Iron Man 3

Movie: Iron Man 3

Format: Theatre

I don’t want to get in to the plot since the movie is still new and I don’t want to spoil anything, I did enjoy the movie though.  It was better than Part 2, not as good as part 1, it was a loud, explosion filled, and humorous continuation of the iron man series, as well as The Avengers movie.  The new enemy “The Mandarin” was an interesting choice, I enjoyed the angle they took on him, it was clever and surprising, but it will most likely enrage fans of the comics. When movies deviate too far from the source material, people get angry. I don’t understand why movies can’t just come up with a new character if they want to change the character so drastically.  The X-Men origins movie was a good example of this, why call him deadpool when that clearly isn’t what deadpool is in the comics, just make up a new name, problem solved.  There were a few things with the ending that I didn’t quite get, or understand why, but cannot really mention without spoiling.  The final action scene I thought was actually kind of disappointing really

Overall I found the movie to be quite entertaining, I was never bored at any point throughout the movie, but also not blown away. Robert Downey Jr. was spot on as Iron Man again, he pretty much is Tony Stark in real life at this point. The supporting cast was really good as well, Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall had great roles, and even the child actor wasn’t too annoying, surprisingly.  If you enjoyed the previous Iron Man movies, I don’t see why you wouldn’t like this one, it’s more of the same, nothing new but still a good action movie.   

7/10 

Recent movie viewings

Just some quick thoughts on movies I’ve watched recently

Maniac (2012)  

Score: 7/10

The music, and the cinematography were cool, creepy story, more weird than scary

Mama 

Score: 6/10

Decent horror movie, not one of my favourite Del Toro movies, nothing too scary really, Jamie Lanister stars

Django Unchained

Score: 9/10

Awesome,  probably my favourite Tarantino movie now. Loved the story, action and dialogue

Young Frankenstein

Score: 6/10

Was ok, think the humor is just before my time, the laughs were few and far between

Spaceballs

Score: 8/10

More recent Mel Brooks movie, much better, it helps that its spoofing a genre I like. Lots of memorable scenes

Seven

Score: 9/10

Fantastic Horror/suspense/crime movie. One of David Fincher’s best. Everyone is perfect in this movie, Pitt, Freeman, Spacey, Paltrow, all do great jobs. The Blu-ray looks and sounds awesome

Seven Psychopaths

Score: 9/10

Hilarious, saw it in theatre, bought it day 1 on Blu-ray. May not be for everyone, gets slow in some parts, but I loved it

Willow

Score: 9/10

A Classic, I love this movie.  The effects, story, music, actors (especially Kilmer) are great.  It feels like actual care and love went in to making the movie, although it does feel like they stole a lot of ideas from the Lord of the Rings books. Frodo / Willow, Madmartigan / Aragorn, etc

My scale

My rating scale

10. Awesome, quotable and infinitely re watchable

The Big Lebowski, Predator, Die hard, Fight Club, Jaws

9. Fantastic, great movies, just not perfect

Seven, Willow, Lord of the Rings, Avengers, Seven Psychopaths

8. Great, loved them, just not something I’d watch over and over

Spaceballs, The Grey, Forbidden Kingdom, Matirx, Looper

7. Pretty good, highly enjoyable, might consider buying it some time

Predators, Dredd, Underworld series

6. OK, I was entertained, nothing special though

Mama, Clash of the Titans, Immortals, Resident Evil

5. Meh, it wasn’t a waste of time, I didn’t want to turn it off, but not that good

Sucker Punch, Van Helsing

4 - 2. Waste of time, don’t bother, stay away

Battleship , Matrix 2 & 3,

1. Burn all copies, run them out of Hollywood

Catwoman, Baby Geniuses, Star wars prequels

Anything 6 or higher I consider a good movie, something I didn’t feel was a waste of time.

5 is average, I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone, but I didn’t hate it either

Anything between 4 -2 are pretty much interchangeable. When it’s bad, its bad, I can’t really make a specific score for those movies, it’s just whatever I feel like giving it at that time. 1’s though, those are bad, those should never have been made.

The Hobbit - mini review

Quick movie thoughts

Movie: The Hobbit

Format: Blu-Ray

Rating: 5 / 10

I read the book The Hobbit years ago, back in Elementary school I believe, I started reading it again once the movie was coming out in theatres.  I wondered how they could stretch a 300 page (estimating here) or so book to 3 – 3 Hr movies.  Answer, they can’t.  Page 6 in the book occurs at about 45 mins into the movie.  That amount of wasted time and needless bloat is just ridiculous. I can only assume it’s a cash grab for the studio, why sell 1 ticket to a movie when we can drag it out across 3 movies and get 3 times the money! 

The movie itself is fine, the excruciatingly slow pace is what destroys it.  This movie annoyed me more than anything, I didn’t hate it, I was just annoyed by it. Scenes like Radagast’s introduction, where it should have been, Hi I’m radagast, we’re in trouble, let’s roll! Ended up being  “Oh hi there Gandalf the grey my old friend of friends, I have a peculiar quandary for you, but I forget what it was, oh yes, I remember, nope nope, forgot again…wait….no, it’s on the tip of my tongue, no wait, that’s just a stick bug, hmm oh yes….wait, what time is it? Have I taken up 30 mins of screen time yet…..no, well let’s delay even further!”

There is some enjoyment in the movie, it does feel like more LOTR, which I love, but the extra BS in the movie is just so overwhelming, it’s unforgivable. The movie is much nicer on Blu-ray than in the Theatre, the 3d and 48 FPS I found to be very distracting. I recommend watching it at least once, but the run time and filler just destroys any rewatchability (is that a word?) for me.

King Kong - Mini review

Quick movie thoughts (not really reviews)

Movie: King Kong

Format: Blu-Ray

Rating: 7 / 10 (9 / 10 minus 2 pts for the unnecessary run time)

Again, Peter Jackson spoils what could have been a fantastic movie with an extended run time.

I loved everything about this version of King Kong except for the run time.  

The movie itself in my opinion was fantastic, most everyone knows the story of King Kong, and this one follows mostly the same plot…with some extended filler scenes in between.  The “Filler” happens to be some fantastic action and scenery. Everything looks gorgeous, I love the style of the movie, the way it was shot makes it feels like an old classic movie. It’s a newer movie with great SFX, but it just has a feel to it like it was shot back in the 50’s.  The set design is spot on, the New York scenes look like what I imagine the era would look like and the Jungle scenes are also lavish and colourful.  There are several action set pieces that are all expertly put together, the T-Rex fight especially, but the river and bug scenes are also thrilling.  The problem with the movie is that the Action scenes go on too long and slow down the story too much.  

The Extended edition Blu-ray I watched clocked in at 3 Hrs 20 Mins, which is about an hour and 20 mins too long. Like Jackson’s most recent movie, The Hobbit, it just drags on and on. The Hobbit could have been another great entry in the Lord of the Rings series, but everything moves a long so slowly…..it takes for ever to advance the plot.  Jackson is a great director, he just really needs to learn to trim the fat, not everyone has 3 ½ hrs to spend in a theatre, watching at home on Blu-ray isn’t as bad, since you can stop and continue whenever you want, but being stuck in a theatre for that long is just not fun.