The Amazing Spiderman 2 [3D]

Plot: Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and girlfriend Gwen (Emma Stone) graduate from high school as Spiderman helps rescue people and fight minor criminals. Meanwhile former classmate Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) learns he is terminally ill, and that research carried out by Peter's father on spiders might be the key. He wants to get some of Spiderman's blood to use as the therapy. Peter says no, and Harry enlists electric-power man Max Dillion (Jamie Foxx) to help him get Spiderman's blood. Gwen comes to battle Max, and Harry shows up to aid Max. After a big fight, buildings are smashed, and people die. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Amazing Spiderman 2 has a hot beginning with a flashback to Peter's parents running away on a plane -- great action, cool direction, fast pace; the next scene was Spiderman web-slinging among Manhattan skyscrapers in a stylized and unrealistic way. Something was the matter: it was unrealistic in a  comical way -- it really broke the mood. The whole film was like this: excellent scenes mixed with dumb scenes that broke the illusion -- making me realize it was all a movie.

The special effects were a highlight; basically the flying scenes and the fighting scenes were great. I liked all the electricity sparking around. I need to say that Spiderman in his suit was too skinny, and he moved too fast among the skyscrapers, and also his suit was often to bright for the background. Spiderman in costume was always a CGI character, and that didn't always work.

Andrew Garfield is not a strong enough actor to hang a major franchise on. Emma Stone was OK, but if Andrew would have delivered his lines better the whole movie would have been better. Yes, sharper dialog would have helped too, but the core problem was the acting. 

Garfield did not seem sincere enough, always too ironic. The comic relief never helped. (Most superhero movies have comic scenes, but this movie did not mix the comedy with the drama very well.)  I really liked the early scenes of Jamie Foxx -- a vivid character created in a few minutes. 

Good soundtrack: I bought two songs.

Bottom line:  Amazing Spiderman 2 is fun-to-watch. It isn't the greatest, but it is still good. 

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field

Directed by: Marc Webb

Rating: 2.0 stars: weakly recommended. 

More: There is a preview of the new X-Men movie embedded in the credits, so don't rush out of the theater.

Even More: Critics complained about similar AS2 is to other Spiderman movies. I didn't have that problem. The originality was good enough.

Yet More: I am tired of the Green Goblin -- happily he is not in the movie very long.

I can't stop: I really liked the Spiderman 3 from 2007. It was one of my favorite movies of the 00's.

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2012 Top Movies

These are my favorite movies of 2012. The highlight was Cloud Atlas, which I have seen three times.

         4.0 End of Watch

         4.0 Cloud Atlas

         4.0 Lincoln

         3.5+ The Hunger Games

         3.5 The Impossible

         3.5 The Perks of Being a Wallflower

         3.5 The Avengers

         3.5 Silver Linings Playbook

         3.25 Chronicle

Transcendence

In Transcendence the terrorists win. Why?

Plot: Terrorists  blow up computer research centers and assassinate computer genius Will Caster (Johnny Depp.) Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), his wife, desperately uploads his brain into a computer. The disembodied Will disappears into the internet as the terrorists raid this home and shoot up his host computer. Will raises money with high frequency trading, and brings Evelyn to a small town where they build a giant computer with robot medical facilities & solar panels. In time they operate on the town's people fixing their illness, but also getting control over them. The terrorists kidnap and persuade other computer scientists that Will is bad, and they switch sides. This sets up the final battle. [imdb]    [photos]

[SPOILERS - I don't recommend this movie, so I don't feel bad spoiling it.] 

Review: Transcendence gets the end wrong. I don't understand why the Luddites (people who reject technology] win.

Worse, the terrorists win. Not only that, but establishment types switch sides to join them, and the terrorists continue bombing and machine-gunning people to the end. Maybe we are supposed to think that Luddism is a holy cause, but the world without electricity and computers at the end of the movie isn't a utopia:  more likely a famine-plagued planet where people freeze in the winter.

There were good parts, I liked Rebecca Hall's performance. She was a highlight. The images of the computer center are cool as are the dinner scenes with the virtual Johnny Depp. The first 30 minutes is pretty cool as we get the tech set up.

Later in the movie the anti-technology Luddite message takes over, and the movie has a dark, dark ending with Will and Evelyn hugging each other in death.

I am so tired of Morgan Freeman as a scientist in every movie. Go away Morgan Freeman.

Cast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman

Directed by: Wally Pfister

Rating: 1.5 stars: A promising start, but end sucks.

More: Did writer Paglen write the script on a manual typewriter as befits his techno-phobia? 

Even More: If you are going to make a movie where terrorism is justified, you need to try much harder. The moral case for justifiable terrorism is hard to argue  -- it is rather like the argument to torture prisoners -- I suppose Jack Bower on 24 does that all the time. It is not taken seriously enough here. 

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Noah

SPOILERS -- I assume you know the Bible story, and I am not going to feel bad about spoiling the extra Hollywood subplots here. This is awful movie, and you shouldn't see it. 

Plot: You know the story, God drowns all of humanity except for Noah (Russell Crowe) and the kids. In this version, Noah agonizes about completing human extinction by stabbing to death the fertile females on board. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Unpleasant. The subplot about killing off the daughters-in-law provided drama but was terrible to watch.

Noah is sincerely told; here the Creator is the ultimate good guy, and the Creator is justified in wiping out humanity. Killing the whole human race is just depressing, and being God's instrument to kill everyone is hard to put a happy face on. I wonder why Noah's wife Ila (Jennifer Connelly) hugs Noah at the end.

Most outrageous was the killing of women and girls; Three offenses: selling girls for cannibalism, Noah letting a potential daughter-in-law get trampled, and Noah's threat to kill his grandchildren but only if they are girls.  The threatened infanticide of girls by our hero, prophet and patriarch, was really hard to watch.  The Bible's Noah story is not misogynist.  (The idea of castrating his sons very came up.)

The acting was good. I really liked Jennifer Connelly (Noah's wfe, Naameh), and Emma Watson (daughter-in-law, Ila) too. The women had reason to cry regarding the outrageous actions of God, Noah, and all the other men including director Aronofsky. Russell Crowe was pretty great too. He looked troubled, but like an old testament patriarch; the role required a hard ass.

There were some good visuals, especially the snakes crawling on the ark, and the Noah's story of Adam & Eve where all the evils of the world are acted out by silhouette figures flashing past in rapid succession.

None of the positives outweighs the unpleasantness of the experience and the monstrousness of the story. It's certainly not a positive faith-building experience. 

Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson

Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

Rating: 1.5 stars: Not recommended, despite the good acting. Too monstrous. Not suitable for children

More: Noah leaves you with lots to talk about. 

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Captain America: Winter Soldier

Plot: Now in the present day, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), is suspicious of the power of his employer, a secret Super agency called SHIELD. SHIELD's director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is killed, and it appears Fascists are taking over SHIELD so they can control the world with flying, computer-controlled battle stations to kill enemies from the air. The bad guys come after Steve Rogers and compatriot Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and they encounter "The Winter Soldier"/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who is just as tough as Captain America, and who has lengthy back-story. At the end, the bad guys launch their battle stations, and aided by flying man Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), they strive to save the world from Fascism.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Well-written, well-acted, and always interesting, Winter Soldier is a good action adventure movie. The story is about ideology -- freedom vs safety. It reminds me of the Patriot Act and NSA leaker Edward Snowden.  The action scenes are fast-paced and as special effects are as realistic as they come. I liked the 3D effects too.

Chris Evans's Captain America is so strait-laced and idealistic that he is hard to relate to. He is more of an ideal to strive for. Johansson's Black Widow is so sold-out that she is easy to relate to. They had good chemistry together, and I liked how she was always trying to fix him up on a date as they struggled with life & death situations.

My DW was upset at all the high body count, but it was bloodless violence, and Captain America himself just whacks people with his shield -- something he did endlessly. And the bad guys live on for the sequel. 

Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L Jackson, Anthony Mackie

Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo (brothers)

Rating: 3.0 stars: An interesting and sometimes fun movie. Recommended. Cool, with some ideological elements, but not actually thoughtful.

More: The phrase 'Winter Soldier' comes from Thomas Paine's tract The Crisis, which he wrote as Washington was about to spend Christmas on the Delaware River in December of 1776. The Winter Soldier is never mentioned, and is the heroic contrast to the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot. The real Winter Soldier is General Washington and his soldiers shivering in their camp. Here is the first paragraph:

THESE are the times that try men's souls.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth.

More on this from Dana Stevens at Slate.

John Kerry, now Secretary of State, helped popularized the term Winter Soldier during Senate hearings on Vietnam in 1971: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation

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The Grand Budapest Hotel

Plot: Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) is concierge at a grand resort hotel in the mountains in Europe. He runs the hotel with insane attention to detail, and he romances the elderly female guests too -- which may be the key to the hotel's prosperity. He takes on an refugee, Zero (Tony Revolori) as a personal assistant. When a longtime guest dies, Gustave inherits valuable painting, and the children of the deceased are out to get him. [SPOILERS FOLLOW SKIP TO REVIEW SECTION] Soon war breaks out, Gustave is framed for a murder, and ends up in prison. Gustave and his prison friends engineer a crazy complicated breakout. Gustave, Zero and Zero's girlfriend Agatha (Saorirse Ronan) conspire to find a hidden second will and the movie ends happily 

[imdb]    [photos]

Review: Grand Budapest Hotel  is an absurd comedy where everything is mad and deliberately unreal.  It is both a refreshing diversion from other styles of movie making, and a satirical mediation on how weird regular life is too. 

There are many running gags. One I liked was the un-natural speed of all the transportation. It just zips along about 50% too fast, which reminds us, that everything in this world is strange.

Having said that, the feel of the movie is staged and contrived. The character relationships are not deep, the photography is bland, and the music is forgettable.

While I like the novelty, it is not really fun to watch and the film's ideas are not especially interesting. 

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saorirse Ronan, F. Murry Abraham, Adrien Brody, and Jeff Goldblum

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Rating: 2.0 stars: almost recommended, -- refreshing after a diet of normal movies. It is funny in places and I liked the cameos. 

 

More: The movie is a flashback inside a flashback. In the present, a young woman is reading the book by the film's nameless narrator, and inside that flashback the hotel owner is telling his personal story to the narrator. Why? And why do present-day people put their keys on the narrator's tomb?

Even more: Why is the Grand Budapest Hotel on a mountaintop and NOT in Budapest?
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Divergent

Plot: In a post-apocylpsic Chicago, people are divided into five castes according to their personality. Keeping similar people together makes them easier for the Government to control. Tris (Shailene Woodley) doesn't fit into one of the castes, making her unpredictable, and "Divergent." She has to hide her divergent nature and try to fit in. Helping her fit in, is drill instructor Four (Drew Roy) who is to be too cute for Tris to resist. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Okay, that five caste system is dumb, and the technology is more magic-fantastic than science fiction, but besides all that, it is a pretty good story about a young woman, who doesn't fit and wants to. Screenwriters Daugherty and Taylor made a human story about teens who want need to hide their inner selves -- and everyone can relate to that.  Shailene Woody was up to the acting challenge, and seemed appropriately scared, tense and brave. Her performance made the movie entertaining with help from co-stars Drew Roy and Ashley Judd. I liked all the Ashley Judd scenes.

Highlights were the images of post-apocolypsic Chicago and some music. Weaknesses were the fight scenes and the military training camp which were cheap and amateur. The computer control center looked like a TV news room. 

Divergent would have been better movie with a few more quirky characters, and a more realistically imagined world.  This is a case where the movie was better than the book. 

Divergent is fun-to-watch, and what is the matter with that?

Cast: Shailene Woody, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Zoe Kravitz, Kate Winslet

Directed by: Neil Burger

Based on the novel by: Veronica Roth -- Link to Barnes & Noble

Rating: 2.5 stars:  Saddled with a weak story, director Burger and actress Woodley made a fun-to-watch movie by focusing on her character Tris. We cared about her, and her mom, brother and father too. It gets 2.5 stars because I recommend people see it despite its weaknesses. 

 

More: The story could have supported some examination of hiding our true nature and our inner secrets -- like Spiderman broods on; We don't get any of that. This was dumbed down, and that hurts the movie.

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