My Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society T-Shirt Design

Since I have been writing too many blog posts about movies, I thought I would like to share this to prove how much of a brilliant graphic designer I am since attending George Mason 2 years ago. I am currently enrolled in the Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society, which consists of people with disabilities such as autism and hearing impairments. There is a t-shirt design contest that will go on until next August, the start of Fall Semester. I thought it would be most respectful if I could design one of my own since I am a DAPi member.
The design I had made for one of the t-shirts prior to submission for voting, it's a set of words spelling out "Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society," positioned to the right in a staircase-like manner, as a way to symbolize the message that when you take one step at a time, you are on a path to success when accomplishing your desired goal. The typeface for these DAPi letters are in a Charter format, and "George Mason University" (capitalized to express its strong contribution to the honor society) and "Honor Society" are both PT Sans typefaces for simpler and cheap uses. I applied them with dark green, dark blue, and mild yellow colors. In addition to that, I created several black lines with the square tool before carefully aligning them with the "Delta", "Alpha", "Pi", and "Honor Society" evenly as though they are the steps that form a staircase. I've increased the size of D, A, and P letters to slightly bigger to display like some kind of an acronym, while living the other letters to each the first capitalized letters all lowercase with some kerning and leading altered to provide tiny gaps and eliminating any sign of tightness among the letters.

So there you have it. My very own DAPi t-shirt design, not having any logos already used which is copyright-protected. It's better than just applying the official DAPi logo that would have been a challenge for me since I can't change any details that are already perfect as it is. My design may not end up as the winning one, but at least it'll be respectfully nominated by the deciding voters of the t-shirt design contest, whether or not that will happen. Got to be prepared for the next (and penultimate) semester at George Mason University, even if I was just having such a relaxing summer break!

Quick Review of 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' (ULTIMATE EDITION)

Where do I begin? Oh, yes. Despite its first theatrical release 4 months ago, I did not make a quick review on this blog because 1) I have no comment to say about it given our underwhelming reactions to what we thought would be a Batman/Superman movie worth waiting, and 2) there is a 3-hour long, R-rated extended cut that I know is what the BvS experience should have been like while still retaining stuff that most people find uncomfortable. I made a Facebook note that jots down a lot of details that I believe that Zack Snyder (I named him one of  the "worst directors of all time" next to M. Night Shyamalan!) and the guys involved could have avoided without repeating the same upsetting mistakes from Man of Steel. It felt like as though I might have made a mistake being excited to see Batman v Superman even though Captain America: Civil War is what I'm waiting to see this year. Watching the first trailer of that last year and then another set of them prior to its first debut reminded me how much that promising blockbuster event could have turned out if they didn't have a lot of things that could spell, how do I put this? MAJOR LETDOWN! No matter the spectacular action and visual sets, especially Ben Affleck's Dark Knight Returns-inspired (yet murderous in a controversial way to fans and critics) take on the eponymous Bat Vigilante, it's sad to see that everything gets to be majorly criticized because Warner Bros. and DC thinks that it's "good" to make it all dark and gritty in an out-of-character way. Especially when they absolutely mishandled Superman's iconic bald-headed archenemy that deserves better in the live-action movies. Just like Superman who's had way too many mediocre movie adaptations after the first two critically-acclaimed Richard Donner films. Perhaps the studio should know that Superman was never supposed to be in the same league as Batman just by acting so full of misery because Snyder thinks it's necessary to make his actions, heroic or not, relate to our real-life events when that's not how the Superman concept works. But when I looked at the initial reactions to the Ultimate Edition (which came out on Digital HD June 28th and on Blu-ray/DVD July 19th, which I finally bought this week), they were instead generally positive which gave me some enlightenment that perhaps the DC Extended Universe might not be such a terrible idea after all after suffering from such a debacle that almost killed off any chance of that happening like it did to Sony's Spider-Man Cinematic Universe. So, I decided to give myself to see if the Ultimate Edition will justify everything that Batman v Superman has most people were extremely uncomfortable with, even if it whether or not alter the overall movie experience and initial criticisms (already rated 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.9/10 on IMDb, and granted a CinemaScore grade of B) for diehard fans in the similar vein of the superior director's cuts of Daredevil and Kingdom of Heaven. I mean, they're the ones who praised Ben Affleck's first time playing Batman despite being undeservedly hated for his murderous actions.
When I first saw the movie at home last week on Saturday night, I think it was much better than my first viewing at a theater. The Ultimate Edition does make the plot more coherent, if only they didn't really hype the long-anticipated fight which only lasts like a few minutes. I mean everybody despised the part where Batman stopped killing Superman because he uttered the name "Martha", both shared by their respective mothers, yet we all should know that it is because he finally saw the humanity in Superman, and comparing him to how his father also said his wife's name before dying, which is why he frustratingly threw away the Kryptonite spear as though he was becoming the man who murdered his parents. What hasn't changed however, is the awfully cringy to painful lines uttered by Jesse Eisenberg's so-called Lex Luthor (said to be the "son of the ACTUAL Lex Luthor", who we could have had, but no!), no matter how better improved is his plot to motivate both of DC's most popular heroes into fighting each other in this new cut (explained by extra stuff like Clark Kent's Batman investigation, the death of a branded criminal plotted by Luthor's thugs, and the suicide bomber's wheelchair being lined with lead making it immune to Supes' x-ray vision). And even if everybody likes this more than the studio-based theatrical cut, what's to stop them from criticizing the final act with the even more destructive battle between the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and WONDER WOMAN!) and Doomsday (cloned from General Zod's dead body) when it was said to be too much of a last-minute addition to an awfully-crowded plot that WB and DC were clearly struggling with if they're willing to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe? And yes, it did feel like it's too soon to (SPOILER) kill off Superman when bringing in the Doomsday monster when he just starred in the DCEU a movie ago. But without that, then Bruce and Diana would not have been inspired to build up a Justice League by finding the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg (no matter how "cheap" their teaser via email was handled). And Bruce wouldn't even have to consider going back to his 20-year-old no-killing rule hence why he instead spared Lex Luthor from viciously branding him in prison.
This major crisis wouldn't have happened if Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer only knew that perhaps not every DC hero needs to be like Batman because dark and gritty does not always equal success. If they wanted to portray our favorite superheroes without making them as cold-hearted murderers, they could have at least watch the better-written and definitive DC Animated shows like Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited than just looking at comic book pages and then not bother reading their entire stories of how noble and heroic they need to be. And if they wanted Batman v Superman to earn $1 billion before earning just $872 million, they would have like taken their time reading and approving what works or doesn't work in the script, despite being rewritten by some Oscar-winner like Chris Terrio. If I can guess one major reason why critics are dissing them, is this: too much destruction. Maybe Zack Snyder could at least tone it down a little and make the preserving people's lives a major concern and priority for heroes to worry about no matter how overpowered most superpowered beings can be. It could be the reason why Captain America: Civil War was instead better received and actually did earn over $1 billion. At least the plot and the reason that our favorite heroes are against each other were so easy to follow without finding them extremely convoluted like BvS's. Guess Marvel is "better than DC", in terms of live-action movies, no matter how "forced" the humor was that many people would find such a big deal to complain about instead.
But the point is, I actually liked the Ultimate Edition of BvS. Definitely on par with the excellent extended cuts of say the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the underrated albeit overlong Watchmen. I totally recommend that to people who might have been upset with the outcome of the final cut at a movie theater that the studio lazily favored over Snyder's. The best thing about that, regardless if they were hated for no reason, was the fact that at least Ben Affleck's Batman is more terrifying and a truly excellent fighter unlike the previous Batmen in the outdated films, which is what fans absolutely want, correct? Although they really need to work on making Henry Cavill's Superman more likable and not so easy to hate (since Superman IV and Superman Returns) for being so mopey even in a situation where he was feared by many people around the world for being an outcast alien before he was eventually seen as a martyr after death. They also need to better clarify questionable and stupid plot holes like Lois throwing away the Kryptonite spear into the water abyss only to retrieve it again later on and nearly drowning herself during the Doomsday fight. And having seen the Comic-Con trailer of... JUSTICE LEAGUE! It looks to be that the promotion of Geoff Johns and Jon Berg as head of the DC Films Division has paid off! And with the enthusiastically positive buzz of next month's Suicide Squad, it looks like that the newly-built cinematic universe of the DC superheroes are starting to look toward a brighter future!

Quick Review of 2016's 'Ghostbusters'

Who you're gonna call? Someone else. By "someone else," I mean female stars like Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. Four months ago, I watched the first trailer of this feminine reboot version of the once-popular 1980s Ghostbusters. Every review I read, which were mostly negative on YouTube regarding the sexist topic, and view these hilarious yet stupidly corny jokes, I thought it was gonna be like one of those horrible remakes and reboots (Amazing Spider-Man, Terminator Genisys, Total Recall) made by Hollywood nowadays that nearly stained classic ones. Especially when I called Sony the worst movie studio of all time due to the lack of well-marketed and highly-appealing movies, its over reliance on product placement, and its greedy obsession of making unwanted by-the-number remakes like Annie and next year's Jumanji. I even called this year's GB as one of my worst movies of all time prior to theatrical release. But when Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 73% rating (though audience score is right now 57%) by saying that it was "great", I was confused. What about when the Internet Movie Database gave it a 4.0+/10 rating? Surely, they were exactly what the YouTube reviews have been saying. I said to myself that I would pass on the new GB movie no matter how much Sony keeps promoting it. I've just seen my 1984 Ghostbusters DVD twice as an absolute reminder that it will always be what many people remember the Ghostbusters as. However, during our brief stay in Indiana by visiting Auntie Lily's house last weekend, my sister Christine goaded me into seeing it with her despite my concerns about the negativity being true. I guess that she was trying to let me give it a chance because of what I've been saying to her about how the female Ghostbusters movie is not as bad as the comments on YouTube have been saying.
In my first viewing of it, I was aware that while the jokes given that it is a Paul Feig movie may turn out to be worth laughing out loud at, not every one of them should be taken too seriously. Everything does remind me so much of what I remember Ghostbusters to be like, at least not in a disrespectful way since it is after all a reboot from scratch with no connection with the first two original films. Kristen Wiig, as Erin Gilbert, is one of the female comedy stars I like for playing such a nice woman with an excellent sense of humor because look, she reminds me so much of the lovable Lucy Wilde from Despicable Me 2! She acted like she's having fun interacting with someone like Melissa McCarthy, as Erin's Ray Stanz-like friend Abby Yates. And remember when I thought that Leslie Jones, as Patty Jones, would be so irritatingly annoying because of her stereotypical black woman characteristics? Actually, she doesn't seem so bad, because she actually does make me laugh so hard when she says things like "I don't know if it's a race thing or a lady thing, but I'm mad as hell!" and "The power of Patty compels you!" But the biggest standout of the lady quartet is Kate McKinnon, as Jillian Holtzmann! I think she is the most eccentric and the most likable female Ghostbuster of them all! Love the way she acted like such a goofball while being a brilliant engineer and provider of the ghost-capturing weapons. Especially how she took down all of Rowan's evil ghosts LIKE A BOSS ("You just got Holtzmann'ed!")! The other stars I find okay or mediocre are the hunky yet wasteful Chris Hemsworth (Kevin) and the one-dimensional Neil Casey (GB 2016 main villain Rowan). There are also some fun albeit cheap cameos from the original Ghostbusters, now mind you they are actually characters DIFFERENT from the characters we know and love, like Bill Murray, Annie Potts, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, and of course Ernie Hudson!
Overall, it was actually a fun remake of Sony's horror-comedy blockbuster property even while suffering from the usual remake-is-inferior problems and the so-bad-yet-it's-ridiculously-funny-if-not-completely-forced jokes! It didn't actually end up a franchise-killing abomination like Batman & Robin or Fant4stic! And neither is it one of the turned-out-to-be-awful-in-my-opinion movies that strangely earned good Rotten Tomato ratings (Noah - 76%, Indiana Jones 4 - 77%, Superman Returns - 76%, Piranha 3D - 73%, etc.)! Perhaps it wasn't much of a waste of a ticket even if there are other summer movies better than this what is now one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies right up with Angry Birds, Pixels, Battleship, and the Transformers movies! Let's see if its $46 million opening will allow Sony to begin this ever-expanding cinematic universe of the Ghostbusters (having their own production company called "Ghost Corps") they've been planning after their Spider-Man Cinematic Universe was killed by The UN-Amazing Spider-Man 2! So who are you gonna call?

GHOSTBUSTERS (either male (old) or female (new))!!!

Regretful Throwback Review of 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

I thought it would be nice for me to write this regretful throwback review of 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction since today is June 27th. "Best Summer Movie of 2014"? "Better than TF 2 & 3"? What the heck was I thinking? Was the wait for TF4 worth it after Michael Bay finished Pain & Gain? As I compare and contrast this fourquel with the first three films that I remember were the real deal, it grieves me to say how disappointed I was. For a minute, I thought that TF4 would help me put aside all of the overwhelmingly upsetting complaints and flaws (such as cheap fan service of 'bots and 'cons) that I've had to go through in Revenge of the Fallen (my most disliked TF sequel since 2009) and Dark of the Moon, both of which I believe were not on par with the first ever live-action Transformers movie that changed my life forever. Once I knew that Shia LaBeouf's character is not set to appear in the 4th film, I thought that it would be a relief. From my first viewing of TF: AOE at Tysons Corner, I was sort of glad that most of the robot characters like Optimus Prime felt like actual characters than cheap visual props. With the addition of the Dinobots and Galvatron being revealed to be the same Megatron from TF 1-3, I thought that things were about to get very interesting for the movie franchise. But it's as though the weak domestic gross of $245 million, the meager $60 million DVD/Blu-ray sales, and the Rotten Tomato critical rating of 18% that AOE got were right all along. As do the mediocre-detailed TF movie toy figures (and lack of correct-sized toys regarding Lockdown and Galvatron) nowadays. For every repeated viewing before looking back at the original 3, I realized that my initial appreciation of TF4 was a big mistake. Which leaves me a question: Is the latest movie that stars Mark Wahlberg the post-DOTM epilogue I have been waiting for after finishing the final season of Transformers: Prime? Problem was, Age of Extinction lacked everything that I enjoyed about the Transformers movies, terrible or no, before the movie industry became dominated by even better ones like Marvel/DC superhero movies, Hunger Games and such. The outcome of the Chicago Battle we got instead are humans fearing and hating the Transformers, especially the Autobots that have fought everything by sacrificing their own home planet to save mankind from the Decepticons, which prompted the government to finally cut off military ties with the Autobots and thus allowing the hostile human task force Cemetery Wind to hunt down Decepticons AND Autobots across the globe! What happens to the post-DOTM Autobots (anyone NOT Optimus Prime or Bumblebee) minus newcomers like Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs? They were said to have been massacred. Every. Last One. Which may include Ratchet (check), Leadfoot (check), Roadbuster, Topspin, Dino/Mirage (Mattel, not Hasbro, owns Ferrari - so, he must be dead), and even Sideswipe. Not the personal "thank you" I wanted for the Autobots that may not participate in AOE. It just makes me feel so upset and angry that the Transformers brand is losing everything that made it so popular as if cheaply killing off Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave in TF3 wasn't bad enough! Seeing Ratchet, the last of the original TF1 cast, getting gunned down by Savoy's team and Lockdown was like seeing part of my childhood being destroyed! They should have let Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson come back to play Lennox and Epps again to provide some indication that the TF1-3 feeling is not gone for good and that there are still humans remaining loyal with the Autobots. It's almost like Dark of the Moon, although containing stuff that upsets me the most like Sentinel Prime's allegiance with the Decepticons and his role being a main TF3 villain instead of Megatron or Shockwave, could have been the final film despite the ending that I felt needed some extension to properly tie up loose ends. Even with the new human cast, they're just even more unlikeable and even worse than they were before like the movie crew and writer Ehren Kruger were either on drugs or completely desperate to make the movie per the studio's request without being concerned about the fans' complaints! And once we were given an explanation that there were "Creators" that uses their "Seeds" to produce and harvest the metal "Transformium" from every organic material they destroy to build the Transformers, as well as the mention of "Knights" (albeit poorly-developed like it was an afterthought) given by Lockdown, that's where it becomes such a jumbled mess that we're unable to clean up. I was more used to the whole AllSpark/Sun Harvester/Moon history thing that I thought for sure that that was it in order to tie all 3 films together. But with the Creator-Seed-Knight issue, I'm not so sure if they do tie well with them. Plus, Optimus and Hound acted like they know so much about that even though Optimus doesn't know who these Creators are and how those Seeds work! I would have to assume that Lockdown might have told him off-screen while Tessa escapes from the drones! And does the AllSpark cube matter to that new plot detail in AOE that wasn't thought of to begin with, or does it not anymore when they say that TF4 is a "soft reboot" despite having an obvious connection with the Chicago Battle in the predecessor? Not only was Transformers 4 so entirely convoluted, but it was so full of very forced humor and unlikeable & unnecessary humans like Jack Reynor and Sophia Myles, and said to be too much of a product placement commercial as though it was for the sake of raising business in China hence why AOE was strongly successful internationally than in the U.S. As soon as we're introduced to Creators, Cemetery Wind, KSI (pointless as it is due to the uninspiring "transforming" sequences), Lockdown, and Galvatron's one-dimensional subplot of him leading his army to capture the Seed, there was just TOO MUCH GOING ON given the 2 hour 45 minute run time! I think I'm good with just the AllSpark origin. It's that simple! Why bother saying that the Creators were responsible for the birth of the Transformers 3 movies later? It was so much better when it was just Autobots vs. Decepticons. THAT is what the Transformers movies after 3 should have been about! Perhaps it was a bad decision to kill off our favorite Decepticons so soon which kinda explains the point with the KSI-made prototype robots. Are these guys out of ideas no matter how much amount of money they get from each film? This is why the first Transformers movie to me is the best one compared to the inferior sequels, like what Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is to the 3-4 sequels. If next summer's Transformers: The Last Knight does not breathe some life back into this 5-time Razzie Award-winning, critically-struggling 4-film franchise that grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide, then they are about to meet the same fate as the other shameful movie franchises (Resident Evil, Terminator, Ice Age, etc.) that have overstayed their welcome! Guess as Brains would put it, "You dumb greedy bastards just brought extinction to yourself." Paramount had better let Michael Bay be true to his word that The Last Knight would be the "last Transformers movie" he would ever direct to make fans very happy! Right now, the best place where I will truly appreciate the Transformers is not just in the 1st Michael Bay TF movie, but in the G1/Prime TV shows and the War for/Fall of Cybertron video games.
However, with the return of Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and Megatron (not as Galvatron?) in TF5: TLK, it seems that my faith in the TF movies would have to remain intact before I jumped to conclusions too quickly about reminding myself that "the TF sequels always ruin everything." To remain positive rather than worry myself no matter how many awful comments I find in each movie update, I would watch the final TF4 scene of Optimus leaving Earth to find the Creators a couple times to make me feel anticipated for the 5th installment of the "Transformers Cinematic Universe". Even if, at the same time, I feel nervous about the franchise fatigue getting much worse since Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Terminator Genisys. Let's hope that the oh-so brilliant Writers' Room are successfully getting the Transformers movie franchise back on track with these "wonderful ideas" that they'll come up with for spin-offs (Bumblebee) and prequels (Cybertron).

I'm coming for you.

My Overview and Reason for Lack of Blog Activity

Whoo! Finally! This is my first blog post since the Academy Awards from this February! I have not even touched Blogger because of my concerns for lack of physical activity at home (such as painting as suggested by my mom and the peers and clients who praises my painting skills) and my full commitment to another blog site called Writing for Designers for my Writing for Artists class with my kind and most understanding teacher Prof. Lynn Constantine. And believe me, I have had a good but difficult and challenging time at George Mason for spring semester this year. I was lucky to get an A in both Writing for Artists (Lynn Constantine) and Co Brand and Design (Jessica Rodriguez) classes, an A+ in Visual Voices Colloquium, and an A- in Paula Crawford's Painting III class. Although I got a B in 3D animation class with Prof. Jesse Cowan, which I thought was the most difficult class of the semester even when I was getting quite good with the tools in the Maya Animation program. But what matters most, is that I did great with that semester, as always, for all of my hard work and effort even when there are times when I kind of prefer to do things I love to do besides painting or working on computer stuff. Like watching movies, that is.

But as I prepare myself for hopefully an exciting summer, I've experienced some surprises and twists and turns that sometimes spawn in a consequential or controversial outcome. For example, Fox's Deadpool was an astounding hit for an R-rated comic book superhero movie, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which is what I thought I was most excited for besides Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, sadly opened to very upsetting results which is not quite what the studio or fans had expected. To begin that subject, the Zack Snyder-directed blockbuster follow-up to Man of Steel is unfortunately filled with extremely out-of-character moments, particularly for the once proud "symbol of hope" Superman, and convoluted subplots that add nothing to what the "Batman v Superman" title really suggests. Why couldn't the trailers and TV spots be true to their word of what the final product will be like when deep down, it's as though they have NO CLUE of how to honor what made Batman, Superman, and all the DC heroes so popular in a comic book studio that must really think that being Batman is all they care about. I wanted to like the new takes on the most popular superheroes of DC Comics, mostly because of the praise on Ben Affleck's take on Batman, but because BvS has instead repeated the same bothersome mistakes found in Man of Steel, like making Superman too scornful and joyless because "dark and gritty works best", I'm not even sure if that means we should treat the Henry Cavill version of Superman as canon and act like the more heroic Superman (mainly Christopher Reeve and the DC Animated Universe counterpart) doesn't exist. They even made Lex Luthor (in name only even if he's "the son of the REAL (but dead... DEAD!?) Lex Luthor)!) a total loony thanks to Jesse Eisenberg! I would think that Captain America is the real Superman we deserve who is at least handled correctly and acted like a true American superhero and is actually willing to help people without any stupid morals. But that doesn't mean that every DC hero like The Flash or Aquaman should "be like Batman" as though DC thinks that darkness is always "fun"! I feel like the animated shows (mostly the '90s) are always gonna be better than the awful live-action movies (Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, Catwoman, even the DC Extended Universe films like Batman v Superman)! Although there's a 3-hr R-rated Ultimate Edition coming in DVD/Blu-ray that will change our we feel towards the critically-panned theatrical cut, is that going to justify how upset we are with the stuff that we feel didn't need (Justice League teasers, death of Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane's bullet investigation, nightmares including the Flash, reason that Batman and Superman fight each other is because of "Martha", the Kevin Costner cameo, last minute inclusion of Doomsday and Death of Superman storyline, etc.)? And with Suicide Squad coming this August and the announcement of Geoff Johns and Jon Berg being made as the "Kevin Feiges" of the DC movies, does that mean that there is "hope" for the DC Extended Universe, particularly correcting the way that Superman was terribly handled prior to next year's long-awaited live-action Justice League movie?

Hey, everyone!

On the bright side though, is that after I finally completed my spring semester at GMU, I got the chance to be reunited with my sister Christine Mayuga and see Captain America: Civil War at Tysons Corner! It's a superhero movie that I believe that Batman v Superman should have ended up as instead when pitting two of our favorite heroes for all of the right reasons with no abrupt resolution. But the biggest highlight of all was being impressed with Tom Holland's long-awaited FAITHFUL portrayal of Spider-Man after having to suffer with the awful-to-mediocre, franchise-killing Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2! For once, Sony made the right decision to allow Marvel handle everyone's favorite wall-crawler with care and bringing him back from obscurity! I have viewed the first two critically-acclaimed but overrated Sam Raimi films to prepare myself for Spidey's first debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since last year. I was glad that my wait for that was worth it. But for now, let's focus with the Captain America vs. Iron Man squabble. While it retains the awesome direction from Phase 2 game-changer Captain America: The Winter Soldier and proved to be a great start for Phase 3, I would think that it felt kinda too long for 145 minutes with all the fun humor and serious action which is sorta hard to balance each other without annoying Marvel and/or non-Marvel fans. Nevertheless, based on the box office research, it is already earning over $1.14 billion worldwide which is amazing! I knew that Civil War would mark a great start for summer 2016!

Now as far as I can tell, I also had a nice trip, albeit with some stressful struggles when it comes to being so far away from my beloved home Virginia while visiting places like Japan and the Philippines. I was excited to have arrived in Japan with my mom is because that Japan is, as I would call it, the birthplace of all of the famous properties that I was mostly familiar with! Godzilla, Power Rangers, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hello Kitty, Transformers, Sony, you name it! Tokyo, Japan was such a big city! I never thought that I dreamt of coming there! The biggest gripe for coming to Japan though was all of the foods that I'm uncomfortable to eat with, since I am well picky. I still ate some pizza, chicken and burgers, which is a relief. But oh the places and beautiful sights you can find in Japan! And I almost bought many awesome Japanese toys due to how expensive they were! It is kind of fun to wander around, especially when I visit a place like the Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Disney Resort! My mom and I even got to see Christine again who was already finishing her classes in this country! Onward to the Philippines!
The Philippines, as I know, is a birthplace of my mom and dad since the 1960s. It must be a very long time for them since they moved away to live in the United States to raise me in 1991. But when we got to Manila, I never expected the conditions to be so tightly full of traffic and full of dirty but poor and helpless people loitering in the streets. My family and I had a fun time, however. We moved to an apartment called Victoria Towers where we'll settle there for 2-3 weeks. We also would usually visit each of our closest relative to the Mayuga family, and we would always to special malls like SM Megamall, Robinsons Mall and Green Belt. I also got to see movies with my dad like Angry Birds and X-Men: Apocalypse, which were already out prior to their American dates! The moment that I never expect would happen was coming to the Philippine General Hospital, which is the building that I have seen before in the paintings that I made for my parents and their friends! It was like seeing a painting brought to life, with almost all of the EXACT details that I painted in every specific area of the canvas! My favorite relative that my parents, my sister and I have visited was Uncle Cito, who is of course the BROTHER of my Facebook friend Auntie Melody, and he was a huge fan of superheroes and Transformers! I was so surprised to see what kind of a fan he was! During the times in Manila, Philippines, life can be very stressful since I felt like I miss Virginia so much. Mostly because of all the foods that I had trouble coping with in every restaurant my parents wanted to go to honor their friends. Many times, they would find some helpful alternatives for me to have an effective lunch or dinner. I knew that coming to the Philippines wasn't always a bad place to come, even if there are some places that challenges my taste and views.

By the end of May and the beginning of June, we traveled to the beaches, where we would have a relaxing time splashing ourselves with seawater and explore other exotic islands and life in the Philippine waters. We visited the El Nido resort and stayed there from Thursday to Sunday where would take some special trips to somewhere where we'll snorkel ourselves beneath the salty waters. My sister was like the only one out of our family to have an amazingly fun time! Me? I just go along with how they're enjoying themselves. I even got to kayak with Christine and finally ride the tides on a surfboard along the beach water! Sure feels like summer!


So overall, that's what I was doing and why I haven't touched this blog since the start of GMU spring semester. But that's all I have to recap everything that I've done so far! I wonder what I can expect to see or hear before arriving back in George Mason this fall following my LOOOOONNG break this summer!

The 2016 Academy Award Winners!

The winners of my "favorite categories" at the 88th Academy Awards ceremony from last night are...!


Best Picture

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Brooklyn
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Room
• Spotlight

Best Director

• The Big Short (Adam McKay)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
• The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
• Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
• Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
• Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)

Best Actor

• Trumbo (Bryan Cranston)
• The Martian (Matt Damon)
• The Revenant (Leonardo DiCaprio)
• Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender)
• The Danish Girl (Eddie Redmayne)

Best Actress

• Carol (Cate Blanchett)
• Room (Brie Larson)
• Joy (Jennifer Lawrence)
• 45 Years (Charlotte Rampling)
• Brooklyn (Saoirse Ronan)

Best Supporting Actor

• The Big Short (Christian Bale)
• The Revenant (Tom Hardy)
• Spotlight (Mark Ruffalo)
• Bridge of Spies (Mark Rylance)
• Creed (Sylvester Stallone)

Best Supporting Actress

• The Hateful Eight (Jennifer Jason Leigh)
• Carol (Rooney Mara)
• Spotlight (Rachel McAdams)
• The Danish Girl (Alicia Vikander)
• Steve Jobs (Kate Winslet)

Best Original Screenplay

• Bridge of Spies
• Ex Machina
• Inside Out
• Spotlight
• Straight Outta Compton

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Big Short
• Brooklyn
• Carol
• The Martian
• Room

Best Animated Feature

• Anomalisa
• Boy and the World
• Inside Out
• Shaun the Sheep Movie
• When Marnie Was There

Best Production Design

• Bridge of Spies
• The Danish Girl
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant

Best Costume Design

• Carol
• Cinderella
• The Danish Girl
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant

Best Cinematography

• Carol
• The Hateful Eight
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant
• Sicario

Best Film Editing

• The Big Short
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant
• Spotlight
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
• The Revenant

Best Original Score

• Bridge of Spies (Thomas Newman)
• Carol (Carter Burwell)
• The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone)
• Sicario (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (John Williams)

Best Original Song

• Fifty Shades of Grey ("Earned It")
• Racing Extinction ("Manta Ray")
• Youth ("Simple Song #3")
• The Hunting Ground ("Til It Happens to You")
• Spectre ("Writing's on the Wall")

Best Visual Effects

• Ex Machina
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Sound Mixing

• Bridge of Spies
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Sound Editing

• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Sicario
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Quick Review of 'Deadpool'

You gotta admit. The long-awaited Deadpool movie was just (language)-ing awesome!!! And they thought that it wasn't gonna be a huge hit 'cause it's an R-rated film (think Dredd or Punisher)! Since 2009, everybody's upset with what Fox did to our favorite Merc with the Mouth! But now, it looks like DP's $130-150 million weekend opening is music to our ears after Fox disappointed us with with their dull-looking "Fantastic" Four last year! Ryan Reynolds may have finally got himself a superhero franchise after the failure that is DC's Green Lantern (please announce the REAL Hal Jordan for the Zack Snyder's Justice League movie, WB)! Everything in Deadpool was just so darn hilarious in a vulgar way, that it really put the Hangover sequels and Ted 2 to shame! It's as though the large amount of comedy found in DP made Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy look like a "b*#*h"! Kudos to the Zombieland writers! If anyone enjoyed the bloody & violent satirical elements of the 1st Kick-Ass, go see this movie instead! I like that the evolution of Wade Wilson to Deadpool (NOT as Weapon XI, with his mouth tightly shut) is a lot more faithful to the comics, particularly his treatment with cancer. That means Fox will have to officially declare that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is NON-CANON with the original X-Men films, even before the timeline wipeout in Days of Future Past. I love how Deadpool is always "breaking the fourth wall" as though he knows he's a part of the movie that we're watching! For example, after the ending credits, Deadpool would see that people at the auditorium theater are still here (obviously) and urged us to go home while hinting of what we might expect in the already-in-development Deadpool sequel (Cable, the time-traveling mutant and future son of Cyclops). Morena Baccarin and Gina Carano are in my opinion the hottest women in the Deadpool movie! I have a feeling that the woman (was very hot in her first scene) who is Wade/Deadpool's girlfriend is now gonna end up completely recognizable after being under the radar even while in TV shows like Homeland and Gotham! My favorite action sequence(s) is/are the car chase and gun fight, which is almost an exact copy of the test footage shown at Comic-Con! The opening credits intro had has laughing big time! But out of all of the entertaining songs in this movie, my favorite is the Salt n Peppa song that I heard in the trailers and during the end credits!
In sharing ties with the X-Men movie universe, even though to me Deadpool is not their type, Colossus is just what he should look like in the comics as opposed to his underdeveloped iteration in the Bryan Singer films. He talks like a true Russian! So funny yet gross when he was disgusted by Deadpool cutting off his own hand-cuffed hand and then vomited when he shot Francis/Ajax in the head while giving a hero doesn't kill speech. The little girl Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) is pretty cute and definitely the kind of girl most emo and gothic girls should hang out with. Love that Twitter joke before charging in towards Gina Carano!
It's great that Deadpool is finally the movie we've all been waiting for after being let down by the Wolverine prequel spin-off that may as well be treated as a cheap teaser trailer for the potential X-Men spin-offs. If only Venom got the proper movie treatment he deserves if Sony wasn't so greatly focused on letting Marvel use Spider-Man properly while completely in the dark after being upset with Amazing Spider-Man 2. Who needs the Deadpool video game? This movie is worth watching for us fans to entertain ourselves! I had a lot of fun hearing Deadpool joke around with the movie references like the "please don't make the suit green or animated" moment! Surprise that Deadpool is actually more successful than even the previous X-Men films including Days of Future Past. Let's see if this May's X-Men: Apocalypse will try to keep up when delivering a new vision on the new X-Men team's battle with Apocalypse now that Bryan Singer is back at the helm! I don't know what a chimichanga will taste like, but I know it's spicy yet wanting to taste it and feel like I'm now officially pretending to be Deadpool besides Spider-Man or Captain America!