Review: Deadpool

IMDb

Title: Deadpool
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: Tim Miller
Writer(s): Rob Liefeld (character), Fabian Nicieza (character), Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick  
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller,  Ed Skrein
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.
Running Time: 108 min
Synopsis: A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter-ego Deadpool.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 84% "Fresh", Top Critics: 76% "Fresh", Audience: 96% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 65 out of 100, Users: 8.4 out of 10
MRQE: 69 out of 100

My Review

Source Material: Based on the comic book character of the same name.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: For being a "superhero" film this one doesn't have non-stop action like all the other one out there. It was nice to watch a film in this genre and not be exhausted from all the action. This film had nice bookend action sequences.

• Comedy Elements: This film was one of the funniest films I have seen in awhile. You know you are in for a good time during the opening credits.

• Dramatic Elements: There are a few heartfelt moments, there, not the best but you shouldn't be watching Deadpool for it's dramatic moments.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Deadpool lives in the same universe as the X-men, so expect those types of fantasy elements.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 8: Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. If you know the character of Deadpool you would agree. T.J Miller as Weasel was great. Some of the better scenes are the interactions between Reynolds and Miller. Them riffing off one another was hilarious. I always laugh when a film cast a "martial artist" (I'm including pro-wrestlers in that general term) and basically edits around their less than stellar acting. The filmmakers know what they are doing. If you need a built chick to throw some heavy punch you hire Gina Carano. For me, Ed Skrein did a decent job as Ajax, but that might not be 100% his fault because I though Ajax was a weak bad guy.

• Cinematography: 8: What I liked the most about the cinematography was how fluid it was during the action scenes. Sometimes it's better to allow the action to happen without bringing in the shaky cam. The open sequence highlights exactly what I'm talking about.

• Direction: 7: For his first major film as a director, Tim Miller did a great job. When you watch the film you can tell Tim understands the strengths and weakness of VFX.

• Editing: 7: I liked the juxtaposed between the past and the present.

• Screenplay: 7: The screenwriters captured the character of Deadpool to a "t". The breaking the 4th wall knack that Deadpool has could have been cheesy and quite dumb after a while, but it wasn't. It was one of the funniest parts of this film. The comic timing in this film was perfect. As far as the story goes, well, in my opinion, it was an origin story, but funnier. For me, the weakest part of the story was the villain, but that a problem with Marvel Comics in general. (DC Comics has better villains.)

• Sound and Music: 8: A fun soundtrack that fits perfectly with what happens on screen. There are even a few jokes surrounding the music.

• VFX: 8: Very well done, and I would hope so with Tim Miller as the director. I'm not saying he is a well established visual effect artist, but based on this film and a few video games he helped on, I would say he knows enough to make it look good.

Overall: 7.5: I can't say, "Deadpool was the best comic book movies ever made." Yes, it's very entertaining movies. It's a very funny movie, with that being said, its humor is only going to work for certain types of people. (The people who get and like Deadpool as a character.) Also, the R rating is going to turn some people off (The filmmakers fully take advantage of their R rating) Overall, it was a very good movie, but it's not for everybody, and definitely not for children.

Best / Worst 2015 + Most Anticipated 2016

Preface: I haven't seen as many films this year as years past. This is partly due to the size of the town I live in and the availability of films at my local theater. Therefore, my list of the best and worst film of 2015 may not reflect the "popular" view. Before giving my list of best movies of 2015, let me share with you, my favorite films separated out via genre.      

Action: Mad Max: Fury Road 
Adventure: Tomorrowland 
Animation: Inside Out 
Comedy: Ant-Man 
Comic Book: Ant-Man  
Crime / Mystery: Mr. Holmes 
Drama: Tentatively: Spotlight 
Fantasy: Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
Historical or Bio Pic: Straight Outta Compton  
Horror: It Follows 
Indie Film: Ex Machina 
Musical: Straight Outta Compton  
Sci-Fi: The Martian 
Thriller: Mission Impossible Rogue Nation 
Western: Tentatively: The Revenant

Notes: I still have a lot of films to catch up on that came out in 2015, hence why Spotlight and The Revenant have "Tentatively" attached to them. As far as Western go, The Hateful Eight could give The Revenant a run for its money, but then again I'm more anticipating The Revenant. The Drama genre has quite a few films that could slide in as my favorite, but Spotlight looks the most promising. The weakest genres this year was comedy, horror, and musicals. Most of the "pure" comedies in 2015 were stinkers critical, therefore, I didn't buy a ticket and watch them in the theater.

Best:

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
2. Ex Machina 
3. The Martian 
4. Inside Out 
5. Ant-Man  
6. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation 
7. The Peanuts Movie 
8. Mad Max: Fury Road 
9. Kingsman: The Secret Service 
10. Straight Outta Compton  

Honorable Mentions: 

Avengers Age of Ultron 
Jurassic World 
Mr. Holmes

Notes: Let me start with my honorable mention. Avengers Age of Ultron and Jurassic World got me in the theater and gave me a good time while I was there, but didn't quite make my top ten. Mr. Holmes just barely made my list. Mr. Holmes was by far in my top films of 2015, but when I narrowed my list to 10 it didn't make the cut. Star Wars: The Force Awakens might not be the "best" film overall, but it impacted me on all levels. Personally, I think Ex Machina is a better film than Star Wars, but I was more entertained by Star Wars.

Worst: 

1. Fifty Shades of Grey 
2. Pixels 
3. Pan 
4. Jupiter Ascending 
5. Minions 
6. Fantastic 4 
7. Chappie 
8. Pitch Perfect 2 
9. The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials 
10. Tomorrowland

Notes: I got to be honest, I didn't watch half of these movies. Primarily because they had bad reviews across the board, including the people in my closest social circles. Some of you may be confused at seeing Tomorrowland on my worst list since it's on my favorites list above. Well, Tomorrowland, had really good adventure qualities, you may say the best of the year. Heck, overall Tomorrowland wasn't really that bad of a film, but it was very disappointing, hence why it's at the bottom of the list. Fun fact: Pixels was on my most anticipated list of last year, but sank to the bottom of the barrel after seeing the trailer.

Most Anticipated 2016: 

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 
2. Captain America: Civil War 
3. Deadpool 
4. X-Men: Apocalypse 
5. Warcraft 
6. Suicide Squad 
7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 
8. The Jungle Book 
9. Doctor Strange (not sure if this trailer is the REAL official or not) 
10. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Notes: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice started near the top of this list but drop drastically once I saw the full trailer, and it revealed what seems to be the entire movie. I'm equally pumped and nervous for Captain America: Civil War. On one hand, it could be just as good Captain America: The Winter Soldier or it could swing the other way and just be Avenger 2.5 and focus too much time on the ancillary characters.   

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

IMDb

Title: Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Distributor: Lucasfilm (Disney)
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer(s): Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt  
Starring: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Peter Mayhew, and Gwendoline Christie.    
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.
Running Time: 135 min
Synopsis: Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a rag-tag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% "Fresh", Top Critics: 91% "Fresh", Audience: 93% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 81 out of 100, Users: 7.6 out of 10
MRQE: 82 out of 100

My Review

Preface: I'm going to try my best to do this review spoiler free, but I may spill the beans if being vague become too complicated of a taste. So for those who haven't seen the film yet, you have been warned, there may be spoilers ahead. I also want to note that I'm writing this after only seeing the film once, so my opinion will most likely change after seeing it a couple more times.   

Source Material: Original story by Lawrence Kasdan, characters by George Lucas.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Star Wars is back! It may not be action-packed from open crawl to end credits, but there are a good amount of action sequences. These sequences actually move the story along, making for an exciting film.

• Comedy Elements: The comedy in this film works. The jokes are witty and come at the right moments in the film.

• Dramatic Elements: This is still the weakest aspect of Star Wars in general, but with that being said, I believe this film has some of the best dramatic scenes in Star Wars.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Star Wars has always been more of a fantasy in space than Sci-fi. Don't get me wrong, there is more than enough sci-fi elements as well. This film brings out those classic Star Wars tropes we were missing in the prequels.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 9: Let's be honest this is by far the best acted Star Wars film. I want to highlight the new talent in this film. The first is Daisy Ridley. This film was basically her frist movie. All her acting gigs before Star Wars was small screen and indie flicks. For me, Daisy Ridley turned out a great performance. The next one is John Boyega. I had a slightly bad feeling that Boyega was going to be the weakest link, but he is actually one of the strongest. I suggest watching Boyega's frist film Attack the Block, it's a fun sci-fi film. Every good fantasy needs a strong villain and Adam Driver is that villain as Kylo Ren. Adam Driver brought out the inner struggle that Kylo Ren was dealing with perfectly. Another face of evil is General Hux played by Domhnall Gleeson, who give one of the best speeches in the film. To bridge the gap between old and new is Oscar Isacc. Oscar Isacc is beginning to become a household name in Hollywood. I think this role is going to rocket ship himself there. Poe Dameron was my favorite heroic character. Now on to the old guys. Han Solo is back. You could tell Harrison Ford had a blast revisiting the Star Wars universe. Carrie Fisher, on the other hand, was the weakest link.

• Cinematography: 8: For me, one of the main reasons The Force Awakens felt like a Star Wars film was its use of cinematography and how it matches up with the original Star Wars trilogy. There was just enough fan-service to keep us fans happy without watering down film with a bunch of easter eggs and nods to the original trilogy. I personally, like action scenes where I can be a part of the action without being a part of the action, meaning the action unfolds before my eyes without the sensation of a first-person account of the event.

• Direction: 9: J.J. Abrams knows how to work with actors, bring out their strengths. This cast was primarily compiled of relatively new actors, and for the most part, you couldn't really tell. That's how you do your frist job as a director, getting the best performance out of your cast and crew. J.J. also excelled at the second job of a director, telling a good story.

• Editing: 8: I liked that they stuck to old school Star Wars transitions. From an editing standpoint, the film was ever so slightly too fast on its pacing. Overall it is well edited.

• Screenplay: 9: I love the story of this film, granted like the cinematography there are a lot of beats from the original trilogy woven in. I have heard some say the similarities to the original trilogy, story wise, was the weakest aspect of this film. I personally disagreed. I think the similarities creates a space of familiarity, drawing the audience back into the Star Wars universe. I'm glad that the writers retaught us with the Star Wars mythology, especially The Force. The film's title, after all, is The Force Awakens. The other positive aspect of the screenplay was the character development for the most part. Really, only two character that I can think of could have used a little more explanation: Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie). I felt that Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), who had just as much screen time as those two characters, had more impact on the story, overall. Then again, that's just a bit nitpicky.

• Sound and Music: 10: The two major themes of this movies is Star Wars is back and mixing the new with the old. The sound and music follow that perfectly. John Willams mixed old iconic Star Wars themes with new themes, which brought me back to Star Wars even more than seeing Han and Chewie on screen.

• VFX: 9.5: Star Wars screams a lived in "future." I liked that J.J. made an effort to use as many real set and props as possible. I think using those types of effects brought depth to the scenes. I also like that every little detail had a story, for example, Kylo Ren's lightsaber was built to be dangerous. There were a few moments where you say to yourself, "that is 2015 CGI."

Overall: 9: As of right now, I would rank The Force Awaken as either the second or third best Star Wars film right behind The Empire Strikes Back. Hopefully by the time you read this review you have seen the film, if not go see today...May The Force Be With You.

Journey To The Force Awakens - Revenge of the Sith

IMDb

Title: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Distributor: Lucasfilm (20th Century Fox)
Director: George Lucas
Writer(s): George Lucas  
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson.   
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images
Running Time: 140 min
Synopsis: Three years after the onset of the Clone Wars; the noble Jedi Knights are spread out across the galaxy leading a massive clone army in the war against the Separatists.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 79% "Fresh", Top Critics: 67% "Fresh", Audience: 65% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 68 out of 100, Users: 7.3 out of 10
MRQE: 77 out of 100

My Review

Preface: Collider Video just posted their commentary video of this film a few days ago. To catch everyone up. I'm following along with Collider Video and creating my own, "Journey to the Force Awakens." They plan on watch all the live action Star Wars film leading up to the Force Awakens. I'm responding by writing a movie review for each film. If you want to read my review of Attack of the Clones click here.

Source Material: Original story by George Lucas 

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Out of all the prequel Star Wars film this film has a good balance of action vs non-action sequences. Unlike the Attack of the Clones, this film's action actually has meaning. There really isn't any action for action sake.

• Comedy Elements: Guess who doesn't really show up, yep, Jar Jar. Therefore, there is less cheesiness and humor for children.

• Dramatic Elements: I felt like there was more of an effort, but the dramatic impactful scenes seemed to fall a little flat.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This film started to get back to the Star Wars fiction, but again it didn't quite make it. This film focuses heavily on war, more so than the other prequel films.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 6: For me, the person that flexed his acting chops was Ewan McGregor. We see him own Obi-Wan as a character. His emulation of Alec Guinness made me feel that Obi-Wan was real. Ewan McGregor didn't give a perfect performance, but he was one of the stronger actors on screen. I would say the person who gave the best performance was Ian McDiarmid. He commands the scene with his acting. It was a shame that most of his scene were shared with Hayden Christensen, who in my opinion was the worst actor on screen. Don't get me wrong he did improve vastly from Attack of the Clone to this film. We see the best interchanges between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the prequels. Even his scene with Natalie Portman showcased a little more chemistry. Even though Hayden did improve he still gave a, "reading off the page" performance, which in my opinion sucked out the impactfulness of some scenes.

• Cinematography: 8: I thought this film was shot beautifully. The opening sequence was one of my favorite sequences in this film. The tone of the film was brought out through the cinematography, especially since the acting wasn't on point.

• Direction: 6:We got a classic George again with this film.

• Editing: 7: I thought the editing on this film was better than the other prequel films. With that being said, I still believe there were a few scenes that could use some tightening up, like the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

• Screenplay: 5: I have to say it again, the major downfall of the prequel Star Wars films is its dialogue, but even that wasn't the worst of the worst. I think there were some major flaws. Anakin's transformation to Vader was sudden. He goes from wanting to arrest Palpatine to a straight up, evil killing machine. Anakin's fall to the dark side takes up less than five minutes of screen time. Other scenes were more or less a waste like the battle on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. It was cool to see but didn't press the storyline forward. It also made an unnecessary connection. Everyone in the Star Wars universe doesn't need to be connected i.e. Yoda and Chewbacca. It seems like George was trying to cram as much connective storyline into one film as he could which made for a weaker story overall.

• Sound and Music: 9: Awsome score and awesome sound design as usual.

• VFX: 9: I enjoyed the visual effect in this film over the other prequel films. My eye didn't catch any, "that looks weird or fake" moments like it did in the Attack of the Clones.

Overall: 7: Out all of the prequel films, the Revenge of the Sith would be the one I would recommend seeing. Because it has good action and a decent story, even though that story has many flaws. May the Force Be With You.

Journey To The Force Awakens - Attack of the Clones

IMDb

Title: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Distributor: Lucasfilm (20th Century Fox)
Director: George Lucas
Writer(s): George Lucas  
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson, and Temuera Morrison   
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for sustained sequences of sci-fi action/violence
Running Time: 142 min
Synopsis: Ten years after initially meeting, Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padmé, while Obi-Wan investigates an assassination attempt on the Senator and discovers a secret clone army crafted for the Jedi.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 65% "Fresh", Top Critics: 40% "Fresh", Audience: 59% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 54 out of 100, Users: 6.0 out of 10
MRQE: 67 out of 100

My Review

Preface: Collider Video just posted their commentary video of this film yesterday. To catch everyone up. I'm following along with Collider Video and creating my own, "Journey to the Force Awakens." They plan on watch all the live action Star Wars film leading up to the Force Awakens. I'm responding by writing a movie review for each film. If you want to read my review of The Phantom Menace click here.    

Source Material: Original story by George Lucas 

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: The Phantom Menace had two big action set pieces: the pod race, and the Invasion on Naboo, which included the battle between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul. Naturally, Lucas probably want to up the action game, especially since this movie depicts the beginnings of a major war in the Star Wars universe. He delivered us more action sequences but not necessarily any of quality. Quantity doesn't always equal quality.There was a hand full of action sequences that were added in just to have action, case, and point, the assembly line scene on Geonosis. It didn't really add much to the story and it wasn't 100% exciting start to finish. I felt like some of the bigger action set pieces like the Geonosis gladiator scene didn't feel as epic as it should have. Come on a whole army of Jedi taking on an army of droids, should haven been epic but it fell short of that mark. Don't get me wrong there were some amazing action sequences in this film, like Jango Fett vs Obi-Wan or Yoda vs Dooku.

• Comedy Elements: This film focuses more on the "developing love story" between Anakin and Padmé. I'm glad there was quite a bit less Jar Jar scenes, meaning there is less dumb childish humor that doesn't fit in the Star War universe.

• Dramatic Elements: There could have been really good impactful dramatic scenes in this film but the dialog and acting ruined any chance for that.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Like in The Phantom Menace this film strays ways from the adventurous aspect of a fantasy. The Star Wars fiction wasn't really expanded upon. We did get a small glance into Jedi culture, which I enjoyed.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 5: I have to highlight Ewan McGregor, right off the bat. He starts to grow into the character of Obi-Wan. I personally think he was one of the better actors in this film. Granted, nothing can compare to Christopher Lee as an actor. I think McGregor found a happy medium on delivering such bad dialog. Sadly, Hayden Christensen suffered the most punishment on bad dialog, mainly because he had to act like a spoiled teenager who whines when he doesn't get his way. But then again, Hayden Christensen hasn't been known for his acting chops before or after Star Wars. From my understanding, better actors were up for the part of Anakin, like Ryan Phillippe and Collin Hanks but Hayden won the part because he looked good together with Natalie Portman. I can't really say Portman's acting improved from The Phantom Menace, but her sex appeal did. For me, the major downfall of this film is the bad dialog.

• Cinematography: 7: The camera work and lighting was satisfactory. It didn't detract from the film, which is always a positive.

• Direction: 5: I have the same feeling about George's direction on this film that I have on The Phantom Menace. He doesn't get the best performance out of his actor that he could. Maybe that's due to the fact that the script wasn't polished. Just listening to the dialog clued me into how unpolished the script was. We have seen good storytelling via directing from Lucas in the past.

• Editing: 6: One big negative pertaining to editing I would like to point out is the action sequences. I think the action sequence would have been better if they were shorter in length, especially, if you are going to add action for action sake. 

• Screenplay: 4: Exposition, exposition, exposition. This film was just as bad, if not worst than The Phantom Menace, at people standing around, boring us to death, with exposition. If you can bear those scenes, the next battle is the bad chemistry between Anakin and Padmé. I know a lot of that is due to their bad acting and dialog, but at the same time there wasn't much story to work with either. The entire film Padmé treats Anakin as a close friend, then right before they are sent into the Geonosis arena Padmé confess her deep love for Anakin. All the setup to this "confession of love" scene feels out of place, from a story aspect.           

• Sound and Music: 8: In general the score was great as usual but there was a few place were the theme being played didn't quite fit the scene, in my opinion. Note: great sound design from Ben Burtt, again. 

• VFX: 8: I think it's funny that a subplot was cloning, and that's precisely how the VFX were treated. Fun fact: all the clones were 100% digital made. No man in a physical suite this time around. For the most part, the VFX looked good. There are some background shots were you can tell it was an art piece. I personally loved the character design through the prequels.  

Overall: 6: I think I can agree that this is the weakest film overall in the Star wars saga. Again I think I can only recommend this film to Star Wars fans, but even then barely. May The Force Be With You!     

Journey To The Force Awakens - The Phantom Menace Review

IMDb 

Title: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Distributor: Lucasfilm (20th Century Fox)
Director: George Lucas
Writer(s): George Lucas  
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Park  
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for sci-fi action/violence.
Running Time: 136 min
Synopsis: Two Jedi Knights escape a hostile blockade to find allies and come across a young boy who may bring balance to the Force, but the long dormant Sith resurface to reclaim their old glory.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 57% "Fresh", Top Critics: 42% "Fresh", Audience: 60% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 51 out of 100, Users: 5.9 out of 10
MRQE: 67 out of 100

My Review

Preface: In the next few weeks I'm going to create my own "Journey To The Force Awakens." I'm going to do this by writing reviews to all the Star Wars films, leading up to Episode VII. I got the inspiration from Collider Video. This past week Collider Video put together their own commentary video on The Phantom Menace. They plan on doing the same for each of the Star Wars films, tackling one film per week.  I'm going to follow Collider Video's commentaries with my reviews. I plan on having the reviews up a few days after their video goes up on YouTube. It's now time to geek out on Star Wars. 

Source Material: Original story by George Lucas 

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Action is a pivotal part of the Star Wars fantasy. For me, some of the most exciting parts of Star Wars is the lightsaber battles. One of the greatest positives of the prequels is lightsaber battles. Not only are they cool but they are poetic like in a dancing way.  

• Comedy Elements: Lucas thought the best type of humor of the prequel trilogy was kid joke like poop and fart jokes.

• Dramatic Elements: Anytime there was a dramatic moment, it was usually ruined with a poop or fart joke. 

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Star Wars draws inspiration from both Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The prequels lost a lot of those elements. The prequels were lacking in the adventuring aspect of the original trilogy. Lucas focused more on war in the prequels, not the dramatic parts but the political and boring parts.  

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 6: Liam Neeson was by far the best actor in this film. He seemed to put his all into the character of Qui-Gon Jinn. Talk about giving a great performance on a badly written script. After Liam, I would praise bothEwan McGregor and Natalie Portman. Both of them were relatively newcomers. Ewan McGregor was known for indie film, most notability Trainspotting. While Portman was a fairly young actress, with only four or five films prior to Star Wars. The only other actor with less experience on set was Jake Lloyd. From my understanding, there were better actors to fulfill the role of young Anakin, but Jake had the innocent child spirit that Lucas was looking for. In my opinion, Anakin would have function better as a character if he was slightly older like 12 or 13. The veterans showcased good performance, except for Samuel L. Jackson. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't up to par to what I was expecting out of Sam Jackson.             

• Cinematography: 7: The camera work and lighting were good in the film. To be honest its one of the stronger aspects of the film. I praised the action above and apart of that is well shoot action sequences.     

• Direction: 6: The frist job of a director should be getting the best performance out of your actors as possible. Second is tell a good story. George isn't the best at getting good performance out of his actors. This film shows that flaw more than his other films. Even the storytelling was weak in this film, which is where Lucas usually shines at. I guess you can't be 100% all the time.   

• Editing: 6: In general, there were quite a bit of long drawn out parts, case and point the pod racing sequence. That sequence takes up a good chunk of the film. I believe that sequence takes nearly 15 minutes. It was a cool 15 minutes, especially in my teenage mind, but the race felt repetitive. I felt the film could have been tighter on the editing front.      

• Screenplay: 3: George Lucas created this immersive space opera in the original trilogy. He had a universe with a great fiction and mythology. What does he do with this awesome mythology? He trashes it by over-explaining. For example, The Force. In Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi-Was defines, The Force, as an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together. In this film, Lucas changes the Force by making it "ruled" by midi-chlorians. Basically, the Force become a genetic trait rather than a cosmic force. The second major change Lucas made was lowering the target audience. The script became riddled with humor made for a much younger audience, as in poop and fart jokes. There were so many of these types of jokes that it sometimes ruined a scene that could have been very emotional. This mentally spawned the worst character ever written for Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks. In general, I'm fine with a clumsy comic relief character, but that type of humor doesn't fit the humor established in the original trilogy. Even Jar Jar's speech patterns were childish and annoying.  If you edit out Jar Jar like a fan has done, the film increase in quality because Jar Jar doesn't add anything to the story.   

• Sound and Music: 10:  Frist and foremost the score from John Williams is great as usual. For me, the piece of music that stands out the most, in my head, is the Duel of the Fates. You know, the music that plays during the Darth Maul, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan fight. I want to draw attention to Ben Burtt's sound design. If nothing else, rewatch the pod racing scene. Each and every pod racer has it own unique sound. Even the sounds of the race in of its self is awesome.

• VFX: 10: For 1999 the visual effect were revolutionary. George Lucas is more or less the father of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). He was pushing CGI technology of that time to the max. Oddly enough the CGI holds up today, granted CGI today is damn awesome. I have to note that I personally like the character design in this film. I may not like the characters themselves but how they looked on screen was good.  

Overall: 6: As a Star Wars film The Phantom Menace failed to deliver. As a film, in general, it wasn't any better, but there are quite a few redeeming qualities. I personally don't hate the prequel films. I have accepted them as Star Wars canon and can get some enjoyment out of them. At the same time, I can really recommend them. Out of all the Star Wars films, The Phantom Menace would be the one I suggest skipping.     

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Is Almost Here

So you may have noticed that the official Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster and trailer dropped in the last couple of days. The poster drop Sunday morning along with short teasers saying the trailer was on its way. Let me frist start, with my two cents on the poster. The poster shouldn't dictate the quality of the film. A movie poster could be awesome and the film suck and vice-versa. 

The Good:

I like the duality of the light side and dark side of the Force, showcased in the poster. I also like the pyramid shape that frames in the poster. If you go back and look at the other Star Wars posters, you will notice that the pyramid / triangle theme is utilized in every single one of them. Since this theme is carried out into this poster as well, the poster feels very much like a Star Wars poster. There are other themes being use in this poster that give us Star Wars fan joygasms. For me, it is the looming antagonist motif. Granted, Kylo Ren isn't as looming as Vader in the original poster. Which leads me into the bad.

The Bad:

The frist thing that stands out, which has been a common complaint across the internet, is all characters showcased on the poster. I agree with this argument, all the floating heads do give me a slight feeling of claustrophobia. Personally, I could have done without the cast from the original trilogy. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing them there, but I believe this film is going to be a "passing of the torch" type movie, so, why not focus 100% on the new characters. I really dislike most of the characters crammed in the center of the poster. Some of which, needs to be zoomed in on to see what's going on. 

What do you guys think?

The Trailer:

I don't own a television, so I went over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Monday Night Football game. During the halftime show the full Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer dropped, as advertised. It was AWESOME. You don't believe me check it out yourself:

We got to see and hear a lot of things for the frist time, which absolutely excites me. Oh, BTW the tickets are now on sale. If you want to stay in the know on Star Wars news visit: 

www.starwarsnewsnet.com or Collider Video's Jedi Council 

Until next time, "May The Force Be With You"