Quickie Thoughts: “Spiderman Homecoming” and “Dunkirk”

Spiderman Homecoming – This may have been my most anticipated Marvel flick ever since his appearance in Civil War. The problem was, it was a little overhyped for me. But it was still a good movie nonetheless. This is the one Spiderman movie where he’s completely in character. Smart and a wisecracker. Vulture surprised me. I think Michael Keaton did an amazing job playing the villain and he was quite menacing in certain scenes. The one issue I had was the amount of school that was in it. Sure, I’m not the target demographic, but it bought down the pacing for me. Other than that, I would rank this 2nd best after Toby’s Spiderman 2. Rating: 8/10

Dunkirk – Imagine a gripping intro scene like from the Dark Knight that’s extended to a full length film. That’s the feeling of Dunkirk. So much tension and panic that you can feel it. I was kinda surprised the length of the movie considering Chris Nolan movies tend to be over 2 hours. Hans Zimmer once again shines with his score. It’s almost like he has one continuous track throughout the movie. The movie is quite realistic with its war scenes, no spectacular explosions. So don’t go into this movie expecting your typical war action movie. When it was over, I felt kinda shell shocked because of how immersive it was. Overall, it was a riveting experience. It’s so worth seeing it on the big screen, however it’s not the kind of movie I’ll rewatch. Rating: 8/10

The Unforgettable Episode of Scum’s Wish

A little more than a season ago, there was an anime that caught my interest despite the fact it took place in one of my most hated settings, school. That show was none other than Scum’s Wish (Kuzu no Honkai). Prior to its anime adaptation announcement, I’ve read some of the manga out of boredom. What got my attention was the mature content that was very unexpected, then again, after seeing Yosuga no Sora and School Days many years back, I shouldn’t really be surprised. But it was quite rare and refreshing to see those in contrast to the typical cliche school genre anime.

I’m not gonna talk about the synopsis here since you can read that here instead. What I really want to write about is the penultimate episode that redeemed the whole show for me. In the first couple episodes, Scum’s Wish was pretty decent. As episodes went by, the show became very frustrating to watch thanks to unlikeable characters and internal exposition nonsense. Then episode 11 happened. Here’s the brief tale of it. Narumi, knowing Akane’s a complete slut (and a scumbag), accepts her for who she is. Because of his unconditional love for her, she’s completely awestruck never having experience this kind of love and bursts into tears finally knowing someone who truly cares for someone like her despite of what she’s done.

Why this episode stood out to me, you might ask? Thematically, it felt very biblical to me. This type of love story reminded me of the Book of Hosea from the Old Testament of the bible. The first 3 chapters of that book, God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomar and have children with her. This may seem odd from a reputable and social status standpoint but there’s a symbolic reason for this. So after Gomar conceives 3 children, she leaves Hosea to return to her adulterous life. While she was out there cheating on Hosea, God commands him to go after her and show his love to her. During this moment, you can speculate Gomar was either in a large amount of debt or she enjoys the profession as a prostitute. You can imagine the customers talking amongst themselves when prophet like Hosea being a customer himself wanting a woman like this. He buys her back and redeems her. I’m sure someone who couldn’t comprehend the situation would asked Hosea, “For a holy man such as yourself, how could love an adulterous woman?” And Hosea would most likely respond by saying, “Let me ask you this, how can a holy God like that can still love an adulterous nation like ours?” That’s the symbolic theme. I found this story to be so compelling that I think the book of Hosea is one of the greatest expression of God’s love for mankind. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, he accepts you unconditionally.

So back to Scum’s Wish. Narumi’s reason for his unconditional love is as he described “difficult to explain” and he goes by saying “I just want the person I care about to love a happy life.” It’s an acceptable reason from a secular standpoint. But one thing that matters, Akane has changed for sure and her whoring days are over. She accepted Narumi’s marriage proposal and began her journey in this new life she’s come to embrace. This is the character who went from someone I completely despised to someone who got redeemed. Scum’s Wish isn’t an easy title to recommend since it’s a tough watch, but for this episode, I think the show is worth the consideration.

Acen 2017 Guest Expectations

A short little rundown of my thoughts on the listed Anime Central guests.

GACHARIC SPIN

Who the heck are these gals? According to acen, they done a song for Dragonball Kai which I never heard. Not sure if I going to attend to their concert. Maybe I’ll look up a few songs on youtube to see if they’re worthy.

IMERUAT

Never heard of them, then I saw a name, Masashi Hamauzu. So that caught my interest cuz this guy was the composer for Final Fantasy 13 series. I’m in.

MAY’N

A must see for me. She’s the singer of the Macross Frontier character, Sheryl Nome. I really hope she sings Yousei. It’s my favorite Macross song ever. I’d be utterly let down if she didn’t.

TORU FURUYA

As a Gundam fan, this is a nice surprise. This guy is the one and only voice actor for Amuro Ray. I gotta bring my Gundam bluray/DVDs for him sign.

My body is ready!

Song of the Day: Talamanca – Final Destination

This track is so good it redefines the liquid drum & bass genre. Talamanca is one of the best progressive EDM artist of this time. I’m glad I purchased his album.

movie review: The Case for Christ

When I first saw the trailer, my immediate thoughts were “oh great, another Christian movie that’ll most likely be awful.” Let’s be honest here, a lot of them are just plain terrible. Only handful of them are good such as Ben-hur, Passion of the Christ, and Hacksaw Ridge. The fact that so many awful Christian movies exist makes the community look bad and embarrassing. I went to a Willow Creek service to see Lee Strobel get interviewed by pastors and said they already saw the movie and thought it was pretty good. Of course that did nothing to change my skepticism because it sounds biased. Lee admits how terrible Christian movies can be but assures this won’t be bad. So I decided to give the movie a chance before immediately writing it off. So how does The Case for Christ stack up? It’s actually quite decent!

I knew of The Case for Christ book for many years since I own a copy of it, but shame on me for not reading it (yet). What really caught my interest was Lee’s desire, as an atheist, to debunk the existence of Christ and the faith. The story starts when his wife became a christian after a friend sharing the gospel with her. This enrages him because this new purpose of life his wife found is taking away her away from him. It’s actually amusing of him to think that she’s cheating on him for Jesus. So there begins a journey of Lee, as a professional journalist, to seek the origins of Jesus trying to find loopholes to prove Christianity wrong that it’s nothing more than a cult. Long story short, he finds enough solid irrefutable evidence that concludes God does exist, Jesus is the real deal, and converts to the Christian faith. There’s a certain theme in this movie that does a fine job depicting truth. When someone looks into a case with presupposition or bias, that prevents them from seeing the whole picture.

Yes, I’m quite surprised the movie was pretty good. Some scenes were well shot especially the cathedral where Lee walks in. The acting was decent throughout. No one annoyed me. The pacing was consistent. Aesthetically, I’m not too sure about this. It takes place in the 1980s so there were some questionable things like the lifestyles during that time. One scene that nearly teared me up was the father and son relationship of Lee and his pops. It’s a very relatable thing for me since I struggle that same issue. What’s interesting is, I never knew that most well known atheist had either abusive fathers or were abandoned by them. This was addressed in the movie by a psychologist Lee meets in the 3rd act of the movie.

As for my criticisms, nothing major but some personal nitpicks. First is how watered down this movie is compared to what Lee’s testimony really was. He described himself as a profane drunkard who would come home and kick a hole in the wall making his wife and kid cry. I guess they really wanted to keep the PG rating in order to make this movie friendly enough to the youngsters. 2nd, I really wish they went into more detail of the evidence that was shown here, but that would run the risk of info dumping making the movie dry and boring. Nonetheless, it went straight to the point. I’ve heard some criticisms about scenes not actually happened in real life, such as Lee’s family in the restaurant incident in the beginning of the movie. Now I haven’t read the book so I have no clue. Whether this was true or not is irrelevant to me because it’s dramatized and the main focus is the investigative journey. For the sake of the script, there had to be a catalyst to get the plot going. There’s not a single movie based on history or biography that’s 100% accurate. If it was, I doubt anyone would had the attention span to sit through the entire thing. Heck, this even includes fictional book movie adaptations.

Other than that, I think this movie is worth the watch at least once, whether you’re a Christian or not. It dwells straight into the apologetics without too much detail. I don’t think it’s that good of a movie to own but it does deserve a recognition for being one of the better Christian movies out there.

Rating: 7/10

 

Here’s a hilarious review from David Wood. Watch it!

movie review: Ghost in the Shell

Before I give my thoughts, here’s a disclaimer. I went into this movie without any presupposition or expectations. I believe it’s fair to judge a movie by its own merits rather than comparing it to its original source. Because going to see a movie with those preconceived mindset will automatically disappoint viewers. With that out of the way, let’s dive into this.

+Jaw dropping beautiful cyberpunk world
+Cinematography
+Memorable soundtrack
+Shelling sequence
+More personal story of Major
+Mostly well good action scenes
+Great cast especially Scarlett Johanson and the guy who played Batou
+Interesting first antagonist
+Kenji Kawai’s famous track used in the end credits.

-End villain is just another Hollywood typical corporate bad guy
-Psychological theme of human and AI identity ditched after the 2nd act
-Some CG looks prerendered such as the underwater scene with jellyfishes in the background
-A certain action scene that involved super bright flashing stun batons almost gave me a seizure
-Aramaki’s acting wasn’t convincing

So yes, my first impressions came out good overall! I don’t think I’ll go pay to go see it again but I do recommend seeing it. Whether or not you’re a fan of the franchise doesn’t matter. It depends how open minded you are with how this movie turned out. And just throw this out there, I’m an Asian person myself and I have no problems with the casting here especially when the movie’s world is built upon a cyberpunk setting.

Rating: 7/10

music review: the GazettE – TRACES VOL.2

 

In this album, we have the band’s best ballad songs compiled here. At first, I thought this was just another cash grab for the band with no changes to the songs whatsoever but I was wrong. Thank goodness.

My first impressions have been pretty decent. Every song here is rerecorded with some added arrangements and lyrics. Also, every song does not fade out except for ITO. Long time fans of the GazettE will appreciate this album because it’s got oldie songs such as Kare Uta, Reila, D.L.N., and Taion. All the songs here are great.

Now for the bad. This could be a hit or miss with the new recorded sound. It sounds very compressed and thick where as the original has a more balanced sound mixing. This may be because I’m used to the way the original sounded but your mileage may vary. While I love the emphasis put into the drums, it sounds artificial here. Come to think of it, this production is quite similar to Dir en grey’s THE UNRAVELING. My favorite GazettE ballad is PLEDGE, and to hear that the song butchered here was quite disappointing. Ruki’s voice no longer has that emotional impact that was in the original. The same result happened when I heard Dir en grey’s rerecorded version of THE FINAL. Guren has these children giggling in the background which is kinda creepy. I really miss the piano standout that was in Reila.

I think of this album as another option or a 2nd chance for those who didn’t like the way the original sounded. Either way, it gave me a good reason to listen to the oldie tracks again. Without a doubt, the new Kare Uta will be on my phone.

Rating: 7/10