Monday, May 29, 2006
Mission Impossible: The Last Stand
Okay, so this preview ca… oh wait, this topic’s not about magic! Anyway, so I saw Mission Impossible 3 the Sunday after it came out, and X-Men 3 the Saturday after it came out. But before we get to that, a few quick mentions:
First, Ricky is now working for my dad’s company, WinMagic. I think he’ll be doing some programming with the boot-code team. Also, his position at Kumon is now open, and David’s looking for a job, so hopefully David can (and will) take this opportunity. Killing two birds with one stone, eh?
Secondly, Kyle, go have another pool party.
MI:III
Okay, so Mission Impossible 3. I liked it. Okay, this review might not be as good as Kyle’s, because I don’t remember the first movie very well. At the time I saw the first movie, I didn’t like it – weird twists and stuff, if I remember correctly, a cast of characters that didn’t feel connected or important, and… overall, it didn’t feel consistent. Maybe I’ll pick it up again and this time I’ll understand and appreciate it.
So, at the time I saw it, I could only compare it to MI2. MI2… wasn’t really that good. It’s funny – John Woo seems to know about action, but (at least not with most of his American films) he doesn’t seem to know good stories. Anyway, so MI2 was full of action, an average story, and an Ethan Hunt that was nearly invincible.
So, I looked forward to MI3, but didn’t have great hopes for it. Maybe I just wanted to see it because it’s a sequel to a long-running franchise.
So what does it mean for something to be a sequel? Well, it means same themes, same genre, and most importantly, same characters.
For example, American Pie is probably a better movie than American Pie 2, but one thing I liked about the 2nd one is that all the characters already knew each other. I mean, in the first one, you didn’t know them, and you didn’t know how well they knew each other. In the second movie, you’ve seen them all before, and know how they play and work together, so you have a better sense of family, or you feel like you’re friends with them too, and you can relate to them.
Anyway, back to MI3. In MI2, Ethan Hunt was invincible. James Bond is also nearly invincible. But in Die Another Day, James Bond got captured in the beginning, and for a while he was weak. But eventually, he got back on his feet and was invincible again. So that kind of… role reversal, character development was pretty cool.
So, back to MI3; ignoring MI1, MI3 is very different from MI2! In MI2, Ethan was invincible. In MI3, he can cry. And he does cry, a lot more. They breathed life back into Ethan Hunt, and it was a nice change of character.
Also, there are some other things about the movie that felt sort of good… a few spoilers follow, but – in movies like MI1 and the Matrix, they seem to kill off useless characters quite easily. In this movie, they didn’t really kill anyone off – his teammates survived for the whole movie, which was nice – it’s like the family made it out in one piece.
Also, there are a lot of movies with, for example, secret agents, that never tell their wife about their secret life – so when Ethan Hunt told his wife about everything, and then later she met the rest of the gang, there was that wonderful feeling of release – of letting go of a secret that you had to hide, of letting go a burden. Anyway, I’m rambling now, but overall I liked the movie. It got 6.8 on IMDB, and my score settles around 7.3.
(Also, the other day my uncle got a video-camera-dvd version of it, and I noticed that some of the music really sucks, like in old B-movies or something).
(Also, for some reason I like that priest uniform that Ethan wears in the Vatican city, that Nicolas Cage wore in Face/Off). I think it’s a good costume. For some reason.
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
X-men 3. Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Nuff’ said?
No? Well, I liked the movie too. IMDB gave it 7.2, I’ll bump it up to 7.5. Xmen 2 was better, in my opinion. There was still some story, but since it’s an epic finale, I guess as an action genre it should focus a lot on the action; actually, not so much on the action, but a lot on the mutantness of it all.
Since it was the epic finale of a mutant action movie, there had to be two things: A showcase of lots of mutants, and an epic battle where all the good xmen fight all the bad xmen. And that’s what there was.
So maybe it felt… well, yeah, a bit showcasey. At some points I felt like the producers wanted me to know, that these characters are really mutants, instead of people. Like, at the start of Monster’s Inc, they wanted you to go deep into the monster world, so that you’re in a different reality, so they show you all these different monsters and very-non-people like characters. In other alien movies like Men in Black or those Leslie Nielsen movies, they do the same thing – show a bunch of totally different characters.
So that happened in X3. Not that it’s too bad, but it felt a bit showcasey at some points.
And yeah, there was an epic battle – so everyone would have mixed feelings, because if you want to showcase all the powers, and have the good guys win, then Magneto can’t be the invinciblest of all people and stuff, etc… but whatever, that was okay.
And then, there was the epicness of the whole movie, and that was there too. So, it’s a pretty good movie. I like how Cyclops shot the water.
ETC
Anyway, in other news, we’ve started to do more physical stuff! So far, we’ve played tennis twice, two consecutive Saturdays, which is good. And today I played softball with the company, and that was surprisingly fun! It’s great exercise, and I’m actually not half bad.
Man, I felt like this entry was a ramble. Didn’t want to spend too much time writing, but also felt like I should write something non-magical.
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Okay, so this preview ca… oh wait, this topic’s not about magic! Anyway, so I saw Mission Impossible 3 the Sunday after it came out, and X-Men 3 the Saturday after it came out. But before we get to that, a few quick mentions: First, Ricky is now working for my dad’s company, WinMagic. I think he’ll be doing some programming with the boot-code team. Also, his position at Kumon is now open, and David’s looking for a job, so hopefully David can (and will) take this opportunity. Killing two birds with one stone, eh? Secondly, Kyle, go have another pool party. MI:III Okay, so Mission Impossible 3. I liked it. Okay, this review might not be as good as Kyle’s, because I don’t remember the first movie very well. At the time I saw the first movie, I didn’t like it – weird twists and stuff, if I remember correctly, a cast of characters that didn’t feel connected or important, and… overall, it didn’t feel consistent. Maybe I’ll pick it up again and this time I’ll understand and appreciate it. So, at the time I saw it, I could only compare it to MI2. MI2… wasn’t really that good. It’s funny – John Woo seems to know about action, but (at least not with most of his American films) he doesn’t seem to know good stories. Anyway, so MI2 was full of action, an average story, and an Ethan Hunt that was nearly invincible. So, I looked forward to MI3, but didn’t have great hopes for it. Maybe I just wanted to see it because it’s a sequel to a long-running franchise. So what does it mean for something to be a sequel? Well, it means same themes, same genre, and most importantly, same characters. For example, American Pie is probably a better movie than American Pie 2, but one thing I liked about the 2nd one is that all the characters already knew each other. I mean, in the first one, you didn’t know them, and you didn’t know how well they knew each other. In the second movie, you’ve seen them all before, and know how they play and work together, so you have a better sense of family, or you feel like you’re friends with them too, and you can relate to them. Anyway, back to MI3. In MI2, Ethan Hunt was invincible. James Bond is also nearly invincible. But in Die Another Day, James Bond got captured in the beginning, and for a while he was weak. But eventually, he got back on his feet and was invincible again. So that kind of… role reversal, character development was pretty cool. So, back to MI3; ignoring MI1, MI3 is very different from MI2! In MI2, Ethan was invincible. In MI3, he can cry. And he does cry, a lot more. They breathed life back into Ethan Hunt, and it was a nice change of character. Also, there are some other things about the movie that felt sort of good… a few spoilers follow, but – in movies like MI1 and the Matrix, they seem to kill off useless characters quite easily. In this movie, they didn’t really kill anyone off – his teammates survived for the whole movie, which was nice – it’s like the family made it out in one piece. Also, there are a lot of movies with, for example, secret agents, that never tell their wife about their secret life – so when Ethan Hunt told his wife about everything, and then later she met the rest of the gang, there was that wonderful feeling of release – of letting go of a secret that you had to hide, of letting go a burden. Anyway, I’m rambling now, but overall I liked the movie. It got 6.8 on IMDB, and my score settles around 7.3. (Also, the other day my uncle got a video-camera-dvd version of it, and I noticed that some of the music really sucks, like in old B-movies or something). (Also, for some reason I like that priest uniform that Ethan wears in the Vatican city, that Nicolas Cage wore in Face/Off). I think it’s a good costume. For some reason. X-Men 3: The Last Stand X-men 3. Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Nuff’ said? No? Well, I liked the movie too. IMDB gave it 7.2, I’ll bump it up to 7.5. Xmen 2 was better, in my opinion. There was still some story, but since it’s an epic finale, I guess as an action genre it should focus a lot on the action; actually, not so much on the action, but a lot on the mutantness of it all. Since it was the epic finale of a mutant action movie, there had to be two things: A showcase of lots of mutants, and an epic battle where all the good xmen fight all the bad xmen. And that’s what there was. So maybe it felt… well, yeah, a bit showcasey. At some points I felt like the producers wanted me to know, that these characters are really mutants, instead of people. Like, at the start of Monster’s Inc, they wanted you to go deep into the monster world, so that you’re in a different reality, so they show you all these different monsters and very-non-people like characters. In other alien movies like Men in Black or those Leslie Nielsen movies, they do the same thing – show a bunch of totally different characters. So that happened in X3. Not that it’s too bad, but it felt a bit showcasey at some points. And yeah, there was an epic battle – so everyone would have mixed feelings, because if you want to showcase all the powers, and have the good guys win, then Magneto can’t be the invinciblest of all people and stuff, etc… but whatever, that was okay. And then, there was the epicness of the whole movie, and that was there too. So, it’s a pretty good movie. I like how Cyclops shot the water. ETC Anyway, in other news, we’ve started to do more physical stuff! So far, we’ve played tennis twice, two consecutive Saturdays, which is good. And today I played softball with the company, and that was surprisingly fun! It’s great exercise, and I’m actually not half bad. Man, I felt like this entry was a ramble. Didn’t want to spend too much time writing, but also felt like I should write something non-magical. |