Spiderman 2 (2004) Adaptation Review

http://megashare.info/watch-spider-man-2-online-TWpRek5BPT0

ok, the last movie I reviewed was Spider-Man, made by Sam Raimi and I though, what the heck, I'll do a review of all four Spiderman movies. That's right people, after this one I'm reviewing Spider-man 3 and the Amazing Spiderman. I'll also be reviewing each of the new episodes of Agents of SHIELD every week, so hopefully you'll be getting more reviews out of me nowadays.

While Spider-Man is my all-time favorite comic book movie, Spiderman 2 isn't. And the problem with it is just how constructed it is. Spider-Man felt alive and natural, everyone in the story from one character to the next was so defined and well written, they all felt like real people. But in Spider-Man 2, every character feels directed and pushed around by the script that no one really does anything natural.
Since there are so many problems and a lot of them have to deal with the script, i'm just going to go right there, since most of the characters are from the last movie and I'll get to the new ones later.

Right from the get go as the opening credits sequences role, we get reminded of just what an amazing movie the last one was by getting these beautifully drawn pictures of scenes and characters from the last movie. While these pictures are amazing and work to tell everyone what they missed last time, it only serves to remind me that Spider-Man was the best movie ever and as I watch this movie I keep wanting to return to watching Spider-Man.

Here's the thing, I still like Spiderman 2, but not as much as 1, and it has a LOT of problems, a lot more than even I realized the first time I saw it.

The biggest problem is how contrived it all is. Every new character or new event is somehow meticulously connected to everyone else in Peter's life. Mary-Jane is getting married to an astronaut who just so happens to be the son of J. Jonah Jameson. Oh, and remember how Jonah had that great character moment in Spider-Man when he refused to give Peter's name to the Green Goblin even though he hated Spiderman? Well they try to repeat that by making him get all sad about how he thinks he drove Spiderman to quit and then he gets all angry at him when he returns and we are supposed to laugh at how 180 he turns on the subject. That's not funny, it's annoying.

A lot of moments in this movie feel like they were just trying to recreate the feel of the last movie. And a lot of these moments are just unnecessary to the plot. There were a lot of unnecessary plot scenes in Spider-Man as well, but each of those scenes served to work with fleshing out the characters. In this movie, everyone is just left to follow the plot and everything that happens outside of the plot is just to make Peter more emo.

Here's another incredibly contrived connection between characters, Peter's teacher is good friends with Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn is working alongside Otto and sets Peter up with an interview with him so that he can write a paper for his class that will pass him. Oh yeah, Peter is failing his classes and loosing jobs because being Spiderman is cutting into a lot of his time and effort. And he keeps missing Mary-Jane's performances because he gets too late and the usher won't let him in.

Let's talk about this astronaut guy for a second now, because I hate him. Well, I don't exactly hate his character, since he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I do hate his reason for being in the movie. Here's a spoiler, it has nothing to do with the main plot. No, the only purpose he has to to marry Mary-Jane and make Peter more emo because he can't tell Mary-Jane his secret. And that is what pisses me off. At the end of the first movie, Peter made that great sacrifice and pushed Mary-Jane away because he can't risk hurting her. But then what does he do in this movie? constantly try to get with her while keeping his secret from her. It is pointless and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because a lot of people who saw Spider-Man 1 got really mad that the hero didn't get the smoking hot girl-next-door.

But I've griped on this movie long enough, now let me talk about what I do like about it. Like the first movie, what I love is their villain. I know the character of Doctor Octopus is a LOT different than in the movie, but so what, that's why I love him. Doctor Octopus is a terrible person in the comics, in this story, he's the perfect tragic villain. Just like with William Dafoe, Alfred Molina does his best performance when he is alone with his other side.

In Spider-Man, William Dafoe does his best performance by changing his voice and persona to fit two people in one head. In Spiderman 2, it's the polar opposite. There's only one person talking, but his interaction with the A.I. and metal claws is just brilliant. And the many times where the red eye in he center of one of the claws faces the screen with a side-shot of Otto's head just makes me get all excited for what happens next.

Though I do get a little annoyed at how the tentacle/claws keep getting shown like horror monsters, like when the doctor takes a chainsaw and tries to fight the claw. This felt like a direct spoof of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and just made me feel like this was just something the studios wanted, so Sam Raimi just put together whatever he felt like.

All in all, a pretty crappy sequel, but not nearly as bad as the later two movies. Because soon we will find out just how every Spiderman movie has shamed itself by just trying to recreate the same glory as Spider-Man and just got worse than the last. Spiderman 2 is still a decent movie to eat popcorn and enjoy with a few friends, but don't think you are getting another masterpiece like before.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 1 - An Adaptation Review

Ok everyone, it is official, the tides have turned and the most anticipated television series to come around for Marvel fans has arrived and I am not sure of what to say, so I will give my thoughts about it and I will tell you what I feel this means for the future of the Marvel franchise.

The first thing I need to say is this show is directed by Joss Whedon and is expected to tie in to the Marvel movie franchise, which will probably make this show amazing, just by those factors, the God Director of Nerds directing the ultimate nerd show imaginable. This show might just be just as successful as the Incredible Hulk TV show that aired in the 70s for five years.

The problem though for this show, is that besides the backing of Joss Whedon and the entire Marvel movie franchise, this first episode doesn't have anything going for it that any other crime drama already has given us. It has the Boss, the Red and Green Rangers, the techies, and the rogue. The only thing that this show has that any other show doesn't have is Agent Phil Coulson, played by Clark Gregg at his best, he even gets to demonstrate some drama, showing that even Coulson can get angry in times of stress. 

But there is some hope for later episodes, as the other interesting character is Mike Peterson, played by J. August Peterson. That's right, Charles Gunn is back and working with Joss Whedon. What makes this an even more perfect dream is Peterson lives when the show starts in Los Angeles, making this truly feel like after the events of Angel, Gunn stayed in Los Angeles and became the star of this show.

But enough fan speculation, let's talk about his power, and here is where the spoilers come in, since I am writing this review immediately after seeing the episode air in my college dorm with a friend of mine. But since the show just ended it isn't like you can just go see it tomorrow, so you might as well just listen to the Spoilers, since you are going to want to know what happened in this episode to begins with. 

What we all expected to be Power Man, aka Luke Cage, is instead Mike Peterson, an ex-metal worker who got injured and replaced at his work. Offered the choice of being a lab-rat, he does so, having literally every super-power in the current Marvel Universe thrown into him all at once That's right, the origin story of the only super-powered character in this show, is he was given every single super-power from the other Marvel movies. 

To be clear, he doesn't turn into the Hulk and swing around Thor's hammer, no, that would be just ridiculous. Instead, he has a weird centipede-like machine, made out of Alien technology, pumping a chemical formula that combines the gamma radiation, the Super soldier serum, and Extremis (from the latest Iron Man 3, which was awesome and I will eventually review that) to give him Super strength. I'm not sure about his level of recovery and indestructibility since he only took a shotgun blast to the chest, and that isn't really a big deal compared to what the rest of the Marvel superheros have to deal with. 

We do know that this guy has the risk of blowing up like the other guys who had Extremis, so it is likely that he has some level of the heat-based power they also had, but he doesn't turn green or grow at all like the Hulk, so it can be guessed that the Gamma radiation wasn't really being used to power himself. My guess is that the Gamma radiation was being used to power the alien technology that was shooting the super-soldier serum into his system, since the Tesserack was also emitting gamma radiation and Thor's hammer also seems to give off the same blue glow as the Tesserack, as did Loki's magic staff. 

Now let's look at the rest of the supporting cast. We have Agent Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton, as our Red Ranger. He is the best of the best of Black Ops and specializes in terminating threats with extreme prejudice, which makes him a big counter to Agent Coulson's let's make calm and excepting attitude. I'm not really that into his character mostly because he seems all business and doesn't seem to have an ounce of compassion unless you give him a monologue about how messed up the world has become.

A shining moment for him came in his first appearance when he wasn't a member of SHIELD yet. He was tasked with retrieving a piece of stolen alien technology. He demonstrates a particular skill with fictional science fiction technology that seems more at home in Iron Man's world and uses it to break into the man's high-tech safe. What bugs me the most about this scene is that he apparently doesn't need the man's thumb print to open his safe, but that's just a nit-pick.

The shining moment comes from when Agent Ward gets discovered by the Mistress, who just looks so perfectly apathetic. She just stares at him and then stares away looking bored and so used to it you can't help but wonder, just HOW many times as someone broken into his room trying to steal something while she was in there. Then comes the fight scene. Itself wasn't anything special, just a normal many vs one fight in a kitchen and the weapons they use are interestingly creative when taken from kitchen supplies, and it does show just how skilled and brutal Agent Ward really is, so it wasn't pointless.

The rest of the characters are pretty stock. We have the anti-government elitist hacker named Skye, played by Chloe Bennet, though her being a super-hero fangirl is a nice touch and good foil to Coulson's own fanboyism and the two seem to get along well enough. Though it is pretty obvious from tv formula that Skye and Agent Ward are going to hook up since their interaction with one another.

Agent Melinda May, played by Ming-Na wen, is an interesting character, if only because I want to know more about her. She's apparently a big badass among the secret government employees and she's a veteran with a lot of combat experience under her belt, but she seems to not want to be involved in the world, preferring a desk job instead, and getting dragged into SHIELD by Coulson.

The last two characters are Fitz and Simmons, the two techies about the crew and a pair of scientist, specializing in Weapons technology and life science respectively. They have nice quirks are their chemistry is interesting to watch, but other that Iain's lack of desire to get messy and their tech babble when in a crisis, they don't even seem like they have much history together. 

Now onto the plot. It is pretty standard, which is pretty normal for the first season. You don't want to alienate knew viewers with an overly complicated first season, since this is where you go and get people wanting to see the next episode and get them committed. 

The plot of the series seem to be this, there's a new organization that is experimenting in big research and seems to be able to get access to weapons and powers from every known source, no matter how impossible it might seem. They experimented on Mike Peterson and gave him his superpowers and Skye catches notice of both Project Centipede, the project that gave Mike his powers and Mike himself. Skye gets caught by SHIELD and she helps them find Mike, who is going crazy due to the chemical formula. They manage to subdue him  and they all form a team to stop the new evil bad guys that showed up. 

The Show has a lot of promise for being a Joss Whedon TV show made with continuity to the entire Marvel movie universe, but the show itself didn't have anything going for it besides that tie in the show does have J. August Peterson in it AND Agent Coulson, but besides the comic book stuff and Joss Whedon himself, I've seen it all from a lot of other crime dramas. I'm still going to watch the next episode when it comes out next week and you should too, if only to give Joss Whedon support and to see what new super-powered plot they are going to involve next. The dialogue is great with the nice comic book humor Joss Whedon is known for throwing in. But if Buffy could be compared to being Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman and Angel could be his Batman, I wonder what kind of superhero this new show is. 

Sam Raimi's Spider-man - An Adapted movie review

A long long time ago I reviewed a movie that was adapted from a manga and I complained about how it didn't follow the canonicity of the source material regarding the main character's abilities. So is it wrong that I have to say that this ISN"T a problem for Spider-man? I mean, we all know nowadays that Spiderman didn't actually start out with the power to shoot out webbing from his wrists. And since the Amazing Spider man came out I'm sure you all are aware of this, but is that a problem? When I criticized Rurouni Kenshin for not properly representing the ultra-fast swordsmanship from the anime and manga, it was because there wasn't anything to counter it because the sword fights were so infrequent and they never properly represented it until the very end.

During Spider-man, the movie is filled with amazing special effects that were beautifully directed. The flying camera angles and swinging motions made the audience believe that they were Spiderman swinging from rooftops and protecting the city. there was a much greater experience there. Sure the origin behind the web shooting was missing, but the power remained the same. For Kenshin, his power was swinging his sword at lightning speeds, and we didn't see it no matter how skilled the swordplay was to begin with. In Spider-man, the audience comes to see Spiderman swing around on webs, and that is what he did, and he did it beautifully.

Now though, if we are to talk about Sam Raimi's Spider-man, we also have to talk about the period it was made in. Comic Book movies were just getting the big audience love thanks to Time Burton's Batman, so they needed to make the movie as accessible to the audiences. That's why a couple of details were left out of the movie, like his web-shooters or Gwen Stacy. Yes, Gwen Stacy, we get to her now. Anyone who's paid attention to the Spiderman mythos is aware of Gwen Stacy and her tragic death scene with the Green Goblin. But here's the thing, this was the first blockbuster Spiderman movie to make it with the audiences and we needed a way to get them to want to bring their kids to the next one. Would it have been good business strategy to kill off Gwen Stacey during the first movie? Not even Nolan did that. He waited until The Dark Knight to kill off Rachel.

But the writers knew that if they included Gwen, they would have to kill her off, and since the only real interesting thing about Gwen is to kill her off, there's no point to having her for the movies. We all saw what happened when the writers tried to shove emo down Peter Parker's throat later on.

And to be honest, I liked seeing Mary-Jane in the movies. She was nice, pretty, and an interesting female character at the time. She wasn't just some pretty girl, she had a rough childhood, and we got to see that. We saw her interact with Peter even before he became Spiderman. He was just a childhood friend that she grew up with, and she stayed that way for most of the movie despite that great kiss scene with Spiderman. She's a human character, not just a token love-interest like most people tend to portray her or represent her as.

And then we get to my favorite actor in this movie: William Dafoe. This man sold the Green Goblin. Not many actors can show a split personality as well as Dafoe did, though, like any true fan, I can acknowledge there were some sketchy dialogues. His grunts and dialogue as the Green Goblin felt very rehearsed and sometimes unrealistic, but other times, particularly the scenes where Normal Osborn talks to the Green Goblin, it truly felt like there was this great and menacing force that lurked inside this pleasant and mature man. I especially like the way he tried to persuade Spiderman during their first conversation when Spiderman was paralyzed.

Another I have to say is the guy who plays J. Jonah Jameson. This man felt like a real guy, and not as much of a jerk as he may seem. When I first saw the movie I didn't like him, since i was on Peter Parker's side, but he's a businessman who makes money selling news. He calls Parker's photographs crap cause honestly, even in the comics, Peter Parker isn't that good of a photographer. And second, because he needs to make it seem like he's not good so Parker won't get an ego or expect to push him around. He has the power and he needs to make Peter know this.

A big reason why I, especially now, love this movie is how human this movie is. The two things I loved most about the movie are the people and the filmography. The way the camera flows through the sky and catches Peter crawling along the walls is beautifully done and the attention the director and writers give to the screen time for each and every character makes this movie seem so realistic and relatable.

Now, like I always do, let's discuss the plot. And it's pretty simple. Like I said, the big impact of the movie are how the characters all relate to one another so a majority of the movie is devoted to character interaction. What is left of the movie to tell a more narrative story is two different stories that eventually collide into one another. The first is Peter Parker's growth into becoming Spiderman and all of the stuff that Spiderman learns to become the hero he is destined to become. The second is the origin story of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and how he grows into his new identity as a villain. It is so simple and the simplicity is what sells the movie. The story basically sets up two people who are destined to come into conflict and how these two forces decide to deal with the problems they face together.

The Green Goblin exacts revenge on his board of trustees when they turn on him and sell his company. Spiderman interrupts his fight and the two see the other as an obstacle. The Green Goblin first tries to persuade Spiderman into joining him, but when Spiderman rejects his offer, he tries to destroy him by crippling him emotionally by attacking his loved ones. This all collides into a spectacularly well choreographed fight between the Green Goblin and Spiderman as they throw all of their best weapons at each other. Ultimately Spiderman outweighs the Green Goblin and he discovers who the Green Goblin really is.

The movie ends with Peter Parker choosing not to be with Mary-Jane because when the Green Goblin found out about his feelings for her, he tried to use them against him. He can't have Mary-Jan be used against him, so he cuts off ties with her and walks off into the distance, leaving her heartbroken and his best-friend swearing revenge against Spiderman for the death of his father, the Green Goblin.

Now, some people may not like this movie, and that is their opinion, but often their reasoning baffles me. They tell me that the movie is cartoony in the bad way. They tell me Mary-Jane is a slut who jumps around between guys. They tell me the costumes were unrealistic.

Let me explain this to them. Comic books are not real life. Realism does not mean it reflects reality. Realism means the world has a sense of logic and reality in its own world. So, when a man has the power to shoot web out of their wrists and lift a cable car, you have to ask yourself, not is this realistic, but, does this look like it would happen in the world it was created in.

Now, about Mary-Jane's love life, Mary-Jane's first boyfriend, Flash, was a dick and they broke up after graduation. Then quite a while passed from Graduation to the present day, so Harry had more than enough time to try and get a romance between him and Mary-Jane, but let me explain something to you all. No relationship is made to last or made to stand against the tests of time. Not everyone is madly in love with their partner. People need to feel loved, and Mary-Jane didn't exactly have that great of an upbringing, so she probably needed to feel special to at least someone while she was trying to get out in the world. Mary-Jane's choices were understandable and relatable compare to her life.

And the last part, the costumes. I hear all the time about how Spiderman's costume apparently cost millions of dollars to make and how the Green Goblin's suit was clunky and plastic-looking. But let me explain something to you, 1. the material and expenses are not always convertible to movie logic. For what looked like a million dollar costume to us, was probably just a sewn together suit put together by a young man who had a nice sewing machine and a nice aunt to teach him how to mend clothing. and 2. The Green Goblin's suit was a PROTOTYPE. He stole it from his own company before they had time to cosmetically rebuild it. I doubt the first design for Halo's Spartan armor looked as smooth and fashionable when it was first designed. I'm sure the first was clunky and full of hard angles that looked aesthetically unpleasant.

The movie has a few problems, EVERY movie has problems. Citizen Kane's whole movie has a giant gaping plot whole in it and we still regard it as one of America's greatest masterpieces. And in my opinion, Sam Raimi's Spider-man is the best comic book movie ever made, even better than The Dark Knight.

Swan Princess - An animated movie review

Not all decent animated films were made by Disney or big studios. The Swan Princess is one of those black sheep. Directed by Richard Rich, the movie is based off of the beloved ballet, Swan Lake. The film is a mix review with different critics saying different things. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 44% rating, but Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, so there must be something right about it.

The movie is really short, lasting for only and hour and twenty minutes, but it didn't have big budget a Disney film had, so we should at least be grateful the movie was able to astound with what it gave us. The animation not only flows very well, the soundtrack fits as well. Like with Quest for Camelot, I'll start with the music, though there won't be any spoilers since the movie was made in 1994 (HEY! the year i was born!), but i'll make sure not to ruin the experience too much.

Despite the movie being based off of a Ballet, there's hardly any "ballet" music in it, at least that I can tell. I never went to see any Ballets growing up, but I always assumed they were more subtle and less musical-like. Which is what this movie is, a musical. And like every musical, the music must serve one of two purposes, to express the emotions or the plot of the movie.

The first song is quite a long one, but it does keep the lyrics different for the most part. The song lasts for a good six minutes, but i thinks its good. My favorite bits are from the citizens who make all these nice quips about the economy and holidays. The next two songs are a little pointless, but they do serve a point. Far Longer than Forever is a song about the two lead's love and it does sound very convincing that the two will eventually find each other again, and it serves the purpose of expressing the inner emotions of the singer. The other is a problem. Practice, Practice, Practice is a very repetitive and boring song, but it does serve as a good training montage to show how good an archer the hero is.

The rest of the music is a lot less important, more comical and fast paced. But they are all pretty nice and serve to keep the ears busy without pointless conversations. As one who prefers music to talking its easier to appreciate the action when i don't need to hear the characters talk.

Now the plot. Like I said before, I never saw Swan Lake, so I don't know how much the movie kept canon, but it goes as such. Princess Odette and Prince Derek are the respective heirs to their parents' kingdoms, so Odette's father and Derek's mother decide to join their kingdoms by engaging their children. They spend the next eighteen years trying to coerce the two into falling in love. I really like this, since most Disney movies have the characters falling in love after three days. These two have eighteen years. Well, things appear to be finally working in the right direction on their last summer together, but Derek goofs makes it seem like all he cared about was how beautiful Odette is. Offended, Odette and her father leave and say their goodbyes.

A rogue wizard, named Rothbart, Odette's father had banished for attempted mutiny returned and attacked, killing Odette's father and kidnapping Odette, turning her into a swam for good measure. Derek tries to find her with his best friend Romney and Odette gets the help of three animals: Speed the Tortoise, Juan-bob the frog, and Lieutenant Puffin. The plot is Swan Lake still with the wizards tricking the Prince at a ball into declaring his love for another instead of Odette and it ends with an epic battle that was pretty much ripped off of Sleeping Beauty.

Now, I didn't want to ruin the experience since the movie is pretty good and those that know the plot to Swan Lake will know the plot to this movie. It's pretty decent though. Sadly, like all these C-list animated movies, the movie was overshadowed in the box office by so many other big names like Interview with a Vampire and Star Trek: Generations. Strangely enough, the movie warranted three sequels including a christmas special, so Richard Rich must have really liked the movie to make another.

All in all I rate the movie a 7.5 out of 10. good night everyone

Monster university (Review)

This movie did something that doesn't happen very often, and to quote the movie, "it surprised me". Don't worry, since this movie JUST came out, I won't give a spoiler here (If I accidentally give one please do not murder me in the dark with a rusty paper clip. A clean paper clip will do just fine thank you)

Now, this movie really requires you to watch the original movie, not that you won't enjoy or understand the movie at all if you don't. Monster U really adds to the enjoyment of Monster Inc by taking the original concept of the movie and expanding on it. 

But while the original was kind of straight forward with the plot and didn't really leave much to shock besides the twist in the end, Monster U really kept me guessing. Not only about how the movie was going to end, but how the movie was going to progress. Normally for these school-themed movies or sports-themed movies, you get the rivalry and the teamwork and everything like that, but you don't handle it the same way at all. Problems are shown throughout the movie and I don't even know when the actual plot of the movie kicks in. The movie's pacing feels really fluctuent, moving from traditional to a tad lingering (For too long in my opinion) to very brisk, and aside from the lingering moment, the movie never leaves you waiting. In fact, it always leaves you guessing. 

You at first think that the movie is going to be heading in one direction with the tones it is taking, and as soon as you feel that the movie is going to cut to the next scene, it keeps it going, moving onward to pull the joke in a little more or to add more to the heart of the film. The movie doesn't work in the traditional cinematic approach and really shows Disney's true colors as an animation industry. There are many moments where you genuinely think that the movie is going to fall for one of their many classic blunders of story writing, especially in the classic underdog story, but now. First it looks like he's going to loose, then he wins and the movie almost feels anti-climatic with the movie feeling like it still had momentum moving it along, then the movie throws a few shake ups and just when you almost feel like it is going to follow the formula again, it throws it back in your face and pulls a very amazing climax, which even then, almost ended cliche.

Now, again, before I go into the spoiler bits, I need to talk about some really great moments of timing. Not in the movie, but in another movie: Man of Steel. The theatre I go to is a small theatre with only two movies playing at a time, one on top of the other with a flimsy wooden ceiling that blocks sound as well as the walls in my house block the cold. Not very well. So as the third act was coming through, Man of Steel began triumphantly playing its loud booming music that was used to portray awe and fright in the move. but when it played over Monster University, the sound worked even better. The Sad symphony being played sounded more melancholy, but when the war tunes were added, the music changed from sad to scary. I felt a tad scared for what these characters were going to do. I watched a guy on the internet do a comparison between the ending music of The Incredible Hulk TV show and the MacGyver TV shows and talked about how the ending emotional attachment really works depending on which track you use. 

When I heard the music to the Man of Steel playing over Monster University, I couldn't help but feel in awe and terrified since I no longer could assess the direction the film was going in. The movie scared and surprised me.

Now, before I start spoiling the movie, I should give my grade. I give Monster University 10/10 and is a must see for all ages, even adults by their lonesome. And more than anything, I highly recommend those going to college to check out this film, there's so much in here that's relatable for use college students.

Quest for Camelot - An Animated Movie Review

The Quest For Camelot: An Animated Musical, made by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, it is often overlooked and overshadowed by the big named animated film companies like Disney, which is also sad, seeing as this was also their first animated film. But that doesn't mean that this movie has its own majestic beauty to it. As my first Official review of an animated film, I have decided to start off with Quest for Camelot, as I feel it is a very underrated film. 

First, let's talk about the music, which seems to fill the movie more than any other Animated movie that I know. It often feels like a musical, rather than a movie. The songs barry from corny to majestic, from darn right godly to down right unnecessary. But let's digress, the movie really was known for its songs. In fact, one of its songs, "The Prayer", received a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Even though the song was born from the movie though, it sadly was not enough to make the movie a great success. Probably due to the comedic song, "If I Didn't Have You", a duet sung by a two-headed dragon. The song became completely forgotten, most likely due to its forced reference material. The song was so full of references, it had the pair make an elvis impersonation, just to end it. 

Now, a big thing about the music is that all the songs are sung directly by the characters, which sometimes may make it feel out of character. But the feel of everyone breaking into song whenever they have song feelings towards something actually brings forth the grandiose feeling we, the audience, get towards the kingdom. One of my favorite songs from the movie, "Ruber's Song", is all an exposition, but the way the lyrics are written, sung, and presented in animation, make it feel both awe inspiring, and comedically forced. Ruber feels like he is trying to find words that rhyme, like when he says, "Now watch me create my mechanical army…With Pride!" His pause, his over the top gestures, they all greatly solidify the feel that Ruber wants us to respect him as a villain while trying to sing a song about creating robots to take down knights. Not to mention that he has a few screws loose for even doing it.

And that brings us to the exposition. Some might say that the details behind the witches that Ruber gets the magical portion that creates his robots is too short and left with too many questions, but I don't think so. To me, it is like the witches in MacBeth. They come in, present conflict to the story, and then leave, never once being shown again. This is a story set in King Arthur's time. Just by hearing that, we know that there are Wizards and Knights, Dragons and Enchanted Forests. There doesn't need to be anything else told. In fact, this might make it better. Most stories of Fantasy focus a lot of time on backstory and the lore of the world, which was solidified by Token's Lord of the Rings trilogy, but by using the tale of King arthur as the backstory, it is all taken care of. All we get to the lore of the world is a brief exposition told by a knight to his daughter about why he became a knight. It is short, tells us everything, and we are ready to watch the movie. 

The story is quite simple. There is an evil knight, Ruber, who wants to be king, but Arthur is already King, so the Ruber tries to kill him in front of everyone. Not the smartest move, but the twitch in his eye and mouth is a clear sign that this guy isn't quite sane, right from the get-go. Kayley's father, a knight, and the same one from before who gave us the backstory, get's killed trying to protect Arthur, which drives Kayley to want to dress as a bat and bring all evil knights to justice. Nope, sorry, she takes the smarter route to dealing with loss, by dreaming of becoming a knight like her father. Sadly, the Feminist movement won't come around for another five hundred years, so Kayley is not very much permitted by her mother. Then one day, Ruber returns, his giant Griffin having stolen Excalibur and he has a potion that can merge weapons with living beings to turn them into robots. He tests this out with a Chicken, merging it with an ax, and calls it Bladebeak, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, Merlin's Falcon, called Ayden, or Silver Wings sometimes, causes the Griffin to drop the sword into the Forbidden Forest, giving Kayley a chance to prove herself as a knight by going in to find it.

To be fair, she actually was forced into the Forest when she tries to escape from Ruber, and doesn't even think about looking for the sword until she meets a blind man named Garrett who also has a falcon with silver wings. Realizing that falcons with silver wings are rare, she assumes that the bird is the same one that fought the Griffin. The two then follow the bird and Kayley is brought to see the beauty of the world. This is also where most of the movie happens for a while, with a huge musical number called "I Stand Alone", showing us just how beautiful the forest is, but also how dangerous it is. This song is also my favorite by showing us just how magical this world is, which nature being the heaviest of themes.

Now, right after the songs closes, we return straight to Ruber and his robots, which I feel solidifies the theme of the movie: Nature vs. Science. The world the heroes are hiding in is an enchanted forest. Our Heroes are a Blind man attuned to nature, a Falcon, a Dragon, and a young woman. A symbolic factor of a woman, especially a young woman, probably in her early twenties is life. Because a woman is at her peak as a child giver, the connection between new life and a young woman is often a key symbolic trait. But please don't take this as a sexist opinion. The enemies on the other hand, are robots, even if they are made from magic, their forms are very much metallic. All the heroes of the film are average, even weak, beings that must learn to rely on others to make them stronger, while the enemies are all individuals that show no teamwork and are often clumsily defeated. 

Now, the ending of the story is a tad deus ex machina, with all being set right in the end, but this is a fairy tale, and you have to give it props for the story as a hole. There are problems, such as the two-heads of the dragon constantly bickering with each other and providing comedic relief. Some argue that the development of Bladebeak is forced. The Dragon I can agree with, as they are all up in the audience's attention with their goofiness, even during romantic and beautiful moments. But the Bladebeak scenes where great. At the beginning he is shown as a wimpy rooster who flirts with all the young hens, while his large wife constantly scares him for it. Comedic, and it feels right in some weird way. Then his transformation into Bladebeak gives him some power, some strength, and he is rafted into an army where he shows cowardliness, but all around genuine heart. At the end, he shows that he feels sorry for the humans and helps out Kayley, even taking down a robot with his ax beak, which is responded with the Wife Hen proudly pointing to him like she is saying, "That's MY husband." What could have been done batter would be if they made him silent, as all he ever does when he talks is spill references, though thankfully he never got a song. 

Before the conclusion, let me finish with a word on the one character I didn't talk enough about: Garrett. Garrett is a blind hermit living in the Forbidden Forrest. He lost his eyesight and was trained by Kayley's father. When he died, he moved to the forest. His insecurities towards his blindness are shown in the movie, and by the end of the film, we see him leave the forrest, not out of glory, which he feels he doesn't deserve, but out of desire to save Kayley. This might be a little cliche, the tragic, brooding warrior, left alone in exile, but his reasoning, his backstory, his skill, they are all justified in a realistic perspective. They do employ my hated plot technique (Hero leaves the story for a reason and is able to save the day because he chose to leave. If the hero hadn't have left, he wouldn't have been able to return to save the day.), but they also employ my favorite one (Romantic male chooses to give up the woman he loves because he feels that she deserves someone better than himself.) at the same time, so I can forgive them for using that.

The music is magical and often times breathtaking, and sometimes they even use CGI that is used in live action, like during the big fight scene and when they show the ogre. They use great moments of animation, though sometimes that mouths don't sync very well with the voices. But you can hardly blame them. This was Warner Bros's first animation, and they were ill prepared. Let us be grateful that the bad sales didn't make them cancel all together. The company lost $40,000 and the film was greatly overshadowed by the hyped release, godzilla. All around, this movie is amazing and shows it as well.