Category Archives: Entertainment

Prometheus – Movie Review

Because every great director needs to make a comeback. Because that comeback cannot but be with a prequel these days or a reboot of a series. And because that remake or reboot has to be in 3D.

This is how Ridley Scott’s Prometheus came to be.

Set in 2094, a group of scientists are put in cryo, some form of deep sleep, as the Greek god-inspired spaceship, Prometheus, takes them to a planet where they believe they’ll find the creators of Man. Once they land and start to discover the nearby tunnels of the Earth-like planet, they will be surprised with what they find: humanoid-like species that are apparently extinct. Along with the humanoids, however, they will uncover other things that shouldn’t be uncovered leading them to realize that the place they’re at is not what it promised to be.

When it comes to Prometheus, the discussion takes two directions. On one hand, you have exquisite visuals that will immerse you in the movie’s world. On the other hand, you have one of the weakest plots of movies released this year. Why so? Because too many things are happening in Promotheus to be resolved. Too many questions are asked and none are answered. Too many issues are raised and none are sought out.

In fact, I remember reading about the shroud of secrecy surrounding Prometheus’ plot in order not to let anything leak. Well, that shroud of secrecy has extended well into the movie because it doesn’t reveal anything as well. None at all, actually. When you’re watching Prometheus and things start happening and you start thinking that you’ll understand why in a few, simply don’t. You won’t. Because they won’t tell you.

On the other hand, the visual effects and the imagery of the movie are so great that you won’t notice the basic and most fundamental flaw about the storytelling until you’re at least an hour in. Ridley Scott outdoes himself by giving the viewers a world where you can sink in your senses and don’t feel guilty.

And then, as it nears its conclusion, Prometheus starts to attempt going into the realms of existentialism – but the build up isn’t there, which is another inherent flaw in its storytelling. So instead of ending with a big bang, it ends with with a solar flare. This leaves everything that might be answered to a subsequent sequel. But I’m not holding my breath for answers in that one as well.

All in all, Prometheus is definitely watchable. But don’t go in with high expectations because you will be disappointed. The movie falters more than once. The acting performances by Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron are not strong enough to mask out the lack of substance. And a time when making visually appealing movies is becoming easier and easier, shouldn’t Hollywood at least try to redraft the movies that obviously need reworking?

6.5/10

Teaser from Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away Music Video

This was leaked from the fan club party that went on at the Opry in Nashville, a 13 second teaser from the upcoming music video by Carrie Underwood for her song: Blown Away, which I correctly predicted would be the second single off the album of the same title.

The storyline of the video looks like it’ll be what was leaked a couple of days ago:

The video opens with heavy rains. People in town running with newspapers over their heads to their cars, a lady’s umbrella gets turned inside out. The camera is zipping to different parts of the city showing people trying to deal with the storm.

The camera then zooms out of the city down a road to a big farm. It isn’t raining there, but you can see the lightning clouds coming towards the house.

The first verse starts and the camera zooms into the house. There’s an old man laying on the couch, passed out as if he were watching TV. The emergency weather service is is on the TV. Between the TV and the couch stands Carrie. Holding a picture frame and flashlight. When Carrie sings “those storms clouds gather in her eyes,” the camera zooms into her face and her eyes are watering, but she’s not crying. She shakes her head in a disgusted way, looks away from him. At the line “the weatherman called for a twister,” she shuts the TV off and walks away.

The camera goes out to the street and you see the band playing and Carrie is singing “there’s not enough rain in Oklahoma…” It goes back and forth between this and the Carrie in the house collecting all of the pictures off the walls and scrapbooks. You can see the dad still passed out on the couch and the girl walks up the stairs to her room.

When the chorus starts, the camera is switching between Carrie with her band outside (the winds have picked up a bit at this point) and Carrie in her room tearing it to pieces. She’s tearing up pictures of her dad, throwing her clothes, etc.

When the chorus ends and Carrie hits the high “Blown Away” note, the clouds are now really dark, her hair is blowing wildly and a single lightning bolt strikes near the band, tearing the ground up.

As the second verse starts, it zooms back into the girl’s room. As soon as she starts crying, it starts raining lightly outside on Carrie and the band. The winds are still blowing. It starts showing people around the neighborhood running into their cellars, gathering their kids and just kind of panicking. Carrie (the inside one) sees her father still sleep on the couch. She picks up her whiskey bottle and takes a big drink of it and wipes her mouth.

When the second chorus starts, it’s really raining hard and lightning striking everywhere and for the rest of the video, it zooms between the storm progressing, eventually with a tornado touching down right behind the band and ripping up the house and the inside Carrie who is sitting in a chair in the basement with the light right above dangling and swaying as if the house was moving. There are lots of shots of the house be ripped apart by this storm, with pictures flying everywhere etc.

At the end of the song, Carrie emerges from the basement and the entire house is gone, except for an empty couch.

Sounds great, no? Here’s the teaser for you:

The Official UEFA Euro 2012 Song

Well, I wish it were that Armin Van Buuren song I told you about a few days ago because this one plain sucks. Even Shakira would have been better.

The song is by Oceana, a German singer, and it’s called “Endless Summer.”

And I absolutely hate it. I really hope it won’t go the “Waka Waka” route and get overplayed until my ears start bleeding.

Other than that, the Euro 2012 tournament starts in three days! 😀

The Official UEFA Euro 2012 Song?

Update: this is not the official song. Armin Van Buuren just did an official video for it that’s Euro 2012-inspired. Shakira can still have a song be the official one :p

It’s not a Shakira song. Can you believe it?

Armin Van Buuren is delivering the official “song” for this year’s Euro 2012. It’s obviously trance and features one sentence, which is incidentally the song’s title, “We Are Here to Make Some Noise.”

I actually like it. It definitely serves as something that would get the crowds going.

As for me, I’ve got my jersey ready for next week. The flags will soon be taken out of storage. We are pumped for some football!

Yes, Forza Azzurri!

Snow White & The Huntsman – Movie Review

It’s official. We can call 2012 the year of Snow White. Let’s see, there’s a whole TV show – Once Upon a Time – centered on her story. There has already been a movie, Mirror Mirror, which tackled the infamous fairytale with a comic approach and now Hollywood has decided to bring the world yet another adaptation which plays with the Brothers Grimm story: Snow White & The Huntsman.

Following a war that he wins, the father of Snow White (Kristen Stewart) finds a hostage with his enemies and he’s entranced by her beauty (as an aside, who wouldn’t be?). The woman’s name is Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and he immediately marries her. However, on their wedding night, Ravenna kills the king and takes over his kingdom, taking the still-young Snow White as a prisoner. Years pass by and Snow White comes of age, threatening the queen not to remain the fairest of them all. As she manages to escape her prison, Snow White joins forces with the huntsman the queen hires to kill her (Chris Hemsworth) and eight (yes, not seven. Eight.) dwarves to try and dethrone the queen.

Snow White & The Huntsman starts off promisingly but quickly fizzles away as Theron gets less screen time. In fact, the only person cast correctly in the movie is Charlize Theron who manages to do the impossible: pull you to her side. You actually root for the bad person in this movie and do so whole-heartedly.

Kristen Stewart, on the other hand, is entirely miscast. I have seen Stewart in other roles (no, not Twilight) and despite what people want you to think, she actually has potential. But she keeps choosing the wrong roles. Snow White is no different. To begin with, when it comes to being the “fairest of them all” how could she exactly compete with Charlize Theron? But let’s leave that argument aside for now. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I may have a thing for blondes. Her performance is not as riveting as Theron. She dwarfs in comparison when their scenes come after each other. Their characters meet only twice, one of which is an entire action scene. Theron still outshines her there.

She’s not feisty enough and when she feigns strength, it comes off as forced and not natural. Perhaps she could pass as Snow White in another version of the story. But in this Joan of Arc-esque take on the fairytale, Stewart fails miserably. She’s sulky and passive most of the time, while she needs to be commanding and strong. The attitude just isn’t there.

Chris Hemsworth is simply there most of the time. He doesn’t add anything substantial to the movie as he does in, say, The Avengers. He just hovers around, providing input when needed. Apart from that, the role of the huntsman in the story of Snow White is nowhere near how this movie makes it out to be. But I guess twists to the fairytale are needed in the 21st century.

When it comes to Snow White & The Huntsman, the movie’s main problem is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It aims at being an epic version of the story of Snow White but still manages to take Snow to a land of fairies and legendary elks. It aims to keep the feel of the fairytale alive but fails at that, totally losing the charm of the story the people fell in love with many years ago. It relies heavily on its visual effects, which were very well done – the eight dwarves are all regular-sized actors, as an example, but loses itself in the fact that it has diluted the story up to a point where those visual effects serve as the wheel moving the movie forward.  At the end of the day, Snow White & The Huntsman is visually pleasing, enough so to keep you entertained for two hours, but is essentially hollow. Blame it on the Hollywood rehash of the story.

Walt Disney’s 1937 take on the story still stands unscathed.

6/10