I'd seen this before, but felt like rewatching it. Despite the rating, this is actually much better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The directing feels more focused and controlled, the writing is way better, but the action is less interesting. The characters have a level of depth that we don't get to see in Origins, but it remains just an entertaining superhero movie, although, luckily, one of the good ones.

In a sentence:

The second best X-Men movie, with focused directing, decent character development and good writing. The action, however, is a bit tame considering the type of movie.

As far as extremely predictable, corny, formulaic and one-dimensional movies go, this is pretty decent. The jokes are never funny, and you've heard the story a hundred thousand trillion times before, but it's relatively entertaining. That's it, really. It's not worth analyzing it any more than that.

In a sentence:

Yeah, this is what I expected it would be: a mediocre action movie with some cool superheroes in it. The action is interesting enough, and Jackman is pretty good.

However, it doesn't follow the proper storyline, and Deadpool is ruined, depending on what they do with him in the forthcoming Deadpool movie, so comic book fans will definitely be disappointed. Even myself, not knowing what Wolverine's story was, felt it was a missed opportunity, and that some things just made no sense (ex. "Let's spend a billion dollars making him invincible. Okay, now, let's kill him."). In addition, every actor other than Jackman was just Ok.

Hopefully the sequel will be better (*sigh*).

In a sentence:

An entertaining action movie with a good performance by Jackman, but it's mediocre in every way and forgettable.

Frankly, this was a lot better than I expected it would be, after reading some reviews. It's a solid action movie with some amazing visuals and a great visual style, which also poses some relatively unique but simple moral questions and follows quite an interesting story.

On the other hand, a lot of things about it are a bit ridiculous, and it is obvious that this was purely meant to be a summer blockbuster. It's a bit odd that Christian Bale agreed to be in it, as he usually goes for roles that are a bit more complex, but it's nice that he was there, nonetheless.

Better than T3, but not as good as T2.

In a sentence:

Great action and visuals, decent story and moral dilemmas, but it remains a summer action movie.

Now, this movie is a total cult classic, and it was the origin of many things that we now take for granted in movies, but in reviewing it, I'm comparing it to current movies.

In that sense, it's a pretty good action movie that actually has some character development and a certain moral dilemma (as one-dimensional as it may be). It is also hugely predictable (save for one thing) and corny, and seems to reuse the same 3 songs all the (@#& time.

The fight scenes are awesome, because they were filmed live, but they're also rather hard to decipher. Sure, you know that one guy's being tailed, and that the other one is coming, and so on, but the shots you see are of planes banking and turning and twisting, without any actual reference points between them. I guess I must be spoiled by CGI, but I would have been entirely lost without the character voiceovers.

I dunno. It's the Eighties, after all, so maybe I was expecting too much.

In a sentence:

Quite entertaining, but corny and predictable... and, unfortunately, starting to become dated, as its pioneering aspects have now all been bested.

Short flashes of brilliance, but altogether a mediocre album. Notable standouts are, in descending order, "Earth Jesus Nowhere", "Horseshoes and Handgrenades", "21 Guns" and "Before the Lobotomy". It has a lot more variation than "American Idiot", but at the same time somehow felt too similar and a bit pointless. The lyrics criticize society, but it feels like we've heard it all before, and is a bit generic in that sense.

In a sentence:

Definitely worth a few listens, but it will be quickly forgotten.

This is a rare thing: a reboot of a classic franchise that is different enough and improved enough to somehow feel entirely fresh, and that leaves you optimistic as to what the future holds. From the very first second, this movie felt like the start of something big, and like it knew exactly where it was going.

The actors chosen are absolutely perfect in every way for their roles, and the acting is incredible for this type of movie. The special effects and general cinematography are off the freaking charts, and visual flair and control is to be found at every bend, with some extremely impressive CGI. The story, incredibly, succeeds at bringing the old franchise into the new millennium, while adding lots of new things and keeping lots of classic things. I have no idea how they pulled it off, but it works at keeping old fans and making new ones. Finally, the score is genius.

I was sure this was going to be a letdown, but it's the biggest surprise of the year, so far.

In a sentence:

Amazing acting, cinematography, effects, music, set design and writing, coupled to a great story that manages to perfectly modernize classic Trek storytelling, will probably make this end up as the best high-budget blockbuster of the year.

If there's one thing you've got to keep in mind when watching this movie for the first time, it's that you will not understand it. It is easily the most complicated movie to understand that I have ever seen, and it requires multiple viewings and some online reading to get a basic idea of what happened (and even then, most explanations online are flawed). When you get the basic idea, though, it's quite a smart movie, which is impressively well made for such a small budget.

On the other hand, everything goes by so fast, sometimes with so little explanation (a brief sentence can hold a huge plot point), that it feels a bit like it's out of control (although that may be intentional). It's just not a movie that tells you what it's doing, you've got to do the work yourself.

That's what makes this so unique, though. It's a bit like Memento, except shorter and more complicated, and you won't really find anything else like it. For that, I think it deserves being labeled as a must-watch, although its entertainment and wit comes from its complexity and the challenge of understanding what the heck is it you just watched.

In a sentence:

A must-watch, but be ready to spend some time researching and rewatching to understand what happened in the extremely complex plot. Even then, I'm not sure it's possible to fully understand everything.

Knowing that this is what High School movies were like in the 80s depresses me. When you compare it to the lame, stereotype-filled, soulless college movies of today that glorify alcohol and stupidity as the be-all and end-all of life, it's a bit disheartening to see such a great movie as this one.

Of course, don't go looking for a masterpiece; this remains a High School movie, which means the moral is obviously stated and not hugely developed on (more like demonstrated), and the story is predictable and unsurprising. It succumbs to some stereotypes, but uses them wisely, and its moral isn't quite so simple to apply in real life.

However, the characters are original, fresh, and perfectly acted, the story is heartwarming and awesome at the same time (in an 80s kind of way), and everything is just FUN. It manages to feel very unique despite its flaws, and you gotta love the 80s music, too. In the end, it's nice to watch this because of how happy it is, and just to remind us of how god-awful high school/college movies have become.

In a sentence:

It's a high school movie which is relatively predictable and corny, but at the same time awesome and full of life. It's also got some really great, unique acting, and it remains a classic to this day.

This was very, very close to being just one star. The premise sounds great: in 1998, a group of Star Wars nerds break into the Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of Episode 1 so that their cancerous friend can see it before he dies. The execution, however, is terrible. Anyone who is not a total geek popular culture master will not even understand the movie, and anyone who is will only enjoy it as a kind of "notice the reference!" trivia game. Other than that, the jokes aren't remotely funny, and the plot is dull and lifeless. Definitely skip this one.

In a sentence:

Only entertaining because of the geek culture references, and even then... meh.

As far as demos go, this is one of the most enticing I've ever seen. It's quite rare for me to want to keep playing this much after a demo, especially when I'm not sure what to expect going in. It's a hack and slash, and that's basically it, but it fits the character perfectly in that it allows you to release his feral rage and just basically go batshit crazy while chopping up the hoardes of bad guys in spectacular ways. It cuts up the action with awesome interactive cinematics as well as throwing in a healthy amount of leveling up and character improvement. I'm really looking forward to receiving this in the mail to review the full game in a few weeks.

In a sentence:

Badass. Badass, badass, badass. A hack and slash that is too badass to get boring.