Movies: The Hunger Games

Movies: The Hunger Games

INTRODUCTION

Finally, the movie that is probably one of th/e most advertised has finally come to our shores ^_^. If you are still unaware, it seems that the advertisements and trailers for this show started surfacing like at least 6 months before it was really released. That is about similar to when the adverts for The avengers actually came out. Only difference is that the avengers is actually a lot more well known then this movie and its source material.

To those who do not know, it seems like this show is adapted off the books. It has 3 books in the series and apparently the producer is going to use the earnings of this show to decide whether they will continue on and produce movies for the other two related books.

This movie has nothing to do with hunger camps, hunger strikes, hunger appreciation day and so on and so forth.

Heres a picture to jolt your memory with regards to what i am talking about.

Still unclear or not enticed to see this show? Maybe this picture will work better

Remember now? You know the trailer you saw with this girl shooting an arrow at the bird who catches it in its talons? Yea.. its that one. Unfortunately the bird plays hardly any role in this movie, but fortunately we get to see lots of this girl over here

Here is obligatory eye candy for the female viewers!

So what is this story about anyway?

Basically, the world is a different world in this hunger games timeline. Its a world where there are 12 districts that are being punished for staging an uprising some time ago. So these 12 districts lost the war and now on every appointed occassion, they will have to offer up a male and a female in tribute to participate in this hunger games, whereby they are trained to survive and kill. After the training period, they will then be brought to a battle location and fight it out to the death and the last survivor will receive glory and honor for their district. Of course a side bonus is that they will get food to eat and i suppose much riches.

So as far as the movie goes, here is the review

Storyline


I suppose if I had to say which part of the show would be the main emphasis, it would be the storyline. This show manages to introduce this new world complete with its different culture and practices and the way it supports the strange practices seems to be very plausible. Of course one of the main thoughts on people's mind is that, is this like battle royale that the Japanese has produced quite some time ago. I would say that the main draw of this show is mistakened to be exactly like battle royale. But unfortunately, battle royale has a much stronger thrilling and action factor then this show. While this show has a bit more focus on the new world that this show takes place in.

So its best to come into hunger games expecting to be wowed not by the battle action, but rather more of the entire concept of the world and how it functions in that time because half the show is focused on the preparatory work and only the other half is the real battle itself.

Characters


It is unfortunate that in a show whereby there are 12 districts and 2 tributes from each district, totalling 24 contestants, there are only 3 more important tributes, and perhaps another 5 supporting tributes and the rest are totally generic. In fact even in the credits, you can see some tributes don't even have a name. They are not made to be distinct at all.

Again this is probably because the hunger games section is only half of the show, while the rest is spent on training. However, the people involved in the training though they are obviously different, their characters and backgrounds are not very much delved into in this 2 hrs+ show. There are fun characters like this fella below but nothing much is said about why they are like that...

For example, the show says that all 12 districts have something distinct about them and that the tributes will present themselves in way to highlight this. However, besides the fact that district 12 people are miners, district 2 people are warriors of sorts and district 11 people are kinda blackskinned, there is no other emphasis that could help the movie's cause.


Cinematography


There seems to be a pattern between big budget movies and cinematography. It seems like if your budget is very high, you will have quite a focus on cinematography and this show is no exception. The introduction to the new world is pretty grand and there are quite a few big moments. Also there are pretty good use of angles and perspectives to add some immersiveness into the show as well as some smart uses of flashback to add depth into the show.


Music


Music was pretty good, judging from the fact that I actually noticed some pretty good music during the show. So the very fact that the music is noticed would give some bonus points to this category.


Spectacle


With regards to spectacle, it really depends on what you believe this show is trying to present to you. If you are looking for a new world concept, then you would really say this show manages to deliver a good introduction into this new world. Action wise this show does put in some effort, but its probably safer to say that this wasn't this show's main focus. Character development however could have been made stronger and that would actually help present the world more better. But that being said, they already have a 2 hr + show and it would be quite hard to fit in anything else.

Overall


Storyline             : 4.5 (It is a very good storyline, to introduce a new world and the games in general)
Character           : 3.5 (Just too many characters to introduce but it does attempt)
Cinematography : 4.0 (Good use of perspectives to strengthen immersiveness)
Music                  : 4.0 (Not a musical, but the music is really there)
Spectacle            : 4.5 (If it was a show to introduce the world and its concepts. It will definately be lower if you thought this was supposed to be an action show. But its really not)


Overall : 4.1 (What i have to say is that for this show, know what to expect, which is a show that is introducing this new world. It is not a mindless fighting action flick and should not be expected to be such. The audience is expected to pay attention to the dialogue to actually be able to appreciate the subtleties of the show. Especially if this show goes on to the next part, then the hunger games world may be further introduced. Frankly if this show had maybe another 40 minutes, it could do a much better job trying to make everything more distinct and hence more charming to the audience, but a show of that length would be pretty tiring already.)


Tell me if you seen this show and please leave your comments. And May the Odds always be in your favor.

Travel: Bali, Kuta

Travel: Bali, Kuta

INTRODUCTION

Here I am again, this time with another review on another place that I been to. This should be probably one of the more expensive reviews to come out with so read on if you are wondering whether this should be a holiday destination that you can consider in the future.

The beautiful land of Bali is basically known as a place famous for its beaches and scenic views. To my recollection, this place is not well known for anything else besides this, at least to me, and as you read on, you will see why this is so. Also another thing of note of Bali was that there are many westerners who visit the country. So expect to see many westerners on the beaches and in the hotel lobbies.

Here are some stuff that i saw in my time there.

Beaches

With People

Follow the entire beach line all the way to the background. Yep its all Beaches

So as you can see from the last picture, actually the beach stretches from Kuta area all the way past the Legian area and so on and so forth. Along the way you will see different densities of tourists and locals alike. Legian area will be more full of tourists as well as many drinks, tattoo and surfing lesson shops or touters.

But besides that, there are many other places to see in-land and for city centric people like Singaporeans it could be a pretty eye opening sight. So I shall go into the tourist attraction section.

Tourist Attraction


Bali seems to be a place that has everything for everyone... Except shopping.... of course that is my opinion only because i did not visit the city center denpasar but was in the more scenic areas. Shall speak more about this in the later section.

Here are some of the advertised things to do in Bali. The first is the standard visiting whereby you go see many many scenic places. Some are pretty good to see and rare to see at a cheaper price anywhere else unless you go off to further countries.

Things to see include:

Sunsets! This one is at Uluwatu

Its right on top of the cliff

Like i said, scenic

Look at the nice cliffs! Seen similar in Aussie i believe

There are like a few waterfalls, this is the smaller one

This is the elephant cave temple, their pool

And here is the elephant cave itself.. its tiny inside really

There is a spice garden that you can stop along the way to get some coffee and stuff

Here is the volcano Kintamari or something. Its a good view from the restaurant we ate in

Another angle of the volcano. Note the black soil areas

This is the rice terrence that you could see also. But it was raining for us

This is the other temple that people would visit for the sunset. This one is Tanah Lot

On high tides the temple will be completely surrounded by water.

So the above is for the scenic lovers. There are also a few tours or stops that show you a bit of their culture and the things they might sell like gold and silver smiths, wood carvings and the like. But didn't visit cause it feels more like a tourist trap.

Next there are those who might like sea sports or sports and adventure in general. Unfortunately in my time there i didnt have the chance to go for white water rafting but according to the brochures there are also things like cycling adventure as well as volcano climbing if i am not mistaken. So here are some pictures for the sea sports that we actually did.

This is the glass bottomed boat.. but in reality you probably cannot see much

This guy is the flying fish thing, it will be dragged by a speed boat and start to fly in a while

This is some guy doing parachuting attached to boat in the back ground

This is the snorkeling activity

Turtle island, where they allow you to touch turtles and some other animals

This is how turtle island looks as we were leaving it

So for those who like water sports, probably by adding white water rafting you should be able to have a full day of water activities to play. There are other stuff like jet skiing but to be honest everything is charged USD basis and it is not what i would consider cheap.


Final group of people might wanna just relax in the city or resort area and they could do stuff like visit this water park called waterbom

Big shopping center that contains Centro

This is the water theme park

Walking along the sea side from the road area

Surf boards indicate a surfing teacher or rent surf board thingy

So you could just spend a day chilling possibly at your hotel pool and then pay these places a visit for your souvenir shopping. Just go to the beach and tan or something to that effect. Or just have a nice stroll along the beach side all the way upwards. But remember to bring along plenty of sunscreen.

Shopping


So like the picture above, there is only a single giant department stall or shopping center in the Kuta Legian area. There was supposed to be a more local version of a shopping center but no matter how i walked and followed the map i could not find it. There was one more smaller department stall that was still under construction when i was there. That being said, the single shopping center is diverse enough but the road side stall basically follows about 3 or 4 categories. Within these categories they would basically sell exactly the same stuff but just at varying prices.

The categories are, shirts/caps/clothings, tourist stuff... ok i guess i was wrong.. its basically just these two stuff. What i am saying is that there is not much of a diversity in the shops itself. They are all selling the same stuff and when you seen one you seen all there is to offer already.

The trend however, shows that the people will sell their goods at about 3 times the price. So be assured, for the road side stalls you could try to cut it down to about a third of the price and try to work from there. For example, a stall was trying to sell those bali key chains with a starting price of 120000 rupiahs for 2. In the end, we managed to cut the price down to 30000 rupiahs. Its the exact thing you can find in the department stall also. IN FACT, check the department stall for the base price. It is surprisingly low actually. I believe the key chains cost about 24000 rupiahs EACH in the department stall.

The shopping center has quite a good choice of places to eat also, in particular fast food stalls. So if you have no idea what to eat, you could go down to the shopping center and have a look see.


Food


To be honest, I would say that i was kind of disappointed with the food in general in Bali. There are many many many small food stalls that cater to their local people, unfortunately it seems that they all sell about the same food and many of their choices depend on the time of day.

If you try looking for the more touristy places to eat, you will have to pay touristy prices which I would say is about the same price of eating in Singapore. For example in the volcano view restaurant, it costs 100000 rupiah for each person without drinks. This would be about 15 SGD and the food was nothing impressive to be honest. It was served buffet style but there are only like 10 choices.

Juices however is pretty cheap, ranging from about 1 SGD to about 3 SGD depending on the place you eat. For accurate estimation, their canned drinks like coke can be bought at about 5000 rupiah, but they will try to sell it at 10000 rupiah.

We did eat at this place called Mades Warung which according to some research was a place we had to eat at in Bali. 

Babi Sate which is pork satay

Their Shish Kebab

Not impressive. We did ask our various drivers and they kept recommending the Babi Sate in Bali in general. It was above average at best. The shish Kebab meat was hard though. So to be honest, i wasnt really impressed by the food in Bali.


So if you are going to find food, try researching a bit more because I was really not impressed by the food given the prices also.

There was another place we ate at called Jimbaran whereby the tables are all beside the sea. The sea food there is not what i consider cheap so just go for the experience sake. We ate a crab dish that came with soup veg and rice at 250 000 rupiahs. 

So the tables are here on the beach

And there is some simple show that they have

There is one more place of note called Night Market which was totally not what i expected. I thought i would see a nice giant place full of shops and life but this was what i got.

Empty Tables, little activity

Yep, and the food was not really great.. in fact it was below average. The price luckily was also well below average. Not a place you need to go... thats all im saying.

People


The people in general are sadly, not all that great. Hotel staff are nice because they are in the service side but aside from that, it gives me the feeling that the people are all very money driven. From the starting high prices for all the stuff that they sell, when you try to bargain, they don't seem to actually enjoy the process and are pretty annoyed by you bargaining... EVEN THOUGH they are the ones charging the high prices first.

When booking tours, also beware when you bargain. Because they will seem to give you a good price, but they are actually reducing and removing certain things that were initially incorporated into the price. For example entry fees that actually added to quite a bit, the removal of a english speaking tour guide that some tours provide. They will just tell you their driver can double as a guide which is not true. So make sure you clear out everything with the person. To be clear, this was done at the tour desk in the hotel itself so its good to be cautious everywhere.

Also when we got on a taxi, the person wanted to charge us more for a 7000 rupiah trip. He wanted like 30000, then dropped to 15000 then 10000. He kinda threw a mini fit when we asked him to follow the meter which i felt was a bit unnecessary.

Also like when we got on the turtle island, they specifically said that we should give a donation to the island and volunteers. It was 5000 per head. Lets be clear, thats not a donation. Its an entrance fee. So there are many places like this who would charge for every small thing, BUT they wont tell you before hand. So be very very careful.

Even when you leave the place, at the airport you also need a 150000 rupiah exit fee! Yep this tax is not including and it is compulsory. So even in the airport this happens.


Accomodation/Getting around


Getting around is pretty simple, choose to use the taxi, walk or just hire a car for the day complete with driver. There seems to be an option that includes a tour guide so this is just information for you. A full 12 hours transport is about 55 USD subject to bargaining skills.

Don't use taxis if you are trying to go to scenic areas cause it is likely it will cost more then hiring transport for a few hours at a stretch. Also any eating places that the transport brings you will more then likely be a tourist trap. Apparently you could even bargain at these tourist area. I heard the restaurant at the volcano area should have costed 70000 rupiahs only.

Remember that any other places you visit like the temples all require an admission fee. According to my driver, the prices seems to be going up so be prepared.

There are many hotels at many different prices so i recommend using Booking.com and find out the reviews of the people before choosing the hotels. Note that stuff like 5 mins walk to Kuta beach does not necessary mean that your portion of the beach is the nice portion. The beach is a real big stretch and there are nice but also horrible portions of the beach with blackish waters. There are also other hotels that are really cheap, but to be honest, they look really dangerous and run down. So please do some due diligence to ensure that the hotel you choose is really reputable and safe.

My hotel looked something like this.

Nice cosy room, aircon wasnt cold enough

It was a stand alone villa room

And here is the pool... its 2.4 meters deep though. there is a shallow side but no other depth in between

Cost


Finally with regards to cost, for our entire trip inclusive of airfare and hotel, we spent a total of 600 SGD each for a 4 days 3 night stay. I admit that we were a bit more scrimpy in the way we ate and lived but we did have a vehicle for all 3 days.

Costs was divided amongst hotel, airfare, many entrance fees, food, a minor bit on souvenirs and tips also. Remember that this is still a place where tips are kinda expected. I tried to keep it to about 1 to 3 SGD overall. Expect to spend maybe 100 dollars more if you want to have the entire water sports package down to play more water activities.

Like i said, food is not cheap and neither is it that worth in general, but there exists nearly no cheaper alternatives that would actually taste good. Just expect to pay prices you pay back home and eat at those hotel restaurants and you probably will feel better.

Overall


Tourist Attraction     : 4.0 (Things for mostly everyone to do, good variety and choices)
Shopping                   : 3.0 (Very little things to shop for, nothing special, just a single giant mall)
Food                          : 3.0 (If you are willing to spend, the food should be ok as long as its hotel standards)
People                       : 2.5 (Too money driven, only saving grace is the hotel staff. The rest are just too greedy to the extent of being annoying. I'm sorry but this is but an opinion)
Accomodation           : 3.5 (Convenient to get around, just have to know how to spend. Hotels have a good range of choices for all budgets)
Cost                           : 3.0 (It is not cheap, probably the con of being such a touristy destination. Plus the people really really seem to want to earn just that bit more)


Overall            : 3.167 (Yep, i would say that this is an accurate score. If you are willing to just enjoy the touristy spots and scenes, then you would enjoy this trip. But dont expect too much from anything else. Still, for a relaxing getaway I would say this is a pretty good choice just for the change of environment and how easy it is to plan compared to going to other countries)


Well give your own comments or complaints here and i promise I will take a look at it.

Movies: The Grey

Movies: The Grey

There are movies that are extremely hyped up and deliver what the audience expects. There are also movies that are extremely hyped up and do not deliver. However, this movie is hyped as i think i did manage to see maybe 3 or 4 trailers before the show is released. But this show is strange, because the trailer seemed to be telling people that its an action thriller show, but yet its really more of just a thriller in the end. This probably explains why there are alot of people who found this show really bad, and yet there is another group that found this show really really good. So to set things clear, THIS IS NOT AN ACTION SHOW!

Heres a picture of the show poster

Yep... the poster is as informative as the title and also the trailer. Meaning it tells you nothing at all.

So for those who really wanna know, this is a show about man's survival instinct when placed in a situation against wolves. Yep wolves. NOT WEREWOLVES! I guess this might be the problem with the show. In a time where everything is fantasy like or funny, this show follows a more film art kind of tone which means there is a lot of exchange of emotion and interaction and hence it is not easy to understand. Well below is the review that could help you decide whether you should see this or save your time.

Storyline


The storyline is pretty simple, its about man's survival against the elements as well as the wolves that seem to be pretty offended by the presence of these intruders. Since it takes place in a far far away place, I can't say that it is not a very plausible scenario, but whether wolves really act like this is another curious issue. Either way, the story line is basically a survival type of story but there are no zombies, just lots of hungry and angry wolves.


Character


This is supposed to be the main attraction factor of those who see this show, and i guess to a certain level it does it pretty well. The characters are believable and generally pretty different to allow you to consider who you would be in that situation and confirm that you would really act in that manner. Also many characters in the show die.. and some die very quickly before anything unique could be established. They really could have gone further into describing some back story to give more immersiveness into the show.


Cinematography


You can feel there is some effort put into the cinematography of the show. Especially at certain points of the show to evoke feelings from the audience. So overall like a film art you will have good and meaningful perspectives that help to keep the show from being merely a story, but rather something you could immerse yourself into.

Music


I have some slight memory of there being some music aspects during the show, but nothing too striking or hindering.

Spectacle

As far as this show goes, it will score pretty badly if you are finding action. But if you are finding maybe drama or thrills then this is probably something that will strike out to you. However, remember that this is not fantasy kind of thrills and more of realistic dangers which means that to quite many people, it will be monotonous.

Overall


Storyline              : 3 (I personally have to say it doesn't really appeal to me hence the lower score and i would say that this storyline may only appeal to a niche audience)
Character            : 3.5 (There is good character building, but i do see many places it could be improved)
Cinematography  : 3.5 (It is pretty nice and does have its uses, but its not exemplary)
Music                   : 3 (The average score for an average score.... pun intended)
Spectacle             : 3 (Average score because what many people expected wasn't what they got. Of course you could say that oh its just a misinterpretation, but if it makes alot of people misinterpret then its not very nice either)


Overall              : 3.2 (This show satisfies its niche market which would be people who like to see how people react in realistic situations in the world. However, for people who wanna be entertained by action or nice fight scenes or stuff like that, this is probably not the show for you. Its those kind of film art show where if you check professional reviews, they will give very good ratings. But its only cause they can appreciate all these. For the layman however, it will require more work.)


Any comments please state below :) like if you want more pictures or something