Pacific Rim: Uprising

The sequel to the Guillermo Del Toro directed 2013 movie, Pacific Rim, was one that I wasn't exactly too excited about. For one, Del Toro wasn't returning to direct and the movie would be lead by an entirely new cast. Even with the addition of John Boyega as the leading man, the trailers didn't do much to sell me, so it's fair to say I went in with low expectations. The movie picks up 10 years after the original, with the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba's character in the first movie) named Jake living in a world without the Kaiju. He spends his life stealing parts from old Jaeger machines to sell to the black market to fund his party life. When looking for a part to steal from an old broken down Jaeger, the deal goes south and Jake is caught. He's forced to return to the place where his father was stationed before he died. Jake must help teach the young recruits how to pilot the Jaegers, but things don't go as planned as an old threat is planning its return sooner than expected.

So this is the third movie in a row that features a story about a young prodigy that lost their father at a young age and decide to squander all their potential because of not being able to move on with their lives. Wrinkle In Time, Tomb Raider and now this movie all have the same character arcs in them for the leads. I'm sure it wasn't planned to be that way, but it's kind of funny to see this story being told to death this month. Uprising is just as predictable as those other two movies as well, at least in terms of character arcs. This movie wasn't bad though, it was actually decently enjoyable.

The main problem with this movie for me was the lack of any interesting characters. The lead Jake Pentecost is actually pretty interesting at first, but as the movie goes on his character never really builds on the interest that I had at first. The rest of the characters are all pretty generic and unmemorable, I forgot most of them a few hours after the movie. The movie doesn't do much to build on any of the characters past their generic personalities. To the point that I don't even really care what happens to them when they are put in danger. They also attempt a lot of humor early on in the movie and most it didn't really work for me, it felt like it was trying too hard to have that Marvel style comedy. None of the characters had enough charisma to pull it off, or maybe the timing just wasn't right.

Really the only thing that saves this movie is the epic battles with the cool Kaijus Vs Jaeger concept. It never really gets old watching some cool robots and monsters using weapons and destroying cities in battle, at least not when it looks as great as this movie. The visuals during the fights are still really fun and exciting, even though the characters don't feel that important. The designs for the Kaiju and Jaegers are also as cool as they were in the first one for the most part.

If you're looking for some chaotic action with lots of destruction and robots fighting giant monsters, then you'll probably still get enjoyment out of this movie. Don't expect a compelling story and characters that will stick with you. Everything here is passable, nothing was really terrible but also nothing was more than just okay. I'd probably say just watch the first one again if you really want to see giants fighting each other, but there might be enough in Uprising to at least watch once.

Overall Grade: C

Read More

Billboard Top 10 Week of March 24: Marvel Music Universe

2018 is going at full speed as we are already in spring and almost 4 months in. One thing that doesn't seem to be going full speed though is the music charts, as things don't seem to change in the way that I wish they would. The top three songs seem to be glued onto the charts and haven't changed much in months at this point, while some of those three have gone up and down, they've maintained their spot at least on the top 10. The rest of the charts is pretty unexciting, as the newcomers are artists that have been playing it safe for years now, or just don't bring anything fresh to the table. It seems that pop music is still in need of some kind of shot to the arm to shake things up a bit. Lots of big artists seem to be failing at reaching the higher part of the charts with new big releases, Justin Timberlake the latest big name to drop a huge album only to get mostly negative reactions. This seems like the perfect time for new artists to step up and bring something fresh and new, possibly make a mainstream name for themselves. Artists like Dua Lipa, XXXTentacion, and Bebe Rexha are trying to get their names out there, but don't have a strong body of work outside of their current singles (which aren't that great either).  Here's a quick look at the top songs of the week:

1. Drake - God's Plan

Drake has taken his spot back as the number one streamed at the moment with his new song God's Plan. He and Ed Sheeran are battling it out for the top spot, but since Ed Sheeran's album has already been out for a year and Drake just released two singles recently, it helps boost Drake enough to beat him out for now. God's Plan is another song where Drake seems to complain about how much negative attention he's getting from conflicts and "haters" and also brag about how influential he is. The song is as boring as any of his other recent hits and doesn't really get me excited about anything else Drake might drop in the future. Of course, it doesn't matter what I feel because whatever Drake releases will get eaten up by the radio and streaming.

2. Ed Sheeran - Perfect

There are few pop songs that really stand the test of time for me. Songs that I really like when I first listen to them and continue to like even years after it's relevant. This song is not one of those. While at first, I enjoyed the song for its simple charm, I've grown tired of it at this point. It's strange to think that a song I really wanted to hate like Shape of You is still a song I can enjoy and a song that I wanted to enjoy like Perfect just bores me now.

3. Bruno Mars - Finesse (W/ Cardi B)

Yep, still fun. 

4. Bebe Rexha/FL-GA Line - Meant to Be

Another boring song by Florida Georgia Line and whoever Bebe Rexha is. This is supposed to be Bebe's song but honestly, I don't see the difference between her and the usual FL-GA Line song. Boring lyrics, boring music, boring vocals and just not worth listening more than once. This song just offers a bunch of cliches that any living adult has already heard 100s of times in music and other media. The sad part is that it took four people to write this song. FOUR people. This is what the music industry gives us with four paid writers. I'm in the wrong line of work.

5. Post Malone - Psycho (W/ Ty Dolla Sign $$$$$$$$)

Living meme Post Malone returns with another giant selling single with Psycho. While Rockstar was enjoyable for a few listens before it got old, Psycho was bad right from the first listen. Another brag rap song with generic lyrics you'd expect from this kind of song these days. I can barely tell the difference between Malone and Ty Dolla because they have such similar styles. I'm quickly starting to lose interest in Post Malone as an artist, though I find him to be an interesting person. I guess an interesting personality doesn't always transfer to good music. Hopefully, his next single will show more effort.

6. Zedd - The Middle (W/ Grey and Maren Morris)

Continuing with the boring music comes the new single by Zedd with Maren Morris. I've never really paid too much attention to Zedd, but he has a decent song with Selena Gomez recently... no wait, that was Kygo. I'm not really too familiar with this genre, though I do really like similar artists like Martin Solveig, Madeon and Michael Calfan. This (Zedd) doesn't offer as much excitement and great music like those other artists. The vocals are fine, but the music doesn't isn't good enough to carry the song into more than just being okay. It sounds more like something The Chainsmokers would make, which is not a compliment. 

7. Camilla Cabello - Havana (W/ Young Thug)

As I said 3 months ago (because this song has been on the top 10 the whole year), I like the idea of this song. The problem is just the execution and the terrible guest verse by Young Thug. Adding Young Thug to any song instantly makes it worse, I actually tried to turn on the subtitles and forgot that I was listening to music. Looking up the lyrics though it turns out he was just talking about sleeping with a sex worker or a stripper or something... that makes sense and totally fits with the song. This song has nothing to do with Havana. 

8. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar - Pray For Me

Black Panther is not only killing it at the box office but also in the music charts with two big songs from the Black Panther album. In this song, two giants team up (Kenrick and Weeknd) to bring a good song with some good lyrics. Weeknd takes care of the hook and the opening verse and Kendrick takes the second verse. The song is about the burden that the hero has to take on while he tries to save the world (like Black Panther). It's a theme that Kendrick touched upon his last album a lot, so it was cool to see it come back up. I really liked this song, both artists provided great work to the song, with good music and lyrics to elevate their talent.

9. BlocBoy JB - Look Alive (W/ Drake)

Nice to see Drake saving his best work for a guest spot on BlocBoy JB's song here. I'm still pretty tired of hearing these trap beats in the top of the charts, it's getting pretty boring. At least this one has some good energy, even from Drake who's been pretty boring in his last few releases. It's not something I will listen to often, but I can see why someone would like this. It's one of the better ones I've heard recently.

10. Sza & Kendrick Lamar - All The Stars

Nice to see Sza getting some attention in the charts, even better is it also has Kendrick attached to it. Sza is so great and I really enjoy her music, the chorus here is extremely catchy and memorable. The song pretty much follows the same format as Pray For Me, with Sza taking the hook and the second verse with Kendrick taking the first verse. I can pretty much say the same about this song that I said about Pray For Me. I like this song better though because I enjoy Sza way more than I ever enjoyed The Weeknd, and the chorus just feels more powerful and memorable as I said. If you haven't checked out the Black Panther album, I recommend giving it a listen. 

Read More

Tomb Raider

Something something video game movies. With that out of the way, here's the review:

Based on the 2013 reboot of the popular video game franchise of the same name, Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. Lara is a young woman who is constantly being told by everyone that she is wasting her potential. Her father has gone missing for about 7 years and ever since then, Lara has struggled to find her purpose and gave up on her bright future and family fortune because she refuses to accept her father's death. 

(Wait a second. Didn't I just watch this movie last week? Actually, this movie does share a very similar plot to last week's big release A Wrinkle in Time. Both featuring female leads whose fathers disappear and lead the main characters to squander all their potential because of their refusal to accept their fathers' deaths. Thankfully, Tomb Raider is a much better movie than last week's. )

After finally realizing that her father wouldn't have wanted Lara to mope around her whole life, Lara decided to finally accept her families fortunes. In doing so, she finds out that her father left behind clues to a secret hidden in their mansion. A secret that will lead Lara to travel to a remote island off the coast of Japan where her father was last seen searching for the tomb of Himiko. On the island, Lara will face challenges that she could have never prepared for and try to uncover the mystery that took her father away from her. 

So this movie was actually pretty good, not great, but pretty good. The best part of the movie is by far Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, she definitely played the character as good as it could possibly be. Considering the movie is heavily focused on her character, it's very good that she is as great as she always is. Action movies just don't really work when you have a lead that you don't care about and seeing Lara Croft go through all the dangerous scenarios does make it a lot more compelling when you actually care about what happens to her. 

The story that drives the movie is fine and like I said before, very similar to the last movie I watched A Winkle in Time. That's not really any problem, but it is kind of funny and I thought worth mentioning. The story basically follows the main points of the video game and even includes some memorable moments in the video game recreated for the movie, so if you played the 2013 game you'll probably enjoy that like I did. It was never incredibly interesting (the story), but it did enough to keep me watching and never feel bored at all. The action sequences were fun, but nothing groundbreaking that had me in awe or in shock. The story is also mostly predictable, but that doesn't really take away from the fun of following along as it all happens. 

All the action scenes are done really well and fun to watch. There really isn't anything new or groundbreaking here, but that doesn't mean it's not a good time. Some fun chase scenes, shootouts, near-death moments and fighting. Between the moments of exposition and character building, the action helps keep things exciting.

I had a good time watching this movie, there was a lot to like and the flaws didn't keep me from enjoying it. Alicia Vikander was great and the supporting cast was mostly fine. The villain I didn't talk too much about is pretty generic for the most part, not really much information about him is given. The action is fun and the story was good enough to keep my attention throughout. It's a fun movie, one that probably won't be eager to revisit anytime soon. Vikander as Lara Croft definitely elevated this movie and is the main reason to give this one a watch.

Overall Grade: C+

Read More

A Wrinkle In Time

The year of Disney domination rolls on with it's second big release of the year, A Wrinkle in Time. This movie has a pretty big cast of well-known actors like Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Mindy Kaling. The movie isn't about any of those actors though, as the story focuses more on the younger Storm Reid, who plays the character of Meg Murry. The story centers around Meg and her family, two scientist parents that have been working on a method to travel through the galaxy instantaneously and Meg's genius younger brother Charles Wallace. It's been about four years since Meg's father mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again. Meg still hasn't found a way to deal with her father's disappearance and struggles through her daily life in school and at home. Things take a strange turn when three magical beings introduce themselves into the life of Meg and offer her the chance to travel the galaxy with special powers (or science) to find her missing father. So Meg, Charles Wallace and their new friend from school Calvin embark on an epic journey to find her father and get the answers that Meg has been wanting for four years.

So let me start off by saying that I have never read the original story and I have no emotional or nostalgic connection to this story at all. With that out of the way, I really did not like this movie. Before I get into why I didn't like it, let me say what was good about it. The best part of the movie was of course the visuals, lots of colorful and pretty visuals with good cinematography to go along with it. The movies faults didn't lie in it's visuals or effects, those were all good to great for the most part. The other good part were the performances by Storm Reid and Chris Pine (Meg and her father), who were the only really good ones in the movie and actually had a few great emotional scenes together, sadly those scenes didn't really work for me because of the rest of the movie taking away from them. Hopefully we'll see Storm Reid in other roles, because I think she definitely has some potential to be great in the future. 

Now for the bad parts, which were many. My biggest complaint with this movie is just how boring it is, just about 30-40 minutes into the movie and I was very eager for something interesting to happen or the movie to just end already. The main reason for this, was that I just didn't really care about any of the characters, especially Meg's brother and friend that tag along with her. Meg's brother Charles Wallace (whose full name is said in the movie about 100 times) was probably one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a movie in a long time. He came across, i'm sure unintentionally, as a pretentious little kid who's trying too hard to seem smart. It gets really bad towards the end of the movie where they put him in a situation that made me groan out loud a couple of times. As for Meg's friend Calvin, well he's just kind of a nothing character that doesn't really do much in the movie except look amazed at everything and... I think that's about it. They try to add a little backstory to him in the halfway point of the movie, but it feels a little forced and there's never really any resolution for it.  The three magical beings played by Oprah, Witherspoon and Kaling aren't very interesting either, mostly one note. Kaling's character "Mrs. Who" speaks only in quotes throughout the whole movie. Witherspoon's character "Mrs. Whatsit" mostly makes fun of the main character Meg. Orpah's character "Mrs. Which" is basically just what I imagine Oprah actually is in real life, not sure if that's a bad or good thing. Either way, all three of them are great actors in other projects, but didn't add anything to this movie.    

The entire story is kind of a mess in the movie. There are lots of things that aren't really explained well about the new world the kids find themselves in after traveling. I found no interest in the lore that they were trying to create for the world, because it wasn't really presented well and it almost felt like they were just making it up as they went along. It's clearly supposed to be this magical world full of wonder, adventure and mystery and the visuals present that well. The thing is, it doesn't matter how great the visuals are when the story and characters are presented poorly. The story won't matter if I don't care about the characters that the story is about. There was potential here for something really cool, and there are moments when you can see what the movie was trying to go for. The mix of science, fantasy and the positive message to kids who might be going through tough times should have made for a really good family movie with a strong message. Instead, I just found myself struggling to stay awake and not really caring what happens next. 

There was potential here for something cool, the premise seemed like it could lead to a mix of great adventure with some heartfelt emotional moments. Instead, it was a messy story with characters that I didn't care much about. The visuals are still pretty great and it's a pretty nice movie to look at in terms of presentation. There are still some nice moments with some good acting between Chris Pine and Storm Reid's characters and an overall positive message that I think will be good for kids to hear. I actually think that maybe this movie would be a good movie for a much younger audience, maybe they will get more out of it then I would and be able to look past it's flaws. This will be my first overall negative movie review, and I wish it wouldn't have been this movie. It's a story that I know a lot of people grew up with and love, but sadly I don't think it was done justice with this movie (as far as I know). 

Overall Grade: D+

Read More

My Feelings on Star Wars/Disney

In 1977, a little film by the name Star Wars was released to the public, needless to say it changed the landscape of film forever. The first Star Wars movie became one of the most successful films of all times, and the multiple sequels that followed would make much the same impact. Star Wars is one of the most beloved franchises of all time and continues to be to this day. What was it that made it stand out? To me it was the mix of adventure with some of the most memorable characters of all time. Characters that I grew to love after just one movie and continued to grow with each sequel. I've always loved works of fiction that create an entirely unique world that can be explored in hundred of different ways, like Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Elder Scrolls, and Game of Thrones to name a few.

The Original Star Wars trilogy introduced us to the story of a young man who is trying to find his purpose in life, more than the boring life he has been given on a lonely desert planet. Throughout the movie you get little hints of other really interesting stories that you want to know more about like the Jedi, smugglers and the Clone Wars. The movies do a good job at making you feel like the galaxy that they take place in is full of endless stories and introducing you to unique visuals to set it apart from our own world, or any other fictional world. Lightsabers, X-Wings, AT-AT Walkers, Storm Troopers, droids and aliens are all things that we associate with the Star Wars universe and instantly take us back to those original movies that we all love. With the end of the trilogy in Return on the Jedi, Star Wars went away for a long time. Between the original trilogy and the prequels we got lots of side stories in the form of books, comics and video games that kept us invested in the world of Star Wars. Those stories explored not only the characters that we loved already, but introduced and expanded on other characters that weren't featured in the movies. It wasn't until 1999 that we would see another Star Wars movie again.

The prequels have basically become a joke/meme to most Star Wars fans and movie-goers at this point, and a lot of people generally dislike them because of how they presented the story of Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader. There are lots of things that I still like about the movies, even though I know they aren't good. The visuals were still great at the time and all the new additions to the universe were interesting to see, not always good, but interesting. I actually really liked the movies when I was younger, but as I got older the flaws became more obvious and hard to ignore. The terrible writing was the thing that seemed to hurt the movies the most. A lot of the dialog in the movies is just boring or stupid. The romance between Anakin and Padme isn't believable because of the zero chemistry between them and Anakin's dialog makes him come across as an immature creep. But hey, Revenge of the Sith was pretty good. After the prequels, Star Wars movies seemed to be pretty much dead for many years, with not sign of any coming out or being developed. Then in 2012, Disney announced that it was buying Lucasfilm and it was going to start production on a new Star Wars trilogy... the world went crazy.

Like everyone who grew up watching Star Wars, I was incredibly excited to see what Disney was going to do with the Star Wars movies and what kind of new stories they would tell. The announcement was made that the new trilogy would be a sequel to the original movies and would be bringing back all of the main cast for the first time in decades. December 2015 finally came and everyone went to watch the new Star Wars, The Force Awakens, breaking opening weekend records and making Disney even more money than they already have. It was a great movie that borrowed heavily from it's predecessor A New Hope, but it felt necessary to bring people back after the prequels. But before all of this happened, Disney had announced that it would be releasing a new Star Wars movie every year for the next decade or longer. Force Awakens was just the start of Disney's new film series.

Star Wars movies always felt like something special, something that only happens once a generation. The trilogy movies would come out at least three years apart before Disney, and now they would be coming every single year. You could say that this is a great thing, I mean just look at what Disney is doing with Marvel. Marvel movies are released 2-3 times a year now, and all of them are pretty huge hits financially and critically, so this should be good for Star Wars too right? Well they aren't really the same thing, as Marvel is a company that has hundreds of characters and stories all with different styles and genres of comics. As we've seen with Marvel, we can get many different movies with very different styles a year. Just look at the past year, we've gotten Black Panther, Spider-Man Homecoming, and Thor Ragnarok which all have a different style from each other and tell very different stories. With Star Wars, all we've seen so far from Disney is stories that take place in the timeline following characters and stories we already know, not going too far from the well known formula. Rouge One was the first Star Wars spin-off ever, and yet it took place in the same story that we've been following in all the Star Wars movies. Now the second spin-off Solo, is yet another movie that does that same thing. Instead of trying something new and traveling to a new place in the Star Wars universe we get another prequel story about a character we don't really need a prequel to. I really can't wait for Star Wars to move away from the bubble that they keep themselves in, but I guess there really isn't a reason to when they keep making so much money. I hope to see more risks like in The Last Jedi, where even though it didn't always work, at least they were trying new things. We'll always have the original movies from 70's and 80's, it's time to try something new and explore the world outside of those movies. Disney has announced now that they will be making a new trilogy after Episode IX, one that takes place in a completely different part of the universe than all of the movies so far. Hopefully these movies will be the thing to get me excited about Star Wars again, and bring a fresh take on the series. I want to be excited about Star Wars again, but for now I will wait to see what these new stories are going to be.

Hopefully i'm not the only one who feels this way, and hopefully all of that made some sense. 

Read More