X-Men: Days of Future Past review.

I watched the newest instalment in the X-men franchise this weekend, and I was very pleased with the movie. This is a movie with time traveling, which almost automatically means plot holes. Surprisingly, there were very little holes in this film, and they did not distract me or take me out of the movie. Everything made sense, and all the events that unfold happen pretty logically.

The cast of this movie did a great job. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are amazing as young professor X and Magneto. Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen reprised their roles too, and just like always they did a great job. Hugh Jackman once again plays Wolverine, and he was great like always, but the actress that did the b
est job, and played the most interesting character in my opinion is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Yes, Wolverine is technically the main character, but it is not his movie. This is Mystique's movie, and she rocks it. Peter Dinklage was awesome, and played a relatable, but menacing villain. My favourite character though, would have to be Quicksilver. He is absolutely fantastic in this film. He was hilarious, he was badass and he was a very interesting character. I hope they use him again in later films.

Another thing that I loved about this film are all the supporting characters. There are tons of mutants that have smaller roles, and even though most of them don't even have many lines, they ALL have a badass moment. I am so glad that Bryan Singer returned to the X-men universe. His movies always stood out as the best to me, and you can see that the man decided to really "come back." The genius of this movie is that it makes the worst of the X-men movies (X3, Wolverine origins) better. It "fixes them". The visual effects were great, the sound was great, I really enjoyed the score, and the overall tone of the film.

The one problem that I had with Days of Future Past are the continuity issues. It does not tie in with "The Wolverine" or X-men 3 very well. At the end of "The Wolverine" Wolverine gets the adamantium sucked out of him and he has bone claws again. In this film, he has his adamantium claws, and it is not explained how that happened. Professor X is alive and well, and once again nothing is really explained. I guess you can't blame Singer for this, but more the executive producers and overseers of the franchise.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is so far my favourite movie of the year. It is really smart, interesting and fun. I highly recommend seeing it in theatres. My rating for this film is 9/10.

Alfonso Cuaron Might direct Harry Potter spinoff.

I am a fan of both the Harry Potter books and movies, my favourite instalment is the third one, Harry Potter and the prizoner of Azkaban. The movie was directed by Oscar winner, Alfonso Cuaron. One of the main reasons why I enjoyed the film so much was the direction and the tone. 

To be honest I was not very excited when I heard about this "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" movie. I've read the book, or textbook to be exact, and my initial thought was that there is not enough material to make a whole movie. I mean its just an encyclopaedia of different magical beasts, how could a movie be based on that? However, when I heard that Cuaron might direct this movie, my interest rose dramatically. I think Cuaron is one of the best directors working today, and his vision of the Harry Potter world is the most interesting and alternative we have seen. No plot details are known at this time, but I am surely going to be looking for this movie now. Just imagine a hippogriff floating through space, fighting for survival. 

This is also good news, because it means that the script written by JK Rowling is very good. Cuaron is hot as ever right now, and he could direct any movie he wanted to. His choice is a good sign of the quality of the story, and I hope that my expectations are met. 

Second Guardians of the Galaxy trailer review

So the new trailer for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy hit the web today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEdue5SIcg
In this trailer, we get to actually meet all five characters, and get a better understanding of the plot. The first teaser showed Star Lord as a witty, sarcastic guy. This trailer has a couple more shots of him which actually show Star Lord's badass side. Rocket Racoon, who is voiced by Bradley Cooper, has two lines in this trailer, and I like the way he sounds. In my opinion, Rocket will be Guardian's Hulk, in the sense that he will have a couple very cool scenes that everybody is going to be talking about (like "Hulk Smash" or "Puny God"). We also heard Diesel's Groot speak in this trailer, though he only has one line, but it seems like the character is not going to say much anyways. Zoe Saldana looks awesome as a green alien, and it seems like her and Star Lord are going to develop a relationship.

Saying all that, I felt like this was not a very good trailer. It reused many of the shots from the teaser, but more importantly, it used the "Hooked on a feeling" song again. Its a great song and it matches the tone of the movie, but it was the main soundtrack for the teaser, and in my opinion the second time it was not as effective. I would also like to see a little more of the other four Guardians. We never even hear Zoe speak in this trailer. Another complain that some people might have about this trailer, but personally it didn't bother me, is that the plot is still unclear. We know that all five are going to team up to save the Galaxy (duh), but it is still unapparent what they are saving it from. Also a villain has been hinted, but not actually shown. This is explainable, since Guardians of the Galaxy are not widely known, and the trailer is mainly trying to let the public know of the existence of the actual team.

6 things we want "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" to do.

1) Tie in Gandalf's quest with LOTR. 
In Desolation of Smaug, Gandalf confronts the necromancer, who reveals himself to be Sauron. This is a pretty big deal, because it means that he is back, even though can not take his full form yet. The fight scene between Sauron and Gandalf was awesome, but there is one problem. I'm not sure how they are going to properly tie it in with "Fellowship of the Ring" the first movie in the LOTR trilogy.
In Fellowship, Gandalf has his suspicion that the Dark Lord Sauron might be returning, so he has to go of and do research for months. He then comes back to Frodo with the quest to get the ring to Rivendell. If he meets Sauron in Desolation of Smaug, how can he doubt that he came back? He would not have to go do research, because he has already seen him. Hopefully Peter Jackson does not look over this fact and manages to tie it in. Gandalf's story in "Desolation" ends with him being pinned against a wall, looking hopeless. Perhaps in the movie he will get his memory erased, or maybe the Necromancer is not actually Sauron. We will have to wait and see.

2) End Kili's relationship with Tauriel on a friendly note. 
I didn't mind the relationship between Kili and Tauriel in Desolation of Smaug, but if it ends with them marrying and having a bunch of dwarven-elvish kids, that will be ridiculous. I think the filmmakers are going a little to far with their "love story" and I hope they end it in Battle of the Five armies, and the two don't end up together.

3) Make the battle epic. 
This is something that Peter Jackson proved he can do. Look at the "Siege of Helm's deep" in "Two Towers" or the battle of "Minas Tirith" from "Return of the King." Long story short, those battles are awesome. What worries me, is the actual FIVE armies. I have my fingers crossed that Jackson is going to be able to show us a fair bit of each army, and still make it interesting and flow well. I'm sure that it will be at least great, but I want it to be amazing.

4) Make it about the Hobbit. 
In "Desolation" we saw a shift of gears. Bilbo stopped being the main character, and Thorin Oakinshield took over. I think it was a good choice for the second film (just like Aragorn and co became the focus of the two towers), but I wish that in the third film the story centres around Bilbo again. Just think about it, this huge war going on between all these warriors, and a little, defend less hobbit stuck in the middle. I'm not saying that Oakinshield should be shredded from his portion of the story, I just hope that in this film we concentrate on concluding Bilbo's adventures as well as the dwarves' quest to retake their realm .

5) Finish off Smaug. 

Desolation ended on a cliffhanger with Smaug headed towards Lake Town to destroy it. I hope that Bard gets rid of the Dragon in the first 20 minutes of the movie so we can concentrate on the battle for a longer time. Most likely Bard will shoot the black arrow at Smaug, but imagine how cool it would be, if he charges at this huge dragon with the arrow in his hand as a spear, and stabs him right under the wing in mid air. I know this probably won't happen, but Imagine how cool it would be. 

6) Give the sense of Danger. 

The dwarves are pretty much invincible. Nothing has ever harmed them, except for the arrow that pierced Kili. I loved the barrel scene and all, but seeing Bombur jump around in his barrel and take out a dozen orcs, makes the dwarves seem like superheroes. Why should you worry for characters who are practically invincible? I don't want half of the Dwarves to die in the movie, but at least show some injuries, and actual danger. Don't just have the 12 running through an army of Orcs, taking them down carelessly like Gimli did in the battle of Helms deep when he and Aragorn jumped on the bridge. 

5 things we hope "Man of Steel 2" does

Even though 2016 is two years away, anticipation is high for the "Batman vs Superman" film. Here are 5 things, that I hope Snyder and team do, to make MOS 2 awesome.

5) Make Batman more powerful. 
If the Christian Bale batman fought with the Henry Cavill Superman, face it- Batman would stand no chance. I mean he barely beat Bane, would he really be able to go toe to toe with the man of steel? To be able to have a fight with Superman, Batman will need one of these two things: amazing tech, or kryptonite.
At the end Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, Batman and Superman have a fight, and Batman wins. He wears a mechanical suit that makes him stronger, uses a device to shock Superman with electricity, and a gun that emits sound waves which seemed to give Superman an pretty bad headache.
Batman also uses kryptonite often when he fights with the "man of tomorrow." You can see this in "Hush" where he used a ring made out of kryptonite and also in "Dark Knight Returns" where Batman has Green Arrow shoot a kryptonite arrow at Superman during the course of their fight, which ultimately helps him win. It doesn't matter which route they choose, but I would personally prefer them to give batman cooler tech, and not use the classical "Kryptonite weapon."

4) Not concentrate as much on supporting characters. 
It is getting crowded in "Man of Steel 2". We know Wonder woman, Cyborg, Alfred and Lex luther are all in the movie, and all 4 characters have very rich backgrounds that would be cool to explore. However, I hope that they stick mostly to two main characters: Batman and Superman. Now granted, it will be cool to see all these other characters, as long as they are not the main focus of the story. I really hope that Cyborg and Wonder woman only have an appearance in this movie, and don't actually play a big role, this is not Justice league, it's still a superman movie; but I'll talk about that later. The point is, Batman and Superman are very cool characters, and I hope that most of the screen time is devoted to them and not the supporting cast.

3) Have Batman actually cause some harm to Superman
This relates to point 5, but is still it's own thing. I hope that when the two superheroes fight, Batman will actually cause some harm to Superman. In the first Man of Steel, Superman constantly took bullets and punches, but didn't even have a scratch. What is the fun of having a fight between Batman and Superman, if we know that nothing can happen to the Man of Steel. I don't know how they are going to address this, but I would personally love to see some Kryptonian blood running out of Kent's nose.

2) Give Luther a good motivation. 

We don't know how big of a role Luther is going to play in this movie. Maybe he will just be set up for a future movie, maybe he will be the main villain, but the point is - he needs a good motivation. In   Singer's 2006 "Superman returns" Luther wants to make a new continent out of rocks, so he can sell lots of land and get lots of Money. That villain motivation sucks. It's very generic and is boring. Imagine how cool it would be if this was Luthor's motivation: The world just found out that Superman is an all mighty being from another planet. Another guy from his planet (General Zod) destroyed half of Metropolis by stopping by and saying hi. Where is the guarantee, that Superman is not going to turn evil and do the same? That is why, Luther starts an anti-superman campaign, trying to make superman leave, or perhaps find a weapon against him. On the surface it seems like a good and reasonable plan, but behind the scenes Luthor is actually planning something horrible. This would also explain why Batman would be fighting Superman. Wayne would first join Luther in his worries about superman, but later find out who the real villain is.

1) Don't have this movie set up Justice League. 
One of the biggest problems with "The amazing Spiderman 2" was that is was merely setting up future movies and concentrated on establishing characters more than on the plot of the actual movie. This is also a danger for MOS 2. That is why it worries me to hear that Wonder Woman and Cyborg are in this movie. I hope that they don't try to stuff in as much references and plot points to future movies, and concentrate on the important things, like developing the MAIN characters.

Godzilla 2014 Review

GODZILLA REVIEW

We all know the abomination that is the 90's Godzilla. Luckily, this new one is much better. 

I watched the new Godzilla movie yesterday, and to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed. The main reason of my disappointment were the trailers, which are misleading. 

The trailers marketed Bryan Cranston to be the main star of the movie, which is not true. The main character is played by Taylor Johnson, and that is the biggest problem I had with this Godzilla movie. 

Ford Brody is the name of Johnson's character, and he is just not very interesting. Brody's dad played by Cranston, was a more interesting character that I would rather see helm this movie. I also thought that the human element of this film was not very strong, and it takes a while to get started.  Also, the main character of the movie, Godzilla himself, is not in the movie that much. There are probably 30 minutes of the monster in the whole film, and I wish that we would spend more time watching Godzilla than the boring people.  

Now for the things that I enjoyed about this movie: 

When Godzilla is on screen it is glorious. All monsters in this movie are HUGE. Some people complained that Godzilla is to fat, but I think that it looks awesome. The CGI and sound in this movie are very good, and I liked the fight scenes when they actually happened, which unfortunately was pretty rare. Godzilla's roar is the best one we've heard yet, and I am glad that it was not fully featured in the trailers, because hearing the actual full roar for the first time in the movie was one of the most enjoyable moments for me. 

Overall I liked this movie more than I disliked it, even though it had many flaws. I will give this movie 7/10 for breathtaking CGI, sound, monsters and fight scenes.