Gabe Mayuga's Favorite Moments of 2015

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! So sorry that I haven't written any of my blog articles since this September. But I guess I was... busy with everything that is most important for me and my Mayuga family like completing and preparing my difficult fall semester George Mason University projects. Aside from all of my stressful moments with my own personal family problems and tragic deaths of loved ones (Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Lee, James Horner, Uncle Joseph Bauzon), I recall some of my favorite moments that I will always cherish besides the nostalgic memories I've had years before the year 2015! The year that went through a lot of major changes with some results that don't meet expectations albeit with reasonable purposes.
My favorite part about this was watching some highly-anticipated movies with surprisingly good word of mouth or disappointing box office figures (like Josh Trank's "Fantastic" Four and Brad Bird's underrated Tomorrowland) that leads to unexpected effects to the current movie industry. My favorite films from summer or fall-winter are Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Disney/Pixar's Inside Out. But my most favorite moment of all time this year was visiting the Children's Museum in Indianapolis to enter the Transformers exhibit, storing all of the Transformers toys from the past and some activities fun for little kids and long-time Transformers fans like me despite the franchise now no longer getting a lot of attention like they used to have since the pre-AOE TF movies (as the 4th one from last year got a paltry $245 million in domestic areas (unlike the 1st three's $300-400 million grosses in the U.S.) despite its massive success in China, totaling up to over $1.1 billion) back from 2007-2012. It was on display until late July during the time when the latest TV show Transformers: Robots in Disguise premiered on Cartoon Network this Spring and can be seen every Saturday morning at 6:30 A.M., while paling in comparison with a much superior Transformers: Prime show. But it was a fun time reliving my obsession with the Autobot/Decepticon warfare after I was drawn to it via watching the very first live-action film 8 years ago. I am hopeful that the new writers hired (by Akiva Goldsman, of course) for this "cinematic universe" will make Transformers relevant again without bringing up things that I fear would cause critics and even the fans to nitpick in a nonstop way like they have with the upsetting TF sequels since Revenge of the Fallen. Autobots, roll out!
I also visited the Star Wars Costume Exhibition in Times Square of New York during one of my artsbus trips last month. Looking at these costumes from the past 6 films was an experience I've ever had, and will surely make me feel totally excited to see The Force Awakens when it comes out on the opening day, which I will watch 3 days later. My dad and I were amazed at how the costumes and props were once used by characters, with names that only I strongly remember, before Lucasfilm was sold to Disney. While the prequel trilogy have actually underwhelmed a lot of fans, their love for the originals that has the Rebellion, Imperial ships, and Darth Vader will never fade away and will be "strong with the Force." Am curious to how the latest J.J. Abrams-directed film is going to change the franchise?
After being so upset with how The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had turned out, in financial terms (only $709 million, as opposed to the $750-$800+ million grosses the previous 4 got), resulting in the cancellation of the threequel and Andrew Garfield's exit after for just TWO Spidey films, I knew that had Sam Rami's Spider-Man 3 not ended up as the WORST movie of all time (for me, if no one agrees), there wouldn't have been a need for Sony to start a reboot from scratch FIVE YEARS LATER with a new origin that proves how inferior it was to the much-better handled one in the 2002 film (minus the retcon that clearly HURT the traditional Spider-Man origin). Around this February, I was shocked to learn that Sony (after the infamous hack) has agreed to allow Marvel incorporate the Spider-Man characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (starting with next summer's Captain America: Civil War) while retaining distribution and creative control over the web-slinging hero! With that confirmation, I was curious about who's going to PROPERLY play Peter Parker/Spider-Man to joke around with any of the fellow Avengers and wash away the bad taste of the post-SM 1&2 trilogy (2007-2014). And sure enough 4 months later, Sony/Marvel has picked TOM HOLLAND (The Impossible, In the Heart of the Sea)! Since then, I had complete faith that young Tom Holland will DO GREAT as our most iconic arachnid superhero (now "2nd place" to the Avengers (specifically, the "invincible" Iron Man) without bringing up something that made Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield act almost "out of character". And I have been trying so hard to write comments to SHUT UP those (especially on Facebook) who don't seem to treat Spider-Man 3 the same way they did with Batman & Robin and Indiana Jones 4, by saying that it was "better than Amazing Spider-Man 1-2", as though it is still canon in the Sam Raimi trilogy even though I don't want it to be (some "happy ending") having watched what the time-traveling does to the X-Men movie continuity affected by the disappointing X-Men 3 in Bryan Singer's Days of Future Past. But I am proud that Spider-Man is "back home" with the Avengers. Can't say the same for the Fantastic Four, unfortunately. I pray that the 2017 Spider-Man reboot (without the origin story this time) will prove me right!

Another one of my favorite 2015 moments was going on two Artsbus trips with my mom (along with dad this November) to the Washington, D.C. area. I registered these two Artsbus classes for my fall semester, despite not being graded with As or Bs. It was however a fun experience for me during my time at George Mason while dealing with designing magazines, making motion design videos, and discussing art subjects in aesthetics class. Some of my favorite artworks I've seen are the ones made by Anselm Kiefer or even paintings by painters such as Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh (found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art) as well as the war paintings by Italian artist Alberto Burri in the cylindrical Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (motivated by the On Kawara's Silence video in Prof. McCoy's classroom). Although I was more interested in seeing how these contemporary or antique artworks were greatly designed than learning many of the important facts that I'll sometimes have trouble understanding. It was fun going to the museums with just my mom or with mom and dad together.

But my biggest moment in 2015 of all, was getting to see my younger sister Christine Mayuga come back from Notre Dame University (since last August) during each and every holiday weekend. Just like the very touching moment for Riley and her mom and dad in the Inside Out movie, I will not forget how much of a family we truly are despite getting into a lot of fights and suffering from horrible coughing. And watching that Pixar movie with a very original concept since Up reminded me just how much I miss my childhood days when we're not always dealing with a lot of "important" work and that not every movie relies on too much sequels/remakes and "more money" businesses or even TV shows in which cartoons now sadly ended up as nothing more but YouTube parody/poop jokes videos (Teen Titans Go, The Bare Bears, Breadwinners) or "kid-friendly" toy-selling commercials (Avengers Assemble, TMNT 2012 past Season 2-3). No wonder Joy has been trying hard to make Riley be more happy by reliving her favorite moments from Minnesota in a more modern world that always stick with iPhone technology and social networking discussions. Wonder if 2016 will be any better? I hope so. I mean what could happen?

Quick Review of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (SPOILER ALERT!)

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Never knew that this day would come after watching the original and prequel trilogies (along with the Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows) on DVDs at least about countless times and remembering the exact scenes that ended up being a lot more memorable than other big franchises like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. But with new heroes, new villains, new droids, and even new vehicles, the Star Wars universe has gotten even bigger the moment Disney bought Lucasfilm 3 years ago after suffering a $200 million loss from the failed sci-fi franchise starter John Carter. The characters that I have already gotten to know prior to my first viewing of The Force Awakens are Rey, Finn, BB-8, Poe Dameron, Captain Phasma, and Kylo Ren. Except that there was SO MANY new characters that, hilariously, I haven't been able to instantly remember the names (minus Supreme Leader Snoke and Maz Kanata) except the main new ones as well as the old! Director J.J. Abrams, whose film credits include Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek and Super 8, has certainly brought back something that made the original Star Wars trilogy the greatest blockbuster movie franchise of all time, by not relying on the overuse of CGI (by using a lot of practical effects, as it should be!) and actually making the dialogue not too cringeworthy like in the prequels. However, I do think that there are some questionable flaws (but not in a hurtful way, mind you) that probably should not have made fans completely nitpicky with when it was supposed to be an amazing return to a very iconic franchise. But at least it wasn't a lousy nostalgic comeback in a disrespectful way like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Terminator Genisys. Though it has a plot that feels kinda familiar with the very first movie that came out nearly 40 years ago and doesn't quite reach the heights of The Empire Strikes Back ("I am your father!"), which I know is the "best Star Wars movie ever."
Now for the spoilers, but those of you who have seen the movie are free to read some things that I learn and what could have been better. The opening scene with the massacre on the Jakku villagers left by the First Order Stormtroopers commanded by Kylo Ren was nothing like the action that I have seen before. Shame that Max von Sydow was killed instantly by Ren after handing over the piece of information of Luke Skywalker's whereabouts to Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. I thought that he would have such a huge role in the movie. Rey, the scavenger with an unknown history except that she was left behind on the planet Jakku. The actress Daisy Ridley playing her is actually very beautiful, way more than Natalie Portman, but it's gonna take some getting used to for a newcomer. Former Stormtrooper Finn, played a young black actor seems to pull it off in a decent way albeit only good at making funny one-liners and acts like he's the young Han Solo hence the attitude. But Kylo Ren, wow, he is definitely the movie villain of 2015 for me! I was surprised to learn that he is actually the son (named "Ben") of Han Solo and Leia Organa, which makes the latter's twin brother Luke his uncle and Darth Vader his "grandfather" hence his obsession with the fallen Jedi/Sith Lord. Love how he gets angry and throws out tantrum by slashing with his deadly and uniquely designed lightsaber, which makes him seemingly more dangerous than the other Sith Lords. I am however shocked that Kylo Ren killed his own father just when Han was about to talk some sense into him. There goes another one of the favorite Star Wars characters that kept the franchise going after Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Vader. May Han Solo be forever missed. Least Harrison Ford had a good run; better than how his return in Indy 4 turned out. Captain Phasma, played by the badass Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones, although an intimidating female Stormtrooper captain deserve some more recognition and not be immediately put aside like Boba Fett or Darth Maul. You know, her last scene that includes the trash compactor joke. But we should at least expect to see her again if she's signed up for #8! The lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren was very intense! Never have I seen such brutality, compared to the original/prequel lightsaber duels, as Ren severely wounded Finn before facing off with Rey (who now appears to be Force-sensitive!) holding Anakin/Luke's old Jedi lightsaber! Now to talk about... Luke Skywalker! 'Cept he's an old man like Obi-Wan Kenobi now. However, I would think that his appearance in The Force Awakens could have been more than just a teasing cameo. I wouldn't say that I was "let down" like everyone were from what I heard, but I think it was intended that way since his journey as a Jedi was already completed. But I look forward to see his expanded role in Episode 8 in two years now that we've lost Han Solo!
Having finished my fall semester at George Mason University with an A for aesthetics, an A- for digital printmaking, a B for editorial magazine design and a B+ for motion design, I'm glad that watching the new Star Wars movie was worth it while I still enjoyed the original three a lot more! Even though my parents and my sister are right now having their own problems to deal with after we finished the movie last night. But thank goodness that it wasn't as convoluted or underwhelming like The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones! Too bad J.J. Abrams will not be directing the next film, as the last two will instead be directed by Looper's Rian Johnson and Jurassic World's Colin Trevarrow. I do hope that they live up to the latest installment that's already breaking a LOT of box office records and may possibly beat James Cameron's Avatar (the sequel trilogy (too little too late?) may be out starting in Dec 2017) as the highest-grossing movie of all time! May the Force be with us!