matgsilva

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

MY FAVORITE MOVIE 42 YEARS LATER

It is truly amazing how much this movie holds up until this day. I watched it 42 years after its release as a kid who is a big fan of modern movies, and always skeptical regarding to older movies. And even if some concepts wouldn't work very well nowadays, it's so magical and incredible that I really couldn't care less.

E. T. Has recently become my favorite movie of all time, and for tons of reasons. Firstly, the acting in this movie is fantastic, and being led by 3 young children, it is really impressive how well they are able to transmit emotion and charisma, specially Elliot (Henry Thomas). The movie is filled with very funny and heartwarming moments and the pacing is great combined with some very nice action scenes and one of the most iconic moments ever, it being the bycicle chase near the end of the movie. And what consolidates this movie as my all-time favorite has to be the dynamic between E. T. and Elliot, that brings a lot of beutiful and emotional moments, as well as a fantastic lesson about friendship.

If you haven't watched this movie, go on and watch it. It's amazing all along, both for children and adults.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!

FROMSOFTWARE DID IT AGAIN. They gave us a dlc that is better and presents more content than 99% of the games we see out there. It is absolutely fantastic, improving upon everything the base game did right and correcting some mistakes.

This dlc contains 3 main legacy dungeons, and tons of secondary areas. The main ones are super fun and intriguing to explore, and some of the best we have seen yet. The secondary ones, although not that great, for obvious reasons, seem way more unique than the repeated dungeons of the first game with some very interesting bosses.

The bosses also shine here: there are 10 main ones and a lot of secondary bosses, and they are some of the hardest bosses Fromsoftware has ever created, and also some of the best and most fantastic boss fights I have ever seen.

I also need to say the lore and characters are very unique, expanding a lot from what we had previously learned about some characters, and it might also change the way you look at some of your favorite characters.

The weapons also feel great to use, and they definetely help to bring a lot of variety into the dlc and the base game.

Overall, I can't praise more Myazaki and his team for creating such a masterpiece, certainly one of the best dlcs of all time (if not the best), and it's a mandatory experience for Elden Ring lovers.

Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition (2017)

PERFECT CONCLUSION TO THE TRILOGY

There are many factors to be considered when discussing quality of games. It can be measured by lore, narrative, combat, gameplay, level design, consistency and so on. Considering this is a Fromsoftware game, it is phenomenal even with all its flaws, and I absolutely love this game.

This game wraps up the story of the Dark Souls trilogy for good in order for the production team to be able to work with new projects. And it does in such a fantastic way, especially in the dlcs. It has an intriguing lore, amazing characters and questlines and obvious references to Dark Souls 1, which some might consider to be a flaw, but I personally enjoyed it a lot, as it contains many nostalgic moments and gives a fantastic representation of a dead and broken world. A shadow of what it was before, and the clear Dark Souls 1 references only enhance this aspect.

Dark Souls 3 is responsible for having the best gameplay from all the three games of the trilogy, being a perfect mix between Dark Souls and Bloodborne. It is simply so fun, although it leaves a little bit to be desired with the removal of power stance and the very underwhelming weapon art system.

Mainly, the bosses of this game are what makes it perfect. There are such incredible fights packed with a lot of character and spectacular combat, mainly in the dlcs. Bosses like Midir, Gale, Nameless King, Pontyff Suhlivan, Friede, Twin Princes, Demon Princes, Soul of Cinder, are all among my favorite bosses in the entire series. It is clearly the best aspect of this game.

It is also worth mentioning that the dlcs are both phenomenal, both in areas and bosses. I can see the argument for Ashes of Ariandel being too expensive, but it is already included in this complete edition so it doesnt bother me in this case.

The only major problem in this game for me is the areas. I don't have a problem with the linearity itself, just with the linearity of each level. The beginning of this game is pretty bland, and most areas are just not as intriguing or fun to explore in comparison to the other games.

Overall this is an absolute masterpiece, and if you enjoy the Souls series, this is a must play game.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

DISAPPOINTING, BUT STILL GOOD

I watched this movie on the theaters, and although it has its flaws, it is still really enjoyable. When you compare this movie to the rest of the franchise, its definetely the worst out of all of them, but if you like the franchise you should probably watch it because it is still a very fun experience.

Qualities:

• As a consequence of the evolution of cgi and special effects, this movie has by far the best animation in the series, with visually stunning characters and environments and the evolution can be easily noticed in comparison to the first entries of this franchise
• It has some of the best action sequences we had so far in all four movies, considering the animations and movements of each character became more complex in this entry
• Zhen and Po have a very good dinamic as a duo and Zhen is a very good character with an interesting backstory
• The dinamic between Po's fathers is amazing, and gave us some of the funniest moments in this film
• The voice actors did an amazing job here, especially Jack Black as usual
• It was really nice to see the return of Tai Lung and it actually made sense for the story

• The absence of the Furious Five is easily noticed in this movie, and the explanation for it felt very lazy
• The Chameleon, although a nice villain, is not even compared to the three amazing villains from the previous movies, and her backstory+motivation feels really stupid
• The plot itself overall is not that great, and the themes and messages of this entry feel really weak in comparison to the other movies
• Shen and Kai are done very dirty, and the comeback of the previous villains along with the kung fu masters is really disappointing and not very well polished

Elden Ring (2022)

WHAT A MASTERPIECE!!

Before Elden Ring, I wasn't used to playing games apart from the multi-player ones, and when I saw about this amazing open world, I was instantly dragged to it. So I bought it and started playing, and to enjoy most of the challenge I decided to play it without summons. And it was definitely challenging, but also the best experience I ever had with a videogame since! This sticks together with Red Dead Redemption 2 as my two favorite games of all time. And I have played a lot of game franchises since.

Almost everything in this game is perfectly polished! The open world is the perfection of everything we had yet seen, with amazing exploration, visually stunning graphics, a perfect art design withing every corner, combined with a masterpiece of a level design, with satisfying rewards to compensate for your exploration and to make you feel how your character is progressing. Torrent was also a fantastic addition, as he not only helps you traverse the map, but also makes it a lot of fun considering the fact that he can double jump and be helpful in a lot of combats against enemies, adding a lot to the game.

The combat is a mix of everything Fromsoftware has done till this date, combined in such deep, fun and intricate battles. It takes a lot of the combat speed from the later titles (Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3), combines it with a posture system to leave your opponent open to a visceral attack, inspired from Sekiro, and at the same time adds the jump button ( finally ) letting you use it in combat for jump attacks, making it truly unique.

The bosses are truly amazing, as they force you to learn their movement and attacks to be able to beat them, with visually stunning designs for the bosses and their arenas. They are very aggressive, but with the patience to to truly learn about the battle, they can be defeated and bring you a big feeling of achievement and reward when you do so. The bosses are also amazing characters and they tie up perfectly with the intricate lore of the game.

As every other game, it does have its flaws, them being the repition of bosses (mostly in dungeons) and some unfair delayed moves from enemy and bosses can be truly frustrating. But all of this rarely takes away from the experience considering it has such amazing qualities to pair it off.

If you haven't played the game yet, go on and play it because I am almost sure you are going to have a truly amazing experience, and it might even drag you to play the other games in this series created by Hidetaka Myazaki and his team. It definitely deserved the award of Game of the Year, and is one of the best games of all time.

Interstellar (2014)

ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE

I have always been a fan of Christopher Nolan's movies, and for me he is one of the best directors from nowadays, if not the absolute best. The combination of a complex and very deep plot, amazingly well developed characters and the intrigue of the story that always keeps me watching are just some of the elements that make his movies so great. I had high expectations with this movie, and being myself a fan of astronomy and having studied before a bunch of the theories of physics and relativity, this movie couldn't impress me more than it did. It takes its time to explain the story and develop the characters, that were played by such amazing actors. Everything about this movie is amazing. Its visually stunning, its story and characters make you intrigued at every moments of the film, the theories of physics and relativity are such a wonder in this movie combined with the beautiful scenarios, and the ending just got me shocked and I really didn't expect it. If you haven't watched this movie, go watch this masterpiece that might just give you one of the best moments you will ever have with movies.

The Northman (2022)

Simply HORRIBLE

My friend told me a lot about this movie, and on his point of view, it was simply one of the best vikings stories ever. After I was told this, I decided to watch it. And when I did...oh boy. I could see this wasnt that much of a masterpiece when the vikings had to go through a farting ritual to be accepted as real warriors. But I hardly kept watching relying on the very little piece of hope I had. And it just got WORST. I mean, I realized this movie had no redeemable qualities when the valkyrie flew through the sky using braces. Goddamn braces. The acting was mid, I didnt care for any of the characters, and it is so forgettable that I have already forgotten all characters names, and I watched it very recently. In the end, the only goodthing was the aesthetics, that was pretty decent, and I am really sorry for the great actors that had to be a part of this movie. I don't recommend wasting your time watching this.