20160811: Action Review--Ice Sharks

Name: Ice Sharks (2016)
IMDb: link to Ice Sharks page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Edward DeRuiter as David, Jenna Parker as Tracy, Kaiwi Lyman Mersereau as Michael, Clarissa Thibeaux as Alex, Travis Lincoln Cox as Sammy, Mia Danielle as Val.

Written and directed by: Emile Edwin Smith.

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
A group of young (25-35-ish) scientists study warming patterns in the Arctic icepack.  A nearby Norwegian camp has been losing hunters in the last month or so.  Some of the underwater warming patterns seem alarming, so Sammy is sent out to check the sensors.

Delineation of conflicts:
The sharks would like to kill and eat the humans.  The humans would like to survive.  The sharks show behavior similar to teamwork.  For instance, the sharks manage to sink the station since the ice underneath it is so much thinner than it has been historically. The humans exhibit cleverness and bravery in countering the effects of the shark attacks on the station.  They seal out the sharks and get a new oxygen source while underwater.  Will they hold off the sharks long enough for help to arrive?

Resolution: The results were sad, but not as bleak as in most elimination derbies.

One line summary: Sharks vs environmental scientists in the Arctic.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 5/10 Where it was not shaky cam, it was good.  However, much of the SFX were truly, deeply, POS bad.  For instance, the model of the station was shabbily obvious for all too many minutes, rather like bad 1950s creature features.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 7/10 Some of it was a bit wooden.  On the other hand, the team showed courage and intelligence in the face of adversity.  The usual acting in such a film is to scream a lot, then do something extremely stupid.  This group was definitely better than that, which takes more acting skill.

Screenplay: 7/10 Unlike in a typical teen elimination derby, the somewhat older group in this film cooperated and had several small victories.  This did not compensate entirely against the depredations of the sharks, but it made for a better film.  There were adults present, and the adults wisely called mayday early on, which was a partially saving grace for the group.

Final Rating: 7/10 Yes, I must be in a generous mood, but this is the best Asylum film I've seen so far.

20160417: YA Review--Scorch Trials

Name: The Scorch Trials (2015)
IMDb: link to Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials

Genres: YA, Adventure, SciFi   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
YA immune group: Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt, Ki Hong Lee as Minho, Dexter Darden as Frypan, Jacob Lofland as Aris Jones, Alexander Flores as Winston.

WICKED: Aidan Gillen as Janson, Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige.

Scavenger outpost: Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge, Rosa Salazar as Brenda, Keith Jardine as Jim (guard).

Settlement with bar: Alan Tudyk as Blondie (Marcus), lots of extras.

Right Arm settlement: Barry Pepper as Vince, Lili Taylor as Mary, Jenny Gabrielle as Ponytail.

Directed by: Wes Ball.  Written by: T. S. Nowlin (screenplay), James Dashner (book).

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
The film starts where Maze Runner left off.  The YA group of immunes have broken out of the maze, only to be placed under the control of WICKED more directly.  They are in a WICKED lab.  After a bit, they find that WICKED is draining them of elements of their blood.  That means being in a permanent coma with tubes tied to their circulatory systems.  They take a shot at escape.

Delineation of conflicts:
WICKED wants the immunes for their blood chemistry.  The immunes want to be free human beings, not slaves being drained while in a permanent coma.  The immunes make new friends along the way, but WICKED will stop at nothing to get them back.

Resolution: There is a third film coming in 2017, but fortunately no fourth.  Little is resolved in this movie.

One line summary: YA group struggles to avoid enslavement

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Lots of good visuals.

Sound: 7/10 No problems, but nothing special either.

Acting: 7/10 The young actors were better than I expected.  Among the veterans, I liked Patricia Clarkson, Lili Taylor, and Giancarlo Esposito; Barry Pepper and Alan Tudyk, not so much.

Screenplay: 5/10 Oh, my.  There are so many bad cliches embraced in this film.  Zombies, for instance, were both unwelcome and boring.  Dystopia is all too common.  The presence of operating high tech laboratories with seemingly boundless resources is just ridiculous. Where could such wealth come from?  No where, that is where.

Final Rating: 6/10

20160227: Fantasy Review--The Taoist Wizard

Name: The Taoist Wizard [alternate title: Woo-Chi] (2009)
IMDb: link to The Taoist Wizard page

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy.   Country of origin: Republic of Korea.

Cast: Kang Dong-won as Jeon Woo-chi, Yeom Jeong-Ah as the Actress, Kim Yun-Seok as Hwa Dam, Song Young-Chang as Buddhist Monk.

Written and directed by: Dong-hun Choi.

The initial tableaux:
A short tale is told of demons being contained by a flute being played.  It was to be played for 3000 consecutive days, but the player miscounted.

So we have a comedy.

The monsters get loose and take possession of the flute.  Transfers of mastery among humans fails repeatedly.

The incomplete Tao wizard Woo-Chi causes a lot of trouble to obtain the obtain the flute.  His master saves his neck and gets the flute.  A second master, Hwa-dam, fights him for the flute, which is broken in the process.  Since it is split, perhaps the monsters will be contained.

The master of Woo-Chi is killed by Hwa-dam, but Woo-Chi is blamed for it.  He is cursed to imprisonment for 500 years, and awakens in the present.  The break occurs at 46 minutes into the 135 minute film.

We switch to current times; the monsters are present, the flute is still broken.

Delineation of conflicts:
The monsters would like to be free and remain free using the restored flute.  The guardians, or whatever, of the flute free Woo-Chi from his prison inside a painting.  He is not interested in defeating the monsters and restoring the flute.  The guardians, the Shin-shun, work on his ego, which has plenty of soft spots.  The monsters try to kill all of them to get the two pieces of the flute.

There's a subplot about a young woman whom Woo-Chi meets in the past.  He also thinks he meets her again in the present.  This was not done well at all, but got all too many minutes of screen time.

Resolution: Who cares?

One line summary: Terribly ineffective Tao wizard.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly OK.  For a relatively low-budget film, the SFX looked fine.  I wish Hollywood delivered such bang for the dollar.  The standard camera work looked good.

Sound: 8/10 The music was decidedly funnier than the dialog.

Acting: 2/10 Plus one for the actor who played Hwa-Dam; plus one for the actor who played Woo-Chi's master.  If I never see any of the others again, it will be too soon.

Screenplay: 0/10 Stealing from Naruto?  It is difficult to sustain any interest in such a story.  The tipping point for me was around 67 minutes into the film during a tremendously boring and stupidly designed fight scene.  The prolog was distressingly long, and the longer section in the present was much too long and uninteresting.

Final rating: 1/10 

20160114: Animation Review--Expelled from Paradise

Name: Expelled from Paradise (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Adventure, Animé, SciFi    Country of Origin: Japan.

Cast: Wendee Lee as Angela Balzac, Steve Blum as Dingo Kajiwara, Johnny Yong Bosch as Frontier Setter.

Directed by: Seiji Mizushima.  Written by: Gen Urobuchi.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: This animated feature is set in the year 2400 AD.  In the past, great destructive actions destroyed much of surface-based human civilization.  Since then, humanity has rebuilt itself as digital entities that exist on server networks that are located in orbit around Earth.  This cyber universe is called DEVA.

There is an unexpected hack into the computers of DEVA.  The hack is instigated by a surfaced based person, 'Frontier Setter.'  Third Security Officer Angela Balzac is sent to the surface to deal with the problem.  She is sent in a material body supported by a powered exoskeleton with high speed computer links to DEVO in orbit.  Computers monitor her health and keep her in good shape.  Her ground contact is Dingo.

Dingo and Angela take an immediate dislike of one another. To compound this, huge sandworms attack early on, and the communications link Angela depends on for health and information retrieval is broken.  What to do?  Complete the mission.

Delineation of conflicts: The hacker has secrets that they wish to keep secret.  Angela and Dingo are tasked with ferreting this out, and correcting the situation.  This is trickier with Angela's links cut.  Once Dingo and Angela find the hacker, everything changes, and the pair have new challenges to deal with.

Resolution: Perhaps the next in human evolution was not a step forward.

One line summary: Battle for humanity's survival in 2400 AD.

Statistics:
  a. Art: 7/10 As low polygon art goes, this is pretty good.

  b. Sound: 6/10 Some of the voice work sounded hollow.  The music was variable: much of it was simplistic (not a compliment), electronic, and uninteresting.

  c. Voice Acting: 7/10 The three principal voice actors were fine, with Steve Blum the best.

  d. Screenplay: 5/10 The discussions of the 'next step' in human evolution were deeper than usual, which I liked.  Toward the end, though, the film degenerated into substandard music, lots of explosions, improbably outcomes, and hurried art. At that point, it looked way too much like Gundam action.

Final rating: 6/10

20151125: Action Review--Spectre

Name: Spectre (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Action, Adventure, Crime    Country of Origin: UK

Cast: Daniel Craig as James Bond, Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory/M, Monica Belucci as Lucia Sciarra, Ben Wishaw as Q/Quartermaster, Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Dave Bautista as Mr Hinx, Andrew Scott as C/Max Denbigh, Rory Kinnear as Tanner.

Directed by:  Sam Mendes.  Written by: John Logan, Neal Purvis.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: The film starts in Mexico City in a grand public Day of the Dead celebration.  Bond seems to be enjoying himself, but soon is in direct pursuit of an enemy.  When he returns to London, M lets him know that his actions were not appreciated, that he will be under observation, and that the double oh section is in danger of being shut down.

Delineation of conflicts: C (head of the new organisation Centre of National Security) wants to shut down the double oh section; M wants to keep it open.  Bond wants to honour the post-mortem wishes of the previous M.  SPECTRE wants strong control of almost all information flow in the world, so as to have more power and to make more money.  C wants that flow to be available to UK intelligence to replace older methodology, like MI6.  Q, M, Tanner, Moneypenny, and Bond would like to preserve each other as well as some traditional British approaches to civilization and intelligence.  C and SPECTRE are clearly opposed, and seem to have the upper hand during most of the film.  Bond's foster brother wants to make Bond fully aware of how much he hates him.

Resolution: Bond has an opportunity to be his better self; does he take it?

One line summary: Clearly the best Bond film ever.

Why do I call this the best Bond film ever?  Because it narrates a clear and conclusive path to the long overdue end to this excellent series.  Take the opportunity.  This film explains the entire series and shows Bond accepting a change in life path.  There is no need for continuance after this wonderful film.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautiful.  Breathtaking.  Professional.  Should be 27/10, but would be cheating, I guess.

  b. Sound: 9/10 Having a man (Sam Smith) sing the theme song for the film in castrato style is just, plain, wrong.  Except for that wretched interlude, the background sound was excellent for accentuating pacing and mood.

  c. Acting: 9/10 I liked every actor except the overrated Christoph Waltz, whose performance was neither interesting nor believable, despite the richness of the role.  Dave Bautista played an excellent physical opponent to Bond: huge, powerful, quick, intelligent, determined.  Ben Wishaw was wonderful as the modern quartermaster that 007 needs in the present.  Fiennes, Kinnear, Harris, and Belucci did fine jobs.  Andrew Scott's performance was quite good as a rotten ball of snot who needed to run things no matter what the consequences.  Last but not least, I enjoyed watching Seydoux and Craig much more than I thought I would.

  d. Screenplay: 10/10 This is the best story I've ever seen in a Bond film. The introduction of a female character who was actually a good match for Bond was quite an innovation. The story threads were engaging, the tension was at a good level throughout, and the whole script led to a decisive ending. For money reasons, I'm sure there will be more Bond films.  The ending of this film, though, was beautiful and final and just and closed.  So please, folks, stop on the highest note, and don't break that lovely ending.

Final rating: 10/10

20150906: Comedy Review--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Name: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
IMDb: Hitchhiker's Guide main IMDb page

Genres: Comedy, Adventure, SciFi, Romance

Cast: Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) as Ford Prefect, Zooey Deschanel as Trillian, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Anna Chancellor as Questular Rontok, John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, Helen Mirren as voice of Deep Thought, Stephen Fry as Narrator.

Written by: Douglas Adams (novel); Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick (screenplay).
Directed by: Garth Jennings.

The Three Acts

1. The Initial Tableau: We start on Earth, where an ordinary fellow (Arthur Dent) soon discovers that his house is about to be demolished for the sake of a bypass.  His friend Ford Prefect drops by to inform him that Earth is about to be blown up.  While Arthur's house is completely demolished, Ford prepares him for leaving Earth.  During this short stint, Arthur tells Ford about his feeling of loss over Tricia McMillan, whom he had recently met.  However, she ran off with some fellow who claimed he had a spaceship.  Ford and Arthur barely escape before Earth is destroyed.

2. Delineation of Conflicts: The Vogons do indeed blow up the Earth.  Ford and Arthur are tortured by having to listen to Vogon poetry.  They are about to be executed because Arthur insulted the poetry written by the torturer.  By a massive coincidence (one of many), they are rescued by Zaphod Beeblebox, the president of the galaxy, and Trillian, who once called herself Tricia McMillan.  So, all is well, and the film ends, right?

Well, no. Arthur learns that Ford and Zaphod are old friends and also aliens from worlds other than Earth.  Ford is a writer who is doing research for a new edition of Hitchhiker's Guide.  Zaphod had stolen the one vastly expensive ship Heart of Gold whose engine is the improbability drive.  Rontok is after Zaphod for kidnapping the president (Zaphod; figure that one), and she sends the Vogons after him.  Zaphod has some unfinished business with Humma Kavula (his previous political opponent), which causes him to search out Deep Thought and ask for a particular gun that Humma demands.  While with Deep Thought, we get entangled with the quest for the question to life, the universe, and everything.  Deep Thought knows the answer (42), but not the question.  Zaphod, Arthur, and Trillian wrangle about why she left Earth (and Arthur) with Zaphod, and about who ordered Earth to be destroyed.  The clinically depressed robot Marvin laments all the pieces.

3. Resolution: Some issues are resolved in this film.  The book that spawned the film was only the first in a series, after all.  When Arthur meets Slartibartfast (played brilliantly by Bill Nighy), the third act takes off.  Slartibartfast works for a concern that builds planets.  Perhaps all this could be put back together, but will it?

One line summary: Slow start, strong finish.

Statistics
a. Cinematography: 10/10 Taken as a whole, this is a beautiful film.  Even the charts were a visual asset.

b. Sound: 8/10 The dialog is clear, and background sound added to the proceedings.

c. Acting: 8/10 Malkovich was brilliant in a small role, as were Rickman, Mirren, and Fry as voice actors.  Bill Nighy gave a wonderful performance.  I liked Ms Deschanel better than I usually do.  Mr Freeman played the character he usually plays, an ill-equipped ordinary being who somehow perseveres to see tough goals achieved.  So, he was a fine choice to play Arthur Dent.

d. Screenplay: 6/10 This is an odd duck.  The beginning was so slow it almost demanded yawns.  However, the building of context through the film led to a brilliant and dense comedic impact in the last 20 minutes.  The start, though, was so bad that the wife and I nearly abandoned the film to watch, well, anything else.  I am glad to have stuck with it, but would not watch it again.

Final Rating: 8/10

20150528: SciFi Review--Age of Ice

Age of Ice

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: Age of Ice
2. IMDb: Users rated this 1.8/10 (1,207 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   zero ratings by critics returned
   19% of users liked it from 62 recorded ratings
   Critics Consensus: No consensus formed yet.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2014-12-09
6. Production Companies: The Asylum
7. Tagline: The world's greatest desert now a frozen apocalypse.


8. Budget:  Budget estimate not available at review time.
9. Revenue: Revenue figures not available at review time.
10. Runtime: 85 minutes.
11. Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction


12. Written and directed by: Emile Edwin Smith.


13. Starring: Barton Bund as Jack Jones, Bailey Spry as Amber Jones, Owais Ahmed as Tariq, Joe Cipriano as Dylan Jones, Jules Hartley as Diane Jones, Yaron Urbas as Capt. Kawar, Wilfried Capet as Simon


14. TMDb overview: Massive earthquakes open the Arabian tectonic plate, resulting in unstable weather and freezing temperatures that will be unsurvivable by nightfall. Attempting to reach safety, a vacationing family in Egypt must battle the rapidly cooling temperatures that usher in a new Ice Age, covering the Sphinx, Pyramids, and Sahara Desert with mountains of snow.


2. Setup and Plot


1. We start with the American Navy in the eastern Mediterranean.  All seems well, then a sequence of unexplained phenomena take out most of the USN ships and planes.  Sure.   This 'explained' (not) by referring to activity of the 'Arabian plate' which exposed magma to sea water which did something else between unlikely and impossible.  Then a blizzard starts. 


2. We start following the Jones family.  Father Jack, daughter Amber, and son Dylan are on a tour of Egyptian pyramids when the strange weather strikes.  They get re-connected with mother Diane before the problems get really serious.  Getting a plane out of Egypt fails.  The train ride fails because Dylan jumps off.  Camels work for a bit.  Walking seems a disaster.  Trucks were not all that safe either.


3. Since the entire Jones family seems to be good at making bad decisions, will the locals end up helping them?  Does anyone get out of this ever-worsening mess?


3. Conclusions
1. What is supposed to be Egypt was filmed in Detroit, MI, US.  Brilliant. The American teen Amber knows more about Egyptian culture than the locals? I don't think so. Either child knowing more than both parents about every issue? No, just no. People jumping off a pyramid 50 times their own height and landing uninjured with unsullied clothing? No.


2. There is nothing that this cast cannot ruin.


3. One line summary: The Asylum strikes again; the audience loses.


4. Zero of ten.  Four black holes for screenplay, acting, cinematography, and contempt for the audience.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 1/10 Poor CGI, some shaky cam, ridiculous set design.


2. Sound: 6/10 I could usually hear the dialog.  The music was not always bad.


3. Acting: 0/10 There was acting? 


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Stuff and nonsense.

20150522: Adventure Review--Tales of an Ancient Empire

Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire

1. Fundamentals.
1. Original Title: Tales of an Ancient Empire
2. IMDb: Users rated this 3.1/10 (1,276 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   critics rating not found number of reviews too low
   4% of users liked it from 169 recorded ratings
   Critics Consensus: none formed yet


4. Status: Rumored
5. Release date: 2010-07-31
6. Production Companies: New Tales
7. Tagline: No tagline found.


8. Budget:  1 million USD (source: IMDb)
9. Revenue: Revenue figures not available at review time.
10. Runtime: 89 minutes.
11. Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller


12. Directed by: Albert Pyun.  Written by: Cynthia Curnan.


13. Starring: Whitney Able as Xia, Kevin Sorbo as Aedan, Ralf Möller as General Hafez, Jennifer Siebel Newsom as Queen Ma'at, Michael Paré as Oda, Melissa Ordway as Princess Tanis, Matthew Willig as Giant Iberian, Sarah Ann Schultz as Malia, Lee Horsley as Talon, Scott Paulin as Tou-Bou Bardo, Olivier Gruner as Corsair Duguay, Sasha Mitchell as Rodrigo, Norbert Weisser as Xuxia, Victoria Maurette as Kara, Janelle Marra as Rajan, Inbar Lavi as Alana, Cazzy Golomb as Hekate.  Christopher Lambert as x?


14. TMDb overview: A princess is on a quest to unite the five greatest warriors to save her kingdom from a demon sorceress.


2. Setup and Plot


1. We start with a good 10 minutes of overview and backstory by Hekate, granddaughter of Ma'at, Queen of Abelar.  The granddaughter was portrayed as having some sort of speech impediment, or else the actress was just very badly miked.  I needed the closed captions.  This segment was largely done in sepia cartoons.  Artsy cartoons, perhaps, but still.  In any case, Ma'at's mother hired mercenaries to put down Sorcerer Xuxia and his vampire daughter Xia, before Xuxia opens a portal to the netherworld.  Duguay, Rodrigo, and Oda manage just that, but Oda introduces complications instead of completely finishing the job.


2. Twenty years later, Princess Tanis becomes the centre of the light side, and Xia, the risen Vampire Queen, the leader of the dark side.  The real core character, though, is warrior mercenary Oda, who slew the sorcerer Xuxia, reduced Xia to dust for 20 years, and fathered Princess Tanis, the mercenary Aedon, imperial assassin Rajan, and their sister Malia.  Rajan had daughter Alana, whom she trained as an assassin.  Besides those four, Oda fathered Kara by Xia, who gave birth before Oda, ah, dusted her off.


3. At the final command of Ma'at, Tanis finds her siblings.  The group goes off to find their wayward and fertile father, then put down Xia and keep the door to the netherworld closed.


4. What could possibly go wrong?


3. Conclusions
1. If the sowing wild oats aspect had been better written, the film would have been helped.  I thought it was quite humorous, but I suspect most will not appreciate the father-issue dialog.


2. One line summary: Swords and sorcery, wretched visuals, and a poor script.


3. One of ten; two black holes for cinematography and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10 I hate sepia.  I hate similar filtration setups that essentially crush any visual richness and natural tones.  The CGI varied between bad and very bad.  The fake vampire teeth were obviously fake and caused the Xia character to have muddled speech.


2. Sound: 5/10 I could discern words of most of the actors, but I relied watching on Netflix with captions turned on to get the dialog.  The vampire fouling of speech was prevalent.  The music in the credits was good, but was out of context with a period piece such as this.


3. Acting: 5/10 The cast includes actors whose work I enjoyed in the past: Michael Pare, Lee Horsley, Olivier Gruner, Sasha Mitchell, Christopher Lambert, and Kevin Sorbo.  Gruner, Mitchell, and Horsley were OK in very short parts.  Michael Pare looked like he was at a first read-through Monday morning after a disastrous weekend, rather than in final take.  I was on the look-out for Mr Lambert, but I failed to see him.  Kevin Sorbo, at least, convinced me he knew he was on camera, and was delivering his lines while understanding the character's motivations.  I'm not saying this was Oscar level work, merely that he was present in the professional sense.  Mr Willig was good, but his part was also short.----The women characters were central to the film, much more important than the male characters.   The actresses, though, were either inexperienced or just off.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Sigh.  This was another under capitalised project.  It shows.  The number of dead-end plot threads was too high.  Also, too much time was devoted to dreary conversations, then Hekate would narrate what should have been long action sequences in a matter of a few seconds.

20150501: Action Review--The Legend of Hercules

The Legend of Hercules

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Title: The Legend of Hercules
2. IMDb: Users rated this 4.2/10 (39,524 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   3% of critics liked it of 72 critical reviews posted
   34% liked it from 40,714 audience ratings.
   Critics Consensus: Cheap-looking, poorly acted, and dull, The Legend of Hercules is neither fun enough to qualify as an action movie nor absorbing enough to work on a dramatic level.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2014-01-10
6. Production Companies: Millennium Films
7. Tagline: Every Man Has a Destiny


8. Budget:  70 million USD
9. Revenues, in millions USD: States 18.8 (30.8%); overseas, 42.4 (69.2%).
10. Runtime: 99 minutes.
11. Genres: Action, Adventure


12. Directed by: Renny Harlin; written by Daniel Giat, Renny Harlin, Sean Hood, Giulio Steve


13. Starring: Kellan Lutz as Hercules, Liam McIntyre as Sotiris, Gaia Weiss as Hebe, Scott Adkins as King Amphitryon, Roxanne McKee as Queen Alcmene, Liam Garrigan as Iphicles, Jukka Hilden as Creon, Rade Šerbedžija as Chiron, Johnathon Schaech as Tarak, Luke Newberry as Agamemnon


2. Setup and Plot
1. Amphitryon and his army fight to the gates of Argos, Greece, circa 1200 BC.  Amphitryon challenges the incumbent king to one-on-one combat to avoid hundreds of further deaths.  Amphitryon wins and becomes king of Argos.  Queen Alcmeme is not pleased with this result, and implores the goddess Hera for relief for her city from the conqueror.  Hercules is conceived (via Zeus) in response.


2. Hercules (called Alcide in the front end of his life) is second in line to his brother Iphicles for the throne of Argos.  Bad blood arises soon enough over Princess Hebe, whom Hercules loves and whom Amphitryon promises to Iphicles.  To separate the brothers, Amphitryon sends Hercules and soldiers to Egypt on a mission.  This does not go well for Hercules and his ally Sotiris.


3. Will Hercules extricate himself from Egypt, get back with Hebe, and fend off the challenges to their being together?


3. Conclusions
1. The RT rating is impressively bad, and the film failed to clear production costs, much less production plus distribution and marketing.  After watching this terrible film, I can only hope there is no sequel.


2. One line summary: Just as bad as the critics write.


3. One of ten.  Four black holes for acting, screenplay, set design, and direction.



4. Scores


1. Cinematography: 4/10 The set design was much worse than the camera work was good.  The use of slow motion was ridiculous.


2. Sound: 6/10 I could hear the dialog, which was nice, but the background music was rather bad.


3. Acting: 0/10 Watch it.  See for yourself.


4. Screenplay: 2/10  The words Hercules, Zeus, and Hera had a bit of similarity to common usage.  The story is nonsense, beginning to end, with little to do with any of the usual versions of the history of Hercules.

20150212: Action-Adventure Review--Divergent

Divergent

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, released in 2014, 139 minutes runtime; action, adventure, scifi.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 223,546 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 85 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 41% on the meter; 71% liked it from 132,716 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on HBO.
5. Directed by: Neal Burger.
6. Starring: Shailene Woodley as Tris, Theo James as Four, Ashley Judd as Natalie, Jai Courtney as Eric, Ray Stevenson as Marcus, Zoe Kravitz as Christina, Miles Teller as Peter, Tony Goldwyn as Andrew, Ansel Elgort as Caleb, Maggie Q as Tori, Mikhal Phifer as Max, Kate Winslett as Jeanine.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is set in the remains of Chicago in a post-apocalyptic dystopian city state. Society is segmented into five factions (dauntless, abnegation, erudite, candor, amity) plus the Factionless.  Those in the factions are privileged, while the Factionless are impoverished.  The abnegation faction controls government.  The film, in short, involves the attempted mutiny of dauntless and erudite to replace abnegation as the rulers.


2. Young people in this society are faced with a choice in their late teens: to choose a faction.  Each teen is given a test to help determine the faction, but the teen's choice is the determining factor, not the test.


3. Tris (well, Beatrice), daughter of Natalie and Eric, sister of Caleb, gets an inconclusive test.  Tori, who administered the test, advises her to just leave and say the test was flawed.  Tris does this.  On the day of choosing, she chooses dauntless over her family's faction, abnegation.


4. The story follows Tris' acclimatisation into dauntless and her involvement with the unspoken motives of dauntless and erudite against abnegation.  The other central theme is her flawed test.  What really happened there?


5. This is the first installment of a trilogy, and some of the first moves of dauntless plus erudite against abnegation are detailed.




3. Conclusions
1. This is another exercise set in a dystopia that is simply not possible...so who cares?


2. There was nothing to balance that: nothing and no one to bring identification, or empathy, or involvement.


3. This film is in the YA female demographic.


4. One line summary:  Teen's coming of age in a factionalized future dystopia.


5. Three of ten


6. Recommendation: fine if you are in the demographic.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonable skill was shown.


2. Sound: 5/10 I could make out the words that the actors spoke.  The background music was between insipid and irritating.


3. Acting: 3/10 I liked the performances of Ashley Judd, Kate Winslett, and Theo James. The rest of the cast was well worth forgetting.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Boring, not involving, not believable.

20141108: Action Review--Battle of the Damned

Battle of the Damned

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 88 minutes, action, adventure, horror.
2. IMDB: 4.5/10.0 from 2,120 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No critic reviews yet,' and 14% liked it from 186 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on the SyFy channel.
5. Written and directed by Christopher Hatton.
6. Starring: Dolph Lundgren as Max Gatling, Melanie Zanetti as Jude, Matt Doran as Reese, David Field as Duke, Jen Sung as Elvis.


2. Setup and Plot
1. From IMDb and RT statistics, it seems few people saw this, and very few liked it.  Also, why is Dolph Lundgren in this mess?


2. A virus escapes from a research facility in Southeast Asia. The virus turns people into fast zombies. The surrounding city is quarantined. Max and his team are hired to rescue some rich fellow's daughter, who is alive behind zombie lines.


3. Now and then one sees robots striding down the streets.


4. Fast zombies and robots and Dolph.  How could this film miss?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Zombies, killer robots, Dolph Lundgren, but badly assembled.
2. One of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 1/10 Lots of hand-held shaky photography in all its dominant weaknesses.  Stupid camera angles, hideous lens flare, bizarre framing choices, such as tight close-ups of body parts.  I suppose the restricted palette (white, grey, black, plus muted greens and blues) had some purpose.  However the palette took away much of the shock of spilled blood.  This neutralised the impact of the zombie versus human and zombie versus robot fights.


2. Sound: 2/10 The sound track seemed to be from the lower end of amateur public domain properties.


3. Acting: 2/10 I still like Dolph Lundgren, but I hope he gives up lead roles in action films.  The other actors need to keep their day jobs.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 There were lots of unconvincing zombie deaths.  Having six people holed up in a mansion that's proof against zombies seemed ridiculous.  The dialog was terrible. The Duke character and his little fiefdom were absurd.  It was dreadfully boring; the two hours (on SyFy) seemed like five.

20141108: Action Review--The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, rated PG-13, action, adventure, scifi.
2. IMDB: 4.9/10.0 from 44,047 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 30 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 12% on the meter; 26% liked it from 29,171 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on SyFy, complete with commercials.
5. Directed by: Chris Gorak.
6. Starring: Emile Hirsch as Sean, Olivia Thirlby as Natalie, Max Minghella as Ben, Rachel Taylor as Anne, Joel Kinnaman as Skyler, Veronika Vernadskaya as Vika, Dato Bakhtadze as Sergei.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Sean and Ben fly into Moscow for a business meeting.  They are clearly unwelcome at the meeting, and have been shut out of the deal that they had anticipated closing.  Ben spent cash and time developing the proposal, but their 'partners' just stole it from them.  While commiserating at a bar, they meet Natalie and Anne.  These are the heroes?


2. Soon thereafter, aliens make ingress.  People are killed; vehicles and buildings destroyed.  Bullets and the like do not touch the invaders, which seem to be non-solid energy beings of some sort.   The quartet wander the city looking for allies and weapons to survive.


3. Will they find what they need?


3. Conclusions
1. Chris Gorak's resume reads art director (8 properties) more than director.  This is his second film as director, following Right at Your Door, 2006.
2. One line summary: Four twenty-something slackers versus energy beings in Moscow.
3. One of ten


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 2/10 To go along with the title, and the location, the film is either at night or in the dim daylight.  The SFX were often cartoonish, and rough around the edges.  I expected more from an art director.  Some of the cityscapes supposedly in Moscow were well done.


2. Sound: 4/10 The music is much too loud, the voices often too soft.


3. Acting: 2/10 Terrible, from the lead to the bit players.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 As the film came to its conclusion, the phrase 'too convenient' kept coming to mind.  The idea that four twenty-something losers and self-described screw-ups could survive seems unlikely.  The aliens were black boxes.  Why have they come?  What do they want?  How did they get here?

20141104: Adventure Review--Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, PG, 106 minutes, adventure, fantasy.
2. IMDB: 5.910.0 from 65,846 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 90 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 41% on the meter; 56% liked it from 101,862 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on HBO.
5. Directed by: Thor Freudenthal.
6. Starring: Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, Alexandra Dadario as Annabeth, Douglas Smith as Tyson, Levin Rambin as Clarisse, Brandon T. Jackson as Grover, Jake Abel as Luke, Anthony Head as Chiron, Stanley Tucci as Mr. D (Dionysis), Nathan Fillian as Hermes, Paloma Kwiatkowski as Thalia.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The time is the present; the genre is fantasy, in particular the world according to Greek mythology.  The story centers around a safe camp for 'half bloods' who are the children of Olympian deities and humans.


2. This film is the sequel to Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief.  The mentors of the camp are Chiron and Mr D.  Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon) and Clarisse (daughter of Ares) are still in contention.  Percy has been coming in behind Clarisse in most of the training contests that are a regular feature of camp life.


3. At the start of the film, Thalia is shown dying heroically to save the camp from marauders.  Her father, Zeus, gave her a second life as a tree that generates a field that protects the camp full time.


4. Years later, the camp is broken into by a huge mechanical bull that has flame throwing capabilities.  The bull breaks the shield and delivers what appears to be a fatal blow to Thalia.  Percy destroys the bull with Poseidon's sword.  Luke shows up soon afterward with allies who have joined his cause to bring down Olympus.  Luke is repelled, and the camp goes on high alert.


5. To heal the camp's defense, Chiron and Mr D decide to send a group to the Sea of Monsters to gain the Golden Fleece from Polyphemus Island.  Clarisse is chosen to head this team, and Percy is not included.  Percy, Annabeth (daughter of Athena), Grover, and Percy's new found half-brother Tyson (son of Poseidon) decide to go as a second team.


6. Standing in their way is Luke and his minions, who wish to bring Kronos back from the dead.  Other obstacles include the denizens of the Sea of Monsters, time running out, and large distances.  Allies include Hermes and Poseidon, who help mightily, but indirectly.


7. Will Percy and his friends find a way to restore a semblance of order?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Rebel demigods strive to resurrect Kronos to overthrow Olympus.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Mostly fine.  The often present CGI was variable in quality, much of it good.


2. Sound: 8/10 The dialog was clear.  The choices of music were indeed atmospheric, but not all that apropos.


3. Acting: 6/10 I enjoyed Nathan Fillion the best; Stanley Tucci and Anthony Head were also good.  The performances of the younger set were not so fine.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The narrative moves right along, but is somewhat predictable.

20141005: Fantasy Review--Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, PG13, 132 minutes, action, adventure, fantasy.  Made in Canada.  English dialog for the most part.
2. IMDB: 7.1/10.0 from 282,527 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 190 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 72% on the meter; 77% liked it from 185,401 audience ratings.
4. I saw this film on HBO.
5. Directed by: Guillermo del Toro.
6. Starring: Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost, Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket, Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori, Charlie Day as Dr Newton Geiszler, Burn Gorman as Gottlieb, Max Martini as Herc Hansen, Robert Kazinsky as Chuck Hansen, Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Irresponsible and poorly trained pilots fly incredibly stupid looking giant exoskeletons (Jaegers) into battle against powerful aliens (the Kaiju) from another dimension.


2. I have liked del Toro's films in the past, but this was terrible.  There was a lot of action, there was a lot of destruction, many people were killed, but this was still a bad movie.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The worst episode of MMPR ever made.
2. Here MMPR is the acronym for "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."
3. One of ten.  Two black holes for screenplay and SFX.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10 Absurdly bad SFX.  No parts of the film looked good.


2. Sound: 2/10 So many odd choices, plus tons of irrelevant noise.


3. Acting: 3/10 Idris Elba, Max Martini, and Ron Perlman let us know that acting is still possible even in the face was such a poor story, worse writing, and laughable action.  The Gieszler/Gottlieb pair were unfunny, unconvincing, undeserving of trust, and bloody irritating.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Proof that modern films need neither a solid screenplay nor in-depth acting by all players to make lots of money.

20140318: Animation Review--Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United

Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American animated feature length film, 2013, PG, 71 minutes, animated, adventure.
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 509 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: no entries, not even a stub.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 100,247 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Leo Riley.
6. Starring: Adrian Pasdar as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Fred Tatasciore as The Hulk, David Kaye as Jarvis, Dee Bradley Baker as Dr. Cruler/Zzzax, Robin Atkin Downes as Dr. Fump/Abomination.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Dr. Cruler and Dr. Fump intend to overcome Hulk's strength advantages using the Abomination.  So they capture Hulk, betray the Abomination, then try to squeeze all the energy out of them.  That does not quite work.


2. Cruler and Fump manage to create a glowing ball of energy that has a primitive self-awareness.  It feeds on energy.  Stark uses the EMP (electro magnetic pulse bomb) on it, and seems to put it out of commission, but not really.


3. Hulk gives Stark a lot of trouble.  Then the ball of energy, Zzzax, takes over more and more parts of Stark's flying fortress.  Hulk has no problems dispatching the mandroids, but Zzzax gets into the reactor.


4. Can Tony and the Hulk get out of this one?  If they do make it, who did more damage, the bad guys or Hulk and Iron Man?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Terrible animation; not that good a story.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Art/Animation: 0/10 Amazingly ugly and incomplete.  Looks like old school 3D, and not good old school.  Too flat, too few polygons, too much loss of contrast, and so on.  Looks like a giant step backwards.  What's with that, Marvel?  Did I mention lack of contrast?  Looks a lot too much like the first Tron, only with slightly more colour.


2. Sound: 6/10 Mostly OK.


3. Voice Acting: 2/10 Talking, articulate Hulk?  Sorry, no.  The voices for Fump and Cruler give the impression of feckless, bumbling idiots.  Adrian Pasdar was OK as Stark; David Kaye fine as Jarvis.


4. Story: 2/10 Stupid dialog.  Drs. Cruler and Fump seem to be woefully stupid, and Hulk too clever.  The story, such as it is, is not compelling.  Hulk figuring out the root cause when Tony Stark does not?  No, thanks.  So, the EMP is supposed to solve any awkward situation?  We go directly from fighting Zzzax to fighting wendigos in foggy church yard?  What is that?  Worst of all, the easter egg at the end indicated that a sequel was in the works which will have the same terrible production values and stupid dialog.

20140318: Animation Review--Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American animated feature length film, 2008, PG-13, 98 minutes, animation, adventure.
2. IMDB: 5.7/10.0 from 31,520 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 8.5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 18% on the meter; 39% liked it from 160,314 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 856,956 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Dave Filoni.
6. Starring: Matt Lantner as Anakin Skywalker, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku,  James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress, Tom Kane as Yoda, Dee Bradley Baker as Rex, Catherine Taber as Padme Amidala.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This film is a story in its own right, and it serves as an introduction to the animated series that followed it.  The characters Asajj Ventress (Dooku's assassin) and Ahsoka Sano (Anakin's padawan) are introduced in the film, and are regulars in the animated series that follows.


2. The Republic is at war with the Separatists.  The Republic armed forces, composed of clone soldiers and sailors plus Jedi commanders, is fighting valiantly against the droid forces often led by Count Dooku.


3. In order to secure passage in the Outer Rim, the Republic must deal with Jabba the Hutt, whose son has been kidnapped by Dooku's henchmen.  The Jedi work and fight to free the small Hutt, while Ventress and Dooku's forces counter them.


4. Senator Padme Amidala contacts Jabba's uncle Ziro the Hutt on Coruscant to try to resolve the issue.  However, Ziro is in league with Dooku to overthrow Jabba and replace Jabba with Ziro as head of the Hutt clan.  Ziro captures Padme, and things look worse.


5. Can Padme escape Ziro?  Can Anakin and Ahsoka deliver the Huttlet safely to Jabba, or will Dooku's elite droids capture her?  Will Anakin defeat Dooku?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Animated Star Wars segment set between live action movies 2 and 3.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Art/Animation: 9/10 As good as the sound is bad.  The motions were a little stiff.


2. Sound: 5/10 Wow!! The sound level difference between music (too loud by far) and conversation is just too big and the up/down jumps occur frequently.


3. Voice Acting: 9/10 Nicely done all around.


4. Story: 7/10 Some of the dialog was a little raw, like the remarks between Ahsoka and Anakin.  Otherwise, it was competent adventure material, opening to middle to exciting conclusion.

20140317: Animation Review--AniMen the Galactic Battle

AniMen: the Galactic Battle

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Chinese animated feature length film, 2012, unrated, 86 minutes, animation, adventure.
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 27 audience ratings.  Spoken language on Netflix was English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...', and 'No score yet...'
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 56,610 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Xu Kerr.
6. Starring: Bruce Boxleitner as General Moss, Steve Blum as Colonel Steel, Keith David as Sergeant Brass, JB Blanc as Captain Hered, Ogie Banks as Sergeant Gator, Jim Cummings as Xanthor.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This is a space opera rendered using 3-d animation objects.


2. In some galaxy, at some time or another in the history of the cosmos, two sides fight in space.  The Swarm is a single race that has huge numbers.  Many of their members seem to be fairly stupid insect forms that are fitted to combat.  The leaders are few in number, but good at coordinating the hordes of underlings.  The other side is mostly made of humanoids with two arms, two legs, one head, who walk and run upright.  So they are sort of like humans, but still look nothing like Earth humans of the present day.


3. In the opening, General Moss on the humanoid side (the Starworld Alliance) is gathering some sort of intelligence against the Swarm in the form of chips.  He succeeds at that, and narrowly makes his escape at the cost of the lives of several underlings.


4. The scene switches to scenes of militarised non-Swarm life.  We see some training with armored suits.  We switch again to space battles.


5. General Moss returns to the Alliance side during the battle.  Everyone seems concerned about keeping him safe.  The elite 'Triton Force'  is made up of armed flying armoured suits (like badly designed Gundam), and are allies of Moss.  Xanthor is the main leader of the Swarm that Moss and company face.  Xanthor wants to kill Moss and get the chips.  The Triton Force wants to protect Moss and get the chips to the Alliance.


6. So, who comes out on top?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Looks like an old video game made into a movie.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Art/animation: 4/10 About 40% of the runtime is just beautiful, visually speaking.  Then the rest of it is iffy or poor, as in mid-1990s poor.


2. Sound: 4/10 The voice actors were miked OK, but incidental music and sounds were not really effectively used.  The synchronisation of mouth movements and words was rather bad, as often happens in the mixed language setting.


3. Voice Acting: 5/10 There were professional voice actors involved. Bruce Boxleitner and Keith David from live action movies come to mind, as do the veterans Steve Blum from Cowboy Bebop and Ogie Banks from Ultimate Spiderman.  Most of the lesser parts were poorly handled by much less skillful voice actors.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Terrible.  Full of poor one liners that are not funny.  The script seemed to be an afterthought.  The flow of beginning => middle => end was nowhere near smooth.  The chain of command in the Alliance military seemed to be entirely broken.  The ending was nonsensical.  The main thread of the film was abandoned rather than resolved.

20140309: Anime Review--Chrome Shelled Regios

Chrome Shelled Regios

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese animated television series, 2009, TV-MA, 24 episodes, anime.  Spoken word is in English (or Japanese).
2. IMDB: 7.2/10.0 from 134 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...' and 'No Score Yet...'
4. Netflix: 4.2/5.0 from 268,238 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Chris Cason.
6. Starring: Todd Haberkorn as Layfon Wolfstein Alseif, Monica Rial as Felli Loss, Brina Palencia as Nina Antalk.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This anime series is set on a planet that is not Earth.  Most of the planet is desert with poisoned air.  There are nomadic cities (called Regios) that travel across the deserts searching for minerals and water.  Cities are all walled and fortified, but some have large, skilled military contingents; others do not.  The cities share the desert with Contaminoids (Funimation's translation of 'filth monsters' in the Japanese), which have three life stages, and seem to enjoy killing any normal organic life.


2. Layfon was a Keeper of the Heaven's Blades in the military city of Glendan.  That is, he was one of the most elite fighters in a city dominated by the military arts.  He leaves Glendan (in disgrace, we later find out) and moves to the academic city of Zuellni.  He hopes to found a life for himself in business, and never do any military activity again.


3. Unfortunately, Kalian Loss, the president of the student council, dragoons Layfon into the small military arts section of the university.  As much as he tries, Layfon cannot hide his facility at using all three types of the magical energy kei: external (projectile weapons), internal (for rapid healing), psychokinetic (for telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis).


4. Layfon is inserted into the 17th platoon.  To help with expenses, he works at night cleaning and maintaining some machine works with Nina Antalk, who is also his platoon's leader.  Kalian's sister Felli is an adept at using psychokinetic kei, and Layfon has many interactions with her.


5. Over the course of the series 24 episodes, Layfon and Nina get to know one another; Felli and Layfon do as well.  The 17th platoon gains status as Layfon merges into the team and starts to show his talents.  The Contaminoids wreak all sorts of destruction, including killing every human in one of the Regios.  Extermination of a city releases the  'electronic spirit' associated with the city; the spirit is then called a Fallen One.  The Fallen Ones create all sorts of destruction.


6. In Glendan, the Queen charges Leerin (Layfon's childhood friend from a common orphanage) to take a Heaven's Blade to Layfon.  Leerin is monumentally bad at doing this.


7. So...do the romances (Layfon and Felli, Layfon and Nina, Layfon and Leerin) get anywhere during the series?  Will the Fallen Ones be helped to find rest?  Will the Contaminoids destroy any more cities?  Will Layfon stay in Zuellni, or return to Glendan?


3. Conclusions
1. Link to episode by episode descriptions: episodes
2. Link to overview of series:  overview
3. One line summary: Swords and sorcery meet high technology on an alien planet.
4. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Art: 8/10 The episodes consistently look good.


2. Sound: 3/10 Oh, ouch! One needs to crank the sound up to hear the dialog, then return it close to mute to survive the music during the opening and closing credits and the mid-episode inter-titles.


3. Voice acting: 7/10 The voice performances for Layfon, Nina, Kalian, the Queen of Glendan, and the Queen's agents were rather good.  However, many of the lesser female characters had annoyingly screeching voice registers, and were hard to understand.  I recommend using subtitles, even if one has an English version playing.


4. Story: 6/10 There are several themes in the series that I did not refer to above, and at least two dozen named characters.  Some of the themes basically went nowhere, either because they were abandoned or because they were underdeveloped.  It also seemed to me that there were entirely too many characters.

20140223: Action Review--Ambushed

Ambushed

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 96 minutes, action, crime.
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 586 audience ratings; aspect 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' 20% liked it from 52 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 7,674 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Giorgio Serafini.
6. Starring: Dolph Lundgren as Maxwell, Randy Couture as Jack Reiley, Vinnie Jones as Vincent Camastra, Carly Pope as Beverly, Giani Capaldi as Eddie, Daniel Bonjour as Frank, Cinthya Carmona as Ashley, Carly Pope as Agent Beverly Royce.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Frank starts out with a strip joint in Los Angeles.  Frank and Eddie branch out in the drug business.  As they attempt to expand in the business, they steal drugs from Vincent Camastra, which was a bad idea.


2. DEA agent Maxwell gets into the scene and takes over from the locals, including the surly Detective Jack Reiley.  Jack has a cocaine habit, and he rousts minor dealers for money and cocaine.


3. There's a separate, completely bungled thread about Eddie and his straight, non-criminal girlfriend Ashley.  She believes his often ridiculous excuses about long absences, strange acquaintances, and odd injuries.  Maxwell's on-the-job relationship with Beverly was not skillfully written either.  That only served to show Maxwell had an extra motivator for the violent ending: Beverly goes undercover, and her life is at risk.


4. Vincent convinces Frank and Eddie that he is upset, and demands some money in two days.  Eddie tells Frank that he wants to back up to just doing his strip club after they do a job for Vincent.  Jack researches Frank, then attempts to hold him up for money in his strip club.  It's Frank's club, and he and his bouncers beat the nonsense out of him, take his gun, and shoot him through the hand.


5. There is plenty of setup for lots of violence to bring resolution.


6. Will Maxwell and his team get Vincent?  Will Frank and Eddie square things up with Vincent?  Will Jack get his revenge on Frank?  Will Jack's boss at LAPD cut short his career, or will Internal Affairs get him first?


3. Conclusions
1. For moderate action and large quantities of cleavage, this is your film.  For sparkling dialog and brilliant expositon of motivation, look elsewhere.
2. One line summary: Crime, action-adventure film that needed a better script and plot.
3. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Nicely shot; only a little bit of shaky camera work.


2. Sound: 9/10 Good.


3. Acting: 2/10 Pretty bad, all around, no real exceptions.  A better script would have helped a lot here.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Has a beginning, middle, and end.  The plot threads progressed to more or less logical conclusions.  However, a lot of the dialog is almost campy, and motivations were weak.

20140215: Action Review--The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2010, rated PG, 103 minutes, action, adventure.
2. IMDB: 4.4/10.0 from 88,932 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 150 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 6% on the meter; 31% liked it from 318,495 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on SyFy, complete with commercial breaks.
5. Written, produced, and directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
6. Starring: Noah Ringer as Aang, Dev Patel as Prince Zuko, Nicola Peitz as Katara, Jackson Rathbone as Sokka, Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh, Aasif Mandvi as Commander Zhao, Cliff Curtis as Fire Lord Ozai, Saychelle Gabriel as Princess Yue.


2. Setup and Plot
1. On a planet not our planet Earth, political divisions are aligned with the elements: the Fire Nation and what used to be nations aligned to air, water, and earth (the element).  At one time, there used to be balance among the elements, but after the disappearance of the avatar about a century previous, that balance was lost.  The Fire Nation is in the process of conquering the planet.  Nations aligned with the earth element and air element have fallen to the Fire Nation.  A Water Nation stronghold still exists in the far north. 


2. A few people can work magic with the elements.  Only one (the 'avatar') can work magic in all four elements.  The cause of the political imbalance was the disappearance of the avatar.


3. Back to the film: at the beginning of the tale, two water nation teenagers, Sokka and Katara, accidentally discover the avatar encased in ice.  As fate would have it, extremely disgraced Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation witnesses this. 


4. The lines of power in the Fire Nation are broken.  Fire Lord Ozai has banished his son; Zuko's only hope of re-instatement is to bring the avatar to his father.  Oddly, Ozai prefers that Commander Zhao do that instead.  This undermines the success of the Fire Nation.


5. Another plot driver is that there have been no air benders (magicians who used the air element) for decades.  The avatar is ready, willing, and able to demonstrate his strong mastery of air bending.  The rub is that the avatar ran from his responsibilities (a century before) without having learned to use fire, earth, or water magic.


6. So.  The Fire Nation views Aang as a threat, but their efforts to capture him are weakened by internal dissension.  Aang needs to learn water, fire, and earth bending in order to bring back balance to the world (which is not our Earth).


7. This film is about finding Aang, then Aang's learning water bending while the Fire Nation tries to stop him.  That's it.


8. Future movies might include Aang learning earth bending, Aang learning fire bending, and Aang crushing the Fire Lord.  The current film did not address these matters.


3. Conclusions
1. Considered as a film in its own right, the picture was disappointing.  Considered as a live-action adaptation of the animated series, this was a complete bust.  If there are to be sequels, a different auteur should be at the helm, with some serious oversight.
2. One line summary: Disappointing action film; terrible adaptation of the animated series.
3. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Mixed.  The photography was well done.  The SFX was another matter.  Some of it was fine, but much of it was lackluster, and some was outright poor.


2. Sound: 7/10 OK, but nothing interesting.


3. Acting: 4/10 Aasif Mandvi, Dev Patel, and Shaun Toub were reasonably good.  Many of the other characters were not so good.  In particular, the choices for the characters Aang, Katara, and Sokka needed to be much better.


4. Screenplay: 3/10 The first ten minutes were rather good.  The rest of the story was not so good.  To complete the story arcs of the animated series, there would have to be two, perhaps three, additional films.  I do not see this happening.  For 150 million, one should expect a better script and SFX that varies between current and good to smashingly excellent.  Those things did not happen.  So, who would trust the same screenwriter = director = producer?