ArtisticallyChill

To say that Pixar’s TOY STORY 3 is an awesome film, is an understatement. TOY STORY 3 IS A TOUR DE FORCE! From the animation to the story, Pixar continues to raise the bar in 3D animated storytelling like no other.

If you only see one 3D animated flick all year, make it TOY STORY 3. If you end up seeing them all, you’ll find that TOY STORY 3 will not only be the most memorable but this chill flick will definitely find a place in your heart along with TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2!

~ LoneWolf

Despite suffering from a bit of ‘sequel-itis’, Iron Man 2 is definitely a better superhero sequel than most others in the past. It’s not as great as Spider-Man 2, but definitely a million times better than Spider-Man 3, The X-men sequels and F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Where it suffers is from the usual suspects of ‘sequel-itis’.

The movie dragged in some scenes that could have been done without and this goes hand in hand with the other symptom of having too many characters trying to get enough screen time for us to care about them. Nick Fury, Black Widow, Justing Hammer, and even Happy Hogan seemed to stretch their roles a little too much for my taste. I would have solved this by:

• Keeping the main focus of the story on further developing Whiplashe’s character and on the villain, Tony Stark himself. This would go on for about 1/3 of the movie.
• The birthday party scene must go. It would have been better to see Iron Man trying to save the day while intoxicated. Destruction and slight hilarity ensues. Pepper is then forced to call Rhodie. She helps him put on the Mark II armor by bypassing any safety and security protocols Tony set up for the suit since she is his most trusted confidant and current CEO of Stark Industries.
• All scenes of Nick Fury are to be replaced with video communications. Have him contact Tony from the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier when Tony finds the mysterious package dropped off by Agent Coulson after Tony decides to play drunken superhero and Rhodie makes off with the Mark II armor.
• Black Widow remains undercover and limiting her screen time until the very end when she alone goes into Hammer Industries to override Whiplashes control over War Machine.
• Happy Hogan remains in the car after Black Widow incapacitates him with a ‘tranq’ dart when he insists on helping.
• Whiplash kills Justin Hammer with one of his drones after he takes control of them at the Stark Expo.
• Iron Man/War Machine vs Whiplash end battle should go on a bit longer now that everyone else’s scenes have been cut/reduced. Rhode should only last halfway through the battle since he is still a noob when it comes to piloting the suit. He gets knocked out while Iron Man and Whiplash duke it out in a well choreographed fight scene until the end when Whiplash has them both on their knees then they both take Whiplash out with that ‘Repulsor High Five’ move.
• Avengers. Yes, we get it. There’s going to be an Avengers movie. Please stop shoving that notion in our faces. The Avengers Initiative shouldn’t be mentioned until the end, in the final video communication between Nick Fury and Tony Stark.

And there you have it, my cut of Iron Man 2. Despite its flaws, Iron Man 2 still remains a chill flick in comparison to previous superhero sequels. Robert Downey Jr. did an outstanding job of bringing the Tony Stark character to life, showing us that not all superheroes are boy scouts. Let’s hope that Iron Man 3 will learn from the mistakes of Iron Man 2 and not let the franchise fall deeper into ‘sequel-itis’ forcing another reboot like in the comic books that won’t be at all that great (see Punisher Warzone, Spider-man 4 and X-men First Class).

~ LoneWolf

THE LOVELY BONES

Based off the book of the same name written by Alice Sebold, THE LOVELY BONES tells the story of Susie Salmon who was murdered at the age of 14. Trapped in limbo, Susie’s spirit watches as her family deals with her disappearance and her killer tries to cover his tracks and plan his next kill. It was a rather entertaining movie, filled with some fantastic CGI imagery for the ‘In-between’ or Limbo that Susie Salmon roamed. Serena had read the book and like most movie adaptations, there were a few things left out that could have made it a better movie but would have increased the running time much longer than it already was. With suspenseful movie like this, you don’t want to keep viewers at the edge of their seats too long. Otherwise, they would fall off and lose interest, just wanting the movie to be over with already. If you haven’t already read the book, I recommend doing so just to get more depth out of the characters and further appreciation of the story.

THE BOOK OF ELI

I enjoyed Denzel Washington’s performance. The plot, however, is a bit ridiculous but does a good job of being a conversational piece. Is it the first great film of 2010? I don’t believe so. It’s one of the better post-apocalyptic movies of the decade, but nothing I believe to be spectacular. As my cousin commented on facebook, “It was like Waterworld without the water with a touch of Road Warrior.” What I find to be ridiculous is that the book (which is made obvious as to what that book is early on in the movie) is explained in the movie as the cause of mankind nearly destroying themselves to almost extinction, and yet mankind wants to preserve the last copy after all others had been burned after wars were over and the bombs were dropped. It makes no sense. It’s like mankind wants to start the end of the world, again. It’s like how mankind eradicated small pox yet you know some government or agency has the last specimen of small pox locked up in some freezer in some secure facility for no real good reason, but just to hold on to it. Are we really to believe that mankind’s rebirth in a post-apocalyptic world will be dependent on what caused it’s downfall in the first place?

The acting was great, especially by Denzel Washington. The action was delivered in timely amounts to keep the story moving at a nice pace. Other than the weak foundation of the plot, the movie is still a pretty chill flick.

If you were only allowed to watch the 4 flicks mentioned above, the order I would recommend would be: The Book of Eli, Waterworld (yeah that’s right), The Road Warrior, and then The Lovely Bones.

~ LoneWolf