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?

Movies and Series Fan

Hi..I'm a fan of movies and series. This page is dedicated to sharing my reviews or synopsis of movies and series I love to watch. I'm into great movies; action, thriller, romance, inspirational, cartoons, etc...There may be spoilers in my page :) Feel free to browse through my page!