Leon_Chang_2000 Reviews

Alien (1979)

Does not stand the test of time

[6/10 · 15 June 2012]

Having just watched Alien for the first time, I cannot give it more than a 5/10. The film was mediocre at best. It began slowly, and honestly, never really picked up; in fact, I almost decided to stop the movie and go do something else since it was quite boring.

Let me explain a bit further. The characters are weak, showing no development and very little likability. Thus, I had no care for them throughout the film and so they provided little incentive for me to keep watching. If anything, the pure annoyance at the characters' decisions made me want to turn off the movie even more.

Furthermore, the plot was very straightforward and could not stand by itself. If you think for a moment about what would happen in a film named "Alien", chances are you are spot on.

Because of this, I have a feeling that this movie must have stood on the laurels of its visuals and its novelty during the era. For contemporary viewers, these no longer hold much weight, and so the movie crumbles. As an analogy, I believe that similar remarks will be made about movies like James Cameron's Avatar in a few decades.

To summarize, this is not a film that has withstood the test of time.

30 Minutes or Less (2011)

Inconsistent Writing

[6/10 · 11 January 2012]

While the premise of this film leaves much room for hilarity, as shown by the promising trailer, it was unable to capitalize on this due to what feels like a lackluster effort on the part of the writers. There are many tell-tale indications of this, such as in the inconsistency of the characters. Palpable tension is generated between characters without any warning, and then it is forgotten by the next scene.

Another glaring issue was the pacing of the story. If you saw the trailer, you would think it centered around this bank robbery by two normal guys. However, this is only one small piece of the movie. The opening was simultaneously slow and somewhat insufficient, then everything sped up tremendously, and then the latter half of the film was dragged out to fill up the remaining time needed for the movie to be taken seriously.

In all, I would rate this film a 6.5/10 since it was still entertaining and done by clearly talented actors. However, note that this is far from their best work, probably because the actors were confused about who their characters were.

National Treasure (2004)

This movie had great potential, but didn't use half of it

[5/10 · 5 May 2005]

Do you know why books like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code were so successful? The main characters in these adventure novels were much like the main characters of National Treasure: they were geniuses. However, even for the main character of Dan Brown's famous novel, it still took numerous pages to put together even one clue. See, the point is that Brown's book was realistic and life-like. National Treasure, however, seems to lack that quality while trying to do so many things in a short amount of time. For example, the movie tries to build on the characters and their histories, then the current issues, and then suddenly I was taken by surprise by the almost trivial love story that the director tried to stick in there. I mean, it's understandable that the movie has a time limit, but that just means that the story has to be made to fit the limit (or vice versa, if possible). For example, if Titanic had been made to be only half its length, the length of a normal film, none of the connections would've been made and the movie would definitely not have been so popular.

Away from the bad, however, the story was enticing and well thought out. The acting was also nice, though that's to be expected from top-notch actors like Nicholas Cage. The potential could have allowed this movie to be at least in IMDb's top 250, but I as the audience just didn't feel that bond to the movie as I felt in masterpieces like The Shawshank Redemption or Gladiator.

Overall, the movie may or may not be what you expect, and though it's definitely not on the same par as movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's worth seeing. I give it a 6/10 because it's still better than the average movie in today's culture.

The Scorpion King (2002)

What's so bad about it?

[6/10 · 13 August 2004]

I understand how a lot of people are easily disappointed when movies coming out are all the same, with a bunch of good guys fighting a bunch of bad guys, and of course the good guys win, but there really aren't that many movies like that, without something new.

In this movie, the only thing that people can attack is that it is too average, that they've seen this kind of movie millions of times. But this it isn't that bad. On the plus side, there was plenty of action, and more plot than almost any two World War 2 movies have put together. The acting was pretty natural, and the lighting isn't bad enough to be the main point of an argument.

Of course, like about 99.99% of all movies, there are bad sides to this movie, like the predictability and the similarity between its sword fights.

Overall, it's decidedly better than a good percentage of other movies, and I think that it deserves better than a 5 or 6.

I gave it a 7 out of 10.

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

They used to make great movies like this.

[9/10 · 13 August 2004]

I was maybe five years old when I saw this movie for the first time, and it was just plain awesome. I think the only film made the last four or five years that can even be in the same area as this is Finding Nemo. Other than that, no other kid's film pulled it off. Other movies like Shrek and Shrek 2 are good, but with jokes kids can't understand easily. This movie was also good in that it used mystery, a genre not often used in children's' films.

All the recent films have violence, blood, bad language, etc. and still have a pg rating, giving the illusion that it is still a movie fit for everybody. This movie has none of that, and is probably better than many of those that do. There is no reason not to like this movie, so if you haven't already, watch it!

10 out of 10.

The Godfather (1972)

There's no way this could be #1.

[7/10 · 29 July 2004]

After watching a lot of the movies on the IMDb top 250 list, I have to somewhat agree with where the movie is placed. I watched the #2 movie, Shawshank Redemption, at least five times and it was just awesome. Finally, I got The Godfather and expected a lot from it, seeing that it would have to be better than Shawshank Redemption. However, I could barely sit through half of The Godfather. Absolutely NOTHING happens. Yeah, so some guy gets shot. Then some people get angry. Wow.

Anyway, I would have to grudgingly say that the acting is pretty good, but good acting doesn't make a movie worth seeing. As an old movie, I guess that the overall quality can't be too great. But, even with all that aside, this movie still lacks a good plot, and, maybe even more importantly, emotion. The Shawshank Redemption really made me sympathize with the characters, while this movie just made me go to sleep more quickly (it was that boring).

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

One of the best films I've seen in a long time.

[9/10 · 17 July 2004]

Ever since Lord of the Rings Return of the King came out, I've been watching movies such as The Terminal and Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban, which by themselves are enough to pass the time, but not enough to bring out tears or whatever they were supposed to do. But when I watched Spiderman 2, I was completely in the movie, even to the extent that I almost couldn't stand the soft crunch of the M&Ms in my mouth, afraid that it might have me lose even a single word that was said.

Not only was the script and scenery superb (not cheap like in The Terminal, where all they needed was an airport lobby), there was also great acting and directing. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, and all the other actors said every line with exactly what it needed. They said every word as it was supposed to be said, whether soberly or with an as-a-matter-of-fact voice. It was as if every scene had a purpose, as if every smile and gesture meant something tremendous. That with the action sequences done so that I could feel every blow dealt and received, I believe that Spiderman 2 is something that you must see.

Overall, I rated it 10 out of 10