The Bad Guy Wins Because He Gets The Girl

“Thor-nya kuat dan tampan. Thor juga pahlawannya. Tapi Mama sukanya Loki. I guess in the end, bad guy wins because he gets the girl,” komentar Dudu sepulang kita nonton Thor Ragnarok.

Lha, kok gitu, Du?

“Yah, habis Mama selalu ribut suka sama Loki.”

Gara-gara itu saya jadi berpikir kenapa Thor bisa kalah charming dari Loki. Well, di dunia drama Korea ada yang namanya second-lead syndrome. Mungkin di perfilman barat juga ada. Hahaha. Anyway, back to Thor. Secara keseluruhan film ini lucu banget. Lebih komedi daripada action, dan sebenarnya terasa kalau Marvel memaksakan beberapa adegan yang meskipun berhasil membuat satu bioskop tertawa ngakak, tapi sebenarnya tidak perlu-perlu amat ada di Thor Ragnarok. Jalan ceritanya sendiri ya, well, unfortunately buyar.

Movie Review: Wonder Woman

For me, Wonder Woman helped put things into perspective. Meskipun saya bosan di tengah-tengah dan ternyata Dudu juga, tapi film ini mengajarkan beberapa hal tentang cinta dan bagaimana menemukannya di tengah kebencian yang ada. Sounds familiar? Mungkin karena saya juga nontonnya pas Hari Kesaktian Pancasila, film ini jadi membuat saya memikirkan nasib bangsa.

Really?

A general doesn’t sit behind a table, he goes out and fights. Kalimat Diana yang satu itu, terhadap para jendral Inggris yang sibuk merencanakan gencatan senjata dari balik meja, memang mengena. Di Themyscira, yang kita lihat selama setengah jam pertama (atau lebih) film Wonder Woman kita melihat Antiope sang jendral Amazon maju ke medan perang. Demikian pula dengan Hippolytta, sang ratu sekaligus ibu kandung Diana. Dari sini kita sedikit banyak belajar tentang para Amazon, kenapa hanya ada perempuan dan bagaimana Diana bisa jadi satu-satunya anak kecil di sana. Diana kecil selalu kabur dari pelajaran istana dan memilih belajar bertarung bersama Antiope, tanpa persetujuan ibunya yang sudah lelah dengan peperangan. 

Kedamaian di Amazon terusik ketika Captain Steve Trevor dan pesawatnya jatuh ke perairan Themyscira, menembus ilusi pelindung yang dibuat Zeus. Capt. Trevor, sang mata-mata Inggris dikejar-kejar pasukan Jerman yang ingin mengambil kembali buku rumus gas beracun yang dicuri dari dr. Maru. Karena inilah, Diana mengenal perang dan bertekad pergi ke dunia luar untuk membunuh Ares, sang Dewa Perang yang menurut legenda adalah penyebab semua keburukan hati manusia. Ketika berjalan bersama Capt. Trevor, dan grup kecilnya yang unik, inilah, Diana banyak belajar tentang dunia manusia yang ternyata jauh lebih rumit daripada sekedar menghunus pedang dan membunuh musuhnya.

Wonder Woman (141 menit)
Director: Patty Jenkins
Actor: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, David Thewlis
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (di Indonesia jadi Remaja 13+)

Power Rangers: the Upgraded Story

Monday movie blogpost hari ini akan ngobrolin Power Rangers. Yes, film yang itu. And thanks to XY Kids, kita bisa nonton di hari pertama tayang, plus foto-foto bareng cosplayers yang keren itu. It's Morphin Time!

Alkisah 20 tahun yang lalu, saya dan kedua adik saya ngefans berat sama Power Rangers sehingga setiap ada yang minta usulan nama anak, kita selalu mengajukan Jason dan Kimberly. Sekarang generasi sudah bergeser dan giliran Dudu yang jadi penggemar kelima superhero ini. Seiring dengan kemajuan jaman, kita juga harus merelakan Power Rangers berubah menjadi lebih update dengan generasi sekarang.

Atau istilah yang saya baca di meme twitter: Remember the past, embrace the future.

Sepanjang bulan Maret, setiap ngedate saya selalu mendengarkan si Dudu menirukan dialog trailer Power Rangers.
"You are the Power Rangers... So we're somekind of Ironman? Spiderman?"
"Are you crazy? We're talking to a wall."
"So, me and four other kids met an alien spaceship and now we're superheroes.... Brakkk.... Pee in the cup."
Semacam itulah. Dan ketika adegan-adegan itu satu per satu muncul di filmnya, saya jadi merasa sudah pernah nonton hahaha.

Power Rangers
Starring: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G, Elizabeth Banks
Rating MPAA: PG-13 (di Indonesia jadi R13+)
Durasi: 124 Menit

Boy of Steel

 “People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”

– Jonathan Kent

Superman was never my favorite super hero. So when he’s back on screen with his latest gig, I didn’t plan to join the crowd. Then come this conversation, 

Dudu: Ma, aren’t we going to watch Superman?
Me: Yeah… (not excited).
Dudu: Let’s go. I wanna know how he became Superman…. And we have to buy that Superman cup.
Me: Okay… (still not excited) 

  

That Superman Cup!

Andrew/Dudu is always curious on how someone can become a super hero. This past years, he’d been watching Batman (not The Dark Knight though), Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man (so far his favorite) and The Avengers. Now, I guess, it’s Superman’s turn. 

So we ended up going, fighting the crowd and managed to score a seat in the front row to watch the (supposedly handsome) Superman. What got me wasn’t what the screen was saying but the conversation we had afterwards. Cos, he, somehow has that “Superman” syndrome. An alien stranded in a different world, with different language and different culture.

Dudu in Metropolis

Dudu: How far is Kansas from my home town?
Me: Well, 2-hour drive.
Dudu: Oh, it’s not that far.
Me: You’ve been to Kansas, you know. You’ve been to Metropolis. I’ve shown you the pictures.
Dudu: I don’t remember.
(Yeah, he was a little over 1 then)
Dudu: They have corn field.
Me: Missouri has corn field too. 

After seeing the tornado scene... and having a brief thought about Dorothy, Toto and the Wizard of Oz, he asked...
Dudu: What’s wrong with Kansas?
Me: There’s nothing there…
(and there’s almost nothing in Missouri too haha…) 
 
Dudu: Why did he cry after killing the bad guy, Ma?
Me: It’s the last person from his planet. His ‘brother’.
Dudu: But this ‘brother’ is a bad guy.
Me: Put it this way… what if you have to kill a fellow American… the only American you know here, to save me, your Indonesian Mom, or your Indonesian friends. Would you do it?
Dudu: (thinking) Yeah, that’s tough.

Dudu: Why Superman doesn’t kill zombies?
Me: Alice (Resident Evil) will be out of job. Everyone has his/her own role in Hollywood.

Eventually, I got to ask questions.
Me: So, do you want to be Superman?
Dudu: I can’t. He’s not human. But I can be Iron Man. I can be smart, rich and inventing stuffs…
(Hopefully minus the playboy part)

Me: I don’t want you to be Superman either. He’s 33, single, jobless and living off his mother.
Dudu: But he has a job, Ma… Superman is saving the world.
(Well… if you call that a job)

But the best part came in the end.
Dudu: The captain said Superman is sexy.
Me: Yeah, I’d agree with her. Superman is hot.
Dudu: But this time he doesn’t wear his underwear outside…

I’m glad I watched Superman.