Max Steel (2016)

Max Steel (2016)

2/10

Starring

Ben Winchell

Josh Brener (Voice of Steel)

Andy Garcia

Maria Bello

Directed by Stewart Hendler

Wow!!! what a waste of time, money and effort.

I did get to see the different cartoon versions of Max Steel and you will think with all the stories available and the possible twist they could have included into this movie, the producers and the writers will have a field day turning out a great action blockbuster. What they ended up doing was deliver a movie so boring and so uneventful it will take courage not to demand your money back after seeing it.

The level of complexity weaved into the plot is so daft, you will have to concentrate to separate the current happenings, Max’s memories and Steel’s memories.

The movie then gets to a point you will think things will start to make sense and it stays there until the undramatic stupidly hilarious ending. Making you wonder, how did this leave the story board?

This is supposed to be a Sci-fi action movie, but then there is a girl to add a romantic twist, now the girl was either lacking friends and was too dumb to avoid stupid people, that regardless of Max’s erratic behavior she still stuck with him. Now I bet you will be thinking maybe they have been friends for a long time or something, nope.

According to the movie Max just moved into the town and she found his necessity for distancing himself attractive and was not turned off by his erratic behavior which will naturally make people keep their distance.

Then the is the voice of Steel, which was not fun to hear, but rather an annoying voice which seems to not know when to shut up.

When Steel teaches Max how to use his powers what we get to see is laughable episode, like Max just took drugs.

Everything about the movie was not bad, the CGI was cool, but when the fight scenes come up get ready to be disappointed. There were too many cut away from what is happening, to the faces of the men in the suits as they strain and grunt like they had constipation.

The movie plot starts with Max (Ben Winchell) and his mother (Maria Bello) move into a new town.

Max soon discovers that his body generates a sort of power in the form of electricity, which he discovers can cause machines to blow up. Coincidentally, when Max discovered his powers an alien named Steel who has been dormant in a facility comes to life and tracks down Max.

They form an unusual bond which has Steel eating up Max's powers to keep Max from exploding.

Their union creates a superhero named Max Steel.

Their bonding was interrupted by a hunt for both of them and an evil force which wishes to harness Max's power for himself.

This movie was both a critical and commercial failure, I need not say more on you avoiding this.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

9/10

Starring

Felicity Jones

Diego Luna

Ben Mendelsohn

Donnie Yen

Mads Mikkelsen

Alan Tudyk

Directed by Gareth Edwards

If you are still waiting for incentives to see this movie let me add some for you since the idea of a Star Wars movie is not enough to move you to the cinemas.

The movie has Donnie Yen in it. Forty minutes in I see Donnie Yen do some skills that made want to yell, “everyone please let us beg the controller to rewind that.”

This movie is a dark addition to the Star Wars ways and it is a great introduction to the upcoming Star Wars standalone films. Set between what happened after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and the beginning of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977).

The movie leaves behind the myths and story-line gridlocks of the other Star Wars movies and focuses of charting a new path with different tales and addition of new characters whose stories start and end here. It was great seeing something that had a new breed of heroes, instead of the focus the star wars franchise seems to have on the Skywalker family.

This is such a great thing because it means they can make more tie-ins based in the world of Star Wars.

The movie however introduces too many new characters for us to be able to keep track of (my only snag), the movie’s pace was also very fast which means not a dull moment. First, we are on a planet, then we are involved in aerial battles, armored combat vehicles, grenades, laser battle, blind martial art monks and much more. When nothing is happening, we get to meet new characters.

Other than the Donnie Yen intro fight, my second favorite part in this movie is when Darth Vader steps in to show us that the force is still in this movie.

This is one of (if not the best) movie in the franchise.

The movie plot is simple and straight forward. A research scientist named Galen was hiding from the Empire when an Imperial weapons developer comes to capture him as an aid to help complete the unfinished Death Star.

If you have been watching Star Wars you will know the Death Star is a space station-based weapon capable of destroying an entire planet.

Galen was captured and his wife was killed, but his daughter Jyn escapes and is raised by a Rebel extremist named Gerrera who lives on the desert moon Jedha.

Gerrera abandons Jyn and she grew up being a lone fighter until she was called in by the rebels to help get information which was believed to have been sent by her father on the weakness of the Death Star.

Now Jyn with a new team in a ship they named Rogue One, must find the Death Star plans and get it to the Rebels.

Awesome movie and there is no reason not to see it, and I hope further standalone projects are this good.

Moana (2016)

Moana (2016)

7/10

Starring the voice of

Auli'i Cravalho

Dwayne Johnson

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Disney has refused to go down with the old ways of animated musical animations. They have been working their way back up for years now and although 2016 will be a year many will love to forget due to the numerous tragic and gloomy events Disney on the other hand will not want to forget 2016.

Moana is a good adventure film for the family and it did very well in tapping from the oldies that we loved when we were younger to produce this movie. The movie is not a masterpiece in the way of Zootopia (2016), but Disney did their best and produced a movie that is worth seeing and enjoying with the family.

When it came to the animation, the characterization and the story, Disney delivered. The animation was fluid, when it came to characterization the two main characters and their supporting cast were memorable. In the case of the story although it didn’t feel new, it had a brief intro and dived straight into the adventure leaving no room for you the viewer to doze off.

The musical and the score were cool and even though you can say the movie did not need to be a musical, this time I didn’t feel like the songs were isolated from the events and Disney found a way to merge the musicals into the happenings on screen. Meaning, the musicals were a continuation of what was going on except with a beat.

A millennium ago a Demigod named Maui stole the heart of the god of nature and lost it, the repercussions of that a millennium after was a terrible curse which reached an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island.

The daughter Moana is called by the ocean to restore order and to do so she must restore the heart with the help of the Demigod Maui, whom she must first seek out.

Like I said the story did not feel original, you can always guess where Disney tapped the ideas in the movie from. For example, it starts with the mystery of what is beyond the reef and a father forbidden his child to go find out, (Finding Nemo (2003)) and we soon must deal with a little girl finding it hard to obey rules and fit into the status quo because something beyond is calling her telling her there is more (Beauty and the Beast (1991)).

We also have the stubborn dad who does not want the daughter to seek adventure, add to that the under the sea bad guy what does that remind you of, Little Mermaid (1989).

Why would you expect any different the directors?

The directors John Musker and Ron Clements were the ones on the helms of Disney classics The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992) and Hercules (1997). They were the best for the job since Disney was borrowing ideas majorly from these three films. A magical sidekick to our hero from Aladdin (1992), the visuals and comedy remind me a lot of Hercules (1997).

The movie does not have any love interest though, a welcomed addition to Disney new style of making movies, where it does not always have to end with two people falling in love.

Nice movie to go see with the family.