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 The Golden Compass is another one of fantasy-action movie that tries to get your kids excited with flashy visuals and fantastical creatures. The movie tells the first story in Philip Pullman’s first story in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Story stars Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old girl who sets out to rescue her friend who was kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers, and to reunite with her uncle who is in the North trying to mount an expedition to the other parallel worlds by using Dust. This parallel Earth is ruled by the Magisterium, a powerful organization bent on controlling all actions and thoughts, not unlike a totalitarian government or, say, the Catholic Church.

The books and the movies have been labeled anti-Christian, and thankfully it has been toned down in the movie for a commercial success. Unfortunately, the creative force behind the movie forgot a few key things to make it better than just mediocre.

The world is rich, and the visuals are powerful, mostly. It takes awhile to explain all the concepts (such as daemons, shape-shifting animals containing the child’s soul, creativity and conscience. They are directly linked so injuring them will injure the linked children as well). Magisterium seeks to sever the link between the daemon and the child to destroy the child’s sense of identity and independence. If this material is too dense, just imagine what a child would think when you layer on the anti-establishment and anti-religion message.

Another important aspect of the movie is that it ends abruptly, apparently designed to provide a happy ending to movie watchers, except it doesn’t resolve anything and hardly explains anything (for part of the cut ending, watch this video). The Golden Compass is best enjoyed on a high-definition Blu-Ray disk as you marvel at the scenes, and just not focus on the plot, character development or coherence.

Rating: 55%

The other day, while waiting for my car to be serviced, I had the chance to re-watch Cloverfield, this time on a much-smaller screen of a laptop. If you couldn’t stomach the big-screen version with all the shaking, you should catch up on this flick on the small screen.

Cloverfield is a monster destroying New York City. What makes this movie compelling is the cast of normal twenty-somethings who are suddenly thrust into a situation they don’t know and that they can’t get out of. At Rob’s going away party, Hud starts documenting his last day in New York City before he jumps in a plane and head to Japan. Rob’s brother Jason, and Jason’s girlfriend as well as Malena, a girl that Hud has a crush on, try to survive when something attacks New York and start destroying building after building.

Supposed to be a video footage of the group surviving the beast, the footage does look indeed authentically amateur with all the shaking, sometimes off focus and oftentimes without proper lighting. In dark alleys and even darker subway tunnels, pitch black screen and monsters hissing will send chills down your spine.

The movie starts slow as it focuses on the party and introduces all the relevant character relationships. However once the monster shows up, the movie doesn’t let its pacing down as the main characters scramble to get away, go find their loved ones, and just try to survive against both the monster and the military’s attacks.

Not everyone will find the ending satisfying, and at some points in time, the main characters choose a course of action that a normal sane New Yorker will never choose. They do betray the scripted nature of the movie: however, suspend your logic and you will find one of the best monster movies this side of the ocean.

Rating: 70%

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is not a typical musical, nor a movie. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly taps his own pocket to write, produce and direct this 42 minute musical. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a shy but still mad scientist who tries really hard to get into the League of Evil, who works on his evil laugh with a vocal coach, and who secretly longs for a girl he meets at the laundromat. He vlogs about his plans and feelings, and ends up discovering it is watched by both his nemesis Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion) and the police.

Joss Whedon showed his musical talent in a special musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in its 6th season, and the music through this series is pretty outstanding. Just like a traditional musical, every major character suddenly bursts into songs to express their feelings. Dr. Horrible finally musters up the courage to talk to the girl of his dreams, only to watch Captain Hammer save her and start dating her.

Neil Patrick Harris is perfect as Dr. Horrible, and Nathan Fillion plays Captain Hammer to its campy fun. He is almost parodying himself in other heroic roles, and it is great fun to watch him sing about how much of a self-absorbed cocky superhero he is. The movie is available on iTunes (at just $3.99) and will soon be released on DVD. This internet mini-series should not be missed by all Joss Whedon fans as it is hilarious light summer fare.

Rating: 75%

Spoof films show no sign of slowing down, and Meet the Spartans clearly shows the genre needs a reboot. Actually Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the writer-directors of this movie can be blamed for pushing out mediocre and outright crappy spoof films in the past few years. When done properly, spoof movies offer guilty pleasures such as Airplane! that cleverly satirized the disaster movies.

Meet the Spartans is a take on the ultra-violent (and stylish) movie 300. As the heroic king Leonidas must battle the invading Persians, he is joined by his most elite 13 (instead of 300) Spartans and the Persians bring along Ghost Rider, Rocky, Transformers and even Paris Hilton. Clearly no material was left behind, as an early battle is straight out of You Got Served (and the other dancing-gang movies).

Jokes fall flat almost all the time, and you’ll be glad the movie is only 80 minutes long, as more runtime would be cinematic torture. Still the movie finds time for 2 musical numbers set to I Will Survive, playing on the whole homoerotic vibe of 300 and the Spartans in the original source material.

It looks like their next target is the disaster genre: here’s to hoping that they find better materials and better writers.

Rating: 10%

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