Guardians of the Galaxy

Plot: Peter Quill Lord(Chris Pratt) has been hired to an collect a mysterious orb, that many villains also want, and thus begins a complicated story involving  a green lady Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a muscle-y guy Drax, a walking tree Groot, and genetically-engineered, talking raccoon Rocket. When they have the orb someone else takes it; when they don't have the orb they scheme to get it back.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review:  Guardians of the Galaxy is the most fun I have had a superhero movie in a while. They are more misfits than super-heros with few talents besides audacity and gadgets.

The irreverent dialog and camaraderie carry the movie, and provides the glue between action scenes that move the story along -- usually the orb being taken or regained. Often superhero movie tropes are skewered, like people laughing when Peter says he is called Time Lord. 

Guardians reminds me of Joss Wheden's Firefly in that it is about an unlikely ensemble of misfits  in stealing stuff in space. (Perhaps intentionally since Joss Wheden now produces Agents of Shield for Marvel.)

Smaller scale special effects are excellent. The larger effects such as the spaceships and the other worlds -- they seemed either fuzzy or un-original -- nothing spectacular.  (I saw it in 2D.)

The orchestral music was forgettable. There a few sixties & seventies songs featured in the plot. I liked Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye. One or two got annoying.

Zoe Saldana is skinny as a twig and not a very likely warrior woman, but she did this walk that made her look confident & not to be under-estimated. The scene of the Guardians walking together out of the spaceship was so well done that they actually put it in the trailer.

Guardians was fun and refreshing, but not over the top because it had no central moral theme -- after all they are professional thieves -- and because it lacked something special that could have put it over the top -- like a clever plot twist, great dialog, cool design or etc.

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana

Directed by: James Gunn

Rating: 3.0 stars: Lots of fun.

More: Howard the Duck is cult favorite Marvel character that makes a cameo in a post-credits snippet. 

Even More: The Infinity Stone showed up in the Thor movie. 

.

Lucy

Plot: Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is forced to be a drug mule, but the bag holding the drugs in  her stomach bursts, and she gets a super-mega dose of a psychoactive drug -- this supercharges her brain and gives her  great intelligence, mind-reading, body morphing, and other super powers.  She tracks down the rest of the drug mules in Europe, and the drug lord tries to get back at her. She keeps developing and growing until she can't anymore. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I loved it, and I want to see it again. 

It has a magic-reality, non-linear story telling style that I like, but everyone doesn't.  Everything isn't literally happening or true like they show it -- you are seeing the symbolic reality.  Cloud Atlas was like that -- and many reviewers never understood it. 

Lucy has a lot of philosophy-speak, and in the same way -- it is a symbol for philosophy -- you don't need it to make sense to "Get it."  Get it means that people can be better than they are, and that we need more unity of vision & unity of people to be better. See Major Spoiler at the end. 

I loved Scarlett Johansson -- who gives us a great tearful phone call to Mom, and a kick ass super hero too. Morgan Freeman is great, but I am tired of him playing a scientist. I get it that he can be geeky without being threatening, but let's move to the next generation.

There are several good visuals including the cheetahs eating the antelope, Lucy's hand morphing scene, and who expected a pile up of French police cars. 

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman

Written and directed by: Luc Besson

Rating: 4.0 stars: Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. 

More: I did not like how it is a drug that leads to all this enlightenment. I think it sends a bad message about drugs. 

Major Spoiler:  Lucy has the same story as 2001 Space Odyssey, and the final scene's flash drive is supposed to be like the 2001 obelisk. (In the book, the obelisk is full of stars, like the flash drive.)

In both movies we see an ancient apes making the step to humanity and the we see a modern human (the astronaut & the modern Lucy) making a step to be come a trans-human or star baby or the singularity.

Finally, the movie isn't about using drugs to achieve super powers, it is about people being unified in purpose and achieving a unity of knowledge to help the society progress. 

.

Born Again

Plot: Washed-up music producer and record label owner Dan (Mark Ruffalo) meets heart-broken, depressed songwriter Gretta (Keira Knightley), and they make an album outside in different NYC neighborhoods. We meet Dan's teenage daughter Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and his estranged wife Miriam (Catherine Keener) along the way. Keira channels her troubles into her music, and when the project is done, everything seems better. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Kira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo are great, and the movie is fun to watch. Who knew that Kira Knightley could sing? 

Born Again is a light drama about people in New York City making an album. It is not a musical, but there is a magical reality element where things kind of work out -- we get some satire about the music industry though. The music making is overlaid on a soap opera plot involving Gretta's break up with her boyfriend (James Corden) and Dan's relationship with his wife Miriam and daughter Violet.

There are a lot of singing scenes, but the music isn't boring -- the visuals are interesting, and the music is well integrated into the story. I liked the Kira Knightley songs better than the others.  I might just buy "Everythings Coming Up Roses,"

Some of the visuals of New York are pretty cool. 

Cast: Kira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, James Corden, Katherine Keener, Hailee Steinfeld

Directed by: John Carne

Rating: 3.0 stars: Well acted and fun to watch

More: .The songs are written by a whole committee: Gregg Alexander co-wrote songs for the film with Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Rick Nowels and Nick Southwood. John Carney and Glen Hansard also contributed as songwriters for the film's music. The featured song Lost Stars was written by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and Nick Southwood.

Even More.

.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Plot: In the first movie, a virus that makes apes intelligent escapes the lab and kills off most people as a side effect. In this movie, the smart apes get in a war with the remnant human population. The peace-oriented ape leader is Caesar from the first movie and his chimp rival is Koba who wants to kill people. The peace-oriented human is Malcolm (Jason Clarke) and the war-oriented human is Drefus (Gary Oldman). Malcolm has a kid (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and a girlfriend (Keri Russell), just like Caesar has kid and girlfriend.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This feels like the long set up to a much better sequel. We have nice apes and nice people being drawn against their will to a war no one wants. Obviously this is an allegory many wars notably WWI.

This movie is OK, but not actually fun because I knew how it was going to end.[SPOILER that anyone who saw the rest of the series would know already.]  That is because we know that eventually earth becomes the Planet of the Apes. If you want to root for the humans, well -- maybe 2-3 sequels from now you'll get your chance. 

The CGI characters are the best ever. Hundreds of CGI apes each look lifelike and better than lifelike. (Real monkeys are kind-of gross.) Wonderful animation.

Caesar's eyes at the end, on a large format screen

The battle scene of the Kobe riding a horse through the flames is wonderful! There are several top visuals.  I loved the cross-species baby-hugging scene too. Caesar's eyes in the last scene are gripping.

The music is orchestral music -- a little on the slow side except the fight scenes. 

Cast:  Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keri Russell

Directed by: Matt Reeves

Rating:  2.0 stars - It just isn't that much fun!  Despite great CGI

More: Not as good as the previous one; see my review of that.

Even More: We saw this on a "premium large format" screen with Dolby Atmos & 39 independent speakers.   This is my first encounter with "premium large format", which covers a variety of projection technologies that compete with Imax. This one was a 4K DLP from Texas Instruments.

.

Snowpiercer

Plot: A geoengineering project to fix global warming went wrong, and the earth has gone frozen. Everything and everyone is dead, except Willis (Ed Harris) and his supertrain that is circling around frozen, snowy Eurasia. On the train, there is a strict class hierarchy, with the poor people in back living in squalor and the rich people in the front of the train. Curtis (Chris Evans) is a poor person and he starts a revolution. He gathers some big guys, and they begin a battle to the front one car at a time.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review:  The best part is the allegory because the train is the earth, and the class structure of the train is just like the earth. Most of the movie is dreary and bloody, later in the movie we see the wonderful quarters at the front of the train and we get a full dose of irony and allegory

Aside from Curtis the characters are thinly written, and that is what make Snowpiecer only OK. 

Visually there are some great scenes, for example the roomful of thugs with axes that the rich people send to put down revolution, and another is the mobile aquarium. A highlight is the disco, where young partygoers dance, drink and get high oblivious to the suffering poor, the revolution or the dead, frozen earth passing by outside. 

Despite the thin character development, I recommend it. 

Cast: Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Kang-ho Song

Directed by:  Joon-ho Bong

Rating: 3.0 stars:.

More: No one ever explains why they can't stop the train.

Even More.

.

Jersey Boys

Plot: This is a bio-pic about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the 1960's pop band. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Jersey Boys really makes me appreciate how bad music was before the Beatles. 

I know someone likes this music, but it isn't me, and I couldn't wait for the movie to end. The film is punctuated by songs, and the scripted action isn't enough alone. The film is slow and the characters are stereotypes. 

Finally real stories  are usually boring. The real world ending is especial boring. It would have ended better with a plane crash or a suicide. Maybe earlier too. 

John Lloyd does have a nice voice though. He has a few albums, and they are this same archaic style of music. 

Cast: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza

Directed by: Clint Eastwood: he must like this style of music after all he is 84. Jersey Boys was based on the stage play

Rating: 1.5 star

More: The real ending is a dull let down, but the post ending is a Bollywood style dancing blowout. Clearly the best part. 

Even More Here is the real band.

22 Jump Street

Plot:  Undercover cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) search for a drug dealer at a local collage. Jenko joins a frat and the football team, but Schmidt doesn't fit in at the frat, and meets pretty girl Maya (Amber Stevens) at a poetry slam. That is the set up, and lots of sitcom humor unwinds from that. Spelling out any more is just repeating the jokes.  In the end, they are in Mexico for Spring Break and catch the bad guy. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: A clever and funny movie that was more intelligent than the original or most frat house movies.

In my review of 21 Jump Street I commented on the poor taste in gay-bashing jokes, and this movie clearly shaped up.  Having said that, 22 Jump Street pushes the Bromace trope past irony into delicious absurdity with a relationship counselor, a breakup and naturally a happy reunion.

Jonah Hill carries the movie with his facial expressions. Channing Tatum is the likable set-up with some good gags of his own. Ice Cube plays an great angry boss.  

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Wyatt Russell, Amber Stevens

Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Rating: 3.0 stars: Why 3? Because my DW told me that I'd give it 2.5, and I can't have her be right.

More: I loved the spoof spin-offs shown during the credits. 

Even More.

.