The Hunger Games - Catching Fire - Reviewed

Whoo, more reviews! As always, spoilers!

Catching Fire

As with many of the movies I watch, I haven't read the books. So I apologize if I come off as ignorant to certain things.

Let me immediately get out of the way that I vastly preferred the first movie to this one. This one builds waaaaay more plot than the first one, sure. But at the same time, that cliff-hanger at the end is quite bad if you know that you'll get to see the rest 2 years or so from now. It's great for the fans of the book, but not if people haven't read it.

So, again, it's great for the plot, but as a "stand-alone" movie it's a bad thing. Admittingly, this'll stop being a problem once the third one is out and you can just watch it right after, but for now, it gets points deducted for it.

The acting, like last time, was great. All the roles were very believable, and it's a nice spin to make actors act in a movie, because when they do it right (which they did) it makes it even more believable and relatable.

The things I didn't like about the movie were not that big of a deal. I didn't like how the movie skipped ahead one year and nothing really had happened in that one year. Katniss and Gale were still so-so about each other and their relationship seemed to develop most (or rather, mostly crash and burn, really) during the small time frame of the movie. Other than that, they both got a decent house but that's about it.


Don't get me wrong, I get why the skipped ahead a year, otherwise it would've been a dull period of waiting for the games to start. But I think they could've done with a time-skip or two of several months as well, if only to explain the changes happening in their lives, the rioting and the districts. I mean, isn't it weird that their victory-tour happens almost an entire year later?

Anyway, I digress. The other dislike I have is how mediocre the actual games were this time around. I mean, I get it, they were planning a rebellion and all that, but half of the candidates weren't in on it. And that aside, if you have access to all the weapons/supplies, and have a ranged marksman on your side. Why would you EVER leave the island in the middle?

Oh, and finally, poison should not be curable by water. Period. Either don't make it poison or make a sponsor send antidotes. Anything other than water would've been fine.

The music was good and appropriate. Not much else to say about it, really.

This probably happened in the book, so it would make sense to translate it over to the movie, but I liked how they changed the arena and the training-station in general. At the very least, it shows they're not lazy and just looking to save on budget.

All in all, it's a movie more focussed on plot. It falls short in some aspects, but overal it's worth watching if you liked the first movie. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. The score might've been higher had it not been for the cliff-hanger at the end.

Ender's Game - Reviewed

It's been a while since I've done one of these. So let's give it another go, shall we? Just like the last two, spoilers are probably ahead!

Ender's Game

Let me start by saying I'm just an average movie go-er and I haven't read the book at all, so keep that in mind if I complain or mention something that has been explained in the books.

Ender's Game was a great movie. I feel a bit conflicted about the child actors, because while they were good, they weren't great. So if I were to compare them to adults, they were alright, but I think the movie would have been better if we had adults; because let's face it, there weren't many child-specific moments in the scene that could not have been done by adults.

I only have a couple of gripes with the movie, really. To get a small one out of the way first, I hated how right before the final showdown in the tournament of the games, one of the recruits on Ender's team twisted his ankle and had to be conviniently replaced (which turned out to be permanent, apparently) by Petra. You don't need to use your ankle to walk in zero-G, damn it.

As for the second one, I disliked how time was irrelevant in the movie. At one point you hear Bonzo mention "At this rate, I'll make it to command school in 6 months." but I got the impression that Ender was advancing in mere weeks, not years or months as it's made out to be.

And finally, just the overal shoe-horned relationship with his sister/family, it felt out of place. It also felt out of place how the enemy tried to communicate with him through his dreams and the video game. Plus it begs the question: How the hell did no one find that egg while building the place. IT'S RIGHT OUTSIDE.

As for the good things, I enjoyed how Ender was portrayed. That with being smart/whatnot usually means you're an outcast when it comes to children, because they're often run by emotion and can't see the bigger picture of how meaningless that is when you're being trained for war.

The soundtrack fit the movie well, no score really stands out to me in memory, but that's how I usually am with movies.

And I have to give very big props to the ending; I remember thinking very clearly with 40 minutes or so left "How are they going to finish this simulation training, fight the war, win, and do a victory scene? Please don't tell me they'll just squeeze the war in a 5-10 minute battle and be done with it." So I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out the simulations were the actual war rather than, you know, simulations.

I don't know if that's how it was in the book, but if not, that's a great way to deal with a rushed ending in a movie, if you ask me.

All in all, I would rate the movie a 8 out of 10. It would've bumped a bit higher hadn't it been for those couple of pet peeves and adult actors. But definitely a great movie, would recommend watching it greatly.

The Wolverine - Reviewed

Double header!

Well, sort-of. But whatever, just roll with it. As per the last entry, spoilers!

The Wolverine

What else can I really say here? It's more-or-less another origin story. Or rather a continuation thereof. This time it follows the Mariko storyline, but it was quite abrupt and out of nowhere, especially so when everything was cut short. The arc is still incomplete, but I doubt they'll ever go back to it. Especially judging by the scene after the credits.

The acting was overal good. I'm glad they hired proper speaking Japanese people rather than forcing English people to learn the lines and mispronounce everything. Which is why I'm also glad Hugh Jackman barely said a word in Japanese, either. Some scenes/lines bugged me here and there, but overal it's what you would expect from a Wolverine movie.

Though, with that said, I think it's also one of its gripes. It wasn't as actioned packed as I would've liked it to be. There was a lot of build-up, if you ask me. But it all led to pretty much... nothing. The action scenes were very subpar and short. Hell, the best one, in my opinion, was on the train, and to make the matter worse, it was against a random Yakuza grunt. And most of that you even see on the trailer.

I was also very disappointed by the lack of other mutants. I mean, sure, there's the Viper chick, but she wasn't really impressive or a proper antagonist. Speaking of antagonist, it seemed very much so like the movie couldn't decide who they wanted it to be. Was it the grandfather? Was it the Viper chick? Was it the dad? Make up your mind, movie! It all becomes clear by the end, of course, but until then it's a rollercoaster ride.

I can't really comment much on the soundtrack as I don't remember any of it. So I guess it was just your run of the mill music and ambiance. Which is fine, there weren't really any epic moments or whatnot to throw a good score underneath it. The 3-D was also very disappointing, I literally didn't notice a single effect. This is more a gripe with the industry as a whole of late, but this was a typical example of just wanting to milk out the extra buck for the glasses.

Overal I'm disappointed with the movie. And this is coming from someone who liked the previous Wolverine movie. I'd give it a 4 out of 10. If you're a fan I'd give it a rental, but that's about it.

Pacific Rim - Reviewed

As the title already says, I'm going to give it a knack to review a movie. Now, I do have to say I've never done it before, so I apologize if it's totally stupid and whatnot. And, of course, spoilers! But without further ado:

So, Pacific Rim.

Let me just start off by saying that as a general movie go-er and not as a critic or anything, I had a good time at the movie. I literally went in blind, I knew absolutely nothing about the movie. The only thing I had in mind, judging by the name was that I expected it to be a submarine movie in the Pacific.

I could not have been more wrong.

Pacific Rim cuts right to the chase and it's known within the first few minutes what the movie is like and what it's about. Which is good, the movie was already two hours, if they needed to explain the backstory and have them develop the Jaegers then it would've been too long, or needed a sequel, which wouldn't have fit at all.

I can't harp on the beginning too much, it has the standard fare of the main protagonist losing someone dear to him, as a setback and something he needs to overcome later in the movie. I'm glad they didn't really make that the main focus, but more-so just used it as an excuse to work in the girl as his Drift partner. My only complaint about it is, of course, you don't have time to grow a connection with the person who dies so early on in the movie.

The cast was great, consisting mostly of unknown or relatively unknown actors, with some more 'famous' ones getting less important roles. But they all did a great job, if you ask me.

The monster and Jaeger design was great, I loved how every single one of them was different. The Jaegers in the sense of their speciality or fighting style, and the Kaiju in regards to which animal they represented. Some were more obvious than others, but still very great!

I'm not going to nitpick every little thing about the movie, because to be frank, there are quite a few plotholes and just stupid/cheesy things. Or failing those, things that just don't make sense at all. Just enjoy it for what it is, an action packed CGI movie of mechas vs huge aliens.

The soundtrack is amazing, however! It felt proportionally epic with slight changes depending on the scenes, in regards to the 'main' theme it had. Even if you never intend to watch the movie (you should!) get your hands on the OST, it's great.

Overal, I'd rate it a 8 out of 10. If you can, you should watch it, but it will be a forgettable movie by the end of the year, sadly. I've already forgotten most dialogue from it.