Movie Review 38: Sherlock Holmes

Title: Sherlock Holmes

Director: Guy Ritchie

Running time: 2 hours 11 minutes

Genre: Mystery

Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) managed to save a woman from being sacrificed in a dark magic ritual performed by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Lord Blackwood was subsequently hanged to death. However, Lord Blackwood seemed to have risen from the grave and possess magical powers beyond imagination and three more people were killed. Holmes and Watson must solve the mysteries behind  these murders before Lord Blackwood come looking for them!

This is a rather different adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. While the Sherlock in this movie retain the crime solving abilities as in novels, this film adaptation of Sherlock is more eccentric... crazy even... and I think they managed to pull if off nicely. I had quite an amusing time watching this movie as it breaks my expectation of a mundane theory based crime solving activity. Instead, it is laden with action sequences that will drive you to the edge of your seats (okay, that's exaggerating a little :P)

Anyhow, the theory based fighting scenes which were then transformed into split second action is most innovative and it occurs twice only in the whole movie, which I think is the correct move... while entertaining, if this type of scenes were shown more would be boring.

The jokes were also something noteworthy to mention. Although I could see the joke coming miles away, both actors, (Robert and Jude) managed to present it in a convincing manner. None of the jokes seemed forced. I do, though have some problems understanding some of their conversations... some details were lost in the Malay language translation of the subtitles and the actors were talking too fast as certain points that I had trouble catching up.

I really think that this movie is worth one's money and it is a movie that is good enough for one to spend year end holidays on.

Observation: Watson's recoveries after the explosion were really unbelievable :P

Bottomline: Good movie to end the year 2009

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Malaysians Don't Work!

I thought I was being smart for going to shopping complex to watch a movie on Monday, today. I thought that since it's a work day, I can stroll leisurely through the half deserted mall and pick the best spot to eat and get nice seats for movie.

To my absolute horror, there were car jam outside the shopping mall at 4pm, the car park lot was so full that I had to park quite a distance away from the entrance and the queue for the cinema was so long that it is not in between the predetermined lines anymore.

What happened? Malaysians no need to work one kah? Where does all these people come from? And these are not just some youngsters, but whole complete families... so, apparently a lot of people either take leave the same day I do or they are just too rich to work. If they take annual leaves, then what are they doing in the shopping mall? I mean, they could have been in the shopping mall during the weekends. They should not waste their precious few leaves to visit a place they could have done any other day!

Or maybe I'm one of the few who actually need to work to survive in the world :(

And there's this 'blind' aunty who refer me to as 'uncle'! Today just isn't my day.

Turtlish Connection Speed...

Yeah, I know there's no such word as turtlish... just making it up okay... :P. Am celebrating Christmas back at hometown in Kampar and the internet speed is really horrendous. I sometimes go to Coffee Bean in the weekends and when I go there, I would utilise their wireless internet connection. There, when I download a file that's around 100MB, it would take me around an hour to finish.

But here, in Kampar, with wired connection, it took me two freaking hours to complete my download! I took my PS3 back to hometown to download the new game demos that have been popping up like crazy nowadays. The most popular ones are Bayonetta and Dante's Inferno... if you're not a gamer, you won't heard of it. The thing is, the demos are 1.6GB and 1.1GB respectively. And yes, it's legal okay :P. So, in order to download these two demos, I have to download for almost 24 hours! And it's hogging my line that I can't do Facebook or surf the internet comfortably :(

I do realise that Malaysia internet connection speed is still not mature yet... but my main gripe is that the internet connection speed in Coffee Bean is actually faster than the one in my home! How is that even possible?

Anyway, just wanna rant and rave for a while. Oh by the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Movie Review 37: Avatar

Title: Avatar

Director: James Cameron

Running time: 2 hours 41 minutes

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action

Humans found a rare and precious metal called Unobtainium in a distant planet called Pandora, 4.3 light years from Earth. Unfortunately, a large deposit of this metal is at the bottom of a Na'vi colony, one of the residents of the Pandora. In order to gain their trust and to communicate with the Na'vi, scientists develop Avatars, genetically builts human-Na'vi hybrids. The humans would then link their minds with the Avatars and will take full control of their new body. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) are the few chosen to interact with the Na'vis. However, their time for peaceful reconciliation is running out as the army led by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is bent on using extreme force to 'pursuade' the Na'vi to find somewhere else to live.

This is a good movie... unfortunately, since it is directed by The James Cameron, people have higher expectations on him, which made this into a mediocre movie. If this were directed by some unknown director, people would have given him the director of the year title. The movie is basically well-rounded, good storyline (although cliched), good characters, good 3D technology and good creativity.

However, if one were to dig deeper, this is actually a movie about self searching. It is about a human who find his true self in another form. Thus, it is supposed to be an emotional movie. In this area, this movie failed. There were multiple scenes where I expected myself to burst into tears because it has the perfect setting and perfect timing... however, the director (or the writers :P) failed to hit the right spots. For a movie supposedly filled with emotions, there were only two scenes that almost hit the right mark. I'm not sure if it's because of the main characters being animated subjects or because I was too busy reading the subtitles (yes, the Na'vi speak in another language, although they do speak English sometimes). And I must say I was surprised I didn't find any English subtitles when the Na'vi was speaking in their local language... instead it was translated into Malay subtitles... but it was quite accurate as far as I can tell.

The acting were superb... though I would say that it's more due to the superb crafting by the animator. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), one of the Na'vi was really good in showing feral emotions of a local barbarian :P. Her screaming, screeching, hissing were all beautifully done that made you for the moment believed that this is a real character.

The graphics were of course very well done... although beautifully crafted graphics are quite a norm nowadays, but I must commend on the creativity of the graphics designer... the alien world is a sight to behold. I especially love the night time luminescence. If there were such a place on Earth, it would be the most popular tourist spot on Earth. The creatures of Pandora, although is obviously based on the creatures on Earth, is also beautifully done with some nice upgrades done on them. However, at times, it was obvious the sceneries were overlaid with actual forests and it makes a stark difference. The animated scenes were lush and colorful while the background, which is actual scene, is plain and unappetizing. They should have just created everything in the animator :P.

One of the thing that I don't understand is about the lenopteryx (Toruk). This creature is supposedly the most powerful (symbolically and physically) flying creature in Pandora. However, when flying next to a ikran, it is not that much bigger in size. I mean, two or three ikran would have easily overpowered this creature. There were quite a number of plot holes too which I shall not reveal here... you won't really notice them unless you have a keen eye like mine :P. However, I also like the concept of the mass neural network... basically, Pandora is a super big server and every life forms on it (plants and animals) have an USB port. The Na'vi can connect with this network by using their own personal USB :P

(spoilers start)

This is also one of the few rare movies that humans lost to aliens. And I really hate that. I have no qualms of humans losing to humans, but humans losing to aliens? And I really hate the main character for that since he is the turning point for human's loss... all for an alien girl... yuck! :P. And I have thought that the Na'vis would consummate their love by joining their neurons, instead it is still the good old human intercourse :P. And they could have improved the emotional moment by extending the scene on when Mother Nature herself took part in fighting off the invaders... the scene was so short, that it was over by the time the emotions started to build.

(spoilers end)

I think that this movie is worth your time to watch though I have figured out the storyline like 10 minutes into the movie, it is still has great entertaining value. It isn't as good as Titanic though... I know not all love Titanic, but it is arguably one of the most successful movie in the history of movie making. What makes Titanic successful are due to three things:- the forbidden love, three hour movie and Leornado DiCarprio. Avatar has forbidden love and it is also a three hour movie but it doesn't really have a character that teenage girls can moon over. And also, it is difficult for one to feel anything when the Avatar's forbidden love is about two aliens instead of two humans... and three hour movie nowadays is not really as rare as it was a decade ago. This movie would be successful, but unlike Titanic, if someone were to bring this movie up 10 years later, only the rare few would remember this movie.

Observation:If you watch the movie you'll notice an insect that will turn round and round (not just the wings but the whole body too!) when flying... while it looks beautiful, it is just impractical that the insect flies like that... how can it determine it's location when the whole world is spinning around?

Bottomline: It's worth a watch

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Movie Review 36: The Storm Warriors

Title: The Storm Warriors (風雲II)

Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang

Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Martial Arts

Ten years after the last installment movie called Storm Riders, the sequel, Storm Warriors emerged on the silver screen with its original main casts. This time, a new super powerful enemy came, called Lord Godless (Simon Yam) and his son Heartless (Nicholas Tse). They both managed to capture several powerful martial artists including Striding Cloud (Aaron Kwok) and Nameless (Kenny Ho). Whispering Wind (Ekin Cheng) came to rescue them and they managed to escape under the cover of the rest of martial artists who sacrificed themselves. In order to combat the invincible Lord Godless, Wind started to follow the path of evil while Cloud learn martial arts from Nameless.

Okay, I must say this out loud...this movie sucks! Even with the superb casts eg. Simon Yam, this movie sucks big time... and the Pangs (directors) had the nerve to say that the movie is very good. I should have watched the Princess and the Frog!

Sure, the graphics are okay, but it lack the sense of power. I would not say that the graphics are even beautiful... they are just above average. Even when Nameless, Wind and Cloud use their most powerful technique... gathering power and such, I just can't get the sense of power from their techniques, it looks just like swirling smoke and wind to me.

Next, is the acting skills... oh my God... they are just terrible... the conversations doesn't have a flow and the soundtrack is boring. And the romantic scenes are best is they do away with it. I don't feel anything at all when the gals died... not to mention that I have seen that scene coming several thousand miles away. Basically, the gals are really insignificant in the movie.

It's all just so cliche... I've figured out who is the final boss 20 minutes in the movie... no, it isn't Lord Godless, who is rather pathetic for a person who claimed to be invincible. I've never read the comic on this one, so maybe the director is trying to stick to the comic as much as possible. The directors also tried to mimic the effect of a comic book in fighting scenes and I think they failed miserably. Instead of awesomeness, I just can't help but laugh at the childish and amateurish executed scenes.

Generally, I love martial art movies especially those that shows ancient China... but this one, I'm sorryloh... it's really a crappy movie for one with such a big budget. And the ending... OMG what the heck is that? Let me ask you, if your best friend killed your girlfriend would you still sacrifice yourself to save him? I might still accept the 'saving' part, but sacrifice oneself to save the bastard who killed my gf? That just doesn't make any sense! :P... I know, I know, it's normal for this kind of stupid sacrifice in comic books... but the problem is, in the movie, it didn't give me enough reason to believe that the sacrifice is worth it while in comic books, I usually cried in these kind of flashbacks.

Observation: I still can't figure out why the weak point of Lord Godless is in the arm... I thought it was the fist/palm.

Bottomline: Find a better use of 2 hours.

Bamboo Ranking: 1.5 / 5.0