X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Der Readers, I finally had some time to go to the cinema again and watched X-Men: Dark Phoenix before it gets taken out of projection.
If you want to hear my honest opinion, I wouldn't say it is totally worth it and a must-watch movie. It has his interesting sides but it can't compete with a few more movies that came out around the same time. That doesn't make it a B-movie, but sure is if you can choose among a wide range of options, you will pick another movie instead of this.
Additional information about myself is that I am not too fond of the X-Men world. For this reason might be that some details have not been recognized by me while watching the movie as I don't know the whole background story.
The plot is simple:
X-Men troup goes out in space to save a human spaceship which lost control orbiting around some energy field. Hearing what the X-Men say, this is the first time they go out in space, and nonetheless they go to save some humans before even having done tests if they and their technology are able to survive out there.
Trying to save everyone, Jean gets exposed to the energy, absorbing it in herself to avoid the explosion.
Mission complete. Everyone safe.
But, is it really safe for Jean to have all that new unknown energy in herself? Can she control it?
Answered soon enough: no. She can't really control this much power, gets scared and runs away. Meanwhile, an unidentified number of aliens reaches Earth and plans to get rid of all humans and inherit the planet. They felt the presence of the most powerful creature of Earth and plan to convince her to help them get rid of the humans, or maybe just absorb the power from her.
Jean is scared as she by accident hurts her friends, even killing one of the X-Men by accident. And this leads to a break between the X-Men themselves. Some want to take her down and get revenge, labeling her as dangerous and uncontrolled. The other half wants to take her back, bringing her back to the family accepting the powers or eventually find a way to get rid of them for good.
The two groups clash but eventually come back together when they discover the aliens' plan. They somehow avoid that the alien leader absorbs all Jean's power, fighting them untill Jean herself finds the best way to win and leave heart and its inhabitants in peace. An heroic move, but it brings sadness to the whole group of X-Men, especially Xavier and moreover Scott.

If it weren't the X-Men, but any random group of unknown superheroes created just for the movie, the movie would still be enjoyable. Maybe more enjoyable as you don't expect anything too great from that than entertainment.
I was probably expecting too much. It is a Marvel branded movie, automatically lots of other productions involved.
The plot is simple enough that anyone can enjoy the movie without any previous knowledge. Which is a good thing.
I found it lacking of introspection and development for the characters. The only character that has some kind of development is Xavier, who realizes how selfish he has actually been while convincing himself he is doing what he is doing for the others. The idea of what is right or wrong is very subjective. And lies told with good intentions might have to be revealed eventually before it is too late or they get uncovered by accident.
He probably was right at the beginning of his journey, but his school and programs got so big that he has to revise his doings and his way of thinking. What he drastically does in the end of the movie.
I watched the movie in "standard", which is how German theaters label the non 3D movies. I just don't enjoy the 3D part, it makes the images in front of my eyes loud and distracting. I want to concentrate on the photography and acting skills.
Since I lack the comparison with the 3D version, I am just hoping the cheap sfx of the 2D version are because they invested more money to make the 3D version look decent. Especially the thunders coming out from Storm's hands looked very cheap made in my opinion. Many computer effects, post effects and little details looked less impressive than what I am used to. All those big names on the screen before it starts, and low investing into production. Interesting.
I have been questioning myself about the death of some charachters, and also got curious if the movie storyline alignes with the comicbooks or has its own storyline growing parallel.

To know more about what I found out with my researches and my opinions on the other aspects if the movie, consider joining my Patreon for further articles and a longer review of the movies I watched. Thank you!

Fifty shades of laugh about the worst movie.

I really wanted to share this video with everyone. The movie 50 shades of Grey is not worth being watched at all. But this 18 minutes short video is totally worth watching and laughing along.

The movie is so absurd and I can´t get why people are still crazy about it. I keep hearing colleagues at work talking about it and a bunch of aquaitances can´t wait to watch the follow movies. I don´t think I will watch the other two movies, and I already feel ashamed I agreed with a friend to watch the first part that day I did. I expected it to be bad. But I didn´t expect it to be it to that extent.

Worst movie I ever watched? Guess so.



Now please enjoy this video:

Everything Wrong With Fifty Shades Of Grey In 18 Minutes Or Less






If you still feel like wanting to watch it, here is a link to grab it on amazon.

Tennis, Ballerinas, Dylan and more

I just came back from vacation as I have to work again tomorrow.
During my 10 days off we had many nice opportunities. So we gave it a try. I took my little Princess to the tennis school I once went to when I was little. I was way older than her, so the plan was only looking at other kids playing. Once we got there, she was like "I wanna join those kids", so I asked the teachers and they made her join the activities. She is still younger than the accepted age but they made an exception. It was fun to look at her play with that tiny tennis racket.

The Princess also had her first time at the cinema. We went to watch Ballerina.
It is a French-Canadian movie that came out in February that none of us had seen by the time. I briefly googled it before buying the tickets, just to be sure it really would tell us a story about some dancer and I found out a few more information. When I showed the trailer to the Princess, she was like "I wanna go to cinema!" and I took her.
The movie was very enjoyable. Good animations, nice scripts, great direction and a lot of fun especially for the guardians of the children. The story is easy enough for the kids to follow, and there are many scenes that result very funny for older public. I appreciated this a lot since the parents need to entertain themselves too while taking the kids to the cinema!
I remember my father sleeping when he took me and my siblings to watch Pokemon! I am glad I had no reasons to fall asleep during this one :D
Simple story: two orphans decide to leave their stay to find fortune and fullfill their dreams in Paris. The girl wants to become a ballett dancer and the boy wants to be an inventor. They both somehow make it. The movie goes about the ups and dows, plus envy of the rich girl who was born and raised by her mother only to be a ballerina, another boy who wants to win the heart of the girl and some friendships and parentig relationships evelopments.
A great movie for kids and, as said, very enjoyable for the parents too. Really, me and the mommy next to me were dying from laughter!
What I wasn´t completely satisfied with, is the Italian dubbing. Italy is famous for having the oldest school of dubbers, being the best dubbing country ever. So, what happened!?
Someone had an amazing idea: one of the main charachter being dubbed from a real Italian ballerina. So Eleonora Abbagnato, great dancer and director of the Theatre in Rome, dubbed Odette. Which was very real when she explained all the dancing steps and amazing when the charachter spoke while seen from the back or not seen at all...but unfortunately very poor while you saw the mouth moving. I think she really practiced a lot, but still the synchronizing part didn´t work out so smooth and the voice was too stiff. It sounded like those automated responders with a registered message. I felt sorry for that, since it was a very nice idea to have her in the casting.
And I wasn´t very satisfied with the choice of who dubs Rudolph and how. Rudy is a Russian ballet dancer who came to Paris because of his skills. Would have been fun to have him speak with a bit of accent. Not a clichee one but like slighlty noticing he might not come from around the corner.
Probably I am too demanding, but I spent a lot of time watching Duck Tales (the old serie) with the Princess and it has such a fine and amazing dubbing that I feel too spoiled for any other dubbing.

If you haven´t watched it, grab a copy on amazon:

 

An update about comics.
Planet Manga is publishing Lupin III from volume 1. It was in stores this month so I just bought it. I am not sure if I ever bought it before (I am pretty sure it was published before) but I don´t remember ever reading it so I decided I should at least read the volume one. I am curious to know how the story is taken care of in its comic version, as I have grown up watching the cartoon.
Bonelli Editore has done its first crossover ever. Dylan Dog and Dampyr are together in one story. The story begins on Dylan Dog 371 and ends in Dampyr 209. Both comics are on sale in August and have two different covers that, put next to each other, will give you the whole illustration. I bought them all four and will be posting the picture of them together later today on my instagram, so be sure to check it out.

The Departed ed altri film

Ho accumulato un bel po' di film visti nella scorsa settimana.
Il penultimo è stato The Departed.
Ho anche visto Kick Ass e Kick Ass 2, Blue Lagoon ed Elysium.

E' un film vecchiotto che abbiamo deciso di vedere mangiando allegramente una pizza e degli stuzzichini. Prima di scegliere quale film vedere, abbiamo guardato vari trailer. Questo film sembrava sufficientemente interessante ma non troppo sanguigno (dopo Kick Ass dobbiamo ancora riprenderci) e violento.
Forse a questo riguardo ci si sbagliava. Qualche scena turbolenta, violenta e/o sanguinosa c'è stata. Ma si è sopravvissuti perché il contesto generale in cui si poneva era ben costruito e dava un senso alle azioni.
La prima parte del film risulta un po' noiosa. O forse è risultata noiosa perché nessuno di noi è riuscito a seguire al 100% tutto ciò che si diceva, e spesso ci chiedevamo a vicenda una o due parole che ci erano sfuggite per capire il discorso.
Superata la fase in cui bisogna capire chi sono i personaggi e che fanno, la storia diventa avvincente, avvolgente ed interessante.
Certo, a volte ci si chiede perché bisogna semplicemente fare fuori delle persone per un tornaconto personale e cose così, ma sono cose di cui nessuno sa molto a meno che non si sia poliziotti a propria volta e si ha avuto a che fare con questi affari.
Gli attori sono bravissimi.
Credo questo sia il primo film con Leonardo di Caprio che io veda dall'inizio alla fine.
Matt Damon è un altro nome-garanzia, anche se in questo film ha il ruolo del cattivo (almeno io in fin dei conti giudico lui come il cattivo, senza scrupoli e malvagio, egoista).
Tra gli altri personaggi, una marea di volti conosciuti ed in gambissima nel recitare.
I colori e la fotografia sono buoni anche se a volte qualche scena mi ha disturbata leggermente per i troppi contrasti o per l'opposto, mancanza di contrasti.
La trama si perde sul finale, in cui un lieto fine sarebbe stato banale ma anche l'epilogo che si è dato al film è, oltre che banale, molto triste e asciuto, senza spessore. Non è all'altezza della tensione e dell'eccitazione che lo svolgimento del film ha creato, e delude le aspettative.
Non riesco ad immaginarmi un finale migliore da proporre come alternativa, ma almeno si sarebbe potuto narrarlo meglio, su questo eravamo tutti d'accordo.

Consiglio di guardare il film, se non lo si è ancora visto. Ma non aspettatevi niente di figo dal finale!

Pacific Rim

Era da un po' che non parlavo di film. Non ricordo neanche quale fosse l'ultimo di cui volessi parlare, ma del quale sicuramente non ho più parlato.
In effetti, è passato un pochino di tempo dall'ultimo articolo che avesse una valenza particolare. Chiamiamole vacanze.

Pacific Rim è uno degli ultimi film usciti di recente. In Germania è nelle sale da circa una settimana, giorno più giorno meno.
Ho guardato la versione originale americana.
A me il film è piaciuto. Certo, c'erano vari punti che potevano essere elaborati meglio ma nel complesso il film riceve un voto positivo sia da me che da molti altri amici che lo hanno visto.
Prima di vedere il film avevo sentito molti pareri positivi generici, e un parere negativo. Il parere negativo è stato riportato da un mio amico col quale si discute il 99% di cinema e musica, e che ritengo piuttosto esperto ed autorevole. In genere le nostre opinioni coincidono abbastanza. Questa volta no.
Le sue critiche sono andate principalmente alla scena iniziale, molto lunga e che tratta un flashback del protagonista. In effetti nei film d'oggi siamo abituati ad avere flashback nel mezzo del film, e a volte non riuscire neanche a distinguere se il racconto attuale è il presente, il passato o il futuro.
Io ho trovato questo flashback al posto giusto. Racconta l'antefatto, che poi è una storia che non verrà quasi più toccata.
Ed una critica che io ho condiviso per idea di base ma che si è rivelata un po' infondata è il 3D.
Essendo un film d'azione si tende a rendere tutto 3D, anche delle singole insignificanti pietre in millesimo piano. Quando forse si dovrebbe sfruttare il 3D per mettere accenti su determinati oggetti/dettagli invece che rendere tutto a mille dimensioni che esce dallo schermo e non sai dove guardare.
Nelle prime scene ho avvertito questo fastidio. Però ad un certo punto non mi è sembrato che le scene tridimensionali fossero così esagerate. Era calcolato tutto abbastanza bene.
Certo, capolavori di delicatezza e perfezione come Life of Pi escono una sola volta all'anno, ma per fortuna non tutti i film necessitano lamentela.
La fotografia era molto buona.

La storia in sè non dice nulla di nuovo. Arrivano i mostri e si trova un modo per combatterli.
Il protagonista della storia è in realtà un protagonista fittizio, a mio parere.
All'inizio è lui a combattere, perdere il fratello in battaglia, decidere di non combattere più. Cercato, trovato e riportato alla guerra dal capo massimo, il quale a sua volta era stato un combattente taaaaanti anni prima. E qui si conoscono i veri protagonisti. La vera protagonista, forse.
Credo che i veri protagonisti fossero il capo e la ragazza giapponese.
Sì, l'unico vero problema del film è che ci sono tanti personaggi interessanti e nessuno di questi viene presentato al meglio e a tutto tondo.

Un bel film da intrattenimento, senza farsi troppe domande e senza troppa suspence.

Per le scene e la regia, il regista (Giullelmo Del Toro) si è ispirato ai film giapponesi su Godzilla (lo dice in una intervista). Per quanto mi riguarda, questo film è la versione 2013 di Evangelion, serie animata giapponese di una decina di anni fa (regista Hideaki Anno, Gainax, 24 episodi e due lungometraggi). La novità è che i robot hanno più di un pilota, e nonostante il sincronismo con i suoi piloti restano macchine e non prendono vita come gli Eva.
Il robot principale ricorda molto la struttura degli Eva, presenta addirittura la sfera al centro del petto (che è una specie di radiatore per raffreddare il reattore nucleare, se ho capito bene).

Se non lo avete ancora visto, andatelo a vedere! Merita!