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Showing posts from June, 2011

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Starring:  Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and John Turturro Directed by: Michael Bay Screenplay by: Ehren Kruger      So, I was mostly right on my predictions for this movie, with the exception of how everything plays out.  I know it's a little early to say this, but it's not as bad as most people think.        It starts out on Cybertron, the home world of the transformers amidst a massive war between the autobots and the decepticons.  A spacecraft has crash landed on the Moon sparking a reason for the space race of the 1960s (people at NASA watch it crash in 1961).  It contains pillars used to build a space bridge that the decepticons want to build in order to enslave the entire human race in the reconstruction of Cybertron after the war has left the entire planet in ruins.  Will the autobots be able to stop them before it's too late?        First of all, there has been a major cast change, pretty much for the better.  Megan Fox is not in it.  She has been repla

Green Lantern

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Peter Sarsgaard Directed by: Martin Campbell Screenplay by: Greg Berlanti and Michael Green “In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power…  Green Lantern’s light!" - Green Lantern Oath      Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot.  He is an almost fearless test pilot, making him a qualified candidate for being a Green Lantern, but he doesn't know that, at least not until a dying purple alien comes to Earth so the ring can select another person to be a Green Lantern.        So, Hal is selected and receives the Green Lantern ring, giving him superpowers.  Anything he imagines can be used as a weapon with the power of the ring.  It can create anything he imagines.  He goes to the planet Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps (the peace keeping unit in the universe), to receive training in fighting perhaps the greatest threat ever to the Corps, and the entir

Super 8

Starring: Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler Directed by: J.J. Abrams Written by: J.J. Abrams      It's always fun to watch a movie where the main plot is the main characters making another movie.  A movie within a movie.  Like Inception  but without the dreams.  Kind of cool right?  Especially with Super 8.      Flash back to 1979 in a small town in Ohio known as Lilian.  Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths) are amateur filmmakers that can't be older than thirteen.  They're making a zombie movie with their friends on a Super 8 camera (8 as in 8mm film) when the impossible happens.  A train derailment right in front of them.  But this isn't just any train derailment.  It's a top secret project that has to be covered up by the Air Force, the people who are working on it.      This "project" just so happens to be an extra terrestrial monster that terrorizes the sleepy little town and scares the hell

X-Men: First Class

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kevin Bacon Directed by: Matthew Vaughn Screenplay by: Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz      A prequel to the Marvel superhero alliance known as the X-Men.  Does it live up to the comics and everything about X-Men that has come before?  Does it set up the story of these mutant heros well?      The film starts out in 1944, when we meet Erik Lehnsherr (who later becomes known as Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender), a young boy caught in the terrors of the Holocaust, watching his mother die at the hands of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) while also finding out his special ability, making metal move without touching it.  We then meet Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) at Xavier's home, both discovering the other is a mutant (and soon to become a superhero).  He takes Raven in, and soon they will become life long friends.      Fast forward to 1962, shortly before the Cuban missile crisis.  Cha

Predictions: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

     Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third installment in director Michael Bay's Transformers trilogy.  Transformers has always been one of my favorite franchises, but Bay has turned this world wide phenomenon into something with mixed reactions.      The first Transformers film is no doubt the best of the two films that have been released, and honestly, it's really not that bad.  Yeah there's a lot of explosions and probably too many of them along with really good special effects, but underneath all that, there is actually a decent storyline.  It's a prequel to all of the cartoon TV series about how the giant robots come to Earth in the first place.      The second movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  had the potential to be even better than the first one, but it was just about the worst movie of 2009 (it only took me four viewings to realize just how bad it is).  What has made these two films worse than they could have been is all the changes that have