Will

The visual effects are terrific, and the action scenes almost rival those in the new Mission: Impossible movie. However, the main character of Tintin is dull as well as annoying, and I didn't care about what happened in the story or its characters. The story often uneasily and abruptly shifts from seriousness to goofy slapstick. It's fun at times, but despite its fast pace, "Tintin" never really goes anywhere.

Many of the jokes fail and those that are funny are played out far too long. Nothing is done to make the "wrongfully accused" cliche more believable. There are a couple great scenes, and Aykroyd and Murphy both try hard, but their characters almost never interact with each other. Wasted potential.

A very fun movie. Loved the 40s feel. The cast was great, and I appreciate how the producers actually took characters from the 40s-era comics instead of random ones from all over the storyline (I'm looking at you, X-Men: First Class). The bad guys were rather flat, however, and the climax was actually pretty dull. The ending was contrived, but I did appreciate it for defying formula. Recommended for superhero movie lovers.

The visuals are fabulous and are enough for one to see the film. The story isn't much, and many questions are left unanswered. The fight scenes were pretty cool, though, and the cast does a good job - particularly Bridges, who has fun playing two characters.

The first act was great - incredible makeup, and fascinating story watching the apes' lifestyle. However, the film loses speed near the middle and ends up turning into a pretty uninvolving road movie with many boring and useless characters, particularly the human love interest, played by Estella Warren, who has like four lines of dialogue. However, Burton deserves credit for not making a direct remake of the 1968 original, instead creating his own vision. I did like the slow revelation to what the planet of the apes is (not exactly what you'd expect, those who have seen the original), and the unexplained but fabulous twist ending.

I have no problem with mindless action flicks. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is certainly one of these, but that is not why I did not like it. ROTF tries to be intelligent, dramatic, and visually appealing, but unfortunately, it is none of these things. First of all, don't bother seeing this film for the action because the action is terrible. Bay seems to have it in his mind that the louder and more fast-cutting the action is, the more fun it is to watch, which is false. Although there were a few pretty good visual effects-heavy scenes, Bay rarely keeps the camera on one thing for a split-second and for the whole last hour of the film, which is just a brainless, noisy action sequence, I couldn't tell what was going on. My eyes were just looking at a screen with a lot of seizure-inducing lights on it. Which brings me to plot. It's not that ROTF is a mindless movie, it isn't quite that. Bay does have a story in his mind; however, bad dialogue and poor filming make the story pretty much incomprehensible. Fans of the Transformers might have a good time - I will also say that I did enjoy the first 30 minutes' character-driven humor and a few of the film's twists - but Transformers: ROTF is a huge backstep from the first film.

As a science fiction film, "Cowboys & Aliens" is pretty average - there's nothing too special about the aliens themselves, and the action is standard. But C&A is, more than anything, a Western. The actors play their parts perfectly, and not once did the whole "Aliens in the Old West" thing seem like a gimmick. The film does not rely on cowboy cliches but is actually able to develop the characters, and the setting, in its own way. It's plenty of fun.

The first half of "Gothika" is great. John Ottmin's soundtrack combined with Matthew Libatique's cinematography and Kassovitz's direction helped create very creepy atmospheric tension. Although some may find her constant screaming excessive, Halle Berry's acting was great throughout the whole movie. There were a lot of scenes that tried to jump scare you, but none of them worked. There is no gore (with the exception of several cuts on arms, and blood writing on walls), so the movie relies on creepiness alone, and most of that is gone by the third act. There is a contrived plot twist near the end, and another very obvious (yet still ridiculous) one. There are loads of plot holes in "Gothika", and a rushed and unsatisfying conclusion. However, before the third act, I nevertheless had good time.

"The Last Airbender" is not terrible. The story is well put-together and flows well, considering it was all condensed from a whole season from a TV show. The visuals - save for the shameful post-production 3D that makes Clash of the Titans look like Avatar - are also very solid. Peltz's performance is bland, but aside from her, there weren't any huge problems. The screenplay, though, is a mess. Full of cliches and often incomprehensible, the whole plot falls apart by the end.

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" is a sub-par video game adaptation. The story is there, but very poorly put together and occasionally nonsensical. You'd think that that would be alright as long as the action sequences are good, right? Well, no. The action is terribly dull. McDonough is miscast - the antagonist he plays was not at all as menacing as he should have been. An utterly forgettable action film.

The film is solid for the most part, however, a couple of the plotlines - Aniston's in particular - barely get any time to develop and seem mostly like filler. The film's ending goes completely defies the film's messages (and title) - characters inexplicably act exactly as they said they would not, all for the sake of having a cheap Hollywood happy ending. Even so, solid performances and a couple strong plotlines make this a worthwhile watch.

To be expected, the most effective fright scenes take place at night, when Alba's character is alone in her apartment. However, the film deserves kudos for including more than one scary moment in broad daylight with people around her. Yes, many are easy jump scares, but in others, it is the tense buildup that makes it so fun to watch. However, the third act of the film, despite a visually impressive climax, is rather weak, full of slow and uninteresting explanation. Even so, this is a pretty solid PG-13 horror, and manages to retain the eeriness of the original.