Movie Review: Wonder Woman (2017)

Release date: May 15, 2017 (Shanghai)
                      June 2, 2017 (United States)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright
Running Time: 141 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $ 149 million
Box Office: $ 591.6 million


IMDB Blurb:

Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true identity.

Review:

5/5 stars

Diana, Goddess of the Amazons.

The words that best describes this film are “GIRL POWER”. I have so much love for the Amazonians now. I wasn’t their biggest fan because I somehow see them as girls of the wild and like female versions of Tarzan. The film portrays them as civilized women who despite lack the interaction with other people - especially men - and the exposure to the world beyond their island, they are quite educated to the ways of the people beyond.

The film is filled with beautiful women and girls. Diana is a hero who stands for what’s right and doesn’t care if she’s out of line. If she sees or hears something wrong she speaks her mind. Her goal is to save the world. Such an achiever! To stop the war, she needs to find Ares and kill him. Well that sounds simple enough too. If you set your mind to something, you’ll reach it no matter what.

I really want to know when and how she got her superhero name “Wonder Woman”. I’m too lazy to read the comics, I hope it’ll be revealed in the sequel though.

There was never a moment of boredom in the film. All conversations meant something and are always game changers. 

I really hate it when men die before the girls. It seems really unfair for me. Steve was great, Steve was hot too. I mean come on, Chris Pine, hello! His sacrifice gave Diana the push she needed and unleashed her full power. So the plot for the first film was in order for someone to be completely strong, the factor that makes them weak must be removed. There’s just no words for this film. It’s the best. Gal was the perfect Wonder Woman, she did a really great job even though she was pregnant during shooting. This has been one of my most anticipated films of 2017 and it did not disappoint.

Movie Review: Hidden Figures (2016)

Release date: December 10, 2016
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Director: Theodore Melfi
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae
Running Time: 127 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $ 25 million
Box Office: $ 224.2 million

In 1961, discrimination towards colored people is still very strong. Three women working for NASA as "computers" in Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia  strive to prove themselves worthy of a higher position and that knowledge knows no color.

Katherine, a mathematician, later gets assigned to assist the Space Task Group because of her skills in analytic geometry. Mary, an aspiring engineer wants to work as an engineer in NASA but can't because she lacks a requirement which is to graduate in an all-white college. Dorothy who acts as a supervisor in their office but isn't given the official title.

The story revolves around these three women and showcases how difficult their life were at the time. Based on a true story.


Review:

5/5 stars

Meet the women who changed the course of history for the entire United States of America.

This movie was very touching, the way women were treated in the past, even though they are allowed to work the same jobs as men there are still some people who aren't very open to it. It's more worse for colored people. White people treat them as if they have a disease or something. Their don't want to share a bathroom with them, a coffee maker, others barely want to speak with them.

I enjoyed this film so much, this is a must watch for everyone. I'm not sure children will enjoy this, but highschoolers surely will.

Movie Review: Barbie: Video Game Hero

Movie Trailer

Release date: February 1, 2017

Cast: Erica Lindbeck, Siena Bohn, Shannon Chan-Kent

Barbie is a video game designer and she’s making her own game called “Cupcake Cavern” with her friends and her sister Chelsea helping her in testing out the game. While playing Cupcake Cavern with her friends, they find that there’s a glitch and they can’t finish the game. 

Taking a break from the game and trying to figure out how to fix it, Barbie’s tablet keeps on beeping until she picks it up. When the screen tuned on, Cutie - the tutorial or video game narrator - came up and asked if Barbie would like to play the game. When Barbie pressed “Yes”, she was instantly sucked into the game. Cutie tells her that there’s a virus spreading and they’re taking over the game. Barbie must win all levels of the game to save everyone and fix the game.

Review:

If all the other characters and the design of the virus weren’t cute, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie. But that’s a Barbie film for you, there’s always that cute character. The story line isn’t that good, but then again this is a kids movie so it shouldn’t be complicated. It was pretty basic, there were no plot twists, there was only one point of view. Reading other people’s comments, they agreed about the decrease in the story lines and animation/design of the Barbie films because we always compare them to the Second Generation of films (Rapunzel, Swan Lake, Nutcracker). I myself also compare the new films to that generation but I really cannot expect much for the new films since the old films were based on classic stories and not originals.

The Barbie film franchise needs to release 2 to 3 Barbie films in a year and there isn’t much time they have to write a killer story. When writing a story they also need to consider about a lot of aspects where they can’t make it too complicated and kids the age below 10 need to understand them. They also cannot add characters that aren’t common knowledge to kids or professions that they don’t see everyday.

The animation was okay, I liked the idea where the game designs per level was different. In the first part it was a bit glitchy like a lag in the game, then came the simple looking designs, followed by the super high effects, and now to the hip game design like tiny pixels looking like Minecraft. Barbie’s main in-game character design was very cute and it felt kind of nostalgic. Her long pigtails and the shape of her eyes, there was really something about the animation and design.

I am a super huge fan of Barbie and I swore to myself that I will watch all Barbie films to my last breath. I will grow up with Barbie and I will die with Barbie too. I just hope they’ll be able to make better story lines. Does anyone know where I can send out suggestions to Barbie stories or if they ever accept any?

Movie Review: Split (2017)

Release date: January 20, 2017
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley
Running Time: 117 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $ 10 million
Box Office: $ 14.6 million

Three teenagers are kidnapped by "Dennis" one of the 23 personalities inside Kevin Wendell Crumb's body, a victim of childhood abuse with severe dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder). While held captive inside an underground cellar, the other personalities namely "Patricia" and "Hedwig" take turns in visiting and taking care of the girls. After their failed attempts of escape, the three girls are soon put into separate rooms.

Kevin's psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher began to notice there was something wrong when she started receiving urgent e-mails from one of the personalities who usually meet her, "Barry" asking for a meeting. Barry decides who should be in the light and who should be in the dark, but "Dennis" is starting to take over. Together with "Patricia" and "Hedwig" they are plotting to unleash a 24th personality who they believe will protect all of the other personalities with his super strength and speed, but it requires an amount of human bodies to sustain itself.

Review:

5/5 Stars

I loved this film so much, I'm not a huge fan of horror but this is not one of those films that involve ghosts so I enjoyed it very much. From beginning to end I was at the edge of my seat as well as holding on to the person next to me in case of jump scares. I noticed that everyone in the cinema was holding breath and no one dared to utter a word. Though there are parts that seemed funny to me because of how some of the personalities behave. The story was great though quite predictable, and if you listened carefully to their conversations then the ending wouldn't surprise you. Though some parts of the film really confused me and I did not understand what they meant, but those are just minor setbacks. 

 If you enjoy psycho thrillers, then this movie is for you. I highly recommend this everyone. Oh, and I will rant if James McAvoy doesn't get an award for this film.

SPOILER ALERT

It was very obvious that Casey wasn't going to get killed because "Dennis" said in the first place that those who have not suffered or those who lived an easy life were the ones who he was going to hurt or punish. And based on Casey's flashbacks, though it wasn't shown, I knew she had experienced something bad in her childhood. The scene where Casey was about to shoot her uncle really confused me, or maybe a part of the film was cut because something malicious must have been portrayed (our country's cinemas are very strict about such) so it wasn't clearly explained to me. When Casey's father died, her uncle came up to her and asked, "you aren't going to give me a hard time are you?" That line confused me even more. I though her uncle loved Casey? Why would he think of her as a burden? And the last part when the cop told Casey, "you're uncle's here" and Casey just stared at the cop and never got out of the cop car. What was that? 

Kevin's body and the 24 personalities weren't captured and there was that guy in the diner who knew what Kevin was called in the hospital. Who was that guy? My theory is he was Kevin but since Dr. Fletcher mentioned that the body can change itself depending on what the person believes, then perhaps that man was Kevin but with a different face and body form because the other personalities willed it to look like that.