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.
This is the latest vehicle starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt. The other main stars include Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Xu Qing.
They transform the adorable Joseph with prosthetic into a totally different person, who somehow managed to disgust me, to make him resemble a younger Bruce. Set in the future in 2044 where 10% of the population possessed telekinesis through mutation of their genes and 2074 where time travel was invented, it tracks the life of a looper - a professional killer in 2044 hired by a criminal boss known as the Rainmaker from the future to kill off their targets and dispose off their bodies in present time with reward in the form of silver bars.
Complications arose when the older Joe was captured and sent by the Rainmaker to the present via a time machine to be killed by the younger Joe, to terminate their contract to close the loop. Opposition to this was punishable by death Before being held captive, the old Joe was living in bliss with a newfound love played by Xu Qing and fought hard to stay alive so that he can change the course of history by killing the young Rainmaker to save his love interest from being killed. That was when both the young and old Joe met Sara and her only son Cid who lived in a farm.
The old Joe managed to track down three children with the same birthday as the Rainmaker and killed the innocent boys one at a time. After killing off two children, he was on to kill the third, who turned out to be Cid. Determined to save Cid after becoming close with Sara, the younger Joe turned against his older self. It was also then that Joe discovered that Cid was a freak, possessed very strong telekinetic powers and was capable of turning violent and killing people when he was enraged. When the younger Joe realized that if the older him killed Sara, that was the tipping point that pushed Cid over the edge to become the future ruthless Rainmaker if he witnessed the brutal murder of his mum, he had to make a tough choice to sacrifice his own life instead so that his older self would cease to exist, thereby dissolving the danger faced by Sara and her son.
The science fiction action movie started off quite promisingly but somewhat lost steam along the way. What was a time travel assassination eventually turned out to be a horrifying "Rosemary's child" adaptation. It wasn't as good and enjoyable as I thought it would be though.
I love watching Taiwanese movies like this. They never reveal everything in the movie and leave bits and pieces of puzzle for the audience to figure things out on their own. The fun thing is, depending on one's imagination, everyone may have a different conclusion or perspective of the storyline. Such movies therefore do not appeal to audiences who want all questions to be answered without a shred of uncertainty.
This movie "Girlfriend, Boyfriend" (direct translation) revolves around three characters Mabel (played by Gwei Lun-mei), Liam (by Joseph Chang, who incidentally acted as a gay in another earlier movie "Eternal Summer") and Aaron (by Rhydian Vaughan) and spanned over a period of about 30 years with flashbacks in three time zones 1985, 1990 and 1997. It tracked the development of their relationship across Taiwan's social changes from a conservative martial law society to a reformed one that was more liberal.
The movie opened with a bearded Liam being interrogated in a high school on his ambiguous relationship to a pair of rebellious twin girls who incited their classmates to stage an uprising to wear shorts instead of skirts.
With his explanation, the year was brought back to 1985 where Liam, Mabel and Aaron were shown as a part of a group of student helpers to pick Magnolia flowers from the trees for sale. Mabel and Liam grew up together as childhood buddies and the tomboyish former held a touch for the shy and quiet Liam. Aaron was apparently a new classmate, who together with the other two, formed a close-knit and inseparable trio over the years to come. When Mabel found out that the unresponsive Liam did not share the same feelings towards her, the heartbroken girl decided to accept Aaron's pursuit and became his girlfriend. Unbeknownst to her, Liam had the hots for Aaron instead but stood by them without revealing his innermost feelings.
5 years later in 1990, they graduated from high school and Mabel was a dancing instructor by then. Liam continued to support Aaron by being his partner in student protests activities. Mabel united with the two during the monumental 1990 demonstration and it was then that their relationship took another dive. After witnessing the lovemaking between Mabel and Aaron, the devastated and closeted Liam sought solace in public sex with a police officer in the parade square. On the other hand, Mabel discovered Aaron cheating on her with a rich girl from the student protests movement and left him. In a heart to heart exchange of few words but with lots of tears, Mabel finally realized that the person in Liam's heart all those years was actually Aaron.
The scene fast forward to the year 1997. By then, the once carefree Aaron was already married to the girl but ironically lost his freedom as he was severely controlled by his rich and influential father-in-law. Mabel also became the third party in his marriage. Liam, on the other hand, was attached to a married man. After evading the pair for years, Liam was re-united with Mabel and Aaron by chance. It was then that Mabel discovered that she was pregnant with twins by Aaron. At the same time, she was diagnosed with a malign tumour which grew aggressively with the twins development. Liam also broke off with his partner of many years. The latter pair reconnected emotionally once again after their personal setbacks.
The movie then shifted back to the present where it was clear that the twin girls were the daughters of Aaron and Mabel, who passed away after the childbirth. Liam took on the responsibility of raising the girls all those years as their guardian and was both a brother and father to them. There was no mention of Aaron at all, so it was anyone's guess what happened to him along the way. Liam sacrificed and devoted his personal life towards bringing up the girls and one couldn't help it but wonder if he did it out of his love for Aaron, Mabel or both?
This is yet another poignant movie that explores the intricacies and complexities of human emotions. The tagline "everyone deserves to have someone who loves them and someone whom they love" is food for thought for everyone. Whilst I am sure that the producer deliberately created some unexplained scenes to give the audience the room to make their own deductions and form their own perspectives, I am also pretty sure that some pivotal scenes were cut out by the local censorship authorities. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but I may have to check out the novel if I want all the answers to the numerous questions.
Today's weather - sunny
I didn't have much high hopes of this movie but after watching it, I was pleasantly impressed. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this is the last of a 3-part trilogy on the DC comic superhero character Batman. The first two movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were released in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
Hemmed by a cast which included Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman, Michael Caine as the butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, as well as new characters Selina cum Cat Burglar played by Anne Hathaway, Bane by Tom Hardy, John by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, other cameos included Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman. I am happy that this new installment wasn't a disappointment in the making and it was worth the wait for four whole years before it came to the big screen.
I shan't dwell on the storyline but I am very glad that the movie-makers introduced new twists or surprises to an otherwise mundane plot. One of my favourite character actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt really came a long way since his days on the TV series "Third Rock from the Sun". As John Blake, the audience was treated to a surprise at the end when it hinted that he could be the new Robin, who is the other half of the well-known Batman-Robin pairing portrayed in the comics. Interestingly, in one of the scenes, Joseph's police uniform spotted the familiar initial GC on his sleeves, which I suppose stood for Gotham City. Anne provided a different girlish portrayal of the Cat Burglar, which was a fresh take that bore absolutely no resemblance to the classic Cat Woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the late 80s. Then there was Tom Hardy, whom I last remembered as one of the characters in the movie "Inception" of recent years. Just take a look at the photos below on how much he bulked up in a matter of months to play the role of Bane. Sadly, he was almost unrecognizable with the mask on this face and there was only one blink and you will missed it scene of his actual face in the entire movie. Such ballooning in body weight must have a toll on a person's health, I guess? What a sacrifice actors have to make!
And yes, I am looking forward to see the new movie "Man of Steel" on the most well-known DC comic superhero Superman in 2013, which is a year away, after watching the short trailer played before the movie started.
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