任是无情也动人

Saw Thor 2 today. I liked it, better than Thor 1 actually. Maybe it's because I didn't have high expectations going in this time, or maybe because there's less emphasis on Loki (I still don't get the fandom's obsession with him... OK I get the why, I just don't feel it myself).

( Read more... )

So I finally got to see the Avengers this holiday weekend. I have to say that Marvel Studios has hit another one out of the park. Even five weeks after the domestic debut, the theater was still packed. I had to sit somewhere the front and crane my neck up to watch the film up close cuz there were no seats left in the entire rear section. According to google news, the film is doing really well at the box office and in critical reviews as well.

( Here there may be spoilers )

Just saw the movie today. Dragged my mom with me since the supermarket she needed to go to was right next to the theater. Verdict? I like it. I would even verge to say I loved it.

The Good: The characters. Definitely. Times 100.

Cap was spot on what he should be, which is a level of goodness and niceness you don't see much anymore in today's emo/snarkiness/cynicism overwhelmed entertainment products. He's humble, which is a lot unlike the other superegoesheroes out there. He's well adjusted...though that credit probably goes to Dr. Erskine for choosing the right person to become a hero (makes you want to ask the GL ring what the heck its criteria were, huh?). He's adorably bumbling when it comes to women. And yeah, I honestly cried in the scene where he said his goodbyes and crashed the Hydra plane (not knowing he'll be on ice for the next 75 years).

(Also, the thought occurs to me that Steve's virtues are the same that Superman/Clark Kent, the iconic character, is supposed to also have. But alas, only one of these characters actually managed to pull it off in the movies...all of their movies combined. -_-)

Peggy was probably one of the, if not the best female lead in a superhero movie so far. She kicks butt and takes names, and can probably shoot a fly at 50 paces. She dominated (and I mean that seriously) all the guys she meets. Alas, she's probably the one who got the least far with her guy as well. One kiss and a promise for a date before he crashed into the ice.

Howard Stark also made me squee... he's a lot like Tony from IM. Same flashiness when he gave his World's Fair demo (though alas I think his son got better engineering skillz), and is totally insane enough to fly behind enemy lines and still make it out alive. And the scene at the end where he's spending his millions to scour the North Sea for any sign of Cap is just heart wrenching. More since we know he died before Cap was finally recovered. *sniff*

Dr. Erskine was a character that was barely a footnote in the comics as part of Steve's background. Here, he's fleshed out in the few times he appears and is probably one of the wiser and cooler "old mentor guy" figures around.

Tomme Lee Jones Col. Phillips... I think all the reviews online have said everything better than me about how he rocked.

The Meh/Bad:

I'll agree with some reviewers that the pacing could use some work. The end where Cap wakes up in the modern world I think should be moved to the post-credits teaser, IMO. Or, at least make it shorter and vaguer. Otherwise it takes a lot out of the emotional impact of Cap's sacrifice.

Also, the unclear end of Bucky (typical stereotype of falling into the abyss...if you don't see the body then they're not dead) I think was kinda unnecessary, since I doubt they're going to do anything with the Winter Soldier storyline of comic fame. IMO it would've been better to go with the Ultimates storyline and had Bucky survive everything and be in his 90's when Steve returns, as the one last touchstone in the brand new world he's thrust into. (Edit: Belated note - since the sequel is Winter Soldier, nevermind about this.)

Making Hydra into a rogue Nazi element was kinda...odd, but I guess I could get where they're coming from. Might even be due to restrictions on Nazi imagery in entertainment that's driving the change, actually. Also, in-story, I guess it's a little too hard to explain why Germany didn't win the war in the Marvel timeline with the gear Hydra had available otherwise. Still. It was kinda odd. And I still think it's a little odd that the US was on the wrong side of the tech parity with Hydra. Even with the Norse superscience that Red Skull had, wouldn't he have been limited by other raw materials and funding like the rest of Germany? Ah well, chalk it up to standard supervillainy handwaving.


Anyway, in summary: Two thumbs up for Captain America!

First, disclaimer - I'm not actually 100% sure the download I watched was actually the same Disney's Earth that played in theaters. Apparently there was another version made earlier in England but had a different narrator. So, I dunno, even if it was the original film from England, everything except the narration was supposed to be the same as the actual theater one, and I didn't watch it for the narrator anyways, so I guess it still counts...

( The good, the bad, the different )

Overall: If you love shiny and cuteness, go see it. If you care about the science, go watch National Geographic instead to get it out of your system, then turn off your brain and go see it. You'll never be able to see a real documentary reach these levels of eye candy. I take that last part back, since they apparently swiped the scenes from BBC.

WTB DVD rip/BT download of BBC series...

link to cashew's reviews

Background:
赤壁 (Chi Bi) is supposed to be a remake of the famous battle in the middle of the Three Kingdoms period. I heard from somewhere that it's one of the most expensive movies produced in China to date - although, it's hard to tell where all that money went. The director claims that he was trying to move away from the ROTK standards and stereotypes that was set by the classic novel of the Ming Dynasty and the original TV series, and instead be more faithful to the historical documents on the era. Unfortunately, his attempts seem to have failed.

Overall Impression:
In my opinion, Chi Bi is the Chinese equivalent of Troy. A purposeful maligning of classical stories and history with modern "reinterpretations" and Hollywood flash-over-substance. And worse still, it's apparently only the first movie in a duology or even trilogy (cuz I certainly can't imagine them being able to finish the story in just 1 more movie given the pace the storyline is moving). The characters and characterizations have been modernized and "humanized" to their detriment, and have lost many of the qualities that made these characters into cultural heroes in the first place. In the end, the movie leaves the audience (as long as they are not ignorant of Chinese culture and history) with the impression that the Chinese filmmakers have sacrificed their own cultural heritage in order to make a film through the eyes of the modern western world on one of the most famous times of Chinese history. And that is just sad.

( More wall of text )

9:00 PM local time, Shanghai, CN

Life hates me with the burning passion of a thousand suns.

First, it lulls me into a sense of false security on the flight from Chicago to Shanghai. Because the flight wasn't booked full, there were lots of empty seats to the back where you could take up the full aisle for sleeping. Watched "Enchanted", "Waterhorse", "National Treasure" and the sequel in between naps. Pretty good ride overall.

Then, after we got to Shanghai at about 2:30 PM local time, everything that could go wrong, did.

First, the only piece of luggage we checked in didn't appear. This is most likely due to the last minute transfer we had on our first flight to LA. Who knows where it is right now. Sadly, we'd thrown away the booklet thing that the checkin lady gave our boarding passes with, the same one that included the tag numbers for the luggage check in. The only bright side was that AA was able to locate the check-in numbers in their database. But we still have to drop by tomorrow for the next AA flight to Shanghai to see if the luggage will arrive by then. This whole ordeal with the baggage claim people took about 30 mins to settle.

(This was also the beginning of a domino effect. If it weren't for needing to pick up luggage the next day, and due to the fact that it was raining too hard to motivate any shopping the same day in Shanghai, we would have taken the bus directly to the train station and gone to Nanjing.)

Then, we took the 5th line public bus from the airport to where our booked hotel was. When we got off, due to the fact it was raining and because the bus lady wasn't too sure of the hotel's exact location, she advised we take a cab the rest of the way. As it turned out, the hotel was actually within walking distance of the bus stop; but that is hindsight speaking. The bus trip itself was a hellish (read boring) ride of over an hour from Pudong Airport to (downtown?) Shanghai.

When we got to the hotel, that was when my mom discovered that our passports were missing. Most likely not theft, since her wallet and other misc junk in her other pockets were still there. The passports most likely fell out of her pocket in between the time we were on the bus (when she remembered checking for them), and the hotel.

(Minor note - Mom also apparently booked the rooms for the 7th and the 8th. Unfortunately, she miscalculated the time difference including the international date line. It's right now the 8th. =_=)

As for why the hell she had just the two passports in her pocket... I really rue not pushing harder when coming out of the airport, I was already prepared to put away my passport into my backpack. But Mom asked for it since she said we'll need them soon again when we got to the hotel. Well she was right about that... but she also didn't have them anymore. So we also don't have anywhere to stay for the night anymore.

In the end, after some frantic calls back home to my dad in the US, and to relatives in Nanjing, we found a friend of my mom's in Shanghai who was able to book another hotel for us under her name. The place is kinda... seedy... and is farther away from where all the places we'll need to go to are... but beggars and choosers and all that.

We tried everything so far...

* Called the cab company. But we didn't know to get a receipt of the ride, so who knows if they've been able to get in touch with the right cab driver. Our best hope is that the passports fell out in the cab ride, in which case, they can discover it when the cabbies turn in for the night. But, this is looking more unlikely by the minute... *cry*

* Called the bus company. Also didn't keep the receipt for the bus ride, so only could give them an estimated boarding time of around 3 PM. They said they'll call us back.

* Contacted the local police station. But they can't really do anything other than call the above places and also give us the address/number of the lost & found department, and the embassy.

So tomorrow we'll need to contact the lost & found police division, the US embassy in Shanghai, and also find the time to pick up the remaining luggage piece if it comes it. And also buy a cellphone... since it looks like we're gonna be needing it.

You know, it's crap like this that makes me never want to travel more than car/BART distance from home (and that's home as in Fremont).

Lessons learned:

* Always get a receipt and don't let Mom throw everything away when she feels like it.

* Paranoia over convenience.

I was out running errands today and walked past the theater and thought: "why not"?

( The Review. Spoiler warning. )

Well, I'm sure there are other issues I had with the movie, but these are the ones that come to me right now... I'll edit others in if they come to me.

Making up for old news that I was too lazy to write about previously...

On Saturday I met up with two of my friends from high school. One also goes to Berkeley and I believe is doing a business/math double major. The other is home on break from UC San Diego, where she's also doing an engineering major like me. The latter friend was meeting up with me for a quick lunch and then seeing movie; her little sister and another friend's little sister were tagging along for the movie. The friend from Cal was just meeting us for lunch.

Anyhow, since I don't want to have to put this entry under friends-lock, I won't name any names or go in too deeply about our lunchtime conversation.

The movie we saw was Spider-man 2. And I have to say that my overall impression of that movie has been very similar to my reactions of most previous Marvel movies with the sole exceptions of Xmen and sequel.

( Spider-Man 2 review )

Right, so I was out for the most of yesterday. Woke up late, had lunch, then went to the movies to see Shrek. Then I holed myself up in Barnes & Nobles until their closing time before dragging myself back home again. A good day, all in all. ^_-

( Shrek 2 )

( Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion )

Heh. The Slayers movie was very amusing. ^_^

Interestingly, I think they did an excellent job with the voice cast. The DVD I got has both the Japanese and English voice version, with options for subtitles and stuff. I actually think that the English dub made more sense (ie. is more understandable) from a viewer's/plot point of view than the English subtitles. The main characters sounded pretty alike in both the English and Japanese version too. Well, they kept Nagha's laugh the same (ie. annoying) anyhow.

The movie isn't an animation/music masterwork with depth of content like "Ghost in the Shell" or "Princess Mononoke", but it is highly amusing and a great popcorn movie to giggle over with some friends.

And speaking of "Princess Mononke", I loved it too! ^_^ Wonderful, wonderful characters who are very well developed. None of that 2D cardboard cutouts anywhere, not even for the minor supporting characters.

The plot and theme were pretty obvious, but well explained and developed. I didn't get the sense of *too* much sermonizing and they did a pretty good job of "show, not tell". The myth/cosmology system didn't make much sense, but I guess that's probably just my ignorance of Japanese folklore/superstitions showing. By itself, no further explanations was neccessary to explain the truly important parts of the story.

And the characters... did I mention I loved the characters? Ashitaka and Mononoke reminded me somewhat of Chihiro and Haku from "Spirited Away", though a lot of their interactions and dynamics are different. The romance/love story wasn't too hammy, and was kinda cute, actually. Pitied the boar spirits. Love the wolf spirits - kawaii!! Moro was awesome and I recognized the voice through the synthesizer effect. ^_~

Great action, great drama... "Princess Mononoke" definitely lived up to its reputation!



...though I still say that Legolas has a 6/10 to 9/10 chance of beating Ashitaka in a Khazan match. :p