Wednesday, July 29, 2015

This is Where I Leave You


I mainly wanted to watch this movie because of the cast. You've got Jason Bateman, an actor I've been following since Arrested Development. You've got Tina Fey, a woman who is funny as hell. Corey Stoll who, like I said in my Ant-man review, is an incredibly underrated actor, Rose Bryne who besides being hot as hell has been incredibly talented in lots of movies, and Adam Driver who I actually haven't seen that much of but want to due to the fact that he's going to be in the new Star Wars film. It just seemed like a stacked cast and I'm not totally sure how it could go wrong.

This is Where I Leave You is definitely not a straight up comedy. It actually starts on a very sad note, especially for Judd Altman (Jason Bateman's character). In the first five minutes he figures out that his wife (played by Abigail Spencer) has been having an affair with his boss (played by Dax Shepard) for a year. Not long after, Judd figures out that his father has passed away.

Judd reunites with his family, his mother (played by Jane Fonda) his eldest brother Paul (played by Corey Stoll) his sister Wendy (played by Tina Fey) and his younger brother Phillip (played by Adam Driver). Though his family was never incredibly religious, his mother tells her children that their father's last wish was to take part in a Jewish shiva where the mourning party receives guests for a week.

This family comes together for a week and each member has their own issues they have to deal with as they're trying to reconcile the fact that their father has passed away.

And every one has their issues. Judd of course is dealing with the fact that his wife and him are getting a divorce. He's also dealing with the feelings he has towards an old crush from high school (played by Rose Bryne) as she reenters his life. Paul is dealing with his wife Annie (played by Kathryn Hahn) as they want to start a family but are having trouble conceiving. Then there's Wendy who is dealing with a marriage that has produced two kids, but they are not exactly getting along. And then there's Phillip who is kind of the family screw up but is finding happiness in a relationship with his therapist (played by Connie Britton).

So as you can see, there is A LOT that happens in this film.

This does become a little problematic for the film as the movie seems very fragmented at times. When you get invested in one storyline, they kind of put that on hold to deal with another conflict. In that, the movie feels disjointed and not totally together.

Also, the movie does place Judd as the main character, which isn't a bad thing, Jason Bateman pulls off that role well, but because of that, it kind of puts some of the conflicts on the back burner and they're kind of put aside until its a good time to bring them back up.

So as a whole, the movie doesn't feel totally complete. However, this is slightly remedied by the fact that this cast works really, really well together.

Like I said, these are all incredibly talented actors and actresses. And they really act like a family. I come from a family where I have three siblings as well and the interactions I saw were a lot of fun. I can see my family doing a lot of the things that happened just because we're family. Its dysfunctional sure, but it does make for a lot of good moments.

Put on top of the fact that the movie is a good mix of comedy and drama that had me laughing at a lot of bits and gave me the feels at other parts.

I guess the down side of the dramedy aspect of the movie is that looking back, its all kind of family cheese.

The movie is designed to tug at the heartstrings, make you feel, probably give people the same reaction I had to it when I said that it reminded me of a my family.

And I in no way say that that's a bad thing, I like getting the feels every once in a while, and I like it even more when I can laugh while doing it, which this movie does.

What I might say to that end though is that the movie does set itself up a little bit too much in that when you look at some of the lines of dialogue, they're not exactly realistic as they cheesy.

Again, I really enjoyed it, I liked the cheesiness of it, I just think some people might here some of the dialogue and say, that's not exactly how families really interact.

Is the movie perfect? No. Unfortunately, I can't really say that I'll this film is overly memorable, at least it doesn't really seem like it. But I think if it comes on HBO (which I can guarantee it will) I'll probably stop and enjoy some of the humor and the fun moments from the film.

Overall, its a fun dramedy with A LOT going on. It has a family feel to it with some adult humor, but the dialogue maybe is a little bit too cheesy at points. But overall, I really enjoyed This is Where I Leave You.

But what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to give me your thoughts and requests reviews in the future. Follow me and you'll get updates on future movie news and reviews on this blog.

I really don't have a video to post after this review. Sorry to disappoint, but nothing really comes to mind. Also, I have to wrap this up, so I'll try and get a really good video for my next review. So this is where I leave you (See what I did there?)

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Ant-Man


So as much as I don't want to admit it, I think a part of me was pretty convinced that Ant-man was going to fail. I don't think I was rooting against it necessarily but I didn't have much confidence in it. I thought there was too much going against it and I thought that this was going to be Marvel's weak link. And to be honest, I thought it deserved to be. If you read my post on why I thought Ant-man might fail, you'll know that I didn't think a lot of effort was being put into this movie. Marvel didn't seem overly excited about it, Edgar Wright was taken off for not playing within the Marvel Universe being set up, and the trailers seemed a little lazy to me. To me, it seemed like Ant-man was just a cash grab for Marvel (because lets be honest, you know this movie is going to make a lot of money because its Marvel), and while I love a lot of what Marvel has done, its not out of the question for them to do something like that (cough cough, Iron Man 2) and frankly, I don't want Marvel to succeed if that's how they're going to do things.

So the question is, is Ant-man a cash grab or is it a legitimately good movie?

Ant-man begins quickly sharing that Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) was a member of SHIELD who left the organization because he figured out the organization was trying to replicate his shrinking Ant-man technology.

Years later, enter Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) who has just been released from prison for burglary of his former bosses house for VistaCorp. He's a con who can't get a job and is being prohibited from seeing his daughter Cassie.

Through a series of events, Lang is recruited to take part in a heist. This heist doesn't exactly go as planned, but it puts a particular suit in the possession of Lang and it flags him for recruitment for another job by an older Hank Pym and his daughter Hope (played by Evangeline Lily) as they plan to make Scott the new Ant-man to disturb the plans of the evil Darren Cross (played by Corey Stoll) and his plans at Pym's old company.

Overall, this movie is a heist film.

I don't really buy the comparison that I'm pretty sure was made in comparing this movie to Ocean's 11 because while both of them are heist films, this one is definitely more of a comedy rather than a comedic heist film, if that makes sense.

The movie definitely feels like a Marvel film but at the same end, it feels like a separate entity with its own characters and sense of humor. Its very much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It feels like it does exist within the same universe but it doesn't rely totally on the Avengers...

Now, I would be lying if I said this one doesn't TOTALLY not rely on the Avengers. But I'll get to that in a second.

I've been really behind on Marvel as of late.

I never got out my review on what I thought Avengers: Age of Ultron really meant for the larger Marvel universe. I never gave my thoughts on the casting of Tom Holland as Spider-man, something I was incredibly surprised about due to all the posts I've done on Spider-man. And even this review is a week later than I originally planned. I guess its all the DC trailers distracting me.

The biggest singular "problem" I had with this movie was how it disrupted a perfectly good story to randomly tie into the Avengers.

There's a part about half way through the movie where, in order to pull off the heist, they need this piece of equipment. It just so happens to be in the new Avengers headquarters.

Scott goes to the headquarters and runs into Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie)

They have a quick fight, Scott gets the piece of equipment and with the exception of the very end, this encounter is never mentioned again.

And I kind of wonder if this was the kind bit that Edgar Wright took issue with. Because it really kind of seems shoe horned in. Its right in the middle of a montage of Scott's training and while its a fun scene, I just couldn't help but feel like this scene was a hiccup in the natural flow that the movie was taking on.

I'm realizing that talking about this particular scene is kind of strange, especially since I haven't talked about much else of the film, but I have to say, this scene bothered me.

Anyway!

The most important part of this is, how is the movie? How is the cast?

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang...

Honestly, I didn't know about this one. I kind of thought that Paul Rudd didn't really seem like the kind of person that would do a Marvel movie, so I was kind of hesitant.

However, in the context of this movie, its tone, and just the way everything turned out, I can't really think of a more perfect role for Paul Rudd.

The idea of Ant-man is really silly. Its shrinking your size. I don't care what science Michael Douglas pulls out of his ass in this movie, you're shrinking. Its the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids of super powers. The suit, looks kind of stupid. And the name of the character is Ant-man, again, kind of stupid. But Paul Rudd just gives it the humor and surprisingly a lot of respect to the charater. Yeah Ant-man is a silly superhero idea, but Paul Rudd makes you believe and really root for him.

I'll talk about Evangeline Lily next...

She was good in this film.

If you've read my reviews on The Hobbit films, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of Evangeline Lily and even less of a fan of her part in that movie. I haven't been impressed with her work.

That being said, she's really good in this film. What I'm realizing is that this movie is more important than I think I give it credit for.

She's a really strong female character and she's actually more capable than Scott is. And while I'm not totally sold on the reason why she's not the one doing what Scott is doing instead of him, I totally get it and I actually really enjoy the dynamic she has with Scott, the dynamic she has with Hank Pym, and I loved her role in the movie.

I'll talk more about her a little bit later, but she actually has a big role in the larger picture of things.

But then, there's the part of the movie that I think was probably the strongest, I don't think its much of a surprise to anybody, but the strongest performance in the entire movie was that of Michael Douglas as Hank Pym.

I mean again, I don't think it was much of a surprise. You've got this power house actor, coming into a not to well known franchise, he's obviously going to shine. And before I went to the movie, everybody was saying that Douglas was great but I wasn't totally sure what they meant until I saw it and I really loved it all the way around.

Furthermore, I can say for certain, without giving anything away I guess, that Hank Pym's story is not over. He's going to have a presence in the next films and I think future plans at Marvel are going to throw him into a position that will create a lot of tension for the universe.

I've watched a couple things since I've seen the movie discussing what might happen in the future with Hank Pym and Scott Lang and everyone else, but I really like what they did with this film and the possibilities that are left open.

This film was a very silly comedic movie, but at the same time it had some huge implications. Which is odd because again, the scope of this movie is much smaller compared to the other Marvel movies that have come out recently.

And that's something that worked out really well for this movie. Its a small scale but at the same time it has its allusions to a larger universe. Again, I'll say some of them were less subtle than other ones, but this movie had a lot of allusions to a larger world.

Now, before I start talking big picture stuff, I of course need to briefly talk about the villain.


C'mon Marvel!

Darren Cross will probably go down as one of the most mediocre villains in a Marvel Cinematic universe movie and its a real shame because Corey Stoll is an incredibly underrated actor. He's got incredible talent and he's just being thrown aside in a throwaway role which is the exact same role that Jeff Bridges played in Iron Man 1. He's the greedy business man. He has no motivations outside of that, he's just greedy.

And on top of that he's a little over the top crazy, and there's no redeeming qualities about him. You're not gonna walk out of this movie and really remember who the villain was. He's a guy trying to make another shrinking suit. They really give this half ass attempt at him being the son Hank Pym never had but is easily replaced by Scott Lang, and he's just not that great of a villain. Now I'll probably remember him because I really like Corey Stoll. But most people will forget him very easily.

The last character worth mentioning is not even that big of a character but he's really kind of the best comic relief of the movie.

Michael Pena plays Paul Rudd's former cell mate and right off the bat, this guy is just down right hilarious. Paul Rudd himself is a funny actor but where he's best is when he subtly reacting to people who are much more funny than he is (best example: I Love You Man) and Michael Pena is that counter balance to Rudd in this movie. I've read and watched a couple things on this movie since watching it and I've figured out that Pena's character grew because Peyton Reed gave him room to improvise some of his lines and it really surprised a lot of people because Michael Pena is not known as much as a comedic actor as say Paul Rudd, and he knocks it out of the park in this one.

While he's not the absolute best part of the movie, he definitely is the Quicksilver of this movie that people can't talk about the movie as a whole without mentioning his role.

But now I wanna talk about the larger picture stuff.

Ant-man may not have a humungous impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the long run, the consequences of this movie aren't going to chance the landscape of the universe the way that Captain America: The Winter Soldier did.

But the reason I bring this up is because Hope Van Dyne represents what comic book movie going audience have been calling for: A female super hero. And while she's not really in this one, Wasp is coming. That's all I'm going to say.

I think Hope was saying what we all were thinking at the end of that scene when she simply said, "it's about damn time".

With the exception of that out of no where scene with Falcon, the post credit scenes were really the only indication towards a larger universe that didn't connect directly to the story.

But it gets better. Because this movie alludes to so much, despite having such a contained story.

This movie makes first mention of Spider-man. This movie even alludes to Doctor Strange. Its got a lot of allusion that were subtle and didn't take away from the story.

And while I thought the scene took away from the story, the Falcon scene was important as it does point towards Ant-man's role in Civil War.

I know I didn't talk too much about the greater implications of Avengers: Age of Ultron (yet) but a combination of that, plus this movie, makes me pretty excited for Phase 3. I'm especially looking forward to seeing a lot of new characters, and new set ups, and not always relying on the same characters we've had for 12 films now. This includes Black Panther, Doctor Strange, etc.

Again, while the movie is small in scale, it really has some huge implications and gives me a lot of hope for the future.

So yeah... Ant-man is, in a way a cash grab for Marvel... but that's not to say its not a good movie.

I didn't even talk that much about the action which was really creative and had a lot of creativity to it. I didn't talk about the use of ants, and the funny parts that come out of that.

I'm not so much disappointed with what happened in the movie and the turn out that actually came out of this movie, but I wish this movie could have been something bigger. I won't say that Marvel went back to formula with what they did in the first phase, but there are similarities that only make this movie good, when it definitely could have been great. I think it definitely ranks above a lot of the phase 1 films, but its not quite good enough to be put in the top five of all the Marvel movies that have come out.

That's a confusing outcome of what I thought of this movie, but I liked it, I just think I wanted more out of it. I am excited though to see the consequences of this film, it gets me excited for Phase 3, and honestly, I have no idea what is going on., and I love it!

But those are my thoughts on Ant-man. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Ant-man to my Twitter @cmhaugen24 and follow me to get updates on movie news and reviews coming out, and if you send me requests for future reviews, I'll make them my priority.

I'll leave you with this. Screen Junkies did an interview with Peyton Reed and Michael Pena and gave some good insight into the larger implications of Ant-man. check it out! Enjoy!


Moulin Rouge


So one of the things I really like about online critiques of movies is the vast amount of opinions different people can have on a movie. Some people may love a film, while others can't stand it. And with this site, I get to give my opinion.

Probably one of the movies reviewed by others with the widest range of opinions that I've seen is that of the 2001 movie musical, Moulin Rouge. Some people loved it and thought it was creative genius. While others have since said that it was overblown for its time and didn't deserve all the attention its gotten.

Also since it was what I decided to watch on HBO tonight, I'll give my thoughts on it to fit into that trend of people giving their thoughts on this movie.

To give a little bit of background on my experience with this movie, as it is not the first time I've seen it. I had friends at a very young age that were obsessed with this film. I did theater in middle school and high school and due to that, I hung out with a very different crowd. Great people no doubt. But I got introduced to a lot of different forms of art and media that I hadn't been into before. This is about the same time, if not before, I was dating the girl that made me love Rent. Everyone seemed to be into the pure "bohemian" lifestyle of "art" and "expressionism" and yada, yada, yada. So I had A LOT of people who would die before letting anybody say anything bad about this movie...

Well I don't see those people anymore so I think its safe to say I think this movie is a little bit overrated.

The movie centers on a young writer by the name of Christian (played by Ewan McGregor. He begins telling the story about love.

And that is a common theme of the movie: love. The thing is, its not really saying anything about love besides love is awesome. Love can be difficult. But love is awesome.

And yeah, the Nate King Cole lyric "The Greatest thing you will ever know is to love and be loved in return" is a pretty slogan and its definitely a great way to appeal to the romantics out there. Its not exactly substantive.

Anyway, Christian is telling his story about love, as he arrives in Paris to be a Bohemian writer. He quickly joins a troop of other Bohemians and agrees to write their play "Spectacular Spectacular". What is "Spectacular, Spectacular"? To be honest, I'm not totally sure. They kind of throw that title out pretty quickly so its not exactly important for you to know the title of the play... anyways...

Through a mixing of identities, Christian meets the courtesan Satine (played by Nicole Kidman) and they fall in love... really out of no where.

I mean, yeah, try not falling in love with Ewan McGregor after this song...


I mean, its Obi-Wan Kenobi singing Elton John, who wouldn't fall in love with that instantly?

But in all seriousness, they fall in love faster than most Disney cartoon couples do.

However, Satine was suppose to be meeting with a Duke (played by Richard Roxbourgh) as it was set up by her boss (basically her pimp) Harold Zidler (played by Jim Broadbent), believes that Christian is the Duke. And when it revealed he is not and the Duke finally appears, they need to improvise and sell to the Duke the exact same plot of the movie in the form of a play so that he will invest and help the bordello turn into a theater.

Its a story of hidden romance all decorated with a jukebox musical with a wide variety of songs.

And that's the first thing to talk about when it comes to this movie.

If you read my Rock of Ages review, you'll know that one of the biggest problems with that movie musical was the fact that it was trying so hard to base the story off of the music. The dialogue in most scenes were so atrocious because they were trying really, really hard to tie in classic rock songs.

Moulin Rouge on the other hand probably wrote the story and picked out songs that would work for the story. It basically did the opposite of Rock of Ages, it probably based the music off the story, and not the other way around.

And they do this well, almost to the point where the music seems a little bit random at certain points. I'll give Rock of Ages all the shit I want, but at least they stuck with a genre of music. I'll fall asleep all I want to Across the Universe but at least all those song have a theme in the Beatles. Moulin Rouge was really kind of pulling songs out of their ass, from Elton John, to Madonna, to Nirvana, and Whitney Houston. So yeah, it was a little bit confusing.

That being said, for the most part, I really love the music in this movie. The version of Your Song, sung by Ewan McGregor, I think sometimes is better than Elton John's original. El Tango De Roxanne is really one of the best choreographed and performed songs in the show. Its one of the shows you can go back and watch just for the music.


So yeah, while I'm not gonna say its the best soundtrack as it does have a couple songs I think it could have done without, the majority of the songs are really good and generally all of them are at least well performed.

Unfortunately, the movie falls into the same traps that a lot of movie musicals fall into that they're maybe one or two songs too long and the movie starts to drag at a certain point. I've been looking at different musicals when that happens and what changes and I think its the fact that the majority of musicals like this and Rent start out happier in the first act and as the second act goes on, that's where more of the drama comes in, the sets get darker, and it becomes just dreary. Now that wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't complimented by dark music. And if dark sets and dialogue doesn't bring you down, dark music definitely does that.

Moving on from the music, the next thing worth talking about is the cast. Having watched this movie a couple of times, I realize that it is a really talented cast, both acting wise and musical wise.

I mean if you said today that there was a musical with Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, and Jim Broadbent, I think anybody who's seen a good number of movies would know most of those actors and be excited about it. And those three are probably the best in the show. You can make a case for John Leguizamo and the guy who plays the Narcoleptic Argentinian (Jacek Koman), but the very name of that character should tell you what the writing is like for this movie. You've got a character who's only name is The Narcoleptic Argentinian. Even though he sings one of the best songs in the show, he's not that developed. And even the heavy hitters don't have the greatest dialogue. But its a Baz Luhrmann movie. The guy has a little bit more background in visuals and cinematography that determining if the dialogue and story are really that great (another reason I'm really interested in eventually seeing and reviewing The Great Gatsby).

 The truth is, the only people really worth talking about, (outside of The Duke, who I will get to) are Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

Now I'm a little bit bias when it comes to McGregor because his performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi was my childhood, the man can do no wrong in my book.

Being as objective as I can, McGregor does a good job at playing the dopey dreamer who only wants to write about love. Again, he's not figuring out what love is, he's not figuring out what it means to be in love, he just thinks its pretty neat.

The guy is a phenomenal singer and I'm incredibly excited to see him play Lumiere in the Beauty and the Beast reboot coming out in a couple years.

I'd say the biggest problems with Mcgregor's performance are due to bad writing. Christian is your "tortured artist" and some of the decisions he makes are kind of dumb in the end.

Nicole Kidman on the other hand... well...

I'll try and give Kidman as much slack as I gave McGregor because lets be honest, the script was not that great. I think she did alright with what she was given, and yeah, she's a talented actress.

But where McGregor really played up the obnoxious "Tortured artist" cliche in this film, Kidman really plays up the obnoxiousness factor.

She has moments where her voice reaches a register that I think only dogs can reach. And yeah, her character does some pretty stupid stuff near the end.

Basically, I think I can conclude that the way this movie ended was really not as well done as it could have been and that might be why people have differing opinions on it.

That being said, I'm not totally sure why Kidman got an Oscar Nomination for this role. Now that I'm looking at it, 2001's Oscars weren't that stellar of a year anyway, but I digress.

And then you've got Richard Roxbourgh...


And dear god... this guy is bad.

I mean this is a note for everyone involved in the film, I can honestly say nobody phones in their performance in this film. Everyone is into it and they sell it. I don't think the movie would have been successful if everybody wasn't in it, regardless of if its actually good or not.

But Roxbourgh is an example of someone maybe getting too into it. And yeah, again, a little bit of it has to do with the writing. His character is an idiot. But he's also one of the most 2 dimensional villains I've seen in a long time. And I mean, he's got the twisty mustache and everything!

But overall, the movie is a little bit ridiculous. Its not just Roxbourgh, its really the ensemble and set up in general.

Regardless of your thoughts on the movie, you have to admit the movie is different and odd. Whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to your personal preference.

If you enjoy adaptations of popular songs, you will probably enjoy the juke box musicalness of this movie. There's definitely good things about this movie.

I personally just think its a little bit overrated and didn't really warrant all the nominations it was set up for. Now, the movie didn't win a lot of the awards that it was nominated for so that makes things a little bit different.

I've heard people call this movie a guilty pleasure movie because while people sometimes realize the bad parts of the movie, they still enjoy it for one reason or another. Whether that's you or not, that's up to you.

But those are my thoughts on Moulin Rouge. What do you think? Comment and discuss below! You can also give me your thoughts by following me and sending me them on Twitter @cmhaugen24. There you can send me your thoughts and requests for future reviews. you can also get updates for future movie news and reviews that come out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Trailers from the 90's and early 2000's were weird... here's the trailer for Moulin Rouge. Enjoy!


Sunday, July 19, 2015

Godzilla


Let's talk about Godzilla. I'm pretty sure this movie I have heard so much about this film and while I never got a formal request, I feel like I've needed to give my thoughts on this movie for a long time. And now I can finally do that as I have watched this film.

I'm gonna come out and say it, I've never been a huge fan of monster movies. This movie, Pacific Rim, any other movies where the world is being devastated by giant monsters, it has just never really been interesting to me. I mean the fact of the matter is that most people go to these movies to see a giant monster spread chaos across a city until its taken down or something. But you can do that in a well edited youtube video or a video game. So they have to add characters, humans that have their own problems and development while the monster is recking havoc.

The problem with that is that any problems that these characters are dealing with really kind of go away and are irrelevant to the fact that there is a giant monster destroying everything they know. Who cares if Aaron Taylor-Johnson has some father issues, or doesn't really know how to be back with his family, its fucking GODZILLA!

So how do you make a compelling story out of that?

The movie starts out in 1999 in Japan. Joe Brody (played by Bryan Cranston) is an engineer on a nuclear power plant with his wife. He's a workaholic and is excited about the research or whatever they're doing but unfortunately, he doesn't always have time for his son Ford.

Well a horrible accident happens, leading to the death of his wife.

Fast forward fifteen years later, and Ford (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a Lieutenant with Naval EOD. He's returning home from deployment to his wife (played by Elizabeth Olson) and his son Sam. But his reunion is cut short when he gets a call saying that his father was arrested in Japan.

Joe Brody has been obsessed for the past fifteen year of what happened to his wife and continues to break the law to look into what caused the accident at the power plant.

After a lot of confusing twists and turns, the short explanation of it is that Ford and his father find a secret military research base where the accident happened and after some havoc wreaking, and even more confusing twists and turns, we're introduced to the monsters, MUTO (or as I'll call him Cloverfield mosnter) and Godzilla.

And I'll give the movie the credit it deserves. The monsters look fantastic. Godzilla looks great. The other monsters really are cool looking.

The problem is, they were great to look at... when I could actually see them.

My biggest problem with this movie is that I feel like the entire movie was just in the dark. I felt like everything was so dark, and all the great fighting scenes were in the dark so I couldn't totally figure out what I was looking while I was squinting to see the fight.

I feel like this movie is the kind of movie that really only works in theaters but even then, I would like to see a little bit of what is going on when I'm watching it at home.

The other thing that I'm not totally sold in this movie is the utilization of the cast.

Notice how I said utilization instead of just the cast.

Because as a whole, I like the majority of the actors in this movie. I am becoming more and more of a fan of Elizabeth Olson with everything I see her in, she's a really good actress and I think she did a great job in this film, I kind of wish they would have focused more on her and not Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while not horrible, just wasn't as good as Olson in this film and that's kind of a trend in movies they're both in (i.e. Age of Ultron).

Bryan Cranston, I love him in this film. He's actually really good and the beginning does create for some good tension between him and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

But like I said before, its a monster movie, it doesn't really make much sense to spend a lot of time working on these two father son issues when there is a skyscraper monster out there about to destroy San Diego.

And unfortunately, they really under utilize Bryan Cranston. I feel like he could have been a huge part of this movie, he could have made this movie really good... and they just don't use him as much as they should have.

And I don't think I would have minded so much that the acting or story of these human characters wasn't exactly good, if the fighting of the monsters wasn't so boring. I already mentioned the fact that I can't see half of it, but this movie just isn't as fun as other monster movies that I have seen.

Its kind of unfair, but I have to compare this movie Pacific Rim.

While I didn't love Pacific Rim, I walked out of it saying Guillermo Del Toro knew exactly what he was making in this film. While the character performances were fun, he knew that movie was a movie about giant monsters fighting giant robots. If you're not going to give us really compelling characters, at least give us some badass monster fights that we can actually see. Like the dumbest line in the movie says, "Let Them Fight"

And for god's sake, let them fight in the day. I couldn't see shit in this movie! I know I've already said that but you've got these huge monsters that I can't see worth shit because they're grey and in the dark and I am straining my eyes to actually figure out what the hell is going on.

And while the monsters are fighting, I'm watching Quicksilver stumbling around it what really seems like a mission that won't work. I never at any point thought that the humans were making a good enough plan to take down these monsters. So if the humans are worthless, make the fights between Godzilla and MUTO awesome. And I just don't feel like they were.

I could really care less if Gareth Edwards or whoever does a sequel to this movie because its really not that great of a film. I didn't walk out of this one saying, oh I need me some more Godzilla and I don't really think they need to make another one. And if you're wondering if you need to see this movie or not, I would say its probably one you can live without seeing.

But those are my thoughts on Godzilla. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts by Following me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and give me your requests for movies to watch in the future. You can also follow me to get my thoughts on future movies news and reviews!

I'll leave you with this. A lot of what I couldn't say in this review is pretty well said in this How it Should have Ended. Enjoy!

John Wick


John Wick is a kind of movie where you know what is coming, even if you haven't seen any of the trailers or haven't heard anything about the movie. Its a pretty straight forward movie and its pretty predictable. Does that make it a bad movie? No not really.

John Wick is the story of the title character (played by Keanu Reeves). Wick is a former hitman who is going through the tragedy of the death of his wife. He's no longer a hitman and he lives a pretty normal life.

He however is having a difficult time dealing with that loss. But as a parting gift, his wife left him probably the most adorable puppy you will ever see in a movie ever.

And immediately you know that puppy is going to die.

I don't know if that's a spoiler or what, but if you don't see the picture to the left and immediately know that that puppy is not going to make it through this movie, you've obviously never seen a movie with a dog in it.

Unfortunately, while Wick tries to maintain his normal life, he runs across Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen, yeah I know he has a real character name but its fun calling him Theon or Reek). Theon is the son of a Russian mobster, and has a horrible Russian accent to boot. Theon is envious of Wick's car and decides that he wants it.

Theon and his gang break into Wick's house, beat the crap out of him, steal his car, but more importantly, they kill his dog.

If you've read my blog before, I think you know what is next. Killing his dog sets him over the edge and sends Wick on a...


And that's pretty much the movie. Its pretty much a rampage movie of Keanu Reeves just shooting up a bunch of nameless Russian gangsters. And to be totally honest, its a perfect movie for Keanu. Mainly because John Wick doesn't say much in this film. There are a couple moments where he has to act and their not bad scenes, but Keanu has never been a Shakespearean trained actor and I think everybody knows that. He's better, and more entertaining when he's just kicking ass and he does a lot of that in this film.

Now this movie could have just been the Taken of Keanu's career where he just goes on a rampage and that's the entire movie. And to a certain extent, that really is the entire film.

But there is an element about John Wick that is actually really creative and kind of ups the ante.

John Wick is a former member of a sort of society of hitmen. He goes to a hotel exclusively for criminals and it really opens up this elaborate criminal underworld. There are rules, there are courtesies, and there are consequences for not following these rules. Now in a way, that doesn't sound totally original, but in the way that its executed, it is actually done really, really well.

All of that on top of the action and the performances from people like Theon, Willem Defoe, and Adrianne Palicki all make a really entertaining movie.

I mean don't kid yourself, strip away the trimmings and this movie is just Keanu Reeves in a rampage revenge flick. But the way that its done, the movie definitely knows what it is, and what it isn't.

To add onto all of this, the action is really good. Reeves isn't just shooting people, its almost like a dance the way he does it. Say what you will about the man's acting, the guy does know how to be in action films and really make me entertained the entire way.

Now something I will say about this movie is that while it has a lot of things going for it, I will not call this movie any one bit memorable. I understand that they're doing a John Wick 2 and I'm not totally sure why. I mean he gets another dog in the end (sorry for the spoilers?) but what are they going to do? Kill that dog and start it all over again?

Here's why I say its not that memorable. I saw this movie about two weeks ago. I have started this review over and over again just because there's not much to say about this movie. I can pull out the elaborate system of hitmen in this movie, I can touch on the action, but in the end, its blank face Keanu shooting a bunch of guys. If I want to see that, I don't need to watch a two hour long movie, I can go out and get one of the Matrix games and do that myself.

I'm not saying the movie is bad, it was actually really entertaining. But I'm not going to say its a great film or even a really good one. Its Keanu shooting a bunch of guys, what do you expect?

But those are my thoughts on John Wick. What did you think of the film? Comment below and let me know. You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and give me your thoughts there as well as requests for future reviews, I will give your requests priority. You can also follow me to get updates on my thoughts on future movie news and reviews!

I'll leave you with this. I might have put this up already on one of my past reviews but it just works too well for this one because Keanu Reeves is the king of the blank face. Enjoy!

Horrible Bosses 2


Before you say anything, yes I realize that I have never reviewed Horrible Bosses and now I am skipping over that to watch Horrible Bosses 2. Don't worry, while it is a "sequel" these movies could stand alone and still work. Yeah, there are some in jokes that are only funny if you've seen the first one, but personally, its not necessary.

I have seen Horrible Bosses 1. I enjoyed it. I laughed. It wasn't an incredibly memorable movie, as I really don't remember too much about it, however, I do remember it being successful and making me laugh at the time. Its definitely a movie that warrants a sequel in today's standards.

So Horrible Bosses continues the story of our heroes, Nick, Kurt, and Dale (played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day). In the first movie they had horrible bosses who made their lives hell, so they decide to venture out and start their own business so they can be their own bosses.

They put together a new product called The Shower Buddy and they're trying to find a way to manufacture and distribute this new product.

In doing this, they find partners in the father-son business of Bert and Rex Hanson (played by Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine). Bert makes a deal with them and they begin manufacturing the Shower Buddy. That is until Hanson reveals that he never intended to pay them or finance the product so he's going to wait until the bank forcloses on them, by the product they made, and make it his own.

Because their dip into crime worked out so well the last time (when they tried to kill their bosses in Horrible Bosses 1) the trio decide its a good idea to kidnap Bert's son Rex, and hold him for ransom for the amount of money they need to save the business.

Well of course, these three are some of the worst criminals out there and the plan goes horribly wrong... or so they think. They fail in their attempt to kidnap Rex but as they drive back, they realize that Rex actually kidnapped himself and wants to be in on the kidnapping to teach his father a lesson.

The rest of the movie is these guys working with Chris Pine to pull off the perfect kidnapping and save their company. Along the way they run into some old "friends".

The first thing I'll say about this film is that its a pretty well casted film. I think Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day are some of the funniest guys you'll ever know. Put on top of that the performance of Chris Pine as this crazy asshole, Jaimie Fox returning as MotherFucker Jones, and Christoph Waltz just... being Christoph Waltz, the cast is pretty solid. You've also got Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston returning as their roles from the last film and you'd think that that would all lead up to something really entertaining.

And sure, the movie has a couple laughs in it but I wouldn't called it a memorable movie, definitely not as memorable as the first one, and as I said, that movie wasn't incredibly memorable to begin with.

To start off, the trio, while funny, doesn't exactly make sense. I don't know if this was exactly how it was in the first movie but this is how this trio is made up. Jason Bateman is a pretty normal guy, pretty rational, kind of smart. Sudeikis and Day are dumbasses.

I mean they might try and play the other two off as something else, but I don't know, I don't remember Sudeikis being that dumb. I mean when it comes to Day, his character in this movie just reminded me of his character in Its Always Sunny, and I love Charlie from that show.

But when you're running with two dumbasses like this, you gotta kind of wonder why Bateman sticks around with these guys. Especially with the knowledge of how this worked last time.

But let's just say that we can suspend our disbelief just for the sake of the movie, the movie isn't exactly hilarious. Its not bad, I did laugh at some points, again I really like the cast, I just can't really put on target exactly what didn't work in this film.

I saw a review that once said that you have to give the movie credit for not rehashing exactly what they did in the first one and trying to do something new. And yeah I agree with that. But at a certain point I'm wondering if they should have just had this trio do a new idea instead of a sequel to Horrible Bosses.

And the fact of the matter is that despite this is something different from the original, I just didn't laugh at this as much as I did the original. I wish I could say that I did but I didn't. Some parts were funny, some parts were not as funny.

And unfortunately, that's really all I can say about this movie. I have to give it credit for trying something new, but in the end it didn't exactly pull off what it was suppose to do, which was be as funny as Horrible Bosses 1 was.

Now this all might come down to a subjective opinion. If you really loved Horrible Bosses 1, I would recommend giving Horrible Bosses 2 a shot. Again, the trio of these three, while it doesn't exactly make sense, is actually really good.

You may love this film, I just didn't think it was a funny. If you've seen this and think it compares to the original, please let me know!

But for now, that's my thoughts on Horrible Bosses 2. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts by following me on Twitter and sending me a tweet with your thoughts on the movie and maybe even a request for a future movie to watch and review! You can find me at @cmhaugen24 on Twitter. Follow me to get updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. While Charlie Day isn't in this music video, he probably should have been because this music video is really kind of hilarious. Its the music video to Hopeless Wanderer by Mumford and Sons and... well just watch. Enjoy!


Monday, July 13, 2015

Suicide Squad Trailer

What's hilarious is that I've been working on a review for a couple movies recently, like John Wick. I was just about to get that posted when the non-bootlegged version of this trailer came out and suddenly every thing fell to the wayside and this took priority because ladies and gentleman, this is the trailer for Suicide Squad.


This trailer is important because while we've seen a lot of stuff come out about Suicide Squad, we've seen the pictures, we've heard the casting, everything else, we haven't actually seen it in action. Now I still think its still a little bit early to release anything out of this movie, especially since its over a year away. But I need to get used to trailers coming out this early because its becoming more and more of a thing. I just need to make sure that I'm not watching too many and I know what is too much, because this and Batman v. Superman are great trailers. I just hope they keep the level of information on these awesome films on the low key and don't give too much away.

Anyway, what is there to say about the Suicide Squad trailer?

The trailer begins with Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) meeting with what I can guess are American generals. They are discussing the formation of a team of "the bad guys". Which is the basic premise of the Suicide Squad to begin with. They're a taskforce with the mission of taking down even badder baddies with a promise of commuted sentences if they succeed, and plausible deniability if they fail.

The trailer begins and showing the different members of the Suicide Squad, from Margo Robbie as Harley Quinn, to Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc.

And the great part about these introductions of these characters is just the atmosphere of the entire trailer. The pictures that were released did give the entire squad a really dark, grungy feeling to them and I wasn't sure on whether or not they could come out with a movie (or at least a trailer) that could sell me on the gritty, kinda gross looking feeling this has to it.

As opposed to David Ayer's other projects, especially Sabotage, which I really didn't like, Suicide Squad feels like a comic book as opposed to Sam Worthington just dressing up like a red neck biker in a DEA task force for no fucking reason. While it feels like a comic book, there's a really great atmosphere about this movie that I really like.

Harley Quinn looks phenomenal. Obviously Margo Robbie was good in Wolf of Wall Street and I want to see more of her because of that. I especially want to see her in this.

The other cast members look really interesting and while some of them are pretty nameless to me, the ones that stand out are obviously Margot Robbie, Will Smith as DeadShot, and yeah, I'm actually really excited for Killer Croc now that we've seen more of him.

I think Cara Delevingne is going to have a pretty big, hopefully dark role in the film in the film as Enchantress. I still don't know if she's much of an actress, but her part looks interesting.

Jai Courtney was... well Jai Courtney... I don't know, ever since Terminator: Genesiys, I've kind of given up on Jai Courtney, I'll have to wait and see when the movie comes out.

 The most "disappointing" part of the trailer, meaning it just wasn't a thing, is the role of Joel Kinnaman playing Rick Flag. The way I understand the Suicide Squad is that Rick Flag is suppose to be a sort of leader of the squad... but he didn't really have a role at all in this trailer. I mean look at that picture, he's just kind of staring.

Will Smith kind of seemed like the leader of the group to be honest. I kind of wonder if the role was cut when Tom Hardy exited the project. I mean who would you rather have as a leader of your team? Will Freaking Smith? Or that boring guy from the RoboCop Reboot? (I still need to get to that one). Its obviously going to be Will Smith.

So the team formation is pretty cool, and then of course, I don't think they were going to reveal a trailer like this without having the huge reveal, the Joker.

And yeah... he's great.

I really don't think anybody has had a huge issue with the casting of Jared Leto as the Joker. I mean the guy has an Academy Award under his belt, he's definitely a method actor. He's angsty enough in his rock band to have a dark side to him, I don't think anybody has any problem giving him a shot to bring something new to the Joker.

I do think some people had a little bit of issue with the initial picture that came out of him and in case you were wondering, Yes, Damaged is still tattooed on his forehead. But its not really apparent in the trailer, I had to really search for it, so I don't think it'll be a huge deal in the film.

But how is he in the trailer?

I think he's really good. Like... I just shit my pants good. I think the good thing about this Joker is that this is not necessarily going to be a charismatic Joker (while I still think there will be an element of that to this movie) I think this is more of the serial murderer Joker who is charismatic in the way serial killers are. I don't know, there is a little bit of Ledger in what we saw from the trailer. But that's my best point of reference. I can only hope that Leto is creating something new while taking everything we've seen in the past, kind of exactly like Ledger did.

Needless to say, I'm really excited for this Joker.

There's a lot of good things in this trailer. Most of David Ayer's filmography is good. Some of it isn't so good. But I am definitely excited for Suicide Squad. I think I was already but I wanted to see something. With both of the trailers that came out from San Diego Comic-Con, I think a lot of people are starting to change their tunes about DC. And I have to be honest, I don't think it was a very good idea for Marvel to skip out of Comic-Con this year. While other announcements DC has come out with have been overshadowed by Marvel trailers and announcements that we're comfortable with, this time, there wasn't much to overshadow DC. They definitely ran Comic-Con this year and it was hard to compete.

But what do you think? What did you think of the Suicide Squad trailer? What does 2016 look like in the world of comic book movies? Can DC prove their worth with theses starting movies? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to send me your thoughts and give me requests for future reviews. There you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. I'm gonna be honest, this is a dumb spoof of Suicide Squad, but the Nerdist kind of called that we were gonna get a Suicide Squad trailer so I'll give them some credit. Enjoy!


Saturday, July 11, 2015

Batman v Superman Comic Con Trailer

So I've been pretty busy of late. I've had a lot of work I've had to get done, I've been catching up on Game of Thrones finally. On top of that, I just actually haven't watched that many movies this past week and haven't been able to review anything lately. That being said, I still have a couple of films I watched recently that I haven't finished reviews on, I still need to finish my Avengers: Age of Ultron analysis to compliment my review, I'm way behind on that. And I also need to finish my post on my thoughts on Tom Holland being cast as Spider-man.

To add onto all of that, I'm sure a lot of news is going to come out due to Comic-Con. So don't worry, new stuff is on the way.

But I had to drop everything I was doing, pause Game of Thrones, and do a review the minute I saw this...


ITS A 3 1/2 MINUTE LONG TRAILER FOR BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE!!!!

This is the trailer we've all been waiting for!

Now I've given my thoughts on the first trailer that came out which I thought was just brilliant. You can read my thoughts here.

I thought a teaser like that was perfect for the time it was released. It came out in April, a little less than a year before the movie is set to arrive, it got the message out that this movie is going to happen. I loved it.

The one critique I will have of this trailer is that after this, I really don't want to see anymore. I think I've seen all that I need to see from this trailer and I don't need to see anymore. And that's a little bit concerning because I know they're going to come out with more trailers and I almost feel like I won't be watching any of them.

So what happens in this trailer?

What doesn't happen in this trailer is the real question.

It starts with Superman appearing before a committee in what I can only assume is him coming forward for the events of Man of Steel. This is complimented with what seems like a flashback of Bruce Wayne in Metropolis watching the destruction happen around him.

Its apparent that Bruce Wayne was deeply affected by the events of Man of Steel and sees Superman as a danger to humanity instead of a hero.

The quote from Jeremy Irons as Alfred comes back saying this is the kind of stuff that turns good men cruel and what seems to begin is a war between Batman and Superman in all walks of their lives.

This is also complimented with the idea of Superman being a figure of controversy in the world.

To some, Superman is a hero and savior of humanity, to others, he's a menace and could have the power to wipe humanity off the map. This is shown really well in the trailer and it just strengthens the great ideas that were introduced in the first trailer and the ideas that I really hope they follow through with in the movie.

And while there's obviously tension between Batman and Superman, as they are the obvious rivals in the movie and Batman definitely seems as though he wants to stop Superman from destroying the world, there's another voice out there. Its not necessarily one definitively saying he doesn't like Superman (though we can assume he doesn't), but there's more an air of foreboding about him.


LEX LUTHOR IS IN THIS TRAILER!!!

Now Jesse Eisenberg has always been the wild card. I mentioned in my review of the first trailer that there wasn't much in that to say whether or not I'm excited about Jesse Eisenberg or not because we didn't see him. But now we see him in full force and personally, I really like it.

Its definitely not the Lex Luthor we're all used to. He's not Gene Hackman or Kevin Spacey bringing the same Lex Luthor we've seen before, no this Lex Luthor seems a little bit different. I can't say for sure just from a three and a half minute trailer, but I like this incarnation of Lex Luthor right now.

On top of that, I didn't see Jesse Eisenberg. I didn't see the awkward asshole. I actually saw some potential of a character. I think one of the most fun parts of the trailer is when he eerily says, "The Red Capes are coming". I don't know why but I really liked that ending part. I'm gonna try and watch The Double in the next few days (or week, we'll see) but I'm a little bit more interested in Jesse Eisenberg being Lex Luthor. Now, I think I still would have enjoyed this trailer just as much (if not more) if Kevin Spacey had reprised the role but gave a new Frank Underwood like flair to the role. But of course that's just a dream.

But I'm also interested in what Lex Luthor's plan might be, cause we saw a potential of it in the trailer.


Yeah... that's Zod's body...


Now there was some rumor speculating on the use of Zod's body in the past that I heard about. The rumors speculate around the creation of Doomsday and my idea is that, yes, Doomsday would be cool. But please... god... do not have Doomsday show up in this movie.

For those who don't know, Doomsday is the creature that eventually killed Superman in one of Superman's most iconic comic books, The Death of Superman. He's one of Superman's most formidable villains and we've never seen him on the big screen.

I get it, we're going to get to Doomsday. I think Warner Brothers and DC, and Zack Snyder would be dumb not to eventually bring Doomsday into the fold as the one creature that could destroy Superman.

Just don't do it in this film. This movie has some great potential. Its got great ideas, its got more than enough characters. Its got a conflict. It doesn't need a monster showing up at the end that Batman and Superman need to team up to defeat.

Save Doomsday for future films, save him for Justice League. Just don't bring him into this movie! For the love of god please!

But regardless, whether its that or something else, I'm excited to see these movies recognizing what happened in the last film and building off of that.

Oh yeah... by the way...

Wonder Woman is in this trailer too.

Now I'm actually mentioning her later in this rant because I'm still not totally sure what her role is in this entire ordeal.

I'm still of the idea that I'm willing to give Gal Gadot a chance. I think that she can make a good Wonder Woman. But in all of this epicness, this battle between Batman and Superman, there are these random scenes with Wonder Woman just placed in there, somewhat randomly. Don't get me wrong, they're awesome to see and its exciting seeing her there, but why is she there?

She just seems incredibly out of place. The trailer is still awesome, I'm still overly excited for this film. I just felt like she was kind of shoe horned in there and it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. I've said time and time again, while the movie is called Dawn of Justice, this should not be a Justice League Prequel. The movie should focus on Batman facing off against Superman. Not the formation of the Justice League. Like I've said in my post about Wonder Woman, I'm okay with her having a role in the movie, as long as it doesn't take away from the two main attractions.

Now I would have preferred if her role in the movie would have been that of Diana Prince and she didn't even see action in this film. But I'll tell you why I'm not as worried about it now.

A common feeling I got from every scene I saw in this trailer is summed up in one word: Epic. I may use that word too liberally, but it really is. This trailer wastes no time in giving you the feeling that this movie is going to be an Epic, not just be epic, but be an actually Epic (like mythology epic).

So yeah, if you wanna throw Wonder Woman in this epic, as long as it makes sense, you go right ahead.

People have said that there might be too much going on in this film, but my impression from both the trailers that I've seen have been, yeah there is a lot of stuff, but its all the right stuff.

They aren't showing Aquaman, they're not showing the Flash, their not showing Cyborg, they're showing stuff about Batman and Superman.

This trailer alludes to a Robin, this trailer has a lot of Joker references in it. And I love the, all. Everything in this feels as though its woven together and its teasing a story that I have incredible high hopes for.

Yeah Wonder Woman doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of this trailer, but the way things seem to be playing out, I'm thinking that there is some way that Diana Prince will bring something necessary to the plot.

And here's a theory. I mentioned before in a post I did on Aquaman that there could be a connection between the two as there seems to be a sort of Greek mythology connection to this story. Wonder Woman could be the connecting factor between Batman and Superman and the rest of the Justice League. In a way, Wonder Woman could be the Nick Fury or Black Widow of the Justice League. Just a theory. I don't know if that's how its going to happen, but its interesting no doubt.

But on top of this all, I can't help but think that there will be an element of this film that will paint Superman as sort of a bad guy in a way.

I mean put aside the fact that Superman apparently has his devote subjects in this movie with the S patch on their shoulders. There's a lot of this movie that says perhaps that Superman might have too much power.

Now this very well could be the perspective of Batman or Lex Luthor coming through on screen, but I'm kind of wondering with some of the images seen in this trailer if Superman is not exactly the absolute good guy in this movie. I mean once again, you see images of him shooting lasers from his eyes while a city (probably Gotham) burns around him. Superman might be learning how to be the hero and he may let this new publicity go to his head.

But even if he doesn't, that's how good this trailer is. It gives me the idea that this movie might not view Superman in the best light through the perspective of Batman or Lex Luthor. When a movie can make me see the bad guys (or rivals) points of view and makes me believe that they are doing the things they do because the believe its right, then we have a good villain, then we have a conflict, and then we have an awesome movie.

There is very little in this trailer that anybody could say is a down side. Yeah I think its a little early to be showing this much. Yeah I think Wonder Woman seemed a little bit out of place in what seems like it should just be a battle between Batman and Superman.

But besides that, this movie looks to be turning out better than anybody could expect. Now of course this is just a trailer and this movie could suck, but the more I see, the more I'm convinced this movie is going to be awesome. It gave me confidence about Jesse Eisenberg, something I was not excited about in the least. It made Gal Gadot look awesome. It made me believe Ben Affleck is Bruce Wayne and it hopefully will provide Superman with some much needed development, something that wasn't really present in Man of Steel.

Overall, I've watched this trailer about fifty times since I've seen it and I am just overwhelmingly excited about it.

But what about you? Are you excited for Batman v Superman now? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to send me your thoughts on the trailer and send requests for more movies for me to review. I will make them my priority. You can also follow me to get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of the blog.

Before I go, I should let you know that despite the fact that Comic-Con is going on, I will probably not be able to comment on everything. Unless I get a request of someone wanting my thoughts on something (something I will make time for), I'll get to the Comic-con stuff when I have time. Like I said, I'm a little bit behind. Thanks for bearing with me.

I'll leave you with this though.  Conan has done a lot of spoofs on Batman v Superman, this one is kind of old but its a good one. Enjoy!