Embrace your creed

For the record, I just like reviewing random films.  You don't actually have to review the latest ones right? Anyway, when I saw the trailer of this film, I expected it to nothing more than a simple and silly film for kids.  So, you can't expect it to be an epic comedy; just enjoy it   :)

Honestly, this film shows how an idiot is capable of turning an empire into an 'entertainment' based establishment with the right influence and in this case, size.  Jack Black's character, Gulliver somehow went to another dimension when he crossed the Bermuda Triangle.  There, he met tiny people; a postmodern world where they lived in a medieval Britain like fashion with advanced technology.  He lied to them about him being awesome in his own world; silly and ridiculous things like him being President Awesome who died saving Rose when Titanic sunk and was reborn as an Avatar.  Did I mention that he was Wolverine somewhere along the way? Aside the lie, Gulliver had to protect the kingdom that he lied to from another kingdom.  Fascinating thing though, I noticed that the kingdom that Gulliver was protecting had a blue themed thing going on while the enemy's theme was red.  I think it was for the kids; for them to easier identify which one is which.  Of course, with Jack Black, the silly rock fanaticism is a must.  He settled the their rivalry with a freakin' song.  It was War by Edwin Starr.  So, what do I think of the film in overall? Well, it's kind a silly.  I mean, sillier than usual.  The film Bedtime Stories, starring Adam Sandler wasn't as silly as this.  But hey, it's a kid's film.  So, I can't just mock the film entirely.  In my opinion, I think it's kind a ignorant and silly for critics to mock a kid's film such as this because it's meant for kids.  What do you expect? We should be thankful that innocent and clean films such as this are still made.  I love the film White Chicks, it's hilarious! But let's be frank here, it's not appropriate for kids right? And I watch that flick when I was around 10 to 12.  So, for a kid friendly film, I give it a 3/5.  I would of give it a 2.5/5 but common, it's a simple kid's film.  What do you aspect?

This melody makes me appreciate the people who love me and oddly, at the same time, it makes me wish to be loved even more.

At 0:38, that's my favorite part of the score; takes me to that calm atmosphere and makes me wish that I would find a special someone soon.  Such a lovely score it is indeed.

  I wasn't much of a Transformers fan before the live action film but after that, I instantly fell in love with it.  And my fandom of the Transformers universe introduced me to stop motion.  I was amazed by the Transformers videos on youtube because the idea of using action figures for movies was new to me.  Of course, I did read articles on the Transformers universe; learning their fictional history and it inspired me more to create my own story of Transformers :)


    The video above was one of my biggest inspiration for creating my own version of Transformers.  I love the fact that Transformers were actually created by Aliens but I'd prefer to think of the Aliens as organic aliens because it just makes more sense doesn't it? The aliens were called Quintessons in the original animated series and I imagined them created a whole new planet as a huge factory to create their robot slave.  In fact, the planet itself had a software that was called Primus.  This is where the video above inspired me: Primus created consumer bots and military bots but soon after, Primus develop emotions and started to rebel against it's creators, the Quintessons.  And so on and so forth, they fought, a war happened, they learned to transform; all of that stuffs that happened above happened in my story.  But in the end, Primus decided to sacrifice it's life to create the matrix of leadership which he gave to Alpha Trion.  Alpha Trion didn't though that he was worthy and so he gave it to Vector Prime, the first Prime.  They defeated the Quintessons and after decades of living in harmony, the civil war happens; this is where the consumer bots called themselves Autobots and military bots called themselves Decepticons.  But unfortunately, I didn't remembered how it went because this idea was 3 years ago.  But it ain't bad isn't it?  

A sketch I did 3 years ago

Eventually, I ignored this idea because, well, it's obviously not original and this is not the only idea I had 3 years ago.  I had loads of them and all of them were dropped and ignored.  It's a good thing I kept almost every sketch of my ideas though because when I read them back; they've inspired me to redo them into better and more mature stories.  I've discovered that ideas expand within time and so I've created the Archive :D


Whenever a random idea pops out in my head, I start developing the plots, characters and write them down on my laptop.  So, in the future, I can just pick any one story that suits the current predicament.  Which comes to my main point, I'm putting Nurul Shakira in the Archive.  Why? Because I don't think I can do such a story right now; not with my limited skills in drawing.  So, here are some final sketches before I declare this idea being shelved in my Archive:

I tried to create another costume for Nurul Shakira because the old one didn't quite fit into today's modern day fashion.   This one still doesn't fits   :/

Some failed panels :/

Nurul Shakira and two other key characters.  Top left: Sakura ( A Japanese girl who's a ninja) and her Malaysian Chinese cousin, Chan (Still pending on the name)

The Wallpaper concept of the series.  I drew this last year .

So, I don't know if I still want to post short comics in here but I'll try to post some other topics, artworks, animation or any other things that can inspire me to write and draw.  Lastly, I think it's obvious that Nurul Shakira was inspired by Assassin's Creed right? The hoodie, parkour and all.  So, I think I should end this post with a sketch of an Ottoman Assassin I did weeks ago.  Bye and Salam everybody!

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

 

   I saw a video of a local Anime convention and it was interesting.  I didn't know that Malaysians were avid cosplayers.  Though at a certain point, I think that some of the costumes they wore were unnecessary; it's pretty understandable that dressing up as their favorite characters makes them feel very much alive.  It gives cosplayers the same feeling that I feel when I've come up with a new idea; a feeling of self satisfaction and much more.  What I think is unfair though, hijabed Muslimah aren't able to dress up.  Obviously, most iconic female characters wheres revealing clothes.  Even if some Muslimahs tried to dress up as Chun Li while wearing hijab, I bet they'll be ridiculed.  Other cosplayers would say "You are insulting the iconic Chun Li!" or "What are you thinking? You're a Muslimah, you don't need to do this to prove to yourself as an avid fan"...etc.  In my honest opinion, telling Muslimahs who desires to be cosplayers that they can't do what they love to do is like telling me that I can't write because it's unnecessary.  I would be a tramp; lost in this world, not knowing what to do.  I think it's about time that we give em' what they need to be a cosplayer and that is an iconic hijabed girl character.






Here she is, Super Nur; a superhero in Malaysia.  I think that it just hit stores, if I'm not mistaken but one thing's for sure though; I'll buy it when I see it, Insya Allah :D A friend of mine told me about this character and I started googling her when I've reached my laptop.  I prefer a much more serious theme though but when I saw the writer/artist's interview; I respect his attentions of trying to appeal to a larger audience.  Toning down the seriousness to a simpler plot.  I really hope that this character  would be a hit though because we really need a local fictional icon right now.  Even better, I hope that this comic would be adapt to an animation .  This character inspired me to draw a sketch regarding strong fictional women in films, animation, comic and so on.  No, I'm not referring to characters like Bella from Twilight.  I'm referring to genres that often use female characters as their lead.  Genres like magical girl in the anime world; Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura and Magical girl lyrical Nanoha.  A genre that involves young girls who uses magical powers to fight evil-doers.  Films like Salt, Tomb Raider and Colombiana that centers bad ass women; women who can kick ass as much or even more than Jason Statham.  Now this would be a tricky genre to pull off.  Besides the action, there's no denying that the bikini scene or even both combine is one of the factors why it sells.  It's just the idea of women kicking ass while half naked is so compelling ( :p ) and because of this factor, a story that centers a hijabed ass kicker would be hard to pull of.  Lastly, I believe this is the most common of them all, is the survivor girl.  Example of films are Alien (Ellen Ripley), Alien versus Predators (Alexa Woods) and so on.  A plot that centers a smart/ happy go lucky/ innocent girl that's somehow got f'ed up by serial killers, zombies and Freddy Krueger.  Usually, in this kind of plot, the female lead is required to abandon her peaceful ways and kill that thing; getting the job done.

From top: Magical girl, (left) Bad ass, (right) Survivor girl

 
     I kind a screw up on survivor girl :/
It took me a while to come up with the survivor girl plot but I'm sure that this kind a plot is often used in every media.  So, that's all I have to write :/


Hoping for a better animation industry,
Salam and have a good day everybody!

What you see above is indeed a rip off of Assassin's Creed's Altair. I saw the trailer of this film on TV and I said to myself "What the heck is this?! It's a total rip off!".  Minutes later, I bought it on Astro First for RM 15.  The film is called Velayudham; an accidental superhero.  I mean, how could a common village boy suddenly became a symbol of anti-corruption? Before he even wore the costume and had the intentions of fighting crime, he was a total ass kicker with no explanation of where he learned all of those moves.  I laughed at the first half an hour of the film.  No, I didn't laughed at the silly and pathetic punchlines but instead, the singing and dancing.  At that time, it's been a long time since I've watched a classic nonsensical Tamil music video.  From a corrupted and dirty city, the scene suddenly turns into an Arabian themed stage. Ah yes, the good old silly music video that I've grown to hate.  I also laughed at the action scenes.  The hero actually had a hidden blade! But as I continued watching, shit got serious.  I was impress with the whole anti-corruption story line of the film.  People were ripped off from their money and killed by bomb attacks.  The people called Velayudham (the hero) as one of their brothers; a brother whom protects them from injustice.  Yeah, I was impress a bit because it turns out, it wasn't a straight forward all action kind a superhero flick.  The story, I would say, had a heart.  An example of a straight forward all action film would be The Transporter with Jason Statham and The Expendables.  Yes, the action scenes were awesome and bad ass but it had no heart.  It didn't explore the depths of the idea of killing or even the character's predicament.  But this Tamil movie did.  Heck, I think they pull it of when they kill off the hero's little sister! And she was a bride in the film! First of all, it's a Tamil movie and it's been known as a happy go lucky film about love with dancing and singing.  The worst thing that could happen in a Tamil movie is the forbidden love thing where the love interest and the main character somehow isn't allowed to be with one another.  Brides in Tamil movies are suppose to get married and live happily ever after! Haha, okay, maybe I'm going overboard with this whole bride thing but it just goes to show that this film isn't that all bad or stupid even though it's hero is a total rip off of my favorite game character; Altair.  I just really wished that they tried to be more original with the hero's design and so, I did a sketch of my own version of Velayudham.




   There's also a pic of one of Assassin's Creed Multiplayer character, The Executioner.  I mean, they could of just used The Executioner's hoodie right? Add in some classic Tamil fabric and done; an almost original design.  I don't think people would even notice the reference because well, The Executioner isn't very popular and the story line would certainty over shadow the whole rip off thing.  What's my rating for this film? Well, for a Tamil movie, it's kind a good.  So, I give the film a 3/5 for a good script.  I would give it a 3.5/5 but the whole Altair rip off thing is still unacceptable.





Next is Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs Dai-Shocker.


Well, in summary, the film is totally targeted on kids :(
The whole concept of all Kamen Riders teams up and even fights one another couldn't satisfy my adolescent mind.  It didn't concentrated on past Kamen Rider's individuality.  Kamen Rider Decade was the center of the attention.  But honestly, I love how Decade transform.  I don't know why but when he scans his card with his belt and the belt shouts out "Kamen Rider......Decade/Kiva/Agito!".  It just makes the inner child in me screams out :D There's nothing much to expect from this film.  It's just a good movie to past the time and an awesome one for little kids.  Honestly, Decade isn't my favorite because he's too strong.  I've always love an underdog hero and Decade's ability to use other Kamen Rider's powers is just too strong to me.  He seems unbeatable.  I'll give it a 3.5/5 for the awesome concept of Kamen Rider Decade being able to transform into various other past Kamen Riders and it couldn't go more than that because of the lifeless villains.



HAHA! It's not much of a sketch, I know.  Surprisingly, I sort of enjoyed drawing his helmet.  It seemed kind a silly to me at first but when I draw it, I then knew how cool it is and I respect to those who made this Kamen Rider's suit and helmet into a reality. Syabas! (Well done).  By the way, here's my explanation of my ratings:
1/5: Pathetic/ Wasting time/ Disrespectful or any other insults you could think of  :)
2/5: Boring/ Cliche'.
3/5: A good film to past the time/ Could of been better.
4/5: An awesome and inspiring movie.
5/5: Ever green/ An instant classic/ Inspiring/ Epic/ Genius.

The addition of 0.5 is somewhat an extra to films that I think that could go to the next level of the ratings.  Did that made any sense? :/

Have a good day everybody :)

I am just speechless with this amazing song and I really hope that they'll release this song soon.



Give me hope in silence
It's easier, it's kinder
Tell me not of heartbreak
It plagues my soul, it plagues my soul
And bury me beside you
I have no hope in solitude
And the world will follow 
To the earth down below

But I came and I was nothing
Time will give us nothing
So why did you choose to lean on 
A man you knew was falling?

 
 I've watched Assassin's Creed: Embers; a short film regarding of the game's hero, Ezio Auditore, after his retirement as an assassin.  Even though it was really simple, it still touched me in a way.  Ezio was of course, old and married.  He also had a daughter and sadly (SPOILER ALERT) he died.  What amazes me is that someone actually took sometime to make a video to 'celebrate' Ezio's life and that's what the video above is; a combination of the game's score throughout the series that had Ezio as a leading character.  Yeah, I've seen tribute videos of wrestlers, movie heroes but 'celebrating' a fictional character's life? In a way, it is the same thing as a tribute video but it's funny how they chose their words.  But I do like the video.  In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, it marked the end of Ezio Auditore's era in the game to make room for another character in the next game.  To me, that's a unique and a bold move from Ubisoft.  They're trying to open themselves to new possibilities with the game franchise.  I mean, you don't see a lot of companies trying to end a characters story with only 3 to 4 years of usage? Even if Marvel deiced to 'kill' Peter Parker in their comics to make way for a new Spider Man, there's another Peter Parker in another 'Universe'.  Now, I know that games and comics are two different things but hey, it still involves characters and good story telling and for your information, Assassin's Creed has been working on novels and comics as well.

Miles Morales as Spider-Man in the Marvel Ultimate Universe

    With more and more inspiring characters I've watched; I can't help to feel that I want to make one myself.  I want to create a character that could inspire people in any ways that is good.  Whether the character's a mobster, preacher or a super hero; I want a character that could achieve what Ezio and Peter Parker could, Insya Allah :D


As for Nurul Shakira,
I've finished the script but I'm still trying to improve my inking.  I'm no good with inking :( But of course, I won't take long with the drawing.  If I think it's good enough, it's good enough.  After all, I am an ametuer :D

  

   Besides artworks, films, and music; I also planned to share some thoughts of Islam.  I haven't started it yet but to get thing's started, here's a simple video regarding Islamic perspectives on Horror films.  You know, since horror films has been a major genre in our country :D


And so I end this post with a short opinion of mine regarding posting Islamic stuffs on social network sites.  The other day, I read a tweet of a local artist.  He tweeted that our religious posts doesn't counts as a good deed.  I honestly have to disagree.  So what if the person who's posting is not that religious? To me, it's da'wah nonetheless and spreading the teachings of Islam, regardless of how big or small the effort is, is our responsibilities as Muslims.  Just don't insult other peoples's level of faith because it's unnecessary and hurtful.

Have a good day, people! Salam!