movie review for Star Wars: Clone Wars

You know, when the whole world conspires to supply you with one uniformity of opinion, it would do you best to just take that piece of advice willingly and ask no questions about it. That’s the lesson learnt today, when, even after the rest of universe bombarded us with the fact that “The new Star Wars movie sucks!”, we took that piece of advice with a whole handful of salt, went against convention and challenged it.

And boy did we realise what a grave mistake it is to take on the world.

The movie did suck badly. Jedi Knights are invincible. Characters are one-dimensional. And they have close to one standard expression on their faces, or at least the faces of those whom we could actually see (aka not those robot soldiers). I expected a lot more out of a digital animation film, especially ever since Pixar came out.

Well, at least we watched the movie together. Sometimes it’s kinda fun to knowingly go watch a bad movie (only Jastin stubbornly, or resolutely wanted to watch it cos “All Star Wars movies are good.”), then laugh at all of its flaws and faux pas (what’s the plural of this?).

Perhaps that’s why Scary Movie and all the other movies of its kind are so popular even though they’re kind of bad too.

Anyway, since i’ve watched the movie, let me chip in my own advice. Follow the rest of the universe and accept the fact that this particular Star Wars movie isn’t good. Having read that, you can still pay the $7.50 to watch it and hope to prove me (and the rest of the world) wrong. But your chances are as slim as succeeding in killing a Jedi in that movie.

movie: Awake, and some thoughts

Yes, this is that recent Jessica Alba movie. You may not have heard of it. I only heard about it when i was looking through the movie screenings at Vivocity and found out there’s such a movie starring Jessica Alba and Darth Vader. I’m sorry, i mean Hayden Christensen (hope i didn’t spell that wrongly). To tell you the truth, i’ve forgotten all of their names in the movie already. lol.

Basically it’s a thriller movie that depicts many different forms of love (like 3284639 other movies). First there’s the cheap love between Alba and Darth Vader, oops, i mean Christensen. She’s out there with him for his money without him knowing it. She was actually with a certain Terrence Howard (who also acted in IronMan), and had planned to escape with Vader’s (i can’t control it. i’m gonna call him Darth Vader whether you like it or not. that’s how i addressed him in Jumper anyway) money after changing her name. Mean plot, eh? Then there’s that part where Darth Vader’s soul suddenly could communicate with his mother. Because she committed suicide at that hospital.

At the end, though Alba seemed to have some feelings for Howard, she betrayed him by “I’m supposed to be just a grieving widow, remember?” Now this movie plays with your heart as the audience. A lot. Most of the stuff isn’t predictable, like how Alba was actually an evil bitch in the show, so it’s kinda cool to watch the whole movie out yourself and take note of when you “stun-tio”, or get caught offguard. Anyway, the crux of the movie is that Darth Vader went through a lot of (and i mean a bloody shitload of) pain before he realised what the **** was going on around him. Kind of a symbolic journey, literally.

Anyway i met up with The Study Group, people that i haven’t met in a long time. Really good to see them again. Can still remember how we mugged away the last 2 months before the ‘A’ levels. Can still remember their panicky faces with that pinch of guilt for not being a diligent student all year round. Can still laugh at all the same old things, haha. Anyway we ate lunch at Kuishinbo@Suntec (not-that-bad Japanese buffet for $30/pax), then went to Vivocity for FREE CONE DAY @ Ben&Jerry’s! But nope, we didn’t get any free cone in the end cos we were too lazy to queue up. The queue was really, really, really long. At least 75 metres, i reckon. Still, there were many schoolgirls over there who obviously pon school (aka skip classes) to get one free cone. After all, they could reason among themselves that they were doing a good thing, being a supporter of FREE CONE DAY! a cone is better than a cup anyday because you get to eat more (it goes super well with the ice cream, my plump tummy and i can assure that) and because you have to cut down trees to make those paper cups. very un-eco-friendly. very un-green. aka you should start eating from cones.

Of course, it was a comforting thing to see so many pretty girls around yet again. 7 days duty around a base comprising mainly of guys (and girls that look like guys) made me ponder about whether beauty still existed. Now i have a definite answer, and i am no doubt relieved and ever more ready to reach that day of my life where i can happily and honestly shout out “ORD LO!”

movie: Iron Man

Wow. It has been a loooooong time since i’ve been able to go for a movie premiere. And on this occasion it’s especially sweet because, because of Labour Day, the premiere was pushed forward to a Wednesday instead of the usual Thursday. Coincidentally i have to book in on Thursday this week too because the other platoon is having yet another range. Now that’s the 4th range already for the new year. Well done. What a gloriously happy and “fun”-filled year it is indeed. The other week we had 2 ranges in one week too. Now that would probably scare off any terrorist group, ain’t it? Looks like the deterrent effect of my unit has obtained its motive, albeit at the expense of the quality of well-being for their men. Yes, yes, take a jibe at the word ‘quality’ and state that you do not see ‘national service’ and ‘quality of well-being’ in the same league at all.

Oh, now back the topic. This is where most people (aka YOU) start to read anyway. So here goes.

I liked the Iron Man movie a lot. The graphics reminded me of Transformers for some reason. The sentient yet robotic movements of IronMan (Robert Downey Jr. p.s. i liked Charlie Bartlet a lot) and, let’s say, Bumblebee, are comfortingly similar. That’s a good thing, by the way, because every guy and his fellow buddies loved Transformers. Well, maybe other than that one buddy who always wears tight-fit purple t-shirts with shades that are well-rested on those smooth ears with an earring on his right one. I’m just guessing.

To me, i felt it was kind of cheesy for Tony Stark (the man in the iron man) to be able to make that prototype IronMan suit within his prison. But it only goes to show how brilliant Stark was. One thing’s for sure — he wouldn’t last a few minutes in the IronMan competition in that suit, unless, of course, flying was allowed. Ok that was a cheap dig and it’s not funny.

One scene i appreciated was the one where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) helped Stark reconnect a different ‘heart’ to his torso. A change of heart for this cynical hardened man, or a symbolism for how Potts refined him as a person? It was so touching i almost cried. Ya right. Haha.

Anyway, i highly recommend watching this movie. There is depth in plot and character development, though it sometimes drifts along the lines of “omg this is too obvious (ie. the evil old guy who was against Stark)”. But that’s exactly what gives IronMan that very comic-book-like magical touch to the movie.

movie: the diving bell and the butterfly

i give it 4/5. thought provoking, makes people wonder what they’re doing with their lives, makes me wonder wtf i’m doing too.

review coming soon. hafta sleep now. rhibs course makes me pretty tired all the time.

14/2 update:
ok here i am on St Valentine’s Day night writing this, so you can pretty much guess my relationship status and also how well i spent my v-day. Actually i did spend it quite well. Ate with good looking friends (all male, sadly T_T), looked at good looking people walk by (omg those girls love to dress up on v-day for some reason), dreaming of one day having one of those good looking girls by my side (who has to have good character, but how could i see that while i am dreaming, right?). okok nm enough about my life since that’s obviously not what you’re reading this post for.

i must admit that i do not remember a lot of names in the French movie.

The movie is about a ‘Locked-in Syndrome’ patient called Jean-Dominique Bauby. It pretty much means that his whole body is paralysed, and that every little thing that he manages to do (eg. twitching his tongue slightly) would be deemed a “miracle” by one of his doctors, to much humour. The illness is a really rare one, such that a lot of attention is given to him — 2 female therapists are attached to him to aid his recovery, 1 female assistant to take down what he wants to say, and a few senior doctors that are tailing his case.

How does he talk? Well, one of the therapists came up with a very laborious way — to say the 26 letters of the alphabet, then wait for him to blink on one letter, and that letter would be the 1st letter of the 1st word. Now imagine writing a book like that, and you see how much time it took.

Anyway, the title made ZERO sense to me when i first thought about watching it. I was, like, wtf is a diving bell? Oh, it’s actually the thick heavy suit that divers wear to be submerged in the water. From time to time at the start, the movie portrayed Jean-Boy as a guy in a diving bell, timelessly stuck in a green murky sea, with everything around him a blur. Ben Lee says this is a big hint that the whole movie was of the *post-modernist* genre. Frankly i don’t really take notice of what to call it but i try to find ways to decipher every single scene in the movie, and how they relate to each other.

In fact, it relates almost completely inversely with the symbol of the butterfly (also in title). The pre-butterfly butterfly is a cocoon, and the cocoon, in the eyes of a literary mind, resembles the diving bell in many ways that are almost too obvious to see. A butterfly’s emergence from the cocoon is therefore a very powerful and apt symbol to illustrate the story. Jean-Dominique felt desperate and desolate after waking up from his vegetable-like coma, and one of the first sentences he made using the ’26-letter approach’ was “I want Death”. Pretty bleak, eh? But very soon later (maybe cos of time constraints of the movie!), he decided to change his perception of life and make the best of it. At the end of the day, he accepted that he could no longer walk or talk like a normal human being, but his mind was still able to function perfectly well. And so did his eyelid muscles, of course.

The word “atonement” is used a lot these days, cos of That Film With Keira Knightley In It, also named Atonement. But in this movie atonement is one thing that stood out very jarringly. How Jean-Dominique helped his father shave, when he was now like the father and the father was like the child, the cyclical nature of life and all of its little ironies. How he only wanted his son to visit him, to show him the fate of one who did not live life properly. How Jean-Dominique’s mistress Ines confronted with his “not my wife; she’s the mother of my children” over the phone right in front of him, resulting in so much unhappiness, even while he was almost completely immobile physically. Karma works, ultimately. Jean-Dominique seeked redemption by wanting his children to be like butterflies, to be more free spirited and happy with their present life, and not make his same mistakes. After all, butterflies are but fleeting insects — they die very quickly, but they live their life as beautiful, beautiful insects.

The movie is rich in imagination and symbolism that would be a treat for anyone who understands them. Many a time i was able to relate to how he was thinking and feeling, thus rendering the first-person male perspective a powerful and effective tool to engage.

The motto of the movie is “carpe diem”, urging everyone to seize the day, and not wait till you’re unable to express anything before you start regretting about stuff that you should have done before but have postponed till later.