Terminator: Genisys (2015)

Plot: John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor from The Terminator in the year 1984. But while he is starting his mission in that year, he is attacked by a T-1000 and rescued by Sarah Connor and a reprogrammed T-800 nicknamed "Pops". Eventually they somehow discover that they need to travel forward to the year 2017 to stop Skynet from starting Judgement Day.

My first and foremost feeling is that, if anything, I admire this movie more than I really like or hate it. And that really comes from the story itself. While I cannot deny how it is undeniably clunky, I still like it because it has a lot of great ideas. Even if  you take into account whatever information you were given from the trailers, they still had a twist or two that were admittingly hard to swallow, but still interesting. They wanted to basically forget about T3 and TS and make this movie its own thing. They easily could've just given it a half effort like Terminator 3 and -in some respects - Terminator Salvation. But while they do that too here, you can tell that they gave a lot more thought into this movie. In fact if anything, Johnathan and I felt that it just needed a little more thought to become something stronger. Especially with the dialogue. That needed a fair amount of work. But for what it is, it's enough to be a fun movie. The action was decent, and  the performances where fine -though in retrospect, I have to agree with Johnathan that Jai Courtney was not really the best choice to play as Kyle. But what really gave this movie the right kind of heart was Arnold Schwarzenegger as "Pops". You can tell that he was well in his element, and had a lot of fun giving us the T-800 that we've grown to love. As Johnathan basically put it, this would have been a total mess without him.

And that's my review for Termintaor: Genisys. It's clunky with its story and dialogue, but as a Terminator movie, it has some good ideas that at least make it appear as its own, more thoughtful, movie while still staying true to some of the basics of being a Terminator movie that makes it at least more enjoyable than Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation. Officially speaking, I should call it a bad film, but I found it an enjoyable enough film to give it a high-ish enough rating to state that I"m glad to have seen it at least once.

Rating: 60%

Ant-Man (2015)

You know guys, I've been thinking that writing intro paragraphs to my reviews is actually pretty redundant. Not always, but for most reviews, there seems to be little point. So under exceptions where it might be necessary to have an introduction to a review, I'm going to just start with the plot paragraph. With that said, let's take a look at the beginning of phase 3 with Ant-Man.

Plot: The story is about this petty criminal named Scott Lang who just got out of jail and is trying to find a way provide for his daughter. Eventually however, things go sour when he tries to make money honestly, so he does a heist with his old gang only to find out that the vault he's breaking doesn't have money but instead an odd looking suit and helmet. He takes it anyway, but soon discovers that it has the technology for him to shrink in size and have super strength. Eventually, he meets the owner of the suit, Dr. Hank Pym, who recruits him to use the suit to become the Ant-Man in attempt to stop Pym's former assistant from his evil plan.

Now to start of honestly, I more or less expected the worst to happen with this movie. Not in the sense that it was going to be Batman and Robin bad, but I still felt that with this movie we'd get our first bad movie and therefore flop among the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and so we pat Disney and Marvel in the back for giving a heck of a run. After all, this is a movie where the superhero is called Ant-Man. So I would think it would be needless to say how people would be unsure about it. Don't get me wrong, Marvel has proved time and time again how they can practically make a good movie out of anything. After all, one of our most beloved Marvel movies is one where a racoon and a tree are our heroes now. But I decided to be nervous all the same. So how did the first phase 3 movie, Ant-man turn out? ...It's actually pretty good. It's no Guardians of the Galaxy or The Winter Soldier, but it's still shows that they can make a good movie out of anything. It delivered in being what any Marvel movie is expected to be: a film with likable characters, a decent if not great story, enjoyable action and of coarse, well delivered comedy. Now what is probably the most likable thing about this movie even before it came out is the premise. This is a movie where, unlike the other films, the main character is not the original superhero. He's actually someone who is taking the place of the person who originally was that hero. Which is not only good because it's doing something different, but there are some comic book nerds who prefer Scott Lang to be the Ant-Man rather than Hank Pym. I say this because while Hank Pym may be one of the earlier heroes who was one of the first Avengers, he was also kind of a jack-hole. He was too devoted on science to focus on anything else, he would beat his wife, Janet, and heck, he's the one who originally created Ultron. In fact, I like that Michael Douglas portrayed him more of a mentor who did care more about people and the greater good over science in this movie, because Hank Pym is a bit of a scumbag in the comics. Which is where he have the more preferable Ant-Man that's the main focus in the movie, Scott Lang. And for what Paul Rudd had to offer with this role, he was enjoyable. He is no Chris Pratt or Robert Downey Jr. or anything, but he still did a good job of giving us protagonist that you really want to root for. I also liked his daughter, Cassie. She just has that right kind of odd yet innocent personality as a kid character. The only character that feel flat was Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket. While not quite as super one dimensional as someone like Malekith in Thor: The Dark World, his character was pretty cliched from his personality to his evil plan. He was kind of Obadiah Stane from the first Iron Man movie except much more energetic. Most of what makes him interesting at all is when hebecomes Yellowjacket and fights Ant-Man with his cool suit and everything. Speaking of which, the action was fun. Most of it is in the third act, but it's still enjoyable. In fact, the comedy during the climax really helps it. We have our nice jokes here before that, but when we get to the end, they take advantage of the kind of jokes they can come up with in a fight between two people that can shrink like Ant-Man and Yellowjacket. Now the big elephant in the room about this movie is how there's a dispute between Marvel and Edgar Wright. As I understand how the story goes, Marvel wanted to modify Wright's  script to add things that connect the movie with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whereas Wright wanted the script to be as it was. Eventually, it ended with Wright leaving the project. Now considering how big this whole thing was, some people - myself partly included, were uneasy as to how the movie was going to turn out structurally with these Marvel connections added. For all we knew, Marvel got so cocky that they added too much for the film as a whole to work. But thankfully, the stuff they put in fit very well. Yes, there were one or two things that were forced, but even then, one of those moments lead to probably one of the most memorable parts of the film. Though not enough to steal the spotlight. After all the focus is on Ant-Man, not The Avengers.

And that's my review for Ant-Man. It may not be the strongest of the Marvel films and the villain is not that special when he's not fighting Ant-Man. But otherwise it's another entertaining Marvel film that's fun, funny, and all around succeeds in getting us interested in new characters among the cinematic universe.

Rating: 75%

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%