Lord of the Rings meets The Hunger Games. That was what many people were using as a comparison to Wes Ball’s The Maze Runner. I figured the movie would be a surefire hit if that was the comparison. Its reviews on Rotten Tomatoes have been mixed, but there have certainly been more positive than negative ones. As I write this review, remember that I read the book. I read the book this summer when I saw that this movie was coming out in September. I did not realize at the time that this was a book about young adult literature. I should have done my research, but I was hooked by both the title and the book’s premise. While the book was well written, I kept asking myself why I read it as a 38-year-old man. I had the same conversation with myself as I sat watching the movie on opening weekend. This is a cool movie…if you are a teenager. But never did I feel like it was a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games. Continue reading The Maze Runner (2014)
Category Archives: Fantasy
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
I’m not the biggest fan of reboots. I often think, “Why?” or “What’s the point?” or, “Can Hollywood not come up with an original idea?”. However, at the same time, I’m a big fan of origin stories. Usually, if the first movie in a franchise is good, I’ll keep watching the sequels until they start to stink. Once you lose me, though, you lose me, and I’m not coming back. So each subsequent movie in a franchise doesn’t necessarily need to be better than the starting movie (in fact, I don’t expect it to be), but it still better be pretty darn good. My favorite movies in the last decade include Batman Begins, Iron Man, and The Hangover. These three movies illustrate my point perfectly. The Dark Knight, unquestionably, and The Dark Knight Rises, probably, were both better than Batman Begins. In the Iron Man franchise, Iron Man was the best, Iron Man 2 was very good, but not great, and Iron Man 3 was still decent. With The Hangover, the first one was brilliant, The Hangover 2 one had me asking, “Why are they doing this again?” and the third one was so terrible that I will not pay another dollar if these franchises continue and has made me much less interested in ever watching the original one again.
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G.I.Joe: Retaliation (2013)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the sequel to 2009’s cash cow G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, is one of those “so bad that it’s good” movies. However, I’ll take it even a step forward. This movie was so awful that it was awesome. It won’t get reflected in my rating, and this is the type of movie that I usually would rip to shreds (aka White House Down, The Day After Tomorrow, and numerous others), but this was a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed while, at the same, chastising it throughout my entire viewing. Perhaps I was kinder to this film because of how much G.I. Joe was part of my childhood. At the same time, that should also be the reason I should be ripping it the most. If I’m willing to give another franchise a chance to ruin some of my childhood memories, then I would hope that the movie is a success at the box office and with critics so that the franchise will continue. Before getting into the specifics of what I liked and didn’t like about this movie, I will say first that they probably had hundreds, if not thousands, of potential scripts that they could have pulled for both this movie and The Rise of Cobra. I don’t remember The Rise of Cobra enough to comment on it right now, but the script for Retaliation was utterly insane. Continue reading G.I.Joe: Retaliation (2013)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
I suspended my beliefs at the door when I stepped into the theater to see Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend, Water For Elephants) sequel to The Hunger Games. I couldn’t do this for the first movie and was dissatisfied. I wanted the film to be more of a survival movie and less a fantasy/science fiction movie. When I wasn’t able to do that, I just started to question everything that was happening. I liked The Hunger Games but did not love it. I liked it enough to continue with the franchise, though. Every successful fantasy book franchise is being made into a movie these days. I have never read a word of a book or seen a second of the film in either the Harry Potter or Twilight series. I get the cult-like following to both of these movies, though. I do understand how you can be engrossed in a franchise like this. I have not read, nor will I read, any of The Hunger Game books, but I will continue to see the movies, even though I am upset about the franchise’s finale Mockingjay, split up into two movies. I am also lukewarm about the Insurgent franchise coming to the theaters. They showed a trailer for the first Insurgent movies before Catching Fire, and I was disappointed to see Kate Winslet on the screen. In these movies, you don’t need superstars outside the main character or two.
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Gravity (2013)
Okay…here we go. Gravity had the potential to be the greatest movie of 2013. It was a very, very good movie and will finish in my Top 10 of 2013 by the time everything is said and done. My preliminary thought is that it currently will be my #3 for the year, behind World War Z and Elysium. What do these three movies, in my opinion, have in common? Originality. I thought that, in a time where there Hollywood seems to be lacking great original ideas that aren’t based on true stories, these three movies achieved just that. I loved World War Z. I do not think it will end year #1, but it will be tough. It was an amazing, adrenalin-pumping story that had an awesome twist. Gravity aimed for the same, albeit in a slightly different way. Was it as successful? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I will discuss, in-depth, the one or two major problems I had with this movie and will give you plenty of warning before I get there so that you can skip this section if you have not seen this movie yet.
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