Movie Review: Takers

Won myself free tickets via Nuffnang to watch the movie Takers at GSC, Midvalley. It’s been a really long time since I stepped into the Midvalley cinemas and noticed they did some upgrades to their entrance. I like the high ceilings and their movie seatings reception. It feels more spacious now though their movie screen numbers were oddly laid out.

Which Taker took our movie tickets?!

During the ticket redemption queue, I caught word over Twitter from a friend that Nuffnangers may have forgotten to bring the tickets. :O

Lol epic failure. Nuffnang staff forgot to bring tickets for their screening. Can fail lagi later if disaster recovery hancur.

Via cincauhangus

But the recovery was fast and well done by the Nangers in charge at the table. They handed out the Nuffnang badges in replacement of tickets and numbered the redeemers. Although they asked us to come back 30 minutes later, we got the tickets 10-15 minutes after. Kudos.

Movie synopsis

Takers takes you into the world of a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies.  They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low between heists.  But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective (Matt Dillon) who is hell-bent on solving the case.

Takers short of my expectation

Unfortunately, I’d only give it a 6/10. The first quarter of the movie was technically the trailer. And as much bang-bang-boom went on, precision timing and creative scheming were interesting parts of the movie, it didn’t leave me an impression to want to watch it again.

It wasn’t boring but entertaining. In other words, something to watch if you needed some action for the day.

P.S.: Late comers should stop coming late or not come at all

Some redeemers left the cinema because they were given the first row from the screen. What I’d advice to curb this is, Nuffnangers need to honestly inform redeemers of this before they’re given the tickets. Let them decide before they walk-in.

This way, they’d be smart enough to note they were late and not expect miracles. Worst scenario, you get proud people moving their butts into empty seats higher. Although during this screening, there were a lot of nice side seats because Nuffnang gave out pairs. ;)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Me and Ariel finally completed watching the series; Avatar: The Last Airbender. And for your information, this Avatar isn’t blue and doesn’t procreate using his pony tail. It’s about a 100+ year old boy defrosted from the ice returning to restore balance to the world. The original is an animated cartoon series with an American anime style.

Nickelodeon screened this before and is now running a cartoon marathon for it in conjunction with the upcoming movie. I’d like to place some pretty high expectations for the movie because it’s being directed by M.Night Shyamalan.

However, after having completed watching the animated series, I’m a little worried how they’re going to squeeze the story into a 120-150 minutes flick. The animated series consisted of 3 books or 3 seasons. Telling the story of how the Avatar formed his friendships and in the end, made the world peaceful once again. Not to mention, got the love of his life.

I don’t remember any continuations of M.Night Shyamalan’s work. It’s always 1 movie and that’s it. Which is why I’m very worried.

What’s going to be missing in the movie? What’s going to be deemed unimportant and not included in it? :(

I hope they don’t end up butchering the storyline too much. Otherwise, we’re going to end up with a Devastator and 2 banging balls again. LOL!

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

My first movie of the month. Enjoyed at Cineleisure cineplex. And allow me to get this off my chest. Sorry eCurve, I hate saying your name despite it even being shorter. I’m just attached to it being called Cineleisure.

Okay, so about Iron Man 2. According to my friend, Cathay now has an additional movie option besides 3D called 2D digital. Or, something like that. I guessed it meant instead of pulling film reels, the film would be projected digitally. And, we were right.

Not only did we see TV ads transit to the cinema screen, the Iron Man 2 movie was superbly sharp and its colours, awesome.

Not being a comic fan of Iron Man, its movie is telling his story to me. How Iron Man came about and how even the Avengers were related to him. And the only Avenger I recall is the purple costumed dude who shoots arrows. Sadly, that too I don’t remember when he came about because even Avengers have a history.

Nonetheless, I found this continuation packed with more gun busting, family related, relationship connection and friendship. Though I’ve to kind of agree with Ariel’s brother’s hypothesis of the villain. He died a little too fast.

Well, I guess there’s only so much a villain could’ve done with whips in his hands. Versus a suit equipped with rockets, pulse cannons and high- beam lasers.

The Iron Man movie maintains its best selling-factor; technology. Tony plays a little more with blueprints in mid-air and less of him clanking on the hammer as the first episode.

By the way, you’ll want to stay until the end of the movie. Because there’s a teaser to Iron Man 3. :)

Will I rewatch Iron Man 2?

Only if it’s in the digital version. :D Yes, it was that more enjoyable. Bring on the Full HD experience into cinemas!

P.S.: I know it’s Mothers Day but dear Mum’s, please exit the cinema if you can’t keep your child hushed. Especially after many other people already asked you to do so. Thank you.

Movie Review: Clash of The Titans

It was one of my expected movies this year. The trailer for Clash of The Titans was seriously good. Especially when you hear the line, “release the Kraken” every time. The line reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean and the storyline reminds me of Hercules.

Greek mythodology FTW

Stories of heroes and gods are great to tell. Especially, ones who become gods in the end. I recall Disney’s Hercules was inspiring and at the time, I wasn’t even a kid. But heroics and beliefs aside, its movies like this which become cultural education to us. By now, you’d already remember Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are brothers. In addition, Zeus put Hades in the depths of darkness – hell. So how did this movie fair?

This remake, not so well.

I’ve to say this remake of Clash of The Titans didn’t leave a great mark for me. Simple to say; the trailer looked more promising. The build-up at the beginning was fine. However, character introductions and the ending really sped off quite quickly. It was like one of those experiences where you get the feeling they’re running out of budget so they’ve to end it, like now.

Then again, I still loved their character designs. The Kraken was seriously amazing and I’d choose this Medusa over Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, any day. Sorry, Uma.

Would I watch it again?

Maybe, but not in the same week. I’m still thinking what’s missing in this movie. I know it’s suppose to be awesome, but there’s something about it which throws me off.

Well, let me know if you find out. :)

Movie Review: How to train your dragon (not in 3D)

On Sunday, me and Ariel spontaneously decided to book and catch the dragon movie; How to train your dragon. It was quite last minute and weird being able to book the tickets online at Cineleisure about 2 hours before the movie. Though, I’m very much thankful for it. :)

Being an animated film, DreamWorks brought the best out of this movie. With much thanks also to the great designers, animators and actors/actresses who lent their voices.

I was seriously impressed by the character designs. They were very detailed down to the tooth and the dragons were very well thought about. It would be really cool to find out what inspired the final designs of the dragon characters. Because I don’t think it’s the actors/actresses.

I did read in the comments of the YouTube video below, a dragon was designed similar to Stitch from Lilo & Stitch because it’s the same director.

It didn’t have a Disney ending

Disney prefers to keep their movies very happily ever after. Well, this movie doesn’t really follow it. Your kids might be a little shocked, but truth be told, it’ll be like a reality lesson. But if you’re not a kid, you’ll seriously enjoy this entertaining movie about dragons.

I know I did. :P

Would I rewatch the movie?

That’s a yes from me. Though I’m still pondering if I should check out the 3D version of it. So if you do watch it in 3D, please let me know and tell me why you liked it in 3D. :)