Movies: Dr Strange

Movies: Dr Strange

Introduction
Yet another Marvel movie released from the vast story bank from the minds of Marvel. This time however, its not a sequel, but the introduction of a new character not yet seen in the previous movie. Dr Strange! Yes! Not Mr, not Miss, not Master, not Prof, but Dr. Most of the time, the doctors you hear about in the movies tend to be evil, like Dr Doom or Dr Frankenstein. But finally, you have a literal medical doctor and not the scientist (or mad scientist) kind of doctor in a movie. This plays importantly into the background introduction portion of the movie and what happened to the main character before introducing us into the world of multiverses and magic.

If you seen the trailers, you will have notice that this movie bears a bit of similarity to inception which was considered a pretty good movie. So how did Marvel perform for their version of inception? Lets break it down and find out...

Doesn't look very doctorly...

Storyline 4/5

Storyline was pretty strong in this movie. The movie took its time of introducing us to the main star alongside his background and character. Of course, as Marvel stories always go similar to other marvel origin stories, something happens and main character wants to do something about it. So somehow or other this character gets his power and faces his first big opponent and of course wins. (this is not a spoiler.. its expected okay!)

Nonetheless, the pace of the movie is fantastic and interspersed with not TOO much talking at one go. Therefore, it doesn't end up lulling u to sleep at any point of them and the things that are happening are distinct and interesting enough to not feel boring. There are also drops of good humor over the movie that makes the whole experience a enjoyable and good paced affair. There are many things that are introduced to the audience and it requires some listening and understanding, but does not become too confusing.

All in all, storyline is nothing ground breaking, but all it in all, it is told very well.

Characters 4.5/5

Character development of the main star, is fantastic. Other characters have a pretty good fleshed out background and do act in accordance to their personality. All the characters have their own believable principles and that adds a lot to helping the audience understand and reason out why things happen in this movie. The audience will be able to feel and understand better, why things are happening for the main characters (villain included) and this does add to the immersiveness of the movie.

Cinematography 4.5/5

This is clearly the draw of the movie. Not only does this movie provide exciting action scenes, there are epic airborne shots to show the hugeness of some of the characters in the marvel universe (no spoilers so you have to see it to find out) and also alot of world bending. Quite a lot of movies make the mistake of having too much action but lack of light or good focus on what is going on. This movie doesn't have that. Everything is positioned nicely and it is easy to follow what is going on.

The only little grouse i have that explains the .5 gap is that... it had a very good potential to go all out exciting action movie similar to avengers with a large scale battle but overall, there was big monster fight with tiny human kind of scenes, but no epic many on many fight scenes.

Music 4.5/5

Music and effects is quite strong in this movie and is a definitely an enhancement to the over all feel of the movie. Somewhat inceptionish also....which is a good thing.

Spectacle 5/5

There are already so many marvel movies and so many DC movies that are more or less playing around in the super powered action genre. To make your movie stand out and not be a cliched hero meets enemy and this and that happens till the heroes win, is not something easy to do. Of course if you took the comedic perception such as deadpool, you will have an easier time to stand out.

Dr Strange manages to do this also. It will still be an origin story, but the pace of the storyline and the style and direction of the movie is where it still manages to stand out. It uses the multiverse and worlds bending onto each other, mirror worlds to show that Marvel's magic scene can still be different enough from the current offerings and what we are used to. Hence, with the good paced story introducing us to the magical world and its practices, as well as the different fighting style and methods applied by people in this magical world, this movie is still able to stand out and shine.

Overall

Storyline: 4 (good paced storyline, but of course in the end it is a super hero origin and meeting his first villain story, just told slightly differently)
Character: 4.5 (character development for the main and important characters are strong, with good amount of time for most of them.)
Cinematography: 4.5 (Good fight scenes, good epic shots, good graphics and strong CGI)
Music: 4.5 (good music that enhances the movie experience)
Spectacle: 5 (as a movie set in the marvel universe, it is still told in a very good and distinct way and fights and cinematics are done very well)

Overall: 4.5 (a very clear score that states that if you are a marvel fan, you will not regret seeing this movie. If you are an action fan, you will still like this movie. The only person who does not like this movie will be a person who does not like action and the marvel franchise. Go ahead and see this movie, weekday or weeknights, it will be worth it. Also, apparently the movie was specifically made to fit the IMAX 3D screen. Hence, if you dun mind the extra cost, go ahead and watch it. For me the normal screen is still enjoyable enough)

Movies: Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

Movies: Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

Introduction:

Final fantasy, a game that has underwent many ups and downs. For those who do not know, Final Fantasy is a game series that started in 1987 and is now in its 15 instalment. Used to be the cream of the crop in the RPG genre and it did tell a good story. Then it got a bit ambitious and started doing MMORPG and stuff and i personally didn't get into all the MMORPG from the FF series. That being said, it has gone a long way from the pixels in the first generation, to now when game cinematic are like movie cinematic and even seem life like.

Final fantasy games storylines are generally not connected across the series and they are not set out to be alternate timelines or follow a sequence in time or anything like that. This movie is meant to be a tie in or prequel to set the stage of an upcoming game Final Fantasy 15 and all this will take place in a new universe or world with its own history. So how did this movie start up and introduce us to the world of Final Fantasy 15? Read on to find out!

A poster that shows people.. just people.. who are all these people??

Storyline 3/5

Storyline is pretty ok, movie starts off introducing the world pretty well and very quickly puts you into the first battle ground whereby you are quickly able to grasp the relationship between the two main factions in the movie. The movie also quickly sets the stage and introduces both the important character in this movie and the important character in the upcoming game but for the rest of the movie, it is pushed along by the cliched damsel in distress and how the main star of the movie (which you will not see in the game), interacts, protects and saves her.

Movie is fortunately not completely linear and has a few twists and turns to make it not completely bland and predictable.

The issue I have with this movie is that the things the characters do in this movie are generally not very logical and do not make sense. You will blink your eyes as the good and bad guys explain why they did this and that and will remain unconvinced and confused at their rationale for their action. Towards the center of the movie, the storytelling draws to a crawl and it kinda gets a bit too draggy and slow (i,e, you may fall asleep)

Well... would the rest of the movie help raise the overall score? Lets take a look...

Character 2.5/5

Well, if you are looking for a boost in the score... it can't be found here. Nope. There are quite a few different characters in the movie, but they are not very distinct due to short screen time and ordinary stereotypical characteristics.

You will not really feel for any of the characters including the main casts and the damsel in distress is just very dumb, proclaiming to want to do this and that, but never actually playing any essential role except being the female presence.

The rest of the kingsglaive (the knights in this movie) are mostly ordinary and a lot of them will hardly leave any impression on you. Most will die, and you won't care.


Cinematography 3.5/5

Here is the slight boost this movie needs but unfortunately, the boost is as slight as they get. It is action packed indeed and your fights get from small to big with plenty of destruction. You will see good visual effects when people teleport, time slows down, weapons and magic flying all around the place.

However, it gets messy sometimes and with so much teleporting here and there, it becomes hard to follow. You start getting the main hero and villain jumping here and there and this is supposed to look epic and cool but due to the lighting and camera angle, you will NOT be able to appreciate what exactly is happening in the entire battle unless you REALLY make the effort. (risk getting a headache also).

That being said, most of the action scenes does seem exciting and epic in the movie as long as your eyes are able to follow the motion.

Music 3/5

Music is fine and you can actually hear some track from the previous games but it was not able to further improve the immersion of the audience when it is so difficult to follow and appreciate what is going on.

Spectacle 3/5

Sadly, this movie had a very strong source material of which it could do much much better in. The action scenes were epic, but they were not easy to follow. The storyline had twists, but was overall very cliche and unbelievable. Characters were many, but none were appealing enough for anyone to identify with and backgrounds were more or less left to the imagination and inference.

Sure it is good to create a movie that stimulates the mind, but the overall story became so convoluted and unbelievable that requires too much effort from the audience to try to appreciate and enjoy what was going on. On the bright side, you do not need to have played the games as there is little continuity in the first place and honestly, you will not appreciate this movie any better even if you played all the games.

For those who have played the previous games, this movie will show some (but VERY little) familiar titbits from the games that could excite the fans, But it also had TONs of lost potential.

Overall

Storyline: 3 (Cliche and was not very sensible all the way to the end)
Character: 2.5 (Honestly, i can hardly remember any names from the movie....)
Cinematography: 3.5 (Their main focus and there is good amount of time in action scenes. BUT alot of these scenes were hard to follow and that made the movie less immersive)
Music: 3 (Ok music, but did not manage to boost anything to the audience)
Spectacle: 3 (Sadly, did not stand out in action, nor in storyline. Just felt very ordinary, like an action show, but not a Final Fantasy Action show.)

Overall: 3/5 (Really average score, for an average movie. Nothing you will feel bad to miss especially if you have no plans to play the game also. It is just another action flick with more extravagant action sequences (as it is an animation), and an ordinary story that you can just take 5 - 10 minutes to read the sypnosis and that should be good enough.)

Movies: Independence Day Resurgence

Movies: Independence Day Resurgence

They are back again. The aliens that attacked us in 1996 are back to try again. This would be 20 years both in real life and according to the movie time line. So the movie has evolved from this

1996 Independence Day

to this

2016 Independence Day

Do you see any difference? Is there any difference for this movie from the one in 1996 to now? Read on and find out more. And No. This has completely nothing to do with Brexit. That's a difference kind of independence day.

Storyline 2/5

Let me explain the low score. Basically, the whole storyline and direction of this movie is almost similar to the previous movie in 1996. Yes the cast are changed, but everything that happens in the movie is very very similar to the proceedings of the previous movie with more or less just a different face.

Many things that happen in this movie does not make any logical sense in the first place either. I won't give spoilers in the movie but basically we could just say the main alien villain in this movie makes the stupidest decisions among the many other choices of things that they could do for world domination.

As expected (i don't think this will be a spoiler), the humans will win in the end but its not because of human ingenuity or innovation. It's just purely because the alien boss, for reasons unknown, does the stupidest thing that leads to their loss.

You will just feel that this is a movie rehash especially if you seen the previous one but even if you didn't, you will also feel that in the logical line of things, the storyline is forced and does not really entertain.

There are also a lot of time wasting redundant scenes of random other people that honestly, even if removed, will have little effect on the movie overall. At least 2 bunch of scenes that probably overall took up 20 minutes of screen time that could very well be used elsewhere.

Flow of the movie was also very unimpressive and uninteresting and really, given the boringness of some of the characters, honestly you could fall asleep. On the bright side, since the characters are not really adding any value to the movie, you could wake up and still follow the movie and not feel that you missed out anything because honestly, you didn't.

Character 2/5

Character development is horrible. Honestly, you will go through the entire movie, nearly hating everyone for how shallow they all are. There are so many characters that they want to utilise, both main and side characters, but all of the side characters have so little screen time and significance. 

The main characters are the typical "I hate you you hate me" at the beginning and then things happen and "I am now best buds with you" with the event that brings about this big change of heart being the most cliche thing you see in most movies.

All character relationships are not convincing and you will generally not bother or feel for the very forgettable characters in this movie.

Cinematography 3/5

This is probably the only thing that is going on for the movie. Destruction is epic and once the action gets on the way it is quite nice to see. But, it is nothing that would put this movie above the rest of the other movies that have been shown in the last few months. Add to that the overall lack of action scenes in general and it is that bit less entertaining.

It is supposed to be a very large spaceship, but this space ship is hardly utilised in any manner that would further boost the entertainment value of the movie which is a total waste. It is a war against the entire world, but no one else really participates.

Music 3/5

Music is fine, I will give that to them. There is a bit of nostalgia as some of the score is identical to the first one. But overall, it did not harm the experience but did not really add too much value to the movie either.

Spectacle 2/5

I would say especially for those who have seen the first movie, this movie will score very low both for storyline and action categories. Nothing it did this movie is really new, there is little development and you could very well go on to the third instalment (if they wanted) and this movie can just be totally ignored. Even if you have not seen this movie (since its 20 years ago), at most this movie can only be given a 3 instead as the storyline really lacks the coherence to draw u into the movie, the characters are forgettable and more or less expendable.

Overall

Storyline: 2 (Not a realistic or engaging storyline, follows the previous much too closely)

Character: 2 (Characters are hardly interesting and very forgettable)

Cinematography: 3 (When there is action, it is nonetheless quite nice to see. Pity the action scenes are too little in the first place)

Music: 3 (It's there, didnt hinder the entertainment value and added some value)

Spectacle: 2 (Didn't fare well for the storyline segment, action was fine, but in a period where every other movie has fantastic and more action scenes, this movie did not manage to stand out)

Overall: 2.4 (Quite an accurate description of the movie. In the end, it is really a forgettable movie, especially if you seen the first one cause its more or less identical. You can honestly just skip this movie and go on and wait to see if they make a third one. If you still want to see it though, just be prepared for the very ordinary story line and also be prepared to accept some not so logical parts of the movie. There are a lot of filler scenes in this movie that did not really add anything of interest to the movie.)

Movies: X-Men Apocalypse

Movies: X-Men Apocalypse

Introduction:

This would be the third movie in the rebooted X-men series of movies. The third one that will star the younger Magneto, Xavier as well as all many other characters. For those who are confused, X-men actually has had about 6 main X-men movies before this one, a few origin stories (with few more going to come out in the near future).

The first few of these movies were the one that starred the old guard and the most famous of which was Hugh Jackman who would then, thru these movies, become synonymous with Wolverine. So in sort, things happened in the first few movies, and more or less everyone died. So in X-men First Class, the storyline creators used Hugh again, to go back into time and this resulted in the alteration of the future. Note that this alteration means that the story after X-men First Class can and is very different from what had happened in the previous timeline that Hugh Jackman acted in. Therefore, they are able to start the whole story from scratch and tell it whatever way they want again. Nothing is set in stone and they pretty much can do anything they want to the X-men cinematic franchise from this point onwards.

X-men movies focuses on team work and team dynamics. Other movies tend to focus on other aspects of their movie characters to make it have their individual draw to the audience. Movies like Hulk focuses on the internal conflict of the person, Thor focuses on the god aspect coming from another planet, Iron man focuses on technology while Captain america focuses on super soldier and leadership aspects of the superhero world and their interaction with shield. Avengers on the other hand actually appeals to the same audience as the X-men but the advantage they have is that all the characters back stories are already fleshed out by the preceding movies. Hence X-men movies have a tough internal competitor that they would be competing with. So how did this movie perform when we break it down?

All the mutants, good and bad... and the ambiguous

Storyline 3/5

The story is quite standard, in fact, you it is kind of like pokemon whereby both sides, good and bad, spend some time going around the world getting their characters/heroes/mutants in the picture with Xavier on one side and Apocalypse on the other side. Then they just meet in the middle and start to duke it out.

You get to see many of the mutants with their various powers but all in all it is those mutants that we have already known for a long long time and as a result, the whole storyline is quite standard. There is no particular big twist and everything just progress "as expected"

The problem with the storyline is that the end is already more or less too obvious to be really exciting. Add to this that the movie focus is on storytelling of an already expected storyline, and the lack of action scenes, this movie is unable to really stand out far enough amongst the other movies out there.

Character 3.5/5

Character wise, I would say that we would already know most of their powers and there is nothing that will totally amaze the audience. Because they need to spend so much time recruiting new characters, all characters probably get only about 5 or 10 minutes of time as a introduction, and u see them again for another 5 minutes in their battle with each other and that is it. There is very little character building on both sides and the audience will not really feel for any of the characters at all.

That is really the problem with having too many characters in the movie, needing to introduce all of them, and yet trying to invest in the storyline all at one go. At the very least however, all the mutants are distinct and their powers are pretty varied so it is still exciting to the audience when you see them use their abilities. If only there were more screen time allocated to them using their power to the fullest potential though.

Cinematography 3/5

Sadly, this part got the movie down. For a movie that already has missed out a lot of opportunity for action portions, the further lack of using good action shots to entertain during the action portions itself made this movie quite ordinary. The only slightly good scene was the quicksilver scene but when it got to the main fight, it lost the steam a bit too quickly. Lots of lost opportunities there.

Music 3/5

Music was ordinary, I was not able to pick out the music being particularly beneficial to what was happening during the movie itself but at least it didn't harm the experience either.

Spectacle 3/5

Unfortunately, this was the main killer of the movie itself. Being a marvel film, everyone would already have a set expectation (which probably is gonna be quite high). On the storyline sense, unfortunately, this movie has the difficult job of setting the new stage right for the new X-men timeline but it was entirely, ordinary, collect your mutant style with too little twists. From the action aspect it also suffered greatly. Basically, every mutant is a 1 or 2 trick pony with just about 3 - 5 mins of them using their power in the entire movie. The ordinary cinematography also did the movie no favors and in the end, its the very much expected everyone just dump their power on the main bad guy and see him explode kind of movie. If it did not have any competition in the movie market, this may have been good enough, but in a world with avengers and DC comics coming up with their own movies, this movie did not really enthrall the viewer enough.

Overall

Storyline: 3 (Pretty obvious and uneventful storyline with too little twists to keep things interesting)

Character: 3.5 (Sure there are many mutants, and all their powers are distinct, but much opportunity was lost as they did not have the time to showcase their powers)

Cinematography: 3 (Lack of good shots for action scenes except that very one quicksilver scene)

Music: 3 (Ordinary music, did not harm but mostly did not support the movie either)

Spectacle: 3 (Unfortunately, they tried to focus on storyline which was overall too weak and obvious. Action wise, they did not manage to captialize. It wasn't bad, but neither was it any much more then average)

Overall: 3.1 (Well the score is quite telling of whether you should or should not see the movie. Basically, its a average movie, that you won't really call a total waste of your time, but there is no need to really make the time to see the movie if you don't have the spare time. Nothing much really happened this movie (you could just start the next movie with no impact from this movie) and the action did not really pull the audience in. The fact that people who already seen the other x-men movies would not really be impressed by this alternate retelling of the movie and the way the mutant powers are utilized as everything happens in a very ordinary, expected manner. You can go ahead and see it if you have the time, but if not, wait for the next one and DVD it if you needed to before the next movie.)

Well? What did you think of this movie? Did it hold a candle to the avengers series? Let me know in the comments!

Movies: Batman v Superman

Movies: Batman v Superman

We have seen batman, we have seen superman, but never had we seen these two on the big screen at the same time. and what's more, this time they dont seem to be friends!

In this first DC reply to Marvel's avengers series, we finally get to see more then one major superhero in a single movie and similar to the next big marvel movie coming out very soon, these two guys are gonna have a moment sizing and beating each other up!

Note that unlike the more recent marvel movies, actors for superman and batman tend to very QUITE wildly.  You can actually see all the other batman movies and still get a different vibe from them because they are all really quite different. This is the same case for superman and I personnally never actually seen this superman (I believe he did act in another previous superman movie)

Nonetheless, this movie is dark, both in terms of lighting and in the storyline itself. DC movies seem to be trying to protray itself in a entirely different light from the Marvel movies and there is little comedy to be found here. So how did this movie perform when you break it down? Lets take a deeper look.

Which side are you on?

Storyline 4/5

The storyline is strong and it makes quite a fair bit of sense on how these two end up fighting in the first place. There are some slow moments during the movie as they try to expand on the universe but the moments are not too excessive before it gets back into something interesting.

Like i said previously, this movie is entirely dark and there is also quite a bit of thinking required. Especially for people who have not read the comics, you will either end up quite confused throughout the movie because they will throw a lot of confusing DC universe plot items at you or end up realising how big the DC universe is and that may pique your interest and make you go learn more about the universe from the net. That means that if you want to enjoy the storyline, you are gonna need to read up a bit to prepare yourself OR be prepared to keep a very open mind to try to interpret what is happening on screen the moment you see it.

That being said, if you just want to follow along the line of the main story and are not too concerned about what those flashbacks and videos mean, then the storyline is still sufficient to entertain you and will keep you interested in what is happening as there are enough immediate plots that are happening during the movie and it can keep things engaging enough. In fact, in this movie there are at least 3 intertwined main storylines so it is difficult to get bored of what is happening.

Character 3.5/5

You have 2 very important characters and 1 quite important character to develop in a movie lasting 151 minutes. Honestly, the character development for why these two guys are fighting is done reasonably well, but this movie only touches very slightly on the backgrounds of these two guys. That means that if you do not even see any of their movies before this, you will not be able to appreciate why batman or superman does things in this manner or that and may find it hard to believe why these characters end up reacting to the happenings in the storyline in a certain way.

There are not really any other major good guys with much relevance in this movie and the villain is quite well portrayed to be cranky. Overall the characters fit their roles but there is just a bit of difficulty of being fully immersed when you do not know the background of the two main characters

Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography is fantastic for this movie. The shots convey the vast size of the characters and buildings and there are a lot of good perspective shots that add immersion to the movie. The fights are done very impactfully and you can practically feel the pain when your chosen hero gets hit.

The story is told in a very artistic manner and the movie makes uses of flashbacks and videos to expand on the universe which keeps the movie interesting, There is just one small problem with it being too dark (literally) due to the lighting, rain and night conditions.

Music 4.5/5

Music in this game is very very spectacular. The score greatly adds to the feel of the movie and the action scenes are made that much more exciting.

Spectacle 4.5/5

This movie does very well in the action and storyline category and it has one of the best fighting scenes for a super hero movie (its not kungfu though). With the main 3 storylines telling you what happens with respect to Superman, batman and the only woman DC heroine for now, you will not get bored of what is happening and everything flows relatively well. Action is really quite fantastic once you get past the dark tone of the movie. All 3 heroes use their most well known specialities and weapons during the movie which is quite entertaining as you see the difference in their fight style. Pitting the two biggest heroes in the DC universe against each other adds a lot of entertainment value to this and is a very much welcome from the do-only-good previous batman/super man movies.

Overall
Storyline: 4 (There is 3 frontline storyline as well as the overarching DC universe storyline protrayed here. Good flow, but at times slightly confusing without background)
Character: 3.5 (Movie seems to expect the audience to have fair amount of background knowledge already, does have further character development in this movie but harder to immerse if background not already known)
Cinematography: 4 (This is probably the main thrust and attraction factor of the movie. A lot of effort is put into the fight scenes and it is done well and impactfully... if only it wasn't so dark till you cannot see maybe about 5-10% of what happened if you did not focus enough)
Music: 4.5 (Very strong musical score. Adds tremendously to the movie immersion)
Spectacle: 4.5 (Storyline is good, action scenes are great except just for slight gripes here and there. But the very fact that you fit 2 most well known movies together, and put them together to beat each other out, its definitely a draw for the fans, and for the non-fans, the action scenes even for a long movie will be strong enough to keep you entertained.)

Overall: 4.1 (Fair enough score, its definitely not a PERFECT movie, but the things that it sets out to do, it does well above average. Very smart way to draw in the crowds and at least get them the very first step into the DC movie, showing them the difference between them and Marvel. For more enjoyment in the movie however, you may want to just do a quick search about the DC universe so that some of the flash backs and scenes in the movie makes more sense. Don't wiki the movie itself though or you may get spoilt. Even after the movie, you can also go read up more and it will show you how big the DC universe is and hopefully attract you back for the next few DC movies on the pipeline)

So how did you find the movie? Did you manage to guess who was to win the fight? Do you agree with the ratings? Do let me know and see ya at the next movie (most likely going to be another movie where superheroes are pitted against superheroes)

Movies: The 5th Wave

Movies: The 5th Wave

Introduction

Don't fret don't fret, if you think you missed the 1st to 4th wave! This movie starts clearly at the 5th wave! In fact, the movie will go on and tell you all about the first, second, third and fourth wave and what is the state the world is currently.

In a market where there are tons of alien movies, end of world movies and zombie movies, is this movie able to stand out from the rest? Well, one plus point is that this movie combines the alien and end of world segment but of course no zombies in this movie.... yet.

Here's the poster!

Its pretty accurate that this movie focuses on these two

So how did this movie perform if we break it up? Let's take a look and see

Storyline 4/5

This movie has a lot of things going for them. It is a new fresh story and a fresh world, which means it is easier to keep the audience intrigued as it fleshes out the current world. It also can spend a bit of time telling about how did the world end up the way it did which will entertain fans of end of the world type of movies.

It also did a good job in having two different main story lines which means that the minds of the audience are kept absorbed by two things that are happening together to tell the entire story. The story flow overall is pretty good and entertaining as it introduces people and the world and there are not too many slow moments that will cause the audience to be bored.

That being said, the storyline also has a bit of a twist towards the end of the movie that makes it that more entertaining with that little bit of surprise and keeps everything quite exciting till the end.

Character 3.5/5

Character development is pretty alright as many of the people are new and need a bit of time to be introduced for the audience to feel any kind of attachment. Time is not on the side of this movie however due to the amount of storyline it has to go through and although you would see the story of about 4 or 5 characters fleshed out pretty well, the rest would be just another person in the group kind of person.

Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography is pretty good in this movie with epic shots of disasters and when it gets to the action part, you would see that quite  a bit of effort is put into the action scenes. The movie however is a storyline focused movie and not so much an action type of movie so there is still a lot of improvement potential.

Nonetheless, it uses the best cinematography form most of the time but does not capitalize and use it more to further immerse the audience.

Music 3/5

Did not really notice the music in this movie as nothing really stood out and no music was used distinctly to push some kind of emotion or feeling to the audience. At least nothing that I noted.

Spectacle 4/5

There are a lot of end of world movies. There are also alot of alien movies. This movie uses aliens to showcase their version of the end of the world which makes the story that bit more distinct and quite entertaining to the fresh audience. It does not excel in action or cinematography and although it does put in effort in the storyline it does not stand uniquely at the top amongst the other movies out there. But put all together, this movie does provide something slightly more different and it translate to a bit of a more enjoyable experience.

First movies of trilogy tend to always do well as it has a great unique source material but as we go into the second and third movie (that may or may not happen), we will see if this movie is able to keep up the interest and the immersion.


Overall

Storyline: 4 (Fresh story line, two interlinked focal point that keeps things interesting)
Character: 3.5 (Main characters have a fair bit of screen time and development but the rest are all pretty forgettable)
Cinematography: 4 (Good choices of shots to bring about epicness and action but really could have more opportunity)
Music: 3 (Music is ordinary, a bit too ordinary and did not feel its particular impact)
Spectacle: 4 (Unique joining of two main type of stories but it did not really pull far out from the offerings you would have seen before)

Overall: 3.7 (Overall, its a good attempt to draw in two types of movies which is the end of world and alien typed movies, and it is done with good shots and a good storytelling method. However the main aim of the movie which is to story tell, uses story line that is not TOO far off what has been shown on the big screen. Did have that bit of a twist in the storyline to keep things fun and entertaining and indeed it is good while it lasted. With a long movie time this is worth the time if you do have time to spare. Not a must see at this point of time and you could wait for the next movie to come out first if there ever will be, but you won't really regret seeing this movie too)

Movies: Star Wars The Force Awakens

Movies: Star Wars The Force Awakens

After so many years of a lull in the Star Wars franchise, it's finally back again and this time it continues from after the 3rd movie.. Wait it's actually after the 6th movie.. Errr yea... It's really quite hard to explain...

Lots of glowy lights

Basically, just to get everyone in the same understanding,  according to the time line, this would be the latest movie which actually follows after Star Wars Return of the Jedi. In fact it is about 30 years after the happenings in Star Wars Return Of the Jedi. (and just past 30 years in real life)

Eh this poster doesn't look that ancient

This allows for quite a bit of fun in the characters you will see in the movie, but will not spoil it any more then that although fans will probably already know what is going to happen in the movie

Somehow or other, every other company seems to be getting onto the Star Wars bandwagon like clothing chain uniqlo, crocs and of course many toy manufacturers. 

Even Ez-link is getting on the band wagon. Costs me 60 bucks...

Anyway back to the review proper!

Storyline 3/5

Probably not what you would wanna hear, but I have to say it.. This whole movie storyline seems to be very very very similar to a previous starwars movie storyline. Unfortunately this works badly for those who are fans of the movie in the first place as it will seem like a rehashed movie and everything becomes slightly too predictable.

But even if we look at the storyline independently, there is little twists and things to keep things intriguing during the movie itself. What is happening in the movie is introduced quite early in the beginning and basically it's just development of that one storyline. There is nothing else to attract the audience.

It's a standard meet a character who is confused what is happening.. Then searches for some understanding, then suddenly realised what is happening in the Galaxy then joins in and goes against the bad guys. Familiar? Yeah a lot of movies are using the same but this has no huge twists and what you see is what you get.

Character 3.5/5

Purely based on the facts that you will see a lot of familiar faces in this movie, you will see a fair bit of character development on both the old as well as the new characters and this may lend a bit of wow or nostalgia factor to the fans of the movie.

Obviously a new robot now takes the main stage as the cute factor in the movie that ties the initial storyline together but overall,  the characters are what you would be expecting, good being good although the bad guy has a bit of more potential to develop then the good. Don't expect anything like the first few starwars (according to time-line aka the anakin part of the story before Darth Vader)

Cinematography 3.5/5

Aye! Was there many lazers pewpewing all over the place? Was there sufficient lightsaber duels and good choreographed fights..

Unfortunately for this movie, sure there are space battles, sure there are fights, but in general there was a bit more attempt to emphasize on driving the story and hence it suffered in the action cinematography section which overall would be detrimental to those looking for epic space fights etc.

There are nice shots of planets, new planets etc but honestly, nothing really stood out as particularly cool and exciting even though this movie had plenty of potential to do so...

Here's some lightsabers, just cause.

Music 4.5/5

Music is classic Star Wars and if you followed the previous movies you know that it always has a very powerful and fitting score to fit the happenings in the movie.

Thanks to the numerous movies before this, it has reach a state whereby when you hear the music you kind of know what is going to happen soon. Even to those new to the franchise the music will add much immersion value to them.

Spectacle 3/5

The overall problem that this movie faces is different for the fans, and also for new comers. For new comers, the introduction of old faces with no background, yet expecting the audience to appreciate their presence makes it hard for the new comers to be properly drawn in. For the fans, thanks to the more action packed episode 1 to 3 (Anakin storyline) this movie would pale badly to those movies where you see tons of jedis and more Saber battles. Thanks to episode 4 to 6 (Luke storyline)  the movie's storyline will unfortunately be too familiar to be exciting.

Don't get me wrong, there are still good action scenes and the storyline in general still moves things along, but it seems more like a set up for the next few movies to bring in new characters but amongst the other movies out there that falls into the same genre this movie falls just that bit too short.

Overall

Storyline : 3 (Ordinary story, too ordinary to stand out amongst the other movie, also feels like a strange rehash)
Character : 3.5 (Expects audience to have a bit of background knowledge of the characters thus not giving enough time and opportunity to be more involved with the characters)
Cinematography : 3.5 (It's fine... it's not great though... just fine)
Music : 4.5 (Good music, one of the most fitting score that adds to the experience)
Spectacle : 3 (Did not stand out in the action section, neither did it stand out enough for storyline. It is kind of more like, just another star war movie in the end)

Overall : 3.5 (This movie had a lot going for it, a good back story, well established fan base, plenty of budget to advertise and even a cartoon. It's hyped up, and everyone should have heard about it. Unfortunately, with so much expectation, it fails to deliver even for the fans or rather, especially for the fans as it did not do anything new. Overall, you could see this movie if you wanted, and you probably would, but if you didn't see it, go ahead and wait for the next one before watching and you won't really miss out anything because this movie did not really add too much. That being said, being a 2 hour movie, if you do have time to kill, you probably won't regret seeing this movie too as it is still a very much palatable action movie in space with light sabers. Probably go ahead and lower your expectation for this movie instead and if you can, see the first 6 movies so that you got some back story to appreciate the characters more. Just remember, more lightsabers = more fun, since this movie has less light sabers, it will be okey, but just not THAT fun.)

Movies: Attack on Titan

Movies: Attack on Titan

Introduction

Attack on titan. A title that does not make any sense to anyone at all... is there only one Titan? is Titan a place? Maybe a moon? if you are confused by the name... THEN THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY YOU MAY LIKE THE MOVIE!!! This movie is actually a Japanese Anime that has finished its season one quite a while ago. In fact I believe it is a 2013 anime that ended at 23 episodes in Sep 2013. The anime itself has obviously a more well developed storyline as it is more then 10 hours long as compared to this short short 1 and a half hour movie.

The problem with this movie is that the director of the movie took his own artistic direction to the movie. It will not be like the anime, but whether this is a good or bad thing, it will depend on the audience. Ok so what is a Titan in this movie? Sorry its not the roman Titan that fights with Zeus and Poseiden all that. It is merely this ugly fella

Yum yum little humans!

And what more! Like humans, they come in different shape, sizes, pose, gender, and even ugliness. Only that all those aspects, they have a much bigger range. Except gender.. They are genderless and merely look female or male or a genderless thingy. Of course this is the anime version. To whet your taste bud.. here's the movie one!

Roar! I'm so HOT! Global warming has taken a toll!

Woops! Sorry if you puked or anything... Here's some pictures of the staff to get you back on your feet

Posing! Looking good.... or relatively similar actually...

Ok! Enough of small talk. So is this movie worth seeing? Lets break it down

Storyline 2 (If you really hate people not following the canon) 3 (if you try stay neutral) /5

Lets get it out there at this point of the review. This movie is not going to follow the anime. I would say that besides the presence of the same Titans, use of same equipment, use of same names, it is a pretty different show. In fact, try to look at this movie as an ALTERNATE dimension of their world and maybe it would just be more palatable to you.

That being said, the speed of this movie is slightly too slow. It unfortunately cannot start off running like the usual action movies where at the very beginning there are already action scenes. As a result its a slow start that introduces the background and everything else but in general, it was still too slow for me. Once the action picks up however, it gets a bit more exciting and flowing but there was also quite a slow segment towards the middle of the movie and after that it is mostly action all the way.

However, the storyline as it has to be fitted into 1 hour and 30 mins, suffers from too many jumps and everything finishes a bit too quickly (if you can really consider that the movie finishes).

Character 3/5

There is some attempts at character development and there is effort put in to create a distinction between all the characters in this movie. But its short play time is back to haunt this movie as at the end of the movie, you would probably not feel too much for most of the supporting characters of the movie.

People who follow the anime will at least be able to know more clearly what the significant difference in the characters are but then again, it is still quite different from the movie itself.

Cinematography 3/5

For an action flick, this movie is just missing a bit of the more traditional shots. Sure there is some high speed shots where you can see how fast the characters are flying here and there but there are some parts of the movie that is pretty dark and it is just missing out on extra effort such as epic top down shots and more. 

There is a good feeling of speed and excitement but there is really much more this movie could have done to make every battle that bit more exciting.

Music 4/5

Actually, the movie and sound effects in this movie did do pretty well to add some elements of disgust and fear and excitement throughout the movie. It really did bring out the hopelessness of the world that they live in.

Spectacle 3.5/5

Again from a neutral stand point, this movie does introduce a pretty interesting new world that we live in where nothing is in favor of man kind. So the storyline would be fun for the newcomer. Sadly, the short movie length means everything ends just a tad bit too soon and all the action scenes are relatively short and ordinary. The whole movie could be made to have a lot more exciting action on a more large scale basis but guess that was not the direction they wanted to take overall.

Overall

Storyline: 3 (Too short, not able to tell enough without making sacrifices to depth of story)

Character: 3 (Too short, not able to have the opportunity to build up audience empathy to characters)

Cinematography: 3 (Has some good action shots, but that's about all the shots they have and they are generally a bit short lived and quick to end)

Music: 4 (Good use of sounds and music to bring up evoke audience feelings of disgust and more)

Spectacle: 3.5 (Average on the storyline side, also average on the action side. It gets a .5 as it is a new alternate world which still helps to keep the movie new and engaging)

Overall: 3.3 (Overall, I would say that this is a fair enough action flick, for the short 1.30 hrs movie in the midst of 2 hours action flick, this movie may not be exciting enough to be a must see yet. It's a good way to spend the time if you were looking for something to do and like to see an action movie in a alternate world with some gore and quite a lot of dying. For fans of the anime, you can enjoy this movie, but you must first set aside all expectation that this is the same as the anime. It is probably not a movie that you MUST see at this juncture and you will not really be missing too much by not seeing this movie.)

Movies: Jurassic World

Movies: Jurassic World

If at first glance, you thought that this movie sounded familiar, then you must be from the same generation as me! Indeed it has actually been a cool 22 YEARS since the first Jurassic park was shown (1993). In fact, from its most recent Jurassic park it was already 14 years ago. Yep. Jurassic Park III was actually shown in 2001. After that, there's been some TV series, but no there were no serious contender to the Jurassic park series... until now! And in case you are confused at the name change, no worries, Jurassic world indeed was made to be a continuation of the Jurassic Park series.

So how did the movie go? was this a good reboot to the series? Lets break it down and take a look

Storyline 3.5/5

Well.. considering that the previous similar storyline was done nearly 22 years ago.. I would say that the storyline is somewhat refreshing. It's not totally new, but it has not been done for such a long time we can consider this a fresh start. Especially for those who didn't see the first few Jurassics, you will find this a very thought provoking and interesting storyline.

There were a few portions of the movie whereby the the characters (humans and dinos alike) did not really follow the logical path of action but it was all for the purpose of making the movie much longer and entertaining experience so don't be too critical to be expecting a movie that completely does not raise any brows in disbelief.

There is a fair bit of entertainment value and amusement in the conversations and happenings throughout the movie including the tense portions but there is also the addition of the obligatory love story blahblah thing that I would say was just slightly detracting from the movie. The pace is not fully action packed and a good part of slightly more then the first half of the movie is to introduce you to the new theme park that is Jurassic World and it was somewhat slower paced at the beginning. However, once it picks up into the action, it keeps it that way till the end.

Character 3/5

Character also runs into the similar problem as storyline, meaning that the development of the character does not really follow logical progression. It may be overthinking it a little but you probably won't feel as much connection to the characters as to the dinosaurs themselves honestly.

Nonetheless, they are playing the family stick together storyline style and I guess its passable in general although this is nothing that will steal the show.

Cinematography 4.5/5

Good cinematography and its very cool at how they make use the of the special abilities of the dinosaur in the movie itself. There are also a lot of noteworthy action shots and even first person shooter style that look like it could come out from game itself.

There are also a lot of great shots to show the overall scale of the world with dinosaurs involved and it really adds to the enjoyable experience. You will be able to appreciate the scale of the world when you have dinosaurs in the picture and like what the movie wants to do, you will learn how small we humans would have been comparatively.

Music 4/5

One major smart movie that the movie did was to make use of the all familiar sound track from the very first Jurassic park to bring about the nostalgic feeling to the audience who have last seen this movie close to 2 centuries ago.

Overall also, the music is noticeable in immersing the audience into the lull that is the Jurassic THEME park before throwing you into the real Jurassic everything goes to hell park.

Spectacle 4/5

Considering how rare a movie of this scale is nowadays, this is really a refreshing improvement and difference to the usual action movie that is merely man on man or man on monster. It also does a fine job of introducing u to a world where maybe theme parks will be different, and yet how it can go so very very wrong. Action is done pretty well in this movie with a nice climatic finish in the end that will most likely entertain u pretty well.

Sadly, its story is not as intriguing and merely serves just as a medium to get the story across due to the many inconsistencies in the usual logical paths or action that characters will take. Nonetheless, the shots and action part makes up for it leading to a very enjoyable dinosaur movie.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Good enough storyline, has some inconsistencies but overall flowing.)
Character: 3 (Not easy to relate to character story lines and somewhat cliché. Ironically, the dinosaurs may attract more emotional connection then the humans)
Cinematography: 4 (Good epic and action shots, even better then some action movies out there)
Music: 4 (Good usage of music to bring out nostalgic effects, also helps audience immerse)
Spectacle: 4 (Been too long since there was a dinosaur movie and that alone helped it score high. Only let down was the overall story direction)

Overall: 3.7 (I would say that this is definite a good action show and a way to spend about 2 hours of the day if you have nothing superb to do. You will probably enjoy this movie even more if you saw the first 3 movies and can appreciate how times have changed and the movie pretext has advanced through the years. In fact, if you plan to see this, take a few days and watch the first 3 movies with your pals and friends first and you should be able to enjoy this movie even more. Just don't expect too much or a too spectacular kind of storyline and you should be all set for this movie)

Next movie on the list is Minions and hopefully I can get the review up ASAP! Thanks all for reading and comment if there is anything!!

Movies: Avengers 2 - Age of Ultron

Movies: Avengers 2 - Age of Ultron

It's here again. The yearly installment of the marvel franchise and this time it's the everything all together super hero mash up of almost every other marvel franchise together. There is still room to really mash up other heroes like the x-men and spiderman but this is not the movie. Yet this movie easily has about 10 prominent superheroes of which many have appeared in their own split off movies and for fans of any of these individual side movies, there is no reason why you will not want to catch this one.

Storyline 3.5/5

The storyline in this movie is pretty fine, keeps the movie going and has a pretty good pace of slow and quick moments.

It actually has some specific focus on some characters particularly those who will not be getting a standalone movie in the near future. I will leave you to guess who these few characters  are but overall the story is fine with some overall development and flows well enough.

There is also the injection of quite a few comedic scenes making use of the uniqueness of many of the character backgrounds and personality which is a important touch. After all, even for us mere mortals, there are moments where we have our own humor too so this makes the movie feel more real and entertaining.

Don't expect a storyline that is unique or  fresh as it merely follows the usual marvel style. You will see the gathering of heroes, them having some internal conflicts, then they team up and with all their powers combined they do a lot of killing and destroying.

Character 4.5/5

This is pretty much the whole draw of the movie in that they add a few more new superheroes or villains and introduce their powers and show how they interact and do things in this alternate world they live on. But with the inclusion of so many characters many of whom are from the previous marvel movies making some cameos, there is more then enough heroes to satisfy you as long as you are interested in this kind of thing but you may get lost in trying to recognize who are some of the people and what they are doing there.

All heroes do have their back stories and like I said above, this movie does put some emphasis on a few characters that won't have their own movie in the future so there is a fair bit of character development here and there. But for those who have not seen the previous movies, you will have no clue who 30 percent of the heroes are especially in the meet up scene of the movie and this does hinder some form of enjoyment as what they say might not make sense to you unless you follow more the franchise closely enough.

I also like the idea that the movie is fleshing out the more normal, more human-like heroes in this movie as compared to those who already have an excess of screen time. Also it is sweet that the movie gives each character their chance during battle scenes so you can be awed by their abilities and see how it is used to its potential.

Cinematography 4/5

As per usual action marvel movie this one has plenty of action shots and loads of slow motion scenes where you can slowly enjoy what each character does during battle and see what powers they have.

You get to see a lot of good special effects and even some first person views that gives you quite good entertainment and immersion value.

Also has its fair share of epic shots from the sky and fast movement shots all around the place.

It never gets too messy during the Battle scenes as the director is conscious to not make too many things happen at the same time and this allows the audience to follow the movie much better

Music 3.5/5

Music in this movie is fine and adds alot to the atmosphere and over all immersion feel. It is not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination but it really does it job well enough. Anyway marvel movies are not musicals. They are action movies.

Spectacle 4/5

If you want a movie where you can see tons of action, special power,  see your favorite marvel super hero besides the characters from the x-men etc. This is your go to movie. The pacing is good enough and the battles are always exciting although a bit one sided most of the time.  I personally feel that this detracts a bit as you will feel that your heroic characters are never going to lose at any point and thus the end results of every battle are more or less expected.

Although there is some twist at the end of the movie, overall, this is a great action movie with a good storyline to boot. Definitely something the fans will enjoy tremendously cause they give the fans what they really want.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Good flowing story with good pacing, but from the bird's eye view, still a cliche, safe generic storyline)

Character: 4.5 (You get tons and tons of heroes in this movie including many cameos)

Cinematography: 4 (Good shots all around, makes the action scenes much more exciting)

Music: 3.5 (Fine music for an action flick, nothing too spectacular though)

Spectacle: 4 (This is the action movie that marvel fans must see, and it does well in the action genre with good slow mo shots, epic shots etc. Storyline is also pretty flowing)

Overall: 3.9 (Overall, this is a show that will appeal to many people as a pure action show with tons of special effects and power. It does get a bit heavy at a point of time when it seems like everyone and their grandma seems to be having super powers. It does help to see the previous movies before catching this and for action genres, it is more fun to see it on the big screen. With future similar and related movies linked together, if you feel that you will see those movies someday, then you might as well just go ahead and spend 2 hours having fun with the Avengers.)

Movies: Dragon Blade

Movies: Dragon Blade

This Chinese New Year, this movie had the unfortunate situation of coming up together with Fifty Shades of Grey, a highly anticipated sex movie! After all, sex sells doesn't it? But does action sell too?? Apparently, not as much because the theatre where i saw this movie was only about half full. However, if you already had your fill of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and am looking for a movie to keep you entertained, could this movie be the one for you??

Look at the poster first and maybe it will help you decide!

Now look closely. we all know who the person in the middle is but look right above him!! OH its a bunch of English people!!! I would say that this might be the attractive point of this movie in that you get to see English people fight with Chinese people. But what kind of story do we actually have? Lets read on to find out more.. But something to help you manage your expectation, this movie has nothing to do with a dragon blade. There's no dragon, theres quite a lot of blades.

Storyline 3.5/5

This movie has a pretty interesting storyline. It starts off saying it is inspired by historical events. This term is very vague and for this case, basically could mean something like 10% related to historical events. Maybe just that the main character has exactly the same name. That probably what they mean when they say inspired by historical events so don't be looking for a history lesson here. Nonetheless, storyline wise however, this movie has a pretty flowing storyline and it flows quite well especially for an action show. The only big issue of this movie is the START and the END where they introduce and end the movie. If you see this movie, you will understand what I mean but in short, if you want to make a movie about a period, there is absolutely NO NEED to use the present day time as a filler or introduction to the movie with completely no links and relevance using an actor and actress that totally has nothing to do with the main content of the movie itself. It is so absurd that you should just treat it like a joke or a non existent part of the movie.

The movie does a good job of introducing the background of what is happening and does it with appropriate amount of action in the middle which is what Jackie does best. As the movie flows on, it injects more and more storyline elements explaining what and why is everything and this keeps the audience interested in the movie and thus allow the movie to not seem too draggy or boring.

Character 4/5

This movie involves quite a lot of characters and also the introduction of different tribes. All the characters/tribe are pretty unique in characteristics, language, dress sense and even fighting style and in some way it becomes very entertaining to see all the differences in culture all these people have.

With regards to the main characters, the movie does focus on the backgrounds of the two main characters and the bad guy through various flashbacks that are short, but sufficient. Most of the stuff that happens is rather believable which serves to keep the audience immersed in the movie.

Just like most fighting movies, there will be a lot of death in this movie and this movie does the deaths relatively well with all the dying people having a nice short  death sequence before they drop dead and die. The bad guy in the movie is also done very well and as you see the movie go on you will start to root more and more for the good guys and start to detest the bad guy. One flaw is however towards the end the bad guy gets conflicted for some reason which is somewhat not in character and not that believable.

Cinematography 4/5

This movie's cinematography focus on two things, 1 to 1 fighting as well as large scale epic battles. In fact, it can be said that the main fight scenes are reminiscent of "The Hobbit 5 Armies". It is almost like a chinese version of LOTR. Unlike the LOTR series however, the movie stays constrained to 2 hours and due to the need for some storyline, there are some room for improvements. Nonetheless the battle scenes are fun while they last and due to the variety in character, you will not end up in a state where your mind just says "blah blah blah, another fight scene, blahblahblah yet another fight scene".

They could have utilized more perspective shots that are fun to have in an action film to increase the entertainment value.

Music 3.5/5

Music is commonly quite a obvious part in chinese movies and this movie does it too. There is one part of singing in this movie to evoke some emotional attachment to what the people are feeling but this is still not a musical.

I still can't really appreciate Jackie Chan singing though.

Spectacle 4/5

In the genre of both action and storyline, this movie does fine, just not too spectacular with a bit of hiccups here and there However, it stays entertaining, unique, fresh and fun all the way from the beginning to the end which is what every action movie should at least have to attract the general public. It also has a relatively unique storyline as compared to the traditional chinese fighting movies although there is not too much kungfu in this. At least its not a all chinese affair in the end

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Interesting take on "historical" events, told in a attention grabbing way at least for the duration of the movie EXCEPT start and end)
Character: 4 (Quite a nice variety with good differences amongst all. Celebrating the differences makes it more entertaining)
Cinematography: 4 (Good 1 to 1 fight scenes with quite a bit of epic battles on the list)
Music: 3.5 (Uses music to push the emotional part across)
Spectacle: 4 (Storyline and action are done well and overall movie is kept exciting and flowing)

Overall: 3.8 (A very safe score, indicating that if you really have nothing you want to do in particular and like to see some actions plus big army fighting, this is the show u can see. It's not a must see however with a lower then 4 score but you would most likely be able to enjoy the movie nonetheless for its action scenes. Remember though, don't be affected by the start and the end of the movie. Just treat it as not being there at all.)

Let me know if you have any comments! 

Movies: Exodus: Of Gods and Kings

Movies: Exodus: Of Gods and Kings

If your first thought to this movie title is... the Bible! then you probably have a chance at enjoying this movie! This is of course, a movie that follows the story of one of the more well read books in the world, whether for research, academic, rebuttal or religious purpose! If you want to just read the whole story, its free on the internet and all you have to do is do a brief search! Don't worry, just read the exodus portion of the entire book and you will get a gist of the story.

If you find this idea familiar, your not the only one. This movie was done before in albeit a different style and angle. The previous movie following a similar premise was called the "Prince of Egypt"

In fact, click on play and enjoy the music as you continue reading. It's pretty nice.

Ahhh... how time flies and these two divas are already pretty old. (They don't look the least bit older)

Nonetheless, lets talk about this new movie.

Storyline 3/5

There is probably a 80% chance that you, who is planning or has seen the show, already know roughly what the show is about. The movie manages to follow generally the story and in fact, it does make some creative direction to sort of make things more believable or well explained.

Don't think i can really be a spoiler to this movie but the part about the plagues on Egypt was interestingly done. I would say interestingly because the way they explained and put the plagues in sequence is not what one would originally imagine, and yet why not?

The front part of the story however is done more movie style with a bit of action and it was done pretty nicely to add some background to the movie. Overall however, this is the main focus of the movie and that is why it did suffer at some points as elaborated below.

The movie does assume that the audience has quite a bit of prior knowledge about certain sections of the source material and as such makes some leaps and misses out some introductions to allow the audience to know exactly what is happening at this point of time. Hence you may actually get lost at some points of the movie especially if you are not that well versed in the verses (woohoo a pun)

Do note, that from my viewing of the movie, there is quite a few starking differences between the movie and what you are used to.

Character 3/5

This movie focuses on only 2 people mostly, and the rest of them, and i do mean the rest of them are EXTREMELY similar to each other. You cannot really discern who everyone else is. Many of them have very very minor screen times but of course this is true to the source material.

Unfortunately this adds back to the confusion factor as you do not know who the people are and what is their role in those sections of the movie.

Of course there is a particular portrayal of a certain character important in the movie also and some people may like the way its done, some people not so. I leave you to see the movie and decide on your own of the direction they took.

Cinematography 3.5/5

This part was just sad in the movie. From the start of the movie, you would have been awed by the cinematography when they did their first battle. The way they did the action was like a LOTR or good epic castle fight. Sadly. This will not be repeated any other time in the movie.

There are still other pretty good scenes but all in all, this movie did not want to go towards the action style but rather more of the storyline route so you will not be impressed or awed too much until one last section in the end.

Probably another case of a pretty misleading trailer.

Music 4/5

The music was done very well in this movie. I would go so far as to say that every section was accompanied with music and its very prominent. It did add a lot to the feel of the movie.

Spectacle 3/5

Unfortunately for this movie, it chose to focus on the storyline aspect, but could not do it well enough. The source material might have been a factor, but still a good director would have been able to make it easy enough to follow. For the action scenes, scenes that had it was good, but there was just too few for such a long movie and it is a real real long movie.

There are tons of areas that the movie could have done better but I guess they might have got the priorities somewhat all around the place and lost focus as the movie went on.

Storyline: 3 (You need to know the storyline before hand, or you might get lost)
Character: 3 (Main focus was only on 2 guys, but everyone else was really hardly elaborated on. Too touch and go for me)
Cinematography: 3.5 (There were good scenes, and they had the ability to do good scenes, but they just didn't have enough opportunities for that)
Music: 4 (Good music, added a lot of excitement to the atmosphere)
Spectacle: 3 (I would say that they made a grave mistake and didn't do well on the main focus which is the storyline. Their secondary areas which was the action scenes were done ok, but they were not impressive so it ended up feeling lackluster)

Overall: 3.3 (I would say, to enjoy this movie, you first need to know a bit of the source material or else chance of you getting lost is really quite high. Next, you need to be able to appreciate some creative direction and twists to the movie. Next, you need to have an open mind to accept certain portrayals of certain characters in the movie. Next, you should be a person that likes storyline and not the kind that needs a high amount of your movie to be action based. All in all, it's an ok movie especially for the length of time, but you do need to have some preparation to be able to enjoy this movie fully.)

Movies: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Movies: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

It's been a while since the last installment of the Hunger Games, and for those who do not know what this movie is... you probably don't see movies much... I remember this movie as the first movie to show its advertisements almost a year before it really came out (or was it six months) which I thought was a bit extravagant. Nonetheless, its one of those movies that follows a book similar to LOTR and Harry Potter and is currently doing a Harry Potter thing which is instead of being a normal Trilogy, they take the last book/episode and split it into two.

What this means is that you will not get  closure at the end of this movie. It's more like seeing a serial or a normal TV show where it will end abruptly. What this also means is that you probably need to manage your expectation when you see the movie. I will tell you more as we move along

For those who do not know, this movie is set in an alternative universe where by all the people in the world are divided into districts. In their districts they are in charge of various tasks and products that they will supply to the capital where all the rich and famous and strange people live. So you have districts that focus on woodworks, some that focus on mining, some on farming etc. So every year or some time that I don't remember, there is hunger game whereby some people from the districts are selected to fight to the death and the last remaining person gets much riches and food and all that. So obviously after many years of doing this, you soon get some sort of rebellion started which is the focus of the next set of movies starting with Mockingjay Part I. So this is the starting phase of the rebellion itself. To not give any further spoilers, the introduction ends at this point. Here's some pictures

The movie that started it all

The continuation, look at her bow!

This movie's poster!!
Look her bow is gone.. wonder why

So if you did not watch the first two however, I would recommend that you actually see the first two because it does add some value to the movie especially since it introduces everything that happens and the new world that this movie is based in. In fact, I will go as far as to say, if you didn't see the first two of this movie, you will not enjoy it. You will understand as we go along.

Storyline 4/5

The storyline is the main aspect of this point of the movie. In fact I would say that the storyline makes or breaks the entire enjoyment of the movie because this show lacks action. Yep. Unlike the other 2 movies that came before this, this movie action portion is maybe only about 15% of the entire show.

You pretty much should treat this movie as a build up to the next movie episode where all the action is. The thrilling and exciting sequence is still here in this movie, but there is not much action. See the movie and you will know what I mean.

That is why you have to see the first two, then you will appreciate the build up. Or else you will have zero clue why the main characters in the movie are running all around the place and doing this and that and if you were to see the movie without any background it would probably only be worth 3/5 points. 

Characters 3/5

A lot of the development of the movie has been done in the previous movies before this. As such there is not much character development here in this movie. The difficulty this movie faces is that in a world like theirs, the people start to lose their character and basically become like everyone else. And this shows in the movie where everyone else feels relatively similar. You also might not know who many of the people in the movie are if you did not see the previous and hence you will have no clue why they are doing certain actions in the movie.

They do make some fair effort to distinct some people from another by giving them stranger hairdos and characteristics but there won't be nothing spectacular that makes you like any particular person. As in any rebellion there are a few speeches, but I guess it was the aim of the movie to show that because the characters in this movie are not born politicians, the speeches are not as inspiring as it should be.

Cinematography 3.5/5

This movie has some pretty good shots overall but unlike the first two, due to the lack of action scenes there is not much superb action shots. Has some nice outward top down views to show u more about the world and it does have the occasional epic things happening.

There is only portion in this movie however, that shows you that you can make a movie very thrilling, without having action. They do this towards the end of the movie so watch out for it the way they build up the audience and not have to worry about blowing extra money on budget. Hopefully, this translates to a more epic part II.

Music 4/5

The musical score does a very good job in this movie. In fact, music is used up to build a certain portion of the movie which is pretty creative although sometimes it feels slightly awkward to have someone singing as a part of the movie. Nonetheless it did a good job adding entertainment value to the show itself

Spectacle 4/5

Overall, especially for people who read the book and saw the first two, this movie does the story telling portion very creatively and well. But being the only focus of this movie, it takes a toll on the action scenes which is pretty minor for this movie. Thrilling factor however picks up very well towards the end of the movie and you will probably enjoy that portion of the movie well enough to say that the movie was in the end pretty entertaining. Its not the best and they could have done many things differently to cater to the more main stream action lovers, but for storyline lovers, this movie does well enough.

Overall

Storyline 4 (Main focus of the movie, does it pretty well, moves the story along to build up for the next movie)

Character 3 (Did not spend too much effort on this because this was done in the previous movie, if you didn't see the previous, you might get lost)

Cinematography 3.5 (Good effort and has some enjoyable shots but wasn't the focus of this movie)

Music 4 (Creatively incorporated in the music into the show and added much entertainment value)

Spectacle 4 (Did well on both the thriller and storyline fronts but sacrificed a bit of action for the movie, probably was not the focus either)

Overall 3.7 (My advice to you is, see the first two before you see this or it will not be enjoyable to you, and also if you think you are going to see the continuation of this movie in the future you can go ahead and watch it. The storyline and entertainment value of the movie is definitely there if you are a fan but just not derived from the usual pure action sequences. Not having too many epic scenes however means that you could actually just wait for Part II to come out and then see the movies together for you to have a complete picture instead of being cliff hangered but its up to you. Nonetheless, its a worthwhile way to spend a movie session especially since its quite a long movie)

Here is something fun for you to do! As you can see from the poster, this girl likes bows and arrows a lot. Count the number of arrows she fired in this movie!!!