Transformers The Last Knight (2017)

RATING CATEGORIES:

• Overall Rating: 5 Stars
• Plot: 6 Stars
• Script: 3 Stars
• Acting: 8 Stars
• Music: 4 Stars
• Sound and Special Effects: 4 Stars
• Costumes and Makeup: 6 Stars

(SPOILERS-WHY IT GOT WHAT IT GOT)

PLOT: As seen at the end of the Transformers film Optimus Prime goes to meet his maker. We find out his maker’s name is Quintessa (Gemma Chan) a small robotic Queen of what is left of Cybertron after the war. She has ultimate power more than any Transformer and she plans to remake planet Earth in her own image but not until she enslaves Optimus first. As all of this is going on Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is scavenging for reusable parts of random Transformers no one knows came from to help out the Transformers of the last movie and more. The film even incorporates Merlin (Stanley Tucci who you may remember playing a different role in the last movie) and King Arthur (Liam Garrigan).

SCRIPT: Lacking creativity. With the comedy Mark Wahlberg can produce, the talent from Oscar winning actor Anthony Hopkins and the character bio developed from Josh Duhamel’s character Colonel William Lennox from the other Transformer movies you could have done a lot more with a less complicated story line. This franchise might have been saved in the 4th Transformer’s installment but this one made you forget what was actually good in the last one.

ACTING: On paper it is unbelievable casting but due to the script and story line it just didn’t help them. If you had Wahlberg, Hopkins, Duhamelm, John Turturro, Tony Hale and the sexy Laura Haddock you know there would be endless script possibilities for these actors to act out but they ruined it. The only thing that made the acting good was the amazing actors they chose but every character missed out on potential.

MUSIC: Suspense music in a Transformer’s movie should be more suspenseful and scary. Where’s the evil at?

Sound and Special Effects: Actually really bad!!!! You actually think the Transformers would look great and work well in our reality by now but the effects look worse than the last movies. They look placed instead of incorporated. Sound was OK, nothing special.

Costume and Makeup: Nice costumes, however in King Arthur’s era it seemed overly imagined and kiddish. Just slap some regular knight armor on them and continue with the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

RATING CATEGORIES:

• Overall Rating: 9 Stars
• Plot: 7 Stars
• Script: 8 Stars
• Acting: 9 Stars
• Music: 9 Stars
• Sound Effects: 10 Stars
• Special Effects: 10 Stars

(SPOILERS-WHY IT GOT WHAT IT GOT)

PLOT: In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 it is all about family dynamic. The movie shows 3 main family crisis: The relationship between Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his old teammate Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone), then you have the two sisters Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) and finally the big one Star Lord (Chris Pratt) and his father Ego (Kurt Russel). As time goes on in this movie you see how they all have affected each others past and present and why they all can’t get along.

SCRIPT: The script is again unbelievable just like the first great comedy just when you need it. You may even be caught off guard sometimes and that’s the best part of it all. It maybe something you need to watch to get but if you’ve seen the first you get my point.

ACTING: The acting in this film helps you love the characters even more than the first especially Baby Groot (Vin Diesel). Bradley Cooper does an amazing job at potraying Rocket the Raccoon’s sarcasm and if you have seen videos of him doing the voice you can see he puts his whole body and sole into the character. Kurt Russel as Ego (The Living Planet) shows so many different sides of himself in this movie. He portrays angry, happy, hopeful and knowledgeable in so many different ways that his acting was why I liked the scenes he was in.

MUSIC: We got themed music for this one and I don’t mean time related really like a compilation of 70’s and 80’s songs. We got some music that was just meant for certain scenes but most had to do with families, mothers, fathers and children. This all kept the theme of the movie going. The Soundtrack is great just check out the remake of Fox on the Run by The Sweet.

Sound Effects: Nice, great sound mixing and sound effects in this picture. We are that the point now that Marvel and Disney know what to use and who to use.

Special Effects: It takes place in outer space and half the characters are in full blown makeup, toys or covered in machines. That’s why it deserves at 10/10 because it ain’t cheap and they didn’t cheap out.

Avengers Age of Ultron (2015)

RATING CATEGORIES:

• Overall Rating: 7 Stars
• Plot: 6 Stars
• Script: 7 Stars
• Acting: 8 Stars
• Music: 7 Stars
• Sound Effects: 10 Stars
• Special Effects: 9 Stars

(SPOILERS-WHY IT GOT WHAT IT GOT)

PLOT: Since it’s a superhero movie that came out after the Avengers it’s expected to be an unbelievable film. But it was sloppy and overly serious as apposed to scary. When the trailer first came out you got chills from hearing Ultron’s voice. When the movie came out the voice sounded less scary and more serious. The movie is of course about the Avengers but it’s also about their place in the world after the alien attack from the first movie. It brings into affect that Tony Stark/Iron Man just wants peace after the event and after finding the spear from the first movie he realizes it can help him complete a theoretical project called Ultron. Of course things take a turn for the worse and Ultron is born.

SCRIPT: Script was good. It kept with the same characteristics that made the last ones good. The Age of Ultron had a lot of one liners especially from Ultron. You notice a lot more jokes if you watch it more than once. Written and Directed by Joss Whedon.

ACTING: The acting is good due to the cast. We’re familiar with the cast and most people know the actors from other big pictures. The new addition: James Spader, who plays the voice of Ultron portrays him very well. The only problem is where’s the darkness that came out in the trailer, how did the character loose that spark? If you haven’t seen the trailers there is probably a great chance you’d really appreciate the casting and acting choices for the character. If they ever remake the Fantastic Four James Spader would make the perfect Doctor DOOM!

MUSIC: The music in a film is very important to how we feel. They got the sad points down but when Ultron is on the screen you wanna feel the EVIL, DEATH, EXTINCTION and DESTRUCTION the character talks about and music is supposed to help with that.

Sound Effects: Really terrific! They have nailed all of the Iron Man type suits noises, got the shield noise down, and mastered the Hulk Smash and Thor’s hammer with extra energy and bursts of thunder.

Special Effects: Really good which is essential, especially because of a villain that’s a machine/robot/android. They knew it couldn’t look like a Cyber Man from Dr.Who. This film looks better in regular Blue-Ray or HD formatting instead of 3D due to the details in all the action scenes that you may miss if somethings pop out at you more than others.

I Am Number Four (2011)

Rating Categories:

• Overall Rating: 9 Stars
• Plot: 9 Stars
• Script: 8 Stars
• Acting: 8 Stars
• Music: 7 Stars
• Sound Effects: 10 Stars
• Special Effects: 10 Stars

(SPOILERS-WHY IT GOT WHAT IT GOT)

PLOT: I Am Number Four is the first book in the Pittacus Lore franchise. Unfortunately, it is the only one made into a movie. These quotes can really get you into the vibe of the movie and make you intrigued if you’re a sci-fi fan. “In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost to young to remember. Almost.” and “In the beginning we were a group of nine. Three are gone, dead. There are six left. They are hunting us, and they won’t stop until they’ve killed us all. I am Number Four. I know that I am next.” Doesn’t want you wanna know who “THEY” are and why they are all numbered? It’s about an ongoing battle between a dieing race with superpowers who were hiding and are fighting to stay alive so the Mogadorians don’t kill them (in order) and wipe out their race for good. You don’t actually find out why they must be killed in order until  you read a few of the books.

SCRIPT: For a book developed into a movie they did a great job of keeping a lot of the original quotes or at least variations from the book. This is important in films like this because fans like it when their movies are mostly based on original content instead of loosely based like all DC and Marvel Comicbook movies.

ACTING: Alex Pettyfer does a wonderful job playing the approx. 17 year old Number Four secretly under the name John Smith. He really shows off how he can portray a high school teenager going through superpower puberty. Some actors who failed at this were Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman (2002) who was basically more mesmerized than scared about his future or how people would see him and another one is The Amzing Spider-Man (2012) whch was just basically an epic fail all together. A film that did this really well except it was adults was Fantastic Four (2005). Timothy Olyphant was an unbelievable Henri who basically a guardian of Number Four and older brother/father figure to him. Now you wanna see a good bad guy well you came to the right movie because Kevin Durand was perfect to play the Mogadorian Commander. He can play rude, ugly, and cruel very well with a dash of comedy sprinkled in. You may remember Kevin Durand as Fred Dukes/The Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

MUSIC: The music was unbelievable when you wanted to get pumped and into a fight. It was all well produced and well orchestrated but don’t expect a huge inspired by the movie soundtrack.

SOUND EFFECTS: Perfect. With the amount of powers and fight scenes they had they really knew what sound was perfect for where and when.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Top Notch! Number Six (played by Teresa Palmer who would have been the star of the sequel that unfortunately didn’t get made due to screenplay disagreements) had the power of invisibility. When you have a character with this power you need the right demonstration of it and to show someone appear and reappear the amount of times she did in fight scenes was great and the sound effects combined with it just made it even cooler. Number Four’s light power is all about the glow that came off his palms. It had to be done in a way that it wouldn’t come off as an Iron Man poser. They succeeded by adding a little of blue flair and a neon tint to it that you can see in most poster for the film. If you are studying Special Effects watch the ending of this movie!