The Month Of March brings with it three films to review, the first being 300:Rise Of An Empire starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva green and Lena Headey.
Plot
"Greek general Themistokles leads the charge against invading Persian
forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Artemisia, vengeful commander
of the Persian navy".
My thoughts
300 for me was a really good action film, the art direction and style were very unique to the movie for the time, I thought 300 was a really good action film with really good battle scenes, and solid acting for what the film was. When I had first heard of a sequel potentially being made years ago I was really excited and anticipated the film greatly. When I read the plot originally I was under the impression that it would be prequel to the first film, and for me that led to huge disappointment,I really wanted to see what happened after the film not before the film. as time went by heard that there was a script change and that the film would take place before,during,and after the events of the first film, which intrigued me very much. After seeing the film I have to say it was a very solid film and a great continuation of the series. the acting was solid as was the case in the first scene nothing spectacular (Except I will say special Mention to Eva Green as the role of Artemisisa she was excellent and was the standout of all the other casts) everyone else did a passable job. The major aspect of 300 that for me stood out was the art style and the effects of the first film, this film continues that art direction and it did a great job with the battle scenes and the choreography , I could tell this film had 3D in mind (I saw the non-3D version) with a lot of the blood splatters and other aspects of the battle scenes, but nonetheless the battle scenes were very well done and a treat to experience,m I will say they may have overdone it a little with the slow motion cuts in certain parts of the film after a while it got slight annoying with so much slow mo. Another aspect of the film that annoyed me and I was glad was not tin the first film at all was the ship battle scene, for me it was very boring to see the ships just throw spears and shoot arrows at each other, I am sure it is somewhat accurate of how battle was done back then but for me it really slowed the pace down of a frenetic paced film.. A really big plus of this film that I liked was the continuation of the story and the integration it had, with his film taking place around the events of the first film, I really liked that they incorporated scenes from the first film and the characters from the first film as well, this was one of the few sequels in my opinion that did this extremely well and I have to commend the writing team for a great job of linking it all together.
Rotten Tomatoes had this to say "it's bound to hit some viewers as an empty exercise in stylish gore, and
despite a gonzo starring performance from Eva Green, 300: Rise of an
Empire is a step down from its predecessor". I agree somewhat Eva green was excellent and I do agree that the first film was better, the film is an action movies and it mainly meant to have good special effects and good battle films, that was all i expected to see and the film delivered that perfectly; you have to adjust your expectations to what you expect to see , I did and I was perfectly pleased with this film.
Rating
If you enjoyed the first film and want to see a continuation of the series, See it, if you want to see a stylish, solid acted action film with great special effect, see it. 7.7/10!!!
The next film is "Sabotage" starring Arnold Schawrzengger, Sam Worthington and Terrance Howard.
Plot
"Members of an elite DEA task force find themselves being taken down one by one after they rob a drug cartel safe house".
My Thoughts
I am glad that some of the old guard of Hollywood action (Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger09 are coming back to Hollywood and making films again. While some of the films have been bad (A good day to die hard, Live free or die hard, the cold light of day) some I have thoroughly enjoyed (Both expendables films, The last stand and Bullet to the head, after seeing this film I can honestly say I really enjoyed it and I can say that it was one of the best Schwarzenegger films I have seen in recent memory. I will admit I was a bit skeptical about this film when I read about the plot a few months ago, those fears where quelled when I saw the trailer, I really liked the dark,gritty and violent look the trailer had imprinted in my head about this film. After seeing the film the trailer put me in the right frame of mind of what to expect from this film, it is non stop action, blood, violence and gore and I loved it. this film did not try to be something it was not if you want to see an R rated action film that puts the pedal to the metal this is the film for you. The cast all did a really good job for their roles (Schwarzenegger did a fantastic job as the grizzled veteran leader of his rag tag group of DEA agents also special mention to Sam Worthington for his role as ":Monster" and Mireille Enos as "Lizzy" they both stood out the most for me). The plot for this film was actually an interesting one and kept me engaged throughout the film and had some surprised to keep me from figuring the entire plot until the end. there was no cheesy special effects in this film which really helped with keeping to the true to life feel of this film.
Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a 22% saying "Sabotage boasts one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's finer post-political
performances, but it's wasted in a movie driven by grueling violence
that punishes seemingly without purpose". I agree that this was one of Schawrzenegger's best performances in recent memory as I mentioned earlier in the review, I disagree as saying the violence as a negative I saw this as a huge positive and enjoyed every minute of the fast paced and non stop action of this film, If you are an Arnold Fan or just want to see a really bloody,violent and furious action film I recommend this highly.
Rating
Exactly what I wanted to see and did everything I expected was a very good violent, gritty, fast paced action film. 8.0/10!!!!
The last movie for the month of March is "Noah" starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolley and Emma Watson.
Plot
"A man is chosen by God to undertake a momentous mission of rescue before an apocalyptic flood destroys the world".
My Thoughts.
The first Epic movie of the year (for me personally), I had high hopes for this epic rendition of the story of Noah's Arc. Everything about this movie said to me it was going to be a good film from the cast (Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Windsotone, Nick Nolte to name a few) the director (Darren Aronofsky) the Budget (well in excess of $100 Million). The expectations from me were very high, due to the fact everything looked to be going well for this film. After seeing the film I can say this is the worst film I have seen of the year so far and by a wide margin. I can honestly say this was one of the films that I after I saw it i said to myself "I want the 138 minutes of my life back". The movie just had such bad pacing and so little moments that actually caught my attention, this was a very boring film that did little to pique my interest. The action was dull and not choreographed very well in my opinion. The acting was lackluster for the most part (Crowe was the shining star he did a really well job playing the title role of Noah, he showed a lot of range for me and tried his best to save this film) unfortunately everyone else did not follow Mr.Crowe's lead the rest of the cast felt flat and were rather disappointing (Especially Jennfier Connolley and Emma Watson (who has yet to show me a good acting performance).I have a rule I go by when watching films, if the film is going to be long it better be enjoyable and engaging as to make the film seem shorter than it actually is, this filmed failed in the aspect horribly the film was slow paced and actually felt longer than the 138 minute run time. There was nothing other than the acting job By Russell Crowe and the visuals (which for a film of this budget I expected would be topnotch and they where) that I actually liked about this film, form the bad acting to the "Wacthers" ( I wont say anything but the whole way that situation of the film was done was laughable to say the least) to the last 25 minutes of the film which really added nothing much to the film but made thee run time longer, another problem I had with this film was that it tried to hard to be "Epic" and that I mean by that is that there where a lot of pan shots and wide landscaped shots to try and show the viewer that everything about this scene was supposed to be "Epic" and really important when the scene itself didn't need that affect to be add to it, just made the scene cheesy in my opinion.
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 75% "With sweeping visuals grounded by strong performances in service of a
timeless tale told on a human scale, Darren Aronofsky's Noah brings the
Bible epic into the 21st century". I disagree completely with the score it was way to high in my opinion this film had the potential to be so good but in the end I do not know what happened but it got it all wrong on every level.
Rating
Worst Move I have seen this year so far, had such high expectations in the end they were not met in the least 6.0/10!!!!!
