Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

Don't ask me why I'm still typing at this wee hours. It's the cause and effect from my OT and the frustrated feeling brewing inside because I just lost the file that I've worked on for the freaking 4 hours and have to reconstruct it within 1 hour. Another side effect is Arashi songs wake me up, instead of snoozing me, so most probably I'll wake up tomorrow with a hangover from Arashi. Enough of the ranting and back to the topic.

Yesterday was the opening for Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince in Singapore. One of the most anticipated movie of the year after 2 years of wait from the last installment, at least for me. So with much effort, I've booked the ticket 1 week in advance (and realized that the company is launching the movie night for this too, ouch!) and rather anxious on what should I expect to see from this movie (or rather whether I actually can make it on time to watch it). I did get into my seat just when the opening song starts playing with the 'Harry Potter' embossed on the wide screen. But how the movie totally fare to my expectation?

**WARNING: Spoiler allert, unless you've read the book**

Well, as part of the anticipation process, I've even re-read the book so that I don't get disconnected on the storyline. Mind you, as the book getting thicker, Harry Potter movie installment has the tendency to chop the story here and there to fit into the 2.5 hours screen time.

Let's start with the good part.

Off course as one of the most anticipated movie in 2009, we're all very excited to see Harry back in his Hogwarts uniform and wand. All the familiar characters are there. And they've all grown up. Neville Longbottom, though not having any dialogs in this installment, but made appearances in several scenes and definitely noticeable since he's so HUGE. Draco Malfoy, is as lanky as ever! He's more handsome on the earlier installments, or may be it's just this time his character is very stress and drained. Professor Snape as arrogant as ever, and we all hate him for it. I love the way he scoffed around when he sees Harry. But the best character of all is Luna Lovegood! Her fluffy voice and not in this earth tone really made her presence and she's actually very cool, even with her weird party dress (but hey, the only wearing the normal party dress is Hermione, doo she's a muggle Lol...). Moving on to the main characters. Well, they're all grow up. Hermione is not the cute little girl anymore, she's a hottie now. And Ron, has become a giant (to me), and buffed himself up too so he can fit his tight t-shirt nicely. Harry, well still Harry, but a much cooler and hotter Harry. But got to admit, as annoying as McLaggen is, he's quite handsome too Lol...

The CG, well, not as bombastic as Transformer, but it met Harry Potter's standard, though it's not much, means that no new tricks other than shown before on the previous installments. But this may be due to the after effect of watching Transformer not wearing off yet. The highlights is the lake of inferis. They're really scarry and even lots of audience actually screamed (I jumped and my friend screamed, what a duo) when one of the inferi's hands suddenly grab Harry's. And off course Dumbledore's sea of fire is superb. I've never seen Dumbledore that cool until the scene.

OK I think that's about the good points, not much, literally that I really don't have much good things to say, because now I want to start with my rantings:

First, I'd expect to see love is in the air. As our teenage wizard and his friends entering the age of raging hormones, one should expect to see lots of snogging on the movie, which is overly (in my view) advertised in the reviews. Why? Because you can count by finger (from 1 hand, not 2) the kissing scenes, and it's not even like the passionate kissing scenes as teenage flicks usually have (totally understandable, it's rated PG, but still? Fangirls would like to see more). I didn't even see the kissing scene of Hermione and Ron, which kept been repeating in every newspaper interview report. Off course one would argue that short kissing may mean deeper meaning if conveyed with lots of emotion too. With Harry and Ginny kissing scene, okay, I can sense that argument. But the scene itself is totally wrong! This is my major ranting! What I'd like to see in live action movie from reading the book is the scene where Harry kissing Ginny after the Quidditch match that the Griffindor won and that marks the start of them being a couple in front of the whole House, and it was cut and change to kissing inside the requirement room where nobody see is around! Major disappointment.

Second, lots of unnecessary scenes. You've already know one from previous paragraph (it's so obvious). The longest unnecessary scene detected is Harry's Christmas holiday and the Weasley's house is on fire because the manic Bellatrix is running havoc. And in conjunction with that scene, Harry and Ginny running into the wheat field. My friend kept saying 'I don't remember reading this part.' Yep, you won't remember because it doesn't exist in the first place! It's better to have the scene of having Snape set Harry on detention during the important Quidditch match and the party after that (yes, I'll keep mentioning this). Or, more memories of Tom Riddle pasts is much even better than having Harry flirting in the cafe with some waitress. And better still, having Fleur inside the Weasley's house will be nice, because they supposed to start the next movie with Fleur and George wedding, or (in horror), they'll cut it totally? Another major disappointment on the end of the movie, where's Dumbledore's funeral? Harry will be best putting his act together in this scene. I'd love to see what's Daniel Radcliffe expression in this scene, but nooo, we're not having that. Instead, we just have to settle with Harry and his pals stands at the tower starring at Fawks flying.

My intake from this installment is that, seems that the producer really try to cut the cost to the minimum as having the least possible amount of characters, optimize the use of the main cast (of course it's OK but don't cut the important scenes that definitely fans are dying to see). Those who never read the book may OK this movie, but me? No, I'd say I just watch this for the sake of watching, definitely not worth the weekend price. I'd just better go back and re-read the book, it's much more engaging than the movie.

Star Trek

Did watch the Star Trek last Friday. Jolly ordered the ticket on the Internet, got my favorite spot but alas, there's 1 freaking tall guy in front of me and he kept sitting straight. Doh! But anyway how was the movie?

Well, it's Star Trek. There's tons of one liner, but I've been waiting for the 'Space the final frontier...' monologue, which is marked of the beginning of every Star Trek series. It was not in the opening, but fret not, you'll hear it in the end, complete with the background music, so Trekkies couldn't whine as much.

Although, I'd whine still, why was Spock snogging Uhura? Since when they're an item? Definitely bizarre, let alone surreal, even Kirk rolled his eyes when he saw them kissing. Lol on that...

Another thing to whine. There's not enough scenes of 'Harold in Space.' Part of the reason of me sitting between the geeks watching Star Trek is because John Cho from 'Harold and Kumar' was there. Definitely Sulu is only supporting and should be grateful enough that he has more than 2 scenes focusing on him. But still, never have enough of Harold in space phenomenon Lol... again...

Ooo almost forget! Another thing to whine. Why Star fleet uniforms are all loose? One of the iconic items from Startrek is their spandex uniform. There, we can kiss goodbye to Seven of Nine uniform. Though Uhura is showing enough skin with her super mini skirts.

Well, other than my geeky whines, overall, it's a good movie because it's not too geeky though there's enough 1 liner to keep Trekkies' mouths shut. There's enough touch of drama with Spock dilemma whether he should be act as a full fledged Vulcan, discarding his human side. Not to mention, Kirk struggling to having his life purpose straightened up. The humor parts come from McCoy and Scotty which are all hilariously entertaining. McCoy mercilessly jabbing Kirk and Scotty swimming in the water tank after accidentally beamed to the inside of it, are the main highlights of the comedy.

So, with the line up of movies premiering last weekend, it's no wonder that Star Trek definitely hit the box office.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Yeah! Finally I'm free from CPA! It won't last long as new semester will be coming soon, but I'll get to enjoy it while it lasts! So to celebrate my freedom, I'm heading to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which tickets are booked in advance, as always! Let me tell you, it's so hard to find the good seats and I did the booking last night. Most of the studios in town were packed before the day even come. I just got lucky that I got to get a good one in Bugis, but the seats are too low so you can automatically see a little mountain (the head) blocking your full view. Gee I wonder why the seats were available yesterday and now I know why. Too bad Cathay doesn't air Wolverine.

So how about the movie? We all know what it's all about. You don't need to be a regular movie goer to know this because the promotion, trailer is all over the place. Newspapers showered the movie with bad reviews yesterday. So I'm curious, is it that bad? Let's see how it fares.

It's a no brainer that the story is one of the X-Men franchises except that this is the prequel from all the previous X-Men movie and the main focus is Wolverine and Wolverine only. Well, X-Men without Wolverine is no X-Men but at least Wolverine here doesn't wear any spandex. Here we see the beginning of Wolverine. How he become Wolverine and where the name Wolverine comes from. We all cringed as we saw they injected the metal into Wolverine's body. The scene lasted for couple minutes so we all braced ourselves narrowing our eyes as we saw Wolverine twinged in agony under the water.

There're lots of surprises for me in Wolverine. But the biggest surprise is Daniel Henney! Me and my movie kaki almost squealed together when we saw his name on the opening. Both of us really acted like fangirls at that precise moment. Then it hit us, is it really him? Yes, it's really Daniel Henney from our beloved K-drama! Well, he's there as one of the villain, Zero, but we don't really care, don't we? So, there we were catching our squeals and breathes every time we saw him at the scene. For those moments, we just forget about the reason why we're sitting there in the first place, sorry Hugh, though you're really buff, macho and all that, but Daniel is our priority now. And we went back to focus on Hugh after Zero died, Lol... Off course before that, we're fixed in the butt-naked Hugh too Lol...

The next surprise is Gambit! Yey! Finally I get to see Gambit in action. Always love this character from the comic books in the old days. But this is where the major disappointment in the movie comes. Why they have to make Gambit look more like Kung Fu master? The first action scene with the cards was totally cool, but after that, no more card, but he ends up using stick? Why would Gambit want to use stick and act like a Shao Lin on the loose if he can use the cards? It's totally illogical and irrelevant!

Other than Gambit, the other X-Men characters are not fascinating and they just pass by as the movie goes. Quite a disappointment for me because I want to see the more familiar characters that were straight out from the comic books. Will love to see Mystic again, or may be the make up is too tedious that they decided to take it out? With this pool of not so exciting characters, the fighting looks more like the regular action movie scenes, and with those Kung Fu movement, I kept feeling the strong de javu of those Hong Kong movie moves reinvented.

The CG? Fabulous and current. I feel that it's not overdone as what the newspapers keep repeating because it's X-Men movie, not some Oscar nominated drama. Do you want to see X-Men movie with Wolverine keep thinking and phasing with his own mind and not clashing his iron (I will say iron because the metal name is just too... complicated) claws? Not me... To me, X-Men movie is about CG CG and CG. The more the better! I want to get entertained, not to think during the movie. By the way, the mountain scenes are fantastic too, the scenes look just straight out from the postcards.

So is the movie good and worth the money? I'd say yes. CG won't be that nice if you watch it with your 22" home TV, off course unless you have the home theater, but the effect won't be the same. I had my own disappointment with the movie, but with what's currently out there now, I'd pick X-Men without a second thought.

17 Again

It's the splurge out of moment that my legs turned right to Cathay cinema, not straight to DG MRT. I guess my irk towards CPA has taken its toll by reflex. Or, my whole day of laptop breakdown made me impulsive to suddenly watch movie. How horrifying. Put that aside, as I was queuing, my cinema watching habit started to kick in. I was prepared to walk away if the cinema didn't have the seat that I wanted, but they did have so with the numb mind I sat there in between screaming fan girls. Ugh, what a way to watch a movie.

Okay, let's start to talk about the movie now. I'm not a Western chick flick girl, I'm more into dorama girl, J-dorama to be exact with the must factor, ikemen. So, with the ikemen factor checked on 17 Again, the show begins with skepticism in mind.

The trailer did fulfill its purpose. It made you curious and it made you laugh. The laugh factor was definitely there as I laughed 80% out of the time. The plot was rather compact which makes the movie flow and stop just nice that you don't feel so anti-climax in the end. Efron does lots of fan service enough to make the fan girls keep screaming all out throughout the movie while drooling over him... throughout the movie too.

What I like the about this movie, well, aside from the ikemen factor (there, it's all out! I'm just a sucker for ikemen :p) are:

1. Perry and Efron did a good job in acting as one person for the grown up and the teen version. Throughout the whole movie, I didn't feel a bit that Mark (Efron) and Mike (Perry) are actually acted by 2 different people. Efron got me on the acting side, though. I'm a sucker for ikemen but I'm very seldom impressed by their acting skill, which is why I was skeptical about the movie in the first place. But Efron did make an effort in this movie. I wouldn't say his stares are as heart wrenching as Kimutaku but, yeah, he's good. There are moments that he would put the face full of Mike's regret towards the past that definitely has the tears fall down already in doramas, but the tears didn't fall down and that makes the scenes even sadder. And to look convincingly in love with an older woman as if they're the same age, that's a very good effort need of some praising. Off course this is a chick flick, not an Oscar nominee movie, but I'm not into movies that require lots of deep thoughts, so it's just right for me. Lol...
   
2. The movie is not just focusing on the main lead. The characters around Mike (his best friend, kids, and soon to be ex-wife) starting to develop in between the movie and in the end standing by themselves as individuals which making the movie quite heartwarming in some sense, and off course, it means a happy end. If you compare the heartwarming rating against what I've seen in J-dorama, it's way below the dorama level. But for Hollywood standard, it's quite good.
3. Definitely the laugh factor. This is one of the very few western chick flicks that can crack me up again and again till the end of it. The dialogues were funny and rather smart, especially between Ned and Mark or Ned with the principal. There were tons of hilarious moments both geeky and cool way, depends on how you see it.
4. The story? Not really original that you'll feel like seeing 13 Going on 30 in reverse mode. Also, we've seen other movies with similar themes when the main character turns back to past, transform to his/her younger self to make things right. But what makes this one different? It feels current, that's for sure. It throws current parenting issues like dealing with the kids' insecurities, sex education, and even basketball coaching. It shows the gap that parents face with their teenage kids, which takes communication to close it. Definitely a movie that parents should also see (mothers definitely are happy to watch as they can gawk on Efron with their daughters -- having some mother daughter bonding sessions Lol)..
   

Do I want to spend 10$ to watch this? If it's not for the splurge out of moment thing I had just now, I'd probably pass this movie and watch the DVD instead. But, you won't regret it if you do spend the money on it. It's not the movie that will still crack your laugh lines on your face again and again, but if you're the fan girl you'll go to see the movie again and again.

So, what's your decision?

Dance with The Wind

Another ballroom dance theme movie. And this time it's the Korean who made it. However, unlike its predecessors, Dance with The Wind tells a different storyline but with the same passion, the passion for dance.
In Korea, apparently ballroom dancing, unlike the Western counterparts, is identified as the dance that people do in bars which is involving naughty housewives and gigolos. So, it's a bit difficult for a man who really genuinely have the love to dance to express his passion, and he most of the time was being misunderstood as a gigolo, which he very much despised. The story ends with a heartwarming ending, and his search for

the dance that he's been wanting to have finally ended. This movie will leave you to ponder how far will you willing to go to pursue your passion, which in this case was done quite extreme.

Speaking of ballroom dancing theme movies, the hype was actually started by the Japanese with the title 'Shall We Dance?' which was released in 1996. The movie tells a story of how a man's life change after he discover the ballroom dancing. The boring life of salary man, which full of routine activities between work and family, makes him wonder of what's the meaning of his life. And he discover it with ballroom dancing. In Japan, where ballroom dancing is not really perceived as a man's sport, people are quite reluctant to admit to expressing themselves through this type of dancing. So the breakthrough that the main character have with ballroom dancing certainly emphasis the 'dare to be different' to obtain his own happiness. After all, everybody has the right to express their passions, as long as it doesn't hurt other people, off course.

So, with the success story of the Japanese counterpart, off course Hollywood would want to join the wagon. Thus, they make the remake (they're seems to be good at it now) in 2004 with the same movie title. Hollywood is not Hollywood if they don't throw in the big stars name in a remake movie. So they cast in Richard Gere as the salary man and Jennifer Lopez as the dance instructor. Although it's also a good movie, something is missing when you compare it with the Japanese version. My guess is because in Western culture, ballroom dancing is not a 'taboo'. People embrace dancing and the American salary man here doesn't have so much dilemma about his passion as what the Japanese salary man has.

In the end, it's all a good movies with the same message, pursuing your passion is liberating and give you the new meaning of life. What's better than enjoying life doing something you like?

James Bond ~ Quantum of Solace

In the middle of tight and hectic deadlines, demands and under absolute pressure, I still did get to see James Bond just because I bought the ticket in advance, thanks to the online booking, and the optimistic me for hallucinating that this week will NOT be so chaotic. So there I was, sitting for 1 hour 45 minutes in the cinema nearby my office (thank God, my office is at Cityhall). I'm not saying that the Bond movie this time is bad. It's definitely entertaining and worth your ticket money but there are couple of things that don't seem to be right and here they are:

1. It looks like this time Bond is going Bourne! I mean, from the first chasing scene, fighting scene, and even the setting and shooting technics, it's all so Bourne!!! I even feel so nostalgic seeing Bond jumping up and down buildings in Haiti. And there's this particular building with the stair case that looks almost exactly the same one in the Bourne movie. And it kept me thinking, 'OMG, Hollywood really lacks of creativity.' I must admit the first fighting scene is so captivating. It was so intense and nerve-wracking. But, after the Haiti fighting scene, the nostalgic feeling starts lurking around until it ends.

2. No gadgets, no fancy cars! What on earth is going on??!! It makes it look like this Bond movie is running on a very low budget. The only techie stuffs that they have are: 1.the table and computer screen where you just swish and swoosh the data by your hand. But this is so 'Minority Report.' We've see this before. We want more, especially this is James Bond we're talking about here. 2. Bond's phone. It got a GPS locating system, and some massive search engines. But it's not so totally new as lots of phones do have wi-fi and so on now. And I bet the current Blackberry can function the same too.

What about the cars, then? The Ashton Martin that seems like was borrowed from the previous movie just lasts for about 5 minutes (?) before it gets squashed. And after a series of old and run down cars, Bond is finally driving ... a Range Rover? There must be some other more flashy SUV in the market to show off the luxury side of the secret agent life.

3. Something wrong with Bond. He doesn't sleep with the Bond girl!!! Just a force kiss with not much passion in the end is kind of an anti-climax for me. This is definitely the first time in Bond movie history. To ensure the audiences of his sexuality, Bond did sleep with a girl, but she's not the Bond girl. And to compare previous Bond movies that have numerous bed scenes, it just feels wrong.

4. Bond seems to go from a dandy to a brute. With so many killings and whackings, the violence seems to be over-bearing. In this movie, Bond seems like to do the killings. He just practically kills every opponents he meets, even M is very concern over it. It suites more to a Bourne than to a Bond. To make it more assuring of Bond try being a Bourne, the expression shown when he whacks people looks so similar to Bourne. I just can't stop comparing throughout the movie because of this. To me, it looks like Hollywood tries to lower future Bond movies budget by roughing Bond's image. For all I know, James Bond has always been associated with luxury, until now, maybe.

My takings: You should watch it in the movie just because fighting scenes always look better in a bigger screen. But other than that? Just re-watch The Bourne Ultimatum DVD will suffice. Some says that Hollywood rushed this movie to the market to capitalize on the franchise, and I have to agree with them after seeing what I think was lacking for it to be a James Bond movie. Will it be a memorable James Bond movie? I don't think so. In my opinion, Hollywood didn't do their best in making this movie. It gives you the vibe of 'Just borrow something from somewhere and throw everything together, and the movie is up on the market.' A bit of disappointment is there but at least Hollywood didn't make it to the point of not even worth watching like their version of 'My Sassy Girl.'

There'll be definitely a sequel as they don't reveal a lot of things like what organization behind Vesper's murder. I'll be definitely expecting something more and definitely more flashy. After all, it's James Bond.

Mama Mia ~ Movie

An adaptation from the already successful Broadway musical platform, Mama Mia is making its way to the wide screen. Heck, and Hollywood with their run out ideas for fresh movies, at least didn't disappoint people with this chick flick.
The story is about Sophie who's getting married the next day, invited her 3 possible father whom she discovered when she read her mom, Dona's diary. To her amazement, the all 3 guys come knocking at her house/inn in Greece. Then all the drama starts...
What I like about this movie besides now I don't need to be curious about the play and now don't feel the need to pay a big bucks to see the play, is that:
1. The ex-James Bond can sing! And his singing part is mostly at the stressful/serious moment, which is adding to our amusement.
2. ABBA's songs really stand through the time. All of their songs still very easy to the ears and along with the story line and so on, they really fit in and doesn't really seem out of the blue. I especially like the moment Dona sings 'The Winner Takes it All' when Sam tries to confront her about what happen 20 years ago. And with the settings (the fantastically beautiful sunset and the sea), made it so real and mesmerizing. You can really feel Dona's heart crying there.
3. The setting is the best. Greece is already famous for its scenery and this movie will make you really want to go there and feel it yourself.
4. The movie has very light and easy to digest humours which you can find during the singing from the background people. I like the part that Dona's singing 'Mama Mia' and she tried to open the roof-top's door but couldn't and the background person open it at ease and looking at her with the face of 'what's wrong with you?'. LoL.
5. The ending. You have to watch to know how fun the movie is. Don't quickly jump from your seat right after the movie ends. Stick around for 1 minute and you'll see what I mean...

My taken: after a long parade of fact that Hollywood has run out of creativity: making movies from Asian movies (Bangkok Dangerous and My Sassy Girl are the latest addition), series of comics (Iron Man, Batman, Hulk, etc, you name it, now they have a movie from it), Jap's horror flicks (don't need to mention the names, too many)... at least this consoles you a bit and you'll thank Hollywood to bringing the musical to your TV... soon... in about 6 months? hehehe... Off course, people will argue the musical is better, but hey, at least this one is affordable and is making everybody happy, I'm happy at least and it's definitely lightened up my Monday ;)...

Iron Man

It's been a long time since my last entry to the place called movie theater. Watched it yesterday and feel it worths my money. Iron Man is based on the Marvel comic series Iron Man. The main character is Tony Stark (played by Robert Downy Jr) who is not your typical superhero. He owns a weapon producing company, an extremely rich and egocentric person until… he’s kidnapped by a bunch of terrorist and was forced to make his ultimate weapon for their use. He lost his new friend when he’s escaping from the terrorist cave by using his metal armor (the one that later he perfected for the Iron Man suit). And, bam, he turns sober and starts seeing his world in a new spectacle. He’s still a egocentric and sometimes even lunatic (which makes the movie entertaining) person but with more consciousness. He causes ruckus by announcing his company will stop making weapons in a press conference.

What make this movie entertaining and fun to watch is the full actions and special effects. The suit is amazing and I would like to have one haha… Stark’s robot that can clean up table is totally funny and I also want one of those too. There are hilarious moments when Stark experimenting with the spare parts of his suit. And most of the entertaining moments are because of Stark’s character itself.

Definitely worth your money for 2008 movie list.

Spiderman III

I watched Spiderman III this afternoon. People have been flocking all movie theaters across Singapore to watch this. My friend bought the ticket online 3 days in advance and she waited until midnight to book the ticket and another hour to actually confirm her booking. This clearly shows how much the public has been waiting for this movie. It is truly a great movie and even better from the first 2 sequels.
The story begins with happy moments for Peter Parker and Mary Jean. Then things started to go wrong when this black sticky alien made a nest in Spiderman’s suit. The bad news was this alien was not only changing the suit’s color to black, but also changed Peter’s personality. Peter became a violent and vengeful person. He only realized his changes after he hurt so many people around him, including MJ and Harry. With his 2 new enemies on his tail, how Peter Parker as Spiderman and Peter overcame all this mess?
With a great story lines, plots and wonderful special effects, this makes the best movie thus far in 2007 J (according to me). On the first movie, we’re touched with Uncle Ben’s quote: ‘With a great power, comes a great responsibility’. With the second movie, we’re captivated with Peter’s dilemma whether to go on as Spiderman or to choose living normally. And now, in the third one, our dear Peter Parker has to overcome his own demon, himself, and love and forgiveness can really amend broken ties between friends. On the third movie, we see Spiderman as normal human beings like us, can be seduced by power, and also make mistakes.

Transformers

Transformers is originally from an animation in 1980s (when I was still in primary school) about alien robots that can transform themselves to cars, jets, trucks, and even radio. My brother and I used to admire all the toys because they were so cool (last time they’re still originally made in Japan).
The movie’s story line is like the whole animation series compress into a 2.5 hours movie. Decepticons led by Megatron try to destroy the earth, then the Autobots, the good guys led by Optimus Prime, prevent them and the clash begins. However, the movie seems to add more characters to the robots. Bumblebee, the smallest Autobot, can get angry when it’s called ‘a piece of crap.’ Optimus Prime seems to have more charm then the one in the animation (or may be because the animation was so old and everything looked so flat :d). Megatron even looks meaner and sadistic in here, especially during the fights. However, the Decepticons are portrayed to look more like aliens with all those gadget extensions than the Autobots.
The best thing from this movie and the point that makes it really worth to pay 10$ to watch it is the special effects. All those transforming and the fights look so real and with the help of a very good sound system, you can feel the floor moving every time there’s a fight. Then, you’ll realize why they only make this movie around this era, not in may be 1990s. Where else can you see giant robots can fight in Matrix moves, and see Optimus make a Kung Fu pose every time it’s transformed. The movie has its balance with some humors here and there, such as, when the Autobots try to hide themselves in Sam’s house. They’re really trying their best to fit in their big chunk of steels into the patio or hang on to the tree so that Sam’s parents can’t see them, which makes it really hilarious. Another cool thing is the details. You’ll see both Autobots and Decepticons will have scratches, such as their paints have scratches and so on after their fights. Not like they’re untouchable or will look shiny forever. Thumbs up for that.
Overall, this is one of the must watch movie in 2007, and you HAVE to watch it in theater, not buying the DVD (unless you have a private movie theater). For those Transformers fans out there, rest assure that there’re lots of fighting too, the drama part is only in moderate level, so you don’t feel cheated watching this movie.

Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix ~ Movie

I just watched the latest installment of Harry Porter series based from its fifth book ‘Harry Porter and The Order of The Phoenix’ today after a good 2 years of waiting J. The theater was packed (obviously I wasn’t the only one so eager to watch that we booked the tickets 2 weeks in advance).
Surprisingly, this is the shortest movie among the previous Porter movies and yet it’s based from the thickest book among the series (how ironic). I give thumbs up for the producer to compress the more than 800 pages book into 2.5 hours movie. Harry and friends grow so fast compare from the last movie, from cuties to hotties J. You can catch Harry’s toned physique wrapped in a tight T-shirt in the beginning part when suddenly 2 dementors attack him and his cousin (I just can’t help but gawking at Harry haha).
The movie takes only the major plot from the book. However, it shows a good amount of Harry’s emotional stages of being accused a liar for telling people that the ‘Who must not be named’ is back, tormented horribly by Prof Umbridge (I hate this lady in the book and even more in the movie), and the final blow, having to watch his god father die. For those who never read the book, yes, it’s a spoiler, I apologize for that, but who hasn’t read the book? You can also see Harry’s acting skill has improved a lot and thus can pull this series of emotional rollercoaster off (keep up the good work, Daniel!).
For non-Harry Porter fans, this movie is still worth to watch because it’s loaded with full blow of special effect! You already see some of them from the trailer and sure are impressed by it and you’ll be immersed for 2.5 hours in the world of Hogwarts. I particularly like the special effect during the mass fighting scenes toward the end of the movie and when Dumbledore fought Voldermort to protect Harry. So what are you waiting for? Join me in Harry Porter mania haha… and you’ll see me queuing for the book on 21st July at Kinokuniya Orchard.

The Bourne Ultimatum

This third installment of the advanture of Jason Bourne immediately goes to my fave movie’s list. With the non-stop (literally non-stop) mind blowing actions packed in about 2 hour duration, this movie makes my heart pumped every single second of it. I don’t think I got a chance to take a deep breadth and relax for awhile as the non-stop action keep continue from 1 stunt to another.
Jason Bourne, again, travelled across Europe from Moscow, Madrid, Turin, London, Tangier (Morocco), and finally back to New York to find out his real identity. He finally got a clue about a project called Blackbriar, and on his way to obtain more information about it, a reporter (Ross), his source (Daniels), and other agents (Dash, the one who got assigned to kill Daniels, Bourne and Nicky, the girl that hunts Bourne in ‘Bourne Supremacy’) got killed. One part that I find so cool is when Bourne instructed Ross via cell phone to avoid all the agents and CCTV across London’s busiest subway (I already watch in suspense, and continue to be in suspense towards the end). The twist and turn of the plot inside the CIA itself during Bourne hunting frenzy makes the movie more enjoyable to watch.
Lots of the stunts are definitely not to be imitated at home (you don’t want to wreck yours and your neighbor’s cars, do you?) and the best thing is that Bourne is even harder die than Bruce Willis in Die Hard hahaha…. Normal people won’t live after running around, get punched, kicked, shot, bombed ~ the proof why Bourne is a die hard, still running, jump across the roof like nobody business, and the best, after got shot, still jump from the 10th floor and amazingly still alive and kicking.
Definitely one of the best movies in 2007 and a must watch for those who haven’t watch, but apparently I think I’m the last one to watch this ahhaha…..

Stardust

If you like Cinderella type of fairy tale, you’ll definitely dig this movie. Complete with the special effect and good casting, this movie is definitely one of the must watch in 2007. The real story begins when Tristan crosses the ‘wall’ to get the ‘star’ for his beloved Victoria. Little does he know (or at least until the end of the movie) that his adventure will turn his whole life up side down and we’ll be keep cheering for him throughout the whole movie. In his journey he does find the ‘star’ but in form of a girl named Yvaine who’s glowing (literally glowing) whenever she feels happy. And Yvaine is also wearing the necklace which is sought by dreary princes (beyond ugly) of the Stormhold kingdom (they need to find this necklace to mark their position as the appointed king of Stormhold). Well, we already know the ending of the story the moment that Tristan jumps over the wall, but we just don’t know how the journey goes and the story is wrapped with the just nice balance of humour, adventure, thriller and romance. To make the journey more exciting, the story includes the witches who hunt the star to prolong their life and the pirate captain who hides his hobby of cross dressing in order to keep his reputation in front of his crew. We laugh, jump with excitement, thrill and sad at the same time as the movie goes on and by the time it ends, we wake up from the dream and back to reality.