Power Rangers Movie Review.

Synopsis: A group of high-school students, who are infused with unique superpowers,harness their abilities in order to save the world.

Everybody says it is really fun movie. Power Rangers TV show was always fun and very goofy but it was enjoyable. This movie is more realistic and settled for a more gritty tone. It has good actors in it, more realistic action and a good feel of a descent superhero movie. Nice interactions between the characters and funny humor are the basis of this film's success. It is successful in achieving it's goal - being funny, entertaining, not super serious and visually great.  

Power Rangers is a big teenage flick, it does have a high school feel, the way people talk reminds of some sitcoms but it is still a good acting from that cast. The mythology was pretty good and well explained, the story is very simple - a cliched superhero plot and all in that manner. But this movie had a strategy of being fun and entertaining so the bad side of this film isn't noticeable that much. 

Well done movie, but it had problems in pacing and the story. The biggest problem I had with this movie is that Power Rangers couldn't suit up for the whole movie and did it just at the end. After all, it felt like a Power Rangers TV show so with that the director did a good job. And visually this movie looks great - a good time in the movie theater. 

Kong: Skull Island Movie Review

Skull Island poster

A team of scientists explore an uncharted island in the Pacific, venturing into the domain of the mighty Kong, and must fight to escape a primal Eden.


New huge blockbuster with a familiar face - Kong: Skull Island appeared to be a big and a very violent film. Right from the beginning it makes total sense that this movie is made just to introduce Kong in a new monster universe for Warner Brothers in which latest Godzilla ( 2013) took place. 

The main purpose of this movie is to entertain, so it does with clumsy action and many many deaths. This movie has a 70-s and a Vietnam war feel to it, and it always has cool music to remind about it. 

The story and the characters are very simple. It almost copies Peter Jackson's version. A squad of navies goes to an uncharted island with a bunch of scientists to explore it. Thus they drop special bombs to study it, which leads everyone into trouble. 

Kong:Skull Island

If we look at this movie from an artistic point of view then we will see a big mess with no character development, good plot devices or hooking story whatsoever. But the most awful thing that happened in this movie is the treatment of all characters in it. They whether die with no emotional meaning or they just don't do anything at all. 

Kong is in front and center of all action. There are a lot of fighting scenes with him and overall he was done pretty well. The big bad monster at the end wasn't difficult to defeat at all, and that took enjoyment out. The main villain though is a human. 

Acting was somewhere in the film but this movie wasn't made to enjoy drama or good interactions between the characters. So, Kong: Skull Island is a big messy flick. I can't say that the action was done well, it felt inconsistent and the CGI looked quite unconvincing. But it was pretty fun sometimes: John C. Reilly was a good comedic relief, Tom Hiddlestone played a bad-ass and sometimes it was enjoyable to watch him on screen and some other scenes were good. This is how I liked this movie. It has some good moments but I expected something more, that looks like a good motion picture.

Logan Movie Review.

Synopsis:  In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X somewhere on the Mexican border. However, Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.

This movie has a special place in my hart. It is more then just a movie - this is legacy. It has been 17 years since the first X-men movie came out. And ever since Logan was played by Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart played Professor X. After all those years this film seems more then a perfect ending and a grand finale for a thing that lasted for such a long time. James Mangold - the director of the movie also directed The Wolverine (2013) clearly knew how to make this one work. There was no major studio interference on Fox's part, so he did what he and Hugh Jackman wanted this last Wolverine movie to be. Logan is inspired by many great films. You can find a feel of a good old-time western in it, The Last of Us and Unforgiven (1992) vibe. 

The story is moving very quickly, starting from a good R-rated blood mess, then turning into a story of an old sick man, suffering from loss, despair and hopelessness in this world. This man is Logan, who lives near the Mexican boarder and takes care of Charles Xavier Professor X, who has gone mad. The mutants are gone, they are not born for some years and it seems like an end for their kind. One of the last mutants - Caliban (Stephen Merchant) also takes care of Professor while Logan is gone for a job to collect some money to buy a boat to escape to the sea with Charles who has become a threat for the people near him. He needs drugs to stop his seizures. 

That is so painful to watch these iconic characters rot in that place they live, that looks like a garbage storage. Disgusting how they ended up being after all those years of struggle, school for gifted children and X-men existence. The story moves when the little girl Laura (Dafne Keen) suddenly comes up, along with an army of villains. She is a mutant of a new generation raised and grown artificially in the lab by villainous Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) and his right hand man Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). Charles always did everything for the mutant race, and now in a time of despair he convinces Logan to help young mutant to survive, so she would live a new live without violence and pain. 

The biggest strength of the movie are the dialogs and the story itself. The way how characters interact with each other, also with the sense of the history of what happened before, these relationships look even more brilliant. Charles and Logan go all the way back, so they are treated like iconic ones in terms of the depth of the story around them.

The thing that I loved the most was the feel of what I was promised in the trailers. It was really amazing to see those characters again in a new way I never seen before but with the same feel that was in previous movies. I find this movie extraordinary and very memorable. It is going to be a classic superhero ending for ages. 

Passengers 2016 Movie Review

Passengers Movie Poster

Passengers 2016, starring Chis Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen and Laurence Fishburne. Directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts, who actually wrote the script for Doctor Strange. The film takes place in a short distant future on a spaceship "Avalon", which travels to a distant colony planet known as the "Homestead Colony" and transporting 5,258 people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, one hibernation pod opens prematurely and the one person that awakes, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is stranded on the spaceship, still 90 years from his destination. 

After the awakening, Jim finds out the truth about his voyage that he is 90 years yearly so he will probably die as an old man on this ship before it reaches its destination. He has a barmen android as his pal and a very long time to study every data log on the ship in order to repair the broken chamber. He is desperate and lost. Chris Pratt does a great job playing his character as we can understand his desperation and loneliness. Pratt plays a usual guy - mechanic, who is not the most confident or charming but full of surprises. He is a little different from the Star-Lord or Owen from Jurassic World. He is a more regular person.

Passengers 2016. The Ship.

This movie has such a huge work behind it. The production design is stunning. The ship looks beautiful, every detail reminds of a high quality of the future technological progress. This movie shines with the atmosphere of excellence. And this is a very expensive film to make, paying large fees to the stars of cause too. And I think that it was poorly marketed, but at least it was what I expected the movie to be, in order of tone, even though the plot is not as it was shown in the trailers.

As you noticed, Chris Pratt's character wakes up alone. He searches the ship, looks everywhere for the solution for his repair problem, tries to destroy the armored deck door to wake the Captain ( Laurence Fishburne) (Jim obviously just a mechanic and can't use many things on the starship). The road gets him to the point where he just can't stand Arthur (played by Michael Sheen) (the barmen android) company anymore. 

I am not very familiar with previous Michael Sheen's works but he was pretty good in Passengers, he masterfully captured the behavior of the machine with no actual feelings, but with some automatic artificial reactions on a behavior of others. I don't really understand much of Jim's complaints - he had a free bar just for himself for the rest of his life, but that life lasts too long, he is just all along and can't find a reason to stay alive.

Passengers. Michael Sheen and Chris Pratt movie.

And in the moment of the biggest desperation, he throws some item away in anger to come and pick it back up and see beautiful Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) sleeping in her chamber. And then if you saw a damn poster you guess the biggest plot twist spoiled in the very first poster for the movie in the marketing campaign. 

But before that Jim was such a gentlemen to not to wake her up just in a moment he got in love with sleeping beauty. He struggled because he is a nobleman who won't take and bury someone's fortune for his own advantage. Instead, he studies her by her dairy. It turns out she is a writer and seeks adventures just as her father did to write an entertaining book. That is why she volunteered to be on this voyage. 

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.

The flaws of the movie are on the surface, but this is a movie you can enjoy very much for the star power, atmosphere of an expensive movie and for the romance. I didn't see necessarily a strong chemistry between Lawrence and Pratt, they fit each other and these are world class actors but there was less depth for Aurora character. She wasn't explored wisely. She definitely plays a supporting role. All of that made this romance watchable but only for the aesthetic pleasure. 

As for the plot - it was boring, everything was spoiled and the rest was not interesting as it turns out to be an action movie in the third act with most of the problems in it. The drama at the end wasn't powerful due to numbers of flaws. Overall this movie shines in the technological aspects but lacks a good script and solid filmmaking; it looked expensive but too popcorny to be serious enough as it wanted.   

Passengers. Open Space

Arnold Schwarzenegger Probably Won't Appear in a New "Predator" Movie.

Recently Boyd Holbrook spoke to We Got This Covered and told that the new Shane Black "Predator" will be something brand new, not a sequel, so it is not likely, that some familiar faces would appear. That is what he told:

“I’m currently working on Predator. It’s not a sequel; Shane Black has made something totally new, somehow keeping within the realm of Predator [while also being] absolutely new in terms of the story that we’re talking about today, and rooted in something real. It’s real fresh. I don’t think you’re going to see [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. It would kind of make it a gimmick. It’s horror, science-fiction and a western.”

He also mentioned about western vibe to a new "Predator", which has never been done before. Predator movies took place everywhere but in the wild west, and this realism Boyd is talking about makes me even more excited and calm about it. Also because Shane Black is doing it. He will succeed, he knows this universe and he is a very talented writer and director, so after this interview, everything became even more obvious that this movie is in good hands.  

I am more interested in seeing new Predator being more real, horrifying and dark. I think this movie wouldn't need a cameo, maybe a mention, if it will still be in the same universe of course. It is possible, that this movie will reboot the franchise, which I think will be a mistake. It won't be right to throw away everything, what have been done in this universe.

The Raid (2011) is going to be Remade by Joe Carnahan and Frank Grillo

Indonesian action series "The Raid" will be remade by Joe Carnahan and Frank Grillo. The Raid (2011) was very successful as it became one of the most underrated action movies of all time, I think it deserves so much more recognition than it had. Then there was a sequel, which came out in 2014 and was different, but great as well, so these two movies are exceptional, look them up, they deserve to be watched.  

Joe Carnahan did assure that he has something really special to start with and no one will be disappointed. They will try to reimagine the same plot and make the movie he is a huge fan of. 

I don't know what exactly they came up with to remake it, but it is obvious that this property is very hot, and this movie would have been made even if the plot is bad. I am a Frank Grillo fan. I think he always did a great job, so I suppose he will be a great star in this new film. 

So who knows, maybe this remake will be huge, but now we have only promises with no evidence that this new "Raid" film will be at least respectful to the original. I love when fans who are also filmmakers are making a movie they are big fans of, and in this case, it gives hope, that we won't be disappointed indeed. 

Mel Gibson Might Direct the Next Suicide Squad Film.

Since Mel Gibson is no longer rogue in Hollywood, he gets an offer after an offer to play or direct something. Of cause it is understandable, he just made Hacksaw Ridge, for which he is nominated for Best Director. He always made almost perfect movies, he is a very talented artist, no matter what person he is. So we might get used to Mel Gibson again because he is a very popular director right now. That is why Warner Brothers consider him for a new Suicide Squad movie. He is popular, and they contacted him, saying that if he wants it, then he would get it. 

This is very funny, though, because Gibson is a great artist, but in this case, he won't be a proper choice to do it. Bringing him on board might also mean that he can be fired like many other great directors, who disagreed with WB's interference into director's business. In that case, if they will step aside this time and let one director do his thing, letting him decide the final cut, then maybe Gibson will fit. But right now, I just can't figure it out, how a person, who said that the last two DC movies were (a quote) "piece of shit" can get a job in this company. 

Variety reports that the studio is also eyeing Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies). Well, sometimes big studios might add some very popular names into their projects for "in talks to be involved in" them just to promote the movie. I think that the attachment of Mel Gibson is just for this purpose - promoting Suicide Squad sequel.

Moonlight (2016) movie review. The main competitor of La La Land at the Oscars.

Moonlight is a movie about a timeless story of human self-discovery and connection, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami. 

Barry Jenkins, who directed and wore the script did so well, that this movie is not just nominated for an Oscar in Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay categories, but in Best Picture, which is a giant success for a filmmaker. This movie is relevant, important for minorities, but also masterfully made. I know a lot of people, who blindly love it, saying how great the cinematography is or directing. And this movie is an art in every way. It entertains the audience a little bit differently. Not by the action or plot twists, but with beautifully directed sequences. Some parts of this movie were really great.

But for me, as a fan, who loves this types of movies this one somehow didn't work. I love the first act with Mahershala Ali, but the rest of it was too boring, despite great filmmaking. The actor, who played an adult version of Chiron - the main character was great. It was a hard task to connect these three different actors, so the audience wouldn't notice the difference as Chiron was growing up. 

I know that this movie worked for a lot of people. And I completely understand why. But I think that this movie is too artistic. I think that the thought behind it is too complicated to tell in that environment. The scenes were a little longer sometimes than I thought they needed to be and the overall feel after watching wasn't satisfying. It didn't leave me liking it, as an Oscar contender should. One thing I really disliked was that sudden disappearance of Mahershala Ali's character. By the plot, he had to be gone, but I didn't even imagine, that he would not appear at all later. Naomi Harris was great, she did a very good job, she is a top actress, who has a chance of winning, but there is almost no chance.

The message is quite relevant. This movie hit the weak spot so hard, that it includes three or even more nowadays hot issues. This movie is not for everyone, not for me definitely, but it is some exceptional filmmaking, I will not be surprised if it wins the Best Picture. Hopefully, Barry Jenkins will win something out of his nominations. 

New "Team Thor" Short Video.

The second promotional video called "Team Thor" is released, showing more Darell and Thor, and overall life of an Asgardian on Earth. This piece is so funny and original that I think one would have thought of doing something like that. Chris Hemsworth is very funny playing Thor in those videos. 

These videos are a part of marketing campaign for Thor: Ragnarok, which hits theaters in November. Also, they show what Thor was up to during events of Civil War. This second video is a part of a blue ray edition for Doctor Strange. 

Laurence Fishburne Won't Appear as Perry White in Justice League.

Laurence Fishburne, who portrayed Perry White has previously appeared in Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, but now he gave an interview to LA Times, in which he explained why he won't appear in Justice League: 

They asked me to come for a day, but I couldn’t work it out, schedule-wise. And really, what do you need the newspaperman in “Justice League” for? You want to see the Flash. You want to see Aquaman. You want to see Wonder Woman. You want to see the Lantern.

His statement also contains some geeky talk about Marvel and DC:

We’ve been waiting 35 years for these [characters] to show up on the screen. What were they doing over there? Marvel has been kicking their ass. This is the comic-book geek in me, who has a collection of comic books. I’ve been waiting to see these people on-screen forever.

 Despite the controversy, Fishburne doesn't blame Zack Snyder and OK with "Martha" scene:

Look, I love what Zack Snyder does. Jesse Eisenberg, this little nebbishy guy, as Lex Luthor? For me, that’s a genius move. And the whole thing with Martha Kent and Martha Wayne? I don’t know, man, I must be sentimental but that’s some heartwarming [stuff] to me. So I don’t get it.

After all, what can the person who has a contract with DC say about his last movie? He probably was politically incorrect and rough talking about Marvel and DC's competition, but overall he is right, that Marvel is more successful nowadays. DC has no plan, only relying on a strong fanbase and super popular characters, while Marvel built their universe introducing every new character one by one in their standalones. So the difference is clear, and don't be mad at Laurence Fishburne, he also said that Batman vs Superman is a genius movie. 

Actually, my theatrical impression of this movie is much worse than the impression I had, watching it at home in extended edition. After third viewing, now I think of this movie as of good and solid instead of garbage.