OFF WEEK - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I've had to concede to myself that there will be weeks in which I won't have time to update this blog. It's not necessarily because I won't have time to write a review; it's more based on the time, or lack there of, that I have to watch a movie.  I could write and have written in some instances about movies I like but haven't seen recently.  However, when I do that, I tend to not be nearly as motivated in my writing, and the blog suffers.  

In place of writing a crappy review here and there, I've just decided to write a short paragraph for those weeks about a movie that is coming out soon that I'd like to see or a movie I've never seen that I intend to watch as soon as time permits.  Some of these will classics, some will be indies of which you may have never heard, some may will be unreleased titles.  Regardless, it will turn out better than if I just force an entry about something I'm not really motivated to write.

I posted about this movie in my most-anticipated list from the beginning of the year, but I had to post this newest trailer. This is absolutely going to be the movie from this series that I've always wanted to see. I'm super excited about this one. I think there's a lot of social issues being dealt with in the background of this movie, too, a second, deeper level. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx
Directed by: Marc Webb
Rating: I Liked It

I don't know if this is a fair assessment of the movie or not if I'm being honest. I kind of feel like I've been jaded in the way of movies for this year, because I've already seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I'm afraid I'm going to compare the rest of the year's releases to it, and that's a high mark to hit. So, keep that disclaimer in mind as you read onward. 

First, I should say that I liked the first of this series really well. I don't have the same problem of extreme hatred that many do for the original Toby McGuire trilogy, but I feel like The Amazing Spider-Man definitely improved on things in a lot of ways. I don't necessarily think that this film was a step backward, but it didn't really feel like a step forward either. 

One of my favorite things about Spider-Man are the cheesy jokes and one-liners. However, in this go around, I felt like things were a little too far in the way of the funny. Spidey's lines were still OK, but some of the lines that Electro (Foxx) delivered were just too corny for even a Spider-Man film. I don't know if that was because of Foxx's delivery or if it was just not the best writing, but a lot of it felt forced and cheesy. For that matter, Foxx's performance overall as Electro was just mediocre to me. He's a great talent, but this was not his role. 

It may just be that he's too cool to the play the loser turned super villain, and one of the most important aspects of a successful movie in my eye is the casting. Marvel and Disney have done a great job with that concept in building the MCU, but I don't know that Sony is having the same success. The only casting that was outstanding in any way was that of Garfield in the title role. He makes a good Peter Parker/Spider-Man. While Sally Field does a decent job as Aunt May, the rest of the cast is lackluster in their roles. Also, as much as I like Paul Giamatti...not as the Rhino. No one performs badly, but they're just not perfect for the part whereas so many other comic book films are nailing the casting, making for completely unforgettable characters. 

To step away from the cast, the plot of the movie was pretty good, the timing and script, not so much. Parts of the movie that should've been longer weren't, and parts that should've been shorter felt excessive. Harry Osborne (Dane DeHaan) and Peter's friendship grew too fast with little to no interaction or development at all. They spent three short scenes on screen together before Harry started claiming that Peter betrayed him. The Gwen Stacy side of the story was good but felt a little underdeveloped. There was just too much going on behind the main story.

Two stories, especially when one is hidden, as in Winter Soldier, can compliment one another. Three or four stories in one movie, or just too much attempted character development in the background can distract from the main focus, and that's what I felt like happened here. It's possible that the production team was just expecting audiences to fill in a lot of gaps with what they know from the previous movies and comics, but if you do that, you're crossing source material.

Since I'm already way over my self-set 500 word limit, I might as well mention a few things I did like. I enjoyed the first-person views of Spider-Man's swinging through the city. I love the back story we get with his parents, because it doesn't impede the front-and-center story, only adding depth to it. I like that the Rhino is a mech suit, even though it doesn't look all that great. Well, that's about it. 

**SPOILER ALERT**

The last fight scene of the movie did help the film recover somewhat, but it wasn't enough to drag it out of the trenches in my opinion. Really, it wasn't even the fight scene that did it. I was drawn in mostly by the suspense of finding out if the film stayed true to the original, comic-book fate of Stacy. It did, and I think that's really, really important in the development of Spider-Man's development as a hero. Again, the whole scene wasn't enough to salvage everything. 

If you have some extra time and really want to see a movie in the theaters, this wouldn't be a bad choice. You might even like it a lot better if you haven't seen the magnificence that is the newest Captain America film. If you're going to the movies specifically to see this expecting something amazing, you might be disappointed. Sony is really going to have to step up their game in the story and script departments to catch up with the other companies making similar films. 

OFF WEEK - As Above, So Below

I've had to concede to myself that there will be weeks in which I won't have time to update this blog. It's not necessarily because I won't have time to write a review; it's more based on the time, or lack there of, that I have to watch a movie.  I could write and have written in some instances about movies I like but haven't seen recently.  However, when I do that, I tend to not be nearly as motivated in my writing, and the blog suffers.  

In place of writing a crappy review here and there, I've just decided to write a short paragraph for those weeks about a movie that is coming out soon that I'd like to see or a movie I've never seen that I intend to watch as soon as time permits.  Some of these will classics, some will be indies of which you may have never heard, some may will be unreleased titles.  Regardless, it will turn out better than if I just force an entry about something I'm not really motivated to write.

The found-footage/first-person horror genre has become just that, a genre of its own. It's here to stay for sure it seems. There's a long list of this style of film that started way back in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project. Since then, hundreds of this type of film have been released. Some of them have been big productions, but a lot of them, because of the nature of the filming process being cheaper than other alternatives, have been low-budget works. Personally, I like my fair share of them, but like many things, too much of a good thing...

This movie looks to try this concept in a new setting. Taking us to the catacombs underneath the streets of Paris, As Above, So Below has a team in search of a mysterious artifact in the burial place of hundreds of souls. What could possibly go wrong with that? I'm sure we'll find out. As cheesy as a lot of these movies are, I still enjoy watching them for the chance of a decent scare here and there. 

OFF WEEK - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

I've had to concede to myself that there will be weeks in which I won't have time to update this blog. It's not necessarily because I won't have time to write a review; it's more based on the time, or lack there of, that I have to watch a movie.  I could write and have written in some instances about movies I like but haven't seen recently.  However, when I do that, I tend to note nearly as motivated in my writing, and the blog suffers.  

In place of writing a crappy review here and there, I've just decided to write a short paragraph for those weeks about a movie that is coming out soon that I'd like to see or a movie I've never seen that I intend to watch as soon as time permits.  Some of these will classics, some will be indies of which you may have never heard, some may will be unreleased titles.  Regardless, it will turn out better than if I just force an entry about something I'm not really motivated to write.

This movie was in my most anticipated movie list from the first of the year, but I honestly didn't know a lot about it at the time. There were lots of rumors and some production pictures, but overall, there wasn't a lot of confirmed information. One of the big things people were upset about was the turtle origin story. 

Producer Michael Bay had suggested that the turtles were going to be aliens. While the ooze that created the turtles has been alien in origin in a couple of incarnations, the turtles themselves have always been from Earth. This had people all worked up, and I wasn't too happy about it. I had also seen some production pictures that had the actors in green-screen suits with HUGE shells on their backs. This was a little unnerving, too. Now that the trailer is out and available, I'm pretty happy with the end result of the look of the turtles. 

I'm still really excited for this movie regardless of any specific detail I might not be on board with 100%. I'm happy to get a TMNT movie, and it's awesome to see that these characters that I grew up with still capture the imagination of kids today. While this movie won't be perfect - I don't know that anyone could make a perfect TMNT at this point with the level of expectation we all have - it is a TMNT movie coming to the big screen. Let's just be happy about that.

OFF WEEK - Lucy

I've had to concede to myself that there will be weeks in which I won't have time to update this blog. It's not necessarily because I won't have time to write a review; it's more based on the time, or lack there of, that I have to watch a movie.  I could write and have written in some instances about movies I like but haven't seen recently.  However, when I do that, I tend to not be nearly as motivated in my writing, and the blog suffers.  

In place of writing a crappy review here and there, I've just decided to write a short paragraph for those weeks about a movie that is coming out soon that I'd like to see or a movie I've never seen that I intend to watch as soon as time permits.  Some of these will classics, some will be indies of which you may have never heard, some may will be unreleased titles.  Regardless, it will turn out better than if I just force an entry about something I'm not really motivated to write.

As I was sitting in the theater preparing for Winter Soldier, I saw this trailer. My mind immediately jumped to the 2011 Bradley Cooper vehicle, Limitless. I've never seen it, but I remember the trailers, and I've seen a few bits and pieces here and there. This seems to be along the same kind of theme, except this one has a really attractive female lead to change things up. Plus, it has Morgan Freeman. 

I'm pretty sure that this is going to be an interesting movie. I'm definitely going to watch it, because I want to know what really gives her these Scarlet Witch-like powers. In the preview, Lucy (Scarlet Johansson) appears to be bending time, space, and reality. We even get some scenes that appear to have the same code-view that Neo developed in The Matrix. I'm really excited to see where this goes. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders
Directed by: Anthony & Joe Russo
Rating: An Adam Favorite

When I saw Iron Man 3, the first movie in Marvel's phase two, I knew we were in for some big things. After seeing Thor: The Dark World, I was still impressed, but decided that maybe I shouldn't expect the movies to keep getting better and better. After seeing Winter Soldier, I can't imagine what could be better. I'm still excited to see what Marvel does with Guardians of the Galaxy, but this latest Captain America installment has set the bar pretty high.

Everything about this movie fell right into place. The twist of finding out who the Winter Soldier really is, even for people who already knew, was amazing to watch. The underlying story that surrounded SHIELD was just strong enough to be interesting, but it didn't overshadow the main plot. All of the casting was terrific as usual. There was humor, amazing action sequences, a rousing speech by Cap, inclusion of Black Widow who got more well-deserved screen time...just wow. It was just all great.

There were a couple of scenes in particular that really made this a home run. Being a SHIELD movie, we got to see a lot of action from SHIELD operatives. Black Widow was one I mentioned already, but we also got to see some more action from Nick Fury. Jackson was great as the character as usual. The car chase scene he's involved in is great. It's something completely different than what you usually expect in a chase sequence. Smulders also got a cool scene or two as Maria Hill.

The introduction of new characters was good, too. I'm interested to see what, if anything, is done with the new potential villain introduced in the film. Falcon was great, especially the way they made his "powers" a little more realistic than in the comics. I'm sure we'll be seeing the Winter Soldier again at some point in the future. Even the name drops that happened in the film got me excited for what's to come, especially the mention of Stephen Strange.

If you do go see the movie in theaters, be sure to stay for the mid-credits and after-credits scenes. The mid-credit one is the big reveal of something to come, but the after-credit scene is something cool, too. It's really hard to talk about the movie much more than I have without getting into any spoilers, and really, I'm just going on about how much I enjoyed it anyway. It's by far my favorite Marvel movie so far, possibly next to The Avengers, maybe even better than that. GO SEE IT! I might see it again.

Muppets Most Wanted

Starring: Rickey Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, The Muppets
Directed by: James Bobin
Rating: It Was OK

I was pretty happy with The Muppets, and I have been a fan of the character group for years. This time around, though, maybe because I'm older or maybe because the characters have changed, I didn't feel they captured the same magic they once did.

The Muppets were always a good mix of comedy that appealed to both kids and adults. I can still watch the older Muppet films and enjoy things I didn't notice or didn't understand as a kid. With this newest film, it seemed like there was less of that. The Muppets seemed sillier to me for lack of a better term, a little more ridiculous than in the past. It's almost as if Disney has turned this newest film into another way to sell hundreds of movie themed toys, a merchandise machine.

The plot of the movie was OK. I kind of felt like it was a little to similar to The Great Muppet Caper, but it was different enough to stand on its own. I did like the switching of Kermit for his evil counterpart, Constantine. It's also fun to watch the others come to the realization of the switch.

I'm not a fan of Fey's work, but she was actually pretty good in this movie. This was Ray Liota's second Muppet appearance I can remember; the first was in Muppets from Space. There were several other cameos that were fun, particualary the majority of the prisoners in Russia. Burrell and Gervais were great as always. It was also cool to see Sam Eagle get a larger part.

I can't say a lot of good things about this one, but there's not a lot of negative aspects either. It was really just OK. I definltely wouldn't recommend theater prices for this movie, but if your'e a fan of the Muppets or you want to introduce them to the younger generation, this would be a good way to do it. Oh, yes, one last comment. The songs in the movie were not nearly up to par with those from the past in my opinion, and that's always been one of the best parts of these films.