Today is Novemeber 28th, 2016. And I have an announcement for you all, in case you cannot tell by the title of this post, tickets for the new Star Wars movie have now gone on sale, and oh boy, getting them is gonna be a hard ride for everyone, especially on premiere day. In case you wanted to know, I don’t have my tickets yet. I’M GETTING THERE THOUGH! I’m actually planning to see this movie on Thursday, December 15th, which is the night of the premiere. After a couple random checks on some movie theaters, I now realize what this is going to turn into. You think malls on Black Friday have crowds? You thought wrong! Today is actually Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday, and I’m willing to bet that getting these tickets is going to distract everyone from all the deals. The only thing that would get more people to buy more tickets at this point is if advertisements for sites like Fandango were placed in front of peoples’ heads all day, and if they actually put a discount on tickets you can buy online as a Cyber Monday deal.

Last time I checked, there are already three theaters near me that already sold out all of their tickets. I’m trying to see if a theater would have a showing around the 7:00 range, that way I can see the film instantly, and as one who lives in the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts, I checked these three theaters: Sunbrella IMAX Theater at Jordans Furniture (Reading, MA location), AMC Burlington 10, and Showcase Cinemas Woburn. I did check more but these are three specific theaters I want to talk about. What do I have to say about these? Well, they’re all sold out! The first theater has one theater which is an IMAX so that sold out pretty quickly, the second theater has all 7:00 showings which must have been pretty convenient, plus reserved seating so that must have been a factor that played into this, not to mention recliners, because that’s kind of trendy now. The last one one has reserved seating, alcohol, and recliners. Granted I will say, and I did talk about this on TripAdvisor along with another post on this blog, I don’t like the previously mentioned movie theater, but that has to do with how little the capacities are in each stadium. As of right now, my mind is set toward going to the AMC Loews Liberty Tree 20. Why? It has no recliners (I personally think they’re overrated in a movie theater setting), it is not in a busy or big city, it is simply in a shopping mall, and you get a lot auditoriums as well. I actually went to see the past two Captain America movies here on premiere night in IMAX 3D and it was easy to get a seat. Granted during The Winter Soldier the premiere slot was actually put in at the last minute, but still, I got to see the movies on premiere night and not have a problem, yeehaw! Like Captain America, I’m gonna go for the pricey side here and choose an IMAX showing at this theater, because personally I think this is what this movie deserves, but this leads me to my next statement, if you want to see Rogue One on premiere night, how can you get your tickets?

Well, there are quite a few ways to get your tickets, you can always check online for convenience purposes, if you live across from a movie theater you can walk over and get tickets physically that way you don’t have to worry about printing them out or saving them on a device, you can drive to the nearest theater, and maybe if that doesn’t work out you can keep going and once you find a theater that has your tickets you’re good to go. However, whatever way you choose to get them, do it quickly!

Also, if you have the guts and stamina to get a later showing throughout the evening, go for it, because chances are the earlier showings will all be sold out much quicker than those coming later. Personally, I wouldn’t mind waiting awhile and going to a later showing, but I’m a teenager, and I don’t have a license, so that puts a obstacle in front of me, which means I’m probably going to have to settle for the 7:00 time range. Maybe 9:00 at the latest, but we’ll see.

I bet some of you reading this right now have been to a movie before on premiere night, and maybe even The Force Awakens last year. Although I figured I should post this because Star Wars in general, is a phenomenon, and there probably isn’t a single person who hasn’t heard of it, so in all likelihood, this will make movie theaters more obnoxious and crowded on premiere night. So this is just a guide of what I’d recommend you’d do if you’re going to see this movie. Get the tickets as early as possible in whatever way you can, make sure the theater is adequate driving distance if you are buying tickets physically, don’t be afraid to shove out some extra bucks if you need to, don’t be afraid to go at a later time, just cover your ears if you don’t want spoilers from the people coming out (It’s a prequel so it’s not as much of an issue, but there could be some minor details you may not want in on), and lastly, think twice before getting reserved seating, it’s convenient, but if a friend wants to join you at the last minute, you may have to switch around. Luckily I avoided that sort of issue last year.

That’s all I have to say about the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story tickets going on sale, and if there’s one thing I want to say right now, it’s that you should get your tickets immediately, and maybe even skip out on the rest of this blog post. Yes, I’m not kidding, this is absolutely serious. This is a big opportunity, you don’t want to miss out! Go now! Now I say, now! NOW! PRONTO! Do it right now or I’m gonna keep exclaiming like a guy in a over the top paid programming commercial you’d see in the morning on Game Show Network! Just go!

You still here?

Yes?

WELL GO!

Anyway, if you are still here, seriously go off if you want to get premiere tickets, but if you want to wait a while, or if you simply don’t like Star Wars, I won’t judge you (Even though I think something’s wrong with you if you don’t like Star Wars). Stay tuned for my upcoming reviews, Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Save the rebellion! Save the dream!”

“The Edge of Seventeen” is directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, who wrote Post Grad which was released back in 2009 and this is her first time directing a movie. This film stars Hailee Steinfeld (Pitch Perfect 2, True Grit), Woody Harrelson (Cheers, No Country for Old Men), Blake Jenner (Glee, Supergirl), Haley Lu Richardson, Kyra Sedgwick, and Hayden Szeto. This film is about a teenage girl named Nadine and it is established in the beginning of the movie that her life is already bad, but what she didn’t realize is that it is gonna go from bad to worse, and it doesn’t end there. Why? The main chunk of this movie is dedicated to her having to deal with her asshole brother, who starts going out with her best friend, and she feels that she is mentally going into a black hole throughout the entire movie and there is no way out except for when she has lunch in the classroom with Woody Harrelson.

Here is something I feel the need to get out of the way, if you have seen some of my older reviews from this year you may have noticed that the movies I saw with women playing the starring roles were mostly negative in my opinion. These movies included titles like: “The 5th Wave” (2/10), “The Divergent Series: Alligiant” (I didn’t review it, but I gave it a 2/10), “Mother’s Day” (Also didn’t review, but I gave it a 1/10), “The Girl on the Train” (2/10), “Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens” (1/10, but you’d probably expect that out of a movie like this), and the “Ghostbusters” remake (1/10). Based on these statistics, you’d probably think I’m a sexist pig, especially with the last one. Let me just assure you I’m not. If you have read my reviews for these movies you may notice that I dislike them for reasons that don’t link to sexism in any way. So how do I feel about this movie? I feel this movie might be the one of the better movies I saw all year! If you want to know my official verdict for the film, scroll down a bit, but I had to get this out because I felt it was necessary so you know the real me.

This movie stars Hailee Steinfeld who plays Nadine. Let me just say right now, this is one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. Will this get nominated for an Oscar? I highly doubt it considering Hailee is only a teenager and teens aren’t the first category you scour for Oscar nominees, but if this performance does get nominated, that’d be pretty cool. She really brings a lot of emotion into her character, especially during one scene at her mother’s office which was pretty funny and when talking one-on-one with Woody Harrelson. Her character is also a stereotype per se of some folks I see in my high school and on social media. I will not give out any names but I thought I’d point that out. Also when I say stereotype, I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean that in a way that can get certain people just like her to relate to the character without getting offended.

Nadine’s best friend in this film is played by Haley Lu Richardson and her name is Krista. At the beginning of the movie it was very nice to see these two as friends and see how the relationship developed. Not too much later in the movie Krista dated Nadine’s older brother and I was able to understand how all of the characters felt about the situation. I didn’t agree with how all the characters felt, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t understand them.

Speaking of Nadine’s older brother, let’s talk about Nadine’s older brother. At the beginning of the movie it was shown that this character was basically a winner compared to Nadine and it the movie doesn’t stop sticking to that route to further develop the story. To establish this, the movie showed his character never really complained or cared about any of the tragedies that Nadine experienced throughout the film. He even says to Nadine that life sucks sometimes, which is probably gonna stick with me for a little bit. Maybe not as much as Dennis Leary’s “Life’s Gonna Suck When You Grow Up” song, but still, it’s locked in my head and it probably will stay in my head for an extended period of time.

One of the characters that was shown most throughout the trailer I saw for this movie was Mr. Bruner played by Woody Harrelson. I thought the scenes where he talked with Nadine one-on-one were some of the best parts of the movie, which surprised me because in the trailer it looked like one of the parts of the movie that was going to end up feeling stale. However I will say that the “avoid run on sentences joke” he gives did actually end up feeling stale. Maybe it’s just because I saw the trailer multiple times and that was one of the big things I remember from the trailer. These conversation scenes felt like I was actually there, and one of the lines Mr. Bruner says to Nadine during a “therapy session” is “Maybe nobody likes you.” That just made me go, “Wow.” I thought it was a great line and now if some therapist told me that I would be able to handle it. I’d recommend that they’d do it in a quiet voice so I don’t have too much stress in my head but I digress.

I also like the woman who plays the mother in this movie (Kyra Sedgwick). One of the things I noticed about her is that she hates driving Nadine to school because it affects her work schedule. After watching this movie, I am kinda wondering about that with my mother. My mother drives me to school and I don’t take the bus, and for personal reasons I prefer to avoid taking the bus to and from school. I have sensitive ears and that can interfere with the ride and make me feel anxious or angry.

One of the best things about this movie is the fact that it is rated R. Why? Because that makes the movie seem more realistic. Remember Freaks and Geeks? That TV show about a bunch of different high schoolers all in one show? I have not seen every episode of that show, but I have seen a couple. If you just take the vibe of that show, have it focus around one character for most of the time, and make it more mature, than you get this movie. I love how this movie goes for things you usually wouldn’t expect to see teenagers do in some movies. There’s a scene where the main character and her best friend get drunk, there’s a lot more swearing than you’d expect in a movie that spends a lot of time in a high school setting, there’s a lot of sexual humor used by teenagers in this movie. Some of this humor used by teens which I greatly recall include use of the words “handjob” and “tits.” And let me say for the record, Hailee Steinfeld, the movie’s lead actress is currently 19, and she’ll turn 20 on December 11th, so that kind of adds a bit to the movie as well in terms of realism. This movie is called “The Edge of Seventeen” and in a world where we have two live-action movie interpretations of Peter Parker played by adults (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield), it’s nice to see someone play a teenager played by someone relatively close to the character’s actual age.

“The Edge of Seventeen” is one of the better films I’ve seen all year, and certainly deserves all the praise it is getting by critics and average moviegoers alike. While I am writing this, this film has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it certainly deserves that. By the way, I mentioned once before that this movie is directed by someone who is a first time director, AKA Kelly Fernon Craig, and for a movie that is a directorial debut, this is fantastic. I’m going to give “The Edge of Seventeen” an 8/10. Well guys, the year is almost over, we have just a bit more than a month to go, and I’d like to announce to you right now at the end of year I’m going to be doing a top best and worst movie of year list. I haven’t decided whether I’m doing a top 5 or a top 10, but we’ll find out as time marches on. Also for all of you reading this on the day which this is published, which is November 27th, 2016, I am willing to bet that you are either a movie buff or even if you don’t like movies, you may have some place in your heart for Star Wars, which leads me to this: TICKETS FOR THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE GO ON SALE TOMORROW! If you want to see this movie in theaters, I recommend that you all get your tickets as soon as possible, especially if you want to see it as early as possible or want to avoid spoilers (Although it is a prequel so I doubt it is as big of an issue as The Force Awakens). Also I want to let everyone know that I plan to see “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” on premiere day, which is Thursday, December 15th, that way I can get an early review up for you guys, and this is just fine for me, because I hate when people ruin movies for me, and I feel since it is a Star Wars movie, it is going to be a bigger deal in my mind. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this review and stay tuned for more reviews! Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!

“Doctor Strange” is the latest movie put out by Marvel Studios, which has had an incredible track record for their movie ratings so far in my book. This movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Imitation Game), Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Benedict Wong (The Martian, Prometheus), and Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, The Vow).
The main premise of the movie revolves around Dr. Steven Strange who gets in a car accident one day causing him to lose all the tissue in his hands. This makes him go bizzerk and make his girlfriend feel uncomfortable. Eventually he is taught mystic arts by The Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton, all while hoping and waiting for his hands to heal.

Let’s get one thing straight and out of the gate, this movie from a visual standpoint, is spectacular. Alongside “Warcraft,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and the remake of “The Jungle Book”, this movie contains some of the best effects I have seen all year. Seeing all of the spells on screen was pretty neat looking, there was a lot of Inception-esque effects throughout the movie that was pure eye candy, and the portals made something out of fantasy look realistic if that even makes any logical sense. Combine that with one of the most epic IMAX 3D experiences I’ve ever seen then you’ve got a visual spectacle! Also just a reminder, I would tell you to go out right now just to watch this in IMAX 3D, but when I put this review up, there won’t be much time left to go see it in that format due to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” coming out this Friday, so if you want to see it, check for tickets right away, and if they are still available, good for you!

As I mentioned before, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dr. Steven Strange and you can believe that Strange is an actual neuroseurgeon in this movie. It’s not like you’re watching one of those movie jobs where the character gives no coherent explanation on what they are supposed to do. The movie does a very good job on showing specific details visually.

Rachel McAdams plays Christine Palmer, Strange’s girlfriend. Her relationship with Strange was buyable and I have to say McAdams did a fine job with her role. Later on in the movie when I see her is probably the best part with her in the movie because McAdams does a good job of making her character look afraid when the time is right. Not to mention Strange’s dialogue throughout the scene I’m talking about is pretty funny too.

Tilda Swanton plays the The Ancient One. First of all, I’d like to say the opening scene with her fighting was visually stunning and that itself was worth the IMAX 3D ticket price. Second, her role as Strange’s guide throughout his training was believable and was interesting to see progress during the movie.

The next character I’m going to talk about is a highlight of the movie to me. Specifically, Wong, which ironically is played by Benedict Wong. He is very stoic throughout the movie and I thought it worked for his character in the beginning and I thought it was one of the best parts of the movie. There’s this one scene where Strange and Wong are getting to know each other and it is clear that Wong lacks emotion. Possibly one of the only ways this would have been funnier is if Doctor Strange actually happened to be Deadpool. There is also one point where Strange wonders if Wong has a sense of humor whatsoever, which also was a highlight for me.

Speaking of humor, the amount of humor in this movie was something I did not expect while walking into it. Sure, Marvel movies have been funny in the past, and I remember tons of scenes and lines of dialogue that have been gutbusters to me. Although based on the trailers of this movie I was expecting the movie to go down a much more serious route than some of their past films. Just about all of the humor worked and I remember it well throughout the first and final act. By the way, I won’t go into detail, but I feel the need to spit this out. Once Strange says: “I’ve come to bargain,” s*it gets real fast. It’s hilarious yet serious at the same time and it works.

I would also like to remind everyone that if they want to know about what is going to come up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they must stay for the credits, and when I say that I mean stay for the WHOLE THING. Don’t leave halfway through because there is one credit scene a few minutes in, then there is another one at the very end. I will admit I actually almost forgot when seeing this movie, I guess this is what Comic-Con does to you… Oh yeah, by the way I went to Rhode Island Comic-Con over the weekend and I saw this while I was there. As of now I have no intentions of blogging about it but we’ll see what the future holds.

In the end “Doctor Strange” had a great story with spectacular visuals and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. It doesn’t matter if I wait for the Blu-Ray or if I just go see it in the theater again because overall I enjoyed the movie and it was definitely worth the IMAX 3D ticket price. Also for the record, let me just say right now I’m not being paid to say that, I’m an IMAX fan in general and I think this represents a good example of what Hollywood IMAX 3D movies should look like. I’m going to give “Doctor Strange” an 8/10. I mentioned before that I went to Rhode Island Comic Con recently and if I were to blog about it, you’d see a post about it up on here soon, however I don’t have any intentions to do that but if I do change my mind a post will be on here not too long from now. If not, I’d like to thank Billy Dee Williams, Brianna Hildebrand, Johnny Brennan, FYE, whatever the name of that store was that gave me that LEGO Batman poster, and Gal Gadot for everything you’ve done for me at this convention and giving me a great experience. Thanks for reading all of this and stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!