dillyboy_4 Reviews

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Should've been better

[6/10 · 30 April 2009]

What makes the Wolverine character so compelling in the comics is his psyche. It's not his claws, or his strength, or his anger, but how he deals with all three that make him such a varied and interesting part of the Marvel universe. Unfortunately, X-Men Origins: Wolverine gets everything wrong. Instead of being the story about a man who evolves and changes as his experience shapes him, the film is pretty much dedicated to action and sacrifices what made previous iterations in the X-Men series so good. This film should've focused on Wolverine and his own conflict, rather than simply have him running around trying to exact revenge on his brother.

Speaking of Sabretooth, he's probably the part of the film that made the least amount of sense. Wolverine is after him for killing his wife, modifies his body to kill him, and then SAVES him at the end. It completely defeats the point of the overarching revenge story, and makes the film confusing in that respect.

During the war, as well, I don't understand why Wolverine is such a good person. He killed an adult as a child, for God's Sake. His brain is damaged, and he should've had mountains of hostility, like his brother. Instead, Wolverine is shown as a contrasting "good guy" to his brother, which didn't make any sense. The character didn't evolve at all in this film, and all of his relationships with other characters were confusing and ruined by the plot. I also liked how, for some reason, Wolverine receiving his jacket from an older couple was more of an evolution for the character than killing people in the war. The film gave it more screen time than some of the most important moments in Wolverine's life.

This is an average film, and nothing more. The plot is convoluted, it tries to be an action film when it shouldn't and the acting is simply alright. It's a good popcorn movie to see in theatres, but it's not going to be remembered the way the first X-Men movie was.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

One of the worst movies of all time

[1/10 · 11 July 2007]

I went to see this film at my local Drive-In. It was to be followed after "Live Free or Die Hard". I wasn't expecting that much; a good popcorn flick, maybe.

Let me just say that this was one of the worst films that I've ever seen.

The dialog in the film is just atrocious. It is so incredibly predictable that I found the actors to be repeating what I said before hand. Me and my friends were making fun of this movie more than we were watching it. Actually, if this was a comedy movie, it should be ranked higher.

A scene that doesn't make any sense is when The Human Torch explains that he saw a silver guy on what looks like a surf-board, and the entire Fantastic Four crew also witnessed this at the wedding of the stretchy man. Now, when Human Torch explains the figure to The Thing, he says "Great. Now why don't you tell us about the Lollypop junction?!" It's so stupid that I was laughing for nearly three minutes. Why would he consider a silver surfer to be so absurd? Has he looked in the mirror? Anyway, don't see this film. It's worse than the first film, and the first film was horrible. The acting sucks, everything just sucks. The ending sucks. Don't see this film. Please.

Chasing Holden (2003)

Horrible

[12 October 2006]

I recently watched this movie at school, as we have finished reading the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger.

This is a horrible movie. The plot is in total shambles, the dialogue is incredibly cheesy, and the film has a horrible ending.

First of all, the fact that the main character ventures off to New York with another person totally destroys the effect of the film. In the novel, Holden Caulfield was meant to venture alone in order to discover things on his own in a process of maturing, and to add to the theme of loneliness and isolation in the novel. In this film, the main character travels to New York with a woman.

Second, there is no real feeling that the main character in the movie has the problems to the degree of Holden Caulfield. There is a scene in which he contemplates killing himself using a handgun, but this scene is too brief and does not add to the movie. This boy does not seem depressed at all; in fact, he is mostly cheery throughout the film. There is almost no indication of him being depressed or wanting to commit suicide.

Third is the ending of the movie. The entire plot of the movie was for the main character to conduct an interview with J.D. Salinger. At the end of the film, however, the character wants to kill Salinger using this hand gun. This makes no sense whatsoever. The main character may want to take out his frustration on someone else, but why would he take it out on the author he idolizes? Another let down is that the main character doesn't even talk to Salinger. There isn't even an actor to play Salinger.

Finally, the boy realises that the answer he wanted was in his relationship with the girl. He thinks of this while holding a gun at Mr. Salinger, and decides not to shoot him but to find the girl, whom he left stranded after a fight in which she called him crazy.

This movie is an extreme let down and does not represent

The Departed (2006)

Scorsese's Best. Better than Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and The Aviator.

[9/10 · 12 October 2006]

This film absolutely blew me away. I've seen it twice, so I'll give you my summary.

First of all, it's amazing how Scorsese is able to keep you drawn to the screen. The backdrop and atmosphere of the movie isn't that interesting, but somehow you are drawn into each scene.

The scene in which Nicholson is trying to find out if DiCaprio is a rat from the police department is a classic. Nicholson does a fantastic job of toying around with DiCaprio. This may be the best scene in the film.

Speaking of DiCaprio, his acting in the film is flawless. In his previous Scorsese effort, The Aviator, he tended to over-do his acting in some scenes. This is not the case with The Departed. The acting is incredibly solid, and DiCaprio may finally win Best Actor for his performance. Not to be outdone, Damon and Wahlberg also show us some of their best performances in their career. When you have a film where each actor is giving their best performance, you know that there is something special going on.

The film never drags, and doesn't ever get to a point of dullness. I found myself riveted the first and second time, which is why this film gets a 10 out of 10. Don't pay any attention to those saying that this is a carbon copy of a Japanese film; 90% of the people watching the film don't know that anyway! Best film of 2006. Hands down.