The Movie Paradise

Ever since Rise of the Planet of the Apes  debuted in 2011, I have been a massive fan of this reinvented franchise. Andy Serkis  brought such a humanity and a vulnerability to the character of Caesar, who we saw grow and evolve (no pun intended) in the sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes . These films have done such a good job at being blockbuster spectacles, but while also retaining a strong emotional core. They're not like Transformers , where it's all CGI and explosions; these movies have something to say. And that's not something you would have necessarily thought the Planet of the Apes  franchise to be capable of pre-2011, especially after the disastrous Tim Burton  remake. Now, this summer, we have the third film,  War for the Planet of the Apes , coming out, which is essentially the culmination of everything that has happened in the previous two movies. Caesar's arc is coming full circle, and we are finally leading into the world we saw in the original 19

In this editorial series,  Food for Thought , we take a popular story making the rounds in the world of film news, and we analyze it. Here, we will break this news story down, talk about it in great depth, and really analyze every portion of it. Now, these stories will be more than a regular casting call or some movie title; something we can easily write a regular article on. These editorials will rather feature more grey topics, that are highly opinionated and highlight strong discussions. Then, you the reader get to go into the comments section and talk about what you agree with, and what you disagree with. So, without further ado, let's get started! In this installment, we will talk about whether Rotten Tomatoes  is really destroying the film industry.  X-Men: The Last Stand  and Tower Heist  director Brett Ratner  recently spoke out about the website Rotten Tomatoes, having this to say about it: "The worst thing that we have in today's movie culture is

Anyone who has read this site for a while knows how much I love the character of Spider-Man. He's the superhero I grew up reading, and I have always connected with him. He is very important to me, so, subsequently, it is important to me that the movies do him justice. I was very happy when we heard that Spider-Man would be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe . While I love the first two Sam Raimi -directed Spider-Man  movies, the last three outings by Sony  have not been the best, with The Amazing Spider-Man 2  being truly horrendous. So I was ready for Marvel to take a crack at him. For what screen time he had in Captain America: Civil War , I thought Tom Holland  was fantastic as the Webslinger. Keep in mind, he only had between fifteen to twenty minutes of screen time, so it's really too early to be heralding him as the best incarnation we've ever had of Spider-Man, as some eager fans have taken to saying. Spider-Man: Homecoming  will give us a really good indicat

I've actually been really excited for Life . I am a big science fiction fan, so naturally this film caught my attention. It definitely has shades of Alien  in it, but the trailers have shown me that Life  isn't necessarily ripping off Alien , but rather paying homage to it. The cast is fantastic. Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson  are all brilliant actors. It's also written by Deadpool  writers Rhett Reese  and Paul Wernick , which definitely caught my eye. I'm not as familiar with the director, David Espinosa , but knowing everyone else who is involved in this project was enough to get me really excited for the film. So I went in with pretty high expectations. I wasn't expecting it to be the next Alien . I wasn't expecting it to be a game-changing film. I was just hoping for an entertaining film that delivered on being a really good horror thriller. And for the most part, Life  follows through on that. It does have some problems, but Lif

Comparative to other comic book movies coming out this year, I haven't been very excited for Justice League . The disappointment of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice  (and Suicide Squad ) really took away a lot of the excitement I had for  Justice League , and my enthusiasm has mellowed a lot. The film didn't crack my top ten for most anticipated movies of 2017, nor did it make my honorable mentions. It just feels to me like this is going to be more of the same, what with it coming from Zack Snyder  and all. While I feel Snyder knocked it out of the park with Man of Steel , Batman v. Superman  was just so lackluster and disappointing that I was immediately disinterested in Justice League . I did like the San Diego Comic Con  trailer that dropped, but it was rather unfinished. It wasn't a full trailer. So I've been waiting to see the full-length trailer, in order to really get on board with this film, and get me excited again.  And now, today, DC  dropped their fi

I've never really had much interest in seeing Before I Fall . I'm not particularly a fan of young adult book adaptations. I just don't think they're the best source material, in my opinion. So when I saw the trailers for Before I Fall , it just looked like a stereotypical story that I've seen a thousand times. The idea of this girl reliving the same day over and over again was interesting, but we've already seen it many times before in films like Groundhog Day  or Edge of Tomorrow . However, I do like Zoey Deutch  as an actress. She was great in last year's Why Him? , which was a huge surprise of a comedy for me. So, other than my friend's insistence on seeing this movie, Deutch's involvement was really the only thing that made me check this film out. Overall, it's exactly what I thought it was going to be. Cliched dialogue, predictable love stories and moral realizations, and a shtick that has been done many times (and much better) before.

After Guardians of the Galaxy , James Gunn  has really became a household name for me. I loved his work on that film, and I went back after and checked out Super . It's a fairly underrated comic book movie, even with it being a parody of the genre. So whenever I see his name attached to something, I'm instantly interested in it. Following Gunn on social media, you get a lot of behind-the-scenes looks at his projects. So I sort of followed the making of The Belko Experiment  from its inception. Now, Gunn only wrote the movie. He didn't direct it. While I would have loved to have seen Gunn direct this, if it would have detracted from his work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 , then I'm perfectly fine with Greg McLean  directing instead. So I've been excited to see The Belko Experiment  from the beginning. While the reviews for the film have been somewhat mixed, I went in with relatively high expectations. Ultimately, The Belko Experiment  does have its flaws, bu

I have been really excited for this live action rendition of Beauty and the Beast  for quite some time. I loved the original animated movie as a kid. Even then, I understood that it was something remarkably mature. While I haven't watched it in a very long time, I still hold very fond memories of it. With Disney 's prior success with Cinderella  and The Jungle Book , I was very eager to see what they would do with Beauty and the Beast . In my opinion, this is the best cast of the year. You have Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Ewan McGreggor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Luke Evans, Josh Gad ... and the list goes on. It is absolutely stacked with talent, and that alone made me excited to see this movie. And I have really liked the trailers they've put out. We haven't seen a ton of the movie, but from what we have seen, it looks like they're really recapturing the magic of the original. And if there was any adaptation that should stick as closely to the original as pos

Just the other day, we learned that Warner Bros.  is looking to reboot The Matrix , with Michael B. Jordan  in mind to star. You can read our full article on the news here . I was upset by the news, as I love The Matrix . It is my personal favorite movie I've seen, and there is absolutely no need to reboot it. I am all for new movies set in the established Matrix  universe, but a remake of the original is completely unnecessary. It's not as if the film has fallen into obscurity, since people are still watching and loving The Matrix . So remaking the original film holds no real value. However, the word "reboot" may not necessarily apply to this new Matrix  movie at all. Screenwriter Zak Penn , who has been hired to write the film, took to Twitter to clarify some of the conjecture going around about the movie. The following are Penn's tweets strung together into a paragraph.  On Twitter, Penn said: "All I can say at this point is no one could or shou

Welcome to this week's  The Movie Paradise Nerd Round-Up . Essentially what we do here is we take a look at all things nerdy. We break down everything in the world of nerdom, ranging from superheroes to  Star Wars  and every other geeky thing in between, and analyse the smaller bits of news that weren't big enough stories to necessarily warrant an entire article, but are still significant and important. Perhaps it's casting news, a contract detail, a set image, or something else that's more on the minor side, but is definitely worth checking out. Then we have a little bit of fun with some movie-related videos and clips. It's a time and place for all of us unabashed nerds to come together and talk about the things that we love so much. So, without further ado, let's get started with this week's Nerd Round-Up.  The News Before Sony made a deal with Marvel  to share the rights of Spider-Man, allowing the character to appear in films such as Capta

With the release of the past two (fantastic)  Alien: Covenant  trailers, there has been a lot of talk about the future of the franchise. These Prometheus  films were always meant to lead into Ridley Scott 's original Alien  movie, but the length of this prequel franchise has been rather unclear. Back when Prometheus  was hitting theaters, it looked like that could be the only film. But now we have Alien: Covenant  coming out. Scott has said that a third film is already written (you can read that  here ), making it a trilogy. During interviews, Scott has jokingly said that he could do another six movies after Covenant . However, it no longer seems like he was joking. In an extensive interview with Fandango , Scott revealed a lot about the future of the franchise, a possible new trilogy, and the potential reveal of the title for Alien: Covenant 's sequel. We've picked out a few of the more interesting parts, but you can read the full interview here . When asked wheth