Jurassic World (2015)

So they actually did make a fourth movie after all. I start off saying that because I remember years ago when there was talk about making a fourth Jurassic Park movie and then I roll my eyes over it. But they did. So let's take a look at Jurassic World.

Plot: Years after the events of the first movie, another park has been made, this time called Jurassic World. Tons of people come to see all these new attractions and see different kinds of dinosaurs and  it's just coming up better than the original park. But with these new dinosaurs, the company, InGen, also creates their own genetically-modified dinosaur called the Indominus rex, which eventually (big shock) escapes and is a danger to everyone in the park. So the armed security goes out to try to take it down, while the park's operations manager, Claire, goes out there to try to find her two nephews who are out in the jungle where the Indominus rex is with the help of the Velociraptor trainer, Owen.

Now obviously, this movie doesn't hold a candle to the first movie no matter how much it tries. But for a fourth movie that tries a lot harder to do that compared to the second and third movies, it gives such a darn good try that it pays off to be a rather enjoyable, fun flick. Granted, it does take a little while before the entertainment really starts. The first half hour or so of the film does a lot of building up until we get to the obvious point in the movie where the big dinosaur is on the lose and stuff starts going down and everything. In fact there where parts where I felt like I was kind of watching Prometheus in how there's so much that you easily know what's going to happen. There's going to be a couple of people that you know are going to die, so when things go sour, and that person's on screen, you wave that person goodbye before the inevitable happens. But after that, we get an entertaining movie with a smarter story than what I personally expected. The Indominus Rex for example has a goal that, as an antagonist, is unique to the point where it isn't even a force of nature unlike the other dinosaurs trying to get the main characters. I won't give away what it is, but I do think it's really clever. There's also the fact that Owen is a Velociraptor trainer. That in itself makes him stand out from what human characters from past movies do. But it is also backed up with the fact that he has this bond with the four raptors that he trains, and yet he knows that he is still in danger of getting eaten. And I enjoy how we get new dinosaurs that we haven't seen before - particularly the Mosasaurus. That thing was awesome to watch every time it was on screen. Now granted, I originally thought it was a Liopleurodon based on the trailers, which got me really excited to see it. It's sad to learn that it was actually a Mosasaurus, but you know what? Screw it. I'll call it a Liopleurodon anyway. But what really makes this movie stand out is the third act. I won't DARE give away what happens for those of you who have not seen the film, but it has a really big climax with lots of action, suspense, and probably one of the most epic fights you'll see. Speaking of suspense, this film really does keep you on the edge of your seat. There are a lot moments in the film where the horror of what is happening does get to you. Though there is a part where the horror goes a little too far when a women get's eaten. It's not that it's real bloody or anything, but what keeps happening to her before she dies is actually really brutal in its own way. The comedy was enjoyable for the most part. Not every joke hit its mark of coarse, but there are a couple that my family and I got a good laugh at. If there's one real problem with the movie, it would have to be the characters. Now when I say that, I don't mean they weren't entertaining. Because they were. Chris Pratt was of coarse a lot of fun, Bryce Dallas Howard had some good moments,  the two brothers has a decent relationship and I would argue that the youngest brother acted pretty well. But as characters themselves, they were pretty stereotypical. The hero who knows what is happening better than anyone else. The female lead who kind of uptight. The freaking human antagonist that is doing what he does for military purposes? Ugh, I should be surprised that I didn't roll my eyes when that guy first popped up.

And that's my review for Jurassic World. The characters are stereotypical, and the first act is a drag because you know what's going to happen. But other than that, we have a surprisingly fun movie with good horror moments, decent comedy, a much more original story compared to the last two films, and a really exciting third act. It is unsurprisingly no Jurassic Park, but for a sequel, you're probably going to have a good time.

Rating: 75%

The Notebook (2004)

So a  couple of months ago, I was at my church's adult group, when my friends Lindsay and Margaret started talking about The Notebook. They were making it abundantly clear how much they hate the movie and how millions of other women go crazy over it. As they were telling me all of this, I started thinking: "you know what? I've heard about this movie many times but haven't seen it for myself." So I decided to watch the movie and give my two cents, which they both supported. Well I kind of took longer than I planned to get to it (sorry about that guys), but I have just recently watched it, so here is the long delayed review for The Notebook.

Plot: The film centers around a local country boy named Noah and a rich girl named Allie who fall in love when Allie's family are visiting Noah's town over the summer. But when Allie's parents find out, her mother forbids her from seeing him again because he's poor. This leads to the two of them getting separated from each other for several years, during which, Allie gets engaged to a wealthy man. But when she learns about him finally building his dream job in the newspaper, she comes back and they take another chance at their love, leaving for Allie to figure out what to do about her engagement.

Now based on how Lindsay and Margaret attacked the movie, it sounded like I was going to really hate this movie. And even if neither of them talked about it, other people have gone on and on how it's this big chick flick that girlfriends/wives drag their boyfriends/husbands to watch. As for me, I'm siding with Lindsay and Margaret that it's bad. But at the same time it's a little better than I thought it would be, but not by much. It doesn't really bring a lot of new things as a chick flick. A lot of that centers around how generic the characters and the story are. I mean come on, just from reading the plot paragraph to this review, how could you not feel like you've heard this story before? The boy is poor but he has a free spirit, the girl is rich and she becomes more active like the boy, it isn't too long before they eventually decide to have sex (or sort of try to in this case), the girls parent(s) disapproves of their realtionship and wants her to marry a rich guy, at some point they kiss in the rain, on and on and on. And of coarse, women view this movie as how love is suppose to be, and they wish their boyfriends/husbands are more like Ryan Gosling. If you enjoy seeing this in so many chick flicks, more power to you. But for the rest of us, we have seen this dozens of times in other chick flicks or just romance in general, and we can't really look past all these cliches. True, some things are done a little differently, such as how again, they don't end up having sex early on and the rich fiancee is actually a really nice guy, but in the long run, it's completely the same thing. If there's anything that is particularly good about this movie, it would be the performances and the ending. While the characters are generic, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams do give it their all in their acting, and they do show a good amount of chemistry... at least when they are not constantly fighting. Seriously, it's surprising how much they bicker and sometimes even hit reach other during this movie. I think they were trying to make their relationship more like real life relationships which is a good intention, but it doesn't always work they way they're displaying it. And the very end of the movie is very touching. I wouldn't call it a real tear dropper, at least for me personally, but it does have a very nice heart to it.

And that's my review for The Notebook. It has some good performances and a touching ending, but aside from that, it's just another chick flick with many of the melodramatic cliches that go with it. If you like movies with this kind of story, you'll get your fill here. Otherwise, I would take it from me, Margaret and Lindsay and skip this movie.

Rating: 50%

Golden Film's Beauty and the Beast (1999)

Well, we have the Good Times Entertainment version out of the way, so let's dive right into the Golden Films' take on Beauty and the Beast.

Plot: The story is mostly the same as with the last film, except Beauty has three greedy sisters and no brothers, her father leaves because of a storm that hit both his ships and her home, Beauty has had dreams about the human form of The Beast before she ever meets him, and three ghosts have taken part of the story by going inside the book of Beauty and The Beast, which is read by The Beast.   ...Yeah.

So if you guys have read my review for the Good Times film, I talked about how they could've just thrown whatever they wanted from beginning to end without any real thought put into it, as opposed to the somewhat considerable effort that was put into that movie. The Golden Films version of Beauty and the Beast however, did just that. It's so bad that when my siblings and I were watching this, my brother Tommy would keep ridiculing me for pointing out a major problem with the movie, since I was clearly putting much more thought than the filmmakers. The Good Times film was laughable at best despite some little form of effort, but here, the only good things about this film that I can think of is that the animation is much better, and with that, Beauty at least looks pretty. I can barely keep track of what's wrong with this movie, partly because there's too many bad things, but mostly because the music drowned out the story and characters. I don't think I've ever imagined that to be possible, but this movie proved it. There's so much music needlessly played in this film that it became nothing but noise. A good sum of that comes from how they keep reusing musical tracks over and over again. Usually tracks of music from The Nutcracker Prince or Swan Lake. Anything else is their own music that are either set up poorly, or just come out of nowhere. For example, there's a scene where Beauty's sisters sing about how they want more of whatever they had back when they were wealthy. Now the scene starts with Beauty asking a question...and then as soon as one sisters talks, the song pops up, and at the end, Beauty is kicked out of the house. So she says something, the sisters sing, and then she's kicked out of the house. Just like that. There's another song that just starts just out of nowhere with no build up whatsoever. It's just Beauty singing with this imaginary man that turns out to be the human form of The Beast with footage of the ocean in the moonlight, fish swimming, and a Unicorn that is all of the sudden a Pegasus in the next scene. Don't ask me how the last part happened, it's just one of those things where Tommy would ridicule you for putting more thought into it than the filmmakers. Anyway, the real problem with this particular song is that it's really unclear what they are even singing about. I guess it's some sort of love song, but it really doesn't express it as such aside from just the tone of the music. In fact it drags so much because of it, that, that it felt longer than it really is to my siblings and me. Like, you know when you're having a brief conversation about something annoying, and by the time you're done, you take a moment before you realize that it's still going? Yeah, that pretty much happened to us with this song. My brothers and I were talking about everything that was wrong with the song as it went on, and then a few moments after we talked, I think it was my brother Johnathan who said, "Is this still going?" I later found out that it's actually about 4 minutes long, but it dragged on so much that we couldn't tell. And then you have the song of the three ghosts. Oh my gosh, is this song annoying. I could go on as to why I hate this song, but let's just say I've been pinching between my eyes as I type about it. And then we get to the final problem with the movie; the characters. First we have the characters that get the most attention out of all of the other characters, including Beauty and The Beast; the ghosts. They are so unbearably annoying. All they do is talk about the story and how Beauty is definitely the one to fall in love with The Beast or how much of a grump The Beast is, and of coarse, sing. It just is so irritating to watch these guys. The Beast and Beauty don't even have anything to go on as a relationship. I mentioned in my review to the Good Times film about how The Beast in that version at least showed that he had both a monstrous side and a caring side to him. So in that movie, we at least see that there's more to him than just a mean old monster. Here, we don't really see squat of there being any good in him at all. The most of what we see is him throwing a tantrum every time Beauty tries to reach out to him. She will say one little nice thing to say about him, and then he just yells at her, going on and on how there is nothing nice about him and that he's a monster. We at least see both Beauty and The Beast try to form a relationship between them in the last film, but here, we have little to nothing to go off of. Heck, in the end when she says she loves him (yeah I don't think I'm giving anything away there), not only is it a surprise to all the people who are trying to kill him, but even he is surprised to hear her say that. Yeah. It's that kind of poorly made relationship. I'll also briefly add that The Beast isn't even all that beastly looking. If anything, he looks more like a giant ape.

And that's my review for Golden Film's Beauty and the Beast. It's filled with countless plot holes, much less character development then the first film, and so much music that it drowns out the characters and story. While the Good Times film is bad, it was a so bad that it's good kind of bad. This is just annoying. If you want to see any of this, just watch Phelous' review. Otherwise, this is a major skip.

Rating: 5%

Good Times Entertainment's Beauty and the Beast (1992)

Since I assume many of you haven't even heard of this movie, here's the background to what it is and how I've come to know about it. The company that made this film, Good Times Entertainment wanted to make a cheap cash in on the success of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, so they conjured up this 48-minute so-claimed movie. And a few months ago, my brothers and I found video critic Phelous reviewing not only this movie, but technically a remake by Golden Films. We had some laughs from his reviews, and so my future sister-in-law, Danae, proposed a night with the four of us eating popcorn, ice cream, animal cookies and drinking girly beers as we would watch both movies. So now that, that is done, I'm going to review both films. Let's start off with the Good Times Entertainment version of Beauty and the Beast.

Plot: Beauty is the daughter of an elderly man who is having financial difficulties after his ships were wrecked. When her father finds out that some of his ships survived, he leaves to receive his shipment, but not before Beauty asks for him to bring back a rose for her. On his way back, he's caught in a storm and finds a castle where there is food laid out for him inside. But before he leaves the next day, he picks up a rose for Beauty, only for an angered Beast to threaten to kill him. But when The Beast finds out about Beauty, he makes a bargain to have her take her father's place. So Beauty is left to live in The Beasts castle, as The Beast intends to use this oppertunity to make her his wife.

Now before I get started on bashing this movie, I do want to say that as bad as it is, I give Good Times Entertainment credit for their general approach in telling the story. They basically decided to tell it almost exactly as it is told in the traditional fairy tale, as opposed to completely throwing whatever they wanted from beginning to end. They even came up with little changes to give their own different spin, such as having an evil fairy trying to stop Beauty from falling in love with The Beast, which is an idea that I personally really like. So for all it's problems that I am going to talk about, I admire how they were going approach the story for their cash in from Disney's release of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I think with more thought and effort to it, this possibly could've become a decent flick. Now with all that said however, the execution of telling the story is pretty darn laughable. For one thing, the animation is poor. It's one of the kind of animated films where there often is more lip movement than body movement with the characters. And the faces of some of the characters are also very poor. In fact ironically, when it comes to looks, Beauty is, not all that good looking. She was actually pretty dull and almost completely expressionless. Frankly, as someone who loves Belle as a character, I am a little insulted at how this is their cheap cash in version of her. I realize that I just stated the obvious reason why it's bad, but...just...really? This is the best they can do? Sometimes, she could be sort of good looking, but other times she looks a little more like a guy if anything else. There's also some parts of the movie where they actually try to give her a genuine emotion to something happening, but the result comes off as pretty comical. For example, when Beauty finds out about the bargain her father makes with The Beast, naturally she's really shocked about it. But how that's delivered with the animation and even the voice acting is her appearing more like it's a happy reveal, as if a guy proposed to her or something. I know I'm not giving that moment justice with that kind of description, but trust me, it's really comically stupid. The design for The Beast is a stupid too, but at the same time (and I'm saying this out of comparing this movie with the next one), he still looks beastly enough to fit the story. The characters themselves are hardly fleshed out. While Beauty somewhat comes off as kind and caring, some of her actions don't make a whole lot of sense. Especially with her relationship with The Beast. She seemed to became romantically interested in The Beast way too quickly. It looked like she was secretly fawning over him almost as soon as he said that he hoped that she would be his wife someday. The Beast wasn't very fleshed out either, but at the same time, we still see both the monster and the caring being in him. (Again, comparing to the next movie) Beauty's sisters where obvious knock offs of Cinderella's sisters, though I guess that sort of works since apparently they technically were villains in the original tale. Though I'm saying that from reading the plot summary on Wikipedia, so don't completely quote me on that. The two characters that are the most entertaining in the whole movie are The Beast's servant, Clara, and Beauty's father. Both of these characters are so comically bad, that my siblings and I believe that the voice actors possibly knew that this whole project was crap and just decided to have fun with it. Finally, there's a big part in the plot during the third act that has to do with Beauty briefly visiting her family. This is spoiler territory, but with this kind of film, screw it. Anyway, when Beauty asks for a week to be with her family, The Beast allows her to go. But she can't stay any longer than that, otherwise he will die... of loneliness. You read that right. And honestly, I won't bother to say anything else about that, because the way to feel about that should be self explanatory.

And that's my review for GoodTimes Entertainment's Beauty and the Beast. The decision to follow closer to the original story as opposed to Disney's film is very admirable in my opinion. But the execution is met with poor animation, poorly developed characters, and a ridiculous set up for the third act. I know I am hardly giving any justice to the comedy of how bad this film is, but trust me, this movie is arguably one of those movies that is so bad that it's good. If you want to see Phelous' review for the movie, you can find it online or on his website, Phelous.com. And if you enjoy that enough and want to spend less than an hour of your time to watch and make fun of a bad movie, you can find this film on GoodTimes Entertainment's YouTube account.

Rating: 20%

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Yeah. It's time for more Avengers.

Plot: Taking place sometime after the events of The Winter Soldier, The Avengers raid a HYDRA outpost to finally retrieve Loki's scepter. Before Thor goes to Asgard with the scepter however, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the gem inside the scepter, and secretly find a way to use it for Tony's "Ultron" global defense program. This backfires when the sentient being of Ultron is created, and he decides that the only way to save Earth is to eradicate humans. So it's up to The Avengers to find a way to stop Ultron and his allies, the Maximoff twins; Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, from destroying the human race.

Whoa...just...just whoa. Obviously it's an extremely good whoa, but it's also the kind where even now as I write this review after a good night's sleep soon after watching the film, I'm still having trouble processing what I just saw. In many respects, this was exactly what I was hoping for and so, so, SO much more. The first scene just sets the right mood for the movie when The Avengers attack the HYDRA outpost. They just let them do what they tend to do best when the next major threat hasn't occurred yet: fight whole armies of their other enemies to stop their latest schemes, be it A.I.M., HYDRA, and so on. But as soon as Ultron attacks and begins his evil plans, it's practically nothing but character development and action all the way through. Joss Whedon made it clear shortly after the first movie that the second film will have more character development then action. And while I'd say there's more than plenty of action all the same, it's marveling (pardon the pun) at what he gives us for character development. We finally have Captain America and Iron Man as the co-leaders of the Avengers, which leads to showing how they collaborate and express their different opinions. We also get a nice improvement from the first film with giving us Black Widow and Hawkeye. We finally go into Black Widow's origin over how she was trained to be an assassin and what it does to her. Frankly, this is something I thought we were never going to get any more than we are ever going to find out what happened in Budapest with her and Hawkeye. And Hawkeye, man, was he even better than what I hoped for this movie. As much as I liked him in the first film, there was this part of me that wished that we saw more of him where he's not really the least of the avengers in terms of screen time and especially with action since he's a guy with a bow and arrows. But here we see him intact with the team more, he is less "useless" and more awesome, we even see more of who is is as a person and what his motivations are as a team member. I won't give away what they do with him on the latter two things, but it certainly fills the void from out lack of time spent with him in the Marvel cinematic universe. There's also some time spent with Hulk and Black Widow and what goes on between them that...is had to take in from a comic book nerd's point of view, but it still works with the story and even ties into little bits of the first Avengers film. Honestly, Thor had the least amount of focus in terms of character development, which isn't bad, but it makes his part in the story less interesting then what everyone else is going through. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch admittingly didn't get quite enough time to go deep enough into who they are as individual people, but they still pull of the basics about them while still being relevant to the story. And then you have the main antagonist of the film, Ultron. Where do I begin with Ultron? I guess I should start by plainly saying that he was almost exactly what I expected him to be. His motivation, his main goal, his numerous bodies, it's all there. The only thing that I would nitpick about him is that he has more of a human-like personality to him that makes him menacing, but also have some sort of soft side to him. Keep in mind as I say this however, that this is a comic book nerd kind of nitpick. Because generally, Ultron has appeared in the comics to be a robotic villain of hard cold logic like most other robotic villains such as the Terminator/Skynet, Shockwave, Braniac and so on. But at the same time, it makes sense that he's less like them because it helps him stand out more as a robotic villain, and it keeps the tone of the film in not being too dark for its general audience, especially kids. The action is even bigger than any Marvel film has gone before (including Guardians of the Galaxy in its own way). There's so many fights of different locations and sizes that it's hard to keep track of them all...at least for a first viewing of the film to be sure. The comedy (big shock) still does a good job in giving us some pretty good laughs. If there's anything that resembles a real problem for the film, it would be that the film might have too much going on. Because it's like I said early in this review, there's a lot to process. But for me personally, I don't see it as a problem at all. Similar to how I feel about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I enjoy that it gives so many different things because all of those things are just so great. In fact, I think it gives us the feel of a crossover comic book like Civil War, or Infinite Crisis, or Fear Itself, where it's filled it so much action, character development and story for everyone who is participating in the major event, making the entire experience very epic. So given that, I personally would say that calling this movie overstuffed is a nitpick at most. And seeing how most other people have reacted to it so far, it's probably a safe bet that the majority of the audience for this film feel that way.

And that's my review for Avengers: Age of Ultron. What can I really say? It's a great sequel that goes deeper into the world of the Avengers and the characters and action that goes with it. It's bigger, it's deeper, it's funny, it gives so much of what is in the Marvel universe, it's just a ton. If you haven't seen it yet, you better do so now. I know I want to see it in theaters at least 2-3 ish more times, it's so good...and as an attempt to help kick off Avatar from being the highest grossing film of all time. I know that's just silly but...let's be honest guys, that bugger's gotta go!

Rating: 95%

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

This is a review I've been holding off for a while because of a few things, but now there's little reason to hold it off any longer, so here at last is my review for Muppets Most Wanted.

Plot: Taking off exactly after the very end of the last movie, The Muppets are trying to figure out what to do next. Then a guy named Dominic Badguy suggest that they go on a European tour with him as their tour manager. Meanwhile, a criminal mastermind named Constantine, who looks almost exactly like Kermit, escapes from escapes from a Siberian Gulag and tricks the police into believing that Kermit is Constantine. So Kermit is imprisoned in the Gulag that Constantine was imprisoned in, and tries to find a way out. Meanwhile, Constantine takes Kermit's place while he and Dominic use the Muppet's tour to steal valuable items all over Europe.

I think my brother Tommy put it best about this film; the last one was cute and clever, while this is just cute. Now when I say that I agree with that, I don't mean that there's absolutely nothing clever about this movie, it's just not as clever as the last one. But that being said, it's still a fun film. You get to see your favorite characters, you watch a lot of guest stars, and there are some funny jokes. Most of what makes this film funny is taking advantage of the fact that is is a sequel and it's aware of the problems that go with it from some characters not getting enough attention, to the fact that it's not going to be as good. The other jokes aren't quite as funny, but they are good enough that you will get a good chuckle out of them once in a while. The musical numbers are fun to listen to, but it really is the first song We're Doing a Sequel that stands out the most because of its not only funny, but really catchy. Heck, it's getting stuck in my head just typing about it. If there's one thing that probably bugs me the most about the film is how little attention we get of some of the cameos outside of Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey. I mean those three are enjoyable, and I think I would agree with Tommy in saying that Tina Fey is having fun with her role. But there's some cameos like Christoph Waltz that I wish had much more attention on. This is really a nitpick at the end of the day, but it still bugs me the most about the film. 

And that's my review for Muppets Most Wanted. It's not as clever as the last film, but it's still a fun film with its cute comedy and lovable characters. If you like the Muppets, you'll have a nice time seeing their latest film.
Rating:70%

Cinderella (2015)

Hey everyone, sorry that it's been a while since my last review. I've been busy with school and work and a couple of other things. But I'm back and I'm making up for lost time starting with the film that I saw a couple weeks ago but couldn't review until now. So without further ado, here is Cinderella.

Plot: So the story takes pla-...you know what? Screw it. You guys know the story, there's no point in writing a plot paragraph for this.

Alright, so what did I think about this version of Cinderella? I would say that my basic feeling for it is that it gives exactly what it delivers through and through, but with a couple of changes that some of which work. Cinderella herself, while is exactly what you would expect her to be, has a little more of a reason to put of with her stepmother and stepsisters. They are able to take advantage of her because of her promise to be kind and have courage like her mother told her to be, and she can't leave because it's her family's house and there's too many memories there. Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine, doesn't have as much of a evil presence as the original Lady Tremaine, but still had a sense of cruelty and manipulation that make her as mean as she's expected to be. Plus, we also have more of a backstory of who she was before she married Cinderella's father, that gives her a better motivation then just be cruel to Cinderella because she's not her real daughter and how much her father loved her. The Prince or Kip as he's called, gets a lot more screen time than the original prince and even meets Cinderella before the ball. And the story line about his father gives us a new and more serious view as to why he is trying to find a wife for Kip which I personally enjoy. Now some of the changes with these characters don't completely work. Cinderella over does saying her moral of being kind and have courage, the stepsisters are a little cartoony, and Cinderella meeting the prince before the ball has been done - and even done better in some cases - with films like Ever After, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and even A Cinderella Story. But they still have something about them that you can appreciate about them. Even if the prince and Cinderella meeting each other before the ball is nothing new, they still give us their own different spin on their relationship that even delivers a good moral in the end about how they should see each other. Cinderella message of being kind and have courage ties into how she handles being nothing more than a slave in her own house despite having no hope and the evil stepmother and stepsisters being...well... evil. As for Anastasia and Drisella being cartoonly...eh, just trying to still be a little like the animated movie I suppose. If there's one character that I dislike, and this is my biggest problem with the movie, it would be Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother. She...just didn't have much to work with. If you enjoy her scene, please don't let me stop you, but to me, she was just so out of place. In fact I think she was a better narrator then she was the Fairy Godmother. But I digress. The production design for his film is very beautiful. The costumes especially stand out really well (Anastasia and Drisella's dresses aside.) You all have seen Cinderella's dress, and it is gorgeous. My mom, my future sister-in-law, Danae and my best friend Candra made it clear of how they would've gone crazy other that dress of they saw this film as little girls. But a lot of Lady Tremaine's dresses where surprisingly appealing too. They just had these very fancy and artistic looks to them that sometimes you might be looking at them more then you're actually looking at the character. The music was also very enjoyable. The lullaby that Cinderella's mom sings to her is not only soothing, but also a little catchy. And I'm not going to deny it, I liked the "Strong" song during the end credits. Yeah it's more or less bland, but it has such a good emotional feeling to it that I can't help but enjoy it. Finally, the strongest part of the film was the last third. I mean the first two-thirds of the movie are fine, but it's the last third that has the real changes to the story that makes it more interesting. They make it all to clear that the climax is not going to be just like in the animated film, and what they go with instead is, in some respects, smarter than what as in the original film.

And that's my review for Cinderella. More than likely, we'll probably still enjoy the animated film much more than this one because it's the one than many of us hold dear and have the most fun because of the characters, comedy, music and so on. But for what we have here, we still have a good movie that we can enjoy and, if nothing else, appreciate because of the changes to the story and the characters that it makes whether they work or not.   

Rating: 70%