Serenity (2005)

Synopsis
This movie is an extension of the TV series "Firefly." For all those unfamiliar with the show, it is a space western about the crew of the ship called Serenity. Mal (Nathan Fillion) is the leader of the crew which includes Zoe (Gina Torres), Wash (Alan Tudyk), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), Kaylee (Jewel Staite), Inara (Morena Baccarin), Shepherd (Ron Glass), Simon (Sean Maher), and River (Summer Glau). The series follows them in space and all the problems they encounter. It's only 14 episodes so you should definitely check it out.
The movie follows the crew as they are being chased by The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a killer who is after River. The crew has to do everything they can to save her.

My Verdict
This movie was great! It was perfect closure for the series. Watching the series I always felt really stressed out and that didn't change with this move. I really felt like I was watching an epic season ender. Like, this is how the series should've ended. It was fantastic. There was backstory when needed and there was also stuff that messed with my feels. I'll discuss all of this in more detail later.
I'm giving this movie a 8.5/10. It did exactly what I wanted it to and I am now at peace with the series. I'm just really sad it's all over.

Spoilers
So, thank you so much for the backstory on River. And tying it all in with the reavers, and actually seeing the reavers ... YES! I was so happy about this. I know the reavers are super awful humans and seeing them wouldn't be great but I still wanted to know what they looked like. Also, I didn't really know if the were humans or not from the series, but now I know.
We learned so much about River in the one episode than what we got in the entire series. Thank goodness we did because of all the people I wanted to know more about she was at the top of my list.
The two things that really hurt my feelings were Wash and Shepherd dying! Why did they have to die?! That was brutal and I'm not sure if I'm fully over it. I'll be okay though.
So that's that. The end of a series. I will leave you with a quote from the movie that I really liked: "Half of writing history is hiding the truth."

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Switched at Birth - Like a Snowball Down a Mountain

The title is perfect because everyone's situation is snowballing into an avalanche that will come crashing down on them in the near future!
Good and bad things are happening with Daphne. First, she got a paid job at the clinic which is great because she's one step closer to becoming a doctor. The only problem is that Campbell isn't having it. Daphne became his boss and he was not okay with that. So he took matters into his own hands and asked for a paying job. The clinic's doctor found him one, but it's at a clinic that's basically across town. So what will become of Daphne and Campbell? Will they break up? Who really knows. 

Regina is still lying about her work situation and had a moment where she thought she was being followed! But, instead of tell Angelo, she went to Wes and asked him about teaching her how to use a gun. I just wish that Regina would tell Angelo what's really going on. I know she thinks she can handle it on her own but she is in serious danger. Also, Angelo won't be happy when he finds out she went to Wes for help and not him. I don't see anything good coming out of this situation is Regina isn't honest about it.

Bay's whole situation just keeps getting worse. She finally broke up with Tank and it just crushed him. It sucks because I actually liked Tank. He such a nice guy and now they won't even be friends because she cheated on him. To make matters worse, John thought that she took the morning after pill because of Tank and John went off on him! It wasn't too bad but Tank didn't deserve it. Good thing Bay told the truth. Maybe John will apologize? I just wonder what will happen if John ever sees Emmett. 

The biggest plot twist of the episode was with Emmett's catfishing situation. It turns out that Matthew has real feelings for Emmett! Like Matthew's gay and isn't out yet and the only people who know are Bay and Emmett!So if Emmett were to turn him in, he would have to tell everything! In the end, Emmett decided to put everything behind him and not turn him in. I just feel bad for Emmett. He went through so much and just has to let it all go. Matthew will never pay for what he did but I know he won't catfish anyone ever again!

Overall, this was a great episode. I am really loving Angelo as he learns ASL. Also, I can't believe I'm saying this but, I love how John treated Bay's whole situation. He seems to have mellowed out a bit. I guess that's what happens when you have a heart attack. It just feels so wierd that I actually like John now. Anyway, this episode was great and I actually feel like the promos are doing the episodes justice. Usually the episodes don't live up to the hype of the promos but that's not the case this time around. Speaking of promos, next week's look crazy. There's this whole thing with Daphne saying she's a Kenish and I wonder what that's about. Probably has something to do with college apps. Also, Kathryn goes snooping around on John and I hope the answers she gets are the ones she wants. Well, until next week!

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About Last Night (2014)

Synopsis
This is the story of two couples, how how they met, and how go through as a new couple.
The couples are Bernie (Kevin Hart) & Joan (Regina Hall) and Danny (Michael Ealy) & Debbie (Joy Bryant).

My Verdict
This was your typical romantic comedy that ended with the perfect John Legend song that brought out all of the feels. It was average. Nothing made it stand out to make it greater than other rom coms but it wasn't awful.
I only had two problems. First, It didn't laugh as much as I thought I would watching a Kevin Hart movie. There were funny moments where I laughed, but I think there were more stupid funny moments than just plain funny, laugh out loud moments and I don't like stupid funny. My other problem was I felt like the movie went on forever but it was only an hour and a half. I also wished that I watched the original first so I could compare, but oh well.
I'm giving this movie a 4.5/10. It served it's purpose as a rom com but it wasn't as entertaining as I hoped. Also, it was predictable but aren't all rom coms?
I don't want to talk about anything specific and I think you already know what will happen since it's a rom com, so no spoilers today.

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Switched at Birth - Love Among the Ruins

Switched at Birth is finally back!! I don't think I've anticipated a premiere of this show this much ever, especially after seeing the promo for the episode. So let's get into it.

I'm not going to waste anytime; let's talk about Bay and Emmett's situation. First off, Bay cheated on Tank! Oh how the tables have turned. I'm just upset Bay didn't come clean to Tank about it. I have a bad feeling things won't go over smoothly with them. All those times she got cheated on (or thought she got cheated on) and she turns around and cheats herself. That is just crazy and I can't imagine how she feels about it. Also, she and Emmett didn't use protection! Thankfully Bay took care of it by taking the morning after pill. I must say that I don't think I've ever seen that happen on a TV show so you can add that to the list of things this show has done that hasn't been done before. And now Bay's parents know someone Googled about the morning after pill! That situation isn't over yet. All of this craziness has me wondering if Bay and Emmett will ever really be together. I'm starting to think no because something disastrous always happens when they're together. It just never seems like it could work, but that could be even bigger reason to root for them. 
As for Emmett and Melody's situation I'm shocked. Whatever picture Matthew has must be bad if Emmett won't tell the truth about the catfishing. But if you think about it, if he did tell the truth and Matthew leaked the picture, that would help Emmett's case even more. As for Melody, good for her. Emmett is her son and clearly she will do anything to protect him. As for Matthew, he needs to get a life and leave Emmett alone. Period. I hope she gets caught, too. 

Daphne and Regina are still dealing with the vandalism that happened at Regina's shop. Daphne is determined to find out who was behind the whole thing and I don't blame her but she's putting herself into dangerous situations. Even though Bay went with her, going to see that Nacho guy was a bad idea. If he was a gang member he could have really hurt them and I have a feeling this isn't the last we'll see of him. Daphne held her cool this time though. I know Nacho won't be calling Regina a whore again, especially in the presence of Daphne because she will go off! My favorite part about the whole thing were the conversations Daphne and Angelo had in the episode. They have been on such shaky term this entire series and it looks like things are looking up. I'm also glad to see that Angelo and Regina are living together again. It just sucks that all this crap had to happen on Regina's birthday, but that was a great way to end it. 

I must go on a happy rant about this show for a minute. I know I said it before but this show tackles so many issues that aren't tackled on any other show I've seen or in any way I've seen on another show. I mean, on what other show do find such exposure to Deaf Culture? Or one that tackles teen issues the way this show does? I think it's more real than I've ever seen and they're not trying to be funny or make a joke out of it. These are serious issues and they're taken very seriously on this show. And I've never seen a show tackle gentrification before with both sides able to plead their case. I just love it. It just proves this show is so much more that just another teen drama. 

Overall, I loved the episode. So much happened and it doesn't look like they are slowing down either. The promo for next week left me shocked I can't imagine what state I'll be in after the episode! I can tell this is going to be a great 2nd half to the season. It's great to be back reviewing this show. Until next week. 

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Skyfall (2012)

Synopsis
MI6 is under attack and M (Judi Dench) is in danger. The only person she trusts to handle the situation is Bond (Daniel Craig). Now Bond must do whatever it takes to stop this threat.

My Verdict
So this was my first Bond movie and after watching, I don't think I am a Bond movie person. I just didn't like it. I like action movies but I didn't like this one. There wasn't enough twists for me. There was one shocking part that I'll talk about in the Spoiler section, but that was it! Also, it dragged on to me and was boring. It took too long for them to get to the point of the film. I just sat there for most the film hoping that the ending would come and then something else would happen to delay it. Honestly, the only reason why I kept watching was because I wanted to see what the ending would be, and I wasn't pleased with it either.
Lastly, some of the fights looked choreographed, and I know they are but I'm not supposed to be able to tell. I'm giving this movie a 4/10 and that 4 is from the ONE twist and all the shooting and explosions.
If you've seen this movie please tell me if you felt the same or different.

Spoilers
First, let's talk about the beginning when Bond died but wasn't really dead. That through me for a loop and I was shocked at that and that was it. Nothing else really shocked me after that except for the end.
The whole point of this movie was to find out who was leaking information and to keep M from dying. But, in the end she still died! So, to me, that makes the whole movie purposeless! All of the killing and blowing up things and running they did didn't matter because in the end the one person that was supposed to stay alive died! That made me so angry. I think I would have felt differently about the ending if the rest of the movie was interesting, but sadly it wasn't.

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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Synopsis
The Sentinels and the mutants are fighting in a terrible war. The  Sentinels are out to destroy all the mutants and any humans that help them. To try and prevent this horrible future from happening, Wolverine is sent back in time to stop the one event that caused it.

My Verdict
I thought this movie was good but I didn't think that it was the best thing ever. I know I'm in the minority here, but I wasn't left thinking "oh my gosh that was amazing!" I was really left in a lackluster mood after watching this. I thought it was predictable and I'm going to talk more about that in the spoilers section so I don't ruin anything for those that haven't seen it.
I will say that the graphics/CGI was great! My problem was just with the storyline. For that, I'm giving this movie a 6/10. This is really disappointing because I like the X-Men. Maybe I should start reading the comics. I think I'll do better with them.

Spoilers
Here was my problem with the plot. We knew they had to stop Raven and that they would stop her or the X-Men would be over and the whole movie would be purposeless. So the ending really wasn't a shock to me at all. It would have been more shocking if they couldn't change the past and the X-Men were gone for good. I know that would be really upsetting because there would be no more X-Men movies, but after seeing this, I would be too upset about that.
I wasn't really interested in this storyline. I was more interested in what happened after they stopped Raven than what happened before. And, I would have loved to know why Dr. Trask wanted to destroy the mutants. It was like he hated them but when asked why he did, he said he didn't. That's confusing to me. If you don't hate mutants why do you want them extinct? Can we explore that a little bit?
I'm going to end on a more positive note. My favorite part was when they found Peter and broke Erik out of the Pentagon.
What did you guys think about this movie? Please tell me I'm not the only one who felt this way.

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Oblivion (2013)

Synopsis
It's the year 2077 and Earth has suffered an alien attack that started a war, and the only way the humans could win was to use nuclear bombs. Now the humans are getting ready to leave Earth for good. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a tech that fixes the drones that protect the remaining humans from the Scavs, the alien race still roaming the Earth. Jack lives with his partner/lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). All seems to be going well but Jack is having visions of a woman and doesn't know why. On top of that, a mysterious ship crashes and when Jack goes to check it out he realizes there are human survivors. He's only able to save one who just so happens to look like the woman in his visions. This starts a sequence of events that make Jack question what really happened when the aliens attacked.

My Verdict
It's going to be hard to talk about without spoilers but I'll try. For those who've seen it or don't mind spoilers, we'll talk more below.
I'm giving 7/10 and here's why. I loved the tech, and there are so many twists and turns that it will screw your mind. I mean, I counted and there were about 5 and I saw none of them coming. Everything was fine until the very end. I didn't really like it. Plus, it was a little confusing. I think this is one of those movies that you have to watch twice or read a full movie synopsis to completely understand it.
The movie was good and much better than what I expected. I just wished it didn't end the way it did. I think the twists saved it.

Spoilers
Okay let's talk about these twists. First, the aliens aren't really aliens. Which brings us to the second twist, Jack is actually working for the aliens. The movie would've been fine with just these twist but they didn't stop there.
Twist number three was that Jack was a clone. In fact he and Victoria were both clones! This was a little confusing for me. I thought that he was seeing things at first because he went to the area of radiation, but he wasn't.
Let's talk about the ending twist. I was really pissed when it seemed like Julia would be the one to sacrifice herself and I wasn't any happier when it was really Morgan Freeman's character! I didn't want him to die! And the very end when Jack's other clone came and knew who Julia was and had visions of her too. What was with that and how was that? How do these clones share memories? I watch Orphan Black and all the clones are different and I think that's more realistic than this. I also want to know who the originals were? I just didn't like that part. There were too many unanswered questions. If it just ended with Julia and the other humans reuniting I would've been happy.
What did you guys think of it?

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