Let's Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

So I am a huge fan of Marvel Cosmic, which is Marvel's line of Sci-Fi based comic books. Jim Starlin is one of my all time favorite comic book authors and he basically invented most of it. I’m also a huge fan of the modern revitalization Marvel Cosmic got with Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett a few years ago. I also know that Marvel Cosmic doesn’t have as big of a fan base as some of Marvel’s other characters or storylines. So when I heard that Guardians of the Galaxy was being made into a movie, it was like a dream come true. I never thought that Marvel would ever make a film out of this obscure cast of characters that I loved. I was literally counting the days before I could see it. So did it live up to my excitement? Let’s review Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Negative

I had a really hard time liking this film. So much so that I decided to go see it a second time so that I could give it a fair review. I have been a huge fan of Marvel Cosmic for many years now, the amount of things they changed from the source material made it barely recognizable. A good example would be if Marvel released a film about a beetle themed superhero that fights zombie Nazis in Texas, and called it a film about Spider-Man. If this were a Harry Potter film, the fans would have been outraged over the amount of changes made; they probably would have called for blood.

The problem I face is the fact that no one really complained. There aren’t really huge numbers of fans for these characters. They don’t realize the amount of well established history that was changed. So when I hear people debating on whether or not Guardians was better than the Avengers, I recoil a little. Avengers pretty much nailed the adaptation whereas Guardians largely ignored it. This was the reason I had to see it twice as a critic I have to be unbiased towards these things and judge the film as it is, but as a fan I was a little heartbroken. This wasn’t a film made for me, this was a film that is going to spark interest in a relatively obscure group of characters and get a larger fan base. Sure it will be confusing for those who only know about the film history, but overall it will ensure that Marvel Cosmic stays for quite some time.

The Positive

What made me want to give the film a second chance was that about ¾ of the way through the film, I realized what I was watching was actually quite good. Despite being a poor adaptation, the film itself isn’t bad. The film is funny; in fact I would say the film is very funny. It has been a really long time since I have laughed this hard at a film. A lot of the humor is stuff you really wouldn’t expect Marvel to go, but ultimately it was this dark sense of humor that really endeared me to the film, even during my first viewing when I was unhappy due to the changes.

The film does an excellent job of balancing out its team members. Something that both Avengers and some of the X-Men films failed at was balancing out the screen time so that we got to know each of the team members really well. Marvel fixed that issue by having the major Avengers members appear in their own separate movies first so that we would already know the characters before they appeared together. Guardians rather impressively introduces the audience to all 5 members of the team and makes each of their personalities and quirks well known, even taking the time to show how each member interacts with one another.

The soundtrack was absolutely glorious in this movie. It’s no wonder many of these songs are hitting the number 1 charts for the first time in years because Guardians uses its mostly 70’s soundtrack to full extent, utilizing each song to establish the tone of each scene. In particular, Guardians’ use of Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” during the opening credits is probably one of the best tone establishers I have seen in a really long time instantly telling the audience that you are in for a really fun ride.

In Conclusion                 

I don’t think I’m the right person to discuss this film in a good light. I really enjoyed this film and had a wonderful time with it, but ultimately it was the vast changes made to the source material that really stopped me from loving this film as much as I should have. My personal fan feelings aside, I do highly recommend this film to everyone. If you are looking for a really fun comedy sci-fi adventure this is absolutely the film to see. 4.7 out of 5.

Let's Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The First Avenger was a very unexpected hit with me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the film and I didn’t have much faith in Chris Evans in the role. The film took me completely by surprised and has become one of my all time favorite comic book movies. That said; I was expecting great things to come out of the sequel. Were my expectations met? Let’s review Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The Negative

The acting between Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson was a little stiff. We follow Captain America and Black Widow for the majority of the film, with their interactions with one another filling in any slow section. This is a problem because most of their dialogue with one another feels flat. This is easily explained away by the fact that the two of them are high-level secret agents and being un-emotional is key in the field. I get entirely what the film was going for; I just wish the two could emote a bit more than the film would allow them.

The biggest question that keeps flashing in my mind regarding this film is where is Hawkeye? The plot of this film has major ramifications to the SHIELD organization and with Hawkeye being a top agent; you would think that he would appear in this movie. There isn’t even much of a mention as to what he is doing during the events of this film. For the Avenger who has gotten the least amount of screen time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe you would think that this would have been their big opportunity to expand him a little. I do understand why they didn’t include him though. The amount of important super heroes in this film was starting to border The Avengers. If Hawkeye were in this film he probably would have gotten even less screen time than before. It just seems odd that with SHIELD being so important to his character, that he wouldn’t even get a passing mention to his current status.

The Positive

The plot was amazing. This film takes all of the covert splendor of a James Bond movie but does it with the amazing world of super heroes.  The film does an excellent job with pulling off its various plot twist with Cap finding himself in a world of espionage and uncertainty in who his allies are. If you are a fan of James Bond, I highly recommend you see this film. This was also an excellent film for Captain America fans as this movie crammed so much Cap lore that it almost had a blink and you’ll miss it quality to it.

The fight scenes were absolutely spectacular in this film, particularly the fight scenes between Cap and Winter Soldier. The fights between these two figures are fast and tight, showing off the ferocity two super soldiers can have in combat against one another. The scene that keeps coming back to my mind is a road fight between the two of them. The fight is claustrophobic with Winter Soldier relentless attacking with a knife with Cap barely dodging each blow. It was fight choreography like this that kept me on the edge of my seat in breathless excitement.

The villains were absolutely exquisite in this movie. As I stated before, the film’s plot is a massive mystery with Cap slowly uncovering who he can trust and who he can’t, so I’m not going to give all the villains away. That said spoiler ahead, skip to the conclusion if you don’t want a major plot twist spoiled…

 

We all set? Okay, so Arnim Zola is one of my all time favorite Captain America villains. It was cool to see him as a human in the first film but what I was really looking forward to was seeing him as a robot and this film totally delivered on that front. Zola was perfect and even better they made him one of the central plot twists to the film. This was my absolute favorite scene in the movie as Cap slowly comes to realize that in his 70 year absence the world has been slowly taken over by Hydra forces, with Zola being the starting point behind that front.

In Conclusion

This film quickly became one of my all time favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was definitely Marvel trying their hand at producing a James Bond film and they succeeded magnificently at it. The plot, the mystery, the villains, as well as the simply massive amount of Cap lore stuffed into this film was a brilliant love letter to one of Marvel’s oldest characters. This film has gotten me even more excited for the next Captain America film; I just hope it can live up to the first two films. 4.9 out of 5.

Let's Review: Godzilla

 

I love Godzilla. To be honest I love giant monster movies in general. It has been an extremely long wait to see the king of all monsters back on the big screen. Everything I saw for this film had me pumped to go see it. Godzilla was finally coming back and it was going to be done right. So did the film live up to my excitement? Let’s review Godzilla.

 

The Negative

 

Bryan Cranston is wasted in this film. I hope nobody went into this film expecting him to be the main character, because he is honestly barely in the film at all. The film makes you very invested into his character at the very beginning of the film and he sticks around for a little bit after that, but he is mostly just dropped from the film. The real main character of the film is Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character, Ford Brody. While Ford is an interesting character, he just doesn’t carry the same investment that we had with Cranston’s character and it sort of brings the whole movie down another level.

I’m sure you know by now that Godzilla faces another monster in the film named MUTO.  In the film we see two very different MUTOs, one male and one female. I really want to praise the fact that the two MUTOs are designed differently. The male is smaller and has the ability to fly, while the female is larger with multiple arms. They could have just as easily made two of the same monster but they made them both unique and I really appreciated that. With that said I really didn’t like their overall design. The Godzilla series is well known for its bizarre and uniquely designed monsters, but something just doesn’t seem to work for the MUTOs’ design. For me personally, I think their design is just too angular. Nothing about them seems overly organic at all, and it sort of ruins the illusion that what you are looking at is a living, breathing monster. For a giant monster film, that is one of the greatest failings.

I go to a Godzilla movie for the very reason that I want to see Godzilla. I hope you are really patient folks, because Godzilla doesn’t really show up until the end of the film, and then he is only on the screen for about the same amount of time that Bryan Cranston is. I can honestly say that I left the theater disappointed. The very first fight scene between Godzilla and MUTO is BRIEFLY shown on a small news television screen. Every single fight in the film is shown in quick claustrophobic shots from the human’s perspective. The fight that we see the most of is at the end of the film and it is so brief I wanted to cry. I have waited 10 years to see Godzilla return to the big screen, and what I got was barely any of him.

The Positive

 

As you can imagine from that last paragraph, the majority of the film is taken from the human perspective. It is my opinion that in most Godzilla films, the most boring aspect is the human’s story. Lucky for us, the human story in this film is actually quite captivating. You do find yourself being invested into these characters and you genuinely want to find out what happens to them by the end of the film. While I was hard on Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character earlier, I was just saying that he wasn’t as captivating as Bryan Cranston’s character, but that doesn’t mean he is bad, far from it. The rest of the cast varies in quality, but Ken Watanabe plays a fantastically stoic Dr. Serizawa.

While the monster fights were incredibly brief, what I did get to see wasn’t lackluster in the slightest. It was like the film kept giving me little teasers of the amazing fight that I wanted to see break out and when the ultimate showdown finally did happen at the end of the film, it was glorious. I found myself getting back into my old Godzilla fan boy mode, cheering him on to beat down the other monster. I wasn’t the only one either, many times during the fight the audience broke out in applause at successful hits.

Godzilla himself was stunning. He had a massive presence on the screen. This film returned Godzilla to a role that he hasn’t been in for a very long time, the role of protector. Throughout the film Godzilla goes out of his way to avoid mindless destruction and has his sights solely on destroying the two MUTOs. By the end of the film, Godzilla is cheered by humanity for being a hero who has protected us from utter annihilation. It was really nice to see Godzilla return as a hero again. I think we have all been a little tired of seeing Godzilla fight the military over and over again in each of his films. This was a very welcomed change of pace.

In Conclusion

 

I had a good time. I went to see a Godzilla film and I left feeling extremely disappointed due to the lack of Godzilla being actually in the film, but was my time wasted? The answer is no, this was a very fun action flick that had a brilliant mood to it. I recommend you go see it for a good popcorn flick. I will admit that my disappointment is still very present with me. I worry that as we bring Godzilla into the age of CGI, we leave behind the ability to have him and his fellow monsters on the screen longer. I can only hope that with future sequels, we end up getting more screen time with the King of the Monsters. 3.8 out of 5.

Let's Review: The LEGO Movie

To be perfectly honest this film looked dumb. I had seen the trailers for this film and I was just going to let it pass me by. Simply put this film wasn’t even a blip on my radar. I expected it to be bad and that the ratings would reflect that. Yet when the film did come about I literally heard nothing but good things; I heard that this was the best movie of the year so far and worth seeing multiple times. So I decided to give in and give this film the chance it deserved. Was the hype correct? Let’s review The LEGO Movie.

The (SEEMINGLY) Negative

Part of the opening has a massive music number. The song is terrible to listen to. Getting through this musical number I immediately began to think the worst. ‘Oh god, what did I sign up for!’ I assumed that all of my previous thoughts on the movie were correct and that this was going to be a terrible film. Please don’t let this musical number fool you. The song is supposed to be bad and it’s a major plot point. If you can get through the song I promise you the film will get much better. A few people will just tune out for the rest of the movie after seeing the music number. DON’T DO IT! I promise it gets much better.

The Positive

The hype was absolutely correct! This film is AMAZING! I am very tempted to go back to the theater and watch it again. The plot is extremely insightful and really touching at times. The comedy is pure gold with many references to LEGO’s own history and anybody who grew up with LEGOs will instantly recognize many of these. The animation is fantastic, as it is a really neat blend of stop-motion with real LEGO sets and CGI that give the film a unique look unlike anything seen done with LEGOs before. I want to dig out my old LEGO bricks and start building again!

In Conclusion

I want to go see this movie a dozen more times then take a break and see it a dozen more times again! This film is awesome, again I can’t drill this into you enough, THIS FILM IS AWESOME! Go see it now, give them all of your money and then GO SEE IT AGAIN! I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about this film and hope you enjoy it as much as I have. 4.9 out of 5.

Now where did I put my LEGO bricks? I HAVE A CRAZY TOWER TO BUILD!

Let's Review: Robocop

I am a huge Robocop fan. As I write this review I am rocking out to the original theme music, why you may ask? Because it rocks that’s why! (That and the new film only used it twice and got it stuck in my head). I was really nervous about this film. I love Robocop and I didn’t want another bad film to tarnish his name like Robocop 3 did. Was I disappointed in this remake of an awesome classic? Let’s review Robocop.

The Negative

There is a significantly slower plot movement after Alex Murphy is transformed into Robocop. The film just slows to a grinding halt at this point. The original film barely went into the details of his construction and training, but this new film wants to nail in every single moment. I understand that the film wanted to go through this process to fully explain what was happening in this plotline and how it was different from the original film, but hurry it up a little. The second we see him as Robocop, we want to see him patrolling the streets of Detroit, but this film just took its time getting there. Way too slow.

I hate to keep comparing to the original film, but this is a remake, it’s simply going to happen. The original film was filled to the brim with the corruption that was flowing through society, bureaucrats, and politicians. This new film still has that, but it is significantly toned down. The original Robocop always felt like he was sitting in a den of snakes, the only trustworthy person with him was his partner Lewis, in the new film, Robocop has a lot more allies and it just seems like a friendlier film. The brutality of the world that the original Robocop existed in justified his existence; the new film has very obvious snakes in the grass and very obvious golden people who you can always rely on and I feel that the film is worse off for it.

Why did they have to switch the gender of Robocop’s partner? There are significantly more male action heroes out there than there are female action heroes. I think it is a very big issue in writing right now, that stories have men outnumber women 10-1. There is actually only 4 important female characters in this film and that is being generous with the word important. To be fair they also switched the Detroit police chief into a female character, but I feel as though the loss of Anne Lewis is more significant than the barely present police chief. The original Robocop is one of my all time favorite films and I really like the fact that it has a powerful female action hero as Robocop’s partner. I honestly feel that ‘Jack Lewis’ in the new film didn't add anything crucial to the role that required him to be male. He just felt like a placeholder for the buddy cop role. The fact is we need more strong female roles in stories, and the character of Officer Anne Lewis was sorely missed in this remake.

The Positive

The human element is significantly amped up in this remake. A major change to the plot is that OmniCorp has the ability to switch off Robocop’s emotional human side, and turn on an efficient killing machine to tackle the crime in the city at any time. This plot was never explored in the original series. Alex Murphy’s family are major characters in this story when they barely appeared in the original. I loved that this was the plot they decided to explore with this remake as this was something that they couldn’t actually explore with the original series. In the original Robocop film, Murphy is already the emotionless Robocop right from the get go and his family had moved away. This film shows the actual grieving family and Murphy’s problems with trying to be the man he was while still being over-written by OmniCorp’s programming and it is used to brilliant effect.

The action scenes were AWESOME! Just like zombies before him, Robocop has finally learned to run. The original Robocop was a walking tank that efficiently took out every enemy as he made his way across the battlefield, this Robocop does that…but at the blinding speed of a NINJA! The fight scenes are unfortunately few and far between, but when they do show up they are a spectacle to watch, especially one of the final fight scenes where Robocop takes on a swarm of ED-209s. In the original series Robocop never really fought ED-209 one on one in a real fight, but here Robocop lets them have it and it is amazing.

In Conclusion

This could have been much worse. It seems today that all the film industry seems to be putting out is remakes, and many of them haven’t been very good. This film, I feel, actually explores something that the original couldn’t have and I believe that it pulls that off really well. This could have easily just have been a rehash of the original but for better or for worse this film really tries to break the mold of the original without tarnishing its legacy. This is what a reboot should do, it should explore new territory without breaking the original intent and that is what this film accomplishes for the most part. If you are a Robocop fan like I am, perhaps you will enjoy it as much as I have. 4 out of 5.

Let's Review: After Earth

 

 

Welcome back to the Geekdom, I’ll be your Guide. When I watched the trailer for this film, I thought it looked really good, up until the point where M. Night Shyamalan’s name popped up. I’m fairly certain a lot of people had the same reaction I did. Not to insult Shyamalan, but he hasn’t made a really good film in a long time, some would argue a good film period. Despite Shyamalan’s track record, I decided to give this film a chance. Was my charity well spent? Let’s review After Earth.

The Negative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The architecture was very odd in this film. The buildings, ships, and various other things had the odd distinction of looking like a mixture of advance technology and shower curtains. At times this odd design choice would look rather beautiful especially on the buildings, at other times it just gave everything a public bathroom feel. I have to wonder the practicality of having a portion of your building’s walls be made out of white curtains when living on a planet full of alien predators.

The plot was a little predictable. “My father is the greatest warrior and I am his failure son” plot has been re-used a lot.  Shock of shocks if Jaden Smith’s character ends up performing great feats over the course of the film that end up making his father proud. It’s not something that I haven’t seen before and the film doesn’t really explore anything new with it.

The special effects used for the animals and the creatures were not always top notch. As a little spoiler, a large condor becomes a major plot point in the film, and it’s one of the most unrealistic looking condors I have ever seen. At times I swear it just looked like a stuffed bird that they propped against the set. The CGI creatures were also a bit glaring as they never really seemed to fit into their environment that well or interact with the humans realistically.

Will Smith, one of the most expressive and enthusiastic actors out there, gives the flattest performance I have ever seen. I understand that is the character he is playing. Will Smith plays a warrior with the profound ability to have no fear on the battlefield, which works great since the enemy predator can only see through fear. Just because he has no fear, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any other emotions to offer. This performance was flat and downright boring at times; I really wish he would have been able to put some emotion into this character.

The Positive

While the CGI and effects for the various creatures was crap, the effects used for the advance technology was amazing. I loved the holographic medical technology that allowed Will Smith’s character to operate on himself, I loved the survival suit Jaden Smith’s character wore that would change colors as a warning device, but most off all I loved the liquid metal blade weapon. The various configurations and utilization methods that could be done with the weapon made one of the coolest survival tools and brilliant looking special effect of the film.

My father is the one who got me into film. My father was a big fan of movies. We maintain a tradition of going to the movies together every so often. When I saw this movie advertised, I thought that it might be a good father/son film to see and I was right. We had a wonderful time going to see this film together. Despite the flat performances, Will and Jaden Smith have wonderful chemistry together and make this film about the journey the two take. While I said the film doesn’t really explore anything new in the father/son plot, I will not say that what they presented was bad.

In Conclusion

This film really hits the middle ground. It doesn’t really tread any new ground but at the same time it doesn’t really present anything overly bad. I have seen worse from M. Night Shyamalan, but I have also seen a lot better. The same could be said for the special effects. Some were beautifully well done while others looked like cheesy props. Over all I had fun time going to the movies and would suggest for most that this just be a rental flick. 3.8 out of 5

 

Let's Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

 

Welcome back to the Geekdom, I’ll be your Guide. I’m going to be frank with you, I’m a Star Trek fan, but I wouldn’t say I’m an obsessive Trekkie. If you’re looking for a review where I point out every single continuity error that the producers of the film seemed to have missed, you’re going to have to wait for my review of the next Star Wars film. So being a casual Trekkie, how did I feel about the new film? Let’s review Star Trek: Into Darkness.

The Negative

Is it just me or did the Starfleet uniforms look really weird in this film. I don’t mean the typically yellow, blue, and red shirts; I’m talking about everything else they wore outside of those. Star Trek is well known for changing their uniforms over the course of its many series but all of the extra uniforms just didn’t seem right in this movie. I’m sure the new uniforms were supposed to be dressing for the occasion such as the need to be under cover or the need to be presentable for a meeting, but none of these new suits looked like a natural piece of clothing to wear.

The Opening. I get what they were trying to do. They were trying to show us a wacky ground mission that was fast paced and would get the audience into a lighthearted mood for the film, but the opening just seems too over the top and ridiculous with its execution. Why did the Enterprise have to be underwater? Why did Kirk have to steal the native tribe’s idol and lead them in a crazy forest chase (Similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark)? Why did Spock have to be in the Volcano in order to set off the bomb? I know that some of these were answered in film, but the entire opening situation was just too wacky for my taste. (But not for my editor who thought it was great.)

The Positive

Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan was amazing. This was a Khan unlike the previous depiction. This wasn’t a Khan without technology prowess like in the classic Star Trek episode Space Seed, nor was it a vengeful Khan out for blood like in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This version of Khan was a tactical mastermind who had been awake for some time before encountering our heroes. This was Khan at his most powerful and Benedict Cumberbatch pulled it off perfectly.

The Vengeance. Star Trek has had a massive number of enemy starships over the course of its history, but I have to say The Vengeance was one of the scariest and most intimidating ships I have ever seen. This thing was awe-inspiring. It’s a massive, darker version of the Enterprise and it had the power to just shoot them out of warp speed if it wanted to. The Vengeance was a true threat to the Enterprise and I loved every moment it was onscreen.

Spoilers to the endings of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: Into Darkness follows. If you don’t want these endings spoiled for you, please proceed directly to the conclusion of the review. Everyone else, keep reading.

 

I know a few people disagree with me on this point, but I believe the reversal death scene was a brilliant move on Into Darkness part. The scene where Mr. Spock dies in Wrath of Khan is almost perfectly recreated, but with Kirk standing in Spock’s position. Mr. Spock’s plot in this film was to see him form a true bond of friendship with Kirk, a friendship that he wouldn’t fully understand until Kirk’s sacrifice. Before Spock viewed their relationship as Captain and Officer, but now he truly saw what their relationship meant in Kirk’s final moments. This event really peaked Spock’s arc in this film. This reversal also added a level of suspense. Spock died from the events that occurred in Wrath of Khan, and so, for the briefest of moments I didn’t know if they were bold enough to go through with Kirk’s death. Plot elements revealed how Kirk could be easily brought back, but for a moment I wasn’t sure where the plot was going to go.

In Conclusion

I’ve mentioned before how much of a fan I am of the 2009 Star Trek film, and I believe its sequel continued the winning streak. This was an amazing film with truly spectacular villains and fantastic character plots. My only problem with it was a few odd choices in costume and the beginning of the film. I honestly hope that J.J. Abrams can return to the Star Trek universe after his Star Wars film, because I can’t wait to see more. 4.8 out of 5