Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Despite all of the ongoing negativity of the previous Transformers film, Revenge of the Fallen, the great and all-powerful Michael Bay has returned to bring us what is said to be the final piece in his trilogy. Dark of the Moon looked awfully awesome in pretty much all of its trailers. But, as I said to myself, someone who grew up watching the animated series on television and who also watched the entire original 1986 movie on You Tube one night for the heck of it, Bay’s films always look great in their trailers. This is true. Anyone care to disagree? But I simply couldn’t prevent myself from getting uber-excited as the release date drew nearer and nearer. I thoroughly enjoyed the first film and was slightly disappointed with the second. Hoping that they would bring a darker edge to the story and cut down on some of the comedy, I bought my ticket and sat in my seat.

The story to Dark of the Moon feels like it wants to be complicated, like it wants to be one of those science fiction plotlines that will keep you so fixated on every word that your eardrum might begin to bleed. But it’s not. It’s pretty basic and easy to follow. This is a good thing. A good thing because for a film such as this, you really want to just sit back and marvel at the special effects and action. In a nutshell, it has come to the attention of our hero Autobots that a spaceship from Cybertron, their home planet, actually crashed on the moon back in 1961. It has also come to the attention of our hero Autobots that there are humans that knew about this event and who failed to mention a word of it to anyone. Upon further investigation of the ship, Optimus and Ratchet discover another Autobot on it. I’ll use the word out-of-commission to describe the state that he laid in upon the ship.

Read On...

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Independence Day, Cloverfield, The Day the Earth Stood Still, District 9, War of the Worlds; yes it would seem that we have a certain curiosity for life that is otherworldly. Heck even flicks like Predator, Men in Black & Superman are all alien related. From UFO’s to flying saucers to Martian Manhunters, we would all love to know if there is other life out there. Furthermore, we would love to know if it’s friendly. Until we receive some hardcore evidence of both, we have our books, television shows, independent You Tube video directors and by far, we have our movies. The latest and perhaps, yes, in my opinion one of the greatest to hit movie houses and midnight releases filled with patrons who apparently have no jobs to go to the next day is Battle: Los Angeles.

Aaron “Two-Face” Eckhart plays our main hero, Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz of the US Maine Corp. On the very verge of retirement, he is ordered to fall in with a group of young Marines sent to retrieve a small cluster of civilians who have been trapped by the unexpected attack of extra-terrestrials. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking to himself, “FML” when he got the word he was going back into combat. What looks to be his last “Hoo-rah” takes place in, shocker, L.A. Looks like Kobe and the Lake show won’t be getting another chance to go for a title. Before you begin to think the aliens are Celtic fans, they have also invaded other major countries around the world. All of these places falling heavily and taking major losses at the hands, or whatever they use as hands, of these invaders.

Read On...

I Am Number Four (2011)

Hollywood’s infatuation with beings from another world continues to populate theaters with films about aliens and invasions and alien invasions. Before we get a chance to feast our eyes on the much anticipated Battle: Los Angeles, we get to past the time with the film adaptation of the teen fiction novel, I Am Number Four. Not so much as a straight out invasion story right off the bat but a “good-guy alien running for his life” story. A slight change from always having the protagonist of the story be the human race which is usually fighting a losing battle.

Number Four/John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) looks like a normal teenager who has a pretty easy time getting blondes in bikinis to invite him for night-time rendezvous’ in the ocean. His secret is soon out when one of his kind, Number Three, is found and murdered by a group called the Mogadorians. That secret being that he is from another planet. Yes, an alien with special powers that he hasn’t quite come to master full control over just yet. Sound familiar? No? Ok, I’ll keep going. John is one of nine toddlers who were sent to Earth along with their protectors for their safety. Three are now dead, leaving six remaining. His guardian, Henri (Timothy Olyphant), also from the planet of Lorien is his sole adult influence and protector makes the decision it’s time to pack up and leave, again, from their home of Florida after a small mishap with that same blonde in the bikini exposes his true identity. Still not familiar? Ok, continuing on.

Read On...

Skyline (2010): You'll be standing in line for a refund

Ever look up at the sky and wonder if there might be life out there? Inter-galactic life that we don’t know about? Yeah, me too and about a ka-zillion other people. Many of whom who have made only about one or two films in our history communicating what their imagination says about life from another planet. Another set of people/filmmakers, Colin & Greg Strause (aka The Strause Brothers), have chosen to call their alien imagination Skyline. An imagination they might have done better to try to communicate through a comic book or not at all perhaps than on the legendary big screen.

Set in Los Angeles, Skyline tells the science fiction tale of two long-time friends, Jarrod & Terry (Eric Balfour & Donald Faison). Jarrod and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) travel across the country to visit Terry who is a well known special effects producer and is celebrating his birthday. When they arrive, everything is going well and everyone is enjoying the partying, alcohol, music, blah blah blah. Sometime during the night, mysterious blue streaks of light begin falling from the sky. They illuminate the entire the city and draw any and every random spectator towards it. Once seeing the strange but beautiful blue light, one can’t help but be pulled in. People lose all sense of control over their bodies and only seek a way to get closer to it.

Read On...

Repo Men (2010)

Blood, guts, on-the-spot surgery, blood, action, and oh yeah some more blood. If you like blood, well I mean seeing it on screen and not in real life, then you will love the bloody Miguel Sapochnik directed film, Repo Men. Powered by other aspects other than just blood, such as the creative story line, Repo Men might have the small beginnings of a becoming a cult favorite.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as the aforementioned repossession specialists, Remy and Jake. After growing up and serving in the military together, the two friends take jobs as repo men for a company known as the Union. A company that provides artificial organs and body parts to the unfortunate who are dying or in need of some kind of transplant in order to stay alive. This, of course, all comes at a price, which can be split into monthly payments at a seemingly low interest rate. If they happen to fall behind on their payments, however, then that’s where Remy and Jake come in. If you see them in your home, then… let’s just say you rather be on the phone arguing with a collections agency.

Read On...

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

The first time The Day the Earth Stood Still was presented to movie goers it fit right in with the science fiction genre. I haven’t seen the original, which is considered a classic that was directed by Robert Wise, but its predecessor won’t be classified under the same file of great movie lore. Many films are trying to resurrect that feel of impending Armageddon by way of an unknown interstellar force that was hugely popular in the sci-fi driven 50s and 60s. War of the Worlds did a wonderful job of having everyone completely paranoid about thoughts of a possible alien invasion. Unlike its remake, the recent Day the Earth Stood Still doesn’t offer that same aura.

Read On...

Inception (2010)

Since I don’t know him personally, I can’t say what goes on in the mind of Christopher Nolan. All I can do is guess and speculate based upon his work. The writer/director has brought us gems like The Prestige, Batman Begins and one of my personal favorites of all time, The Dark Knight. The screenplays that he has developed are original, creative, sometimes complex, but the best of all, they grab your attention and hold it in their clutches way after the film has ended. They make you think; make you consider and then re-consider any options or possibilities about the plot that you may have been wondering about. Furthermore, since he has had the luxury of having some very good actors in his projects, it makes his films even that much better. His latest work, Inception, follows the same signature blueprint.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is what you would call an Extractor, but what he extracts is contained in people’s dreams. With the help of his partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), they enter an individual’s dream and steal, or extract, something of dire importance to that person and relinquish it to whomever they were hired to do it by. For example, if I wanted to get your ATM pin number, they could go in and get you to give it to them or just retrieve it from somewhere in your dream. A businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe), hires the two to do just the opposite, however. He would like them to create a new idea and implant it into someone’s dream. That act is called, you guessed it, inception. But this procedure is far more difficult than merely taking something out of someone’s head. They would have to get it to stick and seem so real that it would manifest in the persons subconscious and cause them to make real life choices because of it.

Read On...

9 (2009)

Going into this movie, I thought the dark, apocalyptic atmosphere in it that was inhabited by animated dolls had to be the obvious results straight out of the mind of the imaginative Tim Burton. I was partly right, but mostly wrong. The CGI produced 9 is actually based off of a short film by director Shane Acker as a student project for the UCLA Animation Workshop. The piece, which took roughly four years to complete caught the attention of one Tim Burton and was then made into the feature film that we know today. Burton was one of the producers for the film while Acker was allowed to also direct the full length version of his original project.

9 puts a slightly different spin on films based around the apocalyptic film genre. For one, it’s animated, all CGI, but not necessarily meant for children with a PG-13 rating. Two, its main characters are dolls. Yup, dolls, nine of them to be exact who have the task of hopefully rebuilding the bleak and seemingly doomed present state of the world into a bright one. Machines created by a scientist to bring and maintain peace about the Earth developed minds of their own and instead destroyed all of humanity. Sound familiar? Terminator, I, Robot, The Matrix. These dolls, created by the same scientist are the last parts of humanity left.

Read On...