Movie-watching

While I haven't seen a movie in a few weeks, I did get to see a lot of films in the middle months of the year.

Pacific Rim
There are some holes in the story, the script could be better, and it comes with a fair share of cliches. However, the effects were superb and it was a thoroughly entertaining summer blockbuster. After all, you can't go wrong when you have giant robots battling giant alien monsters to save the world. :)

Monsters University
I thoroughly enjoyed this prequel of Monsters, Inc. I loved seeing how the friendship between Mike and Sully developed and it was great to see how they learned and combined to be the top-rated scaring team later in their careers. In true Pixar-Disney style, the story is brilliantly done and the character development is well-executed.

Now You See Me
I probably liked the first half of this movie more than the second half. This premise of this film is that four magicians combine to pull off massive crimes. I found myself at the edge of my seat early on, wondering what was going on and what was going to happen next. But at some point I started to feel that the magicians all just seemed too great and the FBI too inept. Then again, in the grand scheme of things, I guess it all made sense in the end. To quote my friend Ced, this movie seems like a cross between Ocean's Eleven and The Prestige.

Despicable Me 2
Strangely enough, while I did still enjoy this animated sequel, it somehow didn't live up to the hype as much. The minions were of course great fun to watch but there were a couple of scenes where I felt the production was just trying to milk the entertainment value of these cute and loveable creatures a tad too much. I think the first one was much better.

Man of Steel
From a conceptual standpoint, I didn't find much difference between this reboot and Superman Returns. Both movies try to show Superman in a different light to make audiences understand him better and relate to him more. However, there is one thing about Man of Steel that really rubbed me the wrong way: Superman didn't seem to care about who gets hurt or how much damage results from his monumental battle with General Zod and other members of his army. Superman should have attempted to bring Zod up in the air miles away from everyone else instead of going at him toe-to-toe inside the city, thus causing a lot more damage to a city already in ruins.

There were some movies I wanted to see but missed, like World War Z, White House Down, Fast & Furious 6, and The Wolverine. I guess I will just have to wait for the DVDs to come out or for these films to be featured on HBO or Star Movies.