PAPER TOWNS: MOVIE DISCUSSION

Paper Towns is yet another YA book to movie adaptation from 20th Century Fox. The book was written by John Green who also wrote the famous 'Fault in Our Stars' which was also adapted to screen last year.

I was pretty excited for 'Paper Towns'; mainly because I've read the book right before they'd announced that the movie was being made. So my expectations were really high with this one.
I finally got to see this movie on 30th of July 2015. And I'm happy to say that I was pretty surprised with I got. 'Paper Towns' is no 'TFIOS' nor does it tries to be, which is good. I'm glad Hollywood is not turning John Green into Nicolas Sparks, because all of his movies are pretty much the same.

First off, the acting in 'Paper Towns' was excellent. I can't think of anyone who bothered me. I really liked Natt Wolf as Q. He was more quiet than he was in the book but he's still pretty good. At first, I was a little worried when they cast Cara as Margo since I've never seen her act before. But ever since John said that she killed it in her audition, my worries started to fade. Especially after watching the movie. I actually liked Movie Margo more than Book Margo. I mean, they were pretty much the same but Cara made the character more believable for some reason. I donno what it is, but she was perfect as Margo. The actors who played Ben, RADAR, Lacey and Angela were all top-notch! Their acting were super natural which led to a 'Not so cliched film'.
As for the story, well.. It's pretty much the same. It's just that the book had more events occurring that the movie. Maybe because the movie makers didn't want a long movie. Which I totally get. But I really wanted to see some of the things that they missed out from the book. Like the Water World scene, the whole 'Naked under their graduation robes' (It would've made more sense for them buying the clothes at the market), and when Ben thought that the mini van was gonna blow. This would've made the road trip scene so much fun. I actually thought the road trip scene in the movie was pretty short. I wished they had more time.

I really liked the ending of this movie. It's not exactly like the book but I liked what they changed in the movie in order to make the ending even better. Because I heard that a lot of people were bothered with the ending of the book. Which I totally get.
In the movie, the ending felt more complete.. and I liked the the twist that they added in, because when the film first started, Q says that his miracle was Margo, then in the end, he said that his miracle wasn't Margo but his friends. I really really liked that.

My favorite scene in the movie would probably go to the pokemon scene. Pretty hilarious. And I liked when Ben teared up his shirt to cover up Q's bruise. I donno why I liked that. It just felt real to me. And I like real.
Oh yeah! And the soundtracks were pretty good too.

Overall, If you're looking for a tearjerker.. 'Paper Towns' would probably not be the right choice; because it's actually an adventurous coming of age story about teens founding out what actually matters in life. And to me, that's a huge necessity to add in a movie like this.


8/10

INSURGENT: MOVIE DISCUSSION

 

I was pretty excited for this movie for various reasons

1. I'm a huge Shailene Woodley fan; she's an extroadinary actress. 

2. I really enjoyed the first movie. It was surprisingly good. 

3. The trailers looked awesome.

But after watching the movie, I only thought "this movie could've been so much better if it were done better." This movie had huge flaws and obvious plot holes that were seriously unacceptable. I can't discuss them without spoilers so..(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Boy.. where do I even begin?
And yeah, that's probably it. These were the only things that I liked about the movie overall. Because it has a huge amount of flaws. And I'm gonna explain them one by one..
First, I was really excited when I first heard that Naomi Watts was gonna be in this movie. I had no idea who she'd be playing but I know she's gonna play the part well cause she's a pretty good actress. But after watching the movie. I thought her character was so missed used. And they made her look WAY too young to be Four's mother. Jesus, can't they make her look a bit older? 


I'm gonna start off with what I liked about the movie first. 
-Shailene Woodley is excellent in this movie. Now , I'm not saying this because I'm a fan.. she's actually really good and thought she handled every scene well, especially the emotional ones. 
-It had a couple of good action sequences. I really liked the chase scene in the woods. Jay Courtney looked pretty scary in that scene.


Most of the acting in this movie were really dull. All of the actors looked like as if they didn't want to be in this movie. A huge example to that would be Kate Winslet. Man, was she bad in this movie. And the sad part was it looked like she did it on purpose. I don't blame her. Because the script was the main problem with this movie. Oh my god, some of the lines made her cringe and the plot was just really.. ugh. First of all, why on earth would Tris's  mom hide such a box in her family's house? Did she make a promise? did she know what the box was? It just doesn't make any sense. Now, the whole box thing was just a horrible idea to begin with. First of all, Why would the creators create such a box just to prove that divergents were so special? Why wouldn't they reveal that fact to the people right  away? wouldn't that make things a lot easier? And If the whole point of the box were to insure the fact that divergents are really that special and are the key to everything, why the f*ck  would you create a f*cking box that would take hundreds of divergents's lives just to open it? I mean seriously, did you see how many people AKA divergents had to die just to open it? It's just so f*cking stupid..  Were the creators like "Let's create a box that could kill divergents to open it just to reveal a message stating that divergents are special." GENIUS! 
Some of you may say that Jeanine was the one controlling the simulations, therefor.. she's the one killing the divergent and not the box. But when you think about it, she only did what it took to open the damn box. She didn't do anything wrong so it's not really her fault that she had them divergents killed. 
Oh yeah, and why do the simulations AKA tests looked fake as shit?! Wasn't the whole point of these simulations were that they were supposed to look real and make you feel like you are actually there? But most of these tests had buildings crashing and flying everywhere.. It looked super unrealistic and I didn't buy the fact that these divergents actually thought that the things that were happening in these tests were real. 
The tests that Tris took were just.. okay. It started off good but then fell flat instantly. I only liked the part where she spoke to her mom and told her that she felt like a curse and she didn't want to be divergent anymore. That part got me. I was like "Thank you! Where was this?!" But unfortunately that was the only believable test that she had to take so.. bummer. The final test where Tris had to fight againts herself would've been really cool if it looked good. Like ACTUAL actors attacking each other (Kill Bill style), but no.. instead, we get grounds breaking and walls crashing and shit. Ugh! Just WHY?! If there were no visual effects at all in that scene, it would've been PERFECT! but it looked really really bad. 
Another majorly bad idea was the device that scanned people's faces that detects which factions they were in and whether one of them were a divergent or not. And if they were, there would be a f*cking percentage on how divergent(y) you are. I was laughing while typing that last sentence. Because who on earth would think such a thing? If this were possible, why didn't this exist before? And does this mean the tests that the teenagers had to take were completely unnecessary? I mean, if such a device could do this, why bother taking the damn tests anyway? And how would scanning somebody's face tell you which faction you are in? It's such stupid. If you're gonna make a divergent percentage, at least make it a bit believable. I mean, the fact that Tris is 100% divergent just breaks all the rules. I was laughing during that scene; Because it's just like saying that Tris is unstoppable or is like wonder woman or some shit. It doesn't make you route for the character more because we can't connect to a person who basically has no weakness. Once again, SO STUPID!

I really hope that the last two movies are better or at least not as bad as this one. 'Insurgent' could've been a solid movie but the bad writing just trashed the whole thing.
 Overall, If you liked the first movie and haven't seen this yet, don't be surprised if you get disappointed it. If you didn't like the first movie at all then don't bother watching this one. 
I'm a guy with hope. And I'm hoping once again for the rest of the series to be less cringe-worthy.  


Rating: 6.5/10

Jurassic World Trailer #1 Discussion

I dunno what to think.

We first start out with Judy Greer's character talking to what looks like to be her children at an airport telling them to be careful on there trip to, wait for it, Jurassic World. Call me overprotective, but this woman is either evil or incredibly stupid; I would never allow my children go on a trip to a park full of dinosaurs by themselves. This movie was suppose to take place 30 years after the events of the first Jurassic Park movie. So, isn't she a little bit concerned about that?

And then we finally get to see the first water-dinosaur which we didn't see in any of the past Jurassic Park movies. So that's refreshing. Although I'm a bit curious on what it is.. Is it a pliosaurs, a hainosaurus or a mosasaurs? What ever it is, it looks great.

"We have our first genetically modified hybrid."
That is the line that got me going "This movie can't have that many stupid characters." Seriously, why are scientists in these movies smart but do incredibly stupid things. I like Bryce Howard, but her character seems like someone I wouldn't mind getting killed.

And that last shot we get with the raptors set loose to chase Chris Pratt's character.. or, are following him.. or, umm. I can't tell really. What ARE the raptors doing? Because if it's supposed to look like them chasing Peter Quill on a motorcycle, then they didn't do a very good job. So I'm not sure about that what's going on there.


If I had to say something nice about this trailer, it's that it didn't reveal too much. I liked how they gave us hints on what the hybrid dinosaur is. I personally think that it's a mixture of a T-Rex and a Spinosaurus. How awesome would that look?!
I also liked that ball car thingy that's seen at 0:52 and destroyed at 1:55. And I loved the piano version of the unforgettable theme of the franchise; brings back memories.


Overall, I barely had a reaction to this trailer. It had a couple of things that I liked but mostly things that I didn't. I really hope the movie isn't as bad as the trailer. So, fingers crossed. *Roooaar*

Star Wars: Episode VII - Teaser Discussion

If you should know, I'm not a very big Star Wars fan; I've only just recently watched the first two movies (Episode IV & V) for the first time just a few months ago. Nothing in those 2 movies kept me excited to watch the third film of the original trilogy.. until I saw this trailer:

I didn't know it was possible for me to be excited for a movie even though I'm not a big fan of the franchise at all.

Despite the few frames this teaser offers, they're still worth talking about.

The first thing we see is John Boyega in a Storm Trooper uniform. Out of all the clips, this one surprised me the most. Now, I'm not quite sure if he's actually a Storm Trooper, but if he is, I think it's quite refreshing seeing a Storm Trooper with a face. The Storm Troopers didn't really have any personality in the original trilogy which made them quite idiotic, but seeing one with his mask off is quit good. They might have bigger roles in this one, or at least just for John Boyega's character. 


And then  we see a clip of this funny looking robot. I actually quite like it, and I really like the simple design of it too.
After that we see more Storm Troopers with their helmets ON. Is it just me or do they look a bit menacing? Does this mean they'll be better at aiming? Haha, hopefully. Or maybe it's just their new look, which I like.

What's better than seeing that woman riding that Landspeeder is seeing an X wing. I love the way these two scenes were shot. I'm not familiar with the actor who plays the X wing fighter shown in this teaser, but it reminded me lot of Luke Skywalking.
One of the things that I liked about the first two movies of the original trilogy are the scenes with the X wings; They always cheer me up. And seeing An X wing fighter and an X wing in a 3 second clip that's shot beautifully just immediately sold me.

And then we get this shot of what looks like to be the villain of this movie, walking in a forest and opening up his light saber. But not any kind of light saber; this one has blades in the sides too, making it look like a sword. Despite it looking great, I still don't get the technicality of that. Isn't it a bit dangerous for the person using that kind of light saber? He/she could chop their own hands off!
But hey, a light saber sword still sounds pretty cool.

But then that last shot of The Falcon flying around and us following it, was fricken fantastic!
The Star Wars theme + that single shot = perfection.


The reason why I thought this teaser was perfect was that it didn't overdo what a teaser is suppose to do.. and that's revealing too much. Heck, I don't even know what the plot of this movie is yet I'm excited as hell. And that's excellent marketing campaign.

I wonder what it feels like loving a franchise and then ending up directing its sequel. J J Abrams is the luckiest bastard ever. I love his Star Trek films, so there is no doubt that this is going to be a good one. But first, I need to watch 'Return of the Jedi'..

Does 'Interstellar' suck?

I'm sure you've heard of this movie.
When I first heard that Christopher Nolan was making this movie, all I knew was that it was a sci-fi/thriller with Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in it. Other than that, nothing.

I went absolutely insane after watching the first trailer for 'Interstellar'. And I love it when trailers don't reveal too much of the plot yet still keeps you excited.
All the excitement made me forget that I was about to enter a Christopher Nolan movie. Meaning that it's going to be a little tough to follow and will probably require serious concentration. Which it did.
So if you're thinking of watching 'Interstellar', prepare yourself.

After watching this it, I was surprised in how low the rating of this movie was on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that it matters to me, but a lot of people trust the critics which would affect people's choices in seeing this movie of not.

I'm not a Nolan fan boy, but I'm a fan; There are many great directors out there which I happen to admire very much. But admiring them doesn't mean that I don't notice the flaws in some of their movies. 'Interstellar' does have a few flaws (mostly just towards the end), and it's not my favorite Nolan movie. Regardless of its flaws, I still gave this film a strong 8.5/10 because it definitely deserves it. My God, this is a truly fascinating sci-fi journey you'd want to experience.

'Interstellar' has beautiful acting, gorgeous special-effects, a very interesting story and has one of the best scores I think Hans Zimmer has ever composed. The length of the movie is about 169 minutes long but I barely noticed it because it did not bore me at all.
With that being said, does it deserve a 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes? No, it certainly does not. I just don't understand how some of the critics could give such a movie a negative rating. Is it because it isn't Nolan's best work? Sure, it may not be, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a good movie. Or are critics being negative as a payback for the backlash with the Nolan fans when they criticized harshly on 'The Dark Knight Rises'?
If the last one were to be the reason, then I'd be disgusted with the critics.

What I'm trying is say is that we shouldn't judge a movie as a whole just because we didn't like a tiny flaw that it had. If a movie is good, don't try to change that fact that it's good; because the truth is that it IS good. And 'Interstellar' is not just good, it is great. But we all have our own opinions. I guess that's what makes us interesting.