Food: Hai Di Lao

Food: Hai Di Lao

So finally, after waiting for almost a whole year, I finally had a chance to eat at the famed Hai Di Lao. For those who don't know, Hai Di Lao is considered as a ala carte steamboat style of food whereby you will need to pay for the soup you choose, and every dish you order you will pay for the specific dish. This is in contrast to other steamboat buffets a lot which can be found in Chinatown and quite a fair few from all around such as Coca steamboat and Sukiya. These other buffets are free flow and you might need to go ahead and grab or order the food but you can eat and eat. However, Hai Di Lao is an ala carte but all in all, do you need to hesitate when deciding what to order? Would you end up paying more? Read on to find out more.

Food 4.5/5

You get to choose two soups, for this, Mala and Tomato

There are quite a variety of soups presented including the standard chicken stock soup. I think there should be four or five different soups in total. For us though, we got ourselves the Mala which is the spicy type of soup, and a tomato soup for those who did not want to eat spicy. Nonetheless, my mates with me tried the Mala and it was not TOO hot even for them. However, when we ordered the soup, there was the option presented to us to add or reduce the spiciness of the Mala soup. It's this type of variety that made the entire meal a bit more pleasant, and I believe this was the concept that the management of Hai Di Lao wanted to focus on and can be seen in many aspects of the management of the eating experience.

The soup overall, was tasty. Yep, I would dare say that amongst all the soup I have tasted, this Mala is one of the more unique, and even the best, so much that even Mala lovers could give it a try and it might ignite their passion for Mala.

One point to note however, is that when you ask for refill of the soup, I noticed that the soup was the normal chicken stock at least for my Mala. Hence after refilling twice, it started not being that spicy anymore. Not sure if this is the standard but it could have been expressed to us.

Here comes the first course of meat! Note, these were all HALF portions

 For a start, we were allowed to order half portions of almost all the dishes on the Ipad provided. What this means is that, you can go for variety and you do not have to force yourself to stuff down too much of the food, making you full and unable to try other dishes. You can also decide from the first round which meats you find most delicious and then order it subsequently. It's a very smart move and like i said, this is a variety in the ordering style which adds to the experience.

Taste wise, you can see that the meats are very thinly cut, and thus very easy to cook and consume. All the meats we chose were tasty, not too fat. For beef alone, they had like 4 different grades or types of beef for people with different tastes and budgets, and this makes good business sense.

Tofu, mushroom and a bunch of 4 different pastes, vermicelli

 As you can see from the photo above, you can ask for an assortment of mushrooms, nothing new many places have this. but look further above and see the red white and white green oval dishes. This was one of the paste dish ranging from prawn, to meat to spinach prawn and one more that i cannot remember cause the waitress said it in chinese. Nonetheless, they allow you to order small bits and really just try everything.

Sauces to tantalize your taste buds

 And look at the variety of sauces. They had a sauce rack with like over 10 different kind of sauces and that rack also had some small dishes like peanuts and pickles. But wait! What if you are not the sauce loving person? Well Hai Di Lao has gotten this covered. For HDL, their sauce and small dish bar is not included, but is free flow for a price of 4 dollars. What this means is that for those who don't need sauces, they actually don't charge you for it like what other companies do in their buffet prices. Hence overall you might not spend too much. You will see this further in the pricing section.

Taste wise, with so many different kind of sauces (in fact this is the biggest array I have seen so far), you SHOULD be able to find one to your liking. In korean BBQ buffet you always only have maybe chilli soy sauce and the korean chilli which honestly I don't really fancy, but here, you can get the spicy chilli paste, but if you like still must have korean chilli they also have that too. That's the variety they give. Other sauces include chilli oil, mushroom paste (chinese version), sesame and more.

Atmosphere 4.5/5

This is the style for 4 people hotpot, come prepared with charger, you might spend long here

If you haven't noticed, I have given the atmosphere 4.5 out of 5. Is that justifiable, well, let me tell you why.

Look at the size of the table. Its big and that means you don't have to try to squeeze all your stuff on the table. Of course our table was for 4 and maybe 6 people may be given this table too but it is quite large in general already. For 8 tables and above there are even bigger and more fun round tables. With a huge table like this, there was also no worries about the steam and smoke flying into your eyes. In fact, none of us left the place smelling like Mala. The whole place is well ventilated.

When the guy brings in the soup, he even asks you which way you want to orientate the soup. So if you are the only guy eating using one of the soup, you can arrange it so that its convenient for all. 

All tables are also looked after by a specific waitress. For us, our young waitress only had to look after 4 tables. There is no need to reach out and try to grab the attention of the waitress and spend quite a bit of time looking like a fool. Nope, our waitress was right there for us and she even offered to help us order when the chinese words and the navigation of the Ipad became a chore.

The waitress can even help you scoop the soup and filter it for you

The waitress can go all the way to the extent of helping you scoop your soup and she even helped us put in the mushrooms and tofu when we started.

Lazy to hold the soup? Make use of the ladle holder

Other good things that they did, they offered to give us plastic bags to cover our hand phones to protect from the splatter.

The overall structure and layout of the place was also very very good. No one was too close to anyone and there was much space to move around. They didn't squeeze all the sauce and small snack bar at a corner and make everyone go long distance for it. Instead they provided no less then 3 corners for all their customers at the sacrifice of their number of tables that they could lay out.

Price 3.5/5

As you can see from the picture above, the price for 4 people would total to about 130.65 which is about 30++ per pax. Granted not all of us took the sauce, we still ordered pretty much to our fill and it was filling. Note that I ate with 3 ladies so maybe their amount they ate was slightly lesser but in all honesty i doubt that.

On a side note however, I made another visit to the place and this time two of us actually ate a sum of 90++ dollars which is about 40+ per pax. So this would be the probable range that you spent but the 2nd time we ate, we slightly over ate.

Nonetheless, they actually allowed you to order HALF portions so that you can actually try and sample the food first before deciding on what u want to order more of which will help keep the cost reasonable.

It's not entirely cheap but you will feel that overall, you got your money's worth (unless you really wasted a lot of time waiting)

Accessibility 4/5

Hai Di Lao is actually famous for it's long queues if you ask people who have been there before. If you plan to go there for dinner, i would recommend you actually go down at about 4.30 or even 4 to get a number first so that by the time you reach your number, it would be about 6.

In fact, when we were done eating at about 10 plus, we still saw people queuing outside. Be prepared for 2 to 3 hours queue at the peak weekend hours. Also note that the staff will tell you that it is a 2 hours wait but in the end you wait for about 3 hours instead which was what happened to us.

However, if you are up to it and just want to try the food, you can come down early at about 11.30 and treat it as lunch instead. The 2nd time I went around that time, there was no queue and we could go there to eat.

On the other hand, the reality is, despite the long queue, HDL actually managed to score some points back in accessibility. This is because unlike other places where they want you to stand in queue, this place allows you to just take a number and come back a few hours later. Even if you came back too early, they actually served some drinks and fruits AT NO CHARGE. In fact you can even go get a manicure done over there, just walk in and get a time slot for it to be done and this is also free. All these facilities and actions make this restaurant well above the rest in service and making the wait less miserable.

The queues are long because this place also DOES NOT restrict your eating time unlike buffets. So you can go in and take as long as you want and it adds to the overall comfort of the place.

One more thing is that phone bookings are possible, but only if you book weeks in advance. Their booking seats are very limited such as half of their premise at a time and actually I would say that this is the better arrangement because you can go and eat when you feel like it and the waiting times for the waiting queue will not be atrociously long as there are more tables allocated to walk in.

It is also just above somerset MRT which means it is easy to get there and easy to get back from there which is a big plus.

All in all, besides the long long long wait, HDL has done a lot to make the wait less miserable and in all honesty and realism, it is difficult to improve further given what that they want to focus on a good eating experience and good service instead of just merely focusing on profit.

Overall

Food: 4.5 (Food and soup tastes good, has a huge variety and is highly customizable)
Atmosphere: 4.5 (Very customer service orientated right from the queuing stage all the way to the end)
Price: 3.5 (It's not cheap, but its not expensive. All in all, you feel that the price is deserved)
Accessibility: 4 (Easy to get to, and if you in a rush, go there very early first. Even if you queue, you are not stuck there and can do other things)

Overall: 4.125 (This is a kind of place that I can safely say, you should go and eat there at least once in your life. In fact, if you have friends coming from overseas, get them to visit cause they are not just selling the food, but also the entire experience. Tips to make the wait easier, bring card games to play. You can literally sit there for hours and if you have cards, the wait can be longer. Didn't see anyone doing this though so don't go gambling there. Just make proper planning and I think your visit to HDL won't be anything regrettable.)

If you want to check opening times and other details, click here

Movies: Exodus: Of Gods and Kings

Movies: Exodus: Of Gods and Kings

If your first thought to this movie title is... the Bible! then you probably have a chance at enjoying this movie! This is of course, a movie that follows the story of one of the more well read books in the world, whether for research, academic, rebuttal or religious purpose! If you want to just read the whole story, its free on the internet and all you have to do is do a brief search! Don't worry, just read the exodus portion of the entire book and you will get a gist of the story.

If you find this idea familiar, your not the only one. This movie was done before in albeit a different style and angle. The previous movie following a similar premise was called the "Prince of Egypt"

In fact, click on play and enjoy the music as you continue reading. It's pretty nice.

Ahhh... how time flies and these two divas are already pretty old. (They don't look the least bit older)

Nonetheless, lets talk about this new movie.

Storyline 3/5

There is probably a 80% chance that you, who is planning or has seen the show, already know roughly what the show is about. The movie manages to follow generally the story and in fact, it does make some creative direction to sort of make things more believable or well explained.

Don't think i can really be a spoiler to this movie but the part about the plagues on Egypt was interestingly done. I would say interestingly because the way they explained and put the plagues in sequence is not what one would originally imagine, and yet why not?

The front part of the story however is done more movie style with a bit of action and it was done pretty nicely to add some background to the movie. Overall however, this is the main focus of the movie and that is why it did suffer at some points as elaborated below.

The movie does assume that the audience has quite a bit of prior knowledge about certain sections of the source material and as such makes some leaps and misses out some introductions to allow the audience to know exactly what is happening at this point of time. Hence you may actually get lost at some points of the movie especially if you are not that well versed in the verses (woohoo a pun)

Do note, that from my viewing of the movie, there is quite a few starking differences between the movie and what you are used to.

Character 3/5

This movie focuses on only 2 people mostly, and the rest of them, and i do mean the rest of them are EXTREMELY similar to each other. You cannot really discern who everyone else is. Many of them have very very minor screen times but of course this is true to the source material.

Unfortunately this adds back to the confusion factor as you do not know who the people are and what is their role in those sections of the movie.

Of course there is a particular portrayal of a certain character important in the movie also and some people may like the way its done, some people not so. I leave you to see the movie and decide on your own of the direction they took.

Cinematography 3.5/5

This part was just sad in the movie. From the start of the movie, you would have been awed by the cinematography when they did their first battle. The way they did the action was like a LOTR or good epic castle fight. Sadly. This will not be repeated any other time in the movie.

There are still other pretty good scenes but all in all, this movie did not want to go towards the action style but rather more of the storyline route so you will not be impressed or awed too much until one last section in the end.

Probably another case of a pretty misleading trailer.

Music 4/5

The music was done very well in this movie. I would go so far as to say that every section was accompanied with music and its very prominent. It did add a lot to the feel of the movie.

Spectacle 3/5

Unfortunately for this movie, it chose to focus on the storyline aspect, but could not do it well enough. The source material might have been a factor, but still a good director would have been able to make it easy enough to follow. For the action scenes, scenes that had it was good, but there was just too few for such a long movie and it is a real real long movie.

There are tons of areas that the movie could have done better but I guess they might have got the priorities somewhat all around the place and lost focus as the movie went on.

Storyline: 3 (You need to know the storyline before hand, or you might get lost)
Character: 3 (Main focus was only on 2 guys, but everyone else was really hardly elaborated on. Too touch and go for me)
Cinematography: 3.5 (There were good scenes, and they had the ability to do good scenes, but they just didn't have enough opportunities for that)
Music: 4 (Good music, added a lot of excitement to the atmosphere)
Spectacle: 3 (I would say that they made a grave mistake and didn't do well on the main focus which is the storyline. Their secondary areas which was the action scenes were done ok, but they were not impressive so it ended up feeling lackluster)

Overall: 3.3 (I would say, to enjoy this movie, you first need to know a bit of the source material or else chance of you getting lost is really quite high. Next, you need to be able to appreciate some creative direction and twists to the movie. Next, you need to have an open mind to accept certain portrayals of certain characters in the movie. Next, you should be a person that likes storyline and not the kind that needs a high amount of your movie to be action based. All in all, it's an ok movie especially for the length of time, but you do need to have some preparation to be able to enjoy this movie fully.)

Movies: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Movies: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

It's been a while since the last installment of the Hunger Games, and for those who do not know what this movie is... you probably don't see movies much... I remember this movie as the first movie to show its advertisements almost a year before it really came out (or was it six months) which I thought was a bit extravagant. Nonetheless, its one of those movies that follows a book similar to LOTR and Harry Potter and is currently doing a Harry Potter thing which is instead of being a normal Trilogy, they take the last book/episode and split it into two.

What this means is that you will not get  closure at the end of this movie. It's more like seeing a serial or a normal TV show where it will end abruptly. What this also means is that you probably need to manage your expectation when you see the movie. I will tell you more as we move along

For those who do not know, this movie is set in an alternative universe where by all the people in the world are divided into districts. In their districts they are in charge of various tasks and products that they will supply to the capital where all the rich and famous and strange people live. So you have districts that focus on woodworks, some that focus on mining, some on farming etc. So every year or some time that I don't remember, there is hunger game whereby some people from the districts are selected to fight to the death and the last remaining person gets much riches and food and all that. So obviously after many years of doing this, you soon get some sort of rebellion started which is the focus of the next set of movies starting with Mockingjay Part I. So this is the starting phase of the rebellion itself. To not give any further spoilers, the introduction ends at this point. Here's some pictures

The movie that started it all

The continuation, look at her bow!

This movie's poster!!
Look her bow is gone.. wonder why

So if you did not watch the first two however, I would recommend that you actually see the first two because it does add some value to the movie especially since it introduces everything that happens and the new world that this movie is based in. In fact, I will go as far as to say, if you didn't see the first two of this movie, you will not enjoy it. You will understand as we go along.

Storyline 4/5

The storyline is the main aspect of this point of the movie. In fact I would say that the storyline makes or breaks the entire enjoyment of the movie because this show lacks action. Yep. Unlike the other 2 movies that came before this, this movie action portion is maybe only about 15% of the entire show.

You pretty much should treat this movie as a build up to the next movie episode where all the action is. The thrilling and exciting sequence is still here in this movie, but there is not much action. See the movie and you will know what I mean.

That is why you have to see the first two, then you will appreciate the build up. Or else you will have zero clue why the main characters in the movie are running all around the place and doing this and that and if you were to see the movie without any background it would probably only be worth 3/5 points. 

Characters 3/5

A lot of the development of the movie has been done in the previous movies before this. As such there is not much character development here in this movie. The difficulty this movie faces is that in a world like theirs, the people start to lose their character and basically become like everyone else. And this shows in the movie where everyone else feels relatively similar. You also might not know who many of the people in the movie are if you did not see the previous and hence you will have no clue why they are doing certain actions in the movie.

They do make some fair effort to distinct some people from another by giving them stranger hairdos and characteristics but there won't be nothing spectacular that makes you like any particular person. As in any rebellion there are a few speeches, but I guess it was the aim of the movie to show that because the characters in this movie are not born politicians, the speeches are not as inspiring as it should be.

Cinematography 3.5/5

This movie has some pretty good shots overall but unlike the first two, due to the lack of action scenes there is not much superb action shots. Has some nice outward top down views to show u more about the world and it does have the occasional epic things happening.

There is only portion in this movie however, that shows you that you can make a movie very thrilling, without having action. They do this towards the end of the movie so watch out for it the way they build up the audience and not have to worry about blowing extra money on budget. Hopefully, this translates to a more epic part II.

Music 4/5

The musical score does a very good job in this movie. In fact, music is used up to build a certain portion of the movie which is pretty creative although sometimes it feels slightly awkward to have someone singing as a part of the movie. Nonetheless it did a good job adding entertainment value to the show itself

Spectacle 4/5

Overall, especially for people who read the book and saw the first two, this movie does the story telling portion very creatively and well. But being the only focus of this movie, it takes a toll on the action scenes which is pretty minor for this movie. Thrilling factor however picks up very well towards the end of the movie and you will probably enjoy that portion of the movie well enough to say that the movie was in the end pretty entertaining. Its not the best and they could have done many things differently to cater to the more main stream action lovers, but for storyline lovers, this movie does well enough.

Overall

Storyline 4 (Main focus of the movie, does it pretty well, moves the story along to build up for the next movie)

Character 3 (Did not spend too much effort on this because this was done in the previous movie, if you didn't see the previous, you might get lost)

Cinematography 3.5 (Good effort and has some enjoyable shots but wasn't the focus of this movie)

Music 4 (Creatively incorporated in the music into the show and added much entertainment value)

Spectacle 4 (Did well on both the thriller and storyline fronts but sacrificed a bit of action for the movie, probably was not the focus either)

Overall 3.7 (My advice to you is, see the first two before you see this or it will not be enjoyable to you, and also if you think you are going to see the continuation of this movie in the future you can go ahead and watch it. The storyline and entertainment value of the movie is definitely there if you are a fan but just not derived from the usual pure action sequences. Not having too many epic scenes however means that you could actually just wait for Part II to come out and then see the movies together for you to have a complete picture instead of being cliff hangered but its up to you. Nonetheless, its a worthwhile way to spend a movie session especially since its quite a long movie)

Here is something fun for you to do! As you can see from the poster, this girl likes bows and arrows a lot. Count the number of arrows she fired in this movie!!!

Food: Carnivore Appetite

Food: Carnivore Appetite

Carnivore!! As the name implies, this is the place to go to to eat meat. We humans are supposedly omnivores except those people who are vegetarian, but once in a while we just have that craving to eat meat. All types of meat! So this could be the place to whet your appetite, or could it? read on to find out more!

First thing to note is that Carnivore Appetite is one of the few branches of Carnivore, BUT appetite is slightly different from the Carnivores in Marina Bay Sands and CHIJMES. The main difference is that this one is a buffet style where you are gonna have to go to the food and get it yourself. Unlike the other Carnivores whereby the cooks will actually bring out the meat on a skewer and cut it in front of your face. (NOT CUT YOUR FACE). The more important difference is the price! There is about a 10 dollars difference if you eat here compared to MBS and CHIJMES.

Aside from that, from the last time i ate at one of the other carnivores, I guess the only difference is also that the one at Appetite does not serve lamb. So take note that this review is only for the one at Carnivore Appetite, but you might roughly apply it to those at MBS and CHIJMES at your own risk!

This is the main draw of the place, meats around a heater

And here is the guy slicing the meat

Food 4/5

Here is what the food looks like on the plate

As you can see, it's still the same meat, the beef hump but this time there is the escolar fish!

So gonna chip in here and clarify, basically there are about 5 different types of meat, 2 beefs which is the beef hump and rump, one escolar fish, one chicken choice and also one pork choice! 

Escolar tasted really pretty creamy and smooth and if you do some read up it is said that this Escolar fish is particularly oil rich or something so not everyone can eat it. But if you can, the texture is pretty nice and tasty.

As you also can see from the picture above, the Beef we ordered was only of the Beef hump variety. The rump was somewhat hard in texture but maybe rump is always like that. The beef hump however, tasted fantastic and we had like maybe 5 or 6 servings of it. There was also a choice of about 6 different kind of sauce available and they tasted pretty fine but we roughly stuck to only 3 of the 6 sauces.

The rest of the meat was a good change of variety. 

The other buffet spread

There was also a line of maybe about 10 - 15 other dishes and also a salad bar sort of thing. The dishes ranged from other meats like sausages and there was soup, stew and risotto kind of stuff. Basically all these added much to the variety and overall gave a good spread of variety of the food present.

The drinks that were pseudo "1 for 1"

Had a bit of problems with the drinks at this place in that it was so called "1 for 1" when in reality, you could buy drinks at a slightly discounted price. Nonetheless even with the discount, the drink was gonna be about 6 dollars for 2 drinks which is pretty ordinary after all.

HOWEVER, do note that coffee and tea is served complimentary which means that you don't really need to buy a drink in the first place. There are also some people who would rather chill and drink there so it could also be an option.

ICE CREAM!! UNLIMITED ICE CREAM

 Finally, to sweeten the deal, at the end of everything, there is the ice cream!! Didn't notice any other desserts however, so I guess you could say the dessert options is lacking slightly. There was cakes though.

All in all, especially for a first visit to the place, the taste and choices of food is pretty good and you should be able to enjoy the taste of the food there.

To make things clear though, I did revisit the place in about 2 months later and the choice of food was almost 90% identical. So probably good to keep your revisits spread out.

Atmosphere 4/5

I went here twice so far and realized one thing, thanks to the place being relatively empty, it was a pretty calm and relaxing environment. The plates were all filled and there was a lot of spaces to choose from, the buffet area was restricted to one place so you would have minimal people walking past your table to get to theirs. 

The staff was quite eager to please and they collected your dirty plates relatively quickly. This is probably a good point of not having an occupied restaurant but it was indeed the current state of the place when I was there even during dinner times. 

Price 3/5

Its definitely not a cheap place with the price as follows directly from the website

Operating Hours & Prices:

Weekday Lunch: 12pm – 3pm
$19.90++ adult / $12.90++ child
Weekend Lunch: 12pm – 3pm
24.90++ adult / 12.90++ child

Mon to Thu Dinner: 6pm – 10pm (last order is at 9.30pm)
$29.90++ adult / $15.90++ child
Fri, Sat, Sun, Eve PH & PH Dinner: 6pm – 10pm (last order is at 9.30pm)
$34.90++ adult / $15.90++ child

For two people eating a dinner, it would probably cost you about upwards of 70 dollars. Judging from the amount I actually ate on that day which was about 5 pieces of meat which is smaller then your usual steak, and adding all the ice cream and stuff, you probably would find it hard to match the price you paid. 

Meaning unless you are super super starved, you probably cannot eat the equivalent amount of food for the price i.e. 40 dollars worth of food. The meat though nice, is also not fully premium type of meat as it is served buffet style and not cooked directly on the spot for a single share.

I personally think that they could lower down the price by about 5 dollars and the increased influx of people would be able to make up the lowered price, but that's just me.

Accessibility 4/5

This is really a easy place to go to via MRT and because it is situated inside a not as popular shopping center, you should be able to get parking easily if you drive.

There was also zero queue when you get there and you can have free reign and sit pretty much anywhere you want. Getting food is also speedy due to low customer traffic which is good for the consumer, but bad for business.

Overall

Food: 4 (Taste is there and variety is pretty good especially for the first visit)

Atmosphere: 4 (The seats were well spread out and the waiters were pretty fun and attentive)

Price: 3 (Pricey, especially the price of the drinks)

Accessibility: 4 (It's easy to get to and easy to get in. As a customer, hope it never gets too crowded)

Overall: 3.75 (This is a place that there is no harm going to once or twice, and the food is pretty unique and tasty overall with a variety that will not let you down. Of course it is slightly premium at the price so you probably can save it for special occassions. Of course try to find the meat that you like when you are there after trying everything and don't hesitate to keep ordering the one you like, if there is one choice that you like, it should be worth the trip already.)

If you want to find out more details here is the website 

Movies: Dracula Untold

Movies: Dracula Untold

Dracula! A story that has been told many ways, and sometimes it is confusing whether he is really real or not. He has been remade in games and is probably one of the clearer examples and origins of the common vampires that spawned shows like twilight. Nonetheless, with a name like Dracula Untold, is it really different and worth watching?!?!

For those who don't know, this is one iteration of dracula

Here is cartoon dracula

Well, fortunately for us today, our dracula is movie version dracula

but just for good measure here is another dracula

Here is game version dracula

Handsome little fella huh! but next question to ask is, is this Dracula story really an untold story? Lets read on and find out, especially since the answer is covered in the next section!


Storyline 4/5

I can't spoil the story for you because this movie story is quite a bit of fun. Nonetheless, lets say that this dracula tells a different story from what we usually believe and understand, just like how maleficent made us sympathize with the witch! Yep it is that kind of retelling of the story. But of course being made not by Disney, this movie will contain just a bit less lovey dovey or cutsie stuff.

The other point about this movie is that it focus on how Dracula came to become the person he is known by us to be and the "struggles" he met along the way. So it is more character development focused and the various twists and turns along the way makes it interesting to the end of this 93 mins flick.

Last point to praise is that this movie actually had many stops where they could very well have ended the movie there and then, however, this movie will then go on just that step further before reaching another possible ending spot and going on that step further again. As a result, this movie feels longer then it actually is because you get the feeling that "oh there is something more".


Character 3/5

Unfortunately for this movie though, the character development was not too well done and too greatly carried out. The first part of the movie (20 mins) was particularly for character building but it felt a bit draggy. Once it got to the action scenes however, it would be a bit more interesting but then in action scenes there is little character development.

Most of the development is on Dracula which is done above average well with only slight unbelievable or incoherent sections. However this meant that everyone else was greatly neglected and in essence its true. Almost everyone else in this movie would be someone unimportant and minor and you will not really feel for any of them.


Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography for this movie was done well. There are a few of exciting and impactful action sequences with good use of high shots and perspective shots to bring across the action flavor. It is almost towards 300 standards in terms of action sequences BUT it is highly lacking in the amount of action sequences. Most sequences could have really gone on much longer to show more of the power of Dracula and make it even more action packed.

Nonetheless given the short time frame, I would say the scenes and shots are done above average standards and will give you fair bit of entertainment and wow factors. That till you realised that they could have done so much more.

Just note that because Dracula only fights at night, some fight scenes might be too fast and too dark... not too many of them thankfully


Music 4/5

Music in this movie was there and it did have quite a positive impact in the overall feel of the movie. You can definitely feel that the music was helping this movie.


Spectacle 4/5

Storyline was good and flowing and it was kept exciting with enough twists and turns. Although there were slow sections especially in the beginning of the movie and some illogical portions of the movie and other aspects were not fully and properly explained. But nonetheless the gist and main purpose of the story line would keep you intrigued.

Action wise was also well done with good shots and sufficient scenes. So doing both well puts this movie above average on the spectacle department.


Overall

Storyline 4 (Sufficient twists and turns to keep the movie exciting)
Character 3 (Main character is focus of character development but not done completely well, all other characters feel slightly neglected)
Cinematography 4 (Good shots for actions overall, just a bit too few shots)
Music 4 (Present and adds a bit of immersion to movie)
Spectacle 4 (Action and story line segments are done well above average but still not excellent yet, still to do these two sections well it is pretty good entertainment value overall) 

Overall 3.8 (Overall 3.8 is a pretty fair score. Its a see able show, somewhat short but has sufficient entertainment value to be worth the time and money. Anyway it is only 93 mins long so it's not that big a investment. Action lovers and storyline lovers will be fine with the plot and the bit of action it brings. It should be fresh for most people giving the unique angle by which they are recreating the story.)

Movies: The Purge Anarchy

Movies: The Purge Anarchy

Hi all! its been awhile but I was just settling into my new job and there wasn't really any nice movie to review about. The drought has ended however with the latest movie being the 2nd in the series! Yep. For those who don't know, the Purge Anarchy is actually a follow up to a previous movie called The purge. For those who don't know, here are the posters!

This is the previous one, simply called the purge
The next in the list is the one we are reviewing today which is

So i will excuse you if you cannot see the link! Its a drastic change in the poster design, from a real literal poster form to one with the traditional actors bad/good guys standing there in the front.

Which is apt because unlike the first movie, which actually focused on the event itself and how a single family kept themselves protected, now this movie focuses on something else. Is this new focus better for the movie? Well read on to find out!

Storyline 4.5/5

This movie is all about this! And honestly, i would say that it is done in a very good way. Basically there are two stories that are going on, one is about the main character in this movie, while the other is about the purge in general. The movie goes about this in a very good and clear way and it is never messy and keeps moving forward.

The movie has sufficient twists where it introduces more about this new world that they are in and keeps the entire show exciting all the way till the end.

It also does a fine job of keeping everything underwraps till its time to reveal it and honestly all the happenings in the movie are pretty believable in what you would expect the world to be logically should such a occurrence really come into play.

Character 4/5

There is some particular focus on character and their background and explaining why they do the things the way they do... in fact this movie also explains quite a bit on the background of certain groups of people and what they decide to carry out during the purge itself. This adds a lot of good entertainment content to the audience as they are able to identify which kind of persons they will be like should the purge really happen and its really engaging in that sense

All the possible types of characters that were introduced is also highly probable to exist in the real world should something like this happens and this adds to the immersion value.

Of course many groups were just introduced for a very short bit of time and they could very well have some little teaser or entertainment value but i guess that would be a time constraint for the movie. Nonetheless it also leaves the possibility of expanding further into a 3rd movie.

Cinematography 4/5

There are really some good shots taken in this movie. High up shots to highlight how empty the streets are and even some close up perspective shots that are expected of an action movie. Only this movie actually did incorporate these shots into the movie that really added a lot to the immersion and entertainment value.

Music 3.5/5

I might have gotten lost in the storyline of the movie that I did not really notice whether the music was there. But I guess it should have been or else I would have noticed the lack. Sound effects were really strong in this movie though and it lend quite a bit to the impact.

Spectacle 4.5/5

This movie did really well in the spectacle department. It introduced a new world properly and combined the storyline focus with good action and it was above all, very believable. This movie has good source content to work with and the movie did a good job of telling the audience everything in the time constraint given.

It did a good job of being a thriller also keeping the audience intrigued and glued to the seat. This is probably a good example of a way a movie should be made.

Overall

Story 4.5 (Very intriguing story even for those who saw the first one due to the different story telling angle. It's a interesting new world to introduce)
Character 4 (Good background for those who were very important, a few groups could have used a bit more elaboration)
Cinematography 4 (For a movie that didn't actually have action as its utmost focus, it did well in putting in quite a few exciting bits.)
Music 3.5 (Had good effects, didn't really notice the music)
Spectacle 4.5 (Very good way to do two genres namely the action as well as storyline genre. Kept the movie exciting all the way)

Overall 4.1 (It's a good movie, and will appeal well to the general audience. Only one it won't appeal to is those who are super easily frightened. None the less you should be able to appreciate everything this movie has done and even at the end, it keeps you thinking.. what if one day this is our reality?)

I would honestly recommend this for those who want something to do. You probably cannot really go wrong with a movie like this.

Movies: The Maze Runner

Movies: The Maze Runner

It's sometimes quite interesting how they transfer some games that we played such as games like battleship and convert them to the big screen. Mazes are nothing new to us, we probably played this when we were young and had a pencil. So did the producer manage to make full use of this ever so familiar maze concept that we have in our minds and boost it into the big screen? Read on to find out!

Storyline 3.5/5

These movies with a fixed focus such as the maze in this case, will also have the free reign of how to go about fleshing out the background as well as the reason for having this maze.

The movie starts with the introduction to this new world but doesn't give any reason for its existence and what is really happening. It intentionally keep things vague and the first chunk of the movie just explains what is life inside the maze like. Then it moves into the maze itself and what happens inside before finally using the end part to explain the origin and future of the maze.

To prevent spoilers which is important because this movie is all about storyline, I have to be vague in my description and yet still be able to convey to you whether this movie has a good storyline.

All in all, in my opinion, this movie has a solid story in the beginning as it moves from situation to situation but towards the end, everything comes crashing down especially at the explanation of the maze itself as it hardly makes sense. Maybe book readers will find it easier to understand but for me at the end, the reason for this maze existence is strange.

Yet this movie still gets a 3.5/5 because of the fact that they have many different focuses through out the movie and there are various twists here and there that keeps the story engaging although not always logical.

It's a show with a lot of links that you might need to draw yourself however, and as such you may need to think a bit more then your traditional movie. As such also, the pace might be slower then the usual action flicks out there because remember, this is not an action film.

Characters 3.5/5

This movie mostly focuses on the main character as he tries to understand his past and what the maze is for and how to get out of it. This would mean that one character is also the maze itself and hence there is less time used for all the other people in the movie.

Nonetheless, important characters are somewhat fleshed out and if you see the movie itself, these characters are like the girl and the mazerunner guy which could have had more background or support for why they act the way they are. There's only like 2 characters with a bit more back story but at least all the rest of the characters in the movie are distinct in some small way which is good.

All in all, there are some characters that you will end up somewhat sympathizing which works well for this movie but they could have made it even more heart wrenching.

Cinematography 3/5

Its not an action movie but there are some good epic shots here and there. One issue however is that some scenes are particularly dark and also too close up that you don't really know what is happening which is detrimental to the enjoyment of the movie.

In terms of the thriller effect, its quite well done and will keep you strapped to the seat if the scene wasn't too dark in some occasion.

Music 3/5

Didn't really notice this particularly in this movie and have no recollection of whether it was used to build up suspense or anything like that.


Spectacle 3.5/5

In the aspect of storyline and introduction of a new world situation to the audience, as well as the usage of the maze which is the critical part of the movie, this movie did MOSTLY the right thing all the way until they tried to explain the presence of the maze. Fortunately this part is far into the movie which meant that it would be bugging your mind throughout the movie so it works in the movie's favor. Had enough twists also and is generally believable.

Did a good job of being a thriller with a lot of exciting and suspenseful scenes overall to keep the audience glued to the seat although there are sections which are somewhat slower and slightly too draggy..


Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Was fine, believable and coherent with sufficient twists till the end when suddenly they tried to explain the maze in a very strange way)
Character: 3.5 (Focus was on the Maze as a character as well as the main character, side characters were somewhat fleshed out and you might empathize slightly but there is many room for improvement)
Cinematography: 3 (Thrilling scenes were generally well taken until the dark night scenes where you might actually lose track of what was happening which is sad and a waste)
Music: 3 (Didn't really notice this at any point of the movie but was not a detriment to enjoyment)
Spectacle: 3.5 (Movie focus was probably storyline but it somewhat crashed at the end. Still a above average thriller)

Overall: 3.3 (I guess it would be a fair score for this movie. Action lovers might not fully enjoy this movie unless you also like thrillers. Try not to expect too much with regards to a proper explanation of why was all these happening. You will never really know why even all the way to the end. Instead just try to keep your focus on the escape of the main character and how it is done. Try not to be too critical and you probably can enjoy this movie. It's pretty long too which is good in terms of money efficiency. You won't dislike this movie but it might just fall slightly short of being a fully satisfying experience.)