Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Ever since my relinquished interest to reading, I will always remember the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. A book I took off the Psychology shelf and found it captivating. Now, that book was brought to the screen for our viewing pleasure.

 Bringing a book to the screen may not be as diverse as what we read, but Stephan Daldry managed fairly as what I've imagined. Thomas Horns acting as Osker Schell was spot on. He managed to portray the possible autism of the character superbly. Even with big names as Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullocks, hands down Thomas Horns is the main focus.

The flow of the movie might be slightly off from the books, but the noticeable character were as humbled as adored as described in the books.  Try not put a high expectation of the movie from the book. Watch it for the great performance.

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Happy Feet Two

Time for some family entertainment and what better way to catch an animation. Happy Feet Two is a great animation start for the 2012 for me.

Since the first movie, the star studded ensemble show brought great rhythm and beat with stunning combination of real and animation. Happy Feet Two brought back the return of both.

Similar cast of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams and Hugo Weaving return for the second time together with new voices of Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the sultriest Pink in her ballad best.

The musical score is as catchy as the first but the power voice of Pink stole the show. Great humors provided by Robin Williams with added unrelated zany segments by the krill duo Brad Pitt and Matt Damon works the charm.

Happy Feet Two touches on global warming which results in the melting of the ice caps. Part of the fallen icecaps blocked the surrounding penguins Emperor-Land and it's up to Mumble and his son to save the day. Simple storyline but heartwarming with great musical scores.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

After being mesmerized and falling in Twilight, falling in love with a werewolf when your lover departs in New Moon, managed to sustain the love triangle in Eclipse, and now it's time to get married in Breaking Dawn Part 1.

The first half of the show is mainly for the ladies as it is more of a romantic movie than an action film. The grand wedding and a honeymoon at a secret location. I could imagine the ladies going oohing and aahing and go all teary eyes in the events. For a good 45mins into the film, the great complication arises. Can a vampire impregnate human. In Twilight context, yes you can. 

With the shocking revelation, the newly wed returned to the Cullen's household attempting to save Bella through abortion as the fetus is harming her. Bella refused and wished to give birth to the vampire baby. Everyone knew that Bella will not survive the labor but was told that she can be turned into a vampire during labor.

Upon hearing the news, Jacobs visited Bella in attempt to change her mind but failed. He went back to his pack and notify of the situation when the alpha male decides to prevent the birth by killing Bella. With the love triangle still strong, Jacob refuses and managed to leave the pack together with a 2 sibling werewolves. They promised to protect Bella from their former pack.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 is not as action packed as others but rather romantically detailed of the love and struggle of the 3 lovers. With the ending complications, I do hope that Part 2 will be a great one.

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Chronicle

I've seen the trailer and seem quite interested on the subject of the movie, telekinesis. You know, moving objects with your mind like Jean Grey of the X-Men. As an avid comic reader and a huge fan of the X-Men, telekinesis is the one super power I would love to have.

Chronicle covers the aspect of gaining powers and the dangers of having such powers that manipulate from the state of the mind and emotional trauma that can lead to bad consequences. Think of it as a teenage Peter Parker gotten his spider-like abilities and with Uncle Ben not providing the advise of "With Great Powers, Comes Great Responsibilities". You run around with your new powers not thinking of consequences. Andrew Detmer is the person.

A social misfit with a sick mum and an abusive father, gain telekinesis abilities when his cousin, Matt and electing class president Steve stumbled upon an unusual site. They became close friend an ventures to exponential capability of non-physical and barrier manipulation, and flight. Sounds so cool but their power development progress was at a super slow pace.

With the constant abuse from his father, Andrew set out on his own and gain more experienced and powerful through his emotions which led to the death of Steve. Also with a financial burden and unable to pay for his mothers medication, Andrew sets out in search of money. This is where it frustrates me. You have a great power and can do great things, even if it's for a bad cuase but you chose to steal from some punks who bullies you for money rather than stealing from the bank or directly from the pharmacy for the medications. Seriously? That is so stupid. For that mistake you get yourself injured and captured and have your only friend to stop you going over to the dark side. Stupid!

Something more irritating is the camera angles. As the title says, Chronicle is a footage movie based on Andrew's camera and some other public camera footage. With his powers, he managed to move his camera around like how movies are done. Hence it's does not feel any amount authentic than those of Blair Witch's Project or Paranormal Activity. At least the action captures of the last fight between Steve and Matt is amazing, very much like the duel of Anakin  Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi.

Lastly, you might wonder why Chronicle entry is long. I had a heated review with my friends whom hated the movie. Then again they hate science fiction films. This is a good movie for a geek with so many great references but just a stupid character and a sloppy character development.

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