“Godzilla” (2014)

Directed by Gareth Edwards
Written by Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham
Starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn.
Music by Alexandre Desplat

This version of Godzilla is much better than the one directed by Roland Emmerich. If the 1998 version gave the image of Godzilla as a destructive monster with a vague sense of goodness that we got at the time it was dying, this 2014 version clearly tells us that Godzilla is definitely a hero, who keeps the balance of the world, protects the human race…

… in a kind of destructive and monstrous way.

As thankful we are with the presence of Godzilla, we would reconsider twice of it being a hero if every time Godzilla shows up to save the world, it destroys the whole city.

Well, at least by the end of watching this, my brother and I became an official fan of Godzilla. 

Keep reading

Don’t say it. Move it.

www.pumadancedictionary.com

“Disconnect” (2013)

Directed by Henry Alex Rubin
Written by Andrew Stern
Starring Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Frank Grillo, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgård, Andrea Riseborough, Colin Ford, Jonah Bobo
Music by Max Richter

“A drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today’s wired world.”

It’s always interesting for me to watch a multiplot movie. This one has successfully become my favorite. I like the ambiguity of the title. It’s about family, friends, couple, father and son, a journalist and her interviewee, the all at first seem connected, by blood or friendship, by relationship or work, but from deep down inside they are all disconnected. But all of the stories are somehow connected to each other. 

What really caught my attention is how every director would summarize the climax of the story in a multiplot movie. In “Disconnected”, Henry Alex Rubin emphasized it by putting the same slow motion effect on each climax scene of each stories, that somehow gave an instant anxious feeling of what’s gonna happen to them after this. This part is my favorite. 

Despite of how the director’s putting up the story together, I think each actors and actresses gave a wonderful performance. I also like the film songs and film scores. Max Richter did a great job. 

In the end, this movie is worth for you to watch. Very interesting and wouldn’t disappoint you. 

“The Raid 2: Berandal”

Written, directed, and edited by Gareth Evans
Starring Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra, Oka Antara, Alex Abbad, Tio Pakusadewo, Ken’ichi Endo, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kazuki Kitamura, Julie Estelle, Very Tri Yulisman
Music by Aria Prayogi, Joseph Trapanese, Fajar Yuskemal

There are a lot of things in my mind, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s just say, Gareth Evans did a great job in making this badass action movie, but unfortunately, this proves that he is not a good storyteller.

Why?

In short: too many characters without proper introduction, too many jumping scenes, too many unrealistic things and uncommon to Indonesian culture. There are risks, of course, if you’re not an Indonesian and writing a story that brings Indonesian culture. Well, despite how long you’ve been living here, some things just can’t be helped.

(Attention: Spoiler Alert!)

First, it’s impossible at the moment, for someone with higher status, to have a handsome son being named as Ucok. If just Arifin Putra was being named as his own (Arifin or Putra only), it will sounds natural, but Ucok? That sounds fiction. Same thing with the character name Bejo, played by Alex Abbad. For me, honestly, these names sounds like someone found those names randomly on newspaper and used them as characters in the story without doing a research of who usually own that name. Even as a nickname, I still think Mr. Evans needs to find another name. 

Second, I think Gareth Evans needs to consider the ‘snowy scene’ twice because in fact, Indonesia is located in the tropical climate area thus it can only experienced two kinds of weather, rainy or sunny. Never ever we will experience snow (as in winter season). So, how in the hell, there was snowy scene? 

Third, I don’t know why Gareth Evans brought back Yayan Ruhian to this movie as a different person. Was it just to have a beautiful death on a snow (yes, this is what happen in that snowy scene)? Does it necessary to the story? Not really. And also, Marsha Timothy played as his wife in this movie. Just… why? With all due respect, Yayan Ruhian looks like a father figure for Marsha Timothy.

Talking about acting performance, Tio Pakusadewo and Oka Antara caught my attention. As usual, they’re great. Oh, and that Baseball Bat Man, Very Tri Yulisman. I don’t mean he also has a great acting performance like Tio and Oka, but he has a distinctive character and he will definitely be remembered by the audience after watching this movie. That’s great.

Julie Estelle was cool. I like her. She owned that character. Too bad the fighting scene in a train was just too similar to “Gantz: Perfect Answer”. So, it wasn’t that special for me. 

Iko Uwais? His acting is better in this sequel than the first one. I like him. Arifin Putra? In my opinion, he could have a wonderful performance if he just didn’t also bring that ‘charm’ to his acting. By ‘charm’, I mean “Hey, I know I’m handsome, right? I know you’ll like me” kind of acting. His character is a spoiled brat, and by being a spoiled brat you don’t need to be a handsome one because you already are. He is way too cool to be Ucok. His confidence is way over his acting performance. 

Those things I mentioned above are the reasons why I hate this movie, BUT I also LOVE this movie. The fighting scenes are on a higher level than “The Raid: Redemption”. We could feel it’s getting serious and thrilling the closer we get to the ending. After all of the weapon things, the highlight comes back to the root, which is Pencak Silat. It is battle of the two martial artist. Gareth Evans truly knows how to shoot the scene and make us gasping, squeaking, closing our eyes, covering our mouth, biting our lips, while we’re watching both of them kicking, punching, stabbing, throwing and slamming each other bodies. That scene was the best, however other fighting scenes were also full of awesomeness. 

In the end, I have this love and hate relationship with this movie. You wouldn’t find a good storytelling but you wouldn’t find any other badass action-thriller movie like “The Raid 2: Berandal”. I will definitely waiting for another sequel.