How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train your Dragon 2 Review

Story: When Hiccup and Toothless discover an ice cave that is home to hundreds of new wild dragons and the mysterious Dragon Rider, the two friends find themselves at the centre of a battle to protect peace.

It's been 4 years since we last saw Hiccup and the gang. In the cinematic universe it has been 5 years. Hiccup and his friends have grown into teenagers. This is one of the best things about the film as the characters have grown up realistically, like in live action movies.

Hiccup is being prepped to taking over his father's duties, he avoids any talks by exploring the outer lands. He and Astrid continue to grow close and Hiccup and Toothless continue to develop their flying techniques.

As the rest of the gang do dragon races around the island, Hiccup and Astrid come across a dragon catcher, played by Game of thrones star (Kit Harrington). He plays the macho hunter who grabs the attention of Ruffnet (played by Kristen Wigg).

Hiccup tries to explain to his father how he wants to stop the impending war that Dragon controller Drago plans on beginning. His father knows that Drago is a mad man and can not be dealt with, war is inevitable.

Hiccup then meets a mysterious dragon rider who turns out to be his mother (played by Cate Blanchett). She and Kit are the best additions to the series. Cate adds an elegance and makes for a very strong female character among many male vikings. Kit gives a solid turn as the hunky viking dragon catcher. Djimon Hounsou comes in as Drago, he goes about the globe enslaving dragons to build his own dragon army.  Hiccup seeks to talk Drago from taking their dragons, his father tells Hiccup to keep the focus on his people and his mother is the same but hopes he would help her protect the dragons. In a way his parents are similar, both would rather care for their own than go out to try and stop madman Drago from doing what he wants. It goes to provide people with the sense of how deadly Drago is.

Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson and the rest of the original cast return. Their characters have grown since the first film. Butler seeks his son to take his spot and the others are starting to fall in love.  Jonah and Chris's characters fall for Kirsten Wigg's Ruffnut. It's done very realistically and its interesting development to these characters, they have now started to turn into teenagers.

I loved that they only added 3 new characters and kept continuing to develop the characters from the first film. For those unfamiliar with the first film theres a good recap of sorts, told by Hiccup and the beginning. I love his opening and closing monologues, connects it well with the first film and makes good use of some descent exposition.

As for the animation, its amazing what they were able to do in this one. The characters look more grown up and they also have a more real look to them, with cartoonish fantasy elements thrown in. What must be admired though is the sear detail that is put into the background design. The elemental effects are astounding. And if you are wondering if it makes good use of the 3D, its a solid YES!!!

The story is pushed in this sequel as cheeky romance is in the air and families are reunited. As for that tragic incident that occurs in the movie, it does come as little surprise, but it is a realistic turn. With sequels I always like to see things pushed further and new stuff thrown in. The new big dragons that can control other dragons are essentially ice breathers. Its a great effect and makes for some really exciting action scenes. What the director and writer (Dean Deblois) does excellent hear is go with a real heart. Emotion is felt, situations take real turns, but no worries, this is not like the Red Wedding, nothing that extreme.

A darker chapter but a necessary one, How to Train Your Dragon 2 adds new characters, further develops the previous characters and the animation and character design is pushed to realistically tackle the evolution of the film's characters making this film worthy of being known as The Empire Strikes back of this dragon trilogy.

Rating: A

First DVD Review

Pompeii -  06/29/2014

Let me start off that I am a huge fan of Paul W.S Anderson and when he teamed up with another favourite lead actor of mine, Kit Harrington, I just knew I had to see what they were going to come up with together.

The movie tells the tale of what happened when and during the volcano eruption in Pompeii. Now, the film is totally fictitious, most of the story is not based on actual fact. But, its just meant to be a disaster movie, and what an amazing spectacle it is.

Starting with its cast, Paul gets it half right. Among the cast are some greats, Jared Harris and Carrie Ann Moss. They were terrific in all their scenes, Jared steals all the ones he's in and it was great to see Carrie playing the motherly role again, this time for the better. Emily Brown plays their daughter and Jessica Lucas plays her hand servant, though Emily's character Cassia considers her as more of a friend than servant. Jessica doesn't have many scenes but she plays up the bit of girlfriend who nudges her shy friend into the arms of the hot guy, namely Kit Harrington. I'd say pretty much Kit looks amazingly fit in this. I won't go into detail but the girls are most defiantly swooning over him by now.  Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje  plays a gladiator that meets up with Kit's character Milo, the two eventually team up to, as they say, fight the power. Adewale is great in this, he gives an inner depth that isn't told in the script, but you can sense there is a history behind this guy.

The only downfall the film has, and no I do not hate 24, is Kiether Sutherland. He just didn't seem to be the right choice. I would have well to have liked to of had Michael Fassbender in the villain's high chair. It's not all bad though, Grimm fans rejoice, Captain Sean Renard appears. Sasha Roiz who has played the Captain in the tv series Grimm plays the secondary villain in the film but I would have loved to of just had him as the main bad guy. He plays his part with ease and sinister intent. His pleading for his life in the end though was a bit of a let down but I guess the best villains sometimes turn out to be the weakest in the end.

As for the rest of the movie Paul builds up the utter annihilation of Pompeii with great success and what a crazy outcome he gives us. In truth, Paul should have been the one to direct the end of days film 2012, cause he knows how to somewhat cast a movie and make for one of the best disaster movies, in my book anyway.

With top notch visuals, great build-up and an entertaining cast Pomepii is not one of the greats but it is one of the goods.

Rating: B+

Edge of Tomorrow Review

Story: An officer ( Tom Cruise) finds himself caught in a time loop in a war with an alien race. His skills increase as he faces the same brutal combat scenarios, and his union with a Special Forces warrior (Emily Blunt) gets him closer and closer to defeating the enemy.

Originally titled "All you Need is Kill" this science-fiction epic uses the groundhog day premise of a person reliving his day over and over again, except he has to die in order to restart the day. Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) directs. I did have some concerns as he did direct the film Jumper, which I enjoyed but did agree it was not an amazing film. 

His direction in this is perfect. He had previously directed Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in Fair Game. Doug is able to combine the best elements of science fiction and the realistic grit of some of the best thrillers with the dire hope of a war film, all combined into one. 

The set design and the creation of the aliens is so superb. I loved the look of the aliens and the time controlling alien was also very interesting. The film is not just an action blockbuster, its much in the vein of the film Looper, also starring Emily Blunt. 

Now, you may not like Tom Cruise but man he is an awesome actor, I love him. I don't care what he does in his private life, I think he is a terrific actor and is making an amazing comeback. I do feel if he wants a bigger audience maybe he should try starring in either Marvel's Dr. Strange movie or star in a film with more famous actors. I love him though, he's terrific in this. He plays his character's arc with great believability. Emily Blunt was also a grand surprise. She was terrific and solidifies my statement that she needs, NEEDS to play the role of Lara Croft! 

Christophe Beck (Frozen, Paper Man) does a great job with the score. I never thought he would be able to do it but Chris does an amazing job with the score. He adds such a grande intensity to the film and drops in some excellent sombre moments. 

Edge of Tomorrow is a terrific sic-fi adventure, the repeat gimmick is done excellently well, with a splash of humour. It's disappointing that the box-office for the film was low, this is an excellent science fiction thriller along the lines of A.I and Minority Report. Tom and Emily bring their A game and so does Doug, its a fabulous action epic with such originality like I have never seen. Its funny, emotional, exciting, and purely character driven. 

Edge of Tomorrow is the summer blockbuster war epic that you have to see!

Rating: A+ 

X-men: Return of Bryan Singer

Hey all, here's my review/thoughts on Days of Future Past.

This is a film that has long been in the need to be made. Ever since an appearance of sentinels first showed signs in X2 and a brief appearance in X3 we now finally get to see the future we have been waiting for.  The film acts as a continuation of First Class, a swan song for the original X-men cast and a retooling of the pieces.

The film starts off in the far off future set in New york city. Mutants are in concentration camps along with humans who tried to help them and humans who may birth future mutants. Its a dark beginning and alludes to the holocaust in a very potent way.

We are then off to Moscow and see the first of the new and old x-men at work. Bing's ability to teleport is an awesome trick, Iceman does his ice slide and we finally get to see Colosuss fight. We also see cameos of warpath, sunspot and the appearance of Bishop. He teams up with kitty as we soon learn of kitty's ability to transport one's mind a couple days into the past. It's interesting how we learn of her ability to use time travel.

The main xmen eventually show up ( storm, wolverine, Xavier, magneto) and it's decided that wolverine should go back in time, cause he's the only one who can survive the 50 plus year trip. When arriving in the past, 1973, it's amazing how Bryan got into all the little details. And for all you ladies out there we do see a backshot of naked Hugh as he gets out of bed.

It's Logan's mission to get Xavier and Eric together again in order to stop mystique from killing Boliver Trask, who is played to great effect by one of the greatest actors of our generation Game of throne's Peter Dinklage. Jennifer Lawrence returns as the transforming mutant mystique, who has a big influence on how the sentinels are created. In Firat Class I thought Jennifer was terrific in the part, with this one she is in her blue form a lot more and it's hard not to think of Rebecca Romijn in the role. It all comes down to the voice, Rebecca's Mystique seemed to have this Erie echo to her voice while Jennifer just sounds like sweet Jennifer and while it in no way compromises the films quality, it it just bothered me.

The film is such a grand welcome return for both Bryan Singer and John Ottman. John continues to use the themes he created in xmen united and Bryan starts to connect the threads as certain characters start to form into the ones we know and love from the original trilogy. There's some great twists and turns and the finale act is a nail biter. In the end Days of Future Past truly rewrites history and brings back characters once thought to be dead.

X-men Days of Future Past is by far the best X-men movie to date, and the best comic book adaptation within the franchise. All errors are fixed and the chess board is set anew. What some will love most is the tie in scene at the end of the credits that ties in with the upcoming 2016 sequel, X-men: apocalypse.

One more thing, for fans of the comic Nate Grey known as X-man does appear, he appears during the prologue and epilogue of the film and I do believe a young Jean Grey makes an appearance as well.

Rating: A