THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 164 Minutes



Click below to watch The Dark Knight Rises trailer.



In Warner Bros. The Dark Knight Rises, crippled, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale, comes out of retirement when terrorist leader Bane, Tom Hardy, threatens to destroy Gotham City - and billionaire Wayne/Bale returns as The Batman.

Sad to say that this film will probably go down in movie history more for incident of the midnight screening shootings at Aurora, Colorado rather than as more as the end of the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale trilogy of the Dark Knight series. It was pretty shocking for me to wake up to this breaking news that day. If I did not have to be at work the next morning, I probably would have been at a midnight screening myself as well. Naturally, the cast and crew had expressed their deepest sympathies to the victims.

The movie itself is more of a dark suspense thriller, instead of a fun superhero action film like The Avengers. In fact, this movie was more like a serious James Bond film rather than as a comic book film. 

In the last of The Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises is written with Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, and is based on the DC Comics character Batman created by Bob Kane, with influences by the darker Batman comics of "Knightfall" and "No Man's Land." Selina Kyle, Anne Hathaway - as "the Cat" - steals the pearl's of Bale's mother. Since this was more than a simple cat burglary, Bale comes out of his eight year reclusive isolation since the events of The Dark Knight to find out the real reason Hathaway accessed his safe. A corporate takeover of Wayne Enterprises by Board Member Ben Mendelsohn incorporated Hathaway and terrorist Bane/Hardy as Mendelsohn's henchman. Bane/Hardy is formally a part of being with Ra's al Ghul's League of Shadows - just like Wayne/Bale used to be a part of the League. Bane/Hardy has his own agenda from Mendelsohn - assuming the leadership of the League of Shadows, and in taking up Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham City.

Although Aaron Eckhart did not appear as his character District Attorney Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight Rises - because Eckhart was killed off in The Dark Knight - Eckhart's pictures and archival footage were used throughout the movie as a reference to his character and of how much Dent/Eckhart still had as an influence to Gotham City. Gary Oldman reprises his role as Commissioner Gordon, who feels guilty in covering up District Attorney Dent/Eckhart's crimes when Dent/Eckhart was the criminal Two-Face. The Joker is never mentioned in The Dark Knight Rises out of respect for Heath Ledger - although, this lack of mentioning The Joker in the movie is ironic considering the events that have surrounded this movie.

Hathaway was very good as Selina Kyle's Catwoman, however she was never referred to as Catwoman in the movie. Hathaway went through intense training to be Catwoman and she says that this was her most physically demanding role to date. I believed that Hathaway could kick-ass while I was watching her - especially when she goes from sweet, innocent girl, to "the Cat." Tom Hardy as Bane also trained heavily for this movie by studying various fighting styles but, with Hardy's face covered by Bane's mask, you feel that it could be anybody under his mask - especially with Hardy's accented voice, just like anybody could be The Batman with Bale's gravelly voice. You don't really get to see any deep acting from Hardy because of the mask. He could have just been some big hulking wrestler under the mask with Hardy doing a voice-over for all we know. At least this time the character of Bane was more like the original comic book character of a general, strategist, and one-man ruthless army to be a villainous equal to Batman mentally as well as being the villainous character physically.

While I expected Joseph Gordon-Levitt having a minor role in the movie - he actually had a larger more integral role than I had expected, becoming Gordon/Oldman's right hand man. Levitt was good, however I felt the character should have been younger. The character should at least be fresh out of the Police Academy with his idealism.  Liam Neeson's cameo reprising his role as Ra's al Ghul was an unexpected pleasure to see. The Pittsburgh Steelers make cameo appearances in the football game.

You need a willing suspension of disbelief to accept Bale's healing of his injuries as I felt there was not sufficient time allowed in the showing of the film's story to allow for proper healing. Even with the doctors Bale had, that is still not enough sense of time in the movie to heal properly. If you accept that there was enough of a period of time for Bale to heal, then the events in the movie happened over a very long period of time which seems excessive to me. Also, the fact that the entire police force is sent underground is unbelievable as that would leave the entire city exposed. I know the Fire Department will not give up all their assets for Mutual Aid as that would leave their own city at risk, so I would not be surprised if the Police Department had something similar in their procedures. The climax of the war between the police and the criminal gangs is also unbelievable, given the firepower involved. There is a similar scene in War Horse that was much more believable. On the other hand, Batman's equipment was great to see in action as he drove around in them. Instead of a batmobile, this time he has a batplane. Although it was sad to see what happens to some of the equipment, it was still great to see. As a veteran cop tells his rookie partner, "sit back, you're in for a show."

The film was a long movie. I felt it could have been trimmed a little in the second half, just before the climax. As it is, this is the longest film Nolan has ever directed. There was also a lot of exposition in the movie, exposition of the plot rather than dialog. One, maybe two, exposition scenes I could except, like Michael Caine's concerned fantasy about the welfare for Bale while Bale was away for years for the first time. Cutting out some of this exposition could have trimmed the movie.

This is definitely the end of the Dark Knight trilogy, but the end of the movie is a positive ending left open for a new generation, a new direction for the next series of movies.

The audience I saw The Dark Knight Rises with applauded and cheered at the end and it was a pretty full house for a matinee, so not many people were intimidated by the events. Although as I was going up to the theater, a group was also going to see the film. A family man with his kids was coming out of the theater. The group asked him, "Did you see The Dark Knight?" The family man jokingly said, "no, he did not want to get shot." I was wondering if the events would hurt or help the film, or have no effect at all, to what the box office will take. We shall see as Warner Bros. will not release the opening weekend result until later "out of respect for the victims and their families." So while I think most people will live out their lives and not let the Aurora tragedy make them live in fear, it will take a while for the rest of us to get over it and heal.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 164 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 136 Minutes




Click below to watch the The Amazing Spider-Man trailer.



In Columbia Pictures/Marvel Enterprises The Amazing Spider-Man, high school nerd Peter Parker - Andrew Garfield - is bitten by a genetically modified laboratory spider, and becomes The Amazing Spider-Man.

This reboot of Spider-man in 2012 is released on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the first appearance of Spider-Man from the comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 that was published in 1962, which was Amazing Fantasy's last issue. Based on the comic book character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the movie The Amazing Spider-Man goes back to the origin of Spider-Man - with Ditko's early comics work as an influence on the film. Also, the movie concentrates more on Parker's/Garfield's mysteriously missing parents - who were killed in a plane crash - than was shown in previous movies. Parker/Garfield soon learns that his mysterious scientist father had worked with his fellow scientist, Dr. Curt Connors - Rhys Ifans. This is the first of the Spiderman movies that I can recall that they concentrated so much on Parker's parents. Actually a lot of the elements in this movie harkens back to the original origin from the comics, so I felt rather comfortable with this remake of Spider-Man. While politically incorrect - sports jock Flash Thompson, Chris Zylka, beating up weakling Parker/Garfield is straight from the comic book, although Garfield should have been more of a geeky push-over during this scene. The movie, however, integrated spiders much more into the movie as a major plot point than was indicated from the original origin story, in order to create a biocable from genetically modified spiders. Thus, Parker/Garfield being inundated by spiders in the laboratory was very disturbing to me. I think part of Spider-Man being my favorite superhero is for me to overcome my phobia of insects.

Since the movie was set during Parker's high school days, I did not feel that Garfield was socially inept enough as Parker when he was in high school, but I did feel that Garfield was smart enough to be the science geek and well represented the mature Parker as he became Spider-Man. Garfield also had the playful sense of humor as Spider-Man that was needed for his jokes, especially since he is wearing a skin-tight red and blue leotard. There was a drastic difference in Garfield's abilities after he was bitten by the spider, although the depiction of Garfield's spider-sense was barely noticeable. My favorite Spider-Man scenes - aside from his continually gagging people with his webbing - was the scene where he was caught by the police, and he used his kick-ass spider powers to escape. Unfortunately, the spider-sense Parker/Garfield has just makes it seem like Parker/Garfield only has extremely fast reflexes, instead of reacting to danger.

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy was not just a damsel in distress, but a smart and kick ass lady who falls in love with Parker/Garfield. Denis Leary was great as Stone's father, police Captain Stacy. In fact an old friend of Leary's thought, when he first met Leary, "I thought you  were George Stacy!" Stacy/Leary is determined to go after the masked vigilante Spider-Man - although Stone's and Leary's relationship with Spider-Man was reversed in the movie as compared to the comics. Leary's and Garfield's dinner scene debating their vigilante beliefs showed their passions on what they believe is right. This was one of my favorite scenes as it shows their diametric beliefs and stresses one of the major themes of the movie.

Martin Sheen was great and well cast as the loving Uncle Ben, as well as Sally Field being great as the loving Aunt May, although Field was not the frail, invalid that Aunt May is typically being known for. May/Field continually coming across Parker/Garfield who is all beat up and not wondering why he is always hurt like that after being such a loving surrogate mother to him was unrealistic to me. Such a lack of confrontation from his "parent" about Garfield always getting beat up while he is out being Spider-man had lessened the dramatic impact of Parker/Garfield's family home life to me. As it is, Field did not seem to me like she was taking care of Garfield like the parent of a high school teenager. Rhys Ifans as the one-armed Dr. Connors was nice enough as Connors but, without his family from the comics supporting him, Connors loses a lot of his characterization and sympathy - especially when Connors is forced to develop a cure for his gravely ill boss, Norman Osborn.

The effects and makeup of the villain, The Lizard, were good - although I would rather not have had The Lizard with the capability of speech just so we can accentuate his bestiality. I think The Lizard would have been scarier without the ability to speak. The Lizard was motion-captured, so his movements were believable. Having Garfield feeling responsible for stopping the Lizard goes back to Garfield's guilt of letting Uncle Ben/Sheen die. It was great Ifans insisted on doing his own stuntwork in the movie. Garfield studied how spiders move, and as a result he looked much more believable as Spider-Man in his spider movements than in previous movies. The graphics for Spider-man's webbing from Garfield's web-shooters - of which science geek Garfield had developed - were much more believable in that they looked like webs and as a result, both Garfield's movements and his webbing looked much more like what was in the comic books. Garfield's web-swinging is more visual as well, like in the comics. Garfield's web-swinging gives the city and the movie more of a 3-D feel. The film's action scenes were also shot in 3-D, while the rest of the movie was converted from 2-D. As a result, the action scenes had things flying out at you - as well as the stunts being performed on rigs flying out at you - which made the action even more interesting as a 3-D movie and worth the price for 3-D for me. There was also a Spider-Man pin given out, while supplies last.

OzCorp's holographic security system, seemed very high-tech - until Garfield was able to copy the code. At my work, we have to have card and code in order to gain access to our building - and we are not in a high-tech security industry like at OzCorp - so the ease of Garfield breaking into OzCorp's security ruined any type of credibility with me. Having Stone using a security card at OzCorp seemed anachronistic and inconsistent in the movie compared to the high-tech graphic security locks, although the card and code adds more security to the system. I personally wonder how they are going to bring Norman Osborn into the series - because, as of right now, he is mysteriously ill. My guess is that some experiment to cure him will turn Norman Osborn into the Green Goblin, or maybe even the Hobgoblin. I would love to see a Green Goblin vs. Hobgoblin battle.

I did not recognize C. Thomas Howell as the father of the kid Spider-Man rescues, but Howell had a significant part for what is basically a walk-on role. For comic book fans, the cameo of Stan Lee is in the middle of the movie during a Lizard battle in the school library. The guy behind me was laughing very hard at this scene. He was obviously, like I am, a big fan of Stan the Man.

There is a scene in the middle of the end credits that hints more of the story for Parker's/Garfield's parents for the sequel.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 136 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

MEN IN BLACK 3

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG- 13

Running time: 106 Minutes



Click below to watch the MEN IN BLACK 3 trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Men in Black 3, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Earth is about to be invaded from space. Man in Black Will Smith must go back in time in order to save his partner Tommy Lee Jones life - who was killed 40 years earlier, thus wiping out Jones present-day existence - as well as restoring Earth's defense system which Jones had set up to prevent extraterrestrial invasion.

In a sequel to the Men in Black movies - based on the comic books created and written by Lowell Cunningham, which was based on the UFO phenomenon of the Men in Black - alien criminal Jemaine Clement escapes from prison and seeks revenge on the MIB agent who took his arm - Jones. Clement's alien appendages were pretty graphic, thus emphasizing his alienness and his evilness as the bad guy. Having Clement going back in time and meeting himself was a pretty fun meeting, as they are both pissed off at each other's actions. Sonnenfeld had studied the Back to the Future movies because those movies got time travel right, and watching the scenes where Michael Chernus or Michael Stuhlbarg talked about time travel and alternate timelines did have a Back to the Future type of feeling to me. The time travel sequence was similar to the time travel sequence to the movie The Time Machine, so the sequence was more visual than the Back to the Future time travel scenes.

Josh Brolin was great as the young Tommy Lee Jones. I could believe Brolin was a younger Jones, although Brolin as a character was happier in the past than the mature Jones was in the present. As Smith keeps asking Brolin, "What happened to you?" "I don't know. It hasn't happened yet."

There was a plot point towards the end of the movie that was totally predictable to me as a writer, once the plot point started to be set up and play out. Even then, knowing what was going to happen, I still teared up at the scenes. Despite the scene being totally predictable to me - the scene was a total surprise to the guy behind me, so the scene worked for the movie. When I saw the movie at an early matinee, there was a small crowd. Usually, a small crowd means that it would be fairly silent in the theater - but the audience was laughing and reacting to the movie. So I can imagine how the audience would have reacted if it was a crowded evening theater.

Since Rip Torn was not in this movie, the movie played up Torn being missing. There were also pictures of the alien talking dog, Frank the Pug, as a reference to the earlier movies as Frank was also not in the movie. Smith makes references that Smith has been an agent for 14 years. It is hard for me to think that the MIB films have been around for that long, but in reality the original Men in Black was released in 1997. You can see in Men in Black 3 that Smith is quite a veteran now as a Man in Black. While Emma Thompson replaced Torn in the movie, she does not have the film presence that Torn had as the head of the MIB. But it was nice to see that Thompson does have a relationship with Jones whose relationship originated in the past with Brolin and the young Thompson - Alice Eve. When Smith went back in time, David Rasche was the head of the MIB in the past. As a fan of David Rasche since the TV series Sledge Hammer!, when I saw that he was the head of the MIB, I thought Rasche would be great in that role. It is a shame that Rasche did not have much to do.  Rasche had basically a walk on part.

When the holder of the time machines Michael Chernus warns Smith that Smith will be traveling to 1969, Chernus warns Smith that 1969 was not a good time for Smith's people. While this idea is not politically correct, I wanted to see more confrontations for Smith about his being black back in 1969 as Smith searches for Jones and Clement. At least more than what was shown, and with Smith being a black comedian, his showing up the prejudice of the time and it's comeuppance amongst the bigots that were back then would have been great to see. That would have added more realism and relevance to the movie to see that. It was also nice having Asian aliens in the movie, like restaurant owner Keone Young. It is rare that I  get to see asians in a science fiction movie. Being set in 1969, there were also major references to the events of the year - including references to the Amazing Mets, Andy Warhol - Bill Hader - and the launch of the first lunar Moon landing in the movie. Having visited Cape Canaveral, otherwise known as Cape Kennedy back then, the recreation of the Cape Canaveral spectator area looked pretty realistic to me.

Click below to watch another trailer of Men in Black 3.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

BATTLESHIP

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 131 Minutes



Click below to watch the Battleship trailer.



In Universal's Battleship, which is based on the game by Hasbro, screw up Taylor Kitsch is drafted by his Naval brother Alexander Skarsgård into the United States Navy with Skarsgard. While on RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, a multi-national maritime exercise in which the U.S. Navy participates in - they encounter an alien invasion force.

While the movie was based on the game of Battleship, there were very little references to the game, or the references to the ads in which most of the audience would be more familiar with if they have never played the game. That seems a poor marketing strategy on the studio's/writer's part. Those of us who grew up with the game like me would want to see a little bit more of that. The ads of the game today are based on the movie. The references in the movie were not always directly related to the game. You had to reach for the references to notice the connection to the game. The most obvious references were the alien artillery that were shaped like the pegs in the game, although the artillery pegs were not aerodynamically launched. The alien artillery flew through the air like thrown knives and I am surprised that they did not bounce off the ships when they were flying like that. The scene where the movie used tsunami warning buoys, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather tracking system, to locate the water displacement of the alien ships so they can call out artillery strikes against the alien ships is a direct reference as to playing the game. There was one scene in the movie that had dialog that was different than the trailer. Frankly, I liked the dialog in the trailer better for that scene than what they used in the movie. There was also a scene in the movie that was based on a true-life funny video that went viral on YouTube.

The movie is a combination of Top Gun, Under Siege, Independence Day, Battle Los Angeles, and Transformers. While the story is pretty standard, my favorite parts of the movie deal with the Naval exercise and the Naval ships themselves. Seeing the close-in weapon systems (CIWS) being used for the shipboard point-defense against the alien artillery was awesome. It was great seeing the old battleship U.S.S. Missouri and the old salt Navy men who had crewed the Missouri during World War II.  It was especially great since battleships are now considered obsolete because they are too expensive to operate, as well as battleships having been surpassed by aircraft carriers as being the leading capital ships for the Navy.

A touching subplot, which gives a sense of realism to the movie, deals with the wounded warriors and the therapy they must go through. Kitsch's girlfriend Brooklyn Decker - who also unfortunately for Kitsch just happens to be the daughter of Kitsch's commanding officer Admiral Liam Neeson - is a therapist who gives therapy to real-life wounded warrior bi-lateral amputee Gregory D. Gadson in Oahu. Unfortunately, Admiral Neeson and most of the fleet were caught outside the alien force field and Neeson was not involved in fighting the aliens. This was a disappointment as I was expecting Neeson to be heavily involved in the action, one commander of our fleet against the commander of the alien fleet. Having some of the alien devastation taking place in Hong Kong adds to the scope of the movie, while news clips and footage of President Barack Obama, as well as the use of actual Naval personnel as extras to the movie added to the realism of the movie. Although, Peter MacNicol's brief appearance as the U.S. Secretary of Defense did not add to the political realism to me. Special thanks was given to the United States Department of Defense at the end of the movie.

This was singer Rihanna's acting debut. While I have never heard her music, Rihanna did pretty good as a Gunner's Mate and weapons specialist who kicked alien butt. Her character was basically of a girl from the hood who had joined the Navy and fired some big guns on both of the small boats and being on gun control on the big ships. Having wounded warrior Gadson also kicking alien butt in the movie was also fun to see. This was basically Kitsch's movie, so having Kitsch give up command of his ship over to his soccer rival Captain Tadanobu Asano, while understandable, bothered me. Also, I am not sure if that is legal to give up command of your ship like that in the Navy.

The plot of the alien invasion was too similar to Independence Day. Alien ships arrive from space and start to cause havoc, mostly with the Naval forces while trying to control communications. The aliens were too humanoid to me for the aliens to be scary enough as a threat, the aliens were just big and mean. The aliens weapons were scarier and more destructive than the aliens themselves. The alien ships were more like submersibles instead of aircraft as the alien ships hopscotched across the ocean. However the alien ships hopscotching along the ocean allowed the alien ships to be targeted like in the game. 

At the end of the movie, there is a scene at the end of the end credits. This is the longest after credits scene that I have ever seen. I am not sure if this scene was just a nice tag to the movie, or a hint of what the sequel will be.

This was also the first time that I saw Universal's 100th anniversary logo. I thought the new introduction logo was cool.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 131 Minutes.

Click below to watch another trailer of Battleship.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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 - the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the Trickster Norse God Loki, Tom Hiddleston, steals a powerful power source called a tesseract from the counter terrorism and intelligence agency of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division - S.H.I.E.L.D. In order to recover the tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, then feels it is time to gather 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 because of their hidden agendas. While this all may seem quite dramatic, and the movie is dramatic, 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 in it's second weekend - thus setting a couple of new records. I saw the movie as the first showing on a Sunday afternoon the first weekend and the theater was pretty full. When the movie ended, there was a line for the next show 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 all of 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, even if he was not referred as the World's Greatest Marksman but a master assasin.

Hiddleston as Thor's adopted brother Loki is the bad guy of the movie. Although, there were times that Hiddleston seemed to have just accepted things and had just let himself get captured - which made Hiddleston to me appear to be not as strong, or as evil as a super villain who wants to rule humanity as he should have been. Even though I knew Hiddleston had sinister intentions for doing that, I still felt a little wishy-washy about Hiddleston being the ultimate bad guy as a result. However, Hiddleston's interactions and intense battles with The Avengers makes up for Hiddleston being so wishy-washy. Loki's helmet was straight out of the comics and the helmet really made me believe that Hiddleston was the evil Loki when he wore it. With Hiddleston's 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 - because at the end of the Thor movie, Hemsworth had left Earth. While Hemsworth's Thor did return to Earth in The Avengers, Thor's return was more of an incidental thing in The Avengers rather than his return being a significant plot point. Hemsworth's and Hiddleston's fraternal rivalry was great to see again, as their fraternal rivalary is the basis for Hiddleston's sinister motivation - as well as 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 climax of the Transformer films and Green Lantern, but The Avengers climax is a much better climax as there are multiple threats in the movie 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 attacking airborne aliens in their defense as the aliens are strafing the police. Jackson's Nick Fury must deal with a scenario straight out of the movie Fail Safe. That scene 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 what they wear in the comic books. While I believe there was a resolution for the tesseract, the resolution was not a big enough resolution for me to truely remember it. If the resolution scene is the scene that I think it is, I have to concentrate to remember that particular scene out of all the memorable scenes in the movie. For comic book fans, comic book creator Stan Lee's cameo appearance appears at the end of the movie - so you can concentrate on watching the movie instead of looking for Lee. Cameo appearances of characters from the other Marvel 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 computer graphic Hulk was much more believable as a character to me than other CGI Hulks. 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 - if they are the villains I am thinking of. At the very end of the end credits, there is a little intimate silent scene. Although, like the guy said behind me mentioned at the end - they should have said something during the scene. It was a great place for a joke.

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.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

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 - 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 Avatar either 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.

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 her dead husband's 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 rather than of 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 of the kingdom, Collins has the taxes returned to the people and credits the dwarfs for the money's return. Feeling appreciated, the dwarfs decide to teach Collins how to fight, and Collins soon learns to kick butt - thus making the movie a swashbuckler. Collins sword fight against 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 Collins birthright, which Collins was determined to do.

Instead of just talking with the magic mirror - which would have made me think that would have been one of the main points of the movie considering that the title of the movie is Mirror Mirror. Roberts walks 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, as well as a "beauty treatment" with insects. Having all of that put on me would definitely creep me out. I could not watch that scene with the bugs. Arghhh! While the beast of the forest looks like something that could have survived in the forest, I wanted something bigger and scarier. At least the beast was something similar to the Disney beast from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which made the beast somewhat acceptable to me.

I liked the musical dance number that the characters did during the end credits of the movie.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews