Alvin Li

Suzume no Tojimari tells of a young girl's adventure from closing doors and chasing cats to finding closure and moving on. I was expecting a Radwimps insert song but was instead given amazing orchestral pieces throughout her journey. Shinkai's works always have a way to rattle the hearts of his viewers. This time using a very iconic wreckage scene of the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011 as I've remembered it. The movie let viewers connect natural disasters to mythical beings as well as beautiful and sad ruins. Critics will question some incoherent parts like why are certain characters acting this way. One cannot talk without mentioning his trademark artwork, detailed scenery, and the fluid motion of both animate and the inanimate. It's a feast for the eyes! Overall, this ranks below Your Name but above Weathering With You, just because we hated Hodaka's decision to save Hina and let Tokyo drown. Do stay for the credit scenes and the song.

(Drinks ooze) With Quantumania, Marvel introduces the next big villain to the MCU on the big screen. We have had a glimpse of the terrifying potential in the form of He Who Remains, one of Kang's variant who resides in the Citadel at The End of Time in Disney+'s Loki. Spoilers ahead if you haven't watched Loki. After appreciating the power of the infinity stones, we are dealt with the existence of the multiverse and the sacred timeline. Using the authority of He Who Remains, TVA ensures that there will only be one linear timeline that led to the continued existence of HWR. Any decisions leading to a branching of the sacred timeline is called a nexus event and the instigator will be captured and pruned, resetting the branch. Back to QuANTumMANia, evil Kang was exiled because he took it upon himself to correct timelines and murder trillions. Trapped within the confines of the quantum realm where space and time are irrelevant, the council of Kangs hope to serve as an eternal prison. Who is Kang? Who I have to be.

'Our blue flame hold all our traditions and give us strength to burn bright.' Ember, a spirited fiery young woman forms an unlikely friendship with Wade, a hilariously sappy and spontaneous water guy when he flushes into their fireplace. Ember struggles with an inner conflict that Wade describe best as 'when I lose my temper I think it’s just me trying to tell myself something I’m not ready to hear.' Elemental slips in references and prejudice that exist in our history, from the arrival of elemental immigrants to quality of job and housing. I love how the properties of the elements interacted with environmental stimuli. Not everyday you see water depicted as destruction while fire is life-giving. Air had a great airball game scene while earth is just there for grooming jokes. Brilliant animation, expressive gestures, natural cast interaction. Elemental is perfect the way it is.

"Such a poser" Despite being delayed 3 times due to the pandemic, Black Widow pays homage to her assassin origins and followed up Red Room from Agent Carter. This movie was meant to start off Phase 4 but due to the delays, WandaVision was used for that purpose instead. It wasn't as great but I'd blame the hype and pandemic since I felt the loss of momentum from the movie going dates. Not as unfortunate as No Time To Die, Black Widow connects the end of Civil War to the start of Avengers. The end credit sets up Hawkeye. And this is the last time we will see Natasha Romanoff in the MCU.

Frank Wolff: "The rocks you see here in the river are sandstone. But some people just take them for granite. It's one of my boulder attractions." That is just one of the many corny jokes you will laugh at, and then get angry at. Most of the puns are taken directly from Disney's attraction that the skippers themselves use to ramp up the ride experience. I get the Pirates of the Caribbean vibe from scenes from many instances. The supernatural curse, an overpowered and resourceful villian, maps, riverbed. Jungle Cruise is an enjoyable film and the revelation came on nicely, as all Disney films do.

Director James Gunn, Sylvester Stallone as King Shark, Margot Robbie's role reprisal for the third time. This standalone sequel exuberate Gunn's creative boundaries and his remarkable cast of misfits and villians. It's harder for the audience to connect as we are used to watching heroes do good, a stark contrast to our GotG heroes. The plot waits for no one, throwing viewers into the thick of action. In the middle of an intense scene, Gunn decides we should go back three weeks earlier, or five hours ago, so we can link the madness that is happening on screen. The M18 rating is for the gore. Oh, the gore. It was bad enough for me to have a disturbing dream the same night. Still, a good watch.

Video game movies are loads of fun. As a gamer, you get references like Halo's Scorpion Tanks to Megaman's Mega Buster and the Portal Gun. The film takes a great direction, with original plot by Zak Penn of Ready Player One. The cast is star-studded! Each actor fits their role to a T. You have protagonists Joe Keery and Ryan Reynolds, with guest appearance from Chris Evans and vlogger Pokimane. Guest voice from The Rock, Hugh Jackman and Tina Fey. Taika Waititi, who cameoed in The Suicide Squad (previous review) and voice of Korg of Thor Ragnarok fame plays the bad guy working for Soonami (a play on Konami?) with a facade designed like the Blizzard logo. The Disney short Paperman shown before Wreck-It Ralph (2012), one of my favourite animated movie used one of the best theme and was used at least twice in Free Guy. Oh, that feeling of nostalgia. I only have good things to say about this film, so to my gamer friends, please catch this when you can.