Resident Evil: Afterlife

This is the first movie I watched more than a month after the last one. Back to cinema, back to business, back to reviewing movie.

I chose not to watch the 3D version of the movie so that I won’t be drown into the excitement of watching things popped out of the screen. Such excitement shall blind my judgment.

I believed I made the right choice.

Storyline wise, it was quite straightforward. The only unexpected twist happened after the show comes to an end. There's a shocking revelation. My advice, do not leave your seat immediately after the show ends. Wait and you shall be surprised of what comes next.

The action was cool. Well, with Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter kicking zombies’s a***s, I had no complain about it. Love the action since the first movie.

The shock element put inside was electrifying. In few occasions, a fellow viewer sitting beside me jumped off his seat. I found it very hilarious. I could feel my seat shaking.

Compared to its game franchise however, the movie franchise is less scary. It didn’t have the goosebumps effect that makes us want to close our eyes while still watching it.

For the franchise’s lovers and admirers, watching this movie is worthwhile. But, if you do not want your judgment to be clouded, please watch the normal one.

The Last Airbender

Many criticisms were given to this movie. It is an adaptation of a Nickelodeon animation series of the same name. For its followers, they might be disappointed with some elements of the movie. The acting needs to be polished due to the inexperience of its actors, Aang was not charismatic enough and so on.

I’m not a follower though. So, The Last Airbender is a new experience for me. This show is just the First Chapter of it. So, do expect a sequel/sequels of it.

It started a little bit slow for a reason; the background of The Last Airbender had to be adequately explained so that for first timer like me, the movie would make sense.

Scene after scene, we would be able to see the story ‘grew’. The actors’ inexperience was could be a mild distraction (Not to forget some distraction from an audience who seems to have a problem with his mucus… yak!). They could be seen soulless and nervous at times but I am willing to forgive those glitches when the movie reached its climax.

The first lesson from this series is that let your emotion flow like water. Let it flow… When Aang managed to control the water element, he didn’t use it to injure other. He couldn’t. So, he raised a big wave amplified by flowing emotion. From his face, we could see Aang was really hurt as he reminisced his past. His flaws in acting suddenly became a past. With the help of a soulful background rhyme, Aang finally touched the heart of the audience. Touché!

The climax was a satisfaction. With a cliffhanger ending, The Last Airbender began to drug the mind of the audience. As for me, I might just become a follower. How I wish I could bend air like Aang.

Salt The Movie

Who is Salt? CIA or KGB? When is Day X? What is Day X? These are among the questions revolving around the show being the first one as the main theme of it.

In the beginning, I almost believed that Salt was a CIA agent. A special one by the way. I almost changed my mind in the middle of the story when she actually initiated the plan to kill the Russian President. The President was shot and there she was, Evelyn Salt, the Russian agent.

However, there was something wrong. I took a glance at my watch. Of course, the illuminating light from my G-Shock gave a slight distraction to fellow persons watching beside me. There was still time. The movie was just half way through.

I took a quick travel to the past. There was this spider which some liquid was injected out of it. Hmm, that must be something. And then, all the CIA agents that were attacked by Salt were spared their lives. And then, the most obvious one, this is a Hollywood movie. Non-U.S can’t win in a Hollywood movie. And there she was again. The great betrayal. Salt was brought to the lair of the Russians agent, saw his husband safe and alive for only a few seconds before he was shot dead right in front of her. She got acknowledgment from her fellow Russians and then, she killed them all. She killed those who called her ‘sister’. She was a CIA agent after all. It feels good when your prediction hits the target bulls-eye.

This is a typical Hollywood movie to propagate that U.S is the savior of the world by having the best intel in the world. Salt is just one of them, or so. The best part was that the Russians almost succeeded in implicating U.S for a potential bombing of Mecca and Tehran. Saudi is known to be a close ally of the U.S… but Iran? That’s interesting!

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Irritating… Completely irritating. Dave was irritatingly nerdy. Nicholas Cage was irritatingly predictable, the storyline was irritatingly cliché.

The movie failed to make the unbelievable, believable. I was intrigued when Dave asked, “Was it magic or was it science?” and Nicholas Cage answered, “Yes and yes.” I was looking for a scientific explanation of magic, but none was adequately given.

All the magic shown had been seen before except for one. A mirror to trap someone inside another dimension. Well, okay. It’s also an old trick. But it is always interesting to see the other side of the mirror especially when you are car chasing!

A nice movie to watch together with family or if you simply believe in magic.

Tekken

Summary:

Tekken is an adaptation of the popular Japanese video game.

In the future, the world was ruled by corporations. These corporations were known as The Iron Fists. The most powerful of all is Tekken.

Once a year, a tournament is held called The Iron Fist Tournament which gathered the most skillful fighters representing each corporation.

An orphan, Jin, entered the tournament after his mother was killed by an army of Tekken. His purpose was to seek revenge. After the preliminary round where he was victorious, he was brought to the tournament and was dubbed as The People’s Choice since he came from the outskirts of the main city.

In the tournament, he finally found out that he was one of the two heirs of Tekken. The other was his father.

His father perceived Jin as a threat and as such he did everything possible to end Jin’s life. In the final encounter, Jin managed to beat up his father but not to the extent of killing him. He left the tournament as a champion and was later known as The People’s Champ.

Comment:

The People’s Champ? That’s so WWE! However, how lame it is, the show represent a strong message that is tyranny would lead to rebellion. People who are dissatisfied about something will one day rise up and fight to overthrow the tyrant.

When I first saw the trailer, the first thing came into my mind was that the movie is lame and will be another disaster like Street Fighter. How disappointed I was that my perception was not accurate to say the least. Jon Foo put a good fight as Jin Kazama while characters were alive and managed to interact with each other well. If only Hwoarang was there. His fight against Jin Kazama will make me salivate. Perhaps, there is a sequel to this movie.

Inception

Summary:

Inception is about what happen when you mess with someone’s mind. A group of people steal somebody’s idea by extracting it from a chosen target. Their attempt backfired because the target knew that they were trying to extract his idea.

As a result, this group of people ended up working for the target. They set up a new target, only this time their goal is not to extract idea from the new target’s mind. It is to put in a new idea into it which is called ‘Inception’.

They set up a team which consist of an architect (The one who design the dream), an impostor, a sedative expert, and the leader himself with his loyal deputy.

The plan was good but the main problem lay with the leader himself. In his sub-conscious mind was a dark secret which he was unable to get rid off; his deceased wife. He was accused of causing the death of his wife (which he didn’t do) and had to leave his children behind in order not to get caught. That idea was so strong that it may have consumed his subconscious mind. Since they were together inside a dream, their subconscious minds were co-related and as such would affect others.

They finally manage to instill the new idea inside the target after almost get themselves trapped in the dream. As to return his favor, the charge against the leader was lifted and he was able to see his children again.

Comment:

When I saw the name Christopher Nolan, the images of surreal cinematography unseen before in silver screen popped up in my mind. Remember The Dark Knight?

At the beginning, he managed to make us wonder a lot of things? We started to question which one is real and which one is just a dream. In the end, those questions were beautifully answered with another big question.

How could you not curse him when the spinner keep on spinning at the end of the story and when the spinner started to wobble a bit, the story ended? So, was it real or was it a dream?

Bravo, Chris! You’ve managed to create a movie that is not just entertaining but also mind blowing. The Matrix, your throne is already taken away…

Predators

Meaningless

“A meaningless story,” commented my uncle who had watched the movie earlier. I asked for his opinion before making the decision to watch the movie or not. After getting his opinion, I decided not.

The decision

However, I overturned my decision eventually. It was my second off-day. Routinely, on that day, it is movie plus swimming day for me. I had 2 choices of movie to watch; the other one is Twilight: Eclipse. Since I thought that the latter was too teen-flick for a grown up (old) person like me, I chose the former.

Within expectation

As expected, the movie was packed with blood, killings and all the gore scenes which were not suitable for all audience (It was rated NC 16). The storyline was predictable. Why was it always left with no more than 2 persons alive in the end? Why not all?

The idea

However, that issue aside, it was always interesting to see how a movie/story was created to provide an ideal world for mankind to live. It was always interesting how human instinct would react in desperate moments. People would do anything to save themselves including sacrificing other’s life. That’s what happened throughout the movie. But despite that ugly side, it also shows the ideal side whereby some of the characters were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to save others. In fact, most of the characters were willing to do such noble thing leaving the predators and one serial killer as the bad guys. Come on, would we really sacrifice ourselves for others, especially for those who we barely know in order to save our backside?

The reality

In reality, with exceptions of few, human are selfish. How many unborn child were killed just to hide the fact that we love sex but we don’t want to carry the burden to take care the upcoming result of it? How many people complaining about the tax they pay when they perceive that the government doesn’t really deliver what they want (not what they need)? How many people had a fierce fight in court over the right of custody over children just to prove that ‘I was right and you were wrong’ without thinking the devastating damage done to the children psychology as a result of a divorce? Human are as ugly as predators because of their selfishness.

Suggestion

This movie suggested what kind of human we should be. Don’t be selfish. Be selfless. Do not unleash the predator inside. A simple idea but difficult to execute.

In the end, I beg to differ my initial stand about the movie. It is not meaningless after all.

Despicable Me

Nothing too special about the movie safe for the characters that were created to be cute and able to make people laugh with their appearances and acts. The yellow minions were funny. However, that adorableness still fail to prevent me from falling asleep at certain point of the show. It's not the show though, it's just my tired body after a sleepless night. Just lucky that I did not fall asleep until the end of it. It would be a waste of my dollars then.

The storyline was a cliché; a super-villain who would do anything just to prove that he was a better villain. He came up with a plan but thing didn’t go as he wanted as three little girls came into his life and changed his life forever. From a super-bad he became a super-dad. A good movie for father’s day anyway.

Knight and Day

Storyline:

Non-stop action. Unreal. A movie suitable for those who don’t like to think too much or those had enough of thinking. A straightforward movie. The storyline is predictable.

The actors:

Cameron Diaz looks old. Not a kick-ass babe like she did in Charlie’s Angels. However, Tom Cruise is old too. So, this is a movie of the veterans. Still worth watching it though.

Toy Story 3

Summary:

Times went by. People grew up. So as, Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz & the gang. He was going to college. As such, he needed to leave something behind.

Woody & the gang had accepted the fact that Andy had grown up. Their attempt to make Andy play them ended up in a failure. So, they decided to move on also. Except for Woody, who believed that they should be there for Andy when Andy moved out.

Led by Buzz, they headed to a child day care gentre. They thought they had found a better place. However, that place was actually ruled by a manipulative strawberry smell teddy bear. Buzz & the rest of the gang was put inside a room and played by small kids who simply smashed & crushed them upside down.

Meanwhile, Woody accidentally ended up in a small girl’s house who took care of her toys. He met up with new toys and even played the small girl which reminisced his moments with Andy.

One of his new friends however mentioned about the brutality of the child care. This concerned Woody who decided to save his friends.

Another adventure took off. He even had to meet face to face with Buzz who had been ‘brainwashed’ by the evil teddy bear.

In the end, all of them were saved and they decided to return to Andy’s house. Just before Andy left, Woody left a message to bring them all to a new owner. It was the girl whom Woody accidentally met earlier.

Andy had a moment to play with the toys again together with the little girl. The toys were passed over to the little girl and they had a new owner who would take care of them like Andy did.

Comment:

This movie made me remember the times when I was a little kid with a lot of toys. Those lifeless toys became alive and I could become any toys I wanted. The imaginations were borderless. Those moments aside, I could hardly find this movie disappointing. Throughout the show, I was able to join the laughter. It’s not just entertaining. It’s soothing and reminiscing.

The Karate Kid

Plot Summary:

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) was moving out of the States following his mother to China. He had difficulty to get used of the environment. As a thirteen-year-old boy, he faced all a normal boy would face in his journey towards adolescence.
In China, he met face to face with his arch rival, Zheng who happened to be a martial artist. Since then, Dre’s life was not a pleasant one. He’d been bullied time after time by Zheng.

One day he retaliated only to beaten again by Zheng and his gang. Fortunately enough, an old grumpy plumber (Jackie Chan) came to the rescue. Eventually, Dre was taken as his student to learn kung-fu.

Dre and Zheng met again in an open kung-fu tournament where finally Dre was able to defeat his nemesis. His determination and the spirit of never say never subsequently owned Dre his nemesis’s respect.

Comment:

A typical Disney’s movie. The movie starts off with a scene whereby Dre is moving out from his home in the State. There was a wall height scale at the edge of a door whereby Dre scribbled what happened when he reached certain height. I could hear someone sobbing when the height reached “Daddy passed away”.

I didn’t understand why the movie was called The Karate Kid when in fact it was not karate that was shown in the movie. The Kung Fu Kid should sound more accurate. Perhaps, it was for commercial reason.

However, with title issue put aside, I had something to say about the movie.

First, Jaden Smith needs some polishing in his acting. He kept moving his eyes away every time he needs to stare at something are someone. His eyes were just not in place. But, since this is his debut, I thought that his groovy dancing and martial arts moves overshadowed that discrepancy.

Second, the girl was just so cute.

Third, I loved the kung fu lesson thought to Dre. Kung fu is not about fighting. It is about a way of life. You could even learn kung fu just by putting on and off your jacket. How cool is that? Fourth, the finishing move was outrageous. It started with the crane stance, be calm, empty our mind, become a mirror to your opponent. The opponent will start to follow our movement without realizing it. Wait until the opponent charged forward and then when he is in a perfect distance, push yourself to the air and while in the air, make a summersault to gain some momentum. Before reaching the ground, hit the opponent hard using the same leg that push your body up. Nice move huh? But was it a realistic move? Who cares as long as it looks cool inside the movie!

Sehingga bebiri menjadi singa

Rise and rise again until lamb becomes lion. Robin Hood or Robin the Hood was a misunderstood hero. He was more than a thief who was glorified by the people. A Machiavellian he is but what he did was out of necessity.

Imagine The Gladiator with an archer. Robin Hood was a freedom fighter. He managed to unify all England to fight against France. Forget about the funny and adorable Robin Hood as played by his predecessors. Russel Crowe is much cooler. His version of Robin Hood is more macho and those spirited eyes were really burning with fire!

Robin Hood was so cool until the King couldn't stand him. He was declared as an outlaw after he saved the Kingdom of England from France and the danger of disunity. Hang Nadim could be our local hero but received the same fate as Robin Hood after he saved Singapore/Temasek from the attack of swordfish. Why would the people with authority always be the bad guy?

It is very difficult to fight againts tyrant leaders. They have powers. Their action could always be justified even though it is not. It is because of this, some people decided to choose another way to make their voices heard. They choose to become the outlaw.

But as Robin Hood says: "Rise and rise again until lamb becomes lion." Never give up!

Agora

Hypatia (played by Rachel Weisz) was a woman philosopher who was really obsessed on proving that earth moves. At the end of the story, she managed to do that.

My obsession was h/ever to prove that Quran had already provided the answer about the movement of earth. Instead of being stucked with philosophical debate on whether the earth moves or not and how does it move, there are many verses in the Quran which state that earth does move. So as the moon, the sun, the stars and other planets in this large universe.

We had to bear in mind h/ever, Quran was revealed long after Hypatia’s mind breaking’s finding. There might be allegation that what was written in the Quran was a copy of what was found by people before the coming of Islam. Fortunately, this allegation is refutable but it is not my intention to discuss it here.

Getting back to the main concern, the movie itself, Hypatia was an atheist. She believed in philosophy. At the time when Christianity emerged as the next religion, there were many obstacles faced by Hypatia in her course to fight for what she believed in inter alia, religious extremism and gender discrimination. Because of this, she was accused of witchcraft and was eventually killed. A tragic ending for such a brilliant scholar. Finding the truth at that time was considered a taboo. An offence against the word of God.

H/ver, if we looked into the verses of Quran concerning what was sought by Hypatia, we’ll find that Quran treat such thing differently. Quran encouraged us to seek knowledge. It is because of this encouragement, Muslims scholars were born. He created everything for one purpose. To understand. (See Quran 3:27, 22:61, 31:29, 35:13, 39:5, 50:7, 79:30, 21:33, 25:61-62, 36:38-40, 2:164, 2:258, 3:190, 6:96, 10:5, 14:33, 16:12, 36:38-40, 39:5, 91:1-4) .

On Hypatia accused of witchcraft...

A blatant move by the Christian at that time. It is not very clear from the movie how such accusation came about. Is it because she believed in something other than the Biblical God? Is it because she managed to influence not only one, but three men to support her either directly or silently? Prophet Muhammad was also accused of the same thing. Ironically, the reason being was because he preached the word of God. Hypatia said that the earth moves. Others believed otherwise. Prophet Muhammad preached the words of God which include the same thing. People still wanted to reject him. Get the point? People just don’t want to accept the truth.

On gender discrimination against Hypatia...

The Bible, as read by Bishop Cyril in the movie, wants woman to submit and keep silent. I believe the verse cited was interpreted literally and not thorough. I did not study Bible but I am against gender discrimination. Islam treats woman differently. We may make a slight comparison between Hypatia and Sayidatina Aishah R.A. (Prophet Muhammad PBUH wife) whereas after the death of the Prophet, Aishah became one of the references to study the traditions/sunnah of the Prophet. She was not killed nor treated with gender discrimination. She was even called Ummul Mukminin (The Mother of Believers) for her role.

On the fight between Jews and Christians...

The Jews claimed that without them there will be no Christians. Jesus was one of them. As such, they were more superior to the Christians. The Christians then counterclaimed by saying that the Jews slayed Jesus. As such, they should be condemned. The battle of egos went on and on until a war erupted between them. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, after the pilgrimage to Madinah, the Christians and the Jews were not condemned. Instead, they were allowed to stay in the state of Madinah. Of course, there was an agreement between them to ensure the safety of the society as a whole. The first written constitution in history. The Constitution of Madinah. From this, we learnt that it is important to have written rules which lay down the basic rights and responsibilities of people inside a state. If not, there will be anarchy as what happened in Agora.

The Inheritors of The Will of Fire- Naruto Shippuuden Movie 3

The Inheritors of The Will of Fire connotes the never give up attitude within oneself. Naruto, once again defying all odds, tried to save Kakashi from being assimilated with Hiruko. The dilemma h/ever was that, Kakashi was willing to sacrifice himself to protect others.

Those that break the rule are considered a scum. But, those who leave their comrades in order not to break the rules are worse. My opinion… depends on what rule are you talking about. We must differentiate between principle rules and subsidiaries. In certain circumstances, we may break the subsidiary rules. Example of the situation is when choosing a lesser of the two evils.

What was portrayed in the movie is a good example of this. Kakashi and the others believe that by sacrificing one’s live (Kakashi’s), others’ live may be protected. H/ever, Naruto saw beyond this. He didn’t want the future generation to know that their predecessors allowed sacrifice to be made in order to save their lives. Why not save the others without making any sacrifice or at least have a try at it.

What Naruto wanted was that the Will of Fire will continually be instilled inside the future generations so that they will live with dignity and die with honor. Never give up finding a better solution towards our problems. There’s always a better solution. The Will of Fire could be felt burning inside while watching this movie. Masashi Kishimoto had never failed to inspire through his artworks. For me, this movie is the best of Naruto franchise so far.

Dari Paris Dengan Cinta

Another film to propagate fight vs terrorism. The Good Guy is of course The U.S. The Bad Guy… some Pakistanis with the help of a gorgeous French woman, Caroline.

It started off with main character being tasked to do the ‘dirty’ job for the government of US. He had a fiancé, Caroline. Little he knew that this girl was actually a member of a terrorist group who intended to attack American convoy at an international summit. (Tsk…)

It was a non-stop action all the way since the main character met his partner, Max (John Travolta). Busting a group of drug dealers and finally met with their actual nemesis. I didn’t know that French allows 5 gram of coke for personal consumption.

A point that is interesting to be raised here is that Caroline was being brainwashed by the alleged terrorist. In a sad telephone conversation with her fiancé, she revealed that she met a guy who told her about his faith. She finally found a purpose of life and felt at peace.

Although, it is not said what faith is it, it is clear throughout the movie that the director tried to imply that the faith is Islam. Pakistanis, Arabic words including Allah’s name written on the walls, some utterance in Arabic before the terrorist committed a suicide bombing… what else can you imply?

Yes, you’ll find peace in Islam. You’ll find purpose if you commit yourself to this religion of peace. But what was portrayed in the movie can be misleading should the viewer not treat it with critical mind.It is unfortunate to see that some people were used to serve a purpose they can hardly understand. What happened to Caroline can be seen happening to our local girls who had been used in drug trafficking. A soul searching for the purpose of life can be easily manipulated should it falls to the wrong person.

The Fourth Kind

Characters

Who would forget Dr. Abygail? Milla Jovovich really brought the character to live. Milla really stole the show. A fan of her since Resident Evil... Job, well done...

Storyline

It’s a semi-fictitious thriller. Through out the movie, actual video and sound recordings were shown. The authenticity of the recordings is debatable. I’m still not fully convinced that there’s such thing as alien abduction. H’ever, I really don’t want to become the one abducted should there be such.

Extra

It’s really testing my curiosity. I had a different view about alien abduction or even its existence. If this thing really happened, I could only say… PRAISE THE LORD! I view this as a test. A test of our belief. When I saw the actual video & voice recordings, I could not resist myself from comparing it with possessed or hysterical incident. The change of voice, the unbelievable strength, the change of characters, the trauma… it’s almost the same. So, is it the devil or is it the alien?

Viper's Creed

Anime series: VIPER’S CREED

12 episodes

Comment:

Characters

I could only remember 2. Saiki, because he’s wearing a pirate-like eye cover. Ageha, because she is a minor, a genius one who’s able to hack a computer system and make it all go haywire.

Storyline

It started a little bit slow at first few episodes to develop the main characters. A lot of twist & turns towards the end of the series. A sad ending to the Viper Unit since its members died one by one. Rudra’s ending was the coolest one, though.

Extra

The battroid-maneuver was cool but not a memorable one. If only the red one used by Saiki and Hound’s leader could last longer…