A New Hope vs The Force Awakens

So there's a new Star Wars movie out. Well instead of reviewing it like I would normally I've decided to compare it to the original. Because it actually has some similarities. Sort of like when I compared Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. So without further ado here is A New Hope vs The Force Awakens. Also before I start I would to announce that this review has a lot spoilers in it. So if you've seen the movie or just don't care take a look. If you haven't seen the movie.... Sorry.


Protagonists: The main character in A New Hope is Luke Skywalker. He's a lot more whiny in the first movie than he is than he is in the sequels.  And that's really kind of distracting. The other main characters are Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2D2, and C3PO. Han is my favourite character in the first movie. Probably due to how cool he plays it. Chebacca doesn't have any actual lines but he's somehow still pretty interesting. Obi Wan is basically every other old mentor character ever. Princess Leia is also a pretty strong character. R2D2 really doesn't have much personality do to only being able to talk through beeping noises. But they're harmless. C3PO is kind of annoying but it's not too noticeable. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in the Force Awakens. They mostly remain unchanged. Han is still overly confident, C3PO worries a lot and so on. The main characters introduced in this movie are Finn, Rey, BB8, and Poe. Finn and Rey are actually pretty likeable and have interesting characters with Finn being and ex-Stormtrooper and Rey being a down on her luck scavenger. BB8 is a droid and he doesn't talk. They're not interesting but harmless. Poe is kind of boring. He's just the generic good looking, talented, nice guy. But he's barely in the movie. There's actually a fake out in the beginning that I thought was pretty funny where they made you think he'd be the main character. Both the movies have a pretty solid cast. But due to Luke whining in the first half of the movie in the original I'll give the point to the Force Awakens.




Antagonists: The main antagonist in A New Hope is Darth Vader. He's a classic antagonist. He's threatening and an interesting character..... He's also Luke's father. It's not a spoiler everyone knows it! Anyway that about does it for the antagonists in the first movie. Emperor Palpatine wasn't introduced until the Empre Strikes back. Don't worry there are many more antagonists in the Force Awakens. First off is Kylo Ren, he's Han Solo's son (Spoiler) and actually a pretty good antagonist. Probably the only complaint I have is that without his helmet on he isn't very intimidating. The other antagonists are General Hux, Captain Phasma, and Supreme Leader Snoke. The only thing I remember about General Hux is that he speaks with a British accent. Not just any British accent an evil British accent.... Trust me there's a difference. The only things I remember about Captain Phasma is that she's a girl and wears a really shiny outfit. Snoke is sort of like..... Um.... He's not very interesting. But he may get more interesting in the next movie. But a New Hope has the  more interesting villain and the Force Awakens has the uninteresting villains weighing it down.





Special Effects: The original was made in the 70's. But surprisingly the effects hold up. A lot of the puppets and models are pretty good. Sometimes you get a really dated effect but for the most part it's pretty good. The second movie came out recently so the effects are of course improved. It integrates the CGI and practical effects like puppets really well. So yeah, I'm going to give the point to the Force Awakens.








Plot: Both these movies have similarities. It starts with a character hiding something inside a droid, a poor character on a desert planet finds the droid, and it ends with a giant evil base blowing up. The main difference is the pacing of the plots. The original movie has a much slower pace than the new one. On one hand a New Hope was better at explaining things but too much explaining started to get tedious at times. On the other hand if the plot moves too fast you might not be able to explain things. But personally I prefer the Force Awakens.





Conclusion: I think the Force Awakens is better. Being made now gives it better effects, and less dated acting. But a New Hope is of course still a classic and is the movie that started it all. But in the end I think the Force Awakens did a better job. I'm glad to have compared these movies and let me know what you think.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Everybody loves Indiana Jones. With a mix of quick action, memorable characters, and practical effects that will haunt your nightmares you can bet it was popular. After the success of The Last Crusade it was only logical to make a fourth movie..... A rough 19 years later. As you may have guessed I am talking about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's one tranwreck of a movie and I have to review it. Small note there will be some spoilers..... But let's be fair this movie is ruined either way. So without further ado let's get started.










Characters: The main character of this movie is Indiana Jones. He's mostly the same as in the previous movies.... Just older. But don't worry he has an obvious stunt double for the action sequences. The other characters in this movie are Indiana Jones' son he really doesn't do much. Marian from the first movie. She's kind of there for the throwback to the first movie. There's Mac.... He's pointless end of story. There's this crazy guy.... He's only there as a convenient plot device. Finally there's the main villain: a Russian lady with a really over the top accent. She's probably the best part of the movie just with how over the top she is.







Special Effects: The effects in this movie are pretty fake looking. I never once believe that there were gophers, monkeys, or man eating ants in this movie. Some of the stunts are impressive but like said above it's pretty obvious when they're using a stunt double. It's sad that the special effects of a movie in the 90's like Jurassic Park are better than this one.











Plot: Okay so Indiana Jones is returning the skull of an alien to it's resting place...... What? That's the story? When where aliens part of the Indiana Jones series. It's about as silly as it sounds. They spend a lot of time explaining stuff. Seriously, during one exposition scene I got a glass of water and when I got back they were still explaining the plot. It's a very silly premise and doesn't really fit into the universe of Indiana Jones.









Overall Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a laughably bad movie. So if you want a movie with bad effects a silly plot and russians

Jurassic Park vs Jurassic World

Jurassic Park is a classic movie combining likeable characters good humor and suspenseful action. Then there was the sequel The Lost World the less said about this the better. Finally the sequel nobody asked for Jurassic Park III. But just this year a new movie under the title of Jurassic World was released. I will be comparing it to the original and seeing if it measures up. I will look at the characters, plot, setting, effects, and action Keep in mind there will be some spoilers for those of you who haven't seen either of these movies. Will it be as good as the original, or will it be just another failed sequel? Let's find out.

Main Characters

In the first movie the main characters were Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Dr. Malcolm, John Hammond, and Hammond's grandchildren Lex and Tim. Grant and Sattler are probably the movies best characters and they have very good on screen chemistry. Jeff Goldblum's performance as Dr. Malcolm is just a bit too quirky and awkward for my taste. Hammond is good character but isn't very good at running the park...like at all. The kids are kind of just annoying especially Tim. In Jurassic World the main characters are two kids named Gray and Zach, their Aunt Claire who helps run the park, a worker at the park named Owen Grady, and the movies main villain Hoskins. The kids in this movie are less annoying but don't really do much Claire is possibly worse at running the park than John Hammond. Owen is probably the best character in the movie and he's played by Chris Pratt so that's pretty cool. Claire and Owen also have good on screen chemistry but not as good as Sattler and Grant. Hoskins is sort of just added on for a kind of forced animal rights message and honestly Dinosaurs are supposed to be the villains anyway. Onto the supporting characters.

Supporting Characters

The first movie has supporting characters like Gennaro the lawyer, Muldoon the Australian hunter guy, Ray Arnold the computer guy, Dennis the other computer guy, and Dr. Henry Wu the scientist. Honestly all of them are just there as Dino food except for Dr. Wu who is only there for a bit of brief exposition. Not much else to say about the first movie. Jurassic world has the parks owner Mr. Masrani, Lowery and Vivian the security people/comic relief, Owen's co-worker Barry, this British lady who is supposed to be looking after the kids, and the only member of the original cast, Dr. Wu. Again mostly just there as Dino food and comic relief. However Dr. Wu was a very minor character but for some reason they decided to bring him back as a villain, not to sure why, but he ends up stealing all the scenes he's in. Onto the Setting.

Setting

They are set in the same place but there are some major differences from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. In Jurassic Park the park was more like a zoo where you got in a Jeep drove around and looked at dinosaurs. I also liked all the phony Jurassic Park merchandise. The early 90's technology did make the film look a bit dated and it isn't a small thing to over look. In Jurassic World it is more like a theme park with Dino rides for little kids, rafting down a river, a Sea World like water dinosaur show (with splash zone), and an enclosed area for flying Dinosaurs. It is actually very well created and I admired that aspect of the movie. Now let's see how the action measures up.

Action

In the first movie the action was slow and suspenseful in this the action face paced and panicky. For this one it's all a matter of preference but I personally prefer the action in the original myself. I guess it just is better at keeping you guessing. But the action in Jurassic World is actually really well shot. That's about it for the action. Now onto the Effects.

                                                                                     Effects

The effects in the first movie were of course ground breaking, now that it's 2015 the effects have gotten better. But in Jurassic world the effects are kind of all over the place sometimes it's convincing like with the hybrid Dinosaur and others not so much like with the fish Dinosaur. The original was more consistent with the quality of the CGI and combined it well with practical effects. Speaking of which the best effects in Jurassic world are probably the animatronics which I am glad they included. Well time to movie onto the final aspect, the plot.

                                                                                    Plot

The plot of the original is that after an employee of Jurassic Park is killed the park director John Hammond calls in some experts to evaluate the safety but a storm knocks out the power letting the dinosaurs loose. In Jurassic World the park is reopened and the park director Mr. Masrani wants new attraction so they do the only sane thing make a hybrid dinosaur  out of the DNA of other dinosaurs. The first movie is of course a classic but not perfect mostly due to Hammond's constant incompetent actions such as  letting all but three employees leave during a storm, not having stronger fences, and letting the one disgruntled employee be in charge of the power. Of course the plot to Jurassic World isn't without it's problems either. As I said Claire and Mr. Masrani are probably more incompetent than John Hammond by choosing to reopen it in the first place. Also my suspension of disbelief was being played with a bit too much and towards the end it got a bit ridiculous, and with not trying to give to much away the Hybrid Dino is defeated with a bit of a Deus Ex Machina (look it up if you don't know what it means). There are  also some references to the other movies some of which are clever others are a bit forced. Well I've finished comparing now for my final opinion.

Jurassic Park is definitely the better movie but Jurassic world is still worth seeing. Both these films have their strengths and weaknesses and I found myself being entertained by them. Jurassic world is probably the best of the sequels and I recommend seeing it on the big screen. I would also recommend re watching Jurassic Park as it is a good movie. So that was my comparation of both movies I hope you like it and feel free to state your opinion on which movie is better. See you all next time.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

As you may remember last Halloween I reviewed the movie Gremlins. I didn't know there was a sequel till sometime last year. Usually this is a bad sign, but you can't judge a movie by it's poster. So let's tune into the Clamp Cable Network as I review Gremlins 2: The New Batch.









The movie starts in New York in the shop from the first movie where we see Mr. Wing (Keye Luke) being approached by a man named Forster (Robert Picardo) who asks on the behalf of his boss Daniel Clamp (John Glover) if he could sell his business to him so that he can build this project he is working on. He says no and Forster leaves. Fast forward a few months later it turns out Mr. Wing has died and the building is being destroyed. But, the Mogwai from the first movie Gizmo (Howie Mandel) is still inside. Luckily he manages to escape but two scientists named Lewis and Martin (Dan and Don Stanton) find Gizmo and take him away. Meanwhile it turns out that Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) from the first movie live in New York and work at the Clamp Enterprises. Kate is a tour guide and Billy is an artist in the art department. Billy knows a man named Fred (Robert Prosky) who works as the host of this corny horror show as the persona of Uncle Fred the vampire. Fred tells Billy about this new genetic research lab which he thinks seems very suspicious. Meanwhile in the lab it turns out that the two doctors from before work in that lab and the lead doctor Dr. Catheter (Christopher Lee) is planning to do experiments on Gizmo.

Billy hears one of the employees whistling Gizmo's song and Billy decides to investigate the lab. He finds Gizmo and lets him out. Billy tells Kate about Gizmo and tells her to pick him up and take him to their apartment. But a malfunctioning water fountain causes Gizmo to get wet and multiply into four more Mogwai with the leader being a Mogwai named Mohawk (Frank Welker). Kate accidentally picks up the wrong Mogwai and takes them home. But they realise the mistake and just as they are about to take the Mogwai back Murray (Dick Miller) and Shelia (Jackie Joseph)Futterman from the first movie come to visit Billy and Kate. They get the Futtermans to leave and go back to the Clamp Building where the evil Mogwai invade a frozen yogurt bar and eat a bunch of the food there causing them to turn into Gremlins. But before Kate and Billy can stop the Gremlins and find Gizmo they have to go do their jobs. But while Kate is giving a tour of the TV studio the Gremlins invade a cooking show and cause a fire activating the sprinklers which makes them multiply into more Gremlins. It is utter chaos and it gets worse when they break into the genetics lab and drink all sorts of chemicals making them mutate into different types of gremlins like a Bat Gremlin, a super smart Gremlin who can talk (Tony Randall), and a Vegetable Gremlin (OK that last one sounds a bit dumb).

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Billy finds Mr. Clamp and comes up with a plan; they will trick the Gremlins into thinking that it's night outside and when they go out and they will get burned up. Then we get this scene where the Gremlins take over the projection booth and Hulk Hogan scares them off (this scene would be a lot cooler if you watched it in theatres). Mr. Clamp uses his emergency exit. Forster, Dr. Catheter, and Billy try to stop the Gremlins from eating all the chemicals but by this point there are even more mutant Gremlins such as an electric Gremlin and Mohawk had become a spider Gremlin. Meanwhile outside Mr. Futterman hears about the building being invaded so he sneaks in. The plan is in motion but just when everything is going great it starts to rain outside. But Billy comes up with a plan to use the electric Gremlin to kill all the other Gremlins. The plan works and Billy Kate and Gizmo are safe. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Gremlins 2 was surprisingly good. The acting is good and some of the animatronics are better than the first movie. It is also very funny and clever with some of its humor. However it does feel more like a parody of Gremlins then a sequel but that isn't a bad thing. So if this seems like your thing check it out some time. See you next time.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze

Wow that title is a mouthfull. Sequels Month is starting off with this film and we will see if it is better or worse then the original. As I stated in my review of the first movie it is based on a popular comic and TV show from the 80's and 90's. Oh and there may be some spoilers for the first movie in here. So let's go to where everyone eats pizza and review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze.

We start with a pizza delivery boy named Keno (Ernie Reyes jr.) who stumbles upon some crooks robbing a mall but then the ninja turtles, Leonardo (Mark Caso), Donatello (Leif Tilden), Rapheal (Kenn Scott), and Michaelangelo (Michalen Sisti) come to the rescue.  Now in the first movie they used their ninja gear in the fight scenes but since that got too many complaints from parents they use random objects that just happen to be lying around. So after defeating the crooks the turtles head back to the apartment of April O'Neil (Paige Turco) where they are staying until they find a better place to live. Later that day April does a report on TV about a local company closing down for unknown reasons. But it turns out this mysterious ooze has caused some nearby dandelions to mutate into bigger dandelions. That night the same pizza deliver boy comes to April's apartment and sees the turtles and gets freaked out. But the turtles explain to him what they are and that it is important to keep a secret.

Meanwhile it turns out the villain from the last movie, The Shredder (François Chau) is still alive and planning his revenge on the ninja turtles. The Shredder and his henchmen invade the lab with the ooze and kidnap one of the scientists and one of the last canisters of ooze. The turtles decide to go into the sewer to find a good place to live. They find an abandoned subway station where they decide to live. Meanwhile Keno and Rapheal go to the Shredder's headquarters where he sees the scientist from before and it turns out the Shredder used the ooze to mutate a turtle and a dog into mutants named Tokka (Kurt Bryant) and Rahzar (Mark Ginther). But Keno and Raph get captured and it's up to the rest of the turtles to save him. But they to get captured but manage to free themselves and once again instead of using their ninja weapons use random objects they find lying around. They escape the Shredder and make a plan to defeat him once and for all.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They challenge the Shredder's mutants to a battle and end up battling in a club where Vanilla Ice is singing. Oh and then he starts doing a ninja rap.....I don't even know what to say about this scene. They defeat Tokka and Rahzar but then Shredder drinks the last of the ooze and becomes Super Shredder (Kevin Nash) only to have the ceiling collapse on top of him resulting in him being defeated so it's kind of pointless for him to have transformed in the first place. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Well that was an awful movie. It is extremely dated. Some of the actors aren't that good and the Shredder isn't that much of an interesting villain. But at least the animatronic turtles look pretty good. But I still don't recommend this movie as a good sequel or good movie in general, See you next time. And seriously, why was Vanilla Ice in this?

Sequel Month

Hey guys I just wanted to announce that this month will be sequel month. Which means that all month I will be reviewing sequels all month starting Friday. So grab some popcorn because it's time for sequel month.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Well recently I have been thinking of sequels to review and then I realized I haven't reviewed a Planet of the Apes movie in a while so let's see. Again as usual, when I review sequels there will be spoilers for the previous movies. So let's travel to the distant year of 1991 where I will review Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

We open in the futuristic 1991 where we find that Armando (Ricardo Montalban) is taking Milo (Roddy McDowell) to the big city. We find out that in the 80's a plague wiped out all cats and dogs leaving no pets for humans. So they took in apes as pets, but soon realized how easy they are to train and slowly they ended up using them as waiters, librarians, barbers, and other jobs humans normally do. OK I know we just started but there are two plot holes in the movie already. One, why would they choose apes as pets? In the last movie the humans find out that apes will take over the world and even if they got rid of Corneilius and Zira, they said the apes took over the planet on their own. Secondly this should be really bad because humans would be losing jobs. In fact the movie points this one out when we see a group of people protesting the apes. Milo accidentally speaks but runs away and Armando goes after him. They catch up and Armando says he will explain what happened to the police and if he doesn't return by night fall, he should blend in with the other apes.

I don't remember reading this about 1991

Armando is held in custody so Milo hides with the other apes where he is taken to a training facility. At the training facility the apes are trained to do tasks such as pour a pitcher of water, clean, and cook. Now I will take another break to talk about yet another plot hole. Why would the government spend millions of dollars on training apes to do tasks that humans can easily do with out costing millions? That aside, Milo is bought by the governor Breck (Don Murray) and his assistant Mr. MacDonald (Hari Rohdes) where they choose the name Caesar for him (I guess I'll just call him Caesar from now on). Caesar is given a job in a government facility where he sorts files. Meanwhile Armando is being interrogated and they use a truth telling machine, but Armando tries to escape and ends up falling out of the window to his death. Caesar finds out about this and  decides to plan an ape uprising.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

 Caesar starts by getting the apes to mess up small tasks. Breck starts to realize what is going on so he decides to have the apes that messed up returned to the training facility including Caesar. But Caesar escapes from the police and frees all the othet apes. Breck orders all civilians to go indoors while the police deal with the apes. But the apes overwhelm the police and break into the government building and capture Breck and MacDonald. Now this is where I assumed the movie was over the apes take over the city and plan to take over the world, but it's not. The last several minuets of the film are Caesar giving this long speech telling MacDonald how the apes will take over the world. Then you think it is over but then he changes his mind and has another speech about how instead of killing all humans they will just enslave them. OK anymore speeches? Good we're done. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Wow that was bad. The biggest problem here is the plot makes zero sense, why would anybody with common sense think using apes as servants is a good idea? The actor playing Governor Breck is rather over the top in some parts and is it me or is the ape make up getting worse as these films go on. On the plus side the acting is pretty good espacially from Roddy McDowell and Hari Rohdes. But even with that, avoid this movie and as of right now this has been the worst Planet of the Apes movie I have seen. See you next time and thanks for reading.

Top Ten Worst Sequels

Well I feel like my Top Ten lists have focused too much on the positive. So I guess a negative one only seems logical. The rules are simple: it has to be a movie sequel that I think is bad or unnecessary. So let's see the worst of the worst with the Top Ten Worst Sequels.



10 Jurassic Park: The Lost World
The original Jurassic Park was a fun adventure everyone loved. Everyone wanted to see a sequel, and then regretted asking for it in the first place. You don't really care about the characters, it's way too long and of course there is this forced environmental message about saving the dinosaurs....wait aren't we supposed to be afraid of the dinosaurs?










9 Cars 2
The first Cars wasn't the best of Pixar but it wasn't the worst. This however is the worst of Pixar. The main character Mater is very annoying, there are very few funny jokes and the plot about super spies and saving the world seems out of place compared to the plot of the first movie. But I will give it this, the animation is nice.









8 Son of the Mask
OK so I haven't actually seen the original "The Mask" but honestly, from what I know about it I don't think I need to. It has very little to do with the first movie and a lot of the cartoon gags are actually very terrifying. Not to mention that the main character seems very uninteresting.










7 The Neverending Story 3
While the first movie was great and the second was passable, this one is awful. None of the original cast is there, the puppets in this film are a major downgrade and all of the character are nothing like I remember them being.












6 Rocky IV
You know how the first Rocky was a great underdog story sports film, remember how rooted in reality it was? Well this one has a robot and a "Super Boxer". Yeah, what ruins this movie is how silly it is, I mean the boxer Rocky is fighting like a character you meet in a video game.








5 Baby Geniuses 2: Superbabies
Like Son of the Mask this doesn't really connect other than, "look badly lip syncing babies".  It's not as bad as the first one but still the bad effects and the bad acting (to be fair babies aren't really cut out to be actors) make this a very painful film to watch.











4 Hoodwinked Too (no that's not a typo)
So the first Hoodwinked was surprisingly good with it's original premise and some funny moments. But this one isn't as funn:  the characters are nothing like you remember and there are a lot of tired cliches. But at least the animation is better than it was in the first movie.










3 Inspector Gadget 2
The first movie was awful. Why would you want to make a sequel? The CGI in this movie is way too cartoonish and the actor playing Inspector Gadget is very annoying. It is nothing like the cartoon it is based on, so please do your self a favor and don't watch this one.












2 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
By this point I thought that At Worlds End was the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But they got this one to see if any one was still interested in the series. The movie has way too many characters that need more development, I had a hard time understanding the plot, and it is way too long for me to pay attention to.












1 Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes is a classic with it's awesome story and amazing ape makeup. This however is a major downgrade. Charlton Heston's character doesn't have enough screen time and instead we fallow around this less interesting version of his character. The movie repeats a lot of scenes from the first film that aren't as impressive because you've already seen them. And don't get me started on the underground society of mutants.




Well that was the worst sequels of all time. So please do yourself a favor and don't watch these movies. Let me know if you agree with my list or what you would have liked to see on the list. See you next time everybody.