Not as good as the hype suggested, or as good as I expected (from being a fan of the previous terminator movies)... so slightly disappointing.
The movie seemed to have fed on "suspense" points where you jump back as a metallic being appears behind the main character... gets old after a while...
I rlly disliked christian bale in this role... too much batman ambiance -.- absolutely hated the wife... we don't need any wide-eyed, permanent mascara-eyed (even though we're in war zone where even food is scarce) innocent girl -.-
However, I LUVED kyle reese character (heheh also very cute), LUVED the marcus character too (too bad he has to die "for the greater good"), and the pilot girl (the story line between these characters was FAR more interesting than the john connor thing -.- Here is the saving (or savalation teehee) grace.
Special effects were superb, as they should be - or else it wouldn't be a modern film. nothing too awe-inspiring.
Out of the four movies (star trek, wolverine, angels and demons, terminator), I will put this as the worst (even more so than wolverine?? yawr cuz I expected less from wolverine and it still delivered... I don't hold well w/ disappointment =( ...)
Recommended? Sure if you're a terminator fan... but really if you had to pick, go with the other choices =P
-L
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Angels and Demons
It was better than expected (FAR superior to Da Vinci Code - but that's not saying much).
It followed the action plot of the book VERY closely - which was a smart move (since the book was awesome)... lost some of the personal depth that was present in the book, but it's understandable considering the running time - and managed to be entertaining while still presenting the message (without TOO MUCH of the watered down, middle-of-the-road lack of intensity)
Some of the dialogue seemed awkward (omg Tom Hanks... what happened -.-) and there was a tad bit too much explanation for it to seem normal (it was okay in the book, since ... well it's a book about stuff most people don't know/care to know about, so tons of explanation is necessary)... It's tolerable.
Action bits: Tom Hanks - not bad. There were bits that made me flinch, as intended, so kudos to that.
I dont know if this is a fault, but the movie gave me a slight emotional attachment to the Catholic faith. I suppose it put the priests/vaticans on a more personal level than I am used to. I rather appreciate that.
One thing I felt was weak: the movie was covered in Ron Howard's let's all agree and not hurt anyone's feelings movie-making agenda. But it can't be helped... and it still managed to pull through decent, good job.
I recommend it. Slightly less than highly. But definitely worth watching.
-L
It followed the action plot of the book VERY closely - which was a smart move (since the book was awesome)... lost some of the personal depth that was present in the book, but it's understandable considering the running time - and managed to be entertaining while still presenting the message (without TOO MUCH of the watered down, middle-of-the-road lack of intensity)
Some of the dialogue seemed awkward (omg Tom Hanks... what happened -.-) and there was a tad bit too much explanation for it to seem normal (it was okay in the book, since ... well it's a book about stuff most people don't know/care to know about, so tons of explanation is necessary)... It's tolerable.
Action bits: Tom Hanks - not bad. There were bits that made me flinch, as intended, so kudos to that.
I dont know if this is a fault, but the movie gave me a slight emotional attachment to the Catholic faith. I suppose it put the priests/vaticans on a more personal level than I am used to. I rather appreciate that.
One thing I felt was weak: the movie was covered in Ron Howard's let's all agree and not hurt anyone's feelings movie-making agenda. But it can't be helped... and it still managed to pull through decent, good job.
I recommend it. Slightly less than highly. But definitely worth watching.
-L
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Star Trek
I love it; it's epic.
Very snazzy graphics, to be expected.
Spock is awesome, hawt, and so mine =P ::SIZZLE:: XD
"I'm going to be monitoring your frequencies." - HAWT line =P
XDDD HIGHLY recommended even for non-trekkies (which I used to be before this movie haha XD)
-L
"Live long and prosper." ::does the vulcan greeting:: XD
Very snazzy graphics, to be expected.
Spock is awesome, hawt, and so mine =P ::SIZZLE:: XD
"I'm going to be monitoring your frequencies." - HAWT line =P
XDDD HIGHLY recommended even for non-trekkies (which I used to be before this movie haha XD)
-L
"Live long and prosper." ::does the vulcan greeting:: XD
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Memorable bits in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
All languages that derive from Latin form the word "compassion" by combining the prefix meaning "with" (com-) and the root meaning "suffering" (Late Latin, passio). In other languages - Czech, Polish, German, and Swedish, for instance - this word is translated by a noun formed of an equivalent prefix combined with the word that means "feeling" (Czech, sou-cit; Polish, wspol-czucie; German, Mitgefuhl; Swedish, med-kansla).
- funny in Chinese is 同情 - meaning 同: same, 情: feeling. guess Chinese is not derived from Latin teehee XD
Einmal ist keinmal - What happened but once, might as well not have happened at all. if we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.
Es muss sein - It must be.
... he closed his eyes. The pleasure suffusing his body called for darkness. That darkness was pure, perfect, thoughtless, visionless; that darkness was without end, without borders; that darkenss was the infinite we each carry within us. (Yes, if you're looking for infinity, just close your eyes!)
And at the moment he felt pleasure suffusing his body, Franz himself dissolved into the infinity of his darkness, himself becoming infinite. But the larger a man grows in his own inner darkness, the more his outer form diminishes. A man with closed eyes is a wreck of a man.
There is always the small part that is unimaginable... What is unique about the "I" hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person. All we are able to imagine is what makes everyone like everyone else, what people have in common. The Individual "I" is what differs from the common stock, that is, what cannot be guessed at or calculated, what must be unveiled, uncovered, conquered.
...there was nothing more difficult to capture than the human "I". There are many more resemblances between Hitler and Einstein or Brazhnev and Solzhenitsyn than there are differences. Using numbers, we might say that there is one-millionth part dissimilarity to nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine millionths parts similarity.
To be sure, the millionth part dissimilarity is present in all areas of human existence, but in all areas other than sex it is exposed and needs no one to discover it, needs no scalpel... Only in sexuality does the millionth part dissimilarity becomes precious, because, not accessible in public, it must be conquered. As recently as fifty years ago this form of conquest took considerable time (weeks, even months!), and the worth of the conquered object was proportional to the time the conquest took.
Men who pursue a multitude of women fit neatly into two categories. Some seek their own subjective and unchanging dream of a woman in all women. Others are prompted by a desire to possess the endless variety of the objective female world.
The obsession of the former is lyrical: what they seek in women is themselves, their ideal, and since an ideal is by definition something that can never be found, they are disappointed again and again. The disappointment that propels them from woman to woman gives their inconstancy a kind of romantic excuse, so that many sentimental women are touched by their unbridled philandering.
The obsession of the latter is epic, and women see nothing the least bit touching in it: the man projects no subjective ideal on women, and since everything interests him, nothing can disappoint him. This inability to be disappointed has something scandalous about it. The obesession of the epic womanizer strikes people as lacking in redemption (redemption by disappointment).
The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.
I have said before that metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.
We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under.
The first catergory longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public.
...
The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. They are the tireless hosts of cocktail and parites and dinners. They are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. This happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. People in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need.
...
Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the people they love. Their situation is as dangerous as the situation of the people in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark.
...
And finally there is a fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers...
There's no particular merit in being nice to one's fellow man... We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotions - love, antipahty, charity, or malice - and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Mandkind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
Another image also comes to mind: Nietzsche leaving his hotel in Turin. Seeing a horse and a coachman beating it with a whip, Nietzsche went up to the horse and, before the coachman's very eyes, put his arms around the horse's neck and burst into tears.
That took place in 1889, when Nietzsche, too, had removed himself from the world of people. In other words, it was at the time when his mental illness had just erupted. But for that very reason I feel his gesture has broad implications: Nietzsche was trying to apologize to the horse for Descartes. His lunacy (that is, his final break with mankind) began at the very moment he burst into tears over the horse.
And that is the Nietzsche I love... I see [him]...stepping down from the road along which mankind, "the master and proprietor of nature", marches onward.
-L
- funny in Chinese is 同情 - meaning 同: same, 情: feeling. guess Chinese is not derived from Latin teehee XD
Einmal ist keinmal - What happened but once, might as well not have happened at all. if we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.
Es muss sein - It must be.
... he closed his eyes. The pleasure suffusing his body called for darkness. That darkness was pure, perfect, thoughtless, visionless; that darkness was without end, without borders; that darkenss was the infinite we each carry within us. (Yes, if you're looking for infinity, just close your eyes!)
And at the moment he felt pleasure suffusing his body, Franz himself dissolved into the infinity of his darkness, himself becoming infinite. But the larger a man grows in his own inner darkness, the more his outer form diminishes. A man with closed eyes is a wreck of a man.
There is always the small part that is unimaginable... What is unique about the "I" hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person. All we are able to imagine is what makes everyone like everyone else, what people have in common. The Individual "I" is what differs from the common stock, that is, what cannot be guessed at or calculated, what must be unveiled, uncovered, conquered.
...there was nothing more difficult to capture than the human "I". There are many more resemblances between Hitler and Einstein or Brazhnev and Solzhenitsyn than there are differences. Using numbers, we might say that there is one-millionth part dissimilarity to nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine millionths parts similarity.
To be sure, the millionth part dissimilarity is present in all areas of human existence, but in all areas other than sex it is exposed and needs no one to discover it, needs no scalpel... Only in sexuality does the millionth part dissimilarity becomes precious, because, not accessible in public, it must be conquered. As recently as fifty years ago this form of conquest took considerable time (weeks, even months!), and the worth of the conquered object was proportional to the time the conquest took.
Men who pursue a multitude of women fit neatly into two categories. Some seek their own subjective and unchanging dream of a woman in all women. Others are prompted by a desire to possess the endless variety of the objective female world.
The obsession of the former is lyrical: what they seek in women is themselves, their ideal, and since an ideal is by definition something that can never be found, they are disappointed again and again. The disappointment that propels them from woman to woman gives their inconstancy a kind of romantic excuse, so that many sentimental women are touched by their unbridled philandering.
The obsession of the latter is epic, and women see nothing the least bit touching in it: the man projects no subjective ideal on women, and since everything interests him, nothing can disappoint him. This inability to be disappointed has something scandalous about it. The obesession of the epic womanizer strikes people as lacking in redemption (redemption by disappointment).
The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.
I have said before that metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.
We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under.
The first catergory longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public.
...
The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. They are the tireless hosts of cocktail and parites and dinners. They are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. This happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. People in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need.
...
Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the people they love. Their situation is as dangerous as the situation of the people in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark.
...
And finally there is a fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers...
There's no particular merit in being nice to one's fellow man... We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotions - love, antipahty, charity, or malice - and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Mandkind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
Another image also comes to mind: Nietzsche leaving his hotel in Turin. Seeing a horse and a coachman beating it with a whip, Nietzsche went up to the horse and, before the coachman's very eyes, put his arms around the horse's neck and burst into tears.
That took place in 1889, when Nietzsche, too, had removed himself from the world of people. In other words, it was at the time when his mental illness had just erupted. But for that very reason I feel his gesture has broad implications: Nietzsche was trying to apologize to the horse for Descartes. His lunacy (that is, his final break with mankind) began at the very moment he burst into tears over the horse.
And that is the Nietzsche I love... I see [him]...stepping down from the road along which mankind, "the master and proprietor of nature", marches onward.
-L
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
So I took this book out on Monday (not on a whim, but close enough), and I thought it was quite intriguing and read it - I finished it just about 1 hr ago. So it was a weeklong experience... approximately 300 pages, and it is the best book I've ever read so far.
Let me elaborate a little: So this book is about, at its surface, a man and a woman an about their relationship and about the man's many infedelities (with one in particular of interest) and of how the woman deals with that - but mostly it's about their lives and their experiences and how their initial views are shaped by these expereinces and about how their paths are shaped by their views, unknown to them at the time... I know that was just a complete pointless ramble but seriously it's what came to mind.
The book is almost a philosophy book, in rank with Rand with a dash of Palahniuk (I would say - mostly because of the subject matter and the way things are described through actions rather than speech - which is mostly rand's preference). I do not have enough of a literary background to make any quality comparisons and to really justify or explain how this work has touched me. Its views on existance, on society, on happiness, on love, on politics, on... almost every facet of life (so aptly illustrated in 300 short pages) is absolutely amazing. Even things I may not agree all of it, it struck a chord. A beautiful masterpiece.
I would like to quote this book - but I can't because I want to quote almost every page, so that would just be very tiresome and the point defeated. So instead I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone (unless you get squeamish about certain subject matter - then you should just go sit in a corner =P). Enjoy.
-L
Let me elaborate a little: So this book is about, at its surface, a man and a woman an about their relationship and about the man's many infedelities (with one in particular of interest) and of how the woman deals with that - but mostly it's about their lives and their experiences and how their initial views are shaped by these expereinces and about how their paths are shaped by their views, unknown to them at the time... I know that was just a complete pointless ramble but seriously it's what came to mind.
The book is almost a philosophy book, in rank with Rand with a dash of Palahniuk (I would say - mostly because of the subject matter and the way things are described through actions rather than speech - which is mostly rand's preference). I do not have enough of a literary background to make any quality comparisons and to really justify or explain how this work has touched me. Its views on existance, on society, on happiness, on love, on politics, on... almost every facet of life (so aptly illustrated in 300 short pages) is absolutely amazing. Even things I may not agree all of it, it struck a chord. A beautiful masterpiece.
I would like to quote this book - but I can't because I want to quote almost every page, so that would just be very tiresome and the point defeated. So instead I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone (unless you get squeamish about certain subject matter - then you should just go sit in a corner =P). Enjoy.
-L
Little Wonders - Rob Thomas
Let it go,
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels
Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain
Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end
Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain
All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But i can not forget
The way i feel right now
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours, still remain,
Still remain
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders still remain
-L
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels
Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain
Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end
Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain
All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But i can not forget
The way i feel right now
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours, still remain,
Still remain
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders still remain
-L
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)