Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Not A Better Sequel But Still Entertaining As Hell

Finally the wait is over. One of my most anticipated summer blockbuster movie has premiered in Indonesia since yesterday. It was very very exciting to be able to see this on its first day together with few other selected countries. The movie got so much hype that it even had the advance ticket sale promotion, so my wife and I managed to buy our tickets for the 6PM show since last Saturday. Well let us not dilly dally anymore and get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Set about 3 years after the events in Jurassic World, the volcano in island of Isla Nublar was going to erupt endangering all the dinosaurs who were still located on the island. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard - Pete's Dragon, The Help etc) who felt attached with the dinosaurs tried to keep them from extinction, with the help from some people who shared the same views, such as Franklin the IT expert (Justice Smith - Paper Towns, The Get Down TV series etc) and a doctor Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda - The Detour TV series).

Solo: A Star Wars Story - A Wonderful Story of the Young Han Solo

When it was announced that there would be a movie featuring the young Han Solo in the Star Wars universe, I thought it would be interesting. So once the movie premiered yesterday in Indonesia, my wife and I were some of the early movie goers who had the advantage of seeing it on its first day. It was rather challenging to choose the best show time since mostly was around 6PM, which was our usual dinner time. Anyway, we decided to see the movie at 6.15PM in my favorite Dolby Atmos theater in Epicentrum. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Story was set when a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich - Hail, Caesar!, Beautiful Creatures etc) left his childhood city in Correlia. His dream was to be the best pilot, gained enough money to buy a ship and have adventures with the love of his life Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke - Me Before You, Game of Thrones TV series etc). During his early adventures, Han became a member of a criminal gang led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Messenger etc) with his team of Val (Thandie Newton - Westworld TV Series, Mission: Impossible 2 etc) and an alien named Rio (voiced by Jon Favreau - Identity Theft, and as Happy in MCU).

Avengers: Infinity War - The Best Avengers Movie Yet

Finally, the 10 years wait was over and we could finally see the war to get those infinity stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We in Indonesia were quite fortunate to be 1 of the few countries given early premiere of this major blockbuster movie. When it was announced that the movie tickets were pre-sold last week, so many people were anxious to get the tickets for the first day show. So it was rather frustrating when the online ticket sale for the biggest cinema chain was not updated until 10 AM that morning while the others had already been sold 3 hours earlier. Nevertheless, my wife and I were able to buy 2 tickets at a big cinema near our home. Unlike my usual brief story line/synopsis, this time, I do not want to reveal too much of it, so I am just going to copy paste the summary from this film's IMDB post.

Brief Synopsis

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment - the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain. Written by Marvel Studios

End of Brief Synopsis 

Ready Player One - A Fantastic Movie of Virtual Reality World by Steven Spielberg

This was a movie that had been playing since 28 March in Indonesia. However, as I went for long holiday starting from that day, I did not get the chance to see it since it premiered. I did however manage to see this yesterday with my wife. We were a bit undecided at first where to watch it, since it did not play in my favorite theater with Dolby Atmos system, but then I remembered it was a Sunday and I had a bank card that give me promotion every Sunday. So off we went to Plaza Indonesia and saw this one at the studio with exactly the sound system I wanted. OK, enough of those now and let us get started with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the year 2045, where the condition of the cities were very densely populated and people felt that the virtual reality world (referred to as OASIS) was more enjoyable than the real world. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan - X-Men: Apocalypse, The Stanford Prison Experiment etc) was a teenager who just like any other people, also went to OASIS most of the time. He used the avatar name of Parzival and considered himself as a Gunter (Egg Hunter due to his mission to find Easter Egg in the game). In OASIS, Parzival was best friend with Aech (Lena Waithe - Master of None TV series etc). During one of the race, Parzival met with another famous mysterious Gunter named Art3mis (Olivia Cooke - Ouija, Bates Motel TV series etc) who later on would be like his partner in acquiring the Easter Eggs.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - The Thrilling Conclusion of the Maze Runner Trilogy

Finally the third Maze Runner movie played in theater after the last one back in 2015. So yes it was a long time to wait for a final movie especially since the first and second movie only had 1 year span. We in Indonesia were quite lucky as it did not play far behind the US premiere. Since the movie had Dolby Atmos sound effect, my wife was kind enough to accompany me see this one at a studio that had the sound system in Epiwalk, despite it was not her most favorite places to hang out. Ok let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The movie started months after the event of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, where the Gladers led by Thomas (Dylan O'Brien - American Assassin, Teen Wolf TV series etc) with his best friends from their previous time in the maze Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster - Love, Actually, Death of a Superhero etc) and Frypan (Dexter Darden) were trying to help Minho (Ki Hong Lee - Wish Upon etc) escape from the organization who were doing experiments on them earlier named WCKD (referred as Wicked). The three of them were accompanied by Brenda (Rosa Salazar - CHiPs movie, Night Owls etc) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito - The Usual Suspects, Breaking Bad TV series etc) to find where Minho was placed and experimented on by Wicked to find the cure for the virus. 

Meanwhile Teresa (Kaya Scodelario - Pirates of the Carribbean: Salazar's Revenge, Wuthering Heights etc) was now fully assisting Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson - The Green Mile, Pieces of April etc) who was Wicked's head of research for the cure. She believed that her work was really important that could save all humans. Wicked's head of security Janson (Aidan Gillen - Game of Thrones TV series, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword etc) who was supportive of the research, was always looking for ways to capture all the immune people especially Thomas.

So could Thomas and his friends save Minho and the rest of the immune children from Wicked and also destroy the organization? Find them all in this entertaining action science fiction movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie had a duration of more than 2 hours which I think was to capture the essence of the conclusion of the whole story. I personally felt that it was a good choice since I understand that previously there was a plan of making the finale into 2 parts like Hunger Games and Divergent series which would make the movie most likely boring and a bad way of trying to make big bucks. Hunger Games finale part 1 was having too much conversation while Divergent's last movie (at the time I write this) never make it to the conclusion because of its low commercial success. We have to thank the director Wes Ball who was the one insisting of the movie not to be split in 2 parts.

As a fan of action movies and I believed majority of the audience who saw this one in theater with us last night (which btw was fully packed) were very satisfied with the movie that was almost full of action and intense moments. The movie started off very brightly with an intense action sequence, then there was also brief suspenseful scene involving Cranks (the zombie-like humans infected by virus) but in the middle the movie pace slowed a lot. Until the final third of the movie which gave us a full blown high octane entertaining action sequences.

I loved the conclusion of the movie as I think it really suit the main story which was supposed to be the cure. I also loved the make up effects and of course the amazing sound effects especially during the fights, shooting, explosions and suspenseful scenes. The movie did not only provide us action sequences, but there were some emotional moments as well towards the ending which I know affected my wife a bit.

Since the time my wife and I saw the first movie, we were pretty hooked with the series. The first movie was mysterious and very suspenseful especially during the times when the Gladers were trying to escape from the Maze. The second movie was also very interesting especially in the beginning but then the story became a bit more complicated. Now I thought that the final movie would be very complicated, but surprisingly it was not the case. I was able to capture the essence of the movie quite easily. However, it would only be understood if you had watched the first and second movie. If I got to choose though, I honestly felt that my experience seeing the first movie was the best, because of the intriguing and intensity plus the mystery surrounding the Maze.

One thing that was a little bit disappointing was the appearance of Walter Goggins (The Shield and Justified TV series) as a forgettable character which makes me felt he was underutilized for such a good actor. Plus the slower pace in the middle that took a bit too long to my opinion. But overall it was still a very much enjoyable fun ride and definitely a worthy conclusion of this trilogy. Oh in case you are wondering, there was no end credit scene to this movie so you could immediately go to the restroom if you had been holding off for more than 2 hours.

So if you have watched the first and second movie, this one definitely is a must see movie. But if you have never seen them before, then you have to see The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials first in order for you to understand the storyline of this movie.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

PS: The Movie was adapted from the novel of same title written by James Dashner. The reason why it was playing only 3 years after the second movie was due to the fact Dylan O'brien had a severe accident during the making of this movie and the production had to stop for almost a year.

IT - The Great Adaptation of Scary Stephen King's Novel

On its second day premiere in Indonesia, my wife and I went to see this movie last night. It was rather challenging to arrange the time to see the movie, considering it has > 2 hours duration and the option was either to see at 6.35 PM which was very tight due to my office hour and my wife's event or 9 PM which was too late. Anyway we decided to go for the earlier one and both of us actually almost could not make it. I arrived during the trailers of other movies while my wife arrived just before the movie start (so lucky of her). Anyway, let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

It was the summer holiday of the year 1989 in the small town of Derry where a group of young boys nicknamed Losers' Club that consisted of Bill (Jaeden Liberher - St. Vincent, The Book of Henry etc) who was like the leader, the foul mouthed Richie (Finn Wolfhard - Stranger Things TV series), the tidy Jewish boy Stan (Wyatt Oleff) and the boy who was always paranoid Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer). They plan to go to a location which according to Bill's calculation was the place where supposedly his younger brother Georgie might have ended up since his disappearance back in 1988.

War for the Planet of the Apes - The Third and Final Installment of Caesar's Story

This was one movie that I had been waiting for since few months ago after I saw its trailer. I thought this would be a wonderful movie and it showed signs of going to be a movie with epic battle. Due to some reasons though, Indonesia was a bit late to have the movie's premiere. The film only played starting yesterday (almost 2 weeks latter than the U.S). It was a bit disappointing for Indonesian movie goers that some summer blockbuster movies are now playing few days or weeks late, even months (such as Cars 3 which would only play in August or Baywatch that only played last week and few other examples). Well at least they still played in theaters though, rather than having them completely bypassing us and we had to see those movies in cable TV or live streaming. Anyway, let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story was told few years after the story in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes where the Ape leader Caesar (Andy Serkis - as Gollum in Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit trilogy etc) was hiding in a secret cave with his tribe. Caesar always tried to avoid confrontation with the humans due to the previous war ignited by his friend Koba (Toby Kebbell - Kong: Skull Island, A Monster Calls etc). However their peace was short lived as they were attacked by a military team who was supported by few of Koba's former team who refused to follow Caesar.

LOGAN - The End of One of Most Interesting Portrayal of Marvel's Superhero

This movie had been creating a lot of buzz since last year. My wife and I were looking forward to see this one since the past month when the trailer to the movie was started to be shown in the cinemas. When the movie premiered yesterday, I happened to be having a banking event at Kota Kasablanka. Therefore we decided to see the movie there and luckily enough, the movie was playing in the theater with Dolby Atmos sound system. Since the movie was having more than 2 hours duration, it started at 6PM instead of the usual 7-ish time that we would normally see a movie. So let's get on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

The movie was told in the year 2029 when the total of mutants seemed to be decreasing over the years and not even a single new mutant was heard for many years. Logan aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman - no need for introduction here) had aged significantly through out the years. He seemed to be sick and not able to heal himself as fast as he used to be. Working as a limousine driver, he tried to save enough money to buy a boat so he could go out and retire peacefully. 

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back - Tom Cruise Delivers Again!

I have been eyeing to watch this movie in a Dolby Atmos theater as it was one of a rare movie with such sound effect. So I was very irritated when I reached Epicentrum 21 theater only to be informed that the theater was having some technical problem and they were trying to rectify it without knowing how long it would take to do so. I was tempted to go search different theater, but due to the lots of traffic allocation as a result of Jakarta marathon on that day, I decided to just had my lunch there first and hoping the issue would be resolved sooner rather than later. I went to this theater after I had one of my weekend staycation with my wife (who once again was invited to stay in a hotel near HI area). As she had another food tasting event on that Sunday noon, I went to the cinema by myself. After waiting till 1 hour, I called the cinema and got confirmation that the technical problem was already resolved. So I immediately bought the ticket for 2.25 PM show. Yaaaaaay. Well enough of my rambling and let's get on with the story.

Suicide Squad - The Anti Heroes of DC Comics

This movie has been buzzing in the media for quite some time and I have known since past few months that it would be premiering in August 2016. I was really intrigued to see how the movie would be. However, when the trailer finally shown before the start of few movies I watched in the past weeks, it was probably not what I was hoping for. Even my wife was thinking that the film looked like a B class movie. Anyway, I still wanted to watch this as early as the premiere date but I was only able to do it after it played for 2 days. So was the movie really not good or it was actually entertaining? Maybe the next few paragraphs can help shed some light.

Brief Story Line

After the events from Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS), the US government & military leaders were worried and was looking for answers towards the threat that Superman or other super men may posed in future. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis - Ender's Game, Blackhat, How to Get Away with Murder TV series etc) a government official wanted to create a task force consisted of the worst kind of bad guys whom she could control and provide the protections they required. She offered this idea to the government by showing the data of the most dangerous bad guys. 

First in the file was Floyd Lawton aka Deadshot (Will Smith - Hancock, Men in Black, Focus etc) who was an expert in weapons and also assassin for hire. He was notorious for never ever missed a shot. He was captured only because Waller provided a tip on his whereabouts in Gotham city. Next was Dr. Harleen Quinzel aka Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie - The Wolf of Wallstreet, Focus, Legend of Tarzan ec) who was a former psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum where she fell in love with The Joker (Jared Leto - Panic Room, Dallas Buyers Club etc). She became a psychotic person and could do lots of damage without remorse.

The rest of them consisted of Digger Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney - Divergent, A Good day to Die Hard, Terminator Genisys etc) who was a thief and used boomerangs as his weapon, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez - Hostel, Quarantine etc) who could throw fire from his hands, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje - Pompeii, Annie etc) who had skin condition like a reptile and could breath in the water and finally Dr. June Moore (Cara Delevingne - Paper Towns, Pan etc) who could summon an ancient witch called Enchantress who had the power of teleportation and dark magic.

All of these bad guys were in prison and Waller committed to the military leaders she would be able to control all of them under the lead of Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman - Robocop, Run All Night etc). Waller also convinced them that these people were all expendables. If they were unsuccessful, they could be terminated instantly. After some convincing action, finally the task force was given the go ahead. In order to ensure they would be willing to work under Waller and Flag, they were all promised reduction of jail time. 

Meanwhile in Midway City, a very powerful force had taken control of the city and it was protected by a lot of monsters. The task force who sort of called themselves Suicide Squad were assigned to do their first "assignment" which was to free Midway City and also to gather a "package" from there. They were joined by additional member Katana (Karen Fukuhara) who was very expert in using sword and she was like a protector of Flag. Things also got more complicated when Joker tried to break Quinn from the clutches of Waller during this assignment.

So would the squad really be willing to do their assignment? And if yes, could they complete it without hurting anyone else or even their own friends? Could Joker get Quinn free? And what was actually happening in Midway City? Find them all in this interesting take of the anti heroes trying to save the day.

End of Brief Story Line

After watching the 2 hours movie, I felt that it was having a lighter tone than BVS. There were quite frequent funny moments usually involving Quinn and few crack jokes by Deadshot. There were even some few humorous 1 liner from the rest of the cast. The action sequences were quite amazing. I think the most enjoyable character to see was Quinn who was having like a sick relationship with Joker and a real psychopath. My most memorable scene was when Deadshot shooting at so many monsters in Midway city.

There were quite a lot background music playing in this movie and the special effects were quite good as well. One thing that I could not understand was I thought the sound effects were not exceptional. I watched in a theater with 11.1 sound system so I should be having a full blown sound effects but instead I felt it was sub standard. Perhaps I should see in Dolby Atmos? Anyway, for those who are not too fussy like me on this aspect, should not be too bothered.

This movie may not be too suitable for kids as the main characters were actually bad guys who were forced to do good. In fact, if it were not for the scenes where we were able to laugh, I feel that this movie was actually a bit dark. Compared to BVS though, I feel the finale was not as spectacular. However, in terms of DC cinematic universe, I think this film serves as a good bridge till the next movies coming in the near future such as Justice League, Wonder Woman and so on. 

If you are looking for different kind of super "heroes" movies, this is definitely one you should see. Oooh, don't forget that this is not a Marvel movie, so there is no end credit scene which you have to wait till very end. There is however a mid credit scene which you do not want to miss.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars

Independence Day: Resurgence - War Between Humans and Aliens. Again!

I still could not believe that it was 20 years ago when I first watched the original movie. That time, the special effect truly blew my mind as looking at the various landmarks of the world being blown away by alien attack was really amazing. Of course 20 years later, the sequel definitely is a must see movie for me and my wife. I even personally take a day off from work to watch the premier of this movie today. Yes, it was a little bit much, but having so many un-utilized leave days made me decided that this is as good time as any to take that leave. So we went to 1 of the theater nearest our home that was supposedly having Dolby Atmos effect. But we were both surprised that it was the usual 7.1 surround system (Cinema XXI Epicentrum, how could you???). Anyway, let's get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with scene of the alien from the original movie who was looking at the distress signal with messages from president Whitmore (Bill Pullman - While You Were Sleeping etc) and looked set to return to earth. He was no longer the cool president that led the fight between humans and aliens back then, but rather a tired & unbalanced looking older man. He was having dreams of the aliens. His daughter, Patricia (Maika Monroe - It Follows, The 5th Wave etc) currently worked for the new US president, Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward - The Day After Tomorrow, Gone Girl etc). They were preparing for 4th of July speech and was meeting captain Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher) who was the stepson of Steven Hiller (played by Will Smith in the original movie). He was about to embark to the moon which now becomes the defense system against aliens.

In the moon, we were introduced to our 2 main characters, i.e. Jake Morrison (Liam Hensworth - The Hunger Games, The Expendables 2, etc) and his good friend Charlie (Travis Tope). Jake was given a hard time by his superior and was grounded despite his help to avoid an accident. Jake was apparently the boyfriend of Patricia and was good friends with Dylan, but due to some rivalry few years before, they have grown apart.

Dr. Levinson (Jeff Goldblum - Jurassic Park, Mortdecai etc) was meeting up with a warlord named Dikembe who was able to kill aliens in his country. They were investigating the only alien ship still left on earth during the first invasion. They found out there were some activities going on near the alien ship's location, and they were also curious about a special circle sign that kept popping up. 

After all the introductions of the characters, which took around 30 minutes or so (yes, it's that long), we will finally see some action. An alien object suddenly appeared in the moon base and all the leaders of the world council decided to attack that object despite the objection from Dr. Levinson. After it was attacked, there was no casualty and the object did not show any danger detectable. 

Jake and Charlie wanted to investigate the alien object and they enlisted the help from Dr. Levinson accompanied by Dr. Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Dikembe and Floyd (Nicholas Wright). During this investigation, the mother alien ship much larger than the one from first invasion suddenly appeared near the moon. Moon as the defense center was instructed by President Lanford to attack, but to no avail. Jake and his friends' ship was stuck with the mother ship which was on the way to earth, creating all sort of panic and destruction on earth such as China, London and the US coast.

Dylan, Rain (Angelababy) the Chinese pilot who Charlie had a crush on and some other pilots escaped from the moon and returned to earth. General Adams (William Fichtner - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc) led the soldiers that were going to retaliate the aliens mother ship. Their plan was to drop fusion bombs by a bomber plane which would be protected by legions of war planes where Jake, Charlie, Dylan and Rain were amongst the pilots.

So can the humans successfully defeat the alien ship? What was their plan after 20 years of wait? What was the alien object that was shot in the moon earlier? And what will happen to all the characters introduced from the beginning? Watch them all in this exciting and tense war between humans and aliens.

End of Brief Story Line

Well, I gotta say that it was a good thing there was a lot of action after the 1st half hour as I believe it was having a slow pace and became little bit boring. There was plenty of dramatic moments here and there during the action packed 1.5 hour later. And some funny scenes were also included, usually involving Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner) and Floyd.

I enjoyed the special effects of the war and the major fight before the end of the movie. I even enjoyed some of the short touching moments in this film. However, I got to say that the special effects of the destruction seemed rather obviously computerized (perhaps due to so many movies nowadays that having CGI). But you will not be disappointed with the other special effects as this movie is directed by Roland Emmerich who had plenty of experience directing major destruction movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla and of course Independence Day.  

For those of you who enjoyed the original movie as much as I did, definitely better not miss this one. It will bring back some of those nice memories. I think the new characters also quite enjoyable to see. While the characters from original movie such as president Whitmore, Dr. Levinson, his father (Judd Hirsch) and of course Dr. Okun were also cool and fun to see and certainly made the absence of Will Smith's character not really felt. And I think they are planning for another sequel since the ending did give us that impression.

Oooh, I do not believe that watching in 3D is better than in 2D. Also there is no additional scene after the end credit. So if you happen to hold going to the rest room during the 2 hours, you can leave your seat immediately. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

X-MEN: Apocalypse - 1 of the Best X-Men Movies I Have Ever Seen

This is definitely the one that I never thought I would be wowed. I know this is the 3rd film of the trilogy of younger X-Men and I did not have very high expectation. The first trilogy was spread between year 2000 - 2006 which started with X-Men, followed by X-2 and ended with X-Men: The Last Stand. Well the second trilogy started with X-Men: First Class, followed by X-Men: Days of Future Past. I was a fan of Days of Future Past as I believed the director managed to combine the 2 story lines from the older X-Men and the younger X-Men into a believable and quite easily understood movie. That is until I saw this one which totally blew me away. Anyway, let's get on to the story line, shall we?

Brief Story line

For those of you who I believed have watched the previous X-Men and saw the end credit scene, would know there was a mutant that helped build the pyramid. After the usual comic book flipping scenes of Marvel comic adaptations, scenes move to Egypt 3600 BC, where the Egyptian were worshiping a "God" whom they called En Sabah Nur (played by Oscar Isaac - Star Wars: The Force Awakens). He and his 4 disciples were entering the pyramid, where there was a person who was having ability to heal himself, and they wanted to transfer the ability to the "God". This intended ceremony was interrupted and En Sabah Nur was buried for thousands of years. 

Later the scene would moved to 1983, 10 years after the incident from Days of Future Past. We would be introduced to several new X-Men characters in this movie, like the young Scott Summers aka Cyclops (played by Tye Sheridan), young Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner - Sansa Stark of Games of Thrones), young Kurt Walker aka Night Crawler (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). They all were part of the school for gifted (mutants school) managed by Charles Xavier aka professor X (played by James Mc Avoy) and he was helped by Hank McCoy aka the Beast (played by Nicholas Hoult). 

Erik Leshner aka Magneto (played by Michael Fassbender) who managed to escape earlier has moved to Poland and now married with 1 daughter. Meanwhile Raven aka Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence) has gone rogue and travel around the world to assist other mutants escape from the spotlight and manipulated by bad people. 

En Sabah Nur who was awaken from his long "sleep" was really surprised with the condition of the world now. He met young Storm (played by Alexandra Shipp - Straight Outta Compton) who was amazed with En Sabah Nur's ability and chose to follow him after her power was raised significantly by him. CIA agent Moira McTaggert (played by Rose Byrne) who witnessed this awakening process, was approached by Charles Xavier to bring him up to speed on En Sabah Nur's history. Since the very beginning, he was always having 4 mutants to assist him. And now he started to look for other mutants to be recruited and be the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. After various manipulation and convincing, he was able to get Psylocke (played by Olivia Munn - Mortdecai), Angel (played by Ben Hardy) and last but not least Magneto. 

With such power and strength by his side, En Sabah Nur intended to wipe out the whole population of normal people of the earth where they would lead the only survivors, i.e the mutants.

So can professor X and the young X-Men fight against such incredible power? Can the apocalypse be stopped? Will the young X-Men be able to control their powers and use them to fight En Sabah Nur? Find them all in this latest super hero movie of 2016.

End of Brief Story Line

As I already highlighted in the beginning, I was truly wowed with this movie. One of the best moments I enjoyed watching movie. The opening scenes were quite intense. The introduction to the new generation of X-Men were very smooth and did not felt forced. The action sequence were great. Special effects were also great. Even the sound effect felt very realistic and add to the element of intense (I watched this in Dolby Atmos and I really was satisfied). 

In addition to the above, I also felt that the ultimate fighting scene was amazing! Prior to this movie, there were 2 movies which pitted 2 super heroes or team of super heroes against each other. I cannot help have a feeling that there is this kind of similarity in this movie as there was also fight between super heroes (mutants). Only difference is, in "Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice", there was a feeling of slow pace before the final fight, while in "Captain America: Civil War" (both I have reviewed earlier), the ultimate fighting scenes were not exactly what I was hoping for. This, on the other hand really satisfied my hunger for major fight between heroes against the main villains and the pace was quick enough.

There were also some other mutants appeared in this movie, such as Peter Maximoff aka Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters - American Horror Story), Alex Summers aka Havoc (played by Lucas Till - Hannah Montana) and few others to add the elements of satisfaction. In short, there were enough X-Men to be the ultimate finale to this trilogy.

This is really a recommended super hero movie. However, be warned there were some bloody violent scenes and very brief "strong" language not for the young kids. There was a little of more adult feel to this movie, unlike "Civil War" which was really family friendly. There were some serious moments, little humor here and there and few cheesy moments.

Oh, in case you are not in a hurry, you can wait for the end credit scene to see hint to the next/future Marvel films.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice - Battle of 2 Biggest DC Superheroes

Yes! I still managed to see this movie on the 3rd day it premiered in Indonesia. With still so many people in line watching it, I felt quite lucky to be able to buy it last minute in the theater near my home. Reason why I highlighted about the 3rd day was because on the 1st and 2nd day of the premier, I was still in Bali having my vacation with my wife @yennymakanmulu (which she will tell you all about it in her own blog with same name) and I thought I would not have the chance to watch it until the weekend or later.

This movie was 2.5 hours long, so there were plenty to talk about. However, it's going to be challenging to write about this movie without giving spoilers. It's really annoying when people loooove to brag about watching movies earlier than anyone else AND telling about the surprise, the twist, or even worst, the ending. Anyway, I will try my best to do so, to avoid the wrath of people around me.... :)

Movie started with the brief scene of young Bruce Wayne's history and later became Batman and moved on to the older Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) getting worried and upset about the impact of major fight between Superman and General Zod (from "Man of Steel"). He managed to save a little girl and also helped 1 of his employees, Wallace, whose legs were severed due to heavy concrete dropped on them. We could see that Bruce Wayne was not approving of Superman's method as there were heavy casualties.

18 months later, Lois Lane (played by Amy Adams) went to interview a terrorist in a secretive place, but the interview was sabotaged and Superman (Henry Cavill) had to come and rescue Lois. 

With the various actions done by Superman, a lot of people were not really approving the methods. There were scenes where public opinions were divisive. Some adored him like God, while others were worried that Superman could do anything without anyone controlling him. One of such person was the influential Senator June (played by Holly Hunter) who believed in putting restraints on Superman. We were also introduced to Lex Luthor (played by Jesse Eisenberg) who believed that the world must be prepared in the event it must control Superman. It was described that he knew the impact of kryptonite (green rocks from Krypton planet) on Superman. With the help of another senator, Lex managed to get his hand on the largest kryptonite found in Indian ocean imported into US and the access to the ship that General Zod used when he came to earth.

The next various scenes would describe how Batman become more and more disapproving of Superman's activities, while Superman was not too agreeing to Batman's vigilante actions. There were also heated conversation between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne about each alternate identities' methods of helping people. We were also introduced to Diana Prince (played by Gal Gadot) as the mysterious lady in a fundraiser activity held by Lex Luthor who appeared to have special agenda.

I do not want to give more details after this, as it would ruin the plots in the movie, but suffice to say the first half of the movie would make us understand why later on there had to be the fight between Batman and Superman.

I would say that the wait was really worthwhile coz the fight between these two superheroes were colossal. The fighting was incredible and spectacular as I would hope so. Both really showed their strengths and their weaknesses during this fight.

The main villain of this movie apart from Lex Luthor was Doomsday. People who read Superman comics or know enough from other sources would know who this character was and what he could do. Other noteworthy characters would definitely be Bruce's butler - Alfred (played I think greatly by Jeremy Irons) and Daily Planet's editor, Perry White (played by Laurence Fishburne).

I had enjoyable moment during the 2nd half of the movie as it was full of crazy fighting scenes, very cool special effects, and great sound effects (as I watched it in a theater with Dolby Atmos system). Not to say the 1st half is bad, but I was too much hoping for full action, so when there weren't that many, made me feel that the pace was a little bit slow to my preference. I personally was satisfied with how the film's plots were created. You could say that this movie is a little bit of Man of Steel's sequel, little bit of Batman's reboot, and little bit of prequel to Justice League movies (hence the title "Dawn of Justice").

I have read in some news especially from US that the critics are not liking this movie. For me, I would surely do not care about their opinions cause a lot of times, their opinions are like sh*t. As long as I had a great moment watching the movie, I would say the movie is worthy enough to be given the chance to see. I believe that in Indonesia, most people would want to watch it for the sake of  bragging and curiosity, plus of course to enjoy cool action movie. So there is no need for me to encourage you to watch this movie, as you would surely watch it anyway, or would have watched it by the time this post is published...

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars

Note:
Justice League is the term in DC comic books where some superheroes form an alliance to fight off very deadly & large villain(s). Very famous members of this Justice League are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, plus some others like Cyborg, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and few others. I read somewhere that the Justice League movie is coming in 2017. Well I could not wait for that to come out. It would be a breath of fresh air in the flooding of Marvel's adaptation 2-3 times a year.