…or attractiveness.

So begins Dreamworks Animation’s latest offering, Kung Fu Panda, in the same light-hearted morality fable mould as Madagascar and Over the Hedge. With the all-star voice casting one has come to expect, this tribute of sorts to the Chinese martial arts culture continues to delight audiences both young and old.

Jack Black voices Po, a panda who works for his father’s noodle shop but dreams of being a martial arts master. When the old tortoise Master Oogway predicts that an old adversary will return, a ceremony to choose a champion - the Dragon Warrior - begins. Po rushes to attend the grand event, but inadvertently lands in the middle of the proceedings and is designated the Dragon Warrior, much to the surprise and shock of Master Shifu and his students, the Furious Five. So begins Po’s journey of learning, as his dreams of becoming a martial artist are now in the process of becoming reality. Before that, however, he has to earn the respect and trust of Shifu and the Furious Five, who are still horrified at the seemingly accidental choice of an overweight, lazy glutton to be their champion.

As I mentioned earlier, Jack Black leads an all-star cast in this “epic”-feeling animation. You have A-listers in the likes of Angelina Jolie (who voices Tigress) and Lucy Liu (who voices Viper), industry veterans like Dustin Hoffman (who voices Shifu) and Jackie Chan (who voices Monkey), with comedic up-and-comers like Superbad and Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen (who voices Mantis), Arrested Development’s David Cross (who voices Crane) and Randy Daytona from Balls of Fury Dan Fogler (who voices Zeng, the cowardly messenger). Throw into the mix the likes of the unmistakable Michael Clarke Duncan (who voices Commander Vachir) and North America’s pioneering Asian actors Randall Duk Kim (who voices Oogway) and James Hong (who voices Mr. Ping) and you’ve got a veritable combination of celebrity, talent and everything in between.

Yet, despite the meaningful plot, the beautifully created animation, the sheer genius among the voice talents, Kung Fu Panda never managed to achieve even one truly memorable moment. It was a pity, really, because the movie began with a lot of promise, with one laugh-out-loud scene following another. Perhaps it was the pace, or simply that the script slowly ran out of comedic material after the first half-hour.

What I am appreciative of, however, is that it is rare for any Hollywood movie to actually carry a family-friendly mainstream movie with a meaningful moral at the end of the day without resorting to sex appeal or toilet humour to give it that “edge”. Kung Fu Panda may not be the best Dreamworks Animation production, but it definitely is a step in the right direction.

I give it: 3 out of 5 Pandas!

Before I start this post, I just have two words for Tim: Thank you.

2008 is looking up to be a movie year for the record books. You might have already seen the countdown on the right for Star Trek, which is arguably my most-awaited movie for the past several years. On the other hand, there’s also The Dark Knight, which, from trailers I’ve watched so far, make Tim Burton’s original Batman movie also featuring the Joker look like a fairy tale Christmas in comparison.

And then there’s Iron Man.

Now, I was telling my church friend that I wasn’t really looking forward to Iron Man any longer. Even though the scripted villian Justin Hammer aka The Iron Monger is as much a classic enemy of Iron Man as the Green Goblin was to Spider-Man (and we all know how genuinely brilliant that one went), but seeing two suits of power armour face-off seriously doesn’t appeal to me at all. In addition, it looks like Iron Man will be taking to the skies rather often, and unless there’s a dogfight of sorts between Iron Man and several F-22 Raptors, the air-chase has already been done to death in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - and that one was WAAAAY~ cooler.

That being said though, it does seem like the movie WILL focus on the origins of Iron Man quite a fair bit. Now that, is cool.

It may not be the most promising film, but any trailer that uses Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” is cool in my book.

Sometimes I wonder whether I’ll ever stop being cynical. Stardust (the movie, anyway) is filled with a truly idealised sense of romance that, for me, ended up dragging the movie down somewhat. But anyway, I get ahead of myself.

In one of the best movies ever made in the adventure/fantasy genre, Neil Gaiman’s novella comes to life in a wonderful fairytale with an extremely British sense of humour. Starring a wonderfully talented cast including the brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer, an exciting Charlie Cox, the underrated Mark Strong and featuring perfectly cast cameos by Peter O’Toole, Robert De Niro and Ricky Gervais. And of course, the controversially cast Claire Danes who for some reason really appealed to me as the fallen star Yvaine.

It is without a doubt that when a lovingly written screenplay is brought to life by such a distinguished cast, the result can be no less than spectacular and Stardust is all that. Despite its two hour length, the story is still able to comfortably straddle the line between a romantic fairy tale and a hilarious parody of itself throughout. The only times I felt the story failed was during the romantic scenes which, while believable, were simply too wordy or too dry in comparison to the rest of the film. Director Matthew Vaughn himself is reported to have admitted that he was much more in his element with the adventure-fantasy, while romance was something he left to his co-writer Jane Goldman.

I think what ultimately brought the show to life was the wonderful character of Tristan Thorn who, embodied by actor Charlie Cox, really portrays the ultimate geek fantasy. Tristan is the boy who adores the village beauty and is somehow able to win her attention long enough to promise her the ultimate romantic gift - a fallen star. He then goes on this crazy adventure, where he finds someone even better - the star herself. Charlie Cox’s sheer idealism and genuine likeability shines through (pun intended) to the point where the plot “twist” near the end isn’t quite as shocking as the director would have liked.

And oh, I’m so so glad I’m going to catch it again… because I totally missed Sarah Alexander (of Coupling fame) in her role as one of the evil witches.

Stardust is a perfect 10. You’ve got to watch it.

POSTNOTE: It’s hard to believe we waited a year and a half for this… direcow has blogged about it since April last year. Makes me wonder if I’ll actually “forget” about Star Trek coming out next year in all the hype about Iron Man et al.

Naaaaaaah.

More like Order of the Day…

The latest Harry Potter movie is just as visually stunning as the previous four, and filled with such classy British thespians, it’s almost a crime to critique the movie. But critique it I must, for it was most definitely a disappointment after the brilliance of The Goblet of Fire. Sure Katie Leung (whom I am most definitely weird for appreciating) has a bigger role as Cho Chang, but it almost feels like everyone has a cameo in this film. Except for Daniel Radcliffe, of course who, playing Harry Potter for the whole movie franchise, is arguably the biggest child star of any generation.

Still, the weird pacing of the movie and the overflowing of characters didn’t stop Jason Isaacs (as Lucius Malfoy) and Alan Rickman (as Severus Snape) from truly making the most out of their limited appearances. Pity Rickman’s age is showing though… despite being 61, he made Snape look 70. Nonetheless, it was simply brilliant to see these two Brits on the wrong side of 40 looking just dashing in long hair.

Natalia Tena (as Nymphadora Tonks) is gorgeous, and I think the purple hair really works for her. Thank goodness though… since Cho Chang doesn’t seem to be making an appearance in Book 7, it’s a good thing I’ve got Tonks to watch out for.

Anyway, lovely sets, magnificent cinematography, and finally, someone made it blatantly obvious that Potter is Star Wars for the next generation. Despite all that, though, a poorly developed plot and too much time-wasting puts Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at a solid 7 out of 10. A summer blockbuster of 2007 that didn’t stand out that much, unfortunately.

“The last time Optimus Prime said this,” I began as I turned my head in Greg’s direction, “he died!”

But that’s just the beauty of the film. Despite all the worries that Transformers fandom had about this summer blockbuster of the year, director Michael Bay silenced most, if not all of his critics with an action packed alien invasion thriller with loads of comedy elements. Most importantly, of course, he delievered a re-imagining of the cult franchise that was worthy of the heritage built around it. The pacing of the movie was almost top-notch, and although it did seem like there was a little too much happening at one time, Bay expertly handled all the different subplots together without much trouble.

While I think Shia LeBouf performed admirably as the lead character, it was really the supporting cast that truly made the film enjoyable to watch. Josh Duhamel of Las Vegas fame held his own as the main military hero despite being little more than a token support character. John Tuturro was absolutely brilliant as the smarmy head of Sector 7 while Jon Voight’s Secretary of Defence was a blast to watch. Voight, in particular, seemed perfectly casted as he added a sense of credibility and class to the cast of characters.

But ultimately the heroes were the Transformers themselves. It is a testament in itself that the voice actors behind the robots were able to truly embody the sense of being titans among insects. Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime continues to be the definitive sound of robotic heroism and, for this movie, brought with him a sense of emotion and sometimes humour.

Despite there being way too many Bay-isms - trademarks of the director that were blatantly obvious at times - I think this movie benefitted greatly from the Spielberg touch, who probably prevented it from being dumbed down too much. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop relative newcomers Megan Fox and Rachael Taylor from being little more than stereotypical eye candy, and Taylor’s intelligent and gorgeous character in particular seemed extremely forced especially when it was painfully obvious that the actress had no clue about the techno-babble she was saying half the time.

Definitely a movie worth rewatching. I give it 9 out of 10.

Afterthought
As I watched Transformers in the huge Cathay hall, I could only think one thought - “Star Trek will be so cool”. For those not in the know, there will be a new Star Trek movie in 2008, which will reintroduce the characters of Kirk and Spock to a new generation of fans, just like what Transformers did. The Star Trek movie will be scripted by the team of Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who also wrote the screenplay for Transformers and for Mission Impossible: 3. Of course, a lot will also depend on the skills of the lead actors who have yet to be officially casted, but if Orci and Kurtzman can bring their style of combining hardcore geek elements and mainstream entertainment seamlessly, then this re-imagining of Star Trek will be everything fans have hoped it would be.

If there’s one thing I hope never changes for us as friends - it’s how the little things keep our group dynamic going. Whether it be an episode of “Heroes”, a game of “Primordial Soup”, or a huge movie event like “Spider-Man 3″, I hope there will always be something that we all enjoy, but appreciate at different levels.

Nothing describes this better than the way we all felt differently about “Spider-Man 3″, the latest and arguably the most anticipated comic book movie yet. Even though we all believed it was a decent movie despite the draggy plot and distinct lack of characterisation, we all had different gripes that were just impossible to find a consensus on.

My own distaste was the handling of Harry Osborne, whom I had felt had the most potential to be the biggest villian in the Spider-Man film series. Harry had lost so much do to his relationship with Peter Parker, including the change of heart of Mary Jane and the death of his father Norman Osborne, that you could feel his genuine hatred for Spider-Man. Yet, tempered by his sincere admiration and mutual respect for Peter Parker, and you had the makings of a conflicted villain. For a while, this seemed to be the path that director Sam Raimi followed. However, the plot saw Harry’s life take one turn after another, and instead of birthing a nemesis so tragic that Spider-Man would be torn fighting, what followed was an inexplicable about-face that saw the New Goblin as an ally rather than an opponent.

Because every argument needed two sides, I eventually found myself facing-off against kakita, who didn’t feel the way I did because, by his own admission, he was never really aware of the tragedy of Harry Osborne as depicted in the comics and television animated series. And of course, instead of dwelling on the movie’s character, we naturally gravitated to discussing the difficulty of transferring the Green Goblin suit from the comics to the silver screen without making it look like a campy, non-threatening outfit.

All because, at the end of the day, our friendship, all 9 of us present today, is made up of not only deep philosophical tirades, but also simple fanboy debates about issues that we all enjoy and are passionate about. I couldn’t ask for more.

I’ve got no time to do up The Dance Floor writeup yet, so here’s a movie meme!

From direcow:

step one: go to imdb.com and look up ten of your favorite movies.
step two: post five official imdb “plot keywords” for these ten picks.
step three: have your friends guess the movie titles.

1. No Opening Credits / Part Of Trilogy / Dysfunctional Family / Bloody Violence / Greed
2. No Opening Credits / Alliance / Fantasy Life / Race Against Time / Ancient Sword
3. No Opening Credits / Cat / Kung Fu / Parallel World / 555 Phone Number
4. Sadness / Greed / Murder Investigation / Jealousy / Gruesome
5. No Opening Credits / Happy Birthday To You / SWAT Team / Corpse / Barefoot
6. Teenage Boy / Comic Hero / Agility / Crime Fighter / Guilt
7. Good Versus Evil / Jack The Ripper / Disturbing / Based On Comic / Biographical
8. Character’s Point Of View Camera Shot / Midget / Anachronistic / Torture / Alienation
9. Invisibility / Plastic / Ray Gun / Punk / Computer
10. Violence / Androgyny / Jidai Geki / Killing / Tap Dance

Looking back, even I couldn’t guess some of them based on the plot keywords. Others are blatantly easy.

HINT: First four are in IMDB’s top #50. In order of appearance.