Jayla – Google

Otherlife is a sci-fi film centered around a neuroscientist named Ren who creates a drug that allows users to experience time-condensed virtual realities. This incredible technological advancement quickly becomes an ethical dilemma regarding reality and the harms that science can cause. Sci-fi is not my normal go to genre. I don't particularly enjoy it, but this film was really interesting to me. To me, this film asks us to consider the ethical consequences of technological advancement. A project built out of a desire to bring her brain-dead brother back quickly spiraled out of control. In the end, Ren became a prisoner to her own technology and realized that she could not bring her brain-dead brother back to life. She lost sight of what really mattered, and it cost her. I docked two stars due to the confusing pacing. This story was difficult to follow at times and there were things about the technology that I just did not understand, but I liked it well enough.

Corpse bride is an engaging film with great animation and an interesting plotline. The film's use of black and white colors in the living world perfectly captures the dreary and regressive Victorian era. The underworld contrasts this theme as it is shown in bright colors which is typically associated with life rather than death. I loved the characters of Victor, Victoria and Emily and the ending for them, even if it was bittersweet for Emily. To me, it was beautiful that Emily realized that while she might have had her chance for love taken away from her, she didn't have the right to do that to another woman (Victoria). Overall, this is a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely rewatch.

I just finished the show and I have many thoughts. First, I want to say that I was not expecting a shot for shot/frame for frame remake. I have no problem with some changes or improvement on original material. That being said, I have a problem with changes that either make no sense or take away from the story. My main problems were -The change with Sokka and his personality- In this show, he is a competent warrior who looks over the tribe. This would be fine, if it actually made sense for his character. In the original, Sokka in the first season is an immature and incompetent "warrior". He is sexist (and this is always called out) and he is quite prideful. Over the course of the show, he finds his skills in creating plans and proves to be quite valuable. He also ends up learning to fight with swords. Most importantly, he learns from his sexist ways and grows. His original personality is one that fosters his character growth and development, to remove it means that there is no real understanding of how his sexist beliefs and immature behavior fosters his eventual growth and character arc. This personality change in the show also does not make sense because he does not look over the tribe. In the original show, Katara is the one that does everything due to her motherly and nurturing qualities (which they removed by the way). It's even said by Sokka in the original show that he can't even remember what their mom looks like, he only remembers Katara's face, because she is the one who was taking care of him and the tribe. This part is already long so lets discuss a couple more changes that I dislike. Katara's personality change and her overall dullness in this series- Katara was one of my biggest complaints in this series. They have removed her nurturing and motherly qualities and have completed toned her down. She is no longer fiery, she is a girl who is unsure of herself, and a girl who practically listens to Sokka on everything. They've essentially switched the dynamic between Sokka and Katara and I do not like this change at all. They really thought they were improving on her character by removing some of the most important qualities from her. Her being nurturing isn't a bad thing, it's actually important because it highlights how she was essentially pushed into taking on the responsibility of looking after her older brother, but they've taken that away from her. If you're going to remove something that is so key to her personality, couldn't you at least have made her fiery? Aang's reasoning for leaving- This is a change that really infuriates me, because this change makes it clear that the writers do not understand the importance of his real reasoning for leaving. For context, in the original show, Aang runs away because he does not want to take on the responsibility of being the avatar. However in this new show, he runs away because he "needed fresh air". I feel like they were trying to be funny but honestly, I'm not laughing. The whole point of the first season is that Aang is trying to avoid his responsibility of being the avatar. It's the reason why they go on so many detours, because he wants to avoid the responsibility and because he's a kid. Taking out the original reason for him leaving means that Aang automatically accepts his responsibility and we don't get to see him learn that even though it's a huge responsibility and weight, he still has that responsibility and he needs to face it. Some things I liked -The visuals -Most of the casting -More depth to some characters + relationships It's okay, it's like a 7-7.5 out of 10. The acting and writing needs a lot of work. The visuals honestly are the highlight.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

I absolutely loved this film, it was incredibly accurate to the book and it was such a fun watch. Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler's performances as Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird are appealing and their chemistry is amazing. Viola Davis is great as Dr. Gaul and is definitely the stand out to me. The movie depicts Snow's downfall well and the last scene of Snow and Lucy is so chilling. The songs in the movie are so great and Rachel sounds heavenly, I really cannot get her voice out of my head. I love the set and this cast is just truly incredible. My one major issue is that I wanted Clemensia to be utilized more, she doesn't appear again after the snake scene which makes me upset because she was in the book more. However this movie was great and I loved it!

This movie was delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Halle Bailey is amazing as Ariel, Melissa gives a great performance as Ursula. There were some changes but I didn't mind them and I don't think they impacted the overall movie. I love that Ariel and Eric have more substance and have a lot more scenes where we can see what they have in common with each other. I think this was a great adaptation and I would highly recommend going to see it.