5 Banner Caleg Yang Mengajarkan Kita Tentang Politik Di Indonesia

Sebagai seorang lulusan hubungan internasional, Saya sadar bahwa politik adalah sesuatu yang membutuhkan berbagai macam kemampuan mulai dari kemampuan negosiasi, diplomasi hingga senyum manipulatif yang biasa kita lihat di wajah pedofil yang baru tertangkap tengah memberi permen ke anak kecil. Berbagai macam taktik harus digunakan untuk mencapai sebuah tujuan politik apalagi di tengah pemilu DPRD yang penuh dengan persaingan ini.

Salah satu cara untuk memenangkan hati rakyat adalah dengan memasang banner di jalan atau tempat strategis lainnya, namun sulit tentunya untuk menonjol di tengah ratusan banner caleg lainnya. Perang banner ini tentunya tidak menghentikan para Caleg untuk tetap mengotori tiang listrik dan papan billboard dengan visi misi generik mereka namun beberapa caleg memilih untuk membuat sebuah perubahan di perang banner ini dan mengajarkan kita tentang berpolitik serta pengorbanan mereka sebagai politikus. Dari kreativitas para caleg ini, kita bisa belajar mengenai bagaimana politik di Indonesia bergulir untuk menarik hati rakyat dan memajukan Indonesia. Berikut adalah para revolusioner perang banner yang bisa kita temui dan pelajari.

5. Genetik  Amat Penting Dalam Berpolitik. 

Jaman dahulu, keturunan genetik merupakan sebuah aspek yang sangat menentukan apakah kita akan menjadi raja atau anak petani biasa, namun di jaman modern ini nampaknya semua hal tersebut telah berubah karena jaman ini memberikan kita kemungkinan tidak terbatas untuk menjadi apapun yang kita mau. Sebagai seorang caleg yang memiliki kapabilitas tinggi, sudah kewajiban bagi caleg ini untuk mengingatkan kita tentang pentingnya keturunan genetik yang kita miliki, terutama jika kita ingin mengikuti jejak manusia-manusia terpilih ini. Karena takdir tidak pernah berbohong tentunya.

4. Politik dan Seks itu 11-12

Saya tidak yakin apa banner ini menunjukkan bahwa politik itu erat hubungannya dengan seks karena jika itu benar, nampaknya saya melewatkan kelas yang terdengar seru itu sewaktu masih kuliah. Banner ini nampaknya juga menunjukkan bahwa jika kita mau berpolitik maka gairah kita di atas ranjang harus sama dengan gairah kita di atas panggung politik atau mungkin dia cuma memodifikasi banner dia sewaktu masih jadi model iklan obat kuat. Namun, saya harus mempercayai bahwa seorang caleg yang memiliki kemampuan untuk memasang banner mereka di jalan tentunya memiliki pengetahuan politik yang lebih tinggi dari saya sehingga saya yakin bahwa seni bercinta dan seni berpolitik itu membutuhkan kekuatan yang sama yaitu kemudaan, kekuatan, gairah serta badan yang besar dan berotot. .

3. Politik Itu Penuh Dengan Spionase, Aksi, dan Perang

Layaknya James Bond, seorang politikus harus memiliki kemampuan spionase, menggoda wanita dan memegang senjata. Indonesia tidak hanya penuh dengan penjahat-penjahat yang berusaha menguasai Indonesia dengan segala cara. Para plolitikus harus pergi untuk menjalani sebuah misi spionase menghadapi manusia-manusia berbahaya ini dan mempertaruhkan nyawanya demi melindungi rakyat indonesia.

2. Menjadi politikus Membutuhkan Kekuatan Super

Menjadi seorang politikus bukan hal yang mudah karena banyak juga musuh-musuh berkekuatan super yang harus dilawan dalam membela kebenaran dan keadilan di Indonesia ini. Untuk menghadapi para penjahat super dalam ranah politik ini terkadang para politikus ini harus mengorbankan diri digigit oleh laba-laba radioaktif seperti Spiderman atau menjadi kelinci percobaan serum prajurit super layaknya Captain America dan kemudian mengenakan topeng serta kostum super ketat untuk difoto di banner. Para penjahat super itu tentunya akan ketakutan setengah mati ketika melihat banner ini dan Indonesia dapat kembali maju.

1. Kejujuran Tetap Nomor 1

Setelah kita mampu menjadi yang terpilih, bercinta dengan mahir, menjadi agen rahasia, dan menjadi pahlawan super, ada satu hal yang harus dimiliki oleh seorang politikus, kejujuran yang murni. Setelah semua pengorbanan itu, mereka harus Jujur bahwa pada akhirnya mereka akan berakhir tidak peduli dan menghabiskan uang rakyat namun dengan cara itu, kita sebagai rakyat tahu bahwa mereka jujur dan kita bisa menaruh kepercayaan kita di tangan mereka. Kejujuran ini nantinya  akan menjadi benih utama yang bisa meajukan Indonesia.

Semoga tulisan ini dapat membantu kita untuk lebih memahami politik di Indonesia dan menghargai pengorbanan para politikus kita yang telah memberikan segala-galanya untuk memajukan Indonesia. Jika pembaca menganggap semua yang saya tulis secara serius dan benar, maka anda akan sangat cocok menjadi calon legislatif untuk pemilu tahun berikutnya.

South Park: Stick of Truth Review

As you might see, today review is a TV show adaptation of South Park, a TV show that has been running since 1997 till now in USA. Just like how movies based on game is cursed to forever be sucks, games based on TV show has a pretty similar curse but it usually doesn't suck as much as the other side. With that common assumption and the fact that the game keeps delayed with no certainty, it leads the fans of the series to fell to the  hole of skepticism quite fast. Despite all that setbacks, South Park: The Stick Of Truth finally hit the market and its surprisingly a really good game.

You play as the new kid or Douchebag as your friends in the game called you, a newly moved kid who tries to make friend in the City of  South Park as he try to survive in the new environment by adding as much friends as you can in Facebook (they literally called it Facebook in the game) while getting involved in a War  between Elf and human. Well, ok the war is just kids playing  real life Dungeons and Dragons knock off in the city as stuffs getting more and more absurd in South Park as the game progresses. There will be alien, nazi zombie and abortion clinic for some reason in it.

The first thing that you will notice is that the games really nail the crude aesthetic of the TV show  because it is almost impossible to tell  the different between the game and the show. The character and the town pictured accurately and you can even travel to 8-bit version of Canada. They even manage to bring every voice actors from the show and it really made the game even harder to tell apart from the show. Well ok, the show isn't exactly known for its beautiful art or stellar voice acting but if you are looking for authenticity you can't get more authentic than Stick of Truth.

The funny thing is, of all the genre this game could take, it took a simple turn based RPG system that seems obsolete in this modern day of triple A games where there is a law that you can only market a games that includes realistic military guns, female characters with a cleavage big enough to make Hugh Hefner erects, and  Last but not the least, explosions! Surprisingly, despite it's simple gameplay, the game really is fun to play from because the simple mechanic filled with layers of strategy and possibility. The battle system feels like classic turn-based JRPG added with some button mashing and quick time event which force you to stay in toe. You can pick 1 from 4 class like warrior who used raw power to defeat their enemy, thief who uses their cunning moves to defeat enemy before they know what stroke them, mage who uses makeshift magic to magically defeat their enemy and Jew who used Jew-jitsu. No, seriously, there is a class called jew here and they fight using jew-jitsu. That's how crude and offensive this game is.

I wonder what will the new class be for the DLC

To be honest, Im not a fan of  South Park show and i only pick it only because a lot of reviewer said that it is great but i  do remember watching South Park movie years ago and that it gross me so bad when i was younger. As i grow older, i gained some appreciation on what the show is trying to do and it is trying to make an enjoyable crude dark humor. South Park isn't a show for everyone and the game Shows the same or even more crude and dark humor that will definitely offend some peoples outside but by god it is so funny when it is funny. I laugh out loud when Kenny becomes a cross dresser and used it to trick the boys with the promise of boobies or when Morgan Freeman came out from nowhere just to explain convoluted plot point to the player. There is some moment in the game where i think they went to far with the crude joke and it really gross me out.

Sadly, there is a lot of gripe that hold this game to become great. One of my major problem is that the game is way too easy, even in the hardcore difficulty. The depth of the battle system become pointless because most of my enemies bleed out to death before they can even yell "Fus Ro Dah!" and some of my skill could instakill most of the enemies in the game. Also, unlike most RPG there is no mini game, or any other side activity to do besides sidequest so the game might feels repetitive at time. The only thing that keeps me motivated to play is it's story which is hilarious as hell to follow.

So South Park might be repetitive at some moment and the battle is way too easy but it is one hell of a fun experience that will either gross you out or make you laugh out loud. I enjoy Stick of Truth for what it is but there is some moment of it that just grossed  me out too much and it kinda hamper the experience to me. The battle while it fun and has some layer of depth in it, became pointless because how easy the battle is but if you are fans of the series, this game is a must buy. But if you aren't one, it might not changes your mind about the series. Still, you will find yourself surprised by how fun the experience is at the end of the games.

Initial El Score

7.5

Kenny boobies

her review

Today movie is a romantic comedy movie which  is a genre that i rarely touch since I am not very bright when it came to emotional relationship. I also tend to be too serious to be funny and all the women that i knew always said that i'm the most unromantic sentient being who ever walks/crawls/swim/fly on earth. So right from the bat, i don't like most romantic movie but it doesn't meant that i am allergic to that genre. Some romantic movies do quite entertain me like 500 Days of Summer which i found to be a quite profound romance movie. This time, the movie that is surprisingly blew my mind is a romantic movie called Her.

Her is set in 2025. An appropriately nerdy named Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely, introverted man who writes personal love letters for people with difficulties expressing their feelings. Unhappy because of his impending divorce from childhood sweetheart Catherine (Rooney Mara), Theodore purchases a talking operating system with artificial intelligence, designed to adapt and evolve. He decides he wants the OS to have a female identity, and she (Scarlett Johansson) names herself "Samantha". Theodore is fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. They bond over their discussions about love and life, during which Theodore explains he is avoiding signing his divorce papers, because of his reluctance to let go of Catherine.

Theodore is convinced by Samantha to go on a blind date with an acquaintance (Olivia Wilde) who his longtime friend, Amy (Amy Adams), has been trying to set him up with. To his surprise, he and the woman hit it off. As they are kissing, the woman asks if Theodore is willing to commit to her, and when he hesitates, she leaves. Theodore mentions this to Samantha and they talk about relationships. Theodore explains that although he and Amy dated briefly in college, they are only good friends and that Amy is married. Theodore and Samantha's intimacy grows. They develop a relationship, which reflects positively in Theodore's writing. The relationship soon turn into a love relationship and the rest of the movie is  mostly about the drama between Samantha and Theodore as they walk through their unlikely relationship.

It's basically Sal9000 the movie

As you may read, the movie's is about a love relationship between a man and an AI (or OS as this movie refer to) which, lets be honest, some of you might found it as a taboo or unsettling . This is not the first time that a movie is used to explore such a theme about synthetic relationship (ex: Blade runner) but i found Her to be quite unique on its own merit. I expected some black and white moral message with this kind of movie since it is really easy for it to just go with the direction that say "Theodore was wrong because he is an introverted freak who fell in love with a computer" or "it is ok to fall in love with anything because whatever done in the name of love is always right" but the movie went beyond right or wrong. It present us, the viewer, a gray line in that kind of relationship and trust us to make our own judgement which is always a good thing for me. It is a sign that the movie maker respect us as a intellectual being with their own intellectual perspective.

The settings really helps you to believe in the relationship between Theodore and Samantha because how peoples react to that relationship differs for each person in that world. Some peoples were actually quite accepting with it and the others might not be so. The world of Her also feels quite believable in a way like what our future might be and it seriously feels like a legit sci-fi world. The technology used in the movie doesn't involve something like laser pistol, neon-glowing-everything or Jar-jar Bing. The world take the route of realistic Sci-fi like the way Looper did but in a more bright way. It is also beautifully shot and kinda feels artsy at some scene. There is also some scene in the movie which makes fun of video games culture which, as a gamer, actually managed to cracked me out.

The way the movie present it's characters also add to the overall great experience. Theodore may be an introvert but he is a really likeable introvert that people kinda admire and love despite the creepy looking porn stache that latch in his face. It's not that he fell in love with a computer because he cant socialize or unable to find a woman to date, its because he just doesn't want to. Some reviewer said that Theodore isn't actually fell in love with Samantha, but with himself since Samantha is programmed to follow and adapt to its owner preferences and it might be true at first glance but we have to look into Samantha to see why i don't see it like that. The way Samantha grow as an AI genuinely surprised me. She (yeah, i used she because she really feels like a genuine woman in the movie) evolve into something than just an AI that programmed to please and she even start to do something that i didn't predict at all. I wont tell how she surprised me but when it happens, my jaws kinda dropped in the floor.

Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore really is the star of this movie. Most of this movie scenes is just him talking with an AI who didn't even have a face, which in paper, sounds like super boring stuff but somehow he managed to make me invested every time he is on screen. He really brings a believable performance that makes you care in every line he said. Scarlet Johansson, on the other side, literally only had a voice yet she absolutely doing a fantastic job on being a fun, smart and helpful AI. The chemistry between Theodore and Samantha is spot on right from the get go because they do feel like a couple in love despite the fact that, well, its a love story between a man and a software. The great dialogue and writing also helps them to become funny, romantic and a joy to watch, The rest of the cast like Amy Adam as Theodore ex-girlfriend also do a fantastic job Theodore Ex-girlfriend who are still close to him.

I really-really like Her just for its unique and simplistic premise but how the movie execute it really made it become something special. It is beautifully shot and directed, the performance of the actors is fantastic, the writing is smart and witty, and i also have to mention how great the score is by Arcade Fire. Some people might not like Her because its premise is actually quite strange for some viewer and the movie might be a lil bit too focused in Theodore which could be an issue for someone who wishes for a bigger story but all that gripes is nothing because Her is one experience that you have to see for yourself.

Initial El Score

9.0

Its for Sal9000!

The Hateview: Alien Vs Predator Requiem

Uhh...how did i got reminded about this disastrous cocktail of messiness? I do remember getting quite excited about this movie and then getting slapped in the crotch by it at the end of the movie but what i don't remember is why did i get excited at all?

The original Alien vs Predator isn't actually a masterpiece or a good movie in any sense. It is poorly written, the movie logic is like studying quantum physic theories from a scientist who just consume an LSD, and above all it was directed by the damned Paul W.S Anderson, the guy who directed the awful Resident Evil series. To be fair, i think the first Alien vs Predator movie is rather fun if you switch your brain off, bang your head against the brick wall for 5 minutes, and finally drink 2 bottles of tequila. I think the slight of fun that i feel is what kinda makes me expect something good that didn't actually exist in the first place when i got excited for it's sequel. Despite of it slight fun, i don't see why people want to see more of it after such low receptions both from critics and fans. Even the studio who wants some cash grab should realize that there is no more potential left for this series but oh, money talks and studio listen so we got Alien vs Predator Requiem.

I think the starting concept of this sequel was just based in the fact that the first Alien vs Predator is a Pg13 movie, meaning that there is no gore, swears or anything related to the facts that both Alien and Predators is well known for it's R rated rating. People complaining that they want to see gore when the predators do their classic Sub-zero fatality impersonation or when the aliens do their metaphorical rape killing stuffs and in that regards they did listen to the fans. So "R rated movie it is" said the studio but they forgot that you cant make a movie based just on gore and blood. You need interesting characters, good plot that drive the actions and a good direction from the director. They failed so hard in this 3 parts.

AVPR, as the marketing department of this movie like to be referred to, is following the events of Alien vs. Predator, a Predator spaceship is leaving Earth carrying dead Aliens, living facehuggers, and the body of the Predator that defeated the Alien queen. A chestburster erupts from the dead Predator's body; it is a new creature that is a hybrid of Alien and Predator characteristics called the Predalien (who the hell is in charge naming this thing?) It quickly matures into an adult and begins killing Predators throughout the ship. A Predator's weapons fire punctures the hull and the ship crashes in the forest outside of Gunnison, Colorado.

With the Predators dead, the Predalien and several facehuggers escape, implanting embryos into a nearby father and son and into several homeless people living in the sewers. A distress signal from the wrecked ship reaches the Predator home world and a lone Predator responds, traveling to Earth to observe the cause of the crash and track the facehuggers. It begins to erase the evidence of the Aliens' presence by destroying the crashed ship and using a blue liquid to dissolve the bodies of the facehuggers and their victims. That Predator  have to kill all the remaining alien without leaving any traces of evidence behind while a bunch of cannon fodder is killed in gruesome ways, both by the Predator and the Aliens.

AVPR is directed by the Strauss brothers who directed...nothing before. They were just a special effect supervisor before they made this movie and the lack of experiences are spot on in the movie. AVPR is nothing but unnecessary blood and gore and its terrible in that too. When someone is dead i don't feel anything that a normal human should feel when others human died. No remorse, no sympathy, no excitement, no emotion, only apathy and that is clearly a sign that there is something wrong either with me or the movie. The writing didn't help the audience to care about the characters because they are even worse than the characters in typical slasher movies. At least in the slasher movie i want the character to die because they are written to be hated but in this movie i don't actually care at all about the characters. They are more unforgettable than a breeze of wind in my butt.

The movies try to take a more dark route with gore and blood but they took it one step farther to make darker. The lighting in this movie is so bad that i can't tell if the Aliens and the Predator is fighting or having some interspecies sex scene because the movie is way too dark to see. I know that they want this movie to be darker than it's predecessor but they don't need to go dark with the lighting too. What's the point in having a fight scenes that the audience cant see? Let the fight scene left for interpretation?

 Subtle.

Speaking of action scenes, the action scenes feels rather clunky because they went back with people in rubber suit and not animatronic anymore. It almost like watching a terrible Power Ranger episode that directed by Eli Roth. I also have to say, the Predalien looks rather silly and it is the thing that we, the audiences, need to feel scared and intimidated with?

When facehugger meets Jamaican...

I do heard of some reviewer said that AVPR is a good movie is you took it as a B movie rather than a triple A movie but i think that's the exact problem of this movie. Both the original Alien and Predator is legendary because of their achievement for turning on a B movie premise into a very influential classic that leaves an impact on everyone who watch its. Yet, this movie fell into a forgettable B movie feels which the original movie try so hard not to be at the first place, ironically. 

It is a good thing that this franchise is dead. After such a failure nobody will dare to touch this movie premise ever again. If you think twice about Alien Vs Predator premise, maybe this premise shouldn't be touched for a movie in the first place. They might be a good enough promise in comics and video games but for a box office movie its rather hard to execute. Both of the creatures might came from outer space and both of them leaves a trail of blood, intestines and brain matters wherever they went but that is the only thing they share in common. The alien is a beast who lives only to kill and procreate while predator is a civilized hunter who hunts for sports in Sunday morning. Their nature isn't all that compatible to make an engaging story and so far the best story they can milk out is the predators is breeding the aliens so they can used its as a hunting ritual while the human characters is just there as a chewing toy for them. As i said before, a good movie needs a good character and Alien vs Predator is having a hard time making a significantly good characters because they treat human characters as dispensable cardboard cutout. It is a franchise that is better left for comics and video game only.

Initial El Judgement

3.5

Free hugs from facehugger

Frozen Movie Review

Trailer and marketing is an important things in movies industry because it will set the expectation from the audiences before they watched the actual movie. It is not uncommon to find a great movie with a not so interesting trailer or marketing (It happen to me with the Gravity's trailer) and Frozen is actually the victim of this kind of trend.

Frozen is another Disney princesses animation movie which the marketing of the movie is kinda misleading the audience. The movie's marketing seems to be focused at it's silly comedic relief in the movie named Olaf The Snowman and he is not that funny in that marketing campaign too. So when i first saw a short animated campaign for the movie in Disney channel, my initial reaction is just "Meh, it doesn't seems interesting at all". It's a good thing that i watched that one video review in Youtube which said  that this movie was great because i owe that reviewer a drink or two. Frozen is an awesome animated Disney movie that i really recommend to everyone.

The movie is a loose adaption of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, which to be honest, i never heard or read (sorry, my childhood is not that pretty) so i am in blind mode for what this movie about. It tells a story about two sister from the Kingdom Of Arendelle. Eight-year old Elsa, princess of Arendelle, possesses the elemental ability to create and control ice, frost and snow. One night while playing, she accidentally freezes her five-year old younger sister, Anna, with her powers causing a small part of her hair to turn white. The king (Maurice LaMarche) and queen seek help from trolls, who heal Anna and remove her memories of her sister's magic. Their leader, Grand Pabbie (Ciarán Hinds), informs them that if Elsa had struck Anna's heart it would have been fatal. In order to protect Elsa and avoid her powers from endangering anyone else, the royal family locks themselves away in their castle. Elsa, afraid of hurting Anna again, spends most of her time hiding in her room, creating a rift between the two sisters as they grow up. Ten years later, their parents are killed at sea during a storm.

Three years after the death of the king and queen, dignitaries from all over the world flock to Arendelle to see twenty-one-year old Elsa's (Idina Menzel) summer coronation. Among them is the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk), a neighboring royal who wants to exploit Arendelle for profit. Eighteen-year old Anna (Kristen Bell) is excited that the castle gates will open and she'll finally get to meet people. While strolling through the streets, she meets Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles, and the pair quickly fall in love. Though Elsa is terrified of revealing her powers, the coronation goes off without incident. During the reception, Hans proposes to Anna, who accepts. Elsa, however, refuses to grant her blessing, setting off an argument that culminates in her elemental abilities being exposed to everyone. Elsa run away after accidentally shows her magic and freeze the whole kingdom in permanent winter. So begins Anna's journey to save the Kingdom of Arendelle and her own sister from metaphorical puberty jails.

Because the misleading marketing campaign, i thought this movie will be the standard Disney's adventure movie with the standard Disney's love stories added with Disney's standard annoying comedic relief which is actually...not a big deal for me but it isn't something that i liked that much either. Surprisingly, The movie is far better from what the marketing is shown since the actual focus is actually the relationship between the two sister and the test of their love for each other.

The other kind of "love", that is...

Almost all of Disney princesses movie involved that cliche tropes like true love, damsel in distress and all things that make your daughter want to be a princess who let the men do everything for her. But right off the bat, the movie makes a fun of that true love cliche by Anna request to get married with a man that she literally just met which Elsa said that it is very stupid. In that scene, I knew that Disney is trying to do something new in this movie but the "whoa" moment came in a really surprising way that managed to caught me off guard. The movie used the well established trope then gives it some unexpected twist, resulting in a almost evolutionary moral message that kids will dig and adults can appreciates.

The Animation is top notch as expected from Disney's production. The way the characters moves reflect their personality and their energy flawlessly in every frames they are in. Anna and Elsa looks like your typical pretty Disney Princess at first when they are just standing still but when they moves that images changes. Elsa transformation from restricted girl to an expressionist woman is a spot on from the way he walks and moves. Anna eagerness and spirits is also greatly animated and i also need to mention that this movie also made me go "damn, i should have watched this in 3D" again. I guess 3D does have a place in modern cinema.

This movie is Disney efforts to relive their renaissance moment like what they achieved with Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid which i honestly forgot if i ever watched it when i was a kid or not (I am still trying to repress my childhood memory) so Frozen is actually a musical animation movie. Musical Movies tends to irritates me since it is often unclear why the characters can suddenly singing about everything in the middle of something. For all that i know, they might sing about dysentery in the middle of something and it still makes sense in the context of the movie. There is a moment when the song in this movie kinda irritates me because how often they showed up from nowhere but that moments falls short because all the songs in this movie is great and memorable. Many peoples said that the Let It Go session in this movie is a masterpiece where the song and animations flows in a harmony that just so great to watch and listen though i still think that my favorite has to be Do You Want To Build A Snowman? session which....well, ok i have  to be honest, i became quite emotional in that session.

The comedy in Frozen is actually kinda feels like a classic Disney's movies. There is no pop culture reference which is almost like a mandatory to have in a comedic movie today because all the laugh came from a situational moment which makes this movie's comedy became timeless. Peoples in the future will still laugh in this movie as good as the peoples in nowadays laugh at it which is a great thing to have in a movie.

Kristen Bell as Anna did a terrific job portraying a naive eager girl who rarely met anyone outside her castle while Idina Menzel voice, who had an amazing track record in Broadway musical performance, is also great, especially when she sings that Let It Go song. Surprisingly, the characters that i think i will hate is actually the show stealer of  movie which is Olaf The Snowman voiced by the amazing Josh Gad. There is just something so adorable with how Josh Gad portray Olaf goofiness and clueless behavior that steal the audiences heart's.

There is a moment where i thought that this movie will walk to the unexpected dark path. Sadly, it didn't go  that way which kinda disappoint me for some reason. Maybe i just had some fetish with a kids movie going into some dark turn or maybe i am just trying too hard to became Batman.

I won't let this childhood dream go.

In conclusion, Frozen is one of the best, if not the best animated musical movie, in recent years. I love how this movie made me feels like an excited innocent child watching his first animated movie with his parents. It isn't perfect, that for sure. I wish the song could be paced a lil bit more better so it wont feel cluttered at some part and i still kinda hope they could make it with a lil bit more dark moment but that is just my self preference. This Movie is a must watch if you have kids and even if you don't have one, you will still having a good time laughing and smiling.

Initial El Review Score

9.5

Some movies are worth melting for.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review

I noticed a trend in Holywood today where it seems that teenage love movies based on best selling books are tend to show quite often and surprisingly the demands for it is rather high. I think that trend starts from the success of The Twilight Saga movies like a contagious itchy rash that can't be cured and it spawns many spiritual successor (mostly better than the the Twilight Saga itself but it doesn't help much) like I am Number Four, City of Bones, The Host, etc. I guess subconsciously speaking, i tend to compare that kind of movies with Twilight because it is the movie that start this trend and it also managed to set the bar for that genre really-really low in my mind. I also happen to hate teenage. Hell, i even hate myself when i was teenage so teenage movies aren't actually in my top list of must-to-watch movies, more like must-to-avoid kind of movies. So when my friend told me that she want to watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which based on best selling books about teenage loves drama set in dystopian future my first reaction was "Can we just Watch something with more testosterone in it?" But, since she is the one who paid for my ticket i can't say no, i never say no to free movie ticket. Turns out, that free ticket she gave me was actually worth it.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a sequel to The Hunger Games and for some quick recap for the first movie, here is what i know about it: I never Watched The Hunger Games. So yeah, i came watching that movie in a blind mode, saves for some brief explanation that my friend told to me. As you might know, Reviewing a sequel without watching it's previous movie is like working as an accountant who never introduced to math before but on the bright side, i can review the movie as its own unique movie so i am going to aim for that.

After Surviving the initial 74th Hunger Games by breaking the basic rule of "only one can survive"  Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) back to their home in district 12. Katniss and Peeta are required to take the victory tour of the country. President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) visits Katniss and tells her she has inspired rebellions in the districts, when she and Peeta threatened suicide so both might survive the games. He orders Katniss to convince the entire country that her and Peeta's love was the reason for their actions, and to convince Snow himself.

Right After they finished the victory tour and return home, Katniss warns her close friend, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), of President Snow's threat to kill both their families. Snow announces Panem's third Quarter Quell, a special version of the Hunger Games held every 25 years; for this Quell, all tributes are to be selected from the existing pool of victors. Katniss immediately devotes herself to ensuring Peeta becomes the Quarter Quell's victor, should he compete in the games. At the reaping, Katniss, the district's only living female tribute, and Haymitch are reaped by chaperone Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Bank). Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch's (Woody Harrelson) place and is sent directly to the train with Katniss, without a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. They must fight a new Hunger Games with more deadly enemies and survive but again, only one of them can survive.

From the start, Catching Fires world's caught my attention with it's unique settings. I really like how they describe the state of Panem condition like how the poor live, how the rebellion grows big because of Katniss act in the previous hunger games, their technology and yes, even the over the top silly fashion conscious rich peoples who dressed like...i don't know what they dressed like.

Obvious joke reference, abandoned.
 

Speaking of the story, it surprisingly filled with interesting plot point and unexpected turn that kinda make me go "whoa" like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. It focus more in the main characters struggle and her condition as the symbol of hope for revolution which pisses the President of Panem really bad. But they can't just kill a symbol so the president with the help of the new game master  Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is trying to make Katniss look bad in TV before they finally put her in the ground for good. You really feel that the villain is evil, in a good evil way. The movie manages to pull the feeling of the character's hopelessness in the screen and delivers it to the audience very well.

The other good things that this movie have is it's line up of interesting characters with a their own distinct personality and moral complexity and that is a recipe for a great movie in my book. I found that the character that i think was the most generic narcissistic antagonist at the start becomes the most interesting character later on and they managed to make me keep guessing about that characters motives until the end. Most of it's characters feels unique with a specific role that made them feels significant and not just a cannon fodder.

In the performance department, the cast of this movies really works well in portraying the characters they played. Jeniffer Lawrence as Katniss did a good job being a no nonsense bad ass girl and most of the supporting characters is doing a good job as well. The real show stealer is  Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair who manages to show such a good portrayal of complex character who are dreamy and gorgeous.

If there is something that i don't like about this movie it is the love interest. I really don't like how they pictured the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale Hawhthorne. You know that in most teenage love drama someone have to be the damsel in distress and in this case Peeta and Gale is the damsel in distress...with penis. Both Peeta and Gale keeps whining on how they really wants Katniss love's and has to be rescued by Katniss quite often. Peeta is the one who annoy me the most since he seems so unreliable and uninteresting in the line of the unique games participant itself. They should have made Peeta a little bit more reliable and less whining.

The cliffhanger ending also bogs some people because its quite abrupt at the end of the movie. It also contains some of the most interesting part that really need to be explained more. I know that they are planning on making the next movie for sure but at least make the ending less abrupt will you.

In conclusion, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a really well made movies that surprised me. It surpass my initial expectation and really made me want to know more about this franchise. Even if i haven't watched the first movie, i still found myself immersed in the story and the world of The Hunger Games. This movie might be one of the finest movie in this year.

Initial El Review Score

8.5

Hunger For More

The Hateview: Silent Hill: Revelation

I was just checking the reviews in my blog and i notices that I rarely gave a movie a low score. The lowest score that i ever give is The Expendable 2 and its only like 6.5 which in my scoring rate is actually ok and rather fun to watch. Well it's probably because I am too cheap to spent money for a terrible movie but once in a year when the full moon came I spent some of a money to watch terrible movies. So i guess maybe I could write a review about the terrible movies that i watched, hence the title hateview. get it? Because it is a review about the movie that I hate...no? Errrm...moving on then.

There is 3 things that I love in this world and it is movie, video game and horror. So, naturally, when you combine 3 things that you really love, it should be the firework festival of your life, something that really beautiful, outstanding and the thing that you just can't forget. But then again, one of reality favorite hobby is to break someone hope and expectation for something that we love so we can finally realize that being a human is suck. Case and point: Silent Hill: Revelation.

Silent hill: revelation is based on a famous survival horror game with the same name. It is one of the scariest, if not the scariest, video game that ever created by mankind and also one of my favorite video game series. It managed to execute many of horror aspects like sounds, visual, characters, story and pacing in such an excellent way that it leaves the players with more than just a cheap scream created by jump scares. It is a horrifying and terrifying experiences and also a study of human psyche that might only be experienced in the medium of Video game. It is really popular in a survival horror genre and from such popularity someone had an idea to make a movie based on this game. Hence, the first Silent hill movies was made.

Before talking about Silent Hill: Revelation, lets talk a little about the first movie. The first silent hill movie was...well, actually its kinda ok for me. It mostly take the first main plot of the first game with some tweak and minor changes. Many praised the movie for its atmosphere and faithful visual that it takes from the game but criticizing it for bad writing and confusing story that just doesn't make sense in many way. Personally, the movie biggest flaw to me is that it doesn't understand about what makes silent hill is such a horror masterpiece in video games world, which is its subtlety and symbolism.

Christophe Gans, the director behind this movie clearly understand what makes silent hill become a visually scary looking game but i don't think he understand what lies behind the games visual and the meaning of it so the movie became more like a haunted house with monster than a horrifying psychological experience like it should have been. To see what i meant, lets see what many consider as the scariest monster/creature/the devils own nightmare in Silent Hill.

Exactly that.

That....thing is called Pyramid Head (P-head for short because I'm apparently that lazy to type its full name) which at first sounds like a reject characters from Toy Story movie. You can clearly see that, visually speaking, the scariest thing that the Silent Hill series can pull out doesn't look scary at all but what make it become such a memorable and terrifying experience in video game is the purpose of P-head, not what he looks like. P-head (in his original appearance before he turned into Silent Hill happy mascot) is actually a manifestation of guilt and sexual frustration from James Sunderland, the main Protagonist in Silent Hill 2. It act as a reminder, punisher and savior of James so it appearance is always full with symbolic meanings in the game and that is what made him as one of the scariest thing in video game world. Technically speaking, most people believes that Pyramid head could only exist in Silent Hill if James Sunderland is in it, yet he keeps popping out of nowhere in the Silent Hill movies and it made him looks more like Jason Vorhees with over sized triangular mask and knife rather than a disturbing symbolic manifestation like in the games. It also didn't rape anything in both movies.

You can't spell Rape without P from P-head.

When i first heard that there will be a sequel for this movie, i was actually hoping that they will at least learn from the first  movie and they are going to make it with more love, subtlety and symbolic psychological message inside. I wont lie, i knew that it was like hoping for every asshole in earth to be infected with zombie virus so i can kill them with no moral burden. But again, this is reality we are talking about and oh boy did it slap me in the face really-really hard

 

Lets get straight to the point. Silent Hill: Revelation is really bad. It is an obvious cash grab for the studio. You will see no love both for the video game and the movie itself and it is something that deserve damnation from anyone watching it. You might think that I'm being too hysterical and hateful with this movie since i have some affection to the video game series but even for someone who doesn't play the game it is still bad by any means.

Silent Hill: Revelation took place years after the event of the first Silent Hill movie where Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) and her adoptive father Harry Mason (Sean Bean) have spent the past few years moving from town to town and assuming different identities. Heather believes that they are on the run from the police because Harry killed a man in self-defense and that her adoptive mother Rose (Radha Mitchell) died in a car crash. In fact, Harry has been protecting her from the Order, a cult of Silent Hill, a town haunted by shifting dimensions. Rose was able to free Heather (then Sharon) from one of the alternate dimensions using one half of a talisman called the Seal of Metatron, but Rose remained trapped in Silent Hill. But after Harry is abducted by the Silent Hill Cult, Heather must now come back to Silent Hill and faces the Silent Hill cult who wants to used her as some kind of sacrifice for the medium of their god's rebirth.

Confused already? Good, because confusion is what this movie all about. It try to follow the plot of the third game in the series but failed to connect it with the confusing ending of the first movie and such a mess it is. They even try to shoehorn the characters from the the game just to make things more messed up. The story and the plot feels like there is nothing happens in it. Just a bunch of peoples talking and moving from point A to point B. Its just stuffs happening with seemingly no good connection or purpose whatsoever.

At some point, heather encounter this random-cool-looking-spider-mannequin monster webbing random naked girl in some random storage room for some random reason, then the scenes just randomly goes nowhere in the movie. No explanation on whats that monster is, what is it doing webbing random girls, and absolutely no satisfying conclusion with that plot point. The movie is just a random stuff glued together with a glue named Silent Hill.

And they probably use the same glue to make this monster.

The visual also lost its atmospheric feeling that the previous movie had. It feels like The director just played the games and just wanna make the movie looks like it without any proper transition from Video game to movie. The first Silent Hill movie is saved from critics damnation because of its visual and they managed to put some disturbing visual that surprised some viewers. The sequel, on the other hand looks cheap and dull and i don't care if its in 3D or in the matrix, either way it still bad.

Acting wise, i can't hate the actor too much because the dialogue given to them is terrible and no amount of acting skill can save the dialogue from the damnation it deserved. Most of the Actor is either trying too hard to be good or just 'F it! where's my paycheck!' level of acting. Adelaide Clemens as Heather and Kit Harington as vincent is in the trying too hard category while Sean Bean as harry, Malcolm McDowell as Leonard Wolf, and Carrie An Moss as Claudia are in the 'F it! where's my paycheck!' category.

To sum it up, Silent Hill: Revelation is terrible. I don't know what kind of audiences this movie marketed to. If its for general viewers, they will hate it because it was boring, not scary and confusing. If they made it for the Silent Hill fans, They will bombard the movie with hate E-mail, Trolling in youtube comment and sending an assassin to the director and producer house. It's bad by any means and you should avoid it in any cost.

Initial EL Judgement

2.0

Trapped In A Room With P-Head And Its Great Dildo.