Prometheus Review: A Solid Addition To The Series

     This will be a tough blog post to produce without giving any spoilers away but no worries no spoilers are contained within this post, so read on without any concerns. This is the fifth movie in the "Alien" series and is a prequel to the series, this is basically Ridley Scott's attempt to close a few loose ends and bring life to this loved series once again. The first thing that must be said is that this movie is directed brilliantly, this is a true Ridley Scott production, from start to finish you are hooked on what is happening on screen awaiting the inevitable scare that always surprises us and never disappoints. The movie looks beautiful, as far as direction goes this movie is a 5/5, casting was brilliant and acting was superb, not once do you find yourself being face to face with bad acting or a dull moment, this is a great addition to the series, not better than Alien or Aliens but a solid third place winner in the series.

     Michael Fassbender plays the role of David, their on ship cyborg, which follows the tradition of all the Alien movies that preceded it, and he does a fantastic job. It is difficult to portray an earlier model of cyborg (in comparison to the later models found in the other movies) and pull it off well, the ability to not portray emotion but still look sympathetic in a very non-human way is not an easy thing to pull off and he does so here. Fassbender is by far the best acting job within this movie, yes Charlize Theron is brilliant as always but even she was no match to Fassbender's brilliant performance. A shout out is deserved to the supporting cast as well, all of which did a fantastic job in bringing the story to life in a non-cheesy manner, which can be hard in sci-fi horror flicks. Ridley Scott proves once again that he is a fantastic director and knows exactly what he is doing, a job well done sir.

    As stated before the movie is beautiful, the worlds constructed are realistic and captivating, the spaceships looked pristine and gave us a feeling of "this could actually be the way things are done in the future". The movie is extremely well scripted, the dialogue and back-stories flow very well and keeps you engaged on what is happening throughout the story the whole time. There were really funny dialogue exchanges, specially between David and the rest of the crew, between him being resented by the rest of the crew as some sort of machine and him trying to be helpful while at the same time having a level of sarcasm hidden within his tone, again we already praised Fassbender but he deserves all the praise he gets, he was brilliant in this film.

    The movie is a sci-fi horror so there will be alien attacks and so forth, but even though the creatures where of alien nature never did they look "fake" or cheesy, Ridley didn't pull any punches in his attempt to make this movie feel real, and even though we are dealing with over the top notions he pulls off delivering a solid story with these creatures being involved brilliantly. The special effects team involved in this movie deserves a round of applause for they delivered a great product that looks real and scary, even if sometimes some elements might seem silly the story is still tied together well and the serious tone of each scene is directly portrayed, again Ridley's team deserves mad respect for their work in this film.

    There are a few problems with the film though, in the process of trying to answer some questions of the origin of the series Ridley does spring up more questions and does create some continuation issues, some small in nature but some pretty significant. This isn't something that most will care about but for anyone that is familiar with the series or is a fan of the "Alien" series mythos these can pose a problem for there are some elements in the movie that contradict scenes from the first Alien, which seems like bad form on Ridley's part being that he wrote the first movie to begin with. This might seem a little sticklerish of us but we feel that if you are to do a prequel to a series that you should try your best to be true to the other movies, and for the most part he was but the parts where he failed at bothersome.

    Prometheus is a great film overall though, it is about time that we got a good sci-fi horror dealing with aliens and outer-space, there hasn't been a good sci-fi horror in ages. In the end Prometheus does what it sets out to do and delivers a solid product, for fans new to the series and for veterans of the series this is a great movie to go watch, we give it a 4.7/5, we can't in good conscious give it a 5/5 due to the continuity failures, besides that though this is a "summer must watch" for sure. We hope you all have had a great week and pray that your weekend might be a safe one.

Love from your humble blogger,

The Road To "Prometheus"

     Generally we are very careful about spoilers within our articles, but this time we will be a little loose on the subject and though we will not contain blatant *spoilers* for every film, there will be some things that will be said that could "spoil" some things within the movie. The purpose here is to prepare you for "Prometheus" which is a prequel to the alien series. There are a lot of people out there who are eager to watch "Prometheus" but either don't have the time or the want to watch all the four movies that follow it, thus the purpose of this post, to aid you in getting a little background so that you might be able to appreciate "Prometheus" more. Don't worry though, we won't ruin the movies, but just warn you about quality, major story premise and so forth, we hope this article might help prepare you for the newest addition to the series.

   Alien

     This original Sci-Fi horror movie came out in 1979 and was directed by Ridley Scott. The story follows a mining ship that intercepts a weird message that seems like an S.O.S. and goes to investigate within a small planet. There they find a ship, a ship that carries some surprises and everyone enters into a horror movie. This ship is important for it is the same ship we see in the preview for "Prometheus" so in the movie "Prometheus" is where we find out who or what that ship was and what happened to the crew. "Alien" is a great movie and we recommend you watch you, but be warned that it is a slow movie, the movie is just under 2 hours and a solid hour and a half (almost) are just back-story. In 1979 slow movies weren't a problem, so if you can appreciate that then you will appreciate this movie. We learn a few important things in this movie, xenomorphs are bad evil creatures, cyborgs exist and are used in all crews, and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver's character) really loves cats, while being awesome of course.

   Aliens

     The second movie within this franchise is directed by James Cameron in 1986, when watching this movie we recommend watching the special edition, it does make the movie be 2 hours and 39 minutes but it is worth it for sure, this is the best in the series in our humble opinion. Here we follow Ripley's character again as she is again confronted with "the company" and xenomorphs. The big two things we learn from this movie is that cyborgs are your friends, xenomorphs hunt at night, they hunt in packs, there is a mother who gives birth to them, and although marines are no match for them Ripley is because she is awesome. Another important plot point is Ripley's love for "Newt", without a cat around Ripley had to protect something (silly joke :p). James Cameron knows how to entertain his audience and "Aliens" is no different, Cameron delivers a great spectacle throughout the whole production, this is a solid movie to watch.

   Alien 3

     This is by far the worst movie in the series, it is done 6 years later 1992 and is directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) so one would imagine that this would be equal to or at least on a similar playing field as his other movies, specially being that there is very little time lag between this movie and his other creations, so there is no excuse to how much this movie sucked. David Fincher must have been drunk when he made this movie, it has the worst dialogue, the worst sound, the worst picture quality, special effects, acting, and continuity, in fact there is very little good about this movie. This movie reminds us of bad British television, and the amount of curse words in this movie would make a sailor blush. *SPOILERS* Things to learn from this movie, there is such a thing as too many curse words, Ripley is still awesome and is now a host to a xenomorph queen, which makes no actual sense (who cares right?....what's a script, anyone ever heard of that?), and Ripley kills herself in order to prevent "the company" from getting their hands on the xenomorph growing within her. There is a level of applause deserved here, I can't see how someone would ever be able to make a worse movie, so job well done.

  Alien: Resurrection

    Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed this film in 1997 and did a fantastic job, well not really fantastic, more like made for television fantastic, but better than Alien 3, everything is better than Alien 3. The true motive for watching this movie and the thing that makes this movie so awesome from beginning to end is that it was written by Joss Whedon. If you are familiar with Whedon's work you'll recognize his signature moves from beginning to end and will come to appreciate this movie. This isn't the best directed movie, there are issues with lighting and set, but it is definitely one of the best scripted of the 4 movies. The major points here is that humans never learn from past mistakes, the movie takes place 200 years after "Aliens 3", and Ripley is brought back to life and is now part xenomorph. If you don't find any of that too absurd then do watch this movie, if nothing else this is a fun movie, and Joss Whedon is the man, so if you're a Whedon fan definitely watch it.

    And there you have it, all four movies reviewed and major points given. We've attempted to avoid as many spoilers as possible, except for the third movie, only because we want to spare you the pain and agony. "Prometheus" hits the big screen on Friday and is being directed by Ridley Scott so you can expect big things from this movie, we'll have a full review for you on Friday. We hope your week has been great and pray that it might finish well.

Love from your humble blogger,

Cowboys And Aliens, The Brashest Movie Of The Summer

        The summer is very close to being over and the summer blockbusters will come to a close unfortunately. In this final weekend of July we found ourselves face to face with one of the most absurdly brash movie ever attempted on the big screen. But first let us define brash:

Brash: Self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way. (dictionary.com)
 Used it in a sentence:
    Tim: Have you seen the latest Michael Bay flick?
    Bob: Yeah man, it was so brash I could barely handle it.

     So let's examine the elements of this movie and let me show you how incredibly over the top this movie is:

        Alien movies have always been around us. We have this stark-raving-mad fascination with space and the unknown factors within the vast infinite universe. Most of these movies portray us fighting said alien race and after much death and turmoil we end up winning in the end and wiping out the alien invasion. Typical alien flick, and there is always a main character that has to go through many obstacles to finally be able to eliminate said intergalactic threat.
   One would imagine the presence of aliens would be brash enough for a movie but no, not for this movie, not even close.

        
        Oh cowboys, the symbol of everything that it is to be a man. Well, at least what they thought a man should behave like 50 years ago. The Hollywood mainly man was the one who walked by himself, never working in a team, never taking a wife but sleeping around, being rude, never opening up, being a man of few words, having a ton of bromances along the way but always having to witness your bro die in front of you making you even more of a loner. The absurdity of this picture is way to brash for me to even fathom it, no wonder our generation gave birth to emo kids and hipsters, the total rejection and complete rebellion against the cowboy picture.
    But if you think we're done yet, oh, you are mistaken yet again.

       Harrison Ford, has won sexiest men alive contests since he started in the industry. The man is everything a man should want to be, he has fought aliens as Han Solo, has battle Nazis as Indiana Jones, battled terrorists as the president of the United States in Air Force One (which in itself is a significant brash movie), and many many more. This is the perfect actor to put in this movie, Harrison Ford as a bitter sheriff (man's man) with a knack for justice and a permanent scowl, yeah, the imagine of a perfect Hollywood cowboy. One would imagine that one such icon would be enough, but no, we don't stop there yet.

       Daniel Craig, recently known for his countless action movies and his amazing performance as the new James Bond, the brashest of them all. In truth Daniel Craig is just a quieter Jason Stathan, they do the same type of movies, they basically have the same dialogue, they get the girl, they beat up the bad guy and win in the end. Congratulations, you've watched almost every movie by the duo just by that description above. But most importantly both actors represent the actors in line to take Harrison Ford's place in the Hollywood world. So by including Daniel in this movie we not only have him and Harrison being cowboys battling aliens, but a clear picture of a "Major General Man" working with a "Staff Sergeant Man", thus providing us with brashness that knows no bounds.

      
        So when you go watch this movie please keep in mind that you are about to be blown away by an overbearing display of unexcused brashness that would make Michael Bay look like a mere child. So be warned.

       If you have already seen the movie what were your thoughts and reactions to it all?

    Love from your humble blogger,

Patriotic Movies We Love

    Fourth of July just left us this past Monday, in all it's glory and majesty, this day is a day to be celebrated above all others and will forever be in the heart of Americans in the generations to come.
    One of the ritual things some of us have within the 4th is to watch a patriotic movie which raises all kinds of emotional responses and gets us ready for some fireworks action.
    I've recently taken a poll and found a list of basically the most watched movies during the 4th of July and most patriotic movies of all time, here we go:

Forrest Gump

       
        Here's a movie about the simple everyday causal American, it's a story that shows the life of one man and his involvement within American history. It gives us a clear picture of what the American dream looks like, the idea that no matter who you are or what limitations you might have, that you can still succeed in life. In America the land of opportunity.

Rocky IV

     
            This movie puts us in the middle of the Cold War, with Stallone representing the American dream that will be fighting against Russia. It's a fantastic movie, there's a sense of pride that wells up in any American that watches this movie, a sense of "we must win" when Rocky is going through the toughest fight in his career yet. Of course only to have him leave the arena with the American flag raised, a nice touch in the end.

Independence Day

      So this one is my personal favorite, it encompasses all we love about America. Us going and kicking some Alien taint and saving the world, women working in the white house (not true in many countries), freedom of religion, it hurts our pride when the aliens destroy all our great American monuments, but our pride is reformed with the presidential speech, it's filled with American Dream icons from beginning to end. And honestly I don't care who you are, after you finished watching the presidential speech in this movie you can't help but want to join in and kick some alien taint.

Air Force One

     
          Harrison Ford is the president of the United States, he's on Air Force One and terrorists attack taking over the flight. What does the president do? He fights, of course, taking down the whole terrorist unit by himself, cause our presidents are amazing and awesome and can do anything. It's probably one of the 'brashest' movies in the list, specially when Harrison Ford looks at the head terrorist and says the epic cheesy line, while projecting a perfect man voice, "Get off my plane!". It's so ridiculous that it becomes awesome.

Any Alien, Monster, World Threat Movie

     
         For some reason when tragedy strikes it does so in the United States, and of course we retaliate back and destroy the threat, or lead the world in being able to destroy the threat. Think of any alien, monster or world threat movie that is not in America, where America does not save the day, yeah, I know, it doesn't exist. America is just that awesome, at least according to Hollywood (and they would never steer us the wrong way of course), regardless of semantics these movies are all a great 4th of July pick, anything that raises your American spirit will do I guess. And don't forget the coming movie Captain American which shows us what a real hero looks like in all its patriotic glory.

The Patriot (or other American War movies)

    
        There's something to be said about Mel Gibson with a tomahawk killing some Brits in the name of justice. A fantastic film that raises our American pride to the max, with a complete cast of amazing actors, which includes the late Heath Ledger, the movie is sure to blow you away. From beginning to end it screams patriotism, and will forever have a place on this list for years to come.

      So go and grab some popcorn, put on your America shirt or pajamas and go watch some good ol' American cinema, where the good triumph over the bad, the weak against the strong, all while raising that flag we love, in the land of the free and home of the brave.

     We hope you had a fantastic 4th of July and a great week,

  Love from your humble blogger,