This week, I caught the above sequel starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona etc.
Channing had only a brief role as Duke, the leader of the elite G.I. Joes team, and was killed off early in the movie. Dwayne who played Roadblock, took over the leadership role as one of three Joes who survived a surprise attack on them. He enlisted the help of General Joseph Colton, acted by Bruce, with the two other Joes (Lady Jaye and Flint) and Snake Eyes etc to investigate the matter to avenge the deaths of their teammates.
Lee Byung-hun had a meaty role again as the bad ninja Storm Shadow who initially with the bad guys Firefly, Cobra Commander and Zandar, joined forces with Roadblock and team to redeem himself from the accusation of assassinating his uncle the hard master. He did asians proud by reprising his role as a formidable opponent from the dark side.
I didn't like it as much as the original movie and the best part for me were the ninja fighting scenes on the cliff-faces. The opposing ninjas of two, Snake Eyes and Jinx, were dueling against many red suit ninjas and were swinging from cliff to cliff, much like spiderman.
On a side note, I noticed square-jawed D.J. Cotrona, who reminded me of a younger Tom Cruise, much like I noticed Tom Hardy in the 2010 movie "Inception" before he was cast as Bane in the 2012 "The Dark Knight Rises". If I am a talent scout, I would definitely say he has the potential to be a bigger star. Interestingly, I found out that he was cast as Superman in Warner Bros. movie "Justice League: Mortal" but due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008, the film was never made. What a pity! However, if he has it and his performance made producers and directors notice him, then we would surely see more of his films coming our way sometime.
This is the latest vehicle starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt. The other main stars include Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Xu Qing.
They transform the adorable Joseph with prosthetic into a totally different person, who somehow managed to disgust me, to make him resemble a younger Bruce. Set in the future in 2044 where 10% of the population possessed telekinesis through mutation of their genes and 2074 where time travel was invented, it tracks the life of a looper - a professional killer in 2044 hired by a criminal boss known as the Rainmaker from the future to kill off their targets and dispose off their bodies in present time with reward in the form of silver bars.
Complications arose when the older Joe was captured and sent by the Rainmaker to the present via a time machine to be killed by the younger Joe, to terminate their contract to close the loop. Opposition to this was punishable by death Before being held captive, the old Joe was living in bliss with a newfound love played by Xu Qing and fought hard to stay alive so that he can change the course of history by killing the young Rainmaker to save his love interest from being killed. That was when both the young and old Joe met Sara and her only son Cid who lived in a farm.
The old Joe managed to track down three children with the same birthday as the Rainmaker and killed the innocent boys one at a time. After killing off two children, he was on to kill the third, who turned out to be Cid. Determined to save Cid after becoming close with Sara, the younger Joe turned against his older self. It was also then that Joe discovered that Cid was a freak, possessed very strong telekinetic powers and was capable of turning violent and killing people when he was enraged. When the younger Joe realized that if the older him killed Sara, that was the tipping point that pushed Cid over the edge to become the future ruthless Rainmaker if he witnessed the brutal murder of his mum, he had to make a tough choice to sacrifice his own life instead so that his older self would cease to exist, thereby dissolving the danger faced by Sara and her son.
The science fiction action movie started off quite promisingly but somewhat lost steam along the way. What was a time travel assassination eventually turned out to be a horrifying "Rosemary's child" adaptation. It wasn't as good and enjoyable as I thought it would be though.
Today's weather - sunny
I didn't have much high hopes of this movie but after watching it, I was pleasantly impressed. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this is the last of a 3-part trilogy on the DC comic superhero character Batman. The first two movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were released in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
Hemmed by a cast which included Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman, Michael Caine as the butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, as well as new characters Selina cum Cat Burglar played by Anne Hathaway, Bane by Tom Hardy, John by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, other cameos included Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman. I am happy that this new installment wasn't a disappointment in the making and it was worth the wait for four whole years before it came to the big screen.
I shan't dwell on the storyline but I am very glad that the movie-makers introduced new twists or surprises to an otherwise mundane plot. One of my favourite character actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt really came a long way since his days on the TV series "Third Rock from the Sun". As John Blake, the audience was treated to a surprise at the end when it hinted that he could be the new Robin, who is the other half of the well-known Batman-Robin pairing portrayed in the comics. Interestingly, in one of the scenes, Joseph's police uniform spotted the familiar initial GC on his sleeves, which I suppose stood for Gotham City. Anne provided a different girlish portrayal of the Cat Burglar, which was a fresh take that bore absolutely no resemblance to the classic Cat Woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the late 80s. Then there was Tom Hardy, whom I last remembered as one of the characters in the movie "Inception" of recent years. Just take a look at the photos below on how much he bulked up in a matter of months to play the role of Bane. Sadly, he was almost unrecognizable with the mask on this face and there was only one blink and you will missed it scene of his actual face in the entire movie. Such ballooning in body weight must have a toll on a person's health, I guess? What a sacrifice actors have to make!
And yes, I am looking forward to see the new movie "Man of Steel" on the most well-known DC comic superhero Superman in 2013, which is a year away, after watching the short trailer played before the movie started.
