Holiday 2017 Preview

With November officially beginning, that means we are in the holiday season of movies, and so it's time to give you a rundown on some of the big hits that will be taking place this Holiday season or what you are more likely looking forward to, or maybe something that you didn't know was coming that you will want to look out for.

November 3

Thor Ragnarok

The latest entry in the ever growing Marvel Cinematic Universe, this has grown into the movie that I wasn’t as interested in seeing into one of my most anticipated movies of the holiday season. Thor was an enjoyable character, but for some reason, his movies were the least interesting in the MCU, if I were to give you a run down of all the movies in the MCU, his first two movies would be near the bottom, and they aren’t bad movies at all, they are entertaining movies and I recommend checking them out, but they just don’t measure up to the other ones found in the MCU. Regardless, this one could be different, first off, we have The Incredible Hulk. You know, Thor’s friend from work (easily the best line in any trailer). That is an element that was missed in the other two movies that I think this one will have more of, which is humor. Regardless, this one just looks like will be pure fun and could have some interesting ideas and easter eggs that will make this a fun movie to go back and watch again and again.

November 10

Murder on the Orient Express

The first thing that grabbed my attention on this movie wasn’t the trailer (though it really helped), it was the vlog videos that Josh Gad did when he harassed Daisy Ridley for Star Wars spoilers (and yes that movie is on this list later). And even that he brought in Judi Dench, who is amazing, to help get information out of her. Ever since they came out, I have come to realize that they were staged. Anyway, that was the entry to this movie, and then the trailer came out and I saw the rest of the cast, and what would result. A classic murder mystery, I have to say, it’s been a long time since we had one of those. I will be there when it hits the big screen.

November 17

Justice League

At one point a bit ago, I heard rumors that the DC Cinematic Universe (at least in the way established by Marvel) wasn’t going to be continuing, in terms of how we thought it would, but if those rumors turn out not to be true, this would be the movie that would determine if the DCCU could continue to flourish. We ended up with Wonder Woman this Summer that proved that the DCCU had the potential to be solid, but this will show if that solidness could continue, or if it will be the next Batman V Superman (or Suicide Squad), where it made money but was crushed by fans and critics alike. Regardless, this has the potential to be good. The SDCC trailer that dropped last year for this really caught my attention, it actually had humor (which was very much absent in Batman V Superman), and had a developing personality of it’s own. Regardless of the outcome and the destiny of the DCCU going forward, I will be in a theater that weekend seeing it unfold in front of me.

Wonder

I just need to get this out of the way as I don’t want this to be the focus here, but did you ever think you would see a movie where Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts would be a couple? I certainly didn’t. Okay, that’s out of the way, I really want to talk about the center character of the movie, August Pullman, who has a disfigured face and goes to a public school for the first time, approaching his biggest fear, how will other kids judge and accept him. If you have seen the trailer, you know basically how it will unfold, but regardless it’s about the characters, and just something about this kid is very cool, he has the personality that is shy at first but once is approached he could be someone incredible. One of my friends pointed this out and I can see it, but it kind of has vibes of Mask, the one about the true story of the boy Rocky Dennis who had a severe facial distortion where his face looked like a big mask, but had incredible skills that allowed him to reach out and befriend many, I just hope this one doesn’t end on the same downer that Mask did.

November 24

Coco

When you look at the trailer, what is your first thought? Besides gorgeous images and beautiful animation, I keep thinking of the movie The Book of Life, the one that was released three years ago. It’s one of those animated movies where the visuals were very inventive and creative, and one if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you go check it out. Regardless, I keep getting vibes of that when I see the trailer, but when you start breaking things down, they are still fairly different, and this has something that looks very intriguing that I can’t wait to go see in theaters. Also, I now can’t get out of my head that accusation that Conan O’Brien made back in June when the trailer first debuted, if you haven’t seen it, click here.

The Darkest Hour

Gary Oldman is one of the great actors around, any role he takes, he tends to disappear into. When I see him in the trailer for this movie, I have a hard time pointing him out. If I pulled out the trailer and put it on mute (since when he speaks it’s easier to tell it’s him), and I asked you to identify an actor you recognize, you probably wouldn’t be able to point him out. This will probably get him an oscar this time around, but that’s the challenge, as there are always excellent movies and roles that take place during the Holiday season that compete for the Academy Awards, but we will see.

December 8

The Shape of Water

Guillermo Del Toro is a very fasinating director, a lot of the work he does has a very unique visual style to it. Check out his two Hellboy movies for an example of his work, or even Pan’s Labyrinth. This looks like another movie that will be unique to look at and could have a great story behind it, if all the reviews behind it are true.

The Disaster Artist

A movie that I didn’t think would really be discovered by a large group of people, entitled “The Room” written, directed, produced, and starring Tommy Wiseau, it is declared by many as one of the worst movies ever made, but over the years has gained a following and is declared as “so bad, it’s good”. I have not seen the movie, but I have read the book written by Greg Sestero where he recounts his experience of working on this movie. This book entitled The Disaster Artist, which is what this movie is based on. I have been hearing good buzz out of it. If you think about it, it is quite ironic, a movie that is declared by many to be the worst movie, gets a movie on the making of experience, and it becomes what is being declared to be an oscar worthy movie. Think about that, that’s really unusual.

December 15

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

A majority of people would be lying if they admitted this wasn’t their anticipated movie of the season, or the year. Ever since The Force Awakens was released, I was anticipating this. Just about everyone and their dog is going to try to get into a theater that weekend to see the further adventures of Rey and the gang as they take down the first order and learn about their pasts. Will we find out who Rey’s parents are? Better yet, will we find out who Rey is in general? Who is Snoke? Why is Luke on that island alone? Even more so, with the passing of Carrie Fisher late last year, what will be the fate of Princess (or General) Leia? If any movie has me just wanting to build a time machine to jump ahead to see, this is it.

Ferdinand

In my books, if any movie is trying to compete with the biggest movie of the year in the same weekend, then they have guts. Regardless, if the parents feel that the new Star Wars movie may be too dark for the kids, then families with younger kids have this to look forward to. This movie is about a bull that is separated from his family and needs to return to this home. It looks to have a decent voice cast behind it, and that Blue Sky is the animators behind the movie, so all that gives it good reason to check out.

December 20

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

This one is a bit more difficult for me. Let me explain, I like Dwayne Johnson, I like Jumanji, I like the fact that there is an attempt at a continuation of the Jumanji world (note that world, attempt). What I don’t like is how this movie doesn’t seem to capture the feel of the original movie in any real way, and seems to steer it clear from what made the original a classic. The original had a very mysterious and fun feel, it was just a creative world that was created, but it still had that sense of fear injected, but not enough that you would want to stay clear from it. The trailers I have seen on this seem to have the mysterious and fear of the world sucked out, and replaced with goofy Kevin Hart and Jack Black fun. I like Jack Black, I have a harder time liking Kevin Hart though. Regardless of what I have just said, this looks like it could be a fun movie, one that I will still check out in the theater and hopefully just enjoy it for what it is, but I am not expecting this to be a definitive sequel or reboot or anything regarding Jumanji, but just a fun action adventure movie, which I always enjoy going to those.

December 22

Pitch Perfect 3

I missed the first movie when it arrived in theaters back in 2012, for some reason it didn’t catch my attention, but I ended up discovering it when the sequel was coming out in 2015, and man do I regret missing this one in theaters. The personality of everyone in the group is just flat out fun, and very engaging. I remember that one bella who was the leader of the group and just how uptight she was yet I felt like I have seen people like her in my life which made the group more relatable, and of course the scene stealing Fat Amy, who is always a blast anytime she is on screen. I am looking forward to the final appearance of the bellas when this movie debutes.

Downsizing

Here is a question, with the resources and everything disappearing and being consumed at an alarming rate, how do you fix it? Here is the answer, shrink yourself. That is the main premise behind this new movie. Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig play a couple that decide to go forward with this procedure. Matt has been to Mars and also the rest of space (remember Titan AE), so it makes sense for him to want to explore the world the size of a small ant. The idea is intriguing and I am looking forward to seeing how this unravels.

December 25

The Greatest Showman

This may be bad to say, but the first thing I think of whenever I think of this movie is The Prestige, just not as mysterious or dark. This movie stars Hugh Jackman as the creator of grand illusions on stage, in the sense you think of a magician, which is the role Hugh Jackman played in The Prestige, which is why I think of The Prestige.

Only The Brave review

 
I first heard about director Joseph Kosinski back in 2010 when Tron Legacy came out. It was a visually mesmerizing movie, I was a fan of Tron and was anticipating the sequel. I didn’t think much about the director as I was caught in the world that was created. He caught my attention once again in 2013 when he directed Oblivion. This was another that was just visually gorgeous to look at, and while the story wasn’t anything new, it was still compelling enough to grab my attention for a couple of hours and to suck me in, and it did have a couple of solid twists, well one really big one in particular that threw me off. Not only were these movies visually cool, but they had great soundtracks to go with them. Seriously the two soundtracks to these movies are still worth listening to today. At that point, I felt that I had the director figured out, he could create visually stunning movies that were very cool to look at and probably had great scores to go with them, and would more likely be Science Fiction movies, but story or emotion wise, probably wouldn’t do anything beyond that. Now before I move on, don’t get me wrong, if you read any of my previous reviews, I really like visually cool looking movies, and I really like going to those a lot. Anyway, I first heard about the movie around August when a trailer was attached before The Dark Tower. I remember seeing Joseph Kosinki’s name attached as the director, I realized I didn’t think I saw him direct another movie since Oblivion, and right then and there I knew I would go check it out, besides the fact that the movie had a solid cast and that it looked like a solid movie.

I kept my eye out for it, I knew when it would arrive and I planned to go see it. I heard good reviews out of this and so I was definitely going in with hopes that this would be really good, and it was. This was a very good movie. What surprised me was that not only did this movie have quite a few really gorgeous shots, but it had a really solid story and it actually had emotions, I nearly teared up by the end, I got emotional. I found myself really caring about the characters and the situation. This movie also brought an appreciation of something I don’t express enough gratitude for, firefighters. I haven’t been in a burning building (thankfully), and I don’t think of them a whole lot, but this movie re-introduced that appreciation for them, and how they are truly real life heroes. Not only that, but it really goes into the difficulty of being a firefighter, and how that can affect their personal and family lives. 

 

There are two main characters that we get to see into their home lives, the chracters played by Josh Brolin and Miles Teller. We get glimpses of Josh Brolin and Jennifer Connolly’s family life and how they make their difficult schedule work but also how it goes into those frustrations when one of them wants more out of the relationship. Miles Teller’s character has an incredible growth throughout the movie and there are moments where you see his character struggle with the responsibilities he has taken on him and how it begins to affect his family life at one point. All the other performances are excellent, and we have a great set of actors portraying their characters wonderfully. In case you didn’t know, this was based on a true story, I didn’t know about the facts of this story going in, this is another movie that I chose to not look up facts until after the movie, another one I did that was Everest two years ago (which surprisingly also starred Josh Brolin). Seriously, a director I had personally categorized and he has gone beyond what I expected.

The visual effects of the movie were very well done, it’s a compliment when you can’t tell if there was any CG work done or not, and a lot of the shots I could not tell if there was any sort of CG work, there were a couple I thought I could but there weren’t very many. I want to touch on another aspect (since I brought it up with the director’s previous movies) that I also really enjoyed, and it was the music. The composer was Joseph Trapanese, who was the composer for Oblivion and also the underrated animated TV show, Tron Uprising. It wasn’t a score that would blow doors down but just helped to set the mood for the story and doesn’t overpower the movie but helps to support it. I have listened to the score off Spotify while at work and it is a very nice listen and very calming. The songs chosen in the movie are also very good. 

I have thought about this movie since I saw it. How much we don’t really give them the credit they really deserve, they can be seen as unappreciated heroes until they are involved in saving our lives. Like I said I am thankful I haven’t been placed in that situation of being in a burning building and having to be rescued, nor do I want to be placed in one, I am just thankful to have movies like this that I can see and appreciate the people that are willing to give their time and efforts to do something that I wouldn’t want to do. I think the last movie we got about firefighters before this was Ladder 49 (which was pretty good if my memory serves me right), and that was 13 years ago. I hope we can take time to really give thanks to these individuals. As I was watching the movie, I was caught by how complex a lot of the techniques were to putting out or stopping a fire from spreading. I always thought it was about driving a fire truck from point A to point B to take a bunch of water and put out the fire. If I decided to go over to the fire station and state I want to be a firefighter, I would not have the proper knowledge to handle it. More importantly, I couldn’t go from a city to the mountains and expect to know how to properly deal with the fire in the mountain from spreading. As I stated earlier, the last firefighter movie I saw before this was Ladder 49 thirteen years ago, and that dealt with firefighters in a large city, this movie deals with containing fires in the mountains of Arizona, and the techniques were definitely different.

I am going to stop there, I really hope you consider checking out this movie for yourself, this is something that is definitely worth seeing in theaters.

Tickets on Sale for Star Wars The Last Jedi, plus new trailer

 
Okay, maybe I should have written that headline in reverse, however, with the tickets going fairly quickly, I figure you should get your tickets first. Stop what you are doing, get your tickets, and come back here.

Did you get your tickets? Okay, well, there is a new trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which I am sure many debated they should watched after Rian Johnson said he was torn on us watching it, mainly because he wanted us to go in without any sort of trailer. Personally if there was one movie that they could have gone without releasing any sort of trailer and we still would go to the theater, this would be it. But if you are wondering if I gave in and watched.......of course I did. I was on the fence this morning, but after reading his comments on Twitter more carefully, I realized what he was meaning, which was that he wasn't trying to get us to boycott the trailer but that he wanted us to go in without any sort of speculation on what the story was about. He even got on later in the day explaining his comment that he made earlier in the day. As well, even if I decided to not watch the trailer tonight, I was sure I wasn't going to be able to resist for long anyway, and now that I have seen it, my anticipation is off the charts again. The hardest part is calming down and waiting for the release date in December.

I do need to talk about one element in the trailer, something that no other trailer has done before, as far as I can remember. If you are one of those that are trying to avoid trailers, or descriptions of trailers, for The Last Jedi, do not read any further.

That moment is when Kylo Ren is attacking the ships of the Resistance and it appears that he is facing Leia's ship and is about to destroy it. With the passing of Carrie Fisher late last year, this moment just stopped my heart and I stopped breathing for a short second, and almost choked up. This is not something that normally happens for me.

Finn and Captain Phasma have an epic battle, and that just seems awesome. I want to go back and see how Finn and Captain Phasma's relation is. I got a feeling there is probably more between them than we may have thought about, we do get hints in The Force Awakens that Finn resents Captain Phasma, maybe she was trying to be a bit more controlling over him. Regardless that seems like an awesome fight will go down, actually I am sure many awesome fights will go down. 

If you have noticed the posters, the color red is a prominent color, in the teaser poster and the new poster released today, as well, when the title for the movie was released earlier this year, the Star Wars logo was in red. There is also plenty of red in the trailer.

And seriously, what's going to happen to Rey and Kylo Ren? There are moments that make you think that Rey could turn to the dark side, kind of like how the shots at the end are edited together. I want to say I don't think they will do that. First off, I am sure those two aren't in the same scene there, it's just trailer editing. But honestly, that is something that has gone through my mind, what if Rey turned to the dark side. At the same time, what if Kylo Ren turned back to the good side, and found redemption.

I also have many questions on Luke Skywalker and Snoke. The obvious that come from the previous movie, as well as what comes from this trailer. Why is Luke scared of Rey's potential? Are Rey and Kylo Ren similar? In regards to Snoke, I remember there were theories that he was Darth Plaugus, who was Palpatine's master (remember the story that Palpatine told Anakin in the Opera scene in Episode 3?). That would be an interesting idea if that were true. One of my big questions is how did Snoke come into play? What made him decide to seize control of the galaxy, what is his ultimate goal?

I wasn't too sure what I was going to get when I saw the trailer, I just kept expectations normal, just hoping for some cool things to help pump me up for when the movie comes out. And I wasn't too worried about spoilers going in, because the talent behind these movies are working to keep everything under wraps as much as possible. If I heard that the editor of the trailer for Terminator Genysis edited the trailer and that he locked out Rian Johnson when he was putting together the trailer, then yes, I would have avoided the trailer, and I wouldn't be telling anyone to watch it.

Honestly this is something that is hard to keep my thoughts straight as I have so many thoughts going on in regards to the trailer, but I strongly recommend you watch the trailer if you haven't seen it yet.

Now on to what I first brought up in the subject, tickets are now on sale. I will admit that I was shocked with how hard it was to secure my ticket, I am not sure why I thought that because The Force Awakens was really hard as well. I had one theater in mind to get my ticket, but I couldn't get in to that showtime to secure my seat, so I guess either they sold out or it's going to be a company bought show. Regardless, I ended up going to buy a ticket for a Thursday night showing on an IMAX screen, because for the first showing of a Star Wars movie, you need to go big, but my seat was a few rows away from the screen, about 4 rows, but I couldn't be any happier though. I also have a ticket to go with a group of friends the following day as well that my friends purchased. But yeah, it was definitely a fight to secure a ticket, and I was cheering at the fact I secured my seat and all. Getting tickets to a Star Wars movie opening weekend is literally like getting tickets to a concert.

Anyway, that is all I have to say in regards to Star Wars The Last Jedi at this moment. I will for sure do a review of the movie when I see it, and if you want me to do another post on me sharing some of my speculations, let me know. My next planned post will be a breakdown on some of the movies I am looking forward to this holiday season.

Summer Movie Review 2017

This summer was an interesting one as far as movies were concerned. There were a ton of misfires, but that being said, there were ones that very well, and ones that will stick way beyond the summer. I want to take the time to rank some of them. I will start with the ones that were memorable, the ones that will be remembered, and end with the ones that should be skipped.

Keep in mind, my choices are limited to releases between the beginning of May to the end of August. 

My Top 5

1. Dunkirk

The minute it said Christopher Nolan, boom I was already sold. Regardless of what you think about his movies, he can make epic looking movies, and also, he is very ambitious in his attempt to create film, he goes the traditional way of filming which is using celluloid, in this case it was using IMAX cameras. I saw this on an IMAX screen to take advantage of what Christopher Nolan was creating for his audience, and it was effective, this is one of those movies that needed to be experienced in IMAX, to truly appreciate the feeling that was established. Not only were the shots incredible, but the sound design was extremely effective, the music and the sound effects, all worked together to create a sense of urgency. The movie used very minimal dialogue in the movie, and allowed the images and the sound and the environment help tell the story. This is a movie that had me on the edge of my seat throughout and there were moments that I felt anxious and wondered if the characters would make it out. I was very thankful for those quick small moments that allowed me to breathe a little bit, a movie to have that kind of effect is extremely rare. Very well crafted and one of the most memorable movie experiences in a large cinema. Well done Christopher Nolan.


2. War for the Planet of the Apes

I enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it wasn't a favorite when it first came out, I didn't know what to make of it, but after repeated viewings, it grew on me and got better. Three years after that, I ended up seeing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and wow were my expectations blown out of the water. I was stunned by the world that was created, and the fact that I ended up really caring about the characters, it became on of my favorite movies of 2014. My expectations were high when it came to this next entry, I didn't know exactly what to expect going on, but I do have to admit hearing a couple of reviews helped me set expectations and what to expect. This was a very impressive work of cinema, I had come to really care about the ape characters more, not just Cesear but his band of followers that help him, and they were the main focus this time around as opposed to the first two entries where there was a focus on human characters as well as the apes. The world was just as impressive as the last entry, and the visual effect work was extremely impressive, seriously, the work on the apes was realistic. I also want to point out Michael Giacchino's musical score, which was excellent, if you have doubts in his ability to compose, you need to listen to this score. I am still debating if I liked this one or the second one more, but one thing for sure, we have a very sold trilogy now for the Planet of the Apes franchise, even if they choose not to make another, that's okay. This is one of those that did alright in theaters, but didn't take off that well, which was a bummer. This is one of those that I strongly recommend checking out if you haven't yet, this is worth your time.


3. Wonder Woman

I really didn't think the DC Cinematic Universe would take off. I liked Man of Steel, but Batman V Superman was a giant mess, visually interesting but still a mess. And then we had Suicide Squad, and while I enjoyed it in theaters, this remains a movie I have no desire to see again. Wonder Woman always looked interesting, but I was cautiously optimistic. I was definitely surprised to see that I really enjoyed this movie, and also that it was something worth watching again and again. It was also colorful, which is something I didn't think I would see after Batman V Superman. There is something just very inspiring about this character and her story arc. There is one action piece that is just very incredible to me, not just because it was visually cool, but what it meant overall, and how it inspirited, it was hands down my favorite sequence in the movie, and for those that haven't seen it, I won't say what it is here, but I am sure you will know when you see it. Oh yeah, another thing that this movie had that I didn't think I would see in the DC universe, humor. Yes, that's right, Wonder Woman had some really funny moments. This is a really good superhero movie, and one I think is very much worth checking out.


4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

One of the most anticipated movies of the summer, I was anticipating the return of this very odd but relate-able crew. This one did not disappoint in the slightest. I don't remember laughing as hard as I did during the first one, but that's okay, because one thing the director did a great job at was developing the characters, giving us a reason to care about them. The visuals were incredibly impressive, each environment or planet were incredibly gorgeous to look at. This movie was a blast and was just a joy to come back to the theater each time that I could. You can read my more in-depth review.


5. Logan Lucky

There are a few movies that failed to take off that should have done better, and I think people will kick themselves later on for not taking a chance on. Logan Lucky is one of those. I am still boggled that this bombed at the box office. It was funny, it was intriguing, and the elements just worked. There was a great cast behind the movie, and everyone was great, especially the scene stealing Daniel Craig who I swear was having a blast making this as much as I was having fun watching, but everyone else was just as great and I had a ton of fun watching this movie.  The director is the same one that did the Oceans movies, and there are many references to it, in fact they even reference it in the movie itself. I strongly recommend you check this one out if it's still in theaters, if not then I suggest you look for this when it finally hits shelves.

Other really great movies of the summer

Spider Man Homecoming

I will say it right now to get it out of the way, I am not a fan of Andrew Garfield as Spider Man. There, I said it. I don't think Andrew Garfield is a bad actor at all, in fact quite the opposite, I think he is becoming an excellent actor, he was superb in Silence, and his next role in Breathe I am sure will be excellent. I just had a hard time seeing Andrew Garfield as Spider Man, and maybe a reboot of the character was too soon, anyway, the first reboot of the character never worked for me. But this new reboot, for some reason stood out to me as something that could succeed. Introducing Spider Man into Captain America Civil War threw out the entire origin story that we didn't need to see again (that was part of the problem with The Amazing Spider-Man, it was another origin story, and the first few minutes I was turned off because of it). Civil War gave us a great look into Spider Man, and this one gave us a different perspective to Spider Man that we haven't seen before, he is the "neighborhood friendly" Spider Man as he is going around doing good deeds, like getting a bike back that was stolen, helping cats out of trees, small things like that, and just waiting for his big shot to join the Avengers on another mission. Also, this was just a very funny movie, I was laughing so hard in the theater that I was sure that I missed a joke or two, and I needed to see it again to recatch those. This was an excellent Spider Man movie, and I am really glad to see him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and can't wait to see him get more involved in the future.

Not great, but still pretty good

Cars 3

After Cars 2, I had no desire to see another Cars movie, and I was appauled that another Cars movie was even being considered. Then I saw the teaser, and it immediately grabbed my attention in a way I didn't think it would. No, I didn't think Lightning McQueen would be killed, but I thought that it would represent a story of someone that needed to work to make his way back on top. I actually enjoyed this one, it reminded me a lot of the first one, which is one of my least favorite in Pixar's filmography, but still not a bad movie, and I liked how the film was resolved near the end. This isn't destined to be one of Pixar's classics at all, it is far from it, but I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would and I do think it's worth checking out.


Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Let's get the obvious out of the way. You are not going to see it for a good story and you are not going to see it for good acting, you are going to see it because it has incredible visual effects and a really cool universe crafted. Okay, maybe you might find a good story in it and you mighht find the acting great, but I didn't, but I found the world incredible and the visual effects to be excellent. This is one of those movies that you need to see on the big screen and in 3D to really appreciate the scope of the world created. Unfortunately this will probably be difficult to do at this point, but with 4K Blu-Ray, I am sure you can get a big screen to watch this somewhere at home, or maybe you or your friends have a really solid theater room that you can watch this when it hits Blu-Ray later this year.

Watch once and you will be satisfied

Despicable Me 3

I really liked the first two, they were charming and funny, and the Minions were show slealers. Something about this one just didn't work like the first two did. The villain was fun, but just didn't leave the same mark like the other two. The minions weren't as funny as they were in the past, or maybe they weren't in it as much. The little girl who was a favorite just wasn't as funny this time around. Not saying this was bad, but when you compare to the first two, it just wasn't as unique, maybe that was the problem, the uniqueness of the first two had worn off by the time this one came around. Still worth checking out though at least once.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The fifth movie of a franchise that probably should have stopped after one, that's what many of you are probably thinking, and I don't blame you. I am going to take a second to defend the second and third ones. NO, they are not classics, but I would be lying to you if I didn't say I didn't enjoy them or didn't find any reason to rewatch them. I liked those two and I think they are worth re-watching at times, they aren't as good as the first at all, but the director did attempt to try something different, whether you found it successful or not is up to you. The fourth one was when things went really downhill for me. It lost two very important characters (Will Turner and Elisabeth Swan), and as I think about it, they lost quite a few of the old crew from the Black Pearl as well that made these movies fun to watch. We still have Balbosa, Mr Gibbs and Jack Sparrow, but the adventure in the fourth outing felt very thin and forgettable. I was not looking forward to another one immediately when I heard about it. I do have to say that I liked it much more than I thought I would, while I think a one time view is enough, it was still worth the time especially if you liked the others. Two old characters are brought back (you probably know what they are, but I won't say here), but aren't in it long enough to make it a phenomenon. But there is one twist in the movie that I really liked, and probably made a huge difference in one of the main characters of the franchise.

Not really worth your time

The Mummy

This one actually blends between (Not really worth your time) and (Watch once and you will be satisfied). I enjoyed it when I saw it in theaters. It wasn't anything new at all, but it was a fun movie to just sit down and eat popcorn while watching. It had some cool visual effects, and it looked like Tom Cruise had a great time, Sofia Boutella as the Mummy was great, and there was one character that emerged for a couple of minutes that was kind of fun to watch. I listed some good stuff, and kind of makes you wonder if it's worth at least one viewing. A few days after seeing this, I kind of forgot it, and it just doesn't stick out in my mind the way it did when I first watched it. Some of the things that I found impressive initially I immediately forgot about. There is also one character which I honestly think was a complete waste of screen time, and he seems like a decent actor, but his arc was just pointless. I actually prefer Brenden Frasier's Mummy movies more than this outing.


The Dark Tower

A movie that takes too long to make or gets delayed too many times is destined to face certain doom. Unfortunately that became the case with The Dark Tower. I honestly had hope for this movie when I first saw the trailer, I never read the books, but the trailer looked intriguing and I actually wanted to see this movie, I had hopes for this. I can't say that my hopes were dashed away when I entered the theater, as they were already leveled down before I purchased my ticket. I saw a few reviews and just knew this wasn't going to measure up. When I saw this, the best thing to describe this was "alright" or "fine". There were intriguing things in it. Idris Elba was really good in his role. There were a few interesting things in the world that was crafted, but it just didn't leave that good of an impression, and led to be forgettable when I walked out of the movie. It was almost like Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith were outside the theater ready to wipe my mind of the movie as soon as I walked out.

Why did we get this

Transformers: The Last Knight

Michael Bay's fifth (and hopefully last) time in the director's chair gave us nothing new in the Transformers universe that he hasn't given before. I really liked the first one. However, by the time the fourth one came along, Michael Bay began to outstay his welcome as a director in the Transformers universe, that movie was so painful to get through. I can say this one was not as painful, and there were things that were interesting, and I really liked Steve Jablonsky's score (which has always been a highlight for all these movies). Also it was nice to see Josh Duhamel back, any time he was on screen I felt I could take the movie a little more seriously. And the visuals were good. That's it, and quite honestly while this one had a few decent things, it wasn't enough to justify anyone to buy a ticket to it. My main reason I didn't want this to succeed is because I don't want to see Michael Bay direct another one of these, he isn't doing anything really new at this point. There are moments where I swear Michael Bay is purposefully being lazy and stupid behind the camera, maybe in a way to say, "Please stop seeing these movies, I am not going to put any more effort to them". The biggest disappointment was his efforts in using IMAX 3D cameras, that's right, it was a disappointment. Regardless of how I felt in terms of storytelling or whatever for these movies, Michael Bay always knew how to direct an action movie. However, this one had question marks going through my brain. This one had a shaky camera just a tad too much, honestly I think worse than the first one, where the camera shaked a little too much as well. But the biggest annoyance is the change in aspect ratio. Yes, I am aware that Christopher Nolan does do aspect ratio changes in his movies when he shoots with IMAX cameras, but those don't bug me, because he uses IMAX cameras for big epic shots, and then switches to 2.35 for character moments or smaller moments. I felt he knew when to switch aspect ratios, it just felt seamless to me. In my opinion, I don't think Michael Bay knew how to switch between aspect ratios properly. In one shot, you had the full IMAX image, the next shot, it would go to 2.35, and then the next shot would be in between, and this happened a lot during each scene, it got to the point that I developed a headache watching it, and with the slight shaky cam, I ended up with a big headache at the end of the movie.

Kickstarter Campaign to a concept film for War Chapters of The Book of Mormon

I remember seeing a Book of Mormon Movie back in 2004, I read about the director's intentions, of having that be the first part of what was suppose to be 9 movies (if memory serves me right). The movie failed, more than financially, it was panned. Regardless of it failing, at the time I thought that they would continue to move forward with this series, and just have this movie be a bump in the road, my hope was that maybe they could better the craft of making the movies with each entry and keep getting better budgets, especially when they got to the war chapters, as anything that could be compelling to see on the big screen, it would be the war chapters. Yes, that one attempt on making a Book of Mormon movie failed, and for the most part, has been forgotten, but that does not mean that the desire to see an epic movie on the Book of Mormon has diminished, especially by those who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I, myself, being a member have desired to see this happen for a long time.

I don't remember exactly how I first stumbled upon this project, but I remember looking around and first heard about Reign of Judges: Title of Liberty, which was to be an epic feature length film based on the war chapters of The Book of Mormon, and how the producer of this project was trying to make it a reality, when I first heard about it, not much was being done, mainly because of finances. But then I saw this resurface 2 months ago, with a desire to start making this feature length movie a reality by creating a concept film to show how incredible this movie could be. While a concept film isn't necessarily the epic movie yet, it could be the very thing to get more interest going, and could show us how incredible the epic movie could be. If you remember, when Ryan Reynolds was pushing to get a Deadpool movie made, he first worked to get a concept film going to show how incredible it could be, and because of that, interest grew (which helped after his disastrous performance, which wasn't his fault at at, in that X-Men Origins Wolverine movie). Developing a concept film on Reign of Judges: Title of Liberty could be the very thing to get the epic feature length movie made.

A few weeks ago, the producer started a Kickstarter campaign to get funding for this ambitious concept film. What has really stood out was his passion for this project, and his vision that this could really be an incredible film and really make a difference. As well, his efforts to make the concept film has been astounding, and the talent he is bringing on to make the costumes and props. I really hope to see this become a reality, if any project has a chance to do an incredible depiction of the war chapters in the Book of Mormon, I really believe this is it.

The campaign is going on for one more week. Check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Star Wars 40th Anniversary

 
Well, I can’t believe it, it’s been 40 years to this day that Star Wars first arrived in theaters. That’s right, it’s the 40^th anniversary of one of the most iconic films of all time. This was a movie that changed so much. With today marking 40 years since it’s release, there will be many that will talk about how the movie came to be, there will be many that will talk about how the movie broke records, and how the movie has had an impact 40 years after it’s initial release. And since there are many that will take care of those areas more likely, I decided to focus on two things, how I got introduced to the Star Wars universe, and briefly go over a few Star Wars related items that had an impact on me. First, let me briefly describe my entry into the Star Wars universe.

I first discovered Star Wars back in the summer of 1994. What initiated the series for me was a video game for the Super Nintendo, called Super Empire Strikes Back, obviously based on the second chapter of the original trilogy. I don’t know what made me want to pick this game, but I saw it and rented it at my local video store, and played it, and got to explore many of the different worlds of the movie through the passwords that were written on the instruction booklet (this was before the internet, and before I figured I could find any passwords elsewhere, so thank you whoever you are that wrote those passwords on the instruction booklet). Before that I am sure I saw clips of the Star Wars movies beforehand, and I did ride the Star Tours ride at Disney World in 1992, but this game was the one that started my official journey into the Star Wars universe. From there, one week when I was at my Aunt’s house, I found out about The Empire Strikes Back, and watched it, that’s right, the first Star Wars movie I watched all the way through was not the first one, but the second one, and obviously after watching the second one, I needed to see how everything turned out at the end so I saw the third one the next day, and then shortly after (don’t remember when) I saw the first one. The summer of 1994 was when I first became a fan of Star Wars, and was captivated by the world. If anyone asked me what my favorite movie of the series was, I would say The Empire Strikes Back, yes the story is more complex, and has the greatest twist in history, but the worlds we get to check out were just incredible to me, especially as I was a 9 year old kid experiencing the Star Wars universe for the first time. We had the movies on VHS at the time at my home, the first one a store bought copy, and then the second and third that were taped off Showtime when they played. We later got the Star Wars Trilogy set on VHS when it got re-released in 1995 (in fact it was one of those Christmas presents we discovered under the tree after Christmas morning was officially over, so kind of a late Christmas present).

Throughout the years following my somewhat random introduction to the Star Wars universe, I got my hands on many awesome things (toys, collectibles, games) , and I want to share a few of them with you:

-Star Wars (Game Gear): The first movie was made into a Game Gear game, actually all of the Star Wars movies were made into a video game over many different formats. I got this game for my 9^th birthday, shortly after watching the movies for the first time. I would play this game a lot. I made it to the Death Star, but not much further than that.

 

-Super Star Wars Trilogy (SNES): I mentioned how Super Empire Strikes Back started my journey, but I did play the other two games as well. I only rented Super Star Wars once, but I rented Super Return of the Jedi quite a few times, I would say I played that game more than the other ones (mainly because that one was more available at my local store).

 

-Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64): One of the first N64 games I played, and the best part was I got to explore some cool worlds in the Star Wars galaxy, and in 3D, so I got to explore a ton and it was so much fun to play. For those who don’t know about this game, it took place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and involves you playing a guy by the name of Dash Rendar, who helps Luke and Leia out after Han is put into carbon freeze. There is a comic series as well for this story. This is one of those games, even though the graphics are very outdated, I can put the game in and still play a bit of it, that’s how much of an impact for me it had. In fact, I made a short movie with my family when I was a teenager, and this game played a huge role in the movie.

-Millenium Falcon (toy): For Christmas 1995, I got a big version of the Millenium Falcon. I don’t know if I could give the exact dimensions of it, but I had small action figures that could easily fit into it and play around in the falcon, that includes the area in the first movie where they played that chess game and Luke practiced with his lightsaber against that training ball.

 

-Star Wars Monopoly (board game): Today you can find a themed version of Monopoly for just about anything, Ghostbusters Monopoly, Back to the Future Monopoly, Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly, and the list goes on and on. I would like to say that this version started it all, but I don’t know if that was true or not. I got this for Christmas in 1997, during the year of the 20^th anniversary of the first movie. It was fun to play, and to buy the great landscapes of the iconic films.

 

-Star Wars Galactic Battle (board game): Remember Battleship? Well, then you basically know what Star Wars Galactic Battle is. I got this during Christmas of 1998. It was an electronic game, so there would be voice commands given, so I didn’t have to play against an actual person, but I could play against the computer.

 

-R2-D2 remote control robot (toy): I got this during Christmas of 1997. It was a robot I could control and it would make the little noises. You could turn it or you could let it go forward.

 

-Death Star Waffle Iron: This is a more recent thing I got. I got for Christmas of 2015, but it was seriously cool. I love waffles, so having waffles is a big thing for me, so I was glad to receive this appliance.

 

-Darth Vader/Princess Leia Christmas ornament: I got this ornament for my Christmas tree this past Christmas. It was the scene when Darth Vader first encounters Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie, and it even has an audio clip of that scene. The reason I include this because it was a day after learning of Carrie Fisher’s heart attack, and while I was hopeful that she would make it, I was still concerned for her health, as was many, and to learn that a few days later we would lose her was a sad shock. That ornament has more meaning now because of the events that happened, and also with Rogue One coming out a week before, which added a new dimension to the Star Wars universe.

 

These are the ones that stood out to me the most, there were many other cool Star Wars things I got over the years. I could share so many other Star Wars related things, whether they come through video or books or music or whatever, but this is what I decided to narrow down on for this post. If you want me to do another Star Wars related post and go more into other things that have impacted me in the Star Wars universe, I am willing to do another one. Star Wars has had a huge impact on my life, as it has had on many in the world. And I am so excited for Star Wars The Last Jedi, and most importantly, I am excited to see what it gets us talking about, like Rey’s lineage, who President Snoke is, etc. Until then, may the force be with you. 

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance coming to Netflix

Yesterday, I came across some really excellent news, news that I became cynical that I would ever hear, or see any real development out of. That is to see anything continuation of The Dark Crystal on the big or little screen.

I was first introduced to the world of The Dark Crystal back in 2000 when I decided to rent the movie from my local video store (back in the days when there were actual video rental places). I was captivated by the world that I was introduced to, it was incredible to see. What also really caught my attention was how much went into creating this world.

I first heard of the possibility of a Dark Crystal sequel being worked on back in 2007, and for the next 4 years I watched earnestly for any more news on the subject, just to see any possibility get shut down. I was really disappointed that it was shut down after years of hoping, but while I was somewhat cynical towards anything happening, I still held on to hope that something would come forth one day.

Over the years after hearing the sequel was cancelled, we started to get a lot of great Dark Crystal material. We got a prequel novel series, the first book being Shadows of the Dark Crystal, which came out last year, with the sequel called Song of the Dark Crystal coming out in two months. There was a couple of Manga style books that came out in 2007 which also gave us a story before the events of the movie. Comic books called Dark Crystal Creation Myths have also come out. All this material coming out proved that there was a deep appreciation for this world we have been introduced to, and how many are finding new stories to help expand and enrich this world that we have come to love.

And earlier this year, a comic book series came out for the proposed sequel I had been waiting for, The Power of the Dark Crystal, I have read the first two issues that have come out and the illustrations are incredible, they are just gorgeous to look at, plus the story is very intriguing. While I would have preferred to have it released as a motion picture, I was excited for it because I would get to see the story we were hoping for a decade ago, and maybe, just maybe, we will see some kind of film of The Dark Crystal in the future.

Well, yesterday, we were greeted by a trailer that announced a 10 episode series produced by Netflix and The Jim Henson Company entitled The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which will be a prequel series before the events of the movie. This preview gave us a glimpse to the world that is being created, and what was interesting was that they seemed to blend very well, meaning that they used old footage from the making of the original and then making of the series, and there were  moments I had a hard time telling which is which, and that tells me that the world will be identical to the one we were introduced to 35 years ago. Also, being released by Netflix, which gives me high hopes that this will be treated well, we got a series called Stranger Things last year and that was a very entertaining series. As far as a release date, I have none, all I do know is that it will begin shooting in the Fall (again no set date), but the wait will be extremely hard. But whatever that date is, I will make sure to get my Netflix device and everything ready for it’s release when it happens.