After such franchises as Shrek and Madagascar, the Kung Fu Panda series has proven to be yet another major money maker for famed animation studio Dreamworks with the first movie becoming a surprise hit and its first sequel surpassing it. But recently, Dreamworks has gone through some massive restructuring with many animators being laid off and many of their movies jumping back and forth between release dates.
So when this movie finally landed in the dreaded month of January, I (and possibly others) was concerned. Not that every movie that comes out in January is bad, but the month itself is notorious for being the dumping grounds for some of the worst cinematic dog shit people have to suffer through (I'm looking at you Norm of the North and Fifty Shades of Black). But, now that Kung Fu Panda 3 has come along, will it carry on the proud legacy of its predecessors or will it be an embarrassment on the same level as Shrek the Third? Well, let's take a look.
So Kung Fu Panda 3 follows Po as Master Shifu passes on the mantle of teacher to him, only for him to prove to be terrible at teaching. Po also gets a surprise visit from his long lost father who takes him to a hidden panda sanctuary. But trouble is on the horizon as an evil spirit named Kai has broken out of the Spirit Realm after collecting the chi of former Kung Fu masters and it's up to Po to teach his fellow pandas about Kung Fu in order to take on Kai.
Now it's been almost a full 5 years since we last had a Kung Fu Panda movie and I was really excited to see where the story was going to head after the cliffhanger ending of the last one. So what were my thoughts on the movie? It's actually a really great addition to the series.
The story works out much in the same way that Kung Fu Panda 2 did as it furthers the story rather than just rehashing details that we've already seen before like most other sequels do. But, at the same time, it also throws in plenty of nods and references to its predecessors that I found to be very entertaining.
Moving on to the animation in the movie, it is GORGEOUS to look at. I've noticed over the course of each movie that the animation gets increasingly better with each entry. They don't even just use CG animation but also incorporate silk screen art and paintings for several scenes. I also really loved the animation that they used to portray the Spirit Realm it's just too beautiful to put into words. This movie was a co-production between Dreamworks Animation and Shanghai based company Oriental Dreamworks and the animation really shows the collaboration.
The action, like in the first 2 movies, is great as usual as well as an important message about being yourself rather than trying to be like others. The movie even delves into some Eastern teachings regarding "chi" as the life force that flows through living things. The comedy was well on point as one would come to expect from Kung Fu Panda. I was laughing well throughout the majority of this movie.
And finally, the villain, Kai, proved to be a very formidable adversary as an ancient spirit who has the ability to take away a Kung Fu master's chi and summon them as, as Po calls them, "Jade Zombies" or "Jombies". For my money, I still think that Lord Shen was a better villain overall but Kai was definitely better than Tai Lung from the first one. I remembered reading from somewhere that the creators were trying to go with a different class of villain for each movie. The first movie had Tai Lung, the brawler villain, the second one had Lord Shen, the cunning villain, and this had Kai, the supernatural villain. I feel like this was very intelligent planning on their part.
However, even with these positive things to say about it, this movie isn't without its faults. There was one scene early on where, after Po failed with teaching, certain characters were making fun of him behind his back. I couldn't help but think to myself "Didn't we already get this out of our system in the first one with the Furious 5 making fun of him failing training? Haven't the last 2 movies proven how great he is? Why are we going through this again?" It just seemed very repetitive and unnecessary.
There's also another moment later on where they use the "Liar Revealed" cliche, which I believe to be the poison of kid's movies, and it is soo annoying to endure. I would've mentioned this as a spoiler except for the fact that I saw it coming from a mile away and I was just waiting and waiting for it to finally come up and for them to get over it.
And the last issue that I had with it, and this is really pretty minor, was this message that comes in close to the end about doing bad things as a way of what's best for someone. I dunno. Something about that kind of rubs me the wrong way and maybe some others feel pretty similar about it. Still, I'm not them.
Overall, Kung Fu Panda 3 is another solid entry in the franchise, continuing the story properly while giving us the same great action, comedy, and characters we've come to expect from the series. I've heard Dreamworks' CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, say that there are plans to make 3 more sequels to bring the series to a total of 6 films and, if this movie does really well, I'd like to see where they decide to go next. For those reasons, I give Kung Fu Panda 3 a 4/5 stars. Don't let the fact that this movie came out in January fool you. Take the kids, take a date, hell, go see it by yourself if you have the free time. This movie deserves all the support it can get.
And that was my review of Kung Fu Panda 3 and, as usual, I'd like to know what your thoughts are about this movie. Feel free to comment below and stay tuned. In 2 weeks, I'll be releasing my review for the long anticipated Deadpool movie. Until then, keep loving movies you guys. Later.
Hey everyone. David here again just dropping in to let y'all know of some new developments as of recently. First off is that I'm pretty much all set for the Midwest Media Expo this coming April. My parents bought the 3 Day Pass for me for my birthday as well as giving me some extra money to go towards food, I booked my reservation at the hotel just last month, and finally I booked my flight to and from Detroit a week or 2 ago. Now all I have to do is wait for the weekend that the Expo finally happens. April can't come fast enough.
In addition to that, I have some news on the job front. Just yesterday, I had a brief phone interview with the manager of one of my local Starbucks' in Springfield and he wants me to come in for a face to face interview tomorrow at 11:00 AM. Hopefully, this'll end up leading to an actual job. Any and all prayers would be greatly appreciated at this time.
Aside from that, the only other thing that comes to mind is that my grandma left for Georgia last Thursday after spending the past several moths with us. She says that she'll be back sometime around March or April, which I'm definitely looking forward to. My uncle and his family (who my grandma is currently visiting) are trying to see if he can get time off to come up here sometime in the spring, but as of now there's nothing to report on.
Anyways, I hope you guys had a great Christmas and New Years and I'll see you on the next blog post. Later.
What is it about plot twists in movies that fascinates soo many people? They've been around for several decades and yet, even with some of the more terribly executed ones, people never seem to tire of them. Why is this? Because they're constantly both entertaining and surprising, that's why. They catch you off your guard and cause you to question what you've been seeing this whole time. This is often why some of the greatest plot twists need to be viewed multiple times to be fully understood and you often enjoy figuring out those small details that you might have missed during the first viewing.
Like I've said before, not all plot twists are properly executed, but the few that are are too good to pass up. So, with that said, I'm going to be counting down my Top 6 Favorite Movie Plot Twists. For this list, I'm going to be focusing on plot twists that I've personally seen so if you don't see one of your favorites on this list, I'm sorry. Another thing to point out is the fact that some of the more popular twists might be ranked relatively lower, but that is simply on account of the fact that they were spoiled for me before I could see them.
Finally, it almost goes without saying that these plot twists reveal major plot elements to the stories they come from so if you haven't seen any of these movies, SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! With that said, I'll reveal the movie title first and then the plot twist itself below the poster. So with all that out of the way, sit back and enjoy my Top 6 Favorite Movie Plot Twists.
VI. War Of The Worlds (2005)
Plot Twist: Bacteria kills off the aliens.
War Of The Worlds was a movie that I really wanted to see many years ago, but I didn't know it was based off of a popular novel by H.G. Wells. I ended up reading the book before seeing the movie and I found both entertaining, especially their plot twists. Aliens, believed to have come from Mars, start a full scale invasion on Earth, attacking its major cities. After countless days of fighting back against the aliens to no avail, the aliens suddenly start dropping like flies. The reason for this: their immune systems hadn't developed immunities to the microbes in our atmosphere. Simple germs that mankind over thousands of years have grown immune to these aliens end up suffering fatally from.
I was really shocked and pissed off to find out that WatchMojo.com had this plot twist in the "Dishonorable Mentions" category of their Top 10 Worst Movie Plot Twists video (Go read a fucking book you dumbasses). I thought that it was pretty decent and I didn't see it coming. The reason why I put it this low on the list, though, is because I was technically introduced to it through the book before the movie. I know it might be cheating, but this is my list and I'm certainly proud to start it off with this.
V. The Book Of Eli
Plot Twist: Eli is actually blind.
Many of you probably know from past posts that I'm a huge sucker for anything Post-Apocalyptic and The Book Of Eli is no exception. The plot centers around the titular character (played by Denzel Washington) making his way across the scorched wasteland that is America to deliver the last remaining copy of the Bible to a secure location, fighting anyone who gets in his way with relative ease. But the villainous leader of a small town named Carnegie (Gary Oldman), is seeking that very book in order to use it to rule over everyone. He eventually gets his hands on it (getting fatally injured in the process) while Eli continues on to his destination where he has someone transcribe the entire Bible which he had memorized. And Carnegie? Well, after finally opening the Bible he stole, he discovers that it's written entirely in Braille. That's right. Eli was blind this whole time.
This is a twist that I found particularly interesting as I feel like it brings up a lot of questions about faith, particularly about walking by faith and not by sight. It was definitely something that I never expected.
IV. Unbreakable
Plot Twist: Elijah Price (AKA Mr. Glass) is the villain.
M. Night Shyamalan has certainly been the butt of many jokes for quite a while now (although there are many who believe he's returned to form with his recent movie The Visit), but many people forget how great he used to be back at the turn of the millennium and Unbreakable is a very good example of that.
Bruce Willis' character is the sole survivor of a train crash, walking away without a scratch. Filled with questions about what happened to himself and why he was the only one to walk away unharmed, he meets Elijah Price (Samuel L. "Mothafuckin" Jackson), a man who suffers from a rare condition that causes his bones to break easily, earning him the nickname "Mr. Glass". He reveals to Willis that he lives in a world of heroes and villains and that he has abilities (super strength, invulnerability, and the ability to sense when people have committed crimes through physical contact with them) and even a weakness (water) much like any other superhero. Elijah serves as his mentor throughout the film until the end where Willis touches his outstretched hand and discovers the shocking truth: Elijah was the cause of many disasters, including the train crash Willis was in, resulting in the deaths of countless innocents in his attempt to find the indestructible hero, the yang to his yin if you will.
Unbreakable was a movie that I didn't end up seeing until around 2006-2007, years after it came out and I'm surprised that I managed to go that long without having the ending spoiled for me. Even people who have mixed feelings about the movie in general can't deny that this was a very cleverly put together surprise.
III. Wreck-It Ralph
Plot Twist: King Candy was Turbo this whole time.
Of all the movies to have a plot twist in them, a Disney movie was the one I was least expecting. But we got a doozy of one with Wreck-It Ralph. When Ralph "game jumps" in an attempt to get a medal, the term "going Turbo" is brought up by several characters. It's soon revealed that the phrase was coined when a video game character named Turbo, the hero of racing game Turbo Time, abandoned his game to try to take over another racing game that stole his thunder, resulting in both games and himself being put "Out Of Order"... or so everyone else thought. During the race in Sugar Rush, glitch Vanellope ends up in a fight with King Candy, who it was revealed took over Sugar Rush after attempting to delete Vanellope's code (as she was originally a racer) resulting in her becoming a glitch. During the fight, Vanellope touches King Candy and starts glitching out, which results in the revelation that King Candy was actually Turbo.
Unlike most movies on my list, this one I had the pleasure of enjoying in a theater. The first time I actually saw it, I took my then 6 year old brother to see it with me. When the twist was finally revealed, I accidentally just blurted out "Holy Shit!!!", completely forgetting that I was in a theater with other young kids, but no one else seemed to notice so I guess it all worked out in the end.
II. The Sixth Sense
Plot Twist: Dr. Malcolm Crowe was dead throughout the film's majority.
This is the movie that everyone recognizes as the first in a long line of Shyamalan movies that would incorporate plot twists and I believe many would say that it definitely kept plot twists going as there would be many other movies in the following several years that would make use of them. The first Shyamalan movie to star Bruce Willis as the lead before Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense centers around child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, who, early on in the movie, is shot by one of his former patients before said patient turned the gun on himself. About a year later, Crowe takes on another case involving a young boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who can "see dead people". Crowe tries to help Cole all while his marriage appears to be falling apart as his wife seems distant from him. But at the end, the shocking truth is revealed: Crowe died from the gunshot wound that night and has been lingering as a ghost this entire time.
I saw this movie for the first time about a year or so before seeing Unbreakable and, once again, I was lucky that I managed to go all those years without anyone spoiling the twist for me. This is definitely a movie that benefits from multiple viewings as you get to pick up on those little nuances and realize that Cole is the only one who interacts with Malcolm because he's the only one who can see him. Malcolm even wears the exact same shirt the entire time as the one he wore when he was murdered. It's fun little things like that that make this one of the great plot twists of all time.
Before my favorite plot twist is revealed, let's take a look at some Honorable Mentions.
Honorable Mentions:
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Plot Twist: Darth Vader is Luke's father.
The Empire Strikes Back is often noted as the greatest Star Wars movie if not one of the greatest movies of all time. Many great series' have at least one movie that people will refer to as the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series and with good reason. It had great writing, great action, great romance, and one of the more famous twists where Darth Vader reveals to Luke that he's Luke's father. Unfortunately, this twist was spoiled for me before I could see the movie, but it was still iconic and lead to the most famous "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" in movie history from Luke. I don't care that WatchMojo.com had Darth Vader's "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" from Revenge Of The Sith as #1 on their list of Top 10 Movie "NOOOOO's". As far as I'm concerned, WatchMojo.com can have my sincerest "Fuck You's" in the ass.
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Plot Twist: The planet is actually Earth in the distant future.
This is another movie that I had the plot twist spoiled for me. This time by my mom after she recorded it and said that I couldn't watch it at my, then, young age. Still, this is very easily one of the first movies that comes to mind when people talk about great plot twists as Charlton Heston's character collapses on the beach in despair upon seeing the ruined Statue Of Liberty and realizing that humanity destroyed itself through global thermonuclear war.
The 2001 reimagining by Tim Burton would try something similar, but ended up failing when it gave us "Ape-raham Lincoln". Though to be fair, I give Burton's version credit that it was trying to stay close to the book with its twist ending. It's just that the original movie was soo iconic and revolutionary that there was really no way to top it. WatchMojo.com listed "Ape-raham Lincoln" as the #1 Worst Movie Plot Twist ever and I was like "Really? I know it wasn't great, but you honestly put it at #1 instead of something like that dumbass plot twist in The Happening of the plants killing people off with airborne toxins which never even made the list much less the 'Dishonorable Mentions' category? Fuck you, bitch!!! The only plot twist that should be #1 on a list like that is a Shyamalan plot twist." O.K. O.K. I've really gotta stop making fun of WatchMojo.com, but they make it soo easy.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Plot Twist: Judge Doom is a "Toon"
This is a movie that I mostly enjoyed for spectacle over story. I mean, in what other movie are you going to see a piano duel between Daffy and Donald or see Mickey Mouse share screentime with Bugs Bunny? This is just a very surreal movie as you get to see a lot of your childhood cartoon favorites interacting in the real world. Unfortunately, the story isn't necessarily the strongest as it's pretty obvious that Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) is the villain. To quote The Nostalgia Critic from his Fantastic 4 review "His name is DOOM!!!"
But what many people didn't see coming was that Judge Doom, a character who wants to completely destroy all the Toons with his nefarious substance known as "Dip", is actually a Toon himself. Doesn't that make him kind of like the Hitler of this movie in the sense that Hitler was a Jew who tried committing genocide on all the Jews much like how Doom is a Toon trying to commit genocide on all the other Toons? But not only was he a Toon; he was the same Toon that killed lead Eddie Valiant's (Bob Hoskins) brother by dropping a piano on his head years earlier. Not to mention his high pitched voice would be sure to give you nightmares for plenty of nights in the future.
And finally...
Psycho (1960)
Plot Twist: Norman Bates was "Mother"
This is considered by many to be the grandfather of movie plot twists as we're introduced to the character of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), the owner of a motel who's socially awkward and has an unhealthy obsession with his mother, Norma. You don't know what to think of this guy as something about his happy, cheery demeanor seems a bit off. The movie continues as Norma apparently murders Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), in the infamous "shower scene", and a private detective. It's later on revealed that Norma has been dead for 10 years, murdered by Norman along with her lover, after which Norman developed a murderous personality based off of "Mother". Sadly, this was another plot twist that was ruined for me, but it's still worth mentioning nonetheless.
So I've gone through some pretty big plot twists both on the list and in the "Honorable Mentions" category and you guys are probably wondering "What could he possibly get to top this?" Well, the answer just might surprise you. So without any further adieu, my #1 Favorite Movie Plot Twist is...
I. Frozen (2013)
Plot Twist: Hans is a backstabbing traitor.
Another Disney movie, I know. I'm just as shocked as you guys that I have 2 Disney movies on this list. But I feel like this movie really deserves to be brought up when talking about great movie plot twists as absolutely no one saw this one coming.
Early on in the movie, after being locked away in the palace for most of her life, Anna leaps at the opportunity to meet someone after the gates are finally opened for Elsa's coronation and she quickly falls for the handsome Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. Though only knowing him for about a day, she decides she wants to marry him, which doesn't sit well for Elsa, leading to an argument where her powers are revealed to everyone and she runs away to the North Mountain.
After Anna goes after her, with help from ice merchant Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and magical snowman Olaf, Anna accidentally makes it worse for Elsa resulting in Elsa accidentally losing control of her powers and striking Anna in the heart, which it's soon revealed by head rock troll, Grand Pabbie, that only an act of true love can save Anna. Believing this to mean "true love's kiss", Kristoff brings Anna back to Prince Hans so that he can kiss her. But when the 2 of them are alone, just as he's leaning in to kiss her, Hans pauses and with an evil smile states "Oh, Anna. If only there was someone out there who loved you." before revealing his true intentions to take over the throne of Arendelle.
Like Wreck-it Ralph, this was another movie that I had the pleasure of seeing in theaters, except this time I got to see it with my mom, most of my siblings, my aunt, 2 of my cousins, and my grandma on opening weekend in a packed theater, so when Hans spoke those 2 lines, everyone in the theater (including me) gasped. Absolutely no one saw this coming as Hans seemed to be a pretty stand up guy up until that point. He seemed to genuinely care for Anna's well-being and, when she left him in charge of Arendelle in her absence, he was shown to have great leadership skills as he tended to people's needs, passing out blankets and such.
One of the reasons why this twist caught soo many people off guard mostly has to do with a scene early in the movie where, after Anna and Hans met for the first time and Anna had to leave to make it to her sister's coronation, Hans' horse accidentally caused him to fall into the water, but when he came back up, even with Anna having long since left, he was still smiling. CinemaSins pointed this out as an error in the programming where his real reaction should've been much angrier now that Anna was out of sight. Still, this was a very well executed twist, catching everyone off guard, which is why it's my #1 Favorite Movie Plot Twist.
And that was my Top 6 Favorite Movie Plot Twists. I hope you enjoyed it and, seeing as I'm sure to have left some major plot twists out, comment below what your favorite movie plot twist is and I'll see you on the next blog post. Later.
Well it's that time of year when we welcome in the new year while reflecting on the past year. 2015 has proven to be a pretty tough year for many of us, but one of the bright spots on the year was the great movies that came out. We got a sequel to one of the most popular superhero movies of the past few years, an Awesome summer blockbuster from Pixar, and even a welcome return to a galaxy far far away.
Now, during this past year, I didn't get as many opportunities to go to the theater to see a lot of movies and those that I did see I really enjoyed, so I can't really do a best and worst list of movies I saw as there just aren't enough entries for either. There's also the fact that I tend to be a pretty good judge of what movies I'm going to enjoy over which ones I'm going to ignore. Very rarely have I ever gone to see a movie that I was disappointed with by the end credits (*cough cough* Frankenweenie *cough cough*). 'Scuse me.
So, for this blog, I'm going to be going over the movies that I did see that came out this past year and just giving my basic thoughts on each of them. Something to note is that I'm not limiting it just to theatrical releases. Part of this being because one entry was the second sequel in a series that had the first 2 released in theaters, even if it was just a limited release. Because of that, I give this one entry a pass.
Additionally, I'll try to keep things spoiler-free for the most part, but I make no promises. Finally, these movies are ranked in no particular order aside from when they were released. So with all that said, let's not waste any more time and just dive right into it.
I. Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Certainly one of the wackiest movies I've seen this past year, Kingsman is described by many people as a James Bond movie if it were directed by Quentin Tarantino and, in all honesty, it's pretty hard to argue with that. Directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class fame, this movie is action packed while at the same time working well as an over the top comedy.
This movie openly makes fun of the conventional spy-thriller tropes and even has Samuel L. Jackson as the villain who has both a lisp and gets really queasy at the sight of blood, which is even funnier when you take into account that he has a henchwoman named Gazelle who has bladed prosthetics for legs that she uses to slice up her enemies.
The action is a lot of fun to watch ranging from thrilling and engaging to downright goofy to match the offbeat tone of the film. Unfortunately, not a lot of the characters got that much development in the movie, Gazelle being one of them which is disappointing as I would've liked to get a bit more of her backstory. Pretty decent and enjoyable film with a sequel set to come out in summer of 2017. Hopefully, it'll be just as good.
II. Ex Machina.
One of the more thought-provoking movies on my list, Ex Machina is yet another movie dealing with the concept of AI and where technology might eventually be headed. The acting is very solid, only dealing with a select few actors throughout the film's entirety and all the characters are very engaging.
The atmosphere of the movie is very tense and unsettling, constantly keeping you invested in finding out what's going to happen next. Another thing that I feel I must mention is the design of the AI herself, Ava. Despite the fact that she's mostly seen in her android form, I had no problem believing that she really was there, the CGI on her was that impressive.
Also, the ending, though I felt it dragged on for quite a bit, felt very Shakespearean or Frankensteinian. It's quite tragic. The only downside I could think of is that it doesn't seem to offer that much new in regards to other AI centric movies that have come out before. Still, the movie was enjoyable and I hope that come Oscar season it'll get plenty of nominations and, possibly, wins.
III. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
Going right back into the topic of AI, we have The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the follow-up to one of the biggest superhero movies since The Dark Knight. A lot of people were really disappointed by this movie and felt that it didn't live up to the hype of its predecessor, but, in all honesty, I felt like this movie was just as good as, if not better than, the first movie.
Now I did like the first Avengers movie when it came out, but as the years have gone by since first seeing it, I've come to feel like it's a really overrated movie. I mean, 92% on RottenTomatoes? Like I said before, I liked it, but it wasn't that good. In fact, I think the reason why Age Of Ultron is ranked lower was because they realized that maybe they were a bit too lenient towards the first one that they felt they needed to balance it out with a lower rating.
There's plenty of good moments to find in this movie with the introduction of new characters like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, plenty of character development, and even fun interactions between members of The Avengers. There's one scene in particular where there's a party at Stark Tower and the back and forth between everyone involved feels very genuine and amiable like you want to be part of that party.
One of the major props that I have to give this movie was what it did for Hawkeye. In the first movie, I thought that Hawkeye was the weakest, most bland, boring member of the team until I saw what development he was given in this movie. Finally, I absolutely loved the music in Age Of Ultron, done by longtime favorite composer of mine Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler. The music just adds soo much depth and emotion to this movie and I feel like this is what brought Elfman back into my good graces after he did the music for Fifty Shades of Grey.
However, the main villain and his whole plan are really kind of weak. Marvel seems to have a real problem with creating interesting villains. Aside from Loki, there hasn't been a good villain in a Marvel movie. Hopefully they'll be able to do better come Phase 3.
IV. Inside Out.
While the idea of personified emotions living within your head is certainly nothing new, Pixar was able to bring this idea to life in a fun and inventive way with Inside Out, easily one of my new all time favorite Disney/Pixar movies. There's just soo much imagination and creativity that went into this movie and it all shows very clearly when you watch it.
Pixar is known for having a pretty rocky past few years with movies like Cars 2 and Monsters University not really doing that well critically and so they really needed a successful movie to get people back into their good graces which they definitely did with this movie. The voice acting is perfect with actors Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling (among others) voicing the emotions going on in an 11 year-old girl's mind.
The animation is all bright and colorful to match the tone of the movie and they actually come up with creative ideas for how memories are stored, how different emotions handling the control panel affect how the person is feeling, and which memories define who we are as people.
However, even though the movie is pretty bright and colorful for the most part, it also doesn't shy away from some of the darker, more emotionally tense moments like when certain memories are lost and they don't come back. Finally, what was really great about this movie, especially in today's culture, was its revelation of the importance of Sadness. This is especially important as there are many occasions where Sadness is viewed as something negative, in fact the character of Joy has that outlook throughout the film's majority, but this movie shows that Sadness does have a place in life.
This is just such a great movie that, if I'm being completely honest, I feel should be nominated for Best Picture Oscar it's that good. Go watch it now if you haven't already.
V. Hotel Transylvania 2.
It's no real surprise that Adam Sandler has been getting a pretty bum rap over the past several years, but the Hotel Transylvania movies, I can easily say, are some of his best work in a long time. I saw both movies in theaters and I was laughing my ass off all throughout (except for during the softer moments that dealt with a character's turmoil).
Directed by legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky, famous for such work as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and The PowerPuff Girls, this movie does a very good job with showing the relationships between its members while throwing in some great comedy. The animation is soo colorful and is constantly moving with often hilarious results.
Similarly to the first movie, Adam Sandler does a great job voicing Dracula. I know that at first he may seem like a terrible choice for the role, but he just completely disappears into the character. You'd almost never know that it was him voicing Dracula.
The only problems that I had were that, without giving anything away, the movie starts to go down this one path of a character accepting that a certain change might not end up happening, but then, after this character has learned their lesson, it decides "Hey. Let's just give him that happy ending he wanted". That was kind of annoying (P.S. Kung Fu Panda did something similar). Additionally, the character of Vlad, voiced by Mel Brooks, was kind of a "take him or leave him" character. I personally didn't have a problem with him but I know others who might have.
In the end, I say the Hotel Transylvania movies are harmless and serviceable. There's nothing wrong with showing it to your kids and even some teens and adults might enjoy it. But if you hear anyone being like "OHMYGAWD!!! Hotel Transylvania is an abomination to kid's movies!!! It's the cancer of animation!!!" you just tell them to shut the fuck up and get off of their pretentious high horse because this isn't even close to scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to kid's movies. I have seen far worse animated movies than that. I saw The Legend of the Titanic. (shudders)
VI. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games
This is the movie I was talking about earlier when I said that the 2 predecessors were given a theatrical release, even if it was limited, and any of you out there who are fellow Bronies or Pegasisters probably saw this movie coming if you know how closely I follow the show and movies. Before I begin talking about this movie, I feel like I should give you all a little background into my Equestria Girls viewing experience.
The first Equestria Girls movie I only saw in March of 2014 after watching the first 3 seasons of Friendship Is Magic off of Netflix and, despite the fact that a lot of people hated it, I thought it was O.K. Nothing great but still passable. The most enjoyable parts of the movie are when you see Twilight trying to learn how to function in her human body and they are hilarious. Additionally, the songs were a lot of fun to listen to and I still listen to them even now.
The problems that a lot of people had with the first movie I didn't mind (for the most part). The characters are still the same characters I grew to love from the show, just human. The character of Flash Sentry (one of the most hated characters in the fandom who many derogatorily refer to as "Brad". God I hate when they do that), despite not having much of a personality, I thought was a pretty decent, stand up guy. He actually helped Twilight out of a problem and I was like "Good for you man". The climax, which one person compared to what it would be like if you were watching High School Musical and then the ending cut to a battle in Narnia, I thought was pretty entertaining and I felt like I had a good understanding of it where most others were confused.
But the movie still had problems that I couldn't overlook like the plot being very unfocused and all over the place. Also, the villain, Sunset Shimmer, was awful. She was just a terrible, terrible antagonist. I would be glad later on when she's reformed and actually gets some good development in the sequels because she was a tough character to endure.
The sequel, Rainbow Rocks, I felt was much better. The villains, The Dazzlings, were plenty of fun to watch, the songs were memorable and catchy (as I type this, I'm singing "Better Than Ever" in my head), and I really loved the climax of the movie, which had a very strong Scott Pilgrim VS. The World vibe to it (this came after I saw the epic Season 4 Finale that had a battle epic enough to put DragonBall Z to shame).
Plus, like I said before, Sunset Shimmer receives great character development as a reformed villain trying to overcome the demons of her past and she comes soo far in this movie getting to the point of being accepted. By my opinion, Rainbow Rocks is the superior Equestria Girls movie.
Friendship Games has plenty of things that make it better than the first Equestria Girls movie but still keep it from reaching that pinnacle that Rainbow Rocks reached. To be completely honest, I went into this movie with pretty low expectations as the plot seemed to revolve more around Canterlot High's version of the Olympics (the Friendship Games even happen once every 4 years if you can believe that) against rival school Crystal Prep Academy which wasn't as interesting to me.
After seeing it, though, it was entertaining. The songs that were featured were great as usual and I really enjoyed how each of the members of the "Humane 6" had a foil character from Crystal Prep. For example, Applejack, the Element of Honesty, has a Crystal Prep counterpart who is unbelievably blunt in everything she says and Fluttershy's, the Element of Kindness, is a bipolar chick who starts off talking in an obnoxiously sweet manner before changing her tone to a more aggressive and annoyed one.
Plus, just like Rainbow Rocks, Sunset is given more development as she finds herself trying to figure out a problem unassisted. There was even a moment in the movie where she angrily snaps at one character, almost like she's reverting to her old self, but it's almost justified as she's concerned for her friends' wellbeing which is being constantly put in danger by this character. At the end of the movie, Sunset even takes part in somewhat of a role reversal from the first movie that was plenty entertaining.
But there were some areas of this movie that I had problems with. The first being that a character creates a device that's supposed to collect magic, but she has no way of controlling it, so why the flying hell does she keep bringing it with her? Also, the climax, while I still enjoyed it, I felt was resolved way too abruptly. But the biggest problem I had was with the villain, Principal Abacus Cinch.
This character is the worst. She's even worse than Sunset Shimmer in the first Equestria Girls movie. She's just the stereotypical head of Crystal Prep with the tie and the puffed out chest who just looks down her nose at everyone else and is obsessed with keeping the school's reputation as winners. One of her lines in the movie was "... it doesn't matter if Crystal Prep wins or loses. The important thing is that we are expected to win because Crystal Prep has a reputation." That just caused me to facepalm. I was just like "Oh god another one of these characters."
Speaking of reputation, ya ever count how many times they use that word throughout this movie? I swear you could make a drinking game out of it. Some even have. Another huge problem that I had with her was the fact that she blackmails one of her students to take part in the Games. DUDE!!! Do you realize how super illegal that is? You can go to jail for that shit. The only good thing that I can say about Cinch is that she has a pretty cool villain song with "Unleash The Magic" full of ominous chanting and a pretty epic buildup with a nice payoff, but aside from that, she's a terrible character.
Many people have problems with the Equestria Girls movies because they say that it's a cheap cash grab to sell more toys. But I'm just like, "Oh yeah. And I'm sure that Transformers, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and countless others aren't like that at all." People seem to forget that products like these are part of a business which is going to need to grow if it's going to remain sucessful.
Another complaint is that people are like "Well now that they're human, people can have dirty thoughts about them" and I'm just like "Have you been online lately and seen what people do with them as ponies?" While I don't condone any of this, I have to agree with my buddy Andre when he said that "... making them human or not making them human is not going to stop people from 'Rule 34ing' all over that shiznit". Every fandom has a dark side to them if you look hard enough. No fandom is perfect. As for me, if they decide to make more sequels out of the Equestria Girls series, I'll still watch them, although I'm mostly looking forward to their big screen theatrical release in November 2017.
VII. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Now we go from Friendship Games to Hunger Games. LOLZ!!!!!!!! Many of you most likely saw my review for this movie earlier in December so I won't focus as much on this. All that I can say was that this was a fitting end to a great franchise (at least until the inevitable prequels) that I had just started to fall in love with a few short years ago.
Everything gets wrapped up perfectly, every plot thread is resolved by the time the end credits roll around, and, like some of its predecessors, it dives into the tortured psyche of our main characters all while displaying great camaraderie among them making it all the more tragic when certain characters don't make it out alive.
Even with Lionsgate announcing the possibility of them doing prequels, I feel like it's almost unnecessary. The original saga is perfect as it is and anything else would just feel like a quick cash grab. But anyways those were just my thoughts about it.
And finally...
VIII. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
This is yet another movie that I did a review on a few short weeks ago and, now that I've let some time pass since seeing it, I feel like I can give a much more in depth look at the movie instead of just singing its praises. Not that the movie was bad by any means. I just feel like I can be a little bit more critical about it.
Looking back on it now, I can see a lot of the criticisms that people have with the movie in the sense that it mostly seems to copy a lot of elements from A New Hope like the robot with secret plans, the young naive main character, the mentor figure, the giant evil base that can destroy planets, it even borrowed a bit from The Empire Strikes Back with its revelation of one character being related to the main villain. To quote a popular sketch,
However, even with it borrowing elements from the original trilogy, there are 2 things that I can say in support of it. 1. They changed enough stuff around to make it interesting. Sure we've seen the Death Star destroy a planet, but the First Order's Starkiller Base is literally a planet itself that has enough power to take out entire star systems from a great distance away.
2. I feel like incorporating these elements from the original trilogy was a smart move on JJ Abrams part. He knew how much people had a hatred for the prequels and so he brought this movie back to the basics as a way of showing that this franchise was in capable hands, hitting all the right nostalgia marks to put audiences at ease, that way it would be set up perfectly to embark on new territory in the upcoming sequels in the following years.
So when all is said and done, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is still a great film deserving of all the praise and attention it's getting and I look forward to where this saga will go in the near future.
And so those were my thoughts on the movies that I saw this year and, if you've seen any of these movies, what were your thoughts on them? Additionally, since I'm positive that I left a buttload of movies off of here, what were your thoughts on some of the other movies that came out this year? Feel free to comment below and I hope you guys have a Happy New Year. Later.
Ever since the big news a few years ago that Disney had bought the rights to Star Wars and was going to be releasing the first in a planned trilogy, fans have had a pretty mixed and somewhat hesitant reaction. Sure the movie had renowned director JJ Abrams helming it and the trailers looked very promising. But at the same time, back in 1999, a lot of Star Wars fans were really hyped for the release of The Phantom Menace, 16 years after the original trilogy ended, and we all know what a disappointment that was. So, after all these years of waiting, will The Force Awakens live up to the hype surrounding it or will it prove to be yet another steaming pile of... Jar Jar? Well, let's take a look.
So The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after the original trilogy. In that time, many things have changed. Luke has gone into hiding, from the ashes of the Galactic Empire, there has risen the First Order, led primarily by Captain Phasma and Kylo Ren, and Leia has ditched the title of Princess and is now a General of the Republic-backed Resistance. But news reaches both the First Order and the Resistance of a map that could lead to Luke's location. As the story unfolds, there's plenty of action, secrets are revealed, and the First Order tries to destroy the Resistance with its latest super weapon.
Now I was fortunate enough to buy tickets for me and my brother, Stephen, to go see the very first showing, in 3-D no less, the exact night they went on sale, before selling out fast, as an early birthday present for him and after waiting months to see it, what were my thoughts? Well, in the words of one of my favorite characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "It. Was. AWESOME!!!!!!!!"
Guys, the hype is real and Star Wars has come back with a vengeance. There's soo many great things about this movie it's hard to keep track of them all. First off is the new worlds that are shown. They are just beautiful to look at from the desert planet of Jakku to the Resistance Base on D'Qar to even the Starkiller Base (or as I like to call it, the "Death Star 9000") which is actually built inside an Arctic planet.
Next is the characters. Now, obviously, fan favorites like Han Solo, Chewbacca, Leia, and even C-3PO will get a big cheer once they show up onscreen (at least they did in the showing me and my brother saw), but we also have plenty of new characters. Daisy Ridley is great as "rough around the edges" Jakku scavenger, Rey, and John Boyega is likable as Finn, a redeemed First Order Stormtrooper, but, out of all the new characters, few stand out as much as Kylo Ren.
Let me just tell you guys right now, this dude is super intimidating and ruthless, but, at the same time, he's not entirely bland. Hell, he's given a very tragic backstory as well as plenty of dimension for his character (which I won't give away as it has major spoilers). However, just like Darth Vader before him, Ren serves a much more sinister figure in Supreme Leader Snoke, played by the "Master Of Motion Capture" himself, Andy Serkis. He doesn't appear much in this movie, but I don't mind it that much as Emperor Palpatine didn't show up until The Empire Strikes Back, very briefly, if I remember it correctly, so I can only assume that Snoke will have a much larger role in the subsequent sequels.
Another quick thing to mention is keep an eye out for a famous British actor who has a cameo in the movie. All you fans of the new Star Trek movies, the 3 most recent Mission Impossible movies, and/or the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy will know exactly who I'm talking about and should be able to pick him out relatively easily.
And, while we're on the subject of the characters, the chemistry between them, both new and old, was a lot of fun as there was plenty of playful banter to go around, making this a fun and funny experience in the process. But, at the same time, there were still plenty of dark and dramatic moments scattered throughout as this movie holds no punches. There are quite a few shocking instances that will leave you gasping.
An interesting nod to the earlier movies is during a scene that many faithful Star Wars fans will recognize as feeling very similar to the Mos Eisley Cantina scene from A New Hope. Seeing that whole environment just brought back a fresh wave of nostalgia from having first seen the original trilogy as a kid countless years ago.
Even though this is kind of a minor thing in the grand scheme of the movie, I really loved Abrams' insistence on using practical effects for the different aliens and even the landscapes of these different worlds. In our CGI obsessed culture, it was nice to see some good old fashioned puppet work as well as real locations. I already knew all about how Abrams shot the scenes for Jakku in Abu Dhabi and the fact that some filming even took place in England.
At one point close to the end, there was a scene on a distant planet that I saw and I turned to my brother and said that it almost looked like it might have been filmed in either Scotland or Ireland. What's really funny though is, after doing a little bit of research, I found out that that scene in particular was filmed at Skellig Michael island, which is just off the coast of Ireland. Score One for me.
Next, let's talk about the action. The action in this movie is lots of fun to watch. Because me and my brother saw it in 3-D, I thought that the aerial dogfight scenes were amazing to behold. You feel like you're flying through the air with these characters and it's such a rush. I remember a lot of my friends talking about how amazing the 3-D was in the How To Train Your Dragon movies during the flight scenes. Sadly, though, I only ever saw the first movie once in regular theater format and the second one I didn't see until it was already on DVD. This movie, I feel, makes up for that.
The lightsaber duels, few though they are (understandably as Jedi are few and far between), were also very engaging, intense, and sometimes even brutal. There were plenty of moments where certain characters would be injured by their opponents' lightsabers and the audience would let out a gasp.
And, finally, the score was beautiful. When I first heard that JJ Abrams was helming this movie, I was slightly concerned that he'd bring Michael Giacchino on to score the movie as they're frequent collaborators (and no this is nothing against him as I do like his work on The Incredibles, Up, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, just to name a few). But, when you hear that infamous John Williams score during the opening scroll, it's just soo invigorating and it gets you pumped up for what's about to follow. They even update it some to have a satisfying blend of old and new themes.
If I did have anything to take issue with, it would probably be that I was slightly disappointed that there was no Dramatic Choir incorporated during any of the fight scenes as I really enjoyed those moments from the prequel trilogy. But, in all honesty, that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to nitpicks.
Overall, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a welcome return to the franchise, breathing new life into the series with great characters, thrilling action, amazing effects, and a cliffhanger ending that will leave many eagerly waiting for the next chapter in the Star Wars Saga (and in case you were wondering, no, there is no post-credits scene). So, for those reasons, this movie gets a perfect 5/5 stars. Go see this movie as soon as you possibly can. It's well worth the money.
And that was my review of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and I'd like to know what your guys' thoughts are for those of you who've seen it. Feel free to comment below and I'll see you guys on the next post. Until then, though, if I don't get a post out before 2016, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Later.
Hey guys. David here with yet another blog post. This one just so happens to be on my birthday. Anyways, I decided to make this blog post as sort of like a special look at what goes on with some of my posts that I put up, in this case, one of my Top 12 Lists.
With any list that I put together I always have to do a lot of research for the entries that I feature as well as looking up pictures, movie posters, and even YouTube videos that tie in with their respective entry (not to mention going through countless revisions and moving entries around before I get to the final product. My Top 12 Movies I Like, But Everyone Else Hates and My Top 12 Cartoon Crushes lists were prime examples of this). But as I'm doing my research, I sometimes come across some unexpected surprises.
One example of this was in my last list of My Top 12 Cartoon Crushes. While I was looking up pictures of Fluttershy on Google Images to feature in the list, I actually came across a piece of fanart from a DeviantArt user named Liggliluff that portrayed her as a Mermaid. In fact, the picture can be seen down below.
Now, of course, fanart like this didn't really fit in with Fluttershy's entry on my list, but, at the same time, I felt like this picture was too good to let go unnoticed. So here it is. A little something extra for those of you who follow my posts. Hope you guys have a great rest of the weekend and I'll see you guys next weekend with my review of Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens. Til then, take care.
Hey everybody. It's David here with a review for you (late though it is) of The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2. The final chapter in the Hunger Games Saga until Lionsgate decides to make prequels out of it. I know that it's kind of weird putting out 2 blogs in one day, but this was the first opportunity I actually got to see this movie after a pretty hectic past couple of weeks.
So Mockingjay Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 ended with Peeta having been brainwashed by President Snow to kill Katniss and District 13 preparing to go to war against the Capitol along with rebel forces from the other Districts. But as the stakes are raised and Snow becomes more and more obsessed with destroying Katniss, what happens next will shape the future of Panem itself.
Now to give a little bit of background, I had read all 3 of the books (though I had only read the first 1-2 chapters of the first book before seeing the first Hunger Games movie back in 2012) and fell in love with the series pretty easily. As a brief overview of my opinions on the previous movies, The Hunger Games was pretty O.K. even though they changed a lot from the book and the shaky cam was kind of bothersome even during the calmer scenes, Catching Fire, I believed, was the high point of the franchise, and Mockingjay Part 1, even though it severely lacked action, I found decent enough.
But now that Mockingjay Part 2 has been released, and after finally getting around to watching it, how does it fare? Pretty well actually. What I really loved about the movies from Catching Fire forward was how much they delve into the personalities and motivations of their main characters and Mockingjay Part 2 is no different. We dive into the psyche of the main characters who have witnessed many horrors since the first movie and it's very engaging.
Additionally, the camaraderie between the characters is very believable, making it all the more tragic when certain members don't make it out alive. The action scenes were really captivating and had me on the edge of my seat and you're completely invested in the strategies and decisions that are made as this grand war is going on for the future of Panem.
This movie also doesn't shy away from showing the ugly side of war as there are heavy losses from both sides, including the countless innocents who are caught in the crossfire. The struggle to hold on to one's own humanity is explored as the characters discover how far they're willing to go to overthrow the corrupt government that rules over them with an iron fist.
And finally, and this is more of a selfish thing, I really liked the designs of the lizard mutts in this movie. A problem that I had with The Hunger Games and Catching Fire was that I didn't feel like they got the designs of the wolf mutts and monkey mutts, respectively, quite right. A friend of mine even showed me some concept art from the first movie of what the wolf mutts were originally supposed to look like, seen here, and those designs were more what I thought they should look like. The lizard mutts in Mockingjay Part 2, I felt, were perfectly designed.
But, even with all those positive aspects of the movie, there were still some areas that I took issue with. First off was the fact that certain characters seemed to almost be sidelined, hardly ever showing up in the movie. Some examples of this were Haymitch, Plutarch (which is understandable as Philip Seymour Hoffman tragically committed suicide while filming of both parts of Mockingjay was still going on), but I feel like the worst example of character sidelining was with Effie. This was one of my favorite supporting characters in the series and I don't think she even got 5 minutes of screentime.
Another problem that I came across was close to the end when 2 of the main characters had a falling out and parted ways. That moment just seemed needlessly cruel and, I thought, kind of out of character, especially with these 2. Admittedly, it's been 3 years since I've last read any of the original books so I don't know how faithful that scene was to its source material, but, to me, the bad blood between them was really uncalled for.
And the last issue I had was that the ending seemed to drag on quite a bit. It felt almost like it was going at the same pace as the ending to Return Of The King, which is understandable as it pretty much has to wrap up every little detail and make sure everything is resolved. It's just a minor nitpick that I had with it.
Overall, though, even with those few elements that I had issue with, Mockingjay Part 2 is a solid movie. The characters are all interesting, the action engaging, and it leaves you wanting to know how it's going to end and, when it does end, it proves to be a proper send off to a great series. So, for that reason, I give Mockingjay Part 2 a 4/5 stars. Definitely go see this movie while it's still in theaters. You will not be disappointed.
And that was my review of Mockingjay Part 2 and, for those of you who've already seen it, what were your thoughts on the movie? Feel free to comment below and stay tuned next week when I'll be giving my review of the most anticipated movie of the year, Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens. This will hopefully be the start of a new series of movie reviews whenever I get the chance to see them. Hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you on the next post. Later.
