james_scott_mcs

Monica Rambeau was one of my favorite Avengers in the late 80s as Captain Marvel. I always thought her as untapped potential and her powers were never realized. Carol Danvers, I was mostly enh on. I liked her as Ms. Marvel and loved her as Binary. Kamala Kahn, I actually hate in the comics. But Iman did a great job in the Ms. Marvel series. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie.

And it started out ok. We had the Kree in their finned helmets. Kamala's story continuing probably one of the best showings on how it would really be like to have superpowers and a family.

And they brought in an OLD story line from the original Captain Marvel comic. In the 1970s Mar-Vell (a male kree warrior) got some wrist bands called the Nega-bands and gained powers and became Captain Marvel. He later used them to swap places with Rick Jones (Bruce Banner/Incredible Hulk) side kick/friend. Sound a bit familiar?

Major spoilers ahead:

But then it starts to go downhill fast. An alien race that sings and dances. Goose the cat multiplying like a gremlin. Then they all eat and hacked-up an entire space base worth of people.

And a nonchalant, oh I killed their AI leader and doomed their home world. Why wasn't that a movie??? Potentially one of Captain Marvel's greatest storylines about how you think you are doing right but end up making things a lot worse. Heros aren't always right. But sadly, it's caste off as an 'Oh by the way' line. But no, they spend more time trying to show Carol and Monica relationship and why they avoid each other half of the movie. 'snooze' That writing was worse than a Disney teen show.

Don't get me wrong, there are some chuckles and enjoyable moments. Like the swapping places practice session and use in combat. But it was like every time they found something good to go with, they'd find a way to ruin it after 5 minutes.

I'm sorry. As much as I was expecting to hate the movie after watching the trailer. I actually pleasantly enjoyed it. And yes, I was one of the people that rolled my eyes at the Tinkerbell casting and the Lost Boys. But overall, I thought it was an improvement over the cartoon. And IMHO the best Live action version.

Casting-I thought everyone was spot on perfect, save for Tinkerbell and maybe Peter Pan. I thought he was good, not great. But Wendy and the rest are spot on and I think steal the show anyways. There isn't one of the characters that you would see and not immediately know them.

Story-This is where I actually think it knocked it out of the park. We get a better reason for why Hook hates Peter and the rest. And overall, it ties together the whole Neverland story and reason for being. It does slow the movie down in parts, but to me, it is where it brought it more to a reality. And by this, as a kid I knew Peter Pan was completely fake and could never happen. It was just too absurd. But if I would of saw this, I think I would have believed, just maybe that it was possible. The Tinkerbell/Peter/Wendy love triangle pleasantly removed. And Tinkerbell and Peter are just best friends. And as such, they remove the whole Tinkerbell being a constant pest to Wendy. Which I always hated in the other stories.

Sets-The sets and scenes are incredible and well detailed. Again, these are places that you can believe are real and exist. Well ok, except maybe the Crocodile, it was a bit too obviously CGI. And kind of poor CGI at that.

Elephant in the room- Ok, Lost Kids AKA Lost Boys 2.0. I don't see the big issue with the Lost Boys now having girls, call them Lost Kids and be done with it. Let's remember when this was originally written.

As a fan of the anime, I was glad to see they didn't do a frame by frame cosplaying remake. Yes the characters aren't perfect clones of the anime, but there isn't one that you don't instantly recognize. And they all do a great job at playing their part.

Now the story. They took the original, yanked out all of the origin stuff twisted parts around and made it into the first 10 episodes. While it is essentially the same overall. There are numerous changes which keep it fresh and unique enough to fans of the original (like me) interested. Even if they saw the original 10+ times. And honestly, in a lot of ways, I prefer the Spike-Vicious-Julia storyline in this version. Maybe people are mad because all of the "fun" episodes from the anime's first half aren't in these ten episodes. But instead they concentrate on telling (and expanding on) the main cast's background.

Sets and filming. Now here is where I would take away point for the lack of space and ships. While there are scenes with ships and space, it is mere fraction of what was in the anime. But, when they do, they look picture perfect. From the Bebop to Faye's and Spike's small fighters, they look spot on. But where they lack on space scenes, the city scenes knock it out of the park. I also found the Noir style really captured the feel of the anime.

One of the elephants in the room was some changes that needed to be made. There were some subject matters and costumes (most notably Faye's) the had to be changed. In the 20 years since the original a lot of things are no longer sociably as acceptable. But thankfully the changes they made were subtle and really didn't detract from the story.

Overall it is a great series in it's own right, that uses the anime as source material and not as a script.

It blows my mind on how critics and some viewers pan this series and clearly never read any of the source material. Being a long time comic book collector and fan. I can tell you that this series actually stays true to it's roots.

Casting, personally I don't think they could of gotten a better match without breaking the budget. The only one I would say is off is Karnak, having that big head and/or wearing that helmet. But I think this version is actually better. Gorgon is obviously changed races and a bit smaller, but this is not uncommon with most Marvel series lately. When you see each and every royal character, you immediately know who it is.

Story, this series could of been a great comic series. Which has a common theme to anyone who followed the Inhummans. Maximus takes over, the royal family flees, they work to get the throne back. Pretty much sums up most Inhumman story lines. The way they scattered them and had them find each other while learning earth's customs, is to me a fun twist. Though having Lockjaw (I love the big Doggie) teleport in random locations was the biggest stretch to me.

Effects, OK, this is where the series really loses people and I kind of agree. This isn't a big budget or even a moderate budgeted special effects series. I believe most of their money was spent on the actors. Black Bolts power obviously is gonna be seldom used and it's simple effect. Medusa, wow, OK, her hair looked cartoony and low resolution. But when they literally shaved the budget by shaving her head I almost laughed. Honestly I think it was series greatest mistakes. Karnak (one of my favorite Inhumans), his abilities are simple to CGI. Gorgon, OK, well they keep this one simple. Only shoot him from the waist up, on rare occasions shoot him from the waist down. In a blue moon, show him full body. Crystal, looks perfect, the rare occasions that she uses her powers they look great.

Final thoughts, the series isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. BUT, for what it is, it is actually pretty good. Stop trying think of it as a major marvel movie production. Thankfully they completely ignore the horrible version of Inhumans from the Agents of Shield series. Which I think has confused a lot of series watchers that never read the origin material.

First let me give a disclaimer, I have been a HUGE Tick fan since they day I saw the first cartoon back in the 90s. People have to remember that the Tick has always a mixed bag, you either love him or hate him. It's a parody of all things super hero, even though this time there is a bit a seriousness. When there is a serious explosion, afterwards you look for the bad guy dangling from rooftop begging for help.

I think the last live action attempt was better in some ways, in other ways I think this one will be better. I won't deny that Patrick Warburton was perfect in the last one. But Peter Serafinowicz is also pretty good. He really doesn't have a lot of screen time to judge by. But when he does he does a good job. His monologue at the end was great and I could really see him as the Tick. As for Arthur, Griffin Newman does a perfect job. The writing is of course spot on, because it's written by the original writer and creator. This new darker story line was a nice twist. And doing an origin story on Arthur was a bold choice for a pilot episode, because it doesn't give much screen time to the Tick.

The jokes are there, but only really when the Tick is around. So I think some people will miss what I think is the writer's intention. Where as before it was non-stop jokes and puns. This show is serious, then bam a joke/pun. I think over all it makes for a better ride.

I honestly watched this with probably some of the lowest expectations. Wow, was I ever surprised! How could a movie about 'Angry Birds', a simple smart phone app game, be any good? Heck, Hollywood can barely make a decent video game movie, even one with an already great story. But, Angry Birds? A game with a few cut scenes and a simple story "Pigs steal eggs, Birds try to get them back". Well my hat is off to the writers and the actors. Enough gushing.

Angry Birds does what a lot of great animated movies do. Write a funny story that kids can follow along. But also include enough 'inside jokes' for the adults to get, so that they can laugh too. I'm 46 and a father of a teen. We both laughed a lot during it, but I honestly think me and my 8yr old nephew enjoyed more than my 15yr old daughter.

The voice acting is perfect. Jason and Josh do great job. But honestly I think Josh steals the movie. Josh/Chuck has some of the greatest scenes and lines. And he pulls them off even better than he did as Olaf in Frozen.

NOT A SPOILER, shown in trailer. For the fans of the game, about half way through movie, you finally get your nod. When the birds attack the pigs, we finally get a taste of the game. But it doesn't take away from the movie as one might expect. They did a great job of sling shooting the birds at the pig's buildings without taking away from the story.

I give it a 8 out of 10, great movie for the whole family. I didn't give it a 9 or 10, because though it is probably the best movie it could of been. It is a movie that probably could of been even better if it had nothing to do about a game. So that they didn't have to include certain things. But it is still a must see if you have kids or have ever played the game!

It's clearly a Quentin Tarantino movie thru and thru. But how this movie is getting such high ratings is beyond me. And I'm a huge fan of his movies. But....

It just felt like he just reused a lot gimmicks from a lot of his previous movies. Like Pulp Fiction, it's played in chapters and they are mixed up a bit. And like Reservoir Dogs, majority of the movie plays out in one main room.

A lot of the actors who have played in previous Quentin movies simply play western versions of what they played before. Samuel L. Jackson was Jules all over again. Michael Madsen was Budd. Etc. It's not that the acting was bad, but every actor played their part exactly as you expect they would.

The ending is what you'd expect from a Quentin movie, complete chaos. The one good part of the movie, is after it's over you can spend hours discussing what happened after the credits rolled. Who might of lived and who probably died.

Overall it is an OK movie, especially if you lived thru this era. But most of the film is simply pulled from the headlines. And the parts that aren't are clearly over exaggerated. I was in my late teens and early 20s during the time period of this movie, so I remember a lot of these events. Especially when a lot of my friends were really into NWA. But there is a clear bias. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there was a lot of police harassment during this time period. And I wasn't there to see what happened in these situations. But you can clearly tell they over exaggerated some of the situations.

As for the acting, they picked some perfect people to play each NWA part. You recognize them right away and their mannerisms were great. The only part I found to be over the top was Paul Giamatti. Which is sad, because he is one of my favorite actors. But if you imagine Paul playing an over the top corrupt producer, that's exactly what you get. It wasn't much of a stretch. But with Jerry Heller suing because the portrayal of him in the movie. Maybe they went to over the top.

This movie is clearly riding the Black Lives matters and Empire Train. If this came out 3 years ago, it would of gotten a lot less attention. Like the movie Notorious. But it's another case where the critics are afraid to give an honest review, or else they'll be called racist. Same with the awards shows. But I keep my reviews honest and I think this deserves a 7 out of 10 at best.

I really enjoyed this movie. And any fan of the older westerns like Jeremiah Johnson will probably also like it. With the cinemas filled with CGI jammed movies with very little story, this movie was really refreshing. The one CGI obvious effect was the bear attack. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good. And there was no way to do that scene any other way. The acting was pretty good, but as most of the movie Leo crawling and grunting, there is only so much to go by. But I think Leo should get an Oscar just for his performance in such insanely nasty conditions.

This movie isn't filmed in some back lot. It was filmed in the winter in Canada and Argentina. Which brings me to the filmography, probably the best seen in a long time. You can tell that they took great care to use only natural lighting. The lighting and camera work was beautiful. You can feel the dread and cold and dreary weather. Which I read led to a lot of delays, but I think it was well worth it.

The writing was pretty good. I think if they kept parts of the movie closer to the original tale, it would of made for a better movie. Now I know Glass probably exaggerated on his original telling. It had some parts, such as he avoided gangrene by tearing open a rotten log and allowing the maggots to eat the dead flesh. But overall the script wasn't to unbelievable. But.....

****Spoilers below****** There are some parts that just have you going "Oh, come on!". My biggest one, was the scene in the river. Anyone that is remotely familiar with water survival knows you have a few minutes before you pass out and die. And that's under ideal conditions. We don't know how long he was in there, but it was clearly a long time. Yes Glass did go down the river, but he had built a crude raft. Fixing a hole in your throat with gunpowder. I know this is an old western trick to cauterize a wound. But surely it would of simply sealed the hole open and not closed the hole.

My big surprise was after seeing the movie and doing research about the real Glass. Is that the ending is nearly completely false. Not gonna spoil that one, but let's just say it would of been a boring ending.

Overall a pretty good movie. Mostly believable. Beautifully filmed. Nicely acted. And Leo earned my respect for performing in such conditions.

I give the show a 4 out of 10 because I am averaging the two seasons. Season 1 = 8 out of 10, Season 2 = 3 out of 10. The first season was pretty believable and had some great plot lines that had potential. Then the second season comes along and throws it all away with completely unbelievable plots. I personally called it the MacGyver effect. Where the first 3 or 4 seasons they used actual science and theories to "save the day". But later seasons they went the extremes that would never work. Scorpion suffered the same fate, but they went from realistic to impossible in just a season.

*Spoilers* Don't get me wrong, even in season one there are a lot a gray areas on what they do. Such as hacking system so fast, but that's a given for time constraints. But most of their situations and solutions feel within most scientific constraints or theories. Yes they stretch theories, but they kept it somewhat believable.

But then season 2 came along and well, it turned into a sci-fi/fantasy show. There isn't one episode that even remotely had believable science. Going to transfer his sister mind into a computer? (granted, never came about). Cement the dries instantly and can repair a cracked dam? Laser/gel based supercomputer? (guess they watched that Star Trek episode). Waste 15 million to send your sister's ashes into space? (How about, get the award and doing something positive in her name!?!?!)

I loved the show the first season. It was a great modern day MacGyver twist. But they quickly turned it into something else.

I keep watching only because of the characters and actors. We all know Toby and Happy will become a couple again. Same with Walter and Paige. And I was hoping Sylvester and Megan was dragged out for a few more seasons.

But when you have a show that is "Based on the real life of Walter O'Brien, a genius with an IQ of 197." Then turn it into something based on current science fiction theories. Well you lose a lot of fans.

As a movie overall, I'd probably give it 5 out of 10. But I give it an extra point because what they did with what they had. It's clearly a low budget movie. Which actually had some good CGI effects/scenes. And they relied on some practical effects instead. As one that thinks Hollywood movies now a days are to much CGI and not enough story/acting. I found this a bit refreshing.

It reminded me a bit of the TV show "The 100" with some "Lord of the Flies" and a dash of monsters thrown in. When you watch it, you will probably feel like you heard this story before.

Now considering the Director and one of the writers, Simon Hung, has a Masters degree in Film making. I did wonder on why the writing was so cliché and predictable. Not sure if this was done on purpose or that I have seen way to many movies.

The writer, director and actors are all pretty much new to making a full length movie. (a few did a couple of TV episodes and shorts). I think they all did a respectful job. But the acting was stiff in parts and overdone in others. But I wasn't expecting Oscar moments from kids in their first movie. Especially when they had no adult actors to play off of.

Overall it's a pretty good attempt at making major movie. But the predictable writing, so-so acting and clearly low budget, hold the movie back. Could easily be a made for SyFy Channel movie. I look forward to seeing Simon's next attempt.

As a side note, I don't know where this was filmed. But as a kid (ok, also as an adult), I would of loved to play in that scrap yard. Great location choice.

I actually liked the movie and I can't fathom on why there is so many 1 and 2 stars.

It's a movie about a shy girl and her 3 sisters (2 are adopted/foster) trying to help save their family and their home. There is some good original songs and music. It's a good clean movie that you can watch with your whole family. Which is rarity now a days. Though the script is pretty predictable, I think the target audience of teen girls wouldn't see most of it coming. Overall is kind of feels like Glee, a clean Lady Gaga and Coyote Ugly mixture. And by that I mean, it has the "Be who you are. Do what you want. Become whatever you dreamed about" type message.

Most of the acting is pretty good. But Juliette Lewis' acting was really bad. She was way over the top. If you seen Josie and the Pussycats, she would be perfect with Alan Cummings character. Where this movie actually tries to be kind of realistic/possible. It's like she was thinking it's was like the 80's cartoon.

The camera switching back and forth from Jerrica narrating to the actual movie was overdone. They could of done that at the beginning and at the end and I think the movie would of flowed better. I get that they were trying to have that video blog / you-tube feel. But it takes away from the actual movie. Which also brings up the length, it's nearly 2 hours long! There was plenty of scenes that could of been trimmed back or deleted. And would of made for a lot better paced movie.

Spoilers below: I found it enjoyable on how they made Jem an actually believable story. A You-Tube sensation that gets grabbed up by a corrupted music exec. Though I was disappointed that they ditched the whole hologram angle. The part that got me though, was that Synergy didn't activate until she returned to Los Angeles. Then Jerrica has to do a treasure hunt. So her dad leaves a touching message but Jerrica would never of seen it if she never went back to LA. What if she never went back? What kind of father would do all of that work to simply leave a hologram saying he loved her? They really dropped the ball on that plot line.

They need to edit the movie, trim out 30 minutes of Jerrica talking to the camera. Tone down Juliette Lewis' acting. Then re-release it, and ADVERTISE it. It's like the movie tested bad in focus groups and they decided to forgo editing and advertising. I saw 0 commercials for it's release.

Bottom line. If you like a clean positive message movie with good original music. Then you'll enjoy this. It reminded me a lot of Coyote Ugly. But without the bar and with campy 80's outfits.

Probably my 2nd favorite of the Riddick movies. It's hard to compete with the great sleeper hit Pitch Black. And I personally thought Chronicles of Riddick too effects heavy, even though it had some great scenes and lines. And the whole "you are the last of your race, species, tribe that is destined for greatness", was so played out in Highlander2, Scorpion King, etc. This movie takes off right where the last one ended. The Necromongers are shown at the beginning, but then are quickly shoved aside for we really want. Riddick kicking butt against unsurmountable odds. One man versus a group of Mercs while a impending certain everyone dies timeline is a great throwback to Pitch Black. I really hope that David Twohy writes another Riddick Movie. If you loved Pitch Black, you'll this movie. Acting- 8 out of 10 (not much to complain about, everyone is believable in their roles). Directing/cinematography- 9 out of 10 (has the same feel as Pitch Black and Chronicles) Story- 7 out of 10 (great story, but major plots are way to obvious/predicable) Special effects - 9 out of 10 (the alien creatures and world are believable. And nothing is too over the top.)

I was hoping for a movie that explored more into the Monsters, origins and our fight against them. This movie had nearly nothing to do with the first Monsters. Monsters just felt added in the background, just so the movie could be called a Monsters sequel. There is good acting, nice special effects, great cinematography. It had a District 9 type of cinematography, that raw realistic you are there feel. The monsters you see are good looking, but background dressing at best. When you see the herd running along the side of the Humvees, it just begged for more. Are they intelligent? Are they just simple animals from another planet? But what we get is another Iraqi war style movie. More people are killed by people than Monsters. And honestly I believe the total killed by monsters was 1 dog and no humans. After 1 and a half hours in this nearly 2 hour movie, you get a small glimpse at the monsters' reproduction/spreading. By this point you just won't care. Acting-7 out of 10 (Some great acting from not so known actors), Directing/Cinematography-8 out of 10 (striking visuals and great camera work). Script/Story-1 out of 10 (just a really poor and very predicable script). As a sequel, 0 out of 10 It's a sequel by name only.

I have never written a review on IMDb before, but after watching this movie I had to. I'll start by saying, I went into this movie with an open mind knowing that Darren Aronofsky wanted to reach a wider audience. But he missed the mark on reaching anyone with even the most basic knowledge of the biblical story of Noah. There was an Ark, there was a guy named Noah, there were animals loaded on the ark & there was a flood. Other than that it has nothing to do with the bible. There is no God, there is the Creator, God is never mentioned in the whole movie. I mean the dumbest ideas for a Noah movie; Giant multi-armed rock creatures? A forest instantly pops out of the volcanic soil to provide the wood? A metal working guy using a welders helmet? Noah goes to kill his grandchildren so that 'man' can no longer go on, thus allowing creation to continue without man? Well, why not kill his daughter-in-law so that she can't bear anymore children? This could of been one of the best movies ever, religious or not. But instead it turns into a CGI fest with plot holes all over. On the good side, the Ark looks awesome, the animals look great, the CGI was pretty good. Except for the rock giants, they looked horribly fake.