Saturday, June 29, 2013

"Man of Steel"

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Went to see the movie today. Heard some kind of bad reviews about it. But the main problem is that it IS NOT a Christopher Reeve Superman movie.

Once you get past that, and realize that the details are completely different, then the movie becomes more enjoyable.

Krypton is NOT the crystal planet. Get over it.

Although -- there are things that seem to be from other movies. At the beginning, there is a creature that reminded me of one of the 'Star Wars' movies. And then Jor-El rides home on a two winged dragon looking thing, reminding me of  'Avatar.' And that is a mistake. Why would he be riding a dragon when the people chasing him were using flying machines?

The movie doesn't take a chronological path, but there are flashbacks of Clark's childhood, and the sporadic uses of his powers to save people.

And there is a LOT of fighting and destruction of Smallville and Metropolis.

Amy Adams was pretty good in this as Lois Lane. There have been complaints that I've heard about her knowing who Superman/Clark is almost right from the start, but I can't see where it hurt the movie any.

Out of five, I'd give this 3.5 - 4 stars.

And when the DVD comes out, I'll probably buy it.
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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Star Trek: Into Darkness

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   Went to see the movie Saturday (June 1st). It had been out for 3 weeks, so I figured the movie theater wouldn't be very crowded.     My Mistake!   Up until the movie actually started, there was no one sitting  beside me in either seat. Then some big guy sat on my left. So I spent the entire movie with my left arm in my lap, leaning on the right armrest - most uncomfortable!
And I'm sure that is what caused me to enjoy the movie much less than I ordinarily would have.

The movie itself was pretty good - lots of action, and not very many slow spots to allow the story line to develop.  The actual story was good, and at least twice, when I thought the movie was almost over -- some life threatening thing happened that the crew of the Enterprise had to deal with.

I liked all of the characters except the guy who played Scottie. Or maybe it was just the character. But it seemed like he tried TOO hard to be the Scottie on the TV show.

Karl Urban, who played Bones, only copied the TV Bones' signature lines only a couple of times ("Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor. I'm not a ........ !" as one example).

Loved Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura (but how can you NOT love Zoe Saldana - in anything?). But it would have been nice if she'd had more screen time.

The Enterprise was all but destroyed - again! Yet somehow, in the space of a year, it was fully repaired and ready to begin its "five year mission."

Also -- there was a cameo of one of the TV  'Star Trek' characters. I won't say who it is, but I'm sure if you want to know bad enough without seeing the movie, you can easily find out who it is.

I am considering going again next week, hoping I won't be so crowded, and can actually enjoy what I am seeing.

On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give the movie a 7.5. If I hadn't been so uncomfortable watching it, maybe it would be an 8 or 9.
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