Summer Reviews: August Movie Recaps

Rise of the Planet of the Apes



When Fox decided to bring back the franchise about ape revolutions made famous by “Planet of the Apes” released in 1968 and its four sequels, it was Tim Burton’s revamped movie with the same name that did make a boatload of money but critically was far from success. So, the studio thought it’s best to shelve the apes once again and freeing them a decade later with a new concept that reboot the entire franchise in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. Sure the title they’ve chosen sound quite silly but

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Summer Reviews: June Movie Recaps

Transformers: Dark of the MoonA little bit better than the ‘messier than all messy stuffs’ previous film but this latest (and one hopes final) effort of Michael Bay to destroy every city in United States with his robotic battalions is still a carnival of metallic special effects on top of everything else. Audiences will likely have enough fun time with the $200 million-dollar tagged full FX action sequences, and in addition to the positive side, this

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X-Men First Class: A 'First Class' Reboot for the Franchise

X-Men: First Class has sort of soared below the radar when it comes to this summer's superhero adaptations. With "Thor," "Green Lantern" and "Captain America: The First Avenger" taking most of the headlines, Matthew Vaughn's new installment of the classic Marvel franchise may take people by surprise. And it really does! A Huge Huge surprise indeed!
With "Kick-Ass," Vaughn already showed that he has a keen eye for the comic book genre and with the vintage 1960's setting, in the middle of the

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Avenge The Origin of The First Avenger: Captain America

According to a Dow Jones report, Marvel has already amassed a half-billion-dollar war chest to make a slate of movies with budgets as high as $180 million, drawing on its remaining 5,000 comic-book characters. But can Marvel prevail with this slate of characters in their pipeline? Thor, Captain America and Ant-Man, as examples, were beloved as they are to longtime comics fans but mostly unknown to today's kids. However, this is the real challenge for Marvel Studios at taking what Stan Lee and the brilliant artist Jack Kirby were able to make work in comic books 45 years ago and turn it into a 21st-century Hollywood franchise. And when it comes to Captain America — which also serves to

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Summer Reviews: The Lost Bladesman & Thor

The Lost Bladesman
Score: 7/10

Guan Yu, one of the most valued heroes and generals in Chinese history, lived from about AD160 to AD220 during the final years of the Han dynasty in eastern China. With magnificent fighting skill, bravery, loyalty and righteousness, he even became a deity that worshipped in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. His titles include Prince, Duke, Marquis and finally the posthumous title of "Saintly Emperor Guan the Great God who Subdues Demons of the Three Worlds and Whose Awe Spreads Far and Moves Heaven". This title was later shortened to "Saint of War" and there is said to be a statue of him in both police stations and triad member gathering places, as Guan Yu represents the values that

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In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, No Evil Shall Escape Green Lantern

After a Comic Con panel that didn’t make the grade back in July and a rushed out first trailer that even the studio has apologized for, we have seen almost no marketing for the upcoming DC comics adaptation film, “Green Lantern”. This week, we were told why through the current WonderCon that has been exploited by Warner Bros. Pictures as the launching pad for its "Green Lantern" marketing campaign to try and turn the tide of indifference and skepticism about the project around. They said the movie is not finished, and the studio does not feel comfortable releasing promo materials until it is. Los Angeles Times even published an interview with the studio president Jeff Robinov, who said that because the film’s

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Before the Evolution Begins, Witness the First Class Origin

Based on the "X-Men" comics 'Uncanny X-Men' (1963) and 'X-Men: First Class' (2006), this summer we'll see the beginnings of the leaders of the two tribes of mutants that waged war across the first trilogy. “X-Men: First Class” will be a quite interesting story, not only since it seems Marvel is trying very hard to avoid the stink of “X-Men: The Last Stand” but also because the original “X-Men” film showed only the first manifestation of Magneto's powers, and we didn't see any of the intervening fifty-plus years in which he met Professor X then strayed from

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Hailing the Arrival of Thor, The God of Thunder

Some of the superhero comic characters would translate to movie quite easily while keeping in a realistic tone. But what about The Mighty Thor? A long-blond haired viking god who can hammer-time otherworldly armies while speaking Shakespearian-esque dialogue? This character is certainly one of Marvel’s biggest and most powerful heroes, but his origin is so based in mythology that many wonder how Marvel could pull off a believable and realistic Thor film. That’s a serious task that the studio and director Kenneth Branagh must answer. The mythic side of Thor is pretty much unprecedented in the world of superhero movies, but now that we’ve seen stills also trailers, and it seems that Branagh has accomplished this, we could not be

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A Summer Shiny Star(k)t with “Iron Man 2”

The first weekend of May - which marked as the start line for summer fiesta by movie distributors - this year finally brings an answer to the big question about how “Iron Man 2” manages to boost up the box office revenue and could it really

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Iron Man 2: Only Half Of What Its Prequel Was

Blockbuster season blasts off, and after the massive box office success of its predecessor, “Iron Man” which is a minor-property superhero flick based on a Marvel character that was arguably never in the same league as say “Spiderman” or “X-Men”, I think there are nothing that will stop the masses from galloping headlong to their closest cinemas for another dose of Robert Downey Jr and his “Iron Man” entourage, though, people often say that

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Kick-Ass: A Thoroughly Engaging Wild Ride

There surely lots of buzz and hype also controversy surrounding this latest superhero film based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., “Kick-Ass”. Much of concerns laid on the movie's 11-year-old actress Chloe Moretz’s language. But while Roger Ebert and some family advocacy groups couldn't get over that, most other critics love the film. In fact, it has been met with generally positive reviews with review

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Café’s Most Anticipated 2010 Films: Part Two

It seems sequel and remake films are going to be the biggest thing of summer 2010, so let's hope that people won't get too bored with it by the time the last one of them opens. However, while each year the summer movie season arrives with the promise of big-budget excitement of the kind only Hollywood can inspire, also top-heavy with stars and directors that want to win us over again, this upcoming summer (kicking off on May 7th with the sequel of “Iron Man”) still looks promising enough. But wait, there’s a new thing in this summer of 2010,

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A Shiny Second Armored Adventure For Iron Man

With a surprising U.S. opening weekend of $98.6 million and an estimated global box office take of $200 million within less than a week, it should come as no surprise that Marvel has eagerly started production on the sequel of “Iron Man” for a summer 2010 release. In addition, director Jon Favreau has admitted in interviews that he had the whole Iron Man thing planned out as a trilogy. And rumor has it that the villain in

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Superhero Wannabe Who Can Really Kick Ass

Footage from Matthew Vaughn's independently produced adaptation of “Kick-Ass” comic has created a strong buzz at Comic-Con back in 2009. The trailer for the hugely anticipated film based on "Wanted" creator Mark Millar and longtime Marvel artist John Romita Jr.'s work is sure to fire the imagination as well. Pic about

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A Matchless Kind Of Superhero Found In Jeon Woo Chi

Inspired by an anonymously written Chosun Dynasty novel, “Jeon Woo Chi” is a ‘Korean superhero flick’ that fused with local folklore and used Taoism and tradition as its narrative devices. The movie is highly anticipated not just because of buzzes that has been building about a Korean production that looks set to take on “Batman”, “Iron Man” and “Spider-Man” at their own game, but also because of

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X Men Origins Wolverine: No Awful But Extremely Below Par

The long-awaited and much hyped set up of the origin tale for one of the most popular character in X-Men Universe, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” finally revealed at cinema everywhere. Now directed by An Oscar-winner himself (for Best Foreign Language Film “Tsotsi”), Gavin Hood, Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman find himself sharing the screen with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), John Wraith (will.i.am), Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), and Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston). Going into this movie like everyone else my expectations were of course huge, because of its reputation as the most popular and interesting character of all the X-men, the producers had too deliver this film with no excuses. But what I’ve got is an entire two hours comic adaptation film that doesn't hold a candle to the “X-Men” trilogy and also a big step back for the franchise in general, especially when you’re expecting the same level of “X-men” or “X-2,”

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Can’t Wait For The Return Of Wolverine

Everybody absolutely can’t wait for Australian actor Hugh Jackman to reprises the character role that made him an international superstar. A fierce fighting machine who possesses incredible healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury, his name is “Wolverine.” Leading up to the events of internationally blockbuster “X-Men” trilogy, the new film called “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” will tells the legend of Wolverine’s epically violent and romantic history, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, his early encounters with William Stryker (Danny Huston) and the ominous Weapon X program. The film explores his history with Weapon X both before and after the adamantium procedure that turned him into the human weapon we first met in "X-Men." Wolverine is probably the most popular character in the X-Men universe, and his centrality to the three X-Men films all but begged for this solo film outing. Here also we can see how Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, along his journey that counting the surprise appearances by several other legends of the X-Men universe whose appearances in the film series have long been anticipated.

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Watchmen: It's Truly Not An Ordinary Superhero Film

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the most revered graphic novel of all time “Watchmen,” has had no shortage of media attention since it began production in 2007, not to mention its pesky lawsuit also. In its first place, “Watchmen” graphic novel is already something that odd to adapt, the timeline jumps in and out of multiple flashbacks, each chapter contains additional documents – letters, magazine articles etc. - which fill in important back story details and one minor character reads a comic-within-the-comic entitled “Tales of the Black Freighter,” which parallels the wider narrative themes. Those were enough to cause the most skillful filmmaker to leave it well alone. And since the studio announced that “Watchmen” was going to be made, the web has been flooded with fan boy discussion about who would direct it, and who would play The Watchmen, and would the film be faithful to the novel? But when Zack Snyder comes in against all seeming inevitabilities, he’s actually succeeded in completing a film of “Watchmen.”

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Our Mission is to Watch Over The Watchmen

When “The Dark Knight” opens our eyes with a new way to watch a superhero films, in their more realistic world and forms, it soon become somewhat a flux in this genre that seemingly will be still going on, especially with the release of the next film in the enthusiasm of comic book adaptation, “Watchmen.” Offering a complex, multi-layered mystery adventure of band of superheroes, “Watchmen” graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons was fist published in 1986 and has had a huge influence on both the comics media and popular culture, although it’s quite unfamiliar to the general public. In 2005, Time magazine placed "Watchmen" on

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Push The Heroes To Their Limits

Tagged as a sci-fi action-thriller, "Push" burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man and a teenage girl take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization.
The Division, a shadowy government agency, is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors and brutally disposing of those

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