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!

Regretful Throwback Review of 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'

Remember when I talked about how I enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on the opening day back in May 2014 before I graduated NOVA to participate in George Mason? Forget I ever said that. At least last summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron was way more entertaining than this failure (yeah, I said it) despite being so-so. It was that one time that I thought for sure that we finally have the most definitive movie portrayal of Spider-Man of all time as a way to erase the emo-ness/humorlessness/crybabishness of Tobey Maguire in the depressing (that's right) trilogy closure Spider-Man 3 after seeing the 1st "Amazing" Spider-Man, I thought for sure that the sequel would be any better if not so than Sam Raimi's truly spectacular (no pun intended) Spider-Man 2 (maybe like Godfather 2, it should have been the actual end of Tobey/Peter's story). Even though I enjoyed how Andrew Garfield made his Spider-Man more humorous, by wearing his extremely FLAWLESS costume for a decent amount of time without relying on frequently taking his mask off and act like he was taken straight from the comics and brought to life on the big screen, perhaps it shouldn't be too super corny (unlike the 2012 predecessor) for even the comic book fan audiences to cope with thanks to the INFERIOR and distracting soundtrack by Oscar-winning Hans Zimmer (along with the "Magnificent Six") as opposed to the more memorable and heroic soundtracks by Danny Elfman or the late James Horner in the predecessors. As much as the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is much more sweeter than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, it unfortunately takes up a lot of screentime a little too much with all of the unnecessary breakups and getting back together whatsoever. Almost every character, like Felicity Jones' Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) and Paul Giamatti's over-the-top mechanized Rhino (hilariously only seen at the start and the end of the film), that is "crucial" to this so-called Spider-Man Cinematic Universe that Sony hopes to build were absolutely unnecessary that they just ended up having no payoff. Same thing with the villains, particularly Electro (Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx) who is of course so uber-cheesy, just like the German-accented mad scientist Dr. Kafka, when he starts off as an electrician nerd who wants to be seen by the public and then have only two major fight scenes in both Times Square and the Oscorp electric power plant grid despite being the "main villain" who sadly has no connection with what Peter Parker has to deal with after battling the Lizard in the first film. That is probably what made the overall ASM2 plot a little confusing. And Dane DeHaan. Oh boy, was I wrong to admit how "great" he is compared to James Franco's whiny counterpart who is clearly not a worthy "Green Goblin" like Norman Osborn wanted him to be in Spider-Man 2. Just like Chris Cooper's Norman Osborn, who is suddenly sick and dying (and then we don't see him being alive in the mid-credits scene as rumored), the new Harry Osborn became the [first] Green Goblin (in order to cure his genetic sickness after his offer to Peter/Spider-Man got turned down (obviously)) and then first attack Spider-Man after Electro's defeat only to end up unconscious after a brief fight in the clocktower. And because we're no longer getting an Amazing Spider-Man 3 as planned, all that Green Goblin nonsense (with all of his attack on Oscorp scenes stupidly cut out after the transformation) is but a tragic waste. Except that kind of nonsense resulted in the death of Gwen Stacy. Yeah, I knew that was gonna happen since it happened before in the comics, but I didn't think it would be handled like this. Though it's too bad that Dane DeHaan's Green Goblin (except too human-like) was just simply there to kill off Gwen. So both his and James Franco's Harry the Green Goblins are officially ruined by becoming cheap afterthoughts like Jean Grey's Dark Phoenix in X-Men 3. Guess the studio interference really did a huge number on this potentially wasted sequel to the unnecessary reboot. Now we will never get to see if the whole Sinister Six plot (regarding the "Gustav Fiers" character, who mysteriously first appeared in Dr. Connors' prison in ASM1) will really came to fruition as hinted by the ego-headed producers. That we probably don't need in Amazing Spider-Man 2 (now one of the biggest failed movie franchise starters since Golden Compass and Green Lantern) if it's not going to be a real thing at all. The same can be said for the underdeveloped Peter Parker parents subplot that was supposed to be "an important thing" (hence, the "untold story" in ASM1). Oh, and for the final battle part, it would be better if we don't have the random near plane double collision and the Aunt May hospital scenes since we DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM and mean nothing to Peter and Gwen's fight with Electro.
No wonder reviews from critics, including Spidey fans, were all as though written by J. Jonah Jameson. This is the Spider-Man movie Sony thinks will "earn $1 billion"? I think not, given that there's like a LOT of mediocrity with the poor script (Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, mind you), the characters, the inconsistent tone, and how everything is too commercial like the Joel Schumacher Batman films were. What a pretty poor gamble they had made. It must be why its $709 million worldwide gross is considered a very low record for Sony, which is apparently due to our lukewarm attention towards the once iconic Marvel superhero in his too-soon-to-be-made reboot prior to the massive popularity of the more bankable Avengers after Spider-Man 3 destroyed our anticipated expectations and our long term interest in the web-slinger back in 2007. That must be how this franchise fatigue thing works whenever you reach up to movie #4 or #5. Thank goodness that Sony agreed to let Marvel borrow the Spider-Man universe to better incorporate it into the Avengers world while still retaining half of their creative and distribution rights.
Even though for some reason after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 got mixed to now more negative reviews, opinions (particularly on YouTube) for Sam Raimi's "awful" mistake that is the laughably-horrendous Spider-Man 3 are starting to change by saying that everything in that X-Men 3-type threequel is "better" than the [more tolerable] Amazing Spider-Man films because the action is "decent" ('cept we actually don't see enough Black-Suited Spider-Man action after the Sandman subway fight like we thought) and that Peter being all emo and dancing like an idiot is "what makes him a nerd" (ugh, but isn't the silly humor feeling MISPLACED and oh, FORCED unlike in 1 & 2!?). Why? If Spider-Man 3 wasn't the worst movie of all time by undermining everything that Spider-Man stood for as Spider-Man 2 had established, then Sony would never have considered rebooting the Spider-Man movie franchise we know is just too good to be immediately remade even if we're in the 2010s when next thing they know, they're only damaging the Spider-Man character even further by retelling the origin story in a more lazier way when you don't have Uncle Ben's death (Martin Sheen specifically) being the main factor for Peter's reason to become a "responsible" hero like how it was successfully handled in the 2002 film. It's precisely why I now like the X-Men movie franchise way more when you have time-travel to fix everything and still bring back old characters from the original 3 without permanently ignoring them and then give them a proper happy ending while paving way for a newer timeline that has James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence. That should have happened to the Sam Raimi films in order to remove the tainted problems from Spidey 3 and give Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst a proper happy ending like what SM2 actually did and accept that the original Spidey films are better off as TWO MOVIES instead of a "trilogy" that we so greedily kept calling them. This way, we'll always honor the "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility" message when we DON'T mention the stupid and immature things that Tobey "Crybaby" Maguire had done when wearing the "Dance-Off" Black Suit or the meaningless revelation that Sandman killed Uncle Ben, which were strangely approved by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi in the script (even before the studio's behest to include Venom). Why can't the fans understand that and admit that Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 movie that should be wiped off from the face of the Earth?
The way that Amazing Spider-Man 2 ended with a spider symbol appearing after Peter goes back being Spider-Man (which took long enough after "5 months") to save the people of New York from Rhino, it's a shame that we'll no longer be getting an actual ending for Andrew Garfield's time as our favorite future Avenger if the not-as-successful $709 million gross and a 53% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes says so. Perhaps the Sony executives should have learned their lesson on how to not mess with the final product of either Spider-Man 3 or Amazing Spider-Man 2, as well as how to not remake something so classic and iconic (like Total Recall or RoboCop) in favor of low-grade "enhancements" that it will only hurt our feelings towards the superior original works. That is why we must not lose our faith and interest in Spider-Man, the most responsible hero of the biggest Marvel universe that he is already a part of. So for me, whether you Spider-Man 3 lovers like it or not, the only Spider-Man movies in existence are Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), and finally Marvel's Spider-Man (coming July 7th, 2017) starring our newest member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe who will help redeem your friendly neighborhood hero once again where Andrew Garfield had failed: Tom Holland. I will await the first full look at his Spider-Man character as soon as Captain America: Civil War draws closer to May 6th this year!

Mid-January 2016's Biggest Snowmageddon Ever?

Just when I was starting this year's Spring Semester at George Mason University after my long relaxing winter break, I didn't think that the snowy weather would be such a big "maelstrom" for us to deal with. No wonder my sister Christine is unable to come visit us in Virginia as planned. With that snowy catastrophe happening already, I was hoping that nothing at my house would be all so boring when I have to dealt with things like preparing the class materials for next week (while facing the inevitability of GMU's status quo due to the inclement weather) and then trying to finish up the 16x20 inch Philippine General Hospital painting as soon as possible. I only pray that I have time to do so.
I'm also kinda nervous of how this weather'll affect everything in my home once it subsides around Saturday night. What I do know is no church mass, no swimming practice at GMU on Sunday, and maybe no class/class delayed by 2 hours late next Monday. Even so, the snowstorm might even affect the newly-released movies like The 5th Wave which would surely FLOP pretty hard at the box office big time. That is something that I clearly do not want that. I just believe that we're like gonna be completely buried deep beneath the snow! I hope that we have enough big shovels, snow plows and snow blowers to excavate as much snow as we can.

The 2016 Oscar Nominations Are In!

While shaking off the losses of both David Bowie and Alan Rickman, here are my favorite Oscar nomination categories announced this week.

Which one of the 2015 movies will win an Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year? Will it be...?

• The Big Short (5 nominations)
• Bridge of Spies (5 nominations)
• Brooklyn (3 nominations)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (10 nominations)
• The Martian (7 nominations)
• The Revenant (12 nominations)
• Room (4 nominations)
• Spotlight (6 nominations)

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

Tune in to find out during ABC's 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, February 28th. Hosted by Chris Rock!

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!

Quick Review of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2'

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 76th Hunger Games." Although not as spectacular as other excellent finale movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi or The Dark Knight Rises, it still perfectly ended this franchise on a high-note as the Mockingjay book did. What grieves me to learn is that Part 2 of  Mockingjay opened at a very meager weekend opening of $102 million unlike the previous 3 that each opened over $120-150 million. Perhaps the studios shouldn't get all too greedy splitting anything into 2-3 parts that are better off as one single film like The Hobbit should have been as most people say. The overlong padding after each action I think is what made this final film a little underwhelming unlike the 1st two Hunger Games movies which are, in my opinion, the best of the series. What I do love seeing however are the easily-likeable characters like Katniss, Prim, Effie Trinket, Johanna Mason, and Katniss' own beloved Peeta, as well as the most compelling villain (next to Heath Ledger's Joker, Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, and Javier Bardem's Raoul Silva) President Snow. I was glad that the madness has finally ended after Mockingjay Part 1 had me in an overwhelming suspense because of Peeta's condition after the District 13 rebels rescued him from the Capitol. The parts that really get me are the poor children, including poor Primrose Everdeen, getting killed by the exploding parachute "gifts" that the Capitol (turns out to be President Coin (Julianne Moore)'s doing), along with Katniss yelling at the cat Buttercup to get out before goin in an emotional breakdown and when Haymitch reads out the letter to Katniss from Plutarch Heavensbee, the late Oscar-winning Philip Seymour Hoffman, which are pretty much his last words before the said actor's death. During the execution scene, I knew this was coming all along From what I read in the book where Katniss instead shot an arrow at Coin rather than Snow since he is already dying anyway. By the time all of the chaotic action is over, the best part that was worth it is when Katniss and Peeta finally get together again when they lay together on a bed like most beautiful couples always do ("Real or not real?" "Real"). And once the epilogue scene begins, it was like the most emotional scene I've ever seen, watching how cute the children that both Kat and Peet have years later and knowing that this is Jennifer Lawrence's big farewell to her Katniss Everdeen character. When the credits roll, her song ("Deep in the meadow...") can be heard which is an excellent way of making the Hunger Games franchise end with a bang. No other follow-up, whether sequel or prequel, is gonna be able to top everything since Mockingjay is to me the END of the most violent Hunger Games events ever occurred. Not even the Divergent or the Maze Runner movies are gonna be able to top the action and suspense that the Suzanne Collins book-made-into-movies have. I really hope that my Mockingjay Part 2 experience is worth it despite not doing so much of a bigger box office success it deserves to be like most other 2015 sequels (somethin that isn't Jurassic World, Pitch Perfect 2, Hotel Transylvania 2, or even next month's Star Wars: The Force Awakens) that fail to top their otherwise superior predecessors. May the odds be still in our favor.