Movie Review

Movie Monday: Pacific Rim

Peter Germany Movie Monday, Movie Review, Movies, Sci-Fi , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a while so I thought I’d write a Movie Monday post! Now how do I do one of these again…….lol

This Movie Monday post is all about Pacific Rim. The new movie by Guillermo del Toro where giant aliens on the scale of Godzilla are coming out of a portal at the bottom of the pacific and tearing cities apart. To solve this problem humanity came up with giant robots that are controlled by two pilots through neural pathways (I’ll admit I need to watch a couple of the details to be clear on them) this means the pilots are totally in sync with each other and feel the pain when the mechs are damaged by the Kaijus which come from the pacific. The film focuses on the attempt to shut this portal for good.

Now to me this sounded like Heaven! It has giant monster battling with giant mechs, not robots as I called them earlier (I can make excuses for wrong description 😛 ). What more could a geek like me want? A decent storyline for one and Pacific Rim has it. It’s not overly complicated which is good. The characters feel well developed and their back stories are dealt with well. Charlie Hunnam is very likeable as the lead but has great support from the deep Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, who looks like he had a lot of fun with this role and I especially liked Rinko Kikuchi who looked to have a lot of strength on screen. Burn Gorman and Charlie Day both deserve a mention as scientists who have differing opinions on the Kaiju.

The effects were great. All these battles were obviously CGI but not once did I think this was CGI because it was done that well. I would have preferred more of the action to have been in the daylight but that’s a minor quibble.

One thing I would like to mention is that this did not feel like a del Toro movie. I don’t mean that in a bad way but with del Toro you know what you as going to get and this surprised me because he’s taken a chance and pushed himself to do something that maybe is not in his safe zone. It has the depth that we expect and the right amount of humour with seriousness. The action scenes were just the right amount. Quite often I’m left feeling a little short changed with movies that have these sorts of CGI but Pacific Rim gave just the right amount of action.

All in all its a movie I really enjoyed and I will be buying the DVD when it comes out. If I’m honest I could quite easily go and watch it again at the cinema 🙂

20130718-222443.jpg

 

I would just like to make a quick mention about the 3D in this movie. I’m generally not a huge fan of 3D because it rarely compliments the movie. The best example of good 3D that I have experienced was the movie Dredd and this is probably the best use of 3D I’ve seen in a movie since then.

I Couldn’t Think Of A Title For This Blog Post

Peter Germany Books, Editing, Movie Review, Movies, Sci-Fi, Short Fiction, Writing , , , , , , , ,

On Sunday I wrote a 900 word short story in about an hour, I did it in two sittings so its hard to be sure. Anyway I knocked it out in an hour, done an edit read on it in ten minutes and tonight I made my adjustments and sent it off to my awesome Beta readers.

That’s the biggest thing that has happened this week. The ideas are still flowing, my notebook I have with me while I’m at work is slowly being filled.

I went to see Man Of Steel last night and it was pretty good, albeit it a little drawn out. Saying that though they managed to squeeze in a hell of a lot of story into it and as it was Superman’s backstory it was quite important. I liked the sequence at the start of the movie where you see Krypton. I found that really fascinating. The cast was really good, even done to the minor roles I was recognising most of the actors in the film.
Was I blown away? No. It’s a good movie and I’ll buy it on DVD when it’s out but very little in it surprised me. I will admit to not being Superman’s biggest fan but it kept my attention and I was entertained by the film. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the next Superman film.

The next few days I’m going to be busy with the day job. I’m going to be putting in a few more hours so I can get some jobs wrapped up before my week off next week. So I won’t be getting much writing done over the next few nights. Next week though me and Owen have a day set where we’re hopefully going to tie down the final details for Project Apollo and hopefully we’ll be able to get that one wrapped up. Once that planning is down I can focus that part of my brain on brainstorming with Chrystalyn Hope on The Residents and get that one up and running too.

Hopefully I’m working to getting an idea of how to manage my various projects…Hopefully.

Movie Review: World War Z

Peter Germany Movie Review, Movies, Zombies , , , , , , ,

***Minor Spoilers***

Hey guys I just thought I’d share a few quick thoughts on World War Z. It was good, but don’t go into it expecting to see a movie with lots of blood and guts and any real reference to the book. As I watched it I noticed a couple of minor references to the book. It felt like they were after thoughts to be honest. If you’ve read I Am Legend by the late Richard Matheson and then seen the Will Smith movie of the same name you’ll know what I mean.
They is no Raj Singh, no Yonkers or the floating cities. There is a snippet with a doctor examining a young man like in the book but I can’t really recall many other references to the book. I’m sure if I listened to the book again and watched the film a couple of more times then I’d notice a few more references but I’ll have to wait for DVD.

Enough moaning about the lack of reference to the book. It is a film I enjoyed, it kept my attention on the screen. The story is okay, although I won’t sure about the way it was wrapped up. The visuals are good and the characters are okay, if cliched. Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt, he does what he does best. I’m not his biggest fan but he is a decent actor and does a steady job here.
The movie starts off quickly before the pace eases off a little and then levels out okay. Brad Pitt’s character has to find the source of the outbreak but instead finds something else.

Do I recommend seeing World War Z? Yes. Despite the lack of reference to The book by Max Brooks and a weak ending its an entertaining movie, great for if you want to chill out and not think too much about it.

A Flash Post

Peter Germany Books, Editing, Movie Monday, Movies, Sci-Fi, Writing , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey guys and gals I’ve not done too much writing bits in the last few days. I have made a couple of notes on The Residents and I’m looking at Project Apollo at the moment finding the spaces where I want to add the various bits that need to be added. This means another read through, but hey it’s all part of the process.
The last few weeks have been unsettled to say the least and fatigue has been hitting me harder then normal. I don’t think I’m personally going to be making a huge amount of progress for another couple of weeks. I have some time off next month and I’m going to chill out as well as spending a day or two working on writing.

I watched the movie adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 which had John Hurt and Richard Burton in it. I really liked it. It felt like it stuck to the book quite well and seemed loyal to the message it was trying to put across.

I’m going to wrap it up hear and get some sleep. My dream is to have people enjoy what I write, I may not be where I want to be with it but I will be in time 🙂

Looking Back At My Week

Peter Germany Book Review, Books, Comedy, Horror, Movie Review, Movies, Sci-Fi, Video Games, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Firstly I’m just going to say that I know I haven’t blogged much this last week but I’ve been struck down with a cold,again! And something has sprung up this week which has thrown me off my pace a little. Hopefully though ill be able to get back into my stride this coming week.

My writing has been non-existent this week. I’ve been at work all week so with this God damned cold I’ve been getting home and all but passing out. Work has been very busy so I’ve been saving my energy for that.

I have done a lot of reading though. I finished Haywire by Justin R. Macumber (http://www.justinmacumber.com/) I really enjoyed this one, it got a 4-Star review from me. There are some really good characters, the story is interesting and fresh. I’ve not seen much like this before. I found it slowed just a little in the middle a bit but not enough to pull out of the story.
I would love to see more from this universe because I found it really fascinating.

I was going to read the second Hunger Games book but I might dive into the first collection of the Judge Dredd Comics that Tracie brought me 😀

Movie wise I watched The Smurfs movie, which was a lot better then I thought it was going to be. In fact I laughed a hell of a lot watching it. The Exorcism Of Emily Rose was a totally different kettle of fish but what a movie! And last night me and Tracie went and saw Scary Movie 5, it was okay but nothing special. There were laugh out loud moments but nothing that was memorable, it was a very throw away movie.

I got hold of the Mass Effect Trilogy for Xbox 360 last week, I started playing it and got a little bit of the way through but then got that cold back but hopefully I’ll find a little time to dive into it again this week. It seems like it has a really deep and engaging universe to play in.

Movie Monday: Grown Ups

Peter Germany Comedy, Movie Monday, Movie Review, Movies , , , , , , , , , , , ,

20130224-210316.jpg

 

Grown Ups tells the story of a number of early middle-aged men who meet up at the funeral of their former basketball coach and spend the weekend hanging out with their wives and kids. Obviously each has a story arc which they follow and there’s a happy, feel good ending to the movie. What makes this a movie that I enjoy watching is the fact that these five friends (Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider) absolutely rip each other to bits throughout the entire movie. It is a five way buddy movie where they constantly take the p**s out of each other, which is what guys do. Having worked in the car trade as long as I have I know all about this and its real. That is why I enjoy this movie so much because it does have that feel good vibe to it and it has got that banter that blokes tend to have.

This would not work though if the rest of the cast were not strong. We see Salma Hayek and Maria Bello tackling roles which we do not normally see them in and both do a fine job of it. I love seeing actors take on a role which is outside of their safety zone. In addition to Hayek and Bello we see Maya Rudolph and Joyce Van Patton who both add their own strengths to the movie and there is a very good support cast which includes Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn, Ebony Jo-Ann and a number of other actors that play their parts well and it all adds to the whole. No one seems out-of-place in the movie which is nice to see.

The only thing that worries me about this film is the fact that the sequel is out this year. I worry that it will be too much of the actors patting themselves on the back and telling each other how great they are. I really hope that this is not the case, but we’ll have to wait and see.

 

***Here’s some of my earlier thoughts on this movie https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/grown-ups/#comments ***