"Big Hero 6" (2014) REVIEW

Well, I guess that now Disney own Marvel, they've got the rights to every series Marvel has published. At least they took something lesser known.

Fourteen year old inventor Hiro Hamada is grieving the death of his older brother Tadashi. However, Hiro accidentally activates Baymax, a robotic caretaker Tadashi created. Hiro doesn't care for Baymax at first, but when Baymax inadvertently leads Hiro to the base of a supervillain that uses technology Hiro himself had invented, Hiro must use his inventive skills to figure out a way to stop the masked villain from possibly destroying the city, which may override Baymax's original purposes.

Cute and fun, Big Hero Six is Disney's latest animated film produced alongside Marvel studios. The animation is superb, the colors vibrant and the cinematography was great as well. The story was also great, with cute moments, funny jokes, and decent pacing, but not executed in the best way, keeping it from being the best animated film this year.

Unlike How to Train Your Dragon 2, which goes all out in its storytelling and action, there were moments where I felt the creators of Big Hero 6 took a step back. The action wasn't as great as it could have been, leading to a somewhat anti-climatic ending where everything wraps up all too quickly (Wreck-It Ralph had more action to it). It felt really toned down compared to How to Train Your Dragon 2 in both the action and drama aspects, which, in my opinion, makes How to Train Your Dragon 2 the best animated movie of the year.

Other than those complaints, Big Hero 6 is a fun family film that the whole family is sure to enjoy and I highly anticipate a sequel. Also, stick around for after the credits to see the best Stan Lee cameo to date!

4/5 Stars

Comments

"Need for Speed" (2014) REVIEW

I know I'm not the only one who thought this movie was going to be a flop. I mean, not only is it a high-speed street racing movie, but it's also a videogame movie. Still, I gave it a shot, but mostly for the D-Box experience. Even with the earnings from winning illegal street races, Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is still unable to keep his auto repair shop from his father open. For a chance to get $500,000, Tobey takes an offer from his street racing rival and successful car dealer Dino Brewster (Domonic Cooper) to finish building the Ford Mustang that Caroll Shelby was working on when he died. After building the car and selling it without Dino's consent, Dino challenges Tobey and Tobey's friend, Pete, to a street race for the money. Nearing the end of the race, desperate for revenge, Dino pushes Pete over a bridge and drives away, leaving Tobey to be blamed for vehicular manslaughter. Two years later, fresh out of prison, Tobey seeks out to knock Dino off his p...

"The Eyes of the Dragon" (1987) by Stephen King REVIEW

I was pretty excited to read this book, being it is Stephen King's only novel appropriate for a younger audience. In the kingdom of Delain, King Roland is poisoned. Framed for the crime of murdering his father, the king, Prince Peter is thrown into prison and his younger brother, Thomas, is crowned king. Although, little do the brothers know, Flagg, a magician and closest advisor of the now dead King Roland, is working behind the scenes to make sure King Thomas completes his plans in turning the kingdom towards chaos. However, even the greatest plans leaves room for failure, including Prince Peter's plan of escape and the dark secret Thomas had seen through the eyes of the dragon. Though the main plot of the story is quite basic, Stephen King take this tale to the next level. Characters, both main and side, each have their shining moments and are very well fleshed out in this story. Simple enough for a child to understand, the story moves at a slow but steady pace. Also...

Blue Beetle Rebirth Vol. 1: The More Things Change (Rebirth #1, #1-#6)

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...

Kevin Lau

Search This Blog