Action Movie Catch-Up

Lockout
Release Date: April 13th, 2012 
Tomatometer: 36% (114 reviews)
Cineblog Rating: 5/10

Guy Pearce stars as Kurt Russell in the next chapter of John Carpenter's critically acclaimed "Escape" series in Escape From Space. Well, not really but kinda. The story for Lockout may seem a bit familiar: a loose cannon on the edge who doesn't play by the rules is captured for crimes against the world government and the only way he'll be pardoned is if he infiltrates some kind of criminal detention facility and rescue the president's daughter. Despite this, it's hard to not have fun. Guy Pearce's character, Snow, is chock full of clever one-liners and the action is overall pretty decent. In the end, Lockout is a loving homage to gritty 1980s action movies, featuring all the cheesy tropes and techniques that populate the genre. Have you seen it all before? Yes. Does that make it bad? Not necessarily.

So Pretty Much: While Lockout may be an eye-patch short of being a brilliant action film, it's decent enough to enjoy.

Wrath of the Titans

Release Date: March 30th, 2012

Tomatometer: 25% (152 reviews)

Cineblog Rating: 5/10

Wrath of the Titans was okay. It has big action sequences, Greek mythological figures out the wazoo, and Liam Neeson. One may wonder what more you could want. The only answer is for all that stuff to just be better. The action sequences were alright, but some dragged on and weren't as fun or exciting as action should be. The amalgamation (which is a fancy word for mixing everything up) of Greek mythos was stretched. Mythological creatures were taken out of their respective myths and legends and thrown into Perseus's path simply because they're recognizable, and that felt kind of crappy. As far as Liam Neeson goes, I wanted him to punch more things. For reasons I'm still not entirely sure of, Liam Neeson is at his finest when he's beating things to a bloody pulp. Every director should take a page from Luc Besson and just have Neeson fight everything. That would have made for an awesome movie.

So Pretty Much: If the action was better, the Greek myths weren't thrown together like a pointless mess, and Liam Neeson punched more stuff, Wrath of the Titans would have been a much more enjoyable movie.