Labels: Review

This isn't a review post, yeah...

Sigh, you don't believe me, don't you?





Well, well, you're a smart ass. Actually it is indeed a review post. You can just bust my bubble by looking at the label down there (how smart of me -_-').


I'd just point out a few general facts about the movie. First of all, something that is worth mentioning is the non-linear (I hope I used the correct word) storyline with a quite decent plot-twist. By decent, I mean it's just okay. A passable plot-twist, which to my own opinion (comparing to other good plot-twists) is actually quite amateurish. Forgive me if I sounded overly negative, but I'm just voicing out my own opinion. Actually, this is both a plus and a minus for the movie itself.

My main criticism will be that of the movie looks too much digitalized, even compared to the well-done movies like Transformers 2. A certain part(such as the reactor-blasting-lightning scene) reminds me of some scenes from Half-Life 2. I'm a person who actually looks for realism in movies, because in my own opinion, I think that's the sole reason movie exists for. The more realistic it is, the closer of us, the audience, will feel with the movie. It actually establishes an invisible, but emphatatic link towards the movie. I believe there are few fantasy movies out there that managed to achieve that. Take our famous Lord of the Rings as an example. Those movies, though fantasy-in-nature, are able to reach the level of realism until, well, we audience don't feel like we're watching cartoons.

At a certain point of story, I have a gut like I'm watching science-fiction. Those gadgets in the movies are actually quite impressive, until I don't know the person I'm seeing is actually an imagery display or a real person -_-'. That's a good point, but well, at the same time, it arouses a question in my mind. How can a freaking Hum-Vee which contains so much military weaponaries travels around without anyone noticing? At least, how did they mount it with such an impressive amount of... er... missles?

That's all for the first part. Coming up next will be the amount of flashbacks are sorta overly done. There are at least, well, five of them throughout the stories, which I think can be approached via other storytelling style. Example: giving out hints through conversation; a simple picture which tells a thousand words.

Even though I've said quite a few negative things about the movie, but still, I think I enjoyed watching it. Overall, it has an engaging action-line. It keeps me sitting on the edge of my seat. Another praisable fact is that they have each character carries out different role, because, every movie need a different set of casts, such as emotional, comic relief, tough/strong, witty, intelligent, & etc roles to be played out individually. This actually exists within the movie.

The fair use of Show, Don't Tell style is worth of a praise too. I like it when the movie makes us think instead of throwing everything at us, turning we audience into lazy bumps. Oh yeah, not forgeting to mention, I personally like the Night Raven jet. It looks freaking cool, and it kinda reminds me of Lockheed's BlackBird SR-71 Model. Gosh, that's like, wow, so sexy! :D Seriously, don't you think they are even sexier than those PlayBoy model out there?!

Again, forgive for my enthusiasm towards aircraft.

Also, I think the Korean guy who acts the ninja Storm Shadow is actually quite cool and eye-catching. Well, I'd say that's due of the overwhelming aura that spread out from his character, and personally, I take quite an interest in his character. I'm not gay, for your information.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is actually a movie worth watching for.

Labels: Review

I still can remember this show vividly inside my mind. To me, it is actually one of the best TVB drama I've ever watched. In a certain viewpoint, I'd say it holds one of the best storyline plus plot twist -- I believe this kinda serves as the inspiration and the root of my writing style.

王喜 (Wong Hei), who is actually one of my favorite actor (aside from 张卫健, Dicky Cheung) acts as an aspiring firefighter who lost his passion for his job after the death of his wife. The series shows us how he slowly rebuilds his confidence and the love for his job, and developing a romantic relationship with our female lead, 張可頤. However, things don't go well as it seems; that's when the biggest plot twist takes place.

During a firefight, our main character sacrifices himself in saving an idiot. Darn, seriously, I feel like killing that idiotic guy for causing the death of 王喜. Poor him, his death left his beloved daughter, and also his lover whom he promised to deliver a confession speech after his return from the mission.

Instantly, it hits the finale with a very deep and sad mood. It pulls the audience into the depth of an abyss, and frankly, I really feel like crying from watching it. It cracks my heart from the death of such a lovely character.

Haha, but then, I really love 王喜's acting. Ever since "A Matter of Custom", "Burning Flame I & II", and also "Net Deception". I still remember the huge plot twists of the first and the latter. Really makes me feel like rewatching these series again.

So, what do you think?

Labels: Review, Thoughts

Have you ever heard of this movie which is produced by Square Soft like so many years ago? Well of course you do! This movie is a huge box office bomb that signalized the end of Square Soft era, forcing them to be taken over by Enix corporation and eventually both companies merged into the famous company we've known for so long. (Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just oo lazy to check wikipedia to confirm this information XD)

Yeah, it's Square Enix. Square Soft plus Enix company.




Well, for that time, this movie exceed the graphical and visual performance of the other animation for that period of time, which is the starting of Y2K era. While I was watching the movie again yesterday, I figured it still has some competence which can be compared against the animated movies nowadays. Pretty impressive, huh?

Of course, I'm not going too in-depth into the graphical side. What I'd like to say, for that moment of time (year 2001), the movie really did well in term of "zoning" the audience in a few decades later. It's just like, when you just sit down and start watching the movie, you'll have this kind of feeling of zooming forward for forty years -- it's the way of story-telling which starts of with "forty years later..." and with the technological innovation exists in the movie (especially those impressive soldier-equipped gadgets) brings us, the audience, this kind of gut feeling. A really good, and not forget to mention - an impressive way to capture the audience's initial attention.

The pace, of course, is alright. Not-too-fast, not-too-slow. It's just nice, and audience has the time to take a deep breath from studying the whole new world and atmosphere.

Oh yeah and I forget to mention, when you're watching this movie, you'll most likely have the kind of similar feeling you have when watching one of the famous movie, Starship Troopers. They both share a strong resemblance, but are still unique in their own rights.

Personally, I definitely enjoyed watching the movie due to the theme of the story, such as motivation behind the desperate human and the reason behind the arrival of the Phantom. It just sew up the storyline well, at least logically, and brings a pleasant storyline.

Of course, and it does includes our everyday's romance theme. :I like to watch the communication between the two main characters, and love my favourite theme being portrayed in the movie -- nothing comes without sacrifices. Say I am a sadistic person or what, but I am, and will still be a firm believer of this line.

That's all for the review for the film as for now. Sorry if I didn't manage to chip out any criticism for the movie. Maybe I'm biased, or maybe, my reviewing opinion has just turned rusty for the abnormal long absence.

Sigh, anyway, have a nice days. :)

Labels: Review

Well, it's been some time since I last wrote a review post, and here's one now.






I watched this movie last Saturday with much anticipation, however neither did it manage to quench my thirst, nor did it disappoint me.

The first thing that I'd like to mention is that there are quite a number of loopholes in the story:

• Bumblebee's voice system was supposed to be fixed at the end of the first film, but hey, somehow he spoiled it once more at the starting point of this movie. :)
• The time lapse of two years didn't change the fact that the fragment of Allsparks that remains on Sam's jacket. I'm starting to think that he frames his jacket inside his cupboard as a trophy for his victory over Decepticons, and then show-off in front of us in this movie!
• The bad guys declare to the whole world that they want them to hand over Sam to them, WHILE at the same time waiting idly and doing nothing. Sigh, that kinda reminds me of how smart villains are supposed to be.

Up until a certain extent of the movie, I got really feddup with the blaring explosions or loud noises. There are way too much of such scenes and I got numbed from hearing that.

Not forget to mention the movie consists of more than fifty percent fightning scenes. Fighting scenes are cool, but provided that they are elegant and serve their purpose at the correct moment. The battle between Autobots and Decepticons are made out of sheer brutality and roughness - which in return, won't fare well in the long run.

Another fact is that there are little to nil unique distinguishment between the robot characters. They all look far too identical to each other -with almost the same face-plate- and at a certain point of time, I even mistook few characters for each other. Let alone the messy fightning scenes.

Oh, and I remember that Michael Bay this time has really give Megan Fox a lot of screen time. Is This is done to give her character more personalities, or is an indirect way of marketing sales? I don't know. But what I can confirm is that the scene time for Shia LaBeouf is greatly reduced as comparison to the first movie. Poor guy. :(

The addition of extra comic reliefs are good, but personally I think it's being overdone. There are way too much funny scenes and in return, I can't really feel the seriousness of the movie. Perhaps they should remove Transformer from the action film genre and categorize it as comedy film instead.

The military forces appear to be in their "godlike" mode once more. It's either the Decepticons are way too arrogant to kill them, or they are just poor in their aiming skills. They can only hit big big targets though!

I don't know is it me or not, the film seems to be showing off the military capabilites of the U.S. army.

Sometimes, these kind of movie kinda makes me think that they deserve what they are facing now. Say, why they toss Megatron's body into the deep sea instead of incinerating his metal into ashes? Or perhaps, they can allow Optimus Prime to destory the body of the villain. Oh, wait a second. I get it now! They were actually secretly praying for his return, and they got it in the second movie!

And then the military defense for remaining piece of Allspark kinda makes me laugh. They said they'd secure it with the best way possible, but intruding into their bases takes such little efforts. The funniest thing is that they have a ventilation hole or something that directly connect into the "high-securitised" room. Great. Wait, we haven't get into the best part yet -- apparently there are neither soldiers nor securities on the site! Not even outside of the sealed chamber! Bravo, really bravo...

A 149-minutes movie is overly excessive and it makes my back and butt ache from the prolonged seating.


There are a lot more criticisms to the great movie (slightly overrated, though), but for further reading, you can get to my friend's blog which contains a lot of hilarious commentaries in relation to the film.


Just an extra sidenote here, if we're about to strip the film from it's visual effects and funny scenes, the movie contains literally nothing worth of mentioning.

So, that's the end of it and I shall peace out here. :)

Labels: Review

Ever watched this show before? If not, I highly recommend it to you, the readers, to this movie cause it contains a lot values about life -- especially not to waste away our lives unnecessarily.

And this is the first movie ever that is able to bring tears to my eyes. So much of emotions...

Labels: Life Documentary, Review

The line above is the Mission Statement for Edifier. So, here's a rare post of a review to the product.


Bought this M3300 model from Louyat few months back then. In the first place, I was slightly skeptical at spending a fortune of RM220 in purchasing a speaker, but little did I know it turned out to be something which I call - Value For Money.

The first thing that strikes me is the strong bass from the subwoofer. Believe it or not, I tried switching on the a quarter of the volume and tested sound with the game F.E.A.R. and what I got was a thundering roar of grenade explosion. It's pure awesomeness.

Really fits in the Mission Statement of the company. I can actually feel the passion for sound, and now, I'm feeling slightly curious as to how will it feel when I compliment the speaker with a top notch sound card itself? Maybe, I should consider purchasing the sound card from Creative brand itself. Just a RM50 one will definitely make a huge difference.

So, for conclusion, this is a highly recommended for those sound/game lovers out there. At least, if you happen to consider any of Sonic Gear speaker at the present moment, I'd tell you think twice. I used it for years, and I can safely assure you of that.

Sonic Gear sucked big times!

Labels: Review

Well, had been watching this series on a timely basis, and I must say after this & last week's episodes, they are just getting better and better.

Every week, I will learn something new from the series. It's hidden though, but it's there all the time, for us to explore and get a hold of it. That's why I must praise them for being able to deliver such a meaningful story to the audiences.

Just a bit spoiler here. Like last week's text messaging prank thing, it kinda relates to our life, and at time, we will feel regret once we hit the 'send' button. This week's episode, however, told me that after accomplishing a lifelong goal, we might feel lost since we've virtually lost our direction in life. And also, the winner is not always the last man standing.

Haven't I mention that the nifty cliffhanger of this week's episode? Seriously, I hope Stella's the mother since I just got this feeling of she's the anonymous mother all the time.

Overall, it's a highly recommended series to all the sitcom lovers out there. It has a poetic way in delivering messages through the storyline, and of course, with lovable cast of characters (especially Barney), complimented by some real funny jokes.

Labels: Review

After watching the series finale, I have two words to say.




There are gonna be lot and lot of things to talk about in this post, and I'm not gonna hold back anymore. Especially after I've waited long in anticipation, thinking that Bryan Fuller would bring the series back to its glorious moments.

First of all, I've took note of the inconsistency of the shapeshifting ability. At first glance, the writers told us that one could only perform this ability after touching someone else, and could only mimic a person's physical form but not clothings. And the more we are towards the finale, the more funny shapeshifting stuff occurred. I've even saw two occassions where Sylar transformed withor without his clothes in this episode.

Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned about the intelligence of the characters in the show? Nevermind, I wouldn't mind repeating it again. I think the characters, especially Peter and Nathan in the last episodes, were either drunk or their brains malfunctioned, went to challenge Sylar head-to-head. Hello? Normal person would've thought of asking Haitian (which have miraculously went on missing for Volume 4) to subdue Sylar instead? Now, that's what I call strategy.

Instead, like a sheep sending itself to the mouth of the wolf, Nathan got himself killed. No comment, but they were even dumber for not attempt to use Claire's blood to revive him.

The worst part was that, they didn't even include the epic battle scene that would satisfy the audience for following the season for half year, for Heaven's Sake! They just simply showed us Claire's round-round eyes staring through the opening of the door, and there were flashes of lightning that we could see from her eyes. How ironic.

And you guess what Nathan said of his plan? Let Peter touches Sylar once? Wow, what was shapeshifting gonna help in any way to defeat Sylar? Shifiting into some really hot chicks and dazzle him? Fat chance, man. Seriously, I don't know what they were thinking back then, and especially when Sylar could instantly immobilize them with a simple telekinesis move or maybe, puppet-manipulation power?

And Sylar, to my disappointment, was not in the mood today, and instead he showed off his sparkling power to the two brothers. And how the hell did he acquired flight ability from Nathan just from a falling grab? Emphatic Mimicary? Sounds really gay. -_-

A fact I forget to mention. The two villains didn't get an adequate ending for themselves for Season 3. Arthur Petrelli died a funny death, and Danko got his treatment from Sylar (even though there'll be a Danko-comeback in the next season). I was just starting to think that the writers thought that they didn't even deserve a nice wrap-up for their deeds throughout the season; they just simply wrote them off. How boring.

About the mind-twisting matter of impersonating Nathan's personality into Sylar's mind, I was speechless. Indeed, it's a good idea to use, but they didn't connect it well. Simple question to raise question here: How the hell do Matt Parkman knows the base of Nathan's personality and to upload those images (as displayed in the show) of he and his family? Oh, so now Telepathy is able to read dead people's mind. Awesomeness. And the best thing is you know what? They developed Matt's ability too far out, started from simple reading-mind until today's brainwashing. I bet sooner he's going to become a sole dictator.

Oh, Angella said the Nathan-Sylar could use his ability to touch an object and remember stuff about it? Well mind you, how did she even know this in the first place? Through Claire? I don't think she even figured out that in her own place, regardless of her getting suspicious at Sylar moments ago. And she could even accept a murder who imposed as Nathan as her own son? Oh my God, that's far beyond logic. Even though the mind might be still the same, the body memories, however, wouldn't stay there anymore. Remember that.

And Angella screaming when she saw the throat-slitted Nathan sitting on the chair kinda tore me off. Like a witch, seriously.

Eh, I just recalled that Sylar gave the puppet man as a gift to Danko few episodes ago? He was still half-dead back then, and how did Sylar actually acquired the manipulation ability? Maybe off-scene? I don't know.

They showed that Hiro suffered from nosebleed/earbleed after attempting his time manipulation ability, citing that it was due to his body started to reject his power. I went like "What the hell?", why now of all the time? In the previous seasons and chapters, he seemed to be able to utilize his time stop without having any side-effect. And I don't think there was even a slight hint towards that in the past episodes. I'm not convinced, yeah.

Tracy Strauss was able to control water? Wow, what now? Transforming herself into and drown people? Sounds like X-men or those villains from Marvel/DC comic series. And her comeback annoyed me to no end; how could she come back after getting shot into pieces by Danko? Are you going to tell me that she suddenly discovered her hidden ability *put a label of 'Hidden Skill Acquired' on top of Tracy's head* and saved herself from the pinch? I'm definitely not buying that lie.


Sigh, so many things mentioned here. I felt like I got cheated by the director/writer/advertiser for their fanciful summary and information. I was very furious at the latest episode, and got more enraged when I recalled how they gave Matt-Daphne such a beautiful ending. They deserved it, and Daphne, she was one of my favorite. After knowing that he got a child, Matt literally forgotten what driven him into vengeance in the first place. It's just like, what the hell? What about Daphne who died less than five hours ago? (for the length of five episodes of Heroes, duh!)

When my long-hated character, Nathan finally got some character in him, he got killed outright. How dumb. I think this is the moment for me to stand still for my own thoughts of the writers of Heroes love killing their key characters without even noticing that.

So, Bryan Fuller, since you've brought so much joy for me through the series Pushing Daisies, I hope that you'll bring us a better experience in the future, or perhaps, to revive the whole Heroes franchise.

Labels: Review

Caught a few glimpse of the show and it never cease to amaze me. Even until today.

I noticed the actor for the young John Conner is really good at bringing out the emotions.

Take for instance, where Terminator (Arnold) said he had to be destroy, John yelled out "I order you not to go" three times.

The first time was in a commanding tone; the second instance where he shouted, he brought out the desperation in him not wanting to be separated from his "fatherly figure". And in the end, as his voice turned sore, sadness and sorrow were included in his emotions. When those words brought tears to his eyes, it completely moved my heart.

"I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do," said Terminator as he gave John a final hug.

Sigh, such heartbreaking scene. That's no wonder this is the most epic and bestest movie I've ever watched.

Labels: Review

I have one thing to say.

The storyline just keeps on improving. Blizzard has made a bold move by including more in-game cut scenes involving characters interaction with each other, and it was nicely done.

Especially the scenes involving Thrall & Garosh Hellscream's fight, The Battle for the Undercity, and any event involving the Lich King.

Well done, Blizzard Entertainment. And of course, I'll pay more attention to the game's story.

Labels: Review

I never know I'm such a fan of robotic, technology stuff; do not misunderstand, please, since I'm not that kind of creepily interested in such stuff. I'm just slightly into the Terminator series, even since I was a child back then.

Let me tell you something, Terminator 2 (picture below) is one of the most epic movie I've ever watched that really touched the depth of my heart. The reason is simple - the acting in the movie was superb (even by comparing 1991 to today's standard), and the music composed were just pure genius. It blended into the background flawlessly and brought out the mood which the audience were suppose to feel.

Two out of five of our senses are being captured, easily.




Next, the storyline of Terminator 2 was nicely written, and with the directing from James Cameron, it brings the movie to life. Why it's nice, you asked? Easy, because it has employed some really unique and distinguishing plot style. From the begining of the show, it deliberately misleads the audiences and drop some pretty obvious hints to the audience as to the roles of the good and bad guy. It's simply beautiful when it is later revealed to us that the movie has been feeding us some fake information. To make the movie even better, there are a lot emotions part which are played out pretty well. All kind of expressions are portrayed in a darn realistic way, and the most impressive part is the fascinating idea about the Terminators.

Again, it's a simple reason. Because they're robots, and our first impression will tell us that robots simply can't feel any emotion. That's when the good part kicks into play -- one simple emotion that the Terminators play out will affect us in a great deal, and each and every of their moves will be apparent to our eyes.

This is what I called a character-point of where a character needs to bring life out of their character with only minimal gestures/emotions. It's damn hard to do that, but it's achievable and it'll sort of spring us with a sudden surprise. We'll be thinking that we never expected them to be able to feel it this way.

That's why I'm going to say Arnold acting as the Terminator is truly epic. Simple word, it's perfect. His initial cold, inhuman personality eventually evolves into something which we will never forget, as a fatherly figure to John Connor, as his guardian to defend him from the evil T-1000, and eventually, sacrifices himself for the greatest good of humanity. These invoke so many beautiful emotions, and the part where he's being lowered into the lava is just so heart-wrenching. It's like when we think that they (Terminator & John) can eventually be together as father-and-son, but the next second it's farewell for both of them.

I think the beauty of the story is more than mere words can describe.

And the most impressive part is that the movie only used up 100U$Dmillion to complete the production, which is a small amount (for 1991's technology) as compared to the upcoming movie which spent twice the budget of its predecessor.

Yeah, you get it right. Too much money are tied up on the eye-catchy effects (I dubbed it the "wah" effect), which I think is completely unnecessary. First, the car-chasing scene spends too much time on creating an epic feeling (which fails miserably), and I don't think the need of creating a super nuclear explosion just from a hydrogen fuel. At least Terminator 2 did it on the right moment - during the Judgment Day. That... at least is acceptable.

Without the help of a great, memorable story, those "wah" effects won't last long enough to be inside your head until the end of the movie. I call that failure, wasting money on stupid things. Apart from that, I don't think I should go much more further as I might attract some hate mails in the near future. Luckily, I've kept my identity annoymous.

Who knows a bugger with a lame name L3G3nD Lim? FAT CHANCE that you'll catch me!

Of course, this isn't the end. Let me bring your attention to the next spin-off: Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Just to be frank, the reason I started the show is because of Summer Glau. Gosh, I mean, who could ever resist her ever charming outlook and her acting skill? Firefly/Serenity are good examples of why people should like her.

Back to the topic, she's the key person to the series -even though she's just a support character- posing as a Terminator comes from the future, reprogrammed to protect the future resistence leader. For you reader's information, the story takes off into a different timeline with Terminator 3 movie. In simple words, it's just a spin-off.



Summer Glau poses as a Terminator whose name is Cameron. I've watched a few episode (just flipping through the show) and noticed that she did retain her ability in acting, and perhaps, even better than her previous roles. With minimal expressions/emotions to be portrayed as a Terminator, it's a really tough task to make people fall in love with Cameron herself. But Summer manages to do the trick. Fantastic, I must say, and especially her outburst of emotions when she's pinned in between the cars (Season 1 ending, Season 2's 1st episode) are... are just morbidly fascinating. How can I not fall in love with such an actress?

I may not be in the position to judge whether the scene represents her personality or simply OOC (Out-of-Character), but through the scene in the eyes of first-timers, it's fantastically done.

To watch it or not, I still have no conclusive result yet. Gotta wait until I finally got my hand on the whole series itself. So, I shall reserve my opinion furthermore, at least until I finished watching the show.


As a conclusion of this post, I truly think that the idea of robots are inspiring. The reason is simply because of the expression part. Terminator 2 is epic, Terminator 3 is so-so, while the opinion on Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles is still pending for further judgment. On a sidenote, I, Robot by Will Smith is another nicely done movie. Worth watching.

How I wish all the movies I watched will be as good as T2.

Haha.

Labels: Review

Well well, after half a year of the series being on-air, it has finally come to an end this week.

First of all, my first opinion would be that of the animation isn't up to my expectation, and I like its game counterpart much, much more. The reason is simple -- character details aren't really that good in my own opinion, the fighting scenes look sluggish and rushed, my favorite Jade loses his charm, Tear doesn't strike to me as a woman with the will of steel and the shyness of a princess. And there are lots more to criticize about the show.

At one point of time, it kinda ticks me off and brings me to the conclusion that it's no more than a disgrace to the game itself.

But, thinking back now, I feel that I was naive. It's not simple to achieve something the animation is able to perform, and what's matter the most is the thoughts that are placed in the show itself. In term of story, the scriptwriter has performed his part well -- there aren't many loopholes, and they manage to bring the audience a pleasant story without fail. Some tiny parts, the animation does better than the game. There are bits and bits here and there which are worth mentioning, but overall, my renewed comment will be the series is alright.

Lesson today? Try look at something from different perspective. Who knows you may find something good about it? Broader perspective are always welcome, like one of my lecturer said, and of course, it'll give you a better view on the matter as a whole. Don't reserve your thinking to the negative view itself only; try to open your mind more.

So, that's why don't look at something blindly from a single side. Even a coin has two flip sides, and we people should give the others a chance to express him/herself.

Everyone and everything deserves a chance in this world.

Labels: About Life, Review, Thoughts

(I do not own this poem; I am merely publishing it here to share with whoever who is reading my blog)


Long Distance II

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.


Submitted by Scott Dagostino

Tony Harrison



Quote (by a reviewer from the web):

"This is a particularly moving account of the way in which his father cannot come to terms with his mother’s death, and how, in turn, he cannot come to terms with his father’s death..."

Wow, he's damn right. This is a really moving poem which I've read quite some time ago, especially during the second stanza where the author says "his father has to clear away her things and look alone". It aches my heart to read that, it's because that's truly pitiful and sad. It's even more disheartening during the last stanza where the author mentions that he still keeps his parent's phone numbers, and even still tries to call them.

The poem is so beautiful, yet tragic and sad.

I hope that the author will be able move on with his life and leads himself to a better life. Cheers, and good luck, Tony Harrison.

Labels: About Life, Review, Thoughts

All of these time I have been recognizing the three major forms of art: Writing, Music, and Art.

Let me put it this way.

Writing captures the reader's visual perception via words, while art itself, impresses us through paintings, as music itself rides on our hearing sensation.

Let me analyze this a lil more in depth. People always say writing is always dull, because there are only words. It's true, at least to layman, but words themselves contain what people call power and emotions. But all of the imagination revolves inside the brain and it lacks the tangible feelings. Something which we could actually see or touch.

Arts itself, can be impressive at time, but still they also lack of something. Usually, it'd be a concrete storyline, or perhaps setting which connects everything with the artistic piece. You may say that the artist himself can link the scene, but it's not the same to the audience. They may not be able to feel as the author feels. Get it, right?

And for music, beautiful pieces always intrigues people. We all like to hear melodies which touch the depth of our hearts, that's because we can connect them with our personal experiences. To me, I will always search and watch the original music video of a song in order to put myself in the same shoe as the songwriter. Sometimes, it may not be enough, and perhaps, this kinda suffers the same weakness as compared to art drawing itself.

Of course, I'm not criticizing anything because I do agree that the three forms of art are just taking their own way to express out their stories.

By infusing them all into a single entity, not only did they compliment the downsides among themselves, also they take on a greater form of art, which is called movies.

Let's think about it for a little while. In order for a movie to be successful, don't you think these three forms of art play a big part on it? Right?

In simpler term, I call art as the muscle of the movie, music as the movie's soul, while the role of the 'big brain' is played by the writer's storyline. Together, they work out as a single entity and turns something fantasy, imaginative into something with feelings and with a living soul itself.

Only with the brain, soul, and muscles combined, we can get a complete & synchronized picture of the whole story.

Let me elaborate a little.

Artist will makes the characters more believable and act like a living being itself; writer weaves the storyline by filling the gaps and plot holes in between, finding a way to communicate the story to the audience; while the music itself plays an important role to convey different emotions at different scenes. Each of them are inseparable by their own rights.

So, the right scene (illustrated by art), back-up with scriptwriting (which bridged the whole story together), and joint by beautiful instrumental piece. Instantly, it clicks into the heart of the audience.

How can you not agree with that?



P/S: I'm not saying that movie is the only form of the combined arts. Try extend your thinking into a wider perspective... and then you'll realize that games are also a very good example of a collaborated result of the three arts.

Labels: Music, Review, Thoughts

As at to date, I've quite some stuff to talk about this particular series.

First of all, here comes the usual bashes. The storyline is not making sense. At time of course. I just couldn't understand why do the government people have to round up some people with 'special abilities', which is in my personal opinion - a complete lame one, such as underwater breathing.

If I were them I'd focus my time more towards the more key, or perhaps dangerous person, rather than wasting time to catch people with funny abilities and ended up failing. What a complete waste of time.

To drill deeper into the matter, it makes me wonder how do these government people detect and determine who is the special one? How can they gain access to such truth/information with such great speed? My only explanation to that would be Molly, a girl with the ability to detect the presence of other special people, but still she has limitation to that. Just a side note, they're even able to detect a newborn child with an ability.

Seriously, Claire's daddy issues for the first few episodes of Volume Four pisses me off. That's like the fourth time they're repeating the same argument again. Big sigh.

At times, I think that they're killing off characters to quickly. After spending one-two episodes talking and exploring the characteristic of a particular person, the next episode he will just get caught off-scene so easily. Yeah, I'm talking about the puppet man Doyle. This give me a kind of feeling that the previous episodes are a bit irrelevant, cause they spend so much time building up a character and the next second they'd just toss him back into the shit hole again.

And, I'm slowly leaning towards the idea that there are impacts left by the recessions. More and more characters die off in a pretty unrealistic way/without logical following & explanation, and I guess they're being fired, lol! This give the audience to have a hard time to feel for a character.

To support my point, I'd say imagine, till date, after following the series for three consecutive seasons, I don't even feel any about Nathan. Nothing apart him that leave me with a great impact/impression. Even Tracy's death didn't leave me traumatized for a single second. Instead, I was like 'hey, here goes another character. I wonder who's next?'.

Apart from that, Sylar's issue with his father kinda irks me. His father told Sylar that he wanted his regeneration ability, hypnotized Sylar into sleep, and the next scene we found out that his father was taking his own sweet time sharpening his sword while explaning about his grand motive to acquire immortality through his son. Well, guess what? He got his arse kicked by Sylar the next second after he brought his 'operating table' and was about to disect Sylar. It's funny when you recalled that he has the ability to cut open people's head in split second and to study how's the ability work instead.

That's all for the criticisms for this issue, but there are also a few good things that I've got to point out. The two of them takes place in the most recent episode, S03E20.

Hiro & Ando are always the stars of the show, at least in my opinion. Especially during this week's episode. How can any living being not falling for the charms of their character? The only exception to that was the time-stopping contradiction - why can the baby still moves when Hiro stopped time?

The part which Matt granted Daphne a happy ending was worth to be mentioned. The scene was altogether pretty nice written, short but meaningful.

While I was watching, the concept struck into my mind and made me getting all hyped-up. I felt like to write an one-shot story with the same idea, but in my very own way. Of course, I've the rough idea jotted down, but I'm thinking should I proceed with the plan or not? After all it's not my own idea, or perhaps, I don't know any idea to portray the concept in another way. All I could do was to alter the mood and the way which I'd bring it into a story itself.

An act of plagarism, you may say, but I will at least write my own version of that and archive it.

Tell me, should or should I not publish the concept to Fictionpress in the near future?

Labels: Review, Thoughts

Sometimes I'm wondering, why does a novel story -especially romance genre- has to have vampires/werewolves as their central ideas, apart from all of the things that they can utilize to portray their stories even better?

Why has it to be vampire/werewolf?

It sounds really cliched, and not forget to mention it's boring and lame in my personal opinion. I've trained myself well enough to erase the existence of vampire/werewolf fictional stories from my area of interest, especially when I'm flipping through the excessively story-loaded side, Fictionpress.

I just don't understand.

I absolutely loath this sort of fiction, though I don't understand why I purchased Twilight around one year ago...

Labels: Review, Thoughts

Recently, I've noticed that those actors in the Japanese dramas are way above the standard, as compared to those of Taiwan, or perhaps Hollywood actor/actress.

The series that I had re-watched a few days ago were so beautiful in the way that each of the characters (main and support) come alive in my heart. What could an audience like me ask for more?

Maybe Japanese are really that good after all?

Labels: Review

Almost every gamers know about this well-known company for their Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series.

Actually, just to be frank, I really do admire this particular company for their innovation, and of course, love the storyline about each of the epic sagas so much.

And today what I actually want to talk about is about their preference of advertisement. From my personal opinion, I do think that they don't really spend much into advertisement as the majority of their earnings are all heavily invested into R & D (Research and Development) department to create their new products, so I think it's likely that they don't have much cashflow to spend on advertising their products.

Then, I think this is how they get their 'free financing' for their advertisement.

First of all, since Blizzard has build up pretty good reputation (brand name) over its year of operation, and since their products are all quality assure, this lead to them having high bargaining power over their customers.

Truthfully, this makes them have dominant over the market consumers. In my personal opinion, I think that's the reason why they announce their products so early to the public, gaining their attentions to their upcoming games by releasing all sorts of trailers, CG animated movies, or etc. This will create a"rabies" over the gamers community, and with majority of the players anticipating for the next series, they'll do the job of promoting their products. I once heard people dubbed the time lag from the announcement of the game until the actual release of the game the "milking" period. Which is pretty true from what I've seen.

Say, for instance Starcraft II have been announced for one year plus, and until now, it has certainly created a chaos among the gamers, with each of them anticipating when it'll be release. This will, incidentally, triggers a chain reaction where players begin to talk about how much they are looking forward for the game, how it's gonne be like, or perhaps even trying to recapture the feeling they gain from playing it's previous episode, Starcraft. Literally, it should give a slight rise to the sales of Starcraft series.

I believe in the "ten percent" theory, which is where a person trying to deliver a message to the community, all he needs is to hit the ten percent threshold limit, and thereafter, the amount of people in the community (10%) will be more than enough to spread the words around as fast as plague; it's the same concept as the chinese saying of, 一傳十，十傳百.

So, for conclusion, I personally think that the pre-announcement of their upcoming product (and also constant update of information with gameplay videos) is a good business strategy to attract customer's attention, and utilising them as a free source of finance to promote their products. A sharp and witty way, I'd say, and of course, nonetheless, I'm really impressed.

Good to go, Blizzard Entertainment.

Labels: Review, Thoughts

Inside a movie, I always seek for its artistic quality for enjoyment, but one thing that's worth mentioning here is that I couldn't understand the beauty of the dancing.

Don't take me wrong. This isn't criticism, but the truth is due to my own inability to decipher the content of dances.

Just a moment ago, I finished watch Step Up 2 - The Street, and figured it's a not bad movie. There are flaws and there are good quality inside the movie, but still I prefer Stomp the Yard. Sorry for all the SU2 fans out there, lol.

The reason is simple - the deciding factor lies in the final dances on both movies. In SU2, the final dance is cool, some sort of refreshing and synchronized, but somehow it's lack of something which I call the crucial move that leads the protagonist's team to victory. Unlike Stomp the Yard, the last move the main character performs make me feel like they deserve to win. Moreover, it acts like a mediator to round up the whole dance. I dub it: the finishing move.

This is certainly missing in SU2 in my personal opinion. Sorry if there is any finishing move, but I don't really recall a moment of that while I was watching.

Let me drop about the movies for now. What I'm about to say is that, I acknowledge dancing as a form of arts (out of the other three - writers, songwriters & also artists), but I absolutely hate one form of dancing...

...which is what people call Shuffling. Ever heard of that?

The meaning of Shuffle perfectly fits into the name of this sort of dance. To me, these people (who performs Shuffling) just dance for the sake of dancing. I've witnessed this before from my brother, who was obsessed with this lame dance for a long period of time. As annoying as it is, he loves to perform it at home whenever he likes and never fails to earn a criticism from me. In my own form of words, I dub them the "rubbish dancers" who shares little to nil artistic value of dancing. There's nothing to be worth of remember from their moves, not even a single penny of it.

So, if you're a Shuffle Dancer and disagree with what I've mentioned above, fire away at me.

For conclusion, I reckon dancing as a form of art and I admit that I'm not up to the standard to enjoy them. Thus, what I've mentioned above may be at a biased viewpoint, so please correct me if I'm wrong. :)

Labels: Review, Thoughts