The Avengers [2012] - 8.5
I really liked The Avengers. Sometimes a little quick, I didn't quite got as much screen time for each character as I would've liked to see, but considering its length I think they did a phenomenal job. It wasn't too rushed or speedy for its own good (I'm looking at you, Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen (which was a all round terrible movie by the way)).
Was it worth all the hype? Hm, yeah, I guess. It didn't trump the Iron Man movies. Those remain my personal favourite Marvel movies, but that's really just my personal opinion. Though, the one flaw I do need to point out that it becomes a little too comic-ey with the Thor side/universe. Loki's royal getup kinda made me chuckle when I saw it in contrast with the real world. I can only assume it's loyal to the comics, and I don't mean any disrespect, but as a unbiased spectator it looked a bit silly at times. But don't get me wrong, I loved it. And I'm looking forward to The Avengers 2 in 2015.
Dragonheart 2 - A New Beginning [1999] - 2.2
I heard about- and watched, it for the first time this week, and it wasn't good. I dearly loved the original Dragonheart. It was sweet, endearing, exciting, with the flaw that is was slightly corny at times. Dragonheart 2 however, was just covered in amateurish influence everywhere. Let me explain why and what;
* The story was messy and felt last-minute-improvised.
* While cute as a button, Drake (the dragon in this movie) had the character development of a potato.
* It also didn't help that they almost cut Drake entirely out of the movie. The movie is called Dragonheart. Drake was a reappearing background character at best. Budget issues much?
* It had misfit super hero type Asian stereotypes !as secondary main characters!. A young women and a elderly man. They are, of course, capable of bringing down 15+ ''trained'' guards together. I had a hard time deciding which was more offensive, the idiotically untrained elite guards, or the insulting mis-portrayal of eastern martial arts. Stupid.
* The attention to historical accuracy (weapons, battle method, armour, ect) was appalling.
* It had terrible CGI. The first movie had far superior graphics.
* In the entire movie, they didn't leave town once. Making a bad movie even worse because it feels local and claustrophobic. Budget issues much?
* Tried to be funny and endearing like the original, but goes way overboard.
* Some of the worst battles scenes I've ever seen. Most of which were dominated by these awful Asian characters preforming Jackie Chan type battle moves upon possibly the dumbest guards ever.
* The main plot is silly and not at all captivating. The climax is even more boring, and stupid to boot.
* The whole thing literally felt like a college.. no. A high school film project. It's in the top 5 worst movies I've ever seen. The only redeeming factor is that Drake was adorable in the few times he was on screen. However empty and shallow the character was. I wanted to hug him.
I feel like I could've written a better script myself. It was infested with stupid errors in judgement and bad story elements. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Such potential ruined.
Cowboy and Aliens [2011] - 6.6
You know, I was really surprised by this movie. Putting cowboys and aliens together sounds like a silly and ridicules mixture, but in my opinion I think it worked out well. Though, it did have the ''grrr, we're mean and we're gonna kill you for no apparent reason and take your resources'' type aliens. Am I really too big a conceptual nerd to request that intelligent creatures from outer space are portrayed with a little more dignity? Look at Distrct 9, they did a excellent job.
However, moving on. We don't really get to see things from the perspective of the aliens. They're essentially just there to play the bad guys. They came to Earth during western times, and they're looking for gold.. for some reason. The story from the cowboy's side, was actually pretty decent. It didn't blew me away, but it was pretty good. A nice Saturday evening movie, as I like to call it.
Paul [2011] - 8.2
I loved this movie. It's one of those movies that doesn't take itself too seriously. It was kinda corny at times, but you can easily forgive it for that because it's just incredibly funny. It has quite juvenile humour, which is right up my alley. You don't have to be a juvenile person to appreciate juvenile humour, so if you're a fan, this will be a movie for you.
The one flaw I did spot is that's it's quite moral heavy towards religion in a specific part of the movie. While I'm by no means ''religious'' and I'm a strong supporter of the concept of evolution, I didn't quite appreciate how blunt and preachy they were. It felt.. weird. The movie is filled with breast and penis jokes, and then suddenly; Bam! Atheist moral message.
It was over in less then 3 minutes, and it was quite funny. But the subliminal message was just kinda heavy for the movie. A bit disrespectful.
Other then that, great, great movie. Very funny.
