Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Once again Harry Potter is the star of this month!! Yes, Harry Potter is finally here, and I watched it last Saturday (lucky enough to slip of those eager Potter fans out there and snatched a ticket...) I admit I've been waiting for so long for this movie ever since the teaser trailer for both Part 1 and Part 2 comes out. And according to what I got from the trailer was, FANTASTIC!! MUST-SEE movie of the year! Oh, I'm not forgetting other movies that I've been waiting for too, like, Tron Legacy for example? But let's not forgetting that Harry Potter really IS an epic!!

This is my favorite part!! :)

The story started where we left off last movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince... Remind you, SPOILER ALERT FOR YOU WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED HALF-BLOOD PRINCE! (For you who've watched Half-Blood Prince, you may proceed... :))

At Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore's dead, and Ministry of Magic is never been at stake... Both the wizarding world as well as muggle world are not safe... Snape is finally seen as a dark figure as he killed Dumbledore, and in this movie, Snape did appeared to be once again reunited with his former dark community, The Death Eaters... His allegiance by this time is obvious (or is it?). The readers of the books may have well known the ending to this mysterious man, but for you who are only as loyal as the movie audiences might have to wait until next year to reveal Snape's secret...

Harry, Ron, and Hermione are once again must face the peril and dangerous paths in front of them, as they travelled through forests and cities, to find Voldemort's precious souls which has been splitted to seven (or six) horcruxes... As for your information, horcruxes are the objects being made by killing someone, to gain some kind of 'permition' to split your soul into that object... So far its been said that Tom Riddle, a.k.a Voldemort has made 7 horcruxes including himself... What might be the last horcrux inside the book will stunned us all... I have read the books, right from the start til the end, and I have finished even before the sixth movie came along...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows brings you a very subtle ride from the beginning to the very end. The pace is slow at some point, and that is the difference of this film from the previous Potter movies which always in fast pace mode in order to capture the important moments inside the book... You won't find it in this installment... The pace is moderate to slow, and sometimes it dragged too much... Although many people claimed that this is the best Potter films ever made, I have to disagree on that. Not that this movie is not entertaining and not worth your two and a half hours time to watch, but the slow pace had almost made me feel...bored...

First of all, the tent scene is too much... Too much to elaborate on just normal and ordinary tents scene... Then, comes the part that I really liked from the book but the filmmakers just pass it out like nothing ever happened... There are parts on the book, the relationship and chemistry between Hermione and Ron for example, though it stated clearly in the movie, but the chemistry from the actors are not... Yes, Emma Watson made the perfect Hermione, and Rupert Grint made a perfect Ron, but their relationship is kind of flat. This is especially seen on the Malfoy's Manor scene...

The actors and actresses are all deliver pretty much the same performances, with an addition of Bill Nighy... I love Bill Nighy, but his role as Rufus Scrimgeour here cannot explore his character more... I wished he had a role that is much more important, because to 'hire' a very talented actor like Bill Nighy as Scrimgeour who only appeared in several scenes, means the waste of his talent as an actor...

The music is splendid! Alexandre Desplat really made this movie has a soul in it, like every other movies he's composing... You'll love what he had brought to The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and The Painted Veil...

Overall, this is just another Potter movie, except there are many ups and downs in this film, more than you expected... We, as the readers of the books, are challenged to compare the imaginations visualized inside our minds while reading the book, with the scenes on he big screen... I shall say, in visualizing the events on the book, this movie is on the TOP of the list... The downside is only the dragging side of too-many tents scenes, and the chemistry which does not work, and I cannot blame the actors for that matter, maybe it's just the way the filmmakers wants it. To set aside the romance for a full fiction adventure genre of movie...

Watch it or not?

Yes, definitely I recommend you to watch it! Although there are minor scenes, but Harry Potter is too epic to be forgotten on the list of movies you'd like to watch this year... Just enjoy the movie without any expectations, and you'll be fine...

Oh, and since this movie also comes from a book, and I know movies that originally adapted from books are not as good as the book itself... So take this advice, when you watch this movie, enjoy it as a movie, not as a movie adapted from a book, and you'll settled.

Rating: 4 out of 5... 

Movie Review: Megamind vs Skyline

Hmm, yeah I know the two movies above comes from a very different genre and target audience... Yet I'm going to give a quick review about it... I watched it last week by the way, and I was distracted the whole week with painting, yes, recently I draw... Again, after such a long time of resting my pencils and sketch book...

And today, I know I must catch up with all the movies I've watched, because I got a bigger movie to be reviewed... Yes, its HARRY POTTER and THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!!

But before I got to that one, I'll reviewed these two movies first...

Megamind:

A story about a villain who is actually an innocent (misguided by his past to be exact) and a lonely guy... Will Ferrell is the perfect choice for this character, he portrays the humor as well as the lonely and unwanted person that grows sympathy from the audiences. With a standard storyline, this movie can brought an entertaining visual of a villain who turned out better than he already is. Animation? Well, I think Dreamworks really working hard as they catch up with Pixar, which is of course far away on the top of the greatest animators' list. But the animation in this movie is not bad... It is still below How to Train Your Dragon but Dreamworks are working on it, and I'm sure of it, seeing their efforts from a tasteless and flat animated movie like Bee Movie, until they rise to this stage...

Yet, if I pictured Dreamworks and Pixar racing toward each other to be the best animator, I'd say Pixar still wins two laps... From the visuals, the story, plot, and perfect portions of each characters presented in each movie, the emotions, and even the choice of music along the film... (The music in this film is not bad at all by the way. Yep, it's Hans Zimmer who composed it and making this movie better in emotional aspect...)

Rating: 3.5 from 5

Skyline:

I'm sorry but I think this is the WORST movie I've watched this year... Not that I already enthused with the idea of this is going to be a good movie, no... Still I don't expect it to be so... Crappy... Readers, please don't get tricked by the good poster design up there. Yes, the poster design really can indicate whether the movie is good or bad in some movies, yet in this one, the fact is vice versa... From the story, the actors and actresses, the music, and even the visual effects is not properly managed...

The story is about the aliens that invaded the earth (a formula that is used in almost every single sci-fi movies...), about UFOs and that people started missing... So there are these people who are lucky enough to survive, only to let the time decide whether they really survived or they are just going to accept their fate and join the others that are already missing. 

The story is dull and filled with cliches here and there, surprising ending though... Yet the ending alone cannot save this movie from thumbs down... The acting is much worse.  The victims are just a bunch of people who have only one facial expression throughout the movie...  And just like a horror genre movies, the sheer luck survivals then started to gone missing one by one... To be exact, I take a look at my watch every time I can, and laugh in irony... This movie shouldn't be a comedy, yet it was! For me...

Okay here's the advice, you'd better go home, save your money, and watched The War of The Worlds for the thirtieth times or something, than to go and see this film... In fact the alien is similar, I do not know whether it is a coincidence or not...

Rating: 1 from 5 (Can I get a refund, please?)

Conclusion:

So, thinking of going to got to the movies this weekend? Well, I think that everybody is busy planning for Deathly Hallows this week, yes, they are the king of the box office... But if you'd like to see another title, or maybe just to save you from a dissapointment of not getting a ticket for Deathly Hallows, I recommend you to see Megamind... It worths your time and money, plusses good humor and entertaining in all aspects, whereas Skyline, they don't deserve BOTH!! Sorry... 

10 of My Favorite Things...

Good to be back on track... My works done (well, its not done yet, but I think I deserve a cool down for a sec...), tomorrow's a holiday... (Yippeee!!!), and tonight I'm going to watch more episodes of Vampire Diaries Season 1 on my DVD!! (All of the campus tasks had made me forget the episode... Uhh... I'm like 'Where was I left it?')


But first of all I intend to write this blog... I just had a thought in my mind the other day about The Favorite Things from The Sound of Music... You know? The movie? With Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and those cute kids singing? (Speaking of Christopher Plummer, he did look handsome in that movie! And now he's a Grandpa!! :D)


So I just had this thought that I would like to share my favorite things...


I think this is going to be simple, and I'll make it as short as possible... (Anyway, these things are ONLY things that can be sensed by our senses, in the way that it is something 'real', can be touched, can be seen, etc etc...)


10. The smell of damp grass and air after a heavy rain...


9. The light blue sky without a cloud, or very few clouds... Along with a far and wide green meadow, or grassland.


8. The sound of bacon, or a ham, or sausages sizzled on the frying pan...


7. The silky white clean piece of paper with no single scratch on it... To sketch the papers alone is preferable though :)


6. Smooth and light silk dress... (Can't find a reason not to like it... :D)


5. Watching sad and deep storyline movies with sweet caramel popcorn in hand, feet on the couch...Crying not only because of the characters, but also of the acting accompanied by a great script...


4. Sitting alone in a windy day while watching people passing by, listening to some instrumental music.


3. The smell of old sheets of papers inside an old book, with all its crippled edge and yellowish papers...


2. Eating the 'Charms' out of "Kellogs Lucky Charms" cereal in the afternoon, as a snack rather than as a breakfast, NO milk added... Just plain cereals...


1. A light on the darkest nights, in forms of anything, candles, lightbulbs, anything...


Okay, thats all my favorite things... There are tons of other favorite things I'd like to share, but the page would not allow it... :) 
Anyway, spending my time thinking of these things made me appreciate more (and pay attention to details more) to the environment... Its good to look at every fragment that completed your life sometimes... Getting out of your routine, just feel what you have to feel at that time, and sensed using your five senses the beauty of life... That way you'll feel blessed and soon you'll find yourself appreciate your life more... :)

Today's Exhausting Marathon...

Phew, how I am very grateful that this day had FINALLY come to an end... Why? Well to explain it would be such a long story... Haha... I'll explain it anyways...

First of all, my business plan assignment... Finally wrapped up and although it is not ready yet, I'm happy and content with it... So happy that it is finally done, with our group efforts and all... This assignment has taken very much of my time, days and nights... I'm exhausted to the max, especially yesterday when my head started to 'scream' at me for sleeping out of normal schedule...So, yesterday I was making this assignment til past midnight, and going to sleep feeling unwell, my stomach full of gas, my head spins, and I haven't finished my assignment... I switched on the alarm on my cellphone, picking 5.30 am to wake up in the morning, in order to finish the task...

Too bad I cannot wake up the next day, my alarm rings, yes... But I guess I'm too sleepy to wake up, so I only consider myself as half awake, switched off the ring ring tone, then go back to my dream world (almost immediately). Then, when I woke up later, the sun had risen from her dark lair, the birds are all chirping noisily outside my bedroom... And the thought, okay, do I dare to look at the time? I grabbed my cell from the desk and... Yeah... Its already 6.30 am! I've overslept for one hour, and haven't finished my job, and the class started at 9.00... To top it all, my sister has a presentation this morning, and so she cannot be late for her 8.10 class... The journey from my house to campus takes about half an hour in a normal day, so I have to get there as soon as possible... Say, 7.30 am?

Shortly after I arrived, I was helped by one of my friend to finish the task... We finished doing what I should've done the night before, including printing it on campus... At 10.30! We missed class and thats too bad... Yet we saved the day! Hahaha...

So, my day continues from an exhaust mode to a drowsy mode... I got home at half past four, and found out that I got a Chinese Language Course, from my mother... Its so sudden, and although I've heard it before and had agreed to join the course, still it surprised me... A little... Before I go to the language course, I done my usual routine on Friday which is do some workout at home... What do they call it? Cardio?

It ends to now... The machine worked inside my body shouted to me to stop doing anything... And that is exactly what I would do now... Go to sleep is much easier when you are exhausted anyway... >__<

Today's mood: drained of energy...

Movie Review: The Social Network; Dear Facebook Addict (also former addicts), you should (all) watched...!

Finally! After a month of desperate waiting, the movie is finally reached my country! Thx to the distributors, they really had done a great job! (Not that they weren't doing a good job all this time... I'm just saying... You know... :D )

Yes, its Saturday Movie Night! Hmm, yes I know I have a good reason to stay at home this Saturday, what with all that assignments to finish... But unfortunately my mind belongs somewhere else, and I really need to refresh my mind a little... Just a little bit... It won't hurt... Right??

So I once again set off to the mall (and yes, in my town there is NO cinemas built as one building... All the cinemas are inside the malls... So, we are forced to go to the mall everytime we watched movie... How smart of the 'business folks' right? I mean you'd have to agree that that was slick... Forcing people to simultaneously enjoy shopping and other entertainment after watching movies...) on this ordinary day with my boy, to catch up where we left off in theaters... There's also Megamind 3D released on cinemas, and although I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell, I'd like to watch it, too... But remembering the fact that I've been waiting for this movie for too long, and based on the reviews and extremely satisfactory ratings, this movie has received ‘the winner’ rating, so I decided to see it right away...

The Social Network is a story of Facebook... I just wonder why it is not stated clearly in the title that this is a Facebook movie. Maybe they have to pay royalties to Zuckerberg for using the name... Ha!

Anyway, its a very entertaining movie... Regardless of its fictional story... Yes, it is fictional... Based on the novel by Ben Mezerich called The Accidental Billionaires... You don't believe me? Start Googling... :)

Even the poster is well-thought out... Well done!

Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, same 'berg' name... It's kind of odd right?), the founder of Facebook, is a computer nerd, lonely, and - slightly arrogant- student studied at Harvard... He happened to also be a genius, and can hacked other university homepages in just a few hours to get the students photos and connecting it to Facemash, a site he made where the students can choose between two photos of girls and pick one they think are more interesting. The site then brought trouble for him, but his talent then discovered and interests the twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and their partner Divya Narendra...

The three then decided to invite Zuckerberg and ask him to build them a website called HarvardConnection. This website idea is about the social network that brings exclusivity. Zuckerberg agreed to join the team. However, he then realized that he is capable of establishing the social network by himself (I don't know whether its his arrogance, or lack of idea... But later in the movie he will explain why he made the social network...). First he had to find a source of fund, in which he tried to reached for his best friend, a business majored and a jewish Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) who's agreed to help and then made the CFO of TheFacebook...

Things roll by and he finally found Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who's interested in Zuckerberg's work on TheFacebook. Parker then tried to persuade him by feeding him imaginations of being big, to find investors and tried to be more serious about TheFacebook future... Soon Zuckerberg is lulled with all this dreams of being big and his new friend, started to forget who he was and more importantly, his friendship with Saverin... And to top it all, as the events roll by, Zuckerberg is facing two lawsuits from Winklevoss brothers and Divya, the other lawsuit is... Surprisingly, comes from Saverin.

Overall, the movie is a fast paced, forward-backward type. Here you can see the future, then some flashbacks of what happened earlier to explain the situations... Some scenes just gone 'blurry', the gap between scenes that are the future and the flashbacks are sometimes unclear, and you have to pay attention to the actors dialogue, or you'll never make it to the end of the movie... The point is, this movie is definitely not for someone slow in taking much information. Its fast, sharp lines and gradually heightened tense as the movie rolls by, pretty much explained the great quality of the script and the messages and information it provides the audiences.

This movie is one of the best movie I've seen this year, its new and fresh, with some great actors involved in it... The three leading stars (Eisenberg, Garfield, Timberlake) really gives the best performance on screen... and yet the screen-stealer is Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker... No no, not because he is hot and such... Its just that, he really nails it. I really just can’t picture him being an actor (regardless of a few films featuring him as a supporting role, like Alpha Dog for example...), and yet he's done an extremely great job of portraying the complicated character. Two thumbs up for JT!

Here is the resemblance to the 'real' people... I don't think Andrew (Garfield) is chosen based on the resemblance coz he doesn't look at all like Saverin... Maybe its his talent in acting that made him part of the brilliant casts in the movie.

The other actor who can receive recognition is Jesse Eisen-berg as Zucker-berg (Berg for Berg...), he expressed the feelings correctly of a loner and sometimes irritating, yet a genius boy of Harvard. Although maybe the real Zuckerberg wasn’t like anything he pictured on the screen, he portrayed the character just as needed in the movie. Well in that case, he can thank the scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin’s ability to sort the best words to deliver on the screen.

The third recognition would go to Garfield of course... I really think that he is going to be ‘the-next-big-thing’ of Hollywood, after seeing him act on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus... Although the films a ‘disaster’, still he can stand as an actor out of it. The other supporting roles also played a great part in making this movie as intense and great as it is. Armie Hammer who played both of the Winklevoss twins really showed his best efforts, and Max Minghella also had done a good job in portraying his character.

The conclusion is, this movie brings out the best performances by both actors and filmmakers. David Fincher has brought a very entertaining and strong plotted story to a well-deserved-Oscar movie. Despite of its fiction and drove past the reality that has been made up from the novel to ‘dramatize’ the true events. The point is, if you are looking for a good movie with a great degree of performance, a strong plot, fast-paced, with smart and long lines, you should definitely pick this movie...

However I suggest that after you watched the movie, you’d better spend your time googling for the real true story behind Facebook... Zuckerberg and such. Because the events are being made up in this movie (although some of it really is based on true events that has been changed a little...). 

Ah, this has been a very long review, and by far the longest review I’ve written in my blog... ;D

So now I’m going to continue my Facebook-ing activity if you don’t mind (YES I have a Facebook, anyway, who doesn’t these days??), and I’ll leave you for good by giving you the rating for the movie...

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars...

P.S: Don’t watch it alone, its better you bring some friends with you, so if you cannot catch up with the fast dialogue, you can ask your friend, and if she/he doesn’t understand it either, ask the other one, etc. And anyway, its a social network movie, maybe you can... ‘Invite’... your friends by writing on their... ‘Wall’... Okay okay I’m shutting my blog down now... Thanks for reading my awful-long-review btw...

^____^ ‘til next time!