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One of the more popular novel franchises read by young adults today is the Divergent series. I never read those books, but I’ve seen all the movies. The first one was great and had slick action, likable characters, and superb dialogue. I honestly liked the second one better, that one is Insurgent. The movie was not as great in terms of screenwriting and there was kind of a hole in the story with Tris and her hairstyle being different than her first movie, but I thought a lot of the visuals were excellent and it felt like the movie utilized the green screen to high potential. Now, they split the final book into two parts (rolls eyes). I saw the first part, “Allegiant” on opening weekend and it was an atrocity. Keep in mind, I’m not the only one who thinks this. The movie currently has 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert’s website gave it a 1.5/4, Metacritic gave it a 33, and I even remember my sister saying she wasn’t a fan of the movie. Not only did the people who got the chance to watch the movie mostly end up disliking it afterwards, but they were part of the small chunk of people who even viewed the movie in the first place.

Based on brief research, one thing noticed about each Divergent movie is that for each movie, the earnings from each opening weekend progressively declines as we get further in the series. In terms of US earnings, the first movie made $54,607,747, the second one made $52,263,680, and the third film dropped dramatically to a disastrous total of $29,027,348. For a big budget film, the first two totals are OK, not the best for an opening weekend but certainly not bad. However when your total is as low as the third one, you may have problems. Why did the film get as much as it did on its opening weekend? I don’t have enough research, but I have some assumptions towards this. There were plenty of other movies to see that were out at the time of this movie’s release and it was rather unusual for the month of March, which is one of those months where movies aren’t worth seeing as much as they are in the summer or the holidays. These movies included Zootopia, Deadpool, and 10 Cloverfield Lane. One more thing I can imagine is that some people were mad when they heard the final book would have a movie split into two parts, which I’ll be honest, kept me from seeing the final two Hunger Games movies to this day. For the people who did see it, I imagine they mostly consist of hardcore fans of the Divergent books, people who liked the previous installments of these movies, and people who goes to the movie theater throughout a significant course of their lives. I belong in the last two classifications (despite not liking Allegiant). Out of all of these assumed folk, I’m willing to bet some saw bad reviews of this movie and didn’t care about seeing it, some wanted to wait for the home release so they can text during the movie, some probably didn’t care at all, or some probably forgot or was unaware this movie even existed. According to Wikipedia, Allegiant has a total of around $179.2 million in the box office, therefore it made higher than its budget on the movie, which was around $110 million. Despite that, it’s possible that the guys behind the movie may not have as much to work with as they have before to create the perfect movie. It’s not surprising, Lionsgate said the poor box office performance is why they want to make a TV movie.

Also, something that lowers my anticipation for this movie, is that they are going to make a TV show after the movie is over. If you’ve ever watched almost any movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you may notice that they all have scenes setting up another movie during the end credits. Unless there is a scene in the credits that sets up the TV show, or no setup for the TV show at all, or if the universe is set up in a spontaneous or compelling manner throughout the film, I’m not going to be pleased. It just goes to show what is happening with many movies today. Instead of being actual movies, they are setups for other movies or stuff along those lines. Granted a lot of setups I’ve seen were exciting, but if I see another setup during this movie, I’m willing to bet my reaction will be something along the lines of “That is so forced!”

Even with all of the data I’ve given, I’m personally not happy with the TV movie motive, and I imagine some people can agree with me. I’m the kind of person who thinks that going to the movie theater is the best way to see a movie, no matter how good or bad the movie is, the experience is usually one of the redeeming qualities of the movie. When I watch the movie from home, despite how I have an awesome Blu-Ray player and a 4K TV with a built-in Roku smart player, it’s just not the same because it’s not as huge as a movie theater screen, and the sound doesn’t surround you (depending on your setup) like it does in a cinematic auditorium. What’s worse is that I saw two of these movies in IMAX, so that shrinks the screen and it makes the results disheartening. I didn’t like Allegiant, I’d personally give it a 2/10, but it breaks my heart to see this final installment not go into theaters. Not only that, but since a lot of teen girls like this movie, I imagine it’s just go on the so-called MTV channel. There are men who like this stuff too, and teens, and I mean teens, not just girls, are in your target audience. So if I were you, I’d put this on Syfy. I’m not going to explain much more, but if I had any suggestions to everyone behind this project, you can still put it in theaters as long as you reduce advertising, make the CGI feel less bloated, and not put the movie in large format theaters. Perhaps you could also shrink the runtime in the movie, maybe do a movie that is less than a couple hours long. Some fans of the source material may get a little mad but it may be worth it in the long run. If it were me, I would release the movie in theaters on a strict budget, but if you like this TV movie idea, good for you, it’s just not my thing. Stay tuned for more posts and reviews, I’m trying to see Suicide Squad as soon as I can, but my pals have a tricky schedule so it’ll be hard to go and see it right on the dot. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Hail, Caesar!” is directed by Ethan & Joel Coen, who directed films such as True Grit (2010), Fargo (1996), and Raising Arizona (1987). This film is about a Hollywood fixer trying to keep the studios and actors in line.

One thing I noticed when this movie first came out is the ratings between fans and critics. On Fandango, the lowest rating I usually see on the site 2.5 stars, and there was a point where I saw Hail, Caesar! get that rating. Now I look at Rotten Tomatoes and it has an 85%, not to mention a 72 on Metacritic. So it seems to be a battle between fans and critics when it comes to this movie. Where do I stand on this movie? Read for more info!

Just to start, the very beginning of the movie intrigued me to make me watch it more than almost any other movie I’ve seen recently. There’s just something about seeing a guy who’s passionate about doing what he does, staying up all night, working all day. It reminded me of myself a little bit because part of this review, it’s very late at night and I’m typing this as we speak, not to mention I have done this in my past reviews as well. The narration really set the tone for what’s to come.

This movie has a great cast. Eddie Mannix, the main character is played by Josh Brolin (The Goonies, Men in Black 3). You also have George Clooney (Gravity, Ocean’s Eleven) playing Baird Whitlock and he did a good job in the movie, however he wasn’t someone I could truly focus on in terms of characterization. You’ve also got people like Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers, Under the Skin), Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street, The Wolf of Wall Street), Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, White House Down), and more names you may know. The character that I liked most in this movie is Hobie Doyle, played by Alden Ehrenreich. he’s an actor and kind of relatable to me in some ways. If there’s one thing that this character reminds me of, it’s Miles Teller’s character in “Whiplash,” and I say because he looks like him, sounds like him, and Hobie’s relationship with the director at points of this movie in some ways reminds me of the relationship between Miles’ character and his instructor in Whiplash. Although the pacing in this movie is kind of what drags these characters down a bit.

While at times it seems necessary, it feels like this movie at times has too many characters that you’re supposed to care about, then all of sudden you care less about all of them, until it gets to a point where the amount of care is so low it’s amazing how low it is, or you just don’t care at all. It kind of made me feel lost during the movie, especially towards the end, and I almost forget how this movie folds down now.

This movie does feel like a homage to cinema, especially during the fifties. Now I haven’t seen many cinematic pieces from the fifties, but it seemed like the movie did its job well. However, while some scenes had parts that felt like homages, it felt like they went on a little too long, but then again this movie isn’t too long at all so MAYBE it was needed?? I don’t know.

I also thought more about what goes on behind the process of making a movie. In school I’ve taken a TV production class, so I know quite a bit. However if I learned much from this movie, I wouldn’t be able to point it out because I wouldn’t exactly recall what I learned. Although one thing I noticed is that a lot of big shots are smoking in this movie. I had an image of this in my mind at a few points during my life if I remember correctly, so the idea of a good number of people involved in Hollywood cinema smoking a lot isn’t entirely new to me, but in this movie, it felt like it was just there for the sake of being there. When I say all of this, I could also say that this felt like a giant stereotype, I don’t know, it’s just something that bothered me. For the record, if I get a position in Hollywood one day, or even if I don’t, I’m never smoking. Just putting it out there.

Where do I stand on Hail, Caesar!? Do I stand with the fans that dislike the movie? Or do I stand with the critics that praised the movie? I personally stand in between. This movie is nothing special, and if I were to watch it again, it would only be if I found it on a cable channel like TBS or TNT or something like that. It was a good cast and there were minor points I was able to appreciate, but nothing much else makes this movie worth your money. Hail, Caesar! is a 6/10. In terms of upcoming reviews, I’m probably gonna see Suicide Squad and review that once I’m done watching it. Stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens is the fourth installment in the Sharknado series. This franchise started in 2013 and they’ve done a movie every year since. In 2013 there was Sharknado, in 2014 there was Sharknado 2: The Second One, 2015 gave us Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, and this year is The Fourth Awakens.

The series of Sharknado is known for some of the most absurd movies known to man. It follows a formula of developing the story from the beginning, until one moment, shabam! A sharknado ensues!… Which by the way, if you cannot tell by the name already it’s basically a tornado filled with sharks that are able to breathe on land, for some… apparent reason…? Whatever, it follows a formula. Until today, the only Sharknado film I’ve seen in full length was the first movie. I watched part of 2 and pretty much all of 3 today before this movie premiered in the US at 8/7c on Syfy. When I say pretty much all of 3, I mean that as in, I had it on through the entire runtime, but there were certain chunks where I muted the TV and never paid attention (left TV on as a visual reminder of this movie). By the way, when I saw the first movie, I actually didn’t watch the actual movie, it was on RiffTrax (From the folks of Mystery Science Theater 3000), and they roasted the movie from beginning to end. As far as it’s absurdity went, it was pretty humorous at times, and it didn’t really make me angry… unlike this tuna scented CGI and cheese fest.

This movie stars Ian Zierring and I didn’t really care about the guy that much. Then again I didn’t really care about anyone in this movie. I only cared about one character, but I can’t talk about that character, otherwise I’d probably be the equivalent of a party pooper. If you saw the movie, you’d probably know who I’m talking about. Almost everyone in this movie felt like an object in front of a camera, there was little to no reason to care about them except that they could die. Maybe part of it has to do with this being the only full length Sharknado movie I’ve watched. When it comes to characterization in this movie, it’s not to die for, then again it was never what the people who wanted to see this asked for, so it’s kind of understandable.

This movie, like its predecessors is BLOATED with CGI. There is CGI EVERYWHERE I look. You have sharks flying everywhere in tornadoes (obviously), it looked far fetched and overdone, you also had cows flying in tornadoes, you had a lot of things flying in tornadoes. The blood in this movie is over exaggerated to the max, and it feels unnecessary at times to have someone spill as much blood as they are in this movie. It all looks absurd and illogical, but at least the movie is doing its job. Although that’s the thing, the movie does its job, but when it does its job, it doesn’t feel natural, it feels more like a cartoon or a simulator that is called a simulator but in reality, it “over simulates.” The past movies did this too, and I’m going to use the first one as an example here. This worked in the first Sharknado because I felt more connected to the characters (I’m surprised to even say that) despite not having a good knowledge who any of them were, or their names. Not to mention with all the CGI, science is thrown out the window (I KNOW, NOT THE FIRST TIME). I saw a shark coming out of a tornado and falling into water. Based on how high the shark was in that moment, and the force of the tornado, the shark’s fall I saw there was too quick. I can imagine some people would like this, but not me. It felt like it was going to give me a headache. During the first tornado scene, I saw a car spinning on the road doing multiple 360 spins and all of a sudden the car stops in the middle of the road. I don’t have the scene in front of me like the previous one mentioned, but with the amount of time between each 360 is complete, the car wouldn’t stop spinning as fast as it did. There’s more in the movie, but I don’t want to waste time.

Let’s talk about some of the cameos in the movie. You’ve got everyone from the Today show (again) and they are in some chunks of the movie. David Hasselhoff was also in this movie two, and I was livetweeting on Twitter while this movie was happening, and it seemed like everyone who joined the Twitter conversation was excited to see him. I don’t know if some of you probably wouldn’t consider this a cameo because she’s not as famous as some other people, but Mindy Robinson (King of the Nerds, Samurai Cop 2) was in this movie. We kind of know each other on Twitter, and I’ve seen her work so I was kind of excited to see her in the movie. For the few seconds she’s in, she was interesting to watch. My favorite cameo of all has to be Gilbert Gottfried. He plays this over the top reporter and he uses his over expresses everything he says. “It’s a COW-NADO!” That might just be the best line in the movie. By the way, in that same scene, there was a reference to Twister.

Speaking of Twister, there were tons of pop culture references in this movie. Instead of cheering or smiling in excitement whenever I heard references to other portions of media, I couldn’t help but find no positives within its use. Probably the only reference to get a smile out of me was the first one, which was a “Star Wars” styled intro, even though they never had their own version of “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.” They could have probably put in “A long time ago in a land that became an ocean” or something along those lines, just a suggestion. A lot of the references here felt out of place or just fell flat. There are references to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Network,” “Ghostbusters,” and more.

I honestly don’t know what else to say except that this movie features the most annoyingly obvious product placement for Xfinity I’ve ever seen. It becomes more annoying because I saw Xfinity commercials TWICE per break during the premiere of this film. Other than that, there’s not much else. This movie tries to be so bad that it’s good, but as far as it goes, it never even reached that level. It’s just terrible, and I’m saying that even with the absurdity the first movie had that made me think it’s bad that it’s good. Did the movie do it’s job of being absurd? I guess so, but it wasn’t likable absurdity, it’s absurdity that made me angry inside and got me closer to blowing the hairs off my body. For now, I’m going to give Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens, a 1/10. I honestly had trouble deciding where to put this on a scale of 1-10, and I’m willing to bet that this will change to a 2. Then later, it’ll go back to 1, then back to 2, and so on. Why? As I mentioned before, the movie did it’s job, but it did its job poorly, and that’s why I’m giving it a 1 for now. I recently saw “Hail, Caesar!” and I’m planning to review it, it came out months ago, and I watched it for the first time recently. Also, I’m planning to see “Suicide Squad,” which comes out Friday, August 5th. I don’t know if I’ll be there opening weekend, but maybe I’ll be there and get an early review up, perhaps I’ll maybe even get a chance on Thursday, when they do the premiere showings, we’ll see what happens. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Ghostbusters is a film directed by Paul Feig, (Bridesmaids, Spy) starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, and a reboot to the 1984 hit movie of the same name. Boy am I gonna have a lot to talk about.

The story of this movie is that three scientists and a subway token taker team up together. They try to prove that ghosts are real but mainly try to bust ghosts and save New York from paranormal apocalypse.

Not too long ago I watched the original Ghostbusters from beginning to end for the first time. I really enjoyed what the movie had to offer. I thought some of the dialogue in the movie was brilliant and the chemistry between the characters was great. The movie had a serious tone for its time while still trying to be funny. Keep this in mind.

Despite what I just said, this isn’t exactly meant to be a comparison video to the original Ghostbusters movie, although I will be using it as a source to provide points throughout this review.

In terms of plot and how this movie unfolds, this movie is a lot like the original Ghostbusters. There are some tweaks here and there but in the end, the two movies are vastly similar. As with just about any movie I can think of, if a film like this follows a similar formula to another movie, perhaps in the same franchise, can be different too, I don’t really care, I would only like it if it is done with clarity, effort, and excellence. Does this film master in any of those specifications? Read to find out!

The marketing campaign for this movie, at least to my concern, was deplorable. The first trailer became the most disliked trailer in YouTube history. I hated it too, in fact if you never knew, I did a full analysis on it because it seemed like the right thing to do. The future trailers were better but weren’t enough to make me think this movie would be good. Not to mention, it almost seems like propaganda to get people to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Something such as that isn’t really meant to fit in a Ghostbusters movie. Is the movie better than how it’s marketed to be? No way in hell.

I’m gonna analyze each lead cast member for this film one by one, starting with Melissa McCarthy. She played the character of Abby Yates and right off the bat I hated her. Why? She had a really unlikable personality. Sure, I may have liked it when they were testing weapons, and she seemed to bring a little charm to it, JUST A LITTLE, NOT TOO MUCH. However, I saw her as a jerk at the beginning of the movie. First of all, she publishes a book which she and Kristen Wiig’s character have been working on without permission on her part, and she basically makes a big deal out of what she had delivered (or lack thereof) to her by a Chinese delivery guy. Also keep this in mind, this is the first “male” problem I have in this movie.

Up next is Kristen Wiig’s character, Erin Gilbert. In the first trailer, she was displayed as a quantum physics powerhouse. Out of all the female leads in this movie, she was probably the least annoying out of all of them. Not to mention the least cartoony. Despite that, Erin seemed pretty forgettable as a character for the most part.

We now go to the unbelievably cartoony Kate McKinnon, or Jillian Holtzmann. If this movie were animated or made primarily for children, I would have liked this character more. Instead, it just reminded me of the following: 1. Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman. 2. Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 3. A mad scientist that tries to perfect their evil laugh, and has Einstein-like hair. What do these have in common? They’re all cartoony! Kate McKinnon is basically #3, minus the hair and laugh. Her character doesn’t entirely fit in a Ghostbusters movie, she’s more likely to fit on an animated TV show aimed at kids that airs on Nickelodeon.

Now we get to Leslie Jones’s Patty Tolan. I had no hype for this character. I called months ago that she would end up as my least favorite character in a movie released in 2016. She was annoying, but not as annoying as I thought she would be. Nevertheless, I hated this character for multiple reasons. The movie displays her as a stereotype in some instances. As I saw in the previews, she came off as a stereotypical African American that seems to scream all the time. It’s basically what would happen if Samuel L. Jackson was a woman and became more annoying. Now, I’m NOT saying women are annoying, NEITHER am I saying Leslie Jones is annoying. I saw her on the revamped version of Match Game recently and she was funny on that game show, so you already know how I feel about her in person. Also, I never watched “The Exorcist,” but I feel bad for those who have and loved it, because Leslie’s character basically ruins an iconic line from the film. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’d know what I’m talking about. In fact, it’s even in the image above, so you can get your sneak peek there.

Onto the guys now, Chris Hemsworth is also in this movie. He plays a secretary named Kevin. I’ve watched reviews of this movie before going to see it, and a popular opinion among the reviewers I’ve encountered along this matter is that Chris Hemsworth is the funniest part of this movie. Some of these people are saying that because Chris Hemsworth is playing a dumb character. I could agree with you, but then I’d be lying. A stereotype that often comes to mind is a dumb blonde. In this movie, instead of this role belonging to a female, a male got this classification. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have a problem with this… if it were a different movie. Why? This movie is based around girl power, and the fact they have this man here that’s incredibly stupid (not to mention not the first one to show up in the entire flick) makes Paul Feig, the brains behind this film, sexist. This baffles me to the max because there were so many arguments that everyone who worked on this movie, along with several people who anticipated this movie, had the idea that if you were a male and dislike this movie, it means you are sexist or hate women, which is incredibly stupid and a complete insinuation, because I didn’t like the movie all that much for many other reasons. Although to everyone complaining about women being in the movie, I get where you are coming from, but just calm the heck down. It’s a gender, not explosive diarrhea. By the way, Chris Hemsworth is not only displayed as a retard, but as a sexual object. Once again, this is something I personally wouldn’t usually have a problem with. Women are sexualized all the time in certain movies oriented towards guys. Also, this movie is technically supposed to be oriented towards women, but when the director actually ends up calling fans of the original Ghostbusters idiots, and Melissa McCarthy calls everyone who doesn’t like this movie a manchild or a basement dwelling loser who lives with their parents, it all adds up and makes me think that this is just something to make men look bad or like slaves to women. I also want to bring this up, one thing that I found coming out of Kristen Wiig’s character’s mouth are the lines of a perv when it came to Chris Hemsworth. This movie is somewhat aimed at kids, you might want to leave that out. Also compared to the original Ghostbusters, this is insulting. I’ve only seen the orignal Ghostbusters movie once, but looking back based on research, when comparing the two secretaries, the original wasn’t a dumba$s, and while she did feel attracted to the one of the original Ghostbusters, that wasn’t really a signature reason why she was kept around. I have a lot of thoughts on my mind about this character, but I’d probably be getting ahead of myself here.

The main villain of this movie honestly is just a flop. It’s basically what would happen if you take a nerd and decide “Hmm, I’m gonna make them look bad.” This baffles me because three of the four Ghostbusters are nerds too and they just want to defend the world, not destroy it. Which reminds me, this guy decides to unleash an army to cause havoc due to the fact that he has been tormented and left out for many years by others. To be honest, I get where he’s coming from. However, it just makes a giant mess. As I’m writing this, it almost sounds like another attack on guys, even though it really isn’t. This brings a question to my mind. Are nerds the villain? Or are nerds the hero? It seems obvious that Paul Feig is trying to bring us a lesson here, and if this is supposed to bring out anything in terms of a lesson, it fails. I’m willing to bet that this was inspired by Paul Feig’s hatred towards geeks. This to me however is somewhat intriguing to know because Paul Feig created the TV show “Freaks and Geeks,” which I haven’t seen a lot of, but it’s still good for what I’ve seen. By the way, there’s a quote supporting Paul’s disliking of geeks (end of paragraph). He eventually claimed to have corrected himself saying it’s a certain category of geeks that he can’t stand, however it was never clear to me that was the case after he corrected himself. Anyway if that is the case, it makes no sense. He sees geeks as some of the worst people that he’s ever seen, and if that were the case, he should have wrote in the script that this guy has an interest in something geeky. Examples can include video games, movies, anime, comic books, etc. Sure, this guy is building his own scientific machinery and everything, but so are the Ghostbusters. I’m not saying that a scientist or a mega-genius cannot be a geek, it’s quite likely that a good number of them are, but when you’re writing the script, I want maybe a little more background put in. The only difference between the two is that the Ghostbusters use their machinery for good and the other guy uses his for evil. The best way I can explain this is with two words: “mind-boggling.”

“Geek culture is home to some of the biggest a–holes I’ve ever met in my life…Especially after being attacked by them for months because of this ‘Ghostbusters’ project.”

Not only do I blame Paul Feig for the final product, but I also blame Sony. This should have been Ghostbusters 3. I have never seen Ghostbusters 2, but I heard it was not as good as the first one. No matter how good or bad it turned out, this still should have been a sequel. Before seeing this movie, I found out about Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which came out a few years ago. Several sources suggested that this is the true “Ghostbusters 3,” which I’m fine with. Although if they took the original Ghostbusters and made them pass the torch to a later generation somehow, I would have liked this movie at the very slightest, a little more. I’m not done yet, when Sony found out about the flop of the first trailer, and the excessive dislikes it has gotten along with the horrendous amount of comments involving how people don’t like it, they eventually decided to keep all of the comments that were considerably misogynistic, racist, etc, and delete all of the “valid criticism” that displayed negativity towards the movie and dislikes it received on Sony’s video of the trailer. I have thoughts of Sony paying/forcing people to make positive reviews of the movie, along with them using fake YouTube accounts to make the movie look better, but I can’t say that they’re actually doing that because I don’t have enough evidence to back it up.

Did I mention just about every man this movie has is either an object, stupid, evil, or moronic? Yes, I did but here comes some detail behind it. Chris Hemsworth is buffed up and that’s why the girls keep him around, not to mention dependent, and became evil later in the movie (not a spoiler if you’ve seen the trailers). Bennie, the Chinese Delivery guy is being put down for not giving the right order to Abby Yates, and while Abby has a right to state her order was wrong it seemed like an overreaction, not to mention Bennie points out he didn’t arrive for a long time because he couldn’t get up a flight of stairs (for the record he wasn’t handicapped), it just infuriated me. The mayor in this movie was another attack. There were some similarities to the mayor in the original Ghostbusters but it’s still an attack. Zach Woods (Silicon Valley), was in the movie at the beginning. He was a tour guide and he actually does the horror movie cliche of making poor decisions. He wants to see what is behind a door. This isn’t really a spoiler, it’s the beginning of the movie, it’s a ghost. Just goes to show you he’s dumb. There’s a scene in a concert hall where the Ghostbusters come in, and they find the manager. He’s pleased that they’re there and he seems scared, which is understandable, but I was getting a vibe of stupidity from what he was saying. Not to mention he is more concerned about the theater more than anything else. It makes me think: Even the other people’s lives? Even YOUR life? There were cameos for the original Ghostbusters, except Harold Ramis (RIP), all were either dumb, awkward, moronic, etc. Dan Akroyd even once said “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.” As if it weren’t enough of a party pooper in a movie like this, it happened when Kristin Wiig asked him to take her to Chinatown during the final showdown of the film, Dan’s just like “No, I’m not taking you there.” If he was afraid of ghosts, this would be justifiable behavior, however he isn’t. Either that or he just is and Dan Akroyd was supposed to say that for showmanship. Just WOW.

One thing I’m surprised I haven’t talked about is the amount of girl power that was meant to be represented in a movie like this. When you look at the entire movie, it doesn’t look like that. Sure, these girls are trying to find their place in society, but whenever this movie has a moment involving the opposite gender, they’re already brainless in the first place. Not to mention, if you’re gonna make a movie of feminist hopes, you shouldn’t really try to “kill” men per se. Sure, men die in this movie, but that’s not what I’m getting at. What I’m getting at is how this movie is mainly revolved around girl power, that they basically want to forget another gender.

This film also has holes, some of the big ones I noticed are capturing ghosts and putting them in a capsule. While that was stated in the movie that was a planned move, it only happened once. All the other ghosts in the movie were killed. Also, for the one that was captured, it was let go. Another one comes around the final battle in the movie. The Ghostbusters eventually become masters of stunts and action if you will. This makes no sense because these four women did tests prior to this, but none of those were on their skills in martial arts, or combat, or stealth, or anything along those sort of lines. ALL of the testing in this movie involved weapons. It’s basically taking these four women, the new Ghostbusters, and you suddenly turned them all into the Fantastic 4. It goes to show how much of a realistic cartoon this entire movie is. Cartoons are meant to work in cartoons, not HERE. This is a reason why The Flintstones movie was disliked by many. By the way, I haven’t seen all of it, but I’ve seen enough to know it’s bad.

One of the reasons why people loved the original Ghostbusters movie is because people thought it was funny, and with this review I’m probably making it clear that I don’t like this movie for a number of reasons. However, there is something a comedy probably could do to make me forget all of that, which is making me laugh. Did this movie do this job? Oh no it didn’t. Most of the jokes were unfunny, attacks on you-know-who, and references that just fell flat. Chris Hemsworth actually had a joke in one scene about bringing his cat to work, it almost worked but it just felt awkward based on how I already knew about the low IQ of this guy. There was even one scene where the Ghostbusters were talking about Patrick Swayze movies. These included Road House, Point Break, and Ghost (haha). The Ghost movie joke seemed necessary for the topic at hand, but the rest of the references felt out of place and there just for the sake of being there. The funniest moment in the entire movie was a reference to “The Shining.” What makes this more interesting is that I never read the book or seen the movie adaptation for this. Crazy, right?

The end of this movie is just horrible. Slimer is in this movie, and they actually seemed to get him right, that’s right, a prime positive is finally here! Speaking of which, Stay Puft was also in this movie, they RUINED him. That big marshmallow man that was stomping through the city like Godzilla with a smile on his face? Forget him, you’re getting this piece of roasted marshmallow garbage. I don’t want to ruin him for you, but if you watched the original Ghostbusters or have some familiarity with the franchise, you may be in utter disappointment when you see what they did to Stay Puft. Everything throughout the final battle is just overloaded CGI for the most part, and it reminded me of a Wii U game. I don’t mind overloaded CGI as long as it works, but knowing the franchise, it’s not a good mix. One last thing before I give this my official rating, the final villain these busters have to take down, is a PURE insult. It’s an insult to men, and an insult to the Ghostbusters fanbase. Yeah, more than Stay Puft.

Ghostbusters is a massive troll. It tries to promote feminist values while at the same time, it bashes men for the whole movie. This goes out to girls everywhere, I get it, your gender doesn’t get a lot of attention in movies. It’s still male dominated. However this isn’t the movie you deserve. It makes you look bad, it’s not even a clear film to begin with. Also, the backstory behind this movie’s pre-production, production, and post-production makes me hate it even more. I’m gonna give the Ghostbusters reboot a 1/10. Women, this is not the movie you deserve. Directors, producers, everyone in Hollywood, a local studio, or anywhere for that matter, should remember that if a movie has a message or a lesson, it is best presented with effective movies. If this is also partially a way to make people vote for Hillary Clinton, I’m sorry but you’re manipulative a-holes. Can you imagine if at some point, the new Suicide Squad movie that’s coming out in August was propaganda to get people to vote for Donald Trump? It’s just unbelievable! Politics worked in the media before. It’s worked in The Simpsons and Family Guy. The difference between this movie and those two TV shows is that they make fun of everybody and everything. I’m sorry if I seem angry, I just didn’t expect a movie that I had very little hype for could actually be worse than I thought it was going to be. Also, just to let everyone know, I saw Star Trek: Beyond, I might not review it though because I never saw the other Star Trek reboots, Star Trek (2009), and Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013). Not to mention, I just started watching The Original Series, so I probably wouldn’t have as effective of a rating as I probably could. Stay tuned for more reviews, and sorry for rambling but I had to get it out. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

The Secret Life of Pets is an animation brought to us by the company known as Illumination. They have created films like Despicable Me and Minions. Based on their decent track record with those films, it wasn’t odd for some people to have some hype for this film, and I’m not just talking about pet owners, animal lovers, etc, I’m talking about all moviegoers alike. Honestly, I never cared for Despicable Me, so I didn’t have high hopes for this film.

This year when it comes to animations, this may be one of the best years in that genre. Sure, last year we had the remarkable masterpiece of Inside Out but as far as animations go, that may have been the only one released last year that is still memorable to this date. Out of all the animations in the year of 2016, this has to be the worst I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen Finding Dory, Kung Fu Panda 3, and Zootopia, they’re all significantly better than this. Does that mean this movie sucks? No. It was decent, but we’ll come back to that.

The main character of this movie is a dog named Max, when he was young, he was found in New York City, he was taken in by his then new owner, life continued from there, it was beautiful, it was great. However, when he got a little bit older, a new dog identified as his “brother” came into his apartment with his owner. They couldn’t really get along at first but it wasn’t too much longer until that aspect of the film went away. Here’s my problem with that though. There are some kids who take things too seriously, and part of me worries that they might take this dog a little too seriously, he starts making intentional messes in front of his “brother” and plans to eventually use him as a scapegoat. Part of me wonders if gullible young minds might take this as a lesson that when you hate a roommate, make a mess in the room, go to your parents, and tell them they made the mess when in actuality, you’re the troublemaker.

The opening sequence in this movie for me was something to rave about. It kind of makes me think that if one day I have kids (and I say kids because I’m not a pet person), and I leave them home alone while I go into work or do something else away from them, if they will act this way, or behave in a calm manner. Granted I was always left home alone when my mother went on errands, I was just relaxing, doing homework, and guarding the house. I liked it, and I still do it today. My favorite scene out of all of them in the sequence is when a dog’s owner leaves, there’s classical music playing on a stereo system. The door closes as the owner leaves, then the dog just immediately changes the song to a metal song. I didn’t hear many laughs when this happened though, probably because they showed this in the trailers.

The biggest surprise to me in this movie was Kevin Hart. In case you didn’t know, he’s in the movie playing a bunny, and he’s awesome at it. At this point, all I thought Kevin Hart would do in his career is movies that mostly be watched by an adult, but no. He ROCKS in this movie made for children. To me, he’s what would happen if you take Dug from Up, and make him a little less talkative, but scream at the top his lungs every once in a while. I won’t go into more detail because there are some major plot points that some people might get mad at me for giving out here.

One thing I really like about this movie is some of the humor. The movie does a good job at poking fun at certain things. For example, this movie is about pets, so what is a go to joke at some points? Cat owners vs. dog owners! This is done very well throughout the movie and probably somewhat true. The film even makes fun of traditional romances that you may see in certain movies. I could have rolling on the floor laughing, but then I would have been an embarrassment in a public movie theater. This is not a big problem the more I think about it, but if there was one thing I wanted to see more of, it’s poking fun at cats hating dogs, or dogs hating cats, perhaps a chase between the two.

Chris Stuckmann, a YouTube movie reviewer, also saw this movie and reviewed it. In the video, he points out that this movie is basically Toy Story with pets. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I can get why he says that. However, I can’t fully agree with that statement. While it does take elements from the Toy Story movies (specifically 1 & 2), I wouldn’t say it is a complete ripoff. I won’t go into detail because some people might get mad, but there were some minor differences between the two movies. The movies were structured in similar ways, but looking back, they aren’t the exact same movie. I’d go ahead and say that this movie took a lot of inspiration from Toy Story, but it goes in a little bit of a different direction.

The Secret Life of Pets was a decent film, and probably the closest I’ve come to caring about Illumination. By the way, speaking of Illumination, there was a short before the movie having to do with the minions, it was pretty funny. I’m going to give The Secret Life of Pets a 6/10. Just some tidbits to be aware of, this was the first movie I saw in Showcase XPlus, which is Showcase’s premium large format experience. I cannot decide whether or not to post my thoughts about it, but if I do, stay tuned. Also, the new Ghostbusters movie comes out next weekend, and I plan to see it ASAP. I had no hype for it whatsoever, but I really need to see what this movie really is behind the curtain. Stick around, because Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“The BFG,” also known as “Big Friendly Giant,” is directed by Steven Spielberg, it’s based on the book by Rohld Dahl, the author of titles like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s about a girl named Sophie, she lives in an orphanage, and one night she’s awake during the witching hour. During that night, a giant is walking out near the orphanage, when all of a sudden, the two notice each other. The giant decides to capture Sophie, and takes him to his homeland, otherwise known as Giant Country. While up there, it turns out that this giant is a dream creator, he is the only one of his kind that’s actually nice to human beings, otherwise known as human beans from the giants’ perspective. Every other giant hates the giant that captured Sophie since he doesn’t eat humans (specifically children).

For the record, this movie was actually one of my highest anticipated movies of 2016. Reasons for this included direction by Steven Spielberg, music by John Williams, and especially a huge nostalgia factor, otherwise known as Rohld Dahl’s book. This book was read to me multiple times in elementary school, I read it a couple times myself, and I watched the “not so great” animation based on the book twice, once by myself, and another time in school. So yeah, I had high hopes for this movie. Although keep in mind, I’m not looking for similarities to the book, I’m looking for a good film. Judging by the movie’s trailers, that’s what I saw coming, and that’s what I got.

Ruby Barnhill played Sophie in this movie. In all honesty she was awesome when bringing this character to life. The actress seemed to have her down to a science, she didn’t seem to daydream or overact like some child actors do. She knew when to bring in the right tone at the right time, she knew when to be calm, when to yell, where to look, etc. In a world where we have several child actors that are either annoying or slip up all the time, this is basically a sigh of relief.

Mark Rylance plays the Big Friendly Giant, and I think it’s a great interpretation. I think it’s even better since he’s “friendly.” His voice matches with friendliness and it kind of reminds of someone who happens to be wise, despite how he has a speech impediment. By the way the actor is 56 so I wouldn’t say he’s old. One thing I love about him is the symbolism I saw throughout the film. He says he’s a giant, but looking at him compared to the other giants in the film, they are actually quite bigger than the BFG appears to be. That actually suits his character quite well as he doesn’t eat children, therefore further indicating him as an outcast.

The relationship between Sophie and the BFG was another highlight to me. You can really sense the thoughts between the two living things, as this book comes to life on film. The chemistry worked between the duo and it moved the movie along quite well. During the second half of the movie, it felt very charming to watch the two develop in terms of their connection.

In terms of the script, whoever wrote it or read it during production probably had the slightest bit of fun doing so. I loved hearing what the giants had to say, all the imaginative vocabulary was kind of funky at times and made me and my mentor, the person I came to see this with, laugh. Sure, it was taken from the book, but hearing it out loud in the movie sounded hilarious. Speaking of humor, this movie has an unbelievably funny version of one of the most overused jokes ever, specifically the fart joke. I won’t say what it is, because it will probably seem less funny when seeing the movie.

The BFG is great movie for families and for those who read Rohld Dahl’s novel, adults and kids are probably going to like it, but I think depending on who happens to go see the movie, they’d like it better if they read the book first, because I think they might either get lost by some of the dialogue or what is going on throughout the film. I give The BFG an 8/10. Just an announcement, nothing is official yet, but I have an idea to review all of the past Star Wars movies, in honor of Rogue One coming out in December. I have no idea when each post will be released, but I’m reviewing each film from The Phantom Menace to The Force Awakens. Stay tuned, because Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Finding Dory is an animation created by Pixar, it’s the sequel to Finding Nemo (2003), and it focuses on one of the previous film’s supporting characters, Dory. She suffers from short term memory loss, which she has had since youth, and she starts randomly getting certain past memories and all of a sudden, she realizes she lost her family. When this came to mind, she decides she has to go off and find them.

Let’s talk about the very beginning of the film. It shows Dory in her early years, and she is with her parents, she seems to be learning how to introduce herself to others, and we learn about her short term memory loss (although if you’ve seen Finding Nemo, you’d probably know already). The opening itself was powerful and it is still in my memory. It stuck with me throughout the entire movie. The animation done in this sequence as well was superb, I’m not really a sucker for cuteness, but I did adore Dory in this circumstance. Haha, get it? Adore Dory? She’s aDORYble.

Ellen DeGeneres does the voice of Dory as an adult, it worked out perfectly in this movie! I remember when I watched Finding Nemo, the voice suited with her character when I watched that, but in terms of the speed and pitch she delivered when she talked, whether the moment was fast-paced, emotional, or anything at all, I was engaged. When I say this, I’m referring to both Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.

The supporting characters in this movie are awesome to say the least. My favorite of them all has to be Hank the octopus. Ed O’Neill does his voice and I think it suits him well. He was one of the funniest characters in the movie, and he moved the plot along well therefore creating a sense of anticipation of what was to come.

One thing I’ve noticed that Pixar has been able to do lately is to not only create a great film, but provide a good lesson in there as well. There have been a good number of animations I’ve watched over my life that have failed to do such a thing. This film has to be one of the best they’ve done it with so far. I may be biased because I have a disability, but watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Wow, this really affects Dory.” Not to mention I could connect with Dory throughout the movie. We don’t have the same disability but still, we have them in general. My mother has no interest in seeing animations, but if she went to see this movie I really think she’d enjoy it. In fact I think it’s one of those movies that kids will like just as much as adults.

Finding Dory had great storytelling, relatable characters, a few nitpicks that I won’t take too far as it is a movie meant to entertain children, and still shows that Pixar can make great movies. I’m going to give Finding Dory a 9/10. Funny thing about the movie, this came out the same weekend as Central Intelligence. What’s so funny about it? Both films had roles played by Dwayne Johnson. I will be honest, I never even knew he was in the movie until the end credits. This weekend I will be seeing “The BFG,” the new movie from Steven Spielberg, with a score by John Williams, and based on of my most nostalgic books. It’s a great book and I think they are going to get it right with the movie. I don’t want them to copy everything from the novel or my imagination, I just want to see a coherent film. Stick around, because Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Last Friday, I went to see the new Independence Day movie. It started out pretty good but it became an image of dread in my mind once I left the theater. However, the same cannot be said for the experience. On that same day, it was my first time ever watching a movie in MX4D, in Layman’s terms, it can be described as a movie experience where the entire theater essentially simulates everything going on in the movie. This is complete with moving seats, effects, scents, ticklers, etc.

When it comes to the seats, here are the specs. The chair consists of a neck tickler, a back poker, which kind of makes me worry for my posture. A leg tickler, which can be useful during an action scene where there’s lots of flying tentacles involved. A seat popper, a rumbler, which I’ll be honest, is not the first place I’ve seen something like this. Other effect features includes methods for simulating the blasting of air, rain, wind/strobes, scent, water, rain/bubbles, and snow/fog. Outside of the seats, I barely noticed any difference in sound quality, projection, and screen size. Although there is a neat feature with the lights in the auditorium, specifically the fact that they flash at certain times. If you have seizures, I’d probably recommend you stay away from a place like this. The lights flash whenever something such as a gun or laser fires, or whenever someone takes a photo. A question I bet many of you are probably going to ask at some point about this is “Is this worth it?”

It’s a known fact that a lot of people don’t go to the movie theater as much as they used to. There are multiple reasons. They may be more interested in watching them on their own TV, streaming services such as Netflix, VOD, and Amazon Video have come into play, some people in the theater are loud or disruptive of the experience, and they often collect discs or tapes. Another reason besides these have to do with ticket price. Around where I go, the morning prices are usually around $6, which isn’t too bad. The matinee is around the $10 mark, which in some theaters, is the early bird price as well. The price for a night showing is $13 at the most. Keep in mind, these prices are for standard 2D showings. The place I went to see this MX4D movie was Showcase Cinemas de Lux in Revere, MA. An adult matinee showing in 2D is $10.50. The price for an adult matinee in MX4D however, is an obnoxious $20.50. I went with someone else that qualified for an adult ticket, and the total came out to $41. I knew about this before showing the ticket price to the person I was going with, but when I told it to him, he freaked out, but dealt with it. For the record, I originally wanted to see the film I was planning to see in 2D as it would be much cheaper in the long run, but the guy who was coming along with me had something to accomplish at the time the show started, so I had to suck it up. How was the theatre itself?

When I was a kid, I never came to the Cinema de Lux in Revere. This was mainly due to how my parents didn’t usually prefer going along Route 1 (mainly my mom), otherwise known as one of the worst highways ever. Although having been there and noticing they have some of the largest screens in the area, along with some of the best sound quality as well, I wanted to go more often. When I walked in the theater, the screen was noticeably in an aspect ratio between 2.39:1 and 2.4:1, which if you’re aspect ratio illiterate it means that it is one of the typical formats for a movie. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an image below of how they would look on a widescreen TV.

2.4:1 (left), 2.39:1 (right)

The movie was in the aspect ratio of the screen as I first saw it. I somewhat find it hilarious because I usually first find a movie theater screen in a 16:9 ratio because of all the advertising. This theater still did ads, but the screen was not in the format I was used to seeing. The walls were also different, and I mean that in both a sense among the auditoriums the theater already has, along with what I’ve seen in movie theaters overall. I can only think of one other theater with a wall like this, and I never set foot in it. The walls had a beach on it, which I kind of found interesting, but had not much to do with the experience as a whole. I knew the walls were going to appear the way they were though as I did some research on MX4D prior to going to this particular showing, although I couldn’t say the same for the screen in terms of prior knowledge. Speaking of prior knowledge, I knew a bit about the seats. Although I didn’t know I had to place my feet down on a foot rest. Why? That was near the leg tickler. The person I came along with said he likes these seats in terms of comfort, little did he know he was in for a ride. Sure, he knew this was a motion enhanced experience, but he didn’t know how immersed he’d feel in the end.

When the show was about to begin, the Showcase intro played on the screen, signifying the movie was about to start. However, once that finished, the movie didn’t start. There was one more title before the movie began. There was an intro for MX4D, and it was meant to show off the effects of MX4D in every way possible. When I saw this intro, my heart almost stopped. I don’t get seizures, and I never have problems with flashing lights, but I saw the lights flashing above on the ceiling, it was something I wasn’t prepared for. I got used to it throughout the film and it added to the experience, but it made me kind of surprised once I first witnessed it. Despite that, once the intro finished, I felt just as prepared for the movie as I am whenever I see the IMAX countdown. I doubt every MX4D experience will start in a way similar to this, but this gave me plenty of chills. As far as the introduction goes, it’s a great way to show off what the company can do to the audience and give them a shock.

What’s the best part of the experience? I’ve got to say the seat movements. The seats move back, forth, left, and right whenever something in the movie or the camera moves. I saw the opening titles of the film, I felt like I was getting a tour guide of outer space. D-Box does this too, but I’ve yet to see a film in D-Box so I can’t judge it upfront.

If there are any improvements that I would like to witness out of this experience, it’s the ticket price. It is way too much for one person to handle. Sure you get a lot out of the experience, but there are some people who can get seizures or motion sickness from something like this, also who wants to pay $20 for a movie ticket?! If you’re Donald Trump you might as well come here any time you want, however if you’re a regular Joe than I recommend you come in moderation. Although everything else is superb.

MX4D is a revolutionary experience. In my opinion, it’s no IMAX though. IMAX has a bigger screen, better sound, more seats, etc. Despite that, MX4D is still a good time every now and then. I will say though, the experience itself was better than the movie I saw throughout (Independence Day: Resurgence in case you didn’t remember me typing earlier). Stay tuned for more content I am going to post on here, pretty soon I’m going to have a review up for “Finding Dory,” the new animation from Pixar, which is a sequel to the 2003 movie “Finding Nemo,” and I’m planning to see “The BFG” over the next weekend, so if I do, I shall have a review for that posted soon as well. Stick around, because Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Independence Day: Resurgence is the sequel to the 1996 sci-fi movie Independence day. This movie in its simplest form involves the people of Earth as they are yet again invaded by aliens, once again on Independence Day.

One theme I notice a lot in sequels is that they try express the word “big” to such a high degree, this film definitely does that. To quote Jeff Goldblum’s character, or David Levinson, “That’s… definitely bigger than the last one.” Right there he was referring to the mothership when he first saw it in this movie. I also noticed this with the action as well. Not that this is a bad thing, but the action felt bloated. Keep in mind, when I say bloated, I mean it in a good way. There was a lot more flying scenes involved, including a number in first person view, which looked really cool on the big screen.

When it came to the characters in this movie, that happened to be one of my problems. A good number of them were unrelatable, annoying, unmemorable, or undeveloped throughout the movie. A bunch of the original cast have returned for this movie. I don’t have many notable problems with them on my mind now, but as of this moment, I remember Will Smith more than I remember than any of the other original cast members in terms of being in the Independence Day movies. That’s something to keep in mind because unlike some other original cast members, Will Smith wasn’t even in the second film to begin with. Maybe it’s just because the shots of Will Smith in the first movie looked the coolest, so he sticks out more than other characters, but it’s just something that bothers me. Brent Spiner also returned in this movie, and I didn’t appreciate him. In the first movie, I didn’t really care much about his character, but now for the screen time I’ve witnessed for the character in this movie, he makes me think of John Tuturro’s character from the Transformers movies. Only difference is that this guy is a bit smarter.

Let’s talk about some of the other characters, or the ones that a person such as me wouldn’t give a crap about. I don’t completely remember Liam Hemsworth’s character in this movie all that well, which says a lot. Liam although had a love interest in this movie and it played into the story a little bit. Not just that, but as one of the main characters of this movie, he is forced to go up against the mothership. Now, for the characters I still don’t care about, but still know more than Liam’s. I actually remember the teen girl from this movie who drove a car without a license, it played into the story quite a bit because it had to do with evacuation. What did I like about her? Nothing. She was a teen in this movie, so she could be playing someone with a mood swing, but I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when I heard her attitude when she was driving. There was basically one scene where I couldn’t help but laugh because it was about her not having a license and not only was it funny in general, but it responded to one of my complaints about the movie.

Back to positives, the effects in this movie look great. Whenever I saw laser beams I thought they looked pretty good for 2016. Interestingly enough, when I look back on the 1996 movie that came out before this one, the beams aren’t that different. Sure, the beams in the other films look a little fuzzier, but that’s about it. The mothership was good looking and it really gave you a sense of monstrosity. If you look at the scope of the thing, it’s like looking at Smaug in the Hobbit trilogy.

Independence Day: Resurgence started out as a good movie, then went on a steady decline as I thought about it more. It’s a good popcorn movie, but it is nowhere near as memorable as the original, and this even counts if you aren’t even looking at the screen when watching the original. I’m being serious. I’m going to give Independence Day: Resurgence a 4/10. By the way, this movie is still on my mind, so if it is in my mind for a certain amount of time from this point, it might go down to 3 or lower. If it wasn’t like this, I would have given the movie a 7, but I’m a thinker, it’s what I do.

Also, just an interesting story, when I went to see this movie, I paid more for this movie per ticket than I ever have in any past cinema experience. For the tickets, it was $20.50 each. Not just that, but this was at 10:50 in the morning, a time where movies are usually cheap! Although there was a reason for that. This was my first ever MX4D experience. I’m going to do a separate post on that, coming soon. Thanks for reading this review, and remember, Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Warcraft is a movie based on the hit video game known as World of Warcraft, or as some may call it, WOW. The movie derives around the human race and orcs. The individual races happen to live in separate worlds, but somehow there is a portal that connects the orc world to the human world known as Azeroth. The orcs leave their dying world, entering the human world. Although the humans feel that these orcs are monsters that could potentially destroy their world, therefore causing tension between the groups and increasing chances of war breaking out.

Let’s talk about something here, this movie is based on a video game, and I went to see one movie based on a video game last year and that movie was Hitman: Agent 47. That was probably one of the worst movies I’ve seen all year, and it shows what happens with video games when you turn them into movies, they seem to bomb. I even stand by my statement that Super Mario Bros.: The Movie is my least favorite movie ever made. This movie is better than both Mario and Hitman. Does that mean this is a good movie? I don’t think so. Also another thing that’s on my mind is the box office, if I saw this earlier I wouldn’t be talking about this, but I might as well now. On the opening weekend for this movie in the US, the movie made $24 million. That’s between 6 to 7 times less than the total amount of money it took to make this movie. However in China, the movie made $156 million. It shows a difference in taste in movies between the countries. If I had to guess, this probably happened due to the growth in IMAX theaters the country has seen over the past year, and this movie probably looked like it was going to be eye candy. I don’t investigate deep into the taste of the Chinese when it comes to movies, but I’m willing to bet that they appreciate effects more than story and characters. I’m not saying that’s wrong in any way, it makes them who they are.

Let’s get some detail between the orcs and humans. The main human in this movie is Anduin Lothar. Right now I kind of regret never playing the games, because if I had played them, I probably would have cared for his character more. Sure his world was being invaded, but you had orcs to care about when it came to their world.

Speaking of orcs, one was Antonidas, played by Toby Kebbell. He was the main orc that revolved around the movie. I have to say that he was very well designed in terms of CGI. One thing I liked about this dude is his voice matching well with the character. The orc was designed to be thick and the voice kept up with the orc’s physique. There were quite a few moments where I felt much more sympathy for his character as opposed to any of the human characters. After all, compared to the humans who had their world disturbed, the orcs had theirs dying, so it was easier to find sympathy for the orcs as a whole. One more thing about that voice though, if they ever plan to reboot Fantastic Four for a fourth time, I want to see him voice The Thing. Yeah, I know, he was in Fan4stic as Dr. Doom, but I don’t care.

Another character I remember a lot about from the movie is Garona. She is half-orc, half-draenei. One thing I found interesting about her is how similar she is to Gamora from “Guardians of the Galaxy.”First of all, they are both green. Second, they are both portrayed as love interests. There’s more but I won’t mention them because, well, spoilers.

My absolute favorite part about this movie is the visual effects. Knowing that this movie was from a flashy PC game, I was expecting visual effects that are basically the equivalent of the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings if they got together and had a baby. Although each was a trilogy so maybe they could each have one baby together. That’s basically what I got out of this movie. Looking at fire in this movie was awesome, seeing all sorts of magic in this movie was phenomenal, viewing certain CGI sets was eye candy. I remember seeing the concept art at least a year or two ago, and seeing all of that kind of made this movie go up the charts for me in terms of anticipation. There were times though were the effects could have been cleaned up. There was a huge fight at the end of the movie, lots of smoke and fire, along with characters fighting, it just felt kind of bloated. It works in a certain type of movie. I admit it works here, but the more I think about it today, it almost feels like a headache is rising in my brain.

In the end, if there is one thing I can take from the movie Warcraft, it’s that I shouldn’t judge it by the title. With a movie whose title has “war” in it, there’s not much war in the movie as a whole. There seems to be more talking in the movie, less fighting, but in the end I just didn’t have a perfect experience. I give Warcraft a 4/10. I’m giving it this score because as far as video game movies go, it definitely could be worse. Not to mention the movie had great technical aspects (except for sound in some instances) and fights, but characterization isn’t something to write home about. I just saw Independence Day: Resurgence today and I shall have a review up for that as soon as possible. Also, that movie was the first I saw in MX4D, or the Motion EFX Experience, so I’m gonna do a post on that sometime in the future. Stay tuned for those and more reviews coming up, so remember, Scene Before is your click to the flicks!