Monday 30 December 2013

OJ's Movie Reviews - The Dark Knight Trilogy

Man of Steel 2 is coming ever closer and even next year we'll see the toy version of him in The LEGO Movie, but now you can read my review of the latest appearance of the Batman!

I never watched this trilogy when it first came out, I have literally only seen it all at once recently. So instead of reviewing each movie singularly I thought I'd put it all in one review.
  So first off is Batman Begins; the introduction of the main characters and the origin story of Batman himself. I thought this movie was a nice surprise, I enjoyed watching this; there were parts I wasn't expecting and I enjoyed it. The storyline was very good, the characters were interesting and although I felt the villain(s) were slightly weak it was still good; I enjoyed the humor and the action together - it reminded me of season 1 of Arrow, I know this film came out first, but it is a similar story.
  Next in the series was The Dark Knight, I heard this film praised over and over again of how good it was, so I had high hopes and I watched it. Now I think everyone can say that the late Heath Ledger did an excellent job as the psycho Joker, his mannerisms and everything were pure creepy. The film did of course take a very dark turn after the first movie which I think took something away from the plot; the plot I think was very messy and a bit weak in places; so with a plot like that and then a maniac villain it, at times, felt uncomfortable to watch, so I know its not the favored view of many but I felt this was the weakest movie out the three.
  Finally then was The Dark Knight Rises which was one I was looking forward too, and boy did it give. I liked this movie a lot, better than the previous two and just and enjoyable watch. It felt like you were watching parts of other films but yet something completely new at the same time, it brought back the humor that the second one lacked and it was just and extraordinary conclusion to the trilogy, the stakes had gone so much higher and was thoroughly enjoyable.
  All in all I'd give the trilogy as a whole a TIME WELL SPENT.

Thursday 26 December 2013

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

Matt Smith battle's Daleks, Cybermen and his own demise in this years Christmas special!
So after four years of the Eleventh Doctor, his life eventually comes to an end. It's his 13th regeneration too so this really is the end for him. I quite enjoyed the episode actually, very entertaining, funny, and some sadness to balance it out.The Time of the Doctor also had the big job of wrapping up all the story arcs since series 5. Although I liked how they explained the whole arc of the Silence and the cracks, that was a nice surprise and the explanations were reasonable; I wasn't too fond of how they explained the individual story arcs from each series; the Pandorica thing from series 5 was a mere throw-away line, the entire series 6 drag was two lines of diaouge and series 7 was hardly mentioned! All in all though it was  great episode, a good send off to Matt, even though the last two I think were more emotional, this was really good with a cool cameo and then SUDDENLY: Capaldi. Yes, number 12 (or 13, or 14, depends on your view) appeared within a second and really only had 36 seconds of excellent screen time. I give this episode: TIME WELL SPENT.

Thursday 12 December 2013

ORIGINAL VS REMAKE - The Time Machine

Lets travel back and look at two similar but very different adaptions of The Time Machine!

Original

In 1960 H.G. Wells' novel was adapted into a sci-fi movie staring Rod Taylor. In this movie our nameless time traveler goes centuries into the future and meets some very simple humans along some very eerie creatures, known as Morlocks. The film itself is like the usual 60's sci-fi, with effects, dialog, etc. But uses it quite well. THe landscape of this future is really in interesting, almost like a garden of Eden/ancient Greece kind of place. The Morlocks themselves are very creepy, in looks and demeanor. They are quite strong with long ghostly hair and glowing eyes; they walk slowly around caves and use whips! So this film is very interesting to watch, even though a 1960 movie.

Remake

In 2002 The Time Machine starred Guy Pierce who had a very different reason for traveling through time - as with most modern movies they had to have a dramatic romantic plot-line which sparks a now named main character to travel to far future. Here the simple humans are a little more complex and more tribal, but actually a little more boring. The scenery just looks like parts of Earth now but the soundtrack makes it epic. The Morlocks in this adaption are similar but updated making them scary, ape-like and very intimidating with them adding an actual single villain which wasn't particularly needed but adds some more story.

Comparison

You know this one is very difficult for me, because I really like both. I'm afraid to say this really is a tie. Each are equally brilliant in different ways so I recommend a watch of both and tell be your thoughts.