The Dark Knight Rises

                                                 
Christopher Nolan is a genius. I was blown away by this movie when I saw it on opening day. This movie has to be the best movie I have ever seen; the best superhero movie by far. Tom Hardy captures Bane perfectly, along with Anne Hathaway nailing her Catwoman role. This movie is a ride worth taking.

The movie is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Batman, Bane, Catwoman, Comissioner Gordon, and Officer/Detective John Blake respectively.
In the movie Batman has not been seen since the death of Harvey Dent. The city is in a time of peace. But a villain named Bane aims to create havoc in Gotham City, which brings Batman out of hiding to face his most challenging oppenent.

The movie is nothing short of amazing. It is sad that the "legend" has to end though. I give it 4 out of 4 stars. It is a must see.

                              

Prometheus

Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, and Michael Fassbender
investigating alien ruins.

What an amazing movie! This was the perfect non-prequel to a great franchise. The movie is a non-prequel to the Alien franchise. For those of you who have not seen the movie Alien (1979), I recommend you see that before seeing this for the plot can get confusing if you have not seen Alien. By the way, I say non-prequel because it is not exactly a prequel, but it shares certain traits from the original Alien.

The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, director of: Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down, and stars Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce and Michael Fassbender.
Noomi Rapace plays archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw who, along with her character's boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Marshall-Green), discovers ancient drawings that lead to a planet that could possibly show where we (humans) came from. However, things go awry when a crew member becomes sick with an unknown parasite.

The spaceship Prometheus.

This movie blew me away when I saw it. Granted, there are some things from the original Alien that aren't there, but at any rate this is such a great movie. The movie was written by Damon Lindelof who was the executive producer and the co-creator of the television series Lost and the co-writer of the latest Star Trek movie. Kudos to Damon though for excellent writing.                                                                              

Lockout

 

This movie was pretty good for what it was. This is just as ambitious as The Fifth Element (1997). In fact, the man who directed The Fifth Element, Luc Besson, hepled write and produce this movie. The visual effects were mediocre in some scenes, while in other scenes they were spectacular.

This movie was directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger and stars Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace as Agent Snow and Emilie Warnock, the U.S. President's daughter.
Agent Snow is convicted of killing his partner and is supposed to be going to prison when Emilie Warnock is suddenly taken hostage on MS One, a maximum security prison-space station. Snow is then sent up to rescue her.

Guy Pearce has some of the best one liners that I have ever heard in this film. He plays the cocky, sarcastic agent perfectly; his character definitely reminds me of Bruce Willis' character in The Fifth Element.
This film has a decent story and visual effects to a point where I give 3 out of 4 stars.

                                                                              

Beyond The Black Rainbow

                                                                                 
One word can describe how this movie felt to me: psychadelic and a mind trip. Sorry, I lied, it takes 5 words. When I first saw this movie, I was being reeled in by Michael Rogers and what he was doing to this mute, yet tame woman.                                                
The whole time I was watching the movie, I was in a trance. The red lighting in some scenes gives off an almost evil and sinister aura; a foreshadow of the events that Michael Rogers' character was about to do.

A sort of caretaker of Elena, called a sentionaut.

This movie was directed by Panos Cosmatos. Cosmatos is the son of director George P. Cosmatos (director of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Tombstone). This movie stars Michael Rogers and Eva Allan as Dr. Barry Nyle and Elena respectively. The movie is basically about Elena trying to escape the evil clutches of Dr. Nyle within the confines of the Arboria Institute (created by Mercurio Arboria who is played by Scott Hylands).

Elena making her escape through a ventilation shaft

The interrogation room

The visuals in this movie are spectacular. The movie also has a vintage feel to it. The sets are very reminiscent  of 2001: A Space Odyssey while also giving off a tainted Tron look. The soundtrack is very noteworthy. With a mix of synth and electronic organs, the soundtrack is a perfect fit for the movie.

A pyramidal device that controls Elena; her therapeutic regiment.

At any rate, this movie has intrigued me ever since I saw the trailer for it. After that, I had been itching to see it. Now that I have seen it, I give a perfect 4 out of 4 stars. Panos, you are a genius!

The Hunger Games

                                                                             
The Hunger Games

First off, I apologize for not posting any reviews for nearly a year, I have just been too busy trying to improve the quality of the content I put on the blog. Now, for the review.

This movie was pretty cool. I had read the book before seeing this and I have to say that there are definitely some scenes in the book that I wish that they had kept in the movie. While the book was better than the movie (obviously the books will always be better than the movies), the cast, crew, and director did a very good job with what they were given.

The movie is directed by Gary Ross and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, two teenagers living in a post apocalyptic United States, that are drafted into a televised event, known as The Hunger Games, in which kids between the ages of 12 and 18 kill each other.

Just from the above paragraph, it sounds like a brutal movie, which it is in some scenes. I give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.