I have read many critical reviews of the new Transformers flick, Revenge of The Fallen. I was never a huge Transformers buff prior to the first feature film; however after seeing it I will admit to becoming a pretty big fan. That being said, I couldn’t imagine that the second installment in the series could possibly be as horrible as was being reported. I mean, the entire original cast was returning, and the budget was huge, so where could they possibly go so terribly wrong?

I am happy to report that they did not go wrong, and that Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was the best, most absolutely freaking sweet movie I have seen in a very long time. As I previously mentioned, the original cast all returned. And they were as on-it as before. The dialog was great – absolutely hilarious in many parts. In fact, for an action flick, Transformers 2 was full of many comedic elements. Not the least of which was a scene in which one of the actors ended up taking a tazer shot to the testicles. While retaining its PG-13 rating, the movie was able to bank on the universally funny “groin shot” while bringing it into the 21st century by incorporating a pop-culture phenom: the tazer.

In addition to being funny and engaging from beginning to end, Revenge of the Fallen also managed to keep the action and thematic elements of the movie top notch. Honestly, during some of the scenes where the Transformers, well, actually transform, I was blown away. The special effects in this movie are unbelievable. Even better than in the first installment, if you can believe it.

One of the biggest hang-ups many people had about Transformers 2:Revenge of the Fallen is that it was almost 2 ½ hours long, coming in at a fairly lengthy 149 minutes of running time. However, after watching it, I have to say that there was nothing they really could have cut from the movie without negatively impacting the story. Of course, many movie reviewers just like to find something to gripe about because it makes them feel cool and important. The funny thing is that Transformers 2 raked in $108,966,307 over its opening weekend. Wow. Clearly, somebody disagrees with the critics. Millions of times over.

The bottom line is that if you head into Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen expecting Oscar-worthy acting or an impossibly complicated plot, you are going to leave disappointed. But why in the world would you have those expectations? It’s freaking Transformers 2. It is an high-budget, special effects laden action flick based on a children’s cartoon. So grab a huge bucket of popcorn and plan to spend the most entertaining 2 ½ hours of your life (so far) watching a great flick. Take it for what it is, and you won’t be disappointed.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Michael Bay
Produced by Steven Spielberg (executive), Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy
Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro
Music by Steve Jablonsky, Linkin Park
Cinematography: Ben Seresin
Editing by Roger Barton, Paul Rubell, Joel Negron, Thomas Muldoon
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Released on June 19, 2009 (United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland), June 24, 2009 (North America, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand)
Duration: 150 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Wikipedia
IMDB

I thought Mutant Chronicles is a sequel of XMen. I was wrong. It is a film adaption of the pen-and-paper role playing game set in the apocalyptic world originally published in 1993. The game was developed by the Swedish company Target Games as a successor of their earlier Mutant RPG series. The story happened in the distant future when the Earth’s natural resources were depleted by mankind and human race has to move to other planets to survive thus four leading corporations were formed. These corporations were designed based after the traditional nation-states, the Capitol (American Influenced), Bauhus (continental Europe), Mishima (Japanese) and the Imperial (British-inspired).

These four corporations battle one another for resources to sustain the survival of their communities. In one of the battles where the Capitol soldiers battles against the advancement of Bauhus, an ancient seal was broken and Mitch Hunter (Thomas Jane) and Nathan Rooker (Sean Pertwee) found themselves facing not the Bauhus but a new enemy: hideous necromutants, with bone blades that grow from their arms. The necromutants multiply by millions. In the game, they can resurrect dead heroes from the major corporations making them undefeatable.

Like in the game, the necromutants in the movie destroys anything before them making things seem hopeless. Constantine (John Malkovich), the leader of The Corporations, was about to abandon the planet and leave countless innocents behind when the leader of the Brotherhood an ancient monastic order, Brother Samuel (Ron Perlman), approached him. Samuel is the keeper of the Chronicles, a book that prophesies the rise of the Mutants and the “Deliverer”, which Samuel believed to be himself, who will destroy the Mutants. He tried to convince Constantine that there is “Hope” in destroying the mutants. The Deliverer will need to travel into the depths of the planet to find the source of the mutants and destroys it.

All he needs is to have twenty best soldiers from the four corporations to accompany him and battle the mutants until they reach the source. Constantine was hesitant about it saying “what can these 20 soldiers do that their armies cannot” but Samuel was able to recruit Mitch and a handful other soldiers. Joining them are Steiner (Benno Furmann), an honor bound Bauhaus officer, Severian (Anna Walton) a sword-wielder, street fighter El Jesus(Luis Miguel), fearless beauty Duval (Devon Aoki) and stoic warrior Juba (Tom Wu). Together they became a small army who like Samuel believe and will not give up the thought that there is still hope in winning the battle against the mutants. And so their mission to venture into the very heart of the darkness to attempt to save the planet and humanity begins.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Simon Hunter
Produced by Edward R. Pressman, Tim Dennison
Written by Philip Eisner, Stuart Hazeldine
Starring: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, Benno Fürmann, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich, Anna Walton, Luis Echegaray, Tom Wu, Steve Toussaint, Pras Michel, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Curtis Walker
Music by Richard Wells
Cinematography: Geoff Boyle
Editing by Sean Barton, Alison Lewis
Released on October 10, 2008 (UK)
Country: United States
Language: English
Duration: 111 min.
Wikipedia
IMDB

Star Trek fans might be surprised when they found out that in the 2009 release of Star Trek James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are not the best of friends as they were in the Original version. In the movie, these two main characters are still searching for who they really are and what they could give the world and in turn became competitive cadets-in-training. Their difference in terms of their characters was the main cause of the conflict. However, despite their differences in their character, for one is driven by passion while the other is driven by rigorous logic, they have a few things in common.

Both the characters are defiant, contentious adversaries, each equally unimpressed with the other and both go out their way to give their best on whatever they do to be among the chosen to join the crew of the most advanced starship ever created, the U.S.S. Enterprise. The characters from the original version like Sulu (John Cho), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Bones (Karl Urban) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) are in the movie, the story was plotted a few years before Kirk became the captain of the Enterprise.

So, yes, basically the movie showed how the characters came about and how they were chosen to be part of crew of enterprise but with the arrival of Narada, a Romulan mining vessel captained by Nero (Eric Bana) that contained the Red Matter which the Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from the future created to supposedly stop an impending supernova of the star Hobus that threaten to destroy the home worlds of the Romulan Star Empire and throw off the political balance of the galaxy changed what was supposed to be in the future. Hobus had exploded while Spock was en route destroying Romulus and Spock and the Narada were sucked into a black hole creating a disturbance in space and time which sent both Spock’s vessel and the Narada to the past.

The enraged Nero had set out to avenge the destruction of their planet and the loss of his family had made a vow to destroy Vulcan and the rest of the United Federation Planets which include Earth. The arrival of Narada in to the past had left James Kirk fatherless and made the Vulcans an “endangered species” leaving only 10,000 Vulcans alive after the destruction of their planet. As if the damage wasn’t enough, Nero had set out for his next target… Earth. Witnessing the turn of events and how it would affect the future, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) had set out to help his old friend the young James Kirk to set some of the facts straight which includes saving their friendship.
  

Movie Statistics:
Directed by J. J. Abrams
Produced by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
Written by Roberto Orci (Screenplay), Alex Kurtzman (Screenplay), Gene Roddenberry (Characters)
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy
Music by Michael Giacchino
Cinematography: Daniel Mindel
Editing by Mary Jo Markey, Maryann Brandon
Studio: Spyglass Entertainment, Bad Robot Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Released on May 7, 2009 (Australia, New Zealand, & advance screenings in North America), May 8, 2009 (North America, UK)
Duration: 127 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Wikipedia
IMDB

Terminator Salvation is an upcoming film which is the fourth movie following Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines. This is directed by McG. The following film’s plot was released last May 1st of 2009 by Warner Brothers.

This film is an American science fiction that is set in the year 2018. An army of Terminators roams to post-apocalyptic landscape, killing or collecting human where they hide in the desolate cities and deserts. But small groups of survivors have organized into a Resistance, hiding in underground bunkers and striking when they can against an enemy force that vastly outnumbers them. Controlling the Terminators is the artificial intelligence network Skynet, which became self-aware 14-years earlier and, in the blink of an eye, turned on its creators, unleashing nuclear annihilation on an unsuspecting world. Only one man saw Judgment Day coming. One man, whose destiny has always been intertwined with the fate of human existence: John Connor (Christian Bale). Now the world is on the brink of the future that Connor has been warned about all his life. But something totally new has shaken his belief that humanity stands a chance of winning this war: the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger from the past whose last memory is of being on death row before awakening in this strange, new world. Connor must decide whether Marcus can be trusted. But as Skynet adapts new strategies to end the Resistance forever, Connor and Marcus must find common ground to take a stand against the onslaught – to infiltrate Skynet and meet the enemy head-on.

As producer John Middleton, the film is set after the events of The Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, where there is a nuclear exchange at the end of the movie. They show the situation of the world and what it is like after the event. They will introduce a new hero and that is John Connor.

Some movie-goers are not that excited with this fourth Terminator movie when they heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing only a small cameo on the film as the T-800 Model 101. But when they found out that Christian Bale is the lead role, movie-goers as well try to check the movie because of the previous hit movie “The Dark Knight”. According to an interview with producer Derek Anderson, John Connor is a new character and he will not be someone who will be replacing the role of Arnold Schwarzenegger to previous Terminator installments.

The Motion Picture of America has rated the movie to a PG-13 because of the slight sci-fi violence and languages used. Some of the violent actions were also cut so that younger audience will be able to watch it. The film will be released by Warner Brothers on 21st of May 2009 and Sony Pictures will release it overseas except Mexico because of the swine flu outbreak. They will move the release on the 31st of July 2009. A 3rd person shooter video game is set to be released the same date as the movie and entitled on the same name.
  

Movie Statistics:
Directed by McG
Produced by Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek, Jeffrey Silver, Moritz Borman
Written by John D. Brancato (Screenplay), Michael Ferris (Screenplay), Jonathan Nolan (Uncredited), Anthony E. Zuiker (Uncredited), Shawn Ryan (Uncredited), Paul Haggis (Uncredited), David C. Wilson (Uncredited), James Cameron (Characters), Gale Anne Hurd (Characters)
Narrated by Linda Hamilton
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jane Alexander, Helena Bonham Carter
Music by Danny Elfman, Brad Fiedel (Themes)
Cinematography: Shane Hurlbut
Editing by Conrad Buff
Studio: The Halcyon Company
Distributed by Warner Bros. (North America), Columbia Pictures (International), Sony Pictures Entertainment (International)
Released on May 21, 2009 (North America), June 3, 2009 (United Kingdom), June 4, 2009 (Australia), July 31, 2009 (Mexico)
Duration: 115 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Wikipedia
IMDB

X-Men Origins : Wolverine is a movie based from the Marvel Comics produced by 20th Century Fox. This superhero film was released last week of April 2009 and 1st week of May 2009 on some countries. This was said to be a simultaneous blockbuster movie but was jeopardized because of the leaked work print online.

The film shows more about the origin of the fictional character, Wolverine. The film started when James Howlett aka Logan or Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) killed his real father Thomas Logan who was their groundskeeper. He ran off together with Victor Creed aka Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber). Then they fought throughout their lives from the American Civil War, World War I, World War II and even Vietnam War. They fought without dying. Logan also still has the bone claws. They were then recruited by William Striker (Danny Houston) together with other mutants. They are actually looking for a metal called adamantium. Logan is against the goal of the team Striker has created. He did not know that Sabretooth is slowly killing all the mutants he was working with before since Striker is creating an experiment and collecting their abilities to form one mutant and it is called Weapon XI.

Logan was involved in a relationship with Kayla Silverfox. He was clueless that Kayla has a power of persuasion just by touching its enemy. He however is not affected by her power.
Kayla was killed by Sabretooth, however it is a faked death because she was only working for Striker to get Logan’s attention and to free her sister Emma Frost.

Because of this Logan was forced to work with Striker to defeat Sabretooth. The metal adamantium was injected to his bones and made it all steel. So his bone claws were replaced with very powerful steel.
Wolverine overheard that Striker was only planning for his benefit and to erase Logan’s memory. This has caused Logan to react wildly and escaped from them.

He also has changed his name to Wolverine as Kayla has told him about a story.
Wolverine found John Wraith (Will.i.am) and Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand) to provide them information to where the “island” was located as what he overheard from Striker.

The island is where Striker is keeping the mutants and experiment on them. Fred Dukes aka Blob told him that a mutant named Remy LeBeau aka Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) has escaped from the island. Wolverine found Gambit who has directed him to the island’s location.

There Wolverine have found out Kayla’s faked death, he set all the mutant’s free and fought Weapon XI. Its body was of Wade Wilson’s (Ryan Reynolds) and now named Deadpool. However his actions were now remotely controlled. Wolverine has defeated Deadpool with Sabretooth’s help. They reconciled at the end. Wolverine was about to leave with a wounded Kayla but he was shot at the head by Striker using an Adamantium bullet. This has caused him to forget everything. Kayla died in the process.

The movie is not any different from the leaked film other than the completed computer graphics and soundtracks. Instead of people swarming the theaters, only a few believed that there is more with the real movie than the pirated one. Actually what the movie shows is a 100% the same from the leaked film. And the film’s plot has received mostly negative critical feedbacks.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Gavin Hood
Produced by Hugh Jackman, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, John Palermo
Written by David Benioff, Skip Woods
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds
Music by Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography: Donald McAlpine
Editing by Nicolas De Toth, Megan Gill
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Released on April 29, 2009 (United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand), April 30, 2009 (Philippines), May 1, 2009 (United States, Canada)
Duration: 107 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Wikipedia
IMDB