dictionaryofme: 6/15/14

And I’m back. True, this is not the way I wanted to reactivate this site, ‘coz I kinda told you, guys, that I’ll be back with more of the Daily Photo Challenge. But due to unavoidable circumstances, we all have to wait for the return of my daily photo post. For now, there is something I’ve been meaning to talk about… be ready… this is the start of a new chapter in this site’s journey to… uhm, just journey, really.

I told you, I’m a movie buff. But I’m also broke. So no matter how much I wanted to watch every movie being shown in cinemas, I couldn’t. I don’t have the penny to pay for the tickets. And tickets are way too expensive. Something you can’t just have in a snap of an eye, I mean blink of a finger… whatever! I mean, for someone like me, of course. ‘Coz I’m well aware that there are at least 10% percent of the population that are wickedly rich. People who can spend the rest of their lives inside cinemas watching every movie being shown (without giving a single thought about their tuition, electric bills, water bills, medical bills, house rent, and what to eat next). People who don’t even have to go out of their houses (and, I mean, not just houses but mansions, palaces, manors, haciendas, and spaceships) ‘coz they have their own theaters and access to latest released movies. Not to mention, popcorn machines with barbecue flavor. With. Barbacue. Flavor. *<sobs>*. Life is unfair!

They are the few overly-fortunate people. 90% percent of us don’t have that kind of luxury. And even half of that 90% don’t have the access to even go to cinemas and watch a very judiciously selected movie. Not that they can’t, they just couldn’t. So, if being put to that, I can still say I’m lucky to be part of the other half that have that kind of access. By the way, don’t mind the statistics, they aren’t based on any surveys whatsoever, they’re just my own observation.

But don’t get me wrong, I still have hard time watching movies in theaters. Due to uncontrollable dropdown of my wallet’s contents, I, too, have to really, really, really be careful on what to spend my movie ticket with. I mean, questions like ‘Is the movie worthy of my Php 200.00+?”, “Does it justify two hours or so stay on a very dark and cold place?” and “Can I get any moral values in the movie?” have to be answered. So, for the past years, I only go to theaters to watch movie capable of answering those three questions. And because I spent most of my life in a theater-forsaken province, I only get to watch movies in theaters when I’m in vacay in the city. I remember watching (in theaters) Man of Steel (Ever Gotesco Mall, Commonwealth Avenue), Thor: The Dark World (SM Manila), Gravity (SM North EDSA), Insidious (SM Fairview), Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (SM North EDSA), My Lady Boss (SM North EDSA), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (SM North EDSA), The Amazing Spiderman 2 (Trinoma), Basement (SM North EDSA), So It’s You (SM Fairview), Wolverine (SM Megamall), X-men: Days of Future Past (SM Fairview),The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (SM Rosario) and Maleficent 3D (Gateway).

As you can see, most of the movies I watched in the cinemas are Marvel products. Simply because it’s a Marvel movie, dude! No need to answer any question! As a citizen of both the world and the World Wide Web, you have to watch Marvel movies! And if you don’t want to be left behind in all the discussions in the web, do yourself a favor and watch a Marvel movie while it’s still showing! That’s an order!

Some are local like “Basement”, “My Lady Boss” and “So It’s You”. These are the movies that I didn’t spend a penny with. Well, except for “Basement”. The other two local movies, I had financial support from a friend for “My Lady Boss” and from my parents for “So It’s You”. Had it been just my money involved, I’d pass.

The other movies which are not Marvel produced are, well, good enough to watch in the cinemas. And few in the list, well, I was kinda dragged into it or I just didn’t have the choice but to just treat my I-must-watch-a-movie-in-the-cinema-right-now-or-else syndrome.

And now we come to the reason why I wrote this blog… Maleficent and my disappointment (A lot of people may hate me for this… Chill, guys, I’m just being me :D).

Since its showing last May 28, I’ve been yearning to watch it in the big screen. But due to a lot of things hindering me to watch it, I only got to watch it last June 7, 10 days after it hit cinemas. With some very generous friends (one of them treated us with a Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks), I had, at long last, watched the movie… in 3D! Only to be disappointed. Aaaww…

I’m not really fond of Disney movies, but this one was different. It got Angelina Jolie in it! As Maleficent herself! That’s one reason to watch the movie already! Angelina was 2013’s top paid Hollywood actress! She had been for years, I think, until Kristen Stewart and her Bella roles took the crown back in 2012. But, no sweat, Jolie got it back! Word!

The build-up of the movie was very good, too. The trailer was oh-so-good! Another reason to watch it. And a friend of mine who already watched the movie told me it was really good! No, scratch that, it was awesome! The twist was really, uhm, twisty! Something you will not expect! Something an average-minded person like me can never think of! Like, ever! So, just imagine how my desire to watch it skyrocketed! And after sipping the last drop from my Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino, we all embark in a marvelous journey to the world of fantasy with Maleficent… in 3D!

It was not entirely bad, of course. Angelina Jolie made justice in her role as Maleficent. And Elle Fanning is just adorable! The special effects were good! They did not cut the budget for graphics. The creatures were awesome! Especially the Ents. Geddit? You don’t know Ents? Ents are those tree creatures from Lord of the Rings that helped Pippin and Merry defeat the evil Saruman and take a million minutes to say their greetings. What triggered my disappointment was its plot. Everything happened the way I expected it to be. Where’s the twist?!?

Let me enumerate… (Spoiler alert!)

1. We all know back in the old fairy tale that the only thing that could wake the Sleeping Beauty was a true love’s kiss! In the movie, Angelina made the curse with nothing to counter it, well, at first. But King Stephen butted it and begged Maleficent to not cast the curse. Maleficent casted it anyway and the only way to lift the curse was from a true love’s kiss. And it was later revealed in the movie that Maleficent made it that way because she didn’t believe in true love rendering the curse, uhm, unliftable. And when the movie introduced the boy who was expected to lift the curse with a kiss, I knew from that moment that the boy was not the answer. I even guessed that Maleficent’s kiss will do the trick. And guess what, my guess was right. Come on! Sure I believe in true love. No matter how much those bitter people say about true love not existing, it exists! I just don’t believe in true love at first sight! How could a kiss from a complete stranger be an act of true love? Now, 16 years of taking care for Aurora, that’s true love!

2. I never understood why Maleficent is affected too much by iron.

3. Whatever happened to Aurora’s mother?

4. What happened to Stephen’s brothers?

5. King Stephen entrusted baby Aurora to the three pixies to take care of her as she grow up. The deal was to return Aurora to the castle on her 16^th birthday, or after… whatever… the pixies are arguing about it too. Given the situation, why stay in a cottage in the woods very near to where Maleficent lives?!?

6. So the castle was guarded with iron… iron thorns! Why make a defense where someone can easily get through it? And with a floating body at that! Why don’t they just build an iron wall? Come on!

7. The action part was, uhm, lesser.

And the rest is history. To all Maleficent fans out there, sorry, ok, sorry :D

And, in my opinion, Maleficent is not even 3D worthy. Aaawww…

With Mr. Google... here's some screenshots from the movie...