Movie Review: Moana

This weeks movie is Moana, and it is about a girl who goes on an adventure to find a Demigod and a mythical island. It is based on a Hawaiian legend that I am excited to see Disney bring to life. I will be honest, I like the idea of going on adventures, but I am scared of them as well, because I would have to leave everything I know and venture into the unknown. Here is what I think of Moana's adventure. 

The movie starts with a story on tapestry narrated by Gramma Tala (voiced by Rachel House) about the goddess Te Fiti, and how she created islands from the sea. She then laid on her side and became an island, and people came to take her heart, one of which was the demigod Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). When he came close to the island on boat, he morphed into a giant hawk and flew the rest of the way. When overhead, he turns into a lizard and crawls across the island and finds the heart. He turns back to a human, and removes the heart with his giant fish hook. When he does, the island begins to turn black and crumble, so he runs off the island and turns back into a hawk. But the lava monster Te Ka was waiting at the reef of the island, wanting the heart for their self. As Maui flew closer and closer, he turned human to strike Te Ka, but got hit himself and fell deep into the ocean, along with his fish hook and the heart.

It moves to Gramma Tala finishing telling the tale to a group of children by saying that one of them would go beyond the reef to find Maui and restore the heart of Te Fiti. The Chief Tui (voiced by Temuera Morrison) comes in and says that no one goes beyond the reef, and that the monsters in the stories aren't real, when the tapestries with art of such monsters drop down. Most of the children run around screaming, except for one, a young Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho). She sneaks out and goes to the ocean, where a baby turtle is trapped by birds and unable to go to the ocean. Moana helps it to the water, which parts shortly after to reveal a shell. As Moana picks up the shell, the water parts more to reveal more shells, until she is in deeper water than her own height, where the sea creatures swim around her. A green stone floats towards her while she plays with the water, and she grabs it and begins to feel the markings on it. But before she can properly grip it again, her father calls out and the water brings her back to shore, causing her to drop the rock. Chief Tui, who happens to be Moana's father, comes out and takes her around the island town, teaching her about all her duties in song while she ages into teenage years.

The story plot went through differently than you would expect, but was consistent throughout anyways. The movie itself was mostly an original idea, which seems hard to come by these days. It was a great breath of fresh air for the most part. There were parts that could have been done differently, like the dragging part in the middle where Moana is first heading out on her own. It also seemed to move slow after we meet Maui as well, but the pace did pick up after a while, so it worked out in the end. I also think they over did the crazy chicken joke a little too much as well, but the theater full of kids seemed to disagree with me on that.

The voice acting was better than most animated movies, and that's saying something. With how Auli'i Cravalho voiced Moana, it felt more like watching a live action movie than animation. She was expressive in her voice and played well against Dwayne Johnson's booming voice for Maui. Alongside the animation, it was one of the better 3D Disney movies. Though I wish they would bring back the hand drawn and 2D style animation, this was still great.

Overall, The animation was top notch, coupled with the outstanding voice acting, it had a lot of great moments. With how the story plot went, it could have used some work, but otherwise still pretty good. And with the reasons stated above, I would rate this 8.7/10.

Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

It was 15 years ago that Harry Potter first came to theater, so it seems fitting that we finally get an extension to the wizarding world. The textbook this story is based on is actually one that I was most interested in with the original series. It will be interesting how they turn a text book into a story and learning more about the author. I probably should have watched the Harry Potter series again first, but it is too late for that. It could be a good or bad thing, but I hope you enjoy my review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The movie starts with a group of people, most likely wizards, standing in a group, when a blue fire disintegrates them all. We see the back of a mans head, then newspaper clippings start flying around with similar headlines, asking about a man named Grindelwald. Further reading of the papers show these are the headlines in the US. As the papers settle into a picture of the Statue of Liberty we zoom into the actual statue with a boat passing by.

On the deck of the boat we see a man sitting on a bench with a suitcase next to him. The latch on the suitcase flips open on its own, and as the man closes the latch he lifts the suitcase onto his lap. We soon see this is Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) and he talks to someone, or something, in the case telling them to be patient, as they are almost there. He soon exits the boat and goes through security at the New York boat terminal. The inspector asks some questions about what is in his suitcase, when the latch opens on its own again. Newt says he should get it fixed and closes it again. The inspector asks to see in his bag, and Newt puts it up and makes it "muggle worthy" to inspect. When the case is opened all we see is some clothing, personal items and a pocket watch ticking away. The inspector closes the case and says welcome to New York.

The plot of the story brought us an interesting perspective of how the wizarding world is in America. It took us to the past before Harry Potter time, so there wasn't a competing story line as well. I enjoyed that aspect of it. Being the first movie in this story line, a lot of time was spent in character development, so maybe we lost a little bit of story there, but it did not lack that much. There was some great action and even some growth of the main character. Trying not to give away too much, but what I enjoyed most is that the hero of the story, Newt, appears to have some autistic traits to him. I like that we now have movies like this one and The Accountant with Autistic people as lead characters. It gives us hope and is nice to know that I could be able to relate to him at least a little.

The acting was also top notch, mostly on the part of Eddie Redmayne. The way he portrayed Newt Scamander was definitely greater than I was expecting. You would almost think he was autistic in real life if you didn't know better. The character Tina Goldstein played by Katherine Waterston at first comes across as static and one dimensional, but it does not stay that way. I think this was a smart way for her to play the character, as it gave us growth to like her when she annoyed us at first. Then there is Colin Farrell as Percival Graves. He kept us guessing between good and bad and I can think of no one better to play this role. He also lead us brilliantly into one great twist, which I saw coming, but it was still well done. I did find some of the background characters were a touch bland, but these actors and the CGI beasts make up the difference. I am curious to see how things grow in the sequel, which we all know will happen.

Overall, the story plot went through very smoothly, and the acting was great, and the CGI was exceptional. There are some things to look out for in this movie, and some might surprise you to know. So, for these reasons, I would rate this 9.0/10.

Also thank-you to my good friend Quade who helped me set up a facebook page. If you have time please check it out and give it a like.
https://www.facebook.com/Samsslap/

Movie Review: Doctor Strange

As many long time readers know, my family loves Marvel movies. Doctor Strange caught my interest when I saw the trailers, and intrigued me enough to go and see it. The characters and world twisting seems like they would create something completely new from what Marvel has done before. So, I hope you enjoy my review on Doctor Strange.

The movie starts with three figures walking through a dark courtyard area towards a door. We then end up in a secret library with the librarian putting away a book with chains to hold the book in place on a strange book rack. The three men walk in, along with many others surrounding the librarian, then using magic to bind him in place. The one hooded man, Kaecilius (played by Mads Mikkelsen) comes close to the librarians head, grabs the two small axes behind his back, then slices his head off with one quick slash. Kaecilius then goes and finds a book, flips through until he finds the pages he wants, then tears them out. A mysterious hooded figure appears in the room and says the spell will only bring him trouble. He reaches for his axes as if to attack, but then runs off with all the others following soon after. They all end up on the streets, and make a break for some of the bigger buildings across the street. They all stop dead in their tracks when they see a sort of glass mirror effect in front of them, turning around to the hooded person move their hand, causing the buildings to shift abnormally. Gravity turns sideways as this happens, and some of the buildings behind them move outwards and begin rolling towards them all. A battle ensues here, with some of the people getting crushed by the rolling buildings, but in the end Kaecilius escapes with some of them, and the figure causes everything to go back to normal. The person then begins walking down the street, and from the back we see them take off their hood to reveal a bald head.

It then moves to Doctor Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) washing his hands, putting on his surgery jacket, then his mask, and finally his gloves to prepare for doing a surgery. He begins to do the surgery, then says to one of the other doctors it's a challenge round, and they change the song, to which Strange says the song is "Feels So Good, Chuck Mangione, 1977" and that it isn't a challenge. The other doctor says its 1978, but Strange says the album was released in December 1977 and became more popular in 1978. The other doctor said they checked Wikipedia, but Strange tells him to look again to confirm. The assisting surgeon asks Strange where he stores all this useless information. Turns out he is right and everyone can't believe it. He finishes what he is doing and notices Dr. Christine Palmer (played by Rachel McAdams) standing outside the door gesturing to an emergency. The other surgeon offers to finish up as he goes to talk to her.

The acting was enjoyable to watch and almost lifelike. I love it when a group of strong actors come together and actually make something good. Rachel McAdams was probably a little more cliché than I would have liked, but she played it well. But I must give my praise to Benedict Cumberbatch who plays an ego ridden know it all very well, but adding that vulnerable side to bring his character to the transition of sorcerer is brilliant. Mads Mikkelsen's bad guy, Kaecilius, also seems very cliché straight bad guy until closer to the end when his pain over why he is doing what he is truly comes out. I believe some of the cliché acting probably has to do with the script.

The story plot was fascinating to go through. It has some of that knock down the big ego guy and transform him into something we can relate to back in the origin of Ironman, but his human struggle is so much more relatable to. His search to regain what he once had only to be taken deeper into a dark pit makes for his come back as super hero that much more interesting to watch. I like the twists, both in storyline and actual reality. The CGI is amazing to watch and worth going to see the movie alone. My only problem would be some of the cliché touches but I guess every super hero movie needs some of those.

Overall, with the almost lifelike performances, and the twisted reality scenes, it had the opportunity to be greater. Though the clichés were there, along with a few other things, it was still very good. So, for the reasons above, I would rate this 8.9/10.

Movie Review: Inferno

This weeks movie is Inferno, which is the third movie in the DaVinci Code series. The only one I haven't seen in the trilogy is Angels and Demons, and it intrigues me to see it after this one, in case there is something I would have missed in the story line. So, I hope you enjoy my review on Inferno.

The movie starts with jumpy footage of a video playing, with a man talking about overpopulation and a plague. It then moves to the same man, Bertrand Zobrist (played by Ben Foster), running into a building from some men in suits. He climbs on the roof, then realizes that he cornered himself when one of the two men climbs up after him. The man, Christoph Bouchard (played by Omar Sy), tells Bertrand to hand over the package, to which he falls backwards and kills himself, which can be seen in the trailer below.

It then moves to Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks), as it appears, sleeping, and having a terrible nightmare of sorts. Within are people halfway through the ground, legs sticking up, others with their heads turned to face behind them, and people infected with something. As he goes though more and more, he suddenly jerks awake and we find ourselves in a hospital room. The doctor, Sienna Brooks (played by Felicity Jones), is on the other side of the room when he wakes up, and Robert asks where he is. She tells him that a bullet grazed his head and he's in the hospital with amnesia, when he tells Sienna to turn out the lights. She does that, and Robert realises that he's in Siena, Italy when he sees the Torre Del Mangia.

The acting was very well done for a lot of the movie, but I had a few problems. Ben Foster did good in the first few scenes you saw him in, but he felt a little flat most elsewhere. Felicity Jones also did great in a lot of her scenes, but she had a point where she didn't quite have enough emotion, and fell short of her best. But even so, Tom Hanks was very enjoyable in portraying his character in every aspect possible.

The story plot went about as smooth as uncarved wood, though it was still understandable and enjoyable. It mostly made sense throughout, except at the twists, but that's what the twists are about. It was interesting watching Robert solve a mystery puzzle he had already solved the day before, but at the same time it also seemed to slow the movie down from the pace of the first movie. It just couldn't hold my interest very well.

Overall, the acting had some flaws, and it was a little rough around the edges, it was still a decently good movie. Some things could have been better, others might have been better left out, but considering the good I would rate this 7.3/10.