First in Class

During my family's holiday in Philippines, we spared our time to watch some movies that aren't being released in Indonesia. One of them is X-Men: First Class directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kick Ass fame and starring James McAvoy (to me his most memorable role isn't the loser in Wanted but as the Tumnus faun in Narnia) and Michael Fassbender (Lt. Archie Hicox of Inglourious Basterds). The other supporting casts are also promising: Kevin Bacon (Hollowman), January Jones (Mad Men), Jason Flemyng (Benjamin Button's dad), Rose Byrne (remember Troy? no? Insidious then) and also Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence. There's also Lucas Till, Taylor Swift's boy in her VMA-winning-Kanye-West-interrupted music video. That's what you call promising.

The other title for this film must be X-Men Origins: Professor X & Magneto because this is the story of their origins. The story begins with young Erik/Magneto in a Nazi concentration camp, so similar to the original X-Men, the one where he moved the metal gates. This time, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) saw that event. Don't want to spoil the fun, fast forward to a couple years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) went on a hunt for Shaw to France, Argentina until he end up at US. Meanwhile, Charles (McAvoy) was asked for help by CIA agent Moira McTaggert (Byrne) to help her investigate a mutant problem dealing with Shaw. Then, Erik and Charles met in an event and aided by the secret CIA facility, search for other mutants using beta Cerebro, a device which proved to be useful and dangerous later. They found a group of mutants and with this small army, trying to battle Shaw's even smaller, but more skilled mutants including the telepath Emma Frost, teleporting-red-skinned-version-Nightcrawler Azazel, and also the mute Riptide at the staged US vs Soviets nuclear war.

One word for this movie: amazing. The best X-Men movie so far. Especially Michael Fassbender. He stole every minute with his performance. The Argentinian bar scene is just so cool (knife/hand/stomach/hand! ignore this). He's menacing, human, cold and cool at the same time. That persona can't be matched by James McAvoy, but still Professor X's bigger role in this movie helped him a lot. Unlike in the original trilogy where the professor would only be preaching, teaching and sometimes used. The other members is just amazing as well. The effects are top class. The idea of combining history with X-Men universe is incredible. The only shame is that the X-Men movies are way to connected. There's Moira in X-Men: The Last Stand and she doesn't seem to age. Mystique/Raven also have something wrong with her age in later films. There's also Emma Frost but in different transformation in X-Men Origins, or maybe it's best if we just forget Origins. Nevertheless, as a stand alone this is the best superhero film of the year, and maybe the best of the summer. Just one wish: no sequels to this please. X-Men: First Class: rated A.

here's one of the coolest scene from X-Men: First Class

Stop Pirating

This is my first summer movie ever to be watched in some low quality, Russian-filmed, pirated DVD. The irony was  I was watching a pirated copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. First of all, I'm a huge Pirates fan. I love At World's End so much that I despise the idea of having the third sequel. With all those trailers and clips, I'm not still interested. But, let's check it out.

The story picks up where it left off where Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) was in quest for The Fountain of Youth. No Will Turner, no Elizabeth, no Cotton, no Marty. He suddenly met his former arch-nemesis Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) who is now in under the command of the King (Richard Griffiths, uncle Vernon) who also desire the Fountain. A few unimportant details later, Jack boards the Queen Anne's Revenge, thanks to Angelica (Penelope Cruz). It was Blackbeard's (Ian McShane) ship, going for a race to the fountain with his sword-controlled ship and zombie crews. They will encounter mermaids, an awkward-Will Turner-ish missionary, and Spaniards in order to get there.

This gotta be the worst Pirates movie ever. All those billion dollars collected throughout the world was for nothing. Pirates are bound at sea, where's that 'my love is for the sea' thing? But here they only sailed for a couple of minutes. There wasn't even the Jack Sparrow entrance song! It's an outrage! No Black Pearl, the Black Pearl was in a bottle. Blackbeard wasn't devilish enough to match Davy Jones or even Lord Cutler Beckett. He never showed up on his ship before but then after Jack came, he even walk with his zombie crews! Hans Zimmer at the scoring is lazy he's using songs from the previous movies not at the right time. He suddenly put the Beckett finale in a mermaid scene, Up is Down on another. It's not creative, it's not recycle, it's lazy. This is just a chapter worth telling from Gibbs' mouth, not worth filming. Just like that hurricane in Tripoli with Norrington (see Dead Man's Chest). Johnny Depp's charm as Jack is failing, it's like he didnt even want to be here. What's up with all that powder on Barbossa's face? The pregnant Penelope is also visible, her face is getting chubbier within days. Don't let me start on that Philip missionary.The 3D shots are silly (pointing your sword to the camera is not cool, Blackbeard, nor do your skeleton hands). The only interesting part was the mermaid scene, courtesy of Gemma Ward and the thrill, other than that, nothing. since they werent even at any tides, it's not stranger tides, it's a mistake. It's way better to make your own story than to loosely adapt a book. It's a theme park adaptation, not a book adaptation anyway. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: rated D+

Groundhog Code

Thank God, somebody made Source Code and Summit decides to distribute it. If it's not, then Indonesians wouldn have the chance to see it in cinemas. It's already renowned before it's released here that this is one of the best-reviewed film of the year so far. It'd be stupid to skip this. Duncan Jones of Moon directing with Jake Gyllenhaal starring and it's said to be a sci-fi Groundhog Day.

The story is about Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up in a train as someone else just to find himself blown up by a bomb eight minutes later. And then he finds himself in a place with a monitor to communicate with some uniformed agent. He learns that his task is to find the bomber of the train to stop other terrorist actions. He's able to do Groundhog Day in other person's body using the program Source Code which enables him to do so but only for 8 minutes.

The premise is engaging and it doesnt bore you a bit. It was very thrilling as we dive into the source code and clueless just like Captain Stevens. Jake Gyllenhaal proved to be a good actor in his solo show. Jeffrey Wright is also game in this movie as the creator of the source code program. As everything unfolds slowly, we learn that it's not what it seems. It's truly Groundhog Day without its jokes and groundhog of course, but still maintain some humanity. Many criticized the ending, but personally liked it because it's kinda cool. If the ending stopped at that freeze frame shot, it'd be just mainstream, but to have something else, that's creative. But then now what? Captain Stevens is trapped in someone else's body and so forever Christina would love the wrong-looking guy with the right soul inside? And the source code is able to duplicate souls? would there be hundreds of Captain Stevens's souls? Anyways, Source Code: rated B+

Still Screaming

There aren't many choices of movies in Indonesian theaters due to the prolonged imported movie tax. It's been tragedy since February and there isn't any worthy updates about it. Well, thank God they still release Scream 4. It's the third sequel of the famous film back in the 90s, the story revolves around Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and friends Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette). It's new decade, new rules. No more Maureen Prescott and Billy Loomis.

The film begins with meta-jokes from the degrading Stab franchises (why would they continue it after Stab 3 anyway?), featuring Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell too! The real story begins when Sidney returns to Woodsboro in time for the anniversary of the Woodsboro murders (go to the original Scream). You know what's gonna happen, the killer returns too. Teaming up with the old pals but not exactly a whole as they did back in the trilogy, Sidney, Gale, and now Sheriff Dewey investigate the modern murders. The killer now targets high school students, among them there was Jill Prescott (Emma Roberts), Sidney's cousin.

The fresh story is a good thing. No more dark past from Sidney's mother or the revenge of Billy Loomis' relatives. Neve Campbell doesnt seem to age, does she? She's still perfect for the role of Sidney Prescott. David Arquette too. But Courteney Cox seems to have something wrong (maybe the botox) with her appearance but still manages to be the intrepid Gale Weathers. The teen cast are good too, especially Emma Roberts. Some killings are very clever although some seems to be doubted in logic (the first murder? talking in the closet and no one hears it? really?). The story's finale is a reminder from the original and the twist is just so unexpected and nice. But I think there's gotta be a better motive for killing 10 people. Anyway, it's just a great entertainment at cinema and it's way better than the predictable Scream 2 and the wtf Scream 3. Scream 4: rated B.

Sucker Punched

The hype for Sucker Punch was enormous, at least for me. The trailers and the casts looked so good, especially with Zack Snyder helming this. I mean, this gotta be the action movie of the year. With Indonesian cinema in peril, this is my first movie that I watched in cinema after the issue with the tax. I flew to Singapore and bought tickets as soon as I arrived at the city.

The story is about a girl named Babydoll (Emily Browning) who's institutionalized by her stepfather after accidentally killed her own sister in a brawl with her stepfather. In this institution/brothel owned by Blue (Oscar Isaac), she met others with similar fate. Within days, she would be lobotomized by High Roller (Jon Hamm) and for that, she must escape. She found that her ability for dancing brings her to an alternate reality where she must fulfills her quest along the other girls to escape the institution.

The power of Sucker Punch is the action scenes, which was crafted skillfully by Snyder. And to accompany that awesome scenes, the soundtrack is so electrifying. The first soundtrack was a cover for Eurythmics song, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), it fits the scene perfectly, making it almost like a cinematic music video. In every Babydoll's quest there must be an action scene. Well, those scenes don't actually have any coherence with the main storyline. It's actually just a dramatized version of a simple task (like taking a knife from a fat guy) which was generated from Babydoll's imagination. makes you think maybe she deserved to be in that crazy house. At one point, Zack Snyder abused his trademark slow-mo action sequence and it proved to be an overkill, both negatively and positively. Positively it looks incredible and negatively, it kinda bore you. Snyder may be good at action but not at story writing. All of the sudden, the quiet Babydoll became the leader of the pack although Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) is still around? The character is not developed clearly. It'd be better if those action arent for nought. They should somehow relate to the real reality. The ending is a bit of a downer too. Emily Browning is perfect for the role and those costumes she wears is just smokin. The other girls are also adequate for the roles. Just so you know, the film may look like telling about Babydoll, but it's not. Just like Watchmen, the soundtrack is so great which requires you to buy it after watching this. And just like 300, the action sequences are the best. Sadly, the story doesn't live up to the soundtrack and the action. Sucker Punch: rated C+