Saturday 4 May 2013

[SPOILER ALERT!] My 5 Favourite Star Wars Moments


Today is May 4th, YAAAAYYYY!!!! Some of you might be asking right now, why I'm so excited for this date. Well, May 4th is the official Star Wars day! As a Star Wars fan, I'm super excited for anything that's Star Wars. To celebrate this long lasting and unbelievable Sci-fi franchise, I'm gonna list out my five favourite Star Wars moments (not an easy one). NOTE: Not in order

Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul


The only redeeming thing in The Phantom Menace, is the war scene and lightsaber duel scenes, the final Battle of Naboo fighting against the Seperatist force with Qui-Gon and Obi Wan swinging their lightsaber towards the face-tattooed Darth Maul with his awesome dual blade lightsaber. With the prequels, they showed us how much the cinema has progressed with the no nonsense actions sequence such as this. The duel is fast paced, no jibby jabbing, and continuously moving around.


Battle over Coruscant

This is JAW-DROPPING!!!

Star Wars opening is iconic, with the logo and prelude that gives a story before the movie started, which every Star Wars fans like it a lot. But what I like about the opening of Revenge of the Sith, is what follows after the opening, with scrolling down towards a Republic Destroyer with two small starfighters swinging over it. Right after some flying, the two Jedi in the starfighters decided to swing down and join the battle, with everyone exchanging bullets and explosions at each other. It is an awesome sight!

You were the Chosen One!

You were the chosen one!

[MAJOR SPOILER] Another from Revenge of the Sith, probably because I was born in the Star Wars prequel era. This time is near the end of the movie, when Obi-Wan fighting against Darth Vader at the magma planet, Mustafar (in one way the planet's name reminds me of Lion King, "Mufasa! Mufasa!"). In this scene, Obi-Wan jumps over the hill, saying he has "the high ground" to Darth Vader, which prompted Darth Vader to challenge him by jumping over too. Obi-Wan then chopped off the arms, the legs of Darth Vader, and let him burn with the magma. Obi-Wan then said to his former friend and apprentice, saying he was the Chosen One rather than become a Sith Lord. This scene to me is the saddest scene in Star Wars saga, and also the darkest.

Darth Vader first appearance in the Original Trilogy


I watched the original trilogy way before I watched the prequel, means that I was very young back then, I always follow what my sisters watch, so I'm a Star Wars fans today is because of them. The first appearance of Vader is something mesmerizing, with the Rebel cruiser escaping from the ever growing (literally) size of the Imperial Star Destroyer, handicapped the cruiser quickly without effort. Then after boarding and killing the Rebel forces, Darth Vader made the entrance, with his iconic breathing noise and his sheer size. Then he proceeded to interrogate and kill one of the Rebel officer without using effort. The message is don't mess with this guy, he's a bada**!

I am Your Father



[ULTIMATE SPOILER ALERT] It might seems totally normal now, back then it was not! This is voted by many film critics and websites as one of the biggest film plot twist of all time! Darth Vader's biggest revelations to Luke Skywalker that he is his father. What kind of sorcery just happened??!! It was so out of the blue. This also lead to Singaporean radio's hilarious take on Hokkien version and Toy Story 2 made quite a big fun with this scene.

Now for the Toy Story version:

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Review: Iron Man 3


Tony Stark is sure on the roll at the moment, four straight movies, four straight positive reviews (Iron Man 2 is well-received, just that is not that good as the others), Marvel and Robert Downey Jr. has teamed up together to make this iron clad superhero, from known only by comic books fan to everyone's favourite superhero right now. If you ask movie audiences today who is their favourite superhero, a whole of them will say Iron Man, and Iron Man 3 makes sure that streak continues.

Iron Man 3 continues few months after the events of Marvel's The Avengers, where genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark (played by RDJ) suffers from visions and anxiety from the New York attack. To add up to his problem, the Mandarin and Aldrich Killian, who the latter is the inventor of biological upgrade, the Extremis, under his heels and threatened to kill him. The movie also sees the return of Pepper Potts, who Tony loves and wants to protect from harm and James Rhodes, who return as Iron Patriot aka War Machine mk. II.


Storytelling wise, Iron Man 3 is probably the strongest in the series, where the story and theme of the movie is slightly darker and more serious than the previous two, and a certain plot twist here and there (I won't say it cuz it will spoil the movie out). But the movie manages to keep the great one-liners and humours intact, which is a really good thing to see. One of my favourite moment from the movie is when Tony hangs out with a kid known only as Harley, which is really funny and kinda sweet. It feels good that Pepper Potts got the chance to have a go at certain action sequence suiting up as Iron Man.

The chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle (War Machine) has clicked this time around. Previously seemed like a hit or miss between the duo, they have finally found a dynamic that works well for the, which is just what the movie needs.


The miss of the movie is probably Rebecca Hall's character as Maya Hansen, former love paramour of Tony Stark, her character is underdeveloped and too shallow to consider her as important. Although, Aldrich Killian fared much matter, his motives towards the national attack and Extremis is a bit blur at times.


Now, move to the action sequences. Action sequences doesn't disappoint, especially during the climax battle sequences, where the whole troop of Iron Legion appears to fight alongside Iron Man and War Machine, which brought a lot of audiences go WOW!!! or WOO!!! Not to mention that with the latest upgrade, Tony Stark is able to summon his Mk. 47 armor just by thoughts, which shows a lot of cool moments.


Iron Man 3 is one heck of a movie, in terms of storytelling, this is one of Marvel's best efforts, it is smart, mature yet funny in many ways. Robert Downey Jr. has achieved something, he is Iron Man, Iron Man is him, just like Sean Connery is James Bond, Harrison Ford as Hans Solo and Indiana Jones. If one day Robert Downey Jr. decided to hang up Iron Man suits, Marvel will have a hard time choosing a successor, because he has set the bar too high. Despite some of the shortcomings, Iron Man 3 is thoroughly and highly recommended to everyone who loves a good popcorn flick.

Score: 4.5/5