Showing posts with label Ridley Scott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ridley Scott. Show all posts

Friday, June 8, 2012

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,

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

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,

Friday, April 13, 2012

Directors On The Move: Must Know Updates And Rumors


     The month of April has its up sides but when it comes to movies there really isn't much happening throughout the month which is a horrible thing, specially in light of exams being on the horizon and the need for an escape from regular activities being ever present due to stress. April is the last month before we start getting a series of blockbuster films starting with May 04th where we'll start this whole thing off with "The Avengers", its less than a month away, this is going to be good. Late April does offer us some better movies but for right now we get movies like "Lockout" which should feature Mark Wahlberg or Jason Statham but  does not which means that there are no redeeming factors to this brash action movie, not to worry though we do get a Statham movie later this month called "Safe" We don't want to ruin the plot of this movie but it's another Statham movie, which pretty much tells you the plot. On to this week's must know movie news.

   Stoller's New Comedy

     Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt and Alison Brie, need we say more? On the last week of April we will start to get some good movies, this being the first one on the list. The story revolves around Segel and Blunt's characters as they get engaged and tracks all theirs difficulties throughout the whole process of preparing a wedding. The movie is directed by Nicholas Stoller, he directed movies like "Get Him To The Greek" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", so this movie is sure to be a fun one. It was about time Stoller got Segel back on the big screen and delivered us another great comedy. Plus it's Jason Segel, the guy has not disappointed us yet, think "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Muppets", yeah, the guy is good. "The Five Year Engagement" will surely be another great success, we recommend you add this to your must watch list.

    Tarantino's Latest Project


   This week Tarantino finally gave us some more insight into his upcoming movie "Django Unchained", the movie centers around a slave who after being freed becomes a bounty hunter and is on his way to rescue his wife from a Mississippi plantation owner, knowing how Tarantino works this movie will surely be a blast. Tarantino did not pull any punches for this one gathering a long list of amazing actors to perform in this latest addition, actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell, Jamie Fox, and Kerry Washington, an amazing cast for sure. The movie should be coming out during Christmas time and is a project that we'll be sure to talk about again, you know something good and different is coming when Tarantino is involved.

    Ridley Scott's 2013Project Already In Talk


   If Ridley is not on the top of your radar list then we advise you to add him to it, here is man whose career deserves full attention. Ridley's latest movie "The Counselor" will be releasing sometime in 2013, not much about the movie is known as of yet except that it involves a lawyer and drug trafficking. The big rumor going around this week is that Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Michael Fassbender will all be performing side by side in this thriller. Though not confirmed there is talk of Angelina also being involved in this project, the first rumor was that Natalie Portman was to have the role but there are no conclusive news about it all as of yet, as soon as we hear more you'll hear more. If you are unfamiliar with Ridley Scott (God forbid) here is a sample list of some of his movies that should keep you busy this weekend, "Robin Hood", "Body Of Lies", "American Gangster", "Gladiator", "Blade Runner" and the upcoming gem "Prometheus" which looks fantastic.

   Burton Is Back With More Johnny


   Tim Burton just recently unveiled his upcoming vampire comedy "Dark Shadows" which will be featuring (Burton's favorite) Johnny Depp. There are some people who have begun to critique this movie already, for some reason there is a strong online following against Tim Burton, we don't think it matters much, Tim is still a brilliant guy and he has been behind amazing projects in the past, Burton and Depp have worked together for years and know how to bring out the best work from each other, therefore this movie should be on your watch list, its as simple as that. "Dark Shadows" will come out this year May 11th, we recommend that you watch the preview above, it looks like its going to be a really funny movie. If for some odd reason you are unfamiliar with Tim Burton's work then please do yourself a kindness and go watch some of his movies, we recommend "Batman", "Edward ScissorHands", "Ed Wood", "Sleepy Hollow", "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Big Fish", there are more of his movies we could add to this list but that would take up too much space, Burton's got a lot of good movies.

 "Catching Fire" Rumor Mill


  We mentioned previously this week the fact that Lionsgate lost their director for the sequel in the "Hunger Games" trilogy "Catching Fire" and how this could be a good thing or a really bad thing, turns out this might be a really really good thing after all. There are rumors going around right now that there are three directors in talks about taking the movie over, the first is Alfonso Cuaron who is known for movies like "Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Children of Men", the second is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who directed "21 Grams" and "Babel", and thirdly the one and only David Cronenberg whose career is vast and impressive, he's worked on movies like "The Fly", "Scanners", "Eastern Promises", "A History Of Violence" and a ton more. The bottom line is this, we have three titans fighting for this movie, which means that "Catching Fire" will be the "Empire Strikes Back" of the "Hunger Games" series, meaning that it'll probably blow our minds and be amazing. We'll be watching this story closely so as soon as we get more updates you'll get more updates.

   Well consider yourselves updated on important movie announcements and rumors that occurred this week. We hope this Friday is a great one for you and that this weekend might be restful. If you can't think of anything to do for this weekend then we recommend that you look into some of these directors, they will all blow your minds.

Love from your humble blogger,