Pandora is basically a Local Area Network

Finally got a chance to watch the acclaimed film "Avatar" and here are some of my thoughts:

1. Saw it on IMAX 3D and there's only one fitting reaction and I'm going with one of the reactions mentioned in the James Cameron interview in Attack of the Show which goes like this:

"Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude..."

*ahem*

I can tell you that you've never seen anything like it before.

2. Pandora is a planet where the biosphere is essentially one big internet: creatures come with their own USB ports, the native population have their own USB/LAN cables attached to their bodies, trees are servers, and their nature deity issues orders through wifi...duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude...

3. the visuals are awesome; the story -- well -- is familiar. People have made (unkind) comparisons to Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, and even Fern Gully!

4. There was this one scene where Jake Sully (or Jake Sooli) is making this big speech to rally the Na'vi. In one sentence I caught the phrase "...this is..." and I went "Sparta?" while chuckling to myself.

5. How the hell do Na'vis f*ck? One animator decides to speculate...



6. I want my own flying dragon -- thing -- whatever that was!

7. I didn't want to return the 3D glasses when it was all over. For the money I paid I decided to wear it until the exit, refusing to take it off with my own hands -- I actually leaned over to the usher so he could pluck the glasses off my face.

Die Hitler! Die!

Watching Inglorious Basterds brought back memories of watching war movies with my brother. He would always tell me to take count of the number of soldiers at the start of the film as they would eventually be whittled down during the course of the story. Needless to say, my subtraction skills were sharpened from watching war movies:

Okay, we have 10 members in the squad...

Now, two got blown to bits by a claymore mine -- 10 minus 2,that's eight...

One bleeds to death from being shot in the thigh, must be the femoral...one less eight makes seven...

Standoff in a base or somewhere...five gets blown by mortar fire. Two remain standing...

The beauty about Inglorious Basterds is that it doesn't make pretensions to draw parallels with current issues, be an allegory of the struggle over good and evil, serve as an indictment or endorsement of any war, or even wax sentimental over the "good old days" (Band of Brothers often did this during the course of that series). It's a swashbuckling adventure. And it delivers.

In the sequence which shows Shosanna (aka Emmanuelle) in the projection room prior to the premiere of "Nation's Pride" (you'll get this if you watched the film), I thought the song playing was familiar - more particularly, the voice, which I was sure I have heard before. I bet Yunamayi that it was David Bowie (unfortunately she didn't call me on my bet). And sure enough, at the end credits -- David Bowie! Cat People!

One question: what happened to the remainder of the Basterds? I counted the the two German speaking Basterds in the pub and the two who went kamikaze in the cinema as casualties; Raines and Utivich survived, so where were the other four? Unless I missed a scene...wait -- I forgot to count them again during the baseball bat scene with Bear Jew and the Nazi officer...crap.

Profane Redemption

Matthias Grunewald's "Crucifixion"

Just watched Wanted:Border with Yunamayi and let me just say that it was an amazing experience. The film reallys fits the mold of what a true "indie cinema" experience is. The film does not pander to the audience, purposely forcing the viewers to a higher level of awareness. In short - hindi iniinsulto ng pelikulang ito ang intelihensya ng manonood.

But the film also carries an inherent challenge -- as the audience you need to keep your eyes and ears open and soak in the visual and visceral experience. Viewing Wanted:Border is quite a challenge. The film employs a non-linear narrative and the images would seem to be a bit convoluted at the beginning but it all falls into place toward the end. Take note, you need to keep the small details in mind. This film might need a few more views even for those already initiated in the various conceits of indie cinema.

The film left us both satisfied and perplexed. The taltal thread is the one that got us pondering the film even as we were exiting the cinema. During dinner we'd often catch ourselves lost in thought -- ganun ka-grabe ang epekto ng pelikula sa amin. To speak of more details would be a sacrilege, since one needs to take in the entire movie and come up with their individual take on the movie. Mine is right there in the blog post title as well as in the picture of Christ crucified in all his g(l)ory.

Apart from the complexities, it was a joy to hear people speaking in Ilonggo. Rosanna Roces gives an understated, though very powerful performance. The film has offered us a strange and unsettling view of the human condition, and if in the darkness of human compulsions one can find a strange though disturbing beauty -- and a rather surreal hope for redemption -- then it wouldn't hurt to look, would it?

Pissed

Movietime with cousin Pebi did not go as planned.

I am so f*cking pissed with what happened.

Last night I checked out the scheduled screening of Wanted:Border at clickthecity.com. There I saw that the schedule listed a 1:40 PM, 3:30 PM, and 5:20 PM screening of the film. Knowing that Pebi would be fresh out of her shift (her shift BTW ends at 6 am) at her call center/trading consultancy work, and that she normally spends Thursday morning asleep at home, we agreed on an early afternoon screening since she should be back in Cavite before 4 or 5 PM.

And so we met at the SC around 10 AM. Natawa ako sa kanya kasi yung get-up nya was "yuppieng gala" -- top part was "yuppie" while the lower half was "gala" (shorts and sandals). A quick stop at Maroons turned her into a "UPing gala" (a UP shirt now replaced her blouse). After spending a moment to check out the DVDs at the usual place, we made our way to Robinson's Galleria for lunch.

Of course libre ni Pebi. (Thank you!) Mealtime chitchat was the most meaningful I had in a looong time. Discussion went from movies: Sophia Copolla's Marie Antoinette and the sad fate of M. Night Shyamalan (Pebi expressed admiration for Lady in the Water; I, on the other hand, expressed skepticism on The Last Airbender; we both agreed The Happening sucked); to books: George Orwell's works (Animal Farm, 1984) to Paulo Coelho's I Sat by the River Piedra and Wept (pareho ang reaction namin sa book -- isang malutong na WTF?!)The food at The Old Spaghetti House was also good - the spareribs were soft and tender but needed more sauce and marinade IMO.

Things took a turn for the worse after lunch.

We hurried to the ticket booth around 1:15 PM to get in line for Wanted:Border only to find that Robinson's Movieworld had changed the schedule. There were to be two screenings of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON at Cinema 8 prior to the screening of Wanted: Border. The earliest we could watch was 5:20 PM and, knowing Pebi's situation, it was impossible for us to watch the movie as a "critical tandem" (naks) if that's the case.

F*ck.

After profuse apologies to Pebi, we decided to watch Paranormal Activity instead. Nilibre ko si Pebi as a token of gratitude for lunch and also for the fact that the sudden change of plans made us watch a movie that we both weren't planning on viewing. Nahiya talaga ako kay Pebi. And I was so irate at what happened that I just had to kick Edward's big-ass face displayed in the Movieworld lobby.

Honestly, that felt good. ha.

Halos walang tao sa cinema when we went in. Aside from Pebi and myself, I counted around 6 more people in the cinema. So much for the hype surrounding this film -- another addition to the "found/recovered footage genre" like The Blairwitch Project, Cloverfield, Rec, Quarantine (based on Rec), and The Hayden Kho Scandal (kidding)

Again, so much for hype. I considered the film as an indictment of the materialistic and self-centered American culture whose only response to the forces of the supernatural was to point a videocamera at it. The scenario presented in the film would unfold quite differently here in our country, where our culture is steeped in lore regarding the supernatural. This would explain why both Pebi and I viewed the film with a degree of incredulity and amusement -- but not horror.

Kung si Pebi pa: "Naku, na-engkanto lang yan. Tawas lang ang katapat nyan..."

but to be fair to the film, a few scenes did make me jump. The most interesting was the one where the woman, while sound asleep, was dragged by her foot from her bed by an invisible presence, and hearing her terrified screams as she was being dragged away from view... now, that was creepy.

And another question kept nagging me: Why don't they just shut the damn door?

And so our tandem shared disappointment instead of an enjoyable film experience. This afternoon just made me realize how much I hated the Twilight series, and now I could hate it with a vengeance. Nang dahil sa New Moon na 'yan nadiskaril ang plano namin ni Pebi, punyeta!


Note: checked the clickthecity website again, and lo and behold! the f*cking schedule has indeed been changed!Isaksak nyo yang p*t********g New Moon na 'yan sa baga nyo!

Give the Devil His Due

This is the last Cine Europa film I will be watching. I also wanted to watch "Just Another Love Story" but there was a very long queue and the tickets were all out when I was almost at the booth. Muntik na akong maabutan ng tickets pero wala na talaga...nyemas!

The film that I was able to watch was from the Czech Republic and featured the Devil as the protagonist, fairy godmother, and dispenser of justice. The story was made out to be a fairy tale, with all the usual conventions: evil stepmother, various challenges to be hurdled by the protagonist, a love story, etc. but what I found interesting was the role of the Devil as social arbiter and equalizer.

Here the Devil (aka Lucifer XIV) sends his minions to claim sinners. The movie, however, presents this in a positive way as the Devil seems to have a liking for greedy people. Putting this in the context of the film, which was released in the 1980s, this seems like an attempt at social commentary. There are implicit criticisms of the “higher” class (greedy, snobbish), the military (inept, venal), government (ditto), and even war (motivated by greed) in this film, and a sympathetic take on the plight of the working class. The Devil and his minions are portrayed as agents of social justice who punish those in power who use their influence to disenfranchise and abuse their fellowmen. Parang familiar ito ah…

Despite the clunky special effects (pasensyahan niyo na 1980s pa kasi) the film was an enjoyable experience. And, as all fairytales go, the guy got his girl, the poor became rich, and the Devil got his due.

"Dyinggel" Factor

I believe I have found a new personal standard for rating films -- the "dyinggel" factor. Movies that make me want to hold the urge to urinate until the almost inevitable moment rank high, while those movies in which I just take a leak at the slightest stirrings of my easily excitable bladder would be lower rated.

So far the films I have seen in the past few weeks have been highly rated by my bladder. In "District 9", I was able to abstain from peeing until the end credits. "Bruno" elicited the same reaction despite having drunk a large-sized iced tea drink. Another factor may have been the fact that the movie had been shortened by (very) apparent edits which eliminated entire scenes. F*king censorship sucks!

And though I very much wanted to bestow the same "non-peeing during the entirety of the film" honor on "Kimi Dora", the iced tea I consumed earlier while watching Bruno finally sounded its clarion call in my nether regions. Good thing it was almost toward the end. Eugene Domingo does a masterful comedic performance, and the movie itself stands as one of the better comedy films of this year -- featuring Miriam Quiambao in a masochistic role, a cockroach killing maid with an indestructible face, Dingdong Dantes acting geeky, a vomit-eating askal, weird-looking special effects, a farmer with incredibly fine skin texture, a hilarious and creative use of rifle laser sights, and the most good-looking catering service ever.

I Survived Twilight

Stilted plot, an oftentimes insipid script, and the dialogue...THE DIALOGUE!
It was a miracle I got through it - no, wait - i absolutely had to skip some parts. The vampires sparkling in the sunlight scene was corny. ew. Liked the baseball scene, though. Peter Facinelli's as white as bondpaper, Jasper has this constipated look stamped on his face (it seems he's fighting back some hunger pangs since he's a new 'vegetarian' but all I can see is bowel obstruction), and the love story is zombified - just working on the barest of logic, and of course...Bella's body odor.

from cracked.com...click the image to enlarge

Rock Me Amadeus!

Just watched Adventureland starring Jesse Eisenberg and *gasp* Kristen Stewart of Twilight notoriety.

I liked the film. I liked Stewart and Eisenberg's acting in this movie. And I LOVED the soundtrack.

I was playing "Name that Tune" throughout the movie and I think I managed to get 4 out of 12 right. The movie featured songs from Lou Reed, JOurney, David Bowie, The Jesus and Mary Chain (interesting choice of "Taste of Cindy") and *gasp* The Outfield! I haven't heard The Outfield since I was in elementary mainly due to my cousins' tapes that were blasting from our old stereo - este - cassette player pala, to be more specific. The post title is the song by Falco which kept playing over and over during the movie, much to the lead character's chagrin. Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Amadeus! Rock me Amadeus!

Just the right dose of humor, drama and nostalgia. Let's party like it's the 80s!

ADHD Porn

That's what Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is.

The Plot: The Autobots - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the others - must rise once again and protect humanity (humanity = Sam Witwicky and his girlfriend) from the threat of the Decepticons (resurrected Megatron, Starscream, a mostly inert Soundwave and - who the f*ck is 'The Fallen'?).

Explosions. Big Machinery. Cool Cars. Aircraft Carriers. Military people walking. Military people talking. Military people walking - in formation. Shootouts. Jet fighters in the sky. Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. Megan Fox in skimpy clothing. Running. Jiggling breasts. Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. A shot of some actor's crotch. Egypt. Petra. Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. Optimus dies. Optimus lives. Explosions.

I feel dizzy.

Reaction: I never thought I'd get bored of so much explosions...but I did.

Marcus Wright is a Cylon. Sort of.

If you still haven't watched Terminator: Salvation, here's a tip -- ignore the plot holes and the sometimes absurd contrivances that barely manages to keep the story moving. Just enjoy the action and the explosions.

I especially liked the fact that objects manage to materialize in the little girl's hand when the occasion warrants it. Signal flare? remote detonator? No problem!

To Boldly Go...

...where Ditch has rarely gone. hehe

Taking my cue from a movie review I read that the best way to watch Star Trek XI was on the biggest screen possible, I went to the IMAX Theater at SM Mall of Asia.

I think this is the third time I have made the trek to MoA. The excitement of seeing the new Star Trek film has produced two miracles on my part: waking up early (8 am! Milagro!) and going to MoA. Alone. But enough about moi, on to the movie review...

This movie was meant to be seen on a very, very large movie screen. J.J. Abrams really, really knows how to make action scenes work. From the third Mission Impossible film, then Cloverfield, and now the reinvigorated (I won't use reimagined or else I might confuse this movie with Battlestar Galactica) Star Trek, Abrams has nailed the formula in making a blockbuster film.

The kind lady at the IMAX ticket booth situated me in the most optimal spot - right smack in the middle - and although the film was in 2D, I felt that I was literally in space: in the middle of the space dogfights, the phaser fire and photon torpedoes. Whew!

The pacing was done well, devoting enough time to introduce the main protagonists and flesh out their characters for the viewers. Though the film most certainly did not capture all the subtleties and intricacies of the iconic crew members, enough time was given for each to shine in their own way.



SPOILER ALERT!

Favorites: The scene where Scotty took a trip through the water vents was unexpected but really fun to watch. Chekov's accent was disconcerting at best but stays true to the TOS character - there was this moment when he was going "The sheep vill pass vy See-turn.." and I was going "Seeturn? Oh...Saturn!" I loved Sulu's "I have combat training" boast (though you have to admit, fencing could be bad-ass - as Sulu proved) and the part where he screwed up the Enterprise's initial warp. And Uhura was give more depth than the original, which one reviewer described as nothing more than a glorified phone operator - in miniskirts, I might add. And the unexpected romance between two main charaters...Star Trek purists I imagine would be up in arms if a lesser director was at the helm, but being not too well versed with (and thus not too emotionally involved - pero if this was TNG magkakamatayan tayo hehe) the OS canon I was forgiving of Abrams' tweaking because, let's face it - it worked.

Thus another franchise was revitalized for the New Generation. I expect that a few more sequels are in the works, and that the world of Star Trek shall continue, as the Vulcan saying goes, to "live long and prosper."

Wolverine! Etc...

woke up early this morning to go watch the Wolverine movie. I figured that if I was at the mall early, then I'd have a good selection of schedules to choose from in the cinemas.

But it turns out that both Trinoma and SM North were featuring the Pacquiao fight for the entire morning until such time that it ends. Which meant that ALL THE EFFORT (c'mon peeps) I exerted to wake up before noon was all for naught. I had to wait until 2 pm until Wolverine's back screening again.

F*ck!

Anyway, here are some bits and pieces on the movie.

1. Pretty decent movie. Hugh Jackman totally owned the character (in a good way) of Wolverine and it shows in his performance. One complaint I have is that they featured a number of mutants but did not devote enough time to flesh out their stories or even develop the characters. Even Victor Creed (ably played by Liev Schreiber) was a bit one-dimensional.

2. Ryan Reynolds was a good choice to play Deadpool. Every word out of Reynold's mouth just drips with sarcasm and wit. The guy could just whistle and that would make us chuckle. But then again, not enough screen time. The second half where he's in he somehow lost his mouth. Frenetic swordplay and sardonic wit - check. Only lacking was the blatant breaking of the fourth wall. I was expecting Deadpool to look straight at the camera and wink or something. Or maybe strike a Mr. Pogi pose hahaha

3. LOTS of complaints on Emma Frost a.k.a. The White Queen. WTF?! Looks like the movie split her power into two - for now she has a sibling that possesses 'tactile hypnosis' which came in useful only in the last part of the film. Probably the first part also, but showing it in use during that part might get the film an X rating hehe. Now all Emma Frost had was the "skin turning into diamond" (how much is she in carats?)power which, by the way, is her secondary mutation brought about during the attack on Muir Island by [text deleted as it is too nerdy for comfort]. Dammit! I wanted to see The White Queen as THE WHITE QUEEN -- powerful telepath at par with Professor X himself, the white vixen of The Hellfire Club, mentor to Generation X and the other young mutants, ...[text deleted as it is too nerdy - and obssessive - for comfort]...and the actress that played her wasn't even close to what I imagined Emma Frost would be.



now we're talking...

My fave actress to play The White Queen...



Yeah, baby! Yeah!

*Ahem*

4. Finally, there's GAMBIT.



Actually, he's my favorite of all the X-men and he's also my first character of choice whenever I'm playing the Marvel vs. Capcom game either in arcade or on PC emulation software. My second character's Chun Li hehe. Gambit had all these cool moves and strikes and he's FAST, really fast - jumping around the screen, swinging his staff around like a manic dervish. I never got around to really mastering the combo moves as I would just pretty much pound on the arrow keys and [text deleted as being too nerdy, drawn-out, and inconsequential for this post] hahahaha [text deleted] I suck at Marvel vs. Capcom.

But that scene where he hovers like a helicopter and even the "staff smash" I'm positive the writers stole from Mar-vel! Ver-sus! Caaap-com!

All in all, a good - though not great - movie. Surprise cameo by a beloved telepathic, BALD, mutant. the movie may be a lesser addition to the growing X-men franchise, but this one still deserves a look - if you haven't seen the bootlegged version on the net.

Now that Wolverine's done, there are still a crapload of movies I have yet to watch: Star Trek, Transformers, Terminator Salvation, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

And this is why I love (or hate) summer...

Oh wait, here's a vid for you...

Their Town Didn't Deserve A Child Born of Innocence and Love

My one sentence review of Tinimbang Ka, Ngunit Kulang.

Thanks, Pebi.




Click here for a review of this Filipino masterpiece.

PUSH

Guess what I did today?



The movie's no Jumper. Which is a good thing. Really.

This tale of runaway psychics in Hongkong reads just like any ordinary sci-fi story. Who hasn't watched movies like X-men, Jumper (hehe), or TV series such as Heroes? A movie review I've read at clickthecity.com said that this movie would pretty much be overwhelmed by the flood of superhero movies that had been unleashed in the past few years.

Push, however, deserves a look despite a few flaws...

30 minutes into the movie, I could feel the movie was pushing for a sequel. What the movie review described as plot holes for me were allusions to backstories that were just waiting in the wings for subsequent release - a sequel, a prequel, a comic - errr...graphic novel series? merchandising anyone?

There's just one plot hole I would like to rant about, though. Spoiler alert! In the sequence in which Nick and Cassie were going over the possibilities they were to encounter if they were to confront the baddies...did Cassie's accuracy rate jump to 100%? I know that wiping the memory of Nick would give the team an advantage over the "Lollipop" watcher, but did Cassie go over all possibilities as Nick was creating his little Easter egg hunt? The scene where Cassie was crying over her fate seemed to contradict the subsequent scene where Lollipop finally confronted her? Did Cassie know that the wiper would be there? Hmmmm...

Kung di nyo gets, watch nyo na ang movie para ma-gets nyo ang reklamo ko. hehe

Anyway, the movie had its redeeming qualities. I liked the interlude sequences wherein the actors would be just strolling around or getting some stuff. These little breaks between the story were well-edited. And the soundtrack is pretty good too. No big name bands or powerballads. Just some smooth electronica to usher things along.

Atsaka ang cute ni Dakota Fanning. Pati na rin si Papa Chris. Aaaaaaay!

All in all, a pretty good film. Finally, I could bury the memory of having watched Jumper deep into my subconscious.

Spoiler: the scene depicted in the movie poster wasn't in the movie. But I think I saw it in the trailer...na confuse tuloy ako. Teka...



Ay, wala pala sa trailer.

OK...this week I shall be cloistered within the library to read for my Kas 208 term paper. Walang iistorbo! hahaha

Sine Lang Pala ang Katapat or Twilight, My Ass

I almost forgot the wonders watching a movie could do to a stressed-out person. Thus...



The movie's a prequel to the first Underworld movie and presents the doomed Lucian-Sonja romance, and the eventual rebellion of the Lycans against their anemic and UV sensitive masters. The movie is short and sweet - did not aim more than just provide the backstory to all the allusions made in the two Underworld movies. This is a good thing though, in my opinion, as the movie still delivers the things that made the Underworld franchise such a hit. Leather clad vixens swinging swords, menacing hirsutes eager to rip anything to shreds, Viktor, the film-noir effect which made watching in SM North Cinema 12 difficult since their projection is not that good, and of course the gratuitous blood and gore...

All those graphic violence - the decapitations, dismemberments, maulings and mutilations...seem to have a relaxing effect on me.

There goes the Lycan's head...*sigh* life is good.

Is it just me or do the vampire covens only have one female deathdealer every 1000 years? All the other female vampires seem to be either Morticia Adams/Elvira Queen of Darkness cast-offs or skinny runway models who badly need an appointment with a tanning salon. Buti pa ang Blade nag-feature ng overweight na vampire (which is rare considering vamps are supposed to be oozing with sex appeal - Twilight? hahaha never watched that one) Oh well, we have Selene...now Sonja seems to be a pretty fine addition to the kick-ass deathdealer line-up