Man of Steel

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Should you go watch it?

Yes. Visually is a must-see in the big screen.

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Spoiler free review.

OK, here's the weird part; I'm the only one I know that hates this movie and I still think you should see it. Three reasons:
1) Everybody else likes it (even comic book readers)
2) This movie being a success means we get Justice League.
3) The fight scenes are amazing and must be seen in the big screen.

About me hating it: let me start by saying I started reading comics because of Superman. Actually I started READING because of Superman. I had this one Superman comic my mom wouldn't read to me but "teach me to read instead if I wanted to know". So I knew how to read a year before I was supposed to.

For a while, it was my favorite superhero until I was older and moved on to Batman, then Spider-Man, X-Men and Punisher. I did come back to reading it when he was killed and there were 4 Supermen and stuff.

Back to the movie: the acting is good, it looks great but I hated the script. It is obviously not a fateful Superman representation (if that makes sense with all the versions in the comics) but I didn't even like it as a non-Superman movie.

There are many things I hate (which I will list in the Spoilerish section) but mainly it's the fact that it's not even a dark version of Superman: it's a grim one! I would've rather seen a dark version of Superman than this emo-one.

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Spoilerish review.

Lot's of bad things with it in my mind. Only read if you have seen the movie. Show/Hide the rest of the spoilerish review

1) General Zod kind of hates Superman from the beginning just because.
2) The conflict in Krypton and the way everybody behaves there makes no sense.
3) Kal-el's idea of a "solution" seems to be... "let's just save my kid". Who's going to side with him?
4) A lot of scenes stolen from a lot of other movies (even avatar).
5) Clark is sad because he has powers. He even looks sad in the ocean after saving a lot of lives and just keeps sinking with emo expression.
6) Johnatan Kent tells Clark to maybe kill kids just so nobody else finds out he has powers... REALLY?!
7) BIG SPOILER: the same don't-care-about-other-kids-dancer-with-wolves commits suicide just so nobody finds out his son is powerful.
8) The previous point could have been avoided by letting his mighty son go back instead of him. This wouldn't even have exposed Clark's powers.
9) Superman should have saved his dad even if the stupid man didn't want to.
10) Louis Lane is blond and forced to exist without a good story line.
11) Clark having powers is easy for Louis to find out.
12) Zod declares war on earth unless they deliver the God among them.
13) Emo Superman gives himself to America's government.
14) Louis acts like Megan Fox in Transformers by being with the army without a good reason. Againg: Louis forced into the story.
15) The fights are visually amazing but Superman seems to not care about people anymore since he destroys tons of buildings himself.
16) BIG SPOILER: He doesn't care about killing the hope for his entire remaining specie . Allegedly not to kill earth in the process but he never stops to think about alternatives and/or negotiate with Zod.
17) BIG SPOILER: After killing a lot of humans and his entire specie, he "has" to kill Zod and he feels bad about that... about killing the bad guy? why do you care? what about killing your species?!!!
18) The previous event was forced. He didn't really have to kill Zod. He could have just flown with him.

I have more but I'm guessing nobody is reading this post at this point.  So: I hate the movie and think everybody should watch it. I'm even going to watch it a second time I guess. But not because of the story, IN SPITE OF IT.

Iron Man 3

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Should you go watch it?

Yes. If you liked the previous ones but you won't be blown away.

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Spoiler free review.

It's good but I didn't love it and I can't pin-point good reasons for why not.

It's very iron-manish, very tony-starkish, very robert-downey-jrish and so on. It has the jokes, the special effects, the continuity with the other movies and it's entertaining.

Even the one joke they borrowed from Avengers and overused made me laugh every time. It was basically reading a comic book saga, just not one of the great ones.

I'll say what bothers me in the spoilerish section but, if you haven't seen it, go watch it. Just don't expect it to be faithful to the extremis saga.

So: the order of Iron-Man movies "quality" is: 1, 3, 2.

Note: 3D is cool at all action scenes.

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Spoilerish review.

A thing that I hated but just based on an assumption is... Show/Hide the rest of the spoilerish review

...the fact that Tony practically doesn't wear the suit at all. I wonder if he wears it 10 minutes of the 130 that it lasts (please let me know). And I usually wouldn't have a problem with that, I actually like Bruce Wayne movies/comics more than I like Batman's but in this case I just got the feeling that they were showing me Robert Downey Jr. and not Tony Stark. It reminded me of how forced all those times Spider-Man loses his mask in all the movies clearly just so you see the guy they are paying money to be Spider-Man.

But again, that's just an assumption and if the idea is to show Tony Stark more than Iron Man, I'm cool with that.

Another thing that bothered me a bit is that the trailer was tyring to misslead you all the time. The iron patriot is not the comic's iron patriot (well, we all knew that one), but extremis is not really extremis, AIM is not really AIM and the Mandarin... well, you know if you watched it.

The problem is that I don't read Iron-Man and I felt misslead, I imagine real Iron-Man fans having a big problem with this.

Other than that, can't give you a good reason why the movie is bad and some things just look great.

Cloud Atlas

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Should you go watch it?

Yes. Immediately. It may be the best movie of 2012.

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Spoiler free review.

Last year 2 amazing movies came out and a lot of people didn't see them. John Carter is one of them but for some reason it even lost money for Disney (one possible reason is that they decided not to do advertising) and it even has some bad reviews. I'll try to post about that one but if you haven't seen it. Rent it today!

The other movie, Cloud Atlas, didn't do as bad economically (this one actually made money) but it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar when it deserved to even win at least two. I think the reason for that is that not everybody saw it. Maybe because it showed around the time The Hobbit did (and Skyfall and others).

The only other two people that I know watched it, loved it too. I consider it one of my favorite movies of all times but it's still not in everybody's radar. If you are one of those radars: fix that.

I don't even want to talk much about it because I loved watching it without knowing a thing (I really knew zero). And I watched it at 10:00 pm and it lasts almost 3 hours and I never felt tired. My eyes were wide open trying not to miss what was going to happen next with this or that "thing".

So, I won't tell you anything about the movie but this:

1) Is very different from any other type of movie you have seen. It's not a sequel, it's not a re-make, and it doesn't follow any of the usual formulas I'm getting tired of. It's a really fresh movie experience. And I longed for those.
2) Tom Hanks is amazing in it. Other than Forrest Gump I never cared much for Tom. Until now. Everybody is great in it, but Tom Hanks won me back.
3) Stick through the credits. They will answer some questions you will have about casting and you will be amazed of a lot of things you didn't notice.

That's it. Go watch it (if showing) or buy the Blu-ray or rent it. OK?

What To See And What To Avoid

I know it's been a while... I've been very busy lately. I'll post full reviews soon but I want to give you a quick list of DOs and DONTs specially since one great movie seems to been getting bad reviews for some reason. So let's get down to it;

• The Hobbit. Go watch it now! This movie is getting bad reviews but I think it's even at Lord Of The Rings level. I know it's kind of the same but... who doesn't want more LOTR movies?! And for me it's even better at some points. So, I'll write a full review but you.... Go... NOW.
• 007: Skyfall. Also loved it. Also a bit more than the first one. I has a lot of flaws but as a James Bond movie it works really well. I didn't really liked the villan though (but movie critics say he's really good).
• Rise Of The Guardians. Very good. Another good excuse to take your kids to the movies.
• The Expendibles 2. It's not a good movie but it's a bit better than the first one so, if you liked that one, you'll like this one.
• That's My Boy. Avoid like the ebola virus! I'm a big fan of Adam Sandler (exception being Tropic Thunder) but this is for me his worst movie ever. It's one of those that think that "grose" equals "funny"... why? Dunno. (But I blame a very funny movie for this: Scary Movie).

Hollywood's creativity

Some years ago Hollywood started re-visiting anything instead of basing new movies in new ideas. I was happy to hear that Transformers was being made a movie and even happier when all the comic book heroes were getting movies again (and even great ones this time).

But it's now getting to a point that can only be described as ridiculous  They have just released Judge Dredd, Total Recall and the likes... but when I see the pipeline I just feel sick:

Carrie
Frankenstein
Godzilla
Highlander
The Lone Ranger
Mortal Kombat
RoboCop
Scarface
Short Circuit
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Twilight Zone
Dune

And the list goes on and on...

Hollywood PLEASE STAPH!

And I'm not even counting sequels:

Girl in Progress

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Should you go watch it?

Yes. Specially if you liked Spanglish.

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Spoiler free review.

Let me first tell you how I arrived to this movie. For months I've been dying to see Brave with no luck. When it was released, my kids went to their grandparents' for the summer. They watch it there and told me not to watch it since they wanted to watch it again with me, so I waited. Then, when I went to pick them up, we went to the movies but with their cousins (who had already seen it too) so we saw Batman instead.

When we were back, we went to the movie theater again but the family vote overruled my attempt to watch Brave (or Batman again) and we went for Ice Age 4 instead. When I tried again, I had multiple 2x1 passes so I took my neighbors' kids with us and one of them had just seen Brave so we watched Paranorman instead.

This weekend everything was perfect for Brave... nothing else that my kids would want to see was showing and we headed there. The problem is that we arrived late and all the seats to see Brave were taken by the time we arrived (and I didn't buy them beforehand because of the 2x1s). So I asked the cashier what else was good for children and she said "Girl in progress" is for 12 year olds up. The name in Mexico is something like "Training mom" which sounded like "Training Dad" which is the Spanish name given in Mexico to The Game Plan which my kids loved so I bought them without a clue what the movie was about.

Let me start by saying that the Spanish name for the movie is misleading since:
1) It's not really about a girl training her mom.
2) It's nothing like The Game Plan.
3) It's not really suitable for kids.

But let's review the movie: I really liked it. I did suffer a little since my 8 years old daughter was watching a movie where "losing virginity" is not only mentioned but... (won't spoil it).

So it's not really a comedy or a kids' film but the funny thing is that both my daughter and son loved it (not sure why) and it was in English!

The movie is really about a girl with a somewhat irresponsible mom. The kid decides to "become of age" by forcing herself through common adolescent events.

The acting of both is great and the story, although not 100% new is really touching. Both my wife and I cried (which means that you really get into the movie), but that probably can only happen to parents. Did you cry in Spanglish? Almost same scene here.

This is a movie obviously written by a female author since the protagonists are all women and the men are side stories, dumb, jerks or just feeling-hiders that need women to open their eyes. But this is not a bad thing, it is a very nice turn from the latest common type of movies.

Note-worthy is the fact that Eugenio Dervez has again a somewhat important role that is not really funny but interesting (go rent Under the same moon if you don't know what I'm talking about).

So, go watch this movie instead of The Expendables 2 and wish me luck on watching Brave!

The Dark Knight Rises

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Should you go watch it?

Yes. Specially if you liked the previous ones.

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Spoiler free review.

I must first clarify that I have only seen it once, doubted to Spanish in a theater with less-than-usual screening quality. I was planning for my second visit, this time in English but there were so many kids in my car that I ended up seeing ParaNorman instead (sadly). But this still gives me an opinion on the voices: Batman's is for sure better in Spanish (since I don't think it changed from the previous 2 movies). Catwoman's, Bruce Wayne's and the rest are probably pretty well doubted but I'm dying to see it in English hoping Bane's better that the one I experienced at that crappy theater.

So, the movie is good. I really like the fact that it closes a circle with the previous two. The plot is good. If I hadn't heard on the radio that it was almost 3 hours long I wouldn't have guessed it. It's such an entertaining film that it doesn't feel long at all. It feels 2 hours long (or even shorter since it starts 8 years after the previous one and you wished they showed more story there).

It's not a problem free movie and it's not the best of the 3. Everybody is going to like the second one best (because of the Joker of course) but for me it's better, worse and the same in many respects. The first one gave us the first great Bruce Wayne (but no Batman). The second one gave us a great Joker (even if not completely based on the comics' essence) but the third one doesn't really add much to those two. At the same time it has more characters, interesting connections to the comics and great action scenes. I'll tell you why it's the same in the spoilerish section.

One question you may have if you haven't seen it is: "do Anne Hathaway or the kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun (great show BTW) ruin it?". It's a fair question and I know I had it. The answer is, amazingly, no! Anne is good as a Catwoman (that is never called that name) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is almost the main character in the movie and he does a great job (and no, he's not Azrael).

Now, I think everybody is finding Anne as a great Catwoman but I'm not. I really think she didn't ruin the movie but she's not great. She's not a femme-fatale to me. If Catwoman hadn't been drawn as she has been all these years and if Michelle hadn't played the Selina Kyle that she played, maybe I could buy Anne's role. So I don't like her as Catwoman but at least she didn't mess up the part as Katie Holmes did in the first one.

And the movie is far from great. I didn't like the twists, the stupid ways Gotham citizens act, Batman's uncomfortable suit and lack of screen time, Bruce Wayne's lack of screen time, or the fact that they had one of the best story arcs in comic history as basis and took almost nothing from it (just threw a bone or two for us comic book geeks). They still haven't brought Batman to the screen (that includes all the old ones). But the worst part is Batman's fighting skill. It's just wrong. The suit doesn't help but there seems not to have been any martial arts consultant around to explain how Batman survived that long with the worst fighting technique (was he trained by Kung Fu Panda?).

So, the best adaptation of comics to a movie is still the Avengers, the best Batman movie is still The Dark Knight (though I'm still waiting for a real Batman movie), the best Bruce Wayne movie is still Batman Begins, the best Catwoman movie is still Batman Returns and no-one has come close to bringing Knightfall to screen yet. But the movie is the best of the summer and a fun film to watch more than once.

Now, someone please tell me... how the hell does Christian Bale change his body so drastically?!

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Spoilerish review.

Ok so why is TDKR the same as the previous one (The Dark Knight)?... Show/Hide the rest of the spoilerish review

...Well it almost seems that they wrote this film thinking about The Joker... the villain is not Bane from the comics (and at least not Bane from Batman & Robin) but is actually The Joker. Does the same thing and for the same reason. I know that one of the twists explains a different reason but it's really not: he just wants to create chaos and make the citizens do harm to the city by themselves for some weird (insane?) reason. So, it's like watching the previous movie again: the villain threatens the city and forces them to behave stupidly and a couple of heroes have to show how good people should behave. It's like these movies are propaganda against revolution: anarchy is BAD, it's CHAOS and makes YOU the terrorist!. The previous one was worst in that sense since Batman even had to become The Big Brother to save the day.

Another thing I hated about the movie was how stupid the "Harvey Dent was good" lie was, how important it was for Gordon and what big impact it had in the city (to the point were Batman was not needed anymore). So Bruce Wayne was not Batman but also not Bruce Wayne for not good reason. And yet, nobody notices that Batman and Bruce seem to appear and disappear at the same time.

There is one amazing comic in which Batman becomes an addict (with Bane's venom, by the way) and he has to cure himself by... well, I won't spoil it, read it! (this is the one). The point is: why having such amazing comics nobody seems to be able to make a closely-great movie?