How Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Differs From The Book (Part 1)

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' is a good film, but the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith is so much better! It goes into more detail about his life in general, and it includes all the important people in his life. It runs really well alongside real events in Lincoln's life. In this post I am going to go through, bit by bit, what was left out of the film, and what was done differently. Warning, if you haven't read the book or seen the film, then this post contains spoilers.

The theme of the film is different
I know how strange that sounds, the theme of the film is obviously vampire killing, but what I mean is the driving theme, what Henry says to Abraham that begins his journey, "I man only ever gets that drunk if he is going to kiss a girl or kill a man, so which one is it?" I liked this change, it was a smart one, but the book one is much better, it is "some men, are just too interesting to let die". Obviously this wouldn't make much sense in the film because what they have taken out and what they have changed, but int he book, it is extremely important, and leads to a far better ending.

Abraham starts killing at a much younger age
In the film, he kills Jack Barts when he is a young man, after his father refuses to work for him anymore and still had a dept to pay. In the novel, Thomas Lincoln is portrayed as the proud character he is in the film, in reality, he was unambitious, and never did anything more than what he needed to feed his family. When he finally develops some ambition, he gets a loan from Barts in order to expand his new farm (yes he was a farmer in real life), he worked out that if he had a good harvest then he would have the loan paid off in no time, and would be one of the richest men in the area. Unfortunately, there was a drought that year, and he didn't make nearly enough to pay back his debt. So Barts took it out on his wife. Abraham kills Barts, when he is still a young boy, after his father admits to him that vampires exist after a heavy night on the drink, Abraham trains endlessly with his ax (he chops wood for his father), and planned his revenge.

Henry saves Abraham from a different vampire
In the book, Henry saves Abraham from a different vampire, an elderly female. At this point Abraham is the age he is at the beginning of the film. Abraham underestimates the elderly vampires strength and is in the process of being drowned when Henry saves him.

In the novel vampires can kill other vampires
Not quite sure why they changed this, I think it was a poor decision, it would be awesome having vampires rip others vampires heads off.

Henry's origins is different
In the novel, he arrived to the new world with his wife and unborn child with a group of colonists, he wasn't attacked by a group of vampires then in the film, what happened was that a vampire had traveled across with as a doctor, and whilst the Lord was off getting supplies in England, the Doctor slowly killed all the colonists, for a while no one suspected a thing, they all assumed it was some sort of plague.

The film misses out a lot of important people in Abraham's life
It skips over Armstrong, his first vampire hunting partner, his first wife, who was killed by a vampire and all the rest of his children. In the film we only see one, whereas in real life, he had a few, I can't remember how many exactly, I'm thinking maybe three or four, one of which actually outlives him, and dies at the age of eighty-eight.

The film misses out Armstrong and Speed hunting together
Naturally if they weren't going to include Armstrong, then they're weren't going to include their one hunt together, but I think they should have, because it was a really interesting chapter. They hunted a doctor, and they discovered that he kept humans barely alive in glass coffins in a morgue, draining their blood into some huge vessels. The hunt ends with the two barely making it out alive, Armstrong minus a hand. It's not an important part of the book, but it would have looked good on the big screen.

There's the basics of what is different, in my next post I will talk about the really interesting stuff, like how in the novel there was no train of silver, and how the ending would have shocked audiences across the world if it had remained true to the book. Sorry about these posts being so short, I wasn't intended to split this one in two, but I just haven't had the time over the past few days. By tomorrow part 2 of this post will be online, along with my Weekly Blu Ray Review. Also on Monday, as usual, I will post my Movie Recommendation Of The Week and on Tuesday my review of 'The Amazing Spider-Man'.

Prometheus: The Biggest Question

As you all know, I recently completed a two-part blog post about all the questions left in 'Prometheus', well there was one question that I couldn't properly answer, and that is why do the Engineer's want to kill us? Well recently more theories have appeared online, and a lot of them are very interesting, so I've done my homework and here it is, a potential answer to the biggest question in 'Prometheus': Why do the Engineer's want to kill us? WARNING! CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS!


It's important to note that certain things were cut from the final cut, at the beginning of the film when the Engineer kills himself in order to create life, there was originally a second Engineer, an older Engineer. It is thought that this scene was supposed to be referencing God giving up his son for mankind, in this case, he is sacrifices his son for the creation of mankind.

Next we need to look at how long the decapitated Engineer has been dead. In the film they date the Engineer at being dead for just over 2000 years, now if we go back 2000 years in our history, what happened? The crucifixion!

After that lets take a look at the scene where David is in the control room of the alien ship and he is standing in the middle of a massive hologram of the universe. David is holding a hologram of the Earth in his hands and the hologram indicates a small area in Africa, which is roughly where it is believed that the first civilization began (there is obviously no proof of this and I am merely grasping at straws here). So maybe early civilizations worships the Engineers as Gods, which would explain the cave paintings we see at the beginning of the film.

It was establish that the black goo on the ship and the black goo at the beginning of the film are two completely different substances, the stuff at the beginning of the film is for creating life, the stuff on the ship is for killing. So the ship was clearly a war ship.

So what do we have so far? The Engineer's created us, and we came to worship them as Gods (depicted in the cave paintings), then over time they were perhaps forgotten about by future generations, or considered just a myth. Then Jesus comes along, and he is crucified and we start believing in/worshiping God and his son. At this point the Engineer's become annoyed, because in their eyes, they created us (one of them even gave his life to create us), then mankind starts worshiping someone else and giving this new God, the credit for our creation. So the Engineer's set off to teach us a lesson by sending a ship full of containers of the black goo, which I imagine would been released on mankind as a form of disease or plague. Only on the way something happened, the there was a breakout, killing all but one of the crew, then the ship crashed on one of their planets. We can assume it was one of their planets because there were more than one of the Engineer's ships there, so perhaps the area was abandoned due to the outbreak on the crashed ship (in case it got out).

Now, over 2000 years later, imagine you are the Engineer, who has been in a coma for more than 2000 years, and you awaken to find that the small, inferior beings that your people created, have now advanced so much that they have tracked your people down and traveled through space and are now standing in front of you asking for immortality. You'd be terrified! So that's possibly why the Engineer attacks. Fear. Then the crew of the Prometheus crashing into his ship to prevent in landing (and probably nearly killing him) so that would have made him really angry.

So there we have it, Ridley Scott was taking a shot of religion in this film, and the Engineer's wanted to kill us because they didn't feel appreciated anymore, and the Engineer on the ship, attacked through shock and fear. Of course all of this is just speculation until someone from the film comes out and confirms it, but I think this is an accurate assumption.

Here's on last question that has had people talking a long over the internet. I touched on it a bit and that is What is the creature that bursts out of the Engineer's chest? There is speculation that it is the alien queen. It cannot be the first Xenomorph, because in the ship you can clearly see one in a carving on the ceiling. So the Engineer's have clearly encountered them before, perhaps they created them, or maybe they worship them. So yeah, some believe that it is the Xenomorph Queen, and that we'll see more of it in the next film. Obviously if it were true, then it would have to somehow get onto the ship that crash lands on the planet in 'Alien', so I'm guessing that there's a chance that whilst Shaw and David were searching for another ship in order to go and confront the Engineer's, the creature manages to get onto the ship, and whilst future events unfold, the creature grows up, and eventually causes the ship to crash and lays all those eggs we see in 'Alien'. Again, it is all speculation, we will have to wait and see.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post, I wasn't expecting to do another one about 'Prometheus', but there has been so much talk about it that I had to! I am seeing 'Prometheus' for the second time tomorrow, it is rare that I see a film twice in the cinema, the last one being 'The Avengers Assemble' and before that 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' (don't ask why I saw that one twice, I really don't know, I hated it the first time round!)

Get in touch if you have any questions of your own, or if you want to comment/correct me and what I have spoken about in this post.

Review of Chernobyl Diaries

A film with a very good concept, but it doesn't quite deliver. 'Chernobyl Diaries' is a 2012 American horror film starring Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Nathan Philips, Ingrid Bolso Berdal and Dimitri Diatchenko. It was co-produced and directed by Bradley Parker and uses the real-life 1986 Chernobyl disaster for its story. The story revolves around a group of friends who are visited the character of Chris' (McCartney) brother Paul (Sadowski) in Kyiv before heading to Moscow. Paul convinces the group to go on an "extreme tour" to the abandoned town of Prypiat, which was abandoned over night after the disaster. Whilst on their "extreme tour" strange circumstances occur which end up with them being trapped alone in the abandoned town, but are they really alone? Warning, this review contains miner spoilers.

This film started off really well, it introduced the cast well, explained the history of Chernobyl and succeeded in created a very creepy atmosphere, which is perfect for a horror. The fact that the story is tied in with real events is something that I always like because it gives the film a sense of realism (although that quickly disappears in any horror) and originality.  So like I said, it starts well, the abandoned town of Prypiat is perfect for this genre, but as the film goes on, any chance of this film being good goes down the drain. The film keeps building and building up to scary moments, but they all end up being exactly the same. It's like, tension, tension, tension, boom! We see a creature. Tension, tension, tension boom! Two creatures! It goes on like that. It turns into every other horror film out there. Plus by the time anything interesting really happens, the film seems to have to turn into a zombie movie, with the characters being chased through Chernobyl.

As for the ending, oh my god I was annoyed! It was so cliche! It gets interesting for a bit, then somewhere new, and you can just tell by what they're saying that you know exactly what is going to happen, just like in every horror film out there there is no originality. The location of the film is as far as the originality goes with this film. At least the score was good. Some of the camera work wasn't too good, was very shaky, and half the time it's too dark to see anything, which is understandable considering they're in a place at night with no lights, but it goes from really dark, to suddenly we can see everything, even when they're in buildings with no windows. I guess we can forgive them for that, we'd all be pretty annoyed if we went and saw a film but couldn't see half of it.

So in conclusion, it was a good idea, but it failed to follow through. The actors was alright, I have to say that if you do decide to see this movie, you'll witness one of the worst reactions to a death ever, it's so random and ridiculous! The main problem with this film was that it was great at building up tension, I could feel myself getting scared, really scared at some parts, but then the end result was always disappointing, it was always the same. The film is just too predictable. I am going to give 'Chernobyl Diaries' a 3.5/10, purely because it had a good opportunity and it completely wasted it.

Movie Recommendation Of The Week: Taken (2008)

With the release of the trailer for 'Taken 2' it seems appropriate that this weeks movie recommendation should be the original 2008 French thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and starring Liam Neeson who plays Bryan Mills a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative who sets about tracking down his daughter after she is kidnapped by human traffickers while traveling in France.

Although the film didn't do as well at the box office or critically, 'Taken' has became a hugely popular movie, honestly check Facebook or Twitter when it is on the TV and you'll see just how popular it is. The film is full of great one liners and actions scenes, from hand to hand combat, to shoot outs. There's even car chases and torturing, what more could you want from a film? Granted there are a lot of things in this film that are unbelievable, but most people ignore that because of the extent of this films awesomeness. The film got a PG13 rating in America, after having a lot of the violence taken out, the extended cut was released on DVD and blu ray, I have both of these and I would highly recommend watching it. It doesn't give us a lot of extra footage, but what it does give us is pretty sweet.

There's not much more I can say about this film, I am recommending it not just because of the sheer amount of people that were excited by the 'Taken 2' trailer (the film is due to be released on October 2012), but also because I really like this film, and so does a huge fan base, the film did wonders for Neeson's career, allowing him go into action films (like 'Unknown', 'The A-Team' and 'The Grey'), which have all been really good. The film is by no means perfect, but it is a true man's film (and a woman's film too apparently since a vast majority of girls think it's awesome as well), showing the story of a father who does anything and everything in his power to get his daughter back.  I would give 'Taken' an 8.5/10.

It's one of those films you have to see at least once in your lifetime.

Review of Another Earth (Requested Review)

'Another Earth' is a 2011 science fantasy/ drama film and is the feature directorial debut for Mike Cahil. The film stars William Mapother and Brit Marling. I'd like to open with the fact that I had so much trouble trying to watch this film! Seriously! After looking for what feels like forever trying to find a decent torrent (cough cough find on DVD in the shops cough), the cable for my external hard drive decided to snap, so I had to wait nearly a week after that before I could actually attempt to watch it, and I must say, it was not what I was expecting. Warning, this review contains spoilers.

I was expecting a full on science fiction adventure including two planets that were identical, I was wrong. Its more like an emotional roller coaster revolving around two characters, on of which has spent four years in jail for killing a family in a drunk driving accident, and the other, a survivor of that accident who has been in a coma for a long time. I was really surprised to see that 'Earth 2' as they call it, wasn't actually a major part of the film, by that I mean that it isn't always about that planet, it is mentioned, but we never see a lot of it. It's weird because 'Earth 2' is central to the story, everything that happens, happens because of it, but at the same time, like I said before, it isn't something huge, it doesn't drive the film, it is the emotional journey of the two main characters that drives the film. Something else I quite liked but no one in the film seems to mention, is the fact the 'Earth 2' keeps getting bigger, at the beginning of the film its just a blue glow in the sky, then four years later it's a little bigger, then by the end of the film it's huge! I mean it is noticeably far larger than it was when it was first discovered (also it just seems to appear out of no where, suddenly everyone can see it, which is a bit strange), you'd think there would be some sort of panic about a planet that keeps on growing. The planet keeps growing up until the climax of the film, Cahil uses it to enlarge the plot and indicate its growing importance within the story.

The story itself is quite good, but the film suffers because of its slow pacing. After the eventful opening sequence, the film then slows right down and it isn't until about half way through that things start to pick up again. Luckily once we pass that half way mark, the story has gotten really interesting and it has the audience questioning where it will go. The film covers a large number of important topics, including under drinking, drink driving, murder (man slaughter), dealing with a traumatic event, the justice system and the possibility of a world similar to our own. So this film has a lot going on, and one of the major themes that reoccurs is this idea of what we would say if we met our self, which I think is not just relating to the planet that mirrors Earth,  it's a metaphor about past, memory and regret and whether or not we would like ourselves (and we've all done in our lives) if we met ourselves in person. The ending is also quite good, it starts off with with the climax we'd all been waiting for, then an almost happily ever after moment (with a sad twist) and a shocking moment that links back to the theme of the whole movie.

So in conclusion, it is a good film, I enjoyed it. It has a strong story which suffers because of the very slow pacing of the film. Personally it isn't the type of film I'd normally watch, I like full on science fiction, not just a hint of it, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes film with a good/dark story acted out by decent actors/actresses. I'm going to give 'Another Earth' a 7/10.

Weekly Blu Ray Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Spider-Man

The week is that of the 18/6/12, and these are the blu rays I've watched this week. Don't worry, I have a large selection ready for next week, including 'Predators' and the steel book edition of 'An American Werewolf In London'.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)
The second last film in the Harry Potter film series, although I found the film rather underwhelming, it's still enjoyable. As for blu ray quality, it is really good, it came as part of the complete 8 film collection, and the picture is great, nigh on flawless, the same with the sound, it even has a good amount of special features, but it doesn't go into as much detail as I would like about the special effects.. I can't really find a fault with the quality of this blu ray apart from a small lack in features. So I'm going to give 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1' a 9/10, it's definitely worth the money, in fact the whole boxset only cost me £30 and that's not bad considering it came out a week after the final film did, and it's all 8 films!

Spider-Man (2002)
For a film that was made ten years ago, it still looks really good today, and on blu ray, the case is the same, with the exception of a few outdated effects, everything looks and sounds good. The main fault with this blu ray, is that it comes with no special features at all, granted it is part of a three film boxset (the 'Spider-Man' trilogy) but that's no excuse for having no special features. So it saddens me that even though the film is really high quality, due to the extreme lack of special features, I am going to have to give 'Spider-Man' a 6/10 (I know, it's harsh).

Review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' is a 2012 American action horror film based on the 2012 mashup novel of the same name written by Seth Grahame-Smith (who also wrote the adapted screenplay). The film is directed and co-produced by Timur Bekmambetov, along with Tim Burton. The real-life figure, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States (1861-1865), is portrayed in the novel and film as having a secret identity as a vampire hunter. The film stars Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper and Anthony Mackie. I'm going to start with saying that I really enjoyed this film, the best vampire movie in years. Another important note is that I have read the book, but in this review I am not going to be constantly comparing it to the book, I am going to do a separate blog post explaining just how different the film is to the book (the good changes and the bad). This review contains mild spoilers.

So what's good about this movie I hear you ask? One thing is the acting, Benjamin Walker does a really good job as Lincoln, he even puts his own twist on the younger version of the character which works effectively. My only complaints with him are that when he portrays the older Lincoln, there are a few scenes where he just looks like he is impersonating Abraham Lincoln, rather than playing the role of him. All the other actors/actresses do a fairly decent job, no one really stands out as doing a bad job, nothing fantastic, but nothing to complain about. The effects in this film were also really good, especially on the vampires, they look a lot like they do in '30 Days of Night', but with their own twist (the darker skin and extensive of the jaw when they attack) which works really well to show them as ruthless, aggressive killers. Their eyes also look quite good, seeing this in 3D you see everything in perspective, the glow of the eyes always seem to be further forward than the rest of the body, but at the same time, they are in their right place, it's quite a cool effect. Granted there are a few moments where the quality of the effects drops (the scene with the stampede of horses), but apart from a few small moments, everything looks really good (the cinematography gives this film its own unique look which has a hint of Tim Burton's style).

The 3D in this film is one of the best I've seen, a lot of it is perspective, but their are some really good scenes where things come out the screen, like splinters of wood, embers, even the occasional ax head (and fork). Like I previously mentioned, the 3D in this film does great with the perspective, it helps show us the true scale of some of the scenes and battles. 3D has the best opportunity to show off with action films, and this one impressed me, can really find any major flaws with it.

The best part of this film has to be the action, the action sequences in this film are amazing, this is what I wanted from this movie, I've talked loads in previous posts about how the quality of vampire films have dropped in recent years and their reputation has been damaged by the likes of 'Twilight', this films gives us everything we could possibly want, axes, guns, knives, explosions. The fight sequences switch between normal time and slow motion, the slow motion scenes being really effective and the normal time scenes showing off Lincolns apparent skill with an ax. It was well thought out, and well choreographed, even if some of the sequences are impossible (the train sequence). I don't want to spoil it too much so just take my word for it, the action is worth it. The story they adapted for this film works really well on screen, incorporating all the action we

Now on to the weaker parts of this film. The first being the pacing, the first half of this film is very fast, it jumps into the story and action, and doesn't give up. Then we get half way through the film, and it slows down (showing Abe when he's older), and picks up again near the end. It pace gets slower, noticeably when Lincoln becomes President and the story goes more into politics, which also happens in the book (that's the only time I will compare it to the book in this review), but the book is more detailed, there was a lot missed out in this adaptation which many would see as important. The film probably could have benefited from being split in two, but I think they still did a good job with it.

 Warning, this next paragraph contains major spoilers.

Apart from that, the only real problem is that some of the things that happen, can't happen, like the train sequence, in the real world, the train would have went straight off the rails rather than battled to continue going up. Also by the time of that train sequence, Abe is fifty years old, and somehow he still seems to be very agile with an ax, and can still fight better than most twenty year olds can, and do jumps that would be impossible for most. We do have to take into consideration that this is a fantasy movie, about vampires, but sometimes even those types of films have to stick to reality. Finally, they film could have included more of Americas history, and Abe's journey to becoming President, because in the film, it just seems to happen, the films skips about twenty years and suddenly he has been elected President. It also skips over details about the Civil War, e.g. how it started (we are left to assume that vampires started it) and who was involved (we are given a small cameo by the character of Jefferson Davis, but unless you know your history, then you'll have no idea who he is. It also skips over how the war ends, the films suggests it was all decided in one final battle.

To conclude, there is a lot wrong with this film but enough right to make it a good watch, basically, the films ridiculous, the whole concept is ridiculous, but where else can you see an American icon hacking off vampires heads with an ax? The action is amazing, if you have any doubts about going to see this movie, forget them, if you like action, then you'll love it. The acting, effects, 3D and score are all good, even the story is decent, I know I haven't mentioned much about the structure of the story, that is because I don't want to give too much away, but the story is quite good, I'll give it that much, it's a decent adaptation from the original story in the book, and the history and legacy of Abraham Lincoln himself. The best vampire film since '30 Days of Night' and far better than the previous vampire film to come out this year 'Dark Shadows' (also a Tim Burton project). The film is by no means perfect, in fact it is a long way off, but it is what is right about this film that makes it worth watching. I am going to give 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' a 7.5/10.

You'll leave the cinema thinking there was a lot you didn't know about the 16th President of the United States.

My Collection of Blu Rays, What Do You Think?

This may seem like a pointless post to many, but I would like my viewers to know a bit more me, in particular, what type of film that I deem good enough for me to go out and spend my hard earned money on. So if you think it's pointless, don't read it, if you are slightly interested, read it. I would really like to see what you all think, leave comments, let me know what your collection is like!


-Harry Potter The Complete 8 Film Collection:

• Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

-Minority Report (2002)
-Warrior (2011)
-Total Recall (1990)
-Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
-Pandorum (2009)
-Kick-Ass (2010)
-Iron Man (2008)
-Iron Man 2 (2010)
-In Time (2011)
-Troy: Director's Cut (2004)
-Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park II (1997)
• Jurassic Park III (2001)

-Back to the Future Trilogy

• Back to the Future (1985)
• Back to the Future Part 2 (1989)
• Back tot he Future Part 3 (1990)

-Machine Gun Preacher (2012)
-Chronicle: Extended Edition (2012)
-Highlander: Immortal Edition (1986)
-Paul (2011)
-The Dark Knight (2010)
-Predator: Ultimate Edition (1987)
-Predator 2 (1990)
-Iron Sky (2012)
-Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
-James Bond Blu Ray Collection (6 Disk)

• Dr.No (1962)
• From Russia With Love (1963)
• Thunderball (1965)
• Live And Let Die (1973)
• For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• Die Another Day (2002)

-Casino Royale (2006)
-Terminator Salvation: Director's Cut (2009)
-Star Wars Trilogy (Original Trilogy)

• A New Hope (1977)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Return of the Jedi (1983)

-Taken: Extended Harder Cut (2008)
-X-men: First Class (2011)
-Battle: Loss Angeles (2011)
-Spider-Man Trilogy

• Spider-Man (2002)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3(2007)

-The Social Network (2010)
-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)
-Gangs of New York (2002)
-Alien Anthology

• Alien (1979)
• Aliens (1986)
• Alien 3 (1992)
• Alien: Resurrection (1997)

-Alien Vs. Predator (2004)
-Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
-American Pie: The First 3 Movies

• American Pie (1999)
• American Pie 2 (2001)
• American Wedding (2003)

-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Versions (Swedish)

• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009)
• The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (2009)
• The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009)

And that is it, my entire collection to date. Hopefully by the end of the week my collection will include 'An American Werewolf In London (1981) and Predators (2010), it is always growing.


Hope this doesn't turn out to be a complete waste of my time and yours, like I said before, feel free to comment and tell me about you're collections.

Review of Minecraft: Diamonds Are Forever (Short film)

'Minecraft: Diamonds are forever' is a 2012 short film by Corridor Digital and Mars Rising, based on the very poplar computer game Minecraft. The story revolves around to guys, who own a melon farm, one of them wakes up to find him stuff has gone missing, meaning that he has died and it has been left there. The two travel to claim back the gear only to find themselves surrounded by zombies (at least I think they're zombies) and discover a dark tower, which is unleashing energy that is laying waste to the land. They must save the melon farm!

The film is really well done, although the cardboard cube costumes look really cheesy, that adds to the charm of Minecraft itself. The music is also quite good and the effects aren't half bad either. Apparently there are more of these films so I may well be reviewing more of them in the future. It's really funny, and gives us some cool shooting and slicing action, with a gripping heroic ending act with a humorous reference back to Minecraft at the end (like it needed another one).

The link for 'Minecraft: Diamonds Are Forever' is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxzfcOKbR0I&feature=share

I'm going to give 'Minecraft: Diamonds Are Forever' a 7.5/10.

Review of Red Lights

'Red Lights' is a 2012 Spanish-American thriller film written and directed by Rodrigo Cortes. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Cillian Murphy. In the film, a psychologist and paranormal investigaator, played by Weaver, and her physicist assistant, played by Murphy, investigate fraudulent psychics. The biggest challenge of all being Simon Silver (De Niro) returning after thirty years away the stage. Silver takes the pair to dark places and makes them question their logical beliefs. Does he really of psychic abilities?

As soon as I saw who the cast was I decided I had to see this film, De Niro is always amazing, the same with Weaver and I have recently became a fan of Cillian Murphy after his roles in Christopher Nolan's Batman films and in 'In Time'. I'll begin with the story, it is really well planned out, I did A-Level psychology so the whole film felt like a flash back to the documentaries I used to watch in class. The way the two (Weaver and Murphy) break down a persons act to determine whether or not it is real is how it is done in real life. A lot of the techniques we see int he film are based off actually scientific studies into this area. Anyone who knows this topic well will notice that Silver's fame mirrors that of Uri Geller's, who became famous back in the 70's for apparently being able to read minds and bend spoons with his mind (though many studies have proved him to be a fake). The cast is also really good, De Niro portrayed a different character to anything I have ever seen him do, he creates a character that really fills the space, he intimidates, almost creeps us out in some scenes, a fine piece of acting. Sigourney Weaver portrays a tired, grief filled woman who is probably too smart for her own good, she is always filled with so much confidence when she is working, but when you get down to her personal life, we see that she is riddled with grief and is battling with her beliefs, with her fear of Silver. It was interesting to see Cillian Murphy in a more emotionally involved film, in 'Batman Begins' and 'In Time', he seems emotionless throughout, both of his roles in those films are intelligent and confident, whereas in this film, we see him express his emotions, he gets stressed, scared, sad, for once we see him properly as an actor. His performance was good, however I think a few times he over did it. Elizabeth Olsen was also int he film, she was kind of a fifth wheel, there was no real need for her to be there.

My main complaints about this film are the pacing, a lot of the time the film feels like it's dragging, we have scenes of interest, then what feels like a long, meaningless wait until the next one. A thriller should be better paced than this. Also the ending, I originally liked the ending when the big twist was revealed, but afterwards they explained the ending too much, they should have caught us by surprise, then quickly ended, we didn't need the extended monologue. I would have preferred to be left with more questions.

Apart from that it was a good film, I'd recommend it to anyone who studies psychology, in particular parapsychology. I must also state that the opening credit sequence in this film is really good, it sets the pace for a thriller (shame it didn't follow through), with a great score behind it and a dark, mysterious look about it. I'm going to give 'Red Lights' a 7/10.

Movie Recommendation Of The Week: 30 Days of Night (2007)

I have been thinking about new ways to expand my content on the blog, my friends recommended that I review TV shows, but that would take a lot of dedication (keeping up to date week in week out) which I just don't have the time to do. After the success of my weekly blu ray review that I have been doing for three weeks now, I have decided a weekly film recommendation would be the best course of action. I will state the film, why I have chosen it for that particular week, and why it is such a good film. To start it all off, for the week starting the 18th June 2012 I have selected '30 Days of Night'.

30 Days of Night (2007)

With the release of 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' coming to cinemas this week, it got me thinking about the last good vampire movie to come out. Sadly it appears that we haven't had a really good vampire flick in five years!

'30 Days of Night' is a 2007 American horror film based on the graphic novel of the same name. The film is directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston. The story focusses on an Alasken town that is attacked by vampires as it enters into a thirty-day polar night. It is the perfect vampire movie! A small town surrounded by miles of baron snow filled wasteland with no sun light for thirty days, it's a vampires paradise!

What is really good about this film, is that it is brutal, we see blood, and lots of it. Unlike current vampire films, which have taken upon a more comical (and romantic) view of the vampire, '30 Days of Night' presents us with a vicious killing machine. What we see in this movie is very much what people refer to as the modern vampire, well, they did before American teen vampire shows became so popular among teenage girls. My only real complaints about this film is that it is slow in parts, I know a lot of people don't like this film, and critics gave it a hard time but the film has a huge fan base, because it was such a good adaptation of the graphic novel.

So to conclude, the film has a great concept for the story to revolve round, a decent cast and acting, a good score and all the blood and violence we will ever need. '30 Days of Night' is a solid 8/10. I'd highly recommend giving it a watch.

The big question is, will 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' be the next big step in the recovery of the vampire in films reputation? We will find out this week. I've read the book, so I have high hopes; which reminds me, I should probably get round to reading the '30 Days of Night' graphic novel at some point.

I hope you like this new idea for the blog, let me know what you think, and if you like it, look forward to my next installment on the 26th June.

Questions Left With Us At The End Of Prometheus (Part 2)

Welcome to the second part of me answering the popular questions everyone is asking about one of the years biggest film, 'Prometheus', last time I talked about the questions surrounding the film in general, today I will be answering all the questions revolving the cast and characters. Naturally, this post contains spoilers.


Why didn't they cast an old guy to play Weyland?
One of the low points of the movie is seeing Guy Pierce play Peter Weyland, although he plays the part well, the make-up is pretty bad, everyone can tell that it is fake. There have been a lot of complaints about casting Pierce as such an old character, but what people don't realize is that Pierce also portrays a younger Peter Weyland in one of the early viral marketing's, which suggests that a younger Weyland may have been intended to be in the movie, but never made the final cut. We can't complain about Pierce's acting, and surely we can ignore the make-up.


Milburn and Fifield, are they really that thick?
Basically they pay for being as thick as they seem. Somehow they manage to get themselves lost in the ship and left there when the rest of the crew head back to Prometheus, which doesn't make sense because how id no one on board realize that they hadn't returned yet? It's also got embarrassing how they got lost but were communicating with the captain who was standing in from of a huge hologram map of the place. They never asked where would be safe for them to go. So yes, they are pretty thick.


Also a lot of people have to wondering why a smart biologist like Milburn would try and touch the strange alien creature that they knew nothing about. At the end of the day, he was excited, I mean who wouldn't be? He would have traveled there purely to see some extra-terrestrial life. So when he comes into contact with one, his excitement gets the best of him, so although people are calling him stupid for contacting with the alien without knowing anything about it, we can't really blame him because most people would probably do the same thing.


Why does David infect Holloway?
We can assume that he is instructed by Weyland to do so. It implies that Weyland knew (or had an idea) what the crew would find, but it still doesn't answer all the questions. Presumably it's all part of his quest for immortality, but it isn't clear how that helped. David's motivation for his instructions are open to interpretation, he spent a couple of years learning a lot of things, and perhaps we wasn't instructed at all, maybe he was just curious, as an android his understanding of right and wrong can be limited. Everything he does is logical presumably. Also don't forget that David is the first to find the black goo when they arrive and uses it to work out what he's dealing with, and uses it help meet the overall objective that Weyland has given him. He also seems to know what he's looking for, so there must have been some evidence on Earth as to what it is, and if it is the key to life and we are led to assume, then perhaps David was curious to see what it does to life itself. We clearly see the results of this later in the film.


What does Weyland want?
That's a nice easy one, immortality. He's an old man who wants to avoid death. This doesn't explain his actions however, many believe there may be more to Peter Weyland that we would see in a longer cut of the film.


How does Shaw get over the medpod scene so quickly?
Just like with most of this film, it is suggested that in a longer cut of the film we would get more answers, however in the cut we saw, she deals with the creature, escapes and then moves on to the next matter at hand, and suddenly the rest of the crew don't try and sedate her again. We must also take into account that this scene is leading into the third act of the film, so it couldn't be too big of a scene otherwise it would make the third act seem less important.


Does David hate his creator?
Possibly. We know that David spent two years on the ship by himself whilst the rest of the crew was in stasis, when he wasn't studying ancient languages, he indulged in popular culture, music, film, history. We see him style his hair off a movie, he watches Shaw's dreams, is it possibly that he developed his own unique personality that surpasses his programming? Two years of popular culture may have altered the way that David sees his mission. Maybe he comes to believe that what Weyland wants is wrong. David asks Holloway "don't all children want their parents dead?" before he infects him which could be a sign that he has misinterpreted some of the crew's childhood memories/dreams and generally believes that all children hate their parents, or he really does resent Weyland. Another way to look at it is that it is obvious that David is created to serve, he looks after the crew, obeys everyone's orders, maybe he just wants independence. Freedom.


What does David say to the Engineer?
Until Ridley Scott tells us what David says, this will continue to be one of the most debated points of the film, on one hand the he might have just told the Engineer why they were there and what Weyland is requesting from it and then the Engineer reacts through anger/hatred for humanity (maybe even fear, fear that an inferior being of their creating has somehow managed to find them). On the other hand, David could have told him to kill Weyland, since we've established that he has father issues. Like I said, we'll never know until we're told, perhaps David will reveal to Shaw what he said in the sequel.


Why does Shaw trust David at the end?
She doesn't really have a choice, there are dozens of alien vestals that only David can pilot, she probably doesn't trust him but has found herself in a situation where she has to hold her tongue and let listen to him. She has found herself in the middle of something much bigger than she knows. The future of Earth is very shakey at the moment. 


Also, the want a sequel, Fassbender was the best character, think of the box office.


Why do the Engineer's want us dead?
We see that humans and the Engineer's DNA matches, which reinforces the idea that they created us, whether on purpose or by accident, they may see where the future of the human race is going and not like it, maybe we have became too powerful for them, as Peter Weyland states in the viral clip "We are the Gods now". Check out the link to the viral clip below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrotIFuX6Wg


After watching the movie, this viral clip begins to make a bit more sense, we begin to see his message in a new light. Weyland takes us on a guided tour through just how far mankind has came. It also goes back to the creator/father questions, Weyland states that we are Gods now because by this point in 2023 they have created androids that could be mistaken for humans. The Engineer's create us, we create the androids (then David creates the creature at the end of the film).


There's also a lot we don't know about the Engineer's (what their real names are for a start), maybe they have seen Earth's eventual demise (which could link into the 'Alien' franchise when we see the state Earth is in at the end of 'Alien Resurrection').


There we have it my viewers, I have answered as many questions about 'Prometheus' as I can at this moment, I can guarantee that more will arise within the next few weeks, possibly even more if this much talked about extended cut makes it to the cinema.


Just remember this, whatever was taken out of the film was taken out for a reason, Ridley Scott isn't going to spoon feed us the answers, that much is clear, we have to work it out for ourselves, for now.


As usual I would love to hear your opinions on this post and feel free to ask any of your own questions about 'Prometheus'. 

Weekly Blu Ray Review: Chronicle and Machine Gun Preacher

My Weekly Blu Ray Review starting from the 10/6/12. Finally 'Chronicle' arrived! Yes my viewers, it has arrived, and it was watched straight away. So let us take a look at what I've indulged in this week It has been a quiet week).

Chronicle (2012) Extended Edition
So happy that it finally arrived! I really enjoyed this film when I saw it at the beginning of the year. As for blu ray quality I'll say this, it's not bad, the looks of the film vary depending on what cameras are being used for that particular scene, so it's difficult to see very or not something is slightly blurry from poor conversion, or from poor picture quality of the camera in question. So I'm going to assume that the quality is up to scratch. The version I got was the extended edition, it had some pretty good new footage in there that fills in a few some gaps in the story, so I wasn't expected much extra in the special features. There extras were nearly none existent, we are given one deleted scene (which they might as well have put into the film), some screen test scenes (which are rubbish) and some of the flying scenes before post-production (which is a pointless thing because there's no commentary to explain what they did). The blu ray does give you the option to watch either the theatrical release or the extended edition, which I quite like because I like to compare, see if I missed any new footage, and also a standard definition digital copy. All in all it's a good blu ray but I am disappointed with the special features, it's the first found-footage movie that they actually put a lot of money into and I was looking forward to seeing how they made it. If I was basing this purely on picture and sound quality I'd probably give it an 8.5/10, but as a product as a whole, I have to give 'Chronicle' a 6.5/10.

Machine Gun Preacher (2012)
Gerard Butler at his best, this movie is great. It's full of action and emotion and what makes it even better is that it is based on a true story, which always makes everything we are watching that little bit more real.It looks and sounds really good, there are a few moments where I think that it could have been done better, a few blurry bits here and there, but apart from that it is a pretty good buy. The special features are nothing special, they don't even show what they are on the back of case and do you know why not? Because there are no special features! Nothing at all apart from an option for subtitles for the hard of hearing. It is ridiculous! Whenever something based on a trues story they have the perfect opportunity, they could have interviews, documentaries on the events and how the films made, and in the credits for this film they show real footage of the guy involved, so the source material is there, it's just that they were too lazy to take advantage of it. It is such a missed opportunity and a shame because they film looks good, I haven't checked out the DVD yet to see if that has any special features but I can't imagine that it does. So overall, due to the extreme lack of special features, I am going to have to give 'Machine Gun Preacher' a 5/10.

Apologies For Lack Of Content

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of real content this week, it's mostly been just short films. I've had a busy week but started tomorrow everything will go back on track. By tomorrow I will have the second part of me answering 'Prometheus' questions online along with my weekly blu ray review.

I haven't been to the cinema recently but next week I hope to go see 'Red Lights' and 'Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter' (I'll also do a post comparing it to the book), so more interesting posts will be online. If I get the chance I may go see 'Rock of Ages', I really want to, but I don't know if I'm going to find the time. I've also had a request to review the 2011 science fiction film 'Another Earth' so look forward to that, I've never seen it before so I dunno if it's any good.

So sorry again for the boring week, send in any requests you may have, and keep checking in!

Review of MEMORIES (Short Film)

'MEMORIES' is 2010 short film written, directed and edited by Radoslaw Sienski. The film revolves around an old man walking around doing his day to day things finding film reel as he goes. Each piece of film reel appears to represents a memory. This review contains spoilers.

For a film that is only two minutes long I think it does a really good job in raising awareness for Alzheimer's. The film reel represents him remembering something as he goes along, and when he gets home and some of the reels got caught and ripped when he closes the door represents how easily they can be forgotten again. It's so simple, but very effective. The music for this film (by a band called Silence from Slovenia).

This film actually received a lot of praise and awards, here's a list below:

- Winner of Best Fiction Award at The Altered Images Student Post Production Festival in London 2010

- Winner of the Yobi.tv Film Making contest 2010
- Winner of the Best Young Filmmaker Award at Fastnet Short Film Festival 2010
- Shortlisted for the Best Film Award at No Limits Film Festival 2010
- Shortlisted at 5th annual international LUMS film festival - FiLUMS 2011
- Shortlisted at AWAKEN! International Spiritual Film Festival 2011
- Soul 4 Reel Film Festival - Official Selection 2011
- Shortlisted at The National Student Film Festival, London 2011
- Nomination - Campus MovieFest 365, London 2011

Here's a link for 'MEMORIES' below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HDu87TGy0&feature=related

Easily one of the most effective short films I've seen, it's short and sweet and gets the message across in an effective manor, I'm going to give 'MEMORIES' a 9/10.

Review of Clone (Short Film)

'Clone' is a 2010 short science fiction film by Independent Online Cinema. In a Blade Runner inspired futuristic city, a man's life hangs in the balance, will his clone save him?

Firstly I have to comment that the effects in this movie look great, the futuristic city looks extremely real. A digital effects test was carried out by the makers of 'The Hunt For Gollum'. The acting isn't the best, although it only one guy playing himself and his clone, so some scenes would have been annoying to shoot. The score is half decent, really gives off that Blade Runner science fiction feel. It's only just over two minutes long, it's a good example of good visual effects, I'd say give it a watch.

The link for 'Clone' is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmD9mzAaDvI&feature=g-vrec

I'm going to give 'Clone' a 6/10.

Questions Left With Us At The End Of Prometheus (Part 1)

At the end of Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus', the audience is left with not one, but a multiple of questions regarding what happened, what didn't happen and all the factors between. This is the first part of a two part blog post of me attempting to answer some of those questions. Some of them will be very simple to answer, others won't be. Seems needless to say but I'll say it anyway, this post contains spoilers.

Why didn't it end where 'Alien' began?
It wasn't supposed to, Ridley Scott basically tricked us all. He went on for months about how it wasn't an 'Alien' prequel, that it had started out to be, but they believed that the story was strong enough for it to be its own movie. A lot of us were thinking, great, this could work. Then when the trailers started coming out, they looked very 'Alien'y. Then Scott stated that the film wasn't a prequel, but it was in the 'Alien' universe. By the look of the trailers it was so much in the 'Alien' universe that it could walk up and tap 'Alien' on the shoulder. Finally Scot came out and informed us that 'Prometheus' is in fact, an 'Alien' prequel. What was kept on the low note was that Scott gave us lots of mixed messages, when in fact, the film is a mixture of all them. It isn't a prequel in the sense that it has a very strong story that stays mostly away from 'Alien', but it is a prequel in the sense that there are some major factors from the 'Alien' universe. So the film is an indirect prequel.

News is already out that plans have been made for a 'Prometheus' sequel if it is well enough received (which I think it's fair to say it's doing pretty well for itself). Apparently the second film will take the story even further away from 'Alien'. We are still a long way away from the beginning of 'Alien', so we can assume that if they go ahead with a sequel, then a third installment will be made, which will bring it all together and tie up all the loose ends.

(All other questions after the last one seem irrelevant because I have already explored why the course of events don't line up with 'Alien', but they're still important questions that a lot of people have been asking)

If it's set on the same planet as 'Alien', why does it look so different? And why did they only find the one ship in 'Aliens'?
This is a really simple question to answer, the planet we see in 'Prometheus' isn't the same planet from 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. 'Prometheus' is set on a planet called LV223 and 'Alien' and 'Aliens' is set on LV426.

Is it the same Space Jockey?
No, like I have talked about earlier the film is set on a different planet, so although Scott tried to throw us off with the scene of the Engineer getting into the pilots chair, it isn't the same as the one in 'Alien'. This is obvious because in 'Alien' the the space jockey clearly died via a chestburster whilst he was sitting in the pilots chair, whereas in 'Prometheus' he dies a fair distance away from his ship via some large alien creature chocking him to death (then a Xenomorph type creature bursting out of his chest).

What is the creature at the end of the film? Is it a Xenomorph?
Basically we don't know yet, Ridley Scott hasn't provided us with much information on this. It clearly resembles a Xenomorph, and as we have seen in previous 'Alien' films, there are many different breeds of Xenomorph's, it changes depending on the host. However all Xenomorph's have one thing in common, the first come out of the host as a chestburster, in 'Prometheus', the creature came out fully formed. It also didn't have an inner mouth, and the Engineer wasn't impregnated by a facehugger. My assumption as to what this creature is, is that since the Engineer's created us, they must have created other species, the black goo stuff that we kept seeing in the movie seems to be the key to creating life, I believe that the Engineer's will come to (or already have) create the Xenomorphs, either on purpose, or by accident, and the events in 'Prometheus' play out in a similar way, leading to the creation of a similar creature. It could potentially be the cousin of the Xenomorph.

What is the black goo? How does it cure Shaw's infertility?
We can all speculate as much as we want, but in true science fiction fashion we haven't been given all the answers, or enough information to com up with the answer properly on our own. I think that it is the key to creating life, at the beginning of the film we see an Engineer use to to kill himself, and that then goes on to creating life. The fact that he falls in water is important I think, considering a large part of us is made up of water. As for curing Shaw's infertility, clearly the goo corrupts the human body, we see that with Holloway, maybe the goo edits the way the human body is for its own cause, or its adapted to her body and it isn't Shaw that gets pregnant, but the goo (a three-way baby). It's all speculation at the moment.

Isn't it just 'The Phantom Menace again?
I keep seeing this quote coming up and it's ridiculous, I mean I can understand why people are saying it, but it's a bit harsh. There have been talks about doing an 'Alien' prequel for years, there were talks about doing it ever since 'Alien' came out! It's down to your own opinion in the end, 'The Phantom Menace' mostly relied on the story that was already there, whereas 'Prometheus' has its own story that is strong enough for it to have easily made it as its own movie.

Did reviewers and critics not like it because they were expecting 'Alien'?
I think that's the same reason why a lot of fans haven't liked it. They were expected to be spoon fed the answers as to what happened on that ship and where the Xenomorphs came from. Maybe some critics generally didn't like it, but I think a lot of them were expecting 'Alien', or maybe something more like James Cameron's 'Aliens' which was more action/adventure than Ridley Scott's 'Alien' which was a space horror. All 'Alien' films post 'Aliens' have been more action/adventure than horror, so I think some critics were  disappointed to see it revert back to the original style of the first 'Alien'. However that is also the reason why a lot of people (critics and reviewers too) loved it. I didn't like it at first, I was expecting 'Alien', and by the end I was confused, but after I slept on it and thought everything over, the film started to make sense, and now I love it.

Will there be a 'Prometheus 2'?
I think I've made it clear that the resources in the story are there to make a sequel, plus Ridley Scott is keep on doing another installment, depending on the critical and commercial success of the current film. However, even if he does  go ahead with a sequel, we'll be waiting a while, I know he's currently working on another film, the name of which I do not know, then next year he starts work on 'Blade Runner 2' and in between all that he's apparently working on a Moses movie (yes, from the Bible), so we will be waiting a while for a second installment, but the pieces are all there.

As you can clearly tell I have left out some important questions, mostly character based ones, so as you can probably guess Part 2 of this blog post will revolve around characters based questions. I will be searching deep into the emotional and religious aspects of the characters. I will be taking a detailed look into what makes David tick, because in my opinion, he is the best character by far.


Hope you all enjoyed this post, I will try and have the next part online within the next few days.

Review of E.T.A. (Short Film)

'E.T.A.' is a 2008 animated short film by Henrik B. Clausen. The synopsis of the film is this: deep and cold space, a lonesome pilot of a cargo ship waits impatiently for the return of his vessel on Earth. Exhausted, suffering from loneliness and missing occupation, his only travelling companions are an onboard computer, television, pizza and coffee, but is he really lonely?


I really enjoyed this one, the story is good, the animation is amazing (it's feature film quality) and the score sets the mood perfectly. The main character doesn't speak at all throughout the film, why would he? Who would he talk to? I don't want to spoil it so I'm just going to say this, there are some great little references (one big reference) to a particular very popular science fiction film franchise. Honestly the last ten seconds me me laugh, I just wasn't expecting it! It is probably quite accurate on what a person might do in order to relive their boredom.

The link for 'E.T.A.' is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bKGio-uFBY&feature=related

Seriously give this one a watch! I'm going to give 'E.T.A.' a 9/10, just wish it was a bit longer.

Review of A Way Out (Short Film)

'A Way Out' is a 2011 short film made by Stian Hafstad as part of a directing course. The film stars Diogo Cronemberger, Sunmi Cho and Tianyi Li. The film revolves around a young boy (Cronemberger) who wakes up to discover a mysterious disturbance in his room.

When making this film, Hafstad had to stick to two rules, and these were that it had to be one continuous shot and that there had to be no dialogue. It's only just over two minutes long but I think he does a good job considering he wasn't allowed any dialogue, it feels like something out of an episode of Doctor Who. The best bit is the score by Kevin Macleod, I think he did a really good job at making up for their being no dialogue. I'll say this though, it by far isn't the best short film I've seen, but it definitely isn't the worst. He could have done a better job at getting the story across to us, there's one gaping question right in the middle that doesn't make sense.

The link for 'A Way Out' is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUR9imgXyVE

I'm going to give 'A Way Out' 6/10.

Answering Prometheus Questions (Future Post)

Since 'Prometheus' left us all on the edge of our seats expecting questions to be answered, but instead leaving us with more questions, I have decided to write a blog post going through and answering as many questions as I can about the film. It wouldn't be true science fiction without leaving us confused.

I would really like it if people could leave comments with their own questions about the movie, it will be better for you, for me and it'll make a better end result.

Hopefully I'll be able to get this post finished by tonight, if not then tomorrow for definite.

Keep checking in!

Weekly Blu Ray Review: Aliens, Highlander and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This is my list of blu rays I have watched this week, beginning the 4/6/12. As you can see, 'Chronicle' still hasn't arrived, much to my annoyance, but I have emailed amazon.co.uk and they are sending me out another copy which they say will definitely arrive on Monday. It better! So this is what I watched this week.

Aliens (1986)

A really good film, one of James Cameron's better ones, the blu ray of this film is alright, it looks pretty blurry sometimes. Most of the time it looks and sounds great, but there are those few moments (especially on characters faces), where it just looks bad. I got this as part of the 'Alien Anthology' and I have to say that compared to the 'Alien Quadrilogy' (the DVD collection) I bought several years ago, this one has barely any special features. It has the 1986 theatrical version, and the 2003 special edition and a few commentaries, and that's it. Whereas the quadrilogy had documentaries on the making of the film and everything. Seems like they rushed to get this out before the release of 'Prometheus'. At least the actions scenes look amazing. I'm going to give 'Aliens' on blu ray, a 6.5/10.

Highlander (1986) Immortal Edition
One of those really cheesy 80s action films that you can't help but love. It's got some bad effects and some awful swords fighting scenes, but its got Sean Connery in it, so instantly we have to like it. As for blu ray quality, it isn't the best. It starts off really well, the first fifteen minutes looks splendid, and sound quite good, but as the film goes on it gradually gets worse, it's as if they just got lazy towards the end. It's a real shame because a lot of the film is set in Scotland, which has some gorgeous scenery, which we see in the film, but we can't appreciate it because it's all blurry. It's a wasted opportunity, don't convert a classic film unless you're going to make an effort with it. On the bright side it has a decent amount of special features, from brand new unseen deleted scenes, to commentaries and documentaries about the script and visual style. So the special features are decent, but the quality of the blu ray as a whole is disappointing. I'm going to give 'Highlander' on blu ray a 6/10.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
This was my favourite film of 2011, I think I scored it 9/10, but that was just on Twitter before I made this blog.The CGI looks spectacular in the film and on blu ray, it still looks spectacular. I mentioned last week that 'Toy Story' was the best blu ray I've watched, well that's in a class of its own because it's animated, this is the best live action blu ray I've watched. There is not a single blurry part in this movie, it looks and sounds epic. Only downfall is that when the CGI looks less detailed in the film, it is more noticeable on blu ray, like I've always said, things are magnified, but there are forest scenes and scene with building with lots of windows and they're normally the biggest give away for a bad blu ray, but they look crystal clear. Even the special features are good, we have deleted scenes (most of them are pre-post production so the apes are just CGI models at this point), audio commentaries, scene breakdowns, a documentary on the motion capture (on the new break-through technology), a section on the species of ape in the movie, a mythology of the apes (talking about the franchise), a documentary on the genius of Andy Serkis (who also did the motion capture for King Kong in 'King Kong' and Gollum in 'The Lord of the Rings'), character concept art and a documentary on composing the score. So you get a lot for your money (plus a digital copy, which sadly, as usual is only in standard definition). I'm going to give 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' on blu ray 10/10.

The Build Up To The Dark Knight Rises

'The Dark Knight Rises' is one of the biggest anticipated films of the year. On July 20th we will all witness the end to Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy, which revolutionized the style in which superhero films were made. When Nolan brought out 'Batman Begins' in 2005, we saw something new, a realistic view on a Comic Book movie. It moved away from the comic themed Batman movies of the past and into the real world. But where did it all begin? How have the films changed over years? In this blog entry, I will go through all of the Batman films, including the ones that didn't happen, and talk about how the tone has changed throughout years, all building up to the end result. 'The Dark Knight Rises' is actually the first film in the series that is intended to be the last. All the others were made with sequels in mind, but Nolan has confirmed that this is his last Batman movie. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE BLOG POST.

We begin back in 1966, with 'Batman', often promoted as 'Batman: The Movie'. The film based on the 'Batman' television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comic character. It was released by 20th Century Fox and stars Adam West (Family Guy) as Batman, and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was directed by Leslie H. Martinson, who also directed a pair of Batman episodes from season one. Looking back at this movie today, it wasn't great, it was very cheesy and the acting wasn't the best, but it was funny, I can give it that much. It very much continues the comic book theme that the television series had (with the 'whack' and 'smash' every time they hit someone). The film appealed to the mass audiences that watched the television series because it included all the major villains, including The Joker (Cesar Romero) and The Penguin (Burgess Meredith). Surprisingly it received very positive reviews, getting 82% from Rotten Tomatoes.

It was a while before we saw Batman on the big screens, not until 1989 when Tim Burton took the helm of director (back when his style was new and interesting). The films revolves around the rise of The Batman and his struggle to deal with an up and coming costumed criminal know as The Joker, and stars Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker. It was the first installment of Warner Bros' initial Batman film series. The film takes a much darker tone than the first Batman movie, it still keeps an element of humor, but it reflects the darker tone that much better suits the character. Admittedly today a lot of the effects don't look good, and The Joker's make-up looks ridiculous, but the acting in it is superb, especially Jack Nicholson's (the man's amazing at everything he does). Altogether the film stands the test of time better than the 1960s Batman film, proved to be the biggest competition for Nolan's 'The Dark Knight', because everyone wanted to know whether or not Heath Ledger could stand a chance against Nicholson's performance. Tim Burton created a style that would come to define future Batman film. The success of the film also led to the created of the Emmy Award winning 'Batman: The Animated Series'.

In 1992 we were presented with Burton's second installment, 'Batman Returns', the film features the return of Michael Keaton as Batman, with the new arrivals Danny DeVito as The Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Burton originally didn't want to direct a sequel because of his mixed emotions towards the previous film. Daniel Waters delivered a script that satisfied Burton. Wesley Strick did an uncredited rewrite, deleting the character of Robin and rewriting the climax. 'Batman Returns' was released to financial and critical success, though it caused some controversy for being darker than its predecessor. The story revolves around murder, corruption and abandoning children. The films takes out much of the minor comedy

With 'Batman Forever' (1995) Warner Bros decided to go in "lighter" direction to be more mainstream, with the intention of making it a family film. Before writing began, Burton was interested in a third film, but Keaton would only return with Burton as director. As the studio wanted a more "family-friendly" approach, Burton was to serve only as a producer. With Warner Bros moving on development for 'Batman Forever' in June 1993, a 'Catwoman' spin-off was announced. Michelle Pfeiffer was to reprise her role, with the character not to appear in Forever because of "her own little movie". 'Batman Forever' ended up being directed by Joel Schumacher, and Val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton as the lead role. The plot focuses on Batman trying to stop Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and The Riddler (Jim Carrey) in their villainous scheme to drain information from all the brains in Gotham City. Nicole Kidman plays psychiatrist Chase Meridian, who falls in love with both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Batman is joined by Dick Grayson/Robin (Chris O'Donnell), the two are brought together when Robin's family is killed by Two-Face.

Interestingly, although they didn't go with Tim Burton as director, they did who with the story that he had planned to use, Burton had planned to continue along the dark route he had been previously using, but he wanted Robin Williams to play The Riddler, which although I think Jim Carrey did a great job portraying him, I think Robin Williams would have been brilliant. The biggest change that was made was the inclusion of Two-Face, the only reason they added him into the film was money (they wanted more characters that they could design toys off). I quite liked this film, but there is a large audience who think it is awful, and I can understand why, it was such a rapid change of tone from the two previous films. They went from being serious films, to being family films.

Now we reach a dark time in the world of Batman, the 1997 'Batman & Robin', George Clooney replaced Val Kilmer as the title role, the film also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger (as Mr. Freeze), Uma Thurman (as Poison Ivy) and Alicia Silverstone (as Barbara Wilson/Batgirl). Chris O'Donnell reprised his role as Robin. The film tells the story of Batman and Robin struggling to keep their partnership together while trying to stop Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane from covering Gotham City with ice and vegetation. It is well known for being the first Batman film of the series, observers criticized the film for its toyetic andcamp approach, as well as the possible homosexual innuendo added by Schumacher. The film also has some of the worst acting I've ever seen, especially from Clooney and Schwarzenegger, and the worst portrayal of Bane they could possibly have done. 'Batman & Robin' received 11 niminations at the 1997 Razzie Awards and frequently ranks among the worst superhero films (and work films) lists. The way you have to look at it is that Schumacher was told to make a two hour toy commercial, which is what it ended up being, with more good guys (with more costumes), more villains and more vehicles that could all be made into toys.

After the awful reaction towards 'Batman & Robin', Warner Bros cancelled the planned 'Batman Triumphant', which was going to include The Scarecrow and Harley Quinn. Jack Nicholson was going to have a cameo as The Joker in one of Scarecrow's hallucinations experienced by Batman, and Harley Quinn was going to be The Joker's daughter rather than his girlfriend. I like the idea of The Joker being back, but changing Quinn messes with the source material, and that's never a good idea. Clooney and O'Donnell were set to reprise their roles, but after how poorly received 'Batman & Robin' was, Clooney swore never to wear the cape and cowl again.

The studio decided the best direction to take would be to make a film adaptation the series 'Batman Beyond' (or 'Batman of the Future' as it's called in the UK) and an adaptation of Frank Miller's 'Batman: Year One'. Warner Bros would pick which ever suited them best. Schumacher believed he owed the Batman fans a real Batman movie, so he approached Warner Bros in 1998 about doing 'Batman: Year One', he said he take it back to the origins of the dark knight, but they were more interesting in going with Darren Aronofsky. Obviously, none of these films ever made it to production.

Eventually in 2005 we see the return of the caped crusader, with Christopher Nolan's first installment, 'Batman Begins'. The films starred Christian Bale as Batman, Gary Oldman as Sgt. James Gordan ,Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Cillian Murphy as The Scarecrow and Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul. The film reboots the series, telling the origin story of the character, beginning with Bruce Wayne's initial fear of bars, the death of parents, and his journey to becoming Batman. The story leads on to Batman discovering a plot by The Scarecrow to poison Gotham's water supply with his hallucinogenic toxins. The films draws inspiration from classic comic book storylines such as 'The Man Who Falls', 'Batman: Year one'  and 'Batman: The Long Halloween'.

The film was a fresh look at the character that audiences had not seen so far on the big screen, we've went from comedic, to dark, to family-friendly, to terrible and now we're at realism. This is the first Batman film where we actually see Bruce Wayne become his masked alter-ego. We also get to see how he rebuilt Wayne Enterprises after being away for so long (by this point the company has gone public). We see how he learns to fight, where the choice to dress as a bat came from, and where he gets all of his equipment/how it works. We also get to see how he initially makes an impact on Gotham City, by putting fear into the criminals and marking his territory with symbols of bats (one great scene is when he ties a beaten up criminal to a flood light, making the beam look like a bat in the sky). Nolan wanted the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne, so we see Wayne a lot more than we have done in previous films and we see him and Batman as one, it's not like during the day he's Wayne and at night he's Batman, the two are the same person. He uses his business to fund his crime fighting and seek out corruption in the business and the police. Ra's Al Ghul turns out to be a much more formidable foe, having a much more devious plan than The Scarecrow's. There's a huge theme throughout the film, and it is facing your fears, Batman/Bruce Wayne are forced to do so throughout the film, both by Scarecrow and by Ra's. Wayne also has to face his fear of returning home, and the fear of facing his guilt (he still believes that he was responsible for his parents death).

'Batman Begins' was a massive critical and box office success, and was the first of what was to become Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, following with the sequel 'the Dark Knight' in July 2008, and another sequel 'The Dark Knight Rises' which is due for release in July of this year. 'The Dark Knight' is possibly the greatest superhero movie ever (The Avengers Assemble is very tough competition though). Christian Bale reprises his role, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and introduces Heath Ledger as The Joker and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Harvey Dent is Gotham's newly elected District Attorney and the cohort of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal), who joins Batman and the police in combating the new rising threat of a criminal calling himself The Joker. The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won for Best Sound Editing and posthumous Best Supporting Actor for Ledger's performance. The film often appears in the top ten of Best Movies lists.

The thing that really won this film for me was Heath Ledger's The Joker, I was really skeptical before I went into the cinema because I didn't think anyone could best Nicholson's portrayal of the character, clearly I was proven wrong, and I'm glad. I also love the scale of this movie, when I bought the DVD years ago, I watched the special features and found out that they actually build a full scale hospital to blow up, nothing was faked (except one floor of windows because they were stolen) and that is some accomplishment! I also loved the score, especially the sound that's played whenever The Joker is there, which was an electric bass guitar, being played with a violin bow, it sounded really good, really sinister, the notes would get higher and higher, leading to the climax of the scene, it reminded me of nails on a chalk board. Basically I could talk all day about how much I love this movie, it is easily the best Batman film, and it has left some big shoes for 'The Dark Knight Rises' to fill.

Sadly, Heath Ledger died on the 22nd January 2008, before the release of the film, which was really a tragedy because he had already proven that he was an amazing actor well before 'The Dark Knight', but even so this event cast a dark light over the project, and the future of the franchise. It was assumed that Nolan wanted Ledger to return for the third installment of the film and at the news of his death, Nolan was put off from doing a third film because of his relationship with Ledger (and that is why The Joker will not even be mentioned in the new film).

So what do we know about 'The Dark Knight Rises'? Well we know that this is definitely Christopher Nolan's final Batman film, he and Batman will part ways after this. We know that Tom Hardy is playing Bane, and from the trailers we can see that he looks so much more awesome than Bane in 'Batman & Robin' (well he'd have to be, he couldn't be any worse). From the trailer we can also see that Nolan has made Bane into a more realistic character to follow his theme like he did with The Joker. Bale, Freeman, Oldman and Caine are reprising their roles. Eckhart wanted to return as Two-Face, but Nolan said no, he said that Two-Face was dead, he will definitely not return. We see that Batman has a new vehicle, the Bat-Wing, or I think it's just called 'The Bat' in this film, it looks pretty cool. Anne Hathaway is playing Catwoman, which concerns me a bit, there's a reason she is normally cast to play characters like princesses, because she looks like one, she just doesn't seem to suit this role. However Michelle Pfeiffer says that she loves the new Catwoman, stating that she works really well in this universe. I also know that Nolan never intended to have Catwoman in the film, it was his brother who convinced him to include her. Also Nolan announced that Robin will not be in this movie, which is a disappointment for some fans, but I agree with that decision. Although for all we know Nolan could be doing  Ridley Scott and say for months that somethings not going to happen, then say it does. You never know. Also apparently Liam Neeson has a cameo as Ra's Al Ghul (yes the character that died in 'Batman Begins'), so that could be interesting. There has been no confirmation that Cillian Murphy's The Scarecrow will appear in the movie, but he has been seen on set and has been in the previous two films, so I think it's safe to assume he may make an appearance.

This next section is about what I think is going to happen, this may contain spoilers. So what will happen to end the trilogy? This is the first Batman film that isn't made with a sequel in mind. I personally think that either Batman's identity will be revealed to the people of Gotham, or he will die at the end of the movie. It would be the perfect way actually end the series. We can expect Batman to actually face a villain that can actually fight back. All of the villains Batman's faced have never had the strength to match him in a fight (except maybe Ra's Al Ghul). The Joker was cunning, and didn't intend to leave it all to a final fight (as he says in the film "You didn't think i was going to risk the battle for Gotham's soul in a fist fight with you?"), but Bane, from what we've seen, has the same destructive mind as The Joker, but he also has the physical capability to fight Batman. I think that'll be amazing, something we haven't seen yet. Hardly any Batman villains have the strength and ability to physically fight Batman in a fist fight.

So there we have it, that's a look at all the Batman movies to date, and we can clearly see a change in tone across the decades, from comedy in the 60s, to darkness in late 80s, early 90s, family fun and utter awfulness for the rest of the 90s and finally realism and works of cinematic art for the 20s. Is this the end of Batman? No. It is the end of Christopher Nolan's Batman, but the character is being rebooted with the possibility of a 'Justice League' movie in mind (most likely to compete with 'The Avengers Assemble'). Sadly the film will probably go back to looking more like a comic book in order to fit in with current DC films like 'The Green Lantern' but hope is on the horizon, apparently Christopher Nolan may agree to produce the new Batman movie, so there is a chance it could be good. Questions now are, who will play Batman? Who's the new villain? Who's directing? All of these I cannot answer yet, but I can say this, The Joker is one of Batman's greatest foes, and I'm pretty sure the Justice League run into him a few times, so we may see a new Joker on our screens in the future. I hope you have all enjoyed reading this blog entry, I certainly enjoyed writing it. There was a lot I had to leave out because of time and length (didn't want this entry to be ridiculously long), but I hope that everyone will agree that what I have included is all good information (I'll accept that 'Batman & Robin' isn't good information, but I had to include it).

'The Dark Knight Rises' is released in cinema on 20th July 2012.

Review of Love Sick (Award Winning Short Film)

'Love Sick' is a 2011 award winning short film written and directed by Kevin Lacey and stars Josh Cameron, Tatum Langton, Heath Maughn, Kirstina Reese, Tristan Philips. The story revolves around the un-named love struck character placed by Lacey (the only words we hear are his narrative).

I quite liked this one, I can see why it won awards, although I don't think it is as good as some of the more science fiction based short films I've watch and reviewed, but I can say that there are a few moments in this that are quite funny and the quality of the film itself it really high. The music is also really good, one of the best scores I've heard in a short film (the music was composed and performed by Randin Graves).

It is shocking how many awards this film won, here's a list below:

WINNER - Fringe Film Festival 2011 - Grand Jury Prize
WINNER - Fear No Film 2011 - Utah Short Film of the Year
WINNER - CityWeekly Artys 2011 - Reader's Choice Award
WINNER - Salt Lake Comedy Festival 2012 - Best Actor - Josh Cameron
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Action on Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION - HollyShorts Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Who Likes Short Shorts Festival Spring 2011

That is a lot of awards, the name of the last one amuses me. Here's a link for 'Love Sick' below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFDAvcwDPTA

So obviously officials believed it to be a good watch, I quite liked it, wasn't the best, but by no means is it the worst I've seen. I'm going to give 'Love Sick' a 7/10.

My Next 'Build Up' Blog Post Will Be...

I expect my daily view count is about to take a nose dive, because over the next few days I will not be blogging as much because I will be working on my next 'Build Up' blog post. It will be called 'The Build Up To The Dark Knight Rises', to be honest anyone who follows this blog regularly would have seen this coming, considering I have done one for 'The Avengers Assemble', 'American Reunion' and 'Prometheus' (although the 'Prometheus' post was more of a look at the films competition in the already existing franchise).

This will possibly be one of my longest blog entries because I will not just be taking a look at the Christopher Nolan films ('Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight'), but I will be going through all of the movies, starting all the way back in 1966 and I will go through each film individually and take about how the films differ, in tone, cast/characters and story, all building up to and influencing 'The Dark Knight Rises'. I will also be taking a look at the Batman films that didn't happen (particularly at why they didn't happen).

I will try and post as often as I can whilst working on this blog post, I'll probably only be able to get a few short film reviews out, unless I get the chance to go and see 'Top Cat' this week.

Keep checking the blog for new content and as usual follow me on here, or on Twitter and Facebook.

One last note, so far my 'Weekly Blu Ray Review' consists 'Aliens', and I have just purchased 'Machine Gun Preacher' so that will be added to it as soon as possible, as well as a few others, depending on what I a decide to watch this weekend. I am still waiting for 'Chronicle' to arrive, it's currently a week and a half late (honestly no point in pre-ordering stuff to get it on time, even 'Iron Sky' was a day late), so if it arrive I will also add a review of that to the post. Also with 'The Amazing Spider-Man' on the horizon I will also try and review the Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' collection on blu ray over the next week or two.

As usual, if you have any requests for movie reviews, I will be more than happy to oblige.

What's Your Top Ten Movie Endings? (Spoiler Version)

It is well known that the ending of a movie is what establishes whether or not we would want to see a sequel if it were to be made. A lot of the time for me the ending is what sells the film to me. So this the spoiler version of my Top Ten Movie Endings post that I posted earlier today.

10. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The ending to this film is exactly what everyone watching wanted. The films ends with him lying in a hospital bed after trying to kill himself. It's a really sad situation because although he was a bit of a trouble maker, prison failed him, science failed, him his family failed him, and society failed him, eventually leading to him attempting to take his own life. Admittedly, him being locked in a room being forced to listen to the thing that makes him sick is him getting his come up ins, but, no matter what, he is a like able character and at the end when we see that the process has been reversed (his attempt at suicide broke the barriers) and his mind goes back to being the sick/twisted punk that we all love.

9. Back to the Future Part 2 (1989)
The ending to this movie is great, half of us were expecting it to end similarly to the first film, but when the DeLorean is struck by lightning and is seemingly destroyed, audiences were baffled, we weren't expecting it. And then there comes the iconic scene, when the mail man arrives out of nowhere with a letter, and we find out that the Doc is still alive and living in 1885, the wild west (omg sequel!). The best bit has to be the 1950s Doc's reaction to finding Marty still in the 50s after he just sent him back to 1985. It's a brilliant movie, with a brilliant ending. I also like how the trailer for 'Back to the Future Part 3' was at the end of the movie.

8. Batman Begins (2005)
After an epic final battle for Gotham, Batman and Gordan meet on the rooftop to 'discuss the current situation'. Batman wants no thanks for what he has done, he is not in this for personal gain, he is a hero through and through. This is a really simple ending that got Batman fans extremely excited, the sight of the legendary Joker card (instant sequel!). Instantly fans are thinking. who's going to play the Joker? Who could possibly be better than Jack Nicholson? How will he fit into Nolan's realistic world? It was simple and brilliant.

7. Terminator 2 (1991)
Another classic movie, I love the ending to this movie, it's another simple one, after a great final battle, a nice little shoot out and hand to hand combat ending with the inevitable demise of the villain. What makes it great is that we've became attached to Schwarzenegger's character and were generally saddened when he revealed that he needs to be destroyed. Then there's the really simplistic part that sticks, when he's being lowered into the furnace and his face is submerged, his wrist and hand being the only thing left, and his hand forms the shape of the thumbs up. It's great, it's simple and it doesn't set up for a sequel. No sequel was in mind in this final scene, yes two sequels were made (sadly) but it wasn't intended for setting up for anything, it just finished the story of that film in a memorable way.

6. The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter is one for the forerunners in horror, he has great vision and knows get to put that image on the big screen. The film ends with the creature being 'destroyed', well we assume it has, because he leaves the ending as open as a book, there are two survivors trapped in the middle of know where, one of them hasn't been seen in a while, is he infected? What happens next? Carpenter leaves with so many questions unanswered. It is classic science fiction and horror.

5. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Possibly one of my favourite movies of all time, and that's probably because it's all about humanity and where we heading to. This film was made during the height of Cold War fear, the fear of nuclear war, so this movie takes advantage of that and basically says "this is what will happen is we launch the nukes". The ending is great because it's the realization for Taylor that he isn't on a foreign planet, he is on Earth, and has been all along. This becomes clear when we see the Statue of Liberty (or what remains of it) on the shoreline. Mankind destroyed itself. It's another iconic moment in cinema, and stupidly, the image of the destroyed Statue of Liberty is on the front of the DVD boxset (kind of ruins the story a bit)!

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)
This is one of those films where you either love it or you hate. Me, I love it. One of the best ensembles of cast members there has ever been and the ending is priceless. After a Mexican standoff style situation in the diner, with some amazing examples of acting, including John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson, we see them walk away from what many would class as a hopeless situation, without even firing a shot. So they get to walk away and have their happy ending, even if they do look like idiot in their attire. Of course, due to the chopped up chronology of this movie, we know the buffoonish Vincent Vega's (Travolta) gets shot coming out of the toilet (by Bruce Willis' character) of another job. So before the final scene we know he's going to die in the near future, but we still relish in the happy ending for these two characters coming out of the diner.

3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1971)
We knew it was going to happen from the beginning, Jack Nicholson's character pushes it too far and he ends up being lobotomized. It's a really sad moment because I personally had become really attached to his character and I generally wanted him to be released, but inevitably science felt they need to destroy the part of the brain that made him him, which was what got him into trouble in the first place. Then comes the sadder part, when he returns to join his fellow patients, the Chief thinks he's alright and wants to go ahead with the escape plan, upon realizing what has happened, he smothers him with his pillow, not wanting him to live as a shadow of his former self, a vegetable. He then goes on to rip the water fountain from the ground (something the others had joked about doing earlier in the film), throw it through the window, and escape. So it's a really sad ending, with a little hint of a nice ending in there too.

2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
"No Luke, I, am your father", what more do I need to say? It is yet another example of an iconic scene in the history of cinema. Everybody knows that line. Although it does raise some questions about Luke and Leia's kiss earlier in the film, but it opens up a whole new world for the sequel. This iconic scene is backed up by Han Solo being frozen in carbonate and kidnapped by the Bounty Hunter to be taken to Jabba's palace. Straight away we have two powerful plot lines, one to save their friend from a life of captivity, and the other a quest to find out if his father isn't beyond saving (and also the fate of the universe is at stake in the galactic war between the Empire and the Rebellions final confrontation of the films series).

1. Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001)
Here we are, my favourite ending to a movie ever. Now personally I do not like this movie, it is a poor attempt by Tim Burton to re-in vision a classic movie. Burton himself actually classes this movie as his biggest regret. At least the make-up was impressive. However, the ending is amazing! Wahlberg's character returns to Earth through the wormhole he originally came through, assuming that all is well when he returns to Earth, we were expecting something to happen, but I don't think anyone was prepared for this. He arrives back in modern 21st Century America, but the world is still run by apes. Apes driving cars, flying helicopters, working as police. We see First World War memorials dedicated to apes that had given their lives and the most shocking of all, is the Lincoln Memorial, which is now a statue of Thade, the villain we'd just been watching. Somehow he is now an iconic figure in history. It laves is as open as it could be to a sequel, with literally an unlimited supply of possible story lines. Multiple critics have interpreted this ending in different ways, many don't know what to say about it. It was a big shock, an amazing way to end an otherwise, very disappointing movie. It's a shame it didn't do better, because the whole cast was ready and willing to begin a sequel, although I didn't like the movie very much, I would have jumped at an opportunity to see a sequel.

There we have it. my Top Ten Movie Endings, the spoiler version. I would really like to see your opinions and your Top Tens. Comment on here, or on Facebook or twitter.

Also I wouldn't mind hearing any ideas you may have for future polls. They can be as obscure as you want, as long as it's movie related (endless possibilities).