Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman and Superman. Two of the most popular comic book heroes in history. The question has been asked many times, who would win in a fight against the other? Comic books and tv shows have pitted the two, with different results. For the first time in cinema, the question is asked once again. Son of Krypton or Bat of Gotham? Here there be Spoilers, read at you own risk.

The Plot:
During the events of Man of Steel, Bruce Wayne witnesses the power of Superman first hand. Is Superman on our side or will he rule Earth with an iron fist? This question is asked by not only Bruce, but Lex Luthor and some Senators of Congress. Lex Luthor finds a weapon that could defeat Superman but his idea is shot down by Congress. Bruce Wayne has the same idea and decides to steal the weapon for himself to use against Superman. There's some other stuff as well, like the introduction to Wonder Woman and Louis Lane has some mystery to solve, but it boils down to this. Lex kidnaps Martha Kent aka Superman's mom and threatens to kill her if the Man of Steel doesn't kill Batman. Batman and Supes duke it out, only to find out Lex had something else up his sleeve and they team up with Wonder Woman. In the end, Superman is "killed" and Bruce Wayne decides to call to arms of the other meta beings on Earth with Wonder Woman's help.

The Good:
Visually speaking, this movie is pretty good. There are few decent fight scenes and action scenes. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman was better than I hoped. The introduction to the Justice League members (Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg) was interesting, I just wish that they had done it after the story was wrapped up. Wonder Woman is good when she's teaming up with our heroes to take on Doomsday.

The Bad:
The story is a mess. It has too many things going on and hardly any resolution leaving you with more questions than answers. Why is Wonder Woman a thief and what's she doing there? How did Lex Luthor come up with idea of making Doomsday? Also, I mentioned some stuff about Louis Lane and her story arch. It's pointless, honestly. She's tracking down a bullet that supposedly Superman shot someone with except Supes doesn't need a gun. I don't what they were going with there. And the kicker: Batman straight up kills people in this movie. There's no, "Oh, they may have gotten out of that explosion." It's "Yep. Those guys are dead." Granted, they're bad guys, but that still defeats the point of Batman's moral code. If the movie had an explanation of what happened and why, I would have been okay with it. Jesse Eisneberg as Lex Luthor was a poor casting choice. He wasn't threatening and he had an annoying tick that made no sense. If he had been cool and calculating instead of annoying and weird, it would have been decent. Then there's a bunch of story this plot could have been without. It just gets confusing at times, and it needed to be more straight forward.

Overall:
This movie's a mess, but at least it looks pretty. More straightforward and less confusing. There should have been a nice wrap up leaving you content, but you had more questions at the end. Batman kills, and it's aggravating me. It's a decent movie, but it's not amazing. Honestly, don't pay the ticket price, just rent it.

Rating:
2.5 Doomsdays out of 5.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

16 years ago, America was introduced to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Cheesy and silly as it was, it turned out to be a fairly big hit. It had intense action scenes, a fairly decent story, a fun movie overall. So when CTHD: SOD came out, I had to watch it and see if it was a good sequel. Let's fly to the rooftops and see!

The Plot:
16 years after the first movie, the magical Green Destiny (a sword so powerful, anyone who wields it cannot be beaten) must be protected from an evil warlord Hades Dai. Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) travels to Peking to keep the sword safe. However, a member of Dai's cult, the West Lotus, attempts to steal it, but is captured instead. Lien assumes that Wei Fang (the West Lotus) will be rescued and more will attempt to steal Green Destiny. So, she calls for the aid of noble warriors to help her. Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen) and several other dashing warriors travel to Peking. Once there, they are attacked by West Lotus members and two warriors are killed. After the battle, Lien decides to move the sword somewhere else, but before she can do so, it is stolen by Wei Fang. However, after learning about his mother, he decides to fight Hades, and the rest of the warriors come to his aid. Silent Wolf battles Hades and wins. The rest of the surviving warriors head to Wudang to keep the sword there.

The Bad:
Yeah, I know I normally start with the good, but sadly this movie made me do this. So, we have an all Asian cast, set in an Asian background. How come they speak English? The original was in Mandarin, so how come no one speaks it? I feel like this movie is insulting my intelligence, honestly. It's like they figured, "Hey a bunch of Americans are going to see this, so make them speak American. It's not like they're going to notice the difference." Well, imaginary executive at Netflix, I noticed. Now, the quality of the movie. Some parts are visually stunning, other parts feel like it's a video game.  Around the third act the quality drops and it gets more video gamey. There's an ice skating kung fu fight...which is just as sad as it sounds. The actors don't seem very motivated in the movie at all and most seem tired or bored. The line delivery sounds robotic at times and it's hard to get invested into our heroes. As mentioned before, act 3 gets worse. The fights look silly, the backgrounds look fake, and you don't feel any tension. You just want it to be over and that's always a bad thing. And, I should mention, this movie was filmed in Middle Ear-I mean New Zealand. The same place the Lord of the Rings movies were shot. At times it even feels like a LOTR movie. Silent Wolf and others are introduced like The Fellowship "And my axe!". C'mon guys. I could go on with the problems with this movie and it'd be about 40 pages long, so let's get to the good.

The Good:
There are some decent fight scenes in this movie. There's even an interesting training scene where Lien trains Snow Vase (a minor character, you wonder why they bothered putting a story in for her) how to be a better swordswoman. It's pretty good. The music is amazing to listen to as well.

Overall:
I feel cheated, really. This movie could have been great if they hadn't followed basic movie tropes and tried harder to make the story better.  Not to mention insulting our intelligence by making native Chinese speakers speak English. Ouch guys. The use of CGI is a nice tool, but like most movies now, they used it more as a tool and it shows, especially towards the end. CTHD:SOD is a let down. I don't even recommend anyone watching this train wreck. 

Rating: 1 Hidden Dragons out of 5.

Gotham Knight

Hey all, sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately. Haven't watched a whole lot of movies, so I figured I'd do that and review one for you. I'm sure I've mentioned how much of a Batman fan I am, and thankfully, there's a lot of Batman movies out there. Today, I'm reviewing Gotham Knight, which is included the hardback graphic novel of Batman: Black and White.

The Plot:
Well, there's six short films here, which is kind of the Animatrix of Batman, so I'll review each one.

Have I got a Story for You:
A group of teenagers tell a version of running into Batman while a masked villain is on the loose. Each story is wildly different and over the top, until the baddie and Batman appear for one last round.
The Good:
Not much. It's an interesting idea, but poorly done.
The Bad:
The animation is sloppy, the voice acting is boring. This short is a waste of time. Also, Batman doesn't operate during the day, which seems to be a theme in this film.

Crossfire:
Detectives Allen and Ramirez escort the previous baddie to a prison, courtesy of Batman. Allen doesn't trust Batman, while Ramirez does. On their way back, they get caught in a gang war, and Batman saves the day, making Allen rethink if Batman can be trusted.
The Good:
The animation's much better and it gives us a better perspective on what people think of Batman.
The Bad:
Sadly, the story's too rushed and the cops are dumb in this one. You don't get any character development and Batman comes off as an overpowered god.

Field Test:
Wayne Tech has a new gadget that can deflect bullets, so Bruce Wayne decides to test it out. While fighting the gangs from the last episode, ( Shouldn't they have been arrested by those detectives?) one of the bad guys gets hurt by a bullet deflected by the gadget. Batman rushes the member to the hospital and tells Lucius Fox that the gadget can't be used to take lives.
The Good:
Interesting idea for the magical gadget, but that's about it.
The Bad:
Ever wanted to see Batman as a Japanese anime? Well, now you can! And it looks stupid. The Batsuit looks more like a Hawksuit and anime Bruce Wayne is...different. The action's also edited heavily so the fights look bad.

In Darkness Dwells:
Scarecrow has kidnapped a priest and Batman must travel the sewers of Gotham to get to him. Batman fights Killer Croc and Scarecrow's deranged followers in order to save the priest.
 The Good:
Good animation, good story. The fights are better so it feels like it's coming out from a comic book. The Batsuit looks better, which is a bonus.
The Bad:
Not a whole lot, though at times the animation looks a little wonky. And I realize Batman isn't realistic, but at times, there's parts where it's pushing the limits of realism.

Working Through the Pain:
After getting injured by a thug, Batman must get to the surface before he bleeds to death. During this, he has flashbacks of training with a woman who has trained herself not to feel pain. Bruce learns her ways, but is kicked out after saving her from local bullies. The reason? The bullies would have given up sooner or later, but Bruce made it worse. Back in the present, Batman is picked up by Alfred.
 The Good:
Good animation, interesting characters and story. It's always cool to see how Bruce trained to become Batman and learning how to deal with pain is interesting. The voice acting is good too, making the characters more believable.
The Bad:
Past Bruce Wayne needs some sun. He looks like he has a disease or something.

Deadshot:
An assassin named Deadshot is hired kill Jim Gordon, but it turns out it was a ruse to get Batman assassinated instead.
The Good:
This film reminds me a lot of the Batman animated series. It's got the old timey film noir feel to it, but it has high tech gadgets too. Deadshot and Batman's costumes look pretty slick too. The fight is probably the best one in the series of movies. You feel a sense of excitement when Bats and Deadshot duke it out on top of a train.
The Bad:
Well, minor thing really, but everyone's chins are highly exaggerated in some shots. If the animators could have toned the chins down, this one would have been perfect.

Overall:
Gotham Knight is okay, honestly. It's neat to see different animation styles and their stories, but sadly not all of them were executed well. If you see this on Netflix or something, give it a watch. It'll kill time, but it's not something worth watching over and over.

Rating:
3 Hawkmen out of 5.

Deadpool

Wade Wilson, aka the Merc with the Mouth and the guy that kinda looks like Spider-Man. Deadpool is a parody of a comic book super hero and over the years he's become incredibly popular. Unfortunately, his first appearance in a movie was a horrible, horrible mess and left a bad reputation. However, Deadpool has his own movie now and has been redeemed. Suit up and grab a taxi, and don't forget your guns. This is Deadpool.

The Plot:
Wade Wilson is ex special forces turned mercenary.  He meets the love of his life, Vanessa, and everything seems great. But all good things don't last forever, Wade finds out he has terminal cancer and signs up with the Weapon X program in hopes of curing the cancer so he can spend the rest of his life with Vanessa. While being subjected to mutant testing, he is tortured by Ajax (Francis), a mutant who can't feel pain. However, Wade isn't too discouraged and teases Ajax(Francis) until Wade develops his super healing mutant powers (and fourth wall breaking powers). The powers come at a cost, turning Wade into a disfigured monster. Afraid that Vanessa won't love him because of how he looks, Deadpool becomes obsessed with finding Ajax (Francis) and get his looks back. While searching for Ajax (Francis), Deadpool teams up with couple of X-Men; Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. The two agree to help Wade only if he joins the X-Men to become a super hero. Wade agrees and they go off to find Francis, but Francis has kidnapped Vanessa, angering Wade. Deadpool fights Francis and saves Vanessa, but his looks aren't cured. Vanessa doesn't care how Wade looks and the two kiss and live happily ever after.

The Good:
Uh, pretty much everything. I was laughing from start to finish throughout the entire movie. Ryan Reynolds nails Deadpool. Everyone else does a decent job too. The banter between Deadpool and Blind Al (the old blind lady), and Negasonic Teenage Warhead is the coolest super hero name ever. Brianna Hildebrand (NSTW) is hilarious and awesome at the same time. And the easter eggs, there are plenty.  In one scene where Colossus is taking Deadpool back to the Xavier's school, and says "We are taking you to professor." Deadpool asks, "Which one? McAvoy or Stewart?" FYI: James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart have played Prof. X in the movies.

The Bad: 
Mainly Ajax (Francis). He's not a very intimidating villain. He has nothing to gain by killing Deadpool, because....Deadpool can't die. It's a losing situation. There are a few minor things that were annoying, but they're not worth mentioning because the movie does a decent job on keeping the pace going. 

Overall:
Deadpool is a great movie. Even if you're not a fan of Deadpool, it's a fun movie. There's lots of laughs and decent action scenes. The dialogue between the characters to Deadpool breaking the fourth wall will keep you entertained. If you're a fan of the Merc with the Mouth, then you're going to love this movie.

Score:
5 Chimichangas out of 5.

Attack the Block

When man first gazed upon the stars, was his first thought about aliens invading us? According to Hollywood, yes. Don't get me wrong, I like an alien invasion movie every now and then. Though nowadays, alien invasion movies are a dime a dozen and most of them have the same plot. Brave hero defeats aliens and saves the day. Attack the Block however, is a bit different. An unlikely hero defeats the aliens and saves the day. (Block?) 

The Plot:
A group of teenage street thugs encounter an alien after mugging a woman. Moses (John Boyega), the leader, kills it and takes it back to a friend's home for safekeeping.  After getting high with his friends (I never said this guy was a stand-up citizen) they discover more and more aliens keep crashing into the neighborhood. They arm up and go out to kill the aliens, but find themselves outnumbered and scared. The aliens only seem to be interested in Moses and his friends, ignoring anything else unless attacked. Moses and his friends head back to the block they live in and try to escape, but they're pursued and picked off one by one until Moses has had enough and decides to end it once and for all.

The Good:
For a low budget movie, it's actually pretty good. The dialogue is amusing, I found myself laughing at certain parts of the film. The actors do a good job too. The kids are likable at most, even though at the beginning, you find yourself hard to root for Moses. The kids grow more and more throughout the movie and you feel sad when one of them dies. The monsters are pretty wicked looking. Pitch black fur with glowing teeth is pretty terrifying and it's nice to see that it's an original look.

The Bad:
I honestly can't think of one thing that was too terrible. A minor thing though, is a gang leader is attempting to kill Moses and has the worst aim ever. I mean, Stormtroopers have better aim than this guy. For such a baddie, he's not very threatening.

Overall:
Attack the Block is a fresh breath of air into alien invasion movies. It has a character that you have to earn trust from, instead of Mr. Action Hero. The effects are pretty decent and it doesn't focus too much on the aliens, but rather the people involved.

Rating:
4 glowing alien teeth out of 5.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Ellen Ripley, Sarah Conner, Furiosa....these are some of the toughest fictional females in movie history. Now, you can add Lara Croft to that list. A popular video game character going to the big screen makes sense, right? Well, let's find out in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider!

The Plot:
The Illuminati (don't worry this is not a conspiracy theory movie) are searching for an artifact that grants the user to control time. For reasons unexplained, they must find it before time (haha) runs out until the next 5000 years. Lara Croft (Angeline Joline) gets thrown into the hunt by finding her father's clue and must destroy the artifact, again for unexplained reasons. Croft is sent via clue to a temple to obtain the first piece of the artifact and is forced to work with the baddie, Manfred Powell, an Illuminati member in search for the artifact as well. After Lara gains the first piece, she goes into hiding and works out a deal with Powell. He gets the piece, she lives and they can work to get the second piece where it becomes a free for all. Powell and Croft head to The City of Light in Siberia and they find the second piece. After solving a puzzle, Lara gets the artifact and has a heart to heart with her departed father, before going back in time and saving James B- I mean, Alex West (Daniel Craig). Powell and Croft fight as the City crumbles around them, again, for unexplained reasons. Lara wins and heads back to safety. The movie ends in a classic freeze frame of happiness.

The Good:
Did you enjoy that scene above? If not, well, you apparently don't like fun. This movie is full of scenes like that and it's enjoyable to watch. There's also a few nods to the video games: Lara's mansion is similar to the game's layout for one. And towards the end of the movie as Lara is making her escape, she makes an "Aha.." Like this:

  Nice little nod there.
You can tell the actors are clearly enjoying themselves in the film and it makes you enjoy it more, regardless of the plot. Also, a good thing, Daniel Craig's "American" accent. It's so bad it's good and at times you can hear his British accent.

The Bad:
Daniel Craig's "American" accent. It's bad. Like he can't decide which region of America so he throws in a hybrid of Western/ Boston. It's bizarre. The plot is all over the place. For example, in Daddy Croft's clue, he mentions that the artifact was broken into two pieces and sent to opposite ends of the earth. Clearly he was lying, because one piece apparently stayed behind in the City of Light for giggles. No explanation as to why it was still there. There's also alot of unexplained stuff going on and it gets a bit frustrating as to how certain things are going on. Again, example: In the first tomb Lara raids....Haha get it? Anyways. Lara figures out the puzzle and suddenly the statues come to life. How? There's bit a pieces like that and it gets a little frustrating. It's like the writers came up with this stuff and no one proof read the script.

Overall:
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is no where near a perfect movie. The plot flops around and lots of things don't make sense. But, it is a fun movie to watch. Angeline Joline was having a great time as Lara Croft and you see that on the screen. Sure, there are some cheesy lines and silly action sequences, but it's still fun to watch.

Rating: 4 tombs raided out of 5.

The Running Man

Ah, 80s action movies. What can't you like about them? The cheesy one liners to the over the top villains. Big guys with big guns that never run out of bullets. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger is arguably one of the best action heroes of the 80s and 90s. And his role in The Running Man is no exception. So, turn on your TV and root for the stalkers, this is The Running Man!

The Plot:
Ben Richards, a cop, is covering a food riot and is ordered to fire on unarmed civilians. However, Richards is a good man and refuses to follow his orders and is detained and wrongfully arrested for the slaying of the unarmed people. Two years later, Richards is imprisoned in a labor camp and manages to escape with two people of a resistance who wants to end the totalitarian reign and bring back freedom. Richards wants to escape and leave the U.S. He kidnaps a woman, Amber, who is living in his brother's apartment, and he tries to flee the country. Amber ruins his plan and is captured once again. This time, the host of a popular TV show, The Running Man (Roll credits!) offers to have Richards participate in the sadistic show, and his resistance friends will live. On the night of the show, it turns out Killian (the host) has lied and sends Richards and company to the game grounds. The three must survive against the stalkers, killers who have different themes. Sub Zero is a hockey player with a deadly hockey stick, Buzz Saw likes chain saws, Fireball has a flame thrower, etc. Each stalker is no match for Richards who disposes of them easily. Amber, who no believes Richards is innocent, is added to the game. After finding the resistance's hidden base, they hatch a plan to end the evil TV show and bring back freedom to everyone.

The Good:
It's an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, how can you not like it? As I mentioned before, it has everything an 80s action flick needs, cheesy one liners, over the top bad guys and guns. What more do you need? Overall, the story's not that bad, even though this trope was used and is still used a lot. There are a few laughs to be had and Arnold even says "I'll be back." It's great.

The Bad:
Yeah, there's some bad stuff, but I feel like it'd be silly, considering the fact that 80s movies weren't gold. I mean, there's the fact that Richards is basically invincible, so you never feel like he's in danger. And there's a few dumb mistakes the stalkers make, which make them come off as newbie killers, instead of seasoned pros. Other than that, yeah. Not a bad movie.

Overall:
The Running Man is a fun movie to watch. Arnold is amusing and funny, even when it's unintentional, and the story's okay. Certainly a must see if you're a Schwarzenegger fan.

4 running men out of 5