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10/10
A review and a review of reviews.
20 April 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I loved this movie. Captain America has had 3 movies in the past, not counting some 1940s ones which can be excused for being good, that were so awful they make movies like Steel or Green Lantern look good. However, I saw a lot of critiques for this movie that were negative. Now I understand differing opinions and all, but they all followed a formula and each one seemed like griping to the point it was just getting stupid. If you'll indulge me here, I have a list of the repeated ones and a rebuttal to each.

1. The technology for WWII is too far advanced! This one was the most common and the stupidest in my opinion. It's called "Fiction", as in "not real". Every time I heard this one it made me think these people have no suspension of disbelief and would complain that Iron Man is a terrible movie because the technology to build a flying robot suit doesn't exist yet. People, it's comic books and it's in a fictional WWII setting. It's allowed to take liberties.

2. Captain America is too invincible! That was just stupid. Captain America is relatively weak compared to many other superheroes, he's just a perfect example of a human being brought about by the experiments in the film. Also, he's the main character. He's not supposed to die in a movie that is leading him up to be in a tie-in to all the other recent Marvel films that will lead to The Avengers.

3. Red Skull is a terrible villain.

There is no sense to this one. He's supposed to be the guy that's worse than Hitler and can get just as many people on his side to do his bidding. On top of that he can take Cap in a fight fairly evenly. Saying he's a bad villain is baseless.

4. Steve doesn't go through a character arc/get any back-story.

For one, he really doesn't need to. Steve was a good guy from the start, and he did go through an arc. It was subtle, but he did. He gained more confidence and become the soldier he is. He has a back-story but it's weaved in throughout. We know he was bullied a lot, we know he he is from a military family, we know he grew up with Bucky, we know he has had very few, if any, dates in his life, he's a childhood friend of Bucky, and we know he wants to be a soldier because he feels its his duty. I'd rather get it weaved in through the narrative of the story rather than get a huge text dump or just have characters talking for half an hour about everything they've ever done.

5. This movie just glorifies America! Not really. It's a good vs. evil story that happens to have a character named Captain America, which was given to him by a publicity stunt. I suppose you also hate movies like Saving Private Ryan because it tells things from the perspective of American soldiers but not the Japanese ones?

These were the most common arguments and they are easily refutable. Captain America is a great movie, showcasing one of the best Marvel has to offer and should be in the 7s or higher, not the 6s.
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8/10
I liked it, but...
26 June 2008
Let me just start by saying I'm a Futurama Geek, meaning I've bought all 4 boxed sets and both movies, and I've seen all the original episodes with the audio commentary (which in some cases is just as funny as the episode, I might add).

Onto the movie though: The Beast with a Billion backs was just as good as Bender's Big Score at first. The first half of the movie was filled with classic Futurama style gags, such as random, made up funny words and inventions as well as games, and Fry's good ol' idiocy. However, I did feel that the movie began to trail off around halfway through. There were still some good jokes and wit, but it felt like it was becoming a bad drama near the second half.

The ending was another think I didn't like so much. It felt like it was...rushed. I guess to me it felt like the ending was just done at the last minute by the writers in a desperate attempt to patch everything up, while still leaving the plot open to another movie. That's what I liked best about Bender's Big Score: It looked like the writers put a lot of effort to clean up all plot holes, which was probably difficult with the time paradoxes.

Overall though, I'd have to say the movie was on par with Bender's Big Score. Not quite as good as the original series, but still funny and pretty well written. The first half was funny, the second was dramatic, which to me would cancel out and put them on par with Bender's Big Score.
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10/10
Wow.
5 June 2008
Arashi no Yoru Ni is a wonderful tale. It's well written, beautiful animation that I haven't seen since Akira, great voice talents, a nice ending, and it was kid friendly without being cheesy.

Admitedly the odds of a wolf and a goat being friends are practically zero, but after seeing a lioness take care of a gazelle there's really nothing to far-fetched about it. The friendship between Gabu and Mei was a strong bond that was able to get them through even life threatening situations throughout the film. I will grant, many anime tend to show a bond of friendship being close to that of guy love, and Arashi no Yoru Ni isn't an exception, but it's easy to look past that. I actually got a tear in my eye when I though Gabu had died.

What stunned me most was the animation. The colors in the film were vibrant, the shadows and highlights were smooth and easy moving without seeming like paint, and the backgrounds looked as if they had been drawn by Da Vinci himself.

If you want a good story that is fairly kid friendly without being cheesy, wonderful animation and some lovable characters, Arashi no Yoru Ni is right for you.
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10/10
I wish I could fight Drunken fist Style.
5 August 2007
This movie is easily one of Jackie's best, even if it is one of his first roles where he plays a significant part. The fighting was amazing, and the training sessions with the red nosed master were funny as hell. I don't see Jackie complaining as much as he did as his character, but that didn't hurt it too bad.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was in the English dub, they refer Wong Fei-Hung as "Freddy Hung". Seriously, Freddy?! That doesn't even sound like a name a martial artist would have! The kid that got his father knocked down also kind of irked me, as his voice sounded like it was being done by a older guy trying to imitate a kids voice. It just doesn't work.

The movie also had some kind of annoying sound effects, as was accustomed to older kung-fu movies. That loud whip-cracking noise whenever someone threw a blow, or got it blocked or hit someone. And there was also that wind cutting noise whenever someone threw a strike or moved their hands or feet. Besides these little annoyances, this was a great movie.

I actually tried to see if there were teachers that could teach me Drunken Boxing, but I found out the style can take many years to learn as it requires much former training in previous martial arts.
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Akira (1988)
10/10
Best Anime Movie EVER!!!
31 July 2007
Akira was the best anime movie I ever saw. It was violent, had an easy to understand story, and the redub had great voices (but the originals stunk in comparison). The movie was vastly different from the original manga, and even though it had a completely different story, it was still great. I enjoyed both the movies plot, and it's stunning visual effects: it actually had 50 colors created specifically for it, and that is an amazing feat. I even enjoyed that the movie went into Tetsuo's mind and showed his hallucinations. The super powers shown by the psychics is great as well, as they are strong, but not so over the top that they couldn't be duplicated.

I want to see Akira made into a Live Action Movie that is based on the manga. This will probably force the director to make a trilogy, but that doesn't matter: only more movie to love.
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