movie review time

I'm sitting here at work, hoping to get off as early as possible so I can go home and go to bed. I'm waking up at 4 am and heading to the airport (courtesy of my bubby Tim) and flying out to Utard Land for 13 days of bliss. So to pass the time, I figured it's about time I share my thoughts on some movies I've seen as of late.

First up - 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'

I was VERY excited to see this movie (see previous post) when I first heard about it. I continued the "going to the midnight showing of the first big movie of summer on the first Friday of May" tradition ('Spider-man 3' - 2007, 'Iron Man' - 2008, next year will be 'Iron Man 2') and purchased my ticket ahead of time. The plan was to go with a big group as usual, but one by one they dropped out, until it was just Adam, Erica and me. I was giddy during the previews, partly because they rocked (especially the 'Transformers' one) and partly because I was so excited to finally see Wolverine again after a three-year hiatus (which seems to be the trend with the X-men movies so far). All in all, the movie wasn't too bad, but I really wanted to like it more than I did. Even though Erica, who doesn't know Gambit from Gandalf, really liked it, I just couldn't. I guess the main turn-off was all of the violence, which oddly enough, hasn't really bothered me too much until recently. Actually it's not odd at all, I know exactly why it bothers me now but that's not what this post it about. Anyways I also thought a lot of the special effects were just plain shoddy. I was amused to see Hugh Jackman jumping down a waterfall - naked - but his bum wasn't anymore impressive than the next guy's (not that I've seen the next guy's...). I don't know, I feel bad for not liking it more but I guess I can't change how I feel about it. And really, who cares? I know nobody reading this does, I'm just writing this because I'm bored. So humor me, please. Next movie.

'Star Trek'

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I have never seen a full episode of anything involving 'Star Trek'. By default I do know who Capt. Kirk and Spock (remember that eraser we had of Spock's head?) are and I've heard the lines "to boldly go where no man has gone before" (I also remember from some English class that it should be "to go boldly", but anyways...) and "live long, and prosper", but all that is about the extent of my 'Star Trek' knowledge. The only things I knew about this movie were that it would probably be a good action flick, the guy playing James T. Kirk was kind of attractive, and Karl Urban would be in it (as Bones). I kind of really like Karl Urban, ever since he played Éomer in the second and third 'Lord of the Rings' movies. I also really like him as the bad guy in 'The Bourne Supremacy'. I think he looks like Brad Pitt, with bigger eyes or something like that. So anyways I wasn't in any hurry to see this particular movie but I knew I wanted to see it (and by hurry I mean seeing it at the midnight showing - instead I waited until the day after it came out - pshaw). More awesome previews ('Transformers' again and this time one for the GI Joe movie) and then an even awesome(r) movie. I loved it! It was made for everyone (except for maybe Mom and small children), not just diehard Trekkies, and I was entertained the whole movie through, AND it was surprisingly tame - not too much violence (well not the gory kind, there was a lot of fist fighting) and no token "fword". I absolutely love it when PG-13 movies do not take advantage of their "1 fword allowance". And James Tiberius Kirk was pretty darn cute. The only thing I didn't like about him was his voice. I hate when famous guys who are very attractive have a very wimpy voice (like David Beckham, for instance, who sounds like a 14-year-old schoolgirl) but I guess they can't have it all! Anyways the whole movie was a thrillride and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

'Seven Pounds'

I checked this out from a Redbox with my free rental code I get via text message every Monday. I hadn't used it in ages, since I've been somewhat studious this past semester, so on my first free Monday I started off summer right with a trip to Wal-Mart, then an extra-large strawberry snowcone and some strawberry SourPunch while watching this flick in the living room with the blinds closed and fans on full blast. Nice. Anyways this movie was pretty good. The trailer for it is very cryptic, but being the genius that I am - ;D - I kind of figured out what was going on. But not enough to not be surprised throughout the movie. It was pretty inspiring, but kind of in an extreme way. I liked it for the most part, because come on, who doesn't like Will Smith? He was uber serious though, and I'm used to watching 'The Fresh Prince' every morning when I wake up (my TV is my alarm clock) so that was a little weird. What I liked most about this movie: four of the characters were named Ben, Dan, Tim and Sarah; there was a mantle Great Dane featured; there was lots of medical goriness (the kind of goriness I like - as opposed to war/fighting goriness). So I guess you could say that I liked it for the most part.

Well, now that I've wasted an hour and a half writing a post that no one will probably care to read, I have managed to pass the time pretty quickly and I'll be getting off soon. Utah, here I come!