"Thor: The Dark World" Movie Review

            This movie has two after-credits scenes. Speaking of after-credits scenes, what is the point of them? It is not like the studio is making more money off of the scene. They are not benefitting off of editing the scenes after the credits at all. All they are doing is making us sit through the credits… Maybe that is their goal!

            Thor: The Dark Work is directed by Alan Taylor and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, and Anthony Hopkins. It is about Thor (Chris Hemsworth) after the events of The Avengers when now he is helping keeping Asgard alive. But Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) gets injected with this power possessed by these elves that went to war with Asgard and got wiped out thousands of years. While Foster is dealing with this virus, basically, inside her, the elves are rising back up to obtain the power through portals to other places while also trying to get it out of Foster so they can inflict pain on Asgard for what they did.

 

            The acting of this film is the first thing I will talk about. Chris Hemsworth (Thor) was really good. His performance very much improved from his performance in The Avengers. Tom Hiddleston (Loki) was, as usual, great. Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) was good in this movie. Anthony Hopkins (Odin) was good in this film. The acting overall was very good.

            I will now get to the writing of the film. I did not think that this film was great. The screenplay if mostly why I do not think that it is great. Marvel has somewhat learned from their mistakes of having many unrealistic, physics-breaking things that transpire in their movies, even this definitely has some of them, but not as many as the past few Avengers superhero movies have had. For example as one of the unrealistic moments, in one scene, a big object comes and wrecks many things. But it only shows a small number of people running, and then the whole area is apparently cleared. That was a problem in Thor, also. There are also many times when a character or characters is/are forced to be stupid and make a very stupid decision. There are also many times when a character or characters randomly know something with anyone telling them. There are times a character or characters do things that do not make any sense. There are also some conveniences. There were also scenes written into the movie that did not need to be in the movie, and sometimes they were not placed in the film well. There was a large side story with a character called Darcy Lewis (Cat Dennings) and another character that was annoying and the movie could have dealt without it. There was also many moments in the movie that attempted at being funny, but were not funny. It came off silly and stupid and misplaced. Most of it was with this side story. Though, most, if not all, humor with the character Loki was humorous to me. Overall, about half of the humor was funny and the other half was not. There were also some one-liners that did not work. They were not horrible, but they did not need to be written into the film. There is another flaw I have with script. I know that almost all superhero movies have this, but someone should have stepped up and stopped this. When there are about six villains against a protagonist, the villains are polite and take turns fighting the hero, one at a time, so that the protagonist is able to kill all of them, one at a time, without getting killed. One last flaw I had with the script is that it had some superhero movie clichés. There was not a large number of them, but if I was writing a movie, I would try my best to have no clichés at all. Also, even when the writing is not bad, it is not necessarily good either. This is a thin, not-very-good at all and slightly bad  screenplay.

            I will now briefly mention the cinematography (by Kramer Morgenthau) and direction (by Alan Taylor) of the film. I am glad that not all of the shots turned at an angle in this movie as a big plus for the direction. Though, the direction of this film was nothing special. It was just a usual directing style with many cuts and close-ups of faces. There was no shaky cam, or in-your-face shots, as a plus, but the direction is really just fine. For the cinematography, it is great. All Marvel movies look great, as does this one. The cinematographers they bring into their movies are great at what they do. The director does use this great cinematography to his advantage, but does not really improve it that much. Anyway, the film has fine direction and great cinematography.

            Now I will get to the story/events of the film. I also have flaws with this. I will start with the conclusion. I am not talking about the scene right before the credits (and the after-credits scenes), but the resolution of the film. It somewhat makes struggles and attempts earlier in the film look stupid. The way it concludes does not work for superhero movies and does not live up to a good ending in a superhero movie. It is just a cheap way of ending the film that did not work for events earlier in the film. It did not live up to expectations and should have been explored in a different direction. Another flaw is that sometimes the villain(s) motivations and desires are to do bad things. Even though I did buy most of the main villain, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston)’s primary motivation, sometimes it just seemed like he wanted to be bad. Though, one thing going for the story is that I barely predicted any of it. Another thing going for the story is that it is a fairly original and well-told story that had a good premise. There were some things that I thought I had figured out, but the film would change direction on me. The events of this movie were handled well, though. My last flaw is the villain. This is not a very big flaw, but for the first half the villain was annoying and did not do much. He had clichéd elements about him and he was a weak villain. With this film’s high budget they were able to express the events in a good way in which they were told and executed well. This film, overall, has an alright story and well-handled events.

            I will now talk about how much I did or did not enjoy the film. This section is the film’s strength because the two hours of this film, for me, flew by. There was not one boring moment in this movie. I at least enjoyed all of it. Even though some side stories got on my nerves, I will still enjoying the movie. I will get the action sequences now. One or two of them were just as enjoyable as conversation scenes, but the rest were fun, or really fun, to watch. There were times when I was really enjoying the movie. Even though there were some action sequences that failed at being intense, I was still having fun with them. Even though I cannot quite say that I really enjoyed this film, I can say that I enjoyed it a lot.

            I will briefly bring up the surprisingly very good score. The score made this movie better. The movie even rode on the score in some scenes. Also, most of the emotion in this movie lies in the hands of the score. It is also edited into the movie well. The score is not fantastic, but it is very, very good.

            Lastly, I will talk about the unfortunately strange and slightly bad editing. Some scenes were misplaced and some shots should have been shown in a different order. These factors would make the film seem strange. Some scenes should have been edited out of the movie. Some aspects of the film did not fit where they were placed. Though, when the editing was not strange, it was fine. Overall, the editing was strangely not-very-good. The only thing edited into the movie that was truly good was the score.

            Thor: The Dark World has very good acting, great cinematography, I enjoyed it a lot, it had well-handled events, it had a really good score, and an alright story and fine direction, but it also had a not-very-good at all and slightly bad screenplay and strangely not-very-good editing. Despite its flaws, Thor: The Dark World is a good film that I thought was better than the first.

            On my rating scale, I rate this movie “A Good Movie”. I did liked going to the theater to see the movie, but I would not rate it “Worth seeing at the Theater”. If I had the rating “Worth seeing at the Theater If You Don’t Watch It Seriously”, I would use that rating, because I had a good time with the movie at the theater.
            On the grading rating system, I give the film a B.
            On the out-of-ten system, I give Thor: The Dark World a 6.7/10.

"Thor" Movie Review

               My review for Thor: The Dark World will be coming in the next few days, and sorry that it is late. Some things got in the way of me going to see it, and I am not able to see it until this weekend, but better late than never. Now it is time to review the movie that made Chris Hemsworth as well known as he is now.

            Thor is about the new king in Asgard, Thor, who makes some wrong decisions and gets sent back to Earth when he has to prove that he is worthy of getting his powers back when a new evil in Asgard is rising, Loki. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, and Anthony Hopkins.

            And this film, for the most part, did not live up to its hype in 2011. For most people, they did enjoy it, but it did not have enough action in it and the action it had was not as good. For me, it was a bit different. First, I will go ahead and say that the best about this movie is the look of it, because it looks great. And the acting is good, too. Chris Hemsworth is good as Thor. Natalie Portman is good as Jane Foster. Anthony Hopkins is good as Odin. And Tom Hiddleston is really good as Loki. The performances of the movie hold up as one of the best parts of it, even though I already said that the best part in it was the look of it.

            

            The writing of the movie had many faults. Though, I will start with the positives. While Thor was stuck on Earth with Jane Foster, I was entertained by that act of the film for the most part. The dialogue had hints of compellability in it, too, and we had some laughs because of the situation Thor was in. The dialogue creating the chemistry between the two characters was not bad. I also liked the dialogue, leading up, and creation of Loki as an antagonist. And, surprisingly, his motivation as a villain was handled well. Though, this film has a number of incredibly dumb factors and small events. It has a huge number of unrealistic things, even for a super hero movie. It also has a huge number of illogical actions committed by characters. Only in Thor did an old man fun into a diner, yell “Run!! Run!! Get out of here!! Go!!” and everyone, happily eating their breakfast, get up and run out of the diner. If I was still there, enjoying my breakfast, and an older, crazy-looking man, comes in and tells me to get out, with no evidence that anything is going on at all, I would not get up and get out. I would yell “The dog is off the leash! I repeat, the dog if off the leash!” Also, apparently the entire city was in that diner, because after the diner is cleared, no one is there at all. I know it is a very small city, but I am pretty sure that a city would have a great population than forty. There are many more things like this, just not quite as big. Overall, though, the screenplay for this movie is alright.

            The story for this movie was fine, even though the major plot events were predictable. Thor’s story of how he has to prove his worthiness was fine, but the story in Asgard was actually interesting. The events followed the generic-ish superhero movie layout from the 80’s and 90’s. That is a negative to the movie, but the story in Asgard really surprised me. The stories kept me interested, and that is why I say that the plot for this movie is fine.

            This movie was enjoyable in many parts, even though it got boring for some scenes in the film. Most of it was entertaining, even though it got slow in some moments. The action sequences, I do agree with most people that they were not great. This film does not attempt to have intense sequences in which you worry about the characters. It attempts at fun-to-watch sequences in which you are having fun with the movie. Though, it fails with that at most of the action sequences. The first one is definitely the best, and it is not fantastic. It was fun to watch, but it was the only one that was fun to watch. The rest of them were entertaining, but it was really no better than when there was not an action sequence happening. But overall, the movie was mostly entertaining, and mad many enjoyable scenes.

            I will now bring up the directing style with the shots of the movie. I just have to say that every shot in the movie turning to the side get annoying after awhile. I am glad that we have a different director for Thor: The Dark World. So, the shots were not good in this movie. Though, the look of the film makes me say that the directing of the movie was alright.

            Thor had good acting, was great looking, had some well-written parts of the movie, a well-written villain, a somewhat interesting plot, one good story, had many enjoyable scenes, was mostly entertaining, and it had an overall alright screenplay, a fine plot overall, and lastly alright directing, but it had many illogical and unrealistic and just dumb actions from characters and events, had a generic-like story that was predictable, some boring scenes, and not-good-enough action sequences. It also just was not great, and it was just enjoyable. Thor is an alright movie overall. It would be worth watching on Netflix or on cable now, but I do not think it would have been a good movie to go see in the theater when it was out.

            On my rating system, I rate the movie “Good If You Don’t Watch It Seriously”.
            On the grading rating system, I give the film a B-.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give Thor a 5.8/10.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Movie Review

            First I reviewed the movie with the fellowship of the ring, now it is time to review the movie with, apparently, two towers.  I will say that in a large number of trilogies, the second installment is either horrible or better than the first. Stay tuned to find out which of those I think of this movie, even though the answer should be obvious.

            

            The acting in this film, just like the acting in the first one, is also phenomenal. The kids as hobbits were great. Some adult actors were great, and some were fantastic. I am not going to waste my time mentioning the names of all of these actors in this huge cast.

            The screenplay for this film was similar to the first, but also very different. This film is much slower than the first and has less action than the first. It has more character development, so it has mores scenes of just dialogue, and the dialogue has to be compelling, so the script would have to be better. This movie did have some very well written dialogue, but it was not quite compelling enough. I would start to get bored with some of the conversations, especially the ones with the guy who was supposed to be the king and that woman from that kingdom that liked him. Though, the dialogue with Frodo, Sam and Gollum was intriguing to me, mostly because of Gollum. He was a greatly written character in which you can really tell he has problems. When I really think about the parts that I got bored with because of the dialogue, there are not many of them. And, a strategically placed scene of action came right after the scene that I was not entertained with. There was some relief there, but the scene came a bit late. Though, when I think about it more, there were some scenes of dialogue that compelled me, and for some of them, here is why: The scenes of dialogue would be cocooned in a plot turn so that the scene without dialogue may have been compelling, too. And that scene I was talking about earlier was the only scene that had uninteresting dialogue. Other than that scene and the compelling scenes, the dialogue was enjoyable, sometimes very enjoyable. Another plus are that the events were written very well, the writer knows when to put dialogue and when to not put dialogue. I will say that this movie also has a great script, just like the first one. It just could have had more scenes of compelling dialogue.

            I cannot talk about the story, because it is not the film’s fault of how either excellent or terrible the story is. I will just mention how well the events in the plot were handled. I will say that I was riveted by some of the events. Some events were not as good as others, but I believe that the major events were handled fantastically. They did what they were supposed to do and that is all I need to say. The events are handled greatly in this film.

            Now I will get to how enjoyable the film is or is not. This is where the film is not excellent. I am going to break down the film into four quarters. Each quarter is forty-five minutes long. The first quarter was great. I loved the story with Gollum and really, really enjoyed the stories with the guy who was supposed to be the king, the elf, and the dwarf and the story with the two other hobbits. The second quarter was good, but it was not as exciting and the dialogue was not as compelling. It had the scenes that got boring, too. Overall, though, I did enjoy this quarter and as I just said, it was good. The third quarter was also good, but it was better than the second quarter. I think the story with Frodo, Sam and Gollum was better in the first and second quarter than it was here, but I still enjoyed it, and this quarter did not have any scenes that reached the level of not being enjoyable. The story with the kingdom was better in the third quarter. The fourth quarter of the film was fantastic. I had a fantastic action sequence, great buildup, great intensity, and an amazingly awesome conclusion and last fifteen minutes. Almost this whole quarter of the movie was at least intense and many parts of it were riveting. I loved the conclusion of this film. Overall, I really, really enjoyed the movie.

            I will now talk about the score and look of the film. In my review of the first one I said that both were excellent. Here, they are still both excellent. The score propels the film and contains some of the film’s best emotion. It is edited into the film so well. The cinematography is again, excellent, and director Peter Jackson really turned it into something else. The CGI also looks great in this film. I will also say that the direction in this film was great, too. It was not quite as good as the direction in The Fellowship of the Ring, but it was still great.

            The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has great acting, a great script, greatly handled events, I really enjoy it, it had excellent cinematography, an excellent score, great direction, and an extraordinary spectacular conclusion, but it did get dull for a very small portion of the film and not enough dialogue was compelling. Overall, this is another great movie, just like the first. I actually think this film is better than the first.

            In my review of The Fellowship of the Ring, I gave it the rating “I’ll probably Buy this” and an A-. For this movie, I also give it the rating “I’ll probably Buy this” and an A-. Though, I gave the first an 8.7/10, and I give this one a 9.3/10.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 7 “Dead Weight” Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            While The Walking Dead is edging towards to the mid-season finale, which happens to be next episode, we must have an episode before to it set everything in place to make the finale epic. Episodes that do almost nothing but set up for a future episode tend to be very boring, but this is something different.

            We start off with The Governor and his replacement daughter talking while he hangs up laundry and she tries to make her move at chess. It switches between then and the times right after the episode premature to this one. I am glad that we did not get a boring prologue, because if the episode started at the point of which the past episode ended, it might have come off hard to enjoy, but we good some good dialogue this way. The Governor is asked by his new daughter if they are all good, including him, and he ignores her question.

            After the intro, we get a quiet, slow buildup to something big during the first half of the episode. We are slowly introduced to this camp and the innocence of their lifestyle. Tough there is an action sequence; most of the first half of the episode is just quiet buildup. But now I am already addressing my first and only really true flaw of the episode: The attempts of the action scene. During this short sequence, there is a quite loud score playing while we get rushed camerawork moving quickly throughout the scene. This tells me that this scene was meant to be intense. But while the scene was fun to watch, I still hate The Governor enough to not feel intensity when his life is possibly at stake. I know that there were other people in the scene, but the focus is on The Governor, as most of the quick shots I can remember from the sequence are on or focused on him.

            While this madness is going on, the women are getting to know to camp. This portion of the episode is slow, but I enjoyed it. Other than that, I cannot say anything about that portion of the episode.

            As the episode progresses, it gets more and more near that halfway mark, and something happens. After Martinez hints that he may not be able to keep these people alive, The Governor decides to hit him on the head with a golf club and throw him into a pit of walkers in this terrifyingly intense and even riveting scene of just the right amount of violence to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. The scene was very well directed to point in which I started feeling like Martinez, struggling for life.

            Later, we see The Governor and some other people go on a run. They see a camp they stupidly decide not to steal from, and when they come back to it, they realize that someone else decided to clear the whole camp out. We now know that there is another big camp that could possibly get thrown into this big mess. I want the episode to explore that subplot deeply, but in the second half of the season.

            That night, when The Governor takes his daughter, girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s sister on a trip away from the camp, he reaches a human-constructed moat of walkers. Maybe we have a bit of a connection here between the people clearing out the camp and the people setting up some traps. I have no idea who in the right mind would do this, but it was obviously to keep people in or out of somewhere. I am very interested in that and I hope the show gets back to this in a future episode.

            The next morning, The Governor decides to kill another one of these people, Pete, and then goes to Mitch’s place and points a gun at him. The scene in which The Governor kills Pete is another “Wow!” but is not as big as the dialogue between The Governor and Mitch. Because in this scene we get a conversation that, for some odd reason, reminds me of Pulp Fiction. Anything that reminds anyone of Pulp Fiction is automatically awesome, but I do not know if this was supposed to remind me of Pulp Fiction. Anyway, this back-and-forth dialogue is great. It illustrates anything and everything in The Walking Dead’s scripts that makes them as powerful as they are. Then, The Governor lets Mitch go.

            Shortly after that, a walker very expectedly attacks The Governor’s new daughter, and the walker conveniently sucks at killing people. It looked very stupid holding the little girl’s leg while it very well could have bitten into the leg. Then, of course, The Governor decides to take ten seconds to get over there to shoot the walker. That whole scene is my other flaw with the episode.

            Then, after The Governor goes by the lake, he decides to go on a walk. That walk takes him to the prison. When he gets to the prison, he finds Michonne and Hershel on the trip they left for at the end of episode five, “Internment”. He then points a gun at Michonne and the episode cuts off. That is a masterpiece of a cliffhanger that will leave me hanging until the mid-season finale airs. This episode did exactly what it needed to do in setting up a fantastic mid-season finale and setting everything into place for the finale.

            The first fifteen-thirty minutes of the episode were good. The next fifteen-twenty minutes of the episode were very good. The rest of the episode, until the conclusion of the episode, which was fantastic, was great. This episode, while having some underwhelming action sequences, showed breakthroughs in the writing with riveting scenes unfolding the plot, a great setup ,and fantastic conclusion leading up to the mid-season finale in this great buildup episode.

            I give this episode an A- and an 8.7/10.

American Horror Story: Coven Episode 7 "The Dead" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            This is the lowest rated episode of the season so far on IMDb, and it is also my least episode of the season so far. I did enjoy most of this episode, but I had many flaws with it. I will start with those. There are countless numbers of illogical, unrealistic, physic-breaking things that happen in this episode. Some of these events broke rules that the show already made for itself, and some of which did not fit the character that did these things. Every character in this episode appears to be the worst level of bipolar, because they switch moods really quickly. A large number of the things they do are very hard to believe, because the actions committed by the character do not fit the character. Also, the score was horrible in this episode. It was way too over-dramatic and did not fit the scenes it made an appearance in well. Thirdly, some of the drama really did not work in the episode. It did not interest me and it got to be point of which it started to become hard to enjoy. Lastly, some of the episode’s drama seemed like Soap-Barbara drama. It had bad writing, was way too over-dramatic, and had the female constantly going back in forth between being with the man and not being with the man. (Fiona with/not with The Axeman)

            I will start with Zoe here. Before the intro of this episode, we see that Kyle get many of the tattoos that his friends had that he made fun of. I was glad to see that, because it does pay attention to past events of this story so that the show gets an ounce of realism back. But then Zoe comes in with a gun prepared to shoot him, then the intro starts. The next time we see them, she tries to shoot him and he takes the gun, of course. Then, he shoots right beside her head into the glass, without her freaking out because a very loud gun just shot right beside her head. Later, she is trying to teach him to be a normal person, but he will not be a normal person. I am pretty sure to be smart enough to know that he is impossible. Anyway, Cordelia then wants to see her and tells her that she knows that Fiona killed Madison. Who did not know that she was going to figure that out in this episode? I predicted that Cordelia would propose to kill Fiona, and guess what she does? Then, as I predicted, she finds out that Madison and Kyle are getting along very well. And I have some questions about that. If Madison has no idea what/who Kyle is, why does she immediately start talking and complaining to him? Why does he listen to her and not Zoe? He probably does not even know what she means. Later, Zoe gets Spalding’s tongue back on him and interrogates him. I have two questions about that. If she found his tongue that long ago, why is she just now reattaching it? How does she even know if that is his tongue that he cut off years ago? Anyway, she asks him questions that she already knows the answer to, and then just kills him. She has no reason to kill. I guess the writers thought that there needed to be some blood in this episode. Later, after she gets out of the show, she has a horribly written conversation with Madison, and then gets with Kyle through Madison. I do not like the direction they are going with this character, because she is not going through any phases. She is just automatically changing from girl who will go anything to get this boy to psycho killer.

            Now, I will get to Fiona and The Axeman. This story was my least favorite of the episode. I already said that it was like a Soap-Barbara, but it just did not entertain me. The moments of this episode that were less enjoyable to me were these moments. It was not only the kitchen scene that was like this, but also the scene in the morning after they get up. I do like the storyline that Fiona is losing hair, but they addressed it too much. Also, when she goes into the bathroom, why did she not smell that dead body? And when she finds out that there is a dead body in the shower, why is she just fine with it? But we get a cool twist. The Axeman had been watching her since she was seven. I did not expect that and was surprised by it. But there was not much else I liked in this storyline except for the “hair loss” premise and that is was not dreadful to watch. I do not like the direction they are going with Fiona, but I do like the direction they are going in with The Axeman, because of that cool twist.

            Lastly, I will get to Queenie and Madame LaLaurie, which is my favorite storyline of this episode. That is solely because at the beginning I was starting to get into the chemistry they have together. We see first that Queenie and LaLaurie are actually fairly similar, and I liked that. Then, they go to the fast food place, and have some nice chemistry. But then LaLaurie says that she will never fit in with the other girls because she is black. Then, Queenie stupidly, yet unexpectedly, goes to Marie Laveau herself to get advice. Laveau then tells her to bring LaLaurie to her, because apparently LaLaurie deserves it. I really do not like anyone would be as stupid as Queenie to follow their enemy’s advice, especially when she should know that it is clear that Laveau is trying to get into her head. But Queenie goes ahead and gives it a shot and asks LaLaurie what the worst thing she has ever done is. Then LaLaurie stupidly tells her, and I am pretty sure that really is the worst thing she has ever done. Why would she just tell that to someone she barely knows? And Queenie has never asked something like that before, so why is she not suspicious? Anyway, Queenie then stupidly takes what was her new friend to Laveau to be tortured with no problem at all with it, and then starts cutting her with a knife at the end. This character is not that dark. Characters do not change this quickly. She really liked LaLaurie at the beginning of the episode, but now she will stab LaLaurie. I am not interested in the direction they are going in with Queenie, because of the same reasons I am not interested in the direction they are going with Zoe. I do want LaLaurie to get out of there, though.

            This episode, while being mostly enjoyable, had a bad script and bad score. It was directed fine, but it also did not turn out as well as it could have, even with this screenplay and this score.

            I give this episode a C+ and a 5.6/10.

Oblivion Blu-Ray Collection Movie Review

             Before going to see Oblivion, I had no idea what the word “oblivion” meant. After seeing the movie, I still had no idea what it meant. Today I am still not quite sure what it means.

            It is now the time of the month, the third week, for my Blu-Ray collection review. I choose a Blu-Ray from my collection that I have not already reviewed and review it, explaining why I own it. I picked a film that has only been out on Blu-Ray for three months and came out in theaters in April of this year. I picked it because I really thought that it was an underrated film that did not deserve to be rotten at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many people (not critics) just liked it and I was one of the few that liked it more, even enough to buy the Blu-Ray.

            Oblivion is about a Jack, a veteran who is assigned as the clean-up crew for Earth as, because of an alien invasion, the humans are moving to another planet while Jack and his girlfriends clean up the planet. Jack them encounters many strange things that leave him on a journey to find out what is really happening. It stars Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Ogla Kurylenko, and Andrea Riseborough.

            I will start with the acting. Tom Cruise (Jack) is very good in this movie. Andrea Riseborough (Jack’s girlfriend Victoria) is alright in the movie. Ogla Kurylenko (Julia) is alright in the movie. And Morgan Freeman (Beech) is very good in the movie. The acting is overall good, but nothing special.

            Now I will get to writing, which is where many people had their flaws. Although some of the dialogue seemed forced and very explanatory, there were many great conversations and both compelling and interesting chemistry between characters. I was compelled by some of the dialogue. Some of it did seem a bit bland, but it does not pull from the movie too much. My biggest flaw with the script, and probably the whole film, is that sometimes the dialogue just fed all of the information to you, even though you did have to make some connections. But there were also well written plot events and the characters’ stories were interesting. We get a fantastic twist at the end with a somewhat complex story written very well because the writing for this movie is really, really good.

            I will now talk about the story/plot events of the movie. I love the story of this film. I love the complexities of it and how the twist was slowly revealed throughout the middle/end of the film. It is also a slightly original story that builds a new world, which is impressive. I was very interested in these characters and wanted to see everything about this world. Now I will get to the events. I thought they were written very well and handled really, really well. With the high production value put into this movie, the filmmakers were able to go deep into telling this tale through very well handled events. The story was great and the events were very good.

            Now I will get to talking about the enjoyment aspect of the film, which is where it is not excellent for me. The first forty-five minutes, while mostly enjoyable, was slow. It was a buildup that eventually did get to a level of not being enjoyable, and some scenes could have been shaved off. After that, though, it takes you on a ride that has some very fun and thrilling action sequences and many twists that confused me but intrigued me. I thought that portion of the film was nearly great. Overall, I really enjoyed the film.

            In this paragraph, I will talk about the score, look, and direction of the film. I will start with the score. The score is absolutely fantastic. It is very heroic and motivational at certain points to make it better and it boosts the movie. Sometimes the movie rides on the score to propel it into another zone of fun action. I love the musical score in this movie, which is fantastic.
            The look of the film is excellent. This movie has a huge production value that is really shown in the look of this movie. The cinematography is incredible and fantastic to the point where a new world is invented and it really looks like a world on its own. Also, the director took this cinematography and made it look great on screen. It looks nearly real, and I could not tell when they were using CGI and green screen.
            I will now finally get to the direction of the movie. It is not badly directed overall. The action sequences were well directed but they were not incredibly directed, just like the conversations of the movie, which were just fine. It is directed well, but nothing special is added on.

            Oblivion has good acting, very good writing, a great story, really good events, an excellent twist, a fantastic score, an excellent look, is well directed, and I really enjoyed it, but it does have dialogue that feeds information to you, a build up that is too long, some uninteresting dialogue, some bland dialogue, and some scenes could have been shaved off of the movie. This is a very, very good movie.

            On my rating system, I rate the film “I’ll probably buy this”.
            On the grading rating system, I give the movie an A-.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give Oblivion an 8.2/10.

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Movie Review

            Since The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be in theaters next month, I have to decided to do reviews for the Lord of the Rings trilogy beforehand, and this is actually my first time watching the trilogy. I have just watched and am here to review the first one, The Fellowship of the Ring. This is the movie in which I have never seen a ring be so powerful.

            Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is about a young hobbit names Frodo that comes in counter with the very powerful ring once owned by the dark lord Sauron, who was defeated once. But he is still alive through the ring and is now this huge eye and is controlling the leader of the witches to get his ring back while Frodo and a group of several people try to get the ring to the only in can be destroyed in and destroy it. I had known about the love of this film and how it is now a classic, so I had somewhat high expectations for this movie. I do not think it is excellent, but I do think it is great.

            This movie has a huge cast that will not bother even starting on, but I will say that everyone brings their A-game to the movie as we have a huge midst of great and excellent performances. There is not one bad performance and I was so surprised when I found that the lead actor was that great as Frodo, being a child actor. The acting in this film is definitely great.

            Now I will get to the writing. This script is amazing. The film opened up with a monologue, which I do not like, because it is just a way to give out all of the information just by feeding it to us. But it worked for the movie. With how complicated the story is this is best the way the film could have opened to tell us everything. For the whole movie, I could not find a flaw with the writing. I never thought that a scene was poorly written. I never found any of the dialogue to be bland and anything but fresh. I did not think transitions in the film were written badly. I did not find a flaw with the writing. Not only does the writing have no bad aspects, it also has some great aspects. For example, the dialogue was great. It illustrated to us exactly what we needed to know and it was compelling at times. It was one of the leading factors to the first half of the movie. Scenes were written to show us exactly what we need. The writing was great for this movie. It is not perfect, but it does what it needs to do, and has added bonuses.

            Now I will get to the direction and cinematography. I will start by saying the cinematography is absolutely fantastic. The film looks excellent. There little to no times when I thought “CGI”. I do not think there any times that I though “Green screen”. It is easy to tell that Peter Jackson is a very visual director, but he makes this amazing cinematography look somewhat real for the film. It is framed beautifully and the images jump out at you. Also, the directing style of Peter Jackson is great. It has very well directed action sequences and just has great direction overall. When people are talking, Jackson sometimes decides to use one style, but sometimes decides to use another. This movie has excellent cinematography and great direction.

            In this paragraph I will get to the plot. While this film is a very original and cool idea, it also has some great twists and is very unpredictable, and that is due to its originality. That is because you are so unfamiliar with plot that you have no idea what might come next, and it brought for some very thrilling surprises. The events for this film were handled greatly. We had some very intense scenes mainly due to the directing style of the movie. It was the way this movie was executed that made the events so intense and unpredictable. This film has great events and a great story.

            This is where I will get to the enjoyment of the film. I will break it all down here. I really, really enjoyed this film. I will deconstruct it right now. I felt the film’s first half was stronger than the second, even though the second half is when most of it went down. The first half was just so suspenseful and had much more tension than the second half. There were not very many moments I just enjoyed in the first half of the movie, too. It was greater than the second half, even though the second half was still very, very good. It is just that when they get to Rivendell is slows down and gets a little boring. Though, it picks up and the journey begins which is intense and has great action. Though, the down moments of the second half where there is mostly dialogue are not as strong as the down moments in the first half. I still enjoyed them, but the dialogue was not as compelling as it was in the first half. The movie still, as a whole has barely any moments that lack of enjoyment and not a very large number of moments that were just good. Of course my biggest flaw of the movie is that it is too long and it could have been tones down a bit. I really, really enjoyed the film.

            Something I will bring up right now is the score. The score is fantastic in this movie. It grasps the tone of the movie so well to which it adds to the tone of the film or sometimes even changed the tone of the film. It fits in perfectly and definitely is excellent.

            The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has great acting, great writing, excellent cinematography, great direction, great events, a great story, I really enjoyed it, and it has an excellent score, but it does have some boring moments, some moments that could have been toned down a bit and it was too long. Everything in this movie set out for it to be excellent, or even one of my favorite movies, if I loved it (enjoyment wise). If I enjoyed this movie more, it would have been at least excellent to me, and not just great, which is what this movie is.

            On my rating system, I rate the movie “I’ll Probably Buy This”.
            On the grading rating system, I give it an A-.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give the film a 8.9/10.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6 "Live Bait" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            Now that we know that The Governor is back from the very last shot of the episode before this one, we will now get an episode showing what happened to The Governor after he went away with his two friends.

            As the theme started, I thought that the idea that we were getting to know what happened to The Governor was a good idea that I actually did not think of. We get to see that after he goes off with Martinez and the other guy, The Governor just sits there by the fire and stares. Even the walker heading toward him did not bother him. The next day, he wakes up to see that his friends have left him, which surprised me because I always thought that he killed them. Then, we see that he is wandering around the streets for a while, until he finds a very small group of people that he joins. This episode is essentially about the chemistry between The Governor and the new people he finds.

            We get to see that he does not talk very much now, and does not answer most of their questions. And when he does, they have to make him answer. That is what I would think a secretly insane person, or any person, would be like after experiencing everything that just happened to him. We then see him interacting with the people throughout the rest of that day/night. He is very quiet and does not want anything they give him. I was enjoying that, just because I was interested in what was going on with his character and what he was thinking and what he was doing. And I was also ready for him to kill all of them. Though, that never happened.

            After he puts the old man to bed, the man asks for him to go get a backgammon board, and he does it. After he gets the board, he sees a walker in the bathtub that he kills and he notices that someone shot it in the chest, and then gets the gun. He brings back the game board, and the old man takes it. I was very interested in that scene because I did not know what The Governor was to come in counter with, and I was wondering if would really get the board. The episode, for me, stayed enjoyable, because I was interested in the great chemistry between The Governor and these people.

The next day, he wakes up and is able to leave when one of the sisters asks him to go get a tank for her dad, which is dying of lung cancer. The simplest thing as a very small character having lung cancer is great for the show, because it makes the show seem more realistic. Anyway, he goes to the hospital, and gets an oxygen take, but has many encounters with walkers in a very impressively intense scene in which he has to get out of the hospital. The scene was not riveting, but any slight bit of intensity regarding The Governor in trouble is very impressive. Though, that is when I realized my biggest problem with the show: They try to make you feel for The Governor. Even though they were able to make me feel intensity with that scene, I will never feel for The Governor. He did a huge number of awful things to a huge number of people. Though, that is my only true flaw with the episode.

Then, he comes back with the tank, drops it off, and then gets cleaned up. Though, he has some great chemistry with the granddaughter after that. We see that he is replacing her as his daughter and over the next few scenes of this episode; we get to see him build up a great relationship with this girl, as he burned his family picture. I was as well very interested in this small portion/side story of the episode to see him progressing (or regressing) as a character. Because even though The Governor does awful things to people, he is an interesting character. Then, the grandfather dies and The Governor is in the room in time to save one of the sisters that are the daughters of the grandfather. I will not lie; this episode sucked me into it enough for me to think about that people turn into walkers after they die. That caused for an intense scene in which The Governor slams the oxygen tank on top the grandfather’s head, as the daughters are freaking out. Then, they decide to go with him, and The Governor takes them with him. On the night they sleep in the car, we get to see where the relationship between The Governor and one of the sisters is going. I then became interested in the episode because of the chemistry between The Governor and these people.

The next day, they have to abandon their car and go on foot. But they have to run, because a huge group of walkers is after them in another intense scene. The little girl will not go until she finally goes with them, and The Governor has to pick her up and run with her. But then, they fall in the hole he used to use to get walkers in. The shows them brings upon the great theme: When you do bad, it will come around back to you. The Governor is killing those walkers like crazy (which was awesome) trying to protect his “new daughter” and everything is going crazy. It heightens the show even more. But then Martinez comes back. That was a great ending to the episode.

Now I will talk about my overall enjoyment of the episode. I never really started to get into this episode, but I enjoyed the whole entire thing. This episode really had no moments of not being enjoyable, but it never got past being enjoyable. It is just a steady line with no improvement or declination. Though, this episode as a whole was really good. For one thing, the episode was really well paced (which is one the reasons why is stays just enjoyable). And, it has that theme and it has those elements in the last scene that tied in to Woodbury. It even had some intense scenes with The Governor. It was an interesting episode. It was a really good overall episode.

            I give this episode a 7.8/10 and a B+.

Best and Worth Performances of Chris Hemworth

            

            I decided that for this special video/blog of the month, I would do one on the best and worst performances given by Chris Hemsworth, star of Thor: The Dark World. I am choosing him because my review of Thor: The Dark World is still not here yet and when it gets here next weekend, it will be horribly late. Some things got in the way of me going to see movies this past week, and I am sorry that my review of Thor: The Dark World will be as late as it will.

            I will now choose my favorite performance by Chris Hemworth I have seen in a film, and my least favorite performance I have seen by him in a film. And note that I have not seen many films with Hemsworth in them, so if you saw a terribly awful or Oscar-worthy performance given by him in an indie film, it will not be on this list. Also note that the performance I choose to be his worst may surprise you, but maybe the performance did not work for me. Without further a due, let us go!

BEST FILM: RUSH

I was very impressed when I saw the actor who played Thor in such a deep drama like this when he had to depict several emotions, and do it incredibly well. He was most likely picked for this role because of his huge resemblance with James Hunt, but he mastered this role and added to the character to make the movie itself deeper and more intense. He played his role as if he was James Hunt, and made me feel like he really is James Hunt. When he said his lines, I did not think that he was reading them off of a script. It really seemed like Hemsworth was James Hunt and I was not seeing Chris Hemsworth. He claimed this role in the movie, taking away any “Anyone could have played him!” thoughts, and not just because of the iconic resemblance between him and the real James Hunt. He was great in this role, and I think he played James Hunt better than he plays Thor. That is why I say that this is the best performance I have ever seen out of Hemsworth.

WORST FILM: THE AVENGERS

            

            As I said, this may surprise you, but I really have not seen Chris Hemsworth be terrible in a movie, so it was a somewhat hard decision. But many aspects of Hemsworth’s performance in this movie irritated me that I either did not notice in Thor or was not irritated by it in Thor. Exhibit A: His voice. Hemworth’s somewhat deep “I am god and you all are all below me!” really got on my nerves. It just seemed that Hemsworth was trying to remind the audience that his character is the best and that Thor should obviously be everyone’s entire favorite avenger. It seemed forced and it really got on my nerves. Exhibit B: His general performance. For me, he his performance was much better in Thor. Here, I could, 100%, tell that he was reading lines off a script for this movie. He did not seem to be casual as Thor. He took the performance too far and created an uneasy representation of Thor that I did not buy into. Exhibit C: The likability of the character. I did not like the character of Thor in this film. I know to blame the writers for some of it, and the director for a small piece of it, but it was mostly Hemsworth’s attitude. He seemed like he was tired of playing the role and wanted to get done with the project as soon as he could. That put a hard weight on his performance, causing him to not bring life to his character, which caused Thor to not be likable. Well, those are the reasons that I say this is worst performance given by Hemsworth that I have ever seen.

American Horror Story: Coven Episode 6 "The Axeman Cometh" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            I am very sorry that I never reviewed last week’s episode, but there were some things that got me away from my reviews, or even watching the episode, and I did not watch it until the Sunday afternoon after it aired. I will just say that I did really enjoy it, but I had several flaws with it. My flaws are that I did not like the directing, it tried too hard to have good drama which caused for some very forced and uninteresting drama, and the action in it went way too far. Though, we did get some cool sequences, we got some cool mythology, we get some events that furthered the plot, we got some really cool and unpredictable twists, and I really like the direction they are going in with the character of Zoe. I give the episode a 7.7/10 and a B+.

            

            Now to get to this episode, I will start with the prologue. I actually think that it was done very well and as it builds up to the axeman killing someone, we get a gritty feel of darkness and fear. Then, we get to see the axeman killing someone, which brings the prologue up to greater heights. Last, we see how he gets killed, in a really cool way.

            Now I will start off with Zoe. She is looking through all of Madison’s belongings, when she finds a secret little place in a clichéd way that really bothered me. But, that gives us a great plot point that is hands down the best plot twist/new storyline we have had all season. I had no idea it was coming, and I loved the direction they took. Then, the three witches find the axeman and the other two want no part in it, but Zoe wants to keep looking. She wants to find Madison. I really enjoyed that section of the episode, but it took a while to get there. Though, I am glad Zoe is getting stronger and not afraid of everything anymore. Then, she finds that Spalding had her and the witches interrogated him. He lied that he killed Madison, and they went on. I could definitely have seen him lying to them, making the episode predictable, but I liked the small adventure they going on to try to find out the truth. Later, she goes over to Misty Day’s place where Kyle has been destroying everything, and brings them both to the house in which she tries to revive Madison. I liked the direction they were going in, and since it is moving and using some plot twists and turns, it was still really enjoyable, but the twists were already starting to tire me. Anyway, they revive Madison, and she gives them no information, because she has no idea what happened. That is expected, but it makes the story of the hunt for Madison in this episode somewhat pointless. But then, we find out that the axeman is attacking Cordelia, and the witches have to stop him. That scene was not intense for me, and here is why: Why are there not any other ghosts from people they had killed? If the axeman can just come back as a ghost, why did he not do that earlier? If he has not been released yet, why is he able to interact fine with things in this world? There are several big plot inconsistencies here that completely ruined that scene. And also, why did they just let him go? He is technically a ghost. I did really enjoy this storyline of the episode, but it had several writing and plot errors and flaws that brought the episode down.

            Now I will get to Fiona’s story. At the beginning, we see her in the hospital being treated for something. But then, she starts reading people’s thoughts, like she is turning back into the supreme again. That is really cool, but confuses me. In the last episode, they hinted at Zoe starting to become the supreme. Why did they do that if Fiona is rising to be the supreme again? Are they just going to ignore Zoe’s small breakthrough and not explore it? Then, nothing really happens to her again until the end of the episode. She had some screen time with Cordelia, but nothing important happened to her then. Anyway, at the very end of the episode, we see the axeman sit next to her at a bar for a good cliffhanger to the next episode. That is basically all I have to say about that. I guess I am still interested in the direction her character is going in, but they are faulting it up a bit.

            Now I will get to Hank (Cordelia’s husband). The first time we see him, he is helping Cordelia get around, because she is now blind. To comment on her being blind, it is actually done very well. The effects for her eyes look great. And, I noticed that she would look where a blind person would look. When she is talking to someone, she looks around where they really are. I really thought that was done well. Though, it got to the point where the episode kept on yelling at you that she is blind. Anyway, she uses her really cool new power to tell what happened with him and the red head, and then wants nothing to do with him. I really like that power, and I really like that they are exploring that plot point. Though, when we find out why he killed the red head, and who he really is when he talks with Marie Laveau. I had no idea that was coming, and we get another fantastic plot twist that changes up the whole story. This episode added great new side stories. Then, the tension is sadly released when she tells him to kill all the witches in Salem. We could have done without that, because we do not need six cliffhangers an episode. The use of cliffhangers has started to make them less powerful. The one with Fiona was necessary. This one was not. Then, I got to thinking: Why has Laveau always wanted the witches in Salem dead? She has no motivation, making her a weak antagonist. Though, I am still very interesting in the characters of Hank and Marie Laveau separately, and their chemistry together.

            Now I will talk about the episode overall. I probably enjoyed this episode the most out of all of the episodes in this season. Though, it had too many plot inconstancies and writing flaws. I really enjoyed almost all of it, but many factors of it break the episode’s own rules. It tries a bit too hard to be clever, but it ends up not being logical and not making sense. The episode was also very fast paced, which was the reason I enjoyed it as much as I did. I really cannot say that the fast pace is a negative to the episode, but it is a really cheap way to keep the audience entertained. Though, this episode was still good.

            On the grading rating system, I give the episode a B.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give it a 7.0/10.