Embrace your creed

Yet again, I am busy and so, my time for this blog would be limited.  Thus, I won't be posting much original artworks of mine...again but in the mean time, I'll post some other personally interesting stuffs to me.

I'm fond of making lists for things to do or movies to see.  I made a mental list of what to do for my semester break and Alhamdulillah, I manage to do them all.  It ranges from series marathon to recycling for extra cash and it was fun while it lasted.  Personally, the final mission was the best of them all when I get to see most of my childhood friends.  They say that in time, you and your childhood friends will grow apart and until that time comes, I'm going to try my best to see them all when I have the chance.

   But for this post, I'm focusing more on my must see/buy lists; movies, live shows or albums that I want to buy or watch.  The name 'must see/buy' isn't the best words for a list, quite honestly, but I'll try to find it soon.



First on the list is always the annual WWE WRETLEMANIA! It was the 28th installment of the classic wrestling pay-per-view.  I would try my best to not miss this as I would buy every DVD since 2006.  Wrestlemania 22 was my first Wrestlemania and the most memorable match was when Rey Mysterio won his first World title in a triple threat match between Kurt Angle and Randy Orton.  It was a truly an inspiring victory not only is it because of Rey's underdog background but also it was a win for the recently deceased wrestler at the time, Eddie Guerrero.  You see, Wrestlemania to wwe fans are like the world cup for soccer fans.  It is the event that all fanatics has been waiting for every year or so (4 to 5 years for the World Cup...I'm not a huge soccer fan by the way).  And this year's event didn't disappoint as it at least had one very memorable match and that was The Undertaker vs Triple H.



Okay, this isn't a full post about Wrestlemania 28 and so I'll try not to overly write about my fandom for it.  But just for the record, the best match, despite the promotional poster, was a hell in a cell match between Undertaker and Triple H (With Shawn Micheals as the guess referee).  The action and the drama was just overwhelmingly good and the tagline, 'End of an era', was a major boost for the hype of the match.




Movies are always a must on my list and this years' looks very awesome with the presence of The Dark Knight Rises and the comic book dream movie, Avengers.  Fortunately, I already wrote a review for this and thus saving my time for not having to write a longer post.

Be sure to read it! Movie reviews: The Avengers

It's due to the limited time I had when I was in my studies and to write about it now seems...I don't know, outdated? But then again, it is one of the most anticipated movies of 2012 and not writing about it would seem injustice; considering that I am a huge film geek.  Maybe it's the idea of writing a long and witty review about the film that bores me; it takes time and I lose focus easily.  So, instead of writing a long head crunching review, I'm going to write a short and simple one instead.




Some dubbed it as the best Superhero movie of all time and if I had to give my reasons why, it is due to the effort of respecting the dark and gritty mythology of Batman while adapting it to the 21st century's reality.  What did I expect from it before it was release? As the tagline suggests, 'The Legend Ends', I expected a good ending; one that could inspire me and shock me with something that I have never expected.  Of course, with ending gimmick revolving around the film, it comes to two assumptions: Will Batman die or will Robin pick up the mantel?


And after watching it, I was amazed by the villain, Bane.  His body language and vocabulary was just intimidating and entertaining.  And to answer who's my favorite Batman villain is just too demanding because I'm quite indecisive when it comes to this.  Ra's Al Ghul was a superb villain due to his relationship with Batman; something that I've never seen before. ( I don't read much of Batman comics, folks) He's also a creative way of adapting a villain into reality.  His immortality in the comics was translated to a myth; a gimmick to strike fear to his enemies.  Joker, as well in the comics, was equivalent to Bruce's decision to use brute force against criminals.  If justice decided to smack crime in the face, why couldn't crime hit back? Joker's actions question Batman's very idea and that makes an interesting story.  But of course, it's his random acts of violence that caught the audience's eyes.  Personally, random violence is nothing to me without a purpose; without it, the film would just be another straight forward action thriller which I'm not fond off.  It's the combination of what Joker's violence and what he stands for that makes him entertaining.  Lastly, Bane is certainly a villain that I could have never expected.  Relationship, idealist and what next? What all Superhero face in every story... brutality.  Bane is huge, smart and a capable leader.  He had what both Ra's Al Ghul and Joker lacked, strength.  And it is a delight to see Batman fighting in a one on one combat; one that involve two martial artists and not a brawl or a henchman fight which usually ends with the henchmen loosing with no effort.  Some craved for The Riddler as the next villain but to see another idealist might not cope with what Nolan had in mind.  By the end of the day, it was all about Batman and not the villains.


As for the ending...I must say, it wasn't really exhilarating.  I assumed that there would be another guy who'd wore the Batsuit.  While Bruce Wayne was heavily injured, the new guy was continuing his legacy.  But you have to understand how Christopher Nolan wanted to ended it.  He didn't want to make a spin-off or even a slight hint of another sequel.  And after minutes of considering that intentions, I concluded that the ending was necessary.  In real life, nobody wants to struggle for the rest of their lives.  Athletes and cops retire when they are physically incapable and this also implies if you're a crime fighting superhero.  This relevant story also signifies maturity for long time Batman fans; of how we realize that we're too old for reading comic books.  It's time to put down the books and start taking responsibility for the people we love and ourselves.



  This is a fan art and I think it's awesome! And so, to end this review, I give The Dark Knight Rises a 4.5/5 for the awesome ride with the trilogy.  Emotional, passionate, inspiring and oddly enough, colorful.  Why didn't I gave a full 5/5? I have to be honest.  It's due to the ending.  I blame the spoilers and vast knowledge of Batman I knew :'(





























Why Post Batman? I was too caught up with The Dark Knight; I didn't bother giving much attention to
movies after it.  Now that I'm having my holidays, it's time for this film geek to get back in the game.  Honestly, after Batman, I instantly started searching for a new movie to be obsessed with...sort of pathetic, don't you think? But the movies I found are next year's release.  Until then, let's watch Looper!

Another Bruce Willis film...wow, this is going to be another silly action pack film.

Boy, was I wrong! Joseph's make-up caught my attention at first.  We have Benjamin Button's superb CGI face and even Captain America's scrawny body but they decided to go along with make-up instead.  Honestly though, Joseph looks like Bruce Willis if he was a slick sexy boy but we all know that in his younger days, Bruce was a big harry tough guy; the kind of looks I prefer with heroes.


Watching the film gave me hope for writing stories because it had loads of layers.  Assassin's Creed is an example of balancing a lot of layers but I haven't seen much of this in films lately.  Looper certainly broke that chain.  Assassins, Time Travelling, Mutants, you vs older you and heck, even motherhood is put in there! It gave that typical gun fight action a new breath of fresh air with it's themes and science fiction background.




The down side though is that somehow, this film doesn't screams out 'marketable'.  How do I put this? With Batman's background of being a comic book icon, it's easy to remember him;easily advertised and to be obsessed with.  This film, with the ending it offers, doesn't allows itself to be marketable in a long extent.  What about the success of Inception and Titanic? I'm sensing no sequels ever coming but yet they were inspiring nonetheless.  It's just a shame to me that this movie isn't getting much attention in the 'mainstream' media.  It is good...really good.

Before the ratings, I would like to remind the system :)

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? :/ 
In summary, I give the film a 4/5 for an unexpected turn with the genre.  For now, it doesn't feels like a solid 5/5 but if I have to give a good reason why, it has to be the ending.  It's not that it's not good but it needs more verbal emphasis to the character's emotional build up....that's it, I guess. 


Salam and have a good day everybody! 

Hi, everybody! 


I started with the Hyena.  Finding the style of drawing was the part where it took some time but it turned out okay.  I wanted the colors to be flat so coloring it wasn't a pain.  
 

But the skater was a pain.  I am really not good with dynamic angles.  At the beginning, I already thought of drawing a simple flat skater because I knew I wasn't good with angles but even with a simple idea, I really couldn't get the legs right.  They weren't flexible or mildly dynamic enough.