Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

 Released Year: 2017

Directed by James Gunn

Casted by:

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer

Bradley Cooper as Rocket

Vin Diesel as Baby Groot

Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta

Kurt Russell as Ego

Karen Gillan as Nebula

Pom Klementieff as Mantis

Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha

Chris Sullivan as Taserface

Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord

Michelle Yeoh as Aleta Ogord

 Story: 

In 2014, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Baby Groot are renowned as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race, has the Guardians protect valuable batteries from an inter-dimensional monster in exchange for Gamora's estranged sister Nebula, who was caught attempting to steal the batteries. After Rocket steals some for himself, the Sovereign attacks the Guardians' ship with a fleet of drones. The drones are destroyed by a mysterious figure, but the Guardians are forced to crash-land on a nearby planet. The figure reveals himself as Quill's father, Ego. He invites Quill, who is accompanied by Gamora and Drax, to his home planet, while Rocket and Groot remain behind to repair the ship and guard Nebula.

Meanwhile, Ayesha hires Yondu Udonta and his crew, who have been exiled from the greater Ravager community for child trafficking, to recapture the Guardians. They capture Rocket, but when Yondu shows reluctance to turn over Quill, his lieutenant Taserface leads a mutiny with help from Nebula. Taserface imprisons Rocket and Yondu aboard Yondu's ship and executes his loyalists while Nebula leaves to track down and kill Gamora, whom she blames for all the torture inflicted on her by their father, Thanos. While imprisoned, Rocket and Yondu bond. Groot, together with Yondu's loyalist Kraglin, frees Rocket and Yondu and they destroy the ship and its crew as they escape, though not before Taserface tips off the Sovereign fleet.

Ego explains he is a god-like Celestial, an immortal consciousness that manipulated the matter around it to form the planet with itself at the core. Forming a human guise, he traveled the universe to escape his loneliness and discover a purpose, eventually falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith. Ego hired Yondu to collect the young Quill after Meredith's death, but the boy was never delivered and Ego had been searching for his son ever since. He teaches Quill to manipulate their Celestial power. Nebula arrives at Ego's planet and tries to kill Gamora, but fails and the pair reach an uneasy alliance when they discover caverns filled with skeletal remains. Ego reveals to Quill that in his travels he planted seedlings upon thousands of worlds which can terraform them into new extensions of himself, but they can only be activated by the combined power of two Celestials. To that end, he impregnated countless women and hired Yondu to collect the children; Ego killed them all when they failed to access the Celestial power. Ego forcefully uses Quill to activate the seedlings, which begin to consume every world. Quill fights back after Ego reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death, as his love for her distracted him from his purpose.

Ego's pet empath, Mantis, grows close to Drax and warns him, Gamora, and Nebula of Ego's plan just as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin arrive. The reunited Guardians reach Ego's brain at the planet's core, and fight the Sovereign's arriving drones. Rocket makes a bomb out of the stolen batteries that Groot plants on Ego's brain, while Quill battles Ego with his newfound Celestial powers to allow the other Guardians to escape. The bomb explodes, killing Ego and causing the planet to disintegrate. Yondu sacrifices himself to save Quill, who now realizes Yondu did not deliver him to Ego in order to spare him from the fate of Ego's other progeny, and that Yondu was Quill's true "daddy". Having reconciled with Gamora, Nebula still chooses to set out and attempt to kill Thanos. The Guardians hold a funeral for Yondu, which is attended by dozens of Ravager ships, acknowledging Yondu's sacrifice and accepting him again as a Ravager.

In a series of mid- and post-credit scenes, Kraglin takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control fin; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord, inspired by Yondu's sacrifice, reunites with his ex-teammates; Groot starts growing back to normal size, exhibiting typical teenage behavior in the process; Ayesha creates a new artificial being with whom she plans to destroy the Guardians, naming him Adam; and a group of uninterested Watchers listen to their informant discuss several experiences on Earth.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Wow, I remembered when I watch the vol.1 movie in the cinema, it is awful and I slept most of the time. When I know that the vol.2 is on the big screen, I was like "whatever" and rather wait for Alien instead. But luckily i went to watch the vol.2 in the cinema as well, and kapow, this is so much better than the first movie.

Beside the usual fighting in action scene, the movie has the comedy element in it as well. The whole movie is a bit draggy still, but at least not that boring anymore. Hopefully a pretty well vol.3 will ome out soon~

Star Trek Beyond

Released Year: 2016

Directed by Justin Lin

Casted by:

Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk

Zachary Quinto as Commander Spock

Karl Urban as Lieutenant Commander Leonard McCoy

Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura

Simon Pegg as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott

John Cho as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu

Anton Yelchin as Ensign Pavel Chekov

Idris Elba as Krall / Captain Balthazar Edison

Sofia Boutella as Jaylah

Story:

Three years into its five year mission, the USS Enterprise arrives at Starbase Yorktown, a massive space station, to resupply the ship and shore leave for her tired crew. Struggling to find continued meaning in their mission, Captain James Kirk has applied for a promotion to Vice Admiral. He recommends Spock as the new captain of the Enterprise. Meanwhile, Hikaru Sulu reunites with his husband and daughter, Spock and Nyota Uhura have amicably ended their relationship, and Montgomery Scott works to keep the ship operational. Spock also receives word from New Vulcan that Ambassador Spock has passed away.

An escape pod drifts out of a nearby nebula. The survivor, Kalara, claims her ship is stranded on Altamid, a planet in the nebula, and the Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission. The rescue turns into an ambush when the Enterprise is easily overwhelmed by a massive swarm of ships and is quickly torn apart. The swarm's alien commander, Krall and his crew board the ship, and unsuccessfully search for an alien artifact called the Abronath that Kirk had obtained on a recent mission. The swarm demolishes the Enterprise, and the saucer section crashes to the planet as the crew abandons ship in escape pods.

On the planet's surface, Sulu, Uhura and other surviving crew are captured by Krall. Kirk and navigator Pavel Chekov, accompanied by Kalara, find the wreckage of the saucer section. Kalara is discovered to be Krall's ally when she attempts to retrieve the Abronath for him. To escape Krall's soldiers, Kirk activates the still functional boosters, causing the saucer to lurch forward and killing Kalara as it flips over on itself. Meanwhile, a wounded Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy search for the other survivors. Spock tells McCoy that he intends to leave Starfleet to continue the late Ambassador Spock's work on New Vulcan. Meanwhile, Scott is rescued by Jaylah, a scavenger who previously escaped Krall's encampment. She takes him to her makeshift home, the wreck of the USS Franklin, an early Starfleet vessel that went missing over a hundred years ago. With Scott's help, the ship is repaired and powered back up. Scott, Kirk, Chekov, McCoy and Spock are reunited and use the ship as a base. The group plot to raid Krall's camp to rescue the crew and transport them to the Franklin, then escape the planet. Meanwhile, Krall coerces a member of Kirk's crew to hand over the Abronath that she had kept hidden for Kirk. The Abronath is the missing half of an ancient bioweapon, created by the planet's original inhabitants, that can disintegrate a humanoid lifeform in seconds. With the device now complete, Krall intends to attack Yorktown and kill its inhabitants, and, using its advanced technology, go on to attack the Federation. Kirk and the others free the crew as Krall launches from the planet with the bioweapon, leading his fleet to Yorktown.

The Enterprise crew pursues Krall in the Franklin. Scott transports Spock and McCoy into one of Krall's drone ships. After ejecting the pilots they discover how the drone vessels coordinate. Krall's communications is disrupted with VHF transmissions, causing mass confusion that results in the fleet's destruction. Krall and his three remaining officers crash in Yorktown. As Krall escapes into the city, Uhura and Kirk discover from the Franklin's logs that 'Krall' is actually Balthazar Edison, the original captain of the Franklin. A pre-Federation human soldier, Edison became disillusioned after peace was established throughout the Alpha Quadrant powers - believing other alien races will always be potential threats. When he and his two remaining crew were stranded on Altamid by a rogue wormhole, he believed the Federation had deliberately abandoned him. Having prolonged their lives with the vampiric technology of the planet's extinct natives (at the cost of their human biology), and re-purposing that species' dormant drone workers into the swarm, he now plans to destroy the Federation in revenge. Kirk pursues Krall, who has consumed enough human life energy to pass as a human, into the Yorktown's ventilation system, where Krall activates the bioweapon. Before the bioweapon can be unleashed, Kirk causes the weapon and Krall to be ejected into the vacuum of space, where Krall is consumed by the bioweapon. Spock and McCoy save Kirk seconds before he is also blown into space.

Kirk is offered the promotion to Vice Admiral, but he opts to remain as captain. Spock chooses to remain in Starfleet and resumes his relationship with Uhura, while Jaylah is accepted into Starfleet Academy. As the crew celebrates Kirk's birthday, they view the construction of their new ship, the USS Enterprise-A.

L² Scored: 9.5/10

L² Comment:

This is the third movie of Star Trek's Reboot Series... Now only i realize that I have never watch the first & second movie from this series, what a shame :p Not only this, I didn't even watch any single movie of The Next Generation Series; while only the first two movie of The Original Series were watched and blogged at here...Under this kind of circumstances, I cannot call myself as the "fans" lol~ Well, overall the movie is nice and the excitement keeps on coming without a second to lose. I think I better buck up my movies lately or else I will be very outdated dy...

Guardians of the Galaxy

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by James Gunn

Casted by:

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer

Vin Diesel as Groot

Bradley Cooper as Rocket

Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta

 Story:

In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals a sphere-like artifact only to be intercepted by Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree, Ronan. Although Quill escapes with the artifact, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on the Nova Corps homeworld Xandar, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters; the genetically-engineered raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. The Nova Corps arrives and arrests the group, imprisoning them in the Kyln. A powerful inmate, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill dissuades him by saying that Gamora can bring Ronan to him. Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power to destroy entire planets such as Xandar. Learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, Rocket, Quill, Groot, and Gamora work together to escape the Kyln.

Elsewhere, Ronan meets with the titan Thanos to discuss his daughter Gamora's betrayal and the loss of the orb. Accompanied by Drax, Quill's group escapes the Kyln in his ship—the Milano—and flee to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed-head of a celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan, while the rest of the group meet Gamora's contact, Taneleer Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Suddenly, Tivan's tormented assistant grabs the stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs his collection.

Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's forces leave with the sphere. Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce by convincing Yondu that they can recover the orb. The group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they must stop him from using the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's ship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening that after the destruction of Xandar, he will kill Thanos; hateful of her adopted father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

On Xandar, the Dark Aster is confronted by Yondu's fleet, the Nova Corps, and Quill's group, which breaches the Dark Aster. Ronan uses his upgraded warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Drax kills Korath, and Gamora defeats Nebula (who escapes) and unlocks Ronan's chambers, but the group finds themselves outmatched by his power until Rocket crashes the Milano through the Dark Aster and into Ronan. The damaged Dark Aster crash lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, they use it to destroy Ronan.

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the stone, then gives the real stone to the Novas. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, they remark that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, have their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother; a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano accompanied by a twig recovered from Groot, which is already growing. In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.

 L² Scored: 3.5/10

L² Comment:

Seriously, this movie only managed to get me awake for around 1 hour then the rest i was mostly half asleep and half awake while watching it in the cinema. The storyline is just all over the place for me, not really like it. It makes me think of "the hitchhiker of the galaxy", which i dislike a lot... gosh~ i hate it coz this film have so many of my favorite celebrities inside and i still dislike it...

Avatar

Released Year: 2009
Directed by James Cameron

Casted by:
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully
Zoe Saldana as Neytiri
Stephen Lang as Miles Quaritch
Sigourney Weaver as Grace Augustine
Story:

Jake Skully has been recruited to replace his twin brother to be in one of the team for research in Pandora in the year of 2154. Human beings has been mining some precious mineral in Pandora but was afraid the attack from the local natives which are known as Avatar who stay on a huge tree. There's a huge amount of the mineral burried under the huge tree.

Dr Augustine has train Jake to be in his Avatar mode because he was lack of training. Unable to walk in the real life, Jake love his Avatar body a lot because he gain back his ability to walk and run. But according to Colonel Miles, Jake has to report to him regarding on every research the Avatar Program team has found and Jake will got his new real leg when he is send back to Earth.

During one mission out for research, Jake lost himself from others and luckily was saved by the native Neytiri. After that, Jake was recruited into the native but has to pass all the test that they set. Neytiri was assigned to be his trainer. Both went for language training, body seminar and also the way to defeat wild animals. When everything was managed, Jake found himself falled in love with Neytiri.

Both of the couple was force to break up because the Colonel and team came and burst off the huge tree. All avatar loss their home and Neytiri's father was killed as well. Researchers team ran away and try to help the native but Dr Augustine was killed. Being angry, Jake teams up with the local native to fight against his own human races while protecting the nature of Pandora.

Finally, human being has been defeated and send back to earth. Jake also decided to transform into the Avatar form forever and always stay to protect Neytiri and other Avatar.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

One word - SUPERB !!! James Cameron is always my favourite director aka producer. He never fails to take my breathe away, seriously. I just love this film. But questions occured: 1) why only male avatar has nipples while female don't? 2) Male avatar don't have penis? Coz i can't see one flinging around even though they are almost naked.