Return of the Geek/X-Men Days of Future Past

What's the last thing you remember?

Well I'm back!  It's been several months since I've posted a review and that's basically because of... stuff.  I've been busy, ok?  The weather was soo nice and I was trying to spend more time outdoors and working out, tho I've still seen my share of movies during that time.  I may have a few quick reviews coming up for some of those.

Another reason for my absence was that the last month+ has been ridiculous with the number of shows that I was watching.  That could be a post all in itself. (Write that down...)

I am skipping the traditional Trailer Tuesday for a full movie review this week.  Might sneak a Trailer in sometime this week.  Wonder if there are any good/exciting/relive my childhood ones that were recently released?

Enough with the excuses!  We have a movie to review!

Basically Wolverine and "Friends."

If you kept up with the blog before I disappeared, then you know I was really excited about X-Men: Days of Future Past.  It didn't disappoint at all.  My excitement wasn't even hindered by some recent flops, in my opinion, in the X-Men line of movies.  The Wolverine, for instance I thought was just terrible.  Even X2 and X-Men 3 didn't live up to what they could have been, although both had their cool moments.  Days of Future Past was more of a complete story.  

The basic premise of the film was that in the future, machines called Sentinels are created to deal with the mutant threat.  The inventor, Bolivar Trask, is played by the amazing Peter Dinklage of 30 Rock fame.  Oh, that's not the reference you get?  Let's try Game of mother-f'n Thrones.

Someone's had enough of this "Imp" crap.  Tyrion has gone technological.

As usual, I never read the comic, so I don't care how close it is.  As a movie, I had a really good time. It was also one of the darker stories told in comic movies recently.  I'll get a little more into that later.
I have very few negatives in regards to this one.  Huge Jacked-man (Hugh Jackman) is continuing to get more ripped than ever.  Jennifer Lawrence returned in her role as young Mystique as did most of the cast from X-Men First Class.  (Well... the ones who lived.)  We got to see a blending of the young and the old with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan playing their older Professor X and Magneto along with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender.

I expect most people would walk away from this happy after watching.  But when you do, make sure you stick around after the credits to see the short teaser of the next installment: Apocalypse.  I'm really excited to see something more come out about it and to find out what direction the series takes.

You're going to be very scary when you grow up.

It's been a while since it came out, but SPOILERS!

I mentioned that this one was dark.  Be prepared to see several of your favorite characters die... twice, if you haven't already.  Days opens up showing a future where a war between humans and mutants has changed the world for the worst.  Mutants are hunted and executed by super advanced robots called Sentinels.  Not many mutants are left and one group in particular which includes some familiar faces in Ice Man, Colossus, and Kitty Pride (and also my new crush Blink) are doing their best to stay hidden.

Gives new meaning to 'Playing Portal with my girlfriend.'

This group has an advantage.  Kitty Pride has the power to send a member of the team, Bishop, mentally back in time into his younger body.  Any time they are discovered by Sentinels, they do the Time Warp to warn themselves, giving them time to get away and it was like they were never there.

While they wait for Bishop's actions to become permanent, we witness them all get torched, frozen, crushed, and torn to shreds.... for the 1st time.

They are joined by another group of mutants.  The Professor, Magneto, Storm, Wolverine and crew found them to try and use Kitty's power to stop the war from ever happening.  This would require sending someone back decades.  The strain on the person's mind would be such that it would tear it apart.  Enter Wolverine, the only one who can withstand being torn apart.

'Tis but a scratch.... bub.

Wolverine is sent back to before he even got his Adamantium claws. It's the 70's.  His mission is to find the Professor and get him to unite with Magneto in stopping Mystique from assasinating Tyrion... I mean... Trask.  His murder is the tipping of the scales that leads to war.  Also, Mytique herself in captured and they find a way to integrate her adaptive power into the Sentinels so they can face any mutant.

Back in time, Wolverine recruits the Professor and Beast.  They get Quicksilver to help rescue Magneto from prison and go to stop Mystique.  As you can imagine, young Magneto has his own plans.

In the pivotal point of the film, time is running out in the future.  The mutants are battling a load of Sentinels, trying to delay them long enough for Wolverine to change the course of events in the past so that when Kitty releases him, none of it ever happened.  It's a pretty epic battle.  We see many of the same mutants die.... for the 2nd time.

It wouldn't be much of a movie if all the characters died for good, so the good guys win.  Young Magneto is caught. Mystique is made out to be a hero for saving President Nixon.  The war is averted.  And everyone wakes up in their beds.  Wolverine is the only one who remembers what happened.  To everyone else, life has just gone along as usual at the school.

I have to believe that many of you won't be disappointed.  There is lots of action.  There are also plenty of feels going on in this one.  If you've seen it already and are anything like me, you can understand why I really thought some former main characters like Ice Man were dead after that first battle.  Even the second time with the clock ticking, there are some heart-wrenching moments watching the mutants get outmatched.

So go see it, if you haven't already.  Should be On Demand or RedBox by now.  Except for knowing who the characters are, I don't think you even need to really see the other movies to know what's going on.  Enjoy!

You know you want to see her again soon.

300 Rise of an Empire

THIS! IS! SPECTACULAR!

It's been a busy week.  Even to the point where I didn't get a Trailer Tuesday in this week.  Thanks for visiting the site anyway.  I hope you got to catch up on some older reviews and maybe even saw the one for the movie I saw today: 300: Rise of an Empire.  In case you want to read that first and watch the trailers, you can check it out here.

My first review on my blog was the trailer for the new 300. That seems so long ago now and this will be the first movie that I've reviewed after first posting about the trailer.  What got me through my busy week was the anticipation of seeing this movie.  At the risk of having over-hyped it, I went to my favorite theater, got my IMAX 3-D tickets, and found the perfect seat.

From time to time, people say I'm a lot like Sheldon.

So was I disappointed?  Had I thought too much of it before seeing it?  Not at all, I say.  If you were a fan of the original 300 then I think you'll be in for a treat seeing this one.  It is part prequel, part parallel events, and part sequel to the first.  There was action, and blood, and gore, and abs.... so many abs.

The real centerpiece of the movie, as I had suspected in my earlier review, was the performance of Eva Green as Artemisia.  This was such a powerful character and every time she was on the screen she commanded your attention.  She was so dark and tactical and she absolutely smoldered throughout every scene in the movie through her smokey eye shadow.

Including while making other things smolder.

Apart of Eva Green, it was still a great movie.  Starting with the battle of Marathon 10 years before the events of 300 and much of this one, we see the death of Darius, Xerxes father, at the hands of Themistokles.  With the help of Eva Green, Xerxes assumes the throne as the god-king we know, intent on seeking her own revenge on the Greeks for the events of her early life.

It was a little more than her favorite band breaking up.

The main story focuses on the parallel story to Leonidas and the Spartans holding the Hot Gates from the initial ground landing of the Persian forces.  Much as in 300, Themistokles leads a small fleet of Athenian wooden ships against the thousands commanded by Artemisia.  Obviously, the odds are not in their favor.  Watching the battles unfold as they learn more about eachother was like watching them play chess with men's lives.  It also showed Artemisia becoming increasingly ruthless.

I can't really think of any criticism about the movie, except that at the beginning I was a little confused with the timeline.  I had to look for clues as to whether we had jumped into the present or were still telling the story closer to the battle of Marathon.  That passed quickly, however, and the rest of the timeline is pretty straightforward, even using the events from 300 as markers at times.

You should be thoroughly entertained going to see this movie.  If you have a weak stomach, maybe take a Tums first.  Or sneak in some Pepto in your pop.  It is just as graphic as the first, if not slightly moreso.  If for no other reason, you'll like it as you are captivated by the show put on by Eva Green.  I mentioned in my trailer review that you should have a half-chub, and the full movie will take you the rest of the way.

Time for the smolder... ;)

The Monuments Men

The Art of War

I'm a day later than usual with a review and the reason is I was hanging out with some family yesterday.  I went to my sister's for dinner and I mentioned that I was thinking about going to see The Monuments Men in the morning to review for the blog.  She asked me which movie that was and my brief description was something about it being set in World War 2 and it stars George Clooney and Matt Damon.  She suddenly seemed to know which movie I was talking about and proceeded to say something like, "Right, and they have to pull off some kind of heist?"  Apparently every movie with Clooney and Damon is an Ocean's movie.  We had a good laugh about that.

I thought we were robbing a casi... No?

It brings up a good point about his movie, tho.  Maybe some of the bigger history buffs already knew, but I had never heard of the story about these guys.  The Monuments Men is based on the true story of a group of art experts and collectors whose job it was to go to Europe to find and protect works of art.  Up until recently, I had no idea it was a true story.  When I started seeing advertisements, I thought it looked like an interesting movie that would take you through the War, but it really is so much more than that.  

This week I think I can talk about the movie without giving away too many spoiler.  The movie really takes you into World War 2.  Clooney manages to get permission to put a team together to locate and protect art for the sake of preserving culture.  All of the young guys are already over there so he assembles a team of older gents the likes of Bill Murray and John Goodman.

This'll get him ready to finally get that damn gopher.

Basically the story is the search for where the Nazis are hiding the art that they have stolen and are storing until Hitler's "Fuhrer's Museum" can be built.  Starting at Normandy Beach (after the invasion), going into France, and into Germany they pass a few major events/locations like The Battle of the Bulge.  Sure there are some funny moments, and the characters have some quirks that lighten it up, but the story is ultimately serious and becomes really gripping.

I wish I had known something about these guys before.  Even with the knowledge that they were expected to fail, they took their jobs seriously.  A couple even gave their lives for the cause of protecting the works of art and that really got me pulling for them.  You begin to love each one of them and admire what they are doing.  The mission becomes even more personal after one of their own is killed trying to protect a statue and they want to find it in his honor.

So overall, this was an excellent movie.  If you are into history at all, particularly WW2, this is perfect for you.  Even if you aren't, you'll learn a little bit and the story itself will pull you in.  Actually, this could have been fiction and it would still be an enjoyable movie.  It's just that much better because these people existed and actually DID these things.  It has a great cast and I just can't say enough about the characters they portray.  You just can't help but root for them all the way.  Knowing that we all don't speak German right now, you can imagine that the ending of the movie is a happy one.

Let's get Brad and head to Vegas.

Trailer Tuesday: Guardians of the Galaxy

The Wha?

From left: Girl Shrek, Pizza Guy, Rabies, Purple Shrek, and Treebeard

I don't know about you, but I had never heard of Guardians of the Galaxy until I heard that the movie was coming out. The trailer finally dropped last Tuesday night during Jimmy Kimmel.  I wasn't waiting up that late and reviewed another trailer instead. The title of the movie sounded plenty geeky, so I took a closer look and and realized it's a MARVEL story.  If you aren't blind and def to the world, you might have noticed that MARVEL has been doing pretty well with their movies since Iron Man came out.  The success of comic book movies in general has lead to more and more being made and they actually seem to be getting better, with only a few exceptions.  

You can't WILL this shit to be good.

So characters I have never heard of in a story I have no clue about voiced by some pretty recognizable actors?  Sounds awesome!  Let's take a look at the Guardians trailer:

First impressions?  It looks really cool with just enough funny. My favorite thing about this so far might just be the cast and we basically get a quick intro to each of them in the first part of the trailer.  We start with Chris Pratt playing the role of Starlord.  The name seems to be kind of a self-given one and mostly a joke to everyone else kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow at the beginning of Pirates of the Carribbean.  Chris Pratt is coming off another movie I really liked playing the lead role of Emmet in The LEGO Movie.  Drax is next.  He's a big muscly dude played by big muscly dude David Bautista.  I was introduced to him when I used to watch WWE.  I have seen him also in some things recently, most notably Riddick, where he wasn't bad in his supporting role.  Another casting choice I'm excited about is Zoe Saldana as Gamora.  Over the years she has become one of my favorite actresses.  It appears she is working her way through the rainbow as she now is playing what appears to be a green alien.

Blue was fun!  

The next two are quite a pair.  First is Rocket Raccoon.  You heard me.  Rocket Freakin' Raccoon.  He's the one in the middle at the top of the post, if you couldn't guess already.  Voiced by Bradley Cooper, he might be redeemed.  Not going to even lie, when I first saw there was a raccoon instead of even just some made-up alien, I was very skeptical.  We'll see how it comes together, but if that's the worst part of this movie I might still walk away loving it.  Lastly is a character we may recognize from Lord of the Rings.  What's that's that?  It's not really Treebeard?  Shoot, he was a dead ringer for him.  Anyway, he's voiced by Vin Diesel and the character's real name is Groot.  Like Root with a "G."  I could be mistaken, but I believe this is Vin's first time back in voice acting since The Iron Giant.

Hopefully he has more lines...

Now, I have to say there is one actress that I am very excited about being in this movie that many of you probably don't know.  If you are a fan of Doctor Who, and you really really should be, you will recognize the name Karen Gillan.  She's the cute, ginger, Scottish (and did I mention cute?) companion who followed the 11th Doctor around for 2 and a half seasons.  As with the show, I will love her forever and am excited to see her in a role outside the show.  I have no idea how big of a part she plays, but the character's name is Nebula and if you didn't know what to look for, you probably missed her.  She went completely bald for the role to end up looking like this:

Still cute.

This trailer was really great and I can't wait for another to see some more.  If the movie was released tomorrow, I'd go even knowing nothing about the story itself.  I'm not banking on it being the best MARVEL has ever made, but for a semi-obscure title i think it's going to hit it's mark.  It has a great cast, and appears to not take itself too seriously.  I can certainly pick up a sort of Pirates vibe to it.  Pirates in space.  I have to say, I trust Disney with what they have put out in regards to comic book movies.  With that said, I am going to remain hopefully optimistic about Guardians of the Galaxy and hope that it knocks my socks off.

That damn raccoon gets me every time...

 

Bonus Review! Frozen

How Cool Is It?  Ice Cold!

As you know, yesterday I posted a review for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 after watching it on video.  Last night, however, I had a great time and ended up going to see a really late show of Frozen.  With it still fresh in my memory, I wanted to get a review of it up fur yinz.  Until a couple of days ago, I didn't even realize this movie was still playing.  There is so much irony going to see a movie called Frozen on the day when the real world was finally NOT frozen.

Filmed in Pittsburgh a week ago.

Spoiler Free!

Frozen actually took me back a little bit.  It was a unique story, but it brought back old feelings and memories of the the Disney animated musicals we all grew up with.  I don't know if it's fair to say at this point it'll have the same longevity as classics like Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast, but it is certainly a good attempt.  We'll find out as time goes by if it garners the same attraction as the others.  If I were to put a bet on it, tho, I'd say this is one kids and adults will have no problem watching over and over.

The characters were cool, interesting, and funny.  The princesses were voiced, including the singing, by Tony Award winner Idena Menzel and one of my personal favorite she-geeks Kristen Bell.  I don't think I ever had any idea that Bell could sing and she did a tremendous job.  Until I looked it up after, I really thought someone else was singing for her.  That was not the case, however.

This is now her second stint as a Disney Princess, too.

There are points where the story seemed really intense, but this is contrasted with quite a bit of comic relief.  Between Sven the Reindeer and Olaf the Snowman, in addition to the many quarks of each main character, there are lots of laughs to go around.  The story is a really good one too and the music is really awesome.  I can guarantee that there are at least two points where just when you think you have predicted what's going to happen, it takes a sharp turn.  

Time for some Spoilers so, as always, continue if you dare or skip down for the Overview!

--Caution:  Spoilers Ahead--

Frozen begins when the two princess, Elsa and Anna, are kids.  Anna wants to build a snowman and wakes Elsa up to go play.  They go to the ballroom and we learn that Elsa has the power to create snow and ice as well as manipulate it.  They build their snowman and are playing around when there is an accident as Elsa accidentally hits Anna is the head with ice.  Their parents, already aware of Elsa's powers, take the girls to see the Trolls who are able to heal her by helping her forget that her sister has powers but allowing her to remember the fun they had at the same time.

After returning home, Elsa and her parents come up with a plan to hide her powers from Anna and the world to keep Anna safe.  Elsa stays in her room and shuts out Anna for years, even through the death of their parents as well as the funeral.  Anna tries occasionally over the years to lure Elsa out, but it is no use and eventually she stops trying.

Being the older of the two, Elsa is crowned Queen when she comes of age.  For the first time in a long time, the windows, doors, and main gate are opened which pleases Anna.  Anna is really naive as she has had very little contact with the outside world.  She meets a prince named Hans and after a short musical number she has agreed to marry him.  The relationship was going so fast, I expected to see the wedding even a divorce before sunrise the next day.

Just after they were finally reunited from their isolation, Anna asks Elsa for her blessing and Elsa refuses.  This causes a fight and for Elsa to lose control of her powers.  Everyone saw and Elsa runs away into the mountains. In the process, she ends up freezing the entire town including all the ships in the harbor. Anna decides to go after her, leaving her new fiance to run things at home.  

I've been here 2 hours and I'm already in charge and engaged...

This brings up an interesting point.  Looking back, I'm not sure why they had to make sure that Anna didn't know Elsa had powers.  When she learns of them on coronation day, nothing happened.  There were no ill effects.  I just realized this because it was a pretty major plot point that kept the two sisters isolated and caused the blow out after the engagement news.  

Anna goes after Elsa and meets Kristoff, an ice merchant, and his reindeer Sven.  Anna convinces Kristoff to help her get to the mountain where Elsa is hiding.  Elsa built a large ice castle where she intends to live to stay away from everyone.  She finally embraces her powers and wants to push the limit to see what she can really do.  One of the first things is an impromptu makeover, letting her hair down and apparently making a dress out of ice.

On the way to Elsa's, Anna and Kristoff come across a living snowman.  Once they meet him, the funniest parts of the movie are on the way.  His name is Olaf and he can't wait for summer.  He doesn't realize that all the things that he wants to do would melt him.  He accompanies the group to the ice castle where he is anxious to meet Elsa who created him.

Totally normal.

Once they reach Elsa, the reunion goes badly.  Again, to keep Anna safe, she wants them to go.  In another loss of control, Anna is hit with another blast of ice but this time in the heart.  Elsa has them thrown out by a giant Snowman and they have to escape after Olaf makes it mad with a snowball.

Hans takes a group to the ice castle after Anna doesn't return.  A pretty cool fight takes place and ultimately Hans is able to capture Elsa and take her back to the city.  

Anna is in a bad way after taking the ice to the heart.  Kristoff takes her to the same Trolls, who are also his family after raising him from when he was a boy.  The trolls try to set the two up to get married, but Anna collapses.  They realize that the hit to the heart was freezing her.  She will continue to freeze until she is a statue of ice and only an "act of true love" will be able to save her.

The obvious course was to hurry and get her to Hans so they can kiss and reverse the spell.  When the two are reunited, we learn that Hans is not the good guy he lead us to believe. He is 13th in line to rule in his own kingdom figured it would be easier to marry into royalty elsewhere to take over. He doesn't kiss her and instead locks Anna in the room to turn into a statue.  Olaf finds her and gets her out.  They realize that Kristoff is her true love and they need to try and get her back to him.  

Who can resist a man on a reindeer?

Elsa also escapes and is trying to flee over the solid water.  Through a storm Elsa creates, Hans hunts Elsa, while Kristoff searches for Anna.  In an excellent scene, the 4 of them are close by.  Anna sees Kristoff but also sees Hans about to kill Elsa.  She runs away from Kristoff towards Elsa and turns into a statue right as Hans's sword hits her.  The sword shatters and Hans is knocked off his feet.  This is actually an act of true love, however.  Anna sacrificing herself to save Elsa frees her from being a frozen statue and she returns to normal.

This revelation also shows Elsa how to unfreeze the town.  Love is the key.  She is able to use that to take back all of the snow and return summer to all the land.

General Overview:

So after all that I came away thinking the story was very interesting.  It was twisting and turning.  Like Cloudy 2, I would think this movie is good for all ages.  Overall, it was a cutesy kids movie, but the great cast, excellent music, and astounding visuals were something to see.  I only saw it in Digital Projection but from the looks of things, it would also be very good in 3D so if you can find it and want to see it go check it out while you still can.

Minor Spoiler: It is a little sad that Elsa didn't end up with anyone in the end.  Maybe there is a guy out there that would be perfect for her and share in some of her same interests...

We can make beautiful ice-babies.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

Super Cute and Punny!

Well, hello again!  Thanks for joining me.  Take a Seat, ya Geek.  The original plan was to go see something new this week, but that ended up not happening. I'm going to a movie later today on a date (with a girl!) and didn't want to overdo it.  You know, strain the movie watching muscles. Instead, I decided to watch and review a movie that is recently out on video, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.

You won't be able to look away.

Spoiler Free:

If the "2" in the title didn't give it away, there was already a Cloudy movie that came out a couple of years ago.  This one was a very good sequel.  It was very original and if you like puns, you will love this movie.  I'll get into some of them in the Spoiler section.  This is also a good family movie.  There are some parts that may be a little scary for smaller kids, but it all works out in the end and they will soon be drawing them or trying to build the food animals.

The movie was super-cute and had some really funny moments.  It had overarching themes of trust and friendship.  It never really dragged at all and moved from plot point to plot point quickly.  This made it feel like it went by fast and was good at keeping me engaged, which means it will probably keep you (or your kids) occupied.  Before you see it you should probably watch the first one, although there is a quick recap at the beginning of the movie.  Or I can give a little preview of it here.

To catch you up, our main character is Flint Lockwood.  He's an aspiring scientist.  The first movie's story is pretty simple. (First movie Spoilers aren't real Spoilers at this point.) Flint invents machines that sort of work, and sometimes blow up in his face.  He invents a machine that turns water into food in an attempt to invent something that can make the world better by ending world hunger.

It both works AND blows up in his face.

The machine gets launched into the atmosphere where it has a steady supply of water.  At first, Flint can control the machine to have it produce specific types of food-weather but it eventually starts to do it's own thing which includes bad food sotrms.  This quickly escalates to very dangerous conditions like a tornado made of spaghetti.  By the end, when Flint and his friends are able to stop the machine, the machine started to even produce LIVING food!

"STEVE!!  Gummy Bears!!"

Flint is able to seal off the bottom of the machine with another invention, Spray-on socks, to stop it from being able to produce more food.  So everything ends up great and all of our characters live happily ever after.... or do they?  Read ahead to find out or jump to the bottom for for the Overview.

--Caution: Spoilers Ahead--

Cloudy 2 picks up right where the first one left off.  Flint and team deactivate the food machine and Flint gets the girl.  Picking right up with their characters is the original cast.  Names like Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, James Caan, Terry Crews as Earl the policeman, and Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey return.

STEVE!!!

Flint and the crew all decide to start a lab together using their individual skills to make it great.  That plan lasts all of 2 minutes before Chester V, Flint's childhood inventor hero, shows up.  He explains that he is in charge of cleaning up the food from their island and everyone would be relocated for a time.  Flint would also be going to work for him as he has proven to be a great inventor.

Flint works long and hard trying to earn an orange vest and become a a Thinkonaut with Chester V.  After 6 month, he is sure he will get the promotion, but is not selected.  Distraught, Flint goes home but is summoned back to meet with Chester.  He wants Flint to go back to the island to find the machine which has started making more food-animals.  Search teams have been lost trying to locate the machine and it is up to Flint to plug in a "BS-USB" that will turn off the machine and everything the machine has created.

This is a trick and while we don't yet know what Chester's ultimate plan is, he doesn't expect Flint to return from his mission.  Flint gets the gang together and they go to the island to find the machine.  Once there, awesomeness ensues as we start seeing the food-animals in what felt the while time like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

All we need is a John Williams soundtrack.

The food-animals all get very punny names.  There are shrimp-monkeys and team calls them Shrimpanzees.  Other fun food animals that you can probably picture somewhat are the FlaMango, HiPotatomus, Fruit Cockatiel, and the Tacodile.

...Supreme!

The main foodimal that has Flint worried is the Cheesespider.  A giant burger with sesame seed eyes and french fry legs.  In a video it appears they are trying to learn how to swim which would allow them to leave the island and get to the mainland.  Jurassic Park much much?

Flint makes it to the machine and realizes that the the foodimals aren't mindless beasts, but family-oriented friendly creatures.  They just react terribly to Chester's people who are cruel towards the foodimals.  Chester shows up and steals the machine.  His plan all along was to reprogram the machine to make is new series of Food Bars using live foodimals as the ingrediants.

Nooooooo!!!!

Flint, the gang, and the foodimals come together to stop Chester and put the machine back where it can continue to make nice foodimals.  It's a great showdown and is really fun to watch.  There is a sweet battle between Chester's security forces and a living Strawberry named Berry who took over a mechanical suit.  In the end, Chester V is eaten by a Cheesespider.  With the forces of Evil destroyed, the humans and the foodimals get along great.

The movie ends a little abruptly, but gives a great slideshow at the beginning of the credits to show how they all live together.  I highly recommend watching this part as it is still very funny.

General Overview

This was a really fun movie.  Good for all ages.  As I mentioned, you will especially like it if you like puns as they are all over the place in this movie.  You should be laughing through just about the while thing.

I kind of hope they don't make another one.  Another parallel to Jurassic Park could be to quit while you are ahead.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but I just don't think they will be able to top this one.  The foodimals were perfect as were the names they came up with.  I'm just not sure what direction another movie would take.  Jurassic Park you are on the island and Jurassic Park 2 you go back.  Quit there.

Bottom line, definitely check out this movie and watch the first one if you haven't already.  Unless you aren't paying attention, I can't think of a reason you shouldn't like this movie.  I'll leave you with this and tell me something doesn't move in your gut:

Anyone else hungry?

Trailer Tuesday: X-Men Days of Future Past

The X-Men We Have Been Waiting For?

Time for another edition of Trailer Tuesday! Take a Seat because this is a special one for me since today is my birthday.  I was hoping that we would have a full-length trailer of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by now, but from what I hear that is actually going to be released later today.  I'm impatient and want to review something, so i figured I'd share a trailer that I really enjoyed and am psyched to see more.

I really get how much Magneto looks like a young Magneto from this poster.

The trailer I decided to review is for X-Men Days of Future Past.  This trailer came out a little while ago.  Since then, I watched an absolutely terrible The Wolverine which has me craving a good X-Men movie.  Now maybe you enjoyed The Wolverine to which I say SHAME ON YOU!  It wasn't the worst movie ever made, but it made no sense. He's mortal, but that just means bullets hurt?? Seriously, he got shot a lot and it barely slowed him down.  It left us with more questions than answers and makes me wonder if it will ever have happened in the universe that Days of Future Past is set in.  

Anyway, I digress, and without any further ado here's the trailer for this week:

Right from the beginning, this trailer has me hooked.  The music is perfect.  The tone is dark.  From what we can see, it starts in the future.  The inevitable war between the mutants and the humans is in full swing.  The mutants are wearing some sweet-looking armor and, honestly, I would love to just see that movie. The future war. Granted, I thought that about Terminator and eventually we got Terminator: Salvation.  I need to be careful about what I wish for.  

If you disagree here's approximately 3 words:  Naked. CG.  Arnold.

Back to the trailer, we're in the future.  It must not be going well for the mutants.  Professor X says that he had a "glimpse into the past."  Talking to Wolverine, again played by Huge Jacked-man, they are talking about a plan to send him back where he will attempt to change something in the past.  We can only assume that it has something to do with ending the war before it starts.  You know what?  This really does have a Terminator vibe to it.  

It looks imperative that you see X-Men First Class if you haven't already.  We meet again young Professor X and young Magneto.  The plan has something to do with bringing them together in the past and for some reason Professor X has gone kind of Grunge with long hair and a beard, although he is in his signature wheel chair.

And what does the blue "X" on his face mean?  ...You Are Here.

Obviously he's a long way from becoming the Patrick Stewart Professor X.  It will be interesting to see how the two end up talking and what the young X will need to do.  The trailer does a good job of not giving us too much about all that.  We get a little bit of the overarching story, but not too many details.   Those are my favorite trailers.  Leave me wanting more.

We also see some of the old cast.  Ice Man, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Storm, and some new faces. Lennifer Lawrence is also back as Mystique. From their expressions and reactions, things are really not going well for them and sending someone back in time might be the only way to save them all.  

Outside of the trailer there has been some other news released, including a picture of what the Sentinels will look like.  Sentinels are giant robots created by the humans to combat mutants.  These were featured heavily in the old X-Men animated TV show from when I was a kid.  

Did the Sentinel go on a diet to be in the real movie?

This will not be the first time that we see the Sentinels in the X-Men series.  Although, they look a little different, we saw the severed head of one in X-Men 3.  At the beginning when several X-Men were in a training simulation, Wolverine has Colossus throw him into the fog at some attacking foe.  He takes it down and all we see is the head come crashing down.

This is no time to... lose one's head?

Should I bother telling you that I'm excited about this movie?  For as much as we get to see, we really don't know much.  I know there is a comic out there about this story, but I won't be reading it.  I want to go into this movie ready to take it in fresh.  From what I hear, this story is a little different even in premise from the comic anyway.  

Maybe Professor X can send me into the future so I don't have to wait any longer for this one to come out.  I think I'm going to go watch the trailer again right now.  It is just that good.

ROBOCOP (2014 Remake) and D-Box

Geeky Seats hits the D-Box Seats

A movie I haven't been excited about and went to see mostly for lack of other options is now in the books.  Robocop has hit theaters and is very different than the other mushy Valentine's weekend movies that came out along side it.  As I do not have anyone to see a mushy movie with (although I am currently taking applications and reviewing candidates), Robocop seemed to be the one to pick.  

"Dead or Alive... You're watching my movie."

D-Box Experience:

As I was planning my day and checking the theaters, I noticed there were times listed for something called "D-Box Seating."  They lined up with the other shows, but I remembered seeing a display last week before The LEGO Movie about D-Box.  It was very vague to look at.  2 movie theater seats in front of a screen.  The head rests said "Reserved for D-Box" but there was a big red button that said "Play" next to the screen.  Since I wasn't as early as I usually am, I bypassed it and saw my movie.

This week, I tried to do a little more research about it.  I dare you to go to their website and get any real idea what D-Box actually is.  Seriously go.  Fine, I'll just tell you.  Once I did some digging and watched a YouTube video on it, I learned what was so special about D-Box Seating.

Taking another step forward from where some theaters have taken the movie-going experience by adding soft, leather seating that costs a bit more to sit in, D-Box tries to make the movie experience more immersive.    It takes a slightly more comfortable seat, adds some hydraulics, and a roll-cage.

Thought I was kidding about the roll-cage, didn't you?

The D-Box seats move with a choreography set to the movie.  At times this was really cool.  Flying with a drone over a small town, it gently glides you left and right with the drone as though you were following it.  When bullets were fired (and there were a lot of bullets fired), you feel the pop of the gun.  Even an emphasized heart beat you can feel through your seat.  You pick your seat when you buy your ticket and MUST sit in that seat.  You can also pick your overall intensity for how much of the action you want to feel once you sit down.

At times I thought this was great.  The first time it happened, though, I thought someone kicked the back of my chair.  I hate that so much. So it took some time to adapt.  This is new, so I would expect it to get better.  At an $8 up-charge it is somewhat cost-prohibitive to see a lot of movies this way.  It was neat, but I didn't think $8 neat.  

There are movies I think would be worth that.  Picture watching Jurassic Park.  When the power first goes out and the cars are stuck outside of the T-Rex pen: That iconic scene where the the footsteps make ripples in the glass of water and you hear the increasing boom with each step as it gets closer.  Now imagine that you could feel that instead of just watching it.  In a moment like that it's a great idea.  To watch a whole movie that way, however, is another story.  I would recommend giving it a try, but be prepared for some movement that makes no sense with what you are watching and at times you will want to punch someone for kicking your seat.

"Kick my seat again and I'll EAT YOU!!!" - me

Spoiler-Free:

That's D-Box, so on to Robocop.  As I mentioned, I was not particularly excited about this movie in the first place.  I actually thought it would be a great candidate to be my first bad to terrible review since I started this blog.  At first, it was on it's way there.  Watching a remake of any movie, it is nearly impossible not to compare it to the original- a movie I've seen many times from the time I was a kid.  

Overall, I didn't think it was bad.  It holds true to the original story for the most part while giving it a more modern look.  That being said, there were overarching things that bothered me the whole time that you can see right in the trailer.  Speaking of the trailer:

If you couldn't guess, it's the human hand and the black paint-job.  I understand the more modern, sleeker look to the body, but changing the color?  It was hard to identify as the character from watching the original so much.  The human hand just didn't fit for me.  It took away the symmetry and you have to assume that it wouldn't be as strong as a fully mechanical hand, ya know, like the one he has on his other side.

Overall, before going into more details with some spoilers, I actually enjoyed the movie.  You do have to detach from the original some and give it a chance, but it was an interesting introspective into free-will and consciousness as well as the idea of control.  Are we in control or do we have an illusion of control?  Anyway, time for some spoilers, so if you don't want to know skip down to the bottom.

--Caution: Spoilers Ahead--

Robocop takes place in the near future.  It's a world where the mega-company OCP makes a line of humanoid combat drones for use oversees.  They also have the mech-warrior looking giant tank mechs that are almost ripped right out of the original.  There is a standing law forbidding the use of these drones on U.S. soil which has overwhelming public support.  OCP needs to find a way to gain public trust to open the market in the U.S. to accept drones in law enforcement in order to earn ALL the money.

Meanwhile, Alex Murphy, is a Detroit detective. Tell me if you've heard this part before.  Yadda yadda, crooked cops, investigation, arms dealer, killed for his trouble.  The attempted murder was a little different than the original.  I loved how the original did it.  He knew who killed him.  Surrounded by shotgun-wielding bad guys he was blown to pieces one shot at a time.  In this movie he is also blown to pieces, but by a car-bomb intended to stop his investigation into the arms dealer which could lead him to the crooked cops.

Artist's interpretation.

OCP is reviewing candidates to put a man inside a machine.  The idea being to give the people a drone with a conscience, not a cold killing machine.  They see Alex Murphy and talk his wife into allowing the procedure.  We get a gruesome view of what is left of him after the surgery when they take all of his limbs away and all that is left is his head, throat, and his lungs in transparent containers breathing away.  I missed a lot of what was said at that point because I was just looking at the lungs.  Unfortunately, the seat didn't rise and fall with each breath.

In true origins-film style, we go through the different steps into him becoming the Robocop that we remember.  Contrasted from how the original had Murphy hardwired and emotionless right off the bat, the remake actually starts with the real Murphy learning about his differently-abledness and dealing with his new reality.  He even meets his wife and kid again early.  

We do know, however, that he is wired so that in combat, the AI takes over.  Alex thinks he is in control, but he really isn't.  The problem comes in while they are uploading police records and CCTV footage into his brain when he sees the footage of his own murder and is unable to cope.  The doctor (played by the great Gary Oldman) lowers his dopamine levels to almost nothing so he doesn't feel anything about his murder.  He is now the emotionless robot from the original film.  His sole focus is on making arrests and upholding the law.  This part is pretty bad-ass.

After his wife stops him for a brief second and pleads with him, Robocop begins to unravel his programming and proceeds to solve his own murder.  Again, not quite as dramatic as the original film.  In that one, he electrocutes himself to fry the programming that is keeping him under OCP control.  In this one, it appears to be his feelings for his family that undo his programming.  Once he is free, he is able to take down the arms dealer and find evidence on the crooked cops, including his own police chief who it turns out helped facilitate his murder.

This isn't good for OCP.  Realizing Alex is no longer completely under their control, they want to terminate him. They can't risk that he would go to the press and jeopardize getting all drone-use legal in the country. Alex fights through a blockade of the large mechs and gets pretty beat up to get to Michael Keaton and to save his wife and kid.

In a somewhat anti-climactic finale to the action, Michael Keaton is wearing a bracelet that indicates to Robocop's programming that he can't be harmed. Again, sound familiar?  Alex has to fight that programming in order to kill him and get his "life" back.  Obviously he succeeds and, with the help of Gary Oldman, gets fixed up and his original silver-blue coloring back.

It really brings out his eyes.

In Summary:

I liked the movie.  Would I see it again?  Eh, not sure.  Once was probably enough, even when it is on DVD.  I will say if they make a sequel, it might be decent and I'd probably see that.

My thoughts on the new Robocop are mainly that it was interesting, but not great.  Like I mentioned up top, making his body black to be more "tactical" really took away some of the cool-factor.  It would have been interesting for a scene or 2, but it was that way for the majority of the movie.  

So a pretty decent story with lots of action and, of course, my seat getting me a little more into it at points were definitely high marks for the movie.  As for low points really, just the things I mentioned already.  The only other thing I can say on that is that it failed to out-do the original.  I don't necessarily expect that it be better than the first, but at least out-do it.  Make it more epic and somewhat memorable.  The best way I could illustrate this is to say look at Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight.  There was a great previous performance of this character by Jack Nicholson but they were able to really make a mark with it.  That's a performance that is going to stick with us, but I think Robocop will be overshadowed by the original forever and eventually forgotten.

Also, that human hand just always gave me the feeling that he was just wearing a suit, not that he WAS the suit no matter how much they beat it into us. I don't get that decision at all.

Wait... Why???

Trailer Tuesday-- Amazing Spider-Man 2

Wall-Crawlin' Action

It's that time of the week again where we Take a Seat and look at a trailer for something coming up on the horizon.  I considered posting about the Robocop remake that comes out this week, but I might end up going to see that so I'll save it just in case.  I'm chomping at the bit for a bad review, and that one just. might. do it.

I've been thinking all day what to review.  Since I am still just getting started reviewing and there are so many movies and trailers out there I need to catch up on (plus TV show reviews I'd like to get to), there are quite a few choices.  To pluck some more low-hanging fruit, I decided to look at another comic-book movie: Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Pictured:  Low-hanging fruit

Obviously, I never reviewed the first Amazing Spider-Man so first we should talk a little about that movie.  The first time I heard it announced that a new Spider-Man was being made I wasn't into it at all.  We just turned off Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire and suddenly there was another movie with a new actor and the word "Amazing" in the title in the pipeline.  Granted, this was actually several years later, but you get my point.  It felt so soon.  I'm not saying I loved or even liked the Maguire trilogy but, without giving too many seperate reviews all at once, I liked the first one and thought they went downhill from there.

With the fresh memory of another Spider-Man and rumors that this new one was made due to not wanting to lose the Copyright, it seemed like a recipe for disaster.  Leading up to the movie, through trailers and all, I was reluctant to give it a chance.  Once it finally made it to the dollar theater (Rest in Peace, Carmike Maxi-Saver), I decided to give it a try one day after I got out of the gym.  Yes, I showered first, I'm not insane.

I prefer eccentric.

I was pleasantly surprised.  I liked the casting choices.  Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Denis Leary as her cop dad, Sally field as Aunt May, Martin Sheen (not the crazy one, his dad) as Uncle Ben, and Rhys Ifans as the villain: The Lizard were all solid.  It took watching the movie to realize that Andrew Garfield was going to be a good Spidey.  It also took watching the movie to realize that he once before saved New York from the Daleks with The Doctor on Doctor Who.

From Left to Right:  Jones, Martha; Doctor, The; Man, Spider

Anyway, it changed my tune and I was like, "Tobey Macguire who?" Although at that point most people had seen Sea Biscuit and were thinking that already.  Anyway, now that we have the background out of the way, it's time for the main attraction!  Here's the trailer:

Holy villain overload, Spider-Man!  I'm not saying that as a bad thing.  In this movie, we finally meet Harry Osborn.  We also see him using Oscorp tech to turn himself into the Hobgoblin.  No cheesy Green Goblin mask in this one.  This looks like a gritty Gobby and I really like the casting.  The actor first showed up on my radar when I watched Chronicle, a movie I wasn't expecting much from but surprised me largely because of him.  

Other glimpses we get are of Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, and Rhino played by Paul Giamatti.  Foxx was an interesting choice, but he might turn out to be really good.  Especially if he is mostly CG like he appears to be in the trailer.  Giamatti is great and I can't wait to see more of him and this updated version of Rhino.  

That's a lot of villains for one movie.  That pretty much leaves Doc Oc and/or Venom for the bad guy in the inevitable 3rd movie in the series.  At least as headlining villains, that is.  They don't appear to be wasting Doc Oc in the second movie like that other trilogy.  

So that's it, right?  Just one trailer?  A little over 2 and a half minutes of foreplay?  NOPE!  Last week during the Superb Owl, an extended trailer dropped.  I didn't watch it until after, but I imagine it was another where they directed you to go watch it online.  Otherwise, the commercial would have cost as much as a small movie itself.  Here's the extended trailer:

There may be another trailer floating out there, but I don't care.  This extended look is all I need to see before going to this movie.  It starts with Peter being really bad about hiding his alter-ego from his Aunt May. (It looks like it ends that way too, and quite hilariously.) The biggest thing we get is a view of non-CG Jamie Foxx.  We get a little bit of the story as to how he becomes a villain.  He was an introvert and looked up to Spider-Man. He has a kind of cliche industrial accident that gives him super powers over electricity. He wants to be more like Spider-Man but is not accepted as such and when Spider-Man doesn't recall his name he flies off the handlebars.  Is it just me or did he fall into a vat of electric eels?  

Even a little fresher and more 'ZAP'-y

Other than Electro, we see slightly more of Rhino and a little more of Harry.  With this trailer, I think we can safely say that the story should be a good one.  Uniting all three of these villains against Spider-Man should provide a very entertaining couple of hours.  I just hope that it's not some cheesy twist that enables Spider-Man to win out.  Because he will.  There is still money to be made.  Things don't look so good for New York as it appears another movie is hell-bent on leveling as many buildings as possible.  Should be something to see and I can't wait until I can see it and how Spider Man handles it all.

"Oh.. Shit."