Transformers 4: Age of Extinction (2014) review

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My favorite character, Crosshairs

"Crosshairs: Ugh, you just want to die for the guy. That's leadership. Or brainwashing, or something.
Drift: No, that is Optimus Prime."

Transformers: Age of Extinction is an American action movie released on June 27th in USA. It was directed by Michael Bay and starred Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager, an inventor whose creations are the only things keeping his farm under his possession. He lives in the aftermath of the Transformers vs. Decepticon war events in Chicago which has made the CIA, namely Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammar) so paranoid that they have acquired the help of bounty hunter Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan) to take down all robots on planet earth. Yeager, who lives with his daughter Tessa (Nicole Peltz), borrows money from his employee Lucas Flannery (T.J. Miller) to buy an old broke down truck in hopes of selling it's working parts as spare parts to afford his daughter's college. But when he works on the truck for a while, he finds huge bullets and missiles in it. After powering it up he realizes that it's a transformer. His go to move is to report him and claim a $25,000 bounty which is put on any reported robots but somehow he doesn't want to give him away and believes that the transformers fought for earth not against it. Meanwhile Cade's daughter, Tessa is in an online relationship with a guy named Shane Dyson (Jack Reynor) which would be ok but the fact that she's only 16 and he's 21 makes her keep it a secret. With all that aside Lucas who technically paid for the truck tells the government about the robot in hopes of claiming the bounty. CIA cars show up but they are more eager to get the Transformer who is now is now identified as Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen). A battle scene breaks out between Optimus and the army CIA has brought lead by James Savoy (Titus Welliver). This is when Cade finally meets Shane when he drives his racing car to the farm to save his damsel in distress. As there is no time to argue they make haste and escape the scene with Optimus Prime. Later they meet a team of surviving Autobots, Bumblebee,  Crosshairs (voiced by John DiMaggio), Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe) and Hound (voiced by John Goodman).

Honestly to me this was the best Transformers film out there. I love the replacement of Sheila Lebeouf with Mark Wahlberg characterwise as Cade Yeager makes way more sense than Sam Whitwicky since I always disliked the mind connection he had with the Autobots. Also Mark Wahlberg was more comedic and more action at the same time. Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce gives a great comedic performance and the voice cast is pure gold. John DiMaggio in particuler. I actually went to the movie the day after the premiere and it was great in my opinion, full of action but like all the movies in this franchise had a downfall with some of its characters.

What ruins this movie in my eyes is the relationship between Tessa and Shane which is just unbearable. Not that I dislike Peltz or Reynor but their characters just sucked. The Romeo and Juliet law was awful, promoting minor and adult relationships was also a terrible message and basically every scene involving Tessa and Shane and every scene with Shane (I name the characters again because the actors did good their characters were horrible) brought the movie a rung down on the ladder to success. But Mark Wahlberg and the Transformers make up for that and bring a good action movie to the theaters. I am most likely going to Transformers 5 in 2016. And for reference to know why Shane Dyson sucked so bad here's a quote he says to Cade Yeager after his daughter is taken into Lockdown's spaceship.

"We're not going in there to save your daughter. We're going in there to save my girlfriend."

Just don't get two hot people on set and think that's great. Good characters are what matters.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

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To get an idea of different this is how different Toad looks.

"Charles Xavier: The past: A new and uncertain world. A world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes. Countless choices define out fate: each choice, each moment, a moment in the ripple of time. Enough ripple and you change the tide...for the future is never truly set."

X-Men Days of The Future Past is an American Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi film directed by Bryan Singer (Also known for The Usual Suspects) which was released to public theaters on the 23rd of May. It revolves around the distant future of the X-Men where robots known as Sentinels are rapidly sent to destroy mutants and cleanse world of them. Meanwhile the last fighting group of the mutants which is lead by the now friends Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart). They survive the sentinel attacks by sending Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) who has time traveling abilities, to the future 2 weeks and warning them of the attacks. Later on they reach the verdict that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has to go back in time to 1972 when Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) shot anti-mutant Dr. Trask (Peter Dinklage) who invented the sentinels and feared America into using the sentinels against the dangerous seeming mutants. The plan works and Wolverine wakes up in 1972 where he needs to find Professor X and Magneto at much younger age to unite them and help stop Trask's assassination. Along the way he tackles his old buddy Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) -who he had already seen the death of in the future- whom is protecting and helping young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) whom has gone handicapped after taking medications to keep his super-mind from working and giving him a slightly easier way to leave normal. After Wolverine convinces Hank and Charles to help him in his quest they have to go and break a young Erik Lehnsherr out of a prison cell under the pentagon which is the most protected cell in the world. To do so they need the help of a rascal named Peter a.k.a. Quicksilver who has the power of super speed and steals from convenient stores often. He joins them with no doubt as he would love to break into the highest security prison of the country. By the way I love the smart gaming reference with him being so fast he can play Pong with himself.
I quite enjoyed this film mainly because it was a smart way to kill the past franchise and move on with their own story. Now, I haven't seen X-Men First Class but I surly will in the future (no pun intended) but this movie impressed me enough to go and watch X-Men Apocalypse when it drops.

Stuart Little 2 (2002)

 "Falcon: The party's over furface."

Stuart Little 2 is an American Adventure/Animation movie directed by Rob Minkoff (Mr. Peabody & Sherman) and released on July 19th 2002. The story revolves around a mouse named Stuart Little (Voiced by Michael J. Fox) who lives with the human Little Family. At first it shows his struggles in school and how hard life get for him when he tries to adapt to the human ways. For example he is the last substitute in a soccer gamebut then he is shot into the goal with the ball and is stuck in the net until his adoptive-parents Mr. Little (Hugh Laurie) and Mrs. Little (Geena Darvis) hae to help him out. One day as he usually is driving back home in his little car (no pun intended) a canary named Margalo (voiced by Melanie Griffith) falls into his passenger seat. Then Stuart sees a Falcon flying after her so he drives to his house as fast as possible and they get away. After Margalo is nurtured a bit and is healthier she reveals she had a broken wing and had been flying away from the falcon for a while until she finally fell. Later on Margalo and Stuart find a special connection as she is almost his size and they can do many activities together. But their friendship comes to a test when it is revealed that Margalo is actually working with the Falcon (voiced by James Woods) to steal all of Mrs. Little's jewelry. But then Margalo has second thoughts as she really likes Stuart so she tries to convince Falcon to rob another house. Falcon finds out about her feelings and takes her away and it's up to Stuart and his unlikely friend, the house cat Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane) to save the day and Margalo.

I know it is a pretty dull review as I haven't seen this movie in a while but it was the step forward for CGI animation to finally make its way into the big leagues of theatrical release. There wasn't anything bad about the film but the kind of cheesy relationship between Mr and Mrs Little is a minus. I give it a 8 out of 10 as it was one of my childhood's favorite movies.

Oz The Great and Powerful (2013) Review

Rachel Weisz as Evanora

Oz the Great and Powerful is a 2013 adventure/fantasy film directed by Sam Raimi (The original Spider-Man trilogy) and takes a different look on the tale of The Wizard of Oz. So different it doesn't even feature Dorothy. This is a gutsy move by Disney which I respect. I believe that new is good and let's throw away the remakes and bring reboots along.

The story starts with a magician named Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco) who has affair with various women telling them all the same back stories and giving each a music box (of which he has a lot of copies). He later on goes to include them in his magic shows but as members of the audience. This pattern goes on with his trusty sidekick and assistant Frank (Zach Braff) on his side until he accidentally has an affair with the Strongman (Tim Holmes)'s wife (Toni Wynne) and this causes the Strongman to attack Oz during a hurricane. This hurricane sweeps Oscar and his getaway hot air balloon to a mystical land named Oz. There he meets a beautiful witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis) who later on falls in love with him and believes he is the destined wizard who will defeat the Wicked Witch. As his journey to find a way back goes on he encounters a flying monkey who he later saves from a lion and that causes the monkey to swear a lifetime allegiance to Oscar. Later Theodora takes them to the castle where they meet Evanora, her sister. She promises Oscar a room full of gold if he kills the Wicked Witch of the south. She explains that her crime is murdering of the King of Oz who Evanora used to be an adviser of. As they progress through the Kingdom of Oz he enters a town made of china. But sees all the town people dead. Later on he finds a china girl (Joey King) with broken legs. He fixes her legs with glue and she becomes a member of their team as they set to find and kill The Wicked Witch of the South.

Having watched the original Wizard of Oz from 1934 I liked this movie. Mainly because the story is a whole other take and also it serves as a story before Dorothy Gale's birth. (Which is referenced in the movie when Annie, a former love interest of Oscar tells him John Gale has proposed to him.) Overall the film had great special effect and great twists and turns. It also covers up the story and didn't leave much questions with answering them all. It also shows the rise of a small-time-magician to a hero of a kingdom in a great way. I give this movie about a 9/10. I took one out because (spoiler alert) Theodora becomes a villain later on.

Maleficent (2014) review

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Isobelle Molloy as Young Maleficent

 

" Princess Aurora: I know you're there. Don't be afraid.
Maleficent: I'm not afraid.
Princess Aurora: Then come out.
Maleficent: Then you'll be afraid"

Maleficent is an action-adventure/fantasy family film directed by Robert Stormberg (Concept Artist for The Hunger Games) which is the other side of The Sleeping Beauty's story. Now, when you want to see this movie have an open mind instead of a fanboy or fangirl mind. Mainly because it is not so close to the roots of the original story. Although it follows the order of the story it is much darker but with the risk taken a beautiful and amazing movie is born from the writer Linda Woolverton. This movie is also the return of Angelina Jolie to the big screen.

This story begins in the Moors. A land full of mystical creatures and animals protected by barriers from the human world. A fairy known as Maleficent protects and maintains the magical land. One day a peasant boy named Stefan passes the barriers and steals a few shiny stones from the river. But before he can scape he is captured by the guardians and confronted by Maleficent. They eventually become friends and later when they become 15 they share what the narrator describes as "True Love's Kiss". But later on Stefan's ambitions to become king stop him from seeing Maleficent as regularly as he used to. Years later King Henry, the current-time's king, sets his army to attack and claim the Moors as his. But in the war him and his army are defeated by the guardians and by the now much stronger Maleficent. During this assault King Henry is badly injured and hurt. So, he sets a bounty on Maleficent. Whoever murders her gets to be the next King. Stefan and his ambitions lead him to betray Maleficent. He uses her trust and puts sleeping potion in her food and later when she falls a sleep he uses the fairy's weakness, iron, to cut her wings off. He then runs off with the wings to King Henry and claims the throne. Meanwhile as Maleficent wakes up she is drowned in hatred and sorrow. As she wears a dark outfit and turns The Moors dark like her sad heart. She then turns a crow into a human (played by Sam Riley) and names him Diaval. Diaval becomes her right handed man and brings her news from the human realm. He has the ability to turn into whatever Maleficent desires, such as a boar, crow and wolf. Meanwhile he brings Maleficent news of the birth of a new princess name Aurora. Maleficent sets way to her birthday celebration to seize her revenge on King Stefan and his new queen, Queen Leah. During the celebration there are three fairies, Flittle (played by Lesley Manville), Knotgrass (played by Imelda Stuanton) and Thistlewit (played by Juno Temple) who have friends with the humans and each give little princess Aurora a gift. Maleficent crashes the celebration and bestows a gift, better put as a curse of her own. She puts a spell on Aurora that when it is her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a sewing wheel's needle and enter death-like sleep. This curse can only be broken with a true love's kiss. As Maleficent believes such thing doesn't exists.

To me this movie is a piece of art and is every bit of a great new origin story. Like I said it is darker in contrast to other movies but has twist, turns and humor that makes it a great family film and just a great film in general.
I give it an absolute 10/10.

Fight Club (1999)

"Check in for that flight doesn't begin for another two hours, sir."

Well, well, well. Here is one of the finest movies I finally dared to rent a few nights ago. It started off at a scene where The Narrator ( played by Edward Norton) (in his undies) is strapped to a chair with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) shoving a gun in his mouth. Then it goes master piece from there. The main character The Narrator (he never reveals his name although he has the alias Lupert and Cornelius at one point) who has insomnia which can't kill him but doesn't let him sleep, starts finding comfort in meeting people who are in pain and crying with them. But from one point forward a girl called Marla Singer attends a Testicular Cancer survivors meeting which drives The Narrator out of his comfort since he can't cry anymore. So they plan to split the days of the week between meetings since both of them want to attend the meetings but without each other. The Narrator's life goes on but then on a flight he meets Tyler Durden. A devil-may-care soap maker who The Narrator has to turn to when his condo (which by the way was filled with the only thing that made him complete, a stash of IKEA furniture he never used) is caught on fire. After a night of beer and life talk Tyler asks The Narrator to hit him as hard as he can. Then Tyler hit The Narrator back and this started a spiral tap towards an underground club called The Fight Club, where aggression-filled men come to relief their anger by beating each other to bloody pulps. No further spoilers as you must watch this movie in its entirety and live the perfection that it was. And a huge twist at the end really makes it into a true work of art.
I really recommend this movie but with no minors around as it has constant f-bombs and acts of sex and violence.
I give it 10 soaps out of 10!

Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)

Rocket is my favorite!

"Fun? Serious? A bit of both."

Guardians of The Galaxy is a 2014 American sci-fi fil based on Marvel Comics' Guardians of The Galaxy comic books. The Guardians starts grim with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt)'s mother (Laura Haddock) dying on a hospital bed and later Peter gets abducted by aliens. Years later he's seen double-crossing his new family The Ravagers who's phrase is "Steal everything". Their leader Yondu Udonta (played by Michael Rooker) who had cared and watched out for Peter ever since they took him to their ship is upset about Peter's actions, vows to murder him in front of the ship's crew, so he sets a bounty of 40,000 units on Peter. Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) see the bounty for Peter alive and they attack him in public. Meanwhile what Peter steals is an orb containing a Infinity Gem which has the power to destroy entire civilizations. Thanos (voiced by Josh Brolin) has made a deal with Ronan (Lee Pace) who wants the planet of Nova destroyed due to his father and grandfather being killed. In return of the planet destroyed Thanos wants the Infiniti Gem. Ronan sends one of Thanos' daughters Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to retrieve the orb from Star-Lord (Peter Quill). While in reality she is betraying her father and selling the orb to The Collector (Benicio Del Toro) for 4 billion units. As Ronan and Thanos' other daughter Nebula is hell-bent on getting revenge on Gamora. But while fighting they're all captured and put into a prison by Corpsman Dey (John C. Reilly) where they meet Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista).They come to form the unlikely team of Guardians of The Galaxy. They go on a hilarious adventure to save the galaxy even though they're known as outlaws. This movie has a lot of 70's and 80's references and also a few rude words. Although the movie was a mix of comedy, sci-fi, romance, action and adventure it was a mix that paid off. If you're going to thecinemas this week and still haven't seen it I recommend giving it a try.