SpongBob: Sponge Out of Water Review

SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water

Review Written By: Adolph Vega

3D

This movie was made to be in 3D, seriously I believe it was filmed in 3D and the graphical style of the cartoon seems to fit 3D like a glove. The movie uses several layers of 3D and you can clearly tell when one object is closer or farther away from the viewers. The image is incredibly sharp and vivid in 3D and the landscapes and characters just fit at home in 3D. At times it can give the illusion of a 3D diorama effect and your just peering into this world from the outside looking in. Depth 3D is used well to showcase distance and scope but pop out 3D is the real highlight. Several times the movie will have objects flying at the viewer and popping out and floating in 3D space. I feel if you would watch this movie in 2D it would be awkward because the visuals are so meant to be in 3D it would look odd. I heard many children saying oh cool I really like this 3D, and I have to agree. Simply put the 3D in this movie is so good and presented in such a way with various scenes being purposely gimmicky to showcase 3D I would not want to ever watch it in 2D.

 Final Verdict: Great 3D

 

Movie:

I am no outsider when it comes to SpongeBob and his many surreal sea adventures. I have seen a dozen or so episodes over the years and am knowledgeable of the characters and basic premise of the TV show. I have not seen the first SpongeBob movie, and I haven’t watched the newer episodes. All that being said I am not a fan of this movie, simply because its lazy story telling that repeats many previous storylines from the show. When it comes to animated television shows that turn into motion pictures they should follow one basic rule to be considered a success. This rule is simple and is essentially for the movie to be bigger in scope than a usual episode and is more than just one big episode. For me this is defined by having character growth, a fully developed and epic story that couldn’t be displayed in a typical episode. SpongeBob: Sponge out of water fails at this basic idea because it’s nothing more than a long episode and uses the same old storylines of previous popular episodes and is barren of creativity. The story presented in this movie makes no sense because it’s surreal nature. The SpongeBob television show has always had surreal elements within the show so this isn’t a departure from that norm. The story involves the crabby patty recipe vanishing and SpongeBob attempting to solve the mystery. The movie has elements of time travel, and the ability to adjust it’s own story by characters literally rewriting the script and a magical space dolphin. Trying to explain this storyline is like explaining what the color purple tastes like. This movie makes no sense and is just a jumbled surreal mess with too may stories. The surreal nature of SpongeBob is both the best asset and its greatest weakness. This surreal nature makes the story very random, strange and sometimes funny and interesting. At the same time this surreal random nature can cause the movie to change focus instantly, and at any time something magical or amazing can change the storyline instantly. In literature a term for this is Deus Ex Machina and SpongeBob is guilty of abusing this with a magical dolphin. Abusing Deus Ex machine cheapens the story because it doesn’t matter what happens because it can easily be changed on a whim without consequence. It’s random for the sake of being random and this aspect becomes annoying, as it causes the viewer to loose interest because eventually you stop caring about what happens in the story or with the characters. The characters act exactly like they do in the show and any character development is lost as the movie ends, as things reset and nothing is learned or resolved. One of the strangest aspects of this movie is the fact it starts off by introducing the characters and scenario to the audience. This makes no sense at all and is a total waste time, I cannot imagine somebody coming into this movie and being ignorant of all the characters and basic premise, why would they? . This is the second movie of a long-standing TV show, so why they choose to reintroduce the characters and setting? Regarding the characters they are one note and have no depth at all. The biggest issue with the story is the simple fact it’s recycling plots points from previous popular episodes. The time travel element, the magical pen, the crabby patty heist are all stories done before and frankly done better in the TV show. Overall the movie is very speedy and chaotic in pacing and any humor I found was too few and far between. One joke they repeat is the pronunciation of the word Team, it wasn’t funny the first time they said it and it becomes tedious when it’s repeated the tenth time. I understood this movie is meant for children so I shouldn't be too critical, but I don't think kids movies can be given an automatic pass. Kids movies should enjoyable to not only the children but the also be enjoyable to the adult who will take the children to the theatre. This movie is also very misleading and maybe 40% the movie is live action super power scenes from the ads and the majority of this movie is a traditional cartoon. The movie ends with a fun and creative rap scene that sadly was cut short. SpongeBob: Sponge out of water is not an unwatchable mess; it's just totally uninspired. This movie is not interested in being more than simple entertainment for children, and has no grand cinematic aspirations. This movie does nothing to justify a theatrical release and should have been a TV special instead, because it fundamentally fails of being a worthwhile full release motion picture. Sadly this movie is only enjoyable to children and if your an adult taking your children to watch this it’s going to be a long 93 minutes. 

Final Verdict: 3/10

© 2015 PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS IS THE TRADEMARK OF VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.

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Seventh Son Review

Seventh Son

Review Written By: Adolph Vega

3D

The 3D in this movie is fairly well done and makes you feel more like your present in the story as an extra character in the movie than just a passive viewer. The movie has a sharp 3D image and many times scenery will pop out and give a nice rounded illusion, for example a tree truck has one area closer to you and another section slightly farther and gives the good illusion of it being a real object not just a flat surface. Other times the movie has objects being tossed into the screen like spears and other weapons that make you almost want to flinch out of the way. The 3D rain effect is excellently presented and makes you almost feel like you will get soaked and adds to the atmosphere of the scenes. Characters move in and out of the foreground and background and it’s presented in a way that seems natural, a few scenes around a cliff make use the depth to give the viewer a good sense of the danger for the characters. The movie does have many dialog scenes that are toned down in 3D and almost turned off. Overall I so enjoyed the 3D effect in this movie I almost wouldn’t want it in 2D, it’s far from the best 3D I have seen but it’s a very nice use of 3D in both making it more fun to watch and making you feel like your within the movie.

Final Verdict: Great 3D

 

Movie:

An evil witch escapes from its enclosure and Master John Gregory must recruit a new apprentice to defeat this evil before the blood moon. The movie takes place in medieval times is fairly generic in a ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ storyline. The movie revolves around Tom Ward who is the seventh son of the seventh son and when Master Gregory visits him he knows it’s his fate to follow him. The reactions of Tom’s family as he joins Master Gregory are shocking, sadly that scene is not given enough time to play out in a satisfying fashion. Tom trains with Master Gregory and suddenly finds a love interest. This love interest I actually enjoyed and found the chemistry between the characters to work well and seem authentic. Many aspects of the storyline are sadly glossed over and not given enough time to develop. I found it shocking that the title of the movie ‘the seventh son’ is a story element that is 2 or 3 lines of dialog and not given much detail. The end game of the evil witch is not clear and the motivations of her comrades for the characters is severely lacking. Many of the comrades of the witch are only names and not given any real backstory besides a basic description of their fighting style. The movie would be totally forgettable if it wasn’t for the performance of Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory and his witty and very enjoyable demeanor. I enjoyed the banter between Tom and Master Gregory and found the dialog funny and delightful. Outside of the dialog between Tom and Master Gregory the acting is bland and uninspired. The action scenes within the movie are well executed and are entertaining, with nice special effects. It’s a real shame the movie rushes so many elements of the story and doesn’t fully flesh out the characters or setting. I sense the world and characters within this movie are much richer than presented onscreen. The main story is fairly strait-forward and predictable but the comedic interplay between Master Gregory and Apprentice Tom saved this movie for me. The ending was predictable, but I was sad to see the movie end, because I wanted to see more adventures with these dual.

Final Score: 6/10

TM & © 2015 Legendary. All rights reserved.

Jupiter Ascending Review

Jupiter Ascending

Review Written By: Adolph Vega

http://www.jupiterascending.com

3D:

Unfortunately the projector for this movie was slightly out of focus for a majority of the movie and that affected the 3d. I complained to the management and they apologized for the less than stellar 3D performance. That being said the 3d was well presented in them movie’s action scenes. The 3D displayed several objects flying in and out of the background and foreground and popping out of the screen. The camera moves allot in these scenes so it can jarring, but the 3D made this movie more into a ride or videogame in how much fun it was to watch. The 3d is also used to show characters that are closer to the audience than others. One specific scene the villain was so close up that his face was literally in your face and added to the intimidation factor for the character. Overall the 3D is nice and makes for a more entertaining and fun movie watching experience.  

Final Verdict: Good 3D

 

Movie

Jupiter Ascending is the story of a young woman who is thrown into a strange situation and must cope with learning the truth about humanity and its role in the cosmos. The movie quickly introduces you to the Jones family and the main protagonist Jupiter played by Mila Kunis. Jupiter is living with her mother and extended family and works as a housekeeper to the rich. Jupiter is not happy with this lifestyle and suddenly is thrown into a cosmic melodrama and discovers that she is actually royalty in the universe and quickly finds herself in danger. The movie has dozens of characters that are poorly introduced each of which has suspicious motives that make for a convoluted plot with many plot twists. I think the movie has too many characters it attempts to juggle with names that are hard to pronounce and remember. Several characters within this movie are not given any back-story at all and seem to be on screen for no apparent reason. The acting within this movie is pathetic, and is falls into three traps: way over-the-top, one note characters or is has no personality and seems wooden and generic. Jupiter has romantic feelings for a character within the movie but they have no chemistry and the love affair is totally forced and without merit. The romantic tension they tried to build simply failed because the dialog was poorly delivered and on-screen connection was only written in the script, but never portrayed on screen. I simply didn’t buy this aspect of the movie and felt it was really out of place and unnecessary. Overall the story is more or less filler that is rushed between action set pieces. I did find entertainment value in the action scenes, but since I don’t know much about the characters or what is going on I typically don’t care to the outcome from the action. The movie does on occasion attempt humor but most of the jokes are corny and fall flat. I found it strange that so many of the action scenes repeat themselves, and are essentially Jupiter needing to be rescued or her running in corridors to escape an explosion or fire. Overall I found Jupiter to be a likeable main character, but found her to be too gullible and trusting and her responses seemed too muted for the scenes. The movie is also guilty of having almost every science fiction cliché and stereotype of the past 30 years. I did like the original storyline, but found it so outlandish that it’s hard to keep it grounded and relate to the events or characters within the movie. The movie has so many plot twists and turns that by the time its over I really didn’t care or understand what happened to the characters. Simply put the movie is original in premise but tries too hard to surprise the audience and only barely covers plot points. The movie ends with a strange conclusion that feels rushed and out of place. So many aspects of this movie were poorly handled that the final product that is a mess of action scenes, bad acting and poor storytelling. 

Final Verdict: 4/10

© 2015 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.