Now Showing: WWII with big bro

You'd wish you were older. You'd wish you were the boss. You'd wish you were the older brother/sister who has all the right to bully your young wimpy siblings. But in the end, you'd wish for nothing in the world having one.

From surviving middle school Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) has opened up his diary again on the silver screen for the next chapter he has yet to survive: his big brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick).

Something that almost everyone can relate to, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011, directed by David Bowers, based on the novel by Jeff Kinney) now places wimpy kid Greg on the hellish battle zone, assured of his inevitable defeat against his good-for-nothing brother who incessantly makes fun of him--in front of middle school, his teachers and even his crush. The comic and hilarious war of the brothers couldn't get worse when their parents Susan (Rachael Harris) and Frank (Steve Zahn) force them to bond.

The sequel was able to retain the laugh-off-the-seat comedy and incorporate the inspiring lessons on loving you brother/sister despite all the annoying tricks and embarrassments he/she puts you in, that somehow simply serve as memorable times they'd just both laugh about in the future.

It was truly heartwarming when Greg decided to assist his best friend Rowley (Robert Capron) with his embarrassing magic performance to make his mom let Rodrick perform in the band showdown. In the least, it had earned him the passenger seat in Rodrick's van instead of getting rolled up at the back with all his brother's junk.

He who is the mime is the wimp

Don't justify your foolishness by trying to be like everybody else.

Fine. Everyone calls you a freak, a moron, a wimpy kid. They are those people the same age as you are, and you actually believe and submit to them. First prinicple says nobody really knows you but yourself. And as Greg Heffley's (Zachary Gordon) mom had said, "Your choices define who you are."

Apparently for wimpy kid Greg, he chose to let the people around him define him. Just like the rest of the innocent majority, he conditioned himself to gain entitlement and popularity. And so the petty but serious aspiration to fit in led little Greg to finally realize he ddidn't have to be a mime to be happy.

The comic movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid (directed by Thor Freudenthal) highlighted how friendship evolves in middle school, and especially how it is greatly affected when friends itch for entitlement issues at the same time. It became very hard for Greg to stand out, as his husky, innocent friend Rowley (Robert Capron) didn't quite get any logic from trying to be the school's favorite. Greg had to teach him how to be cool and not look childish, not quite realizing that his mission to change his best friend was for his own good.

I liked Rowley's character the most, for he represented the guy who didn't care what others thought. He simply showed who he was, even though it was silly and immature to others. He showed he could be happy even without the majority's approval of his nature. It's simply because he didn't let them define him; he defined himself.

Greg, on the other hand, never gained popularity, nor found his comfort zone in middle school. Wrsetling, theater, patrol watch--he literally joined everything just to fit in to the crowd he'd deemed gods. So much for political popularity; he even lost his best friend along the way. And he had justified his weakness by trying to be a mime.

School may seriously be a hellhole, a death sentence and a Jigsaw trap. But it's not because of the bullies, the monstrous teachers and the pressure to be popular; it's because you chose it to be that way.