Suzume (Film) Review

Suzume is a wondrous film that will take you through a spectrum of emotions leaving you feeling satisfied and joyful and falling absolutely in love with it by the end. The emotional resonance emanating from it held me captivated and submerged. Completely and utterly enchanted. Tears overwhelmed and overflowed. My heart enraptured yet harrowed at the same time by the enveloping tragedy and the dawning affection shared between the characters in focus. Concluding the film left me in a state of awe where all I felt like doing was sitting there in silence as the credits rolled appreciating what I experienced and melting away within the melody of the Suzume theme song until it ended along with the credits. The film genuinely seized me and absorbed my heart into its essence.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Review

Mario, one of the most iconic characters in gaming if not THE most iconic. Mere mention of the name Mario evokes imagery of the plumber with a mustache donning a red and blue outfit with a red hat containing the letter M. And for those who played the games other aspects such as jumping, mushrooms, coins, stars, pipes, the question mark blocks and the need to repeat levels have become elements intertwined with the existence of Mario. Elements that now help define the direction of the 2023 film. In addition, the core characters introduced across the Mario games encapsulates the identity of this film. With each of those characters representing an anchoring point during the story’s progression. And when you bring into play the history of Mario and Nintendo, you get the embodiment of the journey. In short, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is very representative of Nintendo and gaming as a whole – joyful, fun and entertaining.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) Review

John Wick 4 was beautifully enrapturing. It literally brought a tear to my eye in the theater and not because of anything overwhelmingly emotional happening in the story at that moment but due to the sheer passion and quality instilled in John Wick to craft it into such a breathtaking franchise. Witnessing the conclusion of this film series erupt into the spectacle that John Wick 4 is, I couldn’t help but be motioned by the pleasure and gratitude of being a spectator to such an experience filling me up.

Prey (2022) Review

Prey is a complete film that smartly used its setting, pacing and characters to craft an experience that embodied a “hunt” and a journey which evolved from the “hunted” becoming the “hunter”. Out of all the Predator films that came before, Prey has now become my most favourite entry within the franchise and if I am being totally honest, I found it superior than many blockbuster films released this year.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Review

Viewing Top Gun: Maverick in the theaters was an intense and enthralling experience. I absolutely loved it. One of the best Tom Cruise movies I have seen and my current favorite film of the year (have yet to see Everything Everywhere All At Once). It was unbelievably good. Not only was it enjoyably satisfying but it was emotionally compelling. I was spellbound for the whole runtime.

Top Gun: Maverick enhances everything from the first film and builds off the events taking place decades later to construct a story that concludes the narrative surrounding the legacy characters in a gratifying manner. 36 years have passed since the first Top Gun was released and that sense of time is felt intimately within Top Gun: Maverick. Even the tragedy within the first film was further elevated emotionally and thematically in Maverick.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022) Review

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is an exhilarating ride into the possibilities of reality, dreams and nightmares. A narrative driven by love and deconstructed by madness. What the film does is leverage the lore established over the prior films and series within the universe looking to expand how much broader the relevance of what came before is. In that sense though, Multiverse of Madness is both elevated and weighed down by the details of the MCU. But within that setting it manages to tell an intimate story of how ruin and salvation lie unrecognisable within the state of overwhelming love.

[Theory] Wandavision – The Return Of Ultron?

Whether it be through the actions of S.W.O.R.D., Vision, Wanda, the Hex or another party, Ultron has an intimate connection to the characters relevant in Wandavision. There is potential for Ultron to be one of the antagonist of Wandavision or his revival to be an outcome from the chaos spiraling out of the Wandavision conclusion. S.W.O.R.D. may have awoken part of “Vision” and his time in the Hex could be awakening the rest of Vision which includes the elements of Ultron, Jarvis, Tony and Bruce.

John Wick Chapter 2 (2017) Review

The man. The myth. The legend.

One of the biggest challenges successful films face is crafting a sequel that encapsulates all that made the original so memorable and exciting and delivering all that in a follow-up installment filled with freshness and novelty. John Wick Chapter 2 not only does that but it exceeds the expectations set by the fanbase and presents a film that delivers on both the sophisticated John Wick action we all hungered for since 2014 and on the world of Assassins that became such a point of intrigue in the first film, including the organisation known as the Continental. It pushes the boundaries of cinematic action and action-driven story telling into a work of art and what an art piece John Wick is to subject your time and attention into.

Colossal (2017) Review

What an unexpectedly enjoyable film that twist the conventional approach to ‘monster destruction’

Disguised in the clothing of a Kaiju film, Colossal draws you in with its mystery surrounding the massive monster threatening Seoul and the connection those events have on the main character currently residing within the USA. As you get deeper into the film, it becomes clear that the film belies its initial form and utilises the genre to push forward a totally different story. Yet at the same time, it keeps the “monster” theme central to the identity of the film. As each twist leaves you re-examining your perception of the story and it’s characters, you find yourself becoming engrossed by how such a genre can be distorted into one conveying themes filled with relevance, meaning and depth. Colossal is undeniably a colossal film that utilises its elements creatively to convey a powerful message.

Alien: Covenant (2017) Review

The result of man’s curiosity

Creation, a gift bestowed upon life to pursue the stream of existence yet within that pursuit, the perception of divinity and the desire for perfection taints the stream, distorting the gift towards understanding into a curse beckoning death. It is that perversion and ignorance of consequence that led to creation of the Xenomorph and its variants that we’ve come to know, fear and strangely love.