The Visual Arts: MOVIES

Movies! Movies! Movies!

These are some movies that I've watched. How I perceive these movies are based on my personal criterion.

My Top 10 "Good" movies:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

3. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

4. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

5. Iron Man 2

6. Avatar

7. Tangled

8. How to train your Dragon

9. Don't mess with the Zohan

10. 2012

Note:

Overall, what made me perceive these as good movies are based on different criteria. These are; flow of the story, Visual effects, and quality of acting by the actor or actress portraying the different characters of the story. And these ten movies, from my perspective, excels in every criteria that I mentioned. Now, I shall tackle these movies one-by-one, and explain why and how come these movies are good. 

First, are two titles from the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Even if you're not that interested in anything related to pirates, you'll enjoy these two movies because of the great acting by the characters in the movie and the great visual effects that will excite you as the story progresses, especially if watched in 3D. An example of such great acting in the movie, is mostly performed by Johny Depp, acting as Captain Jack Sparrow in the movie. If one already watched the movies "Secret Window" and "Alice in Wonderland", one can see how great his acting skills are. 

Second, will be two parts of the Lord of the Rings series, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Lord of the Rings: The two towers. If you're an avid fan of the medieval ages with a little twist of fantasy and fairy tale then these are the movies you'll have to watch. These movies have superb visual effects that almost portrays every event with realism. Furthermore, it can almost make one believe of the existence of supernatural beings; like elves, hobbits, wraiths, dragons/wyrms, orcs, trolls, goblins, dwarves, wizards, treants, oversized elephants, human with inhuman strength, and giant towering eyes that can see across the land. Aside from the visual effects, what made these movies good is the great acting of characters. How each race acts and feel are greatly portrayed by the actors and actresses. 

Third, is Iron Man 2. Even if you're not a fan of mechanical action. This movie is fun to watch because there is a balance between the acting part, which involves only conversations and a little bit of action, and the action part, wherein there's a lot of shooting and explosions.But the best things about this movie are the fighting events and the humor of the protagonist, Anthony Stark. 

Fourth, is Avatar. This is a great movie made by James Cameron. It is about two race that are in conflict with each other, the humans and the Na'vi. Aside from having great visual effects. The movie features dramatic romance, which are greatly portrayed by the two protagonist, a Human and a Na'Vi. 

Fifth, is Tangled. This is a CG movie of the story "Rapunzel". But this movie isn't all about tea parties and singing, this movie is all about excitement and humor that will give you a different view of the story of Rapunzel. That her story isn't just about having a long hair, having tea parties in her tower, and being romantically saved by her love. In this movie one will be able to see that there is more to it than that. 

Sixth, is How to train your Dragon. This movie has a story almost similar to the story of Eragon, a story about a boy and his friend dragon. This CG movie features good visual effects and a good story line. 

Seventh, is Don't mess with the Zohan. Another comedy movie starring Adam Sandler. This movie is a pack full of laughter. Although, some of it's jokes and humor are not for children. From conversation to action scenes this movie will amuse you as the story progresses. 

 Lastly, is 2012. 2012 as of now, rated as the best disaster movie out there, which I really agree as well. The visual effects/thrills of this movie is very superb that it can sometimes sends chills to oneself as to what happens if such disaster, portrayed in the movie, actually occurs in real life. Yet, the downside of this movie is lacking strong enough script or acting to support the story of the movie. So, the movie is mostly about how the world ends on 2012 with a lot of explosions, overly huge tsunami, sinking countries, and people being buried alive.

My Top 10 "Bad" Movies

1. Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles

2. Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

3. Catwoman

4. Alone in the The Dark

 5. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

6. Daddy Day Camp

7. Diary and Survival of the Dead

8. Universal Soldier: Regeneration

9. The Last Airbender

10. Speed Racer

Note:

Overall, what made me perceive these as good movies are based on different criteria. These are; flow of the story, Visual effects, and quality of acting by the actor or actress portraying the different characters of the story. And these ten movies, from my perspective, doesn't fare well in every criteria that I mentioned. Now, I shall tackle these movies one-by-one, and explain why and how come these movies are seen as average or bad. 

First, is Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles. If you're a fan of knights, dragons, and war-themed movies then I recommend you not to watch this movie. In the first part, the movie seems interesting but as it progress through the story the movie become will appear to be dull and boring.  How did it become dull and boring? Main reason is that the visual effects isn't very good. They're fighting, dropping from high cliffs and horses yet their costumes appears to be spotless. Seeing that the movie doesn't apply the realistic nature of things, watching the movie up to the end made me feel disappointed.

Second, is Butterfly Effect: Revelations. Just like the concept of the butterfly effect, the movie is based upon the fiction that presents scenarios of time travel. And the "what if" cases appears due to the Butterfly effect concept. The movie belongs to the horror, thriller, suspense-genre but it doesn't really excel that much in those genres. The movie is just full of mindless butchering of people, there's only a little bit of twists and turns in the story, acting of the characters is not that good, and there's always a man sleeping inside a tub.

Third, is Catwoman. Amongst all of the superhero based movies that have been created up until now, this movie has got to be the most disappointing and worst of them. The story line of the movie is very bad, the acting is very bad, visual effects is not very good, and the costume looks bad. So, if you're a fan of superhero based movies then I recommend you not to watch this movie. Unless, you're a fan of Halle Berry then watching this movie will be fine to watch.

Fourth, is Alone in the Dark. A game-based movie that has its own story. If you're a fan of the game, watching this will entertain and disappoint you, at the same time. Because, the monsters of the dark are still there yet there is not that much extreme action, and the story is too simple and short compared to the story of the game. Furthermore, if one has watched the movie Alien vs Predator, one might notice that there are some similarities on the action scenes between the movies.

Fifth, is Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Another game-based movie. The story of this movie is quite good but the acting of the characters is quite bad, and the actress for the role of Chun-Li is not that good also. The fighting scenes are not impressive, it looks "cheap". Compared to the past Street Fighter movie, this is movie is a disappointment.

Sixth, is Daddy Day Camp. If you're looking for a movie for laughs then this not recommended for you. Unless you're three to four years old of age, then this movie might make laugh a bit. The story is a little bad and the acting is pretty bad. One can see, if watched closely, how the characters of the story tries to make laughs but sadly fails most of the times. Compared to it's sequel the Daddy Day Care movie, this movie is again a disappointment.

Seventh, are Diary and Survival of the Dead. These two movies are both creations of George A. Romero, one of the greatest producer/director of zombie-based horror movies. Amongst all of his creations within the "Dead Series", these two movies are not that much exciting to watch up until the end for it gets dull and boring as the story progresses. In the Diary of the Dead there is a little bit of action throughout the movie, it's like watching a documentary film of a person who witnessed first hand the zombie apocalypse, and is relaying it through a first person narration. And it's continuation of the story with a new set of characters; Survival of the Dead. In the Survival of Dead there are guns, flesh cannibalism, and a lot of zombies again. Unlike the Diary of the dead, this movie is told again from a third person perspective.  But the downside of the Survival of the Dead is the bad story line, and bad acting.

Eight, is Universal Soldier: Regeneration. If one has watched the previous sequels of Universal Soldier, then you'll be a little bit disappointed watching this. There are many flaws in this movie. First is the story, the story is not that good and how it progress is very much predictable. Second, the acting of the characters, many of the characters in the story only knows how to blow things up pieces, beat up their adversaries, trigger guns, and bash objects. Third, the age of the actors, many of the actors in this movie are old already, and in their 30's they've already starred in the previous Universal Soldier movies in the 1900's, and example is Jean-Claude Van Damme. So, they're too old to do extreme fighting scenes anymore. When some characters beat up each other in some scenes in the movies, instead of having a thrill of excitement, one might fight it ridiculous because they're punches, action, and responses are slow. 

Ninth, is the Last Airbender. If one has watched the animated version and is a great fan of it, then one will be extremely disappointed in this movie. The only good about this movie are the story and the visual effects. The rest is a huge disappointment. The greatest flaw of this movie is the acting. The main characters of the story are very badly portrayed by the actor/actresses that took up such roles in the movie. 

Lastly, is Speed Racer. A anime/cartoon-based movie. Almost everything is good about this movie; visual effects, script, acting, story. This movie is great to watch that will give enjoyment and excitement up to the end. One thing that I find disturbing about this film is the shifting of scenes because as one scene finishes and shifts to the next, the upper half part of the body or the head of the character from the previous scene always slides across the screen, which I find very strange.