San Andreas - Californiapocalypse

San Andreas movie review

In the modern generation of Hollywood popcorn flicks, the disaster movie genre has become overused in the recent years of film. I know many people think of 'The Day After Tomorrow' and '2012' just by looking at the title itself, but San Andreas, in my opinion, is more than that. It is a film which is a viably entertaining series of events that leaps from one catastrophe to the absolute destruction of San Francisco. If you ever wanted to witness the San Francisco peninsula get destroyed in an awesome manner, then this is the right film to see it!


As a moviegoer, I usually check the good/bad reviews of a recently-released film to make sure that it is worth watching, but despite seeing the mediocre RT rating of San Andreas, I still went to the cinema and watched it. I was awestruck by the brilliant action and great depiction of the disaster that an earthquake is, followed by a tsunami in this case. It was all unbelievable!

The film is earning a lot and a lot of people turning up to watch this one, but the reviews by critics and on online websites have come down hard on this one for the lack of great or proper plot or story, but to be fair, watching it on the big screen, in 3D, I was so lost in everything that I hardly thought there was anything negative at all to complain about. I know it's just a film after all, but just merely the thought of such disasters and what everyone goes through, the running around to here and there delivers chills to the bone.

Yes, The Rock says every single clichéd action movie line I can remember. And yes, every one is hilariously predictable. Yes, the hot girl is wet and her cleavage is showing for most of the movie. Yes, every shot is crammed with mind-numbing amounts of CGI. Normally that bothers me, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the theatrics in the film.

Even though San Andreas is an exact copy of '2012' in terms of the premise and plot (the main hero undergoing a divorce with the wife, wife starts relationship with other guy, main hero saves family from disaster, other guy gets killed by <whatever>, family is safe from harm, and then main hero reconciles with family), it succeeded in putting me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. All in all, this film deserves all the praise it gets, and I think it is an honourable salute to anyone and everyone involved in rescue and disaster relief. The entertainment provided, does not shroud the seriousness also supplied, and I lost track of how many times I said "Oh my God!" during this amazing cinematic spectacle! 6/10 is the score San Andreas deserves, but not the one it needs right now *IMO*.

Tomorrowland - Disney's Back to the Future

Tomorrowland movie review 

The future, as depicted in notable science-fiction flicks such as 'Back to the Future', can be really exciting due to several high-tech inventions and infrastructure. Other versions such as in Neill Blomkamp's 'Elysium' may not deliver an upbeat tone, as the future depicted is LITERALLY a hellhole full of crime, diseases, and poverty. In Tomorrowland, the future is an abandoned futuristic metropolis with an antagonistic government as its only population. Yes, it shares its name with one of the main areas at Disneyland, but it really is only tangentially related to and inspired by what you’ll find there, with a few interesting visual and dialogue links that will amuse fellow Disneyland fans.

Tomorrowland comes from the notable duo of Brad Bird ('The Iron Giant', 'The Incredibles', 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol') and Damon Lindelof ('Lost', 'The Leftovers'), with Brad directing from a script he co-wrote with Damon (from a story the two developed with Jeff Jensen). In a typically sequel-packed summer, Tomorrowland – despite its loose theme park connections -- feels fresh and new. There’s a ton of imagination at work here, which is only appropriate, since imagination is a theme in the movie. 

 

Brad and Damon have thought of a fully realized world, filled with some really fun and cool retro-future ideas, including creative takes on the idea of killer robots and ray guns that manage to make familiar concepts feel exciting; fans of Bird's work on films like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles will know his skills in that arena. The director also proved to be just as adept doing live-action action as animation when he made the leap in Ghost Protocol and that continues here with some great sequences, such as an extended flashback showing Frank’s own first encounter with Tomorrowland and one in which Casey is under attack, only to be assisted by an unlikely savior. You can feel the joy Damon and Brad must have had coming up with these ideas, including a trip overseas where a famous landmark turns out to hold some huge secrets.

All that being said, Tomorrowland is not the complete home run it could be - and I wish it was. Surprisingly, especially given how well Ghost Protocol moved, there’s something off on the pacing here. Some of the scenes are a bit sluggish and don’t have the energy and sense of childlike awe you feel Bird was going for, even as other scenes are completely engrossing.

The ending is also a mixed bag, with some really entertaining beats intermixed with a villain/master plan reveal that feels halfhearted, when you consider this character could have been used in a much more significant and meaningful manner.

"How is this a good idea?" "Because we have to go back, Casey!"

There is an important history between Frank and Athena in the film that drives a lot of the emotional component of the story. It’s a somewhat daring bit of storytelling because while it makes complete sense within the sci-fi framework of Tomorrowland and how and why Athena can show up looking the same age she was when Frank first met her -- when he was a child -- it’s still difficult to not think, “Well, that’s George Clooney, having recollections and big dramatic and emotional moments involving his almost-romantic connection with a young girl.” It's strange, though I think it works within the context of the story and it never goes to a creepy place – this is a Disney movie! But it's odd to be sure, and I'm guessing it's going to cause a lot of conversations.

Tomorrowland has its flaws, yet it’s also a compelling movie, with a lot of cool ideas. Damon Lindelof has a reputation, deserved or not, as a writer who doesn’t pay off the big concepts he introduces, but that’s not the case here. This is, at its core, meant to be a movie for all ages, with an optimistic heart – but one with plenty of danger and excitement and, yes, death, along the way, as the consequences are real for these characters. It certainly is a pretty rough PG, and I feel like without the Disney label, it wouldn’t have gotten away with that rating. Tomorrowland, in my opinion, deserves a satisfactory rating of 6/10.

Mad Max: Fury Road - MAD Indeed!

Mad Max: Fury Road movie review

 

I am no fan of the Mad Max movie franchise, but I have seen the 1st Mad Max and 1/2 of Mad Max 2 & 3 on television. For as long as 30 years, several people last saw Mad Max on the big screen when Beyond Thunderdome was released, and a lot of changes have happened since then. Not just in what passes for action franchise movie-making today, but also in the world of the post-apocalyptic anti-hero himself. Mel Gibson, the former titular character with the black leather jacket with a tragic past, has now been replaced with English actor Tom Hardy in what is now an ageless role.

When we first meet Hardy’s Max, he’s seemingly stuck somewhere between The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome -- still in command of his iconic supercharged V8 from the former film, but also sporting the long locks of the latter. A chase begins almost immediately -- a mere appetizer for the feature-length pursuit that makes up the guts of Fury Road -- and results in Max being held captive in the Citadel, the mountaineous headquarters of the ghastly Immortan Joe.

Instead of execution, Max's punishment must be more severe!

The ambiguous backstory has been a hallmark for George Miller's series, and this enables him to reset Fury Road effectively. Is this a remake, a reboot, a sequel, or a fusion of all three? It does not matter at that point. The world painted here is reminiscent of that imagined in the previous films, and at the same next level. It took the evolution of the End of the World to its next logical, jarring, yet at times beautiful place.

Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa is a high-ranking warlord of Immortan Joe’s army. The protagonist of the movie, she goes on the run from Joe alongside his Five Wives on a specially-designed War Rig. Max’s equal in physicality, driving skills, and tortured past, the one-armed Furiosa stands at the forefront of a cast full of imposing female characters that also includes “The Wives” -- and a group of gun-wielding, dirt-bike riding grannies who almost steal the show. Of course, Miller has often excelled in such portrayals.
 

Decent movie and all, but someone should've told Charlize she had sh*t on her face the whole time.

What I loved the most about the film is the eye-gouging action sequences, so this means audiences are witnessing non-CGI visual effects on the screen. From several cars crashing and flying in the air to a tanker truck exploding right in front of your face, there is nothing more that anybody could demand for in this action flick! Combined with the feral Australian outback setting and the post-apocalyptic ambience, it is a rollercoaster ride filled with mad action, mad violence, and mad intensity.

Fury Road frequently undermines such expectations. Not that any Mad Max fan would anticipate (or want) romance for the character, but Miller works hard to keep the viewer off-balance in general. A particular arc involving one of The Wives sets up a storytelling trope, then does a 180-degree turn away from that, then sets up another trope before doing yet another 180. And this is all capped off by one of the secondary villains, Nathan Jones' perfectly named Rictus Erectus, delivering a moment of genuine pathos as he yells plaintively into the wind. Brilliant.
  

What a lovely day indeed!

I do wonder how the typical moviegoer will react to Fury Road’s unwillingness to play by 2015’s mainstream multiplex rules. But the trailers for this film have not lied; the action is insane, even more so when one considers that so much of it was achieved through practical means, and that a large part of the movie is made up of that central chase.

The over-the-top stunts and eccentric characters and designs are all hugely important to Fury Road, as are the troubled figures like Max himself and Furiosa, but it’s the overriding sense of the film’s uniqueness. Like the world it creates, it is a thing of beautiful brutality.
Mad Max: Fury Road, from my perspective, undoubtedly and definitely deserves an outstanding rating of 9/10!

Avengers: Age of Ultron - A MARVEL of a Movie!

Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review

I started to become a fan of the superhero film genre ever since I watched The Incredible Hulk on the big screen, which persuaded me to go see later superhero movies at the cinema. At first, I thought that those kind of movies were just a form of mindless escapism, but then I realized that they were more than that. They're exploring the superheroes' backgrounds through dramatic storytelling and action-packed sequences, and that is what I like the most about Marvel movies. So now, I would be giving out about my thoughts on 'Age of Ultron'.

To begin, I was simply astonishined of how the sequel managed to recapture the magic and excitement when Earth's Mightiest Heroes were assembled onscreen for the first time, especially when they appeared in each others' films in the last couple of years. Still, as far as sequels go, -- not traditionally Marvel Studios' strongest entries until Captain America: The Winter Soldier -- Avengers: Age of Ultron is a solid and entertaining followup.

It's ironic because Disney bought Marvel! (if you know what I mean)

It's a small miracle that Age of Ultron doesn't collapse under its own weight.  But ultimately the film's laden with numerous moving parts, some of which call attention to its story mechanics and forced elements.

While 'Age of Ultron' is often comedic with Ultron having his fair share of laughs, the story has an ominous core. This stems from what Scarlet Witch shows most of the superheroes: ''visions'' which simultaneously travel back to the heroes' backstories, from Black Widow's Salt-like past and Captain America's further establishment as a man out of time, while also foreshadowing events for Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3 films. These revelations begin to show the cracks within the ranks of the team, but it's ultimately the actions of Stark that causes most of the bad blood between team members.
 

My reaction to the Bruce/Natasha romantic subplot

Yes, Natasha now has an interest for Banner, a romance which seems to come completely out of the blue given the aloof nature of her character and her past closeness to both Cap and Hawkeye. We're supposed to believe that they each see themselves as cold-blood assassins so that's the basis for their bond, but the whole star-crossed lovers angle just feels forced.

The widening gap between Cap and Stark seems to set up the main element for Captain America: Civil War and we also get a sense of which Avengers will be on which side of that looming battle.

An epic brofist...of SCIENCE!

The Avenger's new additions, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Vision, all get their moments to shine in the spotlight. Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver is definitely a secondary character, but his and his sister Wanda's past drives their evolution from antagonists to Avengers. Olsen makes the most of what she can with Scarlet Witch, a role that doesn't really allow her to show much range until the homestretch.

OK, enough about our heroes. What about the titular villain?  As portrayed by Spader, Ultron is as brilliant as his egotistical co-inventor Stark. He's more a doppleganger to Tony -- one wants to destroy humanity, the other wants to save it -- than the Pinocchio to his Geppetto despite what the film's use of that classic Disney song would have you think. Spader's Ultron owns the screen whenever he's on it. Loki may be the most charismatic MCU villain and the Winter Soldier the most physically intimidating, but Ultron offers a perfect cocktail of the former's charm and the latter's aggression.

Ultimately, Avengers: Age of Ultron can't recapture the charm and majesty of seeing Earth's Mightiest Heroes assembled for the first time. That said, it's still a lot of fun and offers plenty of great action and character moments. Although the movie wasn't as thrilling as the first installment, I would still rate this movie an 8/10!

I literally cheered when I saw this!

Star Trek review coming soon!

What's up people! Sometime this month, I will be releasing a Star Trek review which some of you may have known through my Instagram, but if not then you'll be aware of it in this post.

Next month, otherwise known as the start of the season of summer movies, expect reviews of highly-anticipated blockbusters on this blog such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mad Max: Fury Road. Until then, keep posted on more details for the coming month!

Furious 7 - A Heartwarming Farewell

Furious 7 movie review  

Even after Paul Walker's sudden, tragic death, audiences worldwide have been anticipating the latest installment of the franchise for nearly 2 years. Like any other F&F movie, it is mostly about defying physics, fast cars, and high-octane action sequences. Having written that, it also managed to pay tribute to the late celebrity in a unique send-off.

In Furious 7, Dom's crew are now seen living ordinary lives after the events of the previous film when Owen Shaw's brother, Deckard, enters as the film's Winter Soldier when he carries out an assassination on former crew member Han in urban Tokyo. After Deckard nearly succeeds on killing DSS agent Luke Hobbs, Dom is forced to recruit his team for one last ride against Shaw.
 

Earn that paycheck, Tyrese!

The plot of Furious 7, I would say, is slightly scrambled. It is a plot where the crew are shuttling between L.A., Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi and back, with the wall-to-wall action sequences in between being long enough for Tyrese Gibson to crack a joke or Vin Diesel wooing Michelle Rodriguez' character who's still experiencing amnesia. This includes a heart-throbbing scene when the antagonists skydive with cars from high up onto a mountain range. It seems unrealistic, but what can I say, it's just Fast & Furious after all.

Kurt Russell is introduced as Mr. Nobody, a mysterious government official, when he offers the crew to obtain God's Eye, the supercomputer from The Dark Knight invented by Ramsey. I thought it served as an intriguing plot device, but in the story itself it is inadvertently nonsensical. Furious 7 does cut back on the overcomplicated plot, horror movie director James Wan does try to flex on high-budget, adrenaline-fueled action.

Ocean's Eleven 2.0

I was almost lost just by watching the climax, as the fight sequences were all interconnected but lousily arranged. The rest of the crew split up to allow Ramsey shut down God's eye, Dom dealing with his 'business' with Shaw, with Hobbs leaving the hospital to save the team, and can cut away randomly at any time.

Despite the movie indulges in one or two action sequences too many, I thought the tribute was well-executed with a touching speech and clips of PW from previous movies. I didn't even try to think of a better ending after the 1st and 2nd viewing.

If only Dom had shot Shaw in the first place, this movie would've ended in 5 minutes.

For the sake of Paul Walker, I will be rating Furious 7 a satisfactory score of 7.5/10!

Last but not least, I just want to share a Furious 7 TV spot which nearly moved me to tears:

SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water - The Cartoon Avengers?

SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water movie review

As a huge fan to both the original series and the first ever Spongebob movie released in 2004, I was quite glad to hear of the long-awaited sequel "Sponge Out of Water". I can try and shake off my fandom towards the series, but then admittedly the SpongeBob cartoon is intended to be entertaining for all age groups that contains very clever elements to it. What I've noticed is that it still uses the classic cartoon tradition of "one character annoys the hell out of another character".

To start off this review,  I would say that Sponge Out of Water is a family movie of moderate quality. It has got a few surreal, comedic moments, but also a few of them a huge heaping mess. I know, it is unusual to criticize something like this to be untethered, but when it prevents the plot to feel the way it should you felt like you received a mixture of various SpongeBob episodes cramped into one feature film.

The plot, however, was loaded with *ahem* clichés. I know several Hollywood blockbusters I can think of which do this, such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier a.k.a my favorite movie. The "secondary-protagonist-dies-but-not-really' and the "primary-protagonist's-best-friend-gets-brainwashed" clichés actually entertained me, but what I'm saying is that the movie has unfortunately not succeeded in being original. In my opinion, if another SpongeBob sequel is under development, I would hope for it to possess an original plot.

Was it SpongeBob who got the idea of filling the script with clichés?

Don't get me wrong, I completely enjoyed the character's performances. The movie made use of most of the show's ensemble, like Mr. Crabs (Clancy Brown), Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), and Sandy Squirrel (Carolyn Lawrence). Also, in place with SpongeBob's previous pairing with his ever-faithful companion Patrick Star is the alliance he formed with the miniscule series villain Plankton. It is a matter that has been discovered many times on the series before, but it is still a lot of fun and excitement here.

As for the visuals, the live-action/ animation 3D hybrid was executed perfectly through a technical point-of-view. I found nothing incomplete from the CG. However, it still places 2nd to "The Lego Movie", the movie with stop-motionesque animation that was rendered thoroughly and complicatedly.

Great, another superhero team!

 To conclude, Spongebob: Sponge Out of Water brings every series character together which feels like a true ensemble with a scoop of comedic, dramatic, and goofy moments. But also it feels like it ran down a kitchen sink that makes it a collection of great ideas thrown together like clay. Having written all that, I would give this film a highly agreeable score of a 7.5/10!