Rage4Media is moving...

I have been with Blogger for over 5 years but with Facebook now blocking this site for reasons I struggle to fathom and with most of the changes made to Blogger in its recent update being unfavourable to me, I've decided to set up a new blog. The reviews posted here will remain as an archive.

Check out https://rage4media.blogspot.com

RageLite Review - Teen Beach Movie

Guys, we’re in the dark timeline here. COVID-19 has changed everything and film and television will likely not be the same for years to come. So, I’m flashing back to a simpler time, when I was still at University and not completely wasting my life. Let’s have a look at Teen Beach Movie

I’ll freely admit, since lockdown and the launch of Disney+ I have become obsessed with Disney Teen Musicals and comedies, yes, including High School Musical (HSMTMTS is really good, despite a shaky opener) the one I want to talk about is… Well, actually it’s Teen Beach 2, but to cover that one we must first look at the first one.

Don’t have much to say about the crew, the director, Jeffrey Horanday, had directed Geek Charming for Disney prior to this and has some experience as a choreographer if nothing recent. When it comes to talent, it seems they were banking on the stars, Maia Mitchell, who had starring roles in various TV series, and Ross Lynch, who’d shown off his singing talents playing the role of Austin in the Disney Sitcom Austin and Ally, this show has become something of an obsession of mine, and I’ll be talking about that show soon.

And it worked, joining Descendants and High School Musical as the Disney Channel’s most popular films. Let’s take a look and work out why?

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code season 2 episodes 7-10

Ok, we are nearing the end of this series, thank god, but things have changed, Megabyte is free, and the Sourcerer knows about Alan Turing high school, we have 4 episodes still to fill, so here’s hoping they’re good… Can’t say that with a straight face.

Praise4Media #67 - Aquaman

Apparently, I’m on a superhero kick, let’s take a look at DC’s offering with Aquaman

I think most of us agree that Justice League wasn’t good (and the Snyder Cut won't be either, I guarantee it), and Aquaman isn’t immune to criticism when it comes to the performance of Jason Mamoa but let’s be honest, he could’ve given it his all, and it would still have been sh*t so no love lost there. I don’t mind the casting of Mamoa and it’s time to give him his time to shine, and shine he did in his solo movie.

Production of an Aquaman movie can be traced back as early as 2004, but with studio mandates, recasting and the usual stuff that goes on behind the scenes with this kind of movie, it was 2018 before we saw it as part of the already very shaky DC Extended Universe.

The story was written by comic veteran Geoff Johns (who has written Aquaman before), mostly horror writer/director James Wan, and writer of Gangster Squad Will Beall, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Clearly Geoff Johns is the big name when it comes to writing, as most of the others are fairly niche. James Wan is an interesting choice as director as this brings him well out of his comfort zone, not necessarily a bad thing though is it can provide a fresh perspective that the DCEU sorely needed.

The film had a mixed critical reception but was well received commercially, making over $1bn at the box office, making it the DCEU’s best outing to date. So where do I stand on this film? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 2 Episodes 4-6

ReBoot The Guardian Code is not a very good show, now we’ve got that out of the way

Pixar Playlist #10 - UP

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

Ever wished your problems would just float away? Ever tried attaching 23 million balloons to your house? That’s the solution for one Carl Frederickson, let’s take a look at UP

Up was the brainchild of Pete Docter, who in 2018 became the Chief Creative Officer for Pixar, he’s been there since the beginning, helming the story and being a lead animator for Toy Story. Tom McCarthy, writer and director of multi-award-winning films The Station Agent and the Visitor helped with the story for a period of 3 months, with Bob Peterson, another Pixar veteran helping finalise the story and screenplay

The Pixar team went to visit Tepui and spent 3 days covering it from every conceivable angle, as this is where the bulk of the film takes place, and researched local wildlife for their purposes. But there were some new animation challenges here, and it really boils down to its heavily stylised design. Our protagonist is an old man with a massive head and they needed to make it look believable, designing new systems for fabric and feathers. There’s also the technical challenge of animating in a general shot over 10,000 balloons.

The film released in 2009 and made $735m on a $175m budget, it was a massive critical success with a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating and is the second animated film after Beauty and the Beast to receive a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, it won best animated film.

Netflix Retrospective - ReBoot: The Guardian Code Season 2 Episodes 1-3

Hello Darkness, my old friend, ReBoot: The Guardian Code everyone

But I guess I owe somewhat of an apology to this show, because I’ve just found out that sourcerer is actually a real word, despite my spell check not recognising it, meaning a programmer that works with source code, it can also be spelt sourceror, though my spell-checker doesn’t recognise that either.

Last we left off, we were introduced to Hexadecimal, an old friend of Megabyte’s. Can the guardians defeat them both, and what about the spheres showing some mysterious origins for Austin’s father. Will there be an episode of passable quality? All this and more, let’s dive in.

Praise4Media #66 - Avengers: Endgame

We finally come to the payoff to 12 years of Marvel films with Avengers: Endgame

Avengers Infinity War was a massive hit for Marvel, breaking the $2bn mark for the first time, Endgame would surpass it to become the highest grossing film ever, beating out Avatar (though still didn’t beat The Force Awakens in the US) and thank god that era’s over. It was a hell of an investment for Disney but one that paid off nicely, showing how far Superhero movies have come in the last 20 years.

And much with the rest of Marvel films, it was critically successful, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with 8.42/10 average.

OK, this film is just over 3 hours long, the longest film I’ve done up to now is Batman v Superman’s extended cut and I don’t really desire to do a frame-by-frame plot dump for the opening hour. I’m gonna use this particular film to try something a little new. So, whilst this review may end up being on the shorter side because of this, I am looking to see if this is a worthwhile change because with all the changes going on at the moment, it’s getting tougher to motivate myself to do these anymore.