Man of Steel (Non-Spoiler Review)

Man of Steel is super, man!

Okay forgive the lame pun, it really was good. What I particularly liked was that it wasn’t the traditional Superman movie (to explain that I’ll have to add spoilers so I’ll leave you to find out yourself). All I’ll say is that the story, in true Christopher Nolan style, was a bit, dark – strange for Superman but it works. I also appreciated the fact that it wasn’t told in sequence – although my mother did not. “How come one minute he’s old, next he’s young? This is the same movie? Did you start it over? That’s stupid. I’m going to sleep.” Lol. Don’t use that as a benchmark though, she’s slept through the best of movies.

The movie starts on Krypton, an amazingly designed, high-tech planet which put CGI to good use, filled with space ships, fancy gadgets, flying animals and a host of other do-dads and tum-tums. Jor-El (beautifully portrayed by, the only man who could do this role justice, Russell Crowe) and Lara-El (Ayelet Zurer) predict the destruction of Krypton and send their son, Kal-El, the first natural born son of Krypton in ages, to safety on earth – along with the only hope of a future for Kryptonians.  General Zod (Michael Shannon) is outraged and wages war against them. On earth, Kal-El becomes Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), adopted and raised by Martha Kent (Diane Lane) and Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner)… and his journey to Superman begins. He encounters the Superman constant, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and even former Law and Order: SVU’s Christopher Meloni has a part in this flick. 

The casting for this film was quite impressive. Henry Cavill shines as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman… whatever you call him. The physique, the hair, the sarcasm; all there. Michael Shannon as General Zod is the perfect person to love to hate. Amy Adams, thankfully, shatters the damsel-in-distress stigma given to most Lois Lane characters, as she plays a bigger role than constantly shouting, “Save me Superman!” Kevin Costner also embraces his fatherly role and delivered a really satisfying performance. Diane Lane is a bit subdued, I’ll admit, but again, it works. My favourite performance though was Russell Crowe. He isn’t the star but he embodies Jor-El and was spot on in his portrayal.

I haven’t even touched on the action yet; don’t worry, there’s a lot. It features some epic battles; mere words cannot do justice to the exhilarating excitement. Man of Steel is the only Superman film to capture the comic-book type destruction, only Superman can create. If you’re looking for action, go see it. After all, what’s a Superman movie without insane action and fight sequences? That’s right – Twilight.

Man of Steel goes down as a must-see blockbuster. It’s no Avengers for me, but it’s up there! -- Get it? Lol.

Rating: 8.5/10

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Kim :)

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Movie Review)

Disclaimer: This review contains one spoiler.

Okay fine, as bad as it was, I’ll admit I liked G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, but there isn't much to like about G.I. Joe: Retaliation. These Joes blow.

This sequel adds more meaning to the phase 'nothing is better than the original'. A big let-down for me was the fact that they dropped a couple of the good main characters like Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) and Scarlett (Rachel Nichols). At least they kept the charming and always adorable Duke (Channing Tatum) right? Wrong. Ladies if this was your only motivation to agree to your guy’s suggestion of seeing the new Joe movie then let me be the first to apologise. (Spoiler alert) Duke is out of the movie after about fifteen minutes max, so I’d skip the popcorn line.

Contrary to what you may think, this sequel is only that by name. The story is barely linked to the first and can be easily understood by a newcomer, not that the storyline is that great. The President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) has been captured and replaced by an imposter, the evil Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), part of the COBRA alliance which includes Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee), Firefly (Ray Stevenson) and Cobra commander (Luke Bracey). Their mission is to, yep you guessed it, rule the world, which includes stopping those standing in their way, namely the Joes. Only a handful of Joes survive the surprise attack from COBRA, the aptly named Roadblock (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), the resident eye candy Lady Jaye (Adrienne Palicki) and the almost-as-cute-as-Channing-Tatum Flint (D.J. Cotrona). Their mediocre acting, together with my favourite character Snake Eyes (Ray Parker...not that you can tell because you never see his face) and newly trained Joe, Jinx (Elodie Yung) seek revenge. They enlist the help of Joe retiree, General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis) who provides some chuckles in the movie.

As bad as this movie was, that’s how good the fight scenes turned out. I was thoroughly entertained by the awe-inspiring, ninja style battles. The non-ninja fight scenes were engaging as well, but for me it’s pretty difficult to fully appreciate what’s going when the camera’s only taking close-ups and the last minute 3D addition only made it worse. Whose hand was that? Who got that kick? I believe I actually removed my 3D glasses once in the beginning to figure out who I was rooting for.  

In a nutshell, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is action packed and worth the watch if you don’t question why anything’s happening. However, if you’re saving that last bag of microwave popcorn for a thrilling, twisting and tantalising teaser, I’d skip this one.

Rating: 6/10

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Kim :)

Argo (Non-Spoiler Review)

Ar-go see it! Yes, I am hereby putting my stamp of approval on this nail biting, based-on-true-events, thrilling drama.

If you’re out of the loop with movies these days (like I am) and happened to catch the SAG awards or the Golden Globes then you may have heard (numerous times) about Argo. Argo won Ben Affleck some coveted statues for his directing brilliance and good acting. Then, you might have thought, Hmm...I wonder if it’s any good. Well, I am happy to report that it is.

Argo surprisingly delivers on all aspects of a good movie. For the history buffs, it accurately sets the film in the height of the Iranian revolution which led to the Iranian hostage situation of 1979. Fifty-two Americans were captured while six managed to escape and secretly seek refuge at the home of the Canadian Ambassador (Victor Garber). For the drama queens, you have CIA agent, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) as an exfiltration expert devising a covert operation to rescue these secret six before they are found by the Iranians. His plan to pose as a Canadian film crew, scouting locations for a fake sci-fi movie was described as the CIA’s ‘best bad idea’ by Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston). John Chambers (John Goodman) and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) were the resident comedians in this movie and ensured that the comedy fans were also satisfied. Even though it was relatively void of the raw, blow-up-a-city action most movie goers require, I can’t say that I missed it much, as the grab-your-hair-and-tug suspense was enough action for me.

If nothing else, Argo will make you regain all the respect you lost for Affleck back when he did Daredevil and dated Jennifer Lopez. The film was directed beautifully and hit most, if not all, of the marks. Argo was focused on the story at hand. No frills, no gimmicks, yet there was something spectacular about it. Affleck, hands down, is a better director than he is an actor.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this production a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a subdued The Bourne Identity where in place of the I-can-kill-you-with-my-pinkie skills Bourne possesses, Mendez uses his genius to save innocent lives.

I can now honestly say Argo is good. A must-see indeed!

Rating: 8/10

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Kim :)