With 2012 I personally doubt more postings will be done, though we will try to aim to post more than 2011. In the years of 2012 and early 2013 I’ll be focusing on my studies, trying to be the best I can, and being the best you can means sacrificing a lot of time to write.

But to not let 2011 go out with a sizzle, I’ll try to summarize the most important things in media, gaming and events worth mentioning. And no I will not be talking about the Arabian Wars or the Economic Crisis, expect to read things about Steve Jobs, DOTA 2, DRIVE and perhaps a little Harry Potter.

We’ll start with cinema:
Looking at a list I found on internet I must say that 2011 has been quite a decent year for moviegoers. Some great flicks like CAPTAIN AMERICA, DRIVE, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2, WINNIE THE POOH, X-MEN FIRST CLASS, CRAZY STUPID LOVE, PAUL, HORRIBLE BOSSES, PAUL, PUSS IN BOOTS and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL. (That’s quite a list already isn’t it?)

The titles I mentioned here are those I all saw and thought were worth my time. Some of these movies I even watched several times even though they will probably not win any awards. I will not go through them all, but will mention a couple which you should definitely watch if you ever come around to it. I’m quite sure many of them will be on TV in the coming year.

First movie I want to mention is DRIVE. This movie already won many awards, but I want to tell you why I think this movie is so great. Nowadays when an action movie is made it has lots of special effects and they tend to show you a lot in very few seconds. Like cars exploding, some briefcase being grabbed and the main character shooting down a dozens of bad guys. This is your average action sequence in a random action movie. With DRIVE you are looking at an action sequence in which nothing happens, really nothing, but you are on the edge of your seat waiting, watching and wondering what will happen. Ryan Gosling does an excellent job in playing the dark and mysterious guy, fighting for a righteous cause.

Yeah I'm a serious driver

Second movie worth your time is HORRIBLE BOSSES. I have seen this movie two times and during the first screening I really did not like the movie to be honest. But during a flight back from my vacation I decided to watch it again. Looking at the movie again I could understand why people like it so much. Everything which happens to the three employees most of us will recognise in their own work. If you have experienced similar situations, you will love this movie, if not you will probably see it as a cliche comedy offering nothing special.

Last movie I want to mention is CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Looking at the trailer and movie description most of you will judge this movie as your average standard romantic comedy. And yes this movie is just that, but the story being told is a good one. In CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE we follow Steve Carrel while his life goes down the drain, losing his wife, house and connection with his kids. He then is given a choice, start a new live as a playboy (with the help of Ryan Gosling) or fight for the love of his wife. The reason I would recommend this movie is because of the truth it contains. I often hear couples ending their relationship saying “yeah the love was gone”, but remember you always have a choice to fight for it instead of just starting over (or being unfaithful).

My penis is indeed in your face

Next up games:
Even though I play my fair amount of games, when it comes to 2011 I hardly played any new games. The ones I can recommend are SKYRIM, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, PORTAL 2, L.A. NOIRE and BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY.

Other games worth checking out are of course MODERN WARFARE 3 and/or BATTLEFIELD 3 if you are into those kind of games. STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC – the new MMO of EA – is my honorable mention for this year, since pretty much everyone I know and their dog is currently playing and enjoying it.
You might ask then “but NrFive what do you play then?”, well good that you asked. Some of you might know that Hi-Rez Studios bought the Tribes IP from GarageGames and have released a beta of TRIBES: ASCEND. My other site (www.gameshrine.org) focuses on Tribes: Ascend and leading a community requires you to play the game and since we know and love the Tribes franchise since 1999 we are forced to play this game and give the developers our feedback. With the little time I have left to even play games, this time is divided between STARCRAFT 2 and random single player games like PORTAL 2 and BATMAN.

Discover if the cake still is a lie in Portal 2

Last but not least, major events:
One of the biggest events this year was the gaming convention in Leipzig, GamesCom. The reason I want to mention this event was the tournament hosted by Valve for their upcoming game DOTA 2. Even though the game was still in an alpha stage and buggy as hell, the amount of attention it gained was enormous. Everyone was talking about it and everyone wanted to see how the game looked during real competitive play. In my honest opinion Valve dropped the bomb on us and the entire gaming community by staging such a tournament, kudos to them.

Hackers are among us, yes it felt like the movie HACKERS with Angeline Jolie all over again this year, but 2011 will go down as the start of an online war. The fall of many regimes in the Middle-East also contributed in the uprising of many hacker-groups, but the hack of PlayStation Network was the most noticeable one, leaving the network down for months. Now I do not approve what hackers do, but the reasons behind their doings are (mostly) the right ones. The problem with society as it is now, is that nobody can really stand up against the greedy corporations who think they can pretty much do anything they please. Like LinkedIn suddenly using pictures without your permission, or Sony stating that they cannot be sued even if they are wrong. I know many people will say “ you are not forced to use their products”, but remind yourself that as time goes on you are eventually forced to use their products since alternatives do not properly exist. Yes we are still talking about luxury products here, but this does not mean that companies (and even governments) can do as they please. As a consumer you should always be aware for what you are signing up, what information you are putting online and with what products you want to work with. As time goes by we can only hope for proper alternatives so consumers have a choice.

Power to the People (or something like that)

This also brings us to the last big thing I want to write a little about, which is the death of Steve Jobs. Many of us suspected his demise for months / years, since he was on and off again, showing up thinner each time a keynote presentation was held. Though many will like the way he did things, nobody will deny the impact he had on the technology sector. He inspired new generations of hardware and even though the only thing of Apple I own is the iPhone, holding any of their products really is a joy. Going through his biography and following the rumors, Apple is on the verge of causing another stir in the tech-world. First it was the MP3, then the Phone followed shortly after with tablets, the next step… the TV?
All I can say about Steve Jobs is that he really pushed the boundaries of technology development, even though the way Apple work isn’t always nice, the enormous drive to keep improving is always a good one.

2011 was a year in which a lot has happened and 2012 is looking like it will continue the way 2011 is ending. I hope everyone will be able to withstand the crisis, survive the several ongoing wars and try to stay positive whenever possible.

On behalf of criticasm.com we all wish you a Happy New Year and try to be safe when shooting them fireworks.

When this movie aired here at local theaters I avoided it like the plague. Main reason? Justin Timberlake was playing in it, so I never bothered with it. Time goes by and suddenly one of my teachers mentions this movie during class and says I should watch it. It apparently was a good movie explaining how simple ideas can become great. So I eventually grabbed a copy of the movie, sat down and watched it.

Result?

A really good watch (except those scenes Timberlake talks to the other main characters, thank God those are only a few), many people will probably agree with me on this – seeing as how many scenes of the movie can be watched on YouTube – but is this movie really Oscar material?

The movie is nominated for the following categories:

• Best main actor: Jesse Eisenberg
• Best direction: David Fincher
• Best film edition: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
• Best original song: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
• Best Film: Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael Del Luca and Cean Chaffin (producers)
• Sound mix: Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• Photography: Jeff Cronenweth
• Text: Aaron Sorkin (adapted script)

Now the story isn’t really original as it tells (part) of the life of Mark Zuckerberg. Not to mention some facts aren’t correct and the movie is based on the book THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES. But the way the story is being told is very enjoyable.

In THE SOCIAL NETWORK we follow Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Mark Zuckerberg, in how he created THE Facebook and how everyone wanted a piece of his work. Finally resulting in huge sums of money being paid to various people claiming they deserve it. Jesse plays the likeable bad guy with his excellent retorts and down to earth approach to various situations. The opening scene itself has over 4 pages of dialogues and I had to rewind several times to fully comprehend what was being said between the characters. I must say, I was impressed. So him being nominated for best main actor did not really come as a surprise.

Looking at the other categories the movie has been nominated on, I can understand the ones which support how the movie has been made, written and executed. To take the perspective of various lawsuits and use flashbacks to explain these lawsuits was very interesting to watch. It gave us some great scenes in which Jesse had the opportunity to show his witty responses.

As for the music and sound mix, I think these are the categories in which THE SOCIAL NETWORK will actually win awards. The sound which can be heard throughout the movie is really unique and it stays in your head like those annoying songs you here at Disney World. For me “In Motion” from the OST really stimulates me in doing something. With this music on the background I actually am writing this review, not to mention I redid pretty much all of the coding for one of my other sites as well. Good inspirational music it is indeed.

But it all comes down whether or not THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a true Oscar candidate to win many awards. Honestly I do not think so, I think there is a big chance they will win for original song and sound mix (though INCEPTION also is a big contender in my book). If they really are lucky they even might get one for how the movie is made / directed. I however do not think Jesse will win an Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role. Colin Firth has a bigger chance at that with his role in THE KING’S SPEECH, but these are the Oscars and I have seen odder people win those coveted statues.

As for the movie as a whole, I have to agree with my teacher on this. It really is a great watch and even though it is not a comedy, it will put a smile on your face on several occasions. Even more so if you have a technical background. Do not worry if you cannot follow these scenes though, they are not a requirement to enjoy this movie.

Most of you will know the movie as THE LAST AIRBENDER, as the prefix of AVATAR would just confuse a lot of people. No this time we are not talking about the blue guy below, but about Aang, the bold kid with the weird tattoos.

THE LAST AIRBENDER is a “legendary” tale of well… the last Airbender, called Aang. He has the powers to bend the element Air. Imagine you can boost some air below yourself which helps lifting you for a few meters, or pushing someone away. In the world of Aang there are more people who can bend elements like water and fire, quite of few of them actually. However Aang is the chosen one, the so called Avatar, who can control all the four elements – for those who skipped kindergarten – those are Air, Water, Earth and Fire. (And for those familiar with the animated series, will know there is a 5th bending for Energy)

Besides being the Avatar, Aang also is the last Airbender, which means he has no family or friends and is just a scared little kid all alone in the cruel world. Almost makes you want to shed a tear now doesn’t it? In this cruel world the Fire Alliance or Legion – or whatever these Fire people call themself – have taken over most of the world. The story shows similarities to other big tales in which a protagonist has to find its inner self so he or she can fight evil. So this is hardly original, but the world the writers created is quite decent and certainly worth some attention.

I’ll quote Wikipedia on the setting of this lore:

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Furthermore, people known as Benders have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation using the physical motions of martial arts. The show’s creators based each Bending style on a style of real-world martial art, leading to visual differences in the techniques used by Waterbenders (tai chi chuan), Earthbenders (Hung Ga kung fu, for the most part), Firebenders (Northern Shaolin kung fu) and Airbenders (baguazhang). Each country is also associated with a season: autumn for the Air Nomads, winter for the Water Tribe, spring for the Earth Kingdom and summer for the Fire Nation.

This is just a small part of the lore. The animated series is separated in 3 seasons and the first movie is basically the first season of the series. I recently got to it to watch the first few episodes of the animated series and I can understand why the fans love it so much. The setting is a lot better than the movie and completely different. This also goes for the various characters when you compare the animated version versus the motion picture. Of course there are similarities but those are very very little. So THE LAST AIRBENDER now results in pretty much a crap adaptation of a very popular animated series.

I really pondered when writing this review if I was being harsh or not, but I have to stand by my first opinion. The movie really and I mean really sucks. But in the end there is actually only one reason why the movie sucks so much…. no it’s not that they changed the lore so much, this almost always happens when series / games / books get filmed. C’mon we all know it… it’s the… yes… yes… the acting! Really, it was like watching wooden puppets go at it. I can honestly say I have seen better performance in your average X-rated movie.

The movie however does some things right, like the music and the special effects. I would expect no less from the masterminds of ILM (you know the folks who do the Star Wars FX as well). Also I – personally – do not mind the lore being changed to make the movie more appealing. Though I doubt this was really the case. The writers could have stuck a lot closer to the original if you ask me. But in the end it this does not help the movie one bit. The acting obvisously killed the entire movie.

Now with this being part 1 of the trilogy, can mister Shyamalan still set things straight? I think this really depends on whether or not they stray away even more from the lore and improve on the actors their performance. I am not even sure if it is still possible to improve, but most of the actors are still very young and there is room for improvement, so we can only hope for the best right?

With THE LAST AIRBENDER you are stuck with nice effects in one hand and a big pile of flying bison crap in the other one. The fact I got charged an extra 5 bucks to see a 3D conversion movie didn’t help either. – Really people, why all this 3D movies when it has no added value?! – We can only hope that the 2nd and 3rd movie will have much improvement, else it is just best to avoid this trilogy and watch the original animated series.

O wait you have seen it… right? Good! Then you know that over 180.000 people have voted for this movie in a short period of time. Compare it with the number 3 on the list, which is THE GODFATHER: PART II with over 244.000 votes, not a bad result for director Christopher Nolan.

INCEPTION is a story about dreams, you know the ones you get when you sleep, or staring at the pretty girl (or boy) across the room. This is the very basis of the movie upon which it is built. Now this doesn’t sound as much, but hear me out…

Ever dreamt about dreaming? Waking up in the middle of the night, only to realise you are still dreaming? How about waking up from a dream, realizing this great idea or solution to a problem you have been struggling with for years! Lets go a bit further; create your own world, capable of moving the very fabric of the universe, only because it is in your dream. How about going into the dream of your enemy or competitor trying to figure out their deepest secrets so you can use it against them. Now let us push that last idea beyond bounds; what if you can use a dream to make the dreamer follow an idea or suggestion, like “when I wake up, I am going to …”.

The last example given above is called “inception”. According to the dictionary inception means: “The beginning of something, such as an undertaking; a commencement”. Put it into the perspective of the movie, this means inserting an idea or thought into the dreamers mind, making him or her undertake certain action or to start something.

If you can grasp this idea, you will see that the possibilities are endless. So when you are making such a movie, you have to convince the audience that the possibilities are indeed endless, but you also have to make sure not to lose yourself with too much details and complexity. Nolan created a perfect balance in this and he chose the right people to play the various parts.

INCEPTION tells the story of Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his crew, who specializes in stealing top secret information from people by entering their dreams. I will give an non-movie-related example to explain this.

To steal from a dream you first have to make sure your target falls asleep, you can do this with the help of heavy sedatives. You then make sure someone can create an entire world for the target to walk around in. This can be best done with the help of an architect. Now you will need some deception to convince the target something is happening and he or she has to give sensitive information. This requires some kind of conman or magician like character. You also have to keep in mind that the target will fight back in their dreams and you have to defend yourself against it, so some kind of weapon or demolition expert to go along, is a smart thing to do. And finally you will need people to coordinate everything and to assist in small tasks, like driving around. So you will need at least 4 people to follow the target in his or her dream and you have to make sure someone stays awake to watch over the several sleeping bodies. A lot of organisation required as you can see.

You still with me on this? Good!

To continue with the story; Cobb gets busted in one of his attempts to steal information from a target called Saito (Ken Watanabe). Instead of killing him, Saito makes Cobb an offer he cannot refuse. In exchange for his freedom he has to implement an idea into the mind of Robert Fischer, one of Saito’s competitors (Cillian Murhpy). He reluctantly accepts and assembles his team. The various roles are filled by Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, woohoo, I love this guy!) the demolition expert, Ariadne (Ellen Page) a talented architect student, Eames (Tom Hardy) the conman and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) an heavy sedation specialist.

The freedom Cobb is looking for is all related to Mal (Marion Cotillard), his wife. They both ventured into the dream world once, which made Mal go insane. She commits suicide and Cobb gets the blame for it. However Cobb feels responsible for the death of Mal, because he planned the idea of an ideal world into her mind (his first inception so to speak). It is this guilt, which is a red line through the story. Unstable emotions result in drastic results in a world where everything is possible.

Now combine these various story arches with some dreaming philosophy and you got yourself one intense movie. During the entire 148 minutes of film I was on the edge of my seat and kept me thinking for weeks after I have seen it. Especially the last scene stuck with me, as I was having a MATRIX déjà vu. The acting in every scene was great, the action was hectic and subtle at the same time and the special effects were brilliant. I simply cannot wait to watch this movie again to discover more small details, which Nolan always hides in his movies.

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE tells the story of Merlin’s three apprentices versus their fight against the evil Morgana. This actually was a surprise to me, since I thought the entire story was created from scratch only using the classic story from Goethe’s poem to use as a basis.

Small history lesson; the poem of Goethe (1797) tells us the part of the apprentice using magic to clean up a bit faster, a scene we also know from Disney’s FANTASIA, which goes horribly wrong since the apprentice cannot control the magic…

Anyway, one of the three apprentices goes evil and joins Morgana to fight Merlin. Merlin eventually gets killed, but not without leaving an important message to his remaining students: “Find the next Prime Merlinian, only he can kill Morgana”. Without the fancy words, this means: “Find the successor of Merlin.” Balthazar Blake (Nicholas Cage), one of the students receives the Dragon Ring, which will help in this quest. The 3rd student Veronica (the *rawr* Monica Bellucci) uses her body to trap Morgana, whilst Balthazar has to battle the evil student Horvath (Alfred Molina).

Years goes by with Balthazar trying to find the Prime Merlinian after capturing a bunch of wizards including Horvath, when suddenly fate brings us Dave. The successor to Merlin and your definition of an ubergeek. To display this level of geekiness the director has chosen Jay Baruchel to play the role of Dave. A student in physics, who does some teaching on the side. A wise choice, looking back at recent movies like SHE IS OUT OF MY LEAGUE, he indeed is your definition of a geek who has no clue what to do with life, love and everything related to it. Dave being a small curious kid accidentally releases Horvath and the fight of good vs evil continues. Balthazar however traps Horvath (and himself this time) in some other contraption for 10 years…

When Dave, now in puberty, finally gets into the picture the training in magic starts. The ultimate goal is to use or cast magic without the help of your item; a ring, a wand, etc.. Only the Prime Merlinian can do this and it is the only way to stop Morgana. During the whole training and fighting evil in this movie, there are a couple of romantic scenes between Dave’s childhood sweetheart Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer) and between Balthazar and Veronica.

The movie eventually ends with Dave killing Morgana, but it is this ending which puts me off a lot and I’ll try to explain. The first half of the story tells us about the history of the wizards and who Dave is. The second half of the story is all about training in magic, a couple of small battles and the commitment needed from Dave to become a true successor of Merlin.

The climax of the movie is, of course, Dave casting magic without his ring and finishing off Morgana. However it wasn’t till the very end of the movie I realised a “final” battle was going to take place. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind good winning from evil – it is the classic tale we are all accustomed to – but only at the very very and I mean very last moment of the movie the audience gets hints of the fight which will take place in the end. Every scene before the last one, makes us think the movie will come to an abrupt end and we would be treated with some flashy ending with the words “to be continued…”.
This makes the movie feel like it has been rushed out. If you are capable to ignore this flaw you are still confronted with mediocre special effects (c’mon Disney, you’ve done better than this) and average acting performance. Especially the love interest of Dave wasn’t really strong and the character of Nicholas Cage also failed to impress. So this leaves us with an average movie with a rushed out story. The very last scene after the credits shows us more might be coming, but this will depend on how much this movie has earned the studio and whether or not a sequel would be worth it.

If you ask me it would be best to just leave it at this and let it die out. Perhaps in the future a proper movie can be made, without adding too much extra fluff, and Goethe’s poem will be done justice.

The story continues where it left off in part two NEW MOON and we see time pass by after the rather awkward encounter with the Volturi. The promise has been made, Bella will be turned into a vampire after the wedding. Some of the family members of Edward try to discourage her to become a vampire, telling them stories of how they became the blood sucking creatures every teenage girl loves nowadays.

In the meanwhile however one of remaining vampires of part one, is creating her own army. It is not really clear what her exact motives are – or I just forgot, since it has been a while after seeing the movie at local theaters -, but she wants to kill Bella. We can only assume it is revenge for the loss of her loved one(s?). To achieve this, she raises her own little group of blood sucking wannabes just for poor little ol’ Bella.

Because of the “magnitude” of this army – really we are only talking about a few dozens of vampires – the Jacob’s werewolf family and the Cullens vampire family make peace just for the sake of Bella. It is the classic “fight over a girl”-theme all over again. I thought this ended with the classical story of Troy? (No…., not the one with Brad Pitt in it).

They of course win; Jacob gets hurts and on his recovery bed vows to always love her. The movie ends with some *cough* lovely *cough* scenes between Bella and Edward. In the book however – really I have not read it! – the story ends with Jacob receiving a wedding invitation and running off into the woods to blow off some steam.

For those not up to speed, yes there is one more book which will probably be about the wedding. As stated I have not read it and have no intention to do so, but it might be a nice gift for the misses right? Trust me on this, it will result in some sucking and biting nights for you!

In the end the movie was better than the original and NEW MOON, though the acting is still terrible. The story itself is very thin and I also have no idea why they call this part ECLIPSE. Some of the action sequences were nice to look at and a couple of the dialogues made me chuckle. In the end though, do not expect anything above average.

To answer this question I have to say “no”. I will get to that point later on in this review. I first want to address the increasing popularity of remakes nowadays. Recently we have seen remakes for BATMAN, HULK and even ROBIN HOOD could not escape the frenzy of redoing movies after a certain period of time. So is this the future of movie making?

THE KARATE KID is a remake of the 1984 classic. Only this time there is no mister Miyagi, but Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso has been traded in for the character of Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith). Now before you start screaming “oh no, not him again!”, I have a confession to make. Jaden Smith actually shows improvement when it comes to its acting. Sure it is not great, but looking back at THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL for example, his progress can be seen. You also notice how his father has a great influence on his acting as some reactions are clearly that of his dad, which is a good thing in my book.

With remakes people are always afraid too much will be changed, leaving nothing from the original story. Of course 26 years later you cannot use the original cast and time does change. To appeal to a much broader audience some changes have to be made and accepted. The most obvious differences between 2010 and 1984 version are:
- Actors; no-one can argue with me on this one. After such a long time new actors have to be chosen. Also Pat Morita (the original Mr. Miyagi) is no more. Picking Jackie Chan as the janitor Mr. Han was a good choice. I could have not think of any other person to reprise in this role. Jaden Smith as the troubled kid having to overcome his own fear, can be debated upon, but the final results weren’t too teeth clenching. One might actually say his acting was – do I dare to say – “decent”…
- Setting; in the original Daniel had to move from Newark to San Fernande Valley. With bigger actors and a bigger budget, you can do a lot more. So Dre moves from Detroit to Beijing. This actually helps a lot with the whole atmosphere of the movie. It makes it feel less “American”, a good thing in my opinion. Just watch a few “Making of” on YouTube and you’ll see why.
- Action; the fighting style Karate has been replaced by Kung Fu. The average viewer will not pay attention to this and I am quite sure most fans will dislike this choice. But be honest, when it comes to movies, Kung Fu is much more elegant than Karate… right? Tell me I am not right!
I am no expert when it comes to fighting styles, but Kung Fu somehow always have drawn me (as a viewer) much more than other martial arts.

Now looking at the total package we basically got the same story, same plots and even some nice references to the classic KARATE KID. One of them being Jackie Chan killing a fly after which he plucks it with his chopsticks and another being the Crane Style Kung Fu, which the woman standing on the dragon’s head is practicing at the temple. In case you forgot, Daniel used a “Crane technique” in the original to defeat one of the members of the Cobra Kai dojo.

For those who have not seen the classic – shame on you, go crawl back to you cave! – you will be watching your standard story of “someone” wanting to overcome “something” and succeeding. Even though Jackie Chan plays in this movie, do not expect to see much of him though. He only has one proper action scene and little dialogue. The entire movie focus heavily on Jaden, which of course makes sense, he is the Karate Kid who gets his ass whipped in the opening of the story – he only learns Kung Fu, instead of Karate, to do some ass kicking himself.

So are remakes (or the recent increase of remakes) a good thing? I am still unsure, but I know it is a great way to introduce youngsters to classic stories of our own youth. Who knows it might inspire them to look back at how things were done decades ago and learn from it.

When it comes to THE KARATE KID (2010), I can say it was your average action flick with some nice touches reminding of us of 1984’s classic. I however will be paying close attention to Jaden Smith. With this movie he has shown some potential, but he still has a long way to go.

When writing this review I came to the conclusion that only THE DARK KNIGHT and perhaps SPIDER-MAN were proper superhero sequels. If I am wrong, feel free to correct me, but not many great superheroes flicks out there right? Sure I enjoyed other movies like the FANTASTIC FOUR, but this was mainly due to Jessica Alba being almost naked and who does not want to see that!

With IRON MAN 2 we continue where we left off in part one. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) proclaimed he in fact is Iron Man and this has made his company, Stark Industries, flourish quite well after it almost went bankrupt. However being a superhero comes with a price. They either want to use you or want the powers you use, with Iron Man it is the latter. The government is trying their best to get its hands on the technology and with this a new enemy arises in the form of Ivan Vanko, played by none other then Mickey Rourke. He is the son of a scientist, who worked at Stark Industries; more specifically on the Arc Reactor.

Now we got ourselves a new villain to battle! This is the core of every superhero movie: Superhero faces (new) Supervillain. But this is where the movie actually goes wrong. Instead of focusing on just this main plot, with a few extra side plots like a love relationship or perhaps the interference of the government, we get thrown into an array of other story arcs which make it either too confusing, too complex or simply just too much.

To explain what I mean, here are some of the story arcs present in IRON MAN 2:
- New Supervillain rises, which has to be defeated by the Superhero
- New Supervillain has connections with Stark Industries somehow
- Government wants to have the Iron Man technology
- Government hires the wrong guy (aka evildoer)
- Evildoer collaborates with new Supervillain
- Tony Stark’s health is going downhill (as is his social life)
- Love Relationship is put to the test
- War Machine enters the fray
- Best friend relationship is put to the test
- SHIELD enters the fray
- Flickers of SHIELD become more apparent for future movies

Now the movie itself only is 124 minutes, so if you just divide these (at least) 11 story arcs by 124 minutes you get a little over 11 minutes for each plot. That is not enough time to explain certain details or even have proper action sequences.

Which brings us to the second point, the action sequences. There are only a two proper action sequences in the entire movie; the first battle with Ivan and the final battle. All others are just for the show or to add some more fluff to the story. This actually is not a bad thing if the action sequences are properly done, but when it comes to the final big fighting scene, the ending of the fight is short, has no flair and feels like an abrupt end.

So lets talk acting then. A new big role in this movie is that of War Machine, which was supposed to be played by Terrence Howard, he apparently wanted too much money so Don Cheadle gladly stepped in to play Lt. Col. James Rhodes. This actually does not upset me as much, since I prefer him as an actor. But due to the many story lines, the actors and actresses have to outperform themselves to present a believable character in the time frame each of them have. This of course is no problem with characters we already know from the previous part, but with all the new characters and the growth of certain existing characters, this can become a problem.

All these slight “problems” could have been overcome if they scrapped a few plots and extended the length of the movie a little bit. Now the movie feels a bit sloppy and unfinished. I however enjoyed the movie, but as stated in other reviews, I’m a biased Downey fan. IRON MAN 2 is certainly worth the watch, but it is not as good as the previous part. The complete series (THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN and IRON MAN 2) have set a nice solid foundation for the upcoming AVENGERS movie, but without Edward Norton playing the Hulk I can only guess on how this will turn out. First however we can get ready for THOR, which was teased after the credits.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG tells us the story of how the princess got changed into the frog, when trying to kiss the cursed prince. This is a version not many of you probably may know. The intro of the movie tells the classic version, where a princess kisses a frog which changes back to a handsome prince. They get married and live happily ever after. This movie however tells the story based upon E.D. Baker’s novel THE FROG PRINCESS, which was inspired by THE FROG PRINCE from the Grimm brothers. So this time when the “princess” kisses the frog (prince) she is turned into a frog herself.

Now from a Disney perspective this version is something different than the classic stories. The company tried to do the same with stories like ENCHANTED and with the more recent ALICE IN WONDERLAND. But does this actually help the genre? And better yet, does this change make THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG still worthy to be another Disney-princess-classic?

The movie is set in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties and tells the story of Tiana. A hard working girl trying to save up money for her own restaurant, a dream her father also had. So to achieve this, she works like a slave trying to realise her dream. If I stand correct she works double shifts with 2 different jobs and all seems well when she finally is able to make the down payment for a abandoned factory. Only her dream gets shattered when the real-estate men tell her someone else is willing to pay full cash for it…

Of course – this being Disney – it is at this moment that fate brings her prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) in his cursed frog form. This broke ass prince made a deal with the Voodoo doctor Facilier (Keith Davids) only to realise he has been tricked. It is here the adventure really starts when Tiana kisses Naveen, only to be turned into a frog herself. They embark on a journey to restore their body, follow their dreams and to (eventually) fall in love. – You did not see that coming right? They were the only two black people in the entire movie! – During their adventures they also have to escape some hunters, shadow spirits and endure a strong psychological test from Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis). Of course they do not have to do this all by themselves, they get help from a Cajun firefly Ray (Jim Cummings) and a trumpeteering alligator Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley). Put these characters together and you get yourself a diverse and interesting group.

As stated above, the movie is set in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties, which brings us to the music. The movie is completely shot like a full Broadway musical. This fits perfectly with the way the story is being told. Add the great Jazz music and you got yourself one swinging Disney movie. To understand what I mean, just watch a short song from the movie below:

So this brings us back to our original question: “Is THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG a true Disney classic?”

Well…
- we got a poor girl *check*
- we got a poor girl with big dreams *check*
- we got a charming prince *check*
- we got good vs. evil theme *check*
- we got a movie full of “wise lessons” for young and old *check*
- we got great music *check*

These points deem this movie to be a Disney Princess classic. Also not to forget, with THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG Disney returns to the classic roots of 2D (with their last 2D movie HOME ON THE RANGE dating back to 2004!) and take a great step versus the controversiality with Tiana being the first black princess in the history of Disney story telling.

So a true Disney princess classic? I wholeheartly say yes.