Movie Review: 300: Rise Of An Empire

This weekend my wife and I went to see 300: Rise Of An Empire.  Neither of us had seen the original 300 so we weren't sure what to expect but the description sounded promising so we decided to give it a shot.  Overall it was pretty good but in some spots it just tried too hard.

Without giving things away (and without seeing the first movie) it seems like Rise Of An Empire begins with the events that lead up to and follow the last stand of King Leonidas.  Overall it was a pretty good movie and we enjoyed it except for a couple of things.

1) The big one for me was at times it felt like the 3d aspect was being pushed too hard.  As I wear glasses we had opted for the regular 2d version of the movie but it was still quite obvious which bits were meant to "showcase" the 3d and a lot of them seemed a little forced.  Okay, I get that its the new viewing experience but at least try to make it fit into the flow of the picture.

2) At times the slow motion scenes were really... rreeaalllyy... rrreeeaaallllyyy... common.  At first it was like "And now its time for more slo mo... yay..." but talking with my wife afterward she made the point that maybe they were trying to capture the soldier's perspective.  In the heat of battle with the adrenaline pumping things can almost seem to slow down.  Not that I've been in battle but she did touch on our own experience during a car accident and how thinking back to it things seemed to move slower.  Looking at it that way it made more sense but in the moment it seemed a little repetitive.

Other than these particular things we both enjoyed Rise Of An Empire even without knowing the story of the first movie.  It felt like they touched on the most important aspects of it in the natural flow of the story so we weren't left wondering what they were talking about.  Is it a must see?  No but it definitely felt like it was worth the price of admission which is saying something nowadays.  Until next time...

Movie Review: The World Is Sick And We Are The Doctors

And how true that quote seems to be at the end of this movie when one world burns while humanity is forced to rise from the ashes of another.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  A year or so ago I first heard this movie was coming out and I was really excited.  The concept just sounded so over the top I couldn't wait to see...

I mean come on, Nazis from the moon returning to invade the Earth?  It just screams over the top pulpy goodness!  Unfortunately it was not slated for widespread release so I figured I'd just have to wait and see if I could get it on DVD.  As too often happens, time passed and it slipped my mind until I happened to stumble across it while looking to see if Iron Man was on Netflix streaming.  "Sweet!" I thought.  "Now I finally have a chance to see it!"

So how was it?

Overall I liked it but it wasn't quite what I expected.  Of course I'm not really sure what exactly I did expect but this wasn't quite it.  The effects were well done in my opinion and the story was interesting as well with a couple of little twists thrown in for good measure.

So what is it ultimately?  It's story about revenge.  And like the movie says, it never really works out the way you want it to.  Until next time...

"In a way, Batman, this was the site of your first great failure."

As I continue my quest to watch some of the movies on my Netflix streaming queue, I decided to go with one that I'd heard was good but never watch. Let me tell you I'm glad I made the time.

Batman: Under the Red Hood is definitely not your afternoon cartoon fare. Starting with a beating and heading full steam into a bag full of heads, this movie is a grim portrayal of the Dark Knight which makes it pretty awesome in my book. The plot weaves around as Batman tries to deal with the latest crime lord of Gotham. I'll admit that the identity of the main villain isn't much of a surprise but it was definitely fun to watch the story play out. If you haven't watched this movie yet and you are a superhero fan, I definitely recommend checking it out.

"I suppose nothing hurts you." "Only pain."

One of our RPG group has recently been going gaga over dinosaurs with the release of Ultimate Magic by Paizo Publishing. One of the class variants listed in it is the Saurian Druid and she's just crazy excited about it. To help her scratch the itch for that class I've been trying to think up some kind of setting that I could throw them all into where dinosaurs would make sense but I've been having a hard time finding something that fit the bill. To try to get some inspiration, I decided to bust out the popcorn and hit NetFlix streaming for some old fashioned sword and sorcery adventure.

The Conan movies and stories are something that I just never got into when I was younger. I liked fantasy as a setting but just never thought about even taking a look at the works of Robert E. Howard until recently. Since I had some time to kill and no book to read I went with the next best thing which was the old Conan movies with Arnold. Unfortunately the original is not available for streaming so I went with the next best thing, Conan the Destroyer.

I must admit that I went into the movie with pretty low expectations. As I recall this was one of Arnold first movies so I wasn't expecting any fantastic dialogue and being made in the early 80's... well like I said; low expectations. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised when I was proven wrong.

I'm not saying that this is some award winning movie but I definitely think that it worth taking a look at. The acting was much better than I was expecting and it was pretty entertaining overall. Even the special effects were better than I expected especially considering when it was done. The story is kind of predictable but even so it was fun to watch it play out.

One of the things that I found really interesting was actually the climactic battle at the end of the movie. Near as I can tell there this story is not drawn from the Robert E. Howard original works but there was a definite Lovecraftian overtones to it. Given that Howard and Lovecraft actually corresponded with each other quite a bit it makes me wonder if this feel was something that the script writers actually drew from the novels or if this was just something they wanted to put in. Might be time to hit the library to do a little "research"...

But I digress. If you are looking for some sword and sorcery mayhem on the big screen I'd definitely recommend checking this movie out. I've heard the original is better but I still think this one is worth watching.