Voltron: Legendary Defender Review

As someone who grew up in the 80's I was a bit afraid to watch Netflix's version of one of my favorite cartoons ever. Still, I knew that Netflix has yet to let me down so I sat down and watched the first episode. A few hours later I was done with the entire season. I don't usually watch full seasons of a show in one day, but Voltron: Legendary Defender was just THAT good.

The first season of the show explains everything that we would need to know about the show and its characters. The update to the story is great and it does not feel as if it was written for kids. I think it is safe to say that the show is not only for kids but also for adults that enjoy good science fiction. Legendary Defender is pretty much a show for kids of all ages.

The only complaint that I could have is that we did not get more time exploring the villains. There are hints as to what some of their background is, but nothing that is so memorable that we would be talking about it. More villain development would probably make this show a serious contender for the best animated show ever.

That is not to say that we did not enjoy Voltron: Legendary Defender. Even with that flaw it is still one of the top 5 animated series that we have ever seen. Yes that means that it is better than the original series and those that were fans of the cartoon like we were will be pleasantly surprised.

We also loved the way the protagonists were portrayed and how they wrestled with the decision of becoming a Voltron Paladin. They have their lives and families to think about and they know that they miss that, but for the most part they understand that their mission is more important than themselves. Voltron is described as the most powerful weapon in the universe, but that does not mean that it is invincible. The weapon that is the giant robot is only as good as the people using said weapon and the paladins are a bit green so they do suffer some defeats.

Overall Volron:Legendary Defender took us back to our childhood and did it with great art, writing and a lot of fun. We are giving this Netflix series a 4.5 out of a possible 5 stars rating. Well done.

El Cielo En Tu Mirada (Heaven In Your Eyes)

El Cielo en tu Mirada is a movie that I watched while traveling in a bus. I am always willing to give movies a chance and I should be watching more international flicks anyway.

This movie follows the story of Jose who dies and goes to heaven. Jose in life was a singer and after his sudden death is given a chance to come back to earth and complete his life purpose in 2 weeks. His life purpose is of course a girl named Abril who is engaged t a doctor that looked familiar when I saw the movie. Turns out that the doctor is the same actor who plays Joey in Agents of SHIELD (Juan Pablo Raba).

Now as far as the movie goes, it is a bad one. That is why I don't always watch international cinema, movies like this. It is a tired plot of the guy who dies and comes back to try to get the girl who is dating someone else at the time. It is as predictable as a movie can be, full of bad acting, and it will make you regret wasting the time that you used to watch the movie.

It is clear from the very beginning that Mane DeLaParra was only cast in the lead role because of his looks and not because he has any talent in front of the camera. The same goes for most of the cast with a couple of exceptions. It felt like I was watching a movie version of a really bad Mexican soap opera.

How bad was the movie? I was regretting the fact that during my trip I lost my headphones and that did not buy another pair before getting into the bus. I know some people walk out of the movie theater when a movie they don't like is playing, and “El Cielo en tu Mirada” made me think that I should walk out of a moving vehicle in the highway. Even the little twist at the end was not a surprise... yikes.

This movie has a bad story, bad acting and is really predictable; It is not a movie worth watching and we are giving this turd a half star from a possible 5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Review (MINOR SPOILERS)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is out and it is time to give you our thoughts on the movie. There will be minor spoilers here, but we will try to keep them to a minimum.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is the sequel to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 2014. This movie is all about giving the fans of the 90's TV show something that they have been waiting for now for over a couple of decades. We saw characters that we did not think that we would see on the screen like Beebop, Rocksteady and Krang. All of those characters looked surprisingly good on the big screen,

Other characters included were the returning April O'Neill played by Megan Fox, Vernon Fenwick played by Will Arnett, Brian Tee playing Shredder, Tyler Perry playing Baxter Stockman and Stephen Amell playing Casey Jones.

The movie is not necessarily for most adults. We think that this is mainly a kid's movie with nothing but one of the jokes about certain mutants' junk aimed at adults. The movie also makes no sense, but in reality we kind of knew that it was not going to the moment that we checked out the trailer. There was some good action but surprisingly none of it came from Shredder. That we think was a missed opportunity.

As much as we love Stephen Amell, he was a miss as Casey Jones and it felt as if he was not into wearing tat hockey mask. The same can be said about the part that April O'Neill plays in this movie. The truth is that this franchise is suffering fro the same problem that plagued X-Men Apocalypse. They cast a star in this case Megan Fox, and wrote the movie around her.

So those are the negatives for us, now the positives are that this movie is entertaining and it focuses a little more on the turtles and Beebop and Rocksteady. Those two characters for the most part were a highlight of the movie. It was also pretty cool to see the Technodrone almost complete on earth, and although Krang had a very small role, he reminded us of the arcade game which is a huge plus.

If you go see this movie, you should not be expecting something like Civil War. It is a fun, senseless movie, but how much sense can you expect from a movie that has 4 mutant ninja turtles as the main characters. If you go in not expecting a great movie with a great plot then chances are that you will be entertained. I would say that people who are not familiar with the 90's show or those without kids are not likely to have a great time. So we are giving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars, but that's only because of nostalgia.

Captain America Civil War Review: Non-Spoilers

This is our non-spoilers review of Captain America: Civil War; we will be posting a spoilers review on Friday.

Captain America: Civil War had a lot of very high expectations as a superhero movie this year. Whether directly or indirectly, it was going to be compared to others, especially Batman V Superman. But that was not it. This year it was going to also compete against Deadpool, X-Men Apocalypse, Suicide Squad and even Marvel’s own Doctor Strange. Fear not Marvel fans, as Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers have proven once again that the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are in good hands.

Captain America: Civil War is looking not only like a great superhero movie this year; it looks like

perhaps the best superhero movie ever. Of course there will be debate about that because of the Avengers, The Winter Soldier and The Dark Knight (all great movies), but we are confident in saying that Civil War is as good as any of those movies and the action is a lot better.

I am sure that you have heard about the airport scene from the trailers; that is the best action sequence ever on the screen for a superhero movie and I am having a hard time thinking of an action scene in an action movie that surpasses it. That is not the only great action sequence however. The movie has great action right from the start, giving you a few breaks in between so that you can catch your breath.

It is also not all about the action. The dilemma that the heroes go through on both sides is very much at the center of the movie. It is about friendship, loyalty, reason and a lot of emotion. When the final battle comes, you are fascinated by what you are seeing, and at the same time you are suffering for all characters involved.

Spider-Man is the best Spider-Man that we have ever had which shows how smart the people at SONY were to work with Marvel. Tom Holland has revived a property that was on the decline and now that same property will probably be the hottest in the genre. He is funny as Spider-Man and great as Peter Parker. The Russo brothers also did a phenomenal job introducing the Black Panther and they handled Ant-Man perfectly.

Every character in the movie had the spotlight on them at different times throughout the movie and they all performed as well as anyone ever could. The relationship between Vision and Scarlet Witch gave us a lot of glimpses into the future and it showed us the awesome powers of Wanda. Hawkeye did not get as much screen time, but when he did he was perfect. The same can be said of War Machine. Scarlett Johansen as Black Widow and Anthony Mackey as Falcon were perfect anchors to their respective sides and not enough can be said of Sebastian Stan.

Some have said that Zemo was a bad villain in the movie and while we did not learn much about him, he was there when he needed to be and it gave us a glimpse into the future. Zemo is a character that can easily come back as a villain for any of the Marvel characters or perhaps in a Thunderbolts movie if Marvel decides to go that way.

In the end, Marvel gave us a near perfect movie and a great combination of humor, drama and action. We are giving Captain America Civil War 4.9 out of 5 stars. The expectations were surpassed.

Batman v Superman Will NOT Reach 1 Billion Dollars

I am here to make a prediction today and that prediction makes me sad. My prediction is that Batman V. Superman will not reach the billion-dollar mark. I am predicting this because of several reasons which I will detail here.

2nd Week Drop

Most of us expected that Batman V. Superman would drop around 55 to 60 percent from the box office numbers that it saw on its first week. At the end of the weekend, Batman v. Superman dropped 68.2%. That is a huge drop. Now it is also very likely that the movie will see another drop this week where it could end up making around 24 million at the US box office. That would make it a very tough race between a superhero film that was supposed to be number one for the entire month and a Melissa McCarthy movie (The Boss).

If Batman V. Superman does end up at number 2 this week, then that would be a devastating blow to the future plans that WB and DC have for their cinematic universe. The Boss should not have been competing for number one and yet box office predictions have it right there.

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is another reason why Batman V. Superman will not be joining the billion-dollar club. This is a movie that will eat from the BvS demographic and will absolutely knock it out of first place. Most of the Jungle Book’s footage looks amazing and it will give parents a good option to go to the movies with their families. It is also a problem that by next week that movie will have released though most of the world so that will probably also drop the international numbers for the DC film. The week after that The Huntsman drops and though that movie is getting a negative buzz it still eats from a similar demographic.

Captain America: Civil War

Marvel will be the end of the run for BvS. The United States will have to wait for the Marvel film until May 6, but Civil War will be released in many different countries one week prior to that. You can say that by the end of April BvS will not be making enough money in theaters internationally to keep showing it.

So no, Batman v. Superman will not be a billion-dollar movie. It will get close, but we are predicting that the movie that should have made 1.5 billion will come short by a little over half a billion dollars. This is not a celebration of failure because the movie will still have made a lot of money, but it should have been better and I wanted it to be better. Unfortunately, numbers do not lie.

Who Died in the Season 6 Finale of “The Walking Dead” (SPOILERS)

So AMC and “The Walking Dead” decided to be rude for their season finale of season 6. They took you to the brink and then did not even have the courtesy of telling us who came face to face with Lucille. I am here to help you with the answers so that you do not have to wait 6 months until season 7. The answer to the question of who died at the end of the episode is… Glenn.

I know that you think that Glenn cannot die, after all they brought him back from that swarm of zombies thanks to a dumpster. He also came really close during the Alexandria walker invasion; I think those were done to show that you can only escape death so much. But this is not me just making a wild guess; Glenn is the most likely to have died at Negan’s hands because the scene was taken frame-by frame from the comics.

In The Walking Dead Comics, Glenn dies at the hands of Negan on issue number 100. You may be thinking that the fact that Negan killed Glenn in the comics does not mean anything, until you actually read The Walking Dead 100. Just before Negan ills Glenn he says “you can breathe, you can blink, you can cry… You’re all going to be doing that”. That is exactly what he said during the episode last night just before he picked his victim. In the comic they were also all on their knees waiting for that decision.

So yeah, it was Glenn that took a kiss from Lucille last night, or at least I would say that there is a 90% chance that we saw our favorite pizza delivery man’s death last night. Of course the show does change the events from what happened in the comics, but because the scene was identical I do not expect it to change on the TV show.

So what about the other 10%? I would distribute those chances between Maggie, Abraham, Sasha and Carl. Why them? Maggie was weak, and I do not know that Negan would want a weak person to “work for him. Abraham and Sasha were talking about their future and you know that when that happens in “The Walking Dead” it means that they are destined to die. Then there is Carl. I would think that he is safe, but when Negan said that if anyone made noise that they should take his eye and feed it to his father it could have meant after the eye popped out thanks to his head being bashed in (but that part of the speech was in the comic too).

But it was Glenn. RIP Glenn, we are going to miss ya.

Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice Review (Spoilers)

Batman v Superman was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and I would venture to say that it was one of the most anticipated of the decade. People had been waiting for Batman and Superman to make an appearance in the same movie for 70 years and this past weekend that wish came true. Now the question that people asked was if such an epic movie idea would live up to the hype and the answer is no.

While I do not think that the movie was all that bad (I was entertained for a good chunk of it), I would be lying if I told you that it was one of the best superhero movies ever; it is far from it. In my estimation this movie was even behind the divisive “Man of Steel” movie from a couple of years ago. Sure it is exciting to see Batman going up against Superman for about 5 minutes, but this is a fight that should have gone on for a while longer and that should have occurred on the screen at least one more time.

The motivation for Batman is clear; Superman is too powerful to be left to his own devices. Keep in mind that BvS is a sequel to Man of Steel so the devastation of Metropolis is part of the story. During that fight, Bruce Wayne sees the destruction caused during the Superman vs. Zod fight and that destruction and loss of life is very personal to him. That intro to the movie was fantastic, but that is when the movie takes a turn for the dull.

We were saying that we could have left the theater at that point, come back an hour and a half later and then enjoy the next good part of the movie which is the ending. The 2^nd act of the movie is very unorganized, with moments that have a potential of being great that go wasted. Lex Luthor has files on some of the super-powered beings in the world including Wonder-Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg… and he has them all arranged using their insignias which how the hell does he know them? It was a very cheap way to introduce the members of the Justice League, especially the intro of Aquaman (“I stab you”).

 

The final 20 minutes of the movie are packed with action; and while enjoyable they are not without problems. The fight between Batman and Superman is short and ends with a very dumb excuse about the names of Clark and Bruce’s respective moms. Yeah they were about to kill each other, but their moms have the same name so they can be buddies now?

Doomsday was unnecessary to the movie, but since he was there they should have at least done better with him. He looked like if a troll and Michelangelo from the Ninja Turtles had a baby. Batman did almost nothing in that final fight which kind of hints at the fact that he does not really belong in a team that includes Superman and Wonder-Woman. Maybe if he was getting them towels or massaging their shoulders, but come on man, give him something to do.

Lex Luthor was probably the worst part of the movie. He was distracting, not that menacing and not fun. It felt for a moment that they were using him as comic relief, because he was just ridiculous, but I don’t think that is what they were going for. If they did try to use him as comic relief then they failed.

In the end there is sacrifice in the fight, but the final scene spoils that sacrifice by telling us that the character that sacrificed himself was going to be ok anyway. So yeah there were flaws in this movie but it is not worth the 30% it has on rotten tomatoes.

Batman was a great character and Ben Affleck gave us the Best Batman that we have ever had. Wonder Woman left me wanting more from her and Superman was great, but he needs to be used better. DC and WB need to understand that not every character needs to be The Dark Knight in their DCEU. Superman is not about hope in this movie, but Henry Cavill can and should be that.

While the movie is not great it does set up the DCEU which we are hoping will be better than this. Overall I am giving Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice a 2.7 out of a possible 5.

The Sound of Music Live Movie Review

Before we start it is important to say that we are reviewing the Sound of Music movie that was released in 2013 starring Carrie Underwood and not the original 1965 version. I have to confess that this is the first time that I see the play in any capacity. I had not seen the original movie, nor had I seen in on stage. That should give me a little advantage when reviewing the movie because I have nothing to compare it to.

The first thing that I have to say is that everyone in the musical has a voice that belongs on the stage. I was not disappointed at all by any of the vocals. I was especially happy with Carrie Underwood which proved that her voice is made for this type of music more than it is for country music. She has the pipes and she definitely uses them in this movie. Also loved Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess and Stephen Moyer as Captain Von Trapp, and of course the kids.

Now, singing is one thing and acting is something completely different. Everyone in the movie was great, but you can tell that Underwood simply is not an actress. That does not mean that she cannot get there as there were some great moments for her in the Sound of Music, but from time to time we were reminded that acting as of right now is not her thing. I do hope that she works on that because as I said before she does have a voice that should be on stage.

Overall, the Sound of Music Live was entertaining, but not as much as other musicals that have been on TV or at theaters in recent times. We still recommend that you watch it, but keep in mind that we are giving it 3 out of 5 possible stars. That means that “The Sound of Music Live” has more positives than negatives, but the negatives are very noticeable.

Deadpool Movie Review

So Deadpool has gotten mostly good reviews, but it is still hanging around in the 80’s in rottentomatoes.com at the moment (it is at 84 as I write this). That leads me to believe that some movie critics simply do not understand the character or they simply are too much of a snub to admit that they enjoy raunchy humor.

Deadpool is indeed one of the best superhero movies ever made, though I am not sure that we can call the title character a “superhero”. He is not a good guy, not by far. However, I think it is ok to call it that because it does exist in the X-Men universe. We do see the X-Mansion, Colossus, and the Negasonic Teenage Warhead. The movie is also the best R-Rated movie in the genre. Overall I am ranking Deadpool at number 4 among all the superhero movies ever made and I have seen all of them. I am thinking that only Avengers, Captain America Civil War and Age of Ultron are on top of it which means that in my least it knocked the Dark Knight down to number 5.

There is no confusing this movie with a kids’ movie. It is violent, raunchy and there is a fair amount of nudity and sexual jokes, but nothing ever feels forced… except for the international women’s day celebration; that does feel forced, but in a good and funny way (you will get it when you see the movie).

The villains were great and the interaction between Deadpool and Ajax was amazing. Perhaps they used a joke about the name a little too much, but I was still laughing at the end. Angel Dust is also a great character which I hope we get to see a lot more of in sequels or even in the X-Men movies.

Colossus, Negasonic and Weasel were also highlights of the movie. You get a good cop-bad cop feel from the Colossus-Deadpool relationship and it works perfectly. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is very different from the comics and she reminded me more of Cannonball, but since Negasonic was not in the comics much I did not mind it. Negasonic was at the end one of my favorite characters.

For those of you that did not know it, Deadpool is one of the few characters in comic books that regularly breaks the 4th wall and he does so in the movie in very funny ways. That also includes the after-credits scene. The fans will love that scene tough non-fans are likely to wonder what it was about.

In the end, Deadpool is a must see movie. It is funny in every way and it was structured so that you are never bored. The movie is intense and you will likely want to see it again and again. We are giving Deadpool a very high rating of 4.9 out of 5.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Review (No Spoilers)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica or otherwise known as Magical Girl Madoka Magica is a magical girl anime that will make you feel as if you are about to see a silly show about a happy go lucky girl’s life… and you would be wrong. The look of the main character Madoka is different to most of the other characters in the show. She looks innocent and happy and to top it all off she finds a creature that looks like an adorable cat, and the cat talks! If you want a cute show then you cannot go wrong, right? WRONG!

This show is dark and full of twists. Characters are not what they seem and though friendship is important to the main plot of the show, it is not the way you would think. There are characters that you think you can trust or that you should hate that turn out not to be what they seemed to be at the start. The idea is that a girl has to become a magical girl to fight witches and save those tortured by them. They get their powers by asking the cat for a wish which most of the time is granted but then they cannot go back to their previous lives.

There is of course a lot more to the show and the plot, but telling you more than that would risk going into massive spoilers. We will not be going into those because we want you to be as surprised as we were. What we can tell you is that despite the look this is not a show that you want to watch with your kids as it deals with scary situations, death and suicides.

The main characters include Madoka, her best friend Sayaka, the mysterious Magical girl Homura, two other magical girls Mami and Kyoko and the “cat” Kyubey. I say “cat” because if something talks it is not a cat. All characters are explored in the series, some more than others, but you never feel as if you are missing something. Everything in the show happens for a reason.

The animation for the show is one of the better ones in the magical girl genre. The witches are very artistic representations and though it is confusing at first you get used to it pretty quickly. The stakes for the characters in the show are very high and that is something I appreciate in any movie or show that I watch. So we are giving Magical Girl Madoka Magica a 4.3 out of a possible 5 stars.

Yuki Yuna Is A Hero Review (No Spoilers)

We decided that we will expand our horizons and talk about things other than movies and the first thing that we are expanding to is anime. Yuki Yuna is a hero is an anime series that is available on Netflix as of right now and it is the story of 5 girls granted powers to defend the earth from “vertexes” which sound like demons.

The premise seems a bit normal and not that exciting, but the reality is that there is a lot more to it than that. The girls start their journey loving the idea of being heroes, but they do not realize that there is a price that must be paid for sing their new powers.

Although Yuna Yuki is clearly the main character of the show, the other characters receive a lot of attention and you love all characters by the end of the show. Fu is the leader of the group and one that seems to have a lot to lose because not only is she putting herself at risk, she is also the one that got her younger sister Itsuki involved in the “Hero Club”. Togo is Yuna’s best friend and a character that we learn a lot about and Karin who does not appear until episode 3 is the one with the biggest character development and my favorite of the series.

The series is 12 episodes long, but binge watching it is not difficult as the episodes go by really fast. The show manages to keep watchers entertained and intrigued with a bit of a slow-down taking place around the half-season mark. Some things do go unexplained and that is why the series does not get the highest marks. It is still something that you should watch though, and that also goes to those that are not into anime (I was not into it until I saw it).

I would say that the show is not for kids and it deals with some mature subjects such as suicide. The animation is beautiful and the story is actually very good.

We are giving Yuna Yuki is a Hero 4 ½ stars out of a possible 5

“Bitten” Movie Review *Spoilers*

“Bitten” is a movie that most of you have not seen, but that you can get as a DVD or while surfing your Roku or Netflix. It stars Jason Mewes as Jack and Erica Cox as Danika. In the movie Danika is bit by a vampire and left for dead in a dumpster just outside of Jack’s apartment and Jack just happens to be a paramedic. She refuses to go to the hospital and so he does what anyone would do when faced with a super-hot chick that needs help… he opens his door and lets her stay.

A romance between the two grows, but then they realize that Danika has transformed into a vampire, don’t worry, there is no glitter. She cannot eat normal food and blood from the blood bank will not do so she does the next best thing and feeds on Jack’s ex and the neighborhoods dealers.

This is not by any stretch of the imagination a great movie, but I found myself surprisingly entertained by it. The plot is fun, the movie does have a few funny moments that made me laugh and I would not call it a complete waste of time. Plus, Erica Cox is really good looking and not a bad actress either. I found myself wondering why I have not seen her in other things. If you pay attention to her she is more than just a cute face and a sexy body though she does have a lot of that… can you say “new crush.”

You should not expect to be scared by bitten, it is not that type of horror movie. While there is some bad acting by some people which I will not mention or the most part Mewes and Cox carry the movie. This one is perfect if you are in the B-Movie mood where I would say it is better than most, but that is not how we review and rank movies in this blog so we will give it 2 and a half stars out of 5. That’s right, I enjoyed it and I would say that you should watch it if you are simply looking to be entertained.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review (Spoilers)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out and it feels good. The movie is almost as good as the original trilogy with a lot of action and enough for those who went to enjoy the nostalgia to leave the theater happy.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE SO IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE PLEASE COME BACK LATER

Right from the beginning this movie is action packed and all the new characters are to be enjoyed. There is no Jar-Jar in this movie or anything that comes even close to it. There is also a lot of fun to be had as this movie has a lot of laugh lines without ever going into the realm of comedies. Chewbacca and Han Solo have a lot of the best lines and Chewy was definitely the funniest of the bunch.

The new droid BB-8 was amazing and if you do not have the action figure yet, you have like 3 seconds to get it before the prices are too ridiculous. The little fellow steals the scene every time that he is around. He is expressive, funny, fun and all I can say is that if he were around I would give him thumbs-up.

In a rare event, every new character in the franchise is really good and every one of the actor delivers what they need to and more. Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac) is an amazing character and left us wanting a lot more of him. Finn (John Boyega) was fun and brought a lot of energy to the film and Rey (Daisy Ridley) is one of the best female heroes in film history. The villains are a bit more complicated as we do not know much about Snoke and Hux for example and Kylo Ren was the only character to give us mixed feelings.

The older generation was also great, especially Han Solo and Chewbacca. I would have wished a little more of Luke in the movie but I get why we didn’t. Leia was also back and in a position we all imagined she would be after the events of return of the Jedi. I also wished for more R2 and C3PO but I got that this was BB-8’s turn to step into the spotlight.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) started off as an amazing and powerful villain. That scene where he stops the blast from reaching him at the beginning was pretty badass and it was clear that his soldiers feared him; he was shaping up to be a perfect villain, but then once the mask came off all that changed. After that, it felt as if he was just a brat and Hux who at one point had fear in his face started flat out disrespecting him.

The other thing that needs an explanation is how in the Star Wars universe a character like Kylo Ren can lose a fight to two untrained individuals. It is clear that Rey had some experience using the force in the past but she hasn’t since she was a kid so it should have been an easy fight against a guy that had been training since he was a kid. There is not even such benefit of the doubt with Finn though. He was stolen from his family as a kid and it could be that he was force sensitive and that is why he was kidnapped by the First Order but there is no hint of that in the movie. Kylo Ren should have won that fight easily, but he didn’t and that is one of the problems we had with the movie.

The other problem that we had with the movie is that it was a bit predictable. Was there anyone watching that did not know that Han Solo had his future written out the moment that Leia asked him to bring their son back? Even if you did not realize it then, you should have the moment that Han saw Ben on the bridge. We all knew that Poe could not be dead in the crash and we knew R2D2 would come back at the end.

All that said, the movie was very enjoyable and we left the movie theater excited once again for the franchise. It is not the perfect movie and it is not even the best Star Wars movie, but it is up there. We are giving it 4 stars out of a possible 5.

X-Men Apocalypse Trailer Recap/Review

 

Yes, we are going on a mission

So the first wide-release tráiler for X-men: Apocalypse is out and I have a couple of thoughts about it. First of all the trailer does not look bad and it was good to see Cyclops, Beast, Angel and Jean in it. I hope that they have Ice-Man in it so that we can have the entire original team. We also saw Storm, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Magneto, Havok, Quicksilver and a very bald Professor Xavier which made me just say “finally!” I think that will be his look at the end of the movie, and that shot that you see may be the end of it.

Go-go Power Rangers

They also made sure not to give us too many shots of Apocalypse and not a single shot was from an angle like the one in the picture that made him look like a Power Rangers villain. There is also a scene where you see Apocalypse grow in size which is one of his iconic powers, but I am not sure how that will look in the big screen. Officially I am still not down with the look of the character, but that has the potential of being a good thing because it lowers expectations. You can have a bad looking character that is also awesome at the same time. His voice is not menacing, but until I see the movie I cannot tell you if that will matter as much.

The next thing I will bitch about, because that is what I do better, is the fact that they cast Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Don’t get me wrong, she is an awesome actress. I think Jennifer Lawrence is the best young actress in Hollywood at this time and that is the problem that I have with the casting. They must feel that because it is such a huge name and an amazing talent that you are dealing with that they have to make her good. I would rather see her being evil and in Apocalypse’s side and I know that Lawrence can pull it off and she would be great at it, but they won’t do it because she HAS TO be a hero.

"And Emo Kid, go write a song"

The one thing that people say about this movie that I am not too concerned about is that there are a ton of characters. As I said before in the list of people that we saw, there are plenty of characters is true, but we don’t know how they will be used. We know that Magneto, Angel, Psylocke and Storm are going to be the 4 horsemen and we know that some of the mutants will go on the mission to stop Apocalypse which is fine because the X-Men are a team. We know that Quicksilver, Jean Grey, Psylocke, Beast, Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Charles are going to be fighting, but we don’t know what role Havok, Jubilee and Wolverine will have.

Now on to the positives, I think the movie looks good for what they are trying to do. I am pretty sure that we will get a great movie because this is the one Fox property that they have started doing right. Fox may have no idea what in the hell they are doing with Fantastic Four, but as long as Bryan Singer is involved with X-Men, they are in safe hands. I like the casting choices for this movie (minus Mystique and Beast), because they seem right for the role. The stakes look really big which I like and the villain despite the look and sound of him, will be the biggest threat that the X-Men have faced on film.

I cannot wait to see this movie. You can bet that we will be there on the day it is out and I do not mind that I will be there probably at 10 AM to the matinee show. The movie looks like it will be great on IMAX too.

That look you get when you are watching someone sleep and they wake up

Star Wars Episode 3 Is Better Than Episode 4

One of the biggest complaints that people have with Star Wars is the Prequels. Most fans think that George Lucas should not have gone back to the series and for the most part they are right. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith however is not the bad movie that you would think it is based on fan reaction. Yes, the movie has its flaws, but at the same time it has several redeeming qualities.

I feel that I am about to commit geek Dom sacrilege by saying this, but Star Wars revenge of the Sith is a better movie than the Original Star Wars, AKA Episode 4: A New Hope. Ok, not put down the middle finger because I cannot see it through your monitor anyway and hear me out. Episode 4 did a great job setting up the hero and an entire universe, but it is full of inconsistencies and bad acting. If you thought Hayden Christensen was annoying when he was bitching throughout episode 2, then why do you not think the same of Luc when he was whining to Uncle Owen?

Think of all the inconsistencies of episode 4 when you look at the canon of the universe and you will find a lot of them. Then you have the fights between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Are you really going to tell me that two old geezers tapping lightsabers is better than the fight they had at the end of Episode 3 when they were young and full of energy?

Fine, Episode 3 has its faults too. Mainly the problem was with the direction of the movie though. Some of the problems it had were in the writing, I mean dies because she gave up on life? Anakin goes bad and she has no reason to live anymore? She just had a couple of babies, you’d think that they would give her a reason to live, but they were not all that important to her I guess. Say what you will about your parents, but they never died out of sadness and left you unprotected.

In the end, most people get blinded by their love for Star Wars and they do not see a lot of the flaws of Episode 4 which was epic, but not as good a movie as people think it is. There is a difference between having an epic movie and having a good movie.

I am seeing the difference between the two because I recently watched all 6 movies in preparation for episode 7 which I will be seeing on the day it comes out. Maybe it is that Episode 2 was so bad that episode 3 seemed like a masterpiece and my expectations were too low, but if that is the case then why did episode 3 feel better than episode 4?

Episode 3 gets an A-

Episode 4 gets a B+

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Review

When it come to the Paranormal Activity movies I have been split. On the one hand I think they were creative and kind of creepy, but on the other hand they have been repetitive and predictable. I am also not a fan of the “found footage” films that a lot of studios like to make because they are cheap.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is different from the other movies in the franchise, but that does not mean that the change is all positive. The difference is that unlike in previous movies there is a camera that can capture the demon, so instead of being afraid of something you cannot see, the movie bets on putting a monster in front of your eyes. That unfortunately did not work as well as it does in other movies. The good thing about the previous installments was that you could not see the thing that you were afraid of, and they took that away in this film.

As for the movie itself, it is the same thing that you have seen all over again. There is nothing that feels new or fresh about it except for the 3D which The Ghost Dimension relies on in order to get a few jump scares. The problem with that approach is that you see the scares coming from a mile away, so those that are used to scary movies are not likely to get as much of a thrill. The 3D in this movie is just a gimmick that does not really work.

Just like in the other Paranormal Activity movies you are left to wonder who in their right mind would still be holding a camera if all that stuff was going on around them. I found myself laughing more than being scared which is definitely not something that you want when you are watching a scary movie. There are a couple of funny lines in the movie, but for Halloween this movie was a fail. It is not the worse scary movie ever, but it is not even close to being decent.

Overall the movie was predictable and relied too heavily on the 3D gimmick to scare the audience. Overall I cannot see myself giving Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension more than 1 ½ stars, and that is actually generous. So what did you think of this movie if you saw it? Let me know in the comments section.

Mad Max Fury Road Review

One of the movies that people seemed to like a lot in 2015 was Mad Max Fury Road. While we can see why people loved it, the truth is that overall we were not all that impressed.

We are not saying that the special effects were not great and that we were not entertained by it. I think that the reason people liked the movie was that it has cool scenes (it really does), but at the same time it has several flaws that I could not ignore.

As cool as the scenes were, I found myself wondering what in the world I was looking at. The movie felt very unorganized especially in act 1. There is a lot of action in this movie, but it seemed like uncontrolled action. I guess if anything like that were to happen in real life that is what it would be like, but in movies we want to be able to follow the action. Maybe it is just me and maybe I just have to watch it one more time, but as of right now I am not very impressed, especially considering other movies that were released this year.

I think this movie aimed to make something fun and exciting and while the scenes were both of those things it failed at making sense of it ll. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to make sense (I have not watched the Mel Gibson Max movies). I cannot say that the 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes is wrong, because it may be that I am wrong on this one but I cannot give Mad Max too much credit.

I did like the character of Furiosa more so than I liked Max (Fool). I thought she was as badass as you can get from anyone in Hollywood be it a man or a woman. Yeah Furiosa was the one character in the movie that I was able to follow and really like. I hope that she does make a comeback in future movies because she was the reason I made it through this one.

Overall I am giving Mad Max Fury Road 2.5 out of 5 stars, now don’t hate me for it.

Open Letter To Joe And Anthony Russo

We know the Russo Brothers already brought us one of the (if not the) best superhero movies of all time in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I firmly believe that their talent will show in next year’s Captain America: Civil War which I am now predicting will be THE best movie of 2016, and you can bet that Infinity War 1 & 2 are in the best hands.

Now of course I am just a comic book geek who is watching his diet and exercising just so that I do not unexpectedly die before watching those two movies (I am having so much pizza the day after). So what could I possibly hope for with this open letter? I am just thinking of what could possibly add to the epic-ness of those movies and I can only think of one thing that would make my inner-nerd die of excitement.

Imagine while our heroes are fighting Thanos, we get a view of what that fight is doing to the universe, and those characters in the MCU that we have gotten to know since the first Iron-Man. Think about it; it has been said that it is all connected and this is the chance to show that connection, all in one place.

We get a view of the earth and the Defenders trying to keep people safe in New York, then a cut to the agents of SHIELD with Mocking Bird, Quake, May, Coulson and Deathlok doing their thing, The Punisher somewhere being badass, then we cut to Xandar and the Nova Corps and Asgard with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three and other Asgardians. Even if you were to spend 5 seconds on each take it would make for a moment that no one would ever forget.

Come on Russo Brothers, we know that if someone can handle hat epic moment it is you. Just picture those 20 seconds of film history where the Marvel Universe came together. There would not be a moment that could compare to it. It would be the kind of scene that people would go back to the movies to see and when the Blu-ray is out we would all pause just to see everything that you showed us.

Of course it is only a dream and I am not even sure that you will read this, remember and picture it. You will not want to pass that opportunity. Or just give us the movie that you want… I am sure it will be awesome anyway. 

San Andreas Review

Every time you have a mega star like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson you have a certain level of expectations. Those expectations may not be that you will watch an Oscar-worthy film, but that you will have a lot of fun watching that movie. That is exactly what you have with San Andreas; the movie is not something that you would expect would ever happen, but instead it is billed as a disaster film. If you are expecting a fun time in front of a screen, then that is what you will get, just make sure that your expectations are not that high.

There is a lot of action in the movie, but there is a feeling that you are focusing too much on things that are not all that important to the plot if there is any. One of the things that really took my attention away from the main plot of the movie is that I was waiting for a certain “fantastic” character to die, and once that happens it is all much better and it allowed me to focus on the main characters.

The special effects were good, and the movie is a lot of fun, but nothing that will make you want to see the movie more than a couple of times if that. Even so, it is a good movie to watch and keep in your collection. The acting from Paul Giamatti is as good as always, but Will Yun Lee could have been used a lot more. Ioan Gruffudd did a good job as someone you are supposed to hate and Alexandra Daddario had a good amount of screen time and showed that she could have a great future in film. Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino were good individually, but I never really bought their relationship.

The movie does what it is supossed to; it is a fun ride, and a good disaster movie which is what you should be looking for if you are interested in it.

Overall, San Andreas is fun if you are not willing to think too much about it. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

   

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the comic book movies which has gotten a lot more hate than it deserves. We actually have it ranked in the top 5 comic book movies of all time with the first Avengers movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and the surprise of the summer Ant-Man. While Ultron had a few flaws, the things that it does right way outweigh those that went wrong.

First let’s talk about what went wrong with the movie; I think that it is pretty obvious that Ultron was setting up phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is fine by us because it is not as much as you would expect from what people have spoken against. Sure, the “Thor in the cave” movie could have been deleted or done in some other way, but it was less than 2 minutes so it is no big deal. That’s it! That is the only thing that we can think of that was wrong with Ultron.

A lot of people were also concerned that the trailers had given too much away, but that was not the case. Ultron was advertised as a menacing character, but he was more than that. Ultron was a good villain that was in fact very menacing, but at the same time had a lot of the unexpected fun lines in the movie.

Age of Ultron was not as dark as we expected and that is a good thing. While “dark” can work for some characters, it is not the case for a team like the Avengers. There is a feeling of dread when everything is happening in the final battle and while the audience knows that the world is going to be saved, they did not know at what cost. Those that saw the movie already know that the cost is pretty high. There is a chance that the “cost” we are talking about could be erased in future movies, but I am not that much against it if it is done right.

The special effects were great, the script was pretty good, the acting for a superhero movie was spot on and you can tell that these actors are out there having fun. It is sad to know that director Joss Whedon will not be back any time soon for another Marvel movie, but he does leave the franchise in great shape.

We give Avengers: Age of Ultron 4.5 out of 5 stars