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Mauro Teixeira

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  1. I hated Gravity so I was very scared for this because all the trailers for Interstellar gave off a Gravity-vibe. But man oh man. By the end of the movie I was even sighing. What an amazing experience and what a brilliant movie. I'm not exactly a Nolan fanboy, so my expectations were... well, levelled. But this is one of the few movies I'll see a second time in theatres. Masterpiece. A+
  2. Rosa Salazar (Of ‘Insurgent’) Is Brenda In ‘The Maze Runner’ Sequel, ‘The Scorch Trials’ http://www.pagetopremiere.com/2014/09/rosa-salazar-of-insurgent-is-brenda-in-the-maze-runner-sequel-the-scorch-trials/
  3. God, I loved goosebumps, have a bunch of books here... wonder what the story is gonna be.
  4. Yap. Patrick Ness wrote the book Dowd never managed to due to her disease. The ilustrated version is really good. Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8-psqOON-Y (really good, imho, for a book trailer).
  5. OMG, really? Patrick Ness is an amazing writer. I read A Monster Calls a few months ago and liked it very much. Though I'm not exactly seeing this as a movie.
  6. This is becoming less a topic to review CF and more a place to mock Telemachos' age
  7. So yeah, I've had a few days to think about it.The first time I saw EG was in an IMAX showing, but since I'm a book fan I spent the entire movie comparing it to the book. And even though I got a clear picture of the flaws the film had, I didn't really get to enjoy it that first time. I had the opportunity to go see it again the next day (non-IMAX) without the pressure of expectations and I actually enjoyed the movie a lot more (it's a shame the sound and picture were not on the same level as IMAX, but you can't have everything).So yeah, I liked the movie. It has problems, sure, but generally it is a nice movie and if you can put asside directing and script flaws, you can actually find a lot of heart to the movie and you will probably leave the theatre thinking about those themes.Let's just take this out of the way: YES, the book is better. It usually always is. Even though it's a pretty faithfull adaptation, there wasn't time for the political subplots and there are a few things the movie simply can't convey.That being said, lets start the review:* SPOILERS FROM NOW ON *Directing wise, the film was simply weird and all over the place. There were parts very well achieved, just to be followed by ridiculous scenes, followed by others that could have been better.I found the first 5 minutes very good (while he is at "school"). The confrontation with his brother was probably the worst thing about the movie - sure, it serves to establish that his brother is a psycopath, but why did Ender agree to that? Why did he put up with that? That horrible moment ends as quickly as it begins, fortunately, but without any explanation whatsoever. Followed by that, you have the family dinner, which is nice again... so yeah, all over the place.Personally, I liked Harrison Ford and Viola Davis interactions quite a lot. In fact, I think it actually improved on the book because in the film you actually understand what's their role in the academy while in the book that is not always clear.The first time I saw it, I thought that even though it was a faithfull adaptation, you did lose a lot of the book because of the pacing. While in the book you have dozens of Zero-G battles that Ender has to win, one by one, and the reader starts to understand just how brilliant Ender is (and how tired he is becoming as well), in the movie you loose much of that because you just have like 2 or 3 of those battles and Ender's tactics are not as impressive as they could be.However, after watching it for the seconde time, disconnected from the book, I think GA will enjoyed it anyway. It may seem fast, but it wasn't that much of a problem to me the second time I saw it.They changed the way Bonzo's fight went down. It didn't bother me too much, and it served to show that Ender was afraid to become like his brother Peter. The converstation with his sister only half-way convinced me.From that moment on until the climax of the movie (that no one saw coming), I thought everything was very well achieved.As for the actual climax... it didn't have that impact like when I read the book for the first time, but I guess that is to be expected. Either way, there was room for improvement there. Still, Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford deliver beautifully in those moments.Regarding the ending of the movie (the thing that split the audience) I just have one problem with it: it wasn't told from the aliens point of view. In the book it becames clear how (and why) the war started from the alien point of view and that was probably the strong point of the book for me. I would have prefered the queen had showed Ender a narrated flashback (or something) from their PoV rather than her silence.* NO MORE SPOILERS FROM NOW ON *The reviews I read mostly said the script was weak, and even though I don't usually pick up on those things, I did find a couple of ridiculous dialogues that almost made me laugh for the wrong reasons.Regarding the actors performance: top-notch.Possible one of the only recent films where Harrison Ford is actually likable and is commited to the character - he was trully great. Asa Butterfield delivers Ender perfectly and in some parts of the movie he does have a commanding aura arround him, but he never looses the essence of Ender - commanding but accessible.I thought Viola Davis did a great job as Major Anderson, somewhat elevating the character and providing a nice contrast to Harrison Ford.Ben Kingsley is somewhat unimpressive (even if not flat out bad) and so was Abigail Breslin as Valentine. I did like Hailee Steifeld, however.The rest of the kid cast is, well... unbalanced just like kids: they either pull it off in some scenes, or they are flat out bad in other parts of the movie.Regarding VFX: excelent. With only 110M$ they did a great job with CGI and photography, imho.On the sound level, it's great. Steve Jablonsky scored this and the score is really good, I even stayed a bit after the credits just so I could hear the music in the credits.Conclusion: It is a good movie with a interesting story that raises many questions (What makes a good leader? Do the means justify the ends? The way we win matters?) but in the end it doesn't really answer any of these questions. Instead it leaves it to the viewer to make his own mind about it (and is that so bad?). I do have to agree with some critics that say the movie is too ambitious story-wise, though.Despite all this, I can't shake the feeling that it would have been better in the hands of another more talented director, preferably with a new script.GRADE: B+
  8. Are you sure?Cause I've read somewhere that the first one was published under the name "O Jogo final". If you look for it you'll find two PT-PT covers: one is the same as the movie poster (the book is being relauched now) and another one that I think was arround longer, but I'm not sure.Anyway, I can't find the old one on sale. Maybe it was a very limited release?
  9. Proud of my country since this one is being released next week here. Gonna see it in IMAX (*cof* Liemax *cof*).
  10. So, I just arrived home from the screening. On Thursday, when the movie was released here, I checked and TMI was being shown in the big rooms. Since they don't usually change screening times or rooms until the next thursday, I thought I had the opportunity to see this in a big room. I'm the kind of guy who likes watching a movie in the big rooms. I remember when Twilight 1 first came out I had two girl friends who dragged me to it and the screening was in a small room and the sound quality was so bad I promised myself I'd never pay a ticket again for so low quality. So when I bought TMI ticket I had now idea the theatre had changed the movie to a small screen. Fortunately I guess they upgraded they're systems because the quality of the screening was actually pretty good, even though I'm not fan of flat (like 5º inclination) theatre rooms. It was a 119 seat room, only like 60% of them were occupied, which is not good for the first sunday of a movie. I guess the highlight of the screening was the CF teaser trailer before the movie - as soon as it started you had some fangirls screeming at it. The movie starts and... it looks decent enough. Lena Headey looks nice, Clary looks fine, Simon too, and I generally liked the way they started. Jace shows up, they changed some things from book but really minor stuff and I generally liked the way it was coming along. We are about 25% of the movie and I see they changed certain events in time: things that should happen after certains scenes are starting before. I wasn't bodered by it, specially when I was finding the story a little more cohese than the books which seemed like a mission-based videogame where you do this, and then this, and then this... at least the movie was somewhat cohesive. But then we get to 50% of the movie and everything changes: they simply stopped following the book. Really, it's almost totally different, and I'm not exagerating, they changed everything. And like that isn't enough, they started ADDING stuff to the story. So yes, there is a lot of information for the viewer to absorb: that's actually characteristic of the story. The problem is they added more information, or they changed major aspects of the plot. There's even some scenes where they started adding information from the second book to this first movie. I was like: "Are you f***ing kidding me?". Look, I've read all the books, I consider them decent books, but they changed so much and started telling so much from the next books that even I felt confused. It seemed like there was absolutely no time for me to adjust and for the audience to absorb the story, there was no breathing time. Everything was happening and happening so fast there was no time for the viewer to actually reflect about it. The storytelling is simply bad. Another problem is the filmmaking. There are some scenes that are climatic in the book and then in the movie... nothing. They're there, but they are simply not impressive. The first time we see a Silent Brother, for example - there's no impact. The first time we actually see Valentine - no impact again. The revelation about Jace's past - completely different, completely blant. The confrontation with Dorothea - what? A portal inside the Institute? Demons inside the Institute? Are you kidding me, that shouldn't even be possible. And there were many details that were completely butchered and forgotten just so the changes they made to the plot could work. There are so many cheesy lines here and so many forced scenes that I can't honestly say I liked the movie, even being a fan of the story. I think being a fan actually made me hate to movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT one of those fans that gets pissed when the characters eyes have a different color. I'm fairly tolerant to change, I thought The Hunger Games movie was a very faithfull adaption, for example, and I completely understand that filmmakers have to make some changes in order to make a movie, but... the second half of the plot was completely butchered by the filmmakers. Regarding the OST, there was a tune that kept being reused, which was disapointing. Regarding the special effects: pretty nice actually. You can tell they are the cheap kind, but they are good enough for a fantasy movie like this. Nowadays even the cheap effects look good. Regarding the acting, Jamie Campbell Bower couldn't pull off Jace but was decent enough. Lily Collins was good enough, I guess. Robert Sheehan was very good. Jonathan Rhys Meyers I can't even understand, his character is so different from the book. Jared Harris didn't have much to work with in the movie... Lena Headey was very good. CCH Pounder was good enough. Kevin Durand was very good (even though he had some ridiculous scenes). Kevin Zeggers and Jemina West pulled off their characters. So, as fan of the series, I was very disappointed, so I'll give this a 6 / 10 (for my standards, everything bellow 5 is garbage, so...) Seriously, this is what happens when filmmakers start changing things just for the sake of changing them. I can't believe Cassie Clare went for this... I thought they couldn't butcher a story more than they did with "The Golden Compass". Apparently I was wrong.
  11. This. The books were so good (my favorites of all time) with such interesting themes and such potential. And the movie was just stupid - I rewatched it last year and I can't believe the ammount of plot holes that thing had.
  12. BTW, yes. MJ will be shot back to back, that's been confirmed for a while. They'll start in September and end it around May 2014.Regards
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