"Hercules" Review

Hercules

2.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Rated PG-13

-Brutal action violence. 

-There is blood, but it is mostly shown after the fact. It is never seen leaving the body.

-Some frightening images.

-Brief backside female nudity for less than a second. There is also a part in which a breast is almost shown, but the woman covers herself before it is.

If Dwayne Johnson did not play the title character in "Hercules," it would have probably been a made-for-tv movie. 

Hercules is a demigod who goes on various missions with his group of friends to make money. They get hired by Cotys (John Hurt), the king of a Greek area called Thrace, to help him overthrow his enemy, Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann), who has been causing a lot of destruction in the land. The movie is about how Hercules trains an army and leads them to find and capture Rhesus. 

There is not much more to say about the film. It is a very simple movie, and frankly it is bland. When there is not any action, it goes into some boring dialogue with boring characters about where they came from. Some of the backstories are interesting, but you also have to sit through some dry banter before hearing them. 

With Hercules, the sky is the limit. The filmmakers could have given us an epic tale from his life. What we get is some generic plot that seems like a bad Syfy Channel Original Movie. The characters are bland, and there is very little that distinguishes them from one another. The only ones that I find remotely interesting are Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), the storyteller, and Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), the man who can see pieces of the future. 

Dwayne Johnson's performance is what anyone would expect from him. He is not exactly an Academy-Award-worthy actor. He is a muscle head who was once a professional wrestler. His acting ability reflects his previous career, and there were times I thought I was watching World Wrestling Entertainment. 

To make his role worthwhile, he should have talked less and fought more. Some of the action scenes brutal, hard hitting and cool. When there is a throw down, it is very entertaining. However, the action scenes are so few and far between, that it is ultimately not worth seeing.

This movie gets half a star more than I thought it would because of the third act. There is a twist at the end of the second act that was unexpected and interesting. The last part deals with Hercules's backstory, and the resolution is well-executed.  

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"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" Review

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Rated PG-13
-Moderate amount of language including one f-word
-Non-gory action violence throughout including guns. One gun shot wound is shown, but it is not gory.
-The character design of Koba might be frightening to some younger audiences.
-I rated this up in family appropriateness because it has themes that family's might appreciate.






"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" does for the "Apes" franchise what "The Dark Knight" did for Batman. Not only does it push the characters from the previous film forward, it presents a story that stands on its own and gives insight into human nature.

It has been years since the events of the first film. Many humans have died off from a deadly virus brought about by an experimental drug that was tested on an ape named Caeser (Andy Serkis), who became highly intelligent because of it. He gave the drug to a bunch of other apes, and they all gained the same intelligence. Having rebelled against the humans, they now live in a forest colony outside San Fransicso.

Caeser is the leader of them. He is now more mature, having spent years as the one responsible for who he considers his family. He is also much wiser than the rest because he has had a deep, personal connection with humans. His experiences have led him to the knowledge that there is both good and bad in humanity.

Not every ape understands this. There is one named Koba (Toby Kebbell) who had been tortured by humans before the rebellion. He has only seen the ugly side of humanity, and he thinks they are all awful.

For years, the humans and apes have been living separate lives. This changes one day when some humans unknowingly stumble onto ape territory. Humans are running out of electricity in their colony located within the city, and they know there is a dam around the area that could provide hydroelectric power. They want to find a way to turn it on. However, it is in the ape colony and some apes -- such as Koba -- do not have a lot of trust in humans.

Caeser agrees to let a few humans stay for three days to figure out how to turn the dam on. His condition is they cannot have guns in the area. Malcolm (Jason Clarke), the leader of these few humans, honors Caeser's request. However, not all of the humans respect the apes like Malcolm. Complications arise because of this and because of Koba's distrust.

This film explains one of the biggest problems in modern-day society. It is about the dangers of stereotyping. Not only does Koba think all humans are bad, one of the humans named Carver (Kirk Acevedo) also blames all apes to be the root cause of his problems. Most of the characters -- both apes and humans -- want to avoid killing each other, but there are those few on both sides who believe the other needs to be eliminated.

This is the same thing that happened around 9/11.  On that day in 2001, there were a few Muslims who hated Americans and resorted to killing a lot of them. A lot of Americans became angry at all Muslims, thinking they were evil people, and the religious group underwent a lot of persecution because of it. My own experience has led me to believe they are generally peaceful people. Not all of them would even dream of doing something as horrific as what was done that day. It is just a few that cause problems. Likewise, only some Americans overgeneralized their hate to encompass all Muslims.

What is amazing about both "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is how much characterization is given to the animals. Both films are more about the apes than they are about the humans, and it is just as engaging as it would have been the other way around. There is also a decent amount of development given to Malcolm. This makes it engaging because during the climax, there is enough emotional investment on both sides to make the audience generally concerned about what happens.

The characterization of the apes could not be accomplished as potently as it is without the use of motion capture technology. The animation is done using real actors, and their facial expressions look very real. There is one scene in the beginning when Caeser meets his newborn son, and it is very powerful because the look of happiness on his face is so clear.

Andy Serkis is the one who does the actions and voice for Caeser. He is notable for doing a lot of motion capture roles, his most famous being Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings" movies. He has been trying to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an Oscar category for motion capture. While I do not agree there is enough movies shot that way to justify an entire category, he deserves to be nominated for best actor in a leading role for this movie.

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"The Fault in Our Stars" Review

The Fault in Our Stars

4.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Rated PG-13
-A moderate amount of language including one f-word
-A moderate amount of sexual content
-One scene of sensuality. The characters take off their clothes. The girl takes off her bra, which is shot from behind so nothing is seen. It shows the characters touching each other and kissing, but nothing beyond that.







"The Fault in Our Stars" seeks to find positivity in a world of harsh reality.

Hazel Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) is a teenager who has spent a big chunk of her life fighting cancer. She has only survived as long as she has because of a special medication that works for very few people. Her sickness has gotten so bad that she has to carry an oxygen tank around to aid her breathing.

She is a perfectly normal girl for her age. She has hopes and dreams for the future, or at least for what her future would be if she had one. It is depressing to her that she knows she is going to die, and there are a lot of things she may never experience. This is shown as she looks at couples in love. She does not think something like that will ever happen to her in the short time she has.

Despite Hazel's protests, her mother (Laura Dern) makes her join a support group for other cancer patients and survivors. It is there that she meets Augustus "Gus" Waters (Ansel Elgort). He is a quirky, highly positive young man. He survived a bout with cancer, but lost his leg in the process.

The movie beautifully shows the relationship develop between Hazel and Gus. At first, their chemistry seems a little off. Whenever Gus talks, he seems to be doing stand-up comedy for Hazel, who only finds his jokes mildly funny. That is because they are in the early stages of the relationship when they are flirty and not quite comfortable with each other. As the film goes on, they face certain challenges together, and their chemistry strengthens.

Through this relationship, both characters find that there are things to live for. They realize that everyone is going to die eventually. It will simply to happen earlier for them. While they are alive, they need to make the best of what they have.

A problem I initially had with this film is the bloated dialogue. The main characters are very young, but they talk about deep, complex philosophy. They seem way too smart for people their age. After thinking about it, I realized this must have been done on purpose. The characters have been so close to death, that all of the complexity of speech is simply them trying to figure their lives out.

This is especially true of the Gus character. Ansel Elgort is a very likable guy. His debut role was in the remake of Steven King's "Carrie," in which he plays another nice guy named Tommy Ross. He did an excellent job in that film, and I was looking forward to seeing what more he had. At first he seems too perfect in this movie, but he is this way because of his fear of dying without being remembered.

A while ago in my review for "Divergent," I wrote that Shailene Woodley did a pretty good job but she is not that great an actress. I take that back. She is great! She does perfectly as a witty teenage girl who is dying. This role requires a lot of emotional depth, and she pulls it off very well.

Another great performance is by Willem Dafoe. He is only in a couple scenes, but one of them is the strongest part of the film.

The only problem is the pacing. The section in which the main relationship develops drags a little. However, this is a minor flaw. The characters are interesting enough to keep it entertaining especially when the story picks up.

I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a romantic story done right. The characters are likable and the relationship is developed so well that it is easy to care about. Just be warned that it is a pretty sad movie. I may or may not have cried a little.

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"Edge of Tomorrow" Review

Edge of Tomorrow

4.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Rated PG-13

-One minor depiction of backside male nudity

-Two or three mild, non-descriptive, sexual references

-Mild amount of profanity including one instance of an incomplete f-word and a few shots of written profanity

With even pacing and a storyline that keeps the audience involved from beginning to end, "Edge of Tomorrow" is what I hoped "Elysium" would be.

Earth is being overtaken by a race of aliens known as mimics. The world's militaries have been losing their battles against them until recently, and they plan what is hoped to be a final attack in Europe. 

Tom Cruise plays Major Cage, an American military officer who has a very cushy job. Not a lot is described about his duties, but it seems like he is there for the public relations aspect of the war effort. Needless to say, he has never fought in any battles. 

Despite his protests, he is forced by higher officials to storm Europe with the other soldiers. The battle proves to be more of a slaughter as the mimics are killing off the humans. Major Cage dies in that battle only to wake up the day before. 

This happens again and again as he goes off to fight in the same battle. Eventually, he finds someone who knows what is going on and why: the war hero Rita (Emily Blunt). She also knows what it takes to win the war, and she uses Cage to do so.

From beginning to end, this film is very entertaining. This is due to a script that gives the audience an interesting character who has a satisfying arc. At the beginning, he is a total wuss, but he becomes braver as the story develops.

Tom Cruise made this possible. Say what you want about his personal life, he is a great actor. His performance is believable in this film. There are parts where he gets very frustrated with how things are turning out, and it is easy to empathize with the character.

The storyline is driven by the concept, which reminds me of "Groundhog Day." Not only is it an interesting thought, the writers were able to make it completely relevant. Unlike the Bill Murray film, the reason for Cage to relive every day is explained, and it has to do with what is going on in the war.

There were only two problems I had with this film. One of them is in the beginning, Cage seems to be demoted, and he is forced to fight in the war, but this aspect is never adequately explained. 

The other problem is the ending is a little too convenient. I will not reveal what happened, but it seemed like the writers wanted certain things to happen, so they happened without very much explanation.

These are very minor problems. The film as a whole is very entertaining. I definitely recommend seeing it.