Watch Me: Seventh Son, and the awesome queen performance

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I've been intrigued by the story and movie entitled Seventh Son, directed by Sergei Bodrov, back in 2014. Where I first knew about the movie through an interview with Julianne Moore and that it's not her normal role to portray, which was a villain. Something that made me fascinated on how she would do was quite worth it.

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Medieval times rang with the stench of high belief in magic and fantasy, where the good and evil had no fine line since they had physical manifestation, especially the evil. Welcome the realm of Seventh Son where being a hunter of evil, a warrior of light, is a real and practically the most dangerous job of all time.

The film focuses on the folklore of "the seventh son of a seventh son", where the seventh son holds a prowess strong enough to be comparable to witches, trolls, and other supernatural monsters of their time. John Gregory, the last Spook, is on a quest to rid the world of the revived witch queen Mother Malkin. His quest brought him to the life of Tom Ward, a teenage herds boy, who has the ability to see visions, the seventh son of the seventh son, and an eager soul to get out of his country life yearning for an adventurous one.

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Yep, my purpose to see Julianne Moore to portray the villain, Mother Malkin, was worth every penny (forgive my irony for this statement).

Folklore's and medieval themed fantasy movies are always a good taste for my fiction loving tongue. Complete with dragons, mystical shape shifter's, and the sprinkle of simple olden times life, always stirs a nice soup of imagination for my brain.

The choice for the casting feels like not my cup of tea though, especially the lead roles for Gregory and Tom, although they grow into you as the story goes by. Even the young witch lover for Tom, Alice, was quite a pick. Maybe the re-write of the story, from the original books under author Joseph Delaney, might have to do with the unusual personalities the actors portrayed. Or maybe I'm just looking for a good justification of some of the blandness I find during the course of their dialogues, acting and story.

Either way, it doesn't pull down the good parts of the film, from it's unusual dry humour in between everything and the fierce Julianne Moore witch queen. Yes, this is a blatant fan girl to her portrayal, even the moments that she would show her human side due to the hurt she had experienced (I couldn't guess well if it was the same with the book, since I have a hunch it became that to a certain point for ex-machina reasons in re-writing the story from the book) was superbly fitting to the character she wants to shape the queen into.

The rushed parts and elements of the story was melded well, in comparison to some book to movie ones I've watched, where you could clearly say that there was a missing chunk of progress lacking for the characters growth to come a full circle. The only thing I could say that was forced was the romance for Tom and Alice's part, as they used the density (destiny) excuse for the ultimate reason of their attraction but covered it's traces by a moment where Alice explains it as if it was scientific. Copper metal in friction contact with another but sparks happened due to dust.

Wish that excuse worked in real life. It does but not on the scale where two people has this obvious tension between them.

Last words, this movie was a good roller coaster ride. Maybe reading the books would shed better light with things, and I hope no review somewhere out there from a fan of the book felt completely blasphemed and disappointed for all the missing bits they enjoyed from the book.

P.S. Kit Harrington died early in this film, I didn't know it was him until I realized in his dying moments.

Watch Me: sort of The Last Dragonslayer

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Sure I'm guilty for watching a movie by it's title and the poster, which is common, but that's how I got to watch The Last Dragonslayer that was produced by Blueprint Pictures shown in Sky One on the Christmas of 2016. A story based from a book authored by Jasper Fforde.

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Don't you feel eager to learn about a medieval themed world infested with modern day thinking and innovations, such as the concept of marketing and the budding age of electricity and automation under the noses of magic. Here lies the fascinating mix up of the Last Dragonslayer as it starts with an orphan girl named Jennifer, last name Strange, as she was "fairly" adopted by Mr. Zambini. A man who managed an agency that contracts magicians to do almost all the oddest jobs they are capable of.

After growing up under her foster fathers care, one day he vanishes and a series of events brings forth Jennifers fate into the unassuming role of the Last Dragonslayer.

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Again, I've encountered an imagination fuel for the mind of a lover of fantasy.

The Last Dragonslayer is a nice mix and mash of a universe in the brink of being unable to surpass mechanical and engineering like science because of the existence of magic. Compelling characters that so far is lovable in terms of their authenticity and rawness in regards to it's human emotions and desires. Plus the complexities of their universe, laws, and the blatant play of modern concept of advertising marketing and sales in the play of medieval set.

There's a charm to Elise Chappells portrayal of Jennifer with no over exaggeration and simple acts and emotions, there might be no grounds for me to judge the way she portrayed the character since I have never read the books myself. Still, the actress still captured a genuine that levels everything else in the story. Jennifer, the heroine, simply makes you want to be her friend with her smartness, fair compassion, her love and gratitude to her father, plus her eagerness to just be a simple girl who wants to work with her foster father.

Comparing Jennifer to the absurd side characters; might be a recurring formula for some fiction stories to have side characters that simply balances out the main leads almost simple character, that walked around her somehow made her seem desirable. Something I easily fall for most often, not that I put my self into the leads shoes, but I myself feel compelled to give her a nice peppy attention that the other characters seem to give her. Although, mine started at an earlier point in the story.

The story though was your typical hero thrown into the throngs of destiny due to untold historical circumstances that have lead to the demise of the kingdom. You have your typical mysterious events from a long time ago, that the hero had to unfold due to a lot of unanswerable questions that would lead to the current situations solution. Typical ex-machina situations, cause why not magic and fiction. Plus character tropes with typical scenario endings, like the hidden twist where the assistant who was the best one the hero could find is actually one of the enemies, the judas iscariot.

That however was not stopping anyone from connecting with Jennifer who along the ride was pouring her best, that typical underdog feeling. Selling it like so shouldn't be something wrong about this story, even though it's been a proven seller to viewers, at least the underdog tale didn't sell the plot and scenarios, and it's plot twist, short.

Being enamored by dragons and the mythical world of magical crossing steampunk genre isn't such a bad thing. Somehow, you won't be tired of it because the dialogues and characters are well thought out and worth the giggle. By the end of the movie you'd have gained that warm fuzzy feeling and joy that simply puts you in a sense that somehow you'd want more.

Imagine hearing a recounted tale like Jennifers from a friend over a nice warm beer in the cold winter. How about that?

Over-all, this movie is a good kid friendly story that as I said fuels the imagination enough to inspire someone to simply walk out the cinema doors and create something, or even go into a nice adventure.

Watch Me: teenie boppering The 5th Wave

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Out of curiosity, and being a weirdly loyal fan of Chloe Moretz, I tried watching one of her latest sci-fi themed movie entitled The 5th Wave directed by J.Blakeson from the same titled book written by Rick Yancey.

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Life was pretty much normal for Cassie Sullivans world, until a mysterious large hovering space craft the size of a continent became the dead ringer start of events unfolding into an apocalyptic battle between man and the alien race named as the Others.

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Believe me when I say this movie may have, like all the other nice movies out there, a good and curious universe that can very well establish a footing fit for a nice theatrical prowess, it is not unavoidably subject under a mainstream over used theme. Such as this very element of aliens being able to infest inside a human like a parasite, rendering their host under their very control, a.k.a. that Stephanie Meyer book the Host with the almost same type of alien.

This however is not the selling point of this movie, but the depicted experiences of Cassie and their eventual events into a future unknown under the invasion of the Others. Which to my opinion is pretty well composed, in terms of the flow of events fairly edited from the book into a feature film.

Might as very well clarify that it was very evident that the movie is a stepping stone opening for a long ass story, it's open ended conclusion after they saved Cassies sibling simply says "I'm supposed to have a continuation".

I've barely any knowledge of the book and how it's characters, events, and style of writing is unfurled. Basing from the movie, there are heavily built ex-machina scenarios edited from the original, and possibly characters intentionally omitted. Though, I am not a very critical person, and that to I simply enjoyed the flow. Disregarding the obvious romance tension happening between select characters, the action and adventure elements seems a good 8 out of 10 grade.

Simply put, this might be a B grade movie even to it's reader fan base. But I wouldn't mind seeing the sequel happen even if the movie itself isn't compelling, just out of curiosity on what will be happening next into the lives of the characters.

Over-all it might be better to just follow the books, own them and read to your hearts content; and treat the movie like a large fan base advertisement for it.

Bound in Blood-Issue 1 is out now!!!

This is a follow up on one of my projects I've worked on, in collaboration with an author, at the start of this year (2016) and I'm proud to say that it has been released and published online in Comixology (link here).

There isn't enough words for me to express my excitement since it's already been a month now since it was published.

Issue 1 is a slow pace, but it's action packed enough with awesome morbid mystery. Even the Chicago set that I wish I've seen in real life while I researched for references had me pumped.

Doing this project has set my heart to my true goal, especially now that I'm involved again with a new project that I'm currently working on. Details about it will be posted soon on this blog, as active as I can possibly do with my time. The set is fantasy with at least a steam-punk mix with medieval knights and the likes.

The story is as interesting and intense as "Bound in Blood", something I've enjoyed doing since I could remember illustrating my first heavily detailed and gorish art.

If you want to see some of my old works, browsing through my gallery SilentNitingale in DeviantArt would be a good enough. Nowadays I just post them through my Instagram account (if you wanna add me go ahead!).

Starting with this tiny step at this part of my life, I hope that more projects come my way so I could continue illustrating awesome stories. And even start my own.

movie list: Minions (animation 2015)

Yesterday (to clarify, July 21 21015) my mother wanted to spend her morning with a free movie in our local cinemas. Here in the Philippines, there are thousands (not really, but it sounds like it) of political rackets for every area and their method of treatment for the Senior Citizens. One of which is to give one or two days of free movies for them to view. Whatever movie in the cinemas the old 'uns want they're free for the whole day, just as long as they present their movie pass.

Well to cut the morning story short, I ended up treating my mother and we both watched Minions. Those yellow gibberish talking walking pills.

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As everyone knows, or maybe some of, the Minions originated from the movie Despicable Me (starring Steve Carell as Gru, yes I need to state this, BECAUSE!). These seemingly "cute" pill shaped creatures are the "evil" minions of the "evil-villain" named Gru, and according to the story has been with him since he can remember (or maybe I missed the part where he explained how he got to have them?). On a side note, the movie DM is a commercial success majority of the reason is because of the Minions, is what I'm assuming, according to what I can sniff around marketing and media exploits.

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I did not know this happened. Where was I when this happened!!
He looks like Penguin from the Batman series...

Its quite a nice move to make a movie that explains the origins of the Minions, although I'm fairly satisfied just assuming that they were accidents made by Gru's scientist assistant. Discovering though that they were undoubtably natural causes (spoiler) from our own world (or their world) kind of makes you think how come they never really got to evolve. They were born the same way as anyone, through scientific explanations of course, and eventually watched the world evolve while they abruptly stopped evolving (physically that is, mentally a wee bit).

They were explained as creatures that sought the evilest being and make this evil being their "boss". The "boss" that they dreamed of following, (spoiler) which was actually shown from their conception through the eras I could not possibly know which (I'm not well versed with my sciences and histories). I could say they are affectionate towards the stronger, the one who can in any manner conquer by any means possible for psychological reasons maybe.

So goes the flow of the story till the moment they met Gru, (spoiler) kid Gru making a cameo by the end of the movie. Big things happened in the events before they met Gru, but I could tell that the simpleton plot of the movie would actually attract kids. Kids aged 8 below, or possibly lesser than 5. The story is so simple, the execution and scenarios completely random that you might say you paid to watch a Tom and Jerry show for 1 hour and a few minutes (not that Tom and Jerry doesn't deserve to have their movies be shown in cinemas and paid the same amount).

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Just, as a simple person (ah yeah, simple, ah...hahaha), of course I was quite amused by all their antics and gibberish. Before I did watch the movie I've heard that the movie had negative reviews, guessing it would. The story seems so random and everywhere. Villain with a shallow purpose, and for some reason it felt like the Minions became icons of heroes even though its much better to just retain their "dumb" like stand as a character.

To a child's point of view its a good satisfying movie, simply amusing and childishly entertaining. But as an adult who seems to have acquired a critic self, my simple self says its amusing and considerable, critic however says its not worth to watch if your aim is to see the retention of the Minions character from the DM franchise.

manga list: Black Joke (seinen)

These days I opted myself to browse some manga's, which I often do and have been doing since my early college days. Spending those precious break time in the library to use the internet even for an hour or so just to read mangas online. I am not a very good supporter much of translation groups because honestly I don't have the guts how, see how unwilling I am to help them complete scanlations. In any case, however, I am truly grateful to them, so to the scanlators of Black Joke kudos to you.

Some days I try to see if I can find a good Seinen manga read, since I've loved those types of mangas. I also like the idea of browsing about ongoing or finished mangas in this genre for personal interests. So far it got me good, I stumbled upon one titled Black Joke by author Koike Rintarou and artist Taguchi Masayuki.

link here to read the manga: BLACK JOKE

The genre is a mix of Seinen, Comedy, Mature (completely mature but still sellable as something to the market that doesn't border itself to porn, I think, because Hentai shows every nook and cranny of a males phallus and a females oyster, here its just all...blurred out...okay so maybe its borderline Hentai in many levels), Action, and Martial Arts (yes those were the tags included in the site I read the manga from). Its about a future where the U.S.A. wasn't content to just leave the world to its peace and prompted to legally own countries that are sellable and profitable on so many levels, so they made Japan their 51st state. Yep, I'm guessing this was an action of sorts prior to the end of World War 2 and instead of Japan never giving up against America, they surrendered and succumbed to their poor striving state. OR they just got bought by one of the most misunderstood, well portrayed douche, hero of the world, country called America.

The whole setting is portrayed in an island not far from the mainlands of Japan named Neon Island (or Nihon, sometimes the groups who scanlates have different versions of how they tranlaste things). This island is an irreconcilable nest for sins, or just simply stating the Sin City of Japan. Here anything can happen, and honestly feels like any kind of good thing doesn't exist here, like churches or good kept households and stuff. Just plain old vent your sin out toilet pig sty, which so happens to not look like a sty but a highly engrossed rich city better than Vegas, baby (sorry it rhymes, can't help but add it in the end).

Prostitution is hell legal, on some respectable level. Gambling and black market trading is one of the main sources of income. The usual stuff you see in Mafia movies and the likes, only highly perverted in so many cases and scenarios. Plus all the guns and some crazy martial arts action you can find.

The flow of the story goes along the lives of a group of people that works for a Hotel owner magnate named Kousuke Todome who is the director of the Onsen Hotel, and some other mentionable characters that are either related to the main characters from the Onsen Hotel or the head triads working in the folds of the island. The whole volume is the exploits and missions they do for the sake of their jobs.

These two are the ones you often chase around, hey they get into the best troubles and jobs.
Talk about having trouble around, good thing they're the perfect combination of brawn's and brains.

Alot of considerable mayhem and upfront high in the sky lives living in he luxury of the churches so called Sins.

What I liked about the flow is my preference for just the most absurd action scenes in a Manga, comparable to the art style of Baki (and some other Seinen titles I've honeslty forgotten), the action scenes are honest and stylistic. All of which as an artist like me is a good reference. The muscle contortion, acrobatics, and even the impossible historical facts of the how or why of their techniques is just catchy for me.

Plus the gritty but trying to be suave perverted parts of the story is fine, its not over the top like the mushy fan service I often see but the type that is too open for the conservative mind. However, I can just say maybe its for a wee bit of adult fan service, eh? Well, it is an open world of sex and drugs, so what can you do about it but be obviously every where.

This manga is a good wait. Majority of the faces are obviously referenced from certain actors and actress which is catchy for me since I can imagine them in the role they are in the manga. Also there are several entertaining and engaging characters, often times exceeding their pre-scripted personalities which is quite a good balance. Down side I guess would be the history of how the place came to be. Its not well explained how or why on a level of historical basis, but thats just my preference.

she actually looks just like Kate Beckinsale!

Also its a generic Action Mafia Comedy themed manga, its got good classy scenes and absurd gritty ones. I'm not saying its lamely bad but its not overly exceptional, however I am basically praising this in art and somewhat in the composition of the characters and some scenarios.

If I were you, its best if you try reading it to enjoy some Action fun.