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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the film adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ fantasy novel and was released in 2005 after years of production. The story tells of a group of four children stumbling into a magical world called Narnia and become embroiled in its power struggle between factions of good and evil. This was well-received at the box office, managing to attain significant success and is the first of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ films. The second episode of the saga, titled ‘Prince Caspian’, was released recently to mixed reviews.

The story revolves around the English quartet of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie and their adventures in Narnia. Set during the Second World War, the four children were sent to the countryside to stay with Professor Kirke to take refuge from the German Blitz assailing London. One day, Lucy accidentally stumbles upon the mysterious world of Narnia while hiding in a wardrobe. She meets Mr Tumnus, a faun, who shelters her from the harsh winter and goes on to tell her about Narnia. Narnia was under the rule of the oppressive White Witch, bringing about an eternal winter. She is sent back to England through the wardrobe, however, she was met with disbelief when she tried to tell her siblings about Narnia.

Edmund eventually chances upon this world with Lucy. He meets the White Witch, who offered to appoint him King of Narnia if he cooperated in surrendering his siblings to her. Not long after, all four siblings stumble into Narnia. They soon learn of Aslan, the creator of Narnia, and his plan to rid Narnia of the White Witch and banish the winter. Edmund sneaked off to see the White Witch but soon realizes his mistake. After reconciliation with his siblings at Aslan’s encampment, the White Witch demanded that Edmund be surrendered. Aslan nobly offered his life in exchange for Edmund’s and was savagely struck down by the White Witch. However, he is magically resurrected and joins Peter and the other children to fight against the White Witch’s army. In the ensuing battle, Aslan and Peter managed to overpower the Witch and Aslan knocked her over a cliff, killing her in the process.

After her demise, the long winter in Narnia ended and the Pevensie children are crowned as Kings and Queens of Narnia. They remained in Narnia for a long period of time, before one day, they stumbled upon the wardrobe again. They slipped through the portal, only to realize that hardly any time has passed in their own world as if it was a dream. Yet, only the four of them know that what happened was real and they await the next chance that they will be able to return to Narnia.

My first impression was that this was a ‘kiddy movie’ – a fantasy movie laden with special effects to wow kids. Much to my surprise, I found this film genuinely enjoyable. It was the good old story of a ragtag bunch of oppressed citizens who rally together to fight for their freedom. In this case, the oppressed citizens include half-man and half-horse centaurs and talking beavers. This does not lend much to the credibility of this being a blockbuster, but this comes close to establishing itself as an epic fantasy.

The special effects were glorious to behold. Aslan the Lion was perfectly sculpted by CGI while arcane sorcery and magics of the Witch were crafted to bewildering effect. This was an infallible storyline, insured by the success and popularity of the novels. I am glad that the movie did not flop like some text-to-film adaptations in recent times. I believe the children actors had not much experience acting in movies, but they did credibly well. Georgie Henley deserved exceptional mention for her role as the lovable and inquisitive Lucy, portraying the youngest Pevensie as being sensible beyond her years but having that headstrong attitude when challenged.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) would be a perfect family movie, filled with actions for the adults and enough of talking animals to mesmerize the young.

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Aston Kutcher is back, dating yet another considerably older woman, this time on-screen. Cameron Diaz is his on-screen love interest in 'What Happens In Vegas (2008)', a romantic-comedy about two persons with absolutely different personalities meeting by chance in Las Vegas. Both have recently suffered personal setbacks – in Jack Fuller’s (Ashton Kutcher) case, he was fired by his father-boss from his construction firm while Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) is seeking respite from her hectic working life and the traumatic experience of being scorned by her fiancé in front of all his friends.

Jack and Joy meet each other through a series of coincidences, and eventually they agree to go on a night of wild partying together with friends Jeffrey ‘Hater’ Lewis (Rob Corddry) and Toni ‘Tipper’ Saxson (Lake Bell). They ultimately wed, unknowingly, in a Vegas chapel in a drunken haze. The next morning, sober once more, the couple decided to split once they return to New York and reverse that impulsive wedding decision. An argument ensues and at which time Jack angrily slots in a quarter from Joy into a jackpot machine. To the shock of the both of them, Jack’s machine hits a $3 million jackpot.

They return to New York and meets in court to finally divorce after the shotgun wedding and to fight for possession of the $3 million. Contrary to each of their expectations, they meet a conservative judge with an old-fashioned, romantic belief about matrimony and instead of granting a divorce, the judge sentences the both of them to six months of ‘hard marriage’, freezing their prize money, forcing them to make the marriage work or face with losing the cash reward entirely. This is where the story really starts, as the audience is treated to Jack’s and Joy’s hilarious and ridiculous attempts at trying to undermine each other to snatch the prize money away from the other.

This is not a ground-breaking, creative and refreshing plot – in fact, it’s been used in numerous romantic comedies. While it’s nothing out of the ordinary, it is still a tried and tested recipe, and the choices of Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz have sparked life into this comedy. You will see them trying to outwit each other, often to hilarious effect. The stark contrast in lifestyles and personalities lead to many showdowns and heated confrontations and this produces several memorable moments in the movie. In the end, they find themselves falling for each other, helping each other out of the rut that they were stuck in. As mentioned, it was a predictable plot, but it is not an immediate disappointment.

That being said, I felt Aston Kutcher’s theatrics were exaggerated at times. His mannerisms and gesticulation were greatly exaggerated, giving the audience them impression of the movie being very ‘forced’ and unnatural. Cameron Diaz, on the other hand, was a gem. Despite the awkward pairing of the two, she manages to put in a very professional act and is a very accurate representation of the high-strung, worrisome workaholic Joy McNally.

Through the course of this show, there were a few moments of dry humour that really made me roll my eyes. What Happens In Vegas (2008) is far from being sophisticated, however, it is still a very entertaining chick-flick that might make you go smile and go ‘awwwww’ at the end.

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Iron Man (2008) is undoubtedly the best superhero movie I have ever watched. Over the past few years, we have seen the onslaught of superhero movies. These have been brought to the silverscreen, adapted from the original comic books or cartoons. Most notably are the releases by Marvel including X-Men and Spider-Man, spawning a trilogy each. With the precedent set by these blockbusters, I went into the cinema with rather high expectations for this debutant.

Tony Stark was my childhood hero, and from the movie, it was easy to understand why. Tony Stark (played by the charismatic Robery Downey Jr) is the technological genius director of Stark Industries, a company specializing in manufacturing advanced state-of-the-art weaponry. He is suave, rich and a hit among females. During a trip to Afghanistan to promote a new weapon called the Jericho cluster-missile, Tony Stark’s military convoy was ambushed by terrorists. His bodyguards were killed and he was mortally injured in the battle. He was then captured and imprisoned by the terrorist group called Ten Rings. His fellow captive, Dr Ho Yinsen, managed to construct a device to repel shrapnel in his chest from puncturing his heart, keeping him alive temporarily. He was ordered to build the terrorists a new superweapon – an improved version of the Jericho missile.

However, Stark refused and instead proceeds to build a powerful set of armoured exoskeleton for himself behind their backs. He also built an ‘arc reactor’ from scratch, a small electro-magnetically-powered energy source that replaced Dr Yinsen’s device, and also doubling as a power source for his new armoured suit. Using the suit, Stark escapes, killing several terrorists but did not manage to prevent the death of Dr Yinsen. Despite crashing the suit, he is rescued by the United States Air Force. Upon his return, he retreats into his laboratory and begins construction of an all-new suit of armour and also an all-new improved version of the arc reactor to preserve his life and to power the new prototype suit.

Along the way, he discovers that Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges), who is his long-time friend and mentor, was secretly double-dealing – supplying Stark weaponry to both terrorists as well as the military. He also discovers that Stane was the one who hired the Ten Rings to eliminate him and that he is currently reverse-engineering his own suit of armour. Infuriated, he flew off in his suit to Afghanistan to destroy the Jericho missiles in possession of the terrorists as well as to save Dr Yinsen’s village. Stane eventually discovers Stark’s secret and robs him of his magnetic ‘heart’, leaving him to die. Stark manages to use his earlier arc reactor, which was never designed to power the current suit of armour, to combat Stane. He ultimately triumphs, but at great cost, overloading and detonating his company’s gigantic arc reactor and almost losing his life in the process.

I was very impressed by the choice of Robert Downey Jr to play Tony Stark. It was a very accurate portrayal of the flamboyant Tony Stark – arrogant, philandering and self-absorbed. He looked extremely natural playing the role, being charismatic but ‘schoolboyish’-ly awkward at times. Gwyneth Paltrow performed to her usual high standards as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s personal assistant and friend. Jeff Bridges deserves a mention for his commendable acting as the conniving Obadiah Stan. He was at times warm and seemingly sincere, but could change to become cold and vicious the next moment.

This film’s running time was reported to be 2 hours and 10 minutes, but I felt that it was too short. 2 hours and 10 minutes and still too short, sounds ludicrous but I feel it’s true. The entire plot was rather long to begin with and I felt that, at times, the story was being rushed through as if the producers were trying to save time. Character development became lacking as a result. More focus could be given as to why Obadiah Stane turned rogue after being the caring and protective mentor.

Graphically, this movie does not best that of Transformers, the other great movie adaptation in recent months. Nevertheless, fight scenes are highly entertaining. The armoured suit, no matter how ridiculous it sounded prior to the trailers being released, is indeed a marvelous work of computer-generated effects.

The mere thought of owning a device like that would send tech geeks around the world into a frenzy. I am sure that many of the males in the audience would be wishing they were Tony Stark after the movie, because I would give anything to lead his kind of life. With two more sequels in production, the world can be prepared for more Iron Man hype in the future. Iron Man (2008) is one of the best shows in 2008 thus far.

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A select few of humanity have the ability to bend space and time, enabling them to teleport instantly to any part of the world, due to a rare genetic anomaly. A young man, David Rice, discovers that he has this 'gift' and learns to make use of this ability to lead 'the high life'. This 'gift' eventually turns out to be a 'curse' and he becomes embroiled in a generations-old conflict between 'Jumpers' like himself and the 'Paladins', who have sworn to hunt the Jumpers down to extinction.

Jumper (2008) is a science-fiction movie to be slated for release on 14th February 2008, starring Hayden Christensen (of Star Wars fame), Samuel L. Jackson and Rachel Bilson. This movie is the on-screen adaptation of the science-fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould.

David Rice (played by Hayden Christensen) discovers that he possesses the power to instantly teleport to anywhere that he has seen, thus the tagline 'Anywhere is possible'. He makes use of his power to rob banks without getting caught, leading a privileged and affluent life. However, his life takes a turn for the worse after encountering Roland Cox, head of a shadowy religious sect called the Paladins. Paladins are trained zealots who have sworn to eliminate Jumpers who possess powers that only God should have exclusive access to. Along the way, he meets Griffin (Jamie Bell), a much more experienced but wayward Jumper who enlightens him on the conflict between Jumpers and Paladins. During this dark hour for David, he manages to reunite with his high school sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson) and they go onto this adventure together.

As seen from the trailers cinematic released earlier, Jumper promised some spectacular computer-generated (CG) scenes and it made good on this promise. The Jump scenes are thrilling; it does induce that adrenaline-pumping sensation while watching, accompanied by the familiar whoosh. Even without the CG scenes, the locations where the movie was shot (like Egypt) boasted some spectacular natural scenery and Jumper manages to capture some.

I felt that this concept was a rather creative one, but the storyline was much of a letdown. There was little explanation on the background of the Jumpers, nor the causal factors for the hatred between them and the Paladins. Hayden Christensen improved on his acting in Star Wars but his character still seemed boring. In contrast, Jamie Bell delivered a much more riveting performance as the brooding, wayward Jumper Griffin. Rachel Bilson puts in a decent performance as Millie, which does not speak for a lot since her character lacks depth in the show. The best actor in this film, undoubtedly, is Samuel L. Jackson. We do not often see him as the 'big bad guy' but he plays this ruthless role to near brilliance, so well that the audience might find his murderous actions forgivable, as he seems so adamant that he is doing the right thing.

What intrigued me more was actually the Paladin sect instead of the Jumpers. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing revealed about the Paladins. This shadowy sect is so shadowy that you will not even know anything about it after the movie. Also, it is quite peculiar that a seemingly religious sect would wantonly slaughter innocents just to hunt down their adversaries.

Jumper (2008) is not short on creativity but lacked depth. Even with an above-average cast and an experienced director, this storyline fails to sparkle. This movie is not a disaster, but it is not something that people will remember two weeks after watching it. It gave me the feeling that it was aiming to accomplish a grand task but falling short of its objectives. Champagne ambitions are usually difficult to fulfill with a beer budget.

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I believe this mega-blockbuster requires no introduction. Adapted to the silver-screen after the popular franchise, the Autobots and Decepticons rolled out with their arsenal of guns blazing, propelling this movie to the pinnacle of silver-screen success in 2007. Named 'Movie Of The Year' by many respectable publications, this Michael Bay-directed film is truly a milestone in the movie industry and its lasting impression will not be forgotten for a long time to come.

The storyline revolves around two factions of technologically superior alien species - the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. These two factions bring their war to Earth, as they search for the Allspark, a powerful alien artifact. The Autobots seek the Allspark to destroy it and put an end to the war that devastated their homeworld, while the Decepticons lust for the Allspark to create an army of machines to future their evil agenda. Both types of species can disguise themselves on Earth, morphing into everyday machinery, mostly vehicles.

Sam Witwicky stumbles upon Bumblebee, one of the Autobots, while buying a new car and goes on to form a close friendship with the robot. He manages to woo his love interest Mikaela with Bumblebee's help, who also protected Sam and Mikaela from an attack by Barricade, one of the Decepticons. After summoning the rest of the Autobots to Earth, it then dawned that the location of the Allspark was imprinted on a spectacle lens of Sam's great-grandfather. Sam decided to help the Autobots on their quest to locate and destroy the Allspark.

Along the way to the Hoover Dam where the Allspark was located, they came under siege of the Decepticons. Megatron, the Decepticon's leader, was awoken from his frozen state (after he crash landed in the Arctic) and lead the attack against the Autobots. Large-scale skirmishes between the two factions raged in the cities and the Autobots narrowly won, with the help of the American military and a few Special Operations soldiers. In the climatic battle that ensued, several Decepticons and one Autobot perished. This left Megatron to face off with Optimus Prime who is his Autobot counterpart. Eventually, Sam managed to sneak in with the Allspark and shove the cube-like artifact into Megatron's chest, destroying both the Allspark and Megatron in the process.

Starring Shia LaBeouf as main protagonist Sam Witwicky and Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes as his love interest, this movie is directed by Michael Bay and produced together with Steven Spielberg. This movie was rated the 28th most successful film ever released in history, using ticket sales as a benchmark. This film grossed US$706 million worldwide and a eagerly-anticipated sequel is due in 2009. This film also garnered three Academy award nominations for visual and audio performance.

For me, Transformers (2007) was my personal 'Movie of the Year' and will remain one of my favourite movies of all time. As a Transformers fan when I was young, this movie adaptation of the franchise was a dream come true. I could see Bumblebee and Optimus Prime not in a cartoon-animated form for the first time, but as living and moving mechanical beings. I believe many Transformers fans would share the same sentiment.

Objectively, this is an awesome action film. The plot does not come into question, as it is adapted from the original franchise; it is nothing fantastic but the action sequences were simply spectacular. It was a full 90 minutes of non-stop action. Ranging from gunfights, melee skirmishes between machines to highway pursuits in the various metamorphic vehicles, Transformers will leave audiences in awe. Brilliant CGI work was done and it was a joy to watch Starscream morph from his fighter jet form into this original form. Watching each little bit of his body transform was fascinating. Furthermore, the cast is sufficiently attractive - Megan Fox is eye candy for the guys, while Shia LeBeouf's boyish charms brings about a heart-flutter or two.

Transformers (2007) was and will remain one of the best cinema experiences that I have ever gone to. Autobots, for the win! Roll out!

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