Avatar

Rarely does a movie exceed my expectations. Believe it or not, Transformers (first one) did that and so does Avatar. I first read about it 3 years ago and does time fly. So after my first (3D) viewing, I can safely say that this is yet another special one. Special as in no movie will ever come close to this, not for another 3 years or so. Avatar is a movie that stands alone on its visual innovation and strength.

What makes it so special? Not the plot, hardly. If you are looking for sophistication in terms of storytelling and other technical innovations, then Citizen Kane threw down a gauntlet few have ever successfully picked up. Avatar is a mish-mash of various themes, from Pocahantas to Call Me Joe. Cameron stands on a lot of people here.

And so perhaps what will leave a lot of people in wonder will be the delicately detailed scenes of the Pandoran wilderness. Cameron draws from his underwater experience here and delivers visuals that are, well, truly special. The "3D" does not add or subtract to the experience (I still have serious reservations to this medium), so I don't think the 2D viewers will miss anything.

It's a novel experience, and that's truly a hard to find thing in this age of sequels and reboots. But what's more exciting is that Avatar, if not a benchmark, should be at the very least a driving force for others to do better. I'll be holding my breath.

Draft: 7

All stories are first conceived in the head, then put to paper (with exceptions) then onto whatever medium it is intended for.

This raises an interesting question - do stories get better once they leave the confines of the page (some never do)? Do they get worse (i.e. adaptation decay)?

We can all agree that some stories are best told visually and others better left in print (or perhaps, in the hands of a better screenwriter). I am personally inclined to a visual medium, but to be frank some stories (though not all) I intend to write would prove to be somewhat difficult to put to film.

I'll have to stick with my pen and PC for the time being. Although I am still thinking as to whether the story is important, or the way it is presented. It may very well be both,. Even so, one still has to start with the all important first step - writing that darn tale down.

This will be first challenge. I suppose I'll worry about later, later.

Army of Shadows

Interrogation.

It's been a while since I reviewed a movie proper. So naturally, I decided to jump straight into the good stuff.

Pierre-Melville's Army of Shadows is no boring art-film, despite the long drawn out scenes, gloomy tinting and monologue meditations. This film relies instead on pointing out the ironies and inconsistencies of its human characters, not to mention the numerous (and masterfully tense) sequences of escape, rescues and executions. It isn't entertaining at all - but it is most certainly engaging.

Army of Shadows depicts the French Resistance in 1940's occupied France in its most unromantic form (indeed, as in that period there were more French fighting for Germany than against).

There is a scene where a resistance leader (in London) watches Londoners dance in a night-club during while being bombed at night. His bewilderment at the whole scene is palpable and in stark contrast with the mood when in France. The whole movie is depressing and ends on a less than joyful note. Did they make any difference at all to the war? One wonders.

A note about the movie- it does not depict any battles against the German per se (that is left in the background) and instead focuses on the sequences mentioned above. Filmed in 1969, it hasn't gained much recognition until recently (recently as of 2006 when it was re-released).

Draft: 6

To write romance: Necessary to have been in love.

To write crime: Not really necessary to have committed it.

To write horror: Remember your nightmares well.

To write mystery: See here. A bow for you if you can add on to that.

To write fantasy: See below.

To write science-fiction: See above.

One Year With Light

It was a busy first half and now towards the end of '09 I am practically doing nothing, once again.

Games last only so long. I suppose I ought to look for another job. College is part time. Which leaves a little too much time for everything else, except if I were to work. Then I would have too little time for study. An odd dilemma, one some people might say could be solved with better time management, but time can hardly be managed (oh if only), only what one does.

So then, I am challenged to make full use of the remaining months. My own personal goals are far from being fulfilled - and let's not get started with others' expectations of me - so I suppose I got to get busy soon. Or at least, look busy.

White Collar

It's been over half a year since I entered the corporate world complete with politics, deadlines and late nights. Frankly, I'm not impressed. But that does not mean I take the employees in my company (who - most of them aware of this irony - sell products most of them can never afford) to be sad people.

Exactly the opposite. They are far far braver than me - I am positively inadequate before them. Most of them enjoy their job. It is, after all, hardly the worst company to end up in.

With one qualification: if you have bigger dreams (as I do), not even a Forbes 100 will satisfy you nor bring you anywhere close. And that is why I will be leaving unsatisfied.

Battle for Terra

Terra is a sci-fi epic in draft. Steamrolled a few months back under the weight of Wolverine et. al, its running time, execution and even script does not do the story underlying it justice.

Visuals are somewhere upon the spectrum of spectacular to so-so, but the dialogue and pacing I must single out for making Lucas look like a playwright.

Now, if only there was enough money and a decent execution to turn it into the live-action CGI epic it was intended to be. Oh wait, that's Avatar* (which this movie shares many themes with).

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*No, I am not obsessed about Avatar. It's just a big, massive, expensive 3D CGI epic by James Cameron, is all.

Minimal

There is not a lot to write as all my words are being directed to assignments and thoughts in my head.

Deadlines loom again and I sigh.

Avatar.

So yes, three years curiously following the movie. Hearing directors from Steven Spielberg to Ridley Scott saying that this is something revolutionary.

The trailer, to say the least, will be a letdown if you're expecting something amazing. Great expectations, I suppose are rarely met.


The big downer will be the looks of the aliens. Hardly impressive, very unnatural. But then they are aliens and the mind thinks as much. The unfortunate uncanny valley.

Anyway, looking forward to it in 3D. Can't be worse than Transformers 2, can it?

P.S. Seems like most of those who went for Avatar Day (i.e. the worldwide brief preview of Avatar) say that it's the 3D that changes the whole game. Indeed, one notices the mixed reviews for the teaser trailer  vs. the almost universal acclaim for the footage shown on Avatar Day.

I guess one can't judge the film by the trailer. Not that I usually do that. Heh.

Self-Study (Note No. 112)

Looking at MIT's Open Course Ware is a great way at formulating your own self-study curriculum, except that once you have everything in place, you have no idea where to begin.

Listening to one of their classes, you realize that fancy universities have noisy students (the lecturer constantly has to shush the students). And I thought my college wasn't exemplary when it came to talking in class. As someone remarked, it's a universal thing, talking in class.

I realize I read too widely, and I think it's a bad habit .But it is difficult to trim down my subjects of focus. I have over a thousand (digital) books in my library and need to sort them out.

Initial areas of interest: Philosophy, History, Theology- None of which I have a passion in (I no longer have a passion for anything). I only have likes and dislikes, with my most liked being ostensibly the things I would first like to do.

The Hurt Locker

The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug...

The Hurt Locker opens with this framing quote by Chris Hedges (you can find it in an interesting article he wrote here). Framing indeed, because if it was omitted you would have seen this movie in a different light. You would have seen it as just another above average war movie- decent, well-acted but alas forgettable. Such is the power of the opening quote.

What is interesting is what the full paragraph has to say:

"I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years. It is peddled by myth makers -historians, war correspondents, filmmakers novelists and the state - all of whom endow it with qualities it often does possess: excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above our small stations in life, and a bizarre and fantastic universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty. It dominates culture, distorts memory, corrupts language and infects everything around it, even humor, which becomes preoccupied with the grim perversities of smut and death. Fundamental questions about the meaning, or meaninglessness, of our place on the planet are laid bare when we watch those around us sink to the lowest depths. War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks just below the surface within all of us." (Emphasis Added)

Fortunately I have never shared Mr. Hedges experiences, so I cannot comment on this movie's accuracy in approximating actual combat. A few seem to say it does.

As for me, I am impressed by the filmmakers' great pains in depicting simulating Iraq (and I must say, I had to wonder how they were able to film in so gritty and honest locations and conjure up such spine tingling suspense). Of course, the old adage that TV is life without the boring bits stills holds true here.

So does war possess all the attributes Hedges lists above? Excitement, exoticism, a bizarre and fantastic universe? The Hurt Locker says yes. So what can we say about war? War is unreal, war is hell and now, war is a drug. War is many things then, and eventually as the "myth makers" begin to run out of ideas, war becomes anything. That's a scary thought.

District 9

Here's an eviction notice. Not that you'll understand what it is.

One half unsubtle social commentary and another half shoot-em-up, District 9 is fresh but not wholly original. The two halves don't fully mesh together, which would've made for a brilliant movie. Instead we have a National-Geographic/News-ish shaky cam setup (Cloverfield haters might not enjoy the first two-thirds of the movie) which then (devolves?) launches into full guns and blasters and you realize that they put the leftovers props from Halo to good use.

It's good and entertaining and while it becomes frenetic, it never launches into a full-on assault of your senses. Along with Star Trek, the two halfway solid movies of the summer, both happen to be sci-fi. And if Avatar delivers even half of what it's promising, all bets are off as to whether we are going to see another glut of science fiction coming our way (akin to the epic/fantasy binge we saw after LotR).

Not that I'm complaining.

Little Steps

My cat has a routine that is almost impeccable. From morning to evenings she lays on a box near my bed, hidden by a curtain. From the evening to night, she is in my brother's room lingering. I would not know what she would be up to till the dawn, but she's always busy, so I'm assuming as much.

We rarely look out at the night sky because there's nothing to see. Unless its rocks burning up in our atmosphere, then everyone goes out only to find the sky is overcast. In the city the lights drowned out everything. Even here, where stars blossom, I rarely look up. Force of habit, I suppose.

I rarely talk about work because there's hardly anything to say. It's work, in front of a computer screen - oh how dull has the computer made work. Even the car mechanics look at the computer now, because cars have become like computers. Most of the books I read are from a single grayscale screen. Convenient. I miss paper, but then I am rarely sentimental over such things. Things are things, plastic or metal or paper. One would think as much.

Movies and books are getting more boring. I have been watching a lot of movies and reading a lot of books. Have I been learning? Yes. Will one eventually run out of things to learn? Some would I say no. All things come to an end, but I am just too young to understand that, right?

So we take little steps going as slow as we grow and in a few years we realize we have gone so far and the road is going to end and you begin to wonder and regret the things that you had missed and the things that you had done. Would I have done things differently? Of course. Could I have? I don't know.

Most of our paragraphs end with assumptions, indeed most of what we believe in is conjecture. But whatever works, works.

Remembering

I remember when we had dinner at Pizza Hut and ten minutes after we left everyone there was robbed at gunpoint.

I remember when I used to have enthusiasm for many things. The Bible, astronomy, meteorology, zoology, history, travel.

I remember when I used to have enthusiasm.

So now I realize I've grown up so fast. Back when I was younger, I would wonder what it would be like when I was older. I was uncertain back then what I would be.

I am still uncertain now.

I am getting more and more used to work. It is sometimes slow, sometimes crazy. It is unfortunately never quite interesting, even though it is challenging.

All the more to keep working until I've mastered it.

Observations, and more.

I notice the monitor lizard that swims in the pond. It stops and turns his head to look at something, then moves into brushes. I first think it is a snake, but it is too short.

It's a hot day, and I think that my office's constant air-conditioning has spoilt me. Now I crave for it, whereas when working I find it often annoying. It is always too cold.

Feeling sleepy, will sleep again. I do not think I am going to do much today. Next week, though, is going to be a busy one as someone needs a personal assistant and the task seems to have fallen on me. Two jobs then, but only for a week.

This corporate game is interesting, but repetition is inevitable; in which case I must make the choice to continue or bail. In today's depressive times (as everyone in saying, but don't seem to quite understand) one cannot be blamed if he were to be too cautious. But I am neither cautious nor a person unafraid. I am patient, I think a lot, but I am utterly ambitious. Laugh, if you were to know what I wish to do.

I suppose I ought to rest.

There is a lot to do.

So what to do with my time?

One free today, then work follows unceasingly for the next five days. I hope I get used to it.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

In a sense, quite right. Though one also remembers the tragedy when morality got hijacked by the state. And - perish the thought - by the individual. Either way this is one of the invisible, arbitrary notions we can't deny. Funny how people have invented proofs for God's (non)existence long before they did for "morality".

I think I need to learn another language.

The appreciation of rest; a tiring game.

Up till last week I never really valued weekends, mainly because I had absolutely nothing to do besides house chores and my own independent projects*. That is, until I started work. Yes, work work work. My life has suddenly become busy, and honestly, I laugh at myself for suddenly overnight becoming the cliched white collar worker. My diary, once empty, is now filled with appointments, meetings &c. On any other day, I would have found that disturbing.

But even more disturbingly, I somehow found it fun. It is indeed a fun game (if I may use such an analogy) that requires skill, but also (all too typically) requires a fair amount of grinding. Levelling up, I suppose, is never easy.

So far I am enjoying it. Yes, there is a steep learning curve but I'll get used to it soon enough. But like all games, people get bored of it and either leave to something new (but may not necessarily be more interesting) or stay and keep playing a game that is boring simply because that is the only thing they know how to do and couldn't be bothered to learn something new.

I am learning a lot. But I must also learn to know when I am no longer learning, and move on.

All in a day's work.

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* Including but not limited to watching movies, reading books, doing nothing and watching movies.

Of existential issues

The emotionally mature adult can face up to the complexity and evil of the world. He can bear knowing that he is ignorant. He is content to achieve that which is within his reach. What is possible contents him, even when it falls short of the apparent ideal. No longer so sure of all the answers, or even whether there are answers, he is too busy working to achieve his reasonable goals to torment himself with such overwhelming questions.

We must be grateful, however, that some people cannot escape asking such questions, and seeking answers, for the results of those enterprises have sometimes been great literature, philosophy, theology - to our immeasurable profit.

Truth be told, I'd rather go hiking.

Interview

Today I went for my very first proper job interview, for a place in an MNC.

Long, odd hours. But decent pay, and perks such as free drinks and casual clothes.

Probably one of the few times I was aware that I did not have any SPM certification or SAT or what have you.

"SPM cert?"

"Er...no, as you can see I was a homeschooler and took a different route, and went to a college that accepted homeschoolers. But I have a diploma, as you can see..."

"Ah...yes."

I got to the second round. It seems as long as you have a diploma (or degree), they don't care.

Typing test. I was the fastest among them all. Ha.

Final interview.

"So when can you start work?"

"Uh...I was thinking..."

"?"

"Could you put me on hold?"

So there. I went for a job that I wanted but then at the last minute had second thoughts (because, truth be told, I was considering a nicer one). So essentially I went for an interview for a job that I didn't want.

I was disinterested throughout while a guy near me was hyperventilating.

I felt bad, wasting their time. So I made sure to thank them for that. But then they wasted two hours of my time, too. Told me to come at 1, started at 3.

Either way, it was good practice. Heh.

...of the now #26/01/09#

Mogwai was in KL, and they were loud.

I just learned last night what loud meant, and boy it was loud. But Mogwai's music sounds better on a CD, I think. Live they are deafening and exhilarating yes, but the texture of their songs are lost amidst the sonic chaos that deals damage to ones ears.

But it was still awesome.

Post KT By-Election Thoughts

This Wiki article neatly summarizes the context and what was at stake in this by-election. Permatang Pauh may have been brushed aside by BN as an expected result, but it's quite clear that the Kuala Terengganu seat is the real battleground for BN and PR which PAS has managed to win.

I give you my thoughts in a neat point form:

• Let it be said that BN never really held the KT seat that tightly (they won by a slim 600+ vote majority).
• It is telling that PAS won by a few thousand ostensibly swing votes. One can draw a conclusion that BN has not really impressed the KT voters over the past year since the General Elections.
  
• But Kuala Terengganu hardly speaks of the whole nation's sentiment. The Opposition for example, has made very little headway in states like Johor. Time will tell if this will change.
• PAS is (perhaps) being perceived more as a component of Pakatan Rakyat i.e. the Opposition rather than that fundamentalist Islamist party that it is so often feared as.
• BN has some overhauling to do. Expect the blame game to begin among the now braver component parties.

See:-

Malaysiakini: PAS wins KT by 2,631 votes
The Star: PAS' Wahid wins KT seat

I Can See The Stars Now

If there is one thing I like about Seremban, it's that the night sky is much clearer. I can see the stars now, thanks to the lack of light pollution. Although, as a science teacher pointed out, it's hard to see a clear sky in the tropics due to the moisture in the air. Something like a smokescreen. Hence one must head to the desert or the colder countries to get that fairytale view of the stars.

But this is a start.

Restart

Here we go again. Again.