Reviews

I honestly can't give a complete review as I ejected it after 18 minutes.

I have heard from previous reviews that this wasn't a biblical account of the film, nor was God ever mentioned. That didn't bother me. What bothered me was the complete 180 of what the trailers for this film masterfully and deliberately left out. The watchers.

OMG and WTF? Rebellious angels turned rock monsters? Weren't rebellious angels called demons? Anyway, there they were, these improbable creatures (who looked improbable too, with an animation that would make Ray Harryhausen cringe)helping Noah). In fact, the rock angels weren't the only bad effect. The serpent in the garden looked absurdly phony.

The trailer made the film look like a dramatic survival film, and what we got was a vegan and his family on the run from progress. Imagine if you will seeing a trailer for a new Fast and Furious film, and when you go see the film, the cars are Transformers.

I think that pretty much sums up the execs attitude when making this film.

Great cast, excellent performances, spot on effects. Too bad the script was dog food.

Lets start with the end of Xmen Last stand. Professor Xavier is killed right? Well the post credit scene suggests his consciousness survived. Although, we hear his voice, we don't actually see him (Patrick Stewart) cause it would be a whole new body, yes? Next comes Xmen Origins: Wolverine and First Class, nothing that ties this together. While X3 does close the book, it seems, on Scott and Jean, the fate of Charles Xavier is an unresolved issue. Third film comes in, the Wolverine, and again nothing...except, wait. The return of Magneto and Professor X. Wolverine is as stunned by this as we're supposed to be. But it eludes to the upcoming DoFP. So we open in a dystopian future where, ta da, there's Charles. No explanation or anything. 8 years and 4 films, and they fail to resolve this issue. By the way, that Wolverine end scene was as if that never happened, because DoFP takes place 8-10 years later.

I also found it a contrived plot device that time moves in sync, essentially time passes minute by minute in the past for wolverine as it does in the future. Ergo, Logan ages six hours in 1972, he ages six hours in the future (guesstimated at 2022). I would conservatively put Logan's sojourn into the past to be roughly a week. So for one week solid kitty pride is kneeling over him doing the time-phase thing the ENTIRE TIME. I guess she doesn't need to eat, sleep, or poop. Lets also not forget there are a dozen mutants just hanging out all this time. In a world of super sentinels, you'd think they would want to stay mobile, keep moving.

I'd like to know, wtf happened to the world to have a future like that, cause I must of blinked and missed it. X3 and the wolverine left the world in a good place for humans and mutants. Then ker-pow, now we use robots from the 70s? Funny, sentinels were never mentioned in the original films, save for a make believe scenario in the danger room in X3. Yet here they are. In fact, in the year 2000, it seemed the world was just waking up to the idea of mutants. Ohhh that's right, apparently as of now NONE OF THOSE FILMS EVER HAPPENED.

I guess wolverine never gets his adamantium then. Ohhh wait, how did he have adamantium claws in the future when he lost them in the Wolverine?

Xavier suddenly being alive is never explained. The serum he uses to walk again is horribly contrived. It's supposed to explain why we see him walking around in the flashback sequence in X3, as well as the cameo in Origins, but fails. He can walk at the expense of losing his powers. Well, he used them in X3 and Origins. And even so, if the serum later got "perfected", why wouldn't he use it all the time then? Furthermore, if the serum repaired his back, it did nothing for what happened to him at the end of this film where the steel beam crushes his legs.

While seeing certain characters fully realized (iceman using his ice- slide), the film lost its soul. What made the original films so great where how the characters connected with the audience, the social/moral implications of being "different", and the whole judgement, acceptance, and belonging that was such a heavy element to these films has been watered down into movie action schlock. If this film had any real emotional weight, it would of been all those characters in First Class being killed off by the government and the horrible experiments they performed on them. But since this happened off camera and just given a mere mention in this film, the audience is significantly less impacted. "awww, why they have to go and kill off Banshee?" vs, "OMG, you mother ******s, how could you? Avenge him!!!"

Although the original films were always set in "the near future" there were never any elements that made it seem too futuristic. Like the 3d map in the first film, nothing like that existed but it was easy to see us progressing there. In other words, the world felt very real, grounded, believable. Now, it's 8-10 years after X3, and we got giant lasers, space ships, a re-imagined NYC skyline, etc. Like aliens in an Indiana Jones film, these things felt out of place. Then, we use Sentimels, which is far beyond our current technology and have them first invented in 1972? So before we even have the same technology that brought us Atari and cassette players, we have advance cybernetic hunter/killer robots? I get how putting metal in them while they were being shipped allowed Magneto to use his mutant power on them, but doesn't explain how he was able to reprogram them. He talks and they obey him, makes no sense....ahhhhh shut up and eat your popcorn.

Ohhh, one last thing: Dear studio execs, please consider your largest demographic when choosing which characters bare butt to show off.

Despite the mixed reviews from critics, this Superman delivers the goods for comic book fans and general audiences alike.

No, it is not the warm, delightful, feel good movie that Richard Donner and Christopher Reeves brought to us 30+ years ago. But don't think for one minute that this is a "darker Superman." Far from it. This is rather a more "human" Superman. It deals with an alien child who learns at a young age he is different. He learns he must bare the weight of the world on his shoulders to uplift humanity, all the while he is mocked and ridiculed by bullies, drunks, and belligerent peers.

Perhaps critics were expecting the do-gooder, previously played by Reeves. The one that always saved the day, no one got hurt on his watch, and never made a mistake. This Superman does his best, but he can't save everyone. There is easily 100 million dollars worth of collateral damage he causes in order to stop the villains. He can't save everyone, and does make mistakes along the way. ***Possible spoiler alert: In the end, to stop the menace, Superman does something even Batman refused to do, and this torments him: End Spoiler***

He spends most of his young adulthood a drifter, roaming from town to town, taking odd jobs. He continually does whats right at the cost of revealing to witnesses his powerful nature, and then moves on. One is reminded of the Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk TV show, where it was the same thing, doing the right thing, but when the monster reveals itself, it's time to move on.

Nowhere to be found is the iconic villain Lex Luthor, and justly so. If this series is to have any longevity, Lex is a character that can certainly be developed later. We do get General Zod, who's motivations and back story is leaps and bounds more fleshed out than portrayed in the film Superman II. Still, Terrance Stamp's performance was sorely missed. No disrespect to Michael Shannon's intense performance, but he was going up against an iconic on screen persona ingrained in the minds of audiences for over 30 years.

The classic Superman, we see him as mankind's savior. in Man of Steel, we bare witness to his first steps towards this mantle.

So, it all comes down to this. The magic #3, where not only the saga completes itself, but we FINALLY see the transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader.

As a huge Star Wars fan, and honest nitpicker, I still maintain that Empire is the best of the six, but Revenge of the Sith has become my personal second. But not quite for the reasons I think George Lucas intended.

The opening sequence was a bit of a let down. Yes, the space battle was huge, with all kinds of ships from fighters to cruisers to battle stations. Yet this sequence had no soul to it. Many of the ships we're introduced to for the first time. So as a viewer, you spend more time wondering who the good guys are from the bad guys. Just who am I rooting for again? The battle sequence in RotJ was far superior. Especially when you can identify with the ships, and motivation of both sides. This, would be my biggest gripe of the movie.

While this is indeed Anakin/Vader's story, I am here to say that Palpetine/Sidious really stole the show. Perhaps the best collaboration of acting talent and direction came during the "opera" scene when Palpetine discusses Sith Lord Darth Plageous the wise. Nothing is concrete, but watch the scene again and how the lines are delivered. It eludes to the fact that Sidious may in fact be Anakins "father." And I say father in the sense that if Plageous could create life from midichlorines and Sidious was the apprentice he referred to who stole his knowledge and killed him. Then it is possible. Yet still open to interpretation.

In fact, Ian McDirmads (sorry, forget how to spell it)entire performance was deliciously evil. He perfectly played out the dual nature of Palpetine and Sidious. I love how his voice changes from the aristocratic Governor to the slimy Sith Lord.

We've waited for years to see the lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Believe me, their fight delivers. Yet again, Sidious steals the show. While Anakin battles Kenobi on Mustafar, I don't think there has ever been a lightsaber duel as symbolic as the fight between Sidious and Yoda. The ultimate evil vs the ultimate good, with the grand senators' hall crumbling around them. Very well done.

I've heard people complain about the cheesy scene at the end where Sidious tells Vader that he killed Padme, to which Vader breaks free from the table and yells, "Noooo!!!" I admit, it could have been done better....but how? His only reason for going to the darkside was to save her and now she's dead. How should he react? Vader turns to Sidious and says, "Win some, lose some?"