THE AVENGERS

Paramount Pictures in association with Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 142 Minutes




Click below to watch The Avengers trailer.



In Marvel Studios The Avengers, written and directed by Joss Whedon - creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - a tesseract, a powerful power source, is stolen from the counter terrorism and intelligence agency of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division - S.H.I.E.L.D. - by the Trickster Norse God Loki, Tom Hiddleston. In order to recover the tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, then gathers together a team of heroes that becomes - The Avengers.

Based on the Marvel comic book, The Avengers, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the team of heroes that Jackson puts together consists of Captain America, Chris Evans, Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr., Thor, Chris Hemsworth, The Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, along with The Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner. This team is a dysfunctional group of people - which eventually become Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The team was so dysfunctional, there was one scene where everyone yells at each other for their hidden agendas. While this all may seem quite dramatic, and it is, this dysfunction of the team also leads to some funny moments.

With Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and The Hulk having their own movies previously produced by Marvel leading up to the ultimate team adventure, of which The Avengers is, Marvel built up quite an audience which lead to The Avengers breaking the $200 million mark for an opening weekend and breaking $100 million it's second weekend - thus setting a couple of new records. I saw the movie as the first showing on a Sunday the first weekend and the theater was pretty full. When the movie ended, there was a line when I got out.

While some of the previous Marvel movies were uneven, The Avengers is the ultimate comic book movie. The super hero battles utilized all of the heroes talents and powers, making the battles intense. All of the Avengers had their own little scenes, which gave them some characterization in the movie, allowing you to get to know them - although there was not as much characterization done with Renner's Hawkeye, but it was great to see Renner as the World's Greatest Marksman shoot all of his arrows.

Hiddleston as Thor's adopted brother Loki is the bad guy of the movie. Although, there were times that Hiddleston just accepted things and let himself get captured which made him appear not as strong or as evil as a super villain who wants to rule humanity as he should have been. Even though I knew he had sinister intentions for doing that, I felt a little wishy-washy about Hiddleston as the ultimate bad guy as a result. However, Hiddleston's interactions and battles with The Avengers makes up for him being so wishy-washy. Loki's helmet was straight out of the comics and made me believe Hiddleston was the evil Loki when he wore it. With his helmet on, this was the evil Loki that I grew up with.

I was wondering how they were going to bring Hemsworth's Thor back to Earth, as at the end of the Thor movie Hemsworth had left Earth. While Hemsworth's Thor did return to Earth, it was more of an incidental thing rather than a significant plot point. Hemsworth's and Hiddleston's fraternal rivalry was great to see again, as that rivalary is the basis of Hiddleston's sinister motivation and Hemsworth's sense of responsibility because it is Hemsworth's brother that is causing all of this destruction.

Hiddleston's army from space was alluded to throughout the film, but it is only until the climax that you actually get to see his alien army. The climax is similar to the Transformer films and Green Lantern, but this climax is much better as there are multiple threats and you can tell the bad guys and the good guys apart. Civilians and military are involved in the climax, and not just as victims. One of my favorite scenes in the climax is of a line of New York City police officers shooting up at some airborne aliens in defense as the aliens are strafing the police. Jackson's Nick Fury must deal with a scenario straight out of the movie Fail Safe. This shows how desperate the situation has turned into, although you have a fairly good idea of how it would turn out.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier as their floating/flying aircraft carrier Headquarters was great, right out of the comic books. To see the Helicarrier take off and fly shows how large a craft it really is. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on board the Helicarrier were dressed in the uniforms just like in the comic books. For comic book fans, Stan Lee's cameo appearance appears at the end of the movie - so you can concentrate on watching the movie instead of looking for him. Cameo appearances of characters from the other movies also appear in the movie, with the fate of one such character at stake.

With the Hulk being motion-captured from Ruffalo, this was the most believable to me computer graphic of the Hulk. It was still a computer graphic, but this Hulk was much more believable as a character to me. It is nice to know that Lou Ferrigno got to do the voice of the Hulk once again after playing the Hulk in various forms over the years since his TV show The Incredible Hulk several years ago.

I saw the movie in Dolby 3D. The film was shot in 2D and converted to 3D. This conversion was most obvious in the slow opening scenes and was not very good 3D in the beginning, which made me wish that I did not pay for a 3D show - but the 3D did get better as the movie went on and I enjoyed the 3-D look of the movie.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded. There is a scene during the end credits that alludes to the Avengers sequel. While they did not mention the name, the makeup alludes to some known Marvel villains of whom I am looking forward to as they would make great villains. At the very end of the end credits, there is a little scene, although like the guy said behind me mentioned at the end - they should have said something during the scene.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 142 minutes.

Click for movie reviews of the following movies: Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

WRATH OF THE TITANS

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 99 Minutes



Click below to watch the Wrath of the Titans trailer.



Warner Bros. Wrath of the Titans, has Perseus, Sam Worthington - from ancient Greece - having to fight the Titans as Worthington tries to rescue his father - the god Zeus, Liam Neeson, from the underworld.

In the sequel to Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans has Worthington trying to live a quiet life at home as a fisherman and being a single parent to his son John Bell a decade after the events of Clash of the Titans. When Worthington learns that his father Neeson is being held prisoner in the deadly maze-like underworld of Tartarus from a dying Poseidon, Danny Huston, Worthington along with Huston's son Agenor, Toby Kebbell, goes after Neeson. Worthington's brother Ares, Édgar Ramírez, and Neeson's brother Hades, Ralph Fiennes, had captured Neeson in order to free Neeson's and Fiennes's powerful father Kronos - who they all overthrew and imprisoned in the underworld long ago. Weakened by the lack of devotion by humanity, and the draining of Neeson's god-like powers, Kronos - the Titan's strength grows stronger and threaten to destroy the world.

I had mixed feelings about this movie. As much as I wanted to see a story about the gods and seeing Titanic battles, it was hard for me to care about the characters. Without caring about the characters, the battles meant nothing to me. Part of it was that I did not care about Worthington. Despite the fact that he had a son that he loved and was trying to protect, I could not relate to Worthington as he did not seem to relate to the others. I did not care for Worthington in the movie Avatar either for the same reason. I related more to Agenor, Toby Kebbell, as the son of Poseidon, Danny Huston, than to Worthington as Kebbell was much funnier. The weapons-maker of the gods Hephaestus, Bill Nighy, was also funny. There was a subtle sense of humor to the movie that at times I was wondering if the dialog was supposed to be funny, or if the audience just considered it funny. The directing style of the movie by Jonathan Liebesman was more of a European style than an American style, which is curious as Liebesman directed Battle Los Angeles and was more in the style of an American film. The action was mostly up close and personal, which was a bit much for me as it did not allow me to feel some distance and perspective from the action. The bestial Titans you never really got a good look at them as these monsters were moving around so fast. With Kronos being the father of the gods, I wanted some dialog from him berating his children - but you never got that, just a big angry monster Titan.

When talking about the Greek gods and demi-gods, I forget at how large a dysfunctional family the gods are. With their god-like egos, the gods definitely are at odds with each other - and humans get caught in the middle like Queen Andromeda, Rosamund Pike, and her army. Having the family of gods at each other's throats, makes me very disconserted when compared to my loving family who has each other's backs. While Neeson is appropriately wise as the god king, he does not seem like the lecherous, promiscuous god who is known for begetting dozens of gods and demi-gods.

I saw the movie in Dolby 3D. The movie was very good in 3D, both in the action and the intimate moments with a roundness and depthness in the closeups and objects flying at you in the action scenes. I did not see the first movie, and I heard the movie was converted from 2D to 3D and that the conversion was bad, but Wrath of the Titans was very good in 3D. As the kid in front of me said at the end of the movie, "3D was awesome!"

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 99 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

MIRROR MIRROR

Relativity Media

Rated PG

Running time: 106 Minutes



Click below to watch the Mirror Mirror trailer.



In Relativity Media's Mirror Mirror, evil Queen Julia Roberts steals control of a kingdom and exiles her step-daughter Snow White, Lily Collins.

This retelling of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story is a cute retelling of the story by The Brothers Grimm, and reminds me more of The Princess Bride than the Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie. The seven dwarfs also have different names in this movie than what they had in the Disney movie, such as Grimm, Butcher, Wolf, Napoleon, Half Pint, Grub, and Chuckles. The dwarfs on their stilts make awesome bandits and adds to the stylized look of the movie. When Collins discovers that Roberts servant Nathan Lane is collecting taxes from the poor people, she has the taxes returned and credits the dwarfs for their return. Feeling appreciated, the dwarfs teaches Collins how to fight, and Collins soon learns to kick butt - thus making the movie a swashbuckler. Collins sword fight with Prince Armie Hammer is reminiscent of the sword fight in The Princess Bride, despite the fact that Collins loves Hammer. Having the Queen wanting to marry Hammer, both for his money and his looks is almost obscene - especially when she uses a love potion on him. It made me want Collins to thwart Roberts wedding plans and win back her birthright, which Collins was determined to do.

Instead of just talking with the magic mirror, which would make me think would be the main points of the movie considering the title Mirror Mirror, Roberts goes into the mirror in her castle and winds up in some type of other dimension besides a lakeside hut which houses the real magic mirror which contains Roberts reflection - who continually warns Roberts of the consequences of using magic.

The scene that got to me, was the scene where Roberts is undergoing a "beauty treatment" - with foul substances and insects. Having all of that put on me would definitely creep me out. I could not watch that scene. Arghhh! While the beast of the forest looks like something that could survive in the forest, I wanted something bigger and scarier. At least the beast is something similar to the Disney beast from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which makes the beast somewhat acceptable.

I liked the musical dance number with the characters done during the end credits of the movie.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

THE HUNGER GAMES

Lionsgate

Rated PG-13

Running time: 142 Minutes



Click below to watch The Hunger Games trailer.




In Lionsgate The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, Jennifer Lawrence, is reluctantly sent from her impoverished District of future devastated apocalyptic America as a Tribute to the wealthy capitol city, in what is now the new country of Panem, in order to participate in a deadly reality TV elimination Game show - where the winner is the last person still alive.

Based on the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the movie is a cross between the short story The Lottery by author Shirley Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Running Man, and Survivor. With TV host Stanley Tucci hosting the Games, the show was more of a media extravaganza for the masses instead of a gladiator arena for the Tributes - especially with Lawrence being billed as "The Girl on Fire." The celebrity aspect of the show is in sharp contrast to the deadly killing spree in the second half of the movie as the Tributes target each other in this survival of the fittest conflict. While Lawrence's coal minor District Tributes were chosen by lottery, other Tributes in other Districts were training all their lives for the Games. The sycophants of the show do not seem to realize or care that the Games are in reality a punishment check for the rebellious war that happened to the country seventy-five years ago. The "Bread and Circuses" aspect of the Game comes from the latter days of the Roman Empire, where the government would keep the masses satisfied by providing violent and deadly entertainments for the people to watch. And having the nation being forced to watch the Game is rather Big Brotherish. When Lawrence volunteers herself in exchange for her sister Willow Shields when Shields gets chosen to be a Tribute to the Games, it was a heart-wrending moment to witness Lawrence's sacrifice. This sacrifice is the beginning of Lawrence's journey through The Hunger Games. It also lead to Lawrence becoming a big sister to Amandla Stenberg during the Game.

Considering that this is a post-apocalyptic era amongst the ruins of North America, there seems to be a lot of technology in this era in contrast to the lack of food the people have. Lawrence is forced to hunt animals for food - and has become very good with the bow and arrow. Lawrence's use of the bow and arrow during the Game drove home the fact to me that they really are in the wilderness. It is implied that the rebellious war only occured in America, so it is possible that the rest of the world was unaffected and could contribute to the tecnology - but there is no reference to the rest of the world. Still, that is a lot of advanced technology to manipuate an entire wilderness area that is being controlled by virtual computers. And the lack of food is more implied than being graphic about it, which was what I was expecting. As a result, we are still not sure if people in society are really starving or if it is just a few people. Having producer Wes Bentley manipulate the games to force some killings, I thought was very unfair and is a form of violation of the amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 preventing anyone from fixing quiz shows. However, Bentley is being manipulated by President Donald Sutherland to keep the people from having too much hope in Lawrence as this is a punishment and check against the various Districts to prevent future rebellions.

While former Hunger Games winner Woody Harrelson was a drunken, jaded mentor to Lawrence and to fellow Tribute Josh Hutcherson, it was nice to see Harrelson grow to be a true mentor and trainer to Lawrence and Hutcherson - especially to Lawrence.

While I generally liked the movie, this is also a long movie though. I felt it was taking too long to actually get to the Game - which was what I wanted to see in the first place - once Lawrence and Hutcherson were chosen as Tributes. The Game was actually dramatically exciting with the Game set in the wilderness and the Tributes hunting each other, but the movie had spent quite of bit of time on the celebrity aspect, and training, of the Game before they actually got into the Game. Because of the Tributes killing each other off, you never get to know most of them as they get killed off too soon. I just barely remember a couple of their faces. Having a boy and a girl from each District being chosen as Tributes is rather sad, knowing that they would eventually have to kill each other in the end - which would prevent any type of friendship and alliance normally. The scene that got to me the most was the genetically enhanced wasps. I was imagining if I was in that situation - suddenly attacked by wasps. Arghhh!

At the end of the movie, the people behind me were talking about the books. Since the book is part of a trilogy, Lionsgate said that the rest of the The Hunger Games books being made into movies was supposed to be based on the reception of the movie The Hunger Games. From the opening box office, I expect they are working on the next movie Catching Fire right now.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 142 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

21 JUMP STREET

Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 109 Minutes





In Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures 21 Jump Street, former classmates and incompetent rookie cops Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are transferred to the Jump Street program - where they are to become undercover high school students.

A loose sequel based on the TV show 21 Jump Street, created by Stephen J. Cannell and Patrick Hasburgh, the movie 21 Jump Street is a comedy with Hill and Tatum partnered up as undercover brothers by their Captain, Ice Cube because of their youthful looks in order to stop a synthetic drug from spreading out from the local high school into other schools by popular student dealer Dave Franco.

As a fan of the TV show, I was rather disappointed that the movie was basically a crude high school comedy, instead of a serious action drama - especially when the movie is dealing with hard drugs. Although the fact that the movie did make fun of the media not coming up with anything new and remaking old ideas was cute. However, the film is full of stereotypes and is very politically incorrect as they make fun of the stereotypes. With that said, the movie is a pretty funny comedy. With the film Written, Executive Produced, and Starring Jonah Hill makes it seems that Hill is going backward in his career and doing high school comedies again, when I would rather see him do more dramas like his baseball movie Moneyball. Although it was fun watching Hill and Tatum become brothers in this film and having them stay at home with Hill's parents. And having Hill dressed as Peter Pan adds to a lot of jokes. Even if Tatum was the sports jock and Hill was the nerd, their roles are accidentally reversed when they go undercover - which breaks up the traditional buddy cop roles. I wish the rest of the movie was of that caliber, instead of the running joke being able to remember the words to the Miranda Rights. Since the TV show was an ensemble show, I would have preferred Hill and Tatum working more with the other Jump Street undercover cops, instead of just recruiting the other high school students to help them. Perhaps there will be more of an ensemble movie in the sequel, where they will probably return as college students.

Having uncredited cameos with TV series stars Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise was great to see in the movie as DEA agents and adds closure to their characters from the TV series. TV series star Dustin Nguyen was shown in TV clips in the movie, while TV series star Holly Robinson Peete was the only series regular who was actually credited in the movie. IMDB lists that TV series star Richard Grieco was also in the movie, which I did not know and I do not know where he was as I did not notice him. Not having seen the TV show on the Fox Network in years, it was great that I was able to remember the words to the theme song when it played during the end credits.

Rated R for language, violence, sexual situations, drug use.  Running time: 109 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

JOHN CARTER

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 132 Minutes


Click below to watch the trailer of John Carter of Mars.



In Walt Disney Pictures John Carter, American Civil War hero Captain John Carter from Virginia, Taylor Kitsch, is teleported through space to the planet Mars, which is in the middle of their own civil war.

Based on the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter is a combination of a space-going Tarzan who is playing Cowboys and Aliens and Avatar in a desert, although I liked John Carter better than Avatar. While I have never gotten around to reading the books by Burroughs, I was familiar with the basic John Carter story and I felt the movie was quite entertaining. Some people apparently could not follow the story - but for those who have been watching movies regularly, you should be able to follow the storyline as this is not a european artsy film.

While trying to escape from being conscripted into the U.S. Army by Colonel Bryan Cranston for being a hero in the Confederate States Army, Kitsch finds a mysterious secret cave where he encounters a dangerous stranger with a mysterious medallion - a medallion which transports Kitsch to the planet Mars, otherwise known as the planet Barsoom. Able to leap incredible heights in the lighter gravity of Barsoom, Kitsch impresses the local green Martian leader Willem Dafoe - who wants to make Kitsch in what is basically Dafoe's white ape warrior. Soon airships approach their land as they are having an aerial battle and Kitsch encounters red humanoid Barsoomian Princess Lynn Collins. Collins was using her airship to escape from marrying the diabolical Prince Dominic West - whose wedding that her father Ciarán Hinds had arranged between Collins and West in order to try to keep the peace between their two cities. Dynamic in the martial arts and intelligent, Collins soon convinces Kitsch to stop his quest to return home to Earth and fight for her people against West and the strange religious Martians like Mark Strong that are controlling West.

Various versions of John Carter have been in development since the 1930's and it is only until now that a major movie of John Carter has been made. What is significant is that now in the year 2012, it is the centennial of the character's first appearance from a magazine serial from 1912 which was originally titled as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine The All-Story. The serial was retitled as A Princess of Mars when the serial was published as a hardcover. I remember reading a movie outline of John Carter of Mars by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio back in the 80's and I was waiting for years for their screenplay to be made. Unfortunately, part of the delay was for the technology to develop enough to render the Martian biologies. While various elements of the movie may have been seen in movies before, a lot of those elements have had their origins from Edgar Rice Burroughs and the John Carter books. The film is also more PC than the original books with Collins being clothed, instead of just wearing jewelry, and the red Martians having red tattoos instead of being red people. Since this was an origin film, John Carter did not become John Carter of Mars until the last few minutes of the movie. Future sequels will then supposedly be titled John Carter of Mars. Of course, having the movie just called John Carter is very enigmatic for people who do not know who he was - which made me upset that they had dropped the of Mars from the title, although I understood artistically why they did that. A friend of mine, who goes to the movies a lot, asked me "what is John Carter?" And this is a film that had commercials everywhere.

What I thought was cute in this movie, aside from Kitsch's loyal Martian dog, was that Edgar Rice Burroughs, Daryl Sabara, was used as a character in the movie as Kitsch's nephew - who was given a journal of Kitsch's adventures on Barsoom. Sabara reading Kitsch's adventures from the journal leads into the movie and the story of John Carter. Implying that Edgar Rice Burroughs was inspired to write John Carter books after reading about Carter's adventures in Carter's journal is rather cute. The credits were basically graphic images of the pages of the journal and of Kitsch's maps of his worldwide quests to find a way to return to Barsoom. Too bad I have not seen any cute toys about the Martian dog in the stores.

At the end of the movie, at my screening, people applauded. What was touching, during the end credits, was a dedication of the movie to the Memory of Steve Jobs, an Inspiration to Us All. The film was written and directed by Pixar Animation Studio's Andrew Stanton, of which John Carter is Stanton's live-action debut. The animation studio Pixar was Co-Founded by Jobs, of which the studio Pixar was purchased by the Walt Disney Studios.

Click below to watch another trailer of John Carter of Mars.



Click below to watch the fan-made trailer of John Carter of Mars.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 132 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

ACT OF VALOR

Relativity Media

Rated R

Running Time 111 Minutes

Click below to watch the trailer of Act of Valor.



In Relativity Media's Act of Valor, a Navy Seal team goes on a mission to recover kidnapped CIA agent Roselyn Sanchez, and then search around the world for the terrorists responsible for her kidnapping before they bring their terrorism back home to our country America.

Using active duty U.S. Navy SEALS as the Seal team makes the tactics and action of the SEALS incredibly real. We get to see the weapons and equipment the Seals currently use on combat deployment, as well as their support equipment and personnel. The use of the Special Operations Craft-Riverine warboats with active duty Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, or SWCC, was my favorite part of the movie - especially the way they came charging in for the extraction of the Seals. The film took two years to make as the producers had to work around the SEALS deployments. Watching the Seals in action makes you appreciate them more of all the sacrifices they go through for protecting our country - especially when you consider the Seal's motto is "The only easy day was yesterday." With assistance from U.S. Navy personnel and the Naval Special Warfare Command, you can appreciate that this is an authentic action film as the SEALS when making the film would not do anything in the film that was not real and authentic - like the infiltration scenes of their objective areas. I am glad they had water operations that the SEALS were able to do, since they are Navy SEALS. A lot of the Seals action scenes were first person shooter scenes where you see through the eyes of the Seal as they look for targets, especially during night vision scenes. It was great seeing the uploaded camera feed from the UAV for the Seals to use for intelligence. In other movies, this kind of information appears to come from satellites. This kind of information coming from UAV's is much more believable. The graphics of the locations around the world was a nice idea, but then it would zoom to the location but would sometimes zoom in the opposite direction that you would expect which was disorientating.

Having the computer graphics of the team members records makes a for cool introductions, but outside of the team leaders, you do not get to know the team as people - and even then, it was hard for me to tell the leaders apart, since they both looked and sounded alike, except for the fact that one was going to be a father. His story and family life was the basis for the framing story in their civilian lives, as their spouses and children sacrifice so much to support them. The Seals acting when they are acting instead of being Seals was not that great, but then they are Seals and not actors. Alex Veadov was more relatable as the bad guy than the Seals as characters. What does come across is the Seals brotherhood for each other - that they would die for each other. The fictional story is pretty much like it came out of today's breaking news headlines - especially since the story is basically an amalgamation of several SEAL operations.

As a Filipino, I was both proud and saddened that the Philippines and Filipinos were involved in some of the action. Unfortunately, such things can happen in the real world.

At the end of the movie, the audience applauded. The film also listed the members of the SEALS who gave their lives since 9/11. Sadly, as of 2012, there were a lot of names listed. Much more names than I would have thought would be listed, which makes you realize how many operations the elite Seal teams have been deployed on over the years to accrue that many causalities. Over the end credits were pictures of Americana and the real-life heroes that protect their freedom.

"To them and those like them. Damn few."

Rated R for graphic war violence. Running Time: 111 Minutes.

Click below to watch the documentary of Act of Valor.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.