Phantom of the Opera (2004)

   Let me start by saying that I have actually seen this movie more than once. The first time I saw it, I was about nine years old. Because of my young age, I did not remember much. All I remember is crying at the end. My sister and I were having a movie night and wanted to watch a musical. We both love the music in this production to begin with, so naturally Phantom of the Opera was our first choice. I remembered this movie being very sad, but I was not aware of the downward spiral my emotions would take.
   This movie stars the always attractive Gerard Butler playing the mysterious and handsome Phantom. Emily Rossum plays the beautiful Christine and to my surprise Patrick Wilson plays Raoul. Even if you hate musicals, this movie is enjoyable because the acting is superb. Christine is a very understated character in the beginning. The Opera House treats her as a background character. The "star" however, is a mean, spoiled woman named Carlotta (Minnie Driver). Although she can sing she does not match up to Christine's standards. When Carlotta backs down Christine assumes the throne as star performer. When asked who her teacher is, she says it is her angel of music. Just as the phantom says Christine makes his soul take flight, the phantom's appearance made my emotions take flight. I immediately fell in love with Gerard Butler's character. Call me insane, but I love the mysterious, attractive "bad boy" so to speak.When he sang Music of the Night my heart melted. I was enthralled by his vocal dynamics followed by a sweet symphony playing in the background. Honestly I would not care to stay in his dark dungeon forever because he gets paid a salary, he's handsome, and he has tons of little trinkets that would provide entertainment.
   As the movie progresses the phantom develops feelings for Christine. However, Christine has her eyes on another, her childhood friend Raoul. Although Patrick Wilson executed his role as Raoul very well, I still will never like this character. I tend to analyze movies very distinctly. My sister will even tell you the same because I notice everything: facial expressions, background scenery, etc. What I grasped from this is that Raoul fell in love with Christine's voice which made him fall in love with Christine as a person. Not to mention that Raoul thinks she is insane for having this "imaginary tutor." The Phantom in contrast sees her potential from the get-go. He loves her sweetness and most of all he loves her because she is not frightened by him. Honestly though if Gerard Butler tells you to stay with him why would you not? That is the real question I have for Christine. And as the play and movie both go, Christine chooses Roaul over the Phantom. Yet is this the whole story?
   SPOILER ALERT: The end of the movie got to me more than any movie I've watched in a while. He kidnaps Christine and says her fate is to stay with him. Raoul runs after her. The Phantom says that he loves her and blames his face for the fact she does not love him back. Yet Christine says it is his actions that really drove her away from him. At this realization he lets Raoul have her. He loves her but he realizes that his actions have consequences. His actions lost him Christine. But there's a twist here. Christine loves him too. When Raoul and Christine ride on the boat back to safety she looks back at him longingly. At the end older Raoul is visiting Christine's grave. He brings her the Phantom's music box. On the grave is a single rose with the ring the Phantom presented her. Christine isn't as bad as I thought she was. She chose the Phantom in her heart and that is enough happiness for me.
   I encourage everyone to watch this movie at some point. It is more than a musical. It is very entertaining and the music is beautiful. Plus there is some really awesome dance numbers, fights, and attractive men serenading the audience. What more could you want?

Fight Club

First rule about fight club: you do NOT talk about fight club. Some may automatically feel that this movie is not for them because it is all about fighting. False! This movie is highly existential. On the surface we see Tyler Durden and the narrator and all these different characters who have nothing in common. There is violence. Oh there is TONS of violence. However, this movie is far from all fighting. The movie is based around the idea of fighting "the man." I saw this movie once when I was a kid, but I watched it recently completely forgetting how compelling this movie is. Tyler Durden seems like the bad guy throughout the movie, but in actuality we, the viewers, are the villains. He puts the brutal truth in our faces (my favorite idea). He says "You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your pocket." He is saying that the material things we own do not define us as a person, yet we always view this. The wealthy are treated better than the poor, but we are all God's children. He also says "Reject the basic assumption of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions." The entire movie represents how society has all fallen to the material world and no one is able to overcome it. Hence why Tyler Durden creates fight club. He allows people to feel something. When they fight they are no longer numb to the world. SPOILER ALERT! We are all Tyler Durden. The narrator creates Tyler Durden as his own persona because he is tired of his condo selling life. We all have the person in our minds that we strive to be. That person is who Tyler Durden represents. Plus let's be real here. Who doesn't want to see a young, shirtless Brad Pitt? I rate this movie 10/10 stars. It is a personal favorite of mine. However, it is hard to appreciate until you fully analyze the symbolic features throughout the film. Seriously, everyone should watch this.

The Fault In Our Stars

So I realize that technically the movie The Fault In Our Stars has not yet been released; I just want to discuss the book. I just finished reading it today. I decided upon this novel because I refuse to be a heathen who sees a movie before reading the book. I am not sure whether to be happy or sad about it. There are two sides I've taken to this book: one is that it is a love story about a girl and a boy with a tragedy at the end (basically every cliché romance novel) or two that it is a representation of death that no one wants to admit. The book was relatively pessimistic, but I guess that makes sense because it is about cancer. Then again the focus is far from a cancer novel. In fact, I was very impressed by the metaphorical aspect of it all. The character Augustus Waters was the type of character I have longed to see for a very long time. I have not loved a character so much since the Harry Potter books. He is the charming, charismatic type of character that everyone just wants to read about more and more. Yet he represented the brutal truth of death. The book tells us that we are all a statistic in the greater scheme of life. Time screws us all over eventually. All of us have a set number of days left on this earth (some more than others). However I think the scariest idea represented in the book was that all of us strive to make a mark on the earth before we die. We want to believe that when we die, people will remember us forever that it will be this great tragedy. Yet this is not true. It is such a pessimistic view but it is merely the truth that all of us hate to admit. When we die the world keeps moving. People mourn but eventually we are nothing but a forgotten memory to most. The sad reality is that all of us have this moral duty to treat the dying better than the living. Not to ruin the book, *SPOILER ALERT* but when one character is dying he sees people who have not talked to him in three years. They act like his best friend but no virtually nothing about him. Nevertheless, I have to say that I enjoyed John Green's pessimism throughout the novel. Not that I am a pessimistic. I have quite the optimistic view on life. John Green forces the reader to see beyond a cliché love story. He wants us to realize that we cannot live our lives until we can accept that one day we will die. I highly recommend everyone to read this book. After all the movie is coming out in about two weeks.

Blue Valentine: A Truly Blue Movie

So I just got done watching the movie Blue Valentine. This movie made me want to cry, smile, and flip tables all at the same time. I am a huge fan of the very attractive Ryan Gosling, so naturally I am always willing to sit down and watch any movie with his performance. He is the only actor that I know of that can make a balding middle-aged man look attractive. If you have not heard of this movie, it is about a woman named Cindy (Michelle Williams) and a man named Dean (Ryan Gosling). It is truly tough to look past Ryan Gosling's great look and maybe that is why I had such a hard time trying to rationalize Cindy's actions. There may be a few spoilers in this so be prepared. Dean meets Cindy unexpectedly which is just the perfect set up for the perfect love story. Well this story is far from perfect. They are complete opposites. Throughout the entire movie you see flashbacks of how they first met and see how much they were truly in love with each other. However, the main plot to the story proves otherwise. It is so sad because Ryan Gosling does an incredible job at showing how much he wants to change for the love of his life, but he just cannot seem to do it. At the same time, you can see how much Cindy wants to stay in love with him, but she is falling apart in the process. Michelle Williams did a splendid job in portraying what a woman will put herself through to stay with her man. You could really see how she did love him at one point but somewhere along the way their love fell apart. It was hard for me to understand seeing as I'm still young and it's also Ryan Gosling. If Ryan Gosling says he loves you, you should not test it. Yet, it is easy to see why she does what she does. Cindy is a very patient woman clearly. Dean drinks every morning and he has no ambitions towards his future. Cindy, in contrast, is very studious and has lots of ambitions. So maybe they were never destined to be for each other, but I was rooting for them the entire time.  Now how can we make this movie more depressing? They have a daughter together. If it is not sad enough seeing to people fall out of love, a daughter crashing and burning from it all comes into the mix.
I don't want to give any more spoilers away, but I will say this: if you expect happy endings in love stories, do not watch this movie. The ending was the most frustrating ending imaginable. It ends exactly the way you wish it didn't. However, overall it was a very enjoyable movie. I was so involved with it within the first ten minutes. I would rate this title 8/10 stars. It is definitely something people should watch.