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

Avatar (2009) review

I may have been the only person up until now to never have seen Avatar, not because I haven’t had time but simply because, I just didn’t feel it was necessary. I had loved James Cameron’s earlier films (Terminator, Aliens and T2) and whilst True Lies was a good fun film, it was overlong. The same can be said about Titanic and it was by this point that I came to realize that James Cameron was one of the most overrated directors in the business. I can now say that Avatar joins his list of overrated films giving us nothing but visuals to drool at.

A group of marines are sent down to a planet called Pandora in search for some precious material and paraplegic Jake Sully is one of them since he becomes a replacement for his dead brother. Here, Jake begins to bond with the native Na’vis as he learns about their lifestyle and falls in love with Neytiri whilst failing to obey orders given to him.

Here is a premise that has been done before but the issue to Avatar arises with James Cameron and his overuse of CGI to dazzle his audiences. Since 2009, it has become absurd to think how people have truly fallen in love with this film hailing it as one of the greatest ever! This has always annoyed me but having seen the movie, this is absurd. If the visual effects to Avatar weren’t as dazzling and there was no 3D to marvel at, then you have a movie that is absolutely nothing special. Whilst I am not criticizing the visuals, the story is so poorly told and the characters are stereotypical, with none of the characters coming off as interesting in the slightest. Even Neytiri, who we as an audience should be able to connect to, comes off as rather irritating. Whilst Cameron’s earlier films, mainly the first two Terminator films and Aliens were able to convey emotion effortlessly making it very subtle and natural, Avatar truly overdoes it making many of the sequences involving the natives mourning rather laughable.

Though audiences have drooled about the visuals and the 3D effects, I myself saw no true brilliance about each whether it was due to the fact that I knew the overuse of CGI or whether it was the fact that I was able to concentrate on the story and characters. The film itself is paced quite poorly and inconsistently. The first hour drags along as Jake attempts to get in with the natives and the last hour and a half suddenly becomes a much livelier and more action packed feast than it was before. The problem with this is that the first half of the film doesn’t provide much about Jake Sully to truly care for him and too much is given about Neytiri and her people that it comes to the point where it becomes rather difficult to take in anymore. This is overkill!

Even with the poor story and attempt to overly humanize the Na’vi by providing possibly too  much story, the action sequences towards the end of this film are truly engaging even if the characters in them aren’t. It is mindless eye candy thrown onto the screen simply because Cameron knew that there was no way that the film would be received the same without a huge ‘Helm’s Deep’ of his own. Whilst ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ had an engaging story, relatable characters, great character development, great performances, strong writing and directing that eventually deserves to be payed off with a huge action feast, Avatar rarely accomplishes any of the following I listed and so the huge action feast at the end is Cameron’s way of attempting to erase his audience’s mind of all the poor things about this film.

I am rather surprised to say this but most of the performances in the film come off as extremely poor when compared to Cameron’s other films such as Aliens which had some of his better performances by actors. Sam Worthington isn’t anything special as Jake Sully. I am still unsure on who to blame for not being able to like Jake. Sigourney Weaver, surprisingly, gives an extremely poor performance when compared with her performances in the Alien franchise. Most of the performances were extremely weird making the characters they played hard for me to take in seriously.

Those who simply praise the brilliant visuals and simply forget about the poor story and poor character development are those who do not truly think about this film and give it a simple pass for its revolutionary visuals. I just ask of them to view the film had the visuals not being at the standard that they were. As a young George Lucas once said, “Visual effects are used to tell a story. Special effects without a story is a pretty boring thing!” We all know what became of this man later in his life but this is a principle that James Cameron himself followed, until Avatar came along.  

Grade- 3/10

TIED for #3- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

#3- Star Wars (1977) review

Since its release, ‘Star Wars’ has easily become one of the most beloved films of all time and is regarded as one of the most revolutionary films of all time. Even though the ‘Star Trek’ TV Show and a few films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ had been released prior to the release of ‘Star Wars’, there is no denying that ‘Star Wars’ has placed a much larger impact on cinema. When taking a look at iconic and memorable films, ‘Star Wars’ ranks amongst the very highest. 

The story to ‘Star Wars’ is one that every single human on Earth knows. A young farmer boy named Luke Skywalker has hopes of fighting for the Rebellion against the evil Empire but one day, with the help of a Jedi master named Ben Kenobi, realizes that he is to become something of much more value and importance to the galaxy. He eventually agrees to go to a planet named Alderaan to deliver two droids, sent by the princess of Alderaan, with the crucial information to the technical readouts of an Imperial battle station with the potential of wiping out entire planets. Realizing that this planet is already destroyed and are suddenly caught in by a tractor beam coming from the Death Star. Here, it becomes both a survival and rescue mission as the princess is discovered to be kept captive here.

  

Every film has its strength and the biggest strength to ‘Star Wars’ is not in the incredibly breath taking action sequences or the stunning visual effects or even the incredibly inspirational story but in the characters itself. Every single main character of the ‘Star Wars’ original trilogy have now become household items whether it be Luke, Han, Leia, Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, Ben Kenobi or even characters who appear later, most notably Yoda. Each character is so energetic and even if the performances aren’t the greatest, there’s no denying that these characters have placed a huge impact on cinema. When watching these films, it is so easy to get distracted and confused to thinking that these characters are your family as their importance and love for one another is unable to be summed up in words. The bonds formed between characters in this series is legendary and the way everything was set up in this 1977 epic, is beyond my belief! 

The gorgeous and stunning visual effects continue to shock audiences across the world. No film had dared to go into visual effects to the extent of ‘Star Wars’ and to the absolute depth. To simply think that no CGI was involved but everything was made out of props and various other practical effects is astounding. Even to this day, every effect looks incredible. Those who complain that the original Star Wars films have bad effects in today’s books and that the original trilogy needs to be re-hashed are drunken morons. To top off incredible visual effects follows exciting and intense action sequences though a little silly at times, especially shootout scenes involving Imperial Stormtroopers! That said, all the action is still exciting even upon re-watches and the space battles are once more, astounding.

  

Not all the performances in this film are amazing. Mark Hamill, at the time was just getting a name in the movie industry, and so his performance isn’t always amazing. Even, Carrie Fisher delivers a good performance but not a fantastic one as these two actors would prove in later Star Wars films to give. Harrison Ford, is however the shining knight in armor of the trio and gives such an energetic and charming performance and is able to perfectly mix in wit and humour with arrogance and selfishness! The best performance of the film would most likely be that from Sir Alec Guiness, whose portrayal of Obi-wan Kenobi is so serious and so realistic that whenever he is on screen, he gives such a look of confusion yet experience from his past with Anakin Skywalker. When talking about ‘Star Wars’, not many people seem to give much reference to British legend, Peter Cushing and the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones! These three performances are utterly fantastic and add such intensity and seriousness to the film. 

Anyone who reviews Star Wars without referring to and dedicating enough space to John Williams’ most iconic and best of all his legendary musical scores, truly fails. John Williams is, undeniably, the greatest musical composer to ever grace cinema. None are better than his musical score of ‘Star Wars’, which is argued to be the greatest of all time. His musical score is exciting, it’s sad, shows adventure and friendship like no other soundtrack has ever before and is the most breathable soundtrack ever. When lines such as ‘The force will be with you, always!” or “Use to the force, Luke!” have so much more power with Williams’ legendary musical score. His musical score takes it to a whole new level, and surely, without this iconic piece of music, Star Wars just would not be the same. Try to imagine the opening title crawl without the music!

  

Everything that needs to be said about Star Wars has been said a million times before, but my love for Star Wars clearly needs to be expressed, especially considering that Star Wars isn’t a childhood film for me. To think that one can still love one of these childhood favorites with no nostalgic feelings, is unbelievable. 

Grade- 10/10- One of the most magical films ever made! 

#6- The Matrix (1999) review

#9- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) review

Simply said, Terminator 2 is one of the greatest sequels of all time. James Cameron knew exactly what to do with Terminator 2 and that is to get a bigger budget, a deeper and bigger story, more characters, better action sequences and an iconic villain. 

In Terminator 2, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the T-800 from the original Terminator film whilst Robert Patrick plays the T-1000, the most deadly terminator to ever live....Forget about the T-X..that simply did not happen! Two terminators were sent back in time, one to kill John and one to strike out his mother before John was born. John Connor managed to re-program one of the terminators to save him on this particular moment. 

This is why the story is simply so much bigger in Terminator 2. It is so much more grander, a more visual and technical achievement and features a surprisingly good enough performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose T-800 is still intimidating even if he is the good guy. Robert Patrick does a good job playing the T-1000 and he brings a certain intensity to the film. Linda Hamilton is absolutely terrific in this film as Sarah Connor and Edward Furlong is definitely great at playing her son John, despite some moments where he is rather weak in acting. 

Visually, Terminator 2 is an amazing achievement in cinema. It features incredible T-1000 special effects that still stand out today. The action sequences in Terminator 2 are more entertaining than they were in the original. Scenes such as the T-1000 chasing John Connor on truck, to Arnold fighting the T-1000 in the mall stand out as amazing. But the greatest stuff in the film comes right at the end, in the last 15 minutes which is full of iconic moments that were beautifully shot and has some incredible suspense. 

Terminator 2 is definitely a more realistic film than the original and features some incredibly emotional sequences throughout the film. The scene where Sarah learns that Miles Dyson is the man who will one day be responsible for building Skynet and thus, destroy mankind is amazing. Her mission to then kill this man is an amazing moment as Sarah herself, was becoming a Terminator. That was a fantastic character arc right there and the themes and questions that this film tackles are absolutely fantastic. Terminator 2 has these type of scenes that make the characters all the more interesting. The best part of the film isn't the action or the effects but instead the fatherly bond that the T-800 grows for John and the T-800 becoming more human throughout the film. This was absolutely brilliant and when it comes to the end of the film, it makes it that much more emotional.
 
In the end, 'Terminator 2' is one of the all time great sequels improving upon every minor weakness by the original and making it a simply grander and more entertaining film! James Cameron certainly did know how to make sequels. 

Grade- 10/10 
 

Star Trek (2009) review

I am not always a fan of reboots, except in the case of Batman Begins and Star Trek. Reboots often do  not work simply because no level of respect or homage is shown to some of the previous installments, but JJ Abrams made Star Trek in a way that every film with the original cast of the 80s and 90s were relevant and simply occured during that time. Now, that is purely brilliant!

By now, I've come to strongly dislike The New Generations films and have strongly disliked 2 of the old crew films. Star Trek is one that, not only do I enjoy, but I just love it so much. Currently, I am making a top 25 favorite films list and had I not being half done, Star Trek would make a place in my top 25! 

Spoilers throughout: Star Trek  begins with a sequence regarding James T. Kirk's parents, who are aboard a spaceship called the Kelvin, which is suddenly under attack by Romulans following a lightning strike in space. George Kirk, father of James, is put as captain of the Kelvin and within the 12 minutes of captain, he saved the lives of 800 people by allowing them to escape whilst taking his life to defend them. In this ensuing chaos, James T. Kirk is born and his mother is able to escape. This was "the" perfect start to a Star Trek film, carefully and brilliantly telling us a little about how Kirk was born and what his father was like. This makes all the more sense and all the maturity into previous installments when we realize that Kirk is actually attempting to live up to his father's heroics. This sequence was the perfect way for JJ Abrams to have his audience completely engaged in the story by providing amazing visuals and action scenes and extremely well done storytelling. 


'Star Trek' then tells the story about James T. Kirk who tries to live up to his father's legacies and become who his father would've wanted him to be whilst Vulcan Spock decides to not attend the Vulcan Science Academy, regardless of his extreme wisdom, but instead attend Starfleet as an officer. This was fantastic! The scenes with Vulcan early on were absolutely necessary and brilliantly done, paying complete respect to Spock from the earlier films and TV shows. 

If this film has any issue for me, it is actually the villain who is definitely a tad weak and not extremely threatening. Thankfully, this is made up by fantastic writing and direction, mindblowing visual effects and action sequences and an extremely emotional storyline that dwells deep into the characters of Kirk and Spock. Whilst everyone liked Spock and Kirk from the old films, never was there any depth to the characters to this extent and so, when JJ Abrams decides to add extreme depth to his characters, it could either work or not. In this case, it worked and worked brilliantly.  



Though for most of the time, I regretted watching every previous Star Trek film, by now I am completely pleased by this. Not only does it flesh out the characters more but it makes for a more mindblowing and entertaining experience. None of the other Star Trek films were this fast, this action packed or this mindblowing for its time period. However, the best thing about the film is the relationship between Spock and Kirk, who are portrayed absolutely brilliantly by much younger and much more active actors, Zachary Quint and Chris Pine. The way they become friends throughout the course of the film is done extremely well and in a realistic manner as is the rest of this film. More specifically, one of the best aspects of the film is how JJ Abrams had a character called 'Spock Prime' who is portrayed by Leonard Nimoy from the old Star Trek films. This character was extremely interesting and the way they incorporated him as a man from the future, which clearly tells us that the events in 'Wrath of Khan' take place due to the fact that Spock Prime recites the lines "I have and shall always be, your friend!" Lines that are direct references to Wrath of Khan, my second favorite Trek film, were a delight to be heard in this film! 



If any director needs to learn how to reboot a film, it is most definitely essential to get a tutoring class by JJ Abrams, who has successfully turned a slow and vastly inconsistent film franchise into an epic reboot that is much more lively, visually stunning and action packed. Every actor does play their part really well, even those such as Simon Pegg and Zoe Saldana. Star Trek is most definitely my favorite movie of the year and one of my top 5 favorite films of that decade. 

Grade- 10/10 
Mindblowing in every aspect. Quite possibly, the greatest reboot of all time.