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Before my intro, I want to say that there will be major, major spoilers in this review. If you haven't seen every single episode of Lost and want to, stop now. Warning.

I started watching Lost in the second season. I think that's time enough to grow and evolve and love the characters. It's good to think of it as a long standing relationship. When I first started watching it, I literally did not stop until I was caught up. It became an addiction. I was enthralled with everything about it and I couldn't find anything I didn't like. I loved it. Then, the bad times happened. Fans started complaining. Backlash that answers were never revealed came into light. The creators and writers expected this, of course, but it happened. It didn't stop with just other people. I still, to this day, don't like most of the third season. And the second was pretty meh at best. After that, I fell IN love. Being in love with Lost not only for what it does right, but for what it does wrong. How it manipulates me and everyone who watches it. How it can piss me off, but I keep coming back. Some have connected it with an abusive relationship, but for me, it's different. It's adoration and affection in the best form that doesn't come directly from another person. Lost loves it's fans. And I for one, am in love with it.

I'll start my (most likely long) review of The End by giving my viewpoint on the two most controversial parts of last night's episode.

First, they were not dead the whole time. The Island is not purgatory or limbo. Everything that happened, actually did happen. In the real world. It's told to us in the final scene. Christian very plainly says that everything that Jack remembers, happened. And that everyone is dead, yes. But he said that some died before and some long after. Seems like no argument to me. It was real. The is very important because it shows that they didn't take the easy way out. That they had a plan. The alternate universe however was purgatory. A purgatory that all of the survivors created for themselves. The Island is the most important part of their lives, so they needed to leave together. When they flashed, they remembered their lives. That's it. It's pretty simple, really.

Second, it doesn't matter about the loose ends in the slightest. What was up with the polar bear? In in that case, Dharma at all? What was special about Walt? What constitutes "the rules?" What is with the bird that said Hurley's name? What even is The Island? And what does it want? All of this just doesn't matter. What the writers were trying to do is tell a story, and they did just that. I think it's beautiful that they left so much open. See, a huge problem with American storytelling is the fact that Americans want everything told to them. They don't want any room for their imaginations. This is a problem. Because Lost didn't end last night. No, Lost has just begun. It's up to the fans to not let it die. If you want to know what is so special about Walt, make it up. Make it up and share. Keep theorizing, because that's part of what makes this series so great. In fact, what we saw is just a tiny part of the grand scheme. Jacob is even a tiny part, and his mom. It all is little. Lost created a universe. Much like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. It's not done. Not even close.

Now, on to the episode. Everything, literally every single episode was leading up to last night. And boy was it a doozy. Not only did we get a truly epic fight between Jack and ol' Smokey, but we got closure on all the characters we know and love. No, I don't think Kate should have killed The Smoke Monster, but hey, what are you really going to do? Otherwise, it is the perfect end to a story about a hero. A hero who had a destiny and completed it. Was it cheesy? Hell yes. Was it funny, even if it wasn't trying to be? Of course. Was it the best finale I have ever seen? Absolutely. I laughed, I cried, I was excited, I was scared. But most importantly, I cared about what was going on a ton. No, I didn't understand it. Hell, Jack didn't even understand what he was doing. I cared about what happened to every single character. Even Kate!

The best part is that everyone got the ending they deserved. Hurley should have been the leader. In fact, he's important because he has always been a metaphor and a voice for the fans. Him leading The Island is just us leading The Island. Like above. Ben as number 2 was also fitting. Number 3 for the whole series became the real number 2. Fitting and great. The people who died before, should have. The ones who survived and lived on, should have. It's just the way it was all going to be. Now... JACK. I love Jack more than any character on anything right now. (OK Dexter, you're just going to have to wait until August, aren't you?) Jack is the hero. I completely see what they were doing with him the whole time. I didn't like him before, but now I adore him. He's another Harry Potter. A Harry Potter that died. I always thought it would have been better if Harry died, and I got exactly that with Lost. The closing shot of Jack eye set me off into tears as I recollected everything that just happened. I love him. Now and forever.

If you think of the entire series, everything was someone's plan. Every single thing that happened in the first five years was part of Jacob's plan. Sure some screwballs were thrown in, but in general, he had a plan and it worked. Then, the bulk of the sixth season is The Smoke Monster's plan. And it (almost) works for him too. What was up with Dharma? It was part of Jacob's plan. No Dharma, no button. No button, no electromagnetic... accident. No accident, no plane crash. And that's all the explanation I need.

I cried at the end. Not only that, it made me tear up four times in the 2 and half hour long special. Every time two lovers got reunited, I got choked up. I don't show it too much, but I'm a romantic at heart, and the reunited love was gorgeous. I never even LIKED Sun and Jin, but when they remember I teared up. Same with Claire and Charlie, and Sayid and Shannon. Sawyer and Juliet definitely got me the most though. I've never cried or even teared up at Lost before, but it all came out last night.

Everyone has to remember, Lost isn't about the story. It's the story that draws people and keeps them there, but the characters are what real fans care about. It's about Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Sayid, Ben and the rest. The characters that we grow with. If you're looking for a complete wrap up of a story, then you're looking at the wrong thing. If you don't want to use your imagination and want everything told to you, Lost isn't for you.

The very, very sad thing is that no one, ever again will feel about Lost like I do. Yes, some people do right now, but it won't happen again. Part of what made it so great was watching it week after week, talking about it with others, reading about theories on the internet. It was about the community. Even if you catch up or watch it all now, you won't get the whole experience. It's still an amazing show and you all should go watch it right now (Yes, again, for those that have seen it. I know I am), but you won't get all of it.

The people who don't like the ending just don't get it. It's a different type of story, something most people aren't used to, especially in American television. Two days ago, it's the greatest story ever told. Now, it was the greatest story. Rest in peace, Lost. You will always have a special place in my entertainment heart, as the best piece of anything I have ever been blessed to be a part of.

Scorsese. DiCaprio. Take 4. This powerful pairing has brought us some of the best movie in the past ten years. Gangs of New York is one of the most underrated movies of all time, The Aviator is astounding in itself, and I don’t think I have to even go into The Departed. Even from just these movies you can see that Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors ever. Some may be wary about his newest one, Shutter Island; I know I was. Don’t be hesitant anymore. What could have been a simple thriller with lame scares and even worse presentation is brought far and above amazing with Scorsese at the reigns. Shutter Island, no joke, ranks with some of the top Martin Scorsese films.

The movie begins with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Teddy Daniels, and his partner arriving on an island that is only used for one thing: a penitentiary for the criminally insane. One woman disappeared from her cell and Marshall Daniels is called to investigate the disappearance. What he finds, however, leads to a conspiracy coming all the way from the top of the prison. It’s hard to discuss the plot much without giving anything away, but I will say that it is very well done. Now, I knew the ending going into the movie, but it surprised me and everything was really well done. The plot moves forward at an amazing pace and it always keeps you guessing. Pay attention to this one.

I will say this right now: Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the top actors of our generation. He is our DeNiro. What DiCaprio did with his character took him to even new heights and solidified him as this. Coming from Titanic, the most overrated movie ever made, where he was coined as a pretty boy actor, you have to respect that. His performance is emotional, heartfelt, and truly Oscar worthy. Ben Kingsley also does a great job with Dr. Cawley. He comes off as this great man who really does want to help, but has a little creepy side. Which is pretty much what Ben Kingsley is all about anyway. Also, the girl who plays Leo’s wife in flashbacks, look out for her. She does amazing and I am sure she will hit the big time soon after her outstanding performance. It all comes together to make a fine cast that really brings it together.

Like I’ve said, Scorsese is one of the best directors that has ever lived and this movie truly shows it. Everything from the camera angles, the use of green screen, and the lighting were a callback to the 1950’s detective stories and it comes off perfectly. I love watching a  Scorsese movie and just marveling at the shots and cinematography. The symbolism and imagery throughout the whole movie floored me. Fire is a huge part in the film and it is used perfectly well, along with water. This is going to sound weird, but there was also beautiful blood. I don’t say this often, but the crimson, old time color, the way it moved and the way it would be splattered about worked perfectly. The hallucinations and use of ash, water, fire, and looks from people are the best. And the ending flashback is one of the best and most effective scenes I have ever seen. Again, a piece of entertainment made me want to cry. The whole movie is really a marvel to look at and just feel.

One minor gripe, and it really doesn’t take much away from the movie at all, is the music. It just wasn’t the best music. Mostly it can be ignored and you really don’t have to pay attention to it, but the beginning is a little… intense. You’ll know what I mean when you see it, but I felt it could have been toned down.

All and all, Shutter Island has already become one of my top movies, and I cannot wait to see it again. All the hesitation, all the delays to February (come on people) led to a movie that should have been in the running for best picture. Go see this movie and see Scorsese transcending a whole genre and cinema itself. The end will leave you thinking for days.

Here it is. Avatar. This is the one everyone has been looking forward to. This is the one that either had predictions that only praised it, or predictions that only thought it would suck. I was in the latter group. Since the first teaser was released I said it was going to suck. The following trailers didn’t change anything. Avatar was one of my most anticipated movies of the year because I thought it was going to be awful. It wasn’t. Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s a good movie at all. The visuals were a marvel, and that actually made up for a little bit. So yes, I was wrong, it didn’t suck, but it should have.

OK, I will start with the visuals, the best thing about this movie. Avatar is quite possibly the prettiest movie I have ever seen. I saw it in 3D and was completely absorbed into the scenery. This is one of the only movie where I didn’t question the CG. There were a couple parts where I could have sworn it was real. The Na’vi looked magnificent and so did their home, Pandora. Even though I think many parts were made up just to show off more, (Floating pieces of land? Doesn’t make sense.) it definitely showed off how big of a technological marvel it really is. With a budget close to 300 million dollars (not including marketing), it was a show off of money and the best technology films have ever seen. If this is the future of movies, then I want to be involved. I want this same technology brought to other artists and see what they can do with it. 

Avatar is the most gorgeous movie. Possibly ever. This carries the movie through a lot, but it doesn’t excuse everything else. If you know anything about me, you need a lot more than pretty visuals to impress me. Just like the way good graphics doesn’t make a good video game, good visuals don’t make a good movie. So, let’s break it down. 

The plot is very cliché, and particularly a mess. Now, we’re not dealing with a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but please. I not only think it’s a hilarious irony that one of the most expensive movies ever made is about saving nature, but I also have seen this story many times before. South Park did it best when they called Avatar “Dances with Smurfs.” Jake Sully is a marine who lost the use of his legs. Both fortunately and unfortunately his brother dies. Because Jake’s and his brother’s DNA is similar or some crap like that, Jake can go into an Avatar made for his brother. Avatars are human hybrids of the native people, the Na’vi. Of course, humans want what the Na’vi is living on. They want it whether by diplomacy or force. Jake goes into their tribe to learn from them and eventually falls in love with one. This, of course leads to war. This story is one big cliché, if you couldn’t tell. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be preachy, but that message is clearly lost. Human imperialism. Yes, we get it. I also can pick out the plot holes, but that’s not what you want to hear. The story is lame, and it doesn’t carry well throughout the whole movie. I like the original better than this remake. When it was called District 9, and had a better story.

Some of the worst writing I have seen in movies this year have been in Transformers 2, 2012, and Avatar. The colonel of the humans had some of the worst lines I have ever heard. I particularly love his slow motion “fire” toward the end, but there’s plenty. I literally laughed out loud for many parts of the movie. I couldn’t help it. Even the love between Jake and the Na’vi girl was very stupid. “I’ve chosen already. I choose you.” Wow, stupid. Not only is the script laughable, it doesn’t have character depth at all. If the characters were at least half as 3D as the visuals, we would have had a decent movie, but that’s not the case. I forget, but aren’t good characters supposed to have flaws? I can’t think of a single one for any of the good guys, and for the bad guys, everything about them is a flaw, apparently. The characters were not interesting in the slightest. I wish there was some depth to any of them, but there wasn’t. This was basically awful writing, to say the least. 

The worst thing you can do is bore your audience. I don’t know if it was just me, but I was bored throughout much of Avatar. I had no interest in a love story between two shallow characters, so when the actual love scenes happened I got very bored. It has great action, but I feel it comes too little too late. Much of the movie is spent talking, or quiet scenes to show off the pretty visuals. This movie was almost three hours long. For some movies, this works. Avatar was only 10 minutes longer than The Dark Knight, but I can sit through Dark Knight because everything about it is amazing. I felt that Avatar dragged on and on. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Jake is trying to ride a new… dragon… thing. He jumps on it and it cuts to black, then goes straight into more talking. My friend even leaned over to me and whispered “Oh, good, I didn’t want to see that scene anyway. I’m sure it wasn’t actually interesting!” So yeah, Avatar was slow and boring in many parts and that’s something that it should have avoided. 

What we have here is a movie that is given one of the biggest budgets, and some of the best equipment wasted. I loved, loved, loved the visuals, don’t get me wrong. But, I would like a good story and characters to back it up. Again, many of you will not agree, but good visuals do not make a good movie. Some say James Cameron is back. I still say he has lost touch with people these days and he should have given this amazing technology to someone who could do great things with it. So, in summary, see Avatar. Sit in awe at how gorgeous Pandora is. Look at the Na’vi and swear they are real. But, if you want an actual good movie, look somewhere else.

I came into Invictus knowing almost nothing about what I am going to see. I never played or even watched a rugby game, and history isn’t necessarily my forte, so I didn’t know what exactly Nelson Mandela did. What I did know however was this: It had Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, two of the most powerful actors working today, and it was directed by Clint Eastwood, a living legend. Other than that, I almost had no idea what to expect from this movie. What came across the screen didn’t amaze me (in fact, I found it quite ho-hum and boring in a lot of parts), but it is an example of a movie that will be underappreciated. I feel I already do not appreciate this movie enough, because I didn’t necessarily like it. I didn’t necessarily dislike it however, I just feel I’ve seen something like it before. It’s not Oscar worthy, and it’s not a blockbuster, that’s the problem with Invictus. 

The story is about Nelson Mandela. If you tell me it is also about Matt Damon’s character, Francois Pienaar, I would call you a liar. Sure, he’s in it and he has a very significant part, but Invictus is about Mandela in whole. It follows Mandela as he is released from jail and him trying to reprimand the aftereffects of apartheid. He decides the best way to do this is through the sport, rugby. He contacts Francois Pienaar and basically tells him that he wants the team to win the world cup. This is a daunting task, considering the team isn’t that good at all. The movie then follows the team and Mandela as they both try to make the team win. If you know history, then you know this story already. It’s a great and honorable story about one of South Africa’s greatest leaders and the movie takes us through it quite well. True stories are hard to mess up, however, so there’s not much to praise here.

Where you can praise is the performance by Morgan Freeman. Invictus really proves that he is a top-notch actor and has deserved everything he has received. His accent is spot-on, his body motions and facial expressions, all perfect. It’s amazing to see Morgan Freeman when he is in the top of his game, and you can tell he took the role very seriously. Matt Damon also does quite well, but his is not a hard role. This is the second movie in a row where the best thing about it is the acting, and that’s not a bad thing. Bad acting can break a movie and this does not falter in the slightest. Although I am extremely tired of someone recreating a person from history winning the Oscar, I would say Morgan Freeman should be nominated, at the least. 

The problem with this movie is that it turned into a sports movie. Although the concepts of reuniting a country after a devastating situation, racism, and life itself, are there, the movie takes it’s time and focuses on the sport. This was a huge mistake in my opinion. We have seen sports movies time and time again, and it is hard to bring something fresh to that table. I am not a fan of sports movies and that’s what most of Invictus felt like. I made it very clear before that this movie is about Nelson Mandela, and it should have been completely about him. I respect rugby as a sport and all, but I do not want to see it as a movie. 

The other big problem with Invictus is that it is, more often than not, a very boring movie. The pacing is brought to you mostly by speeches and people talking. This can work, and has worked for many different movies (The Godfathers come into mind), but it didn’t work here. I honestly don’t know what they could have done differently, but it just sticks out. The little bit of rugby they had was kind of exciting and all (but that leads up to the first problem, doesn’t it?) but I would have rather had more fun. The movie lulls, and if you have a short attention span it may take some getting used to Morgan Freeman’s slow, accented talking without getting distracted. I come from a completely critic standpoint here, being a man who knows the way but not how to drive, because I do not know what they could have done differently. It’s a slow movie, and if you don’t like that, then you should stay away. 

What we have from Invictus is a movie that isn’t good enough to have Oscars, and it isn’t appealing to the masses enough to make a ton of money. That leaves this movies into the forgettable pile. No one will remember this one in the coming years, and that’s a shame because it is Morgan Freeman at the top of his game. If only the pacing and focus could have been as good. If you’re a fan of sports movies, or if you are interested in the history, then this movie will be good for you. Otherwise, I would take a pass.

Based off a 2005 Danish film of the same name, Brothers is an Americanized version starring Natalie Portman, Tobey Maquire, and Jake Gyllenhall. Being a more American version of a foreign film, this movie is a lot more melodramatic than its predecessor. This means the weave in and out of clichés and typical soap opera drama makes for a typical story that many people have seen. Luckily, the performances in this movie are spectacular and really carry the movie through most of its downfalls. No, this is not a great movie. No, it probably won’t (and shouldn’t) win any Oscars, but it is a good movie, for at least the end half.

The story goes like this: Tobey Maquire’s character, Sam, goes to Afghanistan and is reported dead. This makes Jake Gyllenhall’s character, Tommy, take care of his family. Throughout this time Tommy and Natalie Portman’s character, Grace, become very close, leading to a mutual attraction that they both know they can’t act on. Sam comes back, and because of certain events is slowly losing his mind. He accuses Tommy and Grace of having an affair, and things get crazy from there. This story makes for many dramatic moments. Crying, yelling, things broken, the works. The story is alright an all, but it could be better. Like I said, they go in and out of clichés that everyone has seen before. Example: Tommy is kind of the bad boy in the family. At the beginning of the movie, he just gets released from prison. Grace falling for him is a typical story about the good girl falling for the bad guy. Pretty cliché if you ask me. There are many of these examples, and it’s unfortunate that the movie had so many.

What pushed the movie over the top into the good area, however, were the performances. Jake Gyllenhall has always been a good actor, and it’s no different here. He was great as the bad boy, devil may care attitude, with a heart of gold, Tommy. Natalie Portman is not only gorgeous, like she always is, but she has evolved into one of the best actresses working today. Her abilities were put to the test like never before and she passed with flying colors. Natalie Portman is very talented and she uses those talents well. Now, we must talk about Tobey Maquire. I’ve thought of him as sub-par. A B-list actor who got really lucky with Spiderman. That is, until I saw Brothers. Tobey Maquire’s performance is one of the best of the year. For the first half of the movie, when Sam was in Afghanistan, I thought it a pretty dumb movie. It was really boring and slow. When Sam came back, it turned into great. Sam’s slow decent into pure insanity is amazingly portrayed. There were many times where I would let out a low curse when Tobey Maquire would say a seemingly innocent line in a very creepy way. Lines such as “Did they say their prayers?” made me crawl out of my own skin. The whole time you can see Sam on the brink of cracking. When his breaking point finally happens it is one of the most intense and powerful moments I have seen all year. Tobey Maquire made this movie. I will not question what he can do, given the right script, again. His outstanding performance coupled with the great portrayals by Jake Gyllenhall and Natalie Portman, make for a cast that is one of the best.

So, what we have here is a sub-par movie, pushed into the good area solely by the work of its actors. If these people didn’t perform so well, I would have not liked this movie in the slightest. It is definitely worth seeing just for Tobey Maquire’s performance alone, but don’t expect a masterpiece.