Movie Review: Star Wars - The Force Awakens

Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford

Director: J. J. Abrams

As I'm probably one of the last people on Earth to see this film, this review may contain a few spoilers. Unlike others when they first announced this film I was not excited in the least. After the prequels it seemed to me that the Star Wars universe might be best served by sticking to games, comics, and cartoons. If the original creator of the series couldn't put something worthwhile together, then what chance did Disney have? Then footage from the film starting showing up on the web and it was hard not get excited. The look and feel of the original Star Wars we all loved was back.

Much of Star Wars Episode 7 feels like it was patterned after the first Star Wars film. That isn't to say that the plot is exactly the same but it's very similar. There is a conscious effort to get the old fans back on board. The plot revolves around finding a Droid with sensitive information, a weapon that can destroy planets, and ordinary people who turn into heroes (sound familiar?). Almost all of the original cast is back and the film has many tongue in cheek references to first films. Sometimes it crosses the line, for example when they go to a seedy hideout that is exactly like the Cantina from Episode 4. For the most part though it works and still feels like an original story.

The main purpose of the film is to introduce the new characters and setup what should be a successful trilogy. A passing of the torch from the characters of the original trilogy to those of the new. And the new characters hold their own quite well. Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) have natural chemistry on screen and the dialogue is well written (unlike the prequels). Finn is interesting in that they have never shown a Stormtrooper as a real person before. They were always mindless drones. The comparisons to Nazi Germany aren't subtle but do add some new themes to the series. The one character that could have been better is the villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). He isn't the classic villain that many were expecting and often seems to be a rather weak. Although I believe this will be resolved in the next episodes it still would have been nice to see a true villain in Episode 7.

Now onto the action and special effects, the most important parts of any movie. The special effects team really excelled in the aerial combat sequences. While computer graphics were employed it still had the look and feel of the original Star Wars. It captured the spirit of the first film while adding things that just weren't possible at that time. The alien creatures were somewhat of a mixed bag as some relied on CGI and others on more old school techniques. Having both in the same scene would sometimes throw off the realism a bit. The Lightsaber battles felt a bit muted as they didn't rely on acrobatics as much as the prequels or even the original films.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn't a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination. It is not the instant classic that was the original trilogy. It is a fun film for fans though, a nostalgic trip back in time. It may not be the most original but it manages to make one hopeful for what lies in store for Episodes 8 and 9.

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Movie Review: Jurassic World - Expect The Expected

Movie: Jurassic World

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Jurassic World is set 22 years after the original film. Somehow in that time the dream of first films was realized. The film doesn't explain how this happened we just know that the park is now up and running. Leading the project is Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) a career focused woman who sees the Dinos at the park as corporate assets instead of living breathing animals. This corporate greed motivates the main story of the film. To keep the park attractive to tourist new Dinos must keep being introduced. Eventually the scientist decide to come up with a creature that never even existed that they call Indominus Rex. Basically Indominus Rex is a bigger, badder version of the T Rex from the original movies. When the Indominus Rex begins exhibiting strange behavior, Owen (Chris Pratt) the park's resident hero and animal expert is called in for consultation. As you may have guessed things soon go terribly wrong.

The main thing lacking in this film is any originality. Most of the films ideas seemed to have been lifted from the other films. They simply try to one up the other films in terms of special effects and action. It's like Jurassic Park 2.0 more than a sequel with it own story and characters. As an example like the first film we again have two children who get lost in the park at exactly the wrong time. This time it is Claire's nephews who are making a visit to the park. In the first film the kids were a little too precocious at times, in this one they are just not very likable at all. They mostly serve as a reason for Claire and Owen to venture into the park together. The only truly likable character is Owen. Basically he gets to be the action star version of Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum's characters from the first film. He gets to point out when the other characters are being foolish with sarcastic comments and one liners. Bryce Dallas Howard gives a fine performance as Claire but the role is very predictable. Claire goes from closed off career woman to down to earth heroine. Of course she also falls in love.

All the negatives aside though the movie does manage be fun and entertaining. The special effects are quite impressive, bringing to film some spectacular new creatures that fans of the series will enjoy. The tweaked soundtrack is different enough to be interesting while still retaining that nostalgic feeling from the first films. The actions scenes are big and suspenseful but not always logical or realistic.

Jurassic World is exactly what people have come expect from a sequel like this. A slightly different take on story that has already been told. With beefed up special effects and action to satisfy the masses. On those counts Jurassic World delivers.

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Movie Review: The Adjustment Bureau - Not Meant To Be

Movie: The Adjustment Bureau
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt
Writer & Director: George Nolfi

The marketing for The Adjustment Bureau would have you believe that it is a suspenseful SciFi film with a dash of romance. This is very misleading, the movie is more of an old fashioned romance with the SciFi elements acting as nothing more than window dressing. The movie centers around David Moriss (Matt Damon) a politician who has just lost his senatorial bid. He's a bit down, preparing for his concilation speech in the mens room when he meets Elise (Emily Blunt). They have the kind of cutesy, love at first sight meeting that only happens in movies. Why is she in the men's room? Doesn't really matter the point is that now David is smitten. He is rushed off though to give his speech without getting more than her first name and thinks he'll never see her again. And he wouldn't except three years later one of the members of the adjustment bureau makes a mistake and he ends up meeting her again by chance on a bus. This is where the SciFi/Supernatural element comes into play. As the movie tells it the agents of the adjustment bureau are like the hands of fate changing small events in people's lives to make sure that they stay on their life plan. They wear fedoras and overcoats and carry small notepads that show people's predicted life course. When an important event takes place it shows up as small circle on the life path. After the chance encounter with Elise, David stumbles upon the agents of fate in action changing his bosses life plan. He has seen behind the curtain so to speak and they try to persuade him to tell no one about it and above all to forget about seeing Elise ever again.

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Movie Review: Green Lantern - For Kids Only

 
Movie: Green Lantern
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively
Director: Martin Cambell

Comic book movies like The Dark Knight and Iron Man have proven that super hero stories don't always have to be just for kids. Green Lantern however is a movie that is quite the opposite destined to be remembered only by comic book aficionados and 11 year old boys (until the next super hero movie).  Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan a hot shot test pilot who is brash and irresponsible but also a really good pilot (duh). Blake Lively plays his former co-pilot and obvious and bland love interest.  After an evil entity who feeds on fear known as Parallax is unleashed. A group of intergalactic peace keepers known Greencorps (other alien versions of Green lantern) are threatened. One is wounded and crash lands on earth, knowing he is about to die he sends forth his ring of power to find a successor.  The ring ends up in the hands of the aforementioned Hal. It gives him the power to conjure up anything that he can imagine but as soon learns he must rid himself of his fears and be courageous to prevail. The movie goes into much more detail than I just did explaining things like "power streams", "guardians" and the difference between fighting with fear and using the strength of your will. As you can probably guess it all starts to feel pretty silly and in the end doesn't matter much to the actual plot which is pretty simplistic when you take away all the comic book jargon.

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Move Review: Super 8

Movie: Super 8
Starring: Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, Kyle Chandler
Director: J.J. Abrams






I know I may be going against the grain here, but I thought this movie was simply okay. It has been getting rave reviews as hearkening back to ET and The Goonies - both of which I loved. But I think the one thing this movie was missing was more likable kids. It also seemed to be struggling between being a something-jumps-out-at-you scare movie and a inspirational movie like ET.

The acting was okay. I would have liked some more ... something...out of the actors. Something was just missing. The kids were also sweet, but lacking in personality - except one kid who was just obnoxious and cursed every few seconds (an aggravating thing to me, I don't want to hear a kid say the "s" word 30 times in a row).

I think this movie may be worth a matinee, but otherwise I am going to have to say that it is a bit overrated.

You can pre-order Super 8 from our online store.

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Movie Review: X-Men First Class

Movie: X-Men: First Class
Starring: James Macavoy, Michael Fassbender
Director: Matthew Vaughn


Let's start with the good: Lead actors Michael Fassbender, who plays a young and as-of-yet evil Magneto, and James Macavoy, who plays a young and as-of-yet paralyzed Professor Xavier, are two outstanding performers. The acting of these two as wary strangers, friends, colleagues, and inevitably enemies, is believable on all counts. Michael Fassbender plays Magento with just the right amount of smarm, intelligence, and angst needed to dreg up plenty of sympathy for his character, while at the same time, making it possible to see his turn towards a less peaceful path. His history as Jewish prisoner is a large part of the story and provides a backdrop to his personality that cannot be ignored or just dismissed by the audience as an excuse to be evil. His traumatizing experiences are actually quite valid in support of his developing philosophy. Professor X is realistically portrayed as a bit of ladies man (though not gratuitously or caddishly) but is also a bit naive and cold, especially to a young Mystique who is obviously in love with him. On merely the strength of these two performances, I would recommend the movie.

Now to the not-so-good: All the other actors. Jennifer Lawrence is stiff and wooden as Mystique and also saddled with cheesy and transparent dialog such as "mutant and proud". We are also supposed to assume that her whole turn towards evil is because of beauty issues (because, you know, that's the most important thing to a woman apparently). The younger actors that are gathered as the first class at Professor X's school are so generic and one-dimensional that I won't even bother to name them - except Zoe Kravitz who exceeded my expectations for terrible acting by simply being in the movie to wear skimpy clothes. Speaking of which, I'm just going to come out and say it: January Jones is also a terrible actress. Playing Emma Frost, she can't seem to muster up one bit of intimidation or darkness. She merely walks around the set in ill-fitting fembot 60's outfits and sparkles.

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The Last 5 Best Scifi Movies

Sorry for the delay :)


Terminator 2

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick. Directed by James Cameron.

This is the second time I'm putting in the second installment of a movie series but, again, like Star Wars, this sequel was better than its predecessor. In this Terminator story, the cyborg (Schwarzenegger) that had previously stalked Sarah Conner (Hamilton) and tried to kill her has now returned to protect her son (Furlong) from another time traveling cyborg who is intent on killing him (Patrick). I think the main appeal to this movie over the first one is that one of the cyborg's is on the human's side. It's a long-held tradition in movie watching that audiences love to see big, powerful machines on the good side and on the bad side. It is also interesting to watch Furlong's character grow to love the cyborg, even as the movie resolutely stays away from over-sentimentalizing the machine by having him develop emotions - this machine is a machine all the way to the end. The acting is good (if you can call Schwarzenegger 'acting'), and it is always admirable to have such a strong female lead as Hamilton’s Sarah Conner (this was also one of the strongest points in the first movie). Robert Patrick is fittingly robotic, as well, which may seem like a weak compliment but it's not. It must take a lot of restraint to play a machine when so many actors would be tempted to deepen the role through emotional reactions or human traits. On a side note, simply because I chose part 2 to list does not mean the original Terminator should be skipped over - both are integral to the plot and both are very good movies. Make it a night and watch both.

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