Tag: movie review

“Guardians of the Galaxy”: A Movie Review

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Hello all,

guardians_poster_via_marvel

Went to an advanced screening of Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday! Everyone was really excited, and I was told it was one of the most sought after movie screenings of the year! Luckily, my friends and I still managed to snag great seats!

Guardians revolves around a kid called Peter Quill, who had been separated from his family on Earth when he was young. He got abducted to another planet. He becomes a ravager (think space pirate), but amongst one of his missions to steal a mysterious metal sphere, he decides to sell it off to make a profit instead. Turns out there’s a lot more to the sphere than we all though. In order to save the universe from destruction, a group of unlikely heroes work together and form the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I had hopes for not crying in this film. Judging from the trailer and what I’ve heard about it, I expected it to be all laughs, but there were quite a few moments where it was (very) touching. In regards to this movie as opposed to the other recent ones set in the Marvel universe, be prepared to not have our own planet earth to ground yourself to the story. Very little of this movie happens on Terra, but instead we get introduced to different planets and zoom around space for a good part of it.

I thought this movie was quite good– looked really expensive to make! (Just googled out of curiosity. The budget was $170M.) Currently it has a 91% on Rottentomatoes and a 9/10 on IMDB. It opens tomorrow! A kid friendly movie, but also enjoyable for older audiences too 🙂

– Karen

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“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: A Movie Review

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Hey everyone,

So the advanced screening of the new Hobbit movie was a joy! One of the actors from the movie came to watch the movie with us: Manu Bennett (who plays the leader of the Orcs). He’s from New Zealand and it was pretty cool that he joined us. He talked a bit about how he got cast and how filming was for him.

Manu Bennett: credits to Empireonline.com

Manu Bennett: credits to Empireonline.com

Without further ado, here are my two cents on the movie!

We begin where we left off in the last film, and Thorin and his crew must continue on their way to reclaim the dwarves’ homeland. Early on in the movie, Gandalf leaves the dwarves to go on a short quest of his own. The dwarves brave many obstacles to reach Erebor, and they must also figure out what to do with the dragon that sleeps amidst it.

We get to see Orlando bloom from the original LOTR movies again! Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice is amazing as Smaug. His voice as the necromancer sounds nothing like him, whereas you can really hear his voice in Smaug.

If you’ve read the books (NO SPOILERS SO KEEP READING), I can tell you that that certain plot points were changed. For one, Kili (the hot dwarf) and Tauriel the elf has a romantic subplot. There are others, but I would be spoiling if I said anything more. However, I am super excited for the ending now because I had some issues with how the books ended. Praying to God that things go the way I want with the rest of the movie!

I thought that they cut of the first movie wonderfully. The story arc of escaping from the orcs ended and although we know the movie doesn’t end, we are contented that some sort of conclusion was reached. The Desolation of Smaug’s ending was very unsatisfying. It may have to do with the fact that this movie branched off into a lot of subplots, so there was no good way to sum them up. If that is going to be an issue with you, maybe wait till the last movie comes out?

My final verdict? Great movie, glad they changed stuff from the book, but very unsatisfying in the end.

The movie opens on the 13th of December in Canada! Let me know what you think!

-Karen

“Gravity”: A Movie Review

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gravity

Hello everyone,

So I just came back from an advanced screening of Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Before I knew what this movie was about, I thought that this was going to be some sort of romantic comedy, simply because of the cast. Show how quick I am to judge.

So what is Gravity?

Gravity focuses on Sandra Bullock’s character, Ryan Stone, who is a medical engineer sent to space for the first time. She is accompanied by two other astronauts, one of which is George Clooney’s character: Matt Kowalsky. As she’s fixing something during a spacewalk, they get notice that Russians crashed a satellite, leading to a chain reaction of other satellites and structures to be destroyed from the debris. They had to get out of there. Quick.

Of course, not everything goes according to plan. We see Dr. Stone left adrift in the vast emptiness that is space. She starts to panic, but soon enough, Matt comes to her rescue and tethers her to him. Together, they try to return to their space vessel. This is only one of the first problems to come their way as they desperately try to find a way for them to return to earth.

I watched the whole thing feeling like I was going to have a heart attack at every scene. It was very stressful, but that’s not to say it was at all bad. If I had to name a movie you had to watch in 3D, this would most likely be it. Zero gravity and 3D works amazingly well together.

Asides from visuals and acting, the story itself made you ponder on how small you are. You are so insignificant, especially when compared to the huge unknown void that is space. What is the point?  We see Sandra Bullock’s character going through the same process, and well, I guess you’ll have to see how it ends for her.

Gravity comes out October 4th! If you’re okay with watching something pretty heavy, go watch it. Be prepared though! It’s a beautiful movie, with suspense around every corner.

– Karen

“Man of Steel”: A Movie Review

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For my friend’s birthday, we went to an advanced screening of Man of Steel!

Man-of-Steel_01

The ticket looked pretty cool 🙂

The ticket being the Superman logo I'm holding up :P

The ticket being the Superman logo I’m holding up 😛

If you didn’t already know, this is an origins movie. We not only see Clark Kent– or Kal-El as he is known back on Krypton– on earth as a young boy, but we actually see his parents in their home planet, as well their destruction. We see his dad fusing him with a skull-like object, which is where the blueprints of millions of their kind’s lives are saved. The villain, General Zod, gets shipped away to be reconditioned for rebelling against their planet. However, this actually saves his life (him, and his group of followers), as their old planet collapses upon itself. Back on earth, Clark’s childhood is told in a series of flashbacks as he journeys through his current life, working from job to job, always an outcast.

A group of scientists discover something buried in ice and this is where Lois Lane steps in. She’s here to discover for herself what they have found, and of course, being a journalist, wants to write about the findings. This ‘thing’ turns out to be connected to Clark’s home planetm and since he’s working as part of the excavation crew, he is able to learn about his past through a saved version of his father’s soul (it’s basically like a hologram, except more high-techy).

Shortly after discovering this, as well as saving Lois and consequently gaining her interest, Clark gets a call from General Zod, having found where Clark is now located. He is interested in re-creating Krypton with the blueprints inside Clark. Of course, they will need a planet to inhabit their people with, and unfortunately, they mean to take over earth.

That’s a very brief outline of the plot, but without spoilers of course.

I thought that the special effects were amazing. The story was good, and I liked the cast. I honestly didn’t particularly like the villain, but with some help from the movie, I do understand why he’s fighting so hard to save their race. It was just a bit hard to see it from his point of view when you think about earth being destroyed.

Some parts of the movie was really cheesy. And some lines could have been omitted (i.e this one girl calling Superman hot…). I also thought that Lois and Clark’s relationship develops pretty intensely in a short period of time, but then again, it is a two hour movie.

It’s out in two days! I think it’s still a pretty good movie, and is one of those that work a lot better in a cinemas with 3D.

– Karen

“The Great Gatsby” (a.k.a The Alright Gatsby): A Movie Review

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the-great-gatsby-2013

I seem to be doing quite a few of these now that it’s summer.

Anyway, I got premiere tickets off my friend for the showing of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire (okay, there is a lot of other people, but I do not know them as well). I was ridiculously happy when he told me he could get me the tickets because one of my friends and I were having a conversation about how much it sucks that this movie came out after our summer courses started. But with advanced screening, we managed to bypass the silly release date and watch it a week early!

Advanced screenings are fun, and this time they gave out prizes for people who came dressed up in Gatsby era clothes! So quite a few people dressed up!

I must start with the disclaimer that I have never read The Great Gatsby. I wanted to start it, but I did not want to spoil the movie (since movies are usually not as good as books in my opinion).

The Great Gatsby is a movie filled with mystery surrounding this man called J. Gatsby. He is rich, and he has a thing for this girl called Daisy. The two have not seen each other for five years and in Gatsby’s absence, Daisy got married. So that complicates things quite a bit. The whole film revolves around Nick Carraway’s fascination with with Mr. Gatsby, and he eventually gets involved and takes a part in helping Gatsby’s wishes to fulfil his dreams.

To me, it was The Alright Gatsby. I thought the soundtrack stood out a little at times (not in a good way), and their soundtrack has artists such as Jay-Z. I also found it really hard to connect with any of the characters in the film or emphatize for them, but that probably has to do not with the film, but with the story itself? The visuals were beautiful, but I was not entirely wow-ed by the story. I may have also went in with really high hopes, and left disappointed when they were not reached. Leonardo DiCaprio’s films always interest me, so I thought this would be another instant favourite of mine. I guess not.

I would not put this film very high on my recommendations list, but who knows? You may like it.

Let me know what you think!

-Karen