Cowboys & Aliens Review

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Possible spoilers ahead (I’m not going to mention what did happen, but rather what didn’t happen in the movie, so not much is being given away).

James Bond joins Indiana Jones on the big screen for a movie where the two of them fight against aliens. It sounds ridiculous, yet exciting at the same time. The idea is original to some extent, since it takes place in a Western setting with aliens; however, it’s still the same idea as every other alien movie (they attack the humans). The commercials weren’t very convincing for me; I was on the fence about whether or not to see the movie because I had no idea how good or bad it would be. Westerns are rare these days, but so are quality alien movies (Battle: LA was alright, but nothing special). It’s the first time in the last few months that I went into a movie not knowing what to expect and how much I would like it. I’ve stopped caring too much about what critics think, because it really doesn’t matter unless a movie is rated so low that you know it’ll be bad. Even poorly rated movies can satisfy, depending on your taste. This movie is not a 44% as its rating on RottenTomatoes stands, but you do know what you’re getting when you go see this movie. There are no major surprises.

If you don’t know the premise for the movie, aliens attack a Western town and kidnap some of the residents. Daniel Craig teams with Harrison Ford to go chase after the aliens and find those who were kidnapped. For the majority of the movie, Craig is unsure of who he is, or where he got the bracelet that’s powerful enough to destroy the alien ships. He has flashbacks throughout the movie which explain his past so you don’t have to worry about that part not being explained. Harrison Ford plays a tough cowboy who’s pissed off for most of the movie (which makes him pretty funny). He also one of the stupidest, yet funniest lines in the movie: “Gold? That’s ridiculous! What’s he going to do with it? BUY SOMETHING!?” I mean, it’s kind of obvious that he’s going to buy something with it. It doesn’t serve very many purposes. Regardless, both actors were solid in the movie and made it more entertaining. Olivia Wilde was looking good as always, and Sam Rockwell is known to be a good actor. When you have Craig and Ford together in a movie, you don’t really need any more well-known or popular actors to make the movie good, but their inclusion (Wilde and Rockwell) made the movie better.

There are some things that tick me off though about the movie. One of the characters is not human, but takes the form of a human (nothing has been given away, don’t worry), and it is never explained exactly where they came from or what their true form is. You just have to sit and watch this character, knowing they’re an alien, but dying a human. A little more explanation would have been appreciated. The second problem I have is with the aliens’ decision to come to the planet. They come for one of our resources and I don’t see how it would be beneficial to them. It’s not explained why they are mining this resource; so again, you’re left with no explanation. At least in Battle: LA, you know that the aliens came for our water (with which the Earth is abundant) and that it helps power their ships and devices. Regardless, those are the main two issues I have with the movie, as a proper explanation would have made the movie more understandable. As it stands, all I can say about the movie is that it’s an entertaining summer flick, but clearly the writers were too lazy to think of any ideas to help explain the movie.

The CGI wasn’t done properly either in some scenes. At times the aliens looked real, but then at other times you could tell they were computer generated. The aliens are fairly important in the movie (they’re also in the title), so I don’t know why they chose not put more money into making them look more real. This movie had a greater budget than District 9, yet in that movie, the CGI was done almost to perfection. Maybe they were too focused on assembling a great cast rather than working on the smaller things, but there are clearly small improvements that could have been made to make the movie better than what it is.

It really depends on your taste whether or not you’ll choose to see this movie. The beginning is purely a Western, which I didn’t mind, and it seemed to have decreased in quality once the alien chase began. It’s entertaining, with solid actors, and I don’t mind having spend $12 on the movie. I enjoyed it, and if you’re a guy, you should too.

Score: 7/10

Captain America: The First Avenger Review

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Going into the movie, I knew Captain America would be good, but I wasn’t as sure as I had been months prior to the release because critics were giving the movie very average reviews, mostly in the mid 7s. After watching it last night, I can tell you it’s definitely better than average. I won’t go so far as the say it’s the best movie of the year (Harry Potter, X-Men Origins: First Class and Super 8 are still ahead of it), but it’s a great flick that you should check out if you have the chance. In terms of comparing it to other superhero movies, I would put it slightly above Thor, but still behind the first two Spider-Man and Batman films, along with the first Iron Man. I haven’t seen Green Lantern, but I’ve yet to hear anything positive about the film, so it’ll probably stay that way.

Assuming you’ve seen the commercials, you probably know the main plot. The movie takes place during World War II. Steve Rogers is a miniscule man with a lot of heart who wants to fight for his country and he’s given the opportunity to become a soldier by having an experiment done on him which turns him into Chris Evans (I mean, Captain America). His main enemy is played by Agent Smith from the Matrix (Hugo Weaving), who creates an army equipped with an all powerful weapon that is pretty much unstoppable. Now, of course, this is a superhero movie, so you really shouldn’t expect it to be that realistic. I don’t have any complaints about the plot, so let’s move on to something else.

Chris Evans was a strange choice when I originally heard about it. The only movies I’d watched him in were Fantastic Four and the Losers, and he was a pretty funny character in both those movies, but going on only those roles, I could not picture him as Captain America. The role is not very humorous at all; it required a lot more emotion and chest muscles than his previous films. Regardless of what I had originally thought, that doesn’t matter because I now realize how great he is for the role. He acted out the role well, and I’m glad I’ll be able to see him again as Captain America (if not in Captain America 2, then in the Avengers next summer). The girl with the lead role (Hayley Atwell) played her part, and though I didn’t find her to be the most attractive girl in a superhero movie, I enjoyed the scenes with her. Hugo Weaving did a good job as always, and the rest of the cast was good as well. Of course, you can’t expect the acting in a superhero movie (aside from Nolan’s Batman films) to be superb, but it was still a solid all around performance by the cast. Tommy Lee Jones served partly as the comedic relief in the film, and had a few funny lines (“That boy’s making me cry.”). Nonetheless, he still acted as well as he’s known for, and I’m glad he was in the movie.

The direction style is an interesting one, because besides the movie taking place in the 1940s and everything looking very retro and old fashioned as it did back then, the picture wasn’t the same as on most other movies. It’s similar to that of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, so if you’ve seen that movie, then you’ll know what I am talking about. It gives the film an old and authentic sort of look and feel, which goes along with the timeline of the film. I’m not the greatest fan of these visuals, but they didn’t make the movie any better or worse. One thing that annoyed my slightly was the 3D. It was clearly post-converted and at certain times, the picture is blurry and you can see two lines instead of one. There’s one scene where the camera is scrolling over snowy mountains and they were blurry to the point that I wanted to take my 3D glasses off. Therefore, go watch the movie in 2D if you can. The 3D does add depth at certain points to make it look better, but the blurry points honestly make it not worth it for the extra $3. One other thing about the direction I’d like to point out is that I’m not too big of a fan on how some of scenes with Captain America fighting were filmed. I don’t like those scenes, in any movie, where the protagonist wins a fight, and then as he/she is walking away, there’s an explosion in the background, while they continue to walk away from the scene, in slow motion. There are some scenes in Captain America that are similar. He is either running from the scene or riding away with his bike through fire as the explosion is happening. I’ll give it more leeway because this is a comic book film and it’s filmed in more of a comic book style, but I really think directors should avoid filming scenes like that. It’s meant to look cool, but I find it to be more corny than cool.

Overall, the movie is very solid; no more and no less than what I expected it to be. That’s not necessarily a good thing, because Captain America was the most anticipated movie of the summer for a lot of people (of course, I mean guys). However, there is enough action and the movie should satisfy the majority of its fans and others who’ve yet to see the movie. It’s one of the best movies of the year, so far, and one of the better recent superhero movies.

Score: 8.4/10 (Not quite deserving of an 8.5, but close)

Super 8 Review

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There are certain movies that leave you with a warm feeling after you’ve watched them; Super 8 is one of them. Perhaps it affects my friends and me more than people from older generations because we can still relate ourselves to the kids from the movie. We more easily remember all those summers when we were twelve and all the time we spent outside hanging out with friends and enjoying life as a kid. It was a fun time; a time when you didn’t have to worry about going to work or taking summer school courses or planning ahead of time. We could relax and not have to worry about tomorrow. During the day we would be outside playing sports or inside playing video games; during the night we would always stay up later than our parents would let us; we would look forward to the cartoons on those early Saturday mornings. Life was a lot simpler as a kid and if I could, I would relive it. For this reason, it is nice to see a movie concentrated on kids, a movie that lets them take on the lead roles. It reminds you somewhat of what it was like being a kid, something I hope everyone wishes they could be again.

In my opinion, it’s been a long time since Steven Spielberg has made a memorable movie. I consider his most recent memorable movie to be War of the Worlds, but even that’s pushing it, since it wasn’t by any means spectacular. It’s a shame that a man who has made movies such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, among numerous other great films, hasn’t really made a movie in the last 15 years that will be remembered by future generations as a great film. It’s a good thing he served as an executive producer on this project. His knowledge and experience in the science fiction genre definitely gave some direction to J.J. Abrams, whom I must also applaud. If you’ve seen Star Trek, then you know the man can direct. A scene which stood out in this film and you will agree with me when you see the film, is the train crash. Typically, if there is any sort of crash in a movie, whether it involves a car or a train or airplane, at one point during the scene, you will not be able to tell what happened. I don’t know if this is on purpose, but I would like to see the whole thing. In Super 8, the train is fully visible throughout the crash and it is filmed to perfection. Even though it is purely CGI, it’s still the best scene in the movie and you will be amazed when you watch it with your own eyes.

I mentioned that I am pleased with the way J.J. Abrams directed the film, but I haven’t yet talked about the style of directing. The movie takes place in the late 1970s, and it looks very similar to E.T. I personally do not mind the old style. It looks retro, but its beauty is that it feels retro. It has that nostalgic feel that is rarely seen in today’s movies.

Super 8 has similarities to Spielberg’s older films, and one I haven’t mentioned is The Goonies. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie about a group of kids embarking on a journey for a lost treasure. The movie really centers on the kids and demands of them to deliver strong performances, as was done in Super 8. However, in the Goonies, the direction was focused on all of the kids, and none of them were able to stand out as much as the two main characters in this movie, Joseph and Alice, played by Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning. Both actors have great charisma in their scenes together, completing drawing in the viewer whenever they’re on screen. Right before the train crash, the kids are filming a scene with Elle Fanning, a movie within a movie, making it even more difficult to act out. If there’s anything that proves that Elle Fanning will be a great actress in the future, it is that scene. I was amazed by the way she was able to completely draw me in, and I had goose bumps when she had finished. I’m telling you the truth when I say that the scenes with the kids were the best scenes in the movie.

The music is also excellent throughout the movie, but it would have been nice if they would have composed a single piece which stood out and would have been remembered. Spielberg always used to work with John Williams on his previous projects, but Michael Giacchino did a terrific job. In case you aren’t familiar with Williams, if you’ve watched Jaws, Indiana Jones, Superman, Star Wars, and even Harry Potter, then you know his music. He was involved with the composition of all of the incredible themes heard throughout those movies. It would have been nice to have him attached to another project, since it’s been a long time since he’s composed a memorable theme.

I haven’t even mentioned the 'mysterious creature 'yet. Hopefully you realized from the commercials that a creature was involved in this movie. Regardless, it doesn’t really give anything away. Throughout the movie, most people are waiting for the creature to be revealed, but the center of attention lies on the kids. You will see when you watch the movie that even though the main plot of the movie involves the alien, you are still focused on the kids and the relationships they deal with. It’s a movie with many different elements, all of which draw you in, and in the end, leave you with a warm feeling as you exit the theater.

8.5/10