Wonder Woman (2017) movie review

9/10

There is wonder in 'most everything I see

The Good: Best written romance in a comic book movie, heartfelt character development, excellent cast chemistry, outstanding soundtrack, explores deeper themes

The Bad: underdeveloped supporting villain, some instances of sub par special effects

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The origin story of the quintessential female superhero is finally realised on the big screen. Only the fourth entry into the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), WONDER WOMAN is an feature length flashback detailing the events behind the mysterious photo from the First World War that was shown in 2016's BATMAN V SUPERMAN. 

Before she became a hero, Diana of the Amazons had only known a paradise of sisters forged in the ideals of cooperation and a Mission to defend the world against Ares, the last of the old Greek gods. Her perfect world is shattered when war comes to Paradise Island in the form of the American spy Steve Trevor and a ship full of German enemy pursuers. Diana in her innocent idealism believes Ares to be responsible for the war and leaves the island with Trevor in the hope that killing Ares will spare innocent lives from the horrors of war.

Giving life to the character of Diana is actress Gal Gadot. Gal is a dead ringer for the iconic superhero, looking exactly like she stepped out of the comic books. The earnestness she brings to the role perfectly conveys Diana's innocence and idealistic outlook. Much time is spent focused on the characters such that even side characters receive decent characterisation and development. 

Diana shares a magnificent chemistry with co-star Chris Pine playing the world weary captain Steve Trevor. Their romantic sub plot can be compared to classic romances like Casablanca, masterfully and tastefully realised on screen. But the more intriguing aspect is when the movie goes into their minds, showing their contrasting perspectives on life.

Diana approaches her Mission like a child approaching a fairy tale story. Clear black and white morality, destroy the bad guy and the world is saved. That simple. Unfortunately, it is not that simple and her entire story is one of growing up and seeing the truth about humanity's ugly nature. On the flip side, Trevor straddles the line of cynicism; he knows full well the worst that humanity is capable of yet cannot bring himself to break Diana's innocent worldview.

What begins as a relatively run of the mill superhero origin story morphs into a surprisingly deep narrative that seeks to shatter viewer expectations. True to the DCEU, WONDER WOMAN, like its predecessors, explores some heady themes against the backdrop of war. Key of which is weighing Diana's idealism against worldly cynicism and outright nihilism. 

The movie explores those perspectives through its characters, never preaching one over the other and coming to a mature conclusion that ties into an ongoing theme of "hero by choice, not by obligation" that the DCEU movies had been conveying.

The movie never shies away from showing the true horrors of combat, broken families, broken people, a hero helpless against the odds, a truly dark time serving as a stark contrast to the amazon's paradise island. Into this darkness comes Diana herself who is given ample opportunity to flex her powers in a spectacular show of Super heroics.

Patty Jenkins approaches the action like a pro, keeping to the more fantastic, speed ramped portrayal of superhero fighting as established by Zack Snyder, while adding her own touches such as the amazons' uniquely cooperative battle tactics (which gets a wonderful payoff later in the movie). Her masterful direction extends to the balanced tone of the movie. Many comic book movies prefer to stuff their narrative with humour, even in the middle of intense battle scenes, such that the movie fails to take itself seriously. WONDER WOMAN does not fall into that trap. 

The battles are approached with respectful gravitas, and a genuine sense of peril. Bookending such sequences are character centred scenes in a peaceful setting which help to develop their relationships in a very natural and heartfelt way. There is humour and it is used sparingly, never detracting from the underlying themes or the seriousness of the setting.

This balance gives us a product that can easily appeal to everyone. Diana as a character is one that anyone who had ever been a child can relate to. The epic action, consistently focused on the characters and set to an emotionally rousing score by Rupert Gregson Williams (Legend of Tarzan), will please the typical blockbuster fan. 

For those who love the deeper more  complex cinematic offerings, you will not be disappointed by the themes explored in this move. And as a refreshing surprise, WONDER WOMAN features what I can unabashedly say is the most genuine and well written romance in a comic book movie, ever.

Truly wonderful.

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Entertainment: A

Story: A-

Acting: A-

Characters: A

Music: B+

Replay value: A-

"Brains": A-

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) movie review

Overall verdict: 7.5/10

The one where Godzilla is a super zombie and beats up wimpy versions of classic monsters 

The Good: Awesome special effects on modest budget, beautiful production design, pulse pounding score, well developed human characters, 

The Bad: deviates from established science fiction genre, some obvious green screen effects, weakening of supporting monsters, 

***********Review***********

Godzilla mothra and king ghidorah: giant monsters all out attack or GMK for short can be considered a semi-reboot of the franchise. Compared to the rest of the millennium era Godzilla movies, GMK is the most unique in terms of tone, spirit and overall feel of the movie. Even Godzilla's origin and design sets itself apart. Here is a monster mashup done well, despite its budgetary limitations, with a bigger badder Godzilla than ever.

Where Godzilla films have been mostly sci fi in nature, GMK seeks to throw in a supernatural fantasy spin on a familiar mythos. As usual, a string of mysterious attacks on sea vessels, this case some submarines, leads the the reemergence of Godzilla. Defeated in the 1950s by a destructive chemical weapon, Godzilla's corpse was apparently reanimated by the souls of world war 2 soldiers. 

Larger, angrier and more powerful than ever, this super zombie Godzilla is possessed by pure evil as he starts tearing his way across japan. Meanwhile, an intrepid reporter discovers an old prophecy that seems to foretell the second coming of Godzilla and an old man who reveals to her the legend of three guardian monsters who would be the key to ending Godzilla's murderous rampage.

This fantasy retelling, as well as reworking familiar monsters' origins, may not sit well with some. On its own merits, this movie works; recasting Baragon, Mothra and Ghidorah into mythical guardians of earth; a big change especially for Ghidorah who was in previous films an alien weapon of destruction. 

The first thing to stand out were the new monster designs. Intricately crafted yet with a decent amount of mobility. Godzilla gets special mention for his menacing new look; vampire fangs, jet black skin, insanely sharp claws and soulless white eyes oozing with evil. His overall look is closer to the original Godzilla only with his size and fearsome features pumped to the max.

What many would appreciate is the return of "Godzilla is the ultimate badass" theme. Here he is the villain and humanity is powerless. The monsters engage in truly spectacular fights with the director's stylish camera-work enhancing the scale of such clashes. Another mistake this movie corrects from previous ones is that even in scenes without the monsters, their presence is felt. 

Many past films just drag in their human scenes until the beasts show up for the action. Accompanying the action here is a pulse pounding score by Kou Otani whom anime fans would recognize as the composer for Gundam Wing Endless Waltz and many other memorable anime soundtracks.

GMK's human characters are well developed; we see our main character go from just wanting the scoop of a lifetime to a well rounded individual who has experienced true horrors of disaster yet pulled through. 

The monsters, who are the stars, are by far the best among the millennium series of Godzilla movies. Perhaps the fantasy element was not too popular, seeing as how subsequent movies went back to sci-fi. But no doubt, it was a bold move, a bold semi reboot, with awesome action, great production design for its modest budget, and a story that never let's up with the tension. A must watch for any Godzilla fan.

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Entertainment: A

Story: B+

Acting: B

Characters: B+

Music: B+

Replay value: B+

"Brains": C-

Godzilla: Final War (2004) movie review

Overall verdict: 6/10

The one that copied The Matrix, Star Wars and X-men, where an overpowered Godzilla destroyed all monsters 

The Good: Memorable characters, dynamic directing style, intense fight scenes, highly entertaining

The Bad: rips off too many other movies, inconsistent tone, disappointing musical score, cheesy writing, sub standard CGI effects, over the top acting

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Godzilla bows out on his 50th birthday with the massive multi monster mash up GODZILLA FINAL WAR. Stylishly directed by horror action director Ryuhei Kitamura, GODZILLA FINAL WAR is essentially a modernized remake of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. 

Godzilla, the king of monsters, lies trapped under the Arctic ice, but earth is determined never to be caught off guard again by giant monsters. The Earth Defense Force trains an elite team of soldiers comprising men and women enhanced by a mysterious mutant gene. Led by captain Douglas Gordon, the man who first defeated the legendary Godzilla many years ago, this M-Organisation hunts down monsters across the globe.

The discovery of an ancient cyborg creature called Gigan leads to a monster invasion of titanic proportions. Giant beasts appear across the globe, wrecking havoc. Captain Gordon leads his team of mutant monster hunters in the Gotengo, an advanced spacecraft armed to the teeth. But just as the counterattack is underway, the monsters are seemingly disintegrated by human like aliens known as the Xilliens. 

The Xilliens come in peace, but Captain Gordon has his suspicions. These suspicions are proved right when it is discovered that the ancient cyborg, the mutant soldiers and the Xilliens share the same mutant gene. This same gene allows them to be put under mind control! With chaos reigning from within and from beyond, captain Gordon initiates a plan to turn Godzilla loose on the invaders.

Sure we have seen this monster mash up scenario play out across multiple forms of fiction, but only here does it play out under the keen direction of Ryuuhei Kitamura. Kitamura brings a stylish dynamic look to FINAL WAR; visually it looks on par with blockbusters 10 times it's budget. His direction in action scenes is intense and fast paced, using a good range of camera tricks to bring out the scale and ferocity of the monster clashes.

Yet mr kitamura's visual acumen cannot make up for all the other flaws of this movie. First and foremost being the story, which manages to rip off Star Wars

, x-men, the matrix

, Independence Day,

 and many other far superior Hollywood films. The unoriginal premise and plot comprises a range of over acted characters trying to be "edgy". The actors turn in fine performances with nothing entirely cringe worthy, but the fault lies in the writer who pens some truly cheesy lines right out of bad fan fiction. 

I do however appreciate the diverse ethnicity of the characters, under utilized though they may be, which gives the movie a broader international feel.  You may recognize Kane Kosugi, Hollywood actor and son of the classic ninja actor Sho Kosugi, as well as Don Frye channeling the best of middle age macho through his character of Captain Gordon.

Being a 2004 movie, one should not expect too much in terms of special effects. Is it then too much to expect for special effects to improve just a little bit from the mid 1990s? Sure the movie is in HD but the miniatures, monster costumes and pyrotechnics look just as good (or bad) as Godzilla movies from the 90s. 

Basically, the more elaborate a monster design, the stiffer it moves. More agile monsters like King Caesar, Gigan and Monster X look like something out of power rangers. 

Godzilla himself looks leaner but has a weird tiny head, rat like ears, a perpetual squint and moves just as stiff as most millennium era Godzilla movies.

Unlike other Godzilla movies where the big G gets up close and personal to deliver the beat down on enemy monsters, Godzilla in FINAL WAR is a living deus ex machina overusing an over powered nuclear breath to solve every conflict.

This fight strategy of blowing away enemies with a giant mouth laser soon becomes real old real fast. So the creative team throws in some truly hilarious scenes like having Godzilla play soccer with 2 other monsters while using another monster as the ball. 

It is instances like this, and much of the hammy human dominated scenes (not to mention every appearance of Godzilla's baby Minila) that makes this movie more like a parody than a serious blockbuster.

No doubt that GODZILLA FINAL WAR was an ambitious project, but the skills of director Kitamura and the film's actors were hampered by an insultingly bad Japanese script (and a laughably horrid English dub), an unoriginal convoluted story with too many sub plots, weak special effects, and a synthesizer soundtrack right out of some old video game. This would be the movie that drove the Godzilla franchise into a 10 year hibernation until it's revival in the 2014 Hollywood remake.

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Entertainment: A

Story: B-

Acting: C+

Characters: B+

Music: D+

Replay value: B+

"Brains":D+

Justice League Vs Teen Titans (2016) direct-to-video animated movie

Overall verdict: 7/10

The Good: amazing animation, detailed art, likeable protagonists, decent development of main  character

The Bad: mediocre music, falls back on cliched archetypes, does not live up to its title

***********Review***********

DC comics is on a roll. The year 2016 sees the first two expansions of the DC Extended universe (The clever deconstruction of iconic heroes in the grand operatic BATMAN V SUPERMAN and history's first super villain centric film SUICIDE SQUAD). It also sees the first official crossover within the shared DC animated movie universe (or what I like to call DCAMU) which was first started in 2013 by JUSTICE LEAGUE WAR and SON OF BATMAN.

Damian Wayne of the batman animated movies meets the justice league as he tags along with his Father Bruce during their missions as Batman and Robin. But the league is not too thrilled at this haughty kid's violent and rash solutions to crime. Raised as a professional assassin since birth, Damian's cruel methods run counter to the league's and Batman's ways. 

Convinced that Damian should learn among teenagers his age, Batman sends his Son to be with the Teen Titans, teenage outcasts with Super powers learning how to control their abilities. There's Jamie Reyes and his barely-controllable Blue Beetle alien Armour, the humorous shape shifting Beast Boy, and the loner girl with a dark secret Raven.

I was a fan of the 2005 Teen Titans cartoon and this landmark movie is the first time in over 30 years that they crossed over with the Justice League (the last time was in Superfriends). Like the justice league, the voices of the teen titans does take some getting used to especially for me having grown up with the 2005 teen titans cartoon voices. It did not take long for the new portrayals to grow on me. They keep faithful to the spirit of the characters aiming for a more traditional portrayal as opposed to their sometimes controversial New 52 incarnations. 

The focus of our story is squarely on Damien and Raven, two of the more aloof members of the TT. Mysterious spectral entities start invading our world, entities with ties to demon lord Trigon who so happens to also be Raven's Father. With magic now squarely in the picture, it isn't long until cop outs like mind control and previously unknown powers ensue.

What could have been a complex clash of morals, agendas and superpowers between the JL and the TT instead devolved into a cliche ridden "band of misfits get together" type of story. Which is a pity since the very existence of the Teen Titans may bring them into conflict with the Justice League. Are they a support group for marginalized super powered teens, or are they child soldiers and potential weapons of mass destruction with all the emotional unpredictability of youth? 

It starts there with the JL wanting to apprehend Raven for her connection to the demonic invasion but instead of pitting hero against hero in a morally grey conflict of agendas, the JL is mind controlled by the demons, prompting the hot headed Teen Titans to stop them and the demon lord Trigon.

The Titans themselves barely get much development outside of Raven and Damien. They exist as typical team archetypes that we have seen in many such team based movies; the rival, the funny guy, the positive one trying to be the glue of the team. To the movie's credit, the characters are a diverse bunch and never fall into racial stereotypes.

By this point in the shallow narrative, at very least we can expect the "vs" in the title to deliver some epic fights. JUSTICE LEAGUE VS TEEN TITANS does not disappoint in that regard. While the actual fight between the League and the Titans last for all of 2 minutes, the other battle scenes in the movie are amazing. The production standard by Moi studio is very polished, balancing art detail with fluid animation. 

At times, the whole movie looks on par with feature length theatrically released anime movies from japan. Moi has consistently produced good work for the Dc animated movies and this is no exception. There is a good deal of action complimented by a serviceable soundtrack by Frederik Weidmann (Beware the Batman) to satisfy even the most superficial of viewers. But for me, I would have appreciated more substance.

A stand out scene was one where the Titans visit a carnival. It is beautiful sequence showing two reserved individuals who had been denied their childhoods, slowly coming out of their shells and embracing a side of themselves rarely expressed. Basically, showing the Teen Titans being teenagers and developing their characters beyond two dimensional archetypes. 

Other than the stellar production standards, JUSTICE LEAGUE VS TEEN TITANS is a shallow, underdeveloped little action romp that wastes a lot of potential. I will give it points for being briskly paced and it actually improves on certain elements of the comics (especially the controversial New 52 incarnations). This movie establishes the Teen Titans as part of the ongoing animated movie continuity, and can only hope that sequels flesh out these wonderful characters a little more. 

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Entertainment: A-
Art: A-
Animation: A

Story: C
Voice Acting (English): A-

Characters: C+

Music: C

Replay value: A-
"Brains": C-