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etl33
Reviews
The Avengers (2012)
close, but no cigar
since everyone has talked about the good pts. quite lengthily already, let me share my thoughts on why it still fell short of my expectations:
- didn't get what loki was up to with the whole alien invasion plan; i mean, what's his end-game assuming they win, when it seems the aliens are in it for themselves
- speaking of the aliens.. they're just too inept and posed almost no threat at all, other than the sheer size of their army. even black widow thrashed a number of them, when i was expecting the skill level and strength of these invaders would at least be "capt America" level;
- capt America.. now there's a character who was just embarrassingly poorly used. i felt like he was being bossed around by everyone, when in the comics, he is the true leader. the scene, where all of sudden, he was giving orders to everyone, was just trite. i mean, where was this even coming from? never showed any true leadership qualities for a good 2 hrs of the movie, and now he's calling the shots? could've been better developed
- and the team, after fighting and arguing the whole time, i just didn't see a good enough plot device for them to get their act together, for the big alien battle. it was just too abrupt for me, w/o any clear progression from individual issues to being integral members of a team. and the death of the agent as a trigger? c'mon! that's just lame. there was no emotional investment for anyone on the team to decide on what happened next. other than widow and hawkeye, who barely worked with the guy, the rest just didn't have anything much to do with guy, even ironman, for that matter. i think what i'm driving at is the transition, how these superheroes should have evolved from individuals to being members of the team, begged for improvement.
- minor gripe: though ruffalo did pretty well, i think the part wasn't as well written. hulk/banner character was just confusing. he attacks widow & thor, and next thing you know, he develops compassion, camaraderie, and heroic tendencies. plus, this banner is completely diff from the norton banner in terms of how he was written. can't imagine norton referring to "hulk" simply as the "other guy", and in that manner; was just so out of character for me.
don't get me wrong, i did enjoy the movie. great action scenes. just wasn't too thrilled with the plot and story. they could have taken a page from the animated movie, "ultimate avengers". now, that was tight story that the live avengers movie could have been, even w/o giant man & wasp.
The Departed (2006)
pretty good adaptation
quite good. a little more violent than the hk original though; Scorsese shock value which actually works. plus a bit more humor to spice it up. though i liked both movies, the original turned out to be more suspenseful while this one was the grittier drama. Mark Wahlberg steals the show whenever he's on screen. And his character wasn't even in the original movie. All the major actors did a splendid job. From Alec to Wahlberg, everybody turned in one of their most memorable performances. However, the role of the shrink is just pushing it. Just way too incredible that she's been sleeping with the two guys who are after each other. They could have done away with this subplot, just like in the original. can't say it's Scorsese's best work though. If we are talking crime drama, Goodfellas and Casino are the still the jewels.
Superman Returns (2006)
nothing great
Wasn't all that bad. The newcomer playing Superman did a decent job. Some good action and special effects. But I think the main problem was the plot/story. Nothing epic. Nothing as big as one would expect from a "Superman" movie (this wasn't Green Hornet Returns). Practically screws up the comic mythos (Superman sires a kid in this one). Strays away from how the characters are really like in the comics, whether intentionally or out of ignorance (eg. Luthor would never justify the ends with a massacre of billions of people). Likewise, it was too long for what you actually get. More than 2 decades later plus the power of computer generated effects, the original actually works much better than this one.
Isang araw walang Diyos (1989)
a true gem
this has got to be one of the more entertaining filipino movies i've ever seen. I've seen a lot, and 95% of the time, I'm quite disappointed. This was a treat. it caught me by surprise, and delivered more than what i expected. Just when you thought it was a typical commercial fare, you would be enveloped in a very engaging story.i saw it back in the theater many years back, and it's too bad that i never got to see it again whether on video or on TV. I hope this gets aired sometime again. Stellar performances from all the actors, particularly Tito Arevalo, who definitely stood out on this one. Acting was never over the top.I hope Peque makes more movies like this.