Kevin Di Mauro

CONTAINS SPOILERS This movie was well done overall. Like it’s predecessors it was visually spectacular. The CGI was fantastic and the creativity in the design of the sets and characters was jaw dropping. One such example that was memorable was the scene on that organic space station. It was almost uncomfortable how real it looked. The colours also mixed very well throughout the movie and matched the mood of each scene. On Counter-earth, the colours seemed bland and dull, blending with the theme that replica’s of original creations are boring and toned down. The creatures on counter-earth were anything but however. The soundtrack was good but not as exciting and sentimental as in the other guardians movies. One thing I didn’t particularly like about this movie, and the reason it is not getting 5 stars is the dialogue between the characters. I thought that they argued a little bit too much and that took away from the seriousness of the situation. I understand that comic relief is needed and expected in marvel movies now (particularly in guardians movies), but a scene can be comical without needless arguing. Like your in a life and death situation, drop the pettiness. Be petty afterwards lol. Drax was hilarious as usual, mantis was cool and I liked the wholesome dynamic between her and Drax. Nebula was also funny at times but she was often the one to engage in the petty unnecessary arguments. Quill seemed like he was in desperate search of love from Gomorra which seemed a little pathetic at times. On the flip side Gomorra seemed very cold and unlike the form we knew as in previous films, even though she was the same person as in the first guardians movie. That was quite strange to me. All of the side characters were entertaining and comical. What really made me enjoy this movie were the action scenes and Rockets origin story. The actions scenes were riveting and full of cool fight sequences and creative uses of weapons. The best one was the scene on the enemy ship with all the guardians. Rockets origin story was extremely tragic and gut wrenching. His purpose was to create higher life forms and then after doing so would be killed, along with all of his friends. No wonder he’s cold hearted. The high evolutionary was cool but his character lacked the power seen with other marvel villains the battle between him and the guardians was lacklustre. Adam Warlock was kind of a pointless character and his motivation for killing the Guardians after his mother was killed unintentionally by the high evolutionary was very illogical. He was a dumb character with cool powers and provided some comical relief. Also Peter Quill should’ve died in space. General themes of this movie: friendship, loyalty, personal growth, letting go of the past, the pitfalls of trying to achieve perfection, having empathy, recognizing strengths and the importance of family and community. Overall, I was entertained by this movie, but I enjoyed number 1 & 2 more.

Any amazing epic about how different circumstances and experiences can change one’s trajectory in life, no matter where you begin. This movie shows the progression of 3 characters who all started off in the same place, but graduated through different phases with a greater understanding of their life’s purpose. It shows both the worst and best in people in modern society, and gives us a detailed and fascinating picture into the prison gang culture in LA. This movie tackles many themes such as the meaning of family, the need to feel accepted and valued, and the struggle for power. Easily the best prison gang movie of all time.

Probably the worst Batman I’ve seen since before Christian Bale took on the role. This batman was depressed, constantly melancholy and quite unlikable. Besides being a great fighter and having decent investigative skills, he doesn’t have much going for him. I say decent because he definitely had his moments of exceptional abstract reasoning, but this man thought penguins had wings for gods sake and he trusted the word of a criminal mastermind. Huge Ls there. He also should have easily died about 3 times but got up and recovered as if he had just stubbed his toe. You know what they say though, the strongest armour is plot armour lol. Now for the movie itself. I don’t know who directed it, but someone should have told them to take their sunglasses off lol. Seriously this was even darker than the superman vs Batman movie and I didn’t think that was possible. It was also 3 hours long, when at tops only needed to be 1.5-2 hours. 2 hours in I was hoping it would end soon, but to no avail. The interminable duration of this movie was loaded with useless characters, futile scenes, and subliminal woke propaganda that seemed forced and out of place. Useless characters: - The penguin, who had no relevance to the plot apart from being the manager of a popular Gotham night club and his dealings with the mob. - Cat woman, who was a cat burglar that really only cared about herself and carried a smug sense of superiority and arrogance for the entire movie. She acted very irrationally and used Batman as a way to enact revenge on the people who she thought wronged her, without contributing much to the investigation. - Officer Gordon, he did literally nothing in the investigation and let Batman and Alfred carry him the entire time. Futile Scenes: - The destructive highway chase because penguins aren’t rats with wings - Every scene with officer Gordon - the scene at the police station when the officers were trying to take Batman’s mask off, since the next time they saw him they completely forgot about him assaulting cops and just let him take Falcone in, even though the cops were working with him. Yea totally makes sense hahaha. - The whole plot with the mayoral election campaign. Added absolutely nothing of importance to the movie, and even if the new mayor changes the city, it will negate the purpose of all future Batman movies. The purpose of Batman is that he is a masked fighter of the perpetual corruption in a broken city. If the city is no longer broken and corrupt then there is no need for him. The newly elected mayor should have also died at the end but she must have been wearing plot armour as well. Woke propaganda - Signs saying change with a black woman on it who is running for mayor. Definitely a tribute to BLM. - Cat woman uttering the phrase “privileged white males” reinforcing the idea that white men have everything given to them and that they don’t have to work hard to be successful, which is completely wrong. Oh yea and Batman didn’t stop the Riddler and wouldn’t have caught him unless the Riddler didn’t want to be caught, so he was essentially useless since he didn’t stop anything. It was also stupid how the supporting characters expressed confusion about who Batman was even though he had been around for 2 years and a large bat symbol was shined over the city every night.

I am quite ambivalent towards this show. On the one hand, I understand where the show is coming from. The creator tries to depict drug addiction, self indulgence, and manipulative behaviour as the product of teenage immaturity, emotional pain, and the desire to be accepted and loved. While I can relate to this, especially in my high school experience, I did find that at times it felt as though this kind of behaviour was glorified/sensationalized. As teenagers, their ability to rationally think and consider the lives of others is limited when compared to adults. This is in part because their brains haven’t reached full development and also they haven’t had as many experiences, so they don’t know or understand the full implications of their actions. Based on this, I can sympathize with the characters and regretfully I can actually relate with some of the petty arguments the characters had with their parents, and usually always playing the victim. It’s really pathetic honestly, but I used to do it too so I can’t bash them. One thing I really didn’t like about this show was the amount of sexual content and nudity. I get it “sex sells”, and many teenagers can relate to these experiences. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate to have actors depicted as teenagers having sex and getting nude. This made me feel very uncomfortable and I think it’s wrong that they did this, or least produced it in the manner they did. At times it looked like soft core porn. Because of this, i don’t think teenagers should watch this show, as it might give them a false expectation of what a healthy sex life is. The character development was not very strong in my opinion. One example is at the end of S 1, where an entire episode is dedicated to a discussion between Rue and her counsellor to help her get off the drugs, yet in the first episode of S2 she’s back to doing drugs and feels no regret about it. Sure, it depicts the insane self deception of drug addicts and how hard it is to get off drugs, but I think it gives people who are experiencing a similar problem (maybe not as bad) a reason to justify and rationalize their problems. There also isn’t an ark to any of the characters. Nate remains a sociopath, Maddie remains imperious, Cassie stays stupid and self deceiving, Kat stays manipulative and self righteous, and Sue doesn’t get over her drug problems. Sure, the situations may change, but I saw no real change in how the characters actually behaved, which is what a character ark is. Another thing i didn’t like was the lack of constructive and productive behaviour displayed by many of the main characters. They all seem like weak minded, arrogant, manipulative people with no redeeming qualities. I saw no strong values shown by any character in the show besides in Jules, Ethan, Lexy and Fez. The high school I went to wasn’t full of saints, but there were definitely good and genuine people who went there. You also only ever see the extremely negative side of the characters lives, which I don’t think is an accurate representation of the teenage experience. Most people in high school are consumed with homework and extra curricular activities, so I don’t know why it didn’t include any of that kind of stuff. Some additional pros and cons: I liked the music choices, cinematography, acting and the wisdom of Ali. I didn’t like the plot lines and redundant dialogue. Most of the characters would be 3-5 years away from being on Jerry Springer and many would have already been on Dr. Phil. These characters are not your average teens.

This is a very frustrating tv show to watch. The characters are incredibly selfish, stupid, and immature to the point that it’s very difficult to connect with them, and many of them don’t stay consistent with particular behaviours. For instance, in one scene you’ll see the characters fiercely fighting a hoard of zombies, and then the next scene they’re terrified and freeze up when a single zombie is in the room with them, allowing the zombie to infect someone in the group. I get that they’re kids, but most kids that age are mature enough to not care about how many Facebook notifications someone has when it’s a very serious life and death situation. If that was meant as comedy, then they need better actors and writers. Even the adults in the show are portrayed as incompetent and self serving. For instance, when a woman had heard of the new virus outbreak and that there would be a city wide evacuation, she didn’t tell the man fixing her shop about the situation as she was leaving. What kind of selfish a hole would do that. Furthermore, the series was filled with corny and out of place romance that seemed forced and inauthentic. Actors tried to do a good job but the writers and director failed them. The whole virus concept made absolutely no sense. The cause of the sickness was always referred to as a virus, even though the teacher called it a parasite in class, and while explaining what it to the audience called it a refined hormone. This plot was all over the place. Would not recommend this show unless you’re insanely immature or enjoy being frustrated by stupid selfish characters that don’t act like regular people with common sense.