"Noah" Movie Review

        Noah is the adaptation of the story from the Bible where Noah is sent a message from God that Earth will be flooded to get rid of all of the bad people, so he needs to build an arc to save all of the animals. This film is directed by Darren Aronofsky and stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, and Emma Watson.

            Noah is a very good looking film. It has beautiful cinematography that helped immerse me into this environment. Most of the shots are framed really well, although some were a bit too close. The CGI was also handled very well. Very little of it looked bad and the rest looked great.

The acting here was also very good. Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, and Emma Watson all play their characters really well.

The direction here is also good. Aronofsky helped keep all of the actors on the same level, so they would not overshadow each other, and he also handled the camera very well. Aronofsky knew when to do a long take, a close up, or a wide shot. Though, there was some over-use of “shaky cam” that was not necessary for anything.

The score here is, as well, very good. It helped further the movie and worked for the tone of the film.

            Where this film falls is the pacing and the script. Pacing-wise, this movie is all over the place. It has a very rocky beginning, and then for a while I still did not get into it. It took a while for me to actually get into it. It was at the halfway mark of the film. Though, after that, it started to get very dull. It had some really good moments, but, for the most part, it was a constant up-and-down pattern. There were some very good and intense moments of the movie, but for most of it, I was not particularly enjoying it. Though, it was not boring.

            Where the writing falls is not in the dialogue, but in the characters. The dialogue was fine. It had nothing special, but it was not bad. Though, we barely had any development of these characters. That was one of the reasons the film was hard to latch on to. We did not have good characters. Also, the film is too long. Some scenes definitely could have been cut out of the film.

            Overall, Noah is still a good movie. It is very well done in most of its aspects, but the script is not the best. It has striking visuals, a very good score, very good direction, and very good acting. Though, the pacing is not very good. There is definitely room for improvement here, even though this is not a bad movie.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 15 "Us" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

        Season 4 of The Walking Dead is coming to a close with this episode being the one before the season finale. The second half of this season has been rather slow and has not gone many places. It is about everyone going to this Terminus, but three episodes before the finale, most of our characters were not anywhere near Terminus. So this episode and the next would have to move very fast for the half of the season to work… It was good that this episode did that.

            Although this episode did have some boring moments, I rather enjoyed this episode. Though, it never seemed to better itself as it went on. Through just about the whole episode, I was enjoying it, but nothing more. That was basically my only flaw with the episode. It never seemed to become better than it was. It never improved upon itself. Though, that clashes a good thing about the episode: I did enjoy it.

            As I said in the first paragraph, this episode is slightly fast-past, so it gets things done. It does not procrastinate and waste time by having useless “character moments”. It actually furthers the plot a lot. It gets the characters where they need to go, while we also learn a bit about the newer characters. And I like the new characters. They actually make sense. They have rules that they all follow (except for one), and they have order. Daryl also seems to belong there. It is a group with reasonable people that are also like him. Another good thing about the group is that we see a really cool tie-in with Rick, Carl, and Michonne. And the one scene we get with Rick, Carl, and Michonne is there to show us how close that group really is to them. That will cause some clashing in a future episode.

            Things actually happened in this episode. Maggie and Glenn are reunited. Now there is a plan to go to Terminus, then some will go to Washington D.C. Everyone is on their way to Terminus. Some people actually get to Terminus. I did like that the groups are starting to join, but I like the planning to go to Washington D.C. more. It seems like The Walking Dead may eventually leave Georgia. They may all decide to go to Washington D.C. It would be great if that happened. Because everyone is going Terminus, that is a possibility. And that is another thing I like about the episode: we see more than one group. The only group we do not see is Carol and Tyreese, and that is because the entire last episode was dedicated to their group.

            I will now finally talk about the ending of this episode. We finally get our first glimpse at Terminus. Throughout the entire scene, I was wondering if it was all just going to be remains of a past society. Though, it does not seem that way. There was a woman there cooking on a grill. It seemed like a good place. Though, it may not be as good as it looks like it is. It could be a bad place. It could be Woodbury 2.0. Hopefully it is not, though. And hopefully the next season and a half will not all take place there. Though, the way The Walking Dead could get out of that would be if they all decided to go to Washington D.C. Will that happen? We just have to wait and see.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 14 "The Grove" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

        Another episode of The Walking Dead aired two nights ago and it is a slightly big episode for the second half of the season. Carol and Tyreese are talking. The little girls are talking. Stuff happens. One of the little girls kills the other. Carol kills the little girl that killed the other. It was a very sudden dark turn. People liked it. It brought many people back into the show. It is my job to review it. I will do so.

            Because this episode was one that most people liked, I will start with the things that I did not like about it… First off, there was a section near the middle of the episode before everything starts happening where I was taken out of the episode. It was when we see the older girl feeding one walker and then there is that small action scene. I felt that then, the older girl’s emotional and mental problem they were addressing went too far and it stopped feeling real. We already had enough. We did not need more. Also, I did not really buy into the fact that although the girls were sheltered for a while, the zombie walker apocalypse is still among them, and I do not think the older one could have gone this long, still not knowing how walkers work.

            Another flaw I had was the girls’ acting abilities. Although they are very young, they, especially the younger one, cannot act at all. In many of the “talking scenes” in this episode, they were awful. Though, I did not count that against my rating of the episode, because I do not see it as something that the makers of it really had control over.

            Well, those are the only real flaws I had with the episode. Some of them were slightly large flaws, but there are not many. I did not love this episode. It was not a riveting thrill-ride from start to finish, but I did really enjoy it. Here are the things that I liked about the episode… First off, I actually really liked the first half of this episode (before the section near the middle of the episode). I thought the overall writing of the show was much better than the writing of the past few episodes. It was interesting to get some insight on the little girls, and the overall dialogue was very good. I also really liked the fact that Carol bounces off the little girls when talking to them.

            Now, I will bring out the big guns. The ultimate thing that everyone liked in this episode was the huge, sudden, surprising, dark turn. I did not see it coming at all and did not think The Walking Dead would pull this. Though, they did, and they got it right. It worked extremely well for this episode and I loved it. I thought it was a great turn and it was a great way to get rid of the little girls. The ending was great. It did not go into this silly fantasy land that The Walking Dead has been going into lately. The characters did what had to get done. And another great thing this episode did was that it put characters (Tyreese and Carol) in a situation where they, and us, have no idea what the right thing is to do, and what they need to do. It has been a while since that has worked on this show, but when it happens, it is great. Another thing about the second half of this episode was the way Carol tells Tyreese the secret. She did not tell him then run away. She was ready to die. She put a gun beside him and told him to do what he needed to do.

            Overall, I thought that this was a very good episode and the best of the past four episodes (including this one). Hopefully the next two will be even better, but that might not happen. Still, we had this episode.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 13 "Alone" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

        The Walking Dead aired two nights ago and I would have reviewed it then if daylight savings time did not make me so tired that I was incapable of reviewing it. At least I am reviewing it today, though. Without further ado, it is time to get started.

            It is hard to come up with things to say about this episode. It is an episode where I have just about no flaws, just a few nit-picks, and only one or two things that I liked about it. I did enjoy the episode. It did have some dull moments, but I never got full-on bored. Though, nothing ever got very exciting. There was that one walker attack with Daryl that could have had some viewers on the edge of their seats, but I knew that Daryl was not going to die.

            I guess I will start off with the nit-picks I have with the episode. Though, there really are not that many. Other than the one I just mentioned, I only have one, and that is that the walker attacks were a bit silly. The walker kills are getting worse and worse as the series is going along. There are some times that people should have been dead in this episode. I did not like that.

            Before I get into the few things I really liked about the episode, I will mention one plot point that I have good and bad things to say about. It is when Beth gets kidnapped. It was unexpected, so I give the writers credit for that, but it did not really need to happen. This is just another thing to slow down the plot so that the characters can have another problem on their hands. I really do not want the rest of this season to be about getting Beth back. Well, anyway, there are good things about it; like that the writers definitely could have chosen a worse plot point to keep the group in Georgia. This could have been a good plot point in the series if it was under better circumstances. I also like that Daryl meets new people at the end. That has potential to be interesting. The contents of the event are not the problem I have with it. The event just did not need to happen.

            Now I finally get to get into what I like about the episode, other than the fact that I did not get bored watching it. The plot was really furthered in this episode. With this Terminus place continuing to become more of a plot point, with it being that every one of our groups, except for Daryl and Beth, going there, that it will be the big thing at the end of this season. We got two groups covered with this one, and one of them was covered in about ten seconds. I really like that Sasha, Maggie, and the other guy are going. And I also like that Glenn is going. This could cause for a good end to the season. Also, we have some little character progressions with the characters in the two groups the episode focused on before the last ten seconds.

            I, overall, thought that it was a good episode. I had a few little nit-picks with smaller things, but I enjoyed the episode and it furthered the plot much more than last episode. Last episode was a dud. This one was a big improvement.

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" Blu-Ray + Movie Review

          

            The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released on Blu-Ray yesterday, which gave me a chance to finally watch the movie and review it. Though, I figured that I should also review the Blu-Ray conversion of the movie, so I will review both of them here. I will start with the Blu-Ray conversion.

PICTURE QUALITY

          This is a somewhat visual movie. For the first half, when it takes place going around the districts, it is not that visual. Though, the entire second half, inside the hunger games, was very visual. So this Blu-Ray conversion would have to do a good job at making the two settings seem very different. It does a great job at that. Everything in the hunger games seems very visual and immersive. Outside of the hunger games, it seems somewhat dull. Though, that is sometimes a problem with the movie. During the first half, the lighting was too boring. Though, the overall picture quality was very good. For a bit part of the movie, it lit up the pixels on the T.V. with a good color scheme.

AUDIO QUALITY

          Though the film is not huge on audio, the audio quality of Blu-Ray has to be good, or else something will seem off. Here, the audio sounded good. Nothing seemed off and it sounded somewhat immersive. When the audio gets really loud in the film, I could feel the intensity through the audio. During the hunger games, it almost seemed like the audio was surrounding me, and it is always best when the audio does that. The score was another thing that sounded very good here. It really did seem like what the score was supposed to sound like.

FILM

                Many people were not satisfied with The Hunger Games and were hoping for this one to be better. With me thinking that The Hunger Games was actually overrated and just an alright movie, I was also hoping for this one to be better. I wanted it to be darker, better-directed, have better characters and action, and also seem less thin than the first. The first one just seemed like it introduced the character, and then we are off to the hunger games. This one met with almost all of those expectations.

            First off, the action in this film was directed in a much better style than it was in The Hunger Games. There were no moments where I could not tell what was going on due to the use of “shaky cam”. There was also no very quick-cut editing during the action. For the most part, I could tell what was going on. And for the most part, the film was directed fine. The actors did well under this direction and the style of filming did not bother me. Also, there were hints of great direction.

            This is a very good-looking movie. During the hunger games scenes, it is very visual and the visuals look good. Some did look a bit cheesy, but for the most part, I bought into the CG. Outside of the hunger games, the lighting of the film matched the tone. It was somewhat dark, but not too dark. The lighting was able to help carry out this tone, so the cinematographer did a very good job. Also, the tone worked for what the movie was then. It had some great themes that this entire series aimed for, but the themes were missing from the first one. Here, they are present and they work extremely well.

           

            I was nearly intrigued with what was going on before the hunger games started. I liked President Snow’s plan and was interested in what he was going to do. I was also interested in what was happening was District 12 and everything else. There were some intense scenes here. Many people complained that the hunger games did not start until halfway into the movie, but the reason for that was that the filmmakers were aiming to make the audience interested in not the hunger games, but the world outside of the hunger games. I thought that was executed very well.

            To me, the plot of this movie was very surprisingly unpredictable. I really did not see the ending coming at all. And before the hunger games, I really did not know what was going to happen. I was pleasantly surprised at how much enjoyment that added to the movie. I enjoyed this movie for the most part. There were a few dull moments, but it was an enjoyable experience. Also, I loved the ending. It was a great ending. I am now somewhat looking forward to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.

            With all of these things I liked about the movie, there were definitely things I did not like about it. In fact, the pros and cons of this movie are almost equal. One of my flaws is that even thought I had no problems with how the action was filmed, it was very underwhelming action. I did not feel intensity exhilaration when watching the action, and I think that was because of how the action was choreographed and crafted. It did not have any edge-of-your seat moments.

            Like its predecessor, this film has many, many conveniences and several things that definitely would not have really happened. Some of the conveniences, I could deal with. But some were too big for me to put with. Many of the conveniences took me out of the movie. Many of the things that definitely would not have happened were bigger than the conveniences and those also took me out of the movie.

            While most of directing in this film was fine, there was some directing that was not good. In some of the scenes, there were way too many cuts and it just felt like several isolated shots that were not part of one scene. Some of the scenes, I could tell, were not directed like they should have been. Sometimes, this took away from the enjoyment. There were some boring moments in this film. There were times when I just wanted the film to move on. I was ready for something else.

            A very surprising thing to me while watching this movie was that there were many really bad lines and there were several scenes that were written poorly. Some of the lines were very cheesy and did not work. Sometimes I could tell what the writers were aiming for in the screenplay, but it was either not executed well or the writers did not write it like they should have. There were also many clichés in the writing. I am not talking about the plot, but the construction of the scenes. Some lines were clichéd and some minor events were clichéd. Some scenes, in general, were clichéd. This factor of the script was unpleasantly surprising to me.

            While the film does have its flaws, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a good movie, in my opinion, that is still better than the first. The Blu-Ray conversion here is also very good so I recommend at least renting this Blu-Ray if you have never watched the movie before.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 12 "Still" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

        With another episode of The Walking Dead comes another review of that episode from me. Last week’s episode of the show started to lose people, and The Walking Dead is known for bringing its audiences to the point where they might want to stop watching it, but then throw out a huge, awesome, slam-bang action sequence. Therefore, I was thinking that this episode might have been that. Though, it turned out to be the exact opposite.

            I liked last week’s episode, but I was not a fan of this one. Because of that, I am going to start out with the things I liked about the episode. The opener of this episode, when Daryl and Beth get into the trunk of the car, was really good. There is also a moment soon after that when Beth is up against the tree, hiding herself from the walkers. With the way that scene was shot, it was very suspenseful. Also, it was a well-crafted scene.

            Overall, the episode was not one I got bored with. It was an episode that I enjoyed watching for the most part. The walker kills were not bad and it was directed fine. The execution of the episode is not really the problem, here.

            Those are the only things I liked about the episode. Here are the things that I did not like about the episode. First off, it was a dull episode, story-wise. It did not really progress at all. It got nowhere. On top of that, the script here is bad. The dialogue coming out of these actors’ mouths was not good and I am really starting to not care for the characters.

            Randomly, all of the sudden, Beth believes that she needs a drink in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. And she makes Daryl take her into to town, risking both of their lives just so she can find one bottle of alcohol and no clean cups and sit there, crying about it. Then, she makes Daryl take her to another place to find a drink. Along the way she is whining about his mood and how he did not help her kill the walker that he was not there to see. I was ready for her to get bit. And on a side note, the walkers in this episode follow the same path as walkers have doing lately on The Walking Dead. They are getting a hold of the person, but not biting them.

            Beth was not the only character I was starting to get mad at. I also got a little mad at Daryl. I do not like their storyline anymore. I am ready for it to end. I do not care about Daryl anymore. Now, I do not mind if he gets bitten. I was starting to get annoyed by the time he was still taking her constant whining and not doing anything about it. I was ready for him to yell at her. Then, when he finally does, the writers are able to find the dumbest reason they could have possibly come up with for Daryl to get mad. Beth thinks that he has gone to prison, and he does not like that.

            He decides to go outside and throw a fit, while no other walkers hear him yelling, and then, he randomly switches moods from mad to sad and starts crying because he thinks that it might have been hid fault that some of the other people died.

            The dialogue here was bad and the writer(s) of this episode basically tore apart some these characters and ruined this storyline. Although this episode was not boring, it did not go anywhere. Although it was very well-shot, directed, and acted, it was written poorly. This episode about evens itself out to being mediocre, but I think that it deserves a grade lower than mediocre. This was definitely not a good episode. Though, it was not quite a bad one.