JURASSIC WORLD

the pairing of Chris and Bryce was fresh

The first 'Jurassic Park' movie came out in 1994 and I absolutely loved it. Two movies later, it ended its run in 'Jurassic Park III' in 2001.

14 years later, I was so looking forward to watch this 2015 movie, especially when it starred the smothering hot Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. This movie could be considered as a sequel to the original movies because the settings and scenes were all from the original Isla Nublar and I am very heartened and thrilled that the makers of this movie Universal Pictures took all the trouble to draw links between the old and new movies. This is really a movie with a heart.

Chris was Owen Grady, a specialized trainer of velociraptors and Bryce was Claire Dearing, the Operations Manager of the revamped Jurassic World. Irrfan Khan, actor from "The Life of Pi" and B.D. Wong, the only cast from the first movie who played the same role, are the other key actors.

So I must say I utterly enjoyed this movie very much and the success formula from the original movies was refreshing in this day and age of CGIs and the good script with genetically hybrids of dinosaurs, which remind one of the perils of playing god, was definitely one of the key ingredients of this box office hit. However, I feel the casting of Bryce was not one of the better choices because she seemed to be forgettable.

I certainly hope there is another sequel.

I think Chris has a lot of presence and charisma

Owen beside one of his velociraptors

the famous trainer's pose adopted by many animal trainers after the movie

Zach and Gray, the two boys are nephews of Claire

the main villain of the movie - the genetic dinosaur hybrid Indominus

one of the scenes reminiscent of the original movie

the biggest dinosaur of the movie - Mosasaurus devouring a great white shark

another scene from the original movie

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

Time flies, it seemed not long ago that they showed the last movie and here the ensemble of Avengers were gathered to look for Loki's scepter, which contained one of six infinity stones that held strong powers that were capable of destroying earth.

The stellar cast of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel Jackson continued to play the key superhero roles and the new cast included James Spader as Vision, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch. I must say that Joss Whedon continued their usual Marvel directing and production standards and brought to the big screen an action-packed blockbuster movie of superheroes versus a legion of artificial intelligence beings but somehow, I felt that everything is the same other than the storyline. Everything is predictable in that none of them would die and regardless of how bad the situation was, all of them would eventually overcome all odds to emerge the final victors. Like my ex-boss used to say, same story different day. This seems more like a fairy tale with happy endings. So there is nothing too unexpected and even the death of the new character Quicksilver made no difference as the audience has not warmed up to him yet.

However, I am glad that Scarlet Witch is the latest addition to the ensemble of predominantly male superheroes because I really dislike Scarlett Johansson. I am going to incur the ire of many more people when I say this but I also do not like Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo. The tension and budding romance between the Black Widow and the Incredible Hulk was completely unbelievable and unbearable to me.

The very brief easter egg segment was also boring and completely non-revealing about the next movie, which I will still look forward to despite the lack of pleasant plot surprises. 

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver joined the cast of superheroes

Captain America and Thor

Ultron was bent of eradicating humans to save earth

INTO THE WOODS

This is a Broadway musical adapted into a movie, so there were lots of singing and dancing other than the rather exaggerated acting.

This collection of fairy tales brought together a number of characters and told some of the familiar stories that all happened in the enchanted woods in a different way from what we know of.

Meryl Streep played the Witch for the first time in her movie career, James Corden and Emily Blunt were the Baker and his wife, Anna Kendrick was Cinderella, Chris Pine was Prince Charming, Johnny Depp was the Wolf, Lilla Crawford was Little Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone was Jack and MacKenzie Mauzy was Rapunzel.

Personally, I didn't enjoy this movie at all and found all the singing grating and non-catchy or -memorable although some of the humour was entertaining.  

Meryl Streep as the Witch

the Baker and his wife, who had a brief dalliance with Prince Charming

the Cinderella who professed to enjoy house cleaning

the Prince who was raised to be Charming not sincere

the same old Wolf

the Little Red Riding Hood

Jack and his beanstalks

Rapunzel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

I waited 2 years for this Captain America sequel to be out. Starring Chris Evans (as Steve Rogers aka Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow), Samuel Jackson (as Nick Fury), Robert Redford (as Alexander Pierce), Sebastian Stan (as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (as Sam Wilson aka Falcon), Frank Grillo (as Brock Rumlow), Cobie Smulders etc, this much anticipated 9th movie of the Marvel Comics cinematic universe was just alright for me.

What is interesting about the Avenger Marvel movies is that they all had embedded plots and characters that hinted at future movies and at the end of the movies, there were easter eggs that provided a glimpse of the movies to come.

In the movie, there was a conspiracy that sought to eliminate Nick Fury to bring down the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. Everything eventually led back to HYDRA, a terrorist organization, with its many secret agents such as Alexander Pierce, Brock Rumlow, and Winter Soldier, who was Steve Roger's buddy from his distant past. Who was Captain America supposed to trust when the agency he so trusted and worked with seemed to turn their back on him?

Stan Lee, as usual made a brief cameo as a security guard who lamented that he would lose his job when the Captain America suit in the museum he was guarding was stolen. Brock Rumlow, played by Frank Grillo whom I remembered from the TV series "The Gates", was carried away on a stretcher near the end of the movie. He was slated to play Crossbones, another villain, in the future movie.

Now back to the easter eggs. I saw only the first and left the cinema without knowing there was a second. In the first, it was intriguing to find the scepter that belonged to Loki from the Thor movies on display and the appearance of two new characters, imprisoned behind glass chambers. After some googling, it was revealed that they are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, children of Magneto from the X-Men series. Well, the audience would have to wait for at least another year to be able to catch it on the screen. In the second segment that I missed, it was apparently about Bucky who found his way to the Captain America museum and saw a video or was it a photo of him and Steve Rogers together and memories of his past came flooding back.

Meanwhile, I can only look forward to the "Amazing Spider Man 2" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" coming up soon.

In the real world, I don't think there are any superheroes. Otherwise, the plane MH370 and its passengers wouldn't have disappeared without a trace.

Captain America and Black Widow

Captain and Nicky Fury

Captain America and Falcon

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes

the Winter Soldier

the evil Alexander Pierce and Captain America

Brock Rumlow who would be Crossbones in future sequels

Brock Rumlow

STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS

I watched Star Trek: Into Darkness today but this isn't the reason why I am so excited that I must post about this today. 

I saw the trailer for the new Superman movie starring Henry Cavill and I feel it is rather promising and seems quite dark compared to the earlier movie starring Brandon Routh, who has a very clean cut image. This Superman did not seem to have it too easy and appeared to have gone through a lot and in fact, seemed to harbour a lot more secrets. Well, this is just my interpretation based on the trailer alone.

Back to the movie I watched today, the newer Star Trek hit the screen in 2009 and this sequel came 4 years later. Starring the same actors Chris Pine as James Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, this latest movie continues the adventures of Captain Kirk and Spock's as they explore the galaxy although I won't go into the details.

Alright, the new Superman movie will be screening in about a week's time and I am so looking forward to it.

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

Today's weather - sunny

This movie was made for a mature audience compared to the recent one "Mirror Mirror" starring Julia Roberts and gave a different take on the same fairy tale. It was darker and more entertaining, by my standards.


This newer version stars Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna, Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Chris Hemsworth as Eric the widowed Huntsman and Sam Claflin as Prince William. The movie drew flak in the US for getting normal height actors to portray the seven dwarfs and used CGI effects to superimpose their heads onto real life dwarf actors.


I know I am biased but I absolutely adore Charlize in her role as the cold, icy and evil queen who was driven to desperation by the circumstances surrounding her life. She was as excellent and splendid as I expected her to be and her name Ravenna was supposedly chosen to draw a parallel between her and the crows that gave her form. On the other hand, I felt Kristen was miscast as the pure, innocent and yet strong-minded Snow White. She definitely looked older than her character and at times, I thought she channeled Bella from the "Twilight" movie series with the same limited sad and longing expression. I think some other actress would have been more suitable than her to play Snow White. There was no breakthrough for Chris though and he was in his usual form. At certain angles, his entire face and facial hair reminded me of a half-man and half-ape. I would definitely suggest that he plays the role of an ape or ape-man in movies such as "Planet of the Apes". Sam played second fiddle as the Prince who surprisingly, wasn't the one who revived Snow White from death. In fact, unbeknownst to all, Eric was the one who broke the spell when he kissed Snow White on her death bed. From the Huntsman who was sent to hunt her down and kill her, he ended up protecting her until the very end.


The mystical dark forest and the sanctuary, where fairies live, were interesting and provided a stark contrast between the two. The latter was beautiful and was every bit like an enchanted forest with magical creatures and plants. Like the characters Snow White, Eric and the seven dwarfs, I was completely immersed in the fairy land until the magical white stag was suddenly shot by an arrow from the pursuing army and burst the bubble.


Finally, the ending showed Snow White being crowned as the Queen and with her were all her loyal subjects including Prince William, but she appeared distracted and looked around until her gaze fell on Eric. Only then did she finally relax and manage a smile. From this, it was evident that even Snow White could not resist Thor, I mean the widowed Huntsman. It is poignant because despite her power, she would not be able to get together with Eric given their different social status. The movie ended on that note, presumably to give viewers the room to decide for themselves how they want it to end. 

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS & THE AVENGERS

Today's weather - sunny

I was hesitating whether to review the 2 movies I watched in a single post or I should split them but eventually decided to put them together in this very long post. We are getting an overdose of Chris Hemsworth but I am not really complaining. He appeared in the movies "The Cabin in the Woods", "The Avengers" and soon we will be seeing him again in "Snow White and the Huntsman" but that is going to be another subsequent post.


I must say I was very glad I didn't read any reviews on the movie "The Cabin in the Woods" before catching the movie. My sole intention was actually to watch Chris Hemsworth in both movies and make a comparison between the two. Coincidentally, both movies were produced by Joss Whedon, who produced one of my earlier favourite TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan and so on.


Back to the movie review, little did I know this former movie was packed with a lot of surprises, albeit in a good way. Frankly, there are a lot of violence and gore which would not go down well with some, if not most, viewers. But the movie wasn't anything it seemed to be and panned out differently from what I expected. It started with two technicians in an unknown facility chatting away about their work to a group of college students going on a trip to a cabin in the woods. At first, I couldn't see the connection at all.


Then from the moment where I was enjoying an eagle soaring across the picturesque view of the forest to suddenly seeing it smashed into an invisible field before vaporizing into thin air and discovering a painting in the cabin revealed a one-sided mirror made me sat up. What appeared to be a slasher movie turned into a reality tv setting where everything and anything the students did were monitored by hidden cameras in the operative room occupied by the technicians. The surrounding settings and their actions were all manipulated by the technicians e.g. brightening up part of the forest, releasing pheremones into the air, to steer them towards a very certain outcome of death. It reminded me slightly of "The Hunger Games".


The technicians and all the staff in the secret facility made bets on the victims and had deadpan expressions, which hinted that they were all too familiar and desensitized with the process and outcome, when one student after another were killed by undead zombies that rose from the graves. It was confusing once again when I couldn't relate the reality tv part to the night creatures but it was apparent that the five were doomed to die to satisfy an unknown audience, which I initially thought to be the filthy rich strata of a decaying society. When Chris rode on a motorbike to try and cross the ravine in an attempt to seek rescue, I knew his fate would be the same as that of the eagle. When everyone in the facility were celebrating an unknown victory as the last victim and lead character Dana, played by Kristen Connolly, was shown on the multiple tv screens as being strangled and thrown around by the undead, I knew these people were already devoid of sympathy and emotions.


A phone call later created more chaos as the technicians realized with horror that things did not turn out the way it was supposed to and rushed to set things in motion to salvage the situation. The two survivors escaped death and managed to unknowingly sneak into the facility, which was all along in the vicinity, to finally learn the whole truth. What seemed like a crazy reality tv programme morphed further as an entire slew of horrors e.g. giant monsters, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, serial killers, were unleashed from transparent cuboidal trapped cages to kill anything and everything they encounter in the facility.


That was when Sigourney Weaver made a guest appearance as the Director of the facility to explain to the two victims that all the setup was part of an annual ritual to sacrifice 5 pre-selected young people to the ancient ones who were far more terrifying than those unleashed, known as giant evil gods, to appease them so that they would not destroy the entire world. Of course Sigourney was not successful and the two fought to the end, when the hand of the god of destruction rose from the ground to decimate whatever beings that remained. This last lava giant arm that reminded me of "Clash of the Titans" marked the end of this movie.


So I must admit that I enjoyed this B-grade movie was beyond my expectations and I give it credit for its originality and creativity. The storyline definitely wasn't as predictable as most of the movies out there and it was totally a typical Joss Whedon production from the Buffy series. Well, I believe there must be something that Chris Hemsworth saw in the script that made him accept the role. How entertaining and how much fun I had watching this movie.


Now, regarding the other blockbuster movie "The Avengers" based on the Marvel comics and starring Samuel Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johanson, which was coincidentally produced by Joss Whedon too, there is nothing much I am going to write about it. It was a superheroes movie that appealed to the general masses. The combined allure and forces of superheroes i.e. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, were too much for anyone to resist. I am sure if they were to make a movie on the Justice League, the outcome would be similar. For me, although the movie was entertaining, it was every bit as predictable as I thought it would be and nothing was out of line. The success of the individual movies on the different superheroes i.e. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, definitely helped incite the viewers' interest to catch this movie that unites them all. What is better than a superhero movie other than a 5-superheroes movie right? Anyway, no clues for guessing who are my favourite superheroes in this movie. It was such a pleasant surprise to see Cobie Smulders, who was the tv reporter Robin in the tv comedy series "How I Met Your Mother", play a rather prominent role in this movie.


With that, I shall end this extremely long-winded post.