The LEGO Movie

The Lego Movie. That's the name of the movie. Simple and direct. It's a Lego movie. Of course it's animated. It stars the voice of Christ Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and many more.
The movie starts with the evil Lord Business stealing the 'Kragle' from the wizard Vitruvius. It is said that the 'Kragle' will destroy their world. Vitruvius warns Lord Business of a prophecy that the 'Special' will find the Piece of Resistance and stop Lord Business.
8 and a half years later, we are introduced to Emmet Brickowski, an ordinary construction worker. He starts his day going through instructions; waking up, saying 'hi' to the neighbours, watch tv (Where's My Pants?), and yet talk to his plant which was supposed to be having fun with his loved ones. As he starts his day at work, the whole working community sings the same song..."everything is awesome!". He even said that he can sing it all day, which was what really happen about 5 hours later.
After work, Emmet wants to join the guys of the construction crew for some drinks but he gets ignored. He saw that there was someone (Wyldstyle) snooping around the construction site. He gets mesmerized with Wyldstyle's beauty and trip into a hole and gets visions. He awakens in a interrogation room with Bad Cop / Good Cop (split personality cop). Since it's Lego, the cop's head will spin to reveal whether he's bad cop or good cop. Emmet gets interrogated and found out that President Business is planning to destroy the world with the 'Kragle'. Wyldstyle enters and rescues Emmet. As they escape, Wyldstyle is able to build a getaway vehicle. Hence, she is one of the 'Master Builders'. Master Builders are those that can build anything without instructions, unlike Emmet. It is revealed that Lord Business has a vault of items that are alien to the Lego people. However, it's actually human items, such as plaster, diskette, coin, etc...The Kragle, you can see is actually smudged for 'Krazy Glue'. Lord Business uses it on Bad Cop's parents. Sticking them to their Lego pieces. And erases Good Cop, using a solvent and wiping Good Cop's face off.
Wyldstyle brings Emmet to meet Vitruvius. Vitruvius reveals the prophecy. There's a scene where they enter Emmet's mind and there was nothing. They realise Emmet has no creativity and not a Master Builder. However, they are ambushed by Bad Cop. As they escape, they are assisted by Batman, who's Wyldstyle's boyfriend.
They reach Cloud Cuckooland and gather the other Master Builders. As they meet, Emmet reveals he is not the 'Special'. And once again, gets ambushed by Bad Cop using a tracker on Emmet's feet. Cloud Cuckooland is destroyed with them narrowly escaping into the sea. However, they took damage and the ship exploded. They are saved by using Emmet's double bunker sofa. Something so simple and ignored by the cops. They are saved by Metal Beard (pirate). They regroup and realised that simplicity is the key. By following instructions, they would be regarded as just another Lego piece.
They plan the attack. Successfully enter Lord Business' building and just about to attached the Piece of Resistance, when the plan fail and they get caught. Vitruvius attempts to fight Lord Business but gets beheaded by a coin thrown by Lord Business. Vitruvius reveals that the prophecy was actually made up by him. Emmet is disappointed. Lord Business throws the Piece of Resistance to the edge of the universe (just at the bottom of his building). Lord Business activates the self-destruct button and unleashes the Kragle (Lord Business following the scene from Clash of the Titans, "Unleash the Kraken").
Vitruvius' ghost comes to Emmet and tell him that he still can save the world because it is through believing in himself that he can do wonders..."it's from a cat poster".
Emmet sacrifices himself and plunge into the edge of the universe and he is strapped to the battery that powers the self-destruct. The other Master Builders are freed while fighting off Lord Business. Lego people started to defend themselves by building creative weapons.
For Emmet, he enters the human world. He is just a Lego piece like what we see. Still, there's life in him. Of course he can't really move. If the Lego piece moves in real life, it would be freaky, yet, could be a new technology. Emmet sees that a boy is playing with the Lego pieces. And 'The Man Upstairs' is actually his father. The father tells his son that the Lego pieces are meant to be just the way they are. The son was being creative to build other things from the normal instructions of building Lego. The father ignores and wants everything to be as it is, just like Lord Business. So, the father starts to put everything back to its place and gluing them. In the Lego world, micro managers (which is actually human hands in real life) are putting everything back and gluing them down. Emmet, realising he needs to stop this, wills himself off the table and the little boy picks him up and puts him back on the Lego pieces (transporting him back to Lego world). As he enters the Lego world, he started to see visions of building structures. He started to build.
Emmet confronts Lord Business and tells him to end this. In mirrors the real life of the son talking to his father.
Emmet (son) convinces Lord Business. Lord Business (father) starts to realise that Lego should be played creatively. Lord Business uses the Piece of Resistance and plugs the Kragle. Lord Business unfreezes the Lego people (father uses solvent to remove the glue).
As the Lego world celebrates, so does the father and son playing with the Lego pieces. However, the father said, perhaps there can be another person joining them to play Lego...his sister!. In the Lego world, an alien race, Duplo is beemed down and tells the Lego people that they are here to invade them. So you can imagine a little baby sister coming to play with her big brother...disaster!
The movie was fun to watch. The graphics is great by using everything made of Lego. Even when Emmet was showering, the water were Lego pieces changing from blue (water) to white (bubbles). The movie has references to other movies and characters, such as "Unleash the Kragle", super heroes such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, etc...
A movie worth watching.

Here's the trailer:

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.