REVIEW: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

If there's anything that can wake me up from my hiatus (even if it's only temporarily), it's this film. Because what kind of movie critic would miss the chance to review the return of the most iconic film series of all time?

I'm just gonna say this right here, right now: at it's core, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is basically a remix of A New Hope. In terms of characters, plot, it's quite obvious that SWTFA is an homage, a throwback to the nearly 40-year-old film, although with a little of its own slight changes. Some things don't change: the opening crawl is still there, still the same; wipe transition is still a thing; the soundtrack is still big and loud and grander than ever. Other things are different, but you can draw parallels between this film and the original Star Wars. Finn (John Boyega) is Luke Skywalker, the young hero with a heart that just wants to do the right thing; Rey (Daisy Ridley) is Leia, strong-willed, courageous and independent who needs no saving; and well Kylo Ren is so obviously a Darth Vader knockoff in a new mask and a cooler lightsaber.

(And when I say knockoff, I mean that in the fondest of ways)

Also, R2-D2 is now made of two spheres with a new coat of paint and renamed to BB-8. Easily one of the cutest things I've ever laid eyes on.

But I'm not saying that the similarities is a bad thing. I loved the fact that I could pick out element that came out of the original films, there were scenes that echoed some of the most memorable parts in the episodes IV, V and VI. It was nostalgic, perhaps even more so for those who have been fans of the series since the very beginning.

Hello, it's me.

I absolutely adore the writing in this film. Pacing is good, and there's hardly a dull moment in all two hours. The script is original, natural, and witty. Just like in the original films, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) basically gets all the best lines in the film, with Finn being a close contender. 

As the leads of the film, both Boyega and Ridley carried their roles incredibly well. Even Adam Driver who plays a character who's quite literally Darth Vader's successor was excellent in portraying a powerful antagonist, but is impulsive and unstable. Basically, Adam Driver is what Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker could have been, should have been. Partnered with veterans of the series such as Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, the acting and characterization are simply on point.

Kylo Ren's gonna give Darth Vader a run for his money.

Watching TFA while being shrouded in so much mystery was a great experience. To go into the movie almost blind, not knowing what was going to happen—not because I avoided any trailers and what-nots, but because there was little to nothing that I could find out about it before actually watching the film itself. This is when I got to experience what the audience might have felt when watching the original trilogy all those years ago, since every big twist in the original films were spoiled way before I even got around to watching them. But with TFA, I get it. I get how big deal it must have been back then, with revelations of Darth Vader's identity, and the true relationship between Luke and Leia. I never did get the full impact of those scenes. Until now, that is. And trust me on this, TFA has some pretty strong tricks and twists up its sleeves.

I know a lot of you might decide to go into TFA without watching the previous films, especially the original trilogy since it's old and the special effects are basically wonky and outdated by now, but I implore you to take some time and marathon them. TFA might be the first installment of a new trilogy with a largely different cast, but it is does take place decades after the incidents in Return of The Jedi, it is at its core a sequel to the original trilogy. It would be hard to understand the significance of some of the things and characters in TFA. For one, when Han and Chewie first appeared on the screen, it just felt so good and amazing seeing them back that it got such a loud reaction from the audience.

Am I being a little preachy? Maybe. But seriously, don't watch TFA without ever having watched the original films. A lot of fun gets lost when that happens.

Han: Chewie, we're home
Me: *sobs uncontrollably*

Feel free to ignore the prequels though. Trust me, at this point we really can forget that train wreck ever existed.

Me when I think about the prequel trilogy.

From the hands of director J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the comeback that fans of this series—new or old—truly deserves. All the hype that built up to this were not wasted, and it's very well worth the wait.

2017 cannot come soon enough.

Brb, gotta go hunt down BB-8 merch.

Other trivial musings : I'm terrible disappointed with Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma. I mean come on, you cast Brienne of Tarth and that's all there is to her role??? ಠ_ಠ


 TL;DR : Excellent revival of the series, solidifying its status as one of the greatest movie franchises of all time. Overall a great, fun ride to a galaxy far, far away.

I rate it : 8/10 stars

Should you watch it? YESSS but only if you watch the original trilogy before.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)

Genre : It's Star Wars. It's an entirely new category on its own.

Runtime : 135 mins

Director : J.J. Abrams

Cast : Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscaar Isaac, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

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REVIEW : The Martian (2015)

The Martian: basically an alternate universe of Interstellar where Murphy ends up going to space, and Dr. Mann is the good guy.

I'm kidding. If there's anything in common between the two films besides have two of the same actors on screen, it's that half of the story does not take place on Earth and that's about it.

The plot in The Martian is actually pretty straightforward. When a mission on Mars gets hit by a storm, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by an antenna and then separated from the rest of the team who are forced to make an evacuation. Presuming he's dead, mission commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) makes the difficult decision to leave him behind. Only it turns out that he's alive, and is all alone on the red planet. Even though the odds are stacked incredibly high against him, with his wisecrack humour and Lewis' disco music that was left behind, Watney, a botanist, decides that he's not going to give up and die, then proceeds to do anything possible to survive on the inhospitable planet—from planting potatoes fertilised by leftover human waste, to making water from rocket fuel. Eventually, NASA finds out that they've left a man behind, hence the mission to bring Mark Watney home begins.

Yeah science, bitch.

I'm going to say this straight off the bat, The Martian is bloody amazing. I had such high expectations for it that it was very easy for it to just underwhelm, but it didn't. The Martian reached a point that was even higher that what I was expecting. If I'm supposed to grade it, The Martian doesn't get an A, it's gets a triple-starred A with a cherry on top. Director Ridley Scott (famous for films such as the original Alien film, Blade Runner, and Gladiator) makes the fictional mission seem like a sure possibility—which, considering the way things are going, it might be a reality in the future— but it still keeps it grounded. I do love how scenes on Mars are basically a mix between actual filming, and footage from Watney's video logs all around Mars. Whether it be his vlogs where he's talking into the camera (and to an extension, us), or an over-the-shoulder recording from his suit's camera. Editing in this is top-notch as well.

The cast did an amazing job in this movie. Matt Damon embodies Mark Watney so well that it's hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job. His performance feels authentic, and he never loses Watney's wit and humour. Chiwetel Ejiofor deserves a mention as well for being Vincent Kapoor, the person-in-charge of all the missions to Mars. Next to Watney, some of the funniest lines and scenes come from this guy. And of course, Sean Bean's Mitch Henderson whom you can trust to always do the right thing, even if everyone else is vehemently against it.

And he doesn't die. Which is nice.

There's also Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) who's also pretty funny. And also figures out a way to save Mark Watney.

I won't go into the usual route of comparing the books and films, on which is better and listing out all plot points in the book that the film missed out on. Naturally, considering the time constraint a film has, movie!Watney's survival on Mars is relatively easier than book!Watney's experience. The movie did exclude a few incidents presented in the book, and the book does give a more detailed account on what's going on, but I'm satisfied with the omissions made. If the movie were to have all of these, it would probably be two or three times longer than it's current two hours and twenty minutes length. Overall, it's one of the most faithful book-to-movie adaptations I've seen.

As long as the jokes in he book are in the movie then I'm not going to complain.

The thing is, I think the best way to enjoy The Martian is to both watch and read the book. If you read only the book, sometimes it's just a lot of scientific jargon for the average reader to follow and I often found myself just glossing over the text. But if you're just going to watch the movie, sometimes you don't quite get an understanding of what's going on cause they don't explain the details. I know it's kind of an oxymoron, but you'll understand if you've read the book and watch the movie. Think of it this way: sometimes it's easier to understand something if you look at it being done or do it yourself instead of just reading it on paper, that's what the movie does; sometimes you want to understand the specifics of doing something, that's where you'll read up on it, which in this case is the book. The movie is a visual representation of the book (which all movie adaptations are, in general) whereas the book is like a more comprehensive subtitle for the movie.

Read it, watch it, and you'll have the best of both worlds.

Perks of reading The Martian: if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, at least you'll have a chance of not dying.

I'm going to digress a bit over here. Is it me or is Jessica Chastain a little bit typescast? For three movies now (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, and The Martian) I've seen her playing essentially the same character. A strong, intelligent, gutsy woman who's also not afraid to be in charge. It's just that I don't think she's good, because she's a brilliant actress. But, you know. Maybe it's just I haven't seen enough of her films. I do hope it's the latter.

The Ares III crew, right before everything went to shit.

 Overall, The Martian is an amazing film that you should experience, even if you're not a fan of sci-fi. Because at the heart of it, is the fundamental theme that drives humanity: the will to survive, and the roller coaster ride of emotions that comes with it. Maybe at the end of this film, you'll be like me, holding yourself back from giving it a standing ovation. Because that's exactly how good this movie is.

#SoDone

Other trivial musings : How do you know that a director has crazy attention to details? When Rich Purnell exhales in visible puffs while sitting NASA's supercomputer room. That's how.
 
TL;DR : A survival film that sucks you in, then makes you gasp in fear, cry, and laugh—all in the span of 141 minutes.
 

I rate it : 10/10 stars

Should you watch it? Yes, you'll be doing yourself a favour. 

THE MARTIAN (2015)

Genre : Sci-Fi Adventure

Runtime : 141 mins

Director : Ridley Scott

Cast : Matt Damon, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean etc.

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REVIEW : Insurgent (2015)

And the Divergent series is back, this time with a longer and clunkier official title of The Divergent Series: Insurgent. But if I'm being completely honest, it came back with less bang than the first movie did.

Insurgent picks up from where the previous film left off: the main character Tris (Shailene Woodley), her very hunky boyfriend Four (Theo James), her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) who runs funny, and the very annoying git that is Peter (Miles Teller), have escaped with their lives and are seeking refuge in Amity camps. On the other side of town, the bad guys that are led by Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) have found themselves a box that was guarded by Tris and Caleb's now-dead parents, a box that is rumoured to hold an important message from the Founders on what to do in case of a crisis. And there is no other way to open it than by using a Divergent. (It is only after watching the movie and refreshing my memory by reading the book's summary did I realise that this box and the tests needed to crack it open do not exist in bookverse. Apparently, it's not the only big difference there is.)

This whole thing? Doesn't happen in the book.

Be warned though : Insurgent is not a movie you can go into without watching Divergent first. The closest you have for a summary is Jeanine on monitors on the side of police trucks, explaining how every last Divergents—those who fit into too many boxes in their Faction society—must be hunted down because "they are a threat to the fabric of the Faction society.

I loved Divergent. I've never read the book, never planned on watching it in the first place since one can only take so much YA dystopian fiction before feeling completely nauseous. And maybe it's because of that, maybe it's because I never had much of an expectation in the first place, I was blown away by Divergent. Perhaps that's the beef I have with Insurgent; I was so blown away by Divergent that a certain level of expectation has been fixed, I needed something more, something better from Insurgent in order to be impressed. I thought Divergent was amazing simply because I had no expectations going in and it was easy to impress me. Insurgent had to try harder this time and it's sad to say that it didn't.

Naomi Watts plays Four's mother; it's just disconcerting that she looks like she's the same age as him.

It's not to say that Insurgent is bad; as someone who watched it because she loved the first movie, it was decent at best. Everything was just all right. The writing is just all right; the world that the series is set in seems to be a little less all right than in Divergent for some reason. If there's something in this movie that is better than all right, it would be Shailene Woodley's acting, and the special effects in Tris's dreams and the countless simulations she's thrown into. 

If there's one thing that fundamentally wrong with Insurgent when you compare it with Divergent is the soundtrack, or the lack of it to be more precise. I won't deny the possibility that the reason I love Divergent as much as I do was partly because of its killer soundtrack, scenes with Ellie Goulding crooning in the background or M83's ballad sending shivers down my spine, nothing of that sort exists in Insurgent. Who knows, maybe they spent most of the budget on special effects and allocated little to none for the music department.

In short, Insurgent is a much poorer sequel to Divergent on many fronts. Maybe they're trying to emulate the book series since each book becomes progressively worse in terms of quality and plot. But hey, that's a story for another day.

Raise your hand if you have ever been kissed by Shailene Woodley.

I rate it : 6/10 stars

THE GOOD : Shailene Woodley's acting and the special effects, that's pretty much it.

THE BAD : So much wasted talent in one movie (Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, even Maggie Q who returns from the first but has an appallingly short time onscreen in this installment); almost everyone seems to be an asshole in this movie

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...are a fan of the first movie. (Just don't get your hopes too high up)

• ...are a fan of the book series (Obviously)

• ...would like a reunion of Shailene Woodley's famous onscreen boyfriends.

INSURGENT (2015)

Genre : Sci-Fi Adventure

Runtime : 119 minutes

Director : Robert Schwentke

Cast : Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort

REVIEW : Chappie (2015)

Can we all just take a moment and talk about Chappie? (Or CHAPPiE, as the film likes to call itself) One day before going into it, I was surprised to find that there were no reviews or anything on the Internet. It was only after the movie when I learned that there was a review embargo of some sorts so that those who have watched it are not allowed to talk about it before it is officially released. And I understand why that embargo was in place.

Because if reviews were to appear before the movie was actually released, not many would have watched it.

Chappie is set in a Johannesburg where the streets are policed by droids a la Robocop. Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) is the creator of these "Scouts" and eventually he finds a way to give his robots a consciousness, an actual artificial intelligence. But when his proposal to just test his idea gets shut down by the CEO of the company he works for, Deon decides to steal a damaged robot to carry on with his experiment.

Unfortunately, he gets kidnapped on his way home, with stolen property in the back of his van. The kidnappers are gangstas (ends with an 'a', not 'er') America (Jose Pablo Cantillo), Ninja and Yolandi (played by Ninja and Yolandi from Die Antwoord) who have gotten themselves into burning hot water and decide that the only way out of it was to stage a heist. But first, they would need to find a way to shut down the Scouts. Thus, the kidnapping.

However, when they realise the decommissioned machine in the back of the van and the possibilities posed by Deon's idea, Yolandi and Ninja decides to adopt the robot instead. Thus, Chappie is born.

Meanwhile, back in the office, Deon has an adversary in the form of Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) who builds a Ceph Pinger-like machine that fails to get the recognition and attention Deon's Scouts have. For some reasons that I don't understand, Hugh Jackman dresses up like a zookeeper in this film, besides also being the dumbest villain I have ever seen.

Crysis's Ceph Pinger on the left; Chappie's "The Moose" on the right

Here's what I do like about Chappie: I like the robot, because scenes with it are the only scenes I find truly entertaining. It's funny and it showed so much emotion that it felt human enough. But mostly it's a funny little thing, naive, clueless and childlike.There's one part in the movie where Chappie is tricked into thinking that it's taking back Daddy Ninja's cars from people who stole them, when in fact it was just carjacking.

Yolandi has a pink version of the same gun, if you're wondering.

Here's what I don't like about Chappie: everything else. Chappie feels like a family sci-fi film without being family-friendly. You have themes of love, of doing what's right and knowing what's wrong, of parenting albeit bad parenting. But then you also have people (read: Ninja) cursing like he's a thirteen-year-old living the #thuglife, violent scenes of people getting shot at, and even one death that is nothing but gruesome. Some other points that grate on my nerves are:

• The other characters are very single minded and there's really only one facade to each of their personalities.
• The script made me cringe more than once--although Chappie's lines are sometimes adorably funny, other times they're still cheesy.
• There are more plot holes I can count among other things that either do not make sense, or is outright idiotic. 
• I do not understand why the Die Antwoord duo were cast because it was awful to sit through their performances, They're rappers/singers, not actors. Patel was just okay. Hugh Jackman was a complete PitA but that's more of the fault of the character itself than him.

I seriously have no idea how anyone can pull this off in the office without getting their asses fired immediately.

While Chappie could have been a great platform to properly discuss about artificial intelligence. the future of it and the good and the bad, but director Neill Blomkamp wasted a big idea by given it a hollow inside. The only thing I kept seeing was the reinforcement that Chappie has feelings. I do wish that more thought could have been given when the script was written, and not just filling the entire movie with banal tropes found in stories written by a kid.

But who knows, maybe I'm being too harsh on the movie. I did go in with some degree of expectations because the trailer seemed promising, so maybe here's me being bitterly disappointed. So if you intend on watching Chappie, it's better to either go in with the bar set real low or with no expectations at all. Maybe then it would be an enjoyable experience.

After Chappie and Jupiter Ascending, I'm really prepared to swear off the sci-fi genre for a while

I rate it : 4/10 stars

THE GOOD : Chappie the robot.

THE BAD : Chappie the movie.

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...don't already have that great of an expectation for this movie. 
• ...have someone who shares the same tastes and can laugh off the silly/ridiculous moments in the movie with you. 
• ...are just a blockbuster, action-movie fan.
• ...like Transformers, but maybe with less fighting.

CHAPPIE (2015) 

Genre : Action Sci-fi  

Runtime : 120 minutes 
Director : Neill Blomkamp 

Cast : Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman

REVIEW : Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Oh boy. If there ever was a train-wreck, it'd probably look something like Jupiter Ascending. I had pretty high hopes when I saw the first trailer, but dread started to set in as a few more of them came out and by the time I went into the cinemas, I wasn't really sure where to set my expectations at.

Too much space? Kindda.

I'm not sure where to start with explaining how Jupiter Ascending works. But I'm going to try my best to make the plot summary not convoluted. So here we go:

Mila Kunis plays Jupiter Jones whose astrology may tell her that she was born destined for greater things, but in in reality she is stuck with waking up at 4.45am every day for a job that involves scrubbing other people's toilets. But as it turns out, her genetic code happens to be exactly the same as the late Abrasax matriarch, which makes her a royalty and heir to the Earth. The movie calls this phenomenon a 'Recurrence'. 

Now the Abrasax family are really more like capitalist royalties than (actual) royalties, whose business involves harvesting living beings to produce regenerative youth serums that would allow them to live forever. In the case of Earth, humans are the ones that are to be harvested. After the death of the matriarch, the Abrasax family is survived by three members: Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and Titus (Douglas Booth). Earth, being the more valuable planet of them all, is inherited by Balem (that is without Jupiter in the picture) while the other two siblings are left pining over it. In short, they all pretty much hate each other.

Naturally, everything is set off balance when Jupiter enters the picture. Now Balem wants her killed, Kalique wants to be "friends" with her, and Titus wants to marry her. All of them send their own hunters to track her down, and the one that Titus sends is none other than half-human, half-wolf Caine Wise(Channing Tatum).

Still with me?

Caine Wise (Tatum) here to save the day. Swoosh.

At times, Jupiter Ascending feels like the directors, The Wachowskis, decided it would be a good idea (it's not) to take elements from every fantastical space movies out there, from Thor to Guardians of the Galaxy to Star Wars and maybe even Star Trek, and condense them into one single movie. No doubt that the world they've imagined and created is rich, but sometimes it feels overbearing. And instead of letting the audience explore the world themselves, all subtlety is thrown out of the window as we're spoonfed with dialogue explaining in detail how everything works, coupled with space-fantasy lingo scattered everywhere. Let's just say, the expositions are just eugh.

Save for a few funny one-liners, the writing in Jupiter Ascending really isn't that great. Characters in this film are as typical and two-dimensional as they can be. Jupiter being the typical female lead heroine who acts like she's a twelve-year-old girl; Caine being the typical broody, badass hero with a dark past and skeletons in his closets; Balem being that quiet Big Evil that has very loud outbursts once in a while; and Titus being the Ken doll lookalike who hides a knife behind that smile. The love story between Caine and Jupiter is cringe-worthy, all thanks to the corny lines that Mila Kunis has to deliver. I still shudder when I think of it. 

Douglas Booth needs to bring his beard back ASAP

I'm not going to lie, when the movie first began, I thought it was pretty decent. It captured my interest for about a half hour or so, and then things just went downhill. I don't remember how many times I've caught myself yawning, or cringing, or thinking to myself, 'Why does Jupiter seem so calm and okay with this? I don't imagine how anyone could so easily accept something so bizarre in such a short time.' There may have been a couple of times when I just threw my hands into the air and whispered 'For the love of god'. However, when I REALLY think about it, the plot is actually quite okay. It's as bad as what was shown on screen. But it's the horrific writing that makes it almost un-watchable. Who knows, maybe if the same thing was put in the hands of some other writer and director, perhaps Jupiter Ascending could have turned out decent.

The only thing that's really worth praising I guess are of course the CGI special effects which are definitely impressive, such as a few large scenes on a magnificent scale. The sets are of course grand, especially in the case of Titus's and Kalique's respective space homes. Gotta give the set designers props(geddit?) for that. Not only that, some of the costumes worn in this film were beautiful, from Jupiter's gown you see in the trailer to Titus's sleek suits, to Kalique's dress that slightly reminds me of Taylor Swift's during the Grammys.

But really, the writing in Jupiter Ascending completely ruined it. Trust me, besides the fantastical space elements and cool CGI, this movie has nothing to impress. Well, save for maybe a topless Channing Tatum. That's always a welcome.

Who needs clothes when you're Channing Tatum? Amirite or amirite?

Oh, by the way. Sean Bean's in this movie too, if you don't know, and spoiler alert: he doesn't die.

I rate it : 3/10 stars

THE GOOD : Cool CGI, set designs and costumes are nice.

THE BAD : Bad, bad writing which results in bad everything, e.g : characters, storyline, dialogue etc.

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...are a true fan of the fantasy sci-fi action genre
• ...don't mind being spoonfed with explanations on how everything works in movieland.
• ...can stand corny dialogue. And when I mean corny, I mean a total cringefest. 
• ...are in the mood for a terrible movie.

JUPITER ASCENDING (2015) 

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action

Runtime : 127 minutes
Director : Lana Wachowski , Andy Wachowski

Cast :  Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton, Douglas Booth