Anonymous

Brief catchup on other stuff I've been watching...

I rematched Star Wars I-VI in preparation for episode VII. I can't say much that hasn't been said by others. IV-VI are so amazing to rewatch and so fun. Amazing hero's journey and all the rest. I've been a Star Wars fan as long as I remember and still, few movies make me happier than these. I-III are still... disappointing. 

Marvel's Daredevil. Sooooo good. I thought the pilot was kind of meh, but I was soon persuaded. The acting is top-notch, the story is great, I love comics, what's not to like? Netflix did an amazing job, and I'm looking forward to them expanding their Marvel universe with the rest of the Defenders. Also, I would love to see them in the movies, even if it's just a cameo. Vincent d'Onorfio was an awesome kingpin, and he would make a great Spider-Man villain (remember the first story arc in Ultimate Spider-Man?)

Marvel's Jessica Jones. Soooooo cool. I couldn't stop watching. It was so dark and noir and felt more like a PI show than a superhero show. I loved the tone, whoever developed the overall tone and feel of this show deserves all my respect. The story was thrilling all the way through and truly exciting and scary and gut-wrenching. David Tennant was unreal, especially in the scene where he talks to Jessica in the police department. I loved how disgusting he was as a character. "You raped me!" "I hate that word." Truly despicable and the show did such a good job with him being a stalker/rapists/overall bad guy. I wasn't planning on watching this or the other Netflix/Marvel shows but it was so good I might have to.

I'm rewatching Freaks and Geeks right now because it's been a while. Man, Judd Apatow totally nails what it's like to grow up. I was such a Sam Weir when I was a kid it's almost painful for me to watch it--it's like looking at home video. Even better, it doesn't just focus on that. Lindsey is the main character and her struggle is different, more about finding out who she is. And the 'freaks' are all amazing, there is so much talent in this cast. When is Netflix going to do a reunion season? Come on!

Also on Judd Apatow, I rewatched Knocked Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin. These are like the perfect comedies to me. A lot of Apatow's movies are a little too long, but I love every minute. I can see where they drag and I totally get it, but I seriously cherish every minute of these and other Apatow movies. Not only are they funny, but they're so relatable and heartwarming at times and just all-around greatness.

Um, I watched Ted 2. It had its moments, but it't not the type of comedy I'd watch again. 

I'm keeping up with Flash and Arrow, both of which are phenomenal this season. Not enough people talk about these shows because they're on CW, not a major network, but the quality is very high. Totally loving them. 

Walking Dead has been great this season. The pacing is better than it has been in previous seasons and the acting is still on point. The pilot (I think it was the pilot) of this season in particular was fantastic, but much of that would be attributed to the script (it was a non-linear thing).

Creed (2015)

This was amazing. I knew I liked Coogler and Jordan from Fruitvale Station, but this was at another level. It totally felt like a Rocky movie, but not in an annoying or derivative sort of way. Every choice that Coogler made, between plot points in the script to how to shoot various shots felt like the best possible choice.

Most obviously, the long take. Man oh man. That was just gravy. The choreography and acting was already great, then they do it all in one magnificent shot. Awesome. Another camera thing I loved was when Rocky put Adonis in front of the mirror and told him how his greatest enemy is himself. When they are talking, both Rocky and Adonis's reflections aren't looking back at themselves, but right into the camera, right at you. And it works, it was so powerful.

I also love how Rocky was kind of broken and ready to die. It does seem like that without boxing, his wife, and his friends that he really had nothing left. That's why it was so beautiful when Adonis made him fight one more time. Except this time, it was cancer. This is another situation that could have felt forced, but it came across perfectly because that's who Rocky is: a fighter. He always gets back up.

Michael B. Jordan was amazing. I can't wait to watch the rest of this franchise with him, he couldn't have done better. At the end, when he proudly takes the name of Creed instead of running from it, it was so powerful. "I have to prove that I wasn't a mistake" or something like that was delivered so perfectly and really hit home. And Stallone deserves awards for this, he was as good as I've ever seen him.

Overall this movie was excellent, better than expected. It was really firing on all cylinders--script, acting, direction, cinematography, everything. Like Star Wars, it didn't feel like a cheap reboot, but a beautiful and natural continuation of the story.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

There has been an awakening...

I have waited for this day for years. New Star Wars! And it's good! Like, really good! I just got out of the theatre and I already want to see it five more times. So let's get into it. (DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE.)

JJ Abrams is the man. The movie feels a lot like episode IV, but you know its intentional. The story heavily mirrors that of IV, but it doesn't feel like a remake or reboot, it is very much a continuation of the story. And it is a natural continuation, it didn't feel forced. I had a feeling that Kylo Ren would be Han Solo's son, and it's so cool that Luke trained him. So sad that Kylo turned to the dark side, and Luke went into hiding. Kylo really feels like a scared, sad, confused character--and when Han called him Ben (for Obi-Wan) I almost cried. You can see Kylo's inner struggle, that there is still good in him, that he is scared he is just being used by Snoke (sp?).

I also loved the homages to the original trilogy: "Where should we keep him?" "Garbage chute? Trash compactor?" There were TONS of little references to the old movies and they were great.

Every character was amazing, except for Snoke, in my opinion. I just didn't like Snoke because we know nothing about him or where he came from, so I'm hoping we will see soon. Everyone else had clear intentions and were awesome, especially Daisy Ridley as Rey. They showed early that she is a strong female character ("stop holding my hand!") and continued that strength and badassery throughout the movie, but didn't beat you over the head with it, as many movies with strong female characters do. It just accepts that she's a badass and tells the story. I wish more movies would do that. Also, WHO IS SHE? Who is her family? Why is she so strong with the force?

I can't wait for the next one. So many questions need to be answered and I trust now that it will be great. So many loose ends need to come together and the next one should explore who Rey is, maybe have her train with Luke, find out what Finn's role is, and maybe find out who Snoke is. I want to talk about this more, but I want to see it a few more times first.

Sorry...

It has been a long semester. I got busy with midterms and projects and finals and did what I didn't want to do: start a blog and forget about it.

So, now that I just watched Star Wars Episode 8, I have to write about it. And all the other stuff I've seen in the past 2 months (which isn't as much as I would have liked.)

The Martian (2015)

I had pretty high hopes going into this movie, as I loved reading the book. While it struggled to deal with some of the problems that adapting a book can be, it did not disappoint in the slightest. It stayed very true to the source material, only diverging at the end to increase suspense and then create a more fulfilling conclusion. A lot of the book is Watney journaling about how he has a problem, has no idea how to fix it, then figures out how to solve it. This makes telling his story in a cinematic way difficult; you don't want to see a character writing everything down and just listening to him narrate. The solution was to sometimes show him thinking and figuring things out, and other times for him to address his problems to a camera. The latter worked better, as some of the quiet/thinking scenes may have been hard to follow for those who had not read the book. I would have liked to see him start out addressing the camera with what he has to do, then transition that audio to voiceover while he actually does the work. That said, the pacing never too slow to me. One thing I didn't like was the overly obvious use of body doubles when Watney loses weight near the end. You see Watney come out with a towel over his head, probably 50+ pounds lighter than before. Later, he puts on the space suit, which looks just as filled out. However, the overall movie was still powerful. It is hard for me to look at space movies in an unbiased way because I love the subject so much, but this one didn't seem to hit too many cliches. I also loved how it showed the entire world pulling together and rooting for one man to survive--showing how the world comes together in space, how we are not separate countries but an individual human race. Beautiful. AND THEY FOUND WATER ON MARS. What a time to be alive, people. Go see The Martian and encourage kids to be interested in space!!

Apocalypse Now (1979)

#28 on the AFI 100. This is an epic movie. Two and half hours of suspense and character development with surprisingly little action for a Vietnam War movie. I don't think I would say this is the quintessential Vietnam movie; it focuses on one specific Special Ops soldier's journey. Movies like Platoon, which follow an average group of soldiers, seem to be more relatable. However. Apocalypse Now was so well made. Everything flowed and the long runtime did nothing to bore me--I would even love to see it longer. It is especially amazing that it was so great considering all of the issues it had during filming. You can read about those online, but the one that really irked me was that  Marlon Brando, arguably the greatest film actor of all time, showed up to set overweight without having read the script. The script had to be changed to suit his weight, and since he was paid by the day, he kept on prolonging the writing process. I have to give SOOO much credit to Coppola for not only working with Brando and dealing with the countless other problems this production faced, but doing so in a way that causes this movie to be one of the best ever made. Truly an inspiration.

Memento (2000)

Wow... this movie is basically perfect. Also, #44 on the IMDb list. It tells the story of a man with no short-term memory who tries to find his wife's killer. That plot sounds interesting enough as it is, but it gets better--the movie is told half chronologically, and half backwards. The scenes intercut, differentiated by half being in color and half being in black & white. Many movies are told with a non-linear narrative such as this, but are told that way merely to hide something from the viewer. In this case, the viewer is subject to different parts of the story at the same time and is always trying to remember what happened 5 minutes ago--just like the narrator of the film. In this way, the viewer feels how the narrator feels; they share a common confusion. The non-linear narrative also allows for huge Shyamalan-esque twists to be revealed in the end. Truly, this is one of the most ingeniously crafted movies I have seen. The script must have been fantastic. One thing I didn't like (and don't read this if you haven't seen the movie): there was a shot of Sammy Jankins in a mental institution, and it very briefly flashed Leonard as Sammy, Fight Club style. This kind of gave away that whole 'Leonard is Sammy, and he created that character to get away from the truth' part of the story. However, it was so quick, that it would have been easy to miss. This is definitely a movie I want to watch again, though. It is kind of like the Sixth Sense in that once you know the ending, you want to watch it all again to see how perfectly everything comes together. I've always been a Christopher (and Jonathon) Nolan fan, and this movie amazes me. The fact that he created this masterpiece so early in his career is unbelievable. Next up is definitely going to be The Prestige.