Movie Review: Pixels

Have you ever wanted to live one of your favourite video games? In the new movie Pixels they do just that. Except a lot scarier and they’re all 8-bit games (just in case you don’t know what an 8-bit game is, they’re old arcade games like Pac-man and Galaga). Anyways, I hope you enjoy this review of the movie Pixels.

The movie starts in 1982 where a young Sam Brenner (adult played by Adam Sandler) tells his friend Will Cooper (played by Kevin James) that a new building called an arcade has just opened up. So they grab some money and go to the arcade and start playing all the arcade games, and as they are getting all the high scores they decide to go the world championship. This is where they meet Ludlow Lamonsoff (played by Josh Gad) who is great at the games and is into conspiracy theories, but has no friends. In the tournament they meet Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plant (played by Peter Dinklage) who is also very good at the arcade games and is tied with Brenner at the top. The tournament people decide to break the tie with a game of Donkey Kong, and Brenner loses. After the loss, Brenner and Cooper decide to talk about what they would want to do in the future.

Years later, in the present day, Brenner and President Cooper are talking in a bar or something about similar things they were talking about years ago. Brenner says he has to do a job for his company called NERD and as they leave, the people behind barricades start yelling at Cooper about all his bad decisions as the President. Brenner has lead a disappointing life because he let his loss at the arcade championship define who he was. When strange things attack US Army base in Guam President Cooper calls Brenner in to see if maybe he can help with the situation. This leads to a series of events that are both comical and full of action.

The story plot of the movie I thought was great and the action scenes definitely reminded me of all the 8-bit games from the past. The action scenes in the movie featuring these games were very well thought out and animated. But the thing to remember about this movie is that it is a comedy and to not to go expecting it to be very serious.

The acting was very good in most of the movie, but sometimes I see parts that I think they could have made better in some way or it was a case of slight overacting. But even with these, the movie was great anyways. Adam Sandler did his usual routine of acting just a little bit childish for his character, Kevin James can be counted on for his self put down character, although it was nice to see him in a job position that was more important than what he usually does. Josh Gad had his lovable but loud personality, and even though I have not seen much of Peter Dinklage before, he worked well with them and all the actors played well off of each other.

Overall I would rate this movie 8.8/10 for great comedic acting and story plot with very cool action scenes, even though about half the movie is special effects. But they had to use special effects for the movie, otherwise Pac-Man wouldn’t be destroying New York. 

Movie Review: Ant-Man

So you may recall from my Age of Ultron post that my family loves the Marvel movies. I had only heard of Ant-man maybe once or twice before this movie so I was really interested in what this super hero had going for him. Turns out it’s a lot.

The movie starts in 1989 at S.H.I.E.L.D where Dr. Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) is mad that Howard Stark (played by John Slattery) had been trying to replicate his formula for shrinking things. After maybe two or three minutes into the scene Hank Pym punches Howard Stark in the face and quits.

Years later, in 2015, Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) gets punched in the face by one of his prison mates (it’s their goodbye ritual). As he leaves, he is greeted by his friend Luis (played by Michael Pena) with his van in the parking lot. They go to the apartment Luis and his buddies, Kurt (played by David Dastmalchian) and Dave (played by T.I.) are staying at. When they get to the apartment, Luis tells Scott about a job to break into a safe with lots of money and after some misfortune Scott finally agrees to the job. This is the beginning of his new life adventure.

The story plot in my opinion was very thought out and well done for the introduction of this latest Marvel Hero. The interlinking with the Avenger Franchise is great and I love the Cameo of one of the Avengers. There is a great mix of comedy that balances out the tragedy of Scott’s life. I also like how he thinks more like a real person would think in terms of his family and priority. I think it really added a human aspect to the character. Makes me interested in looking up the original Ant-Man comic books.

I will also say I loved seeing the battles from a micro view but even more when they showed what those battles looked like to the average human eye. My one complaint would be there were some aspects of the movie where I think, even for a comic book story, that they goofed on. Feel free to comment and I will let you know what they are but do not want to spoil the movie too much here.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and look forward to seeing Ant-Man in future movies. I rate this movie 8.7/10 for the lack of continuity but great story and introduction.

Please remember that this is a Marvel movie and that there are not one but two extra scenes in the credits. One in the middle and another at the very end.

Movie Review: Minions

Before I get to the review I feel I need to say that The Minion movie isn’t a sequel to the Despicable Me movies, but is instead a prequel to both of them. Prequels are movies or games that came out after the first or more but comes before the first in their timeline. So, I hope you enjoy this review of the first prequel I’ve seen for the blog.

Just before the movie, when they show all the logos and stuff to show who all made the movie and/or who’s sponsoring it, the minions actually sing the song for the Universal studios logo. Right after it shows the Illumination studios logo with the one of the minions still singing a note, then passing out.

Then it goes to the first scene in the movie where the world has finished forming and now there are all the first sea creatures. On the left side of the screen you can see three yellow blobs swimming slowly, which somehow evolve eyes instantly as they watch a different creature eat another. They start following this creature around until it gets eaten so they follow the new one until it gets eaten, and this goes on for a few minutes as they evolve limbs and continue to follow more and more creatures until they decide to call their friends and swim up to the surface and emerge with goggles and pants, somehow.

After they emerge, the minions find a dinosaur to make a master of, but they lose it due to a boulder and a volcano. Then the movie goes through all the masters that the minions had but lost all the way up until they find an ice cave to make a home of their own in. After a while though, they get bored and sad because they were missing something, a master. So Kevin (the tall one) makes a speech to go outside their cave to find them a new boss. Kevin needed more minions to go with him, so Bob (the short one) volunteered but Kevin didn’t want him at the time. Another minion made a sleeping Stuart (the one with the instrument) volunteer before he woke up, so he had no idea what he had won. Eventually though, Kevin decided that Bob could go with him on this adventure, mostly because no other minions wanted to go.

The story plot after the Minions left the cave was well written and gave a good adventure for them and for those watching the movie. They met some great characters and I love how Scarlett Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) was the ultimate female villain. 

The voice acting was very well done and I really liked the narration by Geoffrey Rush, and Peter Coffin did a good job with the Minions although I had to look his name up as I missed it during the credits. I probably would have seen it but I was too busy enjoying the mini shorts spread throughout the credits, and even if I did see it, there was a little minion music video at the very end which would have made me forget who voiced them anyways.

Overall the movie was very funny and great for all ages to enjoy, adults because of all the action and adventure in the movie, and for kids because of the minions and silly jokes. I would have had the beginning of the movie move faster into the main story, and for this reason I would rate this movie 8.5/10.

As a fun note, the movie has a great music soundtrack with lots of 60’s fun like the song Hair, only minionized.

Movie Review: Terminator Genisys

So as I am new to the Terminator movies, I decided to get into the franchise by watching the newest movie first. I probably would have watched the first four movies before going, but because of the move I couldn’t watch either of them. So, I hope you enjoy this review by someone who hasn’t seen the first four movies, even though I probably would have if I hadn’t have been moving.

The movie starts with Kyle Reese (played by Jai Courtney) narrating his childhood and how everything was horrible until he was saved by John Connor (played by Jason Clarke) and joined the resistance against the robots. Years later, as the resistance is killing off the robot army, they destroy the core of Skynet (which caused the whole robot invasion thing), but not before they send back a terminator (which is a CGI version of young Arnold Schwarzenegger) to kill Sarah Connor (played by Emilia Clarke), which is a throwback to the first movie, but the timelines have changed and now Sarah has a terminator of her own, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The acting was pretty great, especially in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s part playing the terminator. I actually think he could be a robot at some point and I wouldn’t know he was one. For almost everyone else, I probably would have reacted differently in their situations, but otherwise very good in their parts.

I thought that the story plot worked well for people who haven’t seen the other movies, or for those who have had nothing to do with the franchise until now or at all. It really went well with all the different characters and how they fit in with the story plot. While they all did well with portraying their characters, I think there was just maybe a little bit too much unrealism in which they get all the things they have in the movie, which is basically out of thin air.

Overall though, I would rate this movie 8.7/10 for great story plot and acting, but not so much for not actually knowing how they get the stuff they use and a little for how some of the actual robots and terminators act about some things.