X-Men: Dark Phoenix - X戰警:黑鳳凰

X-Men: Dark Phoenix (X戰警:黑鳳凰) is an 2019 film. The movie stars an ensemble cast featuring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, and Jessica Chastain. This film is part of the X-men universe from Fox. This is the second last movie of the series with next years' New Mutants being the last, as Disney has bought Fox and will end the series. This is the fourth movie of the First Class arc of the X-men universe of movies.



In 1992, a space shuttle is stuck in space. Professor X sends the X-Men to rescue the ship. During the rescue, Dark Phoenix force enters Jean, she is now imbued by the cosmic powers. Eventually, the force starts to exhibit itself in various ways. However, those ways are destructive and the government gets involved to try to stop her. Can Jean get control of the force?



I didn't give away the background story of Jessica Chastain's villain role. The trailers make no mention of her and her powers. So I will not either.

I actually liked this movie a lot. Maybe because I went in with such low expectations. The story was quick and does summarize a bit of the X-Men universe. A fitting end of to the Fox X-Men story. Unfortunately, it didn't get the release it needed, more of a February or October release may have saved its box office performance.

Go see if you are an fan of the X-Men film series.

12 Years A Slave - 自由之心

12 Years a Slave (自由之心) is an 2013 film. The movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor. The extensive supporting cast include Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong'o, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, and Brad Pitt. The movie is based on 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup.



Based in pre Civil War days of the United States, Solomon is a free man who plays the violin. When he's tricked into slavery, Solomon endures 12 years as a slave. During this time from free man to slave, Solomon is beaten, sold, and exchanged between masters. All the while, we she glimpse into the lives of what slaves had to endure. From brutal beatings to sub standard living, slaves were treated poorly. Solomon finally finds freedom again, but the scares of slavery will live on forever.

The movie was well made and told a very compelling story. As much as this was about Solomon, it was a commentary of the how humans will forever be its worst enemy. Humans treating other humans right isn't part of nature. When another human can gain an upper hand, they will. And this movie shows that in spades. I've seen this movie repeated on HBO the past 6 months and I stop and watch a little every time. Be it 1 minute or 15 minutes, I find myself drawn to it. However, I was hard press to include it in my favorite movies of 2013. You should watch it too.

300: Rise Of An Empire - 300壯士:帝國崛起

300: Rise Of An Empire (300壯士:帝國崛起) is an 2014 film. The movie stars Sullivan Stapleton and Eva Green. The supporting cast include Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, and Rodrigo Santoro. Flashback appearances by Gerard Butler and Michael Fassbender. The movie is a sequel of the 2007 film, 300.

Greece is now under attack from Persia. They city states are giving in one by one to the Persia messengers. However, Athens does not and hopes Sparta comes to assist in defending the country. Themistocles seeks to unite the rest of the resisting cities. They goto the Aegean Sea to hold off the invading forces. On the other side, Xerxes gives his navy over to Artemisia. Artemisia and Themistocles go to battle of the sea.

This movie had a similar feel to the the first installment, 300. But 300 was so different when it came out that it changed the industry. Since 2007, the style has been copied enough that it feels part of the normal things done these days. So, the feel of the movie didn't feel so spectacular. So, with that, we're left to the story, acting, and action sequences. The story and action sequences were of the grand scale. It was big, ten thousand ships do battle. The acting was a bloody mess. Eva Green was over acting and took her revenge plot to the extreme falling on the side of cheezy. The rest of the movie played to the fact that events were happening in parallel to the events of 300 for the first half of the movie.

In all, with the action sequences and grand story, I would watch this again. I like greek mythos and this movie takes it to a grand scale.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - X戰警:未來昔日 - 變種特攻:未來同盟戰 - X战警:逆转未来

X-Men: Days of Future Past (X戰警:未來昔日/變種特攻:未來同盟戰/X战警:逆转未来) is an 2014 film. The movie stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Halle Berry, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Fan Bingbing, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart. The movie is a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class.



In the future, Sentinels are sent to exterminate mutants. A remaining few are left trying to survive on. When they keep losing, they decide to try to send back a person to the past to stop the Sentinels from being created. Wolverine's chosen because his mind and body both have healing powers. From the future to 1973. Wolverine's tasks is to prevent Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels program. Wolverine must find the younger Charles Xavier and Magneto to help him stop her. All the while, in the future, the remaining few fight on against the Sentinels.



This movie was pretty good. Definitely a change of pace. Bryan Singer makes his way back to the directors chair this time around. It did have more of a X2 feel than the previous other x movies. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is prime and center in the storyline, but James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence have an equally significant role to the overall story. In a sense, this was more of a team film than the last few where Wolverine was very much front and center.



Without giving away too much, this movie totally blows the continuity of the Fox X-verse. Its like a big reset button was pushed at the end. That's what happens with time travel movies.

Haywire - 即刻反擊

Haywire (即刻反擊) is an 2012 film. The movie stars Gina Carano. The supporting cast include Channing Tatum, Michael Angarano, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, and Bill Paxton. Pretty impressive resume for Gina's debut in film. Gina Carano is best known as an MMA cage-fighter with Strikeforce. The movie is directed by the acclaimed and well respected Steven Soderbergh.

Gina plays, Mallory, a mercenary working on covert operations for the US government. Mallory is the prize agent of her current firm. The firm's head and Mallory had a thing in the past that has recently ended, but it hasn't directly affected their personal lives. On a mission to Spain, things go a little off when they extract out a exiled national from Zhong Guo. When back in our home base of San Diego, she's sent back out into the field, in Dublin. There, things go haywire and she's framed for murders. Back in the US, she tries to go Bourne and find out what happens.

This movie was a lot of non-stop action a la the Bourne movies. Except, you have a female lead in Gina doing the spy thing. The fighting is brutal and the made to be like real life. The story itself was hard to follow as there were so many characters on different sides. Gina didn't have to do too much acting as the movie was a constant motion picture. It reminded me of Japanese movies where they film people walking. Lots of long shots of Gina doing athletic things.

I liked the film for the fact that it was a slight departure from the Bourne and Statham type movies. Gina can kick @$$ and you'd believe it. I'd prolly last all of 10 seconds in the cage with her. 9 seconds of it is running away. Good movie, but the story was quite difficult to follow.