The Reaping

I've always been interested in story about religous messed upness. Rogue angels, demons, armaggedon, etc. This falls nicely in there. God sending his 10 plagues down to some small town. Hilliry Swank, who happens to have had a crisis of faith, comes in to figure out the cause.

This one seemed like it was trying really hard to fit into that Creepy Kid mode of suspense movies of late. But Anna Sophia Robb just isnt creepy enough. She is a cute little girl, but has no sense of danger about her, she just ended up being a dry board. and while Im not normally a fan of Swanks, she seemed to do alright in this. No stretching her acting chops for sure, but didn't do a bad job either.

There is a twist at the ending that is almost expected in this day in age. I didnt see it coming, but that dosn't mean others wont. But on a whole the story by the end was pretty interesting, if not used before.

Watchmen

I am far more excited for this movie then I should allow myself to be. But just look!!!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I’ve been sitting here trying to honestly think of stuff that I didn’t like about this movie. Not having much luck.

I was a huge fan of the first movie. It had a very dark and steam punk feel and look to it. Both of which I’ve always liked. This one takes a slightly different style visually. Del Toro is pure genius with his visuals. He made a point of using puppets and costumes for as many monsters as possible in this, which gives it a very Jim Henson feel to it. Only Del Toro’s visuals are a lot darker. Pan’s Labyrinth almost feels like it was just a small taste into his mind, and this movie is a full serving. I’ve already said I’m a huge sucker for overly visual movies. So this movie had me swimming.

The story is simple and pretty straight forward. There are a few twists to keep it a little interesting. But it’s nothing groundbreaking or all that memorable. It does have moments that really make you feel for the characters, even the bad guy. While he is a crazy power hungry war monger, he does have some good points in his view of Humanity. Since I’ve never read any of the comics that this story was based off of I cant comment on how close it followed it. I do know they took lots of liberties with the story of the first movie. But it all worked in the end. And knowing that Del Toro is a huge fan of the comics, and that him and Mike Mignolia, the creator of the comic books, both worked on the script I am sure that the story and all the characters are very faithful to the series.

All the characters are as good as they were in the first. It takes a few moments to get used to the fact that David Hyde Peirce isn’t the voice of Abe, you quickly get used to Doug Jones. Plus it’s nice that he finally gets to do the voice work of the character that he is in costume for. Everyone gets a good amount of screen time as well. All three of the main three all have parts of the story that moves them along.

Hancock

With all the comic book movies coming out now, and with them doing so well (finally), it was only a matter of time before someone made a non-comic book super hero movie. This is defiantly different then most hero movies. It appears that they were trying to make a real world hero movie. If someone had these kinds of powers how they would affect him in real life. And what the public reaction would be to his feats.

I really like the idea of the hero being so apathetic. After a while I’m sure every super power would grow tired of the same old thing over and over, and eventually realize they are above everyone else. It’s great to see him realize that everyone hates him, and slowly begin to care about it. And begin to take steps to be better.

This role defiantly didn’t test Will Smiths acting skills. He doesn’t do a bad job of it, mostly because there really isn’t anything there. Same goes for most of the cast. The only one that really has to show any range is Charlize Theron.

My biggest pet peeve with this is that it suffers from a Michael Bay like Summer Blockbuster Shooting Style, which is quiet frankly, crap. Half the movie is out of focus. They try to be creative with camera angles, but end up falling completely flat and leaving you asking “why is the screen filled with the back of some guys head?” Most of this really seems like it was done to help cover up cheap special effects. Many other comic movies have made use of special effects far better then this one. Almost feels like they spent their entire budget on big names.

I am a little suprised that they managed to get away with using the term Super Hero through out the movie. Marvel and DC comics have that term copywritten.

Wanted

There are some movies that you really just have to suspend all belief. If you can’t get past the idea that these people can shot other bullets out of the air, or “curve” the bullet around other objects, then you just aren’t going to like this movie. It is full of mindless action, which isn’t a bad thing.

There have been some complaints that they use Bullet Time too much in this movie. Being a movie based around the idea of doing fancy tricks with bullets, you kind of need to use Bullet Time to show this off. How else are you going to realize that Angelina Jolie just shot another bullet out of the air? It never feels played out or used in pointless scenes like often happens in other movies that insist on using Bullet Time to be hip and trendy. Each time it’s used it is showing something interesting or important, bullets colliding midair, a bullet arcing around a corner to hit someone, or a bullet releasing parts in stages like a rocket.

The story is simple. It has a few twists towards the end, but it is nothing spectacular. It is really just an excuse for all the over the top gun fights. The one good part of the story is the whole idea of taking a guy who’s bored with his life and job. Nothing is really going for him, then throwing him into this action packed underworld. Most movies like this are all about the lead coming to terms with this new life and getting used to it. But in this one he actually jumps whole-heartedly into it. He’s done with his old life, ready for a new more exciting one. All of which leads to the best “I quit” scene in a long time.

The whole thing isn’t anything magnificent, but it is an all around enjoyable film. I can’t help feel that the film makers were kind of hoping to make another cult classic. With a cast like this I could see it being one, but only time will tell.

Kung Fu Panda

My second child movie in a week, I better not let this be a habit.

I’ve always enjoyed Kung Fu movies. So I was excited to see this one. I really liked how they brought all the styles into the associated characters. It had a lot of the same basic story elements that a lot of the old chop soki movies did. There is a definite difference in comedy though, since this is being marketed towards children in the States.

There is a very simple message to this film, believe in yourself. Taking the fat Panda and teaching him how to be a great fighter to stop the guy no one else can, but only by making him believe in himself. Age old message, but this time set to kung fu animals.

The voice acting was pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but Jack Black is funny, which is to be expected. What I was a little surprised at was how they didn’t try to market all these actors they have doing voices, with people like Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, and even Jackie Chan. But they just focused on Jack Black. My only problem with having Black do the voice is at times it felt like the voice and character on screen didn’t really fit together. Part of it could be that Black has such a distinct voice and face, that when you hear him talk, you can only imagine his face, and not this CGI panda. But this wasn’t too bad for most of the movie, just a scene here and there.

The animation was spectacular. 3-D animation has come so far in the past few years, and between this and Wall-E I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Wall-E

With out doubt, this is the most adorable, cute movie I have seen in a very long time. If someone told you that the movie was about two robots running around on an adventure, but that they didn’t even really speak, except for each others names. You might not think there could be much to it. But Pixar has managed to infuse so much expression and emotion into that little box shaped robot.

For the first 10-15 minutes I was reminded of how much Wall-E reminded me of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Lots of similarities between them with the same kind of head/eye encasings, and the triangle shaped treads. And while Johnny did have an impressive array of expressions, the fact that Wall-E was CGI opened up the possibilities even further.

The back story is actually pretty bleak and depressing. Taking place in a future where people have had to leave the Earth because it was completely covered in garbage, and not just the surface, the planet itself is incased in satellite trash. It really isn’t hard to pick up on the messages that they are trying to get across. With scenes of sky scraper tall piles of trash, and thousands of billboards for a super corporation Buy N Large. Complete with a billboard on the moon for “new shopping center coming soon”, right next to the Apollo Lander. When we finally get to see the humans of the movie, it’s very unsettling. Everyone is so fat and lazy that they use hover chairs to get around, and don’t actually interact with one another, but use little holographic displays to talk to each other, even if they are right next to each other, complete with robots waiting on their every need.

My favorite part of the story is how it’s simply about this little robot and how he affects everyone without really trying, he’s just trying to find this other robot that he has a crush on. The little things he does have a huge impact on everyone around him. Simple things like waving to someone. He also has a great sense of innocent interest in things. Being a trash gathering/compacting robot, he finds all sorts of odd knickknacks and trinkets that he keeps because they interest him, things like Rubix Cubes and sporks.

Really there are a few plot holes in the movie. But they are very minor, and never really are a bother. The only thing I was left wanting was to know what his name means. I’m sure it might’ve said somewhere, and I just didn’t catch it.