TRANSCENDENCE

This is one of the rare movies starring Johnny Depp with his original looks without any dramatic makeup. I almost forgot how talented he could be and how he actually look like. The other actors include Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Cillian Murphy, Paul Bettany and Kate Mara.

A brilliant researcher in Artificial Intelligence Dr Will Caster was shot and poisoned by a radioactive laced bullet fired by AI-protesters. His wife Evelyn tried to save what was left of his consciousness by uploading it onto an AI program he was working on, despite objections from Max, their friend and fellow researcher, who feared the perils of an artificial intelligence borne out of a human consciousness. Evelyn managed to resurrect Will's consciousness onto the processors which housed the program, and it craved for more knowledge from the internet. After successfully connecting Will to the internet, she escaped with the now liberated Will, who existed everywhere in the digital form, and set up a nano-technology facility in a suburban area which soon grew and expanded into a mega-power plant.

With the nano-technology, the equipment within the plant appeared to restore life to all living things such as dying plants and to heal the aged, sick etc and made them more powerful, but in actual fact, Will's consciousness took over their bodies, controlled them to do his bidding and tried to build an AI army in an attempt to save the world. By then, the AI resistant force and the FBI etc banded together to send a special force team to take down Will, Evelyn and the plant.

Frankly, this is not the first time I have seen such nano-technology, which actually appeared in the G.I. Joe movies previously. Whether the nano-technology is a saviour or destroyer of mankind was open to interpretation at the end of the movie.

Dr Will, Evelyn and Max

Joseph, FBI agent Donald and Evelyn viewing Will's consciousness on screen

Bree, who started the resistant forces

NOAH

Based loosely on the biblical "Noah's Ark", this movie starred Russell Crowe in the lead role of Noah, Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Anthony Hopkins as Noah's father, Ray Winstone as King Tubal-cain, Emma Watson as Ila and Logan Lerman as Ham. 

Noah's family belonged to a bloodline descended from Adam and Eve, who had 3 sons Cain, Abel and Seth after eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Cain was said to have killed his brother Abel and gave rise to savage and ruthless descendants, who were protected by fallen angels who turned into stone giants known as the Watchers, who continued their rampage to kill anyone and anything who were in their paths. Seth, on the other hand, was the good one who escaped and continued his lineage by living as nomads to protect earth and its inhabitants.

Noah received a message from the Creator through a dream which warned him of an impending great flood that would kill all men and signaled to him to build an ark to save what's left of earth's creatures. With the help of the Creator and the Watchers, Noah painstakingly built the ark but offended the king Tubal-cain, who was Cain's descendant, by refusing to accept him and his people on the ark when they came seeking for refuge. Tubal-cain vowed to seek vengeance on Noah and this very much summed up what the rest of the movie was about.

Noah was portrayed as a staunch believer of the Creator and he was fixated with building the ark and doing what he felt was necessary, including sacrificing the innocent and killing, to carry out the Creator's orders at all costs. But his conviction was tested and he wavered when he was forced to decide whether to take the lives of the newborn twins, from his eldest son Shem and daughter-in-law Ila.

This movie was banned in some countries because of its religious content, which was fictitiously controversial to some religions. I, for one, just enjoyed this movie as what it is - a movie.

Noah, his wife, Ham and Leo

Migration of the snakes to the Ark

Animals migration to the Ark before the pivotal flash floods

Ray Winstone as the evil King Tubal-cain

VARIEGATED CARYOTA PALM

Variegated Fish Tail Palms may not be that uncommon these days but it's always nice to see them in flower or fruit. 

WAVE

I haven't been to the beach for a long while now, so I relished the brief moment I was there. And yes, I did collect some sea shells. 

PLUMERIA RUBRA

How do I even begin to explain the feeling of seeing a ground full of beautiful blooms? All I knew was I better take some photos of the fallen beauties before they were cleared for the day. 

EUPHORBIA PULCHERRIMA

These Poinsettias have been around since the beginning of the year and they are still looking relatively good, I must say. Many plants from this Family Euphorbiaceae are really strikingly beautiful, each with it's own merit. 

GOLDEN GARDEN

The Golden Garden extends it's range to the area behind the coach bus drop off/pick up point. Occasionally, bouts of golden yellow flowers steal my attention from the other more subdued plants. 

DOLICHANDRONE SPATHACEA

This Dolichandrone spathacea tree has beautiful and fragrant white flowers and we always leave the flowers for a while before picking them up for disposal.

DROUGHT

These are photos of the brown turf at the Meadows area and since the arrival of the rain, the grass turned green soon after.

COUROUPITA GUIANENSIS

Now you see it, now you don't.

This Cannonball Tree was finally moved to its permanent location yesterday. I am glad that it can settle down for good.

PLUMERIA RUBRA

The Plumeria cultivars (Common Name: Frangipani; Family: Apocyanceae) really relished the recent weather and most of them started to produce profuse clusters of flowers. This one with deep red-vermilion flowers stole my heart away.

BIOSWALE

I recently constructed a shallow bioswale to drain off water collecting on a pedestrian footpath to a nearby drain and I am very happy with the gradient of the slope and the meanders leading to the outlet drain. After the slopes are planted up, I will post more photos of it.

HIBISCUS ROSA-SINENSIS 'COOPERI'

These Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Cooperi" which I had been growing for some time now started to flower recently. Although the flowering wasn't anything to shout about, I was still pleasantly thrilled by the beautiful red flowers contrasted against a variegated white background.

COPPERSMITH BARBET

I must confess that these high-resolution photos are not from me but from a colleague.

This Coppersmith Barbet was seen guarding the hole on one of our Jelutong trees because surprise surprise, it is a parent protecting some young within the tree hollow.