The Hobbit Review

We've got ourselves an early Christmas treat with the live-action movie debut movie J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit finally coming to theatres and bringing a movie that will likely be winning the Academy's favour in a few months time.

For those who passed up the Lord of the Rings film series (shame on you!) the story takes place in Middle-earth where a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is swept up from his comfortable day-to-day ordinary life into a world of adventure by a group of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen). Their mission? To take back the dwarf homeland of Erebor, built in the heart of the Lonely Mountain, which was conquered by the terrible dragon Smaug. The road is a long one, full of terrible foes and magical forces of both dark and light winding up on their journey. But its also a discovery of the hero inside, as Bilbo comes to understand a life beyond his own home and learns of the bigger world he lives in. 

Peter Jackson returns as director of this prequel franchise, showing a new visual side to the Middle-Earth we remember while still bringing in familiar characters in the actors who portrayed them. But this also proves to be his Achilles heel. 

Fan service to the audience is very over-indulgent at times during the plot, leading us to many flashbacks to backstory that really could have been summed up fairly quickly. It detracts the main events too often and therefore becomes no wonder that this has turned into a three-part series, based off one single book. 

The atmosphere well known from the Lord of the Rings movies has also changed visually. Its more colourful and fantastic as opposed to the more natural and subtle world we were used to. This makes the movie much more of a fairy tale dragon-killer story then your epic war series that the fans will remember. Its also going to divide the fan base who will be walking out of the movie with their expectations either satisfied or unfulfilled. 

But all is not in vain if you're willing to take the movie for what it is. If you can stomach some padded story pacing, then you'll love the new creatures which have a welcomed Guillermo del Toro touch to them. Our fearless dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is also a pleasure to follow, seeing how far he's willing to go for his vengeance. But don't bother trying to keep track of his dwarf brothers. Barely one of them has much character and you'll be lucky if you can remember a single name. Thankfully Jackson was merciful in making many of them look as different as possible. You'll just have to settle for differentiating between beards as oppose to faces. 

Will the Hobbit Film Trilogy just be the Star Wars Prequels all over again?

Let me line up how my personal hype for the Hobbit movie being thrown into production went down...

1) They announce the movie is actually going to be made. YES! 

2) They announce Peter Jackson is returning and he's going to flesh the story out by dividing it into two parts. BOO-YAH! 

3) Jackson tells the world that he will be turning the Lord of the Rings prequel into a three-part movie series. (Shiver in a familiar fear) 

Alright, letting the exaggerations drop for a moment, the hatred for the Star Wars Episodes I through III are not that loathed, but they do still leave quite the aggravating tingle through the souls of fans. So to hear that Jackson is taking a leaf out of George Lucas' directorial choice leaves me just a tad nervous. But are these warranted fears? Are the stars aligning to box office doomsday once more? Will the Hobbit blow harder than a Mustafar volcano? Well first off, let's look at the fact that the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises are from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the beloved books. Jackson helmed the first three movie adaptations and is now coming back for a second round. He had a great understanding of the material and made a visual masterpiece of how to bring it to life. Same vision, same passion, but a representation of another artist's work. I for one would have loved to see Guillermo del Toro's take on the origin story, but knowing the world's he creates, it just wouldn't be the Middle Earth you remember. Of course, everybody thought before 1999 that Lucas could do no wrong when he decided to tell the story of how his own story came into being of space rebels and Jedi knights.

How very wrong "wesa" were! 

Though I do have respect for Lucas' early directorial style and his fatherhood of the Star Wars universe, here's what I am convinced happened. Modern movie effects and the achievements of his legendary series led to him climbing up on a high horse. That's why he's so obsessive with visually updating his movies to the point of awkwardness and his stories went in weird directions. Nobody wanted to question his style. It's not that uncommon in the industry. In fact it happens to plenty of Hollywood's best; i.e. Cameron, Kubrick, Scott. 

But here's the game changer: Lucas didn't revisit Star Wars until about sixteen years had past. Jackson is doing it with plenty of pre-production under his belt and only a nine year time gap. He's also bringing back many of the same actors from the original trilogy, revisiting old locations (Shire, anyone?) and bringing back many of the crew who brought the Lord of the Rings to life. 

Now here's where I'm starting to see similarities in terms of prequel ideas that can be looked upon as both good or bad. Jackson's creature designs, even the orcs, have a lot more CGI than practical make-up this time around. We all saw the prosthetics he used for the bad guys. They were gritty, well-detailed and Oscar worthy! Why go digital when you can get away with something more tangible? Another possible cause for worry is that many of the returning characters will not have as much attention as you think they will. At least, according to the book. Again, this is an adaptation, not a cut and paste script. But here are some minor spoilers to keep in mind. Gandalf will be disappearing in and out of the main events to go on a pilgrimage to stop an ancient evil, Legolas wasn't even in the novel so it's unlikely he'll be stepping on stage any further than Mirkwood and the Battle of Five Armies. And Gollum only appears in one scene!

And this is all without mentioning the fact that this story is going to have a WIDE cast of characters. You thought this was just the story of Bilbo Baggins? This movie is carried around by thirteen protagonists! Many of the characters are related by previous encounters or blood, some are even parents to future characters (insert Gimli reference) a whole lot of names sound near identical. Or didn't you memorize Gandalf's list of names in the first trailer? 

"Allow me to introduce, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Sleepy, Sneezy, Prancer, Dancer, Mickey, Minnie..."  

But I've stirred too much paranoia in your hearts, haven't I? Here's the truth I think you need to walk away with before you sit down and watch the Hobbit. This ain't your "Let's save the world" fantasy. This is a "let's kill a dragon and get rich" mission. Lord of the Rings was about war, sacrifice and fellowship. The Hobbit is about stepping out of your comfort zone and discovering your inner courage. 

Will it be a good movie? I'm willing to bet so. I just think it's worth taking a step back before you grab the midnight screening ticket, sit on the edge of your seat only to learn that Sauron's shoved into the background, Minas Tirith isn't even on the map and Aragorn is a face full of acne. Watch the movie, enjoy it, but don't expect it to be on the same pedestal as the original trilogy. The movie has got plenty of potential in terms of production to make it to the Oscars, and already the cast members have shown their potential in other movies. Luke Evans may be already getting attention, but Richard Armitage and Benedict Cumberbatch are guaranteed to make the movie a roller coaster of personas. Why the Great Goblin looks like Kronos from God of War III is a complete mystery, and I think I'll hurl if I see that mass of blubbery flesh in 3D. I'm going to be interested in how Jackson gets around trolls, eagles and spiders suddenly having the ability to speak English, but that's just nitpicking. We're talking about a series comprised of wizards, elves and orcs. I think we can handle Lord of the Rings borrowing an idea from the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Hey, if it's even half as good as any of the Lord of the Rings movies, I will be buying every one of the three parts on DVD. Bold decisions I'm already applauding are the edgier take on Thorin Oakenshield, the inclusion of Radaghast the Brown (think Yoda if he lived with the Ewoks) and a new look for the Wargs. 

That's a hyena, Peter. Not a wolf. And it never will be one.

Goodfellas Review

If the Godfather was what kickstarted the gangster movie genre, then Goodfellas is what peaked the scale. Director Martin Scorsese has spent a lifetime developing into the stories of organized crime’s biggest names, but the man can go to the grave happy knowing he has such an achievement on his credentials. 

Goodfellas is a bio-pic regarding the Lucchese crime family run by Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) looking to make a living outside a system of law and order. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) has been under Paulie’s wing since he was a teenager and by the 1960s, he’s already up in the leagues doing the heavy duty crimes; murder, theft, extortion, you name it. But that’s where the story arc really begins. 

See, Goodfellas is all about the pride before the fall, and Henry is proud of everything he’s earned and gotten out of his life’s work. He’s forged a family of cohorts who watch his back, he knows the system thoroughly about how to keep his dirty secrets under the carpet and from a young age he’s had the world handed to him by men he’s always looked up to. Goodfellas is a story about a man spending the majority of his adulthood in pure fantasy, and falling deeper into sin until that inevitable rude awakening. 

Where this movie becomes really magnificent is the threads that pull the world together. The cast is chopped full of actors who would make the roles of mobsters some of the highlights of their career. Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent; you name him, he’s in there. And they’re all right at home in their scenes, chopped full of dialogue you swear was ad-libbed with all the corrupted souls you can expect. 

Plenty can be taken away from a movie like this on an artistic level, not just by seeing how to breakdown a mob movie or how a criminal operates. You might even find yourself sympathizing with people of a certain profession you might otherwise not have. Schnooks and wise guys can both find a common ground in liking Goodfellas.  

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Review

We've all heard the literary critics over the last several years harp about the infamous Twilight Saga book series by author Stephanie Meyer. "They're manipulative!" "They're exploitive!" "They twist the minds of our generation!" Well, dear friends. If you thought that the author was a megalomaniac, you clearly haven't met the writers for the film adaptations. Oh good heavens, have we reached the pinnacle of this soul-corrupting mountain!

Now that our "protagonist" Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has been fully inducted into her husband Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson) blood drinking cult, she discovers that membership was a two for one special. Yes, their offspring Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy) is a human/vampire hybrid, which the evil vampires called the Volturi (yes, I'm sure you're also trying to discern just who truly are the evil vampires in this film) declare an abomination that must be put to death. Thus begins the vampire convention, where the Volturi and the Cullen family mass together allies on both sides to prepare for war. Normally, this is where you should feel some dramatic tension for our heroes. Except that in this film, any attempt to make a human connection with the audience is severed to the point where Bella wants to stay as far away from her human friends and family as possible once she's joined the popular crowd in the metaphorical schoolyard of mankind. It's one thing for Twilight's characters to be melodramatic, which they have done a spectacularly hilarious job in the series thus far, and then there's begging the question "What idiots would make decisions like these people? Can they not think one thing through logically instead of just leaping into their passions? Can they now, facing war of all things, show any responsibility or remorse for their actions?" Of course not, Twilight is above such expectations.

Once again this movie just can't resist awkwardly shoving Bella and Edward into the spotlight when for the first time, the main events don't actually involve them; they circle around their daughter! A character of supposed importance who can't be in the movie for more than thirty minutes.

 Even when this movie goes into creative liberties with the source material, it just ends up being one giant kick to the gonads by the end. You will fall into this trap so easily as many a teenage girl already has, only to feel almost literal whiplash by the time the credits roll. Any investment in this parade of filler characters and is utterly pointless, as you will painfully discover by the story's end. This is Twilight's grand finale, and it went the extra mile just to screw with your heart one last time. 

The Terminator Review

What if you were to live with the knowledge that in a single instant, your future and the world around you will be completely twisted into a nightmare? Your life is no longer about paying off a mortgage, getting the car fixed or graduating college, it all boils down to survival. Enduring a war against a force that has no morality or mercy; machines.
In the year 1984, a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) reveals just such a crash-course to the future of mankind. A cyborg killer known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent all the way forward in 2029, where the human race is at war with robots run by an artificial intelligence called Skynet. The resistance of human freedom fighters is led by John Connor, and yes there's a reason for the similarity in names, John is Sarah's son. Or at least, he will be. Sarah has yet to give birth to John, or even involve herself in anything in preparing for an eventual war with androids.
But that doesn't matter to the Terminator, because it's ready to kill her before she can conceive John and therefore, cripple humanity's greatest hope for survival.
So resistance soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) follows the Terminator from the future to 1984 Los Angeles to keep Sarah alive. The two run for their lives to find a way to escape the Terminator before the future can be changed.
The start of the Terminator franchise is a beautifully crafted film where what might have been originally a B grade sci-fi plot develops into a movie that is so much deeper. Its script, direction and camera work all help pull you in so that what could have been a simple "let's outrun the robot" turns into "let's outrun the future."
The themes of man vs technology is more multi-layered than what you might think, but it only really remains evident in half of the franchise. What fans remember most of the film is Arnold's show-stopping demeanor that is worth renting the movie for just in itself. Kyle Reese is also a character worth praising though they do use almost every scene he's in solely for exposition.
Once people saw Terminator, they knew a sequel had to emerge from where it was left off. For all the importance at stake with the future, there just really isn't much drama or tension in the present. It's just two people running for their lives, which you could find better (and more of) in any horror flick. Jim Cameron has some great ideas that make this more than your ordinary cyberpunk movie, but they don't really mature until the sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

TOP 10 MOVIE SUPERVILLAINS

Fall approaches fast and with it, all the Halloween hype you can hope for; a celebration of all things wicked, colourful and mischievous. Plenty of movie characters will have their shoes and suits filled in by everybody from toddlers to teens, but there's always that extra grab for the villain costumes. And why not? Everybody loves a badass, especially the doomsday-planning ones you grew up watching on the big screen. So it's time to count down the best 10 movie supervillains whose maniacal cackling we'll never tire of...

#10 COBRA COMMANDER from G.I. JOE: RISE OF COBRA

What a true snake in the grass. Now your DVD copy of the first live action G.I. Joe feature film may still be broken shards at the bottom of the trash can, but the hidden gem of the movie was undoubtedly Joseph Gordon-Levitt. True his evil scheme was pretty standard and he didn't step up until the climax was nearing it's...well...climax, but this was a performance that pulled you in with every minute of screen time. The voice was brilliant, even if it carried hints of the Chris Latta charm remembered from the Saturday morning cartoons, and his costume was awesome. We even tolerated the whole Darth Vader pattoned helmet look slapped onto him at the last second. Bring the actor back for the sequel and we might just end up watching it.

# 9 PENGUIN from BATMAN RETURNS

The words "Danny DeVito, Supervillain" just don't seem to sound right when spoken aloud, but then again, it's almost inconceivable to realize that he's the actor under all those prosthetics.
Tim Burton, master of the strange and gothic, helped bring to life a foe from the Batman rogues gallery that until the early 90s, was mostly pictured alongside a squawking Burgess Meredith.
That's where DeVito came in to take up the umbrella by becoming a true man/bird hybrid with a chilly childhood. He's textbook psycho material that's obsessed with taking, or destroying, anything he can't have.
In a fist fight against the Dark Knight, he's all flippers, but backed up by an army of rocketeer penguins ready to blow away all of Gotham City, he's just crazy enough to be considered a supervillain.

#8 BANE from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

True his dialogue wasn't meant for the hard of hearing and his motive were the simple words "I hate Batman" but this is a performance that cannot go to waste.
Tom Hardy brings such ferocious life to a character that basically can only act through his eyes and physical characteristics. He beats the stuffing out of anybody and knows how to leave his enemies both physically and emotionally crippled. He's a strategic genius with the moves that even one deluded Dark Knight thinks he can outmatch and his legion of cronies are ready to give their lives if it means accomplishing his goal.
He gets bumped  back because he's only technically a supervillain in the sense that he can't feel physical pain due to a breathing mask, but he's still got the gravitas and the strength to match him up with the Caped Crusader. That and having a ticking nuclear weapon in his pocket means you best think really hard about how to take down this Goliath.

#7 LOKI from THOR/AVENGERS

If you want to go by true performance standards, then Tom Hiddleston's role in the Norse-god-turned-superhero flick Thor is where he deserves the crown. If you're just interested in plain old bad-assery, then you don't get any better than a fallen god declaring war on all of humanity with his alien army.
Under the direction of the Shakespearean wonder Kenneth Branagh, Loki is played as the tragic outcast who just wants to find a place outside of his brother's shadow. It's a little tough to compete when your sibling is the God of Thunder.
But when he embraces his dark side in full, his big scheme isn't really that threatening. He's off to blow up a bunch of cold-hearted savages that people casually smashed apart like they were ice sculptures. Oh no!
Avengers is where he brings on an aggressive attitude, relishes his power and trades blows with the greatest heroes of the world. If that's not impressive, he's also ready to help his mystery boss enslave the entire galaxy.
Word to the wise: don't trust the guy who wears devil horns on his hat.

#6 RED SKULL from CAPTAIN AMERICA

When has Hugo Weaving ever disappointed as a bad guy? Rhetorical question.
We have got a man so evil that even working under Adolf Hitler wasn't enough for him. Not only is this guy packing some serious firepower under those muscles but he's got battalions of rogue Nazi soldiers ready to unleash their godly death weapons against absolutely anyone they don't believe is worth living.
The man's ego is bigger than the Hindenberg and he's ready to blow up his own country just to prove that he's eligible for mastering the power of the gods. Talk about inferiority complex!

#5 DOCTOR OCTOPUS from SPIDER-MAN 2

A fan favourite brought deliciously to life. Alfred Molina just knows how to own every minute he's on camera in his role as Otto Octavius, a physicist with four extra appendages that are hungry to grab anything and squeeze...really hard!
Doc Ock's the only Spider-Man bad guy from Sam Raimi's film series that really has a plan other than "let's snag Spidey's favourite redhead" so that adds him quite a few points in terms of coolness. He's also crazier than the Cocoa Puffs bird, not just having one, but four voices in his head whispering all kinds of dangerous ideas for him to act out.
Pitted against his webslinging nemesis...well what do you expect? The guy can punch him six times at once!

#4 GENERAL ZOD from SUPERMAN II

The idea's cool enough when you've got a "Superman gone badboy" scenario brought to the big screen. But on top of that, this maniac's got two goons to back him up!
Before Superman's alien home Krypton went kaboom, Zod was a rogue tyrant who tried to take over the planet. And he didn't even have any powers yet! So he got locked up in another dimension and broke out to get some vengeance on the son of the man who threw away the key, Superman's dad.
The man is virtually unstoppable and obsessed with showing his superiority everywhere he walks, or rather flies. He's also got a timeless fashion sense and a face worthy of being carved on Mount Rushmore. Best of luck to Michael Shannon on taking up the reins for the upcoming Man of Steel movie.
"KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

#3 CAESAR from RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

At first one has to wonder whether topping a super-powered general with a brainiac monkey is worth the risk to this writer's safety. But then there's the realization that everybody has to suck up and face: Caesar's one of the few bad guys who wins!

Props goes to actor Andy Serkis for not only making a character who's not human understandable, but doing it with little to no words at all. His performance is so simple and yet so complex, where sign language and grunts are his only means of communication. Blending a perfect balance of animal nature with emotional vendetta, Caesar's role in leading a revolution of apes against all of mankind turns our planet into a monkey-topia for the next several centuries. Caesar's not monkeying around.
Come on, someone had to say it.

#2 JOKER from BATMAN

Jack Nicholson's performance as Gotham's homicidal harlequinn is a work of history. This Joker incarnation is chop full of comic book glory while still retaining the fear factor needed to keep audiences shrinking in their seats.
The man was already a heartless gangster way before he made a cannonball in an acid hottub, so to dry off and leave your sanity behind is just the worst luck you can draw. On the other hand, if the wacko clown mob boss wanted to take advantage of this situation and turn his city into a graveyard then it just might be the best worst day of his life.
When you've got an artist who uses mass murder as his inspiration, then you have a bad guy who's given completely over to the monster within. True sadistic motive that's Grade A villain of the week material pulled off with such class that it's still a favourite among Batman movie fans.
Wait'll you get a load of him!

#1 MAGNETO from the X-MEN SERIES

How grey can you go before the audience just has to draw the line between freedom fighter and terrorist? Apparently the same grey as Sir Ian McKellen's hair colour.
When you have expectations for a villain, you don't get any better than a man so powerful that he doesn't even need to touch you with his own hands to kill you.
Firstly let's address the fact that in the first X-men movies, Magneto is played by a Shakespearean actor who commands every scene that he's in. Even when he's locked up in jail, you can't help but feel like he's still a force to be reckoned with.
His age is not to be underestimated. When you're carrying the scars of a childhood traumatized by hatred and bigtory against being who or what you are, the man only deepens his resolve and is ready to wipe out all of mankind to do it. Seriously, he tried to do exactly that!
The best part though about Magneto is that his way of snagging people into joining his cause. He knows how to reel in the outcasts, make them think that if they don't join him they'll not only survive, but get what the world as they want it as a bonus. Even when Michael Fassenbender picks up his origin story, he's got the same great charm while still planting his feet on his own ethical standing.
Magnetism is his strength and superiority his endgame. Imagine what this guy is like with a bad case of senility!

Romeo + Juliet Review