The Book of Eli

Rating: 7.7/10

Genre: Action Drama

Overall value for time and money: 8.0/10

A melancholy, dark, ironically beautiful post-apocalytic tale of a man headed west to deliver a sacred book, in hope of saving humanity. Kinda reminded me of I Am Legend. The male protagonist's name was not disclosed only until the last few moments of it, which almost left me wondering if the director was going to leave him nameless... and so were the contents of the book (if you think its obvious, then you're in for a pleasant surprise, though it might not totally make sense mind you...).

I really loved the twists in the story, and the interpretation and presentation of the plot. It was much better than I had expected, with the cool fighting scenes, and ingenuity of the plot development. I loved the cinematography, about the glimmer of "light" against the "darkness" of the backdrops. Though the CG looks plastered on, it didn't affect the quality of the film. It probably also has one of the most artistic fight scenes I've seen, a silhouette scene of the male protagonist taking out several renegades.

Slow moving as it may feel, but it adds to the suspense, and mood of the entire film. What more do you expect from a dark tale about a man walking around in a "broken" world trying to "fix" things? Though the trailer didn't give too much away, the posters might... still... the ending packs more than just a punch. It packs a warm feeling guaranteed to heal a stressful day. I might be asking you to take a huge risk here, by catching this rather unpublicized movie and assuring you it wouldn't be a waste of your time considering its close to a 2 hour-long movie... but afterall, like this movie, its all about taking that leap of faith...

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Rating: 7.7/10

Genre: Action Fantasy

Overall value for time and money: 7.5/10

Considering its a remake from a video game, this movie is probably one of the best of its kind. Similar movies include Resident Evil Trilogy, Tomb Raider and Silent Hill. The CG looked rather "add-on" but impressive nonetheless and the action was breathtaking. Felt like a mix of Indiana Jones, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms and Troy.

A brave young boy was adopted by the King of Persia as one of his three sons. With no royal blood and reckless on every level, the King dotes on him the most and believes that he will not via for his throne. Everything changed years later when the King was supposedly poisoned by that young man, Dastan and he became an wanted man. Hunted by his own race, and on the run together with Princess Tamina, the Princess of the Holy town which he invaded, he must prove his innocence and bring to light the greater conspiracy behind his betrayal.

Though the story isn't one of too much substance, it's a feel good movie that lets one enter a magically and "sandy" world. The plot isn't weak per se, with several twists in the movie which did enhance the viewing pleasure of it. The villians in this movie were awesome, and were the good guys. It had a balanced mix of action, humor and story in it. A major flaw of the movie was the romance. *spoilers ahead* The "kissing" scenes were overplayed (inverted commas because though there were a few, only 1 scene featured the 2 leads actually kissing) which made them feel redundant.

The best fight scene was the one with flying daggers and the concept of it all was greatly impressionable. None of the fight scenes were underplayed, which I thought is one strong point of this movie and of course, the casting did also contributed to the success of this movie. Overall, it was a good movie experience that's definitely worth anyone's busy schedule!!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Rating: 7.3/10

Genre: Animation

Overall value for time and money: 7.0/10

I finally overcame the obstacle in my mind and decided to give this movie a go. First off, the animation was a turn-off for me and even the dubbing felt off. Considering its from a Roald Dahl novel, and the high ratings from imdb, it shouldn't be too bad a movie.

During the first few minutes of the movie, I felt queasy and rather "fan gan" about it but decided to persevere... and it did pay off. The jokes were crude, witty and almost subtle. Reminded me of Spongebob squarepants, where the jokes are an oxy moron by themselves, rather "no-brainer", rather "witty". Even though Mr. Fox promised his wife to do away with his farm raiding days after being caught and being told that she was pregnant, he cannot keep to his promise 2 years later. Wanting a "better" life to massage his ego, he decided to challenge himself by moving to a tree house opposite the top 3 most vicious farmers with plans to raid their farms.

Every went smoothly until the farmers retaliated and were vent on destroying Mr. Fox. The rest of the animals had to suffer for his actions as they borrow underground but Mr. Fox has a fantastic plan... This animation is on par with The Spongebob Squarepants Movie and Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, with much talk-about humor points in it, such as *spoilers ahead* bandit hats, the psychotic rat, and many cheesy lines. It was pretty cute the way the animals moved about and their actions really tickled me whole.

Not fantastic, but good enough for me.

Planet 51

Rating: 5.5/10

Genre: Animation

Overall value for time and money: 5.2/10

Welcome to Planet 51, which looks pretty much like Saturn and where green planetlings inhabit. Everything was going well for the protagonist, Lem until a spacecraft lands on their planet and everyone on the planet thinks its an alien invasion. The clueless American astronaut must seek the help of Lem to re-secure his spacecraft so that he can return to earth.

The best parts of the movie are already shown in the trailer. The story development was weak and slow and lacked any engagement. There was little or superficial character development and it felt like a cheap animation in all. Together with the what-seemed-like "crappy" lines and the no-brainer plot, this movie is not worth your time. There are better movies out there and even better animations out there for the viewing. This falls under the "Over the hedge" and "Hoodwinked" category of time-wasters.

I didn't feel anything for the characters and the links were so convenient and abrupt which really disappointed me. Errr.... 4 fingers down I guess?

Ip Man 2

Rating: 7.6/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for time and money: 8.0/10

The long awaited.... wait a min... there wasn't much publicity done on Ip Man 2 in the first place and it wasn't until a month before its official opening that it started its publicity. But considering what an impressionable and "impactful" movie Ip Man was, it got me bursting with excitement. After a failed attempt at his assasination in part 1, he fled with his family to Hong Kong to start a new life, to introduce the martial arts of Wing Chun to those interested to learn.

However, the different martial arts masters didn't make it easy for him under the influence of the reign of the British. Similar to its prequel, the story gradually turned into a battle between the union of the Chinese against the bullying British. What I didn't like about the movie was the extreme portrayal of how bad the British were, and how predictable and similar the storyline of Ip Man 2 was to its first. What I loved about the movie was the action, action and action. The first half of the movie was really intense, while the ending fight scene was kinda disappointing, but still pretty good.

Overall, I liked the cinematography, where the setting really brings me back to the olden days and was touched by how magnanimous the Wing Chun master was. *spoilers ahead* The last scene with Bruce Lee coming to "bai" Ip Man as a teacher was a complete joke. Felt redundant and totally off. Though this movie is inferior to its first, its still one of the better chinese movies I've caught so far.

500 days of Summer

Rating: 6.6/10

Genre: Drama

Overall value for time and money: 6.5/10

It's not hard to figure that this movie is not a romantic one but more of a drama since it was already laid out through the narration by the lead star at the start of the movie. Well... I would say it does have a hint of romance in it, but generally, while some might insists that this movie is pretty good because of its "honesty", I say it's just riding on the main concept of fate and the entire movie simply revolves around it. Nothing too fantastic about it.

The movie is about a girl who doesn't believe in true love and a boy who falls in love with her.. thinking that she's the one for him. Her name is... Summer. And wa la, 500 days of Summer. The movie is chronologically screwed up because it trottles to and fro in their relationship. On one scene we have how they met, the next they broke up 300+ days later and it returns back to their Honeymoon period again.... It's pretty novel, but kinda messy I thought. Didn't quite work for me.

I thought they could have build up more on the ending where *spoilers ahead* Summer told the lead that everything was right except him being the right one for her. Could have been more touching but the lines were too vague, weak and confusing. Well, the very last scene did save it a little, was sweet but ironic... It's half of a feel-good movie, half of a thought-provoking movie. Good movie, not a strong film that would convince me to have a 2nd go at it.

Iron Man 2

Rating: 6.5/10

Genre: Action Drama

Overall value for time and money: 6.8/10

1. Plot development: average
2. Character development: weak
3. Comedy: good
4. Cast: bad
5. Action: disappointing

Tony Stark returns as the over-confident and showy billionaire who refuses to handover his technology to the government and believes that he is the reason for the current world peace situation. However, he gradually realises that he might not be the only one capable of creating the "iron-man" technology and faces the threat of both his invention and a new villain, Ian Vanko.

Disappointing sequel. First let me scrape the surface before digging deeper. Iron man was packaged as the "cool" marvel superhero with state-of-the-art equipment, together with witty and funny lines which spiced up the different characters, esp. Tony Stark... at least that was what was portrayed in Iron Man. But in this sequel, the director did try to keep those elements, but it failed terribly. It was excessively done with little or no substance.

The only cool part about the entire movie was already revealed in the trailer, with him mounting his suite via his briefcase. His partner, War Machine, appeared in the trailer as well... seemingly promising a good duo battle against the villians... well, the only point that they were fighting side by side was also revealed in the trailer... where they were surrounded by those evil automated machines.

Almost all the good parts were already in the trailer and if there was one thing good about the movie, it had to be the publicity and hype caused from the posters and trailers. *major spoilers ahead*. Now its time to stop if you haven't caught the movie but frankly, it wouldn't make much of a difference even if you continued with this review because it might just save you a good deal of money.

The witty lines, which were indeed funny did in no way contribute to the story development or even the character development in any sense. Unlike the its prequel which made more sense in bringing out Tony Stark's character and his relationship with those around him. However, for this movie, there were lots of catchy lines, yet, none were of substance. Nick Fury's lines were not even refreshing funny... they felt like they came from some Quentin Tarantino movie, they were just way off for this movie.

Also, the way war machine stole Iron Man's suit was ridiculous. Why would a friend do something like that to him? There was no backing of the action... I mean if I were to witness my good pal getting all wasted as if he were enjoying the last few moments of his life... why in the world would I even head down to his basement to mount his suit, fly back up, have a fight with him, and after winning, fly off to my boss? What kinda friend does that?

And Scarlett Johansson was like some bimbolic assistant who was supposed to be "cool" but yet delivered what seemed like "fake" acting, her face was expressionless and her dipiction of her character made her feel like some cyborg part-time superhero. *Cameo* The director making a choice to come into the movie as Stark's assistant was a bad one as well... he didn't even feel like he belonged there. Too many redundant characters in this movie... Samuel L. Jackson was like some calefare who popped up every once in a while to add those "off" moments to the movie.

The last scene showing the capture of Sam Rockwell and how Gwyneth Paltrow took control of the whole situation was dumb. Didn't make sense and felt like a blow to anyone's intelligence. Everything was too "easy", too "convenient", felt like it was just for the sake of it happening. If I were to go to a grand expo convention, go to the main control when everything seems to be out of hand, and take control... the guys there would gladly let me take over cos they have no idea who I am and I might just be their savior.

The guest appearance of Stan Lee was even worse for this movie. He only enjoyed like a 1 second cameo appearance like he wasn't even worth spending screen time on him... This entire movie was screened for 124 mins and yet... why is it so incomplete? Too much effort was spent on the redundant lines and character screen time instead of the main geeze of the movie, Iron Man fighting villians. The finale duel was shortlived and ended before you can even say "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...." *perhaps a slight exaggeration but you get what I mean*

The invention of the new element was ridiculous. How in the world did Stark's father put the "ans" in a solid ball which Tony Stark was able to make it computerized and expand it into its very protons and electrons? Also, the end-credits scene was puzzling... I have no idea whose sword that was and can't even be bothered to find out. The soundtrack in this movie was a little backdated, which I believe must have been the favourite songs of the nostalgic director's.... Didn't like the movie as a whole, nor bits and pieces of it. What I did like about the movie... was... was... hold on... its tough... I need to put more thought into it... was the title. Iron Man 2. Of all the versions of Iron Man 2, this poster is most apt... because the movie was all about Tony Stark, not Iron Man.