What I Want to See in Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" Series

Okay, so as you all might've heard, Amazon secured - what was it - a multi-million dollar deal to turn The Lord of the Rings into a TV series spanning multiple seasons. If that raises some red flags and sets off countless alarms in your head, I don't blame you; that was my initial reaction upon first hearing the news, as well. Despite what many headlines would have you believe, this isn't - in any way, shape, or form - a reboot of the cinematic masterpiece that is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but rather the coverage of events that take place in between LotR and The Hobbit. That probably won't set too many people at ease (myself included), but, at the very least, I find it to be an interesting prospect. So, with that out of the way, allow me to talk about...

Just to be clear, my ass is still squarely on the fence about this. I can't imagine anyone thinking that this would've been a good idea, and I'm even more baffled as to why no one's trying to tackle any of the events in The Silmarillion with this project. But, by and large, I'm cynical about this idea. As a life-long fan of LotR, however, I feel personally obligated to talk about this.

As of now, nothing else about the show has been confirmed, other than that it's happening, that the events in the show take place in between LotR and The Hobbit, and that it's set to be the most expensive one ever. No one's been cast, brought on board to be part of the writing team, tasked to direct, nada, zip, zilch. Since there's nothing in the way for me to talk about in that department, I'll instead talk about the things I want to see from the series, as far as creative and narrative approaches go.

Black Panther | MOVIE REVIEW

I'm not gonna lie, throughout this movie, I was crossing my fingers - hoping - for one of the characters to yell, "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?" at someone. That would've been fantastic, honestly. It's a missed opportunity if ever there was one.

Black Panther was directed by Ryan Coogler (who did Creed, which I absolutely loved) and stars Chadwick Boseman, Lupita N'yongo, Michael B. Jordan, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, and Forrest Whittaker, among a number of other people. As you already know, this film is the 18th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and takes place right after the events of Captain America: Civil War. This follows the story of T'Challa and the things he does following the capture of Helmut Zemo, and dabbles a lot in his return to Wakanda.

Personally, I was hyped for this movie, but not for the reasons that most other people were. The reason I was excited to see this was because Ryan Coogler was at the helm, and he had done Creed, which was one of my personal favorite films of the past decade. Many other people who had worked on Creed, such as Michael B. Jordan and composer Ludwig Gorannsson, were also brought on board to help, and that got me excited.

My 7 Most Anticipated Movies of 2018

With 2018 now officially upon us - for, at least, the past three weeks - I think it's about time to put together my list of...

So far, 2018's been a strangely quiet year for upcoming titles. The current slate doesn't have too much that piques my interest, but there's still enough to base a list on. As the title of this post would suggest, these are the movies that I - personally - am pretty freaking stoked for.

To be clear, this list could be subject to change over time. There's a bunch of movies coming out this year that still haven't been announced yet, and some projects on here could end up cancelled for one reason or another. Hell, I might lose interest in a project if nothing else ever comes of it.

This is also my personal and completely biased list of the movies that I'm most excited for. You might only agree with a handful of entries on this list, or probably disagree with the whole damn thing entirely. That being said, let's break the ice with some...

My 7 Favorite Movies of 2017

Okay, I know - it's been a while; forgive me. I've had to balance a lot of things since I last posted on here - classes, a new job and all - and so my reviews and such have since had to take a backseat. That isn't to say I didn't have time to watch movies during my absence here. Instead it was more of a case of me, personally, not finding the motivation or energy to keep posting here for now. I'll do my best to have something on here for you guys every so often - and I know I've made that promise before - just so y'all know I'm still around.

That being said, 2017 is drawing to a close, and it has been a pretty good year for cinema. Sure, we got, The Emoji Movie, Fifty Shades Darker, and Extra Service this year, but there were more great films than terrible ones that came out over the previous 12 months. I, personally, got to see some really good movies in that time, and I got to live some incredible cinematic experiences, as well. So, without further adieu, I present to you my...

In my humble opinion.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of things, this is my personal, completely biased list of the seven movies I enjoyed the most. The (grade) I might've given a movie as I reviewed it (assuming I have) will not matter. This list is based on how much fun I, personally, had while watching these films. Your list, of course, will be completely different from mine, and you might not agree with anything I picked. So, enough chit-chat, let's get right into my...

Okja | MOVIE REVIEW

I'm not gonna lie, that was perhaps the roughest thing I've watched since The Passion of the Christ. That was heavy.

Okja was directed by Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer) and stars Seo-Hyeon Ahn, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, and Jake Gyllenhaal. It's about this girl Mija and her pet hippopotamus "super pig" named Okja, who gets taken away by the folks from Tilda Swinton's corporation, and now she has to get him the fuck outta there.