Skip to main content


Rating: 4.4/5
Review: "X-Men: Days of Future Past movie review"

X-Men is the longest running franchise and it is clearly not slowing down at all. Before when this is even showing in cinema, the sequel is announced by Bryan Singer. The question is "Is the franchise getting tired?" After watching this, it is a safe bet that there can still be something fresh in the franchise. I have to admit that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the latest instalment. My hopes were not very high before watching this as I was actually getting tired of the many movies being churned out every two years. I was also disappointed when Matthew Vaughn dropped out as the director and Bryan Singer was to replace him. I am not saying Bryan Singer is a bad director but I feel that he suits more to characters-driven movies rather than big-budget action movies. However this time, he proves me wrong. He has created a good balance of characters development, action and thrill.

The story: The movie starts off in the future where mutants and Sentinels are at war. It results in many deaths. A surviving team led by Professor Xavier and Magneto finds a way to go back to the past to change history. For a time travel movie, the plot is rather straight forward. Bryan Singer is not eager to confuse audience but he wants to give them a thrilling and emotional ride. The movie does that very well. The pacing is just right with a thrilling action scene to start off. There are not as many big action set pieces as other blockbusters but Bryan delivers them well especially the thrilling special effect laden climax. The acting is good. The younger cast (including James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) did a great job. The older cast (including Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen) did okay as they do not have a lot of screen time. The special effects are well done. Music by John Ottman is good.

Overall: It is a pretty fun movie to watch. It has the right balance of action and drama. Another thing I was surprised after watching this is that it does not seem over-crowded which was one of my main worries. Now it is also understandable why some mutants don't make the cut. The post-credit scene teases the next sequel. Let's hope it will be something as fresh as this.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rating: 4.5/5 Review: "Man of Steel movie review" With all the hype from the trailers, I must say this is what it looks to be expected. I have to say that this is the biggest and epic superhero movie yet. This treats destructions like child's play. It is also the most explosive superhero movie. There are so much explosions that they could literally make you exhausted from watching all those. Although this is directed by Zack Snyder, this does not have much of his trademark except the visuals. His slo-mo trademark is not featured. Instead, the action is rapid fast. Man of Steel is a good entertainment with exciting action scenes and visuals but at the same, a somehow touching human drama. The story: We get an extended opening scene on Krypton where Kal-El is just born. However the planet is going to be destroyed with General Zod adding to the problem. To save Kal-El, he has to be sent to another planet known as Earth. What is interesting about the movie that it do...
Rating: 3.4/5 Review: "The Spirit of Ramayana" (103 minutes) "A passable Thai horror movie with an interesting concept but weak execution." As a low-budget horror movie, it has enough entertainment values. In the recent years, there are a few strong Thai horror movies with decent production values and there are many mediocre low-budget horror movies. The Spirit of Ramayana is somewhat in the middle. It may not look that polished but its themes and concept are intriguing enough. The story: The narrative is straight forward however its editing made the movie look messy and disjointed. It is a simple story about Mintra, a young dancer who is rejected for the main role because she cannot pull off an evil and sensual side. However, a spirit helps her to unleash her dark side. On paper, it sounds like a supernatural Black Swan. It lacks the emotional depth of Black Swan as the director seems only interested in churning out cheap scares. As the plot develops fur...
Rating: 4.3/5 Review: "Alita: Battle Angel IMAX movie review" (122 minutes) This is Robert Rodriguez's biggest movie yet and costs a staggering US$200 million. It is easy to see why. The sets are massive loaded with CGI and even many characters are CGI. Alita: Battle Angel has everything a Blockbuster has; action, romance, drama, CGI, epic music. Robert's direction is confident despite him handling a large-scale movie for the first time. As this is based on the manga, it suffers the cram condensation of a few volumes. The story: The start is surprising as it has no big opening action scene (we are used to seeing a big opening action in most Blockbuster). The sets may be big scaled but the opening feels intimate in terms of emotions. We see Dr. Dyson (Christoph Waltz) finding and rebuilding a female cyborg, Alita (Rosa Salazar). The first 20 minutes are engaging as we discover Iron City from the eyes of Alita. From then on, the pace quickens as we are introduce...