Friday, December 10, 2010
Darah
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Bits and Pieces and Everything Else in Between
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Now I can save some money for that yacht, and...
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tattoo You
The idea of adapting a book into a [good] movie has never been an intriguing one for me, as I have been disappointed with many screen adaptations, with just a few exceptions. Stieg Larsson’s highly popular novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo—the first book in his Millenium trilogy—is destined for a big screen adaptation with the trilogy selling over 15 million copies worldwide. The setting of the stories in Sweden help pique my curiosity as I don’t get to read many books with that country as the principal setting. Stieg Larsson was a journalist and an activist for civil and woman rights, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo touches the subjects of sexual abuse and sexual violence. And computer hacking.
Stieg Larsson’s style (WARNING: Long, winding sentence ahead) of clinical writing to “report” the events and progression of the story using real locations described vividly along with his exposition and description of Sweden current history in politics, social and economy gives the story the investigative journalism feel that works well with the result that at present some tourism companies offer tour to Larsson’s fans to trace the steps the characters in the story take in the story.
Now, the movie—a Swedish-German joint production tries to stay true to the story, yet, some changes are unavoidable, mayhap, to make the movie more simple (which makes me like reading better than watching movies). Some characters are missing, notably the lead character, Mikael Blomkvist’s daughter. In the book she gives her father an important cue that helps Mikael discover a very important piece of important.
Mikael Blomkvist has been commissioned to investigate a locked-room murder mystery, and this becomes the center of the movie’s story, whereas in the book, other reasons and motivations spur him to tackle the mystery. The book’s Mikael Blomkvist the stud is replaced by a much tender one that may help the viewers to focus on the main storyline: murder mystery, and not when is the next time (in what pages) he jumps into bed with one woman or another—just like … this guy I know.
And computer hacking.
The book delves quite deeply into the world of hacking in which Lisbeth Salander (the character the title of the book and of the movie refers to) is an expert. The movie shows us Lisbeth tinkering with a program, hacking into some computers or others, having her notebook broken, feeling annoyed because of that, and that’s about it. We don’t get to feel her mastery in hacking, in how she obtains (read: steals) data, and hurts her enemies with this skill. We only get to see glimpses of her doing some hacking, and may need to use our imagination as to what effect what she does would do to her, or Mikael’s, enemies (And they say watching TV/films dulls your brain.)
Yet, overall, the movie is quite interesting to watch. Those who have not read the book won’t feel robbed of some events appearing in the book. Those who have read the book can see the characters they have come to know on paper come to life on screen. The story progresses in an even pace, and the twists are there to keep us pretty much guessing all the way till near the end of the movie.Michael Nyqvist, the actor who plays Mikael Blomkvist does a decent job portraying Mikael as an all-round good guy, and Noomi Rapace’s playing Lisbeth manages to catch Salander’s antisocial attitudes and awkwardness around people (or, is that wooden acting? Oh, well, think positive, they say… And her dragon tattoo rrraaawks!)
The topic of sexual abuse (The Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor translates as Men Who Hate Women.) is present in many parts, and this helps me appreciate the late Larsson’s struggle for equality rights during his lifetime.
Hollywood’s intention to remake the highly successful novel/film into their own movie (to be released in 2011) has somehow made me cringe fearing the worst, as even though David Fincher is directing it (and Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, for that matter) the tweets I’ve been following about a month ago related to this movie are all about whether Rooney Mara (she is to play Lisbeth Salander) really has a nipple pierce for the role. Ouch! Computer Hacking Expertise: Keep your expectation very, very low.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Who Remembers H.C. Andersen? Who cares mother's love?
I stumbled upon this gem from the freezing land of the Dane,
an adaption of a classic story told and retold
Of a story of love, of strength, of pain
Of one love that should matter for all, young or old
This big baby cried reading this
at the time when he should be typing uninterrupted
Yet, missing his mommy somehow gives him peace
And even more as his dear editor is all but patient and good-natured
Sunday, November 7, 2010
some doodleeoo on Twitpic
as the sound of the clock ticking,
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Price of Crossing Steve Jobs
Monday, March 29, 2010
Come Fly Be Draygons
So, in the Viking village, Berk, we have Vikings speaking with Scottish accent, Vikings talking with Irish accent, Vikings talking like American teenagers with stutters (blame it on their parents’ stealing words from their kids’ mouths and their inability to understand their kids’ struggling to find their bearings in the world turning complicated around them (Read: girls/boys, zit, teachers’ demands ("What?! Homework??! Again???! But you gave us, like, homework, like, last week????! Bummer…."), girls/boys, BlackBerrys, B.O., girls/boys, and so on with lots more girls/boys in between), complete with a falsetto of a boy growing up to be a man in a man’s world. This is how we are introduced to Hiccup, the protagonist in Dreamworks Animation’s newest offering: How To Train Your Dragon.
How To Train Your Dragon excels in ways that soar high into this writer’s deep subconscious (no pun intended), as flying (on the back of your dragons) is the highlight of the movie (Guess I dream of flying, then. Better than (last Tuesday’s) dream of cracking peanuts and feed them to bats, I guess). And watching it in 3D (with those ugly 3D glasses on) helped.
Hiccup is your average misunderstood below average teenager (who happens to have a soft heart, a crush on the village’s tomboy—Astrid, and a knack in mechanics) in a Viking village of Berk—A village where architecture and house building are thriving businesses, thanks to dragons attacking their village every other week, shooting fires and brimstones against the houses and macho fully-muscled (and bearded and braided) cool-looking horned-helmet wearing Vikings who all fight gallantly with their catapults, spears, swords and everything else they can throw at those dastardly dragons.
All.
But one.
And that one is Hiccup.
And from this point on you can guess the direction the movie is heading.
So, in terms of story there is nothing original really in How To Train Your Dragon. But I like the way the movie makes an effort to stir away from silent agreement shared amongst Hollywood’s CG animated moviemakers: use as many splashy colors as possible, show everything off on the screen (it doesn’t matter if they don’t necessarily move or if they look bad compared to some matte shots used in movies in the 60s, 70s or 80s), have some cool shadowing effects yet still show everything off. Oh, and, of course, cute talking animals.
Yup, How To Train Your Dragon does NOT have cute talking animals. The dragons don’t talk. Instead they growl, they have their tongues lolling out and smack their lips, and show their teeth, and they looove it if you scratch their belly or neck, and they purr. Like a dog. Or cat.
But by God, they do NOT talk.
And, sure there are a lot of colors flying around on screen, but compared to some other CG Animated movies (UP springs to mind. And AVATAR), How To Train Your Dragon shows less of these.
The dragons in How To Train Your Dragon come in various shapes and sizes, each having its own distinct qualities (Power, Speed, Stamina, Weakness—get your Compendium sticker book at the nearest expensive bookstores that sell expensive imported books in your city), and knowing their statistics will help the villagers in their never-ending (SPOILER ALERT: until at least the last 15 minutes of the movie) enmity against the dragons.
Hiccup is one unlovable character in the movie. From start to finish, I couldn’t stand hearing his voice and his meek demeanor. So he’s supposed to be a softie. So what? It shouldn’t stop him standing upright, should it? Should it? And although his "friends" are so generic you can find them in most all movies with teenagers in them, they are still interesting to see (the twins—Ruffnut and Tuffnut’s continuous bickering is fun to see)
But the flying sequences, dragon-fightings and the aerial battles on the dragons? Those rock! From simply flying and maneuvering in the air (training Toothless, Hiccup’s Night Fury (love the name!) dragon) to the fights on land and in the air, the actions come fast and furious (No. I didn’t have that movie in mind when writing that. I had Tom & Jerry’s The Fast and The Furrious, instead), and glorious with thunderous explosions that literally rocked my seat, debris flying this way and that, big, big fires and billowing smokes that I could almost smell inside the movie theater. And that slow falling soot after silence finally regained had me and my kid reaching out to touch it. Watching it in 3D (with those ugly 3D glasses on) helped.