Movies: Jurassic World

Movies: Jurassic World

If at first glance, you thought that this movie sounded familiar, then you must be from the same generation as me! Indeed it has actually been a cool 22 YEARS since the first Jurassic park was shown (1993). In fact, from its most recent Jurassic park it was already 14 years ago. Yep. Jurassic Park III was actually shown in 2001. After that, there's been some TV series, but no there were no serious contender to the Jurassic park series... until now! And in case you are confused at the name change, no worries, Jurassic world indeed was made to be a continuation of the Jurassic Park series.

So how did the movie go? was this a good reboot to the series? Lets break it down and take a look

Storyline 3.5/5

Well.. considering that the previous similar storyline was done nearly 22 years ago.. I would say that the storyline is somewhat refreshing. It's not totally new, but it has not been done for such a long time we can consider this a fresh start. Especially for those who didn't see the first few Jurassics, you will find this a very thought provoking and interesting storyline.

There were a few portions of the movie whereby the the characters (humans and dinos alike) did not really follow the logical path of action but it was all for the purpose of making the movie much longer and entertaining experience so don't be too critical to be expecting a movie that completely does not raise any brows in disbelief.

There is a fair bit of entertainment value and amusement in the conversations and happenings throughout the movie including the tense portions but there is also the addition of the obligatory love story blahblah thing that I would say was just slightly detracting from the movie. The pace is not fully action packed and a good part of slightly more then the first half of the movie is to introduce you to the new theme park that is Jurassic World and it was somewhat slower paced at the beginning. However, once it picks up into the action, it keeps it that way till the end.

Character 3/5

Character also runs into the similar problem as storyline, meaning that the development of the character does not really follow logical progression. It may be overthinking it a little but you probably won't feel as much connection to the characters as to the dinosaurs themselves honestly.

Nonetheless, they are playing the family stick together storyline style and I guess its passable in general although this is nothing that will steal the show.

Cinematography 4.5/5

Good cinematography and its very cool at how they make use the of the special abilities of the dinosaur in the movie itself. There are also a lot of noteworthy action shots and even first person shooter style that look like it could come out from game itself.

There are also a lot of great shots to show the overall scale of the world with dinosaurs involved and it really adds to the enjoyable experience. You will be able to appreciate the scale of the world when you have dinosaurs in the picture and like what the movie wants to do, you will learn how small we humans would have been comparatively.

Music 4/5

One major smart movie that the movie did was to make use of the all familiar sound track from the very first Jurassic park to bring about the nostalgic feeling to the audience who have last seen this movie close to 2 centuries ago.

Overall also, the music is noticeable in immersing the audience into the lull that is the Jurassic THEME park before throwing you into the real Jurassic everything goes to hell park.

Spectacle 4/5

Considering how rare a movie of this scale is nowadays, this is really a refreshing improvement and difference to the usual action movie that is merely man on man or man on monster. It also does a fine job of introducing u to a world where maybe theme parks will be different, and yet how it can go so very very wrong. Action is done pretty well in this movie with a nice climatic finish in the end that will most likely entertain u pretty well.

Sadly, its story is not as intriguing and merely serves just as a medium to get the story across due to the many inconsistencies in the usual logical paths or action that characters will take. Nonetheless, the shots and action part makes up for it leading to a very enjoyable dinosaur movie.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Good enough storyline, has some inconsistencies but overall flowing.)
Character: 3 (Not easy to relate to character story lines and somewhat cliché. Ironically, the dinosaurs may attract more emotional connection then the humans)
Cinematography: 4 (Good epic and action shots, even better then some action movies out there)
Music: 4 (Good usage of music to bring out nostalgic effects, also helps audience immerse)
Spectacle: 4 (Been too long since there was a dinosaur movie and that alone helped it score high. Only let down was the overall story direction)

Overall: 3.7 (I would say that this is definite a good action show and a way to spend about 2 hours of the day if you have nothing superb to do. You will probably enjoy this movie even more if you saw the first 3 movies and can appreciate how times have changed and the movie pretext has advanced through the years. In fact, if you plan to see this, take a few days and watch the first 3 movies with your pals and friends first and you should be able to enjoy this movie even more. Just don't expect too much or a too spectacular kind of storyline and you should be all set for this movie)

Next movie on the list is Minions and hopefully I can get the review up ASAP! Thanks all for reading and comment if there is anything!!

Movies: Avengers 2 - Age of Ultron

Movies: Avengers 2 - Age of Ultron

It's here again. The yearly installment of the marvel franchise and this time it's the everything all together super hero mash up of almost every other marvel franchise together. There is still room to really mash up other heroes like the x-men and spiderman but this is not the movie. Yet this movie easily has about 10 prominent superheroes of which many have appeared in their own split off movies and for fans of any of these individual side movies, there is no reason why you will not want to catch this one.

Storyline 3.5/5

The storyline in this movie is pretty fine, keeps the movie going and has a pretty good pace of slow and quick moments.

It actually has some specific focus on some characters particularly those who will not be getting a standalone movie in the near future. I will leave you to guess who these few characters  are but overall the story is fine with some overall development and flows well enough.

There is also the injection of quite a few comedic scenes making use of the uniqueness of many of the character backgrounds and personality which is a important touch. After all, even for us mere mortals, there are moments where we have our own humor too so this makes the movie feel more real and entertaining.

Don't expect a storyline that is unique or  fresh as it merely follows the usual marvel style. You will see the gathering of heroes, them having some internal conflicts, then they team up and with all their powers combined they do a lot of killing and destroying.

Character 4.5/5

This is pretty much the whole draw of the movie in that they add a few more new superheroes or villains and introduce their powers and show how they interact and do things in this alternate world they live on. But with the inclusion of so many characters many of whom are from the previous marvel movies making some cameos, there is more then enough heroes to satisfy you as long as you are interested in this kind of thing but you may get lost in trying to recognize who are some of the people and what they are doing there.

All heroes do have their back stories and like I said above, this movie does put some emphasis on a few characters that won't have their own movie in the future so there is a fair bit of character development here and there. But for those who have not seen the previous movies, you will have no clue who 30 percent of the heroes are especially in the meet up scene of the movie and this does hinder some form of enjoyment as what they say might not make sense to you unless you follow more the franchise closely enough.

I also like the idea that the movie is fleshing out the more normal, more human-like heroes in this movie as compared to those who already have an excess of screen time. Also it is sweet that the movie gives each character their chance during battle scenes so you can be awed by their abilities and see how it is used to its potential.

Cinematography 4/5

As per usual action marvel movie this one has plenty of action shots and loads of slow motion scenes where you can slowly enjoy what each character does during battle and see what powers they have.

You get to see a lot of good special effects and even some first person views that gives you quite good entertainment and immersion value.

Also has its fair share of epic shots from the sky and fast movement shots all around the place.

It never gets too messy during the Battle scenes as the director is conscious to not make too many things happen at the same time and this allows the audience to follow the movie much better

Music 3.5/5

Music in this movie is fine and adds alot to the atmosphere and over all immersion feel. It is not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination but it really does it job well enough. Anyway marvel movies are not musicals. They are action movies.

Spectacle 4/5

If you want a movie where you can see tons of action, special power,  see your favorite marvel super hero besides the characters from the x-men etc. This is your go to movie. The pacing is good enough and the battles are always exciting although a bit one sided most of the time.  I personally feel that this detracts a bit as you will feel that your heroic characters are never going to lose at any point and thus the end results of every battle are more or less expected.

Although there is some twist at the end of the movie, overall, this is a great action movie with a good storyline to boot. Definitely something the fans will enjoy tremendously cause they give the fans what they really want.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Good flowing story with good pacing, but from the bird's eye view, still a cliche, safe generic storyline)

Character: 4.5 (You get tons and tons of heroes in this movie including many cameos)

Cinematography: 4 (Good shots all around, makes the action scenes much more exciting)

Music: 3.5 (Fine music for an action flick, nothing too spectacular though)

Spectacle: 4 (This is the action movie that marvel fans must see, and it does well in the action genre with good slow mo shots, epic shots etc. Storyline is also pretty flowing)

Overall: 3.9 (Overall, this is a show that will appeal to many people as a pure action show with tons of special effects and power. It does get a bit heavy at a point of time when it seems like everyone and their grandma seems to be having super powers. It does help to see the previous movies before catching this and for action genres, it is more fun to see it on the big screen. With future similar and related movies linked together, if you feel that you will see those movies someday, then you might as well just go ahead and spend 2 hours having fun with the Avengers.)

Trip: Thailand, Bangkok

Introduction

Greetings from Thailand, Bangkok. The place that every woman must go once in their life as one of the shopping heavens in the world. Of course Thailand is not just all about shopping, but the city of Bangkok on the other hand is practically just shopping and shopping and shopping. But wait! Ain't all malls the same where they have all the same stalls selling roughly the same products? The interesting part of Bangkok shopping malls as compared to Singapore shopping mall is that  they have very many different kind of small stores all around the place and of course although there are some repeats, in general, every shopping mall will have its charms and product for every person, except those that hates to shop.

Some details of the trip so you can see if it is relevant to you. Our main objectives for the trip was a university friends get together in a simple free and easy trip. Since the group make up was 2 girls 2 guys, it was fine that we all go for some sort of shopping trip without too much physically straining activities. Travel all around the country was not part of the plan of the trip.

With that, lets go into the detailed review of the trip to Bangkok. Do note that the location I used for this post is in between about 3 or 4 main shopping malls so if ever you wanna choose a place to stay during your trip, you could choose that area.

Activities 3.5/5

I have actually done up the itinerary for what we did when we were in Bangkok for the 4 days 3 nights stay and so if you need a reference on what to do during your holiday, you could use the google sheet as a base reference. Click here to take a look at it. Note that this details was done up only AFTER that trip. We had an initial plan and on the 2nd day we didn't follow anything on the plan any more. Anyway, the final trip details (what we did in the end) would be the most accurate cause it was exactly what we did in our limited time there and note that there are ways to make even fuller use of your time and squeeze in some other activities here and there.

Bangkok Trip Details

In a nut shell, what are the things you can do/should do/plan to do in Bangkok. I would recommend this place for the following activities

1. Shopping
2. Visiting shopping malls (its different from shopping)
3. Massage
4. Food

If you are looking for other activities such as scenery and water sports, this is definitely the wrong place to be. No doubt this place was made for the people who loves to shop and you will see more details in the shopping segment. Visiting shopping malls would be the alternative to scenery exploring in Bangkok because there is NO particularly unique scenery in Bangkok. However, there are many themed or different styles of shopping malls so it does add quite some fun in seeing how one shopping mall will differ from another.

Massage styles and types

For the massage enthusiast, we chose Health Land spa and massage for our 2 hour traditional thai massage. Thai massage is the one where you remain clothed (wearing their provided shirt and huge shorts) and they will twist your body. This is not the swedish oil massage. Of course there is the option over here in Healthland but in Thailand, you should at least try the massage. I won't do a review of the massage activity itself as it is not the purpose of the review, but just note that this can be one of the many activities that you choose to do.

Food will also be covered further down in the respective section

There are other stuff that you can do  that are similar to things you do in malls such as catch a movie. Its not too disgustingly priced and you can use the picture below for reference

Ticket prices for movies

All in all, choose this trip if the above attracts you. There are no theme parks, no beaches, no sceneries to talk about but for the activities of shopping alone, this place does exceptionally well. Look at this as an extending shopping spree type of trip.


Scenery 3/5

The panoramic view from our hotel

The view of Bangkok is simple, a city type of view with fewer high rises but still highly urbanized. This is the scenery that you will be familiar with for the whole of the trip. Nothing natural, nothing spectacular. Buildings are all just functional looking.

On the bright side however, some shopping malls actually put in some effort in making their malls look unique and special. Of note is this place called Terminal 21 which is themed as a airport that brings you to different country with their unique structures and cultural stuff. Hence there are a few photo opportunities if you want to take pictures. Shopping wise though.. you will read more further on.

San Francisco's Bridge

London and their bus

Night view out of the hotel

Night view wise, is also simple urbanize view. There is no particular place that you need to visit at night for any great photo taking opportunities.

Overall, as stated above, this is not a place with unique scenery both natural or man-made. At least where was some minor attempts to make certain malls stand out from each other but all in all, not a pull factor to come to Bangkok for. You may keep your professional cameras at home.

Shopping 4.5/5

Of course this is the whole draw of Bangkok. If you come to Bangkok without any interest of participating in this activity, you are absolutely wasting your time and should read up more before you plan on where to go for holidays and for what activities! Honest!

In our time there, you could say that about 2/3 of the time was spent in shopping malls whether it is eating or shopping itself. Furthermore, many of these shopping malls are close to each other and in our case, whenever we wanted to go to anywhere we had to walk thru the shopping mall itself.

The reason why we stayed in our area however was that our area has at least 5 main shopping malls and in reality, we only actually spent majority of time in 3 of those 5. Meaning that even in a 4 day 3 night trip, we didn't have time to go to the other two malls. The malls that we went to are Central World, Platinum Mall and Siam Paragon.

Below you can see that Central World is your traditional very huge shopping mall complete with food and movie options. It's like our Vivocity in Singapore with the larger international stores. They also have a bazaar outside of the mall from the morning and it is worth a short exploration walk.

Bazaar outside Central World

Door way linking the BTS to Central World

The other two malls was Platinum mall which is similar to our Bugis street. All the shops here are tiny 1 store lots with a big variety in clothings, accessories, shoes etc. Fortunately for us we stayed in Novotel Platinum which is just above this mall and so we could come down and shop when ever we had extra time. This is probably the young shopper's mall of choice.

The next mall was Siam Paragon and this mall is more similar to the high class shopping malls in Singapore Orchard area where the food outlets are more premium and restaurant typed and the stuff are more expensive.

Opposite these malls are a few smaller shopping areas like this Siam Square one. This cater more to the younger crowd also but we didn't spend too much time there, but I reckon that the shopperholics will still find something to explore in these malls.

Smaller shopping malls, but still packed with shops

The other two shopping centers in the immediate vicinity were Gaysorn and Palladium shopping mall. I would envision that these malls are similar to one of the malls we have already visited but as you can see, the choices for shopping even close to our hotel are pretty extravagant.

And away from our mall, is Terminal 21. This was supposedly another of the recommended mall and like I said in the scenery section this mall is made to be photo opportunity. However, shopping wise, this shop is probably more like the Central world and probably about the same size. That means it caters to the slightly above average group however and does not have many of the smaller thailand specific shops that you see in Platinum mall. All in all worth a visit but we didn't see anything here that was worth buying when compared to the previous mall we visited.

Terminal 21, a air terminal themed shopping center

Besides the shopping mall types, there is also the hot hot outdoor chopping area of which the famed one is the Chatuchak weekend shopping market. From the name, it might be true that this market only opens on the weekend so if you want to pay this place a visit be sure you plan ur trip properly to have a day during the weekend.

Enjoying the hot sun, Chatuchak style

The many many small alleys in Chatuchak

As you can see, all the little little squares are all shops, and there are plenty

Take a look at the Chatuchak map and you can see the amount of content it has. It is divided into sections and I would say you could probably spend like 4 hours if you wanted to shopping over there. I told my companion that the only limit you have in Chatuchak is how much heat you can take cause it does get really hot there. There are also places you can eat over there so if you were planning, aim to reach there about 11 and you can have your lunch at 1 and shop a bit more till 3 or 4 before coming back. I am not sure whether you could visit this at night but I think it closes at 6. 

Chatuchak weekend market did carry a lot of items that we could not find in the urban malls and we only explored 1/8 of the mall in the 2 hours we were there. So this should be a interesting place to add to your itinerary.

Now.. to the money killer... In our trip alone, I probably spent about 200 dollars on Naraya. Naraya is a Thai brand whereby they have various patterns such as strips, elephants, spots etc. For each of the pattern, the have various bags and accessories from tissue holders, to cosmetic pouches, to wallets, purses and all the way to full fledged bags. Its a souvenir and woman dream come true. Granted they won't be expensive (they range from about 30 baht to up to 600 baht) and so you can buy many many of them for the casual going out. And you can get them in all the same pattern.... There are two Narayas near our area, the first is in Central World and the 2nd is in Siam Paragon. If you were to ask me, try to check out the Siam Paragon one first as it is less crowded and there are bit more variety and organization over there. The Central World one was just jammed packed and it was difficult to even get a hold of the staff to ask questions. Definitely a must visit there and perhaps you can just buy something cheap in memory of the visit.

Naraya... the money sink

Overall, a quick comparison as advisement to all. The items in Chatcuchak are actually the cheapest, about 20 baht cheaper then those in Platinum for shirts. Variety is also better. Comparing Platinum to Terminal 21, the items at terminal 21 are about 50 baht more expensive then Platinum. So i recommend if you go to Chatcuchak, buy most of the stuff there, if not shop at Platinum mall first for all their local goods and products. Shopping wise, this place has everything for everyone of every budget and this is what Bangkok is all about.

Food 3.5/5

Food in Bangkok as expected is mostly thai based. Even their food court noodles and stuff all have certain kind of thai flair to them. Our first dish that we tried was the Phad Thai noodles and as expected, the food court flavor is similar to what you will get in Thai express in Singapore and at a clear cut fraction of the price.

Phad Thai

Beef and beef ball soup

Besides the food courts, there are also the usual steamboat restaurants, and japanese cuisine. In fact Central world has strangely quite a lot of Japanese eateries for some reason.

Beef Sukiyaki

MK Steamboat

There are choices of food for everyone as the choices are similar to any of the food you can get at the local malls.

Do note that overall, the food may be generally cheaper, but their portion is slightly smaller then what we were used to especially in the food court. They also required that we purchase using those cards with stored value and not via cash.

On the 2nd last day dinner, we actually went extravagant and went to eat at Siam Paragon Manna restaurant. This restaurant had all the accolades and reviews and stuff, but we ate and spent way more then we expected. The food nonetheless was nice, but it was pricy. Do be aware of this especially when eating at the more luxurious looking malls and do not over buy.

Hello Kitty Cafe...

On a side note, there is a Hello Kitty House near the area at Siam Square and you could go there and take some pictures and stuff if you are a fan. Do note that the stuff there are WAY WAY WAY overpriced... Guess you are paying for hello kitty and the atmosphere.

All in all you could say that the food is relatively cheap and relatively nice. However I was not impressed and it was not as easy to find food that tasted great in the malls and being malls, the standard were just the same standards that you expect from the main shops some of which you can even find in Singapore.

People 3.5/5

You will need to communicate and mix around when you shop

The people in Bangkok are generally used to tourists and are pretty nice. About 3/10 will actually have a good enough grasp of english to be able to converse while the rest are able to just tell you how much their items are priced at. Don't be afraid to try to bargain but most of them already have clearly written prices and they generally will stick to the quoted values. Even if you reject at that point though, they won't be offended and are rather neutral. They are also not too pushy about selling their wares. The locals will also keep to themselves and when ever they bump into you, they tend to all be nice and apologise regardless of whether it is their fault or not.

The whole place also feels safe as it is tourist infested and hence bad eggs won't go about trying their luck with so much security and tourist presence.

Hotel staff are quite good at speaking and understanding english and are able to keep their smiles on even when faced with unhappy guests or customers and they seem sincere in wanting to help you enjoy your stay.

Accommodation and Ease of getting around 3/5

Walk, car, taxi or even take their train

Bangkok is a place filled with vehicles. Even from the first ride to the hotel itself, we were already faced with the infamous jams. We attempted to take a free tuktuk from our hotel to the nearest BTS (train) station and it took almost as long as walking there ourselves due to the jam. They had a few roads that had 4 lanes in one direction and only 1 lane in the other direction. Nonetheless, they do have a good train station to get you to where is necessary but if you actually stay in the same area as the shops, I would say that walking around would be good enough.

Still, taking their taxi do require a bit of skill. about 60% of the taxi drivers will rather go by a fixed fee and this is DESPITE you taking the taxi from the airport itself even. When we got on the taxi at the airport which we told the airport attendant that we wanted them to go by the meter, the driver still attempted to lie his way through and said that Big Taxi no meter even though the meter was right in front of us. Fortunately the airport attendant will give a piece of paper with some numbers and details that you can jot down and when my driver saw this, he gave up and asked if we wanted to go by the meter but we have to pay for additional airport toll as well as any tolls along the way. Nonetheless the 475 baht that we paid in TOTAL is a far cry from the initial 700 he wanted to charge us. A few taxis will be like that but don't fret if they do not want to go by the meter cause they are generally really over charging by about 1.5 times the real amount. 

They are very happy when you give them tips though so prepare a lot of small change like 20 bahts to tip them and end on a good note. 

Unfortunately for us, when we wanted to go back to the airport, we utilized the hotel taxi booking service which cost us 800 baht for the trip back (no need to tip this one). Nonetheless as we had bigger luggage and needed the bigger taxis, we didn't want to go through the hassle and risk missing our flight.

Do note that if you want to go any other destinations around, not all taxi drivers are proficient with the route and certain places. We actually spent nearly an hour lost with our taxi driver in hunt for a seafood buffet eating place and he spoke little english. You may use your own google maps or GPS to attempt to guide them but be prepared as the maps may not have thai and they still remain as clueless.

Taking the BTS was also slightly more hectic as their ticketing machine always had queues. We didn't buy the charged cards although that could be a possible alternative if you are going to be travelling on their trains often.

Overall, transport in Bangkok is not impossible and not entirely hard to do, but it has much room for improvement. However, if you stay in the same vicinity as us and don't wonder off to other areas of Bangkok, you can really just walk for all the locations. Do note that if you were to stay in those hotels near Terminal 21, while we were there we noticed that it might be the only mall in the vicinity so do pick a good hotel location to reduce the need to travel via taxi due to bad traffic, or BTS due to human traffic.

Cost 3.5/5

Trip wise, if you are just visiting malls and eating, this shouldn't be a trip that is financially taxing with everything costing less then eating or doing the same thing in Singapore. Transport itself also wasn't too expensive be it taxi or public transport like trains. Most of the movement is done by walking anyway. Massage costs for Thai Traditional 2 hours was also only 500 per pax which is 25 SGD which is cheaper then Singapore's 40 dollars heartland 1 hour oil massages. Note that this is for Healthland spa which is well known by tourists and locals alike. Mall massages seems to still be overpriced at 500 baht for 1 hour or something to that effect and the massage rooms are tiny and may be shared. I would recommend if you want to do the massage, you go for Healthland or those established ones and not just random mall massage palors.

The only place where you will spend money would be the shopping itself, but even then the stuff are quite economically fair. T-shirts would be in the range of 5 to 10 dollars per shirt and their quality is pretty ok.

I went there with 300 dollars changed to thai baht (about 7000) and thanks to shopping, had to change an additional 100 SGD, and cause I wanted to buy something for my mom I used my credit card to buy. I mostly bought gifts actually so about 2500 was the amount I used purely for myself. The hotel itself was relatively pricy as we stayed on top of the platinum shopping mall (just slightly cheaper then Singapore price 500 per room for 3 nights) but you will save on time and cost on transport thanks to its location.

Overall
Activity: 3.5 (Only activities are all linked to shopping and malls. Nothing unique. However, shopping activity is very enjoyable and easy to do in Bangkok)
Scenery: 3 (Only scenery is the urban sceneries and the occasionally well decorated malls)
Shopping: 4.5 (Definitely a place meant for this especially if you stay in the area. Even in our 4 days stay, we haven't shopped all the places yet)
Food: 3.5 (Cheaper then Singapore, generally tasting better, but nothing was really awesome that would make you go to Bangkok specifically to eat)
People: 3.5 (People are nice enough, did not meet any bad eggs or trouble makers, but language gap is still visible)
Accomodation and ease of getting around: 3 (Traffic jam everywhere, even if you want to take the trains, there is a bit of hassle in getting the tickets, but if you walk, its all good)
Cost: 3.5 (Cheaper for food and shopping then Singapore, but hotels are not THAT cheap)

Overall: 3.5 (Bangkok trip is not a trip for everyone, and it is also not entirely a hassle free mind completely relaxed kind of trip. But the shopping and the cost of shopping is therapeutic and enjoyable to the Singaporean shopper as there is no need for too much second thoughts when buying stuff as they are all cheaper in general. There are really many places to shop but I do recommend staying in the same vicinity as us and I cannot guarantee that you will have the same experience if you stay elsewhere as the density of big malls might not be as good. You can still have the occasional massage but massages at the malls might be overpriced. Movies are also pretty cheap. This is a trip to go with friends and you will have sufficient things to do. As family complete with kids and all that, maybe not so much. If your group is full of shoppers who are interesting in helping Thailand economy boom in a win win situation, this is the place for you.)

Let me know of your own experiences in Bangkok and if you have better itineraries! Also let me know if I got anything wrong!

Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

As you all are aware of, this is world wide news, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, one of the oldest residence of Singapore, the holder of NRIC number S0000003E has finally come to rest. The people of his generation, have already went before him and finally, after battling with the natural wear and tear of the human body, he finally has a chance to be at peace and rest.

I'm no traditional blogger, with no ability to write a proper tribute like them, nor poems, nor songs. But what I can do in my own capacity, is what I have always been doing. To give a final review of what kind of person Lee Kuan Yew has shown himself to be. I'm but a layman, but like every other layman Singaporean, this is what I know about him and what I feel about him from all the sources of information around me and the Singapore around me.

Leadership 5/5
Lee Kuan Yew was a person who worked his way up. He didn't start in a position near political power, but as a ordinary lawyer like many Singaporeans today, but he didn't have interest in money, he didn't have interest in fame, but he had interest in Singapore, and in making Singaporeans different from the rest of the world. We are not the traditional country with plenty of resources to get rich by, we are not even the country with plenty of people to utilize. But he made the most of what he could do, going around the entire Singapore to rally support for decisions and to relay confidence when the country was shaken. Look at the people and yourself and think of the aims for money, fame or property we have today, and you will know why we are not like Lee Kuan Yew. At best we want a good life for our families, but for Lee Kuan Yew, he wanted a good life for everybody and he did it.

He knew he had the influencing power to give confidence and direction to the people, and this was what he knew he had to do personally. He was a born and trained leader not through academic studies, but through discipline and the drive to lead. He was a leader who spent as much time on the ground as he spent in strategy making.

There will never be a leader like him, to do both ground work and thought work simultaneously especially if you look at how Lee Kuan Yew started out in the very beginning stages of his political career without a entire entourage to help him.

Speechcraft 5/5
If you listen to his speeches, you will notice something about this man. He speaks his mind without fear, because he knows that if you follow his direction, it will be the right direction. He speaks for his team, and makes good of his promises and is more then willing to be held accountable for them.

He speaks with fire and with emotion, because he feels that the country is as much his as much as it belongs to the people, and he knows he has the right direction to lead Singapore. And he was right. When he speaks, you can see the determination he has and the enthusiasm to make good of his words and he does this while not constantly referring to a script. For people who do speeches or plan to do speeches, if you believe in what you say, you will realise that you don't need a script, because this is your natural direction already. Lee Kuan Yew knew of the direction he would take Singapore, and was convinced and assured as time proved that he was right.

Also, respect to MR Lee Kuan Yew, who though being english educated, made it a point to learn Mandarin, dialects and Malay for the sole purpose of appealing to the crowd he is talking to. This was the sacrifice and mental energy that he expended to make sure he was perfect in speeches, and all his efforts paid off in the end.

Do we have a leader like that today? Do we still speak what is politically correct in fear of offending others? Do we make effort to learn the language of others just so that we can identify better then them? You know the answer to these questions and suffice to say, he deserves respect in the speechcraft arena.

Dedication 5/5
If you haven't, google Lee Kuan Yew's little red box which described the way he carried out his task on a daily basis. I can safely say that if you spend time surfing the net during your work hours, you are far away from how dedicated Lee Kuan Yew was to carrying out his task as a minister of Singapore. This was a person who eat, sleep and breathed Singapore. A person who dedicated almost everything to Singapore and as he famously said, his life for Singapore. A person, who stayed up late and lost sleep to make sure that his people could sleep longer, with peace and security.

You see a person whose his wife rested earlier then him, yet managed to shift his focus to Singapore and his work to keep himself going instead of breaking down benefiting no one.

He was not in it for the money and honestly, there is hardly any news that said Lee Kuan Yew misused or was extravagant in his spendings. He was truly a person who was in politics for the people, and not for himself, because he was dedicated to Singapore and the people and nothing else.

You see a person, that dared to give promises beyond death that although impossible, are strong words that not many of us dare to even imagine, let alone utter out. This was the extent of the dedication he had for Singapore.

Would our leaders today be like that? It's hard to say because none of them are like Lee Kuan Yew who spent nearly 30 years as PM of Singapore, another 14 years as SM of Singapore and 7 years as a mentor to Singapore. He didn't want to stop as long as he thought he could contribute and regardless of whether or not he did especially in his older days, his spirit and drive for Singapore can't be denied.

Foresight 5/5
Mr Lee was a leader in attitude and spirit which is all good and important, but what he also had was foresight to see what the country needed, and to lead the country in the direction to get it. This is a blessing that not many people in the world would have and share, but Singapore had the fortune to be blessed with foresight through Mr Lee and his direction.

He saw the importance of the English and Chinese language, and thanks to him, we are now able to go compete and gain economically from both powers of the world to the extent where westerners are amazed at our grasp of English and Chinese welcome us as we converse in their familiar language.

He knew what steps he had to take to lead to the economic prosperity of Singapore and this is evidenced in the Singapore you see today that stemmed from the good direction that he set right at the get go. Even more commendable was that he did this without the natural resources that other countries have.

He never forgot the importance of being green, and thus we do not have a grey urban country, but a country that has its pockets of greenery that do bring some calm to the hectic lives we live in today that will be enjoyed by us and the generation to come.

No one today has been proven to have seen as far as Mr Lee has and has created a country that is comfortable to live in whileunder his charge. And let us also remember, Mr Lee did this without the help of computers or simulations which is an even more insurmountable feat and I am doubtful anyone can do this anymore in this modern age.

Personal Touch 4.5/5
When you look at the crowds of people who are visiting him as he lay upon his state rest, you see people from all walks of life, all ages, all races, coming together as one to bid him farewell. You see the elderly, the people who directly benefited from the decisions of Lee Kuan Yew,  making their way to the city (a place that the old won't really find a reason to be in) just to say their final farewells, with tears in their eyes. They can personally testify to how their lives were changed and are grateful because the lives of their children and grand children are better, because of his sacrifice. You hear the stories from the people whom he fought for while as a lawyer, right from the start, before he started his fight for all Singaporeans. He didn't aim for GDP growth for GDP growth sake, but he aimed to give us Singaporeans a good life, a standard of living above that of the world and this resulted in the GDP growth during his time as the Prime Minister. He was a down to earth minister from the get go, and the people of his time all knew this.

When you look at Lee Kuan Yew, you don't see only a minister or a politician, giving speeches and meeting dignitaries, but you see husband and a father, living and bringing up his family the only way he knows how, which is by giving his best. He is not just some person high up, but a human who loves, just like you and me and finally he may rest, together with his wife, ashes to be mixed together, for as long as time permits.

Credits to Ashley

The only thing he lacked out of necessity, was to be gracious to people who may or may not (but in his opinion may) had the motive to harm Singapore all the way to the end which might have been a impossible task when the country he had worked so hard to achieve and build was at stake. But let's face it, Lee Kuan Yew is only human, just like all of us.

You can't hear of dedication on the personal level like him today. To esteem and remember all the moments with his wife, with ZERO issues that plague politicians all over the world today such as scandals and corruption.

Spectacle 5/5
There will never be someone else like him whose achievements are recognized all over the world even by people of stature and authority. There will never be any chance to make a difference as big as him in Singapore, because we have already travelled the entire path from 3rd to 1st world and are already in front of the pack. There is no longer as large a developmental gap left in this world for Singapore to bridge as we grew exponentially faster to catch up with the front. There will never again be someone, who can touch the hearts of the Singaporean people, uniting them regardless of race, language or religion to respect even if they did not agree, with the direction LKY took us.There will never be anyone else, as synonymous to Singapore as Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.

Overall 

Leadership: 5 (A leader who led by example, coming from the bottom up)
Speechcraft: 5 (A persuasive man who spoke his mind and walked his talk)
Dedication: 5 (A person who gave up everything for his people, including his life)
Foresight: 5 (A person who made Singapore the way it is, respected by the world)
Personal Touch: 4.5 (A person who was a father and husband and taught us how to be a good father and husband too)
Spectacle: 5 (A person who is likely the only one in the world with such an achievement of bringing up a country like Singapore, from 3rd to 1st world.)

Overall: 4.9 (There's no doubt about it. Lee Kuan Yew will be remembered in Singapore as the person who led and gave the direction for the development of the country and more importantly, succeeded. He did this from the bottom up, starting with small feats that garnered him respect, worked with all sorts of people to push his agenda, handled setbacks and made personnel sacrifices, all for the country that he loved and the people of that country Singapore. There will be no one like him but rightly so, because there is no one with his leadership, speechcraft, dedication and foresight, matched with his personal touches that made him so human to the people he served. Singaporeans have much to appreciate and be grateful for and the best way to do this is to serve with the spirit that Lee Kuan Yew has served, to the best of our abilities. Majulah Singapura!)

RIP : LKY

Disclaimer: This post is written with information obtained from the net and research and are accurate to the best of the author's knowledge. There is no intent to offend any party, political or otherwise. The author merely wishes to pen down his tribute, at this significant juncture of Singapore's history, to Lee Kuan Yew in the most appropriate way that he knows how to and has the utmost respect for the accomplishments of Mr Lee

Movies: The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water

Movies: The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... who lives in a pineapple under the sea?!?!?!?! Absorbent and porous and yellow is he............ If you do not get what I am saying here... then you do not know the infamous Spongebob and his annoying laughter! And you are probably from a different generation then me... But what generation does Spongebob actually appeal to? That is the big question that you got to ask to see if you can enjoy this movie. So who is spongebob? A bathing sponge?? You ain't all that wrong. Here he is in all his yellow glory!!

Wow! he is hunky!!

Actually no. This is the real spongebob. If you seen this before, then most likely you have seen and grown with the spongebob cartoons that sadly, have not had much new episodes in the past few days. However, spongebob and its cartoons are known for its overall silliness humor as well as the occasional dark and gory kind of humor.. Yes it is that strange....

Look at him and his pinky friend!!

So what does this spongebob have to do with the hunky one above? How did they even match all these together?? Is all that even worth seeing? Read on to find out more.

Storyline 3/5

The storyline is actually something quite similar to what you have from a traditional 20 mins spongebob episode, only about 5 times longer. They writers are smart to create two distinct portions of the movie, one being the cartoon world and the other being the real world, and linking them seamlessly to keep the audience interesting.

However, that is all there is to the show and it is a simple storyline in its entirety. One problem however, is that it is not entirely clear at what is happening at all times and they do use words such as apocalypse and other difficult words. This, is not your usual kids show and if your english is not that great, you will miss out what is happening.

The entire link at what exactly is happening throughout the show is also not very clear cut especially for children to understand. Personally I was confused about what was happening at times but maybe kids these days are smarter and more able to understand.

Character 3.5/5

The main characters as well as the villain/s in the movie are well represented as well as their distinct personalities that you will get from the cartoon shows. The problem here however is that the writers expect that their audience would have already seen the movie and hence they will know why the characters do the things they do but it would get pretty heavy for a new viewer with questions such as why is a squirrel living in the water and other big questions.

Cinematography 3.5/5

The movie is done in a relatively creative way as its cartoon and real life mix keeps things interesting and fresh even after 40 minutes into the show. It's not an action show however but it does try to make things exaggerated and exciting at whatever action parts there are.

Music 3.5/5

Ahhhh, music... spongebob's favorite hobby... ok its probably not his favorite hobby but it is not the first time he sings also. The movie makes use of music at a certain juncture of the movie as a throwback to what was done in his previous cartoons. It made the movie fun although the singing is horrible as usual (that's the way the character sings anyway.) Overall, it added some fun value to the movie.

Spectacle 2.5/5 (3 for spongebob fans)

I would say that this is where the movie takes the biggest hit. Let me now justify the 2.5 score to you. First of all, this movie expects u to have quite a lot of background information on Spongebob and his friends to really enjoy everything. Without it, you will miss out on a lot of the jokes and not be entertained by what is happening. Spongebob cartoons also take pride in going out of the box and being unbelievable at times. However, this movie takes it to really the next level and it might have gone too far away from its cartoon to the extent that even I, a fan of the movie, was confused at what was happening. Action wise it is normal, nothing too exciting and storyline is simply just ok, passable and merely just sufficient for a entertaining movie. Comedy wise, it is also mostly only funny for those who are aware of the spongebob story and if you are a person completely new, it won't be as entertaining for you. In light of all these, I could only afford a passable score for non-spongebob fans and perhaps a 3 for spongebob fans because even as a fan, you won't be able to catch everything.

Overall

Storyline: 3 (It is kept somewhat interesting with the two different worlds and a out of the world story, but it is not particularly easy to follow)
Characters: 3.5 (A lot of characters from the spongebob cartoons appear, but only those fans can appreciate most of them and the non-fans will be confused)
Cinematography: 3.5 (Things are exaggerated, you will see many strange colors and it is creative, but not all of these things that are done added to the enjoyment of the movie)
Music: 3.5 (Music is fun, singing and stuff is bad, but that's spongebob for ya)
Spectacle: 2.5 (The deciding factor, there is entertainment factor but only the most informed of fans can fully enjoy. For the storyline, action and comedy aspects however, it's only just passable)

Overall: 3.2 (A pretty realistic score if you ask me. If you are an extreme fan, you should be able to like it. A normal fan however, you might not be able to follow everything but at least u get to see your favorite characters. Non-fans however, you gonna need to keep an open mind. In fact a very very very open mind and just accept everything the way it is. If not, nothing will make sense and the whole movie will just be.... nonsense. If you really feel the need to see the movie, then perhaps you should take a look at some of the cartoons first so that you can better appreciate the movie. If not, don't worry if you give this movie a skip because you ain't really missing too much. For those with kids, the above advice also applies. Young kids may only enjoy the color and cute characters but like the cartoons, spongebob content and jokes was always the more adult kind (not sexually, just more complex).

Movies: Dragon Blade

Movies: Dragon Blade

This Chinese New Year, this movie had the unfortunate situation of coming up together with Fifty Shades of Grey, a highly anticipated sex movie! After all, sex sells doesn't it? But does action sell too?? Apparently, not as much because the theatre where i saw this movie was only about half full. However, if you already had your fill of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and am looking for a movie to keep you entertained, could this movie be the one for you??

Look at the poster first and maybe it will help you decide!

Now look closely. we all know who the person in the middle is but look right above him!! OH its a bunch of English people!!! I would say that this might be the attractive point of this movie in that you get to see English people fight with Chinese people. But what kind of story do we actually have? Lets read on to find out more.. But something to help you manage your expectation, this movie has nothing to do with a dragon blade. There's no dragon, theres quite a lot of blades.

Storyline 3.5/5

This movie has a pretty interesting storyline. It starts off saying it is inspired by historical events. This term is very vague and for this case, basically could mean something like 10% related to historical events. Maybe just that the main character has exactly the same name. That probably what they mean when they say inspired by historical events so don't be looking for a history lesson here. Nonetheless, storyline wise however, this movie has a pretty flowing storyline and it flows quite well especially for an action show. The only big issue of this movie is the START and the END where they introduce and end the movie. If you see this movie, you will understand what I mean but in short, if you want to make a movie about a period, there is absolutely NO NEED to use the present day time as a filler or introduction to the movie with completely no links and relevance using an actor and actress that totally has nothing to do with the main content of the movie itself. It is so absurd that you should just treat it like a joke or a non existent part of the movie.

The movie does a good job of introducing the background of what is happening and does it with appropriate amount of action in the middle which is what Jackie does best. As the movie flows on, it injects more and more storyline elements explaining what and why is everything and this keeps the audience interested in the movie and thus allow the movie to not seem too draggy or boring.

Character 4/5

This movie involves quite a lot of characters and also the introduction of different tribes. All the characters/tribe are pretty unique in characteristics, language, dress sense and even fighting style and in some way it becomes very entertaining to see all the differences in culture all these people have.

With regards to the main characters, the movie does focus on the backgrounds of the two main characters and the bad guy through various flashbacks that are short, but sufficient. Most of the stuff that happens is rather believable which serves to keep the audience immersed in the movie.

Just like most fighting movies, there will be a lot of death in this movie and this movie does the deaths relatively well with all the dying people having a nice short  death sequence before they drop dead and die. The bad guy in the movie is also done very well and as you see the movie go on you will start to root more and more for the good guys and start to detest the bad guy. One flaw is however towards the end the bad guy gets conflicted for some reason which is somewhat not in character and not that believable.

Cinematography 4/5

This movie's cinematography focus on two things, 1 to 1 fighting as well as large scale epic battles. In fact, it can be said that the main fight scenes are reminiscent of "The Hobbit 5 Armies". It is almost like a chinese version of LOTR. Unlike the LOTR series however, the movie stays constrained to 2 hours and due to the need for some storyline, there are some room for improvements. Nonetheless the battle scenes are fun while they last and due to the variety in character, you will not end up in a state where your mind just says "blah blah blah, another fight scene, blahblahblah yet another fight scene".

They could have utilized more perspective shots that are fun to have in an action film to increase the entertainment value.

Music 3.5/5

Music is commonly quite a obvious part in chinese movies and this movie does it too. There is one part of singing in this movie to evoke some emotional attachment to what the people are feeling but this is still not a musical.

I still can't really appreciate Jackie Chan singing though.

Spectacle 4/5

In the genre of both action and storyline, this movie does fine, just not too spectacular with a bit of hiccups here and there However, it stays entertaining, unique, fresh and fun all the way from the beginning to the end which is what every action movie should at least have to attract the general public. It also has a relatively unique storyline as compared to the traditional chinese fighting movies although there is not too much kungfu in this. At least its not a all chinese affair in the end

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Interesting take on "historical" events, told in a attention grabbing way at least for the duration of the movie EXCEPT start and end)
Character: 4 (Quite a nice variety with good differences amongst all. Celebrating the differences makes it more entertaining)
Cinematography: 4 (Good 1 to 1 fight scenes with quite a bit of epic battles on the list)
Music: 3.5 (Uses music to push the emotional part across)
Spectacle: 4 (Storyline and action are done well and overall movie is kept exciting and flowing)

Overall: 3.8 (A very safe score, indicating that if you really have nothing you want to do in particular and like to see some actions plus big army fighting, this is the show u can see. It's not a must see however with a lower then 4 score but you would most likely be able to enjoy the movie nonetheless for its action scenes. Remember though, don't be affected by the start and the end of the movie. Just treat it as not being there at all.)

Let me know if you have any comments! 

Movies: Into the Woods

Movies: Into the Woods

Disney is at it again. After doing the twist in Maleficient whereby they made the bad woman good, they are now trying this new idea. Oh what will happen if we combine some of our stories together... like maybe Jack and the Bean Stalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella... wait lets put a baker inside just for fun... and Oh maybe just put Rapunzel inside!! That's what this movie is about.. Wait.. lets not do it like a traditional movie.. LETS DO IT IN SONG!!!!!

Actually into the woods is a broadway musical but not as well known as those like Les Miserable. But for the usual uncultured people like us, this would probably be our first foray into the movie. So how did this movie perform? Read on to find out more!

Woo! It's a scary witchie!! But without this witchie there won't really be a movie...

Storyline 3.5/5

It's quite a seemless integration of the entire movie but the thing the movie had to do was to cut down some storylines. So you would see Cinderella story but very little of Jack and the Bean Stalk. It's a fun combination and the movie actually continues after the first happy ending part which was pretty good because it was fresh material from then on. However, the story at that part was pretty weak and some things that happen didn't really have any proper explanation. Also note that this movie follows the Grimm version of the movie so it is slightly slightly morbid as according to the Brothers' Grimm version.

The other big problem this movie has is that the audience will need to have good knowledge of what happened in the stories so that they will know what is happening. The biggest offender of this is Jack and the Bean Stalk again.

All in all, the storyline is fine especially if you know the fairy tale involved but if you don't know the stories, you can't enjoy this movie as much.

Character 3.5/5

As you realise, there are some movies that can spend the full 2 hours on a single fairy tale. For this, they need to squeeze 3 - 5 storylines together and as a result there are scenes and parts that cannot be focused and elaborated on.

Nonetheless, all the involved characters are distinct and unique in the character types which made for quite a bit of fun in how they interacted with each other.

It's also quite fun to see how their storylines intertwined with each other but the movie had to make some strange stretches to allow their characters to meet each other.

Cinematography 3.5/5

The angle this movie worked on was being fun and entertaining as expected from a musical and they did this well. It won't be anything impressive with the many close ups of people's lips vibrating from emotion but that's what you usually see in movie musicals.

Music 4/5

Musical obviously have good music. In fact, for a good whole 3/4 of the movie its all music and song and music and song. It's those kind where by no one can talk properly and it must all be done in song. However, after the "happy ever after" part, the movie will actually go into a portion with slightly too much talking which is strange in a musical movie.

Still, the lyrics and singing style made the overall experience a pretty good one as they used different kind of genre to bring out uniqueness in the character. Not a entirely large genre but it has a musical feel to it.

Spectacle 4/5

Overall, this movie was a good entertaining musical with its fun and even funny lyrics and good expressions from the actor and actresses. Only flaw is that if you see the trailer, you might not have realised that this was a musical and if you weren't expecting a musical, or HATE musicals, this might be a painful experience to you.

The other draw is the way it twines all the fairy tales together into one continuous narrative which is pretty seamless. But besides that, this movie has nothing else going for it.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Pretty interesting way of intertwining, but some things just happen for the story sake and it was not entirely logical or continuous)
Character: 3.5 (Characters were all nicely distinct but they had to share the screen time)
Cinematography: 3.5 (Musical focused so you won't see anything awe inspiring, but it works fine.)
Music: 4 (Nice lyrics, nice tunes but there was some parts that was too much normal talk!)
Spectacle: 4 (Interesting story line told in a singing way for a unique twist, added much entertainment value to the movie)

Overall: 3.7 (A pretty accurate rating for this movie. Basically, if you are a lover of musicals, you will like this movie quite a bit as it puts good music alongside a pretty unique storyline. If you are a storyline lover that doesn't hate music on the other hand, you can still focus and appreciate the artistic flair in joining the stories seamlessly although there are some hiccups here and there in continuity. If you are looking for action and anything else however, you might just find this movie a bit too painful and slow to sit thru. So don't see this movie if you hate music and expect people to actually talk to each other properly. Don't be led astray by movie trailers and the lack of emphasis that "THIS IS A MUSICAL")