#i thought that luke skywalker was zac efron | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mellamojoey · 6 years

Text

Favorite Movies of 2017

John Wick 2:

While never seeing the first, I walked into John Wick expecting it to be what I saw in the trailers and it exceeded my expectations. Not only is it a great story but it is amazingly shot with great set pieces. The scene with all the mirrors towards the end. Oh Damn. One of the best sequences I’ve seen in a film this entire year.

Logan:

X-Men movies recently haven’t been that great in my opinion. Days of Future Past I enjoyed a lot, didn’t see Apocalypse but heard it wasn’t that great. Logan brings us something we don’t see in comic book films, a death. Logan is the perfect ending to one of the best comic book hero portrayals we will ever see. The dark, gritty Wolverine which is Old Man Logan was a great story to end the Hugh Jackman era of Wolverine.

Wonder Woman:

Origin films are never great. After being introduced to Wonder Woman in Batman V Superman, I was intrigued to see how she will do in her own film. She delivered. While being one of the best comic book movies of the year, it was one of the best films of the year. Gal Gadot is great as Wonder Woman and knowing more about the character, that made BVS somewhat watchable, is always a good thing. She was my favorite part of Justice League and I’m excited to see the future of Wonder Woman in the unknown future of the DCEU.

Big Sick:

The Big Sick is my movie of the year. After being a fan of Kumail from Silicon Valley, I was very excited to see this film that he and his wife wrote about how they met. In a movie that I expected to be a comedy based on the actor's cast, I cried a lot. Such a beautiful story and the ending will have you leaving the theatre happy crying which only happens to me after Disney movies.

Baby Driver:

When you talk about the use of music in film, Baby Driver has to be in that conversation. The use of the soundtrack being the base of the film is phenomenal. The scene where they list the stars of the movie, the music is synced up with environmental pieces and that blew me away. The car chase, in the beginning, was well put together and the character Baby had a great backstory and a great conclusion.

Spider-Man:

When you think of a franchise that really needed to get their reboot to work, Spider-Man is top of the list. After seeing 2 rebooted versions of Spider-Man in the past decade, I’m excited about Tom Holland. He looks like a high schooler, he has the charm that Peter Parker has and is just a phenomenal Spider-Man. His inclusion in Civil War was well put together and Homecoming gave us the inside look of what Peter Parker does while waiting for his next mission that DOESN’T include Uncle Ben.

Thor:

If you ask many Marvel fans what the worst franchise is, a good amount of them would say Thor. The first Thor, followed by Thor: The Dark World, were ok films. They aren’t must-see movies for people to understand the Avengers. Thor Ragnorak took the boring Thor franchise and poured some of the Guardians mojo inside it and it worked. People might say that it was almost too funny but when did that become a bad thing? It was a great movie with a good moving plot not only for Thor but also for Loki (who is always a fan favorite.) This is a must-see movie for your friend that wants to catch up before Infinity War arrives in May. (Holy crap that’s soon)

CoCo:

I have this thing when I don’t see much press for Disney movies, I assume they won’t do great and it won’t be good. I felt that with Frozen, I was proven wrong. Not only by the box office numbers and the widespread of it in Disney parks, but as a Cast Member at the Disney Store where we would get an Else ornament in stock, get a call from a guest about it, and have that guest be in front of me 15 minutes later purchasing said ornament.

Coco followed this by not having much press before it released. I finally got around to seeing it and it was amazing. The animation style gets better and better each time Disney and Pixar release a film. The story was fantastic of the young boy going against his families warnings and pursuing music. Him finding out that his idol wasn’t the person he thought it was, is something we often in Disney films but this time it was unexpected. The music is amazing as well. Coco is near the top of my list of animated Disney films.

Honorable Mention:

Beauty and the Beast:

I enjoyed the film. It wasn’t amazing. The opening scene was a little odd to me, I prefer the stained glass or the storybook approach. The Be Our Guest sequence was the best part of the film. The choreography and the CGI made it a spectacle that I would expect from the song. I still prefer the animated version.

Guardians 2:

Carrying on from what was the biggest surprise which was Guardians 1, the sequel picks right up with the humor that we love. The mystery of Quill’s father was finally revealed and Ego was a great character with a good story arch. Having Quill possibly go be bad with Ego was interesting and I wish that it lasted longer but it was bound to end with Ego being a one-off villain. The introduction of Mantis was fantastic. I love that character and I’m excited to see how she effects the Guardians and other heroes in Infinity War.

Kingsman 2:

More of the same. I always love the gadgets they show off. I liked the idea of having Kingsman type groups around the country and having them interact was great. The fight scenes were well choreographed and put together. Didn’t throw any curveballs at me or surprise me in any way which was kind of disappointing.

Last Jedi:

I enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t the spectacle that was The Force Awakens and it didn’t have to be. This film ended a lot of things that I didn’t want to be ended. Luke Skywalker dying at the end was ok. I thought he would be more of the Yoda in the Rey/Luke friendship but having Yoda pop up saying that Rey is ready to go and has always been was underwhelming. Rose was an ok character. Finn was underused. Poe I enjoyed, I liked seeing him go against the purple-haired lady. I really think they should’ve killed off Leia in that floating scene because that scene was just unneeded. I would’ve liked to see a Snoke backstory. He was basically a Marvel villain. That Kylo Ren/ Rey fighting scene was FUCKING INSANE. The best part of the movie. The movie had a lot of low moments, I would say the first hour probably. But when the movie had high moments, they were really great. I am really interested to see how they finish off this trilogy because, besides a big Kylo / Rey faceoff, I don’t know what else they could do. Maybe the Knights of Ren?

Lego Batman:

Great humor that I expected but it just seemed extra funny because it was Batman. Will Arnett is great as Batman (never thought I’d say that.) The opening scene where they list all the explosives on the plane and end it by saying Two Best Friends, has me dying each time I watch it.

Still Have To See:

Blade Runner:

I’m really into Sci-Fi movies and this looked really interesting to me. But after not watching the first Blade Runner, I felt I wasn’t ready to see 2049. When it comes out on Blu-Ray I will definitely pick it up and watch both movies.

Get Out:

All I heard was great things about this movie. Never got around to watching it. I have purchased it so I’m just waiting for a lazy day where I can catch up on the movies I didn’t see.

Disaster Artist:

Always a fan of Seth Rogen and James Franco. This movie looks fantastic. I haven’t seen The Room (which this is based on) but I have a good idea of what made the movie so infamous. I will probably be seeing this soon.

Greatest Showman:

I will be seeing this in theatres soon. I am a huge fan of musicals. Hugh Jackman is a great actor and seeing Zac Efron return to musicals is great

#greatest showman #disaster artist #the room #get out #blade runner #lego batman #star wars #spiderman #thor #guardians of the galaxy #the big sick #john wick #wonder woman #baby driver #coco #beauty and the beast #films #movies

1 note · View note

softplacepod · 4 years

Text

Episode 5: Saving What We Love

Show notes and transcript below the cut.

SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 5, “SAVING WHAT WE LOVE”

ACNH: https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/

“Rewrite the Stars,” The Greatest Showman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO28Z5_Eyls

Rey’s Vision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ib_gszTtig

“You Will Be Found,” Dear Evan Hansen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSfH2AuhXfw

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, bees. It's me, Sara, sending you light and love, and also a bunch of things I've been super into lately that I think might be your jam. Welcome to A Soft Place to Land.

Item the first: welcome to Apple

Or, shared spaces

Look, okay, in this time, it seems like everyone is playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons and I am nothing if not a follower. At first I thought it would be more like Stardew Valley - the grind of the daily tasks, the deep relationships, ever-evolving, with your town’s citizens, the slow circle of seasons. And it’s not not like that, Animal Crossing. You can play it that way.

My spouse lives on my island, which is named Apple. My daughter named it. We have, now, a museum and a tailor’s, and my spouse and I have found a delicate balance of how we want to play. Where he is the finder of every bug and fish and fossil (and now art, because that’s a thing), the careful checklist of hot items and optimal paths through seasonal events, I am…less so. His house is full of items that bring him delight, a room full of bugs and fish he’s saving to get made into special art items. His front yard is a riotous blooming nest of flowers and lawn ornaments.

My house is smaller, and quieter. I keep only certain furniture and items, and sell the rest, or give them to him if I think he’ll like them. I have more floor space, and less decor. My front yard is nearly empty, aside from a birdhouse and a hammock. Instead, I’ve found a soothing rhythm of my daily tasks: clean up the beaches, pick up fallen tree branches, harvest fruit. I catch a few bugs and fish to sell, knowing they’ve all already been donated to our museum. I don’t bother with turnips or hot items. Instead, I’ve become the island’s infrastructure manager. I built a ramp, a couple of bridges. I arrange plots and buildings, reshape where the fruit trees and flower gardens are.

We share the island, but can never interact - we just have the one Switch Lite - and it’s become a sort of game of telephone. We leave each other items or notes, we might drop an extra recipe on the other’s floor, we make sure the other knows that this or that traveling seller is around today. We’re together but not, on the island. It’s nice.

Item the second: is it impossible?

Or, I Want songs

I think I’ve listened to the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman about thirty times now. While I skip some of the songs more often than not, they are all excellently done. “Never Enough” is a heartbreaker, the theme song is boss, “This Is Me” is the obvious stunner. But for whatever reason (there are a lot of them), I’ve found myself drawn again and again to the duet “Rewrite the Stars.” It’s a love duet, and a breakup song, and a celebration, and also it’s an I Want song with a subversion built into the final lines.

Oh, okay, so “I Want” songs, in musicals, are the song where the character sings about how they’re unsatisfied with their current life, and the song bursts from them to describe the life they want. It’s a really common trope in musicals in general, and it’s especially common in 1990s animated musicals and beyond, because in the 60s, a conductor named Lehman Engel ran a series of workshops and taught an entire generation of people how to write musicals, and he thought the “I Want” song was important, so. You could think of, say, “Just Around the Riverbend” from Pocahontas, “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, or “Touch the Sky” from Brave. For musical theatre songs, “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof, “The Wizard and I” from Wicked, or “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret. There are a lot of them, is the point.

I Want songs, by their nature, describe the state of discontent in which the singer lives, and also - and this is important - the steps they’re going to take to fix that. They’ll keep paddling, they’ll swim to the surface, they’ll run into the wilderness, they’ll seek a marriage with someone worthwhile, they’ll prove their worth, they’ll find a love that doesn’t hurt them. The I Want song is also, by its nature, an I Am Going To song.

And at first, “Rewrite the Stars” sounds like that. It’s two people singing about how they’re obviously falling in love, but external factors and fear are keeping them apart. As the song goes on - in the movie, they’re Zac Efron and Zendaya, separated by race, class, everything - the lovers imagine themselves in the world they describe, where they step bravely out and demand the future they want. But then. But then they are brought back to the ground, literally, by one character pointing out that it’s unrealistic, nearly impossible, and leaving.

It’s a broken I Want song. It’s I Want and This Is How I Could, But I Won’t. It is a hope spot, of sorts, that is then dashed to pieces.

Item the third: voices in the Force

Or, no one is alone, again

There is one moment - there were a couple amidst the parts I hated - in The Rise of Skywalker that keeps coming back to me. I should note, before we begin, that I am on record everywhere as absolutely loving The Last Jedi and seeing no reason for 80% of what was in Rise of Skywalker to have happened.

Long story slightly shorter, there is a moment in the Last Jedi (I’m getting to it, hang on) where all hope seems lost, where the heroes look up in despair and begin to accept their inevitable defeat. And then. And then a sky fills with allies come to help. The galaxy answers the call, and everyone with a ship and a blaster shows up. The fight renews. There are several moments like this in that movie, from Luke’s “no one’s ever really gone” to Rose’s astounding description of how they’ll win - “not fighting what we hate, saving what we love“ to Leia’s “we have everything we need” - moments that never fail to bring me to tears. It’s my favorite story element, always: you are not alone. Your fight is not just you against an insurmountable enemy. You have allies, and they are with you, even if you can’t see them right now.

In Rise of Skywalker, among all the many things about it that I didn’t like, there is a moment where Rey hears all the Jedi of times past speak to her, through her, and tell her: we’re with you. We’re here, too. Get up. You’re not alone. And the power of that moment - we hear Luke, of course, and Obi-Wan, both of his actors contributing. We hear Master Yoda and Mace Windu, in thrilling small moments. We hear characters, women especially, who’ve never been heard in a main film but whose lives in animated and EU content are rich and full and inspiring. We hear Qui-Gon Jinn, who sort of started this whole thing, and Anakin, who in death found a path towards being who he once was (and I have issues with that, don’t get me wrong, but it brought me to tears anyway).

The rest of the movie, in large part, is missed opportunities and boring filler. But that moment, regardless of anything else, stands with my favorites in the series. Moments of connection. Moments where someone who feels alone and abandoned finds a hand reaching out to them, a nudge in the Force that connects all life, a smiling face (or a grumpy one) with welcome on its lips.

Item the final: you will be found

Or, a musical I haven’t even seen

I haven’t seen Dear Evan Hansen, and I won’t, probably, unless it gets released on a streaming service or something. What I have seen, over and over, are people singing one or two of the songs from it. “You Will Be Found,” from what I can gather, features pretty heavily in the plot, and from my skimming of the wikipedia page, the plot is based on a set of lies, so that’s suboptimal, but - and this is important - that in no way lessens the power of this song.

Remember how “Rewrite the Stars” is so full of hope and promise only to dash it with the last lines? This song’s rooting in lies doesn’t matter, because it builds and builds into an overt, loud rejection of the idea that anyone is truly alone, that anyone is beyond help, that anyone is left behind. You reach out a hand and you find another. You seek a spark of hope and it’s there, cupped in someone’s palms, and they’ve been reaching out to you, too, and now you’ve found each other.

We’re feeling alone, many of us, right now. Isolated and quarantined, and things may be starting to open up but we’re far from safe, and it’s all just…it’s a lot right now. And while I can’t promise you safety or happiness, an easier way or a hopeful sunrise, I can promise you that you are not, in fact alone. You are apart, you are secluded, you are many things. But alone, you are not. The galaxy is your ally against the enemies at your door. The onus is not on you to call out for help; we are already here, pouring out what light we can into the darkness, seeking your hand with ours. It feels, so much, like grasping in the dark these days, and sometimes we’re too tired or scared, too worn down or afraid, to keep reaching. I understand. We all do it. We all have days when we can’t see or hear or sense anyone with us, anyone on our side, and we feel abandoned.

For many of us, though, those days aren’t all of them. We have days, too, where we can be the hand in the darkness searching for another. We can be the person singing into space, knowing the song will land in ears that need it. We can shine our lights out into the storm and believe that those who seek it will find it. We won’t have those days all the time, and we won’t always be the ones in search of comfort. The way this works is that we all give what we can and take when we need it. Your days of reaching out and mine don’t have to be the same ones. We push and pull together, we find a balance. We’re not alone. Get to your feet. Look around you. Find another person and pull together on the yoke, and we’ll continue to move forward in space and time.

[music]

Theme music for A Soft Place to Land is “Repose,” by Chase Miller, off his album Burnout. Chase’s music can be found at chasemiller.bandcamp.com. Show notes and episode transcripts are at softplacepod.tumblr.com. You can find me on Twitter @cyranoh_ and you can listen to me jabber on as the foil to my very good friend Anna on our parenting podcast, The Parent Rap, at parentrap.net.

I love you very much. Take care of yourselves. See you soon.

0 notes