Elijah Joya

“Cobra Kai never dies” Oh, how I loved watching Cobra Kai. My little brother got me to watch this show since it had a lot of karate just like The Karate Kid movies. He used to do martial arts when he was younger, which sparked his interest to this show. Then, when I first watched this show, I thought the show was corny, but as I watch more episodes, I got so invested into the story and action of Cobra Kai.🥹 Johnny Lawrence had the greatest character development I’ve ever seen in any media. After that crane kick to the face from Daniel Larusso in the All Valley Karate Tournament, his life went downhill. He became a drunk, broken man who despised Daniel Larusso. Later in his adulthood life, he would encounter Miguel Diaz gettng bullied by some kids from school, and Johnny would defend Miguel by fighting his bullies with Cobra Kai Karate. After Miguel saw Johnny defending him from those kids, he begged to become his student and to learn Karate. Once Johnny brought Cobra Kai back, the rest was history. 🙂‍↕️ There came many Karate tournaments, returns of the original Cobra Kai senseis, and conflicts between dojos. But in the end, Cobra Kai won the biggest Karate tournament in the world with Johnny Lawrence becoming the sensei champion, Miguel Diaz becoming the male champion, and Tory Nichols, known as the Queen Cobra becoming the female champion.😮‍💨 Johnny from the start of the movie was at his lowest in his life. He didn’t had anyone close to him and his son, Robby Keene, had a bad relationship with him. After 6 seasons, he becomes a changed man who finally found peace in his life, having a loving wife, Miguel’s mom, a daughter, a successful dojo, and 2 loving sons, Miguel and Robby. 😌 Daniel Larusso in this movie was iconic too. There were episodes where he befriends his former enemies to help train his students. Characters like Chozen Togashi and Mike Barnes helped him train his students of Miyagi-Do. ✌️ Both Johnny and Larusso would then face a common adversary, Terry Silver, a former Cobra Kai sensei who ruthlessly framed John Kreese, another former Cobra Kai sensei, psychologically abused Daniel Larusso by manipulating him, and corrupted Cobra Kai itself. This sensei is such a stubborn, obnoxious sensei who won’t let go of the past. He had to bribe the referee to win an All Valley Tournament. 😭 I absolutely love the side characters in this show. Sam Larusso, Demetri Alexopoulos, Eli Moskowitz, Kenny Payne, Robby Keene, Devon Lee, Kyler Park, Kwon Jae-Sung, and of course, Bert were amazing side characters. Lowkey, I didn’t like Anthony Larusso. He was such a bully to Kenny, one of my favorite characters, but I guess his best feat was exposing Terry Silver. 🤷‍♂️ There’s a lot for me to talk about for this show because this show was everything to me. I did end up finishing this show last year in September. Finising season 6 was the best thing I did for this show. I’ll never forget Cobra Kai. 🥹

**“Anyone can wear the mask. You could wear the mask. If you didn’t know that before, I hope you do now. ‘Cause I’m Spider-Man. And I’m not the only one. Not by a long shot.”** This was the first movie that I have watched in theaters from how long I remember. Seeing Into The Spider-verse in theaters as a little kid was everything. All of the fight scenes, colors, and callbacks were insane. 🥹 And to be real with you, this movie decided that my favorite Spider-Man would be Miles Morales. Most of the profiles and wallpapers would be Miles Morales or his spider logo. The concept of Spider-Man turning invisible and having electric powers attracted me when I was younger. Him and that frickin shoulder touch saying, *“Hey.” *to Kingpin and then electric shocking him was a big moment to me. And then, he does the Mario swings like how he would do to Bowser and throws him to the button to disable the collider. During that time until the 2020’s, Miles Morales was my favorite Spider-Man, until Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man turned into my favorite. 🙂‍↕️ Gwen Stacy losing her best friend, Peter Parker, is such a canon event (👀) in her universe. In Andrew Garfield’s universe, Earth-120703, Peter Parker would lose his best friend / lover, Gwen Stacy. Instead of Peter being Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman and the first Spider-Woman during that time of Spider-Verse. 😌 Now, Peter Parker in Miles Morales’ universe is considered the perfect Spider-Man. He has been Spider-Man for 10 years, saving the city multiple times, having a loving partner, and being loved by all citizens. It was tragic that this Peter Parker died to the beating of Kingpin. Just imagine if he escaped alive from that collider explosion and taught Miles Morales to become Spider-Man. Him and Miles wouldn’t be glitching. Although, for the Peter Parker that got sent to Miles’ universe, Peter B. Parker, this dude has a very rough life. He’s been Spider-Man for 22 years, and while he was Spider-Man, he went through a divorce, buried Aunt May for her death, failed at opening a restaurant, and struggled to stay in shape. Good thing Miles Morales got his spark back into becoming Spider-Man and to also become a father since he never wanted kids with MJ. Peter B. Parker became a father-figure to Miles when he saw that Miles got the hang of being Spider-Man. ✌️ Spider-Noir is too cold. The wind follows wherever he goes, and the wind smells like rain. 😮‍💨 Penny Parker is like a Neon Genesis Evangelion Spider-Man. You will see how she and her robot will look like in Across The Spider-Verse. 👀 *(Peter B. Parker)* “*This could literally not get any weirder.”* *(Peter Porker)* *“It can get weirder. I just washed my hands. That’s why they’re wet.” * The damn Spider-Pig. 😭 Also, The Prowler became my favorite Spider-Man villain during the time I first watched it. His theme song was so bone-chilling and cold. Seeing that Miles’ uncle, Aaron Davis, was The Prowler for the first time was such a shocking thing for younger me. 😮 Sadly, I am not gonna be that consistent on Letterboxd now because I am gonna be at volleyball practice all weekdays. I will be practicing or studying volleyball for most of the day but I will try to watch some movies in my free time. 🥲

**“It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today. But there will be dark days ahead of us too. There will be days where you feel all alone. And that’s when hope is needed most. No matter how buried it gets, or how lost you feel, you must promise me that you will hold on to hope. Keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer. My wish for you is to become hope. People need that. And even if we fail, what better way is there to live?”** Wow. This Amazing Spider-Man sequel is equally as good as the first movie. It does remind me so much of OG Spider-Man 2. I love the soundtrack to this movie, the color grading to match the tone for the sceneries and losses, and the storytelling with Peter finding more hidden research from his dad. 😌 This movie has gotten more villains than Spider-Man 3. There is The Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich), The Green Goblin (Harry Osborn), and Electro (Max Dillon). Both Max and Harry got betrayed by Oscorp and turned into some type of evil monster. The Rhino is just a maniac who drives large vehicles like a truck and The Rhino suit, which was made by Oscorp. 😭 Dane DeHaan did a good job as Harry Osborn. His voice was very much calming at the start, but woah, his raspy voice in the end was great. 🙂‍↕️ Jamie Foxx played really well as Max Dillon / Electro. Him being the lonely creep that people don’t respect and turning into a powerful, god-complex-given electric outcast who craves power and attention was a crazy development. Max was treated very poorly by his co-workers in Oscorp and by people in general. But when Spider-Man rescued him, Max became fixated on Spider-Man that he would consider him as his friend. 🤔 And yes, this whole movie is drawn to Peter and Gwen’s tragic love story. Gwen was Peter’s MJ in this universe. When she was going off to England in Ofxord, Peter wouldn’t dare to leave her but follow her for the rest of his life. This dude also put up a giant web sign saying *“I love you” *for Gwen. You can tell Peter really loved Gwen. But, he ended up losing her. *I lowkey need a Gwen (Not for her to.. yk..) 🥲. * I can finally watch Into the Spiderverse and Across the Spiderverse. ✌️

**(Mario)** **“I know you’re frustrated.”** **(Princess Peach)** **“Princesses don’t get frustrated!”** **(Mario)** **“All right. Well, then can I be not frustrated with you?”** I also had to watch the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Watching these space movies on the plane is always great. 😌 To be honest, this Mario movie is considered 0.1 stars fewer than my rating for the first movie. It was just a little underwhelming. I really wanted more from this movie. Although, the good thing about this movie was the many references from the Mario franchise and the Nintendo franchise. There were a lot of Mario Galaxy references and references from other Mario games. 🙂‍↕️ Of course, unexpectedly, Fox from the Star Fox games, makes a supporting appearance for Mario and his group to go to the Space Junk Galaxy. I did not see this in the movie, but Captain Falcon’s ship from the F-zero games, the Blue Falcon, makes a background appearance. AND THEN, frickin Mr. Game & Watch makes a surprise cameo during the final fight. Luigi draws something random with Bowser Jr’s paintbrush and accidentally makes Mr Game & Watch. 😭 Super, Chris Pratt, Mario. “Mario is a guardian of the galaxy.” Why didn’t I thought of this. Him and Princess Peach are also cute. When Princess Peach kissed Mario in the cheek in the end, it was another reference from Super Mario World. Even though they’re just friends, I still got hyped seeing Peach kiss Mario. 🥹 You know, it would be cool if there was a movie where Luigi booked a stay at a mansion. 👀 Childish Gambino as Yoshi is the funniest thing I’ve seen in any animated movie. *♪* *Okay it’s Childish Gambino homegirl, drop it like it’s NASDAQ ♪ 😎* I was so shocked to seeing how Peach and Rosalina being considered sisters. I would never think that this was canon, but it’s only in the Mario Cinematic Universe. (MCU 😱) Jack Black having a Jack Black Jr who manages to turn Bowser evil again by making a frickin planet. I was cringing so hard when Bowser Jr quoted, *“Hello, Peach and Mario. Prepare to meet your maker.”* What a Super Mario Maker reference. 🥲 And yeah, Toad just gets his things stolen by a monkey, Ukiki, for a while. That’s basically his highlight of this movie. 😬 Well, this movie was good, not great, but good. 🙂‍↕️