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Category: movies

Avengers: Age Of Ultron

I was kind of lucky. I had been anticipating the release of Age of Ultron to be on 1 May 2015, but turned out that it was released on 22 April in my country. We got two tickets for the evening and so yesterday I watched Age of Ultron 🙂

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens with a fight scene between the Avengers and the Hydra soldiers led by Strucker in an eastern Europe city called Sokovia. The team succesfully beat Strucker and find his experiments there, including the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They also find Loki’s scepter, which they bring back to Stark’s place. Without the rest of the team knowing, Stark and Banner (the Science Bros :p) use the scepter to build an artificial intelligent called Ultron, which is originally intended to be installed to Stark’s peacekeeping robots seen earlier in the movie. They fail, however, then they leave the computers on while they go upstairs where a party is being held. After the party, the team gather and then this scene happens, where Ultron first comes alive and makes the memorable speech we have seen in the clips released by Marvel a few months ago. Together with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, Ultron tries to create a real body while also try to “save” the world. And by “save” he really means to sweep all humankinds off the Earth to start anew.

Age of Ultron serves as a good climax for Phase Two. Thanks to Scarlet Witch’s ability, we can see a glimpse into the Avengers’ personal deepest fears. The whole movie is personal. We get to see into Hawkeye’s real identity; we get to see Black Widow’s past and the reason why she seems so cold and “business-minded”. Also, we get to see some romance, something that didn’t occur in the first Avengers movie. I totally didn’t see the romance coming, and I’m sure most of you didn’t either, but it gives a little nice surprise into the mostly-dark theme.

And because of the mostly-dark theme, the Marvel jokes don’t occur too often. There are only two running jokes in the movie; the first one isThor and his hammer, and the other one is Captain America’s ‘old man’-ness. The lack of humour is understandable, though. Ultron gives a real threat to Earth and he really seems too strong for the Avengers to beat. His origin also breaks the team and the whole Captain America versus Iron Man (which will be the main story of the third Captain America) can be seen in this movie. The Avengers are doomed. There’s no joke about it.

I’d give Avengers: Age of Ultron 4,5 out of 5 stars. Totally recommended! But if you’re not following Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’d suggest you watch the previous installments first. I mean, man… You really don’t know what you’re missing out. Haha :p

Poster via.

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23 April 2015
Sponge Out of Water Movie Review

Another movie I watched last week was Sponge Out of Water. I wasn’t waiting for this movie, but when it came out, a bunch of old friends asked me to join them to watch it. I hadn’t seen them in a while so I decided to hang out with them. Spongebob Squarepants was a part of our favourite things to talk about when we were in junior high, so watching the movie with them made perfect sense. It made me feel nostalgic.

The story is about yet another Plankton’s (failed) plan to steal Krabby Patty secret formula. Everything goes well until the formula vanishes. Spongebob is the only other person in that room so he is the only one who trusts that Plankton is innocent. The people of Bikini Bottom goes crazy due to the shortage of patties and Bikini Bottom goes into a doomsday. Spongebob and Plankton teams up to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Krabby Patty formula. The investigation leads them to an adventure above the water.

I must say that I found this movie a little disappointing. The story is so-so and the jokes are not that funny. The little kids were all laughing, but I didn’t even smile, except for the puns. The puns are hilarious, but I’m a big fan of puns, so there’s that. Compared to the previous Spongebob movie, this one fails miserably. Some people may enjoy it, but it’s just not for me.

Have you watched Sponge Out of Water? What do you think about it?

Images are from: 1/2/3

26 March 2015
Cinderella Movie Review

Last week was crazy. I hadn’t been to the cinema since December, but last week I went there twice. First was on Wednesday, when I watched Cinderella. Second was on Friday, when I watched Sponge Out of Water. In this post, as stated by the title, I’m going to review Cinderella. Next post will be Sponge Out of Water 😉

Can we talk about the teaser poster first? When I saw it, I knew right away that it was Cinderella’s poster. It was only a glass slipper, a Disney logo, and “March”, but people understood what it meant. So smart!

I’m sure you guys know the story of Cinderella (who don’t, right?) and I’m also sure that everybody has watched the old animated version at least once in their lifetime. So, I’ll just skip the usual part in a review where I give a short synopsis and move right on to the differences between the animated version (on which this film was based) and this new live action one.

First, Cinderella’s mother is alive in the beginning of the story. And the character was brought to life by non other than our very own Hayley Atwell! She’s gorgeous as usual. I miss Agent Carter so much and seeing her in Cinderella with blonde hair broke my heart just a little bit. Haha *end fangirling* This live action movie gives us a hint as to why Cinderella’s mother died and then why Cinderella’s father chose Lady Tremaine as his new wife.

Second, Cinderella and the Prince meets before the ball. There is a scene where Cinderella can no longer take the abuse that her stepmother and stepsisters do to her and she escapes to the forest riding a white horse. There, she meets the Prince who is hunting with his men. The Prince introduces himself as Kit, an apprentice, but Cinderella doesn’t reveal her identity. This meeting is the backstory of why the Prince invites every maiden in the kingdom to the ball, noble or not. After that meeting, however, Cinderella goes back to her house–something that I didn’t fully understand.

Third, and my most favourite difference, Disney added diversity in to the cast. The Captain, the Prince’s right hand, is black. And we can see in the ballroom there are Arabians, Indians, East Asians, and many more. This is a good effort of Disney and I respect them for doing that, although there are reviews out there which say that the diversity looks too forced and/or isn’t diversed enough, but hey, at least they tried. And I hope it’s a good start of a long line of more diversity in fairytale movies (and all other movies, generally speaking).

I must admit that I watched Cinderella with an expectation that it would be like Maleficent, in the sense of more mature theme. But no, Cinderella is a children movie. Aside of those three differences I have explained, it’s an exact reenactment of the animated version. One of my friends suggested I watch Into The Woods if I want a version with twists. So maybe that’s what I’m going to do tonight. But in general, Cinderella isn’t that bad, nor is it good. It’s somewhere in between; more like an ‘okay’ movie. I give this movie three stars out of five.

Have you watched Cinderella? What do you think of it?

Images are from: 1/2/3/4/5

23 March 2015
Kingsman: The Secret Service

Have you seen this movie? Well, if you haven’t, you should!

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a spy movie. As stated by the title, its main focus is on a secret service agency called Kingsman. When one of the agents was killed, the agency started searching for a new candidate to replace him. While other agents promote educated, high class young people, Harry Hart aka Galahad choose Eggsy, a military-school-drop-out-turn-criminal young man whose father was a candidate who was killed in his last stage of the test to become a Kingsman agent.

While Eggsy undergoes his training and test to become an agent, important people are going missing and Valentine, a businessman, is expanding his telecommunication business and producing SIM cards that will be distributed for free for everybody in the world. These SIM cards provide “free calls, free internet, forever”. Turns out, Valentine has a bad, hidden agenda. Then a twist happens and Eggsy has to save the world (just like any other hero).

Before deciding to watch this movie, I had already heard people talked about how good it was. So I had a really high expectations when I bought the ticket. And I was satisfied with it! The story is not particularly good, but I really like the action and the music. The director, Matthew Vaughn (Kickass, X-Men: First Class), smoothly used slow motion in a hilarious way that even the most violent scene becomes funny. Watching this movie is almost like watching a Marvel movie, with the action and the cleverly inserted humours.

Also, who doesn’t like men in suits? Or men in suits kicking ass? Or Colin Firth in suits kicking ass? *scream*

And look at this hottie? Doesn’t he look a lot like Josh Hutcherson? They both look so cute and so hot!

And how about Nick Fury without his eyepatch and with more swag?

Oh dear, how I love this movie!

Images via 1/2/3/4

12 March 2015
Big Hero 6 + Mockingjay Part I

November is a big month for movie goers like us. After Rurouni Kenshin and Interstellar, we got the chance to watch Big Hero 6 and Mockingjay Part I in less than one week, I was so excited for both of the movies, because Big Hero 6 is the first Marvel-Disney animated movie (it’s Marvel, duh!) and because the Hunger Games series played a big role in our relationship. We didn’t see Big Hero 6 on its premiere, but we did see Mockingjay on its first showing day (which was one day earlier than in the US).

Big Hero 6 is a very heart-warming movie. The story is about a genius teenage boy, Hiro, who befriends his deceased brother’s robot called Baymax. Baymax was originally designed to be some kind of a personal health care assistant, but Hiro, fueled with anger and vengeance over his brother’s death, turns it into a fighting robot. Along with four other friends, they team up and chase after the bad guy. It’s that kind of movie that makes you go all teary but not in the Toy Story 3’s kind of way (I ugly cried!). It still has Marvel’s touch of humour, though. So it’s not all sappy. I’m sure you’d want to see this movie. Go take your little siblings or cousins or nieces and nephews, while it’s still showing! And since it’s a Marvel movie, don’t forget to be patient and stay for a while to see the hilarious post credit scene 😉

Mockingjay Part I is kind of meh; or so I think. I remember when I watched the first part of Deathly Hallows, I couldn’t wait for the following year to see the last part. The same goes with The Hobbits series (it’s next month, you guys!). But with Mockingjay, I didn’t feel the same excitement when the credit started rolling. Maybe it’s mainly because the book itself is actually pretty short, so splitting the story into two movies seems unnecessary. The first movie becomes stretched, and there are several unimportant scenes added; scenes that made me go like “Huh, so what?”. But then again, I may not give the movie a fair credit, since Mockingjay is my least favourite book among the other two. One thing that I love from this movie, though, is the fact that they brought back Effie and placed her in District 13. She’s a sight to see. Also, I like the casting for President Coin and Cressida.

So, there’s that. Next month will be great too, since there will be Stay With Me Doraemon and The Battle of Five Armies. Come on, December!

22 November 2014