AvidBards
Reflections

4 Years of AvidBards: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Like everyone, the past few years have been challenging in so many ways. For us, it’s been a trying time attempting to keep our creative motivation running. AvidBards has been conspicuously put on the back burner, moving further and further down the priority list as concerns around health, work and life occupy the majority of our mental energy.  It’s been really hard for us to find the energy to keep up with Avidbards. The pressures of social media can be a lot, even though we’ve discovered and connected with some really awesome content creators this year and feel like we’ve…

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Reviews

Captain Marvel

Film Review Even though S & I live in different countries, we still ended up watching the new MCU film Captain Marvel (2019) around the same time. This movie was hyped up for quite a while prior to its release, because this is the first Marvel movie that stars a female superhero! (Warning: Spoilers below) On one hand, it’s insane that it took 20 movies in The Infinity Saga before a female character had her own film. Of course, characters like Black Widow in the Avengers and Captain America movies, Pepper Potts in the Iron Man series, Gamora in Guardians…

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Reflections

Is Originality Dead?

Remakes, Franchises and Sequels: Are they worth it? We live in the era of franchise films, sequels, and remakes upon remakes (here’s looking at you, Spider-Man). While some of these sequels and remakes can be awesome, much of the time it leaves me wondering: is originality not a goal anymore? Here’s where that concept gets tricky, though. We live in a time where virtually no idea is legitimately “original” anymore. There’s so much material out there – books, films, television, and art. We are technically always using past models and structures to help us create fresh material. If you think…

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Movies

“Venom” Movie Review: Are Critics Always Right?

Warning: major spoilers below! Though perhaps somewhat of an underdog in the Marvel comics universe, Venom has longtime been a highly cherished character, who appeared predominantly in the Spider-Man comics, especially to die-hard fans. For those of us who aren’t as much into the comic books, you might remember the titular amorphous alien symbiote from the film Spider-Man 3 back in 2007, absorbing itself first into Peter Parker’s spider suit, and later into the character journalist Eddie Brock. Essentially, the concept of the alien symbiote is that it takes on hosts; giving its host immense power but simultaneously (and sinisterly)…

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Movies

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” Film Review

Warning: Major Spoilers below! When I first watched the trailer for the new Netflix film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (based on a novel of the same name), I wasn’t sure what to think. Personally, I am not a massive fan of overly sappy movies or shows because I find sappiness to be disingenuous most of the times, or romanticized to a point of unbelievability. That’s sort of how this film came across, but what caught my eye was that the main character was a PoC (actress Lana Condor is of Vietnamese ethnicity, playing half-Korean character Lara Jean…

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Books

On Reading Shakespeare

I’m sure that a lot of you have, at some point, understood the struggle of reading Shakespeare plays during our school days. Of course, we have always been taught that William Shakespeare, the Bard himself, whose works have survived for over a whopping four centuries later, is one of the most timeless and classic playwrights ever. And hey, I am certainly not one to doubt that; Shakespeare’s vast repertoire offers a variety of genres, historical events, themes, and plotlines with an intelligence and wit that will always be considered pertinent. As a Canadian living in Toronto, “Shakespeare for Kids” versions…

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