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2015 Movie Predictions!
Time to get psychic as I take a look at the potential big winners and losers in 2015! Please don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe!
Watch “The Hobbit: Movie Review” on YouTube
The Hobbit: Movie Review: http://youtu.be/DNloQB4HCTw
Watch “Top 5: Unconventional Christmas Movies” on YouTube
Top 5: Unconventional Christmas Movies: http://youtu.be/cz17Q2G_Seo
Movie News Roundup ( 11/14/14)
Want to know the latest movie news from this past week? Then check out my first weekly series: Movie News Roundup (11/14/14): http://youtu.be/dAjQj5GQPes
Death of Superman: The Movie
With DC recently announcing their film lineup until 2020, in a desperate attempt to steal the spotlight from the powerhouse Marvel, I thought now would be a great time to discuss a story that I believe should and could happen in the DC cinematic universe at some point. I’m referring to one of the most famous events in DC Comics history, the Death of Superman. A legendary work in the eyes of comic readers, it would be a perfect story for adaption to film. As the title suggests, the story essentially is about Superman dying while protecting Metropolis from the brutal Doomsday. The comic originally was created as a way to reinvigorate the character. DC was having a hard time connecting him to the modern audience, so someone within the company said, “Why don’t we just kill?” Not being serious at first, the idea eventually gained momentum and soon enough the world witnessed something they thought they never would, the death of the world’s first superhero.
Why do I think this albeit depressing story would be great for DC? For several reasons actually. The first is to actually help the character. A common complaint that I have heard about Superman is that he is too strong and powerful, too godlike in power. So, how do you reach those people and show them that a godlike being can still bleed? By having him die at the hands of a more powerful monster, but in doing so, saving the world. This would shift the character from being an almighty God to a sacrificial lamb. Hmm that idea almost sounds like some kind of Christ metaphor, just like the Man of Steel himself.
So, how would this even play out on the big screen? First off, Doomsday should be introduced as an end credit scene for a movie before (i.e Man of Steel 2, meaning Doomsday for Man of Steel 3) Lex Luthor, presumably still portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, discovers him deep under Metropolis. He brings forth the creature in an attempt to forever rid himself of Superman, not realizing how truly destructive the Beast is. The Monster begins to terrorize the city, bringing forth heroes to stop him. Eventually these attempts fail, some could even be killed to demonstrate the sheer power of Doomsday. This prompts Superman to rise up and face this foe. The Man of Steel quickly realizes the power of the creature, getting beaten down easily. Each time, the Man of Steel gets up to fight, seemingly more weak each time. Doomsday does something the Man of Steel thinks was impossible, and makes him bleed. He knows he must find something within himself if Doomsday is to be stopped. With a final goodbye to Lois Lane, Superman meets Doomsday one last time, in the heart of the newly reconstructed Metropolis. The two monsters slug it out, like two weaken boxers in their final round. With each passing blow, the audience begins to question if Superman can get out of this. Then, with a powerful uppercut, the Man of Steel finally downs the Beast before collapsing on the ground, scarred and beaten, but victorious. Surrounded by rumble, Lois runs to Superman, telling him the beast is gone forever. And with that, the Man of Steel passes on, with his cape hanging like a victory flag, just like the comic.
Yeah yeah I know it’s dark especially for a Superman movie. But, I think his death would actually help the character. When he died in the comics, there was a massive outcry and sense of despair and loss from the audience. Eventually the Man of Steel did come back from the dead and with a new sense of appreciation from the fan base. DC could use this same tactic to get people interested in Superman again, plus it’s different enough from Marvel that it just might work. I could see these events playing out and Superman making a grand reappearance when the Justice League needs him most, say, Justice League 2 perhaps against Darkseid? Essentially this story could give a new jolt to Superman and put one of his most famous stories on the big screen.
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Movieguy17 Summer Movie Awards: 2014
Every summer, there are heavy hitters and heavy misses in the movie box office. So, I thought why not give a junior awards show to this fine summer movie season. I have carefully selected five films each with unique categories that I feel fit perfectly. And if you don’t agree with my picks, that’s totally fine. It’s great to disagree in movies and that’s half the fun. So, without further ado, the first annual Movieguy17 Summer Movie Awards!
“Surprised it didn’t stink” Award: 22 Jump Street
Now I know what you are thinking, and yes, I did in fact love the first one so why wouldn’t I think the second one be just as good? It certainly wasn’t because of the people behind the film, with nearly all the cast returning as well as Phil Lord and Chris Miller. I didn’t have the highest of hopes for this film because it fell into that incredible dangerous and hazardous area of comedy sequels. Most comedy sequels are just shells of the original, rehashing old jokes and not living up to the original. Case in point, Hangover II, Blues Brothers 2000, and the worst, Son of the Mask. But unlike those other films, this actually used it being a sequel to its advantage, even poking fun of itself more than a few times. 22 Jump Street, you gave me hope again that we may someday see more good comedy sequels so good job!
Most Disappointing: Amazing Spider-man 2
Let me preface this by saying Amazing Spider-man 2 isn’t a bad movie, it’s just kinda ok though. Being a big comics guy, for me it was always Spider-man and Batman as the best guys and the ones I knew the most about. So, naturally, whenever either hero comes out with a new film, I get excited about the release. But when I walked out of the theater, instead of being pumped for the next movie I was just meh, wanting a little more out of what I had just seen. The film suffers from trying to set up too much for future films that it becomes disorienting all the new details and plot points that have no real impact on the overall story. In short, they had the script for Amazing Spider-man 3 done before this film. The movie however did have some bright spots as Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield once again have amazing chemistry. And Dane Dahaan proves once again that he is a rising star in Hollywood as he plays Harry Osborn, but unfortunately isn’t given enough screen time. Sony, here’s hoping you can fix things before that Sinister Six movie you’re working on comes out.
Best Moment: Godzilla’s Roar (Godzilla)
Before you all freak out at me on this one, hear me out. I am not here defending Godzilla as the best film of the summer, that pick is later. I know people are on either side of the fence of whether or not the movie was even any good, and I understand both sides. But, there’s no doubt this is the best single moment of the summer. And here’s why: When I saw this movie, I knew I had to see it on the biggest screen I could find. So, I was fortunate enough to see this movie with my family on arguably one of the largest screens I have ever seen. Add surround sound to this mix and it no longer is a movie but an experience. When we got that toe to head shot, you knew something big was coming and it didn’t disappoint! My seat shook with the roar and I thought to myself “Now that is Godzilla!” even though I’m not a huge Godzilla fan. It was more a reminder of what makes watching a movie in the theater different than any other medium and it was amazing. All Hail the King of Monsters!
Most Fun Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians was just a blast and so I had to make sure I made a distinction in this. This is the most fun movie I’ve seen in along time but it is by no means the best. Doesn’t mean it isn’t still amazing! As soon as the opening logo came on with Come and Get your Love playing as the music, I knew this was going to be a fun ride, and I was not disappointed. The cast was incredible and you could tell that they throughly enjoyed making the movie. The film itself was so quirky and bizarre that it just fit together so well. It’s hard to describe this movie because on paper it shouldn’t have worked. Because just look: a former WWE wrestler, a talking tree and racccon, a green alien, and the formerly fat guy from Parks and Rec? But thanks to director James Gunn, the film came together beautifully and it’s hard describing this movie as anything but fun! We are Groot!
Best Movie of the Summer: X-Men: Days of Future Past
This is why I had to make a distinction between best movie and most fun movie because while I truly love Guardians, X-Men was definitely the best film of the summer. And believe me, this was a major surprise to me. I have always liked the X-men movies but they were never my favorite heroes. I, like most other people, loved Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and that’s why I kept coming back. But going into this, I had no idea how blown away I would be. An incredible story bolstered by phenomenal acting, the movie manages to balance a huge cast of old and new X-Men while never once feeling too crowded. It was able to seamlessly connect the new and old franchises while even helping to repair some past damage. Director Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films, returned to establish order while at the same time giving us fans an incredible film. The real star of the movie was James MacAvory as a young and broken Professor X who gives an incredible and human look at the great mentor to the X-Men. All around, I think this film should be put in the discussion of greatest comic book movies of all time and by far the best summer movie of 2014!
Well, there you have it, a brief recap at this past summer movie season. We had some highs and had some lows but thats the movie season, and this year was a good one. I know I missed some movies, and that’s because I didn’t see everything despite my best efforts. Also Captain America 2 wasn’t anywhere on this because that got an April 4th release, just a tad too early for consideration, Sorry Steve. But overall, a great summer for movies. Can’t wait for the 2015 summer movie season!
TMNT: Teenage Fighting Turtles?
With my spoiler free review of TMNT now out of the way, I am going to do my first Spoiler filled review for the film. But, I’ll be perfectly honest, it may be more of a rant than a review so I apologize in advance for going fan boy on this. So, here goes nothing.
So, correct me if I’m wrong but the N in TMNT stands for ninja right? Because apparently the makers of the movie don’t feel the same way. They make the turtles fight so clunky and hard it came across more as a UFC match and not fluid at all. The turtles were so big and bulky that they basically beat all their enemies by shear size and not ninja ability that brings me to my next grievance. In lore, Splinter learns to fight by mimicking his Master Yoshi, when they both lived in Japan before Oruku Saki, Shredder, killed Yoshi. But hey since there is no Master Yoshi or even for that matter Oruku Saki, let’s have Splinter find a ninjistu book in a frickin sewer and that’s where they all learn to fight. Yeah way to respect the fans there guys! And unfortunately there’s one ninja that is in the story that could have been interesting but they choose to neglect her entirely. The Shredder’s own daughter is in the movie! But they never once call her by name or even give her a name or any form of back story. If she was not in the film, it would be no different. She was just in there for fan service. But if you don’t do anything with her then what’s the point?
Speaking of Splinter, in the film, he is kinda a jerk. Before, I always knew Splinter to be the hard but loving father of the Turtles. Here we get the hard but never the emotional from him. In the 1990’s film, I could tell that he truly loved them. In this movie, there wasn’t really any evidence to even suggested he loved them. But you know who does love the Turtles? The little girl who apparently raised them, April O’Neal! Yes, this movie firmly follows the path that all the characters must be connected somehow and so April took care of the Turtles and Splinter before dumping them in a sewer to save them. And the famous ooze that turned the Turtles into Mutants? Nope, doesn’t exist apparently and it was because of testing in a lab and only after they left said lab did anything weird happen to them. I am ok with things getting changed for movies, I really am, but only if they are justified for the film. In this case, it seemed more like a reason to slack off on the writing and overall story.The characters, except the Turtles, were so hollow and boring it was hard to watch, plus it certainly doesn’t help when you look the laws of Physics straight in the face and say forget you I’ll do my own thing. Plus after seeing this movie I actually kinda want Sony to sue Nick for basically copying the last 20 minutes of Amazing Spiderman 1 and replacing the Lizard with the Shredder. It’s exactly the same, except I actually kinda care in Amazing Spiderman cause they had a halfway decent story to go along with the action.
I didn’t have the highest of hopes for this movie going in but I at least hoped for something fun. And the more trailers I saw the more fun it looked. Unfornately, I fell victim to the deceptive trick of Michael Bay, awesome trailer bad movie, and it was even worse than I thought, as a Turtles movie and as a movie movie. Major Bummer dude!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Movie Review
I literally have no attention getting opening line for this review because frankly I don’t even know where to begin with this movie. I will admit that this review will be one of the hardest to write because the Ninja Turtles have been near and dear to my heart for many years. I fully acknowledge that at times in this review it will be hard to hide my bias towards the Turtles and try to analyze this as just a movie. As such, I will be doing a seperate review which I will analyze it from a Ninja Turtles fan’s perspective. Without further ado, let’s review the most disappointing thing since The Amazing Spiderman 2.
We open the movie with arguably the star of the film, April O’Neal, played by Megan Fox. Maybe if portrayed by another actress I wouldn’t mind so much that April is in the movie SO much but given that it’s the subpar Megan Fox, it’s hard to watch. It’s hard to watch because for the first third of the movie and even at other parts of the film, the Ninja Turtles are forced to take a back seat. Director Jonathan Liesben, I know I spelled that wrong but correct spelling is earned Mr. Liesben, chooses to make the humans of the story crucial to the story, taking away screen time from the Turtles themselves. This is a shame because of all the bad things in the movie, the Turtles aren’t a part of that. They are actually exactly what I would have liked to see in a Ninja Turtles movie, except for Donatello but we’ll get to that in a bit. Raph is Raph and Mikey is just perfect, bringing welcome laughs in a movie that tries to hard at other parts, sorry Will Arnett. Call me crazy but shouldn’t we actually get to know and feel more connected to characters that the movie is based on more than we do the side characters? Crazy notion I know
One of the film’s biggest issues is that of overkill. I’m calling out two characters in particular, Donatello and The Shredder. And oh boy I’m not gonna go gentle on these two! Good Grief Donnie! What did these guys do to you??? Yeah we know you’re the smart one of the group but that’s not excuse for having so much gear! I mean glasses really? Glasses? Along with headphones, a laptop, night vision goggles and headset. A character can be portrayed as nerdy without ever physically showing him with anything! Just give him a better script to work with.
Shredder, your turn my friend. The first time you showed up on screen, I’ll admit it, you terrified me! You were frightening to see and had a great evil voice. Then, the more you fought, the more ridiculous you got and went overboard in the costume department. But, that’s unfortunately not my big problem with you. The problem, Shredder, is that I know literally nothing about you in this movie. In film, there’s this thing called an antagonist and these guys oppose the hero. They usually have some form of a motive or agenda they wish to accomplish along with an interesting backstory. You have none of that in this movie, like at all! Yeah you’re really really scary but why do you do what you do? What makes the Shredder the Shredder? But sadly, we just got another “ARGH trust me I’m bad” villain.
I know it seems like I’m ripping into this movie, because I am, but it’s because I know good Ninja Turtles stories can be told. The characters are fun and can make for a good movie. But, that requires a team that actually cares about the Turtles making the movie. So, die hard Transformers fans, I can now see and feel your frustration. But even the worst movies have some positives, except Batman and Robin, that’s just awful. Two positives things did come out of this movie. The Turtles themselves were highly enjoyable on the rare scene when all four are on screen together. And secondly, the movie didn’t ruin Casey Jones, BeepBop, RockSteady, or Krang at least. Bossanova? More like Chevy Nova (For my die hard Turtle fans)
Guardians of the Galaxy: Movie Review
Marvel, you have done it again and then some! You kept raising our expectations from nothing and kept lifting them higher and higher and when you finally delivered, boy, did you ever deliver! Not only that, but you may have help give the box office one last strong push to end the summer movie season. This is different than anything Marvel has done before but it certainly still works!
The film stars one of the most rag tag collection of characters ever assembled, and when I say that I include the cast members playing the characters too. The movie succeeds without the power of a “big name star”, something Marvel has been able to do in the past. The main character, if you can even call him that, is Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt. If you weren’t a Chris Pratt fan before, then now is your chance to jump on the bandwagon cause this is his year! After starting his career on the comedy Parks and Rec, he got his movie break with the acclaimed film Zero Dark Thirty. He then followed that up by voicing the lovable Emmett in The Lego Movie. Here, Pratt plays a Han Solo-esque thief with killer one liners. But to be fair, all the stars have their moments. Going into the film, I heard that Groot and Rocket, played by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper respectively, steal the show. This is certainly true as they have the same style of friendship as Han and Chewbacca in the Star Wars films. They even have a few genuinely heart felt moments in the movie. There was a lovable quality to both characters that made you root for them.
For me personally, the performance I was most shocked by was Drax the Destroyer played by former WWE superstar Dave Batista. For a former WWE wrestler, Batista brought surprising amount of talent to the role. I’m not saying he’s going to be winning an Oscar any time soon but he was still excellent in the role, both in a comedic as well as a physical way. When all the characters are together is when the film excells the most. The chemistry between the cast and some of the lines are incredibly quirky and goofy. In an age where more and more movies try to give off a super serious and broody tone, Chris Nolan I love you but that’s your fault, this film goes for the fun and brings it hard. It may not be the best overall movie of the year, but it is without a doubt the most fun and entertaining movie in a long time.
My only complaint, if you can even call it that, is that the villain is just kinda meh. Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace, is pretty much the same as Nero from the 2009 Star Trek film. He is just kinda there to be bad and move the plot along but isn’t really all that memorable. But, he does have a nice little “connection” that I anxiously await seeing more of. All and all, this is a must see that I would highly recommend to anyone. We are Groot!
movieguy17 