wraith-king

Lets keep this short since not a lot of work went into the movie itself. And I won't touch about Hollywood adapting video games. Nope. Milla Jovovich as Artemis is the star here with her effortless charm and charisma, Tony Jaa also does an excellent job as Hunter. Fun fact Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, so we got hunter and hunter. So creative. Yet for all her charm she really can't carry this lackluster movie. There is little plot, character development, interesting world building and just about all the aspects you want from a movie. If we contrast this with Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim comes out as the clear winner with clear and defined story and progression and arcs and all that makes a movie a movie. I'm not just fanboying over it. That was a better movie. But in Monster Hunter we get cool action sequence after action sequence then action sequence...and I'm just kinda bored. I can fire the video game, that this is based on, or another video game to get exactly that. So. Why is this a movie? For example when they go into the storm she starts singing to lift the spirits of her men, that was fun and the other time it was done it was catchy and interesting. That's what we remember and care about. Character development. The action sequence just mesh together and form an endless stream of action that I just kinda see. But the characters interacting is the far more interesting aspect. Another example is when they are at the water if you saw the scene. So. My point here is that Paul W.S. Anderson did not bother to study a movie like Jaws and understand what made it interesting. Nor did he see something like Pacific Rim and tried to see what makes it work. I mean I'm not saying Study Solaris or Stalker here. This is basic stuff that just make a movie a movie. Yet instead of a plot and story we get action thrown at us like we are 9 and can't focus on the screen without explosions and cool fights. Also worthy of note is the absurdity of the action especially towards the end. Yes I just said that a movie about giant mechas fighting giant space monster is better. And I'm saying that the crap that the characters, mostly Artemis, goes through and lives is just absurd. Like were she just saving before the action and reloading the save if she died? Even at the very end when they wanted to squeeze another movie it just ends with a BIG ACTION SEQUENCE and then ANOTHER and god just let it end please. Honestly I was not bored out of my mind, no. But I was not entertained. So. Just below average

While I'm a gamer and understand much of the 'culture' what I was looking for is a good movie. This could have been a good movie with gaming elements, would have been fine. It could have been a mediocre movie with excellent gaming elements and again it would be fine. It could be just average. Again I'm not difficult to please.

However what we got is a pure corn-cheese product that you can't finish the first 20 minutes of without thinking that submerging yourself in a vat of acid is much more preferable.

The problem is that first the premise is barely there. Aside from having PCs and that people game on them there is nothing there that belongs to the gaming culture or makes me as a gamer think: oh yeah. I get that. Pretty cool.

Apparently gaming is a sort of obscure thing that needs thousands of hours of research on a far away island in the middle of the ocean. So the director is excused for not portraying that.

So aside from a complete failure to do anything but reference gaming what do we get?

No characters No plot. Very cliched villain. Very cliched story.

The villain is pure cheese to the point that you wonder if they were trying to do an essay on boring villains.

Yes people. This happens and apparently the director decided to play in a no police mode. So the law does not exist.

If that is not enough the main character and overall plot has the same appeal a 2 week old half eaten maggot infested eggplant has.

Honestly there is nothing to watch here. A failure to be both a gaming movie and just a movie.

Some android indie games has more story and art than this let alone consoles and PC games or actual movies.

So save your time and go do something more entertaining like watching paint dry.

This is a movie that is simply suffering from the lack of a real story and well developed characters. All the acting in the world won't help if your characters are nothing but 1 dimensional characters existing to show how dark and gritty the story is and also insure that we get the message of how a certain people are bad and insane. The amount of cliches and just corny plot elements is off putting. But even if we ignore the plethora or cliches the movie has nothing to tell. Arvin is the closest character we get to an actual character and even then he is boring and simply to undeveloped for me to care about him. Oddly enough with both a big cast and a 138 runtime it is still boring and when the movie makes a cut from plot A to plot B I'm equally bored by both plotted and feel they offer as much appeal as a week old piece of moldy bread. The overall gritty take is not flawed here because it's not that it's dark. It is meaninglessly dark. That's the problem. I don't want to talk in length about the "moral" of the movie as it is obviously trying to hammer in one point with a total disregard to nuances or how to build a story that does not seem to be just direct preaching. Now it is true that the acting here is excellent. But I'm not interested in mere acting. I want a movie. Even the cinematography is a meh. And the soundtrack is again average. All in all I won't recommend this to anyone.

It's a simple horror/fantasy/fairy tale movie. Now some reviews are a bit harsh and I was not totally bored in it nor did I hate it completely. From the start I could see they adhered to the role of: "if you can't make it good, make it short". So at around an hour and a half it's certainly not long. Now this movie has a couple of good things to be honest. The production did NOT appear to be cheap and for most of the effects and horror parts, except the last part, it was both convincing and scary. So at least they got that creepy scary feeling that reminds me a little of Silent Hill but not to much that you can call it stealing, nor it is, and it actually adds to the movie and is well done. The story seems a promising, especially with the supposed twist, read below. The acting on the other hand was most good except the lead. He did not do much or show any emotions in most of the movie, even when he was supposed to shout out in anger he even failed to do that. But the supporting actors did a pretty good job especially India Eisley as Briar Rose. And Bruce Davison is solid, cliche but solid. This movie of course lacks any character development or brilliant moments of directing or well written dialogue, and the sound is there I guess. The story is simple and there is a huge plot twist at the end. It's all good and well except that I saw it coming a mile away, actually first 10 minutes, and that's not good. I mean I did not expect much, but that level of laziness is not acceptable. Now despite all of this I'm still giving this movie a 5. So it was not that painful and they probably did something right here and there. But if they expect a sequel and me to watch it they are joking

Lastly I just need to comment on the Arabic-Islamic parts. As both an Arabic-Muslim and a scholar. The parts concerning about Islamic "mythology" and Araby was so awful to the point that I actually laughed quite a few times. The supposed Arabic is just mumbo jumbo that made me laugh. Look. Arabic is not a dead language and millions speak it. We know how it is pronounced and even Google translation can tell you how to pronounce a couple of lines correctly. The parts about Qiama, Armageddon or end of the world, are all rubbish and completely incorrect. I rolled my eyes when they said that the Bible and Quran are similar. And so on with most things. But they did get the pronunciation of Gens an Iblees kind of right. So I guess they thought that's enough, or just luck. I get that they wanted to spice things up and add an exotic new thing and Arabic culture seemed good to them. But the execution is bad. I mean with today's technology, even 50 it still lazy, there is little excuse here really. Just cheap film making. But again overall if you have nothing better to do it won't be terrible. But otherwise there are hundreds of better films both in the genre and other genres.

For some people it's It's enough to have those little lines by a critic claiming it as a great movie and praising it, for them to simply believe that and start to revere it. And certainly there is some people who are so far advanced that they liked and enjoyed this movie. Though perhaps they can tell us how? But for those poor unsophisticated ignorant people who like to have just a bit of sense and story and maybe, just maybe, some entertainment for them this is almost unwatchable. The movie is boring with nothing happening and when something finally happens it so nonsensical that I found myself laughing at how certain things played out, mind you supposedly serious things. There is no plot and no characters and no fun or entertainment whatsoever in the movie. The dialogue below average and acting just average. The story moves all around the place with such stupidity that it becomes funny. The character are so boring and one dimensional and uninteresting that you simply stop caring from the beginning and then just wish it over. And then the political/social aspect is offensive with a decent amount of cliches and such a hatred for Turks and Muslims that I just assumed it propaganda. But again nothing feels interesting or important or meaningful in general so I suppose it's just a bad movie that certain critics like and then people started following them. Honestly just go watch Citizen Kane to actually see impressive movies that manage to actually entertain people while being a masterpiece of cinema and filmmaking in general. So just avoid unless you really like to waste about 2 of your life.

Forget about all those negative reviews and watch this film if you like comedy. Now this is not the most original movie and certainly you can predict most of it. But what the movie sets out to do it actually achieves, that is makes you laugh. The story is simply and straightforward, characters easy and not complex. Yet ultimately you will find yourself laughing and enjoying this comedy if you watch it without the expectation of a Kubrick Kurosawa movie, which what we ought to do in the first place. The story is fun and engaging enough for you to watch and the acting is excellent with just about every body doing a great job on their characters. Of course Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler steel the show but even Jason Mantzoukas and Ryan Simpkins, perhaps people think her boring because she does not go around killing people and saving the world, and the rest of the cast as well. The sound track with good enough and directing is fine as well. The movies is not too long or boring and while it lacks the stakes of saving the entire world or universe or galaxy or whatever people seem to like nowadays it still keeps you interested in this simply story and movie. And really don't get why many people seem to dislike it. I especially liked its end and was certainly laughing and enjoying my time the whole way.

So in summary I would recommend this movie if you are looking for a funny movie with good acting and a nice story overall.

First of all I'm not much a fan of dramas. But when the Cairo Film Festival was screening Teacher I thought to try something new and watch it, and was I glad I did. The story of the movies revolves around a school teacher and her class in Slovakia in 1983, apparently at that time it was under Soviet influence or ruling, who abuses her powers, helped by that fact that he got some connections that would protect her from accountability. She does so by implying or asking parents of children to do favors for here, such as doing her shopping or fixing things or such, and those who comply are given better grades, depending on the service they render her, and those who don't are harassed to no end. The situating continues for a while until Hanka -if that's how to spell it- who is a student of hers tries to commit suicide. Then Hanka's parents are done with the teacher and her abuse of power, and sign a compliant to the school. The headmistress gathers the parents of the kids and then we go back and forth between the meeting of the parents to discuss Miss Maria and flashbacks about a couple of the families and their kids. The film takes us into three families that are facing a really big problem. The highest authority of their kids future are corrupt and unjust. So most of them agree to do her favors but at some point some of them have enough and start to express their anger and want change. Then to our complete surprise we find out that they are opposed by the other parents. The opposing parents do the teacher bigger favors and as such their kids are treated specially. For that they seem to not only admit to doing her favors but to actually seeing this as no problem and a normal way to guarantee the future of their kids. So despite the fact that a kid almost killed herself they are totally apathetic to her and her parents and want the whole thing to be done with. We go a long way about this but you don't really feel bored since they go back and forth between some of the kids life and the meeting. Despite everything, and some unexpected surprise in the meeting, most of the parents simply walk away from the meeting. But then later they come in secret to sign the compliant. It gathers enough signatures and Miss Maria goes away and the class is free, the kids rejoice and everyone is happy. Then we see the last part with Miss Maria going into another class and doing the same thing over again, asking the kids about their parent's professions, in the same school or perhaps another one. Now the movie was quite well acted with excellent performance by most of the cast, especially Hanka and her parent's and Binder and Maria. The sound track was good with little music most of the time but good choices when the need arose. There were some beautiful scenes in the movie that truly made me sad and feeling for the kids who come under the power of such person, they can make you cry. And the Binder family scenes were quite strong as well and especially good. The movie made me care about those families and sympathize for them greatly which is no easy thing. The Ending was good and left both a feeling of happiness and sadness. Maybe the point that we always need to stand up to such abuse of power or it would happen to us, or maybe it was that we can't stop such abuse of power all the time, or maybe something else, I don't know. But what I know is that Hanka and her schoolmates are rid of Maria and that is, maybe, good enough