The first National Treasure film was great, in my opinion. It had a unique and interesting story, the effects weren’t bad, and it blended some historical factoids into the story unobtrusively. I don’t think it deserved the relatively low ratings it got in places like RottenTomatoes.com.

The sequel, Book of Secrets, wasn’t too bad for a sequel, but it didn’t quite live up to the first film. It featured some of its predecessor’s elements, but it lacked the innovation of the original.

Book of Secrets was funny, and worth seeing if you liked the first movie, but it was a little disappointing. Mind you, it wasn’t bad as far as sequels go (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean II), but it just wasn’t quite as good as the first movie.

The humor was good, and I liked the “President’s Book” (I won’t spoil it for you though). Overall the movie was enjoyable, but I liked the original better.

The Golden Compass, based on the book by Phillip Pullman, was a good film, though not quite as good as the book (which often happens). The pace was too quick, and the movie too short (just short of two hours). The Golden Compass is a 544 page book, with a fairly complex plot. The filmmakers cut things out, and re-arranged things until the movie moved at a quick pace and lacked important information. New Line, here’s a tip: Don’t try to cram a 500+ page book into less than two hours of film! Fantasy films can be much lunger than that. I, personally, don’t like it when movies have a running time of less than two and a half hours.

Some who have not read the book may have trouble figuring out what’s going on at times, due to the cut information. I felt that a lot of the changes and removals were unnecessary.

If you’ve read the book, then you’ll definitely want to see the film. If you haven’t, you’ll still enjoy the story…though (as with any movie based on a book) I’d still recommend reading the book first.

The Golden Compass was a good movie, and an even better book. Despite some complaints, I think the book’s overall essence was captured in the film. It’s worth watching.

After seeing the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film (the day it came out, of course), I had the typical Harry Potter Fan reaction. “It’s-too-short! They cut-out half the good parts! WTH? And they got these parts all wrong!” After thinking about it for a couple weeks, I compiled my list of first impressions.

• It’s a bit too quick-paced. It jumps right in to the dementor scene, then the Order of the Phoenix’s Advance Guard picks Harry up pretty much immediately. Hermione and Ron explain a few things at Grimmauld Place, then it’s off to the Ministry of Magic for the hearing. After five minutes of that, you have a 10-second Hogwarts Express shot, then they’re all at Hogwarts. All of that happens in about 15 minutes, while it takes up nearly a third of the 900-and-something-page book.
• Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) are brilliant.
• I liked the video montages of Umbridge’s rein at Hogwarts. It worked well to condense that part of the story a bit further.
• The soundtrack was amazing (unfortunately Borders was sold out of the CD, so I’m waiting a little on that).
• Why the heck did they play with the mechanics of the magic? In the books, the “Stupify” spell stuns the opponent, rendering them unconscious. In the movie, it just blasts them backwards.
• For some odd reason, the introduced “Levicorpus” in the film, though Harry doesn’t find out about it until book 6. Really, was that necessary?
• In the book, Bellatrix hits Sirius with a jet of red light, knocking him through the veil. Warner Brothers changed it to an “Avada Kedavra” (the Killing Curse), possibly for clarity. But if you’re going to use that spell, at least pronounce it right! It’s pronounced like Av-ah-da Ked-ah-v-ra. It’s not the way most Americans pronounce words. Hint: Study latin (or other Latin-based languages). Also, if you’re hit with an AK, you don’t have time to look around in disbelief (it’s instant).
• They skipped 90% of the Department of Mysteries. Yeah, so it shaves off a few minutes, big deal.
• They cut the parts where they’re fighting the Death Eaters (and winning). They made Harry and the rest look pathetic.
• What’s with the “Smoke-Teleporting”? They got Fred and George apparating right, so why not everyone else? Why did they put the pointless smoke in?
• The parts they showed in the Department of Mysteries looked too weird. The Hall of Prophecy was way too dark. It should be huge, with a big vaulted ceiling. What’s with the Veil Room? It as well was too dark, and unused looking. Remember, people work in the Department of Mysteries (scientist-like people). They wouldn’t let it look anything like it was in the film.
• How is it a veil if there’s no veil? It was just a big archway, with some digital bubble-liquid floating inside it.

Well, those are my major complaints. According to Melissa Anelli of the Leaky Cauldron, it gets better the more you watch it. She’s seen it at least four times so far (I’ve only seen it once, but I’d like to again before it’s released on DVD).

Well, I didn’t like the Prisoner of Azkaban movie much the first time, but now it could very well be my favorite of the lot so far. After I’ve seen Order of the Phoenix a few more times, we’ll see what I think about it then.

I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End yesterday. How was it? Let’s see…

At World’s End was a lot better than the mediocre Dead Man’s Chest, but still not as good as Curse of the Black Pearl (which is way better). I’m disappointed that neither of the sequels have matched the original overall. The first Pirates film was amazing, but the two sequels don’t even come close.

I think that the latest two POTC films don’t exactly fit with the original, anyway. They lack…something. It’s the same producer, writers, and director…so that can’t be the problem. Disney made everything darker and went off in an odd direction. The characters, as well, seem less strong in Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. What happened?

Sure, they’re more action-packed than the first, but they seem to lack some important things.

Back to At World’s End (A.W.E.), it’s not a bad movie. There’s plenty of action, good special effects, interesting storyline, etc. What’s the major problem? It builds off the storyline of Dead Man’s Chest. I think it’s a lot better than it’s predecessor, yet nowhere near the original.

Oh, well. Watch it and decide for yourself.