“Dracula Untold” is an american dark fantasy action movie. Luke Evans as the main actor, which is defintively always worth a watch.

Plot

The happenings in this movie take place in the 15th-century. Knowing war is coming, Vlad seeks help from a vampire. The vampire tells him there are consequences and offers him some of his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for three days, he will turn back into a human.

Of course he fails to resist.

Reception

The movie has only an approval rating of 24% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 4.46/10 on rottentomatoes. I, though, liked it a lot and actually have it on my rewatch-list.

I would rate it at 7.5/10 I guess, especially because (dark) fantasy action is one of my preffered movie genres.

#movie #fantasy #dark #action

“Men in Black: International” is the fourth installment of the Men in Black film series, and the first one to not feature Will Smith as the main actor. And that shows.

Will Smith truly gave the Men in Black series its special spin. Men in Black: International does not live up to that (fairly high) standard. Still, it does not fail to entertain, in my opinion.

A word on “political correctness”

Yes, Men in Black: International features a female actor as the main character. I get the impression that more and more film makers aim for what is called “political correctness” by installing female actors in movies.

I do not think this is a bad idea.

But, why does this mean that movies and film series which strongly build on the “Macho/Bad-Boy” stereotype are now “reinvented” with a female main character? There was a debate about a female 007, there is certainly some online discussion about “Star Trek: Discovery” and now there is a female Men in Black main actor. In my opinion, that is a rather uninspired and dull move. Aiming for more female actors for the main character is a very creditable goal – but just re-doing movies and replacing a male main character with a female feels like a half-hearted attempt.

I, for one, would love to see more new female main character movies.

Plot

In the 90s, Molly witnesses her parents being neuralyzed by agents of MIB. She stays un-neuralyzed. From then on, she aims to become one of the MIB.

Besides from that, the plot does not differ greatly from the other MIB movies, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Critic

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on 318 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10.

(wikipedia)

Strangely, in contrast to the efforts of installing a female character as a strong woman, the movie has lost its coolness. This could have been the one key point where the movie could be able to continue the MIB franchise with a female main character! The previous MIB movies were always some sort of “bad-boy cool-gangster-themed” action movie with comedic elements. Men in Black International does not continue on that road, unfortunately.

Still, the movie is nice for an evening of Monsters and action, and I would agree on the 4.5/10 of rottentomatoes.

#movie #comedy #action #fantasy

R.I.P.D. or “Rest in Peace Department” is a “2013 American science fiction action comedy film”.

Let me anticipate: The movie was a flop. It had negative reviews and was financially unsuccessfull. I can see why.

Plot

As always, I do not want to give away that much information (even less than the wikipedia article on the movie):

Nick, a police officer, dies. After his death, he gets recruited by the Rest in Peace Department, where he should take care of the undead that walk the earth and refuse to move on to the afterlife. He, with his partner Roy, soon has to save the earth from the apocalypse.

My opinion

I have to say that the plot is not very exciting and the movie has only a weak 3.70/10 on rotten tomatoes and bad reviews on other sites as well.

And I have to agree. The movie is not complete garbage, I laughted at least one time... it keeps you entertained to a certain level, perfect if you just want to hang around on your couch after a hard days work but you don't want to have one of these exciting action movies or complicated sci-fi movies on your screen, but something simple that keeps your mind busy but not overloaded.

For that scenario, the movie serves. For everything else, watch something else! 3/10 from me.

#movie #comedy #action #fiction

Wrath of the Titans is a 2012 action fantasy film and a sequel to the 2010 film Clash of the Titans. The latter was rather nice, as far as I can remember. With Wrath of the Titans, I have to admit that the things in my mastodon timeline were more interesting than the movie, so I did not see all scenes.

Plot

Well, it is another one of these “greek/ancient gods fight to save the world”-movies. I really have to admit that I did not get the entire plot and had to read up on wikipedia.

To give you the one phrase from wikipedia that describes the plot best:

Zeus visits Perseus and asks for his help, saying that humans are not praying to the gods; as a result, [...] they can no longer [..] hold[ing] back the imprisoned Titan Kronos from freedom.

Critique

You may have already noticed that I wasn't paying too much attention to the movie. Yes, it was rather easy to get distracted! It is certainly not bad, given that quite a few good and known actors are starred, e.g. Sam Worthington (one of my favourite actors), Rosamund Pike, Ralph Fiennes and also Loam Neeson (and of course some more known ones).

Rotten Tomatoes [...] reports that 27% of 172 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.47/10.

(wikipedia)

And I must agree with that. The fight scenes are okayish, the acting is good but there were no emotions sparked with me. I would rate it with 4.5/10, confirming the rottentomatoes average.

#movie #action #fantasy

This time I want to write not about a Sci-Fi series or movie, but an action movie. The Italian Job is a “heist action thriller”. I like it because it does not have too much violence, only a bit of gunfire and one or two punches, but that's it.

Also, the movie is rather well-staffed, starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Jason Statham (which is one of the actors I'm rather fond of, to be honest).

Plot

As always, I do not want to spoiler too much, hence only this bit: The movie sets of in Venice, where John Bridger, a professional safecracker, manages to steal $35 Million with his team. After a successful escape, a team member turns on them and manages to escape. Of course, this means revenge.

Rating

The Italian Job “was the highest-grossing film produced by Paramount in 2003” (according to wikipedia). It has a relatively good rating of 6.43/10 on rottentomatoes and I would give it a solid 7/10.

#movie #action #thriller

I am known for not being the biggest fan of horror movies. In fact, I avoid them like crazy. Now, “The Covenant” is not necessarily a real horror movie, but wikipedia titles it “supernatural action horror film” and I agree wholeheartedly.

Is there a #database of #movies that show #spiders? Because I'd LOVE to have a database on this so I can avoid these movies!

(toot)

Either way, the movie is exciting!

The Plot

As always, I do not give away too much of the plot here, even less than the wikipedia article on the movie!

In “The Covenant”, four teenagers, the descendants of colonial witch families, have magical abilities. At the age of 18, they ascend and their powers become massive. At their school, they meet a new student: Chase. Though, she starts to experience strange things, as do the boys.

Things go strange and downhill faster and faster, with a malicious (magical) actor revealing later in the plot.

My opinion

I already wrote that I'm not that fond of spiders in movies, especially if they are part of the plot. Still, the movie was great and I liked it a lot. The music is very well suited for that kind of movie and I loved the Metalish/Hardrockish atmosphere.

The movie is pretty dark overall, which is not that surprising, given its genre. Still, what really bothered me is that it rains constantly in the movie, except for the scenes where the main character drives his car – because they always drive open-top. It's really a goof, in my opinion!

I must say, though, that the movie was not very well recepted in media. It has only an approval rate of disillusioning 4 % on rottentomatoes, and an average score of 2.84/10!

The Covenant plays out like a teen soap opera, full of pretty faces, wooden acting, laughable dialogue, and little suspense.

(rottentomatoes)

I agree, but the characters are still well-played and it clearly did not fail to entertain me.

#movie #horror #action #supernatural

Altered Carbon is a Sci-Fi/Thriller series (wikipedia says “Cyberpunk”) produced by Netflix. Most Sci-Fi movies that were published in the last years were more or less “meh” (at least the ones from Hollywood). But not this one.

It was the first Sci-Fi series in years that really got me. Two seasons of ten and eigth episodes of pure tension, nice cliff-hangers, awesome spins and really, really nice plot twists. Like, not plot twist were you think “they just did this to keep going” – no, plot twist that one could've seen coming if being attentive, but surprising nonetheless.

I really, really hope that there will be a third season and that they continue with the high level of action, emotions, tension and well-crafted story line.

About the plot: I don't want to spoiler too much, because the plot is rather clear after the pilot episode. Just a few things: Takeshi Kovacs, is a former member of an elite military force of futuristic soldiers, part intelligence operative and part shock trooper, trained to adapt quickly to new bodies and new environments. He was in prison for 250 years, but is pulled back into a body because one of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the settled world wants him to solve his murder.

I guess that's not too much spoilered.

---

I've also been told that the movies differ greatly from the books. I've not read the books, but I liked the movie a lot and I guess others will to, even if they've read the books.

#movie #scifi #sciencefiction #thriller #action

The first movie I want to talk about is Riddick, actually it is three movies. The main actor is Vin Diesel, which is one of my favourite actors in the action genre. I didn't know that Diesel actually did a fantasy movie, because that's what “Riddick” is – an action+fantasy movie.

I wasn't aware of the Riddick movies until someone told me about them. And I fell in love within the first couple of minutes watching the first one (Pitch Black, 2000).

Diesel, most known for playing Dominic Toretto in Fast & Furious plays Riddick, who is an infamous former mercenary and solider (“antihero”) who is held hostage on a space ship that crashes. Riddick escapes. You might think that the crew of the ship has a problem now, given that Riddick was held hostage and they might get killed by him. Though, Riddick is far from being their biggest problem on the planet they crashed on.

That's how the first movie, Pitch Black, is set up for. The later two movies, “The Chronicles of Riddick”, 2004, and “Riddick”, 2013, follow on that story line and Diesel continues to impress with that roleof Riddick.

The movies are rather dark (both in their theming and in their display of the environment), which is part of the Plot in all three movies. Riddick continues to be an emotionless berserker in all three movies and stays in the role, which I really like. Most multi-part movies tend to give the main character a bit more of emotion in the later parts, weaken the role of the heartless berserker. These movies do not.

I hope the fourth movie, which is not even announced yet, Diesel continues that exact role.

#vindiesel #riddick #movie #scifi #action #fantasy #dark