Hooray for Cheap Ass Wednesday.
Because of Cheap Ass Wednesday, it’s cheaper for Irfan, Ain & me to catch a movie than it is for me to buy one novel to read. That stinks to high heaven but it’s a rant for another day if I’m bothered to do it.
Ain didn’t feel well enough to get to work that morning. So I picked up Irfan after classes (so he skipped daycare) we went to Cathay Cineleisure where a lot of movies await us. Some really good ones are out cause we’re smack dab in the middle of the summer movie season. I chose two movies for us to enjoy.
No spoilers ahead!
A Non-comic Book Comic Book Movie: A Hancock Review
[[image:movie_hancock01.jpg:Aw hell naw:left:0]]Hancock is a study of the Superman-type superhero template, with a twist. John Hancock is the only super-powered human around. He has the power of flight, speed, strength and invulnerability. He helps the cops catch bad guys if he can, but he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about property damage. And more often than not, he’s drunk.
The trailers gave the impression that this was going to be a small-scale, comedic Superman knock-off with awesome visual effects, starring the Fresh Prince going “Aw hell, naw” once or thrice. It was actually a moderately epic story with an explanation of Hancock’s origins including a twist to the tale.
Jason Bateman conveys a public relations expert wanting to make a difference in the world with the meager resources he has at his disposal… and finally getting a chance at the big leagues when he pitches for Hancock… the guy who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anything. Charlize Theron plays his wife who has initial misgivings about her husband working with Hancock. She does an amazing chameleon act where she starts out as a frumpy housewife and slowly gains glamour and becomes more luminous as the movie goes on.
However the final battle, so to speak, is a bit contrived as the main villian is introduced too late in the movie. And I don’t realistically think anyone would have followed him out of jail to help in his crusade to bring down Hancock, if they didn’t know about his condition nearing the end of the movie. (What condition, you ask? There be no spoilers here. Go watch it!)
Finally the censors suck. They try their best to cut out “asshole” so much that one “fuck” got through. Just let it be already and follow proper film classifications already. If there’s swearing, then it’s not “U”. Ever. And if it’s “U” then don’t screen alcohol advertisements before the movie starts. Dumbasses.
Kimochi Warui: An Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone Review
This is the first feature-length anime that I’ve seen in the cinema.[[image:movie_eva01.jpg:Shogoki:right:0]]
First things first: Why is this movie not at all publicised in the mainstream media? I only knew it was coming to Malaysia because the Star Online has a Coming Soon page assigned to it. That’s how I knew it would be released July 3rd. After the date, that page disappeared from the Star Online. No review page replaced it. A week later I discovered it was only being screen at Cathay Cineleisure.
Captain Obvious says, “Mainstream media sucks.” Now on to our review.
Evangelion 1.0 is the first of a tetralogy of films that seems to be a direct adaptation of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series. It’s a straightforward telling of the first 6 episodes, to be precise. The story is streamlined better to fit a feature film format, but a lot of shots are almost similar, with the difference of having more detail and smoother animation. The fictional Tokyo III now looks absolutely gorgeous on screen. And the battles between the Evas and the Angels have more weight to them. It looks and sounds apocalyptic, thanks to a large screen and a Dolby Digital track.
The story is the same. Shinji Ikari, a 14 year old student is called to NERV headquarters because of attacks onto Tokyo III by what seem to be giant monsters, known as Angels. Shinji’s father Gendo runs Nerv and had abandoned him as a child, causing him to have extremely bad self-confidence. Which is bad, because he has to pilot a giant robot known as an Eva to defeat the monsters. He joins Rei Ayanami, another 14 year old, who pilots the Eva Unit 00 while Shinji pilots Unit 01.
Sounds run-of-the-mill and all? Some aspects of the series was written by series creator Hideaki Anno thanks to a four-year bout of depression. The series definitely conveyed this, at the same time deconstructing the giant robot vs monsters genre. No, those aren’t giant robots. No, those aren’t giant monsters. Ain got a bit (well, more than a bit) confused and later as I explained what’s what, the entire thing became even more twisted than ever before. Psychologically damaged characters. Social phobias. Oedipus complex. The whole works.
Especially with you know, Asuka at the end. And who Rei truly is. (If you want spoilers, click on some of the links in this very article.)
Asuka Sohryu Langley and Unit 02 do not appear in this movie as it only supposedly ends with episode 6. But there is an extra sequence in the end that has a character appearing prematurely saying a line that got me thinking… perhaps this movie series isn’t a retelling of the series after all, but a continuation because what happens in The End of Evangelion.
Finally, Pen-pen the penguin rocks.
Hooray for Cheap Ass Wednesday.
