Space Jesus in Tights

My number one anticipated summer movie of 2013 finally opened in Japan yesterday, August 30 and I dropped everything I had to do and took a two-hour bus to watch this film in all its glory in IMAX. Man of Steel is a super clean reboot of the most recognized superhero of all time from DC Comics, Superman. It stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe. It also has the one of the best supporting cast ever with Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Ayelet Zurer and Diane Lane. The film is directed by one of the most stylish/coolest/visionary directors in Hollywood, Zack Snyder and produced by the man behind the mask behind the camera of The Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan. The trailers looked amazing especially the third trailer and I was beyond psyched to see this.

The story is about Clark Kent/Kal-El's beginning before donning the suit. It started from Krypton with Jor-El and Lara Lor Van, Kal-El's biological parents. Kal-El himself is already the special one and must be saved from the planet's destruction. He was sent to Earth and found by Jonathan and Martha Kent who raised him as their own child. In his early adult years, Clark went around to find himself and the meaning of his existence, until some fellow Kryptonian headed by General Zod, found him and unleashed his plan on Earth.

The first two-thirds of the film might be one of the best approach to show the origins of a superhero. It was filled with all the reasons that Clark will carry while donning his iconic cape. Best bits comes from Kevin Costner's Jonathan Kent and a few from Diane Lane's Martha Kent. While the human parents gave Clark a more down-to-Earth view on how should the boy grow up, Russell Crowe's Jor-El gave him the very reason on why he was sent there and how to put the powers to a good use for the people of Earth. Jor El's monologue, as heard on the teaser trailer, is definitely the best lines in the whole film. Henry Cavill nailed it as Kal-El/Superman. Not only he has the body, but the face and the coolness. Brandon Routh has the face and the quirky Clark Kent but not quite the body of Superman. But we still have to see Cavill as Clark in the next film. Amy Adams is also great as Lois Lane. It is only a shame that they kinda wasted Perry White, Jenny (Olsen?) and that Lombard guy. Michael Shannon is awesome as General Zod, although not comparable to Terrence Stamp's embodiment because it is a whole different take on the character. One of the stand outs is Antje Traue as Faora who's very badass and given all the cool, evil lines by scriptwriter David S. Goyer.

My only complaint was the last battle of Superman vs Zod which was destructive in every possible way. We did get some cool scenes there but is the whole destruction necessary? Even now Transformers: The Dark of the Moon's Chicago battle looked puny compared to Metropolis' carnage. It was a sensory overload at its very excessive. One thing that must be noted is the absence of Zack Snyder's trademark slow-mo fights scenes. He did that with an animated film about owls but not a Superman film? Honestly I was a bit disappointed with that but in return we had a super gritty and brutal fight scenes, especially the one in Smallville with Faora looking super badass and that big Kryptonian beating up Superman. Hans Zimmer's score is amazing although sometimes lost in the overwhelming massiveness of the battle on screen. The docu-style is definitely new to Snyder and I must applaud him for trying something new. And that docu-style is a plus point too because it made the film distinguished from other normal superhero films. The look of the film is also cool courtesy of DoP Amir Mokri. Moreover, you just got to love the Jesus imagery in this film. And, helloooo: best ending ever, Clark! Definitely looking forward to Batman vs Superman or whatever it is going to be called. Although I have to suggest to tone down the destruction meter. I might be super-subjective to this film but who cares, Man of Steel: rated 4/4

Casting suggestions for Man of Steel 2/Batman vs Superman:

- As much as I loved Bryan Cranston, I'd have a younger Lex Luthor ala Michael Rosenbaum of Smallville. I've seen some posts around the Internet and I'd say yes to Jason Clarke or Jason Isaacs. There are some interesting suggestions like Jude Law, he could do it but I may need some convincing. But definitely not Cranston or Mark Strong

- Now, a role that would be perfect for Cranston is Commissioner Gordon, as heard in the animated Batman: Year One. That would be beyond great.


Coming in September: The Wolverine, Elysium, and a summer recap.
The Wolverine opens in Japan September 13
Elysium opens September 20
The summer re-cap should follow The Wolverine or Elysium

In the Dark

My first ridiculous movie-waiting in Japan is finally over! Star Trek Into Darkness finally opens in Japan yesterday and got around to watch it today! YEAH, SCIENCE! I'm really waiting for this film since the first Star Trek is a blast with all the cool cast from Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto to John Cho and Anton Yelchin. Let me remind you, I have never watch the William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy films or even the Next Generation films, except for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I even watched that film after watching this. So, I'm a purely new Star Trek fan. What got me really pumped for this film is the fact that one of my favorite actors Benny Cumberbatch is here! And also one of my movie crush Alice Eve is also hereeeee. And don't forget it got one of my fav directors JJ Abrams too! So perfect.

The story is that the Starfleet is facing a new, mysterious villain named John Harrison bombed London and attacked the headquarters. Captain Kirk and his crew of the USS Enterprise begins a manhunt to search for this John Harrison and planning to run this bastard down. As always, Captain Kirk is aided by his friend Spock and the great crew of USS Enterprise along with newcomer Carol Marcus.

God, definitely Star Trek Into Darkness is one of this summer's best! The action is top-notch, the effects is crazy great, the cast is amazinggg. I actually have never seen Chris Pine this good in any other film. I wished they gave Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana and Alice Eve more things to do. But love it. I love Alice Eve here and not just because she had that scene. She's just irresistible as always since She's Out of My League. Benedict is definitely a scene-stealer if you had not seen Sherlock before, but for me he's not a scene-stealer, he's so good. I like Zachary Quinto's portrayal of Spock too. I loved it, because finally his Sylar image from Heroes is gone with this role. Despite sharing similarities with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, this film has its own strength to differentiate itself from the former like Captain Kirk's story arc, which is definitely well-made. For the story in a whole, it has some questionable plot holes. But I'm willing to see past through it, that's for the guys at CinemaSins to pick on. Granted, the film would be more interesting to watch if we're a fan. This film is like Skyfall to the Bond series, full of homage and Easter Eggs. But the film's very satisfying and really worth the price of admission. Loved it, and would've loved it more if I didn't have to wait for 4 months. Even those guys at ScreenJunkies had already released their Honest Trailer version before I watched this. Even iTunes already has an early release on VOD. Shame on you Japan. Star Trek Into Darkness: rated 4/4.

*note: STID was just voted recently by die-hard Trekkies as the worst Star Trek film. This shows how ungrateful the Trekkie community is after having a film full with homages to their beloved series made. And that also shows how little the Trekkie community is in movie audiences. Star Trek Into Darkness is currently in IMDb's Top 250 and 87% in Rotten Tomatoes, which is the highest for major 2013 summer blockbuster film. Also in RT, 91% of the audience liked the film which leaves Trekkies and other haters in the 9%. Worldwide, the film stands 9th in 2013 highest grosser with more than $450m. So, in the words of Simon Pegg, "fuck you"

BONUS 1!

If Molly* was a hard 10, Stainer himself will give Carol a 100

*refer to She's Out of My League

BONUS 2!

On Ben Affleck as Batman/Bruce Wayne
Ben Affleck isn't the worst choice to play this, but he's certainly not the one in people's minds. I actually find myself accepting although I rather have someone else play the role. One thing for sure, Ben Affleck as Batman is so much better than Ryan Gosling as Batman. My personal pick? Max Martini of Pacific Rim, who is more fitting to the Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns comics. Josh Brolin is a great choice too and if they want it a little younger, they can definitely go with Jensen Ackles who had voiced Red Hood in the animated film. But, hey, let's give Ben Affleck the benefit of the doubt and wait for July 2015.

Next week: Man of Steel (finally)

The Sponsors of Your 2013 Eargasms...so far

Hello again, it's me again. I just don't have that much things to do. And I am currently obsessed with one magical aspect of cinema: music/score/soundtrack. For the past years people are being magically hypnotized by the power of music in movies like John Williams' iconic themes for Star Wars, Indiana Jones or Harry Potter films. This year we have many hypnotizing, addictive soundtracks too! Therefore, I present to you the greatest soundtrack/score track of the year! Ranked! With YouTube videos!

7. Lana Del Rey's Young and Beautiful from The Great Gatsby

This song is definitely the one you hum after coming out of the theatres after watching your favorite old sport. The song is a perfect fit for the film and the film itself uses this song's melody as the main theme. Beautiful. Nevertheless, don't ignore the rest of the soundtrack album. It has great songs from Flo + the Machine, Gotye and the xx. 

6. Hans Zimmer's What Are You Going To Do When You're Not Saving The World from Man of Steel
I haven't seen Man of Steel yet, blame JAPAN. But seeing the third trailer for MoS is enough to justify that this score is one of the best. I put this on rank 6 because I still have to see the film first. The rank definitely could change after I watch the film. There's a reason why Hans Zimmer keep making great score: he's a fucking genius.


5. Cliff Martinez's Wanna Fight from Only God Forgives
Cliff Martinez always has a knack for creating cool ambience with his electric score. He did it in Drive, Contagion, and even Spring Breakers. This stand out score is both a stand out in the album (that includes Vithaya P singing) and the film, accompanying the coolest yet most contained fight scene ever to be filmed.


4. Ramin Djawadi's Pacific Rim from you where it's from.
Awesome score for an awesome film. It's a super cool theme and it's really addictive because it's the Gipsy Danger theme everytime that Jaeger comes to save the world from Kaiju. Four minutes of awesome. Ramin Djawadi always makes great themes, he even did that for Clash of the Titans, isn't that crazy brilliant?

3. Brian Tyler's Can You Dig It? from Iron Man Three

This song is is a homage to the 80s cartoon show. It sounded campy, it sounded fun. Brian Tyler definitely made Iron Man 3 a better film with his score. He made a whole new theme for the hero rather than recycling Ramin Djawadi's rock n' roll theme like John Debney did for IM2. But this song is definitely the stand out in the film, along with the super cool credit titles. IM3 also has a kick-ass companion album with Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit and Neon Trees.

2. Hans Zimmer's Finale from The Lone Ranger
An epic track of almost 10 minutes that has everything in it. The William Tell overture is done amazingly both as the main melody and as the accompaniment for the original score that Hans Zimmer made. It's incredibly epic and the film itself is already a great adventure, add that with this it becomes a superb amazing adventure film. It's Zimmer's best album since Pirates 3 (not counting MoS yet)


1. M83 & Joseph Trapanese's I'm Sending You Away from Oblivion
The whole album is great. But my personal favorite is this track, because it has melodies from the track Starwaves and also the ending song Oblivion by Susanne Sundfor. Director Joe Kosinski tried to duplicate the success of using Daft Punk by using M83 in this film. It paid off, mister.



Special mentions to the use of Muse's Isolated System in World War Z and Skrillex's Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites in Spring Breakers. Also to Danny Elfman's goth/fairytale-like theme for Oz the Great and Powerful and a must-mention Michael Giacchino's super theme for Star Trek Into Darkness!

Wet Hot Japanese Apocalypse

It's super hot in Japan, and it justifies people to have an excuse to go to a cinema to have two hours to kill in a dark, air-conditioned room, or in my case, four hours. This week in strange Japan movie market: Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim and Brad Pitt-starring World War Z are released. So, Hollywood, if you wonder why a Kaiju movie failed in Japan, blame the market because in my experience, people watch Brad Pitt and zombies rather than awesome robots fighting '2500 tonnes of awesome' Kaiju. Anyway, this double feature is my best so far.

Pacific Rim

 Amazing. Unforgettable. Epic. Pacific Rim is definitely the best film of the summer. It has great characters, great action too. It's everything that you want from the last two Transformers film, it's also everything you want Tony Stark to do in Iron Man 3- to be in danger inside the suit. The actors are amazing: Charlie Hunnam picked the perfect film to leap from TV to film. Rinko Kikuchi finally gets that big role after her Oscar-nominated performance in Babel and don't forget the scene-stealing Mana Ashida as young Mako Mori. Idris Elba is uber-cool (nothing beats the 'apocalypse cancellation speech' as the best quote this year). Also special mention must be made to the characters Gottlieb and Geiszler and Hannibal Chau. Films need these unique characters! Also I approve Max Martini as Bruce Wayne in Batman vs Superman.

The story among the characters are the one that makes it for me. The relationship between the Hansens and even with Max the dog is great. Mako's story is also superb. As for the action sequences and story ideas with the 'drifting' and others are as you expected: to be not what you expected. IT'S SUPER AWESOME. Jaegers might be the coolest thing since Optimus Prime in 2007. All those robot controls makes Iron Man look obsolete. The fight scenes are staged greatly, with all the neon lights and the rain. Add that with Ramin Djawadi's epic score. It's just the best thing ever happened to cinema for a very long time. I love Guillermo Del Toro's attention to detail and creativity. In the end, I love the relationship between Raleigh and Mako--it's different than other films. That said, I actually don't want a sequel to this film. This film ended perfectly but if Del Toro and co. can make it great, who am I to refuse? Pacific Rim--two hours plus of awesome: rated 5/4 BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER SO FAR.

World War Z
It's apocalyptic film starring Brad Pitt. The production's so apocalyptic, we hear that they got their weapons props seized in Hungary and also got the third act rewritten by Damon Lindelof. In the end we got this super intense thriller that makes you hold your breath and doesn't give you space to breathe. Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane a former UN officer who gets to investigate the origins of the zombie outbreak. The film moves from USA to South Korea to Israel to Wales and along with it comes a great sequence of zombie horde running and attacking. Brad Pitt was great in this film. He's a great lead even if this kind of film isn't his kind of film. It's a shame that Matthew Fox's role got edited. And what's the deal with James Badge Dale appearing in many movies these days?

The film was great until the end credits rolled. The rewritten third act just didn't do it for me. It was great and intense yeah but for a film titled World War Z, that ending seemed too contained, too small-scale. The supposed ending was way better for me, more brutal and more 'World War'-like. [spoilers] The third act also had a plot hole or a forced heroic moment when Gerry just injected himself with the disease. He could ask the guys in the other building to ring the telephone so that the zombie would look the other way, or just utilize the phone to pick the disease to use. I was thinking that the film didn't end there. Nevertheless, World War Z was a quite satisfying movie experience. It's a different kind of zombie film and smarter one at that too. Marc Forster handled this film better than he did when Quantum of Solace. The film does not leave a room for you to catch a breath and it's so intense and heart-pounding, it also moves you. I can tolerate the third act although it would be far better to have a massive one. World War Z: rated 4/4

Next two weeks: Star Trek Into Darkness! Finalleeeh

Right Brother

Gore Verbinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, Johnny Depp, Terry Rossio, Ted Elliot and Hans Zimmer teamed up again after the third Pirates of the Caribbean film. This time they're bringing the adventure to the Western territory. The Lone Ranger is a modern adaptation of the popular radio and TV series. Even this title produced a modernized spin-off The Green Hornet which was already adapted into film by Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen. The production of The Lone Ranger was troubled, Disney shut down its production for a while due to budgetary concerns. But here we are, a blockbuster-to-be with the price tag of $225 million.

The story is being told from Tonto's perspective. He met John Reid in an unlikely situation and then John Reid and his brother plus a group of Texas Rangers were killed by a criminal named Butch Cavendish. In the meantime, the town of Colby is preparing a new railroad track to connect cities in the USA. However, the guy in charge Latham Cole might have something else in mind rather than just railroads.

For me, The Lone Ranger is one of the best movies of the summer. It's fun, it's thrilling, it's so full of action and interesting characters. While the story is quite predictable, the action and the story leading to its climax is awesome. As much as I hate seeing my favorite actor Johnny Depp in the same weird make-up in every movie, I find the role of Tonto really is for him. Well I didn't get to watch the TV series back then so I guess this is the mix of old-style Tonto and Captain Jack Sparrow. Armie Hammer is also born for this role. His face fits the mask nicely and the role nicely too. The other supporting actors are also great. Especially William Fichtner as Butch Cavendish, sooo good. Director Gore Verbinski treated this as Pirates of the Caribbean on the desert and it's supa great. The over-the-top action are top-notch. The intricate action sequence are amazing. Thanks to writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot, the ones responsible for the Pirates trilogy (whom Disney should bring back for Pirates 5 if they want to do it right). The music by Hans Zimmer is eargasmic. Easily one of the best scores of the year along with M83's Oblivion. Zimmer's take on William Tell overture is incredible, so creative and epic. The 10-minute finale might give you the biggest shivers throughout the movie. The film might start out high with the amazing opening sequence, and then its pace went down in the middle for enough character talk and origins story but then it went back up again and ended the film in quite a high note. And maybe the film feels too Tonto-centric, but we do get quite a fair share of The Lone Ranger himself. All in all, The Lone Ranger is actually Pirates of the Caribbean 4. It is the true sequel to Pirates 3 that never was, this is the right brother to Pirates series. It is a shame that the film flopped, maybe it's time to change the location from Monument Valley to someplace else because John Carter used this place too. If you're reading this, please don't believe the critics and judge the film by yourself. It's safe for me to say that The Lone Ranger is better than Iron Man 3, and you can totally hate me for saying that but that's the truth. The Lone Ranger: rated 3.5/4

If you're not sold, let me give you Zimmer's amazing William Tell arrangement


Sorry no McConaughey in this post, been quite busy. Next week, double feature with Pacific Rim and World War Z