FILM REVIEW: SHAZAM!

SS: 6.5/10 Apparently, another classic DC either not a good or too bad movie, and IMDB definitely lost its mind for giving it 75/100. And say hi to superman’s crotch.

I would say that I really looking forward this movie for a long time (yes, I do have a life) and the high score on IMDB, which is 75, makes me feel that this may be the one, the one finally can success. However, no this movie has terrible logic, terrible line, terrible storytelling skills and terrible fighting scene. All of these make me think this movie does not equal to 75 on IMDB. But yes, this movie is brighter and funnier than before. It does make me and other audiences laugh in the cinema.

Now SPOILER ALERT

Let’s skip discuss why choosing a 5 years old child as a successor at the beginning, but the dad as an adult should stop the car immediately when his son gone crazy (Background knowledge: the boy was chosen and teleport into Shazam’s place from a running car and got expelled back to the car, because of he does not have a pure heart to accept Shazam’s power. He was so upset when he back to the car and force to open the door of the running car. This boy’s brother try to stop him and their father distracted by them. So here comes the car accident. Boy’s father squeezed out the car.) And that line “You did this.” said by his brother to the boy after their father was broke out of the car. I mean…WHAT??? Genius? That is all you want to say to your young brother? First, it is not the time to blame each other, your father is bleeding on the ground, and if I were him, I would just stare at him angrily instead of saying that line.

The fighting scene is horrible, wait, didi they fight? The only thing i remember is those people hit other into sky or ground, just like the superman movie again. Yes, we get it, you guys can fly and super strong.

The Shazam family should be the biggest surprise in this movie, and this movie do give relatively quite lots scene to them. One thing for sure, they can be invisible. They are so ordinary, and they are inconspicuous in a bunch of special effects just like their superpower, invisibility.

The good thing about this movie should be the horror scene. The director is from Annabelle and the writer also is known by writing horror movies. So they really know how to make a right atmosphere when there is a need to be horror and how to scare their audience, well slightly, this still is a PG-13 superhero movie.

TV REVIEW: Love, Death & Robots

SS: 8.5/10 A series of short but interesting animations. Very suitable for on a bus, waiting for , or during a coffee break.

Create by Tim Miller and David Fincher, 18 episodes animation TV show. Each episode is around 10 mins, the shortest one only has 5 mins. All these episodes have a different style, 2D, 3D or 2D rendering 3D, and all these episodes came from different studios all over the world.

Although each episode is very short, the content in one episode is definitely not shallow. From environment to politics, from gender equality to the biosphere rule. Almost every hot trending topic right now you can find it in the show as well. Meanwhile, various elements from famous IPs(intelligence properties), Ghost in the shell, Indiana Jones and many others could found in the show as well. I think the creators are trying to pay tribute to those marvellous works in this way.

So far, it is a good show, but the reason why I give 8.5 not even higher is that some episodes are not finish their job as a story teller, leaving too much blank to audiences. I personally really hope that those studios could make a full length movie finish telling their story.

REVIEW: CAPTAIN MARVEL

SS:6/10 Hey, welcome back Agent Coulson, Fury’s left or right eye (even the cast don’t which eye should be blind according to the former movies) and Lee Pace’s blue face.

Captain Marvel, the first female superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also the first Marvel movie in 2019, it sure is so highly anticipated. And, as usual, Marvel not very much let you down. The whole movie have a very clear , the journey of Carol finding her true self combine with classic been lied and revenge story.

However, the story of finding her true self is pretty weak, feeling like not strong enough to be the main storyline of the whole movie. The reason behind this is that the main character is made into a god just like the last movie I watched, Alita. A god-like character not only makes the villain role be inferior but also weaken the protagonist’s story.

As the first Marvel female character, Captain Marvel this movie is not bad but also can’t say it is a good movie either. I totally understand that the director and the actresses want to use this movie to show how powerful could female be, just like male and even better. From this point, this movie did it and even better than Wonder Woman, which I truly appreciate that, but from the movie and art prospective, this movie still has a lot for improvement.

Oscar WINNERS 2019!!!

Well, I made 25 guesses and 10 of them are right, quite proud of myself hahaha… And still angry about the best picture goes to GREEN BOOK. It’s good movie, but definitely not a Oscar best picture winner level movie.

Best supporting actress

Emma Stone (The Favourite)

Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)

Amy Adams (Vice)

Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) – WINNER!

Marina De Tavira (Roma)

Best makeup and hair

Border

Mary Queen of Scots

Vice – WINNER!

Best documentary

Free Solo – WINNER!

Minding the Gap

RBG

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Of Fathers and Sons

Best costume design

Black Panther (Ruth E Carter) – WINNER!

The Favourite (Sandy Powell)

Mary Poppins Returns (Sandy Powell)

Mary Queen of Scots (Alexandra Byrne)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Mary Zophres)

Best film editing

Bohemian Rhapsody (John Ottman) – WINNER!

Vice (Hank Corwin)

BlacKkKlansman (Barry Alexander Brown)

The Favourite (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)

Green Book (Patrick J Don Vito)

Best production design

The Favourite (Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton)

First Man (Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas)

Roma (Eugenio Caballero and Barbara Enriquez)

Mary Poppins Returns (John Myhre and Gordon Sim)

Black Panther (Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart) – WINNER!

Best cinematography

Roma (Alfonso Cuaron) – WINNER!

Cold War (Łukasz Żal)

Never Look Away (Caleb Deschanel)

The Favourite (Robbie Ryan)

A Star Is Born (Matty Libatique)

Best sound editing

First Man

A Quiet Place

Bohemian Rhapsody – WINNER!

Black Panther

Roma

Best sound mixing

A Star Is Born

Bohemian Rhapsody – WINNER!

First Man

Roma

Black Panther

Best foreign language film

Roma (Mexico) – WINNER!

Cold War (Poland)

Shoplifters (Japan)

Capernaum (Lebanon)

Never Look Away (Germany)

Best supporting actor

Mahershala Ali (Green Book) – WINNER!

Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born)

Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman)

Sam Rockwell (Vice)

Best animated feature

Incredibles 2

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – WINNER!

Isle of Dogs

Mirai

Best live action short

Detainment

Fauve

Marguerite

Mother

Skin – WINNER!

Best animated short

Animal Behaviour

Bao – WINNER!

Late Afternoon

One Small Step

Weekends

Best documentary short

Black Sheep

End Game

Lifeboat

A Night at the Garden

Period. End of Sentence. – WINNER!

Best visual effects

First Man – WINNER!

Avengers: Infinity War

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Ready Player One

Christopher Robin

Best original screenplay

Green Book (Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga) – WINNER!

The Favourite (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara)

Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)

Vice (Adam McKay)

First Reformed (Paul Schrader)

Best adapted screenplay

If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)

A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters and Eric Roth)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty)

BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott) – WINNER!

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)

Best original score

If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell)

Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman)

Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat)

BlacKkKlansman (Terence Blanchard)

Black Panther (Ludwig Goransson) – WINNER!

Best original song

Shallow (A Star Is Born) – WINNER!

All the Stars (Black Panther)

I’ll Fight (RBG)

The Place Where Lost Things Go (Mary Poppins Returns)

When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

Best actor

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Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) – WINNER!

Christian Bale (Vice)

Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)

Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)

Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate)

Best actress

Glenn Close (The Wife)

Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born)

Olivia Colman (The Favourite) – WINNER!

Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)

Best director

Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) – WINNER!

Adam McKay (Vice)

Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)

Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)

Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)

Best picture

Black Panther

BlacKkKlansman

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Favourite

Green Book – WINNER!

Roma

A Star is Born

Vice

REVIEW: ALITA BATTLE ANGLE

SS: 6.5/10 Wait.. Is she a God?

A slow speed at the beginning of this movie and after half hour, suddenly speed up, maybe the director and writers finally realized that they still have tons of things haven’t been told yet? 

All the fight is very cool and can make the audiences feel passionate, however, every time the fight is so short. 

I know Alita is very powerful, but you can’t make your character that powerful, because of this robot is not that perfect and so human like that make audiences to rethink themselves and the society, what is humanity and other deeper questions. But you give us a almost god…

So the whole movie is nothing like the comic. The comic book has very deeper meanings in it while the movie more like a Ready Player One with more green blood and part of body. 

And this is not a 100% Cameron movie. The director is from Sin City(OMG…) and the other writer is from Shutter Island and that awful Terminator movie. All of their pervious work don’t have a high score (shutter island is the only exception) So maybe Cameron does save this movie. Who knows?

Let’s Talk About: Mary Queen of Scots

SS: 5/10

This movie is not that good as I expected before. After watching the trailer, I expected more story about Mary and Elizabeth. however, the trailer definitely give me a wrong expectation.

And why show us the sex part about Mary and Henry? That part is totally irrelevant with the whole story. I understand the reason why show us Mary had sex with James, but why show us Mary had sex with Henry? For comparing? I don’t think this is a good move.

Well…besides this movie, I want to talk something more in this industry. Something I want to talk about may be sensitive, but please fully read it or don’t read it at all, in case you understand me in a wrong way.

In this movie, one of Elizabeth’s maid is played by asian- look actress and Lord Randolph played by black actor Adrian Lester. Well, maid is not a good job so I will give a pass on the maid thing, however, making a history real person into another race, I don’t think this is appropriate. Considering the history of black people’s long-term oppression of whites, black actors play as a nobleman in the historical biography movie is washing down the history, denying the history.

I understand movie makers maybe only want to make this movie not that white in order to avoid criticism from equal rights fighters. However, this is not making things better, both equal rights fighters and Hollywood. If I were a young black child, I would ask my mother “Why you tell me our race had been discriminated in the history for a long time while in this movie a black guy is in the cabinet?”

I still remember there is another movie also about a real history story which set in US, long time before black people arrive America. It has been slammed by the equal rights fighters as soon as this movie been released. just because this movie too white.

Equal rights fighters thought they are fighting for black people, well, they are really not, they are not helping. Facing the history, remember the history and make sure history will not happened again. Well this is real helping.

So the in the ideal world, in my mind, no one will realise each other’s colour or race, even a blue avatar walking pass you, you won’t look back. For movie, no one will care focus on colour anymore but who have a better performance.

My Prediction About 2019 Oscar Winner

Just take a bravely guess. the full nom is here https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2019

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

CHRISTIAN BALE

Vice

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

MAHERSHALA ALI

Green Book

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

OLIVIA COLMAN

The Favourite

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

EMMA STONE

The Favourite

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

CINEMATOGRAPHY

ROMA

Alfonso Cuarón

COSTUME DESIGN

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

Mary Zophres

DIRECTING

ROMA

Alfonso Cuarón

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

RBG

Betsy West and Julie Cohen

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

LIFEBOAT

Skye Fitzgerald and Bryn Mooser

FILM EDITING

VICE

Hank Corwin

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

ROMA

Mexico

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

VICE

Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

BLACK PANTHER

Ludwig Goransson

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

SHALLOW

from A Star Is Born; Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt

BEST PICTURE

ROMA

Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón, Producers

PRODUCTION DESIGN

ROMA

Production Design: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decoration: Bárbara Enríquez

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

BAO

Domee Shi and Becky Neiman-Cobb

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

MARGUERITE

Marianne Farley and Marie-Hélène Panisset

SOUND EDITING

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone

SOUND MIXING

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali

VISUAL EFFECTS

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

ROMA

Written by Alfonso Cuarón

Previous Work

This is a video about Chinese new year in Qingdao, my home town. See people how to prepare and celebrate the Chinese new year. I am sorry that all dialogue and subtitle in the video are in Chinese English version will update as soon as I’m free.