Big Hero 6: Movie Review

Disney has finally used the first of their Marvel properties they plan on using, and it is Big Hero 6. It takes place in a fictional hybrid city of San Francisco and Tokyo, cleverly named San Fransokyo. When complications arise, Hiro (our protagonist) must gather a robot and his collective friends to get together to fight someone who betrayed his family.

The animation in this film was very good. It looked very classic Disney at times but had the overtone of a new age animation style which I found to be really sleek. The city design was also quite amazing. The combination of the two cities oddly works perfectly, and makes for some great landscapes in the film.

This film had me laughing a lot. Which is probably the best thing I can say about it. There were several characters who just worked so perfectly and had great chemistry together especially since they were animated characters. The show was often stole by the widely advertised Baymax character, who was often funny not by the dialogue he had, but by his actions.

Although I really enjoyed this film, there were still a few problems I had with it. One being that it felt as though the characters did not receive enough development. One scene characters are introduced and in the next one they are being referred to as the main characters best friends, it just seemed as though it happened incredibly quick, and it just didn't seem right. Also, many of the happenings towards the end have become very cliche as of late. Especially the final battle scene, it seemed like it was an exact copy, but kiddie-d down, version of the final battle in The Avengers.

With that said, I really did like this movie. Disney seems to be on a real hot streak lately, and I am very glad for that. I encourage anyone, especially people with kids, or people into kids movies (I guess) to go see it!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Review

The new trailer for the much anticipated return to the Star Wars universe has been released! Being a huge fan of the series, this excited me, and I thought there was no better way to return to my blog than to share my thoughts about it! In order to read this post though you are probably going to want to watch the trailer below.

Was that not fantastic? So anyway I'm going to start discussing it from the beginning, in which we hear Andy Serkis speaking lines. What he is saying can lead us to believe there has been an "awakening", as the title states, in the force, more specifically, the dark side. After that, we see someone dressed as a storm trooper in a mad panic, sweating heavily. Now this has led to some heavy criticism from fans. Many are saying that he can't be a storm trooper since they are all clones, however I think it is way to early to tell if that is even what they are trying to do, and that he is maybe in a disguise like Luke and Han were in A New Hope.

We then see a few other things, a soccer ball looking droid, which is an interesting looking take on the classic R2 unit look, then some footage of a bunch of storm troopers ready to go into battle. This shows us that conflicts are arising again, and that something is really about to go down.

The next clip was something really interesting... we see a girl, who non-coincidentally looks a lot like Princess Leia, get onto a pod and shoot off. Obviously this leads us to believe that this is the dream off-spring of Han Solo and Leia. This will be something interesting to see, and the film is rumored to be centered on the later generations of the Skywalker family.

After that there is a few scenes of some classic Star Wars ship battles, which gives me hope since they look a lot like the classic trilogy, but after that is when the real fun starts. A darkened figure, I'm presuming to be an offspring of Luke, is walking through a forest, and as he stops he pulls out something no one expected... a triple-bladed lightsaber. Now another criticism of this trailer was the practicality of the lightsaber, how will he be able to do tricks? Won't it cut off his hand if he messes up? Well those questions could be said about Darth Maul's double blade, but that was probably the best thing about the prequel trilogy! I think it will be practical since it is very reminiscent of old swords used in the middle-ages and it will be able to protect someone better while in battle.


After that we get to see the final, and by far the most satisfying shot of the entire trailer: the soon to be famous Millennium Falcon barrel roll. Seeing this shot made me giggle and smile and jump around like a child the first five times I watched this trailer (yes, I did watch it more than five times). Now my prediction is that at some point during the film, most likely this scene, Han Solo is going to be back in the pilot seat of the falcon. It just makes sense having him and Chewy back where they started.

Overall I loved this trailer, and it makes me even more excited for this upcoming film. What my main concern was if it was really going to be a Star Wars film, and what I mean by that is will it do justice, and actually restore the greatness that was the originals, or fall under the unfortunate curse of the prequels. I am very excited to say it looks like, and I say this with caution, it can be as good as the originals. I just cannot wait to find out if it will be.

Tove Lo: Habits/Stay High Song Review

Okay, let's talk about this Tove Lo song everyone around the world has been raving about. First of all, this song has probably had the most remixes and covers than any other song I've seen in the last 17 years of my life. It's pretty much ridiculous how many are out there! There's one's on itunes, one's on spotify, one's on iheart radio, pandora, and my personal favorite one's are on soundlcloud. Don't get me wrong, I love this song and everything about it. And heck yeah I have ALL the different remixes downloaded in my music. All I'm saying is people are crazy about this tune.

Even so, the world loves this song for many different reasons. The sound of the song, the singer of it, and even just because everyone else likes it and listens to it. But only a fraction of the listeners really pay attention to what the song's lyrics are saying. First she says, "... I eat my dinner in my bathtub... Then I go to sex clubs... Watching freaky people getting it on... It doesn't make me nervous... If anything I'm restless... Yeah I've been around and I've seen it all...". She is basically summing up her life at this point in time, saying that she's not nervous about the freaky things these people are doing in all the clubs she goes to and that she's "been around" which means she's slept with a lot of people.

From the tone of the song, I feel like it's more and just about a break up like most people think it is. I think it's about the death of a loved one. Everything in her life has gone down the drain because of her loss. She says that she "spends her days locked in a haze, tryin' to forget you babe. I fall back down. Got to stay high all my life to forget I'm missing you." She is basically spending all her money on alcohol, drugs, and she is just throwing her body around to any stranger that will take her for the night.

She also says that she "picks up daddies at the playground, how I spend my day time". She is pretty much saying that she hooks up with dads she meets at parks. It kind of makes me feel that she likes being a homewrecker, because once she is through with these guys, she won't be the only one who is miserable, because she has messed up the marriage.

Obviously this song is very depressing when you really listen to it. I don' know if this was really based off of what has happened in her past or to a friend or something, but whatever it is, the song has captured the world's attention and maybe makes us feel a little relaxed or on a "high" as she says.

Maze Runner: Movie Review

Basically, the first half-hour of the movie is a giant info dump where Thomas -- nicknamed "Greenie" -- gets to know the other guys in the camp. There's Alby, the group's appointed leader; Newt (who also played in We're The Millers which was hilarious), who's relegated to exposition duty for most of the film; and Gally, the forceful rule follower.

Ok, this movie was wayyyyy better than I expected it to be. Even though they got a couple things wrong, they did an amazing job making this motion picture. When I was in my Freshman year in high school I read these books and they easily skyrocketed into the top three best book series' I've read next to Eragon and Harry Potter. And when I firgured out they were gonna make a movie, I was ecstatic.

Here, Thomas learns the ins and outs of the Maze, along with its goofy, unending terminology. This includes the "Runners," which are the unlucky chosen few who run the Maze by day in search of a way out. A dude called Minho leads the Runners, and quickly befriends Thomas. Eventually, Thomas becomes a Runner too, and -- surprise, surprise -- he makes unprecedented discoveries that could lead the boys to freedom. Adding a wrench in their plans, the powers-that-be send the first girl to the Glade, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), which spurs Thomas to double his efforts.

Now, I don't want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but overall this movie was spectatular in my opinion. The visual effects and even the acting (me saying this only because the cast mainly consisted of teens) was fantastic. I strongly recommend this movie to all viewers.

Braveheart: Movie Review

You know those movies that you would never even think of until it comes on television one day and
your like "whoa!!! I love this movie!!". Braveheart is one of those movies in my opinion. Costume drama, historical epic, large-scale action flick, and romance all rolled into one big, green, wet, plaid package-- that's Braveheart, the story of Scottish legend William Wallace, the man who fought off the English to regain Scotland's independence in the 13th century.

Yes, young William, played by Mel Gibson, who also directed the movie (which might I add is one of my favorite actors that played in a couple of great movies like all of the Lethal Weapon movies, Mad Max, Signs, and of course The Expendables), has seen England's tyranny close-up-- he walked into a barn full of locals hanged by the English, the day before his dad and brother were also killed by the English. (The English are bad.) So William travels the world for a while before returning as a grown-up to marry his childhood sweetheart played by the ever so stunning Catherine McCormack.

But in an effort to purge Scotland of its Scots, King Edward of Longshanks has granted his noblemen "first night" privileges, meaning sexual rights to any woman who gets married on her wedding night. When William marries the hottie and an English lord tries to cash his this new found privilege given to him on Williams girl. Then, William gets all "nuh-uh" and kills all the English in the village, but not before they kill his new bride.

With no wife and nothing to lose, and a healthy disgust with the way the English have occupied his country, William decides to keep this butt-kicking thing going and see where it leads.

Overall, this is a good movie, all three hours of it. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Effects Editing, and it was nominated for five more.

Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

As most of you know and have seen, I wrote a blog post a about a month ago on the fairly new movie that came out 2014 called Guardians of the Galaxy. In my personal opinion it was a pretty solid movie. It had everything I like in a movie, action, fantasy, even based of a classic comic book series, and the very occasional crude but hilarious humor. But I'm not here to tell you guys about how much I liked the movie because I've already done a post on that. I'm going to tell you about the one thing about the movie that really captured me which was the soundtrack.


When Disney released this new soundtrack called the "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it quickly sky rocketed to the number one spot for soundtracks on iTunes. One of the obvious reasons for this was because of the movie's obvious success. But the more important reasons was because of the list of classic 80's songs found on the tape. These songs were well known by the majority of the public and loved classics that had been passed down from generation whether it be from parents or movies or events of the years.


Here is the list of songs from the album:

1. "Hooked on a Feeling" Performed by Blue Swede
2. "Go All the Way" Performed by Raspberries
3. "Spirit in the Sky"* Performed by Norman Greenbaum
4. "Moonage Daydream" Performed by David Bowie
5. "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" Performed by Elvin Bishop
6. "I'm Not in Love" Performed by 10cc
7. "I Want You Back" Performed by Jackson 5
8. "Come and Get Your Love" Performed by Redbone
9. "Cherry Bomb" Performed by The Runaways
10. "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" Performed by Rupert Holmes
11. "O-O-H Child" Performed by The Five Stairsteps
12. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

I found it extremely moving and really got me into the movie more that the soundtrack of songs were all actually a part of the movie on the mixed tape that Quill had received from his mother before she died that had included the many songs that her and Quill shared and loved in the little time that they had together. And on top of that, considering that I had a similar experience of sharing classic songs from the past with my parents on long car rides to see my brother was such a cherished memory to me, it made the movie and songs that even I knew all the better to enjoy.


The one song that REALLY got to me though, was right at the end where Quill finally opens the gift/new mixed tape his mother gave him right before she died. And it wasn't the revealing of the tape that got me, it was when he put it in his stereo and it started off with the first song playing "O-O-H Child". And everything finally fell into place for Quill and his life and "things are gonna get easier".

Ain't No Rest For the Wicked: Song Review

This song was also a lost treasure that I found late one night while browsing the Alternative genre top 150 charts. The Caged Elephants have made so much music that I love still to this day. And they are still coming out with new stuff!! Right now, I can’t stop listening to their latest hit song “Cigarette Daydreams”. But let’s save that one for another time. Right now I want to talk about one of the greatest songs by The Caged Elephants ever made called “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked” and what my interpretation of the song is.

To me, each verse represents something that could completely take control of you. The street he's walking on represents the course of his life.

In the first verse, the narrator encounters sex or lust. When he says, "You're such a sweet young thing, why do you do this to yourself?," I think he overcomes his temptations in search of a deeper form of love, though not completely.

I like to picture the person that the narrator encounters in the second verse as a drug dealer. I think that the whole verse vaguely talks about the risks and struggles associated with drugs and drug deals. I think it takes a while for him to overcome his temptation for drugs, contrasting the fifteen minutes that passed after his first encounter and the couple hours after his second encounter.

In the third verse, the narrator finally gets off of the street and into his house, as his life is winding down. He encounters religion, as a lot of people do towards the end of their life. He witnesses the corrupt bullshit that can take place behind the scenes of a church. He ends the verse in understanding because he has confronted these different temptations and he understands how easy it can be to get lost on the street of wickedness, even when you're subscribed to a religion that is meant to be pure.

These social issues exist as a result of our flawed capitalist system. Money fuels impurity and everybody is looking for their next thrill. It is sad that the world has come down to money and doing anything just to make a quick buck. I think that’s the main reason the group sang the song the way that they did. With anger and “wickedness”.