Retawes Review: Movie Galore!

Movie Galore involves my reviews of "The Hunger Games", "Titanic in 3D" and "Wrath of the Titans"

Titanic 3D – 9.5/10

Unlike a majority of movie dwellers, I had never seen Titanic nor did the thought of viewing it ever cross my eyes. Until, the melodramatic classic was re-mastered in 3D for cinemas (due to the original Titanic’s 100^th anniversary).

Essentially, the story is still the same; Jack an adventurous young lout wins a gambling competition where the prize is a ticket on the Titanic. Over the course of 3 hours, he forms a relationship with wealthy passionate Rose from the high quarters of the boat however; Rose’s unwanted fiancé demands her hand in marriage. Eventually, the boat sinks, many people die, etc. however; the whole story is revolved around the life boat situation and this lustful love between Rose and Jack. Jack, Rose and several of the other characters’ actors are brilliant and still to this day, are remarkable even without the incredible over-use of special effects.

Incidentally, 3-D isn’t the only updated feature presented In this Hollywood masterpiece. Several of the lighting and special effects have been digitally re-done and look superb and utterly astonishing. Especially, when the Titanic is sinking (As morbid as it is) as you can truly feel what these poor people where going through. Speaking of which, this movie is very much an atmospheric film. When Jack and Rose are cold in the Atlantic Ocean, you feel cold (And not just because the cinema air conditioning is on!) and when they are dancing in an underground party, you feel vibrant with excitement and ‘dance fever’.

"Gee.. Maybe we should warn someone about that Iceberg heading in our general direction?" You think?

Overall, this movie was and still is a masterpiece. It will always have a place in my heart as one of the most depressing yet beautifully crafted movies in a very long time to come.

Wrath of the Titans – 4/10

Here’s a little suggestion before you read this review, “DON’T SEE THIS MOVIE, IF YOU CARE ABOUT ACTORS ACTUALLY ACTING!” That should summarise my attitude towards this atrocious film however, if you want to know more, read on…..

Aggresive Stance!

The plot of “Wrath of the Titans” sequel is very much irrelevant towards whatever is going on. Essentially, a bunch of Gods and Demi-Gods are having tantrums i.e. Hades is pissed off that Zeus and the other gods left him trapped in the Underworld. Zeus son, Ares god of war is envious of his father’s love for Perseus (Zeus second son). Ares and Hades plot to revive Cronos (Father of all Gods) by draining Zeus’ power. As of this, Perseus joins up with Poseidon’s navigating son Agenor and the brave warrior Andromeda. Characters such as Bill Nighy’s Hephaestus (God of Weaponry) and Danny Huston’s Poseidon (God of Water) make an appearance, yet these scenes are only brief and provide little to no attention to the overall plot.

As exciting as this story sounds, a few of the actors make this movie absolutely horrible by acting unprofessionally. I am talking about Sam Worthington who sounds like an Australian traddie (Worker/Builder, someone in the trade industry) and speaks in one tone every time he speaks. In fact, he is such of a bad actor that the action scenes in which all he is doing is running from imaginary creatures is the best he could do. It’s shocking though, that the man in the surreal Avatar and Terminator Salvation is this bad. I have also noticed that a majority of his films involve an over-use of special effects, which explains why he is such a poor actor.

Just Stop Sam....You're killing my interest!

However, Liam Neeson and several other cast members partially save this film from extinction. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes’ impersonations of the mighty Greek gods, Zeus and Hades are surprisingly excellent and Bill Nighy’s brief scenes are spontaneous and hilarious as he plays the ‘mad’ crazy character that has a wooden owl as his advisor. Although these characters create an average movie as Sam Worthington brings It down, I would of preferred some more cameos of the Greek gods and goddesses even though they referenced a few at times. For instance, when Hephaestus was examining Andromeda, he noticed that she resembled his wife, the god of wisdom.

To conclude, this movie is a complete disaster and the likes of Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Ralph Fiennes cannot save it from being what I call an endangered movie. It will be forgotten and classified as an under average Spartan rip off where the gods bicker about their problems and result in endangering the planet.

The Hunger Games – 8/10

Even though that I have read only the first in the series, I understand and can illustrate how the movie adaption of “The Hunger Games” would be like. My obvious approach to the movie was, “Oh this is when this happens….Oh is he doing it now?” however, the movie is very different from the film as it basically strips the story away for the overall satisfactory action sequences that are, the Hunger Games.

Katniss, the girl on fire!!!

Essentially, the story goes that after a great civil war, the Capital (Leaders of the country, basically) forced all 12 Districts (States) to contribute towards a competition in which one boy and girl from each district would be placed into an arena to fight the other 23 participants for the Capitol’s residents’ amusement. Within these 24 contestants, the story follows District 12’s Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mallark. Katniss is a hunter who scavenges and hunts to give her family, something to eat. On the day of the Reaping, (Sacrifice Day, where your tributes are selected) Katniss’ young sister Primrose Everdeen and baker’s son Peeta Mallark are picked for the Games however, Katniss volunteers in Primrose’s place. Then, the games begin……..

The acting in the movie is surprisingly amazing. I feel like each actor actually read the book and thought, “So, Katniss is very cautious and weary of strangers….” Or something about their character. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherman and Chris Hemsworth should be applauded for their excellent work creating Katniss, Peeta and Gale to life. I also forget who played Effie Trinket but she should be congratulated on becoming such a pretentious, loud mouth of a character that Effie is.

One of the best logos of a franchise..honestly!

However, without spoiling much, there isn’t anything else to say apart from the variety of action, dialogue and history that this series has. I hope that the sequel, Mocking Jay will be released soon (Here’s hoping January 2013) but regardless I will definitely purchase the DVD and invest my time in reading the final 2 books!