Batson's Blog

It took me a while to check out this movie, mostly because it was another unneeded reboot of a popular franchise that wasn’t even that old yet. Angelina Jolie was the face of that character for so long that it felt strange seeing someone else do it (though I think Alicia Vikander may have done a better job). I kind of avoided it out of protest. But I saw it for free recently (that’s always the best price). It was ok. It was a nice set-up for a franchise — the ‘how Lara Croft became Lara Croft’ tale. That would’ve worked well had anyone wanted a new franchise or had Tomb Raider been successful enough to warrant a second film. Unfortunately these days, writers are always planning on trilogies and franchises. They don’t put enough effort into the beginning movie. That’s kind of how this movie played out. It wasn’t bad. Alicia Vikander did a great job actually. Her obvious dedication to the role and believability made the movie much better than it otherwise would have been ...

Disney is capitalizing on the large set of characters that have become icons through their various projects over the last 50 years. Maleficent , featuring Angelina Jolie in the title role, is set to be released next year on May 30. Disney describes the movie as "the untold story" of "a beautiful, pure-hearted young woman" who has "an idyllic life growing up in the peaceable forest kingdom" until an evil army invades the land. " Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom—and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well." Ever since I read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs , I've enjoy...

I realized it’s been a few weeks since my last movie review. Before that, it was even longer, so I decided: it’s movie week. All week, a new movie review each day. It starts off with Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow . I remembered seeing a few previews years ago, but it never peaked my interest enough to see the actual movie. It was on my Netflix list, however, so last week it ended up in my mailbox. Turns out, it wasn’t a bad movie at all. Sky Captain was a lot like Sin City in the sense that it consisted of a lot of very impressive artwork and graphics. At first I didn't realize there was so much animation involved. The movie starts off with a scientist getting killed. From there giant robots attack New York City. The Sky Captain, Harry "Joe" Sullivan (Jude Law) ends up swooping in (literally, with his Sky Captain plane) to save the day.  During the entire scene with the robots, it becomes clear that a good portion of the movie was filmed in f...