Xendria Stephenson

Raya and the Last Dragon - Mystical, but misguided I was so excited to see Raya and the Last Dragon. This was because it was the first time in a while since Disney has released a movie with a unique adaptation. That means no sequels or reboots, something I highly appreciated. Without spoilers here, this movie was fun, beautiful, and entertaining to watch. While I respect the theme of the movie, it has flaws. SPOILERS down below... Pros The visual style for this movie is AMAZING! The background environments were done well. The character designs (for the most part) are created with thoughts in mind on how they'll be represented in a cultural way. Plus, the animation is fun to watch. Even though there is a lot going on in the story, it was easy to follow along. It was clear that there is a moral going on in the story, and I can respect that. What fits even better with the story and the visual styles is the music which sounds authentic and exciting at times. At other moments, they were soft and solemn. Cons While there are many good things I like about the story, the movie has its flaws as well. First of all, Sisu's design could have been better. I know her design is supposed to sell on the market, but adding some shiny scales and getting rid of the horn would have made her still a lovable dragonic-looking dragon. Since there is so much going on with the story, I never felt I had a solid moment to experience the environment and the world-building lore of this movie. I felt that I only got to see a glimpse of the culture of the different kingdoms and that was it. Finally, the biggest issue I had from this movie was the moral of the story. I understand that this is all about trust and that Raya has to take the first step to trust others. But so does her rival, Namaari. I really felt the chemistry between each other yet at the end of the day, their 'canon romance' felt baited. In conclusion, I still like the movie because it looked beautiful, the animation was fun, and most of the characters were pretty much likable. The delivery of its theme could have been stronger if it focused on character arcs more.

A lot of five-star reviews for some reason. Well, considering that very few people know Joseph Bologne's history, it is not surprising that many audience members come into this blindsided. This review is for the skeptics, historians, music geeks, and students who have learned about this black composer. This movie needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There is always this fine line between being sentimentalists where directors create drama for the sake of drama, but run the risk of not being factually accurate and unintentionally creating negative stereotypes on that historical figure. There is always the risk of being realistic and detailed about the events happening in the historical figure's life, but running the risk of being dull and pragmatic. So where does the balance lie in this movie Chevalier? Pros to this movie - The music is really good. It not only matches the time period of the 18th century, but it does well in matching the style of this composer. - The actor's performance of Joseph is done well. Mainly because I enjoy the historical figure's arc from being a haughty playboy of sorts to being a pained artist who realizes what the purpose of his gift needs to be as well as accepting his heritage. - I love that the wig is a symbol of Joseph. To me, it can be viewed as a mask to which the composer is masquerading as the high-class aristocrat who made it in society because of his charm, wit, and talent. But after his mother braids his hair into cornrows and he leaves the wig behind, it is an indication that Joseph has transformed. He is no longer worried about his identity in the eyes of high society and no longer sees a reason to hide his blackness. Cons - I felt like the romance between Marie - Josephine and Joseph was a distraction to the film. Whether it happens or not, who knows? But it unintentionally reinforces the harmful stereotypes that black man can't keep their hands on married white women and also the fact that he stated that he wanted to work with Marie, as the lead opera singer, in a professional manner. Not only does the film objectifies him in a sexual way, but dubs him a hypocrite. - The racism feels too soft-spoken. Maybe this is coming from the perspective of an American, but if a black man is fooling around with a woman like Marie, he would have been lynched. It doesn't necessarily portray much of the physical violence of racism that black people have to endure. While we see Joseph's mother reminding him of his culture, the transition from the composer's shrewdness towards his heritage to suddenly being open about it was not a smooth transition. - A lot of missed opportunities of events surrounding Jospeh's life. In fact, it felt as if the movie ended too soon. I would love to see more engagement in Joseph's part in the French Revolution, especially since he joined the first black regiment afterward. As a sense of catharsis, I would love to see some after footage of Marie trying to escape France, only to be captured by her subjects and dragged back to France. And yes, that actually happened. Overall, I give this film a 3.5 out of 5 stars. The film has good intentions, and there are elements in the film I liked. Ultimately, I felt that the voice of this amazing composer was disenfranchised and warped.

Pros -great animation -amazing environment -great-looking pokemon -follows closely with the original script -the mixture of original and new voice actor Cons -the pacing of the story is inconsistent -lack of character development, especially for Mewtwo -human models look fake and sometimes uncanny -weak music score for the movie In conclusion, the movie felt like a video game cutscenes. Wouldn't it be awesome if they turned Mewtwo strikes back into a RPG video game?

Honestly, the movie should be rated 3.5 stars, but I will give it 4 stars just for the heck of it. This review will have spoilers, so please skip ahead of it. So the movie starts out with Queen Barb wanted to take the entire kingdom of trolls and turn ever one into rock trolls. Poppy and Branch get a message from Barb and discover that there are other kingdoms of trolls represented by the different genres of music they play. With Mr. Dinkle and Biggie, Poppy and Branch go on a journey to stop Queen Barb and save the music. By the way, there is another subplot genre to which Cooper goes on into the world and finds out that he is a funk troll. Pros. 1. The music for this film is fantastic as it explores all genres of music such as rock, pop, funk, classical, techno, reggae, and k-pop. And more. 2. The world-building and the environment are amazing as well. Clever use of fabrics and different materials to represent elements. 3. I love the message that they are sending to kids about differences in culture and music. To be a good leader, be a good listener. Music can't be taken away because it's inside of us. 4. The character design of the trolls is an upgrade to the ugly 90's troll. I'm a 90's kid, so...yeah! I love Queen Barb, edgy and awesome. Cons 1. Loss in character development, especially with Poppy and Branch. Poppy was very overzealous and unnecessarily headstrong. Branch already told her he loved her in the first Trollz movie, so why this one? 2. More music battles. Honestly only one of them with K-pop and reggae. The movie should have a big epic music battle with the Funk Trollz and Rock Trollz. 3. A continuation of the first cons, Poppy's dad tells her that he was wrong about her. She wasn't naive or reckless about the outer world. The thing is Poppy's naivety and recklessness caused her people to be in harm's way so why is the movie trying to deny that? 4. The Pop Trolls could have had the Burgen's for help especially when it comes to protecting them from Barb. We only get to see Bridget and the king at the end of the credits and even then they shouldn't made an inappropriate joke. Otherwise, it was a good movie but had missed opportunities.

Venom is the strangest anti-hero movie I have seen. It seems that for those who aren't comic-book readers see Venom as a cool movie. However, others that are well-versed in the comic book world, feel strongly against this movie. Even though I read comic books, my position in this movie is stuck in the middle. Here's why? The story takes on one of the most iconic villains of the Spiderman world and turns into an origin story. Eddie Brock is a journalist who tries to confront Dr. Drake on his unethical actions for LIFE Foundations. However he gets fired, his finance breaks up, and we find Eddie down on his luck. However, Eddie breaks into the lab, gets infected with a symbiote named Venom. As the two develop a relationship with each other, they soon discover that Riot, another alien, merges with Dr. Drake. It's up to them to defeat Riot and Dr. Drake in order to save Earth. Honestly, the best part of the movie is the humorous relations between Venom and Eddie. Even though this movie failed in the horror department, it surprisingly got a couple of chuckles from me. I would have like to see this movie do more of that. Second, is the animation. I like how the liquid form of the symbiote changes due to different scenarios. But as an audience member, I can't seem to appreciate the CGI artwork because Venom is backdropped into night/dark environments rather than during the daytime. I initially thought it was going to be a retake on how Spiderman defeats Venom but instead is an anti-hero story. The story and the characters are generic. If the crew thought about the older audiences that grew up with Spiderman and Venom, maybe this movie would have pushed for rated R. I don't mind see more graphic versions of Venom, because of the fact that the bad guys were killed or dead without blood, is unrealistic. Overall, the movie is fun to watch and is a guilty pleasure.

When I first saw the movie, my first impression that it was a story about how Grace Davis worked hard to become an actor. I really thought that Tracie Ross and Ice Cube was going to be the principal actor. However, it turned out that an assistant named Maggie, played by Dakota Johnson was the main character in the story. Keep in mind that this is a joke of an actress who played in Fifty Shades of Grey. It made it hard to believe that she can play like a sophisticated and eccentric producer who loves to make music. I respected that the movie was trying to tell the audience what the music business was like. When this movie has a weak principal actress whose character comes off as entitled and arrogant, I felt like it undermined the Afr. Amer. artists characters in the movie who had to work hard to be taken seriously. The last critique of this movie is that there is an imbalance between the music and the dialogue. Sure the music is fantastic, however, the volume of the dialogue is so low, I had to put on subtitle so I can understand what they are saying.

Not a lot of people realize that Frozen was loosely based off of Hans Anderson Christian story, "The Snow Queen". Usually, Disney has been successful in the past of making adaptions to his story including "The Little Mermaid". However, Disney diverts from the story so much, that it is completely lost and no amount of good writing can save them. Elsa goes on a quest to find answers about herself and her powers. Which unleashed all of the elements and nearly destroyed the kingdom...again.Let's face it, the queen nor Ana seemed to be the most responsible ruler. The plot was very weak. There was a conflict in the enchanted forest, but it took way to long to figure who was the perpetrator. One of the main reasons that the story drags its feet was because there were too many songs, even for a musical. I'm not going to reveal too much about the story, but the theme of the story was not well written as well. My interpretation of this story is about colonialism and the exploitation of native people. The dam was the symbol of this. It may be an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but Pochanhontas did a better job on the moral of this type of problem. The animation and the visual effects are amazing but too bad I can't say the same for the story and the characters.

This is going to be a lengthy review with some spoilers, so buckle and beware of what you are about to read. Despite Rock and Rule's growing popularity over the decades, there is a reason the movie is still a cult. As the audience, you will be able to tell that Nelvana, the studio that produced this movie, but their heart and soul into this project. They also have a great soundtrack with talented artists such as Deborah Harry and Earth, Wind, and Fire. However, these two things are the only things that I can positively talk about the film. The rest fell flat. I felt that there was a missed opportunity to explore the dark, post-apocalyptic that happen after WWIII. And yeah there is a couple of reference of the war, which makes you wonder what happened? The story was pretty inconsistent with pace. If you watched the American version, it's even worse as MGM made the artist censored key points of the story. It mainly fell on Mok to be the main conflict of the story and drive it forward, and even then when his plans come into action, it felt anticlimactic. Another thing needs to be talked about is the characters, The character designs fall right into the uncanny valley with Omars and Mok being the worst. Just looking at the character when they aren't doing anything makes me feel uncomfortable to watch. Omar was an arrogant jerk who is often insensitive towards Angel. Although he is supposed to be the hero of the story, he was so unlikeable it didn't make any sense what he would suddenly turn around to recuse her. Angel had the best character design, although she is the one who looks most human, had a boring personality that needed to be much edgier. After all, this is rock and roll. To conclude with this review, the animation and the soundtrack was great. However, the story and the characters were flat and uninteresting. I honestly have mixed feelings about this movie because I had higher expectations and they weren't there. If you are an animator or an animation student, I recommend seeing this movie for the animation techniques. By in terms of story-telling, there are better materials out there.