DRACULA UNTOLD

Vlad the Impaler

 This is yet another version of Dracula known as "Dracula Untold". 

This remake stars Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper and Charles Dance etc. Luke as a young boy Vlad was raised by the Turks and trained with other boys as ruthless soldiers. In order to save more villages, Vlad massacred an entire village and displayed his victims by impaling them to send a strong message. He was conferred the Prince of Transylvania and for years, he thought he could protect his people from harm.

However, the Turks came demanding for 1,000 boys along with his son one day. To save his family and villagers from the strong Turkish army, he turned to the dark side by seeking a master vampire in the mountains to turn him into the undead with powers strong enough to defeat the army. He was given 3 days, within which if he failed to drink any blood he could be restored back as a human once again.

He led all the villagers to retreat to a monastery and in the ensuing battle against the Turkish ruler and his army, he lost his wife Mirena and in a bid to fulfill her wish to save their son, he drank her blood so that he could remain as the all powerful vampire. He offered the surviving villagers a chance for vengeance by turning them into vampires like him and he and his legion of vampires defeated the Turkish army. That was when the other vampires turned on Vlad and wanted to feed on his human son. Vlad used his power to clear the cloak of cloud cover and all vampires and him were burnt to death under the scorching heat of the sun's rays.

Vlad was raised from the dead by his worshiper who fed the corpse with his blood and he remained in seclusion away from the public's eyes in the years to come. The movie ended in the present day where Vlad spotted a woman Mina in the busy streets and chatted her up before leaving together, with the master vampire following them closely behind, unknown to them.

I wasn't particularly bowled over by the design but it was not a bad movie either.

the Turkish Sultan

Mirena

the Master Vampire

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

I must admit I had negative expectations of this Marvel Comics movie before I watched it and hence was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it.

In fact, I read that this movie took the box office by surprise too. I attribute it to the charismatic and humorous Chris Pratt, who lit up the screen with his presence in every scene he was in. Everyone suddenly sat up and took notice of the versatile Chris Pratt, who by far didn't seem to be in the league of big boys. I read that in US the women made up the majority of movie-goers for this movie and swooned all over him. They must all be so jealous of his wife Anna Faris, another comedian whom I like. With this movie, I am sure a lot of meaty roles will come his way.

Interestingly, Vin Diesel was the voice for Groot while Bradley Cooper was the voice for Rocket the genetically engineered raccoon. Who could recognize them and Lee Pace, behind the face of Ronan the Accuser, whom was the Elven King Thranduill in 'The Hobbit" series as well as the nomadic vampire Garrett in 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2'?

The easter egg segment though was really meaningless.

Gamora, Peter Quill / Star Lord, Groot and Drax

Do we see Rocket or Bradley?

Guest star Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael

Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

VAMPIRE ACADEMY

This latest movie is the first out of a best-selling series of 6 novels by Richelle Mead. Starring a large pool of unknown leads to me such as Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky and so on, this movie on vampires really sucked big time with the continuous chatter, poor pace and weak storyline. 

Not only did the Dhampir (half human half vampire) characters Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir sucked at school, they were also unable to bring the life into the movie. They were dead on arrival and still remained dead upon exit. Ok, I was being harsh here by trying to string all the unpleasantries together on this movie. I must say Rose looked pretty though.

Anyway, I am not sure if I would watch the next part. That is, if they decide to make it first.

Dimitri and Rose in a budding romance

I, FRANKENSTEIN

First, I must say this movie didn't receive rave reviews from the critics but I think it is not bad at all. I am not a movie critic but I do like the storyline, acting and special effects.

With a cast including Aaron Eckhart as the lead character or monster without a soul created by Frankenstein, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Socratis Otto, Jai Courtney etc, the movie was reminiscent of the "Underworld" movies from the same producer where war between two opposing legions i.e. vampires and werewolves in Underworld, angels and demons in this movie. All these beings and creatures lived amongst the humans and threatened the existence of mankind but their battles took place for centuries right under our noses unbeknownst to all humans, except the lucky or unlucky few who were drawn into the battles.

Before I comment any further, I must say I enjoyed a number of Aaron Eckhart's past movies where he wasn't the lead protagonist and played good guys. I started to sit up and noticed the change in him when he appeared as Two-Face in the "The Dark Knight". With this movie, I didn't actually see it coming for him to be the lead and took up the challenge of playing such a dark character. Not that he wasn't capable of doing it. It was more of seeing the friendly guy-next-door suddenly becoming a totally different person kind of strange feeling. For one, I think Aaron made the right move in coming out of his comfort zone playing good guys and took on more and more interesting roles to challenge himself. At least in this movie, he was the lead and his acting was good, I must add. Who knew he had such a good bod too? Hollywood must certainly pay notice to a new leading man if this movie performs well at the box office.

It is also interesting that Bill Nighy, who played an evil elder vampire in the "Underworld" movies, took on the role of Prince Nebarius, the leader of demons in this movie. Be careful Bill, before you are typecast forever to play characters from the dark side.

I shan't give the rest of the story away but we all know and believe that good will always triumph evil in the end in such movies.

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

You know how long I have neglected this blog when the last post is about 3 weeks ago. I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago but had no time to post about it.

Following the success of and end to the Twilight franchise, Hollywood produced an entirely new movie series with the hope to replicate the success story  of the former. This time round, the movie is not about vampires but focuses on witches instead.

Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert as the newly paired lovers, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Viola Davis as the supporting cast, this movie tells the tale of how a newcomer Lena in town was shunned by all others but found love in her classmate Ethan. Touted as the most powerful witch in her family, her true nature will be revealed on her 16th birthday where she will either join the light or dark forces. Before that happens, opposing members of her family were trying their best to convince her to be on their sides.

Judging from the crowd, or rather lack of, at the cinema, I don't think the movie is doing too well. Alden first came across as being whinny when he opened his mouth but eventually was kind of charming. Alice wasn't charismatic and I failed to understand the deep attraction that Ethan had for Lena. Their pairing was rather weird and unconvincing to me, unlike the made-in-heaven Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart pairing. And I felt Emma Thompson's portrayal of the possessed Sarafine seemed too much over the top to me.

I can't wait to see how the subsequent installments will do at the box office.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2

This is the finale of the Twilight romantic fantasy movie series that premiered in the year 2008, gave vampire movies a new twist and made household names out of the 3 young leads Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

This last installment finally saw Bella transformed into a powerful vampire with amazing abilities. It also spawned the child of Bella and Edward, Renesmee who is a half human and half immortal. The movie has a strong cast comprising MacKenzie Foy, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, Kellan Lutz and Maggie Grace, amongst many others.

I am not a good storyteller and do not know how to embellish a tale, but I was really happy with how the story panned out and the ending. Frankly, there are many things about this finale that I love.

For a start, I love how they alternated the colours red and white at the beginning of the movie to introduce the production crew and ended the movie by showing the entire cast from the first movie until the last. I think it is unprecedented and although I couldn't remember all the characters but it was a good way to wrap up the saga after 5 years.

Then, I love the beginning part of the movie where they showed fantastic views of the beautiful forest conifers and animals when Bella displayed her newfound abilities to hunt. Once again, it was as if I was looking at an enchanted forest with mystical creatures. I was already sold after watching this initial but brief introduction before the story unfolded its dark side. 

The showdown between the vampires, werewolves and Volturi on the snow-covered open field was the climax and I was shocked and saddened by the sudden and quick deaths of the Carlisle Cullen and Jasper, during the brutal battle, who appeared and played important roles in the Cullen family from the first movie until now. Their deaths enraged the Cullen family and their vampire friends and gave them strength to fight and hold their own against the powerful and corrupted royalty Aro, Jane, Alec and others of the Volturi coven, whose demise was both sweet and uplifting for those who rooted for the Cullens. 

The battle ended brilliantly, and gave a well-deserved ending to this epic tale of vampires and werewolves. Of all the movies in this series as shown below, this is my personal favourite.

• Twilight (2008)
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 (2011)
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 2 (2012)

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TOTAL RECALL 2012

Today's weather - sunny

The movie with the same title "Total Recall" in 1990 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone made waves as a futuristic sci-fiction movie ahead of its times with fantastic special effects.

As I watched this remake in 2012 starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel and Bill Nighy, snippets of the original movie, such as the fat lady removing her face mask and the receptionist who changed her nail colour with the tap of a pointer, came flooding back. It is understandable that critics will compare the original and remakes to provide their reviews. Whilst the original movie scored for its originality, this latter movie did not seem to receive accolades of the same nature and fared poorly at the box office ratings.

I personally was quite pleased with this newer version. Frankly, Arnold's acting was terrible and exaggerated and it was then that I first noticed the mega-bitch Sharon Stone before she catapulted to fame with her leading role in "Basic Instinct". Don't get me wrong, Sharon was bad in a good way. Her portrayal of the Arnold's fake wife was excellent although she was killed off fairly early.

I am starting to like the bad boy Colin Farrell since last year's "Fright Night". His personal story is somewhat similar yet dissimilar to Brad Pitt in that they both good looking actors acted in a minor role in some blockbuster movies e.g. Minority Report, before they were discovered by movie agents to take on bigger and juicier roles. However, fame eluded Colin even as he acted as the "Alexander the Great" which could either potentially propel him further in showbiz or make him fade into further oblivion. Sadly, he still didn't quite make it to the Grade A leading man status with the recent movies. For me, I enjoyed his acting in recent movies and I think it is high time Hollywood give him a superhero character to play.

Then again, I absolutely adore Kate Beckinsale. I have been her fan for the longest time since her "Underworld" days. She looked so beautiful even as a villain and she was to "Total Recall 2012"  what Sharon Stone was to the original movie. Starring next to her, Jessica Biel never got a chance to shine.

I also realized that there were some links between the key characters. 3 of them Colin, Kate and Bill were vampires respectively in "Fright Night" and the latter 2 as vampires in the "Underworld" series. Even Jessica played the role of a vampire hunter in "Blade: Trinity". Did someone got them together deliberately for this movie or was this just pure coincidence?

Whatever the case, I enjoyed this movie thoroughly.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

I watched this movie recently and wasn't too thrilled by the storyline. Benjamin Walker as the titular character Abraham Lincoln did nothing for me at all. It was a disappointment by my standards.

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DARK SHADOWS

I have nothing against him but I am officially sick of Johnny Depp's antics. Whilst he breathed life and comedic acting to some of the characters he played, I just find the recent roles and his acting so lame and non-funny anymore.


This unusual movie is about vampires and witches but it is not the typical type of movies on this genre. I am unimpressed, so I am not even going to attempt to write anything meaningful about it other than it has a huge cast comprising Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Boham Carter, Johnny Lee Miller, Eva Green, Chloe Grace Moretz.


Michelle Pfeiffer was quite funny though and after the movie "Let the Right One In", this is the second movie I watched that stars Chloe Grace Moretz and I still find her refreshingly interesting.

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

This latest film of four released every 3 years since 2003, continues to star the very beautiful leather-clad Kate Beckinsale who reprised her role as a vampire. She woke up from cryogenic preservation and escaped from a laboratory where she was imprisoned for twelve whole years.


The world she woke up to is different from what she remembered although some things didn't change much. The perpetual war between the vampires and werewolves, known as lycans, was still ongoing and heating up. To fill the time void of twelve years, she had to embark on this solo journey to find her other half, literally a half werewolf and half vampire played previously by Scott Speedman in the earlier movies, whom was separated from her just a day in her memory before they were captured in an operation by the humans to purge mankind of the vampires and lycans. There was a surprise lying in wait for her after her escape from the lab.


This is definitely a different vampire movie from the overly romantic and sappy Twilight series and I enjoyed the action movie only because of the forever youthful looking, kick-ass no-nonsense Selene, or should I say Kate, who looks ever the same as I remembered her. The other memorable face I remembered is probably Theo James, who may or may not have the potential to make it bigger in Hollywood.

MACULAR HOLE

Today's weather - rainy

When age catches up with us, we start to experience all sorts of health issues. From back aches to creaking joints, it makes me question our human mortality and dawns on me in recent years that we are no longer young and invincible anymore, and like all elders before us, our body is starting to breakdown and it seems to be breaking down fast too. 


Youth itself is a valuable asset and one should not neglect its value whilst we still have it. In fact, it is a scary thought to think what would happen to us a decade or two down the road.


So anyway, what is a macular hole and what can one do when it happens? Good vision has to be one of the most important things in a person's life and when it starts to slip away from us, we start to realize how crucial our eyes are.


The following link is very useful for one to find out more about the medical condition that affects one in a thousand people, according to the eye specialist Dr Leonard Ang.


http://www.maculacenter.com/EyeConditions/macularHole.htm

Suddenly, the option of becoming a vampire who reminds forever young is no longer so unimaginable and disgusting anymore.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1

I would be killed for saying this if fans of the movie read this, but I am getting tired of the series. This part 1 of the two-part finale was boring and draggy for me and there wasn't much action at all.


After the earlier movies focused on how Edward and Bella went against all odds to be together as a human-vampire couple and their complicated relationship with the werewolf boy Jacob, this entire movie was on how they finally married each other, consummated their marriage (yes, a human and vampire can have sexual relations) and what Bella went through before giving birth to her baby within a span of days. Her life force was sucked by the foetus, making her reed thin and she was dead from the delivery, if not for Edward's attempt to convert her into a vampire in a final bid to save her. Therein provides the premise for part 2, I presume.


There was much hype on the wedding dress that Bella was supposed to wear when she walked down the aisle, and the design was kept strictly under wraps until the release of the movie. It was sold soon after the release and that seems to be the talk of the town more than the movie itself. Sadly, there was little exploration or exploitation of the other characters which would have made the movie more interesting.


I am so not looking forward to the finale, except for the sole purpose of completing the entire series which I watched from day one.