[Traverse's Scrapbook] Movie Reviews and Mayhem

[Traverse]

Okay I have quite a few movie reviews lined up for you guys cause so many movies are coming out week after week, all of which on my list of things to see, but I'll start in the order in which I saw them which brings us to A look at X-Men: Days of Future Past Now I don't know if you guys have endured the sage that is the X-men franchise. I loved the first movie when it came out, but the second was eh, and the third? ....Dear lord the third doesn't have the appropriate words to describe its terribleness. But there had always been something that appeals to me about the X-men moreso than a lot of Marvel storylines so I have seen every X-Men movie, Wolverine: Origins was pretty terrible as well, and so when I saw they were making X-Men: First Class with two of my favorite actors, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, well I was entirely onboard to see a re-boot of the franchise now that Marvel was in the spotlight. And I was not disappointed, in fact until Day of Future Past was released I'd say First Class would easily be my favorite of all 5 of the X-Men movies. But come on, combining the first trilogies cast with the new cast of the past conquering reboot? Its a double win. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Ellen Paige, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, AND Hugh Jackman?! I was in heaven before the movie even started. But on the same token I held this movie in exceptionally high standards before it had even begun, so part of me was concerned that in some way it would fall short. This, however, was not to be a problem. The basic plot of the movie revolves around Sentinals. If you don't know what a Sentinal is, in X-Men canon it is a very important robot that is invented to basically kill and keep mutants at bay. They're giant purple monsters. This movie starts in the post apocalyptic future where the few surviving X-men use a very convuluted, yet interesting method of escaping the Sentinals constantly searching for them. They meet up with Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, and Magneto in order to form a last ditch effort to stop the world from being destroyed by going back in time to make sure this doesn't happen. By this time Shadow Cat (aka kitty Pride) has formed the ability to send people back in time using her powers (transferring their present consciousness into their past self), but they are forced to use Wolverine, because the human mind can only take short bursts of this power, and with Wolverine's healing capabilities, he can take as much punishment as she doles out and go back decades in order to hopefully stop the sentinal threat which beings when the people making the robots get Mystique's DNA, enabling the robots to morph to any mutant power and combat it directly. Thus Wolverine is sent back to try to unite Professor X and Magneto when one is hyped on drugs and the other is trapped 100 floors beneath the pentagon. This movie proceeds as much as one would expect, if you know Wolverine, you know he's not the best mediator for the type of peacemaking and guidance than is needed in such a situation, so the inevitable reunion of the Professor and Magneto is awkward and often Catastrophic, a push and pull happening between Fassbender and McAvoy as they both fight over Mystique who is the catalyst of this event, and Lawerence does a great job with the character's inner struggle. There's action, humor, sorrow, a few never before seen X-men, but my favorite part of the film, and that which a lot of people are raving about is the cameo by a young Quicksilver. I have only seen the actor in American Horror Story, but hope to see him more because he did a fantastic job portraying a mutant with the ability for super speed. His part in the film only lasts about 15-20 minutes, but he really steals the show with his humor and laissez faire attitude to the events unfolding around him, and his one action scene is simply glorious to behold and they did a fantastic job with it. Also as an added pat on the back to Marvel, in the solution to the movie's main conflict, the movie also re-writes the ending storyline to the first three X-men movies, essentially erasing it entirely, so bravo Marvel, you can now proceed to make movies with both future and past casts without incident in one fell stroke! Anyway, I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone looking for an intense action movie with superheroes and villains, it was a good time.

[Traverse]

So I have lots and lots of movie reviews to throw at you guys, but I wanted to sort of split apart my traditional throw ups of the fantasy/ sci-fi/ marvel kinda thing and give you a few genres I don't normally look at, first we shall begin with: A look at Philomena Plot: This is a story of an elderly woman who 50 years prior was being raised by the Catholic Church. Having a child out of wedlock she did not get a say in what happened to her child and at the age of around 4 he is taken away from her, and despite a few sort of attempts to find him, she has never learned what became of him. In enters a reporter who is looking for a new idea to pursue after getting sacked over some press troubles for a previous story, and what you get is an unlikely team searching for a lost son. Review: Despite a lot of sad and somber moments, this is a very clever and witty film. You could say that it takes a very harsh stance against the Catholic church, which in a lot of ways it does, yet Philomena played by Judy Dench, is a very forgiving, uplifting person. Her personality is a bit loopy and airy at times, but always endearing and humorous. On the flip side you have the cyncial self proclaimed atheist reporter played by Steve Googan which creates a serious friction between the two characters. Philomena is a forgiving and positive personality willing to overlook and move past misdeeds done to her in her past in her search for her son, while Googan's character is looking to really light a fire under this story and portray the church in a horrible light, in the story for the press and little else, at least to start. And despite this whole little conflict, and the large part Philomena's history with religion pays in the movie, it is more of a tale of self discovery, exploration and openness to oneself and others. As one might expect from any film nominated for multiple academy awards it does not take a straight track and follow a normal path to its ultimate goal. You are shown a lot of different personalities, get to see through multiple lenses and at the conclusion of the film left to make up your own decision about how you feel the whole thing turned out. The movie is not fast paced. It is meandering, and at some points I did find my focus wavering, but I like to think that's more an effect from the usual caliber of movies I watch and the time of night than anything else . Regardless this film is a refreshing story and I would definitely recommend it to folks looking for a more intellectual and thought provoking film.

[Lenz]

X-men: Days of Future Past? *dies once and then dies again* I saw it with a friend of mine the first day it came out!

Now, this was the first time I have ever seen a movie the first day it comes to threatres and might I say it was so worth it. I'm a cheap person, so when I have to pay some fifty dollars for my family of four to see a movie with the basic snacks and drinks I'm a little thrown over board, but without the food, without the drinks, two tickets only spared me some pocket aching.

My friend absolutely loved the movie- so much that she was speechless at the end. We both we. I knew I was obsessed already and I tend to become obsessed easily when there are amazing movies playing! We both were, like, the only people left in the threatre when the movie was over- even when the credits stopped rolling and the people who clean up after the show started to come in.

I was never a huge X-men fan. I never saw all the previous movies and I never read the comics. Frankly, I hadn't heard of it since a half a year ago when I saw X-men: First Class on television. Instantly I was hooked and added the movie to my Christmas wish list. When I got it, I was so thrilled I cried of happiness. Now, I need to add X-men: Days of Future Past.

As you said, Evan Peters did steal the spotlight for a while. He's an incredible actor- they all are! I was overly stunned by the way James acted in that move. So much emotion, so much truth and sorrow it made me cry when he cried. Overall, I adored the movie and I couldn't wait to see it again I hid in the restrooms with my friend and snuck into the next showing only twenty minutes later.

Sorry to bust in with a little overview of my own Travvy; I just needed to tell you how much I freaking loved that film!


-Lenz (a.k.a another X-men fanatic)

[Traverse]

LenzI completely agree with everything you said haha, plus you gotta stay till the end of the credits with Marvel movies, duh! That little teaser they had at the end of this one was soooo gud So perhaps you are not so into the mood for an intellectual thoughtful movie, well then I have just the flick for you... A look at A Million Ways to Die in the West Plot: Seth McFarlane's character is a sheep herder in a little Western town who clearly doesn't fit in the stereotypical old west town. He talks himself out of fights, keeps to himself, and is on the low end of the totem pole. At the beginning of the movie he gets dumped by his long term girlfriend Amanada Seyfried, who leaves him for the much more wealthy Neil Patrick Harris. McFarlane then meets up with Charlize Theron who is taking shelter in the small town while her husband and famous gunslinger Liam Neeson goes about murdering inncoent people. Together McFarlane and Theron end up striking up a friendship and working together so that he can win back Seyfried. Review: So I was a bit taken aback by this movie not because the plot is very forumlaeic, but that the formula is the essence of a romantic comedy which wasn't what I expected from this film. If I wanted to keep this short I could just tell you that if you enjoy stuff Seth McFarlane has done in the past you'll enjoy this, if not...well you probably won't. It holds all of the key elements of a Seth McFarlane production: Raunchy Humor Bathroom humor Random violence and limited gore Satirical critique on modern society Racist Jokes Many Famous Cameos Ridiculousness that cannot be fathomed I was actually surprised because for about 3/4's of the movie there was not any of the super disgusting bathroom humor I was waiting for, but he more than makes up for that toward's the end of the flick. I see this film as the beginning of many like it. For me it seemed like a much tamer version of a Quentin Tarantino flick with the Seth McFarlane humor spin on it, and even had a very blatant Django reference at the end. I personally enjoyed the movie for what it was, a raunchy comedy with a nice sprinkling of wit, and a fun plot that keeps you going through all the ridiculous twisted interpretations of old western society. If you are game for this sort of flick I would recommend a watch, though I wouldn't necessarily see it in theatres, its not a film that demands it being seen on the big screen.

[Strange]

I went to see two films you reviewed here tonight. Partly because I'd heard good things from friends and your reviews were so positive. Here are my thoughts.

A Million Ways to Die in the West:

That one scene where he takes her back to the hotel. One long, serious scene without a single joke. I think that just makes the movie. It is an unmistakably Seth Macfarlane film but it's mostly that sometimes classy, lighter side of Seth you see in his episodes with just Stewie and Brian. I didn't like Ted and I think it was because it was mostly the more obscene, toilet humour Seth (and I just don't like Mark Wahlberg).

Spoilers Inside :

Also I loved that Back to the Future reference. I mean they even got Christopher Lloyd to say 'Great Scott!'

X-Men Days of Future Past:

[SpoiIer=Read at your own peril]I wasn't a big fan of X-Men 2 and 3 or Wolverine Origins. I loved First Class though. This movie, however, is just the best. I cried. Twice. I don't usually cry at movies. I cried at times when I knew everything was going to be okay because I irrationally feared it wasn't. That's the best thing about this movie. It's so open-ended and there's such a real possibility at some points that everything is going to go wrong because you can almost believe in this franchise that terribly wrong can happen. I mean you watch Iron Man and he's all beuing beat down and the like and you know he's gonna survive to the end of the movie. In X-Men though, especially in this movie where the future was in the balance, they had a unique chance to wipe people out. They could have killed Magneto and just continued the new timeline without him. Could've done it to Wolverine, Mystique, even Professor Xavier.

They even sort of done most of it in the future parts. Every time a mutant died in the future I visibly flinched (I even cried out in the empty theater). It was such a good slice of sci-fi. In a genre that's going a little stale, both superhero and sci-fi, this is almost revolutionary in it's approach.

My only gripe in the movie was the technology. I just kept thinking: Giant Robots in the 70s? Even his cyberbro (or whatever it's called) which I admit was in the last movie seemed just a bit over the top. The retinal scan just annoyed me. What do I know anyhow? They might have had retinal scans and giant death robots in the 70s. I wasn't even alive.[/spoiler]

[Traverse]

Thank you guys for throwing your thoughts in here along with my reviews, I think its great, and I love to hear what other folks think of these movies as well. I totally agree with you on your comment about A Million, I never watched Ted, never cared to because on all accounts it just looked like everything else he had done, what sold a Million Ways for me was his long rant in the trailer, even longer in the movie, which was so freakin hilarious, and the stellar cast. You don't really get an idea of the romance side of things from watching that, but that scene and the fact that you can follow this nice little storyline in the midst of classic Seth McFarlane humor was a very nice touch to what otherwise could have fallen into a very stereotypical over the top humor rut. I'll now be interested to see if he makes more movies with this dual idea in mind, or reverts back to the Ted thing.

[Traverse]

Okay so this is high on the list of my favorite movies, and I'm sure you guys have moments like this, you sort of half forget how much you like something until you watch it, read it, eat it again? Well the other night I realized my room mate had never watched this movie so I sat her down. Normally I am always hesitant about making people watch movies I enjoy. Everyone's different there is no film that is ever going to be universally loved, but I had confidence in this flick, and my confidence was not misplaced, and...I should just stop rambling... A look at Stardust Plot: The movie is a coming of age tale about a boy named Tristan, its also about 4 brothers fighting over their father's crown, a lost fallen star, a missing princess, three witches looking for eternal life, and two worlds (our world and the fantastical one of Stormhold) that live side by side with few to no people in either world knowing about the existence of the other. Review: If you didn't already know Stardust was a book by Neil Gaiman before it became a movie. I am not a hardcore Neil Gaiman fan, as his fans generally come, but I enjoy his stuff, and Stardust by far is the tamest of his works. It is a fun enjoyable tale and for me it is one of the only book ot movie adaptations that covers in essence the entire book without fail. It also only changes a few minor details that were far more morbid in the book that in my opinion would have changed the movie from PG 13 to R (A whole weird thing with a unicorn). To my knowledge this film did not get much acclaim, but despite that it has a stand out cast. Ian McKellan is the narrator, the style of which reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and it also has Michelle Pheifer, Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, and even a short stint by Ricky Gervais. I think I mostly enjoy this movie because it is pure and simple fantastical fun. My absolute favorite part of the movie is the time the two main characters, Charlie Cox and Claire Danes spends with airship pirate captain De Niro, he does a wonderful job in a role I had never seen him play. Apart from that gem, however, the entire movie just sports a witty script, and a series of intertwined stories that slowly unfold predcictably and not as the movie progresses. The cast as a whole is quite wonderful despite my De Niro bias, Pfieffer plays an excellent villain as does Mark Strong, Claire Danes is a cynic, but a romantic at heart. Charlie Cox plays the sort of boyish man trying to find himself and his purpose, Claire Danes does a great job trying to put him in his place and get down on him for his idiocy, and the dynamic between the two of them is always entertaining. In addition, even the side characters that pepper the film add character and substance to the story rather than take away from the main folks, creating this very well rounded experience as you travel from one character to another. Despite learning next to nothing about the empire of Stormhold that our hero Tristan finds himself in, the movie does an excellent job of just fitting the viewer right into the world, giving you tidbits as you go. Never taking itself too seriously, you get action, romance, self discovery, and a magical journey all wrapped into a neat little bundle. So yeah, haha, I love this movie. I told myself I wasn't going to do this too often with my movie reviews, for the intent of these is more to get movie reviews to folks as I see films, sometimes new sometimes old, but if I don't get to plug my faves every now and again...well where's the fun in that? Anyway thanks for reading guys, -Traverse

[Strange]

Traverse, are we the same person? Stardust is my favourite movie of all time. I love that movie. I just love it. I didn't even know it was a book until several years after my sister thoughtfully got me the book for Christmas. It is such a great book adaptation. It's almost as if it was written for the movie. The book that I read actually had a foreword by Neil Gaiman about his time with the movie studio who were creating the movie. He said that as much as people gripe about movies from books it's just incredibly silly to ever hold a movie to the same standards as a book because if they did it exactly so than it would just be an audiobook with people in fancy costumes reading out the lines.

Still, Gaiman got lucky. Really lucky with the cast and the director. The movie is just outstanding whether or not you have read the book. It's such an adventure. I mean books and movies are always trying to be unique and have new ideas and mix everything up but Gaiman just blatantly steals lots of different bits and bobs from other worlds fits them together like a jigsaw and comes out with something better than the sum of it's parts. Something somehow unique and non-unique and awesome all at the same time.

Okay, I'm rambling. I'm going to shut up now.

PS :

I had dreams about the intro bit with his dad when he goes to the market for weeks after I watched the movie. Such an interesting dynamic having such a large part of the book and a not-so-large but still formidable chunk of the movie in a prologue like that.

Did you ever see Cloud Atlas? I would recommend Cloud Atlas. Good book. Good movie. Weird though. The movie and the book are the same story but they go in different directions. Morbid endings in the book. Hopeful and good endings in the movie.

[Caelum]

I’m one of those weird hardcore Gaiman fans you mentioned, but a late blooming one. I read Stardust when I found out it had been optioned by Miramax somewhere around 2000 and it was right after I had read Neverwhere for the first time, my first not-a-graphic-novel read by him. I loved Stardust. Viscerally, unequivocally loved it. Naturally, I then freaked out about how much I would either love or hate the movie adaption. Then I forgot all about it and it was almost a surprise when the movie came out. I ended up thinking it was good. I think if I’d never read the book, I would find the movie to be utterly fantastic. It’s a strange bag sometimes as a writer. Like just about everyone else I do screenwriting as well as other genres, but screenwriting isn’t my “thing”. Movies aren’t my first love like they are for a lot of us and while I fall in and out of love and lust for a great many television and silver screen adaptions (even the radio one of Neverwhere last year I deemed totally worth my time), once I’ve fallen for a book it’s over.

[Traverse]

StrangeYes, clearly we are the same person haha. I was going to keep it a secret (because obviously I came first and you're my clone), but now the secret's out...oh well I guess? CaelumThat is completely understandable. I love books, and I love movies, I'll be disappointed by adaptations here and there, but I always enjoy a movie regardless (unless its like what Shamalan did to Avatar the Last Airbender DEAR LORD (but that wasn't a book and now I'm getting off track)), and I cannot say for sure, but I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if I had read Stardust first...just because it was such a good adaptation in my opinion, but who knows, and I can totally understand where you're coming from. Okay to pre-face this review I have many to do, I have gone to SO many moies in the past couple weeks, and this one here was probably my least favorite of the bunch so I wanted to get it out of the way here and now. My local theatre has re-vamped itself and installed king size leather recliners to sit in in the theatres. I. AM. IN. HEAVEN. No really : At 1:00, "AND I'M LIKE..." A look at Neighbors Plot: So we have a new family (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne) who have just sunk most of their savings into a nice house in a nice neighborhood where they can raise their adorable child (seriously, the most adorable child ever (and what's better this child is played by twins, so you can frolic int he fact that there are TWO of these adorable creatures roaming the world)). Basically the gist of these two is that they're new to parenting and clearly not adjusted all the way, not coping with the fact that their lives are changed irrevocably forever. And in steps Zac Efron, President of the fraternity that buys a house right next door. This fraternity also houses Dave Franco and the actor I still only know as 'McLovin.' Both the family and the fraternity want to be on good terms with each other for varying reasons, and so to show they're cool Rogen and Byrne bring a peace offering of some pot, and the fraternity has them over for a party. But what begins as a wonderful friendship turns sour when Rogen and Byrne call the cops as a noise complaint and then the war between fraternity and parents begin. Review: These types of movies just usually aren't my cup of tea. When something is fantastical I'm fine blowing off details of certain things and not caring for explanations here and there. In real life settings I have a harder time dealing with ridiculousness, of which this movie has an abundance. Like multiple times the family leaves their infant daughter alone through the night with no explanation or ramifications, and somehow (explained in one short little scene) only this family has issues with the fraternity and no one else does even though they're in a little complex and surrounded on all sides by other buildings. Shoving these details aside, this movie did have me laughing, sometimes uncontrollably at certain antics. Its a lude, crass, and silly form of humor but it works at times. Its not a movie meant for logic or reason, just an inappropriate time of hijinks and plots as a neighbor war, so in that respect I think it did well for itself. That, being said, however, I don't think I'd ever care to see this movie again. The attempts of the family and mainly just Zac Efron as the movie goes on, gain a very pathetic desperate side to them, and for me it was just sort of weird mixed bag of embarassment and hilarity that I was watching it with. If you're not sold on it for theatres I would just wait for it on DvD, which I know I would have been happier with.