The Hateview: Alien Vs Predator Requiem

Uhh...how did i got reminded about this disastrous cocktail of messiness? I do remember getting quite excited about this movie and then getting slapped in the crotch by it at the end of the movie but what i don't remember is why did i get excited at all?

The original Alien vs Predator isn't actually a masterpiece or a good movie in any sense. It is poorly written, the movie logic is like studying quantum physic theories from a scientist who just consume an LSD, and above all it was directed by the damned Paul W.S Anderson, the guy who directed the awful Resident Evil series. To be fair, i think the first Alien vs Predator movie is rather fun if you switch your brain off, bang your head against the brick wall for 5 minutes, and finally drink 2 bottles of tequila. I think the slight of fun that i feel is what kinda makes me expect something good that didn't actually exist in the first place when i got excited for it's sequel. Despite of it slight fun, i don't see why people want to see more of it after such low receptions both from critics and fans. Even the studio who wants some cash grab should realize that there is no more potential left for this series but oh, money talks and studio listen so we got Alien vs Predator Requiem.

I think the starting concept of this sequel was just based in the fact that the first Alien vs Predator is a Pg13 movie, meaning that there is no gore, swears or anything related to the facts that both Alien and Predators is well known for it's R rated rating. People complaining that they want to see gore when the predators do their classic Sub-zero fatality impersonation or when the aliens do their metaphorical rape killing stuffs and in that regards they did listen to the fans. So "R rated movie it is" said the studio but they forgot that you cant make a movie based just on gore and blood. You need interesting characters, good plot that drive the actions and a good direction from the director. They failed so hard in this 3 parts.

AVPR, as the marketing department of this movie like to be referred to, is following the events of Alien vs. Predator, a Predator spaceship is leaving Earth carrying dead Aliens, living facehuggers, and the body of the Predator that defeated the Alien queen. A chestburster erupts from the dead Predator's body; it is a new creature that is a hybrid of Alien and Predator characteristics called the Predalien (who the hell is in charge naming this thing?) It quickly matures into an adult and begins killing Predators throughout the ship. A Predator's weapons fire punctures the hull and the ship crashes in the forest outside of Gunnison, Colorado.

With the Predators dead, the Predalien and several facehuggers escape, implanting embryos into a nearby father and son and into several homeless people living in the sewers. A distress signal from the wrecked ship reaches the Predator home world and a lone Predator responds, traveling to Earth to observe the cause of the crash and track the facehuggers. It begins to erase the evidence of the Aliens' presence by destroying the crashed ship and using a blue liquid to dissolve the bodies of the facehuggers and their victims. That Predator  have to kill all the remaining alien without leaving any traces of evidence behind while a bunch of cannon fodder is killed in gruesome ways, both by the Predator and the Aliens.

AVPR is directed by the Strauss brothers who directed...nothing before. They were just a special effect supervisor before they made this movie and the lack of experiences are spot on in the movie. AVPR is nothing but unnecessary blood and gore and its terrible in that too. When someone is dead i don't feel anything that a normal human should feel when others human died. No remorse, no sympathy, no excitement, no emotion, only apathy and that is clearly a sign that there is something wrong either with me or the movie. The writing didn't help the audience to care about the characters because they are even worse than the characters in typical slasher movies. At least in the slasher movie i want the character to die because they are written to be hated but in this movie i don't actually care at all about the characters. They are more unforgettable than a breeze of wind in my butt.

The movies try to take a more dark route with gore and blood but they took it one step farther to make darker. The lighting in this movie is so bad that i can't tell if the Aliens and the Predator is fighting or having some interspecies sex scene because the movie is way too dark to see. I know that they want this movie to be darker than it's predecessor but they don't need to go dark with the lighting too. What's the point in having a fight scenes that the audience cant see? Let the fight scene left for interpretation?

 Subtle.

Speaking of action scenes, the action scenes feels rather clunky because they went back with people in rubber suit and not animatronic anymore. It almost like watching a terrible Power Ranger episode that directed by Eli Roth. I also have to say, the Predalien looks rather silly and it is the thing that we, the audiences, need to feel scared and intimidated with?

When facehugger meets Jamaican...

I do heard of some reviewer said that AVPR is a good movie is you took it as a B movie rather than a triple A movie but i think that's the exact problem of this movie. Both the original Alien and Predator is legendary because of their achievement for turning on a B movie premise into a very influential classic that leaves an impact on everyone who watch its. Yet, this movie fell into a forgettable B movie feels which the original movie try so hard not to be at the first place, ironically. 

It is a good thing that this franchise is dead. After such a failure nobody will dare to touch this movie premise ever again. If you think twice about Alien Vs Predator premise, maybe this premise shouldn't be touched for a movie in the first place. They might be a good enough promise in comics and video games but for a box office movie its rather hard to execute. Both of the creatures might came from outer space and both of them leaves a trail of blood, intestines and brain matters wherever they went but that is the only thing they share in common. The alien is a beast who lives only to kill and procreate while predator is a civilized hunter who hunts for sports in Sunday morning. Their nature isn't all that compatible to make an engaging story and so far the best story they can milk out is the predators is breeding the aliens so they can used its as a hunting ritual while the human characters is just there as a chewing toy for them. As i said before, a good movie needs a good character and Alien vs Predator is having a hard time making a significantly good characters because they treat human characters as dispensable cardboard cutout. It is a franchise that is better left for comics and video game only.

Initial El Judgement

3.5

Free hugs from facehugger

Frozen Movie Review

Trailer and marketing is an important things in movies industry because it will set the expectation from the audiences before they watched the actual movie. It is not uncommon to find a great movie with a not so interesting trailer or marketing (It happen to me with the Gravity's trailer) and Frozen is actually the victim of this kind of trend.

Frozen is another Disney princesses animation movie which the marketing of the movie is kinda misleading the audience. The movie's marketing seems to be focused at it's silly comedic relief in the movie named Olaf The Snowman and he is not that funny in that marketing campaign too. So when i first saw a short animated campaign for the movie in Disney channel, my initial reaction is just "Meh, it doesn't seems interesting at all". It's a good thing that i watched that one video review in Youtube which said  that this movie was great because i owe that reviewer a drink or two. Frozen is an awesome animated Disney movie that i really recommend to everyone.

The movie is a loose adaption of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, which to be honest, i never heard or read (sorry, my childhood is not that pretty) so i am in blind mode for what this movie about. It tells a story about two sister from the Kingdom Of Arendelle. Eight-year old Elsa, princess of Arendelle, possesses the elemental ability to create and control ice, frost and snow. One night while playing, she accidentally freezes her five-year old younger sister, Anna, with her powers causing a small part of her hair to turn white. The king (Maurice LaMarche) and queen seek help from trolls, who heal Anna and remove her memories of her sister's magic. Their leader, Grand Pabbie (Ciarán Hinds), informs them that if Elsa had struck Anna's heart it would have been fatal. In order to protect Elsa and avoid her powers from endangering anyone else, the royal family locks themselves away in their castle. Elsa, afraid of hurting Anna again, spends most of her time hiding in her room, creating a rift between the two sisters as they grow up. Ten years later, their parents are killed at sea during a storm.

Three years after the death of the king and queen, dignitaries from all over the world flock to Arendelle to see twenty-one-year old Elsa's (Idina Menzel) summer coronation. Among them is the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk), a neighboring royal who wants to exploit Arendelle for profit. Eighteen-year old Anna (Kristen Bell) is excited that the castle gates will open and she'll finally get to meet people. While strolling through the streets, she meets Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles, and the pair quickly fall in love. Though Elsa is terrified of revealing her powers, the coronation goes off without incident. During the reception, Hans proposes to Anna, who accepts. Elsa, however, refuses to grant her blessing, setting off an argument that culminates in her elemental abilities being exposed to everyone. Elsa run away after accidentally shows her magic and freeze the whole kingdom in permanent winter. So begins Anna's journey to save the Kingdom of Arendelle and her own sister from metaphorical puberty jails.

Because the misleading marketing campaign, i thought this movie will be the standard Disney's adventure movie with the standard Disney's love stories added with Disney's standard annoying comedic relief which is actually...not a big deal for me but it isn't something that i liked that much either. Surprisingly, The movie is far better from what the marketing is shown since the actual focus is actually the relationship between the two sister and the test of their love for each other.

The other kind of "love", that is...

Almost all of Disney princesses movie involved that cliche tropes like true love, damsel in distress and all things that make your daughter want to be a princess who let the men do everything for her. But right off the bat, the movie makes a fun of that true love cliche by Anna request to get married with a man that she literally just met which Elsa said that it is very stupid. In that scene, I knew that Disney is trying to do something new in this movie but the "whoa" moment came in a really surprising way that managed to caught me off guard. The movie used the well established trope then gives it some unexpected twist, resulting in a almost evolutionary moral message that kids will dig and adults can appreciates.

The Animation is top notch as expected from Disney's production. The way the characters moves reflect their personality and their energy flawlessly in every frames they are in. Anna and Elsa looks like your typical pretty Disney Princess at first when they are just standing still but when they moves that images changes. Elsa transformation from restricted girl to an expressionist woman is a spot on from the way he walks and moves. Anna eagerness and spirits is also greatly animated and i also need to mention that this movie also made me go "damn, i should have watched this in 3D" again. I guess 3D does have a place in modern cinema.

This movie is Disney efforts to relive their renaissance moment like what they achieved with Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid which i honestly forgot if i ever watched it when i was a kid or not (I am still trying to repress my childhood memory) so Frozen is actually a musical animation movie. Musical Movies tends to irritates me since it is often unclear why the characters can suddenly singing about everything in the middle of something. For all that i know, they might sing about dysentery in the middle of something and it still makes sense in the context of the movie. There is a moment when the song in this movie kinda irritates me because how often they showed up from nowhere but that moments falls short because all the songs in this movie is great and memorable. Many peoples said that the Let It Go session in this movie is a masterpiece where the song and animations flows in a harmony that just so great to watch and listen though i still think that my favorite has to be Do You Want To Build A Snowman? session which....well, ok i have  to be honest, i became quite emotional in that session.

The comedy in Frozen is actually kinda feels like a classic Disney's movies. There is no pop culture reference which is almost like a mandatory to have in a comedic movie today because all the laugh came from a situational moment which makes this movie's comedy became timeless. Peoples in the future will still laugh in this movie as good as the peoples in nowadays laugh at it which is a great thing to have in a movie.

Kristen Bell as Anna did a terrific job portraying a naive eager girl who rarely met anyone outside her castle while Idina Menzel voice, who had an amazing track record in Broadway musical performance, is also great, especially when she sings that Let It Go song. Surprisingly, the characters that i think i will hate is actually the show stealer of  movie which is Olaf The Snowman voiced by the amazing Josh Gad. There is just something so adorable with how Josh Gad portray Olaf goofiness and clueless behavior that steal the audiences heart's.

There is a moment where i thought that this movie will walk to the unexpected dark path. Sadly, it didn't go  that way which kinda disappoint me for some reason. Maybe i just had some fetish with a kids movie going into some dark turn or maybe i am just trying too hard to became Batman.

I won't let this childhood dream go.

In conclusion, Frozen is one of the best, if not the best animated musical movie, in recent years. I love how this movie made me feels like an excited innocent child watching his first animated movie with his parents. It isn't perfect, that for sure. I wish the song could be paced a lil bit more better so it wont feel cluttered at some part and i still kinda hope they could make it with a lil bit more dark moment but that is just my self preference. This Movie is a must watch if you have kids and even if you don't have one, you will still having a good time laughing and smiling.

Initial El Review Score

9.5

Some movies are worth melting for.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review

I noticed a trend in Holywood today where it seems that teenage love movies based on best selling books are tend to show quite often and surprisingly the demands for it is rather high. I think that trend starts from the success of The Twilight Saga movies like a contagious itchy rash that can't be cured and it spawns many spiritual successor (mostly better than the the Twilight Saga itself but it doesn't help much) like I am Number Four, City of Bones, The Host, etc. I guess subconsciously speaking, i tend to compare that kind of movies with Twilight because it is the movie that start this trend and it also managed to set the bar for that genre really-really low in my mind. I also happen to hate teenage. Hell, i even hate myself when i was teenage so teenage movies aren't actually in my top list of must-to-watch movies, more like must-to-avoid kind of movies. So when my friend told me that she want to watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which based on best selling books about teenage loves drama set in dystopian future my first reaction was "Can we just Watch something with more testosterone in it?" But, since she is the one who paid for my ticket i can't say no, i never say no to free movie ticket. Turns out, that free ticket she gave me was actually worth it.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a sequel to The Hunger Games and for some quick recap for the first movie, here is what i know about it: I never Watched The Hunger Games. So yeah, i came watching that movie in a blind mode, saves for some brief explanation that my friend told to me. As you might know, Reviewing a sequel without watching it's previous movie is like working as an accountant who never introduced to math before but on the bright side, i can review the movie as its own unique movie so i am going to aim for that.

After Surviving the initial 74th Hunger Games by breaking the basic rule of "only one can survive"  Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) back to their home in district 12. Katniss and Peeta are required to take the victory tour of the country. President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) visits Katniss and tells her she has inspired rebellions in the districts, when she and Peeta threatened suicide so both might survive the games. He orders Katniss to convince the entire country that her and Peeta's love was the reason for their actions, and to convince Snow himself.

Right After they finished the victory tour and return home, Katniss warns her close friend, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), of President Snow's threat to kill both their families. Snow announces Panem's third Quarter Quell, a special version of the Hunger Games held every 25 years; for this Quell, all tributes are to be selected from the existing pool of victors. Katniss immediately devotes herself to ensuring Peeta becomes the Quarter Quell's victor, should he compete in the games. At the reaping, Katniss, the district's only living female tribute, and Haymitch are reaped by chaperone Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Bank). Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch's (Woody Harrelson) place and is sent directly to the train with Katniss, without a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. They must fight a new Hunger Games with more deadly enemies and survive but again, only one of them can survive.

From the start, Catching Fires world's caught my attention with it's unique settings. I really like how they describe the state of Panem condition like how the poor live, how the rebellion grows big because of Katniss act in the previous hunger games, their technology and yes, even the over the top silly fashion conscious rich peoples who dressed like...i don't know what they dressed like.

Obvious joke reference, abandoned.
 

Speaking of the story, it surprisingly filled with interesting plot point and unexpected turn that kinda make me go "whoa" like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. It focus more in the main characters struggle and her condition as the symbol of hope for revolution which pisses the President of Panem really bad. But they can't just kill a symbol so the president with the help of the new game master  Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is trying to make Katniss look bad in TV before they finally put her in the ground for good. You really feel that the villain is evil, in a good evil way. The movie manages to pull the feeling of the character's hopelessness in the screen and delivers it to the audience very well.

The other good things that this movie have is it's line up of interesting characters with a their own distinct personality and moral complexity and that is a recipe for a great movie in my book. I found that the character that i think was the most generic narcissistic antagonist at the start becomes the most interesting character later on and they managed to make me keep guessing about that characters motives until the end. Most of it's characters feels unique with a specific role that made them feels significant and not just a cannon fodder.

In the performance department, the cast of this movies really works well in portraying the characters they played. Jeniffer Lawrence as Katniss did a good job being a no nonsense bad ass girl and most of the supporting characters is doing a good job as well. The real show stealer is  Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair who manages to show such a good portrayal of complex character who are dreamy and gorgeous.

If there is something that i don't like about this movie it is the love interest. I really don't like how they pictured the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale Hawhthorne. You know that in most teenage love drama someone have to be the damsel in distress and in this case Peeta and Gale is the damsel in distress...with penis. Both Peeta and Gale keeps whining on how they really wants Katniss love's and has to be rescued by Katniss quite often. Peeta is the one who annoy me the most since he seems so unreliable and uninteresting in the line of the unique games participant itself. They should have made Peeta a little bit more reliable and less whining.

The cliffhanger ending also bogs some people because its quite abrupt at the end of the movie. It also contains some of the most interesting part that really need to be explained more. I know that they are planning on making the next movie for sure but at least make the ending less abrupt will you.

In conclusion, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a really well made movies that surprised me. It surpass my initial expectation and really made me want to know more about this franchise. Even if i haven't watched the first movie, i still found myself immersed in the story and the world of The Hunger Games. This movie might be one of the finest movie in this year.

Initial El Review Score

8.5

Hunger For More