SUNDAY SERIES PART 2. ALTERED CARBON SEASON 2

Hello screen addicts, after what seemed like forever Altered Carbon returns for a second season this time with Avengers alumni Anthony Mackie as there war-weary hero Takeshi Kovacs. This time he finds himself well adjusted into the society. With his trusty ai Po close by, Takashi and Po have clearly bonded a lot off-screen as they've become best friends and compatriots. Travelling the universe for 30 years searching for Takeshi's true love Quellcrist Falconer the enigmatic leader of the resistance.

Things take a different turn when Takashi is hired by another billionaire but this time for protection with the promise of payment and the location of Quellcrist. Drawn by this offer Takeshi accepts the job only to be framed fire the death of his new employer.

The series brings forth new twists and builds on an already rich futuristic world while also explaining the questions that were left unanswered in the first season.

The theme of love and friendship is one that is well executed in this amazing series. The chemistry between Renee Elise Goldsberry's Quellcrist and Anthony Mackie helps bring about the best love stories on screen. Also, the brotherly bond between Takeshi and Po will warm even the hardest of hearts.

Altered Carbon is a series made in a time when writers are lazy and, producers are churning out remakes and reboots faster than a neighbourhood shawarma joint.  We finally get a show filled with heart and nuance.

Altered Carbon Season 2

9/10.
There's not even a single fault in this show, it's amazing in every way and will leave you with a head full of wonder and possibilities.

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Sunday Series : Altered Carbon

Happy Sunday screen addicts, if you're here then that means you love movies a little more than the average man and you need direction on where to sink your teeth in for your next entertainment fix, welcome. Today we'll be looking at the TV series Altered Carbon.

Created by Laeta Kalogridis Altered Carbon is based on a series of books by Richard K. Morgan ( books are the same title as the series).

More than 300 years in the future, society has been transformed by new technology, leading to human bodies being interchangeable and death no longer being permanent. Takeshi Kovacs ( Joel Kinnaman) is the only surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors who were defeated in an uprising against the new world order. His mind was imprisoned for centuries until impossibly wealthy businessman Laurens Bancroft offers him the chance to live again. Kovacs will have to do something for Bancroft, though, if he wants to be resurrected. Bancroft's request of Kovacs is to solve a murder (Bancroft's).

A slow burner from episode 1 to 4, the series does a tedious job of creating a colourful cyberpunk universe equipped with rules and colourful characters. Its a dark story about man who's constantly questioning his own mortality as he finds new reasons to live, in a world where death is pedestrian.

The performance from the cast is excellent, the plot is tightly woven amid colorful and jaw-dropping action set pieces.


8/10
The best sci-fi TV series ever made.

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BLACK PANTHER REVIEW

Super heroes in Hollywood has been going on for over 60 years, but a black superhero had always been something of an exotic idea. From Spawn, to Blade, Luke Cage and Black Lightning. The black super heroes race has been great but mostly lackluster. Now enter Black Panther.


Black Panther is the result of an idea, the answer to a question "What if there was a country that was never conquered by the white man". The answer is the mythology created by writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Which spawned a series of comic books. Now on to the movie.

The movie is based on a simple plot, prodigal son Kilmonger (Michael B Jordan) coming home to stage a coup d'etat for the throne of Wakanda the fictional country where this story unfolds. The movie is riddled with African culture and references to different countries in Africa, such makes Black Panther feel more African than Hollywood.


There were strong performances from the entire cast, Chadwick Bossman who plays T'challa the young King of Wakanda, Angela Basset (Ramona) T'challa's mother, but the main comic relief came from Letita Wright (Shuri ) who played T'challa's sister and quarter master. The performances where top notch, bringing authenticity to the story, but one person fell short of praise though and that's Michael B Jordan (Kilmonger) who's performance felt forced and completely out of sync.


Kilmonger had a legitimate reason to be a villain (can't go into details since it's a spoiler free review). But still his portrayal of the character fell flat on it's face as he spent more time growling and sneering at the camera than selling us his motives. Though he is presented as a very deadly opponent, we hardly felt worried about the safety of the good guys whenever he was on screen. In fact Andy Serkis (Ulysses Klaue ) a supporting villain prove to be more of a problem and entertaining villain than wannabe hip-hop Kilmonger who made more noise than a pubescent teenager. 

Now taking nothing away from the movie Black Panther is a release from every other superhero movie ever seen. It's graciously separates itself from the entire marvel universe by giving us something of an epic in the likes of star wars and lord of the rings. Director ryan coogler managed to capture the true essence of a young man ascending to power to rule over a country he loves. There is something of a hero's journey in which T'challa goes through which changes him and also opens his eyes to the question what is power if it cannot be used for good.


A country with the technological advancements to improve the life and lives of everyone on earth but it is kept secret for fear of the lifestyle of Wakanda's bring corrupted by Western Civilization. Black Panther is a movie filled with action culture and drama sometimes its actually feels like you're watching a shakespeare movie but in Africa. This is one movie I would recommend to anyone who is new to superhero movies or who just wants to see something different from what's already out there.


I would be publishing another article on the black panther movie to really give you an in-depth view into the core story of the concept of the Black Panther.


8.5/10


YAY!!!


- Awesome performances

- watch out for Shit

- Okoye is awesome

- Great fight sequences

- Finale was great

- Rich in culture and tradition of Africans though mostly fictional.


NAY!!!


- Michael B Jordan sucked

- The love story was amiss 

- We wanted more Ulysses Klaus

- We wanted more Forest Whitaker

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HEADSHOT REVIEW

Headshot, the title sounds about right, but the tone is far more brutal. Indonesian martial arts Superstar Iko Uwais stars as Ishmael/Abdi. A hit man who gets his head shot for trying to leave his crime family, however he survives and is nursed back to health by Ailin a beautiful doctor. Upon waking up he loses all memory of his life prior getting shot, and takes the name Ishmael. But just as life begins to look great for Ishmael his past, his evil step father Lee, begins to hunt him anew. 


Headshot is not for the faint of heart, it is one of the most brutal martial arts expositions ever shown on TV, I dare say it's almost scary most times, example is a tumb in the throat, very graphic in full detail, and also the most brutal use of an ak47 I've ever seen. 


The story though not new, is told in a fresh new way. Where his memories don't actually move the plot but rather the actions in the present make up the entire plot. It's a story about romance and family, though the family consists of evil siblings, it's a sort of good prodigal son approach. Not much in the way of twists and cliffhangers, all that is in the fights. Fights that contain twists and cliffhangers is what makes Headshot an epic action movie, the best of 2017/2018.


Headshot was directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel aka the Mo Brothers. Oddly they have never directed an action movie before. The script was written by Timo in two and half weeks and Iko Uwais led the fight choreography for the movie for another 3 weeks given each fighter his own unique fighting style according to the background story of the character. So expect to see an exhibition of Silat, wushu, Murray Thai and straight up brawling.


5 Reasons To See This Movie


1) Iko Uwais: excellent martial artist and choreographer, what he lacks in flashyness he makes up for in brutality.


2) Story: very fresh take on the memory loss plot line. Plus it's also like a prodigal son story.


3) Fight Choreography: this movie has fight scenes that will keep at the edge of your seat, and will make your girl scream like she saw a horror screen from The Conjouring (a horror movie)


4) Great Characters: the bad guys are excellent, you will have genuine worry and fear for the well being of the hero. A diverse selection of evil, cruel martail artists.


5) It's Not Hollywood: Hollywood makes incredible movies but it's really watered down in one way or the other or studio politics comes into play and makes a barely applaudable movie that even the director would disown, claiming that his vision was altered in the editing room. See the mess that was Fantastic Four, Sucide Squad, Justice League, that's an extreme example though. But the Asian cinema is pure and true is doing action movies better than anyone right now. A great example of the best of Asian action cinema is Headshot.


8/10


I wish the love story was better though.

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MOVIE OF THE WEEK: AMERICAN ASSASSIN

I love this poster, it's currently my mobile wallpaper.

Hello Screen Addicts, after months long hiatus your favorite movie blog is back in full swing. Thank you for your patience.

Now with Hollywood throwing movies at us left, right and center, not every release is worth seeing or even giving the time of day. But this week I have seen a lot of amazing movies, but one I gleefully award movie of the week is American Assassin.

Based on Vince Flynn's novel with the same name the film follows a young CIA recruit Mitch Rapp helping a cold war veteran try to stop the launching of a nuclear weapon in the middle East. But there's more to it, the major driving force behind Mitch's conviction is revenge. Apparently the said terrorist had a hand in the death of Mitch's girlfriend.

Dylan O'Brien (Teen Wolf, Maze Runner) proves me right that his real strong suit isn't comedy, but action, and boy does he deliver. Expect Jason Bourne style fights with more grit, and a grander climax.

Micheal Keaton (Spiderman homecoming, Birdman) plays Stan Hurley, a veteran and trainer of CIA agents. Another great performer in this film.

As always it's very difficult doing a spoiler free review, so without saying much, I recommend this movie to all action fans out there who would like a break from superhero movies and just want to watch bullets and fists fly. There's nothing like a threat of a nuclear bomb in a movie to keep action addicts grinning for more.

7/10 (Great action, great performances, this movie won't change your life, but it'll entertain the action freak in you)

Movie Trailer:

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WOLVES OF WAR

It's captioned "final fight", but honestly there was no fight. Disappointing.

Teen Wolf finally comes to an inconclusive end, after months of dragging out the climax to the point of the lack of story and inspiration becoming obvious.

Taking nothing away from Teen Wolf, previous seasons have been incredible, with far better villains and story telling techniques that made us almost certain that Scott McCall was in real danger.  Season 3 had the Nogitsune who was pure evil, a twisted version of a character from Japanese folklore. A monster trying to take over styles mind and body, that was sinister. Then there was my personal favorite the Dredd Doctors that where turning humans with a specific DNA into hybrid monsters.

Even Styles return was unnecessary and didn't do anything to improve the show. Even the comedy was bad.

Now enter season 6 which just shows the clumsiness of the show runners.  Zero romance, Teen Wolf has always been a love story and what sold it for us was the Allison love story. It was a typical Romeo and Juliet story which always works. Her family the Argents hunt werewolves, and Scott is a werewolf.  And now For whatever reason Allison Argent was killed off after breaking up with Scott McCall. Then enter Kira Yukimura in season 3 Scott's new love interest who had abilities of her own which were awesome (she's a fox and uses a sword). That worked through season 3 to 5, but everything fell when Kira was clearly written off the show ( she went on a mystical journey to master her powers and never came back).

And again Scott finds a new girl, who becomes his anchor without any visible romance or connection apart from a free teen sex scenes which looked more like fan service than anything else. A total fail.

The new villain even had trouble manifesting itself and when it does it's boring and unchallenging. The premise of fear and fighting the hunters would have served the series better.

That being said, the conclusion was loaded with guest appearances of previous stars of the show and as well as villains, which only made for a dull nostalgia act.

I'm really disappointed because this was one of my top ten tv shows.

Teen Wolf Series Finale: 5/10 (Poor fight choreography, poor character arcs, failed nostalgia acts, no chemistry between Scott and Malia)

Season 6 trailer:

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 AWESOME MOVIE

Writer / Director James Gunn once again sat in the Directors chair much in our favor and yet again by trapping lightening in a bottle twice with Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol2.

All the usual suspects from Peter Quill to Zoe Salander's Gamora and Rocket Raccoon and Drax are present even cute adorable baby groot (believe it or not Vin Diesel voiced baby groot...again ).

The story's premise this time is about family as Peter Quill finally gets to meet his mysterious father who turns out to be a celestial god (small G)  called Ego The Living Planet,  played by Kurt Russell.




Ego is a god but as his name implies is an egomanic but also a man seeking to reunite with his son. For the first time in Cinema we get to see Peter Quill's true heritage. The theme of family here is strong and can be seen in the teams relationship with one another and their ability to draw strength from that to achieve anything.

Though this movie was infact fast paced in it's own right and left me wondering who and why the villain is who he is (no spoilers), and before we know it the drama was over and paved way an explosive epic space style battle to save the universe.




With plenty of slap sick humor, this Guardians ​Of The Galaxy movie had the largest cast of heroes and cameo appearances in the entire marvel cinematic universe, including Stan Lee in space.

Whether or not this is your first time seeing a Guardians of the Galaxy movie or not, this movie will not disappoint, it's a fun thrill ride from start to finish with a lot of heart.




RATING

9.2 /10

- Great story
- Great performances
- Ego the living planet
- Guest appearance from Sylvester Stallone


 


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