Marvelous Mr. E

Don't miss Iron Man 3. Although I found The Dark Knight to be more riveting and thematically resonant, I couldn't stop smiling watching this movie. Iron Man 3 is one of the greatest super hero films of all time. It's cinematic, it's entertaining, it's funny, and it's darker than other Marvel movies. The cast is pitch-perfect, with RDJ delivering a truly cool performance. The score is just so cool. Brian Tyler is no Hans Zimmer, but he's an excellent composer. I actually payed to download this movie's soundtrack so I could program it into my alarm clock. The VFX and cinematics are stunning. The story isn't perfect, but it feels like watching a comic book almost as much as Across the Spider-Verse. I loved it. Amazing film, tons of fun and great action and story. It's Marvel but a little darker and really cool. Check it out, MUST WATCH. Better than the second movie by far.

You're sure it will be excellent, because it's Hans Zimmer. But you will have mixed opinions. For the money you're paying, I advise reading this whole review. The concert is surprisingly out of touch with its audience. Why do we love Hans Zimmer's compositions? I think it's because they are profound, they are emotional. They are subtle and not overstated. On the other hand, the adaptations at the concerts are loud, noisy and overstated. The concert sacrifices loyalty to the originals and replaces it with a lot of loud noise, lights, and spectacle. It's going to be jarring even if you're expecting it. I think the producer of the concert completely misevaluated Hans Zimmer's fanbase, it feels like the concert is just rock and heavy metal at times. So let's talk about the spectacle. Is it good? Sure. It's very well done, and I liked it. It's impressive. The violists stood out especially, but It's more 'spectacle-ish' than spectacular. What about the songs? The biggest disappointments to most fans will definitely be the unfaithful adaptations Pirates of the Caribbean and Lion King. Pirates of the Caribbean suffered from noise. It just turned into an overly loud rock-stylish percussion and heavy metal-type guitar jamming. ‘He's a Pirate’ was sometimes unrecognizable from all the noise. Too much. Lion King suffered from its little ensemble celebration. It messed up the music. Dune and Last Samurai got too much 'stage-time’. Dune is overrated but was well-done. Last Samurai ended up just being too long. The Japanese violinist was great but I wish they would’ve played Dream is Collapsing instead. Dark Knight and Man of Steel are both good. Too much guitar, but they were fine. They should've been orchestral though. No Time to Die was stunningly good. Interstellar was spectacular, but it lost a little bit of that ‘sound of space vibe’ because there was singing. The singing was spectacular, but it did change the song. Gladiator was amazing. Look forward to Gladiator if you go. There was one song that was absolutely perfect and great and kinda makes the whole thing worth it, but I won’t spoil it and you definitely won’t guess what it is. I was actually really worried that the song would be changed and worsened like the others. When they started playing it right, cheers erupted in the audience and we had a few people shout thank you’s. Was it worth it? Yeah, I guess. It was definitely an experience. Was it better than most concerts? YES. Was it as good as an orchestral concert? Absolutely not. Would I take away all the rock and metal elements and all the light show? Most of it, yeah. I think they just didn’t understand what the audience really wants. But it was memorable. You probably won’t hate it. A quick note on other reviews: Lena wrote a review and she is not lying, just had a bad experience. She had an accurate assessment when she said: “The entire show was laser packed, with weird sounding offset music with long drawn out electronica. I could barely recognize the songs. Gman is also right: “Fire the producer. We came to see you and feel the music not be blinded and distracted by a pyrotechnic light show that did nothing but blind us and distract from seeing the musicians pour their soul into the instruments and music. Have more confidence in your music.”

I'm giving this movie 1 star. When I was about 5, I absolutely loved Lightning McQueen after watching Cars, the second one was not bad for a sequel, and I still appreciated both films a decade later, so when Cars 3 came out, I wasn't exactly excited, but It did arouse my curiosity, but after watching it, I wish I hadn't. The plot is this whole setup where Lightning McQueen is no longer able to race as a new generation of younger, stronger, faster racers step into the scene. Then, Lightning McQueen crashes, which was a stupid decision from the story writers. WHAT LITTLE KID WANTS TO SEE THEIR CURRENT ANIMATED HERO CRASH??? Not me I wouldn't have, and I didn't. After that, Lightning trains hard, ends up being to slow, and Cruz, a terrible character, ends up winning the race and he retires. I hope little kids showed their HATE for this awful movie. The other thing is Disney's really annoying knack for adding 'representation' to their movies, for example Star Wars, (Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, Rose etc.) Percy Jackson (Grover) Artemis Fowl (the butler guy) Encanto, Turning Red, Lightyear And like a zillion other films. Being a non-white individual, I DON'T CARE about representation in a dumb Disney Movie! In fact, It distracts me. It feels like they add minority actors/actresses into their movies just for one reason, which feels very forced and unnatural. I don't care! Race and gender are being used to divide people and Disney is feeding into it by forcedly adding representation into their films. In this case, Cruz, and I'm not saying that because she's female and I believe that males are better than females. NO! I'm saying this because Disney's efforts once again felt extremely forced. Also Cruz is very unlikable, so there is no way kids are going to accept her as heir to Lightning McQueen, which is why there will be no Cars 4. So in summary, Disney did a great job of ruining a great franchise with a loathesome movie.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is one of my all-time favorite book series, so it's no surprise that when a Disney+ original series based on the books was released, I was very excited to watch it, but after a few episodes, I was pretty disappointed. The series completely messed up on multiple levels. For starters, the characters: The main character (Reynie Muldoon) was completely changed from being a strong leader to one having a very weak personality. They also made Mr. Benedict, a kind and gentle man, also a genius with photographic memory, into a paranoid silly and absent minded weirdo. They also ruined his backstory and practically destroyed the character entirely. All of the characters are more ridiculous and less relatable. Most of the characters looked wrong too, but these are the least of the issues with this spin-off. As for the story, it never completely makes sense and is turned into a bizarre comedy. The ending is completely different, ridiculous and anticlimactic. The villains are not scary or menacing, and character relationships are bland. I'm giving it 2 stars because it gave me a few laughs and the theme song and intro are great. Overall, the Mysterious Benedict Society is another mistake in Disney's long line of terrible book spin-offs, and I wouldn't recommend it, in fact I advise against watching it, especially for a fan of the books.