As compared to other years, this year seemed to be the epitome of blockbuster movies.
Its only July and I've been to the theaters 4 times already in the past 2 months. And its pretty rare for me considering that I only go to the theaters once a year to watch that 1 film everyone talks about or to catch the occasional japanese films that comes out in Singapore. I used to be an avid fan of going to the theatres cuz of my parents, however in the recent years, as I got busier then my parents, I only made time to watch about 1-2 films that really caught my attention and got me to watch the film.
So! Because my blog seems to be depressing and has had no substantial posts in the last few months, I felt the need to work on this one post that covered all the movies I've watched this year.
So, let me list down the films I went to watch this year so far:
Captain America: Civil War
Triple Nine
Independence Day 2
Ghostbusters
Star trek Beyond
Suicide Squad
That's a lot ain't it, considering that I had to study and work and barely had time for myself.
One thing similar across all these movies was that, they caught my attention through the trailers that was on TV and YouTube. Furthermore, noticable actors were in the film that made me tempted to watch (except for triple nine, but more on how I stumbled upon this film later).However, trailers aren't everything and a movie can only be judged after we watch it. Let's get started on how I felt about the movies I watched!
Captain America:Civil War
Honestly, I can't remember how I felt about this movie.
I mean, I remember being quite happy about the abundant action scenes it had and the twists and turns in the plot of whose evil or is the 'bad guy' and also that the focus wasn't just on Captain america. It was sort of like a mini avengers film, but them falling out. But other then that I can't remember what I honestly felt about the film. So lets move on to the rest...
Triple Nine
Triple 9 was a film I stumbled upon accidentally. Me and my friend had a rough day at school (our soul left us as we did a presentation for the first time in a long time and lets just say it didn't go so well). So, we decided, lets watch a film. During the time we wanted to watch a film, there was nothing at all. Deadpool was long over and the only "notable" film was kungfu panda and I wasn't gonna pay $8 to watch kungfu panda, but honestly I thought we had no other choice until we saw the poster for Triple nine. With no expectations, we went to catch triple nine and honestly, it wasnt too bad.
As I took this module called "Screen text" whereby we had to analyze films during the time we watch this movie, I felt that thanks to the things I learnt in that module, I got to enjoy this film a lot.
The plot was what we may deem as a 'puzzle plot' and there seems to be no distinct start nor end.
There wasn't much action as I thought it would have (yes, even though the poster looks like the film may mirror a gameplay of counterstrike) however, there was a lot was a lot of unexpected scenes/turnarounds in this film. Also, interestingly, the head of the mafia gang was a woman (played by kate winslet whom I thought portrayed her russian mafia head role quite well). This film had all the good points that my 'screen text' class taught, and maybe that was why I enjoyed it though it was a bit slow. It was definitely a better choice then kungfu panda. I would recommend people this movie especially if you like creative plots.
Independence Day 2
From this movie, Independence day 2 onwards, I watched it in the past month or so, my opinions on the films is pretty much still fresh in my mind. Independence Day 2.
Ohhh,Guys. I was really excited for this film because I was a fan of Independence Day 1 (which not many people are). The trailer was short and sweet but all I got was that there was gonna be lots of actions. However, before watching the film, my friend warned me that many people were disappointed cuz it did not meet their expectations, so I went to watch the film with none and boyyyy was i glad I had no expectations (in a good way).
The way the film started was probably my most favorite scene in this film. That feeling of being sucked into and looking from the point of view of the alien was pretty cool. The movie brought back the old cast, except for will smith and it sort of brought back the old memories of ID 1. However, for this film, if you never watched ID 1, forgot how it went or worse still, mixed it up with the film 'Armageddon', you will most likely catch no balls.
The film picks off in the current times when earth has been peaceful for many years. If I remember correctly, the movie was set in '2016' however the setting of the film taking place in '2016' was honestly not too realistic. But that is okay, considering that it is a sci-fi movie i'll let it slide. The plot however, stayed true to ID 1. It was very verryyy similar. I expected that jump scare when the president sacrficed himself to get the alien to talk, cuz they did that exact same scene in ID 1.
Overall, the action was good, the graphic was awesome and i honestly enjoyed it. It was just irritating and annoying that the bloody alien just couldn't die easily at the end, but nothing's ever easy right. There was also a scene I wasn't really too keen on and it was the scene where they included Singapore's very own Marina Bay Sands. The scene started off with a guy in a taxi, listening to some chinese music, with a chinese takeaway box hanging in the taxi. Then bam, you can see people running away for their lives with MBS being destroyed along with buildings with very chinese signs.
Please hollywood, singapore is singapore. We have more races then chinese just living here and we definitely do not have signs in chinese everywhere. We also definitely do not have takeaway boxes that look like that here. Our takeaway boxes are styrofoam boxes. Other then this particular scene that made me a little pissed at the film, I would say its worth a check if you like a film with just loads of actions and graphics with little focus in the plot.
Ghostbusters
Yes. Another film revived from the olden days. Ghostbusters was a film I liked growing up (It came out when I was very young but it was frequently on repeat on channel 5 as I was growing up). So when I heard "Who you gonna call", I was definitely calling my parents to watch this film! (ok lame joke. moving on). Just from the trailer, you sort of know the plot. Storyline that is like the first ghostbusters film from the old days just replaced with females (Girl-busters! ok im done joking). So I had that mentality when I went in and it was exactly like that. The old sarcastic american jokes were in there, graphics of the ghosts were better, heck the old cast of Ghostbusters appeared too! Now I appreciate that this film was cool and refreshing cuz women were not portrayed as the damsel in distress as per usual in many other films, but I don't know, some scenes still featured 'stereotypes' people had on women, however I feel that this movie could be one to pave way for more future films that features a different role and side of women. However, its not a film that I'l go around saying "Dude you so need to watch it", it was more of a "do you like jokes? if yes then you'll enjoy this" or like if you are a fan of the old ghostbusters then yeah check it out.
Star Trek Beyond
I became a fan of star trek after their first film in '09.That first movie really blew my mind with the action, graphics and the story of exploring space and beyond. Thanks to the movie, I got into watching the drama when it was on TV and I fell in love with the characters of Star trek (espcially spock. heh).
So just like the other films, when I heard that Star Trek Beyond (the 3rd movie of the franchise) was coming out, I HAD TO WATCH IT. Within the second week of its opening, I rushed to watch it and boyyyyy was it so good. It could be because its part of celebrating the 50th year of Star Trek, but either way I loved it. I went in with expectations and left with the movie exceeding it (as usual).
No, its not cuz I'm biased to the film cuz Im a trekkie, but honestly, the graphic and action in this film really kept it on the edge of my seat and the storyline was different from past Star Trek Movies. Its storyline focused more on the humane side of the crew of the enterprise that drifted amongst space to explore the unknown. Now before I go on, I would just like to say it was sad for me to see anton yelchin in the film. He wasn't the most obvious character in the movie franchise, but his character was one that popped out every now and then and anton yelchin as an actor was really good as well and one could see he had more to show. So, just a little note of 'rest in peace' Anton yelchin and your act in star trek would not be forgotten.
Going back to talking about the film, it starts off with captain kirk, being uncertain of the road he chose to be captain of enterprise, being frequently lost,captured, hurt, which is understandable cuz I'm mean bro, if u are the captain of the enterprise, won't you feel the same? Anyways moving on. The usual quirk was in the film but the graphics, whooo, you can feel that this film definitely DID NOT scrimp on the budget (could be why there were so many film companies featured before the film started).
The trailer did not do justice to the film. I was constantly on the edge with this film and my heart died a little when the enterprise went down crashing into the planet. This is a film that I'd I go around saying "Dude you need to watch this whether you are a trekkie or not". And indeed, I watched this film with 2 friends who never heard of Star trek and they came out, wanting to go home to watch the 1st and 2nd star trek films.
Honestly, I'd choose star trek over star wars any day. (sorry to all the jedi fans).
Suicide Squad
Now before I talk about this film, I just want to say a few things.
#1 I'm not particularly a DC comic movie fan. I love their comics but not the films because they are always serious, dark and there's more talk then action. (I think by now, you'll realise I love action-heavy movies). So, films like batman, superman, dc films that many people say was 'kickass' and 'awesome', i tend to say otherwise. Suicide squad was actually the first film whereby its by DC and I really really wanted to watch it.
#2 One thing I learnt from the hype I created within myself to watch suicide squad it that one would enjoy a film more it they did not have expectations from it that was built from the trailers on the movie. I'm a type of person that relies HEAVILY on trailers. I'm not the kind that reads professional reviews and researches in depth before choosing what films to watch. Because honestly, why rely on others? Just watch the film yourself cuz we all have different tastes and opinions. Also, WHERE GOT TIME AIYOOO (releasing my inner singlish). So anyways, after watching the trailer and finding out that Jared Leto was friggin playing The Joker, I told myself, thats it. I.Had.To. Watch.This. I needed to watch jared friggin leto being the joker, cuz guys, come on. Why would you miss out on that? To me I thought, Jared was a good method actor. He always put himself in the shoes of the character and if you watched his films, you don't see a hint of him but very distinct characters fit for the movie. However, there are some articles that Jared took "method acting" too far in this film, but I don't know, I thought he portrayed Joker well in this film (though heath ledger is still my fave joker until today).
So anyways back to the film. I have an exam in 2 days yet I couldn't wait to watch the film, so I did. After randomly initating a conversation with my friend, we went to watch suicide squad and boy was I not satisfied. Now before I continue writing my thoughts, I just want to say that if you havent watched it, then stop reading, cuz it could be a spoiler, but if you don't mind then feel free to read on.
Suicide squad is a good example of 'trailer bringing your expectations too high up'. I went in expecting some actions, cool battle scenes and turmoil with the joker. When in reality, the movie was based on a whole different villain that appeared only 2 seconds in the trailer and I thought was part of the crew. But I mean, I can also view this in a good way, cuz its a turn from the usual 'trailer explains to you the whole movie', but I kind of went in expecting a huge battle scene with the joker and not some witchcraft with the beam shooting into the sky scene (is it just me or is this kind of scene becoming to repetitive in films these days when the villian says 'i want to destroy earth').
My honest thoughts in this film was that it needed to clean up its script more and plot as well. I know that this film probably wanted to show everything about sucide squad. The character's story, the build up of the storyline, the climax and the finish but probably because of time constraints as well as how they have many characters, I felt that the plot was too rush. They tried to squeeze every magic, booms and bams in a short amount of time that at some point i was like "what?". Like everything was all over the place. The editing of the film could do a bit more working and tweaking as well.
Now, I thought that I was the only one that felt this way because my friends who watched it before me said 'it was awesome'. So I took to youtube to see how people reviewed this movie and yes. Someone said it. The editing was choppy. Another thing, one youtuber highlighted was that, the movie didn't feel complete because there were probably a lot of deleted scenes. So I decided, I will not say this film was terrible or bad until I watch the whole film without the deleted scenes. And I hope, the full film at least would make me go "yeah I guess its not bad".
HOWEVER, the film was not all that bad. The music used for this film was in check. It really matched the atmosphere and mood of the film. From the use of Queen's bohemian rhapsody to Eminem's without me, the music spoke for the scenes. So I guess that was the highlight for me.
But hey don't take my word for these films. As I said, films are to be judged by your own eyes and feelings. We all are unique in terms of opinions and we gravitate towards different kind of film genre and what we see in films.
Anyways, half a year has passed, but more films are coming out like FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM!!! I can't wait for that film cuz I'm a huge fan of the harry potter series too. (The books especially, if i talked about the films, it would take years for me to finish). There's also inferno coming out!
So, this post is just entirely my takeaway from the films I've watched so far this year and because it is just my opinon and 'how i feel about it' it may not be your usual proper review. But hey, if you enjoyed it then YAY, but if not, I'll work to write better and more structured views and opinions on films.
With that,
Cheers!
