Arrivederci

Snap! In 5 days, it's gonna be Christmas; a The Interview-less Christmas day. Snap! In 11 days, it's gonna be 2015. 2014 was a sprint for me. I usually end up last on a marathon or any kind of run, but I ran through 2014 without my own realization. Early this year, I'm in Japan with my bro. Then 2 months in Indonesia. Then another 5 months in Japan then the last 4 months of the year in Italy. It has been crazy. And I am incredibly thankful. With this achievement, I'm not proud of myself. But I'm proud of my parents for getting me here at this point. I met many new people in Europe, interesting ones too. Though I expected to meet more Italians but Americans would do just fine.

Milan, Italy, Europe has been a dream; and I never want to wake up from it.

For this year-ending post, I'd like to review my top 10 most anticipated movies and see if my intuition is right about those films.

10. The Raid 2
It was ass-kickingly awesome and pulpy but for an Indonesian film, it ruins the essence of the nation a bit for me. The snow scene, although awesome, is still strange. But everything else is great. The chase scene around the city, bro, that is skill.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? No

9. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Mmm. Among the top 3 of the summer definitely. Might be the best film ever made about talking monkeys. Andy Serkis is definitely king of mo-cap
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? Yes

8. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
It was another money-based stupid decision. The book itself is pretty bad, and this movie doesn't do that much either. Jennifer Lawrence is great but the movie is doomed to underperform from the moment they decide to split it.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? No

7. Transcendence
It has its great ideas. But ultimately, it became only a star-studded misfire. I was hoping this to be Johnny Depp's comeback to reality. But no. I was really looking forward for this film to succeed.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? No

6. Gone Girl
Hell yes, this film is among my top three of the year so far. A perfect crime made into a perfect movie. The book is awesome, add that with Fincher, Oscar-nom-bound Rosamund Pike, and a better-than-ever Ben Affleck.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? Yes

5. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Sadly, like I have bashed in the previous post, this so-called 'defining chapter' is not good. In fact, this might be the biggest disappointment of the holiday season.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? No

4. Edge of Tomorrow
One of the most fun films in summer. This and Guardians of the Galaxy brought back the fun factor in summer films before it was uniformly Nolanized. Tom Cruise at his sci-fi best, Emily Blunt spiked up the badass factor.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? Yes

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
An awesome standalone film, but I have my reservations since it wiped all of the original trilogy timeline and Wolverine timeline. I loved X-Men, X2 and softly fond of The Wolverine, that's why. But still, a kick-ass film
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? Yes

2. Godzilla
Sadly, the charm of this film only exist on the first viewing. The second viewing exposes you to the brutal truth of how flawed the film is in overall.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? No

1. Interstellar
Let me reveal to you my top 3 films of the year so far. 3. Nightcrawler. 2. Gone Girl and 1. Interstellar. Need I say more? This film is a mindblowing sci-fi, a celebration of imagination, a testament in adventure and exploration and an important declaration of love.
Is it worthy of top 10 films of the year? YES

Well, so five misfires and five spot-ons. Not bad. But mostly because I did not expect myself to grade my expectations.

Anyway, I'm off to travelling around Europe. See you next year!
Merry christmas and happy new year!
Buon natale e buon anno nuovo!

Battles, Battles

I should be ashamed. I liked the first two Hobbit movies. I didn't think An Unexpected Journey is a bloated mess like everyone else claimed. And The Desolation of Smaug was beyond expectations. So, is it childish and moronic of me to think that I would be satisfied by the overly-lit, CGI-overloaded last chapter of The Hobbit, titled There and Back Again The Battle of the Five Armies? Of course not. But the fact that it was based on a 300-page movie should make you think twice. The last chapters of Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games are all split into two. Harry Potter 7.1 is one of the series best, Harry Potter 7.2 isn't bad but it didn't justify the splitting since it left out many things. Twilight were awful and the penultimate Mockingjay doesn't hold up with the previous two. And now they want to split a book into three?

The movie quickly solved the whole Smaug-trashes-Lake-Town affair in 6 minutes maybe, which is a total bummer and then moved on to setting the stage for the sub-titular Battle of the Five Armies. Thorin Oakenshield has succumbed to greed, betraying his own promise to the people of Lake Town, waging war with the Elves led by Thranduil and the men led by Bard the Bowman. He received help from fellow dwarf clan of Ironfoot but the real enemy is the horde of Orcs led by Azog the Defiler as an attempt for Sauron to claim Erebor for its strategic location to reestablish his power.

To be honest, the moment they killed Smaug before the subtitle comes on screen ruined the movie. It is the perfect example of the perils of splitting a book. I didn't quite like the movie. It was hollow and even at 2.5 hours it felt endless. The previous five Middle-Earth movies although 3 hours each, doesn't feel that long. The CGI are sometimes awesome but the artificial look of everything bugs me. It's distracting. Oh and I believe that Dain Ironfoot is CGI. Please someone confirm it, I find it really distracting to see the unnatural movement and the blatant effort to minimize his visibility from us. There are some unintentional humor too during what should be an awesome sequence: keep an eye out on Legolas in his own Super Mario game. Thorin is degraded with having a dragon-sickness that came out of nowhere. It's shameful for a great established character like him. I feel that this film became too contained. It never felt as epic as The Lord of the Rings. The battles were too much, and I usually don't mind. Maybe the thing is the characters were never established in the previous two films so that we have no personal connection to them. Even Thorin's emergence to the battle is really short and he went on to ride some mountain goat. And the Eagles man, it's getting really old.

The saving grace for the film is Bilbo. Martin Freeman did a very nice job. His last farewell to the dwarves gets to me. Ian McKellen as always. Richard Armitage, given the character he played, did a very good job too or maybe because we've seen him kicking all kinds of ass with his deep voice in the previous two films. Then the Dol Guldur scene is also awesome. I mean who doesn't want to see Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee (his stuntman maybe), and Cate Blanchett fighting off evil? Among the newcomers, I find Lee Pace really good as Thranduil, his fight scenes are awesome too. Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), this fan fiction, is also great, with Aidan Turner's Kili they make a killer fantasy couple played by more than able actors. I hope to see the Extended Version of the film make it really good. I never have the need to see the extended versions of the other Middle Earth films because it's already great for me, but maybe Battle of the Five Armies need it. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: rated 2/4.

When I Passed On A Movie (and a Post)

I have been reminding myself that I have made some irrational, rash decisions to go to the movies. But tonight it's not that moment. Tonight (it's actually last week) it happened again. Tonight I passed on a movie. It's a really rare moment. So, I decided to write this down. CLICHE.
This definitely could be summed into 140 characters and end up on my twitter but who reads twitter anymore? The correct question actually would be who reads my blog?

I can only remember that it was last year when I passed on a movie. It was November 2013 and the film was Carrie starring Chloe Moretz and Judy Greer. It was a correct decision. Spot-on. The film turned out to be bad and completely forgettable when I saw it months later. But today, I passed on Interstellar. It is a big deal, because it is Interstellar. If you remember my post last year, about my now 8-year tradition, Interstellar has joined that club three weeks ago. Yeah, so this year that tradition of watching the same movie twice Godzilla and Interstellar. But what Interstellar is going to achieve is far bigger than that. It was going to enter the three-time club. The only movie I watched three times in the cinemas was Avatar but it was technically incorrect because I watched it all differently. The first time I saw Avatar was in 3D, then 2D and then about 9 months after that, the Special Edition. This is a very strange post to my blog actually. So I'm going to justify it by making a real post, a self-indulging post which had not seen the light of day since February 2014.

This post is one of them. A failed post. Let me walk through you to my other failed posts. This post is inspired by one of my favorite movie blogs: TheShiznit. If you have the time, go take a look at that blog.

Title: The Plagiarizing Spider-Man 2 
Premise: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not the most original and inspired superhero movie. Of course. I was going to break it down almost scene by scene. Like how the first airplane crash scene was definitely a soft rip-off of The Dark Knight Rises. And yeah, I got that far.
Cause of Deletion: I guess The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not big of a motivational push for me to finish the post. I have so many notes on this but I was too busy at the time, and by the time I was free, it was already irrelevant. Like how the movie might be so irrelevant in the next couple of years.
Consolation: Do check out the deleted scenes from that lackluster movie that runs more than 20 minutes. Some of the scenes definitely improved the movie like a lot.

Title: Mean Post
Premise: 2014 has a lot of disasters. And an unfortunately perfect movies that accompany those disasters. I had two in mind, but now I can only recall one. When the Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared early this year, Non-Stop was the film that eerily has the same setting. I was hoping someone would do an inappropriate joke about how Liam Neeson should be on that plane but hey, look at Jason Biggs.
Cause of Deletion: Moral issues, duh. Look at that obviously self-aware planned title.
Consolation: I guess I discovered what a mean human being I am.

Titled: Rated: Wrong
Premise: I have seen a lot of movies and mostly got really excited by them. So excited that I was biased in my ratings. I've rated movies too high before, that list includes Edge of Tomorrow, Divergent, The Raid 2 and Furious 6. The only movie that I would rate higher is The Great Gatsby.
Cause of Deletion: I was going to do the whole revision of the blog which means at least a year's worth of review being re-rated. Lost interest.
Consolation: Regret and learning process

Title: Films That Sound Like A Joke But Are Actually Happening

Premise: The title says it all. The list includes Terminator Genisys (for obvious reasons), Jurassic World, Dawn of Justice, Ant Man, Shazam, the Star Wars spinoffs, and--let me prepare you for this--Jungle Book Origins. If future franchises are to be included, it's going to be the King Arthur shared universe and Universal Monster shared universe.
Cause of Deletion: It was never written actually. I just got to compile this list.
Consolation: Having the biggest laugh at Genisys and Jungle Book Origins, like Khaleesi in the pic there

Title: High Times at This Blog
Premise: Another selfish post about this very blog listing which post has the most hits. And that title is supposed to be a reference to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. What an epic fail.
Cause of Deletion: Lost interest
Consolation: I get to know my top 10 posts

Title: When I Passed on A Movie
Premise: You have just read the opening paragraphs of this post above. It's so bad that I couldn't continue and ended up doing this post.
Cause of Deletion: I was going to list all the movies I passed on but there isn't much.
Consolation: Writing this post whilst listening to Zimmer's stellar Interstellar score.

Blast from the Past

This month is a really good month to be a movie geek. Big news from movies just keep coming. Big trailers for anticipated movies also is keep being released. I'm going to rank how their qualities are though. Because, really, do you actually want a Terminator film with a subtitle as bad as Genisys? But let me kick it off with one of the oldest, longest-running movie franchise of all time.

Bonus: Bond

The new James Bond film is titled Spectre. The newcomers include Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Andrew Scott and Dave Bautista. While the cast is super solid, it is uninspired don't you think? It's like the Les Mis of James Bond films. Christoph Waltz has been the absolute Euro-baddie since Basterds. Lea Seydoux was a super hot super spy in Ghost Protocol. Monica Bellucci has been Bond-girl material since the dawn of men. Dave Bautista has been the henchman since Guardians of the Galaxy. Andrew Scott is the only wildcard although his work on Sherlock is proven to be crazy good. And that title, Spectre. Since Daniel Craig became Bond, the title's evolution has been like this: Casino Royale--classic Fleming title, Quantum of Solace--trying to be Fleming-artsy but failed, Skyfall--finally made an iconic one-title word, Spectre--let's go back to being iconic one-title but failed. But still, it's a Bond film. I'm gonna watch it anyway. Lea Seydoux is literally a goddess and Christoph Waltz is just super entertaining.


#3 Jurassic World
I did a red-alert post on this. I wasn't impressed at all. I was trying to be nice and accept it but I saw The Force Awakens and even fucking Genisys, they could do a good trailer so why can't you?? I'm putting this on the last place mainly because the original was my favorite movie and was my childhood and this new trailer stomped shamelessly on that vivid memories. Fucking CGI, man. Hey, if you're not ready with the practical-effect shot of the gate, WHY FUCKING BOTHER MAKING A FUCKING TRAILER? I was okay-ish on Safety Not Guaranteed, now I kinda hate it.

Best shot

CGI, practical or clay: this would still be awesome. (but don't go on twitter and say, yeah, that's just for the trailer--because actually we freaked out at the negative responses we got on our CGI)

Worst shot

Hands-down, worst CGI in a major Hollywood tentpole trailer in memory

Best line
"You just went and made a new dinosaur? Probably not a good idea."
Because it's true

Worst line
"We have out first genetically modified hybrid"
Because of what Chris Pratt said


#2 Terminator Genisys
Truthfully, the trailer looks solid unlike JW. I like Jason Clarke, I like Emilia Clarke. Arnold's back. The visuals look awesome. But what the hell is going on with the story? I know time-travel shit is messed up but when your headphones' cables were strangled you don't make it even more strangled. Even if you do, you don't shit on the classics. That's the golden rule. Emilia Clarke is definitely not Linda Hamilton, but as evidenced in Game of Thrones she could be a badass. I wouldn't pick Jai Courtney to be Kyle Reese, I would pick fucking Sam Claflin because he looks like Michael Biehn (who, lemme tell you, hate Terminator sequels). I'm gonna timehop one of my tweets that says the new Terminator should get Sam Claflin. And please get Danny Glover to tell Arnold that he's too fucking old for this shit. And if Arnold is back, why isn't Robert Patrick? Why does Skynet make Asian Terminators? I'm Asian so that's not racist. Asians aren't scary you know. You know what's scary? Robert Patrick in T2: Judgment Day.

Best shot

Was torn between Emilia Clarke or this. Here's the Terminator finally realizing 'talk to the hand'

Worst shot

Since everything's changed, now Robert Patrick is Asian. RESET!

Best line
"Come with me if you want to live!" If that was original yeah.
"What you're doing right now, it's the end of the war" that's (not that) awesome

Worst line
 "We can stop judgment day from happening!" 
Uh, why do you want to stop Judgment Day from happening? It isn't The Last Stand and T2 wasn't directed by Brett Ratner.



#1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Now, dear people who are making money out of ruining our beloved memories: this is how you do a trailer. It's everything you wanted to see in a trailer. It's gorgeous. It's classic. That crossguard lightsaber? Awesome. Daisy Ridley? Awesome. John Boyega? Awesome. Falcon? Awesome. Theme song? Better than ever.

Best shot

 First Falcon shot of Episode VII. Runner up would be that badass lightsaber.

Best line
"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The darkness and the light."
YES

Worst shot and worst line
NOT APPLICABLE


Prossima settimana:
il review per Magic in the Moonlight
o
mio giornale viaggio (is this perfect italian)