Dawn of the Planet of the Ape (2014)

Synopsis
Caesar (Andy Serkis) and the apes are living peacefully believing that there are no more humans on Earth. Soon they encounter a group of humans and they both have to decide whether they can live knowing they both exist or not.

My Verdict
I was very pleased with this movie. This is what I expected the sequal to be like. I have to be honest and say that it was a little predictable, but not so much that I saw everything coming because I didn't. Also the CGI was so good! I mean, those weren't real apes and I had to keep reminding myself that. The only thing that made me mad was the 3D. It was pointless! I spent extra money for 3D and it wasn't even that great. There were moments when 3D would've been perfect and amazing but they didn't use it. So if you're thinking about seeing it in 3D, don't. Also, I stayed til the credits were over because I always think there's going to be something extra now, and there was nothing. There were creepy ape sounds but that was it. They didn't really make you feel like there was another movie coming out next either. I mean, it just ended. There was nothing that made you feel like "uh oh [something crazy] happened and now we have to see what happens next." I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was no cliffhanger and now I don't know if there's going to be a third movie or not.
Now on to the deeper messages of the movie. I heard a lot of people talking about how this movie is anti-gun and I totally saw that. If there were no guns than half of the conflict wouldn't have happened. Actually, there would be no conflict if there were no guns. I think the main message of Rise and Dawn is that, basically, humans ruin everything. Humans were the ones that put the apes in the facility, tested them, and ended up creating a virus that killed more than half the planet. Humans were the ones that took the apes from their natural habitat to do all this testing on them. Humans were the firsts ones to get violent. All the apes wanted to do was live separately in peace. So, the humans ruined everything and brought all this trouble among themselves.
I'm giving this movie a 8.5/10.

Spoilers
I just want to freak out a little because Koba almost killed Caesar! Who cried when that happened and who was shocked when Caesar was actually alive? *raises hand*
Also, I knew that Blue Eyes would end up finding Malcolm and let him go with the medicine for Caesar. That whole part and the part when Caesar came back to fight Koba was predictable and very reminiscent of the Lion King.
One question I have: is there really an army coming? Dreyfus said that they got a hold of people outside of their town and an army was coming, but I got the feeling he was just saying that to scare Malcolm. I guess we'll in the next movie, if there is one.

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Extant

Extant is about Molly Woods (Halle Berry), an astronaut who spent 13 months alone in space and has finally returned home to her family. Two main things we learn is one, her son is a robot made by her husband, John (Goran Visnjic). Their son is the prototype of this Humanichs program that John is the head of. The other thing is that Molly is pregnant. We really don't know how this happened because she was in space for over a year and she was supposed to be alone. These are the main things we know or find out going in to the first episode.
After seeing the first 2 episodes, I am very intrigued. This is very much a Sci-Fi thriller. It has a creepy kid, paranoid people running around, people keeping secrets and many questions that I'm hoping get answered. There were many things seen in the 2 episodes that brought about a lot of questions. I mean for one Molly is pregnant and it's basically impossible, so how did happen and what is she pregnant with? Also the people she works for are very shady. They know things and they speak too vaguely for me. Hopefully as the season goes on we start to get some answers.
I will continue to watch this show and I recommend it especially if you like Sci-Fi. This show is interesting and it's so cool seeing all the new technology, but not all the technology has advanced. They can make it so the animals in a museum looks and act real but for some reason the ultrasound looks like the ones we use today. So, I will still watch and be amazed by the tech and making up my own theories. Check it out and do it fast. There are only 2 episodes and it looks like it's going to get even more crazy next week, so catch up. If you've seen it , what are your thoughts?

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Serenity (2005)

Synopsis
This movie is an extension of the TV series "Firefly." For all those unfamiliar with the show, it is a space western about the crew of the ship called Serenity. Mal (Nathan Fillion) is the leader of the crew which includes Zoe (Gina Torres), Wash (Alan Tudyk), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), Kaylee (Jewel Staite), Inara (Morena Baccarin), Shepherd (Ron Glass), Simon (Sean Maher), and River (Summer Glau). The series follows them in space and all the problems they encounter. It's only 14 episodes so you should definitely check it out.
The movie follows the crew as they are being chased by The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a killer who is after River. The crew has to do everything they can to save her.

My Verdict
This movie was great! It was perfect closure for the series. Watching the series I always felt really stressed out and that didn't change with this move. I really felt like I was watching an epic season ender. Like, this is how the series should've ended. It was fantastic. There was backstory when needed and there was also stuff that messed with my feels. I'll discuss all of this in more detail later.
I'm giving this movie a 8.5/10. It did exactly what I wanted it to and I am now at peace with the series. I'm just really sad it's all over.

Spoilers
So, thank you so much for the backstory on River. And tying it all in with the reavers, and actually seeing the reavers ... YES! I was so happy about this. I know the reavers are super awful humans and seeing them wouldn't be great but I still wanted to know what they looked like. Also, I didn't really know if the were humans or not from the series, but now I know.
We learned so much about River in the one episode than what we got in the entire series. Thank goodness we did because of all the people I wanted to know more about she was at the top of my list.
The two things that really hurt my feelings were Wash and Shepherd dying! Why did they have to die?! That was brutal and I'm not sure if I'm fully over it. I'll be okay though.
So that's that. The end of a series. I will leave you with a quote from the movie that I really liked: "Half of writing history is hiding the truth."

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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Synopsis
The Sentinels and the mutants are fighting in a terrible war. The  Sentinels are out to destroy all the mutants and any humans that help them. To try and prevent this horrible future from happening, Wolverine is sent back in time to stop the one event that caused it.

My Verdict
I thought this movie was good but I didn't think that it was the best thing ever. I know I'm in the minority here, but I wasn't left thinking "oh my gosh that was amazing!" I was really left in a lackluster mood after watching this. I thought it was predictable and I'm going to talk more about that in the spoilers section so I don't ruin anything for those that haven't seen it.
I will say that the graphics/CGI was great! My problem was just with the storyline. For that, I'm giving this movie a 6/10. This is really disappointing because I like the X-Men. Maybe I should start reading the comics. I think I'll do better with them.

Spoilers
Here was my problem with the plot. We knew they had to stop Raven and that they would stop her or the X-Men would be over and the whole movie would be purposeless. So the ending really wasn't a shock to me at all. It would have been more shocking if they couldn't change the past and the X-Men were gone for good. I know that would be really upsetting because there would be no more X-Men movies, but after seeing this, I would be too upset about that.
I wasn't really interested in this storyline. I was more interested in what happened after they stopped Raven than what happened before. And, I would have loved to know why Dr. Trask wanted to destroy the mutants. It was like he hated them but when asked why he did, he said he didn't. That's confusing to me. If you don't hate mutants why do you want them extinct? Can we explore that a little bit?
I'm going to end on a more positive note. My favorite part was when they found Peter and broke Erik out of the Pentagon.
What did you guys think about this movie? Please tell me I'm not the only one who felt this way.

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Oblivion (2013)

Synopsis
It's the year 2077 and Earth has suffered an alien attack that started a war, and the only way the humans could win was to use nuclear bombs. Now the humans are getting ready to leave Earth for good. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a tech that fixes the drones that protect the remaining humans from the Scavs, the alien race still roaming the Earth. Jack lives with his partner/lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). All seems to be going well but Jack is having visions of a woman and doesn't know why. On top of that, a mysterious ship crashes and when Jack goes to check it out he realizes there are human survivors. He's only able to save one who just so happens to look like the woman in his visions. This starts a sequence of events that make Jack question what really happened when the aliens attacked.

My Verdict
It's going to be hard to talk about without spoilers but I'll try. For those who've seen it or don't mind spoilers, we'll talk more below.
I'm giving 7/10 and here's why. I loved the tech, and there are so many twists and turns that it will screw your mind. I mean, I counted and there were about 5 and I saw none of them coming. Everything was fine until the very end. I didn't really like it. Plus, it was a little confusing. I think this is one of those movies that you have to watch twice or read a full movie synopsis to completely understand it.
The movie was good and much better than what I expected. I just wished it didn't end the way it did. I think the twists saved it.

Spoilers
Okay let's talk about these twists. First, the aliens aren't really aliens. Which brings us to the second twist, Jack is actually working for the aliens. The movie would've been fine with just these twist but they didn't stop there.
Twist number three was that Jack was a clone. In fact he and Victoria were both clones! This was a little confusing for me. I thought that he was seeing things at first because he went to the area of radiation, but he wasn't.
Let's talk about the ending twist. I was really pissed when it seemed like Julia would be the one to sacrifice herself and I wasn't any happier when it was really Morgan Freeman's character! I didn't want him to die! And the very end when Jack's other clone came and knew who Julia was and had visions of her too. What was with that and how was that? How do these clones share memories? I watch Orphan Black and all the clones are different and I think that's more realistic than this. I also want to know who the originals were? I just didn't like that part. There were too many unanswered questions. If it just ended with Julia and the other humans reuniting I would've been happy.
What did you guys think of it?

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The Jacket (2005)

Synopsis
Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) is a Gulf War vet who gets sent to an insane asylum after a string of bad luck while trying to hitchhike. He is sent there because he was found guilty of murdering a cop. There, Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson) put him through this insane experimental treatment which includes putting Jack in a straight jacket and then sticking him in a morgue drawer for hours. In that drawer Jack has visions of the future and finds out that he will soon die. With the help of Jackie Price (Kiera Knightly) and Dr. Beth Lorenson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Jack tries to find out how he died.

My Verdict
I thought that the plot was very interesting and I didn't want to stop watching. I was tired while watching and did everything I could to stay awake because I didn't want to miss anything. I was a little confused in the beginning but that didn't last long.
First, I was mad because these people put Jack in this asylum and it clearly wasn't the best place for him. It didn't even seem like they diagnosed him. It was like they thought he was crazy so he was crazy, but they didn't have a real doctor diagnose him. Then, when he got to the asylum the doctors were awful, except for Dr. Lorenson. There was this whole reality v. fantasy thing going on. At times I had to remind myself what was reality and what wasn't.
I'm giving this movie an 8/10. Adrien Brody did a great job and I also really liked the music. It did a good job of setting the atmosphere. There was also a but of romance between Jack and Jackie which was a little odd because he met her as child. That was just weird to me, but other than that it was a good movie.

Spoilers
Just a couple spoilers which are really questions I had while and after watching. First, Jack got shot in the head in the beginning and they never talked about how he survived that. I'm guessing that was just put in to add to the list of things they used against him in court but I really want to know how he survived. I'll never know the answer and it's going to drive me nuts.
My other questions is does he stay in that future time forever now or not? They got him to the drawer in just enough time for him to make it back to the future but he does die in that drawer. I guess I'll never know the answer to this either.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Synopsis
This is the story of Caesar (Andy Serkis), the ape, how he came to be and how he broke free from being held captive by the humans. Will Rodman (James Franco) created a drug that's supposed to help cure Alzheimer's, and he was using apes to test this drug. Caesar's mom was one of the test apes. The drug ended up making the apes super smart and she passed the drug on to Caesar and it made him even smarter. Unfortunately, Caesar's mom was killed and the testing stopped. Will took Caesar home with him and it wasn't long before Caesar ended up being captured by an animal shelter. The movie goes on to tell the story of Caesar's escape. This can serve as a prequel to "Planet of the Apes" but it's not. officially.

My Verdict
I liked this movie. It really served it's purpose as an original story of "Planet of the Apes" even though it's part of a separate series. I seriously can't wait to see "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" which comes out July 11th. I actually want to go and watch the original movies that came out way back when.
While watching this movie I was basically on the side of the apes and felt the humans deserved everything they had coming to them. I think the only human I did like was Will and he didn't treat Caesar the best either. I did grow a little more fonder of him by the end. I also can't help but say that his relationship with Caesar wasn't awful. It was like a father and son relationship and you could tell that Will really cared for Caesar. Sure he made his mistakes but the love was still there.
Let's talk about how crazy good the graphics/CGI was. I mean, they really did a good job with this. Those apes looked real. Real, like they took them out of the wild and used them for the movie and we all know that really didn't happen. I was really impressed, but then again it should look good. This is movie is about a bunch of apes. If it didn't look good I'd be like "what the heck were they thinking," especially since it was made in 2011.
So, I'm giving this movie a 9/10. It's really good as a stand alone film but I still wanted more. If I didn't already know about "Dawn..." then I would be campaigning for them to make it. Oh and on warning don't turn it off when the credits roll. Think of it like it's A Marvel movie.

Spoilers
Just a couple spoilers. First off, I knew that the apes would eventually end up talking but I didn't know if they would show that in this film and they did! I was so excited that I screamed when Caesar talked for the first time.
Also, there was a map during the credits and I can't help but think that it's showing how that virus spread from human to human. It's really the only logical explanation. I mean, it could be the spread of the apes, but considering "Dawn..." is coming out I don't think they would have them spread that fast. I mean, we need to see how they took over the earth. Well, I want to see how they took over the earth and I wouldn't like if they skipped that. That's one of the things that I really want to see.

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Strange Days (1995)

Synopsis
Lenny "the loser" Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is an ex-cop who now sells recordings of people's memories (porn mostly) that he has people make for him using this "playback" device. This device was created for good and made it's way on to the black market. Lenny's life changes when a playback disc is left for him, and on it is the murder of his friend/prostitute. Now, Lenny and his good friend Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) have to try and solve this case that ends up being bigger than just a random murder. The entire movie takes place December 30th 1999 to January 1st 2000 in Los Angeles, CA.

My Verdict
Angela Bassett is in this and that's enough for me to watch! The film took almost an hour to get to the point of Lenny finding the disc and that was a little too long for me. I almost stopped watching but I'm glad I didn't because when it got to that point is escalated quickly. The movie really takes you a crazy twisty turny ride. By the end of it I was saying "that was a trip, that took me on a trip!" I loved it.
Now there's always a deeper message in films like this and I saw two. The first was the LAPD and their police brutality. The whole time there was this 'police aren't our friends' vibe. I mean, it wasn't even a thought to take the disc of the murder to the police. I'll talk more on this with specifics in the spoilers section below.
The other deeper message I saw was reality v. playback/fantasy. Lenny spends half of his time watching old discs of his old life and the other half of his time getting discs and selling them. He's basically addicted to playback. On the other hand, his friend Mace will have nothing to do with playback. She's never watched and when she does, it's because she has to. She's there to help Lenny face reality. She is reality.
I'm giving this movie an 8/10. The beginning was a bit slow but, thankfully, it sped up. I didn't see the ending coming at all! I was completely shocked. The ending was one where you think it's over but more great stuff keeps happening and I love those.
Also, Angela Bassett kicked some major but in this film. It was also directed by a woman and that makes me very happy.

Spoilers
Okay so let's go back to the LAPD stuff. It really reminded me of Rodney King when the two police officers killed that rapper, for no reason, and the way the cops were beating Mace at the end. It gave off this vibe of that time when the police were the enemy, mostly by the way it was shot. There were many bird's eye view shots, like helicopter cameras looking down at all this mayhem in the streets. Also, the cop ended up being the murderer. If that doesn't scream "cops are bad" than I don't know what does.
I also like the ending when the cop was charging at Mace and Lenny with all the blood on his. It was crazy but I really liked the look of it.
Lastly, Lenny and Mace's kiss. Usually, I don't like it when movies are action packed all throughout and then get all romantic at the end, but I liked this. You just knew it was going to happen so you're just waiting for it. And when it did happen, it was like the ending of 'The Bodyguard.' Just great.

If you've seen this movie, let me know what you thought in the comments below.

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Timeline (2003)

Synopsis
Edward Johnston (Billy Connolly) is a professor of archaeology. His son Chris (Paul Walker) and his students Kate (Frances O'Conner), Andre (Gerard Butler), Josh (Ethan Embry), and Francois (Rossif Southerland) have to travel back to 1357 France, through a wormhole, to rescue their professor who got stuck there. They only have 6 hour to find him and bring him home and their only way to get home is by pressing a button on a marker they wear around their necks. They get through this wormhole by a machine at the ITC company. This machine is accidentally destroyed and the scientists left there have to fix it in time so the students and their professor aren't stuck in 1357 forever. 

My Verdict
This is your typical 'race against time to save lives' type of movie, but I enjoyed it and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The movie starts out a little mysterious because the archaeologists aren't the first people we see. We are introduced to this ITC company first. This got me intrigued from the very beginning because it got me thinking how this company and the archaeologists are connected. 
I thought it was interesting that they wanted to send these archaeology students to find their professor instead of a group of scientists from the company. They actually wanted people that knew and cared about the culture they were stepping into instead of people that were there for the sake of science. I thought it was cool because instead of seeing people caring about scientific discovery, you saw people that cared about preserving the history of the time period that they were in. 
These people were literally in the middle of a war and went back on the day of a huge, epic battle. They spent so much time on them in 1357 that I almost forgot about the people in present day. There was some back and forth but most of the focus was on the students in 1357. 
I'm giving it a 7/10. I really like sci-fi stuff that has a tie in to history, like National Treasure and Sleepy Hollow (TV show) so I really enjoyed this movie. It entertained me, but the general storyline was like movies I've seen before (race against time to do something or your lives will change forever). There wasn't anything extremely different that made it stand out against the others, but it was still a great way to kickoff my Sci-Fi series of reviews. I read that this movie was based on a book and I wish I read it before I watched, but I hope it stayed true to the book. If it didn't, than I wouldn't be too happy but I haven't read it so I can't really say. If you've read the book but haven't seen the movie than I recommend you watch it and then let me know if the movie did a good job or not. 

Spoilers
Some specific things, so if you haven't watched yet don't spoil it for yourself. Stop reading!
I knew that Andre would end up being that guy with the missing ear from the moment he started liking Claire. I screamed when he got his ear chopped off and figured it out. I just knew he was going to fall in love with her and would either end up staying or almost get left there.
That ending "they made their own history, together" line was kind of cheesy, but I was still almost in tears when they went back to the sarcophagus.  

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