Ghostbusters - Trailer Reaction!

So this trailer has been out since yesterday morning and I have watched it a couple of times just to make sure I was getting it right. Also, I looked at some of my favorite reviewers too to see what they had to say and I have to agree with them: that trailer is not promising.

Of course, most people are just against the concept altogether and are going to hate on it no matter what is shown. I am not one of those people. I actually do not even remember the original Ghostbusters, I was way too young. The only thing I vaguely recall is a baby flying in a green aura of some sort? Is that even from Ghostbusters? I also love the cast with a passion. Kate McKinnon is my favorite comic/actress since Kristen Wiig and they are both in this movie so I was very excited. I suppose I am also missing the nostalgic element that some people will ultimately tag on to that movie. For my part, this just seemed like a cool comedy with ghosts and my favorite actresses.

After watching the trailer though, I am less than convinced that this movie will be any good. For some reason, it made me think about Pixels. Or at least Pixels' trailer. The jokes were flat and cringe worthy, the comedy loud, the characters hollow and the plot seemingly under-baked. The trailer actually starts out great with a good pace and interesting "sequel" vibe. However, as the trailer progresses, you notice that the exposition is over the top and scarily obvious. The characters are unfortunately cliche and the actresses seem restricted to their usual bits. The standout here was obviously Kate McKinnon, because, DUH. She's beautiful, she's funny, she can do pretty much anything and her character seemed to be interesting enough. Obviously, this is just a trailer and the movie might turn out to be more fleshed out and original than what the trailer showcased. Unfortunately for them though, trailers are playing a major role in today's moving goers choice to purchase tickets for a movie or not. With the quality of some of the trailers out there and coming out of the marketing feat that was Deadpool, I feel like they have already lost half of their potential audience just by releasing this. I feel like people want to be intrigued by a trailer, they want to see quality, not quantity. I didn't feel like Ghostbusters achieved that and I hope they have something else in their back pocket to get people interested enough to pay money for this.

What did you guys think? Did you like it? Are you going to see in theater?

Power Rangers Reveal!!!

I had to discuss the below:

First of all, let me start by stating the obvious: I am beyond excited for this 2017 reboot of the Power Rangers. I have loved them throughout my childhood and I was a huge fan of the 1993 movie. I dragged my dad to the theater to see it dubbed in French. I am telling you, it doesn't make it any better.

Now we get to have a look at the Rangers themselves. And what do I think? I think they're bloody amazing. They look so tough!! DAMN! The first thing they talked about when releasing the photo was diversity. I don't think they had to mention it, Yay, you did a good job, do you want a parade? To me this group just looks like an obvious representation of today's youth. Not just because they are diverse but because they seem to be from different backgrounds, culture and seem to have very different and distinct personalities. Also, they look like they can kick ass with style and that is really what matters most. The girls look like strong heroines that could potentially be awesome role models and the guys are freaking hot so this works on every level for a woman like me! I can't wait to watch this. Also, Elizabeth Banks is in this movie and it totally satisfies the more mature side of me.

What did you guys think of the reveal? Are you excited??

Deadpool - The hype has been delivering lately

I haven't been disappointed in a movie I have dragged my ass to theaters for in a long time! The hype behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a lot bigger than it was for Deadpool, but still, you had expectations. They built the movie up so much with their incredible marketing and the plethora of short, very funny, clips they released. I knew I was in for a treat: Ryan Reynolds, superhero action, over the top, quirky comedy. This is everything I love.

However, after the first 5 minutes, I got slightly anxious as I couldn't quite adapt to the rhythm of the comedy and the flow of dialogue vs action. This is a very original, quirky movie and to be thrown in it was a little overwhelming for me at first. Thankfully, I got the hang of it after the first action sequence and I was hooked. There are many things that are just beautifully done in this film. The first is simply the writing. As they announced in the credits, the writers are the fucking superheroes of this movie. And that is very true. The dialogues were written to make you laugh, shock you, push boundaries and break codes of cinema. However, the performance by Ryan Reynolds was beyond brilliant too. He spends most of the movie behind a mask and manages to transmit emotions better than 80% of dramatic actors out there. The best thing about his performance was that those emotions were raw and truthful. He reacted just like any normal person would with very simple and primal expressions. I loved that about Deadpool. The random appearance and mention of Hugh Jackman/Wolverine was a treat. So was the reference to the studio not being able to afford more X-men.

Of course, all of these make for a super fun, extremely hilarious and exciting ride, but would have I enjoyed it as much should the movie had no substance? Perhaps it didn't have any. I mean, the premise was pretty basic and the story was quite cliche. However, two things, no three things 'saved' the narrative core of Deadpool. 1. the movie was not stretched out to be 3 hours long. It was the right amount of time to tell this story. 2. the flashbacks and original timeline made the story more interesting and complex. 3. the characters were all very interesting and fleshed out. I even cared whether the cab driver got the girl or not. In the end, it didn't really matter whether the story was complex or deep enough. We all paid to see a superhero movie and it might make it worse to try and convey a message with that sort of genre. Everything about Deadpool was beautifully violent and gory, hilarious and completely inappropriate, intimate and in your face. Please, do not take your kids to see this. Not because it's over the top violent or sexual, but because you will spend the whole movie trying to explain to them what "it's the only thing pulling out tonight" means. I had the best time watching this film and I actually was wrong about the message. There's a deep message in Deadpool: don't leave your trash in the theater, it's a dick move. Also I didn't know unicorns were a thing, I am buying one tomorrow.
This is totally a 5/5 cats!

The Witch - Salem's prequel

Good witch stories are hard to come by, as we saw with the Magicians! I quite liked the TV Show SALEM so this movie was right up my alley. I had heard quite a bit about The Witch before watching it. It was praised at several film festivals for a while now and I am glad I got to see it.

The first half of this movie, while being very creepy and dark focused mostly on this family who got banished from their New England village. You could believe that the time period chosen is cliche for a movie dealing with magic but I will always love seeing a historical background to a more supernatural premise. I feel like it anchors it in reality and makes it very believable. Having a huge passion for history and supernatural, this movie really pulled the right strings for me. It did help that the production design and costumes were absolutely stunning, I enjoyed the fact that they spent some time reflecting on the wilderness that America was when settlers from England arrived. You really understand the struggle and the anguish people must have felt when moving to this new and untamed part of the world. This is one of the reason, apart from religious fanaticism, that made people turn against each other. In any case, the viewer is graced with beautiful landscapes and scenery, really planting the decor for this story.

The characters in the Witch totally drew me in from the get go. Everybody's performance was outstanding, especially the children's. I found myself hating some characters within minutes and rooting for others in the same amount of time. I really cared about everybody's fate, whether I wanted them to die in agony or prevail. The fact that most of this movie is about a family's dynamic in this harsh environment is very interesting and makes the whole story so much more enticing. The casting was so good that the characters totally worked on every level. Catherine, the mom, was so creepy it was really easy to hate her. The dad was just cutting wood all the time, Once he looked like a half naked Jesus cutting wood. I felt like it was the way to relieve stress back in the day. There was no gym so I guess cutting wood was the next best thing! The twins were also the most annoying characters I have seen. I just wanted them to get slaughtered quickly. In this stressful, tensed and quiet environment, they were only a source of disturbance and cacophony. They also scarred and tortured that poor little goat and I hated that. Urgh those kids. Speaking of animals, there is a sweet little dog living with this crazy family and I tried to find whether the dog dies online and couldn't find any information. So I had to keep watching. Well, the dog dies, and I wish I'd known because I would have stopped watching. I fast forwarded through it though. I hate movies where animals are killed or in pain or anything similar to that. If you are like me, just don't watch The Witch. Thankfully, the body count was pretty high on the human side too so I was happy with the balance.

The music and sounds in this film are what really stood out for me. A good "horror" movie always needs to play with sound and silence smartly. I felt like they totally achieved that beautifully. There's not a lot of dialogue in the first part of the film and often there is no noise at all, which makes for a very eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere. I imagine this to be much like it was in that time period though. For me, it not only added to the creepy supernatural nature of the film, it added to the realism of the situation. If there was one tiny fault I was forced to find with this movie it would be the fact that the first 20 minutes were slightly confusing and left the viewer asking many questions. However, it totally hooked me so I am not sure it was a bad thing.
There are some very disturbing scenes in the Witch. One of which involved a nipple and a crow and boy, I had a hard time watching that! Everybody in this family basically went mad and I love how the magic is, as it is in most Salem related stories, a metaphor for settlers insecurities and paranoia induced by religious fanaticism and need for survival. Religion is bloody crazy, this is what I will take away from this film, The Witch is very much a focused use case for the Salem trials within the family nucleus. It left me wanting more and stay within the world and follow the rest of the main character's story. That's a job well done!

5/5 CATS!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - because I completely forgot to write about it a month ago

Like every curious person on this planet, it was my duty to go see this new Star Wars. Bloody Star Wars. Weeks, or should I say, MONTHS before it came out, I really couldn't bear the hype. I am all for sci-fi in every form and I would have been so excited for this movie if it didn't have the name Star Wars attached to it. Because of this, my whole Facebook feed was an unstoppable stream of Star Wars news and videos and interviews and images. At that point, I think I would have punched R2D2 if he rolled up to me (and I LOVE him).

I guess I wasn't as excited by the prospect of a new Star Wars and all the pre-movie buzz because I was never really a Star Wars fan. I was born way after the first movies and my dad was a lot more into Die Hard type movies than Star Wars to take the time to show me the originals. I think I stumbled upon them on TV at some point but found them so very cheesy. However, I fell in love with the Ewoks and I watched all the Ewoks adventures through their TV movie and their cartoons. Loved that stuff when I was a kid. The movies just were too intricate for me at that age. Then came the sequels when I was a teenager. My taste in movies was not fully fledged and I kinda enjoyed these new stories.

To be fair, at 14, I totally adored Anakin (Hayden's version) so I watched them all several times and imagined myself as Padme, of course. I think I watched them again in my 20s and I noticed how terrible they were and how cliche and cheesy and how the dialogue was meant for 10 year olds. Seriously. So really, I dived in this new iteration with super low expectations and a lot of irritation. The saving grace was JJ. This dude!! Sitting down in the theater and starting to watch this monster of a movie, I found myself laughing about 2 minutes in. And that was it. I knew I was in for a very good ride. It was clever. That's everything I wanted from a film set in this epic universe.

The Star Wars universe always very much intrigued me and I love everything about it. Jedis, chosen ones, epic battles, robots, intergalactic travels, awesome ships, interesting races and mythology. These were always great. However, I always felt like nobody took advantage of it. To me, the best piece of content ever to come out of this world is "The Old Republic" from Bioware. That's what I wanted to experience in this universe. I now feel like the movie side has caught up to this. The visuals were stunning and totally propelled you back in the great adventure that Star Wars is. Thanks to new technology but also brilliant vision, the universe came to life in an effortless way. I really wanted to live and experience that world and be a part of it.

Setting and universe aside, the characters brought life to a very good story. Even though we are just repeating a winning formula, I don't see anything wrong with that. To me, Avatar repeated a winning story but did it so well that it didn't bother me in the slightest. How many romantic comedies that have the exact same plot have been released since 1980? To me that's not even a point to make. The movie is continuing the epic story that was started before, adding some side plots that are very relevant and giving this one movie a villain to defeat. I love that they stayed consistent with the originals and are going to keep Kylo Ren long term. I really do not like the "villain of the day" format that movies serve us most of the time. That's why I really like Hydra in the Marvel universe and do not care for the interchangeable villains they give us in the individual movies. Apart from the evolving villain that we seem to have in this new Star Wars, the heroes and supporting characters were also awesome. And my favorite one was BB8, There is no way BB8 is not everybody's favorite character. I thought R2D2 was cute and awesome but BB8 was designed to overload this movie with cuteness and comic relief. I am not sure how many times the whole movie theater went "awwwwww" when he was rolling around. This thing is genius. Giving life and soul to voiceless characters has always been Star Wars' strength but they climbed to a very different level here. Chewy's conversations with Han were also brilliant. I feel like I am going to gloss over Rey and Finn but to me they were just part of a bigger ensemble that worked really well.

Of course, they're great actors, did an awesome job and Rey is now probably many girls' role model. And thank god for that. I am so glad that we now have a strong female Jedi at the center of this universe, this obviously makes it so much more appealing to me.
All in all, I have to say that Star Wars was my favorite movie this year and one of my favorite movie ever. I am quite saddened JJ is not going to come back for the sequel but I have hopes they now have a good idea of what Star Wars needs to be for fans and franchise newbies alike.

I didn't do a cat rating video on this one but if I did, it would get a 5/5 cats.

Terminator Genisys - At least it was better than Jurassic World

I went into Terminator Genisys with no expectations. I have never seen a Terminator movie, I kind of shied away from them as I was a bit too young to appreciate these older movies. I never can stand the pace.

After seeing Jurassic World, I believe even Jupiter Ascending would have looked good to me. First off, the acting was definitely better than in Jurassic World and I did care for the characters I saw on screen. I might have even shed a tiny tear when Sarah had to see Pops blow up near the end.

I knew nothing of the Sarah Connor's story myself so it was a bit confusing at first. I felt like I was watching Inception all over again. I tried to make sense of it all every time they were explaining the different time travels but I gave up half way and just enjoyed the movie for what it was. I was completely missing parts of dialogue and scenes because I was in my own head trying to figure this thing out. I am not sure it completely makes sense, but I was able to put that aside to stay in the moment and take in the action. I am still a little bit frustrated about this aspect of the movie though since I love a good storyline and chronology is one of the thing I look for in a story. I am a sucker for history and I am fascinated by dates. I sometimes pause shows or movies that use flashbacks so that I can think about it, make sense of the timeline and then move forward. The fact that I couldn't make sense of the timeline in Terminator was a little bit annoying but I am now going to search the web for answers and better understand what I just saw.

Sarah Connor's story might have been confusing, but her personality was pretty straight forward. Emilia Clarke is a fabulous actress and I think she did a great job here. She was never off mark but I found that she didn't totally embody the Sarah Connor I was hoping to see. I wanted to see badass. Even though she was somewhat believable, I wanted a more kick ass Sarah Connor. Arnold was great and nailed it though, which I believe he did back in the day too. I thought the younger version of him was phenomenal. Kyle Rees was your typical testosterone jacked army wise ass but he embodied it perfectly and I don't see anything wrong with having characters that stick to a successful recipe. John Connor was not likeable in the slightest, which I am assuming, was the goal. I think I remember watching something, it must have been the trailer, and seeing that John was a machine. I thought that was a bit disappointing to know this piece of information beforehand and I would have loved to have been surprised along with the characters. In this case, they showed a little too much in their promotional material and it ruined the best twist of the movie.

At the end of the day, Terminator is an action flick and at that it completely succeeded. The chasing scenes, the robots shootings, the hiding and pouncing. Everything was well executed and I was entertained by it all. Were they moments I rolled my eyes because it was cheesy or predictable? Of course. But it wasn't as obvious or annoying as it was in Jurassic World. It was well written for an action fare and the one liners hit most of the time. Obviously, it wasn't Avengers quality but I am pretty sure fans of the first movies were pleased with what they saw. Some people in the theater did definitely enjoy it more than I did. They were older, laughing at everything and throwing "oh!" "ah!" every time someone said something on screen. It was hilarious. I guess they were the right audience for it. I found Terminator adequate for an action movie and good entertainment.

Close to the end, something made me jump off my seat though. The hologram. The blue hologram. The blue child hologram. Mass Effect anyone??? I felt like they used the same voice too.

Jurassic World - A controversial view point?

I haven't read many reviews of Jurassic World but I have watched my "go to" reviewer on Youtube (aka Jeremy Jahns) and he didn't like it very much. I didn't either. I kind of hated it.


I understand that I might not be the target audience for this film but I like myself a good blockbuster with charismatic stars and plenty of action. I do, however, like good writing and good dialogue, too. I did indeed get action, at least in the last half hour. I remember when I first watched Jurassic Park, I was perhaps 6 and had dinosaur nightmares for a week after that. I obviously watched it again many times and it holds a charm that no sequel could ever attempt to match. I am pretty sure everybody agrees on that. Jurassic Park was an original, eye widening and thrilling movie with ok acting and the Blum. The comic relief was pretty exceptional and even though you could stumble upon some grotesque characters and situations, this was definitely seldom.



I found myself laughing at Jurassic World from minute one. The first piece of dialogue between the teenager (I don't even remember his name that's how strongly I didn't give a shit about him) and his girlfriend was laughably cheesy. The airport scene was even worst with very poor acting from the two brothers. I believe these two were what I hated most about this film. Their acting was well below par and their scenes were forced and lacking meaning. Their dialogue was flat and poorly delivered. Exhibit 1: the truck scene where the older brother talks about a time when the younger brother was scared. Exhibit 2: the tram scene when the younger brother talks about his parents splitting out of the blue for no reason. Exhibit 3: anytime the older brother creepily stares at young females. To be fair, the adults didn't fare much better. There was no chemistry between Pratt and Howard. Their lines bounced back and forth between each other without clear intent and even though Chris Pratt had a couple of good funny moments, they were extremely few and far between.

I laughed at these characters more than I laughed with them. I didn't understand the purpose of that French guy throwing French keywords at us either. The action was good however and as a monster movie, it delivers. They didn't give enough good material to Chris Pratt to work with but they definitely gave it their all on the dinosaurs' fights and chases. I cared more about the raptors by the end of the movie than I cared about any of the human characters. Blue was my favorite character in this film. He was a friend, a hero, he was a anti-hero, he was awesome. I believe Blue had more depth than any other characters in this mess. Was it the intent? I will be fair, this movie made me care about the animals and about the dinosaurs, as a Jurassic Park sequel should. I was sad to see some of them die and I was on their side the whole time. They did manage to make me feel something and I am happy to have been emotionally involved somehow in this movie. However, I am an animal lover and I wonder if this might have only happened because of my personality. What if I didn't give a crap about animals (dear Lord.)? Would I have found any redeeming features to this movie? Probably not. Wait. The hamster ball was pretty sick. Overall, the park's attractions were impressive and were looking awesome. But then again, it did make me feel like I was watching a live stream of Sea World and I wanted to punch everybody on screen. I experienced a whole lot of contradictory emotions watching Jurassic World. Just one additional side note, anybody else found the crowd rushing towards to Jeep backing up in a corner SO fake and weird? They could have made such a better film, this looked rushed and lazy. I do not tolerate lazy.

Magic Mike XXL trailer - You're Welcome

I mean, come on! These boys are nice. I watched the first movie only once so I am not sure I consider myself a fan of either the genre or the film itself but I remember it being good entertainment and offering good visuals, if I dare say.
As it is the Hollywood habit, we get a sequel to these dancing, naked, oily dudes and apart from doubting the relevance of the story in this, I am not complaining. The trailer shows very little of what the movie is actually going to be about and I am sad that Matthew isn't going to be part of this new Magic Mike. However, what it showed concerned me slightly. Let's put the money shots of the bare chested hunks aside, I felt like I was watching a trailer for Footloose meets You Got Served. I don't know. I get that they are going to a convention and will take part in some sort of a competition but it seems all too "break dancing battle" to me. There is one particular shot that made me chuckle and that's what I like most in MM, and that's Joe Manganiello popping a soda can open from his crotch. The "You're Welcome" at the very end of the trailer is also a nice touch, that's how I know this movie won't take itself too seriously and will keep on playing on the sex more than the dance. That's what we want out of this. The poster Channing shared does just that, and it's funny and very clever. Let's hope it won't fall into the pits of the "competition" model which is unpleasant and unoriginal at best. I am hoping the same thing for Pitch Perfect 2....

Fantastic 4 Trailer - I AM PUMPED!

For a movie coming out this summer, there hasn't been much to see of the Fantastic Four. I was eagerly waiting a trailer because, let's face it, after the debacle of the last installment, we were doubtful they could make this franchise any good. I am WAY more optimistic now!

The trailer looks great. It is definitely in the 2015 vibe with your dramatic music and big voice over telling you life's truths and even though it seems a little cliche for a Marvel movie, I am glad this is what they came up with. It's a total departure from the 2005 films and it looks darker and more intriguing.  I like that what you see in that trailer is mostly sci-fi and not much of the superheroes. I adore the cast they have put together and I am hopeful this will be the start of a good franchise because let's be completely honest here, the Fantastic Four are awesome and we want them to succeed! Who isn't a fan of Kate Mara and Miles Teller? Those guys are great actors and I am glad they look credible in this trailer.

I could have done without the last scene where Miles/Mister Fantastic asks "What's coming" but overall it was a good teaser that I believe put a lot of skeptic minds to rest.

Thoughts about Jennifer Aniston's Cake

"Way to go Nina!" The first scene of Cake is hilarious and really hints at the tone that the entire story is going to have. If you are not hooked after the first scene, no need to go further, but I bet you will be.
You meet Claire Simmons in a Chronic Pain support group and even though the mood is morose and they are talking about one of their member committing suicide, it is a very funny scene. We all know about Jennifer Aniston's perfect comedic timing so it is no surprise to see her do so well here. However, this is definitely not the type of humor you are expecting from her. It's dark, it's sarcastic and it's, again, dark. But ever so funny. The first half of Cake is very intriguing as you are left completely in the dark and are just witnessing the pain and the struggle of Claire in the present. You don't know what happened to her and you don't know why she became the way she is: a bitch.

I loved Jennifer's character. It was so layered and complex but at the same time so raw and direct. Claire is mean but that makes for the best dialogue and come backs ever. Because the character is so interesting, you would like to delve more into her past but you are stuck with her in a present she hates. She is not looking back, as you would hope, to reflect on the events that led her here, but she is not looking forward either and you are wondering when she, and you the viewer, will leave this limbo. Obviously the movie is paced the way it is so that you can relate to the character, and you do. It is, after all, a drama. To address her Oscar snub, I would just say that she did an amazing job in this movie and she should have been recognized for that. Perhaps the Academy needs a bit more time to get used to this level of acting from Jennifer Aniston. Who knows.

I didn't know that they gathered such a great cast for this movie and I was so happy to see Anna Kendrick as well as Sam Worthington. They are both great in Cake, especially Anna, who departs from her usual roles and plays a very convincing creepy and vicious role in Claire's life. Before going into this movie, I didn't know there was such a thing as chronic pain either and I didn't know why someone would commit suicide over this. I get the disease and I get why Claire is thinking about it when she - SPOILER ALTER - lost a child, but I still don't understand why Nina did it. I wish I had a bit more insight into her character as she was such a big part of the movie. You only learn about Claire's past towards the end and it all comes in little pieces, very well embedded into clever dialogue. In one of the last scene, I enjoyed Adriana Barraza's monologue in Spanish - she plays Claire's help/maid - where she basically has had enough with her boss' behavior and outlook. "You have so much beauty in your life. You want to kill yourself? Then kill yourself" is basically what she is saying. This was exactly at about that moment in the movie where I wanted to tell Claire the exact same thing. I have no compassion whatsoever for people who give up and people who take the easy way out. Life is so precious and is such a beautiful thing, it makes me extremely angry when people throw it away.

Throughout the movie, I wanted to understand her struggle and I wanted to know why she felt the way she did. And that's what the movie is ultimately about. Stepping into the shoes of someone who suffered so much they cannot move in any direction except down. It wasn't about understanding why Nina killed herself when she had the most amazing husband, a beautiful son and a great life. These are sometimes not enough. And sometimes someone who has none of those things, like Claire, can still see the hope and the value of life. I have had to deal with a similar situation when my sister attempted suicide several times and hurt herself. She had everything. She was beautiful, she was destined for a great career, she didn't have to endure any type of loss. And still, she wanted to remain in that downward spiral and ultimately die. That very much reminded me of Nina. And I am glad to see in Cake that someone who has much more to struggle with ends up choosing to fight for what should come naturally to all of us: living.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies - Oh my!

Again, I am a little bit late to talk about this but I just got around to watching it so here is my opinion: it sucked! You might have noticed that my "reviews" are not so much structured arguments about the acting, cinematography, script and other elements of a film; but mostly all my thoughts thrown on paper super randomly. And my thought about the last installment of The Hobbit is that it sucked.

I will get the good points out of the way right now so that we can focus on the bad, and there is a lot. As always with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the very good point is that it is a great work of fantasy. You have your dragons, your elves, your orcs, your wizards and your dwarves. I am behind that type of content100% and I was glad to see all of the races back for that film. It is also very enjoyable to see the lore take shape one last time on screen. One other good point is Martin Freeman. He's still the best Bilbo that could have ever been in my opinion and he doesn't disappoint here either. Legolas is still kicking major ass and it's always pleasing to watch a fight where you know the good guy is going to be victorious. Also the hair. Then the last thing I have to point out that didn't make me either yawn or facepalm was the well choreographed final fight between Thorin and Azog. Usually, fantasy makes me so excited and entertains me so much, but not this time around I am afraid. What the hell did they do? I heard some people say that this movie was packed with action and I agree that you have quite a lot of fights and things happening, but every single scene in between was bloody slow and boring as hell. They slowed down some dialogue and made it look way too dramatic. Because of that change of pace I had a hard time really connecting with the characters. They didn't really offer any appeal either when they were having conversations, the dialogue was either cheesy or bland and hollow. It was also so predictable. That means that unfortunately when some members of the party died, I couldn't care less. I was like "oh, he's dead. Oh well". Get on with the fight.

I am going to offer a comparison here that might anger some but others might agree: I felt like I was playing Skyrim. I mean it's pretty and all, you have all the right people in the mix, you have all the right ingredients but the story doesn't make a lot of sense, you don't really care for it and most importantly, you don't give a fuck about who you meet. When I say the story doesn't make sense, I mean that the way it has been put on film is unbelievable. What the hell is wrong with those dwarves? I do not find it remotely believable that 12 dwarves who see their king go mad, acknowledge the fact that it is happening, cannot tie his ass and just give the good townspeople their share of the treasure. Even more so when you know that these dwarves are pretty decent people. I didn't buy it. Everything seemed forced because the character development was very weak and the dialogue was blah. That is also why I didn't believe in the romance between Kili and Tauriel. Also, Thranduil you little moody bastard, you tell Tauriel that her love is not real and literally 5 minutes later she asks you why it hurts so much to see her lover die and you touchingly say"because it was real". BARF. The last terrible element of that movie is unfortunately the mise en scene. You are doing something wrong when you go from massive CGI landscapes that show a gigantic city to a tiny "street" where even a hobbit would feel claustrophobic. That just doesn't work.

I don't know what you thought of it and I might have approached it the wrong way but the only reason I was glad to watch this movie was to feel like I was in Dragon Age. I mean, Frostback Mountains anybody? True story, I found myself holding the controller for some reason in the middle of the film. That was the single laugh I had in the entire movie. Oh and the troll head butting the wall, that was neat. Other than that, come on, a little comedy won't kill the mood. Ask Varric for pointers next time.

The Imitation Game - I am so angry!

My cheeks are still wet of all the tears I shed at the end of this movie. I was sad, obviously, but man was I angry. I can't believe that my History professors spent three years talking about World War II without mentioning Turing. I can't believe that Hollywood waited so long to tell that incredible story. I can't believe I haven't heard about what actually happened to this brilliant man until today. What the hell?

This story is so inspiring on so many level but mostly it made me angry at how stupid and short sighted people were back in the days. I mean, I knew that homosexuality was a crime but I surely didn't know it still was in 1952. I seriously do not get what the hell was wrong with people. Why would they care about who someone who saved 14 million people fucks in his spare time. Who the fuck cares? Nowadays, young people picture homosexuality and bullies through fucking Glee. Watch The Imitation Game.

I am so angry and sad for Alan Turing, I wish he would have been there to help the computing science research, he might have accelerated the creation of computers and more. He might have had the chance to stare at a computer screen at some point. I really wish he could have seen it. I wish he could have found happiness again after losing his first love. One of the most intelligent and gifted and brilliant man on the planet didn't even experience joy and happiness as he deserved. I feel sorry for the human race when I see a movie like this. But I feel great too. It made me smile to see Turing and his team get what they needed to do for Christopher to crack Enigma. I was so happy when I also understood it because I do know how computers work, funnily enough. I also saw Benedict Cumberbatch giving it his all as Alan Turing and I feel like nobody else could have this intensely portrayed him.

But mostly, what I saw is the most important rendition of the human evolution castrated by stupidity and fear. Can you imagine if that man had been able to adopt a child or keep teaching at university, can you imagine what he could have transmitted down the generations? Can you imagine everything we missed from his incredible mind because we put social expectations and rules first? This is ludicrous. Same thing for poor old Joan. Because she was a woman, she wouldn't even be awarded a degree. How many women throughout the years could have been great scientists or engineers and could have advanced the human race, help progress. We will never know. Just because we decided that women should stay at home with a bunch of kids. URGH. I am glad that it is obviously not the case anymore but I am very angry that it did exist and that in some countries around the world, it still does. Anyway, this is not news but movies like these tend to remind me of the obvious.

As Turing mentioned, people enjoy violence and there will always be fools, bullying either homosexuals or awkward kids who are just smarter and different than them. These kids should be protected no matter what. The bullies aren't the future of our nations, the awkward kids are. It's nice and sweet to think that we can teach people how to be tolerant and understanding - and it might happen with time - but as it doesn't happen in a flash, I urge anyone who sees someone being bullied to stand up and punch the bastard in the teeth. Thank you.

As a final thought, is it me or do the worst thing always befall the most productive members of society? Like Stephen Hawking, seriously, is it a bad joke? Who cares about an animal shooting hilly billy in North Texas, give HIM ALS. Not Hawking. Arrest a beer drinking Manchester hooligan instead of bloody Turing! This world's not fair. Not fair at all.

American Sniper - Bradley Cooper at his best?

I first should say that I am not American and as such, I wasn't aware of the Chris Kyle story. I didn't hear it in the news, I didn't know there was a book and I didn't know what happened to him. Coming into that movie, I didn't even know that American Sniper was based on a true story. I don't believe this hindered my appreciation and enjoyment of the movie but I might have reacted differently to some of the scenes should I have known this fellow actually lived through them.

To be perfectly honest, I am not a war movie type of a gal. I suppose it's obvious that my main interest is fantasy and sci-fi. However, I thoroughly enjoy Bradley Cooper performances in the past, and I thought I should watch it after seeing the enticing trailer, and I am very glad I did.

Again, this movie won't change my opinion about war movies and drama in general but this particular one was very well made and Bradley Cooper completely sold it for me. As a bulky 30 year old Navy Seal, Cooper progressively but always subtly shows you what war does to even the most hardened people. Chris Kyle doesn't appear very complicated. He's extremely straight forward, patriotic, principled and he always has a plan. Enrolling seems like the natural thing to do for a man like that. I like that the movie is divided by tour and shows each deployment with each return home. It shows you how his life and his story was very much regulated by the rhythm of war and that everything in between or even prior was just a short distraction, an interruption even.

Obviously, there are extremely difficult parts to watch
and Bradley Cooper plays through those like a chief, showing Chris Kyle's hard rock values and black and white world slowly decaying. I like to think of myself as a though person, I don't necessarily feel sorry for people in pain or in difficult situations. I feel like Chris Kyle saw the mission first and the people second too. I feel like he thought of himself as a strong person who knows exactly what is to be done and doesn't falter. But war seems to chip at his confidence and his strength, little by little. A person you thought was made to serve his country might not even be strong enough for war. Then who is? Maybe it is not the strong, the principled and the passionate who are made for war. Maybe only the senseless and the mad are.

I feel like a lot of people will complain that this movie glorifies war but it definitely didn't appear that way to me. It seems like an accurate account of a war I don't know much about and an accurate depiction of one soldier's experience. Bradley Cooper was excellent and I am pleased he got nominated for an Academy Award. As a nominated film as well, I think it's worth a look for any movie buff or fans of good drama.