Perpetual Rants

Enter...

2012-01-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

THE DRAGON!

*sweat*

NOT HIM LA AIYOOO!

[That's better :)]

GONG XI FA CAI!!

May this year of the Dragon bring you great wealth, fantastic health, and an abundance of prosperity!

Happy Holidays!

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

2012-01-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

After two superhero origin movies in a row that summer, we finally get one where he doesn't start off a cocky, arrogant dickhead.

[Late, late, I know.]

*fairly spoilerish*

One of the things that Marvel does so well is character development, and it firmly establishes Chris Evan's during the first half hour of the film. Every scene with pre-serum Chris Evans portrays him as the underdog with spirit so much bigger than his body (now I sound like I'm reviewing an animal movie), that you just can't help but root for (literally) the little guy. Considering that we're much more used to seeing Evans as the cocky, arrogant comic relief in the Fantastic Four movies (or in anything else, for that matter), surprisingly we are not reminded of his past sarcastic witticisms and the general comic adorableness that we've become so accustomed to.

[I mean, he's still pretty adorable in the movie, but it's not the usual kind, if you know what I mean.]

Even though the CG to shrink Evans is a bit weird (since I'm so much used to seeing him in his usual size), it doesn't pose much of a distraction from the dialogue or anything else, since Evans does a bang-up job as the little guy that wants do so much but is hindered by physical means. The scene where he finally gets the super-soldier serum is really quite satisfying, except for the part immediately after, where his benefactor (Stanley Tucci in a rare German-but-non-villain role) is immediately killed by German spies.

Supporting cast can do no wrong: Tommy Lee Jones is awesome as always, while Hugo Weaving turns in another villainous role with a European accent, but eh, when I first saw the casting I thought he'd be perfect as Red Skull, though I think he would be slightly more awesome as Sinestro. It's a pity they didn't bring back John Slattery to play Howard Stark; that would've been a very neat way to link this movie to Iron Man 2.

On an emotional level, the movie succeeds very well as evident by Cap'n's losses throughout the movie. First he loses his best friend Bucky Barnes (in the comics he actually takes over the Cap'n mantle for a while) during a mission, and then at the end, we see him part from his girlfriend Peggy Carter, as he is forced to crash the German craft into the ocean to avoid its trajectory towards the US. We know that Cap'n'll survive that crash (on account of the Avengers), but we also know that he'll never see her again. Watching that scene where Peggy speaks to Cap'n over the radio and finally gets cut off is just heartbreaking.

Overall, the storyline is pretty simple and straightforward (America vs. the Nazis) compared to other origin movies (evil half-brother always works for me), but as I said, Captain America has a ton of heart. It's not all happy-endings, but you still leave the theatre with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that has nothing to do with The Avengers teaser after the end-credits.

[Oh, and Red Skull dies. OR DOES HE?! He looks like he gets obliterated when he's holding the Cosmic Cube with his bare hands, but those of us who paid attention during Thor knows that it looks like a Bifrost Bridge, which is how Asgardians travel from one plane to another. Yeah! Maybe that's how Loki knows how to teleport to Earth without fanfare ^v^]

Ahem. Sorry. Couldn't resist that last bit.

2012 Resolutions!

2012-01-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, I think I might have been a little bit too ambitious with my 2011 ones (but then again, I guess resolutions are supposed to get you out of your comfort zone), so I'ma go easy with my 2012 ones.

[End of the world peeps, don't wanna stretch myself too much.]

Yannoewhat, I'ma gonna go REAL easy with my 2012 resolutions, and just carry forward my 2011 ones. Sooo.. here they are, my 2012 resolutions!

[a.k.a. Out with the new, and in with the old.]

Be more outgoing
Blog more
Movie-go more
Procrastinate not
Bitch less
Judge and critique less (aha! This is a new one!)
Lose weight
Learn Mandarin
Take up dancing lessons
Be nicer (I think this is also new, if not slightly more so)

That's just about all I can think of right now. I still have like, three movie reviews in backlog so I'm focusing on those at the moment :P

2012 Movie List!

2012-01-02T04:28:00.000-08:00

And it's only Day 2 of 2012! Not too shabby, eh? ;)

[Though I see 2011's list being posted while it's still 2010. Eh.]

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (February 17th)
Mirror, Mirror (March 16th)
The Avengers (MAY 4TH!!!)
Snow White and the Huntsman (June 1st)
Jack the Giant Killer (June 15th)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (June 22nd)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (June 29th)
The Amazing Spider-man (July 3rd)
The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)
The Expendables 2 (August 17th)
47 Ronin (November 21st)
World War Z (December 12th)

As you may have noticed, my entire list looks to be made up of summer or summer-like films (for the ones released in the second half of the year), as I'd rather spend that $10 in appreciating glorious special effects and/or its technical aspects on the big screen, instead of drama and emotion and facial expressions. I'm patient enough to wait for those Oscar-worthy performances to come on TV.

I also tossed in the movies that I most likely will be seeing next year (so to boost up my watch stats). Links to trailers already available are above; others will be added when available.

Bonus. Sadly, the trailer is fan-made. Would've been pretty awesome if it were real.

2011: A Movie Year in Review

2011-12-31T19:35:00.000-08:00

Same as my previous post on the resolutions, I've pulled my 2011 movie list from the side for review purposes. Colored ones mean seen ones; linked ones mean posted-review ones.

2011 Movie List
1) Sucker Punch
2) Thor
3) Priest
4) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
5) Green Lantern
6) Rise of the Apes
7) Transformers: Dark of the Moon
8) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
9) Captain America: The First Avenger
10) Smurfs
11) 11.11.11

And I still can't believe I included Smurfs in that list.

5 out of 11, which is fairly worst than 2010, since the numerator was 6 and the denominator was 10. Ugh. On the plus side, I managed to catch a few others off-list, though I'm surprised that Immortals is not on there, but it may be be that the list I'd checked wasn't updated with Immortals yet.

Anyway, here's my 2011 movie off-list, the reviews of which will be up shortly (except #1 and #7, 'cuz how do you review a concert movie?):

1) Kung Fu Panda 2
- Mom wanted to watch it. Shockingly good.

2) Immortals
- Like I said, didn't even know the movie was due in 2011.

3) The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn
- totally unplanned, but my office organized Movie Night so I went. And I'm so so glad I did.

4) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
- also unplanned, but it was Christmas weekend and I had 6 days of non-work.

[And the indirects I watched on Emirates, to and fro Italy:]

5) X-Men: First Class

6) Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

7) Glee: The Concert Movie
- By the trip back there was nothing else to watch.

2012 movie list up in a bit. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!! :D

2011: A Resolute Year in Review

2011-12-31T18:51:00.000-08:00

Pulling the list from my side-thingy (it's still there at point of writing), I will review the resolutions I had for the previous year to see how I fared. It's also a slight deciding factor in my 2012 resolutions, which will come in a later post.

So without further ado:

2011 Resolutions - To be...:

1) consistent

- No comment.

2) outgoing

- Fail. I did talk quite a bit more this year, but I don't think it's counts as 'outgoing'.

3) the opposite of the noun for 'procrastinate'

- Borderline pass. This is still a massive work-in-progress.

4) an active blogger

- Argh. 10 less than last year. In my defense, I do have a coupla posts lined up, though I don't think it's enough to make the gap. At any rate, those will go into 2012's number.

5) an active moviegoer

- Okay, I saw only five movies on my list, but watched an additional few more that wasn't. This would mean more than 6/10, no? Anyway, I'ma check this.

6) more patient

- HA!

7) more tolerant and a lot less bitchy

- HA HA HA! Oh, how I crack myself up.

8) thin and fat, simultaneously

- I have no fucking idea what possessed me to type the above sentence, but I'm quite fat now, sooo... based on the above sentence, partially achieved, yes?

9) confident, and not a pushover

- Fuck no for the confidence, fuck YES for the backbone. I'm quite proud of the latter acquisition.

10) Mandarin-proficient, and able to bust a move

- Hell to the effing naw, yo!

Well, 3/10; looks like 2011 was a fairly disappointing year for resolutions.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T17:46:00.001-08:00

Happy 2012 everyone!!

Don't let the nighing end mar your celebration! Enjoy the holiday weekend! xD

Merry Christmas, everyone! :D

2011-12-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

Wishing you lovely tidings of joy, happiness, and presents by the ton-ful!~

Easy.

2011-12-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

Ever heard the Paula DeAnda song of the same name? The term 'easy' is usually used for women rather than men (in fact, a lot of derogatory things are used to describe women), but this song comes to mind, if you're looking for opposite instances.

For me, I'm two minds: I think it's ton flattering if a non-repulsive guy shows interest, but if he shows so much interest that it borders or crosses that fine line between affection and desperation, no thank you.

All I'm saying is, the guy shouldn't play hard-to-get, but he also shouldn't put it the fuck out there for everyone to see.

Now, I will detail a situation that is still unfolding before my very eyes, and the futility of this entire exercise is what annoys me the most. More on this in a bit.

Right, here goes: Boy and Girl, separate departments. Boy shows interest; nay, Boy pens 'LOVES HER' in thick black letters on forehead, and proceeds to parade everywhere advertising said inkage in clear view on face. Girl is nonchalant; doesn't seem to encourage, but neither does she discourage.

Boy also likes to visit Girl at her workstation. A LOT.

You may begin to feel slightly sappy and go, "awwwww", but I would tell you at this point that Boy's favourite time to visit Girl is during proper working hours. Not during lunch, not after office hours, BLOODY HELL TO THE NO. He loves to visit her when the working environment is in full swing, and whenever he does, he has to walk right by me to get to her, because Girl's workstation is, unfortunately for me, fairly close to mine.

Oftentimes, Boy visits Girl right about when I am about to assign work to her, or when I need to ask her something work-related. This specifically cheeses me off, because for some reason I actually feel apologetic that I had interrupted his pathetic attempts at endearment in order to get some fucking work done.

Boy even organised a pre-birthday lunch for Girl ('cuz Girl was to take leave on her birthday day), and even got his senior colleague to drive him to the cake shop (so that he could get the cake without her being around), and then drive him to the restaurant we were to lunch in. I mean, aside from the totally un-fucking-necessary subterfuge, I am appalled that a mere month-old n00b actually had the audacity to ask of such a favor from his senior, considering the distance between the cake shop and the restaurant.

And yes, one month. That is how long Boy and Girl had only known each other, when all of the above was happening. The fact that Boy had already been exhibiting stalkerish tendencies within their first days in office, is already sickly sweet and/or shudderificly pathetic, depending on my mood.

That is not even the juicy part. You see, Girl is already, and currently still, in a relationship. /futility

[DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!!]

Boy should be well aware of this fact, since everyone ~~but me~~ has Facebook these days, and he would've added her in a hummingbird's heartbeat. Like, if I had seen it on her Facebook (she was showing photos and I glimpsed), without a doubt he would have already.

[Unless he had blocked any and every memory of himself seeing her relationship status, and/or is currently in denial.]

Which further highlights the pointlessness of the entire situation. If you love her (or at least, like her deeply enough), stop trailing her like a lovesick ~~asshat~~puppy, man the eff up and tell her how you feel. Never mind she has a real boyfriend; ball will be in her court. It may hurt, but at least you'll know where you stand.

After all, all's fair in love, and fortune tends to have a soft spot for the bold.

A Posting in Point-Form: What I Have Been Up To:

2011-12-18T04:15:00.000-08:00

Finished exams, totally passed, totally stoked.
Went to Italy, French Riviera, mini-Swiss town. Planning to post, with pics. Now looks at local prices and divides it by 4.3.
Planning to finish off Melbourne trip post as well. Been putting it off for two years now.
Took a whole bunch of leave from work, slept through most of those days.
Skipped the office Christmas party, and damned proud about that fact. Still had to contribute to present pool, 'cuz was asked.

Gained weight, got lazy, stopped caring about outward appearance, started wearing flats and the same skirt to work every day.
Feeling very lethargic and procrastinate-y at all times. Beddy-bye in about an hour.

So.

2011-11-15T05:48:00.001-08:00

I see I've not posted substantial up in at least five months. Needless to say, the writer's block is back.

Naw, that's not right.

Saying that the block is 'back' would mean that the block had gone away at some point. It did not.

I honestly don't get why I can't write like I used to. It's not like I'm perfectly content with my life that I have absolutely no complaints. I am disgruntled about something almost every other hour every day, I have a shitload of things to bitch about, and yet I can't even sum up mere words to express how I feel, no matter how strong.

Granted, I'm not the most eloquent person in the world, but when it comes to writing, I think I can afford a little less modesty and say that I'm good when it comes to putting pen on paper. There are a lot of things I can't do, but the one thing I can, that I'm most proud of, is write.

And now I don't even have that anymore. Ugh.

Anyway, I have three movie reviews lined up since July, one Melbourne trip for chronicling that happened in 2009. Go figure.

Short people are steadier than others...

2011-10-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

...for their centre of gravity is lower.

That is all for now. I know that I owe two main movie reviews and my Melbourne trip photos from '09; will get on those next Wednesday! :)

R.I.P. Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)

2011-10-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

I first found out over the radio, and indirectly, at that, because none of the DJs had actually said outright that Steve Jobs had passed away. They were only asking people to call in for dedications, how Apple had changed their lives, bla bla eckcetera.

It wasn't only until I'd Googled 'Steve Jobs' that I found out that he had passed away sometime yesterday, succumbing to pancreatic cancer.

I didn't even know he had cancer, period. I vaguely remember a hubbub some years ago when he showed up at the Mac Expo (or something like that), looking gaunt, which spread rumors that he was sick. Even then there was no mention of cancer; just that he was a bit unhealthy.

[A bit like the time everyone said that Kevin Sorbo was sick, but was never really specific about 'with what'.]

I mean, he'd only stepped down as Apple CEO a coupla months ago, "health reasons".

I'm stunned. I'm still stunned. It's too soon.

My first computer was a Mac. My first laptop was an iBook. Heck, the only reason I've not bought a new Apple laptop is because they're using Intel processors, and IBM / MICROSOFT IS THE ENEMY!

Without Jobs (and technically, Steve Wozniak), people would not have asked me what 'Macs' were, growing up. And I would not have been lording it over Windows peons for YEARS that my computer was far better than theirs, and sure as heck far EASIER to use.

I would not have been unique. Back in the day, of course. Nowadays, people use Apple products like nobody's business.

R.I.P. Steven Paul Jobs. Without your innovation and insane marketing skills, we wouldn't have Pixar, we wouldn't have had cute round computers with everything in their insides, and there wouldn't have been someone for IBM to rip its technology off from.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

2011-08-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

We get treated to a pretty cool prologue scene of Cyberton in war, and a ship escaping from that planet, carrying technology that could decide the outcome of the war, but not before taking major damage. The Ark, as it is called, crashed onto our moon, and basically sparked the entire moonlanding race of the 60s.

[Oooo, history!]

Fastforward to the present, everyone who's anyone discovers the Ark, and inside, the previous Autobot leader Sentinel Prime, who is brought to Earth and revived by Optimus using the Matrix of Leadership from the last movie. The good guys also discover the Pillars, an invention by Sentinel that, when placed in strategic locations on Earth, would create a space bridge large enough for teleportation.

What exactly, those of you who have not seen Transformers 3 yet, may ask?

Cybertron itself.

When that little bit comes to light, all hell breaks loose, and that is when the fun proper totally begins.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is definitely darker than its predecessors, and despite 10 minutes of Ken Jeong, the storyline is definitely better and much more interesting than the earlier movies. It's more expansive, in that the Decepticons pretty much take over ~~downtown Chicago~~ the world (humans get obliterated this time!), and it also touches on an aspect of the human-robot relationship that hasn't been explored before: humans colluding with Decepticons, which apparently goes back waaay before the Autobots made an appearance.

I don't think I need to go into detail on the robots, they look awesome as usual, though I still can't really tell one Decepticon from the other (except for Megatron, since he's taken on that whole nomad look). That one scene in the second half of the movie where our human heroes are in the building (it looks ridiculous in the trailer, but it's explained), and Shockwave is just destroying the crap out of it, is absolutely fantastic. But my favorite scene would have to be the part when Bumblebee transforms into robot-mode to defeat some Decepticons (with Sam still inside him, car-mode), and grabs Sam before turning back into a car, with Sam inside, all in slow-mo. Even without Sam screaming like a little girl, it's still an amazingly-enjoyable sequence.

T:DotM is bigger, more violent, with so much damage and robot-on-robot action, and we get to see what Cybertron looks like. It has a tone of epic finality, since all the major Decepticon players get wiped out. It should be awesome, but it doesn't really reach the mark.

Why?

With the exception of the first one, final fights in the Transformers movies have always been disappointingly short, but this one takes the cake. And the reason behind it is even more ridiculous.

During the final fight between Sentinel and Optimus, Megatron backstabs Sentinel, because Sam's new girlfriend, Carly, manages to convince Megatron that he wouldn't be the leader anymore if Sentinel wins the fight.

Yes, new girl Rosie Huntington-Whitely is the deus ex bloody machina.

With Sentinel badly injured (because he didn't count on Megatron was that big a moron) and out of the way, Optimus takes out Megatron, and subsequently ends Sentinel for his betrayal. All in all, final fight took roughly 10 minutes.

[It's a very convenient and quick ending, and affirms this article that Megatron is a bloody idiot that also takes the advice of humans he doesn't know.]

Huntington-Whitely was generally not awful until the end, when she starts staring above-camera with a look of wonderment for 10 whole minutes, and only in the next scene do we realise that she was looking at Megatron and processing her idea at the same time.

I wish Megan Fox was in this. If Mikaela was still around and had thought of something like this, we would have appreciated it even more, because she knows Megatron, and what he's like and stuff. Instead, we have the new girl doing this, and it's like, "What the eff, man?!"

Mikaela would've shown more expression on her face.

T:DotM is a worthy third movie, but would've been so, so much better if Megan Fox was still around.

[Plus, I kinda miss Ramon Rodriguez :)]

I have seen Captain America!

2011-07-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

And the end-credits scene is the best and worse I've seen ever!

More on this, but not so soon.

#writer'sblock

Right, general update:

2011-07-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

I've gotten re-addicted to my old LucasArts computer games, and have been replaying the lot like mad.

This means that I haven't been able to work on my reviews for Transformers 3 and Harry Potter 7.2, and why my Green Lantern review took so long to get posted.

My damn writer's block is also back, which means hammering out a bloody review would take an even longer time than usual. Ugh.

Anyway, cliffsnotes, Transformers 3 is less enjoyable than the second, HP7.2 was fairly awesome, though they did away with some minute details from the book and forgot about Wormtail. Will try to bang one out in the next few days.

Green Lantern (2011)

2011-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

[I know what you're thinking: ASAP, my tush.]

I'd looked up Rotten Tomatoes before I went to see this movie, and I was shocked at the very low rating. Since I don't agree with the RT aggregator on some of movies that I like (e.g. The Skeleton Key, Dead Silence, etc.), I was still optimistic that I would enjoy Green Lantern as much as any other superhero movie.

Sadly, no.

The thing about the GL comics is that our hero Hal Jordan is part of the bigger picture, being that the Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force that maintains order in the respective Sectors they're assigned to. The occasional threat-to-the-universe is what makes GL so interesting, because back-up involves all manner of living beings coming and working together to defeat the bad guy.

Plus, most of it happens in space / other planets / galaxies, so that's pretty cool too.

Being the first movie, it rightfully focuses on developing Hal and his relationship with everyone else; unfortunately, for source material with such a wide scope, I found the movie boring. It was a bit slow at the beginning, and though the airplane bit was quite cool to watch, the 15-20 minutes spent to show that Hal was irresponsible could've been used elsewhere.

Like on other characters. As in, those not of this Earth.

[I always thought Kilowog was looked more like a hippo...]

The storyline itself also didn't make much sense.

The main villain is Parallax, a fallen Guardian who tried to master the power of fear and failed, falling to its corrupt yellow light. And yet, the Guardians themselves agree too easily to Sinestro's suggestion that to defeat Parallax (who is heading for Oa to seek revenge), they need to forge a ring that draws on the yellow power of fear. I get that they need to ease a transition to Sinestro's eventual defection from the GL Corp (he sets up his own Corp, where members wear yellow rings and harness fear), but it's a bit disjointed the way they went about it. Not one instance in the movie ever showed that Sinestro had a darker side to him, and the scene where he puts on the yellow ring seems only as fanservice.

[Not that it didn't work.]

The Guardians in the comics, though fallible, are definitely not gullible, and the movie inevitably uses the usual people-in-high-places-make-stupid-mistakes-until-the-hero-talks-sense-into-them formula, which kinda blows. And also brings us to Hal's big speech to the Guardians, shortly before he goes to fight Parallax. What is the friggin' point of having Hal implore the Guardians to not fight fire with fire and help him save his planet, and then having the Guardians say 'no'? There, another 15 minutes down the drain.

Also, two many villains spoileth the movie. Pun intended.

Multiple villains generally don't work unless they are working together, with one leader, or the faceless goons / thugs / redshirts plus the one villain that really matters. Same goes for this movie. Hector Hammond was perfectly capable of being a major villain, seeing that he has a fair amount of screentime and knows the good guys. They're not close friends, but it was implied that they grew up together, and emotional connections between good and evil are always interesting. Instead we have Parallax, who is reduced to a massive intergalactic smoke monster with yellow tinges.

[The real Parallax is the embodiment of fear, and can never be destroyed, only contained.]

Ryan Reynolds can do absolutely no wrong in the Charm and Hero department (or in general), though I felt that he was a bit restrained in this one. Cast was splendid, and Peter Sarsgaard is effectively creepy and tortured as Hammond. The special effects were amazing, and once again I kick myself for not watching yet another movie set on a different plane in 3D. We got to see Oa, the Guardians (basically what I was hoping for), the Green Central Power Battery, and even the Yellow(!), for some reason. It was a bit odd that the power source for fear was within proximity of Oa, but hey, looks awesome.

Unfortunately, all those things didn't save the movie from being just plain 'meh'.

Maybe the movie would've worked if the script wasn't complete in the first place and everyone ad-libbed their way through the film.

Or Robert Downey, Jr.

In brightest day, in blackest night...

2011-06-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

No evil shall escape my sight,
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!

The trailer doesn't look much, but the individual promo clips on YouTube actually look promising, though CG-heavy.

[Hope it's not because they're minute-long clips :P]

What I know is pretty much what I gleaned from Blackest Night (so glad I finally finished it!), so seeing Oa and Sinestro and Green Lanterns from all walks of life got me a bit fan-girly. Looks like they're expanding on the universe, which should be the way to go if they're really serious about making that Justice League film.

[And if they do make that JL movie, they might just make that BN movie. I'd be the happiest fangirl alive.]

What I'm worried about, though, is the villainS. Yes, plural.

From the casting news early on, Peter Sarsgaard is playing Hector Hammond, whose head eventually swells up to huge proportions to account for the additional brainpower/matter. I'd like to elaborate further, but I can't, because Wikipedia isn't working for me at the moment. But anyway, Hammond probably has the usual telekinesis / psychic abilities / hatred for the hero.

Then we have Parallax, which is revealed in the YT promo clips.

Parallax is the Fear entity, and at one point in GL lore, takes possession of Hal Jordan and proceeds to rampage and murder and destroy everything and everyone (if I'm not mistaken, that storyline was a major part of a universe-wide event). I really don't think they'd risk cramming Parallax into Jordan ('cuz it's really too much to digest in an origin movie), but it's still interesting to see whether Parallax does try to possess Jordan.

Wonder whether Parallax would be written to have a hand in Sinestro's transition to the ~~yellow~~dark side. It's too much of a coincidence.

Anyway, I'm still pretty psyched about the movie, and I've got my tickets already! Will try to get my review up ASAP once I see it next Saturday.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

2011-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

KFP 2 is suprisingly awesome.

'Surprising', because it's rare you get a Dreamworks animated flick that actually has substance, seeing that their usual formula is to cram in as many famous people and pop culture references in a one-and-a-half hour film.

Far from my usual reviews, which has a crapload of words in them, this one will be short.

Why? 'Cuz this review has been overdue for two weeks now, and I want to get it out of the way before I start on Green Lantern.

Anyway, my consensus is, do watch it, if you can. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll go 'awww'; the usual barrage of emotions that comes with watching a Pixar movie. Yes, it is that good.

I leave you with the awesome end credits sequence, where we get to see how Po travels all the way to Mr Ping's noodle shop.

Ebert didn't like Thor :(

2011-05-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

I generally look forward to reading what Roger Ebert thinks about movies, especially ones that I like.

Not only because he's a very experienced and well-respected film critic (and thus, his opinions do hold water in the film community), and apart from his tending to like the kind of movies I like, he writes with wit and clarity about what he doesn't like about a film.

The more scathing the review, the more fun to read, so to speak.

[Except for Transformers 2, of which I seem to be the only person who enjoyed it.]

Also, he was the only one that had given Spider-man 2 a (deservedly!) higher rating than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in a time where everyone else were praising Harry Potter 3 for its dark and more sombre turn, as compared to the lighter mood of the first two movies.

HP3 was a mess. But I digress.

So I was decidedly bummed when I read that Ebert didn't like Thor, because I absolutely loved Thor. And since we're on the subject of 'mood-dampeners', my office has gone with the majority and will be watching Fast 5 on Movie Night this Wednesday.

So much for watching Thor a second time for free :(

Thor (2011)

2011-05-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

My first movie of the year.

I've been excited about Thor due to it being part of the Marvel line-up in conjunction with The Avengers film that's gonna be out May 2012, and it doesn't disappoint.

The theatre projector, on the other hand, died within the first damn hour, and made us lose 15 minutes of the movie. What's worse is that it died a SECOND time, during the POST-CREDITS SCENE, a scene which I had WAITED TEN MINUTES after the movie proper ended FOR, and, based on WIKIPEDIA, a scene that is NOT TO BE MISSED, and is EVEN BETTER than FINDING MJOLNIR in the DESERT.

DAMN.

*spoilers*

On the day of his coronation, titular character Thor is exiled to Earth and stripped of his powers for wreaking havoc in an enemy's realm in which they have a fragile truce with, until he learns to mature up and not be so arrogant and rash. After Natalie Portman's 4WD runs into him twice, he redeems himself ~~very quickly~~, and returns home to Asgard, where he finds out that his brother Loki was behind the events of the entire movie, in his bid to be King and win the approval of their father, ~~Anthony Hopkins~~Odin.

A lot of work was put into making Asgard look the way it should, and it looks absolutely gorgeous! This movie is second on my list of movies I should've watched in 3D (the first being Avatar). Really, all the time spent on the non-Earth realms makes it worth the 3D ticket price.

As beautiful as Asgard was, too much of the movie was spent in Asgard (apart from the necessary scenes with our scheming throne-usurper Loki and Thor's friends trying to bring Thor back) at the beginning, leaving us with very little time on Thor learning the errors of his ways. Seriously, if we look at the timeline, it took him at most half an hour (probably five days in the movie) to be able to go back to Asgard.

Just that simple. And all because of Nat Portman.

Eyeroll on speedy life lessons aside, storyline was good enough to keep me interested, most probably because I'm very unfamiliar with Thor canon, and watching this movie is like learning everything for the first time. Action scenes were also super special awesome. I'm actually surprised that the movie had quite a focus on action, because it was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who is a Shakespearean actor and director, and is more noted for drama-heavy films, like the fairly awful updated version of the classic Sleuth, which had starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.

["Eggs in the morning", wtf.]

One of the main highlights of the movie for me was Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki. Even though Loki was conniving and devious and hurt a crapload of people, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him, because all he ever wanted was Odin's approval, and just couldn't see that all this backstabbing schtick is totally not working. It certainly did not help that Odin looks to be favoring Thor more.

[I'll bet it's 'cuz Thor's blond and big and Loki has dark hair and is skinny. Loki is also adopted, which sooo did not help.]

And in the end, Loki's demise wasn't even a result from being bested in combat. While hanging on to ~~his scepter~~Gungnir (when the Bifrost bridge was destroyed), Odin ~~very~~pretty much implied that Loki couldn't live up to his expectations, and Loki just gave up, let go and fell to endless space.

[Just like in The Mummy Returns, where Imhotep was barely holding on to the edge and his stupid girlfriend runs off to escape all the falling rocks. Stupid Anucksunamun.]

Hiddleston was absolutely fantastic (even though at one point or two he seemed to be overacting a tad), and what we got was a very sympathetic, tragic anti-hero rather than your typical run-of-the-mill ambitious brotherly foil-to-hero who wants to be King. Also, he's evil cute.

[If you haven't caught on yet, this is partially a fangirl post.]

One thing I don't get. How could Loki have teleported his way to Earth to tell Thor that Odin's dead (he lied), without catching the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., who were all over the place due to Mjolnir (Thor's hammer), and who would most definitely have caught on to something like a rainbow bridge lasering itself onto Earth? I mean, they certainly noticed when Thor's friends dropped by.

Oo, oo, HAWKEYE CAMEO FTW!! :D

Bottomline, despite Thor having a change of heart and attitude so quickly ~~because of a girl~~, which is fairly ridiculous, Thor is a great movie, and a fantastic way to start off the summer movie season.

P.S. the post-credits scene is pretty pivotal, so do be sure to stay and watch. However, if the projector breaks down sometime in the movie, then don't waste your time in the theatre. You'd be better off YouTubing it.

Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Midnight

2011-02-06T03:59:00.000-08:00

Two months of procastination for me to sit down and read the remaining three-quarters of Towers of Midnight. Took me all of New Year weekend.

And Chinese New Year weekend is the perfect time for me to get my post up. I am happy :)

The focus in this book is on Perrin and Mat (as Book 12 is on Rand and Egwene), finally resolving their story-arcs, both of which felt like they've been going on forever. Eight books, to be exact. Eight, encyclopedia-sized tomes that probably weighed one kilo each.

Mat's arc is by far the most interesting (and awesome) in this book. Loved, loved how Mat defeated the gholam (though the explanation on the Kinswoman holding the gateway doesn't really hold water, but whatev), and loved, loved, loved how he found his way out from the lands of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn (the ashandarei, man! Oh-em-gee!!). His overall POV, however, felt off. Like his letter to Elayne. It was absolutely hilarious, but doesn't really seem like Mat to write her a letter. Illiterately. I always thought that Mat was better educated than that, and even if by not much, I always thought that he could spell.

Perrin was fantastic during the dream sequence in Tar Valon. "There is no balefire"."This wall does not exist". "These are not the Aes Sedai you are looking for". Very, very cool, but since the existence of the ability to break minds and change environments only came up in this book, it's such an obvious deus ex machina set-up. How else would Perrin been able to defeat Slayer, and Egwene with Mesaana?

[And the Aiel Wise Ones using camouflage? Simply, simply awesome.]

Speaking of Egwene and Mesaana, only 10 lines of story describing their fight?! I mean, it's Mesaa-fricken'-na, man! Lecturer, intellectual, Forsaken... I know Egwene is a very strong Dreamer and Mesaana has always been mediocre, but things just happened too fast.

Thom and Moiraine's romantic coming-of-togetherness feels forced. Very, very forced. Moiraine has been away for eight books, and even when she was around, we don't see much enough development between she and Thom to warrant them to want to get married after her rescue. All this while, I thought that the main reason why Thom would feel anything at all for Moiraine's supposed death was because she had promised to give him the name of the Sister who had ordered for Thom's nephew to be gentled without following proper protocol. Goes to show what I know.
Aviendha's POV, though short, paints a very dark and very bleak future for the Aiel. Aviendha goes through the second set of ter'angreal in Rhuidean, and her visions show that even the best of intentions lead to the worst decisions, which in turn, leads to the downfall of the Aiel.

What I don't get is how Aviendha saw the future instead of the past, which was what she was supposed to be shown as this time around, she went through the past-revealing ter'angreal. Apparently, she's supposed to be the exception to the rule (no explanation on this), but anyway, I'd like to see her explain her vision to the rest of her folk (in the next book, hopefully).

Book 13 also touches on the aftermath of Rand's epiphany from the end of Book 12. From a beautiful ending to Book 12, we see that Enlightened Rand, though Rand is a lot wiser than he was in the previous books, he isn't really Rand anymore, more towards a combination of all his past lives to make into one. And it's sad, in a way, because I wanted to see Rand (for all his flaws and whinings and reluctance to kill women in general) defeat the Dark One, not Third Age Lews Therin.

The timeline for each character in the book is terribly confusing. Perrin's arc only catches coincides with the end of Book 12 midway of Book 13, Mat's case with Verin's letter would mean that his arc in the book would've spanned days instead of months, seeing that Verin had warned him of an impending Shadowspawn attack on Caemlyn. I mean, even though Trollocs are big and bulky, I think they can amasse fast when they want to.

Overall, an excellent book in terms of plot development, with the final 10-15 chapters being absolutely awesome. Kudos to Sanderson pulling this book off; you can see how much less Jordan is in this one. However, the inconsistency in the slang, terms and vocabulary used is even more prominent in this book compared to Book 12, and so glaringly obvious that it takes your attention (mine, at any rate) away from the storyline, which shouldn't be the case.

Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010)

2011-02-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

Dubble Revs! And...

*no spoilers*

Let's start with the second one, since I saw it first.

Tron: Legacy (2010)

"Holy crapnuggets, is that Cillian Murphy?!"
But I digress.

Tron: Legacy has the most unbelievably meh storyline ever. It's not awful; it just doesn't keep you riveted. I went to see it for my office's Movie Night, and I heard some of my colleagues dozed off. Myself, I was awake, but then again, I'm a graphics geek.

Because the graphics were totally awesome. Seriously. Throughout the movie I was thinking, "Damn, I should be watching this in 3D."

The lightcycle/jet scenes, the moving platform bit, the art direction in general... all of it looked absolutely beautiful. And the soundtrack! The other saving grace of the movie. And oddly, reminiscent of Inception.

Now, we move on to the first one.

Tron (1982)

Having lived with the impression that this movie doesn't deserve my time (based on this TV commercial I saw 10-15 years ago), it wasn't as bung-lame as I thought it'd be; in fact, I enjoyed it. Storyline-wise is far more interesting and a lot better than Legacy.

While watching this, I was actually hoping that they had remade Tron, instead of filming a sequel, because the graphics would've looked absolutely glorious if updated. But at any rate, having both movies from different eras made for interesting, if not nostalgic, comparison. I was reminded of Arashi, this arcade game that had you circling the top of this pit while alien ships came at you from its bottom.

[I sucked at it.]

After finally watching Tron, I came to accept that Jeff Bridges really was in this movie (even though Legacy made it most obvious that he was). Most of all, I enjoyed looking at a very young Bruce Boxleitner, who plays the eponymous Tron, as he was way, way prettier than Jeff Bridges ever was.

Swoon.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

2011-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

May the coming year of the Rabbit bring you great health, loads of angpaos and oodles of happiness!!

[Meant to totally post this yesterday but forgot, that's why I'm backdating it :P]

Either. Or. There is no 'and'.

2011-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

A variation of the infamous, 'Do, or do not...', that strolled into my head a coupla days ago. Thought I'd share :)