Arrival (2016)

You know I am a big fan of sci fi and something related to drama, alien, and space. Thank you to Apollo 13 the first movie that made me obsessed with this genre. Arrival is a mystery, sci-fi movie, directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed two other critically acclaimed movies I loved watching: "Prisoners" and "Sicario". This time, Villeneuve takes on the subject of extra-terrestrial life, and the communications between humans and aliens from another planet, starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whittaker in the lead cast.

PASSENGER (2016)

I just lower any expectation in my life and that includes when I watch movie. I watch this movie because I love romance and I like the idea of space ship drama. I strongly disagree and totally cannot understand why there are many critics addressed towards this movie. Passengers was wrapped with a beautiful and entertaining atmosphere. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence was very outstanding on the movie. The chemistry between those 2 main character was charming.

The Martian (2015)

Sir Ridley Scott is finally back on track. There's no argument that his last couple films have not been up to his standard. However, now he has gone back to his roots to bring us an adaptation of the sci-fi novel by Andy Weir The Martian.

The story itself is pretty straightforward. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead when stuck with debris during a storm on Mars. When the rest of his crew decides to abort and he turns out to be alive, Watney must ration his remaining resources in an attempt to same himself and make contact with NASA. Despite the familiar storyline (can you say Cast Away meets Apollo 13?), only a true mastermind behind the camera can give the story so much depth and make it so enthralling.

The cast is definitely one of the best ensembles of the year. Everyone does fantastic with the roles given to them, namely Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels. And while everyone does a great job in the movie, the man whose shoulders the film truly rests on is Matt Damon, and he excels in every scene he is in. The audience is always eager to follow Damon's successes and failures on Mars. Damon is so good at playing a wise- cracking scientist and showing us what it might actually be like to get left on Mars alone. With Damon's character, the movie is allowed to delve into themes about what makes us human and our drive to help one another.

Everest (2015)

Got the chance to see Everest early in IMAX 3D. I'll start off by saying this, if you get the chance, definitely see this movie in IMAX. It adds to the experience and you feel like your on the mountain. That aside, let's dive into one of my most anticipated films of the year.

Everest is chalk full of star power. Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Jake Gyllenhaal, the list goes on. Everyone is believable in this hostile environment, going from optimistic and adventurous to mortified and forced to fight for their lives. Each character is given a back story, some more drawn out and centered than others, and you get attached to most but not all of them. When the emotional blows hit, they hit hard for some, but not as much for others.

The visuals are, as you might have guessed, stunning. The shots they get of climbers and the way the camera gives you an an idea of how dangerous this is are breath taking. The cinematography is definitely award worthy. IMAX only added to it, putting you in this environment and taking you along for the ride.

Ex-Machina (2015)

Directed by author and screenwriter, Alex Garland (who wrote "Sunshine" and "28 Days Later"), "Ex Machina" follows a computer programmer, Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), who was chosen to stay with an online tycoon, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), for a week at his secluded house up in the mountains. There, Nathan shows Caleb what he has been working on and reveals Ava (Alicia Vikander), an robot capable of human emotions. Nathan then tasks Caleb to do a Turing test on Ava to evaluate her ability to exhibit intelligent and humanlike behavior. Through this test, Caleb soon discovers that Ava is a lot more human than he ever could have imagined, but may just be almost too human.

"Ex Machina" is not a movie. It's a story. It is the story of Boy Meets Android. It is the story of how truly insignificant humanity is. This movie didn't focus on what we think of, or even why we think of things. It focused on how. How do we, as humans, think of our own humanity? How do we function? Instinct, emotion, values, perfectionism, this movie makes the biggest attempt to not really give a certain sensation. It more tests the viewer. It presents you with this certain situation and sees how you interpret it without ever taking notes, acknowledging your feelings, without doing anything. It was phenomenal. The exact tone of the movie turns into the mood of the viewer. It's phenomenal. It felt like a really good college lecture. One that makes you learn without you even knowing.

Tomorrowland (2015)

First of all, I had greater hopes by entering this movie that George Clooney was going to kill it in the Sci-Fi movie genre, unfortunately I was disappointed. He didn't seem to fit the role, I don't know why, honestly he seemed to be a little sloppy and unfit physically, plus his performance I can see that he tried his best, but his character did not just fill that major role in the movie. Maybe a more younger actor, would have fitted the role better and speaking of actors.

Tomorrowland is visually very appealing. You can sense that a lot of attention has been given to details like the uniforms, people and technology of the future. It is pretty believable and makes you want to be a part of the story. Credits to the composer for the accompanying soundtrack. Even though you get the feeling that you have heard it in other movies before it goes well with the cinematography and the story line.  The biggest strength of Tomorrowland is its unique and compelling plot. It's a very fresh idea and you're constantly engaged to know what will happen next. It is packed with a surprising amount of action sequences and something that you'd probably not expect from a PG movie targeted primarily at kids.

Insurgent (2015)

Insurgent, based on the second book in the science fiction series of young-adult novels by Veronica Roth, takes us back days after the events of the first film. Divergent director Neil Burger is replaced by Robert Schwentke and so are the screenwriters. It's too early to say if this was a bad move, and again, it doesn't matter. Here's why: Insurgent is basically a rehash of Divergent but with added visual effects and a bit more violence than expected in a YA film. In other words, if you've missed the first film, Schwentke brings you up to speed with the post-apocalyptic remains of a dystopian Chicago. Tris (Shailene Woodley) is haunted by the massacre of her parents. Along with her boyfriend and instructor Four (Theo James), brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and fellow survivor Peter (Miles Teller), Tris must do all she can to outrun, outgun and ultimately outsmart forces sent by main antagonist Jeanine (Kate Winslet).

The movie is good if you haven't read the book. I am really disappointing and OK, I know the book is always better than the movie, but the first one was almost the same as a book (perfect movie it was). This one, however, was not. I think I like the first director more because this one throw out some really important scenes and the end is a lot different and I hate thing that the relationship between Tris and Four in the movie is perfect but in the book it has its ups and downs. This movie has a lot of special effect that gave a headache. The first one was perfect adaption, but now, just MEHH

Chappie (2015)

Artificial intelligent premise has been done so many times, the recent Transcendence and Automata come to mind. Most of them fail to utilize this classic futuristic formula. Now a lot of hope rests on Neill Blomkamp's shoulders to put unique twist, and although Chappie has some decent visual effects, it is excruciatingly bland, juvenile and overly quirky to establish any sort of emotional connection. It worked slick as hell in District 9, failed a bit flat in Elysium. But in Chappie, there really is no end to the logical flaws, extremely underdeveloped characters, rushed, fairytale of an excuse of a storyline to push events in the movie forward etc.

Let me start off by saying i'm a huge fan of Blomkamp. In my opinion, District 9 is one of the best films of the last decade, and I'll forever love him for that fine work of metaphorical beauty. Chappie on the other hand tries to deliver the same experience but with the director and writers' hands tied behind their back as they try to flesh this out.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

The plot of this flick is about the discovery of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis). Turns out, she's royalty in the universe, and what a giant universe it is: various 'Houses' are on planets throughout the system, and the House Abraxas has its eye on Jupiter Jones - turns out she is the reincarnation of the mother to the children of the throne James D'Arcy, Tuppence Middleton, and Redmayne. But she's eyed to be killed for reasons that involve things with the Earth and populations and things that I shouldn't go into for too many useless spoilers.

he plot. It's everywhere. The story is all over the place. One minute, it's a comedy. The other, it's a serious Game of Thrones-like kingdom drama. Another minute, It becomes Modern Family. It's everywhere! The plot has no focus whatsoever. It feels like someone grabbed some deleted scenes of his favorite TV shows and put them together on his laptop. Even Memento, though the non-linear narrative is confusing, it still had a simple storyline. Even Inception had focus, despite it's big scale. But those two were great movies. Jupiter was not.

Project Almanac (2015)

Admittedly I did enjoy this film, despite its tired and uninspired use of the found-footage gimmick and the teen vibe that saturates every scene in this film. It's not wildly inventive with how it tackles the sub-genre of time-travel, but there are a few glimmers of originality in an already derivative heavy lineage and visually some of the effects are pretty neat. More time-travel movies need to have that explosive mode of teleportation like you'd get in the Terminator films.

This would have been an entertaining movie if not for the horrible flashing, jolting and constant moving of the camera. Apparently we were supposed to believe that the filming of the movie was done by one of the actors. At times that almost seemed credible but at other times impossible - particularly when David goes back in time by himself.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (2014)

I watched this movie because my little cousin beg me to accompany him. I don't like the TMNT series, and I don't think something will change my opinion about it. I do love reading reviews before I watch a movie, and I read a lot of bad reviews. That's why i didn't expected this movie to be good or amazing. This movie is for kids, totally for kids just like the last Transformer. Kids will like it, adults will hate it. Back then when I watched Transformer the first time, i really like Michael Bay, he is genius. And ugh, you don't know how much I hate Megan Fox, and I had to sit watching this movie seeing her face as the lead actor. She is the Shia of TMNT. lol

Anyway, I love the turtles, The CGI of the turtles are good. But for the other are blehhh.. Megan Fox is awful in here, not like as if she is good. Sorry, no hating, I know. The story is nothing special, just very normal story. The villain characters are undeveloped. But I love the chemistry between the brothers. And father and sons. It's easy movie, if you want fun and if you want to ask your kids to watch kids movies you should ask you kids, little siblings, or whoever they are to watch this movie. They will enjoy it, and laugh.