Category Archives: Science Fiction

07.31.14
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Guardians of the Galaxy

My rating: ratings5

Intergalactic adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits – Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he and his team must find a way to stop Ronan’s madness and save the galaxy.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is improving as it goes. And this movie is definitely it’s best yet. I have to admit, it’s even better than The Avengers! It’s smart, funny, entertaining, and full of heart. The pace is good (it’s never too slow), the characters are all very funny, and best of all, the action scenes are extremely fun to sit through. It really has a Star Wars feel to it, with all the spaceship battles, the fact that the Guardians keep traveling from planet to planet, and I sort of felt that Ronan was sort of like Darth Vader, with a helmet, a low voice, and an ugly face.

One thing that didn’t turn out like I thought it would be but didn’t really bother me was that Thanos (a god-like figure who works with Ronan and is Gamora’s adoptive father) had a smaller role than I expected (just a one minute cameo), but that’s OK. Maybe he’ll have a bigger role in the Avengers 2!

My two favorite characters to see onscreen were Rocket and Groot, the hilarious duo who know how to kick ass. Lots of the other characters were also very charming and funny, especially Quill (the space outlaw who calls himself “Star-Lord”).

In conclusion, Guardians of the Galaxy is brilliant, smart, wonderfully silly, and is as entertaining, awesome, and fun, as any other Marvel movie. I would recommend it for any Marvel movie fans!

The five Guardians, sporting various weapons, arrayed in front of a backdrop of a planet in space.

07.17.14
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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

My rating: ratings4

A decade after the virus created by the apes killed most of humanity, the remaining humans and the apes find themselves at the brink of a war that will determine who will become Earth’s dominate species.

This film is absolutely awesome. The CGI of the apes looked very realistic (I could tell they weren’t real apes becuase the director would never be able to get real apes to do those stuff, but the CGI looked pretty real). Some scenes were very emotional and made me almost cry (not really cry, but feel very emotional inside). I really liked the story between the humans and the apes, and it kept me interested and excited the whole time.

I loved Andy Serkis’ performance as Caesar, and I think it’ s his best performance yet. He definetley deseves an Oscar nod for this role. I also really liked Jason Clarke as Malcolm. He had the heart that James Franco had in the previous installment. He was a good choice to play the role. Gary Oldman’s character was great, although it was a very small role, but with a very important position. I think whoever played Koba was awesome. Koba is bascially this very tough ape who holds a grudge against humans for his mistreatment. Koba will do anything to take down the humans and he will make any ape unwilling to follow him pay for it. Overall, the cast is great and nobody in this movie does a bad job.

Here’s my conclusion: This movie has amzing visual effects, awesome action scenes, great acting (especially Andy Serkis), and and it has a great plot that keeps you excited and interested the entire time.  I would recommend it for anyone 12 and up!

A chimp brandishes an automatic rifle while astride a rearing horse.

06.30.14
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Transformers: Age of Extinction

My rating: ratings2

In Michael Bay’s new Transformers film, Mark Wahlberg plays Cade Yeager, a struggling mechanic and single father who, along with his best friend Lucas (T.J. Miller), finds a truck which they later find out isn’t a truck at all: It’s Optimus Prime. Cade, his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) find themselves caught in a war between the remaining Autobots and a new army of Decepticons, led by Galvatron, who Optimus soon discovers has a dark secret. The Autobots soon find out that the Decepticons aren’t the only threat to their kind: An organization called the Cemetry Wind, led by a paranoid CIA agent (Kelsey Grammer), are hunting down the Autobots with the help of Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci), a scientist who is building his own Decepticons to destroy the Autobots.

At first I decided not to see this movie because I did not like the first three movies, as they were all huge disappointments, but later I decided to give it a try, anyway. But now I realize that the next Transformers movies will not improve on their predecessors at all, becuase that is what has been happening for the last three sequels (except the third movie was better than the second one, because the second one is the worst). Age of Extinction is just like all the others: Dumb characters you can’t ever give a crap about, a needless huge length (this one is almost three hours long), and jokes that only make you laugh because they’re so stupid. The acting in this movie is terrible, especially T.J. Miller, who was really annoying becuase he kept cracking dumb jokes. Mark Wahlberg, who is my favorite actor of all time, was the only person who did a good job acting  in the movie (Stanley Tucci was fine too, but not as good as Wahlberg was). All the other main actors did pretty bad (Kelsey Grammer was the worst actor in this movie other than T.J. Miller). I expected the Dinobots to be a big part of the movie, but they’re only in the last 20 minutes! The action scenes in this movie are great, but they’re really the only thing that makes this movie good! Do not expect this movie to be any better than the other Transfomers movies (but don’t expect it to be as bad as Revenge of the Fallen, of course). I think this movie is appropriate for kids 12 and up, because there as a lot of explosions and some language.

Transformers Age of Extinction Poster.jpeg

06.22.14
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Edge of Tomorrow

My rating: ratings4

A race of aliens called Mimics have taken over continental Europe. Their ability to reset the day after getting killed and then being able to mimic human battle strategy makes them unstoppable. Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise), who has never been in battle before, is drafted into the UDF (United Defense Force), led by Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), to fight against the Mimics, which is practically a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, but only after killing a rare species of Mimics, called the Alpha, the ones with the ability to reset time. As the Alpha dies, it’s blood spills on Cage, killing him, but then he wakes up the day before the invasion. He hasn’t realized it yet but he has gained the Alpha’s power to reset time when killed. As he dies over and over again, his skill increases. As Cage and Rita (who later reveals to him that she once had his power) take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

Edge of Tomorrow is funny, well-acted, thrilling, and has amazing visual effects. The script is great, so is the cast and the humor, and best of all, the movie is very original. The movie is filled with suspense, and while you’re watching it, you have absolutely no idea what’s about to happen. The visuals are amazing, especially the Mimics, and the action is very fun to watch. Edge of Tomorrow is better than all of Tom Cruise’s other recent sci-fi movies (including Mission Impossible and Oblivion) because what the others lacked were suspense, humor, and fun. I look forward to more great Tom Cruise movies like this one. I would recommend this movie for anyone 13 and up who loves action, science fiction, and/or Tom Cruise.

Below are the film’s trailer, as well as a hilarious clip from the movie.

 

06.08.14
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Godzilla

My rating: ratings4

When two creatures known as “MUTOs” (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) awaken and threaten our existence, the huge beast Godzilla must restore balance as humanity is left defenseless. The movies stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lieutenant Ford Brody, Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins as two scientists, Elizabeth Olsen as Ford’s wife, and Bryan Cranston as Joe, a scientist who is Ford’s dad.

This movie is filled with action, destruction, and awesome monster fight scenes. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bryan Cranston both did a great job acting, and Bryan Cranston did have a few emotional scenes. The visual effects and the soundtrack are both great. The most exciting parts are the first hour and the last half-hour, which is the boss fight between Godzilla and the MUTOs. The half-hour between those two parts isn’t as interesting, but once Ken Watanabe says, “Let them fight,” everything starts to warm up again. Godzilla feels very similar to last year’s blockbuster Pacific Rim, with all the monster battles and city destruction (especially San Francisco), but Godzilla feels more realistic and exciting, and the scenes before Godzilla first arrives on screen are still interesting. The best scene of the entire movie is when Ford and a couple other soldiers enter skydive into the city, just as the final battle between the monsters begins.

The director, Gareth Edwards, clearly knows how to make a great movie (this is his first blockbuster movie, his other movie was the low-budget Monsters) and I hope he makes a lot of great movies in the future (including a Star Wars spin-off that he is set to direct). The movie is very well-done, including the cinematography, visual effects, and casting, and it’s very exciting. I think anybody 12 or over would love this movie and will have a great time watching it.

05.29.14
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X-Men: Days of Future Past

My rating: ratings5

In the near future, the sentinels have taken over earth in search for mutants, and have destroyed most of the planet. The only survivors are mutants that include Storm (Halle Berry), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and Magneto (Ian McKellen), as well as their leader, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). They decide to send Wolverine back half a century to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), who’s plan to assassinate Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the sentinels’ creator, took a dark turn when she was captured and her DNA was used to upgrade the sentinels. Wolverine wakes up in his 1973 body, and he teams up with a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), and a young Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to stop Mystique from killing Trask.

This movie is very well done. Everybody does a great job acting, especially Evan Peters, who steals every scene he’s in, and Jennifer Lawrence, who does an amazing job playing Mystique. The movie is so well written, and so clever, that it’s probably the best X-Men movie yet, and maybe even one of the best comic book movies I’ve ever seen! All of the action scenes kept me on the edge of my seat, and I never knew what would happen, because it is filled with lots of twists!  The movie never stops entertaining, and is not too short or too long. The movie is very original, and has great visual effects. Everything in the movie makes a lot of sense, and you don’t go out of the theater wondering anything weird about the movie except, “What’s next for the X-Men movies?” (which isn’t actually a weird thing). The ending of the movie gives you nothing about the rest of the movies, which has made me even more anticipated for the next X-Men movie, which will come out in about 2 years. X-Men, by far, is my favorite superhero franchise other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except for the fact that X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were both huge disappointments. X-Men: Days of Future Past was my most anticipated movie of the entire year, and it might also be the best one. Here’s my conclusion: Please, watch this movie. It’s very original, smart, well-acted, visually amazing, and makes a lot of sense. It is, by far, the best X-Men movie, and maybe one of my favorite superhero movies ever.

X-Men Days of Future Past poster.jpg

05.04.14
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2

My rating: ratings3

In this Spider-Man installment, Peter finds himself battling Electro, an Oscorp electrician who becomes a living electric generator after being attacked by electric eels, as well as Green Goblin (AKA Harry Osborn), Peter’s boyhood friend who becomes a weird goblin creature after trying to get Spider-Man’s blood (to prevent dying from an illness), and Rhino, a weird-looking Russian mobster who becomes equipped with a mechanical rhino suit. Peter also must deal with his promise to Gwen’s late father (who was killed in the first film by The Lizard), if he must keep it or not, and what the consequences might be.

This movie was great but disappointing. It has a messy script and narrative and way too much is going on. The villains are dumb and underwritten, and the ending is bad and predictable. But the action and main cast are fine.

The plot surprisingly went very deep into the Spider-Man universe, but that is a major problem. This movie doesn’t only focus on the Spider-Man fighting the film’s antagonists, but also his relationship with Gwen, which the first film didn’t have enough of, which I liked. The first film also didn’t go deep enough into the trilogy, since Curt Connors/The Lizard is a very minor villain in the Spider-Man universe. The second film, on the other hand, does go deep enough into the franchise, with Spider-Man facing a very big villain, the Green Goblin. But there are too many stupid subplots and it could have been shortened by a lot (this movie was actually longer than The Avengers!). Unfortunately the two movies in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise have not been so successful and the franchise might be dead.

This movie kept me at the edge of my seat at many parts and definitely managed to entertain me a lot, but I have to say, it has a lot to live up to. I would recommend it for anybody 12 or up.

Spider-Man upside down on the side of the OsCorp tower.

04.09.14
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

My rating: ratings3

Captain America is back in this 3-D, action-packed sequel! This time, the super-soldier must face an enemy from the past, which has now taken over S.H.I.E.L.D,  and team up with Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson (AKA The Falcon) to defeat it. The film’s cast includes Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Just like any other Marvel movie, the film’s action is very exciting and fun. It didn’t have as much humor as I expected, which other Marvel movies, but I was still amused by the action. The film has great visuals and casting, but it’s a bit too predictable. For example, the moment I saw a specific character, I already had the feeling that he would eventually turn out to be a major antagonist. Overall, the film’s plot and action is much better than the original, but some things in the film are very predictable. What the first one was missing was lots of well-made intense actio, which this one did have more of.

I would recommend this movie for any Marvel fans 12 and up, who might find it pretty amusing like I did.

Click here to see the film’s trailer.

03.28.14
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Divergent

ratings1

In a post-war Chicago, the population is divided into five factions: Abnegation (selfless), Amity (kind), Candor (honest) Erudite (intelligent), and Dauntless (brave). Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) finds out that she is Divergent (which means that she doesn’t fit into any of the five factions) after a test, and to hide this fact (since the government has been hunting Divergents because they think Divergents are threats), she joins Dauntless at the Choosing Ceremony. In the Dauntless initiation, she trains to become a true Dauntless member and makes some new friends, including Christina (Zoe Kravitz) and she makes a romantic relationship with one of the instructors, Four (Theo James). Things become more complicated when one faction turns against the other, and Tris and Four must stop the battle and fix everything.

Divergent is neither a fun nor interesting film. From the first 20 minutes, I knew I wouldn’t like the film, and from there it became worse. The story is a complete rip-off of The Hunger Games, there wasn’t anything about it that didn’t feel familiar. The sets, characters, and everything felt so borrowed and uninspired. The cast are all terrible and very overused, not to mention uninteresting. All the characters are boring, and there are some moments that the actors make very embarrassing. Although I admire some of the actors in this film, including Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet, that is no excuse for their awful job in this film, as Tris was not good protagonist, and Kate Winslet’s villain felt so forced, bland, and unoriginal. Nothing in the film felt new, surprising, or even intense. Everything feels so generic and tries too hard to make you understand things you don’t want to. I don’t know how this will move on as a series without any of the sequels being as awful as this.

If you are a huge fan of the novels, you might want to try this one out, but if you’re not, you should definitely avoid it.

Lead characters Tris and Four stand above a futuristic Chicago.

 

02.17.14
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RoboCop

My rating: ratings3

In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy – a loving husband, father and good cop – is critically injured in the line of duty, the global corporation of OmniCorp, which Alex had worked for, sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. The film’s cast includes The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy‘s Gary Oldman, Batman’s Michael Keaton, Sucker Punch‘s Abbie Cornish, The Avengers‘s Samuel L. Jackson, Watchmen‘s Jackie Earle Haley, Snitch‘s Michael K. Williams, The King’s Speech‘s Jennifer Ehle, and This Is The End‘s Jay Baruchel.

I enjoyed this film, mainly because its action; some scenes seem like a campaign level of Call of Duty, with all that shooting and moving around going on. But I didn’t love this movie.  There is a sense that the director didn’t do a good job remaking the original. Some parts are a little slow, but others are very entertaining. There were also some funny parts.  I would recommend this movie for kids 13 and up, because there is lots of violence (some blood, but hardly any), one sex scene (no nudity), and some language.

Here is the film’s site.

Robocop poster.jpg