by | Jan 9, 2010 | Uncategorized
I’ve been strucked, badly, by a unique high fever and I feel harrased by it, but all in a good way.
Strangely, my fever is blue, with dark strips, with a bright yellow, gleaming gaze, and bioluminescence all around.
I wish to not get cured from it, for I yearn to feel the sorrow, the tragic and the respite of it all over again, and again, and again.
Why should I get medicine or a cure anyway?
Actually, I like it as it reminds me how lucky I am or some of us are, and that nothing should be taken for granted.
At times like these you think of the higher powers and the environment around you.
At times like these you wonder if others who went through the same thing would have felt the same as you.
At times like these you remind yourself to keep working hard and to never give up, and if you never give up, you’ll never lose.
That’s right, no matter what comes at you, it’s all mere obstacles which you can easily ward off, and with a little help, you’ll even win in the end.
I’m having the Avatar fever.
And I’m glad I’m not alone, as I’ve found a niche community of fans who’ve ‘felt’ an overpowering sense of change within them after watching the movie.
Indeed, to some it’s just a movie, or a story with blue monkeys, but for us it’s more than that.
It’s harrowing to have to detach our subconcious mind from Pandora as soon as Leona Lewis belts belts the end song.
I know that all good things will imminently come to an end.
I’ll just bask in the joy and escapism that it provides, while it lasts, like falling in love, over and over again, except now it’s a fever, Avatar fever.
When was the last time you fell in love?
by | Jan 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
This date is not just my birthday, but also the probable launch of Apple’s much rumoured tablet PC, wait, does apple conforms as a PC these days, especially with its Intel chip?
Nevermind that, and anyway, PCWorld buzzes that on January 26 I will receive hoards of gifts, like a beaver stuff toy, from my legion of fans, which is about 3 people at most the iSlate will be born into this world.
Now I am no Apple fanboy (yeah, all fanboys keep denying they’re not right? But really, I’m not. So…) but I am thrilled at the various images of the iSlate, the name that tech industry insiders (people who are inside the tech industry) have bestowed to the mythical tablet.
Cool.
Cooler.
Slick.
Slicker
Coolest and slickest!
And of course, what would the world be without my vision (Probably the same)?
My version…
Beaver not included.
by | Jan 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
In addition to my previous post, the Fishvatar, I do have a couple of projects currently hanging on the edge off my sleeves, as well as those that have rolled off, fell over after a few mesmerising turns in mid air, and then dropped dead.
MTTBWY.com, one of my tee shirt websites, is now defunct, no thanks to an uninspiredly inspiring year of too many projects, all concurrently in operations and the lack of attention given to it.
Much like a child, when presented with a mountain of sweets, that will attempt to pocket everything that he can within his tiny frame and tiny bags, only to succumb to an unrealised joy that is to never taste the sweets ‘cos he’s just too busy collecting them, sifting them apart and wondering what he can do with them.
Never understimate the usefulness of a plan, a schedule or a timeframe/deadline, and even though I had those in place, I never adhered to them and was always distracted elsewhere.
It’s what happens when one tries to launch off the runway too many projects all at once, and especially when resources are limited.
But it’s good when one’s resources are limited and running low, becuase only then will one realise how to maximise their potential and learn to adapt with whatever one’s got.
Perhaps it’s something I’ll never truly grasp or learn fully, ‘cos I’m off to a couple of new projects already, and I’m running low in my tank so fast, so soon.
Zahelu.com (Make The Bond), my latest obescenely overpowering obsession pet project, my fresh inspirations of Avatar, and perhaps everything about it that the show’s message embodies.
Okay, maybe the description ‘everything about it’ isn’t quite right as it’s still in its infancy stages and its content is still building slowly, but the good news is that it’s building still.
And that’s where i realise my past misapprehension of my projects’ undertakings, where I left my daily operations to chance instead of grabbing them by the balls and running around with them.
So that is why for this one, I’m definitely grabbing it by its balls, if it had any, and HostingDojo.com (Butt-Kicking WordPress Hosting) is probably going to take most of my attention for the new year as I try to give it more exposure and mojo than any of my previous projects.
Know anyone who needs web hosting, domain names registration or is simply unhappy with their blogging platform? *Nudge-Nudge*.
Still everytime something new crops up, I ask myself “Why am I painstakingly doing all these, when I can simply sit back, relax, and simply live from paycheck to paycheck forever?”
I suppose, its the joy of creating new opportunities, exploring unknown territories and maybe just to feel the rush of leading through it all makes me tick from day to day, even if it means to sacrifice my time spent with people that I love and cherish — but these are all hedges for future rainy days.
Ultimately, I guess I’m just plain bored of going through the motion of surviving from paycheck to paycheck, and aiming to build something, where (hopefully) the sooner it takes off, the better.
Will it ever take off? I don’t know, but I’ll work at it.
Here’s a quote that I admire for being purposeful and forceful at the same time, and to anyone who’s been sitting on the fence, contemplating a change(s), then hope this will sway you a little bit.
“When taking shots, you may score and you may miss. But for certain, you will miss every shot that you never take.” — Wayne Gretsky.
I don’t think these were the exact words he used, but you’ll understand it just the same, so good luck for your 2010 endeavours!
by | Jan 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
This is what happens when you’re an FA artist who have too much time at work and you’re obsessed with the movie, Avatar.
This tee is an exclusive and very, very limited edition, where none are printed at all.
And because of that, you should be able to not find it at your nearest good tee shirt store, or for that matter, its not in any store at all.
The Fishvatar. You know you want one. :/
by | Jan 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
Have you read his article where he mentions Liverpool’s Aquilani as a flop, and this after watching just a handful of performances?
A flop would be disected as somethingthat failed badly or is totally ineffectual — so does Aquilani warrants such an insult?
If really he does deserve then certainly I’ll be forgiven for labeling Oliver Holt’s writing credential as a flop too, this after reading a few posts of his, because they failed in their accuracy and are also ineffectual especially in judging a player’s worth.
Am I too harsh on Holt then?
So what about Holt’s judgement of Aquilani, a player whom I value highly, where even though he has yet to cement himself as a key player in the squad, he definitely has a dormant bag of deft touches, glimpses of crafty vision and a definite sense of nimble mobility with his off the ball runs.
One thing for sure, and one which I strongly support, is that Aquilani is not a flop — or at the very least, not yet and not so soon, especially if you compare him against the likes of, say, Lucas.
Sure Aquilani is no Alonso, but it took Alonso a few seasons, where Rafa Benitez even tried trading him off, before he became a key player in the team.
Holt, it’s not that Liverpool is missing Alonso (okay maybe partly) but rather the lacklustre attacks is due to a certain consistently deep lying, backwards-running and shot-shy midfielder, known as Lucas.
What lucas does provide though, instead of an extra depth to Liverpool’s attack, is an extra dearth to Liverpool’s attacking plays.
And Oliver Holt, where just like Lucas, your comments on Aquilani, especially given the pitiful number of games involving the Italian, they pose a sense of inaccuracy, poor technique in execution and dearth in vision.
I’ll give Aquilani till the end of the season, more playing times and resist labelling anything just because there’s an impulse to do so.
And for goodness sake, play fair will ya?
by | Jan 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
Definitely there has got to be more of…
… making websites, selling tee-shirts, printing stickers, taking photographs, updating blogs, hitting the gym, reading more books and dinner-ing with family/friends.
I suppose I could postpone/delay the…
… changing repairing of bike, upgrading of computer, shopping for clothes, buying of soccer boots and getting new wardrobe for the room.
Of course it wouldn’t hurt to experience a lesser amount of…
… lanshop gaming, dvd/tv watching, music making, to not fall ill to my chronic coughing, and to cease with immediate effect my impulse buying sprees.
As for now, I’ll just enjoy my tryst with Avatar (the movie) for as long as I can. Amazingly I still can’t get over it — not complaining though~
by | Jan 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
I am not stunned at all at the result: Singapore 1 – Oman 4.
Seriously, our ‘professional’ footballers are living in a lucid dream of glory after all these years, and to think that a campaign, Goal 2010, was put out years back to enhance our chance of getting a slot at the South Africa 2010 World Cup, it’s embarassing.
Big, fat, dreams.
As sponsors and fan turnouts dried up, so did the dream of watching Singaporeans playing at the world cup finals.
Okay, so we tried and indeed we have to dream big to achieve big things, but sooner or later, you’ll always have to wake up.
Unless FAS or whoever it is that takes the lead in building up the quality of our players and our game by sending a team to recce how the real professionals do it in Europe (it’s gonna be costly of course), and until then Singapore’s football will probably never evolve from it’s current pitiful state of ‘schoolboy soccer’.
‘Schoolboy soccer’ is a state of mentality whereby players aren’t proactive enough to think on their own and instead wait and hope for others to make the difference, while lamenting at their current sorry state or finding glory at their newfound status as a ‘Pro’ player, thinking they’ve made it and then stop developing or improving themselves.
But thankfully there are players that take initiative and seek to improve themselves and their game.
These players try, and try, and try and try, but sometimes along the way, a better opponent comes along and you’ll simply have to concede defeat — but not without trying of course.
So Iran is next on Singapore’s schedule (6th Jan), but they thrashed us convincingly by 6 goals to 1, earlier in the round robin league, so it’s going to be a tough game.
Perhaps there’s still a chance for Singapore to qualify for the Asian games, by holding out for a draw or beating the Iranians on home turf.
Beating them, sounds like a really long shot, and holding out for a draw seems achievable, by our standards (and thankfully the wet weather too).
But seriously, I really don’t mind if we end up losing the game, just as long as we don’t lose it by playing with 10 men setting up camp and bonfires in the penalty box.
Now that’s just wrong.
by | Jan 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
A certain Jeet Singh walked into the office at what would have seemed to be the right time, as the colleagues are all away in Ipoh for a wedding.
I was serving another customer but this ragged man, with overgrown grey beard and curly grey hair patiently waited for me, before he showed me his extended namecard, which was the size of a regular wallet and it was actually a laminated piece of paper.
He wore a smart looking, pressed shirt and light grey pants, and sort of walked and talked funny.
He mentioned that he was from Bombay and said that he’s a fortune teller, when I asked if he was looking for anything to print.
Naturally, like anyone who’s trying to watch the Avatar movie in the office (when customers are gone) would have, I would have chased politely ushered him to the nearest MRT station but something he said made me ponder.
“You have good face. Lucky face.You work good, you like. But your heart not here.” — I had to take a second, third and fourth look at this fella.
The words he used were cliche, and were like copywriting 101, where any good copywriter will use them weapons against you.
It’s that effective, so I listened further to this fella.
Okay firstly, I believe in luck, but fortune telling, to me, is more entertainment/gimmick than a blueprint to live your life.
But it’s boring in the office, and this was something different anyway.
So we took a seat, and he started to do his thing, like writing stuffs on a piece of paper, which we later tore up, and him writing the usual stuffs here and there.
I would not be so freaked out if not for something that occured at the end of his ‘show’, but in the beginning everything flowed naturally.
For starters, he told me to write a few things on a small piece of paper and he wrote something on another smaller piece of paper.
At this point, we didn’t see what both of us were writing, after which we folded our papers, twice, and exchanged them, where he beckoned me to keep his folded paper in my pocket, while he shredded my piece of paper right in front of me.
It was now in really small unrecognisable pieces, and before I could check if it was really mine (in full suspicions of how these gimmicks usually use proxy for maximum effects) he passed it back to me and told me to put to one side.
So we went back and forth and gradually he revealed bits and pieces of my information, that were written on my small piece of paper, like my date of birth, a girl’s name (heh), and some other numbers, and it wouldn’t have bothered me if not for the fact that everything he mentioned was the stuffs that I wrote on the piece of paper.
Lucky? Maybe, but definitely sneaky. (Did I mention that when I passed him my folded piece of paper he tore it up instantly?)
Just wow. Freaky Saturday afternoon indeed, and up to this point, I was already entertained and even if I wasn’t an advocate of fortune telling, his predictions were catching up on me.
The crescendo of his performance has yet to come. He saved the best for last.
Remember at the start the piece of paper that he wrote, and then passed to me, which I kept in my pocket?
Okay, towards the end of the ‘show’, he told me to pick 4 numbers from one to nine, and pick a colour.
So I RANDOMLY plucked the numbers and the colour and he asked me if these numbers had any relation to anything, but I insisted that they were totally random.
I thought I’d just given this guy a hard time, and he finally couldn’t ‘decode’ my mind, but I was wrong.
Yep, if you can’t guess by now, those very numbers, that very colour which I RANDOMLY picked off my mind towards the end (after a good 10 mins or so), was actually written in his piece of paper at the very start, and all the way they were in my pocket!!!
Wahhhhhhhhhhh!
Talk about freakyness! No better way to be entertained on a Saturday afternoon than having a Bombay fortune teller predict your fortune eh?
Anyway, even if I didn’t believe in mind-reading predictions, at least his last few words felt consolatory, as he recapped on the stuffs that we went through.
“Remember 20 April, Your love Good. Jan 2010. You lucky.You live long. 79 years. Good life. You die natural. You die at home. Good life. Rich life, but not money rich. Bad luck go. Good luck come.”
Then he gave me a tiny yellowy-amber stone and said, “Your lucky stone.”
He then wrote 50 / 70 / 90 and asked me to pick one. When I picked one he told me that I can pay him that amount.
What a sly fella. Good entertainment but asking for $50 as the least amount to pay for something that was never even agreed upon the start.
I had only $27 with me then, and he’s asking for $50?
Then I gave him $20 and a keychain, and he left.
Funny, he couldn’t see that coming eh?
by | Jan 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
That 2009 zipped past by just like that is way too fast and much too scary. I can’t even fathom how 2010 will follow suit.
First of, THANK YOU to Dils and her sister, Ra’edah (or wassit Radi’ah??? Gee, I’m bad with names…) for the unexpected ticket to Polyphemus’ moon, Pandora. Yep, it was Pandoramonium all over again, and in 3D, I like!
Anyway I think she’s a fangirl already. I’m sure she’ll be hopping down to the nearest pet store, and check to see if there’s any blue skinned, hairless bipedal cat for sale. Or maybe she’ll give the pets adoption centre a visit, who knows~
You’ll know where I stand on the movie, Avatar, and like the first time that I experienced it, it’s third viewing felt just as fresh, and just as captivating — except that there was this particular low-key mood scene where when a Bollywood ringtone filled the intent air.
I’m pretty sure that it was fated and meant to be that way, that a Bollywood ringtone would ring, not once, but twice so that us (movie-goers) are tempted to get another round of tickets, for another viewing of the movie. Uber sneaky ploy by FOX and James Cameron indeed.
Also don’t even get me started about the kid, sitting in front of me, who had to wave his hands about at the start of the show, his witty quips and questions during certain moments of the movie, or when he stood up restlessly blocking my uber excellent view of the screen, before he headed off to the loo and back.
Still, thanks to all the interuptions, I think I had a memorable (thanks to Dils), and technically speaking, movie experience ever and the only one that spanned 2 years. I went into the theatre in 2009, and voila, I came out of it in 2010. What a moviethon~
Oh hello 2010~
Apart from giving accountants headaches, I’m pretty sure that be it 2010 or 2009, they are just numbers. Figures that cause us to live our life around them, like planning schedules, setting targets and of course, coming up with resolutions.
And I thought resolutions are things that come at the end of it all when everything is ok? That’s why they’re called resolutions right?
I can’t recall my 2009 resolutions, and I’m starting to wonder if I had any at all. For 2010, I’m not gonna bind myself to any, nor will I be taking it too hard if I realise slowlt that none of my 2009 resolutions never came to fruition.
But I’ll set targets for 2010. Oh yes, what will we ever aim for if we don’t put up our targets, or specifically ‘Life Targets’ eh?
No, I’m not talking about shooting down the person you hate (bad, this is very bad only.) or taking revenge at that incessantly obnoxious cubicle occupant next to you, but more of an intangible target of sorts that benefits you and the people around you.
Forget targets like having a new 17inch Macbook Pro, or a Sony Alpha 330 DSLR Camera, or a Samsung colour laser printer.
‘Life Targets’, IMHO, could be something like spending more time with the family, giving tuition to your sisters, taking your dad and ma out for dinner or simply to start or do something eventful or something that propels your life forward, into places you’ve never known before.
Like getting married — but that’s probably the last thing on my mind right now, why get tied down when there’s so many things you can do when you’re young?
Now these are targets that reward you differently than, say a new car, but for certain, the satisfaction that ensues is far-reaching and spiritually releasing. Cars, you return them to the government at the end of a decade. Gadgets, they become obsolete in a few years and money, they get used up eventually.
But memories, relationships, and family, well they’re everlasting, right? These are the things that are worth fighting for in life.
We all need that single, myopic epic reason to fight for and I suppose that now 2010 is here, it’s about time I realise my place, my position, and my enemies in this battlefield, and to win your war, you’ll need to understand your enemy.
Thanks to Avatar’s exposure and underlying story, perhaps my resolutions (and hopefully others’) will meander towards the less materialistic approach and more of a holistic one.
For certain, I’d like to spend more time at home and less time slavering away in the office. Perhaps a home office sounds like a good life target eh?
Happy New Year Internet!!!
by | Dec 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’d like to think of Avatar as a necessary love story which goes beyond the skin, but it is not your typical love story. Hell is not even your typical war or sci-fi movie. I implore you to watch this with an empty cup (enough with the cup analogies already!) and you’ll be able to ‘fill’ much more than if you had weighted in preconceptions of the story as you walked into the theatre. Dances with what? Terminawhat? Matrixwhat? Pocahonwhat? Forget everything you’ve ever seen, because this is nothing like what you’ve ever seen — indeed it is nothin like what I’ve ever seen.
If you’re looking for an Avatar movie walkthrough, this is not it. What it is though are my thoughts, my opinions, my interpretations or ‘Zahelu’ with Avatar. ‘Zahelu’, based on the movie, is Na’vi speak for connection or the bond that a Na’vi has with Pandora’s living, breathing beings. A Na’vi is the local alien/people of Pandora, one of the moons revolving around a giant planet about 6 light years away from earth. And I’m assuming that the spaceship our hero travelled on was moving at light speed, since we’re in the 22nd century already, or the year 2154 to be exact.
It seems that 2012 didn’t kill off our planet eh? Anyway…
A word of warning: Go to the toilet, then come back, switch off your handphones and lock your room. Don’t let anything distract you, as you indulge in this —-horrensdously and astoundingly yet unnecessarily—- long and eloquent movie review. Long only because it evoked a host of emotions, not just from me, but from the man who was watching in front of me, the lady sitting beside me, and for that matter the occupants of the theatre, where we witnessed a story like never before. No, sorry. The word ‘story’ didn’t felt quite right, as when compared to… an experience.
Indeed, Avatar is an experience, not just a story — so to all the ‘negative reviewers’ who nitpicked on the story as their main discontent before giving it a 2 out of 5 stars (Yeah just 2 stars. Pfft. What about the visuals? The score? The romance? The sorrow? The intricately choreographed battle sequences? You know~). Well they’re probably half right. Maybe there’s no story, because it has evolved into a rewarding and rich experience of visuals and emotions. It’s like sex, except you’re fully clothed and in a movie theatre with hundreds others, but before I digress, back to the movie review…
Watching Avatar is an experience that floats benignly as it steadily reels you into its immersive 3D world. No doubt it’s a world that’s all made in the computer labs of New Zealand based Weta Digital (and also ILM too), and directed in the manifestation of James Cameron’s vision, but take nothing away from the realness, the lushness and the vigour of the visual orgy. This may just be the catalyst for directors and producers to begin 3D Camwhoring, I suppose, and about time too. The technology isn’t really ground-breaking, it’s been around for a long while, but needed a stimulus, and thanks to Avatar’s exploits, I suspect that it’ll be the norm these days. No longer do we need to secretly bring along our kids as an excuse to get into iMax theatres just to feel the rush of the leaves rustling in our face, catch the waves splashing carelessly or feel the image crashing down upon our seats.
The best part about Avatar’s visuals and storyline (yes yes yes, okay there is a storyline. Bite me.) is that it gently ambles along with you, instead of the shock and awe tactics employed by most CGI heavy films of recent years, where they throw everything into the first 20minutes just to impress you and then you’re left wanting as the rest of the effect either didn’t matched its entree. Thankfully, Avatar deviated from that and instead it eases you bit by bit, hooking you deeper and deeper and then unknowingly you’re begging for more.
Firstly and subtly entering the clouds, revealing a little bit of the world, then the pacing up across the purple dirt and luminous green, blue and purple plants, before teasing you within the canopies and branches of Pandora. Along the way it smacks your mind numb with the visually playful plants and critters, awesomely rolling mountains and sea, and perilously provocative animals and landscape. The first viewing of the inviting floating mountains and its evaporating waterfalls with vibrant giant grasses bowing in the misty wind, I’m sure that most of us were left gaping in awe (I know I did) while we marvelled at the very spectacle laid nonchalantly in front of our eyes. In the words of Trudy (one of the good guys in this story and the Pilot for Dr Grace’s team) “you should have seen your faces” would succinctly describe it. This is truly what 3D was made for.
The trees’ bark looked like it’ll obligingly give you splinters and broken bones if you dared climb them. The glowing flowers and luminescant vines and forest floor keeps you company where night falls, along with the exquisitely designed creatures of the forest, both big and small, everything is delicately and intricately detailed. Every little detail is crafted to perform in sync. heightening your sense of the world. You wonder if this is really made up or a secret, guarded location that lies somewhere between New Zealand and Hawaii.
The walking, breathing creatures definitely impresses, like the giant cats and their giant cubs and the spiralling ‘glowfly-lizard’. And then tehre is the Toruk (Na’vi calls them Toruk, which means Last Shadow), probably the biggest Banshee (dragon+lizard+bird???) in the sky. Banshees have tight, glossy skin-like textures that is so supreme, that it’ll put the Pradas’ and the Coaches’ leather based products to cower from their shelves in shame. Their eyes glint and dart about, just as lively as the eyes of the indigenous Na’vi people, and like Jake’s Avatar too.
An Avatar, is an alien body that’s remotely controlled via the concious minds of a driver (Jake Sully’s mind), but they look just like the Na’vi race. These blue, athletic, elongated bodies of the Navi poeple with cat-like facial features live harmoniously and appreciatively with everything else (except with the aliens of their land, known as skypeople or should I say humans?). I won’t go deep into the plot, as there are plenty of spoilers already but I acknowledge that I simply can’t remember the last time that CG expressions felt this real and this evoking. Sure there were a couple of scense when the eyes’ expressions appeared jaded, but for most part of the movie, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re real life actors, which you’re seeing falling in love, getting torn apart before reverting back to the gravity of romance. The love story that develops between Jake and Neytiri is compelling, heartfelt, tragic, triumphant and most importantly of all, it felt real.
Motion capture may blur and bring about deliberations about what defines acting and actors, but to watch a show like Avatar, you’re not there to witness an Oscar winning performance for best actor/actresses, and we leave that for certain reviewers who feel such requirements should be instilled within every movie made, for it to be considered a good movie. Oh these skxwangs. Avatar is not even close to being a good movie. It’s a great movie. It’s an epic experience. Gunfires and explosions, checked. Betrayal and zealotry, checked. Romance and sadness, checked. Stunning photorealistic landscape and a cool, hip new alien language that you can actually learn, checked. Characters and dialogues serves their purpose that is to allow the movie to progress and they’re not at all bad. Some may consider it cliche and trite, but how else would one say it in a movie that’s grand and epic? I sure wouldn’t want to hear any of them speak street, or would you?
Appropriately, a strong, firm-yet-heavy voice narrates (supposedly of Jake’s in his final video log for this project) and carry us deeper into the story as well as getting us connected with the Na’vi people’s religion and their ‘zahelu’ (connection/bond) with Eywa. There is a sense of purity, contentment and boundless love that the Na’vi people have for their land. Who needs beastly walking machines, or expensive lab stuffs when bows and arrows suffice? There are clans and tribes among the Na’vi people and the Omaticaya clan just happened to be sitting, sleeping and playing atop the mining corporations’ biggest spoil of Unobtainium. Yep, let’s not go there, Unobtanium, heh.
There’s definitely a distinct alien culture instilled within the 3D space of the silver screen and James Cameron have done enough convincing that Pandora is a living, breathing world. If you’re still not yet convinced as we approach the climax of the movie, the unbelievably beautifully choreographed battle scenes, and you did not felt anything when the Na’vi people’s loss accumulated to the point of hopelessness and utmost desperation, then I suppose this movie is certainly not for you. Make no mistake, this is a movie that’s the master of all Jacks of all trades. Yeah, woah.
Though my first gripe, as the movie ended, is that there could have been more scenes to satisfy my lust for the Na’vi culture, but ultimately there’s enough to fulfil and satisfy for the experience, and thankfully an acceptable reel time to sit through. Though the movie is a whopping 2.5 hours of unorthodox bladder control, it certainly never felt long. Like the raindrops bouncing off the leaves, weariness bounced off as well. Pandora managed to immerse itself completely and is sensory and emotively overpowering.
Indeed I couldn’t recall any scenes that were particularly draggy or lines that didn’t deserve to be said. Every new moment, every new location and every piece of action is refreshing and in turns leads us to the next chapter. Where cause and consequences happen logically (in the context of this movie), it makes it all the more believable. Respite and breathing rooms for the mind to ease off the continuous action scenes are decently enough, as the pace slows down a notch for us to soak in all the experience, allowing us to contemplate what comes next, but only before it bursts forward into a gear, higher than before.
The battle scene, it’s just.. wow. I’ll save you the adrenalin rush, and instead implore you to experience it for yourself, and if there’s one battle scene moment where my empathy peaked, it was when Neytiri courted death with her bow and arrow, against men and machines, and at that point in time, just as Jake desperately begged her to retreat (which she didn’t, like would you if someone comes into your home and destroyed everything that you’ve ever loved?), my subconscious mind was crying for her to stand down too. But in the end… well… I think I better not divulge any further. Cue invitation for this one heck of an experience. Arguably the best CGI battle scene I’ve ever been through.
As I summarise my take on Avatar, there’s one thing that I am sure of, and that which is regardless of what kind of review you’re reading, you are so going to watch it for yourselves anyway. I hesitate to give Avatar an overly biased rating, simply because it’s still lingering flawlessly perfect in my head. There’s plenty of ratings out there but ratings only say so much, and you’ve really got to see it for yourself. Experience it to believe it, and whatever your belief may be, and as mentioned earlier, empty your mind and preconceptions and get ready for one hell-of-a pompous, oppulent, succulent, incredible and ‘extremely-rich-experience-like-never-before’ ride.
And if Avatar doesn’t snag the best picture at the upcoming Oscars, then a sci-fi, effects laden film will probably never will. Oh, just perhaps an Avatar 2 might… just might.
I’d like to think of Avatar as a necessary love story
It goes beyond the skin and soul, but it is not your typical love story. Hell it’s not even your typical war or sci-fi movie. I implore you to watch this with an empty cup (enough with the cup analogies already!) and you’ll be able to ‘fill’ much more than if you had weighted in preconceptions of the story as you walked into the theatre. Dances with what? Terminawhat? Matrixwhat? Pocahonwhat? Forget everything you’ve ever seen, because this is nothing like what you’ve ever seen — indeed it is nothin like what I’ve ever seen.
If you’re looking for an Avatar movie walkthrough, this is not it.
What it is though are my thoughts, my opinions, my interpretations or ‘Zahelu’ with Avatar. ‘Zahelu’, based on the movie, is Na’vi speak for connection or the bond that a Na’vi has with Pandora’s living, breathing beings. A Na’vi is the local alien/people of Pandora, one of the moons revolving around a giant planet about 6 light years away from earth. And I’m assuming that the spaceship our hero travelled on was moving at light speed, since we’re in the 22nd century already, or the year 2154 to be exact.
It seems that 2012 didn’t kill off our planet eh? Anyway…
A word of warning: Go to the toilet, then come back, switch off your handphones and lock your room. Don’t let anything distract you, as you indulge in this horrensdously and astoundingly yet unnecessarily long and eloquent movie review. Long only because it evoked a host of emotions, not just from me, but from the man who was watching in front of me, the lady sitting beside me, and for that matter the occupants of the theatre, where we witnessed a story like never before. No, sorry. The word ‘story’ didn’t felt quite right, as when compared to… an experience.
Indeed, Avatar is an experience, not just a story — so to all the ‘negative reviewers’ who nitpicked on the story as their main discontent before giving it a 2 out of 5 stars (Yeah just 2 stars. Pfft. What about the visuals? The score? The romance? The sorrow? The intricately choreographed battle sequences? You know~). Well they’re probably half right. Maybe there’s no story, because it has evolved into a rewarding and rich experience of visuals and emotions. It’s like sex, except you’re fully clothed and in a movie theatre with hundreds others, but before I digress, back to the movie review…
Watching Avatar is an experience that floats benignly as it steadily reels you into its immersive 3D world.
No doubt it’s a world that’s all made in the computer labs of New Zealand based Weta Digital (and also ILM too), and directed in the manifestation of James Cameron’s vision, but take nothing away from the realness, the lushness and the vigour of the visual orgy. This may just be the catalyst for directors and producers to begin 3D Camwhoring, I suppose, and about time too. The technology isn’t really ground-breaking, it’s been around for a long while, but needed a stimulus, and thanks to Avatar’s exploits, I suspect that it’ll be the norm these days. No longer do we need to secretly bring along our kids as an excuse to get into iMax theatres just to feel the rush of the leaves rustling in our face, catch the waves splashing carelessly or feel the image crashing down upon our seats.
The best part about Avatar’s visuals and storyline (yes yes yes, okay there is a storyline. Bite me.) is that it gently ambles along with you, instead of the shock and awe tactics employed by most CGI heavy films of recent years, where they throw everything into the first 20minutes just to impress you and then you’re left wanting as the rest of the effect either didn’t matched its entree. Thankfully, Avatar deviated from that and instead it eases you bit by bit, hooking you deeper and deeper and then unknowingly you’re begging for more.
Firstly and subtly entering the clouds, revealing a little bit of the world.
Then the pace picks up across the purple dirt and luminous green, blue and purple plants, before teasing you within the canopies and branches of Pandora. Along the way it smacks your mind numb with the visually playful plants and critters, awesomely rolling mountains and sea, and perilously provocative animals and landscape. The first viewing of the inviting floating mountains and its evaporating waterfalls with vibrant giant grasses bowing in the misty wind, I’m sure that most of us were left gaping in awe (I know I did) while we marvelled at the very spectacle laid nonchalantly in front of our eyes. In the words of Trudy (one of the good guys in this story and the Pilot for Dr Grace’s team) “you should have seen your faces” would succinctly describe it. This is truly what 3D was made for.
The trees’ bark looked like it’ll obligingly give you splinters and broken bones if you dared climb them. The glowing flowers and luminescant vines and forest floor keeps you company where night falls, along with the exquisitely designed creatures of the forest, both big and small, everything is delicately and intricately detailed. Every little detail is crafted to perform in sync. heightening your sense of the world. You wonder if this is really made up or a secret, guarded location that lies somewhere between New Zealand and Hawaii.
The walking, breathing creatures definitely impresses, like the giant cats and their giant cubs and the spiralling ‘glowfly-lizard’. And then tehre is the Toruk (Na’vi calls them Toruk, which means Last Shadow), probably the biggest Banshee (dragon+lizard+bird???) in the sky. Banshees have tight, glossy skin-like textures that is so supreme, that it’ll put the Pradas’ and the Coaches’ leather based products to cower from their shelves in shame. Their eyes glint and dart about, just as lively as the eyes of the indigenous Na’vi people, and like Jake’s Avatar too.
An Avatar, is an alien body that’s remotely controlled via the concious minds of a driver.
They are grown from DNAs of the Na’vi people, mixed with human’s. These blue, athletic, elongated bodies of the Navi poeple with cat-like facial features live harmoniously and appreciatively with everything else (except with the aliens of their land, known as skypeople or should I say humans?). I won’t go deep into the plot, as there are plenty of spoilers already but I acknowledge that I simply can’t remember the last time that CG expressions felt this real and this evoking. Sure there were a couple of scense when the eyes’ expressions appeared jaded, but for most part of the movie, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re real life actors, which you’re seeing falling in love, getting torn apart before reverting back to the gravity of romance. The love story that develops between Jake and Neytiri is compelling, heartfelt, tragic, triumphant and most importantly of all, it felt real.
Motion capture may blur and bring about deliberations about what defines acting and actors, but to watch a show like Avatar, you’re not there to witness an Oscar winning performance for best actor/actresses, and we leave that for certain reviewers who feel such requirements should be instilled within every movie made, for it to be considered a good movie. Oh these skxwangs. Avatar is not even close to being a good movie. It’s a great movie. It’s an epic experience. Gunfires and explosions, checked. Betrayal and zealotry, checked. Romance and sadness, checked. Stunning photorealistic landscape and a cool, hip new alien language that you can actually learn, checked. Characters and dialogues serves their purpose that is to allow the movie to progress and they’re not at all bad. Some may consider it cliche and trite, but how else would one say it in a movie that’s grand and epic? I sure wouldn’t want to hear any of them speak street, or would you?
The connection, that is the Hometree.
Appropriately, a strong, firm-yet-heavy voice narrates (supposedly of Jake’s in his final video log for this project) and carry us deeper into the story as well as getting us connected with the Na’vi people’s religion and their ‘zahelu’ (connection/bond) with Eywa. There is a sense of purity, contentment and boundless love that the Na’vi people have for their land. Who needs beastly walking machines, or expensive lab stuffs when bows and arrows suffice? There are clans and tribes among the Na’vi people and the Omaticaya clan just happened to be sitting, sleeping and playing atop the mining corporations’ biggest spoil of Unobtainium. Yep, let’s not go there, Unobtanium, heh.
There’s definitely a distinct alien culture instilled within the 3D space of the silver screen and James Cameron have done enough convincing that Pandora is a living, breathing world. If you’re still not yet convinced as we approach the climax of the movie, the unbelievably beautifully choreographed battle scenes, and you did not felt anything when the Na’vi people’s loss accumulated to the point of hopelessness and utmost desperation, then I suppose this movie is certainly not for you. Make no mistake, this is a movie that’s the master of all Jacks of all trades. Yeah, woah.
Men in mechs yet again?
Though my first gripe, as the movie ended, is that there could have been more scenes to satisfy my lust for the Na’vi culture, but ultimately there’s enough to fulfil and satisfy for the experience, and thankfully an acceptable reel time to sit through. Though the movie is a whopping 2.5 hours of unorthodox bladder control, it certainly never felt long. Like the raindrops bouncing off the leaves, weariness bounced off as well. Pandora managed to immerse itself completely and is sensory and emotively overpowering.
Indeed I couldn’t recall any scenes that were particularly draggy or lines that didn’t deserve to be said. Every new moment, every new location and every piece of action is refreshing and in turns leads us to the next chapter. Where cause and consequences happen logically (in the context of this movie), it makes it all the more believable. Respite and breathing rooms for the mind to ease off the continuous action scenes are decently enough, as the pace slows down a notch for us to soak in all the experience, allowing us to contemplate what comes next, but only before it bursts forward into a gear, higher than before.
The battle scene is gripping, intense and might even hurt you.
The battle scene, it’s just.. wow. I’ll save you the adrenalin rush, and instead implore you to experience it for yourself, and if there’s one battle scene moment where my empathy peaked, it was when Neytiri courted death with her bow and arrow, against men and machines, and at that point in time, just as Jake desperately begged her to retreat (which she didn’t, like would you if someone comes into your home and destroyed everything that you’ve ever loved?), my subconscious mind was crying for her to stand down too. But in the end… well… I think I better not divulge any further. Cue invitation for this one heck of an experience. Arguably the best CGI battle scene I’ve ever been through.
Really, I could go on forever on its details and every aspect of the movie, and I’m sure I’ve left a few stones untouched (like Colonel Miles, Pilot Trudy, Scientist Norm, the Chief, his wife and so on) but that’s where other reviewers will do their vocation justice. They get paid to do it, I don’t. so here’s my review, bon apetite.
As I summarise my take on Avatar, there’s one thing that I am sure of, and that which is regardless of what kind of review you’re reading, you are so going to watch it for yourselves anyway. I hesitate to give Avatar an overly biased rating, simply because it’s still lingering flawlessly perfect in my head. You’ve really got to experience it for yourself to judge it, and whatever your belief may be, and as mentioned earlier, empty your mind and preconceptions and get ready for one hell-of-a pompous, oppulent, succulent, incredible and ‘extremely-rich-experience-like-never-before’ ride. And I bet you’ll never look back.
I see you; Ohe menari negeng.
And if Avatar doesn’t snag the best picture at the upcoming Oscars, then a sci-fi, effects laden film will probably never will. Oh, just perhaps an Avatar 2 might… just might.
Wow what a review. I’ve never reviewed anything like this before, but this is a movie not like anything I’ve ever watched experienced before. Anyway, thanks to the internet, these pictures became possible. Credits to whomever these pictures belong to. Sorry, I forgot your names, but thanks!
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