CHRISTMAS DECORATION

This year's Christmas decoration looks like of out of the norm for me and I am still undecided whether I like it or not. 

I must admit that we often get brainwashed to accept things that are similar because it is safer to follow the masses. But I don't think this is the right approach if we are serious about creativity and innovation. It is always important for someone to think differently because this will give rise to diversity and new ideas.

In the movie "World War Z", I remember one of the characters said something to Brad Pitt, who was looking for a solution to the zombies problem, to the effect that if there were ten people in a group and when they voted, it was important to have at least one who voted differently from the rest. He explained that it was this unique ability to think differently from the rest that helped him built a high wall to ward out the zombies while the rest remained oblivious to the impending crisis.

I always love to look out for Lee Hwa Jewellery's unique window dressing.

I love the bright glittery colours of Christmas.

WORLD WAR Z

To be honest, I have watched lots of zombie movies. I love some and I loathe some. This movie directed by Marc Forster and starring Brad Pitt, who also owns the movie production company Plan B Entertainment, is one that I happened to love very much because of the fantastic original storyline and pacing. By the way, Matthew Fox had only a split second cameo as the pilot of a helicopter, if I didn't see wrongly.

Compared to the "Man of Steel" which is almost of the same length in terms of duration, this movie has a very good pace and sets the tone for the audience to grip their seats in suspense. There were quiet moments and there were high-strung ones. It was a good mix of both so the audience have time to feel the highs and lows. On the other hand, the former superhero movie was kind of slow in the first hour before plunging full length into a series of action packed sequences involving the complete decimation of the city. It was a blurry mess that made me insensitized to the fight and wondered when the battle would end.

The zombies in this movie were really scary and it only took about a mere 15 seconds to transform a normal human who was bitten and infected into a zombie. Someone who was a kin could potentially turned into a living dead with nary a recognition of their loved ones, as witnessed by many such scenes in the movie. The zombies attacked the living with a vengeance and ferocity like no other. They studied the behaviour of animals and applied what they learnt into the movie with many zombies possessing incredible speed and lunging towards their prey. When there was no sound, these zombies became inactive. However, any loud enough sounds would trigger their immediate response to attack. Even a solid wall at least 20 m high at a refugee camp in Jerusalem could not stop the zombies as they clamoured and climbed onto each other before scaling over the high wall and created havoc by transforming a safe haven that protected the survivors from the infected into a living hell.

Brad Pitt delivered a credible performance as a former United Nations personnel Gerry Lane who was forced, in order to ensure the safety of his family, to escort a virologist to find the source of the infection in order to develop a vaccine but eventually became the hero who found the "cure" to protect humanity against the infected zombies.

I was definitely entertained throughout the entire movie.

WARM BODIES

This is the second movie in a row that I just watched that is narrated by the protagonist. Starring Nicholas Hoult, who was recently seen in "Jack The Giant Slayer", and Teresa Palmer, it is a most unusual romantic zombie movie. The other stars include Robert Corddry and Dave Franco.

Thus far, all the zombies in movies are portrayed as the undead, living dead or simply dead people with no hope of ever recovering from the condition. On the other hand, this movie showed Nicholas as the zombie "R" who still retained some human consciousness but "lived" or wandered through the airport with nary a collection of his actual name or past.

His existence was as aimless and meaningless as any dead people. That was, until he met a living female in the form of Teresa as Julie, who remotely reminded me of Kristen Stewart. A group of youngsters, which included Julie, from an isolated group of remaining survivors hiding within the confines of a walled area in the city was out salvaging medical supplies and encountered the pack of zombies who attacked them. R killed Julie's boyfriend Perry, ate his brain and absorbed some of his thoughts and memories, further strengthening his attraction towards Julie. Perry was played by Dave Franco, who is James Franco's younger brother, and who reminded me of the Taiwanese eurasian actor Rhydian Vaughan. 

Therein begins the most unusual relationship between a living person and an undead, where R went all out to protect Julie from being harmed by other zombies and his strong attraction towards her brought on a reversion of his condition. His heart gradually started to beat, pumping blood that coursed through his body as he slowly reverted to being a living person once again as he escorted her back to her father who is the leader of the survivors. The attraction was contagious or infectious, and his zombie friend "M" too was converted together with many other zombies who witnessed R and Julie holding hands.

As with all movies, there are always the good and bad characters. In this light-hearted movie, the bad characters were in the form of skeletal zombies, who were at a more advanced stage of zombie infection and were really beyond reversion since they already peeled off their human skin. These zombies were more aggressive and actively attacked and ate the living with a vengeance. They detected the changes in the human zombies and actively pursued the pair of lovers in an attempt to prevent the infectious reversion of the human zombies back to the living. The outcome of the battle between the groups was rather predictable as good triumphed over evil.

Nicholas as the affable and charmingly likable zombie R played the character with much aplomb and such ease. The chemistry between R and Julie was also convincingly believable and the pair was quite a couple. If anyone wants a different ending to a zombie movie, this is definitely the movie not to be missed.

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER

Another movie adapted from a fairy tale, this movie got my attention when I noticed Nicholas Hoult as the male lead. I remember him as the young Beast from "X-Men - First Class". In addition, he is starring in another upcoming movie on zombies "Warm Bodies".

Nicholas isn't exactly the handsome male lead type but he is definitely likable with a great smile and have beautiful eyes as blue as the sea. It is always interesting to see how Hollywood interprets their materials, especially simple fairy tales like this. Fe-fy-fo-fam, I smelt a good storyline here and remember the story of Jack and the Beanstalk which would serve as the spine of this movie.

The other cast include one of my favourite actors Ewan McGreggor and Eleanor Tomlinson. I will not give the storyline away but I must admit just when I thought the movie had come to an end, the story unfolded further. It was like eating a cake just to find that there was another underlying layer. To me, this almost seemed like two stories rolled into one.

Having said that, I am looking forward to watch "Warm Bodies".

RESIDENT EVIL - RETRIBUTION

Like some of the other successful movie franchises, the Resident Evil series is one of those that produced sequel after sequel. This happens to be the fifth installment of the zombie movies adapted from a computer game.

This vehicle starring Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Li Bingbing and Johann Urb failed to live up to its expectations. I was kind of disappointed by the storyline and Li Bingbing who, after looking promising in the first few minutes of appearing in a red high slit dress, just did not deliver at all. The movie was not particularly entertaining and did nothing to lift me out of my boredom. It was the same old Alice leading everyone to escape from the clutches of the Umbrella Corporation.

Somehow, Milla reminded me of Kate Beckinsale, who also made a series of movie sequels. The difference is, I somehow am not drawn towards Milla in the movies as I am towards Kate. Don't ask me why because I have no explanation to that.

I AM LEGEND

I watched this science fiction movie a few years ago at the cinema and watched it again recently. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love this movie starring Will Smith.

Based on a novel, it tells the story of a virologist who lost his family to zombies, created by a human altering virus originally synthesized to cure cancer, and appears to be the sole survivor in the city of Manhattan. His immunity to the virus allowed him to live on to find a cure amidst the violent zombies and avoid detection by the zombies, who would perish under sunlight, by venturing out into the open in the day and seeking refuge in his hideout at night.

His demise happened after he saved a mother and son, who carelessly led the zombies to his hideout, but not before he finally found the remedy and passed it to them and sacrificed himself in order for them to seek safety in Vermont where the survivors converged. That was his legend.

A link on this movie is shown here, where an alternate ending was made:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film)

Whilst I love this movie, I love the other British zombie movie '28 Days Later' and '28 Weeks Later' much much more because they were way scarier and the virus was definitely deadlier. Any contact with the infected victims was all it took to transform a normal human being to a zombie within a matter of seconds. The first film starred Cillian Murphy who moved on to make more successful movies, including 'Sunshine', his role as Scarecrow in 'The Dark Knight' and the upcoming 'The Dark Knight Rises' to be released in 2012. There are 2 links shown below on the zombie movies. I was hoping for the sequel '28 Months Later' but from the 2nd link below, it seems they are not making it due to some production issues. How disappointing!

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Weeks_Later