The one with Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

I have enough time now to write a review about Star Wars Episode 1: The Phanom Menace.

To start with, I am writing this review not as a fan (because of that I am not that much of a fan for the moment), but as a normal person, watching this movie for the second time. So there won't be any fanwanking nor any unhealthy bursts of anger. Well, almost. You'll see what I mean later.

Let me just state something from the beginning, since this movie is the first movie to be released in over 20 years since Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, you can instantly see the changes regarding CGI, and special effects.

Truth is, that there is only one single scene in this movie that there are no special effects added, and it's in a scene where there is steam coming out of some pipes.

So let's start the review!

We start with our two Jedi knights, Obi-Wan and Qui-gon (with Obi Wan still being a Padawan), being sent to negotiate over a blockade that has occured over the Planet Naboo.

Whilst being there, they get attacked, and find out that they have to take Queen Amidala of Naboo to a safer place.

They escape into the planet, where they find Jar Jar Binks. I will lash out on him later, don't worry.

They manage to take themselves to the princess, and when they all try to flee, a part of their ship is damaged.

They land on the planet Tatooine, where they search for spare parts, a certain one that is expensive. They go to a shop, where they meet young Anakin Skywalker, a slave-boy who helps out in the shop. They also find out that their republican currency is worthless there, so they are stranded on the planet.

Anakin offers them to stay at his place, and they find out that he has built his own podracer, and eventually they make a deal with the owner of the spare-part shop that if Anakin wins, they will take boy with them, and also the spare part for the ship.

If they lose, they will have to give away their ship and also the podracer.

Why do they want Anakin then? Well, because of his blood containing lots of chylomicrons (if I remember the name correctly), meaning that he has an abnormally high amount of the Force inside of him. Simply, Anakin could be the "chosen one", who is supposed to gain balance to the force.

But something has bugged the crap out of me, it's clear that Luke Skywalker is the chosen one, and that he is the one bringing balance to the force when he takes care of the Sith, but I'll ramble about that in my review of Episode VI.

So, Anakin wins the race, and they all leave. They decide to fight the blockade by force by taking control over Naboo, and via uniting with Jar Jar's people, and we witness a long battle where Anakin somehow gets into a Tie Fighter and kicks ass, and Obi Wan and Qui-gon fight Darth Maul.

In the end everything goes fine, and Anakin starts his training to become a Jedi, and during the movie he becomes friends with the princess( known as the servant "Padme" for most of the movie).

Overall, the movie contained too much talk and less action. To rephrase Elvis: "A little less conversation, a little more action, please!".

Although the introduction into the world of the Jedi was very interesting, it could be too much talk about politics and other unimportant stuff.

About the special effects: Were they that necessary? The "previous" movies didn't contain that much effects, and they did fine, and they looked more realistic.

Some of the Jedi fights, like when they jumped looked too unrealistic.

About the music: it was absolutely wonderful, and they managed to mix in some of the tunes from the latter half of the Episodes into some good Star Wars-esque tones.

The actors were well chosen, and Liam Neeson was very convincing in his role as Qui-gon, and Evan McGregor was as usual very good as the young Obi-Wan, playing the young and unexperienced Jedi very well.

Natalie Portman altered really well between her roles as the servant Padme and Queen Amidala, and being already a seasoned actress (by the age of 15, she had already played the role of someone's wife), she nailed it, simply.

We did get to see Samuel L. Jackson in the Jedi council, and speaking with Yoda, and it made me to look forward to Episode II.

Jake Lloyd played his role as Anakin Skywalker well, but there wasn't that much of a "wow" feeling there. He did his part, and it was adequate.

I have to note that when I first watched this movie, I didn't know that this was a prequel to the original trilogy, so I got confused. But watching this another time I perfectly understood, and felt dumb.

About Jar Jar Binks, what the hell, George Lucas? The only thing he did was being in the way and speaking like a retard? He was mostly a retard through the whole movie, just to be suddenly promoted as a general, and what's even worse [spoiler] he represents Queen Amidala in the second movie, and he seems seasoned and smart there! [/spoiler] What the hell!

He seems to be that character that you can just put wherever you want, like some kind of straight opposite of a Deus Ex Machina.

Well, overall, I would give the movie a 6/10, but that's mostly because of the plot and the CGI, but the actors and the scenery were good.

See you later with a review of Episode II!

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Picture source: http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Star-Wars-Episode-I-Poster-Card-C10227317.jpeg

The one with my arrival

So, I am finally home. I can simply say that it's sweet to be home. But the trip wasn't all easy.

Let me make a list:

1) My 8 kilo bag and 8 kilo handbag felt like they weighed 15 kilos each.

2) I had to say goodbye to my girlfriend and I'll miss her ALOT. I really love her. She is my soulmate.

3) My brother didn't come with me, and I can't wait to see him and play some games on the Gamecube and overdose on a Kebab roll with him.

4) Too many people from my University's division were there. Luckily I sat at a bus with only a few of them there.

5) The plane was one hour delayed. When I and another friend, who was to take the same plane, went to check which gate we were going to go to, we found out that the plane is now on schedule, although it hadn't been announced. With 20 minutes to go through the security and finding the gate, we got there just in time. Assholes.

When the plane landed, I got picked up by dad. We went home and I had breakfast, mom had made pancakes. Awesome. They were delicious.

Then I slept until dad picked me up for my doctor's appointment, and I had some lab tests done and tomorrow I have to bring in some of my feces in a tube so that they can rule whether I have stuff living inside me and eating my nutrition.

Later on, we had lunch with my sister and her boyfriend, and it was really fun with many laughs.

Tonight I am going with them both to a theme park to walk around and to enhance our Christmas spirit, so it's going to be fun!

Now I have to take another nap. I am exhausted, in a good way.

The one with the vacation

Hi y'all. Today was my last day at school before Christmas.
I have packed my stuff, and cleaned up my apartment, and I'll go and have a shower soon and then I'll go to my girlfriend to await the departure to the bus station.

This semester has been OK, although I feel that they tried to cram in too much stuff into a schedule with not that much time.
But overall I'm content.

Regarding that blood test, everything was fine, but now the doc suspects Ischemic Bowel Disease or a parasite infection from the time I had blocks in Pediatrics.
Oh, Pediatrics, I hate you even more now.
It's probably not IBD, that's absurd.

Aaw, this baby is cute...just wait until it SCREAMS for half an hour and makes you SICK!

So, now I'm going to go through my stuff, and then jump into the shower.

I would recommend the following blog for you if you understand Swedish: http://doktorreflux.blogg.se
It's a really funny blog.
If you don't understand Swedish, try this link, which is a translation in English: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://doktorreflux.blogg.se/&sl=sv&tl=en

I'll return soon with a review of Star Wars Episode I, and later one of Star Wars Episode II, all up 'til Episode VI!

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Picture source: http://www.uvpediatrics.com/images/h_img_05.jpg

The one with all the swamp

I am currently too swamped to make a long post here, too swamped to even watch a movie, so I have to wait for a week to make another post!
Going to have some blood tests made tomorrow, since I have felt tired and weak for the last two weeks. Had a low blood glucose today, even though I just recently have had a meal. Yikes.

See you soon.

The one with the suck

Even though you can't really have a bad day without bad things happening to you, you can indeed have a sucky day, knowing of it even one year beforehand.
In my case, I've known it ever since this semester has started. This sucky day, double the suck, because of that it both sucks and sucks out your energy.
The day I am speaking about is Thursday.
Every Thursday we have the following Schedule:

08.00 - 11.15: Block
13.30 - 15.00: Pediatrics lecture
15.30 - 17.45: Patomorphology labs
18.00 - 19.30: Pharmacology lecture

So until 19.30, we have 3 hours free, but at a very uneven scale. They expect us to go to all the lectures and the labs. Like I've got the energy.
Today, Thursday will suck less. We won't have Patomorphology labs, which leads me to skip the suckiest lecture of them all: Pediatrics lecture.
It's just so boring and the lecture hall is so small, hot and oxygen-deprived.
We have obligatory presence during those lectures, and they expect that all 50 students in our class should show up in a lecture hall that only fits 36 students, going by the seats.

Fucking idiocy.

So, simply I'll only have Blocks in Cardiology and pharmacology labs today. Between those hours I'm going to be home, studying on some interesting things instead.

Other sucky days can be if you get noticed beforehand that some boring relative is going to visit and that you'll have to be home and talk to them and all that shit, even though you have nothing in common, or maybe a guest, a friend of your mothers, who is a total ass sometimes and doesn't even understand you speaking the same language because of some foreign words being thrown in (which she should know after 20 years in the foreign country with the foreign language).
Or when you have to go to a trip when you don't want to, as an example when the destination is the same, but the plans are changed to such an extent that you don't think it's going to be fun.
At least I'll always have beer in those moments to soothe the pain in my soul.

On another note, I have found myself going to sleep at 8pm and waking up at 4am. And I like it. Sweet.

I also checked wikileaks'(http://wikileaks.org/) transcripts with text messages from a time-span 5 hours before and 5 hours after the 9/11 attacks, and found that there could have been some filtering done, as only 20% of the text there was text messages.
And actually, when checking the messages, only the ones approximately 10-15 minutes after the attack showed that people had noticed the attack.
Then it cooled down around the evening and no more notions. Also, people were still writing texts of the type "I need a fax sent to corporate right away, Adam" during the attack, unknowing of the events.

But yeah...some filtering would have been nice.
Check it out at: http://911.wikileaks.org/

Bye to y'all. I may add another post soon.

The one with 2012

I am putting Clockwork Orange on a hiatus for the moment. I have watched the movie recently, but I have to read the book again to refresh my memory, something that I'll do around Christmas-time.

The movie that I'm going to review today is 2012, and yes, I know, there are probably alot of reviews out there. Just for you, I'm going to try to make a review better than "It was good".

First off, some information about the location where the movie was watched:
A big cinema, with large salons, newest technology regarding sound and picture. My seat was on the tenth row of 14 total. The view was perfect, with no neck pain or neck stiffness.

I have to stress that I had seen no trailers nor read any reviews prior to watching this movie. My thoughts were that just one or two lines were enough to ruin the movie for me. The only information I had was knowledge that I had collected prior in my life about this dreaded year "2012", about the Mayans ect.

Some info that I have found about the year 2012: December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era. On this day the Long Count date at creation—written 13.0.0.0.0 in modern notation, equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar—is repeated for the first time in a span of a little over 5,125 solar years. The completion of this cycle and the repetition of the previous Creation's Long Count ending date have been central to the 2012 phenomenon. Academic researchers have not concluded that the ancient Maya themselves attached similar significance to this point in time. Source: Wikipedia.com

In fictional movies, the "apocalyptic" idea has been used, especially with the year 2012. The following movies that I'm going to mention are made in the 21st century, not very surprising as it was at this time the 2012 hype started to spread to the average Joe.
2012 Doomsday is a 2008 direct-to-DVD doomsday film produced by The Asylum. The film is an imagining of the events predicted to occur in 2012.
I am Legend is not really not related with the "2012-Mayan calendar-bye bye Earth" idea, but it's plot relates to a post-apocalyptic Earth year 2012. The movie is adapted from the novel I Am Legend, written by Richard Matheson. Altough the novel was written in 1954, I think that the movie adaptation's dates were influenced a bit by the 2012 hype.


Now to the movie!

We start with Adrian Helmsley, further in my review known as Adrian, a young geologist that during a visit to India gets to know that massive solar flares release neutrinos, acting like micro-waves who heat up the core of Earth, making the crust unstable. He somehow gets this information to the government, and starts to work with some of the highest scientists to discuss the matter and to reveal more information about whether these changes are going to affect the whole Earth and whether they are going to lead to mass-death among the Earth's population.
Almost at once, the government starts a huge project in China, building three arcs made to hold 400,000 people. Because of the project being expensive, rich people can buy tickets one billion Euros a piece.

The main character in this movie is Jackson Curtis, a writer. During a hike with his children, he meets Charlie, a crazy guy living in a trailer, broadcasting news about the 2012 doomsday, believing that it's an act of God. He has had a relationship with one of Jackson Curtis' friends who had sent him some information. Charlie reveals that people who knew about the project were all killed to prevent information to spread to the average Joe, and to prevent mass panic and riots.

Anywho, Jackson does not believe Charlie at first, but as he is a Limo driver, he drives two children of a businessman, Yuri Karpov, to the airport, the children reveal that they have tickets to a ship that will make them survive, leaving Jackson and other normal people to an inevitable death.
Jackson doesn't really believe that at first, but when a huge crack on the ground underneath him opens up, he rushes to pick up his children and ex-wife, along with her new husband Gordon.

Gordon is a really cool man, he is a plastic surgeon and a pilot. Sweet.

Anywho, Jackson picks up his family to take them to the airport to leave for meeting Charlie to get a map that reveals the position of the ships.
Here starts one of the most awesome scenes in cinematic history. As they ride in the limo, the Earth behind them starts to rise, and they have to step on the gas not to be crushed. The crust of the Earth have started to give up to the pressure.
As they are followed with the disastrous amount of ground, we see other people getting crushed like ants, and they barely get to the airport where Jackson had arranged to hire an airplane to take them to Charlie, but the pilot is dead.

Don't show any fear for the end that is near, Gordon is here!
Gordon takes them up in the air, even though he has a limited amount of lessons in the air, and swiftly flies them to Charlie.

They land near the Yellowstone park, and while they fuel up the plane, Jackson and his daugter search for Charlie. They find him on the top of a mountain, broadcasting live the happenings. They have to leave him there, because of that Charlie rather would witness the explosions and share them with people, that crazy bum.
Jackson takes the trailer and rushes back to the plane, all whilst the crust is giving up and a mountain erupts like a volcano. They get to the plane, but wait!
The map! Jackson rushes to the trailer, takes the map as Gordon starts the engines on the plane.
The whole scene is really tense, as Jackson falls into a crate with the van. The others start to fly away, filled with sorrow and despair, as Jackson climbs up, something that I actually expected.
He runs against the plane, and eventually gets on the plane.

They arrive to another airport, as they run out of fuel, where they meet Yuri and his posse. Both groups need a plane, one that they find (a huge one, Russian as Yuri proudly claims). But it needs two pilots, and Yuri has only one. What should they do?

Well, our gang has their own pilot aswell, and here comes Gordon again to save the day once again! What a no. 1 guy!
They take off just as all the other people on the airport die a horrible death.

They arrive Early to China, as the continental plates have shifted due to the changes in the crust of the Earth. Their engines give up and they have to crash land. Sasha (Yuri's pilot) tells everyone to sit in one car (the plane shipped luxury cars), and whilst the cargo lid opens, they ride away, leaving Sasha trying to save himself in the plane. What a hero.
Just as the plane stops at the end of a cliff, we think that Sasha is saved, but the cliff gives up, leading to a dead Sasha.
Damn, I hated that part. Sasha was almost as awesome as Gordon.

Anywho, Chinese troops arrive, and only Yuri and his kids get picked up due to their tickets, the others have to find another way in.

Now, this part of the movie and onwards dissappointed me. The movie seemed more like a regular action movie from now on.
They get to the ships, find a way in, cause an almost disastrous jam to the doors of one of the ships, leading to almost deadly results to the whole ship.
Did I mention that Gordon got crushed in the cog-wheels operating the doors? That sucked really much.

They get on the ship after all, and everyone is fine. We get a speech about the future and about how people should be kind, yadda yadda yadda.

I would say that the beginning of the movie was the best, and that I almost expected Jackson to return from fixing the jammed cog-wheels, as it would otherwise be a plagiarism of Poseidon, where the father dies in the end. Jup. I was having that thought during the movie.

Going by the special effects, they were awesome. Of course there were instances where you could tell that the effects were artificial, and that bothered me. An example is the crash landing in China, where the cars were crashing out of the plane.

The music was the generic action-movie kind, not much to say about it, but it was sufficient and well-placed.

The actors were good, and they did a great job, especially during those emotional scenes. I wasn't dissappointed with John Cusack's work, especially since he had shown his talent in "1408".
Wow, he has been in two movies whose titles were only consisting of numbers.

But you could almost expect the young black ambitious geologist hooks up with the President's daughter, who also was black.
Were I the only one that thought of the President as Barack Obama? I don't think so, and I think that it was intentional placing a black president in this movie.

Overall the movie was entertaining and gave me alot of goosebumps, even though I was dissappointed in the latter part of the movie about the change, leading to a depression of the "apocalyptic" feeling.

I would give it a 9/10, there was something missing after all.

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Picture source: http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2012.jpg