The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spiderman 2 premiers, in theaters, on May 2nd. So, I thought it would be a good time to do a review on the first movie, The Amazing Spiderman. I am giving this movie a rating of 2 out of 10 because of the reasons below.

The Amazing Spiderman is about a boy, Peter Parker, who is abandoned by his parents at a young age. After he is abandoned he lives with his Aunt and Uncle. One day Peter finds an old box full of his fathers scientific notes. The notes lead him to a large research center in the city; he heads there one day after school. He is looking for Doctor Connors who was mentioned in the notes. When he has no luck finding the Doctor he starts to look around the building. He comes across a dark room full of hundreds of spiders. He accidentally hits a lever that releases the spiders from their webs. The spiders fall onto his hair and clothing, so he leaves the room. Once he has left the room one spider, that he did not notice, is still on his clothing. This spider bites him giving him supernatural abilities. He uses these abilities to fight crime.

I'll start with what I liked about the movie. I thought Peter's challenges that he faced, when trying to control his new abilities, added depth to the movie. It made the character much more relatable. He felt relatable because I go through challenges on a daily basis. My challenges are not quite to the extreme that Peters are, but they are still challenges. In the other Marvel superhero movies, the characters did not face many challenges. Which was unrealistic because if you suddenly had new abilities, it would be hard to control them. But, there were no challenges shown in the movies. A good amount of The Amazing Spiderman is Peter trying to control his abilities; this was very enjoyable.

The only thing I did not like about the film was the length. It took too long for Peter to defeat the villain. He was still learning to control his new abilities, but he took too much time to defeat the villain. I think this movie could have been shortened by at least 30-45 minutes. If the film had been shortened, it would have kept my attention.

I really enjoyed this movie and hope you watch it!! Talk to you next week! :)

Image courtesy of Collider 

Divergent

Divergent came out on March 21st, and I saw it two days later. It was much better than I had expected. It had a very creative plot line and great characters!! I am giving this movie a rating of 1 out of 10 because there was nothing I didn't like.

I really enjoyed the plot line of the film; I thought it was extremely creative. The movie is about a futuristic society with 5 different "sections". These "sections" are basically jobs that people choose to do for the rest of their lives. Each person has to choose one of these to work and live in. A mandatory test tells you which "section" to choose. These tests keep order in society. The test is a liquid sot into your body that produces hallucinations. Almost everyone in the society can not tell that hallucinations are fake. There are certain people in the society called Divergents. These people can tell the hallucinations are fake, so it may be hard for them to choose a "section" in society. Divergents are killed because they affect the "order" in the society. The main character of the movie, Tris, is divergent. Throughout the movie she keeps this a secret and pretends she is not Divergent. This movie was very unpredictable and fascinating. My eyes were glued to the screen the whole way through.

The character development was another aspect of the movie that I enjoyed. Each character was relatable, in one way or another, and very unique. I enjoyed watching the struggles Tris had; it made her more realistic. Although she has a special ability, she still has troubles fitting in. Which is a quality that every person can relate to. Tris's male "friend", Four, is also a very relatable character because he has to run away from his past. This is also a quality that people can relate to.

 This movie was somewhat challenging to review because of all the different opinions so hopefully you still enjoyed it. I really enjoyed this movie, so I highly recommend that you watch it. Talk to you soon :)

Image courtesy of Forbes

The Book Thief

WARNING: This review reveals some of the book so read with caution!!

This week was the last week of my third grading period. After I finished a very challenging vocabulary test,  I decided to watch The Book Thief. This movie was much better than I expected. I heard from a few friends that this movie did not include parts in the book. The film left out certain elements of the book, but it was still a good movie.

I'm giving this movie a rating of 3 out of 10 because they left out important parts of the book. The first thing that wasn't in the film was the book that Max wrote Liesel. This was such an important part in the story because it helped bond the two characters. In the novel, The Book Thief, Max wrote Liesel a story over the pages of Mein Kampf. In the film Max did paint over the pages of Mein Kampf. But, there was never a story book shown in the movie. I disliked that Max's book wasn't in the movie because his book was one of my favorite parts. I loved this moment between the two characters. It was so sweet and showed that a young German girl and a Jewish man could become friends. The second thing that I didn't really like about the movie was the scene when Liesel finds her family dead. In the book she said heartfelt things to her father, mother, and good friend Rudy. In the film she went up to Rudy and asked him to wake up and kiss her. But, she expressed little emotion to her mother and father. It was a sweet moment, but I was hoping that Liesel would have had a stronger reaction to their death.

One thing I did really like about this movie was the scenery. The sets were beautifully designed. The sets also accurately resembled how the streets of Germany, during World War Two, would have looked. The movie wasn't just filmed on sets; it was actually filmed in Germany. I went to IMDb and saw that The Book Thief was filmed in multiple different places in Germany.

Image courtesy of IMP Awards

This movie captured most elements of the book very well. It was a great movie so I recommend that you watch the film! Talk to you guys next week. :)

White House Down

While my parents were away this week the people my sister and I stayed with chose the movie we watched. The movie we watched was White House Down. The film is about a man, John, who is trying to join the secret service. He is not accepted so he tries to leave the White House, but his daughter wants to take a tour. During the tour the white house is attacked by terrorists and John, alone, has to protect the President.

I enjoyed the character development in the movie. Each character was unique. One thing about the film that was different was how each character had a back story. Even the terrorists had interesting back stories. This had an odd effect on me, it made me feel like I knew each character. I know that sounds cheesy but that's how I felt. :)

This movie was very unpredictable, almost every event was unexpected, this made it much more enjoyable. Films that are predictable are boring to watch because you can tell what is going happen. But, if a movie is unpredictable then you want to sit through all of it. Since the movie started with a man trying to get into the secret service, I thought the film would be about his struggles while trying to get into the secret service. But, instead it was about a terrorist attack. With this plot line there was a lot of flexibility. The terrorists had the power to do almost anything when they were attacking.

Although some things that happened, in the movie, were not believable. The terrorists got into the security of the white house too easily. It probably would take a day or maybe two in real life. But, in the movie it only took about six or seven hours. I still really enjoyed the movie. So, I'm giving it a rating of 1.5 out of 10.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Leave a comment of any movies you would like me to do a review on. Talk to you next week! :)

Image courtesy of IMP Awards

The Avengers

After spending about three weeks watching all of the marvel superhero movies; I decided to watch The Avengers. I really enjoyed this movie. It was fascinating how all the characters came together in one movie.

My favorite part of the movie was how the characters interacted. All the characters had diverse personality's so they had trouble interacting well together. For the first half of the movie the characters simply argued back and forth. But, what they argued about was funny. There arguing brought humor to the movie. Although all they did was argue the first half of the movie; by the end they were working together to fight evil. When the characters interacted well it was much more enjoyable to watch. I preferred watching the characters work together because it showed their different strengths and abilities.

The plot line was very creative. It was interesting how Thor's brother, Loki, was the villain. In the movie before the Avengers Thor's father, Thor, and the audience thought Loki had died. So, it was a surprise to everyone when Loki appeared in the first scene of the Avengers.

I would have given this movie a rating of one out of ten but one thing about the movie was confusing. A few scenes before the end of the movie The Hulk could not control his powers and almost killed multiple people. This part did not confuse me because in The Incredible Hulk he can not control his powers. But, by the end of The Avengers the Hulk has complete control over his powers. This was confusing because they made such a big deal about how he couldn't control his powers. This was the only thing I did not like about the movie, so I am giving it a rating of two out of ten.

Image courtesy of Apple Trailers

I hope you enjoyed this movie review. Talk to you next week. :)

The Lego Movie

Image Courtesy of IMDb

During the recent break my good friend Liza invited me to see The Lego Movie. I was thrilled that she wanted to "hang out", but I was not thrilled that she wanted to see The Lego Movie. This movie seemed like it would be terrible (I have to be honest). I did not want to watch a movie about legos. The trailer wasn't horrible but it was the fact that it was an entire movie about legos that bothered me. But, since I hadn't left my room much the whole break, I thought it would be nice to feel the sunshine on my face. So, I said yes and surprisingly this movie was really good. I am giving it a rating of 3 out of 10 because it did not "wow me", but I still really enjoyed it.

There was something humorous in every scene of this movie. The movie is about an evil villain who is trying to separate all the lego realms permanently and an average construction worker who is trying to stop him. I loved how they designed the life of a lego.  It would be very challenging to think about how a lego would live. But, they accurately captured what a legos life would be. Legos simply take the "instructions" that people give them, and they stay in a certain position until people change the design.

I like the creativity of the movie. It's fascinating how the entire movie is stop motion. The different realms are lego sets that you can buy in stores; cities, western, and medieval times. The plot line was also very creative. I enjoyed it because it was so unpredictable. It was enjoyable how the hero, Emmett, was not born a hero but instead an ordinary person. This teaches kids that anyone can be a hero.

If you are looking for a great laugh this weekend check out The Lego Movie; it's still in theaters. Talk to you next week. :)

My Sundance Experience

Sundance is the largest independent film festival in the world. It happens annually in Park City, Utah. For the first time I went to this film festival, and for the most part it was a great experience.

I only saw two movies and both were amazing! These movies are different from anything you would see in a movie theatre, they have no action, no romance, and no cheesy humor. But, these movies do have a great plot that is very interesting. It wasn't just the movies that were great but the overall experience.

For the first movie my dad and I walked into town and talked about lots of different things. It was fun talking about what we thought the movie would be like and what we had both done that day. Once we reached Prospector Square we strolled into line and made it to the theatre. The first movie we watched was called Freedom Summer. It was about a program, Freedom Summer, during the of summer of the 1960's in Mississippi. I was exhausted during the movie and almost fell asleep at least twice but this movie was still amazing! By the end of the movie they had the director and some of the cast answering questions which would never happen in a normal movie theatre!!

The next movie I watched was The Better Angels. This film is a biography on Abraham Lincoln when he was around the age of eleven. I enjoyed this movie much more than Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was a great movie but while watching the film I almost fell asleep, but The Better Angels kept my attention through the whole film. This movie had a very limited amount of dialogue. At first I found it very odd but soon I was intrigued by the idea behind this. I think the reason there was limited dialogue was, so the audience could think about certain scenes independently. This gave the movie a unique affect.

Image Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival

Over all Sundance was a great experience and I hope you can go one day. Have a great week and leave in the comments anything you would like me to write about. :)