Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger -- 3.5/5

I have really enjoyed the summer blockbusters for the most part so far. There are a handful that I found unworthy of one of my free movie passes (Transformers and The Green Lantern), but Captain America definitely had a solid trailer, which is something I care deeply about. If a movie doesn't have an enjoyable trailer, it will take a few good reviews from people I trust until I decide to go for it. I also have mentioned previously in other blog reviews that I am a sucker for a comic book hero movie (especially an Avengers one), so it was a must see, ASAP.

The First Avenger doesn't disappoint. It has a compelling story, a great cast, and it has really fantastic cinematography, which the other films have not yet been able to achieve. Both Iron Man and Thor look really flashy and whatnot, and they share a similar glossy look that many summer CGI-indulged blockbusters have. The rustic feel in Captain America is a really nice escape from the regular summer look and feel.

This specific Avengers film also ties in very well with the Iron Man films, by having Tony Stark's father in it periodically. The World Fair was also a really great touch if you by any chance saw Iron Man 2. And of course Nick Fury at the end also ties in all the films.

However, this film didn't blow me away. There was something off about it that I really couldn't quite place until the end. This film seriously lacks any tension at all. Because of the intro the audience is aware of the ending, some of the lines give away plot points that are supposed to be surprises, and I got bored during some of the fighting scenes. The absolute best part of the film is the beginning prior to Steve Rogers' 100% transformation to Captain America, the WWII hero.

I would definitely recommend this film, but not before Harry Potter of course. I would also suggest if you are stingy on your summer movie choices, wait for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, because I just cannot get enough of that trailer.

A Decade of Fans Not Knowing What's Next

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2: 4.5/5

I was really nervous to see this movie, as well as over-the-moon excited. With this melting pot of emotions jumping around in my stomach, it's quite shocking I didn't throw them all back up. Sitting in the IMAX theater was torture. One moment I was whispering to my boyfriend "I'm not ready for this movie yet," and then I would be squirming in my fo-leather chair squealing "This is it! One more hour!"

Finally the Warner Brothers logo appeared and the whole theater was silent (well, except for the one Texan guy who shouted "Well, Hello Voldy," but he was promptly threatened to shut up by his hissing girlfriend seconds later). Munching on popcorn and politely sipping at my cherry coke, I laughed, I cried, and I cheered until Harry's Wondrous World play at the end credits.

The film was so different than I imagined it from the books; and sure, almost all of it was previously teased in trailers, clips, and featurettes, but there was something about it that made this movie deeply contrast from the book (by far more than any previous film) that no clip of trailer could have forewarned me about.

Though many of the changes were subtle and albeit unnoticeable to some, there were many and surprisingly a lot of the changes actually worked! This film skipped chapters, deleted scenes, killed new characters and changed the course of events ever so slightly, that the film was drastically different. I feel like I experienced the whole end as new again, and I am forever grateful to experience that wave of emotion twice in my life.

So that being written, I must start out with my favorite things! Pardon my bullet-point style, but I feel like in this case it flows best! I must also say now, many of these contain **SPOILER ALERTS**.

- We'll start off with the one thing I can't stop raving about. One name, two words: Narcissa Malfoy. One could have never guessed from the unbreakable vow scene that it was the beginning of a beautiful crafted, fabulously acted subplot about the Malfoy family. The focus on her love for her son and husband was a lot more focused than the books. Everyone got the gist of what went on with the Malfoys and made very accurate educated guesses, but our wonderful JK never really let her readers dive into the Malfoys train of thought because we followed the train of thought of our hero protagonist. The key scene here would be Narcissa holding hands with her son Draco, quickly walking away from the Dark Lord as Lucius looks back timidly. WONDERFUL <3.

- Lavender Brown dying was so shocking and tragic. Her character was so much biggest in Half-Blood Prince, that it was almost perfect that she had to die. I couldn't handle the surprise, and I burst into tears repeating to myself "Lavender's not supposed to die." It was just the type of shock-value the movie needed for the hard-core book fans who lined up 13 hrs before the midnight movie.

- George asking Fred how he's feeling prior to the battle was so beautiful. I cried as well, knowing Fred's soon-to-be deathly fate.

- And oh how Lord Voldy was ruthless. Reading the books, you know this, but you can't possibly fathom his wickedness. The movies clear that right up for you. He kills people that are on his side when he's furious that his plan in not going accordingly. His cruel laughter at Neville when he discovers he's in fact a Longbottom. His order for Nagini to repeatably bite Severus to his death...even after the awkward hug he hands Draco, I still found him unbelievably sinister.

- Though I love the majestic quality of the Ravenclaw common room, for the film I am glad Luna warned him against this pointless measure (even though she leads him to it in the books).

- Ron and Hermione's Chamber of Secrets kiss was as exciting and sudden as the books and their undying lvoe for another really sparkles and shines through. Also when Ron chases after Draco and his gang in the Room of Requirement shouting "That's my girlfriend!" the waterworks started yet again.

- Neville really shined in this film. He some some great heroic moments, like killing the snake obviously; but his detroying of the Howarts bridge was very brave, and when he fell with it I was genuinely scared for his life. And when he realizes his feelings for Luna, I squealed.

- Hermione hugging Harry and saying "I'll go with you," before he turns himself in is really great.

- Snape's memory was so simple, and like the books so impacting. His love for Lily Evans was pulsing through the screen. Holding her dead body was devastating. It seems Alan Rickman knew a deeper, more passionate Severus than possibly JK knows, even though it was she who revealed Snape's true remedial qualities quite early on to Rickman.

- And finally...the finale. Playing Harry's Wondrous World got me wishing there was more, but knowing there was not. The shot being so similar to the first film made me really want to go back and experience this all again. Sadly, this is not possible.

And now for the disappointing and slightly nerve-killing parts.

- The pacing of the movie was really fast, but I'm sure if watched back to back with Part 1 this problem would cease.

- Was Neville going to really kill the snake?! Oh my god, I didn't know and I was worried. Harry, Hermione, and the Ron all threaten to do the deed that gets Neville his brownie points, and I wanted to punch them all when I thought this was going to happen.

- Harry does not break the Elder Wand before fixing his wand, and when he does not go to the bridge with his two best friends and threaten to jump off it either. WRONG. I refuse to believe this ending, it still makes me angry. Luckily the 19 years later part kept my mind off it, because if I ended on the furious note, things would have been a lot uglier in this review.

- And where was Dumbledore's back story? I really did miss this, even though one article I read said it was really unneeded for a feature film that's supposed to be focusing on Harry. I get it, I understand that, but they cast Grindelwald, so why not include the subplot???

- And I really did miss Grawp and the house elves at the very end. Disappointing and so sad.

- Oh, and there's goes Hermione stealing all the good lines again. Sorry Harry, I know it's your idea to take the dragon, but you have been put in quote time-out with Ron.

- And movie Harry, you seem to know so much more than you let on. In fact, I believe you can read minds! How did you know the mirror was Sirius's? He never showed or gave it to you! And knowing about Lupin's son?! Well, apparently I wasn't watching the films closely enough to see these hidden powers you seemed to possess.

- And finally...the finale. Apparently red heads grow up to be fat or chunky, while all the others stay skinny and young looking. Poor Ron, he never stood a chance.

So this is it, the end of the Harry Potter era. There are no new books to be read, no new movies to be seen. This is the end of everyone's "childhood." But it's not really, is it? Because "the ones that love us never really leave us," and "have a way of coming back to us in the end." Because Hermione's heart-filled words are true, and as she hugs Harry telling him she will go with him, we all feel the same way. As Dumbledore states in both the book and the movie, "Of course it is happening inside your head...but why on earth does that mean it is not real?" Harry Potter is real and lives on in all great fans' hearts, even when his story has come to an end.

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses -- 3.5/5

This movie, actually, was not on my radar for this upcoming July. Actually, from the trailer I wasn't too amused to be honest. It didn't have much that really grabbed me, however neither did the first Hangover. I suppose it's actually even safe to say it's very rare that I'll want to go out and see a comedy, seeing as I am super picky concerning which ones I really enjoy. Looking at my DVD collection, I own no more than 10 comedies. I'm just a darker-movie sort of girl (bring on the horror and Tim Burton!).

So then why did I see this movie? Well, I will usually consider any movie that's recommended to me from a fair select group of people I trust, and if on top of that it's fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, then I will give it a shot! The movie was free anyway, so why not?
As it turns out, the person who suggested this movie to me was correct: this movie is really funny and probably one of the better summer comedies (though it wasn't too hard to be, with its only competition being Bridesmaids and The Hangover Part II, and I'm not bashing Bridesmaids either). Horrible Bosses uses a full-proof raunchy guy comedy formula that works: 3 guys (the ladies man, the innocent-ish one, and the every-day normal guy) get themselves tied up in a really crazy and awkward situation and in the climax of the film, miraculously get out of it, no harm done. In this movie's case, the 3 men all have these jerky bosses that sort of push them around, and in conclusion they really want to murder them. The audience never really believes the guys are going to kill the bosses, but the situations these guys get themselves into are pretty amusing.

A plus of this movie was that even though it was a tad predictable at times, it wound up still giving a few shocks that ended up really working with the flow of the film, and the hilariousness of the situation. Two of my favorite characters were actually supporting cast, and those being Dr. Julia Harris (played by Jennifer Aniston) and Motherfucker Jones (played by Jamie Foxx). I actually did not recognize Aniston at first, and was really quite surprised that she played such a funny character, seeing as her name post Friends was pretty much the kiss of death to any comedy. And Jamie Foxx may have his ups and his downs, but it wasn't much of a surprise that he brought out a lot of laughs. This summer comedy is actually not too different from The Hangover a few summers back. Although it does have Jason Bateman as the protagonist, other than that the cast really isn't seen in an overabundance of main stream comedians like the Judd Apatow or SNL group. What it really all comes down to though, is that the writing of this comedy was pretty spot on and it worked. Because really, that's why I find a lot of comedies in the disappointing category: the situation writing is poor and in the end I do not feel satisfied.

Cars 2

Cars 2: 3/5

Alright, so this post took me quite a bit longer to write because sadly, my computer was in the shop. However, I'm going to admit that June was a pretty dry month of movies. There really wasn't anything too good out, and I'm so busy rereading Harry Potter that I haven't watched any movies at home. But I have decided to do a review of every HP movie up until the glorious day that HP7 Pt.2 comes out! My reviews will pretty much just be compare/contrast of the movies to the books and my opinions on what they should have kept in and why it was good they left some things out. :)
I digress, though, because this post is about Cars 2! Which in my opinion, was a pretty alright movie! A lot of critics seemed to put this movie down, saying it wasn't average Pixar quality. Wall-E and Toy Story aside, Cars 2 was a very enjoyable movie for children and families alike, and I don't think its fair to say this movie is bad. Though the movie is a little long, it's really not too slow. This is because the film plays out like a James Bond sort of movie, which can easily be deduced if one has seen any of the trailers. What's sort of special about this Cars movie is that it focuses less on the Lightning McQueen character, but rather on the rusty hillbilly truck Mater and the two fancy spy cars (Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell). I really like how they didn't push a new story between all the new characters. I feel like the introduction of the two new super spies was smart and made the movie itself very interesting.

My favorite part in the movie had to be the Tokyo scene. With Japanese being my minor, I loved that I could read and understand a lot of what was going on that wasn't translated. It was also a little nostalgic for me to watch the Tokyo part, seeing as about a year ago I myself was there. This love of Japan may be a little biased, but it doesn't matter to me :) I was a little teary eyed looking at the Tokyo Tower.

The other parts of the world they traveled to were also equally gorgeously animated and made me really was to travel to Italy and London, which hopefully I will next summer! With the traveling element, this Pixar movie was pretty fascinating to watch.

All in all, the story was well paced, amusing, and the animation was (as always with Pixar) just simplistic beauty. I would recommend seeing it before it leaves theater at the end of July.

After a very dull June, I'm really excited for this upcoming July! :) HP, Cowboys & Aliens, Winnie the Pooh, and Captain America!

Super 8!

Super 8 -- 4.5/5

** Just to warn everyone, I will have some majors spoilers in this post, so my recommendation would be just to go see the movie before you read this :D**

There are hundreds of great and fabulous reviews of Super 8 as of now, so why should I just repeat what everyone's saying? Either way, here's a recap: Super 8 is totally a love letter from JJ to Spielberg that is a mesh of ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cloverfield, The Goonies...I can go on and on. However, aside from the super long list of similar films, this movie is probably one of the only original (not sequel, not comic book, not famous and fabulous book series) movies of this summer. That being said, I strongly feel like the two movies that most closely parallel ET direction and plot-wise, while having a similar monster design as Clover-

field.

The paralleling of ET is probably the reason why I totally love this movie. From the amount of times I've seen ET, I know the movie back and forth and I can quote the whole movie probably on request. I'm sure this also applies to Mr. JJ Abrams, because there are a few shots in Super 8

that are pretty much exactly like ET. Remember the scene where our faithful alien E.T. escapes the evil bad-guys with their flashlights (which the bad guys in Super 8 have some flashy flashlights as well!)? Well, there's a shot of the town in Super 8 that was almost a carbon-copy of the shot. The endings are also similar in that the kids and parents watch the

space ship go away into oblivion. Fabulous.

There are also countless plot points that are super similar. There is a missing parent, the leading young male has a crush on the super tall blonde chick (small, but could be a parallel :D), the gang of kids who work together against the bad guys in the end, the alien in Super 8 builds something out of junk so he can get home...ahahaha that one made me laugh the most I think.

Michael Giacchino's score for Super 8 also sounds extremely similar to John William's for ET. I wish I had a great example on me, but there's one little theme the begins with the same chord progression as one in ET. I have an exert of the Super 8 score (something that was hard to find), but I also have the exact example from the ET score that I spoke about previously (it's at about the minute mark, I wish I had an example of the Super 8 one I was talking about, and I hope this is the right theme I was thinking of...).

Well, aside from all those ET parallels, the alien looks a little too much like the one from Cloverfield. I even have an example picture!

And that about sums it up! If you read this without seeing it, just go see it. It's just...the best summer movie thus far, barely better than X-Men.

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class -- 4/5

I feel like I'm not one to really judge on how well-adapted a comic book movie is, seeing as I've never read a single one in my life, or watched a cartoon. Those never really interested me. However, when you mention a super hero movie, I'm usually all over it. This is because I find super hero movies to have evolved really nicely over the years, forming a more darker film than most of the predecessors. Chew me out if I'm wrong, I don't care. I also find super hero movies easily more action packed than any other summer blockbuster (well, maybe not counting Transformers).

All-in-all, I enjoy seeing a really well put together super hero movie, and this is exactly what X-men: First Class is. Though the beginning is a tad rushed, the rest of the movie flows really nicely. I got a feel for all the characters, and I liked most of them. That being said, because it's the first film in this reboot trilogy it does introduce a lot of characters. However, I never really felt like any of the more pushed aside characters were that dear to my heart that I wish they had a bigger role. The film essentially focuses on Charles and Erik's relationship, which is does quite well. Other mentionable things about this movie that were great was the creative use of montage (while recruiting and training), the fight scenes (at where the mutant teens were locked up and the final battle), and the blur between who was right and who was wrong. The really interesting thing about this film is that Erik agrees with his enemy (name) on how they view the human population. It's fascinating that the film itself was more of a revenge story rather than "let's fight for good, and conquer evil." Though I am a huge fan of that type of story (uhm, Harry Potter), seeing something different is always a refreshing thing, and since super hero films usually have this theme, it's quite astounding that this one did not.

Aside form story, I really did think it was amazing how they pretty much made every mutant look pretty glamorous and handsome to look at, minus probably Banshee (played by Caleb Landry Jones). Poor guy, but it's just that red hair, not everyone can be Rupert Grint. Either way, I fell in love with Nicholas Hoult (Beast) via Skins a few month back, James McAvoy (Xavier) is simply irresistible, and Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert, she was not a mutant actually) and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) are two very gorgeous women whom I really like seeing in films :). I found it pretty amusing that the people who were human in this film were a little old and ugly, but then again that could be because they were all either government or army men.

This X-Men film was really something special. It played so well as a summer movie and I know I want to see this one again.

3 Top 10 Summer Movies down, 7 to go! And Super 8 in 2 days EXCITED :D!

Thor

Thor: 3.5/5

So it appears because of finals, I have been unable to write any reviews! Lucky for me, on Friday I was able to see Thor and start off my summer movies right. I liked Thor a great deal and I thought it was super funzies. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting much from this movie. Since the bumper on Iron Man 2, I had pretty much written this movie off as one of the more boring Marvel/Avengers movies (not so different from The Hulk). I wasn't excited, I didn't really care, I never watched a trailer. Then one day I decided it would be the most kind of funny to watch the trailer with Japanese subtitles. Not only were the translations pretty hilarious, but the trailer itself actually seemed...not as lame as I thought it would be. It actually seemed...well, interesting.

There are a few things I really enjoyed about this movie, and a few others that I was alright with, but not incredibly thrilled about. I really enjoyed how this movie went between two different worlds, the Thor-world, Asgard, being my absolute favorite. The CGI was really stunning and the characters all seemed to mesh well with each other. It was actually Earth that I wasn't all too thrilled with. Aside from Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) not being a very convincing character, Earth just overall seemed to be comic relief every time the movie would lead us back there. It seemed a little odd that all the mighty warriors from Asgard would act like complete fools on Earth. You'd think because they are such higher beings, they would understand how to act. Instead, Thor's pals pranced around like they had never even heard of Earth before. While on Earth, I found myself getting excited for the next time I would be on Asgard, so I could stare at Loki some more.
Most girls would giggle and sigh at the sight of Thor's abs (played by Chris Hemsworth), much like Natalie Portman did. However, for some strange reason or another, I totally had the hots for the glorious Loki (Tom Hiddleston). I dunno if it was his bad ass helmet, or his pretty blue eyes meshed with his darker brown hair, or maybe it was his evilness, but I liked him a lot. And honestly, his looks alone didn't make him my favorite character. He was the only dynamic character in the whole film. It's actually a little surprising, because aren't the villains supposed to be flatter characters than the protagonist? Thor himself wasn't all too thrilling of a guy, though he did have a nice smile and acted the part well. However, his "revelation" seemed a little quick and I had a hard time believing it was all Natalie Portman's doing. Loki however seemed confused as a villain and he honestly appeared to think he was doing the right thing. He was an interesting guy, and I loved him. I really feel like I need a poster of his beautiful face hanging somewhere on my wall now. Mmmmmmm.

Overall, the movie was a fun way to start the summer. No, it's not Iron Man or Spider Man 2, but the film is great fun. Mindless, superhero fun. So go see it now, in 2D not 3D.