The Last Jedi: a Star Wars Adventure

I intend to keep my reviews short. Last Jedi, the VIII installment in the Star Ward Saga will be difficult to reviewed in short. It is not a complex movie, it basically follows A New Hope formula, added bit of own twist and interpretation of things but watching it left a complex mixture of emotion within.

Last Jedi picks up where episode VII left us, which is not easy since I could hardly recall much from that installment. Generally, the villainous First Order is on the rise, the Republic has once again became the rebel resistance and being chase across the galaxy. Rey manage to locate Luke Skywalker but he is too occupied with guilt and self pity that he refuse to return to the battle. In the mean time, there is a side story about Kylo Ren/ Ben Solo inner struggle with the dark side. Though the movie hinted that there may be still spark of prodigal son in him, there is no-one else to pick up the villain role, so we can be assure that he will not be returning to the good side but will remain with the dark side. The show ended with the resistance being cornered in a planet, chased by Kylo Ren, and Luke came to save the day, which provide the resistance an escape route to continue the fight in episode IX.


The CGI is as expected, though not many space battle sequence is shown. The battle cruiser still bring back lots of memories. However, unlike the initial trilogy, there are no depiction of vast diverse of star wars, but just focus on the battle ships. There is of course creation of cute creatures for marketing purpose. Very smart of Disney, in the last movie, they succeeded in making BB8 into one of the most sought Christmas gift. This round, they created some big eye bird like creature with snow fox. Though all the characters tried their best to play their role, Mark Hamilton looks tired in his role, which it is a pity to see Carrie Fisher in her last role.


What works? The formula which works for New Hope works here. Resistance being underdog. New spark of hope. So much going on the whole movie, felt like watching a adventure movie. But, I can understand why so many fans were disappointed the way Luke Skywalker was written. After graduating through the initial trilogy, he was depicted as a self pity Jedi master. If I had not watch episode 4-6, I would not like the Luke here. The other side story was OK, but serve rather as a side dish, it did not add anything to the main story. And the main story of Rey is rather average, it just did not engage us like Luke in episode 4. Simply because episode 4 is solely about Luke while introducing a worthy villain. Episode 8, is a bag of adventure. Too much going on. They have to be politically correct. They had to introduce cute product to sell later. They had to manage the expectation of the original fans. In the end, they manage to end up with a good movie. Just not an epic one.

ratings: 3 half poink~!
comments: best Star Wars movie is still Rogue One

Justice League: attempt at the piece of the pie

Been there, done that. That would probably summarize Justice League. It would not be a bad thing, if DC/ Warner Bros could do as good as the Avengers. They tried, copying back the similar formula as Marvel Cinematic Universe, but by rushing to catch up, the movie just feel flat.


I would not be purist as to say who copy who. Marvel has the Avengers, DC has JLA. Marvel has Captain America, DC has Wonder Woman. One play with Quicksilver, the other the Flash. The list will just go on. However, no one can deny that Marvel Studio did an amazing feat by creating a series of independent movies to weave into a huge story arch, heading towards the finale by next year. It is a HUGE risk to take, but they just hit the bulls-eye. DC realizing while they are missing on the piece of pie although they were neck to neck in terms of comics popularity. However, DC are so many movies behind. And if they follow the exact formula, they need to make at least a few more titles before they reach Justice League. Thus, Justice League felt rushed, arrival before time, and definitely premature.




The story is not as dark as Nolan's Batman. It felt more light, follow simple super hero league kind of formula. Heroes gathering together, forming alliance to battle a common enemy who threaten the fate of the whole world. Continuing from Dawn of Justice, Batman felt the need to gather other super heroes to battle any enemies in the absence of Superman since his death in the last movie. Batman, Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman and Wonder Woman join forces to battle an alien force led by Steppenwolf who threaten to destroy earth. In the process, they had to resurrect Superman and with the man of steel on their side, they manage to drive away the enemy.


Yup, it felt so Avengers but no harm in that, since Wonder Woman felt so Capt. America but yet so entertaining. Where did it went wrong? The action is fair, but none that is out of this world. Many had complain of the computer graphic, and it did look like something out of PS4. The humour is present, usually with the Flash, but felt disjointed overall. The main problem lies on the characterization. Avengers work because we were introduced to a few of them in their own individual movies before the main show. The introductory movies were good that we actually care for them, even in the beginning of Avengers. That will leave Marvel more chance to introduce other minor character like Hawkeye and Black Widow or reintroduce Hulk. DC did not have that. Nolan's Batman did not fit into the extended universe, Superman earlier movies was not impressive, and Dawn of Justice left us with a bad impression of Superman and Batman. The only saving grace was Wonder Woman solo effort. Aquaman, was.... an extra in this movie. It probably would help to have James Wan's Aquaman before Justice League. The other amazing effort from Marvel was the seamless integration of movie and the TV series. Although they do not overlap much, but at least the timeline do flow parallel. DC, on the other hand, did a huge overlap in the Flash. Different Flash. Ouch. I really want to like the movie version. He is funny, he is the Spiderman of Avengers. However, I am stuck imagining Grant Justin. DC should have let Flash stay in TV and take this chance to reboot Green Lantern instead. And did I mention Cyborg's design was... awful. It felt the same how Transformers redesign the robots for the movie, over-designing them just to make it look sophisticated.

To be fair, it is still a good movie. But certain recipe need to be cook, slowly. You can't cook rice in 3 minutes. Certainly you cant make an Avengers movie that fast. It need to be brewed.

ratings: 2 half poink~!
comments: think DC want to use Darkseid as Thanos to MCU. We will see how it turn up.

Thor Ragnarok: Psychedelic Adventure

Many people has high regards and good comments on Thor Ragnarok. They could not be too far away from the truth. No one can deny the grasp of Marvel Cinematic Universe on the super hero movie genre. DC had score a few gems lately but still yet to rival Marvel long dominion over the cinematic universe. However, most people would also agree with me that MCU had been recycling formula and struggle to find their footing lately. They still make good movie, just that... it is not as great. The only few that stood out for me was Deadpool. And Marvel learnt from that. Humour sells.



Thor Ragnarok is rather recycle super hero idea, though I could not comment how close it is to the source material. Super Hero meets his match, experience set back. Then he discover something special, either power, revelation or rediscover himself and that lead to the defeat of the villain. This time, Thor met his match in his elder sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death. (I just learnt that in the actual comic, Hela was the daughter of Loki). While nearly suffering defeat, Thor crashed to a different planet, involve in gladiator type of fight with Hulk, enroll few other character to return back to Asgard to battle Hela. Hmmm.. Been there, done that. To be fair, there was nothing special when we talk about the story.


However, visually it was a feast. Not the big explosion type of Michael Bay, but more psychedelic type of visual feast. Different use of colours. Much things going on at each screen. The script was well written with a generous dose of humour, though some may felt forced, most of them generate genuine chuckles. The action would not excite me anymore, but serve its purpose to move the story along. The only drawback was Loki conversion to being one of the heroes felt artificial. Bad guys should remain bad, period. Valkyrie character was also not written well, it just serve as a empty slot to feature another female actress.


In the end, I truly enjoyed the movie. It felt good. But like many psychedelic adventure, I guess I would not recall much of the content, just the excitement.

ratings: 3 half poink~!
comments: waiting for infinity war..

Netflix Death Note: simply sacrilegious

I promise this will be short. I love Death Note. The original manga was brilliant, remain one of my top manga story aside Naoki Kurasawa sensei's work such as 20th Century Boys. The anime was good. The Japanese movie did a fairly good job in the 2 parts. L save the world was wrong. The newer live action series did a fair job, despite not loving the ending. The new Japanese Death Note movie tried to re-imagine the series. American adaptation? Sacrilegious. It was so bad that I make sure I finish the movie to write a fair review to say how bad it is.

Dont the American learn? Adaptation do not work every time. They could have done a better job if they just write the new story as a movie based or inspire by Death Note. Netflix tried to localized the story but it just fell flat. For those who have not heard of Death Note, it is really a note book own by Death Gods or Shinigami who have the power to kill any names that were written on it. Light who chanced upon the note book began his quest to be justice for the world, killing off criminals and became the new justice for the dreamed utopia world. However, power corrupts, as the government enlisted the help of international renowned detective, L. Thus, began the brilliant story of both Ls.



The psychological thriller ended up as a B grade movie under Netflix. While the original story works with subtle suspense, Netflix depend on big explosion and gruesome way to die. Come one, decapitation? The characters are ALL wrong. Light used to be a brilliant idealist, who even kill a Shinigami in the original series. Here, Light is just a spoilt brat, craving for attention. L? From a brilliant detective, he became a confused average kid detective. They try to copy the odd Asperger-ish characteristic, but that did not help. If he was so smart, how could he allow the FBI agents who involve in the case to use their own names? Ryuk ended up being a giant gremlin. Ouch. The original story arc was brilliant in the battle between Light and L involving the FBI agents. I can go on and on, but since I promise a short review, here it is. Do not waste your time.

rating: 0 poink
comments: I am bias, since the source material was brilliant. This is simply.... sacrilegious.

Tokyo Ghould: Less than manga, entertaining nonetheless

 I'm been waiting for Tokyo Ghoul since the announcement months back and the trailer was amazing. Did the movie live up to expectation? For any adaptation there is bound to be comparison to the original work. 

While original manga had average visual (I prefer Tokyo Ghoul :re), the story was immerse with multiple layers of depth. It s not the usual type of shonen story. The good news is, the movie follow rather closely to the manga, especially the front half, took some liberty with the sequence in the later half so it will fit nicely into 120 minutes. 

The story revolve Kaneki who during a date was injured by a man eating creature called ghoul. Mortally injured,  he was transplanted with organs of the said ghoul unknowingly and ended up being half ghoul himself. The problem, despite given extra human strength and healing, ghouls can only survive on human flesh rendering them hunted by the government. The first bulk of movie focus on Kaneki's struggle of accepting hs ghoul side.  This is where the movie shine.  The spot-on portrayal by Kubota depcit accurately the struggle of discovering the monster within,  hating of what you have become,  and not able to do what other normal human do, for example eat normally.  The cries and tears is really heart wrenching.  He is later taken in by group of ghoul who work in a coffee shop, as they believe peaceful coexistence with humans.

Any observant viewer could see the resemblance with Xmen world. Gifted people who did not choose to be who they are.  Human shun them for their difference.  Protaganoist enlisted to group of peaceful outcast who believe peaceful coexistence.  Simply uncanny resemblance.  But here Tokyo Ghoul excel in realism.  The emotion was demonstrated way early in the story.  The movie had us rooted to the ghoul side despite the cannibalism but compare to the manga series,  it is much complex than that. The lingering ethical sociology commentary on both ghouls and human caught in a unfortunate war started by mother nature. No one is the actual villain,  just victims of circumstances. The casting was perfect.  The script is well paced,  as expected from any Japanese movie.  Do not expect action from start to end as Tokyo Ghoul is an emotional film more than action.  The problem cones to action sequence.  By today standard,  it is poor.the action is obviously computer generated and lack realsim.  The other flaw of the movie lies in the climax.  In the manga Kaneki's maiden major battle was woven smoothly to the story but here due to simpifying the story,  the evolution of his character felt too forced.  Its a pity that they took enough time to develop his character earlier in the movie. 

While fans of the series may appreciate more, the movie ended up being another manga adaptation. It is still good, entertaining, just because the source material is that good. If you want more, go read the manga. 

Rating: 3 poink~!

comments: very accurate portrayal of all the character.