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| When I woke up in the morning, this news kinda of shocked me. Michael Jackson had passed. Okay, there was also the passing of Farrah Fawcett, but we all know which passing would dominate the headlines.
Reading the news does not quite hit you that bad. But driving to work in the morning and finding all the radio stations playing a Michael Jackson song will slowly eat at you. That morning, every Michael Jackson song sounded sad. The more I listened, I too was about to shed a tear. But radio callers had already beaten me to it. Callers were sobbing away as they explained how a certain Michael Jackson song meant something special to them. Even the usually upbeat and cheerful radio deejays sounded extremely solemn. I suppose it was that morning that it dawned to most of the world what Michael Jackson really was to music.
The recent years certainly have not been kind the artiste who has been called the King of Pop. Now looking back on his career, he was indeed fitting the title. And also is the haunting fact of how his life very much mirrored the life of another king, the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley. Michael Jackson's has fans which worshiped him and tons of impersonators much like Elvis. And it was no denying the kinda of influence both of them had to music. If there was no Michael Jackson, there would not have been the likes N'Sync, Justin Timberlake, Usher or other pop acts.
I do observe however that for those who do not so enthusiastically embrace music, this passing of the King hardly had much effect to them. I admit the certain sadness I had as I went through my play list of Michael Jackson.
Pop lost its King today and the music world mourns.
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| It has been a busy summer movie run. Watchmen. Star Trek. Terminator Salvation. Now add another fanboy flick to the list, the much anticipated Transformers Revenge of The Fallen. You know the fanboys were going crazy. Not me personally because I was excited over Star Trek, but now that it was out, I could move on to Transformers. Our fellow fanboy got a little ambitious this time around, and decided to attempt to organise an outing for nearly 70 people. Fanboy enthusiasm knows no limit. I did not do any work, other than sit back and advise. After much headache, blood and sweat, the fanboy managed to pull it off. The experience brought us a little more inside knowledge into the workings of our local cinema operators and their marketing methods. It also made us look like we were a corporate VIP group, because no smart business person should say no to 70 tickets priced at RM11 per ticket, confirmed on the spot and willing to be paid for in cash. Our runner got the VIP treatment and was even given a tour of the facility. With tickets later bought, fanboy suddenly yielded a lot of power in his hands, determining who was allowed to bring friends and where they were assigned to sit. Like Emperor Palpatine said, absolute power!
Movie day finally arrived. The hall was nearly our's the fanboy's. I must pity the other cinema-goers who did not belong to our group. When 70 people in the hall mostly know each other, prior to the rolling of the film, there would be the casual exchange of inside jokes, inside references and inside insults between members of said group of 70 which would leave non-group out in a lurch. Certainly fun for the 70, but not fun the non-70. Even yours truly being in the 70 faced some irritation when certain member of 70 had no qualms about kicking about in their seats assuming the one in front is somebody they know pretty well. Like the line from Under Siege, "assumption is the mother of all f*** ups." Annoying cinema patrons aside, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen started to roll and some 2 hours later it was over.
 Lucky number 70. It seemed it took close to 3 minutes just to print it all out.
I would have to say that this sequel rocks. I have no idea why critics have been bashing it. First up, you have to know what you sign up for when you watch a movie based on transforming robot toys directed by Michael Bay. This reads big loud explosions and action sequences; minimal plot, storyline and character development. I was never expecting to connect with this movie on any emotional level, despite fanboys going about how the first movie's Optimus Prime entrance scene brought a little tear to their eyes. Which they would argue such emotional level was sorely not felt at Optimus Prime's supposed death. Oh, yes. Spoilers. Then again, refer to the part about minimal plot. If anyone wants emotions towards Optimus, go back and watch the 1984 animated Transformers The Movie. That was the only proper Optimus death in my books.
However, Revenge Of The Fallen serves its purpose. The robots are here to do the awesome fight and action sequence, the humans are just to give a little give what little human connection they have. Although the human connection felt towards Megan Fox is more of the carnal sort. Yes, she is the hottest ass in the world right now. Shia LaBeouf still holds up pretty decently here. He really does have a knack for comedy. Robot fights were bigger, crazier and awesomer. I know Devastator proved rather useless, but how can you not enjoy a Transformers live action movie when it features a Combiner? That can only be topped perhaps in the future when Bay brings in Omega Supreme, Fortress Maximus or the Dinobots.
I stress again how much I enjoyed Revenge Of The Fallen also because Michael Bay went all-out with the military hardware this time around. I suppose if someone got the impression that Michael Bay got distracted from shooting a film about giant robots and ended up making a military movie, I would not blame them. Bay looks like he got the entire US Military involved. Marines, Navy, Air Force. Why not just throw in Delta Force, Green Berret and Navy SEAL? I also now know why US troops were being withdrawn from Iraq. They were back to the shoot Revenge of The Fallen. But anyhow, I laughed every time a scene of featured some military hardware deployment. Bay probably should have directed G.I Joe.
Plot-wise is nothing to shout about, but I kept seeing Star Wars in it. The Fallen is practically the Emperor and Megatron is Darth Vader. I did find this to be much more of a G1 movie than the previous one. Soundwave certainly would not work as a tape recorder in this day and age, but they still kept his essence there in the form of a satellite. Cool synthesized voice was there too, voiced by the original Soundwave himself, Frank Welker. And he did sort of 'deploy' Ravage. The grovelling Starscream is also back and that is how G1 should be.
I would say that was pretty much it about Revenge Of The Sith. I mean, Revenge Of The Fallen. It is not going to win any awards (expect maybe bad awards by the looks of it), but I got my kick out of it. I know I have a taste for good movies (read: Oscar movies) which are intellectually and emotionally stimulating, but I still know how to enjoy a good popcorn fest were I leave most of my logic behind. Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen is just that sort of movie. Now stop bitching.
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| Every time a big sequel movie comes out, I always make it a point to revisit the earlier movie. So with the release of Terminator Salvation, I had to go back and watch Terminator 2 Judgement Day and Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines. You will notice there is no The Terminator, mainly because I did not have great impression of it when I was a kid. Not much on special effects and it was considered a low budget sci-fi movie. But since I had my T2 Judgement Day Ultimate Edition DVD and Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines Special Edition DVD, both acquired during my stint in the US of A, those were easily accessible.
I look back at T2 and realised this is how a sequel should be made! Not only was it bigger and more explosive, the story had even more depth and character. James Cameron is a perfectionist director, and he made history making it the then most expensive movie ever made (at the time). It was worth every penny. Sitting down to watch it today, the action sequence still hold up. The story expanded the characters and concept of the first one. It must have been ingenious on the writers part to have Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-100 turn from the villain from the first movie, into the hero of the second. Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor turns from whiny wimpy girl into a one-woman army. T2 pulls all the stops. It certainly deserves its place in the best sequel movie hall of fame, joining the ranks of The Dark Knight, Aliens (James Cameron again!), Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2.
T3 was a little more cheesy. I admit it was a great (and fun) idea to have the next version of the Terminator to be a femme fatale, known as the TX or Terminatrix (Terminator female dominatrix, get it?). Clair Danes does not have much to do in this one though, while Nick Stahl seems to have taken the character of John Connor from a street-wise kid in T2 to whiny wimpy adult. I did not like this turn very much. And then have the story say Sarah Connor died of cancer. Wonder how this fits in with the recent Sarah Connor Chronicles?
Anyway, seven years later, the Terminator franchise returns with director McG at the helm of Terminator Salvation. I know, this was the guy who did the Charlie's Angel series. Could he pull off a famous action movie franchise? The trailers looked pretty bad-ass, introducing what every sci-fi should have, a giant walking robot. Because everybody loves giant walking robots. Ask Optimus Prime and friends. Throw in everybody's favourite intense actor Christian Bale and a rather compelling-looking newcomer Sam Worthington, it looked like Terminator Salvation had some good things going for McG and team.
Stepping out from the cinema, I have to say I enjoyed Terminator Salvation a lot. Character development was a little lacking even for John Connor. But even with the little that Christian Bale was given to work with, he still managed to make John Connor compelling. Bryce Dallas-Howard makes a much better Kate Connor compared to Claire Danes despite the very small role. It was a nice touch to include a young Kyle Reese into the story played by Anton Yelchin, last seen in Star Trek. But the real surprise has to be Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright. I somehow wish the trailer had not spoiled the surprise twist of his character, but even that was rather obvious from the start of the movie. I think Worthington nearly upstaged Bale in this one. And Bale is one hard actor to upstage.
Action is darn right edge of the seat. There is 10 feet tall Harvester going around capturing people, as well has able to combine with a Hunter Killer. The T-10s from Terminator 3 make appearence as well. But the most fanboy moment had to be the appreance of the Governator Schwarzenegger's image on the T-100. I know it was not him in it, but fanboy enthusiasm takes anything you give them.
I do not understand why critics were tearing this movie apart. It is by no means perfect, unable to achieve what T2 achieved, but certainly much better than T3. Some greate characters from our favourite charismatic actors, lots of explosion and action, what's not to like? I should probably revisit The Terminator and The Sarah Connor Chronicles just to get back in the whole Terminator lore once again. Terminator, it will be back.
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| In the world of movie and science fiction, there is only 2 franchise that comes to mind, Star Wars and Star Trek. While I remain truly a Star Wars fan, I do follow Star Trek with great interest.
My first encounter with Star Trek started back in the 90s with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). People generally find Star Trek boring due to all the science lingo and lack of action. But it is all this technological and science babble that keeps my interest in the series going. Later on, local television and now-dead MetroVision screened Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which I tried to follow to the best that I could, considering Seremban is not supposed to be in MetroVision's coverage. Spoilt Klang Valley brats. After that Star Trek went into hibernation, before coming back with a prequel series, Enterprise, which subsequently pissed off nearly all Star Trek fans before having its plug pulled. The TNG movies did not fare all to well either. I would call First Contact my favourite Star Trek movie to date, but by the time they reached Nemesis, nobody seemed interested in Star Trek anymore. With Nemesis and Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise was considered to be dead.
That was until a few years back it was announced that J.J. Abrams was going to direct the new Star Trek reboot. Everyone started getting excited. Moviedom was finally welcoming back one of its favourite sci-fi franchise. Of course, when it is a franchise with this much history and loyal fanbase, there is always concerns about how it would turn out. As I do with all movie, my anticipation for it was high as well and I was excited. I eagerly got the tickets, which did not pose that much of difficulty as compared to the likes of The Dark Knight. Stupid average Malaysian audience.
 Fanboy and Trekkie were both excited over the new Star Trek movie.
SPOILERS START
Having caught the movie, I have to say this was one great adventure ride. Star Trek never felt so epic. From the visuals to the musical score, it had epic movie written all over it. Abrams signature slow-motion sequence during emotional scenes were well in there in the opening. There were excessive use of lens flare everywhere. Heck, I never knew classic Enterprise would look so cool, even though I consider it one of the least impressive Starfleet ship designs compared to the slicker Sovereign class starship. Nero's Borg technology retrofitted Romulan mining vessel looks like some weird fusion between Vorlon-Shadow vessels, and it is huge.
My earlier concern was how do you reboot a franchise with so much history without pissing off the legion of fans? After the movie (and the comic books) I can see why it was perfectly acceptable. No other sci-fi series plays with time travel and parallel universes as much as Star Trek does, and it was only logical that this was the way they rebooted the series. You could still tell fans that their original series and history was still intact, that this was just a new timeline. Trekkies will take in any time travel crap you give them.
The excellent new cast gave a fresh new take on the old crew, but still kept their famous characteristics there. Fandom was practically screaming in approval for Zachary Quinto as young Spock. He definitely has the eyes for the job. Of course, original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, was not about to be out done by a young punk, makes a significant appearance in the movie as well. But try not to think about how that works out, these time travel paradox might fry a few brain cells in the process. There lies the strength of the new movie as well, keeping very much the familiar elements from the original series, and with a fresh take. Chris Pine's Kirk is equally dashing as well as arrogant. Karl Urban's McCoy was pessimistic with some of the best lines. Zoe Saldana suddenly made Uhura very hot. Simon Pegg's Scotty is a bubbly ball of positive energy. Anton Yelchin's Chekov gives us the comic relief and John Cho's Sulu is an ass-kicking Sulu. I was particularly happy and greatly amused at the inclusion of the infamous red shirt character. Trekkie and I seemed liked the only ones in the cinema hall laughing out loud when the red shirt finally bites the dust. And having Kirk being chased around seemed something out of The Original Series (TOS), even though I have never watched an episode of it in my entire life. But Galaxy Quest helped me a lot.
Essentially, Star Trek is one big fun adventure ride. It still remains faithfully science fiction, but with lots of the humour from TOS. But I must mentioned how a fellow sci-fi geek pointed out how that they made the new Star Trek more like Star Wars. Could not be helped, I supposed, with Industrial Light & Magic working behind the scenes. Is that not like a conflict of interest? Also check this out for another take on the comparison. But even as the comparisons are made between Star Trek and Star Wars, I believe their true similarity lies in the way it manages to tell an interesting story with great characters. That is what a great movie is made of essentially.
Once again, welcome back, Star Trek. We missed you for a while there.
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| "No more line on the horizon." - U2, No Line On The Horizon
Another highlight from March, was the release of U2's latest studio album, No Line On The Horizon. If one had been following the music news, it made headlines (or at least in the U2 fan community) that the album accidentally went on sale online in Australia some weeks before the official release date. With that, the leaked copy made its run around the Internet thanks to the ever wonderful Torrent and ED2K sites. To be honest, I got a leaked copy too, but only because I knew I was buying the album any how. Rest assured, my consciences is still functional.
Now I had heard the album, and on recently acquired my very own copy of the album. Being the self respecting U2 fan that I am, I knew I could go no where near a standard CD edition. But mind you, unlikely previous times where the album only came in standard and deluxe/collectors form, this time around it came in 4 editions - standard CD, limited edition digi-pack, limited edition magazine form and limited edition hardcover book form. I made my decision and went with the digi-pack, after considering its packaging and value. Observe the photos below:
 A plastic slip cover holds the album. I love U2, but I admit this is the most boring U2 album cover ever.  Ah, but once you slide the plastic cover, the equal symbol comes off, as it was part of the cover.  Open up to find the usual impressive photography of Anton Corbjin.   And there is the CD, but wait...  ... part of the CD booklet opens up into a big poster! Not that I will be removing it from the CD case. But enough with the cosmetics. What about the album? Well, I felt I liked the album on first listen than I did with previous U2 albums. It kicks of with lots of energy from the first few songs, and slowly brings into to a sober close with the last few songs. Briefly here is what I thought about the songs:
No Line On The Horizon - I think of it as U2 being influenced by Arcade Fire. It has a guitar sound which is different from what the band has done so far. But I like the strong bass line coming from Adam's part.
Magnificent - Trademark U2 song with a slow build up, but you can almost anticipate the energy the song is about to bring. Bono's voice sounds great on this song. Definitely one to be heard live. I call this U2's worship song on this album, with lyrics which seem to be addressing a higher power that Bono is so fond of. I am pretty fond of Him too.
Moments of Surrender - Sounds like something which came off from the Achtung Baby-Zooropa era. It feels mellow and The Edge comes in with some guitar solo to top it.
Unknown Caller - Reminds me of the likes of Walk On, the inspirational tune sort. I am not too sure, but my personal view is the Unknown Caller is God, who wants us to "cease to speak, so that I may speak."
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - Another fun U2 song. It is catchy, the lyrics are almost amusing. You can imagine when it is live and everybody joins in at the chorus and shouts in unison "I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight!"
Get On Your Boots - The title track, which were most of the energy is pumping on this one. There are shades of Vertigo on this one and Adam has a strong funky bass line running in the background. It is a song you can jump and dance to for fun.
Stand Up Comedy - This trend of strange and funny-sounding lyrics is starting to show a lot. "Napoleon is in high heels"? And yet Bono still manages to drop a "God is love" into it. Musically, another one for the fun song catalog.
FEZ-Being Born - If this album was suppose to be experimentation of new musical sounds, this is the closest you will get on this album. It comes as one track, but I think the hyphen only goes to show its 2 songs, even when I listening to it. Bono's voice is hitting top form again in this song with his excellent wailing.
White As Snow - Things start to slow down as Bono sings the blues. But if I recall the phrase white as snow, it is probably another biblical reference. Which leads me to see this song as a possible repentance song, or one seeking forgiveness.
Breathe - Things pick up again, and Bono is singing silly words like 'cockatoo' and 'ju-ju man'. But I like The Edge's guitar licks. The sing feels like a pick-me-up song, it is uplifting.
Cedars of Lebanon - The album comes to a very mellow and almost sad close. Bono is half-singing and half-speaking in this song. I feel its more like poetry.
Overall, I think it is a great U2 album (you expected any less from U2?). But like all U2 album, it has to be listened a number of times before it starts to grow, and also the chance to hear it live will totally change one's view of the songs. I do admit that this album suffered from the dangerous effects of hype. Bono made it sound like it was a change like what Achtung Baby was. Sure, there are songs which seem rather experimental and unconventionally U2, but it is no successor to Achtung Baby. People need to stop giving into hype. It is dangerous. Hype kills.
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