Mike212

Catching Fire is set a year after Katniss and Peeta survived the 74th Hunger Games; their actions in the Games sparked the fires of a rebellion throughout the districts. President Snow tries to quell the rebellion by using Katniss and Peeta and re-entering them in the 75th Hunger Games Anniversary alongside other veterans of the Hunger Games. Catching Fire has the premises of an amazing, dramatic and action-packed movie yet seems to fall flat when it’s meant to be at its best. Don’t be mistaken, Catching Fire is not a bad movie and is a definite improvement over the Hunger Games. The larger budget and the directing skills of Francis Lawrence greatly improve the overall quality of acting and special effects seen in the movie. Yet dramatic moments such as the apparent deaths of a leading character is made stupid looking by Katniss’ weird crying face and the fact that the audience is not foolish enough to actually believe they would have killed them off. Jennifer Lawrence’s acting, along with some of her co-stars; falls flat at key moments of the movie even during the supposed Katniss actually falls for Peeta scene is stale. Then again I compare actors to Liam Neeson and the whole cast of Lord of the Rings, so maybe I’m setting too high a bar. I’ve talked about some of the negatives now onto the positives; Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair is easily my favourite protagonist who competes in the Hunger Games. While he is not the best actor in the movie, that award goes to Woody Harrelson, he is the only one in the Games who you actually see fight other contestants and the mutated monkeys. President Snow the movies main antagonist is an easy competitor to Haymitch’s best actor spot; he may not have many lines in the movie but the ones he does he delivers perfectly and even just the close ups of his face show more emotion then Jennifer Lawrence’s entire performance. The special effects for the movie are a definite and obvious improvement from its prequel, which looked so fake it made Giant Shark vs. Mega Octopus look real. Unfortunately I can’t go on with the good points of the movie because there are none left. So I will return to the negatives; plot twists. There is one major plot twist that is probably the most important thing in the entire movie, which I saw coming from a mile away, you can tell who good guys are and who the bad guys are in the movie because of the way they dress. If they look like they fell through Louie Spence’s wardrobe they are most likely the bad guys, the exception being President Snow. The ending of the movie is as weird as the way the people dress in the Capitol; it just seems to stop without any feeling of an actual conclusion. The Grey did the same thing but managed to pull it off because the Grey is a great movie, which just shows that that kind of ending does work and can make a movie excellent.

I didn't expect much when I got this movie and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie really was. The main actors really brought their characters to life and I really came to love Lincoln, Henry, Will and Speed. While the acting for some of the supporting characters did lack at certain times it didn't ruin the experience for me at all. The fight sequences were amazing and really gave the fell that they were fighting stronger, faster supernatural vampires. The plot twists in the film really kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would play out. I would definitely recommend this film and you will get your moneys worth out of it as long as you remember that this is a film about Abraham Lincoln killing vampires.

Firewall was an entertaining movie but at time it just seemed to drag on for no reason other than to pad out the run time. Harrison Ford's performance along with his co-star Paul Bettany were the saving grace for this movie. Paul Bettany played Bill Cox a bank robber forcing Ford's character Jack Stanfield to rob the bank that he runs security for. The plot is interesting to watch but the novelty of all the computer skills runs dry leaving the movie to run on the performances of the actors which stay strong through out the entire film. We get to see the multiple sides there are to Bill Cox which just made his character even more intense with the knowledge that he could snap at any moment and do anything to anyone including his own men. Firewall is definitely worth watching even if it is just to see Harrison Ford.

It was a decent enough movie but it was no Schindler's List. Viggo Mortensen's performance as Halder was amazing but I can't help to think that there may have been a better actor suited for the role. The plot was new to see and definitely interesting to follow but the ending didn't really give me the impact that I know it was meant to. Jason Issacs character Maurice was crucial to the plot but I kept forgetting about him when ever he wasn't on screen, even when Halder was talking about him I couldn't remember him. While it is definitely not the best movie you will see it is still a good movie (no pun intended) and worth watching.

Equilibrium is one of those movies I regret not having seen earlier and I was amazed to see that it had scored so badly pretty much everywhere. To start of, yes Sean Bean is in it and yes it happens it should be no mystery by now. Christian Bale plays John Preston is a futuristic cop called a Grammaton Cleric, his job is to find and arrest (or kill) sense offenders which are people who have decided to reject the Fascist governments policy that emotions are evil and need to be pressured using a special drug. Prestons character development through out the movie is phenomenal, to see a cold blooded killer who only cares about following his corrupt governments rules to a soft hearted human who risked everything for a puppy is definitely something to see. The new fighting technique called gun kata is definitely interesting when he is actually shooting but when he gets into a close quarter fight near the end it is a bit ridiculous to watch 2 grown men and professional killers slap each others gun about and make absolutely no head way in the fight for a good 30 seconds. The plot is one of the best I have ever seen and kept me enthralled through out the entire movie, there was never a point that I wanted to look away from the screen apart from one part but not because it was bad but because I didn't want to believe it would happen. The team behind this movie worked hard and the actors worked even harder to get their message across, Equilibrium deserves a 10/10 and if I could go any higher I would. Every one needs to go see this movie right now!

Riddick is not a 10/10 movie but I really enjoyed it as I did with Pitch Black and I thought Chronicles of Riddick was an enjoyable movie. Riddick takes the movie back to it's roots with Riddick trying to survive on a deserted planet while carnivorous aliens try to kill him and the others trapped with Riddick. Some of my favorite parts of the movie were when Riddick was trying to survive after being left for dead on the planet and when Riddick toyed with the mercenaries that came to collect his bounty. After this the movie became to much like Pitch Black and almost seemed to be copying it. Vin Diesels performance as Riddick is amazing and a good enough reason alone to go see this movie, while some of his co-stars were lacking Matt Nable, Jordi Mollà and surprisingly Dave Bautista bring the same quality of acting as Vin Diesel does. This movie is definitely worth seeing even if you haven't seen any of the previous Riddick movies. I enjoyed this movie and I look forward to seeing what they do with Riddick in the future.