Movie Review: Toy Story 4

*After the test was success, several members of Diamond authority, remain members of Team Blast, Annie, Corporate Driver and Secretary drivers are setting up for their time travelling*

Red Diamond: Ok everyone, its time for our time travelling in order to collecting the rainbow rocks!

Annie: Um, don't you mean "Infinity Stones"?

Red Diamond: Oh, um... I mean "Infinity Stones"! But most of them found in different timeline, which we have to split up in order to find them differently. Understand?

*The group nod for accepting, resulting split into six group, one of them is where Annie is with Sally Ukrone and sadly Corporate Driver (which he forced to be separating from his partner Secretary)

Red Diamond: Are you ready? Here we go!

*everyone jump on the portal that six groups are separating in different timezone. Including Annie, Sally and Corporate Driver sent into time to getting Space Stone, they're in facility*

Sally Ukrone: Ok, we gotta find one stone before going back in our time.

Annie: Alright. *as she's prepared, but notices a VHS tape with a name "Toy Story 4"* Huh, whats that thing doing here?

Corporate Driver: What...?! How the heck did it appeared, this doesn't happen when where's in 2011! And that thing is too dated!

Annie: Yeah,, but there's a TV with VHS insert, which i think i have to talking about it if its worth or not.

Sally: Alright.

Corporate Driver: Whatever, go for it, hope its a bad one.

(Review Starts)

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

Over two decades, we're all familiar of "Toy Story", the one that started all of Pixar's career since they used to be with Disney's co-op of effects, but lack of goods before the help of Steve Jobs (Thats right, The Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple). Not to mention, after their success of Bug's Life, and their laugh at Dreamwork's "Antz" for their box-office, its not secret that since we loved Toy Story, there's gotta be a sequel in 1999.

And after 11 years, they released Toy Story 3, a third installment that not only we've been changed, but also adding the drama for what happened to our favorite toys without Andy. And i have to admitted, seeing the ending is really hard to accept our life changing and say goodbye to your old favorite toys, but i never cried, i was just depressed and related. After that, you think that this will be a perfect ending of the series that we can moving on, right?   Right???

"Toy Story 4" is a 2019 animated film by Pixar, with written/directed by Josh Cooley, produced by Jonas Rivera and Mark Nielsen, and written by Stephany Folsom, Andrew Stanton, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, Martin Hynes and John Lasseter.

Oh yeah, im sure that from mid-2000's to late mid-2010's, John Lasseter was fascinated to not only work with Disney and Pixar as a chief creative officer, which we expected for his success of his business, but when November 2017 came in, controversies hitting it to reporting that John has a sexual misconduct with various female employees, which he was exposed during the "Weinstein effect" or "#MeToo" trend, resulting him not only leaving the company for his disgusting action, but also replaced by Josh Cooley. And last but not least, we also concerned for what happened to the other characters from first and two, one of them is Bo Peep, because ever since Toy Story 3 came out, she was absent for no reason, right before we finally not only her return, but also her truth.

So, with all that said, will this film deserves one more time, or is it an exploitation to make an unnecessary sequel?

Well, lets find out.

The Story
Since we're in the 4th installment, you think that the story could be either original or maybe using the same story from before? Well, its pretty much the same story, but with a twist, extra development and even a surprised truth.

It started where we go back nine years ago (between 2 and 3) when Woody and his toy gang try to save R.C. who got flooded from the storm drain, while successfully rescuing a living RC car, Woody notices that Bo Peep, three headed sheep and other toys are given away from Andy's young sister Molly. Desperate to get her back, Woody accepted that Bo and other toys will be taken away to other kid and moving on, leaving a sad farewell (Or does he?). Fast forward to two years after Andy donated his toys to Bonnie, Woody and his gang live together for only live in Bonnie's room, but also a new friend like Dolly, Trixie and Buttercup. One day, Woody (despite being neglected) notices that Bonnie was pretty shy for moving to a new school after kindergarten, he tries to help her secretly during art. After picking random stuff out from the trash, it got Bonnie's intention to creating a handmade toy named "Forky" the spork. When Woody arrived back home, he first introducing Forky for a new friend, but it has a bad start that Forky believes he's nothing but a trash, leaving Woody keeping him safe to stay away from many garbage, especially in road trip. But one night, Forky is being thrown outside that Woody is in panic to save him as possibly, not before when after Forky is being captured from antique store from Gabby Gabby, Woody was shocked that his old love interest Bo Peep returns as a nomad adventurous, its up to Woody and Bo Peep to save Forky to bring him back to Bonnie.

Though i find the story is pretty much the same from either first or second film, like its another story about a toy being left outside in order to going back home, but it has some interesting twist, which not only it has emotions, but also give us a new plot element and development, like a surprised return of Bo Peep and even Woody explains his past to Forky that he's accepting to be a toy than a trash, which i like that it gives us a nice heart moment. The chemistry between Bo Peep and Woody is easily the best part of the movie, because after Toy Story 2, we're very concerned for the whereabouts of Bo, but with her return, it made us surprised and very happy for her welcoming return. As for the humor, its always funny and entertaining in the same time, especially for Forky for not only where he belongs to trash, but also like to have a fun adventure with Woody to going back to Bonnie or even searching Bo. Or even the imagination of Bunny and Ducky, even though i may not a fan of them, but at least i did chuckled them.

Even though its rather same story, but the execution works nicely that its more of escort mission, funny moments, heart warming moment and well crafting development.

The Animation
Since this is a Pixar animated film, its always gonna be a great looking film with upgrade? Definitely.

For starter, the design and the quality is another upgrade after the third installment, making it more lighter, colorful and even a newer location that it takes place on road trip and carnival.

The background design is pretty nice for what they presenting from the village, carnival Bonnie's room and antique store, they look pretty good, somewhat real and colorful. Especially with some cool effect like lighting and transition from flashback to present.

As for the character design, the upgrade of the old characters looks pretty good for the more detail and quality for the wool, metal and plastic. And for the new characters, they're also pretty good for their introduction with hard work of furs, more detail plastic and many more.

As for the animation,its no secret the movements what the toys depicting from a smooth animation and the 2D or quick pose animation, which is pretty nice what they move. Of course, some action moments are also quiet impressive for hiding, flying and funny moments.

And one more thing, i also enjoyed the soundtrack that was composed by once again Randy Newman, especially bring back the most signature song "You got a friend with me", it is classic since our childhood, because without it, it won't be like Toy Story.

The animation is always outstanding for the designs, quality and even the upgrade.

The Characters
Before we get the new characters, lets talk about our old fellow toys, its no secret that we're all familiar since the beginning.

First is Sheriff Woody himself (played by great actor Tom Hanks), he's leader of the gang with loyalty, caring and smart. Back in the old days, he was used to be selfish and jealous when Buzz was first introduced when he's boss of the toys. In nowadays, he's more of social, brave and respect to saving toys. In this movie, he's probably neglected and worried for his fate without Bo Peep Of course, Tom is always memorable for his role as a sheriff doll.

Second, we have Buzz Lightyear (played by another great actor Tim Allen), from before, he's always being believed to be a big deal as a space ranger than being a toy, always being delusional and in denial at Woody. But like Woody, he's changed to caring, respectful, loyal and always being heroic. In this movie, he's rather curious when he's questioned about a voice box, which he's trying on his own which is rather fun to see if it works or not. Like Tom, Tim Allen is always did a great job of his heroic role of Buzz.

Last but definitely not least is Bo Peep (played by Annie Potts), from the beginning, she's started as a small character to give a development for a short relation between her and Woody. In this movie, she has a big change, this time, she changed into a nomad toy hiding around the village, despite being romantic and levelheaded, but she's also tough, brave and supportive with other toys. Its no secret that her new look is easily the most talked about in Pixar's history, which is no secret that she's turned into Toy Story version of Rey from Star Wars and she's probably a lot more interest to watch, since she's now a major role in this movie. But of course, Annie is also a welcome return of her role after 10 years (minus her cameo in Toy Story 3).

As for the rest of the old characters, they're rather unnecessary, but then again, its nice to see them again, like Jessie (played by Joan Cusack), who's a fun loving cowgirl, Rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn) is a green dinosaur who tried to be scary, Slinky (played by Blake Clark for replacing the late Jim Varney), who's Woody friendly dog, Hamm (voiced by John Ratzenberger ) is a wisecracking money pig, Mr. Potato Head (played by the late Jon Rickles for for using archive voice) is a sarcastic cynical Potato Head, Dolly (voiced by Bonnie Hunt) is a fun-loving doll, Trixie (voiced by Kristen Schaal) is a Scatterbrained triceratops and possibly Rex's best friend and Buttercup (played by Jeff Garlin) is...  Well, a friendly unicorn.

Its really nice to see our old pals coming back though its only Woody, Buzz and Bo are the main focus of the movie, though some like Jessie give a little more appearance.

As for the new characters, i was concern that the new characters would be either average or lame, but surprisingly, they're rather enjoyable.

First is Forky (played by Tony Hale), from the start, he begins as a paranoid and insecure handmade toy that he doesn't believe he's nothing but a living trash, which it explained his awkward start that he has no friend. But as the movie went on, he has a life changing that he became understandable, friendly and probably a comic relief when he can't stop thinking of living trash. And i think he's rather cute and fun. At first, he's paranoid and always endanger, but later on, he's started to become likable what he has to understand how the toys go. Tony did a great work of his role and i can definitely tell he's having fun to play as Forky.

Next, we have Duke Caboom (surprisingly voiced by Keanu Reeves), who's a Canadian Stuntman and he's also enjoyable. He's always being show off for his daredevil with charisma, poser and probably had a hard past when he used to be with old owner. Despite he's just a show-off stuntman, but pretty surprising that Keanu Reeves jumped into the world of Toy Story. Man, 2019 is a best year for Keanu for his successful role in "John Wick 3", his special appearance on E3 2019 and now his role of Duke Caboom. Awesome.

Then we have Gabby Gabby (voiced by Christina Hendricks), a doll who lives in antique store with broken voice box that she desperately wants to change with new one. Especially for looking at new owner. She's probably have similar persona of Lotso from Toy Story 3, she's started as a cute and friendly girl when she first meet Woody, not before she changed into evil form that she wants to kidnapping Woody and Forky for desperate reason. And she has her army of The Bensons. Though i find her either cute and kinda creepy, but i find her to be pretty average, but at least she's not as forgettable as Carlton Drake from Venom (Yeah i know, im getting too much about him, cause i just can't take him).

After that, we have another comic relief, which is Bunny and Ducky (played by Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key), they're basically the comedic duo of the film. But i find them to be "Meh". Yes, i did chuckle that they did have some fun moment, but they're pretty much there. Sorry Bunny and Ducky, i'd stick to Forky.

And lastly we have Giggle McDimples (voiced by Ally Maki) a miniature police officer and Bo's partner, even though she's cute and sweet, she's rather in full energy for justice as a mini policewoman. But i have to admitted, she's pretty cute as a small figure.

Despite some characters are average for a bit of lackluster, but its always fun for not just our old favorite toys, but the new ones too.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, "Toy Story 4" is a welcome return and a pretty good film that i can say, the story has some great execution for fun and emotional, the animation is always look great for Pixar films and the characters are enjoyable as well (except for some).

So, do i think its a better Toy story film? Not at all. Because though it has a flaws that aside from somewhat recycled story, but its just that its rather unnecessary to make a sequel, "Toy Story 3" had a perfect ending that we expected to be a conclusion, but due to the popularity of the franchise, they made another one. I mean, Incredibles 2 is a well-deserved sequel that we've been waiting after the cliffhanging ending and it was a great film that i highly recommended to watch. I know its unfair for my criticism, its just that it would've been ended as a trilogy. Despite my flaws, its a great film that its a must watch if you're a fan of Pixar.

Though, i wanted to give my perfect 10 rating, but to my criticism that i called it an unnecessary sequel, i had to drop to 9/10. It may or may not be a perfect film, but it is a fun one.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review Ends)

Sally: Huh, thats an interesting movie.

Corporate Driver: Pheh! Worthless, i'd rather paying Pixar to change the script with my own way!

Annie: Aw come on, i don't think your exploitation would work to ruining the franchise, aside, you've already done with Tee-- *gets interrupted when the TV starts to going haywire with blue electric and the TV exploded into pieces* Wow, what the heck?!

Corporate Driver: Did the tape is dangerous with flame?!

Annie: Hold on... *approaches the broken TV and found a glowing blue shape cube* Wow... *grabs the cube*

Corporate Driver: Is this a stone?

Annie: Yeah, but probably a "Space Stone". Looks like we got one and time to go back in our time. *press the red button to going back in present time, along with Sally and Corporate Driver*

To be continued...

Movie Review: Rocketman

*After the project of time traveling was completed, Annie and her fellow remain members of Team Blast and even Anthony's nemesis Corporate Driver and Secretary Driver join in to see the time travelling machine by the gems*

Red Diamond: Its good to see you all, guys. Because we're here to save our universe by time traveling!

Corporate Driver: Riight...

Bryan Emmerich: *shushes at CD*

Red Diamond: Alright, so who wanna come here to test it out?

Annie: Um... Me?

Red Diamond: You? Alright, come here. *sees her approaching towards the time machine* Here's what we do, my partner Red Pearl will activate the portal for random time period and i give you a watch caller for communicating us and it has a red button to going back in our present. Ready?

Annie: Ready.

*Red Pearl starts activating a portal from a time machine in a random time period, leaving Annie to jumping in the portal. Not before Annie pops out and landed on the ground. After gets back up, she notices that there's a piano, which happens to be a piano belongs to a famous British artist*

Annie: Mhmmm... That reminds me...

(Review Starts)

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

From late last year, we had a movie called "Bohemian Rhapsody", which it was many people considered as a best film based on true story that we love to see Freddie Mercury's life and the birth of Queen, despite the inaccurate moment like when he diagnosed with AIDS before the famous Live Aid. After that, it was time that not only we stay in UK, but also focus with British artist that we all know and loved.

"Rocketman" is a 2019 Biographical musical film directed by Dexter Fletcher, produced by Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid and Matthew Vaughn, then written by Lee Hall.

From the very beginning, the film was supposed to be made in the 2000's, but it had a lot of delays, which it suffered a hell development for creative differences, changing studios from Walt Disney, Focus Features to Paramount, and even actors didn't joined in like Justin Timberlake and even Tom Hardy. Let me start off by saying that, even though was familiar with Queen, not just the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody", but also my childhood memory that love Queen's songs. But when it comes to Elton John, i never grew with his songs. Don't give me wrong, i did listen some of his songs and they're great for him, but the one that i remembered is from the end credit of "The Lion King" with his cover "Can you feel the love tonight", i mean man, that song will never forget for my memory.

So, with all that said, will this movie make Elton John feeling very proud, or is this film ended up having the same mistake as Freddie Mercury's AIDS?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Since this is a film based on true story, you'll think they could do the same pacing of more focus of story telling and montage of music? Well, yes and no.

The movie started on rehab when Elton John walked in to telling about his past of his childhood to his career. It started when he was a kid who used to be named Reginald Dwight (or Reggie for short) where he lives with his cold mother Sheila and his caring grandmother Ivy, while his father Stanley was work on "Royal Air Force" before divorced due to his mother's cheating. After the divorce, Reggie decides to focus to become rock'n roll artist, thanks to his interest from Elvis Presley and joined the group called Bluesology. After that as he grew to adult, he decides to going on his single career, which it up to him to be a nice a respectful artist with his fellow songwriter Bernie Taupin and his manager Ray Williams (but later replaced by John Reid) for his success career.

I have to admit, its rather a nice story to show us where did he begin of his career and also bring us to his famous songs. Despite of good story of his career, but it wasn't good enough for various interruptions, likely the scene where Elton goes into substance abuse, which i felt that its too much to see him in addiction, i know its common that many artists are living in addiction, but here, it feels like they let us watching Elton in drinking, snoring sugar and frustration, which that just comes off as an uncomfortable filler. And then, the story got interrupted into Broadway music style, with Elton John songs, which it doesn't make any sense that the writing went into a flip flop for story telling, like come on, you can't adding musical element when you make a movie based on true story, that just plain unnecessary and probably stupid, no wonder why Disney left during the production.

The story might've been good, despite it let us watching Elton John in depression and a questionable musical moments.

The Presentation
Aside from questionable writing, the presentation might be good right? Well, it looks amazing for the visuals and montage.

First, the filming location looks nice for the decorations in mansion, the party club and the stages concert, they did a pretty good job for the placements for the feel of from 50's through 70's.

But the best part is the visuals and the costumes, the visuals of Elton John's music montage is fun and colorful in the same time, which is the perfect feel that we like to listening his songs in the 70's. Especially for his costumes, which like the visuals, its also colorful, flamboyant and artistic for what he's wearing in his career.

As for the musical numbers? Well, they're basically the cover version in this film and i find them to be not bad. The musics are pretty good to listen to that we're all familiar with like "Rocket Man", "Your Song", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". But i think the execution are a bit off for the singing. As for the Broadway musical number style moment, despite its unnecessary, i find them to be not bad, it has a nice choreograph and... Thats it, just a nice way to show, but then again, its probably the weakest part in my opinion.

But of course, lets not forget that its the first time in Hollywood history that we get a male sex scene and man, it definitely shows. But as a supporter of LGBT, i have nothing against it, its just to show a surprise development about Elton John's sexuality. So, nice touch.

Even though the musical numbers are ok at the time, but the visuals, the costumes and the sex scene are surprised, colorful and amazing to see, its rather a work of arts, right?

The Characters
Since we introduced Elton John himself, his partners and family, you think they could give them a developments? Well, sadly no.

First is Elton John himself (played by Taron Egerton), as we all know, he's flamboyant, entertaining and probably difficulty for his own life and career. Since he's trying to conquer his dream for his mother, but as we all know, he went down of his hill for his backstage argument between his partners and possibly his family and of course, his full on substance abuse over his feeling. Though i admitted Taron did a nice work of his acting and doing ok for his singing performance, but i felt that he may or may not look like Elton John, i know he's a Welsh actor, but at least he's trying, sometimes.

As for his partners such as songwriter Bernie Taupin (played by Jaime Bell) and manager John Reid (played by Richard Madden), though i never heard of them, but its nice to introducing them for the first time, but due to the main focus of Elton John, i feel that these guys are used for plot element for writing lyric and even gay sex scene. Though it was supposed that Bernie to be the second main focus, but in reality, he's rather a push off due to main character's focus.

As for Elton's family? Well, they're used for his childhood and a plot advice in order to helping out Elton John, but once again, i feel that they're rather appeared small and they have little amount of development of their personality that i mentioned in the story.

For the acting, aside Taron's performance did good, the rest are also good performance, but its just that their development are sub-par to say the least.

Though its nice to show us that we're curious of Elton John's partners and family, but its just that our main character is more focused and most of them are rather small (kinda) in order to give a plot development, but rather weak.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall "Rocketman" is the film that it had a wonderful potential, but in reality, i felt that its just rather disappointing for how painfully average it was. It has a good story for what happen to Elton John, the presentation is outstanding for the visuals, the costumes and a gay sex and the characters is nice introduce us for the first time, unless veteran fans easily know them. But when they bringing for questionable musical numbers moment, the filler of substance abuse and a bellow average characters, it just doesn't work to put in on my opinion.

Though i know that many people loved this movie for any reasons, but i hate to say for all you viewers out there, i felt underwhelmed in order to liking this movie. But even if its not the worst movie i've ever seen, but they're few out there. The best way to say, its only for die-hard fans of Elton John. As for the others, lets just stick to "Bohemian Rhapsody". I wanted to liking this movie, but not good enough for me.

So, this will probably triggered the viewers for my rating, im gonna give this one a 5/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review ends)

Annie: Alright, let see this red button does... *presses it that she's vanished, then unexpectedly being thrown out by the portal and crashes at the wall and falls flat on the ground* Ow...

Red Pearl: Yeesh, talk about an accidental launch...

Red Diamond: Yeah, maybe il fix the watch caller to come back to our present time properly...

To be continued...

Movie Review: Godzilla King of the monsters

*As Annie going back home and done a review, she has another unexpected call, but from the door*

Annie: *opens the door* Hello?

???: Ah there you are, i just want you to come back to Team Blast's world, because i found the plan to change back.

Annie: Huh?? How did you know them and who are you?

???: My name is Nancy Turrelto, but the gems like to call me "Red Diamond".

Annie: Red Diamond? But you're a human?

Red Diamond: Yeah, but i was born as a hybrid from my mom, which she uses gem on me to sacrificing herself.

Annie: Yeesh, talk about life risking.

Red Diamond: Yeah... Anyway, i heard you and your time trying to get the stones, but went late. Which like your home, my world is also affected, which Cosmic and i lost Blue and Diamond Ramsay. Which we though it will be a good idea to inventing a time machine?

Annie: Ummm.... Yeah, but how?

Red Diamond: Well, we decided to going back in time to get the stones before the snap happening. So, my pal Red Pearl, Cosmic and other fellow gems are gonna building a time machine to bring back where we used to be, is it ok?

Annie: *nods* Yes.

Red Diamond: Alright, we'll be right back when we're done. *walks away for preparing the plan

(Review starts)

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

From many years, we always love to see or talking the king of the giant monster name Godzilla, whether he's good or bad, he's always like to fighting with other monsters and destroying properties. From last year, we saw "Godzilla 2014", which it was easily considered to be a welcome return unlike the 1998 version we had, its no secret that we're gonna have a reboot series since Legendary entertainment bought the license from Toho to make their own film with big G, but with three more monsters.

"Godzilla: King of the monsters" is a 2019 Kaiju film written/directed by Michael Dougherty, produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent and Alex Garcia, then co-written by Zach Shields and Max Borenstein (for story).

From before, we've seen Godzilla was first born that unlike acted as a ruthless of destruction, he's once again, as a hero of the Earth to facing against Legendary's original monsters called MUTOs, though its a good film, but had some flaws with some average characters and most moments is too dark to watch. So after five years, we have a new installment where we see three of the most recognizable monsters back on big screen, Rodan, Mothra and Godzilla's biggest nemesis, King Ghidorah. I mean, we're hooked up when we heard about them.

So, with all that said, will this movie holds up for the epic showdown with four monsters, or is this film that Ghidorah is laughing his butt off as a bad installment as the 1998 version?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Since this is a Kaiju film, is it really predictable that the story isn't much else to say or a weak writing? Well, its rather typical giant monsters on the loose.

Five years after the first Godzilla film, the citizens are protesting that rumors spreading that there are more monsters are coming that causing disaster on Earth, resulting the birth of "Monarch", an organization to tracking and study the giant monsters called "Titans". We introduced the half of Russel family Emma and Madison to going on the ground to see the giant egg that happens to be Mothra, which they invented "Orca", a device for using frequencies that the monsters hears it. Despite the device was success, but Emma and Madison got kidnapped by the eco-terrorist run by Alan Jonah in order to sabotage them to breaking free the main antagonist King Ghidorah in Antarctica. So the lone father Mark Russel was contacted by Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham from Monarch to not only finding Emma and Madison, but also see Godzilla and dealing with Ghidorah before the world is ruined.

I find the story it self is rather not bad, which i like the idea of an organization to finding and studying giant monsters, because we always to have a plot development for what the Titans is doing, the appearance and their powers, but the execution felt flat quickly, since the movie nearly focuses with the humans, which we can al agree that the plot with humans are easily the most forgettable parts of the film, especially they have a family reunion, but il talk about the characters later. But one that i probably considered a plot hole, is that there many countries that are located with Monarch about more Titans coming up, however, most monsters other than Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah are introduced only in America continent, but we can briefly see them in rest of movie, which i understand we mainly focus on three Toho monsters, but the new monsters are rather unnecessary for the main plot. Its as if MUTO is laughing its butt off in the grave. So the other monsters outside of America continent have no purpose in the rest of the film, which my only guess is that they want to make more future movies in Monsterverse, depend how it goes after Godzilla vs Kong.

Though the story is rather good, but its just the human characters are the weakest part for dragging forever and a plot hole about the non-Toho monsters(?).

The Presentation
From the old days as we always know, we've seen a movie with actors in monster suit that they've done either scary or perhaps laughing at. In nowadays, its no secret that most monsters are done from motion capture and even CG. With this film, i find it rather pretty cool and intense.

At first, the location choice is obviously only located in America like US and Mexico, its a nice choice, but kinda disappointed that it would've been taking place in Tokyo, but thats just me. Though it also take place in Antarctica for the discovery of Monster Zero/Ghidorah.

The action scenes are easily more intense and shinier than the first Godzilla. Its as if they solve their mistake from the overdose of darkness from before, plus, the battle scene are shown more than two or three times, since we saw Godzilla vs Ghidorah two or three times, Rodan vs Ghidorah and Mothra vs Rodan. Even if the battle scene are cut away to the humans, but at least we can see them more than briefly, it was exciting and intense, especially with a big battle with Ghidorah. But sometimes, they also include some with a jumpscare that i hate the build up part that it hits my heart hard, i don't like the unexpected jumpscare outside of horror films.

As for the monster designs, aside of Godzilla, the designs of three Toho monsters are actually looks pretty good, as they trying to give them more detail and a bit more realistic. For Mothra, unlike when she used to be cute in fluffy butterfly appearance, here, they give her more beautiful and more feminine goddess moth with more color pallets and giving her an eye-spot on her wings. And of course, they make Mothra looks more like a real moth and give her long legs. Despite i find her look pretty good, but it was considered as the most difficult design of Mothra.

For Rodan, even though he looks pretty much like a giant Pteranodons, but also gives him a bird like appearance, especially with his legs. They also give him more detail with his body made of volcanic rock and fire pieces. So in other words, Rodan is sorta like a flying living volcano on rogue. In fairness, he looks not only accurate, but fitting nicely since he was born from volcano in Mexico.

Then for King Ghidorah, like Rodan, he looks pretty accurate, which they want to him similar from the Showa series, but giving more personality and a bit similar from king cobra. I really like the look of Ghidorah to make him powerful and scarier. But, they also stated that they don't want Ghidorah doesn't looks like it belongs to "Game of Throne" for a western dragon design. Aw well.

So, you're probably wondering Godzilla's appearance? Well, they kept the same design from the first one, but they give him a slight update like adjusting his claws, some extra dorsal plates and a bit bigger feet, which they wanted him to looks a bit similar from the 1954 iteration. Despite they use the same roar from 2014, but they also recycle his classic roar, which is nice and should've been in first place. And lastly, his atomic breath's beam looks more better to make his shinier too.

As for the other monsters that i mentioned before as a plot hole? Well, they look alright, most of...

And lastly, the soundtrack is pretty good too, especially it has the famous Godzilla theme by Akira Ifukube, with some upgrade, which is nice to listen to it in this film.

The presentation of this film is outstanding for the actions, the monsters appearance and well-respected return of Godzilla theme. Even though it has a small flaw, but the visuals and the effects are much more improvement than before.

The Characters
Oh boy, we're finally reached to the characters, before we talk about the Titans depiction, its no secret that the human characters are easily the most forgettable part that they always dragging on for the plot development and an unnecessary subplot.

The main focus of the humans are the Russel family with Mark (played by Kyle Chandler), Emma (played by Vera Farmiga) and Madison (played by Millie Bobby Brown), they're separately for different plots, such as where Emma and Madison must survived and being manipulated by the eco-terrorists thanks to the device Orca and where Mark not only return to working in Monarch, but also wanted to have a family reunion with his wife and daughter. But the problem is they're pretty much in underdeveloped, where Mark is a curious ex-employee of Monarch, Emma is an environmental activist of giant monsters and Madison is typical kid who's desperate for rooting for good monsters like Mothra and possibly Godzilla, but hey, at least she's not as annoying as the kids in Gamera films.

While some other new characters like Dr. Rick Stanton (played by Bradley Whitford) who's basically poor man version Rick from "Rick and Morty", Dr. Sam Coleman (played by Thomas Middleditch) is director of technology in Monarch and a liaison with the US government, Colonel Diane Foster (played by Aisha Hinds) who's pretty much as a female colonel and a leader of G-Team and there's Alan Jonah (played by Charles Dance), a human villain who's a former British army colonel and the leader of terrorist for stating the humanities are the blame for the planet Earth.

I find the new side characters are pretty much like a cardboard cutout and the new human villain is easily the lamest villain, he's pretty much the bad guy who "believe the humans are evil" cliche, like a typical evil environmental person.

Though they did brought back the previous characters from the first film which they're easily likable like Ishiro Serizawa (played by Ken Watanabe), who's a scientist who's much more believable about Godzilla who's a good guy and Vivienne Graham (played by Sally Hawkins) who's a Ishiro's right-hand woman.

Not to mention, most of the characters (aside Ishori and Vivienne) are either being useless or flat out idiotic for their decision that it frustrates me, like where Emma activates the bomb to awake King Ghidorah (which i wish Jonah should've done better while holding a bomb and holding Emma in hostage), or worst of all, the military threw an oxygen destroyer missile to nearly killed of Godzilla for one of the worst decision in Kaiju film history!
I mean, we all know that in the original film, the oxygen destroyer is an ultimate weapon to killing off Godzilla at the end of the film, but here, they though it will be a good idea for not just throwing missiles at Godzilla, but also Ghidorah too, which it doesn't make any sense for ruining Godzilla's appearance, otherwise it will suffer the same fate as "Batman V Superman".

Speaking of Godzilla, what about the monsters depiction? Well, as i said, they're more fascinating to see than the humans.
For Godzilla, unlike when he used to be a ruthless engine of destruction, he's more of a heroic god personality, especially when he was interacting with the humans, meaning he's rather harmless Kaiju. Even though some fans like to see him as a badass anti-hero monster, this one is nice to make him more of a real hero than harmful at humans, at least he didn't get too distracting towards humans like Gamera or even cowardly and weak like Zilla.
For Mothra, like before, she's a good monster to saving humanity, though sometimes she could get aggressive if they harming her when she was first started as a larva. but when she turned into a giant moth, she's sorta like a goddess angel when she shows up in the sky and she's possibly being loyal towards Godzilla. Even though without the twin fairies, its not gonna be easy, aw well.
For Rodan, there's not much else to describe, he's pretty much a giant Pteranodon posing a threat in Mexico and chasing after the plane, again, he's more of a flying rogue.
And for King Ghidorah, he has a different personality, which im ok with him, his middle head act as a leader for his intelligent and malicious, the right one is loyal and obedient follower, despite being irritated and aggressive, and the left one is acting like a moron for distraction. Though surprisingly, like most of reptiles, Ghidorah has the ability to regenerate his head, kinda like a Greek mythology serpent Hydra.

Its no secret that the human characters pretty much time wasting for plot development, unnecessary subplot and a BS decision. But at least the monsters are easily the likable in this film (minus Rodan who's not much else to describe).

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, "Godzilla King of the monsters" is a pretty good sequel i might say, the story is ok (at the time), the presentation with visuals effects, the actions are awesome and intense and the monsters are always fun to watch. But when you adding a poor subplot, poor new characters for unnecessary reason with underdevelopment and a BS characters's decision, you nearly made a disappointing film.

Though like Venom, the critics gave it a bellow or kinda above average film, for me, i don't think its not that bad. Sure, it has a flaws that it nearly ruined the film, but at least it was rather fun for the epic showdown with monsters and military (despite they're rather useless), and a nice presentation. If you're a fan of Kaiju to see more than two monsters, i'd say check this one out. If not, well, you can probably agree that this could be a disappointing film.

For my rating, i wanted to give this 8, but withe flaws that i mentioned that ended up plain unfair, but as a fan of Kaiju, il probably give this one 7/10. Its not a perfect film like "Avengers Endgame", but at least it was fun.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review ends)

Annie: *walks out of her front door to see Red Diamond* Hey RD, i was wondering how's going?

Red Diamond: We're close to finishing our project, maybe you can call your friends from other world to come here and working together for traveling back in time, please?

Annie: Alright...!

To be continued...

Movie Review: Aladdin 2019

*As Annie and the remain members of Team Blast, head back to earth, they're no other option left and just except that half living of the universe are killed off*

Annie: This is just very disappointing, we expected to get the stones to bring back where we used to be, but all we get is nothing to do without these.

Bryan Emmerich: *sighs* I know, i don't have a time powers, i have limits of elemental powers.

Eric Blakron: We better moving...

Annie: Yeah, i am not very happy about what it happened, thanks for giving me nothing...! *walks away*

Sally Ukrone: Well... Now what?

*review starts*

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to movie review.

Like i said, 2019 is gonna be a whole lot of remake films that they really want to cashing in for modern viewers, but as far as we know, many filmmakers are running out of ideas to just rebooting the classic films, some are good or others just plain god awful.

Last time, i already covered "Dumbo 2019" that Tim Burton visioned his own remake, its rather good idea, but failed for rushed story and some lame characters, its just a painfully average film that we don't know why Tim Burton made this. But after that, we're gonna have a second reboot, this time with one of the classic film of Disney Renaissance era after "Beauty and The Beast".

"Aladdin 2019" is... Well, a 2019 musical fantasy remake of 1992 classic, written/directed by Guy Ritchie, produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, then co-written by John August.

When this remake was announced, it was easily unlikely to be a good one, which some might say its gonna be like a same element of remake of "Beauty and The Beast" to just follow the main story and bring back the musical, and adding some new elements whether if its good or plain questionable. Either that or maybe its because we got distracted with previous trailer with Will Smith as Genie, which i was one of those people aren't sure if he's likable as Robin Williams's role. Or maybe he could have a good performance?

So, with all that said, will this movie has a wish come true for a good remake, or is this film deserved to be banished by the cave of wonder?

Well, lets find out.

The Story
With the movie based on the folk tales called "One Thousand and One Nights", you expected that it could follow the same story as the 1992 version. Well, yes and no.

Instead of starting with merchant telling you the story, it was the mariner tells the story with two kids in the beginning. Once the tale starts, it begins where Jafar's thief pal enters the Cave of Wonder, but ended up being killed, Then it quickly changed to introducing our main hero Aladdin (along with his monkey pal Abu), a street urchin who's hiding around to steal something while first meeting Jasmine who hides her identity that she's a princess, which she got tired being in life sheltered. After Aladdin get caught for being trespassing Sultan's palace, he was asked by the Royal Vizier, Jafar to not just leaving the town of Agrabah, but also demanding him to get the magic lamp from the Cave of Wonder. But Aladdin, Abu and his new friend, magic carpet get stuck in the cave, but still got the lamp to tricking Jafar, once Aladdin dust the lamp off, it magically summons Genie of the lamp after spending 10 thousand years and granting our main hero for three wishes ( you know,like any Genies out there), its up to Aladdin for find the path to be a big deal in Agrabah.

Though like "Beauty and The Beast", im rather fine for keeping the same story from the original that we all know. But the big problem of the story is the first act, mainly because it skipped several moments that we like, such as the first introduced the Cave of Wonder and then "One Jump Ahead" scene. I mean i get they wanted to let us know from the original, but what happened to the newcomers? They'll probably confused from the quick pacing in the beginning, it just comes off badly paced and probably questionable direction. The movie also gives us some new subplot, such as the bracelets that Jasmine was wearing since her dead mother (which is rather nice, but rather cliche for wearing an accessory from dead parents) and a new relationship, but with Genie and Jasmine's handmaiden named Dalia, thats fine for that, but the downside is the main focus is Aladdin and Jasmine, making the new relationship rather unnecessary for the main plot.

Though the story followed up nicely, but poorly executed for the pacing and poorly direction. While some subplots are a mixed bag.

The Presentation
for a live action remake, the presentation itself is rather have a nice stuff, but with a flawed effects.

For starter, the setting and the filming location are pretty nice to see, since it was filmed in Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan and the designg setting was done by Gemma Jackson, the same designer with the show "Game of Throne". Its pretty cool place what they show us, though sometimes most locationg is done with CG.

Speaking of CGI, its rather a mixed bag for the presentation of CG effects. Some part are rather good at first, with some flying scene, especially with the "A whole new world" segment, which i have to admit, it looks wonderful for the visual. But other times just looks either cheap or so wrong. Likely the CG animation visual of Abu and magic carpet, they look so video game-ish what they're trying to look realistic, but the detail just doesn't work, except for Iago, he looks ok. But don't even give me started with Will Smith's Genie, which i get they want him look from animated version, which its rather obvious that he's done with motion capture, but once again, it was poorly executed that somes it work, but other times a it creepy.

But to be fair, aside from good setting and location, at least some of the wardrobe are pretty cool, for Arabian setting, which making them look colorful, i love it. Some of action scenes has some nice stunt, especially with "One Jump Ahead" segment.

Speaking of the song, i find them are rather good, though i like the classic version they all of them are pretty damn good to listen to, here, i find them are simply good. Though i have to give a credit for the good singing performance like Mena Massoud, Will Smith and Naomi Scott. Some songs are pretty good like "One Jump Ahead" and the fan favorite "A whole new world", come on, how could you not forget the classics. Though, Will Smith's "Friend like me" and "Prince Ali" are good, but not as perfect as Robin Williams's version. For added bonus, Alan Menken returned to compose the soundtrack of this remake, which is nice for his return. Though, it has a new song called "Speechless" for Jasmine, which i find it to be "meh", its about where Jasmine's feeling for again, living in sheltered life. But the downside is that they don't even doe the reprise of Prince Ali for Jafar, aw well, i guess im ok without it.

One more thing that il give a quick fact, during the song sequence of "Prince Ali", they're over 1000 dancers and extras, which is pretty impressive in this segment, and i gotta say, they did a pretty good job for the choreograph.

The presentation is rather good for some effect, the location/setting and some songs, but one new song is average and the CG are very bad that they could've finalized before released on theaters.

The Characters
Im sure we're familiar with the characters in the original version, with this remake, they have some upgrade, though some remain the same. But of course, it has some new characters.

First is our titular hero Aladdin (played by Mena Massoud), as we know, he's a sefless and dreamer thief that he likes to be in the palace. But of course as he eventually become the price to the palace, he was a bit nervous for his presentation, which i have to admit, i know how he feels, especially for how he tries to impress Jasmine. Its rather relating when he became the prince. But for newcomer like Mena, i think he did a nice work of his role.

Next up is Will Smith's Genie, i have nothing against Will Smith, he is a fascinating actor since the 90's, some good or some flop. But with his role of Genie, he's rather not bad, i get his appearance is to pay homage of Robin Williams. He's eccentric and comedic, which i have to admit, i did chuckle of his moment, but i hate to say everyone, his performance is rather foreshadowed that Will Smith is being Will Smith. Sorry Will, im stick to Williams's best role.

Then we have Jasmine (played by Naomi Scott), an independent princess, strong and feisty. Though she may not have not a similar beauty of the classic, but i find her to be an interesting princess, though like Aladdin, she could be relate-able, since she's very bored in again, living in sheltered life in the palace to see the prince, whether she likes it or not. Which in fairness, even though she remains the same, but i find Scott did a nice work of her role.

And then we have the main antagonist, Jafar (played by Marwan Kenzari), a nefarious and manipulative sorcerer who's had enough of being the "second best" in Sultan's palace. Well, i hate to say that, i find him to be a forgettable villain than the original, its as if he's trying so hard to be a threatening villain who wants to taking over Agrabah, he's more a bit calm than a bit serious. So, like Will Smith's Genie, the remake version of Jafar isn't the best version what we expected.

The rest of the original characters are The Sultan (played by Navid Negahban) who's more wiser and noble ruler than being a dim-witted in the original that im fine with it and Iago (voiced by Alan Tudyk) who's a sardonic and smart parrot, but wasn't as fun than  Gilbert Gottfried's role.

As for the new characters, they're only two that we noticed, first is Dalia (played by Nasim Pedrad), who's a new girl in Agrabah that she's a loyal and confidante handmaiden for Jasmine. and like i said, she was used as a subplot for a relation of human form of Genie, its nice to have a new one, but its rather unnecessary for the main plot. There's Hakim (played by Numan Acar), the head guard of the palace that he's just there to showing a new character. And there's Prince Anders (played by Billy Magnussen) who's basically the replacer of arrogant Achmed, but once again, not important to tell him.

The main couple like Aladdin and Jasmine are more likable and relating like the original. Despite Genie is ok, but Jafar wasn't the best version of main antagonist. While some new characters are ok at the time.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Aladdin 2019 is rather above average. Just rather a good remake, the story is followed up, but questionable for the pacing and direction, the presentation are mixed bag, especially for some bad CG and the characters are ok. But to be fair, the songs (minus "Speechless"), are nice to hear, some are good and others are unforgettable, specially for a good singing performances.

Even if its not the best remake than "The Jungle Book 2016", but at least its not as painfully average as Tim Burton's Dumbo. If you're a fan of classic version, maybe this one is for you. Otherwise, stick to the 1992 version.

For my rating, i give this movie a 6/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review ends)

*knocks knocks*

Annie: Huh, i wonder who's coming to my home. *walks in to open the door* Hello?

???: Ah there you are, i just want you to come back to Team Blast's world, because i found the plan to change back.

Annie: Huh?? How did you know them?

To be continued...

Movie Review: Detective Pikachu

*Annie and the remaining alive of Team Blast went to the planet where Thanos lives, but gotten late that Thanos was already dies and no stones on his gauntlet*

Annie: Oh boy... You're telling that without the stones, we're gonna live like this?

Bryan Emmerich: Sadly yes...

Annie: *sighs* We're so boned now...!

Bryan Emmerich: Welp, there's nothing we can do now, i guess we better go back to our home.

*Since it was too late, they're going back to their ship in order to going back home in depression of half livings remain.*

Annie: *pulls out her 3DS to play some of her favorite game, but not before notice a game on the floor called "Detective Pikachu" with a sticker of "movie edition"* Huh, a game with "movie edition", i guess il find out and talking about it.

*review starts*

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

Like we all know, making a movie based on video game is always a bad taste of movie genre, mainly because they wanted to make something completely different than the game, but failed miserably that many video game fans would rather stay away for good reason. However, one movie that got a lot of attention maybe it was potentially good.

"Detective Pikachu" is a 2019 movie based on video game directed by Rob Letterman (also as a story writer), produced by Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Hidenaga Katakami and Don McGowan, then written by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Derek Connolly (for screenplay) and Nicole Perlman (for story).

Let me start off by saying that i love Pokemon, its easily one of the most famous, cutest and colorful series from Nintendo since it was ever started in 1996 in Japan and 1998 in US. Though i never grew up to play on Gameboy, i remembered seeing this on anime, its rather fun and entertaining to watch, that is until when i grew that i started playing the game on Gameboy advanced with the 1st gen remake to 3DS with Sun and Moon. Though i wanted to play the later games (especially on Switch), but can't for my personal reason. Though i am anticipating to play "Sword and Shield". However, with this movie, it was not based on typicla adventure to catching Pokemon for our journey, instead,  it was based on the spin-off game called "Detective Pikachu", its basically a typical solving mystery cases with talking Pikachu, and the game is soo average that i didn't care to play it.

So, with all that said, will this movie is solved to be a good one, or is this another film that its an obvious cash grab to buy a spin-off game?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Like i said, i never played a game to follow the story, but i find the story is much different than the game, but its actually pretty interesting.

It begins with a main boy named "Tim Goodman" was originally wanted to be a Pokemon trainer, but he lives on his own as a insurance salesman in Ryme City, due to his mother's death and his father's disappearance or perhaps his death. As Tim lives on the apartment that it was reminiscing of his past, he heard something entered the apartment, who happens to be a talking Pikachu (who only talk in Tim's mind to understanding). While they met each other,they noticed a capsule with a letter R that contains a deadly gas that causes any Pokemons into berserk, so its up to Tim and Pikachu to find out about R and search about his father Harry.

Well, even i find the story is interesting and maybe better than the game version, but i find the plot about knowing father's whereabouts is pretty standard, like we've already heard about the missing father before like Star Wars or others, which in my opinion, im more caring about the R gas thing, which i find it to be pretty fascinating and kinda creepy in the same time. Another good thing about the story is having a heart, mainly how Tim is a lonely kid that he wanted to be a trainer, but gave up to focus on his job without his trusty parents, even Pikachu has a sympathy to him with a very sweet dialogue of "He would've hug you so hard, your bones with pop", that right there, it really got me, like it made me nearly drop the tears, i love that part. Aside of heart, it also has some funny moments, but i have to admit, some did made me laugh thanks to Pikachu himself and maybe some other Pokemon. Despite the story is good, but the problem is that despite the story could be standard, but it feels like it was rushed whether the case was confirmed or even the twist, but i don't wanna spoil about the twist, since this movie is over 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Despite the story is above average and rushed, but its the execution with a heart, comedy and the extra plot element did it work, especially for the lore of Pokemon.

The Presentation
After all the crappy movies for their desperation of their presentation to make a big bucks, this one is surprisingly well presented and its no wonder why it got a lot attention when the trailer was first released.

For starter, the location is rather pretty cool. At first, i though it takes place on either Lumoise City, but in reality, it takes place in Ryme City like in the game, but it wasn't confirmed which generation takes place on, my guess is it takes place on 7th gen, not the upcoming "Sword and Shield". Aside my theory, the city itself looks pretty cool with mini markets, streets and monument tower. Even though it looks typical, but hey, the city looks pretty cool and probably colorful. The other places are also pretty good with forest, long road and even the old facility.

However, the big deal about this movie, is the animation and the designs of Pokemon. Before the trailer was released, most fans (like me) are unsure if its considered to be watchable, because back then, we've seen previous films based on video game are trying to look different, but poorly execution in order to make the presentation accurate from the video game. But with this movie, it looks much much better for not only accurate designs, but the details are nicely done with skin quality and even the furs. Especially with some Pokemon are adorable like Pikachu, Jigglypuff and even the 1st gen starters (like Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle), though sometimes, some of them could be creepy like Aipom in berserk. Even though im happy the designs of Pokemons are there that they look pretty good, but most fans are diappointed that would've add more in the movie, since we have over 807 Pokemons in the current generation, but it might be hard whether is the hard design or maybe the limit of the budget. Bur hey, im glad they don't include Jinx, because if they do, it makes me go "Oh God, my eyes!!".

And lastly, it has some action scenes, and i have ti admit, the actions are pretty cool to show us their moves like thunderbolt, flamethrower, the sing (which it cause anyone to fall asleep, but not really a fighting movie.) and few others, which is almost like we've seen in anime, but bigger budget in live action (since the budget is over $150 million).

The presentation of this movie is easily the best part they've accurate for the designs and the lore of the world of Pokemon.

The Characters
In most games, many characters are pretty average that they said normally, or even plain nonsensical or cardboard cutout. Here, it show us the personalities and more interesting depiction like Pokemon, well most of them.

First is our main hero Tim Goodman (played by Justice Smith, the same guy who's been in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), he's a salesman in Ryme City who gave up to become a trainer following the sadness without his parents. Even though he maybe a character that we want to feel sorry for him, but unfortunately, i find to be rather forgettable, he didn't have any special personality, he's just a boy who's following the footstep to become a detective with Pikachu from his help. Not to mention, Justice's acting is rather dull, its as if he's trying to be a big deal for sympathy and even caring for him, but not sure. But hey, at least he's not as stupidly annoying in Fallen Kingdom, which ironically, he was nominated for"Bad Supporting Actor" in "Golden Raspberry Awards".

Next is our titular hero, Detective Pikachu himself (played by Ryan Reynolds, aka F***ing Deadpool!), he's easily the most likable character of the movie, unlike the game version where's more acting like Sherlock Holmes, he's has more fun persona for being laid back, sarcastic and probably the smarter Pikachu in the movie, which it was all thanks to the great performance of Ryan Reynolds, which he's always have fun to playing as a talking mouse with electric power and communicating with other Pokemons.

Then we have a secondary lady name Lucy Stevens (played by Kathryn Newton), a fluff columnist that she wants to be a reporter (though she's considered as a junior reporter) and very suspicious over Harry's whereabouts. I find her to be an ok character, which she's more caring about her job to be a big reporter, since she always like to find out the cases. Strangely, she's accompanied with Psyduck.

And we have Howard Clifford (played by great British actor Bill Nighy), he's a former president of Ryme City (due to being disable) and founder of "Clifford Enterprises". He's corporate who used to be a president to keep the city in piece without a fighting between humans and Pokemon, even though sometimes he doesn't the involvement of mysteries of people of either disappearance or death. Even though Bill Nighy did a great work of his acting, though sometimes that he could be predictable if he's a villain or not.

The rest is not much else to say, there's Roger (played by Chris Geere), who's a son of Howard and next president of Ryme City due to his father's disability,  Detective Hideo Yoshida (played by Ken Watanabe, the same guy from Godzilla 2014) who's a former lieutenant of police station when he used to be a friend of Harry, he's rather a cool detective and there's few others.

Though some characters are rather good to tell, like Lucy, Howard or Pikachu, but most of them like Tim Goodman aren't as any special what we expected what we cared or not.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, "Detective Pikachu" is probably the best film based on video game, with amazing presentation, a good story, it was fun, colorful and it has some nice characters. Though the sometimes the story seems to be rushed and not as special we expected for a typical solving mystery, some characters could be forgettable and it would've been a bit better for show us more Pokemon, but again, due to the limit of designs or the budget. And do i think its a perfect film? Well, not really, even i mentioned it has some flaws, but hey, at least Hollywood finally learn their lesson for how to make a good video game movie like this one, i recommend to give it a try, for better or for worse.

For my rating, il give it 7/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review ends)

Sally Ukrone: Nice, im happy that they Hollywood learn their lesson.

Annie: Indeed.

Bryan Emmerich: Well, i hate to make some negativity, i don't think they learn their lesson.

Annie: What do you mean?

Bryan Emmerich: *pulls out his phone to show the image of live action of Sonic*

Annie: *sees it, but ended up horrified* Oh dear god...!!!

To be continued...

Movie Review: Avengers Endgame

*an energy portal opens in the backyard of a house where Annie walks out*

Annie: Ok, im here. *looks around to first meet Team Blast, but turns out there's Eric Blakron, Bryan Emmerich, Blackonne and Sally Ukrone, but no Smash, Marian Blakron, TBag and Mystica* Hey there, what happened to the other members?

Bryan Emmerich: Welcome to our universe, but yeah, as i said before, you're not the only one who witnessed the event where nearly everyone are all disappeared. We just call you for help.

Annie: Why?

Eric Blakron: Because he have to find the way to bringing everyone back the way it used to be. We have top fight Thanos and hopefully if we got his gauntlet to using it to complete our goal.

Annie: To... Using a rocket ship?

Bryan Emmerich: Yes, build it from last year, we have to blast away into different universe to find him.

Annie: This can be hard like its gonna take a years to going through there.

Bryan Emmerich: Don't worry, our ship has a special hyper-drive that we can go travelling.

Annie: Ah, it kinda make sense.

*As they going into their ship, they flies away from Earth in order to blasting through another universe. Just then, Annie strangely found a comic book of called "Endgame"*

Annie; Huh... I guess i can watching it and talking about it...

(Review starts)

Hey everyone, my name is Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

For the past ten years, we had seen every MCU films that they introduced us that we all know and love, aside from some that are disappointed. But in 2018, we had "Infinity War", which it was despite its a great film, but it jumped the gun in the ending where we lost nearly everyone in MCU, so after one year, we're going to the last chapter of Infinity War.

"Avengers Endgame" is a 2019 Marvel Superhero film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, produced by Kevin Feige (like many MCU films he's done) and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

With this film, we can all agree its one of the biggest anticipation film we've been waiting for with our heroes going on round two against Thanos one more time since before. But of course, it was a 3 hours long movie that most people like me will never go to the bathroom to watch the rest of the movie. Unless some will gotta go if there's no action with more focus of dialogues or something. But of course, this film was trending of "#NoSpoilers", which even though i will talking about the movie's story, but i won't go further and further, otherwise il be exposed.

So, with all that said, will this movie is a worth of waiting to saving the universe, is this film that we're stuck forever in "Endgame" with  nearly no populations?

Well, lets find out...!

The Story

Since we're in Endgame, we expected to have an epic rematch where Thanos keeps his stone in his homeland, right? Well, this one is pretty different and kinda complicated. But it doesn't mean its bad, but its actually impressive.

It picks up three weeks after the event of Infinity War, Tony Stark and Nebula are stranded in space that their ship is running out, but they're eventually being rescued by Captain Marvel to send back to Earth to reunite the remains of Avengers. Which they're going for a rematch against Thanos, but it was too late that the Infinity Stones are gone from his gauntlet. That resulting to fast forward five years later, where the world is like in semi post-apocalyptic future, Scott Lang strangely came back from the quantum realm (since the mid-credit of "Ant-Man and The Wasp", Spoiler Alert), which he's in the verge of panic for a help. Which turns out, not only he got stuck in quantum realm, but it also made him in time travelling, which Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) got his intention from Scott to building a time machine and bring the Infinity stones. Its up to our remaining heroes of Avengers to travelling back in time to get the stones once and for last time.

Like i said, i though it would've been great for the rematch where Thanos keeps his stones, but that didn't happened, instead its all about time traveling. Which is fine, but it has an interesting execution that this movie has a deja vu feel when they're going back in time, which our heroes are separately into previous films like "The Avengers" (which i liked, despite its a bit flawed), "Thor: The Dark World" (a sequel which is not a good sequel before Ragnarok.) and "Guardians of the Galaxy" (which is easily a fun movie thats its definitely recommended to watch). Plus, despite it still have  funny moments (which its some jokes are funny), but it also adds a drama, since after Infinity War, we want to have some sad moments when the universe remains in depression with half living. Even though the whole time traveling is maybe good, but it has a flaws, which the first act is dragging on for nearly an hour after failed interrogation at Thanos, i understand to give us a character development from the aftermath, but come on, it would've been take a small action since its a three hours long movie. But sometimes it has a same plot element from Infinity War, but in different way, but i don't wanna get a full detail.

Even though its what i expected for the story, but the story is interesting with some good execution, even if some part could dragging on in the first act.

The Presentation
Once again, like any previous MCU films, the presentation are impressive for the actions, the suits, the location and more, but this one is pretty big with $356 million of budget, making it even more expensive, but AS expensive than "Avengers: Age of Ultron".

Lets start with the setting of the location, the location of the aftermath of Infinity War looks pretty moody and depressing with over grown plants and abandoned places, its typical that we've seen before, but not bad. But like i said before, the movie brought us a flash back of three previous films, its pretty nice to brought us the same old locations, even if i was nervous if the old characters could get noticed from our current heroes, even if it could be funny or disturbing.

As for the action scenes, man, this is gonna be huge, like a lot of action scenes are taken place from the pasts and perhaps in present, but some of them are pretty cool, and other are downright epic, but again, i won't going further. Most of action scenes is all about get the stones before Thanos gets them all for good reason, even though sometimes, some moments where anyone get the stone could be confusing if some like me never seen before, like the reality stone are found in Thor's sequel film. Yeah, im one of those people that avoided this weakest film, despite it has a reality stone that it was used to be Aether.

And lastly, we get the superhero/villains appearance, its quiet obvious that most of them are done in practical, while others are done with motion capture like Thanos, the various creatures and few others. Some of new outfits are pretty good like Iron Man's suit (as usual), Ant-Man (plus, it has an Easter Egg that we can easily notice) and Thor's armor. And some is nice to bring back, like the Captain America's outfit with his signature shield since it got destroyed by Iron Man in Civil War or even Rocket Raccoon's classic outfit that was based on comic, thats another nice Easter Egg.

Despite some some are recycle and hard to tell that i've never heard, but once again, this film looks pretty cool with actions, the appearance, the location and the CG details are outstanding and possibly colorful.

The Characters
With the same casts as before, not only they're still likable whether they remains the same and some has a new developments. Even if some of survivor are missing that they would've make more appearance.

This movie focuses with the remaining heroes such as Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr for the last time in MCU), Captain America (played by Chris Evans, also last time in MCU), Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (played by Natasha Romanoff), Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner), War Machine (played by Don Cheadle), Scott Lang's Ant-Man (played by Paul Rudd), Nebula (played by Karen Gillan), Rocket Raccoon (played by Bradley Cooper) and recently Captain Marvel (played by once again, Brie Larson).

These guys are only the focus to their goal of time traveling. In fact, some of them got changed, such as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) lives in his cabin to have his daughter Morgan, which at first he doesn't want to go without her, but accept for his journey after five years, Thor become an overweight god with eating and drinking, not sure how he getting fat, but my only guess he must had been depressed over his loss (even though it was Chris's another idea for the change), Bruce is permanently turned into Hulk form, though a bit due to his balance of his sides with experimentation for his intelligent and strength, and there's Hawkeye that due to losing his family, he turned into an anti-hero to killing bad guys, though this was based on another character named "Ronin" (despite there's no Ronin in this film, guess we gotta wait for the next saga).
However, before the film's release, they're few other characters in the poster that they're also survived, but barely appeared such as Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow, which it was also her final role of MCU), Okoye (played by Danai Gurira), Wong (played by Benedict Wong), Happy Hogan (played by my favorite actor/producer/director Jon Favreau) and Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson), they're basically shown in small appearance for some reasons, talk a bout a waste of potential from their posters.

As for the other heroes died? Well, they'll be back, but we have to wait for a while, and once again, i won't tell how they're resurrected.

And finally there's Thanos (once again, played by Josh Brolin), like i said, i still like this character for his sympathetic figure for what he cared about before changed his life to be a menacing titan to stealing Infinity Stones. Here, at first we though he's still stronger after the snap, but ended being weaken after left alone in his own farm. But current Thanos isn't the main antagonist, its the other Thanos is the real antagonist. But once again, Josh Brolin is still doing a great work of his role.

And lastly that i forgot to mention, is Stan Lee's cameo, this time they made him in digitally de-age of 1970's and it was considered his last cmaeo in cinema history, its a nice tribute for him, rest in peace, old friend...

As i said, the acting are always enjoyable to see with some of our favorite actors over 11 years, especially some are always have fun like Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and some others. Even if some actors who played our favorite characters have a time to say goodbye after the saga, but we still enjoy the characters in MCU, especially some have an upgrade following the Endgame.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Avengers Endgame is probably the best superhero film of 2019, with a story that its not what expected, but pretty good, the presentation is once again awesome for the actions and appearances and the characters are once again, likable. Even its an three hours long film, it could get forever, before the main event, some location are a bit generic that we've seen before and some actions a bit lacking from the first act as i mentioned before. But the movie does have a deja vu with the time traveling sequence and its easily fitting to have a drama for the aftermath of Thanos's snap or even some other moments in this film, like before i got shocked and sad for some moments and even the end, than again, i won't tell more. But, this isn't the final film of the saga, we still have one more film, such as "Spider-Man: Far from home".

If you wanna see the epic finale of the saga of MCU, i highly recommend to watch it, but make sure you eat or drink too much while watching a three hours film.

My rating will be pretty hard, which i wanted to give this one maybe 9, but since this is the final part of the saga with some moment with an epic actions and drama, i decided to going with a perfect 10/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.

(Review ends)

Sally Ukrone: Wow... This is... pretty emotional...

Annie: I know, but then again, this isn't over of their universe.

*but the ship stops to arrive at the planet where Thanos lives*

Bryan Emmerich: Ah-ha, we're here.

Annie: Alright, looks like we need to tell him to fight back and fixing our universe, right?

To Be Continued...!

Movie review: Shazam!

Hey everyone, im Annie and welcome back to the movie review.

Ever since Marvel Cinematic Universe became a huge franchise for fun actions and likable characters, but what the heck is wrong with "DC Extended Universe"? DCEU is totally gotten worse as time went, not just of disappointing films what we have, but also nearly everyone are walking away such as Ben Affleck, Erza Miller and maybe Henry Cavill (since he's probably gonna get replaced by Michael B. Jordan). And so, we're very unclear if DCEU will still going, or maybe they're seriously need to be rebooted. However, since we have our next standalone film after Aquaman, we're hoping if DC could make something lighter than before, but it definitely does.

"Shazam!" is a 2019 DC superhero film directed by David F. Sandberg, produced by Peter Safran, then written by Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke.

Like i said, we've lost our hope and respect for DCEU for their disappointing films what we've seen (except for Wonder Woman), we would think if its gonna get bad right? Well, since we saw the trailer, it got a lot of attention that it looks like fun and going in lighter tone what it should've been. Not to mention, this project had a hell development back in 2000 and the film was supposed to include The Rock as "Black Adam", but that didn't happen, which Black Adam has to wait for either a sequel or maybe his own standalone film, since the project has been changed until what we have here.

So, with all that said, will this movie holds up if Shazam will rise in the light, or is Carol Danvers overshadowing him when he used to be named "Captain  Marvel" for infringing reason?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

With a movie about Shazam, you'll think that they've learn their lesson to know about our hero and something lighter? Well surprisingly, they've done right.

It started back in 1974, where a young boy name Thaddeus Sivana who's unexpectedly being transported into a different dimension known as "Rock of Eternity", where he met a old man wizard name "Shazam" who's the last wizard of the council of seven wizards. However, Thaddeus didn't know and curiously wanted to get an orb called "Eye of  Sin", but he was banished back to Earth, because he was deemed worthless. Fast-forward to present time, we introduce Billy Batson, a kid who's adopted by the foster family when he was being lost from his mother. After attempt to save his disabled best friend/brother Freddie from the bullies, he ran away to the subway, but not before he was also transported to Rock of Eternity where he meets a dying Shazam, saying that "Eye of Sin" was stolen from grew up Thaddeus Sivana where he not gain his powers, but also summoning seven deadly sins, the wizard gives his own power to Billy by calling the name into a superhero known as "Shazam". Its up to Billy to not only testing himself as a superhero, but also dealing against Thaddeus once and for all.

Even though its just another typical superhero story as usual, but the origin of Billy was started from sad to enjoyable as the movie went on. Especially for the Shazam's testing montage, it is quite fun and nice to showcase his powers. But what it makes this film good is that it has a lighter tone and a sense of humor, even though its odd that it takes place on Christmas(?), but it has better light tone than "Justice League" and of course, this film is funny as heck, especially when it comes to a montage, the jokes and even a silly nicknames to avoiding transformation (for obviously avoiding secret identity). Even if it should've been on the first place.

Even though the story is much like any typical superhero movies, but the execution are  much better for better light tone, nice direction and a fun sense of humor.

The Presentation
With a lighter tone, we expect the presentation of this movie looks fun with action and entertaining, well yeah.

The filming location is pretty nice, especially that it takes place on Philadelphia, with the poor village and the scene where Shazam and Billy sits together on the steps in front of Art Museum, i can't help but think "I sense the similar location of "Rocky" movie.". Aside Philadelphia, they also filmed in Ontario with the school, the shopping center and a generating station. In other words, this movie is 50% taking place in Philadelphia. Even though its the same location for taking place in DCEU.

As for the action scenes and the CG, it looks much more better than "Justice League" for the graphic detail, fight scenes and power effects. Even if some say it was the cheapest DCEU film ever made between 80 to 100 million dollars of estimated budget. The action scenes with montage and fighting are fun and entertaining in the same time, especially for the powers, they looks great, even if the smoke (which it summons the seven deadly sins) are a bit cheap. As for the designs of the seven deadly sins, despite they look pretty average what they appeared, but they they look pretty scary, especially with red eyes, geez they looks rather terrifying, even though they're appeared from either motion capture or even CGI.

And  finally, you're probably wondering my though of Shazam's suit? Well, it looks pretty simple what he appears, but it looks pretty good and kinda look faithful from the comic, especially with light of his logo on the chest and on his wrists, which obviously the suit has a battery on its back.

Despite it was considered as a "cheapest budget" of DCEU film, but i find the presentation looks pretty good for actions, the creepy seven deadly sins designs, Shazam's suit and probably a better detail of CG.

The Characters
Since this is a movie about Shazam, we expected that the characters are gonna be likable for their development? Well, they've done it better what we expected like Aquaman.

First is our titular hero Billy Batson, aka Shazam (played by Asher Angel for Billy and Zachary Levi for Shazam). As a Billy kid, i find him to be good, despite he's a bit emotionless, but at least Asher's acting is better than the kids from Tim Burton's Dumbo. But when he transformed into Shazam, Levi's easily steals the show for his fun and cocky role, you can tell Zachary have to playing as our titular hero. And for his abilities, he has powers based on immortal elders (along with combination of his name), "Wisdom of Solomon" represents intelligence, "Strength of Hercules" is obviously super strength, "Stamina of Atlas" means superhuman ability, likely invulnerability, "Power of Zeus" is of course, lightning power, "Courage of Achilles" means the power of will, and "Speed of Mercury" means super speed. Even though in my old time, i didn't care pretty much about Shazam, but as time goes, im started to liking him, he's not like my number one favorite hero in DC, but at least its the first time i learned about him.

Then we have Billy's best friend/brother Freddie (played by Jack Dylan Grazer), he;s also a likable character in this movie, despite being disabled, but he's a fan of superheroes, which we can see he collected various stuff from either Batman (like Batarang) and a crushed bullets from Superman's indestructible. And of course, since he first meet Shazam, he sorta act like a mentor to write down the list what abilities Shazam has and possibly teaching him for how to be a superhero. Even though he's a fan of superhero, Grazer is also did a great work of his role. Which obviously makes us wishing he could also become a superhero, right?

While the rest of the foster kids, they're not much else to say, but more likely the kids on token list, there's Darla Dudley (played by young Faithe Herman) is a energetic playful girl, Mary Bromfield (played by Grace Fulton) who's a den mother for the kids,  Eugene Choi (played by Ian Chen) is a gaming boy with the brain and Pedro Peña (played by Jovan Armand) a shy kid who doesn't want to be in trouble, but more best way to describe him in the words of Scott Steiner: "He's FAT!!" (Sorry...)

As for the foster parents like Rosa and Victor Vasquez (played by Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews), they're basically a parents for adopting five kids for... Plot development for Billy?

And there's the old wizard named "Shazam" (played by Djimon Hounsou, who previously played as Ricou in Aquaman), who's only shown in the first act as a plot device to Billy to becoming a hero as a last wizard of the council. Even though there's not much else about him, but Djimon did a nice work of his role.

And finally, we have the main antagonist Thaddeus Savina (played by Mark Strong), he's a bad guy wants revenge against Wizard Shazam for stealing the Eye of Sin for not only has give him powers, but also summons the seven deadly sins. Though he has a great power, but he's a typical ruthless bad who wants to taking over humanities with monsters. Even though he's pretty average for his personality, but Mark did a great work of his role, he has cool powers and probably a somewhat better villain than Carlton Drake from Venom.

The characters in the movie are easily better for their development, their personality and their fun acting.

And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Shazam is easily one of the best DCEU film ever done, with good execution for the story, great actions and presentation and the characters are likable, including Zachary's main role of Shazam. Even though Wonder Woman did good, but Shazam easily topped over for better light tone, fun acting and it was also funny to watch. This is the film that again, what it should've been on the first place after all the disappointing films what we have. So, if you're a fan of DC superhero movie, i highly recommend to watch it, its a film that it won't disappoints. Go see it, my friend...!

Though, i wanted to give 10 for a perfect DCEU film, but it has some flaws with an ok villain and some of CG could be a bit of problem. So for that, i give this movie a 9/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing ou--

*review ends with a phone ringing*

Annie: *grabs her phone* Yeah-hello?

??? (on phone): Are you Annie from other universe?

Annie: Yeah its me? What do you want?

???: Come to our universe, we need to talk...

To be Continued...