This week, I caught the above sequel starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona etc.
Channing had only a brief role as Duke, the leader of the elite G.I. Joes team, and was killed off early in the movie. Dwayne who played Roadblock, took over the leadership role as one of three Joes who survived a surprise attack on them. He enlisted the help of General Joseph Colton, acted by Bruce, with the two other Joes (Lady Jaye and Flint) and Snake Eyes etc to investigate the matter to avenge the deaths of their teammates.
Lee Byung-hun had a meaty role again as the bad ninja Storm Shadow who initially with the bad guys Firefly, Cobra Commander and Zandar, joined forces with Roadblock and team to redeem himself from the accusation of assassinating his uncle the hard master. He did asians proud by reprising his role as a formidable opponent from the dark side.
I didn't like it as much as the original movie and the best part for me were the ninja fighting scenes on the cliff-faces. The opposing ninjas of two, Snake Eyes and Jinx, were dueling against many red suit ninjas and were swinging from cliff to cliff, much like spiderman.
On a side note, I noticed square-jawed D.J. Cotrona, who reminded me of a younger Tom Cruise, much like I noticed Tom Hardy in the 2010 movie "Inception" before he was cast as Bane in the 2012 "The Dark Knight Rises". If I am a talent scout, I would definitely say he has the potential to be a bigger star. Interestingly, I found out that he was cast as Superman in Warner Bros. movie "Justice League: Mortal" but due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008, the film was never made. What a pity! However, if he has it and his performance made producers and directors notice him, then we would surely see more of his films coming our way sometime.
Today's weather - sunny
I read an interesting article "Ecosystems that thrive in Amazon's High Places" on page 13 in The New York Times in this morning's TODAY.
Tepuis, which are known as tabletop mountains because of its flat plateau and steep cliff faces, located in the northern Amazon rain forest emerge thousands of meters from lowland forests and support a high biodiversity of flora and fauna such as lizards and frogs. Like mountains in the sky, it is a natural wonder how these are formed in the first place and how the animals get up there.
Unlike the formation of natural mountains such as the Andes which result from the collision of continental plates 25 million years ago, tepuis were hypothesized to form about 70 million years ago as layers of rock with sand at the ocean bottom were raised to become dry terrestrial land and over time, erosion removed the sand and exposed the rock beneath. Interestingly, it was found that the many faunal species living atop the tepuis are not found anywhere else and yet appeared to be closely related to each other, bringing forth the conjecture that they may share a common ancestral lineage.
According to recent research studies on 4 species of tiny tree frogs that live on these tepuis, evolutionary biologists are able to use their DNA molecular clock and compared them to their closest lowland relatives to determine how long ago their common ancestor existed before it accumulated new mutations and diverged into separate species. It was discovered that the common ancestor of these 4 frog species lived about 5.3 million years ago, and not 70 million years ago. This means there is a possibility that the frogs scaled up the colossal cliffs to the tepuis and became separate species only several hundred thousand years ago.
Unfortunately, global warming has driven the mountain-dwelling species to higher altitudes but they can only go as far and as high as the top of the tepuis. I am ending this post with a quote from Ms Patricia Salerno, the lead evolutionary biologist, from the University of Texas, involved in the study:
"The tepui frogs may have been able to scale cliffs that would make mountaineers blanch. But even they can't climb into thin air."
Labrador Nature Reserve or Labrador Park, as it was once known, is one of the few coastal parks with an interesting and rich history. Anyway, so there I was, checking out the park on one of those days.There are quite a few stunted trees in the area. Amongst them are these few Barringtonia acutangula trees, with a low branching habit and pale yellowish leaves, next to a very beautiful cliff face. However, I would not dare to stand near this area on a rainy day for safety reasons.
At this location, I could see the ongoing development of the Reflections at Keppel Bay from a different angle. Below it was a standaone black and white colonial bungalow. The owner of it must be very, very rich to afford such an exclusive location.Sentosa island was just across the side of the sea. Legend has it that there was an underground bunker, right where I was standing, that led from this part of Labrador Nature Reserve to the exotic island. However, according to a source who went into the bunker, it was bombed and the tunnel was already sealed. The place I was standing on is identified by the red obelisk.After a turn and a short stretch of walk, there was a ComChest Garden planted with lots of plants, that somehow didn't quite seem to fit in with the coastal landscape and the environment. It sort of transported one to an urban garden landscape.I would be back soon for another recce of the site. This time round, I would try to take more photos.
