BlandMan; Batman: Under the Red Hood Review

Since the 90's it's usually a guarantee that the animated Batman properties would be good. Since the animated series a lot has gone into crafting quality stories with top notch animation and grade A voice acting. "Under the Red Hood" is a movie clearly made in a post "Dark Knight" world, but unfortunately it can't decide if it wants to be like the Christopher Nolan Batman or the animated series version and the end result is an overall bland affair.

The story revolves around Batman taking on The Red Hood a new vigilante who isn't afraid to use extreme measures to fight crime a.k.a. murder. The story starts at the pivotal scene in "A Death in the Family" where the second Robin, Jason Todd, is murdered by the Joker. The rest of the film is based on "Under the Hood" a story about the Red Hood and the possibility that it is Jason Todd.

There are really three main characters in the film. Batman, the Red Hood, and the Black Mask (A villain anybody not familiar with the comics wont be aware of) and the film revolves around both Black Mask and Batman attempting to put an end to the Red Hood's vigilantism. The Joker is in the movie, not that much, but he is pretty important to the film.

Action is the best thing about the film. The fight scenes are frantic and action packed, and because it's a PG-13 movie it can get fairly violent for an animated movie. The character design is alright, it's a little too generic for a cartoon. This is where it becomes apparent that they are trying to emulate the Nolan style of Batman. While the action is over the top and crazy, the way the characters look and talk are way too low key for this type of movie.

This is the one big weak spot of the film for me, the voice acting. Batman's actor, Bruce(weird) Greenwood, is ok, it's almost close enough to the animated series actor that it passes. Nightwing, the first Robin, is done well by Neal Patrick Harris, but he's in the film for a total of about 15 minutes. The one real bummer of an actor is John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) as Joker, he plays this character way to timidly.

The whole portrayal of the Joker in this film is way to subtle, he just doesn't have that psychotic nature he has in other work. This is how most of the film feels, too subtle. It tries to hard to be the new type of Batman instead of it's own thing. If you're gonna do animated Batman go all the way, not this weird, trying to be real stuff, leave that to the movies with real people.

The movie doesn't really work well until the last 10 to 15 minutes.If you like Batman at least check it out, it's not great but it's something. If this impresses you definitely check out the 90's animated show, that's some compelling Batman. As for this, well it's not quite compelling, just some nice animation to look at. Eh, 2.5 outta 5

Despicable Me Review; The Almost Perfect Crime

This year has been pretty good for animated films. "How to Train Your Dragon" was a surprisingly awesome film, "Toy Story 3" was an expected awesome film, and there's a couple of other movies coming out this year that look like they might be pretty enjoyable. So how does "Despicable Me" stand up to the rest of the films out this year? Well it could have been awesome...but a few things hold it back, just slightly.

The film is about Gru (Steve Carell) a supervillain who is trying to top the theft of one of the great pyramids by stealing the moon. His rival, a new up and coming villain Vector (Jason Segel) stands between him and his goals. Through some crazy shenanigans Gru adopts three little girls who might be able to help him best Vector. The film follows a pretty predictable path, but it's an entertaining one. There's a lot of slapstick humor, which isn't necessarily bad. but there was one aspect of the film that just made the film entirely stupid, and ruined my enjoyment of it...

I hate these things...HATE these things, they are the epitome of what is wrong with children's films. The worst part of it is that there are hundreds of these...things in the film, they don't even explain what they are. They are the thing that constantly remind you that this movie was meant for kids...or stupid people. Like Jar Jar Binks or Donkey from "Shrek", everytime they're on screen they have to be either doing something wacky/or just being generally goofy. So yeah picture "Phantom Menace" with hundreds of Jar Jars...nightmarish. They've been the push of the marketing for the film, and unfortunately they are quite prevalent in the movie. Luckily most of the rest of the cast makes up for this awful aspect of the film.

Steve Carell does a decent job of making Gru seem sinister, but his inevitable turn to good is believable. The kids are pretty good, unlike in "The Children", they aren't unbearable, but at the same time act like realistic kids, only slightly annoying at times. The main antagonist Vector is a lot more annoying than the kids, and like the stupid minions, totally pointless, and his absence would greatly improve the film.

Overall it's a nice looking film, all the character designs are unique and have a nice charm to them. The locations in the film are colorful and pleasant to look at. The music is...well it's a mixed bag. Pharrell Williams composed the music for the film, the orchestral pieces are epic and are pleasantly reminiscent of a spy film. The regular songs are slightly grating, and feel out of place. All in all it's a good film, It's maybe meant for younger kids than something like "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" was meant for. If you can handle some very annoying characters, then you're in for a decent movie. 3 outta 5!

No Batteries Required; Toy Story 3 Review?

(There's a reason i put the "?" in the title...So when i

started writing this it was gonna just be a simple review...

it quickly turned into something else, if you want to know

the rate i give it, 5 outta 5, there's other stuff i address in

this piece so i thought the whole rating thing didn't matter

It became a retrospect of sorts, ,enjoy!)

On November 22nd 1995 Pixar, a studio that wasn't quite the powerhouse it now is, released a movie, with the help of Disney...That movie was "Toy Story."

Fast forward 15 years and Disney owns Pixar, which has become the peak of animation quality, and "Toy Story" is considered one of the most beloved/important animated movies of all time...things have changed and time has passed. This is the idea behind "Toy Story 3" a film that acknowledges that time keeps moving whether we want it to or not.

Andy is all grown up and he's going off to college, but as a new chapter starts it appears as if the toys are going to be left behind. Fearing that they are no longer wanted most of the toys left want to leave, choosing to be donated to a daycare, but Woody can't bear to lose Andy. I'm not going to get much more into the plot, I'll just say the story revolves around the toys adapting to a life that is in the midst of change.

Do i really need to say more, you know it's going to be a great movie. The acting is great, the animation is beautiful, and the story is slightly emotional and moving. I will say that this movie is not quite as sad as "Up", but from the perspective that this is the end of the "Toy Story" franchise it was quite the tugger of heart strings. This film was really meant for people my age, I mean Andy is the same age as me and my friends, we literally grew up with this story.

There is nothing i can say that is negative about the film, it is almost flawless, but i say that through nostalgic eyes, but that's what Pixar is going for. I really think this is the end of an era for Pixar. With sequalization beginning for other franchises ("Cars 2" next year, and "Monsters Inc. 2" in 2012) and a much more rapid production rate (Two Pixar films in 2012!!!) it really is the dawning of a new day.

Just look at it like this, as much as they might enjoy it, "Toy Story 3" will not be special for any child growing up now. Think of how it felt to see these crazy 3-dimensional characters come to life for the first time when you were 4,5,6,etc. To any kid now it's just another animated movie, dozens have come out before it. That was the first of it's kind, now the original "Toy Story" looks like a cutscene from a PS2 video game. This new Pixar has got to pull out all the stops to show kids the same kind of magic we saw.

This would have been the most poetic way for Pixar to end. This would have been a perfect swan song, but it's not. Pixar will keep going, there's a good chance that it will keep going, possibly after alot of us are gone, but as "Toy Story 3" implies, we pass the toys on and hope they make others' childhoods as special as ours was.

Fairytale Ending; Shrek Forever After Review

In 2001 Dreamworks released "Shrek", it was a huge success and made Dreamworks the first real contender against Pixar. Three years later "Shrek 2" came out, people still liked it and the Shrek story seemed like it could wrap up at that point...then "Shrek 3" came out...Just pretend "Shrek 3" didn't happen. Shrek 4 does what 3 should have done, wrapped up the story. The plot of 4 is that Shrek is now bored with family life, so he makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to go back before he met Fiona so he can be a "real" ogre, but through contractual trickery Shrek finds himself fighting to get back his family and friends, Basically "It's a Wonderful Life" with fairy tale characters. This plot also is a good excuse to re introduce characters, but it's so fast paced no one gets much screen time. The animation looks top notch as always, and the voice acting is good, if not a little a little phoned in at times. There are some new characters introduced, the other ogres are alright, but Rumpelstiltskin is probably the best new character, especially considering he isn't even a professional actor, just a writer/animator. I saw this in 3D Imax and while it is really cool to see everything in giant three dimensional craziness, it's not necessary, seeing it in a normal theater probably would be alright. What it comes down to is that if you liked Shrek, this is a very good send off to the franchise, even to the point where the big song at the end is "Im a Believer" again and the credits are made up of images from all the movies. It does such a good job ending the series that it's only fitting that 4 gets a 4 outta 5

Dragons! ; How to Train Your Dragon Review

What an unexpected pleasure, i literally had little to no expectations before i saw this movie, i was surprised. The movie revolves around Hiccup, a young viking who wants to impress his fellow vikings by killing a dragon, I'll just leave it at that, cause it's kind of cool to see where it goes. Voice acting was great, no one is too over the top, and all the acting was enjoyable. The one thing that really blew me away was the way it looked. It was a lot of little things that have been really tough to tackle in computer animated films. The big one is hair, this may not sound like a big deal, but the hair looked awesome. just go back to older computer animated films and look at the hair, alot of times it looks horrible, it's a very small detail, but it adds alot to the movie. Everything else is great, it finds a nice spot between cartoony and "realistic." The overall quality of this movie comes pretty close to what most expect from Pixar, which the past couple years has become a little dull to me. It's not that i dont like Pixar but it just feels like they never take many risks anymore. This is a great animated movie, and you should check it out. I would suggest seeing it in 3D IMAX, cause that is intense, you're entire field of vision is encompassed, makes for very immersive entertainment. 5 outta 5!