Flix Reviewer November Update

Hey guys, just a quick update to the blog about all the movies coming out in November that I might see and what reviews you can expect. If you have any recommendations, comment!

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's latest epic comes out this month, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine among others. The project has been shrouded in secrecy and it's needless to say, it has piqued my interest. But I don't know if I'll be able to put out a review for this until it comes out on DVD because of it's length. Seriously, Nolan? 182 MINUTES! That is verging on "Avatar" length and I've heard that the first hour is on Earth (mind you, that could be used for set up and character development)!!! Anyway, sorry if you were wanting a review on that. Maybe, but I'm not certain.

The Imitation Game

Next up on the 14th of November is a biopic about Alan Turing, the man who cracked the German code during WWII, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Ever since premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, and later the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the "People's Choice Award for Best Film", the film has been receiving extremely positive reviews so it's natural that I would want to check it out.

The Hunger Games : Mockingjay Part 1

Now, this is a lock-in for a review. I have been watching this series since the start and have loved every minute. Jennifer Lawrence is perfect in her role, with a bleak future having been created very well, to add to the atmosphere. I am very excited for this.

TV Reviews

There's going to be a few TV reviews out this month as well, including the Doctor Who Series 8 finale (which starts tonight :) ), and hopefully the beginning of my "Flash" and "Arrow Season 3" reviews.

"ALIEN (1979)" Review

It's time for one last Halloween review, and I'm going to have a look at a classic:

"Alien." One of the most famous and influential movies of the modern day. It is hailed as a landmark in both the horror and science-fiction genre and often as one of the best films ever, sitting at number 50 on IMDb. Did it live up to the hype? Yes...and no. In the horror genre, "Alien" has not aged well. It is now considered generic for a horror movie to feature some sort of strange creature, in this case the infamous Alien, hunting down a group of people in a cramped space in the dark. This takes away from the fresh and new feeling that I am sure this movie once had and displayed to audiences but is now considered standard. In the science-fiction genre on the other hand, "Alien" has done well, introducing undoubtedly one of the most famous creatures ever, the alien that would come to be known as a Xenomorph.

There he is, the Alien. Wait, he's in the movie for how long?

The plot revolves around the crew of the starship Nostromo being sent to investigate a mysterious SOS and encountering a hostile organism on the planet which begins to pick them off one by one when on their ship. This fits perfectly into the science-fiction genre and is an interesting story, despite not addressing questions regarding the alien. Where did the alien goo come from? What was the alien on the planet? Who sent the SOS? If you want to know, spend more money to go and see the 2012 prequel "Prometheus" (which will still confuse you and only raise more questions)! 

Want to know what this is? Fox says "GIVE US MORE MONEY!"

Sigourney Weaver portrays the character of Ellen Ripley, who fights against the Alien and tries to survive with her crew against impossible odds. Weaver brings emotion and personality to the character to the best of her ability. The other crew members are played by......what were their names? Those characters were called......I don't know. Trust me, you won't remember their names either. The main attraction of the movie, however, is the Alien itself (despite only appearing in the movie for a shockingly short amount of time). It looks fantastic when you finally get to see it in all it's glory in the finale and is one of the best things about the movie.

Remember when this was the scariest scene ever? It just doesn't seem that way any more.

"Alien" also benefits from it's perfect soundtrack which adds to the already creepy atmosphere created by the Nostromo itself through a lack of good lighting and noisy venting systems and pipes, so you can never anticipate where the alien is going to come from. In short, "Alien" has aged well as a science-fiction film, due to it's interesting world and mythology as well as introducing one of the most iconic creatures of all time but falls flat as a horror film, following a now standard and frankly boring formula of forgettable characters besides the lead being picked off one by one. It is by no means the worst thing ever but it was a massive let down after being built up to me as one of the best.

Rating : 6/10

Original Release Date : 25th May, 1979

Starring : Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright. Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton

"DRACULA UNTOLD" Review

Well, Halloween has come and gone but the "scary" reviews are going to keep coming with a look at the recently released "Dracula Untold!"

This was always going to happen and we all knew it. Eventually Universal was going to want more money and would resurrect their monsters for more movies, starting with the Prince of Darkness, Dracula. Now, rather than simply re-telling Bram Stoker's famous novel yet again, Universal chose to change things up and tell the origin story of Dracula. Due to this, the character is not called Dracula until the end of the film. 

Vlad (Luke Evans) walks into battle looking like he means business.

Throughout, he is called Vlad Tepes, otherwise known throughout real history as Vlad the Impaler. Implementing a piece of real world history into a movie about a vampire may seem strange but is actually an interesting decision that works well for the movie, establishing Vlad's character quickly and exactly what he is willing to do for his people and his family. The story of the film revolves around Vlad's, played by Luke Evans, attempts to save his family and people from a power-hungry Sultan, played by Dominic Cooper, and so strikes up a deal with a mythological vampire, played eerily by Charles Dance, to give him the necessary power to defeat his enemies. 

Charles Dance portrays this creepy character who doesn't look like he's been out and about in a few hundred years.

Luke Evans portrays this troubled character perfectly, and brings the fury and anger to the role that would be expected and making his fight scenes look realistic. However, some of the stand-out scenes of the movie come from those featuring Charles Dance's unnamed vampire character who amplifies the dark tone of the movie and creates an eerie and unnerving atmosphere when on screen. The effects in this movie are also well done. Bats look like bats rather than a lifeless black blob which has been lazily added into the movie because there are vampires in it and it is impressive to see people turn into a swarm of bats in the middle of fight scenes and then turn back, with the attention to detail also being brilliant to watch as parts of their bodies are missing until the other bats arrive. The is but one of the things that those who grew up with the novel and tales of vampires will love as this movie sticks faithfully to the set mythology of vampires. 

Dominic Cooper plays the villainous Sultan. Strange, though. You would think he'd look a bit more scared if he knew a VAMPIRE was coming to kill him!

However, there is an unfortunate lack of humour amongst this darkness and you will be lucky if you get a laugh throughout the entire movie. This film's ending also tries to set up a sequel so much that it may downright annoy fans as there is a scene moments beforehand that would have made a perfect ending and told a complete story, while also subtly setting up a sequel if the film does well. All in all however, "Dracula Untold" is a fresh story with a dark tone and fine action sequences amongst what has been a summer of heroes, with Star-Lord, Godzilla, Caesar and Wolverine all being present. Sometimes the world does not need another hero. Sometimes what the world needs, for a great movie, is a monster.

Rating : 7/10

Original Release Date : October 1st, 2014

Starring : Luke Evans, Charles Dance, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gordon

"GODZILLA (2014)" Review

IT'S HALLOWEEN! And to kick things off, I'm going to review the King of the Monsters latest attempt to make a great monster movie!

"Well, no matter what, it can't be worse than Matthew Broderick's version from 1999, right? Right?" That's what ever Godzilla fan as well as anyone who has seen that version was thinking as they got their popcorn and settled down to watch Gareth Edwards' latest attempt to bring the legendary King of Monsters to life on the big screen. First of all, the monster itself. Godzilla looks fantastic. Plain and simple. He is a treat to watch anytime he is on screen and the final battle with the film original MUTOS rather than one of the other famous Toho monsters (because Toho did not give them the rights to those monsters until they had actually seen what they could do which was a smart move after the last disaster) is the clear highlight of the film. However, there is one point in the film set in Hawaii that will irritate and even anger anyone watching the movie. Just as we get an amazing build up and see Godzilla and hear him roar for the first time in the film (this is about an hour in, by the way), we cut away to the main human, Ford's, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, dull family watching TV while Godzilla is fighting. Unbelievably, we only see snippets of the battle on the TV screen and then the destruction caused. Why would you do this?

Godzilla in all his glory, destroying all of our terrible memories of the Matthew Broderick version.

Another highlight of the film is the performance of Bryan Cranston, most famous for his role as Walter White in "Breaking Bad" at the moment, who plays Ford's actually interesting and motivated father who is investigating the government's covering up of the monsters. His part is easily the best acted in the film but, brace yourselves, you see every single one of his scenes in the trailer and then he is gone for the final half of the movie. If Legendary are willing to go through the trouble of getting an actor who is well known at the moment in their film, they should at least USE HIM! Instead, we get stuck with Taylor-Johnson's dull, generic marine Ford and his family with a stupid romantic subplot between him and his wife, played by Elizabeth Olsen, for a large chunk of the film which is obviously much less interesting than the actual story.

Bryan "Heisenberg" Cranston finds out how much his character is actually in the movie while his son, Aaron Taylor-Johnson looks on.

Another amazing thing to behold is the stupidity of every character in this movie besides those of Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe. For example, the government's plan to destroy monsters which feed on nuclear energy is to bomb them....with nuclear weapons. The government knows this as well which makes this decision all the more bewildering. The nuke is only there so we can have some extra tension with Ford, who is apparently a bomb expert, as he does not stop saying throughout the whole movie, during the climax and even that does not have as much weight behind it as Godzilla is fighting monsters at the same time. You choose which is more exciting but I'm willing to bet you would choose watching Godzilla destroy things over a man disarm a bomb. However, its not all bad. As I said before, the monsters and destruction look brilliant and realistic. The dark tone is also good and suitable to a more "grounded" Godzilla movie but another thing the movie lacks is any humour. I cannot think of any instance throughout the film where there is any element of humour whatsoever. 

BORING SUB-PLOT INCOMING!

Overall, the highly anticipated reboot featuring the King of the Monsters doesn't live up to all of the anticipation but that does not make it by any means bad, sporting fantastic visuals and good acting from a few people in the cast, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing that the main focus of this MONSTER movie is a boring human and his family. Nonetheless, it does seem like director Gareth Edwards knows what he is doing and is exciting to hear he will be back for a sequel in 2018 after helming one of Disney's many upcoming Star Wars spinoffs (Godzilla/Star Wars crossover anyone?)

Rating : 7/10

Original Release Date : 8th May, 2014

Starring : Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe 

Doctor Who "In the Forest of the Night" Review

Well, I said in my first post that I would be featuring the odd TV review on here and I thought I'd start with the most recent episode of one of my favourite shows on TV, "Doctor Who." This is a review for episode 10 of series 8, with a series recap coming soon! But beware :

Still here? Then let's begin. We were promised a darker series of "Doctor Who" this year, and many episodes have lived up to that, such as "Kill the Moon" or the surprisingly death-ridden "Mummy on the Orient Express." Other episodes, however, have not, such as the straight-up awful "Robot of Sherwood" and this particular episode. This episode is based off of the standard fairy tale line "and they ventured into the forest." And it shows. Many explicit references are made to fairy tales such as "Sleeping Beauty" and "Hansel and Gretel" and, to be honest, it takes away from the episode when you realise the similarities between them. 

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) stands in Trafalgar Square, now overrun by trees.

  Peter Capaldi has brought mixed opinions from fans and casual viewers alike, with many praising his performance while others did not like it at all for numerous reasons (Americans, for example, have actually complained to the BBC that they are having trouble understanding his accent). It is my opinion, however, that he is doing a fine job as the Time Lord, bringing ignorant humour and intelligence to the role. In this episode, he displays his ability to work with younger actors as well and succeeds, which was essential here as two thirds of the cast was child actors. Unfortunately, these actors and actresses are not good. At all. Their characters just come across as annoying, contributing nothing to the plot or any good humour (their only purpose was for the BBC to basically say "CLARA IS A TEACHER, REMEMBER?"). This is unfortunate as one of the main characters is one of said children and is central to the resolution of the story, which involves the human race waking up to find that a forest has grown everywhere on Earth overnight. This has so far been an excellent season for Jenna Coleman as Clara, as the character has received some much needed character development. She is great in this episode to, bringing the passion and personality to the role. Newcomer Samuel Anderson as also done well this season in his small scale role as Clara's beau/possibly future husband Danny, making the character likable and humourous. His scenes have been a few of the most enjoyable, particularly those with himself, Capaldi, and Coleman.

The Doctor, Clara, and Danny (Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Samuel Anderson respectively) run through the new forest, a group of school children in tow

The plot of the episode, as previously mentioned, revolves around the Doctor arriving on Earth to find, to his shock, that the entire planet has been engulfed by trees and a solar flare is on the way. Reuniting with Clara, the Doctor, along with Danny and a group of school children, must try to figure out what has caused this mysterious event. Sounds intriguing and you'd think it would lead to a good payoff, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, this all just paves the way for writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce to enforce the same standard eco message that the trees are our friends and should be kept safe. Also, I could not get my head around what I had just watched at the end. There were just so many questions. Where did all of London's buildings go? What were the creatures that created the forest? Why would the government listen to a message from a child who appears to have hacked into all of their communications? And the ending. It just made absolutely no sense. How is her sister alive? I was just so confused. Seriously, I doubt anyone really understands what happened. It was just so we could have our obligatory emotional moment at the end. It was easily one of the weakest plots of the new season so far.

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure for a big surprise

 In the end, this was one of the weakest episodes of a mixed bag of a series so far, returning to the fairy tale-like narrative that Steven Moffat has so frequently brought to "Doctor Who." With the exceptions of Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Samuel Anderson, pitiful acting is present throughout, accompanied by a nonsensical plot only designed to push across the same tired eco message. This was a let down of an episode before the impressive looking finale, featuring some answers about the mysterious Missy and the return of old enemy the Cybermen. However, it is going to have to do a good job, with a lack of plot development through the series, leaving it all up to the final two-parter to give us all of the answers without feeling like it is all exposition.

Rating : 4/10

"X-MEN : DAYS OF FUTURE PAST" Movie Review

Welcome to my first movie review and to kick things off, I thought I'd start with the recently released on DVD prequel-sequel, "X-Men : Days of Future Past."This film was the victim of skepticism and fear for months after announcement. This fear was well grounded, however, after the almost universally hated "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "X-Men: The Last Stand" in addition to the divisive Wolverine movie released last year. Don't worry, though. It's awesome. Bryan Singer returns to the X-Men franchise after directing the first two X-Men movies but leaving after X2, which is one of the most loved superhero movies ever, to direct Superman Returns (and that didn't work out too well for him). The announcement of his directing this newest addition to the franchise was met with relief and as soon as you hear the familiar X2 music in the film's opening, you know Singer is back and a good movie is in store. The plot revolves around Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, being sent back in time from an apocalyptic future where mutants have almost been entirely wiped out to find a young Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr (otherwise known as Professor X and Magneto), played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender respectively, and help him change the past to save the future. This storyline is overly complex at some points, introducing plot points that have not even been raised or questioned in previous movies (how exactly is Professor X alive?) but that is because Singer has not been the only director working on this franchise and the mythology and plot has been mixed up because of this. It is an engaging and interesting story, drawing you in from start to finish. One of the X-Men movies strongest points throughout the series has been its impressive visual effects and it is no different here. The robotic Sentinels look interesting and realistic in the past but intimidating and powerful in the future while the mutant powers look as fantastic as always. One scene, however, is the clear stand-out of the film due to its style and CGI involving Evan Peters new mutant Quicksilver. It had the whole cinema laughing and, while I won't spoil it here, it is a must see. Another thing the X-Men franchise has consistently done right is its terrific casting. Hugh Jackman is iconic as Wolverine and it is difficult to imagine anyone else playing the role at this point while James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are worthy successors to the comic-book accurate characters portrayed by Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. It is very difficult to have any gripes at all with this film if you are a casual moviegoer with entertaining action sequences among all of this. This only problem I can think of which may annoy hardcore X-Men fans only but even then not a lot is the lack of fan favourite character Bishop throughout the film. Even then, this is a film that it loved generally by fans and newcomers to the series alike, boasting impressive action sequences, casting, effects and a great sense of humour which weaves in nicely with the dark sections of the film. This is a return to form for the X-Men franchise and leaves myself personally aching for more and highly anticipating the 2016 follow-up "X-Men Apocalypse."

Rating : 9.5/10

"AVENGERS : AGE OF ULTRON" Trailer Breakdown

First Post and Trailer Breakdown

Hello, Internet! Welcome to my blog. I am the Flix Reviewer. Just a short intro before I delve into the recently leaked and then officially released Avengers : Age of Ultron trailer. From this blog, you can expect movie, TV show, and game reviews, along with the occasional trailer breakdown or my thoughts on a recently released piece of film news. One thing I should note is that THIS IS ALL OPINION! My opinion may differ from yours but everyone is entitled to their own. Happy Reading :)

OK, without further ado, lets take a look a what's going on in the new Avengers : Age of Ultron trailer:

Well, we start practically where every sequel action movie starts: with a shot of lots of destruction to show that this is darker than the original (because it is the new trend in Hollywood that sequels MUST BE DARKER. No exceptions).

We then get a look at presumably the creation of our villain, Ultron, an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark gone bad. My opinion here is that this is the villain creating himself a new body to transfer his AI into as he does in the comics, as we see his body wrecked later in the trailer.

You know, it seems like Captain America is getting a new outfit every movie. He had that old WWII one, and then the Avengers outfit, then the blue one from "The Winter Soldier" and now this more armoured outfit for "Age of Ultron". Cap doesn't need to buy clothes, it is all just given to him by the government!

Next, we see the whole team in ruin but noticeably avoiding eye contact with Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner in particular. Perhaps he took the last pork chop at the last dinner gathering. Or maybe he hulked out and destroyed the city. Either one seems possible.

This is a great zombie-like reveal for big bad Ultron but, in the first picture, I just can't take my eyes off of that strange gym equipment in the corner! What exactly does that do?! Anyway, you can notice the Avengers logo on Ultron's chest which does hint at his origins as a creation of Tony Stark before he goes rogue.

We continue to get more hints of Banner losing himself throughout the trailer and how he may not be in charge of the beast anymore. Oh boy....

This is just some home movie footage of Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) moving into her new apartment. If it's part of the movie, the Avengers have been broken by this point as they consider how to tackle this threat.

New recruits Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver meet with the now-upgraded robot as they may be offering their services. They do start out as villains after all. Even still, they look surprisingly calm for facing down a robot killing machine.

Close-ups of Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in their respective roles as brother and sister superheroes. There is no room for error on Marvel's part here because...well, go watch "X-Men : Days of Future Past" and look at THEIR Quicksilver.

We get a good look at Ultron's drone army as we see someone has been giving them swimming lessons.

Thor realises the scope of the threat and actually drops his hammer! Or hes just watching M.Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" on a big screen. I'd be equally terrified personally. 

Stark realises the horror of his creation, true Frankenstein style. Could this wrecked piece of armour be what is left of one of his suits after he destroyed them at the end of "Iron Man 3"?

Samuel L. Jackson returns as former SHIELD director Nick Fury, eyepatch and all. Didn't he burn that at the end of "The Winter Soldier?"

Scarlet Witch could be realising the error of her ways by seeing the destruction caused by her attack with Quicksilver and HYDRA. Her motivations are a massive part of the movie and are likely responsible for the siblings joining the Avengers in battle.

We get our first big close-up of the Hulk. That is incredible. Seriously, look at it! You can see the veins on his neck and shoulders!

But Stark is ready to put the big green monster down with the use of his new Hulkbuster armour. Seriously, what was the point of destroying all of his suits at the end of "Iron Man 3" if he was just going to rebuild them anyway? Notice the use of the Mark 42 technology in order to summon the suit to him. Mind you, that didn't work out too well last time for Tony as that armour was destroyed by everything, even trucks. OK, heres my theory on what is going on here. Either, Ultron is controlling the armour to turn Hulk on the Avengers or Iron Man is forced to put on the armour in order to stop Hulk after he loses control of his anger and begins to destroy the city. Could be anything else but those seem the most likely.

We get a look at Quicksilver's powers in action on a train in what is surely many of the film's many set-piece action sequences.

Now, here's something interesting. This man is Andy Serkis, not in motion-capture, but doing some acting in person. A recent theory to emerge online is that Serkis is playing Ulysses Klaw, a lesser-known Marvel villain and a primary villain of Black Panther, another Marvel hero. Are we building towards a Black Panther movie here? If so, it will be great to see Serkis in a villain role and, even if he is not Klaw, it's great to see him here.

I've got no idea as to what is going on here. Thor is breaking out of some rubble or ruin presumably after a battle with Ultron's drones but why is he shirtless? Was he beaten? Is he dead and in Asgard? Is he just taking a bath? We will find out on May 1st next year!

Aww, this is nice isn't it. She was terrified of the Hulk in the first film but it looks like she is getting over her fear and has formed some sort of connection with the great beast.

Oh, yeah, Hawkeye's in this movie too isn't he and, for once, is looking pretty awesome is what could be the opening battle of the movie against HYDRA, dodging explosions and in an outfit much closer to the comics than that shirtless, SHIELD costume from Avengers.

Thor's annoyed. Rightfully so as well. I mean, Stark's creation has only just began to take over the world using Stark's arsenal of weaponry and suits. 

Remember how I said a truck destroyed that technology in "Iron Man 3"....Tony better have fixed that problem. It doesn't matter though because this fight looks awesome.

Isn't that shield meant to be unbreakable? Who could have done this? Who is so great and powerful that he can destroy Captain America's shield? I'll tell you who...

....this guy. What a way to end your trailer. I've got no idea how the Avengers are expected to best this villain and I can't wait to find out! Well, that's it for this trailer breakdown! I hope this was helpful and reviews are on the way soon! :)