Transcendence - Movie Review

        Transcendence is directed by Wally Pfister. This is his directorial debut. He is a cinematographer, mostly known for his work on the past six Christopher Nolan movies. And Christopher Nolan is a producer of this movie. This film stars Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Paul Bettany, and Kate Mara. It is about three scientists (Bettany, Hall, and Depp). Two of the scientists (Depp and Hall) are husband and wife. The scientists are working on inventing artificial intelligence, but Johnny Depp’s character gets shot by a bullet laced with radiation. The group of people who did this is highly against inventing A.I. One of them is played by Kate Mara. Anyway, Depp’s character does not have much time left, so Hall’s character decides to upload his conscience into the computer to save him. Though, they do not know if he is a computer or really Depp’s character. After that… some things happen.

            This movie had so many things going for it. It had a very interesting premise that could make a great movie, a fantastic cast, and it is produced by Christopher Nolan. Though, it does have a first-time-writer and -director, which could go wrong. It does.

            This is a big let-down. It is a very dull movie. But it also has other flaws, like with the overall direction. We see to have no influence over the actors. They have nothing to bounce off of. It seemed like he just told them to do what the script says their characters do. It also seems like Pfister had no control over the scene in the movie. There seems to be no tone. It was just the scene written in the script. And the pacing was not handled at all. I would say it was handled horribly, but Wally Pfister did not but anything into the movie that the script did not have. Because of all of these things, the movie came off very bland and dull. The movie did look good. That seemed to be the only thing Pfister cared about as a director.

            The script was also very bad, too. It seemed that the writer was only interested in a few scenes in this movie. He did not think about the buildup to that scene. Because of that, there were a lot of scenes, all very, very short. It did seem like it was fast-moving that way, but it was still dull and nothing was happening that way. The dialogue here is also written incredibly lazily. For example, at one point a character asks a question then makes a statement. Then, another character answers the question a second later. That does not reflect human conversation. The person would have asked the question, and then while they were making the statement the other would be answering the question. But the writer did not want to add in the interruption.

            

            The script also has other problems. There is no character depth. Sometimes a character will talk about something that happened in the past, but it will not give them depth. Because of that, every character was two-dimensional and I did not care about any of them. Also, nothing really happened after the half-way mark of the movie. After the middle, it just got really boring. There were no stakes.

            While the script does have many bad things, there were hints of greatness here. For maybe one scene, I could see just small pieces of greatness. And there were some really great ideas in here.

            The actors here are trying, but there is nothing here. Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall are trying to be good, but they do not come off as good. Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman really do not have much to do here, and they are at about the same level as Hall and Depp, except maybe a bit higher. Paul Bettany is actually good in this movie and Kate Mara is the same as the others: trying but cannot really do anything. She actually comes off the worst of all of them. Her performance seems bad, but it is not her fault, which applies to all of the other actors that did not come off as good.

            This is just a bland and dull movie throughout the entire running time. After the middle most of it was boring, and that was when I would start looking at the time every five minutes, wondering when it would end. It would do this think where it would get really interesting for a twenty-five second scene, then cut to another where it would be boring for another five minutes. That pattern repeated for most of the second half of the movie.

            Yes, there were some themes in this movie, and some ideas it introduced, but because the narrative made no sense, the themes the film brings do not make sense. And the themes are told in such a straightforward manner that you do not even have to think to get them. They are told directly to the audience, so they are barely even a positive to the movie. Though, some of the ideas it introduces work really well. It is just that the thought-provoking elements do not work as well.

            Transcendence is a dull, poorly written, poorly directed film. Although it does have some glimpses of greatness and some great ideas, they do not save the movie. Pfister did not take control of the scenes. He only worried about the visuals.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" Movie Review

        Being a Marvel superhero film building up toward The Avengers: Age of Ultron, this film had a lot of anticipation with it even before the trailers. Then, everyone saw the trailers, and there was a big hype for the film. I was also really looking forward to seeing this movie. Then, reviews started coming in of people saying that they loved it and it is fantastic. Critics liked it, too. Well, believe the hype, because this is the best of the Avengers Marvel movies (in my humble opinion).

            I enjoyed Captain America: The First Avenger (this film’s predecessor) and thought that it was an alright movie, but this is a great movie. It has as much action as your normal, every-day superhero movie, but it also has this very political side with the organization of S.H.I.E.D. which really works to boost this movie into a political thriller, because that is what half of it is like. The other half is a non-stop action thrill ride that is constantly riveting. These two factors help balance out the film and make it as great as it is.

            This is directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Here, they really help the movie. You can feel how well-done this entire movie was. Though, during the action sequences, they sometimes liked to use a close-up, quick-cut style. Sometimes, it actually worked as a style and helped boost the action sequences, but sometimes, I could not tell what was going on. I have no idea why they chose to do that, because the choreography here is great. You can see all the actors in these scenes doing their own stunts and that really boosts the hand-to-hand combat element of the action sequences. It is just brought down a bit by some of the quick-cut editing that does not work here. Though, during other types of action sequences, the camerawork is really good, so the action is amazing. Though, most of the action in this movie is riveting, by the way they were done (other than some of the camerawork).

            This film has great acting: Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Robert Redford as Anthony Pierce, and Anthony Mackie as Falcon. I will not say would plays The Winter Soldier, but I will say that they are fantastic and the bringing-out of The Winter Soldier is fantastic. When we get our first looks at him, he is incredibly menacing. And even as we see more and more about him, he is still incredibly menacing and an extremely strong villain. The plot goes in a very unpredictable direction in this movie that I loved. I will not spoil it, but it is a great way to go. Also, the work for the villains that are not The Winter Soldier in this movie is fantastic. It really seemed like they thought that they were doing the right thing and they did not just want to do bad.

            We get some character development on our main characters in this movie (Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury) and we see them starting to go in different directions. I thought was great that we actually had character progressions in this movie and we go to see characters change. Even when there was not action on the screen, I was very interested in seeing where the plot goes and learning more about these characters. For half of this movie (action half), I was riveted and felt a huge exhilaration. For the other half, I was really interested in what was going on. This film never gets dull. The action is amazing and the score makes it all-the-better.

            While this film does have all of these great things, it still does have flaws, like the quick-cut style that does not work half the time. Though, it does not have many at all, there is one more that I would like to address. I know this is a comic-book superhero movie, but I have to address that things happen which are way too unrealistic to let slide. There were some little things that I did let slide, but there were some big things that really got under my skin.

            Those are actually all the flaws I had with this movie: two. I thought that this was a great movie with an exhilarating action, great acting, fantastic villain-work, and an excellent political side, but some of the direction was not-so-great and there were some unrealistic things.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale "A" Review

        Season 4 of The Walking Dead comes to a close with the season finale, “A”. After I saw this episode, I thought that it would be a very polarizing episode, and it seems to be turning out that way. Here are my thoughts.

            I really liked this episode. I did not have any true flaws with it. Though, I did have a flaw with this half of the season at the end. But right now, I am going to talk about the things I liked about it. First off, this is a very fast-paced episode. It got to just about everything it needed to get to very quickly. And I was just about riveted for half of this episode. For the other half we got some really cool character progression (technically regression) in Rick. This is told through flashbacks… and him biting out of that one guy’s neck.

            In the flashbacks, we see Rick’s transformation from a crazy leader into a farmer. Now, we are seeing him go back to a crazy leader. But we see his side of it. We see that he is still Rick and not always this lunatic. He did what he had to do to protect his son. I really liked seeing that. And the scene where we see that is riveting. We have four things going on at once, and it was pulled off masterfully. Even if Rick did not bite into that guy’s neck, the scene still would have been fantastic. And it was not only directed and shot masterfully; the score really fit the “going crazy” tone that it was going for.

Later, we get some more character development before the big finale. We see that Carl thinks that he is a monster, and that is where we learn that Rick is still Rick. That character development is not as interesting in the development we got earlier, but it definitely is not dull.

            After all of this, we get the big finale at Terminus. Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl choose to go in the back. Though, they see that everything seems to be fine at the beginning and they are introduced to Terminus. But they soon see that things are not right, and the people there are wearing the clothes that other people in their group had. They quickly catch on to this, and we get another riveting scene. At first it seems like the Terminus people have terrible aim, and the scene was almost ruined, but we find out the Terminus people were not trying to hit them, but guide them. I found that a very smart move in the writing.

            And then, finally, they go in the train, and Glenn and Maggie’s group is there. We then get the last words that have aggravated many, both made many cheer. “They’re messing with the wrong people.” Personally, for me, it did give me the idea of cheering, but I was a bit mad. I was expecting Rick to say something that he knew that no one else knew that he knew. Though, it was pretty cool. As for the ending, I am a bit mad that about three episodes during this half of the season just wasted time so that there was not enough time in the last three episodes for much to happen, but at least it leaves us wanting more and not less. So I will dismiss the ending as fine.

            Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. I was just about riveted by half of it, and enjoyed the other half. It had a good interest in the characters, so it did not seem dull. This was also a very well-done episode overall. The action sequences all had a very close-up and intense feel that was pulled off very well and made the sequences so intense.

            There are still two things left open. Are we ever going to see Beth again? What will happen to Carol and Tyreese? I am thinking they may be part of the other crew’s escape from Terminus. There still is the buried bag of guns right outside the fences of Terminus. The beginning of season five could be pretty awesome. We just have to wait and see…

"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.