Monsters University (2013) review

Man of Steel (2013) review

Man of Steel was a movie that I hyped more than anything else in my life. I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people who believed this to be the Dark Knight for Superman films. The trailers hinted such depth and exploration into the fascinating character of Kal-El and we were exposed to some of Synder’s killer action sequences. The music was something I was worried and the more I was exposed to Zack Snyder’s films- “300”, “Watchmen”, “Legend of the Guardians” and “Dawn of the Dead”, the more I was worried about the quality of the film. However, Nolan’s touch in the film kept my hopes high.

As everyone knows, ‘Man of Steel’ tells us the story of Kal-El, the last son of Krypton, and his coming to Earth and him becoming a godlike protector for humans. General Zod and his men, the few other Kryptonians to have escaped, are in search for Kal-El as they attempt to retrieve something that was taken from them. Something which would lead Earth to a terrible fate and something which would lead Krypton to a glorious fate.

The first hour of this film is pure brilliance, even if flawed. Some questions are still left unanswered such as why the council sentenced Zod and his men to the Phantom Zone if they were in anyway aware of their ability to escape following the destruction of Krypton. However, the first hour generally displays Nolan’s touch into the film, providing some emotionally powerful sequences of Kal-El being an outcast, throughout his early days of high school to his adulthood. Generally kept very quiet, this hour truly helped us get a better understanding of the character especially as he wanders off into the North Arctic, where he confronts a spiritual creation of his biological father, Jor-El, played by Russel Crowe. Here, he becomes Superman and here he comes to learn of his whereabouts and the reasons behind being sent here. Thankfully, we are emotionally invested in various characters. Others such as Perry White and Lois Lane are also presented nicely, though we yet to know much about them asides from Lois attempting to track down Kal-El. The point is, this hour is quiet, emotional and a very realistic take on Kal-El, unlike previous Superman films.

The next hour is generally, action packed. This is where much of the critics have argued about the film, stating that there is simply too much action sequences to comprehend. Whilst it is action packed, it generally does have a story behind it except for one elongated sequence with Kal-El fighting part of the World Machine, unleashed by Zod, as he plans to terraform Earth into Krypton. This sequence proved tensionless, dull and an attempt to visually engage its audience. The idea of Zod and his men terraforming Earth is an incredibly clever plot and the best thing here is, Zod’s motivation. He is presented as a genetically bred and engineered man, assigned with the duty of keeping his people safe. Christopher Reeve as Superman was patriotic to America as Zod is to Krypton. His motivations are made clear, not by dialogue, but by facial expressions and actions committed. However, despite having a motivation behind him, he proves to be a rather underwhelming villain for the film, seeing as how he doesn’t pose much of a threat but rather, his right hand man, Faora does. She was more intimidating than Zod simply was and Antje Traue portrayed her perfectly.

Most of the performances in the film are great. Crowe, Costner, Cavill and Fishburne are fantastic in their roles. Costner and Crowe give such great advice throughout the course of the film and are portrayed as such loving parents as is Diane Lane, who portrays Martha Kent. This was one of the film’s strongest aspects and that is the loving relationship between a mother and a son. When Zod finally threatens her in search for the Codex (which would revive Krypton), it was such a delight to see Superman attack Zod in anger. The scene featuring a young Kal-El unable to control his overwhelming power is now related here as Zod is temporarily weakened by his inability to control his senses. This is the brilliance of telling the flashbacks in a non-linear structure as they each provide emotionally impact to what is happening to Kal-El in the present day. 

However, there were a few performances that could have been better, most notably Michael Shannon (who was surprisingly underwhelming) and Amy Adams, who despite doing a decent job, often shows no chemistry around Cavill. It was revealed in an interview that she hardly acted with Cavill, and green screen was instead used.

The first hour was perfectly paced, keeping things nice and quiet as well as relatively slow. However, the last hour feels a bit too rushed in the process of creating larger than life action sequences, which was a delight to finally see in a Superman film. The final confrontation between Zod and Kal-El was proving incredibly exciting but was over too quick in the most controversial way. I personally loved it.

John Williams’ iconic Superman theme is one that I listen to everyday, regardless of where I am. I just love it so much. Whilst I do understand how such a theme would not fit in this universe created, I personally had a bit of trouble with Zimmer’s score, which was somewhat distracting at times. It generally proved to overpower scenes, especially one where Kal-El is launched into Earth.

Whilst I had numerous issues with the film, there was so much to enjoy about the film and is a unique and exciting take on Superman that unfortunately does lose most of the charm of the previous. The action, visuals, storytelling and performances are generally fantastic making ‘Man of Steel’ an enjoyable summer blockbuster, even if its overall a disappointment. 

Grade- 7.5/10

Bullet to the Head (2013) review

When The Last Stand was released, I was excited to see Arnold back in action and when I heard that Stallone was having his movie, I was just as excited. Following the abysmal ‘The Last Stand’, I began to lose hope in Bullet to the Head. I wanted to simply have a good time watching a Stallone film and when reviews came in saying that this film had some great action sequences, I was once more excited. The final result of this film for me is that it’s a good film but needed to be longer and have better action sequences and better fight cinematography.

‘Bullet to the Head’ follows the story of Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) who goes on a revenge rampage, getting teamed up by a cop named Taylor (Sung Kang) to find and capture the man responsible for the death of Bobo’s partner. 

The story to the film is nothing special, it has definitely been done a million times before! However, the story itself at its core was interesting. The way that Jimmy interacts with Taylor, never trusting him was great. I loved that aspect of the film more than anything else in the film, even more than the action or Sylvester Stallone. This part of the story had some depth and I thought that the ending of the film was great, perfectly summing up the friendship and realism of how a criminal and a cop cannot easily become friends. However, as a whole, this film falls short of my expectations. 

My biggest issue with this film is simply the fact that there wasn’t enough action sequences in the film to keep me entertained. For a film that is more about Stallone and his ability to kick ass, I didn’t see too much of him doing that. Sure, Stallone is still as physical as he was back in the 80s but the action sequences were ordinary, bland and not really that exciting except for the film’s final battle involving Jimmy and Keegan (Jason Momoa) This action scene was extremely interesting, violent, intense and just plain awesome demonstrating how brilliant Stallone is even in his 60s. 

However, the issue with this film is that the rest of the film isn’t this engaging. The film itself should’ve been longer, had more bombastic action sequences and should’ve had far better fight choreography. At times, the fight cinematography was pretty poor that it became rather difficult to see what was really going on.

However, as many bad things there are about this film, there are also many good things that certainly work. Stallone does, he is still fantastic and continues to have the same agility as he did back when he was involved with films like Rocky or Rambo. As short as this film was, and even if it fell short of my expectations, I thought the pacing to this film was great. There were some great lines throughout the film and some great moments with Jimmy. Walter Hill did a decent job directing this film that doesn’t need to be seen by all. However, laying aside the criticism, this film is far superior to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘The Last Stand’

Grade- 6/10  

Snitch (2013) review

Dwayne Johnson, aka ‘The Rock’ is known as a big action star but prior to watching this film, I was afraid whether or not he could embody playing an extremely dramatic person and thankfully, he pulls it off quite nicely. Whilst not anything spectacular, Snitch does have an enjoyable and interesting story filled with good drama and Dwayne Johnson’s best performance yet.

Dwayne Johnson plays a man named John Mathews whose son, Jason Collins, has been captured and arrested as part of a 10 year sentence due to storing drugs in his house which a friend, who as part of a bait to reduce his life sentence, had given him. John Mathews must now try to do everything that he can possibly do, without any use of action, to try and reduce his son’s extremely long sentence due to him believing that he is a failing father.

Yet again, the story isn’t anything incredibly special but it certainly does have some great elements, particularly the fantastic drama. This film is most definitely not an action movie, despite having bits of action but more so a drama film that definitely goes in depth with John as a character. It is not just a drama film done for the sake of it, but one could say that it was done with some passion and certainly for that, it pays off nicely. There were particularly heavy emotional scenes that were carried out very well and overall, the story had you feeling sorry for John Mathews.

The emotional core of the film is carried out by Dwayne Johnson who gives his best performance yet. His performance is simply like nothing you’ve seen before, not Toothfairy or G.I Joe! As a character, John Mathews was written well and didn’t come off as an annoying and overly frustrated and impatient man but a relatable and endearing fatherly figure. 

Whilst the movie was definitely enjoyable and providing a great story, there were many things that I didn’t quite accept in the film considering its overall serious and emotional tone. The most important is the action sequences at the end of the film which were definitely not that interesting simply because it didn’t fit with the context of the rest of the film and the tone it had set. Some of these action scenes are nice but simply, don’t add much and just seem like a Hollywood attempt to make this film appeal to a wider audience.

John’s son, whilst innocent, is quite a moron accepting to store drugs given to him by a friend. The fact that all this happens in the first scene of the film and that this idiotic decision is the cause of the film at times, upset me. It just felt like such an illogical move to make and was rather distracting. Had he chosen to not accept the drugs but was somehow delivered to him, I would’ve fully accepted it and his character would’ve been a little more endearing but this foolish decision at times, made me disengaged with his character and his relationship with John.

Whilst the story is always interesting and endearing, the film just feels a little too long especially by the half way mark where several scenes with Daniel James, a friend and co-worker of John’s, are shown and giving much family backstory. Whilst all important to the story, this is truly where the film slows down for me and for a short period of time, I was disengaged from everything else that was happening.

Laying the criticism aside, I personally thought that ‘Snitch’ was a most interesting film that shows that Dwayne Johnson has more of an action ability than what has been shown by him in the past. It was an interesting and well- made film suffering from some unnecessary action scenes, being overlong and having some rather uninteresting characters. 

Grade- 7/10

Side Effects (2013) review

 ‘Side Effects’ is quite possibly, the biggest surprise it didn’t suck film of the year, alongside ‘Beautiful Creatures’ Whilst mystery films were great back in the day, I have grown out of loving mystery films as of late so my expectations for Side Effects were considerably low. Whether it be the low expectations or whether it really be a great mystery film, I really liked Side Effects even if the film was slow, possibly too long and even bland at times.

A young woman named Emily Taylor’s life has gone downhill as she suffers from depression. Following the release from prison of his husband, Martin, played by Channing Tatum, Emily attempts to recreate her life and find happiness but destroys her one chance of happiness by apparently killing him in her sleep due to the side effects of medication she was told to take. From here on in, Side Effects becomes a mystery on what exactly happened and whether or not Emily is guilty of the crime.

Whilst the film is most definitely slow and not fast paced and electrifying as it could’ve been, I must say that Side Effects is an extremely interesting film that keeps you invested in both the story and the characters even if some scenes in the film are bland. The characters in this film are written very well, with much depth given to Emily’s character. This film is a huge shock for me, simply due to how much it explores Emily’s character even though much of it comes late in the film. The exploration of her character early on made me curious as to what happened and what would happen and I thought that was handled very well. To think that this is indeed Steven Soderberg’s final film is rather strange and why he would end with an extremely slow mystery film about a medication with side effects. That said, the direction is good and the writing and musical score is also done well, providing intensity when needed especially early on.

Since the release of 21 Jump Street, people have certainly seem to come and accept Channing Tatum as an actor and in this film, he delivers a solid performance. Going into the film, I feared whether he may not be appropriate for the role considering that he was great in 21 Jump Street, a comedy film and how this is a deeply emotional film. My concerns were forgotten by the end of the film and his performance pleased me once more. Other performances such as those by Jude Law who plays one of the film’s more interesting and energetic characters, Jonathan Banks, the man apparently held responsible to the prescription of the medication and Emily’s psychiatrist, was fantastic. He gave, quite possibly, the best performance in the film. His performance is backed up by solid work by both Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones who respectively play Emily and Siebert, lesbian lovers. In all, the performances were great and definitely not a let down.

As interesting as the story is, I would not lie in saying that this film was fast and exciting. It most definitely wasn’t. It was an extremely slow film that often had me bored early on and whilst the first half was slower, it was probably the better half of the film. These slow moments make for some great intensity and by the end, do not ruin the film but do let it down. Either this film was perhaps a bit too long or this film needed to be longer by removing some of the unnecessary sequences and making it a bit faster and more watchable.

Whilst I certainly really enjoyed Side Effects for the fascinating story it was and the great characters, there is no denying that the film is slow and either overlong or too short. General movie goers would most likely be bored by this film and is most definitely not a film that I would rewatch. That said, it was the biggest surprise of the year thus far for me.

Grade- 8/10- Definitely a more than interesting premise and satisfying by the end of the film. Interesting story and characters but nothing in the film is worthy of rewatching, attempts to recreate Hitchcock's glory days. 

#5- Django Unchained (2012) review

The Last Stand (2013) review

It is shocking to hear that Arnold's return film is a commerical failure and a critical failure. However, after watching the film it is evident as to why. 'The Last Stand' attempts to create some humor and excitement but overall fails with such bland action sequences, a story that takes far too long to set up and by the end, simply isn't satisfying.

This is not Arnold's Terminator 2. Obviously, this is simply a big dumb action film or so it was supposed to be. The Last Stand suffers greatly by having a story that is too heavily focused on the FBI and Forrest Whitaker's side of the story that the Arnold aspect of the film is heavily reduced. Even the scenes that he is in aren't particularly interesting, he is clearly unable to show much physical agility right now. This is most evident towards the film's climax, where he fights the escaped fugitive on a bridge in a fist fight. This scene looks totally laughable, even if his character is supposed to play an aging sheriff. Arnold's inexperience in physical combat clearly pays off in this one on one fight scene.

The story deals with an escaped fugitive who escapes from the FBI. As the FBI continue to pursue this man, the fugitive must pass the Owen's town, where he and a group of friends are ready for action! Definitely a repetitive storyline but the issue isn't the premise. We Arnold fans simply wanted to see him kicking ass in this film but the film attempts to be extremely realistic and so suffers. The best sequences in the film are actually not containing Arnold but instead, the escaped fugitive, the FBI and the fugitive's Ferrari. That is such a pity.

Whilst the Ferrari scenes involving the fugitive eluding the FBI is exciting, none of the action sequences containing Arnold interested me. Most of his story frustrated me as I expected so much more action. All the best action sequences in the film do not contain him, and for a majority of the film, he does not play much of a part. The action  sequences are not necessarily over the top and exciting, they aren't inventive and aren't eye grabbing in any way. To sum up the action in a word would be: BLAND

Arnold Schwarzenegger is by no means a fantastic actor and we know that. He gives good enough performances in some of his films but never has his acting being worse. I would never use this criticism against one of his films but the fact that the story was long and boring, the characters were uninteresting and the fact that most of the action scenes aren't appealing, is when I would criticize his acting. It is truly terrible in the film, making for some of his action sequences hard to watch. The cinematography for these action scenes are also uninteresting and the overuse of digital blood is often distracting. Even then, The Expendable 2 used plenty of digital blood but had extremely engaging action sequences. 

Now, Arnold's performance by no means ruins the movie and I am able to get past that fauly, but the rest of the film I cannot get past. The story is poorly structured, spending far too much time away from Arnold that this may well be called a Forrest Whitaker film, the characters aren't very interesting, even Arnold's character and the action sequences are extremely uninteresting and bland. This is definitely not the big over the top action film I was looking for and definitely not a great Arnold return film. He simply doesn't seem to have the same charisma that he once had, something which Sylvester Stallone has yet to lose. 

Grade- 3.5/10