nan | 楠木

有时候想，自己内心深处还是个geek，所谓痴人也。

正好上个项目与网络相关，补习了一下web2.0，也顺带再次让自己的性格体现。

比如说，会在周末难得的休息时间，自己加班到凌晨4点，为了把自己的wordpress站搞起来。

前两天刚刚在msn spaces（另名：史上最差blog空间。。。或者至少也是我用过的服务质量最差的）发了帖说，不会再去想整理自己”各处留情”的blog，结果没几天就严重失言，并且还真的把我在smth、blogbus、blogspot、motime、mtime上的垃圾文章都弄到一起了。唉。

不过也有好处。技术是提升效率的工具。现在用netvibes把喜欢的网站的rss整理到一起，可以足不出户而知天下；用新的delicious的firefox plugin，彻底解除了在不同电脑上同步书签的烦恼；被flickr宰了狠心买了它的帐户，不过照片倒是以后在哪里都可以看了（上传速度仍是问题）。之前用skype给香港打电话，省了很多长途费用；现在觉得skype也太贵了，于是开始尝试jajah等新服务。

当然，过度依赖也会有可能的恶劣后果。。。比如说决定用mtime来管理我的电影库就是个大错误。。。这个破网站现在追时髦搞成了社区网站，基本的电影列表功能却比以前差多了。。。

（可能不少人会觉得这是软文吧。。。给这么多网站做广告）

From director Danny Boyle, Sunshine is a sci-fi film that offers rich visuals and (for the most part) a compelling narrative. The film however stumbles during the final stretch, and doesn’t quite make it to the finish line as a great film.

The plot is thus: it’s 50 years into the future, and the sun is dying. To prevent that from happening, a spaceship carrying a massive payload is sent towards the sun, in the hopes of re-igniting the sun with a massive blast. The ship, Icarus II, is actually the second to be sent on such a mission: its predecessor–the original Icarus–failed the mission, and Icarus II is Earth’s last chance.

As Icarus II approaches its final destination, the crews pick up a transmission from Icarus I. Apparently the ship has been in orbit around the sun. Out of curiousity and out of “logic” (two bombs are better than one, or so the reasoning goes), the astronauts decide to change their trajectory to rendezvous with the older spacecraft. This adjustment, of course, sets forth a chain of events that offers a lot of thrills and chills. As well as a lot of sunburns.

Essentially, Sunshine looks and feels like a mashup (as goes the popular web2.0 term) of sci-fi classics such as Alien and 2001. (Some of the scenes are indeed homage to those great films.) The film’s stunning visuals are meant to inspire imagination, as well as perhaps stimulate thoughts on timeless philosophical questions (what is “existence” etc.). Some elements of the plot will also no doubt generate a lot of discussion, such as one crew member’s obsession with the sun (he ends up enjoying an over-intimate relationship with the sun). The final act of the film is very much a slasher horror, thogh it doesn’t work out very well and shuts down the film.

The film’s ensemble cast deserves some praise, despite flaws with the plot. It’s an international cast (perhaps with box-office considerations), with 3 East Asians including Michelle Yeoh. Cillian Murphy (who I’ve seen before in Batman Begins) is the lead, with strong support from Chris Evans. Cliff Curtis offers one of the most memorable roles, as the afore-mentioned crew with an unhealthy obsession. The characters are all quite fresh and lively, and easily memorable, despite the limited screen time that most of them gets. And it’s especially enjoyable watching them interact straight from the start and discovering their personalities gradually, as the film cuts straight to the chase in its opening, with backgrounds and intros kept at a absolute minimum.

It’s sad, therefore, that a film that had such a strong opening gradually loses control as it progresses. I didn’t like the slasher horror segment, as it was not well done in the first place and also was out of place. It did serve as an explanation for some earlier events, but surely there are other ways to fill up the gaps.

Still, based on its first two thirds, the film is hard not to like, and perhaps still worth seeing, if not just to end up pondering afterwards how it could have been better.

7/10

In fairness, I think many critics have been over-harsh to The Reaping, the latest horror flick starring Hilary Swank. The film has quite a good opening and some disturbing visuals, though it is also full of clichés in terms of the horror elements. However, the film does take a few bad turns along the way, and ends up not making much sense.

Hilary Swank is Katherine Winter, a professor who has lost her faith, due to a tragic incident in the past (the details of which of course we’ll find out later on). She is now a active promoter of science as she goes around the world debunking myths and finding the scientific reasons. Because of this specialty, she’s called upon to investigate the mysterious happenings in a small town, where it seems the ten plagues of the old testament are being played out one by one.

Winter soon finds out that the plagues are connected to a little girl, whose family resides out of town and away from folks. She’s also forced to pick up her religion as the supernatural events quickly stack up and she’s fighting for her life. There is an explanation to everything, though, but unfortunately it’s not a scientific one as it involves a secret cult.

The film’s thrill factor mainly comes from cheap setups: sudden sounds and actions, which later turn out to be harmless or not that dangerous. Although these ploys are effective on me, since I’m only an amateur regarding horror (see the BTW section at the end of this review), they surely aren’t very impressive and must be very dull to the hardcore horror fan. One example early on in the film is when Winter climbs up a ladder into a room: her body is suddenly pulled up and we hear sounds of frantic wrestling. Two seconds later it turns out it’s only a couple of workers pulling her up and catching her by surprise. Such “fake” horror doesn’t work if you use them time and time again, and this film unfortunately does it a lot, always bluffing and not delivering genuinely scary scenes.

Plot-wise, the film doesn’t really stand up. Winter’s struggle with her past is supposed to be a central part of the plot, as it explains her mentality towards the little girl, but the flashbacks themselves don’t make sense (why didn’t she die when her husband and child was killed?). As to the rest of the plot, I don’t think I’d want to think it through and document all the issues. Suffice to say I think they were quite confusing.

Additionally, the film also offers a conventional twist at the end, indicating all is not well… perhaps a sequel? No thanks.

All that being said, the film does have some memorable visuals (though the CG in the grand finale was perhaps overdone), which can be pretty haunting if you focus on them and let your imagination loose.

BTW: One lesson the film did teach me though, was the importance of ambience. I watched this film in a THX cinema in Manila with my girlfriend. I admit to this being the first horror flick I have seen on the big screen, and I got quite a kick out of it, simply because of the ambience and the sound effects (and of course partly because of my girlfriend). Had I seen the film on DVD, or worse, on regular TV, I would’ve probably been quite uninterested.

5/10

The Island, from director Michael Bay, is an action sci-fi that could have been so much more, but instead is just an ordinary summer blockbuster–which is just Bay’s typical style.

The plot is quite well set: Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are two products of a clone factory, whose purpose is to provide an “insurance policy” to well-off individuals. To manage the clones effectively in a closed setting (remember The Matrix?), the scientists spin a story about the Earth being contaminated. Furthermore, every week in the underground complex where the clones are held, a lottery is drawn, where the lucky winner gets to go to “the Island”, a last haven for humans. The truth however, is nothing as enchanting, as the lottery winners are actually the clones who are needed by their owners. Going to the island is in fact simply going to an operation table, where the necessary organs are taken and the clone is disposed.

The shop is tightly run: opposite sexes are not allowed to develop intimate relationships (in fact, they do not even know the existence of sex), and everything from diets to work is carefully supervised and micro-managed. This pisses off Lincoln (McGregor), who is part of the Echo batch of clones, and is naturally curious about things. He discovers by chance the awful truth (with the help of some plot holes, such as nobody monitoring his whereabouts at night), and decides to save his friend Jordan (Johansson) as she has just become the new lottery winner.

They escape the complex (with the help of some more glaring plot holes), and hence set forth a big chase. The two clones’ plan is simple: find their owners (the rich guys who signed up for the insurance service) and expose the company’s unethical practice. It doesn’t make much sense, but it’s better than nothing as an excuse to see a lot of fireworks and car chases. And the action sequences are done in style, as usual, by Michael Bay, as that’s his primary concern with his films.

At the end of the day, of course, the factory is duly destroyed and the chief antagonist (Sean Bean) gets what he deserved. The clones are free (plus they find out what sex is about). Quite the happy ending, except that the film is satisfied with itself being a run of the mill action flick, when it had quite a few promising assets. Not bad for two hours of your time, but don’t expect to be mentally stimulated.

6/10

I watched the last 3 episodes of Season 2 in one go. Not that it was that exciting; I just wanted to get it over with.

Indeed, having completed the impossible prison break in Season 1, Season 2 is comparatively a less interesting ride. The season starts with the Fox River 8 heading in various directions, most of them wanting a piece of Westmoreland’s 5 million dollars of stolen money. Meanwhile FBI agent Mahone is hot on their tracks, as he hunts them down one by one. Of course, we soon get to know he’s just another henchman for the company, following orders of Agent Kim, who’s also leading Kellerman.

The treasure hunt, and the manhunt, provides most of the thrill factor for a good part of Season 2. However, this is also the pitfall, as the plot explosively expands from one single setting (Fox River) to the whole US, and playing a game of cat and mouse at that scale it’s hard to keep things in check. I felt many times through the season that the plot had got out of hand, and that the writers had to resort to some quick plot fixes.

In Season 1, while there were greater agendas lurking behind (namely the conspiracy), the central objective was simple: break out. In Season 2, the central objective becomes much more blurry. The brothers have broke free, now what? Do they try to upset the entire conspiracy? Or do they simply make a run for it? Because there are so many things to do, the storyline seemed often to be trying to play catch-up, trying to tie up the bits and pieces that had spilled out. And by the way, since they are out, the conspiracy side of the story has to be developed further.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with all this, just that Season 2 looks and feels very different from Season 1. In Season 1, everything was carefully laid out; Scofield had a plan, or rather, the writers had a plan. The entertainment factor was in the demonstration of the wit and the suspense in the actual execution. In Season 2, it was not plausible to make everything a part of Scofield’s plan; in fact, the more they resorted to that plot device (“Michael planned it ages ago…”), the more unreasonable the entire plot feels. The original entertainment factor had been changed; it was more of an action adventure rather than a meticulously designed thriller.

And the fact that Season 2 lost a lot of the originality of the first season certainly doesn’t help. I never liked the conspiracy side of the plot, even in Season 1. It was far too generic, and not well done (much better examples are to be found in 24 and The X-Files). However it did play the role of raising the stakes. In Season 2, it became a much more important piece, and its unoriginality dragged down the entire plot. Furthermore, the hints thrown out in the season finale, “it’s in his blood” etc., felt like a straight rip-off of The X-Files. Where are we going now? Has the conspiracy became the same conspiracy featured in that great series?

However, one thing that we might look forward to in Season 3, is a return to the basic formula: breaking out of prison. One just wonders though, whether that’s going to be the core of Season 3 or just a opener.

Smooth upgrade to 2.1.3, thanks to clear instructions from other bloggers.

After a lot of hustle the past week, finally my own site is up and running!

Still a lot of to-dos, including things such as building out the archive page etc.

WordPress is fun!

终于申请了个人的域名和空间，虽然小花了一笔钱，但是觉得值得。
把所有零散的blog都整理到一起了。还在学习wordpress，不过如果感兴趣的话，欢迎访问：
www.dani19.com