I don't really have problems with CGI, but it seems off here and there (especially when Guts throw the knife to kill a rabbit). The face also looks pretty jarring somehow.
As for the story itself, I think Isidro's presence is a bit distracting there, cutting off the interaction Guts should've had with Puck. Also why the heck they skip to the Iron Chain Knights right after this episode?
This is more of "The Adopted Son of the Last of the Mohicans who Dabble in His Love Story" than "The Last of the Mohicans" himself.
The first half of this movie is a tad difficult to watch. Without being familiar with the time period, it's hard to navigate the context of the film, and the scenes in the first half seem to be rushed: there were massacres of people who are supposed to be emotionally close with Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) but not to the audience, and then the romance developed too soon without enough bonding.
Last of the Mohicans only got interesting in the last half of the movie, though with its ups and downs; at times it escalates with the combats, the drama, the bonding of one character with another, but another times the characters make poor decisions with only slight or no hint of reasons for their actions.
The acting is pretty decent, scenery is beautiful, the soundtrack is really memorable. But other than that, it feels like a jumbled epic movie. Maybe because I'm seeing this first time in 2016 and not in 1992 though.
Father and son movie bundled as robot-boxing movie. Pretty good overall, with stunning acting from both Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo. Goyo is especially fantastic.
The plot however feels a bit lacking here and there; especially in the last quarter of the movie where things seem to be rushed to the grand final championship with family drama in-between. There seems to be some things left unresolved and unexplained; e.g. what's the point of hinting that the robot might have had emotional connection with the user (with the frequent stills of the robot's "expression")? Also the grand final doesn't have enough screen time, as if the battles were cut and sped up because of time constraint.
Flashy and stylish action, reminds me of Equilibrium and The Matrix. Has a distinct neo-noir atmosphere, with sleek suite, art deco building, neon lights. sharp colors serve as the background of all the fights. However there's nothing much beyond that, as in the second half of the movie it seems that the plot decisions are resolved too quickly.
Very intense, gripping performance from Tom Hanks (Capt. Philips) and Barkhad Abdi (Abduwali Muse). The tense holds you on the screen, wondering what would happen next from one scene to another.
However, one thing that sticks with me is how easy to see this in black and white American heroism. Though the movie took its time to explain briefly that the Somalis had to do piracy because they are left with no choice, it doesn't give much room to outline how the pirates were just a small part of bigger problems in Somalia. The dialogues and flashbacks give hint here and there, but for average audience it's easy to dismiss as a mere background to spice the film. Yeah, piracy is wrong, it's illegal--but the question was why it happened?
Granted, Captain Philips is not exactly the movie to explore that question. It's an intense survival thriller, and it delivers. But it'd be nice if there's more room for the audience to stop and ponder, "yeah, it's not like they're doing this because they want to--they just have to."
As a thriller movie, the combat was intense. You can't be so sure which one is going to take casualty. The terror feels real as militias strike through the embassy and, later, CIA compound.
However, with a lot of dialogues and characters having much screen time, the drama in this survival movie feels almost non-existent. The dialogue lacks any depth, the characterization left almost nothing to the viewers to empathize with. Of all possible ways, Michael Bay choose to emphasize the drama by sporadically showing the soldiers communicating with their families back in the USA. But the relationship between the soldiers themselves are hardly shown aside from random conversations, leaving the movie with no remarkable character that the viewers can relate when a few of them met their demise. As a film based on real life events, it's really such a shame: because this means actual people were actually murdered in combat. Compared with how Lone Survivor was directed, 13 Hours was a really terrible drama.
There also seems to be a political tension going on in the background, but the movie gives no explanation, making the viewers difficult to catch up.
Okay so the episode was kind of dragging on with Rick's group being played around with Negan's group, but I guess it's purposeful to make the viewers the feeling of being toyed with and to give more screen time for the characters for the emotional build up.
However, the ending... with that kind of build up, the episode ends with a goddamn cliffhanger! What the hell is the purpose of 45 minutes long build up? The scene with Negan screams terror, the moment he started to swing his barbed wire lashes out fear, but the episode ends without revealing anyone. It's a shame. Should have shown the victim's face, or at least hair, or anything from his/her back, so at least the viewers can speculate.
The episode continues with the clumsiness of last week's episode. Now not only we get to see Carol's teenager mood-swing, we get to see Daryl's too. The usually calculating hunter now risk himself and his comrade's life a few days after Denise got murdered. Daryl wanting to finish Dwight once and for all, that is understandable. After all it's not only once Daryl seems to be reckless and going in his way. But him needing to wait a few days after Denise's demise just to fit in with Carol's disappearance seems kinda forced. Not to mention everyone seems to become so reckless by wanting to be involved in the search party. I mean they have a home to protect. Why every bits of them seems so motivated to get out of their home?
That said, this episode leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger. We all know, especially comic book readers, that someone is going to die in the next episode. But who? Carol, Daryl, and Glenn are all out of there. There is also Michonne. The episode spent quite a time to give Maggie and Rick more screen time (which usually means someone close to them is going to die in the next eps), so it's kind of difficult to predict which of them is going to leave the show.
Watched this at premiere, forgot to give comment. I don't have much expectation with the movie, but Age of Ultron turns out to be a really disappointing popcorn flick. I actually like the character developments, only that the movie gives us too many character developments, too many subplots, that each of them don't seem to be connected to each other except that they are all in Avengers. I like the personal, intimate touch on Hawkeye's family and Natasha-Bruce actually, but those subplots feel too really detached with other subplots going on--and especially with the main plotline.
Also for an Avengers movie this one is too flat-out comical in that they put too much jokes, to the point it's distracting and ruining the character development. E.g., what's with the HYDRA's official acting comically coward and with Ultron, who have been developed in the whole movie to be a fearless, despicably intelligent cruel machine, in the end turned to be a desperately opportunist who begs for mercy? The fearmongering Ultron is reduced to a comical character just because a single scene! Also the really unnecessary twist involving the sacrifice one character is really unnecessary and should have been put later in the movie as a prime motivation for the other character to be involved in the fight.
Got me hooked at the start, as the movie started as a curious investigation of Casey (Britt Robertson) to a whole new world. Casey's discovery and adventure with Athena (Raffey Cassidy) and Frank Walker (George Clooney) went fun and put me to wonder, but exactly when the mystery unveils, it reveals a rather hurried and uninteresting problem. The scene when Casey wonder how to solve the problem is presented less than 10 minutes--really fast compared to the 1,5 hours build up. The movie also doesn't spend much time for the audience to be informed as much as Casey when they hurriedly find the solution.
Putting that aside, Tomorrowland has an amazing visuals and marvelous acting. Especially for Cassidy (the girl Athena), whose convincing acting really led me to believe that she is really at the same age at George Clooney!
Terrible pacing. It starts really slow, boring the audience with too many character introduction and flimsy animation.
The fight is awesome and the choreography is unique, to say the least. I really enjoyed the gun-kata fighting style for its flashiness. But I guess the good stuff stops at that. The plot is so-so, the foreshadowing is kinda obvious. A decent action flick but I think it's wrong to see it as a sci-fi movie with breath-taking story (like some critics seem to expect).
The movie has a bit more drama compared to its previous movies, making this not as a pure action flick like the original. Not saying that it's a bad thing, but as the consequence the story has to be weighted more while watching this sequel, and unfortunately the movie has quite several different subplots which, though it intertwines each other, seems to be resolved abruptly with no further effect/follow-up in affecting each other. It jumps from one subplot to another as if they're different casualty of events that seem to accidentally happen to the protagonist Ip Man. The action is satisfying as usual--the choreography is perfect and the shot is nicely done--however more improvement can be done with joining the subplots together.
It has an interesting premise, unfortunately I think the movie fails to deliver it well. The plot feels disjointed, jumping from one to another without a strong connecting lines. Jolie's acting is superb, CGI is good (like any today high-budget movies), and the trailer looks awesome (more than the movie) - but there's all to it.
Having read the summary and the trailer, I expected more conversations between Bullock and Clooney. Turned out most of the movie is about Bullock's lone struggle to survival - her inexperience (which successfully makes her an annoying, but realistic character at times), her losing will, and her, finally determination.
The visual and acting excellent - and I suppose it is the ultimate point the movie can deliver. The plot is simple. The characterization is okay-ish. We don't get to know much about Bullock's character background so it takes a bit more effort to feel moved when she succumbed to losing hope (and found hope again).
Still, an enjoyable movie.
47 Ronin is an adaptation of a story of loyalty, but it spends too much time on the poster boy (who never existed) and his love life.
The movie spent its first 30 minutes building up the story of Kai (Keanu Reeves), an unwanted child found in the forest, and the girl of his life, Mika (Shibasaki Kou), the daughter of a feudal lord. It tried to depict the hard life of Kai as a hated half-breed boy among Japanese samurai, who is struggling to raise his place among his peers and being conflicted with his Romeo and Juliet affair with Mika.
Or at least that's what the movie attempted to do.
The relationship between Kai and Mika feels really bland even though the movie seems to try so hard emphasizing this in the course of the story. Kai and Mika are depicted as being involved in a forbidden love but they don't show a slightest enthusiasm in their expression of love (except for Mika constant worrying of Kai's life without taking any action like a damsel in distress).
Meanwhile, at the same time, the movie also tries to bring up the reason why the 47 Ronin caused havok in the first place: loyalty. Which unfortunately also failed. The samurais (prior becoming ronin) keep talking about "the spirit of samurai", "the bushido", "the will of loyalty", but it's all talk. We don't get to see in what way their loyalty to their lord manifested. There is not enough build-up, not enough motivation to set up the samurais into a quest of revenge.
When the Lord Asano (Tanaka Min) finally meets his demise, the samurais all of sudden realize that their lord have been wronged by his rival, Lord Kira (Asano Tadanobu). This happens regardless of how scant the evidence showing up that it was actually Kira who does the evil deed to their lord (Kira used some sort of witch trickery which is supposed to be secretive). Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada) even didn't believe witchcraft existed when Kai tried to warn him. And we are not shown even a slightest hint how Kira and Asano were in rivalry.
Fortunately, the second half of the movie isn't that bad.
The ultimate battle, the siege of Kira's castle, is very well-done. From the stealthily tactics to the final confrontation with Kira. I can't help but be reminded with 13 Assassins, which employs similar ruse, and both movies in this regard made a good final showdown.
Still, during the course of the movie, it overall still feels really odd. First because the dialogue sounds pretty jarring: the movie is spoken in English. Keanu Reeves speaks a really fluent English meanwhile the rest of the actors, who are Japanese (and not their fault), speak a less fluent English (except a few like the Tengu leader). When Keanu is having conversation with the others it feels like they are speaking with foreign man and foreign language.
Second, the whole landscape design and the scenes depicted feel very "Western". Very orientalism. The way the Buddha statue just sit in the middle of nowhere, the spooky Tengu bamboo forest, the grimdark castle of Kira, and the witch's deception and many of the beasts; all feel precisely like something coming out straight from Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Which may not be necessarily bad, but this kind of image of "Japanese fantasy" makes it clear that this movie is of Hollywood, American production. It's not the type you would see in fantasy-ish Japanese movie. Visually it's more similar to Lord of the Rings if anything.
So-so plot. The story feels disjointed with quite a number things left unexplained (like how did Hahou Mo become instructor in the first place? Why don't the cops try to secure the suspected victims? Why did Sinn Ying do that in the last half of the movie?). But I suppose plot is not meant to be the strongest department in this movie.
It's the action. You'll see some names from previous Donnie Yen's movies (Ip Man), and they're all great martial artists. The fights, which involve the five phases of kung fu, were all done nicely. Especially the ultimate fight between Hahou Mo (Donnie Yen) and Fung Yu-sau (Wang Baoqiang) which takes place in the middle of the street - with cars and trucks passing over! The choreography is stunning and the camera movement is swift, capturing all essential shots needed to portray the dynamics of the fight.
The movie started out a bit slow with its seemingly typical presentation of post-apocalyptic world. We are too presented with the seemingly typical mankind's arrogance on other species deemed as inferior. I really thought the humans will fuck up as usual.
They didn't.
This is one of the few movies that keep reminds me of how arrogant mankind can be - or more precisely, how arrogant a species with extraordinaire intelligence can be. It is instinct of survival accompanied by the psyche of superiority complex that can be possessed by creatures such as ours. The more we seemingly think we understand ourselves, the more we seemingly make borders to judge others. The way Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) keep saying how apes are "just animals". Koba's (Toby Kebbell) rise to power and his nefarious hatred that put humans to prisons.
Our main characters though - Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Malcolm (Jason Clarke) - show that we don't have to be like that. We can be more than that.
I don't want to sound pretentious, but that's the message I caught from the movie and what touched me the most. When Caesar and Malcolm understood that it is not kinship, not similarity of physical stature, that make our trust - but our deeds. When we were brought back at a glance to the deep bond Caesar formed with William (from the previous movie). A bond that transcends boundaries of species.
Putting all those aside... there are a few criticism on the movie. As said earlier, about very first 15-30 minutes is presented a bit too slow. Audience already familiar with post-apocalyptic setting might be a bit bored. The plot is quite predictable in the first half of the movie. A few scenes, such as when Malcolm entered the apes' domain, then Koba scout the human's territory, etc were also seem to be presented a bit ineffective - a long still shot with lack of plot progression. The accompanying soundtrack is spectacular, but again noticeably off in the very first 30 minutes. And finally, the movie's end puts a question to the title of this movie: wasn't it supposed to be The "Dawn" of the Planet of the Apes?
Beyond that there is no further complains though. Andy Serkis really deserves every award he got for his performance in this movie.
The first half of this movie is quite... peculiar.
There are just too many "stupidities", so to speak, that it shouldn't happen in a war. There are scenes where the student soldiers was ambushed by one North Korean and all of them chased the enemy to an exposed field and get massacred. Another scene: one of the student soldier walked in the forest randomly and get caught. Another one: a student soldier destroyed the supply stock because he played around with grenade.
Granted, they are kids. Maybe the directors wanted to portray, despite how amateur and unprofessional they are, all of them are still patriots of South Korea. But that doesn't explain how those amateur soldiers defeat dozens of trained North Korean soldiers (and I mean literally dozens - there are scenes where the North Koreans just ran into the line of fire).
Besides the "stupidities", the movie also lacks character development. In the end there are only two memorable characters: Jang-Beom the main character and Kap Jo the deviant. Others seem to be a mere canon fodder, with a few of them appears quite distinct because of physical features (like the fat kid, the four-eyed geek kid, but I can't remember the names). When someone get killed, there's hardly a reason for audience to symphatize. However, given the lack of development on the other characters, we are not presented with good character development on those two either. We never knew who Jang-Beom is, where did he come from, what relationship he had with the older mentor in the army, why the commander trusted him, etc. We don't even get how he managed to handle his fear (he trembled when he see a charging North Korean soldier in the first 15 minutes).
Putting those problem aside, this movie has good actors and good acting. The visual effect also looks great, comparable to today Hollywood movie. But again, seriously, the first half of the movie is filled with "stupidities". It got interesting only in the second half of the movie.
My first impression when I first watched this... the movie has a peculiar cinematography. Really - some shots were taken unusually (stills on individual's expression, panorama shot on the desert, etc). And despite being a movie in 2004, it feels so 90-ish (partly maybe because of the cinematography?).
But that doesn't make it bad. It might feels unusual, but story, the pace, was built nicely. Good movie overall! The premise itself is already very interesting to watch.
(Granted, I don't watch the original adaptation!)
The only one who fights hard is Gerald Butler... (seriously at least make the other guy a bit smarter by not pointing handguns to a gatling gun).
Hmm... okay. Where do I start?
Firstly, the camera work is inconsistent. It's pretty decent at times, but it could be really bad. This is particularly disappointing when they're shooting action scenes; they just can't find the right angle for displaying the intensity. Also in night scenes it almost always looks very grainy, as if it was shot with a handycam.
The action scenes itself is actually decent, putting aside the camera work problems. What bothers me though is the other scenes. Some shots were taken without significant usefulness, like when some random cop cursing each time they miss the target; there's also this weird scene where the main character, Jake, awkwardly misstep and fell (this happens during a chasing scene, but the chaser didn't catch up with Jake even after he did that fatal misstep).
And I don't usually mind indecent plot in action movies, but this one is just... bothering. I can't quite figure what's going on until the second half of the movie. The plot seems too convoluted for a decent action movie (conspiracy within the keraton, involvement of the Chinese gang and human trafficking, the politics in US marine, etc). Moreover, they don't develop further the complex subplot! When the complex conspiracy wear out its usefulness, it just got thrown away. It gets better in the second half of the movie, when eventually it ends with Malik (Mickey Rourke) alone - but it should've been that way since the start.
They also have some drama and character development, but feels unnecessary and pretty weak. It also feels pretty odd seeing many Indonesian characters, played by Indonesian actors, speak English almost all the time (this reminds me of Uncharted, the video game that takes place in Indonesia but the characters still speak English).
Another thing, this one especially feels really odd as a Javanese: the movie maker doesn't seem to understand the Keraton system in Java. One thing for sure, it is pretty patriarchist, unlike Aceh Sultanate or a brief period in Ottoman Sultanate. So the existence of "Sultana" (a woman sultan) feels really out of place. Second, there is also no vizier (wazir) in Javanese Keraton. I think they should've researched this part better, since the plot relies on this...
Last, the final scene in Borobudur... is pretty disappointing. It got hyped when this movie was released. But turns out this is just a regular shootout. Not to mention the grainy shot.
At first I really thought it was a real silent film! Perfectly done, nicely paced, and weaved around pleasant surprise. Like @Compuesto56 said, this is a perfect movie for helpless romantics. Wonderful.
Could've elaborate further on Falcon and how the SHIELD people still believe on the Capt. Other than that, good movie. The after-credits is interesting as always.
It's a classic. Decent action, not so much on characters though.
Pure non-stop action, no mercy.
I guess people expected too much war on this movie.
Most of the acting feels pretty weak, and the plot - though introduced with a bland yet still promising premise - doesn't deliver it pretty well. Some shots seems unnecessary to build up the tense.
While this movie is still an enjoyable ride, it surely misses some important stuff that makes The Hobbit, The Hobbit. On the positive side: the side-story that connects the dot to Lord of the Rings was impressive, and it has better action sequences and well-paced combats. But in place of that it pushed aside a lot of The Hobbit's sense of adventure and excitement.
The visuals are a lot darker compared to first and it has more Lord of the Rings vibe to the atmosphere. It's understandable and actually a well-made decision considering the way the plot is written in a more serious tone, however that seriousness sacrifices a lot of its original source material. Rather than being a stand-alone depiction of Bilbo's adventure, Desolation of Smaug serves more as a prequel to Lord of the Rings.
This sequel also invest quite a time to one of the dwarves' romantic relationship with one of the elves, which doesn't seem to have a significant impact on the overall plot. As a subplot, this doesn't work well though I'm sure it is intended for a several portion of the targeted audience.
Another minus point was the soundtrack. It lacks the feel of continuity from the previous movie. Rather than building upon the theme from Unexpected Journey, it created a whole new different composition for the movie. As a stand-alone soundtrack it's actually a good one - even better than the first without the repetition - but considering it's a sequel it could've been done better.
Certainly not the best Die Hard movie out there. For "just another action movie", it's a decent one though.
