December 17, 2017

Murder on the Orient Express

I read the book for over a decade ago. There was a TV adaption with Toby Jones & Jessica Chastain starring seven years ago. Both are vague in my memory now. As a fan of Agatha Christie's Poirot, It's time to refresh my memory with the new movie with so many famous stars including Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Olivia Coleman & Daisy Ridley (shortly before jumping into a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away).

The impression of David Suchet as Hercule Poiro already sets as a role model of the character in my generation. Kenneth Branagh acts as Poirot is relatively odd even though he has tried his best. Choosing Johnny Depp as the bad guy may be the most right choice at all. The most attractive character except them is only the one by Daisy Ridley.

The addition of what happened in Jerusalem helps create the atmosphere for rest of the movie. The place is carefully selected to make more sense why the train is stopped in middle of nowhere and visual effects.

The story is so famous as the ending is so unexpected. But in between the novel uses lots of content to develop characters and the relationship. That is challenging to convert the plot into a film and the movie cannot take a balance. Only Agatha Christie's fans like me are interested in the movie. 

August 06, 2017

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

It's a different style of movie from Dunkirk. Visual effect is the key and the story is reasonably fine. The major drawback is too early to let the audience know who the antagonist is. Another is the lead actor. He is young but seems alcoholic.

Even airtime of Rihanna is short, the role she plays really fits her. And what unexpected is Cara Delevingne. Of course the director can choose another model for those "model" scenes, she handles the remaining part well.

The movie is based on French Comic, directed by a French director & supported by French capital, but the lead actor said he doesn't know French. And nearly all main casts are from UK. That is so ironic. There are few scenes showing Chinese things due to Chinese support but the last spaceship is so alike Apollo Command/Service Module.

July 23, 2017

Dunkirk

Please don't expect what you watch is same as other movies directed by Nolan. Unlike other war movies just showing single side of view, you can feel what he wants you to take away from the movie in multiple angles. You can understand why characters behave like that.

Below is updated on 6 Aug after watching another movie...
Previously Nolan used other movies to try to tell a fake story as real as possible. This one, on the other hand, he wants to integrate several fake stories into a real story in a whole and I think he has done it successfully. What top level told the public is actually different from what the soldiers and those laymen saving soldiers felt in their heart.

April 23, 2017

Lego Star Wars #75168 Yoda's Jedi Starfighter™

The third Lego Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor I have now. We should be grateful for this release as Star Wars: the Clone Wars has ended for years.

#jedi #lego #starwars #jedistarfighter #anakinskywalker #yoda #obiwankenobi #clonewars #revengeofthesith #r2d2 #r4p17

Same as Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter released in last year there is no slot to hold Yoda's lightsaber. But the lightsaber can be kept safely inside the cockput which is much better than Obi-Wan's one.

IMG_6912[1]

It is cool to have foil-wings & cannons to increase playability. Another nice feature is only few stickers are used for needed areas. The cockpit is rightly designed to hold Yoda and R2 sits comfortly compared to its master's one.

IMG_6915[1]

But it is hard for lego to resemble the fighter completely in such scale. The wings are too big when comparing the size of the cockpit. In the Clone Wars, the cockpit is round but that would not make bricks stick well. An oval version is the final solution.

IMG_6916[1]

January 23, 2017

rogue one & passengers

Rogue One - I love it for its well connection of events in Starwars universe. And that is cool to see characters and events from The Clone Wars, Rebels and also the Main Saga to come back. The only worry is how good will be for coming two films on Han Solo & Boba Fett?

Passengers - I'm just interested in two things, animation & Jennifer Lawrence... I don't mean I do not respect Jennifer Lawrence. But I cannot find anything else can attract me when comparing to Rogue One. There are several faults in the story making me a step back from saying the film is good, like how would a person like to sleep for 120 years? How can the company apply the loans & capital from stakeholders for such a long period?