Tag Archives: movies

The Dark Knight

This has got to be the greatest Batman or even superhero movie to date. Gotham City is still a crime-ridden city. The mob controls the streets as the police, led by an incorruptible councilman and police chief, fight a never ending struggle against them. Vigilantes dressed as The Batman roam the street to take matters into their own hands.

Into this chaos, The Joker steps in. A mysterious figure with no history: No past and only a present and future of anarchy. The Batman must find out who he is and stop him before he bathes the city in fire and blood. As he does, he sets into motion things he didn’t expect.

The mood of the movie is dark and somber. It fits The Batman who is as dark, brooding, and tormented as ever. The Joker was absolutely demented and totally terrifying. This movie is as much about him as it is about The Batman. He’s greatest superhero movie villain to date. This last role of Heath Ledger earns him a position in the ranks of great movie villains like Hannibal Lecter and Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men).

This is not your normal adolescent superhero movie. Even though sanitized for PG-13, this is more mature material and even disturbing and thought-provoking.

Rating: 5/5

Wanted

If you’re a fan of hard-hitting gun-slinging extreme action flicks like The Matrix Trilogy, Equilibrium, Underworld, and Underworld Evolution. then you will like this movie as I did. It is loosely based on the graphic novel of the same name. An accountant (and you know all the jokes) finds himself in the middle of a vendetta between The Fraternity, a group of assassins, and an errant former member. Soon he finds himself taking the side of the fraternity, training to be an assassin, and going after the errant member. Non-stop highly-entertaining action from start to finish. And then there’s Angelina Jolie…

Rating: 4/5

Appleseed: Ex Machina

I was browsing through my sis’ DVD collection when I saw Appleseed: Ex Machina. At first, I thought it was just the original Appleseed. I got a bit nostalgic and watched parts of it. It didn’t seem familiar and I realized I was looking at a sequel :P As expected, hot warrior chick Deunan Knute is back along with his metal hunk of a boyfriend and the rest of the boys of ESWAT. This time around they’re fighting a mysterious affliction that ravages cyborgs, bioroids, and humans alike turning them into violent sociopaths. If you’re familiar with the original Appleseed (and you should be) then you can expect the same high-intensity anime action sequences, this time it’s powered-up with the presence of John Woo in the production team. I said it with Appleseed and, though the story is less riveting, I’ll say it for Ex Machina: Awesome!!!

Rating: 4/5

Juno

Finally, after a long time and quite a few recommendations from people whose taste in movies I agree with :P, I watched Juno. And I wasn’t disappointed, high expectations notwithstanding. The movie is about a teenage girl, Juno, coping with an unplanned pregnancy. Ellen Page is wonderful as Juno, a cool chicklet spouting wit and dry humor every line. The supporting characters also did very well in their roles including Jeniffer Garner, who seemed cold at first but turned out to be quite warm. Warm, yes. It’s one of those movies that give you that warm fuzzy feeling. Ironically, althought the movie is about a juvenile, the story as well as the humor are serious, mature, and intelligent. This is so unlike some movies, like say the similarly themed Knocked Up, whose story is about adults but the humor is juvenile (that’s about as much as I will write about it).

Rating: 5/5

Iron Man

I didn’t learn about Iron Man till about a month before it would be released. I didn’t see the trailer until about a week before it would be released. I wasn’t interested when I learned about it (not exactly a comic book superhero fan except for Batman). But when I saw the trailer (that part when he fires a missile at the tank then cooly walks away as the tank explodes) I decided it could be entertaining. So I went and watched and indeed it turned out to be quite entertaining.

The movie made sure to be as close to the current world as possible. Here, Iron Man begins in present day Afghanistan (Iron Man, of course, existed way before The War on Terror). Tony Stark, owner of an arms manufacturing company, was in the country to demonstrate his latest weapon. On his way home, he was ambushed by terrorists using weapons made by his company. The terrorists wiped out his guards and he was captured and forced to create a high-technology weapon. But instead, he created a jump-capable powered armor (yeah mecha!) that he used to escape his captors.

When he got back home, he resolved to completely stop manufacturing weapons (instead of trying to stop sales to terrorists which would have been more logical). But all is not what it seems and things are easier said (or resolved :P) than done. Lots of action ensues spiced up with a little bit of humor (this is Robert Downey after all, I actually wasn’t convinced he can pull the movie off but he did) and romance (with Gwyneth Paltrow). Like I said, quite entertaining.

Rating: 4/5