Godzilla (2014)

Remember 1998? Remember some dude named Matthew Broderick? Yup, me neither....

As a child of the 90ies, Godzilla meant a giant dinosaur from Jurassic Park destroying the town they destroyed in Independence Day... A normal action-flick with stereotypical french people, hot sidekick chicks and geeky but super cool main protagonists, who save the day against all odds...

Well say good bye to those memories, from now on, Godzilla stands for awesome!!! Even before the new movie came out I read a bit about the origins of Godzilla, watched some scenes from the older movies from Japan and read some blogs critizising the 1998 abomination by Roland Emmerich.

When I finally watched the movie, I was surprised. The tone is super dark, with a lot of dust and rain in the air. The monsters are seldomly visible and a lot of the special effects are so subtle that they actually look real. You rarely have full body view of the monsters, so a lot is kept to your imagination and the movie is set in not only one city but in 3 (Honolulu, Vegas, San Francisco).
The characters have quite a lot of depth and even the Americans who don't save the day, turn out to be quite the accurate portrayal, not the glammed up versions we see in other Hollywood blockbusters.

However, it is Godzilla, so the story isn't tooooooo exciting. There are a few twists and turns here and there, but it is mainly the action, visuals and the suspense that are keeping you interested in the movie, not the intricate relationships of the characters and heart-stopping revelations in the story - but if that's what you've bargained for you're on the wrong ship anyways.

It is what it is, a well-done, visually stunning, refreshingly realistic, monster/destruction movie. I liked Pacific Rim better, but I didn't feel like I wasted my time after watching it, so go ahead and lets collectively forget the mess that was Roland Emmerich's version...

Country Strong

Did you know that Country Strong was strongly inspired by country-girl Britney Spears? Yeah...

Oh boy, I really like that movie! I'm not even American and I'm even less into country music, but somehow this movie gets me every time I watch it.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays fallen country-superstar Kelly who lost her child after drunkenly falling down 10 feet off her stage in Dallas. The film starts with her being in rehab where her secret lover sponsor, Beau, who happens to be a quite decent country-singer himself meets here husband/manager James, who decided to get Kelly out of rehab early to start her comeback "Encore"-tour.
Beau and former Miss Dallas Chiles are set to headline and the two of them become friends.
Of course, Kelly was far from ok, so she relapses several times, misses two of her three concerts and has a few dozen meltdowns throughout the movie.

What I really like about the movie is the ensemble and the characters. EVERY single one of the actors does a superb job, Paltrow is incredible in this quite challenging roll and all of the characters really play their parts in such a genuinely believable way - it's a rare sight in Hollywood.

The soundtrack is absolutely flawless as well. The mostly original songs find their way into the viewers ears immidiately and they're here to stay. Prepare yourself humming titles like "A Little Bit Stronger" or "Country Strong" for days and days after watching the movie. The soundtrack is available on iTunes, too, so if you can't get enough of it, download it now.

Apparently the movie was based on the lives of real popstars such as Britney Spears and Michael Jackson, and it is quite sad to see, what the industry, the press and media and their own team of greedy managers can do to a human being that's supposed to be strong and glamorous, just because he or she happens to be a superstar.

In conclusion, I highly recommend watching Country Strong - and not only for people who are interested in country music or pop culture. In the end it's just a really tragic story about a woman who wasn't heard, even though she was belting in a microphone in front of thousands of people.

The Simpsons Guy - Crossover Episode

The media buzz was huge, the fans were counting the seconds, and now it's finally there: The long awaited cross-over episode from The Simpsons and Family Guy!

I have to admit, that I have always preferred Family Guy to The Simpsons (not only because of their Star Wars paradies and tougher humor), but I frequently watched The Simpsons on TV and I was actually quite curious about how they would get those two very successful franchises together.
I was surprised that I didn't really like it and here's why:

It seems like, even though the two shows get compared so much, they are not very alike and don't fit together very well. While the Simpsons tackle social questions in a more sensitive way, Family Guy knows no bounds when it comes to dirty jokes and crass scenes, so this cross-over episode felt like a toned down version of Family Guy and a hopped up version of The Simpsons.
There isn't much story, except that Homer helps Peter finding his stolen car, so they can leave Springfield, while the rest of the families bond with each other.
There are a few VERY funny scenes here and there, but mostly I just didn't really like it.

I can't even point my finger on what it was exactly, but this episode kind of made me like Family Guy more and The Simpsons even less... My 10 cents...

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

The Planet Of The Apes franchises had it's ups and downs. The older movies seem dated to some and the gigantic reveal at the end of the original movie is part of modern movie-history. With the prequels/reboot of the franchise they managed to salvage what Burton destroyed in his 2001 remake with Mark Mahlberg, so how did the 2nd part of the reboot series do?

I was in love with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, so I had high hopes for the much anticipated sequel, however I was a little bit concerned about the fact that James Franco was missing from this part.

The story of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes continues 10 years after the first installment and in the meantime the face of the earth has changed. Most people are dead and the surviving has become a struggle for the few surviving victims (who are most likely genetically resistant to the virus that was unleashed in the first movie).
In contrary to the humans, the apes are doing just well. They aren't dependent on electricity and technology, so their life in the woods around San Francisco is pretty easy.
It seems like the small group that escaped from the humans in the first film has multiplied and the general intelligence seems to have increased as well, with some of the apes even talking.
Caesar is the chief and leader of the apes and seems to be doing just fine with his two sons and wife.
While hunting in the woods the apes come across a human scouting team (they previously thought all humans were gone) and one of the apes is shot by the human.
And that's when the story starts rolling. Both camps (human and apes) are full of distrust against each other and the humans constantly underestimate their evolutionary brothers.
Koba, the scarred ape from Rise turns out to be the main villain of the movie, even using the humans' machine guns (quite impressive footage) and trying to overthrow Caesar and putting the humans into "concentration camps" - crazy monkey, but he was abused in many laboratories, so his hatred towards humans is quite understandable.

Overall, the characters (human and ape alike) and their actions are quite comprehensible and the story never gets boring - at many points even emotional. You start rooting for both camps, when facing a common enemy in Koba, who effectivly starts an all-out war between the two races (likely being picked up in part 3)

The thing that annoyed me most about the film was the constant use of sign language. I would have preferred if most of the apes would have been able to talk, just so that it is easier to follow the movie (I really hate reading subtitles all the time). At the end of the movie, many more apes start to talk, though.

The CGI is just remarkable and much improved since the first part (if that's even possible). There will be one point - sooner or later - for every viewer to forget that those apes are actually not real, it's incredible. Andy Serkis, who did the motion capture for Caesar has done - once again - a splendid job, and the animators even more so.

In conclusion, the ape-spectacle continues while tackling real human issues of modern times, wrapped in some nice action-filled blockbuster movie. Plus, the best CGI since Gravity.

Grey's Anatomy Season 11, Episodes 1-3 [Review]

I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy for a very long time. It’s in its 11^th season right now and there is no end in sight. I predicted its cancellation years ago and boy was I wrong. Even though the ratings dropped a bit, the stories got more and more confusing and unrealistic, Grey’s is still here.
This is my recap to the first 3 Episodes of Season 11.

S11E01 I Must Have Lost It On The Wind

The first episode is basically a “where were we?” from last season. Most of the issues from last season were solved and the basic drama revolves around Derek having to decide whether to stay in Seattle or move to the east coast., Arizona and Callie deciding whether they’re gonna have another child or not and of course there’s Maggie, Ellis Grey’s child from her affair with Richard.

For a season premiere, the episode was not too special, to be honest. It was character driven as always, but some of the patient-doctor-eye-opening-moments were too obvious, like when Derek had to tell a little boy that his mom is dead and it instantly reminded him of leaving his family for his job.
Maggie is actually a really decent character. It would have been better to include her earlier in the series, since it will be hard for the audience to accept yet another half-sister to appear on the radar, especially after killing Lexie off not too long ago.
However her dynamic with Richard was interesting to watch and her (failed) approaches towards Meredith (who is known to be welcoming to all of her half-sisters) were also quite entertaining.

Luckily they didn’t waste too much time talking about the departure of Cristina, she will probably reappear on the series sooner or later anyways, but the aftermath (giving away her seat on the board to Alex) was definitely there and it was quite funny watching Alex grow into his new position as Meredith’s person (there is no other original intern left in the cast, so that makes sense).

In conclusion, the episode had no big surprises for us, it was relatively April-Jackson-free, which is a good thing and adding Derek’s sister Amelia to the cast wasn’t too noticeable…

S11E02 Puzzle With A Missing Piece

The second Episode was much, much better. It was Maggie-centric, which was a good thing to do, since the character is completely new to everyone and she definitely has to position herself in the family that is the hospital.
It was cool to see her being both clever, intelligent and smart, but human and emotional at the same time. Especially her conversations with her adopted parents were really interesting and shed light on her character. To be honest, even though this whole “Meredith has another sister”-twist is completely ridiculous, Maggie has already more depth than April (she lost all of her credibility with her Jesus/Virgin arc).

Along Maggie’s exploration of her new workplace, hassling with (still clueless – at least right until ) Meredith and other doctors, some of the other character’s stories are continued, the focus remains on Maggie and her relationships, though.

In conclusion: Much better than the premiere, giving the absurd story around Maggie a little more credibility, still setting the stage for the next few episodes.

S11E03 Got To Be Real

Finally we get a little bit more insight into Owens mind and his new cooperation with Callie and the army-guys is a promising plot, especially with Callie facing problems with Arizona yet again, when the latter decides to start a new fellowship in prenatal surgery (we need Addison!!!) and eventually deciding against having another baby via surrogacy.

Also, Meredith tries to cope with Maggie’s revelation, while Alex is preparing to claim his place on the board, heading into battle against Bailey.

In addition to that, Avery complains about not being able to operate enough, because of his position as board leader and Derek, who is obviously depressed by Meredith’s decision not to leave Seattle fights with his sister like a little boy…

In conclusion, this newest Episode was the most interesting one and as I see it right now, this season could get a little bit more interesting than the last.

Grey’s Anatomy always had its ups and downs, but it seems to be on the right track to go back to its former glory. If only Katherine Heigl would make a surprise return and mess things up with Alex, but she probably pissed off Shonda Rhimes for the rest of her life…

Twister (1996) [Review]

It is time for a nostalgic retro-review again!
This time: Twister!

I love the 90ies. I grew up in the 90ies. I fell in love with pop-culture in the 90ies.
This movie is the epitome (ok, one of many) of the 90ies, so it's not a big surprise that I absolutely love this movie.

Many would say the story is pretty basic: seperated stormchaser-couple rekindles their relationship through their mutual fascination for tornadoes, while surviving one ridiculously dangerous situation after the other - perfect!
Bill Paxton (who happens to be one of my all-time-favourite underrated actors) delivers a solid performance, and 90ies sweetheart Helen Hunt goes along quite well (positively reminding me of Laura Dern from Jurassic Park) giving us sometimes moderate, sometimes believable screen chemistry.

Done with the formalities, let's get down to business... whenever you talk about "old" movies, it's the special effects that are most interesting. Can they still hold up to our viewing patterns?
Oh hell yes, they can! Sure, the CGI wasn't quite Avatar and Jurassic Park makes the tornadoes look as if they were drawn on paint and animated with power point, but there are still a lot of practical effects in this movie and twister-funnels aren't too hard to animate anyways.
One of the good things about having imaginary tornadoes is, that the actors actually have something to work with, since the wind and some of the debris is actually real and on set.

The protagonists of the film are stereotipical 90ies villains, their motivations and aversion against our heroes is superficially comprehensible, their performance utterly forgettable, though - the tornado remains to be the actual villain here.

In conclusion: Is the movie still watchable? Definitely! Will you have a good time watching it? Yes, if you grew up with it and enjoy good old 90ies action, when things were still a bit more cheesy and unrealistic, but at the same time much more relateable than modern-times-movies. Does that make sense?

So rent/download Twister now, and spin back to your childhood. Ha!

Star Wars Rebels - Spark of Rebellion [Review]

Finally: New Star Wars material.
This is one of the first BIG things to come from Disney and Lucasfilm since the acquistion! The new animated series started it's run with a 45 minutes pilot that introduced the world to a new batch of Star Wars heroes. And it delivered!

Before I start, I have to admit that I wasn't too interested in Rebels at first. Obviously, the setting between the prequel and original trilogies is super-interesting and hasn't been covered by too many books and comics yet. Since the new storygroup decided that everything we used to know no longer was canon, the creative freedom in this era is endless.
However, I was more interested in the development of Episode VII, so I was relatively spoiler-free when I started to watch the pilot.

First of all: The animations are so much better than it's predecessor The Clone Wars. The faces look more alive, the locations look like actual paintings from Ralph McQuarrie and the characters' movements are much more credible than in The Clone Wars.

The score was a huge fan-service and subconciously brought back the feelings we all had as little kids growing up with the original trilogy. Most of the tracks were taken almost 1:1 out of John William's repertoir. However, the music fit perfectly throughout the episode and didn't distract from what was happening on screen.

The characters are the biggest win of this new series. As a pen and paper RPG-player myself, I couldn't help but notice, that the crew of the Ghost is just like the fictional crews we played throughout our various campaigns. Every single one of them is loveable, memorable and interesting (with one exception). Kanan (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.) is one of those Jedi you would trust instantly and he looks kind of hot, too! Hera is the heart and soul of the ship, Sabine is the cunning warrior-chick with a soft spot and Zeb is the muscles of the team.
The only exception for me was Ezra. I didn't like him. He reminded me of Aladdin and his tendency of winning every situation and being the most clever child ever annoyed me a bit. Sure, it's a children's show and kids will probably be able to identify with him more, but I just couldn't stop thinking about the Mary-Sue effect.
In contrary to that, the antagonist, Imperial Agent Kallus was a blast! Lawful evil, perfect voice, kind of bad-boy-DILF-sexy, he was the perfect villain for the episode. Something about him gave me the impression that he won't stay on the Empire's side forever...

Last but not least, let's talk about the story: Ezra meets the crew, the Empire is established as being evil and mean and we find out that Kanan is a fugitive Jedi and Ezra a potential Padawan.
The producers played it safe with this basic, simple introduction to the new characters, that was delightfully entertaining and easy to follow troughout.

In conclusion: except for the main protagonist, this pilot was quite promising and it's no wonder that Rebels was already renewed for a second season. Keep it up!

Gravity [2D-Review]

One of the big winners at the Oscars this year was Gravity. The movie combines a claustrophobic thriller with an emotional, realistic struggle for survival with exquisite acting by Sandra Bullock. Of course let’s not forget the incredible visuals…

When I saw that Gravity won 7 Oscars, I wasn’t surprised at all. Even though I was kind of disappointed that Sandra Bullock didn’t win best actress I completely understand why the movie ruled in all of its categories (which were mainly in the technical area).
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the movie in 3D, but the 2D Blu-Ray made it quite clear to me, that this movie was meant to be watched in 3D, at the cinema – nowhere else. Don’t get me wrong the visuals were still amazing, but whenever something realistically floats around in the vacuum in front of the actors you want to bite your butt for not paying those few dollars to see it on the big screen in 3D (pretty much like Avatar back in the day).

The story is not very hard to explain. A few astronauts and their spaceships are hit by satellite-parts orbiting earth and at the end only one survives. She struggles to find a way to return to earth and improvises several times, changing from one spacecraft to another in a seemingly hopeless situation. In addition to that the woman (played by Sandra Bullock) has a rough past and almost loses her will to live in the middle of her ordeals. George Clooney, basically playing himself has not a big part in the movie, but his presence is crucial for her to remember her training and take her chance of survival…

There is not a lot, that’s wrong with this movie’s script, but there was one major flaw in it: Sandra Bullock’s character lost her daughter when she was very little and ever since she remained emotionally unavailable, cold and depressed. Now, can anyone tell me why NASA would send a depressed and mentally unstable person on a mission to outer space, however save everything seems? Did she lie about her past in the interview or did she fake her psychological test? No matter how crucial her position and her work is for the success of this mission, it’s never worth risking the lives of other people just because you took an unstable
person on a trip with them.

This little plot-hole aside, the movie rocks, and Bullock’s performance is believable and incredibly touching. Clooney does an unimpressive but solid job playing a different version of himself and the visual effects as well as the directing transform this movie into a masterpiece of modern SciFi cinema.

I hope this movie gets a re-release at the cinema following its big successes at the Oscars, since I really would like to see the 3D effects. But even without them, this will not disappoint you, and if you like watching actors doing a great job and suffer with them through extraordinary situations, this movie is the right movie for you. It’s definitely not a boys-only, girls-only movie, this piece of art will touch everyone equally… And apparently there has never been a movie that captures life in space as accurately and scientifically correct as this one!
Probably the best movie of 2013.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Review]

I know it’s been a few years since this masterpiece hit the big screens, but I just recently re-watched it, after paying some of the beautiful locations it was shot at a visit and I love this movie more than ever…

Ang Lee sets this martial arts epos in ancient China, when bandits and vagabonds made the roads through the Middle Kingdom dangerous and not likely to be travelled alone. However, a small group of highly trained swordsmen and martial artists protect the innocent and keep the streets clean.
One of them is accomplished Wudang fighter Li Mu Bai, who sends his long-time friend and secret soulmate Yu Shu Lien to the Forbidden City to hand his legendary sword to a local friend as a gift, since he wanted to step away from a life on the edge.
Soon after, the sword is stolen by an unknown warrior, and in order to sustain the thief’s honor Yu Shu Lien lets her go.
Soon after, it turns out, that the thief was Jen, the daughter of governor Yu, visiting at the same time and who was promised to be wed to someone she doesn’t even know – but secretly trained by Jade Fox, who killed Li Mu Bai’s former master and retrieved the ancient teaching from Wudang.
The story evolves after Li Mu Bai follows her through the most beautiful areas in China, finally challenging her at a mystic bamboo forest.
The story subtly revolves around Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien’s repressed feelings for each other, mirrored by Jen’s emotional and passionate – but equally forbidden – love to a thief from the desert, both couples trying to find a way to be together.

In my opinion, Ang Lee created a masterpiece with this movie, and its Oscar nominations and wins clearly show, that I am not the only one who thinks so.
The fantastic fighting sequences are completely non CGI with only the cords, the actors hung from having been removed in preproduction.
The actors all do a wonderful job, though obviously I wasn’t able to watch the film in its original language, Mandarin.

A sequel to the movie was announced a few months ago, but only a few of the original cast will return and I doubt that it will be as successful as the original. Only time will tell.

During my stay in China I was able to visit some of the shooting locations from the movie, and if anyone of you is going there anytime soon, I can highly recommend the beautiful bamboo forest and the gorgeous Wudang abbey, which actually exists (though I don’t know, if that’s the actual name). You can easily google all the locations and how to get there exactly – it’s worth a trip…

The Oscars 2014

It is such a sad moment, when you realize that award season is over... In the next few week you won't see that many glammed up celebrities in one room any more and speculating about awards will become more and more obsolete.
However there was one last climax, the biggest celebration in Hollywood, the most important event in the annual movie-schedule. The 86th Academy Awards... And let me say, this year, they were really special!

This award season didn't hold to many surprises. The few movies that were talked about most usually also got the prizes in the end.
However the Academy managed to make this event still very enthralling - with a few unexpected turns - in addition to the amazing performances and a lot of celebrity-fun.

The Show: Ellen DeGeneres (one of my all-time-favourite talk-masters) hosted the evening like in 2007, and boy was she hilarious. She manages to be completely non-PC, while being absolutely sweet, cheeky and snotty at the same time, which makes her a superb comedian and entertainer.
She maneuvered through the show jauntingly and seemingly unburdened. At one point she even ordered pizza from a local L.A. delivery service and gave some slices to the front-row-celebs. Even Brad Pitt helped her passing some paper plates and napkins for the A-List crowd.

And then there was the selfie (pictured above)... In order to do some product placement for Samsung (probably the biggest sponsor of the show?) Ellen shot a selfie using her Samsung Galaxy and uploaded it on Twitter. After she show, she admitted that her original plan was just doing one with Meryl Streep and that all the other celebrities just got up and went along - and they managed to break down twitter, and set a new record for the most retweets (over 2 million by now). We have Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Channing Tatum, Brangelina, etc. all in this single selfie which might go down in history as the most star-studded selfie ever...

The Perfomances: Like the years before we had a lot of performances again. I kind of missed the funny things Hugh Jackman pulled off when he hosted, but the musical acts were all very entertaining.
- Pharrell perfomed "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 and got Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o, Amy Adams and even the legendary Meryl Streep to shake and dance along.
- After a heartbreaking "In Memoriam" segment (in which they surprisingly didn't mention deceased Glee-Superstar Cory Monteith), Bette Midler majestically performed "Winds Beneath My Wings".
- P!nk sang "Somewhere over the rainbow" as a tribute to The Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland whose 2 daughters, including Liza Minelli and son were also in the audience. P!nk was presented by a weirdly dressed Whoopie Goldberg, fiercly showing her red "slippers".
- Finally John Travolta got to present Idina Menzel... famously mispronouncing her name, calling her Adele Dazeem, causing a huge uproar in the internet and probably unsettling Idina, whose performance of Oscar-winning song "Let It Go" from Frozen was less than perfect, to say the least... At least her new "stage-name" found a place in pop-culture.

The Winners: Of course the internet is full of lists of the winners and losers and here is my opinion to the ones who made and and the ones who didn't.
I am really happy for Gravity winning all those Oscars. Seriously, even though those are only the "small" ones, they are all well-deserved. However I would have been happy to see the Best Actress Oscar go to Sandra Bullock rather than Cate Blanchett (even though she probably deserved it as well for her brilliant performance in Blue Jasmine, but come on, we're talking about Hollywood's elite, they're all supposed to be excellent), since Bullock basically pulled a huge one-woman-show in space, dragging the viewers through all stages of depression, hope, fear and panic.
12 Years A Slave was obviously gonna win Best Picture - everything else would have come across racist (a fact even Ellen mentioned in the introduction at the beginning of the evening), and Lupita Nyong'o was the shining star of the evening anyways, legitimitely winning Best Supporting Actress.
Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey winning for Dallas Buyers Club were no big surprises as well. Especially Jared Leto who sailed through award season like a pirate picking up every trophy on the way.
However, once again I was hoping Leo would finally get his Oscar this time. DiCaprio has been nominated 4 times and never got what he wanted, whereas it was McConaughey's first nomination (at least for an Oscar).

Red Carpet: For me, one of the most exciting part is the red carpet before the show and the stars making their ways to the various after-parties.
My pic for best-dressed woman of the night must be Sandra Bullock, closely followed by Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears (the latter "only" attended Elton John's Viewing Party).
As much as I like Jennifer Lawrence, I didn't really dig her Dior dress, but compared to the light buoy that was Liza Minelli's outfit, she looked like a complete goddess.

In conclusion, this once again was a really entertaining show/night with a lot of suspense and excitement, beautiful people, light-hearted moments and real emotions. I enjoyed this Oscar night much more than the previous two and one of the many reasons for this is the wonderful Ellen DeGeneres!

Star Wars The Clone Wars Bonus Episodes 5-7 [Review]

This weekend, German television Channel "Super RTL" once again aired a missing story arc from the bonus episodes of Season 6 from The Clone Wars. This time the story centers around Senator Amidala, Anakin Skywalker and old frienemy Rush Clovis.

I really enjoyed the first one of the missing story-arcs, which was mainly about "Order 66". This one here focused once again on intergalactic politics, jealousy and scheming and was also quite impressive, however far from perfect.

The story was much quicker, left only little time for relaxed, fun moments, even though the action was quite impressive in this arc. Like last time I won't recount the story completely, rather than picking out highlights that I really enjoyed and things (if there are any) that I didn't like at all.

First of all, I loved the setting. Scipio is amazingly well-designed and the Banking-Clan buildings looked very cool and smoothly integrated into the planet's snowy mountains. In addition to that I really loved their means of transportation which highly reminded me of a mix between Jabba's Skiffs from Return of the Jedi and Santa's sleigh.
The bounty hunter the protagonists have to run from in the beginning is really cool and the downhill-chase is just thrillingly fun to watch - reminded me of a more mature version of the one in Ice Age ;-)
And then comes the dull part. Anakin and Amidala get in the middle of a big scheme: Palpatine/Sidious longs for power over the intergalactic banks and tries to use Clovis to achieve his goal.
Amidala gets entangled in the whole plot and makes Anakin jealous, since she gets quite close to Clovis in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked the idea of seeing a jealous Jedi again, since that's the main reason why love is not allowed in this order, but for a 20-something-minutes TV episode it was a lot to swallow in terms of character development.
Best part about the the whole subplot is when Obi-Wan reminds his former Padawan about his blundering with Dutchess Satine and why it is so important for a Jedi to not give in to his feelings. Loved it.

Of course the whole situation gets solved and all we have is yet another really enjoyable Clone Wars Adventure (even though neither clones nor war is overly present in this one, which is fine by me).

I really do not miss Ahsoka so far and the quality of these stories is way higher than our average The Clone Wars episode. Now I totally understand why they didn't throw these stories away but wanted to show the audience what great plans they had for season 6.

I definitely enjoyed these three episodes, much more than the single Jar-Jar Episode they aired after that...

Pacific Rim [Review]

Well, Pacific Rim... You're like Megan Fox. You're really, really hot, but if you have a closer look at your thumbs you realize that even the hottest chick comes with her flaws (I'm gay by the way, so no sexist gibberish). You wonder what this lead-in has to do with the following review? Me too...

Ok story: This guy (from Sons of Anarchy) fights against monsters from some kind of other dimension - called Kaijus - in a really huge, impressive Robot called Jaeger. That's all... there you have it!

However I really enjoyed this movie. There's not much I can say about the story, since there is not a lot of it in the movie: Mankind is fighting against this awesomely  good designed Monsters that came from a breach in the Pacific Ocean. They destroy everything without a reason.Which weirdly makes sense to me...
However story (and they even put in some mildly interesting side-stories and back-stories for the otherwise quite stereotypical characters) isn't what makes this movie watchable. It's the action and the Jaegers/Kaijus destroying whole cities.
Hong Kong was one of those and I think they could have portrayed it in a better way. The fighting scenes between men and monster were obviously shot in North America. I really love Hong Kong and think that it's a really beautiful city and they just didn't manage to capture this beauty on screen... In other words - I didn't really care about it, because as far as I'm concerned it could have been any other city located around the pacific.

However this is a nice movie. I enjoyed it with all of its flaws and at the end of the day it has a really nice message: You always have to work together to overcome great obstacles. During the whole movie you get this really nice team-spirit and a lot of odd couples find out, that they are most effective when working together and not against each other, embracing their respective counterparts with all of their flaws and edges.

Go watch it, get it on Blu-Ray, enjoy it on a rainy Sunday... you can't go wrong with this movie.

If you loved Independence Day you will like this movie...

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire [Review]

I know it's late, but why not talk about this already much talked-about sequel to 2012's The Hunger Games. So here are my opinions...

First of all, I have to say that I enjoyed the first part of this four-part trilogy (yes, they are turning the last book of the novel-trilogy into two separate movies - a trend that I don't really like btw) and that I couldn't wait to finally see the second part.
The first part introduced us into this post-apocalyptic world, where children are forced to kill each other in an arena - with the slaughter made into a big television event, watched by thousands of people similar to popular reality competition shows of our times.

Before watching the first part I was kind of hesitant, because I heard that it's yet another movie of the so-called Twilight-generation, but since I found Twilight trashy and cheesy enough to actually enjoy it in the end, I thought - why not give The Hunger Games the same chance?

Ok, but this is about Catching Fire... The beginning of the movie came in a bit too quickly, which made me regret not rewatching the first movie before, but after five minutes I got used to the characters and to the new situation and some memories of the first movie were refreshed in the first part of the film anyways.
Let me say, I really like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She is a very talented and beautiful actress and her heartfelt performance of the first installment was only exceeded by the emotional rollercoaster-ride she showed us in this sequel.
Plus, whoever designed those costumes has done a marvelous job (once again), her "wedding"-dress was one of the best things in this movie.

The story was quite simple: The two main characters had to do the Hunger Games again, because the evil Capitol felt that Katniss shouldn't become the symbol (Mockingjay) of freedom to the rebels, but this time the winners from all the previous games were in the running.
The games itself were located in a fake-tropical paradise with various dangers like thunderbolts, waves, aggressive monkeys and creepy skin-cauterizing fog. Compared to the first movie the dangers of the arena were a bit more intimidating, but the adversaries were simply mundane. As a viewer I did not feel like Katniss was in immediate danger from any of the other tributes at any time. The ending conveniently told me why, though, which kind of satisfied me. However a bit more action and brutality wouldn't have hurt the movie. But since the books aim to a teenaged audience, the script had to adapt to that target group.

In conclusion, the movie has its ups and downs. When the two main protagonists spend some time in the capitol - that's when the real story happens. The rest, of course is pure action and entertainment, but the real, creepy, compelling part of the movie is the scheming and manipulating of the government. It shows the audience how much power media has over them and sometimes even makes the viewer wonder how much he is controlled by TV, Internet and all those "modern" things himself...
In a hypothetical way, this vision about the future comes quite close to what our fate might really look like. However the whole fiction lacks in depth. We don't get a lot of back information in the movies. I haven't read the books (yet) but I know, that even those won't answer questions like "What happens to the rest of the world? Does every country have the same system? Are there any other countries?"

Ok. If you liked the first movie, you will also like the second one. It's not an epic, must-see classic, but it's fun and inspiring - at least for some of us. And Jennifer Lawrence is doing a magnificent job!

Star Wars The Clone Wars Bonus Episodes 1-4[Review]

Thank god for German television.
I never thought that we were going to get the new The Clone Wars bonus content before the U.S., but I guess I was wrong.
German TV-Channel "Super RTL" showed the first 4 episodes in a row and picked out the long awaited "Order 66"-arc for the "season"-premiere. So here's what I think about these 4 episodes...

Before I start, big "thank you" to the guys from Lucasfilm Animation who made this possible. It is not very common for a cancelled show to release new content after its cancellation (and I really enjoyed the end of season 5 when Ahsoka walks away from the Jedi Order), so the fact, that we have a whole set of new episodes is really awesome!

The first 4 of the new episodes were broadcast exclusivly at German TV Station "Super RTL", aiming for a younger audience. However they made the content available online after it aired so with a VPN even people not living in Germany (like me) got the chance to experience this chapter of this galaxy far, far away.

The plot was centered around clone-trooper Fives and his pal Tup, who was seemingly infected by a virus, making him murder one of the (previously unseen) Jedi generals (picture above) during a fight against the droid army.
After evil leader Count Dooku finds out about this betrayal he commands his troops to capture the seemingly sick clone and bring him before him, but Anakin Skywalker and Fives manage to free and safely return him to Kamino where further examination is being done.

However Fives - with the help of a very entertaining medical Droid AZ-3 - finds out, that the Kaminoans are planning to kill his friend in order to protect the secret of the built-in bio-chips every clone has in his brain. These chips  - of course - let the clones execute Order 66 (that's why the Clones start shooting at their Jedi friends in Episode III).

During the climax of the story-arc, Fives - unable to safe his friend, but equipped with the devastating truth - is hunted through the streets of Coruscant after being conned by Chancellor Palpatine aka Darth Sidious himself. The tragic ending makes sure, that the Jedi still have no clue about what's really going on...

The episodes were very entertaining and didn't feel like 4 single episodes, but like a solid, dark, interesting Star Wars movie.
The animations were even better than ever and the cast did an enourmosly good job. Especially the character of Fives (who we've met before during the regular run of the show) was incredibly deep and you would regularly forget that he's "just" a clone.
These 4 episodes also make a perfect lead-in to the final installment of the prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, since Order 66 is explained and the Republic, as well as the Kaminoans are portrayed in a more shady and secretive way - slightly detached from the formerly all-powerful Jedi Order.

However, the episodes also have their downsides. Sometimes it seems like Fives is too strong and intelligent compared to the quickly-defeated clones and easily-tricked Kaminoans. Another thing that I didn't enjoy was the space station that surrounded a whole planet like a huge ring. They could have used it as a much more integral part of the plot, however it's like any other spacestation or starship - a mere stage to an exhaustingly repetetive fighting scene.
On the other hand the scenes, in which Anakin and the clones travel through the vacuum of space are intriguing and the death toll of Tup's kidnapping and rescue is quite high. The whole mission to rescue Tup positively reminded me of the scavenging done by the Crew from Firefly.

In conclusion, the good parts of the arc predominate the few weaker aspects and all you get is a great, actionpacked mini-movie worthy of its brand-name.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the bonus episodes.