Finding a Place to Belong at Monsters University

As a prequel, this film makes for the perfect lead-in to Monsters Inc., but as a standalone product, there’s not much to this film that simply explains how one big eye surrounded by a mound of green flesh and a fluffy blue bear has become bosom buddies.

Monsters_University_poster_3Expectations were low for some long-time PIXAR fans going in to see Monsters University. In fact, they were smaller than the green imp, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). He has these grand ambitions to be a Scare-a-lot even though he is better suited to be Care Bears material. The joke is on him when he finally arrives at the prestigious Monsters University. He is there to learn how to be scary and that is one tall order for the most tamest beast to grace this monster-verse.

Even James Sullivan (John Goodman) is more about fluff than flights of fancy as he tries to buffoon his way through college life.

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The Croods Go Crazy!

The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

The CroodsWriter/Creator Chris Sanders shows that he rarely strays far from what he knows is a good tale. In what he crafted for The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

But this movie is one tough rock to crack. It doesn’t have the same appeal as Sander’s breakout directorial hit, Lilo & Stitch, or his phenomenal adaptation of Cassandra Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon. When the story has to deal with five characters attempting to share equal screen time, the problems of managing a cohesive family drama versus sit-com ala The Munsters is evident.

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Man of Steel Delivers Plenty of Nolen-esque Appeal

Man of Steel has plenty of moments that will get fans past and present wondering about who this man embodying hope is.

Superman PosterFans of Christopher Nolan’s revisionist theory in redefining DC’s superheroes for the big screen—to explore the pathos behind the hero—will no doubt love Man of Steel. This movie is a bleaker product. Its post-modernist outlook on life and in who can forge their own destinies is at the heart of this film. This edgier type of storytelling is great, and to add-on top Zack Snyder’s testosterone based action-reaction mode of visual storytelling only reinforces the idea that this tale is a comic book product. This movie is more like something Grant Morrison or Alan Moore would write. But for the two filmmakers, Nolan and Snyder might have squared off a few times in deciding which parts of the film needed the whiz-bang action versus analysis of the life of what Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) aka Superman is meant to become.

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Where is the “Epic” Appeal? A Movie Review

Epic inserts is a movie made on steroids. It tries to be too much of everything we love from Disney and it’s not needed.

Epic Film PosterThe main problem with Blue Sky Studio’s Epic is that it tries too hard to be just that. This film forgets where its inspirations should be coming from. It could have borrowed from Peer Gynt—which would have been fine—but it didn’t. While the CGI is very impressive with its photo-realism, that isn’t enough to carry this film.

This movie deserves a Oscar nomination for artistic direction. As for any other category, it may need a Razzie for its story development.

Its fairy tale aspirations gets forgotten in favor for an action story in the same vein as Avatar. Instead of an invasion of an evasive human species, the antagonist here is with the forces lurking under the earth. All the nastiness of mosquitoes, mole-men and rodents (including bats) gets personified as agents of pestilence.

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Star Trek: (Getting Deeper) Into Darkness, A Movie Review

If only Star Trek: Into Darkness was edited differently, it could have been a tale about Spock’s heroic journey.

Star Trek: Into Darkness PosterSpoiler alert

Star Trek: Into Darkness is a film that will no doubt have many fans wanting to make comparisons once the spoilers are known. By now, nearly everyone knows who the true villain is. This movie’s title card is enough to suggest the tone and direction. It’s to explore what drives men to do what they do. Sometimes that territory needs to be ventured into. And just where should the line be crossed?

The Prime Directive may be more than just a mandate to not interfere with fledgling civilizations, but in how culture gets developed. The intro is very Indiana Jones when Kirk and Bones are running away from some primitive tribe for reasons unexplained. Part of it may well do with causing a distraction so Spock can enter a volcano to save this tribe. But the plan has a few problems, and Kirk has to violate the Prime Directive to save his science officer.

In a plot that develops in one direction, the swing it makes is not necessarily politically driven. Some viewers may well read plenty of left-wing messages into this piece, but the way this film ends speaks for itself. Gone are the colorful suits the Federation that the classic and later TV series defined. When on duty, the standard red, blue and yellow are seen, but as for when they are presenting en masse, for the public to see, some viewers may well wonder what’s with the drab dark grey? Could J.J. Abrams version be a look in the mirror darkly? The first movie established the Spock from the original series universe does in fact exist. He chose to stay out of interfering in this canon’s timeline. As for what that means in this reboot as a whole, even this universe’s Spock is perplexed.

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