Movie Review: Prometheus

Not this guy.

Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott, is not officially a prequel to the Alien franchise, but before you see Prometheus, you should definitely see Alien. It’s impossible not to see the obvious connections between the movies, with parallel themes, plots, and atmospheres. Prometheus is officially set in the same universe as the Alien movies, but is not officially directly connected to the Alien franchise. Long story short, if you liked Alien, you’ll like Prometheus, but there are certainly differences between the two movies, and Prometheus is clearly geared towards a larger audience, although that focus does not always make it a better movie.

The visuals are pretty face-meltingly awesome.

By far the best part of Prometheus is the visuals. There’s a reason that it’s been compared to James Cameron’s Avatar almost as much as it has been compared to Alien, and it’s not because of blue people (currently trying to decide if Prometheus would be much worse or much better with blue people). Starting right off the bat with panoramic shots of what is apparently prehistoric Earth and moving right into some more panoramic shots of some grass-covered Scottish mountains, the film is certainly visually pleasing. Noomi Rapace’s cheekbones don’t hurt either (although they are sharp enough to cut paper). The costumes and set design is equally striking, although the distinctive blue jumpsuits and clear helmets set quite a different tone from the original Alien movies.

Movie Review: The American

Sadly, he only rocks the Connery beard
for the first scene or two.

Most thriller pieces fall into one of two categories: the more action packed version, focusing on using lots of showy gunfire, fights, car chases; and the more psychological one, focusing on examining one character. The first one is fast paced, high adrenaline stuff that if done well both excites and entertains, but often the action takes away too much from the story it is trying to tell. But under no conditions should you go to The American expecting this type of movie, because while it is certainly a thriller, it falls decisively into the second thriller category, perhaps you would call it a psychological thriller, and here character development and plot structure are key. This explains the sedate pace and brooding tone, instead of flash-bang action.

Not Exactly Iron Clad: A Review of Iron Man 2

Samuel L. Jackson still has his eye on you. 

Spiderman still stinks.

The sequel to the film Iron Man breaks a trend in the cinematic superhero genre. Normally, the first entry in a trilogy of this sort is not quite as strong as it’s successor. This is largely due to the filmmaker being required to tell that superhero’s origin story to set up the background, which although interesting, often limits the possible storytelling abilities. Examples of this trend are the Spiderman series and to a much greater extent Chris Nolan’s Batman series. Iron Man 2, it would seem, is an exception to this rule. It was as if Iron Man 2 was trying to live up to the superior original, but the sloppy second lost the energy to do so somewhere down the line. Part of the reason for this may be that in Iron Man’s case his origin, unlike other superheroes, is arguably his most compelling story. Iron Man’s original movie (2008) had a more political bent, and while it was not exactly the greatest intellectually stimulating creation ever made, it at least sparked some thought on issues involving technology, terrorism, war, and economics (oh, and it also had Jeff Bridges, which is never a bad thing).

Not as Cool as Scott Pilgrim: A Review of Kick Ass

Like Scott Pilgrim, but with guns and stuff. Actually,
it's nothing like Scott Pilgrim. 

So was Kick Ass bad ass or as the titular character is once called, “ass kicked?” Questions similar seem have to hit the media community hard and the answers have been quite varied. Some such as The Guardian newspaper’s Peter Bradshaw praised it as “outrageous” and “very funny,” while others were not so kind. Roger Ebert, one of America’s most prominent critics, gave the film one star out of four calling Kick Ass “morally reprehensible.” Personally, I find myself standing in between these two sides and can understand both points of view. Director Matthew Vaughn has brought forth something that most will either love or hate, something that is enjoyable enough to watch but not particularly substantial.

Guest Writer Review: Salt

In case you were confused.

This action-thriller starring Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt has its ups and downs . . . but mostly downs. Salt works for the CIA, but after confronting a Russian defector she is accused of being a Russian spy who will soon assassinate the Russian President. Salt runs for her life, convincing her teammates and the CIA that she has become a threat to the United States. Her escape rapidly degenerates from flight into a battle between Russia and the United States. An all out war, if you will, started and continued by, you guessed it, Angelina Jol- I mean, Evelyn Salt.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Worth Exactly One Watch

When I heard that Bryan Lee O'Malley's indie comic series Scott Pilgrim was getting a movie adaptation, I was more than a little skeptical. While the current Dark Knight-chasing superhero movie craze proves that it's possible to adapt comic heroes, there have been very few successful attempts to actually adapt comics. In fairness, superhero comics, which dominate the American market to a ludicrous extent, don't lend themselves naturally to it - there is no overarching plot to Superman's story, or Batman's, but rather origin stories and then about seventy years of interlocking, self-contradictory, increasingly bizarre plots (is Bruce Wayne still dead, by the way? Or did Blackest Night fix that?) that you can't really make into a film because they depend on everything before them. The few limited series that do get adaptations - Watchmen, V for Vendetta, this year's Kick-Ass - tend to either lose what made a good series good or make a bad one hilariously worse. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) now joins that not-so-illustrious list.

Well, it is a rather decent adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. In fact, I would say it's better as a movie than Scott Pilgrim was as a comic book. If only that were saying much. Spoilers ahead.

Nothing Special: A Review of State of Play

Russell Crowe...is that you?

Despite the fact that State of Play is a political thriller about ulterior motives, uncertainty and moral ambiguity, what you see is what you get. Watch it expecting no more and no less than a standard, no frills entry in this cinematic genre. To quote from Casablanca, “all the usual suspects” have been rounded up here. There is Russell Crowe playing the hardened, cynical, cranky, detective-like journalist, Cal MacAffrey. New on the block at the Washington Globe newspaper is the young, ambitious, and idealistic Della Frye as played by Rachel McAdams, a character who eventually will form this movie’s conventionally unconventional partnership with MacAffrey.

Down With the Ship: A Review of Charlie St. Cloud

"Life is for Living"
...um...thanks...?

As much as I wanted to hate Charlie St. Cloud, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. No, despite being similar to the Twilight franchise in more ways than one, this piece is more deserving of sympathy than anything else. Unfortunately, try as hard as he might to keep his latest project afloat, Zac Efron ends up going down with the ship.

It is really too bad: Efron is not a bad actor but sinks under the weight of a boatload of tacky sentimentality, cheesy dialogue, and an overabundance of cinematic clichés. Playing a good looking, intelligent, and noble young lad, Efron’s character is Charlie St. Cloud. He is an expert competitive boater, loyal son and brother, and headed off on a scholarship to Stanford. Sound like the perfect life? Well, apparently not: it’s only a short matter of time before Charlie’s little brother Sammy is killed in a car crash, and Charlie reveals himself to be also a creepy weirdo.

Denzel at Armageddon: Book of Eli Review

...and this guy didn't make
a cameo why?

Oddly enough (or perhaps not), humanity seems to be obsessed with its own demise. The post-apocalyptic genre seems to be all the rage in the media these days. In the movie circuit, the most recent and notable entry was The Road based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. The video game business has been focused primarily on the Fallout series. Armageddon-loving seems to have even hit children’s literature since books such as The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games have grown in popularity. In the year 2010, this trend appears to be holding strong as The Book of Eli has been released.

Movie Review - The Last Airbender

Can you feel the excitement?

The movie Eragon (2006) has become the poster boy for horribly bad book-to-movie adaptations. And with its laughably wrong plot, obnoxiously dull characters, atrocious dialogue and plain silly CGI, it’s easy to understand why it’s become infamous. The Last Airbender, the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, has been compared to Eragon in terms of badness. For fans of the original Nickelodeon show, Mr. Shyamalan's adaptation is nearly as offensive as Eragon, and while it’s easy to understand why the comparison is made, The Last Airbender doesn’t quite live up to the horrible reputation it’s received.