Les Miserables review

OK, sorry for no review last week...that was mostly due the fact that I didn't have anything for that week...BUT this time I do. (And I own NONE of their images on here just so you all know) Here it is:

Theatrical Release Poster

PLOT: Hugh Jackman plays Jean Valjean, a convict who gets a second chance of life thanks too a kindly bishop (played by Colm Wilkinson), who gave him shelter after so many made him leave. But fate takes a second chance at him as he inadvertently ruins the life of a young woman named Fantine (played by Anne Hathaway), who dies of a disease because she went into prostitution soon after she was fired from her job at one of Valjean's factories. Now he must raise her young daughter, Cossete (played as a child by Isabelle Lucy Allen and as an adult by Amanda Seyfried) while worrying about his long-time enemy, Inspector Javert (played by Russel Crowe) and a group of university students taking the charge of their own french Revolution.

Thoughts: I'll be completely honest...I Loved every single second of this film. I am NOT joking. Seriously, the mood, the atmosphere, the acting, all of it was great. While I have some very minor gripes like the order of the songs being weird and what not, but those are kind of small compared too all the good in this film. I don't know why some people didn't like it. I'll go to the cast of the movie when I get there, but in all, I believed the film as a whole was good.

But before I get to the cast, I'll talk about the songs: The best ones, by far, are I Dream a Dream (played by Hathaway), Stars (Played by Crowe), Do you hear the People sing (By the ABC Club people), Master of the House (By Helena Bonham Carter & Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thénardiers) and the movie's original song, Suddenly (By Jackman). All the songs as a whole are good, but these were the best portrayed and the best sung out of all of them. They created the right tone for each of them.

NOW...for the Cast!

OK, when I first heard about Jackman as Valjean, I was a bit curious at first since THIS was what I remember about him:

Jackman as Wolverine

BUT...after looking up the fact that Jackman was an experienced theater guy, I could see it starting to work out. And...it did. He showed all the right emotion and struggles of a man who has literally been through hell and back and showed a caring side when he was taking care of Fantine and showing kindness to Marius and Cossette. BUT I'll have to admit...it was kind of distracting seeing him go from...

This... 

To this in under 5 minutes

But in all, Jackman proves again his great ability as an actor with this role. But since we started with the hero, lets now go to the villain...

OK, I heard a LOT of people say this guy was bad as Javert, but this is where I have to disagree. Crowe brings his own version of the famous villain, not by intimidation, but by how he takes the role of a cop seriously. Plus, while his tone is a bit softer than most Javert's performances, it shows that he is playing a different Javert and shouldn't be mocked by it. Besides, his versions of Stars and Javert's Suicide are okay by themselves, so if you don't try to compare him too other Javert's, it's okay.

BUT I will admit too one thing I was kind of bugged about now that I think about it...Crowe didn't change his tone when speaking in different songs. In his solo songs, it's fine because it's just him, with others it's kind of distracting. But that's all I got for Crowe's performance.

OK, I was sort of surprised that Hathawayy was brought in too play Fantine, until I saw her in the trailer, singing 'I dreamed a Dream'.

Hathaway on the set of Les Miserables

Hathaway's portrayal of Fantine showed a lot of strength and struggle throughout this, and the ending song with her in it was tear jerking, as was her version of I Dreamed a Dream. In all, Hathaway was good.

Now...for the other members of the cast...since I got the Big three down:

Cossette: I think both actors that played her adult and child forms did a good job, so Amanda and Isebelle did a great job. But...the adult form seemed too be a bit too depressed at times, and I didn't really believe the two were the same person at first since they didn't look a lot alike. But that's my only gripe.

Marius: The main love interest for Cossette is portrayed rather well by Eddie Redmayne, as he shows the right amount of characterization and personality too the role. Heck, he does better at the singing part than Nick Jonas from the 25th Anniversary Concert (Though Jonas was surprisingly good in that). But it seems that some of the novel's version of him came into being in this character, so maybe he did his homework for the role? I'm not sure, but I enjoyed it.

The Friends of the ABC Club: Yeah...there are a LOT of these characters including the leader Enjolras and the street boy, Garvoche. But all of them were played rather well and they did show a genuine friendship in the barricade, watching each other's backs even when they were close to death. Seeing them get killed off was actually a tear-jerking moment for me, especially Garvoche in 'When the Pup Grows up'. THAT was heart breaking...

Epione: Samantha Barks from the 25th anniversary showed her stuff in the concert, and really showed it here. By combining both versions of the character (Book and Musical), this amalgamation makes it more interesting as

The Theinderes: Both Helena and Sacha brought the RIGHT amount of humor and attention that one would need in this kind of role.But what I liked the most was that that they were a bit more subtle than in the versions I've seen in other versions of the characters. The play more on the fact that these two are skilled thieves more so than goofball comic relief villains, and they show of VERY Well in the 'Master of the House' part of the movie, where they literally take all they can without anyone noticing. now That is true skill.

AND...of course...

THE ORIGINAL JEAN VALJEAN HIMSELF: COLM WILKINSON!

For those that don't know, Colm Wilkinson was in the original English version of Les Miserables when it first came into Broadway, where he played Jean Valjean and made the role very famous because of it. Here, he plays the kindly bishop that saves Valjean from being imprisoned once again. Colm shows off all of his skills in this role, and brings the right amount of warmth and kindness the role always showed. Heck, I evened liked how they brought him back int he ending, such as it should have been...

RATING!

In all, this film is great. Sure some moments are fast and others are slow, but it's mostly well paced and the story telling is superb. The songs are well written and well sung, and the characters were likable. So, in that sense, I'll give this film ***** out of 5 stars!

I hope you enjoyed the review, folks. and sorry for the long wait.

I don't own any of the pictures on this, it belongs toot he original owners and the film in question is owned by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films.

My 2 Cents: Ultimate Spider-man: The end of Spectacular Spider-man?

OK, here's the first edition of the 'My 2 Cents'. This one is about the issue that most fans have with this series:

Ultimate Spiderman (Owned by Marvel entertainment)

You see, after the end of the second season of the really popular Spectacular Spider-man series, most people were hoping for another season to close up any loose ends. But instead, when Disney gained the television rights to Spider-Man, they sadly couldn't get the rights from Sony and the series was canceled.

Everyone thinks that Disney is to blame for this, but that's not the case. While I am sure the crew would enjoy continuing the show, it can't really be done because, when you think about it, back then, Disney didn't own Marvel.

when Disney bought Marvel, it was meant to be a way to save them from financial trouble. but while they own the characters, they don't try to change anything in the comics and let the company do as it pleases with the comics while it helps produce it's Television programming.

And before anyone says about 'Oh Disney is ruining Marvel cartoons', lets remember they were able to show THIS while they owned it:

And while that is another show that got canceled before some things were tied together, lets focus on Spider-Man, shall we? (Avengers Assemble will be for a future 2 Cents thing when I see more of the show).

There are a few complains I've seen about this show, so I'll talk about them each:

Drake Bell as Spider-Man

I do not own this image, but this man or woman is a good artist.

While I haven't heard this a lot, I am sure there are people who complained about the casting choice for Spider-Man, as Josh Keaton from Spectacular did such a good job protraying him. As for me...I like him playing Spidey.

He DID a parody of htis before...if we remember he was the main hero of this film:

I felt REALLY bad for Drake for being in this film...but I will not review it ever.

Anyway, while most people see the show as too humorous (I'll get to that, don't worry), Drake is able to show a lot of the character just as well as Josh did. Sure he's more on the quipy side, but that's how Spidey is: He cracks jokes. While some aren't that good, we can't really blame Drake for that...that's the writer's fault.

While the show can be silly, Drake does a good job like Josh did. Sure Josh is a better actor as he can show off all parts of Spidey's personality in and out of costume, Drake does a good enough job to be counted as one of the good Spider MAn voice actors, as he does show he has grown a bit since this is taking palce a year after he became Spiderman

A good example of this came in the Nightmare episode, the villain of said episode tried to use Spidey's weakness against him (Which was failing his uncle), but it turns out by then, he's made up for his mistake everyday as Spider-Man. And...I actually liked that. It shows that he's moved on quite a bit as a hero.

This Spidey also has to do something not a lot of the other TV shows made him out to be: a leader. He's the leader of a team of OTHER heroes.

(Teammates behind Spidey from Left to right): Iron Fist, Nova, Power Man and White Tiger

His team consists of Ava Ayala, aka the White Tiger, a new heroine who was introduced to the comics sometime before this series in the Avengers Academy comics. Then there's another hero named Sam Alexander, the new Nova (Sort of like a Marvel's answer to the Green Lantern.). and then there's Long-time Marvel characters Luke Cage (back as Power Man) and Iron Fist, aka Danny Rand. These four make up four rookie heroes that are under Spidey's Leadership as he has a bit more experience on the field.

While the show is humor-based, it's nice they actually DO give them character moments and gives Spidey time too know his teammates more and more as teh series goes on.

The Humor

Yeah this is complained about a lot...here's some examples of the humor:

Yeah...those are just SOME examples of what the humor of the show is: KIND OF cartoony nonsense...THAT only happens in his head usually instead of real life. Meaning that those goofier moments (Except for the Pig thing, that's actually what Loki did to him) are just meant to show his brainwaves trying to make sense of something in a humorous way.

People also complained that he breaks the fourth wall too much...didn't he have a monologue in most of his shows or comics? So...yeah...this is kind of weird to talk about...so I won't.

And there ARE some serious moments in this show, and sometimes down right SCARY ideas. Like for example:

Sandman being a psycho who's been stuck on an island by SHIELD

The symboite taking over, not just Spidey, but most of his teammates as well

...JUST look at this guy! He's scarier than MOST versions of Doc Ock!

Iron Fist and Spidey helping Dr. Strange save new york from being stuck in Eternal Sleep

In all, most of the time, the humor CAN be irritating, but I do like how they have some serious moments that make up for it.

Speaking of Spidey though...here's the last complaint I'll talk about, but this IS a big one:

Lack of Spider-Man Villains

About 1/4 of these villains actually appeared in Spectacular anyway, but more than Ultimate it seems

Up until Season 2, we've had little to no Spidey villains besides Norman Osborn (later Green Goblin), Venom, Doctor Octopus and one appearance from Sandman.

And this is a crime for Spider Man. I like seeing Spidey going toe to toe with Dr. Doom and Loki, but it does seem odd that we don't get a lot of his villains. Though I think I know why:

Spectacular did such a good job with the villains. think about it: Most of the villains in that show were expertly done and it can be hard too do all these villains justice. So they had to make some choices. And as of Season 2, they were able to get more in.

They got Kraven as a hunter who goes after mystical artifacts instead of hunting Spidey, Electro appeared as both his original and Ultimate forms, and what not. But in all, I can see why people are annoyed by this and I can understand that.

But in all...can we realy blame Ultimate Spider Man for the end of Spectacular? Not really. I mean, it's not MArvel, or Sony, or even the creators of the show's fault. Some shows end before their time and while some things can be helped, some things can't. And that's usually because of dumb reasons like the executives wanting to end it because of budget issues or lack of merchandise...

While I would have liked to see Spectacular Spider Man continue it's story telling and what not, but we can't always change their minds. But there is hope that Ultimate Spider Man can get better if we keep an open mind.

I'll use an example of another show in this argument: 

I'm not sure about other people, but I was a bit cautious at first when I heard about Young Justice when it was first announced. I was a big Teen Titans fan, so I was curious on how this show would do. But as I continued to watch it, it got better and better.

And before people complain about me comparing Ultimate Spider Man to Young Justice, I am just saying that, like the people who are kind of cautious about Ultimate Spiderman, I was the same with Young Justice. But I gave it a chance and I really enjoyed it. It's the same with Ultimate Spider Man: I gave it a chance and I really enjoyed it.

If you did give Ultimate Spider Man a chance and didn't enjoy it, that's okay. More power to you for having a different opinion than me. But if you are just someone who complains about something without even giving it that chance, that isn't cool. At all, and it kind of makes your complaints sound a bit empty.

But this is the end of my first editorial and let me know if you enjoyed it. Next week will be another review of an animated film this time. I hope too catch you guys up soon.

Percy Jackson And the Lightning Thief Review

Here's the first of the new lines of reviews. So I hope you enjoy my review of...

Theatrical release poster

PLOT: The movie follows the story of the book. It involves an older Percy Jackson (At least, older than early on in the books anyway), portrayed by Logan Lerman, going to a museum on a field trip. This leads too him discovering that his math teacher, Mrs. Dodds, is actually a monstrous being called a Fury, one of the warriors of the underworld. This leads too his mother, Sally Jackson (played by Catherine Keener) and his best friend Grover Underwood (played by Brandon T. Jackson) too go to a mysterious place called Camp Halfblood. There, his mother is attacked by the half-man, half bull beast the Minotaur, causing her to vanish. This leads to a battle between the two, which Percy wins. He later wakes up too find himself in camp halfblood, where he meets Chiron the Centaur (played by Pierce Brosnan), Annabeth Chase (played by Alexandria Didario) and Luke Castellean (played by Jake Abel). There he discovers that he is actually the son of the god of the sea, Poseidon (Protrayed by Kevin McKidd), and is believed to have stolen something form Zeus (played by Sean Bean), the Lightning bolt and that Hades (played by Steeve Coogan) has his mother in the underworld. So Percy and his new friends have to travel across the country, taking on Medusa, Hydras and other monsters too find the true thief and get Percy's mother back.

THOUGHTS: Okay, as a fan of the series, I enjoyed the film as an adaption and as a normal film...but it's not a great adaption. It only has snit bits of the original book (the Fury fight, the Minotaur, Medusa, the Underworld, the pearls, etc) but forgot a lot of important moments. While I am aware this happens with every story and all, but there are some things that weren't needed.

Yeah...was THIS needed in the film?

Some of the cast was good as well, though some choices (like Sean Bean as Zeus and Uma Thurman as Medusa for example) are some odd choices. And also completely forgetting about some characters (they only mentioned Thalia in a deleted scene and they dropped out almost all the other characters that became important later). I kind of think that Chris Colombus, who is best knwon for doing the first couple Harry Potter films...which explains why so many people compare these two together.

Now for the fun part...THE CAST! Since the cast is huge, I'll just go through the main characters (as in, the main four characters). Sorry, but I don't want this to be TOO big. But I can say this: The side characters are well played and the gods had some good choices (except for Zeus and Hades, who I don't think fits the roles at all)

Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson

Logan Lerman plays Percy Jackson and, despite being older than how he was in the books early on (he was 12 in he first book, but in his teens by the time the 5th book came out). And I have to say...I liked his portrayal. He is actually a good actor and he played Percy to a T. Sure he was a bit stiff at times, but he does give off a good characterization.

Alexandria Dadarrio as Annabeth Chase

HERE'S the girl I had some trouble with...Alexandria is a decent actress, but with her protrayal of Annabeth, I'd think she'd be a better Thalia Grace or Clarrise la Rue, given her personality in this movie. She doesn't show a lot of the traits I liked in Annabeth (heck, they got the hair wrong (What, a wig was to expensive for the budget?)). Plus she rarely ever used the dagger she got from Luke (I know that sounds like nitpicking, but that dagger WAS her main weapon of source) and relied mostly on other weapons. Plus she was kind of boring of a character. I hope she gets better by Sea of Monsters...

Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood

To be honest...I like Brandon playing Grover. Sure he's not a worrywart like in the books, but he does seem to take the role seriously. Sure he's the comic relief, but most of the jokes he puts in do get me to chuckle. He plays the good best friend to Percy (And DON'T do a 'Supportive BLack Guy' mention, please...I'm NOT in the mood for that.) In all, this guy is a good character and can't wait to see him in the sequal.

Jake Abel as Luke Castellan

Okay...Jake surprised me with this role. He actually played Luke how I'd think Luke should have been played: Good natured and nice at first, but shows his true colors when the time arrises. He first shows himself as a good ally at first, but kind of hints that he is having some other plans. But sadly, it wasn't explained why he did what he did in the film, but I think we can blame the writers more than the actor. I can't wait to see how they turn this guy around come the next film.

RATING: In all, the film is okay. It's not perfect, but it's not terrible either. The cast was okay and the story, while flawed, was enjoyable. So as a score, I'll give it...hmm...***1/2 out of 5 stars.

Can't wait to show you guys my first '2 cents' editorial. Hope you enjoyed the review.

Percy Jackson and the Olympian novels are property of Rick Riordan, and the film is owned by 21st Cetury Fox and other studios.