Alice, an unpretentious and individual 19-year-old, is betrothed to a dunce of an English nobleman. At her engagement party, she escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage and falls down a hole in the garden after spotting an unusual rabbit. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called “Underland,” she finds herself in a world that resembles the nightmares she had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens and knights, and frumious bandersnatches. Alice realizes that she is there for a reason—to conquer the horrific Jabberwocky and restore the rightful queen to her throne.

Written by Jim Beaver

Visually it’s breathtaking. As always when Tim Burton is around it’s beautiful and imaginative beyond my wildest dreams! Everything is a perfect mix of cute and creepy.
I really liked the Chesire Cat, and I was very pleased to hear Alan Rickmans voice as the blue caterpillar <3 But unfortunately I didn't like Alice very much. I just found her dull and stiff. But on the other hand it can't be easy sharing a stage with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter...

Actually, I think the Mad Hatter got a little too much screen time and other characters to little. Sounds strange, huh? Didn’t know there was such a thing as “too much Johnny Depp” o__O
The characters were all so charming and funny and I wanted to see much more of them! Like the Dodo bird, Tweedledee/Tweedledum and the White Queen! I also don’t think I got to know enough about Alice, about her personality and thoughts. (Btw, where’s the Mock Turtle? )
The last scene with the Jabberwocky was also a little… I don’t know. It didn’t feel as epic as it should.

All in all I think it was a good movie, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t GREAT. I’m a huge fan of Tim Burton and was pretty much prepared to be blown away. But it didn’t happen. I really thought the movie would be better.
Maybe my hopes and expectations were just to high?

“The Clash of the Titans” is set in the Greek city of Argos where a war is about to explode between man and the gods. Perseus (Sam Worthington) raised as a fisherman, but is actually a demi-god. Perseus is the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who is about to take on the gods after the death of his family. Zeus’ brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) was the one who killed his family, and Perseus wants to kill him. However, it is Perseus’s destiny to rescue the city of Argos from the ruthless rage of Hades and his Kraken monster. With nothing to lose, Perseus leads a band of soldiers on a quest to defeat the Kraken. In doing this, Perseus will prevent Hades from overthrowing Zeus and in turn destroying mankind.
Written by Alexrc

I didn’t really have any expectations on this movie. I had seen the trailer and thought the monsters looked cool, I’ve always liked Greek mythology and that was about it.
We went to see it at the movies on a Wednesday night and I figured it would probably be a good movie to see on a big screen. And I was right.

Visually it was great. All the monsters were scary and well-designed (except maybe for the Kraken, but I’ll get back to that), breathtaking scenery, nice costumes. I loved the floor in the halls of the gods and everything about the appearance of Hades! I even liked how Zeus was all shiny. A wee bit tacky perhaps, but he did look like the king of the gods. Especially next to Hades. Some of the animations were a little off, but not so much that it bothered me.
And I was pleased to see Mads Mikkelsen (Draco) in the movie! I’ve always liked him :D

Story-wise though… not so great. It was pretty obvious they had put all their creative juices into the graphics. It was as if the makers only at the last minute remembered that “Oh, maybe we should have some kind of plot as well? What do you think?” and so they just took a bunch of random Greek myths, mixed them together and handed out a few lines for each actor.
All the excitement came from the action scenes, none from the plot.
And just for the record, the Kraken is a Nordic sea monster. What the hell has it got to do with Greek gods? And why does it look like the cave troll in Lord of the Rings?

All in all I found the movie pretty mediocre. Your typical mindless action movie, perfect for light entertaining and lazy weekday afternoons. A not-exactly-brilliant-but-enough-excitement-to-keep-you-interested kind of movie. I wasn’t blown away, but I enjoyed watching it. I’ll probably see again. I might even buy the DVD, when it goes on sale.

My Sunday was mostly spent serving Markus with tissues, hot beverages and cough medicine. He’s sick and weak and we all know how men get when they’re sick ;) Thankfully I don’t seem to have caught his virus. Yet… *crosses fingers*
But then Alexandra called and wanted to go to the movies. To see The Wolfman. Of course I immediately said yes and left Markus in his pile of mucus and Kleenex. It’s about a friggin werewolf, how could I possibly resist?

Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancee, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.
Written by Anonymous

First of all I just wanna say YAY LYCANS!!! The first time I saw the trailer for this film I was jumping with joy, the werewolf is my favourite monster/mythological creature ever!

The one problem most werewolf movies have is the actual werewolves themselves. They often have a low budget and because of that the monsters are mostly put together with rubber masks and fake hair glued on. And if they do have enough money to use 3D they still often make them ugly and… just not right. Lupin in The Prisoner of Azkaban for example is one of the worst I’ve ever seen (sorry Lupin, I still love you though).
But The Wolfman actually seemed to have a real budget and the trailer looked good so my hopes were high.
Unfortunately my expectations were only half met… In most scenes he looked ok or maybe slightly above average, in some scenes he looked beyond incredible, but in some other scenes (mostly the full frontal shots) he just looked like a disfigured dog. I still haven’t really decided what to think about him.
The actual transformation scenes though, when he changed from man to werewolf, were great! I loved how you could see his feet turn into paws and how his jaw got stretched. I guess that’s were most of the 3D money went ;)

The scenery and the colour scales were just perfect, dark and beautiful and ghostly. Benicio Del Toro was perfect in the lead role, me and Alex both agreed that he kinda looked like a werewolf even as a human :P And Anthony Hopkins is, well, he is Anthony Hopkins. Can’t really go wrong with that.
I was a little surprised at how much blood and gore the movie had. I don’t think it was truly necessary, it was already creepy enough, but I don’t mind. Blood splattering only adds to the flavour you know.

All in all it was money well spent and I will definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD. The not-as-perfect-as-I-had-hoped werewolf aside it’s still a good movie. I’m satisfied.

On Christmas Day I went to the movie theatre to see Avatar. I had not heard much about it before I saw it, but the trailer looked promising (blue people with tails? I’m in!) so I was really looking forward to see it. And I was not disappointed!
The actual theatre experience was rather lame, a bunch of kids (ok, teens) were making noise in the front rows, the temperature was ridiculously hot in the salon and the guy in front of me was circa 3m tall so I had to move from side to side if I wanted to read the subtitles.
But the movie itself…? Stunning!

If you haven’t seen the movie there might be some spoilers ahead. Or not. It depends on how much you know about it already. Anyway, I’ve warned you now!

When his brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge’s intentions of driving off the native humanoid “Na’vi” in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na’vi people with the use of an “avatar” identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand – and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora. Written by The Massie Twins

The most spectacular part of the movie is of course the special effects and the amazing pictures. The scenery and wildlife on Pandora is nothing but amazing! Bright vibrant colours, sparkling lights and really imaginative creatures made it look like a true fairy tale world. The whole first hour when Jake is beginning to explore the planet with Neytiri was breathtaking, I found myself saying “wow…” quietly over and over :) And it made a very clear contrast to the grey, sterile, machine-driven world of the humans on the base.
Plot-wise it was ok, pretty much a Pochahontas rip-off. But it worked for me, I love that type nature-strikes-back stories. Honestly I could have lived without the love story, the rest of the plot was good enough, but hey, it was cute. I’m not going to complain about it.

What I felt it lacked though was the development of Jake’s character from human to Na’vi. It was such a fast transition (and not very well covered) it felt like one minute he was an obedient, almost ignorant, solider on a mission and the next he was in love with Neytiri and working against the humans. I would have liked to explore his mind a lot more, seeing how he gradually start switching sides and growing from the experience. And also how he falls in love with Neytiri. If there’s gonna be a love story you might as well make something out of it. Shouldn’t it be a much bigger deal for a human to fall in love with an alien? A lot more hesitation and agony?
The movie was almost 3 hours long and I still feel it should have been longer so it would’ve had more room for these things. Perhaps when it’s released on DVD it will have some of that in the extra material?

Even so, this is the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. What it lacks in one area it makes up for in another. I want to see it again already! This will definitely go on my favourite movies list :)