Snow White and the Hunstman

Expectations:

After watching nothing but the trailer for Mirror Mirror with Julia Roberts, it was fairly simple to choose which 2012 Snow White movie was for me. I mean, come on Julia! That was just awful! Even with the obvious avoidance of Mirror Mirror, on my part, I wasn't uber thrilled to see Snow White and the Huntsman. The main reason I wasn't excited about the film was the setting. For some unknown reason, I cannot stand movies set in medieval times. Hollywood has been off of the medieval kick for a while now, but they will still throw one at us every once in a while. Maybe it is the appropriate setting for the story, but it's not a setting that I love. And we all know that it's all about pleasing me...

Plot:

To be honest, the plot wasn't too, too bad. This is really where I thought Snow White would fall short of satisfactory. I mean it's hard to make an already famous story MORE interesting in any way possible. However, the entire vibe of the film added a unique, mystical feel to the traditional story. You might ask how a "fairy" tale could become even more mystical, yet Snow White did so by bringing in almost the exact same feel of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The visual effects were done so well that the story was almost unimportant. I was only focused on how they went about displaying said story for the moviegoers. Was it an Oscar-winning story? Heck no! But it certainly exceeded my expectations.

Characters:

Where Snow White was successful in the story-telling category, they failed to be in the category of creating interesting characters. As usual, Kristin Stewart utilized her no-talking, let's-just-make-distraught-faces acting methods, which I have never enjoyed. Chris Hemsworth is not really a good actor (he was the low point in The Avengers), and that showed yet again in this film. While Charlize Theron's Ravenna was a very good creation, her performance was quite lacking. There were just too many dorky, stupid moments that could have been avoided if a better actress were chosen.

Best Character: I did enjoy the more dramatic, yet still goofy, take on the seven dwarfs. Without having seen them in the previews, I was wondering if they would even appear in the film, so it was a nice relief when they showed up.

Worst Character: Sam Claflin's William is the easy choice for worst (absolutely stupidest) character. I had no idea why he was even a part of the storyline. If you take him away, the movie would be twice as good.

Conclusion:

While it wasn't a complete flop, Snow White and the Huntsman had too many flaws to deserve too much praise. Whoever did the casting should probably be fired. Of course, Kristen Stewart was cast for the purpose of seducing the thousands of mindless teenagers into watching a movie that they would otherwise have no interest in. Those poor, poor girls! The medieval feel was a bit much for me, at times, but the fantastic visual effects made up for that for the most part. I'm sure it was at least 100 times better than Mirror Mirror. I give Snow White and the Huntsman 2.67 out of 5 stars, and urge you to avoid Kristen Stewart at all cost!



Prometheus

Expectations:
After seeing the many trailers and promo videos for Promotheus, I couldn't help but get very, very excited to see the movie. While science fiction isn't my absolute favorite, when done correctly, it can make some of the most amazing films of all time. I wasn't exactly expecting Prometheus to be one of the most amazing films of all time, but I did expect it to possibly be the best film of the summer (a summer that includes The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises). Damon Lindelof, who co-wrote the film, has one of the most spectacular minds in the history of writing (Can somebody say LOST???), and, with him at the helm, I knew I would not be bored or able to completely understand the movie. Whether you like Alien or not, as this film is an Alien prequel, it looked as if you would be able to enjoy this film. So, in the spirit of all things movies, I hopped on a flight to NYC and enjoyed Prometheus in IMAX 3D!... That rhymed, and I didn't notice until I was proofing...

Plot:
While the plot certainly wasn't as shallow as Dinocroc or Sharktopus, it wasn't quite as deep as I would have liked. There were certain elements that were left very abstract or unexplained, but they just weren't the right elements. The plot and the unexplained had the potential to be so, so, so good, but it just kind of fell into the good range. However, there were many good aspects of the films as well. While there was a love connection, they didn't dwell on it for too long, which helped make it feel real. The coolest parts, in my opinion, were the moments when you were a bit grossed out, but you couldn't look away. With the advancements in technology since the original Alien film, I felt that Ridley Scott and crew did a great job of not trying to stay too true to the original. It wasn't an extreme change (cough, cough Star Wars), but it was enough to make people in the 21st century enjoy the visual elements.

Characters:
I'm going to be honest with you here and say that I'm not a huge fan of female leads in action films. If Katniss had been a boy, The Hunger Games probably would have been better. Given that girls always bring some extra form of emotion to the film, it is usually hard to see them as tough. This was not the case (at all) with Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw. She was plenty tough. Tougher than almost any character I have ever seen. The most amazing scene of the film (which I won't spoil) involves her doing something that made me want to stand up out of my seat and yell "You go girl!" Rapace was just fantastic in the lead. Aside from Idris Elba's Janek, Logan Marshal-Green's Charlie Hollaway, and the following best and worst characters, there weren't too many big characters in the film, which deviated greatly from the original Alien. In the original, everybody was given almost equal time on the screen until they bit the dust, but that was not the case with Prometheus. There were some characters that I had no clue existed until they were dying. I didn't like that these secondary characters had no purpose.

Best Character: Just from watching this video, I knew exactly who I was going to be giving this high honor to, before I even watched the film. David, played by Michael Fassbender, was eerily fantastic. If you go see the film, you will understand why he needed to be in every scene and should get a spin-off or something. It would be great!

Worst Character: While Charlize Theron isn't one of my favorite actors, I didn't think she was going to be awful in this film. Boy was I wrong. Her character, Meredith Vickers, was absolutely useless. I kept waiting for her to have some huge secret or something, but her one big scene was easily predictable (even with my brain malfunctioning at 2 a.m.).

Conclusion:
Prometheus isn't going to go down as the best film of the summer, but it will probably go down as the best sci-fi film of the year. There were many moments that stretched the bounds of comprehension and connection, with relation to the original. However, when the final scene began, you felt like your time was well spent to that point. I wish there would have been a little bit more to the film, but you can't always get what you want. The biggest problem that I had was how rushed every scene seemed to be in the final 40 minutes of the film. I give Prometheus 3.28 stars out of 5. Go watch it, and see if you agree!