Edge of Tomorrow

A series of fragmented news broadcasts describes how an asteroid carrying an alien race called the Mimics has crashed in Europe and devastated the continent in a deadly war. Losing battle after battle over five years, the NATO-led United Defense Forces finally win a victory at Verdun, France, utilizing new mechanized "jacket" combat suits. UK Special Forces soldier Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) is hailed as "The Angel of Verdun" after killing hundreds of Mimics. She becomes an instant icon and a recruiting boon for the human military as the united human armies prepare to use the momentum at Verdun to commit all their forces in a multi-pronged final assault on Europe. One of the talking heads on the newsreels telling Vrataski's story and boosting the war effort is Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) of the US Army.

Cage awakens from a doze on a helicopter trip to London the morning before the invasion of France is set to take place. He meets with the Commander of the Western allies, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), assuming the General wants Cage to help him boost his public image or prepare for a post-war political career. Instead, the General orders Cage to accompany the first wave of Allied troops to land in France and provide ground coverage for the media. Cage, who was a college ROTC Cadet and majoring in advertising and has no experience in combat, tries all of the tricks he can think of to avoid the order to embed with combat units and avoid deployment, ending with an effort to blackmail the General using his media skills. The General agrees that Cage won't film the invasion, but orders Cage arrested. Cage attempts to escape but the guards Taser him, rendering him unconscious.

Cage wakes up on a pile of duffel bags in the afternoon at Heathrow Airport, which has become a huge military base and the jump-off point for the invasion of the Continent. A Sergeant kicks him and calls him 'maggot' before Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton) takes over. Sgt. Farrell has orders received from General Brigham that describe Private Cage as a deserter who has impersonated a Major. Cage is assigned to a band of odd-ball soldiers, J-Squad, who are caught gambling by Farrell when Cage is introduced to them. Farrell forces J-Squad to eat the cards they are gambling with and then instructs them to get Cage ready to deploy with them tomorrow. Cage is immediately taken by the squad for Physical Training (PT).

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Guardian of the Galaxy

On planet Earth in 1988, young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) sits in the waiting room of a hospital, listening with headphones to "Awesome Mix tape no. 1" on his Walkman. His grandpa (Gregg Henry) comes out and gets him so he can say goodbye to his mom, who is dying of cancer. His mom gives him a present and tells him his father was an angel and that Peter is just like him. She asks for his hand, but he's too scared to take it. Just then, she dies. The distraught Peter runs outside and is abducted by a spaceship.

Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, an adult Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-lord (Chris Pratt) is searching for a mysterious Orb. We know it is Peter, because he is listening to Awesome Mix Tape no. 1 as he looks. He finds it and takes it out of a laser enclosure. Almost immediately, Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and his henchmen find Peter. After a shootout, Peter makes it to his ship, the Milano, and escapes.

His partner/mentor Yondu (Michael Rooker) calls and tells Peter to give him the Orb. Peter decides he's going to sell it on his own.

On the Kree warship the Dark Aster, Korath reports to Ronan (Lee Pace) that he failed in getting the Orb and that it's in the hands of Peter.  Ronan wants the orb because he can trade it to Thanos in exchange for Thanos destroying Xandar.

Ronan plans to send Nebula (Karen Gillan) after Peter, but Gamora (Zoe Saldana) volunteers. Over Nebula's complaints, Ronan sends Gamora.

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Jurassic Park 2

Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World is essentially a rehash of the original. Man messes with nature. Things go wrong. People get eaten. The major difference is in the last part which is quite sophomoric and not at all fitting of Steven Spielberg.

It is four years after the horrific disaster that happened at Jurassic Park. Again, we meet the good doctor, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), no longer at the head of his company but still pulling a few strings behind the back of his son, Peter (Arliss Howard). The original base camp of operations set up by Hammond on Isla Sorna, Site B, still exists and there are living colonies of dinosaurs there. Hammond, who has gone from capitalist to naturalist, wants to observe the creatures in their natural habitat and put to rest years of speculation about the lives of the great animals.

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is asked to come on board the team sent to scout the island where the dinosaurs live. He refuses until he learns that his girlfriend, paleontologist Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already alone on the island. He then becomes part of a rescue mission including himself, photographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), equipment specialist Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and his daughter Kelly Curtis (Vanessa Lee Chester) who stowed away in the back of the van.

Besides the animals who would like to have humans for din-din, Malcolm's team has to cope with Peter Hammond and Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite). Tembo's goal is to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex to prove man is the greatest hunter. Peter wants to capture the animals and bring them to the mainland to create "Jurassic Park, San Diego". Bad idea.

Spielberg and company, clearly realising they had a winning formula the last time around, don't deviate very much from it. By the time the Tyrannosaurus Rex gets to San Diego, I couldn't help but thinking I had just seen Jurassic Park again.

What is missing in this movie compared to the original is the intellectual aspect. There's no talk of chaos, no background about how the animals were bred and raised, no delving into evolution about how the animals could overcome their lysine deficiency, and no "this is Unix, I know this stuff!" Viewers are simply expected to have this knowledge, and this means more time for bone crunching effects. As a result, we have a movie that is darker and gorier than the original.

The movie is entertaining and has some interesting messages about cruelty to animals and leaving nature alone to do as it will. See it for the matinee price but don't spend the big bucks on this one. 

 

 

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The second Harry Potter film is better than the first, not because it is true to the book's story, but because it is true to the book's atmosphere.

The first Harry Potter movie was very good, but it stayed so close to the book that it spread itself too thin trying to get at every single detail. This adaptation of Joanne Rowling's second book (which I think is the weakest among the entire series) does indeed have all the good parts but focuses primarily on the main storyline. The film skips a lot of the background details, which makes for effective pacing, while taking liberties with the story to fit the big screen.

Here Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff) and his friends, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) once again encounter Voldemort (Christian Coulson) as a memory that has the power to become real. Voldemort opens the Chamber of Secrets freeing a fearsome Basilisk, an Alien-like snake that can kill with a glance. The snake's attacks threaten to close down Hogwarts School and Harry must stop them or be sent home to live with his foster parents (you can understand his motivation when you meet them at the introduction of every book/film).

The film is darker than the first, with scenes that are definitely creepy: Harry's encounter with a strange hand in Diagon Alley, Ron and Harry getting stuck in a willow tree that attacks them with its branches, Harry and Ron escaping from the giant spiders, and Harry's final battle with the Basilisk. There are also some Orwellian themes touched upon here, including Dobby the Elf's masochism and slavery, the ideal of some of the "Purebloods" to cleanse Hogwarts of the "Mudbloods".

The familiar high-profile cast do a fine job, with the newcomers, Kenneth Branagh as the pompous (and hilarious) new Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart, and Jason Isaacs as an evil-oozing Lucius Malfoy, particularly standing out. While the child actors carry their roles well, some of them do tend to overact. The score does a great highlighting the suspense, which there exists a lot of.

The set design and accompanying cinematography and production deserves a paragraph of its own. The integration of computer generated images and the actors is very seamless. The Hogwarts school, the surrounding countryside, and the brief Quidditch match are all rendered with amazing reality.

If the first film was the setup, this one's definitely the payoff. Even though I know what happens next, I can't wait to see it.

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X-Men

X-Men: First Class Movie is a series of the 5th of the movie X-Men after the X-Men trilogy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. X-Men: First Class is the prequel of the X-Men trilogy set in the 60s when Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto is still young.

Movie Details

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones

Running Time: 131 Minutes

Like the four previous series, the film adaptation of the Marvel comic is also predicted to be as successful as the previous films. Film-film adaptation of the Marvel comic is much demand and has proved more successful even in the year 2011 alone 4 movie Marvel is ready to call it aired Thor (already aired last May and had topped the box office), X-Men: First Class (aired June 3 of this), Captain America: First Avenger (aired in July), and Spider-Man 4 (TBA).

X-Men: First Class Movie Synopsis :

X-Men: First Class Movie tells of the friendship of Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnserr (played by Michael Fassbender). Their friendship eventually dropped out due to disagreements. Charles then formed the group X-Men while Erick formed Brotherhood of mutants. In addition to Professor X and Magneto, another character known in previous X-Men series is Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy, aka Beast (played by Nicholas Hoult) and Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence). Antagonist character in this film are a group of Hellfire Club, chaired by Sebastian Shaw (played by Kevin Bacon) who has the power to absorb the kinetic energy weapon fire and then use it to increase strength and speed.

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