Just Letting It In

So, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is here guys! You can now browse the Internet in peace and you can stop pretending you need all those Star Wars-tie in products to buy, because you don't. You watched the movie, and the only thing logical thing to do is watch it once again. Recently before opening day, I wondered whether the movie would match the crazy hype. If it doesn't what would happen with the spin-offs and the sequels? But at least we can go watch it in peace because one of Hollywood trustiest directors JJ Abrams is on the helm. For me, he has never made a bad movie in his career. He even starts straight from the highly under-appreciated Mission: Impossible III. He was handpicked by Tom Cruise for goodness sake. The movie stars old favorites Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill as well as new generation of heroes and villains Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver and Domnhall Gleeson. Probably mild spoilers will follow.

The story is about a new threat in the galaxy led by the organization First Order which was very much inspired by the Empire. The First Order seeks a map to the now vanished Luke Skywalker which was obtained by The Resistance's best pilot, Poe Dameron. This map eventually brings new faces and old, Rey, Finn, BB8, Chewie and Han Solo together on board of the junk Millennium Falcon. They need to face the First Order and the villain Kylo Ren in order to stop the new bigger, badder Death Star called Starkiller Base from destroying the planets.

The movie is amazing. In terms of filmmaking, it is the best modern blockbuster I've ever seen. This and Mad Max: Fury Road is this year's best blockbuster films. Starting from the use of film, not digital, it has a very nostalgic look that is very fresh but also serves as a good continuity for the original trilogy. The creature designs, location shooting and set designs are very vital to this film because it is perfect. It improves upon the original trilogy and probably serves as a big middle finger to the blue-screen extravaganza of the prequel trilogy. Note to self: seeing this movie after a prequel trilogy marathon is a bad idea. JJ Abrams directed this film masterfully, he would get the respect he didn't get when he directed the Star Trek films. I'd probably prefer him to direct Episode IX rather than Colin Trevorrow. Rian Johnson is a safe choice though for VIII. What I like from JJ Abrams is that he seemed to learn from his tenure in Star Trek, he relied to much on nostalgia on that one (featuring the original Spock twice is too much) but here he kept the nostalgia to the minimum that it doesn't feel like the filmmakers are wiping the original's ass or being too meta like in Jurassic World. This one feels natural.

The cast is great! I was so scared that the newcomers would ruin the film but Daisy Ridley and John Boyega fit in nicely. Daisy Ridley is a scene stealer in her major breakout role as Rey. She could be vulnerable but also powerful, it's so good. Oscar Isaac is cool in his role, he's probably programmed to be the 'new' Han Solo-type character for this trilogy. I still need more convincing on this Kylo Ren character, in my opinion he doesn't belong in the Darth Vader-great category, but definitely better than all the prequel villains combined, especially that stupid General Grievous. Oh, there are also three stars from The Raid films making very brief appearances in this film. It's so good. Overall, this movie has the same beats with the original Star Wars back in 1977. The stakes are not that high yet, and the story is pretty basic. But it's the characters that draw us in the movie and make us love the series. We just need to get to Luke fast. And we can all agree that the Starkiller Base is pretty garbage right? It took more effort to destroy the Death Star honestly. Also, what's up with R2D2? Anyway, the movie is worth at least 90% of the hype. There's space action. Lightsaber battles. Family drama. Nostalgia. Many Force action. Cool effects. Great majestic music by the legendary John Williams! (Check out Rey's Theme!) It's a satisfying adventure that leaves you wanting more. Bring on Episode VIII! Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens: rated 3.5/4.


In all seriousness, do you guys really want the spinoff films? Because I don't. Am I the only fan who doesn't like the idea of spinoff films? You die-hard fans say that less is more but wants the spinoff films? Those spinoff films belong at Netflix or an HBO special. It should serve as a companion piece to the main events. But we'll see the first trailer for Rogue One and let's see where that goes.


Next; probably Creed. or more Star Wars.

Trailers Galore

2015 is ending. So 2016 movies are invading us with trailers. Like they chose the same week to release all that. But which one caught your attention the most? Which one made you cringe? Which one is just bad? These orders are based solely on my reaction to the trailer and the movie presented in the trailer.

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

I just remember the first one being a lot of harmless fun. And Megan Fox still being hot. It's a popcorn movie. I don't even care if they have Adult Mutant Wrestler Rhino in this movie. I don't even care about this movie. I just hope it's the same amount of popcorn fun.

7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter films. But as of right now, this film seems like a cashgrab for me. Even for author J.K. Rowling whose inability to move on from her beloved franchise has tarnished the goodwill of the legacy. Why is it set in New York again? I probably am going to see this on opening day but still, why doesn't anyone learn from The Hobbit films?

6. Star Trek Beyond

It's more probably the tone of the trailer that makes it weird. The trailer sells it as Guardians of the Galaxy-type film, while the visuals is basically the two previous Star Trek films. Given all the promises, I was hoping they were going with the exploration theme rather than JJ Abrams' action-oriented films. But the rebooted timeline films are among my favorites (I've never watched the old ones except for The Wrath of Khan), so fingers crossed.

5. Independence Day: Resurgence

I actually didn't want this movie to happen because the original film is so badass it doesn't need a sequel. But this trailer is pretty okay. It sucks that Will Smith couldn't/didn't want to return. He returned for the mediocre sequels to Men in Black, why not this one? Everyone's coming back. (I read somewhere that his character died while 'testing' the alien tech, that's a crappy way to write off someone). Anyway, I'm actually psyched. I hope Liam Hemsworth doesn't ruin the film.

4. X-Men: Apocalypse

It's a solid trailer, but it didn't have the same awesomeness like the first Days of Future Past trailer, which makes me less excited, but still very excited for this film. I just wished we could see more Olivia Munn though. The trailer is normal but I'm actually really hyped for the film.

3. The BFG

I'm very much so-so with the idea of a big friendly giant. I didn't have a childhood with the character but the movie looks amazingly gorgeous from the trailer. It's Steven Spielberg and his full team with legendary composer John Williams, editor Michael Kahn, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall and screenplay written by the late Melissa Mathison. It's so promising. Big Spielberg fan here.

2. The Legend of Tarzan

The poster for this film was hideous and this could be another Warner Bros misfire. But the trailer is crazy good. The music and visuals are on point. The cast is great--Christoph Waltz, Sam L Jackson, Djimon Hounsou and YESS, Margot Robbie! After Battleship I need more convincing from Alexander Skaarsgard but this movie looks rad. I hope it's not a flop.

1. Captain America: Civil War

This trailer is awesome. I don't really care about the heroes clashing scene with Black Panther, Hawkeye and all the B-grade Avengers but that last shot with Iron Man vs. Bucky and Cap is life. They could sell that as a 10 second trailer and would still get 30 million hits on YouTube.


Also looking good for 2016: The Huntsman Winter's War with Charlize Theron (yes!), Emily Blunt (yes yes!), and Jessica Chastain (YAASSS!) Whiskey Tango Foxtrot with Tina Fey and Margot Robbie (YEAAAH!) and Now You See Me 2 despite Isla Fisher being a no-show but Lizzy Caplan's in it now (YESS!). And you know we're all excited for all the big movies of next year. Yeah you two red cape and black cape. And also you, merc.

Spy Day

That title is a pun on spa day, or Spidey.. I'm sorry. That's not funny. Alright, so last Friday I had a spy day. I probably should stop saying spy day. So on spy day, I watched Guy Ritchie's stylish adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and James Bond's latest Spectre. I enjoyed both of them immensely. This has been a good year for spies. Kingsman: The Secret Service is still one of my favorites of 2015 and then Tom Cruise's Rogue Nation is also this summer's best. And the four of them remind me to get to the gym and work out. Unless Alicia Vikander or Lea Seydoux is also in the gym with me, going to the gym would probably be a dream.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E

The only reason I can think of as to why this movie flopped is that not many people care for this movie adaptation of a 60s TV show. Because, this movie is awesome. Guy Ritchie has been making stylish, cool movies since his first feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. His studio features are also amazing. Warner Bros has been struggling to produce a hit but I must commend them for keep shelling out quality movies like this. The premise is genuinely intriguing. A Russian spy and an American spy team up to stop a terrorist threat. Add that with great (and beautiful) actors at the lead Armie Hammer, Henry Cavill, and Alicia Vikander. Supporting cast include Jared Harris, Hugh Grant and the forever stunning Elizabeth Debicki. It's set in Europe, most particularly in Rome. What more do you need? According to Guy Ritchie and his writers, apparently so much more. The film has the coolest editing, score and soundtrack, costume design, and story. It's just the type of style you have come to expect from Guy Ritchie and I hope he can still maintain and repurpose it for next year's King Arthur. The score by Daniel Pemberton is amazing. The soundtrack is expertly chosen. The movie is a welcome attack of visual and audio that is gorgeous to enjoy. I hope Armie Hammer lands a hit though, he's actually the Taylor Kitsch in movies with two leading men (this and The Lone Ranger). If I didn't enjoy one thing from this film, that would be the half-assed romance between Armie's Ilya and Alicia's Gaby (I'm on first name basis yo). The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: rated 3.5/4

Spectre
I'm a big Bond fan. Casino Royale is royalty and Skyfall set the sky for its standard. Spectre has a lot of pressure to follow the $1 billion Skyfall. But right from the start, from the gunbarrel at the very beginning(!!), and the Day of the Dead sequence, the filmmakers have put us in the very top entertainment quality and they would gladly let us fall down gradually from there. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace might shy away from being 'your dad's' Bond film by doing a different variation of the gunbarrel opening, doesn't give a damn on vodka martini, and drinking Carlsberg. Skyfall tried to embrace the tradition back by numerous easter eggs and that mandatory Aston Martin DB5 cameo and of course the Bond tune all over the movie. Spectre is a full-fledged Bond film. The gunbarrel is at the very beginning, awesome opening sequence with women's bodies, Bond themes, shaken-not-stirred vodka martini, Aston Martins, mono-syllabic bad guy and of course Blofeld and his Spectre supervillain group which is like the white people ISIS in our modern day (is this racist? tell me if it is). The action is amazing starting from the nonsensical helicopter fight, majestic car chase in Rome, and the climactic MI5 maze. Best-directed sequence though is when we first see Oberhauser Blofeld for the first time in the Spectre meeting. It is intense af.

While all the action sequences, direction and acting are on point, the story might be a little unoriginal. It's like Fast & Furious 6 meets Star Trek Into Darkness. I hate to admit that. I hate to say that a Bond film copied Fast and Furious but it's true. Blofeld is the author of Bond's pain through Le Chiffre, Greene and Silva, much like Furious 6 baddie, who is like the big baddie who killed Letty and is the leader of this criminal organization. And Blofeld is Oberhauser but is Blofeld much like Cumberbatch's Khan is John Harrison but is Khan. Daniel Craig is so good at being Bond, that I don't see anyone but Idris Elba is worthy enough to succeed him. Damian Lewis? Come on, I'd be out of breath listening to him speak. Lea Seydoux is born to be in a Bond movie. She's so pretty but her romance with Bond is unlike Bond-Vesper, that when she suddenly says 'I love you' it doesn't make any sense. It's a good plot to see Bond in love again but I wish it would've been done better. And of course, I'd like to see more of Christoph Waltz terrorizing people and oozing menace on the screen more. He's just not given enough stuff to do and say. I hope they do him justice next time. Oh and Sam Smith's song isn't that bad when used in the film, because it fits the theme of the movie. And be happy it's not as bad as Madonna's. I'm giving 3/4 but I like this movie so much (objective reviewer point!). That Day of the Dead sequence alone is enough to guarantee a second viewing (which I will do). Spectre: rated 3/4.

Update December 20 I'm very much convinced that Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey or The Guest or Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb should be the next James Bond.

White Roses

I've been a fan of The Hunger Games films. I loved the first two books, but not the last one. I was hoping that the film could elevate the bad source material. This last film is still directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson and an array of amazing supporting cast like Julianne Moore, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks. I had an okay-ish expectation for this film and the promotional material for this film doesn't hype me so, so I wasn't all that hyped. And most importantly, the movie scored a day-and-date release date for Japan that hasn't been seen since February's Fifty Shades of Grey, which is weird. The next day-and-date is more sensible though, you know, that film about people carrying long lightsticks they use as swords.

The film picked up right where Part 1 left off, after Katniss' being strangled by the Manchurian Candidate Peeta. Katniss then swore to kill President Snow herself and go to the Capitol. But rebel leader President Coin still wants her to be the symbol so she went with the star team, which is a waste of talent, considering you really need to fight and these guys know how to fight. President Snow knows this plan and rigged The Capitol with traps and weapons ala his annual Hunger Games.

If you hear other fans of other YA complained about how the Divergent series and Maze Runner series deviate totally from the book, you won't hear that with this The Hunger Games. The films have been so faithful to the book that even a crucial moment that I hoped to be more clarified is just like in the book. But not that it's a bad thing, because as a whole this film is great. From the performance, I almost forgot how I love Jennifer Lawrence in her usual kick-ass, awesome-acting mode and at last, I'm sold by Josh Hutcherson's acting in this film. However, Liam Hemsworth should consult his Norse God brother on how to share the screen with acting greats like people in this film. Donald Sutherland is creepily good and Julianne Moore is just as good. I also loved the fact that more and more TV people are creeping to the big projects like this. There are Natalie Dormer and Gwendoline Christine from Game of Thrones, Mahershala Ali from House of Cards, Mira (I forgot her name) from Homeland, and Robert Knepper from Heroes season four. 

The action is great in this film and it is expertly paced. The visual effects is so good. This series remains the best produced film from Lionsgate in terms of quality. The CGI or green screen is seamless unlike Divergent series. The ending for this film is grim just like people say, but it has so much more meaning than your average kick-ass ending. We've seen happy endings too much and Mockingjay Part 2 is taking the logical and mature way. This put The Hunger Games way further than the average young adult films. It has a class-of-its-own. I guess put it this way, the trendsetter is always the best one out of the trend, like Harry Potter films are of another level compared to Percy Jackson and so is Hunger Games, compared to Divergent or Maze Runner. Especially seeing that this post-apocalyptic dystopian setting has exactly the same plot points in general. Still the decision to split the film might hurt creatively if not economically. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2: rated 3.5/4

up next fast
spy games Solo, Kuryakin and Bond

Double Feature

I'm supposed to write a review about Joe Wright's Pan. Not in the mood, but I can safely say that that movie is pretty pointless and has the worst child actor in a movie since The Last Airbender. You know which child actor has a better performance in a movie? Those two girls from the racist Owen Wilson-actioner No Escape and the girl from Ryan Reynolds' latest Self/Less. I mean, those two movies are not big budget studio tentpole and they did a better job casting a child for a movie. This review is long overdue. Once again I have shamelessly been a lazy-ass person who just eats, sleeps, raves, repeat. I saw the disastrous Pan early this month and finally saw the ensemble cast in the based-on-true-story Everest like a week later.

Pan

I love Joe Wright. Apart from The Soloist, I can watch his films like a hundred times. Atonement is awesome, Hanna is amazing, Anna Karenina is magical, and Pride and Prejudice is beautiful. While Pan, um, is none of those positive adjectives. Let's start with the good part first, Hugh Jackman as the villainous pirate Blackbeard is on his over-the-top scenery-chewing game which is necessary for this film. He's the only life of the film. Rooney Mara is great to look at but her performance is so bland I could be watching a picture of her and still get the same reaction. Levi Miller as Pan is unbearable. He only has two expressions for everything. Garrett Hedlund also churns out a laughable kind of approach to Hook. I was hoping the film to be like Jupiter Ascending, getting bad reviews but a fun one-off event of movie-going. Nope it wasn't. I even fell asleep after the obligatory Tinkerbell cameo. This is probably one of the worst movies I've watched in cinemas of all time. Even I didn't fall asleep during Fant4stic. I didn't remember the movie had any standout scenes apart from Hugh Jackman. There was a Smells Like Teens Spirit rendition that is so weird and so out of time. Probably that stands out. But not really. Oh Amanda Seyfried has a cameo, but I doubt anyone would remember from this forgettable film. I wish Joe Wright goes back to smaller movies after this. It's best to stick to Hook as your go-to Peter Pan movie. Pan: rated 1/4

Everest
This movie is based on an incident that happened in 1996. The movie is directed by Baltasar Kormakur and starring a great cast that includes Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright, John Hawkes, Sam Worthington, Emily Watson and so much more including the stunning Elizabeth Debicki. The movie feels real, like the feel of the mountain climbing is really there so that's a plus. I watched this movie not knowing that they shot some on an actual mountain. So I was hoping like obvious green screen all over. But then not at all. It was an intense experience. The cast are really good too. It's great to see Jason Clarke getting more leading roles because he can carry a movie. I would love to see more of Robin Wright and Sam Worthington though. The movie is also pretty respectful to the actual tragedy that killed several climbers without giving too much dramatization on the events. And the movie was really good in a large format 3D. Everest: rated 3.5/4


Next up quick Mockingjay Part 2

Misadventures

This was supposed to be a post dedicated to the pointless and plotless Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. But then I liked this one silly comedy too much so I decided to justify its existence with a short review.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

For me, the only YA series that actually mattered is The Hunger Games. I enjoyed Divergent too for its sheer garbage-quality yet starpower-appealing. The Maze Runner series is okay-ish at best. The first installment was fun but that's it. I mean, it doesn't interest me to follow the story further. It's mediocre, and the all boys cast is just not rewarding enough for me. The series stars Dylan O'Brien as the lead teen, and supported by Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Patricia Clarkson. This second installment has my favorite TV characters, Petyr Baelish/Littlefinger aka Aidan Gillen, Gus Fring aka Giancarlo Esposito and Missandei aka Nathalie Emmanuel. Naturally, I would tell you the plot of the movie from this point but I don't have a fucking clue what is going on here or how the writers define the word 'coherence'

Let's get on with the good part. The effects are top-notch, especially when you compare it to recent YA like Divergent series. It is clear that the high production value consumed all the energy to assemble a decent plot. The movie lives up to its title as the characters are constantly running away from something or running towards something or running both from and towards something. Yep, that's it I've ran out of nice things to say. It's easy to see that the film went on a very rushed production that rewrites must've been lost in the schedule. The zombie people also came out of nowhere. I remember jackshit from the first movie, but I'd surely remember if they mentioned people turning into zombies because of the sun. Bro, even Fantastic Four had a plot. I can at least tell people what the story is about. This film is just escape sequence after escape sequence without one uniting arc. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials: rated 1.5/4


Vacation
Surprised? Yeah this is the film that prompted me to do a double review. I don't know what happened to me. Compared to Scorch Trials, Vacation is a low budget comedy and also with questionable vfx in some scenes. However, what it has is a plot that's involving enough to make me care about the film. As Ed Helms' character Rusty Griswold said, this movie will stand on its own without having the audience know about the original 1983 Vacation, and it sure did. The movie works for me. It stars Ed Helms of The Hangover films, Christina Applegate from Anchorman along with stellar supporting/cameo roles like Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day, Michael Pena, Norman Reedus, and Keegan Michael-Key. The story is about Rusty who desperately wants to spend time with his family by going on a nostalgia trip to Walley World, a place where his family went on vacation 30 years ago. But like his family 30 years ago, this trip doesn't go well as planned.

If you've seen this movie, you'll see a lot of jokes. At least half of those jokes are too juvenile for me (I'm famously hard to impress with comedy). But those jokes work when they're delivered awesomely by Ed Helms or even Hemsworth. The movie is fun and silly, it's just a light entertainment on a lazy day. It is also moving and has some message to tell to families. For me, when my parents is trying their best, we should support them. It's pretty deep for a film that features Chris Hemsworth with a prosthetic penis stuffed in his underwear. The musical scenes also delivered the best laughs like during the rafting scene or anytime that Seal song is sung. This film might not be among modern comedy greats like The Hangover or Bridesmaids, but it doesn't mean it's not entertaining in its own right. Vacation: rated 2.5/4




SPPS. (super powered post-script)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is having its best season so far. Five episodes and all are confident, mature hour of television. The same can't be said for Heroes Reborn, which is everything opposite of AoS. On the DC camp, Supergirl is nice. At least the effects are good, and the characters are not annoying or fake, unlike The Flash or Arrow. But if Supergirl is going for the alien-of-the-week type format, I'm outta here.


Up next
I might skip Pan because I'm too busy. But I really wanna see that film.
I'm continuing my streak of watching (financial or critical) duds of 2015 in cinemas, so far Jupiter Ascending, Tomorrowland, Terminator: Genisys and Fantastic Four are on that list.
But surely will see Everest when it comes out on Nov 6.

Tokyo Flixin'

When I was in Italy, I looked at my American roommate's Netflix and it's filled with movies I really want to watch. TV series that I always want to watch like Parks and Rec or The Office are in the library, arthouse movies are also there, obscure foreign movies too. So, when the Japanese Netflix was launched last month, I was pretty interested. Then just this week I was doing stuff, and I opened Netflix's website and they offered free one-month trial. So, I accepted the offer and was floored with disappointment. Here are my observation about the new service.

1. Limited film library
The Hollywood movies are mostly the new blockbusters like Star Trek, Iron Man, or The Hunger Games. But mostly they're only a part of the trilogy or the franchise. Like only The Fellowship of the Ring is available among the Middle Earth movies, or only Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are available from the bulk MCU films. No Harry Potter at all. And the older films are also like that. I was excited when I stumbled upon Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior but then disappointed because the predecessor isn't in the library. The classic movies you can literally count with your hands, like Goodfellas or Breakfast at Tiffany's. Disappointment 1, Netflix 0

2. Handicapped foreign films
I'm so happy that there are titles that I really want to watch but might not be that interested to buy the DVDs or even illegally download. These are the foreign titles like Brazil's City of God or Almodovar's creepy-looking The Skin I Live In or Haneke's The Piano Teacher. The original Millennium trilogy is complete in Netflix Japan. HOWEVER, being a non-Japanese it's pretty hard/impossible to watch those movies as they are only offered with either the original audio or Japanese dub and solely Japanese subtitles. I don't know if this is a free one-month thingy or not but if it's not, then Netflix is heading for a very small market. Disappointment 2, Netflix 0

3. Japanese films are meh
I'm not a fan of Japanese films. But when I see Japanese films section, I excitedly search for Like Father Like Son, which is nada. And then the box office smash Eien no zero, which is also another nada. Even if they're available, it would be useless because they're not offered with any foreign language subtitles or audio. MEH. But if you can speak Japanese, I'm happy to tell you that some good films are here like Rashomon, Battle Royale, and the horror classics like Ju-On or The Ring. But I suck at Japanese so, disappointment 3, Netflix 0



4. TV series are pretty ok
The Netflix originals are here like Orange is the New Black, Narcos (which I just start watching), and Daredevil are here. But sadly no House of Cards. Many of my favorite TV shows are also here like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Supernatural and my high school times favorite guilty pleasure Gossip Girl. They bring back good memories but sadly some of them are not updated to their current seasons, like for example Homeland is only available until the 2nd season or Downton Abbey is also until the second. Stray thoughts: so many CW shows..

5. Documentary win
The docs are the good stuff in Netflix Japan, but I must emphasize that most of the potential Netflix subscribers are not doc hungry hipsters. But the titles offered are actually really great like Oscar winners or nominees like Searching for Sugar Man, Virunga, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Super Size Me, and Chasing Ice. Virunga and Jiro are currently on my queue.

6. Beasts Idris Fukunaga
Probably the most legit reason to have this free-one month trial right now. Cary Fukunaga-directed, Idris Elba-starring, serious awards contender Beasts of No Nation has been unleashed on Netflix from yesterday.

Update Nov 11: I have officially cancelled my membership to Netflix Japan, although during the last week they have added a considerable amount of movies to their library. Still not sold. In the end, the programs I enjoyed were the documentaries. Finally watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Going Clear.

In conclusion, Netflix Japan is doing something new by reaching to new market on the other side of the planet. Although they're not new to the streaming game in Japan (Hulu and some Japanese channels are here first), they should be offering something better. As an international company, which has produced numerous exclusive shows and now a ground-breaking feature film, Netflix Japan is not international-minded. They are aimed at Japanese people, while Netflix might pique the interests of others residing in Japan that are not Japanese people. Imma tell you the cold truth, I learned that Japanese people really respects the way of the olden days, new services like Netflix might not be interesting enough. Therefore, the movies and shows offered have to cater to not only Japanese but also international individuals residing in Japan. This can be improved by having at least English subtitles for every movie on Netflix. Otherwise, Netflix's bound to fail soon.

Summer Recap 2016

From Tomorrowland to Fantastic Four, summer has officially ended. There's some pretty good films and some bad ones. Surprises and also let-downs. Let's have the recap (finally!). Being late is never too late.

Top 3 Films
1. Jurassic World
This film blows my expectations. Granted, they set a really low standard with the stupid trailers but still the film is a fun, loud and a worthy successor to the original film back in 1993. Another summer, another big Chris Pratt movie. I really like this film despite its frequent silliness and plot holes and also blatant product placements. It has a light atmosphere but also seriously satisfying action scenes. This film is what makes summer movie going fun. Oh it's the only movie this summer that I watched twice at the cinemas.




2. Mad Max: Fury Road
Where to start.. How about the Fury Road?! Witness!! Quality-wise, Fury Road trumps Jurassic World. The dinosaur pic might be more accessible and it has a soft spot in my heart as I am very much like that Jake Johnson's character. Mad Max: Fury Road or as I like to retitle it as Furiosa: Fury Road, is the most intense summer film you could ask for. It is a stunning technical and filmmaking achievement. Filmed in the harsh environment of Namibian desert, the film delivered on all levels: visuals, audio, acting, effects. Story might be a little light, but man all the other stuff absolve it from its sins. Witness!!




3. Inside Out
Pixar is officially back. Not in their usual tempo, but still it is a welcome return to form for an animated studio that has been struggling to shell out quality original features. They went basic and touched our emotions with a story about emotions. The film is light on adventure ala Up, Finding Nemo, or Toy Story movies, but it fired on all cylinders on story. It is a smart approach that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Pre-adults like me would get the feels the most, especially being away from parents. Man, this movie is ruthless in draining out people's tears.

Honorable mention:
- Tom Cruise's latest, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. The movie is another achievement in the long-running franchise as it keeps the franchise energized with stunning set pieces and surprises.



Most Surprising Film
Jurassic World
One of the main reasons that this film nabbed the title best of the summer for me is the fact that it killed my low expectations. Usually I have this knack of predicting if a movie's bad or good just based on the trailers, and from JW's the movie has bad and disrespectful written all over it. It is an entry to a 22 year old franchise with a questionable rap of producing crap underwhelming sequels. But wow, this movie is great. Humor, action, thrill, perils, sci-fi, monsters all blended into one film. Also, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard is great in this film. A sequel to this would be a hard feat to follow. So far, I'm not sold on Trevorrow's ideas for the next one.


Honorable mention:
- San Andreas, the Dwayne Johnson-starrer disaster movie. A perfect guilty pleasure and highly entertaining (and also informative) summer movie. I didn't even expect the movie to be half as good.



Worst Film
Fantastic Four
Is it any wonder though? There are probably other bad films this summer, but I'm pretty wise to skip them and probably catch them someday. Fantastic Four is bad because it was tampered heavily by the studio. I want this movie to be good. Really I do. Fox doesn't care if the audience like this movie or not. They even released a B-Roll to this movie that contains what seemed to be great scenes if it were included in the finished movie. It's fucking heartbreaking. Let's hope the best for Josh Trank's career and also to future FF films.

Honorable mention:
- The disrespectful, shit-on-your-face quasi-sequel-reboot Terminator Genisys. Even the title should be considered as the worst of the year.



Next up
hmmm.. some posts
Planning to see The Intern, Pan, and Maze Runner 2 this month
Oh, something about Netflix Japan too.

And The Torchettes

This is the last movie in my super short summer slate. A Von Doomed (or Domasheved?) movie before it was even released, a film by Josh Trank and his studio people. It is a reboot of a short-lived franchise that started in 2005, Fantastic Four. Firstly, I was super happy with cast when it was first announced. I remember it being really close to either Batfleck or Eisenberg's Luthor. I mean, Miles Teller is awesome, Kate Mara is amazing as seen in House of Cards, Michael B. Jordan just came off Fruitvale and Chronicle, and Jamie Bell needs some proper recognition. The Jessica Alba-Chris Evans version of Fantastic Four is a pretty low bar to top, so I was pretty confident. Trank made Chronicle and he's the youngest director to have a film open number one in the box office. All seemed well, until principal photography began and we have the news that has since became infamous.

This reboot is set when Reed Richards are still in his pre-university days (I guess? They're still making potato electricity and baking soda volcano. That's like primary school tho). He met Doctor Storm and his adopted daughter Susan and was invited to bring his little science project to a bigger level. He is then joined by Victor Domashev Von Doom, a troubled yet brilliant scientist and Johnny Storm, the biological son of Dr. Storm. They figured out a way of inter-dimensional travel and because of bad decisions they got exposed to a strange energy that gave them powers.

Up until the reviews hit, I was giving Fant4stic the benefit of the doubt. But the abysmal reviews were released and boy, I just had to watch bad movies in cinemas to be objective; I watched Jupiter Ascending in cinemas and I enjoyed it. The buildup to the trip to Planet Zero was good. It had potential and it has a good foundation for a team chemistry. But then the reason for our 'heroes' to go on a trip was based on the notion that this was a drunk decision. That's super stupid. We still had some good sequences on the planet. And I think the film peaked when Reed was trying to check on Ben right after they got back. The film tried to keep the momentum up when we saw them being contained. But then everything went dramatically downhill after the time jump. The time jump was stupid. We missed them as characters and also chemistry-wise. Ben suffered from this the most. I mean, one scene in the 2005 Fantastic Four had more emotion than this whole movie.

I really liked the cast though. They are criminally underused and possibly underappreciated. Not only in their on-screen work. But the fact they still have to promote a film that they haven't seen has to be appreciated. They probably going to hate it but it is their job. The rest of the cast is good too. I like Toby Kebbell in movies I've seen him in like RockNRolla or even Wrath of the Titans. As Doctor Storm, I liked Reg E Cathey. I like him from House of Cards. I also like that despite the horrific and bashed FF films, the always-Doomed franchise is always the most progressive one. The old franchise saw the movies being the first superhero movie to have a black director and the first ever comic-book crossover. This film has a race switch in one of the lead characters (the 2005 films had Ben's gf also race-switched). Also give some credit to Josh Trank who at least we can see his effort to make a watchable film from the first half of the movie. The last battle at the other planet is so badly directed and framed, not to mention the awful CGI. I think the one that's dangerous in this kind of environment might be Simon Kinberg, he's the studio puppy.

Let's talk about the CGI and some of the movie's creative decisions. Why the fuck doesn't The Thing wear any pants? Why don't we have more insight to Ben Grimm's life? Why was he hitting his own name with a baseball in the trailers? Why does he play baseball? Why does the CGI so bad all over the film? Why doesn't Miles Teller show any sign of enthusiasm and spirit in the last battle? Why do we have so many deleted scenes? Why is the mysterious alien energy was green in color? Why doesn't Doc Doom explodes the team's head if he could? Why did Doc Doom die if his the big baddie? Did Doom die so the franchise could be saved? Is Toby Kebbell available for his comments? Why doesn't Fox give more money for the movie's budget? Why didn't Josh Trank exit the film when his vision was tampered? Why Why Why? I got frustrated with this movie so bad. At the end of the movie, I genuinely thought, that was actually passable. And then I got thinking about the movie and how it free-fell halfway the movie. It was frustrating to have an exciting buildup but jackshit materialized instead. Fantastic Four (what happened to the The in the title by the way?): rated 1/4 [this is so low, I haven't rated a movie this low for so long]

Let's add the rough cut version of this movie to the short list of movies I want to see but probably never would. So far the list only includes World War Z with the war ending.

Whenever you have a bad day or you're forced to do something you don't want to do: just remember Josh Trank had to do damage control for a film he doesn't believe in anymore. Look at his face. That's the I'm-willing-to-say-anything-to-get-paid-and-get-the-fuck-out-of-here face.

Summer Sweep

Sorry for being away for more than a month. Although no one seems to be counting or missing me (in this blog). I had a busy camp throughout August, followed by a week-long holiday in the capital city, and in the September, those were just me being a total couch potato or more accurately, bed potato. To be fair, I had a lot of part-time work too. So I'm not a total lazy ass bitch. More importantly, I watched a couple of summer films throughout the rest of my summer and here are their short reviewsss. Spoiler alert, I mostly liked them all like usual.

Southpaw
This film has one of the best leading actors of the year. Jake Gyllenhaal is having his own Gyllenhasance (you heard this term first here) following his Oscar snub for his intense performance in Nightcrawler. Also in the cast is Rachel McAdams in a very different role. She's also opting to challenge the typecast against her by playing strong women as seen in this film and also True Detective season 2. Despite strong performances by everyone, the film is bogged down by cliched boxing drama story. Even the drama dragged a bit too long. If it weren't for Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker, this film could be unwatchable. Antoine Fuqua's direction is confident, then again the story written by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter might be too heavy for the film in overall. Southpaw: rated 2.5/4

Inside Out
I'm so happy that I could see this film in the cinemas. I was already giving up because the film was only shown in its dubbed version, then I went to the capital city and all is well again. After skipping 2014, Pixar made a great comeback after a pretty lackluster couple of years (Cars 2? Monsters U? Anyone?). Pixar excels at bringing out emotions in their films so they went basic and made a film out of emotions. The film hits your heart even before it started, with the sweet short Lava. The actual film is unexpected, smart and funny. It literalizes (is this a word) the stuff you usually say like Train of Thoughts. The film establishes its world smoothly and then play along with the concept greatly. There's also a great breakout star in the character of Bing Bong who's responsible for waterfall-like tears that's hasn't been seen since the ending of Toy Story 3. The only downside is that the film feels isolated and isn't explored much. It feels small compared to most of Pixar films. It even feels small compared to Cars. That's my only complaint, but hey maybe they succeeded in making a small film. Oh fun fact: the film is retitled as Inside Head in Japan. Inside Out: rated 3.5/4

San Andreas
In terms of pleasure, fun and loudness, San Andreas is the best summer movie of the year. Erasing his WWE origins for good, Dwayne Johnson has emerged as one of the most reliable Hollywood action stars lately. At least three franchises has undergone 'The Rock Treatment' for the better (Fast & Furious franchise, Journey films, and--highly debatable--G.I. Joe films). It's just probably fair to give Johnson a studio summer tentpole film to showcase his eyebrows, biceps and acting prowess. He had Hercules last year, but that film is devoid of any fun. The film may not be as iconic as Roland Emmerich disaster films but it is fun in its own way. The story is the cliched-broken-family-reunites-in-the-wake-of-disaster as seen in 2012 most recently but that so-called "disaster film to end disaster film" is too melodramatic. Whereas San Andreas delivers on spectacle and intensity. It has an awesome one-take sequence with Carla Gugino during an earthquake. The cast is pretty cool too. Aside from The Rock and Gugino, the film has Alexandra 'baby blue eyes' Daddario, Ioan Gruffud, and Paul Giamatti. The film is awesome, that's all. You don't need to worry much about story in this kind of film. You just need to be entertained, and this film does even more than fulfilling your needs. San Andreas: rated 3.5/4

Spy

Spy is definitely the funniest movie of the summer. I'm not surprised if it eventually be the funniest movie of the year. Melissa McCarthy stars in the movie with a stellar cast that includes Jude Law, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, Miranda Hart and a very very brief Morena Baccarin. The film could end up unfunny like Steve Carell/Anne Hathaway's Get Smart which just borderline silly and stupid. What worked in Spy is that it is not a spoof, it is a comedic spy film, like Jump Street films but more women-centric. So the action scenes are treated as an action scene in an action film and the logic of the narrative too, despite it being a basic/template spy movie story with stolen nuclear mumbojumbo going to be used to bomb the world or stuff. Jason Statham went full comedy and boasting nonsensical lines is one of the many highlights of the film. Melissa McCarthy's tough ass lines are also hilarious. Rose Byrne once again proved that she has an overabundance of talent that is still untapped. McCarthy-wise, the film is not as funny as Bridesmaids, which I just watched right after seeing this film. But for 2015, it's a pretty funny movie and I hardly react that much to a comedy film. Spy: rated 3/4

Pitch Perfect 2
Girl power! This is the sequel to the surprise hit and crowd-pleaser Pitch Perfect which also is responsible for kids around the world playing with their cups during dinner. The film is now directed by Elizabeth Banks who did a pretty great job for a first timer. The film is basically the same with the first one. It is still widely unfocused. The story is everywhere. The jokes doesn't always work. Beca's character is so different and quite unrelatable. However, what it lacks is improved by the stellar acapella performances. Not only from The Barden Bellas, but there's this incredible German group Das Sound Machine who covers Fall Out Boy's My Song Know What You Did In The Dark. It's rooftop-blowing awesome. There's also a great sequence featuring great names in acapella music like Pentatonix and Filharmonic singing Anyway You Want It. And as usual the Rif-Off is greattt. There's also nice surprises from the smaller roles like Bella newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, the scene-stealer Keegan Michael Key and a cameo by Snoop Dogg. The film may not show up as anyone's all time favorite, but we watch the film for its pleasant atmosphere and great singing. Pitch Perfect 2: rated 2.5/4

Ant-Man

Marvel's Phase 2 ender is their smallest hero to date. Paul Rudd stars as Scott Lang, a con artist who's "drafted" to be next Ant-Man by the original hero Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas. The film took the DCEU approach by establishing that Ant-Man is already around. So it's more like a quasi-origins film. We all know the behind-the-scene drama which resulted in Edgar Wright's exit and eventually Patrick Wilson too. But I'll try to review the film objectively without that issue in mind. The film is Marvel's second funniest film so far (for me Guardians of the Galaxy is super hilarious), but not because of the lead actor. That credit goes to Michael Pena for playing a straight-up chillin Hispanic character that is rich and dare I say, embracing the stereotype silliness but with so much flair and style. I like Corey Stoll but his villainy is very much wasted in the film. I hate Marvel sometimes for not respecting the villains. I mean, the hero could be good if the villain is really cruel. The opening scene with a de-aged Michael Douglas is great by the way, I just had to mention it. I really like Michael Douglas' role as the mentor in the film. Evangeline Lilly is always badass. Overall, the cast is craycray. It also features Bobby Cannavale and Judy Greer in small roles. The film is imaginative in its visual but not so much in the narrative. The film isn't confident enough to stand on its own that it had to namedrop The Avengers and feature a fight scene with a B-grade Avenger. Ant-Man: rated 3/4

More to come
- Heroes Reborn rant
- Fantastic Four review
- Summer Recap

I need to absolve myself  for not posting anything on September. You'll be seeing a lot of me.

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

Editorial Stuff

Let's just point to the fact that I have done a shitty job at maintaining this blog this year. Let's face it. Bring on your criticisms. Bring on your hate. Rain down those hate on me!

......Like anyone's gonna.

I'm going to confess to whoever reading this. I love statistics. I love data. I like comparing them. This is what probably 12 years of school made me do. The only thing they successfully made me do. So, to justify how I fucked up at my sole and only job: keeping this blog alive, I'm going to compare and contrast with the previous years. Bear with me. I know, this is probably the worst post on this blog since the 2012 London Olympics withdrawal post. I mean, who has a hard time withdrawing from the Olympics? Not even the Greeks do. To my defense, it was not a withdrawal post, it's just a normal, self-absorbing post with too many Olympics reference in it. I have a picture of Kate Middleton to prove it on that post.

So let's do the comparing and contrasting thing.
So far, this year I have posted 21 posts, including this it makes 22 until the end of July. 22 posts means an average of 3.14 (a phi!) posts each month. I posted 25 posts in 2014 (avg: 3.6 posts per month), 24 posts in 2013 (avg: 3.4 per month) and 21 posts in 2012 (3 per month). So all that growth in two years have amounted to nothing! I'm a lazy bastard.
To my own defense, I have three drafts to date. With the one most prospectful is the one about my all-time favorite/guilty pleasure TV series Heroes, particularly the third season. I have a great title to go with the posts and I was writing it because Chapter III in Season 3 was way better than I remembered and also I was going to write the post based on Chapter III and IV, but then I couldn't get my hands on most of the episodes on Chapter IV so that post became abandoned.

Also, let's see how many movies that I managed to review up until July. From American Sniper until the most recent Terminator Genisys, I have reviewed 19 films until July 2015. In 2014, I also reviewed 19 films until July, starting with a very late Ender's Game review to the equally late Godzilla review. In 2013, I reviewed 17 films. In 2012, I reviewed 15 films. So movie-review wise, I'm actually doing good. Yeah niceee.

But how's my audience doing? 2015 has been pretty dull in terms of click. I, myself, is anti-clickbait, so you won't see my writing 'This Guys Did This To A Girl, The Girl's Reaction Is Priceless' bla bla bullshit. I stay true to my title and ideals. I'm not selling out. But that probably got to do with my viewers going down. But views aren't fair, because obviously the posts in the previous years have had more views. But this ain't a dissertation and no one's judging. Up until this post, the most viewed post in the blog is not even movie-related (the irony!). It's about me going to Taylor Swift's concert in Tokyo, it got 72 views to date. Not even 100. The second is my year-opener post, titled Benvenuto 2015! with 38 views. Pretty sad. In 2014, I have six posts passing 100 clicks up until July. First one is Divergent review with 334 views and second is Sherlock Series 3 review with 275. In 2013, I have three posts passing 100, with one indisputable champion, my review of Oblivion which surprisingly had 1044 views to date and still is the biggest one on this blog.

Bottomline, this is a bad year for this blog with me being a lazy-ass than ever before and also the crappy posts don't even get any audience. Well it's just the middle of the year, who knows it will get better. This is not a big deal anyway. My blog suffers clinical depression and has been getting the prospect of abandonment since time immemorial. I just don't have that many stuff to do, so I keep getting back to this blog.

On a groundbreaking note, this post marks the first time ever since the very first post in 2009, that it has no image whatsoever. This year also mark a first non-English post, which was written in my native language Indonesian. Another mark is that this year is the first one that I wrote about a concert instead of a movie, which is the aforementioned Taytay concert. Pretty daring and bold 2015 so far.

Next up is still Jurassic World--next week!

How To Nurture A Franchise

We've seen so many franchise now. Every summer tentpole is a franchise, except for Dwayne Johnson's surprise hit San Andreas. However, we've seen desperation that calls old franchises to be revitalized in the new era. Like, Jurassic Park or Terminator or Mad Max. Some are really dear to some audience's hearts and it's insulting to us to see something valuable ruined for the sake of money. So, I think I've seen quite a lot to show those Hollywood exec on how to continue/reboot/remake/restart a franchise.

1. Continuity
Continuity matters. Like a lot. This problem happens in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They have stand-alone films and then an event Avengers film. They have different directors in it, therefore different vision. I really like Joss Whedon but he's the biggest culprit in this matter. I mentioned this one before, Whedon likes Black Widow/Natascha Romanoff in short hair. So, despite her being incredibly sexy in her long hair in The Winter Soldier, the hairstyle changes again in Age of Ultron. Also the costumes, being rebooted each time without any explanation, save for Iron Man because he's rich and he can change it anytime.




2. Admit Mistakes
If you made really bad movies in the franchise, man up and own it. Don't be lazy and just say these movies don't exist. I haven't seen Jurassic World but I heard that the movie disowns The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, which means: fuck you Trevorrow. Terminator Genisys recently did so as well, they disowned Rise of the Machines and Salvation which confused me from the first five minutes of the film. If they stayed true to Judgment Day, it means that the subtitular Judgment Day has been averted but why is it still happening in the backstory of Genisys. The new Judgment Day should be in 2003 as per RotM's storyline. But then Genisys moved it again to 2017 for no fucking reason. While I'm not a fan of RotM (I liked it because it still has a badass Arnie, the killer T-X and Claire Danes in it), I thought Salvation was quite awesome for bringing us to 2018 during the actual war.

The only franchise that owned up to their mistakes is the Fast and Furious franchise. They chose an ingenious way to do so, where they jumbled up the order of the movies but still making sense of them all. Delaying the events of Tokyo Drift to make way for installments 4, 5, and 6 is smart. Not only it brought back the original cast but also maintaining Tokyo Drift's breakout character Han. The X-Men franchise did a quasi-admission to their mistakes. They know The Last Stand and Origins was an unfortunate addition so they did a hard reset with Days of Future Past to erase that movie. However, it is still a shame because it means erasing the whole original trilogy and Wolverine's solo storyline.

3. Know When to Stop
Well, no franchise has known when to stop. Even Harry Potter which has a definite ending, has to be milked out with Fantastic Beasts and J.K. Rowling's inability to fucking move on. Yes, Rowling, it's not cute anymore for you to spill 'new' information about the wizarding world. Maybe there are some franchises that know when to stop, but they needed to be slapped with the hard truth when their movies have become intolerable and bad. No one goes out with a bang. Examples: The Matrix franchise (if you think Revolutions is awesome then you need to submit yourself to a mental hospital), Saw (I never watched any of it but pretty sure it's not even downhill anymore when it gets to installment number seven). I believe Resident Evil franchise will stop after the upcoming movie, but that's after the box office numbers have became really low. So many movies that should have ended a long time ago. For example: Indiana Jones franchise with The Last Crusade, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with At World's End, Middle Earth films with LotR: Return of the King, Transformers franchise with Dark of the Moon, Die Hard franchise with With A Vengeance (although Live Free or Die Hard is pretty awesome).

This is also relevant to those YA movies that has to split their ultimate chapter in to two parts. It worked for some movies but not all of them. Yes I'm looking at you two for now, Mockingjay and Breaking Dawn. Man, but both of ya still managed to make me pay for both chapters. Shit.

4. Stop Picking Up Old Franchises
Okay, how many franchises are built upon an original movie that happened 20 years ago? So many. Tron Legacy is the trendsetter I guess for I guess setting the record for mainstream sequel with 28 years gap. This one kind of similar with point number three above. Sometimes they pick up these old franchises because they think they still have some steam. Like Star Wars franchise. I love the movies but making them again after a perfect ending with Revenge of the Sith seems pointless. Even with J.J. Abrams as director. After the announcements I have been quite excited for The Force Awakens but do we really need Star Wars standalone films? Why does no one on the Internet object to this idea? Only me? Having some steam in the franchise doesn't mean it will be good. Gamble all you want but when it backfires, write down them checks.

5. When You Reboot, Do It Cleanly
Terminator Genisys is a reboot that was done dirtily. It wanted to be a new reset but it still wants to homage/drag the original films. The cleanest reboot is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy but that's not fair because bad movies that couldn't go nowhere prompted that reboot. Genisys still has some work to continue but decided to reboot. I guess the cleanest reboot for this matter would be Mad Max with this year's spectacular extravaganza Fury Road. No time for nostalgia because it's all fire and blood! Witness that movie! The other good reboot is J.J. Abrams Star Trek alternate timeline, which should be in the same case with Genisys. Abrams' films still provoked nostalgia with the late Leonard Nimoy showing up in the two movies and Into Darkness was basically a remake of Wrath of Khan. But at least it does not rely on the amazingness that was in the original series.

I hope this is useful for you, Hollywood. Take notes from this guy who should be writing his final essay instead of doing bad photoshop jobs and doing this.

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they just went and made a new dinosaur. is it a good idea?