Finally had an awesome stress-free weekend. And a movie review for ‘Doctor Strange’ (2016).

After having done my final submission for my design studio on last Friday, I’m finally having a great stress-free weekend. It’s something that I don’t get to see for the many past weeks. My second semester is going to end soon and now I can start to feel all the burden and pressure going off slowly from my mind and body. Anyway, there are still two submissions before I can officially call it the end of the semester. But for right now, I think I deserve some time to rest and chill and this is the perfect weekend for it. It’s also my second last weekend here in Perth before I fly back to Malaysia for my year end break.

My day was fully occupied yesterday. It started with a shopping in Westfield Carousel mall alone while waiting for my friend to come over and fetch me. It’s nice to shop alone as you have no distraction. But clothing on sale here are pretty expensive and I couldn’t buy a lot. Then, I joined my friends for an over 2-hours badminton session. There are three courts for us and so everyone of us have to be like almost playing non-stop this time. It’s an intense session but fun. Then, I’m back to the mall for lunch and accompanying my friends for shopping this time.

Then, I spent the rest of the day attending the early Christmas gathering in my friend’s house. It’s a potluck dinner and everyone brought a Christmas present to be exchanged. I’m having a great time and after it ended, we were all feeling exhausted after a long busy day. Time passed like faster than usual yesterday.

Just this morning, I head back to Carousel mall again, but this time, is to watch a movie. I watched ‘Doctor Strange’, a Marvel superhero movie that I’m much anticipating due to the critical acclaim the film received right now. The film turned out to be very good from the great acting by the main cast (Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen). Those are the actors and actresses that I like and they are all in this movie. The visual effects are fantastic. I think it’s the film with best visual effects this year so far and I think it stand a chance to win Best Visual Effects in the Oscars. The movie relied a lot on CGIs that most parts of them reminded us on ‘Inception’ movie too. I have to really compliment the effort put on the graphic of this movie that seriously paid off.

The story is fast-paced, some scenes are hilarious, and the characters’ development is there eventhough it’s a bit not enough for Rachel and Mads’ characters. The actions are brilliant as expected based on Marvel standard. Overall, the movie is really good and it revealed the fifth Infinity Stone in the whole Marvel cinematic universe that will leads to the Avengers: Infinity Wars. There are also two scenes after the end of the movie not to be missed. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Doctor Strange’ a total of 8.0. It’s exciting and it’s considered something fresh and out of typical dimension in Marvel’s formula. I’m interested to know how are they going to bring in Doctor Strange to join the Avengers team later on.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Movie reviews for Unbroken (2014), The Imitation Game (2014) and Big Hero 6 (2014)

As the Hollywood awards season kick-starts recently, it’s time for me to cover some movies released last year that are predicted to score in major awards like Golden Globes, BAFTAs, or Academy Awards. Previously, I have watched ‘The Theory of Everything’, ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Nightcrawler’. On this weekend right before the 72nd Golden Globe, I went for ‘Unbroken’, ‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Big Hero 6’.

Let’s start with ‘Unbroken’. I am very thrilled by its very promising trailer, and knowing that it is the second directorial work by Angelina Jolie (my favourite actress), I’m quite excited for this movie which tells on the true story of Louie Zamperini. He who died last year, months before the film release was an Olympic athlete whom survived days floating on the ocean after his plane crash, and was sent to Japanese prisoner camp during World War II. Its trailer gave me a very good feel that this is going to be one massive epic movie. But in the end, it turned out disappointingly plain.

The story is there and strong, but I think there is just not enough effort or direction to push it for a more dramatic or impacting outcome. Yes, I am saddened by Louie’s hardship as depicted in the movie, but I’m not touched. It fails to be a moving film which is important when it looks like it want to compete in Oscars. However, I must say that Jack O’Connell, the actor who portrayed Louie is marvelous in the film. He is one young and talented actor to look out for. He saved the film from being downgraded further. We are shown scenes of Louie competing for Olympics, survived a plane crash but floating on the ocean for over 40 days, then caught by the Japanese and was sent and tortured in their prisoner camp during World War II. There is so much to see and things should be intense and powerful, but now, it didn’t quite hit the note. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Unbroken’ a total of 7.5 only. A solid film but will not get into the Oscars.

Next, is ‘The Imitation Game’. This one performed better. This is a movie also based on a true story and coincidentally, also sets during World War II. It revolves on Alan Turing, a homosexual mathematician whom tried to break the Enigma code used by the Germans for the war with help of his team. First of all, a very good storyline and a well-paced plot keeps momentum going. Next, Benedict Cumberbatch delivered an outstanding performance as Alan. He nailed the role. He has quite a similar look too with the real Alan Turing. This is my first time seeing him in film and he impressed me. He deserved Best Actor nomination at least in upcoming Oscars from this role. Brilliant performance. Keira Knightley is also great here as the supporting character Joan, the only female member in Alan’s team to break the Enigma code.

This movie also delivered more gripping ‘golden phrases’ compared to ‘Unbroken’ which are sometimes essential to determine a movie’s success to critics. Besides that, I enjoyed the use of flashback scenes of Alan’s childhood years that intercepted between the time when he worked on Enigma. The way things performed in the film is great and beautifully written. This is much stronger, stirring, gripping and clever compared to ‘Unbroken’. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Imitation Game’ a total of 8.0. Definitely one of my best films for the year 2014.

 

Last in my post of this multiple movie reviews is the animated film ‘Big Hero 6’. The movie delivered to us the special bond that develops between plus-sized inflatable robotic nurse named Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes. After watching this movie, I’m sure no one could avoid from loving Baymax. It is cute and lovely. The real appeal of this film isn’t its action, it’s the characters and the emotions put on it that moved us despite it is only being an animated work. It somehow manages to match the success of ‘The Lego Movie’ released early last year too, but still ‘The Lego Movie’ is slightly better. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Big Hero 6’ a total of 7.8. A solid and entertaining animated movie that offers ‘hug that can be felt out of the screen’ by none other than Baymax.

Ohh…’Big Hero 6′ is the 50th film released in 2014 that I have watched. My target (50) achieved finally.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)