Monsters University

Are man-eating zombies not your thing? If not, then Pixar's latest film, Monsters University is the film for you. It takes the cast of Monsters Inc. and explains how they met.

As established in the earlier film, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) are monsters who specialize in scaring kids. It's all for a good cause: the screams of children are their world's power-source.

But in this film, Mike and Sulley are students of the prestigious Monsters University. It's the Alma-matter of the best scarers around, which the hard-nosed Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren) takes very seriously.

By the end of the semester, Mike and Sulley are in trouble. They're not cut out for the Scaring Major, says Hardscrabble. But they have a chance: the Scare Games. They pit MU Teams against each other in tests of scaring aptitude. Enlisting in the Oozma Kappa (OK) Frat House, the duo has to get its members in shape to face the jock house: Roar Omega Roar (ROR).

Pixar's first prequel is a good effort. Its plot is kind of easy to sniff out from a mile away. But it genuinely surprises at the end with some great plot revelations. It was also fun to see the OK House using teamwork to overcome its Scare Game challenges. Its real big drawback was its too lighthearted tone, playing much more to kids than overall families.

As usual, Pixar gets points for its production values. Its monsters are cuddly and creatively designed. The world they live in is wonderfully bright and colorful. Its sound design includes some incredibly strong roars and screams. Hopefully, they'll be strong enough to be noticed by the Academy, just as it nominated Monsters Inc.

Some have called this an Average film by a once great Animation House. But Monsters University passes because it succeeds in being a decently entertaining film. Its opening short, The Blue Umbrella, though, is certainly better than average.

World War Z

World War Z came back from the dead after a nightmarish production. Unlike the creatures it features, it didn't come back wrong.

Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) used to be a U.N. Researcher. Now, he and his family are on the run from really fast zombies. Each person they kill becomes another zombie. They get on an aircraft carrier thanks to Gerry's U.N. connections. There, the guy in charge tells Gerry to help them find the source of the zombies. Otherwise, his family goes off the boat.

Gerry's quest takes him from South Korea to Jerusalem to Wales. Each site has a good zombie presence. Gerry has to outrun the undead if he's to avoid joining their side.

Max Brook's novel, from which this story came from, was a documentary on print set after the end. This is an action film set during the end. Very dissimilar things. So, how did they do with the film they ended up making?

Its first few minutes go straight from Gerry's happy home-life to he and his family stuck in traffic as the undead debut. Through the rest of its first half-hour, the film shows society deteriorating. Even at its PG-13 rating, the world it effectively portrays is a nightmare. It's the type of world I sure don't want to live in.

Things settle down afterwards. The zombie attacks go from unsettling to thrilling. It's helped by some good visuals and an even better soundmix. There's also some displays of humor, some unintentional. Its ending, meanwhile, may strike some as bizarre, but it's redeemed by some good exposition.

One might complain of its divergences from the book. But for what it actually is, World War Z is a good thriller with an undead perspective. If these type of monsters aren't your thing, you might want to enroll in Monster's University.

Man of Steel

For years, Superman's movie career wasn't looking good. Warner Bros tried to continue it with Superman Returns, but it didn't do so well.

So now, just as he did with Batman, producer Christopher Nolan has restarted Superman's cinematic life. This first new cinematic crusade is Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder.

Once again, scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sends his young son, Kal-El, away from their doomed planet Krypton to Earth. Years later, Kal-El, now Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), travels the world. Clark was raised by farmer Jonathan (Kevin Costner) not to use his super powers in front of other people. But Clark uses them anyway when the time comes.

And that's all before he gets his blue suit.

The evil General Zod (Michael Shannon), who tried to take over Krypton in its last days, comes to Earth. He decides to build a new Krypton from Earth's ashes, but he needs a MacGuffin Jor-El sent to Earth with Clark. And he wants it bad. It's up to Superman to defeat the bad guy and save the day.

The "new and improved" Superman is quite visual. Its Krypton, in particular, has a creative assortment of creatures, spacecraft and geography. On Earth, Superman's super powers are displayed in some amazing scenes. The final fight scenes, though, wear out some of their welcome as they go on and on.

Much of the movie is all about Clark growing up Super. As a kid or adult, Clark maintains the audience's interest throughout the film. In fact, the earliest parts were so particularly captivating that I didn't notice at least 40 minutes had gone by.

The rest of the film's cast has plenty of well-cast characters. As Zod, Shannon is a perfectly brutal villain whose motives, though not methods, are actually understandable. Amy Adams, meanwhile, is great as the intrepid Lois Lane.

This new Superman is good, but misses some of the sense of wonder that Richard Donner introduced in 1978. Hopefully, the next one will make it really fun to believe a man can fly. Still, its ending, while long, doesn't raise a lot of logical questions as the first one did.

Now You See Me

On stage, a magician's tricks are best left unexplained. In Now You See Me, a film about magicians, there's plenty of magic revealed.

J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Merritt Osbourne (Woody Harrelson) were four down on their luck magicians. Brought together by a mysterious benefactor, they are the Four Horsemen. They make a name for themselves when, during a Vegas performance, they whip out a teleportation device. They beam one lucky sap to a Paris Bank vault and shower its 3 million Euro supply on to their audience.

Naturally, agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) wants to know how they did it. But they're not telling. So he gets magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) to help him. As the Horsemen plan their next stunts in New Orleans and New York, they have to do what they can to throw the Law off their trail.

It's a $75 million dazzler directed by Louis Leterrier. There are plenty of amazing magic tricks conjured up by its visual effects crew. There are also plenty of magical plot twists from the screenplay to bedazzle the audience. Initially, one might find the magic less incredible once its secrets are exposed. But as it goes on, it'll make much more sense.

Think of it like The Sting, but with magicians. I did.

The Actors make for a good ensemble. They play with the audience's expectations of their role in the grand scheme of things amazingly. That's where the best magic is.

At 115 minutes, Now You See Me drags on for quite a bit, especially at the end. But its written and visual magic makes it worth it at any price.