Ender's Game

Ender's Game is a 2013 American science fiction action movie. The movie is based on a novel of the same name, in 1985, as a military science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. This movie stars Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley and Viola Davis.
The movie starts off with a quote from A.E. Wiggin,

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him."

The year is 2086, an alien species called the Formics attacks Earth. In the attack, Mazer Rackham sacrifice himself and blow up, what seems, to be the alien's main ship. And it ends there. It was a video shown to cadets at the school.
In school, Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin (A.E. Wiggin) plays a game with another student and the student lose. However, the student challenges Wiggin to another game which he refuses. And they are observed by Colonel Hyrum Graff and Major Gwen Anderson from the International Fleet. Colonel Graff observes how Wiggin handles the situation tactically. Graff question what would happen if Wiggin experience rejection through the removal of the monitor at the back of his neck. He gets bullied by the student and he retaliates by kicking the student down. This alarms Major Anderson but excites Graff as he thinks Ender is the one.
Ender goes home and tells his sister, Valentine. His brother comes in and plays a game with him. The game? Acting as the Formics and Peter (brother) chocking Ender.
Graff and Anderson come by Ender's house to recruit him into Battle School. Graff talks to Ender to convince him.
Ender joins the shuttle to Battle School. Graff introduces Ender to other 'launchies' as the person to beat. This cause Ender to be hated. However, Ender is smart enough to gain their respect. This was by Ender challenging Sergeant Dap.
Ender plays a 'mind game' that Anderson allows in order to understand the emotional state of the cadets. In the game, Ender plays as the mice that travels and meets a giant. The giant offers the mice two drinks, one of which is poisoned. Ender tries two of the drinks and finds both are poisoned. Ender, then, decides to kill the giant by going into the giant's eye.
Ender is transferred to a new group, Salamander Army. However, he is not liked by the Commander of the group, Bonzo. Petra, however, takes a liking for him. She teaches Ender how to fight. In their first game, Bonzo tells Ender to wait and watch. Ender, disobeys Bonzo and with the aid of Petra, devise a surprise attack. Bonzo disapproves.
In the 'mind game', Ender continues and saw a Formic. Within the game, Ender saw Valentine entering an abandoned castle. There was a snake and Peter in the game. Anderson and Graff couldn't figure out how the mind game could include Ender's family.
Ender gets his own army; Dragon Army. His team comprise of his former team/friends. In a twist to the game, Ender's army goes up against two army; one of which is the Salamander Army. Ender's army won. Bonzo feels threatened. Bonzo challenges Ender in the shower room. Ender defeats Bonzo by kicking him. Bonzo falls and hits his head, causing Bonzo to be sent home to recover.
Ender quits the academy. Graff tries to convince Ender to return. Ender refuses. Graff asked Valentine to convince him.
Ender rejoins his army and is brought to a new camp on the former Formic colony world. He meets Mazer Rackham, who was persumed dead. Ender asked Mazer Rackham what happened after the video that was shown in the academy. It seems that there was more after the video. Mazer Rackham told Ender that the video was intentionally cut to provoke the cadets of the danger of the Formics and be inspired to defend their world.
Ender is told that the high ranking officials are coming to see his final game; his graduation. He prepares his army. Ender is given a bigger army, with his Dragon Army leading. They are given the Molecular Detachment Device a.k.a. Little Doctor, that will destroy the Formics. As the final game is carried out, Ender gives it his all and successfully destroys the Formics and winning the game. However, it was revealed that the game was actually the real deal. Ender feels guilty to have destroyed a whole world. Graff says that he will be a hero. But Ender says he will be remembered as a killer. Ender gets sedated.
As Ender awakes from the sedation, he realises that it was actually the Formics communicating with him through the mind game. The castle and its architecture seems familiar to Ender. He realises that the similarities has been seen just outside his window in the open land; a mountain. He finds the queen of the Formics. The Formics is actually acting humanly; protecting its egg. The egg is the last of the Formics' generation. The queen wants to ensure the survival and they didn't intend to attack the humans. Ender gets promoted to Admiral and sends a letter to Valentine. He promises the queen to find them a new home as they fly off into space.

2GUNS

2GUNS or 2 Guns (or when you see Paula Patton's 2 Guns...). This movie is taken from a graphic novel series by Boom! Studios. The film stars Denzel Washington (Robert Trench), Mark Wahlberg (Michael Stigman, Paula Patton (Deb Rees), James Marsden (Harold Quince) and many more.
The story starts off with Trench and Stigman arriving at a diner. Trench goes into the bank across the street, while Stigman goes into the diner. Then Trench returns while Stigman was winking at the waitress. Then they discuss about the plan. Stigman goes to the restroom and sets off the smoke detector. As they leave, Trench wants to tip the diner but Stigman is reluctant. Then the scene reversed back to the past when the plan to rob the bank all began.
Trench and Stigman goes to the drug lord to deliver his goods. Trench is also known as the 'guy who knows somebody' or 'I know a guy'. However, the drug lord didn't pay Trench what he wanted (drugs). Trench and Stigman gets hold up at the Mexican border and interrogated by two DEA agents, Jessup and Deb. The DEA is trying to catch the drug lord, Papi Greco. It turns out that Trench is an undercover DEA trying to use Stigman for his case. An little did Trench know, Stigman is an undercover Naval Intelligence Officer trying to use Trench for his case.
Since Trench's informant in Greco's drug organisation is killed, Trench and Stigman wants to seek revenge. So they plan to rob Greco of his $3 million from his bank, which was from the first scene. So, Trench plans out with Deb to arrive at the bank at the time decided to catch Stigman in the act. However, Deb did not appear as promised. Trench and Stigman found out that the money they got from the bank is not $3 million but $43 million. They find it awkward. Then Stigman shots Trench and brings the money back to Quince. Then Stigman's Navy guys double crosses him. So Trench and Stigman got played by their own team (Navy and DEA). Meanwhile, Earl (Bill Paxton) comes into town and searches for his $43 million. He is actually a corrupt CIA that stores money in these banks and Greco is actually paying him a percentage of Greco's money for protection in order for Earl not to close down his operations.
So Trench and Stigman does not believe each other but end up working together. Deb gets kidnapped by Greco. Deb is later revealed to be involved with setting Trench and Stigman up. Deb is actually working with Quince. And Deb...or Paula...is really hot. Although acting was a bit off at times, but her hotness was better. Sadly, she dies in the end. Why she died? Greco wants the money to himself. Hence, kidnapped Deb, threaten Trench to get the money before Greco kills her. Trench is not in time because the money wasn't with Quince. So, there goes Deb. But the money was actually hidden under the bed at the motel where Trench and Deb had their...ahem...encounters.
Trench and Stigman slowly bond as they seek revenge and want to get the corrupt CIA and Greco off their backs. Towards the end, they trick Quince and his team, Greco and his team, and Earl and his team, to come to Greco's home. And the money gets blown up and shooting begins! In the last shoot out, it was against Earl, Stigman, Quince and Trench. And with a quick trigger (Stigman never misses), Trench and Stigman kills Earl and Quince. They walked out the place, looks at Greco bleeding to death. And walks off into the sunset. Still, they kept the money. Never rob a bank across the street from the diner that serves the best donuts.
The story line was simple. Two main actors were really comfortable with their acting. I guess because they can act however they want. A lot of shooting, fighting and chasing...and Paula... Still, the story has a lot of double crossing and it's based on a graphic novel. So it's very loose in the acting. Loose being, Denzel and Mark acted as if it was just a regular day on the movie set. Playing it cool.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments is the first book of many other series by Cassandra Clare. It's seen as fitting into the genre of vampires, werewolves and the unknown.
The movie begins in New York, with Clary Fray (Lily Collins) drawing a particular symbol. As she leaves for poetry gig, her mum, Jocelyn Fray (Lena Headey) saw the symbol and worries. Her friend, Luke (Aidan Turner) advise that it is time to tell Clary the truth.
As Clary and her best friend, Simon (Robert Sheehan), passed by a club, she saw the symbol on the club but no one else saw it. As they are in the club, she saw a guy murdered. She freaks out and leaves. Next morning as she woke up, she saw that her bedroom was filled with the symbol that she drawn...drawing in her sleep. She goes to the coffee shop and asked Simon what is it. Her mum, at home, is visited by the bad guys. She fights them off as they seek the cup (all powerful cup). Her mum tries to call Clary, but Clary ignores the call. She tries to call Simon and Simon ignores the call too. After picking up the phone call, finally, Jocelyn warns Clary to not come home and find Luke. Clary panics and rush home to find her mum missing and a dog waiting for her. The dog shape-shifts into an ugly beast and attacks her. She lights the stove and 'BOOM!', the kitchen explodes, dog explodes into pieces and she is shielded by the door..hmm...the dog revives itself and is killed by Jace Wayland, a shadowhunter. Shadowhunters are those who hunt demons on Earth. And is revealed that Clary is a shadowhunter too, like her mother. Jace is drawn by Clary.
Clary meets Madame Dorothea, her downstairs neighbour, and asked about her mum whereabouts. Madame Dorothea asks Clary to pick a tarot card and reveal that Valentine is after the Mortal Cup (Mortal Instruments? hmm...Mortals). The cup was given by the Angel Raziel, with his blood to whosoever drinks from the cup will be half-angel.
They head off to find Luke. Luke is captured by Valentine's bad guys (Pangborn and Blackwell). And as you know it, just as Jace picks up the cage, Clary trips on a vase and it alerts the bad guys. They fight and are able to escape. Outside, as Simon awaits, policemen came and is killed by Jace. Simon freaks out and said, 'you killed a policeman' repeatedly.
The trio returns to the institute. The institute used to house the shadowhunters. In the institute, Simon and Clary are introduced to Isabelle, Alec and Hodge. Hodge is the older shadowhunter that is cursed to remain in the institute. He tells the story of Valentine, who use to be a shadowhunter. Then he turned around and wanted to use the Mortal Cup to control the shadowhunters and demons. But failed. As Jocelyn steals the cup and run away.
The next part is where we encounter the title of the movie, 'City of Bones'. Jace brings Clary to the City of Bones, where shadowhunters are laid to rest. The Silent Brothers help Clary to regain her memory that are protected. But failed. As it is revealed that the one who put the block on her memories is Magnus Bane, a warlock or sorcerer.
Magnus Bane reveals that he was the one that block the memories of Clary and also buys the paintings that Jocelyn drew, to support her. Simon gets kidnapped by vampires. They go on a hunt to find him. At this part, we see that any religion will help the shadowhunters. In the church, they have stored their weapons and the symbol that Clary drew is on the markings on the floor. As they rescue Simon, a pack of werewolves intervene and help them. Werewolves have a truce with shadowhunters. It's kind of like, any religion or beasts that is not in favour of demons, will help the shadowhunters.
As they return to the institute, Clary notice that there was a vampire bite on Simon's shoulder. It could lead to revealing Simon to turn into a vampire (which is the case in the next series). Clary gets warned from Alec to stay out of the institute. And Clary says that Alec is in love with Jace (awkward!). Clary goes to see Jace playing the piano and reveals Bach to be a shadowhunter. At the same time, Clary falls for Jace. They kiss at the greenhouse to celebrate Clary's birthday. Then the sprinklers went off, they rush back to the room and are about to kiss when Simon interrupts. Then Jace said that it was Clary that wanted to kiss him and bring him to the room. At this point of the movie, I find it awkward. As much of a romance scene that is inserted into the movie, this part was awkward. Jace wants to kiss, then tells the girl it was her fault, and said she wants to bring him to her room, taking off his shirt...awkward!
Simon, broken hearted, went off. And all of a sudden, the next scene is Clary calmly drinking tea and reading about runes (writings or words of the shadowhunters). As she puts the cup back on the table, she realises the cup is imprinted into the book. She sees it to be 2D, then puts her hand into the book and pulled out the cup of tea. She realises that the cup is actually back in her apartment in the tarot card. They head back to the apartment to see Madame Dorothea. Alec and Isabelle uses some metal/iron fillings. Like the science experiment you do with iron and magnet on a paper. Alec and Isabelle use it to detect demons. As they thought the demon to be in Clary's apartment, it wasn't. In Madame Dorothea's apartment, Jace plays a song by Bach (it is said Bach was a shadowhunter that puts into his music piece, the music note, when played, that will help shadowhunters reveal demons. As demons don't like Bach's music. They get annoyed and change form.) Who knew, music was a cover for a demon detector. As Madame Dorothea is revealed to be a demon, replacing the real Madame Dorothea, they fight. And Alec gets wounded. Simon comes along to the apartment, as he receives a text saying Clary was in the apartment. Simon sees Clary trap in the apartment and rushes to save her by fighting the demon (now that's fighting for someone you love!).
They head back to the institute to treat Alec. Gives the cup to Hodge. Hodge is revealed to betrayed them by giving the cup to Valentine. Clary escapes to Luke, using the portal. The portal is said to teleport you to any place you think of. Luke calls his friends to help. Valentine opens a portal to summon the demons. Valentine reveals to Jace that he and Clary are siblings to trick him to join his cause. Then Simon and Isabelle found out that Jocelyn is actually kept in the basement of the institute. Simon tells Clary. Magnus appears to heal Alec (Magnus was eyeing Alec at Magnus' place). As Clary returns, demons appear at the basement. She draws a rune on her palm and the demons freezes. The demons slowly reanimate and the werewolves fight them off. Most of them are killed, except Luke, whom kill Pangborn.
In the library, Jace helps Valentine. However, then he turns against Valentine. And they fight. Simon and Isabelle fights the demons to close the portal (on the roof). Hodge helps them as he realises that he was wrong to betray them. Clary then appears at the portal (in the library) with a fake cup (seen earlier in the film). She convinces Valentine to take the cup and pushes him into the portal. As we think it is over, Valentine pulls Clary into the portal but is saved by Jace.
At the hospital, Luke, Clary and Simon looks after Jocelyn to recover. Simon is told that he will find someone (he did, in the upcoming series. But I think Simon could be Clary's brother at this point of the movie...but her real brother is...). Anyways, Clary returns home. Fixes the apartment with a rune written on her hand. Jace comes and invites her to join the shadowhunters. He tells her that he doesn't believe that she is his sister. And there's a love connection going on between them (like a Korean drama!). And they set off on Jace's bike.
The movie was ok. I like the story line but not the acting. I heard Alex Pettyfer was supposed to play the lead role. It wouldn't be good. We'll give this new guy a shot. Acting wasn't the best for this movie.

 

Pacific Rim

This is a cool movie. Great effects, especially when you watch in 3D. It's directed by Guillermo del Toro and stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and others. Kaiju in Japanese means 'giant monster. Jaegers in German means 'hunter'. That's the opening of Pacific Rim.
The movie introduces Kaijus and Jaegers. Kaijus, instead of aliens coming from outer space, are actually coming through a tear in the Pacific floor, or Pacific Rim. It is like a wormhole, or the Breach, for the Kaiju to enter earth. After few attacks, the world came together to pull all resources to create the Jaeger Programme. Gigantic robots built to fight the Kaijus. Jaegers are controlled by humans. However, it must be piloted by two. Two humans that are link or compatible. Their brains are link or they go through a neuron handshake. When 2 becomes 1. Most of which are siblings, twins/triplets or father and son. The Kaijus are rated on 1 being easy and 4 being big and strong. Towards the end, we meet a level 5 Kaiju, bigger and stronger.
Stacker Pentecost deploys the Gipsy Danger on a mission. However, brothers, Raleigh and Yancy Becket, disobeyed orders in order to save a few fishermen. Yancy gets killed and Raleigh blames himself and leads his life by being a wielder at construction sites.
As the world faces more Kaiju attacks, governments build walls to protect them. However, in the news, Australia's wall or Anti-Kaiju walls gets destroyed but gets killed by Jaeger Striker Eureka, piloted by Australian dad and son, Herc and Chuck Hansen. Pentecost arrives at the construction site to recruit Raleigh back. He's the only one that can pilot the Mark 3 Jaeger, the Gipsy Danger, restored. They gather at the Shatterdome, the last stand, especially that the governments pull out the funding for the programme. Here, we meet the Crimson Typhoon (Mark 4), piloted by the Wei triplet, Chinese, with their signature move, the Thundercloud Formation. What is this formation? 3 arms! It has a Chinese touch, 'Thundercloud!' and with the triplet brothers that plays basketball. We also meet the Russian's Cherno Alpha, Mark 1. It has the 'Chernobyl' name to it. And to join the party, the Striker Eureka, Mark 5, fastest Jaeger still standing.
The plan? Go to the tear in the ocean where the Kaiju are appearing, place a nuclear bomb to collapse the bridge or wormhole. Striker will deliver the bomb while the rest providing protection. However, Raleigh has to partner with someone. He chooses Mako Mori, the one involved with the restoration of the Gipsy Danger, due to their compatibility. However, Pentecost rejects. They did a test run. Raleigh and Mako had their neuron handshake. Raleigh realises that Pentecost was the one that saved Mako during a Kaiju attack. And because Mako is emotionally unstable, Pentecost fears she can't control and drifts away into the neuron handshake. Enter the drift is when their brains are link. Raleigh learns that Pentecost piloted a Jaeger by himself before. Those who pilot a Jaeger alone will suffer side effects due to the mental load (left and right brain of the Jaeger). Only Pentecost and Raleigh have ever piloted the Jaeger alone and survived. Another run by Pentecost into a Jaeger would kill him.
Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb studies the Kaiju. As Dr. Hermann studies the occurrences and estimates how many Kaijus are entering and at what speed they will be appearing, Dr. Newton believes that he can link up his brain and one of the Kaiju's brain. He did. And he learned about the Kaiju and requires more information. He goes to Chau, black market dealer for Kaiju remains. Dr. Newt needs a fresh brain in order to drift again. However, two Kaijus appear in Hong Kong. Somehow they can sense where Dr. Newt is. So the Jaegers come to the rescue. Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon gets attack. The Kaiju evolves and defeats them. Especially Kaiju can now ooze acid-like substance, Both Jaegers are destroyed, including the pilot. Striker comes to the rescue but the Kaiju can emit some sort of disruption wave. All electronic devices shuts down. However, Gipsy Danger is nuclear-powered. Gipsy Danger kills the Kaijus. One scene was when we found out Kaiju can fly. It has evolved! However, Gipsy Danger, too, has evolved, with a sword in its arms, killing the Kaiju as it is lifted up to the atmosphere.
As Dr. Newt and Chau harvest the Kaiju parts, one of it is pregnant and a little Kaiju appears and kills those around. However, the funny part, the baby Kaiju died due to strangulation of the umbilical cord around the neck. But not before swallowing Chau up. Dr. Hermann and Dr. Newton link their brain to the Kaiju. They learned the Kaiju are harvested by another alien to take over earth. The aliens send in Kaiju to scout earth, destroy its inhabitants and rule or take over earth so that they can enter the Breach and inhabit it themselves. So this means, the plan to nuke the Breach will not cause the wormhole to collapse. It won't work.
Striker and Gipsy enter the sea heading to the Breach. Striker now is piloted by Chuck Hansen and Pentecost, due to Herc's injured hand from the previous battle at Hong Kong. The Breach is guarded by Kaijus. Kaijus attack the Jaegers.  At this point, a level 5 Kaiju appears. Biggest and strongest. Striker sacrifices itself by blowing up the nuke. We see Chuck humbled, he was previously all high and mighty. As Striker is blown up, it gives Gipsy a chance to enter the Breach. However, only a Kaiju can enter the Breach. Gipsy attacks one of the, still alive, Kaiju and goes through the Breach into the alien place. As oxygen is running out, Raleigh ejects Mako into the escape pod, he can't self destruct automatically, so he has to do it manually, and escapes on the pod. Gipsy Danger detonates, destroying the alien home world. Raleigh and Mako escapes the wormhole before it collapse completely. They are rescued.
This movie is said to be like Ultraman or Transformers. However, it isn't. Especially, given the fact that the Jaeger is way bigger than the Transformers and Jaegers are controlled by humans, instead of an alien being using human as host for Ultraman. Still, Ultraman and Transformers are great in their movies too.
This movie is cool in its effects and I've seen it twice, so far!

Now You See Me

"Come in closer, because the more you think you see, the easy it'll be to fool you" (Morgan Freeman's opening line from the trailer).

Now You See Me stars Isla Fisher (sexy!), Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Caine, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and many more.

The movie starts off with J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) showing a card trick with the opening line "the closer you look, the less you’ll see". He flips through a deck of cards, the audience remembers a card, and it is shown on the side of the building. And if you're watching the film, I bet you were seeing the same card as well (I was). Next was Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) handcuff and drop into the casing of water with piranhas on top. If she can't escape in time, the piranhas will be release into the case. The piranhas was released and I thought that was a quick death within the first 5 minutes of the film. But it was just a magic trick. She appeared within the crowds. There is also Jack Wilder, who was doing another card trick but his trick was exposed. So he walked away. But the person who exposed his trick was robber by Jack. Next character, Merritt McKinney, he is seen as a hypnotist. He hypnotize a couple, the husband was cheating on the wife, Merritt ask the husband to pay him if the husband wants the wife to forget.

Each of these magicians are followed by a mysterious person in a hood. And each are given a Tarot card representing a different meaning. They are brought together by a mysterious benefactor. A year later, they perform under the name "The Four Horsemen" sponsored by Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine). The Four Horsemen invite an audience on stage and teleport him to his bank in Paris. All the money are vacuum, the selected audience put his ticket as proof, the bank opens and saw the ticket, and the money vacuumed are showered onto the crowd in the magic show (Las Vegas).

The FBI steps in to investigate, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and partnered with Interpol Agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). In the scene where the Four Horsemen are interrogated, Atlas changed his handcuffs onto Rhodes. The Four Horsemen are released with no proofs to the Paris bank robbery. Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) meets Rhodes and explains that he can debunked the Four Horsemen's magic. Bradley is an ex-magician who debunks magic tricks to make money.

On the next performance of the Four Horsemen, Bradley, Dray, and Rhodes joins in to see what's their next magic trick. The magic is to make every audience's bank account be filled with money. I wish it was true for my account. During the performance, Merritt hypnotize a few audience to tackle (American Football / Rugby) anyone who yells 'Freeze'.  The Four Horsemen invites their sponsor, Tressler onto the the stage. They show his bank account amount on a giant placard. The number magically changes, reducing Tressler's money in the bank. The Four Horsemen said that the money is in return to those in the audience that have been denied from Tressler's company. Rhodes chases and yells 'Freeze'. The audience that was earlier hypnotized tackle Rhodes.

Dray gets into the magic and learns a thing or too. She further learns that there is a group called 'The Eye' that is a secret society of magicians. Somehow there was a link to a magician who died in the past, Lionel Shrike, whom was exposed by Bradley. Shrike died when he was challenged and humiliated by Bradley. Tressler hires Bradley to help expose the Four Horsemen.

Rhodes locates the Four Horsemen's hideout in the city itself. The rest manage to escape except Wilder. Wilder steals a car, FBI gives chase, Wilder's car hits the road divider and flips. Rhodes manages to take a blueprint. The FBI finds out that the Four Horsemen are targeting a safe, they interrupt the safe en route to 5 Pointz, and found it empty. Rhodes suspects that there could be a fifth Horsemen that manipulates the FBI and is controlling the whole case. Rhodes becomes obsess with the case. However, another FBI team takes over when their case somehow links to Rhodes' case. 

In their final performance, the Four (or three) Horsemen jumps off the rooftop and turns into money raining down on the audiences. Rhodes finally shows defeat to the case as he feels the Horsemen keeps on outwitting him. However, the money raining down appears to be fake. As Bradley returns to his car, the real money pops up along with FBI agents to arrest him. Bradley was framed.

In prison, Bradley is visited by Rhodes. He makes a deal with Rhodes to expose the Four Horsemen's magic trick in return of getting out of prison. However, Bradley is still puzzled as to why did the Horsemen went through all the trouble and meticulous planning. Rhodes, who was in the prison with Bradley, suddenly appears outside the prison and Bradley is surprised. Bradley soon realises that Rhodes is the fifth Horsemen and the one behind the whole plan.

As the Four Horsemen reunites (Wilder returns. He fakes his death). They are reunited at a funfair by the merry-go-round. With their Tarot cards, it unlocks the card in the tree and turns on the merry-go-round. Rhodes appears and reveals that he was the mysterious benefactor bringing them together to get back at the people that cause Shrike's humiliation and death. Shrike, being Rhodes' father. The Paris bank, Tressler's company who refuses to pay the death insurance, the company that produced the safe for Shrike's trick and Bradley for exposing Shrike's trick. Rhodes tells the Four Horsemen that The Eye recruited him and invites them to join. The end is Dray meets Rhodes at the Seine River.

It was a great movie about magic. The plot was good and definitely interesting how the twist turn out.

Man Of Steel

One of the most anticipated movie of 2013. Superman, or rather, Man of Steel. This is the first movie that does not use 'Superman' as its title. But we all know 'Man of Steel' refers to the guy in the red cape. This movie stars Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Russell Crowe as Jor-El and many other stars.
This movie is a fresh take on the Superman film series as it looks into introducing Superman in a new limelight. I would say, Man of Steel may seem new but it kept the essence of the Man of Steel. Like Zack Snyder, the director, wanted Superman to keep the essence of who he is.
Here are a few info of the film (spoilers ahead!):

1. Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite (pieces of his home world, Krypton, that crash landed to earth). As in the comics, it is widely known that Superman gets weak with Kryptonite around. In Man of Steel, we don't see Kryptonites but the essence of Kryptonite is there, when the Man of Steel was introduced to his home world's atmosphere in General Zod's ship, the Man of Steel became weak. General Zod and his team are in a Kryptonite ship that regulates the atmosphere in the ship to suit them. In one scene, we see Man of Steel coughing, it shows the human side of him because he has been growing up in earth's atmosphere, hence, he has become adaptable.
2. Perry White isn't white. Laurence Fishburne plays a good Perry White. As the head of Daily Planet, I'm sure you would have to be firm yet considerate.
3. Pete Ross, the boy that Clark saved. When Clark was young, he was in a bus that feel off the bridge and he had to save everyone. One of them was Pete Ross. Pete Ross, is Clark's good friend, who later married Lana Lang (Clark's love interest in high school). In Smallville, Pete Ross was the best friend of Clark.
4. Man of Steel has the essence of intelligence. In comics, Man of Steel gets all his knowledge from his father through the fortress of solitude (Superman's hiding place on earth, sometimes said to be in the Arctic, or Antarctic) through crystals (kinda like USB drives) containing all the knowledge of Krypton and Earth prepared by his father. In the movie, he was smart to understand and explain the plan to destroy General Zod and his team, by creating a black hole using the hyper-drive of the ship.
5. 'S' on his chest means hope on his world. On earth, it's still an 'S'. That's why the first scene to call him 'Superman' was one of the soldiers on the phone. "That's what they are calling him".
6. There's a sign 'LexCorp'. LexCorp is the company of Lex Luthor. This was seen in the battle between Superman and General Zod, when General Zod kicked a tanker towards Superman. Could it be an introduction to Lex Luthor in the next sequel? Because in this movie, Superman have yet to become the quirky reporter at the Daily Planet, not until the end of the movie.
7. There's a sign 'Wayne Enterprise'. Wayne Entreprise is Bruce Wayne's company. Bruce Wayne is Batman. The sign was seen when one of the satellite was destroyed.
8. The Man of Steel kills. In the end, Superman had to decide between his race or the human race. The scene was General Zod, after quickly picking up his super-abilities, about to kill a group of humans. So Superman, twisted Zod's neck. Superman screamed as a sign of remorse of not having anyone else from his race and "if only Zod understands". All of his team was already sucked into the phantom zone / black hole.
9. You'll see Clark carrying Lois' bags when she arrived at the Arctic.
10. His identify was quickly known by Lois Lane. Talk about a good reporter. Even though some knows his identify, but they would keep it a secret for what he has done for them. Kinda like Spiderman, when his masks was revealed on the train when he was saving people on the train.

The movie starts as similar to the introduction of Superman in other movies. It has more emphasis of Krypton and his race. Jor-El speaks to the council to save Krypton and give him the codex (containing Krypton's genetic codex). Krypton faces a threat similar to Earth, the natural resources are depleting. General Zod comes in to declare mutiny towards the council for not preserving Krypton as it should be. Jor-El is captured and returns to his home. He quickly goes to retrieve the codex and infuse it into his son, Kal-El. Zod comes and kills Jor-El. Enough time to release the pod containing Kal-El. The council captures Zod and his team and imprison them in the phantom zone, while Krypton blows up.

On earth, Clark grows up but with the frustration of restraining to not use his powers and learning to control new abilities. He grows up working odd jobs. One of the odd jobs was to help carry stuff at the Arctic. He found that the research being done at the Arctic was an alien ship which was a Kryptonian ship. On the ship, as his 'S' crystal seems to fit into the ship's panel, Jor-El consciousness appears and teaches him the answers he seeks. Lois, as a reporter would do, follows this man in the night into the ship. And later wrote the story and pass to Perry. Perry rejects the news. Lois sends it through a blogger. But after finding out the real identify of Superman, she retracts the news from Perry. Perry sense she knows who the hero is.

General Zod arrives on earth after searching endlessly for Kal-El. Superman gives himself up to save earth. And Lois Lane is also brought to Zod's Kryptonian ship, which he modified after escaping the phantom zone (when Krypton blew up, it destroyed the device keeping them in the phantom zone, thus, releasing them). On the ship, Lois escapes with the help of Jor-El, telling her where to go, when to shoot and how to defeat Zod and his team. However, Zod wanted to take earth's resources and change its atmosphere into Krypton's atmosphere by using a gigantic drill or 'world engine'. And Zod wanted to find the codex to rebuild Krypton. He believes the codex is in Superman's ship. When they found out where Superman's ship was, they came to the Kent's farm and about to attack Martha Kent when Superman appears. And so, the fight scenes begin. Starting with Faora and another tall crew against Superman at Smallville. Superman defeats Faora, convincing to the humans that he come in peace. He's the good guy.

As they learn how to defeat Zod, Superman heads over to the world engine to destroy it. Of course, there was a self-defense mechanism that attacked Superman while surviving because the atmosphere around the world engine was Krypton's, which Superman is not used to...*cough, cough*. After destroying it, and the army (Christopher Meloni's character died an honourable death sacrificing himself) send in Superman's ship to interrupt the hyper-drive and creating the black hole, Zod was still alive. Zod soon learn to control his new abilities on earth, tells Superman that he is a trained military person who have make it his point to control himself and learn fast in any situation.

They fight, drop into the train station, Zod uses his heat vision to convince Superman to decide, Krypton's race or human race. Superman twist Zod's neck and screams. As the city rebuilds, we see everyone going back to normal. The army sends drones to find out where Superman lives, but gets destroyed by Superman. And, finally, we see a new reporter at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent.