Trailer Watch - Iron Man 2

With 2009 gone, the time has come for another trailer watch and for this first one of 2010, I look at a trailer that actually got released in 2009 and that is the first trailer for the upcoming sequel Iron Man 2.

To be honest, prior to seeing this trailer I can’t say I was looking forward to seeing this movie that much, mainly because of the use of multiple villains which almost always kills these comic book movies and also because of the actors playing them, Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson, neither of which I’m a big fan of, but I really enjoyed the first Iron Man and almost all sequels barring a few exceptions never measure up so I could really go either way on this one.

But then I saw the trailer and some of my fears were put to rest as it looked as though that it would retain the heart and the humor that made Iron Man 1 so enjoyable and keep the action to a minimum but still I wasn’t sold on the villains, we saw too little of Johansson and Rourke seemed to be a tad too OTT but hey I’ll be happily going to see this in the cinema and I may enjoy it but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Film Review - Batman Forever (1995)

Batman Forever is the third in the live action Batman series and this time the Dark Knight faces two lethal enemies, the maniacal Two-Face formerly known as Harvey Dent played by Tommy Lee Jones and the mind games of the Riddler played by Jim Carrey, but Batman won't be doing it alone as a new ally named Robin played by Chris O'Donnell joins the series to lend a hand.

Batman Forever starts out with an interesting story in regards to the psychosis of Bruce Wayne and what drives him to be Batman but the film loses any and all interest in that pretty quickly in favor of nonstop action scenes involving Carrey and Jones, who totally ham it up while Kilmer and O'Donnell try to salvage the more serious side of the film, which all it ends up doing is giving it an unfocused feeling.

And not only that, the film also turns bombastic very quickly as we race towards the final showdown, director Joel Schumacher floods the screen with green neon which makes the action hard to track when you watch it and with all of the flashing lights and hammy acting, the film gets pretty stale by the it ends.

So I would class this as an example of the action pictures of the 1990's that followed after Terminator 2, nonstop action and bugger all story, so it gets by with a 2 out of 5, if you simply must watch a Batman film, go and get Batman Begins and the Dark Knight instead, they're much more worth the time.

Editorial - James Cameron's Avatar: The Sprousse Mousse of Modern Movies

As has been documented on many movie sites, James Cameron's Avatar is storming the box office and has become the biggest movie since Cameron's previous box office champion Titanic by grossing 1.6 billion worldwide in just 5 weeks and crossing the $500 million mark at the US Box Office in the same space, just as Mr. Burns's Sprousse Mousse promised to carry 200 passengers from New York's Idyllwild Airport to the Belgian Congo in seventeen minutes, despite the fact it was just quite a nice model.

But one question remains: why has this film made so much money so quickly, well I've decided to have a crack at it and there are a couple of answers as to why.

Firstly, the film is designed for the big screen experience right from the start, most movies today are designed for Plasma, LCD and LED screens as well as little iPod screens and laptop monitors and as a result, they lose some of the grandeur that comes with a good big screen experience, Avatar rectifies this in a big way with its outstanding visuals that virtually demand themselves to be seen in a cinema with a nice big screen, comfortable seating plus good popcorn and projection.

Secondly, the film has that rare appeal that crosses the boundaries of cinema audiences, most films today only appeal to certain subsections of that audience, Transformers 2 being a prime example where the majority of its money came from families with young children and 14-17 year olds wanting to perve on Megan Fox the entire time, the Cameron film appeals to one and all and at both of the screenings I attended there was a good mixture.

And lastly, the film itself is just a damn good film that like most of Cameron's films, deserve to be seen more than once as it contains so many small details one will miss on the first showing, particularly the CG work as mentioned before which for the first time since Cameron's own Terminator 2 back in 1991, it is handled with real characterization and contains a soul in all of it, when it comes to the landscape, the creatures and the Na'vi itself.

Now those aren't the definitive answers as to why but reasons I feel as to why this film has smashed the box office in a big big way.

Film Review - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009)

The Half Blood Prince is the sixth Harry Potter based on the series of books by J.K. Rowling and this time Voldemort has returned and Harry and the gang must now find a way to destroy the dark wizard once and for all, but this will not be easy as they must also deal with their own raging feelings.

In one of the issues of the Australian Playstation Magazine, their review of this film said that it was "The Empire Strikes Back of the Potter films" and sadly that is a big problem for me as Empire is a film that is close to my heart, and as such a film that tries to live up to that namesake has to work hard to earn my approval, this film did not.

And the reason why is that I am not a big follower of the series, I've seen a few of the films but have not read the books so as a result I don't know the ins and outs of both the story and the characters, but this film was okay it's just that my main problem is that it tries to live up to Empire Strikes Back and also the film didn't really go anywhere, as all it did was setup the final story, the Deathly Hallows.

So out of that, this film only scores a 2 out of 5, it was okay but the Empire namesake is hard to live up to in my eyes and is also best appreciated by fans of the series.