Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Guardians of the Galaxy might be the best film of the year so far.  I had to watch it twice to make sure I liked it as well as I thought I did.

And while I’m not sure it’s as good as say the first Iron Man, it’s at least as good as any of the Marvel sequels.

It has been somewhat of a down summer for movies, and a little light on kid’s movies so this thing is blowing up!  95 mil on the first weekend?  Nicely done.

And it does serve as a kid’s movie as well.  Although it is PG-13 and the language is not what most of y’all would want your child repeating, it’s mostly appropriate for the older kids, I’d say 10 and up should be good.  But lots of folks are bringing their little ones.

That’s how ya make 95 mil in a weekend in August.  A kid friendly, fairly original Marvel/Disney film that’s actually pretty damn good.

My only complaint is really the necro dudes.  Marvel/Disney has come up with a faceless enemy, and yeah, I know this is not a new device – hello stormtroopers – but in my opinion it’s a cop out.  You can massacre these faceless, necro soldiers indiscriminately and keep their PG-13 rating and ya really don’t feel bad for them.  They are faceless and already dead anyway, right?

Cop out.

Other than that, this is a solid film.  Gamora’s dialog was a bit weak, comparatively and her motives weren’t really laid out in a way that made me buy it – just one little line of dialog to explain herself and everyone is all, okay.  Eh, whatever.  This will be fun series moving forward.  Chris Pratt is along the lines of Chris Evans, and he’s even ripped in this one.  He comes across like a good guy everyone can relate too.

Anytime you can have a character that evokes the most emotion out of the audience with just three words (four really) the entire film…you’re doing something right.  I am Groot.

Yes, sir.  Indeed you are.

Catch this one in the big theaters if ya get a chance.

Also a shout out to Dave Bautista for his first big movie role.  He freaking nails it!  I look forward to seeing this cast in future Guardians movies.  They really have opened up the Marvel universe with this film and I see nothing but exciting, fun, entertaining films down the road.  Oh and money.  Lots and lots of money.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – it’s better than Godzilla.

The turtles are great!  They look great, their dialog is sharp and witty.  If only the rest of the story and characters where as sharp!

Megan Fox…well, um, I believe she’s had some work done and it was a bit distracting from time to time, but it’s not really her fault her lines where so bad most of the time.  Very Saturday morning cartoon type of stuff.  Which is cool I guess, since this is kinda a Saturday morning cartoon type of film…

Will Arnett had a couple decent lines but for the most part, the live action acting was bad, flat, uninspired and poorly written.  I mean, in a real life situation Whoopi Goldberg would have fired that ditz long time ago.  She had no story idea at all!  And wasn’t good at trying to explain what she was doing to her work mates.  But that’s not Megan’s fault, that’ll be your script writers fault I suppose…

But – the action was amazing, the turtles again were fantastic.  Their relationships to each other was the main thrust of  the film and set up future films.  You have to trust each other turtles.  That’s a big theme and the action sequences really drive that point home.  They have to help each other out in order to be successful and that’s a really good point to make.  Actually surprises me a bit coming from Michael Bay.  Nicely done.

Shredder is a bad ass as well.

The action is a lot of times very video game-y and I can see where the video game tie ins will be successful.

They took good advantage of the 3D aspects.  It’s about the best 3D action I’ve seen.  Probably still not worth the up-charge if you’re taking a couple kids but if it’s just you and your girl, or guy, go on and toss down the three bucks.  Unless the 3D gives you a head ache.

The action at the end devolved into completely outrageous, no way in hell, oh wait, this is a Saturday morning cartoon, so far over the top I’m laughing.

But it’s whatevs.  The dialog between the turtles and watching their relationships develop on screen is totally worth all the ridiculousness.

As an old school TMNT fan, I give this franchise my stamp of approval.

This one is more appropriate for younger kids.  They will enjoy the very “brotherly” type of antics the turtles are always pulling.

It’s a fun movie.