Tag: movies
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Lightning Movie Reviews – Ant-Man, Ultron, Minions
I have some catching up to do, so you get some quick thoughts on some recent flicks. Avengers: Age of Ultron – The first movie was so successful, so it would’ve been difficult to meet expectations here. Ultron definitely was a half-step down but still had some great action and humor. Ultron himself could’ve used…
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Movie Review – Tomorrowland
We saw Tomorrowland, and quite enjoyed it. Â It felt to me like a throwback to the 80s kid adventure movies, with a modern budget. Â It isn’t perfect, but the visuals and the solid kid actors make it worthwhile. The story centers around two people – Frank Walker, seen both as a 12 year old inventor…
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Movie Review – Big Hero 6
Took the kids to see this at an advanced screening, and had a blast. Â It is technically a Marvel movie, though the book is not exactly well-known. Â Consider this in the vein of How to Train Your Dragon, in that a lot of the same parts are there, but plenty was changed to work better…
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Movie Review – X-Men: Days of Future Past
The X-Men movie franchise has had it’s ups and downs. Â The first two movies were very good despite the myriad changes and tweaks to the characters, while X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were on the rough side. Â First Class was good, but went a long way towards making the continuity issues worse (How much…
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Movie Review – Godzilla
Japanese kaiju (or giant monster) movies have been part of my pop culture since I was a kid, and my older brothers watched the various Godzilla and King Kong movies. Though I probably got the most enjoyment from the Gamera movies as they appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Â Even without Pacific Rim appearing on…
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Movie Review – The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a tough movie to get my head around. Â It’s really two movies, a great Peter Parker movie, and a decent Spider-Man movie. Â The personal moments between Peter and Gwen, and Peter and Harry, and Peter and Aunt May are all…
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Movie Review – 300: Rise of an Empire
I got in to see 300: Rise of an Empire at an advanced screening (thanks, Buffalo.com!) and I left shaking my head. It’s basically the ‘rest of the story’ about what’s happening in Greece while the Spartans are kicking messengers into pits and defending gates. Themistokles is a Greek general known for his cunning, trying…
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Movie Review – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Many people were nervous when Peter Jackson wanted to make two movies out of The Hobbit, and it only deepened when three were discussed. The first movie was pretty divisive – Tolkien purists disliked the changes, and the added parts with the council and the Necromancer bothered some folks. Others felt that if they got…
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Movie Review – Thor: The Dark World
The first Thor movie (am I the only one who feels like THOR should be all-caps? Â or maybe in that ‘Asgardian’ font they use in the comics?) was a solid effort despite some cornball moments. Â The real star turn from that was for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki however, and the fact he got to villain it…
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Movie Review – Ender’s Game
Note: Â my love of the book predates any knowledge of OSC’s deplorable politics and views on gays. Â Not discussing that here. I have a long history with the book Ender’s Game. Â My brother gave it to me to read after he read it and loved it, I couldn’t have been more than 10 years old.…
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Movie Review – Elysium
I really wanted to like Elysium, and I guess I do, somewhat. However, there are some serious problems here that kept me from getting even as far as “I really like it” or “It’s great!”. The first half seemed to drag. Too much establishing of characters, and even then, it didn’t stick. I never got…
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Movie Review – The Wolverine
Adaptation movies are such balancing acts, especially with comic book movies. Alienate the fans, and the negative backlash on the geek sites will wash you away. But the superfans alone do not bring in the box office numbers (just look at Joss and Serenity) so you can’t hew too close to the source if it…