District 9

I know it was a bit late to write about this film, but I just managed to watch it last night with my buddy at an alternative cinema, Star Cineplex.

District 9 is a science fiction film talking about an alien spaceship somehow stopped on the sky of Johannesburg, South Africa. Human then cut into the spaceship and discovered a large group of unhealthy arthropod-like creatures inside the ship.

In order to help these "aliens", human had set up an area called District 9 to be some sort of refugee camp to accommodate these extraterrestrial species. However, due to some social issues caused by these aliens, human decided to relocate them to a more remote place named District 10.

Wikus van der Merwe was assigned to lead the relocation. During the operation Wikus accidentally sprayed some fluid from a canister onto his face which caused mutation. Wikus then was hunted by MNU, a private military contractor for experiment. He hid into District 9 and helped an alien named Christopher and his young son to activate a hidden command module and back to the mothership and departed the earth to their own planet.

Anyway, this is just a very brief summary about the movie. There are still a lot of interesting storyflow in the film I didn't mention above, such as Wikus can operate alien's weapons with his mutated DNA, why he wanted to help Christopher to activate the command module and so on. You better watch it yourself.

This is definitely a very nice sci-fi movie to watch. In some part of the movie, it uses mock documentary style of shooting. It has a very unique storyflow and is a very creative and imaginative film. I would rate it 8.0/10.0!

Tsunami At Haeundae

Just watched Tsunami At Haeundae, the first disaster oriented Korean film ever made and the first Korean film I watched on big screen.

Generally, the film was set place at a vacation hot spot named Haeundae at Busan which draws one million visitors to its beaches yearly. While the local were having their everyday affairs peacefully, a local geologist who is specialized in tsunami research discovered some abnormal activities occured under the East Sea. He tried to warn the Disaster Prevention Agency about mega-tsunami that may hit the penisular, but his warnings always end up with ignorance. One day, while the locals as well as the vacationers were enjoying the hot summer at the beach, a mega-tsunami was headed towards Haeundae at 500 miles per hour causing severe destruction.

The selling point of this film in my opinion is the CG effects rendered the tidal wave that causing the mega-tsunami and brought massive destruction to the town. Other than that, it was just another Korean movie which featured love story with comedy and heart-touching elements decorating the storyline.

As a whole, the CG effects was impressive, yet if compare to the similar disaster films produced in Hollywood, such as "The Day After Tomorrow", Korean CG skills still have much room of improvement in term of its realism of the effects.

I would give 6.5/10 for this film!

Up

Just watched the latest Pixar animation named "UP" at cinema. It was the movie with the shortest and simplest title I ever come across.

The animation started with a 8-year-old shy boy named Carl Fredricksen who love adventure because influent by his idol, Charles Muntz who is a well-known explorer. Accidentally he met a girl who share the same interest with him named Ellie. They fall in love and Ellie then married to Carl.

Ellie had a desire to move her house to Paradise Falls at South America. She couldn't have children, thus both of them had decided to save up for a trip to the falls. However, everytime when they seem to collect enough money, some financial obligation strike and they had to cancel their plan. Ellie then passed away and left the lonely 70-year-old Carl.

To kept the promise to his beloved wife, Carl then flew away the house with balloons and heading to Paradise Falls. He then discovered that a boy named Russell, a Wilderness Explorer was on board the floating house. Both of them had to share the adventure together and on the journey towards the destination, a lot of unexpected incidents happened which will make you laugh the heart out!

I highly recommended this animation because of its very unique and creative story flow and also the adorable characters. You may never expect how the story flow will look like until you watch it. Cuteness wasn't about everything in this film, but some part of the story was really touching especially on how much Carl loved and missed his wife.

I personally give 8.5 out of 10 stars for this film!

Personal Opinion on Transformer 2 Movie

Last night I went to watch Transformer 2 Revenge of The Fallen in cinema. Honestly I never felt so excited waiting to watch a movie before but I had been waiting for this movie for some ages already. There was an indescribable excitement and expectation inside my heart towards this movie probably because I like the characters too much!

No doubt, the movie was awesome and absolutely stunning with a lot of newly added Autobots and Decepticons! This is one of the attraction point of this movie.

I won't go into details about the story of this movie, I think you better get the excitement yourself. Basically it is just about Starscream was planning for rescue and revenge after Megatron being destroyed in the last episode. They finally managed to resurrect Megatron under the sea then started a series of attack and invasion onto the earth. At the same time, the Fallen, master of Megatron also seeking for revenge on the Matrix of Leadership that he lost in the old days. The matrix will be used to activate sun harvesters which is a machine using suns to power the AllSpark. If the machine is activated, suns will be destroyed then life on earth will be ended. Therefore, Autobots were working with human to protect the earth from being destroyed.

Just now I mentioned about newly added Autobots and Decepticons? Actually I was looking for their information few weeks before the movie was shown on big screen, that's why I have a very high expectation to see their real appearance in the film. Honestly, you hardly see how they actually look like on the net! Not trusting me? Ok, how about you try to google it.

It was the appearance issue that disappointed me the most in this film. No problem with the main robots. Optimus Prime is still as great. Bumblebee is even cutter and more emotional than the first episode. Remember he peed on a sector 7 agent in 1st episode? This time he cried and yes with tears! Ironhide and Ratchet still playing supporting role. Mudflap and Skids, the twin Autobots newly added to the movie were always naughty and hyperactive throughout the film, but how about Arcee? She suppose is the first appearance of female Autobots in Transformers movie which I really looking forward. Yet sad to say that she didn't have much chance to stay on screen and that's why even after the movie, I still not sure how she actually looks like. Same situation goes to Jolt, who is actually a blue Chevrolet Volt.

Jetfire was shown in details. He was a robot with "old man look" carrying a crutch on his right arm. He was Decepticon, yet chose to side with Autobots. Same goes to Wheelie, who is a remote-control monster truck who made the choice to stand with Autobots. He was a very cute little robot which brought a lot of fun to the story flow and definitely you won't forget him.

For Decepticons, Megatron and Starscream look pretty the same with the first episode. However if not mistaken Megatron had 2 alternate modes in this one - jet and tank. Why so? I really not sure as he could only transform to jet previously. Megatron was rusty because being thrown into the ocean after being killed in the last episode.

Constructicons rather disappointed me. Couldn't even see how Mixmaster, Long Haul, Rampage and Scrapper actually look like in robot mode. Demolisher and Devastator, two giant Decepticons were really huge and being shown clearer in the film. Ravage, the one eyed jaguar gave poeple a fresh look of Decepticions.

Despite the personal criticism above, the movie is really worth to watch as a whole. I will give 8 out of 10 for this movie.


P/s: One more thing... for those "buaya", Megan Fox was irresistibly sexy and pretty inside the film!!! Don't like robots? Nevermind... go to see Megan Fox!

Quantum of Solace Premiere Day

Today is the premiere showing of the latest James Bond 007 series - Quantum of Solace. My company's recreational club was organizing movie day for this box office movie where the club members could get the ticket at RM2 (limit to 1 ticket per member) per ticket and RM7 per ticket for consecutive tickets.

[Quantum of Solace poster in cineplex]

I bought 2 tickets and went to watch the movie with my buddy just now. We were full of excitement as we seldom have chance to watch a movie on its premiere day. When we arrived at the cinema - Kings Trioplex, as expected, the crowds were not that encouraging. Most people will choose to watch movie on Wednesday as it's called "movie day" where the tickets are sold cheaper.

[The crowds lined up for tickets]

[A scene at cineplex's lobby where crowds were waiting to watch their movies]

The movie is very nice to watch. As far as James Bond movie is concern, it is full of action, speed, sex and excitement. Quantum of Solace is not an exception. Although Daniel Craig was once being described as the ugliest James Bond of all time, but I think his acting skills is good. He can handle the character as Bond very well. Who said UK secret agent MI6 must be handsome? Although his look cannot be as nice as Brad Pitt, and as eyes-pleasing as Tom Cruise, but his attitude and seriousness towards the character is worth for compliment.

One more thing I like about Daniel Craig for being James Bond is his body shape. Try to see when he is wearing fitting overcoat. It is really smart and nice looking. Don't worry, I am not gay. In fact I seldom praise on guys' body shape but Daniel Graig is an exception. He really look tough and smart, and I guess this is what we need for James Bond character!

[Daniel Craig as James Bond]

As usual, Bond girls is another "MUST" feature in James Bond movie. There are 2 bond girls in Quantum of Solace acted by Gemma Arterton, an English actress and Olga Kurylenko , a Ukranian-born actress cum model. Olga Kurylenko gave me better impression as she had more role in the movie. She is a cool, tough and sexy girl. Gemma Arterton had minor role to play in the movie. I am not sure should I consider her as one of the Bond girl or just a helping actress because she just appeared on screen for a short period of time. However, she was the one sleeping with James Bond and not Olga Kurylenko. So, what do you think?

[Olga Kurylenko as Bond girl]

Anyway, in the movie she was found dead mysteriously on the bed drowned in crude oil. My friend told me it was mimic the scene of 1964 James Bond classic Goldfinger. What disappointed me is that it didn't explain or show how this happened instead just showed a dead body over the bed covered with sticky black liquid. Well, maybe it purposely wanted to create more space for imagination, but I guess I am just not artistic enough.

[Gemma Arterton as Bond girl]

One more thing I felt lack of logic in the film is when James Bond was navigating a big cargo aeroplane and was attacked by a small combat jet. Looks like James Bond not only good in car handling, he is a good pilot too. Controlling cargo plane for him was as easy as driving. He could fly the cargo plane at low altitude near mountain area and made turning, pull up and lower down as he wished. Well, maybe it is that easy to control a cargo plane which I never know. Maybe you can judge it by yourself.

[Movie scene - James Bond is going to navigate a cargo plane]

Although I have some opinion, but as a whole, Quantum of Solace was nice and worth of watching especially for action lovers. However, I will advice you to have some knowledge on Casino Royale, the previous James Bond movie acted by Daniel Craig if you want to understand the storyline of Quantum of Solace in details as both story have some linkage among them. Yet, if you just an action fanatic, then forget about it. Just get a ticket, sit in the cinema and enjoy the show!