Oblivion and Summer Movies

So I think the summer has officially begun, at least if we are talking about movie releases.  Oblivion is kind of a precursor to all the big movies that are going to be released starting in May.  We also have the next Star Trek Into Darkness May 17th, Iron Man 3 May 3rd, The Great Gatsby May 10th, The Fast and Furious 6 and The Hangover III May 24th, After Earth  May 31st,  Man of Steel June 14th, World War Z and Monsters University June 21, Lone Ranger July 3rd, Pacific Rim July 12th, The Wolverine July 26th, 300:Rise of an Empire August 2nd, Elysium August 9th, and Kick-Ass 2 August 16th.  I will probably skip several of these, and probably left some non-action or blockbuster type movies off the list, but I very much want to see a lot of these.  Probably most excited for Fast 6, and 300.  Ya I like gratuitous action films, sue me.

On to Oblivion.  I had been looking forward to this movie for quite a while.  For one, I like Tom Cruise movies.  Say what you want about the mans personal life, which is the only thing most people complain about, but his movies are entertaining.  He may be a one trick pony, but I for one happen to like that particular trick.  For roles that are very different for him, go watch Collateral and Tropic Thunder.  The movie is set in a futuristic, war torn earth, and Tom Cruise is tasked with keeping water purifiers running so the earth survivors can be transported on the Tet to their new home of Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Of course things don't go according to plan and everything unfolds from there.

The visuals throughout the film are very strong, the director Joseph Kosinski also did Tron: Legacy so his futuristic touches are very clean while having very clear juxtaposition with the landscape of war torn earth.  the special effects are believable and definitely do a good job of adding to the experience and not becoming the focus of attention, see Star Wars episodes I, II, and III.  It was my wifes first time seeing a movie in IMAX and it had been quite a while since I saw one myself and I was fairly impressed.  The movie was filmed in full 4k resolution, and translated well to the IMAX screen.The sound is also very well executed, and although the soundtrack was a little Tronish, it still did the right things at the right times.

Being a new movie I will not divulge any specifics, but there were several things about the movie as a whole that were a little bothersome.  It borrowed a LOT of imagery from other sci-fi films.  Off the top of my head there are scenes that reminded me of Star Wars, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Independence Day, Minority Report, iRobot, and Demolition Man. It did not completely detract from the movie, but many parts gave me the feeling like I had seen this movie already.  It was still an entertaining flick to watch, but you could tell there were concessions with the studio on direction for the story because there was opportunity for some really interesting characters and twists that were never focused on enough to come to fruition.

When I saw Dennis Leary, I mean Jaime Lannister, I mean Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in this film this was what I thought of, haha.

Overall it mostly accomplished what it was trying to be, and is a good opening for the summer action movie train.  If you have any interest in seeing it, go for it.  3 out of 4 stars.

IMDB score 7.2  Might be a little high on the grand scale of things, but its below most of the other movies I have reviewed, but on par for its watchability.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

So I am going to start this off by saying two things **SPOILER ALERT** and I did not read a single page of any Harry Potter book. I have only seen the movies and all of my opinions/experiences with this movie are based as such. So with that, let us dive right in.

The Harry Potter(HP) series has been beloved to many, and known to pretty much all who have lived in the last decade. The movies themselves seemed to have as much fanfare as the people who waited in line for the books. Each one expanding the HP world more and more and getting darker every step along the way. Personally, I did not really like any of the HP movies until the fourth installment Goblet of Fire. The story finally got dark, instead of just pretending to be, and you start to see what Harry is truly up against and really what the whole series is leading towards. Fifth and sixth movies lose me a little bit, mainly because I did not read the books, and I know the big event from the both of them combined is Dumbledore dying.

I did not re-watch any of the previous films before watching Deathly Hallows parts 1 & 2. I saw part one about a month and half ago, and of course saw part 2 yesterday afternoon. There are a lot of things happen in this last installment that I had completely forgotten or needed refreshers from my wife to really understand what was going on. Obviously that is as much my own fault as it is the movies skipping or compacting so much information into its films.

This is the best installment of the franchise. There really is not question about that. Aside from maybe one awkward kiss, every performance from the actors feels natural and polished. The young stars are complimented very well by the large cast of very seasoned and talented actors, and I do not really ever feel the need to say "why did they chose this guy?". The first part of The Deathly Hallows did not really make me very interested in seeing this film. I thought it was very distant, the action was forced, and it was fairly boring and slow paced. Not the case here. Pacing was very good. Transitions between characters led well into what was happening next, and as usual everything from an effects standpoint were stellar, sound, visuals, animation, all top notch.

I have a few reservations from a storytelling standpoint, and yes I do realize that the movies are still more of a service to those who read the books, but I do not have the extensive background knowledge. I am going to give you one more **SPOILER ALERT** although in all fairness if you really care about the series you probably have read the books, unlike myself. The thing that made me happiest in this movie was finally learning about Snape. From the early parts of the series I just wanted to know who the hells side he was on. Now just doing a 15 minutes dump on his whole history, which was not even really ever eluded to in the other movies was kind of a cop out in my opinion. I like twists in movies, and most great thriller or action movies have them. This story twist though was bordering on a little too far fetched for me. It made sense in the end of course, but I prefer when the story teller shows me something from the past story that may have tipped you in some way. The ties with the plague/black hand thing that Dumbledore had, which I did not even remember, I had to have explained to me later. Again it makes sense, but after so long it was something that felt like a stretch.

Now the final sequences. I was thinking from about the halfway point on, where is the other Deathly Hallow, the resurrection stone? Cool its in the snitch, of course Dumbledore had everything planned from the first movie, apparently so did Megatron. I would not have shown him finding the stone until after he was dead and talking to Dumbledore. I know it was not written that way, but it is a better surprise for the viewers, and those who did not read the book. Also you could have saved the "heavens gates" scene for right when Neville challenges Voldemort and he comes to right there. Also having V just disintegrate after the fight was a letdown. Blast him Harry, come on. You have spent your whole childhood knowing that this guy was out to kill you, and you let him die by some curse instead of killing him yourself? Sure that may not be the way Harry would do things, but it would have felt more like closure.

The epilogue felt forced to me as well. Yes I am stealing that idea from a friend who brought it up on facebook, but why is he not teaching? He never seemed very desperate to live a normal muggle life, and I really expected to end up in Hogwarts when they started that segment.

Overall the movie was better than I was expecting and made a heck of a lot more sense that some of the previous films. It actually has made me more of a HP fan than I ever was, and maybe I will make my way around to reading the books. There are a few things that like i mentioned could have made for better cinema for those who had not read the book, but it was well executed none the less.

Score: 8.4 I think it probably deserves a spot in the top 100. Not near the top, like the current unweighted 8.7 on IMBD would put it, but in there. Needless to say must see, after you have read/seen all the other installments.

Back on the wagon, and a few other movies I watched lately

Ive been gone for a while, long enough that some of the movies have even shifted up and down on IMDB since I posted last. I am watching the list movies again, and like before my free time also includes many movies.

I have not caught all the summer films that I have wanted to, but seeing the new Pirates and The Hangover 2 have been worth their time. I wont get into either too much, but Pirates 4 is about a 7.5 Depp was good but not nearly as funny as he was from the trilogy, and Hangover 2 is the same ride with a new paintjob, so 7.7 sounds about right. We all watched the Austin Powers movies and they were the same thing each time and equally funny each time out, so who cares if the Hangover is the same blueprint as the first one. I know that score is equal to what I rated Tron: Legacy to a while back, but every time I watch that film I like it more and more, it is my geek addiction I guess.

I still want to see Kung Fu Panda 2, and X-Men First Class before the new Transformers comes out later this month, and I should be able to get the next few list movies out of the way by then as well.

One thing that will make watching some of the films more enjoyable and perhaps more like they were intended was my recent purchase of surround sound. Now it was not my dream system, but it sounds very good for what it was worth, and it is by no means a all-in one home theater in a box crap.

The last blip before I get of the interwebz for a bit was a small interesting film that kept showing up on netflix called Pandorum. Now it looked very interesting from the box art, that means something right, and me and my wife thought it was worth the time. From the onset it is very dark, and you really do not know anything more than what the main character(Ben Foster) does about what is going on. His lieutenant played by Dennis Quaid also knows nothing as they both emerge from stasis pods around the same time. For those who have seen Event Horizon there are definitely similarities in the dark stuck in a space ship atmospheres. The discovery that the characters go through is engaging and keeps you wondering what the heck is going on. I personally was slightly disappointed at the ending, not for any particular reason, just thought it could have been done better, but it was an interesting watch, and the more and more I see Foster in films the more I see the range of acting he can achieve. When he first appeared as Archangel in the X3 I would have preferred not seeing him in film again, but that was X3 and not really his own fault. Score 7.0

Lets see if I can get in a list review every Wednesday and Saturday and other movie news when things of interest pop up. Next three movies are all on the older side, but lets give them a chance before I write them off.


I'm just sayin...

Movie 106* Rebecca

It has been a while, and that is all I am going to say about that. I have been putting off this movie for quite some time, mainly because from the surface there did not look to be anything interesting about this movie to me. Beggars cannot be choosers though, so I finally bit the bullet and watched this film.

Growing up in the era of the summer blockbuster, I knew this movie was not going to be paced anywhere near what I am used to with a film. In Hollywood nowadays a movie is long if it goes past an hour and a half. The movies that do go farther than that, usually have at least 3 story lines they are trying to keep you up to speed on at any given time. This movie focuses on one character for the entire two hours of film. There are very few scenes where the new Mrs. De Winter(Joan Fontaine) is not on screen. As expected, the setup for the story takes quite a while to get going.

I tried to stay open minded about the movie, but I never really got drawn in like I felt I should. Even reading other peoples reviews I understand the qualities of the film, but still do not think it is as good as many of the movies I have already watched and am to watch soon. Laurence Olivier's performance was pretty good, but his transitions from good guy to pissed off emotionally closed off man seemed to abrupt and forced to me. I think the best performance came from the main housekeeper Mrs. Danvers(Judith Anderson) who keeps her dark obsessed demeanor going throughout the film. Even Fontaine's performance seemed stale and repeated every time she came under stress.

I do see the sensory and emotional styles of Hitchcock in this film, but this being his first movie made for an American viewing audience, I think it was clearly a sign of better things to come. Again it is really hard for me not to be biased with this film spending much of my summers in theaters watching the next big thing, including Will Smiths 100 million dollar movie run, but I kind of view this movie as one where a lot of people just use the standard of older is better just because. A viewpoint that I do not share.

Overall it is definitely a movie of the time period, and the ending keeps this movie from being a snore fest. The last 45 minutes keep the pace up enough to make it bearable and actually give you some story to really chew on, rather than the few small pieces every 20 minutes given in the first two thirds of the movie.

Score: 7.9 And that is a generous "benefit of the doubt" score.

Post Academy Reaction

I made a point to sit down and watch the Oscars last night, mainly because I had not done so in a couple years. Me and my mom always used to sit down together and watch the Academy Awards, and this year I had to give her the play by play through text messages because the bus she was on returning from her skiing trip broke down. They are fine, they got home, I am sure you were concerned.

The show itself was decent. Anne Hathaway did a pretty good job as the co-host, along side a stale and boring James Franco. He looked worn out, tired, never looked at the camera, and was fairly monotone the whole night. Too bad they decided against Hugh doing it again. At least he has the energy to keep you entertained.

Other than one flub we will call it, it was a rather run of the mill, just above boring presentation. I have not seen a good portion of the best picture nominees, and did not really have any actors that really caught my eye with their performances, aside from the two that I figured were in the bad anyway. So let's get to the awards.

Best Director:Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. It was great watching him throughout the rest of the evening, because I do not think he ever gave up his two handed stranglehold on his award. His story about his mother telling him she found his next film by watching an unrehearsed play screening was pretty cool as well. As he stated, "Always listen to your mother". Still this category irks me that Christopher Nolan was not nominated, but I guess I may just have to see the film to make a better gauge of the direction.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter. I did praise her performance in my oscar picks post, and it is still well deserved. Again seeing her up there on stage you have to do double and triple takes to see that she indeed played the mom in the movie. She also gave us the most exciting part of the evening, by dropping the big F-bomb on live television. Of course they were able to bleep it out, but it was the only part of her speech that was not in complete disarray and disbelief on her part.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter. I told you this one was easy. It also rounded out The Fighter in winning both supporting actor roles. Lead actor roles were not even nominated in this movie, which shows you that the headline actor is not always the main reason to watch the movie. Bale was a little long winded in his acceptance, but it was cool that he did give credit to Dickey Ecklund and his brother Mickey Ward, who were both in attendance. Now go put on some weight and get moving on that next Batman film.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan. A lot of people were rooting for Portman to win this award. It was well deserved and if you know some of the work she put into the, and how long they have been talking about making it, it is astounding. Hopefully she will continue making films for a long time, because I do enjoy watching her passion filled roles.

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech. Told you Bridges was just my hope in the category. He was also nominated in this same category last year for A Single Man, which Bridges won for Crazy Heart. So I guess it is fair that Colin gets this round. From the clips shown throughout the program he definitely portrayed someone with a speech impediment pretty well, while keeping some humor with his screen partner Geoffrey Rush.

Best Picture: The King's Speech. I was clearly fishing with Toy Story 3 as my choice, but again it was not a prediction, just what I wanted to see win. This is a clear sign that I need to see this film. Winning 3 of the biggest awards at the Oscars means something, and when its available off the big screen, I will definitely be giving it a gander. A pretty funny remix with clips from all sorts of shows and movies about stuttering can be seen here. Parodies means it must be good right?

Eclectic Method - The King's Remix from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

That is about all I have on the Oscars. I was a little disappointed that Tron was not even nominated for special effects, but whatevs. Gonna watch Rebecca soon, and the review will follow.

I'm just sayin...

Academy awards

I am going to make an effort to watch the Academy Awards tonight. I have not seen a lot of the movies but, there are still people and movies that I would like to see win awards. Here are some of my choices for the major categories:
Best Picture: Toy Story 3. It is a stretch, but for those of us who have grown up watching the Toy Story movies, this was probably the best, and if you did not cry, you are a liar.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges. More of a hopeful than anything else, but I do enjoy watching him perform. There was some talk about the odd omission of Mark Wahlberg, but it was not that much different of a performance than what we have come to expect of him

Best Actress Natalie Portman. For me the infatuation began with Star Wars, because it was Star Wars. In reality she was a good actress before and after playing Padmé, see The Professional and V for Vendetta, and hopefully now she will win an award for her performance.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale. This one is easy. Watching The Fighter you knew that it was a good performance. Than you see footage of Dicky Ecklund at the end, and it blows you away how perfectly he portrayed that man. If anyone else wins, there is a conspiracy.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo. Playing the mom in The Fighter, she did an amazing job. She has already won an award or two for the performance, and it is either her or Amy Adams for the top spot.

Best Director: This is the one place where I have a big bone to pick. Christopher Nolan should by all means be nominated, and likely win this category. I guess it is because Hollywood people are starting to view him like Michael Bay, with all the flashy effects and over the top stories. The difference is that Inception is nothing without the direction it was given. Just being able to convey every aspect the way it was without completely losing the audience is a feat. I personally still do not think that it is a top 10 movie all time, like it's current place on IMDB top 250, but it does at least deserve some credit for the execution of a concept.

I do not plan on being very accurate with my choices, it was more of a dream sheet. I will weigh in after the awards on what I saw, and maybe I will complain about some ones ridiculous outfit, although I could give two pennies about fashion. Also if you missed it from news sources earlier this week, here is a top ten WTF they got nominated for an oscar list.
Rebecca is the next movie on the list and it is on its way to me. Be patient, I am getting there.

I'm just sayin...

Movie 107 Return of the Jedi

So after watching Indiana Jones, you think we would get a little bit of a lull in the grand adventure Harrison Ford department. Ya, that was not going to happen. Not to mention it is another romp around George Lucas' imagination

If you are alive breathing right now, or have been some time in the last 30 years, you know what Star Wars is. Now some of you, somehow, still have not seen the original trilogy. I will let that slide, for now, because I am feeling nice. But, for those who have not seen it, and those who portend to show the movies to your children, please start with episode 4, "A New Hope", also known as the first one. Really you do not really need to watch the most recent movies, episodes 1,2, and 3, because they do not hold the same feel as the originals, and in some eyes overdo the special effects and make it feel less emersive.

It is hard for me to review the Star Wars movies. For me, and many others, there is something about these movies that never get old. The sarcastic main cast of good guys, Luke Han and Leia. You have the Droids who have emotions and are true characters in their own right, even though R2D2 talks in beeps. You have the Jim Henson, of Muppet fame, creation in Yoda that even in its crude form, transforms into a full character. Not to mention the most iconic bad guy to ever be put on film, Darth Vader.

Its not just the Characters either. In the film hour of the film, you see a swamp planet(Degobah), desert planet(Tatooine), manufactured planet(Death Star), and a forest moon(Endor). Each one looks and feels like you are in a completely different universe. Also unlike a lot of Sci-Fi franchises, there are countless other species shown in Star Wars. Not handfuls, hundreds. Big, small, quadrupeds, giants slug, you name it, its probably in one of the movies. Even the sets when they are on ships are convincing enough to not look fake.

The version I watched was the original theatrical release of the film. That is without the added "Special Edition" content that you will hear many Star Wars purists express their displeasure over. The biggest change that most people hear of is "Han shot first". It refers to a seen in the first movie where he shots a bounty hunter that has come to kill him. In the remake they had Han react to being shot at, not preemptively killing the bounty hunter. It was surprising to me that watching this movie today, with all the advances in computer graphics and special effects, that something like this could have been made without it, and 30 years ago at that. It truly makes you understand why it started such a following, and why it still draws people in today.

The Star Wars theme is again one known to many many people, and none other than John Williams composed the score for these films. Sound effects, special effects, cinematography, all of them were revolutionized by Lucas and his work with Star Wars. My only real qualm? His use of spin fades and gradient fades between scenes. They were cheesy then, still are now, but he is George fricken Lucas, and I dare you to tell him he is wrong.

Overall I will admit it is not my favorite of the three original films, but I still enjoy it every time through. This film draws the biggest movie franchise of all time to a close, we can only wish that the newest trilogy was 20% of what these movies were.

Score: 8.6 You must see the original trilogy. Probably the must see movies of the list, bar none.