Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a 2011 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. First released on June 23, 2011, it is the third installment of the live-action Transformers film series. Like its predecessors, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film's story is set three years after the events of the second film, with the Autobots, during their collaboration with the NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers) military force, discovering a hidden alien technology in possession of humans, which had been found by Apollo 11 on the Moon, 42 years prior. However, the Decepticons unveil a plan to use the technology to enslave Humanity in order to bring back Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro reprised their starring roles, with Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving returning as the voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and Kevin Dunn and Julie White reprising their roles as the parents of the main protagonist, Sam Witwicky. English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley replaced Megan Fox as the lead female character; the cast also saw the additions of Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, and Frances McDormand. This installment of the franchise--which director Bay announced would be his last--welcomed Keith Szarabajka, Ron Bottitta, John DiMaggio, George Coe, Francesco Quinn, James Remar, Greg Berg, and veteran science-fiction actor Leonard Nimoy to the voice cast. The script was written by Ehren Kruger, who also collaborated on the narrative of the second film of the series. Dark of the Moon employed both regular 35mm film cameras and specially-developed 3-D cameras, with filming locations in Chicago, Florida, Indiana, Moscow, and Washington, D.C.. The film was rendered specifically for 3-D, and the visual effects involved more complex robots which took longer to render.

In May 2011, it was announced that Paramount Pictures would move Transformers: Dark of the Moon's release date of July 1 to June 29 in order to monitor an early response to footage. Exclusive early premieres in select 3-D and IMAX theaters took place June 28 2011, one night before worldwide release in 2-D and 3-D (including IMAX 3D) formats--each featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.

Critical reception of the film was mixed to negative, with several critics calling it better than Revenge of the Fallen and praising the film's visuals and 3-D action sequences, but criticizing its writing, acting, and length. Dark of the Moon grossed $1.12 billion worldwide, and is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, the second highest grossing film of 2011 (behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2), the highest grossing film in the Transformers series, and the tenth film to gross over $1 billion. The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 84th Academy Awards. A sequel to the film, directed once again by Michael Bay, is scheduled for release in June 2014.

The Plot

In 1961, the Ark, a Cybertronian spacecraft carrying an invention capable of ending the war between the philanthropic Autobots and the malevolent Decepticons, crash lands on the dark side of Earth's Moon. The crash is detected on Earth by NASA, and President John F. Kennedy authorizes a mission to put a man on the Moon as a cover for investigating the craft. In 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 lands on the Moon.

In the present, the Autobots assist the United States military in preventing conflicts around the globe. During a mission to Chernobyl, to investigate suspected alien technology, Optimus Prime finds a fuel cell from the Ark, discovering that it had survived its journey from Cybertron. The Autobots are attacked by Shockwave, who manages to escape. After learning of the top-secret mission to the Moon, the Autobots travel there to explore the Ark. They discover a comatose Sentinel Prime – Optimus' predecessor as leader of the Autobots – and the Pillars he created as a means of establishing a Space Bridge between two points to teleport matter. After returning to Earth, Optimus uses the energy of his Matrix of Leadership to revive Sentinel Prime.

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky is frustrated that he is unable to work with the Autobots and is failing to find a job. He also becomes envious of the close relationship between his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer, and her boss Dylan Gould. After finding work, Sam is provided information by his eccentric co-worker Jerry Wang about the Ark, before Jerry is assassinated by the Decepticon Laserbeak. Sam contacts the now-independently wealthy Seymour Simmons, and together they realize that the Decepticons and their leader, Megatron, are murdering people connected to the American and Russian space missions to the Ark. They locate two surviving Russian cosmonauts, who reveal satellite photos of hundreds of Pillars being stockpiled on the Moon. Sam realizes that the Decepticons raided the Ark long before the Autobots' mission and intentionally left Sentinel and five Pillars behind to lure the Autobots into a trap – Sentinel being the key to activating the Pillars and the Decepticons lacking the means to revive him. The Autobots rush to return Sentinel to their base for protection but Sentinel betrays them and kills the Autobot Ironhide, revealing he had made a deal with Megatron to ensure the survival of the Cybertronian race.

Sentinel uses the Pillars to transport hundreds of concealed Decepticons from the Moon to Earth, and Carly is captured by Gould, who is revealed to be in the service of the Decepticons. The Autobots are exiled from Earth at the demand of the Decepticons to avoid war, but as their ship leaves Earth it is destroyed by Megatron's second-in-command, Starscream, seemingly killing the Autobots. The Decepticons, led by Megatron and Sentinel, seize Chicago as their agents place Pillars around the world. Gould reveals to Carly that the Decepticons plan to transport their homeworld of Cybertron to the Milky Way, then to enslave humanity and use Earth's resources to rebuild their world. Sam teams with USAF Chief Robert Epps to go into Chicago to save Carly, but they are nearly killed by Decepticon forces before the Autobots intervene, revealing they concealed themselves during the launch of their ship to convince the Decepticons they were destroyed.

Working together, the Autobots and human soldiers manage to rescue Carly and destroy Laserbeak, Soundwave, Barricade, Starscream, and Shockwave, with Optimus using Shockwave's arm-cannon to blast the Control Pillar, disabling the Space Bridge. Sam confronts Gould as he reactivates the Control Pillar, and knocks Gould into the Pillar, fatally electrocuting him. Bumblebee and Ratchet arrive and destroy the Control Pillar, permanently disabling the Bridge and causing the partially transported Cybertron to implode. Optimus and Sentinel fight while Carly convinces Megatron that he will be replaced as leader of the Decepticons by Sentinel. Sentinel severs Optimus' right arm, and is about to execute him when Megatron intervenes, incapacitating Sentinel. Megatron invokes Optimus for a truce, having the desire to become the one-in-charge again. Optimus attacks Megatron, knowing Megatron's true intentions, decapitating and killing him. Sentinel pleads for his life but Optimus executes him too, for betraying his own principles. With the Decepticons defeated, Carly and Sam are reunited and the Autobots accept that with Cybertron gone, Earth is now their home.

Reviews

The film has received mixed to negative reviews from film critics. While many of them believed it was an improvement over Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and were also praising the film's visual effects and 3-D action sequences, criticism fell over the long running time, the below average acting, and the script. Several critics also felt that Dark of the Moon still did not live up to the first Transformers movie. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave Transformers: Dark of the Moon a score of 35% based on 232 reviews and a rating average of 4.9/10, saying, "Its special effects and 3-D shots are undeniably impressive, but they aren't enough to fill up its loud, bloated running time, or mask its thin, indifferent script." Metacritic, another review aggregator, gave the film a Metascore of 42/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews" from 37 critics.

Roger Ebert gave the film one out of four stars, calling it "a visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had at the movies." Richard Roeper likewise panned the film, giving it a D and saying that "rarely has a movie had less of a soul and less interesting characters."

Several critics were highly critical of the ineffectiveness of the film's two young stars. Peter Travers stated the two "couldn't be duller." The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that Shia LaBeouf "plays Witwicky as if he had a ferocious case of attention deficit disorder. After two films, his fidgeting isn't cute anymore." James Berardinelli said that LaBeouf "has sunk to greater levels of incompetence here. It's hard to call his posturing and screaming 'acting'." Much of the criticism towards Rosie Huntington-Whiteley compared her in an unfavorable light to Megan Fox. Lou Lumenick said that her "'acting' makes...Megan Fox look like Meryl Streep in comparison." Baz Bamigboye gave his review of the film the title 'Come back Megan Fox, all is forgiven...'.

In a more positive review, Ain't It Cool News called the film "the best entry in the Michael Bay-directed franchise." IGN gave the film a score of seven out of ten, also stating that it was the best of the franchise. E! Online graded the film a B+ while noting if this the film is truly the end of a trilogy, its main antagonists should have played more of a part. Website Daily Bhaskar also praised the film, rating it three and a half out of five stars, citing it as an improvement to the previous film and how it "gives fans something to cheer about". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film an A on an A plus to F scale.

The film had many positive reviews, from critics and the audiences alike, for its special effects and aggressive use of 3-D, leading some to call it the best 3-D experience since Cameron's Avatar. Neil Schneider of Meant to be Seen, a website focused on stereoscopic 3-D gaming and entertainment, remarked that "while Transformers: Dark of the Moon had the scrapings of a really good story, this 3-D movie was shot with a 2-D script." On the topic of 3-D, Schneider said "Transformers 3 was a mix of native stereoscopic 3-D camera capturing and 2-D/3-D conversion (as a 3-D tool), and most was done very well." He added, "At a minimum, Transformers 3 demonstrates that fast cutting sequences are indeed possible and practical in stereoscopic 3-D. More than that, it was a comfortable experience and helped exemplify great use of stereoscopic 3-D with live action and digital characters. That said, I think they still could have taken it much further."

Charlie Jane Anders of io9 believed that some elements of the film were deliberate self-references to Michael Bay's own sense of under-appreciation after the backlash to the second film: "After a few hours of seeing Shia get dissed, overlooked and mistreated, the message becomes clear: Shia, as always, is a stand-in for Michael Bay. And Bay is showing us just what it felt like to deal with the ocean of Haterade—the snarking, the Razzie Award, the mean reviews—that Revenge of the Fallen unleashed." She went on to say that the film's frequent, often jarring shifts in tone were an intentional endorsement of Michael Bay's own filmmaking style. "Tone is for single-purpose machines. Consistency is for Decepticons. Michael Bay's ideal movie shifts from action movie to teen comedy to political drama with the same well-lubricated ease that his cars become men. By the time you've finished watching, you will speak Michael Bay's cinematic language."

The Cast

Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
 Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime (voice)
 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Carly Spencer
 Tyrese Gibson as Epps
 Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime (voice)
 Patrick Dempsey as Dylan
 Frances McDormand as Mearing
 John Turturro as Simmons
 Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
 John Malkovich as Bruce Brazos
 James Remar as Sideswipe (voice)
 Julie White as Judy Witwicky
 Alan Tudyk as Dutch
 Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang
 Glenn Morshower as General Morshower
 Lester Speight as Eddie
 Buzz Aldrin as Buzz Aldrin
 Bill O'Reilly as Bill O'Reilly
 Ravil Isyanov as Voshkod

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is a sequel to 2007's Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series. The plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), the man caught in the war between two factions of alien robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons. Sam is having hallucinatory episodes of Cybertronian symbols, and is being hunted by the Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen, who seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying the Sun and all life on Earth in the process.

With deadlines jeopardized by possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, Bay managed to finish the production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008, with locations in Egypt, Jordan, Pennsylvania and California, as well as air bases in New Mexico and Arizona.

Revenge of the Fallen was released on June 24, 2009, and was a huge box office success, setting records upon release, and grossing a total of $402 million in North America and $836 million worldwide. It was the second most successful film of 2009 (behind Avatar) and 12th overall domestically, and the 28th highest-grossing film of all time and fourth highest of the year (behind Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) internationally. Despite its success at the box office, the film was received poorly by critics; it won three awards at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, including Worst Picture. A third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, was released on June 29, 2011, in 3-D.

The Plot

Thousands of years ago, the Dynasty of Primes traveled the galaxy to create Energon with sun-absorbing machines called Sun Harvesters. The Dynasty follow a law that no sun can be destroyed if it has life on one of its planets. However, one of the Primes broke this law by setting up a Harvester on Earth in 17,000 B.C. The rest of the Dynasty named him The Fallen, and sacrificed themselves to hide the "Matrix of Leadership", the key to start the Harvester.

Two years after the events of the first film, Sam Witwicky is going to college, and the Autobots have joined the U.S military to create a classified strike force, NEST (Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty), an elite joint military task force formed the United Kingdom and the United States, selected the world's top elite soldiers led by Optimus Prime, Major William Lennox and General Morshower, to eradicate Decepticons hiding from all over the globe. While packing for college, Sam finds a shard of the All Spark, which "uploads" its Cybertronian knowledge into Sam's mind. Sam gives the shard to his girlfriend Mikaela Banes for safekeeping, and leaves his guardian Bumblebee behind.

In Shanghai, the NEST Team encounters Demolishor and Sideways. Sideswipe, Ironhide and Optimus take down Demolishor and Sideways, but bring damage and destruction to the public. Demolishor warns Optimus of The Fallen's return before his execution. Reporting to NEST's base in Diego Garcia, the Autobots are patronized by U.S. National Security Advisor Galloway for their actions in Shanghai. Soundwave, the Decepticon's communications officer, hacks into a U.S military satellite, and overhears both the location of Megatron's corpse and the Allspark shard that Optimus removed from Megatron in the first film. After Ravage retrieves the Allspark's shard, it is used to resurrect Megatron's corpse at the Laurentian Abyss. Megatron then flies to the Decepticon flagship Nemesis, where The Fallen instructs him to kill Optimus and capture Sam, as Sam has knowledge that can lead the Decepticons to the Matrix of Leadership.

In college, Sam meets his roommate Leo Spitz, who owns a conspiracy website related to the Transformers' existence. Sam eventually starts seeing and scribbling visions of Cybertronian symbols, and suffers a mental breakdown in his astronomy class. At Mikaela's shop, Wheelie tries to steal the shard, but Mikaela captures him and leaves to see Sam in Princeton. She arrives just as Sam is attacked by the Pretender Alice. Mikaela, Sam and Leo flee and eventually kill Alice, but are then captured by the Decepticon Grindor, who drops them off in an abandoned warehouse. The Decepticons brutally torture Sam to obtain the whereabouts of the Matrix, but the only way to find it is to cut his head off to get to his brain. Optimus and Bumblebee arrive and battle the Decepticons, with Optimus taking Sam into a forest where the Decepticons battle him. Optimus manages to rip apart the head of Decepticon Grindor and wound Starscream by severing his arm off, before Optimus is stabbed and blasted by Megatron. The humans flee with Bumblebee and the Autobot twins, Skids and Mudflap. The NEST team, shocked by their loss, brings Optimus' body to their New Jersey base. Galloway arrives with the U.S Army vehicles armed at the Autobots and news that NEST is being decommissioned after the arrival of the Decepticons.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons kidnap Sam's parents in Paris. The Fallen taps into media signals and broadcasts a demand that the people of Earth deliver Sam to the Decepticons or be annihilated if resist. Leo suggests to Sam that his online rival "RoboWarrior" may be able to help. When the trio find him, they discover that RoboWarrior is actually Agent Simmons from the now defunct Sector Seven. Simmons reveals that the Transformers have been on Earth for millennia and convinces Wheelie to reveal a group of Transformers known as the Seekers. They find and revive the elderly Jetfire. Originally a Decepticon, Jetfire reveals to have changed sides to the Autobots, and teleports the group to Egypt.

Following several clues, the trio find the Tomb of the Primes in Petra. When Sam touches The Matrix it crumbles to dust, but Sam puts the sand in a pouch. The Decepticons arrive and battle the Autobots and NEST, who are aided by the United States Marine Corps, Egyptian and Jordanian military forces. The Constructicon Devastator uncovers the Sun Harvester from a pyramid but is killed by a railgun strike ordered by Simmons. Epps orders an air strike from F-16s, A-10s, and a B-1 Lancer, taking out all of the Decepticons. Sam makes a dash for Optimus Prime's body, but is shot and killed by Megatron before the Decepticons are overwhelmed by the humans. In the afterlife, Sam is told by the spirits of Dynasty of the Primes that the Matrix of Leadership is not a physical item to be found, but a right that he has earned.

Sam is resurrected from the dead, and when the Matrix reforms itself from the sand in his pouch, he resurrects Optimus. The Fallen then teleports, grabs the Matrix and flies to activate the Sun Harvester. After an attack by their artillery and air support fails due to The Fallen's telekinesis, Jetfire offers his parts to Optimus before dying of wounds inflicted by Scorponok. Using a battle armor made with Jetfire's remains, Optimus destroys the Harvester, defeats Megatron and kills The Fallen. Megatron, who has been severely damaged in the battle, follows Starscream's suggestion and retreats. The Autobots, NEST, Sam, and his friends return to the US, where Sam continues to attend college.

Reviews

The film has received generally negative reviews from film critics. Based on 235 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Revenge of the Fallen received an average 20% overall approval rating (the original earned a 57%). Critical consensus was that the film was a "noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch." Metacritic gave it an average score of 35 out of 100 from the 32 reviews it collected. In CinemaScore polls, however, users gave the film a "B+", compared to the "A" that the original film had scored. Actor Shia LaBeouf was unimpressed with the film, stating, "We got lost. We tried to get bigger. It's what happens to sequels. It's like, how do you top the first one? You've got to go bigger. Michael Bay went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie...You lost a bit of the relationships. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn't matter. Then it's just a bunch of robots fighting each other." Michael Bay has admitted his disappointment with the movie and has apologized saying the movie was "crap" and blamed the 2007-2008 Writer's Strike saying "It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers' strike (of 2007-08)". According to The Washington Post, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is Bay's worst-reviewed film, faring even worse than Pearl Harbor. Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "in-your-face, ear-splitting and unrelenting. It's easy to walk away feeling like you've spent 2½ hours in the mad, wild hydraulic embrace of a car compactor".

Roger Ebert, who had given the 2007 film three stars, gave the sequel only one, calling it "...a horrible experience of unbearable length." Later in his review, Ebert discouraged movie-goers from seeing the film by saying "If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination." He later wrote in his blog about the film, "The day will come when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals. It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era. Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive ($190 million)." Ebert would continue to lambast the film in other movie reviews and responses to letters and emails sent to him. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers did not give the film any stars considering that "Transformers 2 has a shot at the title Worst Movie of the Decade." The A.V. Club gave the film a "C-", complaining about the writing and length, and considering the film only works during the action scene that occurs in the last half-hour. Among positive reviews, Amy Biancolli of The Houston Chronicle called it "A well-oiled, loudly revving summer action vehicle that does all that’s required, and then some", Jordan Mintzer from Variety said it "takes the franchise to a vastly superior level of artificial intelligence", and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Revenge of the Fallen may be a massive overdose of popcorn greased with motor oil. But it knows how to feed your inner 10-year-old's appetite for destruction."

On a year-end poll administered by Moviefone, the film was voted the worst film of 2009, and Fox's performance the worst by an actress that year. Comcast ranked the film as the 4th worst sequel of all time. Empire named the film the 25th worst movie ever made. In June 2009, an Associated Press article by David Germain called the film as the worst-reviewed $400 million hit ever.

There was considerable negative reaction to the characters Mudflap and Skids, who some perceived as embodying racist stereotypes. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that "the characters indicate that minstrelsy remains as much in fashion in Hollywood as when, well, Jar Jar Binks was set loose by George Lucas". Critic Scott Mendelson said "To say that these two are the most astonishingly racist caricatures that I've ever seen in a mainstream motion picture would be an understatement". Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News, went further, asking his readers "not to support this film" because "you'll be taking your children to see a film with the lowest forms of humor, stereotypes and racism around." Director Bay has attempted to defend the film as "good clean fun" and insisted that "We're just putting more personality in". Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman responded to the controversy with "It's really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it. I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie".

Another major complaint about the film was Bay's usage of the IMAX format. Instead of using IMAX for complete unbroken sequences similar to director Christopher Nolan's approach for The Dark Knight, Bay chose to use the format primarily on a shot-by-shot basis, combining conventional 35mm footage and IMAX shots in the same sequence. That approach, combined with rapid cutting of same created a jarring, highly unpleasant experience for most moviegoers.

The Cast

Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
 Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes
 Josh Duhamel as Major Lennox
 Tyrese Gibson as USAF Master Sergeant Epps
 John Turturro as Simmons
 Ramon Rodriguez as Leo Spitz
 Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
 Julie White as Judy Witwicky
 Isabel Lucas as Alice
 John Benjamin Hickey as Galloway

Michael Papajohn as Cal
 Glenn Morshower as General Morshower
 John Eric Bentley as Aide
 Erin Naas as Arcee Rider
 Rainn Wilson as Professor Colan

The Island (2005)

The Island is a 2005 American science fiction/thriller film directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was released on July 22, 2005 in the United States, and was nominated for three awards including the Teen Choice Award.

It is described as a pastiche of "escape-from-dystopia" science fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Fahrenheit 451, THX 1138, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Logan's Run. The film's plot revolves around the struggle of Ewan McGregor's character to fit into the highly structured world he lives in, and the series of events that unfolds when he questions how truthful that world really is.

The film, which cost $126 million to produce, earned only $36 million at the United States box office, but earned $127 million overseas, for a $162 million worldwide total. The original score for the film was composed by Steve Jablonsky.

The Plot

Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in an isolated compound which strictly regulates its inhabitants' lives. The inhabitants hope to win a lottery, the reward of which is a relocation to "The Island", the only place on Earth not contaminated by a deadly pathogen. Lincoln tells Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean) of his discontent with the plain white clothes everyone is given and the strict social controls. Concerned about strange dreams Lincoln experiences that involve a speedboat and other unfamiliar items, Merrick inserts probes into Lincoln's body to monitor his cerebral activities.

While illicitly visiting a power-plant basement where his friend, the technician James McCord (Steve Buscemi), works, Lincoln discovers a live moth in a ventilation shaft, leading him to deduce that the outside world is not contaminated. Lincoln captures and releases the moth and follows it to another section, where he witnesses two recent lottery winners being killed: one immediately after childbirth (for her baby), and the other (Michael Clarke Duncan) in the process of having his liver harvested. Security discovers that Lincoln has wandered into unauthorized areas, and start searching for him. As Lincoln rescues Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), a friend who has just won the lottery, Dr. Merrick realizes that Lincoln is beginning to learn the truth.

While eluding security and escaping from the facility, Lincoln and Jordan learn that both the contamination of the outside world and the Island are myths, and that the residents are clones of wealthy sponsors, who intend to use them for organ harvesting or surrogate motherhood. Merrick's technology allows clones to incubate directly into adulthood. He tells sponsors and the government that the clones do not gain consciousness, but when Merrick hires French mercenary Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou) to kill or capture the escapees, he admits that the organs of unconscious clones inevitably fail, making them useless. Thus, he needs the clones conscious in the compound.

Lincoln and Jordan escape the compound and find themselves in the Arizona desert. They find McCord, who gives them the name of Lincoln's sponsor in Los Angeles, and helps them to the Yucca railway station. After Laurent's mercenaries find and kill McCord, Lincoln and Jordan ride the train in hopes of finding help in Los Angeles. (Jordan Two's sponsor, model Sarah Jordan, cannot help as she is in a coma following a car accident.) Lincoln Six's sponsor, Tom Lincoln—the owner of the speedboat in Lincoln's dreams—agrees to help expose the truth about the organ harvesting, but secretly turns against his clone by informing Merrick about the situation. Merrick sends the mercenaries to the location, but Lincoln Six tricks Laurent into killing Tom, allowing him to assume Tom's identity.

The cerebral probes reveal that Lincoln Six Echo inherited some memories from his sponsor Tom Lincoln (which had been thought impossible). Merrick becomes afraid that the same will happen with the other clones and decides to kill them all. Lincoln and Jordan plan to liberate their fellow clones. Now posing as Tom Lincoln, Lincoln Six returns to the compound in order to destroy the holographic projectors that hide the outside world from the clones. With help from Laurent—who has moral qualms with treating the clones as if they are not human—and Merrick is killed and the clones are freed. The film ends with the clones seeing the outside world for the first time.

Reviews

The Island received mixed reviews from critics. It has a 40% "Rotten" rating (based on 185 reviews) at Rotten Tomatoes, and scored 50/100 (based on 38 reviews) at Metacritic. Critical consensus was that the film was well acted and had impressive special effects but didn't deal with the ethical issues it raised as well as it could have. Many reviewers noted that the The Island seemed like two separate films.

Roger Ebert said, "the first half is a spare, creepy science fiction parable, and then it shifts into a high-tech action picture. Both halves work. Whether they work together is a good question." He gave the film three out of four stars and praised the performances of the actors, in particular Michael Clarke Duncan: "He has only three or four scenes, but they're of central importance, and he brings true horror to them." On the critical side, he says the film "never satisfactorily comes full circle" and missed the opportunity "to do what the best science fiction does, and use the future as a way to critique the present."

Variety's Justin Change called the film an "exercise in sensory overkill" and said that Bay took on "the weighty moral conundrums of human cloning, resolving them in a storm of bullets, car chases and more explosions than you can shake a syringe at." He noted McGregor and Buscemi as highlights of the film, along with Nigel Phelps' production design. However, he felt the story lacked in surprises and blamed "attention-deficit editing by Paul Rubell and Christian Wagner" for actions sequences that he felt lacked tension and were "joltingly repetitive".

Salon's Stephanie Zacharek also praised the actors but felt that when the film "gets really interesting, Bay thinks he needs to throw in a car crash or a round of gunfire to keep our attention." She felt the film had enough surprises "to make you wish it were better." Similarly, The New York Times reviewer, A.O. Scott, said "the film is smarter than you might expect, and at the same time dumber than it could be."

Reviewers objected to the prominent use of product placement for several brands in the film. In an Entertainment Weekly cover story, Bay stated that the extensive product placement was the result of trying to offset production costs - "Bay called on friends at major corporations .. and offered product placement in exchange for cash. 'We made about $850,000 on that,' he says. 'And we needed that money to get this movie made.'" Bay began his directorial career in commercials and music videos, which is why these relationships were already in place.

The Cast

Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six Echo / Tom Lincoln
 Scarlett Johansson as Jordan Two Delta / Sarah Jordan
 Djimon Hounsou as Albert Laurent
 Sean Bean as Dr. Bernard Merrick
 Steve Buscemi as James McCord
 Michael Clarke Duncan as Starkweather Two Delta / Jamal Starkweather
 Ethan Phillips as Jones Three Echo
 Brian Stepanek as Gandu Three Echo
 Noa Tishby as Community Announcer
 Siobhan Flynn as Lima One Alpha
Phil Abrams as Obgyn

Transformers (2007)

Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film, which combines computer animation with live-action, is directed by Michael Bay, with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager involved in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two factions of alien robots who can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery. The Decepticons desire control of the AllSpark, the object that created their robotic race, with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson and John Turturro also star, while voice actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively.

Produced by Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto, they developed the project in 2003 and DeSanto wrote a treatment. Steven Spielberg came on board the following year, hiring Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to write the screenplay. The United States Armed Forces and General Motors (GM) loaned vehicles and aircraft during filming, which saved money for the production and added realism to the battle scenes. Hasbro organized an enormous promotional campaign for the film, making deals with hundreds of companies. This advertising blitz included a viral marketing campaign, coordinated releases of prequel comic books, toys and books and, as well as product placement deals with GM, Burger King, and eBay.

Despite mixed critical reaction to the radical redesigns of the characters, and reviews criticizing the focus on the humans at the expense of the robots, Transformers was a box office success. It is the forty-fifth most successful film released and the fifth most successful of 2007, grossing approximately US$709 million worldwide. The film won four awards from the Visual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound Editing. A sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, was released on June 24, 2009, despite the film being panned by critics, it was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, was released on June 29, 2011, in 3-D and went on to gross over $1 billion dollars, despite mixed and negative reviews. On February 13, 2012, Paramount Pictures announced that a fourth Transformers movie will begin production with Michael Bay as director. Its scheduled release date is June 2014.

The Plot

Optimus Prime, leader of the benevolent Autobots, narrates the collapse of the Transformers' home world, Cybertron. It was destroyed by war between the Autobots and the malevolent Decepticons, lead by Megatron in his quest to get hold of the All Spark. The Autobots want to find the All Spark so they can use it to rebuild Cybertron and end the war, while the Decepticons want to use it to defeat the Autobots and take over the universe. Megatron had managed to locate the All Spark on Earth, but crash-landed in the Arctic Circle and froze in the ice. After stumbling upon his frozen body in 1897, explorer Captain Archibald Witwicky accidentally activated Megatron's navigational system and his eye glasses were imprinted with the coordinates of the All Spark's location, an incident that left him blind and mentally unstable. Sector 7, a secret government organization created by President Herbert Hoover, discovered the All Spark in the Colorado River and built the Hoover Dam around it to mask its energy emissions. The still-frozen Megatron was moved into this facility and was used to advance human technology through reverse engineering.

In the present day, the Decepticon known as Blackout arrives in a U.S. military base in Qatar to find the location of Megatron and the AllSpark. He tries to hack into the files of the computer base, but is stopped by Captain William Lennox and his team. Back in the United States, Captain Witwicky's descendant Sam Witwicky buys his first car which turns out to be the Autobot scout Bumblebee and helps him woo his crush Mikaela Banes. Later, Sam catches a glimpse of Bumblebee's true form when he signals the other Autobots.

On Air Force One, another Decepticon named Frenzy infiltrates the plane and tries to hack into the network again, only this time is more successful until he is stopped by the US Security Defense before he can retrieve all of the file information. Frenzy is then picked up by his partner Barricade and they go after Sam after learning he has the glasses needed to find the AllSpark. Sam is rescued by Bumblebee and Mikaela also learns of the Transformers' existence. Bumblebee fights Barricade and manages to subdue him while Sam and Mikaela decapitate Frenzy, but he still survives.

Meanwhile, Scorponok, who was sent by Blackout, goes after Captain Lennox and his team, murdering one of them and injuring another. During the battle, Scorponok is forced to retreat when he gets injured by sabot rounds dropped him by the Air Force. Sam and Mikaela soon meet Optimus Prime and his other Autobot partners Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet. They explain their origins to the two humans and insist on the urgency to get to the Allspark first before the Decepticons, knowing that the Decepticons plan to use it to turn all of Earth's technologies into a new army of Transformers and render humanity extinct. The Autobots bring the two humans back to Sam's house to find the glasses, and they nearly reveal their existence to Sam's parents.

However, Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons and his team find Sam and take his family away to a classified location after learning Sam came into contact with the Autobots. However, Sam and Mikaela are rescued by Optimus and the Autobots, but Bumblebee ends up getting captured. The Autobots get the glasses and use them to find the AllSpark's location so they can destroy it so the Decepticons cannot get to it. Sam and Mikaela along with two hackers named Maggie and Glenn arrive at the Hoover Dam, where Maggie and Glenn got arrested by the FBI for trying to decipher the information Frenzy stole.

Frenzy finds the AllSpark and gets his body back, then contacts the other Decepticons, Starscream, Bonecrusher, Brawl, Barricade, and Blackout. Starscream attacks the dam and Frenzy frees Megatron from his frozen prison, where he joins his cohorts into chasing down Sam and the Autobots, where Bumblebee has shrunk the cube to a reasonable size. They then get to Mission City, where a large battle ensues. Working together, the Autobots and human soldiers manage to bring down Bonecrusher, Blackout, Brawl. However the war caused Bumblebee to get crippled, and Jazz is killed by Megatron.

Soon, it is up to Sam to decide Earth's fate. Optimus urges Sam to put the AllSpark in his chest, which will destroy them both, but Sam instead inserts the cube into Megatron's chest, which kills him and destroys the AllSpark. All of the dead Transformer bodies are dumped into the Laurentian Abyss in the Atlantic Ocean to be hidden, Sector 7 gets closed down by the President of the United States, and the Witwicky family are released from custody.

Sam and Mikaela soon start a new relationship, and the film ends with Optimus Prime saying that the Autobots' fates have given them a new home, Earth, and sends a message calling out all surviving Autobots to join them.

During the credits, Starscream is shown escaping into space.

Reviews

Transformers had its worldwide premiere at N Seoul Tower on June 10, 2007. The film's June 27 premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival used a live digital satellite feed to project the film on to a screen. A premiere took place at Rhode Island on June 28, which was a freely available event giving attendees the opportunity to buy tickets for $75 to benefit four charities: the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the Autism Project of Rhode Island, Adoption Rhode Island, and Hasbro Children's Hospital. The film was released on IMAX on September 21, 2007, with additional footage that were not included in the general theatrical release.

The Cast

Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky
 Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes
 Josh Duhamel as Captain William Lennox
 Tyrese Gibson as USAF Tech Sergeant Epps
 Rachael Taylor as Maggie Madsen
 Anthony Anderson as Glen Whitmann
 Jon Voight as Defense Secretary John Keller
 John Turturro as Agent Simmons
 Michael O'Neill as Tom Banacheck
 Kevin Dunn as Ron Witwicky
 Julie White as Judy Witwicky
 Amaury Nolasco as ACWO Jorge "Fig" Figueroa
 Zack Ward as First Sergeant Donnelly
  Travis Van Winkle as Trent DeMarco

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the sequel to 2008's Iron Man, the second film in a planned trilogy and is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr., who reprises his role as Tony Stark. In cinematic canon, it takes place six months after Iron Man, and directly before Thor. The film's events take place after The Incredible Hulk but before the final scene with Tony Stark and General Ross.

Stark has revealed his identity as Iron Man and is resisting calls by the United States government to hand over the technology. Ivan Vanko, meanwhile, has developed the same technology and built weapons of his own, creating new challenges for Stark.

Iron Man 2 premiered in Los Angeles, California, on April 26, 2010, and was then released in 54 countries between April 28 and April 30, 2010, before going on general release in the United States on May 7, 2010.

The Plot

Russian television shows Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) revealing his identity as Iron Man to the world. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), whose father, Anton Vanko (Yevgeni Lazarev), has just died, sees this and begins building a similar weapon.

Six months later, Stark has used his Iron Man armor to help maintain world peace. He re-institutes the Stark Expo in Flushing Meadows to continue his father Howard's legacy. Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) demands that Stark turn over the Iron Man technology to the government. Stark refuses, claiming that foreign nations and business competitors are decades away from successfully recreating his achievements, and that the armor is in fact his own property.

The palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps Stark alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, and he has failed to find a substitute. Growing increasingly despondent and reckless due to his impending death, and choosing not to tell anyone about his condition, Stark appoints his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) CEO of Stark Industries, and replaces her with Stark employee Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson).

Vanko attacks Stark while racing at the Circuit de Monaco, using an arc reactor of his own powering whip-like energy weapons. Stark defeats Vanko with the aid of his portable briefcase armor. He learns that Vanko is the son of his father's old partner, Anton Vanko. Anton collaborated with Howard on the first arc reactor, but was deported to his native Soviet Union following his attempts to profit from the technology and died in poverty, explaining Vanko's desire for revenge on the Stark family. Rival defense contractor Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) fakes Vanko's death and recruits him to perfect a line of armored combat suits to upstage Stark.

At what he believes is his last birthday party Stark gets drunk while using the Iron Man armor, forcing his friend, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), to intervene. Rhodes dons Stark's Mark II armor and after battling him, delivers the armor to the military. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D., approaches Stark, revealing Rushman as undercover agent Natasha Romanoff and that Howard Stark was a S.H.I.E.L.D. founder that Fury knew personally. Fury gives him some of his father's old material; a hidden message in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo proves to be a diagram of the structure of a new element. With the aid of his computer J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany), Stark synthesizes it. Vanko reveals to Stark that he is still alive and seeking revenge so Stark uses the untested element, removing his dependency on the palladium.

At the Expo, Hammer unveils Vanko's armored drones, led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor. Stark arrives in his new armor to warn Rhodes, but Vanko seizes control of both the drones and Rhodes' armor and attacks Iron Man. Hammer is arrested while Stark's bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Romanoff attempt to capture Vanko. He escapes, but Romanoff returns control of the Mark II armor to Rhodes.

After defeating his drones Stark and Rhodes confront Vanko himself, now in a new, very powerful suit of armor. Neither can match Vanko, but Vanko is ultimately defeated when they fire repulsor rays at each other, causing a large explosion. With his suit too damaged to continue the fight Vanko ignites his suit and his drones' self-destruct mechanisms, apparently killing himself in the process. Stark saves Potts from the exploding drones' remains. Potts quits as CEO, but she and Stark kiss.

At a debriefing, while news footage of the Hulk's rampage plays, Fury informs Stark that while Iron Man is a suitable candidate for the "Avengers Initiative", he himself is not. Stark agrees to be a consultant if Senator Stern presents himself and Rhodes with medals for bravery.

In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) reports the discovery of a large hammer at the bottom of a crater in a New Mexico desert.

Reviews

Reception for the film has been positive. It holds a 74% overall approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 264 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10, with the selected Top Critics giving the film a score of 65% based on 37 reviews and the film is "Certified Fresh", with the critical consensus that "It isn't quite the breath of fresh air that Iron Man was, but this sequel comes close with solid performances and an action-packed plot". Metacritic gave the film 57% based on a normalized rating of 40 reviews.

Positive reviewers include Brian Lowry of Variety who stated, "Iron Man 2 isn't as much fun as its predecessor, but by the time the smoke clears, it'll do". Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said, "To find a comic-book hero who doesn't agonize over his supergifts, and would defend his constitutional right to get a kick out of them, is frankly a relief". David Edelstein of New York Magazine wrote, "It doesn't come close to the emotional heft of those two rare 2s that outclassed their ones: Superman II and Spider-Man 2. But Iron Man 2 hums along quite nicely". Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars out of 4, stating that "Iron Man 2 is a polished, high-octane sequel, not as good as the original but building once again on a quirky performance by Robert Downey Jr". Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, a one-time Marvel Comics writer, said that, "In a refreshing and unexpected turn, the sequel to Iron Man doesn't find a changed man. Inside the metal, imperfect humanity grows even more so, as thought-provoking questions of identity meet techno-fantasy made flesh."

Critics of the film include Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter, who stated, "Everything fun and terrific about Iron Man, a mere two years ago, has vanished with its sequel. In its place, Iron Man 2 has substituted noise, confusion, multiple villains, irrelevant stunts and misguided story lines."

The Cast

Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts
Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes
Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff
Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man is a 2008 American science fiction superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal assistant Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard plays military liaison James Rhodes and Jeff Bridges plays Stark Industries executive Obadiah Stane.

The film was in development since 1990 at Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, and New Line Cinema, before Marvel Studios reacquired the rights in 2006. Marvel put the project in production as its first self-financed film. Favreau signed on as director, aiming for a naturalistic feel, and he chose to shoot the film primarily in California, rejecting the East Coast setting of the comics to differentiate the film from numerous superhero films set in New York City-esque environments. During filming, the actors were free to create their own dialogue because pre-production was focused on the story and action. Rubber and metal versions of the armors, created by Stan Winston's company, were mixed with computer-generated imagery to create the title character. Hasbro and Sega sold merchandise, and product placement deals were made with Audi, Burger King, LG and 7-Eleven.

Reviews were very positive, particularly praising Downey's performance. The American Film Institute selected the film as one of the ten best of the year. Downey, Favreau and Paltrow returned in the sequel Iron Man 2, released on May 7, 2010. Downey also made a cameo appearance as Stark in The Incredible Hulk and is scheduled to appear in the 2012 crossover film The Avengers. The film is the first installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Another sequel, Iron Man 3 is set for a 2013 release, with Downey reprising his role.

The Plot

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is the head of Stark Industries, a major military contracting company he inherited from his father. Even though Stark is an inventive genius and wunderkind, he is also a playboy. One day, while his father's old partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), takes care of day-to-day operations, Stark flies to war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes a.k.a. "Rhodey" (Terrence Howard), for a demonstration of Stark Industries' new weapon, the "Jericho" missile. However, Stark is critically wounded in an assault and finds himself the prisoner of an Afghan terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. An electromagnet built by fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) keeps the shrapnel in his chest from reaching his heart and killing him. The Ten Rings leader, Raza (Faran Tahir), offers Stark his freedom in exchange for building a Jericho missile for the group, but Tony and Yinsen agree Raza will not keep his word.

During his three months of captivity, Stark and Yinsen secretly build a powerful electric generator called an arc reactor, which will power Stark's electromagnet, and then begin to build a suit of armor to escape. The Ten Rings attack the workshop when they discover what Stark is doing, and Yinsen fights back to buy Stark time as the suit powers up. The armored Stark battles his way out of the caves and finds the dying Yinsen, who tells him not to waste his life. Stark burns the terrorists' munitions and flies away to crash in the desert, destroying the suit. After being rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home and announces that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. Stane advises Stark that this may ruin Stark Industries and his father's legacy. In his home workshop, Stark builds an improved version of his suit as well as a more powerful arc reactor for his chest.

When Stark makes his first public appearance after his return, reporter Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb) informs him that Stark Industries' weapons, including the Jericho, were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village. He also learns that Stane is trying to succeed him as head of the company. Enraged, Stark decides to intervene using his now finished suit. In a lengthy and elaborate scene, Stark dons his new armor and then flies to Afghanistan where he saves Yinsen's village and turns Raza's subordinate over to the villagers. While flying home, Stark is shot at by two F-22 Raptor fighter jets. He calls Rhodes on his cell phone and reveals his secret identity in an attempt to get the attack called off. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings find the pieces of Stark's prototype suit and meet with Obadiah, who has the group eliminated and has the company's engineers reverse engineer a new suit from the wreck. Seeking to find any other weapons delivered to the Ten Rings, Stark sends his assistant Virginia "Pepper" Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to hack into the company computer system from Obadiah's office. She discovers Obadiah has been supplying terrorists with Stark weaponry and hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but the group reneged on the deal upon discovering who the target was. Pepper, soon after, meets with agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) of the "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division", a counter-terrorism agency, to inform him of Obadiah's activities.

Stane's scientists cannot duplicate Stark's arc reactor, so Stane ambushes Stark in his home, using a sonic device to paralyze him and take his arc reactor. Left to die, Stark crawls to his lab and retrieves his original reactor. Potts and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempt to arrest Stane, but are attacked by him in his now functional suit. Stark races to the rescue and fights Stane, but is quickly overpowered without his new reactor to run his suit at full capacity. Stark lures him atop the Stark Industries building and instructs Potts to overload the large arc reactor in the building. This unleashes a massive electrical surge that knocks Stane unconscious, causing him and his armor to fall into the exploding reactor. The next day, the press has dubbed Stark in his armor as "Iron Man". Agent Coulson gives him a cover story to explain the events of the night and Stane's death. At a press conference, Stark starts to tell the cover story given to him by S.H.I.E.L.D., but then announces that he is Iron Man.

In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) visits Stark at home, and, noting that Iron Man is not "the only superhero in the world", says he wants to discuss the "Avenger Initiative".

Reviews

Iron Man received critical acclaim. On May 1, 2008, the film was identified as the "best-reviewed film of the year so far" by Jen Yamato of review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with the site reporting at that time the film had received a rating of 95% based on 107 reviews and this rating has held its place as of January 2010. The film currently holds a score of 94% based on 235 reviews, with selected top critics giving it a score of 93% based on 39 reviews. Metacritic gave the film normalized average score of 79%, based on 38 reviews.

Among the major trade journals, Todd McCarthy in Variety called the film an "expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza" with "fresh energy and stylistic polish", while Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film while nonetheless finding "disappointment in a climatic battle between different Iron Man prototypes how did Tony's nemesis learn how to use the suit?" In one of the first major-daily newspaper reviews, Frank Lovece of Newsday lauded the film's "emotional truth pitch-perfect casting and plausibly rendered super-science" that made it "faithful to the source material while updating it – and recognizing what's made that material so enduring isn't just the high-tech cool of a man in a metal suit, but the human condition that got him there". A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film "an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least – since it certainly has its problems – a superhero movie that's good in unusual ways."

Among the specialty press, Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons commended the "impressive sets and mechanics that combine smoothly with relatively seamless CG", and said, "Robert Downey Jr., along with director Jon Favreau help this rise above formula. The result is something that, whilst hardly original or groundbreaking, is nevertheless refreshing in its earnestness to avoid dark dramatic stylings in favor of an easy-going, crowd-pleasing action movie with a sprinkle of anti-war and redemption themes". IGN's Todd Gilchrist recognized Downey as "the best thing" in a film that "functions on autopilot, providing requisite story developments and character details to fill in this default 'origin story' while the actors successfully breathe life into their otherwise conventional roles".

Among major metropolitan weeklies, David Edelstein of New York magazine called the film "a shapely piece of mythmaking Favreau doesn't go in for stylized comic-book frames, at least in the first half. He gets real with it – you'd think you were watching a military thriller", while conversely, David Denby of The New Yorker put forth a negative review, claiming "a slightly depressed, going-through-the-motions feel to the entire show Gwyneth Paltrow, widening her eyes and palpitating, can't do much with an antique role as Stark's girl Friday, who loves him but can't say so; Terrence Howard, playing a military man who chases around after Stark, looks dispirited and taken for granted". Looking at the sociocultural aspects of the film, Cristobal Giraldez Catalan at Bright Lights Film Journal argues that, "Iron Man is far more than playboy fantasy; it is American foreign policy realized without context....Iron Man, with narrative and directorial precision, once again provides the high-fidelity misogyny and anti-Muslim rhetoric Hollywood is known for."

Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss named Iron Man as among their favorite films of 2008.

The Cast

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man

Terrence Howard as Rhodey
 Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane
 Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
 Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart
 Shaun Toub as Yinsen
 Faran Tahir as Raza
 Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
 Bill Smitrovich as General Gabriel
 Sayed Badreya as Abu Bakaar
 Paul Bettany as Jarvis (voice)
 Jon Favreau as Hogan
 Peter Billingsley as William Ginter Riva
 Tim Guinee as Major Allen

The Fourth Kind (2009)

The Fourth Kind is a 2009 American mockumentary science fiction-thriller directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, starring Milla Jovovich, Charlotte Milchard, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, and Mia McKenna-Bruce. The title is derived from the expansion of J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the fourth kind denotes alien abductions.

The film purports to be based on actual events occurring in Nome, Alaska in 2000, in which psychologist Dr. Abigail Emily "Abbey" Tyler uses hypnosis to uncover memories from her patients of alien abduction, and finds evidence suggesting that she may have been abducted as well. The film has two components: dramatization, in which professional actors portray the individuals involved, and video footage purporting to show the actual victims undergoing hypnosis. (At some points in the film, the "actual" and dramatized footage is presented alongside each other in split-screen.) Throughout the film, Abbey is shown being interviewed on television during 2002, two years after the abductions occurred.

The film was a box office success, earning US$47.46 million worldwide, from an estimated $10 million budget.

The Plot

Chapman University hosts a televised interview with psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler (Charlotte Milchard & Milla Jovovich). She tells a story of a close encounter incident at Nome, Alaska, in October 2000.

In August 2000, Tyler's husband, Will Jammeson, is mysteriously murdered one night in his sleep, leaving her to raise their two children, Ashley (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and Ronnie (Raphael Coleman).

Tyler tapes hypnotherapy sessions with three different patients, all of whom have the same experience: every night they see a white owl staring at them through their windows. Tyler puts two of the three patients under hypnosis, and while under, both patients recount similar terrifying stories of creatures attempting to enter their homes. Tommy Fisher (Corey Johnson), her first patient to go under hypnosis, returns home, kills his family and commits suicide.

After hearing the similarities in the accounts of nightly occurrences, Abbey suspects these patients may have been victims of a non-human kidnapping. There is evidence that she herself may have been abducted. Dr. Abel Campos (Elias Koteas), a psychologist from Anchorage and Tyler's colleague, is suspicious of the claims. Later, Tyler calls upon Dr. Odusami (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), a specialist in ancient languages who was a contact of her late husband, to identify the mysterious language that is spoken during the supposed abductions. Odusami identifies the language as Sumerian.

Later, Tyler's daughter, Ashley, is abducted and Sheriff August (Will Patton), not believing in her abduction theory, accuses her of her daughter's disappearance. Tyler undergoes hypnosis in an attempt to make contact with these beings and reunite with her daughter. Campos and Odusami videotape the session, and once hypnotized, it is revealed that Tyler witnessed the abduction of her daughter. The camera scrambles, sounds of violence are heard in the background, and a volatile voice yells "Zimabu Eter!" which supposedly translates to "Spirit from whom you cannot be saved" in English.

The film cuts to an interview with Tyler in which she explains that all three were abducted during that hypnosis session and none have memory of what happened.

The film returns to the aftermath of Abbey's hypnosis session. She wakes up in a hospital after breaking her neck in the abduction. There, Sheriff August reveals that Will had actually committed suicide, showing that Abbey's belief that he was murdered was merely a delusion. Later it is shown that Abbey is paralyzed, presumably due to her neck injury.

In the film's epilogue, it states that Abbey was cleared of all charges against her, leaves Alaska for the East Coast, but still continues to search for Ashley. Campos remains a psychologist and Odusami becomes a professor at a Canadian university. Both men, as well as Sheriff August refuse to be involved with the interview, while Abbey's son Ronnie remains estranged from Abbey and still blames her for Ashley's disappearance. However, Ashley is never found. The TV host then leaves the conclusions up to the viewer.

During the credits, audio recordings of people recounting UFO sightings begin to play.

Reviews

The Fourth Kind was panned by critics, garnering a 17% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus being "While it boasts a handful of shocks, The Fourth Kind is hokey and clumsy and makes its close encounters seem eerily mundane." IMDb rated the movie with an average 5.9 out of 10, based on 272 reviews and Metacritic rated it with 34 out of 100 based on 27 reviews.

The Cast

Milla Jovovich as Abbey Tyler / Herself
 Will Patton as Sheriff August
 Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Awolowa Odusami
 Corey Johnson as Tommy Fisher
 Enzo Cilenti as Scott Stracinsky
 Elias Koteas as Abel Campos
 Eric Loren as Deputy Ryan
 Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ashley Tyler
 Raphaël Coleman as Ronnie Tyler
 Daphne Alexander as Theresa
 Alisha Seaton as Cindy Stracinski
 Tyne Rafaeli as Sarah Fisher
 Paul Stefanov as Timothy Fisher
 Kiera McMaster as Joe Fisher
 Sara Houghton as Jessica
 Julian Vergov as Will Tyler
 Yoan Karamfilov as Ralph
 Charlotte Milchard as Dr. Abigail Tyler

Paul (2011)

Paul is a 2011 science fiction comedy film directed by Greg Mottola, written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It stars Pegg, Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen as the title character. The film contains numerous references to other science fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg, as well as to general science fiction fandom.

The certificate is rated 15 in the UK, Japan and Iraq, because of mild violence and there is also some use of mild language and mild sex references also occur during some parts in the film. It was originally intended as a children's film but became more violent than was originally intended.

The Plot

Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are two English comic book enthusiasts and best friends who have traveled to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International and to take a road trip in their RV to visit sites of major extraterrestrial importance When stopping for something to eat they meet two strangers and when Graeme laughs with them they start tormenting him. They leave quickly and dent the strangers car. At night, along the highway, they notice lights following them they think it si the bullies back at the club and speed up but it isn,t them however the car crashes. They investigate, where they meet and discover an alien named Paul (Seth Rogen), who is in desperate need of help. Although shocked by the appearance of Paul, Graeme agrees to give Paul a ride, but Clive is displeased about the idea. Later, FBI Agent Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman) arrives at the site of the crashed car and informs his mysterious female superior, called the "Big Guy", over the radio that he is closing in on Paul, and she recommends using local law enforcement as back-up. Zoil recruits two inept rookie agents, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio), to aid in his mission, without informing them about the nature of their target.

Graeme, Clive and Paul pull into an RV park run by Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), a Christian fundamentalist, and her over-bearing father, Moses (John Carroll Lynch). The trio bond around their camp grill and Paul reveals that since he was captured by the government, he had been advising them in all manner of scientific and sociological achievements. Yet Paul had outlived his usefulness as a receptacle of knowledge, thus his captors intended to surgically remove Paul's brain and harvest his stem cells, in an attempt to harness his physical abilities (Paul had previously demonstrated both invisibility and healing powers). With the help from a friend inside Area 51, Paul sent an SOS to his home planet, and was escaping to rendezvous with them. The next morning, Paul intentionally reveals himself to Ruth during a theological discussion, and the trio are forced to kidnap her and make a hasty escape. Moses steps outside and sees Paul and, believing him to be a demon, grabs his shotgun and chases after them in his truck. Paul shatters Ruth's faith by sharing his knowledge of the universe via telepathic link; at first horrified, Ruth suddenly becomes eager to sin, which her father had raised her to fear doing. She initially does not trust Paul, but he heals her left eye, which she lost her vision in at the age of four.

Eventually, Paul reveals his intention to return to Tara Walton (Blythe Danner), the girl whose dog he crashed his ship on in 1947 and who subsequently saved his life, who is now an old woman. After spending her life being ridiculed for what she said she saw, Tara is grateful to see that Paul exists. She turns her gas cooker on to make tea, but is interrupted by Haggard and O'Reilly on one side of the house, and Zoil on the other. As the motley crew escapes and drives off with Paul, O'Reilly shoots at them, and the gas ignites, destroying Tara's house. A winded Zoil attempts to follow, but Haggard takes off first, running Moses off the road and catching up to the RV. However, due to an error in judgement, Haggard accidentally drives off a cliff and is killed, leaving Zoil as the last remaining agent in pursuit. He reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within an hour, but she declares herself tired of waiting, and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response.

When Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at the rendezvous, they set off a signal and wait. Eventually, eerie orange lights show up over the surrounding trees, and everyone believes that it is Paul's race. However, it is an army helicopter, with the Big Guy (Sigourney Weaver) on board. As she and three troops move to shoot Paul, Zoil arrives, and it is revealed that he was Paul's inside contact who helped him to escape. Zoil disarms the men, but is shot in the shoulder by the Big Guy. Tara punches out the Big Guy, but Moses appears with his shotgun and mortally wounds Graeme while aiming at Paul. Paul heals him and collapses, briefly appearing to be dead before he quickly recovers; Moses proclaims this to be a miracle from God. The Big Guy regains consciousness, but is immediately crushed by the arriving alien ship. Paul begins to depart and informs Tara that she is coming with him to live a better life. He bids farewell to his friends, hoping to meet them again one day. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and even O'Reilly are shown again at the 2011 Comic-Con convention, where Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their new hit novel.

Reviews

As of September 2011, the film has received generally positive reviews; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 72% based on 184 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3 out of 10; it fared less well among 36 of that website's "top critics", scoring a 58% (21 fresh reviews and 15 rotten).

Empire rated the film "excellent" (four stars out of five) stating, "Broader and more accessible than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost – clever, cheeky and very, very funny. You'll never look at E.T. in the same way again." SFX also gives the film four stars out of five, saying "the film veers dangerously close to alienating (no pun intended) all but its geek core audience, though the more obvious concessions to a mainstream crowd are never enough to derail the film's laugh-a-minute ride"; SFX also calls it a "triumph of visual effects, convincing characterisation and bad taste humour."

Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars out of five and called it a "goofy, amiable piece of silliness" exhibiting "self-indulgence" and possessing a "distinct shortage of real gags". On the same scale Nigel Andrews gave the film only one star, calling it a "faltering extraterrestrial knockabout". The Independent grades the film two stars out of five, saying "Pegg is likeable as usual, Frost more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an appealing convert from Bible thumper to ladette", and notes that "from time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like the idea that 'Paul' has been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the last 30 years, including Close Encounters and The X-Files – but they soon return to the film's default setting of laddish japes and a conviction that the word 'cocksucker' will always get a laugh." Common Sense Media gave the film three stars and an iffy rating for ages 16–17. Saying "Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor." IGN also gave the film three stars, stating "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost send up everything from Star Wars to E.T. in this sci-fi comedy."

Upon its U.S. release, Roger Ebert gave Paul a mixed review of two and a half stars out of four, saying it's a "movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what goes wrong, but you can see that it might have gone right." According to Manohla Dargis, "As genial, foolish and demographically engineered as it sounds (hailing all fan boys and girls), Paul is at once a buddy flick and a classic American road movie of self- (and other) discovery, interspersed with buckets of expletives and some startling (especially for a big-studio release) pokes at Christian fundamentalism....The movie has its attractions, notably Mr. Pegg and Mr. Frost (and of course Mr. Bateman), whose ductile, (noncomputer) animated and open faces were made for comedy....Paul proves the weak link. One problem is that Mr. Rogen, however comically inclined, has become overexposed, and there’s just something too familiar and predictable about this voice coming out of that body. Yet while Paul seems great conceptually, he’s not particularly interesting or surprising, despite a funny recap of what he’s been doing on his time on Earth. With his vibe and vocabulary, shorts and weed, juvenilia and sentimentality, Paul turns out to be not much different from a lot of guys who have wreaked comedy havoc on American screens lately, even if this one only wants to beam up, not knock up."

The Cast

Mia Stallard as Young Tara
 Simon Pegg as Graeme Willy
 Nick Frost as Clive Gollings
 Jeremy Owen as Sword Vendor
 Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild
 David House as Security Guard
 Jennifer Granger as Adam Shadowchild Fan
 Nelson Ascencio as Jorge
 Jane Lynch as Pat Stevens
 David Koechner as Gus
 Jesse Plemons as Jake
 Seth Rogen as Paul (voice)
 Jason Bateman as Agent Zoil
 Sigourney Weaver as The Big Guy
 Bill Hader as Haggard
 Joe Lo Truglio as O'Reilly