Terminator Genisys Review

Terminator Genisys is the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise. It is directed by Alan Taylor and stars Arnold Schwarzengger, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, and Jason Clarke. The basic premise is that John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor, but when he arrives in 1984, nothing is as he expected it to be. This movie acts a sequel/reboot, since it basically tries to erase what happened in all the past movies. I for one thought this was an interesting thing to do. I was very very wrong.

First thing I want to say is: Fuck you Paramount for spoiling such a major plot twist in the trailer. I won't say what it is for those that don't know, but yeah I have no idea why they would spoil something like that. Anyways, the major problem this movie has is the writing. Doing a time travel movie isn't easy, and whenever your movie focuses on time travel I believe you have to keep it as simple as possible. Terminator Genisys decided it was better to keep adding twists and to convolute the story. This movie is a mess. Things just don't make sense at all, and it doesn't help the fact that the movie keeps adding more and more time traveling elements into it. The dialogue is also really bad. There are moments where characters say stuff that don't even make sense at all. There are plot holes everywhere, and also worth noting is the fact that J.K Simmons is in this movie. His character has absolutely nothing to do here. If you erase his character nothing would change. Big waste of talent.




The film also tends to feel like self-parody. Arnold is just an over the top cartoon version of the terminator, which is really dissapointing. I wanted the awesome hardcore terminator from the other films, but nope. The acting isn't anything special either, which is dissapointing since there is actually a good cast here. I can say though that the film at least is entertaining. If you turn your brain off and not think about all the plot holes and conflicting elements you might have fun. The problem is that the characters always bring up the time traveling elements, making you think about them again. The action is well directed, which is definitely something that does make the film a little bit easier to sit through. The visual effects were a mixed bag. Sometimes they would look really good, and then other times they would look pretty bad.




Terminator Genisys was a really bad film. It can be fun, but there are so many bad elements surrounding it that it's hard to really have fun with it. I think the only way this movie could have worked was if the writers kept it simple. Plot wholes, inconsistencies, bad dialogue, sub-par acting, etc. This really is not a good movie at all and it's better if you just avoid it. 1.5/5

Jurassic World Review

Jurassic World is the fourth film in the Jurassic Park franchise. This time it is directed by Colin Trevorrow, and stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. The basic premise is that  Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor's interest, which backfires horribly.

Jurassic Park is a film that for me has always defined what movie magic is. I saw it when I was about 3 or 4 years old, and it really made me believe that dinosaurs were real. Going into this film I knew that it wouldn't capture the same feeling the original one had, and I love the fact that the premise of the film reflects that. People aren't impressed with dinosaurs anymore since they've already seen them. They want something new, so a new dinosaur is created. It is sort of how us as an audience won't be impressed with seeing dinosaurs on a film like when the original one came out. With that in mind though I can say that this is the best sequel to Jurassic Park yet. Chris Pratt proves that he really is a star, and actually plays a much different character than what he usually does. He can actually do a pretty serious role without really relying on jokes and comedy. Bryce Dallas Howard plays a corporate figure from the park. She does start off kind of stiff but her character really does change by the end of the film.

One thing I do have to say about the movie is that there is a lot going on at once. You have the main plot which follows Pratt and Howard chasing the I-Rex. Then there is a subplot that follows two kids who are Howards' character nephews. There is also another subplot that follows Vincent D'Onofrio who plays a character who wants to weaponise the dinosaurs. I wish the film would have focused more on the main story, since it did switch focus a lot. In the final act though everything does fall into place. An element that really surprised me were the raptors. In the trailer they are shown to follow orders, which seemed kind of odd, but it really works extremely well. It was actually one of the strongest points of the movie. The film also goes back to the main themes of the original movie, with the fact that nature can not be controlled. I think that the theme might actually be more emphasized in this one than in the first one, but it never tries to shove it down your throat.  

The visual effects were very well done, and I liked the fact that there are some animatronics thrown in here too. The film does have a lot of nods to the first one, and even goes as far as to having some really similar shots and scenes. The biggest compliment I can give the film though is the amount of fun I had with it. From start to finish I was entertained, and loved being brought back to the world that made me love movies since I was young. It's not better than the first one, but it never really was going to be, and that is absolutely fine with me. 4/5

Spy Review

Spy is a comedy directed by Paul Feig. It stars Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne and Jude Law. The premise basically follows McCarthys' character, who plays a desk bound agent, and her transformation into a field agent. 

I'm going to start by saying that I was getting pretty sick of Melissa McCarthy. She always plays the same character. A rude, loud, obnoxious character. It really got old (for me at least) pretty fast. So I thought that this would be the same type of role for her. Surprisingly it isn't. The film starts with her being a pretty shy agent. She only sits behind a desk and tells the field agent where to go and what to do. She is very insecure, but she gets her chance to become a field agent due to some unfortunate events. She is really funny for most of the film, but she does start to turn into the same type of McCarthy character she always plays. She starts falling down, and insulting everyone. Thankfully it isn't as bad as in her other films so it can be pretty funny at times. The best actor in this movie is by far Jason Statham. He has some really funny monologues that feel like self-parody, and I loved it. Plus they don't over use him. He gets the perfect amount of screen time so it never feels like he is over doing it. Another surprise was Rose Byrne as the villain. I never thought she could actually play a villain, but she proved me wrong. She is awesome here. The only character that I had a problem with was with McCarthys' best friend. Her jokes rarely got a laugh out of me, and she got kind of annoying at times.

One thing that I never expected was how good the action was. Paul Feig just proved that he would make a really cool action movie. It is all shot very well, and has great choreography. In most spy comedy films the action is almost always just intended for comedic purposes and never actually focuses on actually being legit action. Spy gets major props on that front. When I think about it the action was even better than the comedy because a lot of the jokes here didn't hit for me. This is the type of comedy that has joke after joke after joke. When a comedy does that not everything is going to hit, and I wish they would have balanced out the comedy with the action instead of trying to go with a straight up comedy. 

Spy really surprised me. McCarthy wasn't annoying like I though she would be. Statham and Byrne were very very funny, and the action was fantastic. I do wish that they would have taken it easy with the comedy since so many jokes at once won't really hit, and I also wish they created a better story. The story here is extremely predictable, and you just know how the film is going to end since the very beginning. Another minor problem I had was the fact that the green screen (when used) was very noticeable and took me out of the movie, as well as some VFX shots. I do recommend seeing Spy though. It has some really funny moments, and some very cool action scenes. It does have a lot of shortcomings, but it is still pretty enjoyable. 3.5/5