Topic: Critter's Films at Cinemas Reviews

[Critter]

How To Train Your Dragon



Director: Dean DeBlois
                      Chris Sanders

Writer: Cressida Cowell (based on the novel by)
                    Dean DeBlois (screenplay)

Plot: A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

Cast:
Jay Baruchel – Hiccup
Gerard Butler – Stoic
Craig Ferguson – Gobber
Christopher Mintz-Plasse – Fishlegs
America Ferrera – Astrid
Jonah Hill - Snoutlout

My Thoughts
Now now DreamWorks, where did this come from? A film with a fantastic storyline, no copious amounts of unneeded pop culture references and hardly any toilet humour. Is this really a DreamWorks film? I had to keep asking myself that while watching this latest effort. DreamWorks do indeed seem to be improving their game lately, what with the very decent Kung Fu Panda and now this. I still don’t think they have a made a film that is quite as PIXAR worthy as some people seem to think but they sure are coming close, which in my books is quite a good thing.

How To Train Your Dragon was a surprisingly heartfelt and exciting film, with stunning visuals as  many of the action or flying scenes with the dragons were superb, and while the film may not have quite the lasting impression of say, Up it was still highly entertaining, and a fun fast-paced film without ever feeling too childish. I myself have never read the books this film is based on but that doesn’t seem to matter at all as I still highly enjoyed it. The fact that the main Dragon ‘Toothless’ bears a striking resembles to Disney’s ‘Stitch’ as they were designed by the same person bothered me at first, but I soon came to love the creature in the film.

I saw this in 3D and feel that the 3D actually enhanced this film, unlike a lot of the other 3D efforts out at the moment. The story was clever and while being quite straight-forward and easy to follow it still had a nice couple of twists which you didn’t expect from the start. I felt the ending was maybe a little overly happy, going with a traditional happy ending to appease the kids but overall a great animated film, one which I would love to see again.

Rating: 4/5

[Critter]

Iron Man 2



Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Justin Theroux (screenplay)
Stan Lee (Marvel comic book) ...

Plot: Billionaire Tony Stark must contend with deadly issues involving the government, his own friends, as well as new enemies due to his superhero alter ego Iron Man.

Cast:

Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark
Gwyneth Paltrow - Pepper Potts
Don Cheadle - Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes
Scarlett Johansson - Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff
Sam Rockwell - Justin Hammer
Mickey Rourke - Ivan Vanko
Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury

My Thoughts

So I saw Iron Man 2 last night on it’s opening day in Australia. I did quite enjoy the first one but for some reason I didn’t have extremely high expectations for this one, and because of that I think I was able to enjoy it more. This film was extremely fun to see at the cinema but it didn’t have quite the lasting impression of the first one and unlike some other films I have been seeing lately, I don’t have the urge to see it again. Like I said though a great couple of hours of entertainment, just maybe not quite living up to it’s predecessor.

The film looked great, the design on the suits and the other robots that entered at the end was fantastic, and the animation for them was flawless. The sound was fantastic, I may as well have been on a battlefield several times in the film and that’s one of the reasons that if you want to see this, you should see it in the cinema.

I can’t quite pinpoint exactly what it is that made this one feel lackluster to the first, I can’t seem to put it down to any one aspect although I must say that after the first, the plot in this at some parts felt very repetitive. One part in particular annoyed me a bit as they seemed to make the exact same mistake as they did in the first… these people never seem to learn.

One thing that was actually a major highlight for me was the addition of Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman or The Black Widow. Her character was fantastic, and while I think she did have quite a bit of screen time I feel they should have developed her more throughout the film. One scene in particular, a fight scene of hers was beautiful to watch, it was like watching art, or ballet. Fight scenes in films are something that have become quite repetitive, but there was something unique about how this character fought that was a joy to behold… my only complaint being that there was not enough of it.

 Rating: 3/5