Guardians of the Galaxy Review

Posted on August 2, 2014 by dreager1

Well, Guardians of The Galaxy is definitely a film that everyone has been looking forward to for a very long time. The MCU could finally continue and this installment was going to give us a lot of data for the series. Of course, all of the characters are essentially new to the franchise so it was still a little risky. Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being another solid entry into the MCU and I’m ready for a sequel, but let’s take a more in depth look at it. I aim to keep spoilers to a minimum and will do my best to avoid them entirely, but I recommend watching the film before you read my review…just in case.

The film starts off with a scene on Earth as Star Lord is abducted by aliens when his mother passes away. Years pass and he is now a wanted man by many individuals. He finds a mysterious artifact in a tomb and now he is in a lot of danger. Ronan sends Gamora out to go take the orb from Star Lord while Rocket and Groot want to get the main character for his large bounty. After they bond and fight, the heroes realize that they’re going to have to team up if they want to have any hope of stopping Ronan. Can these individuals team up to face the enemies that no single hero could face alone? Let’s hope so!

Star Lord is the main character of our tale. His character seems to be based off of Captain Kirk’s to an extent. He shares traits with many of the classic heroes, which is likely intentional. He was definitely one of the more interesting characters, but every time he would have a really cool scene that would almost make you a fan, he would do something to negate it. As I mentioned earlier, he shares some traits with Kirk. One of these traits is unfortunately the fact that he flirts a whole lot. His first scene has a rather anticlimatic moment where we realize that he isn’t the only person aboard his ship. The scene really didn’t have a point and it was just so we could see how far Star Lord had fallen.

When he’s not flirting, Star Lord can be a pretty cool character. His mask is pretty epic and he’s a surprisingly good fighter. His plans aren’t bad and he was able to hold his own against Gamora and the others. The fact that he went after his MP3 player at one point was also a pretty cool scene. He typically made sure to do the right thing and he was a solid character for the most part. I just couldn’t like him by the end because the flirting was a little overdone, but he’s still a charismatic lead.

Gamora is an interesting case as well. Her character personality was all right, but I felt that her reputation was undeserved. Everyone seems to know her because of how skilled she is. The problem is that she never looks that tough on screen. Sure, she beats up a few prison guards at one point, but she typically loses the big battles. While she had the upper hand against Drax the first time they met, she never really had any other impressive moments. Her battle against Nebula was good of course, but I don’t see how she fell for the classic thunder rope trick. She also seemed pretty worried the whole time she was in prison. Those were some pretty tough odds, but they mentioned how she had been genetically altered so I figured that the extra power and speed would serve her well.

Personality wise, she’s definitely more heroic than I had figured. I definitely didn’t mind that since it was unexpected in a good way, but it did seem rather sudden. I guess Ronan has never tried to do something this large before or she may have defected sooner. As long as she doesn’t let Star Lord get to her in the sequel, she should stay as a decently good character. I do expect her to look more impressive combat wise in the sequel though. For “the world’s deadliest woman” she only appeared to be slightly stronger than Black Widow. We can expect her DC counterpart (Wonder Woman) to be a little more impressive so Gamora’s going to have to play catch up.

Rocket is a character that Marvel has worked hard to promote. He has a pretty solid fanbase so his portrayal in this film was definitely going to be looked at in detail by his fans. I like Rocket, although I wouldn’t call myself one of his bigger fans. I can see the appeal of the character and I’m always up for another Sgt. Rock. Rocket is shown to be the smartest member of the group and he has a lot of experience. He has broken out of many prisons before and he knows how to take them over from the inside by using Groot.

His drunk scene seemed pretty out of place though and it was a way of expanding his backstory a bit. I could have taken a pass on that part. His backstory is definitely pretty grim, but it should hopefully not appear on screen as the reference is probably all that we need to know about it. It’s definitely hard not to like Rocket from the start. His thunder zap against Star Lord was pretty good and he’s always confident. He’s a little weak physically compared to the others, but he’s always got Groot at his side so he does well in fights. It’s no stretch to say that he’s definitely the best member on the team.

Drax is probably my least favorite member of the group. It’s close, but I just never cared for this depiction of Drax. Remember the good ole days where he had a cape and his abilities were more on the level of the Hulk or Vision? I don’t know exactly when he changed, but ever since the reboot of his character began…they never looked back. This Drax is more of a generic warrior who likes to fight. You can say that he’s the power member of the group.

The problem is that he’s pretty weak. You can’t compare him to other fighters like Thor or the Hulk. He’s probably around Captain America level in physical power and I would easily take the Avenger to win a fight between them. Drax spends the entire film getting crushed by the opponents. Gamora nearly ends him, Ronan is on a different level, and Korath also throws him around for a while. This is because Drax doesn’t really have any technique to his fighting and he just relies on brute strength. He seems a little out of place in a comic book film.

Power aside, I also don’t really care for his personality. He doesn’t really know a lot about Earth and traditional customs, but we already have Gamora for that angle. (At least music wise) He’s not very smart, but Groot already serves that purpose. Drax really doesn’t add anything to the team and that’s probably another reason why I don’t care for him. I would have preferred Adam Warlock or Captain Marvel to replace this fighter. It helps that he cheered (Rocket is guilty of this too) when the animal got eaten. He could get better in the sequel..but we shall see.

Groot is the final member of the Guardians of The Galaxy and I’m likely not as much of a fan as most of the viewers. Personality-wise, he’s pretty decent. He seems to only partially understand the others or he just doesn’t think about it all that much. At the very least, he has no problem with disrupting the plan and doing things his way. He is pretty heroic for the most part though and he makes the tough calls. I can’t say that I was a big fan of his scene in the prison though. There were other ways in which he could have taken out the tough guy. I just never liked the branches through the nose technique before as I find it rather gruesome.

The main reason why I didn’t care all that much for Groot is the whole “I am Groot” part. It’s essentially like Chewie’s roar in Star Wars. Characters can just understand it somehow and then they put the pieces together. It may be okay once in a while, but the more that it occurs, the more that I don’t really enjoy it. I’d prefer to at least have some subs in this case. Groot is definitely a lot more durable than the other Guardians though and he would likely win in a fist fight.

Thanos finally gets to show himself in this film. Viewers of the Avengers series who prefer not to watch any of the other installments will likely be upset since they are expecting him to get a big role in Avengers II. This wasn’t to be and we can only hope that Thanos does join us for Avengers III. All signs point to it at the moment at least, but you could almost think that Thanos would be the big villain for Guardians 2.

His design seems to be a little different from the Avengers film, but it’s a little hard to tell since the lighting is pretty dark. His outfit is modeled after the comics, but all of the color has been drained from it. It reminds me of Wonder Woman’s new costume in the Batman vs Superman film coming out. (Color scheme wise) The outfit is bronze/gold and there isn’t any color to it. It definitely looks menacing though and Thanos essentially looks like a purple Hulk with armor. I don’t really have any complaints about the armor’s design. I definitely would have preferred the classic gold and blue, but this works.

Character wise, Thanos and Ronan have some banter as threats are implied and spoken outright. Nebula tells Ronan that Thanos is stronger than him, which is a solid continuation of the hype train for Thanos. I’m all aboard of course, but making Thanos stronger than Ronan isn’t very impressive. It’s a start of course, but this is why we’re waiting for his first actual fight. He reminds me of Darkseid and his throne is pretty good. Whether he has his first fight in a Guardians or Avengers film, it should be pretty epic.

Ronan is the main villain of the Guardians film. He’s a decent villain, although I would say that he’s not quite as tough as he could have been thanks to the film’s main characters. Since none of the heroes are very strong, they had to be careful about him. I would say that Ronan’s strength could be comparable to Iron Man’s armor if not a little stronger than that. Due to some circumstances in the film, his abilities do get better at one point and his weapon becomes truly devastating. It reminded me of Malekith in Thor: The Dark World. Once amped up, he could probably give Thor or the Hulk a pretty good run for their money.

Character wise, I found him to be very similar to Malekith. Ronan’s main goal is to destroy various civilizations and one in particular because he doesn’t believe in the peace treaty. He’s not with the Kree in this continuity as he commands a rebel force and he works with Thanos. He could be a little generic and executing defenseless civilians is a little petty. I’d say that he didn’t leave much of a lasting impression and he was a decent villain by the end. That’s still an improvement over most of the MCU villains though. I would have liked to see him go up against Thanos, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Nebula doesn’t get much of a role in this film, but she is regarded as a tough fighter. She has a brief fight with Gamora and we don’t really know much else about her. Her design is good and I’m always open to cyborgs. She seems to comprehend Thanos’ power more than the others and she naturally resents him. What she will do next will likely impact the plot of the sequel a lot. She makes for a good rival to Gamora and I don’t have much else to say about her just yet.

Yondu is pretty different from the comics, but it works for the film. He’s a lot older than you may have guessed and unlike Hawkeye, he only uses one arrow. It’s the whole quantity vs quality debate and his arrow is definitely well built. It’s like a laser and it’s sound based, which is pretty good. Yondu is definitely a threat and he could likely take out the Guardians of The Galaxy with decent ease. He would likely have some trouble against opponents with sound abilities or quick reflexes, but his arrow is quite fast so the reflexes would have to be on a high level. He’s not a very interesting villain though and his power is his saving grace. I don’t mind all that much if he appears in the sequel, but they have to be careful about how he fights. This ability leaves a lot of room for plot convenience and we don’t want that. Having someone give him an accurate fight will be a challenge, but a fun one to see on screen.

Korath gets a minor role in this film as well and he only gets one real fight scene against Drax. He looks a little stronger than you may have guessed, but the film did hint at it when he recovered from Star Lord’s thunder blast so quickly. He’s really just a nameless minion in the end in terms of plot importance. His design isn’t very interesting and he’s basically a throwaway character. I can’t say that I mind him all that much, but he’s definitely not going to be the next big threat.

I can’t say that I like the Collector anymore here than I did in Thor: The Dark World. He’s still a complete villain and I don’t understand why the Asgardians trust him. He’s useful for information, but the heroes should have shut down his base of operations a long time ago. You feel bad for his minions and things definitely get a little dicey for them. Hopefully this will be his last appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s really no need for him to appear any further anyway.

The Other makes his glorious return into the Marvel universe with this film. I have to say that I had only been mildly been expecting him to get a decent role here so that was pretty cool. Once again, he talks pretty tough to Ronan and I like how he’s always on top of things. The Other fears no being! (Not even Thanos…..) Apparently, he knew about some plans and schemes, but neglected to tell Ronan because The Other is a Boss. We don’t get to see any of his super speed in this film though so I have to wonder if it was forgotten or if the Other just couldn’t be bothered to use it. I’m hoping that he gets another solid role in the future where he can show off his abilities to their fullest.

Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a very important film for the MCU. We learn a lot of things about the cosmic order in this continuity and Thanos appearing is certainly important as well. Everything is a lot more casual in the film to the point where you feel bad for S.H.I.E.L.D. Nobody on Earth even knows about Thanos, but it’s casual knowledge in this film. We get to see his domain and many planets fear him. It’s hard to describe, but it definitely makes the Guardians appear to be on a different level from the Avengers knowledge wise even if they can’t compete in power.

We even learned about the Celestials and we get a really cool action scene involving a planet blowing up. I’ve always wanted to see a planet blow up on screen and this film got to show us this. That’s a visual that I expect to see in future DBZ films and I guess this film beat it to the punch. Skipping this film isn’t a wise move if you want to stay in touch with what is happening in the world.

The fight scenes in the film are definitely some of the better ones in the MCU. We’re not looking at anything like Thor vs Kurse or Captain America vs Winter Soldier yet, but the space fights are really fun. Star Lord’s blaster is pretty effective and we haven’t gotten a lot of gun fights in the series prior to this film. Definitely no space blasters and I was glad to see them appear. I wouldn’t have minded if everyone used guns in the film since the effects made the blaster fights really stand out.

A welcome positive for this film is the light tone that is similar to the Avengers. The film typically has a scene intended to make you laugh every few minutes and the humor is pretty well done. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and that’s a good thing. It helped to minimize the damage in a negative that is coming up and it also gives the film a lot more replay value than other films that came out this year. (TMNT, Godzilla, Dawn of the Planet of The Apes, Xmen, etc.) It would certainly be a lot easier to watch this film again than any of those.

The light tone is really what helped the film not get hurt too badly by the animal violence. The animal violence guaranteed that I wouldn’t give this film an 8 like Captain America. It wasn’t very bad, but there was one pretty sad scene at the bar. We see an animal eating another one and it’s done for sport. The characters actually don’t mind this and they encourage the barbaric game. There’s also the scene at the very beginning of the film where Star Lord is beating up on a lot of small lizards. That was pretty sad to see since it was completely unnecessary to the plot. We definitely don’t need animal violence in our films and hopefully this doesn’t become more of a trend with Marvel. (I still won’t forget the dog scene in The Incredible Hulk)

I will say that the film did have a little more language than the average MCU film. Mostly, it tended to come from Rocket, but they all chipped in a little. Luckily, we don’t get the line that offers the big word. It’s mostly just a lot of s and a worlds, but they do add up a little more than usual. It was likely to show that these guys were definitely not as heroic as the Avengers, but we already knew that from Star Lord.

Finally, I think the film tried a little too hard to be emotional at some points. “You’re asking us to die” quickly comes to mind as everyone gets serious and it’s a solemn moment. It’s almost inevitable for a film and especially one that is as happy as this one. After all, the heroes have to finally realize the gravity of the situation at some point, which will make things serious. It’s a cost of being a light series, but it’s a light one. The opening scene at the hospital was also pretty sad, but it really didn’t do the film any favors. Why not give the hero a happy origin story instead? What makes the origin a little sadder than usual is the fact that they made sure it was a realistic origin that could happen to anyone before the UFO came. Taking away that scene and one or two others would have allowed the film to keep it’s happy stride and to never look back. I think that would have made the film even better.
The soundtrack for the film is definitely solid. I’ve always been a fan of the classic songs from the 1980’s and beyond. It was a good time to be a listener and they just don’t make songs like they used too. We got a whole bunch of classic songs in the film and I was glad to see that I recognized two of them. The main theme that was seen in all of the trailers and on Star Lord’s MP3 player is easily the best song. Most of the others are pretty solid as well, but that one definitely had what it takes. The tune that Star Lord listens to in the very beginning was pretty good as well.

Naturally, we get an after credits scene in the film. There is a small sort of bonus scene early on, but I barely count it since nothing really happens. The actual after credits scene is another comedy clip so it’s not there to advance the plot, but it is a pretty good one. The novelty of the scene is the best part and while I would have preferred a Thanos vs Ultron fight to set up Avengers 2, this will have to do for now. You should hopefully recognize what the after credits scene means…hopefully.

Now, this film is Disney like Star Wars and it’s the first big space epic in a while. After the similar poster came out, I’m sure that we all quickly thought of Star Wars. It’s definitely worth mentioning that they do have a lot of similarities. We get adaptions/homages/similar circumstances to the Dark Vader and Lord Palpatine plot through Thanos and Ronan. We get a space fight scene where a lot of small ships go for the large one like in Star Wars. Groot is pretty similar to Chewbacca and Star Lord’s relationship to Yondu is identical to Han Solo’s time with Jabba The Hut. Gamora and the main heroine of Star Wars also have some mild similarities as they already had a mission and then the other heroes jump in and wreck her plans while attempting to help. There are other similarities and some of these are naturally coincidences since it’s hard not to adapt them when doing a sci-fi film. It definitely had a Star Wars feel to it though and that’s pretty nice. Star Wars definitely had a lot of good things going for it even if it started to make some mistakes down the road.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking out Guardians of The Galaxy. I love superhero team films because watching the team form is always great. The opening fight scene with the members is pretty great and I definitely place that as my favorite scene. The film is pretty fun to watch and the action scenes are great as well. The film did have some negatives for me, but there aren’t any scenes where you’ll seriously grimace except for the animal violence. This installment can definitely hold its own against the other titles and I’m looking forward to the sequel. We’ll see if Thanos really is one of the major players to face them. Either way, expect a lot of action and excitement along with some more great tunes.

Overall 7/10

Conquest of The Planet of The Apes Review

Posted on August 1, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for the Apes to return and you can tell that there will be a lot of action in this one based off of the title. That is usually a good thing, but not necessarily for this series. After the last film where the series managed to briefly rise up, this one definitely shot it right back down. Why did this film not succeed when it had so much potential? That’s what we’re about to find out!

The world has changed since the last film and around 10+ years have passed. Dogs and Cats were eliminated from the Earth by a plague and humans decided to take in Apes as pets. (Obviously, they ignored the warnings that this is how the Ape dominion would start) Unfortunately, America then decides to use them as slaves and Milo finds out about this. He switches his name to Caesar and decides to overthrow the humans, but can such a bold conquest really work? That’s the plot for this film. I’ll get into all of the negatives in a moment, but let’s look at the character roster first since it’s so small.

Caesar is the main character of the film and his main goal is to save the Apes. It’s a noble goal, but accomplishing it will be difficult. He starts off by helping the Apes make a mockery of the humans by messing up in their tasks, but it’s not enough. He needs to completely stop their tyrannical rule. Unfortunately, he basically cracks by the end as he decides to destroy all of the humans before enslaving them. It doesn’t look like things will be changing anytime soon and one race will end up enslaved no matter who wins. I also can’t say that I liked Caesar’s plans, but more on that in a minute. Nontheless, Caesar is still better than most of the other apes.

MacDonald is one of the only guys who’s on the heroes side of things. He doesn’t believe in slavery, but there’s not much that he can do about it while in the system. He tries to help out whenever possible, which is good. Unfortunately, it can also be a little sad seeing him since you know that he has no chance of stopping this through peace. War is the only thing that General Breck and his men will understand at this point.

Governor Breck is the main villain of the film. He really believes that the Apes pose a threat to the human race and he really wants to see them enslaved. He’s basically against all Apes and he takes great satisfaction in their imprisonment. He’s a rather petty villain who is definitely not very enjoyable. He needs some more charisma and character development in order to be a good villain. His final speech is also pretty nonsensical as he turns into a philosopher and explains that people only dislike the Apes because they see their dark side in them. I don’t think anyone will really buy that. If only the President was still around to save the day.

Armando is the circus owner from the last film and he’s a good guy. He probably shouldn’t have gone back to meet with the police, but he was basically doomed either way. It’s really Caesar’s fault that things got dicey for Armando, but something had to happen I suppose. Armando was definitely one of the more likable characters in the film and at least he put up a fight against the police. He does have his human rights to think of after all and nobody was going to stop him! The film could have been better if he had lasted a little longer.

The soundtrack definitely isn’t that good. The opening scene is mostly lolz worthy as we get a fairly comedic tune as we see Apes performing all kinds of tasks. A tragic piece of music would have been more appropriate. What’s worse is that the scene takes a very long time to end. It keeps on going and going until you wonder how long this song can actually be. The film finally starts, but it wasn’t a big improvement. Time to see why the film wasn’t that good for me…or rather, why it was pretty bad.

The slavery aspect would definitely be the first part. There’s no way that America would fall so low. Of course, that’s optimistic, but it’s hard to picture America allowing slavery in any form. We just finished getting rid of it so bringing it back for the Apes would not make sense. That was part of the main plot and it was pretty bad. That was definitely a bad sign for the film since the slavery wasn’t going to disappear as the film went on. Maybe a few people would believe that Apes would destroy us all, but certainly not the majority. Only conspirators could possible believe this and it is still taken so seriously.

Another part would be how cruel the people are to the Apes. It doesn’t make economic sense to train them all to do these tasks when they just end up doing it sloppily and are forced to go back for more training. What’s the point of using these Apes for the task? The film explains that they are really useful in some areas, but it never shows us any of them. All we see is the fact that the Apes aren’t really good at any of the tasks because the humans won’t bother tho show them anything. If anything, it takes longer to do everything when you have to worry about apes making a mistake or doing something incorrectly.

Building off of this, the scenes also drag on for too long. We get that the humans are really mean to the Apes so we don’t need to keep on seeing it. At one point, the humans lead Caesar through a lab where we see how the Apes are conditioned. They get practice on how to get beaten up without fighting back, how to get burned to stop being frightened of the fire, and how to get zapped for no real reason except to make them fear humans. These scenes are pretty terrible and they guaranteed that the film was going to get a low rating. The sheer amount of animal violence in the film is off the charts. The Apes don’t typically count as the same kind of animal violence as an average dog or a cat would, but things change in this film. Most of the apes are normal apes now so they are back to totally being animals so all of the scenes are pretty relentless. If you’ve been reading my reviews long enough then you’ll know that animal violence is an instant no no. Viewers shouldn’t have to put up with that and it’s bad enough that Lassie is a fan favorite..

Meanwhile, the acting hasn’t gotten any better. The humans are all right of course, but the Apes still seem very fake. They’ll glare at each other and move really slowly at times for the drama. You almost feel like chuckling when Caesar glares at the Apes from the shadows. The suits definitely need a lot of work, but that kind of work takes time so I wouldn’t expect it to get much better in the sequel. We can hope of course….we can hope.

I also need to criticize Caesar’s military tactics. He’s never fought a war of course, but I expect better out of him. He uses some of the Apes as pawns as he gets many of them to mess up in their duties so they are sent to his base. After they launch the assault, Caesar definitely didn’t count on the villains having guns. The whole army walks right towards them and the complete slaughter of his troops is prevented by the humans hesitating before firing. Most of them still go down quickly and the others only manage to stay upright through plot convenience. The fire plan definitely didn’t do the Apes any wonders. Maybe it’s time for Caesar to step down as leader eh?

By the end, he basically admits that the Apes are doomed for a while and that they’ll have to wait until World War Three to strike again. I guess that means that the Apes involved in this rebellion are probably all doomed. Well, maybe they’ll be able to stay in hiding or something until the tensions die down, but it’ll be tough.

It almost goes without saying that the fight scenes were poorly done as well. We get a lot of Apes tackling humans and vice versa as they wrestle around for a while. The camera makes sure to keep on shifting from side to side and all around so that we get to see many fight scenes instead of focusing on any of them. It becomes rather chaotic and since we can’t root for either side, it’s rather boring. I still don’t buy the fact that any of the Apes lived when the humans had so many guns at the ready. Talk about getting one shotted….

Overall, This is definitely another bad installment in the Apes franchise. It may not have been quite as bad as the second film, but this is certainly open to debate. There was nothing good about this film once again and the characters were unlikable. I liked the circus owner and MacDonald was okay, but they weren’t strong enough to hold up a whole film. The massive amounts of animal violence mixed with the sheer dullness of the film ensured that this would not be an enjoyable experience. I definitely do not recommend checking this film out and you would be better watching a retro episode of the Andy Griffith show. I can only hope that the final installment in this series is better than this one. How can it be worse or even on the same level right? Well, that’s what I thought after the second film…

Overall 1/10

Escape from the Planet of the Apes Review

Posted on July 30, 2014 by dreager1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 3/10

Son of Batman Review

Posted on July 28, 2014 by dreager1

Batman has finally gotten another DC film. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s always good to see DC bringing out Batman and Superman films by the dozens. Superman’s have stopped for the time being so Batman really needs to pick up the slack. With at least 2 more films coming up in the near future (5 if you count BVS and the two Justice League films) he’s still doing well. The only problem is that Batman can be a harder character to portray accurately than Spiderman and Sonic. His films should always be masterpieces, but this has not always been the case. I have to say that this film was mildly disappointing, but I wasn’t expecting a whole lot since this wasn’t really a groundbreaking arc. Nontheless, we shall discuss why it did not rise to the occasion and what this means for future DC films. Of course, it’s still not a bad film, it just lacked a few things. (Spoilers will ensue, but I’ll try to keep them to a minimum)

The plot can mostly be guessed from the title, but here it goes. Batman actually had a kid a while back and based off of Damian’s origin it must have been around 8-10 years ago. (The comics may say that it happened later and I’ve heard about the accelerated growth, but I’m purely talking from the film’s perspective. It didn’t say anything so we can’t make that assumption…this time. The plot was a little dicey at that point, but we can discuss it more in the latter part of the review.) The League of Assassins are quickly defeated by hired thugs with guns and Talia (Mother of Damian) brings Damian to Batman for safekeeping. Batman decides to keep Damian safe while the kid wants to avenge his father. (His father was murdered by the villains, but I assume that you may have guessed that since this is classic origin story 101 mechanics) Batman is going to have to keep Damian in line before the kid strays onto the dark path. This could get ugly, but Batman has Alfred at the ready. Meanwhile, Slade Wilson, AKA Slade, AKA Deathstroke wants revenge on Damian for an injury that occurred during their first fight.

I’ll admit that I had a lot of fun writing the plot for the film. Time for things to get a little more serious as we discuss the pros and cons for the film. The cover is pretty uninspired, but then I look at the other recent DC films and I realize that it could have definitely been worse. This cover just won’t stand out at stores and it could hurt sales, but it doesn’t impact the overall rating at all. Just a little sidenote.

The first thing to mention is the fact that the opening fight scene is not interesting. See, the first scene in a film is typically about the Uncle Ben figure dying, The Parents of the main characters being awesome, The Big villain doing something like blowing up a city, or something else. This film goes the first route and we all know what to expect from the trailer so it’s supposed to be visually exciting. That’s not what happens I’m afraid. I felt like DC took a few cues from Marvel in this film and that’s Never a good thing, at least in the animated world.

The intro is exactly the same as the intro to Ultimate Avengers. Instead of aliens we have guys with guns, but it’s the same effect. Instead of focusing on making the hand to hand epic and dodging lots of bullets with acrobatics, we have the famed splash effect from bleach. Every stab is followed by a splash and a poor villain gets crushed by another villain. The violence isn’t that bad, but it is continuous. Every slash has more blood splashes and it’s more unnecessary than anything. What made it a little worse is the obligatory eye stab.

For me, that’s always been a no no. I wear glasses, which may help, but I’ve never enjoyed that kind of violence. I find it more grotesque than anything. It happened in JL War as well and it seems to be a new trend. Not necessarily that this will happen every time now, but the New 52 lineup of films seems to be going for this new blood effect. It would seem that these kind of fights will be present a lot more. I prefer seeing a lot of energy tossed around because blood everywhere unnecessary. This is likely not the most violent DC animated film so far, but it definitely contends and it’s at least in the top 3. It’s something to consider if you don’t care for it, but it’s nothing that will make you look at the rating again. It’s just a little unexpected for DC. (Something I’d expect more from the Marvel animated films pre current era)

Another thing that I didn’t care for in the intro is the guns vs swords scenes. I agree that the swordsmen should be doomed and the film got that right. Then we move on to Talia and Ra’s. You’ll likely need to stifle a grin or fill your mouth with popcorn quickly because it’s hard to believe what you are watching. 3 guys block the doorway to where Ra’s is and they start firing their bullets. After they’re already firing, Ra’s runs towards them. He deflects a few bullets and jumps into the air rather dramatically. Then he slices the first guy and slices the second guy. None of the bullets hit him and none of them hit Talia or Damian either. I know that humans dodging bullets with ease because they have a costume on is superhero 101, but they could have made it more believable. It was one of the most unconvincing scenes that I have ever experienced.

It was to give the three of them props of course since they’re the only League of Assassin members who can fight, but it was too much of a stretch. The film should have at least given them mech suits so they could just endure the bullets. My final problem with the intro would be Slade, but I’ll cover that in his section. As you can see, I had a lot of problems with the intro, but things always get better once Batman appears to save the day and remind us why he’s one of the best comic book characters. (Superman will always be the best of course)

Batman is the main character of course, but he basically gets the same amount of screentime as Damian. My main problem is that Batman is portrayed to be a very inexperienced crime fighter who talks a good game, but can’t really back it up. He’s also more of an Iron Man character in that he’s a bit of a romanticist in both hero and superhero forms. That’s not how Batman is supposed to be. I say that he looks very weak and inexperienced due to the Killer Croc fight scene that occurred at the beginning of the film. “I’m not done with you Croc” is Batman’s epic line as he tries some tricks. They don’t work and he quickly turns to run, but Killer Croc just knocks him to the ground. After that, Batman takes a pretty big beating and he’s saved by Talia. That was incredibly embarrassing. That’s Batman’s very first scene and he’s crushed by a villain that he has a lot of experience fighting. There’s really no excuse for this and especially not after Batman’s tough talk.

Things only got worse for the Caped Crusader as we find out that he was drugged and tricked into having Damian. He forgot about this affair of course, but then he admits that it was enjoyable or part of it was. No…..No way is this the Batman that I remember. That was terrible and I already couldn’t take the design that they used in this film seriously. Whoever wrote the script must have taken a nap during that part and then someone added it in. The rest of the film is Batman being outdone by Damian at every turn, but Batman does get to outshine Robin. He tries to redeem himself by beating up Slade, but it doesn’t really work considering the villain’s portrayal in this film. Batman did have some glimpses where he appeared to be a good character, but they were very short and far apart. Wrecking Batman isn’t an easy thing to do so the film can be proud of this…maybe.

Damian is a big focus in the film and it shows his change from Assassin to crimefighter. He’s pretty unbearable as Damian and his scenes can be pretty wince worthy. As you know, I don’t care for kids as protagonists in live action due to the bad acting, but also for animation when they are shown to be kids. (Shows like Naruto avoid this by having the character be kids in theory, but they are portrayed as adults and basically animated as such) Knocking down Wayne’s trees was pretty uncalled for since he must have known what he was doing and he constantly made things hard for Bruce. Batman has a secret identity to hide after all and that’s why I keep addressing him by different titles. Damian nearly blew Mr. Wayne’s identity and I’m sure that some people will put two and two together. (Rich guy + new kid and Batman suddenly has a kid sidekick….hmmmmmm) Luckily, Damian’s better one he becomes Robin. We don’t get a whole lot of that yet, but the sequel should show more of this. He does pretty well against Deathstroke and he’s certainly a tough fighter. I wouldn’t mind if he was a little less full of himself since he can’t back it up yet, but he’s getting there. He just needs to learn how to fight a clean and honorable battle, but Batman will teach him. I think the film went a little overboard on his rebellion faze and seeing him outsmart Batman at every turn was more insulting than cool. Nontheless, he has the potential to be a solid character. He’s no Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, or Tim Drake, but he upholds the Robin legacy.

Nightwing is what you’d call a filler character. He has no point in the story and he’s just there as a guest star. Naturally, this means that he doesn’t get to fight anybody off screen and he’s actually used to hype someone else up. He gets his hero moment at the end of course, but it could have been a lot better. Nightwing is a great character so he should have gotten a fight of his own or at least a better role. I’m all for quick guest star roles, but the guest star should look good. That’s really the whole point of having a guest star.

Slade is probably the biggest joke in the film. Getting beaten by a kid is disgraceful in itself, but he also ran away from a 400 year old man. That was his first scene by the way! I knew right then and there that Slade was going to look pretty bad and that’s basically what happened. The film shows that he’s not confident about his skills, which is why he had to turn and run. Batman managed to take him out in a few seconds when they fought so Slade realized that he only stood a chance against a kid. After that, he plunged towards a vat of acid and I had to wonder why this guy calls himself Deathstroke. Sure, he can threaten defenseless citizens, but he’s definitely not much of a fighter. I definitely did not like him in this movie.

Finally, a character who did look pretty good. Of course, one can argue that she was a little too perfect and the argument would have many valid points. That being said, I’ll take a character who’s too good than someone who’s not good enough. Talia is the resident hand to hand specialist and she saves Batman after she saved The League of Assassins. Remember that she did both of these things within the first 15 minutes of the film. The film essentially turned her into a DC version of Black Widow and she is already significantly tougher than the Avenger. She could have easily been one of the best characters…until we remember how Damian came to be. Then we remember the cringe worthy Batman scene where she reminded him of this and then she drops down the character ranks. So, she could have been a pretty epic character, but scenes like this don’t do her any favors.

Ra’s Al Ghul is only around for the beginning of the film, but he made for a decent villain. He doesn’t really have much of a personality and he’s just a generic tyrant who wants to rule the world, but at least he can fight. We even got some good afterimages for his character when he was fighting. Ra’s may have been a big threat to Batman back in the day, but he’s always getting defeated lately. It may be time for Batman to find a new villain.

Killer Croc is here to remind us that this is still Gotham City and the villains haven’t faded away just yet. He beats up Batman so he fulfilled his role as a villain. It’s a little sad for him in prison since it must be boring in there, but he’s gotta serve the time. It was just fun to see him be featured in a film since he doesn’t get quite as much screentime as the other big Batman villains.

Alfred doesn’t get a huge role here, but he makes sure to get most of the punchlines and quick jabs at Damian in the form of witty comebacks. It’s hard not to root for Alfred since Damian can be pretty obnoxious to him. His role is very small, but that’s how Alfred roles. It’s best to have him in small doses or they may wreck his character arc like in the Dark Knight Rises. Alfred’s a solid character and that’s all I can ask for.

Ubu is one of the only named villains in this film and he’s not very skilled. Every big villain has a few disposable minions and this guy fits the bill. He has a gun and he’s not afraid to use it. He’s also got a pair of claws that instantly propel him from generic grunt level to Master Assassin (Slade) level if the film is to be believed. He gave Damian a pretty close fight like Slade and while he was soundly defeated in the end, he gave it his all. Ubu is extremely unlikable though and the film makes sure to show this to us. It’s rather unnecessary as well. We know that Ubu is already a convict after all…do we need to know more?

The music for the film definitely inspired. It’s virtually nonexistent, but that is really the case for most superhero films. The animation is a little dicey. It definitely doesn’t scream 2014. It would have looked sharp around 8 years ago or so, but it just didn’t click. It actually reminds me a lot of Avatar The Last Airbender. The Gotham scenes at night are still good and night scenes are a very important part of the battle. The Daytime scenes were a little too unremarkable though. This could have played into why the fight scenes weren’t very interesting, but there are other reasons as well.

Now, the review has been pretty negative up til now. It was pretty unavoidable because the film had a multitude of mistakes. It wasn’t all bad though. The film still had a lot of action and Batman had some good moments. Damian can only improve from here and it’s always fun to see Nightwing’s real design. Alfred is a good supporting character and the sequel can afford to have a better plot since the introductions are out of the way. I do prefer this film to The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One. As least, I believe so. Technically, this one has a lower rating than those so it’s possible that I liked them more than I remember….it’s possible. It could also be like the MCU where the films are all so close to each other that I keep on switching them around. (Luckily, Avengers and Cap 2 are immune to this)

Overall, This was not the best Batman film. I didn’t have very high hopes for the film based on the storyline that it was adapting, but the trailer proved to be more exciting than the film. (Much like DBZ Battle of Gods) There wasn’t enough Batman in it. I don’t just mean the character, but the universe. The stakes just weren’t high in this film and parts of it didn’t feel like a superhero film. That’s not good since the film is only 70 minutes when it should have been longer to flesh out the characters and give Bruce more time to help Damian become a better person. Because of how short it was, Batman basically ditches Damian from the start, which makes it easy for the kid to do whatever he pleases. The film was a little overly violent and the villains were pretty terrible, which didn’t help matters. The whole plot with the Manbats didn’t add anything to the film and seeing them all get stuck in a tunnel and then eaten by Sharks wasn’t fun either. There was just no reason to add these creatures and it basically added a form of animal violence to the mix. They barely count as animals luckily so it’s not quite as bad as it could have been, but it still wasn’t fun to see. The animation could have been better and I’d like a solid soundtrack as well. That being said Batman fans may enjoy this film so I wouldn’t totally rule it out. Just know that this isn’t the Deathstroke that we are all used too. Watching the characters casually dodge bullets can also be fairly amusing. I’m not sure how I feel about this film getting a sequel, but it definitely has room for improvement and I could see several of my negatives being fixed for that one. Bringing Batman back to his current status if Master of all Trades will be a good start. If you want to see a really well done Batman film, check out the Batman Gotham City Racer video game and then rethink if you really want to see a Batman film.

Overall 5/10

The Core Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another disaster film, but this one doesn’t really manage to be as interesting as the Volcano film. The main problem is that it runs on for a little too long and the plot takes away the chance of us actually getting to see most of the destruction. Is The Core as scary as the poster would have you believe? Not really, but the tone of the film is interesting.

The plot involves a guy by the name of Josh. He’s a professor at a university and he gets called in by the government after a group of people mysteriously die for no discernible reason. He starts to look into the situation and Josh realizes that the Earth is doomed. The Core is not turning anymore and soon the Earth will get cooked by the Sun. The Government actually believes him for once and a crew is assigned to go to the Core and restart it. This’ll be a dangerous mission and Josh must learn what it means to be a true leader as he embarks on the most dangerous quest of all time!

I do have to give the film some credit for the intro. It’s very ominous and action packed so it would have been fitting for something like The Avengers or Man of Steel. It’s a pretty awesome intro. I definitely did not expect something quite like that, but it really helped to set the tone for the film. Unfortunately, you can’t help but raise your expectations after something like that and the rest of the film couldn’t match this.

Near the beginning of the film is a big scene, which immediately destroyed the film’s chances of being very good. A flock of birds is attacked by The Core and there are dozens of fatalities. I definitely didn’t need to see that and it destroyed any momentum that the film had. We also get to see a lot of fishes and whales get terminated by the solar ray that the Sun shot out to take out the planet. These scenes doomed the film as far as I was concerned, but did the rest of it hold up?

Josh is the main character and he likes to keep it real. After he found out that the Earth was doomed, he did what any ~~cheap uncourageous unheroic doubtful~~ main character would do. He quickly went to a bar to get drunk and hopefully sleep it off. Luckily, the Government quickly threw him back into the thick of things and while Josh tried to intimidate them at the meeting…it didn’t work. Josh is still more of a hero than most of the other characters and he tries his best to make sure that everyone is safe. In that sense, he’s easily one of the best characters in the film, even if he wasn’t willing to make the heroic sacrifice at the end. Self Destruction for the sake of the world is a tall order so I can’t blame him for not volunteering even though someone like Goku would have done it without hesitation. Josh does have a quick scene with Rebecca that was incredibly forced and it wasn’t even to produce a romance as it was a spur of the moment emotion that just came out. There was literally no reason to add this to the film and it was likely just to make everyone get ready to exit the theater as it symbolized that we were approaching the climax. Why!!!? It could have been worse, but it was still sad.

Rebecca has a lot of experience at being a co-pilot in an air craft and she did make it all the way up to space with her crew. She saved them all with her superior navigational skills, but that was not enough for the others to take her seriously. She got her chance when the mission for The Core popped up. Granted, the government acknowledged her brave actions, but Robert was convinced that she is still not leader material. You have to lose a few times to be ready for that. (It would have been more convincing if Robert had actually won a battle or two)

Edward is one of the more sympathetic characters. His life’s research was stolen by one of his co-workers and he’s had to live out in the desert for over a decade. It’s been rough, but he never gave up on his super driller. The heroes finally come to help out the planet and they need his design so Edward joins the crew. Tensions are still running high between him and Conrad, which climaxes with a one punch fight. Edward is basically the down to Earth character and he keeps everyone in check.

Conrad is one of the smarter characters in the film and he makes sure to constantly boast about it. He always seeks attention while making sure to put others in the spotlight when things start to get dangerous. He never makes the hero calls though as his personal safety is very important to him. I actually liked him in the beginning, but he started to drop as the film went on. It’s good to see him being the voice of despair as he tries to keep the mood down, but it’s not enough to overlook the fact that he’s one of the big antagonists who’s portrayed as a protagonist.

Serge is Josh’s friend from the beginning of the film and he’s also a part of the crew when they head to The Core. He’s mostly there for the one liners, but he’s also pretty good at setting up weapons. He was all right I suppose, but he didn’t really add anything to the film. I dare say that he was basically inconsequential to the plot and nothing would have changed if he had not been present.

Robert is the GI Joe of the group. His role is likely the smallest from the group members and he’s just there to constantly remind Rebecca that she’ll never be a proper pilot. He’s technically the hardcore/experienced sergeant who makes the tough calls when necessary, but we don’t see a whole lot of that. He mostly operates from hype and that’s typically not enough to impress me while the situation continues to escalate. He was actually a good character for the most part, but he didn’t really help when it was needed. (Josh was having trouble with his tie and Robert didn’t give him any assistance)

Rat is the genius of the group when it comes to hacking. He may not be the nicest guy out there, but he gets the job done and he likes his Hot Pockets. I can definitely sympathize since they are some of the best microwaved food out there! He’s a decent character, but I had to suspend my disbelief a whole lot when he pick pocketed the main character and then hacked his phone in a minute with a whistle. It was also pretty sad for the government since he can hack just about anything. Ah well, he did what he had too and he made the hero call at the end so he’s a solid guy to rely on.

Another critique that I would have to address is the fact that the film tries to be too emotional at times. Every death consists of long scenes where: One character looks around a lot before getting compressed, One character laughs because his last actions will not be remembered, One character melts as he almost made it back…etc. I understand that an emotional death is part of the classic disaster film formula, but overdoing it is certainly not going to win the film any points. Especially when the characters are going to have to be back to their happy selves a few minutes later so the plot can continue.

I would argue that the film also gets hit by the Lord of The Rings curse in that it’s a little too long. I’m always glad to see films crack 2 hours, but this one just didn’t need it. I liked the beginning minus the animal violence scenes because it was pretty ominous and interesting. After that, the action and excitement just died down as they made it into the drill. It just wasn’t as interesting and I like disaster films because you get to see buildings blow up and cars ravaged. Being in the center of the Earth just isn’t as exciting because there sin’t a whole lot to see. I was glad that the film had such an excellent beginning, but it just made the second half’s drought more noticeable.

The soundtrack for the film is very good and the theme from the intro quickly comes to mind. I also liked the music that was playing during the first spaceship scene as the heroes try not to crash into the civilians as they manage to make it to a patch of water. The music in those scenes was very good and maybe movie soundtracks aren’t as dead as I remembered. There have certainly been a number of films that had a good soundtrack at this point.

I do have to give the Government some props for their plan since it was so terrible that I had to smile. To stop the Earth from blowing up, they were going to cause a massive earthquake/explosion to shake things up and hope that everything works again. Okay…..whatever brings in the dough for the inventor of the weapon I suppose. He was probably grinning from ear to ear in Europe when the general gave him the OK to fire it. The government had two agents who were always sent to get Josh and I’ll admit that they were pretty cool. They always had their guns at the ready and these guys meant business. They were easily the two best government agents.

Overall, The Core is not going to be the next hit as far as Disaster films go. The soundtrack was dynamite and the intro for the film is incredible. The first half hour really builds up the excitement and the film had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, animal violence and an uneventful second half filled with (forced) emotion helped to stop the film from reaching its full potential. The government is also very unapologetic at the end as they don’t even want to be bothered to look for the main crew. They could die for all they care since the government just wanted to save the planet. The government typically looks mean or corrupt in these films, but that was still stretching it just a bit. You would be better off watching the first Broly film in the DBZ series if you want to see a lot of destruction.

Overall 4/10

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

The Lego Movie Review

Posted on July 14, 2014 by dreager1

The Lego Movie quickly became a hit with the fans and like Frozen, its main song, “Everything is awesome!” became a pretty big hit. I always thought that a movie with legos could be interesting, but there are also a lot of ways that the film could turn out wrong. It could be a little too kiddish and some of the plots could be a little cheesy. Luckily, the film manages to hit a lot of the right notes and I can see why it is enjoyed by so many people.

The film starts off with a guy by the name of Emmet. He’s a likable fellow and he has a book, which tells him exactly how to live his life and be successful at the same time. He follows it word for words and most of the town seems to already know how to behave without such an object. One day, Emmet comes across a lady by the name of Wyldstyle who tells him that he is the chosen one. Emmet is now the most interesting and coolest person of all time because he found the legendary object to save them all. The heroes have to unite with the last Master Builders to foil the plans of Lord Business before Taco Tuesday. Will the heroes be able to stop such a diabolical threat and is Emmet’s group up to this task? It’s time to find out!

One thing that really made the film fun was how it points out a lot of things that happen in society through parodies and hard truths. We get to see the TV show that is the instant must watch program like anything on CBS or NBC, which you have to like or else you’re not with the times. This comes in the form of “Where’s my Pants” which is about as interesting as some of the current mainstream shows. In that show, the same thing happens every episode and we can also see how many shows just use the same plots over and over again. It was pretty great to see this.

Another parody I liked was the parody of the long fall cliche. We get a lot of trippy colors and things that don’t make any sense whatsoever as Emmet is falling because that’s what typically happens in these types of scenes. Instead of playing it straight, they add live action pictures and random swirls as he’s falling and the film makes everything go into a lot of detail. Whenever you catch one of the images that is going at super speed, you’ll likely grin. They did a very good job on that part. We also can’t forget the whole “most interesting and coolest person of all” trope that the film smirks at since it’s all a part of the (real or fake?) prophecy. It’s true that in most shows and films, the main character suddenly becomes the best at just about everything for no real reason other than being the main lead. It was nice to see the film acknowledge this because the trope definitely relates to Emmet at times. He does things that no other Lego could.

The Lego Movie also had a much more action packed beginning than I had figured. We get a pretty great chase scene at night where Wyldstyle takes on the cops and Emmet tries to stay alive. It’s partially a parody of such intense fight scenes, but it also manages to be pretty epic. There is a lot of high speed hand to hand combat that happens and you can’t help but imagine how cool it would look if they weren’t made out of legos. Critical blows are landed and the setting highlights how much fun the fight is. This was actually my favorite scene in the film and I’d say that the film never really reached that level of epicness and excitement after that. It was just impossible to match such a big fight scene. Of course, the rest of the film made up for this with humor and other action scenes.

Emmet is the main character and he’s a pretty good one. I’ll admit that he was a little too flustered when he met Wyldstyle for the first time and he should never let his emotions get in the way of the mission, but I still liked him. He made all of the tough calls and I like how he was essentially a parody of the average citizen. He was technically around and he made sure to agree with all of the current trends, he never took the time to become his own man. It was a fun character arc and I won’t be forgetting him anytime soon. I’m not saying that he was an amazing protagonist, but he was someone that you could root for. (Even if the Double Couch idea was pretty sad)

Wyldstyle is the main heroine of the story and she plays the role of the hardcore fighter. She’s experienced and she seems to be the best Master Builder that the world has yet. She makes quick work out of the police force and she can essentially build anything. We get a big plot twist in the film when we find out that she’s with Batman. It’s one of those twists that was pretty unnecessary and I can’t say that it helped her character. Still, she was one of the better players in this big adventure and the heroes definitely would have been doomed without her.

Princess Unikitty is intense although I believe that the film should have just went all the way and used Pinkie Pie. Either way, Unikitty saw the best in humanity and she was always ready to lend a helping hand. I’m sure that everyone saw her “Rage Mode” coming since she kept hinting at it throughout the film. It’s good to see that Unikitty’s bite is as big as her bark. Her portrayal was basically as good as it gets and I shall never forget this fighter! Hopefully she is back for the sequel since she was one of the more interesting characters as well.

Lord Business is the big villain of the film and his goal is pretty admirable. He just wants everyone to follow the rules and to never come up with original ideas. I would sympathize with him more if he didn’t randomly go around destroying people and zapping them for ideas. His true form is pretty intense and his plan is well thought out. I dare say that he would have won if not for circumstances that were really beyond his control. He keeps up appearances as a nice guy on the outside, but he’s as evil as they come. One also has to wonder what he will do once his plan is complete as there will seriously be nothing left to do. He’ll be doomed to being eternally bored for the rest of his days. I have a feeling that he didn’t really think his plan through, but maybe there’s an insider angle that I’m not aware of. He does have some good qualities though and he realizes that a surround sound speaker system is crucial in order to be taken seriously.

Batman naturally gets a pretty big role. I didn’t care for the romance between him and Wyldstyle, but he was still a solid character aside from that. It’s good to hear him say “To the Batmobile” and he had some pretty solid lines. Telling the cast that it’s every man for himself was a pretty solid idea at the time and he definitely did a number on the Star Wars crew. He may have been outshined by Emmet in the end, but he was still a good addition to the cast. He’s one of the only characters who can get away with messing with the Bad Cop. This is like a preview of how he would be like in Lego Justice League as he will need to learn how to work with a team.

Superman doesn’t get a huge role, but his personality is mostly accurate considering that he is a parody of himself. He’s always open to suggestions and he’s a nice guy except for when he’s not nice. He doesn’t look very powerful and he’s basically outranked by most of the villains, but he does get a cool moment where he takes down a few ships. I’m just glad to have him in the film and he talks tough until the very end. He never surrenders without putting up a good fight first! (I’m surprised that the film didn’t try a Batman vs Superman scene, but I suppose that they’ll do that in the Lego Batman films)

Bad Cop is one of the best characters in the film. He also has his Good Cop mode, which is great for mostly different reasons. The Bad Cop makes sure to do what needs to be done and it was great to see him bring on the pressure. To parody the heroic choice, he makes the ultimate call to truly join the side of evil. Likewise, the Good Cop takes a stand for what’s right and he may have to pay the ultimate price. This character is very deep and his plot could have been an emotional adventure all on its own. You can’t help but root for the Bad Cop for most of the film and the Good Cop seems heroic enough that he could be turned to the good side. This is another character that should be back for the sequel, but it can be a little dicey thanks to the ending. The Bad Cop needs to keep at least some of his character for the next film or it won’t be the same.

Metal Beard is one of the characters that I didn’t like. It can be argued that I’m a little biased since I have a thing against pirates, but he just wasn’t that entertaining. We’ve seen his kind of character so many times at this point so he doesn’t bring anything new to the table. He may have had some plans back in the day, but none of them really worked so he’s not as big a guy as he thinks. I wouldn’t have minded if he was cut out, but we do need a good pirate once in a while so I appreciate the attempt. Maybe they’ll make him cooler in the sequel.

Vitruvius stands for the smart wizard character who is typically around in just about all of the big fictional movies involving legends. He’s a complete parody, but I never really cared for those old wizards so he wasn’t my favorite character. He was all right though and I’m glad that he kept on trolling the heroes by hinting that he will say something and then not saying it for another 30 minutes. He isn’t as strong willed as some of the others though so he quickly turns away from heroics when the need arises.

Most of the characters who got cameos were pretty cool as well. Michelangelo doesn’t really get any lines, but he is around. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman appear, but both of them are taken care of with ease. Shaquille O’Neal appears and his scene is pretty awesome as he tries one of his ultimate moves on the villain. The Star Wars cameo was also intense as Han Solo and Chewy looked pretty good. I can’t say that Lando was a good character, but when is he a likable person? His ultimate fate is pretty dire and I guess he didn’t see that one coming!

The Man Upstairs is a pretty great character at first. Unfortunately, his character arc is very rushed because he only gets around 10 minutes of screentime or less so his 180 personality change has to happen in that short time span. I would have preferred that he not actually appear and stayed conceptual, but I shall go into that more in a moment. I did like him a lot at first and by the end he’s only all right to maybe a little sub par. I just didn’t like the change and I actually felt bad for him. He basically lost to the moral of the film, which is good in itself, but it could have been handled better.

Finn is one of my least favorite characters in the film. I can’t sympathize with him at all since it is evident that he has enough objects of his own to entertain himself. Instead, he prefers to mess up the locations that took hours or days to set up and he’s not very apologetic about it. He doesn’t only try to wreck everything, but he also mocks the objects as he states that they are for kids. He’s in no position to take those shots since he is playing with them as well. That was definitely a not cool moment and I hope that Finn doesn’t return. He only appears for a few minutes, but they were pretty wince worthy.

Now, there was one big twist that I did not care for. Notice how I used the word twist. I would call this next part a big spoiler so I’d advise skipping this paragraph if you don’t want to know it. I’m adding in a lot of extra words to give you time to skip this paragraph without seeing the spoiler. I think that’s enough words so it’s time for the spoilers. The humans should not have appeared at the end. It was disruptive and just not necessary. I don’t want to find out that my Lego dreams were just dreams. I actually thought that the Bad Cop was intense and that the heroes knew how to build things. Instead, we find out that a kid and his dad have been controlling the entire world from the start. It means that all of their actions are completely pointless and nothing that they did mattered. They can’t actually think as the creators think for them. It would help if the humans were more likable or if they had less control over the Legos, but that is not the case. Now, Emmet did manage to move a little in the human world so you can argue that he still thinks, but it could just be the kid thinking for him. Hopefully, the human angle is just ignored in the sequel.

The soundtrack for the film is pretty great. The “Everything is awesome” song is pretty catchy and it’s easy to see why everyone loves singing it. It’s not personally my type of music, but it is a good song and I don’t mind listening to it. The action theme towards the beginning of the film was very serious and while it may have seemed like a parody since they’re legos…it was pretty great. It’s climatic and I wouldn’t mind seeing this tune in something like Godzilla II or Avengers IV. Those were the two main themes that I really enjoyed, but who can forget the Basketball theme cameo or Star War’s quick blast? This soundtrack is definitely top tier and other theater films could take a few cues from this one.

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. It’s a Lego film so it’s mostly a lot of comedy and in jokes, but they do manage to squeeze in some epic action scenes. A lot of the plot lines are actually very serious, but the comedy helps to disguise this fact. If one were to make a serious adaption of this plot, we would have a very gritty action movie with an incredible cast and many fights. The parents vs the glue scene was pretty emotional and we also get a brief flashback into one of the world’s greatest tragedies. Nontheless, the film managed to keep its humor light and the cast was enjoyable. I’m not sure how well a sequel would do since they may start to rehash old plots and cliches, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. I recommend checking out this film and you should definitely enjoy it or at least appreciate some of the thinly veiled social critiques.

Overall 7/10

Transformers Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by dreager1

Nothing beats the original Transformers film and that never changes no matter how many times I see it. It’s easily the definitive robot film and I actually don’t believe that any will ever be able to pass it. Nonstop action and a solid cast of characters keep this classic afloat and after Transformers 4, it was time to relive the good ole days. Get ready for an emotional war as the Autobots and Decepticons have their climatic clash!

The plot starts after most of the TV show events have already occurred. The Decepticons have a huge advantage thanks to the fact that they have already conquered Cybertron and the Autobots seem to be very weakened. The heroes are low on energon and they only have a city on Earth as well as a pair of moons. The Decepticons decide to destroy this resistance once and for all and a climatic battle ensues. Meanwhile, the legendary Unicron is on his way to Cybertron and he’s already conquered several planets. Defeating him is basically out of the question at this point. Can the Autobots even afford to worry about him with all of the Decepticons who are around? Only time will tell!

The film is really fast paced and so many plots develop throughout the course of the film. This is considering that the film isn’t even a full 90 minutes! The first half hour is easily the best part of the film as we witness a big Decepticon invasion and the heroes heroically try to fend them off. It’s emotional and the fight scenes are just intense. The film doesn’t really slow down until we get to the planet of Junk where the film gives the audience a brief rest. After that, it’s time for the climax against the planet eater.

Ironically enough, the climax is one of the least exciting parts. After the first 50-60 minutes of nonstop action and battles between the two sides of Transformers, the final half hour is a little uneventful. We have a water planet, the junk planet, and then a quick battle against Unicron. It’s still solid of course, but nothing beats the first chunk of the film. All of the classic fighters get their chance to show what they’re made of.

Optimus Prime is still the fearless leader of the Autobots and this continuity was easily his best portrayal. Prime means business and he effortlessly takes out quite a few Decepticon warriors. His climatic battle against Megatron is still famous and the battle was very well done. Prime is essentially the perfect main character and he really had no flaws in the film. I doubt we’ll ever see him look quite this good again, but he’s consistently been a solid character across the multiverse anyway. His shotgun/cannon also looks impressive and it’s definitely one of the stronger weapons in the film. He may not have gotten a very large role, but it was definitely a critical one.

Megatron is also an excellent villain. He is a great leader for the Decepticons and his plan is a solid one. Infiltrating Autobot city nearly ended the war in an instant. He took out quite a few Autobots and he seems to have a lot of energon since he was fighting all day. I will admit that I was always surprised with the fact that Megatron begs for his life at one point. I suppose that he doesn’t care what he has to do in order to defeat Optimus Prime, but as Prime said “I thought you were made of sterner stuff.” Megatron is able to get past this thanks to the fact that he’s an awesome villain and the film wouldn’t have been the same without him.

It was good to see Grimlock since I really didn’t like his portrayal in TF 4. This is the Dinobot that I remember and he’s acknowledged as one of the strongest Autobots. There’s a reason why Prime sent the Dinobots to take out Devastator! Few other robots could have been challenged with such a task. Grimlock may not have crushed Devastator, but he did pretty well with the other Dinobots. (The other Dinobots are cool as well and I believe that Slag may have done more damage than Grimlock, but their roles were a lot smaller so I won’t really be talking about them) Grimlock even humors Wheelie for a while and then takes command of a huge army of Sharkticons. That’s what I’m talking about!

Hot Rod is essentially the main character of the film and this is how I became a big fan of the character. He may have gotten a little watered down in the comics that came out after this, but he still looks pretty good in the film. He shoots at the Decepticons upon seeing them and then he embarks on a dangerous journey with the others so that they can mount a counter attack. When he finds out that the Matrix has been stolen, Hot Rod immediately says that they should attack and get it back.

Now, his only sad moment is when Megatron is able to easily overpower him and shoot Prime. It’s a controversial move since it can be said that Prime would have won otherwise. I am confident that Megatron would have still shot him, but maybe it would have only been once instead of several times. It’s definitely a debate, but Hot Rod’s intentions were sound and he really did try to help. It just turns out that his power was feeble compared to Megatron’s and he never stood a chance. He still pulls through when it counts and that’s what ultimately matters. He officially ended the wars and changed history!

Bumblebee gets a very small role in the film and he only gets a line or maybe a few more. His design is definitely interesting and it’s one of the only ones from G1 that didn’t really become mainstream. I will always prefer this version since he can talk to most of the others, but he definitely wasn’t a star in this film. He doesn’t even say thanks at the end when Daniel saves his life. It was still good to see him get a cameo though.

Unicron is the big bad villain of the film and he makes for a solid threat. Instead of talking tough and doing something gritty to call attention to himself, Unicron just destroys the planet in one fell swoop. After that, he sets his sights on Cybertron and it’s a pretty epic journey. He takes out two moons for fun as he gets closer and closer to his goal. His attack on Cybertron is also one of the few times where we actually get to see Shockwave mobilize the troops so that was cool. (Although the Decepticons did not last for very long) Unicron’s decision to transform into robot mode was his big mistake. The enemies quickly took advantage of this and Unicron is essentially defenseless in this form. It’s why I am opposed to villains being too large. It just makes them vulnerable in the end. Ignoring that, he was still a pretty solid opponent for the Autobots and his voice was nice and menacing. Not even Megatron was able to stand up to his tricks.

Galvatron is the new villain who was introduced for the film. He’s not as new as you may think, but that’s another story and you’ll realize this as you watch the film. His arsenal is impressive and taking on Starscream is a pretty good feat. The scene should be pretty cool if you’re a fan of Galvatron or if you’ve just wanted to see this happen to Starscream for a while now. Galvatron talks tough throughout the film and he can back it up with his high amounts of power. You have to respect the fact that he never gives up and keeps on trying to make his plans succeed. He’s just in a very difficult position to make this actually happen. He is a very good villain for the film.

Wheelie is definitely the worst Transformers robot. His voice is definitely tough to understand and you stop trying after a while. The rhymes were a little over the top. I do applaud the fact that the film tried to make the voices unique, but it just didn’t work this time. Wheelie ends up sticking around through the next TV show, but I can’t say that it was a good thing. He doesn’t really bring down the film a whole lot, but he’s still unnecessary.

Wreck Gar is from the Planet Junk and he talks in radio signals mixed in with TV. It’s very hard to understand him and I can’t say that I liked him as a character. It helps that the whole Planet of Junk was a little uneventful and I didn’t like the Piranha world that much either. Wreck Gar just doesn’t really add much to the plot and I’m a little skeptical on how that junk would be so sturdy. He must know something that I do not.

Kup is one of the major players in this film, but he’s never been one of my favorite Autobots. He can fight and he has a lot of experience, but it just wasn’t enough to win me over. He’s not a bad character, but he’s really not the type of guy that I tend to find likable. He’s just too old and he doesn’t fight all that much. He talks a good game, but he typically can’t back it up. Still, he did pretty well when he took out the tank so I give him props for that.

Ultra Magnus is one of the major Autobots and I used to think that he was a powerful fighter based on the name. I’m sure that he’s tough, but there’s nothing to really suggest that he’s tougher than the other Autobots in this film. I’m definitely a fan of his, but the film really tried to show why he wasn’t a terrific leader. He didn’t have time to worry about his comrades and his one on two fight didn’t go over so well. Dropping the Matrix of Leadership was likely his biggest mistake. It would have been great if Ultra Magnus could have went down putting up more of a fight. He may not be the next Prime, but he’s still a likable Autobot.

Daniel is the new human companion to the Autobots, but he isn’t a great character. He means well and he helped the Autobots to become aware of the Decepticon threat, which likely saved many bots. However, he just wasn’t much of an asset to the team and he didn’t figure out how to use his energy gun until the climax of the film. Also, asking the Autobots what happened to Spike during such a dangerous situation was a little on the dicey side and he even broke the great air board from the intro of the film. He’s still a step up from the protagonist of the Transformers Trilogy.

Spike was one of the main characters from the TV show, but he doesn’t get a huge role in the movie. He decides to leave Unicron a little present in the form of a bomb, but he took too long admiring his craftsmanship to make enough time to escape. I can’t say that he was very likable, but he wasn’t a bad character either. He was just pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and he definitely panicked a lot when Daniel hesitated to save his life. I suppose that it was understandable though….

Arcee doesn’t look very good in this film and it was before the big social wave that helped to make female characters much stronger in today’s media. This is before Arcee became the pro fighter that we see in Transformers Prime. She helps Daniel out through the tough times, but she never gets a chance to fight back. I would have liked to see her fight some Decepticons and the closest that she comes to this is when she breaks one of the tires on an enemy car when the Junk bots attack. So, she definitely couldn’t look as good as the other Transformers without any fight scenes, but she was all right I suppose. Definitely needed some action though.

Starscream really steals the show for the Decepticons. He’s the one Decepticon in the film that I prefer to Megatron. His shreeky voice is iconic at this point and some would even say that it is more memorable than Prime’s or Megatron’s. That may go a little far, but it’s definitely one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Transformers. This is Starscream as he was meant to be portrayed and the fact that he directly insults Megatron instead of beating around the bush is intense. “How do you feel mighty Megatron!” as Starscream kicks him while he’s down. His lines to Megatron as he throws him out of the starship are great as well and he even got to wear a crown. It’s hard to find any character that’s as good as Starscream.

Soundwave gets a pretty small role in the film, but he is the only Decepticon to show any loyalty to Megatron. He may not have stopped the others from throwing him off of the ship, but he did save him from the being left at the Autobot base. Soundwave’s definitely one of the more useful Decepticons and I’ve always liked him as a character. Letting the constructicons know who was superior was definitely a nice line as well.

The film’s soundtrack is dynamite and just about all of the songs are catchy. The only one that I didn’t care for played during the planet of Junk as they all held hands and danced around. It really wasn’t my type of film and I definitely could have gone without it. Aside from that, it’s hard to even know where to begin. It really makes you feel like you’re watching a theatrical film. The music is loud and it’s energetic. You really get into the fight scenes and they’re well played. The main Transformers theme is easily my favorite tune and I’ve listened to it many times. It ends up making the opening credits really exciting and you know that you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.

The animation is also excellent. This film came out in the 80’s and yet, it looks so much better than some 2014 shows like Pac Man and Teen Titans Go. (Still airing in 2014 anyway) This film always helps to reinforce the fact that animation has been on the decline in America. We need to get away from Flash and CGI so that we can go back to traditional hand drawn shows/films. I’ve viewed this film on dvd many times and it’s finally starting to show some wear and tear. The final 20-30 minutes saw a drop in quality, but it wasn’t the film, just the disk. This film definitely deserves the blu ray treatment and then more people can see the epicness from which Transformers was born. The animation definitely holds up very well to this day and I can say with confidence that it is timeless.

Overall, this is not just the definitive Transformers film, but it is the best robot film out there. The cast of characters is excellent and the soundtrack is top notch. The animation pulls no punches and there is action throughout the film. The fight scenes are very well done and the robots focus on winning instead of tearing each other to shreds for a while. This results in accurate shots that take the robot down in an instant. There were only a few characters that I didn’t really care for and things slowed down towards the end, but that’s not a major concern. I highly recommend this film to Transformers fans and to anyone that wants to relive the good ole theater experience. The film is nearly perfect and I doubt that it shall ever be surpassed by another Transformers film. I recommend watching this one whenever you are about to watch the Michael Bay version.

Overall 9/10

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

In Time Review

Posted on June 27, 2014 by dreager1

I’m always up for a film that takes place in the future. The possibilities are basically endless and while I believe that things are not going to be as advanced as all of the films seem to suggest..it’s fun to think about. The concept of this film is very bold, which makes some parts interesting, but also requires you to suspend your disbelief for this system actually occurring. This film may have dropped the ball in some aspects, but the plot was pretty original.

The film takes place in the future and money has been phased out. The currency is now time…and it’s on the side of the rich. After you age to 25, then the rest of your life depends on how much time you have. You start off with a year and go from there. If your time reaches 0, then you “time out” and it’s game over. Just about everything cost time like riding a bus and you get time for completing your job. Unfortunately, the rates continue to go up and everyone continues to die. The main problem is the fact that it is incredibly easy to steal time. Just grab someone’s arm and you can drain them until it’s all over.

That brings us to Will Salas. He is an ordinary joe who lives in the slums. He doesn’t have a whole lot of time, but he gets by. Unfortunately, his mother gives him a little too much time that day and she doesn’t make it. Will got rich from a guy who didn’t want his time so now he’s doing all right financially. Will decides to avenge her by taking all of the time away from the rich people as he transfers into the rich sector. Unfortunately, he quickly forgets this goal and now it’s simply a matter of staying alive and disrupting the system. He won’t be able to do it alone and that’s where Sylvia comes into play. The two of them will need to surpass the system!

Will Salas is the man character of the film and he’s definitely not one of the better protagonists. He’s all right at first as he tries to do the right thing and there’s nothing really bad about him. That changes when he makes the decision to avenge his mother and take down all of the villains. It was a great move on his part and Will’s big mistake….is that he completely forgot about this. That was where I began to lose respect for his character. Will decides to go to a hotel and live the good life as he gets to enjoy a nice meal. He then goes to a casino to gamble and he nearly throws his life away for a single card game. I suppose that it looks cool for the audience, but it’s definitely not a smart move. After that, Will gets heavily involved in the romance aspect of the adventure and I believe that he loses sight of his original goal. By the end of the film, Will is basically back on track, but it certainly took him long enough. He definitely could have been a much better protagonist.

Sylvia is the main heroine and I can’t say that she fares much better than Will. In the film she’s mostly used for fanservice and romance with Will. She has her moment (Which is starting to become very generic) where she quickly shoots down one of the villains even though it’s one of her first times using a gun. The hero is impressed and they bond as he teaches her to shoot. Then we get more romance and it’s time for their plan. Sylvia does help with the strategies as Will wasn’t really thinking of any elaborate plans. Still, I can’t really say that I cared for Sylvia.

Ray is much better than our two heroes and he’s one of the better characters in the film. His job is to keep time and he has to stop the heroes from wrecking the whole economy. He does pretty well, but the heroes are always one step ahead of him. Ray doesn’t get bribed and he always gets his man. Ray hasn’t been working at his job for 50 years for nothing! You almost sympathize with Ray since he seems to be a good cop in a corrupt system. That is…until he says that he doesn’t care about justice. Then his whole character goes out the window and he gets a pretty unnecessary plot twist. Ah well, I can’t let the plot twist wreck him and he’s still one of the better characters. The twist just didn’t help his case.

Hamilton gets a relatively small role and I was expecting some kind of big twist by the end. I suppose that it wasn’t necessary and he was just needed to start up the plot. Compared to the rest of the rich guys, Hamilton didn’t have a bunch of time. That being said, 100 years was a huge amount to Will and Hamilton knew this. I can’t say that Hamilton’s a great character because he unwisely went into a bar to try and end his life. At least it would have been a painless exit, but still not one that he should have attempted.

Fortis is the leader of the local gang. The cops leave him alone because he helps to keep the poor people in line. (Since when isn’t the government corrupt in these kinds of films?) He duels people for time and he always has a few bodyguards since he knows that his skills are lacking. He’s easily the worst character in the film and we didn’t need a petty threat like him. The time cops were good enough for me and they should be good enough for the world. Fortis is just a mild villain that you will likely forget a few days after the film. There just isn’t anything likable about him.

Borel is Will’s friend and he’s easily one of the cheapest characters in the film. He’s pretty poor and he has a family to support so Will gives him some time. The next thing you know, Borel runs to the bar so that he can go and drink until he drops out. I was pretty surprised since that came out of nowhere and I just expected him to have been offed by the villains or something. This is a much cheaper way to go out and I doubt that anyone would really find him likable after that. It just came out of the blue and showed that he lacked strength of character.

Philippe is one of the richest men on the planet and he doesn’t like to share this money. He has enough time to live for well over a millenia and he loves to gamble with his time. After all, he can’t possibly lose it all so he may as well have a blast with it. He gets pretty sore about losing to Will and he also seems a tad suspicious of Will’s motives. When the moment of truth strikes, Philippe essentially chooses the dark side. Time is all that matters to him now and he will do whatever he can to ensure that he wins in the end. He has a lot of bodyguards as well, but he probably pays them minimum wage. Philippe is definitely in cahoots with the government and he has quite a lot of connections. I suppose that the film needed a big villain and he’s much better than Fortis.

Rachel doesn’t really get a large role in the film, but she’s still instrumental to the plot. Giving away 30 minutes may be a move that she’ll end up regretting, but it was still the right call since she didn’t know that Will would essentially be winning the lottery. She seems like a nice person and I guess her job just doesn’t pay a lot of time. Will should have stuck to his plan of avenging her as it would have made me gain respect for him.

Finally, another film that actually had a soundtrack. It’s actually been a while and this is always good to see. The soundtrack wasn’t the next Resident Evil, but it’s definitely a start. The main techno theme isn’t bad and the background music is also solid for the car chase scene. It’s these little things that can help to enhance the film experience and make the scenes a bit cooler.

The film definitely has too much fanservice, which drags it down. Most of it is from Sylvia as she teams up with Will. The romance between the two of them is forced at best and annoying at worst. They get too many scenes on this and it feels like Will immediately lost sight of his true objectives. Not a good decision if you ask me. The film also makes sure to emphasize the fact that they’re all 25 so they are all essentially wearing party attire for a while, but it’s still unnecessary. A conservative cost would work just fine. Either way, there was too much of it in this film and that’s always a negative.

Now, it’s hard not to be a little skeptical of using time as a currency. First off, how did humans learn to control time and place it in such a container? The easiest thing that I can think of is that it’s a scam. They inject poison into everyone when they’re born and it doesn’t start to have an effect until the person is 25. The “time” that they receive from others is merely an antidote that prolongs the poison’s effects until it runs dry. Naturally, the film really means for it to be time, but it’s hard to believe that humans are ready for that power yet. If they have discovered how to control time, then I could see endless wars being raged to get control of it.

I’m also not crazy about how time is transmitted. Merely grabbing onto someone’s wrist is enough to force it out of them. So, it’s just a battle of physical strength so we should see a lot of bodybuilders walking around with extra time in the slums. After all, everyone apparently fights to survive so the weak ones should be out by now. I just don’t see how anyone could ever feel safe under such a system and how it would be passed. It also results in a really cheesy battle between Will and Fortis that did not make sense. The strategy is all right in theory, but I don’t see it working in real life.

Overall, I am definitely skeptical about how time would work out as an economy, but this is sci fi so I’ll just take it in stride for now. The main characters aren’t that good and their friends are even worse. Luckily, the time cops are pretty solid characters and you almost want to root for them at some points because they really want to win. It’s one of those films with an open ending so you can decide what happens next. Personally, I think it leads to the next great depression of time and then the economy will stabilize in a few years. It’ll just take a while. The film was very interesting and it really just drops thanks to all of the romance and fanservice. It was just unnecessary and they could have made Fortis into a much better villain. It’s a decent alternate future and you may want to take a look if you’re intrigued by the idea of time as money. If you want a slightly cooler future story, check out Yugioh 3D Bonds Beyond Time!

Overall 4/10

	thezofinfinity on Alien vs One Above All
	thezofinfinity on Why Mario Odyssey is better th…
	thezofinfinity on Why Mario Odyssey is better th…
	thezofinfinity on Sonic vs One Above All
	thezofinfinity on Sonic vs One Above All
	Anonymous on Invisible Woman vs Molecule…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Tag Archives: Film Review

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

Conquest of The Planet of The Apes Review

Escape from the Planet of the Apes Review

Son of Batman Review

The Core Review

Volcano Review

The Lego Movie Review

Transformers Review

Transformers Age of Extinction Review

In Time Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: