Noah Begins

This one is a long story. So, back in March I was in Indonesia and this Aronofsky latest is definitely on my watchlist while in Indonesia. But weeks prior to its planned release, I kept hearing news that Noah is banned in many Muslim countries, even Malaysia. I became suspicious, Indonesia a self-proclaimedly proud country with Muslim majority must be making up its mind about the film. Then about three days before the release, Noah was pulled from every coming soon list in cinemas. The censorship board was: Noah might bring restlessness that can affect people's beliefs and also the country's condition leading up to the national election three months later. What. A. Lot. Of. Bull. Fucking. Shit. Anyway, here I am three months later in Japan finally watching the film in its glory in cinemas. After last time, I missed Black Swan in cinemas because of Indonesian government stupidity (see the Hollywood film boycott in 2011), I would not miss any more Darren Aronofsky film.

The film is a different take on that story from the Bible. Noah is tasked with saving the animals by God who wants to wipe out humanity because their bad deeds were beyond saving. After Cain/Abel incident, the world was divided into two: the Cain family who brought darkness and the Seth family who brought blessings. Don't forget additional Bible mythology that includes The Watchers, fallen angels trapped in the constraints of the Earth. Bottom line, this is not your religion class' version of the tale of Noah.

Even as a (supposedly) devout Catholic, this film surprised me a lot. I don't mind that God was not mentioned, The Creator was one of God's nickname anyway. If we complained about that, then all those dinosaur fossils can complain because apparently Brontosauruses was called Long Necks in The Land Before Time. It has strange customs that involves snakeskin from the Garden of Eden snake, old guy craving for berries, and exotically fictional animals. What bugged me the most was Noah's struggle that was very dark. Noah let an innocent girl die, and almost (spoiler) killed two other innocent lives. He was very grim and unlike what you imagined in the Bible. And no, God did not call out on Noah and his family that it was time to be in the lands. There's no God's voice. It is also different from the Bible firstly from the fact the in this film Noah is not some hundred years old and all of his boys already have wives. There are many creative takes on the story and I need to watch it again in order to fully understand Aronofsky's intention. It's also a shame that the film chose not to spend more time on how Noah and the Watchers build the ark. But what was amazing was all the majestic scenes: the creation scene and the holy water scene. Clint Mansell's score is also amazing. It's a wonder those speakers at the cinema could handle that much of awesomeness. Despite the creative freedom taken by Aronofsky, the theme raised in the film was very resonant and religious. The take on how water was used instead of fire to annihilate mankind was amazing too. Water was cleansing and purifying whereas fire was pure destruction. It was beautiful. The cast is also great, Russell Crowe is fitting as the rugged and gritty Noah. I think this version of Noah that we now see is a product of Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins' influence. The year 2005 saw everything changed into grittiness and realism, but thankfully Darren Aronofsky still awes us with fantasy in this film. Noah: rated 3/4 (basically because I need to watch it again)


Next up: my report on seeing Tom Cruise in Fukuoka.
Next next up: review on Jay Depp's Transcendence or double feature of Edge of Tomorrow/Maleficent

Back to the Future

Fox's X-Men franchise has been around for 14 years now and during that timeframe, they already have six films. Mostly with great reviews but surely they had misfires as well, please refer to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. What's past is past, and it would be written in history unless they had the power to change the upcoming history. Enter X-Men: Days of Future Past. Based on a super popular comic series, it unites franchise veterans and newbies (not n00b newbies, but incredible newbies). It is a smart move, to expand the 14-year-old franchise, to disown the bad films, and to match The Avengers team power.

The story is a convoluted one. The original trilogy X-Men are in the bleak future where mutants are hunted by advanced Sentinels. Sentinels were created by Bolivar Trask, Mystique/Raven's first murder victim back in the 1960s. Mutants are forced to hide, even in China. Professor X (who's miraculously resurrected) and Magneto (who's miraculously regained his power) agreed to send Wolverine back in time to prevent Mystique from killing Trask. In the process, Wolverine witnessed young Magneto and young Professor's struggle and power as well as experiencing first hand Quicksilver's powers.

It's super great, I tell you, as a film. However, as an addition to a franchise this might be handicapped. There are so many plot holes inside the franchise that it's beyond saving. Firstly, so with the existence of DoFP, what happens to the other films? Does the original trilogy exist? Do the Wolverine spinoffs exist? It's such a shame especially with the case of The Wolverine where Wolvie meets his uber-hot Japanese girlfriend. However, let's praise the film. The cast is amazing. It's been a while since I experienced Fassbender and damn it's good to be back. James McAvoy is also great as the rugged and lost Professor X. Wolverine's a bit put aside but as always Hugh Jackman is the definitive embodiment of Wolverine. Best scenes: Quicksilver and Magneto's escape, young and old Professor X meets, and all the action scenes. One of the problem with the film is John Ottman's music that is too Zimmer-influenced. All that Inception horns are so bad to go with the incredible action. And that anti-climactic, anti-curiosity Apocalypse end-credits. Ah, and there's not enough room for Peter Dinklage to shine! At least we could still look forward to fifth season of Game of Thrones.

While X-Men: Days of Future Past remained great, the biggest problem in it is the whole 'fixing the franchise' thing. Continuity is ruined and there seemed to be too many plotholes to mention. And let's not forget that in my logic, even though Mystique saved Nixon, Magneto still attacked Nixon before, isn't that also make the mutants dangerous? If I were Trask, I would still pursue the Sentinel project. Also the future Sentinel design is so strange and out of place. And there's not enough time to introduce all those new future mutants. The only one shining bright is Blink with her teleportation device/mutation/ability/whatevs. X-Men: Days of Future Past: rated 3.5/4


This post has been lying around for three weeks now. Sorry for the delay. I'm going to roll out Noah review and my post about my experience joining Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow fan meeting within days before July. Bear with me!

James Franco, Hardest Working Actor

James Franco took Hollywood by storm after his iconic starring role as Harry Osborn in the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man in 2002. He was also a major asset in TV series Freaks and Geeks with Seth Rogen before. We now know James Franco as the multi hyphenate actor-director-producer-art performer-author-poet. Just a couple days ago I stumbled upon Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I started wondering how many movies has he made since. I know he has Palo Alto with Emma Roberts coming out soon. I know he's in that play with Chris O'Dowd. I know he drew that weird nude paintings of Seth Rogen. Basically, I have seen too many James Franco's Instagram feed. But what's more surprising than his Instagram feed is the fact that James Franco might be Hollywood's hardest working actor. Let's take a look at his filmography since the year he nabbed an Oscar nom, which is 2010 to the uninitiated.

2010 (Six movies)
Movies: Howl, Date Night, Shadows and Lies, Eat Pray Love, Love & Distrust, 127 Hours
Average IMDb score: 5.7
In Howl he played Allen Ginsberg, in a biopic that co-stars Jon Hamm and Mary Louise-Parker. And had a kick-ass cameo combo with Mila Kunis in the highly hilarious Date Night. A bad film rated 4.2 on IMDb Shadows and Lies, a small role in the lovely but critically panned Eat Pray Love, a part in the omnibus Love & Distrust that also features RDJ and RPatz. And of course his best work to date as Aron Ralston in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours.

2011 (Five movies)
Movies: The Green Hornet, Your Highness, The Broken Tower, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Sal
Average IMDb score: 5.8
He did an uncredited yet memorable cameo as Crystal Clear in The Green Hornet. Followed his Oscar nom with the terrible Your Highness that features a Natalie Portman butt-double. Directed and starred in  The Broken Tower, starred in his biggest movie since Spider-Man 3--Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and written, directed and co-starred in Sal, currently 4.6 at IMDb.


2012 (Six movies)
Movies: About Cherry, The Iceman, Spring Breakers, The Letter, Tar, Maladies
Average IMDb score: 5.3
I was actually intrigued by the look of About Cherry but eventually I completely ignored it. The Iceman was decent but Franco could easily be replaced by anyone else. Spring Breakers is the shit. He's in most critics' choice for best supporting actor nom. And who could actually blamed a film with two pre-KFed Britney Spears songs? Tar looked promising with Jessica Chastain and Mila Kunis in the mix too.

2013 (Seven movies)
Movies: Interior.Leather.Bar, Lovelace, Oz the Great and Powerful, As I Lay Dying, This is the End, Child of God, Homefront
Average IMDb score: 6.1
By the year 2013, we figured that James Franco loves directing. Interior. Leather. Bar was an experimental film directed by him. And so are As I Lay Dying and Child of God. To be honest, they were not that good. But at least James Franco knows how to make fun films like Sam Raimi's The Wizard of Oz prequel and the meta comedy This is the End. But his presence could make you cringe as well, like when he suddenly turned out to be Jason Statham's baddie in Homefront.

2014 (Thirteen movies)
Movies: Palo Alto, Third Person, Veronica Mars, Good People, Yosemite, True Story, The Sound and the Fury, Queen of the Desert, Memoria, Everything Will Be Fine, The Labyrinth, The Interview, Black Dog Red Dog
Average IMDb score: (released films only) 6.7
He cameoed as himself in Veronica Mars, he shared screen time with Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde, he saw himself in the adaptation of his own book. I don't know what to say with all these thirteen movies in one year. Only Eric Roberts has the time and energy to do this many films. FYI, Eric Roberts has 58 films dated for 2014. FIFTY FUCKING EIGHT. And that's not counting the shorts, TV series appearances, or documentaries.

Back to James Franco, I think he thinks that his job and his life is an experiment so he did all those. Don't forget, he's also in Comedy Central's Roast last year. And he co-hosted the Oscars in 2011. And he keeps on painting Seth Rogen nudes. And guest starring on General Hospital and The Mindy Project. And posting bed selfies on Instagram. And picking up girls via Internet. And did that hilarious PSA for Alamo. And giving acting classes with Jonah Hill too! God I'd kill to be in that class. Anyhooo, thank God he's not weird like Shia LaBeouf.

Your argument is invalid, he has a Walk of Fame star

Anyway, see you. I'm queueing Homefront now. This is like the filler episodes in a series, y'know the monster-of-the-week type episode until I get to review X-Men: Days of Future Past later this month/early next month.

The Not-Yet-Amazing Spider-Man 2

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy might stand as one of the best superhero trilogies. I'm still dumbfounded and puzzled as why would Sony reboot a trilogy so fine that soon with 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, just FIVE years after 2007's Spider-Man 3. And the fact that they added 'Amazing' in the title made me even more infuriated. The Amazing Spider-Man was an exact carbon copy of the original with a second-tier villain. Instead of bettering the first film, the sequel went Spider-Man 3 and Captain America by introducing multiple villains and setting up future films. To clarify, Spider-Man 3 was the weakest among the trilogy and Captain America is the most bland MCU film. The trailers spoiled EVERYTHING. I hated Sony for it. As much as I hate the idea of Spider-Man being rebooted I still need to see the film in its full integrity without spoilers. I only saw the first trailer and maybe looked at some TV spots. It was enough for me.

In this film, Spider-Man meets a new foe Electro and also gets reunited with an old pal Harry Osborn who's dying because of a genetic disease. While at the same time trying to juggle his own feelings toward Gwen Stacy and investigating his father's unfinished business. That's about it. Really.

My first impression about the film was it's definitely better than The Amazing Spider-Man. It improved but only for a little margin. The action scenes were well-directed and staged. They were one of the best things about the film. The Times Square set piece was incredible. Marc Webb seemed more comfortable and confident here. It shows because there were less awkward moments here. The second best thing was the cast. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Dane DeHaan was top-notch. I keep wondering what would it be like to have Shailene Woodley in the mix too. The charm and chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is what made the boring love story and the climactic scene works. If it were anybody else it would've flunked within the third second of the scene.  My main complaint was still that this Peter Parker is too cool. I always love Tobey Maguire's awkward Peter Parker. No hate for Andrew Garfield but I prefer Sam Raimi's Peter Parker. But I do love the wise-cracking, talkative Spider-Man. The movie felt alive whenever Spidey's in action. There's also an overabundance of nods and characters. There are little reference to future villains played by Felicity Jones and BJ Novak. There's also Chris Cooper as the totally unnecessary Norman Osborn.

The second is the villains. Jamie Foxx is nice in his role as Max Dillon/Electro but his character is annoyingly unfit to be a villain. Electro is not even a main villain because he's more like a pawn to Harry Osborn. It's like the awkward, nerdy version of Jim Carrey's Riddler in Batman Forever. Electro is also like the electric version of Doctor Manhattan. And the way he thought of his own villain name is simply ridiculous. Not to mention that he played a song during a fight is even more ridiculous. Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn would never have the same effect as James Franco's Harry Osborn. In Sam Raimi's trilogy, the transformation was so understandable because we were invested in the character already. Here, not so much. But Dane DeHaan is siiiickkk. But that hairstyle must die. Lastly, the FUCKING Rhino is only shown for maybe five minutes and it's at the end of the film! Pro-tips: don't show a film's spectacular last shot in the trailer and don't sell Rhino as the third main villain when the fact is the whole movie was about Electro and Harry Osborn. Another complaint, Hans Zimmer should go learn some music because the score reminds me a lot of The Dark Knight Rises and Hans Zimmer-produced, Ramin Djawadi-composed Clash of the Titans. And to the Magnificent Six, don't call yourself Magnificent when you're composing forgettable music. All I can say about the film is, it's a satisfying film and a good universe-building film but as a stand alone film it's lacking. In 142 minutes, the film felt short because the story was incoherent in favor of building up to future films. And there's also a misleading after credits scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past. As much as I disliked this film, I would recommend you guys to see this in IMAX. The Spidey scenes alone justify it. At least fool yourself to enjoy this film more. The Amazing Spider-Man 2: rated 2.5/4.

Three Most Overused Movie Quotes of the Social Media Age

It's not going to be hipster enough when you took a filtered photo on Instagram and you didn't include the right caption. This is the two quotes that must die because it's waaaaaay too overused.

"We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it."
Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), The Breakfast Club (1985)

And then insert some party photos with friends or just photos together with your friends. Bottomline, this is the ultimate weird/unique friendship quote. Seriously. Stop. However, noting that this film is from the 1980s it's pretty awesome for this quote to have a lifetime this long and is used by teenagers. But still, stop.

The next two is a combo from The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). That friendship movie where a regular guy befriends Emma Watson and a super awesome, cool gay guy. You know, right? Even if you don't know, you'd know these quotes. Wallflower might not win any major awards but it sure is a teen-cult hyper-quotable film.

"We accept the love we think we deserve."
Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Feel like hiding your true love life behind a quote? Then that quote above is definitely for you. Either for you who's in a relationship with the wrong person, or for you who's still not in one. Ultimate heartbreak quote.

Lastly,

"..and in this moment, I swear we are infinite."
Charlie (Logan Lerman), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Or usually paraphrased as, 'the only quote you can think of when you want to talk about a lasting  relationship'. Scratch that Breakfast Club quote, this IS the ultimate friendship quote. Fuck, stop already. You're not even using the whole sentence!

There are tons of other quotes but these three are the one I'm already sick of reading. So, stop. For your good and for others' too. But if you have other quote in mind that you're already sick of, don't hesitate to shout them out in the comments. I'll add em to this post later on.

For music, "first lemme take a selfie" is the biggest offender. I have never even heard the song. Call me anti-mainstream or lacking in social interaction but, no, I have no intention in hearing a song about talking a selfie.

Sorry for this sudden, unexpected ranting post. But we're still on for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 review later this week!