The Day I Went to See Avengers: Age of Ultron

I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron with my sisters last weekend and we had so much fun. There was an Avengers exhibition at the mall where we could see the superheroes' properties, meet some models who wore the superhero costumes, buy Avengers merchandise and play some games. We took a lot of pictures with the properties. I also met Darth Vader that day! A newly opened store was having a promotional event which is related to Star Wars so they put models in some Star Wars costumes! It was a great day for a fangirl like me haha.

Anyways, I saw the hotly anticipated movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron that day. And here are my thoughts about it.

The movie meets every expectation that I had before I saw it. As expected, there is nothing special about the story. As expected, I still find it difficult to relate to the superhero characters. I don't know why but I always have this problem with the superhero films that are produced by Marvel Studios. I can perfectly relate to other Marvel characters whose movies are produced by other studios, like the mutants from X-Men and Spiderman, but not with these guys from Marvel Studios. 

As expected, my favorite thing from the movie is the Maximoff twins, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I like how they portray the brother-sister relationship of the twins in this film, especially how they protect each other. It's too bad that [SPOILER ALERT] one of them doesn't make it out alive. It's hard to imagine one of them without the other. The action sequences and the humor in this movie are really entertaining too. My favorite action/comedy scene is when Hulk's mind gets manipulated by Scarlet Witch. He turns into his angry mode and forces Iron Man to fight him. It's scary to see how destructive Hulk can be when he is manipulated but the way Iron Man deals with him is just hilarious. I am also happy to know more about Hawkeye's personal life and kind of fascinated by The Vision. The Vision is just so... graceful haha.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as the Maximoff twins

So, I think Avengers: Age of Ultron is not a brilliant movie, it is really fun and entertaining. Go see it and have a good time!

And here are some of the pictures that we took at the mall haha. The mall is Gandaria City. I think the Avengers exhibition is still on until tomorrow but I don't know about the Star Wars cosplay. 

Cars, Explosions, Fights and Tears in Furious 7

I saw many interesting things last week. I saw Fifty Shades of Grey, but I don't like it so I won't review it because I don't like shaming movies on the internet. I also started watching Sherlock, which is really fun to watch. Last week's episode of The Flash with Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker as the guest star also amazed me. But the most memorable one is the movie that I saw on Sunday: Furious 7.

Actually, I'm not a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise. Well, I don't hate it but I'm not a diehard fan. But I was really excited to see this movie because I wanted to honor Paul Walker, one of the cast members who passed away in 2013, before the production of the movie finished. They pushed back the release date of the movie and altered the script in order to honor the actor, which makes the movie a little more emotional than the previous ones.

The movie is super loud. There are a lot of explosions in this one; I think it has more explosions than dialogues. The fight scenes are also dominating. The craziest fight scene for me is the one at the beginning, which involves Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham). The sound of the punches is just crazy; it sounds really painful. Just hearing it makes me feel sore. Well, The Rock used to be a wrestler, right? No wonder. And the car scenes! The cars are thrown from a flying plane, from a skyscraper to another one, from a cliff... I shook my head a lot during those scenes haha. The action sequences are a little too crazy and hard to believe but I have to admit that they are pretty cool.

Despite the full-on action, the chemistry among the cast members also dominates the movie. I think this chemistry is the thing that makes this movie more special compared to other car movies, which usually lack of good chemistry and only focus on the action. These actors look like, just like Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) says, a big family. I could see it even when they are doing the action sequences. I like this because it makes me, as a part of the audience, feel related to the characters and adds humanity to the movie.

Lastly, I really like what they do with Paul Walker's character, Brian. I think it's smart to make his character "go to a different direction". It's a beautiful way to say goodbye to his character, and to the actor as well. When I think of Paul Walker, I will smile because I will always remember that he smiles during his final scene in this movie. 

Favorite quote: "No matter where you are in this world, whether it's a quarter mile away, or half way across the world, you'll always be with me, and you'll always be my brother." -Dom Toretto about Brian O'Conner.

Rating : 4/5

Living Many Lives in David Levithan's Every Day

A few years ago, I found a lovely mini series entitled The Beauty Inside on Youtube (click here to watch it). The mini series tells the story of a person whose body keeps changing every single day even though the soul inside stays the same. One day Alex, his name, might wake up as a big fat Caucasian guy and become an old Chinese lady on the next day. His anomaly isolates him from other people, until one day he falls in love with a girl. I truly love this mini series because the story is unique and sweet while it is also visually beautiful. Oh and the score is sooo lovely! The one thing about it that disappoints me is the fact that it is very short. I wish it was longer. I wish I could know more about the main characters, about living a strange life like that...

My wish came true when I found a book called Every Day by David Levithan.

My copy of Every Day

The concept of Levithan's novel is similar to The Beauty Inside. However, A, the main character in the book, travels around and inhabits other people's bodies. When A wakes up in someone else's body, A must get through one day as the person who owns the body, not as himself, and does the same when he wakes up in another body on the next day. Just like in The Beauty Inside, A also isolates himself from the outside world and keeps his existence a secret. But everything changes when A inhabits the body a sixteen-year-old boy named Justin and meets his girlfriend, Rhiannon. A falls in love with her and, for the first time in forever, lets his desire to connect with her take control.

I've never read a book like this before. Usually, a book lets me experience one or two lives. But Every Day lets me experience so many lives as I follow A's journey. With A, I get to experience how it feels like to be a jerk, a gay boy, a lesbian girl, a teenager who is biologically female but psychologically male, a girl who looks like Beyonce, a homeschooled boy, a mean girl, a drug-addict, a depressed girl who plans to kill herself, etc. It's just so amazing to see the same world in so many different ways like that. It makes me realize that everyone has their own stories, their own struggles. It makes me realize that it is really important for us to be kind to one another and to appreciate one another.

I love how Levithan describes the world from A's point of view. The descriptions of A's opinions about the things in the world are very rich and detailed. Sometimes the descriptions are too long, but I find them very romantic. One of the most interesting thoughts that A describes is his opinion about love and gender. When it comes to gender, A is both and neither (I keep using the pronoun "he" to describe A because, I don't know why, I keep imagining A as a boy). When it comes to love, A doesn't care about gender either. A sees people for who they really are, for what they have inside. So when A falls in love, A could fall in love with either a boy or a girl. Once A falls for a guy named Brennan, but then falls for Rhiannon. A loves their personalities, so it doesn't matter whether they are a boy or a girl. This concept is not easy to grasp but I find it really interesting. Maybe this is Levithan's way to remind us that love is universal, that love is blind and has no gender.

Sometimes I feel sad for A too because it must be very lonely for him to live like that. He doesn't have a place to go home to. He doesn't have a best friend who knows everything about him. He doesn't have a favorite pair of shoes. He doesn't have his own phone. He has nothing that he could hold for more than one day. He has nothing but himself. There are some parts where A longs to have a connection with something or someone in this world and has to stop himself because he can never have it. It's just really sad and heartbreaking; reminds me to always be grateful for everything that I have.

There are two moments in A's story that I don't really understand. The first one is when he falls so hard for  Rhiannon after knowing her for only a few hours. I just don't believe people could fall in love with someone that quickly, without knowing much about the person that they fall for. Well, I believe that people could leave great impression on the first meeting which leads to love but I think love takes time. I can see that Rhiannon feels the same way about this, but A doesn't, which I don't understand.

The second moment is the ending. I just don't get the ending. I'm so moved by what A does for Rhiannon at the end but the thing that he does to himself is just confusing. The ending doesn't give a sense of closure at all. I really like the ending of The Beauty Inside and I think it would be great if Every Day has a similar ending. It's not because the ending of The Beauty Inside is a happy ending, but because it gives a sense of closure. I really need a proper closure for this wonderful story.

Overall, Every Day by David Levithan is a great book. It might not end on a nice note, like Rhiannon says, but it gives you a wonderful experience of living countless lives that you will never be able to experience in real life.

Favorite quote : There will always be more questions. Every answer leads to more questions. The only way to survive is to let some of them go. (page 213)

Rating : 4/5 

Thoughts on Me Before You and Cinderella

After a few weeks, I finally finished reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes earlier this week and, man, the ending left me speechless. The book is about a very ordinary woman named Louisa who has to work as a carer for a disabled man named Will. The two find an unexpected connection as Louisa learns that Will doesn't want to continue living because he just can't bear living with his illness. This story makes me question a lot of things. Is it acceptable if we want to end our lives because it is so unbearable? What do we do if someone we love wants to die like Will? Should we let them make their own choice and have what they want? Or should we try as hard as we can to keep them alive even though they don't want to live anymore? Which one is the right thing to do? To be honest, I still don't know the answers and can't stop thinking about this. What a thought-provoking story.

I also saw Cinderella in IMAX this week! One of my most anticipated movies of the year! As expected, the movie is soooo lovely!

The way Cinderella and her prince look at each other is just........

My favorite thing about this live-action version of the classic fairy tale is the relationship between Cinderella (Lily James) and the prince (Richard Madden and his beautiful blue eyes haha). I love that they don't meet for the first time at the ball and just fall in love like in the animated version. Instead, they meet before the ball and leave a great impression for each other, which then grows into love as they know more about each other. It seems more realistic. I also like the fact that Ella is fine with just remembering the prince as a beautiful memory. She loves the prince but she doesn't have to have him; just loving him is enough. I think it's very kind and selfless. And the chemistry between Lily and Richard is just really good. The way they look at each other makes me want to smile, squeal and swoon hahaha. There's also a little story about the prince and his father in this movie, which is not explored in the original animated movie. I love the father-son relationship; it's just so sweet.

The costumes are fantastic. I especially love Cinderella's blue dress. It's HUGE and so dreamy. I thought it was a CGI dress but I heard it's real. The dress looks so wonderful when Cinderella dances with the prince at the ball. Oh yeah, the dance scene done by Lily and Richard is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. They say the two actors had to prepare for about 2 months for that scene. Well, it's definitely worth it.

Quick Reviews of The Last Five Years & Mockingjay

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE!

But I myself don't celebrate Chinese New Year and only had one day-off in the middle of the week, so I had nothing to do yesterday. I didn't want to get bored to death, so I decided to start reading the e-book that my friend gave me (Me Before You by Jojo Moyes) and watch movies (The Last Five Years and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1). It will take time for me to finish the book and write a review of it, but I've finished watching the movies. So here are my thoughts about them.

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

This movie is included in my anticipated movies list for 2015 (See it here). I was very, very excited to see this movie, but after finally seeing it, I must admit that it is not as good as I expected. The story is actually very interesting. I think it's an honest portrayal of a failed relationship because it shows how the failure is not anyone's fault. It shows that, like I once said in one of my posts, people have different paths. People might cross paths but there will always be one point where they have to go to different directions. The separation might be painful but it's no one's fault; it's just how it is. I also like the concept of the storytelling (The female character, Cathy, tells it from her point of view backwards while the male character, Jamie, shows us the way he sees it chronologically). I think it's unique. And the two main actors, Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, are awesome. I really love their chemistry and their singing voices! 

But I find the movie as a whole quite... strange. Hmm it's hard to explain why I think it's strange. For people who are not familiar with the musical (This movie is based on a musical where all the dialogues are sung, like Les Miserables) and the way the story is told, I think this movie would be very confusing. There is no clear explanation or clue about how the story is told (the backwards and forwards thing) and about what Cathy and Jamie are actually doing. The two characters just take turns in singing all the time. It's more like a compilation of their music videos than a movie, actually. Maybe this movie would be better if they make some adjustments with the storytelling, so that it would be easier for audience to follow the plot.

Rating : 3/5

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1

I know it's a bit late, but I just saw this movie yesterday. When the movie came out in cinemas last year, many people said that this movie disappointed them. Well, I still like Catching Fire more than this one, but I don't think this movie is disappointing at all. It's just a little different from the previous films, and from people's expectations. Unlike the previous two films, this one is not an action-packed movie. It shows more of the characters' emotions, especially Katniss's.

I love how they show more of Katniss's emotions here. In this movie, and in the previous ones too, she keeps saying that she doesn't want to be involved in the war against President Snow and the Capitol; that all she wants is to keep the ones that she loves safe. I used to think it was selfish. But then I realized how sickening it must be for a teenage girl like her, to get dragged into a war where there is nothing but pain and violence. It's just too... crazy. Wanting to run away from that kind of thing is something very... human, I think. And then, as the movie goes on, she learns that she also cares about other people. She can't stand seeing other people get hurt by the Capitol, even though she doesn't know those people. Katniss grows in this movie, and I can relate to that because I've been there. Well, not there in the middle of a war, but there where you grow up and realize that you want to make yourself useful for other people. Again, this reminds me that I'm not a teenager anymore haha.

Since I love getting my feelings twisted (hahaha), I also "enjoy" Josh Hutcherson's and Sam Claflin's heartbreaking performances as Peeta and Finnick. That scene where Peeta sees a footage of Katniss during an interview and talks directly to her really breaks my heart. And the heroic, charming Finnick is replaced by the Finnick who looks miserable and lost here. I have a crush on him and it's just so heartbreaking to see him miserable hahahaha.

Rating : 4/5

Being Young and in Love with Eleanor & Park

I realized that I had spent too much time reading and watching things that involve murders and psychotic people (which made my mom a little worried haha), so I decided to have something different this month. And since this month is February aka the month of love, I thought it would be great to read something... romantic. So I bought a novel called Eleanor & Park, written by Rainbow Rowell.

Eleanor & Park follows two teenagers whose names are in the title as they experience first love. Eleanor is an eccentric new girl at school who catches the attention of everyone at school, including Park, a Korean-American boy who sits next to her on the school bus. They unexpectedly fall so hard for each other despite the abuse, the insecurity, and the bullying that they experience as teenagers.

On the cover of my copy of the book, there is a quote from John Green's review that goes like this,

"Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book."

Well, I agree with him. This book reminds me how it feels like to be young and in love.

Eleanor & Park makes me realize how old I am because it makes me recall the time when I was as young as its characters and realize that that time was a looong time ago. Eleanor and Park are sixteen in the book. I am turning twenty-three this year, which means that I was their age, like, seven years ago. Following Eleanor and Park's journey makes me realize how much I've grown since I was sixteen. I used to be like Eleanor and Park. Like those two characters, I used to be so insecure about myself, my abilities, my future, my physical appearance. Like those two characters, I used to believe that love is true when you can be with the person that you love forever. But now things are different; the way I see things are different. I'm sure things are also different for Eleanor and Park when they are older. After that open ending, I can imagine how they learn to accept themselves for who they really are, to be grateful for everything they have, and to love selflessly without wanting to keep the ones that they love for themselves. 

Eleanor & Park also makes me fall in love. This book made me want to smile all the time, until my cheeks hurt. It made me giggle like teenage girls when they talk about their crushes. It made me want to sing and dance with strangers and birds on my way to my office like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. It made feel like there were butterflies in my stomach. I was crazy in love when I was reading this book, just like Eleanor and Park.

 

My dream cast for the movie haha. Ki Hong Lee as Park and Hailee Steinfeld as Eleanor.

I heard there will be a movie adaptation of Eleanor & Park  soon and I'm excited about it. I still can't decide who should play Eleanor because, when I think of her, I always picture Merida from the animated movie Brave in my head hahaha. Probably because of the crazy red hair thing. Someone suggests Hailee Steinfeld and I love her, so I think I'll support that suggestion. For Park, I really want Ki Hong Lee from The Maze Runner to play him. He just fits the role perfectly! I also imagine Cate Blanchett as Eleanor's mom and Yunjin Kim as Park's mom.

Rating : 4/5

Movie Review : Begin Again

During the announcement of this year's Oscars nominees, a song called Lost Stars was mentioned as a nominee for the best original song category. The song is taken from the movie entitled Begin Again, starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, James Corden, etc. I had known about this movie for a while when I heard about the nomination, but I hadn't seen it and knew nothing about the song. After the announcement, I listened to the song and immediately fell in love with it. And then I decided to see the movie, and then I fell in love with it too.

So Begin Again  is about two lonely people, Gretta (Knightley) and Dan (Ruffalo). Gretta is a talented singer-songwriter who gets betrayed by her rock star boyfriend Dave (Levine) while Dan is a music producer who gets fired by his business partner. Dan thinks Gretta is the great discovery that can help him get his job back. Then, they start working on Gretta's demo with their friends, but the process turns out to be more than just a recording process: it makes the two realize what they really want in this life, what they want to do with their music, and so much more.

This movie made me cry A LOT. This is not even a sad movie but I did cry so much. It is just so natural and sweet and cute; it just touches my heart. The story is about music and, to be honest, I'm not really a "music" person. But this story makes me see music through the eyes of the people who love it so deeply. I can see how music magically fixes a broken family, how it makes a broken teenage girl smile again, how it can make you understand things that cannot be spoken, how it contains all the feelings inside its writer's heart. It's just beautiful.

It is so easy for me to relate to Gretta. She is lonely and loves someone, who wastes her love, like a fool. She turns her feelings into songs and doesn't care about what people think about her songs because they are hers, not theirs. She gets tempted by that foolish love when her ex boyfriend wants her back but then she realizes that it's not what she wants. My favorite Gretta scene is near the end of the movie, where Dave sings their song, Lost Stars, and Gretta watches him with a smile. The happiness in her face slowly fades and then she runs away. Her heart is broken. I'm not sure about this because it's never explicitly explained in the movie, but I think, at that moment, she realizes that she doesn't want to be with Dave anymore. I think she realizes that things can never go back to they way they used to be. I could really feel her heartbreak in that scene. And then cried like a baby haha.

Keira Knightley plays Gretta very naturally and beautifully in this movie, but James Corden, who plays Steve, is definitely the scene-stealer. I really love his scenes with Keira. They're so natural and don't look like they're scripted. Their scenes together look like a video of two real, drunk friends chatting. And then there's Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Dan's daughter, Violet. Her character always tries to look tough and careless but she is actually really sweet at heart. I just can't stand her cuteness.

Another thing that I adore from this movie is, of course, Lost Stars, the song. I really love the Adam Levine version (that's the one in the scene that made me cry) but Keira's version is also nice and so natural. Ehm how many times have I said the word "natural"? Well the movie IS really natural.

So I think Begin Again deserves more recognition and everyone should see it. The movie is so beautiful. It is the kind of movie that would make you smile and cry at the same time; the kind that brings warmth to your heart.

Rating : 4/5