ENDER'S GAME

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 minutes



Click below to watch an Ender's Game movie trailer.



In Summit Entertainment's Ender's Game - Earth had been attacked by aliens, so now Earth is readying soldiers to fight them. These soldiers are children - especially the chosen leader Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield.

Directed by Gavin Hood - who plays the giant in the mind game - and Co-Written by Hood, the movie is based on Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game, and is Produced by Card who also wrote the screenplay in order to preserve the vision of his book. This live-action movie of Ender's Game is a study in the near future of how desperate the human race would be if we were trying to prepare ourselves for another invasion. The use of training children from the start with war games instead of normal play with educational kid games is rather sad. Too bad several themes from the book never really got a chance to be developed in the movie as they were concentrating on Ender's/Butterfield's story.

Actually, despite what the trailers may imply, this is Ender's/Butterfield's story. You see Ender/Butterfield going from student to being recruited to Battle School as Mankind's last hope of a military leader against the aliens. You also see the jealousy of the other students for Ender's/Butterfield's brilliance, and I felt for his isolation and his manipulation by Harrison Ford. In a sense, this is the ultimate bully movie as Ender/Butterfield fights back.

While initially I did not think Ben Kingsley's facial tattoos were unnecessary and detracted too much for me from appreciating Kingsley's performance in the movie, the tattoos were explained in the movie as part of his Maori background and I accepted them.

The movie is actually very close to the book. While not everything could not be put in and explored, at least all the major themes were mentioned. The children were more young teenagers from high school instead of the elementary school children from the book however. This is probably due to the fact that you can not do this kind of graphic material with very young children, as well as having the marketing factor of having teen aged stars being in the movie. The videos of the aerial battle with the alien Fomecs used contemporary military fighters, so the alien invasion could have taken place today - and the battles in space were believable too. I like the fact that the U.S. Marines have Ender's Game as recommended reading for lessons in leadership.

Having read the book in college, I have always wondered how they were going to do the zero gravity effects of Battle School - if this would be an animated film or a live action film. As a live-action film, the zero G Battle School scenes in Earth orbit were very believable - especially as the young actors were trained in wire-work by Cirque du Soleil. The performances by the Academy Award Nominee stars Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford, and Academy Award Winner Ben Kingsley make you get into the characters. I think this is the best military science fiction movie I have seen. As for Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield - this is no game.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Ender's Game.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH

Rainmaker Entertainment

Rated PG

Running time: 89 minutes




Click below to watch the Escape From Planet Earth trailer.

 

In The Weinstein Company's animated film Escape From Planet Earth, egotistical astronaut Brendan Fraser is sent to investigate an SOS from the Dark Planet - Earth.

The Dark Planet is the place where representatives of famous alien races have disappeared, including the Roswell aliens. National hero astronaut Fraser, with his media attention and his marketing, reminds me of an egotistical version of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, while his nerdy Mission Control brother Rob Corddry at BASA wants nothing to do with any kind of adventure. Actually the running joke in the movie was how nerdy Corddry got hot Sarah Jessica Parker to be his wife. When BASA's no-nonsense chief Jessica Alba sends Fraser into deep space to the Dark Planet, Fraser winds up at a 7-Eleven in the middle of nowhere and gets captured by William Shatner - and gets sent to Area 51. Now Corddry must leave his home planet of Baab to go rescue his brother on this strange dark planet called Earth.

This is a nice family film. The film has an impressive celebrity cast for an animated film, although I could barely tell their distinctive voices as I was too caught up in the characters themselves. I was expecting Ricky Gervais, as the computer, to have a larger computer role in the movie and was disappointed in that. 7-Eleven actually had a larger role in the movie than I would have thought. I was expecting just a simple product placement with 7-Eleven, but it actually had several scenes in the movie, with one of those fan-blown balloons becoming one of my favorite characters in the movie. It was rather sad to learn how and why Shatner became a bad guy who wants to wipe out all the aliens. The aliens at Area 51,  Craig Robinson, Jane Lynch, and George Lopez were great as Corddry's friends.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 89 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 

Cowboys & Aliens

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 minutes



Set in the old west, Universal Pictures Cowboys & Aliens has amnesiac Daniel Craig waking up with an alien weapon strapped to his wrist and soon comes up against aliens from space.

When Craig arrives in a frontier town, the townspeople realize he is a wanted criminal and the sheriff arrests him. Cattle rancher Harrison Ford wants revenge on Craig for what Craig did to his son and wants Craig for himself, but before Craig can get shipped off to a larger town for trial - aliens arrive and kidnap some of the townspeople, including Ford's son, the no good Paul Dano. Mysterious Olivia Wilde convinces Craig to go after the townspeople which would in the process help Craig recover his lost memory. Craig joins Ford as they go on a quest to bring Ford's boy and the rest of the townspeople home from the aliens.

This film is True Grit meets Battle Los Angeles with the film being mostly a western. There is hardly any hi-tech gadgetry aside from Craig's wrist gun and the foo fighters.

The reason the aliens are here is not really explained aside from the initial reason - nor the reason why the beastial aliens kidnapped people in the first place, although Craig looks like he was part of an experiment. With Ford turning out to be a former Army officer, the movie soon turns out to be an Indiana Jones meets James Bond movie, although I accepted British Craig as an American. Soon, all the various human groups - townspeople, cattle ranchers, stage coach robbers, and native americans - join forces against the aliens in a battle for survival.

I was upset the dog was not used more throughout the movie. What should be obvious with the dog, but then he would just be there, then disappear, then show up again and that was rather irritating for a such a neutral character. Other than those things, I thought this off-beat movie was pretty good.

The director Jon Favreau also insisted the film should only be shot on film since this is a Western, so I do not think there will be any 3-D versions of this film.

See UFO Bob's video review of Cowboys & Aliens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6dQO6d74E

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 118 minutes.

Pancho

All people smile in the same langauge.

Green Lantern

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 minutes

Click below to watch the Green Lantern trailer.



In Brightest Day,
In Blackest Night,
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware My Power...
Green Lantern's Light!
- Hal Jordan/Green Lantern

In Warner Bros. Green Lantern, a dying alien Temuera Morrison bestows on cocky test pilot Ryan Reynolds a power ring and lantern which allows Reynolds to turn into an inter-galactic policeman - a Green Lantern.

With the release of a galactic villainous force Parallax, the inter-galactic police force - the Green Lantern Corps - try to contain him. With Parallax's ability to feed on fear, several Green Lanterns fall prey to the power of Parallax. When Parallax arrives on Earth to meet with it's telepathic scientist controlled subject Peter Sarsgaard - who was exposed to a part of Parallax during the autopsy of the alien Abin Sur/Temuera Morrison - it is the newest Green Lantern Reynolds who must overcome his fear and use his willpower to become Earth's last hope.

While the film tells the story of the origin of Hal Jordon/Ryan Reynolds who would go on to become the greatest Green Lantern of the Corps, the scenes on Earth are anti-climatic compared to Reynolds training scenes out in space on the planet Oa - home of the Guardians of the Universe. While this origin story is much better than Thor, the scenes at home at Coast City on Earth still seem a little trivial. Even though the origin scenes include Hal Jordon's comic book associates from the Ferris Aircraft company Blake Lively and Taika Waititi, as well as dealing with the loss of his test pilot dad, there is not as much angst as what would seem necessary for such an origin story. The climax does not seem as Earth-shattering as you would expect as it happens in one city instead of being world-wide.

What is good about the movie is that the movie looks like the comic book. That is what really made me want to see the movie is because it looked like the comic book, which looks amazing and not something really cheesy. Even the aliens looked believable which includes Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mark Strong, and Clancy Brown - most of which are done through performance-capture. The computer graphics of the Green Lantern uniforms and the Green Lantern's animated light image of their willpower creations were also believable. The relationship with the Central Power Battery of Oa and the universe of Green Lantern was interesting and unexpected to me, which also leads to a potential sequel as hinted at during the end of the movie's credits which is not unexpected if you have read the comic books.

Cameos by Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett were not well used, even though they played powerful characters. Angela Bassett's character was especially disappointing as she is supposed to be the head of the intelligence organization Checkmate in the comic book.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Battle: Los Angeles

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 116 minutes



In Columbia Pictures Battle: Los Angeles - Los Angeles is being invaded by aliens from space and a U.S. Marine unit defends the city against them.

Staff Sargent Aaron Eckhart decides to retire, after losing his men in a previous tour - when the aliens arrive under the guise of meteorites. He now has to lead his men, who distrust him to keep them alive - especially the brother of a Marine killed under his command. Also leading the men is 2nd Lieutenant Ramon Rodriguez, fresh out of Officer Candidate School as the Marines are sent in to evacuate some stranded civilians from a West Los Angeles police station. Amongst the civilians is veterinarian Bridget Moynahan who helps dissect an alien. Along the way the Marines pick up a squad of friendlies, including Technical Sargent Michelle Rodriguez from the U.S. Air Force who was sent on a recon mission to search for the aliens Command and Control center.

Inspired on the real events of the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles, this is an intense film of a homeland invasion. Done in the style of Cloverfield and told from the point of view of the Marines, the shaky-cam might be a distraction in the beginning - but is soon ignored as the action starts. The initial breaking news stories adds to the realism of the film. The film deals with intense urban street fighting, ground combat. There is very little air combat action, despite the use of helicopter troop carriers and the drone foo fighters. As a Los Angeles local, it was nice hearing them mention Los Angeles streets, so you can track the Marines progress through the city. The intense action amongst our neighborhoods makes you wonder what it would really be like if our homes really were invaded - and not necessarily by aliens. You do not really get a good look at the aliens and for a while I was not sure if the aliens were drones or aliens in battle armour.

The film really is about the story of the Marines and not the aliens, and there were times that I teared up as I related to what happened to the Marines. The actors trained with the Marines, so their depiction was very believable, as I am sure their characters were as well. It was nice that the movie opened on 03/11/11 as 0311 is the Marine Corps Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) for Infantry Riflemen. The film was such a positive movie that at the end of the film the audience cheered. As the Marines say: Retreat? HELL!

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 116 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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Avatar

20th Century-Fox Film Corporation

Rated PG-13

Running time: 162 minutes


















Click below to watch the Avatar trailer.



James Cameron's Avatar, by 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, is about Marine paraplegic Sam Worthington going to the planet Pandora to join the Avatar program - a program in which he inhabits a native giant body avatar. The humans on the planet are mining a rare mineral and the Marines provide security for them. Worthington is assigned to make contact with the natives and as he learns and interacts with the natives - Worthington realizes he is on the wrong side.

This is basically the story of the Vietnam war, or of any superior culture overwhelming a primitive society. It was much more interesting watching the scientists and Worthington learning about the natives and the planet, than it was in dealing with the Marines who were hardly shown during the first half of the film. The only Marines you really get to know are Worthington's friends, including the woman Marine pilot Michelle Rodriguez. You also get to know the Marine Colonel in charge Stephen Lang. Worthington in the beginning was not believable as a veteran Marine with extensive experience. This was especially in contrast with the trailer of The National Guard that was being shown at my screening just before the movie started, and of how professional the Guard are. As the alien Zoe Saldana told the inexperienced Worthington, "You are a baby!" While not being in the military, I have a feeling that the depiction of the Marines used in the movie is not entirely accurate. But after a rigorous training by Saldana to make Worthington become one of her people, Worthington becomes the resourceful hero Worthington is destined to be.

On a technical level, I saw this movie in 3-D. It is rare that I watch a 3-D movie, it all depends on what movie is available at the time I am able to go to the movies. The real D 3D glasses that I was given were able to fit over my glasses, but did not fit properly and I had to hold the glasses in place for me to watch the movie comfortably. As a movie-goer, holding the glasses is rather tiresome and most of the time I just let go of the glasses and not watch the top of the screen. Traditional 2 dimensional film making does not always work for a 3-D movie, but for the most part the movie was enjoyable in 3-D.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 162 minutes


Pancho
All people smile in the same language.