Happy Feet Two took the darker tone of the first film and made it much more kid oriented, and I am not sure if I like that. What I loved about the first film was that they focused a great deal on story and I quickly liked the characters because they were nice, and Mumble was a bit of an underdog. It had a tone that interested both adults and kids, and won itself the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. But its a whole different movie now, it has more jokes that kids will laugh at and it tries to bring in new characters that will keep the audience entertained, but in actuality they were very weak. You may enjoy this sequel if you were a die hard fan of the original, heck even I really enjoyed the original, but it seemed like they were just trying to make a sequel that would pass off as a money grubbing animated waste.
The story again follows Mumble who now has a child with Gloria named Erik. Erik meets the Mighty Sven, a penguin who can fly, and this makes Erik have a new dream to fly. Mumble tries to assure him that an Emperor penguin cannot fly, but Mumble dreams anyway. Meanwhile Ramon is trying to adapt to all the ladies being in love with Sven, but he soon meets a female penguin who he becomes infatuated with. Also, two krill named Bill and Will have lived in a swarm of krill for many years, but when Will finally leaves in a dream to become more than the average krill, Bill follows and the two get caught up on an adventure they could have never imagined. When Emperor Land is trapped by a large glacier, Mumble and Erik are the only hope to save everyone and Erik must find his purpose in life.
The plot was missing the magic that made the first film so great. It seemed like they pulled in any story they could think of and put in musical numbers that could pass off as a animated sequel. There was one really great thing about this plot and it was the storyline with the krill Bill and Will. Just having completely different characters that had nothing to do with anything that was going on with the penguins actually was a relief, and knowing that it was Brad Pitt and Matt Damon made it even funnier I think. As for new characters such as Sven, Erik and his two other friends, and Carmen they were a very big disappointment and really did nothing incredible for the story. The original characters really had nothing new going for them as well, Mumble was having father troubles, Ramon ain't getting no love, and Gloria is just their for musical numbers. Kids may be able to buy into this movie, but as for me I just did not get into it like I did with the original.
The voice cast was as impressive as the original, and the additions of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon did not hurt. Elijah Wood was as good as he was in the first, and you cannot really say much for a voice character that he has done before. Robin Williams has always been a funny voice actor, and he does get a few laughs in this movie. Hank Azaria's weird accent made his character very unlikable, I do not understand what they were trying to go for with him. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon has the best voicing in this film, they were surprisingly hilarious and I really think they gave the film a boost. Overall a decent voice cast that was very better with Damon and Pitt.
Happy Feet Two has a few things that made the first film great. The animation was beautiful and just as great as the first film, they both had special moments that had incredible animation. The music truly was not all that bad, but it seemed to get out of hand with all the variety of music, and they actually lose the beauty of dancing that the first film had and add more music, which to be honest I did not like, there is even one scene where Erik sings and it was one of the creepiest things I have ever heard in my life. The jokes in the film were at times funny but there was one joke at the beginning of the film where Erik starts peeing and I already realized that this film was doomed to be a boring sequel. Sure enough, it bored me to death and only the sight of two funny krill were able to keep me interested. I recommend you see this film if you loved the first film, but I can promise you that you will feel embarassed to be in that theater listening to this shameful sequel.
Attack the Block is a alien movie that is original in almost every way. Its a horror movie so there are some very tense and thrilling moments and actually scared me more than I thought it would. The comedy is pretty hilarious, there are many pop culture references which I love about comedies. So many alien films take themselves too seriously but this movie is just having fun with what its given, and I'm surprised it went so well seeing as it had a very small budget. It was really hard for me not to love the film, there are so many different things to love and it felt so original and I can honestly see this as a cult classic in a few years, you all watch, I believe it will be.
The story follows a gang of teens who try save their town by stopping an alien invasion after killing one. But they soon discover killing one alien will be much harder then killing an army of them.
The plot was really simple which is one of the reasons I loved it. it was easy for everyone to just completely love with its great comedy and thrilling and scary moments. Its characters consist of a bunch of smart ass kids who I honestly thought were just incredible. This actually showed what true teens are like in a way, they think they are really tough and all we want is to be a hero of their town, everybody wishes they could get a chance to be a hero. They also were hilarious, you can tell they just play video games all day and try to be a tough gang, but end up turning out to be scared kids who just want to help their town. I thought they formed it to be fun for everyone who enjoys cheesy horror movies with some good comedy to make it an original storyline.
The cast is a group of young actors and a few well known actors, either ways I liked them all. John Boyega plays the leader of the gang, I thought he played it very well and actually felt much sympathy for him because I could tell somehow he has just had a bad life, for a young actor you can tell he is going to be doing a lot more. Jodie Whittaker was actually my one problem with the film, she is the main female protagonist and it seemed like she was just there to whine and annoy us. Other cast members like Alex Esmail, Nick Frost, Franz, Drameh, Leeon Jones, and Howard Simon were all memorable and I loved their performances.
Attack the Block has some aliens that at first I looked at them and was like WTF? But soon you grow to love how cheesy and original they look, and the characters constantly mock how they look so it made it even funnier. One small problem I did have however was that it starts off maybe a little TOO quick, I mean its just starts and in like three minutes an alien invasion just happens, we do not get to know the characters at all we just end up working with what we got, but soon I loved the characters so it was not a huge problem for me. This movie was like one big video game, it was bloody, dark, humorous and I can easily see it being a video game people would play. Alien movies either go two ways, they either suck like Battle: Los Angeles or they or very good like Spielberg's E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but Attack the Block take alien films to a whole new level of originality, its not as good as the Spielberg films but its sure is going to be a classic in a few years. This is a movie that is great for those who enjoy alien movies such as me, you will love how fun it is and at times scary it is, I highly recommend this.
Arthur Christmas is a beautiful and fun Christmas movie that is sure to be a holiday classic. The story follows Arthur who is the son of Santa Clause, his brother Steve is a smart but at times inconsiderate role model who is second in command to Santa, and when a little girl has a gift that did not get sent Arthur does everything he can to make sure this girl has a Merry Christmas. The plot of the movie is funny and a great lesson to be told about Christmas and children, and what i learned from this movie if anything is that every child needs to believe in Santa, because there is nothing better than believeing that there is somebody who loves you that whill bring you a present on Christmas day, and the characters of the film were good but i found the characters to be a little selfish at times besides Arthur who was a incredibly kind and good charcater and he saved the film in a way from being just a bunch of selfish men wanting to be a star. The voice cast was great, James McAvoy was perfect for the character, Hugh Laurie was also was a well done choice as Steve, Jim Broadbent was good as the voice as Santa, and Bill Nighy was also a great choice for his role, what else can I say for voice actors other than I liked them. The animation was incredible, I could really tell they worked hard to make a beautiful Christmas film and it really payed off big time, I loved the beauty in this film. Arthur Christmas had some few problems that kept it from being a perfect Christmas film, but those were minor compared to the things that they got right that made it a great Christmas film and that will make it remembered for years to come.
New Years Eve was basically a clone of the 2009 film Valentines Day, it has the same director, the same writer, same producers, and the same storyline but there is one difference between the two movies, they are different holidays, and I felt like that is the only difference. The story follows many different people who all have different experiences on the day of New Years Eve. The plot is exactly what we all were expecting, a vignette of people who all have different stories, but as I was expecting, the stories are uninteresting, the characters are boring, and we all know that they are going to end a on a good note and be really romantic so what was there really to look forward to, no matter how many of these films they make and I cannot see a story like this ever really being good. The cast consists of some very big actors including Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Halle Berry, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeifer, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Jon Bon Jovi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zac Efron, Sofia Vergara, Jake T. Austin, Jessica Biel, Ludacris, Seth Meyers, and Ryan Seacrest, and you know what, not a single one of these actors could show how good they are because they only get about 10 minutes of screen time each so what can i say other than they all did this film for a paycheck and nothing else. The comedy was not meant to really make people laugh, it is meant to give a few giggles to some girls who go with their boyfriends to a cheesy romantic movie, so if you did laugh at the film Valentines Day, you will not laugh at this film. New Years Eve respects the holiday and does not stray from being a film that celebrates the holiday so I did not completely dislike the film, but in my opinion it failed in everything else such as story, acting, romance and comedy so I recommend to anybody who wants a good film, but if you want to see a film to celebrate the New Year this is what you will want to see.
