Reviews

This is the 2nd indian horror series I've watched. The first one being Ghoul, which was fantastic by the way. This is not as scary as the Ghoul, but it does pack the series with enough action, gore and supernatural fun that you won't be bored. The show is about these mercenaries that attack a village to open a tunnel (there is whole story of corruption behind that) and they inadvertently unleash an army of undead soldiers that aren't really zombies, but they're not vampires either...they speak and can use weapons but are also mindless drownes....you'll have to suspended belife a bit, but its really not that big a deal. They end up barricading themselves in a mansion and that's basically it. There is a lot of backstory to unpack, mysteries to solve and monsters to fight off. It's a pretty fun series. Definitely recomend if you're looking for an action packed horror series.

just finished watching the movie and i have to say, i honestly expected much more but...this was still a pretty awesome movie. so first off the good. 1. Godzilla looks awesome the MOTO's were really cool looking although they have nothing to do with the original MOTO's these were original monsters. 2. the CGI was just amazing in every sense of the word. 3. the origin story was well thought out and leaves open the possibility of other future monsters. essentially the moto's are gargantuan prehistoric monsters that feed off primordial earths radioactivity and as the radioactivity died out they went underground and to the deep of the oceans to feed off the radioactivity in the subsurface. 4. the story for the most part was pretty serious focusing on the human side amidst the chaos. 5. the fight scenes were really cool and well, they basically flatten everything in sight. now the bad... 1. although serious the story was rather bland with very uninteresting characters. also the use of children to bring drama to the story was a little too obvious.i mean seriously you get to see the innocent faces of children in danger like 6 times throughout the movie. 2. cheese factor...the ending was extremely cheesy but i think it was meant as an homage to the original movies. the children again, just over the top. we get it they're in danger. Kevin Watanabe although an amazing actor in his own right was just bland and one dimensional. he basically played the nervous worried scientist that somehow knows what Godzilla wants and knows how to stop the monster invasion by simply letting them fight it out...seriously his most memorable line is "let them fight". which sounds cool until you actually watch him say it. 4. fight scenes although spectacular could have been much better if we actually saw them fight. we know they fight because we see it through windows and television sets and the eyes of the people who are far enough away so as to not get hurt. we only really see the last 15 minutes of the last fight. 5. the sound editing was weird. moments when it feels like you need dramatic music or sounds are mute for some reason. i'm assuming the director felt that the silence was more dramatic then adding an actual dramatic musical tone. 6. Bryan Cranston's role, the best one by the way, was cut way to short to the point of false advertising. they basically advertised a much bigger role for Cranston's character and he was really only in the movie like 15 minutes. the best acted 15 minutes of the movie.

so with all this it sound like the movie was bad...but it really wasn't. all in all it was still a really good movie. it just felt like they wanted to go into a more serious direction while bringing on the cheese in order to give an homage to the original films. essentially this felt like an introductory movie and thanks to the origin story, they leave the door open for more monsters (maybe some of the original monsters), which i'm fine with because i can see this becoming a very successful franchise. i say watch it for yourself, most people will love this movie. and i have renewed my Godzilla fandom. i'm happy i saw this movie, it was entertaining and fun to watch and i cant wait for the sequel. ooh yes one more thing Godzillas atomic breath was so freaking cool.

so first off, the comparison to the original...it's not technically as good as the original, and to me the originals story was much better. but that doesn't make this a bad movie. this is not the original movie by no stretch of the imagination, this is a completely different film with completely different motivations and inspirations. while the original was about America's culture of privatization and the corruption of the medias role in society as well as its reliance on sensationalism and opinion rather then fact based news , this one was more about what makes us human and how our reliance on machines i.e. Drones and our inevitable reliance on robotics in the military, dehumanizes our society. there were still some of the old themes about privatization (in this case the privatization of the human body or person) and the media (in this case Samuel L Jackson portraying a Bill O'Reilly style pundit) but the main focus was about Alex Murphys humanity and his relationship with his wife and child. i should also note the blood and gore of the original movies wasn't there, the original villain wasn't there and as i already mentioned the inspiration was very different. but different (in my humble opinion) in a good way. so in conclusion take it as it is, a good sci fi action movie which attempts to find relevance in todays world. if it succeeds or not is up to you, film is subjective after all, but at least give the movie a chance, you might be surprised.

I loved the first Paranormal and wasn't a big fan of the second but thought the third one was OK then fourth one and well...you see how this got boring and lost its luster. as far as Paranormal 5, the marked ones, it was an attempt by the director, a pretty decent attempt at that, to give us something different for once within the Paranormal universe. unfortunately it was too little too late. this time around the movie has a Hispanic twist to it, which i enjoyed because myself being Hispanic, i found that the director captured the culture pretty accurately. another twist was the powers which at first seemed out of place but which the movie somewhat explains as a male trait unlike the females from the previous movies. at first the movie was pretty funny it starts out with lighthearted comedy and as the movie progressed it got more and more intense...the ending was pretty decent and gave us a surprise when it explained what happened to Micha from the first movie...which gave it a nice twist. i'm not sure why the father even existed in the movie, mostly because he had absolutely no reason to exist except to explain that the 18 year old kid...was in fact an 18 year old kid with a father...but that's it, seriously he had like 15 min of airtime throughout the entire movie. the sister was also not necessary considering she appeared like twice in the entire movie. it would have achieved the same effect without the need of a sister or a dad. finally there was the found footage style of the movie which is great for making a movie appear intense and gritty while simultaneously making the movies cheesy and unrealistic, because seriously, who walks around with a camera all day...or runs with a camera...or tries to get away from demons and witches with a camera...so on and so forth. finally...the movie was not that bad, I've seen horror movies that were much worse. this movie would have probably not had all the hate if it had come two movies ago...instead it came at a point that everyone just got bored of the same old thing. honestly, watch the movie. don't expect so much, just enjoy the ride for what it is,a decent horror, nothing less, nothing more

this is one of those movies that was designed to be entertaining. this is not an Oscar winner, you won't see the critics rating this as amazing, but younger viewers and lovers of action or these "epic" stories will definitely enjoy themselves. i usually try not to be to harsh with movies like these mostly to be fair to the type or style of the movie. it's important to be fair in my view because these movies were designed to be fun action filled movies not Oscar winners. in the case of this movie...first off its not based on historical facts...its actually based off the Frank Miller comic book the 300 and its yet to be released sequel Xerxes, which itself is "inspire" by the real battle of Thermopylae (Hot gates) in which 300 Spartans and 1500 Thespians and Thebans died defending said hot gates. in the case of this movie, the comic book story (Xerxes) is inspired by the battle of Artemisium and Salamis...again "inspired by"...and the movie itself is based off said comic book. so lets get to the review. as far as what i think...i liked this movie a lot, it lacked the feeling of anticipation and thrill i felt with the first time i watched the 300, but this was mostly because, i already saw the 300; so i already had a pretty good idea of what to expect. the story revolves around Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) who is an Athenian General who commands the Athenian naval fleets and attempts with no avail to get the help of the Spartans and create a unified Greek front against the Persian army. there are also several side stories such as the rise of Xerxes from a prince son of king Darius to the god king Xerxes. another important side story is that of Artemisia(Eva Green), a Greek girl whom after having lived a horrible childhood took arms against the Greeks in the name of Xerxes and the Persian empire as his General. many have said that there is a romantic subplot between Artemisia and Themistocles in to the movie...i say there was sex, rough sex, and yes there was an attraction but a romance is taken it to far. the story itself is actually pretty well told with several layer and subplots, the motivations of the characters were pretty solid. Themistocles feels responsible for the rise of Xerxes being that he killed Darius, his father which caused the rise of Xerxes god king. Artemesia is full of rage and willing to do anything to destroy Greece which she blames for her rough upbringings. Xerxes wants to prove that Greece can be defeated despite his fathers warning which he sees (do to manipulation) as a challenge given to him by his dying father. and Queen Gorgo, still morning Leonidas's death has to decide whether or not to go to battle and risk losing everything or doing nothing. as far as Action is concerned...bloody, relentless, and over the top...just how i like it...as far as special effects...amazing, it is a 300 movie after all. so why does everyone seem to hate or at least dislike this movie? a couple of reasons...many feel that the special effects were cartoony...which i can understand since the movies ambiance is based off the comic book ambiance. another point is that most people, i think, were expecting something different; but what gave the 300 that special place in everyones heart was that the film at that point was unique...and now its no longer unique so it loses that freshness that the original movie had. the original 300 also had a deepness that this movie lacked...the love that Leonides had with his wife was heartbreaking specially in the end of the movie and of course there was the death of the 300...who can forget that. in the end, this movie was pretty decent and a good stand alone movie in its own right. was it better than the 300, i would argue it lacked the depth that the 300 had but because it was different, not because it was a bad movie. in the end you should watch it yourself and make up your own mind. but understand...this is not the 300..and take it as it is...an cool comic book action movie.

I try not to judge movies like this too harshly because of the style of the movie but knowing what the director did with the first Underworld movie and the third installment of the series (rise of the Lycans) i expected more. honestly this movie was just bad...it was boring the story was boring the demons were boring unoriginal and generic, the gargoyles were cool but they might as well have said they were angels no point to the whole gargoyle thing, Adam had no depth at all, i know he didn't have a soul but really he should have something to at least make him interesting. it makes me mad because the story of Frankenstein's monster is such a rich story with multiple very cool ways you can take it and yet they never seem to get it right...the best frank monster i've seen was the Robert De Niro version, you could see his pain and loneliness, he was an interesting and smart character. "adam" was not interesting besides looking like he got in a car accident, no direction with the scars, he didn't look like he was put together he just looked like he got mangled. the truth is it was your basic good vs. evil cut and past movie with obvious Van Helsing (the movie) inspiration. i loved underworld, the first one, and i respect the director buttt this one was just bad.

OK...so the movie was OK, i try not to be to overly critical about movies like this, not exactly Oscar winners so it's not fair to judge them by those standards..honestly, I thought it was going to be the 47 Ronin version of the 300, but it wasn't...which didn't make it bad, just different. as far as the creatures and supernatural quality of the film...it was OK, nothing to feel in awe about but good. Keanu reeves plays "the one" again, with his own set of powers which weren't really necessary in the film, seriously he used his powers like twice in the entire film. as a matter of fact the whole supernatural feel of the movie wasn't necessary at all considering that the story actually happened and there are many legends surrounding the story of the 47 ronin, specially if your making the movie in homage to the actual true story. the other unnecessary part was the whole white man to the rescue motif that keeps popping up in movies like this...the last samurai comes to mind, they could've just used an actual Japanese guy to play the role of "kay"...but then i guess we wouldn't have the pleasure of Keanu Reeves. the only thing that really bothers me about the movie was Kay himself...his past is barely touched on and his powers and abilities were barely used, i kinda wished they would have touched on that some more and expanded on the character...it kinda makes the main character barely necessary. all in all a mediocre albeit fun/watchable film..good for a popcorn watch with friends.

so i watched this movie expecting something good because of the reviews in my usual movie site and what i found was a slow paced, slightly confusing set of plot points that kinda came out of nowhere and really didn't get anywhere. for one thing the characters...a family of 5 in which at least two of the characters didn't really add anything to the movie. one of the characters, the younger sister, seemed to have an important role but in the end had nothing useful to add except for a creepy warning to her brother and girlfriend. the parents were extremely open minded considering they allowed the son to bring in a strange girl they've never meet to sleep with him on a nightly bases. the parents themselves were only there to explain that the son ...was in fact an 18 year old who had parents...and that's it, they could have made the son a young professional who meets a cute girl, eliminating the parents and sisters and would have achieved the same result. so as characters go, they wasted there importance to the point of uselessness. another plot point that made no sense was a magic radio box that could speak to ghost. that just kinda came out of nowhere and stayed with no apparent back story or at least an explanation of why it was there in the first place. the movie itself was slow paced with some good jump scares but really didn't get me excited at all...the ending was slightly anticlimactic and honestly boring. i'm a horror fan and to me this was one of those generic atmospheric horrors that just never built up to something special...to bad because they could have gone in so many great directions with this but instead wasted a lot of great opportunities to make this special.