Movie Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

It's here. The Force Awakens is here. Just saying that made me realize how incredible it is that we finally have a Star Wars film set after Return of the Jedi. (WARNING) Just a heads up that there will not be HUGE spoliers, but there will be some spoilers as I find the vague interviews don't always capture the spirit of this movie. Star Wars The Force Awakens takes place thirty years after Return of the Jedi. The Galactic Empire has been destroyed and a new sith-like force has taken place called the First Order. The First Order is led by sith lord Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) a Darth Vader wannabe who wants to seize control over the galaxy. One of his stormtroopers is Finn (John Boyega) who after witnessing their violent acts, decides to escape from Ren's leagues clutches. Along the way he meets Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaacs) a pilot who just so happens to be one of my new favorite series characters, his droid BB-8, and a scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley). Eventually Finn, Rey, and BB-8 stowaway on the Milenium Falcon and meet Han Solo (played brilliantly once again by Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Now going into this movie I was pumped and filled with adrenaline. This was a movie that I had been wanting to see ever since Revenge of the Sith ten years ago. Now we finally got it? Is it good, though? YES! This is the most amazing movie...maybe of 2015? What works in the movie? The first thing that really attracted my attention towards the movie was Abram's direction. When I heard JJ Abrams was going to be directing this film, I was not sure if he would be able to capture what made Star Wars so nostalgic in the first place. He did, and I thought this by far is his best film. He uses long sweeping shots and takes wide angles of the most attractive imagery. The first shot on Jakku with Poe Dameron and Max Von Sydow's character was the best shot in the entire film. The next thing that I loved is the fact that this is a film where you actually care about the characters!!!! I remember seeing Revenge of the Sith a while back and I saw the scene where Palpatine kills Mace Windu. All I thought was: Yeah that's really cool. However, when emotional stuff does go underway, again no spoilers, I thought that the deepness of emotion was so powerful and rich. There are moments where you forget this is a movie. You feel like this is real. That's another thing that works with The Force Awakens is that the movie feels so real. It feels like this stuff has actually gone down and we're just witnessing it for the first time. Also, there is humor in this movie. All I'll say is that it doesn't come off as bad or corny. In fact, it actually sort of helps the storyline move along. Overall, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a great movie with great scenes, fascinating acting performances from old and new characters, and a great launch into the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Three stars.

Movie Review: Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

Quentin Tarantino's high sucessful Kill Bill. Volume 1 was huge hit with audiences and critics (myself included). In fact, Tarantino filmed so much of Kill Bill that he had to divide the movie into two parts. The movie together is known as the 'whole bloody affair' and in my mind this is the weaker film. A fact which is ironic, considering that this and vol.1 were technically all one movie. This one is slower paced, highly more emotional, and focused more on Tarantino's trademark of long, intense scenes. This one follows The Bride (brilliantly acted out by british actress Uma Thurman) as she hunts down three people on her list: Budd (Madsen), One-Eyed Ellie (Daryl Hannah) and yes, Bill himself (David Carradine) Her revenge is intertwined with scenes of how she came to be the bad-ass rebel she is today. Now when I first saw this film a while back, the first thing I noticed upon seeing this on Netflix was how slow this movie was compared to the first installment. This is a Tarantino movie, while the other one was the prerequisite to this one. The dialogue is still brilliantly written (Carradine delivers his opinions on comic books before his built up death) and that is what I took away from this film. Kill Bill Volume 1 is all about the action sequences, and that in the end is what I took away from that first film. This film however is driven by dialogue and emotion and cinematography. It's an exercise in film rather than movie-making. Tarantino also has Samuel L. Jackson fill a very small role in this movie and despite the fact that he's only on screen for a short time, his role is brilliant and maybe my favorite in the entire movie. Now this movie is much more centered on less its original story line of Thurman's character (whose name is finally revealed by the way) and focuses more on trying to incorporate techniques and references from other classic kung fu films. When (SPOILER) The Bride is finally reunited with her daughter, its the only moment in this entire epic where I cannot tell what Quentin Tarantino was thinking when he wrote this. She's crying, but where not? Is that supposed to touch on the lack of emotion in kung fu cinema? Or is it possibly the fact that Tarantino cannot throw deep emotion into a work so polluted with violence and revenge and destruction? Who knows, but its the only part of this that I have never been able to fully make sense of. Overall, Kill Bill. Volume 2 is a movie that you have to go into expecting different themes and messages then from the action-packed and adrenaline filled first one. Three stars.