Matthew's Film Logs

          Debates are quite a fun activity, don't you agree? You do all this preparation, research, and script formulation, all so that you can have a battle of wits against others who have done the same. Then, there are times where you're placed on the spot, forced to run impromptu. Sometimes, words and ideas pour out of your mind, successfully forming cohesive arguments with strong logos and emotional appeal. Other times you just fall flat on your face, and the entire room ridicules you for running in circles for five minutes straight. The most important quality of debates are that they are subjective, and thus, there is no definitive answer to the questions posed in a battle of the minds. Everything is filtered through one's own worldview, experiences, and perspectives, almost always allowing for fresh takes on subject matter ranging from the best ways to handle Economy in a pandemic-riddled world, to something as trivial as whether homework is beneficial for...

     One day, in my Seventh Grade year, I remember the robotics club was opening its doors to newcomers on one of its first meetings ever. The presidents of the club were telling us that anyone could join, and that they'd teach us the ropes of how to build, and how to think like an engineer. Of course, a wide-eyed Matthew took this opportunity up, knowing that he wanted to pursue a STEM career, but not sure what in it. So, on a Friday afternoon, I rushed over to the Chemistry room, excited as for what was in store for me. When I was there though, it was a terrible experience. Essentially, the people just let me roam around the room without a clue in the world as to what was going on. Programming the robots? Out of the question, because I knew nothing about how to even write code. Building the bots themselves? Nah, there were already people for that, and I myself wasn't that adept with LEGO. The worst part of all was that everyone there expected you to know everything abou...

    If you could sum up the soundtrack of my childhood, you would have a mix of film orchestration, weeby anime songs, and most prominently, the entire musical library of the KOST 103.5 station. Yes, that squeaky-clean, family-friendly pop soundscape was what defined every single car ride of my early years. All of those Kelly Clarkson songs have been etched into my memory, but what I find more interesting is its blending of safe modern music with all of the number one hits that defined Generation X. Yes, I'm speaking specifically about New Wave and 80s music.        The reason my whole family would only listen to this station is that my Mom liked the music. It was nice music, and it also called back to a time where Gen X was young, and through the music, they could vicariously recall their youth. The problem with KOST 103.5 came in its format. All of the songs played were pop songs, and there was an unusual lack of genre within the radio.    ...

     Disney sequels. Sigh... That's the post, that's it.    Alright, obviously that was a joke that failed miserably, but let's start this over once more from the inception. It's a common stigma that sequels are generally a lesser product than the original which they are stemming from. Those Land Before Time sequels, the constant Transformers installments, all of these different examples have exhibited why the stereotype of bad sequels has been so generally accepted among not just cinema fans, but the common consensus as a whole. The insipid "next installments" in franchises often do nothing to expand on the original, but far too often retread familiar ground, or demonstrate inferior craft and care in the production of such sequels. Nothing exemplifies the notion of bad film sequels than the infamous Disney direct-to-DVD sequels.        For a bit of history surrounding the necessity of these sequels, their existences are not even faintly just...

Something that a lot of us hold near and dear to our hearts are the nostalgic media properties with which we are exposed to during our childhood. Most of us are willing to go as far as to say that these media, whether they be television shows or movies, are classics. If you were to ask the average zoomer (Gen Z Person) what their favorite childhood property was, they’d probably respond with something along the likes of “Oh Cartoon Network/Nick/Those Disney sitcoms are so nostalgic for me, but for movies, it’d probably be like Toy Story or Star Wars!” Now, if I were to reach into my childhood memories, something that was very much present in my life were the Disney/Pixar properties. You all can probably tell that I have a strong affinity for those properties even now. I could talk about Up and how great of a film that is, or how Bolt is an underrated classic, but something that has stayed with me longer than some of those other stories is the Cars franchise.      ...

   Something I had once pondered when I was young was this question: Of all of the zodiac signs that I could have been assigned, why am I designated to the Cancer sign? Now, I am not one to delve too much into astrology, but its prevalence in our culture has led me to at least be aware of my birth zodiac. There are plenty of perks to being a Cancer sign. For one, your birthday's always landing on a vacation (At least, during your schooling years), and you're able to do anything you want on your birthday. The zodiac symbol associated with Cancer is a crab, and I still think that a crab is a sort of lame symbol that I got. However, possibly the most irksome quality that bothered me as a kid was the notion that if you're a cancer, you're too emotional. I hated it because it was true.      As a child, I was taught by the older generations that only women are supposed to be emotional. Men are supposed to be stoic, stern, and tough, even in the darkest of times. This ...