Why I Play DOCTOR WHO: LEGACY, And Why You Should Be...

Yeah, I'm a Doctor Who fan, right alongside the fellow nerds of the world. No, I haven't taken my time yet with the classic series (I will!) I was also a fan of match-3 mobile games. I liked the occasional one, but then came the problem of seeing another released nearly every week. Candy Crush Saga hit it's global phenomenon, which inspired spin-offs, rip-offs, and plenty more of the sort. But one has existed for a few years now, and I've wanted to play it for a while, but wanted to catch up to the current series. Finally, I did, and greatly enjoy this game. With all playable Doctors AND companions... You heard that right, literally everyone. Anyway, this is an amazing game, and any fan of the Doctor should play it! You can find it on Google Play, The App Store, The Amazon Appstore, and of course, Facebook. Check it out now!

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Review

The sixth and supposed “last” film in the Lord of the Rings universe has just made it's way to the big screen, so I took a bunch of friends and fellow nerds to check it out and see if it was worth the watch. Scroll down below to check out my spoiler-free thoughts on the plot, the characters, action and more! (By the way, some of you may want me to compare this film to the Lord of the Rings franchise. I'm not going to do that, because comparing this film with those is like comparing The Avengers to The Dark Knight, which “One does not simply” do.)

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By now, most of you know that the film is shorter than any of the other films in Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth universe. So with a final battle around 45 minutes long, you already know that the plot is pretty weak compared to the previous films. Unlike most films in a franchise, this one picks up right after the ending of The Desolation of Smaug, making it a lot easier to marathon the trilogy. But the first two had so much story and not that much action, that this one makes up for them. Which brings us to our next topic, the action.

 As I previously stated, the action wasn't much in An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, so they make up for it, bringing us one of the coolest scenes in the Hobbit franchise by kicking it off with Smaug. The REAL Desolation this time. And they didn't stop there. The entire film built up to a huge scaled finale, featuring no long, boring scenes, and keeping you excited with plenty of battles between good and evil. So the action was one of the best elements of the film, but what's action without the characters?

 In the book and the previous films, it seemed as if it was “Bilbo's movie”, focused only on him with everyone else as side characters. The Battle of the Five Armies nearly swapped the roles, giving everyone else a chance to shine, which was needed and appreciated, yet still giving Bilbo some focus.
If you know anything of the Hobbit movies, you know that Legolas and other characters that weren't in the book were brought into the films. In the second film heroes such as him and Evangeline Lilly's 'Tauriel' seemed as if they didn't belong in the film, but their roles were more fitting, and the films wouldn't be the same without them.

 Normally I discuss the graphics, but if you've seen the other two films, you'll know that the graphics pretty well stay equal through the series, so they're great, but not really anything new or spectacular.

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So to sum up the film, it was great. It was a well-made finale to a well-made film series, And quite likely the best of the trilogy. It certainly needed more plot and like the other films, featured some silly and unnecessary moments, but definitely showed emotion when it wanted to. I give The Hobbit: The  Battle of the Five Armies 4 stars. Thanks for reading!

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REVIEW: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY; Hit Or Miss?

Marvel's latest release has made it's way to the big screen, and so I took the liberty and went to see it. But was James Gunn's latest release a hit? Or a miss? After the jump you can check out my spoiler-free review!

Garret Watts Reviews; Brad Silverman's GRACE UNPLUGGED

I've never been impressed by many Christian/Inspirational films, as the majority of them are either very cliche, or the characters are unrelatable. I didn't see Brad J. Silverman's recent release Grace Unplugged in theaters, but as it came to DVD and Blu-Ray, I decided to check it out. Read on to see my thoughts!

So as usual, I'll start off with the plot of the film.
The film is centered around a young girl named Grace Trey (AJ Michalka) at the age of 18 who lives with her parents (James Denton and Shawnee Smith) and is part of her father Johnny's church worship band. But she feels as if her parents are taking her freedom, and that there's more she can do in her life. So she runs from home to pursue her dreams in a musical career with the help of her father's former music manager Frank Mostin (Kevin Pollak). But will she find what she's been searching for, or will it bring her to where she truly needs to be? So there's your plot. As usual, it's rather mediocre, and not that special or impressive.

One thing I did enjoy somewhat however, was the characters. AJ Michalka who played the film's lead Grace Trey was pretty good, although sometimes she didn't seem like she was trying hard enough to express her emotions. Many characters seemed just bland, not really having too much of a reason to be there and out of place. The only one that really made since to be there was Grace's' friend Rachel, played by Jamie Grace. Her father Johnny was great, as played by James Denton (All-Star Superman), and her mother Michelle was a decent supporting character. Next up, the songs.

What is a movie about a singer, without songs? There were two main songs in the film, Misunderstood, originally written by Grace's' father, as well as All I've ever Needed, written by Grace who sang it at the end of the film. Both were original, both were great, and the second was touching. As it was a Christian film, expect to hear some other Christian contemporary music, mainly Matt Redman's You Never Let Go. So we got some good songs, and the singers were pretty good. Now for the final verdict...

And now, it's time. You've read about the good, the bad, and the music in this movie. Now it's time to see what I thought about it. I rate Brad Silverman's Grace Unplugged 3 stars out of 5. I didn't dislike it, it's rather forgettable however, as it isn't exactly original. If you don't watch this film, you won't miss much, but it's not a bad popcorn flick to check out.

Garret Watts Reviews; José Padilha's RoboCop 2014

Dead or Alive, I'm reviewing this movie! I never bothered going to theaters to see Jose Padilha's RoboCop, But when it made it's way to DVD, I figured I'd take a look. Read on below to see what I thought! 

I'll start off with the film's plot. In the year 2028, Police officer Alex Murphy (played by Joel Kinnaman) lives a happy life with his wife and son. But while on the hunt for crime boss Antoine Vallon along with his partner Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams), Jack is injured. While visiting him at the hospital, a bomb is secretly strapped to Murphy's car, later going off and injuring Alex with up to 4th degree burns, severing over 80% of his body. OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) sees this as a possibility to bring Alex back as a half human/ half robot to help bring order to the police department of Detroit, and hires Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) to bring his dreams to a reality. So there's the basic plot. Not too bad, right? Let's keep going. Next up, I'll talk about the characters and acting. So, we have our basic plot, now let's talk about the characters/acting. Many people believe that in Gareth Edward's Godzilla, Many people thought that the characters were either unrelatable, or seemed very stiff in their acting. I respectfully disagree. In this film however, there was so much screen time for the characters, and even then they were boring, unrelatable, or didn't even have a personality. And it isn't as if they didn't have time to give personalities. The film had plenty of time to care for their characters, but they really didn't for most of them. I did greatly enjoy Gary Oldman's Dr. Norton, who played one of the best roles in the film. Another great character in the film was Pat Novak, a show host pushing to get robots on the streets as "the future of American justice." And best of all, he was played by Samuel L. Jackson! So while most characters were not great to see, there were still a couple that gave you a good vibe. Next up: the action. If you're going to go see an action movie, what do you want? ACTION! 'SPLOSIONS!! BLOWIN' STUFF UP!! And a bit of story too. In this however, there are only a few fight scenes, and most of those are either in the dark, from thermal cameras, or shaky cam. There is only one good fight scene in which RoboCop faces off against Rick Mattox (Jacke Earle Haley), and around 40 to 50 drones. So if you've seen all the trailers, you haven't missed much. Now it's time for the final category; the graphics and budget. Most films (action especially) have a budget of around 150 to 200 million dollars. I was a bit impressed, as this film put 100 million into it, and while you didn't see much action, or drones, the graphics were pretty great, as they gave us several neat-looking point-of-view shots from RoboCop, and his suits were pretty impressive. So yes, I'd but that for a dollar, but not much more. If I ever see it on a nice sale, I might pick it up. It definitely was not one of those "have to see it before you die or you're a horrible person" movies, but it certainly wasn't bad, and I wouldn't mind Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer moving on with a possible sequel. I rate RoboCop 3 stars.