STAR TREK
This film was FANTASTIC! Not only did they succeed in captivating someone completely new to the whole Star Trek world but they managed to make me forget that this was based on a cheesy TV show (sorry to all of you trekkies out there). JJ Abrams has once again proven why his movies make so much money, because they are visually astounding. The creativity that comes about when him and Damon Lindalof get together just blows my mind...I would love to be a fly on the wall in those brainstorming sessions. I will say that on one occasion the setting looked strikingly familiar to one of the LOST Dharma hatches (kudos to anyone following that) but I'm gonna give him a pass on that one. I, for once, agree with the chatter that Chris Pine is one of the actors to watch in the future. I think he as done a really good job transitioning from small, really kind of terrible, movies like Princess Diaries and Just My Luck to a definite figure in Hollywood. I look forward to his future projects. This is already on my DVD list and I highly recommend that you all see it before it goes out of all of the theaters.
TRANSFORMERS 2
Sadly I cannot say that this movie brought out quite the same reaction as the above film did. Although the story was fresh and new, something I was doubtful of going into the film, and the visual effects were stepped up to a new level, the only thing this movie left me feeling was boredom. I think this mainly comes from the fact that you can only watch a car turn into a giant robot so many times before you are desensitized to it. To give Michael Bay some credit he did expand slightly with the new Decepticon leader and the giant multi-robot monster thing, but again, the wow factor that elevated the success of the first film was gone. I especially disliked the scene with Megatron and the Fallen speaking together in their weird spaceship thing. Not only did the whole bit seem extremely like a Star Wars Darth Vader/Emperor conversation, but I think that having a whole scene with just robots cheapened the film and took the audience out of the possible reality of the rest of the film and made it feel like a bad space robot movie. I also thought that the story line was much too confusing for it's own good. I urge everyone to watch the first one because it was in fact fantastic, but unless you get off on really big robot fights, I would bypass the sequel for a much better actions movie selection....like Star Trek!
HARRY POTTER (there are no spoilers in this review)
OK so I've just gotten out of the midnight showing and it is time to discuss the newest HP movie: The Half Blood Prince. I thought overall the film makers did a really good job of portraying the 6th book on film. All of my friends that I saw it with thought that this was the best book to film adaptation yet, which will please you purists. I was happy to see that the whole cast was back and no sneaky switches had been made. Hellena Bohnam Carter as usual continues to scare the crap out of me as Bellatrix but with new vitality, Alan Rickman also continues to use his genius to give us the most perfect Snape that ever existed. Although over the last few films the three main characters have changed quite drasticaly, it seems as if the growth suprts are over and done with as they look basically the same as the last film, however as I over heard some guy saying as we left the theater: "It seems as if Emma Watson is actually getting more beautiful which I didn't think was possible". I was happy to see the Daniel Radcliff gets to try new this with Harry in this film and I actually found myself enjoying his performance for the first time. Most important of all thought I think the film does a wonderful job of setting up all of the key implements necessary to lead into the 7th films. And yes incase you've been living under the rock they are making 2 films out of the 7th book which should allow them time enough to get everything right.
So that's all for now I guess. Leave comments telling me what you thought about these movies.
"I've spent several years in Hollywood, and I still think the movie heroes are in the audience." ~Wilson Mizner
