As I have promised before, I'm going to give you my reviews from the movies I've watched since last month. Well I'm not a movie expert, that's for sure. And I do this just for fun, just in case you haven't seen the movies and look for some references. So here we go!
Clash of the Titans
This might be a starter for 2010 epic movies. I've been a fan of Greek mythology for a while, and even though there are a lot of movies involving Zeus and the Olympians, I didn't found any that strictly tell story about them (well maybe there are some, but I just didn't know it). I expect this movie to be 'powerful' and 'meaningful', just like 300, but unfortunately its great special effects and storyline didn't 'catch' me.
Perseus (Sam Worthington), the demigod who's also the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), caught himself in a dilematic situation. The people of Argos declare war to the Gods, and soon finds out that Perseus is still alive after Hades (Ralph Fiennes) attacks the sea near Argos. Perseus reluctantly agree to help Argos kingdom fight against the Gods, so that the King of Argos doesn't have to sacrifice his daughter, Andromeda, to Hades.
And then Perseus and the Argos fellows start their journey, which many battles occured, including huge lobster monsters, Medusa (beautiful girl with snakes hair--totally horrifying), and finally Hades' ultimate weapon the Kraken (to be honest I wasn't surprised when the Kraken came out, because we all could see it on the trailer). Pegasus, the flying horse, also shows up here becomes Perseus' helpful ride when he's battling the Kraken.
***
I do love the special effects--totally nuts. But I think without knowing the myth first, people wouldn't understand about what's going on, because the movie didn't tell the story in details. And I thought 'the Titans' are predecessors of the Gods, including Zeus' father Kronoz, because Zeus' generation should be 'the Olympians'. However, since the movie is adventurous, it is a great pick for you who's feeling bored staying at home. I give it 6 out of 10. It's not that epic, but quite nice.
I still remember the opening scene of this movie; Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) and Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) are investigating a member of a Mexican mafia group, by acting like those popular cops in the movies, including Die Hard (Hodges said, "Yippie-kay-yay mother f***er"). These two cops are parters and bestfriends, and yes they are the most eccentric ones amongst others, including their biggest rivals: Barry Mangold (Adam Brody) & Hunsaker (Kevin Pollak). After failing to catch a drug dealer, they are fired from the mission, which is a huge problem because they already have personal stuff weighs on their shoulders. Paul has been suspicious that his wife, Debbie (Rashida Jones), is cheating on him with his neighbor. To ensure himself, he puts a teddy bear with a small hidden video camera and recorder somewhere in their bedroom. Jimmy's daughter, Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg), is about to get married and her wedding plan seems very costly--it is a problem when you are just fired and have no income at all. Finally he plans to sell his most valuable collection, an original vintage baseball trading card complete with the star's autograph.
When Paul and Jimmy go to the antique store to sell Jimmy's trading card, the store is robbed by two couple bulglars, Dave (Seann William Scott) and his partner. Jimmy isn't able to fight Dave because he is paralyzed, but he does remember Dave's face and remarkable tattoo in his right arm. Paul, in other hand doesn't even realize the robbery because he is on the phone with his wife. They realize they have been fired from their office but Jimmy insists he has to get the trading card to pay the cost of his daughter's wedding. Paul is willing to help him out, and then they start to do their own investigation which leads them into some new related facts to the Mexican mafia gang they have run after.
***
The interesting stuff about this movie was Tracy Morgan made me laugh all the time. Even just by looking at his face I could start to laugh. And when he met up with Seann William Scott, I laughed even harder (yes, I'm sure you can imagine that). Unfortunately the language was too harsh for me, even though it was funny. The storyline itself was simple, it wasn't that great. Even though it was about a mafia gang and such, the movie wasn't that 'heavy'. Everyone could watch and understand it. So overall, I give it a 6 out of 10.
How to Train Your Dragon
This movie takes place in the Viking era, about the Viking citizens who live in a small village at the hills. This place is destroyed and reconstructed regularly not because of the natural disaster or war, but because of the dragons. Any types of dragons come to the village occassionally, burning down the house and fields and taking out the cattles. The Vikings, who are famous of being 'not afraid of anything', are very well-trained to kill those dragons, except this one called Night Fury--the most dangerous and untraceable one, because it always hide in the mist but its fire shots are always sharp and accurate.
Hiccup (Jay Barouchel), the main character and narrator of this story, is the son of the Viking leader, Stoick (Gerard Butler). Stoick is one of the greatest Viking ever lives, he has the strong appearance, great fighting ability, and the ultimate Viking charisma: uber-stubborn. Unfortunately, his one and only son Hiccup doesn't have those qualities, and it makes Butler acts hard on Hiccup because he never listen. Because of this, Hiccup becomes somewhat a 'public enemy', everyone doesn't get along with him except Butler's good friend Gobber (Craig Ferguson) who works as a blacksmith in the equipment shop, Hiccup's work place.
At the night when dragons attack the village, Hiccup tries to show that he is a Viking by bravely shoots down one dragon, but unfortunately it causes more damages to the village. The people blame Hiccup for causing the mess, even though Hiccup has claimed to kill one of the dragon. To answer his curiosity, Hiccup goes inside the forrest where the dragon has fallen down, and he is right, the dragon's still there. The more shocking fact is that he actually takes down the most frightened dragon: Night Fury.
Hiccup starts to learn this dragon, since he finds out that even the 'dragon academy' doesn't have any data from this species. He visits the dragon very often, and starts to be friendly to each other. Hiccup calls the dragon Toothless, because it doesn't show any teeth the first time he met it. Soon Hiccup learns that the dragons are not vicious nor harmful to human, but find himself difficult to reveal this to the people, moreover his father. It has been a long time law that dragon must be killed, and Hiccup doesn't want to get Toothless killed.
However, since Hiccup is familiar and even best friend with a dragon, he becomes the most favorited student in the 'fight-the-dragon-academy'. Without using any harmful weapons to the dragons, they can be tamed softly by Hiccup. Until one day, Hiccup is chosen to be the successor of his father by the elder. His father is very proud of Hiccup that he's finally able to be one of the Vikings. But when the 'showtime' begins, the dragon almost get him killed, and for some reason Toothless can hear Hiccup's painful scream and straightly go to the fighting pitch.
Now Stoick and the citizen finally find out about Toothless, and Stoick decides to use Toothless as a tool to show the path to the dragon's nest. It is Butler's highest obsession to kill the whole dragons, so he and his citizen can live in peace. Hiccup, the only one who knows the truth about the dragon's nest--about the real monster who lies within it, has to stop his father from killing those innocent dragons and to save his very own 'pet' Toothless.
***
I think this is one of the best animated movies I've ever seen! I really love the humor and dialogue, it's rather eccentric and different from most animated movies. The storyline is very meaningful, touchy, and 'deep'. It's about finding who we are and what we love. First we might think that Hiccup is a chicken-type-of-guy, but later on, he turns out to be brave and wise. I really love to see Hiccup's character growing up in this movie. The special effect is breath-taking, I wonder if I could watch it in 3D, I'm sure it will be even more amazing! Overall, 9 out of 10, definitely a must-watch!
Iron Man 2
Tony Stark is back! Now that he has revealed the real identity of Iron Man (which is... himself), Stark becomes one of the most influential person of United States. His company cooperates with Ministry of Defense and US military service to provide the most up-to-date weapons. Getting many pressure from his rival company Hammer, Inc., lead by his anti-fan Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), the ministry of defense, and a crazy Russian scientist, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) tries to knock him down during an F1 race in Monaco, Tony Stark is having some identity crisis.The Russian scientist claims that Stark technology and blue print isn't genuine. Tony tries to find the truth about it by tracking down all of his father's works and figuring out what his father wants. Tony doesn't want to let his father down, because his father has put big trust on him to continue developing the company. Tony gets his spirits back, start to fix everything that he has ruined. From his estranged relationship with his loyal assistant and best friend/girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), his partner-in-crime James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), and to re-build the trust from Ministry of Defense to him.
Turns out that Ivan Vanko is hired by Stark's rival company, and they are making robotic military squads based on Stark's technology and inventions. During the expo, Tony, as Iron Man, shows up and tries to stop it, since Vanko is controlling the robots from the Hammer Inc. headquarters. The robots start to attack everyone, and to prevent more damages, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Potts' driver, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau--also this movie's director!), go to the headquarter to stop Vanko. Unfortunately, Rourke has gone along with the newly created robot, and just like any other superhero movies: the big enemy meets the hero, and the showdown begins.
***
Okay, this is probably the worst review ever, I'm sorry (LOL). It's because I can't put together the plot very well--in short, I totally forgot about it. This movie is full of actions, crash-boom-bang everywhere. But unfortunately, unlike the other awesome superhero sequels (like Spider-Man 2 or The Dark Knight), I don't really get the 'feel' of the storyline. Well this is the phase where Tony Stark is having an identity crisis, but I think it's really weird that a superhero starts a party with a DJ (it was the late DJ AM aka Adam Goldstein) and a bunch of girls complete with the Iron Man costume, and he starts shooting & breaking some stuff with his laser weapon. What an unstable superhero, I thought. But I really like the idea of keeping a legacy from Stark's father. It shows that even though most of our fathers are hard on us, deep inside their hearts they do believe in us. They just want this in return: do not disappoint them (and yes of course that's what I'm going to do: I won't disappoint my dad). I give it 7 out of 10 for this movie.
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