TERMINATOR: GENISYS

Hollywood is fond of remakes and , and they are also fond of inviting actors from former movies to appear in current ones to evoke past memories or to provide a sense of humour. The first 4 Terminator movies were screened in 1984, 1991, 2003 and 2009 respectively.

This latest movie set in 2029 wasn't so much about John Connor, leader of the resistance against the machines, but focused more on the relationship between his parents Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor. Saved by John Connor as a child, Kyle was raised to join the resistance in the fight against the Skynet and its machines. The resistance failed to destroy Skynet and Kyle volunteered to be sent back in a time machine to 1984 to protect a young Sarah Connor from harm. Thereafter, the characters were originally planned to be sent to 1997 to change the events but instead moved forward to 2017 to stop the launch of a new global operating system known as the Genisys, which was supposedly Skynet.

Well, this movie was action-packed but it was a tad too confusing for me as they seemed to shuttle between different timelines which altered past and future events. Jason Clarke who played John was second fiddle to Emilia Clarke's Sarah and Jai Courtney's Kyle. Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised his roles as the terminator machines T-800 and T-800 (model 101) and he went from young to old through the times. There were two scenes of Kyle going all naked for the time travel and there was the famous Arnie naked scene as well and his deadpan looks and corny "I'll be back" phrase. Lee Byung-hun seemed to be Hollywood's favourite Asian or Korean actor to play similar roles as the villain (e.g. in the G.I. Joe movies) or killer machine in this as T-1000.

At the end of the movie, there was an easter egg segment, which hinted at a possible sequel.

Arnie as T-800 (model 101) in a rare Kodak moment

Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese

John Connor who was infected by Skynet in the future

T-1000 the killer machine

Kyle and John

DRAGON BLADE (天将雄狮)

I watched "Dragon Blade" a few weeks back. Directed by Daniel Lee and starring Jackie Chan as Commander Huo An who is the leader of the protection squad of the Western regions of the silk road during the Han Dynasty, the Korea star Choi Siwon as his deputy Yinpo, John Cusack as Roman General Lucius, Adrien Brody as the Roman heir Tiberius and a cameo by Feng Shaofeng, this movie was quite entertaining given its rather interesting cast.

In a very cliche way, it started of in the modern day with a 2 members archaeological team led by Vanness Wu and Karena Lam who found an ancient city buried under the sand and through laser projection and satellites imaging, and managed to reconstruct an image of how the city used to look like before the story progressed into the past.

I am not a fan of Jackie Chan and guess I will never be but I always admire his amazing ability to kick butt and execute all those moves despite his age. Siwon has screen presence but his role was really minor and kind of insignificant, in my opinion. I am not sure why but I do find it a bit strange to see both American actors Adrien and John and their legion of armies in this movie. Of late, Adrien Brody seems to be taking on more baddie roles than before.

The movie ended in the modern day again with both Vanness and Karena marveling at the greatness of this site before deciding to leave the ruins as a part of forgotten history so that it remained untainted by humans. 

Commander Huo An

Yinpo

the brotherhood of the protection squad

Tiberius, Huo An and Lucius

INTERSTELLAR

One of the most hush-hush sci-fi movies kept under wraps for so long, this recently released movie built up too much hype and I don't always think that is a good move. Directed by Christopher Nolan of "The Dark Knight" series of movies fame, I had high expectations when I caught it at the movies.

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley with a cameo by Matt Damon and Topher Grace, the movie almost put me to sleep at times. Set in the future on a dying Earth, the space travel did not happen until at least an hour into the 2 hrs 50 mins long movie. The movie makers took their time to explore the special relationship between Cooper, Matthew's character who was a former NASA test pilot turned farmer, and his 10 years old daughter Murphy, played by MacKenzie Foy, before they whisked him off on a spacecraft Endurance with Dr Amelia Brand, played by Anne Hathaway, daughter of Professor Brand, Michael Caine's character, and some others into outer space through a wormhole to explore the livability of 3 potentially habitable planets Miller, Edmunds and Mann named after the astronauts who went on the initial mission to seek out these planets, in another galaxy in a bid to relocate mankind. The young Murphy was so heartbroken that although she pined for her father and unlike her elder brother, she refused to record messages for her dad, for the many years to come, which were sent to those on the mission.

Of course, the space travel wasn't as simple or straightforward and was fraught with lots of potential dangers and challenges. Planet Miller was too close to a black hole Gargantua which exerted a strong gravitational pull on the planet that it resulted in time dilation and one hour spent on the planet was the equivalent of seven earth years. Naturally, disaster happened to the team who explored this planet first. By the time the survivors returned to the Endurance, 23 earth years passed. That was also when Murphy, who was now a NASA scientist, sent her first recorded message to her dad on her birthday to remind him of his promise that he would be back before she reached the same age as him when he left her behind. This was the part that Matthew McConaughey broke down with grief when he finally saw his daughter after two decades apart.

They next went to Planet Mann, where Dr Mann was awakened from his space slumber, which showed a lot of potential for humans to inhabit. However, it turned out that Dr Mann falsified all the data for his own selfish reasons because he couldn't stand the loneliness in outer space and plotted to get a spacecraft to get there to rescue him from his plight. Another astronaut was killed as Dr Mann tried to take control of the spacecraft but didn't succeed, leaving behind Cooper and Amelias as the two remaining survivors of the voyage. This commotion caused significant damage to the spacecraft and barely left behind enough resources to sustain both of them for the final mission to the third planet.

Cooper sacrificed himself and instead of being destroyed upon entry into the atmosphere of the third planet, he was thrust into a 5th dimension across a time continuum behind a series of bookshelves where Murphy's bedroom was. He had to find the one that the adult Murphy was in at the specific moment to communicate with her the data that would enable her to solve the mystery of sending mankind to outer space. He eventually lapsed into unconsciousness before waking up at a hospital, which he later learnt was part of a larger life sustaining facility on another planet and the place was founded and named after Murphy. By then, Murphy was already in her 80s and surrounded by her children and grandchildren and she sent him away looking for Amelia, who was still somewhere stranded in outer space.

The ending was very typical of Christopher Nolan's movies where there was a lot of narration to provide a closing chapter to the movie. Strangely, this is one movie that I caught of outer space where aliens were not involved.

Cooper broke down on watching Murphy's first recorded message.

Prof Amelia Brand

Cooper and his children Tom and Murphy

the adult Murphy

HERCULES

I watched "Hercules" yesterday and I was plain bored throughout the movie. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Joseph Fiennes, Reece Ritchie, John Hurt, it wasn't a story about a legendary half man half god character. 

It went against the tales we knew of and tried to dispel the myth that Hercules was the son of Zeus and instead portrayed him as just a man with great strength, courage and wits. Whatever we heard of his prowess and abilities were the result of him and his team of 4 behind him.

I personally preferred the Kellan Lutz version because it stayed more true to the original. This one was just plain dull, even the battle scenes could not jolt me up from my stupor.