Pacific Rim - Robot Action Mayhem but Weak Plot

Movie Title:
Pacific Rim
Strong Point: 
1. Plenty of non-stop action from the start till finish at approx. 2 hours - Not much of breather. 
2. Robot versus monster action aplenty -- slug fest of the gigantic proportion, best view it on biggest screen
Weak Point:
1. Plot is weak, storyline is weak and dialogue is quite horrible too. Luckily the acting was saved by Idris Elba's strong performance. I think the weakest is Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi whom is unable to show her emotions when she needed to and also she doesn't look cute which i think that was what the movie was suppose to be. Big action, a little cuteness in between and massive fights - ala anime style. I was rather surprise that the plot is quite predictable and the the dialogue was also weak. I always knew that director, Guillermo del Toro is a man of visionary especially on exotic designs, cinematography but this is quite a disappointment.
2. The action while extremely good, was a bit too much with rather repetitive kind of action movement. It was just a bashing of each other mostly. I would rather that some strategy was implemented by the Jaegers (robots) against the kaiju (monsters) which is much cooler. The monsters were a great fun to watch and at least there was some tactical attacking against the Jaegers especially on the bay of Hong Kong where 2 kaiju pitted against 4 Jaegers.
3. Most of the battles was in the dark, raining sea -- so its quite hard to see some of the fast action on-screen as the battle was fast and furious. I think some slow-mo would have been great and i would love to see battle done during the mid-day for some realistic damage carnage. In fact i can't really see most of the monsters.
4. Music was quite horrendous at times especially when there was some kind of a patriotic type music akin reminds me of Starship Trooper type. 
Verdict:
I give it a 4 star despite all the weak points. Do see it at least once for the monster vs robot action. It was a rather fast non-stop action movie that i do intend to see it at least one more time. 

World War Z: Utterly Rubbish Zombie Movie

Movie Title:
World War Z
Strong Point:
Pace was ok, beginning was ok. Action was breathtaking especially in Jerusalem
Weak Point:
Aplenty. Incoherent plot and some does not make sense. Didn't state why Brat Pitt as UN Lead Investigator suddenly drop out from UN, why he is suddenly called up again and why he is suddenly the important person in finding the cure although not a  scientist and etc. Brat Pitt performance here is a waste and i as a viewer felt that he didn't put much performance into it. It is one of the weakest acting from him yet.
The action was chaotic especially in the beginning of the movie. The past paced and held-cam type action was a headache as we do not know who is chasing what and who is screaming. Since it is a large scale zombie attack, the cam should have been panned out and let us see the full destruction. Even if it happens, it only happens for a short period.
If we were to compare the gore in The Walking Dead with World War Z, it will be like The Walking Dead = High School level while World War Z = Pre-shool level. There is no blood at all in World War Z nor any decapitation shown on screen. At least a bit of gore must be shown to depict the violence and horror of the virus epidemic but these were not shown at all. Disappointing at all.
To see or not to see:
Better rent a video once available. No point in buying movie tickets

Man of Steel : Too much = Not better

Movie: 
Man of Steele
Strong Point: 
Good start to the Superman franchise. A good 10~15 mins of great action sequence at the beginning of the movie showing planet Krypton. So don't miss coming in late. A good fighting scenes of Superman against Faora and another massive huge guy. It's like OK Coral in a western gun fight. Great & destructive CGI sequence of fighting scenes similar to comic book tunes.
Weak Point: 
Too many flashback .. Once in a while is good but too many is extremely irritating. Henry Cavill is great as Superman but he doesn't show much expression in the face and it is almost like he is a robot or something. I would like to see more of Kevin Costner and Clark Kent relationship with their adoptive parents but it wasn't shown. The plot and storyline is rather weak and some scenes are just plain nonsense like why the Army with massive weapons afraid of a broadcast signal by Zod? The CGI fighting is a bit too much. Almost like you feel that this is the beginning and end of a Superman franchise. The 1st genuine fight with Faora is spectacular but the fight with Zod is extremely disappointing and too much smashing and crashing inside building that it almost made people feel a id bored.
To See or Not to see:
See it only once for the CGI fight sequence. Not so watchable on second time round.

Fast & Furios 6: Keep the Engine Revving

I will comment most of the movies from now onwards in more structured and point based so that people might not think this article as too long-winded and based on the review - either a must see or down the toilet bowl. So lets start with the 1st real summer blockbuster movie:
Movie: 
Fast & Furious 6 aka Fast 6
Weak Point: 
Less street racing across the town, change tune to cop-robber car chase. Less heavy R&B music to kick start the racing momentum. The so-called bad guys equivalent to Fast 6 group are weak despite beginning of strong showing. Too many outrageous CGI stunts involve and now car jumping out of burning plane??
Strong Point: 
Good movie plot to link Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift till Fast 6. Kudos to director Justin Lin. Great to change plot from illegal car racing to fugitive evading to busting international terrorist. That is why this movie franchise is still burning hot and hotter on each sequels. I'm waiting for the next Fast 7 featuring an all new and exciting bad guy in Jason Statham. So, please stay back during the credits roll to see his introduction. Chris Evans is just okay in this movie as baddie but i think Jason Statham has more charismatic features.
Great girl fight cat fight scenes too. 
To see or not to see:
A must see movie. Go see if you have not seen.

Olympus Has Fallen - Best Action Flick to start Year 2013

Review:
Olympus Has Fallen. This movie is just under my radar few weeks before it was shown in my local theaters. I guess one of the reason why i didn't manage to pick up this excellent movie is because of its ehm...rather mundane title. It somehow makes the wow factor just disappear and i almost pass it up due to its B-Grade Movie Title Name. However after looking at the impressive cast of Gerald Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman and the synopsis of a White House being taken hostage, it might just not be a bad movie after all. And to further strengthen my will to go watch this show is its director, Antoine Fuqua whom has a very impressive resume of movies directed under his belt  - Training Day Tears in The Sun, Replacement Killers, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn Finest - movies that i watch again and again. So lets get down to business
The story is very simple to follow. It revolves around a Secret Service Agent, Mike Banning whom headed a security head protecting the President of US, Benjamin Asher ( Aaron Eckhart) and his family. However after a fatal accident, President Benjamin decided to relocate Mike to a desk job at the US Treasury Department because having Mike around will remind the President on that incident. The movie then panned to 18 months later, where the President of South Korea decided to visit White House to have some discussion involving North Korea situation. During the discussion, an impressive assault by Korean terrorist against the White House left President Benjamin and his staffs held hostage by the Korean terrorist leader, Kang (Rick Yune). Thus, it is up to Mike Banning to save the day.
Simple story, right? So,
Question #1 - Is this a good action movie? 
Answer - This is one of the great action movie i have seen in many years. I truly enjoy the whole 2 hours duration of the film. The terrorist assault takes a good13mins and boy, when it hits the White House, it is a scene to be reckons with unlike the dull Red Dawn. The film also does not pause and during the assault on the White House, the Pentagon scene is also one truly tense moment with the ever reliable Morgan Freeman as acting President taking charge - much like when he was during Deep Impact.
This movie also has so many body counts - i think more than Rambo V and the violence is up a notch which is fine to me as it makes it more believable. 
Verdict:
I give it a 4 star out of 5 for an action packed movie. Now over to GI Joe: Retaliation to make similar impact 

Mama - Oh! Mama! Boring Half-Bake Horror Movie

Review:
The fact that this film was executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, we need to be really cautious especially after the disappointing horror film in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". The trailer was quite nice but the actual film didn't. It's a simple story of how 2 girls stay hidden and isolated from the world in a cabin for 5 years with a supernatural ghostly creature called "Mama'. After being discovered, the girls was brought to stay with their uncle and her rocker girlfriend. However, soon strange things started to occur and it seems that "Mama" wanted to be with the girls. Premise seems good, originality story seems okay but one big flaw in this movie is - the supernatural ghostly figure is shown too fast too soon in the movie. And the worst thing is it looks a little cartoon rather than real, somehow the CGI is so bad that the fear factor is gone the moment Mama was reveal. The story is also half-bake and seems illogical too. For example, the psychologist Dr. Dreyfuss found some discovery of who "Mama" was and decided to go to the old cabin "Alone" and in the middle of the night to see her presence. For goodness sake, it is insane to go there alone, and he goes there in the middle of the night. There goes one meat for the creature. Then, we have the creature hiding in the closet and keep attacking people like the girl's uncle- Lucas, and the funny thing is Lucas didn't reveal these details of the cops or even her girl friend. A simple waste of time watching this movie.
Verdict:
Only 1 star out of 5. Poor

Year 2013 - Many Movies of Anticipation

Although we are about 3 months into year 2013, this is the first time i have written for year 2013. I am rather excited that this year, 2013 has many hotly anticipated movies that i am looking forward to see - as much as i could either on the theaters, cinemas, DVDs, or web based. Some of the movies that i cannot wait for the countdown are in the genre as follows:

Horror

The Evil Dead - Remake of Sam Raimi's horror masterpiece. I am absolutely looking forward to this horror movie that is currently buzzing in the internet world as the scariest horror movie ever made. It is about 4 young peoples that made a trip to an isolated cabin in a forest, where they stumble upon a Book of Death and accidentally summon a demon.
Carrie - This is also another remake that i would love to watch too. It is a remake of Brian De'Plama masterpiece. Although i didn't manage to catch the original film, i am looking forward to this film where an introvert Carrie White is subject to bullying and unknown to others, she has developed a telekinetic powers that used to take revenge on those who has wronged her.

Action
GI Joe: Retaliation - I am absolutely looking forward to this screening of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra sequel. The first movie was a very good action movie and after viewing the trailers, i don't think the standard and quality has decrease. In fact with the introduction of Dwane Johnson "The Rock" and Bruce Willis, this is one of the good popcorn fare movie that i would love to see.
Pacific Rim - A Guillermo del Toro movie that is monstrous that it had to be seen to be awe. It is about monsters - giant monsters and giant robots battling each other in the near future. Let the slug fest began.
Fast and Furious 6 - Somehow this franchise manage to pull in crowds after crowds, parts after parts with their endless action, super fast car, hot ladies, hottest hip-hop and the star attraction of Vin Diesel and Dwane Johnson "The Rock". Somehow the director & producer of the film manage to keep the story fresh with good twist and nice action. I love to see what will this latest film offers next.

Superheroes  
 Ironman 3 - I guess one of the hottest anticipated marvel film would be this especially after the recent success of The Avengers. The trailer offer a more darker film with the latest villain in Mandarin. It is dubbed as the best Ironman series ever and i think it is good enough for me to wheat my appetite and see what will be the continuation of the Avengers.
Man of Steele - This movie is what i will be looking forward to in the Superhero genre. Yeah! We will have Ironman3 and Thor 2 but i have high hopes on this movie. There had been too many failures of getting the best out of Superman and i really hope it will be the best Superhero movie of all time. Words is that this is the movie to beat in 2013.

Si-Fi
Star Trek - Into Darkeness - Although not as excited as other film, i still find this film to be something to look forward to. I am not a real Trekker fan but i gave it a go on the 1st film by JJ Abrams and it certainly didn't disappoint me at all. So, i will be keeping my eyes on this.
Elysium - After the best movie with minimal budget in District 9 - I am really looking forward to this film by Neil Blomkamp. Somehow with Neil at helm and Matt Damon starred, it can only get better. Not much information has been reveal much.
World War Z - This is also one of the movie i really am looking forward to. Not because it starred Brat Pitt but i just love zombies film and with hordes of zombies moving in lighting blaze consuming all of humanity, this is one movie i really wouldn't want to miss.