Cool visuals try to enchance a somewhat common story - ***

This is an American film produced by Paramount Pictures based on a Japanese manga written by Masamune Shirow.   The writer and illustrator of the manga intended the series to be read by adolescent boys and men who are old enough to read kanji.   The books were serialized in 1989 and the  series describes Shirow's vision of 21st century Japan that started in 2029.

The movie starts with the creation of the first successfully enhanced cyber-human, Major Motoko.  This cyber-human was created from a salvaged brain that is put inside a full prosthetic body and was assigned to be part of a team in charge of protecting public security.  While on a mission to fight against cyber terrorists, her paths crossed with someone that led her to discover the conspiracy behind her true identity

I admire the efforts the designers put in creating the Japanese prefecture set in 2029.  What is clearly the strong point of this film are the visuals, both in design and execution , be it by computer generated visuals or real sets and costumes.  Cinematography solidly sets the mood and the tone of the entire film ably supported by dark characters and Scarlet Johansson's internally intense interpretation of her character as the lead Major Motoko. 

But as the story unfolds you realize that you have probably heard this story before, maybe another hero story gone wrong or a conspiracy theory that has been published in several books already and I start to fall asleep and loose interest.  What kept me from totally dozing off are the action sequences and Scarlet's magnetic presence. 

It's the plot that needed saving. - **

This is the third movie of the Power Rangers film franchise all of which were produced by Saban Entertainment, an American/Israeli company operating outside the US.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came out in 1995 while the second film,  Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie came out in 1997.  Both of which and including this newest installment are all based on the Power Rangers TV series.

Rita Repulsa was close to acquiring the Zeo Crystal which will give her the power to destroy worlds.  The wizard Zordon kept the crystal from her along with 5 coins and willed them to find 5 strong individuals to give them powers to be able to protect the crystal from being taken by Rita Repulsa.  For the most part the movie was about how 5 individuals became the Power Rangers we know now.

While this is an American film, the movie is based on a Japanese TV series.  What this film tried to do is to veer away from the Sentai style of portraying superheroes and tries to create something that is more palatable to the Hollywood crowd by utilizing more modern visual effects and computer graphics.  This particular series is unique in a way that it created heroes one of whom is autistic and the other one could possibly be a lesbian.  So the story takes a more modern take than its predecessors by doing this.

The wizard willed the coins to look for 5 strong individuals to protect the crystal, and it turned to be more of a work of fate than a work of wizardry, but the truth is, Zordon needed the 5 rangers to combine powers so he can come back to life and so the backbone of the whole plot of sort of skewed.  The character development lacked focus thus taking it a longer time for each character to find something solid they can work on. The story took a long time to move forward and so there was really no morphing happening up until the last quarter of the film.  And when the real action finally starts you become uninterested already that nothing about it becomes thrilling.  Did not like the cast either, some of them were sort of flat and uninteresting while others were just pushed back a bit to give equaly exposure to others.

Overall, I did not like this film.  I got really excited by the trailer and thought how the Power Rangers have come a long way from sentai, but it did not really create much excitement for me to say that it was worth it.  If you are not really a Power Rangers fan you'd probably better off choosing another film to watch.

Twice the enchantment and four times the magic - ****

This is the live action remake of the 1991 animated Disney movie of the same title, while the former was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation the latest version was still distributed through Walt Disney Pictures and is produced by an American independent film company housed in Walt Disney Studios, Mandeville Films.

Based on the abridged fairy tale which was adapted from Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's La Belle et La Bete this story is about discovering love in dark places like fear and bitterness.  It follows the story of Belle and her desire to reach other worlds other than her small town of Villeneuve and the prince whose curse can only be undone by finding love and being loved in return.

The film took on the good points from the animated original and added more to it by adding some dimensions to its characters.  It took the best tracks from Menken's original playlist and added new songs to further develop the characters giving them a more complete persona. The actors were well casted in this film taking on Emma Watson to play Belle and Luke Evans was just perfect as Gaston and it turned out this movie has a powerhouse cast having Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and Stanley Tucci playing the staff of the castle who were turned into objects as part of the curse to the prince.  Visually enchanting, the big feature of this movie is the production design the costumes and the scenes were well styled and the animated effects add magic to its already solid scenography.

There is really nothing in this film that I didn't like.  It was a good experience watching this film on 3D IMAX and it took quite a bit of strength not to sing along the familiar songs from the animated version.  This is a good date movie and also one the whole family will truly love.