Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Fast & Furious 6 – Inconceivable, Cheesy-ish, But Cool

Yet another FF title!

There were moments during the show when I gasped deep and mouthed, “This can’t be possible!”  It was almost like the clip when Edward of Twilight saved Bella from a would-be car accident at school.  That superhuman power.  That moment, I did not see Vin Diesel as Vin Diesel.  I saw him as a demigod.  That powerful leap into midair, with razor sharp trajectory precision.  Something that parachutists might be able to do at terminal velocity.  Or maybe not.  I couldn’t help but wonder if someone was to jump out from a fast moving vehicle on a highway, grab a 60kg object that is thrown onto him, and then land on his back through the shattered glass, would he have survived?  Not a bone broken?

Vin Diesel is not the only invincible one here.  Those leaps between a plane that was about to take off and the cars below struggling to gain traction, wow!  One could take a multistory fall and land right onto a car seat OK.  That is incredible.  More incredible so is: How long was the runway exactly?  That airplane scene went on and on as though the runway was as long as two parallel lines stretching into infinity.

Actually, these things don’t bother me too much.  I knew what I was in for.  What really bothers me is that why would one of my favorite characters die when everyone else is given such superhuman treatment?  Puzzling.  Perhaps that character did not die.  Perhaps the answer lies in the future installments.  I can only hope.

I can imagine why Fast & Furious 6 is popular.  I like cars.  While taking the action to fist fighting, tank smashing, and plane crashing may seem too far off from the franchise, I still like the car scenes a lot.  Of course, I wish that the convoy on the final missions was the same make, same color.  Like some of the memorable scenes in the earlier installments.  That visual coherence would have radiated a stronger sense of teamwork.  I am a Formula One fan.  Those F1 like cars in Furious 6 are quite something.  They seem like working prototypes.  If the filmmakers manage to build those, in real life, I doubt any road car would be able to get close at all.

In a way, the franchise has grown up quite a bit.  It is not about street racing anymore.  It is like a mini-Expendables whereby the ex-criminals’ skills are required in saving the world.  Or saving a briefcase.  Some of the dialogues can be kind of cheesy.  But because most the characters – especially so for Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and The Rock – are so cool, I really don’t mind.  The exchange between Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson – also a musician – is hilarious.  Some parts of the movie struck my emotional core too.  Overall, an entertaining movie.

Looks like Jason Statham from The Transporter will be starring in Fast & Furious 7.  At least it looks so from the post-credit scene.  It is hard to visualize him as a villain though.  We shall see.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Niantic Project: Ingress By Felicia Hajra-Lee – A Much Better Follow-Up

This is the second novel from the Ingress Niantic Project.

Like I have anticipated after reading a sample chapter from the previous book The Alignment Ingress, Felicia Hajra-Lee’s writing style is more agreeable to me.  It does not feel like trying to fit Ingress into an established storyline like Thomas Greanias’s book does.  It feels like I am reading a book on Ingress told from the inside.  In the previous book, Ingress was described like a digital game mashed into a classic treasure hunt plot.  Hajra-Lee’s approach is different.  She has shared insights on what exotic matter does (in fact, Exotic Matter was the original title of this book) and how XM affects the bodies of some.  There is this subtle notion of the two opposing ideals a similar way that we have the two factions in game.  One that opposes to being ‘shaped’ by the XM transmission and one that embraces that for our next evolution.  I would say The Niantic Project Ingress is bias towards the Resistance faction – at least that is how I perceived it to be.  But I suppose a story told from one perspective can be an engaging read.

Those who have followed Ingress on Google+ may be aware of the ‘real life’ events that happened around (government funded?) Niantic Lab.  The facility has been locked down after an explosion due to an experiment that involved exotic matter and power cube.  Since then, key characters have fled the premise with valuable information.  Kill orders have been issued.  Even ADA the virtual reality entity seems to have come up with her own agenda.  Without a base, some of these key characters have decided or being forced to approach the Chinese and the Russian in order to continue the project using private funding.  And then, a third organization seems to have formed by the ‘patriots’.

There is plenty of action, plenty of intriguing insights in the world of Ingress.  The narration of this novella tends to flip between different characters rather frequently making it at times a slightly disorientating read.  And it does not have that climatic ending that makes you go wow.  Yet another introduction on what is to come?  Judging from where this book is heading as well as the Ingress events that took place in Google+, the next chapter of this Niantic archives series could well be heading to anomaly whereby a new type of matter is found – dark matter or chaotic matter.  I am excited to find out more.

 

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Star Trek Into Darkness – I Wouldn’t Have Expected Anything Less

Into Darkness is a great follow up.

I am not a Trekkie.  But I have thoroughly enjoyed the reboot.  Hence, I have high anticipation of Into Darkness, also directed by J. J. Abrams.  Besides, the casting of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock is simply brilliant.  Before the movie, I was thinking to myself: How nice if I could see some Klingons.  The good news is, there were some Klingons.  The not so good news is that they did not last long.

So I lamented just a little bit with my movie buddies Cynthia and TK.  In a sci-fi movie like Star Trek, when human are exploring the frontier of the galaxy, should we not see more interaction with other alien species?  Like my favorite Klingons?

What we see instead is the conflict between the human in the future with the generically modified super-human in the past caught in the middle.  At first, I felt the villain Khan acted by Benedict Cumberbatch was a bit stiff and emotionless.  Then, when it is his part to shine, Cumberbatch delivers some of the memorable moments in this movie.  As for Kirk and Spock, the filmmaker has given them plenty of opportunity to showcase the unique characteristic of the two opposing figures.  Kirk who acts on his initiation versus Spock who is governed by logic and has chosen not to be affected by emotion.  In Into Darkness, both Kirk and Spock are being deeply challenged against their principles.  It is part of a learning journey for them to mature and take greater responsibility.  The filmmaker has nailed the character development aspect perfectly.

The ending plot is not without its loophole (or so I have observed).  Cynthia and TK did not notice until I have pointed it out.  It is like, why go into such great trouble to catch the one when there are plenty of stock back in the ship?  And if they have no idea how to unfreeze these stocks, why risk freezing the main character in it?  Anyway, that is minor on this pretty entertaining movie of late.

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Iron Man 3 Is Fun!

Now, this is a pretty fun movie to watch.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I should watch Iron Man 3.  I remember the Iron Man five years ago was great.  I did not like Iron Man 2 and could not remember what the plot was.  Not even a single bit.  Part one was memorable.  Part two was forgettable.  But since both my buddy TK and my wife were keen on part three, and the box office seems to do well, why not give one of my favorite actors Robert Downey Jr. another chance?

As it turns out, Iron Man 3 is fun!  It reminds me why I love the first installment.  There is this human factor as we get to see more on the vulnerable side of Tony Stark than a hero in suit.  Tony Stark as an engineer who is playful at heart and he loves to create.  The end products may or may not work as intended.  Loving it.  I am trained as an engineer and I can relate to this aspect of the show. Again, nothing really going on with the Pepper character.  There are some silly moments too, like assembling an anti-terrorists outfit and gear using common goods purchased from a local DIY store.  Or blowing up robots in order to create a firework.  But all in all, an entertaining movie.

Categories
Fiction

The Alignment Ingress By Thomas Greanias: A Worthy Read?

The first novella from the augmented reality game Ingress.

This may not be a popular post among the Ingress community because those who are playing this augmented reality game and have read the novella seems to love it.  However, just because everyone seems to love Nolan’s Batman series doesn’t mean that there aren’t common voices within that have a different opinion.  Here are a few observations for sharing if you are curious to know if The Alignment Ingress is your cup of tea.

First of all, let me say that I am a huge fan of Ingress and its communities.  I have spent many walking hours playing the game.  I enjoy reading books that are spawned from a game, like the novels from World of Warcraft.  Reading The Alignment Ingress, I would expect to have a better clarity on the lore and the characters involved.  I enjoy reading mysterious and code solving types of novels like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol.  This novella has a promising start with a picture of Queen of Sheba and a celestial map of Virgo – both appear to match each other perfectly.  There is a treasure to be discovered.  The Alignment Ingress has a fair amount of military weaponry jargon, which I am OK with as I have once ground through Tom Clancy’s mightily thick books.  But here lies the challenge, this novella is short.  Packing all these ingredients in and making it an entertaining read is no easy feat.

There are two main characters in this novella: Conrad Yeats and Hank Johnson who seek ancient treasure and truth.  Conrad Yeats is a known character from the author’s previous books.  So if you have not read any of Greanias’s books in the past, you probably would find it a little bit hard to relate to some of the characters because character development in this novella is scarce.  There are Ingress related explanations dotted throughout the book – which is good for those who play the game more than following the lore in Ingress website.  What I find missing is how the dots connect to each other.  Yes, I now know what exotic matter is, even chaotic matter that is not yet live in the game.  ADA, the female voice from the game.  Various organizations.  And portals of course.  But how do all these really link to each other?  More importantly, what is the Shapers and the real agendas of different entities?  The novella doesn’t say.  Out of nowhere, the two factions – Resistance and Enlightened – are mentioned.  But why such division from the start?  Who are leading the factions?  How do the characters in this novella relate to these factions?  It doesn’t say either.

On the puzzle solving bits, the beginning was promising.  I was anticipating a Da Vinci Code-like journey.  Throughout the mid section of the book, more insights mixed with Biblical events are thrown in.  It is only till the very end when the solution is revealed.  It is a great ending no doubt despite a lack of depth.  However, I wish I was able to solve the mystery alongside with the narration as the plot progresses like Dan Brown’s books.

There is a fair bit of technical jargon with regards to drones and explosive that lost me for a moment.  Not because I have no interest in the topic.  This novella does not have the luxury of the length of Tom Clancy’s books that explain the parts in great details.  But I enjoy seeing how modern day gadgets like Nexus devices and the social media site Google+ are being mentioned.  There seems to be a tinny bit of romance too.  I guess only those who follow the author’s previous books may be able to relate.

All in all, maybe I am expecting too much, The Alignment Ingress is still a pretty good read for the most hardcore fans.  Ironically, I seem to enjoy reading a link from the novella that leads to a chapter from another up-coming book by Felicia Hajra-Lee called An Exotic Matter the most.  There is a fair bit of suspense and an interesting character development within.  I am curious about what that may turn out.

The Alignment Ingress comes in two digital versions (as far as I know).  I bought the Kindle version.  On a hindsight, if I were to have a Nexus tabulate, the Google Book version would have been a better choice.  Because the novella contains links to external sites and that don’t open well in Kindle PaperWhite, I have to toggle between reading on a Kindle and on a PC so as to dive into these extra bits of the story.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time By Yasutaka Tsutsui

A Japanese novelette

First, a couple of interesting points about this book and the author.  The title story was written between 1965 to 1966 and was translated into English on 2011.  This English version has two stories: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of.  Just over 200 pages in length, this Japanese science fiction is a quick read.  Yasutaka Tsutsui is also the author of Paprika, which was made into a film.  I remember liking that film a lot.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is fast pace and entertaining.  One day, fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Kazuko has discovered by accident that she is capable of time travel.  Leaping back and forth in time, Kazuko is trying to convince her friends this new found superpower of hers.  To Kazuko, the ability to leapt through time is more of a problem that has be solved rather than an opportunity to be exploited.  As a part-science-fiction-part-drama-and-romance, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time doesn’t dwell too deep onto the technical details.  The story has also elegantly avoided the topic of temporal paradox.  All in all, I was glued to the story from the first page.  My only disappointment is that the story has ended too soon.  It has a beautiful ending, don’t get me wrong.  I just wish the story would last longer.

Then, there is this odd piece called The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of.  While the two stories do not seem to relate to each other, it does have this common theme of erasing memory.  Masako has certain phobias that have been haunting her since young.  And she discovers that not only she has this problem, the people around her too.  Like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the author is taking the readers a journey of mystery and discovery.  The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of does not seem to have the magic like the titled story does.  It is a good albeit short read nonetheless.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Drucker: A Life In Pictures By Rick Wartzman

Drucker

Whenever I show this book to my friends around me, looking at the book title, the first reaction would often be, “Who is Drucker?  Could it be Peter Drucker?”

Indeed.  This is a photo book on the life of Peter Drucker.  Drucker was an Austrian-born American whose writings contributed to the foundations of the modern business corporation.  To quote from the author:

Drucker discerned some of the major trends and events of the twentieth century before almost anyone else spotted them: the Hitler-Stalin pack, Japan’s impending rise to economic power, the shift from manufacturing to knowledge work, the increasing importance of the service factor, the fall of the Soviet Union. “Peter Drucker’s eyeballs,” Harvard University’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter once marveled, “must contain crystal balls.”

Drucker: A Life in Pictures has done a good job in painting a picture of who Drucker was.  He was a teacher and was used to give lectures in universities.  He was a management consultant, worked with Jack Welch of GE and Donald Keough of Coca-Cola as well as other other large corporations like P&G.  He was a counsel for the government and had corresponded with the White House.  He was an adviser to the social-sector.  His wife and he took a deep interest in Japan after their first visit.  His books have been published in more then 40 languages.  Druker has played a role in educating the world on the development of management.  In his mind, he was always a writer and his legacy is his writing.  Of the 39 books of his, two-thirds of these books were written after he had reached his mid-sixties.

Interviewer: If you describe your occupation, would it be “writer”?

Peter Drucker: I always say I write.

Interviewer: What, then, has inspired your books more than anything?

PD: The same thing that inspires tuberculosis.  This is a serious, degenerative, compulsive disorder and addiction.

Interviewer: An addiction to writing?

PD: To writing, yes.

Drucker: A Life in Pictures is perhaps one of the more unique books I have reviewed.  While written by Rick Wartzman – executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, the photographs are by Anne Fishbein, curated by Bridget Lawlor.  A majority of graphic content comes from letters and memos, certificates and handwritten notes – all of which reveal a personal insight on one aspect of Drucker that may be less familiar to the readers.  At the beginning of each chapter, there is a brief interview, which further illustrates a personal side of Drucker.  Reading through the book is like  journeying through a museum in my own pace.  A recommended read for those who wish to know more about Peter Drucker.

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 15, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0071700463
ISBN-13: 978-0071700467

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews Romance

Warm Bodies – A Highly Anticipated Zombie Romance

A zombie romance story.

Ever since I have watched the trailer of this movie, quite some time back, I have always been wanting to catch Warm Bodies on a big screen.  Cynthia and my buddy TK’s response to my overwhelming enthusiasm has been lukewarm.  Until they have watched the show with me.  They love it.

I am unsure why the global fascination on zombies and the undeads.  Online games like World of Warcraft have them.  They have been the prime targets in many shooter games.  Even in Call of Duty and Saint Rows 3 whereby I don’t see how zombies get into the stories, but they are there.  As though in our mind, the apocalypse happening in the future would turn many of us into the rotting zombies.  Dead, but not quite dead.

Warm Bodies in essence is a story about a zombie named R and a human girl called Julie.  And R has a friend called M.  Do the names like Romeo, Montague, and Juliet ring a bell?  It seems that Shakespeare would continue to inspire, all the way to the apocalypse and beyond.

This story is interesting because it is told from the perspective of a zombie.  R narrates most of the plot.  The way he sees things, the first time he falls in love and somehow manages to suppress his hunger for Julie’s brain.  Zombies eat human brains for the memories within, and to feel human again for a short while.  There seems to be a constant yearning for the zombies to feel human.  Indeed, this love between R and Julie has triggered an effect to the zombie community and turning them warm.  Hence the film’s title, Warm Bodies.

The relationship between zombies and human is slightly more complicated than us versus them.  Zombies that have given up hope to feel human again turn into skeletons.  In this three-way relationship, zombies emerge as the protagonists while flaws from the human and the skeleton such as apathy and distrust would leave the audience something to think about.

The morale of the story if I may add would be such.  Healing between groups of different people – be it as rich and poor, healthy and disabled, different religions and non-believers, and different cultures – would start with acceptance and love.  Change is possible.  Casting away prejudice and fear so as to see things from a different perspective.  Realizing that the very thing you fear about the other one could well be the same thing the other one too fear of.  And perhaps, we are not that different after all.

Categories
Animation Foreign Movie Reviews

Chico And Rita – A Spanish Animation Film Of Love And Music

A Spanish animation film

The 8th Spanish Film Festival in Singapore is ending soon.  See if you can catch Chico & Rita (2010) at The Arts House today.  Admission is free on a first come basis.

Chico & Rita is a Spanish animated feature-length film.  The first that was nominated for the Oscar.  The artwork is beautiful.  Each frame could well be made into a wall painting.  The soundtrack throughout the film is equally beautiful, especially for the jazz music lover.  Set in Cuba, a pianist called Chico meets a singer called Rita.  And they have fallen in love.  However, circumstances seem to often get into their way.  Chico & Rita is a journey of love and music from Cuba’s Havana to New York and Las Vegas in a span of five decades.  Due to the rich history behind Chico & Rita and the fact that many of Havana’s pre-revolutionary buildings had decayed, the filmmakers have looked into the photograph archive in order to recreate the era and the mood.

This story is rather dark.  So is the mood.  Perhaps it is the pain the gives forth such beautiful music and inspires such exquisite artwork.

The drawing of Chico & Rita is exquisite.

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Tapas And The 8th Spanish Film Festival Here In Singapore

Tapas (2005) A Spanish Film

Cynthia and I were invited for the opening of the 8th Spanish Film Festival at The Arts House Singapore.  Before the main movie Tapas (2005), a 18 minutes short animation called Tadeo Jones (2007) was played.  Now that I have watched the animation.  It does sound like a reference to the Western version of Indiana Jones.

The main character Tadeo was at home when from his window, he saw a cute dog being thrown into a garage by a delivery man, together with boxes after boxes of mysterious packages.  Feeling the urge to save the dog, Tadeo ventured into the house and discovered a bizarre cult in the mist of an animal sacrificial ritual set in a quasi-Egyptian backdrop.  Not the sort of top quality animation as you would expect from a Hollywood movie of the same era.  The story is entertaining nonetheless.

Tapas (2005) is a mix of characters with individual plots that intertwined with one another.  In a Barcelona suburb, a wife of a self-centered restaurant owner cannot take his husband’s unrealistic demand anymore and has decided to quit being a chef.  And quit being his wife while she is at it.  Meanwhile, a Chinese chef who knows kung fu is happy to take up the job vacancy (and the abuse).  He is in Spain because he wants to be with his love.  A lady who sells chickpeas – among other cooking ingredients – has been in a separation for two years and now being in a cyber relationship with a man from Argentina.  Two young teenagers work at the same supermarket.  One of them is obsessed with Bruce Lee and girls of different nationalities while the other one has fallen in love with the chickpea lady.  Finally, there is an old couple with the woman selling drugs to the young and the man dying of lung cancer.

This film is raw, as in, there is little attractive about the characters and their living conditions.  Yet, it feels so real.  Ordinary people going about with their ordinary life dealing with real life challenges while learning from them.  Of all the sub-plots, I enjoy the story of the old couple the best.  It is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

The 8th Spanish Film Festival is starting from now till the end of the month.  Every day at 19.30.  Admission is free and the location is at The Arts House.  Check out their website for further information.

8th Spanish Film Festival in Singapore