REVIEW IN FILIPINO

Meh ganon
Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion

Inquirer Libre November 27 2009

The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Directed by Chris Weitz

Para sa mga magulang, iispelingin ko na po, dahil parang walang gustong magsabi ng dapat sabihin.
Sa ikalawang pagkakataon pagkatapos ng saksakan nang matagumpay na aklat at pelikulang Twilight, inuulit ni Bella Swan ang pinakamimithi niya.

“Kiss me,” sabi ng teenager. Basahin niyo ulit ang mga aklat at panoorin ang pelikula, bilangin niyo kung ilang beses niya ito sinabi, at pagkatapos ay ipaliwanag sa mga dalagita ninyo kung bakit ganun na lang ang pangangati ni Bella. Alam niyo na ang ibig kong sabihin, at iyon ang nakagugulantang. Aklat at pelikula itong sinadya para dapat sa mga teen-ager. Pero ang subtext ay R18.

Sa ika-18 na birthday ni Bella (Kristen Stewart), isang aksidente sa bahay ng mga Cullen ang puputol sa paglalandian ng love team at maghuhudyat kay Edward (Robert Pattinson), sa utos na rin ng amaing si Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), na lisanin ng pamilyang Cullen ang Forks, Washington at iwan niya ang kasintahan.

Siyempre devastated at depressed si Bella, at ang susunod na isang oras mahigit ng pelikula ay pagsasadula kung paano mag-adjust si Bella sa pagkawala ng kaniyang pinakamamahal.

Andiyan ang tumitig sa bintana nang matagal (alam kong illustration lang ito pero iyon ang punto – wala siyang ginawa nang ilang buwan.) Naisipan din niyang sumama sa isang estranghero kahit na obvious kung ano ang pakay nito sa kaniya. Sumakay din siya sa motorsiklo nang walang suot na helmet, na muntik na ika-bagok ng kaniyang ulo. Buti na lang andiyan ang bago niyang manliligaw na si Jacob (Taylor Lautner), para maghubad at idispley ang kaniyang maskuladong katawan kay Bella. Ayaw yan ni Edward.

Ang huli niyang gagawin ay tumalon sa bangin at mag-dive sa dagat. Sa Italy, akala ng powers ni Edward, namatay na si Bella. Magpapakamatay sana si Edward sa harap ng madlang pipol, pero sa tulong ng kapatid niyang si Alice (Ashley Greene), mapipigilan ni Bella si Edward. Hindi pa iyon ang happy ending, mas nakagugulat pa doon.

Ang mga eksena kung saan nilagay ni Bella ang kaniyang sarili sa kapahamakan ay mga paglalarawan sa nararamdaman niyang angst at depression. Ginawa niya iyon dahil gusto niyang may mangyari sa katawan niya, dahil walang nangyayari sa kanila ni Edward.

Ang hindi ko maintindihan ay kung bakit hindi ito mapansin ng mga nakatatandang manonood, at dapat R13 ang palabas imbes na PG13. Tungkol sa teenage sex and hormones ang kasalukuyang dalawang Twilight movies, at magiging mas masalimuot pa ito sa Twilight Saga: Eclipse kung saan marriage, pre-marital sex at teen pregnancy ang mga issue. Hindi ito malayo sa palabas sa telebisyon na Katorse, ang kaibahan lang ay ipinapakita sa TV ang paghihirap no Nene bilang isang disgrasyada.

Sa Twilight, gwapo at palaging naghuhubad ang mga lalaki. “You’re sorta beautiful,” sabi ni Bella kay Jacob. Hay nako.

Fade out

Michael Jackson’s This is it
Directed by Kenny Ortega

(Inquirer Libre Nov 12 2009)
BITIN (roughly, abruptly short). That’s the best word to describe Michael Jackson’s This is It. Shown in theaters worldwide in the last two weeks, the presentation proves MJ’s boxoffice draw even after his untimely death.

It’s essentially an edited behind the scenes footage of his rehearsals, a veritable collection of his All Time Hits from Beat It to Smooth Criminal to, of course, Thriller. Michael Jackson’s This Is It, fittingly as the credits rolled in the beginning, says that the movie is for the fans.

This is not a documentary. At least not in the strict concept that a documentary still has to tell a story, because there’s no stories here exept showing that MJ rehearsed. It provides little insight save for a few comments voiced by director Kenny Ortega, who would have directed Jackson’s final concert in London if not for the accident. If anything, This is It proves MJ as the consummate performer, and that his music and his dance moves will  stay influential for a long period of time.

Is it cinematic? No. As a presentation, it felt like I was watching a theater-sized special section of a concert dvd. That guarantees that I’ll buy the original dvd when it comes out and play it in my 6.1 surround speakers. It may not be the concert itself, but very much close to attending one.

I was able to catch MJ’s Manila leg of his HIStory Concert at Asiaworld in Pasay back in 1995. I was near to the stage enough to see which songs he sang live and which ones he lip-synched. But he danced, and it was him live, so it didn’t matter if “Hello Manila” and “I love you Manila” were his only attempts at audience interaction.

In the movie, seeing him up close perspiring, or with day-old stubbles, or simply talking normally, takes away the icon behind the gloves and shades and reveals as real a human being as we can see him. Hearing the songs in a THX-certified cinema also helped in creating that (pre-) concert feeling.

If there’s any surprise that This is It showed, it is that his dancers are the other stars of his shows. Just before the Smooth Criminal segment, footage of auditions for his principal dancers was shown, at some point, making me “wow” at a guy who was, as best as I can describe it, bounced on the stage on his back. Did it also help that they all looked good, male and female dancers?

A favorite piece is the section on The Way You Make Me Feel, showing “construction workers” silhouetted high above a skyscraper and climbing down as MJ began singing the song. In Thriller, he showed the same old moves as featured in the classic music video. Interestingly, the movie showed that the production filmed new content for Thriller in 3D format. I seriously doubt this applicable in the concerts, so I must surmise that they had planned to put this feature in the dvd version of the full concert.

In Billy Jean, MJ proves without a doubt that he is a performer unparalleled, when he starts dancing solo without music, gyrating to the beat that existed only in his mind. Finally, I was surprised at how updated he was on environmental issues, as he was aware that there are four years left to work on our issues before the tipping point comes. That made the last piece of the film less trivial for me.

This Is It may not be the best way for MJ to bid farewell to his fans, but it is what we have and it’s more than good enough. This movie emphasizes how much we enjoy his persformances, that it would have been better if it had been the real show. Then again he was gone too soon.

Miscom
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre September 23 2009

In My Life
Directed by Olivia Lamasan
Star Cinema

Maybe I don’t get it. Hindi ko gets. Did I miss anything in the seemingly endless cryfestival? So what’s the movie about, really?  Acting? Missed connections? Some points fail to connect to me. Please try your call later.

Separated from her husband, elementary school librarian Shirley Templo (a joke of a name even if it was her parents’ way of remembering their favorite Hollywood icon) decides to leave for New York when her eldest daughter insists they sell off their property and move Down Under.

Shirley moves into her son Mark’s apartment where Noel, Mark’s boyfriend also lives. There is fuss about adjusting to life and new jobs in New York, but there is more fuss when Noel ends up taking care of Shirley more than Mark does. Shirley always has difficulty in accepting and adjusting to new things (like the faulty computerized library database), especially if she thinks she can do better. Especially if it threatens to take away her “motherhood” from her children, even if her children are all busy, grown up adults.

Everything separating Shirley and Noel comes crashing between them when tragedy strikes, but towads the end the two make gargantuan efforts to resolve their complex emotions.

From the onset, I was surprised to see Big Acting in the movie. Not “acting” but “Acting,” with a capital A. This coming from the director who tamed Sharon Cuneta in Madrasta and made her a real actress. I thought I was watching a Danny Zialcita movie (Langis at Tubig, Ang Kabiyak, Lalakwe and Dear Heart all rolled into one). It’s not necessarily bad, but I thought the movie screamed for acting awards. No subtlety there. Grand Slam, here we come.

Some people complained that there was too much “tourist” New York scenes. I say there were too few. New York – Manhattan – didn’t have a character in this movie. Maybe that was a creative decision from the writers, but Big Apple could have been Beijing. Which could have made the homosexual non-plot a political statement. Again, no statement there.

Which finally comes to the movie’s real point: the Acting. There is truth in every word the actors say. That’s why the audiences cry. There’s real emotion delivered painfully, each time Noel, devastatingly portrayed by John Lloyd Cruz, and Shirley, impeccably lived in by Ms Vilma Santos, make arguement. They could be talking about losing their favorite toy and you feel it – because that’s what’s on screen – truth in acting.

Interestingly, Santos’s Shirley isn’t the same kind of mother here as her Josie in the quintessential parenthood movie Anak.

But what is the movie really about? Human relations? That pretty much covers nearly all movies.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe In My Life is a masterpiece that I have yet to recognize. Maybe it’s not the Big Sermon About Parenthood movie that I see it to be. There are a lot of things in it that say it works. Maybe I’ll like it eventually.

After two years.

Exterminator
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre June 3, 2009
Terminator: Salvation
Directed by McG

If there’s anything this movie terminated, it would be my eardrums. Terminator: Salvation is a noisy, ear-splitting science-fiction actioner that’s actually good enough had it not been a Terminator movie.

Set in the year 2018 at the height of the human war versus Skynet’s machines, the meat of Salvation is essentially how John Connor (Christian Bale) emerges as the Resistance’s leader and how Kyle Reese (played by Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin), father of John Connor, is found by the Resistance. The Resistance has developed a weapon to neutralize the machines and begins to prepare an assault on Skynet’s headquarters.

Formerly a death-row criminal who donated his body for Cyberdyne System’s research, Marcus Wright (played by newcomer Sam Worthington) emerges from the ruins of a Skynet base and is saved from a Terminator robot by Kyle. The two develop a friendship, but Kyle gets captured and is brought to the Skynet headquarters along with many other human prisoners.

When Marcus is caught by the Resistance, John discovers that Kyle is a prisoner in Skynet and that Marcus is not human (that’s in the trailers, in case you accuse me of spoiling.) John disobeys central command and uses Marcus to infiltrate machine headquarters in order to save Kyle and the rest of the human prisoners, but surprises await John soon after he enters Skynet’s main base.

Fourth in the Terminator series, Salvation is also the least “Terminaty” of the Terminators, in the sense that it is more a sci-fi war movie than a chase movie which is what the first three movies were.

The first Terminator movie featured the T-800 model (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back in time by Skynet to kill John Connor’s mother Sarah (played by Linda Hamilton). Kyle Reese is sent back in time by the Resistance to protect her. In T2: Judgment Day, the T-1000 model (played by Robert Patrick) was sent back to kill the young John Connor (played by Edward Furlong), but John Connor of the future sends a reprogrammed T-800 (Schwarzenegger) to protect the young John Connor. In T3: Rise of the Machines, Skynet sends an advanced model, the T-X (Kristanna Loken) to destroy all the leaders of the Resistance, just before Judgment Day happens. In T4, there’s no time travel involved, and it’s John Connor and the humans versus all of Skynet. Supposedly, T5, the next installment of the series, will explain how Kyle Reese goes back in time to meet Sarah.

As a war movie, Salvation has enough set pieces to make it a good enough action movie. One shot, Bale in a helicopter early in the movie, impressed me. But there’s no emotional resonance, except John’s final radio broadcast just before the assault on Skynet. Kudos to Bale, he gets that scene’s gravitas. References to previous Terminator movies abound, especially the final action piece.

The rest of the movie, Bale is as robotic as his enemies as do the rest of the cast – but the problem is in the writing. Marcus gets the better character arch than John’s, and Worthington plays the part so well, the Australian steals the attention away from Bale. Worthington is a new star in the making. For a series that puts so much focus on the character that is supposed to save humankind, Salvation turns around and focuses on another machine to save the savior.

No wonder Bale was very pissed on the set last February.

I’m not sure when this review came out. Posting it anyway.

The more, the many-er
Review by Vives Anunciacion

Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian
Directed by Shawn Levy

More of the same. As in, more exhibits coming to life, but the comedy is just the same as the last Night at the Museum – lightweight, dull and uneventful. The more isn’t always the merrier.

The idea seems promising: take what made the exhibits at the first museum come alive and bring that to the largest museum on earth. Sounds fun? Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley the night guard in Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian.

The movie begins some time after the events of the first movie. Larry Daley has become a rich businessman of sorts, with his own company selling items he has invented himself. A surprise phone call from Jedediah (Owen Wilson) alerts Larry of an emergency. Transferred to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC for permanent storage, many of the exhibits from the first museum (New York’s Museum of Natural History) are literally fighting against the Smithsonian’s exhibits – all brought to life by the mysterious golden tablet, no thanks to Dexter the monkey.

Larry travels to Washington to solve the wild predicament, but gets entangled in the big mess in the world’s biggest museum. Amy Adams appears as pioneer female pilot Amelia Earhart, while Robin Williams and many others in the first movie reappear in the same roles.

The problem with the first movie was that it didn’t have enough Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais to make it funnier (because Ben Stiller is starring.) The problem with the second Night at the Museum is that it has even LESS Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais, plus Hank Azaria as fictional Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah is a lot funnier than Stiller. Everyone else is a lifeless paper doll. Lots of effects making all those exhibits come to life, big deal. Is this an educational trip about American history? Not even. So what’s the point, make museums interesting to kids? The first movie sort of did that already.

Honestly, I thought I lost two hours of my life watching this. Big, pointless, neither-here-nor-there movies like these make watching in theaters unnecessary. At least make a statement. Be really good, or really bad.

If there’s a third movie, don’t bother at all. As far as franchises should go, this movie is history.

SURVIVOR VATICAN

Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion

Angels & Demons
Directed by Ron Howard
Based on the novel by Dan Brown

HABEMUS Papam kapag have na nang bagong Pope sa Rome. Yung The Da Vinci Code hindi habemus excitement, pero etong bagong Angels & Demons at least habemus narrative structure. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is back to solve another Church mystery, and this time he gets the Church’s approval.

PLOT SPOILERS BEWARE.

Sa Angels & Demons kailangang bumoto ng bagong Papa ang mga Cardinal ng simbahan sa pagkamatay ng huling Pope. Pero even before the papal conclave can convene, a secret society introducing itself as the Illuminati has kidnapped four of the Cardinals leading in the papal candidacy. With only a few clues left by the group, the Vatican police elects the aid of leading symbologist Dr. Langdon to solve the kidnapping and prevent the murder of the Cardinals.

But the real threat is not only on the lives of the Cardinals dahil sa matagal na panahon, ang ultimate plan ng Illuminati ay pabagsakin ang Simbahan. Sa pamamagitan ng anti-matter na nadiskubre ng mga scientist sa Europe, pasasabugin ng Illuminati ang buong Vatican City pagkatapos nila patayin ang mga Cardinal. Sa ilalim ng apat na oras, susubukan ni Langdon at ng mga police na hanapin ang mga Cardinal at ang anti-matter  by solving the clues na itinago ng Illuminati sa mga structures sa Vatican and finding the so-called Path to Illumination.

Kung sa The Da Vinci Code kinuwestion ang katauhan ni Kristo, walang gano’ng malaking kontrobersiya ang Angels & Demons. In fact, completely anonymous ang mga kalaban, kahit na binanggit na matagal nang kalaban ng simbahan ang grupo. The improvement here is that the narrative of A&D doesn’t stray into too many backstories and side plots as TDVC did, and therefore is more focused in bringing the thrill in Thriller.

But it’s still a lightweight Hardy Boys detective story of looking for clues and solving a small mystery. Nobody’s performance is memorable here except Armin Mueller-Stahl’s as Cardinal Strauss. Tom Hanks at least has a new haircut.

Whatever transgressions the first movie made against the Catholic organization — all the hyped controversies and debates — Angels & Demons compensates with a reverence to church tradition that is practically apologetic of the first movie’s sins.

By the time the movie ends, the Catholic traditions are intact and there is even dialogue that says the Church should adapt to the times, etcetera, that the movie sounds like it is speaking for the Church. That sounds like a 180-degree turn from Da Vinci.

And the winner is: Dan Brown.

STAR STUDDED

Review by Vives Anunciacion, Inquirer Libre May 08, 2009

Star Trek
Directed by JJ Abrams

I’LL by pass the usual, “This movie has a long history behind it, it started a whole generation of geekdom” yadda yadda. I don’t have enough space, which, as this series has told us many times over, is the final frontier.

Star Trek is an origins movie depicting the beginnings of the crew of the Starship Enterprise and its most famous captain, James T. Kirk. It’s the 11th in the Star Trek series of films based on the iconic 1960s show that created nerds out of normal people worldwide.

HERE BE SPOILERS, stop reading and just see the dang movie!

The movie begins, appropriately, in space, in the middle of a confrontation between a large, obviously superior alien vessel and an earlier Federation Starship and the birth of James T. Kirk.  Appropriately, the movie ends where the TV series begins (you’ll know it when you hear it.)

Nero, the rebel Romulan  (Eric Bana who is so good to be unrecognizable) is tracking down the destroyer of his planet. In his rage, he destroys everything that gets in his way. Kirk grows up to be quite the young rebel but manages to get recruited into Starfleet Academy where he meets everyone who will be his crew in the Enterprise, including the Vulcan Commander Spock, who would later on (in the TV shows) become his best friend. Spock’s dual nature of having a Vulcan father and an Earthling mother is key 
to the story, and his past, present and future has something to do with Nero’s nemesis. END OF SPOILERS.

This isn’t the first time Star Trek has toyed with a storyline that jumps in time and it probably won’t be the last. But there’s no denying it, the new Star Trek movie is vastly enjoyable and family-friendly. Fans will freak out. Guys will like it. Girls will like it. And it has a healthy combination of camp, cheese and seriousness. 

Just before the press screening, the movie was inaccurately introduced as a space drama. While Star Trek has its mild emotional moments, it’s not Battlestar Galactica (currently the gold standard for sci-fi drama.) Star Trek is an adventure through and through.
It is really fun to see how the newly minted cast distilled, absorbed and sublimed the essences of the original characters. In every scene, I keep thinking that Zachary Quinto will assume the body of Leonard Nimoy in the future, or that Chris Pine really played the young James T. Kirk back in the 1960s. I’d say each character had a scene-stealing moment, but really, that’s the young Uhura (Zoe Saldana), that’s the young Dr. Bones McCoy (Karl Urban, Eomer from The Lord of the Rings). Even the accents drive me crazy — that’s as Scottish a young Scotty would be (Simon Pegg) and a teenage Pavel Chekov (played by Anton Yelchin) who says Wulcan instead of Vulcan. To some degree, the voice of the first captain at the beginning of the movie even sounded like Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

I’d pick on the plot holes just to say Star Trek isn’t a perfect movie, but who cares? Star Trek is the perfect summer movie for this year’s blockbuster season. But the best part is that it stands mighty fine next to the classics of the franchise.

Beam me up, Scotty, I’m going back for another ride.

Original scene

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Inquirer Libre May 05, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Directed by Gavin Hood

Based on characters from the Marvel comic books

SPOILERS beware, may contain story spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie.

Manny vs Godzilla. Manny vs Chuck Norris. Manny vs Wolverine. Sigurado ako na hindi pa naikakasa ni Wolverine ang matatalas niyang kuko, pinatulog na siya ni PacMan.

I really wasn’t expecting anything from this movie, coming from (X3) X-Men: The Last Stand, which I found inferior to the first two. Having said that, I find Wolverine a decently made summer movie, a lot of times laughable and a few times impressive, but eventually the weakest in the X-Men franchise. It can be argued that the Dark Knight model of “darkening” the superhero movie won’t work with all comic book characters, but, hey, not all men are created equal, particularly in the comic book universe.

Sabi nga ng title, this is an origins movie. X-Men Origins elaborates in nearly two hours the origins of Wolverine, formerly John Logan (Hugh Jackman), his arch-nemesis Sabretooth, formerly Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), the nature of their relationship, as well as roles in General William Stryker’s Weapon X program and the emergence of Charles Xavier’s X-Men.

The movie jumbles up storylines from the comic books, which was why my friends and I kept asking each other what really happened. As far as referring to the source material, the movie is remarkably distant from the events in the comic series, which means purist fans may be get confused, at the very least.

The best part presented by the movie is the dichotomy between Logan/Wolverine and Victor/Sabretooth, kung saan ipinapakita ang kaibahan nila sa isa’t isa each time that they encounter each other. In much the same way that The Joker was played very significantly as a thesis/antithesis of Batman in The Dark Knight (which made that movie great) this movie could have easily gone the same route because the filmmakers took liberties with the story anyway.

Unfortunately, Wolverine suffers from another Studio requirement to feature as many other characters in the franchise for future movie spinoffs, this story had to go to many turns left and right to make way for The Blob, Gambit, Silverfox (the beautiful Lynn Collins), ad infinitum. Add to this issue are the numerous laughable effects and action scenes (Agent Zero, played by Korean drama superstar Daniel Henney, is mala-Lito Lapid, while the final confrontation between Weapon XI and the feral duo has a what-the-hell-yun-lang ending. Twice my friend laughed at the crane shot when Wolverine cried over Silverfox. Nahawa ako sa kaniya.)

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Danny Huston as General William Stryker are pretty good in this movie, but Liev Schrieber takes away the shine from Wolverine’s adamantium claws because he’s really good as Victor/Sabretooth. Sabi ko nga, sayang na hindi kinoncentrate ang kwento sa kanila ni Wolverine.

In film terms this isn’t a terrible movie, it actually is a decent one. But for all the promise this beloved character could have been in his own movie, this is just meh. Parang Pacquiao-Hatton, exciting na rin, pero 2 rounds lang pala.

I’m not sure if this already came out in print, and if it hasn’t, I’m preempting the print version.

Hot wheels              

Review by Vives Anunciacion   Inquirer Libre

Fast & Furious        Directed by Justin Lin

I race cars, but only the ones that come in small boxes and run on plastic tracks. Does that count? Eight years since the first movie that made street racing a worldwide interest, the original cast is back together doing the same things that made them famous in the first place.

Vin Diesel again plays driver exemplar Dominic Toretto, now leader of a small-time criminal gang hiding in the Dominican Republic. The movie begins with his group hijacking and stealing several tankers of fuel gasoline. In the group are girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Dom’s close friend Han (Sung Kang from Tokyo Drift).

A tragic event forces Dom to return to the States to seek revenge against a large-scale underground drug kingpin. Meanwhile in Miami (ever since 2 Fast 2 Furious), FBI agent Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) is working on a case to bring down the same drug lord. In search of this common enemy, Dom’s and Brian’s paths cross once again where they must infiltrate the drug lord’s trafficking network that operates from the streets of Los Angeles, through tunnels under the desert border and all the way into Mexico. Success depends on their speed and driving expertise, so long as Dom and Brian haven’t killed each other considering all the issues between them. Jordana Brewster also returns as Mia –Dom’s sister and Brian’s ex.

In the first three installments, the car modifications and the car stunts where the main focus of the franchise. This installment attempts at balancing story and action scenes, in completing the story arches between Dom, the original bad guy behind the wheel, and Brian, the boy scout who wants to be the bad guy behind the wheel. 

I would say it’s action-packed, but it’s not Terminator or Bourne. Let’s be honest, this is an adrenaline-oriented movie about fast cars, booty shot close-ups and pumpin’ music. It doesn’t aspire for acting awards or social commentary and it’s like a genre all its own, impervious to criticism.  One thing I really like with this series is that all four variants of F&F have multi-ethnic cast of actors, which show a culturally diverse world that’s not often seen in other Hollywood flicks. 

The car races entertain, especially the one in the tunnels. Brian is still convinced he can out-drive Dom, which can be funny sometimes. The movie provides an artificial adrenaline rush for a particularly boring weekend, but nobody said the movie is art. It’s a one-dimensional, muscled-up National Lampooner whose sole purpose is to pimp racing cars, girls and music. To that it delivers satisfactorily. Maybe (hopefully?) Fast & Furious is the franchise’s closure, Dom and Brian’s destinies coming full circle. As they say, don’t fix it if the parts ain’t broken.

The eaglet has landed
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre March 30, 2009

Monsters vs. Aliens
Directed by Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

As of this writing, I’ve collected 5 of the 8 burger meal toys of this franchise, but that only means I find the characters cute. DreamWorks Animation’s latest family cartoon Monsters vs. Aliens is big on extravaganza, short on relevance. Come to think of it, I don’t need another plastic toy.

Fun enough and safe for the family, MvsA has all the ingredients of typical computer animations like cute and quirky characters and comical spoofs of other movies, but overall, MvsA isn’t even as fun as DreamWorks’ previous offerings like Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, but can be entertaining for parents and adults with a good B-movie background.

Susan (Reese Witherspoon) gets hit by a giant meteorite minutes before her wedding, transforming her into a 50-foot woman. She is taken to a secret military base where other “monsters” are kept, namely the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (voiced by TV’s Dr. House, Hugh Laurie), the half-fish, half-human Missing Link (Will Arnett), the blue gel-thingy Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzoate or B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) and the superenormous Insectosaurus. Susan gets the callsign Ginormica.

An evil alien overlord Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) sends a giant robot to Earth to retrieve the powerful quantonium trapped in Susan’s body, but this invasion prompts the US government to activate the monster team, including its newest member Ginormica, to defeat Gallaxhar.

To make a list of MvsA’s references to other sci-fi movies, off the bat, the movie begins with a planet exploding similar to the opening of Superman Returns. Ginormica is from Attack of the 50-foot Woman (1958), Dr. Cockroach is The Fly (1958). B.O.B. is a fusion of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes andThe Blob (1958), and Link is the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Do people know Mothra, the giant moth that battled Godzilla at some point in the 50s? I think I saw this over Channel 9 when I was young. The tiny twins in their flying carriage calling out the giant Mosura (1961) with their weird song. Then there’s the five musical notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Vulcan hand-sign from Star Trek, clones from Star Wars EpII: Attack of the Clones, some Men In Black and even the war room from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.

No big voice performance here from the cast of big-named stars, except maybe Rogen who sounds as BOB-ish as B.O.B. can get. He has the funniest lines.  Artwork and design sometimes looks great, sometimes a little sparse. The 3D environment looks like the film is set in a more colorful version of Japanese Ultraman-type miniature city, mixed with color shadings from Bob The Builder type claymation sets, but I don’t see here any breakthrough in the technology. It’s hard not to refer to Pixar here, but they did the monsters before and it worked mighty fine.

The bottom-line is still characters and story, and even if this movie represents the beginning of the future in mass visual entertainment, Monsters vs Aliens is just one small step for movies that tries to sound like it has made a giant leap for mankind.

Kung kaya mo
Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre March 27, 2009

SPOILER WARNING, this review may contain spoilers.

Seryoso si John Cena sa bago niyang pelikula. Ganun din si Nicholas Cage. Guess niyo kung sino sa dalawa ang nakakabilib this time.

12 Rounds
Directed by Renny Harlin

Pagkatapos makatakas ng kulungan, reresbakan ng criminal terrorist na si Miles Jackson (TV actor Aidan Gilen) si police detective Danny Fisher (WWE superstar John Cena) by kidnapping Detective Fisher’s girlfriend Molly Porter (Ashley Scott), kung saan dapat tapusin ni Baxter ang 12 challenges para sa kalayaan ni Molly.

Palaki nang palaki at pahirap nang pahirap ang mga challenges kay Fisher, mula sa pag-drive ng firetruck nang mabilis hanggang sa pag-solve ng puzzle kung saan talaga nakatago si Molly. Natural may lag time at boring portions sa pagitan ng Rounds 1 at 12, lalu na kung hinihintay mo na lang ang Round 12 hangga’t hindi nana-“knock-out” ni Fisher ang kaniyang kalaban.

Ang okay sa 12 Rounds ay hindi OA ang drama at hindi OA ang action – alam ng filmmakers na hindi tutoong actor si Cena, at dahil he’s very bulky, hindi rin siya bagay sa Bourne-type action. Pero mahusay ang build-up ng suspense, believable ang stunts at sumatotal, hindi masagwa ang pelikula. Actually ang hindi ko gusto ay yung acting ng kontrabida, pero kontrabida naman siya kaya dapat lang siyang kainisan.

Knowing
Directed by Alex Proyas

This one is really disappointing, kasi ang director nito ay ang promising director ng I, Robot at Dark City. It’s a confused sci-fi / horror disaster flick that mashes supernatural horror, the Bible’s Four Men of The Apocalypse, UFOs and Aliens. Meron tayo nito dito sa Pilipinas – si Father Tropa at ang kaniyang Spaceship 2000.

Matatanggap ni Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) ang isang pirasong papel kung saan nakasulat ang maraming numero. Madidiskubre ni astrophysicist John (Nicholas Cage), ama ni Caleb, na ang mga numero ay lista ng mga petsa at location ng mga major world disasters, kasama na ang September 11 New York bombing. With this information, susubukan ni John na bigwan ng warning ang mga posibleng madamay sa sakuna. Pero mahihirapan si John lalu na kapag buhay na ng kaniyang anak ang nakataya.

Pwede na ang suspense, mukha namang may budget at nagastusan ng matino ang effects kung saan nakakabilib ang destruction sa mga disaster scenes. But are we supposed to applaud in these scenes of death and destruction?  Kung disaster flick lang ang pelikula, tigilan na yung fake debates about science vs. religion. Pero kung gayun man, ano ba talaga ang mga Whisperers – angels or aliens? At ano yun sa ending, Tree of Knowledge?

I know what this movie is. Hindi ko ‘to kinaya.