You guys already know I detest Bane’s voice in Nolan’s upcoming Batman epic. Not because I can’t understand it, I have no problem with that, but because it sounds so silly. Well I went to the theater today to watch Dark Shadows and before the movie they showed a new trailer to The Dark Knight Rises and as we hungarians always do it, it was dubbed. I don’t usually like dubbed movies but I was pleasantly surprised, because Bane’s voice was actually pretty good! Perfectly understandable, without accent and even cool. Way to go Hungary!

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Well it looks like it’s vampire weekend for me. Let’s go ahead with Tim Burton‘s newest brainchild, Dark Shadows. Well it’s not his story, neither his idea and most definitely not his script, but the outcome had Burton’s fingerprints all over it. The acting definitely worked in this film, Johnny Depp is still there under the thick layers of make-up, delivering a great performance as always. The supporting cast did a terrific job too, especially Jackie Earle Haley and Helena Bonham Carter.

I always thought Tim Burton was one of the greats. Well, he certainly was. Was. Past tense. It looks like something happened to him after Sweeney Todd, some witch may have cursed him and taken away his ability to direct movies that stand out from the crowd. The problem with Dark Shadows is that it perfectly blends in with the constant stream average cinema, missing the uniqueness. The 70′s setting gave the movie a groovy feeling, but all the good jokes were shot to death by the trailer and the script and story were so cliché and the characters were so flat, there was hardly anything left to enjoy.

Of course Depp’s performance was one of the good things and the visual style was still impressive, but the whole film lacked some kind of divine directorial force to hold it together and raise it from the swamp of averageness, like an X-Wing. Dark Shadows is still enjoyable though, good for some laughs and it’s entertaining. But I expected more from You, Mr Burton. I’m disappointed.

Oh, and I thought I could at least praise the music, but I was disappointed with Mr Elfman as well. The music’s not bad, but it fails to stand out.

Score: ★★★★

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The movie is nothing special at all. I had a hard time figuring out whether it was a comedy or a horror film, because if it was the first, it wasn’t funny enough. It had some laughs, but that’s about it. If it was the latter, it didn’t take itself seriously enough. It wasn’t scary at all. If they were trying to do a mix of both genre’s, they failed at that too. Sure they’ve taken the basic elements of comedies and horror movies, but the mix wasn’t right. The two genres simply went against each other, and in the collision both suffered greatly. But Fright Night still didn’t fail to entertain.

There were some pretty good stuff in the movie too. The first thing is David Tennant. I hated him in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (he played Barty Crouch Jr.), but in this film he was entertaining as hell! Colin Farrell did a good job too, the others were either too flat or (in the case of Christopher Mintz-Plasse) they went over the top.

What also worked was the music. Ramin Djawadi is the man! His awesome soundtracks never fail to impress me, I can’t wait for his next movie. Sadly that’s pretty much the end of the positive aspects of the film. It was kinda stupid, the story was dumb, the directing average. Although they tried to put some deeper meaning into the movie, it didn’t work.

If I was to compare Fright Night to a food, it would be an average burger. Fun enough, but won’t silence your growling stomach for long.

Score: ★★★

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You may know, that at first I wasn’t excited about this movie very much. Well, now I am. This trailer is way more exciting than the previous one and it shows that Spiderman will not be drastically taken in a new direction, but in a way, they’ll “continue” the previous franchise. Of course they disregard it, but at least they don’t bring back dead villains and they continue with one that should’ve been in Spiderman 4, if they made one. The trailer looks cool, it will certainly be a better movie than the 3rd one. I just still don’t like the new suit.

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After seeing The Avengers I saw this trailer. What a buzz kill. I’m still looking forward to this movie, Nolan’s a great director, and the trailer’s not half bad, but it was so… meh? Is that the right word? I don’t feel as excited from it as I was from the first trailer or the trailer for The Dark Knight. I was so pumped! Now I feel nothing. Only anger whenever Bane speaks.

I can understand him perfectly, I never had problem with that, I even thought he sounded cool and menacing in the previous trailer. But this, this weird accent and the way he says things are just ridiculous. It’s like someone dubbed over the original trailer with some silly voice! I don’t know if they changed it or not, but it sounded much better in the previous trailer. If you can hear me Nolan, change it back!

I don’t care if I can understand him or not, I just don’t want to burst into angry laughs whenever I hear the main villain. I don’t want the Dark Knight Rises experience to be like Captain America where Red Skull sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Please, fix this! I don’t care anymore, that he looks like crap and Catwoman doesn’t look like a cat, I just don’t want Bane to sound funny. Predicted movie score: ★★★★. Not even close to The Dark Knight, but I still don’t think it’ll be a bad movie.

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I knew this movie was going to be good, but I thought 96% on RottenTomatoes and 8.9 on IMDb was a little too much for a movie like this. Oh boy how wrong I was. This film was not good, it was EPIC! With all caps and an exclamation mark.

We have all our favorite heroes in a single movie, played by some great actors, driven by over the top special effects and co-ordinated by a skillful director, who also rocks with the dialogues. I think it took a great deal of pre-production and in-production work by Joss Whedon to make these unique characters work well in a single film and he did a terrific job in keeping together all these amazing actors.

There was no dull moment in this film. It was very well paced, wonderfully done and greatly enjoyed. The first half consisted of getting all the heroes together, introducing the plot and the characters, but it was done with such finesse, that I didn’t even realize how long this part took. The film was very entertaining throughout, with hilarious comic reliefs, exciting action and wonderful score by Alan Silvestri.

I loved when all of the Avengers were together and just talked, because the awesome script really showed their character and why they’re not really good as a team. But they finally got on with each other and the final battle commenced – the most epic final battle after, of course, Lord of the Rings. There’s a shot in this scene, which just blew my mind. It was a single shot, with no cuts at all, showing all the characters fighting the alien hordes and it was just fantastic.

I first felt sad, when I heard Edward Norton won’t be reprising his role as Bruce Banner, but as soon as Mark Ruffalo appeared on screen, I thought: “Way better than Ed Norton.” They made a great choice in casting him, he was much more convincing and less greedy. Norton may be angry with himself, but he won’t turn green anymore.

What Joss Wheedon did really well is that he deepened all the supporting characters we’ve seen in the other films. We learned a lot about Black Widow, about Hawkeye and even about Agent Coulson. The writer is really great with all the different characters, because it feels like we’re watching people who could very well exist, not just superhero cardboard cut-outs. Most films like this – ahem Superman ahem – only have that.

I can honestly say I loved The Avengers, I don’t care if it’s too mainstream. The superhero movies are my favorite sub-genre! I recommend it to all, watch it, love it, enjoy it. I can’t wait for more.

Score: ★★★★★, duh.

Compared to the prequels: 10

  • Originality: 10
  • Directing: 10
  • Writing: 10
  • Hero(es): 10
  • Villain: 10
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PS.: Stay after the main credits for some bonus!

List of films/shows I checked out this month: Four Feathers (★★★), Wrath of the Titans (★★★), Hot Fuzz (★★★★★), The Royal Tenenbaums (★★★★), Intouchables (★★★★), Game of Thrones – Season 2 (★★★★★), 28 Days Later (★★★★★), Gladiator (★★★★★), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (★★★★★), Family Guy (★★), Back to the Future (★★★★★), Back to the Future Part II (★★★★★), Back to the Future Part III (★★★★), The Frighteners (★★★★★), Las Vegas (★★★), The Simpsons (★★★★), We Bought a Zoo (★★★★), Superman (★★★★), Sherlock (★★★★★), Dexter (★★★★), Iron Man (★★★★★), Bite-Me (★★★), Thor (★★★★), The Shining (★★★★★), Le Bossu (★★★★), Saturday Night Live (★★★★), House M. D. (★★★★), Batman (★★★★★), Captain America (★★★★), The Shaggy Dog (★★), Robot Chicken (★★★)

Favorite films:

  1. Back to the Future
  2. Back to the Future Part II
  3. 28 Days Later…

Favorite actors:

  1. Benedict Cumberbatch
  2. Jack Nicholson
  3. Michael J. Fox

Favorite actresses:

  1. Gwyneth Paltrow
  2. Natalie Portman
  3. Scarlett Johansson

Favorite directors:

  1. Edgar Wright
  2. Danny Boyle
  3. Kenneth Branagh

Favorite composers:

  1. Patrick Doyle
  2. Ramin Djawadi
  3. John Williams
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The main thing I didn’t like about this film was the ending. I’m not gonna spoil it for you, but because of it the movie seems to only serve the purpose to tie into The Avengers movie. It’s not bad, if it ties into it, but please, at least give us a satisfying ending. The other bad thing was the villain. I have nothing against Red Skull, nor Hugo Weaving but the way Weaving played the Red Skull was just ridiculous. His accent was awful, he sounded like he was doing a really bad Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, so I couldn’t take him seriously.

What I liked were the Howling Commandos, the Captain, his second suit, Howard Stark, the special effects and Alan Silvestri‘s score. Not the best of the prequels, but still good.

Score: ★★★★

Compared to the other Avengers prequels: 7

  • Originality: 6
  • Directing: 9
  • Writing: 9
  • Hero: 10
  • Villain: 2
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It was very well put in The Key of Awesome’s musical review of this film: “Not as good as part one, but it was still pretty fun.” I really liked Mickey Rourke as the villain, Scarlett Johansson is hot and Sam Rockwell‘s performance was a delight. The old cast was great again, War Machine kicked ass, I just don’t know how Rhodey knew how to operate the suit. He didn’t have any experience with it and he didn’t have an ARC reactor in his chest which could’ve powered it. Not very thoughtful, is it? But the movie is not bad at all. Tony Stark is back, with more action and less originality.

Score: ★★★★

Compared to the other Avengers prequels: 8

  • Originality: 5
  • Directing: 8
  • Writing: 8
  • Hero: 10
  • Villain: 9
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The best thing about this film is the score. Patrick Doyle is a great musician and he did a marvelous job in scoring Thor. This is Kenneth Branagh‘s first ever action film and I gotta say Lockhart can direct. The cinematography was annoying with its tilted framework at some places, but the action worked, the special effects did their job and the writing wasn’t bad either. Maybe they could’ve made Thor‘s character a bit more likable (Chris Hemsworth played it well though), but it was fun and it worked. I just don’t know how it’ll work in the Avengers, because Tony Stark is a jerk, Bruce Banner is unbearable when he’s angry, Thor is a jerk, and from what I’ve heard, Hawkeye is a jerk as well. We’ll see what happens.

Loki was a great villain and the story was very shakespearian, if there’s such a word, which makes this movie one of the best of the Avengers prequels.

Score: ★★★★

Compared to the other Avengers prequels: 9

  • Originality: 10
  • Directing: 8
  • Writing: 9
  • Hero: 9
  • Villain: 10
Check out my original Thor review as well!
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