Category Archives: 3 Star Movies

Good Morning Vietnam Review

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This review is of the edited TV 14 version of the film. Note that all of the statements above only pertain to this version and that the original version would likely be lower.
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Good Morning Vietnam is a story that is loosely based off of real events and it takes place during the Vietnam war. That was definitely a pretty sad time for Americans and I watched a documentary on it a while back. It’s one of the only wars that we basically lost and we also had to deal with a lot of political drama back at home with rebellions happening all around the place. This film just focuses on the Vietnam aspect and how one man could try to keep the morale of the troops up.

Adrian gets transferred over to Vietnam to be the broadcaster for a radio station that is around to keep morale up for the troops. He enjoys the job and he’s pretty good at it. Adrian becomes friends with a native as he tries to romance a woman that he meets over there. Not everything is dandy though as his superior and his superior’s superior don’t like him. Luckily, his superior’s superiors superior does think he is doing a good job and that’s what counts. Will it be enough to keep him safe?

Well, that’s basically the gist of the film. The war is pretty grim so Adrian has to help everyone forget about it as they go about their daily duties. There is a lot of drama that is added through the subplots. The main character gets to see firsthand how destructive the battle is and that’s when he decides that the troops have a right to know what is going on. That really puts him at odds with the higher ups and things get pretty dangerous for him. Should he say what is happening?

Well, in this case I would have to agree with the government. I don’t think Adrian should lie about what is happening, but he just shouldn’t mention the war and what’s going on. For one thing, the transmissions could easily be intercepted by the enemy. We don’t want to them to know exactly what is going on. (Nowadays, information is definitely more available thanks to the internet) It’s like with the recent Snowden leaks. Many are glad about them because we know what the NSA has been up too, but it’s also compromised a lot of our data to the enemy and to our “allies.” Giving out any tactical information over the radio could definitely be dicey. I don’t think mentioning the place blowing up would be that bad for the government intelligence, but maybe the enemy would be glad to know just how many agents were injured during the blast. It’s probably good that we don’t supply them with that kind of information.

The end of the film seems to definitely take on a political stance as we get a traitor to the cause. He then gets emotional and tells the main character that the Americans aren’t wanted here. They keep on shooting innocent people and messing with government affairs that they don’t comprehend. The film is basically echoing the sentiments that many people had about the war. Many people think it was a mistake to get involved in the first place and especially our decision to keep on sending more and more troops to a losing battle. So, the film is on that stance and I have to wonder about mine. I’m pretty sure that it was a good move to come in to help and I like to think that not all of our soldiers became corrupt and started shooting innocent people everywhere. Back in those days, it unfortunately did happen sometimes, but to every country. No country is completely safe from that.

The Army did look pretty bad on a few occasions here though. One scene shows that some of the military personnel just hang out at a bar indulging their sinful pleasures when they could definitely be doing something more constructive. Did I mention that they are also shown to be racist? They don’t make up the majority of the troops and I would easily put them in the vast minority, but it’s still sad to see them portrayed like that.

The film can be pretty violent at times so I would advise you to think twice about seeing it if you don’t like realistic violence. It’s made in a way to look very similar to real battlegrounds after a fight and you definitely see the injuries on the soldiers. We also see people shot point blank inside a house and a chicken is almost murdered. It escapes, but it’s all pretty gritty at that point. Gritty is an appropriate word to describe the film as Adrian goes to the poverty sections of Vietnam and gets to see what the living arrangements are like. It’s all very bleak.

I can’t say that I cared for Adrian in this film. He’s just not the kind of main character that I can root for and he’s way too interested in romance. One of his first scenes makes sure to show this as he keeps believing that he sees the same person over and over. He’s way too desperate to get to her and he should be more focused on his radio broadcast. He’s a natural comedian though and he does a good job of thinking up his lines as he goes along. It’s definitely amazing to see him switch his voice so effectively. His jokes do go a little over the top at some points though so his style isn’t my favorite. The army seems to really love it, but I can’t say that I found most of the jokes to be funny. I suppose that it was before my time.

The main character’s friend is mostly around to be the comic relief of the story. He gets a bike that doesn’t fit and he’s there to laugh at Adrian’s jokes. The main superior thinks that he’s a great comedian as well, but nobody finds him funny, which can be pretty sad for the guy. He tried so hard and it just wasn’t enough this time. The superior of that guy is the main antagonist and he just wants Adrian out of the way. He didn’t like him from day 1 and that doesn’t change during the course of the film. Their styles are just too different and they weren’t going to get along. Due to a twist, the native that Adrian gets along with is definitely not likable and I didn’t care for the main heroine either. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go with Adrian, but then just completely tell him no and end it. She shouldn’t even let him take her out to the movies if she wants to stay away.

I didn’t care for the romance subplot and I could have done without the war stories. I think this film could have definitely scored a 5-6 if it had just stuck to the radio plot. Imagine if the film took place in NYC and Adrian had problems with his higher ups about his broadcasts. That definitely could have been an intriguing plot and it would have been able to hold up pretty well. It wouldn’t have been quite as “deep” but it still would have been pretty intense.

Overall, This film is an intriguing adaption of the Vietnam War. I shouldn’t call it an adaption of the war I suppose, but of something that happened in the war. Still, I don’t think that real life events should be crossed over with films. If it’s going to be an event, then just make it a documentary and vice versa. We should keep these two things separate for the time being. If you are interested in the Vietnam war you are likely just going to want to see a documentary. Robin William’s acting for his broadcasts is pretty good so fans of his may want to check this film out to remember him in one of his biggest roles. Otherwise, I would sooner recommend that you watch the current Naruto Shippuden episodes if you want to watch a big war.

Overall 3/10

Chronicle Review

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It’s time to review the shaky camera film that came out not too long ago. It feels a whole lot older than 2012 though since I could have sworn that it’s been more than 3 years since we rented it. Ah well, memory doesn’t always go in a linear fashion and mine in particular has never been great. I don’t care for the camera style and there has never been a good movie that has used it (Sorry Cloverfield!). Still, maybe this will be the exception right?…..

The plot involves Andrew Detmer as he decides to start recording his life on camera from now on. He gets bullied at school and he has no friends. At home, his Dad is always drunk so Andrew is really in a tough spot. It may not make for a good film to watch on tape when he grows up, but at least he’ll have proof for the cops. Did I mention that suspicious characters have practically formed a gang and taken over his neighborhood as well? One day, Andrew is called out by Steve to follow him and Matt into an underground tunnel. Andrew refuses every step of the way, but his body and his mind don’t seem to be on the same page as he dashes in. He reminds everyone that they shouldn’t be down there as they grab the crystal and are instantly defeated. When they wake up, the three heroes realize that they have advanced telekinesis. With this kind of power…they can do anything! Will they learn to use their powers for the good of humanity or will they decide to crush all of the obstacles that had been in their life?

Well, I can’t say that this film was a winner for me anymore than Cloverfield. The shaky camera certainly doesn’t help and I don’t think that I will be converting into a fan in the foreseeable future. It just takes away from all of the scenes since you’re wondering how long the film will be until the camera goes away. A person was mugged at a bar for using the Google Glass in real life so imagine how much worse it would be for a kid who is already bullied to start bringing a camera with him to school? Only the plot allowed his camera to survive and the bullying actually gets a little worse once he starts using it. It also helps Andrew to withdraw from humanity along with the viewers.

Andrew Detmer is the main character and he is part of the moral of the story. What’s the moral? It’s essentially that power corrupts and “what goes around comes around.” Andrew has been bullied by his family and schoolmates for a long time and once he obtains his powers, Andrew finally snaps. The thing is, Andrew had likely already snapped many times in the past, but he just couldn’t do anything about it without his powers. It’s one of the reasons why the gun control law debates are so fierce. There are many bar room brawls that escalate and if they had guns, I’m sure that we would get many reports of people being shot. Andrew wastes no time as he blows up a hole in a hospital and starts to rampage through the city. He goes from Hero to Zero (I love that Kingdom Hearts rhyme) or essentially from bullied kid to the deranged bully.

I didn’t like him from the start and he’s just not my kind of film lead. It’s really why I didn’t like Peter Parker in the first installment of the reboot series. There are plenty of anime leads who start out quiet and sad like Aichi and Haruyuki, but they learn how to be sociable as they make friends. Andrew made two friends, but the camera prevents him from truly bonding with them. He is actually doing pretty well until his big incident at the party where he tries to prove that he is a man through romance. If great power won’t corrupt a person, romance certainly will. Did he really think that it would be a wise move to get intimate with a girl that he just met for 2 minutes? Andrew didn’t think it through and everyone would have walked all over him as they absorbed the money that he would earn with his abilities. His whole situation is pretty messed up and it’s very tough to get out of something like that, but he definitely didn’t handle it well.

See, once you have great powers..then the situation should naturally get better. The main character can emit a barrier around himself with telekenesis so he doesn’t have to worry about his bullies or his Dad anymore. He doesn’t have to hurt them, he can just protect himself or freeze them in place for a minute or two so they understand their powerlessness. There are a lot of ways to improve the situation once you have such useful powers and Andrew made all of the wrong calls. It’s one of the reasons why he wasn’t really likable by the end.

Matt is the main character’s cousin and he means well. He seems to put more of an effort into helping Andrew than the others, but it’s not easy. He can’t always be there so he doesn’t truly understand Andrew’s plight and it’s tough to really talk to the main character. Matt is also dealing with relationship troubles of his own at this point and he wants one of the girls to understand why he is so much cooler than everyone else. He doesn’t participate in the High School popularity stunts and he can be pretty arrogant. At the end of the film, it’s up to him to make the tough calls. He was possibly the nicest guy from the main three, but it’s still hard to find him likable. He has some good moments and then he also has some bad moments. He’s really just interested in romance when he talks to the main girl and that’s not cool. I never cared for the romance stereotype, but it’ll likely stay around for a while.

Steve is the third member of the group and he’s the one who really links the three main characters. He involves both of them when they find the chunk of rock that gives them powers and he is pretty popular at school. His life is pretty perfect compared to the other two and he takes everything in stride. Of course, he does help the other two pull off some pretty mean spirited pranks and he’s also way too interested in romance and using his powers for pretty bad means. Yeah, Steve does beat Andrew, but he could still be a lot better. He looks pretty awful in his final moments though since he is basically sucker zapped.

Richard is Andrew’s father and he’s really here as an obstacle to be overcome. His personality is just that he likes to get drunk and make Andrew’s life as miserable as he can. An accident made him quit his job and even though he has healed..he doesn’t bother to do anything with his life. He has no point in the story except to push Andrew over the edge. He says that Andrew is responsible for his mother’s final end because he was looking for Andrew to mess with him when the wife was dying. It’s the whole blame game and it doesn’t end. Richard really has nobody but himself to blame for everything that’s happened to him in the last few years.

There is no real soundtrack so I’ll skip the audio section. (0/5 for the soundtrack by default…) The fight scenes are surprisingly good, which is probably the biggest plus of the film. Maybe it’s actually not too hard to do them and films typically just avoid these type of fight scenes for fear of reviews like in Man of Steel, but they’re very well done. We see the craters from the big clash and the telekinesis abilities are a little more refined than when Jean Grey used to fight in the X Men movies. (Granted..this is a 2012 film) The fight scene wasn’t totally satisfying since one of the fighters was trying not to fight while the other one was already pretty crazy, but I’ll take what I can get. You can definitely draw a lot of parallels to Superman in the way that they fought. Not a whole lot of punches are thrown, but they fly in Superman stances and the craters may remind you of the fight between Superman and Zod. It’s just a lot better than I would have expected for this film and it would have been even better with a different camera style.

This is not a film where you should expect a happy ending. One of the reasons why this film isn’t that good is that it’s not very enjoyable. This is the kind of film that you can call a downer. Everything goes wrong for the main character from start to finish. He made the wrong choices at the end, which result in his end, but there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. It’s very gloomy and we just watch everyone bite the big one in the end. The cops naturally decide to shoot at the good guy who’s defending the city instead of the villain. There is also a really unnecessary scene where Andrew literally rips a spider apart. That’s when we realized that Andrew had completely gone off the deep end along with his speeches on natural selection. (Remember that he is talking to himself on camera…just saying..)

The only time where things are actually going pretty well for the heroes is when they’re pulling pranks at other people’s expense or when they’re at the talent show and Andrew realizes that showing off his powers for romance and money is all that he really wants anymore. It’s just a very somber film that won’t leave you singing “Everything is Awesome” the way that something like the Avengers would. The film will leave you worn out even though it isn’t very long since the ending will leave part of the city in shambles and more than a few people are either down for the count or in the hospital. At least, the one person with powers left should be able to get by just fine. (Overpowered powers are overpowered after all)

Overall, Chronicle makes most of the classic film mistakes. It has animal violence and no real themes. The main characters are not likable since they have many of the flaws that you see in everyday life. They just spam swear words through their daily life and just care about romance and being “cool.” It’s safe to say that the camera didn’t help either. Chronicle did have some great action scenes though and a sequel could work out a lot better than this one if it follows Matt’s story and goes with a traditional camera view. That would give it a pretty good chance of not only beating this film, but perhaps doubling its score. That would be pretty impressive for a sequel! If you want to watch a shaky cam film then you’re out of luck as far as recommendations go since I wouldn’t recommend this one. However, if you want a film about people with super powers that isn’t Sky High, I would recommend checking out Naruto Shippuden Film 3!

Overall 3/10

Minority Report Review

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My expectations for Minority Report were a little higher than they were for the average film. After all, the video game was excellent with the story (almost) holding its own against the gameplay. The fact that Tom Cruise is the lead is also intriguing since he was so popular back in the day and the concept was great. I also saw a clip of it a while back and it was pretty cool how stores could find out what you wanted through an eye scan as you walked in the store. This was a film with a lot of potential, but my hopes crashed into the ground once the film actually started. This is definitely not a title that I would recommend!

The film starts out by introducing us to this new world. Pre Crime has officers who are able to go travel around and stop crimes before they actually occur. At first, I thought that they were time travelling, which would have created a lot of plot questions, but they just go to the location of the crime and stop it from being committed. This is possible through the three pre cogs that exist at their main headquarters. They can predict a murder a day before it happens or sometimes only a few hours in advance. John Anderton is the main person in charge of finding out where the murder is taking place by analyzing the visions that the pre cogs have. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! One day, the pre cogs announce that John will murder someone so now he must run for his life and prove that he is innocent! Of course, we have to wonder…is he innocent?

I guess I should start out with the beginning. We get a random bunch of scenes with people being murdered and everything is gritty and chaotic. We eventually see that this is to show how gruesome murder is and how John is around to prevent it. Then we see the scene like 5-8 more times as John tries to figure out where the murder is. Let’s not forget that we see a lady drowning about a dozen or so times as well. Murder is a main theme of the film so it’s to be expected that we’ll see a lot of it, but we don’t need to keep seeing it over and over again. Telling us what John is about to do would have a similar effect. It’s also just not a very good way to start a film. You need a beginning that makes you want to watch the film, not one that chases you away!

Also, this film takes place in the future and there’s a lot that they can do with that. Unfortunately, they never delve into any of the interesting parts. I like to see how films imagine the future to be because they can be close to the truth in some instances and far removed in others. I can see eye scans delivering personal advertisements in the far future and likewise with hover cars. (Although I doubt they’ll be building any vertical roads in the near or far future) We only get glimpses of these things and they were all more interesting than the main plot.

Why? The actual plot is a pretty sound one and it’s like a thriller with a bit of mystery in it. What stops the film from being enjoyable is the unnecessary grotesqueness in several scenes. We have a guy who’s eyeball is missing and it’s really hard to look at him. Now, in real life it’s just sad to see that happen to someone, but in a film…do we need to see this? I don’t think so since it’s just there for shock value. Another set of scenes would be the eyeball transaction. Ugh..

This was easily one of the worst collection of scenes in the film. John decides that he needs new eye balls so he goes to an illegal surgeon. This surgeon isn’t very hygenienic by the way and he used to be a bigger criminal. He’s still illegal, but this is a more subtle practice. He reminds John of this once John is paralyzed and it’s easy to expect the worst. Even without the worst happening, the whole scene is very gross and we even see John’s old eyes in a plastic bag. Just thinking about it makes me wince.

No, it doesn’t stop there! After the long transfer, John goes to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. He ends up biting a chunk out of a mold sandwich and then he downs it with a green colored milk. Now they’re just adding insult to injury aren’t they? That was pretty gross and it certainly didn’t help the film. The Doctor’s assistant is also pretty bad and she adds nothing to the story except to make you feel bad for John.

Your suspense for disbelief will also need to be decently high to accept the fact that the Government allows Pre Crime to have so much power. Their spider bots can go into your house without a warrant to scan your eyes. I really don’t think that will be happening anytime soon. These spider bots are also not as advanced as they should be since jumping into a pool is enough to fool their heat sensors. Is that really all it takes to evade these guys? My dog Sonic would be able to sniff out the villains faster than the bots! All right, I’ve covered most of the bases for the film. Now, let’s talk about the characters.

John Anderton is the main character of the story and he certainly has a lot more drama than the average lead. After a traumatic event caused him to lose his son, John split up with his wife and became addicted to the “clear” whistle. It’s basically a drug and it’s a pretty low time for John. He works at Pre Crime to prevent murder from ever happening again. It’s definitely a move that makes sense in response to this and I don’t mind that he’s still broken up about what happened. It’s been years, but you never forget something like that. Turning to drugs is definitely going too far though since he can vent his frustration through other means.

John has his big choice during the climax of the film. Do the legal thing and bring the villain to justice or take out the gun and fire. Ethically, we all know what he should do, but it’s still a hard choice to make in person. I won’t disagree with John’s choice, but I don’t really like how he went about it. Letting the man grab the gun at one point is really not cool and it shows that John should have kept his guard up a little more. John’s a pretty good fighter and he takes on many officers from Pre Crime. The fight scenes were pretty fun even though there weren’t many of them and I would have liked to have seen more of the shockwave gun in action. John is a pretty good character overall. He made some pretty big mistakes, but he’s pretty heroic throughout. I would have liked him more though if he had skipped the drugs and also tried to help the pre cogs sooner.

Lamar is an old man who proudly helped to establish Pre Crime. He’s always wanted a chance to end murder once and for all and this was his ticket. Now he is finally preparing to retire and leave the organization to John. Then the big frame up happens and things quickly start to change. Lamar may seem like a nice old man, but I definitely don’t care for him. He doesn’t really possess any of the traits that make a character likable for me, while possessing a few that make it natural for me to dislike him. The character did well inside of his role and it was a necessary one, but I still don’t care for him. Essentially, he was a good addition to the film, but I don’t really sympathize with his plight.

Agatha is the main pre cog from the three members and she’s the only one who is shown to be able to talk with the others. (Not that the other two were really in a state to do that) She doesn’t talk all that often, but she definitely helps John out a lot when he is in a pinch. Her fate isn’t very great at the beginning since the Pre Cogs are basically forced to watch the future and alert the people to who will be murdered next. Their minds are always connected to the network so they don’t have much of a choice about anything. It’s a pretty rough way to live and Agatha finally gets her chance for freedom later on. Of course, if the cops catch her and Anderton…it’s all over. She didn’t really have a chance to become a very likable character since she doesn’t really get to adjust to the modern world. She seems like she’s a good person and that’ll have to do.

Danny is the cop who’s trying to find John during the film. He’s pretty tough and he never backs down from a fight. I typically like the type of character that he is since he is always serious about his job. Danny is going to do whatever it takes to bring John in and he never doubts his cause. I will admit that his reaction times are rather slow though and he didn’t have the greatest ending to his character arc. Luckily, he did get a solid fight scene in the film so we know that he really isn’t all talk. I dare say that he was a more likable character than the main lead although it can be debatable. Perhaps he put too much trust in the magical ball that foretold the future though…

Lara is John’s ex wife and she plays a large role towards the end of the film. I was surprised by it since it appeared like her role would be small at best. She turns out to be pretty good by the end although she certainly made her share of mistakes during the film. Given the circumstances, Lara ends up being one of the better characters in the film. I would have preferred if she could have landed a solid blow on one of the villains at some point, but it wasn’t to be.

It’s also disappointing to see the fact that the Pre Cogs are just left in the pool for eternity to help Pre Crime out. Doesn’t anyone see something wrong with this system? It’s obviously not a pleasant experience for the three Pre Cogs and someone should do something about this. It makes you wonder how ethical the world that they live in is. Sure, they’ve effectively gotten rid of murder in that area, but there are still many other crimes out there. Let’s hope the government is prepared for what comes next.

Overall, Minority Report definitely couldn’t live up to the video game. The game was awesome on all levels and this one was a pale reflection at best. They both contain many identical scenes, but the game managed to really capture you with the plot without resorting to gross moments or excessive murder displays. The film spent too much time trying to shock the audience instead of just going through the story naturally. The dark element involved in the tragedy for the main character may make him more sympathetic, but it doesn’t help the actual film. Such a move will never help the film since a happier sob story would be better. I don’t recommend this film and if you want a futuristic film that actually shows how the future will probably be in 800 years, I recommend Yugioh 3D Bonds Beyond Time!

Overall 3/10

Escape from the Planet of the Apes Review

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The Planet of the Apes is back with another film. Surely it can’t be any worse than the first one…right? I can safely say that the series is definitely showing some improvement with this installment. It falls into a few holes, but they would be incredibly hard to avoid. The plot is intriguing, even if it’s a little unnecessary. It’s time for the humans to strike back.

The plot involves three apes who managed to escape the planet before it…met an abrupt end. Sure, that could be a spoiler, but I expect my readers to have seen the last film in the series before reading my review of this one. It just wouldn’t make any sense otherwise right? Back to the plot, the three apes are greeted by the military and they act like normal apes to protect themselves. Unfortunately, the act can’t hold for long when Zira has one of her moments so the two scientists who learn of this (Lewis and Stephanie) decide to show the world. Will the Apes be regarded as friend or foe? They’re about to find out one way or another! (In case I need to clear this up. The Apes have arrived into the past before the Earth blew up and Apes began to rule.

Well, the film already showed signs of improvement from the first one since the setting was better. I’ll take a regular city over a barren wasteland any day. Civilization was finally back and the unfortunate subplots of crazy humans and slavery could be over and done with. Those reasons almost guaranteed that this film would be higher than the last one on principal.

Zira is back and she’s one of the main characters in this film. Unfortunately, I can’t say that she was a very good character. Most of the trouble and problems that arise are really her fault. She talks when the other Apes warned her not too so then the humans find out about it. It’s not like they were even trying to humiliate her or anything. The humans were just testing their intelligence. Then, Zira is tricked into revealing all of the secrets from the future. Her biggest mistake was when she decided to leave her suitcase outside of the hiding place so that the humans could find and destroy them. She’s supposed to be the smart one of the group, but she definitely didn’t look the part in this film.

Milo is the baby who appears in this film. He’s the next generation of Ape you could say and the entire government is after him. He’s still a baby so it’s not like he can do a whole lot. So, I can’t say that he’s an unlikable character, but his final scene isn’t that great. Still, we can’t really judge his character until the next film.

Cornelius is back along with Zira and he’s more of a fighter in this film. He’s definitely more confident and bold as he speaks up against Zira more. He talks to the humans and shows them that he is serious about his work. He definitely overreacted when the humans would use the term monkey though and the scene where he took out the guy holding a tray was intriguing. I don’t see how the guy died from such an attack, but I guess Cornelius is just that tough. He does mess up in the ending though as he goes too far away when looking around the hideout. Not a wise move.

Lewis is the main human of the film or at least as far as the protagonists go. He does his best to help out the Apes, but there’s not much for him to do. He can let the army take him down or he can help the apes in secret. It’s a tough call of course but he ultimately makes the right call. Well…that is pretty arguable since he could have stuck up for them more. He was doomed to lose against politics, but he could have kept on trying until the bitter end. He basically just accepts the end and moves on as the film closes.

Stephanie is certainly not the bravest character out there. She faints when the Apes first begin to speak. Sure, it may have been surprising, but fainting isn’t really the best reaction. She helps out against the cops after that, but that’s about it. She’s a good driver, but she would need more courage for me to be a fan of her.

Dr. Milo doesn’t appear for very long and there’s a good reason for that. He lacks the power needed to keep up with the others. An Ape gets him in a headlock and he can’t break free…so he doesn’t really make it. His role must have been painful for his fans because it’s a very sad way to go out. You’d expect much more of a fight from such a big character. The scene just came so suddenly. At least he gets some hype from the other characters after he is taken out, but it’s not really the same as actually appearing right?

The President was definitely my favorite character. He got to call the shots while drinking his coffee and he never let anything slide. This was a man who was comfortable with wielding large amounts of power and nobody could corrupt him. Unfortunately, underlings tend to get away with a lot when the leader is so far away. The President is always relaxing so he doesn’t really know what’s going on. He still gives it his all though.

Otto is the main villain of the film and he really makes sure that the apes know this. He’s worried that the apes are going to enslave the humans so they must be stopped. Well, I’ll talk more about this in a minute, but he’s definitely an exaggerated character. He should have been locked up right away, but nobody suspected just how dangerous he was until it was too late. He gets away with a whole lot of shooting before he’s finally hit. Then the army finishes the job for him. I can definitely say that Otto doesn’t make for a good villain.

The soundtrack for the film definitely isn’t very good. The tunes just don’t make a lot of sense and they can get repetitive very quickly. The music definitely isn’t as action packed as something like Final Wars, but I suppose that it’ll have to do. It didn’t exactly help the film, but it’s not like the themes could hurt it all that much.

The main offense that I have with this film is that it’s just boring. There aren’t really any moments where you’ll stand up and cheer or even crack a smile. You’re just watching the film in awkward silence as you glance at your watch from time to time. The film isn’t even that long, but it takes a while for anything to happen. In that sense, it definitely rivals the Lord of The Rings/Hobbit.

The climax is also contains less action than usual. It’s really a one on one gunfight, but it’s not official. By that, I mean that one guy shoots someone and then someone else shoots him from behind. I’ve seen more action in My Little Pony and Scooby Doo. The film definitely ends on a low note. The ending was definitely not very enjoyable. Let’s just say that you can probably guess what happens based on the ending of the last film. It’s pretty similar.

The final, final scene is still pretty sad as well. We have someone yelling out a name…over and over and over again. It keeps on going once the screen has gone dark as well. It’s an example of a scene that could have been interesting, but ended up getting dragged on for far too long. Although, the final 20 minutes or so was all pretty underwhelming.

I also think that one of the things that hurts the film is how unbelievable some of the parts are. There’s no way Apes would ever enslave humanity and this guy shouldn’t really believe it. It’s no better than a fortune teller telling them that something will happen in the future. Unfortunately, the Judge and Juries do agree with him to an extent and announce that the baby must be destroyed. That’s rather crude for the United States. So much for Freedom and Independence. Also, I like to think that the general populace would have been able to help them or to at least find out the truth about what the government did. It shouldn’t be too hard to piece the puzzles together.

One thing that I can’t forget to mention is how bad the acting is. Especially for the Apes as their facial expressions always seem fake. They’ll randomly glare at people or engage in eye contact for a very long time. It’s so bad that it can be funny at times. Special effects were limited at the time and I can understand that, but it still doesn’t look very good. This is something that the series likely won’t get much better at until the newer films, but I can hope.

Overall, This film was definitely a step up from the last one. It’s a world of difference in quality and this one definitely wasn’t unbearable to watch. It’s really just boring, which is still a pretty big crime for a film, but it could be worse. What the film really needed was a better ending and better characters. Zira proved that the apes couldn’t be trusted thanks to her sadistic experiments and the humans weren’t any better as they became paranoid very quickly. I can’t say that I’m a fan of the Apes franchise even after this film, but it was certainly an improvement. Hopefully the sequel can fix these issues and gives us a better soundtrack as well. This review wasn’t very long because the film itself was pretty uneventful. It didn’t make too many errors, but it didn’t really try. The first half was just about the Apes having fun and then the ending is where things go south for them. The court scenes were intriguing, although they could have been handled much better. I would recommend watching Godzilla vs King Kong instead of this film though since King Kong makes for a hardcore fighter and the action scenes can be pretty intense.

Overall 3/10

The Next Karate Kid Review

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The Karate Kid trilogy was pretty intriguing. It was never as good as the Rocky films, but Daniel LaRusso eventually became a decent main character. It was always fun to see Mr. Miyagi take out some villains. This one was supposed to be a step down from the trilogy and I can definitely see why. At best, this film can possibly match up to the second Karate Kid film, but that’s about it. Why couldn’t this film take down the rest and become the best? Let’s find out!

The plot involves a girl named Julie Pierce and she’s not doing very well. She’s been skipping out on class and not finishing any of the homework. She also gives her grandmother a lot of attitude, BUT she has a soft spot for animals. (Hint, this is where the audience is supposed to sympathize with her) Her parents were also taken down a while back so she’s pretty sad about the whole thing. Luckily, her grandmother is friends with Mr. Miyagi and he offers to babysit her for a few weeks. The grandmother heads out of state for a while so that Miyagi can make Julie a better person.

Unfortunately, the school has been corrupted and the fighting instructor is out to get Julie along with many of the students who are on the disciplinary committee. The harassment won’t stop and while she has one friend…it’s not enough. Mr. Miyagi decides to teach her how to fight, but will Julie learn enough to take down these advanced fighters? It’s time to find out!

Well, before I get into the characters, I must warn you that the film’s ending is arguably tragic. Eric had a dream to become a pilot, but it may have been shattered by the villain. Eric may still be able to follow his dream someday, but it will now be a lot harder. His really expensive and extravagant car is also blown up and the bullies decide not to pay him back since nobody can prove it. Eric really gets the short end of the stick by the end of the film and you almost feel bad for him.

Julie is the main character of the film and she’s definitely a step down from LaRusso. She’s very rude to everyone from the very beginning and her scenes made me physically cringe for most of the film. Her sarcastic expressions just wouldn’t stop and her glaring at everyone got old pretty quickly. By the end of the film she has essentially changed her ways and become a much better person, but it’s hard to forget the first half. I can’t say that she was one of the better characters, but she went up from being a terrible character to a slightly below average one. She’s a little too distracted by her emotions and romance as well, but Eric is also to blame for this.

Eric is the main guy in this film and he’s a decent character at best. He’s constantly trying to be with Julie and eventually the two become friends. That subplot could have definitely been written out of the film. Eric spends most of his time getting beaten up by the villains, which is definitely unfortunate for him. The final fight wasn’t very fair, but considering that I believe that he only landed one punch. I’ll never understand why the good guy doesn’t throw a punch immediately. Even the legendary Rocky preferred to get jabbed a few dozen times before countering.

Mr. Miyagi is about as good as per usual. The film really wanted to show how well he could fight so Miyagi got more battles than usual. He takes on some guys in a random gas station, shows up some other guys in a bowling tournament, talks big against the evil fighting teacher, beats up the evil fighting teacher, etc. The film really tried to show us that Miyagi is the greatest fighter of all time and he’s too cool for the world. Miyagi is cool, but the hype can be a little much at times. It was definitely played up a little more than the other films. Wellll….Karate Kid 3 had a pretty intense scene where Miyagi beat three professionals teaming up soooooo….nuff said.

Ned is the main bully of the film and he’s about as bad as you can expect. He’s a pretty bully who wants the girl for himself and he openly threatens people without any consequences. This is because the teacher is on his side and the teacher can bend the Principal to his will. Ned gets to stay after school at night without being charged for breaking and entering. He also tricks the cops several times and he gets away with assaulting another student with a baseball bat. (I have to say that I wouldn’t go to that school without some body armor or at least a bullet proof hat) I’m sure that we can all imagine how Ned’s big fight against Julie plays out, but you may not expect that Ned shows off his cowardice in public. He tries to start the fight with a cheap shot…which shows that he fears Julie. So much for being the big villain eh?

Colonel Dugan is the evil fighting teacher who is the head honcho of this business. He beats up his students for fun and then he tells them to destroy other students. The school lets this fly for unknown reasons and none of the students are bright enough to tell their parents or the school administration. Dugan has his climatic fight at the end of the film, but aside from physical injuries….he can now head right back to the school. Some of the students quit, but I’ll feel bad for the others that are still in the group.

One of the many negatives in this film is the fact that the school allows this. You could sense the bullies coming before the main character even set foot in the school. The faculty are just not aware of the situation and they don’t even seem to care. The evil teacher angle has been played up a thousand times at this point. I know that this is because this is made to be very similar to the first film, but it can still be hard to watch. There’s also a very unnecessary fanservice scene for the main heroine. It’s brief at least, but still unnecessary and it certainly doesn’t add anything to the story.

One scene that felt completely fake was when Julie’s grandmother forgets what her real name was and called her Susan. This leads to the plot twist that Julie’s parents are dead and she runs off for the umpteenth time. I know that it was a stressful time, but there’s no way that the grandmother would actually mess up her name. It was just pretty lazy writing at that point.

Another complaint would be Julie’s personality turn around. After jumping over the car she became a different person. Suddenly, she bonded with Miyagi over the portraits. She would take a step forward and then two steps backward. The Monks were decent at least and she got to bond with them by the end. It’s what counts I suppose! There isn’t much of a soundtrack in this film so I won’t be mentioning it. It’s pretty common for a film to forget about having a good soundtrack, but it can still be pretty sad.

The ending is rather abrupt and it ends badly for a few of the characters. Julie is basically doomed as far as her homework is concerned and Eric is now missing a car. Both of them have a tough road ahead, but maybe it will be okay. Provided that the teacher is kicked out anyway, but that seems unlikely. At least the bullies will finally take a break.

That also brings us to the artificial scene where the bullies suddenly get a heart. “That’s too much” and other lines like that. They just blew up someone’s car and they were giving him a pretty big beating. They didn’t seem to have a problem with harassing the main character and chasing her around the school all day. The scene happens in most of the Karate Kid films so we all saw it coming, but it still felt fake. The humanity!

Finally, I have to mention the fight scenes. They’re all done pretty terribly and you can tell that the budget didn’t make it through this. To show how powerful Miyagi is, they used slow motion on the villains. This would mean that their punch comes in really slowly to make Miyagi look fast in comparison as he breaks their arms and twirls them around like nothing. Miyagi humiliates all of the fighters, but there really isn’t any choreography. He’ll just flip them and punch them until the villains are down for the count. A show with a TV budget could make more realistic fights, but that’s arguably the charm of Miyagi. At any rate, the fight scenes are amazing compared to the rest of the film.

Overall, this isn’t a film that I would really recommend to people looking for some action. Mr. Miyagi is really the only good character in the film and his fights are the best part. The Hawk is good and I’m glad that the animal violence never occurred because the film couldn’t lose too many more points. The film just isn’t very enjoyable to watch and the romance didn’t help matters. Bullies are everywhere, but I’d like to see a real student council for once. One that isn’t corrupted. Instead of watching this film, go check out Rocky with its true fight scenes!

Overall 3/10

The Mothman Prophecies Review

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After the last few films that I’ve seen; the Mothman Prophecies is definitely a change of pace. It’s a horror film with some drama mixed in and who doesn’t want to see a film about the Mothman!? Unfortunately, this is one of those films that starts out decently interesting and then quickly stops being entertaining. Why? Let’s find out!

The plot involves a man named John Klein. He’s doing pretty well in his career as a reporter and he has just finished purchasing a house along with his wife. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and his wife dies after a big car crash. As she dies; Mary (The wife) draws some off pictures of a moth creature…could it be the Mothman? John doesn’t take this too seriously and he takes his mind off of the drawings for two years. After he is taken to Ohio and strange events begin to pop up…John realizes that he’s in it for the long haul. The Mothman’s not going to win without some resistance!

John Klein is the main character and he’s all right……at best. He really gets sucked into the Mothman rumors and he doesn’t take it too well. He breaks down into tears at one point and the Mothman really had him petrified after a late night call. After his wife’s death, John seems ready to move on after two years. That’s way too soon if you ask me and he should be more worried about retiring than thinking about getting into the romance game. No, John Klein is not a main character that will help a film get going. John also comes across as a little generic at times. There really weren’t any good parts about him…that’s disappointing.

Connie is the main heroine, but she’s still a supporting character in the end. She’s the Policewoman in the haunted area of Point Pleasant. For the most part, she seems to be the only cop around, but others appear out of nowhere towards the end of the film. I have to say that she’s a little too trusting since she walks around without her gun at the ready when it’s around 3 in the morning. What if the stranger had actually been evil? It would have been Game Over. At least she doesn’t put a whole lot of stock into the Mothman rumors. She was definitely a decent character.

Gordon is pretty unlikable from the start. The Mothman really does a number on him and Gordon never recovered. He also drags John back into the mix as he keeps Mr. Klein updated on the spooky situations that keep on happening to him. Gordon should have just ignored the weird phone calls and then decide to call it a night. It may be easier said than done, but he definitely could have kept some composure as he was enduring this situation. I’m just saying…

Indrid Cold..AKA, the Mothman is the big villain of the film. Unfortunately, he never actually appears in the film. Maybe the Mothman isn’t actually real? Naturally, the film hints that he is very real, but I guess they couldn’t afford the special effects needed for him to make an appearance. We have to settle with hearing him as the Mothman proves that he may have knowledge beyond comprehension as well as basic telekinesis or invisibility. The Mothman seems to be able to mess with their minds or he is just really good at impersonation and changing his voice. It can be a little sad for the heroes since they really don’t stand a chance. The Mothman is portrayed as being basically invincible so that eliminates any hope of the heroes walking out of this with a trophy or something like that.

Alexander is the expert on all things supernatural, but after the Mothman has a few choice words for him….Alexander leaves the business. We find out that he’s deeply afraid of the Mothman and he prefers to just forget about his supernatural knowledge and just sit around eating tea and burgers. (We don’t see his eating habits, but this is just an expression to show how badly he is taking this) This strategy did work so maybe he was on to something…maybe.

One area that didn’t help this film was the romance from the first few scenes. The main characters are already married so it is a bit much to see what they do upon getting the new house. Pretty unnecessary if you ask me, but it’s nothing compared to the “two teenagers in a car” scene. I’m sure that we must have seen a similar scene like this in just about every horror film. This one was one of the most pointless ones that I have come across and it comes out of nowhere. These two characters literally have no point in the storyline and the scene was just there to add some fanservice. Ugh….you wouldn’t find this in the classic films like the Peanuts Christmas special.

The soundtrack is basically nonexistent. I did like the opening credits since it helped to establish a spooky tone for the film without being overly cheesy and forced. I actually enjoyed the opening a lot and I wouldn’t mind seeing something similar in the next Godzilla or DBZ film. It’s horror themed, but it really builds up the suspense that every film could use.

So, in the end….why was this film so bad? The problem is that it drags on for a long time and there is no point by the end. The climax is terrible and it’s not exciting in the slightest. You never feel a real sense of danger because the Mothman never actually appears. We know that he loves to pick on John, but why? The viewer gets to make a lot of decisions on what has actually happened, which is all right…but sometimes you want the film to make a few decisions. Can the Mothman really take someone’s soul and bring them back to the world of the living or was it just some more shape shifting on his part? He also may be able to steal memories. At first, we’re interested in John’s plight because now he needs to avenge his wife and take this creature down. Then we see him listening to spooky tales for an hour and a half…before deciding to not really do anything about it. Sure, he can’t win, but let’s at least get some action in here. Nothing really happened and that’s why their was no point. We would just see scared people panic all of the time.

Overall, this was one of the weaker films that I’ve seen in a while. Ultimately, it’s just very boring and even the first half would now be pretty boring since I know that it doesn’t lead to anything. We really could have used a few explosions or fights to help make the film a little more exciting. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone. Watch the third Bleach film if you want something a lot scarier and a lot more epic at the same time. Next time the Mothman makes a phone call….just tell him that he has the wrong number.

Overall 3/10

Berserk Review

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It makes sense that a film would eventually use this powerful word as its title, but who would have guessed that the plot would involve a circus? I’m pretty sure that everyone was surprised to hear that, but we courageously kept on watching. Is the film intense enough to earn such a title? Well…it tries.

This is an example of a film that I had never heard of until I had seen it. Still, that’s how you find some of the best hidden gems! (The One!) The plot revolves around Monica Rivers, a circus owner, as mysterious happenings start occurring. Her circus performers are being picked off one by one. Coincidentally, they all started happening once a man named Frank appeared. He was very good at the role of the first victim and quickly took his job. Could there be any links between these unrelated accidents? More importantly, will the mass murderer be stopped or will the circus performers continue to be taken down for the count!?

Monica is the main character, but it’s really hard to root for her. I believe that we’re supposed to view her as the villain and then sympathize with her as the film goes on, but that just didn’t work for me. She values profit over people and explains this many times. She also makes sure to keep several of the characters interested in her so that she can have the joy of turning them down each time. Not really main character traits eh? All right, let’s talk about the other suspects characters.

Dorando is a character who owns part of the circus and he feels deeply saddened when the murders start. He’s not the type of guy to stand for something like this, but he also doesn’t dare leave. His only chance is for Monica to buy him out and then he could move away, but the chances of that are slim. Dorando wasn’t very likable either since he kept letting Monica push him around the whole time. Still…what if it’s part of his plan!?

Frank is the obvious suspect, but maybe it’s obvious because he is the villain!!!!!! He shows up right when the murders start happening and he obviously wants to make some money. He starts resorting to black mail and he also wants to be more than friends with Monica. This guy’s a bad apple in every meaning of the word and he even hits a reporter. There is also a dark past involving his last circus act…..hmmmmm. You really hope that he’s the culprit since he’s not likable either.

Angela doesn’t appear until we’re pretty late into the film, but she’s Monica’s daughter. She was kicked out of school for being a trouble maker and now she wants to be in the circus. Monica tries to shield her from the rumors that she is bumping everyone off, but Angela quickly finds out. Then again…what if she already knew and she was actually the murderer!? Things get interesting when she joins the knife throwing act….

I could keep on mentioning suspects for ages and ages! Still, I want to give you three more before I move on. We have Matilda, who is really interested in stirring up trouble. She suspects that Monica is guilty and she decides to prove it. Is this just a diversion so that nobody will suspect her!? Gustavo is a knife thrower and he realizes that things are getting a little dicey. The people aren’t really thrilled with Matilda and that doesn’t translate well for him. When he adds Angela into his act…he may have made a fatal enemy. That is…unless he is the enemy! Finally, we have Bruno! He’s the most loyal companion of them all and he’s the only one that Matilda can trust. Sounds a little too good to be true eh? There are definitely a lot of suspects in this one!

I’m always up for a good murder mystery, but this one just didn’t work. First of all….it’s a very long time between deaths and plot progression. We get to see a lot of Circus Shows and even the Cops get involved. I did like the Detective, but the shows could drag on. I liked the puppies, but who doesn’t like a good puppy right? The film wasn’t two hours, but it definitely felt like it was!

The violence is also surprisingly intense. It’s not always bloody, but the deaths themselves are what makes it intense. You have peaceful deaths like Superman blowing up random aliens…and you have Jason Todd deaths. This film had most of the latter. Seriously, some of the deaths will probably make you wince a little inside. The final one was ironically the most tame. This definitely felt like it was one of the original slasher films.

Finally, I’ve gotta take a shot at the soundtrack. The reason being….that it was not existent! When you don’t have any likable characters and a story that drags on for a while….you need the music! It’s just something that you can’t really get around. The film just wasn’t very thrilling and the final twist didn’t work.

Yes….the twist! Well, the murderer is revealed at the end and I didn’t agree with it. This person must be extremely talented at deception and possess a good deal of money to pull this off. It just doesn’t make sense unless there was an accomplice to the crime or some of the other characters felt like murdering someone. It definitely takes away from a murder mystery when the murderer doesn’t make any sense.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that this was one of the better slasher/mystery films. The final plot twist about the murderer really did not make sense and I find it a little hard to believe. It really feels like there must have been a second murderer involved, but maybe I’m overthinking things. Still, if you want to enjoy a classic murder mystery or a case of epic proportions, check out Rope or Dial M for Murder. This film can stay in obscurity for now and we can wait for a reboot to fix things.

Overall 3/10

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Review

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After the Highly Acclaimed Trilogy, the movie industry decided to adapt The Hobbit! This time, we could watch as Bilbo went on an adventure with lower stakes and a much weaker cast all around. Surely the film could still be a success as long as we got some good character development in there right? Well, I’m afraid that isn’t entirely how the film went.

I still remember the first time that I saw the Hobbit trailer. It looked terrible and the effects looked really dated. It’s a problem that the whole LOTR franchise suffers from and I didn’t expect it to get much better, but I wanted to see some change. Ah well, maybe next time! The plot involves Bilbo Baggins as he is forced into an adventure by Gandalf and his “friends”. Bilbo must help them retake their homeland and defeat the mighty Smaug!

We’ve got the plot out of the way, but it’s so simple right? How could this last for 2 hours!? Well, Bilbo puts up a fuss and the film makes sure that we see unnecessary things. The dinner party at the beginning of the movie lasts for a very long amount of time and usually it would have been much smaller in a different film. When I say that it shows unnecessary things, I’m referring to extra gestures or filler scenes that are present. Maybe an extra scene of Bilbo walking for no reason or an epic zoom in on a character that stays for a little too long. The films tend to drag out each and every scene until it’s extremely long. It’s like walking into a building made of steel and then adding some metal on it. In the Hobbit, we understand what is happening and would prefer if the movie could pick up the pace.

This is a bit of advice that I’ve used for all of the films, but I’ll say it again. The film should be shorter and they could take out a solid hour and the film would be better off for it. They could definitely condense some scenes and they could have literally taken 10 minutes off of the dinner scene. Maybe the sequels will do better in the time frame part, but I have my doubts.

Bilbo is a much better main character than Frodo so that definitely helps the film out. I’m not really a fan of the character, but he is easier to sympathize with. He is currently able to resist the ring’s influence and he tries to be heroic. His plans don’t always succeed, but he’s braver and more dependable than Frodo. A main character can make a world of difference and while it did not save the Hobbit, it did make the film more enjoyable. It definitely would have been a lot worse if Frodo had been around.

Gandalf is still around, but he continues to look weak and he even becomes a bully of sorts. He has a bunch of his friends break into Bilbo’s house and they eat his life supply of food that he had hidden. That’s not a very nice thing to do and they never gave him money or any sort of compensation. Bilbo doesn’t have any food in his house anymore and that’s not something that he should forget so easily.

It’s a bit of a running gag at this point, but it should still be noted that Gandalf is a bad magician. Bilbo directly tells Gandalf this and the old man seems to be disturbed at the statement. Gandalf is in no position to argue this since he spends the film running away from villains or using his sword to fight. He rarely uses magic and it would seem that he doesn’t have that much magical energy. Gandalf is definitely not an ally that you want at your side.

I won’t really get into the main cast since they all seem like throwaway characters at this point, but I’ll at least mention Thorin. He’s the rightful heir to the area that is enslaved by Smaug and he aims to take it back. This is a noble gesture, but it’s one that is definitely misplaced. He doesn’t comprehend how weak he is, even after he is defeated several times during the films. He’s not really a match for random trolls and he is effortlessly defeated by Azog. Does Thorin really think that he can defeat Smaug in this state? He’s definitely deluding himself and he’s going to lead all of his friends to their deaths. One can’t really blame him for trying to stay away from the elves, but he should also realize that his little crew doesn’t stand a chance without their help.

Azog is one of the big villains so he definitely deserves a mention. It’s unknown why he’s so much stronger than the average minion, but he’s defeated many opponents and he’s also pretty large. He’s definitely a fighter that will keep on appearing, but I can’t say that I appreciate him as a villain. He’s still just a generic minion to me…he just got lucky and acquired super abilities.

Smaug doesn’t really appear much, but it’s easy to see why he may be defeated. He’s sleeping among the riches, which means that he hasn’t been training for decades and he’s barely moved. He’ll be out of shape and not really ready for his climatic battle. This likely will not be addressed, but it will lead to his downfall. Smaug is a cool looking dragon, but he’s not as intimidating as the characters suspect. Still, he’s definitely a rich dragon!

Gollum also appears in this film. If you liked him in the original three films, then you’ll like him here. I still can’t root for this guy because I didn’t like his backstory and I just never really liked the character. Bear in mind the fact that I don’t like any of the humanoids in the franchise, but I just did not like him. He gets to fight with Bilbo Baggins in this film, (in another really long scene) but that’s about it as far as his role goes. Maybe he’ll appear again, but it would be as necessary as the rock giants coming back.

The special effects of the film still look awful. The fire from Smaug didn’t look bad and the rock monsters were all right, but the rest of it still looks old. This is intentional of course, but I still can’t disregard that so easily. I don’t want to watch something that looks old on purpose! That defeats the whole cinematic experience. I don’t mind things that adapt the old times, but they should still look new. It’s what the fans expect after all!….or at least it’s what I expect. There is no soundtrack to speak of, so I will skip that part.

The Hobbit is the start of a new trilogy and it will be interesting to see how it fares. This film already felt like it had a slow pace, so I can only imagine how the next two films will feel. I do have some mild hopes that it will surpass the original trilogy, but it will definitely be a close battle. It would appear that Legolas will be coming back in the sequel, which is a good start. This definitely isn’t my kind of film, but that makes reviewing them so much fun! I’m not a fan of the franchise, but I can safely say that I am a fan of the video games and that’s what counts in the longruns. Video Games>>>Movies over 90% of the time.

I almost skipped the negatives section! Well, I’ve already mentioned most of those while writing the actual review. This can be considered as more of a quick summary for the negatives. The film drags on too long and none of the characters are particularly likable. The fight scenes are still really bad and far too realistic/graphic/not fun/old for me to really get into them. There’s no real soundtrack and there isn’t really a sense of danger. The main characters are all rude and the film has quite a few gross scenes. That’s a few too many if you ask me! That’s basically the array of negatives in a nutshell, but I could likely think of more if I really tried.

Overall, The Hobbit is better than the final Lord of the Rings film and it can hold its own against the first two. It improved in some ways, but stayed the same in most of them. I definitely can’t recommend this film and I would sooner tell you to watch the inevitable Dragon Ball Evolution sequel. Fans of LOTR should like it, but those fans have likely seen it by now. To the rest of you, I recommend playing the LOTR video games for Gamecube instead. Contrary to popular opinion, they’re actually pretty fun and sufficiently tough. They’ll eat up more time than the films, but it’s completely worth it!

Overall 3/10

The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers Review

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The Journey continues all right! Get ready to see the heroes travel for a while and then have the “epic” showdown at the two towers. This sequel doesn’t really fare any better than the first film and does make some serious mistakes that essentially dig its own grave. Time to see what mistake could have been so fatal!

The plot continues from the last film. Frodo and his companion keep on heading to the villain base so that they can throw the ring back into the lava from whence it came. Unfortunately, it’s a very long journey and since Frodo lacks strength of character, they could be doomed before they even start! In the other plot, Aragorn, Legolas, and the third member of their party seek to rescue the two hobbits. It will be tough and they shall have to overcome many obstacles to do so!

The film suffers from one of the major holes that most films suffer from. Unnecessary animal violence. It definitely didn’t help me like Gollum anymore than I did in the first film and the scenes were very wince worthy. There was just too many cases of animal violence and I immediately knew that the film could score no higher than a 3. The film just hasn’t changed much since the first one.

The characters are still very unlikable. Some characters are decent like Aragorn and Legolas, but they still won’t really rank in the long run. Balrog is a decent villain, but he looked pretty weak since he couldn’t beat a human sorcerer. Frodo is even worse than in the first film because he shows that he can be easily corrupted. He nearly destroys his friend without hesitation and it won’t really help you to sympathize with him. Merry was also a terrible character since he was very mean to the trees. I felt bad for the creatures. It wasn’t their war after all and the hobbits didn’t really care if they died since they were only trees. It’s not as if Merry would be doing any of the real fighting, so he was just putting the trees in danger.

The fight scenes are about what you’d expect and people keep on swinging their swords. The amount of plot hax in the fights were staggering since you would see people jump right into the army and he would not get hurt. There are many points where people literally run into the spears and they do not get hurt. I feel bad for the horses since they’re the ones who take the most damage. It just isn’t fair to the poor creatures. The fight scenes just aren’t impressive and they really drag on.

The Lord of the Rings is the first film series where I nearly went unconscious for both films. They really should have cut out a good 90-120 minutes of the film. They never cease to make me tired and feel like I need some sleep. It’s because there are a lot of unnecessary scenes and times where the characters talk for nor reason. We don’t need to see their day to day life! Usually, talking can be interesting, but not if you dislike both of the characters who are talking. It just doesn’t work!

The effects are a little better than the first film, but they should still look a lot better considering that we’re past the year 2000. The soundtrack is all right I suppose, but none of the themes really stood out this time around. It’s the end of an era!

There’s not much more to say about it. I could go more into depth with the characters, but they just aren’t likable. The trees are all right, but ultimately you can’t count on their survival. The Lord of the Rings may be very popular, but I only enjoy the games at this point. I’m wondering if the Hobbit trilogy will be better. It’s newer, but at the same time…the graphics look about as bad, if not worse than this film’s effects. That’s definitely not a good sign.

The film has a direct cliffhanger to lead into the next film, but it doesn’t come off as epic or intriguing. You don’t really care what’s going to the heroes and you’re just looking to get out of the theater and into your car so that you can pick up a bowl of mashed potatoes at KFC. This film nearly cracked 1 billion dollars in the box office, which is pretty intense. The series has a large following so I know that many still enjoy it. I’m sure that the series is cooler in the EU. An anime for the franchise could be intense.

If I were to compare this movie series to many of the other big names, it still would not be in last. I prefer this series to James Bond and Pirates of the Carrabean after all. It just gets completely wrecked by other classics like Star Wars, Jaws, Godzilla, and Terminator. I do appreciate the fact that the series is still going since more films is always a good thing. It gives us more scenes to appreciate, no matter how bad they may be. They could do a lot with a modern film and they should try to embrace that. A 1 hour film taking place 1000 years in the future would have a Lot of potential. It’s something that I could actually be intrigued by since we need more Sci-Fi films.

Overall, this is a film that I highly do not recommend checking out. The series may be legendary, but its reputation highly outweighs the actual film. If you like old war movies and realistic warrior fights, then you may enjoy this film. The effects are still pretty dated and the characters are hard to root for, but one can look past all of that. Still, you would be much better off watching the new Pac-Man show on TV. If you want a movie to replace this one, then check out the original Pokemon movie. It has more action and the graphics are much better. I highly doubt that the trilogy can end on a high note, but it should be better than this film so that’s always a plus. This review was actually a little tough to write since it is easy to just bash a film for a while, but one can only bash each section for so long. If the next film is at the same level as this one, then I will likely have a longer review at the ready since the whole trilogy would have been underwhelming. I shall see the finale at some point, so you can expect a review someday. Meanwhile, go check out Pokemon!

Overall 3/10

The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Review

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I suppose that it was only a matter of time until I finally checked out one of the biggest films of all time. While this may not be as big as Star Wars or Godzilla, many would say that it could match up with Terminator and The Mummy. Just about everyone as seen this film and just about everyone seems to like it a lot. It’s one of those films that you really can’t get away with disliking…unless you’re everyone’s boldest reviewer…DReager1!.

Of course, it doesn’t get much worse than disliking something just to dislike it. Disliking something because it’s immensely popular is also pretty sad. That being said, the film had a lot of potential in it, but it just ended up dropping the ball on all accounts. I think a remake with today’s effects and camera angles could have been a lot better. Well, let’s see how the film turned out!

The plot involves a powerful villain by the name of Sauron who is quickly defeated when someone deals a glancing blow to his hand and gets rid of his ring. His material form is destroyed and the world is saved. Unfortunately, the humans lack strength of character like Bilbo and they make sure that the ring survives to see another day! In the current days, Bilbo gives Frodo the ring and dooms him to a life of fear since everyone wants the ring. Frodo quickly heads out with a band of adventurers to destroy the ring and save the city world in the process.

Sounds cool in theory right? Well, the first problem is the fact that the movie is just too long. It’s nearly 3 hours and that’s usually not a bad thing, but it is in this case. The movie feels really dragged out and they could have taken out a full hour or two and saved us with the pacing. Other movies can handle the stress of being long like Man of Steel or the first 180 Yugioh GX episodes, but others just don’t need the length. I was supremely drowsy by the end of the film and I probably couldn’t have run a marathon by that point.

One thing that is a big negative for the film is the “graphics” or special effects in the film. This came out after the year 2000, but I’ve seen better effects in the old Godzilla films or Star Wars. Even the Star Trek TV show looked a lot better. The problem is that the film takes place in an area that feels ancient and it helps the movie to feel ancient. The main characters walk barefoot as if this is a medieval film and it certainly didn’t help matters. I’ve never been a fan of films that felt old and it’s why I always love future movies since they attempt to be the complete opposite of these.

The soundtrack is really good so I’ll give the film props on that. The opera themes can be pretty intense and you just can’t forget the themes. Well, you may forget the specifics, but the actual opera part is pretty cool. I hope that the future films can keep the music score cool since it was one of the few big positives for the film. It’s definitely an above average film score.

I can’t really say that the characters are a positive. Frodo is pretty weak and unlikable. Bilbo is an awful character who has one of the weakest minds that you’ll run into. The rest of Frodo’s friends are also decently weak minded and even Gandalf could barely control himself. It really makes you wince since these guys are definitely no Tai or Takuya. The Ring may have some control over the mind, but any decent warrior should be able to block its effects. Then again, these guys may not be true warriors.

I know that Gandalf is a fan favorite character, but I definitely can’t get around to liking him. He got completely clobbered by Saruman and he could only hope to create a tie against Balrog. Balrog was a likable character, so there’s always that. He was a monster that you could root for and he never goes down without a fight. Taking down Gandalf was definitely cool and I hope that he gets to appear again someday.

Unfortunately, this film also uses a lot of plot hax to aid it. This is pretty unavoidable when you have humans fighting supernatural beings so it’s to be expected, but it’s something that the writers should have thought of. I don’t really think that Strider can take on 5-6 Wraiths. I mean, we can always count on the possibility that they’re truly that weak, but then why are they so feared. If Gandalf is half as tough as he acts, then one magic spell should finish them off. They are not yet dead or alive, so they don’t even have much in the way of speed.

The fight scenes also aren’t that fun because they’re some of the most down to earth ones that you will find. It’s very gritty and like what you will see in generic war films or in Narnia. Swords clash and that’s about it. They will destroy the villains and the villains will destroy the heroes. There just isn’t any time for flashy maneuvers or dramatic battles. The fight scenes were just pretty bad and not really my style. Still, having fight scenes like this is better than not having any at all…although that is definitely debatable.

The film does have a cliff hanger to lead into the next film and I’m hoping that it improves upon this one. That being said, I can’t say that my hopes are really high since the new Hobbit films have some of the worst effects that I’ve seen in ages and they’re extremely new. Still, the next film may have more fights or something and that could help. Sauron’s also going to need a pretty big comeback if he is to be taken seriously in the future films as well. Having an ordinary human defeat him is the ultimate way to ruin a villain’s reputation.

The Lord of the Rings may be another true classic to bite the dust, but it isn’t the first time that it has happened. The Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic, James Bond, Some of the Star Trek films, and many others have not been that good as well. Live Action films typically do not hold up well, so the older that they are, the more chance that they will not succeed.

Overall, Lord of the Rings is definitely not as good as the hype would have you believe, but it’s almost all right. It had potential to be fun, but everything was just against it. The pieces were assembled correctly, but you can only get so far without good effects, characters, or fight scenes. It’s still a step up from the Pirates of the Caribbean and James Bond films, but that’s not saying much I’m afraid. I don’t really recommend the film unless you’re already a fan. If you want a real adventure, then go watch the cutscenes for the Legend of Zelda CDI games on Youtube.

Overall 3/10