China 2011: Day 0-1 Afternoon

We left home late Thursday night to catch a 1:00 AM flight. Took BART, and somewhere around the two transfers and whatnot, something ripped my jeans. While this isn't much of an issue on the plane since the whole trip is nighttime, it looked so bad when we arrived in Taipei that I had to change in the airport bathroom. Bleh.

The flight itself was ok. The plane had individual touchscreens at the back of every seat. So unlike the American plane I took last year (forget which airline specifically), there was no sharing screens and you could select whatever you want. The inflight movies available for selection were actually fairly new too. So I got to see X-Men First Class and Super 8 after all without having to pay theater tickets. (I'll review the movies separately.)

After watching the two movies I decided to get some sleep cuz we're supposed to be arriving in Taipei in the morning, meaning it'll be a while before I get to actually sleep. Unfortunately, it was kinda hard to sleep on the flight, and I kept dozing off for awhile and then jerking awake when we hit some patch of turbulence. I think in that respect, the airline I had last year was better. I remember my uncle saying that US airline's pilots are the best cuz their Air Force trained or something. Oh well, I guess the pros and cons all balance out.

We arrived at Taipei at something like 5:30-6ish, just around sunrise. The moment we stepped outside the airport, we were hit by a wave of suffocating humidity. Gah. So glad I did decide to bring along a pair of shorts after all rather than listen to my mom rave about how it'll get so cold. Also, on the bright side, at least it wasn't a wave of suffocating smog and humidity as it would've been on the mainland. In fact, driving to our hotels, I note that most of the buildings tend to be...well...cleaner than the buildings in China. I wonder how much of that is due to the lack of soot, smog, and acid rain? :-P

The tour we schduled with doesn't actually begin until Sunday, so we actually have the first day of arrival free to do whatever. After some thought, we went to the National Palace Museum. I was hoping to get some nice pics to match the stuff from last year. Unfortunately, the darn place does not allow photography at all and in fact made people check in any recording equipment at the door. What the hell? So yeah, I saw some nice pieces. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll remember any of it by the time we leave the island.

We ate lunch at a place next to the museum. The noodles were ok; the thin noodle soop with milkfish was actually good. Taiwanese traditional dim sum, on the other hand tastes...weird...yeah; let's just say it's an acquired taste.

Finally, we came back to the hotel because my feet was hurting and I was starting to fall asleep on my feet. I'll probably take a short nap (not too long that would make it hard to switch around my diurnal cycle) and then I think my mom is planning to get together with some of our distant relatives in Taipei tonight. More later...

Movie Reviews: X-Men First Class and Super 8

First of all, I saw both of these as an in-flight movie and not on the big screen, so I guess any CGI or SFX that was made to have them look cool in the theater was probably lost in translation. I'll mainly be commenting on the other aspects of the movies than how they look...

X-Men was great, just like everyone said it was. The pacing was fast paced, the plot carried you along with every tide, the fact that you knew who was going to end up on which side didn't detract from the suspense of how things are going to get there.

The plot was... ok, it was pretty standard comic book. Let's not talk too much of plausibility of the bad guys' plan. There are also some other visible plot holes, but they don't detract too much from the movie. The more important plotline of Xavier finding young mutants in need and becoming a mentor to them was nicely done.

The characterization was...wow. They did an awesome job with the two stars – Xavier and Magneto (nobody cares about the villain). I especially like that they managed to give Xavier some depth instead of cardboard xerox of MLK Jr., let him have some flaws that make so much sense on him, and yet still make him the goody two-shoes guy. Magneto was more uneven if looked at overall, but he certainly had quite a few moments that really made the guy shine.

Most of all, there was chemistry between the two of them that just sizzled, arguably even better than frickin' Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen playing off each other in the previous movies. I can certain see where all the slash fics are coming from, because there are so many emotionally heavy scenes between the two of them that just make you go "Oh my god they are so totally doing it behind everyone's back."

The rest of the cast is good too (except the dragonfly-girl which made me go "bwah?"). Mystique is great. Banshee is great. Havok is great (though I wonder how they're going to tie him into continuity with Cyclops). The villains were...not that great, but nobody really cared about them.

Three thumbs up for X-Men First Class.

Next, we have Super 8, which unfortunately did not live up to the hype. I was expecting horror. I was expecting sci-fi. I was expecting more than just 3 frickin' scenes with the alien that the plot is supposed to be centered on.

Instead, we got barely pubescent teen drama, with all the you like her, I like her, she likes you, our parents don't want us to talk to each other... GAH. If I wanted a relationship chick flick I wouldn't be going to something billed as sci-fi/horror!! Who the hell wants to see barely-teen soap operatics in their sci fi?!

Aside from the kids who are pretty much living out of Lady Luck's pocket, everyone else... sucked. The deputy guy who was Romeo's (can't remember the kid's name) dad--nothing made me care about this guy thoughout his angst and dysfunctional relationship with his son and the later turnaround; whatever. I barely got what the hell was going on with the other guy that was Juliet's dad (I can't remember her actual name either). The other kids in support roles were annoying and utterly transparent in their roles for the movie. The alien, as mentioned before, was largely absent. The military – bleh, so annoyingly one dimensional it makes me long to rewatch Stargate instead. And everyone else was pretty much cardboard/fodder.

FYI: Horror is not randomly killing people out of the blue. That's just playing people for the shock value. It is not horror if we don't evey care about 100% of the people killed.

Worst of all, the climax was an utter anti-climax, and then it just skips to the end credits. W. T. F. Who wrote this crap?

Two thumbs down for Super 8.