estebangonzalez10

"Not everything is about your insecurities Mira!"

Who would've though that an animated film with such a horrible title would be this good? I don't think I'll see a better animated film than KPop Demon Hunters. The animation is fantastic, but what really stood out for me was the soundtrack. I don't see any other film beating Golden when it comes to award season. The songs are so catchy and even though I don't know anything about K-Pop, the songs were extremely catchy and fun. The story was also surprisingly good with some memorable characters and fun action sequences. There is a fight scene in an airplane near the beginning of the movie that sets the standard. The animation is so cool and at times plays like an anime with so may great facial features. The animation is similar to the style we got from the Spider-Verse movies and it is probably my favorite style. This is a very re-watchable movie thanks to its creative story and fun soundtrack. The female trio here voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-young Yoo is fantastic. There is also an underlying romance between Arden Cho's Rumi and Ahn Hyo-seop's Jinu which works as well. The concept is just so fun and the animation style works. There are some memorable characters and Rumi will probably be the baddest female character of the year. The message also gets across pretty weel about not hiding your true identity and accepting who you are. The Huntrix really came ready for the takedown! This fictional K-Pop band needs to begin touring in real life.

"The leather has betrayed us!"

"In case you forgot, our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out what side you're on."

In order to capture the heart of the 2010 animated film it is important to ensemble a great team that knows the original and can manage to translate it to the live action remake. It's been 15 years since the original animated film came out and swept our hearts. The first step for this 2025 live action film was getting director Dean DeBlois back on board. Audiences were swept away by this film and at the end of my screening they erupted in applause. It took me a while to get into this film, I felt some of the magic was lost during the first half of the film, but the second part picks up and it ended up keeping that same soul from the animated version and translating well to the live action scenes. Was it necessary? No, but DreamWorks is following Disney's steps and perhaps doing a better job at it by remaining true to its source. The film is gorgeous and beautiful, but 2010's animation allowed for so much more visual spectacle from the dragons. DeBlois manages to preserve the heart of his own original animation and fans won't be disappointed. The casting of Mason Thames (you will be familiar with him if you've seen Black Phone) was exceptional. He looks so much like the animated character. The rest of the casting also works well as you have Gerard Butler reprising the role he voiced as Stoick, Nico Parker as Astrid although different physically did a great job at bringing a strong female voice to the Viking world, and Nick Frost as Gobber. Toothless looks and feels great here, but the mystic he has in the animated version is a bit lost here.

"They've killed hundreds of us! And we've killed thousands of them!"

"Time don't matter... Woulda hurt just as bad if I lost her the day we met... She brought the sunshine in my life."

The coolest thing about this film is Jack Quaid's nickname, Novocaine. I really like Quaid and his performance, he has that charm that makes him easy to root for. Despite that I wasn't a fan of this film for some reason. I just didn't buy the story, perhaps it just felt unbalanced the way it handled the body horror and the comedy. Some scenes were just too painful for me to watch and the cartoonish violence didn't work for me like it does in other films like Kick-Ass for example. This movie sort of had that vibe to it, but for some reason it didn't work. My main issue might be with the criminals who felt unnecessarily too violent at times. It was great to see Amber Midthunder here (after just recently watching her performance in Prey) and her chemistry with Quaid was probably the highlight of the movie. The rest of the cast just didn't get enough engaging material to work with and they are all forgettable from the criminals, to the detectives, and even the side kick played by the likable Jacob Batalon. There were some solid action scenes, but I was put off by some of the violence. Just like the main character, the movie didn't make me feel anything really. I just left the movie feeling completely numb.

"Have you ever fired a gun before?"