Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Entertainment Rating: 2 of 5

Not great. Nothing more than a video game, but your thumbs don’t get sore because all the shooting is done for you. There isn’t more than shooting a bunch of robot/aliens. Not worth your time, unless what I described is your cup of tea. The filming might make you noxious as it’s basically someone running around with a camcorder, similar to Cloverfield in more than one way (but we actually enjoyed Cloverfield).

Moral Rating: 3 of 5

There’s a bit of an effort at telling an inspirational story about an officer that gains the love and respect of those he’s fighting with. He starts off as not a popular person, many thinking that because he was the only survivor of a previous unit that he didn’t care for the safety of those he was with and worried about preserving his own life. Through many trying circumstances during the invasion at hand, he proves he’s worth his salt.

The Great Buck Howard (2008)

Entertainment Rating: 3 of 5

This was a fun show, albeit a bit slow and not terribly interesting. Supposedly this show was based on the mentalist the Amazing Kreskin, who is one of the few magicians to have his own TV show for a while.

Moral Rating: 3 of 5

The romance between Troy and Valerie was typical Hollywood rubbish. They flirt, sleep together, and then try to decide if they want the relationship to last.

Buck Howard, as quirky and weird as he is, has the strongest moral character. He doesn’t try to be someone else. He knows who he is and doesn’t care what others think of him. The audience could be numerous or pitifully small, but Buck gave it his all.

While not an amazing movie, it’s a nice easy going film that will make you smile.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Entertainment Rating: 4 of 5

This is probably the best of the five X-Men movies made, with Wolverine coming in a close second. I didn’t really get into the trilogy, though maybe watching it again I might enjoy it better. The story of X-Men has always intrigued me, a story about fitting in with humanity. The story depicted in this film was thoroughly interesting and exciting, giving good insight (though I’m not sure how true to the original) on a lot of the characters’ origins. This is worth catching in the theater.

Moral Rating: 4 of 5

I loved how well they tied in this piece of fiction with actual historical events. The movie spliced in speeches by John F. Kennedy and footage of the Cuban Missile Crisis and fused these factual pieces with the mutant storyline fairly well. There’s a constant moré through the film urging the young mutants to learn to be happy with who they are and not try to conform to societal norms for other people’s comfort.

Erik’s moral struggle with his own conscience and the guidance of his close friend Charles Xavier is also very powerful. Erik shows us that it is much easier to give in to rage and anger than to learn how to calmly control yourself like Charles. However, the film doesn’t paint Erik as a complete bad guy; we know that his observation of humans’ new-found hatred for mutants will not be easy (if not impossible) to quell, and might even be somewhat justified. Erik tends to choose the easy battle of not working to establish peace at all and forces himself and others to choose sides and create enemies of the humans. While Xavier knows there is some truth to Erik’s belief (that the humans want to kill the mutants because they feel threatened), Charles feels that peace is worth pursuing, even if it is an uphill battle.

Besides the good, thought provoking story, there is a small amount of language (not totally out of place, fitting right in with Logan’s character) and several scenes with scantily clad women.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Entertainment Rating: 4 of 5

This movie was awesome. There is a bit of language, a lot of gay/lesbian jokes, and one scene of sensuality (no sex occurs), so an edited version might best suit some people (we kicked Clearplay in about three-quarters of the way into the movie). Scott Pilgirm reminded us a lot of Napoleon Dynamite, only Scott didn’t appear to be mentally handicapped, just very dweebish. There was a great mix of action, drama, and humor through out the movie; and the music was pretty good too, though possibly a little loud.

Moral Rating: 3 of 5

For as funny as it was, it was also very well written and was more than just the sum of the jokes and action. In a very creative way we see that the amount of effort you put into a relationship determines your overall happiness and the amount of self respect you have.

For the first time in his life, Scott meets someone that he wants to be with and is OK, at first, with having to beat up a few of Ramona’s evil ex’s (not ex-boyfriends). But the evil ex’s get more difficult to face and Scott seems to doubt the worth of fighting for Ramona’s love.

Similarly in real-life relationships, everything is great during the honeymoon period, but when life starts to set in, the luster seems to get lost and the relationship isn’t new anymore. We tend to forget that love is only as good as the amount of effort we put into the relationship (providing the other person is also making an effort - Ramona had to fight her share of exes as well.) The ex’s in the film can easily be paralleled to “baggage” that we bring into relationships. We need to learn to accept the person for who they are and help each other put the past behind and work toward a better future together.

[Mild Spoiler Alert]
Another “deep-thinking” moment occurs when Scott uses his extra life to change his weapon at the end from love to self respect. While fighting for love sounds noble and is often a legitimate reason for fighting in many Romanticized tales, the greatest strength we can receive in combating evil or overcoming obstacles is the amount of respect or confidence we have in ourselves to overcome these trials. Self-respect and confidence don’t come by allowing ourselves to be overcome in thought by our love for someone else; it comes by knowing who we are, what our potential is, and what we want to do with our lives. This self-realization most assuredly comes with divine assistance and guidance, though this aspect of it wasn’t really shown in the movie (unless you consider the creators of the story the ones who bestowed these special powers on Scott, then it might be extrapolated).