Pacific Rim – A Cool Sci-fi Action Movie

I went to see the new movie Pacific Rim yesterday and I must say that it’s a really awesome film. If you’re looking for a cool sci-fi action movie to watch, Pacific Rim is definitely something you should check out (an idea that I’ll try to convey below).

The story of Pacific Rim takes place in the near future (the 2020s if I remember correctly) at which time giant alien monsters called Kaiju (Japanese for “strange creature”) are invading Earth through a portal beneath the Pacific Ocean that leads to another universe. The citizens of Earth respond to this crisis by building giant humanoid machines called Jaegers which they control with a brain-computer interface. People are recruited to pilot the Jaegers and fight off the Kaiju in order to defend Earth.

A Good Fantasy Movie to Watch – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

If you've been looking for a good fantasy movie to watch then you've come to the right place. Today, I'll be recommending/reviewing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which is probably the best film that I've seen in the past few months.

The Hobbit follows Bilbo Baggins, uncle of Frodo Baggins, who appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy played by Sir Ian Holm. In this film, Holm makes an appearance early on in the film as “old Bilbo” but Martin Freeman takes the role of “young Bilbo” for the rest of the movie. Without giving too much away, the story involves Bilbo being whisked away on a quest by Gandalf (played by Sir Ian McKellen) and a band of dwarves which brings him face to face with perils that he has never encountered before.

The actors in the movie performed brilliantly. Freeman did an excellent job as Bilbo and it was good to see Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf the Grey. Another cast member who really caught my eye during the film was Richard Armitage who plays the dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield. He definitely stood out as a powerful character, much like Aragorn did in The Return of the King. Some of the dwarves don't get noticed all that well mostly because they aren't essential to the story. However, Peter Jackson did a really good job of giving all of the dwarves as big of a role as possible so that the audience can develop at least some sort of connection with them. An additional character that I should mention is Radagast the Brown (played by Sylvester McCoy), a wizard who really adds some entertainment to the movie.

Movie Review - Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness hit theatres this week and I went to see it this morning. It was definitely a good movie with many positives, but it had one flaw that I seem to be seeing in a lot of movies these days: a lack of novelty.

Into Darkness brings back all of the cast from the 2009 Star Trek movie and introduces a few new people (notably Benedict Cumberbatch). This movie, like the previous one, was directed by J.J. Abrams who did a great job on this film. I recently wrote an article about movie directors that outlines what the roles of the director are. Abrams fulfilled all of those roles and more with this movie. The acting is top notch, the storyline progresses well and the cinematography is just great overall.

There are many things in the film that a Star Trek fan, such as myself, will love. For instance, humour from the previous movie is present in this film as well. There are even a few things (which I won't spoil) that hearken back to older Star Trek films like the Wrath of Khan. Of course the idea of the Prime Directive comes up during the beginning of the movie in a scene that makes several references to pop culture stuff like Ancient Aliens and Nibiru. All of these things liven up the movie and make it enjoyable for fans of the Star Trek lore.