Perpetual Twilight

At first, I thought it was a twilight fan film.

Thankfully, it's not. Perpetual Twilight is about the struggle between elves and vampires for a power source. It was made for a contest on bricksinmotion on contrast. The award was well deserved. I won't say too much on the plot as I plan not to reveal any spoilers in my reviews, but I can say it was well written and detailed. No stone was left un-turned. The music fit in well, so kudos to the composer. The cinematography in the film was amazing. It really brought in more life in the sets, which were very well designed.

Of course, the film had some problems. The film had these, like tracking shots, similar to the ones in Gravity, but it was not effective. It was cool, but in a few shots, it would zoom in on a wall, then return back to the action. This technique was only effective for the fight scene at the end, which was awesome. There were minor set bumps and light flickers, but it would be hard to notice.

The music somethings overlapped the voice actor's lines. I had a little trouble hearing what they were saying. Speaking of the actors, the female asked the council a question:"All the favor?", then a microsecond later, she says "It's decided". The line felt rushed. But despite the flaws, this is a great watch. You will keep your eyes on the screen from beginning to end.

4/5

Gray Latitude - Part One

With those unfamiliar, Gary Latitude is a brickfilm announced a few years ago to be made by Nick Durron. The trailer was quite interesting, a sci-fi mystery. It was recently canceled, yet Nick decided to complete it, and release it to us.

I am a fan of Nick's work. All of his brickfilms have such amazing and intriguing stories, at the skill level to rival a certain writer named George Orwell. But sometimes, even the best has weaknesses. Nick has only released part one of four, which is great because if it was only part one, I would give him 1.5 stars out of 5!

Let me explain. In the story, Peter Gray has to face menacing forces in the late 19th century in New York city. I didn't like the setting. How come terrible events always happen in New York? Marvel destroyed that city countless times. The tone of direction shows that this film would be dark, with the amazing unsettling music, but at the end, the main character mocks death, funerals, and rain. The joke was unnecessary and threw me off. At the beginning, there was a murder. Fine, if it was a cop investigation. Since the film is about someone who knew him, a scene should have portrayed them interacting.

The talking scenes were long, and boring.  The mouth movements were great, yet he could have used facial expressions. A happy face at a funeral? The kidnapping scene seemed rushed. I felt it could have been better executed. To be honest, I watched the film four times half way. It was hard to stay interested. The quality is less than your previous work, but since you made it a few years ago, I won't hold that against you. I just hope part 2 is better.

But this is still an interesting watch. Great acting, music, direction, animation, and special effects. I'd only recommend it once I've seen the whole time.

3.5/5

Literal Man (Go-film)

Literal Man is a nice little short about a superhero who has to beat a villain, and he literally does everything people tell him to. Just tell him what the do straight. No hidden messages or anything. No, but honestly, I like this. The animation was incredible from the beginning, and the sound quality was great. I only wish it was longer. But now, the negatives. Blue: the background in every scene was an unnatural blue, which I found annoying. The sets were okay, but I feel much more detail could have been added. It didn't look like much of a construction site.

There was a minor set bump during the drive thru scene, but It's hard to notice.  To be honest this idea has kind of been done before. The "It's a bird, it's a plane..." line is used so much, I hate superman now. As well, the basic story is that there is an absent minded hero that annoys the good guys. There are many brickfilms that have a similar story. The only thing that sets this film apart is the animation quality. END films, you can make so much better animations than this, and once you do, I'll watch it in a heartbeat.

3/5

Henri & Edmond - Copyright

Yeah, I'm reviewing brickfilms now, in an effort to post more on this blog, and generate more interest in it.

Henri & Edmond - Copyright has been praised as one of the greatest brickfilms ever made, and with a sequel coming out later, I decided to watch the film for the first time. It was so worth 30 mins of my time. After downloading a mp3 file of a song, Henri is tracked down by a copyright protection agency. His best friend Edmond, the fireman is the only one who can help him. The description seemed to be simple, and I felt that I would been bored, but that wasn't the case.

The screenplay was surprisingly very well written. The film's animation was amazing, combined with excellent lighting and very detailed sets. The voice actors were great, sounding very professional, and combined with the English subtitles, and minifig movements, it made the brickfilm 10x funnier. A brickfilm being funny is rare, as most are 1 minute shorts with a stupid fart joke, or something. The way the characters broke the fourth wall was a great way for the viewer to feel that they knew the characters, making them want our heroes to succeed in their quest. I like Herni and Edmond's relationship in the film. They are a great comedic duo together. The soundtrack was great, with the original song a nice little thing to listen to. There is not much to say that hasn't already been said, but it is clear that Maxime Marion put a lot of effort into this film, and I congratulate him . The success he is getting for this film is well deserved, and I are personally excited for the sequel.

5/5

Here's the film:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

The film that started off the summer blockbuster films of the year. Two years after the first film, this film follows Peter having relationship problems, daddy problems, and super villains problems. Three villains, just to be clear. Spider-Man 3 was terrible because the villains weren't really developed enough, and I feared that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would do the same. I was wrong. IT WAS TEN TIMES WORSE!

First, the positives. Andrew Garfield, in my mind, is still the best actor the play Spider-man. Like him, or hate him, we are stuck with him until 2020, when his contract is over. His chemistry with Emma stone is one of the film's strong points. Dane Dahann is one of my favourite actors, and soon, when people ask who played the green goblin, they won't be saying James Franco.( Not dissing Franco either, just saying)

Now the negatives, which is alot. I didn't like Jamie Foxx's Electro. Not racist, since I'm black. Anyway, the character is practically a baby, who is obsessed with Spider-Man. This kind of behavior should put Max in a mental hospital. The sloppy dialogue that Jamie was given makes this one of his worst performances. Speaking of dialogue, the whole script was bloated, filled with characters. Rhino did nothing for the film. I know they added him to get us pumped for the next spidey film, but the way he was introduced to us was pointless.

The special effects are top notch, but the fight scenes were very short. For the longest Spidey film ever, you would expect a lot of violence. Marc Webb has made it clear he can't direct action. The fight scenes didn't have spidey throw a single punch. Just swinging around, and throwing things with his webs. The Green Goblin fight was sad. Just pushing, and well, pushing. The next spidey better be good, or the franchise will fail, Sony loses alot of money, and the rights go to disney.

2.5/5

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence

The Wolf of Wall Street(2013)

2014 comes new reviews. Since I am now getting paid to do this, the website will be a lot more active. To start off 2014, I am reviewing my favorite movie of 2013: The Wolf of Wall Street. Warning: Don't watch the film with your parents.

The film is about Jordan Belfort, a long island penny stockbroker who served 36  months in prison for defrauding investors in a massive 1990s securities scam blah blah blah. The point is, Jordan steals a lot of money, okay?!

Leonardo DiCarpio is as charismatic as ever amazes me yet again. No scene is boring. Each is interesting in its own way. Yeah, i know. A three hour long movie that manages to keep you awake, I know. Jonah Hill proves that even though he is a comedian, he can act. Like, really act.

Martin Scorsese is one of Hollywood's greats, and his talents seem to improve with age. This film is very well done. Yeah, The "f" word is used over 500 times, and there is a lot of nudity and scenes with men and women naked together in one large group, but it shouldn't turn you away.

5/5

Rated R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language throughout, and for some violence.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

My first review of 2013. Glad to be back. Thank you, thank you. Anyways, I decided to start my rebooted career as a film critic to review one of the most anticipated films of the year. Enough though AC/DC don't have any of their songs in the soundtrack, this film won't disappoint.

The film follows after the events of The Avengers. Tony Stark has a lot of nightmares now, so he builds like a hundred suits to keep himself busy. It ruining his relationship with girlfriend, Pepper Potts, who is in charge of Tony's company.

So, like three minutes later, a new terrorist called the Mandarin starts causing chaos  blowing stuff up and killing people. Iron Patriot, the former War Machine is ordered by the president to hunt him down. Now, from all that I have said, I must make you think that Iron Man 3 is just a basic action flick. But it's not. Shane Black has done an incredible job directing and writing this film, and Iron Man 3 is filled with action(I just said that), a good plot, comedy(Remember: The director is responsible for creating the lethal weapon series), and even a few good surprises.

I liked the comedy, but to be honest, It kind of brought the film down. I mean, all of the marvel films contain comedy, but this film had something funny like every five minutes. And, I was kind of disapointed with Ben Kingsley's Mandarin. If you have seen the film, you would understand where I am coming from.

But Iron Man 3 is a good flick to see if you are looking for all that I have just listed, but I am too lazy to retype it.

4/5

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content