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Archive for February 2013
I just watched this film and I just have to make a review.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
A key phrase of what this review is all about. This film had the same problem with Transformers 2, it was filled with action almost nonstop. I hate those sort of plots because it's not intelligent; almost undermining the audience that only senseless violence would interest them. No, this visually breathtaking film wasn't filled with bloody violence. It's Tintin, of course it wasn't! It's kid friendly. What bothered me was the action that happens almost every 5 minutes! At a moment, they're escaping from being held hostage on a ship and then they're flying under thunderous clouds after the next 5 to 6 minutes.
Now, I was deeply impressed with the animation. Using motion capture technology, the animation of this film was just breathtaking! I kept saying "wow" while watching it. The settings were so impressive and the texture, like the sea, was just so real! I love the fact that they literally realize the styles of the original comic by giving them realistic skin textures. It was almost seeing cartoons being brought to life! But be that as it may, they over did it. Yes, the visuals were terrific but that doesn't mean the story should be ignored. Even with motion capture, somehow, not much emotions were shown by the characters. Character developments were executed poorly and I hated Haddock. The jokes were also, most at the time, forced; silly and quick slapstick is not funny. It almost felt like they were just showing off with the visual effects; having unnecessary buildings falling apart and exploding ships.
After reading a few reviews and comprehending the idea that this film was generally accepted, I had some second thoughts about The Adventures of Tintin. But then again, most of the reasons why most like it was because of the director's trademark style. Stephen Spielberg's Indiana Jones is one of his most beloved films and that film's style could been seen in Tintin. It was a breath of fresh air to that treasure seeking adventure story. I did not grew up watching Indiana Jones but should I condemn it? I don't think so. But should I be hypocritical just to agree with the majority? No. So, judging this film based on what I saw, know and like, it needs more work with the script. Tintin is a reporter who's hungry for amazing stories and I want to see more of that. I want to see that concept to be emphasized more. The comic was also popular for it's variety of genres. So, I don't want to see another treasure hunting plot for the sequel. Try fantasy or conspiracies...anything besides treasure hunting.
The guidelines:
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? :/
In conclusion, this film fails to explain to me exactly what Tintin is all about. I didn't grew up watching Tintin either. It's just stressful to see this visually impressive film to be ruined by it's poor story. The actions were just too much. But I'm glad to know that it was generally well received though. The efforts for the animation should be applaud.
So, I give this movie a 2.5/5. The extra 0.5 is due the amazing animation.
It's an honor to start this year's movie reviews with a local film; especially with this one.
While Merong Mahawangsa and Cicakman are good films because they're a leap forward for Malaysian films in terms of special effects, this one is in terms of writing.
Yes, it is the awesome series adapted film, Juvana!
First of, I would like to highlight that I'm a fan of Crime Dramas and it will have a huge effect in this review. Crime films, the good ones, highlights the hardships of criminals. It doesn't highlights the explosive actions. I'm not fond of those straight forward action flicks.
I would like compare this film with another local Crime film that has been a sensation in this country, which is KL Gangsters, in order to emphasize my point. I hate KL Gangsters. The actions didn't impress me nor did the script. I don't think criminals from the bad side of neighborhood would have any knowledge of martial arts, specifically Muay Thai. At least, not all of them! The dialogue--oh my god, the dialogue! It was just so bad and disgusting! "Lu jangan kencing sama wa!" (You don't pee on me) Seriously?! I understand that it was a portrayal of what Malaysians gangsters really sound like but with all honesty, put some vocabulary and intelligence in it for god's sake. Crime Dramas often highlight smart men with greed or just bad history not idiots with money! (You can see now how much the genre effects the review) Lastly, it is very stereotypical. The 'gangsters' are smoking almost all the freaking time!
So, with that being said. I would gladly state that Juvana is nothing like that. It is a pleasure to finally watch a good local film in a long while. It avoids the painful habit of local writers playing it safe by writing cliche' plots. This film had it's own ambition of selling itself for the sake of the story and not money. Even films like Merong and Cicakman still dare not to try something new and bold with the script; as if the phrase "We're playing it safe with the script" is pasted on the freaking poster.
For the acting, I can't complain anything. They did a splendid job. It's funny how Sharnaaz is praised for his performance as Lan Todak; the antagonist of the story. Don't get me wrong, he did a good job but, to me, the character was too forced. This is not something you'd point your finger to the actors. No, this is the writer's responsibility. Again, good Crime Drama films center real men with real problem; having a psychopath with not much decent background story ruins the realism in the genre. Lan Todak, although gruesome, doesn't fit much if you're trying to make a good crime drama. But hey, this genre isn't exactly a huge hit with the general audience and I understand if they're trying to reach to everyone as an audience. And personally, I am not digging Adlin Aman Ramlie being ignored for his performance! Dude, I was excited when I heard he was in this flick! He's a good actor and plus, I just knew he'd be perfect for this role. Him being the disciplinary guy (I don't know the name of the occupation) was just bad ass. With his face, I just knew he's going to be a huge pain for shouting at the juvenile delinquents. But instead he was a tough lover; teaches the delinquents with some hard labor which was still good.
Another aspect of the film I'd like to highlight is the action. Sometimes, it's not the choreographed action but a simple trigger that could make a memorable scene. That's one of the best traits of Crime Dramas. In this film, it is choreographed in a way that's not much of a martial arts flick. It still relied on typical fight scenes. It didn't did it's best to make that one awesome and shocking murder scene. It did had one scene but it wasn't strong enough.
Alhamdulillah, I finally get to see this film. It's hard to convince my pals to watch this. I ended up watching The Last Stand and Hansel and Gretel which aren't very good. Juvana may not be as good as Bunohan (A film that is really good) but it's definitely a good start for 2013's local film scene. Before I give my rating, here's the guidelines with the numbers:
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? :/
So, this film earns a 3/5 for a good film; a local film that actually has that theater worthy vibe for it's ambitious story.
Salam and have a nice day everybody!
I'm on my semester break! So, this means more time for this blog! I'll have more time for more personal artworks too and while I get that started, here are the artworks from my second semester!
And I'll start with a work I did for my Computer graphics class. This was the second task, an exercise that required the students to create an add by using Photoshop. I skipped the first task because it was boring; cropping and pasting 2 to 3 given pictures together. At the time, I was obsessed with Assassin's Creed III and so I decided to create an add for the Animus. It was inspired by their Multiplayer add that was seemingly released by Abstergo (Which was very creative to me). The picture looks pixelated because I didn't set the size right.
I'm not going to show every artwork I did for this subject instead just the ones that I like. This next one is an important one as it's one of two assignments that would gave us a lot of marks.
The task required a calendar of a month. We could pick any month of any year and I chose this year's January because my birthday is on January. Admittedly, this was a last minute work but in a way, it also wasn't. Around the first two months of the semester, I always wanted to make a miniature effect with Photoshop but I kept forgetting and I was busy with assignments. This task was given as the final assignment of the subject by the way and seeing that I have this extra picture, I figured why shouldn't I just make a miniature effect? It was 2 nights away from submission and with the curiosity of making a miniature effect in mind, the above calendar was made.
I often love watching movie posters that are cool and creative. A few of last year's movie posters that I love was, of course, The Dark Knight Rises and the surprisingly good Looper. The Avengers was just too common for me. But it wasn't until I found Kupy Wrestling Wallpapers.Com that interest me to make one. The site offers loads of awesome wrestling wallpapers made by fans. The designs weren't only good but also a major boost of popularity for WWE. What better and cheaper way of hyping this year's Wrestlemania by releasing fan made posters? ( I'm really excited right now by the way, The Road to Wrestlemania has just begun!) So, this next one is not exactly a poster but, still, it involves photo manipulation which is what you need to make a poster.
This was the second last assignment for this subject. I needed to use only original photos--well, sort of. The administration of the subject wasn't really sorted well. At first it was only original photos then it was original photos for 80 to 90 percent; it goes on and on. Not to mention the constant hardware malfunctions; wasting half and hour of my time. Thank god, this subject was awesome because of the very fun assignments.
In my old post, it was more about my feeling's shift from bad to good regarding my new experiences as a design student ( The First Serious Step ). Now, I have to say that I have a better appreciation for friends. That appreciation isn't reflected in any of my works. It's just that I faced a few of friendship problems; from being ignore by those whom I dear most to being helped by newly made friends. This include helps from friends for my assignments. So, I guess I have to write it down here and thank them in this post.
And I'll start with a work I did for my Computer graphics class. This was the second task, an exercise that required the students to create an add by using Photoshop. I skipped the first task because it was boring; cropping and pasting 2 to 3 given pictures together. At the time, I was obsessed with Assassin's Creed III and so I decided to create an add for the Animus. It was inspired by their Multiplayer add that was seemingly released by Abstergo (Which was very creative to me). The picture looks pixelated because I didn't set the size right.
I'm not going to show every artwork I did for this subject instead just the ones that I like. This next one is an important one as it's one of two assignments that would gave us a lot of marks.
The task required a calendar of a month. We could pick any month of any year and I chose this year's January because my birthday is on January. Admittedly, this was a last minute work but in a way, it also wasn't. Around the first two months of the semester, I always wanted to make a miniature effect with Photoshop but I kept forgetting and I was busy with assignments. This task was given as the final assignment of the subject by the way and seeing that I have this extra picture, I figured why shouldn't I just make a miniature effect? It was 2 nights away from submission and with the curiosity of making a miniature effect in mind, the above calendar was made.
I often love watching movie posters that are cool and creative. A few of last year's movie posters that I love was, of course, The Dark Knight Rises and the surprisingly good Looper. The Avengers was just too common for me. But it wasn't until I found Kupy Wrestling Wallpapers.Com that interest me to make one. The site offers loads of awesome wrestling wallpapers made by fans. The designs weren't only good but also a major boost of popularity for WWE. What better and cheaper way of hyping this year's Wrestlemania by releasing fan made posters? ( I'm really excited right now by the way, The Road to Wrestlemania has just begun!) So, this next one is not exactly a poster but, still, it involves photo manipulation which is what you need to make a poster.
This was the second last assignment for this subject. I needed to use only original photos--well, sort of. The administration of the subject wasn't really sorted well. At first it was only original photos then it was original photos for 80 to 90 percent; it goes on and on. Not to mention the constant hardware malfunctions; wasting half and hour of my time. Thank god, this subject was awesome because of the very fun assignments.
This was certainly my favorite from the subject. Of course, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photo manipulation.
Next is photography.
No matter how hard I try to calm myself, this subject still pressures me like crazy. The 'creativity' is so demanding. Sure, it is creativity that is emphasized on and on with this subject but after awhile, I realize that it's taste. It's confusing and frustrating to hear a praise last week and a dissatisfaction today with the same picture. I prefer to tell my stories through moving pictures and although I respect the ideology of photography, I still respectfully prefer moving pictures--or at least with some text like comic books. This subject is a must by the way. Be that as it may, I did enjoy some of the pictures I took. Bare in mind that I'm not good with taking pictures.
Of course, I took loads of pictures and I chose only 6 to submit. Above are examples of my favorite extra pictures. The task was to take pictures of our figurines. I saved money by using the ones I already have.
There were two assignments and this next one regards lights and movements.
This wasn't accepted but I do like it.
This wasn't accepted too but, still, I like it. This is suppose to be shadow but for some reason, it wasn't accepted. I saw a few creative ways of taking a picture of shadows from friends and even those weren't accepted. Where's the creativity? Where's the freedom? Instead this picture was accepted:
Really? -_-
Well, whatever. As long as the semester is over and I can finally relax; away from this subject's pressure. Besides, there's loads of other very self satisfying works and especially the last one that I'm going to show you.
And before I get to the next and final subject, here are some of the pictures I submitted:
This was very satisfying because it took me three freaking times to take this picture; the travelling to locations and carrying the props were just exhausting.
This wasn't accepted but I still love it and I'm going to show it! =3
And I'll end this part of the post with this picture; reflection. I found a cracked small mirror around my hostel. It was just perfect because it wasn't too cracked. When I took the pic, I didn't want my room to be visible as the background of the reflection and so I tried a few things. I tried using a cloth with some patterns in it but it didn't work. Then I used a minecraft helmet that my roommate made. The patterns were just perfect. So, with so much satisfaction, I consulted with some amount of confidence and what do you know...it wasn't accepted. I really love this picture and during the submission day, I gave this picture anyway. It was accepted. I, of course, was so happy at the time but after thinking it through a few hours after submission, I was sort of confused and ticked off a bit. So much for creativity and individualism.
And now, for the main event! My last post regarding my University's artworks ended with cartoon characters. It was my first time coloring my drawings digitally. This semester's most satisfying artwork is a video! Alhamdulillah, I finally get to translate my ideas into a video =')
I have to thank my friends for helping me making this video. This was an assignment for Creative Studies. We were required to create an artwork with the topic of multimedia and the theme could be whatever we please. Seeing this opportunity, I just had to make a video. I gathered my team and we took around 3 weeks to finish it.
Here are the links to some of my friend's sites who helped me making this video:
Main Actor: Ahmad Izzat. He has a small business of selling football jerseys and if you're interested, here's the link: Jersey Bro
Supporting Actor: Afiq Akmal. Unlike me, he does videos as a hobby and, of course, he's good at it. Check out his channel! RFScene
Here are some poster for the video.
Of course, I made posters for it! Now that I know how to use Photoshop, I just couldn't resist! =P
I had trouble taking pictures at night so this one turned out bad due to that.
As you can see, the tile is Friction. It's a simple straight forward assassination story. Yes, again it was influence by Assassin's Creed but I wouldn't say that game was the only inspiration for the idea. I often get obsessed with certain things and recently I'm deeply fascinated on how the video game market works. One particular thing about video games that it require a good story. It's amazing how important a story is for a video game and as well for the fans. Mass Effect 3, an action science fiction game, was critically bashed by consumers for it's unsatisfying ending. I'm a fan of Assassin's Creed due it's story and with this Mass Effect 3 phenomenon bearing in mind, I couldn't resist making Literature in Video Games as my theme for this project. Other games such as Max Payne 3 and Hitman Absolution also gave me some ideas of how I'd picture the story.
Without further ado, here is the video!
To conclude, I'm thankful that I was able to finish all of these artworks. Alhamdulillah, all of it was done my way with help from pals. I hope all of you enjoyed this post.
Salam and may the rest of your days be blessed!
