Star Trek Into Darkness

I've been a Trekkie since before I can remember.  I feel as though I was born loving those mad space adventures.  And this film was brilliant.  It surpasses its previous film, and is perhaps the best Star Trek film yet.
I think the highlight is Cumberbatch's character.  is voice is perfect.  When he started crying, I started crying, and I'm still not sure why.
Though, I do feel the end was a bit fast, and I wish there had been just one more scene with Cumberbatch.

Serenity

The villain was brilliant.  I loved it.

Anastasia

The best part is the villain's song.

The Secret of Kells

I knew basically nothing about this film, but I think JK said something about it being good so I watched it.
The animation and art design was really interesting and clever.  I deeply enjoyed the characters and the storyline.
If you have not seen this film, stop what you are doing and watch it.
The villains looked remarkably cool.

tl;dr: I watched several films with villains I liked.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

I'd studied the book for my English classes, and so I was naturally curious to see how the film version compared.  At first the film felt overly rushed and flashy, but as it progressed it got much better. Visually, the film was stunning--perhaps a little too stunning, even.  The first half-hour was very quickly paced, moving non-stop.  I liked how the camera swooped and zoomed; but even though it was dynamic it felt very rushed and like the audience was being dragged along.  The party scene at Gatsby's was almost too over-the-top--my eyeballs and eardrums were hurting (though that might have been because I had a headache at the time--or did I get the headache from watching?).

After the initial 30 or so minutes, however, the pacing improved and became much better.  The ending, especially, was very well done, I thought.  I also liked the contrast during Gatsby's and Tom's argument, where the camera comes to a virtual standstill, with the fast-moving beginning. On the negative side, I felt like the film overemphasized some aspects of the book (the Green Light--yes, we get it! There's no need to show it flashing every so often!) while others feel rushed and underused (the Valley of Ashes and Owl Eyes, for example).  I was somewhat disappointed that they short-changed the ending, glossing over

--but as I said before, I still found the ending quite powerful and well done.

I wasn't too bothered by the music soundtrack, though in some places it felt somewhat jarring--but, as with almost everything in this film, it got much better towards the end of the film.  The dialogue and plot was mostly accurate to the book, with some minor changes (Tom talking to Wilson).  In this case, some of the subtlety is lost, though I can understand why it was done in this way.  Having Nick recovering in a sanatorium (which does not happen in the book) was also a change that I felt comfortable with, as I think it framed the narrative better in this re-telling.

All in all, while there are some flaws, I still overall enjoyed this interpretation.  7/10

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Gosh guys, the feels--I got emotional at the Depart for the Grey Havens scene.

What a spectacular finale to the universally-acclaimed film trilogy! This is my second time watching it, and I swear, this movie is now one of my Top 3--that's pretty big. All the scenes were monumental and beautifully filmed. The Return of the King is awesome--and I want a VFX breakdown of every single scene in the film, and I want it NOW.

10.2/10

Now You See Me

It was enjoyable, but I expected it to be better. The cast is great, and Mark Ruffalo is pretty outstanding, but at times, the dialogue is really dull and simple (especially the beginning). The whole concept is great and innovative, but the twist is not very surprising.  The story becomes less and less interesting as the film progresses, and the ending is just stupid. The chase scenes were pretty awesome though, and the magic tricks were preaaattyyyy friggin' cool.

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Currently going for the "Most Inactive" BiM award.

Now You See Me

Meh. It was an alright film, great idea and all...but it just flopped. The characters were just flat and had no depth whatsoever so when something important happens to one of them...it's just "Whatever". Also, the acting was really disappointing other than Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo. There were a lot of plot points that either weren't explained or had a really lame payoff. The only things that were going for this film were the idea, the special effects, and the ending. The ending was freaking mind-blowing and just really...

WHAT

JUST...WHAT

How in the world was it not surprising?

Overall, it was slightly entertaining.

2/5

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Jack Reacher

Lincoln

heh, more like "Daniel Day Lewis... in HD!!!"

Star Trek (2009)

Once again, not the last movie I watched, but I just had to post it. I've wanted to see this for a long time, so my friend and I watched it yesterday. (Yes, we watched two movies last night, but this one was more important.) It actually isn't a bad movie. The effects are pretty nice, the acting is good, and the story is fairly good to me. The only drawback is, this film isn't real Star Trek. But, by itself, it's a good movie! Hoping to see Into Darkness soon.

To be honest, the American girl movies are pretty bland, but when my sister is watching one, I get sucked in. Its a strange mix between a corny girl power movie and a historical film (they don't really go into detail on the history though).

All I know is that my sister has suddenly started begging for more American girl dolls because of the films...stupid dolls.