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Who is Zandar Kai and what is the purpose of this blog?
I was born in Bulgaria, in the city of Pleven, in the not so distant year of 1988. I’ve graduated from Mathematical High School and after that got my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from SU “St. Kliment Ohridski”. You won’t believe what they are, but I can assure you, that they have little to do with literature. My life, until this moment has been quite versatile and filled with both good and bad. I can’t say that I want to change something in my life, because each of my choice has led me to this moment, where I’ve published my first book (Riders in the Dark) and now this website…
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Movie Review – The Batman
After the mixed received Batfleck and the demise of the DCEU, DC decided to do what they do best – reboot. Thus “The Batman” was born. Another dark and gritty look at the masked crusader of Gotham. “This time, darker than before” and you will say “Is that possible?”. The answer “Yes, yes. It can!”. The mantle of Batman this time is given to Robert Pattinson, which sadly most people know from The Twilight saga, despite his acting success since then. Is his version of Batman better than all those before him? Let’s find out. This is “The Batman”! So let’s start with the obvious, we have two iconic Batman…
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Movie Review – “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (SPOILERS!)
With the end of Phase 3, MCU completed the stories for almost all of its A tier superheroes, amongst which Captain America (Steve Rogers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Thor and somewhat of Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton). Defeating Thanos after 10 years of build up ended the contracts of the actors, which portrayed them on the big screen. “Avengers: Endgame”, was a proper sendoff for most of these beloved characters. Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans will forever be Iron Man and Captain America. The official last movie of Phase 3 was “Spider-Man: Far From Home”. This ended the story of the main universe…
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Movie Review – The Matrix Resurrections (SPOILERS!)
In the distant 1999, a groundbreaking movie changed our perspective of the meaning “blockbuster”. In the years, where practical effects were mostly used and CGI butchered anything it touched, the Wachowski brothers took a big risk in making a movie, relying entirely on CGI. Thus The Matrix was born. A movie touching deep philosophical topics while at the same time delivering awesome action scenes. Man vs The machine is a tale as old as time, seen in numerous books and movies. But here, there was something different. The Matrix talked not so much about the war, but about the free will. Are humans happy with being ruled over or they…
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TV Series Review – Squid Game
Korean cinema has long shown that it can produce great content. Drama, sci-fi, thriller, horror it doesn’t matter. The level of the production is always high. It has a lot of fans worldwide, mainly because it able to mix Korean and western culture into one, creating something, which can be easily “digested” by the viewers. With the latest hit serise Squid Game, they elevated that even more. But is it truly the masterpiece, advertised? Produced by Netflix, the story is quite simple and to be honest, not original at all. Asian culture loves Battle Royal themes. Japan has several movies, manga and anime on the theme, pitting against each other…
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Movie Review – Venom II
The first Venom movie dropped in 2018 and despite the skepticism, it turned out to be extremely successful. Now, three years later we got the sequel, containing one of the most blood seeking symbiotes, Carnage. His name says it all. “So buckle up, get out the popcorn, hide your kids and enjoy the bloodshed!”. Well, not really. For some reason, Sony decided to tone this movie down to PG-13 rating. Why you ask? Because of what it is and what it leads to. I ain’t gonna lie, I was extremely disappointed of this decision, because the name “Let there be Carnage!” implies, well carnage and gore, which is exactly what…
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Movie Review – Old
This year, everyone’s “favorite” director – M. Night Shyamalan, returned with hist latest project – “Old”. Shyamalan’s films are in general success or failure, with no middle ground. For example, “Sixth Sense”, “Split”, “Invulnerable” are all films that have been extremely well received by audiences and critics, while “Lady in the Water”, “The Village”, “The Happening” and many others, are complete flops. On the other hand, he was the creator of a number of cinematic techniques still used in Hollywood today. For example, the “twist”, which is a kind of revelation that reverses the whole point of the movie. The problem comes, when as a director you he started using…
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TV Series Review – Five most successful series of 2019
At the end of the year, I decided to write a short article about the most successful series, for me, this year. This will not be a ranking for which is the best of all, but simply a recommendation to those who have not watched them to pay attention. And here they are: 1. Watchmen For this miracle of the television industry created by HBO, I set out to prepare a separate article. However, there is so much background that needs to be explained that I began to get lost in my words. In short, the action unfolds in a parallel universe where, thanks to a “failed” experiment, a god-like…
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Movie Review – Star Wars: Episode IX
Finally, the long-awaited episode IX of Star Wars came out. The theaters are full and fans are waiting to see if it will outgrow his predecessor, episode VIII. The movie that came out two years ago was a complete fiasco and deservedly earned the status of “worst” in the series. The recent holder of this title, episode I, remained in second place. Something that was unthinkable until that moment. Even though critics have declared episode IX a failure, viewers doesn’t seem to think like them. I will review whether or not it is successful in the following paragraphs. After Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, they immediately set about expanding the…
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TV Series Review – The Mandalorian
After Disney bought Lucasfilm, their first job was to declare much of the accompanying comic books and fanart as non-canon. Which means, that they are not part of the main series of events that is the basis of the Episodes. This angered a lot of fans, but on the other hand it cleared up the story a bit, which had reached levels of absurdity. However, recent Star Wars projects have been a huge failure. Episode VIII enraged fans and even Mark Hamill, with its chaotic story, excess blotting, and total disregard for the Jedi teachings. And the subsequent story of Han Solo buried the series even more. This movie was…
