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.

Sweet Disposition

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Inquirer Libre, OCtober 26, 2009

500 Days of Summer
Directed by Marc Webb

Good times, for a change. Indie movies poured in from the States last week (like The Informant and Hurt Locker), it’s like bad Hollywood movies never existed.

Most days of the year, movies are unremarkable. They come and they go without making any lasting impressions on the course of a life. The past week however offered more than the regular for film fans.

500 Days of Summer was a huge hit in the recent Sundance film festival. It is a perfectly accessible film, one that gives warm fuzzy feelings like a bowl of comfort food or your pet dog’s fur, made more fuzzy by an insanely fantastic soundtrack collection. And it’s contagious. And it’s conta-gio-uh-us.

This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story. Well, it is, except the film’s narrator tells the audience it’s not.

The boy, Tom Hansen (the talented Mr. Joseph Gordon-Levitt), studied to be an architect but instead found ready employment as a greeting card writer. The girl, Summer Finn (current “it” girl Zooey Deschanel) digs Ringo Starr, named her dog after Springsteen and dabbles art from painters Magritte and Cezanne.

Since childhood Tom thinks he won’t ever be happy until he meets “the one.” In contrast Summer believes that love is fiction. Tom meets Summer on January 8th at work. I’d like to remind you that the movie’s title is 500 Days of Summer. There is an ending to this story. And it’s not necessarily what you might think.

A friend coined the term maindie (MAINstream + inDIE) to describe these types of films that combine indie aesthetics with Hollywood cuteness. After all, the very inclusion of funky cool soundtrack MAKES this a regular romantic comedy and drowns whatever “honest” portrayal of casual relationships and unrequited love the movie supposedly pertains to.

Summer was most likely written for Dechanel, cast because of her big blue eyes and singsong pixie-ness. Gordon-Levitt was already a revelation in The Lookout, but he surprises here in an open-air dance sequence that rivals those shot in Central Park. L.A. never looked so good.

500 Days is an uncomplicated film, destined to be the quintessential indie Valentine flick it probably aimed to be. While it doesn’t set the bar up for independent cinema, it is exactly the type that makes regular filmgoers like indies. And it’s contagious. And it’s conta-gio-uh-us.

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.

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.

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.

Witch What?

Review by Vives Anunciacion
March 16, 2009
Makati, Philippines
(unpublished)

Race to Witch Mountain
Directed by Andy Fickman

I thought I’d give this a try since it starred “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson. I thought it’d be funny – but nooo. Except for Taken, which was okay in its Bourne-esque attempts, nothing showing in theaters was worth seeing last weekend.

A note for readers to contemplate on the things they read online:

The synopsis according to IMDB is thus:

A UFO expert enlists the help of a cabbie to protect two siblings with paranormal powers from the clutches of an organization that wants to use the kids for their nefarious plans.

Now compare Rottentomatoes’ synopsis:

Disney restarts their beloved Witch Mountain franchise with this family-friendly adventure. Dwayne Johnson (THE GAME PLAN) stars as a taxi driver who gets more than get bargained for when he picks up two teen runaways (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig). Not only does the pair possess supernatural powers, but they’re also trying desperately to escape people who have made them their targets.

This is mine:

Reimagined from a 1975 family film about orphaned siblings with supernatural powers and dubious parentage (Escape to Witch Mountain), the new movie is about a couple of alien siblings (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) who enlist the aid of former mafia-wheel-man-turned-cab-driver Jack Bruno (Johnson) to search for a device that will help the aliens heal their dying planet. Also in their aid is astrophysicist Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino).

The movie is about two teenagers who take a cab ride (Bruno’s) going into the middle of nowhere, where they retrieve a gadget thingy but chance upon an extraterrestrial assassin who runs after them with laser guns. They head back to Vegas, seeking the aid of Dr. Friedman (Gugino) to find their spaceship which was captured by pushy, gun-armed government men (led by Ciarán Hinds). The chase leads everyone to Witch Mountain.

While IMDB got the object-subject skewed (plus the fact that Gugino’s character isn’t a UFO “expert”), rottentomatoes has one word that makes their synopsis interesting: franchise.

OK. The Movie.

Some critic wrote that since it’s a chase film, therefore some violence, explosions and a lot of running is involved. True. I say a LOT of it. For a family-oriented film, this one has LOTS of gunfire, laser and regular kind, and a considerable bodycount (tell me those anonymous soldiers didn’t impliedly die).

This plot-oriented film has nothing – NOTHING – going on either amusing or endearing or emotionally engaging about the four main characters. Johnson tries to be kooky, his mannerisms different from his previous comedies (note the scene with Junkyard the dog asking to pee) that he seems to have been possessed by a different person. The mannerisms and his large frame don’t seem to match.

(Trivia: the Sheriff and the Waitress were the kids in the original movie)

But the most striking crime this caper committed is its narrow portrayal of scientists and UFO believers that they are either: A) evil manipulative heartless men (in the case of the federal men in gigantic black SUVs); or B) quirky, jumpy, half-crazy astrophysicists who seem to put their finger on every subject related to their field and not have a true specific specialization (established early in undergrad years, as in the case of this former scientist-turned-film critic); OR C) all-out nutjobs who attend UFO conventions. Dear sirs, some people take alien abductions seriously, and many of those are sane, logical, intelligent people. For a film about aliens, this portrays alien-belief as a laughing matter. Putting famous alien-abduction author Whitley Strieber in cameo and making references to all things sci-fi (“Trust no one?”) further highlights this movie as a mere gag show with a lot of laser lights.

Franchise? Skip the next one, please.

Stop, look and listen
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre December 12, 2008

SPOILER ALERT – stop reading if you don’t want spoilers.

The Day The Earth Stood Still
Directed by Scott Derrickson

In 1951 a low-budget black-and-white movie featured an alien landing on earth to warn of the dangers posed by unrestrained use of nuclear power and the imminent threat it posed to other planets. The film’s profound message resonated at the time, six years after the bombing of Hiroshima and in the early years of the US-Russian Cold War. Today, the original The Day The Earth Stood Still stands as one of the best science fiction films of all time.

This updated version is moderately entertaining, slightly relevant but only a shadow of the original. SPOILER ALERT, better watch the movie first before reading further.

Except for a prologue showing the origin of the human body of Klaatu, the new version follows somewhat the structure of the original film. Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) arrives with the giant robot Gort, sending the US government and the rest of the world in panic. The US fears of an impending alien invasion, despite Klaatu’s claims that he has arrived to save the planet.

Klaatu is taken into military custody, but astro-biologist Helen (Jennifer Connely) helps him escape and continue his mission. Eventually Klaatu explains to Helen that he has arrived to save the planet from the human species, whose destructive ways threaten the planet’s ability to sustain life. Helen seeks the aid of Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese), who explains to Klaatu that humans are capable of changing its ways when faced with extreme circumstances. Guess what, the remake has a happy ending, the original did not.

Fairly speaking, stripped of any reference to the original, TDTESS is a passable sci-fi thriller, with a strong, moody first half and a cheesy, mostly inert second half filled with plot holes and poorly-written side characters.

The remake thematically remains a political message movie like the original – a sign that the filmmakers fully understood what the original stood for. Particularly in the early scenes, the film portrays how humans may realistically react (psychologically, militarily, spiritually) when an alien intelligence suddenly lands in our backyard. However, as soon as Klaatu leaves his military facility prison, the movie reverts into standard blockbuster-type disaster movie storytelling.

The difference is in the ending. In the original, Klaatu left the humans hanging to decide its own fate. The remake gave that decision, albeit temporarily until they return, to Klaatu – freeing humans of the guilt and consequences of its actions. It seems to say that whatever happens, higher intelligence will understand and let us go.

Hugs and tears may have saved the human race in this movie, if only that were truly enough to ensure that the species shall not perish from this earth.

(Okay, this is what happens with limited print space, I had to contract this review to fit within a 450-word configuration. To be fair to a movie that has earned derision simply because it’s a remake of a classic, I’d like to discuss some issues further.)

I did warn for spoilers, so don’t pick on me for spoiling the ending. End of issue.

“Look well, for before you stand stark symbols of the achievement, mystery, and frailty of the human race.” – Farewell to the Master, Harry Bates (1940)

As I mentioned above, the remake thematically remains faithful to the original – even with the altered ending. In the end, humans are still left with a question whether to change or not (to change WHAT is another issue, just keep reading.)

Klaatu’s action in the remake is to temporarily avert the annihilation of humans, until such time that the aliens deem it appropriate to return.

What is essentially different are the philosophies behind the two films, which I pointed out in the last part of the review, regarding the endings.

Structurally the two films are similar. Where they diverge narratively is where they diverge politically.

The first half of the remake retains the moody, eerie, atmospheric original which plays out like an old Twilight Zone or early X Files episode – noirish, creepy. Up until Klaatu leaves the military facility. After that, the remake takes a different form.

Where the original takes Klaatu in a tour of Washington guided by a very innocent child (Bobby Benson, played by Billy Gray), the remake takes Klaatu in a Fugitive-style cat and mouse with the military, looking for A) another alien-in-human-form undercover who reports that humans are a hopeless species and B) a mini-sphere that controls the rest of the spheres hidden in earth which serve Noah’s Ark style to collect specimens of lifeforms on earth. With him are Helen and her annoying stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith).

Bobby’s naive character in the original serves as a device to mirror Klaatu’s lack of information on human way of life. Jacob on the surface seems to serve the same purpose, but sounds more like he represents how the average Amercan would react to the situation rather than serve as counterpoint to Klaatu’s lack of earth knowledge.

Don’t get me started on the alien-in-human-disguise #2.

One revision does stand out to be nicely done, and it is John Cleese’s version of Professor Barnhardt. At that point if I were Klaatu, I would have called off the destruction because an intelligent human just explained why they are worth saving as a species. But then the movie didn’t stop there.

What in Jupiter’s name should the humans be changing, exactly? The original, as Klaatu said in his speech, pointed it bluntly that humans should avoid things that would threaten interplanetary peace, namely, nuclear arms proliferation. The remake avoids any particular issue and at best has an environmental agenda.

However, the extraterrestrial reason doesn’t sound logical.

If the earth dies, we die. If we die, the eath survives. Therefore get rid of humans so the earth survives.

Earth = about 4.5 billion years old. Life on earth = has been around 3 billion years. Homo sapiens = around 100,000 years. The earth won’t give a F*** if we’re not around.

Seriously, hugs and tears save the humans from indestructible aliens who don’t understand billions of years of evolution?

Lastly, on more trivial matters. It took me a while to compose an ending for the review that included the phrase “shall not perish from this earth” which I thought sounded like a good ending for the review. It’s from Lincoln’s Gettysberg Address (“and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth”) which was shown in the original as Klaatu and Bobby were touring around the US capital.

Go watch the original if you can, but the remake is completely optional.

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre August 26, 2008
(English version)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Directed by Dave Filoni
Lucasfilm Animation/ Warner Brothers

There’s a different Anakin Skywalker here. He’s not as uptight like before. Maybe because it’s computer animation. At least there’s no Jar Jar Binks.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the first animated movie of the series and the first movie from Lucasfilm Animation – the studio that George Lucas established a few years ago which has a unit in Singapore. This is also the first time Yoda isn’t voiced by Frank Oz, and the first Star Wars not to use original music from John Williams. One can almost say this is outside the Star Wars universe if George Lucas hadn’t produced this movie.

The good news is it’s a movie meant for kids. The bad news is that it may have one too many action pieces to make it appropriate for them.

In this version of The Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic under Chancellor Palpatine is engaged in an all-out-war with the separatist Confederacy under Count Dooku (still voiced by Christopher Lee). The events in this movie are between the stories of Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. After liberating one planet from occupying separatists, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent by the Jedi Council to search and retrieve Jabba the Hutt’s kidnapped infant child.

Unknown to the Council, Count Dooku and his assassin Asajj Ventress are behind the kidnapping, designed to instigate a three-way war between the Republic, the Separatists and the Outer-rim planets controlled by Jabba’s crime mafia. Helping the two Jedi Knights in this assignment is a new Padawan learner, Ashoka Tano, Anakin’s incessantly annoying young apprentice.

The CGI movie as a theatrical event is not entirely awful – maybe noisy and juvenile (just like its target market) – but decently executed by the same director of Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, this CGI version pales in comparison in storytelling, action, music and characterization to (and should not be confused with) the 2D hand-drawn animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series by Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory creator Genndy Tartakovski aired in Cartoon Network in 2003. Let’s just say that one was targeted for older kids.

The Clone Wars is one giant videogame which doesn’t add anything new to the entire Star Wars saga, save for the introduction of Ashoka. She’ll fare better in terms of story line and character development in the upcoming series – she does nothing here but annoy Anakin like a pre-teen sister would. Apparently Padawans can be disrespectful to their Masters as long as they’re good with the lightsaber.

Having proven time and again that film franchises are the most lucrative in the business, it’s not surprising for the producers of Star Wars to stretch its merchandising to the furthest reaches of its universe. Star Wars: The Clone Wars the movie is basically a theatrical advertisement for the upcoming CGI animated series on Cartoon Network, the resulting videogame titles for Xbox, Playstation, PSP and Wii, and a lot more action figures.

Here’s one loud reason how Star Wars has become the cartoon that it is. The Force may not be strong in this movie, but somewhere inside, it’s still there.

(NOTE: This review came out in June, and I simply overlooked posting it. Here it is.)

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre

The Happening
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel

We’ve seen the signs. They don’t make sense. Apparently, only M. Night Shyamalan knows what’s happening. It’s a good thing and a bad thing for a suspense thriller.

The Happening is the first R-rated thriller from director M. Night Shyamalan, who made great impression in the movie-making world with the hit supernatural, The Sixth Sense. His next few movies – Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, The Lady in the Water – didn’t live up to expectations set by The Sixth Sense. In fact some people argue that his work deteriorates after each succeeding film. It may be a matter of taste, but if this is true, The Happening can be found in, to use a phrase from American Idol, the bottom three.

The first ten minutes is actually very well executed, setting up the atmosphere of the suspenseful story with a series of scenes that are quite chilling, creepy, and in one particular scene, downright shocking. All quietly done, ordinary people in different parts of New York start killing themselves in strange and disturbing ways. The set-up is effective way to start a thriller, and as the story continues, the mass suicide spreads across the eastern seaboard.

News of an apparent terrorist attack reaches a high school in Philadelphia where Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) teaches science. After the news is explained by the high school principal, the students are sent home and Elliot and his buddy Julian (John Leguizamo) decide to leave town along with Elliot’s wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian’s daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). At this point in the story, everyone is surprisingly calm.

As they travel on board a packed train, the news spreads that something else is causing the event. The train stops abruptly in an obscure town, because the conductors say they’ve lost communications with the outside world. The people then start going in different directions. Worried about his wife stranded in Princeton, Julian decides to look for her and leaves his daughter with Elliot. From this point on, the cause of the mass suicide is slowly revealed, but still far off the climax.

Apparently there are unresolved issues between Elliot and Alma, a recurring theme in Shyamalan’s movies like Sixth Sense and Signs where the relationships between the male and female leads are under cloudy skies. But there is absolutely no chemistry between Wahlberg and Deschanel, the latter looks miscast. There are also issues between Alma and Elliot, a fact that’s not fully explored to give the separation of father and child more emotional weight. Leguizamo does the job fine, Deschanel does not.

The problem is either the script or direction, or both. Wahlberg, Leguizamo and Dechanel all suffer from poorly written dialogue, some sound childish and silly. Worst of all is Dechanel, who has nothing to work on her blank-faced character. The character drama stopped working because the characters have stopped being believable. The plot stopped being menacing and urgent, because it gave way to an environmental wake-up call.

This is not a cautionary tale that shows what might happen if humans keep plundering the earth. That was already set by another film by the former Vice President of the United States. The Happening is a poor narrative form of An Inconvenient Truth, set at the time when Mother Nature finally decides to get back at humans. What would humans do when this starts happening? If The Happening is the product of Shyamalan’s environmental conscience dying to spread such an important message, it may have been better had he finished the film on a more pro-active note, instead of cutting away to a different part of the world where the event starts all over again. As if the French never heard of the news.

There is, however, one reason to go see The Happening and that is the trailer of X Files: I Want to Believe is attached to this print. Quite an expensive way to see a trailer, but from the looks of it, the second X Files movie does have it happening.