Happenings in Aug 2015

Squeezing time to blog is difficult, but I just do what I can.

Movies:

Have seen ‘Inside Out’ and ‘MI5 – Rogue State’ recently, Pixar produced a great one this time. The movie was entertaining though it didn’t hit me until I read reviews afterwards. My sons couldn’t get into the movie much, but my wife found that surprisingly deep in content. I think the creativity is superb giving the subject matter and the way of presentation. Certainly, a keeper! MI5 is good too, I like the third one since and I think this one is quite entertaining from start to finish. The female lead is pretty good, something like an equivalent of Tom Cruise in it, not very pretty but very decent for the part. The villain looks a bit funny, I don’t know why his look really reminds me of Tim Cook?! J

Travel:

Spent 6 days in Osaka and have a day trip to Nara last week. A happy trip overall with the whole family. To be honest, I was very tried everyday, but it wasn’t any worst than before. Foods can be better, but certainly much better than the SG trip earlier this year. Didn’t do much shopping, except surprisingly few clothes from GU for myself. I wish the kids are older and would be able to appreciate culture part more, though the Lego Center, Kid science place are fine for them. The Universal Studio was actually more for me and my wife! The Harry Potter land was really amazing, the ride as well….There weren’t too many tourists from the PRC, so the tourists’ places aren’t too packed. Love the day in Nara, the temples are good, but surprisingly the best meal during the trip wasn’t the crab dinner, but the largely veggie lunch in the temple yard, very refreshing!

Gadget:

Haven’t brought it yet, but I’m about to buy a NAS first time and would install that at home DIY. After experiencing the HORRIBLE LOSS of data that I’ve in a freaking Seagate hard disk this year, lost few hundred GBs of MP3 that I collected last few years, damned! I would need to prevent any further loss in my other hard disks, just able to partially rescue most of my photos in another, thank GOD! So, the setup of the NAS is imminent, just need to find time to buy it and install it, most likely QNAP TS251C would be the one, though Synology DS214Play is also good. Let’s see…

With the huge loss of my MP3 collections, I just don’t have the mood to construct my iTunes library anymore. Also, listing to podcasts have occupied my audio entertainment times, I’ve not listened to any music for months! However, given the Apple Music hype, I did the alternative: registered Spotify instead, cuz the prior doesn’t have a free version, I’m not gonna pay for anything in case I forgot to discontinue the free service after 3 months. Well, the free Spotify version is fine and good enough, particularly when I just don’t have the time to be very picky for customization or constructing my playlists. Just looking back the when we still listen to vinyl and cassettes, I thought MP3 would be quite ultimate, just couldn’t expect streaming would potentially takeover until I tried it on myself to see the beauty of it. I think every music delivery format has its fans, more options the better.

The World:

The refugee crisis in Europe is sad. But, for being a fan of conspiracy, it is just the result of the force behind all those chaos. Those who suffer are mostly Muslim and Africans, they are the ‘targets’ of the conspiracy behind. What can we say……

China just has another military parade to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the deficit of fascism?! The purpose of the show is largely for domestic reason. I just feel that ‘self-reflection’ is more important than all the ‘empty’ words and propaganda, if anyone really for peace-keeping. As a side note, my older has started asking me questions about world events as I was watching time on TV. He recently was quite interested in the anniversary of end of WWII, the Japanese invasion of China, etc. He asked me who the face on Tiananmen Square is? Well, I answered him with comment, I think that raised more questions in his head than before, which would be a good thing down the road. ….

Lucy

Saw the movie the other day. It is a decent movie with the right amount of drama, action and CG.

Scarlett Johansson carried the whole movie beautifully. She makes this movie watchable and engaging. Morgan Freeman remains Morgan Freeman, a decent part without much up or down in emotion. I think he just did it for the paycheck. The Korean villain is cool and has more acting to do than Morgan Freeman, but still a stereotype of Asia bad guy: crazy, over the top, killing everybody just because he can.

Yes, agreed with many critics that the ending of the movie is a bit too much. How can someone use 100% of the brain will end up omnipotent like God? That doesn’t make sense! But, it is just a movie, doesn’t matter for this mindless detail. For a brief 90 minutes of fun, I think Luc Besson did a good job to entertain the audience. More a commercial version of Tree of Life with some Matrix feel, well I’m entertained.

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier

Just saw the Captain America 2 – Winter Soldier the other day. Man, I heard that this movie is good and I entered the cinema with expectation. Well, I was very satisfied! For most of the Marvel movies that I saw in the last couple of years, except Thor 2 which I couldn’t make it to see in spite of the presence of the beloved Natalie Portman, I love most of them. Certainly, some are better than the others. The first Captain America movie was actually a surprise to me. I thought it would be quite boring giving the background of the movie was back in WWII, it was actually a better one than Thor. This sequel is just amazing!...

The acting by most characters is fine. Robert Redford as a villain is a given, but his presence in most scenes are still commanding. Sam Jackson the Nick Fury is still the Sam Jackson, more than enough for this character. Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow hide her physique in most of the movie, but the bigger part in the movie make her character more interesting and we even root for some romance between her and Captain America. Anyway, she is still eye candy to the viewers. Falcon and Winter Soldier characters are smaller but optimal to screen time, and they were great in action/fight scenes. Chris Evan as Captain America is nice, though his acting is still a bit wooden, but we don’t really expect too much from Captain America. However, his fight scenes are really well, particularly those against Winter Soldier. The car chase and explosions are great as well.

The good thing is that this movie is really fine to be a stand-alone movie for people who are not following the rest of Marvel movies. As the heroes and villains of these movies don’t have too much super-power, it is more ground and realistic than Avengers. Also, the story itself with the spy plot that describe the supposed to be ‘good’ agency - SHIELD into a puppet of the” Nazi” Hydra add a nice depth to the story than would be a vanilla script for simply linking showing actions to actions. I think the subtext of technology of preemptive strikes, government’s seize of personal info to making the so-called ‘New World Order’ really resonate with viewers who are sensitive to the Edward Snowden vs. NSA saga, and other conspiracy theories.

Of course, there are always ‘holes’ that we can spot on in every movie, this one is no different. E.g. why would Black Widow, Falcon and Captain America after being caught, would be put in the same vehicle which would be easily hijacked by a good SHIELD agent easily? How would Black Widow know where Nick Fury’s USB drive be put in the lending machine? How could Black Widow and Captain America would be able to reach Falcon’s home so easy when the whole country are looking for them, etc. Those are minor things that I spot, but they wouldn’t really affect my enjoyment of the movie.

 I don’t know how to rank this movie against other Marvels, but for a sequel, it is definitely one of the few that is better than the first one, even for outside the superhero genre. I would give a B+ easily.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Having been in cinema since watching ‘Gravity’, I somehow found a chance to see ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ the other day. Couldn’t find other movies that I really wanna see and somehow this one fitted my schedule and Ben Stiller is an actor that I like. So, I just went in without much expectation. Well, before I saw this movie, the only thing that I know is that this movie stars Ben Stiller and it is about a person who daydream. Since going to movie is to escape reality for 2 hours and daydreaming has similar effect, so I just go to check it out to see what is it all about.

I think this movie should be seen by adult and kids wouldn’t be able to grasp the spirit of this movie. It is to ‘break out of your own comfort zone, to ‘realize’ your dream somehow’.  It is actually very difficult to do for real, the older we are. I think this movie is a light-hearted comedy that with a meaning. Ben Stiller is doing a good job for starring in this movie which he also directs. Other supporting actors do fit their roles, especially interesting to see Sean Penn to play a low profile character who doesn’t freak out. I especially like the music and the scenery in this movie. Iceland is just beautiful.

Since I went in without much anticipation, so I’m fine with my experience watching this movie. Not great, but a decent one.  

Gravity

Having post anything for a while. Actually, I do have quite few things that I wanna share. Perhaps, I’m just make a few bullet posts about them.

It is better to be late than never. I saw this movie last month with my wife while we could squeeze out a late evening out on our own. She didn’t enjoy it that much but thanks for accommodating my taste. I like that movie very much. These are few thoughts that I have about that movie.

- Sandra Bullock is gonna be nominated in Acadamy Award next year. She leads the movie from beginning to end. A very engaging experience because of her acting.

- Agreed wtih Jim Cameron, it is the best space movie ever.

- Wish I saw it on iMax, but 3D is a must. 

- People criticize the simplicity of the script, but I think it is the simplicity that really make this movies more focus. If they add some flash back on earth and all that, it will ruin the movie.

Pacific Rim

Better be late than never, I went to see this movie weeks ago but never got the time to talk about it. Just try to be brief and clear about what I think of this movie:

Good Parts:
CG, robotic design, site selection of fights between robots and monsters.

Decent Parts:
Characters and acting - there are many actors, they are provided enough to do, but not enough to shine. Acting demand is not great, but the characters are not too boring.
Script - not great, understandable, logical within its own universe, smooth, not much dragging.
Cutting - understandable, smooth.

Bad parts:
Nothing too specific, just doesn't give me a feeling to see it again.

This movie clearly pay homage to Japanese robotic animations. I think the movie somehow lacks 'something', I 'm not sure exactly what it is....Surely, I love to see those robots and monsters duel them out and smash, bang, bang, etc...but I think the story, the premise, or the characters are all good, but not great enough to make audience care and hang on them to really bump our 'blood' to strike our fists in the air when the monsters were killed, a bit worse than Transformers, I think.

However, just for fun and don't mind leave my brain outside the entrance of the cinema, for entertainment value wise, this movie does do its job. I would give a B.

Words from 1st half of May 2013

My previous post on May 3^rd was a bit out of my character. I was quite worried about a family matter that could have very long term consequences. However, things got a bit clarified about a week later. Though nothing is final yet, I feel a bit better in spite of still taking a wait-and-see attitude to see further development. That’s all I wanna say for now for that matter.

There are a lot of other things that I wanna talk about. Rather than going in great detail like I would prefer, just can’t do it this time, so they are just gonna be brief and broad in scope.

PERSONAL SIDE –

Housemoving

Yes, landlord raised the rent to his so-called ‘market’ level which is actually above the actual one. A brief negotiation didn’t reach an agreement. As such, my wife and I took few quick looks in places around and fortunately found a place very close by that both of us deem acceptable. So, after few years of living the same address, we gotta move next week! Yes, that’s right! everything has to work out in about a week! Things are actually in progress: talking to moving company, changing address at utilities, shopping new furniture, and LOTS of packing! I expect to have close to 50 boxes plus some furniture to be moved and subsequently LOTS of unpacking!....what an exhausted exercise!

Kid stuffs

My older son is gonna graduated from Kschool this year! So, stay tune for which elementary school that he will end up to. Meanwhile, still arranging summer classes for him, so far, only swimming is confirmed. Others are coming…Also, my younger son is gonna be two very soon. Time just flies! We need to help him to grow up and learn older stuff, like no diaper during the day extra. Time-consuming exercises!

Leisure

Well, busy as hell is one thing. I was fortunately enough to be able to squeeze time to do some stuff for myself. First, I saw ‘Iron Man 3’. Usually, I would use a separate blog post to talk about movie, but just too busy this time. Not gonna say much to that, but the movie was indeed enjoyable! In spite of knowing many things before going in, there were still some surprises that I enjoy very much. Like the villain’s ability, how Gyweth Paltrow’s involvement in action scenes and how Robert Downey Jr. interacts with Mark 42 and the rest of Iron Men! Fun stuff! Nuff said!

Also, I was able to catch up with an old friend who came back from Germany for a brief visit, and attended a drink with some old co-workers to have a nice relax chat. It’s nice to talk to people that I’ve rarely seen. Thanks to Facebook and Whatsapp!

Few thoughts on Oscar 2013

First of all, I've to declare that I've not seen any of those nominated movies (except Les Miserable). So, I wouldn't be able to judge the results from an artistic merit. So, my opinion is more based on what I know of the Academy based on their history and political sentiment.  For being a long time movie fan, though I couldn't go to movies as often as I like due to family engagement, I do still pay attention to see what's new and good in the market. So as to use that as chatting materials in social circles.

Anyway, I don't have a broad scope of opinions to cover all the winners or losers. I just want talk about few of them. First of all, Argo is a pro-American movie, so does Lincoln. However, the former is more a "feel good" movie that not as heavy and 'academic' as the latter. That helps the voter to make the choice. Furthermore, the snub of Ben Affleck in the best director nomination would give an extra boost to its winning. Spielberg is still the "king" of Hollywood, but he had won before with Jews and veteran support. Given Obama is still in the White House, Lincoln is appeal would somehow be diminished a bit. Also, with Daniel Day Lewis won his third best actor award, that should be enough.

Jennifer Lawrence won the best actress. It is just another chapter of the ongoing trend of best actress winner: relatively young (vs. the best actors), pretty, and some of them would be considered as 'up and coming' in the business. Checking Wiki, the winners in the past decade or so, except Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, most of them fit that category (as a matter of fact, I think Anne Hathaway's win in best supporting actress also fit this image). Jennifer Lawrence is young and good, so I wouldn't think that would cause any controversy. Actually, this award consolidate her status as the 'it' girl in Hollywood. Come to think of it, she (or her manager) definitely succeed big time in the showbiz and she is gonna (maybe already) comment the biggest paycheck in Hollywood among actresses. Why I say that is because, she has been equally successful in both artistic (with the award'S') and commercial movies like The Hunger Games and X Men prequels. So, we are surely see her unstop in the coming decade unless she goes Lindsay Lohen!

Ang Lee won the best director is considered to be a surprise in the West media. I heard that Life of Pi is an amazing achievement. But, it is not unheard of Academy discarding great cinematic works. So, the reason why I'm kinda surprise is because Ang did (if I remember correctly) murmur or bad mouthed the Academy for not rewarding Brokeback Mountain the best movie back then. Cuz, the Academy does usually remember this kind of things, and may never award to some people again no matter how good their works will be. Anyway, this award did solidify Ang's position as a master in handling difficult movie subject. If not for his failure in Hulk, if he would be given a chance to direct some potential blockbuster again, his success would even be elevate to the exclusive club of directors like Spielberg, Cameron, etc.

Anyway, just my two cents in this latest showbiz news.

A Good Day to Die Hard

Before going to see the fifth chapter of the Die Hard Saga, A Good Day to Die Hard, I read quite a few critics saying that, if you can leave your brain at the door, you will enjoy the movie very much. I was glad that I did. Indeed, I enjoy the movie tremendously! It was a wild wide that didn't stop much before another gigantic action piece set unfolded. 

The GOODS:

Actions - Well, that's why most fans want and we got it. There are basically few big action sequences. Even for viewer like me who saw so many car-chasing scenes in movies all these years, I still find the 'Truck chasing' scene in Moscow an amazing sequence! Guns were not used much there in the chase, instead, it was all trucks smashing other vehicles in busy traffic that make the boom! The other 2 big action sequences involves the Russian military helicopter. They are both decent especially the machine guns firing from the helicopter, that really showed the firepower!

The BADS:

Dialogue - As being described, the 'down' time of the movie for dialogue or story was kept at bare minimum, just enough to fill 'small' gaps between actions scenes. There are surprisingly few characters that spoke, even for John McClane himself. All he said that I remember in the movie was 'I'm on vacation!' The writer I think is just too lazy.

Script - It could be much much better. A story about stolen Russian nuke materials at Chernobyl involves Russian defense minister, an CIA and his dad John McClane in Russian actually provide a lot of room for imagination, but the movie's script doesn't deliver. It didn't challenge viewers even a bit. The flow of the story is so monotone, to sum it up, it is just about 2 Yankees in Russia chasing the bad Russians and kill them all. That's it!

Acting - Another thing that was being kept at minimum. Nobody really act much in the movie. John McClane didn't shine in this movie, he just had some minor scratch here and there, didn't even crack a joke. He showed his age but it was fine with us. But, he basically acted and talked with firearms. His son is not much better, supposed to be the heart of the movie, his acting is so 2D, same as most other characters in the movie. What's weird to me is that, even most 'small' characters that usually we could find in old Die Hard movies are absent in this one. The only one that I can recall is the taxi driver. Other than him, I think all other Russians who had spoken dialogue in the movie are all bad and dead. I would say that they kept the movie flow tight with barely 98 minutes. However, I would say that if they put a bit more time to develop the story and nourish the scripts and dialogue, like give an extra 15 minutes to the movie for that, this movie would be much better. 

At the end, I've to say that I did enjoy the movie for pure action purpose. So, if you can bare with the BADS and go to see it for the GOODS, you will enjoy it!

Other thoughts about this one and the older Die Hards -

Die Hard Saga has come to the fifth installment, compared with many other action series. Die Hard is certainly one that I like very much. Also, in terms of story development, it should be the easiest (vs. Lethal Weapons, Rambo, Terminator, etc). I like the first one, cuz it was new: one good guy against so many bad guys in a premise (a building for the first movie) and won at the end. The sequel was good as well as it became a little bit more like a James Bond movie with a bigger premise - an airport. Both movies put a humanized dimension with good supporting actors, and the relationship between John McClane and his wife facing the terrorists.

The third one is actually the one I like the most. The premise is the whole NYC. Bruce Willis + Sam Jackson is good couple and they played off each other very well in that one. I like the Wall Street burglary as well as the subway bombing scene. Also, Jeremy Iron as the bad guy did act and how he fooled John McClane to go all around NYC was fun to watch story wise. The fourth one wasn't very memorable to me, I only remember the few action set pieces: the cop car hit a helicopter outside a tunnel, a cargo truck vs a fighter jet, a SUV hit Maggie Q in an elevator shaft. That's all. So, after seeing the latest one, I would say the series is kinda going down the hill, especially when Bruce Willis said that Die Hard 6 will come. Unless, more attention will be put on the script, though I would still go for the actions alone, it could be another let down to a great movie series that could have been much better. Well, I can only stay tune to see what will be next.

Les Misérables

Finally, I got my chance to see the latest on screen version of Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Misérables in cinema yesterday. It was late but it is certainly worthy!

I've neither read the book nor saw the stage play before. My only knowledge of Les Misérables is from 3 sources: A dance remix song of a cover version of the song "On My Own" from a German group called Harajuku, Susan Boyle's version of "I dream a dream" in the Britsh Got Talent, and the 1998 movie adaption of the same title which I loved very much!

That's why when I saw the 2012 version, I can't help to compare with the 1998 version. Certainly, the key difference is that, the 2012 version is full of songs with minimal dialog, while the 1998 version has no songs and only dialog. What I like the 1998 version is that, as I didn't know the background story at all back then, I was captured by the story itself. In addition, the characters were written really well, and the actors/actresses who played the parts were outstanding. I totally bought into the interpretation of Liam Neeson as Jean Viljean, Gregory Rush as Javert, Uma Thurman as Fantine, and Claire Danes as Cosette. All four leads are very good actors/actress that I really admired. I very sympathize Liam Neeson of trying so hard to become a good man, really pissed that Gregory Rush to chase him every turn. I also upset that Claire Dane would fell for the Marius and somehow put Liam Neeson in risky position of being caught. Though I've not seen the 1998 version all these years, I still can recall those footprints of the movie that left in my mind.

Now, here we go the 2012 version. First of all, I did read some reporting of this movie before hand. I can't help it for being a movie fan! What I read didn't affect how I ended up enjoying the movie. I knew that Hugh Jackman can sing. It is not a news to me. Certainly, learning that all actors/actresses did really sing during the filming really add to my admiration of the movie. Particularly, when I saw the heart-wrenching theme of Anne Hathaway singing "I dreamed a dream". That was really powerful. Surprisingly, most critics criticized Russell Crowe's singing, I didn't find him that bad. His singing was certainly bearable. Instead, I found his acting of Javert was actually not as good as Geogory Rush. Russell's acting in the movie is too stiff with a "wooden" face. Hugh Jackman is fine as Jean Valjean. However, I don't know why, even the length of the 2012 version is longer than the 1998 version. I somehow has a feeling that Jean Valjean in the 2012 version has a weaker part than the 1998 version. Particularly, the feeling of trying hard to be a good man in the new version is not as hard as the older version. Amanda Seyfried as the new Cosette is certainly hot, but her role is small and she didn't really act that much in the movie. Perhaps, she didn't try harder to be a scene stealer. Instead, Samantha Barks' role as Éponine who sang "On my own" really caught my eye. This role was a forgotten one to me in the 1998 version. Also, Helen Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen added a bit of comic to the sad premise of the story. That's a nice touch.

Another thing I really like the 2012 version is my exposure to other songs of the play, I made me gotta check out the soundtrack of the movie afterwards. I don't wanna go into the costume, art direction, CG, etc of the movie, cuz, I think they are fine enough to serve the sorry.

Overall, I like this movie and I'm glad that I finally saw it in cinema.

Movies that worth checking out in 2013

Not in any particular order, just movies that gonna be released this year that if I've the time, I would go to see, that's all.

"Elysium" (starring Matt Damon) : blame rampant corporatization and wealth discrepancies instead of nature. It is directed by Neil Blomkamp (of "District 9" fame)!

"Oblivion" (starring Tom Cruise) : Again, blame rampant corporatization and wealth discrepancies instead of nature. It is about an underground resistance (led by Morgan Freeman)

 "After Earth" (starring Will Smith) : focuses on survival in nature.

 "World War Z" (starring Brad Pitt) : a bigger zombie apocalypse, too much bath salt!:)

"Gravity" (Starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) : features "two people floating in space," for being the two survivors of a damaged space station.

"Man of Steel" (Starring Henry Cavill) : A reboot Superman without the red brief!

"The Wolverine" (Starring Hugh Jackman) : A X-men Set spinoff that set in Japan, claws vs katana!

"Thor: The Dark World" (Starring Christ Hemsworth) : don't know much about the plot. Probably another fill-in for Avengers 2.

"Iron Man 3" (Starring Robert Downey Jr.) : Iron Man got help from Chinese, to go vs. Mandarin who is not Chinese, which is a movie partially funded by the Chinese! Go figure.

"Pacific Rim" (Starring...does it matter?) : What matter is that it is about giant robots fighting monster and it is directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Mouse Jedi

The latest news of Disney acquiring George Lucas’ properties for about US$4B is a definitely a “Red Bull” moment for the Mouse. This deal comes with Lucasfilm, Industrial Light and Magic aka “ILM – I Love Money”, Skywalker Sound, the Star Wars Franchise, Indiana Jones Franchise, etc. All of these for that amount of money in these days are just a bargain that any other studios would love to top Disney if they were offered the chance to without question.

You can say that it is a deal that both sides really want. George Lucas is in his seventies, should retire at least from running businesses (though it is highly profitable) that he own. So, selling the baggage seems reasonable. Reportedly he will still be involved at the high level of the new Star Wars movie is a blessing of transition. This old man has done more than enough for the franchise and it is great to let other younger creative genius to ‘mess’ around the Star Wars Universe from now on. It is definitely critical to keep this treasure alive and develop for generations to come, just see how different people have taken James Bond to all these years!

On the other hand, Disney is definitely doing quite well since it is under Bob Iger back in 2005 when the studio was in a hole in terms of creativity. Back then, their animations were disappointing, movie side was just so-so comparing with its peers. The US$7B acquisition of Pixar saved the company, and the 2008 acquisition of Marvel was definitely a genius move. The Pixar movies and the Avengers are just power shots that rejuvenated their film properties as well as other auxillary businesses. Now, with Lucasfilm, what a surprisingly wise business move that just makes so much sense to their future. The acquisition is so compatible to Disney’s current business, it is just a no-brainer. Cuz, Disney gets not just the Star Wars universe but also the technical sides of the acquisitions which are just top notch in the world.

Yes, film business does gamble, however, with some valid proven cash cows, it helps the studio to gamble in taking creative risks. At least on paper, that’s true! I think Disney is now kinda unbeatable in terms of the reservoir of fantasy that it owns and can play with. They are gonna make the money back in no time, given the world audiences have the need to escape from the crude reality in today’s world. $$$ all for Disney!

Batmobiles

Without the latest one from The Dark Knight Rises, but it is good enough for anyone interested.

The Dark Knight Rises

I saw The Dark Knight Rises over the past weekend. To be honest, I've read reviews of this movie before and even know the major spoiler as well. Heard that people do like the last one, The Dark Knight better, and complained that the middle part of the movie is just too long, etc. So, my expectation of going to this movie wasn't as high as before. However, am I wrong about that? This movie is much better than I thought and I think this movie is definitely rated 'up' there with many great movies. The more amazing about this movie is that it is the last dance of a trilogy. We all know that so many other trilogies ended badly. Since I put Toy Story Trilogy as one of the best of all times, then this one is very much up there. I would say that I enjoy this movie very much, the complaint about the length is just nonsense. To me, the pace is just right to give time for the characters to act, to let the story unfolded, let the relationships run deeper, so that audiences can immerse themselves to the epic much better. I do enjoy The Avengers, that movie did balance the timing of each characters well, but the truth was that The Avengers does not have as much depth as The Dark Knight Rises. The former one was much more a popcorn flick that was done really well, but this one is much more ambitious, the story has many layers and Christ Nolan does try to cover a lot of things. Is this movie perfect? No, but it is good enough to make me wanna see it again. 

Unlike other movie reviews that I wrote before, I'm not gonna have the 'Goods' and 'Bads' section. Cuz, there isn't any noticeable bads that worth writing a section. So, I'm just gonna talk about my views (mostly good) and thoughts of this movie. First of all, I've not seen The Batman Begin. That's something that I think it would be even better to do that before going to this movie. However, I found that doesn't really matter, cuz that allows me to see The Dark Knight Rises as a stand alone flick but with common characters across 3 movies. In that sense, I think The Dark Knight Rises is about the continue evolution of Batman. What a crime-fighter would think and do given his role in the society. I think the director really want to deal with the pain of a dark hero, how he has to respond to the outside world while dealing with his inner emotions of fear, sorrow, loyalty, love and hope. The environment that Bane built up also significant in the movie. It is not as simple as a bunch of gangs that led by the crazy Joker in the last movie. Instead, it is like a bunch of social rebels with common political belief that want to change the society to a state that remind me of Communists, Revolutionists, Fascists, etc. Especially about those scenes showing the rich/capitalists being dragged from their homes, and put in court for sentencing. The implied political and social meaning is deep. That's something we just don't see it other comic book movies.

In terms of the characters, I think the Catwoman is surprisingly being well used in the script. She isn't much a villian, but more like a Robin to Batman in this movie. Anne Hathaway is very likable. I think she acts well in the movie and she is definitely not a liability to the movie as some people worried about. The other Inception actors/actresses fit the roles in this movie very well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is believable as a good cop. He is set up to have a bigger role in future Batman story if the current series will ever continue. Put that aside, I think his role as Blake in this movie provides a good supporting human role that is basically for other characters to reflect what they think. Marion Cotillard is the surprise in this movie, the wild card character that usually found in M. Night Shyamalan's movies. Anyway, she played a decent character that is critical to the story. Her background and her dialog at the end basically tied up why the movie was trying to say from the characters point of view. Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine do just what they suppose to do in the characters. Gary has a bigger role in terms of helping the story to move along, Morgan has a smaller role, and Michael Caine as Batman's butler Alfred add a nice touch to the emotional side of the story. Tom Hardy as Bane is tough character to play. With a mask on, Bane can only act with his bulk which has shown to be very effective in establishing this character. Also, his dialog has helped to show that Bane is by no mean dumb, really a great opponent to Batman. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne has to act as much as he can without the mask. He did fine I think. Actually, it is always difficult to play a hero in this kind of movie, cuz the villian usually gets most of the spotlight. However, I think Christian Bale did enough to stand on his own, especially what the script has allowed him to act out the pain and fear that the character has to display in the story. 

The actions of this movie are good, not excessive. The batpod is amazing, the batwing is nice. Also, I like to sound of the movie very much. I think Hans Zimmer has done a great job for that. There is just really not much to criticize on the technical side. 

Nevertheless, there are few questions that I obviously have after seeing the movie. That's why I didn't say this movie is perfect. These are small things, but I still would like to point them out and wonder if anyone has the answers. 

1. Why Batman doesn't use much of his gadgets to fight Bane? Instead, he just go man-to-man fist-to-fist with Bane who is much bigger in size. I don't think I will ever get an answer to that, I think it is just part of the story as why Batman doesn't use gun. 

 2. How Blake find the 'base' at the end of the movie? He was running in the woods with a backpack and a GPS thing of some sort, then suddenly, he found the 'base'. I know why that happen, but I couldn't tell how he find that place. 

3. What is the blood transfusion in the plane-hijack all about? Why that scene happened? 

4. Where is that 'Hell' hole that Bruce Wayne was locked up during his recovery? If that's in a foreign country, how the hell Bruce get back to Graham city on time? That place doesn't really look like New Mexico or Texas to me. 

Anyway, these are minor trivial questions that whether they are answered or not wouldn't affect anyone from enjoying this movie. I would sincerely recommend this movie to anyone who like to be entertained and think afterwards. Surely, NOT a waste of time!

How Much Does it Cost to be Batman and Iron Man?

MoneySupermarket decided to look into this and created an infographic for each character, showing the costs of not only the costumes, but also the weapons, vehicles and facilities.

The total cost of being Batman ended up at $682 million, but the cost of Iron Man landed at $1.6 billion.

The Avengers

Finally, I got the chance to check out the The Avengers over the weekend. I think Joss Whedon did a good job a director to balance the assemble of so many characters in these superhero movie. It is better than expected in that regards. In terms of acting, I think most of them did what they could already. First of all, the main characters already got their respective movie to build up their traits: the wise ass Iron Man, the woody Captain America, the impulsive Thor, and the two-extremes misdemeanor of the Hulk, they are all recognizable characters. Black widow and Hawkeye would need more to let audience know what they are all about, but based on the dialog, it did give them some depths rather than just being 2 two-dimensional characters. It would be nice to have a movie about their past. Nick Fury is also an interesting character that Marvel can consider to explore further. He is more or less a Professor X to me.  

I found the story is a bit too straight forward and simple. Basically, it is about the bad guys open the worm hole and let aliens to invade earth, and the superheroes cooperating together to defend the earth. It would be nice to have a bit more meat to the script. However, since this movie is just difficult to write by its nature, a too complex script would be too much to digest by some people. Not everyone can write a Matrix or The Dark Knight, if you know what I’m saying! Unlike those 2 movies, it would be a bit too much to ask for a complex story that is good enough for so many well-known established characters to balance out. Thus, I would give a pass on the story. It is a comic hero movie after all.

Now, the meat of the movie is certainly about the actions and CG. I would say that they are very good! The 3G part is not the best, it works in some occasions, but I think the movie would still work without that. I think the flying aircraft carrier is nice, Iron Man to put on the new Mark VIII suit was coolest screen in the movie. The fight between Iron Man and Thor is good, and I love every single fight scene with the Hulk in it. He just outshines the rest of the cast.

Anyway, I would think that this movie is entertaining enough to capture my attention throughout for two and a half hour. What more can I ask? The bottom line is that I enjoy this movie, though it is not the best superhero movie, it is good enough and I don’t mind to see this again. It deserves a B+.

Captain America and Thor

I'm still scratching on the possibilities and capabilities of my latest toy - iPad. So far, I love it. Besides using it as an education tool for my son and for using FB, I found it to be very good to watch movies. That's exactly what I used it for over the weekend.

The title movies were what I saw on my iPad. Interestingly, I do have them in my movie collection elsewhere, just haven't got the time to saw them. Anyway, before I go into my thought on those movies, the only complaint that I have on watching them on iPad is that, the speaker of the device is not that good. Sometimes, it is kinda hard to hear what it said. Someone might suggest that I should use an earpiece, or get it hook to a speaker/TV to improve the experience. Well, yes earpiece is an option, but I can't be totally into the movie while blocking out what's going on at home, i.e. my wife and kids, so I can't use that. For hooking up to TV or speaker, that's not something I wanna do, cuz that would defeat the mobility of using iPad. Anyway, let me jump to the movies.

Thor
Natalie Portman is my favorite actress. Her acting, or I should say the acting that the script demands is minimal. So, she didn't really do much in the movie. A kiss to Thor is expected, some cheesy dialog is expected, so, her performance to me is more like an eye-candy plus a little bit depth. The script of the movie is fine, nothing complicated. However, the villains vs Heroes, king and princes relationship, and the seizure of throne to me are quite Shakespeare like dramas. No wonder Kenneth Branagh was chosen as the director. Well, I think the acting part is fine, nothing dramatic. The CG/FX part of the movie is fine, perhaps they would look better on screen than on my iPad. I think they serve the story, not the other way around. Though I saw the movie in thunk rather than all at once, it didn't make me wanna fast forward the movie at all. I would give the movie a B-.

Captain America
Surprisingly, I like this movie more than Thor, given both of them are about Marvel Heroes. Cuz, Thor is a God and has Godly power. It involves some kinda aliens and more about present day world. It should be more interesting. However, comparing with CA, actually CA is much better movie that Thor I think. First of all, people including me dig David vs Goliath type of story. Steve Roger aka Captain America was a human, a weak human with a big heart before he became a superhuman. The story took place in WWII add a bit nostalgic theme to it. Actually, since the bad guy got a hand on some supermaterial which allowed superweapon to be produced, the action scene in CA is actually much better than I expected. Also, the reference to Stark Enterprise was a nice side-story that reference other Marvel movies, particular to Iron Man. Anyway, Christ Evan is a good choice to play the key role, he is likable and very traditional clean cut American hero type. Also, different from his previous performance as Torch in Fantastic Four, he played a more traditional serious type of character rather than a wise-ass. That's a fresh change I think. The only scene that I found to be too cheesy is the kiss scene between CA and the 'wooden' babe of the movie. Come on, you don't kiss when you are about to chase a plane for God sake! Anyway, overall, I enjoy this movie more than Thor, I would give it a B.

The reason why I saw these 2 movies is...you guess it right, cuz I wanna prepare myself to see Avengers in next few weeks. Now, I've seen all the movies for those related characters in that movie. Since the critics that I read for Avengers gave the movie a very high regard, I think my expectation for the movie is relatively high. Hopefully, I won't be disappointed. Will see......