Ready Player One

Ready Player One is Steven Spielberg's latest foray back to the world of adventure movies. Based on the novel by the same name, this focuses on a digital world called the Oasis, and the game that the creator has set place in his death to find a successor - both for his fortune, and the control of Oasis itself. In any adventure story, there are the good guys and the bad guys. The film is led by Wade Watts, who goes by the name Parzival in the Oasis. He grew up in a poor charter in Ohio called the Stacks, and he wanted to win the prize money simply to better his life. It was only when he met a star player, Artemis, that his views about the contest has changed, and he along with the other players teamed up to defeat the bad guys. The villain is played by a corporation, led by Sorrento who would stop at nothing to win the game. With the world being focused on a digital scale (as well as the massive references the source had), this was going to be a feat visually. It was visually appealing, but veered more on style over substance. (SPOILERS)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi is the second installment of the new trilogy written and directed by Rian Johnson. This picks up the action after the events of Force Awakens - the Resistance is fleeing and is being attacked, while Rey needed to persuade Luke Skywalker to come back to fight. From there, the movie shifts to three story arcs led by Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron, with their arcs eventually merging towards the end of the film. The company must have been happy with Johnson's work, as he is starting another trilogy for them. While this installment has its share of controversy and backlash, this was an entertaining movie that leans towards a formulaic blockbuster film. note: spoilers

Thelma & Louise

Thelma & Louise is about two women who go on the lam when they end up accidentally killing someone while on their way to a weekend getaway. I've always seen this movie pop up in list, and know how it ends but I haven't watched it until recently. This is a fantastic dramatic adventure film with amazing performances by the two leads.

Justice League

Justice League is DC’s foray into introducing new but familiar characters, and an entry way to the solo movies these characters have lined up. Taking place after the events of Batman v Superman, Batman recruits people with special abilities to take on a threat that can destroy the world. While far from being a flawless flick, Justice League does enough to quench the thirst for the new characters, but not enough to be a solid blockbuster that it should be.

Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok is the third installment in the Thor franchise, and has a much different tone from its predecessors. The movie has Thor facing the biggest battle known in Norse mythology – Ragnarok, the end of the world. In this case, Ragnarok meant the end of Asgard, the place getting engulfed in flames. This isn’t a spoiler; the events of Ragnarok have been explained in the opening credits. In this installment, Thor faces Hela, Goddess of Death. The viewers find out what happened to Hulk, and more of Norse mythology comes to play in the form of Valkyrie. Ragnarok is an entertaining installment in the Marvel universe, but it doesn’t really have much working for it. *spoilers ahead*

Passengers

Passengers was 2016's space movie, and was on top of my watch list, but the buzz wasn't favorable so my interest waned. I wanted to give it a chance, and since I didn't read any review or criticism about this, I didn't know what to expect. In general, it isn't as bad as the buzz made it sound. It had good factors and bad ones, but this was a mediocre outing from Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. *contains spoilers*

So Close

So Close was the first Hong Kong movie that I’ve seen. As I haven’t watched this for a very long time, I thought I’d go revisit it. This movie is about assassins and a rookie cop whose worlds cross when the cop investigates a death in a company.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the latest movie to grace the Harry Potter Universe. Focusing on the adventures of Newt Scamander, this installment introduces a magical world outside the London world that we’re used to, opening the doors to a new realm of magic. Set in New York in the 1920’s, Newt Scamander arrives to America for his own reasons, only to have some of his creatures accidentally set loose in the city, threatening the exposure of wizarding folk. 

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange is Marvel Studio’s newest addition to their universe, introducing characters and stories that deal with the mystical realm. The new superhero is in the form of Stephen Strange, a bright neurosurgeon whose life takes a turn when he loses his abilities due to an accident. He goes and seeks for a way to heal, leading him to the door of The Ancient One, and his journey to becoming the next superhero. Note: this review contains spoilers.

Terminator Genisys

Terminator: Genisys is the recent attempt to reboot a franchise that has earning power is in need of a reboot due to the decline of the previous attempts. This installment is a means to rewrite the Terminator franchise events in hopes to launch a new take on the series. Unfortunately, there were factors that cannot be overlooked that led to the dismissal of the revival.

Swiss Army Man

I wasn’t sure what to make of this movie. It’s a weird fantasy-type movie where a man encounters a dead body, which turns out to be more than a dead body. This body can produce drinking water, and limbs that can be used as cutting tools. But more than the surrealism of the whole thing, the movie’s events speak a lot about the character’s self-actualization.

The Martian

The Martian was one of my favorite books read last year. It’s funny; it’s adventurous and would definitely make a great film. Despite the influx of space-related flicks as of late, it was a good piece to adapt. I had a bit of doubt about it, particularly due to Matt Damon being casted as the lead character, and that his character might be reminiscent of his earlier astronaut character in 2014’s Interstellar. Nonetheless, the movie didn’t disappoint.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

I’m not even going to try to sugar coat it, but Batman v Superman was awful. Despite the critical slams, I went ahead and watched it just to see how terrible people are making this out to be. I was disappointed, because there were good parts and ideas, but the sum of all these parts just made one terrible production. I hope this will be remedied in the future movies if the DC franchise wants to survive in the cutthroat world of superhero movies. This review contains spoilers.

Mockingjay Part 1 & 2

Mockingjay is the third book in the Hunger Games series and frankly my least favorite one. So it made no sense (besides financial reasons) for the third book to be split to two. I had to wait for a while before watching the two movies, and I will be reviewing them as one. Each movie was a bit lengthy and it could have trimmed down a few scenes, but I thought the movies were good in a general sense.

Blind Spot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python is a famous British comedy group primarily known for their show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. This was their second motion picture, focusing on the Arthurian legend in where Arthur and his knights are on the search for the Holy Grail. For someone unfamiliar with their work, anything is to be expected. While I loved the way that the group tackled the legend, and had some favorite funny bits, I think this film was not for me.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Happy New Year everyone! What better way to start a new year with a film everyone watched over the holiday season – The Force Awakens! I didn’t get to see it until after Christmas so avoided all reviews (including spoiler free ones) until I got to watch it for myself.* I went to watch the original trilogy in preparation for the seventh film. The wait was over, everyone was simply raving about it on social media – I have to say, I definitely agree with the hype; the film simply delivers to expectation and I cannot wait for the next installment.

*It was almost a spoiler-free run, until my cousin mentioned a scene over Christmas dinner. Merry Christmas to me. 

Spectre

If Daniel Craig's planning to end his run as James Bond, this is a great movie to end it with, no strings attached. Set after the death of M (Judi Dench), Bond was given a task to locate a man and kill him. The opening sequence leads to Bond's hunt for the man, eventually masking the organization that has been behind multiple terrorist attacks. It doesn't help that the man in charge has a link to Bond's past. Besides that, MI6 has also been dealing with a new head of international security whose mission is to announce the Double 0 program obsolete and shut it down.

Blind Spot: Y Tu Mama Tambien

Of all my blind spot choices this year, this would have to be one of those I’m very excited to watch hence leaving it on for later when I needed the motivation to keep going through the list. I really didn’t know much about it, except it involved a road trip and it starred Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. This movie is quite a sexual coming of age tale.

Tomorrowland

I had expectations when it came to this movie. For starters, it’s directed by Brad Bird – he worked on The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ghost Protocol. So with his attachment to a movie came the stigma that he was going to deliver something good. The case isn’t exactly the same for Tomorrowland.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Marvel brings us the newest installment of the franchise where we get to see the Avengers fight a new enemy, make new allies, and find out more about the lives of the superheroes. While this is much grander than the first one, there was something in the first movie that made it stand out but it doesn’t seem to be replicated here.