times Garfield seems to be slightly half-trying (although as just Peter Parker he continues the same decent trend from the last film).  This is not helped by overwhelmingly annoying stereotypical characters such as the hardly believable Aleksei Systevich(played by Paul Giamatti in what might be the lowest point of his career) or the minor “Dr.Kafka” head of the Ravencroft prison who reminded me of something out of a Animaniacs cartoon.  There are just a lot of minor things which makes one question why they put them into this movie.  

            What is a superhero movie without its bad guys though?  Don’t be deceived by the promotion, as the Rhino well can be said to be merely a speck on the whole film. The plot involves two supervillains for Spiderman to contend with.  Jamie Foxx plays Max Dillon. Max‘s storyline is a sad one as he is not appreciated by anyone at all because he’s kind of insane which Foxx gives the character a  very different zany kind of depth than the characters he usually plays. An accident transforms him into the fearsome Electro who has dangerous abilities to control energy. He may have some wonky lines and may make dubstep music with his environment (as I said questionable choices on director Marc Webb’s part) but those are also good factors.  The plot in ASM2 is kind of all over the place but he is another strong point of it.

            Now that other villain, and the rest of the plot, does feel like it could have perhaps been suited to have been cut out and put in another film, as this originally featured Mary Jane Watson and Black Cat as well. Another new person in Peter’s life is his old childhood friend Harry Osborne, played by Dane Dehaan. Dehaan was a brilliant choice, but there are some awkward lines delivered by him (not his fault).  Once he assumes, non-surprisingly, the mantle of the Green Goblin he is very laughable which is not helped by the un-convincing design which looks like Harry has just gone through  a bad hair day. Harry is part of the plot fine enough but his transformation into the Green Goblin is offensively late into the film.    There’s also the anti-climactic resolution the plot about Peter’s parents, which had Sony had built up to be some massive mind-blowing mystery but in the end if one doesn’t pay close enough attention they’ll miss the messages its trying to send.

            Despite flaws with some of its characters, plot , and dialogue there are some other bright points. The musical score by Hans Zimmer is notably great, a rare treat for a superhero film these days which have often sounded generic. But the score covers all kinds of genres from electronic to orchestral ; it feels very progressive.  It helps the excitement of the action sequences, which do look very cool and are fun to watch. For better or worse the scale of the world of Spiderman has really been dialed up for this one.

            This movie is trying to do too many things at once. It had to act as a sequel to the first, surprise audiences who have seen the first three Spiderman movies,  followup on the origins/Peter’s parents storyline,  deal with Peter/Gwen’s relationship, introduce not one but two new villians, and also leave hints towards the future Sinister Six/Venom movies.  So its understandable if it turned out rough.  Spiderman’s seen better days, but he also has had a worst day before (Spiderman 3…)  A decent movie, hopefully they learn from the mistakes of this one.  7.6 out of 10