Sunday, June 28, 2009,
9:19 PM
Oh my.
I just watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last night. Maybe there is some truth behind the ST's review on the movie, only giving it 0.5/5. A little harsh, but the movie could have been alot better given the expectations it was supposed to match up to after the first movie.
(My blogger's having problem uploading pictures so oh well. Transformer pics are everywhere now anyway.)
Overall, I think the movie was mind-blowing. But that wasn't the only thing they blew up. And I think it was really smashing as well. They smashed up a whole lot of other stuff as well. In general, the main selling point of the movie was it's awesome fight scenes and endless destruction. Well, a movie can't go wrong with giant mechanoids mashing one another in epic battles right?
Overall, I'd say it's a 6.5/10
Plot (5/10): There really isn't a need for a synopsis, seeing that so many people are going ahead to watch it :D But careful of spoilers if you have yet to (ever since Prelim 2 ended)! I think the scriptwriters got a little lazy besides the movie would be a hit anyway with the awesome graphics and success of the previous movie.
First off, I found it slightly predictable. There wasn't really much of a twist or personal internal struggles, the storyline started off rather linear about Sam being dragged into the whole issue again (okay the leading in by him finding a shard of the Cube in his old jacket was slightly too...convenient a reason to start the story). Then about the fall of the leader, Optimus, and definitely he'd be revived once again. The fall of Sam was kind of predictable as well. And that there was something obviously wrong with Alice and her sticking onto Sam like glue without a apparent reason. I think the machine hidden in the pyramid was fine, but the whole idea about the Matrix wasn't.
Please, I expected a large complicated riddle that wasn't going to solved by a conversation that the two of them had in the evening. And the position of the Three Kings were inaccurate in astronomical terms as well, according to Stace. But how did the Matrix re-constructed itself, revives Optimus, yet gets stolen again? But I think a movie like Transformers was best with their first plot and not make another one which is a off-shoot of it. Though the plot is kind of interesting mainly due to the action sequence making one constantly ask: "What's going to happen now D:"
Action (9/10): Well, it had better get a high score. Mainly because this is what redeems the movie and makes it so awesome in the first place :D Put the scrappy plot aside, this makes up for everything. Guess this is one thing the ST reviewers overlooked.
Nothing can go wrong in epic clashes of giant robots verse other giant robots and humans firing in vain. It was really detailed, every part of the mechnoids as they beat one another up, especially in the fight scene with Optimus VS 3 other Decepticons. But sometimes they get so complicated that it just looks like metal rolling about.
And everywhere they went, destruction followed. Sure, it was cool in the Shanghai scene were buildings collaspsed and everything had either been blasted apart or filled with holes, but after awhile it gets kind of....numbing. It's like too much of a good thing. But the special effects were awesome, undeniably. Can you imagine what will happen if Transformers goes 3D? :D
Another Angle (5/10): Well, this is sort of a...double-edged sword. The movie injects comedy into many of the scenes which didn't involve clashing. It was good many a times, with great quotes such as:
Agent Simmons: What you are about to see is top secret. Do not tell my mother.
annnnd:
[arriving at Sam's college]
Judy Witwicky: Look at this place! I feel smarter already! Can you smell that?
Ron Witwicky: Yeah, it's the smell of $40,000 a year...
and my favorite was:
Jetfire: My father was a wheel! The first wheel! And do you know what he transformed into? Nothing! But he did it with honor!
Yes Jetfire is awesome and I liked the little addition of him in the movie. It's interesting to watch defects, and him supporting the Autobots instead (and the awesome merging on the final battle). Such witty lines injected laughter here and there.
But speaking of jokes, there were many dirty jokes here and there as well. And it was slightly irritating that they kept playing on them. Like how Simmons said he was directly under the robot's scrotum D:
Dirty jokes and sexual references aside (which surprisingly were subtle enough to keep the movie at PG), I feel that many of the Autobots from the original team did not have enough screentime. Optimus had quite alot, Bumblebee dorminated (which is awesome because B.Bee is so likable :D) and the twins had quite alot of screen time, but what about the rest of the team? They only had about a few lines, and are mainly sighted only in clashes. Besides, the addition of the three female motorbikes had hardly any lines and were only seen for 3 seconds in a couple of scenes. Sad D:
But overall, it's a good movie to follow up from the first because you watch it mainly for the action and awesome transformation and battle graphics, right? Lest why would you even bother yourself with Transformers in the first place :O
I guess the ST reviewers were expecting a whole lot more and are already numb to action, even though the special effects are top-notch.
I'm attending the school's aesthetic concert tonight!
Balthus
Mash. Mash. Mash.Labels: in the thick of the action
Saturday, June 27, 2009,
10:34 PM
Prelim 2s are over. I really don't wanna think about a paper that has already ended since it'd affect my performance and thoughts during the exam week, but now that's it's over....Gah :X
I think the worst paper was E math. Seriously, I didn't think elementary math will result in like 5 questions half answered D: Bye bye to A. Ironically, Amath was slightly easier (well, easier than expected) but I'm very scared I don't get an A or a high B for it, because...
On the way to school on Thursday, I met Mrs. Anna Tan crossing my path with her daughter going towards J8.
Mrs. Tan: Benedict! Do well for your maths paper okay?
Me: *cringe* Um, okay..
Mrs. Tan: Must get your A okay!
Me: *forced smile* Yes, yes I will.
Oh NOO I'm very, very scared to let her down now for my maths papers (both maths!). It's a very nasty feeling to let down someone who have worked so hard to help you. Oh no oh no please let me get at least high Bs to pull up to A by Prelim 3 D:
Out of all the papers, I'm most confident in the Chem paper and Elective Lit. Chem cause I could understand most of the paper (please grant me an A this time so no one can say I suck in every subject again) and because I found the Literature paper very fun :D
The question was based on Atticus' quote: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view --- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," and I was supposed to write on 3 characters in the novel who demonstrated the wisdom of the quote. So I chose Mr. Dolphus Raymond (of course!), Arthur Radley and Mrs. Dubose. And spammed quotes, as usual.
Speaking of quotes, there are a heck lot of wonderful, memorable quotes from the sci-fi movie I've been dying to watch after Prelim 2: Equlibrium
(It takes alot to get me crazy for something. And when I do go crazy over something...heh :X)
A quick synopsis of the plot which got me craving for it:
In the 21st century after the World War III, mankind knew that it would not be able to pull through another war as such. Thus, the world leaders sought to create a world free of conflict. They decided that human emotions is the root cause of all conflict (with rage, anger, wrath, jealousy etc.) and thus a society, Libra, is form where feeling emotions and being in possession of objects that may invoke emotion (e.g. literature, art, music) are all banned and warrants incineration, and all citizens had to take "intervals", where they inject themselves with the emotion-suppressing drug Prozium, distributed from a factory named 'Equilibrium'.
The protagonist, Cleric John Preston, is a first-class fighter of the Grammaton Clerics serving the High Council, Clerics forming an elite team equipped with the art of Gun-Kata (fighting with firearms in a deadly manner without getting shot) who's job is to enforce the law in apprehending "Sense Offenders" and eliminating all EC-10 objects (emotional content). He unemotionally watches his wife gets arrested for feeling, committed suicide-by-cop for his partner when he realised he was feeling.
And predictably, he breaks his usual dose of Prozium and is unable to get a replacement. For the first time in his life, the first-class fighter experiences emotions. Then the story continues from there. Not going to spoil it for you if you intend to watch online ;)
Overall rating? 7.6/10
Plot (8/10): Classic plot of someone breaking out of the conformity of life (this time, to the extreme that the Council wanted to create a society of people leading identical lives) and it goes back to the basics, the core of what defines a human being: Ability to feel emotions. Before emotions, Preston felt nothing towards art, no qualms about his wife executed, no hesitation in assasinating his partner. Slowly, the beauty of feelings dawned upon him and he saw a deeper meaning in life. Being a lit student, this of course must be accompanied with quotes:
[Before he experiences emotions, apprehending a 'Sense Offender']
Mary: Let me ask you something.
[Grabs his hand]
Mary: Why are you alive?
Preston: [Breaks free] I'm alive... I live... to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve Libria.
Mary: It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point?
Preston: What's the point of your existence?
Mary: To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking.
And one of my favorites earlier in the movie:
[When apprehending his partner, Partridge]
Partridge: You always knew.
[begins to read from Yeats]
Partridge: "But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." I assume you dream, Preston.
.
.
.
Preston: I'll do what I can to see they go easy on you.
Partridge: We both know they never "go easy".
Preston: Then, I'm sorry.
Partridge: No, you're not. You don't even know the meaning. Its just a vestigial word for a feeling you've never felt.
Action (7/10): Mainly focusing on the invented form of martial arts: Gun-Kata.
DuPont: The gun katas. Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency makes the master of the gun katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.
So basically, you shoot, you kill many, but you're safe within the cross-fire. And Preston is a master of this art. Heh heh. Emotionless + Gun-Kata master = perfect fighter.
And when the protagonist was captured:
DuPont: And you, Preston, the supposed savior of the resistance, are now its destroyer, and, along with them, you've given me yourself... calmly... coolly... entirely without incident.
Preston: [Polygraph machine scribbling rapidly] No.
[Polygraph suddenly registers Preston completely in control of emotions]
Polygraph Technician: Oh... Shit.
Preston: Not without incident.
Then he goes on a rampage to blast his way through to the puppeteer of the whole society :D
Another Angle (8/10): The repetition of certain key lines by different characters signifies emphasise. The lines are repeated in different situations or those which mirror exactly what happens before. Such as:
DuPont: Be careful Preston. You're treading on my dreams.
'Treading on my dreams" was read aloud earlier from the book of Yeats. It may not sound original to hear the same lines over, but it does have an impact when placed in different situations, it's like the characters learning from one another (especially Preston learning about emotions).
Furthermore, there are many subtle signs which hold significances: Preston re-arranging his table (showing a sign of dislike against conformity) and him wearing all white while facing foes dressed in all black. Twists and traps keeps the movie from being predictable and at the edge of my chair throughout the movie (and making me extremely jumpy while waiting for Part 4 to load - people who talked to me on MSN last night understands XD)
I loved this movie, I'm going to fan-boy over it for some time and will definitely watch it again next time :D Next up will be on Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen which I just watched today :)
Balthus
A heavy cost, I pay it gladly.Labels: oh wow :O
Friday, June 5, 2009,
9:14 AM
For Physics students:
THIS is a Transformer:
However, this is as well:
And so is this!
And this one too!
So they are all transformers and have the same function, yet they all look so different from one another...
They must be in disguise. Transformers in disguise. Heh :D
(Wei Yang and I LOL-ed over this in class for 5 whole minutes until Mr Yong looked our way ^^)
OH and I've already got Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie tickets for the 28th June! I love my mom's company for the tickets :D
Balthus
art is never finished, only abandoned.Labels: science can be fun :D
Monday, June 1, 2009,
5:32 AM
I missed the church bells today.
Which sucks, because I spend every month counting down to the 1st day of the next month just so as to hear those bells again.
I'm not sure if many people actually notice it, but the church bells sound from most (?) churches around Singapore at 12 noon on the first day of every month. I've grown up listening to them, since I grew up living behind St. Nicks since I was 4. Used to run to my large window and climb up the grills to hang there for the 20 seconds listening to the magical tune :D But now I have St. Gabriel's church just behind to hear those bells :)
I never really figured out the frequency of the bells when I was younger (therefore leading to me running and stumbling on random objects on the ground just to listen to them) until my P3 teacher told us it was to symbolise the start of a brand new month. It's just, uplifting to hear them, to put aside the previous month and start afresh, anew :D
The "holidays" have officially started. Well, holiday lessons, that is. Physics and Amath is getting me down but am not giving up! ;D Because even though I missed the bells today (being stuck in the auditorium :X),
I still hear them in my heart :)
Balthus
Cry me a river, cry with me tonight.Labels: may they always ring
(It takes alot to get me crazy for something. And when I do go crazy over something...heh :X)
[When apprehending his partner, Partridge]
And this one too!
