The Avengers movie is full of suspense and action. There was action throughout the movie and especially at the end, never letting the movie get dull. Along with that the graphics, were amazing. Everything in the movie looked like it was real and not CGI. This made the movie very enjoyable. The Avengers even had some comedy making this one very good movie.

Even without the great graphics the movie still would have been enjoyable because of its plot. The movie’s plot was good and added suspense. The movie’s storyline is about Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow as they try to find Loki and stop him before he opens a portal to another world that allows the enemies armies to invade the earth, while they try to work together as a team.  It is a good plot with some twists throughout keeping your attention.

The acting was superb and all of the actors fit their parts perfectly, really bringing the movie to life. The actor who played Loki (Tom Hiddleston) really played him well. His character was completely believable, it really did seem like he was a self centered, power hungry, ego maniacal villain.  Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man, was as good as ever. He played Tony Stark’s snide personality perfectly with his habit of never taking anything seriously and his hilarious jokes. I also felt that the actor of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) really portrayed the quiet yet very deadly character that is the Black Widow. Chris Evans, who played Captain America, did a good job also, reprising his role from Captain America:  The First Avenger.  He was always trying to be the best he could be and trying to keep the team together.  Newcomer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was also good, but he did not appear much throughout the movie.  Despite his short amount of screen time, he is the only completely new person in the movie and I do think he did a good job.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this movie and I would want to see it again.

I’m sure most people know the story of The Lorax from the picture book by Dr. Seuss. When the Once-ler (a mysterious faceless being) begins chopping down truffula trees to create his own, multipurpose product, the Lorax appears. The Lorax is a forest guardian who “speaks for the trees for the trees have no tongues.” Despite the Lorax’s best efforts, however, the Once-ler successfully destroys, pollutes, and sells, until the entire forest is gone.

At first I was a little skeptical about how a fairly short book could become a full length movie. I was pleasantly surprised; the movie was entertaining while still keeping the environmental message.

The movie essentially has two different viewpoints: the story of the Once-ler, and the story of Ted, a young boy who seeks out the Once-ler to impress a girl. Through the Once-lers narrative, and Ted’s own actions, the movie shows how important it is to protect the environment, and how much you lose when you destroy it.

Unlike the book, the movie Once-ler has a face and a back story. He comes from a family from which he is ostracized and his dreams are dismissed. He finally sets off to seek his own fortune which does not come easily. One can therefore understand where he’s coming from when he ignores the Lorax’s warnings and proceeds to increase his production of thneeds, causing massive damage to the forest and its inhabitants. Humanizing the Once-ler was a good strategy, because most people don’t set out with the sole purpose of destroying the world, they end up doing so because they don’t stop to think about the consequences of their actions.

Another part of the movie that rings true about our society is the bad guy: Mr. O’Hare, the tycoon making billions of dollars by selling people bottled air. He has discovered that the more polluted the air gets, the more bottled air he can sell, so he’s willing to use any means possible to stop Ted from reforming Thneedville. This mirrors the difficulties we face now, where oil and car companies fight against more sustainable options because they will lose profits.

The movie was peppered with unexpected songs that were quite good. In particular I liked the one called “How Bad Can I Be?” which plays during the Once-ler’s production boom.

I don’t have much criticism for the movie, but there are a few things. One is that there were a few points, such as when Ted was riding his moped, where you saw just the characters’ hands on the handlebars, and then the view ahead of him. While that might just be for a 3D effect, (as I realized afterwards,) it still screamed to me as a set up for a video game.

Overall, I really liked the movie. It brought the environmental message across while still being fun and accessible. It’s definitely a good movie to watch.

Andrew lives with an alcoholic father and a cancer stricken mother. He has no friends and is constantly bullied and beaten by his father. He starts to film everything in his life. His cousin Matt, invites him to a party with the intent of getting Andrew some friends. Kids get mad at Andrew filming and he leaves. He is approached by Steve, a popular guy at school and Matt, because he has a camera. They go down a hole in the ground and find a glowing rock. They all get nosebleeds and the camera blacks out. It turns out they get telekinetic powers from the rock and get they each get a nosebleed if they use them too much. As their powers grow, they learn they can fly and have much fun in doing it. Andrew eventually becomes more popular as he uses his powers to show off. Then things go downhill as his fame reaches its peak.

I liked this movie for a few select reasons. First off, I am a huge superpower/superhero geek, so the topic of telekinesis in the movie is a plus. I feel there have never been movies about telekinetic powers. I guess the Force in Star Wars is like telekinesis, but all the other movies with superpowers are about people having super strength, like Captain America, Thor, or Spiderman. I also liked that while it was a sad movie, it actually made me grateful for all I’ve been given.

The thing I didn’t like was the way the movie was fimed. It was filmed in first person, from Andrew’s perspective. The camera used was kind of like a home movie, so the special effects actually looked real, which was kind of cool. I just didn’t like the way you never really see Andrew a lot.

Also, the plot wasn’t necessarily that good. Kids go in hole, find glowing rock, get superpowers, mess around, and then it goes bad. It was pretty much Andrew’s life as he uses his powers.

If you have nothing to do, watch this movie because it is entertaining, but I would recommend seeing The Hunger Games before you see Chronicle.

Now I have to go. My friends are asking me to bring a camera. They have found this rock that is glowing and pulsing in a hole in the ground…

The movie begins roughly ten years after the conclusion of the 1^st movie. Perseus is now a very mature, definitely older looking man who has chosen to live onEarth as a man, instead of joining his father Zeus as a god. He lives with his son, a single father who lost his wife, Io, her death which remains unknown.

The central conflict arises early as it comes to Perseus’ attention during a visit from Zeus. He is informed that the power of the God’s has gradually weakened due to humanity’s lack of devotion. As Zeus and Poseidon begin to lose control of the Titans and their devastating leader Kronos, Hades along with Ares, played by Edgar Ramírez, make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus.

It is up to Perseus to travel to the underworld with the help of an unlikely source, a prisoner named Agenor, who happens to the demigod son of Poseidon, to rescue his father and in essence, “Save the Day”.

As the storyline continues, it is up to Perseus to slay many beasts that are released from the Underworld. As all of this chaos ensues, Perseus deals with his personal demons to protect his son from all danger, and a promise he made to his wife to never let Helius wield a sword.

The battle scenes in this film were improved slightly from the 1^st film, but for the most part, they are very similar and predictable. Perseus is thrown around by beasts and other gods during these fight scenes, which become extremely dull after a while. It almost got to the point where it seemed as if there was no difference between the 1^st and 2^nd films.

I will give credit where credit is due; the special effects were definitely above average and were what kept this movie from being a snoozer. The most impressive scene coming when the God Kronos rose from the underworld and began his conquest of Earth. As the beast gracefully flicked his wrists, hot lava flew off his body and incinerated everything it came into contact with. The sight of this massive creature alone was appealing to the eye. The computer generation of the character was fantastic although the content of the scene was mediocre at best.

 Wrath of the Titans, although it appealed to the viewer’s senses, definitely disappoints in my eyes. I didn’t see much of a difference in the storylines between the 1^st and 2^nd films while at the same time the dialogue between the characters was weak. If an action flick is what you’re looking for, this film is an average choice that department. I would recommend renting this movie and seeing it from home, I do not believe it is worth the price of admission.

The Hunger Games takes place in a future North America that is in ruins. It is split into 12 separate Districts, each providing a different product (textiles, coal, etc.). Each year a boy and a girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are selected from each District and forced to fight to the death in a manmade arena. The arena has traps and can be controlled by the Gamemakers, engineers who designed the arena. This is done as a reminder of a revolution that happened years ago. A person may enter their name in as many times as they want to receive a bigger ration of grain and oil. At sixteen years old, Katniss Everdeen’s name is being entered into the drawing five times, and her younger sister Prim, who has just turned twelve, will be entered for the first time. When Prim is chosen, Katniss volunteers for her as Tribute, as she may have a better chance surviving the arena than Prim. Katniss is skilled with a bow and arrow and can hunt very well, having to provide for her family since her father died.

The big question of the movie: will Katniss survive in the arena?

At first I thought that the movie was going to be horrible compared to the book, as has been the case for films like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Cirque du Freak, and the Spiderwick Chronicles. However, for the most part, both book and film were alike. There were obviously differences because you can’t put everything from a book into a movie, so I was disappointed by some of the small details, but they didn’t change any large obvious details.

I really liked the beginning dash of the contestants to the Cornucopia, where all the weapons are stashed in the arena. I feel that the scene captured the rushed emotion and craziness of being amongst children who will try to kill you. The fighting was awesome; it was very well paced and captured the frenzied instinct for survival.

If there was one thing I didn’t like it was the depiction of the Careers. The Careers, youths from Districts 1 and 2, have been trained their whole lives to fight and kill and then volunteer at age 18. In the film, they were way too cuddly with each other. They would drop hints that they liked each other when they really would want to kill each other! In one scene when they were sleeping, they had their arms wrapped around each other. They didn’t seem that focused on killing quickly, and they made a game out of the competition, though I guess that’s what the government wanted.

Regardless, I give the Hunger Games a 9.9 out of 10, only because it didn’t come out any sooner.

-Robby Filec, volunteer as Tribute from District Clarion.

 A young reporter in London named Tintin buys a model of a famed ship known as the Unicorn.  He is interrupted by a man who tries to buy it back from him saying, “It’ll get him into a mess of trouble.” Tintin decides to do some research, leading him farther into the mystery of the Unicorn, Sir Francis’ family, and the greatest sunken treasure in the world. This unravels a fantastic adventure for the entire family.

The film itself is certainly amazing within the realms of CGI, creating almost shockingly realistic computer images. The company responsible was the same that did The Polar Express, which received harsh critiques for the visuals being too in-between realistic and non-realistic. The company has obviously improved since then, showing its newfound skill to create the fantastically detailed visuals in Tintin. Not a single hair seems out of place, the water looks great, and the characters look almost real enough to be live action actors. It’s almost surreal just how realistic this movie looks.

The balance of themes from adult to child are also done very well. There is no skipping on violence, but it’s slightly tongue in cheek.  Despite the pure number of people shooting MP40’s at Tintin, he never even gets near a bullet, only firing his gun a total of two times the entire film. Yet there is a lot of featured shooting and violence and obvious going on about Captain Hadock’s (Tintin’s companion) raging alcoholism. So even though the film is marketed towards children, it’s not as if it’s some little kid’s tale; there are some rather mature moments.

All and all the film is a fantastic blend of whimsical storytelling and cinematic moviemaking. Anyone who goes to see this film can have a great time for one reason or another, a fine film with amazing visuals, fun for the whole family.

This tale was set in the 1960s and it portrays the lives of rich white families and the black maids who work for them. There are three main characters: maids Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Miss Skeeter (Emma Stone), the daughter of a cotton plantation owner. Minny Jackson is a tempestuous and outspoken woman who is unafraid to stand up for herself or her beliefs. Her fiery personality often gets her into trouble with her employers and also provides much comic relief. Aibileen is a repressed woman who struggles daily with the grief of her dead son. She looks to fill that hole with the little girl she cares for: Mae Mobley. Miss Skeeter is a recent college graduate who is stuck between the old way of life and her progressive ideals. She sees the Jackson society as an opportunity to analyze that life and advance her writing career.

Miss Skeeter decides to write a book detailing the lives of the black maids in Jackson. Reluctantly, Aibileen and Minny agree to help. Eventually, many more maids join the experiment. Each person involved is concerned about the very real danger they face. None of them want to be subjected to hate crimes or be sent to prison, so they hide their identities.

Writing Miss Skeeter’s book is half the battle. The events that follow its publication are even more challenging.

As a book, The Help was nicely written. It was complex and had a plethora of multidimensional characters. At times, the book tended to ramble and not progress the plot. It also jumped inconsistently from one perspective to the next, which disrupted the flow of the story and caused confusion.

This story was presented much better as a movie than as a book. The plot was streamlined, which solved the inconsistencies and the confusion. The downside to making the plot more understandable was that many lovely scenes and details were cut or arranged in a different order.

In both the book and the movie, an important theme shines through. That theme is that every person is important and that every person has a story to tell. Aibileen sums up that theme perfectly with the saying, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

This story is a wonderful example of how anyone is capable of realizing their true potential in the face of adversity. The strong women of Jackson, Mississippi can be an example for anyone who wishes to stand up for their beliefs and tell the world their story.

Albert Narracott, played by Jeremy Irvine, is a young adult living with his parents on a farm in Devon, England leading up to the First World War. Albert’s father Ted, played by Peter Mullan, much to his wife’s dismay, buys a young colt at an auction in town. He made this rash decision simply to spite his landlord who attempted to outbid him for the horse, which ended in him overpaying for a meaningless thoroughbred because the reason he went to the auction in the first place was to buy a plow horse. The Narracott family was now left with a mounting debt, a worthless plot of land, and a disobedient horse. Albert, upon seeing Joey, immediately agrees to train the horse, and the two quickly become friends. With Albert’s determination and Joey’s strength, the two overcome many difficulties but are eventually torn apart.

The family cannot overcome their mounting debt, so Ted is forced to sell the horse to the English army when World War I breaks out. Albert is heartbroken but is eventually old enough to leave home and enlist in the army. Though the two don’t come into contact throughout the war, they both deal with their own struggles and touch many lives throughout their separate journeys.

This film has a fantastic storyline throughout and ever disappoints. The journeys of both Albert and Joey kept me engaged for the two hour and twenty six minute running time. As Joey touched the lives of many, including a young French girl and a German horse named Topthorn, I couldn’t help but feeling like I was part of the storyline and traveling throughout the devastation in Europe. It is a rarity to find a story that captures the true essence of friendship and love, but War Horse accomplishes both with an unprecedented combination of overcoming hardships and living in the moment.  

Spielberg, known for his excellent filming locations in previous movies including “Saving Private Ryan” and the Indiana Jones series, spent 64 days traveling throughout England filming the movie. The scenery and location of all of the shots were fantastic. The Narracott home all the way to the battle scenes in war torn Europe; every shot was top notch and covered every angle.

The film had very few flaws, if any. Spielberg recaptures the magic of cinematography in this emotional triumph. War Horse is sure to capture the heart of the audience long before the credits roll.

That is, until Professor James Moriarty, played by Jared Harris, a man as devious, cunning, and smart as Holmes himself, happens to change that. The only difference between Holmes and Moriarty is that Moriarty no problem killing people to achieve what he wants. What that is, we don’t know, and what Holmes hopes to find out. Moriarty sends Watson and his beloved a wedding present, and soon after that the chase to stop Moriarty is on.

I liked this movie for a many reasons. The technology and weapons were more up to date than in the first one. There were a lot of weapons used in WWI used in this movie, like the German bolt action rifle, the Kar98k. Holmes also switches from a revolver to a Mauser 1896 machine pistol. He also has a car, not a modern one, but the kind that looks like it was put together like a kid. It was very cool to see how far cars have come, since some did look like that. Also, there was an apparatus that made oxygen, which Holmes’s brother had for some reason. They also show Holmes’s brother, Mycroft Holmes, played by Stephen Fry. He is a funny character and brings a new air to the movies. I mean, there shouldn’t be just one Holmes, should there?

The main thing I didn’t like about the movie was the action, well, I liked it, but was annoyed by parts of it. It was good when Holmes goes into the mode where he sees the fight, plans out what he’s going to do, and then does it. That’s the only good slow motion part. The other action was slow motion. When they are running in the forest, it’s all slow! It’s annoying because none of the action really surprises you, because you can see it before it happens. Honestly, it makes it even more unrealistic. It should have been regular speed and more of Watson fighting like the soldier he is. He didn’t once use his cane sword (at least, I don’t remember him, using it, and he used it all the time in the first). Secondly, the movie was pretty easy to second guess. I kind of saw the end coming. It wasn’t as complex as the first movie, which really had me going, because it was hard for me to piece it together.

The film was good, but the action was too slow. I recommend not making any plans or make plans for the movies, because you should see Sherlock Holmes 2. That is, unless you don’t like watching a movie with some romance, explosions, action, slow motion action, guns, weird objects, and witty sayings. Honestly, who doesn’t?

The hilarious movie “Tower Heist” shows the story of hotel employees who try to steal their money back from a multi millionaire after he scammed them of all their money. Their funny escapade leads to many laughs, and suspense.

“Tower Heist” is the story of employees who are working at one of the fanciest and nicest hotels around, and their quest to find and take back their money from a multi millionaire stock broker (Alan Alda) who had offered to help increase the employee’s earnings. However it backfires and the employees have their savings stolen, and are left with nothing. The employees (Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe) decide to steal the money back with the help of a thief (Eddie Murphy).

I did enjoy the movie. Their humor was good, and not too crude or childish. There was a good mix of humor, and suspense making the movie even more enjoyable. I believe that they choose the right actors for this movie. All of them were good with their parts causing the move to be better, and somewhat relatable. We all fear having our money stolen, but this movie takes it to a whole new level.

However there were some things in the moving that were not so good. Some of the things they did in the movie weren’t realistic, like ramming an FBI agent with a cart and it knocking them out. That is not realistic. That would not knock someone out, not to mention the assault charges. There are also some other moments where the movie stops being realistic.

Other than those instances the movie is good.

Overall I did like the movie, and put those few unrealistic moments aside it was a good movie.

Rating 6 out of 10