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Laxontlyn
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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
As usual.
You know that feeling, when you for example taste a good quality product and it for sure should be awesome, but it lacks something. That is precisely how I feel about this movie. You have awesome effects, great camera angles and from time to time a joke that can get a chuckle or two. Although, this humor is not my cup of tee, but I can understand why people can get behind it. But there is an inconsistent world, shallow villain, undeveloped characters, plot full of Clichés, etc.
So why do I even bother? It is after all, a movie for a younger audience so one should not expect a masterly portrayed characters and thought-provoking plot. The thing is, that the overwhelming majority of todays cinema is consumed by this kind of filmmaking. But again, this is easily understandable. People want to run from the real world into fake one, where rules does not apply and everything turns good at the end. Have we become mentally weak, that we can't handle the movie that is more serious than a cartoon? The audience won't ever visit the cinemas after they shed a tear there or had themselves pondering over movie they just saw? Than again, it is a comic book movie and it does the job. It just feels that every movie today is some sort of a comic book movie.
Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
Quintessential Action Movie.
So again, what happened with the action movies today? Look here, you have it all. It is fast. It is fun. It has a memorable tune to accompany the action. It has remarkable characters, who by no means are deep or Shakespere type guys, they are just cool. It has one-liners. It has a smoking-hot looking girl. A little bit of nudity here and there. Couple of funny lines can be heard. Very colorful villain and his goons. It has that feeling of adventure. It is a quintessential action movie. For that reason it is so predictable and clichéd, but here, is it really a downfall? Can we get more of these, please? I am sick of a bloody messes and greedy mood in todays action movies. Can you take it a little easier, filmmakers? Or is it a thing of the past, meaning that will never get this style back again?
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
A video game cutscene.
I've read the book "Hobbit", but I am not going to judge this movie based on it. I am looking on it as a stand-alone title.
I enjoyed the first movie of the "Hobbit" series, but this one feels like they took the archetype of an action movie and merge it with fantasy environments and characters and here we are.
Actually it hits almost all of the action movie clichés:
1. Over the top action - check. (Ammount of action was so damn HIGH)
2.Villain who talks a lot but does nothing - check.
3. Villain 'Minions' are dealt without even sweating - check.
4. Love story out of nowhere - check. (Strange that sex was absent, yet)
5. Logical issues with world where movie takes place.
6. Invulnerable main characters - check.
7. No AMMO limits - check.
8. Perfect aim, agility and placement - check.
9. No signs of exhaustion - check.
10. Always ignorant, in the face of danger, authority - check. ...
You know what, I love action movies so i don't want them to be compared to this, so I think this movie is best summed up in the title of my review, it is a video game cutscene after you beat the level.
Next level is loading... I hope it won't be as dull.
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Oh... That was a nose dive.
Being a huge fan of Die Hard movies and I mean huge! First time I saw John McClane was when I was 5 years old (Ye, I know that this is not the appropriate age for that movie) and I loved it. Then my parents got another VHS tape - named "Die Hard 2" and I loved that one as well. Later, I've seen "Die Hard 3" and while my first reaction was 'meh', later it has grown on me. "Die Hard 4" turned out good, it integrated J. McClaine well enough in XXI century. So I thought that there is a bright future for the franchise. When Die Hard 5 announced I was excited. But it did not lived to my expectations.
I want to focus on characters. My God, how underdeveloped they are. John McClane underdeveloped? How? Easy, spend the majority of the movie on shooting stuff (by the way, action in this movie is not that bad) and spent 5 minutes on main characters. His Son is just
He is not a fan of his father, and that's it. In the last movie, we at least saw some reasons why daughter had some issues with her father, but here... 2-3 lines of dialogue and off you go. I can overlook an underdeveloped supporting character, but not the a main character. It is is the biggest sin in any action movie, you must have something going on for the main lead, some cheesy one-liners, some view on his tastes, how he sees world or how he interacts with it, something! You must invest people into your main character, because stand-alone action impresses no one in our time. You can't just slap a confession scene ("I am a bad parent") and assume that that it is enough.
Overall, action is okay, but without any investment in character development, no juicy plot or villain and lack of humorous remarks from your beloved main character it falls apart really fast. Unfortunately, this is an average movie and for such a great series I hope it is redeemable...
Masters of the Universe (1987)
A light hearted entertainment.
You know... People say that I am wrong, but I judge adaptations by themselves. For instance, I've read Hobbit long time ago, but I look at those movies like Hobbit never existed, same goes for "Anna Karenina", "Transformers" and others... Being a purist, in my opinion, is bad for giving anything a constructed objective point of view on something.
With that said I can say is this movie is fun. It has its share of plot holes and some bad effects, but for what it is worth, it is fast paced (stuff almost always happens except those 'family' stories), costumes are funny, one-liners are cheesy, sets are interesting and so on.
Maybe it gave bad hohmage to the cartoon series but as a stand alone title it is good entertainment and I recommend it if you are in the mood for some light-hearted-laser-shooting-sword-fighting-army-teleporting- time-traveling-food-stealing-fantasy-movie.
Silent Trigger (1996)
Generic + Weird = Fun
Ohh
This movie is special. I mean, when it ended I felt almost like characters in the movie. Maybe it is just me, but watching this movie takes me on the other side of the screen. Maybe people who designed the sets knew something many people don't, maybe the architecture was simple and realistic so it was easier to identify with it, maybe composer did something unorthodox, or was there any music at all?... maybe I was in a special mood, I don't know!
But what I do know, is that despite being a quite generic action movie (hits almost everything in the cliché check-list) it has some amazing atmosphere which actually works fantastic with such special kind of acting (phlegmatic I would say) and some weird-cheap special effects. But overall, it is enjoyable and I recommend you watch it and I recommend you do it alone, for perfect experience.
The Avengers (2012)
Not setting new high standards, just being good.
Judging from this movie reception we could easily conclude that this is one of the best comic-book movies ever!
But, truth be told, it is a pretty generic movie. It has all the favorite clichés: 'the evil' that will destroy the world, we have typical jerk->hero transformation (with pseudo sacrifice) and all the others 'unpredictable' character evolutions...
I would call it a well-crafted movie. Action-scenes are good, dialog can be fun sometimes and the acting is nice. It just brings nothing new to the table and it is one of those movies, that you will watch and then remember a couple of scenes/lines from it and later on, you'll just remember a warm fuzzy feeling that it left in you. So it is worth to check it out.
Final verdict - it is not groundbreaking, but it is an entertaining movie, so check it out.