Should You Choose To Accept It.. For The Fifth Time

Tom Cruise might be my favorite actor of all time. He's just so good. He's the true Hollywood star of our times. He's so recognizable. If I say Chris Pratt or Christian Bale to some random people, they might not know them. But names like Tom Cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio are the ones that keep Hollywood running. So, Tom Cruise is back this year after last year's sci-fi action spectacular Edge of Tomorrow with Emily Blunt. He's now in his flagship franchise's installment number five, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. He's joined with his frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie who directed him in Jack Reacher. The returning cast include Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg. Newcomers here are Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin. I'm pretty excited to see this film although my excitement isn't going through the roof. We're still pretty surprised it got moved five months earlier than the original date.

Ethan Hunt and his crew are on a mission to track down a rogue organization called The Syndicate who's main objective is to infiltrate and destroy spy and intel agencies such as IMF (not the International Monetary Fund). In the meantime, the IMF are undergoing an inspection from CIA for its missions that had ruined things, causing mayhem all over the globe. Ethan Hunt is then, once again,  disavowed and became an international fugitive for CIA while also doing his own mission to stop The Syndicate once and for all.

I'd like to think the Mission: Impossible sequels peaked with J.J. Abrams' installment number three. That is still my favorite apart from the first one. We do not go to Mission: Impossible for a very intricate spy story right? You go for the thrill and spectacle, which Ghost Protocol delivered. Rogue Nation, in my opinion, laid out its story really well. Kudos to McQuarrie, he always write the good stories. However, I think this installment lacked the spectacle and thrill. John Woo's M:I-2 also suffered the same thing. The great stunt was at the beginning, Woo's no-harness rock-climbing is this movie's hanging-on-a-flying-plane sequence. After that, the movie could only hang on to story and below-Mission: Impossible-standard action scenes. I'm not bashing the movie, it has its moments. McQuarrie's really good at staging and directing chase scenes like the one we previously saw in Jack Reacher. The underwater computer thingy-sequence was also thrilling, although the actual technicality of the computer is so over-the-top. The opera scene is also top-notch. Sadly, for a Mission: Impossible movie those are not enough. I think Ghost Protocol made up its lack in plot with the action scenes, like 70:30 for action and story, while this one has an 40:60 ratio of action and story

Tom Cruise delivered his best as always. The rest of the cast too, although not enough action for both Renner and Rhames, (it's probably either more in Age of Ultron or in this movie for Renner) and Pegg isn't as funny as before. The breakout star here is Rebecca Ferguson who played Ilsa Faust. Also commendable is the composer Joe Kraemer whose works are mostly on television but amazingly mixed the iconic Mission Impossible theme with action score that really works. I like this movie for the fact it doesn't rely on the characters hanging on a rope or just hanging two inches from the floor. The first three movies have Tom Cruise doing that and the fourth has Jeremy Renner doing it. Also after being criminally unused in Ghost Protocol, it is the return of the masks! YES (Oops probably that's a spoiler). Also Tom Cruise name-dropped Jakarta! Movie number six, go there! I like the very well-directed action scenes, the locations, the casts. It's a very good movie actually, but it's just a few steps shy for being a great Mission: Impossible movie. The best sequel is still M:I:3. But still, thank you Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie for giving us a blast this summer. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation: rated 3.5/4


Oh, and I also watched Jurassic World for the second time and I am not bored yet!
PS. might disappear for like two weeks. But will return in gloryyy
[cue John Legend and Common's Glory]

The World Is Yours

If you ask me, I will claim that I was the biggest dinosaur fan that's ever lived. I used to know all the species of dinosaurs spanning from the Triassic Period to Cretaceous Period. That's all thanks to my parents' shoving me Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park during my early ages. That film remains one of my favorite movies up until now. Ergh enough with this introduction. I can't contain it. Jurassic World is unexpectedly very good. Probably you saw me bashing the trailers some eight months ago. The trailers were shit. They make the actual movie seems bad but in fact it didn't. I would totally be sold to watch the movie if it's just a montage of people staring at things and being scared with the haunting piano rendition of the theme song. This installment of the Jurassic Park franchise is now directed by Colin Trevorrow, whose film Safety Not Guaranteed is, for me, quite an unbearable experience although that's mostly because of my dislike of Aubrey Plaza. The movie stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the main roles, and also adding pleasant surprises like Jake Johnson, Vincent 'Kingpin' D'Onofrio, and Omar Sy from The Intouchables.

The film starts with us following the two brothers, Zach and Grey(?--yeah, they're just these two boys), whose on an independent trip to the now-very popular theme park, Jurassic World. Their aunt, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is working at the park trying to unveil a new addition to the park: a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur. Owen (Peter Quill), who's also working at the park as a raptor wrangler, is concerned about the fact that this hybrid species might be dangerous as an attraction.

As I've said before, I love this movie. Let's be honest, it probably won't be as iconic as the original. But they're not trying to match it. It's a very notable addition to the franchise. They treated the original material respectfully, unlike that other franchise which has killer robots from the future in it. It really feels that this movie is made with love and care from the people who admire and respect the previous films. I like the easter eggs in the film with Ian Malcolm's book, the vibrating cellphone scene, inGen squad, Spinosaur skeleton, etc. Trevorrow even politely said that the events in the two sequels before are sidelined, instead of disregarded. The music by Michael Giacchino is also one of the indicators. It evokes nostalgia while also infusing new ideas. And don't you just love Giacchino's track names? For example, "Gyrosphere of Influence" or "Nine to Survival Job". The trailers released for the film didn't do the film justice. The good story ideas from the film were mixed without care for the trailers making it nonsensical to see within two and a half minutes. The movie mixed and nurtured all the plot points really nicely. Like Chris Pratt's raptor hunt together or the fact that we need a genetically modified hybrid. It has a very light tone to the film which makes it fun and not boring despite all the science talk. It infuses the right amount of jokes also at the right place. Unlike say, Iron Man 3 which most of the jokes didn't work at all. The effects are awesome in overall, but at some parts it still felt like a bad render that only passes for Terra Nova. It is mind-boggling the fact that the effects in Jurassic Park still holds up up until today.

Indominus Rex, despite the silly-ass name (Unobtanium-level of dumb name-giving), is pretty awesome and terrifying in all the right ways. The attractions shown in Jurassic World are crazy good. The Mosasaurus is so cool, despite passable vfx. The characters are awesome. I like Chris Pratt's Owen Grady, he's cool and Chris Pratt infuses a considerable amount of persona to make that character alive--not just a tough guy. And finally Bryce Dallas Howard gets the fame she deserves. She deserved it since The Village and also after her brief role as Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3, although Emma Stone kinda stole Gwen Stacy away from her. I always like her in every movie, like The Help or even Terminator Salvation. Jake Johnson is also another star in the movie. Nick Miller finally finds work! And he's just so funny. He also has the best lines about Jurassic Park being way better than Jurassic World. The last battle between the dinosaurs is so good it even put last year's Godzilla to shame. Probably for the fact it is better lit. Bottom line, I like this movie more than I should. It's thrilling, it's funny, it's awesome, it's up there with Mad Max: Fury Road as one of the best movies of the summer. Jurassic World: rated 4/4

Should you choose to accept it, Rogue Nation review is coming up next.

[cue theme song]

Don't Tamper With My Fried Chicken!

I love chicken. I love fried chicken. I love Kentucky Fried Chicken for its finger-licking goodness. I love A&W's fried chicken for its amazing taste that's so original. I love the Indonesian McDonald's fried chicken for its artificial taste. I love the traditional Indonesian fried chicken. I love the Japanese karaage. Bottomline, fried chicken is one of my favorite food of all time. Imma let you finish, but it is one of the best food ever created by mankind. But I wouldn't eat fried chicken everyday, that's unhealthy and it makes you sick. Unlike pizza which I would happily eat everyday. Fried chicken's' a guilty pleasure, much like The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

I feel bad for TASM 2, really I do. Don't you? No one asked for The Amazing Spider-Man and I personally hate people who think that Tobey Maguire is a bad Peter Parker/Spider-Man. When I was researching for this post (yes guys, even blog posts need research), Andrew Garfield just scored major respect points from me. During TASM2 Comic-con panel in 2013, he said and I paraphrased that Spider-Man would forever be Tobey's role no matter what. YES. Huge respect. The young actors involved in the rebooted franchise are the reason you go to see the films despite them being lackluster.

Let's start in 2012, I hated TASM so much. It was actually well-filmed and it has its own unique moments (I counted two) but the repetition and unnecessariness of the whole film bogged it down big time. But come TASM2 in 2014, it was tasked with the job of world-building and setting up future installments. It was doomed from the start but the film turned out pretty fine. The action scenes are amazing and Spidey's new costume is just so beautiful. Remember that set-piece in Times Square when Electro faces Spider-Man for the first time? I'd go out on a limb and say that scene is a master-class in superhero blockbuster filmmaking. But how was the rest of the film? I'd like to plagiarize my old post to proceed.

TASM2's positives
1. We've warmed up to this hipster version of Peter Parker.
2. Trifecta of great young actors: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Dane DeHaan. Also add the now-Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones in the mix. I once tweeted that this group is The Social Network cast equivalent of superhero movies. And this film should've featured Shailene Woodley also. That would be mind-blowing.
3. Marc Webb's more assured direction. His web-slinging scenes are way better than before and action scenes are pretty flawless. The death of Gwen Stacy is also handled masterfully. I still jumped in shock everytime she hit the ground even after three times watching the movie.
4. Hans Zimmer & Co.'s new hopeful theme and Electro theme are killerrrr.
5. The film is lighter than Marvel and even DC. See how Spidey's gleeful persona influenced the other characters to also be comical, whether intentionally or unintentionally. For example, Max Dillon, The Rhino and Dr. Kafka, yet people complained about this. why..

TASM2's negatives
1. Too much important scenes that are deleted. Go search on YouTube for those scenes because they make the movie way better.
2. Too much Peter & Gwen. It goes to the point where it's boring. They have chemistry yes, but do you want to see two lovers going on a date all night? No.
3. Chosen one-type of storyline. Peter Parker's supposed to be you, me, us. In this movie, he's like Neo or Harry Potter. Even Harry Potter has more relatable traits to people than this Peter Parker.
4. Cramming too much backstories. Like, Harry Osborn is actually a long lost childhood friend or Electro's sudden shift from Spidey fanboy to hater or that Peter's dad's hulaballooo.
5. False advertising, like featuring The Rhino like he's one of the main villain. Or more precisely, bad advertising for revealing too much in the trailer.
6. Being a flop and eventually rebooted by Marvel.

I actually want to see this franchise completed. At least, let them resolve some of the stuff that are happening, like Peter's hunt for Uncle Ben's killer, that Pierce guy, the villains gallery. I could write a story that makes them finish at installment number three. At least give us, audience, closure. I'd like to see Felicity Jones as Black Cat. I'd like to see more Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Those Marvel guys, they only think about themselves. They could work Andrew Garfield's Spidey into MCU, they're just too lazy, too arrogant. They can address this film's flaws and still make a decent tie-in to Civil War.

I hate it when you tamper with my guilty pleasure. This is like eating half of a fried chicken and then some cleaning lady threw your chicken away and the store's already closed. Look at this Marvel, I can even work my way to making metaphors using fried chicken for a movie. Why can't you? (Work TASM's universe to MCU, not inserting fried chickens to MCU.. Shawarma's good although overrated).

Still coming: Jurassic World review. In fact, I'm gonna take a bath and go to the cinemas..NOW