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At first glance, it's hard to imagine Transcendence being anything but a great film. It has a great cast, an intriguing plot, and it's produced by Christopher Nolan and directed by his long-time cinematographer Wally Pfister. Unfortunately, this is one of the most disappointing and underwhelming viewing experiences I've had all year.

The main problem with Transcendence is that any interesting elements that our introduced in the film are quickly abandoned by a weak script that offers us absolutely nothing that we haven't seen before in Sci-fi films. The film gets off to a decent start setting up the plot and keeping us intrigued to see where it goes. Once the first act is over, it quickly starts to go downhill. As previously mentioned, there are several interesting ideas that our introduced throughout the film that the film never builds upon and quickly abandons them. This makes it a very frustrating viewing experience as it makes it appear hopeful that the film is finally picking up, only to once again be letdown. A lot of the flaws with the film come from it's weak script. In addition to never building on any interesting ideas it introduces, the characters are too one dimensional to connect with them on any emotional level and the story offers nothing we haven't seen before in other Sci-fi films of this type. Johnny Depp who normally is great in even his weakest films, appears to be sleep walking through the entire film appearing to be bored. Rebecca Hall did a decent job playing Depp's wife, but nothing spectacular. The only actor who really shines is Paul Bettany who delivers a great performance despite the weak material that he is given to work with. Morgan Freeman is completely wasted and given absolutely nothing to do. His character could have been completely cut out of the film and it wouldn't have altered anything in the story. Wally Pfister is also in part to blame for the films flaws. This is his directorial debut and it's very blatant and obvious that he struggled to put everything together considering the films lack of energy and dullness. A project of this caliber should not have been put in the hands of a first time director. There is also an anti-technology stance the film takes, yet only suggest and never actually shows the damage that Depp's character is doing in his new form which I found to be very annoying.

Now while Transcendence is far from a good movie, I can't quite call it terrible. I never really found myself bored during the film and was for the majority involved with the story throughout since it's told at a very straightforward pace. Pfister also shows that while his directional skills might be weak, his cinematography is nevertheless great and the visuals are impressive.

Overall, Transcendence isn't quite terrible, but it's convoluted and weak script plus direction make it a frustrating viewing experience that offers almost nothing. Despite the film being released in April, 2014 may have already found it's title for the most disappointing film of the year.

If there would be one film to compare Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to, it would have to be The Dark Knight, in which it is a sequel to a fantastic film that manages to out-do the film it was proceeded by.

As far as Summer Blockbusters go, this is one of the best I've seen in the last decade. It has the epic action set pieces and incredible CGI that we've come to expect, But also a great story, fantastic performances, and emotional depth that many of these Summer films are missing. A majority of the dialogue between the Apes are translated in English subtitles as they communicate with Sign-Language, which was a very ambitious move by the filmmakers as that element alone could easily turn-off some audiences. While there is no doubt the technical aspect of the film is highly impressive, it also succeeds outside of it as well in telling a survival story between the Apes and remaining Humans on earth. The film doesn't take any sides between the two species portraying them equally both having their protagonists and antagonists. We don't find ourselves rooting for either side, but rather sympathizing with both of them. Their some beautiful and incredibly touching moments of the Apes and Humans connecting with each other throughout the film, creating a great sense of dread and intensity considering the dramatic irony of the events to come later in the film. Despite these moments being the more quiet and peaceful in this extremely dark film, it makes them all the more tough to watch. The human characters in the film are portrayed very well. While the relationship between Ceaser and Jason Clarke's character isn't quite as strong as his and James Franco's character in the previous film, it doesn't hurt the connection between the two's relationship at all still hitting an emotional chord among the viewer. The action sequences are absolute breathtaking including a great battle sequence and fist-fight between two Ape characters during the climax.

It's only a little over halfway through the year, but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the best film I've seen so far this year. It's an intense, emotional, and thought-provoking films that is not only impressive on a technical level, but in film making generally.

There's a lot to be said about Live Freaky! Die Freaky!. First off it's hands down one of the most bizarre films I've ever viewed in my life combining stop-motion, sci-fi, music, dark humor, and the Manson murders all into one strange little film. The concept itself is undeniably creative and original and unlike anything I've seen before. Unfortunately, the opportunity to do anything even halfway passable with this film is completely wasted in a mess of trying too hard to push the envelope just for shock-value and forgetting to add any substance to the absurdity.

The cast consist of almost entirely of musicians including the members of Green Day, Rancid, Blink-182, and more. Billie Joe Armstrong who voices the Charles Manson type character actually does an alright job, but the rest of the cast comes off completely flat and just dull in their voice acting.

The acting is the least of this films problems though. As previously mentioned, the entire films seems to be trying to only accomplish offending and shocking the viewer by whatever means necessary. If this film was to be submitted by the MPAA, it would no doubt receive an NC-17 . This is is not a film for the faint of heart as it contains incredibly explicit puppet sex scenes including full frontal nudity, graphic animated violence, drug use, and near constant profanity. This may all sound shocking, but after the first puppet sex scene which is roughly around 10 minutes into the film, it immediately grows tiresome and repetitive and results in a surprisingly boring film despite the chaos that is presented.

The film is ultimately a dark-comedy/musical with social commentary on the media and how the Manson murders were handled by them, but it fails in all of these areas thanks to the abysmal writing. It's hard to believe that the script was written by anyone but a 13 year-old boy with the most embarrassingly juvenile sense of humor who just discovered the most vulgar words in the English dictionary. There are a few chuckles to be found here, particularly some sight gags in relation to the medias handling of the Manson murders, but the majority of the humor relies on tiresome jokes which involve the constant use of expletives and the most lowbrow sexual jokes imaginable. These jokes are made even worse that they are dragged out for close to 5 minutes on several occasions. I was hoping that the music would be the saving grace here considering the talent involved, but the songs are almost as awful. The lyrics are complete garbage and the songs are anything but catchy. The film seems to be making an obvious attempt to satirize and make a statement about the way the media portrays celebrities, but it's doesn't appear to be saying anything beyond "Oh, the media glamorizes celebrities and Manson wasn't given a fair trial". The portraying of celebrities is nothing to be shocked by and Manson is a wacko that deserves to be locked up.

There's not doubt there is an audience for this out there who will enjoy it simply for it's shock-value and absurdity, but most will probably see for what it truly is. A wasted opportunity for something that could have been unique and original.