Star Trek Into Darkness - Noodles Review

9 out of 10 Noodles

       Yup, I'm a Star Trek fan. Yes, I'm a Benedict Cumberbatch fan. How about we put those two together and see what happens? Well, this... the best movie of 2013 thus far. I loved the first movie (not the first Stark Trek: The Motion Picture) from 2009 that was sort of a reboot of the franchise but sort of not. The concept of it was that it opened a new timeline, sort of a parallel universe. This means that while everything in the original shows and movies did happen, all of the events in the new movies are also happening to the same characters in a different timeline (or parallel universe). This gives leeway for a lot of things as it gives the opportunity to the people making the film to create their own ideas for it, without altering any of the source material. Therefore, a lot of awesome shit happens in the new movies.

       The first thing you gotta talk about in this movie is Benedict Cumberbatch. He is absolutely awesome in one of my favourite shows, Sherlock, and he owns in this movie. He's menacing, smart, efficient; everything we need. One of my only gripes about the first movie was the villain. He didn't suck or anything but he just wasn't totally awesome and badass; and I understand that because that one was introducing the characters and the whole world. But they got it all right in this one because Cumberbatch = awesome. If he's in a scene, you even totally disregard anyone else in the scene because he literally steals every single scene just be being present. Overall, I think you get the point that he's intense. Kirk and Spock are awesome as well. There's a lot of really enjoyable moments concerning their relationship as shipmates. They banter back and forth, intentionally disregard eachother, and yet still work together and respect one another. That's a real buddy movie right there. Then there's Scotty who's the comic relief of the movie and Simon Pegg really does him justice. However, not all of the characters are as greatly important. It's not that they're irrelevant, but they aren't as perfectly fleshed out as they could've been (or Cumberbatch is just stealing all their talent).
      Speaking of talent, the director, J.J. Abrams showcases his pretty well in this movie. While some people don't like his many lens flares, I feel they add more to the film's style. One thing that doesn't need style to be great in this film is the action and epic things that happen. The movie is filled with adrenaline and barely ever gives you a breather. Plus, it's filled with tons of money shots! If you don't know what that is, it's a really awesome scene in a movie (usually depicted in the trailers) that you know costs big money but it just makes your jaw drop. Example from this movie: the scene in the trailer where the U.S.S Enterprise crashes into the lake. Yup, it's there and it is awesome. While there's awesome and relentless action, the story's pretty dense too. It's compelling, heartfelt, and fun. It even has layers, which we don't really see in action movies often today; while there's the action between the good guy and the bad guy, there's drama, politics, and other events going on that really add to the movie.
      If you know someone who says that they don't wanna see this movie just because Star Trek is dumb or nerdy, they are clearly either stupid or an asshole. This movie and it's predecessor actually make Star Trek a cool and entertaining thing for everyone to watch and undoubtedly enjoy. There's great and exciting action, a strong and compelling story, fun moments, and Benedict Cumberbatch absolutely kicks ass. Star Trek Into Darkness is, so far, the best movie of 2013, and it gets 9 out of 10 Noodles. 

The Great Gatsby - Noodles Review

7 out of 10 Noodles

        American classic of literature... The Great Gatsby... can somebody please tell me why this movie needed to be in 3D? The Great Gatsby is a very character-based story; the story can only proceed through how well the characters are portrayed, not the in-your-face style. Thankfully, the characters are most great too. Anyways, The Great Gatsby is a pretty simple story. There's an awesome rich guy, Jay Gatsby, whose pretty much the Hugh Hefner of the 1920s (although they were probably the same age in the '20s). He's in love with the narrator's cousin, who happens to be married to a douche with a lot of inherited money. That's some simple and classy drama there, right? Well, let's just add an insane amount of noise and a lot of green screen and now we have a movie.
       The first thing you gotta talk about with this movie is Leonardo DiCaprio. The guy's like one of the best in the business right now and personally my 3rd favourite actor. You just can't help but root for him in whatever movie he's in (hell, I almost even rooted for him in Django Unchained... but that would've been bad) and ya root for him in this movie. He kills it as Jay Gatsby. One thing that was great was the subtle mystery of his character (one really great film aspect is that he wasn't even shown for the first 20-30 minutes of the movie) The rest of the cast is good; especially Joel Edgerton who plays the dick so well, helping us to appreciate Gatsby even more. Toby Maguire (who we've all come to know as Spiderman) is fine in the movie as the narrator but I feel his role could've been played by anyone. Carey Mulligan, who plays Daisy (the girl Gatsby is infatuated with) overacts a little bit but I feel that's good for the character she plays and the style of this movie.
     The style of the movie is really one thing that's really crucial to its likability. For me, I like where they were going with it, but it's just too much.for the movie. Baz Luhrmann is the director of this movie. If you don't know who he is, imagine what would happen if Zack Snyder started making artsy movies. He's a very visual and striking director, which sometimes works but not always. They use a lot of noise and colors for this movie. It's, in a way, visually loud. So much is going on that its just like there's noise on the screen. And a lot of this movie is shot on green screen, with a lot of visual effects that don't really need to be there. I don't think there's much need for that in a drama about love. While it does work at some times, I didn't think it did much justice to the overall film. What I really liked are the scenes that take place in one room where people are just talking or arguing. You can feel the tension and emotion of those scenes really well.
     Still, The Great Gatsby puts a little too much flair into a simple character-based drama, creating an imbalance of style over substance. The acting was great and the script seemed like it was probably great too; but the way it was conveyed was a little too much. The clash between the premise of the movie and the ongoing visuals really compromised the overall quality of it. While it's an interesting and, in a respect, a unique movie, The Great Gatsby is not as memorable as I hoped for it to be. Nonetheless, I'm a little generous in giving this "old sport" 7 out of 10 Noodles.

Iron Man 3 - Noodles Review

6.5 out of 10 Noodles
8 out of 10 as a movie; 5 out of 10 as an Iron Man movie

      You might've noticed my scoring of the movie and that's because it's a very awesome summer movie. But if you're a fan of comics and superheros (which I hugely am), you might feel a little different about it. If you're a die hard Iron Man fan, you'll probably be disappointed. I'm not saying it's a bad movie because it DEFINITELY is not. However, there are some points in the movie that could alter the enjoyment of the film. Iron Man 3 was my 4th most anticipated movie of 2013 (after Man of Steel, The Hobbit 2, and Elysium) and I wouldn't blame anyone for really looking forward to this movie. The trailers were insanely incredible. While the movie doesn't pull through as well as the trailers, it's still somewhat of a treat.
       The premise of Iron Man 3 is actually quite interesting. It ties back to The Avengers in which Iron Man practically saved the whole world in the end. He gets anxiety and can't sleep at night because of his post-traumatic stress. The shit really affected him big time. Then, The Mandarin has to come about and just bring him even more hell. I really liked the idea and where they were going with it. Tony Stark sort of has to use his wits and go on without the Iron Man suit for a bit. I liked that idea but it was a bit drawn out at times. However, the dialogue is quite on point (from the writer of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon so I would imagine so). Sometimes I felt the humor was a little overdone but, oh well, it's a summer movie, I'll deal with it. The humor does kind of have a purpose though. That's who Tony Stark is. He's a narcissistic badass who throws in one liners whenever he wants. Robert Downey Jr. obviously owns the role; he was born to play Tony Stark. Guy Pearce is an awesome actor and he pretty much owns his role but we'll talk about his character a little later. Don Cheadle was great and I was happy to see how much more developed his character was in this movie. However, I didn't really care about Pepper Potts in this movie as much as I did in previous movies, even though the movie tries to make you care about her. One character the movie did good at making you care about early on was The Mandarin. Ben Kingsley pretty much owns the role and I was expecting him to be awesome. If you don't get the gist of The Mandarin; he's the archnemesis of Iron Man, his most important villain. Joker to Batman, Lex Luthor to Superman, Green Goblin to Spiderman, Mandarin to Iron Man. You gotta do him well. However something happens that just completely splits the decision of whether or not you can enjoy the rest of the film. But I won't say it since this is a spoiler-free review; I'll only do a spoiler filled review if enough of you guys ask for it. Anyways, it's a pretty pivotal sequence in the movie. When you watch the movie, I guarantee you'll know what I'm talking about. It was a great move as a film. But as an Iron Man film, it just wasn't the way it should've been done.
         A lot of what I didn't like about the movie are spoilers, so I can't really elaborate big on them in detail. I'll say this: a lot of what happened was really cheesy and cartoony, while other things were cliche. That's the most I can say without spoiling anything. Additionally, there were some flaws in the conveyance of emotion, where I sort of felt for the characters but then something would happen that would completely change that. But still, the action is pretty sweet in this movie. Whenever the suit just latches itself onto Tony Stark, I feel like I've seen some of the coolest things in the world. And the final battle is awesome! And that's something we didn't get with the first two Iron Man movies. It was really entertaining and I was totally amazed until the end of it... another totally cliche scene occurred. However, I rolled with it and watched the rest of the movie, which ended up being a lot of important scenes, going through unnoticeably in about a minute or two.
        All in all, Iron Man 3 is definitely better than Iron Man 2 but can't quite get up to the level that the first Iron Man did. I'd say it's the most entertaining of the series for casual movie goers though. It has some awesome action and insanely cool special effects. There's subtle humor pretty much everywhere in the movie and Tony Stark is still a very lovable character. However, it does get kinda drawn out at some points, and cartoony at other times. As a regular movie, I give it 8 out of 10 Noodles. But, I can't deny my own feelings of the directions taken in this movie that really detracted from the experience for me, big time. It really doesn't compare to the level of emotion and amazement of the first movie, or the level of epicness that The Avengers reached. If adding the disappointing aspects of the movie as an Iron Man film, it's 5 out of 10 Noodles. I guess that averages it out at a 6.5, but in spite of that, I wouldn't really have a problem watching it again.
     

Pain & Gain - Noodles Review

4 out of 10 Noodles

         Sorry I wasn't able to post much recently; I've been preoccupied in other affairs. However, this movie isn't really much to wait for. I went into this movie hoping it would be Michael Bay's redemption. His early movies, The Rock and Bad Boys, were fun and actually good movies. Then he completely lost his shit. I was cool with the first Transformers movies, but the second made me lose all hope. Anyways, I really liked the first trailers for Pain & Gain. They made me feel like this would actually be a fun and stylish movie. However, their ads literally have hashtags in them. "#GetBig" made me immediately like this movie less before seeing it; but I still went in with an open mind. Regardless, I was still disappointed.
        Mark Wahlberg is obviously the star of this movie. He's fine as an actor but his character is so difficult and stupid to identify with. And it's hard to identify with any of the characters in this movie because it's so unfocused. There's inner monologue for Wahlberg's character and that's fine, but then there turns out to be inner monologue for a plethora of other characters. Now the movie has no focus and you can't really follow it or relate to anyone. Dwayne Johnson was kinda likable in this movie because he tries to act innocent, but he gets annoying sometimes. Regardless, he's a good actor but if we have to talk about the acting, I'd say Ed Harris is the best in the movie, and so is his character. That being said, there's not much else to really like in the movie.

        Michael Bay, one of my least favorite directors, tries to go for a weird type of style in this movie. The whole movie is saturated on blast, the colors are popping out at your face in extreme contrast. It's really annoying after the first couple minutes. I would be okay if they used that for a specific scene to make it interesting, but it's forced throughout the movie. Another thing forced is the comedy of the movie. I'll admit I did laugh some times, but the movie isn't really that funny to be memorable. I can't really think of anything memorable from this movie; and the funniness really isn't one. And one big issue with this is that it actually happened. These guys went out and tortured, murdered, and stole from people (not too long ago either); and they make it as a comedy in which the criminals are the characters you're suppose to follow and root for. And sometimes it gets so over the top that the movie literally tries reminding you that it's still a true story (literally, it says "this is still a true story"). I'm okay with comedy, I'm okay with style, and I'm okay with fun movies. But I'm not okay with Michael Bay. And I'm not okay with how this movie is blended together. 4 out of 10 Noodles.