Stargate Atlantis

I didn't think much of Stargate Atlantis, expecting it to be another franchise to make money from the original Stargate movie. I was wrong. At the same time, my friends told me that the storyline in Atlantis was related to Stargate SG-1 and I started to have second thoughts about watching it. Bear in mind that Stargate Atlantis still hasn't reached us, so I had to settle for the DVD series.

Stargate Atlantis starts off where Stargate SG-1 left off at the end of Season 9 where they found an Ancient outpost in Antartica thinking that it was Atlantis. At the same time, a new gate address is found and it has 8 symbols, meaning that it's a gate address in another galaxy. A new team is assembled to head to this new address. However, there's also this new catch that the new team has to at least have this thing called an Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene that allows members of the team to activate Ancient technology.

Again, this new team walks through the gate and sets up shop in Atlantis, however, things get out of hand when they arrive. They realise that they don't have enough power as the ZPM (Zero Point Module) is depleting and this power problem remains a hassle for them throughout season 1 and into season 2 and 3 (I think, haven't gotten there yet).

They encounter friendly and deadly new races and the deadliest one of all, the Wraith seem almost impossible to defend against. This race defeated the Ancients and feeds of the life energy of humans. They were in hibernation when the Atlantis team woke them up after they killed the Hive Keeper. So the theme throughout season 1 is them making new friends, and new enemies (The Genii) and all the while dodging attacks from the Wraith and looking for new power sources.

The characters in this series are interesting. Major John Sheppard reminds me of Jack O'Neill from SG-1, not as funny, but just as resourceful and smart. Dr Elizabeth Weir the expedition team leader is a natural and level-headed leader. She's able to make difficult decisions which turn out to be right. Dr Rodney McKay, the resident scientist has a huge ego and always thinks he's correcet, when actually he's not. Dr Carson Beckett is the Irish bloke resident chief medical officer, who has the nicest accent and is afraid to use his ATA gene to activate Ancient technology.

I found that several plot points repeated and it was almost like watching an earlier season of Stargate SG-1, especially when the 3 hive ships start approaching Atlantis, which almost reflects the Goa'uld arriving in their hatak to conquer Earth.

The new stargate is different in that, the inner wheel doesn't rotate to the correct glyph before locking. In the Pegasus galaxy, dialling the stargate is much faster as the correct glyph moves around the stargate electronically and locks on faster. However, this also means the incoming wormholes also get dialled in faster and prevent you from dialling out.

Overall, this was an enjoyable introductory season to watch in all manner of Stargate entertainment, which has the format of mixing sci-fi with action-adventure and a touch of comedy.

8 out of 10 stars

Best Bond Ever

I have to say that I was impressed when I went to watch the latest Bond movie Casino Royale. It had all the perks of an action movie, with the spy intrigue and the works.

Daniel Craig has erased all the critics expectation of him under-performing his role as James Bond. I guess, they like to compare all the Bonds constantly and always remind everyone that Sean Connery was the best Bond, blah, blah, blah. Daniel Craig has brought an edgier, tough, sexy, hunky and blonde Bond into the mix and it has altogether turned out rather well.

There are, in every Bond movie, Bond girls. This time, you have none other than Eva Green aka Vesper Lynd, who was last saw romancing Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven. Eva Green has a soft beauty to her, although most of the time she's seen with deep eye shadow, she's exceptionally photogenic and has a charming and lovely smile, not enough, dare I say, to launch a thousand ships, but just enough to play a Bond girl lusciously.

The other actress worth mentioning, who's not considered a Bond girl, is Dame Judi Dench. She brings out the sort of authority seen in a lady boss, not quite the dragon lady kind, and at the same time, motherly figure to James Bond's character. She chastises Bond on making mistakes but encourages him at the same time when he's learnt his lessons.

The gambling scenes had just the right tension eased into them to make them believable, perhaps they should show Casino Royale constantly in our casinos when they're up and running in the future?

Despite of that, I do have a few quarrels with the movie I've listed below. However, these are my quarrels, you have to watch the movie and find your own!

Beware, if you haven't watched Casino Royale yet, stop now, spoilers ahead!

1. This is the only Bond movie in which both Bond girls died! UGH!
2. The lengthy plot had too many twists and turns, some of them were rather disjointed, and not well connected edited to connect them seamlessly. This caused some confusion at times, especially who's who, who's the villian etc.
3. The villian's girlfriend usually dies, they never did show how this one died, or if she lived.
4. The Bond villian, Le Chiffre, wasn't evil enough. He lacked charisma and looked pale and weak, bleeding through his eyes. He was a prodigy, but he lacked the tenacity and ego that Elliot Carver had or the focus and resources that Gustave Graves had.
5. The MI6 computer implant in Bond's wrist could scan and tell you the type of poison in your system within a span of 2 minutes or less. I think it was a deriavative of Digitalis, but I can't be sure.
6. The Aston Martin DS5 was destroyed! How could they destroy such a beautiful car?
7. The Aston Martin DS5 comes with defibrillators and antitoxins? Probably in Bond's world only, ours will probably have sunglasses, tons of CDs, street directory, car user manual and parking coupons.
8. There was no Q or any gadgets. Other techie stuff were in the form of SONY notebooks and Sony Ericsson handphones, nice!

Ultimately, a great Bond movie to watch, with added ingredients of male machoism and hand-to-hand combat, that will re-energise the Bond franchise. I was actually getting sick of listening to Pierce Brosnan's sexual innuendoes, probably more from bad script-writing than the actors themselves having to say those lines.

8 out of 10 stars

You Will Lose Everything

One of the many, many Harry Potter posters for the movie Order Of The Phoenix.
Out on 13 July 2007

Batman Versus Wolverine

Are You Watching Closely? Whether it’s making a movie or writing a review, or any creative endeavour in general, the methodical choice of what the audience sees or read weighs heavily on the mind of the artist. But every trick is more than the sum of its part, and that’s what ultimately The Prestige is: the perfect ending thought unobtainable moments before it hits. Spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk if you haven't watched the movie.

Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are rival 19th century magicians. They start out as friends and colleagues, until Angier holds Borden responsible for the tragic loss of his wife, a lovely magician’s assistant. Angier and Borden soon are drawn into an endless cycle of sabotage and espionage upon each another until Borden invents a new trick Angier can’t replicate. This drives Angier to travel to the ends of the Earth, seeking out Nikola Tesla himself (David Bowie) to build a machine to compete with Borden’s trick. Angier’s return engagement gets deadly though, leaving one magician dead and the other accused of his murder.

This is where the story gets interesting. The machine that Tesla creates for Angier actually creates a doppelganger - an exact copy - of anything placed at its centre. What Angier has done in order to make the trick work so well, is that he has placed a water tank under the trapdoor at the centre of the machine to catch and drown the doppelganger, while he gets transported some 60 feet behind the audience in the circle seats. Angier does not reveal this till the end. However, he himself doesn't know if he's the real Angier or the doppelganger, probably because the copy is so exact. We are told and later shown, that he performed over 100 acts, so there are over 100 doppelgangers each in over 100 tanks, that have been placed under a derelict theatre to hide the truth from everyone. He has blind stage-hands working for him so that the secret of the trick is never revealed to anyone else.

The most prestigious element The Prestige has going for it is the cast. Bale and Jackman are both amazing actors able to depict the intense obsessesion of their characters. It's no surprise Bale nails the passionate and accented Borden, but it is a surprise how adeptly he nails a magic trick of his own right in front of the movie-goer’s eyes. Jackman on the other hand is able to play with the audience’s sympathizes, for both the death of Angier’s wife as well as Jackman’s own track-record of more clean-cut protagonists.

Michael Caine plays Cutter, a veteran trick-maker who takes Angier under his wing. Caine seems right at home in the 19th century, and his performance gives credibility to the insight and motivations of magicians. Scarlett Johansson's Olivia, an assistant caught between both Angier and Borden, is introduced later. Although Johansson's performance gives Olivia and her relationships real emotional weight, her character winds up a bit underused in the grand scheme of things. David Bowie's Nikola Tesla is perhaps restrained from what we tend to expect from the rock star/actor, but this was necessary for his role. In a lighter role, Andy Serkis of Gollum fame from Lord of the Rings, played Tesla's aide Alley. Although Alley is considered more a peripheral character, Serkis' energy and charisma ultimately makes him something more.

Based the novel of the same title by Christopher Priest, The Prestige is directed by Batman Begins and Memento director Christopher Nolan. It is cleverly directed in such a way that you have to literally watch closely to every dialogue and every scene, which presents clues and answers to the entire movie.

The Prestige is a wonderous movie filled with magic tricks and plot twists to mislead the audience, with a touch of science, which leads it into one of the most prestigious film endings of recent memory.

Highly, highly recommended to anyone who's looking for a smart and magical movie, with excellent acting to enjoy.

8 out of 10 stars

Update: A 2 in 1 Movie Poster For The Prestige