My Top Movies From 2009

Star Trek

I chose to see Star Trek even If I had very little Trek knowledge and have not seen any previous Trek film. I’m really glad that I did though, as this movie is just absolutely terrific. It’s one of the best Sci-fi, action-adventure films I have ever seen. Also, being a reboot helps since it doesn’t require any previous Trek knowledge to enjoy the character driven story. Watching this movie made me appreciate all the stuff that trekkies have been raving about. From the star ship sequences, the phaser action, to the USS Enterprise and the fantastic dynamic between it’s officers. What impresses me most about this film though is that it’s just really fun to watch. This one was not just for old Star Trek Fans but also for people who choose to go where they’ve never gone before.

Inglourious Basterds

I thought I was going to see a Tarantino war movie with people coming in guns blazing. I was wrong.

District 9

My choice for this year’s best actor goes to D9’s Sharlto Copley. His performance in this Sci-Fi classic about Aliens being inter-galactic refugees in Johannesburg, South Africa is truly incredible. Copley plays Wikus van de Merwe, a South African bureaucrat assigned to relocate a race of extraterrestrial creatures, derogatorily referred to as “prawns”, from a refugee camp in Johannesburg to a new one outside the city. Things go wrong though as Copley accidentally inhales alien fluid and his body starts mutating and he starts turning into “prawn” himself. Wikus is now hunted as only he can operate the aliens’ DNA-based weapons. I really felt the drama in this movie as Wikus is separated from his wife, and everything else in his life. There’s plenty of action too – Wikus uses the alien weaponry to a violent extent. Oh and get this, Sharlto Copley improvised most if not all of his lines in the movie.

500 days of Summer

The movie’s tag line sums it up nicely, “This is not a love story. This is a story about love.” And this story about love delivers. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) and the beautiful Zooey Deschanel (Summer) display an impressive on-screen chemistry perfect for this movie’s non-linear narrative. It also features one of the best scenes of the year – Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing and dancing his way through downtown LA – while an animated bird flys over him.

Zombieland

I knew nothing about this film before watching it, but yeah, I really enjoyed this one. It’s wicked fun. Plus, there’s not a lot to think about, yet in the end, you end up thinking about the best zombie flicks you’ve watched and place Zombieland high above that list. It’s zombies, action, horror, and comedy, all perfectly crafted together. This is a “no-brainer” (pun intended) if you’re a zombie fan.

Terminator Salvation

I don’t really understand the amount of hate that Terminator Salvation got. Sure, there were a plot-holes, and illogical elements in the script, but as an action movie, it was really good. I know that the first 2 James Cameron Terminator films were sci-fi/action movie game-changers during their time and this one doesn’t even come close. Still I’d take the awesome Moto-Terminators chase sequence, the cool homage to previous terminator movies, brilliant set design, awesome action, a good albeit a little overdone performance by Christian Bale, and an even better performance from newcomer Sam Worthington.

Yes Man

A movie about Jim Carrey saying yes to everything? Yes please. In case you’ve forgotten, Jim Carrey can still make people laugh. Oh, and Zooey Deschanel is a thing of beauty. Nuff’ said.

Note: This lists was done in no particular order. I liked some of these movies better than others but I like them all. Avatar is not in this list since I haven’t watched it yet. Expect a review after Christmas.

Fan made movie Metal Gear Solid: Philantrophy has been released

Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy is a 2009 non-profit Fan made movie created by Hive Division, a team of Italian students and filmmakers. It is a film based on the highly successful Metal Gear line of games. It is written, directed, edited and stars Giacomo Talamini, a 27 year old Italian student filmmaker.

Wikipedia sums it all up pretty nicely. I first found out about this fan-made movie 2 years ago, when I watched the first (or second) trailer. Holy Shit at this effort. I really admire the dedication of everyone that contributed in order to make this film. I’ll be posting my review sometime this week. Meanwhile, check out everything about the movie here.

Updates…(Yes, I’m alive)

Hey guys, contrary to what some of you may have thought, I am indeed alive. Time was really scarce this past month and I couldn’t think of a anything to blog about, hence the month long absence. Anyway, i just though I’d post an entry about most of the stuff I’ve been up to since my last post.

I saw Transformers 2

Wow, what a disappointing movie. I was expecting it to be at least as good as the first one. It turned out to be much much worse, having Shallow story (if you can even call it a story), and underdeveloped characters. Too much fighting can be boring after a while especially when you don’t have an idea about what’s going on and who’s who.I can only think of 2 good things about the movie, the score which had Linkin Park’s New Divide, and it made me realize that the 1st movie was pretty good.

The shittiest day of my life…literally

Wow, I had a pretty bad case of loose bowel movement (LBM) last weekend. I probably hit the can for about 14 times in 48 hours. Holy…shit, I’m sure glad that’s over.

Going back to watching Chuck season 2

That shitty weekend led to me watching 3 or 4 episodes of Chuck’s second season. I was surprised by how good this second season is. The episodes are funnier, the action is better, story’s better, and the episodes just do a better job of having me hooked than the 1st season did. I don’t watch a lot of TV shows but Chuck is definitely my favorite show right now. I’ve always liked nerd/geek stuff and all this action-espionage shit and chuck combines both very well. Go watch it!

Tons of Schoolwork

I’m always thinking of what school stuff I have to do next. This semester’s starting to feel really busy.

Listening to the newly found Linkin Park demo disc/song

An amazing find by lplive.net. A new Linkin Park demo disc from 1999/2000. It contains new variations of demos of songs from Hybrid Theory and the Hybrid Theory EP. PLUS, it contains a new song entitled “She Couldn’t”, one of the softest songs from Linkin Park. The demo is a very good listen especially for LP fans.

Playing Rock Band: Unplugged

I’ve almost unlocked all songs! Some songs are too fuckin hard though (chop suey just to name one) My bands have members which are Metal Gear characters! I might post pictures here soon.

Terminator: Salvation review

Bale stars as John Connor

The 4th Terminator film, Terminator Salvation, was my most anticipated film of the year for 2 reasons. The first was because I am a huge Terminator fan, and the second was because Christian Bale is my favorite actor. The film was released internationally 1 week after its US release, and with it, came mixed to negative reviews. Forums were already filled with T4 hate so when I finally came to see it yesterday, I was a bit skeptical. Fortunately, I didn’t find it to be as bad as the Internets had been saying. In fact, I’d say it’s a very good action film.

The Opening battle scene is incredible

I wasn’t really expecting a film as good as Terminator 2 but at the same time, I was expecting a great action flick, a good Terminator film, and a movie that is better than Terminator 3. Fortunately, “Salvation” fits all of those descriptions. Right of the bat, I noticed the visuals and the art direction that this movie took. The CGI (computer generated imagery) is spectacular, the explosions feel real, and the decay and destruction shown by this post-apocalyptic world is stunning.

The action sequences are probably the best part of this film. This movie has one of the best action set-pieces I’ve seen on the big screen. The desert chase scene involving some key characters and several machines will leave you breathless. The opening sequence which sees resistance members setting off chains of explosions in a Skynet facility does a nice job of setting up all of the man vs. machine mayhem that follow.

Christian Bale, fresh from fighting murder clowns and half-burned district attorneys, takes on the role of John Connor, the Jesus-like central character of the Terminator Saga. I found Bale’s performance to be decent, although this definitely isn’t his best performance. It was great watching him gun down terminators and bark orders to other resistance members, even though his voice leaves some things to be desired. When he isn’t speaking in a low voice that sounds like he’s whispering, he’s yelling using his patented batman voice which is great for some scenes but inappropriate for others. His performance could have been a lot better if his voice found the right balance between the two. Still, Bale is intense, emotional, and truly sets out to display the different sides of John Connor. I admired his performance most especially in one scene where he broadcasts a message to other resistance members saying “if we think like machines, and make cold and calculated decisions, then what is point in winning?”

Father and son (the other way around)

Other cast members who had great performances include Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright and Anton Yelchin as a (very) young Kyle Reese. Worthington plays Marcus Wright, arguably the movie’s main character, a murderer on death row who supposedly died in 2003 but eventually wakes up in 2018. Worthington gives life to a character who turns out to be the one of the not so-human characters in the film. Marcus runs into Kyle Reese in wasteland LA, a teenage boy aiming to join the resistance against the machines and would later go on (as shown in the first Terminator) to go back in time and become the father of John Connor. Yelchin is perfectly cast here as he really does look like a young Michael Biehn.

Another thing that’s great about this movie is the nods that it gives to past Terminator films. Lines like “Come with me if you want to live” and “I’ll be back” are present in film’s dialogue, to be noticed by hardcore Terminator fans. Also, Set pieces like the final fight sequence, and the opening battle between Connor and a T-600, draw heavy influence from the James Cameron’s Terminator films. This really made me feel like the movie recognizes the connection with its prequels. Hell, we even hear Linda Hamilton’s voice (Sarah Connor) when John listens to the old cassette tapes that Sarah recorded for him.

The last 20-30 minutes were exciting to watch, especially when the T-800 shows up. I saw a picture of Arnold’s CGI enhanced younger appearance a few days ago and it honestly looked just like him. In the film there was a split second or so you could tell it was CGI, but other than that, he looked pretty damn cool when he showed up. I almost busted a nut just because I kind of forgot about seeing him and when he showed up, I was like “oh shit!” It would have been cool if Bale had said a line after he sees Arnold’s T-800, something like “I was expecting you” or “you again”. This can signify this John Connor’s connection with the John Connors from the past.

Now, on to the things I didn’t like in this one. I didn’t like the score. What the hell, I barely noticed when there was music playing in the background. The music added nothing to the film, such a waste since this movie could have been better had the score been kick ass and not as lame as it actually is. Oh well, at least they used the classic Terminator theme during the opening and the ending credits.

I also felt like some of the characters were under-developed, more specifically, Kate Connor played by Bryce Dallas Howard. I don’t think she got enough screen time and her character was one-dimensional since it wasn’t really given too much attention. This is made even more disappointing by the fact that she just looked so beautiful in this film. I guess John Connor is one lucky bastard. As for the screen time shared by John Connor and Marcus Wright, I wished it was more balanced. Wright’s character got too much attention at first that it seemed like Connor was a secondary character. People would have cared about Bale’s character more had he been in more scenes.

Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor

One thing I read about the movie is that the Terminators didn’t actually terminate any human beings. This was quite a funny thought but then I realized that it was true. Previous terminator films had Terminators which killed a lot of people. Terminators in this one didn’t. This is a terminator movie and I expect to see Terminators actually terminate humans. A few kills here and there would have been cool.

Finally, on to the aspect of this movie which has gotten the most hate, the story or the lack of it. Unlike most critics, I actually enjoyed the film’s story. It was pretty simple to follow. The pacing was ok although some parts were a bit dry or rushed. I liked all the twists that are revealed in the end and the ending was something I wasn’t expecting (great ending). Overall, the story was good and very satisfying.

One thing that sucked though was the plot holes. There are several plot holes in this movie that are probably the result of parts of the movie that were edited out of the film and by bad writing. I noticed some while watching the film and read about others online. Some plot elements didn’t make sense, and others were underdeveloped. And while I agree that all of these plot holes shouldn’t have been in the movie in the first place, the story still manages to stand on its own, and at times, even echoes the brilliance of the first two films, albeit, in a diminished capacity.

The two main stars of Terminator Salvation

In closing, see this movie if you’re a Terminator fan, or even action/sci-fi fan. This Terminator movie though not as good as T2, clearly demolishes T3 and sets everything up for possible sequels. Brilliant action, stunning design, strong performances by most of the cast, and a story that does more than enough to keep you interested. It even ended with my favorite terminator quote of all time: There is no fate, but what we make.

“Come with me if you want to live”

Terminator Salvation just hit theaters. It’s my most anticipated movie of the year. One of my favorite things about the Terminator saga is the recurring scene where a character says “come with me if you want to live”. The line is just too epic and legendary. In celebration of “Salvation’s” release, I decided to show the scenes from the  Terminator movies where the line is said by various characters. From 1984’s The Terminator to this year’s Terminator: Salvation.

The Terminator (1984)

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Terminator: Salvation (2009)

X-men Origins: Wolverine review

The most famous X-man finally gets his own movie…and it’s not a good one.

I never said this would be a good movie - Hugh Jackman

I saw X-men Origins: Wolverine last night and yeah, it wasn’t that good. When I go see movies, I want to enjoy it, and I didn’t get that feeling with Wolverine. Unfortunate, since this film had so much potential. After seeing the entire thing, I just thought X-men 3 was better. And in the comic book community, that’s saying a lot.

One of the major problems I noticed with this movie was that it had way TOO many mutants in it. X-men 3 also had way too many mutants, most left underdeveloped, and just there either for fan service or to put as much mutants on-screen as possible. But unlike X-men 3 which at least had a coherent and straightforward story, Wolverine feels so confused in the narrative that it wants the audience to see. First Wolverine kills his father as a child in the 1800s, then the intro credits show him and his half brother Sabretooth (Victor Creed), as soldiers and fighting through countless wars but not really dying and not growing old. Then there’s Team X, Weapon X, Sabertooth kills wolverine’s squeeze AKA Kyla Silverfox, wolverine hates sabertooth, then Kyla Silverfox isn’t really dead and admits she kept tabs on Logan, Weapon XI, Logan and Victor fight together again, and a bunch of mutants that the audience barely get to care about. The whole problem with the story is that it tries to do so much without really succeeding at anything so it doesn’t really climax. I could care less about the story not being too faithful to the source material as long as it works. In this case though, it doesn’t.

I was expecting to see emphasis on the origin of wolverine, how his life started, and how he became the animal with adamantium in his bones. Unfortunately, these 3 story elements were only given a few minutes. It’s an origins movie and they spent little time fleshing out the actual “origins” part. I wanted to see the more human side of Wolverine, as Logan, what he went through as a child, how he coped with not dying, and transcending time. They only spent 5 minutes to show these things during the opening credits. The whole Weapon X project where Logan gets adamantium grafted to his skeleton just felt so rushed. I always had the feeling that the entire weapon X process was the most important part of Wolverine’s origins. A few minutes on-screen weren’t really enough to justify it. How will the audience care about wolverine and the weapon X project if they deal with the entire thing so quickly?

Deadpool was ruined too. I’m not very familiar with him in the comics but putting him in the movie and showing him for just 5 freakin’ minutes (5 minutes that was pretty good), and then the whole Weapon XI disaster, it’s a big F You to comic book fans anywhere. There was also a great attempt to tie this movie to the first X-men film. A walking Professor X even appears near the end. The problem is that it detracted from the main story, from Wolverine and his origins.

I’m finding it hard to say good things about this film. Jackman is still excellent in playing Wolverine and the fight scenes are great. The special effects looked like it needed some more polish though. I was really disappointed with this film.  I never expected it be this bad.There’s no flow to the narrative and there’s no soul to the characters (one dimensional and all). Only the very casual X-men fans and movie-goers who don’t really nitpick will be pleased by this one. One last thing though, stay in the theaters until the entire credits are finished.

Movies in May

WOW

May will bring 2 movies that I’m looking forward to seeing, X-men Origins: Wolverine, and Terminator: Salvation. I’m pretty excited to see both, but I’m more excited to see the latter, since I’m a big Terminator fan. Terminator Salvation is my most anticipated movie of the year! Christian Bale fighting machines and cyborgs? what geek in his right mind wouldn’t want to see that?

As for the Wolverine movie, I still haven’t watched it. An unfinished copy leaked online several weeks before the May 1st release date but I didn’t even think about downloading it. I don’t want to see an unfinished version of the film. I’ve always liked the Wolverine character in the X-men comics and cartoons of the 90s so the new X movie surely has me interested.

I’ll probably see both movies with my entire family since my mom loves Hugh jackman and (get this), is a long time fan of the Terminator Franchise! She once told me a story about watching the first Terminator film in 1984 while she was still in college. Three words, BEST MOM EVER. My younger brother likes most of the things that I like and that includes X-men and Terminator. And my dad? Let’s just say he loves ass kicking in super-hero and sci-fi films.

Expect a review of the 2 films a few days after I see them! Again, X-men Origins is out on May 1st while Terminator Salvation  hits theaters on May 21st.

What I want to see in a Metal Gear Solid Movie

Edit: This article is currently featured in the metalgearsolid.org frontpage. Check it out here.

First of all, I just want to say that I am a hardcore Metal Gear fan. I’m probably one of the biggest MGS fans from my country. With that out of the way, I’d like to talk about the Metal Gear movie that is supposedly being made.

During E3 2006, Hideo Kojima confirmed that a live action MGS movie was in the works. Later, in early 2007, Sony announced that they’ll be the studio who will develop the film. A guy by the name of Michael De Luca was to be the producer and 2009 was given as a tentative release date.

It is now 2009 and very little information about the film has been released in the 2 years since it has been announced. There were rumors and little pieces of news here and there like Christian Bale saying he was “in the running” to play Solid Snake, or Michael De Luca saying that they were talking to Kurt Wimmer, the guy who directed Equilibrium (an awesome sci-fi action movie which also starred Bale and has story elements similar to MGS) to possibly write or direct the film. But all this is just speculation at this point. I’m pretty sure a lot of fans (me included) would like to see a press release containing solid information (pun intended) about the movie.

So while waiting for more info, I decided to write about the things that I want to see in a metal gear solid movie. Who knows, some of these things might come true when everything is said and done (If the film does indeed get made).

1. A MGS film that’s faithful to the source material but not too faithful

The Metal Gear series is probably the most cinematic video game series today. Naturally, it lends itself well to film. There’s the epic story, the well developed characters, the awesome musical score by famed film composer Harry-Gregson Williams, the action packed-chase scenes, and just the over-all cinematic feel of the series. Series creator and film nut Hideo Kojima has been greatly influenced by films like Blade Runner, and Escape from New York and this is very obvious in the MGS games.

A Metal Gear Solid movie needs to have all of these elements, otherwise, it will result in a very lacking action film. We’ll be watching a generic action film that’s all about explosions and places little emphasis on an intriguing and emotional story and character development. Even worse, we could end up with a film attached with the “Metal Gear Solid” name but actually has very little to do with the MGS series of games. Just look at what Hollywood did to the Resident Evil films. No MGS fan wants to see that. Bottom-line, keep the film faithful to the video game series.

As for being too faithful, that could also be a problem. Some things in the MGS series like over-exposition, the (toilet) humor that sometimes get’s lost in transition, the occasionally poor dialogue, and overuse of science fiction elements (like what happened in MGS4-Nanomachines anyone?), doesn’t really fit well with cinema. These things need to be improved or trimmed down. The Watchmen film, though not really a game-based movie, did suffer because of too much faithfulness to the graphic novel. It alienated those who weren’t familiar with the Watchmen universe. Sets accurately re-created, using exactly the same dialogue from the comics, it didn’t feel right at times. Adaptation is very important when translating a story from one medium to another.

Not for the theaters

Not everything in comics will work well in film just through panel by panel recreation. This logic can also be applied to games. Sure, it was fun playing as Raiden while he was running naked through Arsenal gear while kicking ninjas. But, not everyone would enjoy watching a naked guy kicking ninjas while avoiding security cameras and covering his wang while doing cartwheels. It would still be ridiculously funny though.

2. Christian Bale as Solid Snake

Christian Bale is one of the best actors that I’ve seen during this decade. He’s very real and very credible in the roles that he plays. Bale mentioned in a magazine interview that he was “in the running” to play Solid Snake. Now, even if I think that’s just a Bullshit rumor since there was no credible source to back it up, I hope to god that it turns out to be true. Even Hideo Kojima wants Christian Bale to play as Snake! I was amazed by his acting ability in films like Rescue Dawn, the Prestige, and Equilibrium. His take on Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was very faithful to Frank Miller’s vision of the caped crusader.

Otacon, I'm at the sneak point...

A method actor by nature, I think Bale can easily pull off the Solid Snake character. As an action star, he can really kick some onscreen ass as proven by films like American Psycho, Equilibrium, Batman Begins, and TDK. Finally, Christian Bale shares a very solid resemblance with the young Solid Snake. Oh , and I definitely think that he can pull off the gruff Snake voice we all love – just listen to his batman voice in TDK.

3. Music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams

Harry Gregson-Williams is a famed film composer. From films like The Rock and Armageddon, I’ve always enjoyed listening to the music that he does for films. It’s emotional, and it makes you hyped to be watching the movie. No wonder Kojima brought him on-board to score the MGS games starting from MGS2. Kojima wanted to give MGS that Hollywood action blockbuster treatment. Of all the things in this list, this would be the most likely to come true since Gregson-Williams is already involved with the Metal Gear Solid series. It’s a no brainer actually. I love his musical score for the MGS games and I hope he could do the same for the MGS film.

4. A Post-credits telephone conversation

I'd like to see this logo in theaters

MGS fans know that a post-credits telephone conversation is a staple of the series. This conversation is usually about the events that went on in the game, a plot twist, or a conversation suggesting a possible sequel. Imagine how cool it would be if in the theaters, after the credits, a phone conversation will be heard, the subtitles on the bottom of the screen and the film’s “Metal Gear Solid” logo in the middle. This would all end with the sound of someone ending the phone convo and putting down the phone. Just awesome, I can already see mgs fans in theaters waiting for the credits to finish.

5. Involvement by Hideo Kojima and David Hayter

Di Ju Rike it?

Metal Gear is Hideo Kojima’s creation. Although we, as fans, not always agree or appreciate his story ideas, we have to admit that without any sort of involvement from him, the MGS movie might turn out to be a failure. I’ve read that Kojima will serve as executive producer of the film, I don’t know what that actually means but I think Kojima should be a creative consultant more than anything else. From story elements, characters, to locations and set-pieces, the film-makers should try to ask for his ideas regarding the film. After all, nobody knows Metal Gear better than he does. I’d also like to see a cameo from Kojima in the film. Similar to how Stan Lee does it in all of those comic book movies. Who knows, he might even say, Di Ju Rike it?!

On a similar note, I’d also like to see the involvement of David Hayter. Hayter is a screen writer who is also the English voice actor for Solid Snake. He’s probably the one man in Hollywood that knows the most about Metal Gear; someone who can help in localizing mgs elements for film-to make sure nothing gets lost in translation. He’s been involved with the series since Metal Gear Solid 1 (1998), and he understands the series’ over-arching plot. It has been reported that Hayter wrote a script for the MGS movie, with metal gear being the apocalypse now of the digital age and Solid Snake in the center of it all. I actually like the description but it is said that Hayter’s script was rejected. I think Hayter should try to write another script for the movie and if that doesn’t happen, any involvement from him would do; another creative consultant perhaps?

In closing

All this was written from one fan’s perspective, and more than likely, not all of them will come true. Still, one fan can dream right?

The Watchmen chic was in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle!

Okay, so I’ve seen the Watchmen film and as someone who hasn’t read the graphic novel, I’d say it wasn’t a very good film. It wasn’t adapted for the film medium but rather, was “directly translated” on-screen. Something that didn’t work out very well given the complexity and the uniqueness of the Watchmen graphic novel. I’m pretty damn sure most people who have no knowledge of the comics will find it hard to understand and care about everything that went on in the film. The film’s visuals are stunning though, it’s probably the most visually stunning film I’ve seen in a long time.

Even more Stunning is Malin Akerman, the hot chic who plays the second Silk Spectre. She was smoking hot in the film. I thought she looked somewhat familiar so I decided to check out her wikipedia entry and then I found she played as Freakshow’s wife in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle!

I had no clue that that was the case. It was pretty hard to forget her in White Castle even though her screen time was so small. She looked hotter in that film and there’s no fucking way someone as hot as her could be freakshow’s wife. Plus, she showed her honkers in that scene! I didn’t see her in any movie after White castle so seeing here in a big film like Watchmen was pretty amazing and pretty crazy at the same time. And here I was thinking that she was just some really hot, small time actress/model that I’d never see again but won’t forget….I was wrong.

Only in the movies can some hot Swedish chick go from here:

To here:

New Terminator Salvation trailer!

The new trailer just came out today. It shows more of the characters, more story/action sequences, and it just made me even more excited for this movie. In the words of the almighty Christian Bale, If we stay the course, we are dead! WE ARE ALL DEAD!

Check out the exclusive new trailer (which shows even more robot/sci-fi ass kicking) and read more about the movie at yahoo.com: link