Directed, Produced, and Edited by Alfonso Cuaron, and Written with his son Jonas Cuaron, Gravity is basically a combination of Apollo 13, Armageddon, and Cast Away in space and shows both the beauty and dangers of space. This movie give you the feeling of what space would really be like if you were an astronaut. The Kessler Syndrome of metallic space debris was rather scary. This is a tour de force performance for Bullock as she continues to try to communicate by radio, although Bullock was rather irritating to me in the beginning with her frustration and space sickness. This is not a film for those with acrophobia to watch. Bullock floating free in space is a rather scary thought if you can relate to that position. Space can be an extremely dangerous place, especially as shown by the various hazards Bullock encounters. The astronaut that I liked the most, voiced by Phaldut Sharma, you hardly got to know. I think it is great that Ed Harris from Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff was the voice of Mission Control.
There is at least one plot point that was scientifically inaccurate, but made the story. Another inaccurate plot point fortunately was explained in the movie. I am also not crazy about the ending, and several people I know agree with me.
The film is in 3D, but after a while, I did not notice the 3D. The only times that the 3D really stood out to me was through the solar/camera lens flares and the space debris - although there was a floating drop of water that was rather obvious, as well as the reflections from the visors. I will admit that I had flinched a few times with the debris coming out at me. The visor reflections were so good that at first I thought that my glasses got smudged and I was going to wipe them. Cuaron's use of long camera takes helps to illustrate the immense feel of space, especially now that we have the technology to realistically simulate zero gravity. I am glad that the only sounds you hear in space are the music composed by Steven Price and the sounds that you hear inside the space suits and vehicles. The crawl in the beginning of the movie helps to explain this.
What is curious is that the movie is 91 minutes long, which is about how long it takes for the International Space Station to orbit the Earth. Seeing a set of the ISS in the movie was nice to see.
Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 91 Minutes.
Click below to watch another movie trailer of Gravity.
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 - a decade after the events of Clash of the Titans - trying to live a quiet life at home as a fisherman and being a single parent to his son John Bell. When Worthington learns that his father Neeson - the god Zeus - 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 had all gotten together to overthrow Kronos and had imprisoned Kronos in the underworld long ago and was weakened by the lack of devotion by humanity. With the draining of Neeson's god-like powers, Kronos - the Titan's - strength grows stronger and escapes from the underworld to 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, which was a shame. Part of my not caring about the characters was that I did not care about Worthington. Despite the fact that Worthington 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 Avatareither for the same reason. I related more to Agenor, Toby Kebbell, as the son of Poseidon, Danny Huston, rather 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 had just considered the movie 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 the movie Battle Los Angeles was more in the style of an American film. The action of Wrath of the Titans was mostly up close and personal, which was a bit much for me as the movie did not allow me to feel some distance and perspective from the action. As for 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, you just got a big angry monster Titan.
When talking about the Greek gods and demi-gods, I forget at how large a dysfunctional family the gods were. With their god-like egos, the gods definitely are at odds with each other - and humans get caught in the middle of the gods. Humans like Queen Andromeda, Rosamund Pike, and her army get caught in the middle and must battle the gods. Having the family of gods at each other's throats, makes me very disconserted when compared to my loving family who have each other's backs. While Neeson is appropriately wise as the god king, Neeson does not seem to me as if he were the lecherous, promiscuous god who was well 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 in the intimate moments with a roundness and deepness to the closeups as well as the objects flying at you in the action scenes. I did not see the first movie, and I heard the first movie was converted from 2D to 3D and heard that the conversion for the first movie 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.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation's Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace - 3D, is a re-release of the classic movie of the Star Wars saga in 3-D. This is the first of the Star Wars films that will be released in 3-D theatrically. This is significant considering that this year 2012 is the 35th Anniversary of the original Star Wars. Given a collectible keepsake of the Star Wars - Episode I -The Phantom Menace - 3D real D 3D glasses to use for the screening - when you purchase a tickit to the movie, while supplies last - is a wonderful marketing strategy for the movie, and adds to the experience when you see the movie with the fans. As the films were meant to be seen in the big theaters, instead of on a tiny TV screen, I definitely wanted to see the movie again in the theater and get the full experience. The people behind me were singing the Star Wars theme song when the opening music started. Most people have seen the movie when it first came out, but there were families who brought their kids to see the movie, and the kids seemed to enjoy the movie.
Originally George Lucas shot the movie in 2D and converted the film to 3D for this edition. While there was more 3D than is usual for a conversion, it was disappointing that there was nothing coming out at you. I only recall 1 or 2 incidences like that, and those incidences were during the pod racing scene. I don't know if that is due to the nature of the technology or if they did not want that happening for the movie. Most of the 3D effects deal with depth going back into the picture - even during interior scenes, which is rare. As a result of nothing coming out at you, the traditional opening ship fly-by was not as impressive as I wanted it to be. I wanted the ship flying over my head, instead of flying into the screen. The best 3D sequence was the pod racing sequence, a sequence which is similar to NASCAR auto racing. This is not surprising as the pod racing sequence was the most popular sequence during the film's initial release back in 1999, so naturally they would focus all of their 3D resources on this sequence.
Since I did not have a movie review blog when the movie first came out, I will review the movie now. The movie itself I have always liked as the best of the movie prequels, despite the fact that a lot of people hated it. Overall, the film has basically a good story and there were a lot of good things about it. The Trade Federation has blockaded the peaceful world of Naboo. Two Jedi Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are sent to negotiate with the leaders - but the Federation leaders betray them. The two Jedi escape the Trade Federation and head to the planet Naboo to warn Queen Amidala, Natalie Portman, but the Trade Federatoin droids have already invaded Naboo and the Queen is not safe there. Neeson and McGregor escape Naboo with Portman. Eventually, they land on Tatooine for battle damage repairs, where they become friends with a young boy - Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd. Jedi Master Qui-Gon is curious about young Anakin - and feels the Force strong in Anakin. So Qui-Gon wants to take Anakin with them to the Jedi Council. The group must now find a way of getting back to the galactic capital of Coruscant and to solve this trade dispute, but someone else sinisterly waits in the shadows.
Granted there was a lot of story detail in the film that many people, including myself, were very critical with. Jar-Jar Ahmed Best was not as annoying to me as he was when I first saw the movie in 1999, but he was still annoying. I could relate to a clueless character like Jar-Jar being suddenly thrown into this situation, but Jar-Jar does not have good table manners. The fact that Jar-Jar eventually becomes a competant ambassador in Star Wars: The Clone Wars shows the growth of the character. The various alien races representing different races like Blacks and Asians could be controversial, but it never bothered me both then and now. The scientific explanation of the Force takes away from the mystical hokey religion aspect of the Force that we grew up with, at least the aspect of the Force my generation grew up with, making the film more of a science fiction film than a science fantasy. This was kind of a disappointment for me, as I liked the mystical energy field aspect of the Force.
Jake Lloyd as the young slave Anakin has the innocent face that was needed for the role, especially when Lloyd leaves both his mother Pernilla August and his home, but Lloyd was not that great of a child actor. Actually, Lloyd's lack of acting works in conjunction to the later films with Hayden Christensen as Anakin - whose acting also was not that great in the films, so in a sense there was a sort of continuity of bad acting in the movies for the character. Actually, I think Lloyd was better as a pilot than as an actor. This allowed him to do things instead of act. Lloyd's relationship with high school aged Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala was cute as Padme is the quintesential unreachable girl. Ewan McGregor was very young in his portrayal as padawan apprentice learner Obi-Wan Kenobi, while Liam Neeson as Jedi Master Qui Gon reminds me of the older Obi-Wan portrayed by Alec Guinness. It was hard for me to imagine young Obi-Wan Ewan McGregor would turn into older Obi-Wan Alec Guinness. McGregor did not seem to fail enough to show the potential growth into Guinness.
I liked the political aspect of the Galactic Senate, although the impeachment of Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum Terence Stamp was almost trivialized - as there is very little of Stamp in the movie, which is a waste of his talent. However, the political aspect of the Jedi Council has always bothered me - especially with Mace Windu Samuel L. Jackson and Yoda Frank Oz being part of the Jedi Council determining the fate of Lloyd, even though they were correct about the eventual future of Lloyd as Anakin, I felt uncomfortable about how they treated the child Lloyd. They were more critical of the child instead of being supportive for the child Lloyd as most teachers would be.
The iconic devilish character of Darth Maul Ray Park had more dialog than I remembered him having, although officially he only had three lines. The lack of dialog does detract from the menacing aspect of his character, although Park does kick Jedi butt - which the fans behind me appreciated. Too bad Park's voice was dubbed by Peter Serafinowicz, as I think Park could become more than just an incredible martial artist that plays such iconic martial artist movie roles. The foreshadowing of Senator Palpatine Ian McDiarmidfor the rest of the series is truely foreboding. The introduction of R2-D2 and a naked C-3PO was wonderful to see.
The end credits added additional 3-D credits, with additional music to cover the length of the D credits once the music for Duel of the Fates is over. The credits at the end of the movie still end with the sound of Darth Vader's respirator.
There is also a short 3-D computer animated cartoon from Blue Sky Studios of the character Scrat, from the Ice Age films. Scrat's Continental Crack-Up: Part 2 at the beginning of the movie is a typical adventure for the character Scrat to undergo, which also includes the voices from the Ice Age movies.
In Walt Disney Pictures TRON: LEGACY, Jeff Bridgestroubled son Garrett Hedlund searches for his game designer father Bridges who has been missing for 20 years. In an old underground office at his father's old arcade business, Hedlund gets suddenly pulled into the digital grid world of Tron, where his father's old program Clu, Jeff Bridges, controls the grid and now wants to control Hedlund.
A sequel to the movie TRON, the movie TRON: LEGACY has several homages to the original movie, including the original Tron game which Hedlund tries to play, as well as having a song from Journey. However, I think that TRON: LEGACY hasmore action and characterization to me than in the original movie. The father-son relationship between Bridges and Hedlund supplies a relationship that I liked which was missing from the original movie - as well as having the relationship between Bridges program character Clu, and with Clu having a relationship with both Bridges and Hedlund. When Hedlund first meets Clu, I expected a "Luke, I am your father" type of scene. Bruce Boxleitner'sprogram character of Tron from the original movie has very little screen time in this movie - since the movie is really about Hedlund's search for his father Bridges, rather than of Boxleitner's story. Olivia Wilde'scharacter basically takes up Boxleitner's role in TRON: LEGACY.Wilde is very good in a fight and she also saves Hedlund a few times, even though Hedlund could also hold his own in a fight. At the beginning of the movie, there are scenes concerning Bridges company Encom and doing a product launch of a new operating system. You expect similar cut-throat business practices in the movie that the original TRON had, especially with the son of the bad guy from TRON as one of the company's designers - but once you enter the world of Tron, the movie does not return to the real world.
For those who watch the movie in 3-D - the real world in the beginning of the movie is shot in 2-D and it is only when you enter the world of Tron that the movie becomes 3-D. This is a similar technique that The Wizard of Oz used where the real world of The Wizard of Oz was in black and white and the land of Oz was in color. There are also several scenes of a fairly elegant home setting that reminds me of several scenes from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also had an elegant hotel setting. The ending of the movie, although cute, does not exactly make sense to me scientifically given the context of the film - but if you were looking for scientific accuracy do not expect it from this movie.
Keynote Speaker/Emergency Response Provider -
Experience in Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, Life Safety/Crisis Management in private sector critical infrastructure.
Level 2 experience with City of Costa Mesa, CA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program through Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Dept. Graduate of City of Costa Mesa, CA Police Department Citizens Academy.
Member of Disaster Action Team for American Red Cross Orange County helping families impacted by house fire or other disaster. Member of Mass Care for American Red Cross providing emergency services of feeding, sheltering, & bulk supplies after a disaster. Home Fire Associate installing free smoke alarms in homes. Continuous certification training with American Red Cross.
Continuous certification training with FEMA Emergency Management Institute. the emergency management community’s flagship training institution, providing training to Federal, State, local, tribal, volunteer, public, and private sector officials to strengthen emergency management core competencies for professional training.
Certified in Adult/Child/Infant CPR & AED.
Amateur Radio Technician Class KK6WYG
.jpg)
