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"Snow White and The Huntsman" Trailer

Here's the first trailer of the movie starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman, and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen:







I'm gonna be honest, I've always loved the fairy tale of Snow White, but more for its dark origins than the fluffy disney version, and while this not the first retelling of the story from a more mature perspective, it is one of the first to have such a big budget.

Which makes you wonder why, for a movie titled "Snow white and The Huntsman", there's so little Snow White in the trailer, in fact they shift most of the focus to the villain and the sidekick. Could be that this is going to turn out into one of those movies where the villain and the sidekick are far more interesting than the main character? Or could be because Charlize Theron is an actual actress? Let's be honest, despite her fame, Kristen Stewart has yet to prove she's actually good at this whole acting gig, or at least capable to emote in front of the camera. Not that Chris Hemsworth has much range either, considering he seems to be rehashing his "I'm the god of thunder" mode.

To be fair though, the movie has interesting look, like a more gritty 80s fantasy vibe to it, which reminds me of  something more akin to Neil Jordan or Terry Gilliam.

"Snow White and The Huntsman" will be released on 2012, and will be dueling against Tarsem Singh's own Snow White version "Mirror, Mirror"  for the audience's attention. Let's see how this is going to turn out.

Trailer for "Cowboys & Aliens"

Jon Favreau really deserves some credit, he managed to make a movie with a silly premise look very cool, plus is James Bond next to Indiana Jones, how can you go wrong?

Iron Man 2 Review

The advantage of a sequel for a superhero movie is that since you're no longer dealing with origin story of the main character, you can finally tell a story free of restrictions. The problem with a sequel of a superhero movie is that now you want to make things better, louder and flashier but more often than not it ends being hollow entertainment. It's called sequelitis, and "Iron Man 2" suffers it. Well that's not entirely true, since "Iron Man 2" is a fairly enjoyable movie, at times, but most of the time it's a mess, with too many characters and too many subplots to follow, which is weird considering that there's hardly a plot at all.

The story -what little there is- it's about Tony Stark being a complete jerk, and about way too many people after the Iron Man armor, from the US government lead by Senator Stern (Garry Shandling), to dumb-ass industrialist Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), to supervillain with daddy issues Ivan Danko, while Rhodey Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) try to bring some sense into Tony, who behaves like a spoiled teenager 90% of the film. Around the movie but barely in it are Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov aka The Black Widow, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, both of them also calling Stark out on his douchebaggery, and providing a nice nod to the upcoming "Avengers" movie, in fact we get a nod to "The Incredible Hulk", "Thor" and "Captain America", the last one taking place in a major scene, but oddly enough played for laughs, which takes me to the following point: Remember how much everybody liked the first film because of it's quirky sense of humor? That's in this movie too, except over 9000, and I don't mean that as a compliment, because if there's something "Iron Man 2" can be hold accountable of is of trying to damn hard, especially when it comes to the comedic parts of the movie, that rather than funny come across as annoying, something John Favreau is to blame for, not only in the directing aspect, but also in character aspect, as his Happy Hogan is guilty of three needless joke scenes.

What is also annoying is that they can't decided in which villain to focus, since we have to deal with both Danko and Hammer. None of them are well developed characters, Danko's motivations are his previously mentioned daddy issues as he feels his family was wronged by the Stark's and their legacy, while Hammer's motivations are money and his jealousy of Tony's mojo, he wants to be Tony Stark big time, and decides that the better way to achieve this is to finance Danko's evil scheme. It's real shame that Danko is such an underdeveloped character -although Mickey Rourke seems to be enjoying himself- as he could have been a cool and interesting villain to deal with. Ultimately is Tony who becomes not only his own worst enemy -with a shoe horned subplot of metal poisoning- but also the movie's enemy, it's really difficult to root for him when he keeps acting like an a-hole to friends and strangers alike. It's probably only Robert Downey Junior part charming part annoying performance that keeps the audience from hating him. Is that only Christopher Nolan knows how to correctly handle more than one villain in the same movie?

It may sound like I hated the movie, I didn't, I do believe it's an adequate movie and a good kick starter for the summer season, in fact my feelings for it are mostly the same to the ones I have for the fist film, I was never a big fan of it but I could understand why other people were. But "Iron Man 2"? Regular movie goers and fans of the character will undoubtedly like it, but don't expect an epic of epic epic epicness, because this ain't.

That "Avengers" movie better be good.


Rating:
From 1 to 5: 2.5

Cute dose of the day

A kitty shows it's appreciationn for a cop:

Today on "Don't help me compadre": Woody Allen signs petition for the release of Roman Polanski

Everybody knows Roman Polanski was recently arrested in Switzerland for the charges of statutory rape in the USA, while he is being detained there he faces the possibility of extradition to the States. Now, several members of the filmmaking industry have made a petition demanding the release of Polansk, stating that "It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him", then they added "The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance...opens the way for actions of which no one can know the effects".

One of said petitioners is Woody Allen.

I'm gonna let that sink for a moment.

Woody Allen? Seriously? With his history, he's probably the most unfit person to plea for the freedom of Polanski. Which won't stop him though.

I understand they're situations are different, kind of, still it doesn't help either.

Then again, the whole outrage from the filmmaking community confuses me very much, isn't Roman Polanski technically guilty of everything he is being charged of? Shouldn't he pay his dues? Or because of his talent he should get a free pass?

"The Tudors" Second Season Finale

I recently watched the 2nd season finale of "The Tudors", with Jonathan Rhys Meyers starring as Henry VIII. The season ended with Anne Boleyn being beheaded and King Henry about to marry Jane Seymour. I think that's a safe thing to say, being an "historical" drama there are hardly any spoilers.

I find the show quite entertaining, albeit nothing I haven't seen before. It's very on the tone of your typical period drama, more close to a soap opera than something else. The acting is decent, but nothing incredible. I kinda understand why they went for a thin and handsome Henry VIII rather than a fat old one, like the real one, and while Meyers gives a regular acting, I don't see anything that's very much impressive. Every time he's supposed to be serious or angry he comes across like a spoiled brat giving a tantrum rather than an angry all powerful king. Then again, members of the royalty tend to be spoiled brats. But even so, Jonathan Rhys Meyers strikes me more like an actor on a level just a little bit above Keanu Reeves, he can emote, but not that much. But I have to be honest, I've never watched him in anything else except this and "Match Point", and even then I wasn't very impressed. Maybe I need to look more into his filmography, or maybe I'm right about his acting abilities.

Nevertheles, it is a fun show to watch. In the technical aspect I find nothing to complain about. Let's see how the 3rd season fares with the audience. On a final note, the last shot of the finale was Henry eating a cake with his hands, looking like a pig. Does that means they're finally will have him gain some weight or at least use prosthetics? Can we say Henry VII started to get fat by wife number 3? We'll see.