Hero Inc.

Here’s the next set of reviews from my Netflix queue.

Revolution OS A geek’s movie about Linux. Too bad it doesn’t go far enough to make it interesting to non-geek’s. [Rating: 2.5/5]	The Italian Job I didn’t enjoy it as much as the new version, but it still had its moments and it was cool for its time period. That and everyone loves Michael Caine. [Rating: 3/5]
Inside Man Another great thriller but the ending went farther than it really needed to go. [Rating: 4.5/5]	Memoirs of a Geisha It just jumped around too much for my taste. Others seem to like it. [Rating: 3/5]
Who Killed The Electric Car? Whoever did should have also tried to kill this movie. Must see. [Rating: 5/5]	Charlie Bartlett Anton Yelchin is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors to see on the big screen. This kid’s got talent and so did this movie. [Rating: 4.5/5]

I’m not going to hide from the fact that I was never really a fan of the other films. Sure, T2 was a marvel of modern technology at the time, but that was about it for me. Something about this film seemed interesting to me and that was just enough to get me to shell out the money to see Batman beat up some machines.

Salvation is set in the year 2018 where the war against the machines has begun (but not in a Matrix sort of way).  John Connor (Christian Bale) is not the leader of the resistance, but he certainly leads his own team.  Over the course of the war, the Resistance has found a signal that will act as an off switch for the machines and allow the humans to win the war.  However, things change when a new man is saved and is discovered to be one of the machines.  Marcus Wright believes he is human but slowly learns that he is nothing more than a project for a woman after he was put to death for past crimes.

Salvation is simply another post apocalyptic movie of the future where both Sony and Seven 11 are still around.  Remind me to invest in both soon rather than later.  The graphics are simply amazing throughout.  The Terminator movies always excelled in this category and this movie doesn’t disappoint.  I’d say the highlight of the film is known to some and others of us are kept in the dark about a special appearance.  Take a shot in the dark and you will get it.  Let’s just say what they can do with graphics today is shocking.  It’s just too bad that X-Men and Wolverine just made it look weird.

Overall I was pleased with this movie more than the others (minus T2), but it’s not great.  McG plus some horrible out of nowhere love story makes the movie fall short.  That and a post apocalyptic world that has a gas station sign set at 1.89 just doesn’t make me believe it is going to end like that.  Someone call Mad Max and maybe John Connor can fight it out for the new world.

In a non Terminator comment, go ahead and get used to Sam Worthington and Common.  Say hello to Hal Jordan and John Stewart respectively.

[Rating: 3/5]

The Trekkies are back and better than ever.

J. J. Abrams prequel is a hit in my eyes. This movie starts us at the very beginning of James T. Kirk’s birth and moves forward from there. We see him join the Star Fleet Academy and slowly are introduced to the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprises’ future crew. From Spock to Sulu to McCoy to Checkov, all characters are perfectly cast and you get a good feeling of the original actors that made these characters famous.

The story is your typical time space dealings of old returns to young to right some wrongs. Sure it’s a cliche in itself but you don’t care. You are interested in seeing the characters grow in order to win whatever conflict is ahead of them. It’s also nice to watch some space action along the way. Star Trek, unlike the new Star Wars movies, doesn’t look cheesy or fake (for as real as computer graphics can become).

For those worried that you need to have seen prior Star Trek movies or tv series, no more need to worry. I believe the movie gives those of us with prior knowledge the small tidbits we need to enjoy it further but not enough of them that those who are clueless of what has come before will not enjoy the movie. One of the guys in my group had never seen any of the movies and he enjoyed it just as much as I did.

[Rating: 4.5/5]

My original expectation of this movie was that it would be bad. Possibly even worse than X-Men: The Last Stand. I sure hate it when I’m right.

Since this review will mostly consist of the negatives, I’ll start with some positives. Ryan Reynolds was perfectly cast as Deadpool (Wade Wilson) and Liev Schreiber was a great Sabretooth. Visually, I was not pleased with The Blob at the beginning of the film, but his second main appearance in the movie definitely turned things around. The movie also does a good job of leading into the other spinoff movies Fox is hoping to produce (X-Men: First Class and Deadpool).

Now that the positives are out of the way, you can hear why this movie was so bad. Early rumblings from those that watched the early pirated copy stated that the biggest issue was the special effects. Well, they didn’t seem to update them much. One particular scene with Wolverine’s claws (the bathroom) looked laughable. Almost as if some teenager was doing the animation for them using Flash. I would have rather seen Hugh Jackman holding kitchen knives between his fingers.

Everyone was waiting for Gambit in an X-Men movie and they finally got it with Origins.  The response previously for not having him appear was because his character was too close to Wolverine (loner that isn’t a team player) and would be difficult to differentiate on screen. Looks like someone got that one right because his inclusion was lackluster and laughable.  Not sure what it was, but his powers seemed less impressive on screen.  Maybe the first X-Men movies tried to select mutants whose powers would look “real” on screen.

Overall, the movie was boring, long, slow, and limiting on the action.  It was a true origins story. For those that do go to see this movie, I wouldn’t wait around after the credits. The extra clip my movie had was not worth it and I have heard the same for the other alternative endings as well.  Here’s hoping Star Trek makes me forget this entire mess.

And I seriously feel bad for the movie reviewer who decided to download this movie early and provide a review. He was promptly fired and now gets to tell his family he lost his job over a terrible movie.

[Rating: .5/5]