Shailene Woodley casting as Mary Jane Watson

This girl needs to be Mary Jane, I mean she really needs to be. I don't know what I was thinking about before. I felt she wasn't right for the role somehow but it was really the way they were handling the character. Everyone, please, get the word out not to recast her. Shailene Woodley would make the perfect Mary Jane. She is beautiful in her own way and a fabulous actress, she needs to be in Spiderman 3.

Part 2

Man of Steel Review

Visual style : As far as I am concerned, Zack Snyder was the right director for the job. He brought to life some of the best visuals in any superman film. Superman's home planet is surreal and the creatures there are fantastic to behold. The action scenes are extremely well done. You will believe a man can fly. Zod's costume is all digital and it looks so real. Speaking of suits, Superman's suit has more of a realistic tone hear. No longer underwear over spandex, the new suit is, frankly, awesome!

Casting/Acting: Henry Caville is terrific as superman here. He grounds the character in a way no other actor has. We feel for him, relate to him and understand his love and respect for his parents, especially his mother. Henry also built himself up for the role unlike the actors previous. He has a perfect american accent, looks so amazing in the suit, and is so astounding in the role that I truly believe he portrays superman the best. Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline are also great as the younger versions of Clark, Dylan especially cause he does some of the heavy lifting as he portrays Clark in his high school years.

Now, who was not disappointed that for the role of Lois Lane in 2006's Superman Returns they hired Kate Bosworth. She looked like she was wearing a wig half the time and looked like a store mannequin. Anyone would have been better than her, So I was relieved to hear Amy Adams got the role. She is fantastic as Lois Lane. Like Henry
she grounds her character in reality and gives her a badass attitude. But she is also soft and caring when she needs to be. An excellent piece of casting.

As for the parents of Kal, we get Russell Crowe playing Jol-El and Ayelet Zurer (Angels and Demons, Vantage Point) playing Lara Lor-Van. Both are great, though disappointingly Ayelet does not get a lot of time to play out her character but she sure makes it memorable. She was an excellent choice for the part, due to her elegant emotional range and, well, she's very beautiful. Russell does a great performance. His role is extended, as his character is resurrected in holographic form. Its a much better idea than pre-recorded videos that Kal would watch. In doing this the conversations are there, he works great alongside the leads, especially when giving Lois instructions.

 The Kents are played so amazingly well by some great actors, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. These two were terrific together. They just fit so well into their roles. Diane just oozes motherly love, I felt a real connection to her as she seemed so real like a real mother she reminded me of
my own. Kevin is Kevin, he's terrific. He gives it his all and comes out swinging portraying the father who wants to teach Clark how to control his abilities and just in being a good person.

Perry White this time round is portrayed by black actor Laurence Fishburne. He does not have very much to do in the film but he solidifies himself in the role and gives a perfect performance as the head of the daily planet. He also provides some great comic relief to his part, his banter with Amy's Lois is among some of the best stuff in this movie.

The Villains: Zod and Faora are the main villains and they are fantastic. Zod played by Michael Shannon and Faora played by Pandorum's Antje Traue are just so 3-dimensonal as their characters. Mike drives the meaning in Zod's character and Antje just makes Faora into such a great badass villain that no one I know could possibly top it. Best line "One's true death is one's greatest reward"

This is getting long so I'll have to cut it here and make a part 3 where I'll talk of the great Hans Zimmer and give a run down of his score.

Part 3, on the way!

Man of Steel Review

Part 1 -

Story: A major aspect to this reboot is the story. What's done with this film is a complete wiping of everything that has come before.

Prologue: The film starts out by detailing how Krypton came to ruin and how Kal-el, superman, escaped. Kal's birth is told to be the first natural birth that has happened on Krypton for a long time. Before, and of late, Kryptonians were breed to be either warriors or doctors, there was no choice involved anymore. This is where the characters of Zod and Kal's father, Jol-el, differ. Zod starts an uprising against the current Krypton council over the usage of mining for energy from the planet's core. Jol went in a less aggressive path and taking the cortex that helped breed the kryptonians, he sends it and his son off to earth. I loved the detail that was put into this backstory and found it gave Man of Steel its first solid footing.

Earth: As Kal air ship lands in kansas, the film jumps to present time with Kal, on earth known as Clark, is working a job as a fishing hand. What bothered me about this part was I began thinking, he's been jumping from job to job for who knows how long and then somehow people find out about him, just like that. How was he able to stay hidden for so long and then suddenly his identity as Kal-El is blown. That is the only thing I don't understand. Flashbacks are given at certain points which give specific details into Kal's learning and how he adapted to the way of life on earth. Seeing the film a second time I now see that the flashbacks worked well, and did not make the film feel uneven. I also discovered that Kal did over-hear two army vets talk of how the army found an object frozen beneath the ice. Now, here is the real issue I did not get of this. How does Kal now that the ship is related to him. It could be anything. But, I guess he needed to just go and find out.

 Three things happen next as we are treated to Kal's first interaction with Lois Lane (Amy Adams), a holographic representation of his real father ( a great change from the original) and his obtaining of his suit. I did feel that him getting the suit so early on in the film was a bit of a let down. I would have preferred more of a build up to him obtaining the suit. There is a nice sequence though that details him practicing how to fly. Another question, how is it he never tried flying before and just starts learning it now?

Other characters are eventually introduced, Lois Lane, Perry White, a Jenny Olsen (female or sister to Jimmy). What was disappointing was the under development on Daily Planet and Perry. Such key ingredients within the franchise and we barely get anytime to get to know these new versions of the characters. Though the movie is more about Superman/Kal and his learning path and not his experiences at the Daily Planet, that comes later.

The whole film eventually collimates in Zod wanting to turn Earth into a new krypton, much like in Transformers: Dark of the Moon when Sentinel Prime wanted to enslave mankind and turn the world into a new Cybertron.  The movie ends on a great note, bringing the franchise into familiar territory and hopefully better developed side characters.

Man of Steel gave great recreations of Zod and Krypton, Kal and his parents (Earth and Krypton). Kal was made as more of a real character in this reboot and the film really made you rote for him. Even the undeveloped characters I still cared about. The story gets real intense near the end and does in fact draw similar references to real life tragedies.

While popular characters of Superman were left on the side lines its understandable seeing as the main focus of the film was to remake Superman as more of a real man and give some depth to his backstory, it's all there and it's very in depth. I do have to add that the update on the Zod's villainous sidekick Faora was extremely applause worthy, great actress and some solid work on the character.

Part 2 - Visuals, acting, music and direction

Review of Man of Steel _still in works

Hey everyone, well having not been able to write the review right after Man of steel I plan on seeing the movie again so I could give a more solid review. But as in my last posting I enjoyed the refreshing take on superman, the casting/acting was terrific and the visuals and intensity of the action was so amazingly well done it had me on the edge of my seat. The things I disliked, the only thing I had an issue with was not the amount of explosions, thats what you get in a summer movie, but the flash backs were a bit much. That I know was done by christopher nolan. I did not love it in DKR and I don't like it here. I would have much rather enjoyed a buildup to him in the present rather than flash-backs to his past over the course of the film.

Rest of review coming soon.

I will also try to see man of steel before seeing WWZ, cause I'll want to write a review of World War Z too.

Man of Steel - points

Hey everyone, here's a point review of what I liked and disliked about man of steel.

Liked -

Casting/acting
visuals
intensity in action scenarios
refreshing take on Superman

Disliked -
story starts out jumpy (flashbacks)
explosion heavy (who's going to fix everything)

Full review coming soon.

Tomorrow!

Who is not excited about the new superman movie! I am so damn excited! No matter what I am sure this movie will be an amazing blockbuster!

The Amazing Spiderman

Comic book movies have gotten adapted a lot lately. Spiderman got his leap to film back in 2002, when Tobey Maguire took on the heroic role and Sam Raimi of Evil Dead fame took the helm as Director. Now, 10 years since, we had two sequels to the original and now a reboot/remake of the first. This retooling now has Andrew Garfield as Spiderman/Peter Parker and 500 days of Summer director Marc Webb in the director's chair. 

   First off, Spider-man (2002) and The Amazing Spider-man (2012) are different, instead of Mary Jane and the Osborns (namely the Green Goblin) we have Gwen Stacy (played wonderfully by Emma Stone) and Doctor Curt Connors (played by renowned Irish actor Rhys Ifans), he becomes the lizard in this film. This essentially makes Amazing Spiderman a spiritual sequel to the previous films. In Spiderman 2 the role was played by Dylan Baker who went on to portray the character in Spiderman 3, there was also a reference to his eventual experimentation with lizard DNA in the film. Rhys plays Curt Conners with such sustain, giving the character the proper depth and humanity . George Stacy also makes a return in this film and is played this time by comedian Dennis Leary, who is also a serious actor and was terrific in the role, giving a scene near the end by making a promise to Peter reminiscent of the promise Peter made to Norman Osborn in the original 2002 origins story. Dennis Leary and Emma Stone (Gwen) are fantastic together and work well off each other. Flash Thompson is played by Chris Zylka. He is smaller than Magic Mike's Joe Manganiello, who starred as Flash in the original and in the third spider flicks but this new Flash gets more development here and becomes more of a friend to Peter than the regular bully he was in the original film. Other actors such as Sally Field and Martin Sheen, who play Peter's Aunt and Uncle, are so fabulous in their roles.  The cast was well chosen for this revamp. 

  As for the leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have fantastic chemistry. The awkward moments in the hall and the conversations they have feel so real and in now way like the teens of the twilight saga. Andrew crafts a great interpretation of Peter Parker, showing off more of his genius/lover side. He can also get pretty dark, and those moments are also fabulous. His moment on the balcony with Emma is by far one of the best scenes in the film. Emma Stone gives a great portrayal of Gwen, she even talks down Flash, now that is awesome. Bryce Dallas Howard, compared to Emma, was like a doe caught in the head lights. Emma gives her layers but the whole blame should not be on Bryce, her character barely got any screen time in the third film. 

  While plot points in the film are similar to the Spiderman of 2002, this new spiderman is edgier and more tech savvy, he crafts his own webbing and, in a hint at the original Spiderman film, he gets an idea that eventually leads Peter to making his very own spiderman costume. The film does do a better job at sticking closer to the comic books, which is a plus. 

  The visual effects in the film are by far more stupendous then they were in Spiderman 3. The lizard is amazingly realistic and his fights with spidey are well crafted. James Horner, who takes over scoring duties from previous composers Christopher Young and Danny Elfman, does a descent job with the score, parts of it are fabulous, but overall there are moments where it seems like the score is trying to emanate Danny Elfman's score but James doesn't push recreating the old theme. I find either you try something completely new or do a good tribute, don't be half-assed about it. 

The ending to the film also felt a little stretched and jumbled in places. There is a lot of ground to cover in an origins story but planting in the bit about him searching for his parents and then changing it to him having to stop a bad guy from destroying the city seemed a little generic.  

The Amazing Spiderman is amazing, with great visual flare, a fantastic cast and superb direction. While the film could have waited a bit longer to come out, until we really had Sam Raimi's trilogy out of our minds (Yes, I did enjoy Spiderman 3). 

The Amazing Spiderman gets 5 Stars out of 5.