SyFy's Z Nation

I can't sleep.  Dammit.  Like every freaking piece of my body is ready to sleep except for my brain.  I tried to lull myself to sleep by reading creepy stories on Pinterest but I ran out of batteries so I got up and opened the computer instead.

Speaking of all things creepy, recently I was able to watch SyFy's new zombie series Z Nation.  I've only seen a couple of things from SyFy but that was enough to make me feel worried about this.  But that's not going to stop me from seeing this but I can't help myself.  Because, zombies.

The first episode didn't endear itself to me but it did show potential.  The acting wasn't good, and I didn't know if that was intentional.  I didn't  actually have an idea what they intended this show to be.  It was like 'Oh we're doing a story, about zombies, wink wink'.  It didn't entirely sit well with me because I'm serious about this shit.

The second episode tipped my opinion towards the negative side of the scale.  The episode's big mission for its survivors was like a non-event.  It didn't make sense to me in a lot of ways.
They make this elaborate plan to get a truck with fuel by distracting zombies that were already distracted to begin with.  What in the hell did I miss because it absolutely did not make sense?  It's like they were trying to accomplish a simple task in the most difficult way they could think of.

And they're breezing past zombies.  Lots and lots of zombies.  This bothered me because there had been fast zombies in the previous episode and all of sudden the zombies are slower and less responsive than snails.  I looked it up and somebody said the older zombies are slower.  I'm pretty sure there's a hole in that theory somewhere.

I don't get why some people discussing this could even say, "Oh, you're really looking for logic in a zombie show?"  Yeah, I fucking do.  I fully expect them to remain true to their universe, and why the hell not?

The characters are still less important to me than what they're driving.  I can't wait to see them go.

And I didn't catch where the setting was so I'm so somewhat confused on the use of western music.

They did manage to surprise me a couple of times.  I suppose if they were going for something less serious they're more able to sneak in something a little unpredictable.

Overall it's not that horrible.  It's not so different from the horror movies that get the 5 or lower rating on IMDb.  I'll probably follow this series still to see if I like where it goes.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends is rounds up the Rurouni Kenshin live action movies, providing the conclusion to Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno.

The live action trilogy puts into focus the samurai and assassin Kenshin Himura, his resolve to renounce killing and his struggles to truly realize that ideal.  But he's not the only one with difficulties realizing their future in the changing landscape of Japan.  The pull of the past and the push of ideologies clash not only within Kenshin but with others like him struggling to find a place in the new era.

The Legend Ends is fitting ending to the series with Kenshin's own conflict mirroring that of this new Japan.  It's not without it's pains and self-doubt, but it carries on.

The film maintains the same style and aesthetic of the previous film.  The tone and color suits the era and sets in various scenes seem small but feel larger.  It has that contradictory feeling of being detailed, yet simple.  It is this theme which is repeated in various aspects of the movie.  Even their clothes and tools exhibit this quality with the presence of varied textures in simple shapes and materials.

The fight choreography is the same, suggesting a realism to the otherworldly fighting skills of the characters.  The difference perhaps is the the grittier and bloodier fight scenes.  I was half-expecting the typical fight sequence played out in other comic book movie incarnations but it still has managed to be a bit different from the norm.

There isn't much to be expected in terms of character development.  Only Kenshin being the title character had this opportunity.  Trying to fit as much story and characters from the source material makes this film suffer in this area.  Even the more prominent antagonists from the previous film got only a one sentence back story.  The most some of the antagonists had was a mere few seconds of camera time.  I think this is regrettable as there are so much more to these characters.  In this sense I feel that the movie has bitten off more than it can chew.  This is to give way to the bigger story and some of the most anticipated fight scenes.  Due to this, a person without any knowledge of the manga or anime may find this unsatisfying.

Additionally, they were a few things that are not stated only implied, leaving viewers to make their own assumptions to the how's and why's. But I don't think this keeps anyone from understanding the story as a whole.


Even without much character development, this film does succeed in tying together the whole story.  Even with its weaknesses the entire series is still to me one of the greatest adaptations.  The director and entire production's ability to give this a realistic take was something I haven't thought possible.  I owe it to them to change my perspective of what could be, and isn't that what film is about?

Share a Coke

A couple of months ago, the Coca-Cola company released their Coke with interesting, new labels.  Along with price increases and a reduction in size in their Coke Mismo line, these new bottles sported labels that said, "Share a Coke with" and a large print of various names.

Wow, that's so ridiculously creative.  Now everyone is clamoring to find a name.  Although that's funny considering it says "Share" on the bottle.

The range of available names is interesting.  Aside from individual names on small bottles and cans, there are also more generic labels like Mommy, Daddy, Lolo, Lola, to BFF, VIP, Cutie, Hottie, to terms of endearment like Love, Babe, and Pangga.

Well, that's cute!  You can give one to someone you like and be totally sneakily flirty with them!

Then I realized what was written on the cans next to it.

On Facebook, I once saw a list of names that was supposedly printed on Coke labels here.  These were, according to one commenter, common names in the Philippines.  I never find my name on souvenirs, or anything, so I don't really count on finding my name on this but this is ridiculous!

Really???  How many people in this country is named Phat? Or Rhen with an H???  How can these be common names?  They're not even common spellings! At least it can be argued that Phat is an actual word.  

Oh, well.  

Love. Love. Love.

Movie: Maleficent

I remembered that recently during the trailers when I was in the cinema for Rurouni Kenshin, I saw a trailer for Beauty and the Beast.  While churning out fairy tale-based movies isn't new in Hollywood, these fairy tale flicks in recent years had been given the special effects, mega bucks treatment and a few twists along the way.  

A few months ago, I saw Maleficent...

Maleficent  (2014, Action|Adventure|Family)

The Prince is so non-essential to this film, he isn't even on the promo material.

One of the fairy tale villains, Maleficent is a that fairy lives in and guards a forest kingdom full of magical creatures. In her youth, she befriends a human, Stefan, from the next kingdom but when they were older he had left her to pursue his ambitions.  The neighboring kingdom's king seeks to acquire the magical kingdom but was thwarted by Maleficent and her powerful allies. Stefan sees this as an opportunity for himself to gain favor with the king and so returns to Maleficent.

Among the Hollywood fairy tales that have come out in recent years like Red (Red Riding Hood), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Hansel and Gretel), Snow White and the Huntsman (Snow White), Jack the Giant Slayer (Jack and the Beanstalk), Maleficent was the most geared for children.

Obviously, the biggest selling point of this film was Angelina Jolie.  While the movie itself needed a big star to carry the title role, she was also a big draw for anyone beyond high school age.  She's the reason I watched this, and I suspect the same reason other non-child carrying patrons in the cinema had to see this.  

Elizabeth Olsen as Aurora was charming on screen yet the character itself was a little daffy. While I understand that the movie is Maleficent so the movie should revolve around Maleficent, it's still a shame that not much value was given for the other characters.  

The King was nutters, and the Queen was a footnote.  The chambermaids had more screen time than her.  The fairies were a tool in this movie, given no further value than to move the story along or to give the required comic relief.  The Prince was, well, they're not really given much value in fairy tales to begin with so I guess there's nothing lost there. 

The pacing is okay but I feel that the story itself drops as if to prepare for the action.  Remember the prince?  Yeah, I guess that's what the film makers thought as they shoved him in there. 

It's a visual treat, and meets the 'standard' points of a Sleeping Beauty story, tries to be different, but essentially isn't all that satisfying.

Spoilers ahead!

Among the things that didn't sit well to me was the third fairy's missing gift.  I guess her gift should have been 'sensibility' which our dear Aurora was lacking. Aurora, you're willing to just leave your aunts for a godmother you've only actually recently met?  Gosh, I know your aunts are bonkers and can hardly feed you, but they mean well, and spent years taking care of you and in a moment you just decide to leave them?  And your Dad, I know he was an egotistic jerk but he still died.  Your mom, did you even ask for her? Well, I guess if the film makers forgot about her you can too.

Why give Aurora to clueless fairies?  And where did they live because it seemed to me as if they lived closer to the Maleficent's forest than to the castle?  You're afraid that a opponent's curse to your daughter might occur, so you send her away to live with fairies you barely know, to a place which might actually be closer to the forest where your opponent lives?

Movie Night: Monsters

I haven't been updating my IMDb account.  Which is stupid because now I'm spending more time browsing movies because I can't remember the things I did see.  I found notes here and there about some things I've seen, and I found this.

Monsters (2010, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller)

An incident occurs near the coast of Mexico and soon after gigantic alien life forms appear wreaking havoc across the country.  Andrew is a photojournalist, banking on shots of the alien to save his job, and Samantha is his boss' daughter, alone and far from home.  Andrew reluctantly agrees to find, and then escort, Samantha back home to the United States.

In its IMDb page, Monsters is categorized as a drama, sci-fi, and thriller.

To me, it's a weak romance set against a backdrop of giant octopuses.  Or was it squids?  The monsters do somewhat play a role to prompt action from the characters but them being monsters doesn't really affect the story.  If you took out the monsters and replaced them with 'war', or 'radioactive bananas', you can still have the same story.

You'd think the tentacled monstrosity would ensure a fast-paced, thrilling experience.  That didn't happen. Sure, there were some moments where something starts to happen, but no sooner than it started it's over.  So this was pretty uneventful.  What kept me through this was the hope that the protagonists would die.  (If somebody ever reads this and thinks that's awful, comfort yourself in knowing that at least I didn't say hentai. Oops, I just did. Lololol.)

I've never seen two characters more apathetic to the dawn of the end of the world.   Their circumstances seemed no more than an inconvenience and their relationship to this reality and to everyone else was shallow.   While Samantha and Andrew drone on about the futility and monotony of their well-off lives, their characters are brought closer together.  I can see it, I hear, it's happening on screen, yet I still couldn't believe it.  I looked at them and I thought, 'Yeah, you're gonna break up and break up fast' and they're not even together yet.

So after writing I looked at the comments, which I usually do after watching a movie I have a mental comment on.  Supposedly, this was an intelligent film, with symbolism and shit.  Nah.  Maybe I get it, maybe I don't.  Either way, this was clunky, symbolism or no symbolism.  And if they want a metaphor, well, this movie is a metaphor for how I feel about it.  Lol.

I like reading comments on articles and on boards.  Usually when I see a movie that I have a mental comment on, I'd look it up just to see what others said.  Sometimes you realize something, sometimes somebody points out something you have totally missed, sometimes somebody says something that changes your mind completely.

I like that.  I like learning from that.

I read some of the threads on IMDb for Monsters, and honestly I was bothered.  We all have our opinions and I know my opinion of the movie seems to be in the minority, but while that disappoints me I accept that and I'm okay with it.  What bothers me is reading somebody say that,

I was absolutely engaged by the love story in this film.

What.  Scratch that, I'm not bothered, I'm deeply disturbed.  Think about it, this guy could go out there and date someone and carry this strange idea of a romance and I'm thinking, 'No, no, no. I want to help steer you in the right direction!'  Hardly any woman with a sound mind is going to think that there's a great love story in there.  Hell, even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had a better love story told in a few minutes than this film for it's entire duration!  There are a gazillion movies and tv shows that have better love stories, and a lot of them aren't specifically classified as romance, so why? Why?

I didn't ask why.  I just sit here wondering if I missed something.

Because - Spoiler Alert- the Protagonist Guy in the movie Monsters clearly was bad news: his biggest job was simply to get his boss's daughter's ass on a ship back to the United States.  What does he do?  He drinks the night before, sleeps with a prostitute, and gets robbed.  The boss's daughter misses the last ship, which was mentioned to them the day before, was the last and only ship to sail out of that area.  When ticket man tells him that the only other way to the US was through the dangerous restricted area and would cost him a ton more money, he throws a hissy fit at the notion of paying more because he's now broke due to being robbed.  Seriously?  And the girl clearly has issues to not see that as freaking neon sign to stay the hell away.

Sometimes I don't really get people.

Globe Slipstream Event

I have no idea what this event was about initially.  My sister was told about this thing by a friend and I just tagged along.

The Globe Slipstream event was held in BGC on August 31, 2014.  We arrived late in the afternoon so we didn't get to see the other stuff like the celebrity go-kart.  We only got to see a bit of the race thing.  There were booths scattered with various exhibits and purposes like where you can try out a simulation, see the latest Huawei devices, or ogle a pair of Ducati bikes.

There was a meet and greet session with Marlon Stockinger.  We didn't have the ticket/band/whatever for this.  Eh.  I didn't mind, I don't go crazy over these things anyway.  I did hear that one of the girls really went for it, hugging him and saying "I love you" to him.  Wow.  Go, you!

One of the major highlights of this one-day event are the performances of various musical acts.   There were freebies given away for all ticket holders like raincoats and light-up thingies.  The raincoats were light and huge, big enough to fit a person with a backpack.  They had them in blue, red, yellow and black.  My sister got yellow, and I would have gotten it too, except it would be weird if we both wore yellow.  That, and we'll look like the MMDA.  So I got red instead.  Some people got black, but I thought since it was made of light plastic it's going to look a bit like garbage bags.  I saw a lady wear her black raincoat when a slight drizzle fell and she didn't look as much like she was wearing garbage bags.  She looked like a serial killer in a slasher movie.

I have no idea what the "18 yrs old" was pertaining to.

I have never seen this light-up band thing before so when I saw it on somebody else I'm like, 'Huh, it lights up.'  I fumbled to put on mine and I was amazed- it has an on and off switch!  Damn, I'm so out of sync with what's going on with the world.

Voltron!

The same goes for the music.  I looked at the ticket to see the acts performing and I thought, who are these people?  I'm only familiar with Up Dharma Down and even then I don't really know their songs except for "Tadhana."  I've heard of Yolanda Moon from Yahoo! Philippines, I think, and have never heard the main acts before.

Yolanda Moon bathed in light.  

Up Dharma Down.

The first band we heard was Autotelic and they were okay.  Yolanda Moon was, well, I don't think this was the venue for them.  Their music doesn't prompt anybody to get up, and their lack of connection with the audience didn't help to keep them from sitting down.  People went wild for Up Dharma Down.  I was bit surprised because those who were yelling for the band looked like they were ten years old when the band first came out.  Good for them. The main acts were... Well, we didn't sit around for them.

All in all, while the music was good, it wasn't a heart-pumping music event.  Or maybe it just takes a lot to move me.