‘Avatar’ trailer – Smurf meets Fern Gully

“Avatar,” a live action film with a new generation of special effects, takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads an epic battle to save a civilization. James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of “Titanic,” first conceived the film years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, “Avatar” delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

The story’s hero is Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. Bitter and disillusioned, he’s still a warrior at heart. All Jake ever wanted was something worth fighting for, and he finds it in the place he least expected: on a distant world. Jake has been recruited to join an expedition to the moon Pandora, which corporate interests are strip-mining for a mineral worth $20 million per kilogram on Earth. To facilitate their work, the humans use a link system that projects a person’s consciousness into a hybrid of humans and Pandora’s indigenous humanoids, the Na’vi. This human-Na’vi hybrid – a fully living, breathing body that resembles the Na’vi but possesses the individual human’s thoughts, feelings and personality – is known as an “avatar.”

In his new avatar form, Jake can once again walk. His mission is to interact with and infiltrate the Na’vi with the hope of enlisting their help – or at least their acquiescence – in mining the ore. A beautiful Na’vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake’s life, albeit reluctantly, because even in his avatar body, Jake represents to her the human encroachment on the Na’vi’s unspoiled world.

As Jake’s relationship with Neytiri deepens, along with his respect for the Na’vi, he faces the ultimate test as he leads an epic conflict that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.

Release in December 18, 2009

***

nuff said

Top Ten movies that I’ve seen in 2008…

Was supposed to post this around the end of December but got sidetracked with other things. Well here it is now, my top ten movies that I’ve seen in 2008. You have two movies starring Robert Downey Jr., two superhero movies, two animated movies and three movies starring our old beloved heroes:

10. Tropic Thunder

I enjoyed:

• The over the topness quality of the action scenes (eg.the opening scene, the end scenes, all the explosions)
• the hollywood satire
• Robert Downey Jr.
• TOM CRUISE!!

9. JCVD

A movie with a thin plot: a washed up star gets into a hostage situation and gets wrongly accused of robbing a bank. What made this movie special is that it’s not some guy playing a washed up actor, it’s JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME, a washed up star himself. The movie is fictional yet it touches upon real facts about Van Damme (eg. drug addiction, child custody, rivalry with Steven Seagal, his recent work on ‘Direct to video’ movies). The ending was the biggest surprise for me. It’s not quite a happy ending yet not a sad one either.

8. Rambo

While Jean Claude Van Damme is reinventing his on screen image with JCVD, Stallone is reintroducing one of his iconic characters to the new generation. ‘Rambo’ doesn’t follow the usual 3 Act formula and instead it’s a one constant build up that ended with an explosive finale. Stallone, bring on ‘The Expendables‘!!

7. Iron Man

Iron Man aka “How Marvel movies got her groove back”. You have a hero who’s cool, crazy rich, a playa, drives cool cars, wears an indestructible armour, can fly, can blow things up, hook up with Gwyneth Paltrow and go toe to toe with Jeff Bridges (who looks badass in this movie). Add to the fact that this hero is played by the talented Robert Downey Jr. and you have a winner

6. Wanted

F***ing ridiculous but I love it. You have curving bullets, crazy car chase, violence, John Woo/Matrix style gun ballet and Angelina Jolie.

I liked the twist in the middle too which saved the story from being the typical “I’m the chosen one and must avenge my father” angle.

5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

I loved it. That’s right, I enjoyed this movie. On my second viewing, the parts that I did have a problem with were still problematic for me (CGI beaver, Indy inside the fridge to save himself from nuclear explosion, etc) but I enjoyed the rest.  I didn’t have a problem with the aliens which wasn’t much of a surprise for those who have been following the development of the 4th installment of Indiana Jones (you thought that was ridiculous for an Indiana Jones movie?? Come on, we had a box with mysterious powers that melts Nazis, an Indian cult group that takes out the hearts of children and a sacred cup in which you get immortality if you drink from it). Overall,  it was a fun adventure movie.

4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Highly entertaining movie. It’s funny, frightening and action packed. I cared about the characters and I even kinda felt sorry for the main villain too. The main highlight of the movie for me are the creature designs; from evil little “tooth fairies” to giant plant monster, the ectoplasmic german guy to the angel of death (my favourite). The audience were in awe whenever some new creature shows up and it proves that the director have limitless imagination. Del Toro, bring on ‘The Hobbit‘!

3. Wall E

Wall E is a preachy movie with an environmental message like ‘Happy Feet’. But its brilliance lies with the way it kept the central focus of the story on the main characters instead of the message itself. The first part of movie where you follow Wall E’s daily life and his unrequited love for Eve is sweet and adorable. Best Pixar movie since Finding Nemo.

2. Kung Fu Panda

Wall E is epic but Kung Fu Panda is just pure fun. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen this movie but I’m still not bored with it. Introducing the classic Kung Fu story formula (clumsy guy trained into a Kung Fu master and save the village) to a younger generation through an animated feature is a smart move. You add a loveable Panda (the national animal of China aside from dragon) as the hero, hire a wide range of actors to do the voices (Comedians like Jack Black & Seth Rogen to superstars like Angelina Jolie & Jackie Chan and a Hollywood veteran, Dustin Hoffman) add some action and sprinkle it with humour and what you get is a work of genius Haha

1. The Dark Knight

You must be tired of how this movie is on everyones top list but seriously, it is a really good movie. A psychological and sociological study that touches on themes of anarchy, heroism, law & order under the disguise of a summer popcorn superhero movie.

The Dark Knight is not just a Superhero movie, it’s a two and a half hours long epic crime drama that touches on themes like law & order, the price of heroism and what people can do when their comfort zone get disturbed…The movie is about Gotham City and the efforts of three men (Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent) in saving it from the Joker, the self proclaimed agent of Chaos.

Read my DARK KNIGHT review here

One year Odyssey…

I just realized that few days ago (November 15) marks the first year anniversary of this blog! Holy F***! It has been one year? A year ago I was bored and sitting in front of my computer while starting this blog. Now…I’m still bored and sitting in front of my computer writing this post…some shit never change

Anyway, thank you to all those who viewed this blog (all 126,214 of them) and those who left comments, I appreciate it, it kept me ‘blogger sane’ because then I know somebody actually read what I wrote (especially during the early months of blogging).

When I started this blog, it wasn’t my intention to make it a big thing or anything….wasn’t really all that into the so called blogging community….but I have softened a little bit…..I like to thank those who, to my surprise, actually bothered to link this blog - my family, my friends, some people that I’m not that close with but actually come here once in a while, some I’ve exchanged comments online with and some that I don’t even know…..ok, maybe the last one got bored and removed the link to my page but yeah I remember his URL pops up once in a while in my referrers stats :-P

The story so far…

I was planning to write an overview on the posts I made since last year but I remember that I pretty much wrote about it in my previous post. So I’m just gonna copy and paste it here:

Some of my earlier post were more personal like the one I wrote about my story idea or the recurring dreams. Even the post about Battlefield and WWE were also personal. I think I should do those personal posts more often rather than being preoccupied by movies. My friend even called my site a movie blog. WTF

I also remember how at the beginning, I said to myself that I’m not going to talk about politics. Blah! I guess I failed in keeping up with that promise. Another promise that I sort of broke was the one that I stated in my About page.

…post about things that interest me…..anything that’s part of the Pop culture that I find necessary to post about (no I’m not going to talk about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, you can find that somewhere else)

On second thought, I did not break that promise because I did not talk about them. I just posted their pictures

Recently, I made few posts on my country Brunei. I just thought that I needed to write something related to Brunei or maybe it’s just another way to balance out all those movie related post.

I’ve also noticed how I began to write more episodic posts (eg Part 1, part 2). Several reasons; either the original idea of the post was too long or I was just lazy to finish the post and hold it off for later. Examples of this can be found here, here and here.

Oh and one more thing, I realized that I have only reviewed one book. Man, I haven’t read any novels for a long time. I’ll try posting a review of books that I have read. (fiction or non fiction).

I wrote that back in March and I have little to add to it except for few things I did since March like:

• I made several pranks on this blog like my april fools joke and rick rolling people
• Made some education related post like this one about the Arts and another about studying
• ‘Live blogging’: for both the opening and closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics
• And of course, my journey to UK and the random things goin there

In a way, I think I’ve pretty much made a wide range of posts (from a serious one to a really totally random post).

So what’s coming up?

This is what I’m planning and hopefully get done.

• Finish my ‘Trylobyte Odyssey Portal’ page that I was planning to finish by November 15 lol (more on this later)
• Restructure my ‘Top Post’ page. It’s outdated now.
• Publish this post that I’ve been thinking about in the past few days
• Hopefully adding more links in my links bar/blogroll.

If you’re interested in some random statistic facts about my blog then click ‘More’ at the bottom of this post. In the meantime I’ll leave you with Coldplay’s ‘Lovers in Japan’. No reason….just felt like putting up a video at the end of this post hehe

Beijing Olympic Closing Ceremony – random live thoughts

Update 25/08/08: Photos courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Just like what I did with the Opening Ceremony, I’m going to post some random thoughts as I’m watching the live telecast of the Closing Ceremony. I would be lying if I said that I’ve been following every events from this year’s Olympic games in last few weeks. All I know is that the Singapore Table Tennis team won Silver, Rafael Nadal won Gold for Tennis, Malaysia got Silver for Men’s Single Badminton, Jamaicans breaking records and China taking the rest of the Gold medals (except those that were obtained by Michael Phelps of course ). Anyway, the closing ceremony will start in about half and hour (BTW, I’m in Brunei so the Timezone is pretty much the same).

8:01pm: Here we go!! The raising of the Chinese Flag accompanied by the national anthem. A presentation on the big screen. A group of drummers wearing bicycle helmets (ok???!!). They get surrounded a larger group of girls forming a circular formation looking like the Sun. WOah two giant floating drums. FIREWORKS! CGI? hehe

8:12pm: Stupid commercial! A group of guys ‘cycling’ in a circular wheel enters the arena. The helmet guys are gone and out comes 200 bouncing men!! They seem to be wearing those special artificial leg that were always used for runners with disability. WTF Commercial again!

8:16pm: Flags of the participating countries arrive. I see East Timor, I see Spain, I see Trinidad, I see Swaziland. Since I was 5, I’ve always been fascinated with the world maps and countries so I’m familiar with the flags and the location of most of the countries in the world. Commercial….

8:25pm: The athletes comes out accompanied by a group of Chinese ladies in red drumming. And there’s also a young kid in the middle with a drum set. There’s also a little girl too…I think that’s the same one with the fake singing from the Opening ceremony.

8.36pm: Victory ceremony for the Marathon event. Kenya get a Gold,Morocco get a Silver and Ethiopia get a Bronze. It’s followed by a presentation for the athletes volunteers and children volunteers.

8.49pm:the raising of the Greek flag. Greece hosted the previous Olympic games in 2004. Speech by president of the Chinese Olympic committee and the President of the IOC.

8:59pm: Raising the UK flag accompanied by the familiar British national anthem, God Save the Queen.

9:03pm:The Olympic flag is lowered and the Chinese choir is singing the Olympic anthem. Out comes the Mayor of London. Mayor of Beijing is handing the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London. That’s a big flag…they carefully try not to aggressively wave it .

9:10pm:Haha The familiar double Decker London bus is here! Hmmm..I think this is a just a taste of what o expect for the opening ceremony at London in 2012; more of an Urban performance than the more traditional Chinese performance. The Double Decker bus transforms and out comes Leona Lewis and Led Zeppelin’s guitarist performing. Again, I think this is just a taste of what to expect from the opening ceremony of 2012 London games; a ceremony that is more like an ultra mega concert with various mega stars. Not saying that would be bad thing. OOOH DAVID BECKHAM!!! HAHA He kicked the ball and one lucky Chinese guy (one of the volunteers) catches it.

9:20pm What’s this? Three people climbing up the staircase like those that you see for aircrafts. They stopped and look at the giant torch. You see highlights from the games on the upper walls of the bird’s nest stadium. There’s also two half naked guys (painted in gray) in the middle of the arena doing some expressive body movement. Cue dramatic music followed with a Capella by Chinese girl and the flames from the torch disappears.

9:25pm: A large Babel tower like structure in the  middle of the arena covered with people dancing. A group of guys just ‘walked’ vertically up the tower and WOAH!! The guys hanging on the tower forms a red rose. Nice! The guys creates a human spiral thing around the tower. The tower is then covered with red sheets and…wow! umm…wow! those stripes of red sheet starts to float creating….wait wow Fireworks!!!…anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, those stripes of red sheet starts to float creating this web-like/spider-like formation around the tower…Ok maybe that’s not the best description. I will update this post with photos

9:32pm:Performance by various Chinese artists. Beijing, Beijing! Wo Ai Beijing! The song goes something like that. Is That RAIN?! The Korean singer who’s recently finding some fame in the US with a role in the movie Speed Racer and his “dance off” with Stephen Colbert.

9:36pm:a group of Chinese girls comes out and looks like they are lip synching a song but I don’t care about that :LOL: . Commercial again.

9.40pm:back from commercial and BAM! I see a George Lucas look like on screen! Haha This George Lucas look a like is singing an Opera song with a Chinese lady. Ok, a quick search and I found out that the George Lucas look a like is Placido Domingo, Spanish-Mexican Opera singer.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Another performance by various international artists with a group of performers floating in the air. Is that Gong Li?? Ok it’s not Hehe WTF Haha! Astro (Malaysian Cable Tv) keeps showing a lot of commercial. If I remember correctly, there weren’t that many commercial during he opening ceremony. Back to the ceremony and the arena is now suddenly crowded…see that’s why I hate commercial coz you miss stuff. The mascots are there; the guys are hanging around the tower; the different ethnic groups are there; …woah  wait…fireworks!!! MASSIVE!! Is this the fireworks to end all fireworks?

9.54pm: The ceremony officially ends but there are still fireworks. See ya in London

9:58pm: Wait, I heard that Jackie Chan was there…I didn’t see him! Oh well, that is what happen when you’re watching and typing at the same time or when there were commercials every minute So I guess that’s it! Time to change the channel…hmm…ooo, Apocalypto on StarMovies and it just started! Haven’t seen the movie so..yeah, I’m watching it now. Good night!

You may be interested in my post about the Opening Ceremony

Update 25/08/08: Photos courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Red Alert 3 cast revealed

The cast of Red Alert 3 has been revealed:

Courtesy of CNCNZ.com

Red Alert 3 is the latest game from the popular Command & Conquer franchise, a series known for its cheesy live action movies shown between missions to tell the story. In this installment:

…the desperate leadership of a doomed Soviet Union travels back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia. The time travel mission goes awry, creating an alternate timeline where technology has followed an entirely different evolution, a new superpower has been thrust on to the world stage, and World War III is raging. The Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in the East, making World War III a three-way struggle between the Soviets, the Allies, and the Empire with armies fielding wacky and wonderful weapons and technologies like Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleportation, armored bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses, and transforming tanks.

From the trailer you can see:

• Evil Communist Russian with cheesy accent – played by Peter Stormare (Prison Break, Armageddon), Andrew Divoff (Patchy from LOST) and TIM CURRY!!
• The clueless US president – played by JK Simmons of Spiderman fame
• The old humble Allied General (Jonathan Pryce)
• Hot Communication Officers – Gemma Atkinson Ivana Milicevic (the bad guy’s gf in Casino Royale) and Kelly Hu (X-men2)
• Tanya (now blonde and played by…Jenny McCarthy )

With all the stuff mentioned above, you can be rest assured that the spirit of the old Red Alert games will be intact.

***

But nothing can beat this legendary cutscene from RED ALERT 2

 

I don’t give a wooden nickel about your legacy!!

Batman 3 – What I want to see

What lies Ahead

He’s the hero that Gotham deserves but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not a hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight. 
                                                                        – Gordon

There are two aspects that I think we need to think about that should give us a better picture of what to expect from the third movie.

• The Main Theme
• The Villains that relates to that theme.

Batman Begins was about Fear. It ties with the origin of Batman as we see Bruce Wayne overcome his fear of bats and eventually adopt the identity of Batman. The villains are related to this theme with Scarecrow using the fear toxin as his weapon of choice and Ra’s Al Ghul as the man who helped Bruce overcome his fears in the first place.

The Dark Knight was about Escalation or as Gordon puts it at end of the first movie, ”We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor-piercing rounds.” Batman’s crusade against the mobs becomes a double edged sword as it only creates more trouble. The epitome of this escalation is the Joker, the agent of chaos, who wants to bring Gotham’s citizens to their breaking point. Corresponding with the escalation theme is the rise of the idealistic Harvey Dent and his fall/transformation to Two Face.

Now comes the third movie and I have an idea for the possible theme of this one. Like how the theme of escalation was first hinted at the end of the first movie, the theme for Batman 3 was hinted during the final moments of The Dark Knight: The theme is Isolation. By the end of the second movie, Batman has finally become the Batman that we all know from the comics and the cartoons: a true outsider, a loner, the Dark Knight. He lost Rachel and Harvey Dent which means he lost his hope for a normal life. The police are chasing him thus he can’t work openly with Gordon anymore.

I expect a darker and grumpier Bruce Wayne as he starts getting a more pessimistic outlook on life yet can’t help to bring himself to stop fighting crime due to his hero complex (set this movie like 2-4 years after TDK to make it believable). And expect more detective work by the Dark Knight since he can’t rely on the GCPD now. Meanwhile, the cops are still hopeless in finding out the identity of the Batman (remember that scene early in TDK where the cop had Elvis as one of their suspected candidates for Batman). Just like how the mobs turned to the Joker in their desperate times, the cops also turned to “a man they don’t fully understand” for help.

 

Enter Edward Nigma aka The Riddler, a private detective/specialist hired by both the cops and the mobs (with both not knowing he works with them at the same time) to track down and find the identity of the Batman. He’s smart, a child prodigy, anti-social and highly obsessed with Batman especially with the dark knight’s detective skills. He finally find someone who can challenge him and is willing to do anything to achieve his goal, including creating an elaborate crime scene for Batman to solve.

Not only that, Batman has to face the idea that his privacy is being invaded as the Riddler slowly gets to know a lot of things about Batman (eg. Lucius Fox, batcave, identity). Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne starts dating Selina Kyle who leads a double life as the notorious thief, Catwoman. In the end Batman and Catwoman have to work together to stop the Riddler.

So how do all of this relates to the theme of isolation? In a way, the Riddler and Catwoman are the cure to Batman’s feeling of isolation. Following my idea that Riddler is a crazy Batman fanatic, I think he would probably leave clues/riddles that he knows ONLY Batman can solve and no one else. Therefore, Riddler would be the only one, aside from Alfred, who really understand Batman’s mindset. Unlike the Joker who just wants to mess with Batman’s head, the Riddler, or at least a version of him that I want to see in the next movie, wants to play games with him. In that way, Batman doesn’t feel isolated anymore.

As for Catwoman, well, that’s really obvious. Bruce Wayne is mysteriously drawn to Selina Kyle; she’s not Rachel Dawes yet she’s not like any of those other super models he flirts with. And Catwoman operates outside the law and enjoying it which is a perfect foil for Batman’s more serious attitude.

So yeah, I want the next movie to revolve around Batman’s growing isolation and how both the Riddler and Catwoman proves to be the answer to that problem (Batman is lonely and finds a new friend to play with & a new girlfriend). As for the casting of the two characters, I want Michael Emerson (Lost) as the Riddler and Carla Gugino (Sin City) for Catwoman. Meow!

 

The main reason why I think they should get Catwoman for the third one, aside from filling up the female character void left by Rachel Dawes, is that to the average folks she is one of the most instantly recognizable character from the Batman universe. One of the reason why Dark Knight is doing so well is because you have the most famous Batman villain, The Joker. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t put villains that haven’t been adapted to the big screen (eg. Clayface, Mad Hatter, Man Bat, etc) but if they want to draw a lot of people, Catwoman is their best chance. It’s also a chance to redeem the awful Halle Berry movie!!

So that’s what I want to see for the third movie. What do you think?

Beijing Olympic 2008 – random live thoughts

Update 9/08/08: Photos courtesy of Boston.com

I have nothing else to do but watch the live telecast of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing on TV. I’m a bit late though because I was enjoying myself watching, out of all movie, Home Alone in another channel BTW, I’m in Brunei so the Timezone is pretty much the same therefore the time that I put are the same as the time in Beijing.

8.07 pm: Wow..the Olympics rings made of lights starts ‘floating’ in the air.

8.08 pm: A brave 9 year old girl in red singing (is that the national Anthem?) while kids dressed representing the 56 chinese ethnic group carrying the large flag of China. Kinda nice to see the costume of the different ethni groups. Flag raising ceremony. Ok nvm..this is the real national anthem of China. This is my first time hearing it..kinda short. Massive fireworks!

(update 13/8/08: There’s a big fuss about how it wasn’t the lil girl in red’s voice that’s singing but some other girl. Turned out this girl got replaced by the one we saw during the opening because she was much more cuter. I had two reaction when I read this piece 1) Duh!! I remember how it looked really obvious that the lil girl was lypsynching 2) So? It’s understandable, they needed the ceremony to be perfect. To achieve that, they not only just needed a perfect voice but also a perfect look (as in bleeding our eyes with the cuteness of little chinese girl)

8.13 pm: Massive glowing scroll in the middle of the stadium. Wow, ninja looking guys painting the scrolls while dancing/making expressive body movement. Really Graceful. This must be a pain in the ass to choreograph!

8.20 pm: Hundreds of Confucius look alikes carrying bamboos. A wave of blocks with Chinese characters. BTW, those blocks are being handled by humans not a machine which makes it more impressive. The blocks are now forming the famous Great Wall of China, easily the most recognizable landmarks in China. Haha! The guys who’ve been handling the blocks just revealed themselves and wave to the crowds and smiling. I just find it funny They seem to be enjoying themselves (What am I saying, of course they would be enjoying it, it’s the opening ceremony of the Olympics) .This is followed by a Peking Opera performance, if I’m not mistaken that’s what you call it. All dressed in Orange.

8.31pm: A lady dancing on top of a giant scroll being carried by a lot of people. Yes, she dance on top of a giant scroll! According to the commentator, the performance is about the history of the silk Road, a famous overland trade route across Eurasia. The tale of Marco Polo popularize the Silk Road. Now it’s about the maritime exploration. Pictures of Chinese pottery, majestic ships (like the one used by the famous chinese Muslim explorer, Cheng Ho) and there’s a man holding an ancient compass just one of the few amazing things that the Chinese civilization gave to the world. It’s kinda cool seeing how the wonders of Chinese civilzationor history have gained appreciation in recent decades. The world is beginning to recognize the richness of Chinese History.

8.40pm: Poles decorated withgolden dragon rise up from the floor with each pole having a lady on top of it. Add some epic music and..OMG Fireworks!! WOohoo!! Epic!

A guy and cute girl playing the piano in the middle of arena. Man, that girl is f***ing lucky! People dressed all green doing the wave. Wait, their clothes changed colours. Their glowing too and forming a white dove that changes colours. Again, a pain in the ass choreography especially since their doing this in the dark and onl relying on their glowing shirts.

There’s a kite being flown by a little girl flowing in the air. It’s the same red girl that sang in the beginning of the ceremony…Oh sorry, it’s not Haha

8.50pm: Yes! Martial arts time!! The lady is doing Tai Chi I think. Oh wait, we’re back to the kids, ok??…oh wait back to Martial arts Yeah!! All dressed in white and doing Tai Chi. School kids in the middle of the arena paintingthe floor while surrounded by men in white doing Tai Chi. Kinda cool, like these tough ass guys are protecting these cute Innocent kids. Nice, the lights are now orange making these martial art guys glowing like the sun.  Colourful animation of birds flying on the big screen as the school kids jump around in excitement.

9.00pm: Astronaut!!! Is that the Chinese astronaut himself? Anyway, a giant dome like structure rises up from the floor. Wait, not a dome but a giant blue ball!! hmm.the music souds like ET music? Steven Spielberg? I remember Steven Spielberg was involved in the opening ceremony right? But he pulled out because of Darfur or something. Who cares…Anyway, the ball turns into planet Earth with bunch of guys ’skating’ on the surface Really cool!

 

A female and a male singer singing on top the giant ball. A chinese guy and a..sorry, didn’t catch her name Sarah something. I’m sorry if she’s well known and I don’t know about her. Pictures of kids from different race and nationalities from around the world. Fireworks!!! Woohooo!!! Spectacular! leave it to the Chinese when it comes to spectacular fireworks.

WOW, people from differrent ethnic groups dancing at the arena. I see Tibetans! Yeah! You know with all the recent HooHar! about the Tibet issue and how some of them want to boycott the Olympics, it’s kinda cool to see the Tibetans here.

9.10pm: What’s that about Brunei? Anyway, Greece comes first because they hosted the games before this. Guinea is next, so it’s not in alphabetical order, probably start with G then H then so on. Oh wait, I’m wrong, Turkey comes next so there is no particular order.

(Update 11.31pm: It’s in alphabetical order but following the order of Chinese characters instead of the English alphabet)

9.16pm: Malawi Hehe..I remember one of the house that I lived in back when I was in Japan used to be the embassy of Malawi. Just some small random thing that’s all. Bhutan!! I remember how the king recently agree to abdicate when after a general election. Belgium….ummm…French fries actually came from Belgium not France Hehe I know, random info. WTF commercial!!! Good it was short and we’re back with Israel and Shimone Perez is here. Japan!! Japan and China have an ‘interesting’ relationship over the years. TAIWAN!! No wait, CHINESE TAIPEI!! Boy, where should I start with the history of these two nations. Commercial again!! Must change channel from Astro to the local channel if it’s even showing.

9.20pm: Oh I just found out that Brunei didn’t register in time. That sucks…Oh well…Ukraine looks cool with the blue jacket and all.

9.34pm: Palestine! Timor Leste! Yeah for underdogs

9.40pm: India and Indonesia! Taufik Hidayat! Badminton

9.55pm: Iraq and Iran back to back

10.01pm:Angola.. I knew this kid from Angola. He was new to the school at that time so I didn’t know his name at that time. So during his first PE, I was in the same Basketball team as him and I stupidly call him black guy as in..”hey, where’s the black guy” Of course, it wasn’t intentional but you know, I just sort of blurted it out by accident and I realized how stupid I was shortly after I said it. Luckily, he didn’t get that mad so later I decided to make up for my mistake by getting to know him. He told me his name and that he came Angola. Just for the sake of having a conversation, I started asking him about the Angolan Civil War because that’s the only thing I know about his country. Very Awkward Haha!

10.05pm: Libya has the best flag. Just plain Green and it’s my favourite colour.

10.21pm:I see Bush with binoculars. I hope he knows how to use it this time Hehe

10.27pm:U! S! A! U! S! A! Bush with his wife. Speaking of Bush, I’m really curious about the new Oliver Stone movie about Bush that’s coming out later this year titled ‘W’. It looks stupid yet interesting. The actors don’t even look like their counterparts yet who cares coz the most important thing is the acting.

10.52pm: North Korea. How come they don’t walk together with South Korea like they did in the last game That was cool.

10.56pm: Singapore. Yup I knew it, the flag is carried by that famous Singaporean Table Tennis player, Li Jiawei. I was in Singapore during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and was cheering for her to win. But unfortunately she got 4th place which is not bad anyway.

(Update 10/08/08: I found out that she’s getting some heat due to way she carried the Singapore Flag.)

11.01pm:It’s interesting how the Chinese have a different way in calling the name of the participating countries. For example, just now the Chinese announced Mexico with something that sounds like “woh chi ngo” or Tajikistan where he call it something that doesn’t resemble the original name. It’s similar to Malay, we have different names for countries like Greece (Yunani), Spain (Sepanyol), Egypt (Mesir) or United States (Amerika Syarikat)

11.08pm:CHINA!! YAO MING!! and a little kid who survived the recent great earthquake. Nice! I bet China will win this year! Very Proud of China.

11.21pm: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer…I see Kobe Bryant

11.26pm: Speech by the President of Beijing Organizing Committee. Subtitles? Welcome to Beijing, I only understand that.

11.36pm:President Hu Jintao officially opening the games. FIREWORKS!

11.42pm: The Olympic flag carried by veteran athletes from China. The five Olympic rings represent the five continents of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and Americas (combining North and South). By the way, the colours of the Olympic rings doesn’t correspond with any particular continent (no, black doesn’t represent Africa )

11.53pm:The Olympic torch finally arrives. Running up the stairs now. Wait, is this guy going to fly..Hahaha Yup! Like Superman!! That’s f***ing high! I would’ve piss on my pants and it would be dripping on the audience hehe…what…too graphic for you guys? ok, sorry Nice, he’s walking around the upper walls of the Bird’s nest stadium. Oh shit, it’s close….oh boy…..woah! HAhAHhaha *cue dramatic music* The flame is on!! FIREWORKS!!! Nice shot of the stadium. It’s like a warzone down there!

12.09pm: Just as I heard the name Jackie Chan, they have to cut to the commercial Haiya!! Oh he’s singing and Karen Mok is there too. For those who find it weird that Jackie Chan sings, he actually contributed to the soundtrack of many of his Hong Kong films like City Hunter and Police Story. Click here for more

12.19pm: I guess that’s the end. Good night (at least in East Asia that is). Will probably put some official photos of the opening ceremony in this post tomorrow to make it look nice. And about Brunei not being included in the Olympics…well…it sucks I guess. Expect it to be a major topic here tomorrow.

(Update 10/08/08: The local Olympic commitee released a press release and later the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports released theirs on the local papers. There’s also a possibility of a sanction or fine for Brunei. Oh well, a wake up call is what we need anyway.) 

Update 9/08/08: Photos courtesy of Boston.com

Watchmen Trailer

I like how they are now adapting these mature graphic novels nowadays (Frank Miller’s Sin City and 300; Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta; the recent Batman movies were influenced by Batman Year One & The Killing Joke by Frank Miller and Alan Moore respectively). Now comes the Watchmen, believed to be the greatest graphic novels of all time by many.

It was originally written by Alan Moore and it’s now being adapted to the big screen by Zack Snyder, the director of 300 (based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel….boy, how many times have I written both Miller’s and Moore’s name already ). Watch the theatrical trailer below on Youtube and there’s also the alternate/extended trailer over here.

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the watchmen?

 

Click Here for the alternate/extended trailer

Watchmen is scheduled to be released on 6th March 2009

 Hehe

Holy F*** Batman!! My ‘Dark Knight’ Review!

Saw the movie last night at the Empire Cinema and as promised, I went there wearing my black Superman T-shirt (read here to know the story behind it). Coincidentally, I saw a guy wearing a white shirt (or sweater I think) with the bat logo. Talk about being opposites hehe..which is kinda appropriate because one of the main theme of the movie was duality; not just between Batman and Joker but also between Batman and Dent or Dent and Gordon.

***Warning: Possible Spoilers***

The Dark Knight is not just a Superhero movie, it’s a two and a half hours long epic crime drama that touches on themes like law & order, the price of heroism and what people can do when their comfort zone get disturb. Did I mentioned that this movie is tragic? Things just get worse and worse every minute till the end. Nop Batman doesn’t die at the end but his victory comes with a heavy price. Hell, I think Batman isn’t quite the main character of the movie. The movie is about Gotham City and the efforts of three men (Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent) in saving it from the Joker, the self proclaimed agent of Chaos.

Let’s talk about the Joker first. I knew that they were going for a darker take on the Joker but one important aspect of the Joker is that he’s funny…well at least he thinks he’s funny and the fact that he thinks it’s funny makes me laugh therefore I find him funny (does that make sense). Funny in a twisted and wrong way, that’s what I like about Joker.

So I was afraid that in this movie, he’s just going to be crazy and evil but not ‘funny’. Well, let’s just say he “put a smile” on my face after his ‘pencil magic trick’. We all went ‘Ooooo!!’ followed immediately with laughs.  Other funny moments includes him sliding down the pile of money, Joker cleaning his hands at the hospital and his amusement of getting beaten up by Batman. It was suppose to be an intense scene where Batman sort of crossed the line with his temper and two lives were in danger but I laughed when Joker seemed to enjoy the beat down.

There’s all this posthumous Oscar buzz for Heath Ledger and I think he deserves it. You don’t go “oh it’s Heath Ledger from Brokeback Mountain wearing a makeup“. His movement, his voice and everything changed.

Another highlight character is Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart. Dent is an idealistic and a badass District Attorney who’s determined to clean up the streets of Gotham. Courage and confidence are his greatest strength which even impressed Batman who considered retirement because he saw Dent as Gotham’s new hero or hope. We get to root for Dent which makes his inevitable transformation to Two Face more tragic. I also like the way that Two Face isn’t exactly a villain in this movie which is fine because I never get why he suddenly turned into a mob boss like in the cartoon. I mean I kinda cheered for Two Face when he starts hunting down corrupted cops and mobs (led by Eric Roberts!! ). But he went overboard at the end.

Joker saw Harvey’s descent into madness as his achievement and this reminds me of the Batman comic called the Killing Joke. Remember reading it in the High School library, it’s about the Joker trying test his theory that it only takes one bad day to make someone crazy like him. In that comic, he tried it with Gordon by tying him up and force him to look at pictures of his daughter’s paralyzed and bloodied naked body after being shot by the Joker. Joker failed of course when Batman came to rescue Gordon.

***Highlight to see spoiler***

Harvey Two Face dies at the end. This shocked me because I was so sure that Two Face will be the main villain for the third movie. But I’m fine with his death because, like I said earlier, I’m not a fan of the “ex District Attorney turned Mob Boss” storyline. As for the Joker, it was a good decision to not kill him so that we get more Joker vs Batman storyline but Heath Ledger’s death complicated things. Recasting?? No way. 

Btw, this movie is dark and might not be suitable for children. Examples: a villain pointing a gun on a kid in front of his dad or the part where the Joker put a knife into someones mouth while telling a story of how he supposedly got the mouth scar is scary. 

The movie also touches on heavy themes like post 9-11 fear culture and how it drives people to break moral codes (Just wait till you see Joker’s big Social experiment involving ferries and bombs). Gordon, Dent and even Batman are bound by moral codes and laws. Joker comes in and tries to push them over their breaking point and exploiting their flaws. Gordon knows that he’s leading a police force that’s mostly corrupted but he needs all available men to fight crime. Batman is a vigilante and not bound by the law but refuses to kill because that would make him just as bad as the criminals. Dent has a  bigger problem because he’s a very public figure therefore has to keep up with his image as a promising, charismatic and strong District Attorney. He’s Gotham’s best hope in saving the city, the white knight. But beneath that image is a normal human being with emotions that sometimes overcome logic (his temper and his love for Rachel).

Image or symbol is another theme that plays a big part of the story especially the ending. The most important thing that can save Gotham is a symbol of hope which should be uphold at any cost. By the end of the movie, the characters die, lie and willing to be hated by many in order to keep that symbol/idea of hope alive. At least that’s how I saw it, I don’t know, I’ve only seen it once and I have to watch it again to dig up more.

So yeah, go watch Dark Knight!

Oh, you might also be interested in hearing the Joker theme from the movie. Really freaky and random

Road to the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight, definitely my most anticipated movie in the last three years, will be out this week!! Planning to catch it tomorrow or anytime this week. And I will be wearing a Black Superman T-Shirt! Why would I want to do that? On my other post, I told you about what happened during the premiere of Batman Begins:

While we were waiting for the cinema to open, I notice that almost everyone was looking at me and giggling. Later I realised that I was wearing a black Superman T-Shirt. LOL So there I was in the premiere of a Batman movie wearing a Superman t-shirt.

So just for fun and for old time sake (and boredom too), I’m going to wear that same Black Superman T-Shirt.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of our ‘journey’.

June 2005 – Batman Begins

Here’s my review of Batman Begins over my first blog.

October 2006 – Heath Ledger as the Joker

When my brother set up his blog, one of the first movie news he posted was the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker. Although I was happy that he will be Joker but at that time I was still in a “Ledger’s cool but damn, if only Paul Bettany was Joker!!” camp. Of course I’ve now forgotten about Paul Bettany hehe. It was also around this time that Ledger said McDowell’s character from Clockwork Orange will be the inspiration of his Joker.

It’s also funny reading what was written by my brother at that time:

But don’t expect the usual Joker look with the heavy make up, green hair and purple suit

Well, he does have a green hair and purple suit!! Haha!

May 2007 – Joker revealed

I remember there was this viral site where you need to submit your email. With each email submitted, a single pixel of the first Joker picture is revealed. I contributed, my brother contributed and so did everyone around the world. Eventually, the above picture was revealed. When I first saw it, Jigsaw from SAW series came to my mind lol

July 2007 – Teaser trailer

A teaser trailer was released featuring only the Bat Logo, a dialog between Bruce & Alfred and the first reveal of the Joker’s voice by Ledger. My first reaction to the trailer was “Holy Shit! He nailed the laugh!!”

August 2007 – Wizard World footage

Fans who attended the Wizard World in Chicago were treated with an exclusive footage from the movie. It wasn’t leaked at the time therefore we only relied on descriptions written by those who were there. Now, that footage has been released and you can watch it below on YouTube.

Nov 2007 – Joker makes his debut on the cover of Empire magazine

When I started this blog back in November, I didn’t waste time making a post about The Dark Knight.

Dec 2007 – New Dark Knight trailer featuring the Joker

New Dark Knight trailer attached to the Will Smith movie, ’I Am Legend’ immediately became a hit primarily because it’s the first time we get an idea of Ledger’s version of the Joker. Everyone starts saying catch phrases like “Why So Serious?” “It’s all part of the plan” and “Let’s put a smile on that Face“

Jan 2008 - The tragic death of Joker himself, Heath Ledger

Luckily, he completed his work on The Dark Knight. His death created a lot publicity for the movie and his role as the Joker. Some say he had trouble sleeping because he was so physically and psychologically committed to his role as the Joker so he took a lot of pills. But I doubt that his role as the Joker led to his death.

April 2008 – Joker in nurse outift

As summer movie season approached, the picture of Joker in a nurse wardrobe got leaked. It was funny and creepy at the same. Later, various posters for the movie were released mostly featuring Batman and Joker. Finally, a new trailer was released shedding more light on the potrayal of Harvey Dent by Aaron Eckhart.

July 2008 – Early Reviews

Early reviews poured in and almost all of them were positive. Some have compared it with such movies like Heat (Dark Knight is more of a Crime Drama than a superhero movie), Godfather II and Empire Strikes Back (the latter two are examples of sequels that are infinitely better than their first movies).

***

Here’s a music from the soundtrack called ‘Like A Dog Chasing Cars’ to pump you up. Enjoy!