sometimeswatchesmovies

As a thriller, this movie is amazing. It really made me tense in some scenes to the point I didn't even want to look at the screen. The actors are also amazing. Sometimes some build up tension is ruined by the actors but most of the actors here actually helped with making the scenes even more intense. They executed the scenes well. The music for this song is awesome. Most of them are very catchy. Despite not being horror, I find this story to be very scary in a psychological way. Ghosts and other spirits might be scary, but nothing is scarier than mankind. Everything that happened in this movie could happen in real life, and I find that makes the story much more scarier.

The intro to the movie is amazing. It made me intrigued, it looked promising. But then a huge time jump happened (17 years) and the story starts falling apart from there. At first, it was about racism. Then as the story progresses, it starts to focus less and less on the racism; instead, it starts focusing on gore, brutality and the violence. I can tell they were trying to tell a message, but it falls short as the ending was shown abruptly. Many questions were unanswered and yet the story already ended. Maybe they were trying to show the dangers of racism, but I would've preferred if the ending had a complete conclusion to the story instead of just ending it when there's so many unexplained things.

(spoiler warning from here!!)

I really don't like how the two girls (the only girls in the story) immediately fell in love with the mc at first sight. Don't get me started on this pick-me teacher. If they made her a strong type of woman that's independent and can fight on her own, that would've made the story more interesting. But instead, she's obviously just a female love candidate for Edwin and she does nothing to help him. She studies psychology and it was never utilized. It's such a missed opportunity. If she could've done something useful rather than just waiting and depending on Edwin, it would've made the story and their dynamic much more interesting.

The other one is the girl Edwin met at the bar. She was an obvious love candidate for Edwin too. Cheering him up, and then getting upset when she saw him bringing another woman in the bar, only to disappear forever from the story after that. I wish the story gave an explanation to what happened to her, otherwise this scene just feels unnecessary and adds nothing to whole plot. If you're going to introduce a character that's going to disappear after two scenes, might as well not add them. (Do they know about The Bechdel Test...)

I do like the shaky camera effect when Jeffrey was bullying the random student. It makes it seem like we're watching a live video of a bullying. Though some of the camera angles are a bit awkward. During the time when Edwin was talking to his sister, it was supposed to be emotional. But the awkward cuts and pause from the sister talking to just a shot of Edwin with tears in his eyes just felt very stiff. Some of the scene change was also very sudden and didn't flow smoothly with the previous scene.

The way they were stalling the door scene for so long actually makes me so sick of it. At this point, I'm begging them to just kick down the door. I know they're terrified, but they couldn't utilize all of that time behind the door to actually searching the room for exits? Instead of just going back and forth arguing with Jeffrey, and being like "I should open the door," "No, you shouldn't!" again and again. I wish the tension could've been spread into other locations as well instead of spending what felt to be like 45 minutes behind the door.

Some of the sfx were a bit much. It sounded too gore-y in a way I can't explain well with words. The vfx for the blood splatters as well. It was too exaggerated. The way the blood splatters like hand sanitizer spray when they were being slashed with a long knife... It was unnatural and not very realistic.

I wish there was subtitles for this movie. Some of the words they were saying weren't that clear, I just had to assume what is happening. I don't know if every movie theater is the same, but mine didn't have any subtitles.

Finally, the questions that were left unanswered in the end of the movie. First, how did a child get into an abandoned place and saved the student that was being bullied at the start? I understand they were trying to portray how, despite their differences, they helped each other. But it just felt so sudden and it doesn't make any sense why a child would wander into an abandoned place all alone and coincidentally know which door to unlock to save the student. Next, what happened to the bar? What happened to some of the other characters in this movie? Like the principal for example. He never appeared again after expelling Jeffrey. What happened to Christo and the teacher when they escaped? They disappeared after that. Especially the most important question, who is Edwin's nephew? Maybe it was answered in the end but it wasn't that clear (since, again, my movie theater did not have any subtitles) so I'm assuming it's Jeffrey? I'm still confused.

Overall, the movie is really great as a thriller. The actors are also great. But I wished they could've told the story better, and especially for the ending. I wish it had a complete conclusion instead of leaving the viewers hanging.

This movie goes into great depth of showing how people grieve differently. It's really beautiful in a way and I often found myself sympathizing with the main character. The way he changed after his wife died was subtle at the start and it starts becoming more obvious the more you progress into the movie. It's really wonderful how much they were able to portray in the span of almost 2 hour movie.

This movie really gets you to think and self-reflect.. It's one of the movies that you'll never forget. But one thing, I can't believe it's labeled as comedy-drama??? The drama is definitely there but the comedy...? That's to be questioned...

Overall, the movie is great. The actors are great, especially the main character's actor. The cinematic scenes captured on a shaky camera makes it feel human, natural and not stiff. I loved how we get to see how the main character gradually changes.

Though, one thing that stood out to me was the audio. The actor's voices are often too small while the music (whenever they're playing a song, not the bgm) kind of hid the voices even more. But aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

(Spoilers from here on!!) I love how they they wrote this story!! At first, the main character thought he didn't love his wife because he didn't cry when he lost her. But he didn't realize just how much he actually loved her. Throughout the movie, we see him getting violent and destroying everything, but what he didn't realize is that he was destroying things that reminded him of his wife. He was trying to forget about her, and that becomes more clear as he starts getting more and more violent. Then, every small thing started reminding him of his wife. How she liked the beach, the ocean, how she rode a carousel together with him; Only then he realized just how much he loved his wife. He couldn't cry during his wife's funeral not because he didn't love her, but it's because he loved her so much his feelings went numb when he lost her. In the end, it was a sweet ending, showing Davis finally being able to accept his wife's death and realized he loved his wife all along, thus, looking free from the grief and actually smiling genuinely for the first time. I love that after he realized just how much he loved his wife, he tried to give her something back, a legacy (after being kicked out of Phil's funding for Julia) of his own with Phil's help. It's a really sweet moment and it really shows just how much Davis had grown past his grief, being able to forgive others and learning to be more happy. I really love it.

But I did have a question after watching the movie... Who's the father of his wife's child? I don't think it was ever explained. Why did Julia have an affair? Maybe it could be because of how passive Davis was at the start of the movie when he was talking to his wife, but I do wish it was more explained. And also HOW did Davis sleep in the house he literally destroyed and smashed to pieces?! Is he not scared of a robbery ?? And it didn't seem like the house experienced any kind of demolition (haha get it...) it seemed fine at the end of the movie as if Davis did NOT just crashed a big construction truck (I forgot the name) into it just the day before...

THIS FILM IS REALLY GOOD??? I've never been more satisfied after leaving the cinema. This movie is amazing, too much to simply put in one word. (Writing this review as a person who never saw ne zha 1 but will watch it after this).

I came in with low expectations thinking it wouldn't be that good, and oh my goodness I was blown away while leaving the theater. The poster in my cinema did NOT do this movie justice.

First of all, the animation is AMAZING! Every scene is so smooth and natural. The facial expression they did for the characters were exaggerated, but not too exaggerated to the point it looks cartoonish, it was just right in the middle of natural and a bit exaggerated! It aligns with the voice actors amazing acting (literally sent shivers). The colors are vibrant and saturated, every scene is great for a desktop wallpaper! Some of the transitions to the next angle nor scene was a bit rough and abrupt, but it wasn't that bad, I still understood the timeline of events.

The music is IMMACULATE. Especially near the outro. The songs are so good. All of the background music fit the scene and induces tension for some specific scenes. But there was this one song that I didn't really favor... It wasn't as much as a banger as the rest but it was good.

This story is mostly comedic, but when it gets serious, it gets SERIOUS. At some scenes I was laughing, and at some scenes I was bawling. For me, the comedy is actually funny. I found myself laughing at them several times (or my humor is just bad).

It felt like a long movie despite only being 2 hours and 23 minutes. The amount of events happening really makes it feel like 5 hours despite it being only 2 hours and a half. For me, that's not a big deal since I was very focused on the movie. While we're on the topic of events, this movie actually did something that I rarely see these days. They actually made every event have an impact! Some movies would insert useless events that was never brought up again, but in this movie, you can see the after-effects of every event shown. I really love the detail.

Despite not watching the first one, I understood the whole movie. It was very easy to follow. In the beginning, they'll give you an intro with necessary details you'd need to understand the movie (instead of immediately throwing you into the movie like some movies....) and throughout the movie, they'll give you some subtle context hints on what's happening in the movie/what happened in the previous movie.

Let me expand on the 'complete story' part. Most stories usually only focus on one arc, especially in sequels like these, but this movie felt like a complete story. From beginning to end, I felt like I actually watched a story from beginning to end, I don't know how to explain it, it just felt like an actually finished story.

I should've learned mandarin so I could focus on the animation better instead of having to look at the subtitles...

(spoiler from here!)

The 2d animated impact frame when ne zha was punching the forehead guy is amazing and I love it! Although I do wish they would implement more of it. It just felt like they were experimenting and then forgot about it. I also feel like if the music had great build up and stopped when ne zha's punch was in slowmotion then start again once it hits the forehead guy, it would be awesome.

Also, the tension between the two of them at the end... I feel like the writers were trying to subtly hint at something. If you look at the scene as a whole, it's as if the writers, animators, everyone involved, are implying something. But maybe I'm looking into it too much.

I did say this movie felt like a complete story, but every story has to have multiple sequels. They implied the existence of the third sequel and I'm pretty hyped but also worried for it!

Overall this movie is amazing. I don't know how they're gonna TOP this movie with the next sequel. This movie is already so good, I feel like the third sequel is going to be average like most third sequels... But let's hope for the best!