Mission Impossible 4: Not as bad as I thought it would be...

As River Song says, "Spoilers [below]." 

Just let me get this out right now...I don't like Tom Cruise. I never liked Tom Cruise, I don't think I ever will like Tom Cruise. There's just something kind of creepy about him. I never watched any of his movies except for the Mission Impossible series and he kinda just scares me.

So I saw this movie because I love love love action movies and not for Tom Cruise.

The good:

+The main cast (other than Tom Cruise)--a STELLAR cast. I mean any cast with Simon Pegg is automatically a stellar cast but still, amazing amazing.

       =Simon Pegg as Benji: Oh dear Lord, I love this man. He can do no wrong in my book. Ever since I saw him in Hot Fuzz it's like he just keeps getting more and more amazing. There's something so innately funny about him. I love all his lines, when he's Russian and babbling and when he goes "You'll regret this, Private Egorov, pshh." He brought some great comedic timing to this action movie and I love comedy-action. Every piece of dialogue he says is an automatic great one-liner. And when he gets all serious I love him even more! When he shoots Winstrom from down the corridor, the look on his face is bad-ass.

      =Paula Patton as Jane Carter: I actually really really really liked her. She wasn't annoying and she could kick some serious ass! And she looks right for the part too. She looks muscular and strong, like she could beat up grown men. And has that amazing fight scene with Lea Seydoux as the assassin where she literally launches herself across the hallway, like a lion or something. Kristen Kreuk and Lauren German were rumored to be considered for the role...(there's Lauren German again...geez can I not escape from her?) and omg it would have been kinda horrible if they had been picked. With their little stick arms?? I can hardly imagine them being able to fire a gun let alone incapacitate two grown men. I can only imagine Kristen Kreuk running around wide-eyed hardly able to do anything and Lauren German trying to act but only succeeding in looking wooden and hardly believable when it comes to more "emotional" scenes. And Paula Patton is so pretty! Not the conventional stick thin. I was rooting for her the whole time and she could definitely hold her own. I like how even though they had that cliche of a woman agent having to seduce the old rich guy, she was actually feeling really insecure about herself. Yeah. I hope she gets her own spin off or is included in more MI movies. I liked her backstory as well with that Agent Hannway, it was a smart move on the writers part because it automatically made her a likable character.

     =Jeremy Renner as William Brandt: Can I just say Jeremy Renner is freaking awesome? I've been a fan of his since The Unusuals and then The Hurt Locker and he can really do not wrong. I saw Thor so I could see the cameo of Hawkeye....is that taking my fan-ing to an extreme level? Oh well. He's smart, funny, and is seriously great at the fighting parts. He is also more comedic than I originally thought he was going to be. He's obviously the "straight" man to everyone's slightly more funny selves but then as the movie goes on, he gets more and more hilarious. When he does the lunges before he jumps into the tunnel. ("Next time, I get to seduce the rich guy.") Hilarious. And he was actually sort of sweet in this film...he kinda plays douche-y characters a lot of times. In The Town, in The Unusuals, S.W.A.T., in Dahmer (...well he played a serial killer in that one...so...haha) even in The Hurt Locker, so it was nice to see him actually being a nice, caring person...for once. I liked his backstory, and I liked that I felt sort of sorry for him in the middle of the movie and then happy for him by the end. And I liked his banter with Benji ("I think we've glossed over a big part of the plan. I-I jump and then..." "And I catch you..." "It's a 25 foot drop! They're MAGNETS." "What part of I catch you don't you understand?"). I think his character is gonna stick around for the next one? I heard his character is supposed to take over when Tom Cruise decides to step down. Also, next year is gonna be the year of Jeremy Renner. Like how 2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling (who I don't really like). He's gonna be in The Avengers and then in The Bourne Legacy, both action movies so I'm excited to see him beat some people up. I think he does action movies really well. (His hands kinda bother me because they remind me of this guy's hands that I know...and I don't really like the guy...so I automatically associate those types of hands with that guy I don't like...it's a weird thing...I know.)

   =Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt: Alright, so I don't like Tom Cruise but luckily he wasn't really focused on that much in this movie. In the third one it was all about Tom Cruise and...the third one was boringggg...In this one, he didn't speak too much so that was good...and a lot of his acting was all about subtle acting in his face which I thought was smart. When he talks too much I get annoyed. It was good acting when he says through gritted teeth, "I am. taking. that. briefcase." And his little snarky comments to everyone. He was an interesting and likable character but I'm still not a fan of Tom Cruise. At least he didn't smile in this one, I liked that he was a lot more broody. His smile reminds me of The Joker from Batman (not exactly a comforting expression on his face, more...uncomfortable...).

+The Director: Brad Bird. Oh Brad Bird. I love you. I loved The Incredibles and I loved Ratatouille and I loved The Iron Giant. You can do almost no wrong in my book. I love his comedic timing. That's the one thing I really really admired about this movie. It was action-packed but it was still funny. The moment where Ethan is trying to get back into the room but his line is too short and Brandt goes, "The rope isn't long enough!" and Ethan replies, "NO SHIT!" Or when he tries to catapult himself back into the room and you think he's gonna make it because it's a movie and that's how all the heroes are (they're perfect), he instead stops his fall with his face, runs into the top of the window and almost falls to his death. There are plenty of moments where you're like "OH (ouch ouch ouch that's gotta hurt)." Bird also does suspense really well and fight scenes. There was one scene which was almost exactly like the The Incredibles though...and I wish I could remember what it was but I can't...

+The fight scenes and action: Pretty great. Stuff I had never seen before. The technology was good. That car was kinda freaking amazing. And that blow up crash bag that you can throw and then it blows up before you fall and smash every bone in your body was pretty cool. I wonder if that can actually work...I mean isn't it like trying to land on an air mattress? Does it really cushion your fall? But I digress. The screen with the camera thing was also pretty cool. And the fighting between Brandt and Cruise and the fighting between Brandt, Cruise and those bodyguards...and just fighting in general. Although, I would wonder about when Brandt is fighting Winstrom, how come he couldn't get his way out of that one? I mean we had just seen him break a guy's leg with his arms...he can't get out of Winstrom's hold? Maybe it was to show that Benji can shoot a gun... Hunt's fight with the bad guy was pretty great. Just because it was a bunch of older guys duke-ing it out and basically injuring themselves a whole bunch. That whole time I was just wincing because they...are just so...not young. And when he goes into the car and drives it off the elevator...I was wincing with him. But how come the old bad guy can match Tom Cruise in a fight? That is sort of...reaching a bit. I mean seriously? He breaks Cruise's leg with a kick...unless it's a mighty Kung Fu kick...I don't see that happening. Who taught him to fight anyway? A martial arts master? Are they frequent in Germany or Belgium or wherever he came from? On top of being just naturally crazy and planning nuclear world war, does he go to the dojo and bang out some karate? That was asking the audience a bit too much in the suspending disbelief department.

+The comedy: The comedy was so great. I loved the countdown that Brandt does and that rich Indian guy who is only on for like five minutes and yet almost steals the show. He makes Agent Carter find him in his party and then he does that little dance to get out of his shoes and then she wrestles him into a hold. It's hilarious. Or when Brandt has to convince himself to jump into that wind tunnel. Or the Russians. Bogdan and his "SERGEI!"

+The music: was actually very good. I liked the classic MI theme coming in at pivotal moments and the placement of those recognizable notes was extremely smart. And the score around the theme was very good at building suspense. I only noticed it the second time I saw it but I realized it was a pretty good score.


The eh:

+The editing: The beginning was kind of slow. It could have been cut a little better so that it would flow a little better. Just a little shave here and there, time-wise and it would have been a better cut, tighter movie. It isn't really until after the Secretary tells Hunt about the IMF being disavowed does it start to flow better and become more suspenseful. I think he focused a little too much on the comedy in the beginning part. I liked the comedy, don't get me wrong, but I think it just slowed down the pace of the movie too much. The ending fighting scenes could have been better cut as well, I think. The fight scenes in the middle where it's quick and brutal had more of an impact for me than the ones that drag on and on. I mean, again, I can't really believe that that crazy Professor "Cobalt" could really match Ethan Hunt in fighting techniques and yet Hunt and Brandt can dispatch the assassin's bodyguards in one fell swoop, can you? Maybe if they had made it more into a gun fight it would be a little more believable. Or if he had a bad wound or something. And again with Brandt vs. Winstrom.

+The plot (kinda): WELL, I can give this a little more slack. I liked how they kept getting foiled until the last minute. It made for a really high suspense situation. I mean obviously it couldn't happen because it's a Mission Impossible movie and they never fail but the whole time you were thinking but what if the director throws us for a loop and they do fail? It's like he was playing chicken with the audience. But I was interested in the plot holes. Like when Hunt's impersonating the Russian general and they're bringing all that equipment into the suitcases and it goes through the metal detector and X-ray machine. I mean wouldn't the security of the Kremlin ask questions? Or is it because he's supposedly a high-ranking general that they don't give the bloody screen, camera and ipad a second look? Or how did Cobalt know they were gonna be in the Kremlin at that time? How did the Russians know that Hunt was in Dubai? And why Dubai? Didn't anyone see a little figure hanging off the hotel and ask questions? I mean he did crash through the window with that wooden spool thing, wouldn't they have looked up if they felt glass raining on them? And is the window really that weak that a wooden spool could break it? If that's the case, I am never going to that hotel. ever. And why did the technology keep failing? It's like Spy Kids and how the Machete brand never works. How realistic is this plot anyway? Why would some dude just be walking about with Russian nuclear launch codes? Even though I'm pointing them out and making fun of them, I still like this movie. It's just interesting to look at the holes.

+Sort of cheesy dialogue: When Ethan is making that speech about needing them all..."We've all got to do this together," all I could think about was High School Musical, "We're all in this together" which made me laugh. No one can say that anymore without me thinking that. The writers should have picked a better line. The dialogue wasn't the best all the time...but then again who's paying attention to the dialogue with all the fighting and explosions going on?

+Lea Seydoux: She's extremely beautiful but I didn't really believe she could be an assassin that would be able to beat up people. Maybe with a gun she would reign supreme but hand-to-hand fighting? Not so much. She did play it well though. I didn't like her at all which is how it should be. And when she was kicked out the window...I was actually kind of happy. Again, which is how the audience should react.

DS9: Reviews

So I've watched quite a few DS 9 episodes since my last review. I don't know if I wanna go through all of them, just a few that I remember things about or my irks about each one I guess.

Season 1, Episode 15--Progress: It was alright. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. Although I didn't really like how Major Kira acted in this episode. How can she continue being a badass if she falls for every sob story that comes along? One man's home is more important than the power needs of her whole damn planet? I would have just told the old man to move, or we'll transport you out of there by force. Which I guess is good that I wasn't in her place, because I'm mean. I don't even remember how the episode was resolved. Shows how much I cared about it...

Season 1, Episode 16--If Wishes Were Horses: This one was kind of stupid. It had to do with the mind giving fear a physical manifestation. Again. Okay, it wasn't fear this time, it was "imagination" but it was still stupid. The way they solved the problem was to "believe" that it wasn't happening. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know this was a Disney film. Why would O'Brien wish Rumplestiltskin into appearance anyway? And they weren't just figments of the crew's imagination but actual aliens coming to observe them. But again, why? They never said why it was. I feel like the whole premise was just an excuse to film Odo chasing an emu down the Promenade. Because, that was damn funny. Poor man.

Season 1, Episode 17--The Forsaken: Oh this episode was so cute. Not much in plot but a lot in character development. Poor Odo. An ambassador comes and develops an affection for him and he doesn't know how to handle it. He was so confused and flustered, he was actually running away from the woman. And then they get stuck in an elevator and she babbles on and he can't stand the noise but lets her talk but is obviously not listening at all. And then he melts. Which I thought was sweet at the end, that she catches him in her skirt. And that was the episode...

Season 1, Episode 18--Dramatis Personae: Another stupid mind episode. This time it wasn't fear that was messing with anyone, or imagination, but a sense of mutiny and discord. Do they have to go through every possible emotion before the end of the series? The next one they're gonna do is happiness where everyone skips through a field of happy pretty flowers, braids each other's hair, and then end the day holding hands and singing "Kumbaya." That'll be the day. I hope that that never ever happens. And I don't even know what it, that mist thing, was.  Again, goes to show how much I pay attention when I don't really care. But Odo is the only one who doesn't change his personality and he has to save everyone by playing to everyone which I thought was pretty cunning of him. What was the purpose of that mist thing anyway? I was trying to figure it out, like maybe it was to show warn people not to fight with each other. But then I was like, that makes no sense whatsoever. There was no reason to have this episode. It wasn't plot development, because the problem gets resolved in the end or character development because everyone was off their rocker and acting totally out of character. The only character it really showed was Odo and how smart he was...which is great, I love Odo, but really? A whole episode to show Odo's greatness? Maybe it was supposed to show how Kira and Sisko are getting along better and acting as more of a united front by the end of the episode...but that was in like the last 2 minutes. The rest of the 43 minutes was Kira trying to kill Sisko and take over the station. So they didn't really make that clear.

Season 1, Episode 19--Duet: This was actually a pretty good episode. The tense relations between the Cardassians and the Bajorans are actually an interesting look at how people deal with a war suddenly being over but the fears and animosity between an invading force and the people they oppressed still being a problem. Kira captures a Cardassian who claims to be the military leader of a Bajoran work camp that was akin to the Concentration camps of the Nazis. She was there when the camp was liberated and saw the death and destruction brought on by the Cardassians. So she is overjoyed to see that the General of the camp is in her custody and the people of Bajor. She wants to put him on trial as a war criminal but Sisko is reluctant to give him up just yet. They end up finding out that this Cardassian altered his looks and wanted to be taken prisoner of Bajor because he was a filing clerk that worked at the camp and felt overwhelming guilt at what his people did to the people of Bajor. He said he heard the screams and he couldn't stop them. He thought maybe if he looked like this general and was caught and found guilty in Bajor, the Cardassians wouldn't be able to deny their involvement in these horrible deeds. But Kira releases him, only to have him get killed by another Bajoran who says all Cardassians are the same, what is the harm of one less?

It was a good episode in which Kira realizes that while the Cardassians as a whole were not great people, that some were truly horrible and relished their status as the Bajorans' captors, others were scared, didn't believe in what they were doing to Bajor and yet couldn't stop the machine that was their government which had already started to move against the Bajorans. And then after the war had stopped were overcome with guilt. She may have started to forgive the Cardassians a bit and yet her realization is not shared by the rest of Bajor. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the future, as the Cardassians become more and more of a threat again.

Season 1, Episode 20--In The Hands of the Prophets: Another great episode. The Bajorans are one of the only alien species that have such a strong religious belief. The Vulcans, ever the practical ones, never seemed to put much stock in faith, neither do the Romulans or the Ferengi. Even humans don't have much of a strong religious background, the implication being that once a species has reached Warp capability then they have devoted themselves wholly to science. But Bajor is deeply religious and this is a fascinating angle to play with. Some of the nuns? monks? they call them Vedics are more strict about religion than others and one, a Vedic Winn, does not approve of DS9's school teaching about the aliens in the wormhole. In Bajor, they consider the Aliens as prophets. It's sort of like the argument between the evolutionists and the creationists and what should be taught in school. Vedic Winn would be considered the "creationist" in this context. She believes that the Federation should leave the teaching of Bajoran children to the Bajorans while Keiko O'Brien, the teacher of the school, believes that everything should be taught, yet not the religion because school should teach facts, not beliefs. It's a question not easily answered in the real world. How much does religion play into schooling? Some people say none at all, others say that if evolution is taught then creation should get an equal say. I say, well I'm Christian so I say creation is true. But that's just me. But I don't think it needs to be taught in schools persay. I mean just pushing this agenda is not the point. People need to worry about other things, like the massive unemployment that plagues this country, or the problems in the Middle East, or the problems that we have in the actual United States rather than these petty arguments about government vs. religion...but I digress. Anyway, Vedic Winn turns out to be bad and she starts up this Bajoran religion hoohah to get the other Vedic up there so that he can be assassinated and she can be the next "Kai" (or their like Pope person). She made one of her followers plant a bomb in the school and all this other stuff, so she's really a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket and not all the Bajorans follow her but it sets up for the major story arc in the next season...where Bajor is having problems and the Bajoran people want to have a Bajor for themselves without any foreign aid or the presence of Star Fleet.

Season 2, Episode 1-3: Kira goes to find this Bajoran prisoner of war still being held captive by the Cardassians who she says is the only one who can bring unity to Bajor. This is a huge story arc that goes on for three episodes. Something that I haven't seen from a Star Trek series. Usually they have two parters but never three. It's a very quick look at how a provisional government can fall to extremists in a place where there doesn't seem to be strong leadership. A group calling themselves the "Circle" wants a Bajor for Bajorans without the interference of outsiders such as Star Fleet. But there is a need for the Federation at the mouth of the wormhole and at Bajor that isn't strictly selfish. Without the presence of Star Fleet the Cardassians would swoop in again and invade Bajor...again. What the Circle doesn't seem to understand is that Bajor isn't strong enough to hold off another Cardassians invasion, no matter how much they want a Bajor for Bajorans. The Circle tries for a coup and yet they end up failing. For one, they were getting weapons from the Cardassians who are just waiting for the Bajorans to kick out Star Fleet so that they can come back, and for another I don't think Bajorans want to fight again. Hopefully in the future Bajor can have a stronger government leadership. The War Hero Li Nalas ends up dying and dies as a martyr, a symbol for the Bajorans. And the provisional government comes back into place...I think. I wonder what will happen to Bajor in the future. The provisional government is shaky at best and I don't think this is the last we'll hear from Vedic Winn and her "Circle" friends. There are 6 whole seasons more. So we'll see.

DS9 Review: "The Storyteller"

So the whole premise of this episode is about the Bajoran world. O'Brien and Bashir go to Bajor while two Bajoran factions who are arguing about land come to the Space Station to negotiate terms of a land treaty. It was an alright episode. I wasn't that into it. I'm not a huge fan of episodes that center on Nog and Jake. I don't like Nog in general. He just annoys me.

The good:

+Bashir was quite funny in this episode. How he's trying to get on O'Brien's good side and when he has a sneaking suspicion that O'Brien doesn't like him...well when O'Brien gets stuck being the Sirrah (or storyteller for a Bajoran village that they visit) Bashir cannot hide his glee. And he's constantly goading the situation to get more and more uncomfortable for O'Brien.

+Other than that...I can't think of anything I thought was good.

The Eh:

+Again, Jake and Nog-centric episodes always annoy me. They're irritating and I don't like it when they do stuff to get into trouble. I felt bad for Odo this episode because they go and try to steal where he sleeps (which is in a bucket in his office) and Nog fills it with oatmeal and throws it on Jake and Odo catches them. I felt like they were disrespecting Odo and driving home the point that Odo is "different" just to impress some girl. I know it's supposed to be harmless fun but it's still not a great way to act.

+The young girl who played the leader of one of the factions arguing could not act for beans. You can tell she had a hard time speaking the lines and it just sounded so fake. I don't like it when people can't act well...it throws me out of the story.

+The guy who tries to kill O'Brien and then turns out to be good. What? Why would he go and try to kill him and not just sit down and talk to the guy? Could he seriously not see that O'Brien didn't want the job? I mean if he had killed him then he would have regretted it because O'Brien didn't even WANT to be the Sirrah.

+The stupid monster thing. Really? A manifestation of their fears? WHY would you make something like that in the first place anyway? That is so dumb. Once a year the whole village has to freaking come together and "believe" that they can defeat this thing. Are the villagers really that dumb to need a "Storyteller" to make them "band together"? Why can't they just band together themselves. Why won't the "Storyteller" tell them that it's their own dumb fears that is creating the monster? Then they could stop having a monster! Uhh duh?

Hopefully the next episode is better? Hopefully more other people centered.

Hawaii 5-0: Ki'ilua

Usually I don't review specific episodes of shows but this was the one episode I was actually on set for. I don't know if this will become a regular thing considering usually I just like watching the stories and don't really like coming up with words about the stories. I think I'm just pretty lazy.

(SPOILERS)

The geeking out:

So so so! I was there when they were filming! I got to see all the principal actors and meet Mark Dacascos. And Alex O'Loughlin talked AT me...not really TO me. Or he was just talking to himself about Milkduds in which case, then he's...sort of crazy.

I went with the military trucks and jeeps you see in the episode because the museum I volunteer with loans them out to the production company.

I made friends with all the stunt guys and the North Korean rebel soldier guys. They were all extremely nice. Whenever they were behind the camera they would come talk with me and we all ate lunch together all the time. Especially since I'm Korean and they were all supposed to be Korean, we just bonded over being Asian.

The dude who was speaking Korean was actually Korean which is good and he did really well considering he had never acted before in his life. He called me "little one" because dude, did you see how tall he was? At least a foot and a half taller then me. And he had to do a stunt where he rifle butt's Alex O'Loughlin in the face and I was there when the Stunt Director was giving him pointers on how to do it. He said to not be anxious or else the nervous energy would propel him more forward than what was comfortable for the actor and he would really hit Alex O'Loughlin in the face. Haha. Poor guy, he was so nervous he couldn't even think properly.

Mark Dacascos is the nicest man ever. Seriously. I spoke with him for like an hour about bugs and Iron Chef and martial arts and Dancing with the Stars. I did some weird arm movements and he teased me about it. He wanted to invite me to a party along with this stunt guy named Darryl but I don't live in LA. I was like darn. He said that he doesn't really get to act that much in Hawaii 5-0 other than a lot of looking mysterious and menacing. Or a lot of escaping. Haha. He also said that he tries to think of a different style of martial arts for every character he plays. It's true, he doesn't have that many dialogue scenes but at least the show will keep him on for a while. He escapes again! Haha.

Alex O'Loughlin talked to me...or at least at me...about Milkduds. Because he had never had any before. And was asking one of the Prop guys what a milkdud consisted of. The prop guy answered, "Caramel covered with a layer of extremely delicate chocolate (put in italics for the most sarcastic effect)." And Alex replies, "The chocolate is extremely delicate," through a mouthful of Milkduds. And then he turns to me because I've been watching this hilarious exchange and goes, "Milkduds, you should try them," and grabs another box, cocks his head at me and then goes off to set up the next shot. The whole time, I don't know what's going on in my mind but I'm like SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT. But doesn't happen. The next time he talked at me is when he tried throwing something into the trashcan and missed and yelled out, "THAT F***ING SUCKS," really loudly and then glanced and me and says, "Oops, shouldn't say that."

Terry O'Quinn is also extremely nice. And he talked to me! About if the scene was wrapped and I was like Oh uh I don't know? And he was like Oh okay, and then apologized for putting me on the spot. !!! He's also kind of odd. When everyone else was lounging in the tent for "cast members only," he dragged his chair out to the edge of the field which looked at the Kualoa mountains with his guitar and strummed for the entire break. Which is actually a refreshing change from everyone else who are glued to their phones every time they're on break.

Lauren German and Scott Caan seem like they have a thing going on. They had a mini-tickle fight in the middle of a scene set up. It was very odd and it was intense enough for them to end up on the ground which was kind of gross considering there were cow patties everywhere.

I saw the helo take off and land which was really cool. To see a Huey make those kind of maneuvers which are actually very difficult.

I had to hear them say "Don't get married. Just find a woman you really hate and BUY HER A HOUSE," like five million times and hear the fake laughter every time afterward. After the 20th time, it's just not that funny.

The guy who was playing Jenna's dead fiancee had to walk around with makeup that made him look like a corpse for at least 2 days. He didn't have a name, the PA's and AD's just called him "The Dead Guy". One time I was in the van that take everyone everywhere and over the radio one of the AD's goes, "Uh, The Dead Guy wants to go back to base camp," and I cracked up.

I know the guy who drove the jeep onscreen. He's an actual transportation guy who drives the vans that the cast and crew take to get to location. His name is Andy.

I got to intern with the lighting guys one day. That was pretty fun for a while. They take these heavy duty golf carts called "gators" everywhere.

The gunshots were blanks shot from real guns meaning the sound was FREAKING LOUD. And the actors have a grand ol' time with them. They get as giddy as schoolboys really. And do the AD's have to scream FIRE IN THE HOLE every time the actors hold the gun? I get all ready to close my ears and then it's actually another 5-10 minutes before they actually shoot the gun.

The scenes where they're in the covered trucks and the trucks are driving along was never shot with the trucks actually driving. Instead the truck was stationary and some huge guy was on the side of it trying to push it and jumping up and down on it to make it look like it was moving. Sometimes the director said the pushing was too uniform so they would have to do the scene all over again to make the bounces look more random. At one time there were three different guys on the cab of the truck to make it move.

The scene where they film Wo Fat in the cab of the truck and he's looking at the bridge explode was filmed in a stationary truck with people with tree branches running past the light to look like shadows for when the truck was supposed to be "moving". Watching them was like watching a very weird game of ring around the rosey or duck duck goose, or maybe some sort of ritual dance.

Scott's dog is so cute. Her name is Dot and she just roamed around set. Scott Caan IS his character like when Dot was chewing at some grass and he turns to her and goes "Dot, why'd you gotta eat everything huh?"

I wish I had gotten photos but I'm a chicken and never ask.

The Good:

Larissa Oleynik's acting in this one. She was so good. I think I always think of her as that teenager in "10 Things I Hate About You" or "Alex Mack" so I never really realize how great she is as an actress but she's amazing in this one. I always liked her character so I'm really sad that she won't be with the show anymore. Lauren German doesn't really compare. Her acting is kind of wooden. I already wrote a post about this. I think some of her redeeming moments though was the Halloween episode and the one afterward where she and Max seem to have a really strong bond. That's pretty cute.

The premise was interesting. I liked the North Korean setting. I mean I'm Korean so the way they place Koreans into any plot for any show is always interesting to me. And the Korean sounded pretty good, they must have gotten actual Koreans to say the lines. Other than Alex O'Loughlin's "Okay, okay" in Korean...that was pretty bad. But he had just learned it like five minutes before and asked that one Korean dude, Andy I think his name was, about how to say it. Oh wait, he had to say "Do you wanna die?" in Korean as well...which wasn't that great and I didn't understand what he said until I heard it like a third time and then I was like Oh. But oh well, he's not Korean so I understand.

I like the twist that Jenna Kaye was with Wo Fat. I thought that it was smart to bring that in. It was character development, made her interesting and brought in a well crafted scene of confrontation between McGarrett and Kaye.

The cinematography was beautiful and the color grading. They always make Hawaii look way more pretty than it usually is. Only when the sun is shining and the skies are really blue does Hawaii look that way. And of course, since Hawaii was being substituted for Korea, they make Korea look pretty good as well, just by default.

I like how they dealt with Kaye's death. It was quick and startling and just shows how brutal Wo Fat can be. He's not a good guy and he discards people once they run out of use.

The Eh:

Alex O'Loughlin, I love ya but your acting needs some work. Not all of it but when you're supposed to be all secretive with Kaye at Kualoa Beach Park doesn't mean that you have to look around every 3 seconds. It's kind of distracting when you do that. Be a little more subtle, dear.

Korea is not that pretty and I don't think we have red dirt. Or palm trees. The only palm trees we have is in Jeju Island which is not anywhere where they're supposed to be. I also think they flew over some pineapple plantations. We don't have any of that in Korea. At all. And why did they fly out over the ocean? Are they going back to South Korea that way? If that's the case they should have made it more clear instead of making it look like they were gonna go fly to Japan in a Huey.

Lori Westin's character, I still don't like that much. Like why did she hug Steve at the end? It was so unnecessary other than to tell the audience SHE CARES but she's not even that much of a touchy-feely person. Keep her consistent people!

This episode was pretty good. At least considering I got to watch it being filmed. I love behind the scenes stuff.

Love Never Dies....I wish this show would though....

So, after the many success of Andrew Lloyd Webber...Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom of the Opera, he thought to himself, let me try for lightning one more time and decided that the only way to do that would be to take the monumental success of Phantom and milk it for all it's worth. Thus the monstrous creation of Love Never Dies was born.

It might be ironic that I'm using "monstrous creation" to describe a show in which the main character could also be described as a "monstrous creation" but I don't know how else to put it. There are just so many things wrong with this show that I don't even know if I can put it all into coherent sentences. But I can try.

Where do I begin...? (SPOILERS)

+The original musical was set in 1881. Andrew Lloyd Webber (who I will be referring to as "ALW" from now on) decided that the new musical would be set "ten years after the original story" in 1907...now I don't know who decided to do the math on this one but they should fire that guy. Ten years in the future would be 1891. 1907 is 26 years in the future. By that time, Christine would be a matron of 40-something years of age and the Phantom would either be really old or a corpse already. Oooh, romantic. I think the only reason they decided to place it further in time was so that the costume and hair people could make Christine into a Gibson girl. Why else would they put it so far ahead?

+They changed the Phantom's age AGAIN. They wanted to make the Phantom closer in age to Christine so it wouldn't be creepy when he was all seducing her. They seem to forget...the Phantom is a creepy old man. He may be misguided and tragic and a musical genius but he is also creepy. It's part of his charm I suppose. Which actually makes sense, I mean considering he's so old and yet has never loved or felt loved, it makes it even more pity-inducing. He is the original 40-year old virgin.

But okay, obviously ALW changed the age from Leroux's original story. There the Phantom was closer to 60...so he's shaved off 20 years off his age. Why, Phantom, you are looking mighty good for a supposedly 60 year old. I get it, it makes it more of a love triangle if the Phantom is younger. But if you're gonna change something keep it consistent! Don't say all of a sudden, now the Phantom is only 10 years older than Christine because then it's like spitting in the wind. It's like everything I changed before is of no matter, what I do now matters. And changing his age alters who the Phantom is, it changes the amount of pity you have for him. It almost changes the most base thing about his character. It takes away some of the experiences he's had, some of his life which makes up who he is. How would he have made it to Persia and back in his short 30 year life span? I mean it's not like he could fly there.

+The fact that it takes place in Coney Island. Really? Coney Island? That's what you're gonna go with. He's gonna go from Paris, which has some of the most beautiful architecture, some of the best views, a beautiful city, to CONEY ISLAND? First of all, why would he go to America? It's not like he has friends there. Or anywhere. But out of all the places he could pick, why America? We know he's probably been to Persia. But why not England? Or Switzerland? Or Belgium? No one would look for him in Belgium...(Why do I pick on Belgium? Because as Hugh Laurie says, they're small.) It would be easier for him to disappear on a continent which house people that speak more the 2 languages rather than in a country where the citizens have problem speaking one. Or disappear to Asia, he could probably roam around and never be found out again. But if America is where he wants, then out of all the places he could go, why CONEY ISLAND? It says that he owns his own carnival called "Phantasma"...really? A carnival? It is said that he was in a cage at a traveling show before he escaped if we're taking the musical to be canon. If that's the case, then why in all things holy would he want to own a show of his own? Does it seem like he would be a good business man? That this business would be something he would be interested in at all? The way he's portrayed in the musical seems like all he cares about is music and Christine, there are no little boy aspirations to own a carnival of his own. He probably had horrible experiences at that show, I mean he escaped from it, didn't he? He didn't stay and have a grand ol' time being locked in a cage.

+The fact that Madame Giry and Meg helped him escape. I know it's convenient to have characters already know about him from the first musical but they never struck me as the type to actually want to get involved with the Phantom at all. Madame Giry helped Raoul get to a certain point underground but then said, "This is as far as I dare go..." and left him right quick. Meg made it all the way down there but she was just curious. And Meg and Madame Giry seem to have a pretty close and caring relationship. Why then would Madame Giry ever sell Meg off as a prostitute to make money for a guy she doesn't have any connection to? Doesn't she care about her daughter? And then Meg being jealous of Christine, she doesn't have ANY connection to the Phantom. It doesn't make sense. It wasn't like he was speaking to her in her dreams or tried seducing her and found out she had like a horrible voice or something and then decided "F*** that" and moved on. I doubt he even knew who she was.

+Raoul being a drunk and a gambler with no love for Christine. Okay, just to get this straight, I'm not a Christine/Raoul shipper or a Christine/Erik shipper. I just go with whatever the actual story says. He may be a fop, pompous and not as passionate but give the guy some slack. If there was one thing that was undeniable, it's that he loved Christine. He had to, to compete at all with the Phantom. He had to be sweet, endearing, stable, the light side of love, everything the Phantom seemed to lack. So for him to be angry all the time, a drunk and a gambler, goes against his character and sells him short. The audience has to believe that they are in love. While we're obviously siding with the Phantom, we have to understand why she leaves him. Only someone worthy can be the "other man" or else we wouldn't even consider him as the other side of this triangle and then the whole story would sort of implode on itself. Every time he would say "I love you" or "Don't throw your life away for my sake," the audience would just laugh.

+Christine loving the Phantom and having a child with him. The only way this story works is if Phantom's love for Christine is unrequited. You have to pity the man and understand why she can't be with him. There are many different kinds of love and I think the kind of love she had for the Phantom was not a romantic one. Actually I don't think she loved him at all. I think she pitied him in the end but pity isn't love. She made her choice, and it was with Raoul. I don't like how they changed that part of the musical to make a smoother transition between it and the sequel. Really, it's contrary to the words they are singing. Christine is angry at that part. She doesn't understand why the Phantom has such an infatuation with her or why he's doing all these things to hurt her now. She had never given him any such reason for this abuse or a sign that she loved him back. Those hypnotized scenes during "Music of the Night" don't count. Every time afterward she is scared of him or in awe of him. She knows she could never return the amount of intensity he has when it comes to her. And she and Raoul have a past together. So when she leaves the Phantom in the Final Lair scene it's feeling of relief that she can just leave all this behind. When she comes to return the ring she is not crying her eyes out and needing Raoul to physically take her away, it's more of a look of pity, of a returning of something she cannot possibly receive. And then she hurries away and lives her life! She doesn't have a son with the Phantom...how was that even...when did that even occur? If she can't look at the man without his mask on, how did she do something that requires physical intimacy? That is one thing that annoyed me about Kay's book. Christine goes back to visit the Phantom who is on his deathbed, the result of years of drug addiction and she somehow conceives a child with him. On his deathbed. How did they possibly get it on? He's supposed to be dying, and I don't know about you but I thought sex took energy. Energy he doesn't have...while he's DYING. Anyway, even in Leroux's original novel Erik tells her that he knows she loves Raoul. So even the Phantom in his rage induced delusions could see it. ...argh.

+The music was...not ALW's best work. There isn't anything exciting about the music. It's actually very boring stuff and very repetitive. It's been done before, it doesn't need to be done again, to such a horrible plot too. The Coney Island Waltz was one phrase over and over again and I don't need to hear it over and over again. I just wanted it to be over and then the title song "Love Never Dies"...dear Lord in heaven...Even if you have training it's difficult to sing. After a while it just sound like screeching. I don't know what ALW was thinking when he started composing these melodies but sometimes the human ear needs to rest from the highnotes or else you feel like your nose is going to start bleeding or your eyeballs will burst or something from the pressure. And for every song that "Christine" sings, she always has the most ear splitting high notes. In Phantom of the Opera, he knew how to utilize those highnotes as triumphant moments like at the end of "Think of Me," to show that Christine is actually an amazing singer like at the end of "Phantom of the Opera" or moments where there needs to be clarity like "Yet in his eyes..." or emotional moments like at the end of "Wishing you were somehow here again" not for the whole damn song. Which is how it is for "Love Never Dies" at least during the extensive and very long chorus section. In other songs too like "Once Upon Another Time" her whole part is extremely high as well as in "Beneath a Moonless Sky". The songs are TOO operatic in my opinion and I'm not one to say that since I love love love classical music but it just doesn't fit with the setting and how can half the songs be operatic and yet the other half be carnival music? At least with "Phantom" they were all in an opera house so it makes more sense and the songs balanced on a fine line between too opera and too musical theater. I would even argue that the original musical had actual songs that were all musical theater and less opera with just hints of opera to set the tone like with the addition of the made up Operas "Hannibal" and "Il Muto".

This is going to get sort of technical--I've noticed that ALW likes to reuse musical phrases. Much of his music is a repetition of specific phrases. (This means I've listened to this musical a LOT to notice). For example, "Music of the Night" if you actually sing it, it's a very repetitive song. There are about five verses, three times to sing something like a chorus and two bridges or in letter terms it would look something like this: AABCABCABB1. It's long and if you're actually singing it, it can get kind of boring without any acting behind it. But when you watch a good actor take the song and put everything behind it, you forget about the repetitive nature of the song and just go with it. Which is how it is in the original musical. Take a similar type of song like "Til I Hear You Sing" from Love Never Dies and it's extremely boring. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good song, but it takes way too long to build to any sort of climax, especially at the snail's pace everyone seems to sing it. "Music of the Night" there's a peak in the song by the first "C"and then a second one by the second "C" which takes you on a roller coaster of emotion. "Til I Hear You Sing" starts off really slowly to save all the emotion for the end but by that time I'm already sleeping. Three verses and a chorus goes by before any sort of emotional stirring goes on. But in the original musical ALW puts in all of these hints of beautiful melodies on top of the songs. In opera terms you would call them Recitativos, the sections before the Arias start that are just sung dialogue. A lot of times they are really beautiful melody snippets and ALW puts those in too which shake up a score that could be, if not careful, extremely repetitive. Parts like "Yet in his eyes..." or "Twisted every way" or "I have brought you...", the very beginning of "Point of No Return", "Little Lotte" etc. Even his overture, when I had listened to it again more closely, had added flourishes that I hadn't even heard before. A far more complex and intricate musical score than Love Never Dies. "Prima Donna" alone had seven different parts with people singing over each other and the melodies cascading in and out to give the listener a different type of musical experience. And it pains me to say these things because ALW is such a great composer who can write all kinds of music. It's amazing that he can go from Starlight Express and Jesus Christ Superstar which are more rock based music to Evita and Cats which are more traditional musical theater to freaking writing his own OPERA even if it was only a few snippets of it (Il Muto and Hannibal). To go from electric guitars to writing for a pipe organ! I mean only this man could do it. The amount of talent he has always astonishes me. So to go from that to writing "Bathing Beauty"...is extremely sad. (And supposedly the Phantom composed the little gem that is "Bathing Beauty"...he would have rathered skewer his ear drums than compose that sort of musical drivel.)

+The casting--well people know how I feel about Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. I must say that Ramin has an amazing range though. He truly can go all over the place on the scale but how many times do I have to say it? The Phantom is a TENOR. He has a beautiful voice and has a great range but I still think that his voice should be a tenor voice. So to write a song for the Phantom where most of the notes are low...I don't know. It's just wrong to me. I know a lot of people say that Ramin is a baritenor but I think he sounds best at the lower notes that have some power behind them rather than higher notes. He's always a bit thin at the higher notes or he blasts them out and gets off-key which I don't like. And he's not a classically trained singer which I also don't like. I can hear it in his voice how he uses his throat more than his diaphragm. He's better than Gerard Butler (of course a lot of people are better than Butler...but I digress) but he isn't as polished as the Phantom's voice should be. He's supposed to be pitch-perfect and have a bell-like clarity which Karimloo does not have.

And Sierra Boggess's voice is just too screechy for me. Of course, with those songs it's easier to be. She did redeem herself with the acting though so that's good. Just not a fan of her singing.

Ugh. This musical just makes me so annoyed. It's like he just threw out his original one and I hate it when people try to change something that is so great already. It gives me all sorts of evil glee to know that it will never come to Broadway. Good for you Broadway, give that theater space to a musical that is actually good and leave this show to die.

The X Factor: Review

The show is rather bad isn't it?

I don't know what there is about it but I just wasn't that impressed. While I had little love for American Idol, I feel I still prefer that show to the one I watched last night. Maybe it's because of the simpering flattery of four judges who aren't that famous to deserve such words of reverence or the very bewildeirng song choice or maybe the contestants themselves who aren't up to snuff but I had no love for the show yesterday.

Let's start with the Judges. Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger, L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell would not know a great voice if they got bludgeoned with it. Either that or they are under contract to be extremely nice to every contestant which seems more likely the case. Because each singer was not the greatest ever. Maybe saying that on national TV was more like a confession in the judges' own inadequacies for none said anything of the sort, the artists were all praised to high heaven. The song choices were horrid and quite confusing. The need to "label" a singer as something one-dimensional, sickening. How is anyone supposed to be a musician when they are only allowed one type of music? Why pick songs that are either so out-dated or so out of touch with the artist? Why not allow the singers to pick songs they feel are the best suited to their OWN personality? What is the purpose of these so called "coaches" who are just leading them down the wrong path? It just seems like one big ego trip for Simon Cowell and maybe a little for the rest of the judges, so they can be in control of everything.

And the singers! What sort of travesty are they? Most of them weren't even on tune. Maybe it was the extremely bad choice of song with which they were forced to contend with or a deep-rooted nervousness at being live, but half of the singers were not on key. I kept waiting for them to become aware of their backing track, of the fact that they were not with it but they always disappointed. The only artists worth noting were Melanie Amaro, Rachel Crow, Drew, Astro and Marcus Canty. The rest could go, in my humble opinion.

This just shows how much of a judgemental person I am. I think if I was a jugde on that show I would be the meanest one there. I can hear off-key singing from a mile away and that would be my ultimate concern and ultimate fixation. I also have read way too much Phantom books so the title character's acerbic wit is now imprinted on my brain for now.

Let's hope they start getting better and that America doesn't vote the best off or else there will be no hope for this show.

Who wanted a second season?? ...

Tamora Pierce's "Mastiff" --Book Review (SPOILERS)

I have always loved Tamora Pierce's books. I remember reading them since I was in 7th grade and one of my friends came in with it and was giggling and sort of scandalized that anyone would write about periods in a book meant for pre-teens and teens. But I started reading Alanna and was hooked ever since.

I've kept up with reading Pierce's books even as I grew older. There's something about them that goes deeper than the demographic they are geared towards. I love the gritty realism that she places in all of her "fantasy" books. They talk about mud and guts, all matter of vomit and piss and dung, the unfortunate reality of periods and puberty, hormones, you name it. Something that other books don't really go into for probably good reason. It takes away the "glamour" of the book. But for someone who knows that the medieval ages weren't all kings and queens, funny hats, gleaming jewels and sharp swords but a place where there was filth everywhere and disease running rampant in the city streets, Pierce's books (all placed in another world but during a period much like our Medieval Era) bring a startling amount of truth to the conditions of how humans lived back then. Now, her characters have the added comfort of magic to help ease their tough lives but she's careful to keep the setting as practical as possible.

She also writes all about women power and I love love love her for that. These are the books that little girls should be reading. They inspire strength and power in women, that girls can do anything no matter how much men may try to put us down, that we are worth something, not meant to be just stuck in the kitchen "barefoot and pregnant" but can do something worthwhile with out lives. I have to say I get some of my "women power" streak from her books. Her heroines are all people to look up to, overcoming adversity and society's norms with determination, perseverance and a steel will to do what is right, to not stand down for the sake of their fellow women and men. All lessons that should be learned by women today really. That we are not second class citizens, that we should not let our bodies be exploited, that we need to fight for our equality and change men's thinking of what a woman is or what women should be. We are strong. Not the lessons from books like Twilight where the woman is there to be helpless and the damsel-in-distress. Where she is only meant to be the girlfriend or wife of a "powerful" man.

Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper series is about a Provost's Guard named Beka Cooper. The Provost's Guards are like the cops of the bigger cities. They are nicknamed "Dogs" because well I don't know why. Throughout the series, the audience gets to watch Beka grow up from trainee to full-fledged Guard. In Mastiff she is a fourth year Dog and on her biggest "Hunt" yet. The King's son gets kidnapped and made to be a slave. There's all sorts of politics involved like the fact that the King is trying to wage a bigger tax on the nobles and mages of the land so they kidnapped the Prince to gain leverage on the King before plotting to kill the King, Queen and Prince and put the King's brother on the throne, someone who can be more easily controlled.

It's an engaging book and I couldn't put it down. She weaves the fantastical and the hyper-real together in a such a way that the magic almost seems real. The characters are inventive and amazing. There are a lot of them though, and hard to keep track of. I felt the pace dragged a bit because a lot of it is truly a hunt, where they're on the road a lot, camping and searching for the missing Prince. Because it is written from Beka's perspective, a lot of the book is Beka's thoughts or observations which can get bogged down in directions of where they are or what her deeper emotions may be. There was a bit less action this time around. I thought the traitor plot was the most interesting. Once there was even a hint that there might be a traitor, the whole time you're trying to guess who it is. The end was a shock to me. I had a feeling Tunstall might die from a bit of foreshadowing in the beginning but I didn't think he was going to be the traitor. That was the only part that upset me the most because two books are spent with him being a great person and in this one he turns out to be one of the bad guys. I felt that it went against his personality actually and when he dies I was feeling extremely upset. I didn't think he had it in him to be a childkiller or a traitor to the Kingdom. He ends up dying and everyone doesn't feel that bad. Beka spends a few paragraphs grieving for him and then that's it while I'm still reeling from the shock. At the end no seems to feel bad for him at all. He was Beka's partner and he's just forgotten, just like that. It seriously felt like he was out of character for the end of the book. But what I like about Pierce is that she does add things like that, that people are not as good as everyone thinks or not as bad especially in the subsequent novels that she has been publishing. Everyone has a bit of both in them and she's right to try to make as complex a character as she can. It's upsetting but I'm sure Benedict Arnold was a great guy before he decided to become a traitor.

That doesn't mean I don't still feel really upset. I shouldn't be this upset about a fictional character but I do get attached to them. And none of her other books in this series had meaningless deaths of people that I cared about so I guess it was due. But she has a tendency of killing off people that I've grown attached to. In Alanna, Faithful dies or er returns to his rightful place and I was extremely sad about that, as well as her brother Tom, Master Si-Cham and Liam. In Daine's books, she killed off Rikash. In Kel's books, who didn't she kill off...? There was a high death toll in those books and each one was meant to be like a stab to your heart.

And the end was a bit rushed. It was unfortunate that she didn't expand the ending just a bit to Beka and Farmer's wedding. I did like her subtle building of their relationship though. It wasn't too all off a sudden that they loved each other and there wasn't the overdone underlying sexual tension that's been prevalent in a lot of fiction lately. It was more gradually built like how most relationships are and then there was a revelation about the other person that is more in line with how a lot of relationships are today.

All in all, I would recommend this book for all Tamora Pierce lovers. It was a solid addition and ending to the series but I wouldn't consider it her strongest work. It was a bit too convoluted in description and plot with too many threads of story trying to come together in one cohesive book which I don't think worked as well.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Blonde vs. Blonde

Two of my favorite shows have added new characters to their line ups. Morgan Brody, a plucky young CSI from LA joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab and a Lori Westin, the leggy NSA (?) Agent who joins the Five-0 team. Both are obviously additions to up the male viewership of their respective shows but both are used in different ways. Well, different way really. One is a full fledged character and the other one is only placed in the show to be a potential love interest for a main character and to attrach more male eyes.

Morgan Brody, the CSI audiences met last season in LA, is the estranged daughter of Ecklie, the sometimes misguided leader of the LV Crime Lab. She's plucky (There's that word again), feisty and altogether up for anything. She's a charming addition to the team. A little annoying sometimes, like in the recent episode where she was dumb enough to say she'll place the altogether very injured and very crazy victim into custody on her phone right in front of the guy who was regaining full consciousness and letting his hand fall near her gun. Now I know she probably didn't think he was going to go full Rambo on her but that doesn't mean she shouldn't have been on her guard at all times. Really, it was partly her fault that everyone ended up dying. But that doesn't mean it wasn't acted well. Elisabeth Hanois gives her character a cheerfulness and a gung-ho attitude that makes her not...painful to watch. And her whole character arc with a bit of flirting with Nick and a bit of competition (her side) and flirting (his side) with Greg gives the show a little bit more of a personal touch in a show that is notoriously known for keeping characters' private lives under wraps until the very last moment (CoughSaraGrissomCOUGH). The character centric episode was alright, seemed a little forced at trying to get the audience to like her (practically begging for the audience to like her, please like her) but overall well acted and just a little heartbreaking. Especially at the end when Morgan loses it because of her stressful day. She walks away from everyone, keeping up a strong facade until far enough away to let her emotions catch up. You gotta respect that.

Lori Westin on the other hand is a mystery. A one-note mystery. She's introduced as a blonde-haired object of flirtation for the strong-armed macho man that is Steve McGarrett. She's in a nice blouse and pencil skirt for her meeting with the acting Governor and she looks like she would break in half let alone be able to hold a gun. The Governor assigns her to the team and McGarrett puts up a hissy fit and so on and so forth until she's working in the same blouse and pencil skirt and one wonders if she just didn't have enough time to change or if that's just how she's gonna be for the rest of the season. Running after a suspect in heels is even worse and then one sighs because it seem like it will be. But the place where the writers' ask us to suspend the most disbelief is when she disarms the man that has a shotgun on her. Really? Really? She's half the size of that guy and you're telling me that her arm strength is enough to disarm him. Sometimes I feel like that with Kono too, where the suspension of disbelief is just too much. I can understand if she kicked the guy, women's legs are usually stronger but with her arms? No way unless she's got some Kung Fu moves that I don't know about. Unless her arms are the size of my cousins and she can bench press more than a hundred pounds will I believe it. Or maybe she just has wiry muscles? (More like...no muscles....) When will TV shows pick actual actors that look like they can do what they do on camera? Not just stunt work but someone who actually looks like they can punch you out? Why does she have to be so stick thin? The actress in Captain America said in an interview that she tried to look like she could actually pick up a gun and shoot it, that she wanted to have the physique of someone who could throw a punch and the bad guy would stay down. That's the kind of body type these women need to have to make it believable.

And so the episodes go on and she's believe it or not really hard to pin down. As an audience member, you're not quite sure if you even like her. She's not very friendly or cheerful, not charming, doesn't have an interesting backstory like Jenna, not an overeager rookie or a witty drawling veteran. And then the ahah moment comes when one realizes, she's just there to look pretty. There's no need for the writers' to be consistent with her because she can be whatever they need her to be. It's not a complexity of character, it's more like a lack of character. They don't know what to do with her. She's stoic and distant in one episode, witty and smirking in another, and then, the most out of character, gossipy and flustered. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she shouldn't be given something more substantial. I don't know what angers me more, the fact that she's just placed as eye candy or the fact that she's not a minority.

Which brings me to another point. Why are both these new characters blond and white? Can't people from other ethnic backgrounds be love interests too? I guess the majority of people are white, oh wait...it's not the FREAKING 18TH CENTURY. America's got a lot more diverse if anyone hasn't noticed. How come the other ethnic groups aren't really being shown in TV land? Most title characters are white. Most more ethnic characters are relegated to the asian mob, the hokey sidekick, the real sidekick or just second best. The only mainstream movies I know where the main characters are not pale white is the Harold and Kumar series. Is it really that hard to get other races as main characters? Yes, yes it is.

Take John Cho for instance. He's a great actor, diverse, versitile, funny, dramatic, he's been around since '97 with 67 titles to his name and yet only recently has he been in the spotlight. Now, people might say things like, oh but that's just the business, a lot of actors have that if not more. And that's true, it partly is the business of being an actor but he's had to be "Parking Valet" or the "Sales House Man #1" in more mainstream stuff. Or be in comedies where he might get an actual name or in some indie movie about a specific culture where he'll actually get a name. Even now being the more household name he is for Star Trek and FlashForward, he's still not getting more title parts. Which again, might just be the business but compare his acting chops to Channing Tatum and I'll ask again, which is more fair? (GI Joe was a horrible movie and no one can convince me otherwise.)

Now one could say, Sandra Oh made it. She's been in more substantial movies than American Pie and Harold and Kumar and she's in a hit TV Show. Which is true, but that's only one out of, what, more than 2 billion Asians (and that's just counting India and China's populations) in the whole world? Sort of a sad statistic I would think.

We need to do something about it. And I think people are. Websites like youtube and tumblr make it easy for budding filmmakers to post videos and gain popularity. Wong Fu Productions comes immediately into mind. People from all ethnic backgrounds (even "white" people), joined together to express their outrage at the casting announcements for The Last Airbender. Hopefully we can get to the point where anyone, no matter what color their skin, or what race they're from or their ethnic background, will be able to be as popular as the next person based on what really matters, talent.

It's nice to see Asian people in the spotlight for once. Hopefully it'll keep going.

Blast from the Past: Star Trek Review

If you don't want to know what happens in the Star Trek Movie stop reading NOW. Because this thing is gonna be filled with Spoilers. Actually...I might not have that much to say other than it's AWESOME and everyone should watch it.

Chris Pine as Kirk is FANTASTIC...he has the cockiness and the bravado and the gut instinct that is totally Kirk. He's less womanizing than Shatner's Kirk I think mostly because there weren't really any women in the movie other than Uhura. He also brings a sort of vulnerability, an intelligence, a sense of nobility and a sweetness that Shatner didn't really have. I think it's his sweetness that is really different. He has this young sense of being cocky but not annoyingly so. He's not annoying...which is odd. Not one time in the film did I think he was annoying as a womanizing jerk or as a cocky cadet or anything. I was on his side for the whole time, rooting him on, feeling his pain. He was very likable, that's the word. And boy does he feel pain in this film. He's always beaten up, the only reason he's still alive is because he can take it more than everyone else can. I mean he gets beaten up...like 5 times in one day, I should count next time.

Zachary Quinto as Spock was...OMFG NINJATASTIC....that's not even a word, well we'll make it word now. Seriously...seriously...he held his OWN in scenes with Leonard Nemoy playing Spock. And like the sexiness factor!! It should be impossible to make a Vulcan sexy but he managed it! I mean even with the bowl haircut and the pointy ears...he is DAMN sexy. And I love his fight for control...and being the good guy this time. We only ever see Zachary Quinto as the bad guy in Heroes and now he gets to play the good one. And when he was standing up to that Vulcan Council!! Omgggg he was just so perfectly subtly insulting...and when he said "Live long and prosper," giving just the hint of inflection on the words, it made me have shivers. And when he fights for control...it was heartbreaking. Gah...

Simon Pegg as Scotty only came in the second half of the movie but he was still GREAT! He had greattt linessssssss omgggg and he was so perfectly enthusiastic about everything. And I liked his Scottish accent even though it wasn't perfect, it wasn't like...a BAD Scottish accent.

John Cho as Sulu finally got to be MANLY...GOOO FOR MANLY ASIAN GUYS FINALLY, he pulled out this collapsable sword which sounds kinda hokey and it was kinda cuz it was like he just pulled it out of nowhere but he could FIGHT with it like NOBODY'S BUSINESS. And how cute he was when he couldn't get the Starship to move. Haha...He also got to be more serious...instead of the more college humor comedies he was making.

Karl Urban as Bones...WAS....OMG SO DIFFERENT BUT STILL GOOD. I mean he played Eomer in Lord of the Rings and then he played a lot of like darker action roles but this time he got to be FUNNY and he was funny!!! I mean the sequence where he gets Kirk on the ship by injecting him with this like almost toxic vaccine is one of the FUNNIEST SEQUENCES IN THE WHOLE MOVIE...HAHAHAHAHA. Omggg..I laughed so hard. And I like how he has this sort of dead panned humor.

Anton Yelchin as Chekov is sooooo cute!! His little Russian Accent and not being able to say V...he always says it as a W. So Vulcan is Wulcan and invisible is inwisible. Awww he's so cute. And everytime he said something I burst out laughing because he was SOO cute!! I don't know why they put him on Com though...hardly anyone can understand him. Haha.

Uhura kicks ASS. Omg she's so STRONG...and she can totally take care of herself. When she finds out she's not on USS Enterprise and tells Spock with this attitude and TELLS him that she's on the Enterprise he's like...Ooohhh well lookie here...must have gotten it wrong somehow...heh...yes, you're on the Enterprise and she's like "I thought so, bitch." haha...well okay not so much like that...but LIKE THAT....and yeah.

Things that surprised me or I didn't like: The skirts on the uniforms of the girl cadets in Star Fleet...like...SHORT MUCH?? Seriously?? Even in the military today the skirts are WAYY longer...they're like MINISKIRTS on the girls...and anyone who's a girl would know, we can't run in miniskirts!! How in the HECK are we supposed to do jobs in miniskirts?? At least make it longer...or let us freaking wear pants!...Class A's for women in the military have skirts wayy longer, I mean it's not about looking at the legs of the female it's about uniformity...geez Louise. Another thing that threw me for a loop was Spock and Uhura's relationship...it kinda all of a sudden was there. And I didn't see it coming...and I thought it was awkward at first but it kinda grew on me. I mean when she comforts him in the Elevator...that was a good sequence but...I don't know...all of a sudden it was there but before it wasn't...sooo it was weird. Maybe we'll see it evolve more. I kinda thought Uhura was gonna be with Kirk though. I felt like Spock and Uhura didn't really match that much...at all, personality wise...maybe that's why I thought it was weird. Uhura's feisty, I thought she would be with Kirk. Spock is kinda androgynous that way...haha...it's hard to imagine him with anyone even though he's sexy in this movie. Another HUGE plot point was the longggg thin line that holds the drill up...seriously...the Romulans couldn't think of a better way to secure it?? I mean didn't they think someone could just cut the line with some lasers and then bye bye drill?? I mean that's what Spock did and that was it!! It was kinda anti-climactic. I mean they should have known that someone would do that...and it was only ONE line. I mean they could have secured it with more or something.

Moments that made me laugh: Nearly the whole movie but to narrow it down, Scotty saying "I'm giving it all she's got Captain," and "She canna take anymore!" [I may have made that last line up...because I thought it was in the movie and it might not be...haha] And when Bones goes, "I'm a doctor, not a physicist." And any line by Chekov...that boy is so cute, "I CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT..." haha Any line by Scotty actually. I love Simon Pegg as Scotty.

I loved the whole first sequence, it was so good.

AND THERE IS GONNA BE A SEQUEL...I KNEW IT. Because of the way they made this movie, they don't have to follow canon at all because it's an alternate universe, so of COURSE there's gonna be a sequel because now the writers can do whatever they want, and make up whatever they want and no one can be like OH NO THAT'S NOT CANON because it doesn't have to be now.

JJ ABRAMS...I want to take off my hat to you. You have made a Star Trek that Trekkies can be proud of. Seriously, this is what the Star Trek franchise has culminated in. I mean I saw the potential it had to be REALLY good, to be Star Wars level good, to surpass Star Wars, in effects, acting, set design, script and story, and overall feel but everyone had kept making Star Trek that hokey, corny, never-want-to-be-seen-with second cousin of the more polished Star Wars. The premise was there, it had everything but it just needed that push to be EPIC. Now Trekkies everywhere can take pride in the fact that their beloved story/premise/world has been taken care of and one upped Star Wars. Seriously...the sleek lines, the epic feel all are attributed to you JJ Abrams. It is truly an epic piece of SciFi. Thank you, man, thank you.

I love how old SciFi shows are getting an upgrade to something sleeker, or more grittier, or more realistic. I LOVE THAT...Battlestar Galactica, now Star Trek, and old shows as well. Batman, Transformers, Bond. GAH! Makes me soo happy.

Blast from the Past: Harry Potter 6 Review

Saw Harry Potter 6.

It was okay. I mean better than some other of the Harry Potter films and stuck pretty close to the book but it wasn't THAT great. It was like every other Harry Potter, mediocre. Just the story making it something more than just ordinary.

On the good side:

Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy was pretty good. I mean he brought a sort of humanity to the character I guess. Although there were some shots where he was very good looking...and I liked his suit....but other shots where he wasn't good looking at all.

Oliver and James Phelps as the Weasley Twins were GREAT! I know have a thing for the Weasley Twins. I mean seriously. It's kinda like that for every Harry Potter fan who likes boys. First they like Harry and then move on to Secondary characters and then maybe back to Harry and then back to a secondary character again. I liked their shop. It was like a dream....for all mischief makers.

Alan Rickman as Snape was wonderful as usual. I like his sort of low-key approach to Snape. Not the sort of seething, frothing at the mouth madman that other people seem to think of him as.

Dumblerdore's death was done with great clarity and emotion. When Snape all of a sudden said Avada Kedavra I nearly cried right then and there. The look in his eyes was perfect. I almost did cry when Dumbledore died. I wish they would have put in Dumbledore's funeral though with the white tomb.

The fumbles at love were really funny and rightly so. But I feel as if they didn't really expand on it. Like Ginny and Harry. He was supposed to kiss her after a Quidditch match in front of everyone and he didn't. I feel as if they cheated us out of a moment. Blegh.

Cormac McClaggen was perfect. Whoever he was.

Hermione's hair in the potions scene...it should be that fluffy all the time!

LUNA'S LION HEADDRESS THING IS GENIUS.

Kinda fishy about Snape and Draco....especially when he pushes him against the wall. I foresee many slash fics popping up in the future.

And Harry being kinda....loopy after drinking the Felix Felicis....

Bad things:

There was one moment when Harry looked like Michael Jackson. NO JOKE. I mean his face was really really pale and he looked like he had eyeliner on and his lips were really red.

Bonnie Wright as Ginny was eh...it was like Ginny had no personality. Everything was said as a monotone. And the director seemed to put her in at the most randomest of times.

They didn't really expand on the Half Blood Prince even though that's what the movie is named. They could have just named it Harry Potter and Dumbledore's Quest for all I cared and that would have been a more truthful title.

They didn't put much of the meat of the book in it....other than Dumbledore's Quest.

Harry mouthbreathed wayyy too much. I don't know...do I even like Daniel Radcliffe anymore?? The world might never know.

Bellatrix's kiss on Draco's neck...bleghhh....incest.

All in all it was an okay movie. I still love Harry Potter and I love the fact that the stories were put in visual form but the books are still better.

As usual.

Rant: Vampires

Vampires are jokes now in the fictional world. What used to inspire fear and loathing in the minds of men have now become soft, pretty, love inducing (or vomit inducing) figures of "marble" that every fan girl from here to Timbuktu have their hearts set on. What has happened to these Nosferatu? Once one of the most feared monsters of our time, fictional or not (They are fiction, other people don't think so, I think those people are crazy but so goes the world) have become a laughing stock...or something to be lusted after.

I must say it started with Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. Casting Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as whoever they were made vampires one step closer to Edward Cullen. (Although I don't think many people took the movie that seriously as I'm pretty sure it wasn't that popular? People back then had their brains still. Interview with a Vampire is very close to Twilight in the prettiness factor and people rejected it then which only means the generations have gotten dumber, but I digress.)

In the beginning, when Vampires were first put on celluloid, Dracula was bald, ugly, old, and hunchbacked. No woman in their right mind wanted to become on of those. Or get bitten by one of those. He looked like a bat, all pointy ears and teeth. Dracula the book is written like a horror story, not a romantic one. It's supposed to be gruesome. Dracula was based on a Count that used to, according to legend, impale his victims and stake them outside to the horror of his enemies. Edward Cullen is obviously not Dracula, being neither bloody nor insane and altogether too human, no matter how many times Stephenie Meyer tries to prove otherwise with her descriptions of his pale skin, amber eyes and marble-Adonis-perfectly sculpted body.

Unfortunately, vampires are back in style with a protagonist that is NOT a villain like he's supposed to be. True Blood, the Twilight series and countless of other Young Adult books about vampires (MY GOD, WILL IT STOP? Seriously, when I go to the bookstore it's like every other book is about Vampires? Can no one think of anything better to write about?) and seemingly NEW movies about vampires as well! Soon Dracula himself will have sparkly skin and an affinity for animal blood.

Contrary to what I've been writing, I'm not a huge fan of the Vampire genre, I just seem to know a lot about it. I've never read Anne Rice's books, nor Bram Stoker's Dracula, nor most of the Young Adult books. I've never seen the Old Dracula movie or Interview with a Vampire. But from the little I've gleaned off the internet, pictures, and clips, the history I know of Vlad the Impaler, the vampire is not something to be admired but something to be feared! I know the whole tragic hero is appealing but it's a MONSTER not a HUMAN. No matter how much you spin it, that person is not a person anymore, it's DEAD. It might as well be a zombie! But you don't see fangirls for Zombies do you? Rotting flesh and an appetite for brainzzz would put anyone off, but it's alright if the dead person has flesh like "cold marble" and appetite for blood? I don't get you human nature!

But on a hypocritical note, I think Johnny Depp would make a very good vampire.

Backstreet's Back...alright?

So, for my third post, I decided to talk about something that I have liked that I am most in the closet about.

The Backstreet Boys.

Oh, don't give me that look. You've liked them too, one time or another, especially if you're my age or older. It was either them or N'Sync.

Was it something about the way they smoldered at the camera? The 90's dance moves? The cheesy outfits? The haircuts that were supposed to fit their differing "personalities"? Or maybe a combination of all that made boybands some of the most beloved music groups of all time? I mean even The Beatles could be considered a boyband...back in the day. The love of all-boy groups hasn't exactly been inspired all of sudden in the 90's, that sort of love has evolved over the decades. And even today, the Jonas Brothers were big for a while, and even good ol' BSB and NKOTB (or New Kids on the Block for anyone who doesn't know--or has been living under a rock) have been on a reunion tour to sold out audiences, so the love that I know I have for the Backstreet Boys hasn't exactly gone away for anyone else either.

But while I love the Backstreet Boys and I have to admit, a lot of their music videos...if not all of them, are very very cheesy. They can't help it, it's the boy band thing. But I stumbled upon the first version of "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and it's set in a Ski Resort. Seriously...a ski resort? Watch it.

Now, tell me that isn't totally random. Okay, I'm gonna break it down for you:

+The intro: who doesn't love some deep-voiced guy spouting off all the things that they think girls want to hear? It's not just the fact that it's kind of creepy, all I can think of is that Marvin Gaye song, "Let's Get It On." I don't know why.

+Location: They really put it in a ski resort...why? What's with the puffy jackets and goggle for no reason? It's not like it's for sex appeal, the guys are totally covered up! And the girls too so that's good. Maybe it's for the next point...

+One of the guys, Brian, draws a heart in the snow...dude, I knew you were a goofball but I had no idea you were that cheesy. It makes me wonder how you ever got your wife if you think that drawing a heart in the snow will make a girl love you.

+Nick looks like he's five.

+How come they all stand around looking pensive or in pain...? Or constipation? I don't know, I really can't tell sometimes. They just stand there while someone else is singing. Don't they have something better to do than stare into the camera while someone else is singing?

+The sweaters! Brian and AJ have the exact same sweater on. What? They get it 2 for 1 at the Hideous Sweater Sale?

Not that the new one is any better. Watch it.

+Nick's hair...that's all I have to say about that.

+The stereotypical rooms: They all have a room that's supposed to "match" their personalities? Whut? ...?

+The girls: They have to have all races, just to cover their whole demographic. Just saying.

+Howie's tear track motion at the "make you cry". I was just waiting for that cliche. Just waiting. Thank you for fulfilling it for me. It really made my day.

But I don't think that's the worst video. That honor goes to "Quit Playing Games with my Heart". Here's why. Watch it.

The bad:

+They're all in a Basketball court at NIGHT...who does that except for rapist/homeless people/pervs? If there were a bunch of boys singing in at a basketball court at night...I would run.

+The freakish close ups! I mean Brian is okay because usually he doesn't pull funky faces at the camera...but the rest of them? Like Howie and Nick...especially Nick. I think it was because he was so young and didn't really know how to be sexy so he was trying too hard...and boy was he trying too hard.

+Howie's random guitar playing. He played like two chords and then it cut away from him. That was the only shot of him with a guitar in the whole video. If they weren't going to use it why even put a little scene of it in?

+The whole bit in the rain. I understand that their fan base usually comprises of sexually frustrated teenage girls but seriously...in the rain? And Howie's weird undulations? Which just end up making you feel extremely uncomfortable, extremely dirty or both? Some of the shots it's only his naked torso rippling in front of the camera. Nick is the absolute opposite, he's supposedly tummy shy but you never see his torso in the video. Only from FAR FAR away. Most shot of Nick are close ups of his face in water. And then when he's with the rest of the guys, he's the farthest from camera. And it's actually really funny because he doesn't even look like he's part of the group. Just some blond white kid in the background doing some weird arm motions...

I do love this group...but seriously, how could you not make fun of them just a little bit? They certainly make it easy.

Don't get me started on N'Sync. If this is how I treat a group I actually like, how do you think I'll treat a group that I really have no love for?

Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Review

I told you I was a musical theater geek. So I warn you this is going to be long.

I went to see the Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary concert/show/movie thing. I don't even know how to explain what it is exactly. It's the musical show screened in a movie theater from the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. It's like the actual musical but filmed so more people can see it. I took my grandparents with me, we sat in the cold theater for like 3 hours. It was an alright show...I mean I'm very picky when it comes to things I like.

The Breakdown--(SPOILERS-ish)

The good:

+I liked the extra scenes they showed on the projection screens. Like the Phantom writing the notes as he was reading them.

+The closeups of everyone's faces. I mean the only way you'll be able to see close up of the actors' faces on Broadway is if you pay an exorbitant amount of money to sit in the front row (which I have done...cough).

+The woman who played Carlotta was pretty good, as well as the dude who played the husband in the production of Il Muto.

+"Masquerade" was awesome. It was great to have a lot of people on stage for once during that song. In the actual Broadway/West End production, there aren't that many people on stage, half of the performers are actually mannequins dressed in costume to fill out the staircase. But in this show, they had three full staircases of people. Which made it look pretty impressive.

+Colm Wilkinson. <3. I love Colm Wilkinson. If you don't understand, then you haven't seen the 10th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables. Here. Watch at 7:13. I have never heard anyone pull that one note off. He had also played the Phantom at one time or another. His voice is amazing, with a huge range of notes. If you want to see his 25th Anniversary performance it is here. Starting at 7:40. He, Anthony Warlow (who is also amazing), John Owen Jones who is also...you guessed it amazing and some other dude on the end who...has a horrible voice for the Phantom and I don't know why they picked him. It was always said that Andrew Lloyd Webber wanted a "rock and roll" voice for the Phantom which is why he picked ohGod Gerard Butler for the role in the 2004 movie which...was a poor choice. Broadway has always taken the Phantom's voice to be more of a tenor, more classically trained. While I feel West End productions always looked for a Phantom with a really powerful voice, a voice which could blow you out of the water, hence John Owen Jones (Anthony Warlow was the first Australian Phantom but I feel he is also West End Production material). Colm Wilkinson on the other hand, I feel has that rock and roll quality that Webber was looking for without being limited in its range or not "musical theater" enough.

+Seeing the Phantom actually strangle Buquet was a change. It was a good change I thought considering I've only seen the production on Broadway where it's only a shadow fight.

+The fact that the Phantom actually catches Christine instead of just letting her drop to the floor like he does in the Broadway production.

+The boxes in the side and people in period costumes actually as part of the musical but playing the "audience". That's pretty cool.

The Eh:

+The casting of the three principal actors--

=Ramin Karimloo was never my first pick for the Phantom. Never. I don't know how to explain it. I always thought his voice was too low for the Phantom. Now I've been listening to Michael Crawford since I was a little kid. I saw the Broadway productions with Hugh Panaro and saw youtube videos of John Cudia. Their voices are a bit more in the tenor range. They still have a fullness in the lower range but their high notes are awesome. Which they have to be for the role. The Phantom goes high up there on a lot of the songs. But Ramin Karimloo has more of a baritone voice. He never seemed comfortable with the higher notes, he just sort of...blasts them at you rather than floating over the note. I'm not saying he doesn't have an awesome voice as well but it never fit with my version of what the Phantom should sound like. He was great as Enjrolas in Les Mis with his voice but not the Phantom. There's also the fact that he was in the disaster that was the Phantom sequel "Love Never Dies." I heard he was the reason that there was a revival for the Phantom in the West End which I don't really understand and I hate his over-enunciations.

=Sierra Boggess. Dear me. I never liked her. Which sounds really really horrible. But it's true. She was the original cast of The Little Mermaid on Broadway and when I saw the preview for that show on TV there was something about her that annoyed me. I never thought her voice was that operatic and I feel like she had to get mondo training to sing like this. She was the original Las Vegas cast but her voice is too thin to be Christine. I mean if Christine is supposed to have all this singing potential, shouldn't her voice at least be powerful? Maybe they meant to base her off of Sarah Brightman's voice but even though I really really really don't like Sarah Brightman, I have to admit she at least had a fullness to her voice. Boggess was also in "Love Never Dies" which is an automatic strike against her and she has weird over-enunciations as well and an odd accent when she sings. It's like an Irish lilt. She sings this line "Am I now to be prey to your lust for flesh?" and says flesh like fliiiiiish. I was like what is that? Is flish anything like flesh? I have to admit that she can act though. I actually caught myself feeling bad for her throughout the show so I guess that's one thing she can do right.

=Hadley Fraser as Raoul. He was pretty angry throughout the whole show. Not the doting boyfriend he was supposed to be. He never really seemed like he cared for Christine at all. More just thought she was annoying or delusional most of the time. I felt like he was just rolling his eyes at her for the whole duration of the musical. So at the very end when the Phantom kidnaps Christine and he's supposed to save her, you don't really believe that he cares. It made the impact of their love story at the end very anti-climactic. His voice was good but his acting was off.

+The fact that the Phantom tries to choke Christine. The nature of his character is that he loves her so much he would kill FOR her but not actually...kill her. That goes against everything he believe in. I mean if he was just going to hurt Christine, why make her marry him and not just kill her if he couldn't have her? It even says in the musical "Did you think that I would harm her? Why should I make her pay, for the sins which are yours?" So after he chokes her he says that line in the show...which makes NO sense! He just did harm her!

+The fact that Christine is crying when she leaves the Phantom. In the Broadway musical you feel as if she pities him and feels sorry for him but understands that they'll never be able to be together. She can't be with someone so emotionally unstable. And I don't think she ever really felt romantically about him. He was more a father figure while he was the one who felt romantically about her. But in the show, she's crying like she loved him her whole life and wants to be with him and it's like Raoul has to drag her away. If she felt like that, why not just stay with the Phantom? It doesn't make much sense in the context of the thing.

+The fact that the chandelier didn't even fall, not even just a little bit. I mean it doesn't make sense why everyone would be running of the stage for a chandelier that's just sparking. I mean why would a candle-lit chandelier be sparking in the first place? In the beginning of the musical the chandelier is fitted for the "new electric light" so it wasn't electric before.

+The sets were very minimal which sort of disappointed me. They used a lot of the projections to make the sets but I wish they had done the real Broadway/West End sets.

+The piccolo player messed up. It was his moment! His solo! And he flubbed it. I felt bad for him or er..her.

This was long. But it's a long show. I feel like they should have cast it better but I can't really go against the show's creator who handpicked them. So I can only gripe about them after they'd been picked.