The Bourne Legacy Review

Posted on January 26, 2015 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at the final Bourne film…the final one at the moment anyway. They couldn’t get Matt Damon back so this installment is really a side story that gets to cross with the main one at times. The new hero naturally doesn’t get to meet Jason Bourne, but we do get clips from that film from time to time. They’ll remind you of why the trilogy was a lot better than this one. Ignoring the beginning, this one did start to develop as the film went on, but it missed out on its potential thanks to that.

Aaron is travelling across a snowy mountain in the subplot when the film begins. He meets up with someone who appears to be from the program and he tries to get some colorful pills from the guy. Just as they are beginning to bond, a plane destroys his comrade. Aaron knows that something is up, but the most important thing is that he needs more pills or he could break. He saves a scientist from her imminent destruction and they decide to team up to cure him. By the end, this plot becomes the main one and the main one from the beginning turns into the subplot.

In the other plot, the government is worried about how Jason Bourne has given them the slip. Thanks to a well placed Youtube video, they are also in danger of losing just about everything. They will have to shut down their projects and tie up all loose ends..like a certain main character. They attempt to assassinate Aaron throughout the film and they even go as far as to unleash a certain project on the hero. “It’s untested sir” is basically the reaction from the agents who aren’t in the know, but they are overruled.

The main thing that made it pretty hard to enjoy the film for a while is the opening plot on the mountain. It naturally involves Aaron cooking animals and messing with the wolves. Starting a film out with a lot of animal violence is like throwing a pick six in Football or losing to a level 1 computer in Super Smash Bros. It destroys morale and the director/writer did a pretty bad job there. You need to start a film off on a good note if it is to succeed. The film gets better as it goes along, but a start like that is something that you want to avoid.

The first hour to an hour and a half also feel like a side story. There is almost no plot (Technically, there is always a plot, but it’s just not handled well and it feels like filler) for quite a long time so you don’t really care about what’s happening. It’s like a Summer Blockbuster where you just keep the explosions. The film took a very long time to pick up steam and I was probably still salty (Love that saying) about the wolf scenes from the intro.

The climax is also not great. It’s another film (Like Taken 2) that decides to have the climax in more a less developed area. Instead of fighting among skyscrapers and large buildings during rush hour, the heroes are on their motorcycles trying not to hit any passerby as they have a bumper car race with the enemy. This means that we don’t actually get to have a final hand to hand battle like you would have expected. I definitely wasn’t crazy about the climax and maybe I’ve just seen too many chase scenes lately. They work in something like Tron, but they can get repetitive if used too much. Shorten the race and throw in a little fight. That’s what I would have done. Another reason why I wasn’t crazy about the location is that it’s really hot over there so the characters are constantly sweating. I am against the heat in real life and in fiction (Although not necessarily the Basketball team) and I always prefer a location that is nice and cool. Somewhere..like New York City or Canada.

Aaron is not my favorite main character, but he tries to be cool. The problem is that he’s written to be very similar as Jason Bourne and he just isn’t as cool. On the plus side, he keeps things professional with the scientist and he pushes himself to the limit so that he can continue to fight and stop the bad guys. His dependence on the pills was definitely a weakness for him, but at least he is helping his country…maybe. He has a history that led to him having doubts in the program, but we never actually see what happened. In theory, we’ll find out in the next film I suppose. He’s not a bad character, but he’s just really generic. In case you were wondering, I’d definitely take Jason Bourne in a fight over this guy. Aaron would be outclassed even though his physical stats are similar. He just doesn’t have the wit and battle instinct that Jason Bourne possesses.

Marta is a good heroine although she sometimes panics a little too much. The villains almost overpowered her because she was so shocked that she didn’t really have time to react to what they were doing. Dodging the guy with the gun was definitely a good move and she does help Aaron during some of the fights. So, she may have been pretty panicked when she first appeared, but she learns to go with the flow as the film goes on. She definitely became a capable character and she was definitely pretty good.

The villains from the government are pretty interesting even if they are all talk. Norton’s character is definitely the best one since he seems to understand the big picture more than the others and his acting just works well for the role. It’s too bad that the characters basically vanish after a while so that they can be ready for the next true Jason Bourne adventure. The hyped villain who appears in the climax is definitely underwhelming though and I was certainly not impressed with him. He survives a few gunshots so that’s a good feat I suppose.

There isn’t much of a soundtrack in this film or there aren’t any tunes that you will remember anyway. It’s just that kind of movie, but there are a lot of action scenes so you will be okay as you watch the film. The action scenes are consistently good when they do appear and it’s why I wouldn’t have minded some more hand to hand scenes. We don’t need excessive motions like the Zod snap or the Taken pressure attacks. As long as the character can throw a good punch or a nifty block, you’ll typically end up with a solid fight.

So, you definitely will start to get interested in the film by the second half. That still may not be saying a whole lot for the first half, but some films just struggle with the intro more than others. A truly good film will manage to have nonstop excitement like Bonds Beyond Time or Avengers, but it is still a tough feat. If the Wolf scene had not been there and if the film had taken out the whole mountain plot, I could easily see this film getting a nice 7. As it stands, I definitely had to take away some points.

Overall, The Bourne Legacy is a fancy way of saying that Jason Bourne is not here. If you really like the concept of Jason Bourne, then you should enjoy this one as it is pretty similar to the original story and the main character is also similar to Bourne. That being said, this film is definitely weaker than the original 3 in just about every way. So, you could say that it’s just a watered down sequel and it feels like a cash grab. It may add more information about the overall universe, but you definitely don’t need to watch this one as you can just wait for the next true Bourne film. Depending on how much of a crossover it is, you may want to see this one, but it may not really affect your enjoyment of the new installment. Also, the animal violence is a decent reason to stay away. If you want an agent film that is better than this one, check out the original Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible film and get ready for epicness.

Overall 5/10

White Christmas Review

Posted on November 24, 2014 by dreager1

The holidays are almost upon us and that means that Christmas is coming! It’s easily still one of the biggest days of the year and it always will be. There’s nothing quite as epic as watching a Christmas film to bring on the holiday cheer. This title came out in 1954 so it had to come to blows with the original Godzilla film, but if anything can give it a good fight…it’s this title! It’s a pretty fun Christmas film that has its flaws, but manages to still capture the Christmas spirit.

The film starts out with the army having trouble holding their ground. They manage to do all right for themselves and that’s where Bob and Phil step in. It was an ordinary day on the job for them until a wall collapses and Phil saved Bob at the expense of his arm. It was sprained or maybe broken. To repay his debt, Bob agrees to work as a duet with Phil and they become a global sensation. They get a letter from one of their old army buds a while later to check out a possible sister act and that’s when the film really starts. The plot shifts after the two guys and the two girls all head up to Vermont where a struggling hut is trying to stay afloat. Can this motel/hotel/lodge be saved by the combined efforts of these performers? Time to find out!

Well, it’s more or less what you would expect from a classic romantic comedy. The writing is pretty strong and it easily shatters the kind of film that they would make nowadays in this genre. The banter is always around and the characters are decently likable. Bob was actually pretty cool for the majority of the film, but then he crumbled towards the end and he couldn’t get back up on his high horse. One aspect of the film that probably didn’t do it any favors was its run time of 2 hours. I do think that 2 hours is the minimum length for a film, but you have to come up with a lot of good scenes if you want it to work. Most of the scenes are pretty good, but they probably could have cut out a few songs during the film. It would have sped up the plot progression a little. You know, the first half of the film actually goes perfectly for the four main characters, which is unheard of. All of the tension and drama is in the second half.

There is no real soundtrack, but this is a musical so I suppose that I can comment on the songs. The voices are pretty good for the most part so that isn’t an issue, but I didn’t care for the dances that went along with it. It’s like Spagetti and Pizza. They taste good together, but just give me the Spagetti and leave the Pizza for later! We don’t need singing and dancing to be done at the same time. I’m more or less okay with singing, but I could definitely have gone without the latter. At least most of the songs are Christmas related, which is always cool.

The main problem in the film that leads to the climax involves a misunderstanding between Bob and Betty, but I think it could have been handled better. As it stands, it makes Betty look pretty terrible since she is convinced that Bob has betrayed her without even giving him a chance to tell his side of the story. You should never go with third party information unless it’s absolutely necessary. She definitely overreacted there and I only blame Bob for the part where he says that they should try to get things back to how they were the other day. He could have phrased that in a much better way since that made it look like he just wanted some romance.

Speaking of which, Bob was pretty cool for a while. He was pretty good at the musicals and he was a solid army guy. He was pretty nice and he was always willing to help a pal out. He knows that Phil will trick him at every opportunity, but he still lets him hang around. Then, Betty and Judy appear and things start to get dicey for Bob. He handles the whole romance thing decently at first, but then he gets thanked by the assistant at the lodge and everything about his character gets smashed to pieces. It’s meant to be a funny scene, but it was pretty terrible and made him look like a pretty desperate person. It’s really hard to bounce back from something like that.

Likewise, Betty was a decent character until the whole misunderstanding happened. Then, that made her look pretty bad and it went on for a while, which certainly did not help her case. She found a pretty spiffy new job in about a day, which certainly says something about her talents as a singer, but just leaving the state like that was certainly not the right thing to do in this situation.

Phil likes to use his fake arm injury to blackmail Bob, but he is technically just doing it in a joking way. He’s a pretty nice guy and he really looks out for Bob. That being said, he basically falls into the love at first sight angle in an instant and he basically cornered into engaging someone due to political interests of both parties. He’s a decent character through and through for the most part, but I can’t say that I am a fan of his. Likewise, Judy doesn’t have as much time to get development as Betty since she is shoved to the side with Phil as far as the plot is concerned. She is the character who kicks things off with the plot twist though so she is pretty crucial in how the whole thing played out. Without her on stage appearances, the play could have crumbled.

There were a few other characters like The General and his assistant, but they aren’t extremely crucial to the story. The General wants to join the Army again instead of living in such a peaceful place, but I have to disagree with his notion. He apparently spent all of his retirement savings on the place so ditching it now would not be a good idea at all. He made for a pretty good general and he’s possibly the best character in the film, but he’s mostly relegated to the sidelines. He makes sure to talk tough until the very end! His assistant wasn’t that good since she is the one who causes the big problems in the film. It’s good that she knows what is going on at all times, but she should have done a little more research before making her big announcement.

The romance can be a bit much as the second half of the film is full of it. The first half was pretty light in that respect and I can safely say that it was a lot better than the second half. The writing really gets to shine while Bob is still antagonistic and having a civil debate with Phil. That slowly starts to change as the film went on and you can’t help, but think that the film could have been pretty fun if they had just been rivals to the two girls. That would have certainly been an interesting twist right? One thing I can say for the film is that there are no really bad scenes just as there are no Great ones. It’s simply a good, retro Christmas story. (One song happens so suddenly that I thought it was a parody)

Overall, White Christmas is a good film. Considering that one of the genres is basically romance, it certainly handles itself better than you would expect. I do think that they should have dialed down some of the dancing and maybe eliminated a song or two to make things better though. The romance can also be a little more frequent than you may like, but at least we have the beginning where they are all just friends for a while. It’s the kind of film that’s pretty happy from start to finish and it’s certainly a good way to get set for Christmas. I recommend it to you if this film sounds like it’s your thing and if you want an alternative, just check out Jingle All The Way.

Overall 5/10

The Blob Review

Posted on November 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another retro horror film in The Blob! The Blob never really sounded very intriguing since it doesn’t seem like it can be an engaging villain. On the other hand, this guarantees that the film won’t be the slasher kind and the heroes will have to use their wits to escape this ordeal. It was a little better than I had expected and you shouldn’t underestimate The Blob!

A meteor crash lands in an abandoned area one day and an old farmer notices this. He stabs the egg with his stick, but The Blob adapts as quickly as it evolves and it grabs him. The man bumps into the main characters, Steve and Jane. They take him to a doctor, but things take a turn for the worst when the Doctor is murdered. Who would do such a thing? Unless….it was The Blob! The heroes can’t afford to let their guard down as time is not on their side anymore.

The set up is pretty good since the Blob has to infiltrate the town somehow. From there, it’s up to the writers to really make The Blob a threat. It’s pretty fun to see him go after the heroes since he…or it can’t move very quickly. One character makes the mistake of tripping into The Blob though and the other one runs for the window despite The Blob being near it. These fellows probably didn’t watch a whole lot of horror films and now they’ll never get the chance!

The actual Blob is pretty formidable since bullets don’t even faze it. It also absorbs the mysterious elements that are thrown at it in the lab and endures the raw power of lightning. Let’s face it, this guy has Kaiju levels of durability! For all we know, it’s still out there….lurking….and prepping for the fights to come. I think it’ll be pretty hard to find someone who says that they actually like the Blob a lot as a character, but it’s an interesting villain.

The main problem is the lack of speed on the Blob’s part. While it may be funny to see characters trip and get absorbed, it’s not something that you will find believable. It should be simplicity itself to avoid the Blob. Even the very beginning was dicey since the farmer’s reaction times were very slow. I’d like to see the Blob take on Nemo from the animated film. The unstoppable force meets the invincible fish. It would be a fight for the ages. That being said, the Blob may sort of be alive…but maybe it isn’t. It continues to grow and it absorbs everything, but it could be like a plant that moves to face the sun. More reactions than actual thoughts. I don’t really consider it to be alive in the literal sense…or should I say figurative sense? It’s about as alive as a plant.

The film did manage to scare me in one scene. A dog decides to tag along with the heroes to avenge his owner, but then the Blob steps in. I was on the edge of my seat poised to deduct some massive points from the film, but the dog manages to escape. Never before have I been so epicly ready to give back the points. Most horror films would have taken the low route and allowed the dog to be eaten. Not The Blob! It’s one of the reasons why this film was actually pretty decent.

The writing is pretty good and it’s why I still like these old films a lot. The cops were all pretty likable and even the “bullies” were good by the end. I’m not a fan of either of the main characters though. It’s not the writing’s fault of course, they were just very unlikable. I’ll explain why!

Jane drops the dog…twice. That’s inexcusable and I knew that I wasn’t going to like her at that point. I was already pretty wary since she fell into the romance plot with Steve, but this was the extra push that really sunk her character. It was pretty unnecessary and just sad. Steve isn’t much better since he has a lot of cheesy lines to try and convince Jane that he’s on the up and up. He shrugs her off once when he gets distressed about the Blob. He overreacts a lot and he conversation with the policeman at the very beginning was pretty wince worthy. His excuses needed excuses and he didn’t even get to win the street race. He wasn’t really much of a hero by the end and he was just thrown into the circumstances. He nearly convinced himself that it was all fake as well.

The bullies from the beginning actually turn out to just be friends who were having a little fun with the main character. It’s a good thing that this is the case for Steve since he probably couldn’t have held his own in a fight. They heavily outnumber him and they seem to be a little tougher. They help the main characters out a lot by helping them search and waking up the town. Without these kids, Steve probably would have been sunk.

There are three main policemen and they are pretty neat. We have the strict guy who has a big sob story on the left and the reasonable joe on the right. The third guy likes to play chess, but that’s about it. The strict one is pretty intense and you can tell that he has a lot of experience and I have to say that most of his tips were pretty sound. (Keep the kids in the cell sir!) The veteran actually likes kids so he’s a lot more reasonable, but the heroes don’t give him a whole lot to work with. It’s tough for the cops since the heroes are always messing around with the rules.

I guess a minor criticism for the film could be that everyone adapts a little too quickly to the monster. The cops almost immediately stop trying to shoot it because they find out that it’s impervious to all conventional weaponry. It’s true that nothing (Possibly including nukes) can hurt the Blob, but I’d expect them to try a little more. It’s good that they can give the Blob the chills through natural methods, but that was really just a lucky guess. We expect the police to fight for us until the last man! It’s still a pretty small thing though and the romance/main characters is the only true negative of the film.

Overall, The Blob is a pretty fun creature feature film. The main characters are very below average though and I prefer the leads from most of the other films of this era. These guys weren’t polite to the animals and they just weren’t interesting. I much prefer the other kids since they stay up to watch the creature feature films as well and they have a solid sense of justice. They couldn’t just walk away when the going got tough! The Blob may not have a roar or a real design, but it deals some damage and it made for a unique villain. I definitely recommend this film to anyone who likes a good monster film or a survival story. It’s just the kids against the big Blob that continues to grow. Who knows how powerful he’ll be in the sequel! The film didn’t really have much in the way of negatives, but I still refrained from giving it a higher score due to the fact that it would simply need more action or a better lead to vault it into the Super Six level. A different pair of main characters probably would have been all that it would need to get to the next level.

Overall 5/10

Need For Speed Review

Posted on August 15, 2014 by dreager1

It was finally time to watch a film based off of a popular video game series! I own several Need for Speed titles although I’ve only completed one of them so far. I plan on working on the others soon, but I’ve been focusing on my Wii collection a lot. The trailer for this film looked decent and I expected your average blockbuster with a lot of action and a small plot on the side. I basically got what I expected, but I would say that it was a little less entertaining than I would have guessed. Let’s see why this happened!

I believe that one factor is the cast of characters in the film. None of them are really that interesting or likable. Typically, you need either the main character or the main villain to be interesting to keep the film afloat. The supporting characters definitely play a big role in this as well, but none of them turn out to be very good. I’ll discuss each of the main characters now.

Tobey is the main character and after a tricky race where his bro dies, he decides to avenge him by racing in another race against the murderer. A noble goal, but I could not bring myself to like Tobey. Even before the Pete incident, Tobey never really talks and he always seems pretty gruff. Whenever he talks, it’s hard to hear him because he’s basically mumbling. He also gives Julia a hard time for the majority of the film. He does have emotional reasons to keep to himself of course, but it’s not very fun for the viewer. I found myself missing Alex Hopper from Battleship and that’s never a good thing.

Another problem is that Tobey’s supposed to be an elite driver. He does do pretty well on the track, but it’s a mix of luck and skill. At one point, he’s in the lead, but he seems to be taking it easy. The racer in third is only unable to pass him because the second place racer is holding him back. They have identical cars so Tobey should have been able to win without help. In the end, Tobey just wasn’t charismatic.

Dino is the main villain of the film. He has quite the reputation since the heroes don’t want to work with him from the get go. It actually makes them all look pretty bad for a while since the deal seemed to be pretty good. Of course, Dino quickly showed his true colors during the race. He only cares about the win and he’ll smash anyone out of his way. That’s basically his character arc. I thought that he was the leader of a mob or something, but he’s just a mean person. He’s pretty rich and he is a good driver, but not as good as he claims. Dino’s a pretty generic villain, but at least he has a cool car. He needs to win one more race to get all the money that he needs..but will he be able to do it? It’s going to be rough!

Julia is the main heroine and she knows how to drive, which is always a good thing. Her accent is always underestimated since the others seem to think that it is fake, but she always gets them to see the truth. She does have a really generic moment where she shows that she’s actually an expert in car manufacturing. Why was she pretending not to be smart before that scene? I guess she just wanted to mess with the heroes. Her plan was a little tricky since I definitely wouldn’t trust Tobey and friends to make it through their adventure in one piece. She definitely ends up helping out a lot, but her riches could be better spent at home with her PS4.

Benny easily has the biggest role from all of Tobey’s partners. He gives them a tough time because they refuse to call him by his true airborne name. (Maverick) He definitely takes the most risks as he has to keep stealing Helicopters from various places. The military, the news, etc. How does he get away with it? Plot convenience I suppose. He’s definitely a step up from the other members.

Monarch is the head honcho behind the underground races. He talks a good game and he seems to know what’s up. He’s an expert on the cars and he always calls the shots. He takes everything in stride because he’s never really in any danger. The cops have yet to find out about his show and nobody can find him. He just hosts the races and watches as everyone is taken out. He’s a pretty amusing announcer.

Anita is a character that the film seemed to forget after a while. Based off of one of the first scenes, it was easy to imagine that she would have some kind of role. Instead, her character arc is shoved to the side and she’s basically written out of the movie. She appears towards the end for her big moment, but it’s a little too little too late. Not to mention that she really should have been a little more suspicious about the mysterious circumstances around Pete’s demise.

Pete is a decent character I suppose. He doesn’t really know when to stop talking though and nearly costs his team everything. He kept on insulting the main villain when he knew that a lot of money was on the line. Finally, he was goaded into racing…and I’m pretty sure we know how that ends. Pete wasn’t a really bad character, but he definitely wasn’t the smartest one out there. If he had played his cards right, things could have turned out a lot differently. (Assuming Dino would keep his word in the first place)

Finn is another member of Tobey’s crew and he’s easily the worst character in the film. His scenes are downright cringe worthy. His worst scene is when he decides to quite his job. To do this, he strips down and makes sure to humiliate anyone. Where are the cops? The place looks like a very fancy establishment and I’m sure that security would be present. They should have taken him down before he even had time to leave the building. That’s really what should have happened. Finn doesn’t add anything to the plot and his attempts at humor really fall flat. He definitely didn’t do the film any favors.

Joe’s probably the most bland member of the team. He doesn’t really get a lot of character development. He’s the first guy to go and help Tobey so that’s something. He was really just there and I can’t say that he was a good character or a bad one. Things wouldn’t have really changed if he had not been in the film since his role was so small. Better to be non existent than to be another Finn I suppose.

You can definitely see that I did not care for the cast. Another factor that weakens them is the fact that they act like the characters from a horror film. They constantly use swear words in just about every sentence. It’s mostly because of where they’re from and they’re just used to it, but it can still be pretty annoying to hear. You hear it almost every second….nooooo.

Another weak point of the film is the acting and the romance. I never really comment on the acting, but it was pretty bad. Particularly Tobey’s acting and Julia’s at some points. Let’s throw Finn in there as well. The romance was also pretty unnecessary. It pops up out of nowhere between Tobey and Julia. I guess she admires his racing skills, but that’s no excuse to just fall for him. We have a really wince worthy scene where they both stare at each other for a really long time and you’ll want to glance at your watch. There’s also a really terrible scene between Finn and one of his co-workers. That kind of thing is not funny and not realistic either. The other members of the staff should have stepped in or at least beat Finn up.

The car chase scenes were still pretty good. There was a bunch of plot hax in them though. I don’t believe that they would be beating up on the police like this. At the very least, they would be arrested as soon as they stopped. They were visually interesting though and who doesn’t like to see cars going at such speeds? The games handle it in a much better way, but a film can only do so much anyway. As mentioned earlier, the helicopter snagging is a really big stretch for disbelief. The cops should have known about it pretty much instantly.

One more thing that should be noted the racing through traffic scenes. Of course, it happens in the games so it must happen in the film. It still doesn’t make all that much sense while you’re watching it though because the heroes should have been down for the count several times. You simply can’t weave through traffic like that and not get bumped or hit a bunch of times. They were a little too lucky here.

The soundtrack is really nonexistent, which is too bad. Car scenes should really have a good theme going. Just look at Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. The chase scenes have really good themes and it helps you appreciate just how cool they are. A soundtrack is always something that should be added to make things fun.

Overall, This film was decent I suppose. It’s not the kind of film that I would ever want to watch again, but I wouldn’t call it a downright bad film. Considering the type of film that it was, Need For Speed should have been a lot better. Using some effects from Speed Racer may have helped since that one had better race scenes. A 5 may be a little generous, but I think it’s a decent rating for a film. I don’t really recommend it, but I wouldn’t stand in the way of it either. If you don’t mind the language and you’re ready to see some races, then you may not mind the film. Just know that the film drags on for a while since it’s so long and that the characters are pretty unlikable. With that in mind, it’s your choice on whether you want to see this one. I would sooner recommend Speed Racer or Final Fantasy VII Advent Children for chase scenes!

Overall 5/10

Volcano Review

Posted on July 14, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to check out a classic disaster film! I’ve seen the world ravaged by Twisters, Aliens, Sharks, and more, but I had not seen a film that revolved around a Volcano sealing everyone’s fate. It sounded like an interesting film and I’m always up for some disaster mayhem. The film isn’t bad, but there aren’t many stand out scenes in it either, which leaves it stranded in the good, but forgettable section.

The plot of the film can easily be determined by the title, but I shall begin to describe it anyway. Mike works at a place where they handle emergencies and distress calls. Two men are destroyed from some heat and steam that arose from the ground and Mike figures that he should call in an expert. The other townsfolk, or the leader of the train company in particular, do not believe him so they continue with the trains. Eventually, this all climaxes into a big eruption as the Volcano begins to consume the land. Mike will need to gather up everyone he can to try and stop this catastrophe from taking out his city. It’ll be tough and while mankind can never hope to defeat Nature, they can try to slow it down and divert the power. Will such a strategy really be able to work!?

Of course, it’s interesting because the big fire danger doesn’t really occur until you’re around 60-90 minutes into the film, but there’s no other way to really describe the plot. We all know that the fire is going to start at some point thanks to the title so it really needs to be mentioned. Because of this, the film does suffer from some pacing problems. The first half of the film is pretty uneventful.

Volcano decided to take things slow and the first half is for character development and suspense building. This is a decent strategy I suppose, but it’s not one of my favorite ones. It works sometimes when you have to build up a bunch of different plots like in the disaster film I recently saw with Stallone as the heroes try to get out of a tunnel. It works because we get to meet and greet all of the characters. There is really only one big character plot going on in this film although we have some decent subplots. Nevertheless, the film did not need so much time to build up to the action. I think it really worked against the excitement factor in this one. The second half does help to make up for it as the battle against the lava is actually pretty interesting and it helps that Mike is likable so you’re rooting for the guy.

Mike Roark is the main lead of this film and he’s not bad. He’s one of the more heroic figures that we see, but he falls into his share of problems. I don’t get why he didn’t believe Amy when she said that a Volcano may be around. It’s really not that hard to believe and he saw first hand how hot it was underground. I don’t know, it just felt a little odd that he was so convinced that it couldn’t be a Volcano. Besides that, he did a good job of making plans and he kept on thinking of more when they were needed. He was a natural born leader and he did all of this on his day off. I can’t say that I appreciated his final move as he gave the phone to Emmit, but I suppose that it was one of the tough calls that he had to make. He ended up staying heroic overall and that’s what counts.

Kelly Roark is the daughter of the main character and she starts off as a pretty underwhelming character. Her first line made me worry as I thought that she was going to be a terrible supporting character. She didn’t really get much better for a while, but she ultimately learned what it means to be a good person and she turned over a new leaf. She’s much better than the kid that she was assigned to guard. That being said, I can’t say that Kelly turned out to be one of the more likable characters. She made the right characters, but it seemed to be more out of obligation at times and she was just going through the motions.

Emmit Reese is easily one of the main characters in the film. He’s the new chief whenever Mike isn’t around and he makes sure to use his new position for good. He doesn’t take his job with emotionless command like Mike, but he still does a pretty good job. His character was pretty good and he was someone that you could root for. I did feel bad for him at the end when Mike throws him into a tough situation, but he handled it with precision and care. Emmit may go on to surpass Mike when it comes to emergency control.

Stan Olber goes from zero to hero, but only arguably. Really, he may seem mean at first, but he’s running a business and he can’t stop his trains whenever there is a little danger. He has passengers to think of and they look forward to being in his trains. (Despite what they may say for the press) So, I didn’t mind him from the beginning, but he definitely got even better. When the stakes increased Stan ultimately stepped up to the plate and proved that he was a hero deep down. Because of this, Stan ends up being one of the better characters in the film. He may not get one of the happiest endings in the film, but he ended as a good person.

Amy Barnes is the professional who decides to help Mike out and she investigates the heat that has been taking lives and causing major injuries. She decides to evade the law to prove a point, but it only succeeds in causing a great tragedy. After that, she does help with a lot of the planning, but she wasn’t one of the more likable characters. She had some banter with Stan, but I can’t say that it was very great. She is really just a generic character who couldn’t leave a lasting impression.

Animal spoilers coming up……………and here it goes. I give the film props for avoiding the typical animal death scene. That moment nearly destroyed the film for me, but it was saved because the dog lived. Sorry if that’s a spoiler folks, but trust me..you would have found out in my review either way. I would have deducted major points if he had died. It’s always good to see the dog make it out of such a dangerous situation and show the humans that he means business. They can’t compete with such a smart puppy after all.

There is one subplot that is pretty pointless. There’s a rich guy who buys a house and then he decides that he wants to escape the danger zones before the lava gets him. He tries to convince his partner to leave as well, but she is a doctor so she has to stay and help. He doesn’t like this and he basically says “We’re through” as he walks off. The plot didn’t have a purpose in the film and the Doctor didn’t get a whole lot of screentime so it really didn’t make much of a difference. It was really just there for drama and to show us how heroic the doctor was, but we already understood that from all of the risks that she was taking.

I can’t say that the film really did a good job with the emotional deaths though. One of them was pretty good and it involved a hero. The other two involved expendable characters who we hadn’t even gotten to meet yet. One of the main characters becomes saddened for a while, but the (fake) snow quickly snaps her out of it and she joins the fight once more. The other death happens so early on that I forgot who died. They may have said the name…maybe. Still, emotionless deaths are a staple of any horror, action, thriller, or disaster film since they help to show the audience why the threat is getting real. On that account, I cut Volcano some slack since it would be hard to develop the characters and then destroy them in such a short amount of time.

The soundtrack for the film was a little too dramatic. I technically enjoyed just about every tune that the film played, but it was mostly used in scenes where it just didn’t make sense. Now, it does make sense in the fact that it gets the audience ready for something tragic to happen. The problem is that most of the scenes are just false alarms and the danger doesn’t start for a while. We get dangerous music when the train first goes into the tunnel. Then, 30 minutes later, the train appears again and the danger finally starts. I suppose that it could work as a set up, but it’s just a little too soon to work properly. While the tunes didn’t really match the setting, I still did like the music a lot. I would give the soundtrack a 4/5 and it was a lot better than most (if not all) of the other disaster films that I’ve seen as well as the average action film.

Overall, this was a decent Disaster film. I think I was waiting for more of a disaster to happen while watching the film, but Volcanoes don’t typically blow up buildings so you have to wait. It was fun to see the lava spurts and there was definitely a lot of tension. Perhaps too much tension was included, but it happens. The main character was good and the rest of the cast varied in terms of likable to unlikable. The film got the dog scene right and that earns them some pretty major brownie points. I recommend this film if you want to see a thriller with lava as the main villain, but if you really want to get excited, go watch the Daylight film with Stallone.

Overall 5/10

Transformers Age of Extinction Review

Posted on June 30, 2014 by dreager1

I’m a pretty huge Transformers fan and the franchise has been great in many areas. Comics, TV Shows, and Video games have all been greatly produced. The live action films is the area in which Transformers typically falters. I had some decently high hopes coming into the fourth film despite the first three because the trailer was pretty solid and it should be a fun experience. Well, it’s essentially the same as the last film so things didn’t get much better for me. The film jumps in head first and manages to fall into just about every hole as it struggles to the finish line. Still, the film had some good moments…let’s look at how things played out.

Everyone is still sad over the battle of Chicago and the world has moved on. The government has decided to start destroying all of the Autobots who are still out there. Well, the CIA is doing this and the President is unaware of the situation. (The government is very uncoordinated in this film) Meanwhile, Cade finds a truck when he is buying things to help him invent something amazing and it turns out to be Optimus Prime. Together, they must find the other Autobots and stop Lockdown. (Who has made a contract with the humans) With a film that’s around 3 hours, there are definitely a lot of subplots to help keep the plot from ending too fast. Those will be mentioned in the character bio sections.

Cade is the main character and he’s a solid character. He’s definitely not great, but he does his best to get through the days. He’s tough when it counts. He may have been a little on the generic side and lacked character development, but it happens. He’s very overpowered and it’s hard to take his fight scenes seriously, but he doesn’t squander the power. He’s definitely one of the only likable humans and without him the film would have been a little tougher to watch. He did the right thing in helping his daughter to stay away from guys for a while and while it didn’t ultimately work, you can’t blame him for trying. Cade’s a noble character and we get so few of those nowadays.

Optimus Prime is back of course and this portrayal of him is definitely different compared to any of the others that we’ve seen in the past. Prime isn’t advocating for human safety anymore and he’s not here to show that all sentient beings have the fight to freedom. He’s here to destroy enemies and leave the planet. It’s definitely a big change from what we have seen in the past and I can’t say that it’s a good thing. Optimus starts off the film in a badly injured state thanks to the events which have transpired off screen. The humans want the Autobots dead after all and with their primitive technology, they’ve just about done it.

This likely hurt Prime’s logic circuits and his first few scenes are all about him saying how he will destroy the opponent as he fights a (losing) battle against the humans. The feral Prime battles with Lockdown, but it’s more of a chase scene since the Autobot is on the run. He begins to regain his reason once he’s back in normal form, but things don’t go so well during his big break in. After that whole operation and seeing what was being done…why didn’t he wreck the place? Leaving it intact was a huge mistake and then we get to watch the heroes get beaten up again. They weren’t as unprepared as last time, but it can be a little irritating to see.

Prime then makes the right move to leave once and for all after finishing up a mission, but ends up making a controversial move. After Man of Steel, everyone loves to use the controversial card as we have heroes stretching their limits to see if they are still heroes. We saw some of that in Amazing Spider-Man 2, Xmen Days of Future Past, older films like James Bond and Star Wars used this as well. It’s pretty unnecessary, but not nearly as bad as Superman’s moment. It will hurt Prime’s portrayal as the hero a bit, but it wasn’t a terrible moment. Letting his guard down is another story. I also really disliked how he handled the Dinobot situation. Threatening them and then forcing them to help out is pretty uncharacteristic and it felt like a Decepticon move.

In the end, I have to say that this version of Prime may be the worst one that I’ve seen. He’s not terribly heroic anymore and he seems slightly more mindless. Not completely of course, but he’s always going on about how he’s going to destroy someone. He just really sounds as if he’s broken and maybe that will be a plot point later on. Perhaps not because his voice slowly starts to go back to normal by the end, but he was definitely off. Since the next film will likely be a sequel, it’ll be interesting to see how his character arc goes. I do wish that Prime had taken a more traditional personality in the film, but these things happen. He’s still the best character in the film (Which says a lot eh?) and I just had a lot of complaints about his portrayal. I do like that he took matters into his own hands and finally decided that the humans are not always worth the trouble.

Galvatron gets a role in the film, but it’s relatively small. There are a few twists about his origin and they were well played. I wish that he could have appeared more since his short appearances were pretty epic. His plan is decently well thought out and his minions being so weak was likely not in his calculations. Otherwise, it could have been the end of everything! He’s the best antagonist in the film and I was surprised by how cool he was.

Lockdown is the main villain of the film at least according to all of the trailers. In the actual film, it is a little debatable with all of the major human players around. Still, Lockdown’s a solid villain and he definitely means business when battling the Autobots. Since he’s a mercenary, Lockdown gets to make fun of the Autobots and Decepticons. Power wise, he’s high tier, but one of the weakest ones of that caliber. He would likely get wrecked by Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime, Galvatron, or Megatron in a fair fight. His battles in this film were typically against opponents who were already weakened or against one who could get distracted. In a fair fight, I don’t believe that he would have done quite as well. Of course, power isn’t everything and he still looks pretty good. I can safely say that he’s much better in the film than in the video game. He’s one of the few likable villains in the film since he at least makes sure to have a motive and solid lines.

Bumblebee’s character is a whole lot different from the last ones. He’s a lot more reckless and he picks fights whenever possible. He risked jeopardizing the mission just to finish a personal vendetta. These are all great traits, but his character change just came out of nowhere. Also, getting humiliated by Drift didn’t help with this. Overall, Bumblebee was still a good Autobot and great compared to most of the other cast, but he didn’t feel like Bumblebee. Regardless, I wouldn’t mind if he kept this personality since it’s a lot more intense than how he used to be.

I really don’t like Hound and I have to wonder why they chose to include him when there are so many better Autobots that could have been in it. He’s the “hardcore” Autobot who’s been through his share of fights and now he’s very gruff and experienced. He shows this by shooting a defenseless alien creature after going to the cage and getting spat at. Hound completely destroys the creature and it was essentially an unprovoked attack. He definitely doesn’t make the Autobots look like the heroes with actions like that. Hopefully he is not in the sequel.

As much as I didn’t like Hound, Crosshairs may have been even worse. How he became an Autobot is beyond me, but he’s always acting like a Decepticon. He clearly says that he plans on becoming leader and he loves to start fights. We’re supposed to get back on his side when he makes the “hero” move to take out a few enemy ships, but why should that make me like him? He essentially had to do it as they would have blown him up anyway. He’s another Autobot that I hope doesn’t get to appear in the next installment.

Drift was one of the main Autobots in this film, but he was also wrecked. I didn’t care for his character as he was essentially a Japanese stereotype. He strongly believes in honor and he doesn’t resort to violence…except when he does. His only good scene is when he defeats Bumblebee in their fight, but even then I can’t say that it was very impressive. He barely even got a chance to use his swords and there was nothing to separate him from the others. He’s an excellent fighter in the comics and his personality is great. We don’t get to see any of that in the film. He just isn’t likable and I can’t say that I really care for the character design.

Ratchet gets a very small appearance in this film and it’s not a good one. Unfortunately, he suffers from the fact that the Autobots must stay true to their beliefs and stay away from retaliating against humans. Even so, I believe that he should have looked a lot better. At least put up a fight as you go down! The design also didn’t even look remotely like Ratchet. His scenes were definitely not enjoyable and it doesn’t help the Autobot cause.

Joshua (KSI head) is one of the big antagonists from the start and we get to watch his “character development” as he becomes a likable guy. Unfortunately, he was just too far gone and I couldn’t sympathize with him. I also just didn’t find any of his scenes very humorous. It was just over for me at that point and his faint attempts as being likable and emotional fell short. I just found it odd as to how much screentime he got in the later half and how we’re supposed to feel sorry for him. He’s not as bad as some of the other villains, but definitely bad enough.

Tessa was definitely one of the more unlikable characters in the film. We have another rebellious protagonist who makes things hard for Cade and she’s constantly lying so that he won’t know that she has an affair. At least she didn’t make “The call.” (You’ll know what “the call” is when watching the film. Let’s just say that it involves a whole lot of money!) Tessa was really just annoying from the beginning and it would be great if she could have been written out along with shameless Shane. (More on him in a bit) Making matters worse is her refusal to cross the bridge later on due to the dangers of heights. I can sympathize as I’m mildly hesitant to go to high placed myself, but I’m in the middle of a firefight…I would make the effort. Her character development just took her south the whole time. She was a decent character at the beginning and slowly started to fade when Shane appeared on the laptop. Then she dropped off of the character development cliff when Shane actually appeared. Staying out late and deceiving Cade just aren’t cool traits in a hero.

Shane is a pretty terrible character and he definitely didn’t help the film at all. Not only does he make sure to give up and essentially leave his friends to die whenever possible, but he’s really…stuck up. We’re supposed to take his side (I think) and sympathize with him because everyone only lives once and all, but I definitely did not. All of his lines were pretty cringe worthy and I’m glad that Cade gave him a tough time for the whole film. Shane should have just walked away and exited after his first scene. He would still be a bad character, but at least his appearances would be limited. His line about the mouthwash was just as bad as his other lines and I have to wonder how anyone could stand his “Cooler than you” attitude throughout the film. It works for guys like Gary Oak…but Shane. At least he (hopefully) won’t appear in the sequel.

Harold is another one of the big human villains in the film and he’s just as unlikable as you may have expected. There really isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel for him and he should at least expect that nothing will come of his plans. Does he really think that he will be able to just disappear and keep all of the money? I don’t believe that he thought things through and he just makes for a boring antagonist. Well, he also serves to bring up the moral aspect for the film, which we really didn’t need, but it happens.

James does things personally as opposed to hiring others to do the dirty work. He’s a decent fighter and he has a lot of past experience. In the end, he does get his own fight, but it’s out of place in this film and the fight scene is not fun. Michael Bay decided to make it ultra realistic and gritty so that it ends up being a scuffle that you want to fast forward instead of an epic fight. He’ll never be a likable character and I’m sure that everyone won’t even remember his name as they walk out of the theater.

Lucas is “The Friend.” Why the quotations? Well, in the Transformer films, there is always that one character who talks to the main character, thereby exposing that he’s a pretty petty person at heart. Sometimes, the character is just downright bad like Lucas. His first lines are terrible and I immediately disliked the guy. Haven’t we had enough characters who were attracted to everyone? Getting hit in the face by a Football was also embarrassing and his scenes get worse. He is supposed to be funny, but it’s hard to find him humorous when 1 out of every 3 jokes would just be in bad taste. Luckily, his appearance in the film is pretty brief. Tough to watch, but still brief.

As for the Dinobots, they were clearly added just to sell the tickets. They only really get to appear for a few minutes and most of their scenes have already been online for weeks thanks to trailers and clips. Worse than that is the fact that they just didn’t look very good. They were essentially mindless brutes who crave action, but lack skill. It’s cool for Optimus Prime fans to see him beat up Grimlock, but the fight is incredibly one sided. Prime just shows how slow and ineffective Grimlock is as he lands blow after blow. If he can be bested so easily, why are the Dinobots a game changer? It would appear that they are strong, but without skill and reason. Luckily, this is enough to take out the fake Transformers. The flying one was definitely the coolest design wise, but I can’t say much else for them. I expect much bigger things in the next film.

I have to say that I was disappointed in the film from the very beginning. Transformers’ intro for this film is one of the worst that I have experienced in quite a while. We start by getting to see an animal eaten and then a mass genocide where the animals don’t really get to make it. It didn’t get much better from there as that may have been the only big case of animal violence, but it was a really sad way to start the film.

The Transformers films have always had a lot of gross violence in them and I’m afraid that is doesn’t end with this film. An alien uses its tongue to attack one of the heroes and I’m sure that we all know what will happen as soon as the hero grabs the knife. It happens so often and it’s always pretty wince worthy to see the act. The hero may not have had a choice, but it’s the film made the choice to add the irrelevant scene as well.

How about the fight scenes in general? Well, the main problem with them is that there isn’t really any substance. The fights aren’t glamorous like Spiderman or expertly choreographed like Captain America. This results in really gritty human fights that aren’t even fun to watch and robots wrestling with each other. The human fight scene is just awful so I won’t really go into it, but it’s not enjoyable. It’s what you would expect from a film like 300 or a big war film like the Hobbit, not in Transformers. Then the fight scenes simply aren’t very enjoyable and I blame it on the effects.

Maybe Live Action simply isn’t ready to have large robots fighting each other. Every time they transform, the robots typically have to hit the ground or take a long time to complete the action. They just seem as if they aren’t comfortable as that size and every movement is an effort. A good example of this is when Prime tries to jump to another building as he’s being chased. His jump is pretty terrible and it would be akin to me trying to jump over a fire hydrant and tripping over it. Based on his size, the jump should have been no problem and easy for him. It’s as if the robots are just wearing robot suits, which restrict their movements and make everything stiff.

So, that translates into the fights. The only good fights in the film were really Prime’s final fight against Lockdown and also his fight against Galvatron. Even those weren’t amazing, but they were good enough. They were actual fights. The rest of the action in the film mainly consisted of just blowing up minions or car chase scenes. Technically, those two battles were probably the only fights in the entire film. We had a brief skirmish with Bumblebee and Lockdown, but it wasn’t long enough to be considered a fight.

That’s likely another one of the problems that we have here. The film has a lot of explosions and action throughout and it may have worked for another film, just not Transformers. I was waiting for the big mecha fights so I will admit that I was basically waiting for that the whole time and the rest was just padding. Unfortunately, that was pretty much all of the action that I was going to get. The film loves to show off Cade shooting the Transformers and the heroes “epicly” slaying the villains, but one hit KO attacks are never fun if they are around constantly. It’s like the Avengers film as they beat up on the aliens. At least we got some scuffles and a Hulk vs Thor fight before that. I would have been satisfied if we got more fights, but none of them really happened.

Horror films have a tendency to have the main characters swearing every few minutes, but typically action films don’t follow this. Now, Michael Bay is involved with the Transformers franchise and that could be why, but the characters are always yelling crude things whenever something explodes or they are shocked. We have the generic moment where the guy uses the “big” word and the audience clapped a lot. I could only metaphysically shake my head and wish that the G1 film would suddenly go on the air.

The next issue with the film was the….Fanservice! I really saw this one coming from a mile away, but it doesn’t make it any more bearable. We have the obnoxious friend of the main character who makes sure to be point it out and show that he isn’t a good person. Then we have the whole plot between Tessa and Shane, which is terrible. I’ve already talked about it in length so I won’t go into it so much, but it’s not cool. Naturally, Tessa is using the new fashion of super short pants that really do not even count as pants anymore. What is the world coming to? I could really go on, but you get the picture. To the film’s (Really) slight credit, there is much less fanservice than the first two films and possibly the third. So, the series is making some slight improvement in that area, but it’s happening too slowly. There really weren’t too many scenes like that, but the problem was that they were mostly at the very beginning, which really takes you out of the film as you have to try and forget them as soon as possible.

Human Empowerment is the theme that really helps to wreck the film. At one point, Cade gives Optimus Prime a speech about how he needs to learn how to trust humans again. Yeah…….no. No, that is not what Prime should do and Cade should feel ashamed for even mentioning that. He has no political power so he would be convincing Optimus to stay in a hostile place where the government will just destroy him at any time. Prime has already lost a whole lot thanks to the humans and he shouldn’t need to lose more. Unfortunately, we’re supposed to agree with Cade since we’re humans and all. I’d rather that Prime just blew up the planet or decided to rule it. Either way, the Earth would likely be a lot more peaceful.

Unfortunately, the biggest effect of human empowerment is that they look too good in the fight scenes. See, these kind of moments are added because it is supposed to unite us as fans. Many people cheered when Jaws was taken down and they did the same thing in Alien and Terminator. The problem is that it can be very hard to root for the humans in the modern films. I can safely say that the protagonist was likable in Alien and Jaws and the government wasn’t to bad so it was okay. Innocents were being taken down in Jaws so the main character took some steps. Capturing Jaws would have been a lot better and it would have helped the film jump up a few stars, but it happened. There weren’t really any innocents in Alien so it’s a little trickier and I don’t want to get too off topic. The problem in Transformers is that they show such a large amount of evil humans. These guys just want an excuse to murder sentient beings and they figure that destroying a Transformer will be fun. Thus, we get to see the humans destroy many robots and they’re sure to do it in cruel ways.

That’s one of the problems about being a hero. If the main characters had been 5 Decepticons, you can bet that the humans would already be destroyed. Unfortunately, the heroes don’t fight back until it’s too late and they’re never as advanced as the villains. The Decepticons always have some big weapon that they can use to enslave humanity, but the Autobot tech tends to be primitive in comparison. Aside from evil humans taking out the Autobots, we have the equally (un)believable moments of humans taking on villains.

Cade is the main offender of this as we get to see him mow down over a dozen robots. There’s one particular scene that is reminiscent of the Storm Troopers as he’s in plain view and all of the robots keep on missing him. There is no one else in this scene so you can’t make the argument that they are distracted. The robots simply keep on missing until Cade has fired enough shots to beat them. Another sad moment is when Cade jumps into the climax and he actually blocks a sword strike by lifting up his gun. I didn’t know that this guy could bench press several tons. The robot was swinging with full force and Cade just blocked it. That’s really unbelievable and it drives the human empowerment thing way too far.

The soundtrack is pretty good and Lockdown’s theme is easily the best part of it. It comes whenever he appears and it’s a nice theme of tension and sadness as you know that things won’t go well for the heroes. It’s pretty catchy and it definitely works for the film. The insert songs are also decent some of the time. We get a nice rock song as one point I believe and then we also have some soft ones that can be a little off putting. It definitely depends, but through it all, the soundtrack was pretty good. Not 5 star material, but definitely good enough.

I won’t even get started on the “rage” scenes where Optimus Prime and Cade fail to deliver. Every time….it just doesn’t work. I expected some more retaliation from them. The guy in the elevator who knew hand to hand combat was good and the girl with the motorcycle was a decent character as well. These two just got really small roles although the girl’s was almost big enough to be considered as a supporting character by the end. The lady who finds the bones in the opening basically vanishes so I can’t say that she got much of a role either. It was essentially filler since the Dinobots weren’t there. Then again, this film had a whole lot of filler so that it could get around 3 hours. All you need to do is look at the scene where a man asks if Cade has insurance…nuff said.

The film did have a moment of brilliance as one of Hasbro’s biggest franchises of all time got to make a cameo. MLP…Yes, My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic got a cameo as Rainbow Dash entered the stage. It was pretty intense and fans of the series will either like the cameo or feel that it is parodying the whole Brony issue. I won’t get into that here of course, but I’m sure that it was the latter since Bay loves to throw in stereotypes whenever possible. It was still nice to see Rainbow Dash get included though.

Overall, my hopes for this film were shattered. I just barely didn’t give it a negative rating as the film had so many flaws. I’m a pretty huge Transformers fan if I do say so myself and seeing this version of it can be unsettling. They essentially wrecked Optimus Prime and Drift. The Transformers look very weak since simple armaments can take them down for the count. The Dinobots were essentially thrown in at the last minute and the film still had some of the usual (terrible) humor and fanservice. Most of the characters were downright unlikable and the action wasn’t really enjoyable. Lockdown, Prime, Galvatron, Case, and the soundtrack helped the film to stay afloat. Believe it or not, I still have high hopes that future Transformers films can be good, but I believe that they will have to change a lot of the current roster. Getting a new director and writer would be a very good start and it should be a remake. This continuity needs to end! The ending for the film is decent thanks to the fact that it could help the sequel if we follow the big plot, but I have a feeling that it will be ignored and the next film will be on Earth again. I certainly hope not. Either way, the film was really long so there isn’t any replay value and I would definitely not recommend this film to anyone. (There isn’t even an after credits scene) If you want a good Transformers film, check out the original animated one. Now that was a film!

Overall 5/10

Red Eye Review

Posted on June 17, 2014 by dreager1

An airplane is a pretty good setting for a film. Flightplan definitely did pretty well in that regard although there will always be a lot of suspense for disbelief. Red Eye also takes place on a plane, but the circumstances are entirely different. Red Eye is definitely not as good as Flightplan, but it was an all right film. I definitely had some issues with it, but other parts were played out well.

Lisa has a pretty tough job over at one of the biggest hotels around, but it’s always good to take a little break. Now, she is ready to go back there and she’s going to take a late flight that gets even later after a plane delay. A guy by the name of Jackson starts to get friendly with her. After a lot of awkward moments, Lisa manages to get in the plane…only to find that Jackson is sitting next to her. He tells her that she must place a call that will destroy a prominent political figure (By switching his room to one with a window) who is staying at her hotel or he will have someone destroy her Dad. Those aren’t acceptable terms for Lisa and now she’s going to need to find a way out of this!

Unfortunately, that will be tough because there don’t seem to be any reasonably smart people aboard the plane. This is where the suspense for disbelief comes in. The main villain headbuts Lisa out of nowhere and someone should have seen and heard the attack. I don’t see how Lisa was knocked out so quickly that she was not even able to gasp. Jackson manages to steal a book from an old lady without her noticing and then he attacks Lisa inside of the restroom. Again, I have to wonder how nobody put two and two together. The little girl could have done a better job of explaining what was happening to the Stewards as well.

Lisa is the main heroine of this tale. I can’t say that she’s one of the more likable protagonists as she made things way too easy for Jackson from the beginning. Bonding with him at the bar happened way too quickly. Then Jackson told her about the big plot twist and she really didn’t take it very well. She should have quickly caused chaos and made the plane land. The guy still needs to make the call to get the Dad and she’d have an opening at some point. Instead she starts crying. I have to admit that this is one of the times where a male protagonist may have been a little better. If this had been someone like Indiana Jones, the main character of the Bourne films…or even guys like Captain Kirk and James Bond; they likely would have just gone on the offensive or bide their time until an attack could be made. Now, is the crying realistic for her? Maybe, but I’m not actually so sure. At that point, it was just a threat and the situation wasn’t completely dire yet. There is a chance that things could get worse and then crying would be acceptable, but it happened a little too quickly. Her final scene is also supposed to be cool and hardcore, but it really just falls flat.

Jackson Rippner is the main villain and naturally he isn’t likable. He’s about as generic as they come and we get no reason to sympathize with him or root for him. He’s just an obstacle that is in the hero’s way. I didn’t even like him before Jackson became the main villain. He was way too pushy and definitely not the kind of guy that you could root for. After changing into a villain, it didn’t really help his case. In the end, he was just bland.

Joe looks pretty bad for most of the film, but it’s arguably not his fault. The average joe wouldn’t suspect much from a car just being outside for a while. Must be a coincidence after all. It was annoying to see him get taken down so quickly, but he essentially makes up for all of this by the end. He seems like a nice guy, but his role is ultimately pretty small. It’s good that he always has a gun at the ready though.

Cynthia is one of the helpers over at the hotel and she had a pretty stressful day. The hotel personnel weren’t very nice to her and then the villain situation popped up. She did the best that she could so I don’t have a problem with her. Keefe seems like a decent politician and he takes the whole thing in stride. His role is even smaller than Cynthia’s but he was one of the better characters. That being said, his security guards were even better. Now those guys were trained professionals! They quickly went and scanned the room for any possible dangers and they were skeptical of the room change. They should have moved the (suspicious) boat that was outside, but they’re only fishing right? After the climax, the guards definitely move fast so at least they are always prepared. I always get a kick out of seeing the government no matter which group it is.

Now, there are a few more times where I had to suspend my disbelief. At one point, the main character has a gun, but she lets the villain walk up to her and knock it away. That….that’s just not right. If you’ve got a gun, then you need to do everything humanly possible to keep it in such a dangerous situation. That was definitely a bit much. The other part is when the cops are alerted that Lisa is on the run. Then they also allow the villain to run right by them. At least arrest one of these guys. The police just didn’t seem to be very smart.

Ultimately, what held the film down was the fact that it just wasn’t very fun to watch. It didn’t suffer from ultra violence, fan service, (One unnecessary scene, but it could have been much worse) animal violence, etc. This is a negative that doesn’t pop up as often, but it’s always crucial. There were no moments in the film where you would feel like cheering except for MAYBE the final gunshot. The rest of the film may be a bit suspenseful for some or just irritating for others. I was more on the latter since I just wanted the hero to do something. Instead, she was basically Jackson’s pawn the entire time. There was also a completely unnecessary backstory for Lisa that we find out about in the climax. The pen scene can be a little disturbingly brutal, but the scene isn’t there for long and I was expecting something gritty like that to play out at some point. It’s typically something that comes along with characters who aren’t professional fighters. They usually have to resort to pens or another sharp object and aim for a weak point. It definitely could have been worse, but it was a lose-lose situation. Well, Lisa had to do something to escape, but I wouldn’t have minded a book slam instead.

Overall, I can’t say that this was my favorite plane movie. It just wasn’t that fun and there is really no replay value for this kind of film. The main character and the main villain were not so great, but the supporting cast was good, which helps to make up for that. There isn’t really a soundtrack in the film and many characters are introduced as if they will have a role, but they end up being inconsequential. I would recommend this film if you’ve wanted to see a film with blackmail to see how the hero gets out of it, but for a much better plane thriller I would go with Flightplan.

Overall 5/10

Transcendence Review

Posted on April 19, 2014 by dreager1

I have to say that I never realized how many horror posters this film got. I definitely would have been disappointed if I went in after just viewing those, but I wasn’t expecting a horror movie when I went in. I was expecting a film with Johnny Depp where he actually looked bearable. That can’t be right…can it? My brother got some advance tickets so I got to see the film before it officially came out and things got intense. Pizza in one hand and a water bottle in the other, I wasn’t leaving until I’d seen the entire film!

The plot involves a man named Will Castor and he’s pretty smart. He is working on building a sentient A.I. that has a will of its own and is capable of making decisions. Things are going pretty well for a while, but then the building where he is in gets infiltrated by a terrorist organization that is against technology. They shoot him and murder some of his associated as they effectively shut down the program. Will now has the only computer that works and he is doomed to die. His only chance is to become the A.I., but will he still be human? Humanity must decide whether they can trust Will or not and the terrorists aren’t going to stop until he’s taken down. Man vs Machines…the war to end all wars has begun. Let’s just hope that we fare better against Will than we did against Skynet!

There actually aren’t a whole bunch of characters in this one. There are only a few important ones that need to be mentioned and who better to start off with than Will? As you can tell from the trailers, Will becomes one with the A.I. and now he has the power! The Government quickly starts to fear him and the terrorists are unnerved. This doesn’t really deter Will and he does a lot of great things with his new abilities. He can help people heal from disease and give them superhuman abilities as well. That’s not a bad deal and he can also keep people safe.

We don’t get to see it much, but with his internet abilities, Will has a lot of control over the planet. Think about what you could do if you completely controlled the internet. It would be pretty incredible. Unfortunately, that’s not something that we really get to see since it’s more about how Will is helping the environment and trying to convince people that he’s an okay guy. Not all of his moves are the right ones, but I’ll get into that later on in the review.

Evelyn is Will’s partner through the film and she tries her hardest to make sure that Will makes it into his A.I. form in decent shape. She was pretty good during the beginning of the film, but I gradually began to dislike her as the film went on. I’ve never liked it when the characters start to distrust the main character because he’s grown too powerful. I expected her to be a lot more understanding towards the end and it just didn’t happen.

At least Evelyn doesn’t fall as far down as Max. Max is basically Will’s best friend, but the instant that Will transcends the limits of the physical body; Max turns against him. He fears what he does not fully understand and he also doesn’t want to understand. Max gets kidnapped by the terrorists and things continue to get worse and worse for him.

Naturally, you’ll understand why I don’t like Joseph. As with Evelyn, he turns against Will pretty quickly. Even before he turned to the “dark” side I didn’t care for him. He was a little too chummy with the FBI and if you’ve watched any film in the last 30 years…you never trust the FBI. They are usually just around to be infiltrated or blown apart by the CIA. Given how big his actor was, I thought that Joseph would get a larger role. Ah well, he didn’t really add much to the plot.

Donald was one of the more likable characters. Why? He’s open about being untrustworthy and he’s basically bad to the bone. He believes in using people to take the fall for him and he doesn’t matter how he solves a case…just as long as he solves it. Donald doesn’t appear for very long, but he was a nice change of pace from the other characters.

Bree is the final character that I should mention. She’s just one of the terrorists, but she seems to be the main one or at least the most important member. She gets Max to exit the bar and get mugged and she’s also the one who continues to talk tough for the duration of the film. I can’t say that she’s a likable villain and I can’t take her seriously as a villain, but at least she had a gun. That automatically made her more prepared than the rest of the terrorists.

We have a pretty colorful cast, but they just weren’t that enjoyable. Will did some shady things, but for the most part he was helping humanity. I can see why they were upset when his cybernetics became capable of possessing people, but why couldn’t Evelyn just tell him that she didn’t approve? Throughout the whole film, she never walks up to Will and directly tells him to stop. It’s a little tough on the viewer because you almost feel bad for Will. He really does his best to make Evelyn feel comfortable in this tough future, but she doesn’t make things easy on him.

Will may have made a few mistakes, but he also did a lot of good through his new knowledge. He could have revolutionized medical treatment and stopped Global hunger. He would have essentially solves all of Earth’s big problems if humanity had let him. Power corrupts, but Will seemed to be strong willed enough to stop that from happening to him. Sure, Will got rich very quickly, but he did it by using advanced logic to place stock, bets, and trades. He didn’t seem to do anything illegal.

As such, it’s hard to sympathize with the other characters. If Will had won, then it would have been a victory for many. An innocent man ends up dying because of the terrorists, but the government doesn’t seem to care and more of Will’s “friends” take it in stride since it’s for the greater good. I’ve never liked traitors like that and these characters were no exception.

The soundtrack for the film is decent. I liked the theme that played during the end credits, but I can’t say that I really remember any of the other tunes. Well, having one memorable tune definitely beats having none and that final piece helped to win back the horror element that we had been waiting for.

The film isn’t very violent, but we do get a few intense scenes. One guy is beaten up very badly and then Will has to use his super science to save him. That scene can be a little disturbing visually since his injuries look so gruesome. We get a few people beat up here and there, but nothing gets any worse than the medical scene. It would have been more of a problem if we got too many scenes like that, but there are only a handful of scenes with violence and the rest is back to the norm. We don’t really get much romance in this film although I’m pretty sure that I remember an unnecessary flashback. It could have been cut out.

Overall, this was an all right film. It’s basically what if story with a lot of drama. The film could have went many different ways with this plot and they went for an emotional route. I believe that the film would have done better if it had gone for horror or action, but I suppose that a film can’t do that every time. It’s not a bad film and you should enjoy it if you like the concept, but there’s also no amazing reason to see it. If you want another take on a what if future involving robots, then it may be time to check out an edited Terminator film.

Overall 5/10

Rocky Balboa Review

Posted on January 1, 2014 by dreager1

Rocky has returned and he may be facing his toughest challenge yet. This guy may not be quite as powerful as Apollo, but he’s the current Heavy Weight Champ and he wants to take Rocky down for the count. Rocky didn’t get to fight that much in Rocky V, so it was good to see him get some more action in this film. It’s definitely a step up from the last film, but has the film series started to go downhill? Well, time to find out!

I mildly addressed the plot in the intro, but it’s time to talk about it for real. Rocky doesn’t fight anymore and he even owns a pretty good restaurant. Life is pretty good for him and it’s been a peaceful life. Unfortunately, things start to turn sour as Rocky is put up against Dixon in a virtual battle that starts to rile people up. Rocky feels like he’s still got it so he decides to accept Mason’s challenge. He’s pretty old and Dixon is currently undefeated. Can Rocky really defeat such a powerful opponent?

The plot is something that you’d like to see in an anime or a comic, but could it translate into a movie? Rocky has been getting steadily older as the films have went on and he may not have what it takes to win anymore. It wouldn’t be very entertaining to see him get crushed by Dixon, but at the same time…is it believable if Rocky can give him a good fight in his present state? It’s something that you definitely will need to think about and it should affect how you view the big fights in the film.

Rocky is still a decently good protagonist. It is a little hard to sympathize with his will to keep on fighting since he has a very good life at the moment. Just about everyone in the city likes/respects him and he owns his own restaurant. He chats with the guests and he does his best to make things work out for everyone. The virtual fight may have stirred up the old fighting flair within him, but why take the risk of getting permanently injured just to feel that rush? His wife died prior to the film so Rocky is by himself now, but he still stays upbeat or tries too at the very least. He helps out Marie and her son by getting them jobs and essentially improving their quality of life.

Marie is not a new character to the franchise, but this is her first big role. She works at a bar, but Rocky convinces her to work at his restaurant and he tries to make sure that things turn out well for her and her son. She gives him a motivational speech about entering the fight, but I can’t say that I cared for the character. Her son was all right, but I still have to question why they were in the film in the first place. I’m glad that Rocky was nice to them, but it was a subplot that was really there to add some extra time to the film I suppose.

Paulie is still around and he’s here to make things a little tough for Rocky. He’s on Rocky’s side for the most part, but he cracks during one of their opening scenes and he doesn’t take his job loss that well. He goes to Rocky’s restaurant and he’s pretty hysterical while also alienating the people at the restaurant. Rocky takes it well, but Paulie didn’t seem to care that it could have hurt the store and crushed Rocky’s business. Paulie also insulted a dog which instantly made him irredeemable and one of the worst characters in the film.

Mason Dixon is the big opponent of the film and it’s hard to like him as well. You do got to sympathize with the fact that everyone keeps on saying that he’s not actually that tough even though he’s undefeated, but that shouldn’t bother him too much. He’s still undefeated and making big bucks, so that’s all that should matter to him. He just needs to take these things in stride and not worry about it so much. He talks a good game, but Rocky would have definitely crushed him if this had taken place at an earlier time. He’s supposed to be more of a likable character by the end, but we’ll see. I’m not sure if I buy it!

Rocky’s son is another big player in the film, but he wasn’t very likable. He sees the error of his ways and becomes a good guy by the very end of the series, but it’s a little late for that. He wasn’t likable in the previous film and he just served as a distraction for Rocky in this film. (Prior to his enlightenment) He had a pretty good situation and the job seemed solid. He was very sensitive about being in Rocky’s shadow, but it’s not really a bad thing and he should be proud of Rocky’s success. He doesn’t even go to Rocky’s restaurant and he makes it tough on him. He also admits that he didn’t want Rocky to fight because it will be tougher on him, which shows how selfish he is. It’s a little hard to bear at times and you just have to glare at him. He should be a better character in the next film at least.

The film isn’t very long and I’d say that it’s around 80-90 minutes. It goes by pretty quickly and doesn’t drag on, which is always a good thing. The soundtrack is not quite up to par with the classic Rocky scenes and the montage is a lot shorter, but it was still a nice throwback. The only real negatives to the film are the annoying characters (Rocky’s son and Paulie) and the fact that I can’t really sympathize with Rocky’s decision to head back in the ring. Beyond that, the film was pretty solid through and through.

Overall, this was a good film and I dare say that it was better than the last one. It still can’t beat the classic films, but it was a little better than I may have expected. The overall atmosphere is definitely not as cheery as the average film, but it’s all right for the film. It may not have a lot of replay value to it because while it’s a good film, it’s not necessarily a fun film. I do recommend checking it out at least once and it doesn’t tarnish the Rocky name. This is an example of a modern installment that was actually pretty good. The final fight may be a little brutal so you’ll want to prepare yourself before heading in.

Overall 5/10

Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace Review

Posted on December 16, 2013 by dreager1

The Star Wars legacy continues as we see the origin of the franchise….or of the films anyway. This film takes place before Episode IV and we get to see what the older villains were like. Without Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, could this film keep pace with the other three? It’s time to find out!

The film’s plot revolves around Qui Gon and Obi Wan as they must protect the Queen and restore order to the planet. The planet is currently being run by the Federation and things aren’t looking good for our heroes. Meanwhile, Anakin must prove that he is a skilled warrior and he enters the Pod Race. The stakes are very high and winning could he his chance for freedom. The Sith are also around and Darth Maul is sent to take the Jedi down once and for all.

Well, the film has a solid intro with the Jedi taking on a large number of droids and easily winning the battle. The droids definitely do not seem as skilled as the Storm Troopers and they go down pretty easily. There is one sad scene for the Jedi as they are forced to run away from the Droids who possess barriers. They may have the Force, but they aren’t immensely skilled in its usage, or maybe they just lack the confidence. Either way, a tactical retreat was in order!

Unfortunately, this film starts to drag on a bit during the middle. This is one of those films where they could have cut out 30-60 minutes and it may have helped the overall pacing. There just wasn’t a lot of action in the film and while the lightsaber fights were really good, you may miss the classic space fights. There is a quick one that is forced into the movie at the very end, but it’s pretty short anyway.

Obi Wan is a decent character, but he doesn’t really stand out. He has his big “Rage” moment where he quickly unleashes his full powers, but that was his only notable scene. It was a good one since he looked a lot better than Luke did in his rage moment so I do have some hopes for him in the next film. I always liked his fight scene in film IV since he mentioned how it’s not wise to strike him down…right before he’s struck down. It’s one of those scenes that forces you to smile and wave…just smile and wave.

Qui Gon is the wise character of the film and he’s always got his lightsaber at the ready. He’s a decent character as well I suppose, but he is pretty dishonest since he tries to cheat a store owner with the Jedi mind trick. Luckily he is unsuccessful although he also ends up cheating at dice. Qui Gon is a powerful fighter and he can hold his own against the Sith, but he still wasn’t a great character. Average sounds about right as with Obi Wan.

Jar Jar Binks is a pretty infamous character and this is where he makes his debut. I wouldn’t underestimate Jar Jar Binks since he definitely means business and won’t go down without a fight. Unfortunately, like the Ewoks, this leads to a lot of plot hax during the fight scenes. He takes out several drones by accident which is humiliating in itself and it doesn’t stop there as he takes on a whole tank. He’s not quite as annoying as Chewy although his voice isn’t as iconic as Chewy’s roar. Jar Jar is definitely not a likable character and he was unnecessary, but he’s still better than C-3PO and R2D2.

Yoda is back along with the Jedi Council in this film, but he still doesn’t do anything. They all fear Anakin’s power since it far surpasses theirs, but it’s not like they can do anything about it. They were not even aware that the Sith had returned which is a little sad for them. Why couldn’t they feel “A disturbance in The Force!?” Maybe they just weren’t skilled enough as the time which is to be expected in the long run. C-3PO and R2D2 are in the film and luckily they aren’t as bad as in the original trilogy thanks to their limited roles.

Anakin is only a kid in this film so its understandable that he’s not a great character just yet. He did start to fall from film V to VI, but this is before those events so he should be just fine. I expect that he’ll improve in the next film when he’s older. He’s not a bad character in this film, but he can’t really be taken seriously just yet.

Queen Padme is a decent character and she is more likable than Princess Leia. That being said, she does fall for Emperor Palpatine’s tricks and her final plan resembled Luke’s from Episode VI! It was thought out more than Luke’s, but still an overly risky plan. If only they all could use The Force!

Finally, Darth Maul is a pretty solid villain and he definitely gives the heroes a solid fight. One on one he seemed to be stronger than the Jedi thanks to his duel blade skills. He was the best character of the film and I dare say that he approaches Darth Vader in epicness. The EU gives Darth Vader the edge, but if we’re purely talking about the films, I dare say that he’s a better villain.

The fight scenes in this Star Wars film were vastly superior to the previous films. You could really feel the blows when the Lightsabers clashed and the special effects have also received a level up. I can only imagine how the Lightsaber battles would look in the current days and it would likely be about as epic as Kingdom Hearts II!

The film does fall into its share of holes which keeps it from a higher rating. In the first place, the characters weren’t terribly interesting. The original trilogy definitely had a better cast to go along with the better plot and better soundtrack. This film also dragged on for quite a while when they were on the desert planet. The invasion was fun, but not the Jar Jar Binks part of it. They should have been incinerated instantly, but instead they lasted with gimicks. Also, Anakin shouldn’t have been able to break inside the enemy ship so easily. Animals also end up eating other animals for no real reason since it doesn’t serve to advance the plot and is just unnecessary.

Overall, this was a decent start to the next Star Wars trilogy. The fight scenes were fun and we had a great villain, but the film was just too long and featured too many unlikable characters. If the film can reduce on the negatives and make things a little more fun, then the next one has a chance for success. This is a decent film to check out, but I’d sooner recommend IV since the intro is a lot more intense. The Storm Troopers are definitely hardcore!

Overall 5/10

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The Bourne Legacy Review

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Transcendence Review

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Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace Review

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