Star Trek: Beyond was a return to form after Into Dumbness, but very safe.
Dr. Strange was also good but predictable, overall one of the better MCU entries. The triply effects were a highlight and the MCU movie problem of lame villains and hour+ origins needs to stop. Park Chan-wook´s The Handmaiden was his 2nd cinematography porno (this time literally) in a row but even an inferior entry by him is worth watching.
Train To Busan seems to be this year´s Korean highlight. On to the endless comic tv:

Flash is still good but the new timeline is being rushed a bit. Legends of Tomorrow had an amazing 2nd ep. with the JSA (a top 5 Arrow-verse entry) but the main plot isn´t working as of now. Supergirl S02 isn´t quite there yet but it undeniably improved, as i now bother to watch it (!), yet the CW "fixed" Superman articles are pure trash. Hoechlin is undeniably the 3rd best life action Superman (or one of the 3 good...) but the shallow writing on his part needs to be noted. More appearance by him (use him in LoT) are very welcomed though, just give him a story. Arrow further got it´s 3rd and final chance by me due to the crazy amount of amazing B-list heroes/villains brought in (Ragman and Prometheus, holy shit!) and it´s now the best CW show on the air. What an improvement, even plot elements of S04 are now being redeemed . The ultra generic Mr. Terrific is my only complain, and the story is surprisingly dark and violent for the network. As in the shockingly done well done S02. Don´t fuck it up CW, as this is even the best superhero show of the year, after DD02. The Vixen toon shorts are also enjoyable but... short.
The standalone Gotham is still as crazy as ever, but also quite fun. I greatly enjoy the gay Penguin (the actor is also gay) and their take on the Mad Hatter is surprisingly bleak and gory, nice. Luke Cage was obviously good but the noted length length problems DD and JJ S01 had hit hard here. About 1/3 was pure filler and the 2nd half was inferior to the 1st.
I loved the topical take on police racism though. Even Agents of SHIELD got a 3rd chance by me, as i skipped S03 outside the pilot, and i will again skip this season.
Ghost Rider was as well done as the impressive promos (keep him for Netflix!) but the show´s core is a pointless mess.

The Lethal Weapon show turned out good, and source appropriate too, who would have though? I decided to give up on Lucifer, as it has nothing to do with the Vertigo comic, but it´s a decent cop show. I lastly didn´t even return to The Walking Dead, just read the highly superior comics, but i saw the "big kill". It´s from the comics, but much less well done and frankly idiotic after a similar filler plot in S06. Nonsense like this is why i left...
Forgot: Westworld may be the best new show this year. The original film is somewhat worth it too as a primer, due to the memorable 2nd half.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 4:12 pm, Nov 7 2016

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Doctor Strange - Well nothing much to say about it. It's great, as one would expect from Benedict Cumberbatch and Marvel. As a first time watcher you get to enjoy enjoy every moment of it. Great visual effects, you may find some of rapid view changes a bit similar to Inception and Jumper(some fight scenes), but in a lot bigger ground field. Which makes it worth watching in 3D (IMAX 3D here).




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Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ MinatoAce

I was on more planes again (three different countries in a week!), so I watched more movies.

Ant-Man Surprisingly good. Recent entries in the MCU has disappointed me with their lackluster dialogue and boring plotting, but Ant-Man's dialogue was... not terrible. And the plot was generic but interesting enough to be mildly entertaining. (Also: Scott taking the time to save all the ants! That was a nice touch!) The only issues I had with it were all meta-issues. Ergo, there was no reason not to make this a Wasp movie and make the main conflict Hope's reconciliation with her dad and have Ant-Man be the second fiddle. And, with the great PoC supporting cast, I don't understand why they didn't just go ahead and cast a black/brown Scott Lang too. It would've added an additional layer of nuance to the whole "trying to go clean in a discriminatory world" business they had going on at the beginning.

Jurassic World I owned the first movie on VHS and knew basically all the lines as a kid, so watching this one was an interesting experience. I liked the basic premise/theme (the hubris of the scientists in creating a even more threatening dinosaur for entertainment value) and the raptors were cute. Other than that, it was fairly... generic? Underwhelming? Basically the first movie except with the older sister swapped out as the older brother? (Except the older brother is actually competent.) And no Jeff Goldblum? It wasn't a bad movie, but I didn't feel anything watching it other than the occasional exclamations of, "Why in the world did you do that?!"

Independence Day: Resurgence Yet another movie whose prequel I owned the VHS of. Unlike Jurassic Park, though, I never liked Independence Day. Fortunately, Resurgence was an improvement in just about every way, with Nice, Benevolent, and Technologically Advanced Aliens to boot! Unfortunately, I have very mixed feelings about who exactly ended up dying and who ended up as the final survivors. But that's not really a discussion for these forums. It's still better than the first movie, regardless.

Train to Busan: I'm not really a big fan of zombie movies, so it was quite regular for me. Watched it because of the language, which I'm learning right now.
Doctor Strange: Also pretty regular. This sums up my opinion pretty well:

Awesome effects, but kinda lacking plot wise.

Moana (2016)

~ The Ocean Is Calling ~

It's a beautiful movie, which also points out some real world truth. As I see it, it's running for Oscar and got a fair amount points on getting it.



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Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ MinatoAce

The Hateful Eight (2015)

This is the 6th Quentin Tarantino film I've watched and I'm not sure if I should like it, but...
The acting was superb though.

7/10



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Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.

Advantageous (2015) Hoo boy, this movie was... interesting. I enjoyed a lot of the questions it asked, and I liked how it didn't find a magical solution to all of them. And I liked how the ending was about a personal reconciliation rather than a rebellion against a clearly oppressive system (because it's often just not feasible to instigate immediate change). I'm not sure how I felt about it as a piece of entertainment though. It felt like I was watching a very intelligent essay being acted out (though the acting was excellent!). It stimulated me, but more in the, "Wow, the people who wrote this were so intelligent" way than in the, "I want to write intelligent things about this" way.

Arthur Christmas This one was cute. And actually felt like a whole movie! Unlike a lot of Hollywood animated features I've watched recently (/coughFrozencough). All the plots and subplots were neatly tied up, and I enjoyed how small the scale the storytelling was. I enjoyed the interpersonal conflicts too, though I have mixed feelings with how it eventually ended up. And I wish they had focused on Steve just a tad more to bring out that final message. (And I question the necessity of the "aliens are invading!" subplot.) But overall it was a nice movie with some good, down-to-earth ideas.

Ghost in the Shell (1995) Since most of my friends were annoyed at the new live-action movie, we all finally decided to sit down and watch the original animated one. It was... an interesting experience. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It felt like a whole and coherent story, but it didn't feel quite enough to make a movie, y'know? Or maybe I'm just too used to movies nowadays which cram like three different subplots in alongside the major plot, but still. The animation was incredible, though, especially when you consider it was made over twenty years ago.

Moana. it easily became one of my top favorite Disney movies along with Beauty and the Beast and Tangled.

I also recently re-watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It's so beautiful.

Hacksaw Ridge, Silence and Arrival were the best films of last year i haven´t mentioned so far (UC BvS is still the best) but on the comic stuff, as none of you care anyway what i think of this Oscar Bait season. It´s better than last year´s, so the much needed Academy reforms worked out.

Arrow ran into serious trouble exactly in time for the mediocre CW 4-part-crossover with all the Black Canary circle jerk but it´s good enough to keep watching... for now.
I quit both Supergirl (again) and Legends of Tomorrow, the formulaic foundation i just too middle of the road to ever work. Even Flash is going though the weakest season yet but you gonna love the core cast. Their new Riverdale is really good though! Extremely gay and sexed up too, so i can´t wait till it also breaks under too many seasons and possible spin-offs (Sabrina is part of that universe).
Gotham is going though it´s best season yet, while basically featuring the New 52 Joker, and todays´s pilot for Legion is a near masterpiece. Justice League Action is further a mixture between JLU and the style of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which is great, but don´t expect a 2nd season due to the way CW treats the show.
Voltron S02 is further the best anime of the year so far (sigh), despite being a US / Korea co-production. Go Netflix, especially the Lost style The OA. Ah yes, back to comics.

Justice League Dark lastly had great animation and the (soft) R was noticeable in parts. It´s the best N52 entry since Batman vs Robin. Not that this is saying much and it´s better than the originating JLD arc (Enchantress was the villain, something Ayer emulated in Squad). Batman was surprisingly well used too. The biggest problem is that the film is overstuffed and that the twist villain could have used more development. Doug Liman now has something live up to, with his DCEU feature and i would love a sequel. 8,5/10
Edit: I forgot Powerless, now appropriate .

Last edited by residentgrigo at 12:13 pm, Feb 9 2017

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Went to see John Wick 2 on the past weekend. A very nice action flick indeed, and highly recommended if you liked the previous movie.

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I saw the Lego Batman movie. It was certainly cute and funny but very cringeworthy too.

Watched Beauty and the Beast. The adaptation was nice and beautiful... It was good!


edit: whoops, hasn't been 7 days yet since my last post. sorry >_<

So in the past month, I watched got Netflix and then flew on an airplane. So here are the movies I managed to watch in the meantime.

Deirdra & Laney Rob a Train Super fun family movie! The only gripe I had was that the prison sequences were way more light-hearted than I think was entirely warranted in the current political climate. But I can understand it as kind of a necessity in keeping the atmosphere light. Otherwise, great fun, and I would love to see more movies from this director/the acting crew.

Front Cover I love queer Asian American movies, and while the premise is very typical (closeted Chinese actor from the mainland meets openly gay Chinese American fashion stylist), there's a lot going for it in its depiction of Chinese culture that felt super genuine. One of my favorite points was that the fashion stylist can't understand the actor's Chinese not because he's too "white-washed" (as is the typical track with Chinese American movies) but because his family speaks Cantonese, not Mandarin. I've honestly never seen an American movie tackle differences in the Chinese community quite like this, and I'm definitely hoping for more movies from this guy in the future.

Spa Night More queer Asian American movies! This one definitely surprised me because, even though it takes place in America, about 80% of the movie is in Korean. Very slow, laidback movie. I felt I would have appreciated it more if I was actually Korean American myself, so I'm definitely rec'ing it to my Korean American friends and seeing what they think.

Dope (2015) Oh, this was a fun movie. Reminded me a bit of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, except with an actual happy ending, and the focus on blackness rather than Asianness, obviously. I liked the way it explores being on the fringes of a poor black community on account of your geekiness/nerdiness--you don't see this very often. It's also comedic without taking the gravity out of the (relatively brief) moments of violence, which I appreciated. And, more black lesbians acting as black lesbians in movies, please and thank you.

Imperial Dreams Watched this for John Boyega and was not disappointed. There is a lot of John Boyega in this movie. I felt the ending was a bit lackluster and left me wanting a more firm resolution, but overall it was good. I enjoyed most of what it tried to explore, but it also almost feels like most of what it's exploring has been explored--and explored just slightly better--already. (I couldn't help comparing, for instance, this movie to Fruitvale Station, the latter of which ends up being more powerful, simply because it's a true story we all already know the ending to.)

Moana I feel terrible about thinking this, but the whole time I watched this, I just went, "Isn't this basically a rehash of Sinbad?" Moana is better, of course, but I still could not shake the idea that I've seen this story done a thousand times before (even if Moana is the best iteration of it thus far). I really loved how it ended--though I felt that Maui should've gotten a bit more punishment for what he did. A thousand years on an island with no character development doesn't feel like quite enough repentance, honestly.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Wow, the budget for this film must have been enormous. Otherwise, felt overwritten with too many plot points, and the writing left much to be desired. (I spent half the movie going, "Who talks like that!") It's British roots definitely shown through too, and it never felt quite believably "American" enough for me.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One I'm glad I finally got around to watching these. I was never a big Star Wars fan (I own the original sequel trilogy and watched bits and pieces of the prequel trilogy on TV), but with the recent talk of the new Star Wars movie, I felt I should probably get with the time and watch them. (Also, John Boyega!) TFA was fairly good, storyline-wise, but I definitely felt a bit ticked off that one of the major plot points is that the Stormtroopers are kidnapped and brainwashed child soldiers but that the film still continues to kill them with impunity. Can't you take a cue from Mad Max: Fury Road and at least give lip service to no one dying? Comparatively, I enjoyed Rogue One more, and it had an amazing cast: Diego Luna, Donnie Yen (<3), Jiang Wen, and Riz Ahmed (<3 <3) were all fantastic. I'm not wholly satisfied with the ending, though, and it saddens me that it seems to preclude seeing more of these actors in subsequent Star Wars films.

Hidden Figures I went out and bought the book right after watching this. Janelle Monae is wonderful, and so was Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. The bathroom sequence that others have criticized ended up being even more annoying than I thought it would be though. I was expecting it to be a minor plot point, but it ended up as a major subplot. For a movie based on a true story, making something that didn't actually happen a major subplot made me side-eye it a lot. Watched this in theaters with my mom and she loved it, though, and it prompted some good conversations, so overall it was a good experience that I would repeat.

Moonlight Watched this a while ago in theaters but forgot to write about this here. Powerful and extraordinary. The premise is simple, but the execution is really everything. Definitely deserved the Oscar it got--though I'm also amazed that it got it. I've already rewatched it a few times since. It's definitely one of those movies that get better with each rewatch. I can't wait to see other Barry Jenkins movies.

Get Out Oh, this was a great film too. I don't usually watch live-action horror movies, but the reviews made me want to. Very gory near the end, which I almost didn't expect. I've been really enjoying reading the conversations that are coming out from this film too. There's a whole lot of depth here. I need to get my hands on the DVD/BD and rewatch sometime (and probably fast-forward through the gory scenes).

and i loved it! i mean i read this manga wayyy back and i remember some of it and this is the exact story arc where i left while i read the manga so maybe i'll read it again. a solid 8/10

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