SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Saïd Taghmaoui, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are military and are involved in transporting extremely dangerous warheads. Their caravan is ambushed by a group of mercenaries led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who possesses highly advanced weapons far more superior than the NATO transport unit. Duke and Ripcord’s fellow soldiers are all killed by the mercenaries. The Baroness spares the life of Duke, as Duke knows her as Amy Lewis. All of a sudden, G.I. Joe appear out of nowhere and attack the mercenary, forcing them to escape leaving behind the warheads.

Sienna Miller in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

Later on, Duke and Ripcord are recruited by General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) to join the ranks of the Alpha Team, the G.I. Joes and they are brought to The Pit, the home of the Joes where Duke and Ripcord have to go through military training where most parts involve virtual reality. When they pass their tests with flying colors, they are immediately engaged in battles with the mercenaries when the mercenaries invades The Pit to steal the warheads. It is known that the mercenaries known as Cobra is led by James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), the person responsible in using NATO’s funds to make the warheads and then steal them back.

Duke, Ripcord, Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake-Eyes (Ray Park), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui) are sent to Paris to stop Cobra from activating the warheads. However, they are too late as Baroness and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) manage to activate the warhead, killing Baron de Cobray in the process.

After all the high speed car chase with Duke and Ripcord in highly advanced suits which make them incredibly fast and nearly invincible, Scarlett in a superbike and Snake-Eyes on top of the jeep that Baroness and Storm Shadow are in, Storm Shadow manages to destroy The Eiffel Tower even though Duke manages to stop the nano bugs which come from the warhead to continue to destroy the entire city.

Throughout the movie, there are numerous flashbacks to further depict the story behind everything includes how Duke’s ex-fiancée, Amy Lewis is recruited into Cobra and how the entire military thinks Rex Lewis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Amy’s brother is killed but actually survived and becomes “The Doctor”, Cobra’s highly intelligent scientist.

The movie is like the combination of “Watchmen” and “Terminator Salvation” in which the world is going to end but in G.I. Joe, “When All Else Fails, They Don’t”. That’s the motto of the movie. And as a matter of fact, it doesn’t fail. It is surely highly entertaining, full of actions and has the right elements and is occassionally comical.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway in "City of Ember"

A group of professionals known as The Builders acknowledges that the world is doomed due and announces their plan to build a fully-contained underground city to house a human community for 200 years in order to shelter the human race from an unspecified disaster. And that’s why the City of Ember is born.

A box has been given by the Builders to the mayors of Embers for generation after generation. The box contains instruction and a key to return to the surface of the earth. But the seventh mayor collapsed and the passing on of the box becomes unnoticed.

After 200 years has passed, the city becomes depleted of its resources — food supplies and especially the electricity. Ember often experience longer blackouts and more frequent as the generator that powers the city has deteriorated. Two friends, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon Harrow (Harry Treadway) are graduating from school. While Lina is assigned to work as a pipeworker but she trades with Doon since Doon also doesn’t like his job as a messenger. They begin their jobs and soon, they learn that the city is in danger and may suffer total darkness when the generator stops working one day.

While the city is deprived of food supplies, Mayor Cole (Bill Murray) has been stockpiling food with the help of Looper (Mackenzie Crook) in a secret bunker. When Lina discovers the bunker, she tries to report him but instead she and Doon are ordered by the mayor to be arrested.

Lina and Doon together with Poppy (Amy Quinn & Catherine Quinn) escapes into the sewer of the city and tries to find a way out of the city with the instructions left in the box. Doon’s mentor Sul (Martin Landau) also lends a hand with his knowledge in pipeworks. When the generator shows signs of failing, Mayor Cole escapes into his secret bunker and leave Looper, breaking their initial deal. But, Mayor Cole doesn’t know a giant star-nosed Mole is waiting for him in his bunker and thus, get killed by the Mole.

When they arrive at the surface, Lina is utterly disappointed that it is dark as well but as the sun rises, they realize the planet has healed and they can even see Ember through a huge hole. Lina and Doon send a message tied to a rock and it is found by Doon’s father, Foris Harrow (Tim Robbins).

Overall, it is an indeed unique movie and brilliant performance by Saoirse Ronan, the 15-year-old actress whom also excelled in Atonement, a 2007 movie starring Keira Knightley. Once again, the movie theaters are dominated by young children whom are already beginning to take over major roles in the acting world. Amazing storyline, beautiful cinematography and a very well-played science-fiction adventure film.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Justin Chatwin and Emmy Rossum as Goku and Bulma in "Dragonball Evolution"

Dragonball Evolution starts with Goku (Justin Chatwin) as an American Teenager who goes to high school in modern days. He lives with his grandfather, Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) in a huge mansion and practice martial arts with him. In school, Goku is an outcast because he is different and because his grandpa strongly advises him against starting a fight.

Meanwhile, Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) is freed after being sealed for 2,000 years by a group of masters. However, the movie didn’t state how Piccolo manage to escape. Together with his sidekick, Mai (Eriko Tamura), they travel in their spaceship to search for Dragonballs.

When Goku’s love interest at high school, Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) invites him to a party, he immediately agrees. It happens to be Goku’s birthday, who shares the same birthday as his grandpa. At the entrance to the party, Goku faces challenges from the school bullies. As he has promised his grandpa not to fight, he causes the gangsters to fight among themselves instead by dodging their every moves. Chi Chi is surprised and impressed by Goku and she wants to confess her real identity before Goku leaves in a hurry after sensing something wrong’s happening to his grandpa.

True indeed, when he reaches home, his house has collapsed and his grandpa is dying. Gohan tells his grandson about Piccolo’s release and his intention and to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), as well as to find all the seven Dragonballs as the only way to capture Piccolo. As Goku’s grandpa passes away, an invader comes to the collapsed house searching for a 5-star Dragonball stolen by Piccolo. Her name is Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and she almost kills Goku since she has suspected Goku to be the thief. Only after Goku shows her his Dragonball (a birthday gift from his grandpa) has 4-star instead of 5, Bulma is convinced there are other Dragonballs and decides to find all of them so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming famous. Goku, on the other hand, invites Bulma to join his search for Dragonballs to stop Piccolo.

Despite the failure to find Master Roshi from the phone directory, an accidental encounter from the Dragonball radar puts Goku, Bulma and Master Roshi under the same roof. When Goku tells Roshi that Gohan has passed away and Piccolo is freed, they embark on a journey to find the remaining Dragonballs. While, traveling in the desert, they fall into a giant hole. Yamcha (Joon Park) finds them and offers to help them in return for some money. While Goku’s attempt to fly up fail each time, Master Roshi has little problem in doing that. But, once Roshi is up, Bulma’s radar has detected a Dragonball nearby.

As they continue their magical journey, Piccolo continues to watch over them and Mai manages to steal the Dragonballs by disguising as Chi Chi after getting a sample of her blood in a martial arts tournament. Before Piccolo manages to summon Shen Long, Goku and gang manages to reach there in time to stop him. But, they have a price to pay as Master Roshi dies in the hand of Goku when Goku turns into a monstrous monkey as the eclipse arrives. However, due to his strong will and determination, he transforms back into human form and manages to defeat Piccolo. In the end, Goku uses the seven Dragonballs to grant Master Roshi or Muten Roshi (as he likes to call himself) his life back.

After the credits have ended, it is shown that Piccolo is still alive and is being treated by a beautiful Japanese woman whose life has been spared by Piccolo during the search for Dragonball.

While, the movie challenges the norm and takes us to the modern era, fans of Dragon Ball will surely be disappointed by this live-action film. It’s almost like watching an hour and a half of Power Rangers, you know — high school, superheroes with hidden super powers, monsters, martial arts. You’ll get what I mean. Besides Piccolo’s realistically identical to the real character, Yamcha’s voice is amazingly same like the cartoon itself. Other than that, everything else is so mixed up — white boy as Goku, studies in an American high school which is located within the same area as some Japanese houses and temples and the likes. While, the effects is more than mediocre, and the actresses picked are hot and sexy, the way the epic saga is packed into an 85-minute film is just not right. Why the rush when the movie can be made into an epic like The Lord of the Rings? Even though the ending of the film gives us a hint there will be a possible sequel, it is perhaps a good way to tell us to avoid it. Just wait for The Hobbits for something truly epic, no more comic adaption movies besides Marvel’s.

My ratings: 6 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Brendan Fraser in "Inkheart"

Mortimer “Mo” Folchart (played by Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie (Eliza Bennett), share a passion for books. Mo has been searching for a book called Inkheart through secondhand book shops for nearly a decade. When he finally finds the book, he accidentally brings Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) to life. When Dustfinger confronts Mo in order to tell him that Capricorn (Andy Serkis) is pursuing Mo and he is in danger, Mo completely brushes him aside. Instead, Mo chooses to visit his mother, Elinor Loredan (Helen Mirren) in Italy and brings Meggie along.

Unexpectedly, Dustfinger appears in Italy, where Mo and Meggie stay only to tell Mo that he corporates with Capricorn since it’s the only chance for him to get back into the book after Mo has repeatedly refused to do so. Capricorn’s men ransacks the house and the library in order to find the book entitled "Inkheart". They also capture Mo, Meggie and Elinor as prisoners and throw them into a dungeon together with mystical beasts in adjacent cages inside a castle. With so many things occurring, Mo finally reveals to Meggie and Elinor that he’s a Silvertongue and he has an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when he reads them aloud. But his action has also caused his wife, Resa (Sienna Guillory) who has disappeared into its the pages of Inkheart.

Mo’s plan to use the book to rescue Resa is thwarted when Capricorn throws the book into the fireplace. Mo and his family together with the aid of Dustfinger and Farid (a character from Ali Baba and the forty thieves) create a thunderstorm to divert the attention of Capricorn’s men in a bid to escape. They manage to escape and find the original author of Inkheart. Even though Mo manages to find the original manuscript in order to rescue his wife and send Capricorn and all the villains back to the book, little does he knows that Capricorn has captured his daughter whom also has the gift like his father and Capricorn’s evil plan to bring the Shadow to life.

Overall, it is a weak fantasy movie with predictable storyline. Only if the movie was shown in December 2007, as it was planned originally, it may be more interesting. Other than that, it is quite decent with Brendan Fraser playing a character with more dialogues compared to his acting in the Journey to the Center of the Earth movie.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jet Li as the Emperor Han in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor "

Emperor Han (Jet Li) is a tyrannical emperor who wants to dominate the entire world and has managed to conquer everything except his age. As he is slowly aging, his mission is to find immortality. Han commands his general, Ming Guo (Russell Wong) to bring a sorceress called Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) who happens to know the way to immortality to him. When Zi Juan says she doesn’t have but only know where to find it, Han warns Ming Guo to escort her but not to touch her as she belongs to the emperor.

During the search for immortality, Ming Guo betrays the emperor’s trust by having an affair with Zi Juan. When Ming Guo and Zi Juan return to the emperor, the emperor punishes Ming Guo by having his arms and feet tied to the horses. Han suggests to Zi Juan to give herself to him if she wants to live, but she promptly refuses. As a result, Han commands his armies to tear Ming Guo apart while he stabs a dagger onto Zi Juan. Before long, Han and his armies turn into statues as a result of the curse cast by Zi Juan earlier.

The movie fast forward to 1940, which Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife, Evelyn O’Connell (played by Maria Bello as Rachel Weisz has dropped out) are retired from their exploring jobs. Their lives now are boring and simply monotonous. When the opportunity to go to Shanghai to return an ancient artifact to the government of China, the O’Connell takes the chance without a second thought Evelyn’s brother, Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah) runs a nightclub in Shanghai.

The O’Connell are tricked into General Yang’s (Anthony Wong) plot of resurrecting Emperor Han and his terracotta warriors and are forced to prevent Yang’s absurd ambition. Coincidentally, it was their son, Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford) who has earlier discovered the terracotta warriors. Lin (Isabella Leong) shows up and tells Alex that she’s the guardian of the tomb, but when a fight ensues between General Yang’s men and the O’Connell, the resurrection potion falls and it has awakened Emperor Han.

Anthony Wong and a Yeti in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor "

Then, come the part where the O’Connell family chases Emperor Han and General Yang in order to stop them from reaching to a place called Shangri-La, where Han will be able to resurrect his armies. The cat and mouse chasing is quite fun but the plots are predictable.

Lin even summons the Yetis to fight along side the O’Connell as they are outnumbered by General Yang’s armies.

But, despite all the efforts to stop Han, he finally manages to find Shangri-La and after he jumps into the pool of immortality, he emerges as a three-headed dragon and flies back to his base in order to resurrect his terracotta warriors. In order to fight back, Zi Juan and her daughter sacrifice their immortality to bring back the undead who are buried by Emperor Han during the construction of the Great Wall of China.

Although the fight between the terracotta warriors and the undead are impressive, the movie is brought to an abrupt ending when Han is easily killed by Rick and Alex who fight hand-to-hand combat with Han. Overall, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is quite disappointing especially in terms of plot and fighting scenes where the real actions are missing. Perhaps, like The X-Files, people are already bored with Rick and his adventures of killing mummies. Somehow, in the last scene, Jonathan is seen holding the valuable piece of diamond artifact to Peru — hint us the next Mummy movie will be set in Peru. After all, after having done with Egypt and China, Peru’s ancient Moche pyramid is very likely the next target.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, and Anita Briem in "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Trevor (Brendan Fraser) is a volcanologist and a professor in a university. He has completely forgotten about Sean coming to spend ten days with him. When Sean’s mother drops him off, Trevor is totally unprepared and his house is in a complete mess. Sean is a 13-year-old teenager who’s into PSP, Google and the likes, so Trevor and Sean don’t seem to get along in the beginning.

Before Sean’s mom leaves, she passes Trevor with a box of items that belonged to Max, Trevor’s brother and Sean’s father, who went missing years before. Suddenly, Sean takes interest in what Trevor has to say after he tells him about his father, whom he never really had a chance to know. Trevor tells Sean that yoyo is his father’s PSP. Trevor also finds a novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne with notes written by Max. Trevor and Sean quickly go to his laboratory only to discover a new seismometer reading which has led them to Iceland. Although Trevor intends to send Sean back to his mother, Sean relents and Trevor has no choice but to bring him along.

In Iceland, Trevor and Sean look for another volcanologist only to find he has passed away 3 years ago. His daughter, Hannah (Anita Briem) invites them into the house and they talk about the book by Jules Verne. Hannah refers the believer of the book as "Vernian", in which she says unlike her father, she is not a Vernian. However, she offers to be Trevor and Sean’s mountain guide for a hefty price. While hiking, Trevor refuses to heed Hannah’s warning of possible lightning strike as he is trying to pull out his seismometer. When it’s nearly too late, Trevor lets go of his instrument and they are trapped in a cave after the lightning hits the rocks and the rocks cover the entrance of the cave.

Trevor and Hannah decides to find another way out while Sean insists on digging the rocks. While finding the way out, Trevor, Sean and Hannah fall into a deep pit which takes them to the center of the Earth. What happen next includes discovering of glowing birds, gigantic man-eating plants, man-eating fish, Loch Ness monsters and T-Rex.

Basically, the movie is purposely made in 3D and it is the best to watch in a 3D theaters, otherwise, the movie would seem to be another dull and boring movie.

My ratings: 6 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), “Mutt” Williams (Shia LaBouef) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The movie opens with a group of teenagers joyrides through the Nevada desert in a vintage car, listening to deafening rock music from the radio. It is obviously the 1950’s. Indiana Jones and his friend George “Mac” McHale (Ray Winstone) have been kidnapped by the Russian military led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and are brought to Area 51. Spalko wants Jones to locate a mysterious object in the warehouse and when they have found the box and unearthed it, it seems to be something from another world. Before long, Indy escapes after realizing his friend “Mac” works for the communists.

After surviving a nuclear test by hiding in a refrigerator, Indy’s back to the classroom teaching. While in the train, he is pursued by a young man called Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) who looks like James Dean with slicked hair, motorcycle and a pocket knife. Mutt tells Indy that an old colleague, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) is going to be killed and gives him letters from Oxley. This leads them to find a crystal skull in Peru without knowing “Mac” and Spalko are following them relentlessly.

Indy and Mutt manage to find and rescue Oxley and Mario Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s love interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark who happens to be Mutt’s mom. Together, they make a daring escape not once but twice, the second time succeed after a rough topsy-turvy battle through the jungles. Along the way, Mutt displays some superb skill of swordplay and even he even swings like the monkeys and ends up in the jeep with Indy. When Indy encounters “Mac”, “Mac” tells Indy that he works for the CIA and Indy believes him as easy as a pie. Everyone runs helter-skelter after they all landed on the colony of gigantic siafu ants. Miraculously, the ants avoid crystal skull, so Indy and Colonel Dovchenko (Igor Jijikine) are able to battle it out hand-to-hand combat on the ant’s colony.

After escaping from the Russians, Indy and the gang (including “Mac”) ends up in the water when Ravenwood makes an unbelievable attempt at driving through the cliff only to land on a tree besides the cliff which safely brings Indy and the gang down to the ground. After falling through three waterfalls, everyone survive without barely a scratch (we are not talking about the normal waterfalls, these waterfalls are almost like the size of Victoria Falls). Through the final waterfall, they have discovered the entrance without knowing “Mac” has secretly dropped a tracking device for Spalko to track their location.

The Indiana Jones movies are always exhilarating and bring never-ending excitement and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no different. Though there are flaws in the movie like none of core characters got injured, jumping jeep from the cliff and landed safely, falling and surviving waterfalls, surviving nuclear bomb in a refrigerator, we all know Indiana Jones is an action hero and Harrison Ford does it right again. Shia LeBeouf has apparently grown up from the Transformers movie into a rougher young adult while Cate Blanchett plays her role well as a Russian communist, in fact, she even speaks flawlessly in Russian accent. Besides the usual heart-pounding excitement, the movie is somewhat lightheartedly funny. Like it or hate it, the movie is put together perfectly by the brilliant Spielberg and Lucas and are played well, every bit of it.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.