Saturday, May 24, 2014

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Finally this franchise is heading in the right direction! Boy has my opinion of X-Men changed after seeing Days of Future Past. Really, it began with 2011's First Class. I'm not counting that Wolverine movie that came out last year because, while it wasn't terrible, the only thing I remember about it was I got to see Hugh Jackman's ass. Not that I'm complaining of course ;) And just so you know, you get to see it again in this movie. Must be in his contract or something.

Sorry. Got a little side tracked for a moment. Anyway, Days of Future Past opens up in this really cool looking apocalyptic world 50 years after the events of First Class. Things aren't going so well for both the mutants and the humans (and that's putting it mildly). In order to change things they send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to the 70's (about 10 years after First Class) in an effort to stop an event they believe started this all. The rest of the movie goes back and forth between both time lines and the editing for this was well done which I was happy about. I've seen lots of movies where they attempted to do the same thing and they just failed miserably.

The cast they put together was incredible. Many characters from First Class as well as the previous X-Men movies appears in this and they all gave outstanding performances. I don't have time to talk about all of them, but some of my favorites were: Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), young Professor X (James McAvoy), young Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and Dr. Bolivan Trask (played by the great Peter Dinklage). Of course it goes without saying that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were brilliant as older Professor X and Magneto. Why these two aren't in even more movies I'll never know.

The whole movie is dark and emotional but with a nice amount of humor in it as well. I wasn't going to talk about this scene for fear of spoiling everyone but since there was a glimpse of it in the trailer I'd say it's fair game. I just loved the moment where older Professor X is talking to the younger version of himself. I got chills watching it. It just goes to show you how great Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy are. The beautiful musical score by John Ottman makes this scene as well as the rest of the movie even more powerful.

For those of you who are worried that you might be missing out on something by seeing this movie in 2D instead of 3D I can assure you you're not. I saw this in 2D and it looks really good in that format.

One thing I'd like to give people a heads up on- if you go into this having not seen the previous movies, you're probably going to be really confused. I strongly suggest you at least watch First Class before going to see this.

And yes, there is a scene at the end of the credits so be sure to stick around for that. I think it may be setting things up for the next movie but I could be wrong. It's still really cool though.

I've heard some people claim that Days of Future Past is better than The Dark Knight. I definitely wouldn't go that far, but this is still one of my favorite movie of the year. This movie is the very definition of a summer blockbuster. Go see it. I promise you won't be disappointed.

My Rating: 9/10

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Godzilla

I'll be honest with you, I've never really been into the whole Godzilla thing. Sure, I watched some of the old movies when I was a kid (I like to pretend the 1998 movie doesn't exist) but that's about it. When I saw the trailer for this I thought, "This is either going to be really good or really bad." Sadly it's mostly the last one.

There's no plot of course. It's just Godzilla vs. other monsters. At least that's what they want you to think. You barely see Godzilla in this and when you do it's mostly a few quick shots. I get what director Gareth Edwards was trying to do but he didn't execute it very well.

I never thought a Godzilla movie could be boring, but this one was. At least for the first hour and a half or so. They tried to add all this drama crap and it just didn't work. Normally in a movie I want to see an actual story and character development but this is a Godzilla movie dammit- I paid to see him kick some ass!

What's really sad is they got some amazing actors to be in this- Bryan Cranston, Juilette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, Ken Wantanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, and many more. What a waste of talent, especially Bryan Cranston. If you're like me and the main reason you want to see this movie is because of him then you'll be disappointed. He's only in it for a total of about 30 minutes towards the beginning.

The ONLY thing that saved this movie for me (aside from Bryan Cranston who can do no wrong) and is preventing me from giving it a much lower rating is the last 30 minutes. All I'll say is that sequence was just so bad ass and looked amazing. Why couldn't the rest of the movie be like that?

I saw this in 2D and I think if you must see this in theaters that's the way to go. I couldn't see how it would benefit from 3D plus the movie is dark enough without it.

I wouldn't really suggest paying to see this. You just just buy a ticket for another movie and sneak into Godzilla during the last 30 minutes. Not that I would ever do something like that ;)

My Rating: 6/10

Saturday, May 3, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (IMAX 3D)

WARNING: There will probably be a few spoilers in this review. Nothing too major, just thought I would give you the heads up.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I actually liked the first Amazing Spider-Man movie. Sure it wasn't award worthy, but I really enjoyed the story. I have to say that I enjoyed this one too, despite it having some MAJOR flaws (even more than the first movie). But more on that in a bit.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield, who I still prefer over Toby McGuire) is still trying to juggle his life as Spider-Man while maintaining his relationship with Gwen (Emma Stone), even though at the end of the first movie he had promised her father that he would stay away from her. He's also trying to deal with Oscorp and some new villains- Electro (Jamie Foxx), Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), and Rhino (Paul Giamatti). Well, mainly it's Electro. The Green Goblin doesn't appear until towards the end. And Rhino may as well have not been in it. All the footage of Rhino in the trailers, that's pretty much it. His total screen time is about five minutes tops. They should have just saved him for the next one.

I think Andrew Garfield was even better this time around. I really liked his version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. And his scenes with Emma Stone were really sweet. The two of them have great chemistry. However, their dialog in those scenes was so bad that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. It's not really their fault though. I blame the writers.

Another actor who I really enjoyed in this was Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro. You could tell he was really trying and having a blast while filming. Even though he does become a villain, I actually felt sorry for his character and could kind of understand why he was doing some of the things he was doing. Major credit to the visual effects team for making Electro look so bad ass.

The same can't really be said for Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborne/Green Goblin. I'm not saying he was terrible or anything (I actually like him as an actor and have enjoyed some of his previous movies), he just wouldn't have been my choice for the role.

The director is Marc Webb, who also directed the first movie. I thought this movie was pretty good up until the last third. This is what I was referring to before when I said major flaws. There's too much slo mo and the whole thing is just all over the place. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise decent movie.

The movie looks amazing on an IMAX screen. The 3D was kind of hit or miss. Some scenes, like Spider-Man swinging around the city, looked cool while other scenes it was either unnoticeable or cheap looking. Overall though if you decide to see this in 3D you wouldn't really be wasting your money.

One more thing that I'm sure people are curious about- yes, there IS a scene in the middle of the credits. However...

*SPOILER ALERT*



It has nothing to do with setting up the third movie. It's actually a teaser for the new X-Men movie that's being released in a few weeks. My first thought was, "What the hell is this doing in here?". From what I understand, it was all part of a deal to get Marc Webb out of his contract with Fox so that he could direct this movie. So if you didn't/aren't planning to stick around for the credits don't worry- you're not missing much.



*END OF SPOILER*

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is far from perfect, but it's still fun. I had a good time watching it and am looking forward to the next one.

My Rating: 7/10