Ed's Review Dot Com

Legendary Entertainment, Tencent Pictures, Warner Bros.,

Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Tian Jing, John Ortiz, Terry Notary, John C. Reilly, Toby Kebbell, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann

A team of scientists convince their congressman that there is an urgent need to visit and document a hidden island, behind circle of constant storms, to document what exists there. They agree to send a team to visit the island first, but insist it must be lead by military leader Preston Packard who is sad that the Viet Nam war has been shutdown and he has nothing to do. But the island is more dangerous than they realized, and the wild creatures that live on the island wre extremely aggressive and the team is in big trouble from the very start, and trying their best to just stay alive, when the learn the king of the island is a giant ape known as Kong.

This is not really a Kong movie, and has very little to do with the giant ape. Kong only has a cameo or two and is a bit player in this story, but the other wildlife on this island are the key to the story. This is basically a military story much more than a giant ape story! Samuel L Jackson as Preston Packard is absolutely nuts as the driven soldier who naturally pushes too hard and is very stubborn and unwilling to listen. John C Reilly is a standed WWII soldier who has been stranded on this island for decades who is a major add to the story. The action in this movie is excellent, the battles are very exciting, and the acting is pretty decent, considering the non-stop action. Truthfully this movie is much more like The Battle of Los Angeles or Battleship than it is a Kong movie. They surely borrow some of the story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s THe Lost World, more than anything. So as long as you’re looking for monsters and action rather than a King Kong movie sequel, you won’t be disappointed. Granted you have to suspend belief and threat this as science fiction, but the action is good, the monsters are realistic, and it’s a lot of fun.

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Chernin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment,

Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, Karin Konoval, Ty Olsson, Alessandro Juliani, Michael Adamthwaite, Max Lloyd-Jones, Aleks Paunovic, Sara Canning, Gabriel Chavarria, Chad E. Rook

Caesar (Andy Serkis) is the leader of the Apes. They have fled to a hideaway deep into the forest. Caesar simply wants peace, but the Colonel (Woody Harrelson) is building a fortress at the old base and is relentlessly looking for the hideout of the apes in order to wipe them out once and for all. But when Caesar’s wife and son are killed, he sets out after The Colonel to seek his revenge, only to learn that there is an even greater danger just above the horizon for both sides.

These darn Planet of the Apes films just keep getting better and better. This has to be the best one of all. It is hard to watch the original Planet films now, with the special effects, CGI, and the wonderful scenery and sets make this a stunning thing to watch. Add to it the 3-D and a huge screen and recliner seats and it was really an experience. I enjoyed every second of this film. It was amazing entertainment. They really make the apes more expressive than the humans are, and the script has to be one of the best ever. This is a rather simple war story that will likely strike a chord with everyone. This is a very good story, and everything came together in every way. This is the must see film of the year, and one I would always expect this kind of film to kill at the box office. Kudos to everyone involved with this film, and if you haven’t gone out to see it, what the heck are you waiting for???

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Columbia Pictures, Skydance Media, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE),

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, Olga Dykhovichnaya, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare

A crew of astronauts are in a space lab and come across a single celled creature that appears it could have been alive. Through their investigation they are able to determine that it was in a deep form of hibernation on Mars since a time in the past when Mars had more oxygen. But once they wake it up, they find that it grows very fast, and is not particularly friendly Trapped in space with this creature with no chance of ever bringing it to Earth to study, it is protected by three levels of firewalls to make sure it cannot escape. But it is very smart and figures out a way to attack the crew anyway, and unless a plan can be found to stop it, it is going to kill the entire crew.

This film is not Alien. It’s good that it’s not because Alien is copyrighted and you can’t steal someone’s move. This is a terror filled suspenseful space monster film that holds it’s own, although it fought an uphill battle against critics and the public alike which I think is a shame. I was anxious to see this while in the theater, but never had time for it, yet now that it’s out on DVD, I am really happy I got a chance to see it. It’s a well done feature, and the suspense and horror aspect is really terrifying. Granted there are a few scientific blunders in here, and a couple plot holes that you could drive a truck through, but remember that this is science-FICTION and so it has to stretch reality a little bit for the sake of the story. Actually the cast did a good enough job. They were all pretty good. The effects are also pretty impressive, and it’s a good well told little story that kept me on the edge of my seat. Give this film a chance if you like Sci-Fi as much as I do, and I think you’ll find it good enough to be worth your time. I liked it and found it very frightening.

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Atlas Entertainment, Cruel & Unusual Films, DC Entertainment,

Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis

Introducing Diana Prince, daughter of the queen of the Amazon, we see Diana (Gal Gadot) as a little girl, growing up on an island of powerful women hidden from the world. But it’s clear she’s a special girl, destined to be a fighter with powers that she doesn’t even understand. But it’s clear she has a history that is amazing and is going to be become a superhero for sure. Distraught by the horrors of War, Diana heads out to help thwart the Germans from developing a most horrible chemical weapon that will allow them to rule the world, but it’s not going to be easy as only she understands who the real enemy is, and only she has a chance to stop him.

This is not the Wonder Woman we watched on TV each week as kids. The Diana Prince in a suit working for the government. But that’s okay, as a whole new generation of people need to meet Wonder Woman in order to bring her into the future Justice League films which will probably be an awesome thing to see. They need to meet the original Wonder Woman before she was domesticated and this movie does the trick. I have a couple minor complaints with the film, but I did see it in 3D and I really enjoyed the movie. The story is fun, and the fight scenes are awesome, with some really great chases and explosions all over the place. Suspense level if very high, and though it feels really long, almost 2 1/2 hours, it was quite entertaining. It’s just the they went a bit overboard on the CGI. It was so very fake looking and I felt it took away from the experience a bit. I think I enjoyed movies a bit more back when the CGI wasn’t so all in your face. I feel sorry for the actors spending weeks and weeks in front of a green screen. How boring it must have been to react to all the imaginary stuff that didn’t exist yet. All in all though, Gal Gadot did an excellent job, and was brilliant as Wonder Woman and she really pulled it off. Chris Pine backed her up really well, and the evil “take over the world” plot of the Germans was believable. The final battle was a bit anti-climactic, as if all the planning went into the CGI and they really didn’t know how to end it, but all in all it was a good film, and well worth the ticket prices.

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Legendary East, Atlas Entertainment, China Film Group,

Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Hanyu Zhang, Eddie Peng, Lu Han, Gengxin Lin, Kai Zheng, Xuan Huang

William (Matt Demon) is a European mercenary who will fight for whomever offers the most money. He’s on a mission, with some of his men, to find out the truth about the black powder that those in China supposedly have to protect The Great Wall from the Mongols. So they show up just as they Chinese under their commander, Lin Mae (Tian Jing) is about to go into a major battle. They are captured and put into the dungeon, but it turns out the battle is a lot more sinister than the Mongols invading. The Chinese have been hiding that they are actually defending their country from some nasty alien creatures who, if they overtake and conquer the soldiers, will spread over to the whole world. William decides to join the Chinese to fight, and uses his skills to help Lin Mae to destroy the Queen and hopefully win the battle.

This is a very intense action film with great action sequences. It’s an odd story. Some years ago I picked up a science fiction paperback from the 99 cent store and found it to be the story of a modern day man who had the unfortunate incident where he passed through a portal to an iron age, medieval like kingdom in need of a leader, but there was also a pathway to a futuristic society. When I finished the book, I found out it was a trilogy, and I searched a bookstore and found the second novel with ease. When it came time to read the third book in the trilogy though, I was hooked on the story, but quickly found that Tor Books, the publisher had discontinued the book which was out of print, and not available anywhere. I was devastated until my oldest son found a copy in a rare book shop and he bought it for me. That unusual story of three different realities, past, present, and future, reminded me a lot of this film. What appears to be a very decent period piece of life centuries and centuries ago, immediately turns into a futuristic science fiction movie and it blew my mind. The special effects, particularly the alien creatures themselves, are quite impressive, and the battle scenes defending the wall are quite entertaining. The action is fierce and vicious, and it’s certainly very lifelike. I didn’t expect a lot out of this movie, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how really good it was. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and though the theaters had this one in and out in the blink of an eye, for a DVD rental (if anyone still does that anymore) or a streaming evening, it’s very well suited. If the you like Lords and Ladies, Asian customs, and outer space bugs, this one has it all. I promise an interesting evening.

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