Category Archives: Adventure Movies
The Avengers
I am excited. So excited. My whole body is trembling with it. I am just bursting to tell you how amazing The Avengers is. I want to wrap you in its awesomeness, shake you about a bit so you’re totally covered in it, then pour a bucket of glitter on you and kiss you right on the mouth. That’s how excited I am about this movie. Come on, I know you’re excited about it too.
The Avengers is the new baby of Buffy-famous, genius-writer Joss Whedon, and Marvel, the highly-successful, much-loved comic book-film franchise. Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., calls upon the world’s most ‘special’ humans under The Avengers Initiative to help save the world from evil Loki, the powerful brother of demi-god Thor, and his terrifying alien army. It’s essentially the culmination of at least the last 4 years of Marvel’s work – The Avengers are Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye. To be clear, that’s one demi-god, one genetically engineered super-soldier, one smart, giant, green, radioactive rage-monster, two lethal assassins and one genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist. Who can fly.
ARE YOU NOT YET EXCITED? You are. I can see it in your eyes.
The fight scenes were amazing, and the effects were amazing. As an action movie, The Avengers holds up. As a comedy, The Avengers holds up. It’s really very good.
This is the nerdgasm of the decade.
And it’s all because of Joss Whedon. The man behind such amazing productions as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Horrible, and that one episode of Glee with Neil Patrick-Harris in it is the main reason why this movie is so watchable. He is an effortless writer. The screenplay of The Avengers is witty, touching, well-balanced and down with the kids all at the same time. Even if you generally don’t like science fiction (please), or you feel like you’re not familiar with the backstory, I would still recommend that you sit your butt down and watch this. There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and some quite legitimately sad ones. Iron Man in particular has some great lines, and the Hulk has… not so much great lines but definitely some very funny scenes. I think without the light comedy and awareness of reality that Whedon brings to it, the film would be on the too-much-action, not-enough-plot-and-characterisation side of things. So Joss, I salute you.
Speaking of characterisation, it is true that almost all of the main characters – The Avengers Initiative – have had a previous storyline and development in recent Marvel films. Iron Man’s had two movies already (great and great), Captain America has had one (quite good), and Thor has as well (haven’t seen it, but the DVD is in the queue). The Black Widow was in Iron Man 2, but Hawkeye and the Hulk haven’t really had a look in in anything recent. If you haven’t seen some of these, or all of them, and you’re worried you won’t understand the characters or the references in The Avengers, like I said before, you shouldn’t worry. The plot is accessible and really quite simple, in a very satisfying sci-fi/action movie way. It’s totally immersive and you shouldn’t think about it.
The actors are all fairly good. Robert Downey Jr is perfect as usual as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo is great as the Hulk, Chris Evans is good as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth is fine in his limited screen time as Thor, and Tom Hiddleston is downright sexy as evil Loki. The only actor I had a problem with was Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. I LOVE her character (arse-kicking, hot female who manages to do all her epic assassin stuff in a no tighter or less practical suit than the male Avengers), and she is very cool and attractive and all that stuff, but she didn’t pull off the character for me. She was too forced and frowny. I didn’t like her. I wish that Emily Blunt, who I love, hadn’t pulled out of the part when it was first offered to her for Iron Man 2. She’s just as hot, just as cool, and frankly a better actor. And English. But quibbling aside, Scarlett is cool, and I’m halfway-glad to have her represent the only major female character in what is already my favourite movie of the year.
Because it really is amazing. AMAZING, I SAY.
4.5/5 stars for you, Nick Fury. Keep up the good work.
xx
Za.
New Trailer for Madagascar 3!
I’m so excited for this movie – it looks as good as ever, don’t you think?
xx
Za
New Clips from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Some great new clips have been released for the new Tintin movie! I thought I share two of my favourites:
This first one has one of my favourite scenes from the book, in which some men kidnap young journalist Tintin and Snowy, Tintin’s dog, rushes after them to save him! I remember the scene in the book vividly and they’ve done a great job with it.
The second one is a favourite of mine because it has the voice talents of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who I clearly love (Hot Fuzz is quite possibly the best movie ever), as the charmingly frazzled Thomson and Thompson.
I can’t wait to see this movie, can you?
xx
Za.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
Teenage girls everywhere, rejoice! The time has come for the latest venture in the Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn Part 1. And boy, is it the pile of manure I hoped it would be!
In Breaking Dawn Part 1 we rejoin the grimacing Bella (played by Kristen Stewart) and the literally sparkly vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) for the next chapter of their relationship – marriage. They are quite happy until, by some incredible feat, Bella becomes pregnant by her undead husband, thus creating a half-vampire, half-human baby.
There are so many things wrong with this film. Just so many. Let’s start at the top.
I have never been a fan of Twilight. I can’t stress that enough. I think Bella is a mundane, self-obsessed character who teaches young girls ways of going about relationships that are just so misguided in this day and age. Bella is seventeen when she falls in love with Edward, and eighteen when they get married. Edward is her first boyfriend, she has no other point of reference when it comes to relationships, and yet she is so sure that she is ready to give up everything at the age of eighteen for this creepy, dangerous, dull guy. And I mean, she is ready to give up everything for Edward – her family, her virginity, even her mortality. In the second Twilight movie, New Moon, Edward leaves Bella because he knows he’s too dangerous for her, and she just can’t cope without him. What kind of message is this sending to teenage girls? That when someone you’ve been going out with for about six months dumps you you’re expected to fall to pieces? For months? That men are everything? It’s revolting. Young women of today need to and can be strong and independent without love.
But morals aside, the actual plot of Breaking Dawn Part 1 is pretty poor. The lead-up to the wedding and the actual wedding drag on and on, and it seems like it takes half the film to get to the complication (the pregnancy). It’s pure fluff, and it’s practically unbearable. Once you get to the pregnancy, the Edward/Bella angst that we know and love really sets in, and it just becomes a grump-fest. There is a small worry about whether Bella will survive carrying her baby, but it’s terrifyingly obvious from the get-go that there’s no question of a less-than-happy ending for the less-than-happy couple.
One problem in particular I had was that in the movie, they didn’t explain the concept of imprinting very well. In the book, imprinting is described as when a werewolf meets the one person they are meant to be with and forms an unbreakable connection with them. It is possible for a werewolf to imprint on a child, but in the book it implies that imprinting on a child means you don’t really fall in love with them until they grow up. Until then, it’s more like you’re their brother or bodyguard or something. In the movie, this isn’t clear. And then Jacob, Bella’s werewolf best-friend, goes and imprints on a baby. It’s super-creepy, because it looks exactly like they’re falling in love. It’s sick, really.
Breaking Dawn has a few animated effects, and I found them a bit unsettling. They were easily identifiable and just not up to the standard that they should have been, except for one. Bella loses a lot of weight when she’s pregnant because she can’t eat, and the effects they used were great. She looked gaunt and just awful. My friends swore to me after we’d left the cinema that she’s lost the weight in real life, but apparently not, which, I have to say, was pretty impressive. She looked horrific and very real.
Kristen Stewart is less than astounding as Bella, and the same for Robert Pattinson as Edward. It’s a shame, really. These two are capable of some decent acting if put in the right situation (Stewart was good in The Runaways, Pattinson was fine in Harry Potter), but with a lack of substance in their characters and their only defining features being smarm, the pair do the best they can. Taylor Lautner as Jacob on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Lautner is proving himself more and more often to be the worst actor in history. On the plus side, his terrible acting does give the movie some pretty funny moments, no matter how unintentional. I giggled myself silly in some parts.
But, even with all these flaws, I was somehow satisfied with Breaking Dawn Part 1. Like, I really wanted it to be bad. If it had been a good film, I would have been disappointed that the filmmakers had succeeded in making such a dull story and such unappealing characters somehow interesting. I’m quite glad they didn’t really. I can continue being haughty and above this saga for the time being. 2/5 stars from me.
xx
Za.
(By the way, have you entered our Puss In Boots 3D competition yet? Go now!)
Puss In Boots 3D Competition!
ONLY AT THE MOVIES DECEMBER 8th
COMPETITION NOW CLOSED
Hi guys!
We’re really excited for the release of DreamWorks’ Puss In Boots 3D, starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris. It’s coming out really soon (December 8th), and it looks fantastic. To celebrate we’re offering you the chance to win one of 25 boot stockings (below) for the holiday season!
Puss In Boots – our suave and furry feline hero goes on a swashbuckling ride, as he teams up with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty to steal the famed Goose that lays Golden Eggs.
To enter the competition, all you have to do is answer this question in the comment section below: if you had a Goose that laid Golden Eggs, what would you do with it? The best 25 answers win!
www.PUSSINBOOTSTHEMOVIE.com.au
#PussInBoots
facebook.com/PussInBootsAU
Puss In Boots © 2011 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
Johnny English Reborn
A lot of people hated the first Johnny English movie, but I’ve always been a fan of stupid-Englishman humour (and who better to pull it off than Rowan Atkinson – Mr Bean, anybody?), so I loved it and was eagerly awaiting the sequel, Johnny English Reborn. I had heard some not-good things about it before I went, so I was a little nervous, and this British comedy isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But I liked it.
The film tells the story of Johnny English, a highly incapable MI7 spy who lost his badge after he failed an important mission in Mozambique. There’s some sort of vague plot line that there’s a secret organisation aiming to kill the Chinese premier, but it’s really just a weak excuse to get English doing all sorts of stupid things. Which is fine, I think. This doesn’t appear to take itself too seriously, and I think everybody’s well aware that the plot is not there as the main feature, but merely facilitates the jokes – and when the jokes are funny, who really cares about anything else?
What I like about the Johnny English franchise is that they manage to keep the humour PG, but still funny. More and more often American comedies are veering towards swearing and vulgarity as humour, and it’s losing its appeal a bit. Humour doesn’t have to be disgusting and adult, and Johnny English Reborn has really thought about this and masters it. When I went to see it there were people of all ages in the audience – down from 5-year-olds all the way up to their doddery grandmas, and everybody was laughing very hard at most of the jokes. I say MOST because there are a few that are a smidgen off. They can be a little hit-and-miss. It’s not very intellectual humour, so don’t expect to love it if you’re a high-and-mighty smart-face hipster, but it should be great for just about everybody else.
I think Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man, and a fantastic character actor, and he pulls off Johnny incredibly well, but I think Johnny in this sequel was far more competent than he was in the first, which is just unacceptable. Johnny should be so daft he can barely walk out the door without falling down the stairs. I did like that the Big Guy in MI7 was a woman (feminism FTW!). The one thing I really missed from this, though, was the character of Bough, played by Ben Miller. Bough was a great sidekick in the first movie, and the sidekick in this one (Hunter? Who knows.) was just inexcusably young and wafty. He was less capable than Johnny, which was a bad move on the writer’s part.
My favourite thing though? The Englishness. In this Americanised, Hollywood-ised world of family comedies there is nothing quite like a bit of good old-fashioned British buffoon laughter. Johnny English Reborn is a joy to laugh at and pretty much everything you expect it to be. If you’re expecting to love it, you’ll have a ball. If not, you’ll want to hang yourself slowly. It’s a bit half-and-half. But I liked it, and that’s all that really matters, right?
And quite honestly, you know that the audience loves a film when the theatre gives a round of applause at the credits. I loved it, my brothers loved it, the weird people behind me who took off their shoes and put their warty feet on my armrest loved it… everybody loved it.
Final verdict? 3.5/5 stars. Overall, it was as hilarious and ill-formed as I had hoped it would be, and it’s a great laugh for the family – but maybe not all you snobby, critical, know-all 20-somethings out there. I know how you can be. Don’t take it personally. I love you. Sort of. I’m kidding. Or am I.
xx
Za.
P.S. This is one of those movies where you stay until after the credits. STAY! Good dog.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Studio Ghibli is probably the most famous Japanese anime studio and it churns out beautiful and moving films. Howl’s Moving Castle (or Hauru no ugoku shiro) is one of my favourites from the studio and I never really get tired of it.
It’s the story of Sophie, a teenage girl who is turned into an old lady by an evil witch. She goes on an incredible journey, makes friends, falls in love with Howl, a talented young wizard, and in the end she discovers herself.
Howl
Before I start, if you are planning on watching this then I highly recommend watching it in Japanese with subtitles rather than watch it in English. The voice acting is much more accurate and I think you get a much better feel of how the director intended the movie to be originally rather than how Hollywood has aimed it at its western audience. The same goes for all anime.
The first thing teenage girls will notice about this movie is really obvious. HOWL IS HOT. I mean, really. When I watched this with my class you couldn’t hear the movie over my friends squealing. Good job there, Studio Ghibli.
If you’re not a teenage girl, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that the animation is stunning. It’s colourful and seamless and perfectly fantastical. It’s a very different style to Western animation, and it’s incredible. If you like this style, you should probably also check out Ponyo, one of the studio’s most recent and colourful productions. It’s also really wonderful.
The storyline is quite serious in parts, and can be analysed on many levels. The question of the worth of war is strung throughout it all and it’s accessible to adults, while at the same time very entertaining for children. There are bits that are really funny and bits that are sweet and magical. The Japanese approach to goodies and baddies is also really interesting. In Western movies, baddies are usually killed, but in this they seem to see the light and turn to good. I don’t want to give too much away because I think the discovery of this movie in particular when you don’t know much about it is much better.
My favourite thing about Howl’s Moving Castle is the characters. They all have their own reasons for being how they are and they’re all really complicated. They’re well-developed. It’s lovely. And the animation means that the characters can’t be ruined by terrible acting.
If you haven’t seen Howl’s Moving Castle quite frankly I don’t know why you’re still reading this. Go and buy it! Now! Shoo! A 4.5/5 from me.
xx
Za.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
(Slight spoilers coming up. But seriously. You already know what happens in Harry Potter.)
This is what everybody’s been waiting for, really. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The final part in the epic cinematic adventure. The end of an era. The ultimate battle. The movie when Harry might kill Voldemort but SHHHHH WE DON’T WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY.
It’s really very exciting.
I know I’m a little slow on the uptake here (only saw this last Saturday night – a week after it came out) but I have a reason! I was in France for the release and (would you believe it) they were only showing it in French! And as much as I would like to I do not speak French.
I am a big fan of Harry Potter, both the books and the movies. I think it’s a really riveting story that cannot be denied as one of the most phenomenal series of the last twenty years. I remember going to see the first movie as a four-year-old and peering through my fingers at the scary scene with the troll in the girls’ bathrooms, so it’s very exciting to be seeing the last movie a full ten years later. It’s very lucky that I get to be part of the generation that has grown up with Harry Potter and to live through and experience the telling of a story that will doubtless be told for years to come. I think it’s a privilege to even be part of the audience of such a massive cultural movement and the story of Harry is not one any of us will be forgetting very quickly.
The movie opened quickly and we got straight into the action. I was expecting the entire film to be go-go-go but it was a little more go-go-go than expected. Which was good. There was only a few points in the movie when I don’t think my heart was racing quite as fast as it was in the previous scene. The story built up and built up, and even though I knew what was going to happen I couldn’t help urging Harry on in my mind and sitting on the edge of my seat.
From about halfway through onwards, I don’t think there was one moment I wasn’t crying. When the characters started dying and the plot started to climax I just fell to pieces. The whole thing was emotional and beautiful and so sad. I’m really going to miss Harry. Ugh. It’s a pretty moving movie, I can tell you that much.
One of my main thoughts as I was watching was that I really liked the movie’s use of music. It was not overplayed, and there was silence in parts that would normally have been orchestrated, which really emphasised the scenes and brought a raw realism to them. I also loved that they mostly used scores from the previous films. Harry Potter’s soundtrack is, let’s face it, a classic, and I thought its use in this film made it a really justifiable end to the saga.
My other favourite thing was that after Harry killed Voldemort (WHOOPS DID I RUIN IT FOR YOU WHAT A SHAME) the lighting changed instantly. The Potter films get darker and darker as they progress and Voldemort becomes more and more powerful and more of a threat, so I loved that as soon as he died, the whole thing brightened up again. It was like a new beginning. Loved it.
Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood
Lots of people seem very concerned about how true the movie was to the book (COUGH COUGH HAMBLE COUGH) but for me I think that question is kind of irrelevant. I think it was quite true to the book, but regardless of that I know it’s really hard to translate a book to the screen. There are lots of things you have to change to make it worth watching, and just because something is left out of the movie that was in the book doesn’t mean the producers considered it an element that weighed down the story. It might have worked wonderfully on the page but just didn’t fit in on the screen. That being said, I know Luna and Neville don’t get together in the book, and I agree with that decision on Rowling’s part. I don’t really think she could have worked that in. I wouldn’t have been all that comfortable with it. But they do get together in HP7P2 and I thought that was ADORBS. TOTALLY adorbs. They pulled it off really, really well (by the way, how cute is Evanna Lynch?).
The acting was great, and the cast is all so big now. I’m just so proud of them… *sheds tear*. They’re all very successful and seem very nice, and they’ve really matured as actors. Well done to them, and I wish them as much success in the future. Not that they need it.
All in all, I think this film’s been a pretty successful venture. It’s a fitting end to a fitting series and I really loved it. 4.5/5 stars from me.
xx
Za.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Wow.
We went and saw this last night, at the Macquarie Center, Gold Class. Wheee. I swear, the seats are like couches.
Anyway, I’ll shut up about that and write a review.
It had pretty CGI, and good acting, and large explosions, but having read all seven books eleventy-twelve times, in my opinion, it was way too unfaithful to them. I mean, sheesh. If you’re gonna make a movie of one of the most popular series (serieses? serii?) of all time- well, I dunno. Tighten up a bit.
But reviewing it as a standalone movie, holy moly. Amazing. Wow. I have a slight writer’s block right now, so I’m gonna stop soon, but I’d just like to say they did the important scenes from the book really well. There was some symbolism that took a while to work out, but all in all, it was amazing. 4.5/5.
Hamble.
X-Men: First Class
I’ve never been a huge Marvel fan. I mean, I have a vague idea about their main superheroes (Captain America, Spiderman, Iron Man, etc.), I know the basics about Wolverine and the X-Men, and I try to see most of their movies because they tend to be pretty action-packed and, well… good. X-Men: First Class is no exception to this rule, and my enjoyment was certainly not undermined by the fact that I’m practically a stranger to the X-Men comics.
X-Men: First Class is set in the early sixties, when nuclear war was a global threat and a very large possibility. There is a small group of mutant humans with supernatural powers who want to harness the power of the American and Russian nuclear bombs and wage war on humanity, going on the basis that nuclear radiation will kill all normal humans while enhancing the powers of mutants. There’s also another group of mutants, led by Charles Xavier (Professor X), who are fighting to prevent nuclear warfare and save regular humans from the wrath of the evil mutants.
So there are the good mutants and the evil mutants. Got that? Good.
The good mutants manage to discover a man named Erik (Magneto) who has a vendetta against the leader of the evil mutants. The good mutants befriend Erik and the action begins.
Firstly I’d like to point out that the mutants are just… awesome. Who wouldn’t love to be able to read minds, or fly, or change your form? I walked out of X-Men wanting to have, like, fireballs for hands or something. Superpowers are incredibly cool and thinking about them generates a whole new world of strangeness and possibilities, which is exactly what the X-Men comics are about. Watching the mutants is just so exciting. You never want to leave their world.
The plot is detailed but doesn’t ask too much of its audience, and any Marvel fans will be happy to know that apparently the movie sticks very close to the story of the original comic. This movie is the perfect prequel to the X-Men legacy, and really gives depth to the characters. It provides reasons for why the mutants are the way they are in the following movies: why they’re evil, why they’re good, why they’re in wheelchairs…
I didn’t like the ending (which I won’t spoil TOO much), and I think the little kiss between a certain woman and Xavier was ridiculous. They had NO chemistry whatsoever. There were a few other little problems throughout, but nothing too major.
The acting is superb, especially from the two leads. James McAvoy really pulls off the moral superiority as Charles Xavier. And I’m also kind of in love with him. He’s gorge.
I think when push comes to shove there are going to be people that won’t enjoy the action or the explosions, or the science-fiction elements of X-Men, but overall I think it is enjoyable for most people most of the time. I know that I certainly had a great time watching it, and I’d gladly watch it again. 4/5 stars from me.
xx
Za.
