Movie Review: How To Train Your Dragon 2

Hey guys!  I finally got to see HTTYD 2 last week (I got the Blu-Ray of both the HTTYD movies and a DVD copy of Beauty and the Beast for my birthday.  So excited!) But anyway, I'm probably one of the very last people to get a movie review up for this puppy, but hey. 

(Image from fandango.com)

Storyline: I'm just going to go on ahead and post spoilers; the movie's been out on DVD since November-ish.  The storyline is superb; one  of the best sequels I've ever seen.  No plot holes, no sense of "they're just doing this for the money and didn't even think this through".  It gives a wonderful backstory and even explains Hic's scar!  The movie shows a wonderful message of how trust is everything, including the strong bond between a human and an animal.  There are plenty of foreshadowing events that you pick up on once you watch it a second time, and it's fascinating.  I love that Valka actually looks like Hiccup, because it was one loose end tied up nicely -- plus, Valka!  I also love how Hiccup and Astrid's relationship is evolving, but not too fast or too slow.  It's just a comfortable kind of friendship/girlfriend/boyfriend relationship and it's great. 


Animation: Holy crumbs, the animation.   I just sat and ooh-ed and awe-d at the TV for the majority of the film.  The graying hairs, the fur pieces, the dragons, how everyone is shown at the appropriate ages and they actually look like themselves...GAH.  Perfection. 

Soundtrack:  I'm a sucker for soundtracks like this.  Scottish/Celtic-type soundtracks like this will automatically get a 11/10 score from me, but this one was amazing.  Plus, the actual songs sung are great and actually feel great for the movie. 

Cast:  I was so excited to hear that the original cast was coming back.  One big mistake with movie companies is that when they reprise a role for a sequel or prequel, they can't/don't get the original cast back.  The fact that Jay, America, Gerard, etc. came back is amazing and I really hope they're still on for the third movie! 


Overall, I would give How to Train Your Dragon 2 a 10/10.  It was very well-thought-out and I hope the third one is as well-made as the first two were!  Have any of you seen HTTYD 2?  Plan to see it?? 

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Hey everyone!  I know, I'm dreadfully slow at getting this review up, but this is the review for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie, plus the Blu-Ray extras. 
I'm not going to go into detail about it, just in case someone hasn't seen it yet - just covering the general summary. 

The Movie:
Guardians of the Galaxy is an intense movie with incredible graphics.  The CGI is strong in this one.  The movie is about Peter Quill's origins as Starlord, and how the Guardians of the Galaxy were formed.  Gamora, Groot, Rocket the Raccoon, and Drax the Destroyer are all in the movie as well.  Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser (seeing Lee Pace go from the Elven Thranduil in The Hobbit movies to a blue-skinned terror known as Ronan the Accuser was..interesting!)  and a few others are the villains in this film. 

The movie follows the not-so-orthodox team as they assemble and go on a dangerous mission to keep the entire galaxy safe.  That's not the easiest task, obviously! 

The casting: 
Couldn't have been better.  Chris Pratt is Peter Quill.  Zoe Saldana plays an excellent Gamora.  Dave Bautista is perfect for Drax.  And Vin Diesel..."I am Groot". 

The CGI: The CGI in this movie is impeccable.  Most of this movie is probably CGI, with the exception of a few scenes.  I'd like to know how long it took them to make this movie!  Whew.  I thought the graphics might be a little crappy in the movie, seeing as there's just so much of it, but they pull it off incredibly well and make you feel as if you're right in these strange planets with everyone else! 


The Soundtrack: 
I....I'm hooked on a feelin'...that this soundtrack is as good as the rest of the Marvel movies.  Seriously, I give up even trying to rate the soundtracks for these Marvel movies because they're all so good!!!  While it might not be *as* good as Henry Jackman's for The Winter Soldier or Big Hero 6, it's still great!

The Content: Here's where we hit a little bump.  I was a little surprised with how inappropriate Marvel was with the dirty little jokes.  Therefore, if you have kids and don't want them exposed to dirty jokes, you may want to skip this movie, unfortunately.  That's really the only issue with the movie.  Between the dirty jokes and the extreme usage of a few specific expletives, it's a bit disappointing. 

Overall: 
I would give Guardians of the Galaxy a 9/10.  If it weren't for the content, I'd be giving it an 11 out of 10! 
I still recommend it, however! 

Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet?  What did you think of it? 

Blu-Ray Special Features list
On the Blu-Ray disc of this movie, you get quite a few special features. This includes:
--Avengers: Age of Ultron exclusive look (!!!!!)
--Audio Commentary
--Deleted Scenes
--Making-Of Featurettes
--Gag Reel

All of these special features are really great - especially the Making-Of Featurettes, if you're into learning how they make the movie.  I recommend paying a few dollars extra to see these features if you can't find them online!

Movie Review: Big Hero 6

Hey everyone!
Today, I've got a movie review for you: Big Hero 6. 

I'm not going to be posting major details about the plot - you're going to have to see it for yourself!  It's too good to spoil.  However, if you do not want any details about the movie at all, it's kind of obvious that you may not want to read on!


Basic Plot: Hiro Hamada is a fourteen-year-old genius who graduated high school at the age of thirteen.  He and his older brother Tadashi live with their Aunt Cass, since their parents died when they were young.  Tadashi is in college at SFIT, and makes an inflatable robot that helps and takes care of people - Baymax, your personal healthcare assistant.  Tadashi convinces Hiro to apply for SFIT, and he does. 

After the college goes up in flames in a terrible accident, Hiro, with the help of Tadashi's college friends - GoGo Tomago, Honey Lemon, Wasabi No Ginger, and Fred -, along with Baymax, have to avenge the accident and catch the villain. 

Some Messages Within The Movie: ****POSSIBILITY FOR SPOILERS*****
*Personal loss. 
At one point in the movie, Hiro is depressed.  While yes, Frozen's Elsa was a metaphor for depression, it is flat-out mentioned in the film, and dealt with throughout the movie.  It's not a snap-your-fingers-and-they're-okay-again deal, like what we see in a lot of movies. 
*Team players.
Hiro, at one point, goes against his teammates in a rage, bent on revenge for the villain who burnt down the college instead of justice.  He, with the help of Baymax, eventually understands his mistake and goes back to the team, and they handle the situation correctly. 
*Never give up. 
While Tadashi never gave up on Baymax or Hiro, this message goes deeper than that.  The movie tells you to never give up on your dreams, on other people, or yourself.  I don't know about you guys, but I think this is something everyone needs to think about.  Earlier this year, I really needed this message!

Main Characters:

Honey LemonVoiced by Genesis Rodriguez, Honey Lemon is the optimistic of the bunch.  Even if someone's trying to kill them, she's seeing the silver lining to the situation!  She's quite a lot like Tangled's Rapunzel in this sense.  She's the chemist of the group. 
Hiro HamadaVoiced by Ryan Potter, Hiro Hamada is a robotics prodigy, as well as the main character in the story.
Tadashi HamadaVoiced by Daniel Henney, Tadashi Hamada is the older Hamada brother and Hiro's role model.  His entire purpose in life is to help people.
Aunt Cass
Voiced by Maya Rudolph, Aunt Cass is the owner of the Lucky Cat Cafe and the guardian of Tadashi and Hiro.  She's the one that has to run after and control her two genius nephews. 
Wasabi No-Ginger
Voiced by Damon Wayans Jr., Wasabi may be the biggest and beefiest character in the movie, but he's just a giant kitten.  He's hindered by severe OCD tendencies and has to overcome these in the movie.
FredT.J. Miller voices Fred.  He's not a mega genius, but is the mascot for SFIT.  Even if he's a huge nerd and doesn't get into all the science-y stuff that the rest of the characters do, he's just as important as the rest of them.
GoGo TomagoVoiced by Jamie Chung (who is Mulan on Once Upon a Time), GoGo is the snarky mechanics geek of the bunch; a real Clint Eastwood type.  She's a woman of few words, but she gets her point across!
BaymaxVoiced by Scott Adsit, Baymax is the inflatable, huggable robot that is very innocent and childlike.  He's the glue that holds the entire team together.

Marvel OriginsBig Hero 6 is a Marvel comic series that isn't very popular at all.  The names of the characters and some minor plot details are used from the comics in this movie, but that's about where the similarities end; however, I have not found the actual comics yet to really read them - though I would love to!  The comic series Big Hero 6 is virtually a love letter to the Japanese culture. 

SoundtrackThe soundtrack is amazing.  The composer is Henry Jackman, the same composer who worked on Captain America: The Winter Soldier's soundtrack.  If you've read my review for The Winter Soldier, you'll know I'm in love with the soundtrack.  Big Hero 6's soundtrack is just as good!  If you liked Jackman's work in The Winter Soldier, I highly, highly recommend this soundtrack as well!  It's on YouTube if you'd like to check some of them out. 

GraphicsThe.  Graphics.  The CG in this movie is simply stunning.  A+ animation.  Not many flaws, and they obviously took their time with creating the film.  

StorylineThe storyline is excellent.  There aren't too many plot holes that I can find - if any - and that is a very, very good thing. 

Overall: I would give the movie a 9.5/10.  I'm docking half of a point because of some suggestiveness in the beginning of the movie whilst Baymax is talking to Hiro about puberty - in which, Hiro cuts him off at a very convenient moment, and I feel like they could've left that out, but overall, the movie is amazing.  It has a very good storyline and very deep, heartfelt messages.  You'll laugh, you'll cry - a lot - and you'll likely fall in love with the movie and want to see it over and over again. 
Plus, there is an after-credits scene with Stan Lee.  It's worth it.  It's worth sitting through the credits. 
Have any of you seen Big Hero 6 yet?  Are you planning on seeing it in theaters? What are your thoughts about the movie? 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie review

Hey, everyone!
It has been an INSANE week, but I managed to get some time to write a quick movie review for Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
In a word:  wow.
I feel like it is one of the greatest Marvel movies, but I haven't made a comprehensive list [yet] of the best Marvel movies :P
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the spoiler-free plot summary is this:
HYDRA returns, and Captain America must team up with the Black Widow and Falcon to take down HYDRA as well as the Winter Soldier.  Cap must also deal with being re-introduced into society, especially since it's the 21st century now.
That's it.
That's all I can say about the plot.
This is one of the movies that you just have to watch, and watch closely, in order to understand everything.  Also, if you spoil anything, it just takes all the fun out of watching it!

In The Winter Soldier, we are introduced to Sharon Carter //Agent 13, Sam Wilson//The Falcon, and...the Winter Soldier.  A less-known fact is that we are introduced to another comic book character, *SPOILERS DON'T READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SCREAMING ANGRILY AT THE TV THE FIRST TIME HIS FACE APPEARS ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN WHEN YOU SEE THE MOVIE*
*********************************************************************************
Actually, I am going to have you just click and drag from the start of the next sentence to the asterisks, and once you highlight that sentence, you'll be able to read it.  Boom, problem solved..?   We are introduced to Brock Rumlow /// Crossbones.  
Okay.
That blank spot after "...?" can be left blank if you want to be blissfully in the dark of this matter.  
And if you do read that "invisible" spot, you can comment with any questions, I'll be happy to spill my guts and all my hours of research...which may or may not include spoilers for the third movie.

ANYWAY.  With that said, let's move back to the actual review.  I just kind of geeked out there.

Let's see.  The movie was VERY intense, full of action, explosions, shooting, etc.  It had a lot of 'read-between-the-lines' messages in my opinion, but it was GREAT.  There was some swearing, but it wasn't overbearing, exactly.  Not saying I appreciate the swearing, but I'm not going to have a fit over them using it, because...unfortunately, it's everywhere.  That aside, it's also a very emotional film.  We are re-introduced to Peggy Carter, and let's just not go there.  We aren't touching the topic of the Winter Soldier.

And oh my word, the soundtrack.  The composer, Henry Jackman, created an INSANELY sick soundtrack for this movie, and by sick, I mean amazing.  I could listen to it forever.

Overall  - and I am SO SORRY that I didn't include any spoilers, but trust me when I tell you this: the less things you know when you watch the movie for the first time, the better--the movie is AMAZING.  10/10.  I simply cannot wait for the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I'm very excited - and concerned - for the Captain America 3 movie to come out...whenever that's going to be.

Has anyone seen The Winter Soldier?    Is anyone planning (by the way, I'm not sure why my tablet underlined that.  I told it not to, but it somehow did anyway, and Blogger doesn't want to listen... Maybe HYDRA has hacked my tablet...) is anyone planning on watching it?  Your thoughts, ideas, and predictions for Captain America 3?

Saving Mr. Banks Review and a Quick Update =]

Hey, guys! 
Sorry I haven't posted anything since last Monday...this month is turning out to be CRAZY.  Our horses are crazy, too, and that's mostly WHY this month  has been crazy :D  Anyway, with that aside, I have a quick review for you guys today -- it's for the Disney movie, Saving Mr. Banks. 

Saving Mr. Banks is a movie based on the making of Mary Poppins, featuring Emma Thompson as P. L. Travers / Helen Goff, Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, B.J. Novak as Robert Sherman, Jason Schwartzman as Richard Sherman, and more. 
The very stubborn P.L. Travers is quite against Walt Disney's request to make a movie out of her book, Mary Poppins; but it turns out that Walt is a very stubborn man, as well.  They butt heads throughout the movie, and she gives the entire team grief, fussing over anything from the color red to the mustache that Mr. Banks is drawn with.  And she is sooo very against animation and musicals.  Disney?  No singing?  Pfft, Mrs. Travers...she also has quite a few odd little quirks; quirks that you will get to better understand throughout the movie, including why she hates the color red and why she hates pears; as well as who Mary Poppins and Mr. Banks were based off of.  She learns that she's not the only one who had a rough childhood, and they eventually get the movie completed.

I absolutely love this movie, and if you liked Mary Poppins, you should DEFINITELY give Saving Mr. Banks a try.  It's a really, really sad movie, though; I don't know how many times I cried over it!  Also, you will want to stay for the credits -- they have photographs of the actual team that had been working on Mary Poppins; P.L. Travers, Walt Disney, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke,...you'll want to see them.  They even have a clip from the REAL recordings of when P.L. Travers insisted on recording every meeting with the team.  It's really cool. 

I know this is an incredibly short review, but I can't really go into detail, or I'll spoil a lot of things.  I just highly recommend watching it!
Have you already seen it, or do you plan to?  What did you think of it, if you already have seen it? 

The Lone Ranger --A Quick Movie Review

Hey, guys!  Sorry I haven't posted all this week.  I've been wayyy too busy with class-related work, and when I'm not doing that, I'm either outside with my horses or inside fighting with my iPod, which completely and utterly broke when I tried to update it.  Fun, right?! 
But anyway, without further ado, here's a review for Disney's The Lone Ranger. 

The Lone Ranger was released in 2013.  The storyline from IMDb reads:
"In the 1930s, an elderly Tonto tells a young boy the tale of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. An idealistic lawyer, he rides with his brother and fellow Texas Rangers in pursuit of the notorious Butch Cavendish. Ambushed by the outlaw and left for dead, John Reid is rescued by the renegade Comanche, Tonto, at the insistence of a mysterious white horse and offers to help him to bring Cavendish to justice. Becoming a reluctant masked rider with a seemingly incomprehensible partner, Reid pursues the criminal against all obstacles. However, John and Tonto learn that Cavendish is only part of a far greater injustice and the pair must fight it in an adventure that would make them a legend." 
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210819/)

The cast includes Johnny Depp as Tonto, Armie Hammer as John Reid/the Lone Ranger, and Ruth Wilson as Rebecca Reid.
While the storyline can get a little botched -- one minute, you're watching the events as they happened, and then suddenly, you're back in the museum, and the little boy is asking "Tonto" more questions.  It's kind of confusing, but you can follow along regardless.
Other than that and some content --it's PG13--, it's absolutely hilarious, and I do recommend watching it.  Johnny Depp playing Tonto is absolutely perfect!  One of my favorite parts was probably at the very end (I can't remember if it was after the credits or not), when the Lone Ranger is on Silver, and the horse rears up and he yells, "Hi-ho, Silver!"  and then Tonto just says, "Don't ever do that again." or something to that effect... It was just funny xD  

Overall, it's a pretty light film with plenty of humor, and I do recommend watching it.  It's not totally littered with language, either, which   Have any of you seen it?  Do you plan on watching it sometime? 

Monsters University review

Hey, everyone!  I recently watched Monsters University, and thought I would do a quick review on it.

I initially wasn't going to watch it, because it seemed a little...iffy...as to if it would be good or not.  I love  Monsters, Inc., though, and when I learned that Nathan Fillion voiced one of the monsters on Monsters U, I just had to see it.  (Nathan Fillion...any Castle fans out there??)
Anyway, the basic plot follows Mike Wazowski on his journey from high school to going to college, trying to become an official scarer for Monsters Inc.  This is where he meets Sulley, and they are less than best friends.  Sulley's in the popular group, Mike is not...you see where this is going, right?  Mike isn't scary enough to become a scarer, though, and through a series of events, he and Sulley join up with a group of less-than-scary monsters during this annual competition that takes all these teams through several tests and competitions, eliminating the non-scary monsters.  The reason Sulley and Mike join their group and sign up to participate in the annual competition is because they both broke something very dear to a high monster of authority (I'm blanking up on her name and position, sorry!)  and she refuses to let them back in the school.  They make a deal with her that if they win, the whole team (all of them were told they weren't scary enough) would be able to go through college, and thus their journey begins.

I won't spoil a lot of things, but their journey ends up being unsuccessful after Sulley, in the last round, cheats.  However, they go on to show all of the monsters making do and everything working out for all of them anyway, and Mike and Sulley end up working as mail people...er...monsters...at Monsters Inc., and then slowly make their way up to officially become scarers for Monsters Inc.

Overall, I would give the movie a 7 out of 10.  It's a cute movie (and Mike as a  little monster is ADORABLE), but the plot is kind of not very strong.  I do, however, like that they had to pay for the consequences of cheating,  instead of getting in anyway, and I also like that it shows that they had to work hard to get to be scarers at Monsters Inc., instead of just having the jobs handed to them.  It definitely is not quite as good as the first one, but I still really liked it.  If you were a fan of Monsters Inc., I would reccomend watching it.  (:  Has anyone seen Monsters University?  Does anyone plan on seeing it?

Epic Movie Review

Hey guys!  :D  So here's the movie review for Epic, which I just recently saw. 
If you don't already know, Epic was from the creators of Ice Age.  According to Google, this is the synopsis of the movie: "Epic" tells the story of an ongoing battle deep in the forest between the forces of good and the forces of evil. When a teen age girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she must band together with a rag-tag team of fun and whimsical characters in order to save their world... and ours." 

Colin Farrell voices the rough, but lovable Ronin (a leaf man), who starts out as rather cold and sarcastic; he's really dead-set on doing anything to protect the queen, Tara.  He also has to train young Nod, who knows justttt how to get on his nerves.  By the end of the movie, he's quite a bit softer, but still sarcastic.
Amanda Seyfried voices Mary-Katherine (Or MK), the teenage girl with an estranged father.  Her mother just recently passed away, and this forces MK to go live with her father, Professor Bomba (voiced by Jason Sudeikis).  He's a very eccentric scientist who believes in an advanced society of beings that live in the woods.  The obsessive research trying to prove this is what drives his family away, and what causes him his job. 
Josh Hutcherson voices Nod, the young and adventurous leaf man who lost his father when he was young -- not sure about his mother.  He has to learn that life's not all rough and tumble fun; and he has to help Ronin keep MK safe after queen Tara gets injured and virtually leaves the life of the forest up to MK.  It's kind of hard to explain, you'll just have to see the movie to understand xD  
The majority of the comic relief comes from Mub and Grub, a snail and a slug.  The snail is extremely focused on wanting to become a leaf man, while the slug is just a little disgusting, and has this big crush on MK.  They are absolutely hilarious! 

I'm not really sure what all to say about the movie that doesn't spoil anything....let's just say that I was expecting a very different, more fairytale-like ending; and the movie was epic.  Pun intended.  ;) 

The plot was pretty good -- When I started watching the movie, I thought "Oh, great.  It's going to be this movie with an overly-environmental message..." Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to be a good steward to the Earth, as the Bible says we should be, but I'm not a fan of the "Every time you use your car, every time you turn on a lightbulb, every time you BREATHE, you're polluting our environment.  Stop it!"  message that is so popular -- not to offend anyone.  But actually, it wasn't overly environmental!  The villains are Boggins that are out to rot everything in the forest, and so MK, Nod, and Ronin have to save the forest after something happens to Tara.  I was pretty happy that it wasn't a totally environmental movie (: 

And on to the voicing.  I think all the voices are very fitting, but I do have a couple of complaints...a couple of Josh Hutcherson's lines are a bit emotionless and not..I don't know...well-said.  There could be a bit more emotion behind a couple of the lines.  You know what I mean?  And Beyonce could've done a lot better of a job voicing Tara, but oh well.  And in the very absolute beginning of the movie, the animation is kind of off and a bit jerky/jumpy, but it improves a LOT through the movie.  And did I mention that Nod looks a LOT like Eugene from Tangled?!  That was awesome.  :D

Overall, I think I'd give the movie a 4 out of 5.  Some of the lines are a bit off, and some of the animation is a bit funky, but other than that, it's a great movie, and I'd recommend it to anyone!! (:

Has anyone seen Epic?  What were your thoughts; or do you plan to see Epic sometime?

Marvel's Iron Man 3 Review

Hey everyone!  So today, I've got the Iron Man 3 review up, finally!(:  It's a really good movie, and I absolutely LOVE it and highly recommend it. 
To understand what's going on in Iron Man 3, you need to have watched The Avengers -- and if you've never seen the 1st Iron Man, watch that too :D 

So, the basic, non-spoilery summary of the movie is that Tony Stark is working on this new prototype of suits, ones that can do pretty epic stuff.  He's also dealing with panic attacks, reminiscent of the attack on New York.  A person from Tony's past comes up and starts all these 'bombings' in an attempt to lure Tony out --he is known as the Mandarin. 
Of course, Tony rises to the occassion, sufficiently getting him and Pepper into this bigggg mess.  Tony has to learn how to rely not on his suits, but his brains and abilities to turn common household items into weapons in order to defeat the Mandarin.  He who used to be so high-and-mighty, arrogant, and self-obsessed also learns that there's more in life than just loving himself.  He also has to learn how to overcome his panic attacks -- any mention of New York and he starts getting an attack.

 I absolutely loved the fact that the movie conveys a good, wholesome message or two-- one being that you just don't stand people up and ignore them.  If somebody has something to show you, be patient and allow them to talk to you, even if you think their idea is the stupidest thing ever.  Don't just shut them down or ignore them, because you may just open up a whole can of worms you didn't want to open.  Plus, you'll be doing a good deed, and you never know if someone just wants you to listen. 

The movie is AMAZINGLY well-made, and keeps you on the edge of your seat literally constantly.  If you don't watch and listen closely to the prologue, you will not understand at all what is going on, just a side-note!  The graphics for the movie are sooo well done, and it's very action-packed.  VERRY action packed -- there is never a dull moment!  I'm sorry I couldn't do a full, extremely long review on the movie -- I rented it from Netflix last month, watched it three or four times, and had to return it a few weeks ago, so it's not the freshest in my memory.  Plus, there is a spoiler that I want to leave unsaid, because the element of surprise for this spoiler is best.  Or possibly the worst.  Just depends on how you react.  xD 

Plus, did I mention Tony Stark's signature jokes?! 

I was never a huge Iron Man/Tony Stark fan, but after this movie, I must admit that I officially like the Iron Man movies.  :} 

Has anyone else seen any of the Iron Man movies?  Anyone planning on seeing them?  (:    

Marvel's Thor: The Dark World movie review

So, last Wednesday, I got my Thor: The Dark World (which will be referred to as TTDW from now on in this review) DVD in the mail.  This was the sequel to Marvel's Thor (2011) movie, which introduced Thor (the Norse god of thunder) and his adopted brother, Loki. 
To understand fully what's going on in TTDW, you have to have watched Thor and The Avengers first, or you'll be completely and utterly lost as to why the nine realms were not at peace, why the Bifrost was destroyed, and why Jane Foster (Thor's love interest) wigs out on Thor when he returns to Midgard (Earth).
With that said...let's continue.   [Edit:  The DVD comes with two bonus features:  "Jane learns about the Aether", and an exclusive look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Both are very awesome.  The Blu-Ray has a lot more bonus features, from what I've heard.  I'm sure they'll be on Youtube!]

Things are a little slow-moving in the absolute very beginning, but you have to keep close attention to the prologue so you are able to understand what all is going on in the movie.  In the prologue, Anthony Hopkins narrates and tells about Malekith and the Dark Elves, who reside in one of the nine realms -- the Dark World.  They possess an extremely powerful object, similar to the Tesseract, but very, very dangerous -- the Aether.  It cannot be destroyed, so when the Dark World is under attack by Asgard's army, they bury it somewhere they hope will prevent it from being found; and it stays there for likely thousands of years...until Jane finds it on accident. 

After the prologue, the first person you see is Loki -- brought to Odin in chains.  He is sentenced to life in Asgard's dungeon, and without contact to the only person he connected with and cared about:  Frigga.  This was two years ago, after he was brought home from his little adventure in New York (The Avengers). 

Things are going along well enough in Asgard after that.  The nine realms are at peace, the Bifrost repaired, and Thor is well on his way to becoming king of Asgard, replacing his father. 
Until the Aether is reactivated by Jane Foster, which regenerates Malekith and his Dark Elves. 
When all this happens, Thor goes back to Jane, takes her to Asgard, and they find out what happened to her.  As all of this is happening, the Dark Elves are working on their revenge attack on Asgard.

From here on out, the spoiler-free plot is that Thor ends up joining forces with Loki  and Jane on this epic journey to stop the nine realms from from throwing Earth completely off and possibly destroying it.  There are so many twists and turns in the film, and it's just absolutely perfect, very hilarious, and at the same time, there are a couple of scenes that are just really, really sad. 
I definitely reccomend Thor: The Dark World.  It is an awesome movie, has this amazing soundtrack to boot, and any Marvel/Thor/Loki fan will like it!  Make sure to watch through all the credits to see the mid-credit and after credit scenes, one of which includes what happens to the Aether after the movie's end. 
Fun fact:  Fandral is played by  Zachary Levi.  Is anyone a  Zac Levi fan?  I know I am...  
Has anyone seen Thor: The Dark World?  Anyone planning on seeing it? 

Now, I'm going to continue with the review with some insight on the movie, but if you want to remain spoiler-less, I'd highly reccomend stopping HERE. 


***SPOILERS NEXT**


Frigga dies. 
Loki dies.  Or does he? 
Oh, and there's this little part how Loki starts going by "Loki of Jotenheim", just to trick Malekith and the Dark Elves...which is cool. 

Frigga's funeral is truly one of the most emotional funerals that I have seen in a movie like TTDW.  It's beautiful, yet so tragic, and I had the score from this scene stuck in my head for days. 
But what I wonder is...Frigga taught Loki all of his tricks.  This is shown not only when Thor is arguing with Loki and says "You had her tricks, but I had her trust!", but also when the Kursed enters the room she and Jane are hiding in.  She created Jane's illusion so that the Kursed and the Dark Elves wouldn't take her, so why didn't she create an illusion for herself?  If she would have done so, the illusion could have fought them off and they would have both been safe.  I realize that this was a major game-changer in the movie, but that's just a thought.  Or did she just not have as many magical abilities that Loki did? 

There's also a little piece in which Loki and Thor are talking about  Jane and the fact that her body won't be able to handle the Aether's power, where Thor is reluctant to even admit that something might happen to Jane.  Of course, I can  see why he wouldn't want to look at that reality.  But Loki also gave an excellent, quick speech that while you can avoid the matter as long as you want, but someday -- and it could be either a heartbeat away, or years and years away -- someone will leave your life, and you won't be prepared, and avoiding it will not help, especially if you don't tell someone how you feel about them before their time is up -- or even if they just go away. 
Or at least, that's how I took it.  This was, though, excellent foreshadowing. 
Which brings me to something else: 
 Loki's death scene is absolutely sudden and heartbreaking.  A++ acting to Tom Hiddleston, and this scene just kills me every time I watch it -- especially the part where he's apologizing and telling Thor that yes, he was a fool.  And the part where he says "I didn't do it for him?"  Yeah.  Wow. 
Which brings me to ANOTHER thing.  What on earth did Loki DO?
Obviously, this all worked out in his favor, being that he ended up being the king of Asgard, but how?  He obviously fine-tuned his illusions whilst his two-year-long stay in Asgard's prisons, so did he create an illusion of himself, to make Thor think he was dead?  Or was it Lorelei, who just made an appearance on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D last night?  If you are interested in reading the info on Lorelei, click her name above.  Paragraphs 3 and 4 are the bits that are most crucial to this other idea. 
Also, what did he do with Odin?
And will Thor find out eventually that he left Asgard in the hands of not his father, but his brother?  Or will this remain hush-hush?  Hmm...Marvel, we need a Loki movie.  We need it, and we need answers -- ASA-Please. 

So, what does everyone think?  If you read through all that, congratulations -- you're awesome.  Feel free to comment, I love talking about fandoms!

**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** Frozen Movie Review **SPOILERS **SPOILERS**

Hey everyone! 
This is the movie review for Disney's 53rd animated movie, Frozen.  I will warn you right now (if you hadn't noticed via the title.. =P) that there WILL be spoilers in this review.  A lot of spoilers.  Like, basically the entire movie described in one blog post.  Just sayin'.  

Okay.  so if you've read past the warning sentence above, sit down with a cup of tea, coffee, or hot cocoa, put your feet up, and get ready to read a LONG post.  ;) 

 

 

(Image from the Disney Frozen page.) 

 

 

CHARACTERS: 

Anna - Anna is, as some people call her, "adorkable".  She's the goofiest, most realistic princess you'll probably find.  She's clumsy, she speaks before she thinks on occassion, and she's naive.  Like a lot of people, she is desperate for love...especially since she's been shut out from her sister's world. 

As a little girl, her and her sister, Elsa, were very close; "they used to be best buddies".  After an accident whilst playing, where Elsa strikes Anna in the head with her powers, (hence the lock of white hair), Elsa and Anna are forced to stay in the castle, and stay away from each other.  Anna tries and tries to get Elsa to come out and play during the "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" sequence, but Elsa, fearful of hurting her sister, never does.  At the end of the song, their parents (the king and queen of Arendelle) end up with their boat getting capsized.  Anna goes to the funeral by herself; Elsa stays in her room, bereft. 

These pictures basically describe her personality.  :D

                                                      (Pictures from Pinterest). 

 

 

Elsa -- Elsa, of course, is the snow queen. She has the power to make ice and snow, especially due to emotion. She is very emotional, but she has trained herself to be reserved, cool, and indifferent on most things. However, when Anna asks her to bless her and Hans' marriage, at the end of "Love is an Open Door", she ends up getting in a fight with Anna, and consequently, her powers are revealed to EVERYONE at the coronation party. She flees to the North Mountain, makes her own palace out of ice, lets down her hair, and makes herself a new dress out of ice. As she's 'letting go' during the "Let it Go" scene, she ends up plunging the entire kingdom of Arendelle into an eternal winter...unbeknowst by her.

  

(From the Oh My Disney blog)

 

(From Pinterest)

 

 

Kristoff -- Kristoff is the rough and tumble mountain man. He's 'socially impaired', blond, and smelly. His reindeer buddy, Sven, and he, grew up together, and were orphans until they were adopted by these cool trolls that are in the movie. He's an ice harvester, and usually talks for Sven. He's funny, sarcastic, and Anna basically has to bribe him to help her go to the North Mountain to confront Elsa. They end up falling in love, of course. 

(all from Pinterest).

Olaf -- A lot of people thought that Olaf would be annoying, but he's actually really funny and cute! =D He's the snowman that Elsa built. He can walk, and talk, and he tends to freak people out because of this. There's not much to cover here, just that he's funny. 

(Picture from Pinterest; looks to be a promotional poster.) 

 

 

 Hans -- The youngest of 13 boys, this prince from the Southern Isles is the villain of this film. He may act all warm, sweet, nice, and let's not forget that he's handsome, but he's the only one with a cold heart in this movie. His plot was to marry Anna, stage a little 'accident' for Elsa, and then he could be king of Arendelle, since there was 12 older brothers in line for the Southern Isles' throne. He's actually a very good villain, because if you didn't know he's the villain, you would NEVER know --until he reveals his plans, of course.  

(Promotional picture from Disney)

(Picture from Pinterest). 

 

There are other minor characters, but I won't go over them...those are the six main characters in the movie (Kristoff, Sven, Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Hans). 
Oh -- I forgot to add...the actors and actresses voicing everyone!
Josh Gad voices Olaf
Jonathan Groff voices Kristoff
Kristen Bell voices Anna
Idina Menzel voices Elsa
Santino Fontana voices Hans

 

BASIC PLOT OF "FROZEN"

When Anna and Elsa's parents get killed in the accident, Elsa is to be coronated queen of Arendelle, once she turns 21.  On coronation day, Anna runs into Sitron (Hans' horse) -- literally RUNS INTO him-- and she and Hans immediately hit it off.  By the end of the day, Hans proposes to her.  When they run back to get Elsa to bless the marriage, they're surprised by Elsa's swift refusal; going on to tell Anna that she can't marry a man she just met that day.  Anna and Elsa have an argument, and then Anna grabs Elsa's hand, trying to plead with her.  She pulls off her glove by accident, and Elsa releases some of her power by accident --in front of the ENTIRE CORONATION PARTY.  Horrified, she runs away.  Everything behind her freezes.  She ends up freezing the entire kingdom of Arendelle....unbeknowst to her.  Elsa flees up to the North Moutain, creates an ice palace and dress for herself, and is finally free to do as she pleases. 
Anna immediately goes after her sister to make things right and to stop the eternal winter.  She ends up at Oaken's Trading Post (Oaken's a hoot!!) and meets Kristoff.  She bascially bribes him into taking her up to the North Mountain, but he doesn't agree to it willingly, necessarily. ;)  On the way to the North Mountain, they meet Olaf.   
When they get to Elsa's ice palace, Anna confronts her, and despite Elsa's warning to leave, she keeps pestering at her...and Elsa's so upset, she ends up making a blizzard inside her courtroom.  She finally get so worked up that the entire snowstorm sucks back up inside of her, and she releases it in an icy blast...accidentally striking Anna in the heart. 
Kristoff takes Anna to the trolls, (specifically Grand Pabbie--he has healing powers), and they find out that only an act of true love can heal a frozen heart.  He races Anna back to Hans, thinking that he is her true love, and then leaves her with him....even though it's killing him to leave her.   

As those two are coming back to Arendelle, Hans and some other guys are going to capture Elsa.  She ends up getting knocked out, and taken prisoner, back to a dungeon in Arendelle.  Despite her special shackles, her powers break them and breaks a hole in a wall, so she escapes. 

Meanwhile, Hans takes Anna to a private room, where he starts to kiss her, to heal her frozen heart.  But after he leans close to kiss her, he freezes, gives her a smirk, and says, "Oh, Anna...if only someone loved you." (or something to the similar effect).  As he closes the blinds, puts out the fire in the fireplace, and makes the room as cold as possible, he explains his plans of becoming king of Arendelle.  And then he leaves her to die, while he goes to kill Elsa.  Before he leaves to kill her, though, he tells some other dukes that Anna was beyond saving, and died in his arms right after they said their wedding vows...so they believe him and appoint him the King of Arendelle.
When he finds out that Elsa's no longer in the dungeon, he goes to search for her. 
As all this is happening, Sven, who knows something's wrong, convinces Kristoff to go back for Anna.  As THIS is happening, (You really have to pay attention to the movie... xD) Olaf finds Anna, unlocks the door with his nose, and he builds a fire, while they have a chat about true love. 
Olaf's the one who notices Kristoff racing across the frozen fjord to rescue Anna. 

He helps her up (as she's slowly freezing to death -- her hair's white and she's shaky) and they run to the fjord. 

They get to the fjord, and Elsa is already out on the fjord.  She's so scared that she starts up another major blizzard, but Hans still finds her. He tells her that her sister is dead, and when she falls to her knees, horrified, he (taking his sweet time) prepares to kill her. 
As this is happening, Kristoff and Anna are calling back and forth, trying to find each other. 
Anna is slowly freezing - her fingers start to freeze.  The blizzard, when Elsa falls to her knees, stops.  It freezes.  Snowflakes are suspended in the air with her grief.  Kristoff sees Anna, and he starts running for her. 

But then she sees Elsa, and tries to run to her, to save her.  Just as she freezes completely, she lunges between Elsa and Hans.  His sword shatters upon impact of her frozen hand. 

Elsa jumps up, and immediately grabs her sister's frozen body into a hug, sobbing and crying over her.  Kristoff and Olaf just stand off to the side. 
As Elsa's crying over her sister, her tears thaw Anna...who had done an act of true love for her sister.
Elsa figures out that love can stop and control her powers, and so then she unfreezes Arendelle, and it turns back into summer.  

And then at the end, it's really cute.  Anna buys Kristoff a new sleigh, which replaces the one that kind of fell off a cliff and exploded... :D  And Elsa, who finally has learned to control her powers, starts using them for good things -- such as creating an ice-skating rink for the community of Arendelle.  They never close the gates again. 

 

Annnnd that's the movie, in short. 

 

I give it a 9.5 out of 10...I absolutely LOVE it, the visuals are STUNNING, and I absolutely love every single thing about it.  The 1/2 a point I docked is because I was really hoping for a Kristoff/Anna duet (c'mon..who else thinks they'd sound AMAZING together?? :D) and at the end, they could've made Anna's frozen face a little less...weird looking, and the ice was a bright blue - it could've been a lot more natural.  Also, Kristoff just kind of stands there like "oh well" when she dies.  He's so sweet and concerned about her the whole movie, after he starts liking her, and then when she does die...he looks practically indifferent...which is strange.   But anyway...that's  just about it!  I highly, HIGHLY reccomend seeing it!  I can't wait for it to come out on DVD, supposedly over Easter.  (: It's a VERY funny movie!

SONGS --

This YouTube user, "Rose Red", has just about all the songs, including instrumentals, from the deluxe soundtrack up.  To look at them, click HERE.  

The songs are all absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  I love them all so much! 

 

 

 

RAPUNZEL & EUGENE CAMEO IN FROZEN!!!

(Pictures from Pinterest...originally from a Portuguese YouTube video/trailer that I can no longer find! xD)

During "For the First Time in Forever", when the song reaches the "Tell the guards to open up...the gates!///The gates!!! For the first time in forever, I'm getting what I'm dreaming of..." part, when the gates are open and Anna's running out of them...keep a VERY close eye on the bottom-left screen.  Rapunzel and Eugene from Tangled do a VERY quick, (like, blink and you miss them) cameo!!!  It's PERFECT.  :D 

 

 

So yeah...that's about it!  I was gonna do this big, huge, four-part review and basically explain every single little thing about the movie, but I figured that nobody would want to read that much and you want to be at least a little surprised at the movie, right?? :D 

Did you enjoy the review?  Have you seen Frozen yet/do you plan on seeing it?  Any questions? 
(:

 

 

Rise of the Guardians review

Hey everyone!  So here's that Rise of the Guardians review I keep promising xD

In the review, I'll probably shorten the name of it to its' acronym, RotG, so if you don't know what that means, you know now!  (: 
I'll try not to include many spoilers, although it may be hard!
The movie starts with the words "Darkness.  That's the first thing I remember.  It was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared."  And it shows Jack Frost coming up out of the ice in a pond. 
It moves on to show him finding out about his powers - to create gorgeous snow, ice, and frost, with simply a touch.  His emotions control the weather, so snow can start up at any time, or frost on a window can appear. 
The wind can pick him up at any time, and he can fly to any destination he pleases - but once the wind dies down, he falls, so he can't *actually* fly on his own.  Anyway, the movie shows him wandering into a colonial town (his actual hometown), and he realizes that nobody can see him. 
Then, the movie skips ahead 300 years, and shows the North Pole, at Santa's workshop.  Now, Santa isn't called Santa in the movie - he's North.  He also has a Russian accent (the actor who voices him is Alec Baldwin) and he has two tattoos - a "Naughty" on one arm and a "Nice" on the other; and he wields swords.  Not your typical, storybook Santa there!  His helpers are not only elves, but also Yetis. 
Pitch Black is the villain in this movie (the boogeyman).  He can turn into black sand (nightmare sand) or disappear suddenly.  In the movie, he makes his way into Santa's  workshop, which also holds the globe.  The globe has lights everywhere on all the countries, showing how many children believe in the Guardians.  Of course, Pitch's priority in the movie is to make all the children so fearful that they stop believing int he Guardians.  Anyway, Pitch shows up at the workshop, and so North signals all the other Guardians to come to the workshop.  He signals them using the Aurora Borealis - definitely cool.  :D 

Anyway, the other guardians....the toothfairy isn't necessarily 100% Tinkerbell-fairy.  She's actually got beautiful, colorful feathers covering her all except for her face and her hands; but she has fairy-like wings.  Her little helpers actually look like hummingbirds.  The toothfairy isn't called 'the toothfairy'; her name is Toothania, or Tooth.  Her helpers collect all the childrens' baby teeth and store them in little boxes, and then they protect and look over each box - the teeth supposedly contain each childs' childhood memories. 
The Easter bunny is definitely a huge surprise.  He's called Bunnymund, or Bunny; is 6' 1" tall, has an Australian accent, wields a boomerang, and is basically the polar opposite of what you'd expect from an Easter bunny.  Like, he's "a master of Tai Chi".  He works alone; and he and Jack have had a spiteful relationship since "Easter of '68", when Jack supposedly causes a snowstorm on Easter Sunday; causing Bunny to have a rough time of it, getting all the Easter eggs out for kids for the egg hunts.   
The sandman is actually a little guy made of 'dream sand'.  He can't talk, so he makes pictures over his head with his sand to depict what he wants to say....which usually go unnoticed. 


In the movie, Pitch Black steals all the childrens' baby teeth from Tooth's palace.  Jack finds out that his box of baby teeth is in the mix, and, since he's been having a problem finding a place in his newly-found job as a Guardian, he decides that, in order to find out why the Moon chose him to be a Guardian, he has to get the teeth back himself. 

The movie is pretty vague about the locations; but it keeps coming back to one location in particular; Jack's home - right down to the pond.  (I won't include why the pond is important). 

The movie shows Jack's growth.  He goes from an immature, fun-loving 17 or 18 year old guy, to being devoted, fun-loving, and sure of himself.  He faces manipulation, bad decisions, questioning his place in the world, and has a hard time understanding why nobody believes in him. 

You see, if someone doesn't believe in the Guardians, they're invisible.  It's the same way for Pitch. 

Jack, naturally, has a very hard time understanding why, no matter what he does for them, kids don't see him.  Bunnymund tends to give him an especially hard time about this in the beginning.  In several instances, you can see Jack's eyes tear up or he just gives a totally exasperated expression, like he's just wondering why he even tries anymore...and you can't really blame him, either - really!  Spend 300 years without anyone being able to see or hear you, but you can see and hear them?!  Poor kid. 

Anyway...the movie ends with Jack finally being believed in, and he finally understands why he was chosen to be a Guardian.  The ending says "I am Jack Frost.  How do I know that?  The Moon told me so.  If the moon tells you something, believe it." 

That's what I kinda have a problem with - the few instances where they refer to the Man in the Moon, or "Manny", as North calls him.  It might just be me, but I don't exactly like the idea that this movie instills the idea that the Man in the Moon is the reason why you have all holidays, why you're protected by something, and that it communicates with you.  Butttt that might just be me.  I won't go too far into detail about it though, so as to not cram my Christianity down anyone's throats xD

Ahhh....let's see...

As far as little kids watching the movie, it might be a little iffy.  There are several instances where it gets really scary - like when Pitch's shadows surround Jack and Jack breaks down; when Pitch disappears and reappears without a moments' notice, and also in one scene, which contains major spoilers so I won't say anything :P  I know that my toddler nephew wouldn't be able to watch it; and if I woulda watched it as a young kid, I would probably have had nightmares forever. Another thing that may creep little kids out is that Pitch never really is defeated.  He's simply dragged back into his underground lair by his Nightmares. 

So....aside from those two things - the Moon references and Pitch, I thought this movie was awesome!  I was pretty skeptical of it when I first saw trailers of it, but now it's one of my absolute favorite movies.   I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, basically shaving half a point off for those two things, but otherwise?  It's a really good movie.  It can also teach kids to, even if someone's trying to manipulate them, not break under pressure. 


So yeah...that's basically the condensed, non-spoiler version of Rise of the Guardians!!  If you want to go through my Pinterest board dedicated to Rise of the Guardians, which you can view if you click HERE.  (I actually have a ton of other boards for Disney stuff, doll stuff, drawing, etc so feel free to check my whole account out xD) 

List of the actors/actresses who voiced the characters: 

Chris Pine - Jack Frost
Alec Baldwin - North
Hugh Jackman - Bunny
Isla Fisher - Toothania
Jude Law - Pitch Black

For the Wikipedia page on RotG, click HERE.