Mar 31, 2010

Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In a world where the elements, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air can be controlled by people known as "benders", the Fire Nation is waging a ruthless war to control the other great nations. The only hope for stopping the war rests on the shoulders of a young boy named Aang (Noah Ringer). The last known Airbender and survivor of the peaceful Air Nomads, Aang is the Avatar. The Avatar is the physical embodiment of the world, with the ability to control all four elements and draw upon the combined power, knowledge, and experience of the Avatar's previous incarnations. The Avatar's duty is to maintain peace between the four nations and the spirit realm, ensuring that the world remains in balance, despite the Fire Nation's war. Aided by a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her warrior brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), and his forever loyal Sky Bison Appa, Aang begins a perilous journey to restore balance to their war-torn world. Standing in their way is the ambitious Fire Nation Admiral, Zhao (Aasif Mandvi) and Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), the banished prince of the Fire Nation who seeks to capture Aang to regain his honor.

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), is the son of the Chief, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), on the island of Berk. Hiccups village is constantly plagued by “pests” in the form of various dragons, who raid the village and steal their stock of sheep. Hiccup, unable to combat the dragons instead works as an apprentice to iron smith, Gobber the Belch (Craig Ferguson).

One night during a dragon raid, Hiccup pulls out a launching contraption in an attempt to prove himself and kill the never-before-seen Night Fury dragon. He hits it, but nobody else in the village is around to see it. Attempting to get proof, Hiccup travels into the forest where the dragon may have fallen. He comes to a small canyon and sees the elusive Night Fury, tangled in his net. After struggling with himself, Hiccup can’t bring himself to kill the helpless dragon and sets him free. The dragon immediately pounces on Hiccup, aggressively sizing him up, then flees.

Back at the village, Stoick, with the insistence of Gobber enrolls Hiccup into dragon fighting class with the other Viking youth of age: Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and the twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut(a boy and a girl) (T. J. Miller and Kristen Wiig). Meanwhile Stoic leaves with a search party of Vikings to find the Dragon’s Nest, in order to wipe them out and finish the apparent war. The first day of dragon training goes as expected for Hiccup, he’s outmatched and lacking confidence. After being told that dragons are vicious and always go for the “kill shot”, Hiccup curiously returns to the canyon. The Night Fury, still inexplicably trapped in the canyon again allows Hiccup to watch him. Hiccup then notices that the dragon is missing a tail wing from the previous crash landing, leaving him unable to fly properly.

After realizing that he can befriend the dragon by giving him fish, Hiccup decides to start observing Toothless. Hiccup eventually fashions an artificial tail wing with a saddle, enabling Toothless to fly, but only with Hiccups aid. Meanwhile, back in Hiccup's dragon fighting classes, Hiccup begins to have great success. Using the observations from Toothless, Hiccup manages to have superior control over every dragon in training to the amazement of everyone and the chagrin of Astrid who becomes immediately suspicious. Meanwhile, Astrid begins to get jealous of Hiccup's success and suspicious of his escapes into the forest to see Toothless.
When Stoick and his army return they are bruised and battered, coming back with only one ship, nowhere close to having found the nest. His spirits are lifted however, when Gobber and others begind congratulating him on Hiccup's success in dragon training. Feeling a chance to bond with his son, Stoick happily honors Hiccup with his own Viking helmet (made from the other half of his mothers breastplace, Stoick has the other). Since Hiccup is in good standing to be the top of the class and have the honor of slaying a dragon, he begins to feel torn for his friendship with Toothless and the chance to make his father proud.
Hiccup crumbles to the pressure and decides to leave Berk with Toothless. Astrid follows him to their hideout and discovers Hiccup's friendship with the dragon. She tries to run back to the village, but Toothless kidnaps her and Hiccup asks for a chance to explain. They take her for a ride and Astrid begins to see how amazing dragons really are as well as Hiccup's extraordinary talents. During their flight, they get caught in a herd of dragons carrying food and follow them to their nest. There, they discover that the dragons steal food to feed a much larger and more threatening dragon that eats them if they do not provide enough food. After they leave, Astrid wants to inform the village of the nest's location, but Hiccup decides against it in order to protect Toothless and Astrid agrees to keep quiet.

The next day, during Hiccup's battle with the Nightmare, he throws down his weapons, saying he's not one of them and tries to show everyone that dragons are not as bad as they seem. Stoick shouts to stop the battle before Hiccup can continue, and the Nightmare attacks Hiccup in reaction to Stoick's rage. Meanwhile, Toothless hears Hiccup scream from his hiding place on the island and races off to Berk to save him. Just before the Nightmare can finish Hiccup off, Toothless comes in and defeats the Nightmare.
Hiccup pleads Toothless to flee, but he ignores him, fearing that the other Vikings pose a threat to Hiccup. Toothless almost kills Stoick, but Hiccup begs him to stop, and Toothless immediately becomes more docile. In this peaceful state, Toothless is quickly overpowered and captured. Stoick confronts his son angrily at learning about his son's friendship with a dragon. Hiccup accidentally tells him that he has been to the nest, and Stoick decides to use Toothless to lead them there. Hiccup begs him not to hurt Toothless and warns them of the giant dragon that they likely stand no chance against, but Stoick ignores him.
The Vikings set sail with Toothless chained. Back at Berk, Astrid comforts Hiccup and asks him what he is going to do. Hiccup decides to use the dragons that the Vikings use for dragon fighting practice to fly to the nest. Meanwhile, Astrid has gathered Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout to help. Each mount on the dragons and set off after the Vikings.

As the other Vkings arrive, they prepare for battle, but all the dragons flee the island. Stoick discovers the even bigger dragon, Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus, which sets all of the boats on fire, including the one Toothless is chained up on. Hiccup and the others arrive, and while he goes to free Toothless, the others try to learn of any blind spots or shot limits of the giant dragon. The boat collapses and Toothless sinks, still chained. Hiccup tries to free him but nearly drowns. Stoick saves his son and jumps back in to save Toothless. Hiccup and Toothless then lead the giant dragon into the air and shoot at its wings. They then dive into the ground and set fire to the dragon's insides. The giant dragon tries to pull up, but the shots fired previously have torn holes in his wings, sending him crashing into the ground and exploding in a thunderous inferno. After crashing into the bigger dragon's tail, Hiccup is knocked out and falls off Toothless and into the fire. Toothless dives in to save him, despite his saddle damaged and artificial tail destroyed. Stoick searches the rubble for his son and only finds Toothless. At first everyone thinks Hiccup died in the fire but Toothless reveals that he had wrapped Hiccup up in his wings to shield him.

Hiccup reawakens in his home and finds Toothless by his bedside. He also finds that his left foot had been lost in the battle with the giant dragon, replaced with a spring loaded prosthetic by Gobber using the boy's designs. With Toothless' help, Hiccup slowly makes his way outside and sees that Vikings have invited dragons into the village and are constructing shelters and giant feeding bowls for them. Everyone welcomes Hiccup back as a hero. Astrid then appears and kisses Hiccup. Hiccup is then given new equipment for Toothless built by Gobber. Hiccup and Astrid ride their dragons through the newly reformed Berk as the alliance between the Vikings and dragons begins.

Mar 29, 2010

"V" (2009)

Giant spaceships appear over 29 major cities throughout the world, and Anna (Morena Baccarin), the beautiful and charismatic leader of the extra-terrestrial "Visitors", claims to come in peace. As a small number of humans begin to doubt the sincerity of the seemingly benevolent Visitors, FBI counter-terrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) discovers that the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments, businesses, and religious institutions and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the world. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan (Morris Chestnut), a Visitor sleeper agent who wants to save humanity. The Visitors have won favor among the people of Earth by curing a variety of diseases, and have recruited Earth's youth — including Erica's son Tyler (Logan Huffman) — to serve them unknowingly as spies.