Iron Man : Reviewed

It's been a while since I wrote any moview reviews, the last one was Beowulf. Guess I was kinda lazy to review any movies, or some of the movies that I watched weren't worth reviewing.

This year's initial Marvel movie released was Iron Man; which will be followed by Incredible Hulk, one movie that I'll definitely won't miss. I went to catch it last week, and I'd say that the movie was kinda ok.

The story began with Anthony Edwards "Tony" Stark held captive by a bunch of terrorists (ain't this a popular scene in American movies now these days?), and as the story unfolds it shows why and how Stark got himself a glowing flashlight in his chest.
Apparently he was hurt by his own bomb that threatened to kill him, and only by building himself a mini arc reactor in his chest has that kept the shrapnels from entering his heart.

Along with fellow prisoner Yinsen; Stark builds himself a suit that is powered by the reactor in his chest that would ensure their escape from the terrorists. Thus Iron Man Mark I was born, a crude but strong armor, which is actually the first version of Iron Man's armor in the comics. Yinsen dies in order to secure Stark's escape, and the once irresponsible billionaire was transformed into a more conscientious person; and a superhero was born.

Story-wise, the flow was kinda good, up to the point of Stark's rescue. Arthur Marcum and Matt Holloway wrote the script which was later polished by John August, the scriptwriters tried to stay true to Iron Man's origins, which was a good thing.

However, the villain was kind of a let-down, which turned out to be a bigger version of the Mark I, reverse-engineered by villain Obadiah Stane.

The Mark III armor was designed by to Adi Granov; a Bosnian-born comic book artist and conceptual designer, a talented young man that would be a 'future superstar penciller', according to Marvel editor Joe Quesada.

Armors Mark I, Mark II, & Mark III

Granov also happens to be Iron Man comics artist, and I'd say the armor's design was placed in good hands.

The cast was fine I'd say, Robert Downey Jr was convincing as Tony Stark, so was Terence Howard as James Rhodes a.k.a War Machine. The romance between Stark and Pepper Pots (a stunning Gwyneth Paltrow) was delivered in a platonic yet sexy innocent manner, which takes someone as observant as me to notice (ahem).

Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger) was played by Jeff Bridges, who decided to go bald and grow an Amish beard; his performance as villain I'd say was ok as well, hmm.. maybe it was because of the looks and his slang.

Overall, I'd say that the movie wasn't a let-down, and despite the flashy trailers and all director Jon Favreau managed to deliver a presentable movie adaptation of one of Marvel's famous Avengers. Be on the lookout for Incredible Hulk, as there'll be a cameo of Tony Stark appearing the film, and I do hope we get to see War Machine in it's sequel.

p/s: Stay until the credits finish rollin', you might be in for a surprise.

BEOWULF!!

A look at the poster or trailer will attract the average male to drag somebody along and queue for its tickets. It's got the medieval theme, monsters, the classic David vs. Goliath story, and it's got Angelina Jolie. Mind you, I went for the movie because of the initial three, and not the latter. I'm not a fan of her, no I don't know why, but I just ain't attracted.

When the movie played, I was a bit shocked as in my mind I pictured a real-life movie, but instead it was a full-CGI movie. All the better, I thought. It was like watching a video game's FMV (Full-Motion Video, if you will), but here you get to watch it from the beginning to the end, a full 115 minutes, which is a pleasant change.

The movie starts with a celebration being held in King Hrothgar's new drinking hall, the Heorot. The King, played by Anthony Hopkins is carried into a hall in a tandem and his garment almost falls off in his drunken stupor. (phew, luckily that didn't happen.) His people sing and dance and their joy so great, voice so loud and mood so merry that the noise can be heard miles away. Enter Grendel, an abomination of a man that's got 'super-hearing' and only converses in Old English. Apparently, the noise has disturbed his sleep and in a rage, Grendel slaughters all the noise-makers in Heorot. The King and his Queen are spared however, whereas the kingdom's 'warrior', Unferth, played by John Malkovich, takes a dip in the pool to escape the slaughter.

The light sleeper

Hrothgar closes his new hall, and announces that the one who would slay Grendel will inherit half of his kingdom. We're introduced to Beowulf, played by Ray Winstone (his Beowulf looks a lot like Sean Bean/Triple H) and the guy tells Hrothgar he'll slay Grendel. Come nightfall, Beowulf asks his men to sing and make merry in Heorot, and Grendel being the light-sleeper he is, wakes up angry and proceeds to Heorot to kill the noise-makers. Arrogant as he is confident, Beowulf decides to fight with Grendel in the nude, as he claims it's unfair to Grendel who has no armor. Now the camera angle is manipulated beautifully, as we never get to see 'little Beowulf' despite his acrobatic movements.

Beowulf pulls his adversary's arm off, and the defeated Grendel runs back to his cave whining to his mother that he was trashed by Beowulf before dying. Grendel's mother, upset by her son's death flies to Heorot and slays all of Beowulf's comrades, save Wiglaf. Hrothgar tells Beowulf of Grendel's mother and Beowulf goes to her cave to slay it, armed with Hrunting, Unferth's family sword. There he meets Grendel's mother, (a semi-nude Angelina Jolie) and falls for her seduction, and also the promises of him becoming King.

High-heels go back as far as the medieval times

He returns to Heorot, and lies that he's slayed the 'hag'. Hrothgar knows of his deceit and tells him that his curse has been passed to Beowulf, and announces him as his successor should he die. After the announcement, Hrothgar decides to go bungee-jumping but without the ropes and falls dead on the sea-shore, here in which his body is claimed by Grendel's mother. Beowulf becomes King, and after 50 years his past returns to haunt him.

His son, whom he conceived with Grendel's mother, a dragon, attacks his kingdom and Beowulf, claimed with old age decides to slay the dragon in order to repent for his past sins, as he claims that he has died may years before, clearly regretting his weakness.

The movie depicts the old English heroic epic poem in a new light, with Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman being the script writers. However, the movie deviates from its original poem, as the dragon is not his son, and Beowulf DID slay Grendel's mother. I enjoyed watching the movie, and I felt that it was a tad too short, even though it's running time was almost 2 hours. The script was beautifully written, as everything meshes together and there's no need to think in order to put two with two together.

Those who've read the poem or book may criticize it, as it's a major deviation, but it's the movie that introduces new readers to it, similarly to LOTR, Da Vinci Code, and other books which has been adapted into movies. The closing theme, 'A Hero Comes Home' by Idina Menzel is beautiful and truth be told, I stayed in the cinema just to listen to the song, something which I don't do when a movie's credits roll.

Here's a sample of the song.

Conclusion is, I enjoyed watching the movie, as it depicts a hero is not without his flaws. They're just human, who have their own weaknesses and prone to errors.

 

Bee (grade) Movie

Well, I'm no movie buff, but when it comes to movies it's difficult for me to pass on them. Especially animation movies from Dreamworks. The previous movies were wholesome (wtf?); Chicken Run, Shrek, Flushed Away, etc.

So last Saturday I went to catch its latest release, Bee Movie.

Initially, Nat was reluctant to watch, as she disliked bees. However, I dragged her along as it's been quite a while since we watched a movie, and finally she relented. And it was a mistake.

The movie started ok at first, as we're introduced into the bee world, a look into how organized their world really is, with 2 bees standing in the middle of the highway all the cars seem to avoid them and traffic continues to run smoothly (yes, they have cars). Now why can't that happen in OUR world?

Ok, back to the review. The movie introduces us to its protaganist, Barry Bee Benson (or was it Barry Bee Benson?) voiced by comedian Jerry seinfield. Barry is a young bee which is about to start his working life and isn't pleased when he learns that he's gonna spend the rest of his life doing the same job.

Now, we have a plot here. From that point, I thought the movie was going to concentrate on the plot, and the rest of the show was about Barry, bees and a little human intervention. It turns out I was wrong.

Barry joins the 'Pollen Jocks'; larger, muscular worker bees for a an outing, gets lost and winds up with a human, Vanessa voiced by Renee Zellwegger. Barry interacts with Vanessa, yes, Barry talks to her in English; which is still acceptable as it's a cartoon. Then, the movie tumbles down the hill.
At least for me.

Barry & Vanessa hit it out

Barry soon learns that there's honey being sold in supermarkets, and is outraged that the bees are being 'ill-treated' and their hard work stolen. He then decides to sue humans, yes, SUE humans for depriving 'bee rights', which got Sting and Ray Liotta in some trouble too. Hahaha... That's the funniest part.

Long story short, the bees win the court case, and all the honey in the world is returned to the bees. This causes the bees to stop their work, and soon enough without pollenation the plants in the planet wither and dies. Barry feels guilty & comes up with a solution for the problem.

The movie started really ok, with a few parts being tolerable for it being a cartoon. But then, it seems to get too outrageous, even FOR a cartoon. Come on, bees suing humans? Where's the logic in that?

A cartoon is supposed to be fun and wholesome (there goes that word again), haven't we enough of movies that's got litigation in it?
Do you expect children to understand why the bees are suing humans? Oh, before I forget, the movie's most exaggerated scene, a Boeing jet is supported by millions of bees, which is really too much.

I don't know, but the writers really has outsretched the boundaries of logic, even for a cartoon. Geez, the plot sucked and the ending was worse, which I won't disclose. However, my colleague re-butted me saying that the movie was good, and crticized that 'I don't know how to appreaciate it'.

Oh well, everyone is entitled for their own opinion. I'm just putting mine on-line. One thing's for sure, to me Bee Movie is a B(grade) movie.

Resident Evil: Extinction

What do you get when you cross Resident Evil and Star Wars? Crap.

The recent release of the movie Resident Evil: Extinction saw me going to watch it last Saturday night. I wasn't anticipating this movie, but as a gamer who loved its game series, I decided to give this movie another try even though its previous sequel was disappointing, save Jill. Sienna Guillory is hot.

Where was I? Oh yeah.. Extinction takes place 5 years after the Raccoon City outbreak, and from there on the virus continued to spread across Earth, turning Earth into a barren wasteland surrounded by mindless zombies. Only a few survivors are left, with our heroine Alice going nomad and travelling via motorcycle. The film introduces a new heroine, Claire Redfield, who leads a convoy to lead the survivors to Europe in order to reunite with her brother Chris. Claire indeed is some eye-candy, as she's played by Ali Larter.



 

Ali Larter as Claire Redfield

Wesker was introduced in this new movie, and the 1st time I saw him I thought they got Eminem to play the role. The actor who played him was a bit fat though, compared to the game's version. It was until when I heard his voice did I realize it wasn't Eminem, as Jason O'Mara's voice was deep and Eminem has a squeaky voice.

The movie's got its gory scenes and some slick babe ass-kicking, but otherwise it was kinda dull. Apparently, Alice has undergone some Jedi training for the past 5 years as she's now been able to control the Force. She can create barriers, manipulate fire and even send a Tyrant flying. Come on... the story has was deviated from its roots. Why can't the director stick to good ol' guns and the protaganist use a RPG to blow the enemy boss to smithereens?

Also, I was wondering what the hell happened to Jill and Angela Ashford? And since when Wesker became the head of Umbrella?

The alleged head of Umbrella

Sigh... the title for the movie is befitting. Resident Evil movies should be made extinct, but from the movie's ending, we've yet to see the last of Alice. And she's bringing 'friends'. Great.

Educational Decree 120: I Must Not Tell Lies

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling's 5th book of the Harry Potter series has been adapted into a movie. So how well did the movie fare compared to the book?

Despite nasty criticsms that I heard regarding the movie, I decided to go watch for myself to see how bad, er.. I mean how good it was. So I went for a midnight show last night and I came out confused on how to actually review the movie.

The movie started with the expectation that you've read the book, but if you haven't it might take you some time to figure out what the hell is actually going on. As it progressed suddenly the director/script writer expects you to be a noob and starts to deviate as he pleases.

There was a lack of some important elements, like Quidditch, Firenze just to name a few. Since the 3rd adaptation, the importance of Quidditch has been reduced to a very insignificant level. In the recent adaptation, there wasn't even the word 'Quidditch'.

There were certain deviations, and what's the guy's name? Ah yes, Daniel Radcliffe failed to portray the intense anger that Harry was supposed to feel, even after the death of Sirius. Hagrid's dragon meat was so small and it wasn't green, Robbie Coltrane didn't even dare to slap the meat on his face.
Ginny was virtually mute in the whole movie. Sigh...

However, the actresses portraying Luna Lovegood & Dolores Jane Umbridge respectively fit perfectly in their roles. They were able to carry their roles perfectly and were virtually similar to how they were described in the book. Tonks was alright too, despite her brief appearance in the movie.

The dialogues were taken directly from the book, so if you've read the book you'd know what they were going to say and maybe that can be used as a trick to impress some girls (if they were 'Harry Potter-illiterate')

The movie expects you to read the book before actually watching it, yet it disappoints you when you've read the book and compared it with the movie. Yes, I know that it's impossible to make a movie that follows the book closely, but the 1st & 2nd adaptations were good, compared to the later adaptations.

I won't say it's a good movie, but also I won't say it's bad.

Why so?

I must not tell lies.

Robots in disguise

Anybody who was born in the 80s must know about the Transformers. Well, those who've never seen the cartoon must at least have heard of it.
But if you have NEVER SEEN/HEARD of it until recently; welcome to Earth, martian.

Transformers is about an alien cybernetic race continuing to wage a war on our planet after they've destroyed their own world, Cybertron. They're divided into 2, the good Autobots which is led by Optimus Prime & Megatron who leads the evil Decepticons.

Why the term 'Transformers'? Cause they hide in the form of cars, bulldozers, machine etc to hide their identity and transform into robots when needed.

What started out as a 2D representation on TV later evolved into a 3D adaptation, the Beast Wars, Beast Machines, etc. But there was never an on-screen adaptation of the title until recently by famous director Michael Bay.

It was released last week, but I only got to see it yesterday night cause the tickets here were almost sold out daily. I was excited when I got into the cinema & my hopes were high, I hoped it wouldn't disappoint me as what Superman Returns did.

And I wasn't disappointed.

Oh, the nostalgia. Looking at the Autobots and Decepticons in CG was really great. Especially Optimus Prime, & Starscream. The transformation, the fight scenes, the voice of the robots, the transforming sound.... the blonde girl; oh I loved it.

The story was alright, there was some mushy scenes, some comedy; Michael Bay really did a good job. Especially choosing a not so striking lead actor, Shia LeBouf (I hope I got his name right) was the correct decision so that the concentration was focused more on the robots.
Imagine if Brad Pitt or some hunk was chosen as the lead, when you ask any girl (who just came out from the cinema) who was the leader of the Autobots; they'd be screaming Brad Pitt.

But I was a bit disappointed how Megatron was finished of. It was so easy that it looked so lame. Ah, but everyone is allowed at least one mistake.

Now, if there was only Transformers 2.....

iCame iSaw iPhone

Apple has done it again. You really gotta hand it to Steve Jobs for doing a great 'job'. Sorry, couldn't resist that.
For those wondering who the hell is Steve Jobs, he's the CEO and one of Apple's founders.

The recent iPhone craze started round few months back, and its scheduled release was on the 29th June, meaning it was released somewhere 1 week ago. So out of the blue I'm trying to be a gadget freak, and at the same time Mr. Know-It-All & try to give a layman description on what and why there's such a commotion about Apple's latest gadget.

Now, what is the iPhone? As the name suggest, it's a phone (duh);  one of Apple's latest gadget fad after the recent iPod craze.

It belongs in the same category as the BlackBerry & MotorolaQ, which means it's actually a multimedia smartphone. The iPhone is a Music-player, Movie-player, Internet Browser and Phone in One.

In a nutshell;

1. it's small & stylish
2. touchscreen, no keypads, just the menu button
3. built-in WiFI
4. employs EDGE instead of 3G
5. you can watch YouTube videos
6. good battery life
7. 2 MegaPixel camera, but unable to capture videos
8. Price ranges from $500-$600, roughly about RM 2K

After looking at the pros & cons, would I consider buying it? Heck no. A phone for 2 grand? I can get loadz of stuff from the money.
Nope, I'm no hater but I ain't an idiot too.