Review: The Final Destination

The Final Destination? Please say it's so! But looking at the box office and I'm pretty sure it won't be THE Final Destination as it's the highest grossing entry of the series. Of course, the higher ticket prices for 3D has helped the movie quite a bit, me thinks.

I'm still kind of mad that this is the second movie I've seen this year where the opening credits are the best part of the movie (I'm also looking at you, Wolverine!). I wish the rest of the movie was as clever. But no. Just no.

They're out of ideas, man. OUT OF IDEAS. Beware of SPOILERS: Someone gets hit by a bus (see FD1). And there's fun with a nailgun. Which was 'fun' in FD3, but felt tired in part 4. I was like, 'Seriously, guys? Another nail gun? Didn't we already see that in the previous one?' And I couldn't help but think of Palahniuk's short story 'Guts' while watching Nick Zano in the pool (actually, I'm just surprised he could hold his breath such a long time in such a panic-y situation).

The fake out at the movie theater followed by the escalator 'death' was frustrating. It felt like they needed to fill up some time, which I thought was unacceptable as the movie only has a runtime of 82 minutes? How hard is it to fill up 82 minutes? Try character development! /SPOILERS

I did kinda like the scene in the beauty salon with Krista Allen so props for that. Also props to Allen for being a good sport.

The racism was unnecessary. Is this what counts as character development these days? *shakes head in shame* No, wait. SHAME ON YOU, ERIC BRESS! You wrote FD2 and The Butterfly Effect! You could do better than this! SLACKER! /rant

Hmmm.. what else? Oh right, 3D. Don't think it would've made much difference if I had watched it in 2D.

Overall, The Final Destination is the worst of the series (not sure why people hate on FD3 so much). They're running out of ideas and the 12 euros I paid to watch it in 3D were not worth it. A 2,5/5.

Trailer Park: Wolverine and 17 Again

I don't watch a lot of trailers online, so this feature will mostly feature (hee!) trailers that were attached to movies I've recently seen. Keep in mind that I live in The Netherlands, and that the trailers attached wont necessarily be the same as the ones in your country. In this post I'll review the trailers that were attached to Wolverine and 17 Again.

First up is Wolverine and all trailers attached were for 'guy flicks'.

Fighting
Fighting = Step Up - dancing + fighting. I haven't seen Step Up (unfortunately, I have seen Step Up 2), but it looks like the same movie. Channing Tatum needs to branch out. I think he has it in him to become a big star, if he moves away from these flicks. Let's see it as a 'step up' for something greater.
To be viewed: probably never

Star Trek
I was kinda looking forward to this. I like the cast, the promotional pics look good. Then I saw the trailer and it reminded me I don't like Star Trek. I do like John Cho and Zach Quinto. Hmmm...
To be viewed: on DVD unless one of my friends wants to see it on the big screen, which probably won't happen

Terminator: Salvation
I thought the first two Terminators were great and I liked Rise of the Machines (apart for the Claire Danes factor). The trailer for T4 did nothing for me. I only liked seeing Bryce Dallas Howard! Maybe if Nick Stahl was John Connor again, I'd see it. I don't understand why Christian Bale's playing him now. Bale's already Batman! What's next yo? Superman?
To be viewed: DVD

The Hangover
I already mentioned The Hangover here. It looks good! And Bradley Cooper! *squee*
To be viewed: hopefully on the big screen

Girl-friendly films were attached to 17 Again (this shouldn't be a surprise).

The Proposal
I already mentioned here that The Proposal looks awful. I'm still feeling bad for Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. Now that I'm remembering that he gets to be married to Scarlett Johansson and that Sandra gets millions for a flick like this, that bad feeling is fading away.
To be viewed: on DVD

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
I hate the title! Hate it! Hate it! Hate it! I do love Matthew McC, Jennifer Garner and Breckin Meyer so that partly makes up for it. At least this doesn't look as generic as The Proposal.
To be viewed: on DVD

I Love You, Man
Paul Rudd amuses me, Rashida Jones is lovely and I love Jason Segel and Jaime Pressly. I want to see this! But probably won't in theaters.
To be viewed: on DVD

I'm sure there was another trailer shown, but I can't remember which... :S

Review: Wolverine

Just caught a 7 pm showing of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Theater wasn't packed, but to be fair, it's a holiday here today and most people are out doing other stuff. I wasn't sure what to expect of the movie. I somewhat successfully managed to stay away from trailers, clips and stills, as I didn't want to get spoiled. I knew it's about Wolverine (duh), the great Liev Schreiber plays Sabretooth, the Friday Night Lights kid is Gambit (finally, Gambit!), Dom Monaghan is in this for some reason and Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool (what's a Deadpool?).

My brief X-Men history first so you know where I'm coming from reading this review. I've never read the comics, but I did watch the cartoon when I was a kid. Wolverine wasn't a favorite: I liked Gambit and Rogue. I liked X-Men and X2, but never saw The Last Stand.

First something that I loved! The opening title sequence. It was beautifully done. The credits played over scenes of Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) fighting in several wars, but never dying. A good font was picked too. I hate it when movies have stupid colored fonts that don't stand out from the background. Kudos to the people behind this sequence.

Logan and Victor eventually meet Stryker and join Team X. The other members are Wade 'Deadpool' Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), Chris 'Bolt' Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), Fred 'The Blob' Dukes (Kevin Durand), John 'Kestrel' Wraith (will.i.am) and David 'Agent Zero' North (Daniel Henney). Or so Wikipedia tells me. It was fun seeing these guys interact. I would have liked to see more of them, but this movie is called Wolverine and not Team X unfortunately. More on that later.

Then comes stuff mostly about Wolverine and his girlfriend Silverfox (played by Michelle Monaghan 2.0, Lynn Collins), which is where the movie fell flat for me. I just didn't care enough. I kept waiting for Sabretooth to reappear to make things interesting again! That's not a good sign, I think. Though it's a compliment for Schreiber I guess.

This next bit is SPOILERY: the movie feels pretty short with a runtime of 107 minutes. This is probably just me being hypercritical but whatever, I'm just going to say it: there's a scene that feels like filler. I was actually sitting there thinking 'what is the point of this scene? who wrote this crap?' As established early in the movie, Wolverine cannot be killed by guns, him having healing powers and all. Yet there's like a 15 minute sequence where Zero tries to shoot him even though he knows he can't kill him that way. They sorta make up for it by at least acknowledging their stupidty afterwards. END SPOILERS

The ending left me wanting more, but not in the sense that I want to see a sequel. This has more to do with the movie feeling short and the final battle not being that suspenseful. This is a prequel and we know certain characters appear in the X-Men trilogy. It should not be a surprise that Sabretooth survives.

I want to talk about the other mutants a bit. BEWARE OF SPOILERS! I read a lot about Ryan Reynolds' casting as Deadpool. I know Reynolds is a fan of the character and that's why he agreed to do the movie. I love Ryan. I'm very pro-Ryan in movies. But this felt pointless. He's in the movie for 5 minutes, just like Dominic Monaghan. Come one! I know this is Wolverine the Movie, but if you include these guys, use them. Will.i.am wasn't bad at all as Wraith. Good choice! I liked Durand as the Blob. Taylor Kitsch was an okay Gambit. I think my expectations were too high for that one. He didn't really feel Gambit-y IMHO. The movie includes a young Scott Summers (Cyclops). I wasn't really feeling his addition. It made me confused timeline wise. But I'm no expert.

Overall, the movie was enjoyable, but it felt flawed to me. Hugh Jackman gave a good performance, but it was Liev Schreiber who kept my interest. A 3/5.