Heroes: Villains

Just saw Heroes: Villains Chapter 1 and 2 yesterday. Not bad, but to me, Heroes is beginning to look like Lost now, minus the foliage and the smoke monsters. But anyway, mutants are definitely way more cool than being stranded on an experimental project/island.

So anyway, Level 5 breaking out is probably the most interesting storyline string to happen, since they're gonna be hunted down and stuff. And you know what that means.

Cool CGI and people dying.

Pamela couldn't stop laughing when I told her that Sylar was related to the Petrelli brothers. Then she was like, "They have nothing else to write izzit? Are the writers Chinese or something?"

Epic. Own.

I gotta admit, that was a VERY good one. Anyone who's familiar with Hong Kong TV shows (not sure about China) knows that everyone is somehow connected/interrelated/literally related to each other, and that each episode will just keep dragging on for the most pointless reasons. So far, Heroes hasn't fallen into the latter trap yet, even though the storyline does get a bit tedious, sometimes.

*ahem*Season 2*ahem*

Read More......

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008)

On the seventh minute, Russell Wong gets pulled apart by horses.

On the eighth minute, Michelle Yeoh is stabbed.

And on the ninth minute, Jet Li becomes a flowerpot.


[Nah, he gets encased in terracotta, which is red clay, hence, the flowerpot reference. Credit goes to Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times.]

When I read the initial release description for the movie, the words "shape-shifting mummy" gave me the impression that Jet Li'll go back and forth from looking undead during fights and stuff. Kinda like the flying toilet papermummy in Talos The Mummy, but minus the awful storyline and lack of famous people. And even though he was the bad guy, Jet Li (being Jet Li, of course) really didn't deserve to die after such a lame fight scene. The way they killed him was pretty good, though. His death was much better than Cate Blanchett's in Indiana Jones 4.

It being Jet Li, I was expecting an ass-load of fight scenes. Unfortunately, there isn't much. They saved what little of it for the end. Short sword-fight with Michelle Yeoh, short unarmed combat with Brendan Fraser... It's like, he's starring in the movie, but his kung-fu is just making a cameo. It's way much shorter than Venom's screen time, and that's saying something. Jet Li was SEVERELY (even more emphasis on the word) underused in this movie.

Then, we had a blatant and obvious attempt at fanservice in the form of Brendan Fraser with his shirt off. Not that I'm complaining. I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen that since George Of The Jungle. Teeheehee xD

There's this bit when Jet Li throws the magic knife at Brendan Fraser, and he jumps aside to dodge it, and I thought, whatever happened to Fraser's mad knife-catching skillzzz as demonstrated in The Mummy Returns. Ya know, near the beginning, in the mansion, this baddie throws a knife at Fraser and he just catches it and swings/hurls it back at the dude. That was awesome.

Anyway, the movie seems to focus more of his son Alex than anything *hellowhereisBrendanFraser*, and I've read that the next few Mummy movies will be revolving around Alex, with parents taking a back-seat kinda role.

Not that Luke Ford isn't eye-candy material, but... ugh. George Lucas, anyone? *rolls eyes*

Alex has an American accent in this one. Apparently, 13 years is long enough for you to lose all trace of YOUR ENGLISH ACCENT!!

Sorry to nitpick, but I'm a stickler for continuity. Don't get me started on the lack of Rachel WeiszEvie. Nothing wrong with Maria Bello, but original cast owns all. And besides, why couldn't they have gotten Freddie Boath to play Alex again? Six years is long enough for a fricken' growth spurt.

Ending was typically hilarious. Jonathan leaves China to go to Peru where, according to him, "there won't be any mummies". A post-script as Jonathan rides off in his cab states: "Soon after, mummies were found in Peru."

As interesting as the whole concept of China's first emperor returning as an undead bent on ruling the world (I thought that whole terracotta army thing was ingenious), the movie was kind of a letdown in my book. I miss Egypt. I miss the music. Bring back Imhotep, I say! Although I don't think he'd be too keen on it since he got spurned by Anucksunamun in the previous movie, and thus, wouldn't have much of a point in future instalments :P

And as usual, whenever Anthony Wong is in an English-language production, be it American or no, he plays a villain. Not THE villain, but A villain. Poor guy. Talk about being typecast.

Read More......

Update.

Been wanting to blog for a bit now (whole lotta rants about movies and other craps), but my laptop's been screwing with me. I really gotta get that motherboard fixed.

So anyway, Heroes is BACK!! WHEEE~!! Can't wait to get downloading/streaming to watch the friggin' thing! Gosh, I'm totally psyched now! :p

My exam timetable came out yesterday, and both papers are on opposite ends. Literally. My first is on November 3rd (when the exam period starts), and my last is on November 13th (the last day of the exams). This means I have 10 days of pure, unadulterated gamingMath revisions! Buut... either way, I win. I love Math.

I have loads of opinions on a whole bunch of books I've read recently, plus one of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Will do that in uni or something.

Next month's to-do list: check out reviews on Max friggin' Payne!

Read More......

Mixing up music.

During music class today, our lecturer played us Debussy's La Mer, which is French for "The Sea".
For some reason, listening to the first movement reminded me of the theme from Spider-man.

I'm just as clueless as you are on why that is.

The clarinet section of one of Ravel's Habenera-inspired work sounded a bit like the opening theme for Sneakers (fantastic hacker movie with ensemble cast and Robert Redford. Before he got craggy.).

This goes to show that I have the ability to confuse myself with every possible musical genre known to man.

Read More......

[Untitled.]

Just woke up to the sound of furious teeth-brushing (my room is next to the bathroom), and thought it was tomorrow morning already.

Jumping out of bed and switching my cellphone on (was charging it), showed me that it was just 6.30.

PM.

Turns out I forgot that I was having an afternoon nap. The drawn curtains didn't help either.

I flew out of bed for nuffin'. Sob.

Read More......

Random things.

Submitted a 4000-word report this morning (luckily it was a group effort), because administration took so long to put the online submission boxes up. And to think that I woke up at 8.30am so that the silly thing wouldn't lag on me, since everyone will uploading their assignments today (last day, and having a copy of the paper online is compulsory, so everyone usually hands in the hard-copy once they've uploaded theirs online).

This Finance unit is an utter mess this time around. We can only access our respective notes for the week on the DAY of the lecture. Talk about last-minute. Like, helloo... some of us have classes all day without breaks in-between. Geez.

I'm reading through The Complete Idiot's Guide To Classical Music for my music research assignment. We're supposed to compare two successive music periods, in terms of tonality, texture, form, yadda yadda fricken' yadda, eck.. Even though the book says Classical Music, I checked the contents; they do cover Romantic music. So there. If I can put the book in as a reference, maybe I can make my lecturer laugh and get a sympatheticbetter mark.

I feel like doing History as another degree (my Mum says I should do Art History instead, as I suck in general history. Doesn't mean I don't like it, though) for some reason. Either that, or Math.

Mmmm... Math... *drools*

(I'm such a nerd.)

Mind you, this will have to be when I have oodles of money, which is highly close to naught.

Oh well.
Can't blame a person for dreaming.

Read More......

New word.

While waiting for Stephen King's It to load (on YouTube, where else?), I was thumbing through the comments and found this gem (never mind the spelling; it's not the point):

Woooga2c (1 week ago)
COULROPHOBIA FEA OF CLOWNS JESUS Bozophoiba is something clueless people use

Bozophobia. Seeing that made my day xD

Read More......

On writing.

For the past four months or so, I've been entering a flash-fiction writing contest (aptly named The Flasher). I finally bagged one for July, a $30 voucher to Sofia's restaurant, where they give you seriously large helpings of stuff. More on that later, when I upload the little pics I took.

[I know it's September already, but it didn't occur to me to blog about it last month. And currently, I'm in the mood for some bragging and self-promotion. *blek*]

The theme in July was that we had to write a story based on any of the three pictures they gave us. The first one was a pet cemetary (Stephen King, anyone?) and the third was like a lab or some sort. Reminded me of submarines. Mine is the second picture (see below), and so, on with the story:

Exodus

We walk.

Faintly, I hear birds chirping, and the crunch of the earth and twigs and dry leaves wherever I step, but I can hardly feel them beneath my bare feet.

We are on this beaten path, possibly man-made, created for trekkers hiking into the woods. No use for that now; we are the only ones left.

I find it strange that we do not need verbal instructions or physical gestures to guide us. As a single, collective, one, we move. All around me, I see shambling figures, some hulking, some crawling. We all have difficulty walking sometimes, but I guess we find ways of circumventing any obstacles to our mobility.

I do not know where we are headed, though. I try to voice out my question, but proper speech fails me, even though my thought processes seem to be in working order. My tongue dangles limply, no doubt from the lack of use.

It was a while ago that I awoke to the cries of humanity, in the dark, dank niche from which I had been laid. Clawing my way up, chaos was rampant. People running about. Rabid screams cut short. I saw lives taken down, some literally torn apart. I was even horrified at first, before the hunger took over.

We reach the ocean. I hesitate, as I recall my fear of the water. I remember falling overboard, sinking, the harsh pain as the water filled my lungs, and finally relief, heralding the silent, overbearing darkness that stretched to what felt like an eternity.

The one closest to me notices my reluctance, and turns to look at me. A face, necrotized, perhaps in the final stages of decomposition, stares at me vaguely with eyes already filmed over, before turning back to the water.

As we wade through the seas, towards the banks across, I see our current destination, its lights dimly emanating from its buildings. I think about that part of civilization yet untouched by the scourge we will soon become, and hear their panicked screams in the distance.

I look forward to the raw taste of their flesh once we reach their shores.

[I centerized it just 'cuz I wanna. xP]

And under 400 words, too! xD My past entries have been slightly below 1000 words, which isn't encouraged, since flash fiction is fiction short enough to be read in a flash, metaphorically speaking.

My mummy says I write like a white person. Yay!
[But yeah, like, she's my Mom, so yea... But she WAS an English teacher, though, and she's old. Teehee.]

Unfortunately (for me), when I first started entering these things, I guess I wasn't exactly ready to see my own name in print, so I dumped in a pseudonym. Hmph.

Read More......

Spider, spider, burning bright.

[I remembered the phrase wrong. It was William Blake's The Tyger. But if I put Spider-man, that's even more ridiculous. So the above is a variation of Blake.]

Yesterday, there was a mini-hubbub in our place (between Zhang Fan, Cathy and I) 'cuz this massive spider was on the wall near their side of the house. I found out because I was going to take a piss, and they called me to come-see. I would've taken a photo, only I forgot, because I was more worried about it scurrying under my door into my room. So I didn't take my eyes offa it.

But it was huge. Here is an artistic rendition of Mr. Spider:

[What? I never said it was good.]

After we've been staring at it for 10 minutes, Zhang Fan banged on our new housemate's door (awful of me not to know her name, but she's only been here since Monday, and yesterday was the first time I saw her). This exchange happened, after we got back to staring at the spider:

ZF: You're not scared of it?
HM: No.

*pause*

ZF: Well, we are, so make it go away.

Our housemate went back into her room, brought out a plastic bag, and managed to coax the spider into falling into said bag. After doing so, she passed it to Zhang Fan, who reluctantly took it (at first they were making hand-gestures as to who's to take it out), and proceeded down the stairs to dump it, Cathy following closely. She was headed for the kitchen, and we were like, "No! No! Take it outside!" Zhang Fan was still freaked out (like, duh!), so Cathy got the door for her, and she ran out.

Zhang Fan was so bloody adorable. She didn't know where to throw the thing (no dustbins a-lurking), so she was running about all over the place, while Cathy and I were laughing like madyelling at her to just dump it next door or something. Finally, she ran across the road, dumped the plastic bag on the curb, ran back and we all went back into the house (Cathy and I were still laughing).

I'd never laughed that hard in my life.

Since it was about 12.15am, we went to bed.

Read More......