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.

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.

Unknown

Unknown, is an action movie starring Liam Neeson. The movie was great because it has more hand combat compared to using gadgetry in fighting scenes. Good old ass-kicking. However, at the start of the movie, Liam doesn’t posses ‘a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career’.

The general story of this movie is Liam’s character, Dr. Martin Harris, comes to Berlin, with his wife, Elizabeth, as a speaker at a Bio Tech conference. Upon arriving at the hotel, Martin realises his suitcase is not with him and could be at the airport. However, on the way to the airport, he encounters an accident. The driver, Gina, ran away while Martin is treated by the medical team. He was in a coma and woken up to find his identity has been stolen by another person, his wife doesn’t recognise him. No one could vouch for him in Berlin. The only person he could trust at that point was Rodney Cole, his friend/colleague/boss, whom Martin called. Martin goes through great lengths to prove that he really is Dr. Martin Harris. When he returned to the hotel, he goes to find his wife but, suddenly, his wife doesn't recognise him and another Dr. Martin Harris appears. Martin is sure it is a lie. But then with quick thinking, he says he needs to get back to the hospital. He goes back to the hospital, with the help of the nurse, she gave Martin a contact that can help him. Her contact, Ernst Jurgen, can find what he needs. The doctor wanted to check Martin's MRI, however, they are attack by an assassin. The assassin drugged Martin. However, Martin manage to escape. He tries to piece the puzzle together and remembered the taxi drive, Gina (played by Diane Kruger). And he tracks her down, she doesn't wants to help but end up helping him. Martin thinks his wife is threatened. However, it was learned that she's part of the bad guy. They (Elizabeth and the copycat Martin) were there to robbed Prof. Bressler of his research. They were hired by anonymous employer (makes you wonder, could this lead to Unknown sequel? To find out who the anonymous employer is?). Ernst helps Martin. It is revealed that the plan was to kill the prince that contributes to the conference. Rodney appeared in Berlin and meets Ernst. Ernst reveals that his investigation led him to find out of a secret operation where Rodney and his team infiltrate the conference. It's a covert team that are rarely heard by people. Ernst, a war person himself, reveals to Rodney and ask what happens if Martin knows? And Ernst commits suicide by taking cyanide. Rodney meets Martin at the airport and kidnaps him. Gina saw the kidnapping and followed. Rodney tells Martin the truth and says that Martin was his best before he hit his head and think he really was Martin Harris. Gina comes and rescues. Martin realises that he used to be a spy and he didn't like what he knows. But Gina convince Martin to stop his initial mission at Berlin. Martin goes back to the hotel. It is revealed, however, that the plan was not to kill the prince, but was to use it as a cover up to steal Bressler's research. His research was creating crops that can grow in harsh environments.

At the party, Elizabeth downloads Bressler's files from his laptop by using Bressler's password (the flower names in Martin's book, which is also his daughter's name). Martin tells the hotel security the story and check old recordings of him when Elizabeth and Martin was in Berlin. As Martin interrupts, and the plan of bombing the suite fails, Elizabeth goes back to off the bomb, but she failed. The bomb causes the hotel suite to blow up and damages to the hotel. Martin and the copycat Martin gets into a fight. As Martin hits his head, he gets his memory back. And he tells the copycat, "I didn't forget everything. I still remember how to kill you!".

Going for a sequel? It might be possible if there was an expansion of other characters that may be involved with Liam’s character. And perhaps to answer, who was the anonymous employer of Martin's mission?

Sanctum

Sanctum is a movie directed by James Cameron. The movie is about a group of people led by a cave explorer specialist / master diver. However, they got trapped. And the whole story would revolve around finding a way out and in the process every person’s life is revealed, disputes happen and people die.

The movie starts off introducing each character and straight to the cave exploration bit. Character development wise was average. The stars of the movie was the one bringing the movie to stand out but apart from that, take them out and the movie may fail. The great thing about the movie are the effects from James Cameron, as we may remember from Titanic. As the movie moves on, it couldn't be worse than having flash floods in the cave. The cave begins to flood, the storm worsen, and chances of escaping the cave became difficult. For the ending, it was, like, what? that’s the ending? Only one person escaped; the son. He found an opening, reached the beach and people nearby is seen coming to his rescue.

If you’re into body parts being chopped off, bones poking out of the body, people falling off from high places while seeing their body hit against rocks and sound of bones cracking, then you can enjoy the movie. For me, it was kind of gory. Why? Because the movie really shows you what happen in any accidents that happened. Eww…Every new place they find in the caves will only end up with someone dying. I guess perhaps that’s why they call it ‘Sanctum’, which means sacred place.

As the movie is in 3D, that really brings the effects to life. You’ll be watching it feeling chills down your spine when something sudden happen or even feel breathless when they dive under water. 3D movies are getting popular with new movies coming up.

After Earth

After Earth is a movie by M. Night Shyamalan starring father-son; Will Smith and Jaden Smith. It is basically a story about human beings forced to leave earth a thousand years after environmental cataclysmic events. One day a military father and his son crash landed on Earth. In this movie, it is also a story of a son proving to his father that he can be a soldier just like his father.
The story begins a thousand years after the environmental cataclysmic event. The Ranger Corps, headed by General Cypher Raige, fights the Skrel, an alien race who wants to conquer the Nova Prime. Nova Prime is the new world for humans. Cypher, in the fight with Ursas, Skrel's secret weapon to kill the humans, teaches 'ghosting' to the new Rangers. However, Cypher's son, Kitai, was not a pride of his due to his recklessness.  His sister, Senshi, was killed by an Ursa. Due to this, Kitai keeps training to prove his worth.
On a mission together, their ship crash landed on a Class-1 quarantined planet, known as Earth. Cypher and Kitai are trapped on Earth. Cypher encounters injuries to his legs causing him immobility. So it's up to Kitai to find a backup beacon that was part of the ship.
As Kitai embarks on his journey, he encounters wild animals. Kitai's weapon, Cutlass (long pointy stick like a javelin). As Cypher told his son, "Everything on this planet has evolved to kill humans.". In one incident, Kitai is attacked and his capsules (for oxygen) are damaged. Cypher accepting the reality, asked Kitai to abort mission and return back. However, Kitai ignores his orders because Kitai still feels that his father sees him as a disappointment. So, Kitai charges on with his mission. He is, then, captured by a condor when he skydives from a mountaintop (there's a scene in the trailer). In the condor's nest, Kitai encounters a group of tigers coming after the next. He defended the nest but still the eggs were destroyed. However, the condor understand Kitai's effort. In one scene, Kitai fell asleep on the raft he made to cross the river, Kitai had a dream of his sister, Senshi, whom assured Kitai it isn't his fault. As Kitai awakes, Earth experiences another thermal shift (it happens once in awhile throughout the movie. Thermal shift causes the temperature to drop). As he tries to survive the thermal shift, the condor returns to save him but it died in the process.
Kitai finally finds the backup beacon along with a weapon, communicator and more capsules. Kitai also finds that the ship was carrying Ursa that was meant to train the Rangers. But because the ship crashes, the Ursa escapes and kills all the crew. Kitai tries to activate the beacon but couldn't (there wasn't any signal). So Kitai had to go to the nearby volcano. He is attacked by the escaped Ursa. Kitai remembered his father's instructions and his sister's words. He 'ghost' himself and kills the Ursa.
It ends with Kitai launches beacon, Cypher respects Kitai, and both return to Nova Prime.
Throughout the movie, it explores a father-son relationship. It's a new take in father-son relationship-type-movie in a futuristic scene. It was average for a futuristic movie but wasn't the best especially coming from a director that has been seen to have taken a turn in making sold out movies. Shyamalan, in his early directing years, made good-thought-provoking movies, but nowadays, you'll probably think twice before watching his movies. Actors, however, were A-list actors but reports says that this movie was not the best for them.
Anyways, here's the trailer:

Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles or World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles or Battle: LA (Battle: LA seems more nicer to say), is a sci-fi war film. In most sci-fi war film, the army have to be involved and this film follows the U.S. Marines.

Marine Staff Sergeant, Michael Nantz (played by Aaron Eckhart), just got his retirement approved, just to find that the aliens are invading. Hence, he joins in to fend of the aliens with the platoon. Throughout the war, they encounter different scenarios; finding people stuck and rescuing them, getting caught in the hospital, fighting on land in different landmarks of LA, and finding out the alien’s weakness; the supposedly area of the heart. There was a friction between Staff Sergeant and the platoon because one of the platoon member's brother passed away under Staff Sergeant's command and they blame him. However, as the platoon leader blow up himself to save the platoon and survivors, Staff Sergeant is forced to lead the platoon. He showed great dedication and told them that he did not forget everyone that died under his command, showing that he is blaming himself more than anyone else. The platoon soon respect him and follow his lead. As they are rescued by a helicopter, hovering over an area which was seen as having a weird blackout area, Staff Sergeant sacrificed his freedom home in order to recon the area. The platoon showed their loyalty by following Staff Sergeant to recon the area; the alien's command control. As they recon the area, they mark the area and have to fight off the aliens while air strike is on the way.

Overall, the movie wasn't that gross, as other alien films where you see bodies being ripped apart or alien’s head gets blown off. Although there are those occasions but it wasn't too much. In the movie as well talks about Sgt. Michael ability to lead the platoon because he wasn't the leader at first. There are other stars in the movie, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo, Ramon Rodriguez (from Transformers 2) and Michelle Rodriguez. The film was good, but at times predictable as to what was going to happened next. It combines fighting the aliens and the story of the platoon growing as a platoon.

The ending? It was alright for an ending. Most films would show how the aliens were destroyed or leaving planet, but this one had a continuation. After finding the alien’s weakness, the platoon still want to fight on. I guess, once a Marine, always a Marine (even if you’re retired).

Rio

Rio is a movie about Blu (voice by Jesse Eisenberg), a rare bird, the Macaw, that was kidnapped when he a small and accidentally dropped in the small town of Moose Lake, Minnesota. He was later found by a little girl, Linda (voice by Sofia Scarpa Saldanha (young Linda) and by Leslie Mann (grown up Linda)) and they grew up together. Eventually, from growing up with the little girl, the bird becomes domesticated.

One day, an ornithologist visits them and reveals Blu as the last male of his kind and request for Blu to come to his lab and mate with a female Macaw, Jewel (voice by Anne Hathaway), to preserve their species. Upon arriving to Rio and the lab, both Blu and Jewel are kidnapped by smugglers and, thus, begins their adventure.

The whole movie was fun to watch. Seeing that it’s a Rio setting, there’s colours and music. The bad guys are a fun to watch too, including the rejected bird, Nigel. He was a star before helping to capture exotic birds for his master. Along the way to escape from the smugglers, it won’t be complete with friends. Blu met Nico (voice by Jamie Foxx), Pedro (voice by Will.I.Am), Luiz (voice by Tracy Morgan) and Rafael (voice by George Lopez). One scene that was romantic for this movie was when Blu wanted to tell Jewel how he feels, assisted by Nico and Pedro’s serenade.

Overall, the movie is fun to watch and worth to watch for a second time.

Transformers 3 : Dark of the Moon

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. It has been heavily promoted, change of stars, new stars, new cars, all action into the third installment of the Transformers franchise.

This movie starts from the Apollo 11 mission that was intended not to put the first man on the moon but to investigate an unknown crash on the moon. Although they say the name ‘Neil’, but it doesn’t imply it is Neil Armstrong. Even so, ‘first man on the moon’, it’s obvious. So, the astronauts went to the moon, found a wrack craft, take some samples home and keep it a secret til the day they die.

Moving to the present day, where Sam has a new girlfriend, Carly, and in dire need to find a job. How come he doesn’t get a job after saving the world? Because none of it never happened. His parents, however, is rich. The girlfriend works for a car collector and racer. The Autobots find Sentinel Prime, former Autobot leader. Anyways, to sum it all up, Sam stumbles upon Decepticons plans to use the Pillars from the space craft, Arc, to transport Decepticons to Earth. Sentinel Prime betrays Autobots because his intention is to preserve Cybertronian race. Carly’s boss is the human liaison for Decepticons. Conflict happens between Autobots and humans, Autobots get exiled from Earth. Somehow, they return, fight the Decepticons and win the war.

The movie packs a lot of action every now and then. However, I can understand why some Transformers fan didn’t like the movie. To me, one let down was when Optimus Prime uses armours from the trailer and it only last few seconds; after putting them on, slash some Decepticons and takes of the armour and continue killing some more Decepticons. The armour looks cool but it only lasted few seconds? This happens twice.

Besides that, was the battle at the end, where Optimus uses his full armour, including flight suit but got entangled in some construction wires. It was cool to watch and, yes, it lasted awhile. While his team gets trashed by Decepticons, he is still hanging on the construction wires. Until the last minute when Bumblebee was almost killed that Optimus comes to the rescue and kills most of the Decepticons.

The new squeeze, Carly. Indirectly, she was the one that wins the war. How? By being smart and telling the soldiers what to do and by telling Megatron that he should be ruler, not Sentinel. Kind of like a small little conscience to everyone.

For me, the whole movie is great in terms of being an action packed movie. However, story line wise, was kind of more action-ish. One point being, ‘Are there anymore secrets that Decepticons have that could possibly take over the world?’

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

This movie’s title speaks for itself; Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. The whole movie revolves around how the apes rise above all else to make ‘Evolution to Revolution’. Hence, the tagline.

The movie begins with Will Rodman (James Franco), a scientist finding a cure to Alzhemier for his dad, uses apes as the test subjects through the invention of ALZ-112. When an ape goes loose and create havoc, his research is shut down. However, the ape that created havoc was only doing it to protect her baby. The baby is smuggled out of the lab and looked after by Will. He named the ape Caesar after the dad was quoting from the literature of Caesar. After years, he learned that the virus introduce to the mummy ape is inherited by the baby making the ape intelligent. This prompts the doctor to try it on his dad. And it works…at first. The human antibodies reacts to protect the body (which is a good thing because at least we know our antibodies work). However, for the apes, they gain intelligence. With that, they aren’t pets anymore.

Then they went on a rampage to reach the woods but is stopped by humans. The whole rise of the apes movie revolves on the beginning of the rise. It ends with a possible sequel. One thing that was cool, the ape can talk, only Caesar though. The first words ‘NO!’. All they wanted was to return home; ‘Caesar is home’ (another word mentioned by Caesar).

Upon reading through websites,this movie was intended to be an alternative to the previous movie. To me, it’s kind of like the previous movie where the astronaut return to a different world. So, imagine this new movie as another alternative earth.

Overall, the movie displays a good balance that animals are not violent for the wrong reason, just based on instincts and some human touch to it. For human, a balance of not all are violent too. The movie is interesting to watch but it is a 50-50 decision if I want to watch for a second time because some movies is just suited to watched once.

Movies and Series Fan

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