Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (3D)

Very entertaining, due to an almost perfect mix of humor, action and emotional moments. The plot moves along briskly, introducing a lot of people and places. If fact, the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films are barely referenced, so almost everything here seems fresh. Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord is extremely likable, and can easily alternate between comedic moments and heroic scenes. Bradley Cooper breathes plenty of life into the CGI Rocket, making the character feisty, hilarious and at time sympathetic. Without much dialog to work with, most of the credit for making Groot an entertaining character comes from the animators. He has a child-like innocence throughout, even when he’s beating up bad guys. Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista flesh out their roles as Gamora and Drax quite well, but their characters can fall flat at times. The villains are a weak part of this film. They’re motivation is only brushed upon, and they don’t give the audience any reason to feel a connection to them. The finale features an action sequence worthy of the Star Wars films, with every character playing a role. All the action scenes are well done, but the movie’s strongest aspect is its humor. Just enough sentimental moments are interwoven into the story to maximize their impact. You can go from laughing to a tear in your eye pretty quickly. There is a post-credit scene, and it’s only worth sticking around for it if you want one more quick laugh. The 3D added nothing to the film.

**** out of *****

Movie Review: Hercules (2014)

This film does pretty much what it sets out to do: Be an entertaining summer popcorn film. While the movie comes off overly corny at times, it settles down into a nice series of action scenes. Many of the most eye-popping moments from trailer come and go early on. In fact, the mythological aspects of Hercules are heavily downplayed throughout the film. The plot fairly straightforward and is a bit bland. A nice plot twist late helps out, but the action in the finale could’ve been a little better. The Rock does what he’s expected here. He brings his charm and hulking physique to the role, which makes Hercules both imposing and likable. The rest of the cast is just entertaining enough to fulfill their stereotypical action side-kicks roles. You have your archer, knife thrower, crazy barbarian and old-wise man. None of them are given a chance to let the audience care much about them. This group is made up of lesser known. Of the two bigger stars, Ian Mcshane is a little too over-the-top and Joseph Fiennes doesn’t offer up very much of anything.

**1/2 out of *****

Movie Review: Lucy

This film is all over the place. It’s trippy, violent, philosophical, illogical, and has a hint of dark comedy. Scarlett Johansson is what makes this film work at all. She’s gorgeous to look at, and has a quality that makes you invested in her character as soon as you see her. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about her, including her last name, before the plot thickens. While she does a great job early of bringing an emotional performance early on, her Lucy becomes increasingly more detached as she gains new abilities. Her motivations become too vague, and barely make sense at the end. The remainder of the cast is just there to fill a role or two before the story moves on, and you only barely get invested in anybody else in the film besides Johansson. (And that includes Morgan Freeman’s character, who would fail to draw you in if it was any other actor.) I had hoped there would be more action in the film, especially as Lucy becomes more powerful, but only a car chase has any real excitement. The plot has massive holes in it, and is only able to cover those up by watching Johansson’s character evolve. The opening of the film is odd, intercutting stock footage to parallel the story, and has a finale that seems to intentionally go over the audience’s heads. Even worse, it’s anticlimactic and makes the entire strange journey the film takes seem like a dead end.

** out of *****