"Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior".
My Thoughts
Let me start by saying that I have not read any of the books that this film was based on, having no idea of the back story for this film I did some research on the books but I found them to be very uninteresting and decided to just look up info online, after finding out what I felt was needed to have a grasp of what the basis of the film would be I was ready to view this the day after it came out, I want to add that the trailer to me gave the film a kind of "Avatar" feel and by that what I mean is, if you have seen Avatar you will recognize the connections (Human lands on alien planet conflict ensues with the natives). Onto the film I will start by saying that it had a slow pace in the beginning and can lose some viewers here, this aides in the set up and the character development of John Carter who was played by Taylor Kitsch, I have seen him in two other roles (The Covenant and X-Men Origins:Wolverine) he was okay in both but didn't play a major role as he does as the title character in this film, he does a solid job in this film and plays the role of a man living in the 1880's who gets transported to Mars (or Barsoom as the natives call it) very well, Lynn Collins plays Princess Dejah Thoris (her role is the "Save the planet" type) This is my first time seeing her act and she played her role well for what was asked of her (I just have to add why does it seem every film has to have a love interest) the rest of the human cast does a solid job in thier roles. The real stars of this film are the Special effects and the Tharks (one of the two natives species on Mars) the amount o detail that is used in creating this tribe was outstanding (almost Avatar level in my opinion), the way they allowed the viewer inside of the tribe and the way they lived really made you feel for them for being oppressed by the other race on Mars (similar to humans except they had a red tinge to their skin who where also waring with each other). I want to add that to me just be me but I felt a hint of not racism but stereotyping, the three groups waring wit h each other (Tharks, Native Mars Blue and Native Mars red) just felt a little offensive to me especially with the non tharks having red skin again maybe it is just me.Rotten Tomatoes has the film currently ranked at 51% saying "While John Carter looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization". The key word I agree in with what they are saying is pacing, Like I mentioned before the film starts off terribly slow and can lose a lot of people there out of sheer boredom it does eventually pick up though, also the film for me ran a bit longer than it needed to it clocks in at 1 hour and 58 minutes and honestly it should have been about 20 minutes shorter, the ending also left some to be desired it wasn't terrible but not great either, it does leave the door open for a sequel (judging by the amount of books there will be plenty of them) I want to add that I saw this film in 3D and it was horrible you don't even notice it is a 3D film other than without the glasses the film is blurry there are barely any 3D effects at all. Overall this is a beautiful film, but a flawed film.
Rating
This film has Avatar Level special effects but Clash of the titans Level 3D and acting not a good mix 7.0/10!!!! Decent Movie nothing special.
The Second movie for the month of march is "The Hunger Games" starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Wes Bentley the movie opened on the 23rd.
Plot
"Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match".
My Thoughts
Let me start by saying that I have never read the books in this series and up until I saw the trailer for this film and did some research on the series as a whole, I had no idea what "The Hunger Games" where. After reading up on the back story and the looks in the series my interest peaked and when the first film was announced I decided then and there that I would see the film series even though I have no intention of reading the books (I will add that I read the synopsis of all three books so I have an idea of what will happen in each film). The story for these films goes as follows in the future there are no longer states in place we have 12 districts each vary in some way from each other, every year one female and one male ages 12 to 18 are chosen to do battle with the other males and females from the other districts in what are called "The Hunger Games" in a fight to the death winner take all televised battle royal. I want to add that when I first heard of this premise the idea seemed kind of cool and something I had not seen or read about before that initially intrigued me very much,whenever a book series is turned into a film faithfulness to the source material is always a must and after viewing this film it seemed they stayed fairly close and followed the path except of a few missteps that I myself had not noticed but those who read the books seemed to take offense with (Rue and Cinna being black and Prim being very pale skinned has seemed to cause controversy with those who have read the book Lenny Kravitz criticized in racist tweets, Amandla Stenberg responds to racist Twitter attacks). I thought all three did fine jobs in their roles and applaud them for their work in this film; Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, Prue's older sister who volunteers herself in Prue's place when she is chosen to compete in the games in her first ear of eligibility, Lawrence does a good job of playing the older sister who is just trying to protect her little sister from having her life cut so very short even if it means she herself may loose hers in the process. Lawrence Overall was very solid in I look forward to seeing her take Katniss further in the next films in the series. The rest of the cast does well in their roles and play the characters to a level I am sure those who read the books would be happy with, I will add though I felt Josh Hutcherson's character peeta while played very well by him it was kind of funny to see that Lawrence was taller than him, it makes him seem a little less of a protector and more of the protected (you will see what I mean if you have seen or are going to see the film), I want to add one more tidbit abut the cast by giving honorable mention to two actors first Woody Harrelson for his portrayal as Haymitch Abernathy a former Hunger games winner who is no a drunk and former shadow of his former self who gives Katniss vital information along the way, and another mention to Isabelle Fuhrman for her portrayal as the bloodthirsty Clove she did a wonderful hob portraying clove as a ruthless killer. The scope of the film defiantly made you think of a different world especially once the movie shifted from the coal miner district 12 (Katniss,Peeta,Prue's district) to the main city where the games would take place the people there dressed very flamboyantly and had a wide range of outfits that by today's standards would be seen as very "out there" it does however pull you in and show just how much of a caste system that world is living in. The movie had a very real feel to it what I mean by that is the special effects are seemingly kept to minimum in favor of live action stunts, which for this film works perfectly. On the negative side which maybe minor in some peoples mind I felt the movie started off kind of slow and took about a good 45-50 minutes to really get going (The movie runs 142 minutes) which I am sure was done to give the audience a chance to get to know the characters and make a connection with them to feel what they are going through, and in this regard it works but I have a feeling it may lose some moviegoers who want to see action right from the start one last part of the film that I felt was not needed was the love story between Peeta and Katniss, I understand it is essential to the series as a whole but to me it just felt tacked on (Just like Natalie Portmans role in Thor) but I know this has to happen and taking this storyline out of the film would be doing a huge injustice to the books which you simply cant do and get away without any backlash from the book readers..Rotten Tomatoes currently has the movie at 85% saying "Thrilling and superbly acted, The Hunger Games captures the dramatic violence, raw emotion, and ambitious scope of its source novel". Overall this is a very good film for the entry in what is sure to be a very financially successful movie franchise, a few annoyances but otherwise a really good movie.
Rating
Very good entry into the series excited to see what "Catching Fire" brings next year 7.6/10!!!!
The Third and last movie for the month of March is "Wrath Of The Titans" Starring Sam Worthington, Liam Nesson and Ralph Fiennes the film opened on the 30th.
Plot
"Perseus braves the treacherous underworld to rescue his father, Zeus, captured by his son, Ares, and brother Hades who unleash the ancient Titans upon the world".
My Thoughts
I was really excited for "Clash Of Th Titans" it was one of my most anticipated films of the year for 2010, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement, from the acting, to the setting to the horrible almost nonexistent 3D, the film was overall bad and it was one of those films you erase from your mind and forget you ever saw it. When news of a sequel was released on the net, I was somewhat interested providing they learned from the mistakes that plagued the first film, while doing my research for the film and contemplating whether or not to see it, the first detail I looked for was the cast, I wanted to see if for the most part they would keep the same cast, I dislike when sequels in films change up the cast especially when it is a character who did not die or leave during the first film and is only replaced due to financial or casting changes. All of the main cast (Neeson,Worthington,Fiennes) was coming back but I did notice that the role of Andromeda (played by Alexa Davalos in Clash) was going to be replaced by Rosamund Pike, while her role was minor in the first film from what I read her role would be much bigger in this film, I could not understand why they changed her role it boggled me. After mulling it over for a while I decided I would see the film when it came out. First let me start with the acting which honestly was not much better than the first film, Worthing, Neeson and Fiennes do solid jobs in their roles and I shudder to think what the film would have been like if one or more of the three had been replaced by someone else. The best performance in t his film would have to go to Bill Nighy for his role Hephaestus the "forgotten one" he really stands out in this film. The special effects were very good which was to be expected wit ha film running on a budget of $150 million Kronos scene was epic albeit short and one more thing I want to add the ending if this film is similar to the last film, what I mean by that is the film gets to a point where you feel all is lost then Perseus much like in the first film rides in on a horse and saves the day, not very original, but nonetheless films with budgets as big or close to have had miserable effects and made you think to yourself"Am I watching a sy-fi channel movie?". Again they made this movie 3D and again I ask why, it was just as bad as the 3D in the first film which is the worst compliment you can give any 3D film, there are barely any scenes that even show 3D effects and the only reason that I kept my glasses on was cause of the blur that film has without 3D glasses Rotten Tomatoes has this film at 25% saying "Its 3D effects are an improvement over its predecessor's, but in nearly every other respect, Wrath of the Titans fails to improve upon the stilted acting, wooden dialogue, and chaos-driven plot of the franchise's first installment". Overall this film did not improve much over the last film which was very disappointing to me it shows lack of effort, I was really expecting better acting and a better script but got neither all I feel that was improved was the special effects which is not really an improvement, here is hoping the third film in the entry will finally step it up.
Rating
Slightly better special effects, still bad 3D, same level of acting for the most part overall disappointing 6.9/10!!!!
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