The Garfield Movie The Garfield Movie

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The Garfield Movie: Enjoyable, refreshing take

Unpredictable rollercoaster, hardly any dull moments

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I watched the advanced screening of The Garfield Movie armed with a wealth of knowledge about favorite fat cat. I’ve seen both of the live-action versions in the 2000s where Garfield was voiced by Bill Murray. I’ve also enjoyed Garfield comics regularly growing up.

Those who’ve come to be a fan of Garfield knows him and his life very well. He hates Mondays, loves lasagna, and blurts out sarcastic lines in thought bubbles which his owner Jon doesn’t really hear anyway. That’s his character that has defined newspapers and digital spaces for over half a century.

I wanted to wait until the end of the film to make my judgement, knowing that it’s a new take. I was right. Here are a few thoughts:

Puts Garfield at the forefront

This version puts the orange cat at the center of it all. That’s unlike the two live-action movies I mentioned. There’s less screen time for Jon (since the movie doesn’t revolve around him), and in the parts he’s involved, it’s comedic enough. I felt the second live-action (Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) particularly, Jon’s wedding plans with Liz gets in the way of the main storyline.

In contrast, this film is mainly about Garfield. Sure, there’s his dad Vic, but we all know that. I’m also glad we didn’t get just a cliché father-and-son narrative. In the end, it was a fun adventure that focused on what Garfield can bring to the big screen.

Expansion of what we know

The first 10 minutes or so of The Garfield Movie introduces the titular character as the one we know in the comics. The typical elements like pizza, lasagna, spiders, watching TV, and refrigerator runs were packaged in a superficial manner.

Then, it expands on what we’ve already seen in the trailer where he was “abandoned” by his father Vic. Or so that’s what Garfield thought. We’ll get to more of that in a few.

Rollercoaster ride

The main storyline is then introduced when Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by Jinx’s assistants. Apparently, Vic owes Jinx a debt and the main antagonist decides to serve revenge by pitting Vic (and Garfield and Odie) against the ropes.

Believing that doing Jinx a favor will make them even, Vic takes Garfield and Odie to Lactose Farms, where they need to steal thousands of bottles of milk as repayment for Jinx. There, they encounter Otto, a bull who served as the former mascot of Lactose Farms before a change in ownership forced him out of the facility.

Realizing that his love interest, a cow named Ethel is still inside Lactose Farms, Otto decides to help the trio so they can all accomplish their goals. However, Jinx double-crosses Vic and informs the business’ security beforehand that a heist is about to happen.

This is one of the first twists in the movie. I personally enjoyed that it was made unpredictable so viewers are kept glued to what’s about to happen next. I also love how characters just kept being revealed, giving viewers an idea as to how big the story actually is. Moreover, Otto’s substoryline was aptly laced onto the main plot.

Entertaining, refreshing

In between these parts, Garfield showed how indifferent he was at first to Vic. We all know he believed is father left him for good when he was a kitten. But eventually, the truth is revealed, and Garfield warms up to his dad.

Back to the planned heist, Garfield’s crew fails to follow Otto’s original plan to free Ethel. This is as they got trapped in the facility’s cheese room. After the set-up by Jinx, Vic is forced to “leave” Garfield and Odie again to escape. Jon’s pets, meanwhile, were apprehended and ended up in the city pound.

While incarcerated at the pound, Garfield realizes how Vic had been watching him grow up from a distance. He also realizes Vic was saving them by stealing the milk truck so Jon could pick them up. As everything becomes clear to him, he decides once and for all to help his dad.

At the original place where they were kidnapped, Garfield discovers Jinx’s evil plan to dump Vic under the bridge from a speeding train. He uses the help of several hundreds of drone deliveries of pizza, meatballs, salad, and more, battling Jinx and her assistants to free Vic and save the day. In the end, they triumph, and Vic is welcomed to Jon’s place to have dinner regularly.

Enjoyable

The Garfield Movie

The entire journey from Lactose Farms to Garfield’s team’s impromptu training with Otto to the heist attempt and his reconciliation with his father was consistently entertaining. Aside from the story being unpredictable, the makers inserted a lot of Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes-like slapstick humor to draw regular giggles.

We all didn’t know what was going to happen until it unfolded, and that’s an applaudable mark of keeping the audience hooked. It was an enjoyable story that’s cartoonish enough but not too exaggerated nor out of this world. I felt the film’s length was also just right.

Final thoughts

The Garfield Movie

I get why some Garfield fans are upset as to why the film didn’t reflect the comics as accurately as possible. But for what it’s worth, the makers behind this movie promoted it with the heist as the key idea. But fine. If you want to call it “A movie starring Garfield” instead of “The Garfield Movie,” go ahead.

I’ll be upfront: It’s still a good, entertaining, and refreshing take on our favorite cartoon cat. It actually feels great to come across a lot of new characters and elements in this movie we haven’t seen in the comics. And even then, towards the end of the film, Garfield saves Vic doing with something he knows best: food. In a way, that’s sticking to the core.

Sure, there a things that could have been portrayed more obviously. For example, Garfield being superior to Odie or him gobbling up all the cheese in the world at Lactose Farms. But in the end, that hardly matters.

This is a one-off film meant for younger audiences. And the makers managed to stitch together a cool story that takes them on an enjoyable rollercoaster ride with hardly any dull moments. So yes, for all the “Garfield shouldn’t be that energetic or going on an action-packed adventure” and whatever an actual orange tabby should be doing in real life, it’s also good to leave that and suspend disbelief every once in a while.

Because if we wanted to stick to the grumpy, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving narrative, then let’s just stick to reality. That’s already how we feel on a daily basis especially as adults, right?

The Garfield Movie hits Philippine theaters starting May 29, 2024.

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Now Playing: The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Still sharp, still human

Growth over gloss

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The Devil Wears Prada 2
All images are screenshots from the Final Trailer of The Devil Wears Prada 2

I didn’t watch The Devil Wears Prada when it first came out in 2006.

I came to it a few years later, at a time when I was still figuring things out—career, identity, even the kind of movies I allowed myself to enjoy. It wasn’t something I would’ve picked on my own back then.

At the time, it felt like a story about love versus career. I was about to graduate with a Mass Communication degree, unsure of where I was headed, trying to make sense of both ambition and connection.

Watching it again recently, it lands differently.

It’s less about choosing between two things—and more about understanding who you are, and having the courage to follow that honestly.

That’s what makes The Devil Wears Prada 2 feel so deliberate. It doesn’t just revisit the past. It builds on it.

Growth over spectacle

There’s a version of this sequel that could’ve leaned entirely on nostalgia. Bigger moments. Sharper outfits. A louder version of what already worked.

This isn’t that.

The film is grander, but in ways that feel earned. It embraces the 20-year gap instead of ignoring it, placing its characters exactly where you’d expect them to be—not in status, but in spirit.

Miranda Priestly still commands every room, but no longer feels as unassailable as she once did.

Andy Sachs carries experience. She’s no longer the green assistant, but an accomplished journalist whose relationship with Miranda still shapes her decisions.

Emily Charlton feels fully realized—no longer orbiting power, but owning her place within it.

And Nigel remains a pillar. Dependable to both Miranda and Andy, an almost invisible hand that guides more than it claims.

None of them feel stuck in who they were. That’s the point.

What it says about the work

This is where the film hit me the hardest.

Working in tech media, I constantly see the push toward generative AI—toward making everything faster, more efficient, more scalable. A lot of it is impressive. Some of it is genuinely useful.

But some of it is also unsettling.

We’re at a point where generative visuals can fool people. Where audio—music even—can sound convincing enough that you stop questioning where it came from. That’s the part that lingers.

Because music, for me, is personal. It’s how I process things. And realizing that something artificial can mimic that emotional weight—even if imperfectly—feels dangerous in a quieter, harder-to-define way.

This film doesn’t shout about AI. It doesn’t need to. Instead, it argues for something more fundamental.

That the human touch still matters.

That taste, judgment, and intention aren’t things you can replicate at scale.

That the pain of heartbreak, the joy of victory, and the complicated weight of living—these are things that come from experience. And experience leaves a mark. We leave a part of ourselves in everything we create, whether we mean to or not.

That’s something I don’t think can ever be fully replicated.

AI is a helpful tool. But it should not be relied upon for things that require a piece of our soul.

Direction that understands power

A lot of that message lands because of how The Devil Wears Prada 2 is directed.

Blocking and staging do most of the talking. Who stands where, who moves first, who stays still—these choices define power before any dialogue kicks in.

The camera follows emotion closely. Moments of uncertainty feel slightly unsteady. Scenes of control are composed and precise.

It’s not trying to impress you. It knows exactly what it’s doing.

Sound that knows its place

The sound design follows that same discipline.

Nothing competes. Nothing distracts.

Every element feels intentional–supporting the scene instead of demanding attention. It’s cohesive in a way that’s easy to overlook, but once you notice it, you realize how much it’s doing.

Dialogue that winks, but doesn’t linger

There are a few “wink” moments–lines that echo the original, callbacks that longtime fans will catch instantly.

But the film shows restraint.

It never lets those moments take over. They’re accents, not the foundation.

Nostalgia used with purpose

That restraint carries through how the film handles nostalgia as a whole.

It doesn’t rely on it. It uses it.

Parallels to the original are there, but they exist to highlight change—not to recreate what once worked.

It’s less about remembering.More about understanding what time has done.

Why it works now

What makes The Devil Wears Prada 2 land isn’t just that it’s well-made.

It’s that it feels necessary.

In a world that keeps pushing toward speed, output, and efficiency, this film slows things down just enough to remind you what actually matters.

The intention behind every line, every scene feels sharp—like it could only come from people who care. Who care about the craft. Who care about making something that connects.

It might sound like a tired argument. But it’s still true.

The breadth and depth of humans who care is irreplaceable.

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WATCH: Teaser trailer for DC Studios’ Clayface

DCU’s standalone horror thriller

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Courtesy: Warner Bros. Studios

The teaser trailer for DC Studio’s horror thriller, Clayface, has just been released. It is the studio’s first-ever foray into the genre, with the film co-written by Mike Flanagan and directed by James Watkins.

The R-rated standalone film is still part of the new James Gunn DC Universe, taking place within the main DCU timeline before the events of the 2025 Superman.

It stars Tom Rhys Harries as the titular Gotham City villain. He is joined by Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan, Nancy Carroll, and Joshua James.

The film opens internationally on October 21 and in North America on October 23.

Here’s a quick look at the film’s teaser trailer:

Clayface explores one man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster.

The story revolves around the loss of one’s identity and humanity, corrosive love, and dark underbelly of scientific ambition.

Joining Watkins in his creative team are director of photography Rob Hardy, production designer James Price, editor Jon Harris, visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, costume designer Keith Madden, and casting director Lucy Bevan.

In addition, here’s a quick look at the movie’s teaser poster:

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DC’s Clayface teaser shows off a horror-filled superhero movie

Our first taste of James Gunn’s Gotham City will be frightening.

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Last year, James Gunn’s Superman sparked an impressive wave of excitement for the new DC Universe. Though this year’s spotlight is on Supergirl, Clayface is also getting an eponymous film, giving us our first taste of Gotham City in this bustling universe.

There’s been a lot of mystery surrounding this film. For one, Gotham City’s DCU debut is based on, arguably, a secondary villain, rather than any member of the Bat-Family. Secondly, Gunn has confirmed that the movie will heavily lean towards the horror genre, a feat others have tried but often failed.

Today, DC Studios has released the first teaser trailer for Clayface. And no, Gunn wasn’t kidding when he said this is going to be a horror film.

Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, a rising movie star suddenly scarred by a violent attack. Desperate to resurrect his career, he resorts to a scientific experiment that turns his skin into moldable clay.

As the teaser hints, the film will not shy away from body horror, including shots of Hagen’s disfigured face either from the attack or from the clay. It’s a big departure from the more traditional style of Superman or Supergirl. But it’s a gamble that might pay off for a universe as young as the DCU.

It’s also apropos that the DCU’s first horror film is getting a horror-themed premiere. Clayface will premiere in cinemas on October 23, 2026.

SEE ALSO: Superman sequel, titled Man of Tomorrow, comes out in 2027

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